Vesper

£34.20m Costa £34.65m (granted with inflation it is more) Drogba I liked Crespo, deffo do not think he was a pure flop, just it never truly clicked, but his first year, if he had played a full EPL season, he was tracking to over 20 league goals (he had 10 league goals in only 19 games, in only 1100 minutes )

World's fifth-highest earner Oscar ready to take huge pay cut to join Barcelona Former Chelsea playmaker Oscar is reportedly keen on walking away from his huge salary at Chinese Super League club Shanghai Port to join Barcelona in a shock move https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/barcelona-transfer-news-oscar-Chelsea-25931682 Former Chelsea star Oscar is prepared to walk away from his mega salary in the Chinese Super League to join Barcelona this January. The Brazilian playmaker joined Chinese club Shanghai Port from the Blues in January 2017 and is one of the highest earners in world football. Barca’s well-documented financial problems have not prevented them from completing the signing of Ferran Torres from Manchester City this month for an initial fee of £46million, with potential add-ons meaning the deal could rise to £54million. Yet the club’s desperate means of registering Torres with the Spanish football authorities have suggested that further additions this month may be difficult, although club president Joan Laporta retains his openly bullish stance. The Barca supremo told gathered reporters last week when speaking of signing new players: "Everybody should get ready, as we are back as big players in the market." While Laporta’s comments were primarily aimed at the club’s potential of signing striker Erling Braut Haaland from Borussia Dortmund, it is a signal that they are willing to invest in their squad where possible. As per a report in Marca, Oscar is currently the fifth highest paid player in football but is prepared to take a significant wage cut in order to move to the Camp Nou. The 30-year-old Brazilian is currently in the off-season in the Chinese Super League, where he joined for a £50million transfer fee from Chelsea in 2017. While he won the league title in 2018 and the Chinese Cup the following year, Oscar has fallen from prominence following on from his move to the Far East. The last of his 48 caps for the Brazilian national team came in 2016, and he may well believe he can be a part of the squad for the upcoming World Cup later this year. Oscar was widely recognised as one of the best South American attack-minded players during his stint at Chelsea, where he won two Premier League titles alongside the Europa League and League Cup. However, his contract in China runs through to the summer of 2024 and any move could be difficult – especially as Barca’s priority in the transfer market is on signing a new striker, rather than a playmaker. Oscar is said to have a weekly wage packet of £563k – which equates to annual wage of £28million – a salary which Barca would be unable to compete with or offer to any prospective signing. He could theoretically replace Philippe Coutinho in the Blaugrana squad – his compatriot who has joined Aston Villa on a loan deal for the remainder of the campaign. Since moving to China, Oscar has made 113 appearances in the Super League, scoring 34 times and registering 73 assists – being arguably the most talented player in the division. A new salary cap introduced in Chinese football last year limited clubs to spending £66.5million per annum on salaries, with a separate limit on foreign players.

Andriy Shevchenko sacked by Genoa less than two months into club management career Former Milan and Chelsea striker Andriy Shevchenko has been sacked by Italian club Genoa after less than two months and without winning a match in Serie A during his tenure https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/andriy-shevchenko-news-genoa-sacked-25954652 Andriy Shevchenko has been sacked as Genoa boss after just 11 matches at the helm after failing to win any league matches. The former Ukraine international striker was only appointed at the struggling Serie A club 69 days ago but has managed to oversee just one win during a troubled tenure. Prior to his appointment, Genoa had secured just one victory of their opening 12 matches in the Italian top-flight under Davide Ballardini. Shevchenko was tasked with reviving the club’s fortunes and steering them clear of the drop zone but he departs with them five points adrift of safety and no on a 20-match winless Serie A run. Last weekend’s home defeat to lowly Spezia proved to be Shevchenko’s final league match – which he missed after testing positive for Covid – before Thursday’s Coppa Italia exit against Milan. It was ironic that Shevchenko’s final game at the helm was against the Rossoneri; the club where he had made his name as one of the world’s most celebrated strikers. Yet the Ukrainian’s struggles as boss were highlighted by Genoa’s attacking struggles – they managed to score just five times in his 11 matches in charges, of which three games as consolation goals in 3-1 losses. Genoa’s only victory under Shevchenko was in last month’s slender Coppa Italia victory at home to Salernitana – the sole side below them in the Serie A standings. Despite respectable draws against Udinese, Sassuolo and, most notably, Atalanta – six defeats and a clear lack of firepower ensured a slump in results for the Rossoblu which Shevchenko could not arrest. Milan fans displayed a banner of thanks to 'legend' Andriy Shevchenko ahead of their Coppa Italia clash against Genoa this week It had been thought that Shevchenko would be given more time at the helm after the club have already signed five new players in January to bolster the first-team squad. A grand total in the region of €15million was used to sign Ghanaian striker Kelvin Yeboah, Swiss full-back Silvan Hefti and central defender Johan Vasquez. Furthermore, the club agreed loan deals for defenders Riccardo Calafiori and Leo Ostigard, the latter arriving from Brighton. The 45-year-old coach was previously in charge of the Ukrainian national team and he guided the team to the quarter-finals of Euro 2020 last summer. Genoa’s decision to part ways with the boss comes just over two months after Shevchenko’s appointment following the club's takeover by US investment firm 777 Partners, as he replaced Ballardini at the helm. The club’s confidence in the Ukrainian was highlighted by agreeing a two-and-a-half year contract through to the summer of 2024. Two weeks after his arrival, Shevchenko lost his opening game in the dugout 2-0 against his former Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho, now in charge at Roma. Shevchenko’s Genoa have also fallen to defeats against Milan, Juventus, city rivals Sampdoria, Lazio and, on Sunday, Spezia. He made his name as one of the most prolific strikers in the late 1990s and early 2000s with blistering spells leading the line at Dynamo Kiev and Milan, before an unsuccessful switch to Chelsea in 2006. Shevchenko’s post-playing career has been eventful, overseeing 52 matches as Ukraine boss following an unsuccessful move into politics.

Gli invincibili 1991-93 58 straight league games unbeaten, by far the record for top 5 leagues, back in the Serie A golden age when it was the best league on planet by miles

Conor Gallagher is a throwback to old-fashioned No 8s – and that could be what England are missing https://theathletic.com/3056838/2022/01/10/conor-gallagher-is-a-throwback-to-old-fashioned-no-8s-and-that-could-be-what-england-need/ At a time when the England national side is blessed with several quality attacking midfielders excelling for clubs in the Champions League, Conor Gallagher probably isn’t the best of the bunch. He is, however, surely the most typically English. Gallagher has been the standout player for a rejuvenated Crystal Palace side, featured in many people’s select XI from the first half of the Premier League season, and has been one of the revelations of the season for Fantasy Football players. Palace fans want him to stay, Chelsea fans would like him to return from his loan, and England supporters were delighted to see him make his international debut in November against San Marino. One of the likeable things about Gallagher is that he feels so familiar, so refreshingly simple, so typical of English football. It’s his his boundless running style, his box-to-box nature, his determination to get into goalscoring positions. Gallagher is essentially an elite version of No 8s you can watch up and down the country every Saturday at lower levels of the game, the bloke who was your school’s best player, the type of footballer who has outplayed you at Sunday League. His contemporaries all feel like entirely different beasts. Mason Mount, for example, is thoroughly continental in style. He excels because of his tactical understanding, his appreciation of space and his ability to receive the ball. He is technically excellent, of course — see his crisp volley in a recent defeat at West Ham. But Mount is about subtle, intelligent, understated contributions. And though he’s very diligent without the ball, it’s not because he runs and runs to show everyone he’s running — the stereotypical English approach — more because he runs intelligently. Phil Foden, with his low centre of gravity and technical completeness, feels very Spanish; his nickname of “the Stockport Iniesta” is tongue-in-cheek, but only slightly. Foden can play from the left or the right, as a No 8 or a No 10, and has adapted well when fielded as City’s false forward, too. This type of versatility was not, traditionally, a strength of English players. Jack Grealish, predominantly a purposeful dribbler, feels more South American than European, like one of those prodigiously gifted Argentine players who prefers having everything based around him, but has been forced out wide at the highest level. He’s more individualistic than Mount or Foden, and has been open about the difficulties of adapting his natural game to suit Pep Guardiola’s approach. But Gallagher is pure English. His manager, Patrick Vieira, says he “has this passion for the game on the field like a Ray Parlour, but I would say he has the quality finishing of a Frank Lampard”. Parlour is a former team-mate of Vieira’s, of course, and feels like a good comparison. There’s an exuberance, an enthusiasm and a directness about Gallagher’s play which brings to mind Parlour, but it might also bring to mind someone slightly more recent like Jimmy Bullard. Like Parlour, Bullard is now a little underrated because of his post-playing career as a banter merchant but, when injury-free, he could truly light up a Premier League game and score brilliant goals. Comparisons will inevitably be to players who peaked a decade or longer ago, because top Premier League sides don’t really do players like Gallagher any more. Tactical evolution means there’s more of a split in midfield responsibilities: Mount, Foden and Grealish have all played in a front three, in various roles, and look comfortable there. Others suit deeper positions, and while Declan Rice is excellent at carrying the ball forward, and Kalvin Phillips has played a more advanced role for England than he does for Leeds, they aren’t regular goalscoring threats like Gallagher. Gallagher has managed six goals this season — of other midfielders in the Premier League, and excluding penalties, only Bernardo Silva and Emile Smith-Rowe have more. Gallagher is outperforming his xG, which stands at only 3.6, but perhaps more significant is that, of the 20 players to have scored six or more goals this season, only Leeds United’s Raphinha is lower in terms of xG per shot, according to Fbref.com. In other words, Gallagher is attempting lots of shots, but not always from very promising positions. After his two goals against West Ham, Vieira specifically mentioned his determination to run in behind, but the following weekend against Tottenham he repeatedly shot waywardly from long range, trying to do too much. His goals from close-range positions are more repeatable — his close-range first goal against Everton, rather than his spectacular second, might actually be more promising. Scoring goals, of course, is a fundamental part of being a classic English No 8. Although both Lampard and Steven Gerrard developed as broadly box-to-box midfielders in a 4-4-2, both became defined by their goals; Lampard becoming Chelsea’s all-time record goalscorer and Gerrard, at his best, almost playing as a support striker off Fernando Torres. They didn’t work together for England, of course, because they were both accustomed to being the most attack-minded player in a three-man midfield, which is Gallagher’s role now. You sense that Gallagher, for all his talent, might have been less celebrated had he emerged a decade ago, when English football had more players in that mould, and when the national team’s failure was partly because they had two of them to accommodate. The last thing England needed was another goalscoring No 8, but now Gallagher doesn’t feel like another version of a player England already have, he feels like a refreshing throwback. In terms of actual midfield play, Gallagher isn’t overwhelmingly involved. In fact, when The Athletic’s John Muller highlighted the Premier League’s “no-touch all-stars”, Gallagher was his choice for the midfield slot. “He averages 52.8 touches per 90 minutes, more than half the Premier League,” Muller explained. “But when you look at that number in the context of his position and team, the Chelsea loanee sinks to the 11th percentile for adjusted touch share… he doesn’t do the one thing midfielders do most — complete passes in midfield.” Gallagher concentrates his work in the attacking phase — even in terms of ball-winning. Twice this season, for Odsonne Edouard’s goal against Arsenal, and for Wilfried Zaha’s opener in the shock win at Manchester City, Gallagher has been the man responsible for closing down an opponent — Albert Lokonga and Aymeric Laporte respectively — and creating a high turnover that directly led to a goal. It’s good pressing. It’s also good old-fashioned work rate. When discussing Gallagher’s future during a recent punditry appearance, former Palace player and manager Alan Pardew jokingly suggested that Gallagher should stick around at Selhurst Park because “he has a south London accent”, but is that really true? Gallagher actually grew up in Bookham, a village at the foot of the Surrey Hills, and his voice sounds less influenced by geography and more by his profession — he talks in a manner more similar to Bullard or Parlour, from the London/Essex borders, than he does most youngsters you’ll meet in Surrey. Gallagher represents all of English football, rather than a specific part of it. A more pertinent question is what role Gallagher might play if he did return to Chelsea. At present it’s not clear whether he’d be more suited to one of the deeper midfield roles in Chelsea’s 3-4-2-1, or a more advanced position. Gallagher probably needs freedom, and while he’s good enough to merit that luxury at Palace, and good enough to play a supporting role at Chelsea, he might not end up good enough to merit that luxury at Chelsea. He may be suited to being a big fish in a medium-sized pond; Ross Barkley, Danny Drinkwater and Steve Sidwell were excellent in the Premier League for Everton, Leicester and Reading respectively but were never likely to be as pivotal at Chelsea. Of course, if Gallagher continues his upward trajectory, there’s no reason Thomas Tuchel — or his successors — wouldn’t devise a role that got the best from Gallagher. He’s currently a better player now than Lampard was at West Ham at the same age. But if he doesn’t quite reach Lampard’s level, it would be a shame to see him shackled in a more reserved role — he feels like the kind of player that should dominate a midfield, regardless of the level he finds himself playing at. When trying to think of a comparable player I’ve seen at lower levels, I remembered that, coincidentally, Gallagher’s brother Dan used to play for the team I support, seventh-tier Kingstonian. My only memory of his two-month loan spell is him tripping over the ball in a 5-0 loss away at Staines Town four years ago, although he’s currently playing in the division above, with Dorking Wanderers, so he’s clearly better than that incident would suggest. Gallagher has two other older brothers involved in non-League football. Josh has spent much of his career in the Isthmian Premier League before being appointed coach of ninth-tier Raynes Park Vale last summer at the age of just 28, while Jake plays in the National League South for Maidstone United. All four Gallagher brothers are central midfielders. My initial theory was that players reminiscent of Conor Gallagher are everywhere across English football. I hadn’t realised it was true in such a literal sense.

https://theathletic.com/news/lewis-baker-leaves-Chelsea-for-stoke-city-in-permanent-deal/j66ZKBiUo8T2/ Lewis Baker has left Chelsea for Stoke City in a permanent deal. The attacking midfielder has joined the Staffordshire side on a two-and-a-half-year contract. Baker, 26, had been at Chelsea for 17 years. He made just his second appearance for the senior side against Chesterfield last week, eight years after his debut. During this period, Chelsea sent him on loan to eight different clubs: Sheffield Wednesday, MK Dons, Vitesse Arnhem, Middlesbrough, Leeds United, Reading, Fortuna Dusseldorf, and Trabzonspor. A Chelsea statement said: “Lewis Baker has today signed for Championship side Stoke City on a permanent deal, bringing to an end his 17-year association with Chelsea. “The midfielder departs having progressed through our Academy ranks to make two senior appearances for the club, the most recent of which came last weekend as a substitute in our FA Cup victory against Chesterfield.” Stoke are currently 10th in the Championship, six points behind the play-off places. Baker is the third arrival of the window, after Phil Jagielka and Manchester City youngster Taylor Harwood-Bellis. Manager Michael O’Neill said: “From speaking to Lewis it’s clear that he is ready to lay down roots at a club and kick-on with his career. “He’s a very talented midfielder who will bring a different dimension to our squad and we are delighted to have him on board with us.”

Everton manager Rafa Benitez set to lose job after dismal run of form https://theathletic.com/news/everton-manager-rafa-benitez-set-to-lose-job-after-dismal-run-of-form/MDdgPHaMTQJ7/ Rafa Benitez is set to lose his job as Everton manager following Saturday’s defeat at Norwich, The Athletic understands. He is expected to be sacked before the team's game against Aston Villa on January 22. Benitez’s Everton have won just one of their last 11 matches and suffered a 2-1 defeat to then-bottom of the table Norwich City on Saturday, increasing the pressure on the former Liverpool and Newcastle United manager. Multiple banners calling for Benitez to lose his job were seen in the away end at Carrow Road. The 61-year-old signed a three-year contract when he took over from Carlo Ancelotti in the summer, an unpopular appointment with many Everton fans due to his past links to their Merseyside rivals. Their poor form after a bright start to the season has seen them slip to 15th in the Premier League table, six points above the relegation zone. Speaking after the Norwich defeat, Benitez said: “We conceded two goals through our own mistakes and that makes it a mountain to climb for us. We have to stay professional, concentrate on the next training session and match. “I am a professional. I have enough experience and I came here to fix issues that, maybe, are coming from five years ago. “I have to make sure I analyse these kinds of mistakes we are making and avoid that for the future. Other things are not in my hands. I have to do my job.”

Villa only have three CB's on the senior team

Seny Dieng turns 28 this year, so not exactly a 'kid' (in terms of football)

title race done and dusted so we are playing for 4 more trophies now

very frustrating how poor we where at forward flow

his legacy is disastrous player moves-wise

Azpi with another SHIT cross

yes, he has fucked is so many times

Mendy would have saved that, FUCK Kepa arms are too short

Lukaku clearly tripped by Bernardo, NO FOUL

fuck Lukaku, he HAS to score there

first time ever under Tuchel we have no shot on goal in a first half

Theo Hernandez 😜

wtf

we have 3 KEY players who are not normal starters in their positions both our wingbacks are SHIT Azpi (at best he is a part time RCB now, he is shit at RWB) Alosno (enough said) and Sarr (so not capable of playing against a Citeh level squad as he is shite on the ball, like Zouma level, or probably worse plus Pulisic is just shit (bring on Mount)

I thought Kenedy is going out on a another loan , was recalled due to lack of playing time

what the fuckery Foden trips Kovasic from behind, stops a break, no yellow, Kova did dame to him, yellow

Sarr is passing backwards like the worst of Alonso and Jorginho