Vesper

at least it keeps Arteta safe for now

FUCK jammy cunts

1 2 what a rocket by Edouard

1 1 Partey choke

yes, it took a great save to deny him

Nothing is heard from Gylfi https://www-mbl-is.translate.goog/sport/efstadeild/2021/09/30/ekkert_heyrst_af_gylfa/?_x_tr_sl=is&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=sv&_x_tr_pto=nui Gylfi Þór Sigurðsson, Iceland's national football team member and Everton player, is not in the national team that will meet Armenia and Liechtenstein in the World Cup qualifiers in October. Gylfi Þór was arrested in the British Isles in July this summer, on suspicion of a crime against a minor, but he is in custody there until October 16. He has not played for his club Everton this season and is not in the squad for the English Premier League in the first half of the season. "We have not been in contact with Gylfi," said Arnar Þór Viðarsson, coach of the Icelandic men's national team, at a press conference at KSÍ's headquarters, when asked about Gylfi's issues.

Crystal Palace star Ebere Eze 'could return from his horror achilles injury NEXT WEEK after a miracle recovery'... with doctors initially predicting a 2022 comeback for the England U21s man Eberechi Eze has reportedly recovered from achilles injury ahead of schedule The 23-year-old picked up the injury in training towards the end of last season There were fears that Eze might not play again until next year But he could feature for Crystal Palace as early as next week against Newcastle https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-10101143/Eberechi-Eze-return-horror-achilles-injury-WEEK-miracle-recovery.html

they are only 2 points and GD (if this score holds up) off top 4

No Zaha (out ill after international break) Palace starts THREE centre forwards bizarre experiment

not fit after the international games Viera said he came back ill (not Covid)

2021-22 English Premier League Arsenal Crystal Palace http://www.sportnews.to/sports/2021/premier-league-arsenal-vs-crystal-palace-s1/ https://www.totalsportek.com/football/pl/arsenal-vs-crystal-palace-match/

Ziyech has a big job to convince Tuchel he’s worth a key role in his Chelsea team https://theathletic.com/2886569/2021/10/13/ziyeziyech-has-a-big-job-to-convince-tuchel-hes-worth-a-key-role-in-Chelsea-team/ If there was a poll to determine the most disappointing player Chelsea signed in 2020, who would get your vote? It was a transfer splurge no Chelsea fan will forget. After going two windows without buying anybody — one due to a FIFA embargo, the other out of choice — a club-record £200 million-plus was spent on five players: Kai Havertz, Timo Werner, Ben Chilwell, Hakim Ziyech and Edouard Mendy. Thiago Silva and Malang Sarr also joined as free agents. One suspects Werner’s goalscoring issues, Havertz’s inconsistent form, given the talk about him being a generational talent and Chilwell’s spell on the sidelines this season might attract a bit of negative support. However, all three started and made their mark in the Champions League final victory in May. For many people, the fact Havertz scored the winner that night makes his fee, which could reach £90 million, value for money whatever happens next. Only two of the seven didn’t feature in that game against Manchester City in Porto. Sarr was not available for selection having spent the season on loan — oddly enough, at Porto. The other was Ziyech, who was an unused substitute. Out of all the candidates, his name is probably the one most Chelsea followers would put an X by in this hypothetical poll. Ziyech has spent too much of his 14-month Chelsea career watching the action from the sidelines. He has started just 16 times in the Premier League — and only 28 matches in all competitions — and still faces a real challenge to become a regular. Misfortune has certainly played a part, with injuries in both pre-seasons hampering the Morocco international’s progress. There has been the odd flash of brilliance, and important goals in wins over Atletico Madrid, Manchester City (twice) and Villarreal this year demonstrated what an asset he can be. But if you take yourself back to the excitement his signature generated when Chelsea bought him from Ajax for an initial £33 million, it would be fair to say he has underperformed. In 165 appearances for Ajax, the attacking midfielder scored 49 goals and provided a remarkable 81 assists. In contrast, his Chelsea record reads seven goals and four assists from 45 games. Notably, he has not set up a team-mate’s goal yet this season. Naturally, the difference in quality between the Dutch Eredivisie and the Premier League has to be taken into account. But this was a man who shone as Ajax came within moments of reaching the 2018-19 Champions League final. It was hoped he would bring this flair to Stamford Bridge. To his credit, Ziyech admitted in February that he was finding the adaption to life in England on and off the pitch a bit of a struggle. “It has been a difficult first six months for me,” he told Dutch media outlet Ziggo Sport. “I began with an injury, came back and then got injured again. Things have not gone as I had hoped. “The pace of the game over here is much quicker than it was at Ajax. I picked that up straight away, and then I got injured in my first training game. That sets you back completely and then it happens again. It was bloody annoying. “I am used to having my friends, and my mum, around me. Being without them has taken some getting used to and the (COVID-19) lockdown made matters worse. On top of that, I’ve had to learn how to drive on the other side of the road. I’ve not had any accidents, but it was very difficult at the start.” A lot of Chelsea players benefitted from the arrival of Thomas Tuchel as head coach in January, but it could be argued Ziyech hasn’t been one of them. The change to a 3-4-2-1 formation has seen him pushed in-field when selected as one of the No 10s and he doesn’t look as comfortable there. It has also further exposed his struggle to press opponents and perform the more defensive side of the game, a facet Tuchel not just expects but demands. His last outing for Chelsea in the Premier League was more than a month ago. When given a surprise start away to Juventus in the Champions League, he was ineffective for an hour and then replaced with Ruben Loftus-Cheek. He then did not get on the pitch in Chelsea’s next, and most recent, match against Southampton and Tuchel, who also rested Havertz after an unconvincing spell in the side, explained why. The words were pretty damning. He said: “We always try to do our best to bring the players in the best shape but at some point, after a lot of chances, we have to admit that Kai and Hakim, for example, are not in their very best shape. ‘It’s maybe not even their fault, it’s just like this in the moment. They’re struggling to be decisive. They lost maybe the belief or confidence. Nobody is angry at them, nobody has major concerns, but we have to pay attention to actual form and we need to win games.” It is that last line that should concern Ziyech most. Tuchel sounds like a man who has lost trust in him at a juncture when competition for places is getting even more intense. The German has even more options to choose from, with Ross Barkley and Loftus-Cheek making a difference in recent weeks. Christian Pulisic is also getting closer to fitness following an ankle injury, and Havertz is always going to be high in the pecking order due to his price tag and talent. A run of seven Chelsea fixtures in 22 days before the next international break in November should give Ziyech an opportunity to impress at some point, and it is important he takes it. Considering he is about a quarter of the way through a five-year contract, time is still on his side to make a bigger impact at Stamford Bridge, but he won’t want to be relegated to the role of squad player. In some performances, his body language has come across as dejected. That has not gone down well in the court of public opinion. Another indication of Ziyech’s declining fortune is being dropped by Morocco. The head coach Vahid Halilhodzic accused him last month of feigning injury to get out of playing a friendly in June and left him out of the squad as punishment. The player took to Instagram to deny the claims, saying “next time you speak, tell the truth”. The rift hasn’t been repaired but at least it gave him the opportunity to train with Tuchel during the international breaks in September and also this month, having not been called up for their October World Cup qualifiers against Guinea-Bissau and Guinea. Encouragingly, though, he talks like a man doing his utmost to make the move to Chelsea a success. Speaking in April, he said: “It’s always about believing in yourself. You have some points where some things worry you, but you have to be mentally stronger. “I’m the type of guy that always believes in myself, I always work hard in training. It’s not that it always comes out in games but I’m working hard every day on it. I know what I can do and I always trust in myself.” Tuchel is going to be a lot harder to convince.

Demba Ba exclusive: ‘I didn’t enjoy killing Gerrard’s dream. But not all stories can end in fairytales’ https://theathletic.com/2886695/2021/10/14/demba-ba-steven-gerrard-Chelsea-newcastle-west-ham-mourinho-benitez/ A sunny October, a green-velvet-clad hotel restaurant just off the Champs-Elysees and sharply-dressed clientele who look as if they’ve just wandered in from the “Call My Agent” set… it’s a scene that couldn’t be more Parisian if it tried. But Demba Ba is somewhere else for a moment, a million and 558 miles away, right back at the happiest place he’s ever been to as a footballer. “When you go to St James’ Park, through the tunnel and you turn around to see that massive stand, and you hear that noise for the first time, it gives you the chills,” he says, gazing into his Tyneside memories. “It’s that feeling that I miss most since retiring from football last month. I have experienced other joyful times, especially at Besiktas, but the connection with the Newcastle supporters was so deep, the bond inside the dressing room so strong, and I scored many goals… it was the perfect combination. I have so much love and respect for them, and they have love and respect for me, until today. They’re grateful for what I did for them, and so I am, for what they did for me.” When Ba agreed to look back at an eventful 16-year career at those two sides as well as at Hoffenheim, Chelsea, Istanbul Basaksehir and Shanghai Shenhua a few weeks ago, neither he nor The Athletic had any idea that Newcastle would find themselves the most talked-about club in Europe in due course. As a Paris native, the former Senegal international knows all about the transformative power of money from the Gulf. “I was lucky because I was already a fan of Paris Saint-Germain before their takeover, and I’ve been a fan of Newcastle since signing for them in 2011. No one can call me a glory hunter,” he laughs. “I’ve struggled all those years. Now I’m buzzing. I’m buzzing twice, actually. First, because of the takeover and secondly, when I read that they’re thinking of Ralf (Rangnick as a sporting director), I thought: ‘Oh, Newcastle are about to become something special.’ When you see how he built Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig from scratch, taking on Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, spending money in a way that creates value and leaving behind structures that will sustain the success for years to come, it’s crazy to think what he could do, starting from a much higher base at Newcastle.” Ba is, admittedly, unashamedly biased when it comes to his former Hoffenheim coach. Rangnick recently set up his own consulting company, working with clubs, players, coaches as well as officials, and Ba has signed up to be his first mentee. “I shadow him, learning how he operates,” he says. “We also do weekly lessons on Zoom. At the same time, I try to help him in terms of dealing with players, because I’m only 36, and closer to that generation.” Ba has also set up his own firm providing psychological training for professional players, the idea being that all 25 members of a squad will be supported individually, with the help of AI. But an even bigger aim is to become a sporting director one day. “My dedication to that job will be the same as a player because when I do something it has to be excellent. This is my definition of enjoyment. I want to impact the individual and collective performance of players and clubs in all areas. For the last few months, I’ve been defining my vision. I believe it all starts with a vision that needs to be implemented. Once you have a vision, you can hire the right coaches and make the right signings. That way, you don’t have to change 20 players every time you hire a new coach.” Rangnick gave Ba his big break as a player, signing him from Belgian side Mouscron in 2007, even though the Hoffenheim scout who’d been dispatched from Germany to watch him in action had come back with a devastating verdict. “He told me years later that he’d written down, ‘Good movement, good pace, good technique’ and so on, but then ripped up his report when he heard a big bang on the pitch.” Ba had broken his shin in that challenge, shortly before the end of the game. “I knew that I had a stress fracture before but I was so hungry to succeed that I didn’t think I could afford to sit out matches,” he says. “I kept playing, that’s why it happened.” It took him eight months to get going again. Luckily, Hoffenheim came back in, enabling him to make “real money” for the first time in his career, aged 22. “My first contract at Rouen (in the French fourth division) had been for €1,063 net, per month, and I had to borrow €300 in the first month for food,” he recalls of a difficult start to professional football that included many failed trials in France and elsewhere (Watford, Barnsley, Swansea, Gillingham) as a teenager. “Ninety per cent of the time, the feedback I got was, ‘We have the same quality of player in the squad already.’ They didn’t realise that I was training twice a week with amateurs at the time, not six times a week with professionals. I was told, ‘You’re not good enough’, but I didn’t want to hear that that, to me it was, ‘You’re not good enough for me’. I just refused to give up. I remember writing letters to the top 40 clubs in France, by hand, asking for a trial. I never thought about rejection, only the next chance.” At Hoffenheim, Ba was part of a superb front three, comprising of himself, Bosnia & Herzegovina international Vedad Ibisevic and Chinedu Obasi from Nigeria. Their goals won promotion to the Bundesliga for the village club and then propelled them to the top of the league at Christmas. They lost 2-1 at Bayern Munich in December 2008, a game that set new standards for pace and intensity in the league. A bad injury to Ibisevic meant that they couldn’t sustain the challenge in the second half of the season, but they still finished a respectable seventh. Rangnick resigned on January 2, 2011, over disagreements with Hoffenheim benefactor Dietmar Hopp about transfer policy. Ba was out of the door the next day, albeit without the club’s blessing. He absconded to London to force a move to West Ham. “The club had promised me that I could leave if an offer came in but went back on their word,” he says. “Everyone was killing me in Germany. (Bayern Munich general manager) Uli Hoeness said, ‘No club should ever sign him’.” West Ham were unperturbed, offering £6 million for his services. David Moyes, then at Everton, also made an approach but Ba had given Avram Grant his word that he would go to Upton Park. Hoffenheim, however, wanted more money. Stoke City were suddenly in pole position with an offer of £12 million. “I didn’t want to go and play Tony Pulis football,” Ba says with a smile. “But Hoffenheim said it’s either that or me coming back to play for them.” Yet there was another twist. Stoke’s medical discovered some fluid in Ba’s knee. The deal fell through. West Ham returned with a much lower bid, with Ba’s contract being contingent on his ability to play. The club, deep in a relegation fight at the time, were so worried news of the transfer might break before all boxes were ticked that they asked Ba to hide in the boot of a friend’s car on his way to the training ground. “They said they didn’t want journalists to find out, so I obeyed,” he laughs. “It wasn’t the biggest boot. It was like ‘boom, boom’, I’m hitting my head at every corner.” Ba scored seven goals in 12 matches but it wasn’t enough to save West Ham from the drop. “It was a good dressing room but ultimately we didn’t have the necessary quality,” he says. Relegation meant that he was out of contract at the end of the season. Newcastle only offered half of West Ham’s wages as a guaranteed salary, the other 50 per cent being on a pay-per-play basis. “I raised my hand and said: ‘Why does everybody think I’m finished?’,” Ba recalls. “But I thought of St James’ and I said: ‘OK’. Moving there turned out to be one of three best moments of my life for me, in football and outside football.” Why? “Because it all clicked. We had this big French-speaking group — Yohan Cabaye, Cheick Tiote, Papiss Cisse, Gabriel Obertan and a few others — and the mentality was top. We spent a lot of time with each other off the pitch and we all really got on with the English boys as well. That bond we had brought that synergy on the pitch. That was the key to that team. We felt unbeatable at times.” Newcastle finished fifth that season. Ba left as a crowd favourite in January 2013, having scored 29 league goals in 54 games. Next up, Chelsea, during a civil war where the very much unloved Rafa Benitez had taken over from Champions League winner Roberto Di Matteo halfway through the season. “It was weird because Rafa was getting booed by the Chelsea supporters at every game,” Ba says. “To see your manager getting booed all the time is crazy. But he stayed focused. He managed to get us into the Champions League, we finished third, he won the Europa League, and we went to two semi-finals in the domestic cups. So he must have been good.” Ba also credits strong personalities in the dressing room for stable performance during this tumultuous time. “Big players will take responsibility on the pitch but also off it when things don’t go the right way. I remember when we lost 2-1 to Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-final, Rafa was criticising our lack of intensity after the game. But John Terry went: ‘No gaffer, the problem is that our training lacks intensity.’ Rafa’s training was mostly tactical, but the players wanted it to be more full-blooded. So the two of them had a frank exchange of views in front of everyone, and the next day, the whole team got together to talk things through as well. We didn’t lose any more games after that.” The season ended with Chelsea winning the Europa League, Ba’s first major trophy, but it didn’t feel that way. He hadn’t been eligible in the competition after playing for Newcastle in the group stage. “They give you the medal, and I don’t want it, because I hadn’t played. It took me a while, six years perhaps, to consider myself a winner. I figured out that being part of the group is more than just playing. If I hadn’t played in the league, maybe Fernando would have been too tired to perform as well as he did in the Europa League. Teams who win have more than 11 players doing their bit. Even training well, making sure the starters are not too comfortable and stay on top of their game, makes a big difference.” More drastic change was to follow, as Benitez’s rather technocratic style was replaced by the abrasiveness of second-spell Jose Mourinho. “A real character,” Ba says. “He would use any means to win. Any means.” Including messing with people’s heads? “That comes first!” he laughs. “He uses a lot of psychology on players, to see who are the strong characters. One day he told us: ‘If you have a confidence problem, that’s your problem.’ I think the players he originally had — Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, Michael Ballack — were tough guys. They responded well to that kind of management. The younger generation need more encouragement and support. Their self-esteem isn’t built up as much. They’re affected by social media and other things, they might not respond to pressure that well. “But Jose is the kind of guy who throws a bomb into the dressing room and sees who comes out alive. At Chelsea, it was like, which mask is he going to put on today? Will he be the happy one, the sarcastic one, the sad one, the angry one? At a point, you don’t mind anymore because you know, he’s just playing with you. He plays the game very well. “Is he really like this? I don’t know. I hope that in my process of learning about the game, I’ll have an opportunity to meet him again. Did he give me a hard time? No, he didn’t. He didn’t give me anything, because I never played!” Ba only started three games in all competitions between August and February that season as Mourinho alternated between Torres and Samuel Eto’o in the centre-forward spot. “I had no reason to fight with him — so I made one up,” Ba says. The chance “to have it out with the boss,” as he says, presented itself when Chelsea were due to play West Brom. After training that Friday, Ba’s name was not included in the match-day squad. But then the list was taken down again, and word got around that Torres had been injured. “So I’m thinking: ‘My name will be on the list’. I went out of the shower so quickly and dressed as quickly as I could and left the training facilities. I’m on my way home, and the team manager calls me: ‘Demba, where are you?’ “I say: ‘On my way home, I’m not in the squad.’ ‘No, no, you have to come back, Fernando is injured.’ “‘When I left, my name was not on the list, I’ve planned my day, I need to pick up my daughter, and go to mosque…’ “‘No, you have to be here in 30 minutes.’ “Half an hour later, he calls again. ‘Where are you?’ “I say: ‘I’ll come, but I have to speak to the boss.’ So we talked, and we argued, outside his office. Jose said, ‘You’re not performing. A player who’s not performing doesn’t play.’ But I had prepared for this. I showed him the stats: I had played half the minutes of the other two but scored more than half of their goals in that time. Jose said, ‘OK, but it’s my decision. Now let’s go.’ “I replied, ‘It’s your decision, but it’s my decision to go home.’ I went down, past the bus, jumped in the car and drove off. That was me then (laughs). I was nuts. I missed the game. But you know what? From that moment on, our relationship really picked up! He suddenly played me a lot more. On the day of the Champions League semi-final against Atletico Madrid, he asked me to stay for another season. But I was impatient. I wanted to play regularly.” One of the three games he did start before the end of the season was a certain away fixture at Anfield. “I remember Jose saying: ‘They think we’re a Mickey Mouse team! But we will show them!” And we went out fighting. I was up against Martin Skrtel and Mama (Mamadou Sakho) and I played an unbelievable game. I felt like I did at Newcastle. This was the game that changed Jose’s view of me, I think.” Ba’s goal shortly before half-time, after Steven Gerrard’s slip, ushered in a 2-0 win that cost Liverpool the title. “I only realised how big a deal that was a couple of years later, when people still talked about it. They still talk about it! It was traumatic for them. But we didn’t enjoy the fact that we killed their dream, we simply enjoyed winning.” Does he feel in any way sorry about inflicting that much pain on the Liverpool faithful, and on Gerrard, especially? “No, not really. Because that’s the game. You make errors and others take advantage. What Steven Gerrard has done for the world of football is tremendous. But this is life, unfortunately. Not all stories can end in fairytales.” Ba’s own story continued at Besiktas, with whom he won the Super Lig in 2016-17, and well-paid spells in Shanghai. Football-wise, Turkey was “fireworks, with crowds going wild and tactics being less important,” whereas, in China, players felt obliged to implement a manager’s ideas to the letter, “a bit like robots”. Exposure to new cultures taught him the importance of empathy. “You have to look at people for who they are and come from to understand them, instead of judging them,” he says. As a professional footballer, he was largely shielded from racism in its crassest form but he still encountered a fair amount of “BS,” as he says, in terms of thoughtless prejudice. “I remember a team-mate looking at a picture of my son and saying ‘He’s mixed (race), right?’ ‘Yes’. ‘Great! Perfect mix between power and intelligence!’ “I put him on the spot, by asking him if that made me the dumb one in his equation.” Another colleague once told Ba that he shouldn’t complain about the bad food in a team hotel because he was African. “And I looked at him. Why? Because some people struggle for food in Africa? How many struggle in Europe or the US, the richest country in the world? I try to educate and not let things like that slide. Because it’s too easy to just say, ‘OK, they don’t know any better’.” Ba’s determination to challenge casual racism saw him at the centre of one of European football’s biggest stories last season. He confronted Romanian fourth official Sebastian Coltescu over referring to Basaksehir assistant coach Pierre Webo as “the black one” during the Champions League game with PSG last December. Both sets of players decided to walk off in protest and the game was replayed the next day (PSG won 5-1). A subsequent investigation by UEFA ruled that Coltescu had behaved “inappropriately” but not in a racist way. “I asked a question which was never answered,” Ba says. “Is it OK to call somebody by their skin colour? Can you imagine an English referee referring to Son Heung-min as the ‘yellow one’? It’s unthinkable. But somehow, when it comes to the black community, it seems to have less of an impact, because subconsciously, that’s how people think. They see a colour, not the human being. But when you have millions of people watching, and you wear a badge that says ‘Equality’ and ‘Respect’, there must be a million better ways to refer to a person.” As his defence, Coltescu later told Ba that he had a lot of “gipsies” as friends. “I realised then that he was totally lost and didn’t know what the problem was,” Ba continues. “But he did say that he was sorry and that he understood what he had triggered in me, what it meant. So I left it at that.” Coltescu and assistant referee Octavian Sovre were cleared of discriminatory behaviour following an investigation from UEFA’s Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body but were both suspended for “inappropriate behaviour” until the end of the season. As the players were deliberating whether they should continue the game, Ba told them they should do what felt right for them. “Mehmet Topal, a big figure in Turkey, said, ‘Demba, if you don’t want to play, we all won’t play. We are all together in this. So we told the president and went back to the hotel.” Three hours into the conversation, it’s time for Ba to go pick up his daughters from school. We continue to talk on the street but it’s not that easy, as he’s twice being stopped by tourists asking for a selfie. After posing for them happily, he is suddenly in pensive mood once more. “This might shock a few people when they read this but I never had the biggest confidence in my footballing abilities,” he says. “I started some games doubting myself: ‘Am I technically good enough?’. I think that came from growing up outside the academy system and becoming a pro quite late. I often asked myself: ‘Am I legit?’. I made up for that lack of confidence with courage, but courage has its limits. “With more confidence, I could have gone a lot further. I believe I’ll be a better sporting director than a player — because I have more faith in my cognitive, psychological and emotional abilities than I ever had in my football qualities. And I had a tremendous career. So can you imagine what’s coming?” Something tells me that we’ll find out soon.

Tension, suspicion and plotting – what happened after the collapse of the Super League https://theathletic.com/2894731/2021/10/18/tension-suspicion-and-plotting-what-happened-after-the-collapse-of-the-super-league/ Against the backdrop of the mountain-lined views of Lake Geneva, the President Wilson Hotel in Switzerland formed a formidable location for last month’s summit meeting of the European Club Association. This was the setting for European football’s most wealthy and powerful, where they sought to rebuild relations after the sport descended into all-out war earlier this year. On Sunday, April 18, a dozen of Europe’s most famous football clubs announced a plan to launch a Super League, in which a new midweek competition would be established. Although the league was registered officially as the European Super League company, the trading name was and remains The Super League, suggesting room had been left for participants from outside that continent at a future date. The 12 founder members were Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur from England, as well as Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid from Spain, plus Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan from Italy. A statement, issued after 11pm UK time on that Sunday evening, stated that three further clubs would join as founder members ahead of its inaugural campaign. The Super League 12 — described by critics as the Dirty Dozen — anticipated a public announcement and behind-the-scenes negotiations would force Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund to join the group, which would ensure representation from the sport’s five most popular domestic leagues. As we know, the plot failed, spectacularly blowing up in the faces of its architects, as criticism poured in from politicians, broadcasters, pundits, coaches, players and even Prince William, the future king of the United Kingdom. This is the story of what happened next; of the mistrust that developed between some of the 12 and the leagues they play in, and the political manoeuvring behind the scenes as clubs jostle for power, money and influence. We will explain: How leagues are now keeping a closer eye on the Super League 12 than ever before Tensions between Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus’ determination that sceptical fans can be won round Suspicions that the 12 Super League sides are cooking up new plans The continued divide between “legacy clubs” and those with new money As the Super League clubs conspired, they did not expect their plan to culminate in the resignation of Manchester United’s executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward. Nor did they foresee public and private complaints from key players, or the postponement of a Premier League fixture between United and Liverpool following sustained supporter protest outside and then inside Old Trafford on the original match day. And absolutely they did not predict how, only five months on, they would be the red-faced recipients of a humiliating lecture in ethics from PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi — a man they have long considered as one of the sources of football’s ills. Over the past decade, hostility developed among the group of old-school aristocrats of European football — traditional powerhouses such as Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus and AC Milan, as well as the American-owned English clubs. The predominant source of the angst is the new-money or state-backed spending of clubs such as Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain. Newcastle United’s subsequent Saudi takeover, confirmed last week, will only enhance these worries. Media reports may cover complaints about alleged human rights violations in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia but in the corridors of European power, different fears grew more acutely. The major worry was that clubs such as Real Madrid, Milan and Liverpool may find themselves unable to compete without taking serious steps to restrict the spending power of the new upstarts. There were UEFA punishments, at times, for City and PSG over alleged breaches of financial fair play, but this rarely constituted enough in the green eyes of their rivals. When the Super League came along, these “legacy” clubs eyed an opportunity to level the playing field. City, along with Chelsea, were long-term sceptics of a Super League but as the train left the station, a fear of being left behind overpowered their instincts. They jumped on board. Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli and Real Madrid president Florentino Perez expected the official unveiling of the Super League to put such fear and anxiety into PSG that they would have no choice but to join the party, too. But PSG did not. Instead, Al-Khelaifi, along with Bayern and Dortmund, read the wider mood and resisted. Not only that, but the French club subsequently sensed opportunity amid football’s financial crisis that originated in reckless spending but was exacerbated by the pandemic. In the subsequent summer transfer window, PSG prised key players away from Liverpool, Barcelona, Real Madrid, AC Milan and Inter Milan while refusing to sell their star player Kylian Mbappe to Real Madrid, even when an offer exceeding £160 million landed on their table. And off the field, Al-Khelaifi contrived to become the most powerful executive in club football. The 12 clubs resigned their positions at both UEFA and the European Club Association (ECA) upon signing up to the Super League and all except for Juventus, Real Madrid and Barcelona returned to the organisations with their tails between their legs following the collapse. At the European Championship final between England and Italy in July, British prime minister Boris Johnson is even said to have approached Al-Khelaifi in Wembley’s smart seats, eager to recognise the roles the former felt they had both played in preventing the Super League from coming to fruition. In the ECA meeting suite last month, Al-Khelaifi chastised what he described as the “not-so-Super League”. He mocked “fabulists and failures”. He referred to the plot as a “midnight coup”. In Switzerland, attention was paid to those who attended but also those who were missing. Football’s world governing body, FIFA, had senior representation in FIFA council member Hany Abo Rida but its president Gianni Infantino was a notable absentee, particularly as reports have emerged suggesting FIFA may have been more sympathetic to the Super League than suggested by the statement it released on the Monday morning after its unveiling. Several sources pointed to jokes going around the room at last month’s summit, teasing that Infantino may even have prepared a speech either way on his Super League position, depending on the public response to the plan. FIFA, for its part, insists it is false and misleading to say Infantino was in two minds and points to the speech he gave two days after the announcement, on April 20, in which he insisted FIFA strongly disapproved. At the ECA summit, the room tuned in to an Infantino video address, described by one critic as a “Kofi Annan-style, ‘I am going to save the world’ speech”. FIFA says he missed the meeting as he had prior engagements elsewhere and that the current world is accepting of video attendance in any case. As we know, Infantino is focusing on a consultation period to introduce a World Cup every two years, rather than the traditional four, an idea that is opposed by the ECA. This is despite a meeting where Infantino attempted to convince Al-Khelaifi of that plan’s merits. At the ECA, it would previously have been unusual for figures such as Premier League chief executive Richard Masters to attend, yet he was present along with his counterparts from Germany’s Bundesliga, Ligue 1 in France and Italy’s Serie A. Javier Tebas, chairman of La Liga in Spain, missed the actual meeting, but was in Geneva that week to show his support. The sentiment from all of these domestic-league figures is that they simply must keep a sharp eye on the former Super League club executives to avoid any repeat attempts. The six Premier League clubs were fined a combined £22 million by their rivals in England and will be fined a further £25 million each if they attempt another breakaway. Representatives from each of the Premier League’s Big Six took their seats in Geneva, listening in as the room united around their perceived treachery. Woodward, on his way out at Manchester United, was not present. Hemen Tseayo, head of corporate finance, represented the Old Trafford club instead. Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck, Arsenal chief executive Vinai Venkatesham, Liverpool chief executive Billy Hogan, Manchester City CEO Ferran Soriano and Tottenham executive Rebecca Caplehorn had all flown to Switzerland. Mistrust lingers, both towards the Big Six and within the group, but Venkatesham is said to have done the most to re-establish positive relations, while Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy earned election as the Premier League’s representative on the ECA board. He beat Soriano despite a two-page pitch by the City CEO. Chelsea were the only English club to support Soriano’s bid, despite frosty relations between certain personnel at those two clubs. In Spain, the leading clubs Barcelona and Real Madrid are not falling into line so easily, and neither are Juventus in Italy. Those three remain engaged in legal action under the Super League umbrella. It has so far managed to deter UEFA from picking up the €15m goodwill payments it originally “agreed” as punishments for the nine clubs who dropped out of the Super League, while Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus all remain committed to the project but have not been barred from competing in UEFA’s competitions. One critic of the three clubs compared it to “Donald Trump after the American 2020 presidential election” — going round and attempting to overturn the inevitable outcome. Critics argue any legal result will ultimately not matter as the plan is doomed anyway in the court of public opinion. Yet the Super League project is still fighting. Those three rebels believe the same key issues remain; notably, too many disinteresting matches in the existing European competitions and a competitive imbalance, in their view, created by state-supported clubs. There is also a genuine belief among the remaining Super League clubs that supporters are not as opposed to it as the media has portrayed. They cite data from late last year that allegedly showed 80 per cent of Spanish supporters to be advocates of such a plan, while they note that the level of opposition in England was not reflected in Spain and Italy. “We are simply happy for Madrid’s president Florentino Perez to bang on about it forever,” quipped one sceptic, while the Super League has even become known as “FloreLeague” in some quarters. As the Premier League clubs scuttled about for relevance, PSG’s Al-Khelaifi took aim at Juventus, Real Madrid and Barcelona. Addressing the room, he said: “While the three rebel clubs waste energy, twist narratives and continue to shout at the sky, the rest of us are moving forward and focusing every energy on building a better future for European football.” He set out new principles for these summit meetings, declaring there would be “no closed sessions” — a bid to avoid future plotting. He spoke of a “united football family”. Peace on the horizon? Don’t count on it. As one source says: “There is a lot of double talk, double face; people that say one thing publicly and then privately do differently.” To understand the future, we must return to the past. In the week leading up to the Super League’s announcement in April, European football appeared unified. Both UEFA and the ECA appeared to have agreed and signed off on a commitment to support proposals for a reformed Champions League, which would change the model to 36 teams from the current 32. At an ECA meeting early in that week, in which Super League clubs were represented by figures such as Agnelli, Woodward and Real Madrid vice-chairman Pedro Lopez Jimenez, most of those on the video conference appeared relieved and content. These reforms had required almost two years of painstaking work. Perhaps most strangely, when set against what happened next, Europe’s leading clubs appeared to be benefiting from the changes. UEFA was coming closer to accepting a significant change to how the Champions League is broadcast and marketed. For over 25 years, UEFA had worked exclusively with a Swiss-based marketing firm called TEAM, which performed commercial duties for UEFA’s club competitions. Europe’s elite, however, resented this model as they are accustomed to having a greater say over business matters in their domestic leagues. Since Al-Khelaifi became ECA president, these plans have been accelerated and, in his first meeting with UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, he secured sign-off for this change that the larger clubs believe will earn them more money. Additionally, the elite clubs had secured an additional two places, outside of usual qualification through a domestic league finish, which would allow clubs to qualify for the Champions League based on their UEFA co-efficient over the previous five seasons. Following the failure of the Super League, however, it is still to be confirmed whether these positions will remain, as it creates the perception of a closed shop, where access is granted more on the name of a club than recent performance. However, as things stand, no alternatives have been suggested. Yet the concessions secured in April were deemed insufficient. The Super League clubs craved more. By the pivotal Thursday and Friday in April, the final two Premier League clubs, Chelsea and Manchester City, fell into line with the Super League plan and across Europe, particularly in the Premier League, the whispers and suspicion began to grow. Executives called one another, each time hearing little clues, but unable to form the full picture. By the Saturday, the key players had gone to ground. UEFA chief Ceferin would later describe Woodward and Agnelli as “snakes” for their parts in the perceived deceit. Agnelli simply turned his phone off, despite repeated calls from Ceferin, a man he had previously named as the godfather of his daughter. Ceferin later told German magazine Der Spiegel: “It was an honour for me when he asked me back then. Obviously, I made a mistake with him and misjudged him. After all, the Super League thing showed that closeness wasn’t a consideration. Agnelli and I are (now) as far apart as we can be.” On the Sunday, The Times in the UK and The New York Times reported a Super League plan was in motion and that an announcement was likely to be made the very same day. At 4pm, the ECA called an emergency board meeting. Those Super League club executives, such as Agnelli, Jimenez and Woodward, did not dial in. It was left to Edwin van der Sar, chief executive of Ajax, to chair the meeting. Perhaps one moment of lightness came when Inter Milan director Steven Zhang momentarily dialled into the video conference, despite his club having signed up to the Super League. He was spotted on the screen and his peers immediately wanted to know what on earth he had signed up to. He swiftly logged off, adding to the confusion. The ECA, whose job it is to lobby UEFA on behalf of their clubs, was left in a perilous position. Some clubs even suspected that key non-club executives at the ECA may have been in on the Super League plans but this was not the case. Instead, they made a plan to mobilise. Bayern Munich executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, a former ECA chairman, stepped up. One ECA source describes the German, as well as Al-Khelaifi, as “absolute rocks” during those fateful few days. Indeed, some in European football circles even suspect that clubs not included in the Super League (many of whom outlined their public opposition) may have made discreet enquiries during that turbulent time to see if they could find a way into the list of invitees. Behind the scenes, the Super League 12 continued to lobby PSG and Bayern. There were bold warnings, cautions that they would be left in the slipstream of their rivals. Real Madrid president Perez had previously travelled to Paris to try to convince Al-Khelaifi but he had been unsuccessful. The motivation behind Al-Khelaifi’s refusal is contested. He did not have a particular individual loyalty to Ceferin — the pair had rarely been close and indeed had sparred over financial fair play (FFP) cases. In addition, PSG’s revenue streams were severely damaged by the collapse of the domestic French television rights deal. As such, Al-Khelaifi’s critics argue that his leadership of BeIN Media may have dictated the stance he took against the Super League. This is because the Qatar-based broadcaster holds contracts worth hundreds of millions to show European domestic leagues and UEFA competitions across the world. These rights would have been severely devalued if a Super League had been formed. Sources close to Al-Khelaifi, however, counter that while he had no particular loyalty to Ceferin, he did feel he should be faithful to the institutions of UEFA and ECA, where he held senior positions. Additionally, he has privately claimed that he still, to this day, considers his first European fixture as PSG chairman as one of the highlights of his tenure. This was a home fixture against Austrian side Red Bull Salzburg in the group stage of the Europa League in 2011. It may seem insignificant to most, yet he apparently reflected on this moment when contemplating the Super League. A source explained: “It brought home to him that PSG’s journey would be almost impossible to repeat, as the 15 founder clubs would have been locked into a 20-team competition.” What we do know, however, is that both PSG and Bayern were privy to Super League conversations at some point in the years leading up to the announcement. Indeed, leaked paperwork revealed that some versions of the plan even included proposed joining dates for both clubs. And it would be unusual, given the stakes, for either club not to even consider the approach. In the case of Bayern, some rival clubs mischievously speculate that their hierarchy were more tempted than is publicly known. But Bayern’s leaders were bound by a 2016 commitment of the advisory board not to join any Super League. Dortmund, meanwhile, were never likely to jump onto the train unless Bayern did so first. On the Monday in Switzerland, Al-Khelaifi and Ceferin embraced. A source recalls: “Their first hug was for Nasser to say, ‘I am standing by you’.” The second hug, on the following day, came once it became clear the plot had fallen apart. Al-Khelaifi’s new golden-child status was inconceivable only six months ago. Indeed, for some conspiracy theorists, it almost appears to be a master plan to undo the Super League, expose the financial precarity of his rivals and pick off their best players. The reality is less polished, much as allies of Al-Khelaifi would love to claim he had conceived a Machiavellian plot to rule European football. Instead, they say, he made a sound judgement and then maximised the opportunities that ensued. At the ECA, a replacement for Agnelli became required. Rummenigge was a former chairman of the body and was due to retire from his role at Bayern at the end of the 2020-21 season (he turned 66 this month). Ajax’s Van der Sar is highly-rated but lacks the clout of a club, such as PSG, who regularly compete at the very highest level of the Champions League. Al-Khelaifi first turned down the role, citing his multiple other jobs, not only at PSG but also at BeIN Media Group and with the Qatar Tennis Federation. Dr Michael Gerlinger has represented Bayern on the ECA executive board since 2017 but his role as director of legal affairs at his club made it unlikely he would be a contender for ECA chairmanship. As PSG and Bayern’s rivals ceded status and influence, the two 2020 Champions League finalists formed a new power axis at the top of both UEFA and the ECA. Bayern received the ECA’s “Chairman’s Award” for their “exceptional leadership and commitment to European football”. Al-Khelaifi and Gerlinger posed together for a photo. Behind the scenes, however, the truce is uneasy, to put it lightly. Bayern have been long-term critics of PSG’s spending patterns and the two clubs do not share the same view on the future of financial restrictions in European competition. Bayern would, ideally, like a reformed version of FFP that regulates via a salary cap and strong punishments for breaches. PSG are among the clubs more supportive of a luxury-tax arrangement, whereby those who compete in UEFA competitions are limited to spending a set percentage of revenue on salaries, expected to be around 70 per cent. Those who exceed this cap would then be expected to pay a tax, where any overspend is redistributed to clubs across Europe. This, critics argue, could be open to abuse by extremely wealthy owners who do not mind paying the tax to achieve their broader ambitions. Critics of the former version of FFP counter that it served to prevent clubs outside the established elite from investing ambitiously in the transfer market. The hostility between PSG and Bayern was only heightened when Al-Khelaifi became unhappy after Bayern chairman Herbert Hainer said on a podcast that he was trying to understand how PSG’s investment into Lionel Messi, an expensive free agent after Barcelona were unable to re-sign him when his contract expired this summer, would “go along” with FFP. The likely outcome is that the luxury tax wins the day, while it remains possible that a top cap figure may also be included to ease concerns about how clubs such as PSG, Manchester City, Chelsea and now Newcastle could benefit from spending their owners’ untold riches. Ceferin, for his part, wants a level of tax that disincentivises extortionate spending. He told German media’s Der Spiegel: “In future, we should speak of competitive balance rather than FFP. If they exceed a limit, they have to pay a kind of tax that is redistributed to other clubs. This tax should be very, very high. If the rule is that a club can only spend €300 million, but it becomes €500 million, then it might have to pay another €200 million to go to the others. That has to be a robust set of rules. Nothing has been decided yet.” In the Premier League, the Big Six are struggling to regain the trust of their rivals, employees and supporters. Even within the Big Six, some suspect others may still be plotting, despite public denials. Over many years, the six clubs grew increasingly close, hunkering down in little groups at meetings. In 2019, the six organised a study by a major consultancy firm to appraise the growth of Premier League broadcasting rights deals. Manchester United, it is said, were the club always most keen to participate in joint research projects, easily securing approval for six-figure funding contributions, while Tottenham and Arsenal could be a little more frugal. The main thrust of the consultancy report was that the growth story of the 2010s “had been exhausted”, according to one well-placed source, “which led some of us to recognise a heightened necessity of a project such as the Super League”. For some owners, therefore, joining the Super League was about the short-term injection of funds to offset losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic but also around their projected exit strategy. These clubs, remember, are now valued into the billions. A well-placed source close to one Big Six club explains: “This would have been the best way out for the American owners at these clubs. They receive their valuation and they get this growth story with the Super League. Think about it. If you have worked for decades to be a billionaire, does it make sense to put your money into an asset where there is no obvious growth? Investors are also increasingly unwilling to buy clubs and put them in debt, as you get shit from fans. The Super League was the opportunity to change that problem and pump the value. Once the American owners sensed stagnation in the television market and the threat to the asset caused by COVID-19, they pulled the trigger.” The clubs were braced, to an extent, for criticism. After all, United and Liverpool had received a backlash when they unveiled Project Big Picture previously. Those two have had a long-term engagement over reducing the size of the 20-club Premier League to 18 clubs, as has already happened in France’s Ligue 1 and is under consideration in Italy’s Serie A, while the leading clubs share a long-held desire to remove the Carabao Cup from the calendar. A source explains: “They always presumed a baseline of pushback for any of these plans, but they never foresaw scenes like the ones at Chelsea or the ones at Old Trafford when the game against Liverpool was postponed. They would have been embarrassed that somebody so close to home, like Sir Alex Ferguson, who never criticises the owners, publicly dumped on the plan. Ed Woodward had been hearing from Gary Neville for years, so that would not have bothered him so much, but Sir Alex? (When that happens) You say to yourself, ‘We have done something wrong of the highest order here’.” All six clubs have made pledges of increased fan representation — although their pledges have been met with cynicism — and perhaps most remarkably, United’s co-owner Joel Glazer attended two fans’ forums after over a decade of silence from the club’s American ownership. United have also pledged to create a fan advisory board and interviews are currently ongoing for places on it. Tottenham are awaiting the UK government’s fan-led review before pressing on with their plans to reform but the club’s supporters trust has claimed that chairman Levy recently refused a meeting to discuss concerns. Arsenal fans, meanwhile, pin their hopes on reported interest in the club by Spotify owner Daniel Ek, amid ongoing concerns about the approach taken by current owners the Kroenke family. For Chelsea and Manchester City, rebuilding was more straightforward considering the overall popularity of their owners among supporters, while Liverpool are creating a supporters’ board with the promise of fan representation over strategic decisions. The previous lack of communication and engagement by owners of Premier League clubs is, ironically, one of the reasons the Super League is deemed to have failed in the eyes of its architects. “You can’t win an election without going on a campaign trail,” noted one Super League advocate, before pointing out the lack of contenders to sell the Super League vision to English football supporters. The vacuum was filled by opponents on the TV screens, airwaves and streets of England. In a Premier League meeting following the Super League unveiling, which the six breakaway clubs did not attend, Everton chairman Bill Kenwright at one point began quoting William Shakespeare and later said, “We’re all in the Twilight Zone now!” Brighton CEO Paul Barber read out the content of a call with Levy from that morning, where the Tottenham chief executive insisted the six had to act. The 14 remaining clubs left the main Premier League shareholders WhatsApp group and formed their own one. They remain suspicious. Indeed, one executive present at a Premier League shareholders meeting held since the Super League told The Athletic that “the Big Six do not even look at the little clubs. It remains an ‘us versus them’ mentality.” As one source close to UEFA concludes: “These directors are subdued rather than defeated. The trick is to find common ground, where everyone is pissed off to the same level.”

Malang Sarr’s 23-minute Chelsea baptism of fire https://theathletic.com/2886882/2021/10/17/malang-sarrs-23-minute-Chelsea-baptism-of-fire/ There was a moment deep into stoppage time at the Brentford Community Stadium when Malang Sarr and Mathias Jorgensen found themselves face to face in the penalty area. Play had been halted for Reece James, prone on the turf, to receive treatment as Chelsea clung to their slender lead with time ticking down on the home side’s onslaught. Sarr, frazzled by the sheer ferocity of it all, glanced up to find the Dane, nicknamed Zanka, towering over him. All he could do was smile. Then offer a joke, a clap of hands, a pat on the back and, finally, a despairing shake of the head which suggested his playful plea – presumably something along the lines of, “Just give me a break, won’t you?” – had been dismissed out of hand. As Jorgensen retreated to the touchline and prepared to hurl yet another long throw deep into the visitors’ box, the Frenchman puffed out his cheeks and steeled himself to repel one last wave of attacks. He looked lost as the ball was flung in, deceived by the flight and momentarily dizzied as the mess of bodies halted the delivery. It was to Sarr’s immense credit that, when Jorgensen collected and whipped in a more conventional cross seconds later, he had recovered his composure sufficiently to wrestle passage in front of Ivan Toney and nod the ball back whence it came. It was rugged. It was raw. But, on that occasion, it was effective. Brentford was quite the baptism for the young centre-half. The maelstrom to which he was subjected in those wonderfully frenetic, breathless last 23 minutes on Saturday evening will have been an education. Next time he will know better what to expect. Chelsea, moreover, will have learned plenty about their under-used defender from seeing him strain to preserve this unlikely clean sheet to maintain their position on the top of the table. Sarr is a talent with more than 100 Ligue 1 games for OGC Nice under his belt. Chelsea secured the France Under-21 international under freedom of contract and sent him to Porto last term, a player of promise commanding a €2 million loan fee and initially featuring in the first-team picture at either centre-half or left-back. He began four of the Portuguese club’s Champions League group games last autumn and played the last 58 minutes of the decisive second leg of the knockout tie against Juventus which saw the Italians eliminated. He is not lacking in experience. But this was his Premier League debut and, one League Cup appearance against Aston Villa aside, the first time he had been thrust into the limelight as a Chelsea player. Thomas Tuchel had been denied Thiago Silva – quarantining after international duty with Brazil – and the injured Antonio Rudiger. The head coach had worked with Sarr over the previous fortnight while others were away and had been impressed by his attitude and energy. When it came to selecting a team for the fixture across west London, he felt asking Cesar Azpilicueta or James to deputise centrally risked too much disruption. Instead, Tuchel trusted Sarr and Trevoh Chalobah – himself a novice with only four previous top-flight appearances – to quell the hosts’ threat with the maturing Andreas Christensen at their side. That was a show of faith and, for 73 minutes, it appeared well-judged. Combative and aggressive, Sarr discomforted Toney from the outset. He read the game well and worked slickly with Ben Chilwell at his side, the left-back covering when his centre-half ventured into midfield to repel the odd lofted Brentford pass. There was a burst of pace to extricate himself from difficulty, but he did not make a real mistake until mistiming a header and almost liberating Toney 10 minutes into the second half. He sent Frank Onyeka sprawling, matched his former France Under-20s team-mate Bryan Mbeumo for pace, and shepherded the ball out of play with ease while Chelsea were dominant. It all appeared relatively comfortable, even against opponents who had made hay against Arsenal and Liverpool in these parts. Then, in those last 17 minutes and the six that were tagged on as added time, everything changed. That rousing game in Turin had proved Sarr’s last for Sergio Conceicao’s senior side. He ended his year at Porto in the B team, the last few months of his loan marked by eight appearances in a second-string striving to avoid relegation, and a car crash close to the club’s training ground which left him unhurt but his Mercedes a crumpled heap. A promising start had petered out. Maybe he was a victim of his own versatility, a dip in form, or merely a club policy to use seniors to ensure the reserves were not demoted. Regardless, Porto had little interest in renewing a loan, or exploring a permanent transfer, once their one-year option had expired. In that context, his late toils at Brentford might also have been anticipated. On a superficial level, those frantic late exchanges actually enhanced the impression of his performance on debut as a whole. He summoned 10 clearances, the most by any Chelsea player in a league game to date this season. The same could be said of his six interceptions, two of which came amid the hosts’ incessant pressure. Yet scrutinise the exchanges from the 73rd minute, when he was pinned in the six-yard box by Pontus Jansson and left a bystander as Toney forced the outstanding Edouard Mendy into the first of a series of fine saves, and a truer picture emerges. Suddenly he and Chilwell were confused, disconcerted by the threat posed down the flank by the recently introduced substitute Saman Ghoddos, with the pair increasingly swamped by runners on that side of the pitch. Sarr’s positioning became muddled. As those passes were launched forward he was caught too square-on, which makes it harder to react, and was constantly exposed by Marcus Forss, another flung on by the home side ostensibly to unsettle the previously imperious Ruben Loftus-Cheek. Space opened up between Sarr and Christensen into which Mbeumo sprinted to strike the post. Even punts, from Forss or even David Raya from deep, forever targeted the channel between Sarr and Chilwell. It all left the Frenchman panicked. And then came Zanka’s throws. There was a barrage over that last quarter, all propelled from roughly the same spot on the touchline deep inside Chelsea territory, with Jansson, as a makeshift striker, an obvious target dwarfing Sarr in the six-yard box and no Romelu Lukaku to help force them clear. Jansson revelled in pushing and shoving the younger man off the ball, seeking to unsettle him further as they jostled for position. Sarr did not react. In truth, when the onslaught was at its height, around seven minutes from time, he looked utterly drained. “They were asking for the ball deep all the time, running everywhere, fighting for each and every ball,” he offered post-match. “It was a really tough challenge.” The best opportunities were eked out in the zone he patrolled. He could not quite leap to repel Toney’s cross seven minutes from the end and, with Chilwell drawn infield by Forss, Ghoddos was free to collect and spit another shot at goal. In the confusion that followed Mendy’s save, Sarr air-kicked at a loose ball and only Chalobah’s goal-line clearance denied Christian Norgaard. Mendy, the adrenalin pumping and his right glove clamped to the back of his team-mate’s head, duly bellowed reminders of duties and the need to maintain concentration into Sarr’s ear. The encouragement bordered on an admonishment. Jansson’s excellent chance moments later again stemmed from indecision between Chilwell and Sarr, the pair bypassed by Ethan Pinnock’s nod back. Yet, by then, each spin in search of the ball seemed marginally off the pace, each reaction slightly dulled, as if the youngster had been disorientated by the sudden flurry of crosses fizzing across the box. He was the first to embrace Mendy on the final whistle. “I did everything I could to help the team and keep the clean sheet,” he added. That he had, and he should take heart from the reality it rarely feels as brutal as this and still this team departed unbreached. His efforts went appreciated by the coaching staff as the players trooped off, Hilario engulfing him in a bear-hug en route. The defender wore a look of vague disbelief. Tuchel would have preferred more experienced personnel to withstand that kind of bombardment. He had pushed for Jules Kounde’s summer arrival, only to end up frustrated with Sevilla’s valuation of the France international being too high for even Chelsea to justify. “In these moments, it helps if you have Toni (Rudiger) or Thiago in there with their experience, winning decisive challenges, to calm the game down,” said the Chelsea head coach. “Or, with Thiago, the game understanding of a first touch to escape the pressure and maybe create counter-attacks and score a second. “But we trust the guys who played. They are young. If you don’t play, you can’t get experience. They did really well for the first 70 minutes. About the last 20 minutes, we need to talk about where we can do better. There’s always room to improve.” This may be a one-off. Thiago should be back for Malmo in midweek. The hope is Rudiger will not be too far behind, so Tuchel may not have to risk starting two relative novices in his back three again any time soon. Realistically, Sarr may not begin another match until Southampton visit in the League Cup later this month. But at least Chelsea know better now what the 22-year-old has to offer. He will have benefited from his experience enduring that late blitz at Brentford.

Tuchel cannot add 10cms to his height

Not at all, Theo is by far my number one LB want, he and the now lost-out-on Hakimi would be my dream fullbacks for Tuchel (as Alphonso Davies is untouchable, as is Robertson, and next season is Robertson's last full sub 30yo season--time flies!-- plus I would take Hakimi over TAA, although THAT is close, but Hakimi is more sold defensively for me, granted neither are defensive monsters) I meant the only one of the main, top targets who has dropped off (Bastoni) I had listed them all a few days ago

We are the perfect club for him, especially IF we lose Rudiger (and surely, if we even can keep him for 2022/23, next season is Thiago's last with us I wager). We have a German manager, plus German AND French players (and other players who speak fluent French), and our system is tailor-made for the type of CB Lacroix is. Plus Tuchel loves him, per multiple reports. Tuchel loves Marquinhos as well, BUT he would be insanely hard (and expensive) to prise away from PSG atm. Lacroix should come in around half what Marquinhos would cost, and is 6 years younger. Bastoni is no longer a huge want of mine. I have obsessively watched him, Barella, Chiesa, Theo Hernandez, and Tchouameni, and Bastoni is the main one who has dropped. He is bullied too often, and I see positional errors too much, the type that in the hyperball EPL will get him roasted. Milan Skriniar has (since Conte left) rebounded in a huge way, he looks back to WC form, better than Bastoni atm for sure. Skriniar on Manure (and with Ole shitcanned) terrifies me (as I am not all that impressed with Varane and Slabhead has been injured, but will soon be back full steam). Also, thank fuck Pool bought Konate and not Skriniar. The other players I am now deep diving on are Christopher Nkunku Florian Wirtz Mikel 'Bigfoot' Oyarzabal (quite likely soon will be the only other (remotely available) winger other than Chiesa (who really is not available unless we shell out insane money) whom I put into a 'hell yes' category, with Mbappe not in the mix, obviously). Victor Osimhen is a fucking beast CF (scored another game winner again today) If Pool or Manure or Citeh bag him, then yikes. I am pretty resigned to the likely fact that both Mbappe and Håland are Real-bound next summer, making Osimhen the best actually available CF for me atm. Would take him all day long over Lautaro.

2021-22 Italian Serie A Juventus AS Roma http://www.sportnews.to/sports/2021/serie-a-juventus-vs-roma-s2/ https://www.totalsportek.com/football/italian-serie-a/juventus-vs-roma-match/

lol Dier OG 2 3

fuck that ginger dwarf

shit 1 3

Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg probably having flashbacks 😪

suspension due to a heart attack in the field-side seats

dreadful NUFC squad stay Freddie Woodman Karl Darlow Jamaal Lascelles Jamal Lewis Joe Willock Allan Saint-Maximin Callum Wilson go Martin Dubravka Fabian Schär Mark Gillespie Ciaran Clark Federico Fernández Paul Dummett Matt Ritchie Emil Krafth Javier Manquillo Isaac Hayden Sean Longstaff Jonjo Shelvey Jeff Hendrick Miguel Almirón Ryan Fraser Jacob Murphy Joelinton Dwight Gayle