Vesper

yes, deferred payment plan and Inter look shaky to repay, even though their gangsta Chinese owners are worth billions

Kylian Mbappé is Born to Run The France forward grew up in the suburbs of Paris, steeped in the culture of football. At 22, the World Cup-winner is already a global superstar, and only now entering his prime. Will Euro 2020 be the moment when he overtakes Messi and Ronaldo to become recognised as the best player on the planet? https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/a36530130/kylian-mbappe-is-born-to-run/ Kylian Mbappé was 18 when he walked into the changing room of the French national team. “It’s very difficult,” he recalls, “because great players don’t want to give you their place. That’s what makes them great players. They especially don’t want to give you their place if you arrive with the label of ‘Future Great Player’.” Within a year, Mbappé and France had won the World Cup in Moscow. Three years on, we are talking in a room of his mansion in the leafy, old-money streets of Neuilly, just outside Paris. It isn’t even his home; he bought it to house his foundation, which offers after-school activities to rich and poor children alike. In conversation, Mbappé resembles a veteran TV presenter more than a young footballer. He makes short speeches in complete sentences, as precise in his footing as he is on the field. He sits as straight-backed as he runs. His expressive face keeps breaking into smiles: he likes talking, and is almost unburdened by the usual footballer’s fear of saying the wrong thing. His burly father Wilfried sits beside us, but only once during the interview will he feel impelled to intervene. Meeting Mbappé, you come to understand how he hit football seemingly already fully formed. At 22, he has achieved more than most great players ever do. Can he take one more step and become the world’s best footballer? His story starts 10 miles and a universe away from where we’re sitting today. His hometown, Bondy, is a multicultural suburb just northeast of Paris that looks as if someone plonked a Soviet town on top of an ancient French village. The old church is surrounded by fast-food joints and fading 1960s’ apartment blocks, one of them now adorned with a giant mural of Mbappé. His parents grew up in Bondy: Wilfried, of Cameroonian origin, and Mbappé’s mother Fayza, of Algerian descent. Mixed marriages are common in the Parisian suburbs, the banlieues, but the couple did have to defy some local disapproval. If a wannabe footballer had to choose the ideal place on earth to grow up, it might have been the Mbappé home in Bondy. Mbappé’s father and uncle were both football coaches, and Fayza, who ran after-school activities, played handball in the French first division. His parents had adopted an older boy, Jirès Kembo Ekoko, who went on to make a long career as a journeyman professional footballer. “I didn’t bring a new passion into the family,” Mbappé says with understatement. He grew up practically inside the local football club, AS Bondy. “In the Parisian suburbs there are football fields everywhere,” he enthuses. “People here live for football. I was born with the sports ground facing my window.” It’s no wonder, he adds, that Paris’s suburbs are perhaps the deepest talent pool in global football, producing players such as Paul Pogba, Blaise Matuidi, N’Golo Kanté and Riyad Mahrez. As a non-white kid from the suburbs, did Mbappé always feel accepted as French before he became a French icon? “I’ve always felt French. I don’t renounce my origins, because they are part of who I am, but I’ve made my whole life in France, and never at any moment was I made to feel I wasn’t at home here.” In the banlieues, he says, “We have a love of France because France has given to us and we try to give back to it.” Mbappé’s parents made him take school seriously, and he was also a not-very-talented flautist at Bondy’s conservatory, but football came first. At AS Bondy, he says, “My father was my coach for 10 years. He helped construct the style of player I wanted to become. But I never felt the pressure of, ‘You have to become a footballer.’ Above all, it was a passion.” Tagging along with his dad and uncle on their coaching jobs, the child acquired an unusual gift: he became a footballer who thinks like a coach. “Very young, I was always in the changing rooms, listening to the tactical talks and the different points of view, because football is made up of different viewpoints. I learned to have this tolerance, and I think it helped me, because being a coach is putting yourself in somebody else’s place. I think I have the gift of doing that. It helps in football, because if you’re a player, generally you think about yourself, about your own career. I can see, for instance, when something in a game is frustrating a team-mate. I can put him at ease.” Mbappé turned out to be that perfect sporting combination: a natural who is coachable. “He assimilates advice quickly. You ask him something once, and the second time he does it,” Antonio Riccardi, his former youth coach at AS Bondy, told me. Even as a child, Mbappé was an efficient footballer: decisive, never just decorative. By adolescence, he was being courted by the big European clubs, which all keep close tabs on the Paris region. He visited Chelsea, and celebrated his 14th birthday at Real Madrid, which cannily found him the perfect babysitter: the club’s then assistant coach Zinedine Zidane, the greatest French footballer. When Zidane offered Mbappé a lift in his fabulous car, the overawed child offered to take his shoes off first. The Mbappés sifted the countless offers and chose Monaco, where the route to the first team looked shortest. Mbappé arrived there, he says, “with my [footballing] baggage well filled.” Kids in performance-sports families learn that they never arrive. Each step up is just another learning opportunity. In Monaco’s first team, the teenaged Mbappé encountered the veteran Colombian striker Radamel Falcao, freshly returned from unhappy loan spells with Manchester United and Chelsea. “He was a star,” says Mbappé, “but he had a desire to transmit. He was like a teacher to me. He’s someone who always wants to score, but he left me the space to express myself. He’s very cool in front of goal, calm in his game, and he transmitted this serenity that I didn’t have, because I was young, excited and wanted to go at 2,000 kilometres an hour.” The kid who didn’t yet have a driving licence scored 15 league goals in his first professional season to help Monaco win the French title in 2017. He added six more in the Champions League knockout rounds. He also passed his baccalauréat, France’s equivalent of A-levels. Mbappé marvelled at the tension on the faces of other professionals, because he didn’t feel it himself. Everything came easily to him, without great sacrifice, he has said. When I ask about stress in a profession of hypercompetitive men, he shrugs: “Daily life is easy.” His vertical ascent didn’t surprise him; it just happened a bit quicker than he’d expected. But others were stunned. Here was something new: an 18-year-old complete forward. Built like an Olympic sprinter, Mbappé ran upright, looking around him. He could dribble, cross and shoot. He was more advanced than Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo had been at 18. How does he describe his style? “The modern attacker who can play anywhere,” he replies. He explains that forwards used to be specialists: “There’d be a number nine, or number 11, or number seven.” Mbappé, though, is the all-in-one. “I think my CV can speak for me. I’ve played alone up front, I’ve played on the left and the right. In all humility, I don’t think it’s given to everyone to change position like that every year and keep a certain standard of performance at the highest level. That didn’t fall from heaven. If I speak of the baggage given me in my teens, it’s all there.” In one regard he has always been unequalled: the counterattack at speed. He says, “I’ve managed to work on my weak points but above all to perfect my strong points, because I was always told that it’s through your strong points that you’ll exist.” In March 2017, Mbappé became the youngest player in 62 years to debut for France. Five months later, his hometown club Paris Saint-Germain agreed to sign him for a fee of £166m. He drew on his childhood experiences to navigate two alpha-male changing-rooms. At PSG, his good English and Spanish helped him deal with foreign team-mates. With Les Bleus, France’s assistant coach Guy Stéphan told Mbappé’s biographer Arnaud Hermant: “He knows the codes of the changing room. At table or in the bus, he doesn’t just sit somewhere randomly. For a youngster, he isn’t timid or introverted. He expresses himself.” By summer 2018, picked for the World Cup in Russia, Mbappé was comfortable enough to claim the blue number 10 shirt — previously worn by Zidane and Michel Platini — and to say in public that he was gunning for the trophy. “I went to play the matches calmly like I always have. I didn’t want to change just because it was the World Cup,” he says. “We were lucky to have a young squad. We were totally carefree, just a band of mates.” Hang on, surely a football team isn’t really a band of mates? “No,” he acknowledges. “Just like the baker doesn’t get on with all bakers. You don’t have to eat with your team-mates every evening to win.” In the World Cup quarter-final, his two goals and a 37kmph gallop through Argentina’s defence made his global name. The night before the final against Croatia, he admits, “I was a bit stressed. I didn’t manage to sleep much. But the nearer the match came, the less stressed I was.” Before kick-off he was joking in the changing room. Stéphan recalls: “He experienced the final as if it were a PSG-Dijon game.” Mbappé says, “When you’re in the World Cup final, you’re convinced that you’re going to win. Even the Croats were convinced they were going to win. You walk onto the field and the trophy is there, between the two teams, and you tell yourself it’s impossible that the other team will take it. That’s why there’s such disappointment afterwards if you don’t win.” Half of Bondy gathered in front of a giant screen to cheer on the commune’s own “Kylian national”. Scoring in France’s 4–2 victory, he seemed to have reached his career apogee aged 19. He didn’t see it like that. Interviewed the night of the final, he described winning the World Cup as “already good” but only a start. The next day, as the Bleus’ bus edged along a packed, ecstatic Champs-Élysées, writes Hermant, the ice-cold kid mused to the French Football Federation’s president Noël Le Graët: “Was all this really necessary?” Mbappé explains now: “For me, it wasn’t an outcome, a finality. I don’t think of that trophy now at all. I don’t look at pictures of the World Cup before going to sleep. Honestly, it’s people on the street who come up and say, ‘You’re world champion, merci, merci.’” He understood that his early triumph had upset football’s all-important hierarchies. Returning to PSG, he immediately reassured Paris’s Brazilian star Neymar: “I’m not going to walk on your flowerbeds. I’ll be a candidate for the Ballon d’Or [the award for world’s best footballer] this year because you won’t be, but I promise I don’t want to take your place.” Soon after, he took the World Cup trophy to Bondy, where thousands came out to greet him. “It was a way to say, ‘Thank you.’ I’ve never forgotten which soup I have eaten. So it was important for me to return there after my first World Cup and first international title.” (Note that word, “first”.) France’s coach, Didier Deschamps, recalls falling into “physical and moral apathy” the season after he lifted the World Cup as a player in 1998. Did Mbappé experience a hangover? He grins: “I finished as best player in the league, highest scorer, best young player, I was chosen in the team of the season, and we won the league.” Winning the World Cup made Mbappé a national hero. Does he consider himself a star? “I think so. If your face is everywhere in the city, everywhere in the world, that’s for sure. Being a star is a status, but it doesn’t make me a better person than others.” He lives like a luxury prisoner, who cannot leave home without being mobbed. “It takes an organisation just to go out,” he says. He has joked that when his future children ask him about his youthful adventures, he won’t have any. “A fan gives you enormous love,” says Mbappé carefully, “but sometimes maybe an excess of love, and he might not respect your intimacy. We give our lives to the people, because we give them pleasure every three days, and we give them our time. It’s impossible to hope for a normal life, but just a little respect for one’s private life isn’t too much to ask for, I think.” As a young man of non-white origins, he has a particular vulnerability with the French public, one-third of whom voted for the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in the run-off of the presidential elections in 2017. Even so, he has begun to speak out against police violence. “I took time to start talking about it, because I wasn’t ready,” he admits. “I had a lot of things to digest: my change of status, my new life. But I have always opposed all types of violence.” When I note that French police violence is disproportionately directed against people of non-white origins from suburbs like Bondy, his father stirs from his silence: “We’re not answering that. You’re orienting it as if the violence were only against people from the banlieues, which is false.” French fans like their stars humble. Mbappé has explained “the French mentality” to Neymar, who favours a bling-bling, poker-playing party lifestyle. Mbappé says, “In Brazil, they are more festive, in France more serious. Here it’s not considered good to display your passions. People will think he’s neglecting PSG because he plays poker. I think he has begun to understand that. At first it was hard for him because he experienced it as an affront. When he arrived, they put his face on the Eiffel Tower, and six months later they’re asking him why he’s playing poker. In France, people know what you have but they don’t want to see it. They just want to see you playing football, smiling.” But Mbappé believes humility isn’t enough. He thinks great footballers need big egos. “In high-level football, nobody will make a place for you or tell you that you’re capable of things. It’s up to you to persuade yourself that you are. Ego, self-love, isn’t just a caprice of stars. It’s also the will to surpass yourself, to give the best of yourself.” Every time he walks onto the field, he says, he tells himself, “I’m the best.” In truth, he knows he isn’t the best — Messi and Ronaldo are better. “It’s not only me who knows that,” he laughs. “Everyone knows it. If you tell yourself that you’ll do better than them, it’s beyond ego or determination — it’s lack of awareness. Those players are incomparable. They have broken all laws of statistics. They have had 10 extraordinary years, 15.” Still, he admits: “You do always compare yourself with the best in your sport, just as the baker compares himself with the best bakers around him. Who makes the best croissant, the best pain au chocolat? I watch matches of other great players to see what they’re doing. ‘I know how to do this, but can the other guy do it too?’ I think other players watch me, too. I think that pushes players to raise their game, just as Messi was good for Ronaldo and Ronaldo was good for Messi.” Does Mbappé compare himself with the other great forward of his generation, Borussia Dortmund’s Norwegian Erling Braut Haaland? Mbappé’s reply sounds a touch patronising: “It’s his second year, we’re getting to know him. It’s the start for him. I’m happy for him, for what he’s doing.” In this elite individual competition, the top spot may be coming free. Messi (34 this month) and Ronaldo (36) are “nearer the end than the beginning”, acknowledges Mbappé. In February, his hat-trick helped PSG thrash Messi’s Barcelona 1–4 at the Camp Nou. “The best match of my career,” Mbappé says, “because it was complete. I helped my team both offensively and defensively, and I succeeded in the creation and finishing of my moves, in one-against-ones. I won 90 per cent of my duels, if that stat is correct. All match, I never had a moment when I felt extinguished.” He then scored two at Bayern Munich, before PSG fell to Manchester City. Some opposing teams now rearrange their entire tactical systems to combat the Mbappé counterattack. “There are quite a few anti-Kylian plans every match,” he says. “It means I’ve been recognised as a great player. It requires you to have multiple strings to your bow. I like that, because I adore challenges.” Surely he’s now too big a player for the French league? He umms and aws: “France isn’t the best championship in the world, but it’s my responsibility, as a flagship player, to help the league grow.” Yet he may well leave this summer, to Real Madrid (where Zidane is manager) or England. The decision, perhaps the biggest he’ll face in his career, will be made inside his family. Almost uniquely for a star footballer, Mbappé doesn’t have an agent, just lawyers. At 22, he considers himself an experienced footballer. He says he and Neymar “are now the two natural leaders” of PSG. When he kicks off the delayed Euro 2020 with France in June, it will be with more responsibility than at the World Cup. “The more you become an important personality, the more duties you have. I’m no longer the little kid. I’m Kylian Mbappé.” Kylian Mbappé’s prime may have already arrived. Fast strikers usually peak between 20 and 24. A Euro and a World Cup within 18 months, while France’s generation of 2018 remains almost intact, may be his best chance to make football history. What are his career ambitions? That smile again: “To win everything.”

Revealed: When Thiago Silva's New Chelsea Contract Is Expected to Be Announced https://www.si.com/soccer/Chelsea/news/thiago-silva-set-to-pen-new-Chelsea-deal-in-june Thiago Silva's new one-year contract extension at Chelsea is expected to be announced later this month. The 36-year-old signed on a free transfer from Paris Saint-Germain last summer on an initial one-year-deal, but both parties had the option for a further year. Silva has had a stellar season at the back for the Blues, originally brought in by Frank Lampard, and finishing the season with Thomas Tuchel who he worked with at PSG last season. His debut season in England was capped off with Champions League glory in Porto. Although he was forced off through injury, his side pulled through and secured a 1-0 victory to ensure Silva wasn't left heartbroken again after the defeat to Bayern Munich in the 2019/20 final. Now the season has come to a close, Chelsea and Silva can work on a new deal and reports in Brazil from UOL reveal that the announcement is expected to be made by the end of June. READ MORE: The Seven Players Chelsea Will Listen to Offers for This Summer READ MORE: The Five Chelsea Players Thomas Tuchel Will Look at in Pre-Season to Consider First-Team Promotion They also claim that Chelsea are 'likely to renew it for an even longer period’ as Silva is set to turn 37 in September. Silva's priority is recovering from his groin injury which is why the deal is expected to be confirmed by the end of June. Fabrizio Romano has also stated that a deal for Silva's extension is extremely close to being announced. Chelsea are also set to open talks with Antonio Rudiger over a new deal, while Andreas Christensen has also reportedly been offered a new deal to extend his stay in west London.

Chelsea set to offer star contract extension to fend off Tottenham interest https://www.caughtoffside.com/2021/06/02/Chelsea-to-offer-rudiger-new-contract-to-fend-off-tottenham/ Chelsea are set to offer Antonio Rudiger a lucrative contract extension, which has prompted Tottenham to abandon their pursuit of the German international, according to Football Insider. Rudiger, who was shunned by Frank Lampard during his time in charge at Stamford Bridge, was brought back into the fold by Thomas Tuchel, and what a superb decision it proved to be. The former AS Roma defender was imperious throughout Chelsea’s Champions League winning campaign, making one of the tackles of the season to deny Phil Foden a certain goal in the final. He now appears to have earned himself a new deal, with Football Insider reporting that Chelsea are set to offer him an extension to his current contract, which is due to expire next summer. The report notes that Spurs were interested, keen to take advantage of his precarious contract situation, but have now given up hope of signing the 28-year-old, who looks set to stay at Chelsea.

Aguero’s brother launches at attack on Guardiola – quickly deletes tweet https://www.benchwarmers.ie/agueros-brother-launches-at-attack-on-guardiola-quickly-deletes-tweet/233614/ The brother of Manchester City legend Sergio Aguero has recently taken to his social media to launch a scathing attack on manager Pep Guardiola. Aguero first joined the Citizens 10-years ago, during his decade long stay in Manchester, the South American has enjoyed a superb career. Despite racking up a whopping 15 major trophies, Aguero will be best remembered for his final day goalscoring heroics against QPR to snatch the 2011-12 Premier League title away from bitter rivals Manchester United. However, with time now against him and with his contract set to expire, the club recently announced their top goalscorer will be leaving once the final game of this season has been played. The Citizens were last in action on Saturday where they were beaten 1-0 by Chelsea in the Champions League final. Although Aguero didn’t start the match, manager Pep Guardiola did bring him on with around 15-minutes left to play – sadly, the Argentinian failed to have any kind of impact on the match and his side ultimately went on to watch their domestic rivals lift the illustrious trophy.

he is not a left-footed player we need a leftie CB

I have seen nothing spectacular about him, he is a solid young CB plus he is short for a CB not a runt like Kounde, but still, only 1.82m (5-11 and a half) wish he were left-footed and a fullback, lolol then I would be ALL in loan him to an EPL side

This is not new, but I just saw it Manchester United are willing to take one of two Inter players to cover money owed for Lukaku https://www.benchwarmers.ie/manchester-united-are-willing-to-take-one-of-two-inter-players-to-cover-money-owed-for-lukaku/229308/ It’s being reported that Manchester United are willing to accept one of two Inter Milan players to settle the debt that the Italian giants still owe the Red Devils for Romelu Lukaku. According to Metro, Inter Milan still owe Manchester United £43.8million for Romelu Lukaku after he triggered a clause that means the Italians must now pay what’s owed in full. Part of the original £74million deal included many bonuses and performance related clauses and according to Corriere dello Sport the Belgian has triggered a clause which means Inter must immediately pay the remaining fee of the deal. According to the Financial Times, Inter Milan are in serious financial problems and the club needs and investment of £142 million in order to take the pressure off the club. Unfortunately for Manchester United, due to Inter’s financial problems they are unable to finalise their deal so United are willing to accept one of two players as payment. It’s no secret that Olé Gunnar Solskjaer is looking for a centre-back and Slovakian defender Skriniar may be the solution to their problem. The 26-year-old very nearly left Inter last season but decided to stay with Inter after winning back Antonio Conte’s trust. Second on the list of potential debt clearers is Lukaku’s current strike partner, 23-year-old Lautaro Martinez. The 23-year-old is considered one of the most exciting young forwards around and has been linked with Barcelona and Real Madrid in the past. So far this season the Argentinian forward has managed to score 13 goals and lay on seven assists meaning the 23-year-old is part of the reason Inter are top of the Serie A table.

30yo (in 29 days) career-long squad-level player things are really looking up for Real!

Vote for Mount for EPL player of the year please. Fans can vote for their Player of the Season via the EA Sports website.

Reported Newcastle loan target Billy Gilmour would put Jonjo Shelvey under serious pressure https://www.geordiebootboys.com/transfers/reported-newcastle-loan-target-billy-gilmour-would-put-jonjo-shelvey-under-serious-pressure-opinion/ According to the Northern Echo, Newcastle are interested in signing Billy Gilmour on loan from Chelsea. The Magpies have reportedly enquired about the Scottish midfielder, as well as Tammy Abraham. Of course, they will only be able to sign one of the two on loan. A move for Abraham will surely be too difficult. The striker is out of favour at Stamford Bridge, and seems set to leave this summer. According to the Daily Mail, he is resigned to leaving Chelsea. However, his £40million price tag will put him out of our reach. And a permanent move rather than another loan seems better suited to both parties. But a loan move for Gilmour seems much more achievable. And he could be the Jonjo Shelvey replacement some fans are craving. Gilmour could be perfect loan addition for Newcastle The 19-year-old has impressed during his limited first-team appearances at Chelsea. He would have played even more had it not been for injury. Gilmour certainly impressed his former manager Frank Lampard, who tipped him to be a ‘huge player’ for Chelsea. The youngster operates in a deep midfield role, and is capable of transitioning the play from defence to attack. That is exactly what Shelvey’s role is at Newcastle. However, his influence has somewhat waned in recent years. As time has gone by, Shelvey has become far less influential possession. Meanwhile, he is often criticised for his work off the ball. But despite fan concerns, Shelvey is a constant figure under Steve Bruce. He has no competition in the role he plays, but that would change if Gilmour arrived. The midfielder could play alongside Shelvey. However, in the system we ended the season with, Gilmour seems perfectly suited to the number eight’s role. There would be a disadvantage though, as Gilmour is so highly rated at Chelsea that we would likely have no chance of ever signing him permanently. But with money set to be tight this summer, we just have to take what we can get. Newcastle fans should be able to get a closer look at Gilmour this summer, especially when Scotland face England on June 18th. Despite boasting zero caps, he is part of the Scotland squad for the delayed Euros. Whether he performs at the Euros or not, Gilmour would be a fantastic addition on loan for Newcastle.

you and I are still the only people I have ever seen talk about this in depth (unless I missed something on this board) I tried to bring it up long ago at The Shed End, and was banned, roflmaoooooo this place is so much deeper and vaster in its analysis than any other football board I have seen granted I have not been on THAT many Red Cafe is a fucking joke for instance same for Liverpool FC Forum and we do it with so few really active members nowadays ☹️

Arkadiy Romanovich Abramovich 14 September 1993 (age 27) He is the one that @OhForAGreavsie and I think was behind some (NOT ALL) of the bad moves from summer 2017 and 2018 the blown sales, the refused sales, the blown buys, the refused buys the shit sales, and the shit buys plus shit contractual management something sure happened after 2018 to stop that all in its tracks I think Roman stepped back in hard and gave more power to Marina, as she was made to look that bad person (I fell victim to that line of thought myself) when it reality it was the board and others she did not decide whom to buy, whom to sell she only handed the money negotiations, and did not make the final call (I think she DOES have that power now, and look at the results, so good) the thing that changed my mind on her was when it came out she did NOT herself turn down Barca's £65m Willian bid, it came from above her, and was NOT Roman directly that only leaves a few people, and I am sure Sarri had a fit on that sale and Alonso sale and helped put the old bovver boots to both of them leaving (fucker) same for the refusal to sell Cuntois the summer before (ZERO chance he was going to renew, we fucked up BAD by letting him stay on loan for THREE fucking years at Atleti and putting down roots in Madrid), which not only fucked us out of 50 to 60m quid on his sale the next window, BUT then, when Oblak turned us down when we met his release clause, we panic-bought Kepa. I think her hands were tied in those 2 windows. Hopefully never again. The Hazard deal worked out perfect, as the money lost via not selling him a year earlier was easily recouped by us winning the EL and getting into CL with him, and then still RAPING Real Madrid for around £140m the next summer, when Marina had the hardcore power.

David Squires on … Chelsea’s Champions League triumph over Manchester City Our cartoonist on Thomas Tuchel’s tactical triumph, helped by nice guy N’Golo Kanté and toaster-toed Timo Werner https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2021/jun/01/david-squires-on-Chelsea-champions-league-final-manchester-city

Chased naked over fields of broken glass by a cackling Thomas Tuchel David James hasn’t got a late call up. He’s hosting a silent disco at Wembley to celebrate the England squad announcement, it says here. Photograph: David Parry/PA Scott Murray THE FIVER’S LATEST BID FOR THE PULITZER At 6.45pm on Saturday evening, the Fiver squinted slightly, adjusted its glasses, tilted the piece of paper it was holding in order to catch a little more light, and eventually came to the conclusion that, yes, he really has done that. Again. Oh Pep! It’s a dance the Fiver will be performing again later today, when Gareth Southgate unveils his 26-man England squad for Euro Not 2020 at the slightly unfortunate time of 5pm. Erm. To be fair to the naturally cautious Southgate, he’s extremely unlikely to name a squad without any holding midfielders in it, with a view to sending a team out in a formation that came to him after that fever dream in which he was chased naked over fields of broken glass by José Mourinho, Jürgen Klopp, Mauricio Pochettino and a cackling Thomas Tuchel. Southgate isn’t totally risk-averse, though, and seems determined to gamble on Harry Maguire, who has knack, and Jordan Henderson, who hasn’t played a single minute of football since Liverpool got good again. Oh Gaz! The Fiver isn’t feeling this. England’s Euro 2020 squad: Greenwood withdraws, no Ward-Prowse or Lingard Read more The expected omission of dead-ball supremo James Ward-Prowse and the in-form Jesse Lingard will almost certainly force the Fiver into more nose-wrinkling and spectacle readjustment, though the mood music sounds more encouraging for Trent Alexander-Arnold, whose absence on the list would elevate the Fiver to a new realm of performative disdain, perhaps involving ear steam and a revolving bow tie. We’ll know what Southgate’s done for sure at 5pm today, and the Fiver will tell you all about it at 5pm tomorrow. We’ll also have more on the big fire at the Reichstag, as well as the latest from Dallas where the motorcade carrying the president, smiling and waving, has just swung a left on to Dealey Plaza. LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE Join Barry Glendenning for hot name-by-name coverage of Gareth Southgate’s England Euro Not 2020 squad announcement, starting right about now. QUOTE OF THE DAY “With his line-up, [Guardiola] stole [Big Cup] from the club and the fans and he has to rightly listen to the harsh criticism from all sides. The players will doubt him after that final. He had to try something again, present an imaginary ingenuity at the worst possible moment, and totally deserved to lose” – Lothar Matthäus doesn’t pull any punches with his verdict on Pep Guardiola’s Big Cup final selection. FIVER LETTERS “The Fiver has always been pretty fair with Gareth Southgate, even to the extent of not taking liberties with his penchant for waistcoats. However the respect is clearly not reciprocated. How frustrating it must be for a teatime football blog that the England squad will be announced at 5pm tonight” – John Myles. “If the Europa Conference thingy is, as Alistair Moffat (Friday’s letters) mentioned, a pointless exercise and nobody will be interested after three games, shouldn’t it be called the Europa Full Members’ Cup?” – Andrew Want. “The Europa Conference doo-dah is not really big, is it? With no disrespect to either Tottenham, Partizan Tirana or any other likely winners [Spurs? – Fiver Ed], I feel that Small Vase does the job” – Jonathan McKinley. “How about Big Waste? You must admit, it has a certain ring to it” – Hanif Khan. “Regarding the Europa Conference thingy. Big Crock?” – Jon Millard. “At least two recent missives have mentioned renaming ‘the Europa Conference thingy’ [make that three – Fiver Ed]. I think they may have found a solution: introducing the Europa Conference Thingy” –Ike Proud. “A big blow for fans of nominative determinism as both The Strongest and Always Ready finished bottom of their Copa Libertadores groups” – Noble Francis. Send your letters to [email protected], or tweet The Fiver via @guardian_sport. Today’s winner receives a copy of A.D. Stephenson’s footballing comedy-thriller novel, A Cloud Can Weigh A Million Pounds. Congratulations to … Ike Proud. More copies up for grabs this week! RECOMMENDED LISTENING It’s a bank holiday Football Weekly! Max and Barry are joined by Barney Ronay and Jonathan Liew to talk Big Cup, Euro Not 2020 and play-off finals. Listen here! RECOMMENDED BOOKING Speaking of which, tickets are available now for Football Weekly Live’s Euro Not 2020 preview special on 10 June. Get them while they’re hot. NEWS, BITS AND BOBS Ethics World Cup latest: migrant security guards in Qatar are still being paid less than £1 an hour. Netherlands keeper Jasper Cillessen has been ruled out of Euro Not 2020 after testing positive for Covid-19. The Valencia stopper has been replaced in the Dutch squad by AZ Alkmaar’s Marco Bizot. Meanwhile, John McGinn has tested positive for Covid-19 and is self-isolating within Scotland’s Euros camp. “[The team doctor] is 99% sure John brought it with him into the camp,” said Steve Clarke. Eric García has joined Sergio Agüero in leaving the Manchester City bench for a free transfer to Barcelona. Gini Wijnaldum, formerly of Liverpool, seems sure to follow them. Sergio Agüero: he’s cheered up since Saturday. Photograph: Albert Gea/Reuters Don Carlo will end his quest for the Everton Cup to become Real Madrid manager again, once Florentino Pérez thrashes out a compo deal with Goodison Park suits. Nuno Espírito Santo is a name in the frame, while former Toffees manager David Moyes is set to sign a new deal at Taxpayers FC. Fun and games in South America dept: the 2021 Copa América is on to its third host, with Brazil stepping in after Colombia, and then Argentina, were taken off the gig. Kick-off is in 12 days. “This is shameful” was one commentator’s verdict. Is Gareth Bale hanging up his boots and putting on his golf shoes full-time after Euro Not 2020? You’ll have to wait to find out. “If I say something then it’s just going to cause even more chaos so there’s no point,” he tooted. Wales interim manager Robert Page isn’t taking any chances with the likes of Aaron Ramsey before their opening game. “We have to be sympathetic. We cannot push him at 100mph to start with,” Page mused. And in a blow for Ajax’s Big Cup ambitions, pundit Kenneth Perez has revealed that Pep Guardiola is “completely crazy” about the Dutch masters. “He cannot disguise his fascination for Ajax,” Perez smirked to ESPN. STILL WANT MORE? It’s the Euro Not 2020 Experts’ Network! Catch up with team guides for Italy, Switzerland, Turkey and Wales, plus in-depth profiles of key players. The summer women’s transfer interactive is go! Cracking composite work. Composite: Getty, Action Images Lille won the league and Irvin Cardona scored a worldie that has to be seen. It’s the Adam and Erics for the Ligue 1 season. And there’s the Bandinis for Serie A too. Barney Ronay salutes Chelsea’s ‘false four’, the unstoppable N’Golo Kanté, while Jonathan Wilson assesses the Big Cup tactical battle and David Hytner looks at where City go from here. Nikita Parris is going for, going for gold at the Olympics with Team GB, who her sister Natasha Jonas represented as a boxer at London 2012. Yannick Bolasie gets his chat on with Ed Aarons about a new Crystal Palace documentary and why he hopes to go back to Selhurst Park. Oh, and if it’s your thing … you can follow Big Website on Big Social FaceSpace. And INSTACHAT, TOO! RECOMMENDED READING

Carlo Ancelotti explains leaving Everton for Real Madrid as departure confirmed https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/carlo-ancelotti-real-madrid-breaking-20718526 Everton have confirmed that Carlo Ancelotti has left the club to take over at Real Madrid. Ancelotti says the chance to return to the Bernabeu was an "unexpected opportunity" that he could not turn down. In a statement issued this evening, Everton have thanked the Italian for his time at the club which began in December 2019. Everton say they will begin the search for Ancelotti's successor "immediately". Ancelotti said: “I would like to thank the Board of Directors, the players, and the Evertonians for the tremendous support they have all given me during my time at the Club. “I have complete respect for everyone associated with Everton and hope they can achieve the exciting opportunities they have in front of them. “While I have enjoyed being at Everton I have been presented with an unexpected opportunity which I believe is the right move for me and my family at this time.”

Newcastle and West Ham want Barkley Chelsea midfielder Ross Barkley has caught the eye of both Newcastle and West Ham ahead of this summer's transfer window. Barkley, currently on loan with Aston Villa, is admired by both the Magpies and Hammers, according to a report from The Express and Star. West Ham manager David Moyes has worked with the 27-year-old at Everton and may be interested in a reunion with the English playmaker. Meanwhile, Newcastle could turn their attention to Barkley if they miss out on Arsenal's Joe Willock, who spent the second half of the season in the north east, scoring seven times in his last seven games at St James' Park. The report claims that Chelsea will demand £30million from any potential suitor this summer.

LOL this thread aged as well as an old Polish whore

he is not a wise buy IMHO he barely scores, barely assists and that was as a forward, 2 league goals, and went almost SEVEN months or so without one ALL of his league production (except for one assist vs BHA on January 2nd) came from this little run of games all against SHIT teams, save for one assist vs West Ham I get a bad feeling it is 50/50 we buy him maybe Tuchel sees something none of us do as a wingback, he also has a huge issue piss poor defensive skills, which seems SO un Tuchel-like

so hope this happens and it rips up their squads and hurts recruiting the original 3 vermin behind FFP then Pool, Manure, and Bayern quickly signed on as well the old Big 6 (plus a minor role from Lyon as they hated PSG blowing up) always trying to use the power of UEFA whether as 1. a proxy to fuck/cock-block AC Milan (the Agnelli mafia HATED Berlusconi, that kicked it all off), Ajax (to make sure they never could arise back to old level), then Chels (and Arse, to a lesser degree, with a billionaire owner), then Atleti (as they awoke to perm challenge Real/Barca), then Citeh, then PSG, (plus Bayern wanted to strangle Dortmund for good as their only major rival, and also knew teams like RB Leipzig and Hoffenheim (small teams with billionaire owners) would happen eventually as well), or, later on, 2. as a pantomime villain excuse to do that fucked up ESL Bayern are the only truly clever ones out of the Big 6 they were 1000% (and gaslit via painting themselves as the saviours of football) in on FFP then, they read the tea leaves and bailed at the end on ESL the scum yank owners of Manure and Pool and Arse were all 10000000% in on the ESL as well, they should get the chop as well, and JP Morgan Chase should be perma banned from all global football we were last in and first out, it was all mostly Buck (not coincidently another yank too!) not Roman so much https://www.101greatgoals.com/news/benfica-lobby-for-inclusion-in-the-esl-and-jp-morgan-approach-napoli/

Sarri went insane when he saw the pitch, he was fuming and then, after RLC was injured, he said the Italian equivalent of 'I told you so' 😿

his Achilles (at that fucking still-in-season May 2019 American road trip exhibition charity game in Boston on a shitty AF yank football stadium pitch) blowout has destroyed him I so fear still seething over that goddamn game look at that shit pitch 🤬