Vesper

Jamal Musiala - Bayern Munich Musiala is a player Chelsea may already be regretting letting go. He has already scored three times for Bayern Munich since being handed his Bundesliga earlier this year, including a fine strike in the recent 3-3 draw with RB Leipzig. The attacking midfielder moved to the Allianz Arena in 2019 following his departure from west London. There's no doubt he would be part of Frank Lampard's plans if the Chelsea boss had been employed at Stamford Bridge earlier. Now he looks set to become the latest English youngster to shine in Germany and now it could cost megabucks to bring him to the Premier League.

CHELSEA FC WOMEN Chelsea fill fridges for women’s players on lockdown It’s a bad year but only kindness makes it better https://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.com/chelsea-fc-women/2020/12/25/22199216/chelsea-fill-fridges-for-womens-players-on-lockdown Chelsea FCW’s last match of 2020 was supposed to be a London derby versus Tottenham Hotspur on the 13th of December, but that was postponed after positive COVID-19 results at the club. Given the positive tests, plus London entering Tier 4 lockdown due to the rise of cases throughout the capital, the holidays will be very different for most, including the players. As such, many Chelsea players are having to spend the holiday alone as they quarantine due to possible exposure to the virus. In a thoughtful move, Chelsea provided players with a full stock of food so that they may at least have pleasant holiday meals. Well done, Chelsea! These sorts of courtesies and kindnesses, especially from the distances in which we have to remain separated, are needed even more this year, and mean so much. BONUS: Also, as a holiday gift for you, here’s captain Magdalena Eriksson and her partner, Chelsea forward Pernille Harder, in matching Christmas pajamas.

Man Utd transfer target Moises Caicedo 'leaves for England' with Chelsea beaten to deal https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/1376543/Man-Utd-transfer-target-Moises-Caicedo-leaves-for-England-Chelsea-beaten-deal-news-gossip

I would welcome him back as Giroud's replacement

Lampard's status as an icon across European football has been underlined by Haaland in the past. In quick-fire Q&A with ESPN, Haaland was previously asked who the one player he’d want to have played with that’s retired and replied: "Frank Lampard." Could the Norwegian be soon granted the opportunity to work under his idol? https://www.football.london/chelsea-fc/transfer-news/erling-haaland-chelsea-transfer-lampard-19520589

Hakim Ziyech's return from injury has been delayed. The Chelsea midfielder, who has enjoyed an impressive start to life in west London following his £33.4m summer transfer from Ajax, has been ruled out of the Boxing Day clash against Arsenal. https://www.football.london/chelsea-fc/news/hakim-ziyech-latest-chelsea-news-19520230

Arsenal provide injury update on three stars for Chelsea clash including Thomas Partey The Gunners welcome their London rivals to the Emirates on Boxing Day in desperate need of a win but with question marks over the fitness of several star men https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/arsenal-provide-injury-update-three-23218400

‘Fergie would never have re-signed him’ – Paul Pogba, the inside story https://theathletic.com/2255256/2020/12/11/paul-pogba-united-raiola-transfer/ The day Paul Pogba returned to Manchester United, there was sunshine in the skies and warmth in his words. “Paul was absolutely charming,” says someone who was at Carrington as Pogba walked the corridors, hugging those whom he recognised from his last time at the complex four years previously. Pogba remembered the names of people he had met when at United’s academy and gave the genuine impression he was delighted to be back. It was the Monday after United lifted the Community Shield in August 2016 and, as whispers grew about a world-record signing, the club’s indoor training pitch was a hive of activity. Dotted across the synthetic turf were various stations of in-house media for Pogba to complete, while he and everyone else awaited the results of his medical. A camera crew from Mob Film, a company hired by United, were there to capture footage for two announcement videos that marked a new direction for the club — and football in general. For one, there was dim lighting, steam rising, and at the end Pogba lowering his hood to declare, “I’m back.” In the other, Pogba danced to the lyrics of rapper Stormzy in a sequence of sharp cutaways suited to MTV. These were the ideas of Ed Woodward. “Ed had wanted to do something different to the usual scarf holding,” says a source. “Given the amount of money invested, the typical signing stuff was seen as formulaic and old fashioned.” The storyboards had been developed the week before, with all staff signing non-disclosure agreements, and when the cameras rolled, United’s commercial chief Richard Arnold was in attendance to oversee production. So too Mino Raiola, dressed casually as ever in an open-necked polo shirt, and his business partner Rafaela Pimenta. After waiting into the evening and beyond midnight for the final touches, United announced Pogba’s arrival at 12.45am with a tweet that read: “Home #POGBACK”. There was no hiding from the fact this was an expensive return and United made a conscious decision to “tackle head-on” the issue of paying £89 million for a player they had let go for next to nothing. A source says: “It was, ‘Yeah, so what? That’s the way the market is’.” There was one small issue. Nearly all the photos taken had Pogba looking sullen. “Great shot for an art director maybe,” adds the source. “But what are you communicating to the fans?” Pogba’s smile spread wide as he chatted to people in between shots, but in front of the lens, he was asked to pull a moody face, and when the images came back, there were only a couple that reflected his happiness. United made sure to release both and, as it happened, every newspaper picked at least one of them. Perhaps, though, the stylised brooding was a sign of things to come. It has been four and a half years of unfulfilled hope and this is a piece that will explore the key issues, including: The blue touch paper for this latest round of upheaval was lit by the man Ferguson once famously labelled “a twat”. “There’s no use ignoring it. It’s better to speak honestly,” Raiola told Tuttosport in quotes published on Tuesday. “Paul is unhappy at Manchester United. He can no longer express himself as he wants to or in the way that’s expected of him. I can say that it’s over for Paul Pogba at Manchester United.” The first part of Raiola’s inflammatory interview dropped at 3.30pm on the eve of United’s biggest game of the season, a couple of hours after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Harry Maguire had conducted a press conference projecting a way past RB Leipzig. Instead, talk around the team hotel turned to Pogba’s intentions. “It dominates all the conversations,” says an insider. “When they finish their meetings, ‘Is that right Paul?’ That’s the atmosphere in the dressing room, for sure.” Some sources said team-mates felt disrespected at the timing. Others countered that Pogba is liked, his situation understood, and whatever an agent says can be ignored internally. “Everybody was accepting how he is already,” says a source close to the squad. Top intermediaries contacted by The Athletic said Raiola would not have spoken without Pogba’s blessing, but that does not make it impossible. Gael Mahe, Pogba’s agent until the age of 18, suggests that even though it is likely Raiola and Pogba held private discussions, the player ought to be mature enough to set his own agenda. Mahe tells The Athletic: “Paul is a good communicator and can speak better than any representative for himself.” The silence from Pogba has been deafening, however, especially considering some people at the club wanted him to issue a rebuttal on Instagram or Twitter to his combined audience of more than 50 million followers. Solskjaer was furious at Raiola and spoke to his player to express his displeasure, but the circumstances dictated a certain diplomacy too, with Pogba possibly required to perform a few hours later. On Friday, Solskjaer said: “Paul is part of this team. He’s very focused on contributing when he’s here. He’s got the hunger and appetite to play. He wants to train. There have been other players refusing to train and refusing to play — they’re not here anymore of course — but Paul’s not once done that.” The public message is a major problem, however, and of significant concern is the example the episode sets for younger players. Pogba became the main man in the dressing room after Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Wayne Rooney went. Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard are the two who look up to him most, but there is an emerging group too. “There is a knock-on effect,” says one individual close to the dressing room. In the BT Sport studios, Paul Scholes suggested Maguire might pull Pogba to one side and tell him to get Raiola in line. It is a delicate dynamic, though. “The dressing room Scholes was in was winning titles. If a player behaved like that, you could replace him,” says a source. “This United isn’t at that point. It’s a horrible job Ole has to manage.” Pogba was not in Solskjaer’s team even before Raiola spoke. The line-up for Leipzig was decided after the defeat to Paris Saint-Germain. Raiola’s interview was actually conducted before the West Ham United game and it has not yet been established at Old Trafford whether the subsequent moment of publication was down to Tuttosport or Raiola. Suspicions are that Solskjaer would have preferred to avoid using Pogba at all against Leipzig as a signal of power — and it seems telling that Donny van de Beek was the first substitute — but it is clear that in pure football terms, the Frenchman can add quality to United’s side. It remains to be seen how much Pogba features from here but Solskjaer has long since advocated a sale and Woodward is understood to appreciate the need to resolve the matter. Indeed, The Athletic has been told Pogba has already come close to leaving. Sources say a transfer away was organised late in this recent summer window before the buying club pulled out unexpectedly. United deny this happened. Needless to say, the prices being spoken about are dwindling. The latest consensus according to industry insiders is the £40 million mark but Raiola’s strategy, according to sources, is to spread enough disharmony that United calculate the economics are better to get rid whatever the fee. Juventus would be willing bidders if they can create space on the wage bill and Raiola has excellent relationships in Turin, where Pavel Nedved, one of his first clients, is the vice-chairman. Sources say United are prepared for more “grenades” to come but insist no deal will happen just because Raiola is “being noisy” or Juventus offer a player in exchange. It is safe to assume, however, United will not be turning a profit on the £89 million fee even though Pogba, at 27, should be at peak value. For a player whose arrival was trumpeted with such fanfare, his exit appears destined for a messy conclusion. Quite how it has reached this stage is a long story that, in truth, reflects poorly on many involved. From speaking to Mahe, Pogba’s first agent, it is tempting to picture an alternative, more melodious universe. “Paul was around 14 years old when I started working with him, at Le Havre, and he was recognised as one of the best young talents in France,” says Mahe. “When he reached his first national team appearances at youth level, during a tournament in Wales, there was lots of attraction and we were approached by big clubs in Europe. “It was a question for him and his family to take the right decision for a top career in the long term and not at that age to have a question of contracts or finance. One option was to stay in Le Havre, we had a discussion with Lyon, and the other interest was a global vision from Manchester United. “It was not an easy decision at 16, but Paul was very mature. For him it was like a dream to have the possibility to play for maybe the best club in the world, to meet Sir Alex Ferguson and the legends of United at this time. He wanted to prove to everybody he was a special player. “We went to a meeting at Carrington. Ferguson and United’s France scout David Friio had the right vision for the mental, physical and technical journey of Paul. They found the words for him to come. “Sir Alex did it with lots of attention and took time with Paul in his office and we had lunch in the canteen. Ferguson was very engaged on the environment, education and human being, not so much talking about the football side. He knew it would not be easy for a young player. “Paul saw Carrington as a family and as soon as you are inside, you meet with all the staff and players. Paul is a very smart person and observes a lot. When he arrived he was like a sponge to absorb everything. “Paul and I had a personal meeting where we discussed him having a one-club career at United to get all these trophies because we were very enthusiastic and ambitious.” Then Raiola came on the scene. His scouting network had pinpointed Pogba as a potential star. “As Paul was a minor, there were regulations and until the age of 18, the role of an agent is with a family,” says Mahe. “I had the trust of the father and mother and Paul. There was maybe some middle person who introduced Mr Raiola to Paul and his family. “Around his 17th birthday, tension appeared to change his environment. When you speak about a player who is captain of the youth French national team, lots of people become interested. There was a break between the family and I, to go to Mr Raiola. I don’t have the explanation in my hands. “I cannot judge him. Paul is Paul and I have respect for what he did for his family. But if I was today the manager of Paul, he would not have gone to Juventus and would have remained at United.” Raiola acted with different intentions. Ferguson described their first meeting as a “fiasco”. “Our goose was cooked because Raiola had been able to ingratiate himself with Paul and his family,” he wrote in his 2015 book Leading. During a talk at Sale Sharks, Ferguson had given an uncompromising appraisal. “A shitbag,” he said. Raiola expanded in an interview with the Financial Times, explaining how he provoked Ferguson in contract negotiations during 2012 by saying, “This is an offer that my chihuahuas don’t sign.” Ferguson responded by calling him a “twat”. As the conflicts escalated, first-team players were sent to Pogba’s house to get him to stay. He nodded and agreed with them — but then left anyway. He is said to have been beholden to Raiola in a way that Ibrahimovic was not. Raiola organised a move to Juventus for a fee general director Giuseppe Marotta said was €1.5 million, agreed to avoid legal challenges slowing the process. A source says: “Sir Alex believed there was a young kid starting to think he was bigger than Man United. ‘I should be playing’. ‘What?’ Now, whether you agree with the manner Sir Alex handled the departure, there is no way he would have re-signed Pogba.” It is telling that as soon as Ferguson retired, United looked to bring Pogba back. The first enquiry was made in 2013, just 12 months after Pogba’s departure. Then, three years later, Pogba actually wanted to go to Barcelona — but the Catalans didn’t have the money. He also ranked Real Madrid highly, but United nipped in with a pitch that he would be the “No 5 star” in Spain. “Come home and you’ll be No 1,” Pogba was told. Executives backed this up with charts showing how many social interactions his name had when linked to United in comparison with Real. Suffice to say such a strategy, and the ensuing media campaign, would have been anathema to Ferguson. “Sir Alex would have resisted,” says a confidante. Even here, United had a warning of the embroilment ahead. Awkwardly, Raiola announced Pogba’s signing 20 minutes before the official feed. ‘THE MAN IS UNITED,” he tweeted. Mahe has a theory as to why it has not worked out for Pogba. “When Paul went back to United, it was a very well organised, and Raiola was a maestro in terms of communication and negotiation and securing a global deal,” he says. “I was surprised by the decision of United to take him back. Once they decided to let Paul out of the club, I think they had to have this same line for the future. In terms of strategy, I think it was maybe not the best idea to concentrate on Paul. “He came back with a different status. Football is a team balance and the power when he came back to United, it was like an act of revenge. This could be positive in terms of management, but it could also have some negative aspects. Maybe this struggle to balance is the key to this second period.” One of the consistent complaints from those around Pogba is that the team was never structured to suit his style, which is peculiar for a record signing. At Juventus, Arturo Vidal and Andrea Pirlo were elite team-mates. For France, N’Golo Kante did the work of two players. United might reasonably argue that a player costing so much money should be able to adapt. Mahe says: “Paul is a high-talented player but needs high-talented players around him. In the last years, we discovered he finds the best balance in the national team.” Bruno Fernandes possesses outstanding quality and for a while at the end of last season, his arrival was said to renew Pogba’s thoughts on staying. But it has become obvious that Fernandes fits perfectly with Solskjaer’s No 10 role, limiting the space for the attacking bursts Pogba enjoys. Looking at Pogba’s data in the Premier League, Champions League and Europa League going back to 2016-17, we can draw some conclusions about his effectiveness in terms of being a goalscorer, creator and ball progressor. For a start, we can see that his most common positions for United have been either as a defensive midfielder in a 4-2-3-1, alongside one other player who can hold while Pogba roams forward, or on the left side of midfield in a 4-3-3, which was his favoured position when joining from Juventus. His time under Mourinho was spent largely between playing on the left side of midfield in a 4-3-3, or in that deeper sitting-and-running role. Under Solskjaer, he’s mostly been utilised as a defensive midfielder. Unsurprisingly, his scoring threat is at its greatest when playing as a central attacking midfielder, the position that Fernandes now occupies, putting up his best figures for expected goals (xG) per 90 minutes. His 0.28 xG per 90 from central midfield is an elite ratio, and even the 0.17 xG per 90 from defensive midfield is very strong. Looking at expected assists (xA), which is a measure of the quality of chances that a player creates, Pogba is a pretty solid performer across the various positions. Again, he’s best when playing behind the strikers, albeit 592 minutes is a small sample all things considered, and he has still been an elite creator from defensive midfield and the left in a midfield three. The keen-eyed among you will have noticed that Pogba has scored fewer goals than his xG tally suggests he should have, but provided more assists than his xA tally suggests. With penalties removed, Pogba has scored 22 goals for United in Europe and the Premier League from an xG of 27.4. This is over a large enough sample to be confident that there’s some signal here, and it’s not just noise. This is also backed up by data from smarterscout, which gives detailed analytics on players all over the world, producing a score between 0-99, a bit like the player ratings in the FIFA video games but powered by real data and advanced analytics. Smarterscout rates Pogba’s finishing from open play as 25/99 on all non-headed shots. That essentially means that, when controlling for the quality of the chance and also the quality of the goalkeeper, Pogba actually isn’t that good a finisher compared to his positional peers. Scoring and creating are just two of the facets of play that are required of him. On the ball, the third is to progress it upfield into threatening positions. On this measure, seven or more passes into the final third per 90 minutes is, again, pretty much elite considering Pogba’s position, as is averaging two or more passes into the penalty area in open play. Numbers only tell so much of the story, of course. Moments to stir the souls of those in the stands have been scarce. Pogba was influential in United’s run to the 2017 Europa League but it is telling that his standout performance is based on 45 minutes against Manchester City in April 2018. Pogba has not driven United on in the manner the best midfielders do. “He has never been educated in a way on what real leadership is about,” says a source close to United. “A leader takes responsibility for themselves, first and foremost, and this shines through in their performances. Roy Keane was straightforward but the way he played his game, full of energy, aggressive, setting the tone, it brought respect from his team-mates. Would you want to go to war with him?” The clip of Pogba rousing his international team-mates before the World Cup final suggests he can inspire in certain circumstances, but Mourinho’s words at the time appear prophetic. “I think the World Cup is the perfect habitat for a player like him to give their best,” Mourinho said. “Why? Because it’s closed for a month, where he can only think about football.” The tone of Mourinho’s message — critical rather than celebratory — severely damaged a relationship that was once so solid that Pogba convinced Romelu Lukaku, another Raiola client, to join United. It meant Raiola had what some have described as an “unhealthy” number of players at the club, with Lukaku joining Ibrahimovic, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Sergio Romero. Lukaku has since left Raiola (so has Romero) and his friendship with Pogba went sour. Pogba’s dealings with Mourinho became strained midway through the 2017-18 campaign. That February, following United’s Champions League exit to Sevilla, Mourinho told a supporter in Manchester he felt obliged to play Pogba. Mourinho had dropped Pogba for the tie. Then in May, Pogba confided in close friends he was unhappy. And it can be reported for the first time that during that summer, after the World Cup, he told Woodward of his desire to seek a move to Barcelona. By December, the situation was beyond repair. High-level sources state United’s decision was between selling Pogba or sacking Mourinho. Though the latter may have been the right decision given the atmosphere emanating from Mourinho, sources feel Pogba should have followed him out the door that January. “As much as anything else, it would say to the dressing room, ‘Nobody gets rid of a Manchester United manager. He’s not won the argument’. But Ole handled him well and he enjoyed his most consistent run of form.” Pogba’s effervescence during Solskjaer’s initial winning streak feels a long time ago. Last season he appeared only eight times before lockdown as an ankle injury proved frustratingly difficult to overcome, and though he was very good on his return, this campaign has been stop-start again. Pogba has been named on the bench in three Premier League games. A fourth against City, as expected, would be the most of any season since re-joining United. That rotated status gives context for Raiola starting the fires again. “This guy has been doing it for a living, it’s like a hobby of his, isn’t it?” is the withering assessment of someone who has experience of Raiola’s work. Mahe, who has a charity trip to Africa planned with Pogba’s brother and mother, has strong opinions on the subject. “An agent cannot interfere in the media before an important game, it is not an individual sport,” he says. “For sure, this would destabilise the environment but he made the buzz to anticipate the future business and make Paul the centre of the issue. The most important thing was the match and qualification. “Raiola now says it is time to leave United but to me, it is time for Paul to leave Raiola to take responsibility for his image and his career, to drive his career. If I was Paul, it is the right time to take another direction. “What is important for Paul? Win the Euros, World Cup and Champions League. If he finds the right balance with lots of success, he can reach his long-held dreams of the Ballon d’Or. Now he is far from that, but he has some work to do.” Sources close to Pogba suggest he was unaware exactly what was coming out or when, and the disturbance before such an important match would not have been by design on his part. But the general message, his desire to depart, is clear. Due to the pandemic, potential destinations are not plentiful, however. Barcelona cannot afford his wages, which are £290,000 basic at present. The Nou Camp is under immense financial stress. Pay cuts are on the way at Real Madrid too, with money required to redevelop the Bernabeu. Zinedine Zidane wants Pogba, and that has come loud and clear through prominent commercial intermediaries. The compatriots speak to each other. But sources point to a possible reluctance from president Florentino Perez to deal with Raiola. Perez has not signed a player from his stable in four years. PSG already have two world stars in Neymar and Kylian Mbappe, which leaves Juventus as the leading candidate. The feeling is mutual between the two parties, but again finance is a hurdle. A swap involving Paulo Dybala has been mooted, but sources have dampened talk of that prospect. Cristiano Ronaldo offers a tantalising alternative. Each year, United explore the possibility of re-signing him, but the salary required would take some structuring. Mahe gives a sober view. “I think Juventus is the most likely destination, for Raiola to remake the switch,” he says. “But Paul has other choices that I think will be better for him than to go back twice. This period in Juve is different from before. I would take another direction if he has the possibility of PSG or Real Madrid. “But from the beginning, Paul was a perfect player to have his whole career in United. It is a pity and a shame. At United, he was at the right place from the start.”

Messi’s fading influence in the biggest games shows he’s now part of the problem https://theathletic.com/2208486/2020/11/22/lionel-messi-barcelona/ “I’m tired of always being the problem for everything in the club,” said Lionel Messi at Barcelona Airport on Wednesday evening on his return from international duty with Argentina. His comments came after first tax inspectors had entered his private plane for a half-hour conversation on landing, and then reporters in the terminal quizzed him about recent critical quotes from Antoine Griezmann’s former agent. Barca club captain Messi did not speak at all after last night’s 1-0 La Liga defeat at Atletico Madrid. It left his team 10th in the table at the final whistle, nine points behind new joint-leaders Atletico. The latest limp performance from Ronald Koeman’s disjointed side was not all Messi’s fault — and the 33-year-old definitely would not like the focus of this article being on him — as so many other issues at Barca were again shown up by another disappointing defeat in a big game. Koeman’s side were comprehensively outplayed by Diego Simeone’s newly attack-minded team, who deserved to win by more than just Yannick Carrasco’s well-taken strike just before half-time. Goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen was caught out for that goal, and Barca had worrying problems in defence, midfield and attack over the 90 minutes. To make matters worse, Gerard Pique limped off the pitch in tears with an injury. Tests carried out today have shown he has a grade 3 sprain in the internal lateral ligament and partial injury to the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. Still, Barca’s No 10 was often a peripheral figure in the game, not really involved for long periods. His best chance came at 0-0, when he was found in space deep inside the Atletico area by Jordi Alba’s precise pass, but took too many touches and in the end Jan Oblak saved easily. There were moments in the second half when he seemed too tired, either physically or mentally, to even run after Atletico players who were enjoying their rare domination of a game against Barca. He was still generally involved in his team’s best moments, the few chances they did create, but without any success. One right-foot cross arrived invitingly on Clement Lenglet’s head eight yards out, but Oblak was able to save. Another cross was flicked goalward by Griezmann, again without troubling the rojiblanco goalkeeper. He thought he had space to shoot late on from the edge of the box, but Stefan Savic rushed out quickly to block. The most worrying moment for Atletico was when Messi won a free kick 25 yards out, just to the right of centre, in the ideal position for the left-footer to take. Simeone’s players were so concerned that both Savic and centre-back partner Jose Gimenez were booked for protesting the decision to whistle for a foul. But Messi’s weak effort clipped Gimenez’s head in the wall, and drifted wide. This brought a focus on his poor recent record from free kicks — just one scored from the last 48 taken in all competitions in a blaugrana shirt. In one of Messi’s recent outbursts during the summer, he did make one very valid point. Barca’s directors have, for some years now, been “juggling problems and plugging holes” and the squad’s competitive level has dropped alarmingly. Since arriving last summer, Koeman has tried to take some of the creative burden away, for instance by giving Philippe Coutinho a central role in his plans. But his team-mates still always look for Messi to save them whenever the team runs into any trouble, even though he is no longer capable of saving them on his own. It has happened without success in each La Liga game they have dropped points this season, namely the draws with Sevilla and Alaves, and the defeats by Getafe and Real Madrid. Once behind at the Wanda last night, it seemed like everyone on both teams thought Barca’s only chance really was either a moment of magic from Messi, or a set piece, or both combined. They ended the game with basically no midfield at all as a panicked Koeman kept throwing on more forwards. That led to a situation with 88 minutes gone and his team 1-0 down, Messi was back in his own half taking the ball off his defence to start moves, which Atletico dealt with comfortably. Messi did not duck responsibility on the pitch, he was just not able to inject any life back into his team. Afterwards though he and all Barca’s senior players again shunned the post-match interview on Spanish TV, avoiding having to explain what had happened to the team’s fans. It was the same after the Clasico defeat in October, when new arrival Sergio Dest was put up to speak, forcing the interviewer to have to translate the then 19-year-old Netherlands-born US international’s thoughts on the game. At the Wanda the player who spoke was 17-year-old midfielder Pedri. Like Dest had, the kid did a creditable job in a difficult situation, but that he was put in the position at all spoke to a big problem when Messi is the team’s leader, and neither he nor they are playing as well as expected. Pedri stuck to the idea that his team had played well but Atletico always defended in numbers and were hard to break down. That was not really the case, as Simeone’s side have clearly evolved their game and almost matched Barca for possession over the game. They are much more confident in coming out to play, as until this year their main worry throughout the game was keeping their defensive shield in place over the full 90 minutes as they knew Messi would have instantly spotted any slight chink whenever it appeared. That is exactly what happened when the teams last met at the Wanda, in December 2019. Atletico matched Barca for most of the game, had the better of the chances, but the game was still goalless. Then with four minutes remaining, Messi pounced on one misplaced pass, ran from halfway, swapping passes with Luis Suarez, and curled in the game’s only goal from the edge of the box. That night Simeone could only applaud from the sideline, as his fellow Argentine had once again broken his heart. It moved Messi to 26 goals in 26 La Liga games against Atletico over his career, and took El Cholo to 17 La Liga games against Barca without even one victory. A day later Messi won his record sixth Ballon d’Or, but so much has happened since. There have been some good days from Messi, such as the Champions League last-16 victory over Napoli, and even just before the international break he came off the bench to inspire a 5-2 La Liga victory over Real Betis. But in the biggest games over the last 12 months he has failed to have an impact — including two Clasico defeats by Real Madrid and the 8-2 against Bayern Munich in the Champions League. Away from the Nou Camp, even against “smaller” teams, Messi has not been very influential. Five of his six goals for Barca in 2020-21 have been penalties. He is still an excellent player, but he is not close to what he once was. For a still large number of blaugrana fans or pundits, even pointing out that Messi is now a long way from his peak, remains heresy. Messi has done so much for the team over the last 15 years, and also everyone knows how sensitive and difficult a personality he is, that any criticism is still taboo. It also opens you up to accusations that you are taking the side of (now former) club president Josep Maria Bartomeu. Which nobody now wants to be on. All the candidates running to replace Bartomeu have so far said that they want to sit down with Messi and his father Jorge and make sure he does not leave the club when his contract ends next June. This despite knowing that the club has huge financial problems, and the Messis are unlikely to lower their massive wage demands. None of them appear to want to face the reality the team’s talisman is fading, and they all stick to the idea that if they just surround him with a better structure then he can keep winning them trophies. It remains impossible for most of the blaugrana community to even contemplate a future without Messi in the team. However it now feels like Barca are going through the post-Messi slump we all knew was coming, except he is still the central figure in the team. Something had been bending for quite a while, and was broken last summer, and even Bartomeu’s exit has not put things back right. The president’s departure has just taken away one of the excuses that Messi – and other senior figures in the dressing room – used when anything went wrong. All this is not to say, obviously, that Barcelona would have beaten Atletico on Saturday evening had Messi been allowed to join Manchester City last summer. And it was unfair that he was met with such a harsh welcome after a long flight back home from South America last week. But it is difficult not to think that he is now a big part of the problem at the Catalan club.

The lost Ballon d’Or: A case for Zlatan, the leader of a revived AC Milan https://theathletic.com/2270185/2020/12/22/ball-dor-zlatan-ibrahimovic-milan/ With the Ballon d’Or cancelled this year due to COVID-19, The Athletic is running a series on who could — and should — have won this year. As a bit of festive fun, we will publish nominations by our writers over the next week to help you decide. Please vote in the poll at the end and leave a comment if you feel we have missed anyone out… “For goodness sake,” Massimo Ambrosini exclaims in disbelief. Maybe it’s the cold but the waiter appears to be trembling as he brings him and Zlatan Ibrahimovic a coffee to enjoy outside the clubhouse at Milanello. “The stress you make people feel,” Ambrosini laughs. Zlatan tries to put the waiter at ease as he lays his tray down on the table. “Relax,” he says. But the Swede’s old team-mate is still taken aback by the scene. “You keep the waiters under tension too,” Ambrosini observes with incredulity. “Is he always on your case?” the former midfielder asks the waiter. Zlatan turns serious. “When you work, you work right? After, you can joke around. You’re working at the moment, aren’t you?” Ambrosini all of a sudden finds himself put on the spot. The pundit is there to interview him for Sky Italia. “I understand that,” he says, but Zlatan cuts his old friend short and playfully admonishes him. “Focus then.” Without skipping a beat, Zlatan then glances up from his steaming coffee and, by raising his eyebrows, motions for Ambrosini to look over from where they’re sitting. It’s unclear who has caught the striker’s attention. Is it the waiter again? A member of the ground staff at AC Milan’s training ground? “Look at him studying me,” Zlatan says. “He wants to know what Ibra’s like, eh?” There’s a lot to unpack here. Rather than the ego, the thing to focus on is the example. “Show us the way and we’ll follow you” is how he sees his role at Milan. Evidently, his team-mates aren’t the only ones who look up to him. Everybody does. As much as some people have this opinion of Zlatan as a parody of himself, the bravado is authentic. It is not an act and while there’s a temptation to disregard it as nothing more than hot air rising from his coffee cup, it actually serves a purpose. Zlatan’s charisma is powerful because it is founded in culture and he has brought a winning culture back to Milan. As we approach the one-year anniversary of his return to Europe, Zlatan’s candidacy for this award is strong because it’s hard to think of anyone having as transformative an effect on a club as he’s had on Milan in 2020. As we detailed in our long read in September, Zlatan is by no means the only reason behind the change in fortunes at the seven-time European Cup winners. It is reductive to ascribe it exclusively to him. You have a perfect storm of analytics, scouting, process, execution and environment. Zlatan has acted as an accelerator. The team went into the winter break last year on the back of a stinging 5-0 defeat to Atalanta. Milan were in the bottom half of the table. Twelve months later they are top and unbeaten in the league since March, the longest streak in Europe’s top five divisions and the best record at the club since Fabio Capello’s “Invincibles” at the start of the 1990s. How many other players on the continent can say they have helped to facilitate this kind of improvement over the calendar year? Zlatan has helped the youngest team in Serie A to grow up, find an edge, raise standards, become more accountable and ambitious and deliver on its potential. He is not all talk. One of the universal truths about this game is you play how you train and Zlatan trains harder than ever. “Talent is not enough,” he told Ambrosini. “It’s about sacrifice. The work you put in. The discipline. All the little details that make the difference. If I’m still here, if I’ve won what I’ve won, there’s a reason.” As with the waiter bringing him coffee, Zlatan’s presence and example keep everyone on their toes. “Do I put pressure on the team? Yes. Do I accept a misplaced pass? No. Do I ask a lot of them? Yes. If you don’t train well, do I say something? Yes.” Looking back, it does not feel like a coincidence that Manchester United’s best season since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement came when Zlatan was around. United finished second that year with the former Juventus and Inter Milan striker showing, even in his mid-thirties, that English football wasn’t too fast and furious for him. Zlatan ended up with 28 goals in 46 games before blowing out his knee and memories of the severity of that anterior cruciate ligament tear make what he is doing now all the more remarkable. It’s fair to assume that sustaining an injury as bad as that would have convinced 99 per cent of players to call it quits at his age. Instead, it persuaded Zlatan to “start from zero”. He brings his hands up to his face and makes the gesture of taking off a mask. “My ego fell away.” He wanted to see if he could still cut it at all. “After two years (with LA Galaxy in MLS), I felt alive. It was then that I said: ‘Let’s go back to Europe’.” Mino Raiola, his agent, kept chiding him: “It’s too easy to retire in America.” So, at 38, he accepted the risk that came with moving back to one of the most exacting leagues in the world. Zlatan walked into a delicate situation in which everyone projected the expectation on him that Milan needed a saviour. It could have gone badly wrong and he knew that. His family did not travel with him and he claims the uncertainty around whether he could hack it or not is why he initially only wanted a six-month contract. But Zlatan has not looked old. He does not look past it. He has decided the Derby della Madonnina against Inter and clinched a precious win at Napoli’s San Paolo (which was renamed three days later as the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona). He has catalysed Milan into a contender again. They are top of the table and despite being injured for the last four games, he is still top of the scoring charts, already in double figures. Zlatan’s goal ratio in this season’s Serie A is one every 53 minutes, the best record in Europe’s top five leagues. “It’s eat or be eaten and I chose to eat,” Zlatan said. The hunger he continues to show together with the holistic impact he has made at Milan makes Zlatan my nominee for this award. “If the Ballon d’Or were voted for by the public, I know Zlatan would have won it eight times,” Raiola told Tuttosport the other week. Now’s your chance to prove him right.

Sane may look like a tea drinker at Oktoberfest but the stats tell another story https://theathletic.com/2276505/2020/12/22/sane-bayern-munich-substitute/ The sale of firecrackers has been banned in Germany this December but for Bayern Munich, 2020 still ended with two very big bangs. First and foremost, Robert Lewandowski’s late, deflected strike gave them a 2-1 win at Bayer Leverkusen to demoralise all those who thought the tired champions were running out of steam. Their time-honoured capacity to dig out great results amid the depths of mediocre performances has always been rivalled by the ability to create juicy storylines, however, and Saturday was another case in point. Winning the newly-coined “Christmas championship” — finishing the calendar year at the top of the table — was somewhat overshadowed by Leroy Sane’s 36 minutes on the pitch. The 24-year-old had been brought on for an injured Kingsley Coman after half an hour but was then taken off again with just over 20 minutes left. It’s rare to see a substitute withdrawn for non-injury-related reasons and even rarer to see it happen at Bayern, where having a strong bench full of replacements ready to make an immediate impact has long been an article of faith. For a player who had already been repeatedly called out by his manager for not doing enough work defensively, getting pulled so quickly marked his arrival at the next tier level: Sane was officially put on high alert that his output isn’t sufficient. At least, that’s how it looked. Coming on and off again is routinely described as “Hochststrafe” in Germany, probably best translated as capital punishment: the metaphorical killing of a player. Coach Hansi Flick would have known that his move would be seen as a humiliation for Sane and offered an alternative explanation. The former Manchester City winger wasn’t being punished, the 55-year-old insisted, but was taken off for merely pragmatic reasons. “I wanted to put on (Jamal) Musiala,” Flick said. “That left few players to take off: (Thomas) Muller, (Serge) Gnabry and Sane. Thomas is irreplaceable. Serge improved immensely in the second half. That only left Leroy as an option. It’s about the team being successful. Individuals have to take a back seat. He’ll get over it.” Flick was obviously careful to project plausible deniability in terms of his decision being designed to expose the player’s insufficiency. He’s certainly not known for throwing his charges under the bus. But, even so, his explanation spoke volumes about Sane’s relative position in the squad. Musiala, a 17-year-old academy graduate, was seen as a more promising vector to increase Bayern’s attacking prowess when they were struggling for inspiration, and Gnabry as more dependable. Put crudely, Sane is currently the anti-Muller, low on effort and presence, unable to have a sustained positive influence. In other words: very much replaceable. Consequently, he is yet to play the full 90 minutes in any of his 11 starts for Bayern since his summer move from City. The next day, executive chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge also drew an unflattering comparison with the club’s talismanic leader. “Leroy has been blessed with unbelievable talent but he hasn’t absorbed Bayern DNA,” he told Sport1. “(Unlike) Thomas Muller, (who was) yesterday’s hero for me. He isn’t blessed with the same talent as Leroy but he ran up and down (tirelessly). Leroy needs to work on that. That’s his task. He needs to adapt his character to that of his team.” There are, of course, some mitigating factors. After coming back from an ACL injury, Sane is yet to re-find his swagger and confidence on the ball. He’s often looked hesitant, opting for the safer or simply wrong option. In short, he plays like a man feeling his way back to just being a top-level footballer rather than a world-beater at this stage. But in a way, Sane’s biggest misfortune might have been to come to Munich at the wrong time, a decade or so too late. Up until Jupp Heynckes installed a Jurgen Klopp-inspired pressing game in 2012-13, the idea that forwards had to work just as hard to win the ball back as those behind them had been anathema to Bavarian sensibilities. Bayern were famous for their “hero football”, a game based on defensive solidity, with attacking midfielders of the big-ego-playmaker/auxiliary-striker variant, the odd dashing maverick winger, and classic centre-forwards. There was little collective movement, let alone a concerted effort to engage the opposition deep in their own half. Sane, best when he can run at the opposition from an inside right position, would have been indulged as a great individualist, just as Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben had been before Heynckes managed to drum a stronger work ethos into both of them. This year, it was the side’s relentless pressing game that lifted them above the competition in the Champions League, which is why Sane’s seemingly more relaxed approach to tracking back and chasing the ball sticks out like a tea drinker at Oktoberfest. It’s not as if this apparent slackness has been offset by stellar attacking numbers, either. Three goals and three assists are the bare minimum expected of him, and the underlying stats are just as underwhelming. Smarterscout is a site which gives detailed analytics on players all over the world, producing a score between zero and 99 in a variety of categories — a bit like the player ratings in the FIFA video games but powered by real data and advanced analytics. Sane’s ratings of 28 for xG from shot creation and 12 for xG from ball progression indicate he’s not having a particularly fruitful season when it comes to helping make scoring opportunities for his team, or moving them upfield. Off the ball though, the picture isn’t quite as clear-cut as it seems. It is true that Sane’s defending intensity, defined by the smarterscout model as “the number of times a player is the most relevant defender out of possession”, is extremely low. But so are the figures for the supposedly more hard-working Gnabry and Coman. Sane almost never disrupts opposition moves through tackling, fouling, blocking or clearing but then again, he is somehow much more effective than his peers at forcing turnovers and limiting opponents’ ball possessions. What’s more, the fbref.com numbers show him as a far more energetic presser than commonly appreciated. He’s the top Bayern forward when it comes to defensive pressures in the defensive and attacking thirds (3.51 and 7.89 per 90 minutes), and only marginally behind Muller for pressures in the middle third (8.07). Maybe he’s simply not being seen as such, possibly due to his ethereal demeanour and reluctance to make close contact with opponents. The perception of the problem is a little worse than the reality. That, in turn, might explain why he continues to enjoy the backing of his team. Muller went straight over to console him after the final whistle at the weekend. “I told him that he should take away a sense of motivation, not frustration,” he said. “It’s a tough one. But he works hard on making it happen. I’m not worried about him. It won’t take long before we’ll hear very different things about him.” Sane seems to think so as well. He admitted to not having been able to perform to the best of his abilities but felt that “things will change.” They will have to if he’s to become the star Bayern thought they had bought six months ago.

Diego Maradona: Wild tales and untold stories from those who knew him best https://theathletic.com/2277726/2020/12/22/diego-maradona-untold-stories/ “Tell him to slow down, please!” The test drive had started out tamely enough. The driver of this brand new, 1979 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 had pulled out cautiously into traffic on Slauson Avenue in Culver City, California, hooking a right and coaxing the vehicle up to speed. On a perfect August day, palm trees and lamp posts slowly rolled by as the salesman made his pitch to the 19-year-old behind the wheel. Now, that idyllic scenery has become a blur. The car’s low rumble bursts into a nasty snarl as the driver veers off the main drag and into the neighborhood streets surrounding the dealership. The teenager smashes the throttle wide open, propelling 4,000 pounds of American muscle to double the speed limit in a matter of seconds. The car hulks and heaves as it flies around corners, tires screeching. Diego Maradona is on a joyride. Suddenly less concerned with selling the car than preserving the life of its occupants, the salesman swings his head around and casts a panicked look at the other passengers — two men who’ve jammed themselves into a backseat barely big enough for a child. “Please! He’s gotta slow down!” Andres Cantor can’t help but laugh. Fifteen years before he’d gain fame as the voice of the 1994 World Cup, Cantor is a fresh-faced high school senior who had somehow scored a gig writing for El Gráfico, Argentina’s premier sports publication at the time. For the past week, he’d been shadowing Maradona, the Argentine phenom who was already being heralded as the next Pelé. Ahead of the 1979 FIFA World Youth Championship, Maradona had come to Los Angeles to take part in a series of friendlies with Argentina’s U-20 team. Now, El Pibe de Oro is behind the wheel of this Camaro, whizzing past pedestrians and parked cars with reckless abandon. All 5’5” of him is planted in a low-slung bucket seat, a shock of black, curly hair and a pair of youthful, exuberant eyes the only things visible over the dashboard. “Diego,” Cantor says between fits of laughter, relaying the salesman’s message in Spanish. “Slow down. We’re going to end up all over the newspapers, and not even be here to read about it!” Maradona dismisses the complaints. The car’s fourth occupant, Maradona’s then-agent, Jorge Cyterszpiler, doesn’t seem too concerned, either. “Gordo,” Maradona says to Cantor. “Tell him that if I’m going to buy a Camaro, I’m not going to drive it 30 kilometers an hour! I need to know that this car has some bite.” For years, Cantor has joyously relayed this story. It’s a tale of youthful indiscretion — a fast car, a lapse in judgment, the type of story you retell countless times with your oldest friends. More recently, Cantor’s memories of Diego Maradona — a person he grew quite close to over the years — feel bittersweet. Less than a month after the death of a man some call football’s greatest-ever player, Cantor is still coping with the loss of a friend. “There’s so much sadness,” Cantor says. “It invades me.” The weeks that have followed Maradona’s passing have done little to comfort anybody who knew him. There’s been an ongoing inquiry into his death, adding a layer of confusion — and anger — to the grief. But Diego Maradona lives on in the memories, and in the stories, of those who came to know him. Many of those stories have already been told, but there are others that have been squirreled away in the minds of those who crossed paths with him over the years, waiting to be shared. Nearly a New York Cosmo? Diego Maradona’s professional career spanned 18 years and covered multiple continents. He tasted glory at Barcelona and Napoli, and played to an adoring public in his native Argentina with Argentinos Juniors, Boca Juniors and, briefly, Newell’s Old Boys. Memories of Maradona are vivid and colorful, with the iconic No. 10 decked out in the varying shades of blue of Argentina, Napoli, Barça and Boca. But in 1979, just weeks after thundering down the streets of Culver City in that Camaro, Maradona would very nearly join the most high-profile club in the history of American soccer. Stephen Jay Ross, the founder and president of the New York Cosmos, had his eyes on Maradona. Ross — a visionary who had shelled out millions to bring the likes of Pelé, Franz Beckenbauer and Carlos Alberto stateside — was looking for his next big thing. His Cosmos were at the peak of their fame and fortune, playing to massive crowds at Giants Stadium and, for once, popularizing soccer in the United States. Ross wanted to push the franchise even further into the ether. Maradona had already been pegged, by many, as the game’s hottest rising talent. Barcelona, Boca, Juventus and a host of other megaclubs had begun exploring the idea of signing him. Ross’ financial muscle was unprecedented — as the founder and president of Warner Communications, the Cosmos were simply a cog in his global media empire. At the time, few, if any, players were unattainable for his club. There are varying versions of what follows — something that seems to happen a lot with both the Cosmos and Maradona. The lines between fact and fiction get blurry as memories fade and legends grow. Charlie Stillitano, now executive chairman of Relevent Sports — a man who has had his hands in American soccer in some form or another for decades — tells one version. As general manager of the NY/NJ MetroStars in Major League Soccer’s inaugural season of 1996, Stillitano hired Eddie Firmani to be his head coach. Firmani, notably, had been the head coach of the Cosmos during their glory years in the late ‘70s, winning a pair of NASL championships in 1977 and 1978. “Eddie told me this story,” says Stillitano with a chuckle. “And to this day, he says he regrets what happened.” Steve Ross, as Stillitano tells it, sent Firmani to meet with Maradona at an Argentina youth national team friendly. It was ostensibly a scouting trip, but Ross’ instructions were clear enough. “Steve Ross gave him a blank checkbook,” says Stillitano. “He told Eddie to go down and buy Diego Armando Maradona. This was before there was real money in the game — don’t forget that Beckenbauer, (Giorgio) Chinaglia, Pele, they made more money (in the U.S., with the Cosmos) than they did in their own countries. People don’t realize that.” As Stillitano tells it, Firmani got stuck in traffic on his way to the game. He caught only the second half, and wasn’t impressed as he watched Argentina’s opponents mark Maradona out of the game. On Firmani’s return to New York City, he told Cosmos brass that he’d come away more impressed with the defenders assigned to mark Maradona in the game than Maradona himself. Now 87 years old, Firmani’s recollection of the event is fuzzier. “I do remember going to see him,” he says, working to bring the memories back to life. “For one reason or another, though, it didn’t work out. I do believe I would’ve liked to have had him.” A New York Daily News article from the time confirms that Firmani did indeed scout Maradona and meet with him in what the paper describes as a “youth all-star game” in 1978. “Cosmos board members say that Firmani didn’t want to acquire Diego Maradona, the 18-year-old Argentine prodigy acclaimed as ‘the next Pele,’” the report reads. Firmani says he felt that the Cosmos board members, including record executives Ahmet and Neshui Ertugan, would often foist a big name upon him with little regard for the dynamics of maybe the most complex locker room in the league: a dozen or so different nationalities melding with a sizable crop of young Americans and older journeyman. “I am a very simple guy,” says Firmani. “I like simplicity and I thought it better sometimes not to introduce certain players into the organization. The Ertugan brothers, though, they were sometimes very upset with me about that.” The Ertugans were indeed furious. Within months of his supposed refusal to sign Maradona, Firmani — at the time the winningest coach in NASL history, and one who’d led the Cosmos to a 9-2 start in 1979 — was sacked. Yet Firmani has no regrets about not signing one player or another, be it Maradona or any other name. Firmani didn’t concern himself with gate receipts, or any other chunk of Steve Ross’ massive media empire. “My little piece was just the soccer team, the Cosmos. It was simple to me. I didn’t think certain players would fit in well.” Firmani laughs. “We were already winning everything anyways!” ‘The way they adored Diego was unthinkable’ Perhaps more than any other soccer player, Maradona’s shortcomings and wrongdoings have been publicly aired, judged and ridiculed. His addictions to drugs and alcohol were vices that will forever be a part of his troubled legacy. Unlike many of today’s stars, such as Lionel Messi, a player endlessly compared to his World Cup-winning predecessor, who are more closely protected and maintain carefully groomed public images, Maradona’s full self was always on display — something that drew people in as much as it pushed them away. “He was imperfect like all of us,” says Cantor. “He was as imperfect as the country and as those that govern today and historically in Argentina. They’ve all had their flaws as people. There is no such thing as a perfect individual. And that’s precisely why we felt so close to (Maradona). In spite of everything, he never hid. He always faced the music.” As unique as Maradona’s talent on the field was, so too was his ability to form deep bonds with people, whether they knew him personally or just admired him from afar — more so than most other globally renowned athletes. “Something that I noticed about Diego is that everyone really respected him and truly loved him,” says Gustavo Barros Schelotto, who grew up idolizing Maradona, later becoming his teammate at Boca Juniors and friend in their post-playing careers. “Now, there are probably so many people that didn’t agree with some of Diego’s views, but everyone had an enormous amount of affection for him. We all have a special relationship with him. There are no ex-teammates of his that speak ill of him.” There were also private deeds that helped those who love him preserve that affection through his many failings. “There’s a fantastic story about a father and his daughter who were spotted outside of Argentina’s training facility in Ezeiza (Buenos Aires),” says Univision commentator Luis Omar Tapia. “The man had his daughter in his arms and he asked some policemen who were nearby if they could take his daughter to the hospital. She was very sick. Maradona drove up and he put the man and his daughter in his car — he didn’t know who they were. He drove them to hospital and took care of their medical expenses.” Maradona also found small ways to make personal connections with his fans. Only in Naples, Italy, is Maradona as beloved as he is in Argentina. The 1980s were Serie A’s golden years. It was the league of stars, and Napoli, a small club in a rugged southern port city, featured the sport’s biggest name. Maradona led Napoli to their first-ever Serie A title and lifted an additional four trophies, including a second Scudetto and a UEFA Cup, during his eight seasons there. Cantor was in Naples when they won their two league titles. “I still have never witnessed anything like what I saw at Napoli on those two occasions,” Cantor says. “I’ve never seen anything like the adoration that Neapolitans had for one person. I couldn’t believe it. It was crazy. The way they adored Diego was unthinkable. Diego couldn’t go out on the street.” After Napoli’s first Serie A triumph in 1986-87, Maradona invited Cantor to a party to celebrate the club’s historic achievement. Maradona and his cortège of friends and family members, including his then wife Claudia Villafañe, his parents and his flamboyant then agent Guillermo Coppola piled into their respective cars and headed toward a mansion on the outskirts of Naples. When they stopped at their first toll booth, Cantor observed a massive outpouring of fanatical reverence akin to when the Beatles arrived in America. “There was a caravan of about 30 cars that were following us,” says Cantor. “We had to go through a toll booth, and when they identified Diego, the people going north and people going south shot out of their cars to see him. It created a major traffic jam at the tolls. I remember that Diego waved his hand and said, ‘All those cars back there are with me.’ I don’t know how many cars passed through, but the 30 cars that were with us, plus another 50 drove through. Everyone was in shock that they had seen Maradona up close.” ‘Soccer’s worst nightmare’ Like Maradona, Ben Johnson once entranced the world with his feet. The Canadian sprinter rocketed to fame at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, posting a then world-record 100-meter time of 9.79 seconds. But instead of cementing his place in history, Johnson had only ensured infamy. Just a day after his record-breaking performance, the sprinter was stripped of his gold medal for failing a doping test. Five years later, he was banned from the sport for life after failing another. In 1997, though, Johnson had a bit of a lifeline. A court case had opened up the possibility of a comeback. And just a couple of weeks before a judge would potentially reinstate him, Johnson got another ray of hope. “I was at home, just doing my regular thing,” Johnson says. “One of my friends works at the Ferrari dealership here in (Toronto), and he told me he’d gotten a call.” The call had come from a representative of Diego Maradona’s. The man said that Diego was looking for Ben Johnson. So, naturally, he called the local Ferrari dealership. Like Johnson, Maradona had his own comeback in mind. He would return to Boca Juniors, a club that he’d spurned only months earlier, to win one final championship. But Maradona was badly out of shape and struggling with a back injury. He wanted to deputize Johnson as his personal trainer. Within days, Maradona was on a plane to Toronto. It didn’t take long for the two men to form an uncommon bond. A pair of wayward souls, they proved to be a perfect imperfect partnership. “In Ben Johnson,” Maradona told an Argentine television station on his arrival in Canada, “I found a friend, a wounded man that needed to channel his anguish, his sporting embarrassment, into someone. And Maradona fell to him. And, since I like a revenge story, I’m giving Ben Johnson a chance. Because he’s a great man.” Johnson trained Maradona for two months in Toronto alongside Diego’s younger brother, Lalo, who lived there and played for a local semi-pro team, Toronto Italia, a club Diego himself had played for just a year earlier during a memorable, one-game detour. “He was about 40 pounds overweight,” Johnson remembers. “I had to get him out of bed at six o’clock in the morning, because he had to lose something like 45 pounds in just eight or nine weeks. We trained twice a day. (Afterwards,) I’d say, ‘Diego, it’s time for you to get some sleep and some rest and eat some food.’ After a while, when I’d call him to see how he was doing, he’d still be training at the hotel on a treadmill. He’d just keep training. He was determined to come back at Boca.” To Johnson, Maradona’s physical rehabilitation was only part of the program. By 1997, the Argentine’s drug use had moved past the point of disgrace — it had become a running joke, just more fuel for coverage of the fallen superstar that often seemed perverse. A headline from the Canadian press at the time sums up what many thought of Johnson and Maradona’s pairing, calling it “soccer’s worst nightmare.” In Johnson’s view, Maradona’s comeback would only be successful if he learned to let go of his past failings. “I helped him mentally and emotionally to accept what happened,” says Johnson. “There are people who will criticize you, but you can show them you’re greater than before. And that was key — we are (professional athletes, but we are) human beings, too. We have feelings, we have emotions. Sometimes we feel, you know, depressed, or anxious. Diego and I are similar in a way — the way people like Diego and I love other people, we expect people to love us the same way right back. But often people want to just take, take, take and take even more. And that’s not right.” Johnson grew closest to Maradona when the pair moved their training operation to Argentina, just ahead of the start of Boca’s 1997 season. Maradona’s return to Boca for his swan song was a circus in and of itself. Boca’s coach at the time, Héctor Veira, had a front-row seat. Johnson remembers a scene that played out in the weight room at the club’s training facility. Maradona and Johnson, along with a masseuse and another trainer, had taken the doors off its hinges in order to fit a specialized treadmill into the room. After walking in on the scene in disbelief, Veira groaned and offered up his thoughts. “Ben Johnson and Diego Maradona?” he asked rhetorically. “The only thing missing right now is Don King.” It was in Argentina, Johnson says, that he learned the most about Diego Maradona as a person. With delight, he recalls being strapped into the passenger seat of a Porsche 911 Turbo with Maradona behind the wheel. Johnson’s story makes Diego’s earlier joyride in the Camaro look like a calm, Sunday cruise. “We get in the car and he just pulls off and — my god, man, I was like ‘Diego, please, easy, easy.’” Johnson lets out a belly laugh. “My heart was coming out of my mouth. I was so scared. The corners are pretty wide in Buenos Aires because you have these five, six-lane highways. And Diego, I swear, he’s going like 160 miles per hour around these corners, I’m not exaggerating. For days, Diego made fun of me. If I got worried about something, he’d say ‘Ben, easy, easy.’” At high speed, Maradona took Johnson to his parents’ house in the countryside outside of Buenos Aires. With Maradona’s father behind the grill and his mother at her son’s side, the two enjoyed a barbecue with the entire family. Maradona famously grew up in the slums of Villa Fiorito, escaping abject poverty and pulling his family out of it, as well. Johnson had spent the first 14 years of his life in a tiny Jamaican town and, like Maradona, formed a very close relationship with his mother, who brought him to Toronto as a teenager in search of a better life. “I came from a small town with only 10,000 people,” says Johnson. “And meeting his parents, his mother and father, it was like meeting my own mother back again. Because we have the same similar background, the same similar upbringing and the same desire to do the best for our entire family. His mother was the biggest symbol of his life. When his mother died (in 2011), it was like part of him died, too.” Maradona did indeed return to Boca in 1997, but it wasn’t the glorious swan song he’d imagined. It was an injury-plagued mess and, once again, his drug addiction became a problem. Midway through the campaign, the Argentine government intervened to keep the country’s football federation from imposing another ban on him after traces of cocaine were found in a doping sample. Jorge Cyszterspiler understood why: “A whole country revolves around Diego,” he told an Argentine paper. Maradona’s final professional appearance was a 45-minute spell against River Plate. He was replaced by his heir apparent, 19-year-old Juan Román Riquelme. Johnson remained close to the superstar for decades after their training stint in 1997. The two would cross paths and reminisce about old times. Maradona’s death last month caught Johnson by surprise, and he still hasn’t recovered. “I was emotional for two days,” Johnson says, his voice breaking. “I cried and cried and cried. I told myself — if he’d needed my help, emotionally, I could’ve been there for him and tried to help him. “The last time I’d seen him, I said to him, ‘If I don’t see you, I don’t call you, just know that I’m still thinking about you and please keep safe.’” An unfulfilled dream Maradona won the World Cup, earned fame and fortune, had audiences with the Pope and even had a religion founded in his honor. He experienced incredible successes that are reserved for just a chosen few. However, there was one thing that Maradona longed for that he could never fulfill — something he revealed to Luis Omar Tapia during one of the journalist’s recent trips to Mexico. “He told me that his sole dream in life was to take his daughters to Disney (World) in Orlando, because he had promised them that when they were little he would take them,” Tapia says. “He didn’t have time to do so during the ’94 World Cup. (Then) the U.S. border was closed on him because of his drug problems (at the 1994 World Cup in the U.S.) and his involvement with the Neapolitan mafia. He was never able to come here. So he died without having been able to keep that promise to his daughters.” Marking a magician The United States has had its own share of soccer phenoms and young up-and-comers, though none have even approached the level of hype — and eventual success — achieved by Maradona. In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, during Maradona’s ascendancy, the closest thing the U.S. had to a “next big thing” was Ricky Davis, a skillful, industrious central midfielder on the New York Cosmos. Davis, a U.S. men’s national team regular by age 17, was plastered all over the covers of soccer magazines and shared a locker room with the Cosmos’ litany of global superstars. Barely removed from high school, the teenager from Colorado found himself lining up in a midfield alongside two-time European player of the year Franz Beckenbauer. Under Firmani, Davis’ job with the Cosmos, as he tells it, was often to man-mark the opposing team’s most threatening player. On a spring evening in Buenos Aires in 1980, under a torrential downpour, Davis — a player who’d faced off against George Best, Johan Cruyff and a host of other greats — received his toughest assignment to date: mark Diego Maradona for 90 minutes during a friendly against Argentinos Juniors. “What Eddie Firmani or (his successor) professor Júlio Mazzei would say to me,” remembers Davis, “is ‘if he does nothing in this game, you’ve done your job.’ That was it. They never told me to complete a pass, or throw the ball in, or be part of a restart, they just wanted to make sure that there would be nothing people were gonna say that Maradona did in these games. And so my responsibility was for 90 minutes, to shut him down.” Davis knew of Maradona — even by age 20, the youngster was the talk of global football — but figured that marking the notoriously left-sided player would be a relatively easy task. “It was… a challenge,” Davis says, laughing. “Clearly the things I knew and expected was that — for one, he’d be very left-side dominant, so here I am thinking ‘yeah, if he’s got the ball on his right foot I don’t really need to worry so much.’ Well, that didn’t work out so well sometimes. Because even though you heavily defended him to his left side, he would get you to panic for a second. You’d have that ‘uh-oh, I’ve given him too much opportunity on the right side,’ moment, so then you’d start to move over to defend in that way, and then he’d get it back to his left foot. And that’s when it’s the proverbial ‘oh…. Shit.’” Midway through the first half, Maradona’s quality truly shone through. At the center stripe, he received a pass, popping it up to himself with his left foot. “Imagine this,” says Davis. “I’m putting pressure on him, I’m trying to just knock the ball away and yet he’s holding me off and he’s juggling the ball and he literally juggled the ball all the way down the sideline. It never touched the ground the whole time, all with his left foot and all with me pulling the hell out of his jersey and pushing him and every now and then kind of taking a swipe at the ball. I couldn’t even make the smallest of contact on the ball.” At halftime, Beckenbauer approached Davis and offered him some stern thoughts along with a pointed question. “He asked me whether I was a part of this show or whether I was trying to stop it. Because I was like a stagehand, basically, it looked like I was just pretending to try and get the ball. I looked over at Franz and said ‘yeah, dude, I was definitely trying to get it.” Davis’ most vivid recollection of marking Maradona, though, came in the second half. The Cosmos had turned the ball over in their own third and Davis was caught well out of position. Panicking, he turned to look for Maradona who, much to his chagrin, was 15 yards away. Maradona received a pass 25 yards from goal, deftly maneuvered around his defender, the goalkeeper and calmly slotted the ball home. Davis, still 10 yards away, sprinted to make an attempt at a goal-line clearance. “He hits the ball into the empty net — but he didn’t smash it in,” Davis says. “He hit it just hard enough to where he kept me trying to run it down. And he did it intentionally, honestly. He only hit the ball hard enough to bait me to keep trying all the way to the very end, only to fail. I smashed into the near post trying to clear the ball off the goalline. There was this massive “SNAP” noise as I hit it and I’m thinking ‘Oh my god, not only did I fail in my job, but now I’ve broken one or both of my legs on the goalposts.’” “Turns out I’d just shattered my shin guards,” Davis says. “But, again, he did this intentionally — that shows you his talent and the level which his brain operated.” It wasn’t the only time Davis and the Cosmos faced the Argentine. They played against him in 1978 and ‘79, and again in 1984. After keeping Maradona off the scoresheet completely in a match against the Argentine national team, Davis received what to this day remains a prized possession. “I’d been all over Diego the entire game,” Davis remembers. “But the guy obviously doesn’t want a Rick Davis shirt, he obviously wants a Franz Beckenbauer shirt. And so even though I was kind of waiting and/or even hoping that he’d take the jersey off and say, ‘hey, good job’ or ‘you’re a jerk’ or whatever, absolutely not. He wanted no part of my jersey.” Davis entered the locker room to find Beckenbauer waiting. “Franz tosses the shirt to me and says, ‘Hey, you were matched up with this guy, you should have this.’ And I still have it.” ‘Don’t look at me as ‘Diego Maradona’ Argentina’s top newspapers and television stations had heard all about him. A 14-year-old phenom was dominating Argentinos Juniors youth matches. Decades before the advent of social media, Maradona had been identified as the country’s next great via word of mouth and first-hand talent evaluation. Luis Omar Tapia was living in Argentina at the time. Two years younger than Maradona, he was immediately drawn to the budding star. Their paths would cross throughout Tapia’s 30-year broadcasting career. And, in 2018, Tapia traveled to Mexico to witness one of Maradona’s final adventures, taking on the unenviable task of leading Dorados de Sinaloa from Mexico’s second division to Liga MX. “I was able to watch him work,” Tapia says. “I remember talking to Luis Islas, his assistant, and it was like, ‘Wow, Diego came here and changed the players’ mentality, changed the way the front office approached the game. Dorados was an average team. Maradona arrived and he led them to two league promotion finals.” Being managed by one of the world’s greatest ever footballers can put players in a sort of fog. How do you separate the legend from the coach? How do you perform knowing that you’re being evaluated by a once-in-a-generation former great? That dynamic has been a constant in each of Maradona’s coaching stints. “Diego would tell the players: ‘Don’t look at me as Diego Maradona,” Tapia says, “‘I want you to see me as your coach. When we’re training or playing in an official match, I’m the coach. When the game’s over and we’re hanging out in the locker room or enjoying an asado, we can talk about Diego Maradona.’ “I think the players embraced that message. They didn’t feel intimidated by the presence of Diego Armando Maradona.” It’s one thing to play for Maradona as a second-division footballer in Mexico. It’s quite another to represent Argentina while a national hero is pacing the touchline as your manager. Sebastián Blanco, now playing with the Portland Timbers, was given his first senior national team cap by Maradona in 2009. “He was very intense. So intense,” Blanco recalls. “But he was like that his entire life — in the positive sense of the word. He was on top of everything. He yelled, he felt every moment of a match. He celebrated goals like he had created them himself. … Of course he gave tactical talks, but what he truly wanted to communicate was what the Argentina shirt stood for — what it meant to him… it was incredible. It was as if he was wearing it at all times, throughout his life. It was like his second skin. “And so, one would go out and defend that shirt in that way because that’s how he did it. He made it known, no matter where he coached, that playing football was a dream and that one had to take advantage.” According to Blanco, Maradona’s ability to read a room and internalize the stress and anxiety that a professional goes through was his gift. His innate leadership skills as a player became a crucial tool as a coach. “Maradona could inspire a level of strength within you that you didn’t even know you had,” Blanco says. “That’s a bit how he was as a coach, too. He didn’t have to tell you what to do. The boys were ready to die for him, figuratively, because of the way he felt about the game. The aura that he had was unmatched. No one else had it. He was always at our level. He knew exactly what a player could go through, so you felt close to him.” This held true even after Maradona’s time with one of his players was finished. Blanco tore the ACL in his right knee in September after leading Portland to the MLS is Back Tournament title in August. In the midst of his recovery, Blanco received a message from his old coach. (Maradona) sent me a message, motivating me,” says Blanco. “He wrote to me via Instagram. He said it was no big deal and that I’d be back in no time at all. I had a connection to him that I never would’ve imagined.” ‘I did a one-two with El Diego’ In 2008, Maradona was the guest of honor at a charity match between Club Atlético Lanús and Talleres de Escalada. He played one half for each side, delighting the sellout crowd with quick touches and keen vision, despite the mileage on his legs. Blanco was a 19-year-old standout for Lanús, wide-eyed at the prospect of playing alongside Maradona. It felt like a dream for the self-professed curator of Maradona’s history. From a young age, he has saved newspaper and magazine clippings that featured his idol. “I scored off a give-and-go with Maradona,” Blanco says. “That’s something I never thought would be possible.” Blanco received a pass from Maradona at the top of the Talleres penalty area. He threaded a one-time pass through four defenders back to Maradona, who had advanced inside the box. After a quick chop that left a defender on the ground, Maradona found Blanco at the penalty spot. Although Blanco initially remembered scoring a goal — such was the euphoria he felt in that moment — after going back and watching the video, he realizes that’s not actually what happened. “It was a long time ago,” he says. “But that one-two pass is all that matters!” ‘Where would you eat?’ “It’s been painful,” says Hristo Stoichkov, a noticeable mixture of sadness and anger in his voice. “A true friend has passed away. He suffered a lot and so did we because we saw how he was doing.” The Barcelona legend and Ballon d’Or winner was close friends with Maradona. Reached eight days after Maradona’s death, Stoichkov lamented not being there to comfort Maradona during his final moments. “In the end he died alone,” says Stoichkov. “He didn’t have his family around him. That’s the saddest part.” https://www.instagram.com/p/CIBcMKRFepi/?utm_source=ig_embed Stoichkov’s sorrow quickly morphs into his infamous irritability, though. The Bulgarian’s tone changes sharply when he characterizes the people who Maradona surrounded himself with as he recalls the arguments he would have with Maradona about the life the Argentine was living. Stoichkov calls Maradona’s entourage a group of “freeloaders” and blames their self-interest for Maradona’s mental and physical downfall. “I would say it to (Maradona’s) face, and to those vultures he had around him,” Stoichkov exclaims. “’If Diego Armando Maradona weren’t here, what the fuck would you be doing? Where would you eat?’ I didn’t get tired of saying that.” Stoichkov says that he’ll choose to remember the good about Maradona, but there’s one lasting image of him that he hopes will remain a part of his friend’s legacy. “He said, ‘I made a lot of mistakes, but la pelota no se mancha (the ball is never dirtied),” Stoichkov says. “Then he had a message for kids: ‘If you want to play football and enjoy life, don’t fall for drugs like I did.’ That really impacted me. A person that can acknowledge that and help kids avoid that path… to me that’s incredible.” But for Andres Cantor, Maradona’s death marks more than just the loss of a friend. It marks the end of an era for global soccer, as well. “Diego symbolized football in its purest form,” Cantor says. “That’s why, for me, football died. Now a new era of football will begin, one which will not lack the beauty that it’s always had. But the maximum expression of this sport, in my opinion and avoiding any generalizations, was Diego Maradona. With Maradona’s death, and in spite of the fact that he hasn’t played in so long, symbolically, the player who best represented the sport that we love, was Diego.”

Why Mauricio Pochettino is poised to replace Thomas Tuchel at PSG https://theathletic.com/2283997/2020/12/24/pochettino-psg-tuchel-tottenham/ Mauricio Pochettino is poised to finally return to management. The Argentine has not worked since he was sacked by Tottenham Hotspur in November 2019, but is close to joining the French champions Paris Saint-Germain after Thomas Tuchel was sacked in the hours after a routine 4-0 win over Strasbourg. Tuchel won back-to-back league titles and the French cup and league cup last season, as well as leading PSG to their first Champions League final, but paid the price for a slow start in Ligue 1. PSG have four defeats from their first 17 games and are third, a point behind Lille and league leaders Lyon. Pochettino has been out of work since leaving Spurs despite contact with clubs including Manchester United but senior PSG players are now expecting him to take over in Paris. There is no margin for error at Le Parc des Princes and Pochettino will immediately find himself thrown into the fiercest of spotlights. There will be a trophy at stake in just his third game in charge — against Andre Villas-Boas’ Marseille in the Trophee des Champions — and in February PSG take on Barcelona in the Champions League Round of 16. Then there are the dressing room egos and the club politics — a TV interview with Tuchel was understood to have angered the PSG hierarchy before the German was sacked. Here, we answer some of the key questions around Tuchel’s departure and Pochettino’s impending arrival. Why was Tuchel sacked? Wasn’t he successful? Yes and no. Tuchel can point towards PSG’s well-stocked trophy cabinet as evidence that his two-and-a-half year spell in France was successful. He replaced Unai Emery in May 2018, winning back-to-back league titles as well as the Coupe de France and Coupe de la Ligue in 2020. His two-year contract was extended in May, which should have seen him remain in Paris until the end of the current campaign. Paris Saint-Germain managers, however, are expected to win domestic titles. It’s what the club does and the very least that is expected. PSG have won Ligue 1 in seven of their past eight seasons, with their only blot coming under Emery. Laurent Fournier was the last PSG manager who failed to win silverware of any description, all the way back in 2005. He lasted only 36 games before being sacked. Tuchel also inherited a dizzying, but exasperating, array of talent, led by Neymar, the most expensive player in the history of football. The German was therefore always likely to be held to a higher standard, with success in the Champions League the ultimate goal of the club’s president, Nasser Al-Khelaifi. Tuchel came closer than all of his predecessors, leading PSG to the final of last season’s tournament in Lisbon. But he did not come close enough. After a miraculous comeback in the semi-finals against Italian underdogs Atalanta, PSG lost the final 1-0 to an exceptionally disciplined and well-drilled Bayern Munich. “This is the worst feeling in the world,” Tuchel remarked afterwards. At times he also struggled to control the dressing room, much like Emery before him. The German enjoyed some success with Neymar, removing the tactical straitjacket imposed upon the Brazilian by Emery and making him the centre of his project. There were disagreements with other players, however, most notably 22-year-old forward Kylian Mbappe. “Handling dressing room egos is demanding” Tuchel exclaimed in February after one particularly dramatic touchline spat. And then there were the backroom politics. What politics? A few hours before PSG’s match against Strasbourg on Wednesday evening, an interview with Tuchel was published by the German outlet SPORT1, in which he discussed the demands of managing such a big club. The quotes were eye-catching, to say the least. Tuchel was quoted as saying he felt more like a sports politician than a coach during his first season at the club. He was also quoted as saying that it was difficult to keep players such as Neymar and Kylian Mbappe happy. The interview was not well received by the PSG hierarchy. Nor Tuchel, who furiously denied he made such comments and accused SPORT1 of mistranslating him. “I did not say that it is more about politics than sport, nor that I lost the fun of training. This is not true,” he complained on Canal+ after the win. “It is possible they translated incorrectly.” The damage, however, was done. The Athletic understands sporting director Leonardo was particularly unimpressed with the interview and while Tuchel’s comments did not cost him his job — at that point the decision had already been made to dispense of his services — they demonstrate what a politically charged environment he was working in. Hours later he was sacked. Leonardo was not the only executive figure Tuchel struggled to get along with. He also endured a strained relationship with the Brazilian’s predecessor as sporting director, Antero Henrique, while Al-Khelaifi has been known in the past to enjoy a hotline to senior players, making life for Tuchel difficult. Tuchel is renowned as possessing a combustible personality and he also struggled to work alongside Michael Zorc in his previous job at Dortmund. “It is not the result alone that matters,” chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke wrote in an open letter to fans after Tuchel’s bad-tempered departure. “What also matters are fundamental values such as trust and respect. With Thomas Tuchel at the helm, Dortmund enjoyed two successful years in which our sporting objectives were achieved. However, we — sporting director Michael Zorc and myself — also did not always see eye to eye with the coaching staff during this period.” The difference was that in his previous jobs at Dortmund and Mainz, Tuchel got used to having a large degree of control. That was never likely to be the case in Paris. So why Pochettino? Every big team has been interested in Pochettino’s next move since November 2019 when he was sacked by Tottenham Hotspur after five years in charge, leaving London with the club 14th in the Premier League. Pochettino impressed at Espanyol and Southampton before making his name in north London, inheriting a stagnant team and transforming them into the most exciting side in the country. Before long Pochettino had Tottenham challenging for the title and in 2018-19 they stunned Europe by reaching the final of the Champions League, which they lost 2-0 to Liverpool. He has been a man in demand since chairman Daniel Levy replaced him with Jose Mourinho and the Argentine has been insistent that he is waiting to “find people who go hand-in-hand with the ideas that we have”, as he told Diego Torres in El Pais in August. Pochettino has long appealed to PSG, particularly as he previously played for the club. He is also the kind of high-profile figure that PSG crave. Al-Khelaifi, the man tasked by Qatar to run their investment since 2011, has aggressively pursued the world’s most famous players and boasted that by signing Neymar from Barcelona in 2017 he had increased the club’s value from €1 billion to €1.5 billion overnight. Pochettino is one of the game’s few superstar managers and fits into this vision. Pochettino’s relationship with Qatar should not be overlooked either. Last October, following a 3-0 defeat by Brighton & Hove Albion, Pochettino flew to Doha with his assistant Jesus Perez to deliver a lecture at the Aspire Global Summit on football performance. Since winning the bid to host the World Cup and buying PSG, Qatar has faced more human rights questions than ever before. Women’s liberties are restricted and homosexuality is illegal. But at the summit, Pochettino spoke glowingly of “the vision, planning, and passion (Qatar) shows for sports development”. Don’t they want a manager who has a track record of winning things? Pochettino has never won a trophy as a manager, having lost the 2014-15 League Cup final to Chelsea and the 2018-19 Champions League final to Liverpool. His Tottenham side meanwhile finished second in the Premier League in the 2016-17 season, again losing out to Chelsea. But he should not have to wait long to put that right. His third game in charge will be the French equivalent of the Community Shield, the Trophee des Champions, against a Marseille side led by Villas-Boas, another former Tottenham manager. The match presents Pochettino with an excellent opportunity before he has even spent a full month in his new job. PSG are also well-positioned in Ligue 1, just one point behind leaders Lyon. Naturally, PSG will expect Pochettino to achieve more than simply winning domestic competitions. That wasn’t enough to save Tuchel. His first significant test will come against Barcelona in the Champions League round of 16, with the first leg in Spain on February 16. Leading Spurs to the Champions League final remains the greatest success of his managerial career and in Paris he will be hoping to take one step further. To judge Pochettino’s brilliant work at Spurs through the prism of trophies alone is to miss the point. When he was at Spurs, Pochettino would argue when asked that trophies could not be the only measure of success. Even at his unveiling in 2014, he said his personal target was “to win every game and if you do that right to the end of the season, it is possible you win some trophies”. Trophies, then, were more of a by-product of success, rather than a target in themselves. That changes at PSG. How will he control the egos? This is a particularly fascinating question. Pochettino has never worked with established top players before. Even the stars of his time at Spurs — Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Christian Eriksen (more on them later) — were either unknown or unproven when Pochettino started to work with them. Managing established players is different and difficult. Just ask Emery, who built his name at Sevilla only to find it impossible to coach a player of Neymar’s standing. Niko Kovac is another example, while Maurizio Sarri, brilliant at Napoli, only lasted one year each at Chelsea and Juventus. The problem for such managers is that any “super club” employs top players on massive salaries who are more powerful than any other individual or passing coach. Numerous managers have found that out at Lionel Messi’s Barcelona, or Cristiano Ronaldo’s Real Madrid and Juventus. And the same is true at PSG, where Neymar and Mbappe rule the roost. Pochettino will need to get PSG’s superstars on side quickly. And he would do well to follow in Tuchel’s footsteps rather than Emery’s, by ensuring that Neymar is the star of the show rather than a sideline. Yet Pochettino has shown before that he is not afraid to ruffle feathers Back in 2014 it did not take him long to realise that the likes of Emmanuel Adebayor, Etienne Capoue, Younes Kaboul, Benoit Assou-Ekotto and Aaron Lennon were not fit for purpose. They were quickly sidelined — known as ‘the bomb squad’ — to make space for a younger group who wanted to play the Pochettino way. And how will they play? Pochettino is justifiably proud of the energetic pressing football his Southampton and Tottenham sides played and he commented earlier this year that he believes he and his coaching team are responsible for deep changes in how football is played in England. He frequently employed a 4-2-3-1 formation at both clubs, instructing his defenders to build play from the back and relying on hard-working, high-pressing forward players to chase opponents down and play the ball into the box at every opportunity. “Football in England changed with that Southampton team of 2013-14, there is no other team that had as big an impact in changing the mindset,” Pochettino remarked. “We found a group of players who wanted to learn from the experiences we brought from Spanish football, and with the quality to play a different style of football to that which everyone in English football was used to.” PSG have not played a dissimilar style of football under Tuchel, who typically deployed either a 4-2-2-2 or 4-3-3 system, which was designed to play to both Neymar and Mbappe’s respective strengths. Tuchel’s system ensured that Neymar received the ball between the lines with Mbappe getting in behind, with the bulk of the forward pressing left to Angel Di Maria. Do not expect Pochettino to divert from such a system in the immediate future. Will he try and get the band back together? Dele. Harry Winks. Eriksen. All are looking for a move away in January. All were key components to Pochettino’s Tottenham. Let’s start with Dele. Sources have told The Athletic they expect the 24-year-old to be on the move next month, though as of yet nothing has been decided. It could also change if Dele impresses or Spurs suffer injuries in the coming weeks. He was linked to PSG long before news of Pochettino’s impending appointment and his situation at Spurs appears even more stark after he was singled out for criticism by Mourinho following the 3-1 win over Stoke City in the Carabao Cup quarter-final. “A player in that position is a player that has to link and create and not to create problems for his own team,” Mourinho complained after a wayward flick led to Stoke’s equalising goal. Mourinho has previously refused to clarify whether Dele will remain at the club beyond the next transfer window, meaning he is an obtainable target should Pochettino decide he wants to reunite with him. Eriksen is another player that is readily available after he was publicly transfer listed by Inter Milan on Wednesday. “I can confirm that Christian Eriksen is on the transfer list,” CEO Giuseppe Marotta told Sky Italia. “He is going to leave in January.” Paris could be a good fit for Eriksen. Inter have struggled to find a taker for a player turning 29 in February on his salary, and a four-and-a-half-year deal at that. They fielded interest from Borussia Dortmund and Hertha Berlin about taking him on loan towards the end of the last transfer window, only for a move failing to materialise. Quitting the club to once again join forces with Pochettino could therefore suit all parties. Then there is Winks. The Athletic understands the 24-year-old midfielder is increasingly concerned by his lack of game time under Mourinho and wants to be playing more ahead of EURO 2020 this summer. Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola is a known fan, while Winks also has admirers in La Liga. His Spanish ancestry and style of play mean a move there would make sense, but the nature of the market means any January switch is seen as unlikely. A loan move would seem a logical answer, but there would be little incentive for Spurs to weaken their squad for the business-end of such a gruelling season. Of the three, Pochettino would find it hardest to reunite with Winks. Was Pochettino holding out on PSG all this time? Not exactly. Pochettino has always been vocal of his affection for Paris, having played for PSG 95 times between 2001-2003, in a star-studded team that included Ronaldinho, Nicolas Anelka, Jay-Jay Okocha, Mikel Arteta and Gabriel Heinze. While playing for the club, he lived in the town of Chambourcy on the outskirts of Paris, spending his days off visiting France’s different wine regions. Returning to the city therefore holds an obvious appeal. In May, when his period of gardening leave from Tottenham ended, Pochettino gave an interview to the British media saying that he was waiting for the “the perfect club, the perfect project”. Ever since he has closely watched events at Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Real Madrid and PSG, while waiting patiently to make his next move. He has also fielded enquiries from different teams, most notably rejecting an advance from Monaco last summer, as revealed by The Athletic. Arsenal also saw him as a credible option to become their next permanent head coach after the sacking of Emery in November. The most persistent links, however, were with Manchester United. The rumours started in 2016, when Sir Alex Ferguson dined with Pochettino at Scott’s Restaurant in Mayfair, just a few minutes’ walk from United’s London offices. Pochettino was also considered as a candidate to replace the sacked Mourinho, although a mooted figure of about £42 million in compensation, which in part would account for Pochettino’s £8.5 million-a-year Spurs contract that ran until 2023, was enough to deter United. The Athletic understands that contact was made between United and Pochettino over the past twelve months, but the club decided against immediately replacing Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Time will tell whether the Premier League giants will come to regret not appointing Pochettino for free while they had the chance.

How Watkins ‘sets tone’ for Villa defence and dominance of bottom-half teams https://theathletic.com/2274456/2020/12/21/watkins-villa-defence-tone/ At the end of this season, Ollie Watkins will be judged on how many goals he has scored. Eight strikes in 15 appearances in all competitions so far for new club Aston Villa suggests that if he continues at such a rate, his numbers will stack up favourably. Yet what should also be taken into consideration is the overall contribution from the striker bought this summer from Championship Brentford and how his desire and determination to stop Villa’s opposition playing out from the back is setting a high tempo that head coach Dean Smith has so long hoped for. With less than 10 minutes on the clock in last night’s 3-0 win over West Bromwich Albion, Watkins had already played a major role in the opening goal by using his strength to hold off two defenders to win the ball in the air, and then his pace to occupy the home side’s back line in their penalty area as the ball was crossed for scorer Anwar El Ghazi. By full time, there was steam rising off his head and into the sky above The Hawthorns. It was job done. No goals for Watkins this time (although he did have one ruled out by VAR when he was millimetres offside) but those short, sharp bursts again proved invaluable as they paved the way for three more Villa points. Many different factors contributed to this crushing, comfortable win over their West Midlands rivals — and also Villa’s excellent start to the season — but what often gets overlooked is just how well they are now defending from the front. The defenders deserve praise for recording seven clean sheets in 12 outings — most in the Premier League this season despite over half the division, including Liverpool, playing two more games so far. That it’s Villa proudly topping that particular chart is surprising given how porous they were as a unit at the start of the calendar year, but there has been a big transformation in the team and they are finishing the year in a hugely impressive way. Yes, the goals at The Hawthorns — tucked away by El Ghazi (two) and Bertrand Traore — were the most valuable and defining moments of the game, yet developing this rock-solid rearguard is what has given Villa a platform to attack and it all starts high up the pitch. Like so many of Villa’s opponents have found out this season; when Albion came up against Watkins, they had little time on the ball. “He sets the tone for us up there with the way he closes people down,” Smith says. Before this weekend, Watkins had already attempted to halt the flow of the opposition from an area in the attacking third an incredible 100 times, according to Statsbomb. Only Oliver Burke of Sheffield United had applied more pressures in the attacking third per 90 minutes (15.1) than Villa’s £28 million record signing (9.1). For Villa, though, it doesn’t stop there. “We work harder as a team and we’ve added quality to our ranks this summer which has allowed us to get higher up the pitch,” Smith says when asked what is different to this time last year. “Our distances from back to front is also really important in how we go to press.” Earlier this month, The Athletic revealed how Villa are the only team in the Premier League who are pressing more than they were last season. Villa’s percentage of successful pressures (30 per cent) are still behind the likes of Brighton & Hove Albion, Leeds United, Liverpool, Southampton and Chelsea, but there’s a significant switch and improvement under way. The way they closed down West Brom’s defence last night and then drove at them when they won the ball was frightening. There’s more purpose about their play off the ball, and it’s not just aimless running, either. It’s a controlled movement; pressing efficiently when needed, and led largely by the on-field voice of Tyrone Mings, who tells the forward players when to close down. Not that it’s needed — they all know their jobs now. Yet even when Villa were in attack and peppering the home goal in the second half with Albion down to 10 men after Jake Livermore’s red card, Mings was carefully tending to the defence, making sure that if there was a rare attack upfield, they were ready for whatever came their way. Rarely was their line breached or pulled out of shape. It was surely as comfortable a win as Villa will ever get this season. They haven’t looked like conceding in the last two games, after Thursday’s home 0-0 with Burnley, and this is a sign of their improvement. In games against the Premier League’s current bottom four this season, Villa have won three and drawn one, scored seven goals and not conceded any. A sign of just how dominant they were against a club who used to be their biggest rivals was in Albion’s xG figure in their first game under new head coach Sam Allardyce; a measly 0.04. At times it looked like men against boys; a now-established Premier League side against another that is going to need a huge turnaround just to stay in the division. Villa have 22 points before Christmas. That’s a large chunk of the way to survival (they finished 17th with 35 last season) and pondering what happens next remains exciting, even if Smith isn’t thinking too much about it. “With the pandemic, I’m not thinking about Europe because we can’t travel anyway!” the head coach said, tongue-in-cheek, as the new restrictions came into force. Joking aside, Villa have put themselves into serious contention. They’ve created more chances on average, per game, than any side in the division and are developing a ruthless streak. Other than Liverpool (again, who have played two more games), Villa have had most touches in the opposition’s penalty area, signalling that they’re regularly applying pressure on the opposition goal. There’s a genuine belief that there’s also so much more to come. With 22 chances created against Burnley and another 16 on Sunday night, it’s inconceivable to think that Villa won’t hit a team for six goals (or more) soon. Their dominance against the lesser lights of the division is becoming striking. The compact, organised style that has made it so hard for teams to score against them also remains so encouraging. Every player is now playing like a “good team-mate” — the last words Smith often says as he sends them out for kick-off. After such a thorough and well-executed victory, albeit against a struggling side who had 10 men for almost an hour, it would be wrong not to mention the return of Douglas Luiz, too. His crisp, concise passing was as good as it has been all season — and a personal 90.9 per cent passing accuracy showed that. There were also countless occasions where he dragged his team-mates out of trouble. He’s now an immaculate defensive midfielder and a huge part of this evolving team. So on Villa go. It’s now seven points out of the last nine, and three clean sheets in a row. Defensively they’re as strong as they have been for a decade and will take some beating in the months ahead.

Arsenal? lol

only for certain teams

simulation is the technical term for diving ie. you 'simulated' a foul on you the action of pretending; deception. "clever simulation that's good enough to trick you"

it is crazy if Giroud or Tammy had slammed Maguire or Bailly or Lindelöf to the ground by the neck 90% of the time they would see red and that no call on Maguire in the box wtf he gets away with MURDER weekly plus that dive by Pogba being awarded as a foul (and should have been a yellow for simulation), and that dive by Greenwood not being punished for the same

superb winner by Cavani, but he could easily have had a red card (insane he did not even get a yellow) for that choke slam on Mina Everton were dreadful after Richarlison got smashed out of the game

Pogba, clear dive given as a foul right outside the box, no contact, Bernard never touched him you have to see it in action speed to see there was no contact pure dive

seconds later (not kidding, lol) Greenwood dives in the box after pushing the dwarf Bernard aside nothing called for the dive and Greenwood had a fit for the next minute or two (shocked that Manure did not get their dodgy pen gift)

a minute or so later on a free kick Maguire mugs Mina in the box NOTHING called

seconds later Bruno pushes Richarlison in the back and then Bailly jumps into him, violently slamming him in the head with his leg snapping his head back so hard (you need to see it full speed to really see the force) knocking Richarlison out of the game NOTHING called other than a simple foul

Oki, watching the entire Manure v Everton match Cavani just slammed Mina to the ground by the throat NO CALL outrageous it is still nil nil early in the 2nd half I will keep posting shit as I see it