Vesper

28, so this coming summer window is the last I will recco myself for a buy Lololol

Getting my birthday drunk on Main party is in 2 days when we both celebrate our birthdays

Pre Roman our Euro trophy haul was higher than Arsenal has in their entire 135 year history Banter football club at euro level

And that beard is hideous Giroud he ain't

Really sick of Sevilla whingeing on about EVERYTHING

He is a goon

We would be so fucked overall if this was our starting back 4 and Jorginho was our starting DMF Thank fuck for Mendy

Absolute fuckers

Jorginho has been absolute pants

get that 2nd!!!

we are INSANE if we let Giroud walk in January

been saying thsi for ages he is goal machine and a genetic freak he is fit (he never was a speed merchant) as a 28yo and is so so clinical and tricksy

PSG up nil 1 Neymar

emberglow is the colour! lolol

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Olie!!!

huge breaK Vaclik out rookie GKer in

so many of their best players are not starting

3 3 on a free kick that came from yet another Upamecano mistake (Konate has been poor as well)

Another really poor game from Upamecano and against a dreadful Turkish side who are now down only 2 3

2020-21 UEFA Champions League, Group Stage Sevilla FC Chelsea http://www.sportnews.to/sports/2020/champions-league-sevilla-vs-chelsea-s2/ https://www.totalsportek.com/arsenal-streams/

2020-21 UEFA Champions League, Group Stage Istanbul Basaksehir RB Leipzig http://www.sportnews.to/sports/2020/champions-league-istanbul-basaksehir-vs-rb-leipzig-s5/ https://www.totalsportek.com/rb-leipzigs/

Miguel Angel Ramirez, the best coach you’ve never heard of https://theathletic.com/2232129/2020/12/01/miguel-angel-ramirez-coach/ Sometimes, when someone has a crystal-clear vision of how football should be played, and is willing to sketch it out without reverting to generalisations or cliches, the best thing you can do is sit back and soak it in. You almost certainly haven’t heard of Miguel Angel Ramirez. He is 36 and has never played the game at any significant level. His most high-profile position in European football to date was as an academy coach at Las Palmas, his hometown club in the Canary Islands. He is only a couple of years into a managerial career that he stumbled into by accident. He is also the most exciting young coach in South America. But we’ll get to that in a minute. First, a sermon. “Football, for me, is a possession game,” Ramirez tells The Athletic over a shaky Skype connection. “But not in some a superficial way. Having control of the game means having the ball. That’s the foundation on which I can build everything else. I try to outnumber the opposition in places, so what looks ‘risky’ is just actually just the team attacking with as many elements as possible, in as many ways as possible. “I obviously want to keep a balance, which allows me to defend, but I like to subdue the opponent, playing close to the opposing goal. In terms of the relationship with space, it’s like a chess game: the opponent might leave a gap, or not, and there are certain spaces I want to win. I play with the opponent to win control of certain areas where I think I can do damage. “When I don’t have the ball, I want to win it back, and I want to do that as soon as possible so I can keep attacking. That’s more or less what we were looking for. In broad strokes, that’s how I want my team to play. That’s how I understand football.” It sounds good in theory, but ideas alone do not make you the talk of a continent. No, that is a factor of the extent to which his vision has been transposed onto the pitch. Ramirez’s team play daring, intricate, futuristic football. It carried them to the 2019 Copa Sudamericana — South American’s Europa League equivalent — and it has made them one of the most watchable sides in the Copa Libertadores this year. At which point, we must place the final piece into this overachievers’ jigsaw. Ramirez does not manage one of the Brazilian or Argentinian giants, but a tiny Ecuadorian side called Independiente del Valle. Their stadium, in Sangolqui, holds just 8,000 people. Before Ramirez took charge, in May 2019, they had never won a top-flight domestic title, let alone a continental competition. That Sudamericana success was historic. Now they are competing against even bigger teams — and holding their own. They started their Libertadores campaign with back-to-back 3-0 wins against Barcelona de Guayaquil and Atletico Junior, then recorded a staggering 5-0 success over defending champions Flamengo. That result echoed around South America, and even though Flamengo later achieved some revenge back in Rio de Janeiro, COVID-stricken Independiente remained loyal to Ramirez’s vision. “It’s normal that a team like Flamengo, or Junior, who are champions of Colombia, will be better than Independiente, because we don’t have the same budget,” says Ramirez. “My whole squad is paid one-quarter of what (Flamengo striker) Gabriel Barbosa is paid. So in normal circumstances, we have no chance of beating Flamengo. “But I think we’ve had some matches that have ended up making noise, globally. It’s less about the result and more about the way this team plays. It’s attractive football for people who like a spectacle.” Blur your eyes a touch when watching Independiente and it’s not so difficult to imagine you’re watching Manchester City — and not just because Ramirez himself could expect to be a finalist in any Pep Guardiola lookalike contest. They have a goalkeeper who is happy to step out of his penalty area and start moves. They have full-backs who are comfortable slotting into midfield positions. The wingers stay high and wide, stretching the play. There are even, to borrow from Guardiola’s lexicon, a pair of “free eights” who roam between the lines, probing for openings. The ball is occasionally pinged to the far side of the field but otherwise, it stays on the floor. Ramirez accepts the comparison but insists that his approach is influenced more by those with whom he has worked closely. “For those of us who like the possession game, obviously Guardiola is an important name, a point of orientation for our footballing compasses,” he says. “But I don’t know how Guardiola works. I only see how his team play. The inspiration has come from the people I’ve had around me — people who have helped to build me up, offered me an idea about how to go about being a coach.” While Ramirez got his start at Las Palmas and then had a brief spell in Greek youth football, he cites his time at the Aspire Academy in Qatar as his most formative experience before he arrived in Ecuador. There, he met his mentor, Roberto Olabe, who is now director of football at Real Sociedad. Over the course of six years, during which he coached the under-12, under-13, under-16 and under-17 sides, his philosophy took shape. “Roberto had this way of seeing the game as it relates to the player, to space, to the opponent,” Ramirez explains. “I arrived in Qatar unable to see that. By sitting with Roberto and chatting for many, many hours, I was able to start to see the game in a totally different manner.” The chance to go to Ecuador came in 2018. Independiente have a link with Aspire, who recommended Ramirez for the job of academy coordinator. He didn’t think twice, but the decision to step up and manage the first team when coach Ismael Rescalvo left the club a year later was trickier. Ramirez liked working with young players. He did not harbour a burning ambition to move up to senior football. Still, it felt like too good an opportunity to turn down. “I had time during that year in the academy to get to know the club, to get to know the people behind the project,” he says. “I knew their vision, and what they wanted. I understood that I could be calm and secure in the knowledge that I was going to have stability at this club. “What I saw during the nine seasons I was at Las Palmas — a European club who spent a long time in the first division — was a third-world set-up. Independiente have a first-world set-up — a structure and a vision that is very different to other clubs in Ecuador and to most of the rest of South America, too.” Ramirez holds the Copa Sudamericana aloft (Photo: Franklin Jacome/Agencia Press South/Getty Images) On a practical level, Ramirez must work within certain constraints. “It’s a very responsible economic model,” he explains. “There aren’t funds for big signings, because there’s a salary cap that the club doesn’t want to go past. They want to prioritise the academy and the promotion of academy players to the first team, even knowing that doing so has certain sporting costs. “Throughout the club, teams use the same method of training and style of play. There is also a very effective scouting network. Right now, Independiente are the No 1 club in Ecuador for scouting young players: the best talents in the country play in our youth teams. We try to get players into the first team and the idea is that later we can sell them to bigger clubs. So players leave, players come in from the academy, those players are sold… and that’s how the club remains sustainable.” This suits Ramirez, who already knows all of the youngsters well, down to the ground. Four of the players who started the Sudamericana final against Argentine side Colon came through the academy system. The Ecuador national team have also started to benefit from the production line and Ramirez says there is growing respect for the club’s achievements on the continent. “For Ecuador, Independiente are an example of how to do things,” he says. “It’s a club that don’t have a lot of supporters, but there has been a big reaction across the country. There’s a lot of admiration: people can be fans of another club, but they’re also supporters of Independiente.” Much of that owes to Ramirez’s style of football. He has won admirers far beyond Ecuador, too: Palmeiras were desperate to secure his services earlier this year and they aren’t the only Brazilian club to have been in contact. Ramirez, though, says he was not overly tempted. “Let’s put all our cards on the table: I’m just starting out professionally,” he says. “I understand that I wouldn’t have had the guarantee that I have here at Independiente del Valle. I know that a bad result isn’t going to change anything about the project at Independiente, about the vision that the club have and the trust they have in me. “In Brazil that wasn’t going to be possible. The immediacy, the focus on results, and above all the lack of time to train… it would have been impossible for me to build a foundation for a project. Everything is immediate there: every two or three days, you’ve got to get a result, and if you don’t get that result, you’re out on the street. “Especially for my system of play, and how I understand the game. However big the club, the circumstances wouldn’t be there due to the immediacy that pervades Brazilian football.” He has had a few phone calls from this side of the Atlantic, too, and admits the prospect of testing himself in Europe is more appealing. “I’m not obsessed with returning, but it is attractive because the competition there is so difficult. The level of coaches… I know it will push me to new limits. It’ll be a headache to work out how to compete in each match. That’s what motivates me. “I have to be careful because I don’t think my way of playing would be well suited to just any kind of club. My way of understanding football needs a particular context, which not all clubs have. So I have to be very sure before I take the next step.” You don’t need a crystal ball to know that his time will come. In the more immediate future, though, there is business to attend to. Tonight, Independiente are in Uruguay for the second leg of their Libertadores last-16 tie against Nacional. The first leg ended 0-0, but goodness knows how: the Ecuadorians had 78 per cent possession and a frankly ridiculous 32 shots. More of the same in Uruguay and they will surely progress to the quarter-finals, where a glamour meeting with River Plate could await. Which isn’t bad at all for an unknown Spanish youth coach, right? “I never imagined this,” he says with a glint in his eye. “I think everything that has come my way is a gift from football. And a gift from life.”

Diogo Jota interview: I was still paying to play football age 16 https://theathletic.com/2226851/2020/12/02/diogo-jota-liverpool/ Diogo Jota smiles as he recounts a tale that underlines just how far he has come. There was a time not long ago when the bright lights of the Premier League and the Champions League seemed like a pipedream. “I was still paying to play football when I was 16 years old,” he reveals. “These days kids who are 14 or 15 already have professional contracts, which is a good thing, but that wasn’t the case with me. “Until I was 16, I was just playing for fun really. I was lucky enough to have a team where we were all like a family. We played all together for like nine years. We did good things at our level at Gondomar.” With nine goals in 15 appearances, the Portugal international has proved an instant hit at Liverpool following his move from Wolverhampton Wanderers in September for an initial fee of £41 million. He became the first player in the club’s history to score in his first four home top-flight matches. During a crippling injury crisis, he’s been instrumental in keeping Liverpool’s defence of the Premier League crown on track and guiding them into the last 16 of the Champions League. His dynamism, aggression and finishing ability have endeared him to supporters and team-mates alike, with assistant boss Pep Lijnders describing the 23-year-old as “a pressing monster”. Jurgen Klopp says he’s “easy to like”. Jota believes his steely attitude and humble personality was shaped by the knockbacks he received en route to proving he could shine at the highest level. He grew up in Massarelos in the Porto municipality and played his football in the youth ranks at lower league Gondomar, less than 10 minutes’ drive from Porto’s Estadio do Dragao. When he moved on at the age of 16 in 2013, it was to a small top-flight club, Pacos de Ferreira. He made his senior debut at 17 and went on to score 18 goals in 47 games. It was a world away from the elite set-ups as clubs such as Porto, Benfica or Sporting. “Although I did some training with the bigger clubs, I never stayed there,” Jota says. “So there were small setbacks as you always want to go higher. But in the end, it all worked out well. I think my journey shows that the secret is that you should never give up. That’s the main idea. “Every experience you have, every setback, it always makes you stronger and that was the case with me. Of course, everything could be good now but it wasn’t before. You always have to keep striving for what you want to achieve.” As a child, Jota had been inspired by Portugal’s run to the final of the 2004 European Championships, where a side including Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Figo and Deco were beaten by Greece on home soil. “From as far back as I can remember, football has always been my passion,” he says. “I remember when I was maybe around six years old, my dad signed me up for swimming. I’d ask him, crying, whether I could switch to play football instead because it was on at the same time. I’d much rather be playing football than be in the swimming pool. “My earliest memories are from the 2004 Euros when Portugal reached the final and unfortunately we lost. I was seven and I remember it well. Football has always been my passion. “Cristiano Ronaldo was my hero. At that time, he was 19 but he was already playing at the Euros with so much quality. During my childhood, he was at Manchester United and Real Madrid. As Portuguese guys, we always looked upon him as our main reference.” Jota was still a teenager when Atletico Madrid signed him from Pacos in 2016. He was desperate to show what he could do in Spain but after a pre-season under Diego Simeone, he was deemed surplus to requirements by the Argentinian and loaned out to Porto for the 2016-17 season. He never played a competitive game for Atletico. Another loan, this time to Wolves, was followed by a permanent switch to Molineux for £12.3 million in 2018 after helping them win promotion to the Premier League. “I don’t regret (going to Atletico),” Jota says. “They were playing in the Champions League final the season before. The opportunity to go there and have all the pre-season with them meant a lot to me and I learned a lot. “Yes, I could have expected better but I don’t regret it. In the end, leaving was the best option for me at that time in terms of my career. Every experience you have allows you to develop as a player and person. “Even if it’s not what you expect at the beginning, everything that happens in your life you can learn from and you can take advantage of it in terms of the experience.” After three seasons at Wolves, he was ready to take the next step. On the day he signed for Liverpool in September, his message to supporters was: “They can count on me because now I am one of them and I will give my best.” Jota has certainly delivered on that promise. One of his prized possessions is the match ball signed by his team-mates following his hat-trick against Atalanta in the Champions League in November. New signings usually require a period of adaptation under Klopp as they get to grips with what he demands from them tactically. How has he managed to settle in so quickly? “When you reach a new club, having an open mind is key to be able to adapt as quickly as possible,” Jota explains. “With the season underway already, it was up to me to find a way to get into the team and not the opposite. That’s what I did with the help of Jurgen. “He’s a fantastic manager who took care of me. When I first arrived, he had a meeting with me and he explained how the team works. Then it’s down to the player to try to learn as fast as you can and to prove to the manager that you can be an important player for him on the field. “Liverpool have a great squad and the captain Jordan Henderson was an important guy for me. He sent me a text message as soon as I knew I was signing for Liverpool and he has helped me. “The Brazilian players speak the same language so people like Fabinho, Roberto Firmino and Ali (Alisson) have helped a lot too. Adrian too as I can speak Spanish as well. We have such a good team and that’s the basis for success.” Jota is engaging company. We are talking over Zoom as part of a discussion chaired by The Athletic entitled Diogo Jota x Portugal: Modern Football Pioneers for Web Summit, an annual technology conference usually held in Lisbon. He’s joined by Nuno Moura, the chief marketing officer for the Portuguese Football Federation, who is well placed to talk about Jota’s rocketing profile in his homeland. Since making his senior international debut a year ago, he has scored three goals in 10 appearances for his country. He’s inspiring the next generation in the same way as he was inspired by Ronaldo. “All fans here love Diogo. They are all super excited about the level he has reached at such a young age,” Moura says. “He’s playing for the current Premier League champions. He found a place in the team, he’s delivering and he’s scoring goals and playing well. It’s the same when he comes to the national team. “There’s excitement not just because he’s an amazing footballer but also a very humble, hard-working guy. Everyone sees that and respects that. We hope things continue to work out spectacularly for him and hopefully, he can bring some of that success home to Portugal and help us to win some more titles.” Jota spends much of his spare time playing football but Klopp doesn’t need to worry about burnout. He’s a lover of esports and, in particular, the FIFA and Football Manager franchises. “Since my dad gave me my first PlayStation as a kid, it’s been like another passion of mine. I always played football on it,” he says. “I always liked games where you can manage your own team. In the world of esports, I feel like I can have three things all together — my passion for football, the competition of playing against other people and also managing. “You can have a great world if you play responsibly. It can be a professional thing but for me, during my life, it’s been a proper hobby. I have time to do other things as well.” Back in April, Jota was crowned champion of the ePremier League Invitational FIFA 20 tournament after beating Trent Alexander-Arnold with a golden goal in the final. A rematch is on the cards. “I think Arnold is looking for revenge so we will see what happens in our next game,” Jota says. “I haven’t played against my other team-mates at Liverpool yet. We haven’t had enough time with all the matches. “I also love managing games and I think Football Manager is the top one. I’ve been waiting for the release of the new game to start playing again. Now it’s out, I’m sure I’ll find something interesting to do, project-wise.” Moura adds: “I’ve got to say, Diogo is one hell of a player, on the pitch and on the console! Although it’s only a hobby for him and he’s a professional footballer with a lot of responsibilities, he’s amazing. As well as winning the Premier League final, he’s also done very well competing against some of our players who are in the top 10 in the world for efootball. I know he’s a humble guy but he’s amazing on that console.” Jota’s ambition and drive extend far beyond the pitch. He’s working on an exciting new business project in the esports sector, which he hopes to launch in 2021. “I have a lot of free time and the quarantine made us all think,” he says. “I started looking at professional esports players and how they do things. I started playing better myself because I had the opportunity to look at them and learn with them. I started thinking, ‘Why don’t I get involved?’ “That’s what we are trying to do now. Me and my team, we are looking to find a way to get into this business. We are in the perfect conditions. I hope that soon this will be a proper thing.” Portugal as a nation have long since punched above their weight and they hope that Jota’s rise to fame will help them continue in that vein with the European Championships to come next summer. Having a forward-thinking football federation has certainly helped in the nation’s development of players. They boast their own TV channel and launched their own university, which has helped raise the standard of coaching at grassroots level, while esports is increasingly used to connect with young people. “We are a country with a population of 10 million. If you look at the number of registered footballers we have in Portugal, it’s a little over 200,000,” explains Moura. “As you can see, we cannot afford to lose any talent. We need to nurture it. We need to be more efficient and work smarter than bigger nations. “Portugal are currently the European champions and the Nations League winners but within the FA, we also have the current futsal European champions and beach soccer European and world champions. The success is being seen across all the different football formats and age groups. “We’re seeing fantastic talent such as Diogo and these new generations coming through the ranks, showing fantastic quality. It shows us that the future can be bright but we need to stay ahead of the game. “The growth in esports gives us the chance to engage with a very large community of young people who have a passion for the game. Today we have almost 300 registered clubs within the Portugal FA ecosystem and 30,000 individuals registered who play competitive efootball on a regular basis. We see it as a compliment rather than a competitor to traditional football.” Jota nods in agreement. It’s a busy time for the Liverpool attacker. Games are coming thick and fast and fatherhood is on the horizon. His girlfriend Rute is expecting their first child in February. “It will be another big moment in my life,” he beams. “It’s almost there. I’m playing a lot of football at the moment and I will be around the time he’s born. But my girlfriend and I are looking forward to having that special moment in our lives.” On Sunday there’s a reunion with old friends from Wolves. It will be the first time supporters have been allowed inside Anfield since March, with 2,000 permitted for the visit of Nuno Espirito Santo’s side. Jota has enjoyed a flying start to life at Liverpool, but he admits there has been something lacking so far. “I think football without fans is strange,” he says. “Obviously, when you play for a club like Liverpool, who have one of the best atmospheres in the world, it just feels like something is missing. We have a lot of these conversations with the staff and even with the players about the things we are really missing. “Feeling the Anfield effect is the thing I am looking forward to the most. I can’t tell you how much. I’m just not able to get that feeling yet. But I hope that soon I can have it. Football without fans is nothing.”

48 shots in two games: How Leeds attack like a top-four side https://theathletic.com/2229037/2020/12/01/leeds-bielsa-attack/ The warning was there for the Premier League. Go back to weekend one of the season and listen again to Jurgen Klopp. It was only one remark but it comes to mind whenever Leeds United wade into Arsenal, Everton or anyone else in the division: “For 95 minutes, by the way.” Klopp built his reputation on strong-arming opponents, by pinning them between the rock of gegenpress and the hard place of technical ability, but even he was drained by Leeds coming and coming at Anfield in September, right to the end of five added minutes. On Saturday, a short walk over Stanley Park, Leeds were at it again at Goodison Park: 1-0 up against Everton with 32 seconds of injury time to play and five of their players on the attack, in or near the edge of Everton’s box. Marcelo Bielsa’s version of clinging on. It is exhausting when Leeds play like this and demoralising to discover that they are fit enough to think clearly and pass incisively for as long as it takes. The club’s past two games demonstrate why Bielsa was never going to back down on the tactical front after two heavy losses to Leicester City and Crystal Palace. Poor results are poor results but there is a difference between a Bielsa team who go under once or twice and a Bielsa team who are failing to function per se. There was no real deviation after Leicester or Palace, only changes to personnel, and the response was an avalanche of 48 shots on goal over two matches against Everton and Arsenal, sides who are nominally spoken about in ambitious terms. Who here was actually going for the top six? The evidence left you wondering. Football like Leeds’ comes down to the law of averages. There will always be that infuriating evening, like Arsenal at home, where everything hits the frame of the goal and everything else finds Bernd Leno waiting to beat it away but luck does not hold like that for long. And so to Goodison on Saturday where Everton almost got away with it but ran out of lives with 11 minutes to play. Carlo Ancelotti might like to think that minute 79 is the time when visiting teams start to worry about James Rodriguez and Richarlison; the time when protecting a point seems better than losing it. What he encountered at the weekend was a Leeds side playing with five and six-man attacking lines and refusing to back off. At the very moment when Raphinha swept in the winning goal, Bielsa’s left-back was four yards in front of him, hovering in Everton’s “D”. In the Championship, whether intentionally or not, Bielsa built a Premier League side. Leeds played at that level like many of the more effective teams in the top flight, with a concerted press and an attacking style which fixated on overloading the final third. As it happened, the tactics were always likely to be as well suited to a higher division in England. The biggest compliment paid to Leeds so far this season is the way in which other clubs are using them as a benchmark. You need to be good to beat Leeds. And you need to be better still to beat them convincingly. In short, they are not a team you would rush to meet too often. Arsenal and Everton, in wanting to let their quality talk, were overrun in a way which forced them to concentrate on their deficiencies. The next two graphics, from Twenty3, give an example of how heavily Leeds pepper the opposition goal in comparison to a team like Arsenal. Leeds’ shot map, shown first, is awash with efforts on target (all of them marked in red and goals marked with stars) and chances from different ranges. Arsenal’s is more tentative and speculative and goes some way to outlining why their points tally after the first 10 games of the season is the club’s worst since the Premier League was formed in 1992. Leeds always play to win. Arteta either cannot or will not let the handbrake off, to the detriment of results and performance. There were questions about his future after Arsenal’s 2-1 defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday. So a quarter of a way into the Premier League season, and with 10 games gone, how are Leeds looking? At present, in an attacking sense, they look like a top-four team with performance indicators to prove it. They have created more chances in open play than any other team in the division and more big chances than all but three. They are nine shots on goal ahead of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City so far. Their expected goals (xG) total is second only to Liverpool and their expected assists (xA) second only to Everton. Unsurprisingly, they have the second-highest carries of possession into the final third (Klopp’s Liverpool are just in front). Leeds are disregarding the conventional notion that promoted teams, at least to begin with, should be seen but not heard and it figures that defensively-minded units have fared best against them. Containment still feels like the optimum strategy. Premier League chances (open play) Containment is not Bielsa’s strength and never his priority but Leeds have reined in their xG against since the heavy losses to Leicester and Crystal Palace: 0.91 at home to Arsenal and 1.25 away to a stellar Everton frontline of Rodriguez, Richarlison and Dominic Calvert-Lewin. It is not a coincidence that Kalvin Phillips was absent from the worst of those results but back for the best of them. Phillips can marshal and tackle, breaking up attacks before they get serious, but he pins the opposition back with his passing from deep, quarter-backing Leeds with rhythm and vision. His 94 per cent pass completion rate at Goodison Park (over 90 per cent in Everton’s half) would have been impressive on any evening but, in a frantic match which played out like a basketball contest, his precision was extraordinary. Graeme Souness commenting on Sky that Phillips needs to add goals to his game goes to show that for some people, nothing is ever enough. Statistically, only Liverpool and Leicester have taken Bielsa’s team apart defensively. Palace scored four times against them but vastly exceeded a 90-minute xG of 1.35. Bielsa is always good at making these calculations in his head in real time. The losses to Liverpool and Leicester he took on the chin, without complaining about the outcome. The 4-1 scoreline at Crystal Palace he described as “exaggerated” (and the data firmly suggests that it was, even though Palace deserved to win). Leeds are more porous than most of the sides in the Premier League but not by an alarming amount. And nobody is itching for Bielsa to rein his players in when they perform as they did at Goodison. It is simply the case that for a team so highly-strung, a small drop-off can come at a high price. This is not his squad at its peak either. Leeds’ 48 efforts against Arsenal and Everton came from two games in which Rodrigo played a total of 20 minutes (and none at all at Goodison Park). Injury has deprived Bielsa the services of centre-back Diego Llorente since the Spain international signed from Real Sociedad in October. Pablo Hernandez has been missing for a month and Raphinha’s impact looks like growing exponentially. It could not be said that Saturday was Leeds at full tilt or full strength. Life moves quickly, of course. One moment you are talking about victory over Leicester moving you into third place. By the end of that same week, you have conceded eight times in two games and are down in 15th. But most of what Bielsa created in the Championship has followed him to the Premier League, including the fear factor which served Leeds so well. Managers know what he does but not exactly how he does it. They know what to expect but even with that knowledge, find it hard to get one step ahead of him. It was often said that the Premier League would be better off with Leeds in it. And 10 games in, it is.

No U18 signings, partner clubs and fast-thinking: English football post-Brexit https://theathletic.com/2234253/2020/12/02/brexit-transfer-premier-league/ The United Kingdom’s membership of the European Union will end in just over four weeks’ time and that momentous split ensures change is coming across all walks of life from January 1, 2021. Football is no exception. The recruitment strategies and transfer policies of Premier League and EFL clubs will be altered after Brexit too, with new obstacles placed in the way of signing new players from overseas. No under-18s can be signed from overseas in January and a new framework has been drawn up that limits the foreign players able to join an English club. Even managers and coaches from outside of the UK will be asked to meet new criteria. The Athletic assesses what has changed and explains what that means for English football… How different is football going to look in a post-Brexit UK? New regulations for player transfers were approved by the Football Association, Premier League, and EFL last month and have now been signed off by the government. The UK’s departure from the European Union means players from the continent can no longer move freely into the country, with new entry requirements in place to cover next month’s January transfer window. That prevents clubs from signing anyone under the age of 18 from overseas, while any new recruit from Europe must qualify for a “Governing Body Endorsement” (GBE). That is a points-based system, with a player’s eligibility assessed by a range of factors, including international experience, as well as the league and the team he has been signed from. More on that later. The impact of these changes promises to be far-reaching and lasting. “The system that’s been devised will have a big impact because clubs will have to factor in whether the player will be able to come to the UK,” said Andrew Osborne, a specialist sports lawyer and the head of Lewis Silkin’s immigration practice. “That adds an extra level of consideration. “The problem for clubs is that this is more complicated than previous systems and they’ve only got four weeks to get used to them. They will have to assess their targets to see if they’ll qualify. “Probably the biggest impact is going to be that clubs won’t be able to sign players under 18 anymore. The concessions that applied around the transfer of players aged 16 to 18 within the EU, we won’t get once we leave. That will move the focus of a club’s recruitment.” Did clubs know this ruling was coming? Oh yes. Just look at the recruitment strategies in the Premier League over the summer. This was last orders at the bar before things got a whole lot more complicated. Take Chelsea, winners of the FA Youth Cup six times in the last nine years, as an example. They signed Aleksi Heino (16) from FC Turku in September, goalkeeper Sami Tlemcani (16) from Paris FC in October and midfielder Edwin Andersson (17) from IFK Gothenburg last month. They also snared 17-year-old Bryan Fiabema from Tromso in February and 16-year-old Jimi Tauriainen from Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi in the summer. And they were not alone. Manchester United’s academy recruitment this summer had a heavy emphasis on overseas signings, with six players from abroad under the age of 18 joining the club. Sources say that while scouts had been tracking the targets for a considerable length of time, and a paucity of local first-year scholars meant there were spaces to fill, the incoming regulations around Brexit were a factor in the scale of influx. Three Spaniards arrived at United, with full-backs Alvaro Fernandez and Marc Jurado coming from Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively, and Alejandro Garnacho, a winger, leaving Atletico Madrid. Radek Vitek, a 17-year-old goalkeeper, joined from Czech Republic side Olomouc. Isak Hansen-Aaroen, a 16-year-old forward, signed from Tromso as part of United’s strategic agreement with the Norwegian club. Willy Kambwala, a 16-year-old centre-back and captain of France’s under-17s, arrived from Sochaux in a deal that could reach €4 million. Fernandez, 17, has made a notable impact already, starting five Premier League 2 games for Neil Wood’s under-23 side. United also signed two 18-year-olds in Facundo Pellistri and Amad Diallo, for a combined total potentially worth up to £47 million. Both players have been extensively tracked but United pressed the button on bids before any rule changes could count against them — much to the surprise of some of their rivals, who could not afford such a significant outlay at the time. Aston Villa were another club to be busy this summer. They have signed a glut of 16-year-olds: Lamare Bogarde from Feyenoord, Vitesse Arnhem defender Sil Swinkels and Aaron O’Reilly, another defender, from St Patrick’s. Villa were said to be very aggressive in their pursuit of players in that age group, beating Arsenal and Tottenham to Bogarde. Bogarde playing for Feyenoord Under-17s in February (Photo: Erwin Spek/Soccrates/Getty Images) Villa purposely watched a lot of players around the age of 16 and continued to scout heavily earlier this year, knowing the summer represented a last chance to sign players of that age before the Brexit rules came in. What does it mean for future recruitment? The inability to sign players under 18 will undeniably change the dynamics of youth recruitment. It has become common practice for Premier League clubs to add under-18s to their academy ranks, nurturing the most promising youngsters at close-hand, but those days are now at an end. Clubs, though, have already eyed up a way around these restrictions. A link-up with an overseas club would allow any highly-rated youngster to be parked there until turning 18, when he would then be free to move to England. Manchester City’s owners have shares in Spanish club Girona, along with eight others around the globe as part of the City Football Group. The owners of Leicester City, too, have full control of Belgian side OH Leuven. Brighton owner Tony Bloom bought Belgian side USG in 2018, while Sheffield United have ties with Beerschot, current leaders of the Jupiler League. Those arrangements have allowed clubs to farm out youngsters to gain experience but there is no reason why that link cannot be used to ringfence any youngster eyed up on the continent. Expect other Premier League clubs to forge ties with their European counterparts. Sources now expect Manchester United, for instance, to press ahead with a search for a European partner club. An agreement could allow players of interest under 18 to stay with such a sister side until of age to transfer. Why will clubs not be able to buy under-18s any more? This is a FIFA rule, set out in their regulations for the transfer of players between countries. Brexit ends the previous freedom of movement between the UK and EU and ensures the days of English clubs landing under-18 players from the continent are over. Cesc Fabregas, who joined Arsenal as a 16-year-old in 2003, would have been denied that move from Barcelona, as would Hector Bellerin. Manchester City’s move Eric Garcia, another to leave Barcelona aged 16 in 2017, would also have been put on hold had the new rules been in place. English and Scottish clubs have also traditionally raided Ireland for their best young footballers at the age of 16 but that practice is also at an end. In theory, at least, not until their 18th birthday can any Irish youngsters make their move to England from next year. That would have meant Caoimhin Kelleher, Liverpool’s Champions League hero on Tuesday night, would initially have been made to wait before he headed to Anfield as a teenager. The new rules also stipulate that Premier League clubs will only be allowed to sign six under-21 players per season from 2021-22, with only three permitted in the upcoming January window. Clubs in the EFL will not face those limits. Who are the winners and losers? The FA, Premier League and EFL all declared themselves satisfied with the changes. “The Premier League has worked with the FA to come to an agreement to ensure no part of Brexit should damage the success of the Premier League, or the prospects of the England teams,” said Richard Masters, the Premier League’s chief executive. There is a commitment from all parties to review the process ahead of the 2021 summer window but there has been some concession to reach this middle ground. The FA were keen to increase the number of England-qualified or homegrown players in a Premier League club’s 25-man squad from eight to 12 only to meet with resistance from the top flight. There was no mention of that in the statement released but it is understood the FA has backed down on its desire to put a hard cap on the number of foreign players by holding the line on the quality of those signed. This has been considered to be a satisfactory compromise that does not overly inhibit Premier League clubs’ recruitment, while also ensuring the best English players do not have their pathway blocked at a young age. How is the points-based system going to work? For the large majority of signings from Europe, there will not be any obstacles. Any international player who regularly represents a nation ranked in the top 50 of the FIFA rankings will be given an automatic pass, while any new recruit from a Band 1 league (Bundesliga, La Liga, Serie A and Ligue 1) will also be very close to qualifying. Ultimately, it needs 15 points for a player and the signing club to be granted a GBE. That can come from six different categories, including the players’ international status, the league they have been signed from, minutes played in continental competitions and the success of their last club. The more they have played at a higher level, the greater the points awarded. Players facing the greatest difficulties could be those signed from Scandinavia. A new recruit from Denmark’s Superliga would be granted four points initially and then another four points if they have played more than 90 per cent of minutes for their club. As many as six points could be available if the title had been won with the selling club but further points would still be needed from international or continental experience. Players aged 21 or under face slightly different criteria, with the onus again focused on the calibre and pedigree of the signing. Should a new recruit only be able to tot up between 10 and 14 points in the January window, they would need to have their case heard by an “Exceptions Panel” made up of three independent figures. A GBE will be granted if it can be shown “exceptional circumstances prevented the player from achieving 15 points, and if those exceptional circumstances did not apply, the player would have achieved 15 points”. A youth player, aged 18-21, would need to show “significant potential and is of sufficient quality to justify” a GBE. There are similarities to existing rules for the recruitment of non-EU players but with important differences. “The new system is focused on playing criteria, with a range of options for clubs to show a player is playing at a high level,” added Osborne. “The traditional method was through international appearances. That’s more difficult when you’re dealing with a larger group of potential players. “The other area where you can score points now is if you’re playing for a good club in a good league and you’re being successful. It’s based more around your playing history and the quality of games you’re involved in.” Will this also change how clubs land managers? It will indeed. Players are not the only ones to be impacted, with head coaches and their staff also required to meet certain criteria set out by the game’s governing bodies. Any manager appointed from overseas will need a GBE, which will only be granted if the individual holds a UEFA professional licence and has managed in a “Top League” for either three years or two years consecutively. That encompasses 33 different leagues, from Italy’s Serie A to the Slovenian PrvaLiga. That will not be an obstacle for most managers but the new rules would have blocked Huddersfield’s appointment of David Wagner in 2015. The German had only ever coached Borussia Dortmund II before moving to England and steering Huddersfield to the Premier League. Daniel Farke, the current Norwich boss, would also have been denied his opportunity when appointed in 2017. First-time managers from Europe and high-profile names will also find opportunities limited. Former Spain midfielder Xavi, currently coaching in Qatar with Al-Sadd, would not meet the criteria. Clubs are able to appeal to an independent panel at a cost of £5,000. They would have to show their appointment would “contribute significantly to the development of the game at the top level in England” and be a manager of the “highest calibre”. Premier League and EFL clubs are able to provide the sponsorship required for an overseas coach to work in the UK but National League clubs will no longer be permitted to freely appoint a European coach. There is a different criteria for assistant managers and other members of a backroom coaching team, such as a first-team coach or goalkeeping coach, who must be deemed suitable by frameworks outlined for a “performance manager”. Those rules are less stringent but would still need to be met.