Vesper

This is why it’s called the @premierleague

We should have sold him for the £65m back in summer 2018. massive cock-up, but I am not going to kick him in the batty on the way out the door. I so hope he doesn't fuck us up v Arse. He was not a bad player at all, and I think many of his contributions were not appreciated nearly enough. That said, he was a poison pill at times and I am enraged he faked injury to avoid playing in the FA Cup final v those goona cunts. That game, The Taylor Final, is added to my 10 most bitter disappoints ever at Chels in terms of Roman era-games. I REALLLLLLLLLY hate losing trophy games. Hate it!!!! Not acceptable. Do not care if it is EL or CL or a CS, FWCC or or Super Cup, League Cup or FA Cup, it fucking pisses me off.

The ‘(Club X) Way’ delusion https://theathletic.com/1973440/2020/08/05/arsenal-tottenham-west-ham-liverpool-way-premier-league/ Football fans are deluded. We are deluded that our team will win — when they won’t — and that it doesn’t matter when they’ve lost — when it does. Those delusions can be tiny and particular (a throw-in that’s ours, when it isn’t) but they also exist as giant, comforting myths. None come bigger, warmer and more mythical than your club’s Way. Deciding quite who qualifies for a capital-W “Way” and who doesn’t probably requires a doctorate in football history, plus some immaculate objectivity. The Athletic has neither of those but, guided by a few invested voices, we can attempt to navigate through one of the vaguest footballing jungles of all. The Arsenal Way, the Liverpool Way, the Tottenham Way, the West Ham Way… are these self-defining badges of honour or self-sabotaging burdens still being carried from decades ago? Before we get into that, we should establish something: what the hell is a Way? Broadly speaking, that’s quite straightforward. Most of these Ways, from the footballing hotbeds of the north east to the bragging-rights battles of north London, are founded on subtle variants of one thing: playing attractive, attacking football. The curiously English, low-key awe for Getting the Ball Down and Playing (a concept most famously shoved down the FA’s throats by Ferenc Puskas and Hungary at Wembley in 1953, and now reserved almost exclusively for televised FA Cup third-round giantkillers-elect, as if their default setting should be to hoof the ball repeatedly into a nearby tree) persists in 2020, nearly 30 years after the nadir of “can we not knock it?!” and “hit Les over the top!”. Mercifully, clubs’ claims over their footballing Ways rarely become a turf war with other traditionally self-proclaiming passing sides. Ways seem to exist mostly for internal, commercial pride rather than philosophical point-scoring. The latest club to publicly declare their Way were Arsenal, having strung together no fewer than 18 passes* between 10 players** to provoke and then penetrate Manchester City’s press in an FA Cup semi-final at Wembley before scoring a goal that, ultimately, didn’t look like it needed 18 passes and 10 players at all. (*What’s the minimum number of passes in a goalscoring move for a social media team to start counting them? Fifteen seems about right, so Arsenal are safe.) (**Meanwhile, spare a thought for Ainsley Maitland-Niles, who remains in redundant monochrome at the bottom as the only Arsenal player not to touch the ball, apparently not yet fully licensed in The Arsenal Way™️) There can never be a Way without someone happy to perpetuate it through the ages. For many clubs, that process began with influential managers. Take the Tottenham Way, for example. “You can trace that lineage back through Spurs’ history to a guy called Peter McWilliam,” explains Alan Fisher, who sat on White Hart Lane’s famous Shelf for 50 years and is now undertaking a PhD on the changing relationship between the club and its supporters. “He was a Spurs manager before and after the First World War. He brought success to the club and his coaching centred around attacking, flowing, passing football.” Then, once the Tottenham Way was truly woven into the club’s fabric by Bill Nicholson’s double winners of 1961, it became the responsibility of supporters to pass the concept down through generations. “It’s part of the romantic notion,” says Chris Paouros, a Spurs season ticket holder since 1980. “That is the romance, the hope that fills you as a football fan.” It’s at that point when ownership of the Way starts to become a little hazy. Alex Hurst, chair of the Newcastle United Supporters Trust and editor of the True Faith fanzine, is already halfway through a heavy sigh by the time The Athletic has finished pondering the perennial sky-high “expectations” at St James’ Park. Somewhere in the club’s recent history, the Newcastle Way — whatever it is — has been turned back upon them. “Yeah, it’s just not true. It doesn’t bother me so much from other fans but from the football media. Newcastle being rubbish isn’t new. It’s pretty standard. Why would so many people turn up year after year, decade after decade, to support the team if they had such high expectations that keep getting dashed almost without fail? “It’s massively patronising. It’s also weaponised by the current owner: in one of his rare interviews (with the Daily Mail last summer), he talked about stuff like, ‘I’ve finally got them a Geordie in Steve Bruce’. Well, that’s not how anyone thinks, Mike. Literally no one.” If you’ve been around long enough — and caused enough hysteria or heartbreak among your fanbase — the chances are you have a Way. Liverpool? They have a Way, which was briefly a “groove”, but is well on track to becoming a Way again. The Manchester United Way spent a good 50 years cultivating itself, then being lamented in the immediate post-Ferguson years before Ole Gunnar Solskjaer — a first-hand witness of the Way — came roaring back as manager to verbally reinstall the Way with 18 months’ worth of “this club” and “this shirt” and “these fans” and “these nights”. In his fast-track mission to Just Get It, a straight-faced Solskjaer even went as far to demand his team “get the ball in the box and the strength of the Stretford End will suck the ball in”, which — as all keen Way students will know — sounds eerily like the old Liverpool Way. If the Arsenal Way felt clear-cut with those 18 passes and 10 men (Maitland-Niles just watching), it’s not. It is, of course, the complete opposite to the grand old outlier of the original Arsenal Way, built on successful teams who were perceived as dour, defensive and pragmatic — most notably under George Graham — and whose fans literally, gleefully sang about winning 1-0. Elsewhere, the increasingly vague but comforting notions of stylish football abound. Fisher cites a quote from Danny Blanchflower, captain of Nicholson’s double-winning Spurs side, as the basis of the Tottenham Way. “The great fallacy is that the game is first and last about winning. It is nothing of the kind. The game is about glory. It is about doing things in style and with a flourish, about going out and beating the other lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom.” “There’s something about style,” says Paouros. “In the 1990s, Gerry Francis was our manager. I remember chatting to my uncle, who said: ‘It’s never gonna last. He’s not a Spurs manager. His clothes are ill-fitting and he’s got a bad haircut’. He looked a bit dishevelled and that wasn’t how we operate.” The Newcastle Way continues to wrestle with how it is depicted outside of the north east and Hurst is keen to rein in the caricature of Kevin Keegan’s mid-1990s Entertainers. “There’s a massive affection for Keegan and Bobby Robson’s teams. I think Keegan’s teams are a little bit harshly regarded. The team of 1995-96 had the fifth-best defensive record but it’s characterised as this joke, with defenders ending up ahead of forwards. It wasn’t like that. It comes from outside more than anything.” Sue Watson is the chair of the West Ham United Independent Supporters’ Association and admits the most consistent pillar of the West Ham Way is… inconsistency. “We’ve been up and down, and it builds a bond. Sometimes I watch them and I think, ‘Oh my god, you’re absolutely on fire’ and then I go to the next game and I think a kids’ school football team could do better. “For my generation, the West Ham Way was fast-paced, passing, on the ground, control; a team playing forward to score. It depends on which generation you’re from: some will cynically say the West Ham Way is to go up and down with five relegations.” From the proudly monolithic footballing Ways of Manchester United and Tottenham, the emphatically flip-reversed Arsenal Way, and the charmingly inconsistent West Ham Way, we arrive at perhaps the most unfathomable Way of all: the Chelsea Way. “I think, largely, these ‘ways’ are myths,” official club historian Rick Glanvill tells The Athletic. “They help define a relationship with a club’s fans because the fans buy into it and say, for example, ‘Well, he’s not our type of player’.” After a history of an almost, dare we say it, Tottenham-esque preoccupation with “style”, the Chelsea Way has latterly given way to 25 years of erratic but very successful short-termism. That modern era has seen a meta-Way of various short-lived Ways: after all, the watertight first season under Jose Mourinho (15 league goals conceded) was followed just five years later by Carlo Ancelotti’s Chelsea side setting a Premier League goalscoring record of 103. Finally, 14 managers into the Roman Abramovich era, Frank Lampard arrived last summer to begin ushering in a new Chelsea Way that, with its promotion of young talent combined with unpredictability at either end of the pitch, looks alarmingly like a deluxe version of the West Ham Way. It might appear as if there isn’t an overarching mentality at Stamford Bridge but Glanvill insists each of these short-lived mini-chapters are, in fact, all part of a consistent Chelsea Way. “Chelsea’s model, if you like, is to use brilliant coaches as far as the message still works and, when it stops working, to replace them with another brilliant coach. A formative tradition of Chelsea FC is to spend to accumulate. Since 1905 to the present day, Chelsea have been criticised for being a ‘moneybags’ club. In their early years, the biggest crowds in England were coming to Stamford Bridge and that money was ploughed into buying stars to fill the stadium.” As a newspaper headline from the 1920s declared, “To grow strong at any cost is the maxim of Chelsea FC”. Perhaps the Chelsea Way isn’t so erratic after all. If the average (Club X) Way was born in the 1920s, came into footballing flower sometime between the 1950s and 1970s, only to be reappropriated as in-house marketing slogans by the 2010s, what do the 2020s have in store? The era of schadenfreude — in which celebrating your rivals’ mishaps is just as much of a sport as celebrating your own glories — has brought some second-hand Ways into the mainstream — it’s no longer how the club identifies itself but how the outside does it for them. Take, for example, the playful concepts of “Typical City”, a regular reminder of the blue half of Manchester’s historical habit of shooting themselves in the foot. Or “Spursy”, the definitive universal footballing put-down. Both are valid sub-Ways of the Manchester City and Tottenham Ways, particularly because they are stuck in an endless cycle of being thrown at their fans… and then being ironically reclaimed by them. And that’s the inherent pomposity of having a Way: if you don’t declare one for yourself, somebody else almost certainly will. In 2020, Ways are more mobile than ever before. They belong more to managers than clubs. The Liverpool Way, you sense, has been usurped by Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool while, more jarringly for the traditionalists, Jose Mourinho has set about shoehorning the Tottenham Way into his own, almost against its will. “He’s just about winning,” says Paouros, before calling upon that Blanchflower quote once more. “He doesn’t care if the other side die of boredom.” But does it matter if these Ways no longer apply — or even if they never have? “Football support is about myths,” says Fisher. “This is what we do. We don’t support Tesco or Sainsbury’s. We support our heritage, a way of being. We congregate with people who believe the same things we do. That is the essence of identity and belonging for football supporters.”

Are big clubs too big? https://theathletic.com/1942252/2020/08/09/champions-league-manchester-united-city-liverpool-real-madrid-psg-barcelona-bayern/ There are two standout quotes in the film Any Given Sunday. There is the one you will find first on YouTube, the one coaches dream about, the one that has been copied and parodied and will be played in television obituaries when Al Pacino’s fight for the inches in life is finally over. And there is another, much shorter, much simpler one, one that sums up why superstars like Pacino and Cameron Diaz make movies about the National Football League. “On any given Sunday, you’re gonna win or you gonna lose. The point is, can you win or lose like a man?” Drama, jeopardy, unpredictability. They are the spice of life, right? And how you react to that uncertainty is the test and the entertainment. Released in 1999, Any Given Sunday is not just a film about American sport — it is the defining concept of American sport: built-in and refreshed competitive balance. Every year, a third of the teams in the major sports in Canada and the United States start the season thinking they have a shot while the rest will be thinking, “We could be them if we play our cards right”. How many Premier League teams will turn up to pre-season training thinking they can win the title? How many of the rest will think they could be in that happy place in a summer or two? In the Bundesliga, La Liga or Serie A? In Scotland? Over the past 20 years, six different clubs have won the Premier League, compared to 13 different World Series champions. Five teams have won the Bundesliga but there have been nine different NBA champions. Four teams have won La Liga while 12 have lifted the Stanley Cup. There have been four different Serie A winners, a dozen Super Bowl champions since Super Bowl XXXV. Twelve different teams have won the MLS Cup since 2001 but in Scotland next season, one half of the Old Firm will be trying to stop the other from winning 10 in a row. Every one of those five European football leagues had fewer different winners over the last 20 years than they had during the previous 20 years and it is a similar story for the continent’s biggest prize, the Champions League. There were 15 different winners between 1980 and 1999 but just 10 clubs reached the pinnacle of European football over the next 20 seasons. Among Europe’s five richest leagues — England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain — only the French top tier bucks this trend, with eight different teams winning the championship in the last 20 years, the same number of different winners as there were between 1981 and 2000. But even in Ligue 1, variety is declining, with Paris Saint-Germain winning seven of the last eight titles. UEFA published its 11th annual club benchmarking report in January and it once again flagged up European football’s “polarisation”, with the “big five” leagues generating 75 per cent of the game’s combined income and the top 30 clubs being responsible for more than half of the total. These clubs also account for most of the wage growth, transfer income and transfer spend. Portugal’s Porto are the only team not from a “big five” league to win the Champions League in the last two decades; five different teams from the Dutch, Portuguese, Romanian and Yugoslav leagues lifted the trophy in the 1980s and 90s. Like his predecessor Michel Platini before him, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said the report “highlights a number of threats to continued European football stability”, with “globalisation-fuelled revenue polarisation” top of the list. Spotting the issue has never been a problem for UEFA. Doing something about it, on the other hand… well, let us not be unkind. Not that UEFA has a monopoly on saying it really must do something about that stable door. In its 23rd Football Money League report, also published in January, financial services firm Deloitte noted that the “big five” leagues provided all of the clubs in the knockout stages of last season’s Champions League, as well as all of the clubs in its rich list. It also observed “the continuing emergence of mini-leagues within the Money League as the largest revenue-generating clubs pull away”. Barcelona, top of the pile, earned 4.1 times as much as 20th-placed Napoli, up from an equivalent ratio of 3.8:1 a season before. And these gaps have not just opened up in esoteric rankings like Deloitte’s list — they are growing in domestic leagues, too. Barca now earn six times as much money as Spain’s fifth-richest club, Sevilla. It is a similar story in France and Germany. The financial gaps are tighter in England, with its “big six”, and Italy, where Juventus have won nine in a row, but they are stretching, too. “We trust that key stakeholders of the game will not underestimate the importance of unpredictability in results as a key driver of long-term and sustainable value,” wrote Dan Jones, the boss of Deloitte’s sports business group, in his introduction to the report. So are the big clubs too big? Could football get… boring? For European Leagues, the organisation that represents the interests of the professional leagues in 29 countries, the answer appears to be “yes”. “The essence of exciting and valuable competitions is having sporting merit as the deciding factor in winning or losing, which leads to competitions filled with matches where unpredictable outcomes are possible and where the excitement for the fans lies in the possibility that their side could triumph,” European Leagues managing director Jacco Swart tells The Athletic. “Financial and sporting polarisation is growing and competitive balance is decreasing in both international and domestic competitions. The trend is clear and the alarm is there. “We can’t run the risk to kill the dreams and the passion of fans if we want prosperous football in the future. The vast majority of professional football in Europe is played in domestic league competitions, which use their position to benefit football, society and the economy. We must focus on reducing polarisation and improving competitive balances.” But those who study football for a living are not so sure. “I’m convinced that competitive balance matters long term,” says Sheffield Hallam University’s football finance expert Dr Rob Wilson. “Dominance of a single team, domestically or in Europe, will lead to boredom in the market. Attendances will wane and that will have an impact on broadcasting. Just look at the TV deals in Germany, Spain and Italy, where market concentration exists. It’s one of the reasons why the Premier League got so much bigger. “I think the North American model, from a regulatory point of view, drives competitive balance and provides a stronger model long term. It’s why salary caps and unequal TV distribution could be used to enhance things domestically. “The main issue is that the bigger Premier League clubs have lost sight of what made them big: competition against the smaller teams. It will be a disaster if the financial gap continues to increase. If it does, then there is a real chance that an EPL 2 emerges with some of the bigger Championship clubs. Maybe that would be the best result longer term?” Dr Nicolas Scelles, the leader of Manchester Metropolitan University’s sport business, management and policy programme, agrees that the big are getting bigger but disagrees with the notion that they have got too big. “The big clubs are far bigger than the other clubs but maybe not too big so that we will get bored and start watching something else,” Dr Scelles explains. “They have been more and more dominant since the Bosman ruling of 1995 (which gave players the right to move to new clubs at the end of their contracts without their old clubs receiving a fee), yet fan demand for men’s football has grown over this period. Research shows fans are interested in big clubs with star players, in addition to competitive balance or intensity. “The good thing with men’s football is that even when you have such big clubs with star players, other clubs can still hope to do better than them, either over one game, like when Osasuna beat Barcelona recently, or when Ajax beat Real Madrid 4-1 in the Champions League last season, or even over a season. Leicester in 2016 is probably the first example to come to mind of that or Montpellier (title-winners) in France in 2012.” And Dr Scelles is right in that there is little evidence, in terms of viewing figures, fans are switching off because they know how the story ends. “Recent research finds there is no link between competitiveness and audience sizes,” says Julian Aquilina, an expert on sports broadcasting for Enders Analysis. “It is likely that fans simply want to see the best players — it’s a bonus if they are evenly distributed between teams. Evidently, many fans are perfectly happy to watch a ‘super club’ take on a lesser team and probably more so than watching two evenly-matched lesser teams. “The way in which people follow football is obviously changing but any decline in audiences is probably more attributable to the increasing cost of subscriptions, plus competition from other media for people’s time, as opposed to waning interest in the game.” So, there is little evidence that polarisation is a problem yet — certainly not in Britain, anyway — but even Dr Scelles can see the potential for trouble. “A key question is whether we will reach a point where upsets will not happen anymore and, if so, what would be the impact on fan demand, revenue distribution across clubs and the sustainability of European men’s football as we have known it for many years,” he says. “A European Super League would, of course, not enable such upsets to happen.” Leeds Beckett University’s Dr Alexander Bond thinks how you feel about the growing concentration of attention, money and success in European football depends on your age. “Are the big clubs too big? Yes, if we think about the way football used to be, when it was more of a cultural and social institution,” says Dr Bond. “But in the modern setting, the answer is no, because the competitive balance has been eroded throughout Europe over the last two decades but interest in the game hasn’t fallen away. In fact, there is growing demand. “So traditionalists will say yes but younger fans don’t appear to care and even the smaller teams in the top leagues aren’t struggling. “The US model is underpinned by a completely different talent-distribution system, with the draft, and then you have the other mechanisms, like hard salary caps, on top of that. I suppose you could say that Financial Fair Play is an attempt at a hybrid system but it hasn’t really worked. “If football tried to engineer greater competition, it would have to be European-wide or the best players would just migrate to wherever the free market still reigned. “The majority of fans seem to be OK with the status quo. There is a minority, the so-called ‘hipster’ fan, who have gravitated towards anti-capitalist clubs like Dulwich Hamlet or St Pauli, but society, in general, has shifted towards a more capitalist and hyper-commercialised approach to entertainment. That has been the story of English football since the big clubs broke away in 1992, a move waved through by the Football Association. “There’s a generational divide now. I’m a Sunderland fan, which might explain why I’m a bit miserable about it, and I’m pretty turned off by Premier League football these days. I actually prefer the away days in League One because football is more about communities at that level. “That is why the death of Bury last year was such a travesty. Look at the impact that had on the area. And it happened at a time when Premier League clubs had £1.6 billion in cash in their bank accounts. I’m not saying it’s their responsibility to rescue Bury but that club would have been saved if some of that money was in the FA’s coffers and not theirs. But change won’t come unless the fans change.” That is certainly how it feels to fans of Bury AFC, the club born from the ashes of Bury FC’s sorry demise. “As with everything, folks vote with their feet and with the money they spend,” Bury AFC board member Marcel de Matas tells The Athletic. “The likes of Leicester winning the league was the exception that proves the rule and the demise of clubs in the lower echelons of football is a direct result of rampant commercialism. “The more global interest, the more fans, the more money, the more success… this drives the likes of (former Bury FC owner) Stewart Day and others at poorly-supported community clubs to spend extortionate levels on mediocre players to stand a chance of success, even at the lower levels. “Most teams are not happy to play at a level commensurate with their income. Player salaries alone outstrip revenue. In essence, if we stick with the current model, football in the lower leagues is unsustainable, particularly in provincial towns like ours close to big cities with major teams. I think there are many more stories of administration, bankruptcy and liquidations to come.” Bury’s big neighbour is Manchester, home to United, a club that has topped Deloitte’s global rich list 10 times since 1996, and City, last season’s domestic treble-winners, a team transformed by the wealth of a sovereign state. Ian Coyle is Bury AFC’s secretary but used to support Manchester City before switching to Bury “because of the cost and lack of interaction with the fanbase”. He is now busy preparing for his new club’s first season in the North West Counties League Division One North, the 10th tier of English football. “It seems to me that the game for smaller clubs is not to ‘do a Leicester’: that’s a once-in-a-century achievement. For smaller clubs, the target is a Burnley or a Bournemouth; to get to the top table and survive there for a few seasons, beat one or two of the big boys and have an occasional sniff at European football.” Chester FC, 50 miles southwest of Bury, are 10 years further down the road than Bury AFC as they were the phoenix club that emerged from Chester City’s winding-up. They now play in the sixth-tier National League North but know all about life in a land of giants. “The big clubs are definitely getting bigger,” says Jeff Banks, Chester’s fan engagement director. “There is no bigger example than at present because of the coronavirus, whereby clubs like ourselves are desperately trying to raise funds. We have no income and cannot continue unless we see people being allowed through the doors but at the top level, clubs are in the fortunate position that they can play without fans inside grounds and still survive. “Located where we are is also difficult but we’re not alone there, as you have the same with Greater Manchester-based clubs who probably, like us, have many fans who are a United or City fan, too. At Chester, we have fans who follow those clubs, as well as Liverpool and Everton fans. “The main difference to the big clubs is we can offer something different: the bond that has been made during testing times. We have seen players playing for free and contributing to our fundraising, too; even then they know there is a possibility they may not be at our club next season. Would that happen at a top club? “We consider ourselves as underdogs with what we’ve had to go through and, whilst we don’t anticipate being anywhere near the Premier League anytime soon, we have a dream which fans can relate to, which is a return to the Football League, and however long that takes, it’s still a realistic dream to have.” Perhaps that is the reason why fans have not switched off. European football, with its laissez-faire economics but open leagues, provides more opportunities for relative success — be it European qualification, avoiding relegation, a cup run or climbing up the pyramid — than North America’s “just win, baby” ethos. “I think the key word is relevant and what fans want is as many relevant games as possible,” says Charlie Marshall, the chief executive of the European Club Association, the group that lobbies on behalf of Europe’s 230 or so richest clubs. “We know a contest when there is something at stake is a very different ball game to a summer friendly or meaningless end-of-season fixture. The real question is whether we want to try to engineer that competitive balance into the structures we’ve got or if we are open-minded enough to evolve those structures in order to deliver competitive balance? “Do we try to squash the successful teams down and boost the unsuccessful, with heavy regulatory interventions, or do we think about new structures, new formats, that will deliver more of the relevant games we want to see?” Marshall knows this kind of talk will immediately set breakaway league warning systems beeping and flashing — and debates about an NFL-style European Super League populated by the teams in Deloitte’s Money League come around as often as scandals at FIFA, rows about the offside rule or managerial vacancies at Watford — but he rejects the idea that is the only logical outcome of a quest for relevance. “A really simple idea that works are play-offs,” he says. “Take the Premier League as an example. You have a contest at the top for the title, one for the European places, and then another a bottom. “But what about the teams that finish between sixth and 17th? I don’t think fans of Premier League clubs are particularly bothered that each place is worth £2.5 million but what if finishing sixth really mattered more than finishing seventh or eighth? The Belgian and Greek leagues have moved to end-of-season play-off systems and play-offs are pretty popular in the US!” The Champions League, the competition that has provided so much of the rocket fuel that has allowed the elite to distance themselves from the field, resumed this week with 10 teams still in it. All of them are from one of Europe’s five richest leagues and all bar Atalanta and RB Leipzig are in the top 20 biggest-earning clubs. In fact, five of Deloitte’s top six are still involved. “Are you not entertained?” was the question posed by Gladiator, another film about sporting contests with just enough uncertainty to keep fans guessing. For football fans the answer appears to be yes — but only if the barbarians get to win the battle of Carthage every now and again.

Inside Lampard’s first season https://theathletic.com/1980864/2020/08/09/lampard-frank-marina-roman-chelsea/ The Chelsea players have not seen Frank Lampard like this before. It is December 21, the eve of last season’s first meeting with Tottenham Hotspur and their new head coach is more animated than ever. Like at all clubs, holding a meeting before a match to go over tactics and the opposition is part of the routine. But this is no normal game as far as Lampard is concerned, and that means no ordinary team talk. Most of the individuals in the room have faced Spurs before, whether in the first team or as academy players and certainly are aware of the intense rivalry between the two London clubs. But Lampard, who played in 30 games between Chelsea and Tottenham between 2001-14, still wants to make sure everyone appreciates just how important this is. “Frank had given a lot of speeches ahead of previous games, but this was different,” an insider tells The Athletic. “He spoke with so much passion about what the fixture means, especially to the Chelsea fans. This was a contest they had to give their all in, leave nothing to chance, to leave everything out on the pitch. Everyone was inspired, everyone was fired up. They were all talking about it afterwards. And what happened? Chelsea won 2-0 in one of their best performances of the season.” This was one of many highs during Lampard’s debut season as Chelsea head coach. Inevitably, there have been several lows too with perhaps the worst saved till last. Losing an FA Cup final to Arsenal and then being knocked out of the Champions League 7-1 on aggregate by Bayern Munich over the past 10 days left a bitter aftertaste and were a reminder of just how much work there is to be done. But pre-season predictions from outside the club of how Chelsea would fare were confounded. Despite a transfer ban last summer and the departure of star man Eden Hazard to Real Madrid, Chelsea qualified for next season’s Champions League by finishing fourth in the Premier League. It has not been dull, as not everything has run smoothly. This is the story of how Lampard went about his first year in charge at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea already had a pretty good idea of the man they were hiring to replace Maurizio Sarri. Former England midfielder Lampard’s intense work ethic and determination to succeed over his 13 trophy-laden seasons as a player for the club hadn’t been forgotten in the five years since he left at the age of 36 for brief spells at Manchester City and in Major League Soccer. Several names were considered, Massimiliano Allegri and Laurent Blanc among them, but Lampard quickly became the favourite and his appointment was confirmed on July 4, 2019. To get an insight into what drives Lampard the manager, the first thing to take into consideration is that he didn’t need to take the Chelsea job. He had just launched his managerial career with an enjoyable 12 months at Derby County, albeit suffering the disappointment of losing the Championship play-off final, and had two years remaining on his contract there. That wasn’t the only thing. One source explains: “Frank was happy at Derby and could have stayed there, but people forget there was no need for him to have gone into management altogether. He was a very successful and respected pundit on television before that. “Lampard is a clever man. He is very wealthy, not just from earnings as a player but he has invested in a lot of business ventures. Put it this way, he doesn’t have to work again. He is not in this for the money. “What is less known is that another club came in for him last year and offered a very exciting project. But he couldn’t turn Chelsea down. Obviously, the connection was very strong and even though it came early in his coaching career, he didn’t want to run the risk of the opportunity not coming up again. Lampard knew there would be pressure from day one at Chelsea, but he loved it as a player and he loves it as a coach. He thrives on it.” Inevitably, his announcement was greeted with plenty of cynicism and criticism, particularly from outside the club’s west London patch. Some felt the 41-year-old with one year in management under his belt only got the job because he was a popular former Chelsea player and that he’d been brought in to keep the fans onside while the club coped for a season without being able to buy players (FIFA’s initial two-window embargo was later reduced to one on appeal). If things went wrong under him, a replacement would easily be found. Lampard knew the stakes and wasn’t fazed. As he said at his unveiling in front of Chelsea director Marina Granovskaia and chairman Bruce Buck: “Coming here 18 years ago (when he was signed from West Ham United) was a challenge. I remember driving home and had the radio on and some people were questioning whether I should be here for £11 million. I worked really hard to put that right as a player and now I am in a position where I have to work really hard to be successful as a manager here. “I understand fans want success. My playing career is gone. If I wanted to go away for the rest of my life, look back on my career and protect it, I could have done that. I didn’t want that. I don’t see it as a risk. I am the type of personality that loves challenges, I don’t fear the challenge. I am not fearful of the downside. “I feel that hunger to prove myself even more. I felt it as a player and I think there is nothing better in football. Nobody has an easy road as far as I’m concerned. There are always marks or steps in your career when questions are asked of you no matter who you are, and as a player I really liked that.” Lampard did not waste any time in making it clear what he wanted his Chelsea to be. On the first day at the Cobham training ground, all the staff (non-playing, as well as any squad members who had reported back by that stage) were summoned for a meeting. A rousing speech intended to get everyone on board was given, stressing how people should be proud to work for Chelsea, that there would be an open-door policy in terms of communication and things would be different from what had gone on before. Unlike under Antonio Conte between 2016-18 and his fellow Italian Sarri in 2018-19 to a degree, there would be no strict rules about what was available on the menu at the canteen or to be eaten at home. Of course, a healthy diet was encouraged, but there was no ban on items such as tomato ketchup. People were told they would be treated as grown-ups as far as nutrition was concerned. Many of the first-team players had found Sarri difficult to work under. His repetitive training methods bored them. On top of that, there was limited communication and, of course, his smoking. Lampard’s fresh approach was welcomed. “Players liked Lampard’s training from the start, and still do,” a source close to a senior player tells The Athletic. “He is always in a good mood, the atmosphere is really good. What they needed after Sarri was a lot of new exercises and new ways to do things. It was stale last season, they always did the same drills. “Lampard also brought in a more exciting style of play — to play out from the back. Instead of 20 passes to go up the field, it was trying to cover the same ground in two, three passes and switching the play. I know the players are very happy with him. He is very easy to get a smile from. The players like that. The players relate to him because he has been there as a player himself.” Another priority was to use the academy, to make people feel a proper connection between Chelsea’s successful youth set-up and the building where the senior players are housed. The appointments of former Chelsea youth coaches Jody Morris, who had also been his assistant at Derby, and Joe Edwards as part of a small first-team backroom staff were an early statement of intent. Academy graduates such as Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Andreas Christensen and Callum Hudson-Odoi had been given game minutes by previous Chelsea managers, but there wasn’t much of a relationship between the junior and older ranks on-site at Cobham. Conte and Sarri didn’t watch the youngsters’ games or training sessions. Conversely, Lampard travelled across to specifically talk to academy staff from an early stage, encouraging them to feel part of what he was trying to build. The under-18s were invited to train with the first team for the first time on August 2. Whenever academy players are brought over to take part, Lampard makes a point of shaking their hands and ensures they are fully integrated in all the exercises. These were the same methods he employed at Derby, where Chelsea rising stars Mason Mount and Fikayo Tomori were played on a regular basis after signing on loan. The former was so convinced about what Lampard can do having worked under him at Championship level, he agreed a new five-year deal between his appointment and Chelsea’s departure on July 15 for their pre-season tour in Japan. From an early stage it was stressed that it didn’t matter who you were or how old — if you trained well, you would be given a chance. This was underlined when Mount and Tammy Abraham started the opening Premier League game at Manchester United, to most pundits’ great surprise. During the season’s first international break in September, Lampard shared a few beers with academy manager Neil Bath, his much-respected assistant Jim Fraser and other academy staff members. A few days later, Chelsea won 5-2 at Wolves with Tomori, Mount and Abraham (with a hat-trick) scoring the goals. While conducting his post-match duties, Lampard made a point of praising the academy staff he’d been out with earlier in the week. He said: “They’ve worked here for years. They bring players through with a great attitude and desire. When they work for hours and hours with these young players, and invest time, it’s nice for them to see.” Youngsters such as Hudson-Odoi, who were expected to leave if Sarri had stayed at the helm for 2019-20, now signed new long-term contracts instead. Eight in total made their professional debuts for Chelsea last season. “Frank has been good for the young players, he is easy to talk to and is approachable,” one squad member’s agent explains. “We have not had this with other managers that have been in the building previously. There is a feeling that the door is always open if you need to talk, which is a good thing. It’s kind of been forgotten in all this, but it’s unique for Chelsea to have an English manager and that helps a lot with the communication.” As negotiations took place with the hierarchy about the Chelsea job, Lampard made it clear he wanted a small group to form the staff. Along with Morris and Edwards came fitness coach Chris Jones, as well as goalkeeping coach Hilario. Loan-player technical coach Eddie Newton was also promoted. Lampard wanted to avoid what had happened under Sarri, whose number of assistants ran into double figures. As an insider says: “He wanted it to be tight-knit, unlike what had happened the season before. Players can view it as too many voices or voices for nothing. Frank thinks it’s better to have a smaller group, for opinions to come from just a few people.” The bond is close with Morris, Edwards and Jones most of all — so much so that Newton had the freedom to leave in February for a new challenge managing Trabzonspor, who he led to victory in the Turkish Cup final last month. Lampard is not a dictator, allowing his deputies to lead training sessions, although he is the one who takes charge in the days preceding matches and outlines the tactics. On the occasions he does take a back seat, he is still visible. He wears boots and training kit so he can join in the fun if the mood takes him. The insider adds: “Just as he did extra bits after training when he was player, Lampard is huge on individual extras. Everyone has a plan, it doesn’t matter if you are 18 or 32. Things are drawn up on what someone can do better and it’s logged, so it could be working on someone’s heading, crossing or getting into areas at the back post to finish.” Of the four, Morris is believed to be the most blunt when it comes to giving a rebuke or bad news, but Lampard does not shirk this side of the job either. The 42-year-old also set up a WhatsApp group for his coaching quartet to remain in constant contact. The chat is thought to be very busy, especially after a defeat. A post mortem of what went wrong is discussed and planning on how to start fixing things in training. But it has also provided a support network for Lampard and those closest to him. They lean on each other to lift themselves after a negative result. The most important relationship any Chelsea manager must have, of course, is with owner Roman Abramovich. Lampard is fortunate in this respect in that he already had a good one from his time as a player, when the two men would talk in the dressing room after games and celebrate winning trophies. The Russian multi-billionaire would even seek his opinion about signings — for example, Lampard was asked about Michael Ballack before his fellow midfielder arrived in 2006. Due to visa issues, Abramovich is no longer at Stamford Bridge to watch matches like he used to be. While it is thought they met for talks before Lampard accepted the job, contact has been minimal since. But that is not of great significance given Granovskaia has been trusted by Abramovich to run the club anyway and Lampard talks with her on a regular basis. Another form of communication is through technical and performance advisor, and long-time Chelsea team-mate, Petr Cech. Ahead of the FA Cup final last weekend, Lampard was asked about whether he had received any positive feedback from Abramovich for his first-year efforts. He replied: “We haven’t been in touch, and there’s nothing in that. I don’t need a phone call, or a message, or recognition like that, because I feel the support from the owner. “I have felt it from him from the moment I took the job. I felt it for many years as a player. I am happy if I can make him happy. “I have a very close relationship with Marina and Petr. That relationship has been really good. It feels like a real strength that I can speak to Petr regularly. I can speak with Marina and work in a joined-up way. All of that will come through the owner. I don’t need those calls (but) I’ll be there if they are to be had.” Lampard’s considered and intelligent demeanour means he can sometimes be underestimated. But this is not someone who should be considered a soft touch. The Chelsea squad quickly got to realise that. From the outset, Lampard let it be known he wasn’t afraid to make big decisions. Defender David Luiz was a team-mate when Chelsea won the European Cup final in 2012, but that didn’t save him from being sold last August. A poor performance in a 5-3 pre-season win at RB Salzburg led to his downfall. Words were exchanged between the pair after the match and the Brazilian was left out of the following friendly against Borussia Monchengladbach. Luiz was worried about the lack of game time he would get but, living up to the mantra delivered to the squad on day one, Lampard did not assure the centre-back that he would be first choice. In an encouraging sign of their new relationship, Chelsea backed Lampard and agreed to sell Luiz to Arsenal for £8 million, less than three months after he’d signed a two-year contract. That is not the only big call Lampard has made. The world’s most expensive goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga, who joined from Athletic Bilbao for £71 million under Sarri two years ago, was dropped in February for poor performances and again for the regular-season finale, FA Cup final and second leg against Bayern. Christian Pulisic, a £57 million acquisition from Borussia Dortmund who arrived last summer in a deal done when Sarri was in charge, went nearly two months from the start of September without starting a Premier League game. This was a high-profile purchase and there were a lot of questions from across the Atlantic over why US soccer’s golden boy was being ignored. But Lampard wanted to protect Pulisic, who did not get much of a summer break after helping his country reach the CONCACAF Gold Cup final. There was also a feeling the attacking midfielder needed time to adjust to the pace and physical nature of the Premier League. Then there was deciding to start 18-year-old midfielder Billy Gilmour rather than Italy international Jorginho in the FA Cup fifth-round tie against title-bound Liverpool. It paid off as the teenager ran the show in a 2-0 Chelsea win. That isn’t to say Lampard has got every team selection right. Striker Olivier Giroud finished the season strongly with a run of eight goals in 11 matches yet started just two Premier League games in the season’s first six months — a lack of action which almost caused the France international to leave in January. The centre-backs have been chopped and changed as the number in the goals conceded column continued to climb. Lampard’s favoured 4-3-3 formation has been abandoned for three at the back on more than one occasion too, leading some critics to question whether he knew what his best team was. “He is not the kind of manager to explain why you’ve been left out,” another source close to a player reveals. “This is football at the highest level. If you’re not playing, there is a reason. He can only pick 11 players. What Lampard wants to see, if you’ve not been playing, is to work hard in training. He bases a lot of his decisions on that. “Of course if you’re not playing for a few months you can have a chat, ask things like, ‘What do I have to do better?’ But you just have to work hard in training. Players obviously don’t go to him every time. The players accept it and know they have to work harder.” Lampard has confessed he feels the joy of victory and the pain of defeat much more as a manager than when he was just a member of Chelsea’s first XI. Ahead of the FA Cup final loss to Arsenal, he admitted to being “obsessed” with making his team a success and that he spends evenings in front of the work laptop rather than watching Netflix. There is still plenty to improve on. Despite constantly working on it at the training ground, only French club Amiens conceded from a higher proportion of corners this season in Europe’s top five divisions. Lampard has complained to close friends about “the lack of dressing room leaders” and that there isn’t enough height in the team. Supporters have been frustrated that there has been little sign of improvement, and he can be sensitive to any criticism. Noticeably, unlike Jose Mourinho, who he played under for two spells at Chelsea, Lampard does not single out individuals in the media, preferring to keep things in-house. His approach is appreciated by the players. “He is not like Conte — you knew if you lost games he would rant at you, go hard,” defender Antonio Rudiger tells The Athletic. “The coach is a bit more quiet in the way he says things. “The most important thing is that when he gets to that (angry) point — and he does — we are all grown men. Everyone hears what he has to say and can think about what the coach has said. I think he has dealt very well with that pressure and kept us all alive, even if things were going good or bad. “For me, first of all, it’s about what he is like as a human being. It’s not just about what titles he has won as a player. But sometimes it helps. He is an open-minded coach and you can ask him about times when he was playing. He knows the pressure, what the people here in this club want to see. He knows about those pressure games, what it’s like to play in finals. That is definitely something that talks for him. That’s good.” Rudiger’s rapport with Lampard took longer to build after missing the start of the season with a knee injury and then picking up a groin problem in his comeback match at Wolves, so wasn’t a regular starter until December. The Germany international adds: “With me, when I came back from Rome after having surgery, it was difficult, for him as well. He had to prepare for the season and I was out. Of course there was some talking but I couldn’t blame him (for not talking to me too much) because he had to focus more on the team. If you are injured, you are a bit sidelined. That’s normal. “I don’t feel like someone always has to come and talk to me. I can’t complain. He has been great to me. It can happen when you are out of the side. I had to fight my way back and, in the end, he decides.” One of the worst displays of the season came on the post-lockdown run-in. Chelsea went to Sheffield United and were flattered by the final margin of a 3-0 loss. There were some strong words for the TV cameras from Lampard and many assumed even stronger ones in the dressing room. But they assumed wrong. “Frank is a cool, calm character,” a source says. “He doesn’t go horrendously over the top when they do well, nor when they do badly. He tries to keep it in the even keel. “For example, after the Sheffield United game, he didn’t say much. He didn’t rant and rave. He just said, ‘We are back in training tomorrow, we have some big games coming up’. It was the right thing to do, because Chelsea had so many games coming thick and fast.” In some ways, Lampard sees having to cope with adversity as not necessarily a bad thing, whether for him or the young players whose professional careers are still in their infancy. Someone who works closely with him says: “Frank knew what he was getting into when he went there. He knew it was going to be tough. When things aren’t going well, he just reverts to what he’s like – what he’s always been like. Work, work, work on the training ground. Tactical meetings, specific drills for upcoming opponents. Everything’s about preparation. “It’s good for them to learn as well. They have to learn it’s not going to be easy. For Tammy and Mason, starting every game, winning every game, it must have seemed so easy. And it’s not. In some ways, for those players’ developments, he might even recognise the odd setback as being beneficial. They’re still learning, even to get to the right level of fitness to cope with it all. But he instils a lot of confidence in them all. “The last few years, the environment over there has not been very positive, but he has had a cleansing effect. He’s lifted the whole place. They’re working as a team as well, which they hadn’t been doing. Under Conte and Sarri, there had been groups and cliques. There’s a unity about them more now; they’re all in it together.” This was summed up by what happened at the FA Cup final. Chelsea and Arsenal were granted permission to bring another 1o personnel to Wembley to watch the behind-closed-doors game, on top of those included in the matchday squad. Lampard made sure their shirt numbers were hanging up in the Chelsea dressing room as well so they could feel part of it. So 17-year-old Lewis Bate, who was an unused substitute in that Sheffield United defeat in July, had the boost of seeing his No 64 jersey on display as well as benefiting from the experience of being at the national stadium for a showpiece occasion. Their head coach was a support for the players during the three-and-a-half month break in the season caused by the pandemic. He was in touch regularly and, with his staff, made sure their fitness regimes and motivation levels were being maintained. That wasn’t all. “All the players were allowed to go back home, if they weren’t travelling through a busy airport,” a source says. “He has a human side, he is a family man (has a wife and three daughters). He knows what it’s like to be a player, how a player thinks. He knows what buttons to push.” Influential midfielder N’Golo Kante was the most nervous to resume training in June due to concerns over COVID-19. But the France international was given permission to report back to Cobham whenever he wished and the gesture didn’t go unnoticed. He was soon with the group and started the first match after the restart. It was another sign of Lampard’s style paying off. There has been a lot of conjecture over the years as to the extent that a Chelsea manager is involved in the transfer process. The club have always maintained they always get consulted. Lampard has shown signs of frustration at times, particularly in January when no signings were made despite the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling they could do so after halving FIFA’s transfer ban. But just like his players, Lampard didn’t do the blame game in public and there have been no explosive headlines about disputes behind the scenes. A pleasant change. Hakim Ziyech and Timo Werner were signed in February and June respectively ahead of the 2020-21 season. In both cases, Lampard was a key figure in the process. While Granovskaia concentrated on agreeing the fee, Lampard was the one who sold his Chelsea project to both players, talking to them by phone and messaging them. He explained where they will fit into the team, but also the three-year project the club have in place to become challengers for the Premier League and Champions League titles again. It is believed he has done the same thing with Bayer Leverkusen star Kai Havertz and that transfer is likely to be concluded too, once the two sides agree terms. Lampard is not afraid to block the signing of a player who has been extensively scouted by the club either. An agent has divulged to The Athletic how one of his clients had been lined up for a move to Stamford Bridge but the transfer never materialised. He says: “Chelsea scouts had attended loads of my player’s games and were always messaging me in advance saying they were going to watch him, that they wanted him for the long-term. It had always been driven by their scouting team. “You might argue they are the guys who had done the graft and long-term planning but, when it came to the crunch, Frank felt there was a younger player coming through in that position whom he wanted to give a proper chance. That trumped everything else. That’s completely his prerogative, given he’s in charge — it shows his strength of mind, if anything; that he knows what he wants. “I’ve taken other players as options to Chelsea and spoken with their scouting department, and they’ve come back with, ‘This is what Frank wants, etc’. A lot of it (the transfer business) at the moment seems to be Lampard, from what I can see.” All things considered, 2019-20 will be regarded as a success for Chelsea. A record of 29 wins from 55 games in all competitions, fourth spot in the Premier League, reaching the last 16 of the Champions League and the FA Cup final is a good foundation to build from. But Lampard isn’t naive. He knows he will under even more strain when the games begin again next month. Chelsea have won 16 major trophies in 17 years under Abramovich and more silverware will be expected. History shows the price for failure is the sack. But as one insider concludes: “There is underlying excitement in what he’s trying to build. I’d be thrilled if I was a Chelsea fan in terms of what he’s trying to do compared to the previous managers. He is trying to do things his way.”

absolutely peak Willian could not shine peak Pedro's boots different level go back and watch him in the late noughties and early 20teenies insane pace, one of the fastest Spanish wingers ever I so hope he comes back here in some official capacity someday

pure class act, great servant and human being, he literally has one every trophy possible at top level, 26 in all, including 3 with us key player on the single greatest one season team ever, that 2010-11 Barca juggernaut superb buy for us wish him nothing but the best, and deffo will watch him at Roma

Liverpool is NOT the best team on the planet atm, they have went into a tailspin for months, and that was with no serious key injuries started in mid february when they barely beat the worst team in the league 1 nil, on a late Mane goal then these were there next 13 games 5 wins, 6 losses, 2 draws yes, they did finish up winning the last 2, but that is SO not a run of the best team on the planet we just played the best team on the planet atm (for months and months), Bayern the last time Bayern lost a game was over 8 months ago now 27 wins, zero losses, 1 draw (nil nil to RB Leipzig in February) 105 goals scored, 25 conceded in their last 33 games, since the beginning of November and all that has been with them having massive key injuries, including basically missing both their starting CB's for a huge chunk of the season (Niklas Süle 642 league minutes, Lucas Hernandez 912) take away VVD and Gomez from the scouser scum for 75 to 85% of their games lol, Matip and Lovren they would be battling spuds and Wolves to sneak in the EL, especially if their front 3 Ferraris missed as many games as Bayern's forwards have Lewa was out 5 games, Gnabry 6, Perisic 15, Coman 14, Coutinho 12 ALL YEAR Firmino missed zero games due to injury Salah 1 Mane 2 Origi 2 do you really think that level will hold??? lolol

IF most (or dog forbid, all) of the flowing happen 1. we fuck the Havertz transfer 2. we dot not sign a winger now that the cunt Willian is walking on a free (especially if no Havertz) 3 End up do nothing at GK 4. bollocks up the Rice move 5, buy what I think are shit left backs and/or CB's 6 we continue to have massive systemic injuries (clearly, at that point, we are doing something wrong) Lampard WILL be sacked during the coming season BOOK IT if Havertz ends up at an another EPL club next summer, we are going to be punished for years I already am worried that fuckstick Willian is going to hammer us when we face Arse, as it just seems like the sort of bad, bad karma we seem to have

Raphael Varane will come back from Etihad nightmare, but will this Real Madrid? https://theathletic.com/1973562/2020/08/08/raphael-varane-real-madrid-champions-league/ Raphael Varane’s two very uncharacteristic but decisive individual mistakes were the initial headline takeaway as Real Madrid were eliminated from the Champions League at Manchester City on Friday night. Varane was distraught afterwards, and faced up on Spanish TV to take full responsibility for what had happened. “I want to show my face as this defeat is mine,” the France international said. “We had prepared well, but you pay for mistakes at this level, very dearly. I cannot explain the mistakes, it can happen in football, this is a difficult night for me. It has not happened to me very often before. You have to have character to come back even stronger.” Still 27, Varane has had an otherwise excellent season, and already has 19 career trophies, including four Champions Leagues and a World Cup. He will be back to add to that tally over the next few years, we can be pretty sure about that. The big problem for Madrid is that they cannot now make the serious changes elsewhere in their team as they were well beaten by City over the two legs. Los Blancos were deservedly eliminated from the competition at the last-16 stage, just as they were last season when Ajax shocked the then holders by knocking them out at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu. And Zidane now is stuck with more or less the same squad again for 2020-21, and maybe even further. Losing both games against City — deservedly so — made it the first time Madrid had been beaten in each leg of a Champions League tie since they lost 1-0 at home and 4-0 away to Rafa Benitez’s Liverpool back in 2009. That disgrace was followed by Florentino Perez returning as Madrid club president, and over 300 million euros spent on Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Xabi Alonso and Karim Benzema the following summer. That was the response expected when Madrid suffered a setback — they would buy their way out of trouble. It did not work immediately, but alongside other very top players like Gareth Bale and Toni Kroos, the base of the team was put into place which would go on to win an unprecedented four Champions Leagues in five seasons from 2014 to 2019. Over that period Madrid were not always the best club team around, but they had so many big stars at the peak of their careers that they almost always found a way to win in the biggest European occasions. That is no longer the case. Madrid a decade ago were clearly world football’s biggest spenders, but a lot has changed since then. Most important was the entrance of billionaire owners elsewhere, such as those who have bankrolled City’s emergence and construction of a team which is now more talented, more motivated and much younger than Madrid’s. That was the case even before the €600 million Bernabeu stadium rebuild and COVID-19 pandemic both seriously affected Madrid’s finances. The current difference between Madrid and City teams was summed up by Kevin De Bruyne completely overshadowing Luka Modric as the most influential midfielder on the pitch at the Etihad. Modric’s frustration saw the almost 35-year-old booked midway through the second half for a tired hack at De Bruyne, after the Belgian had again skipped away from him in the centre of the park. It was quite similar to what happened as Ajax knocked Madrid out of the competition at the same last-16 stage last season — when Frenkie de Jong cheekily eased his way past the Croatian as part of a dominant midfield performance. Asked at Friday’s post-game press conference if Madrid now needed to spend lots of money this summer to strengthen the squad, Zidane preferred to talk up how well his current players had done over the course of 2019-20. “We have to be very proud of the team, of what we did,” Zidane replied. “This has been an excellent season. Today we are not happy, as these players always want to win. But sometimes you lose. We must remain calm, keep our heads up. As 95 per cent of all the players have done, all season, have been spectacular, excellent. And I will stick with that. We must be very happy with what we have done.” It was understandable for Zidane to look to protect his current players, but it was also just not true. Madrid have had plenty of bad moments all the way through 2019-20. They won just three of their eight Champions League games over the campaign, against Galatasaray (twice) and Club Bruges. They exited the Copa del Rey embarrassingly 4-3 at home to Real Sociedad. Their La Liga form before COVID-19 struck was very uneven, and while their 10-game winning streak post-lockdown was impressive in its seriousness and determination, all the chaos at Barcelona was also a big factor in Madrid winning the strangest of Spanish title races. Zidane’s message about his squad on Friday was also strikingly different to what he said when he returned as coach in March 2019. Then he spoke openly about a “second project” and the “changes” that would be made “for sure” the following summer, regularly mentioning publicly players he wanted to bring in such as Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappe. Circumstances — and Perez — thwarted that plan for a significant overhaul. Gareth Bale and James Rodriguez remained at the Bernabeu, while neither Pogba nor Mbappe arrived. The one big name who Zidane was given was long-time target Eden Hazard — who has scored just once in the whole season since his €100 million arrival from Chelsea, due to serial ankle problems which will not go away. Whenever asked about his plans for this summer’s transfer window, Perez has been very careful to keep everyone’s expectations under control. “There will not be any big signings,” he said during the La Liga title celebrations in mid-July. “The situation is very bad. It is difficult to ask the players to take salary cuts, and then sign big players.” Asked specifically about Paris Saint-Germain star Mbappe, with whom Zidane has already cultivated a very close personal relationship, the construction magnate suggested that this was not the right time, yet, to make that move. “That can wait,” he said. “Real Madrid will return to signing the best players around, when the situation changes, and these things can be taken on.” That fits with the strategy which has been leaking out of Madrid for some time now. Their transfer decision-makers feel that they are very well placed to be Mbappe’s next club, and that they can play a waiting game. The 21-year-old has just two years left on his current contract and has rebuffed attempts by the PSG hierarchy to extend it. If sources around the Bernabeu are to be believed, he is stonewalling any attempts to extend that to make an escape to Madrid next summer as easy (and cheap) as possible. What Zidane thinks of having to go into next season with the same squad, being stuck with Bale and James while having to wait for Mbappe, remains to be seen. After what was his first loss in 13 Champions League ties/finals as a coach, the Frenchman repeatedly dodged questions over his future at the post-game news conference at the Etihad late on Friday night. “We will have to see what we will do. We all need to rest a bit,” was his first response to the question. “We will have to see what we would need to have a great season,” he said when pressed to confirm if he would still be in charge when the new La Liga campaign starts in September. Differences of opinion between the president and coach over how much can be spent on new players do not appear to be resolved. If Perez cannot find the money to improve the individual quality of the squad, can Zidane improve as a tactician to make them play better collectively as a team? Is that a challenge he is keen to take on? Those questions were left hanging in the air as Madrid arrived back in the Spanish capital early on Saturday morning, with the longest season ever having finished earlier than they had expected.

How Manchester United plan to use Jadon Sancho https://theathletic.com/1980977/2020/08/08/jadon-sancho-manchester-united-dortmund-woodward/ Having strained forlornly for creativity at various stages in the last 12 months, the burst of fluency that carried Manchester United to a happy conclusion for Champions League qualification has provoked a curious debate regarding plans for summer strengthening. Where, exactly, would Jadon Sancho fit into Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team? The question, posed by many observers, is fair in context of the 22 goals scored in six victories and three draws in the final nine Premier League matches after football’s resumption. Mason Greenwood’s emergence as a super-effective threat from the right wing has also clouded earlier clarity that United require enhancement in that position — a priority outlined to intermediaries a number of weeks ago. It is worth saying at this stage that Sancho’s prospective arrival is far from assured. Negotiations with Borussia Dortmund are creeping along through agents, there is a valuation gap, and personal terms remain to be agreed. But Solskjaer has pinpointed the 20-year-old as the ideal piece of recruitment this window, so exploring why feels worthwhile. The basic answer is that a club with aspirations of challenging for the title cannot rely on the same front three for the course of a campaign when one is 18 years old and susceptible to ebbs of form like any young player. Daniel James is the alternative for that role but after a blistering start to his United career, his performances have plateaued to levels that, in all honesty, were to be expected of a player with one previous season of senior football behind him, at Swansea in the Championship. He has good potential and is very useful as a counter-attacking option, especially if he can improve his decision-making in the final third, as is being worked on at Carrington. James has also been asked to play on the opposite flank to where he had his success at Swansea. His goals against Crystal Palace and Southampton last August show a winger who prefers to cut in from the left but that channel belongs to Marcus Rashford now, and such has been his productivity United’s attacking areas have leaned distinctly to the left — 41.45 percent to 34.77 percent, as this graphic relating to the Premier League shows. The dots represent where assists came from, and although 16 are located in the right third compared to nine in the left third (excluding corners), a further 10 in the left half of the middle third compared to five in the right half of the middle third highlight those occasions when Rashford and Anthony Martial have linked up to penetrative effect. The idea, as far as United are concerned, is creating the same level of threat on the right so the overall areas of attack are spread more evenly. As one source close to the club put it, Sancho’s signing would give Solskjaer “total unpredictability” for his forward unit. United see him primarily playing on the right but as illustrated by his Bundesliga heat map, supplied by Wyscout, he is equally adept on the left. Such dexterity opens up the prospect that Sancho, who has 30 goals and 33 assists in 78 games in Germany’s top flight, could not only lift United’s right wing to elite standards but provide various options across the frontline. There is even a thought at Old Trafford, pretty terrifying for opposition defenders, that Sancho, Rashford, Martial and Greenwood could all play in the same side. Greenwood would likely shift central to accommodate Sancho on the right, in what would be a similarly loaded line-up to those which populated United’s treble season, or more recently the 2008-09 campaign of Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Carlos Tevez, and Dimitar Berbatov. Admittedly that foursome may only have been on the pitch at the same time infrequently — to positive effect from half-time of the 5-2 comeback win over Tottenham Hotspur and to lesser success for the last 24 minutes of the 2-0 loss to Barcelona in that season’s Champions League final — but they also opened up opportunities for rotation with no drop-off in quality. With Paul Pogba and Bruno Fernandes most likely in the middle, it would place a burden on the defence but when the title has been won with 100, 98, and 99 points in the past three seasons the emphasis for United to even think of challenging will be through scoring plenty of goals. “Sancho would be a massive leg up for United to chasing City and Liverpool in terms of firepower,” says an informed source. The prospect of Sancho’s arrival allowing Greenwood to move to a central role would suit the teenager best, according to one of his former coaches. “I still think at the moment we are playing Mason in the wrong place, we should be playing him down the middle, not so much as a target man, but as a forward connecting to the midfield,” says Clayton Blackmore, who worked in United’s academy when Greenwood was first emerging. “It should be a two up front, for me, but people don’t like that. It could be one up front, one behind. Mason needs to be in the middle of the field, really. He can run at people. He showed the other night, one little stepover, he’d lost the defender for a split second to set up a good chance.” The notion of Greenwood in tandem with Martial may seem a throwback to a bygone era but in other ways it would reflect how Pep Guardiola has redefined what is required on a consistent basis. Liverpool, under Jurgen Klopp, have kept pace and overtaken with a side of beautiful synchronicity and this could be United’s own response. It would require Rashford and Sancho to track back on the wings but their statistics in this regard are encouraging. The heat map from earlier gives indication of Sancho’s work in his own half and he has recorded an average of two interceptions and 3.4 recoveries per 90 minutes in the Bundesliga. Rashford’s Premier League heat map (below) demonstrates a similar willingness to do the less glamourous parts of the game and per 90 minutes in the Premier League he has recorded 1.8 interceptions and 2.1 recoveries. Admittedly these fall someway short of Nemanja Matic’s 5.39 interceptions and 10.01 recoveries per 90 minutes in the Premier League but his role is almost exclusively defensive. Undeniably though, offence is the reason for United’s serious interest in Sancho. He is both an excellent carrier of the ball and a player capable of opening up chances through his passing. Per 90 minutes in the Bundesliga, Sancho completes 7.7 dribbles at a 48.6 per cent success rate and averages 3.6 progressive runs (either 10-metre carries in the opposition half or 30-metre carries in a player’s own half.) Rashford, who is an expert in this aspect of the game, averages 6.3 dribbles per 90 minutes in the Premier League at a 44.2 per cent success rate and two progressive runs. Greenwood averages 3.3 dribbles at a 56.1 per cent success and 1.4 progressive runs. James, meanwhile, averages 5.3 dribbles at a 56.9 per cent success rate and 3.5 progressive runs. The Premier League has greater depth of quality than the Bundesliga, of course, so that disparity has to be factored in, but Sancho’s numbers stay steady in the Champions League. Per 90 minutes he has 6.7 dribbles at a 50 per cent success and 3.5 progressive runs. The pitch map below marks where Sancho has started his take-ons or been fouled in the Champions League. Again, it shows his activity across both flanks and in his own half. In 15 appearances in Europe’s elite club competition, Sancho has scored three goals and provided three assists. One of these came against Inter, when playing as a right-sided attacking midfielder, to cap a comeback win from 2-0 down. He moved into a pocket of space outside the area and called for possession from Achraf Hakimi, who played the ball sharply and ran towards the box. Sancho took one touch to control and threaded a weighted pass with his second so Hakimi could finish first time on the run. It was one of three successful through-balls — defined as a pass into the empty spaces behind the defensive line, leaving the attacking player alone against the goalkeeper — Sancho has provided in the Champions League, and is of the same technical quality to Greenwood’s goal against West Ham, or Martial’s against Sheffield United, assisted respectively by sharp passes from Martial and Rashford. It is easy to see how Sancho’s way of thinking would slot in. A similar pass came against Barcelona in the Nou Camp from the left wing, playing in Julian Brandt for a shot that was saved by Marc-Andre ter Stegen and, in the Bundesliga, Sancho averages 1.4 through balls per 90 minutes, with a 38.4 per cent accuracy. Those numbers are higher than Rashford, Greenwood and James, while for context Fernandes — the crown prince of lock-picking — averages 3.4 through balls per 90 minutes of Premier League football at a lower success rate of 10.4 per cent. Sancho’s pass map from the Champions League (337 completed from 395 attempts, 295 in the opposition half, 100 in his own half, and 208 in the final third) indicates his willingness to try things and get involved. In the Bundesliga, Sancho averages 81.1 actions per 90 minutes at a 65.8 per cent success rate, a comparable figure to Fernandes, whose busy work rate has seen him average 83.3 actions per 90 minutes in the Premier League at a 59.7 per cent success rate. Sancho has 1.6 shots per 90 minutes in the Bundesliga, with 4.2 touches in the penalty area, and his hybrid style of dribbling, passing and finishing helps explain why Sancho (with 17) is behind only Robert Lewandowski (34) and Timo Werner (28) for goals scored in the Bundesliga in 2019-20 and for assists (16) has only Thomas Muller (21) ahead of him. Germany is different to England of course, but Sancho’s history at City’s academy makes those who want him at United feel he will be “ready-made” for the Premier League. He would specifically appear an exciting fit for Solskjaer’s side. There are more talks between clubs ahead.

Gosens: ‘Tactical stuff really is the worst. But with Gasperini you know it works’ https://theathletic.com/1974979/2020/08/08/robin-gosens-atalanta-champions-league-interview-germany/ Bergamo is a city united by its love for football. But when the game returned to one of the towns in Europe worst affected by coronavirus, it proved very divisive. “There were two camps,” Robin Gosens recalls. “Some were saying it’s great that calcio was back, a good distraction, something to take your mind off things. But others, including our ultras, said: ‘How can you play football when scores of people have died here, don’t we have more important things to worry about?’ It got you thinking whether it was right or wrong.” Atalanta’s German wing-back was also troubled by the role the sport might have inadvertently played in spreading the virus in northern Italy and Spain. Some virologists have called Atalanta’s last-16 tie with Valencia in February “a biological bomb” as scores of Bergamo-based fans and Valencia supporters travelled for the game in Milan to fuel the outbreak. “I’m not an expert but it sounds logical,” he says. “I don’t know how my team-mates feel but I’m deeply saddened that we might have been part of something this horrible, even if we’re not personally to blame. You’re at the top of your career, playing in the Champions League, and in the stands, it’s the start of misery…” His voice trails off. ”It’s difficult to get to terms with.” Atalanta’s players were either holed up in their homes with their families, unable to leave the house at all for two months, or cooped up in the team hotel next to the training ground. They felt reasonably safe but as the virus raged all around them in Europe’s epicentre of the disease, the club wasn’t spared. The father of assistant coach Mauro Fumagalli caught the virus. A fit and healthy man in his mid-sixties, he was admitted to a hospital that found itself completely overstretched. “He was put on oxygen supply and couldn’t talk to his family,” Gosens says. “Three weeks later, he was gone. A doctor later told Mauro that they might have been able to save him if he had come in at a different time, but it was total chaos then. Horrific.” Coach Gian Piero Gasperini revealed that he had also contracted the virus but the 62-year-old was lucky to recover quickly. Fortunately, the overall situation in Lombardy has much improved since. “People want to move forward, cautiously,” the 26-year-old says. “Everyone knows it’s not over but there’s real excitement that we’re still in the Champions League. It’s sad that the fans can’t accompany us on this adventure, they would love to be involved. But the mood is much more positive now. Even those who were opposed to football at the beginning have changed their stance. They’re just happy that we brought a bit of joy back into their lives and put a smile on their faces.” A fabulous run of nine wins, three draws and only one defeat, resulting in another sensational top-four finish, can do that for you. “We were lucky that we came back as if we’d never been away, hitting form immediately,” Gosens says, a little modestly. Gasperini’s team has played some of the finest passing football anyone has seen this year. Confidence is high before next week’s meeting with Paris Saint-Germain, too. Gosens noted that PSG coach Thomas Tuchel was careful not to call the Italians “a good draw” or words to such effect. “We’re not considered small fry, people have obviously noticed what we have done. We can take that as a big compliment. We see this trip to Lisbon as a bonus. The cherry on the cake, as we say in German. We go there with no pressure at all. I believe, for PSG, it’s very different. We know that they’re a world-class team, of course. But it won’t be fun for them to play against us. It’s two games to the final. So why not dream?” Why not, indeed. has played a big part in the club’s dream. Atalanta’s left-back was bought as a virtual unknown for €900,000 from Heracles Almelo in 2017 but has been one of the revelations of the campaign, scoring nine goals from open play and providing eight assists in the leagues. Few (nominal) defenders in Europe’s top leagues have done more going forward. Attacking full-backs are a hallmark of Gasperini’s system. Gosens says that the collective movement by the team makes every player look good but his improvement is also down to lots of hard work. He has spent hours watching himself on a laptop next to Gasperini or Fumagalli, who explained how and when he needed to move to get into dangerous areas. “Last year, I would often get into the final third but didn’t have the right timing to get to the ball, I was either too far forward or still behind. I analysed my weaknesses and mistakes, watching a lot of games back. With the help of the coaches, I managed to really improve on that. I also spent a lot of time on the training ground on finishing, with my head, left foot, right foot. I’ve made a big jump. It shows you that doing that little bit more really does pay off.” Putting the extra hours in is a recurring theme in the conversation. Gasperini’s creative brilliance, it turns out, is built on meticulous training sessions that can go on forever. “There is a degree of freedom in attack because the opponents don’t move like the dots on the tactics board. But we also devote entire days to practice certain patterns. Some of the goals we have scored have come from those prepared moves. That’s what a good coach is all about. When you see he knows what he’s talking about, you trust him and his ideas, even if working on them for three hours at a time is horrible. Tactical stuff really is the worst.” He laughs. “But you just know it will come off.” Gosens is aware of the value of hard work, perhaps more than your average footballer. He grew up in the village of Elten, close to the Dutch border, and never truly believed he would make it as professional after a hopeless trial with Borussia Dortmund in his teens. “The standard was far too high me,” he winces. He played for tiny amateur side VfL Rhede in his youth, often turning up to matches after heavy-duty night outs with friends. But once, a scout from Vitesse Arnhem dispatched to watch a different player, happened to see him dominate a game in midfield. He invited him for a trial. Gosens moved across the border, aged 18. Peter Bosz, Vitesse’s coach at the time, called him up to the pros. He then moved to newly-promoted Dordrecht and onwards to Heracles. It’s only this season, however, that he has managed to really come into his own, a veritable late-bloomer in the age of hot-housed prodigies. “It’s hard to explain why it has clicked for me now but one factor is essential: I’ve worked incredibly hard on myself since I got the chance to become a pro,” he says. “It’s because I felt I had to make up for all the things I didn’t learn in an academy. The dream was so big that I promised myself to never stop working and trying to improve myself. I think there’s still unrealised potential. I want to go further, I want more, I will never rest on my laurels. I think that’s what makes me different from some other players. The most beautiful thing you can do is play football for a living, I’m aware of that. Every single day.” Would he give his 15-year-old self advice on how to lead a different, more football-focused life, and perhaps make it more quickly? The surprising answer is no. “I’m incredibly happy that I became a pro this way. I know it’s not the norm these days but I’m honestly not sure I would have made it if I had joined an academy aged 16 or 17. I’m a free spirit, I needed that experience as a youngster, doing lots of stupid things and being completely out of order a few times to become the player and the human being I am today. I’m at peace with myself because I don’t feel that I missed out on my youth. I made all the mistakes I needed to make.” Pre-match beers are no longer viable, he laughs: “They will have to wait until the holidays.” And then, the next step beckons. Gosens is expected to get called up by Germany this autumn, to reach another milestone in his wondrous career. There is also plenty of talk of a €30 million move to a bigger club after Atalanta’s European exploits come to an end. Gosens admits that he’s excited by the prospect of playing in the Bundesliga but he won’t leave simply for the sake of a bigger pay packet. “Money is great. But it’s never been the driving force for me. I need to know what a club and a coach have planned for me, what they want to achieve. Being part of a project is more important than the financial aspect. You only get better as a player and a person if someone believes in you.”

Ten stars to watch in the Champions League (and it’s not the usual suspects) https://theathletic.com/1973321/2020/08/06/champions-league-players-to-watch-bayern-real-psg-juventus-atalanta-atletico-barcelona-leipzig/ The Champions League is back. Eleven games in the space of 17 days will decide the best club team in Europe, but which players could prove pivotal in this hectic winner-takes-all feast of football? Our experts have picked 10 under-the-radar players who could do just that, from a 20-year-old La Masia graduate set to make his European debut to a 32-year-old Argentinian who created 102 chances in Serie A this past season. There are four quarter-final places still to be decided in the next couple of days — Atalanta, Paris Saint-Germain, RB Leipzig and Atletico Madrid are already through — before the competition takes on a single-leg knockout format for the final three rounds next week in Portugal. Last-16 second legs Friday: Juventus (0) v (1) Lyon Friday: Manchester City (2) v (1) Real Madrid Saturday: Bayern Munich (3) v (0) Chelsea Saturday: Barcelona (1) v (1) Napoli Quarter-finals Wednesday (QF4): Atalanta v Paris Saint-Germain Thursday, August 13 (QF2): RB Leipzig v Atletico Madrid Friday, August 14 (QF1): Barcelona/Napoli v Bayern Munich/Chelsea Saturday, August 15 (QF3): Manchester City/Real Madrid v Juventus/Lyon Semi-finals Tuesday, August 18: Winner of QF2 v Winner of QF4 Wednesday, August 19: Winner of QF1 v Winner of QF3 Final: Sunday, August 23 All matches kick off at 8pm GMT Riqui Puig (Barcelona) Taking the playmaking reins in the Barcelona midfield against Napoli will be a young midfielder who has not yet played a minute in continental football. Riqui Puig has long had a big reputation around the Nou Camp, but for quite a while he was more famous for his absence than his presence. Born locally and educated at Barcelona’s famous academy, La Masia, even Puig’s name screams Catalonia. That name made plenty of headlines when Barcelona’s under-19s won the UEFA Youth League two seasons ago. The Barcelona head coach at the time, Ernesto Valverde, was not so impressed, barely giving Puig a look-in. It reached the stage when Puig’s absence from the team was the main complaint from some fans and pundits before Valverde was fired in January. Some began to wonder whether the expectations would be detrimental Puig. Could the longing around the Nou Camp for the “next Xavi” or a “new Iniesta” warp impressions? Given a chance by new coach Quique Setien since the post-lockdown restart, Puig has shown he has the personality and talent to recharge a midfield that has been very low on energy and ideas this season. A very happy Lionel Messi opening his arms for Puig to celebrate a goal the 20-year-old had assisted appeared to confirm his arrival as a key part of the senior set-up. (Photo: Quality Sport Images/Getty Images) Meanwhile, Barcelona’s other midfield options have been disappearing. Arthur Melo has decided he no longer owes the club anything after they pushed him out to Juventus, while Sergio Busquets and Arturo Vidal are suspended for this decider against Napoli. Neither Ivan Rakitic nor Frenkie de Jong have had great seasons but they should join Puig in a midfield three starting together for the very first time. It is far from an ideal situation but Barcelona and Setien are in a desperate situation. Puig has so far dealt very confidently with all he has faced so far. He looks ready for this new stage. Next game: Saturday; last-16 second leg, Napoli (H). 1-1 after the first leg Dermot Corrigan Papu Gomez (Atalanta) It’s a joy to watch Papu Gomez, not only for his bravura but the intelligence he applies to his game. His revelation about using the referee as a reference point — “the ref is always in space” — is ingenious and the way the Argentinian varies his play, starting out wide or drifting between the lines then maybe coming deep and taking the ball from his centre-backs makes it so difficult for Atalanta’s opponents to know who has the job of picking him up. Papu created 102 chances in a team that scored 98 league goals this season, making Atalanta the most prolific side in Serie A since 1952. He has made it into double figures for assists in each of the last four years. No one in Europe’s top five leagues can match him for that level of creative consistency over the same timeframe. True, the diminutive 32-year-old does not strike many people as obvious captain material. But he is a technical and emotional leader rolled into one. Atalanta’s spirit is infused by the man known as Papu. The team plays with his infectious “allegria” (joy) and you can’t help but smile when they take the field. That quality is more important than ever given the pain and suffering their hometown of Bergamo experienced throughout the pandemic. Papu was made an honorary citizen of the city last December and speaks for everyone at the club when he says Atalanta want to give its people a lift after so much trauma. As the only Italian team already through to the quarter-finals, three games are all that separate Papu and his team-mates from an achievement that would even make Leicester City’s Premier League title pale by comparison. Next game: Wednesday; quarter-final, Paris Saint-Germain David Alaba (Bayern Munich) There is no such thing as a low-key player in this Bayern line-up. But out of all their stellar performances this season, David Alaba’s transformation from marauding left-back to playmaking centre-back has perhaps not received quite the attention it deserves. The 28-year-old was initially drafted into the heart of the defence as a makeshift solution, covering for the absences of Lucas Hernandez and Niklas Sule. It’s a role he first played with much aplomb in Pep Guardiola’s last season in charge (2015-16) but four years down the line, the Austria international has gone to another level. He has essentially been flawless for the entire campaign, their most important progressor of the ball — thanks to supreme passing skills honed in his midfielder past — and also one of the side’s leaders. Reporters covering Bayern’s games after the Bundesliga restart were surprised to hear Alaba, unassuming to the point of being shy off the pitch, shouting out an incessant stream of instructions and motivational cries to team-mates. It’s this willingness to take responsibility that has Bayern worried he might leave this summer, as negotiations over a contract extension beyond 2021 have been at an impasse for a while. Executive chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge might have worded his description of Alaba as “the black Beckenbauer” a little ungracefully, but the underlying sentiment is true enough. Twelve years after joining the club as a 16-year-old, his game mixes elegance on the ball with a sense of imperial authority the Kaiser himself would have been proud of. If Alaba goes on to win Bayern a second Champions League in a second position, his status as “a future all-time best in the club’s history”, in the words of Guardiola, is guaranteed. Next game: Saturday; last-16 second leg, Chelsea (H). Bayern lead 3-0 after the first leg Raphael Honigstein Christopher Nkunku (RB Leipzig) RB Leipzig made it clear just how much they believed in the potential of Christopher Nkunku when they handed him a five-year contract last summer. The former Paris Saint-Germain academy product, 22, perfectly fits the club’s philosophy of buying high-talent, high-growth players early in their careers, but even sporting director Markus Krosche might have been surprised by how quickly the Frenchman took to the Bundesliga. He scored five goals and provided 15 assists in the league, from five different positions on the pitch. “Christopher can play as a box-to-box midfielder, No 10, winger, striker,” Leipzig coach Julian Nagelsmann said. Along with those four positions, Nkunku has also been deployed as a highly-effective foil for the now-departed Timo Werner in a second-striker berth. There’s little the fast and guileful Paris-born universalist can’t do well, which can sometimes be a problem for a player of his ilk. Nkunku is almost too versatile for his own good, offering up a variety of options but no necessity to find him a defined role. There’s a temptation to treat him as a human pick-and-mix shop, providing instant gratification in countless ways. His fine performances have been a little overlooked as a result. Now Werner is at Chelsea and so no longer his first point of reference next or directly ahead of him, Nkunku should benefit from more opportunities to let his creative juices run. Nagelsmann has hinted he will be one of the players entrusted to break down Atletico Madrid’s defensive walls as Leipzig attempt to blend intricate combination play in small spaces with defensive rigour out of possession. Next game: Thursday, August 13; quarter-final, Atletico Madrid Raphael Honigstein Marco Asensio (Real Madrid) Few players enjoyed the return to football after lockdown as much as Marco Asensio. His first touch following La Liga’s resumption in mid-June was to guide a Ferland Mendy cross into the net against Valencia. Just 12 minutes later, his clever pass set up Karim Benzema for the final goal in a 3-0 victory. It was not a bad contribution, given it was his first appearance in any game for just over a year after an ACL injury in a pre-season friendly against Arsenal last July. Coach Zinedine Zidane eased him back into action carefully, but Asensio made his case for more minutes quickly. He scored again against Alaves and again on the final day of season at Leganes after the title had been secured. He looks fully recovered from his knee injury, delighted to be playing again, and very eager to make up for lost time. The contrast with lethargic contributions from more senior colleagues Gareth Bale and James Rodriguez has been huge. Asensio should really now be ahead of even last year’s galactico signing Eden Hazard for a place in attack alongside Benzema in their ‘qualifier’ away to Manchester City. His ability to take a chance could be crucial, given Real Madrid need to score at least twice at the Etihad to progress, while his energy and enthusiasm fit well with the demands Zidane places on all his stars. At 24 years old, Asensio is ready to make consistent, decisive contributions for Real Madrid and Spain. He has not lacked for career highlights so far (including the last goal in the 4-1 Champions League final victory over Juventus three years ago). Still, his career has not yet reached the heights that many predicted. The unique circumstances of this season’s competition, and the timing of his return, give him a chance to crack on again. Next game: Friday; last-16 second leg, Manchester City (A). City lead 2-1 after the first leg Dermot Corrigan Renan Lodi (Atletico Madrid) Renan Lodi’s debut for Atletico Madrid last August did not go exactly to plan — the 21-year-old’s enthusiasm spilt over into rashness with two needless yellow cards within 60 seconds just before half-time at home to Getafe. The Brazilian left-back later revealed he was struggling to settle in the Spanish capital, and had told his girlfriend to pack her things as they were heading straight back home. However, a chat with head coach Diego Simeone settled him down, and his next game brought an assist and a man of the match performance as helped Atletico rally from 2-0 down to beat Eibar, 3-2. There have been a few more hitches along the way, and Simeone regularly substituted him through the autumn when it seemed opponents were targeting his side of the pitch. Generally, though, Lodi has been an outstanding success thanks to his hard running, technical gifts and excellent crossing. Much like his predecessor at left-back, compatriot Filipe Luis, Lodi has become one of the most important creative outlets in the Atletico team. Alongside his friend and former Athletico Paranaense team-mate Bruno Guimaraes of Lyon (more on him shortly), Lodi looks set to be an important member of the Brazil set-up in the coming years. Lingering doubts about his defending were put to bed when he confidently overcame Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold in the last-16 victories over Liverpool. Only three players now have more outfield minutes than him for Atletico this season, with Lodi easily outperforming England’s Kieran Trippier on the opposite flank of their new-look back four. Along with fellow summer 2019 arrivals Marcos Llorente and Joao Felix, Lodi’s emergence is one reason why Atletico fans are confident before their quarter-final against RB Leipzig. His marauding runs forward will be a key part of Simeone’s plan for that game and Atletico’s hopes over the coming seasons. Next game: Thursday, August 13; quarter-final, RB Leipzig Dermot Corrigan Bruno Guimaraes (Lyon) Watch Lyon midfielder Bruno Guimaraes for 90 minutes against Juventus tomorrow and there is a good chance your eyes will deceive you. If he performs as he did in the first leg, back in March, he will dominate to such a degree you will assume you’re watching a proven star with 50 Champions League games under his belt — someone who has already been to football finishing school and graduated with honours. But Guimaraes is just getting started. That game against Juventus was his debut at this level, and only his second for Lyon after joining from Brazil’s Athletico Paranaense in January. His performance would have been impressive in any context but for a complete European football novice it was nothing short of remarkable. The 22-year-old could be forgiven for wondering how far that initial momentum might have taken him — he received his first senior Brazil call-up in March, after just four appearances for Lyon — but there is little reason to expect a drop-off. In possession, Guimaraes is a driving force. He is a calm passer of the ball, but also a brave one: he wants to hurt the opposition, either with a drilled through ball or one of his trademark switches to the flank. He reads the tempo of the game well, managing its internal rhythms. “He’s a fantastic footballer,” Lyon coach Rudi Garcia said after the derby win over Saint-Etienne that followed the Juventus first leg. “Everything flows better when he is playing.” He is combative, too, happy to press and strong enough to manage the physical stuff. “Complete” is probably the word to describe his game. Juninho Pernambucano, Lyon’s sporting director, was surely blowing smoke when he told Guimaraes he would make him the best central midfielder in the world but the idea doesn’t actually look so far-fetched. The only problem for the Ligue 1 club will be holding onto him. With no Champions League football next season and Barcelona already rumoured to be circling, they will fear Guimaraes’ second European game will also turn out to be his Lyon swansong. Next game: Friday; last-16 second leg, Juventus (A). Lyon lead 1-0 after the first leg Jack Lang Mauro Icardi (Paris Saint-Germain) When Mauro Icardi joined Paris Saint-Germain, it was my personal belief he would get close to scoring 40 goals a season if granted regular game time. The Argentinian is one of those strikers who can go 90 minutes with barely a touch of the ball yet still come away with the man of the match award. He only needs half a chance to finish up with a hat-trick. Opportunities weren’t always plentiful at Inter Milan, yet Icardi still won the Capocannoniere crown twice and outscored all of the club’s modern greats. Ronaldo, Christian Vieri, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Adriano, Diego Milito. Take your pick. The prospect of him joining a team as talent-loaded and attacking as PSG in his prime whetted the appetite more than dinner at l’Arpege. And Icardi hasn’t disappointed. In 2020, he has averaged a goal every 22 touches. His goal involvement per 90 minutes ratio is 0.99 and, in the two seasons he has played in this competition, he has scored nine times in 12 appearances. Appreciation for Icardi as hometown Rosario’s own version of Pippo Inzaghi would perhaps be greater had he been playing for a Champions League regular rather than Inter earlier in his career. Instead, tabloids and gossip columns focused on the box-office nature of his relationship with his wife and agent, Wanda Nara. Icardi is famous in Italy for showing up when it mattered most, as his record in Inter’s big games attests. He is exactly the kind of striker a team with PSG’s reputation are crying out for in this competition. Optimism continues to grow around Kylian Mbappe’s recovery from the nasty ankle injury he picked up in the Coupe de France final just under a fortnight ago, but there’s no need to rush him back with a sniper such as Icardi in Thomas Tuchel’s arsenal. Next game: Wednesday; quarter-final, Atalanta James Horncastle Dries Mertens (Napoli) The most likeable player on this list — after Papu Gomez. It feels wrong to refer to Dries Mertens as Belgian when he has become an adopted Neapolitan over his seven years with Napoli. “Ciro”, as he is known in the Bay Area, cemented his status as the greatest player since Diego Maradona to pull on powder blue when he became the club’s all-time top scorer in June. The 33-year-old then helped Napoli lift the Coppa Italia, signing a lucrative new contract shortly before kick-off to stay for another two seasons. The significance of that decision cannot be overstated. Edinson Cavani left for Paris Saint-Germain and Gonzalo Higuain accepted an offer to join Juventus, Napoli’s biggest rivals. But Mertens has stayed and that means the world in a football-mad city that has all the magical realism of a great Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel. The sight of Naples born-and-bred Lorenzo Insigne wincing and hobbling off late in their final Serie A game of the season last Saturday means yet more responsibility falls on Mertens’ shoulders as they head to Barcelona. Napoli do have options. For instance, they can use the silky Arkadiusz Milik through the middle and restore Mertens to the position he occupied on the left before he reinvented himself as a centre-forward capable of scoring more than 100 goals in next to no time at all. (Photo: Giuseppe Maffia/NurPhoto via Getty Images) His record in the Champions League this season explains the offers Inter Milan and Chelsea tabled in the hope they might be able to tempt him away from his bougainvillea-draped seafront balcony in Posillipo. Mertens scored the winner against Liverpool at the San Paolo and put his team in front at Anfield, as he did in the first leg of their last-16 tie with Barcelona. The Catalans got back into the game and nabbed an away goal only after Mertens had to go off with an injury early in the second half. Napoli have established a reputation as cup specialists under new coach Gennaro Gattuso, so expect to see Mertens wagging his tongue in celebration of another goal dedicated to the club’s barista and kitman, the mythical Tommaso Starace. Next game: Saturday; last-16 second leg, Barcelona (A). 1-1 after the first leg James Horncastle Matthijs de Ligt (Juventus) Matthijs de Ligt wasn’t even born the last time Juventus won the Champions League. Watertight defending is more vital than ever to the Old Lady if she is to end that long drought in Lisbon over the next couple of weeks. But first, she has to get to Portugal, with Juventus needing to overcome a 1-0 first-leg deficit against Lyon in Turin tomorrow night. Pavel Nedved said his club could have no complaints when the draw was made in July. Their French opponents are expected to be rusty after playing one competitive game in the past five months, but Juventus aren’t scoring freely and haven’t been able to shut out teams as they did in the past. Nevertheless, summer buy De Ligt has come on leaps and bounds in 2020 and now looks the most comfortable defender in Maurizio Sarri’s system. Since swapping sides with Leonardo Bonucci, the 20-year-old seems more at ease and has stood out with a series of commanding performances. Taking questions in English in flash interviews before unexpectedly switching to Italian demonstrates how much his communication skills have also improved over the last year. Giorgio Chiellini’s knee injury a year ago has deprived Juventus of their charismatic captain practically all season and meant De Ligt was thrown in at the deep end, with Sarri having to rush his integration into the team and Italian football in general. After a baptism of fire on his debut against Napoli and a few run-ins with Italy’s strict interpretation of the handball rule, De Ligt has backed up what he showed in captaining Ajax to within seconds of last year’s Champions League final. He is also the youngest defender to score four goals in Europe’s top five leagues this season, including a shot from outside the box away to Udinese only a couple of weeks ago. De Ligt’s status as the best centre-back of the next generation remains unchallenged. Next game: Friday; last-16 second leg, Lyon (H). Lyon lead 1-0 after the first leg

The numbers that show how Chelsea struggle in possession https://theathletic.com/1951315/2020/08/06/chelsea-analytics-possession-lampard/ Chelsea will play Champions League football again next season and have already made impressive progress in their quest to reinforce Frank Lampard’s team in the transfer market. Now able to call upon one of Europe’s most prolific goalscorers in Timo Werner, one of Europe’s most talented creators in Hakim Ziyech and potentially also one of Europe’s most coveted young stars in Kai Havertz, a lack of firepower should no longer be an issue. But one of the most significant issues for Lampard to address, linked to but distinct from their inconsistent attack, springs directly from Chelsea’s identity as a high possession team. Is there such a thing as having too much of the ball? Pep Guardiola probably wouldn’t say so, and the very best teams almost always have more possession than their opponents. Chelsea enjoyed more than 50 per cent of the ball in 35 of their 38 Premier League matches this season – the same number as Liverpool and Manchester City. Chelsea have also fared reasonably well in these games, averaging 1.71 points and 1.77 goals scored. Both numbers rank fourth in the division, behind only Liverpool, Manchester City and Leicester City. It’s reasonable to predict that, at the very least, their goals scored average will grow with Werner, Ziyech and, potentially, Havertz available to Lampard next season. The less encouraging figure is Chelsea’s average of 1.34 goals conceded in games where they had the majority of possession; the only team in the top half of the Premier League table who fare worse are Burnley who, on the evidence of this admittedly small sample size, should never want the ball. When you isolate the 21 Premier League matches in which Chelsea registered more than 60 per cent possession, their averages for points gained and goals scored both dip – though both remain in the upper bracket of the division, if a tier below Liverpool and Manchester City. Once again, however, it’s the average number of goals conceded that stands out for the wrong reasons. Analysing the five Premier League matches in which Chelsea had more than 70 per cent of possession, the relative vulnerability of Lampard’s team with the ball becomes even more striking. Their averages for points gained and goals scored dip further away from the lofty standards set by Liverpool and Manchester City, while their goals conceded average surges up to 1.8. Five games is a dangerously small sample size from which to draw firm conclusions, of course. When you dig a little deeper into those matches – wins over Newcastle United at home and Aston Villa away, losses on the road to West Ham United and Sheffield United and a draw in Bournemouth – the expected goals values suggest Lampard’s team were slightly unlucky; on average, they created better quality scoring chances than they gave up, if only just. But the overall picture painted is clear: unlike the very best possession teams such as Manchester City and Liverpool, who are consistently successful in picking apart deep-lying defences and rarely give opponents any quality opportunities to hurt them on the counter, Chelsea can be too easily stifled by a low block and too frequently carved open when they lose the ball. In those recent defeats by West Ham and Sheffield United, the numbers back up the notion that Lampard’s team pretty much got what they deserved. Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder can take credit for helping to force one of Chelsea’s worst attacking performances of the season. Tammy Abraham was responsible for 0.72 of the team’s paltry overall expected goals (xG) rating of 1.2 at Bramall Lane on July 11, from five shot attempts. Four of those were classed by Opta as having been taken under heavy pressure, with at least two Sheffield United defenders between him and Dean Henderson’s goal. Abraham broadly performed in line with expectations with the shots he took under heavy pressure this season, scoring seven goals against an xG rating of 7.7. His final tally of 15 goals from his first Premier League campaign as Chelsea’s leading striker is a respectable return, particularly in light of the fact that injuries hampered his progress and Olivier Giroud limited his minutes over the final month. But there is a clear need for additional goal threats against stubborn opponents such as Sheffield United, and this is where Werner’s presence could be most valuable next season. He is smaller and more nimble than both Abraham and Giroud, with excellent instincts for getting into scoring positions in transition and in more crowded penalty areas. He also became a more complete player at RB Leipzig this season under Julian Nagelsmann, dropping deeper to link play and carry the ball himself. It’s reasonable to argue that improving Chelsea’s attack will automatically strengthen their defence; the more frequently they can break the deadlock against teams who choose to defend deep, the more opportunities they will get to counter-attack themselves in situations where the scoreline dictates their opponents will have to take more risks. But that only works up to a point, and it’s difficult to imagine that simply scoring more goals will bring Chelsea’s defence up to the level of Liverpool or Manchester City in games where they dominate possession. Tweaks to Lampard’s high-risk, high-reward tactical structure will also be required, together with changes to the personnel at the heart of the team’s transition problems. Lampard has already shown a willingness to explore different potential solutions on the tactical front, switching to a wing-back system for some of their biggest games at the tail-end of the season and putting N’Golo Kante in the deep-lying midfield role traditionally occupied by Jorginho, whose defensive limitations were crudely highlighted by his feeble attempt to stop Andy Robertson in the lead up to Liverpool’s fifth goal at Anfield earlier this month. He also wants to bring in a more assertive centre-back and a left-back to upgrade from Emerson Palmieri and Marcos Alonso, whose 89th-minute failure to run back in pursuit of matchwinner Andriy Yarmolenko cost Chelsea a point away at West Ham. Even more pressingly, Lampard is pushing to sign a goalkeeper more capable of bailing out those in front of him than Kepa Arrizabalaga has proven in two seasons at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea’s headline recruits so far will surely make them more dangerous in possession — but if Lampard wants them to compete with the very best again, he also needs to make his team less vulnerable with the ball.

I cannot make that call without seeing our transfer moves

manager of the Scotland national team

this team makes my head spin we have the world's most complicated situation due to chaos and uncertainty on every level stadium (and owner still in legal purgatory over status to come into the UK and thus hesitant to invest in physical plant structure) thsi crushes us long-term revenue wise compare to other big 15, or so global clubs, especially if they all sort out their stadiums issues (the ones who have them) £500m plus worth of dregs that are all SO hard to move (or if not outright dregs players who need to go go go) crazy amount of youth, that in itself comes with huge upsides AND downsides a now 2nd year (as of the final whistle blow tonight) year manager who seems a genius at some things, and clueless at others (subs, tactics on occasion (either he is brilliant or is bizarre), defence, and set pieces CRAZY GK situ due to Kepa collapse and his tying up £140m en toto atm Kante as weight around our necks most of the time due to injury after injury and not fitting into a proper role due to our tactical schemes, plus he is ageing and haemorrhaging value quickly Willian ass-fucking us by not taking the (more, MORE than generous 2 year deal) thus forcing us to probably have to spend at winger thsi window crazy bad systemic injury plague killing us HUGE lack of leaders on the pitch probably some other things too, lolol

no error on the on the first goal??? LOLOLOL AC completely , COMPLETELY switched off and let the world's best striker just jog straight on though on the 2nd goal Kova was fouled (blatantly) by Muller on the build-up, and no call

a fit, pre-injury form Rudiger is the best CB we have atm damning indictment but ZERO chance Zouma and Ac or Tomori are better than a pre injury Rudiger some people bring in previous hate for him from the German end (or that is at least what I see) I never had much issue with him until thsi season, when he came back, I liked him as a player, and I loved his attitude before that he was fine (not as a leading WC CB, but a more than adequate partner of such a player)

the Gilmour game where we dominated and beat the dippers

Rio has been SO pro Chels, talking us up for weeks (months?) makes me wonder if we are talking to him he makes me feel better about us at times than Lamps does, lololol

the huge thing we need is for Roman to take advantage of the extension and change his mind on the new stadium ASAP the lure of playing in close to best football-only stadium on the planet (surely top 5) would be strong as hell

and it would cock-block Klopp HARD