Vesper

Who should be the Premier League’s Young Player of the Year? https://theathletic.com/1745237/2020/04/18/premier-league-young-player-of-the-year/ We asked five of our writers to nominate five different players as the Premier League’s Young Player of the Year. We will reveal our shortlist next week but here is some inspiration in the meantime of possible candidates. Players have to be below 24 years of age at the start of the season. Plenty of them wanted to write about Trent Alexander-Arnold, but where would the fun be in that? Here are their picks… Wilfred Ndidi (Leicester City) It takes a special type of holding midfielder to play behind an attack-minded duo like James Maddison and Youri Tielemans, but Ndidi has performed that role excellently throughout a fine 2019-20 campaign. On first viewing, he feels like a simple, disciplined defensive midfielder capable of protecting his centre-backs with solid positioning and energetic ball-winning. And that does remain Ndidi’s primary task. The more you watch him though, the more you realise Ndidi has more to his game. There was his sudden dribble forward in the memorable 2-1 late win against Everton, which led to Jamie Vardy’s equaliser. There was also a fine headed equaliser from a corner away at Chelsea. Ndidi is more than a pure holding midfielder: he’s comfortable in possession and happy to push forward and join attacks, while his ball-winning isn’t limited to deep midfield positions — he can go searching for the ball high up, helping Leicester press in advanced positions. He’s an intelligent player who reads the game well — perhaps not surprising for a footballer who spends his spare time studying for a degree in Business and Management at De Montfort University. His performances in a 2-0 home victory over Arsenal, and in 5-0 and 3-0 wins over Newcastle stand out as particularly impressive. A knee injury means Ndidi hasn’t played regularly since the turn of the year, but his performances in the first half of the campaign means the 23-year-old deserves to be recognised as among the best players in his position. Michael Cox Jack Grealish (Aston Villa) There are probably a dozen stats that underline how important Grealish has been to Villa this season. He has scored more goals, had more touches, created more chances, completed more dribbles, won more fouls and made more successful passes than any of his team-mates. He is streets ahead in pretty much every one of those categories, too, to the extent that the rest of the squad couldn’t really have any complaints if Villa’s badge was simply replaced with a stylised cartoon of his face. This is the house that Jack built; the rest of them are just living in it. But really, the raw numbers are not necessary — perhaps not even that useful — when it comes to appreciating Grealish’s sui generis excellence. He is a player who elicits feelings, properly tugs at the heartstrings. Not because he’s some brave hero archetype, but because he’s just so bloody cool. Grealish wears his socks around his ankles, daring you to hurt him. His shinpads aren’t worthy of the name, and he sometimes wears boots that are literally falling apart. His haircut is objectively stupid, but his commitment to it is admirable, even charming. I would happily follow his disembodied calves into a war zone without a second’s thought. We saw hints of all this in his previous stints in the top flight, but Grealish is now fully realised as a concept, irreversibly himself. The Premier League is a much better place for his presence. Above all, Grealish is simply a study in frictionless grace, a thousand No 10 fantasies made flesh. He floats around, reorganising the game on the fly. He runs at people. He is raffish, happy to try things others won’t. He strikes the ball with outlaw glee. He is two-footed, patient and very, very clever. He is brilliant fun to watch and has been all season long, even when playing out of position in a team with all the menace of a candy-floss cutlass. Villa don’t deserve him, but maybe none of us do. Jack Lang Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool) As it says on the mural at the corner of Sybil Road, a block away from Anfield, Trent Alexander-Arnold is “just a normal lad from Liverpool whose dream has just come true.” Those were the words he uttered, breathlessly, after Liverpool won the Champions League final last June. He was a Champions League winner at the age of 20. Where could he go from there? Well, to Alexander-Arnold’s best season yet. His crossing ability has been clear from the moment he first broke into Liverpool’s first team, but his influence has grown to an extraordinary degree. It is not just his delivery from the right-hand side. It is the way that, as he explained to The Athletic earlier this season, he has learned to dictate matches from right-back. His contribution is most commonly measured by his number of direct assists for goals. There were 12 of them in the Premier League last season — other than team-mate Andy Robertson, the next-highest total from a defender was six — and he had already equalled that total when 2019-20 was suspended with nine games still to play. Next highest by defenders? Robertson’s seven, then Everton’s Lucas Digne with five. A debate persists over whether, in time, he might revert to the midfield role he occupied when he was coming up through the academy ranks. But, as Jurgen Klopp’s assistant manager Pep Lijnders suggests, “he plays as a playmaker on the right. He plays like a central midfielder there, how he puts passes.” For all Liverpool’s dominance in this season’s Premier League, there have been many matches when they have found themselves needing to find another gear, another angle, another dimension to their play. Whether it is a pinpoint set-piece delivery, a menacing cross on the counter-attack or one of those probing crossfield passes, Alexander-Arnold has consistently come up with answers. On top of all that, he has remained humble. He speaks with a maturity that has led many to propose him as a future captain of club and country. He’s still just a normal lad from Liverpool whose dreams keep coming true. Oliver Kay Adama Traore (Wolverhampton Wanderers) Traore only just sneaks into this category, mindful that he turned 24 in January. If it was a race, he’d have been first through the door by a distance. The boy they nicknamed ‘Usain Bolt’ at Barcelona’s La Masia academy, where he signed as an eight-year-old and went on to make four first-team appearances, has come of age this season in the old gold of Wolves. The physical attributes — blistering pace and extraordinary power — were always there. But now there are numbers too — and numbers that matter. Seven assists (only Kevin De Bruyne, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Riyad Mahrez have more in this season’s Premier League) and four goals from 28 top-flight appearances, 22 of them starts — an impressive return for a winger who has been turned into a wing-back. Traore’s progress over the nine months before football pressed pause had been startling. That rawness — there were times last season when you sensed he knew as much as you about what he was going to do next when he set off on another burst down the right — has been refined. There are brains to go with the brawn and, in football parlance, end product. Traore has attempted more than 200 dribbles and seven out of every 10 (69.6 per cent) are completed. The defensive side of his game has improved markedly too, all of which is testament to Nuno Espirito Santo’s coaching. The sense of trepidation among opponents is almost tangible when Traore comes into view. By the middle of December, an incredible 24 players had been booked for fouling him. It is almost the only way that people can stop a player who would walk/run into any Premier League squad in the country right now. “Unplayable” was the word that Jurgen Klopp used to describe Traore after Liverpool’s game at Molineux in January. “What a player — it’s not only him [at Wolves] but he’s so good.” Stuart James Daniel James (Manchester United) On numbers alone, Daniel James does not have a compelling case to be the best player in the Premier League aged 24 or below this season. Yet I often feel this award should be recalibrated to champion breakthrough talents or chart rapid individual development in players, rather than provide further cause for celebration in those players capable of winning the grander individual prize. James’ growth has been clear, particularly when we consider that he was nearly sent out on loan to Yeovil — then of League Two — by Swansea City only a year before joining Manchester United in the summer of 2019. His playing style and personality also offer a signpost for what Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s United could and should resemble in happier times ahead. James’ progression is particularly evocative when set against the heartache of his father’s passing shortly before he signed for Manchester United in the summer of 2019. Yet James made a blistering start to life at Old Trafford and his emotions were encapsulated by the celebration that marked his first goal for the club in the 4-0 debut victory over Chelsea. James scored three goals in August alone and remained a significant threat in the autumn, even if the goals dried up. Indeed, his fourth goal of the season came in United’s final match before lockdown against LASK and there were certainly stages of the campaign where it appeared Solskjaer had over-burdened James, who at times looked fatigued both mentally and physically. This, I would argue, was not the fault of the player himself but of United’s haphazard recruitment policy, which left young players such as James and Marcus Rashford carrying United’s efforts on four fronts until reinforcements arrived in January. James has room for improvement, particularly in his final ball against lesser opposition, but his raw pace and devil on the counter was central to United’s two outstanding home performances of the Premier League campaign against Liverpool and Manchester City, while his diligence and ball-carrying quality carried United to two away victories at Chelsea (one in the Premier League and one in the Carabao Cup) and particularly the league win at City’s own ground. Should United qualify for the Champions League, his speed and direct play will terrify Europe’s finest defences. James’ season has not been perfect but his hunger, desire and appreciation for life at United has been sharply at odds with several of the expensive disappointments of recent years and his style will be essential to the development of this United team in the coming years; high-octane, playing with a smile, he gets you off your seat and he is capable of dazzling quality. James offers a reassuring reminder of how Manchester United are supposed to approach the game. Adam Crafton

Nor was I, unless you count his horrid return in 1996–1997 (they finished 11th)

I would pick Reece, then Abraham, then Mount.

Chelsea target Jadon Sancho's Manchester United demand as Premier League plans now clear The latest news in your Chelsea morning digest as target Jadon Sancho has a demand for Manchester United and the Premier League's latest plans https://www.football.london/chelsea-fc/news/chelsea-transfer-sancho-manchester-united-18110793 Chelsea target Sancho issues United demand Jadon Sancho’s mooted move to Manchester United is dependent on the Premier League club’s ability to guarantee Champions League football. Chelsea target Sancho has been heavily linked with a move to United, but The Athletic claim the 20-year-old winger is ready to snub an Old Trafford switch if they fail to qualify for Europe’s leading club competition. United are currently three points behind fourth-placed Chelsea in the race for Champions League qualification. Liverpool, Manchester City (who Sancho left for Dortmund), Real Madrid and Barcelona are also credited with an interest in the England international, who would reportedly cost at least £100m. Sancho has been a hit for Dortmund since joining from City in 2017, with 17 goals and 19 assists this season. Blues could be affected by Spanish TV deals Chelsea are set to be impacted by the collapsed television deals in Spain with broadcasters struggling to pay clubs due to the economic downturn as a result of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. As per the Daily Mail, this development could adversely affect Chelsea, who are expecting transfer instalments from Real Madrid following Eden Hazard’s £90m move to the Spanish capital in 2019. snip

Chelsea players pushing for just 10% wage drop https://www.chelsea-news.co/2020/04/chelsea-players-pushing-just-10-wage-drop/ Chelsea’s players are negotiating a small wage cut with the club in the light of the coronavirus hiatus. It’s less than the club wants, but the players hold the cards and have their own plans for their money. Goal.com’s Nizaar Kinsella had the report last night, and he outlined the negotiations as they stand. While the Premier League are suggesting that top flight players offer to take a 30% wage cut; the player want to see their cash to directly towards the crisis. snip

Chaos at Camp Nou: Inside Barcelona's Bubbling Crisis The problems off the field at Barcelona are plentiful, and with no games to deflect and distract, it's more clear than ever that necessary change is coming. https://www.si.com/soccer/2020/04/14/barcelona-crisis-bartomeu-board-messi-abidal No club is enjoying a good spell during the coronavirus crisis, but then again, no club is having quite such a bad one as Barcelona. As the financial downturn begins to bite, the ongoing mismanagement of the club is being exposed, and there aren’t even in any matches in which Lionel Messi can do something brilliant to deflect attention from the chaos in the boardroom. The presidency of Josep Maria Bartomeu had been under attack for several months before the crisis. Messi is not an obviously political animal, so the fact that he had taken to offering public criticism of the board on a regular basis is significant. But the events of last Thursday evening, when six directors resigned, have taken the crisis to a new level. Even worse for Bartomeu, one of those who resigned was Emili Rousaud, whom he had elevated to vice president only a month ago, effectively nominating him as the continuity candidate and his ideal successor, to stand in next year’s presidential elections. Having resigned, Rousaud then suggested somebody at the club “had their hand in the till,” an explosive allegation of corruption. Barcelona responded with a vague threat of legal action, although it’s hard to believe it would want the scrutiny of a court case that would put the I3 Ventures scandal into a detailed, public spotlight. Simply put, payments of €900,000 were made to I3 Ventures, a company that the club says was contracted to monitor social media activity. Radio station Cadena Ser, though, reported allegations that I3 Ventures was running a coordinated attack campaign on social media against those opposed to the club and the president. At one point, it’s said, that included some of Barcelona’s own players–even Messi. Bartomeu has dismissed the allegations as “completely false,” but Jaume Masferrer, his closest adviser, was suspended pending investigation. But there is something else odd about the I3 Ventures deal. Why was the fee so high? Some have suggested the work officially done was probably worth about a sixth of what was paid. And why were the payments made in a series of tranches, each of just under the €200,000 threshold that would have triggered an immediate internal audit? Even without the I3 Ventures affair, this has been an extraordinarily turbulent few months for Barcelona. The chaos is so all-encompassing it’s hard to know where to begin, although the loss of Neymar to Paris Saint-Germain three years ago and the subsequent panic signings of Ousmane Dembele and Philippe Coutinho for inflated fees is probably a decent place to start. PSG, it’s been suggested, deliberately shattered the world-record fee in order to inflate the market, knowing it had resources unmatched by the vast majority of clubs; whether that was a deliberate ploy or not, it has shattered Barcelona, not least because the signings, as well as wasting the $220 million windfall, also broke any semblance of a wage structure. snip

CAS Rules Clubs Must Pay Sell-On Fee for Transfers With Release Clause Activated https://www.si.com/soccer/2020/04/16/cas-ruling-transfers-sell-on-fees-release-clause-clement-lenglet GENEVA (AP) — In a case involving France defender Clément Lenglet, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled Thursday that soccer clubs must pay a sell-on fee when transferring a player whose release clause was activated. The CAS judgment awarded French club Nancy more than 3.7 million euros ($4 million) it was due from Sevilla for the Spanish club’s sale of Lenglet to Barcelona in 2018. The CAS verdict upheld a FIFA ruling last year. The court’s judgment came 10 years after a similar dispute in which a French club failed to get a sell-on fee when its former player subsequently left Sevilla to join Barcelona. In the Lenglet case, Nancy said it sold him to Sevilla for 5 million euros ($5.4 million) in January 2017 with a clause to get 12% of the profit from a future sale. Barcelona activated a release clause in Lenglet’s contract to buy him for 35 million euros ($38.1 million) after 18 months at Sevilla. Sevilla refused to pay Nancy, arguing Lenglet’s move to Barcelona was technically a release of the player rather than a transfer. “The CAS panel confirmed that it was the real and common intention of the parties to transfer Clément Lenglet,” the court said in a statement. Sevilla lost the Lenglet case after having won a previous dispute involving French club Lens and Mali midfielder Seydou Keita. Keita joined Barcelona in 2008 after terminating his contract with Sevilla. A CAS panel in 201O said Keita’s former club was not entitled to a share of the 14 million euros ($15.2 million) indemnity that Barcelona agreed to pay Sevilla.

Chelsea's Willian Has Reservations About Returning From Coronavirus Shutdown https://www.si.com/soccer/2020/04/17/willian-chelsea-coronavirus-premier-league-return-brazil SAO PAOLO (AP) — Chelsea winger Willian is relishing the Premier League resuming, with some reservations during the coronavirus pandemic. “If we restart playing without fans but there’s contact on the pitch and maybe we can spread the virus between us,” Willian said in a video interview. “It’s not a bad idea but they have to know very carefully what’s going to happen. Maybe a player can have the virus and we play against each other, you know? “I play against someone and I get the virus then I go home after the game to stay with my family and pass the virus to my wife or daughters. So we have to be careful about that.” It was teammate Callum Hudson-Odoi testing positive for the coronavirus on March 11 that contributed to the Premier League’s decision to halt a season that is suspended indefinitely. Chelsea’s last game was three days earlier against Everton. “We shook hands and hugged each other,” Willian said. “So after that when he tested positive for the coronavirus I think everyone was worried about it. But none of us felt any symptoms.” Still, Willian, along with the rest of the squad, had to go into self-isolation in his London apartment before eventually flying out to join his wife and children who had returned to Brazil. Willian remains in Sao Paulo waiting to discover when training can resume in England. Extending the season far beyond its expected end-point in mid-May has additional complications as his Chelsea contract expires, like so many across soccer leagues, on June 30. “I want to give everything for Chelsea until the end like I always did, until the end of my contract, until the end of the league,” Willian said. “I have to discuss with the club to see what we are going to do. But for me, from my side, I have no problem to play until the end of the season.” While the Premier League has been on hold during the pandemic, players have come under pressure to accept pay cuts — particularly to protect the jobs of non-playing staff at clubs. Premier League clubs agreed collectively that squads should have salaries reduced by 30% as revenue streams have dried up but the players’ union could not reach an agreement. “Everyone has to help, but for me personally this shouldn’t be an obligation,” Willian said. “Like you have to do this because you have to. ... I think you have to do if you feel you have to do. From your heart. Not an obligation that players have to do this or do that.” snip

Werner replacement Rashica: His next club is RB Leipzig https://www.weser-kurier.de/werder/werder-bundesliga_artikel,-rashica-sein-naechster-klub-ist-rb-leipzig-_arid,1908719.html Jean-Julien Beer 04/17/2020 10 comments Many well-known clubs have been campaigning for Milot Rashica in recent months. Clubs from England too. But Werder's top striker remains in the Bundesliga. His move to RB Leipzig is imminent. A special goal: Milot Rashica, here with Maximilian Eggestein, scored for Werder against RB Leipzig in May 2019. (north photo) How meticulously the specialists of the top Bundesliga club RB Leipzig are following Bremen player Milot Rashica was demonstrated a year ago. In a telephone call with the WESER-KURIER, the then Leipzig coach and sports director Ralf Rangnick rattled down the footballing and physical advantages, but also the individual tactical deficits of the Werder attacker, as if he were reading aloud from a scouting analysis. But at that time Rangnick was not sitting in front of the data on Rashica, but was able to say all of this out of his head in detail. It was clear, said Leipzig's mastermind Rangnick in May 2019, "that we have such a player on our radar". Rangnick also made it clear that young and viable players like Rashica, then only 22 years old, not only look at the then seven back goals, but also at things like his backward movement, individual paths or tactical discipline. That was why it was clear that the conversation could be understood at the time that Rashica was not yet a player for a club like RB Leipzig, because it might be a good thing if the attacker continued his very steep learning curve at Werder for another season - in order to really reach the top one day at the top clubs. Today Baumann is happy about it Werder's sporting director Frank Baumann was relieved in those weeks around the 2019 season finale that RB Leipzig had not yet made an offer for the fast Werder attacker. After all, Baumann and his head coach Florian Kohfeldt didn't want to lose another regular after Max Kruse, but wanted to keep the squad together, with Rashica as the key figure. Today, almost a year later, things are different. Rashica has added ten more competitive goals and five assists to its statistics so far this season, including very impressive hits against the top German clubs Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen. Rangnick is no longer a trainer in Leipzig, but still pulls a lot of strings in the background. And Baumann would now be a very happy manager if a club paid the transfer, which was anchored in Rashica's contract for the summer: about 38 million euros. Even if Rashica's advisor, the player himself and his ex-club Vitesse Arnheim participate in this sum, Werder would be enough to wipe a sweat bead off his forehead in times of the corona crisis. Nagelsmann absolutely wants the player The Werder bosses at Osterdeich can lay out the handkerchiefs for this. As the WESER-KURIER learned from a safe source in the Werder environment, Rashica is now facing a million-dollar move to RB. The discussions between the decision-makers in Leipzig and the management of the player are so advanced that an official announcement of this transfer may be expected even this month. It is no longer likely that other interested clubs can still successfully position themselves and prevent this transfer because RB coach Julian Nagelsmann absolutely wants the Bremen striker on his team and personally convinced the player to work together. Since then Rashica should also be clear that a move to Liverpool, which is also interested, could come too soon for him. In Leipzig, the striker can count on large game shares in the Champions League, but in Jürgen Klopp's world-class squad in Liverpool he would only be significantly less minutes safe if he were realistic. RB is a good customer in times of crisis For Werder, RB Leipzig is also a very welcome customer because, thanks to the millions from the Red Bull empire, the club is a reliable business partner even in times of the Corona crisis, and is serious about a transfer with a total volume of almost EUR 40 million and can process early. This brings Werder valuable planning security in what is probably the most difficult economic crisis in the history of the club and also helps to secure liquidity. Leipzig, in turn, would like to oblige the player at an early stage in order to take him off the market. In this case, it doesn't seem to matter whether Werder will continue to play in the Bundesliga or only in the second division. Other clubs had speculated on getting Rashica cheaper in the event of a relegation in Bremen. Another point is crucial in the Leipzig transfer plans with Rashica: Namely, that the club loses national team player Timo Werner, whether to Bayern or to Liverpool. Media reports appeared on Friday, according to which Chelsea FC is now interested in Werner. Egel where to: Werner's sale brings RB Leipzig a high transfer fee - and Rashica almost certainly a regular place in the Nagelsmann team. There are only winners When changing from Rashica there will only be winners: Werder Bremen, who will receive the hoped-for transfer fee. RB Leipzig, which gets its dream player. And Milot Rashica, who continues to advance his career consistently and in sensible steps, thanks to his level-headed consultant Altin Lala, who in January 2018 had already chosen Werder Bremen as a suitable next step for his highly talented client. As you know today, it was a good plan. In addition to RB Leipzig and Liverpool, FC Southampton was one of the interested clubs early on, FC Bayern and Borussia Dortmund at least knocked out the change modalities. In Dortmund, Rashica was on an extended list, but was never the trainer's preferred candidate. The situation in Leipzig is different: Nagelsmann still sees plenty of potential in 23-year-old Rashica, which he now wants to tease out of the fast and powerful attacker on the European stage. posts where I mentioned him

Real want to bring in Haaland and Mbappe to play alongside Benzema https://www.eurosport.co.uk/football/transfers/2019-2020/_sto7729080/story.shtml Real Madrid want Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe, Brighton plan for empty stadiums, Manchester United target Purvis Estupinan and Chelsea aim for huge pay cut. Real target Haaland Real Madrid continue to target Erling Haaland despite the likely contract extension to be handed to Karim Benzema in the coming months. The Daily Mail reports only coronavirus stopped the extension from being confirmed, and that the Borussia Dortmund forward will arrive to provide competition for the French striker. The 32-year-old forward may also be joined by Kylian Mbappe in 2021. Paper Round’s view: It is not made clear why Borussia Dortmund would be prepared to let Haaland go after less than a year at the German club, but with Mino Raiola involved there is every chance that he will be on the move regularly to earn plenty of commissions for the agent. Mbappe as well would give Real the pace they have lacked since Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo lost their youth.

Serie A’s rising stars – Gianluigi Donnarumma: Even aged 8, his future was clear https://theathletic.com/1751747/2020/04/17/serie-a-rising-stars-gianluigi-donnarumma-ac-milan-inter-milan/ In October, it’ll be five years since Gianluigi Donnarumma made his Serie A debut. Allow that to sink in for a moment. He has already been around so long you’d be forgiven for wondering why he is even appearing in a series on the league’s best young talent. But if anyone needs reminding how old Donnarumma is, look no further than the back of his oversized jersey; he picked No 99 for the simple reason — it’s the year he was born. Nobody in the last quarter of a century, not even Antonio Cassano, has clocked up 150 Serie A appearances so early in their career and if this paused season resumes Donnarumma is likely to have played his 200th game in all competitions by the time it concludes. Opta make him the most experienced 21-year-old in Europe’s top five leagues. To seasoned Calcio watchers, where that experience was acquired gives those numbers added weight. Sitting down with Massimiliano Allegri in December, the former AC Milan and Juventus coach told me: “Playing for clubs like Cagliari, Sassuolo and Chievo and playing at San Siro are two different things. There are levels. San Siro’s different. The shirt can weigh you down, it’s heavier. It doesn’t fit some players. They can’t fill it out. If you put a goalkeeper who has done well for a mid-table team in goal for a big club, the goal can look as big as the pitch, their shirt hangs off them and touches the floor. Move a keeper from one stadium to another and it’s as if they become a different person.” When ‘Gigio’ stepped out under San Siro’s rings of seats and iconic red girders for the first time as a 16-year-old — the youngest goalkeeper to debut in Serie A since the long-forgotten Gianluca Pacchiarotti for Pescara in 1980 — the jersey fit perfectly. His hands did not shake, his legs refused to tremble. He made playing at the Meazza look like playing in his own backyard. How Napoli’s academy isn’t the best in Italy remains something of a mystery. The Bay Area is a hotbed of talent and yet the only local lad to firmly establish himself in the first team at the San Paolo in recent memory is Lorenzo Insigne. Yet, Luca Toni aside, all the Italian winners of the Capocannoniere as Serie A’s top scorer over the last decade hail from that particular neck of the woods; Antonio Di Natale, Ciro Immobile and Fabio Quagliarella. Perhaps it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise then that, as well as great strikers, the Campania region also produces top goalkeepers. ASD Club Napoli in the Castellammare di Stabia district calls itself the “School of Champions”, and with ample justification. Donnarumma isn’t the last wonderkid to come through here. In December, Sebastiano Esposito became the youngest player to score a Serie A goal for Inter Milan in more than 60 years. Seba and his older brother Salvatore, who pulls the strings in midfield for second division Chievo, both learned the rudiments of the game with Club Napoli, even though the soccer school’s reputation is built on bringing through shot-stoppers. “Football is in our DNA in Castellammare,” Donnarumma’s first coach, Angelo Panariello, tells The Athletic. “I never get tired talking about Big Gigio.” The framed shirts in the club’s offices are more important than any of the trophies lining the shelves around them. There’s Gennaro Iezzo’s jersey. He was the goalkeeper between the sticks when Napoli returned to Serie A in 2007. Also on proud display is the name and number of Antonio Mirante, Roma’s current back-up goalie who, over the years, has received 10 call-ups to the national team. Donnarumma’s older brother and fellow goalkeeper Antonio also makes the wall of fame. He was first brought to Club Napoli by their uncle Enrico Alfano, a pro shot-stopper himself with local club Juve Stabia. “Antonio was eight or nine, I don’t remember exactly,” the club’s president, Ciro Amore, told Milan TV. “They started training him up and got him to a certain level. As Antonio kept playing for us, Gigio started coming to the ground. He must have been around four and immediately got started playing football.” Club Napoli’s renown for spotting and developing goalkeepers owes everything to Ernesto Ferraro. A legend in those parts, he played in goal for Ascoli in the third division, often using his spare time to pass on the tricks of the trade to the club’s youngsters. One of them, Massimo Cacciatori, received an offer from Inter on the back of Ferraro’s goalkeeping seminars. Ferraro classed him as his first success story. Donnarumma must rank as his last but greatest of all. “More than a goalkeeping coach, Ernesto was a maestro,” Panariello says. “I think it must be some sort of a record to develop four goalkeepers who all went onto play in Serie A.” As you can imagine, word quickly spread about Club Napoli’s uncanny ability for transforming kids into top-flight goalkeepers. So one day in 2007, Il Mattino, the oldest newspaper in Naples, sent a reporter to find out what the secrets were behind such a prolific talent factory. Ferraro didn’t let on too much but he tipped the reporter off about his latest protege. “People will think I’m crazy but Gigio will be the best of all.” Donnarumma was eight years old at the time but Ferraro was in no doubt. “He’s got what it takes to become a great keeper.” “Ernesto never got carried away about anyone,” Panariello adds, “Not Mirante, not Iezzo. But he always used to say to me, ‘Angelo, Gianluigi will play in Serie A.’ I used to say, ‘Ernesto how can you be so sure?’ And he’d reply, ‘Because when I show him something, I don’t need to show him again. He already understands. He loves to train too. Gigio never tires.’ Being taller than the other lads, he played with the year above. Always a year or two up. He used to play Saturday, Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon.” Inter thought they had Donnarumma. The basis of an agreement was in place to sign the 14-year-old. “It was almost done,” the player later told Sky TV. Deep down though, he knew wearing blue and black would have felt strange. Gigio grew up a Milan fan and his passion for Inter’s city rivals only increased after his brother Antonio joined them in 2006. Shirts and other Milan apparel used to come through the post; gifts from his older sibling. The boys’ father, Alfonso, met Milan to discuss Antonio’s future just a matter of days after holding talks with Inter about Gigio. All of a sudden, Gigio’s destiny changed. “We already had a deal with Inter,” Panariello recalls, “Then in the space of a few days [Milan’s then-chief executive Adriano] Galliani started showing an interest and the boy went to Milan. From signing Antonio, Galliani already knew the parents. And he wasn’t going to let an opportunity like that slip away.” “Donnarumma was so close to Inter, less than a step away,” Galliani recollected, with a smile like a Cheshire Cat.” We went down to see him and snatched him out from under the Nerazzurri.” Who would have thought that three years later the kid would already be Milan’s starting goalkeeper, let alone be starring in the Italian Super Cup, saving a Paulo Dybala shootout penalty against Juventus to help win the last trophy of the Silvio Berlusconi era? The day before their home game against Sassuolo in October 2015, Milan’s coach Sinisa Mihajlovic wished to talk to Donnarumma. “He gave me this long speech [before training], explaining everything to me and said I’d be playing on Sunday,” Donnarumma, then 16, told Sky. “It was emotional to begin with. He asked me if I was afraid and I immediately told him, ‘No’. But the Mister already knew he could count on me.” It was a last roll of the dice from Mihajlovic. “I got emotional watching him make his debut in Serie A,” Panariello says. “It was such a big game because Milan-Sassuolo was fundamental for Mihajlovic. If he lost, he probably would have been sacked. But he had the courage to give this kid a chance.” Diego Lopez, the incumbent goalkeeper, had impressed the season before having arrived on a free after starting 36 of the 38 league games in Carlo Ancelotti’s first year as Real Madrid coach. “During the week [leading up to Donnarumma’s debut] Berlusconi came to Milanello [the training ground] twice to persuade me to play Diego Lopez,” Mihajlovic recalled in Il Corriere della Sera. “I told him he had two options: He could sack me and put Lopez in goal or keep me and see Donnarumma play instead. He kept me.” Not for long though. Mihajlovic, to whom Donnarumma will forever be grateful, got the boot in the April. The churn at Milan over the course of the young goalkeeper’s short career is nothing short of astonishing. Three presidents. Five permanent managers. Two changes of goalkeeper coach. As if the scrutiny wasn’t enough already with media and fans alike rushing to anoint any young goalkeeper with an ounce of promise the new Gianluigi Buffon — anyone remember Simone Scuffet? — the environment at Milan has not been the stablest, nor for the feint of heart. Donnarumma has had to grow up fast. His agent, Mino Raiola, has repeatedly expressed doubts about whether Milan is the best club for him and combative and tense contract negotiations in 2017 took a toll. Donnarumma was showered in fake money, tossed up from behind the goal, when he played for Italy against Denmark at the Under-21 Euros that summer. Although Donnarumma kept his word and signed until 2021, his reported €5.5 million a year salary, the re-signing of his brother Antonio from Greece’s Asteras Tripolis and clashes between Raiola and then sporting director Massimiliano Mirabelli turned an element of the club’s supporters against him. In December of that year, provoked by reports Raiola wanted the new contract annulled, the ultras unfurled a banner telling Donnarumma and his “parasite” brother their patience was finished and that the pair of them should leave. It reduced Donnarumma to tears. His form suffered and for a while it was fair to wonder whether he’d recover the poise that, along with his incredible physical attributes, make him such a phenomenal prospect. In hindsight, we needn’t have worried. As a panelist at a book launch last September, Milan’s then-chief football officer Zvonimir Boban was asked whether Donnarumma could fill a perceived leadership deficit at the club. “I think he already is,” Boban said. “Over the summer when all these agents want to tell you how to think about football, I understood Gianluigi is that guy. He’s got a lot of passion, he’s Milan through-and-through. Regardless of his age, he’s got a lot of influence in the dressing room.” For someone still in his early 20s, Donnarumma sure has been through a lot. His character has been stress-tested and he’s stronger for it. “I was timid to start off with,” he told Undici magazine. “Everyone was older than me. It was hard. Now I’m one of the guys who has been here the longest. I know I’ve got a big role to play. I make myself heard.” As Milan laboured under Marco Giampaolo at the beginning of this season, losing four of their first six games, Donnarumma shone. An opening-day defeat away to Udinese would have been worse without him turning a point-blank shot from Kevin Lasagna over the bar. The save he made on Brescia’s Stefano Sabelli a week later, clawing a wicked deflection away from the top corner, proved crucial in helping an otherwise anaemic Milan get their first win of the campaign. It’s not just his size and reflexes that catch the eye. Donnarumma’s distribution has also improved in the last two years, a consequence of training with back-up, former Liverpool favourite and now Aston Villa loanee Pepe Reina. StatsBomb data places him third in positive outcomes (defined as all free kicks earned in the attacking half, corner kicks earned, shots attempted, and penalties earned within the 20 seconds after a goalkeeper’s pass). They also make him the most aggressive keeper in Serie A when coming for crosses — using all his 6ft 5in frame — and racing off his line. Maybe he’s too aggressive at times, as we saw against Cagliari and Udinese when Donnarumma hared out of his area toward the left sideline. While he got away with it once, recovering his positioning to bat away Nahitan Nandez’s lob, Jens Stryger Larsen ensured he wasn’t so lucky the second time. Milan’s defence can leave him exposed. Left-back and second-top-scorer Theo Hernandez’s tendency to push forward and give up space for opponents to exploit behind him has repercussions, pulling Donnarumma or the centre-backs out of position. The personnel playing in front of Donnarumma hasn’t been consistent either. The system changed when Stefano Pioli replaced Giampaolo in October, as did the configuration of the midfield, and Alessio Romagnoli has had a trio of different centre-back partners too. As such, it is no shock to discover the xG per shot Milan are conceding ranks sixth-worst in the league. Donnarumma is meeting expectation but he isn’t the finished article yet. As Asmir Begovic, signed on loan from Bournemouth in January as back-up, says: “He’s a phenomenal keeper and has a chance to be the best in the world for many years.” Donnarumma is humble enough to admit he’s still learning. While there’s a strong case to be made for Torino veteran Salvatore Sirigu to be recognised as the best Italian goalkeeper of the last couple of years, there’s no debate as to who has the higher ceiling. The youngest goalkeeper to debut for Italy in 104 years, Donnarumma succeeded Buffon and already has 16 caps. He represents the national team’s present and its future. Panariello still gets goosebumps whenever a Milan game comes on TV. “How is it possible this kid we used to pick up and take to training made it to such a high level? How is it possible?”

it isn't FIFA 20 at ALL ,the problem is the prices and the players situs, as I said above

unless COVID-19 has a massive price-lowering effect, some of those prices are way off (plus you list two players with the vermin Raiola as an agent, Donnarumma and Romagnoli) and Werner is NOT coming here, he si going to the scouse cunts. my comments are based off pre COVID valuations Werner - 60mn <<< is not coming here Sancho - 130mn << close to correct Romagnoli - 50mn Raiola plus he will cost £80m, I love him for years, always near or at the top of my CB want list, but when he signed with Mino, my heart broke Donnarumma - 50mn Raiola plus he wants to stay in Italy (Juve at the top of the list, and they want him badly) your price is fair, as his contract expires in 2021, I think he could cost less now Telles - 35mn his release clause is close to this (the pound has fallen recently against the euro, so this is correct) Rice - 50mn < he will cost £70-80m I fear (I also want him as I think he will end up a starting CB for us) Bakayoko - 35mn << I think we will end up being lucky to get £25-30m for him, Alonso - 30mn << I personally think this is fair, but I doubt the Italian teams can afford it now (he turns 30 this coming season,in December) fuck Marina turning down £45m form Real in summer 2018 Emerson - 25mn << I agree here, but COVID may fuck us Kepa - 50mn <<< zero chance we get this much for him atm (plus we have to eat part of his huge £10m per year salary) I expect us to take an overall £65m or so lose on him IF he doesn't rebond and we sell Jorginho - 60mn I think he will end up (if we sell) be lucky to get £45m or so, mabe 50m (COVID) Kante - 70mn supposedly our asking price is only 70m EUROS (£62m), which is criminal if we sell him for that low Pasalic - 15mn <<< Atalanta (pre COVID, which DECIMATED their area of Italy) say they were 100% going to exercise his £13m option to buy, who knows now Moses - 10mn I wish we could get this, but doubtful Batshuayi - 30mn << we will be lucky to get this, Marina can fuck off turning down £35m, and demanding £45m Zouma - 30mn < I think (pre covid) £40m was more in order Barkley - 20mn < I think we can (again pre covid) get £30m

We were linked heavily, we scouted him, he went for only £18m, and yet NOTHING from our end. I cannot see Lyon selling him for anything less than £40m (but that is a pre COVID-19 number, so who knows)

Morata will lose his shit if he has to come back here, lol. Mario Pašalić was superb for Atalanta this past season, I am sure we will have zero problems selling him on if Atalanta cannot buy him. (they were right in the middle of the COVID-19 decimation, and I have no clue about their finances, although they are qualified for the CL (4th place atm) again, even if Serie A voids the season.)

A tribute to Piero Gratton: The genius behind Roma’s wolf badge and plenty more https://theathletic.com/1746633/2020/04/16/piero-gratton-roma-badge-designer-artist-wolf/ When I moved to Rome, one of the ways I learned Italian was to head over to the newspaper kiosk across the street from our apartment and pick up the sports dailies. I would read the papers from front to back, the ink smudging my fingers, and more often than not get suckered into buying the bric-a-brac you see jumbling up the kiosks. One man’s Hoarders is another’s Aladdin’s cave. For six months in what must have been 2007, La Gazzetta dello Sport released a DVD every week about a season in Italian football history. It was Premier League Years for Serie A and the satisfaction I still get from completing that box set is immense; not least because when all the spines align in order they depict a sort of evolution of football from Gianni Rivera to Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Whenever I hear Oscar Prudente’s theme tune introducing the big stories of that particular year, I’m transported straight back to the sofa of my flat in Monteverde Vecchio where I watched Verona, Sampdoria and Roma all win the Scudetto. What I didn’t know at the time was the music came from Domenica Sprint — the Sunday sport show for RAI, Italy’s state broadcaster. Nor was I aware Piero Gratton designed the psychedelic graphics for its title sequence. Gratton passed away last week, aged 81, and his work has always had a profound effect on me. When I first started going to the Stadio Olimpico, it didn’t matter who was playing, Roma or Lazio, you’d see his mark on T-shirts, scarves and bobble hats. On trips to Palermo, I couldn’t help but notice his creations reproduced in spray paint on garage shutters and stencilled on paint-chipped walls. When I think about Bari and Antonio Cassano talking about his unforgettable first goal in Serie A — you know the one, the exhilarating solo run against Inter — Gratton’s work is right there, skipping inside Laurent Blanc and Christian Panucci on the way to blasting a shot past Angelo Peruzzi. Gratton managed to weave himself into the very fabric of football. When he wasn’t making the idents for RAI, he was designing the most iconic and beloved football crests in the history of the Italian game: Bari’s red-crested cockerel; Palermo’s pink-collared bird; Pescara’s diving dolphin; the eagle with whom Lazio soared into the 1980s; and, most famously of all, the Lupetto — Roma’s “little wolf”. The Carabinieri, Italy’s military police, stood waiting for Gratton as he brought his pedalo into shore. His son Michelangelo remembers it as if it were yesterday. “We were on holiday in Sabaudia to the south of Rome, near Mount Circeo,” he tells The Athletic. “It was August 14.” The Carabinieri hadn’t come to arrest Gratton under the baking hot summer sun. It turned out his government needed him. Amintore Fanfani, five-time Prime Minister of Italy — “a small but tough guy,” Michelangelo recalls — had decided it was time for RAI to move from black and white to colour TV. Gratton had been with the broadcaster for years. He joined in 1960, fresh out of art college, just as RAI went on a hiring spree in preparation for Rome hosting the Olympics. Gratton had a creative role. It was his duty to come up with the graphics and visuals to help the channel’s news bulletins connect with audiences at home. “The first big job he did was when Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit the moon,” Michelangelo explains. Still, every now and again, RAI would send him on reporting jobs, such as one particularly memorable trip to Madrid. “My father went to Spain for a story where he got to know and interviewed Santiago Bernabeu as well as some of Real’s best players: Alfredo Di Stefano and Ferenc Puskas, legends of the game. After he left there were articles in the Spanish papers saying he was a spy for Juve (Madrid’s next opponents in the 1962 European Cup).” The introduction of colour TV meant all of RAI’s programming required new idents and title sequences. Eager to make the transition as soon as the technology allowed, Gratton was informed his vacation had come to a premature end. “He tried to tell the Carabinieri he was on holiday, but they were having none of it,” Michelangelo says. “Given my father had travelled around Europe and knew a lot about TV programming, he was thought of as an expert in his field, at the very cutting edge. But the truth is he didn’t know much about colour TV and it was Ferragosto, a public holiday. There wasn’t anywhere to develop colour film in Rome because everywhere was shut. But within a day or two, RAI’s new opening titles came out in colour.” Gratton’s first major commission in sport was the 1974 World Athletics Championships in Rome. The mascot and all the medals were his inventions. The orders kept coming in. His work became unavoidable. When RAI decided to launch TeleGiornale 2 and a series of alternative programming, the “little Walt Disney of TV” was the man entrusted to design its own unique look. “The sport shows Domenica Sprint, Dribbling and Eurogol, which came later, were all made in more or less the same style,” Michelangelo explains. “He was responsible for some of the most famous title sequences ever made. “The biggest one was Odeon, the first programme to talk about entertainment in a different way. There were interviews with rock stars, stories from the Crazy Horse cabaret in Paris. The first time a pair of breasts appeared on Italian TV was on Odeon.” Gratton’s role in launching TeleGiornale 2 brought him a measure of fame. “He hit the big time with that work,” Michelangelo says, “The meeting with AS Roma came not much longer after that. And that’s how it all started with the Lupetto.” Gratton, right, with Roma player Giancarlo De Sisti after a Rome derby against Lazio (Photo: Piero Gratton/Roma) It must have been a dream come true for Gratton. “He was a Romanista, an obsessive,” Michelangelo reveals. “If Roma lost, he wouldn’t turn on the TV or radio for two days. It consumed him. Whenever we were away travelling, he always wanted to know how they were getting on.” Matthew Wolff came across Gratton when he started designing Nike apparel pieces and World Cup kits for France and Nigeria. He worked on the PSG and Jordan brand collaboration and launched the visual identities of NYCFC and LAFC. Gratton’s oeuvre is a perennial source of fascination and one to which he regularly returns for inspiration. “Kits, they come and go,” Wolff explains. “They’re kind of timely, often dictated by trend and fashion. But crests are intended to last forever.” Over time they become infused with memory and emotion, civic pride and our innate need to belong to something. The best badges should do so much more than simply identify a team. “Supporters see their crests as reflections of themselves,” Wolff says. “Which is why people get tattoos of them.” It also helps us understand the reason fans are so up in arms when a rebrand misses the mark. “They think you’ve tampered with their identity.” Gratton’s rebrands never sparked protests, only gratitude for capturing the essence of who they were: Romanisti, Palermitani or Barese. He kept his designs clean and simple, breaking with the tradition of chintzy and ornate coats of arms, choosing instead to declutter old crests almost always in favour of one totemic figure. “The theme I’ve noticed in his work is wildlife,” Wolff says, “and it’s clever because animals do have a way of eliciting emotion from us.” From the desire to be as free as a bird or a lone wolf to the leader of a pack or a flock. “Gratton was ahead of his time in the simplicity of his work,” Wolff continues. “It’s almost like he knew we would head towards a more digital world where cleaner and simpler graphics would be king and the social media avatar was only going to be 20 pixels by 20 pixels. “Gratton famously said he wanted it to fit on the side of a pencil. And this is the other element no one seemed to see in his time: the merchandising of the simplistic marks. You should be able to recognise the mark from down the street, the other side of the pitch. It should be clear to you what you are seeing, what club you’re representing from afar. And the ultimate expression of that is that lollipop kit with the Lupetto crest.” In the 1970s, Roma did not have a lot of money. The club’s owner Gaetano Anzalone wanted to invest in the team and make it more competitive, but he needed to increase revenues. Research trips to America were organised to see if anything could be learned from the way baseball and NFL teams operated as businesses. The existing logo quickly became identified as a problem. For starters, the club didn’t own the copyright and couldn’t use it to sell merchandise. Gilberto Viti, a Roma director, also happened to have been a delegate on the organising committee for the World Athletics Championships in Rome that had hired Gratton. Viti introduced him to Anzalone and a groundbreaking collaboration began. “Anzalone was the father of modern football,” Michelangelo says. “When they started commercialising the crest in 1978, Roma were pioneers. People thought they were crazy, but history shows they were right.” It started with the season tickets. “They were like tram tickets,” Gratton said, “When you stamped them, you obliterated them.” A booklet was created with bespoke artwork and space for sponsors to advertise. They are now collectors’ items. As for the ghiacciolo — “lollipop” — shirt, Michelangelo can’t be sure, but thinks it might be an idea Gratton brought back with him from an expedition to the US. “I think it was inspired by a baseball team from Houston.” The resemblance with the Astros uniform from that time is uncanny. The piece de resistance, though, is the Lupetto. “The wolf head is just fucking cool, isn’t it?” Wolff exclaims. Encircled by orange and porphyry rings, Gratton painted the wolf black on a white background so it would stand out on TV and in print. It was a considerable departure from what went before. There’s nothing maternal about it. Rather than suckling Romulus and Remus, the red eye and jagged teeth scream predator. “My father imposed a new logo on a city that already had a strong identity, already had a name, already had an icon for more than 2,000 years,” Michelangelo says. “His greatness lies in establishing the Lupetto as another icon the city came to love, one people put on the same level as the she-wolf and the name Rome. For me, that’s just extraordinary.” When news of Gratton’s death broke, Michelangelo’s phone rang off the hook. “There are so many stories and the best ones were the messages we got from fans. They were extraordinary. From an emotional point of view, the gratitude they showed for making something they carry with them on their skin or in the blood is quite beautiful. You know, the Lupetto may be modern but it’s a moment in time, too. Lots of people have got the tattoo or a pendant. It’s a part of people’s lives, a connection to some of the big moments you go through: weddings, communions, the school days when you’d draw it in your textbooks.” Gratton cried when he learned there were children’ graves in Rome’s Prima Porta cemetery with flags bearing the Lupetto draped over the headstones. Michelangelo discovered this while interviewing his father for a documentary about his life. “He was very moved,” Michelangelo recalls. “He went to pay his respects to a colleague’s daughter who died of cancer. She was three years old. A tragedy no one can ever accept. It shocked him. At the end of the documentary I asked him quite provocatively: ‘What future do you imagine for yourself?’ He said: ‘When I go, I’d like for whoever walks past my grave to see a trumpet where the children have the Lupetto.'” Gratton was deeply passionate about music — as anyone who has listened to his title sequences can attest — and Michelangelo says: “He loved music and collected instruments from all over the world, from marimbas to the charango, not to mention woodwind instruments from Buddhist monasteries. It was endless, it really was.” As endless as the affection his work continues to inspire. On the day Gratton’s death became public, Luca Di Bartolomei, the son of Roma’s legendary captain Agostino, tweeted: “Ciao Piero and thank you for giving us what is the most beautiful logo of the most beautiful team in the world.”

Like a bunch of drunks dancing on a stag do – the Premier League’s ‘pub team’ https://theathletic.com/1751277/2020/04/17/leicester-premier-league-pub-team-memories/ The 50,000 plus Manchester United fans inside Old Trafford must have looked on in bewilderment as Leicester City warmed up. In front of them was what looked like a rag-tag team conducting their own spontaneous warm-up without any coaching staff in sight and looking like a bunch of drunks dancing on a stag do. This would surely be easy meat for their star-studded side, who were being put through their own coordinated and professional-looking preparations. And as David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and the rest of the Class of ’92 looked over at the shenanigans of their opposition, they too must have thought they would make light work of Martin O’Neill’s side. “Honestly, it was the most shambolic warm-up you have ever seen in your life,” recalls striker Tony Cottee of that Premier League game in January 1998. “There were balls going everywhere. “We made a little circle where everyone was allowed to do a little warm-up dance. Matt Elliott did this dance like Baloo the Bear from Jungle Book, Muzzy [Izzet]was doing The Worm. Honestly, if you had seen us you would have said we were a non-League ‘pub team’, turning up to get walloped at Old Trafford. But we had so much fun in the warm-up that by the time we had Martin’s motivational speech, we were ready to go out and perform.” “It was instigated by [midfielder] Garry Parker,” former Leicester captain Elliott explains. “We would get in the circle and then we would all do a stupid dance. Muzzy would do the caterpillar, ‘Parkes’ would do the Moonwalk. I would do this stupid dance where you lean forward and kick your legs up at the back, a bit like Baloo. “Parkes used to call me that [Baloo]. If we had a practise match at training and I would go and get the ball off the keeper and start sauntering out from the back with it, because I had some space, he would be shouting, ‘Here comes Baloo Bear,’ because I had a big arse and legs. “The Manchester United players and fans would have been looking at us thinking, ‘What are these idiots doing?’ The next minute one of their balls came near us as we were doing the warm-up and it was Gary Pallister, who knew Parkes a bit. He shouted, ‘Garry, kick the ball back, will you?’ Parkes told him to fuck off and get it himself. We all went, ‘Wahey! Go on, Parkesy!’” “We would do this Turkish or Russian dance, where you squat down and kick your legs out,” adds midfielder Izzet. “I remember it started at Old Trafford. It relaxed us and the spirit was there. We would do spontaneous things and Martin liked it. Steve [Walford, the assistant manager] as well. That was why they were such a great partnership.” Leicester went out and beat then-champions Manchester United 1-0 – which remains their only win at Old Trafford since 1973 – with Cottee scoring the goal, and the strange pre-match routine, which may had fed some complacency within the United ranks, became a regular occurrence, adding to the mystique of O’Neill’s uncouth and unfashionable battlers. They were dubbed “The best pub team in the country”, a reputation that was fostered by O’Neill himself and relished by his players as they finished in the top 10 of the Premiership in four consecutive seasons from 1997-2000. “We revelled in that,” Cottee says. “That tag of us being a pub team may have even come from Martin O’Neill himself. He may have said that. We deserved to win that game and we played on that tag. It wasn’t an issue for us. We knew on our day we had good players and could potentially beat anyone. There were some great teams in that era with Arsenal and Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Spurs. It was hard to get results in the Premier League so for us to finish four years on the trot in the top 10 was a great achievement. “It was, in its own way, as good an achievement as winning the cup and getting to cup finals.” It wasn’t just the warm-ups that earned Leicester the “pub team” tag, it was also the fact that O’Neill had built a side with players signed from the lower leagues, like Elliott from Oxford United, Gerry Taggart from Barnsley, Neil Lennon and Robbie Savage, both from Crewe Alexandra, plus raw youth including the home-grown Emile Heskey and Izzet, who couldn’t break through at Chelsea, mixed with players who were considered washed up, like Cottee, who was 32 when he joined and had been playing in Malaysia. A more eclectic mix of players you could not find in the Premier League, but it was all part of O’Neill’s plan and formed the identity of a side that remains embedded in Leicester City folklore. “First and foremost, we had an outstanding manager, a man who motivated the players,” Cottee adds. “He had a great eye to attract players to the club other teams didn’t want. I was an example. I was stuck out in Malaysia and no one wanted me. Martin took a chance. “These players were really good players but they just needed a manager who believed in them and gave them a license to perform. The manager was inspirational in most of what went on. “Having said that, we had a good bunch of players and if you look back now it was, pretty much, a team of internationals. If you look at the players who weren’t internationals, like Steve Walsh for example, he was club captain and a fantastic player. Ian Marshall was another underrated player. Steve Claridge scored hundreds of goals in lower-league football and was now getting his chance in the Premier League. The management recruited really well.” Goalkeeper Kasey Keller became one of the first Americans to play in the Premier League when he was recruited from Millwall. He believes the secret to O’Neill’s success with Leicester was the simplicity of his recruitment philosophy. “He was brilliant at finding a way to play that suited the players in his side,” Keller tells The Athletic. “Then he would buy someone who would fit into that system and play the way they play in that position, which fits the overall tactics of the side. “I have heard managers say to someone they want them to play with their back to goal, when the player is 30 years old and never played that way in his life. Wouldn’t it be easier just to bring in someone who naturally plays that way? That’s what Martin did. That is where he was truly at his best — finding a player who could fit perfectly into that side, playing the way he liked to play.” The game plan was simplistic too. O’Neill would give his teams clear instructions on how he wanted them to play and while it may not have been the most attractive style, with Arsenal counterpart Arsene Wenger amongst their biggest detractors, it was effective. Famously, O’Neill would tell the other players not to pass to Savage, as his role was to be combative and feed the ball to playmaker Izzet, and Keller remembers being given strict instructions not to play out from the back as well, as is the modern trend. “We were away at Tottenham in the first season I was there [1996-97],” Keller recalls. “Neil Lewis came in at left-back because of injuries and Martin told me specifically in front of the whole team, ‘I don’t care if he is 30 yards open, you don’t throw him the ball.’ He was adamant. “We were 1-0 up and in time added time before the break I had the ball in my hands. Neil was open by about 50 yards. Walshy looks at me and says, ‘Roll him the ball.’ “I was like, ‘No.’ “‘Roll it out.’ “‘No.’ “Walshy is like, ‘Come on!’, so I rolled Neil the ball. “He dribbled about 20 yards and tries to nutmeg the Spurs player closing him down. He lost the ball and they nearly scored. I knew what was coming, and so did Walshy, who was apologising to me as we walked off. “Martin starts going off on one at half-time. He says, ‘I know he was 30 or 40 yards open but I don’t care if he is 60 yards open. You do not pass him the ball.’ I think Neil hardly played for the club again but I am sure he was told many times what to do. ‘You shouldn’t be dribbling in these areas and trying to do these things.’ It is the reason why he didn’t play again. If you know what your strengths and weaknesses are and everyone on your team plays to those, you have a very good opportunity of doing what we did. That was some of the real reasons for our success.” Izzet stood out as the most naturally gifted player in O’Neill’s side, a player who would have been a huge hit in the modern era where the focus is on the technical side of the game. He laments the lack of diversity in the playing styles of Premier League sides. “I look at football now and everyone is playing the same,” Izzet says. “It is crying out for a team like Leicester, Wimbledon or Stoke City. It would cause modern teams all sorts of problems. “No one seems to be playing those styles. Everyone seems to have to play the Pep Guardiola way or whatever. It was interesting when Wimbledon played Manchester United or we played Liverpool because we weren’t as good technically, so you had to think about another way to beat them. “Everyone now is jumping on the technical bandwagon. Managers like Martin, Sam Allardyce or Tony Pulis won’t get a job now because they are not seen to play a certain way. It is a shame. They are even looking at Jose Mourinho now and saying he is old-school. Blimey, if he is old-school, what chance have we got? It is crazy how it has gone.” While the technical abilities of O’Neill’s Leicester were far greater than they were given credit for, the “best pub team in the country” possessed a commodity even the technically gifted sides of the modern era cannot be successful without. It was their true strength and the source of their relative success. “We had was a fantastic team spirit,” says Cottee. “There is a lot to be said for what goes on in the modern game but the one thing that doesn’t change is if you don’t have a good team spirit and get on, if you don’t have a joke and a laugh with your team-mates, then you are not going win anything as a team. “All the best teams have a great team spirit and we certainly did.”

‘It sounds crazy but I’d do it all again’ – Michael Hector on life after Chelsea https://theathletic.com/1726509/2020/04/16/chelsea-michael-hector-fulham-hull-reading-sheffield-wednesday/ Michael Hector knows the question is coming and, at the first hint, nips in expertly to cut the interrogator off in his prime. So, if you had your time again… “No, no, no,” he interjects. “Look, my friends are always asking me this and my answer is always the same. It would have been impossible to turn Chelsea down. I’d been released by Millwall at a young age. I went to college, played Sunday League, worked my way back with Reading then learned on loan in non-League. Back then, I never would have dreamed of ever signing for the club I support. That was fantasy stuff. “Yeah, I might have played more games in the Premier League by now had I not joined. I’ll never know how my career might have progressed. But if the team you supported as a boy comes in for you, you have to go with it. My mates are all West Ham fans, so I say to them: ‘If West Ham offered you a contract, would you turn it down?’ Of course they wouldn’t. Why would I? So would I change what I did even though things didn’t work out the way I hoped they might? No, not at all. I’d do it again. I know it sounds crazy, but I’d do it all again.” Hector is sitting in his back garden in Essex, his young son pottering around the lawn in the sunshine exploiting the fact his father is on the telephone and distracted to seek out some mischief, with football suspended and his career enduring its latest hiatus. Momentum has been checked, for all that this is a time to see the bigger picture given the gravity of the coronavirus pandemic. The centre-half is now at Fulham, his eye-catching form since finally becoming eligible in January having contributed heavily to a promotion push that sees the Londoners third with nine games to play. Scott Parker’s side have lost only once in the 11 Championship games the defender has played with six clean sheets en route. It says everything about his impact that the locals have nicknamed their classy, authoritative centre-half ‘Virgil van Mike’. There is still lingering frustration that the £8 million deal to secure him from Chelsea missed the deadline by minutes back in August, largely because it hinged upon Tottenham Hotspur securing Ryan Sessegnon, a transfer which – inevitably – went to the wire. But Fulham pursued a deal regardless, a show of ambition and faith from the vice-chairman and director of football relations, Tony Khan, which is now paying off. The centre-half was granted permission to train at his new club ahead of the formal completion of the move mid-season. He could mix with future team-mates, maintain fitness in training, and even play two matches for the under-23s in December to bring him closer to match sharpness. With weekends and weekday evenings free, he even had time to train for his UEFA B licence, and has completed all the practical work for the coaching badge. He can pore over the paperwork during the current interruption, if his toddler permits him that luxury. Khan’s tenacity in pursuing that interest has been rewarded. “It was a long pre-season, let’s put it like that,” Hector tells The Athletic. “The move to Fulham had been in the pipeline for a while, but it needed other things to happen before it could be completed. To miss out by minutes in the end… yeah, that hurt. But I’ve had a few deadline day moves in my time, cutting it fine, and this was one too many. Maybe it was karma telling me I need to do this properly from now on. “So I was on the outside looking in when it came to matches, but the staff at Fulham were unbelievable in terms of keeping me fit. It wasn’t just running, either. There was ball work and those two games with the under-23s. We had a man sent off just after half-time in the first one, too, so that meant I was really tested for 45 minutes. When January came, I probably felt the fittest I’ve ever been in my career. That’s been shown on the pitch, coming straight in and playing 90 minutes from the outset despite what was, really, a long lay-off. And, before this latest break, I was really enjoying it. I felt at home. I had some rhythm to my game. My form was there. “As a centre-back, maybe it’s easier to slot in. You can talk more. You can organise and protect yourself. As you get the games under your belt you can do more for the team with the ball and that’s what has happened. I felt part of things with unbelievable players to my side, in front of me and, in Marek Rodak, at my back. I was on their wavelength, and it was just so good to be playing again, to have that smell of the match day experience. I’d had months to play out in my head how my first touch as a Fulham player would go: just make the first thing you do positive, be solid. When it happened, it was a tackle against Aston Villa in the FA Cup. A little ‘I’m back’ moment. One to enjoy.” It is as if the 27-year-old is making up for lost time which, for all that there is a ‘Hector No 30’ match-worn Chelsea shirt in his house yearning to be framed, he is. There is little conventional about his footballing career. His has been a nomadic existence through 15 loans spells at clubs up and down the pyramid: from relegation toils at Bracknell Town in the Southern Football League Division One (West) at the age of 17, to flirting – perhaps optimistically – with the Championship play-offs with Sheffield Wednesday last season. He was once named Barnet’s young player of the year and took the senior award at Hillsborough, his efforts invariably appreciated by the support. There was a successful six-month stint at Aberdeen, after which he travelled back north to watch his former team-mates win the 2014 Scottish League Cup final with the fans. With Jamaica, he reached the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup final only to lose to Mexico in front of almost 69,000 fans in Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field. Then there was that ultimately fruitful year at Eintracht Frankfurt under Nico Kovac – “A proper culture shock at first, but a chance to experience something very different” – which included an appearance in the DFB Pokal cup final, for all that Borussia Dortmund proved too strong. Each temporary stint, whether secured while his registration was wedded to Reading or Chelsea, was an education. Even when, as an 18-year-old, he was sent off three times in 11 games while playing for Horsham and hauled in front of a Football Association tribunal. They passed down an eight-match suspension. “One of the reds was as the last man, clipping the striker by accident,” he says. “But the other two were reactions: to someone stamping on my toe or elbowing me off the ball. The referee turned round and saw my reaction, not the original incident. “I was a young lad playing against men. The manager was always on to me, telling me not to get bullied, to stand up for myself. Maybe I took it too literally and didn’t do it in a controlled manner. But it was good for me to learn the game at the coalface, and how to behave off the ball. That was key for me as a centre-back. You have to control your emotions. You’re the last man, and you’ll come up against a few bruisers in your time. It’s not always pretty.” All those techniques seemed to be paying off. Having finally been offered game-time at Reading, the club he had joined on scholarship terms after impressing against them for Barking Abbey in a friendly, he finally made his debut in early 2014 and swiftly established himself as a regular. His performance in the FA Cup semi-final against Arsenal the following season, where he helped the Championship club blunt Danny Welbeck and Olivier Giroud before Alexis Sanchez won the tie in extra-time, showcased his talent. There were top-flight suitors for his signature that summer, with Crystal Palace’s pursuit of his services the most persuasive. With talks yielding agreement, Hector went and stayed at his uncle’s house in Dartford, across the Queen Elizabeth II bridge in Kent, to be closer to Palace’s training ground in Beckenham where he anticipated undertaking a medical on deadline day. Then a phone-call out of the blue changed everything. Or, at least, that was the hope. It was Pat Hector, Michael’s father, who fielded the call from Michael Emenalo. In his youth, Pat had played cricket three first-class matches for Essex back in 1977. The England junior international once mustered 40 from a berth in the county’s middle-order against Cambridge University, and took three for 56 against Leicestershire as a fast-medium bowler in a Championship fixture. He tried to imbue the same love of the game in his son, but Michael, who grew up in East Ham and did play for Essex’s junior sides – the Chelsea connection stems from his mother’s roots in Fulham Broadway – found the drag of all-day games rather less appealing. Even boring. “My dad always told me sport should never become a chore,” he says, “and he’s always supported me with my football. He’s been behind me all the way. “That summer I was basically done to [go to] Palace. Reading had agreed the deal and we were staying with my uncle to do the medical. Then that evening, the day before the deadline, my dad left the room to take a call. He came back and said: ‘You’ll never guess who that was.’ It was Emenalo, who was Chelsea’s technical director at the time, saying they wanted me. Once I’d worked out he wasn’t winding me up, that was that. I’d turn down any club in the world to join Chelsea. It was an absolute no-brainer for me and my family. “My dad went over to Stamford Bridge that night to talk with them, but it wouldn’t have been right not to speak directly to Palace, too, and tell them what was going on. I felt bad leaving them in the lurch, but we spoke to (the Palace manager) Alan Pardew and, to be fair, he understood. Chelsea were ‘my’ team. This was all a dream come true.” There were eyebrows raised at the reigning Premier League champions’ business on that final day of the 2015 summer window. Jose Mourinho, whose second spell at the club would be curtailed before Christmas, had started that summer with aspirations to secure John Stones from Everton but, on the day Hector signed a five-year deal and joined for £4 million, Chelsea also secured Papy Djilobodji from Nantes. Some questioned the logic in clogging up the pathway for Andreas Christensen, Tomas Kalas and even Kenneth Omeruo into the first team. At 26, Djilobodji, whose career at the club amounted to a minute of normal time in a League Cup tie at Walsall, felt a baffling purchase. For Hector, three years younger and a player who had made an impression in the second tier, this was at least reward for steady progress. “Maybe Steve Clarke, my manager at Reading, drove the move given he was a former Chelsea player and coach and had made me vice-captain,” he says. “They wanted me back for the season on loan – we felt we had a real chance of going up that year – so it was a fleeting visit to Cobham to sign the contract and shake hands with a few of the players and management. I bumped into Mourinho in the canteen and he told me to keep my head down and work hard. Which I did. Everything I did from then on was with the intention of eventually making it at Chelsea. “I’d never move somewhere I didn’t feel I could break into a team. I believed in myself, particularly after that semi-final against Arsenal the previous season. I felt I could compete. You can do well in the Champ but, against Welbeck and Giroud, I held my own, so I knew I could play at the top level. So when the Chelsea move came about, given the chance, I believed I could play at that level. Even when I started training with them at the start of the following season, just after Antonio Conte had been appointed, it felt natural. I felt good. Everything was positive.” In hindsight, Hector never came closer to forcing his way into the first-team picture at Chelsea than in that summer of 2016. He trained under the Italian and his staff at Cobham, and travelled with the senior squad to Austria, the United States and Germany on pre-season. He played 32 minutes in a 3-0 win over RZ Pellets WAC at the tiny Lavanttal-Arena in Wolfsberg, Austria, replacing Djilobodji towards the hour-mark. He sat on the bench at the Michigan Stadium as more than 105,000 fans watched Conte’s team edged out 3-2 by Real Madrid. A couple of weeks later, he played 13 minutes of a 4-2 win at Werder Bremen at the Weserstadion. It felt as if he was making an impression. Conte, easing his way into new surroundings, had made positive noises. The squad had welcomed him into the fold. John Terry, a player Hector idolised, made a particular effort to make the new man feel at home. “He’s from Barking, JT, and I was from down the road and had grown up watching him. He invited me and Carlo Cudicini for a round of golf on one of our days off on the tour of the US, trying to make me feel welcome and to get to know me. He was just a winner. Even at his age, he wanted to win every time in training. He never cut corners, the ultimate professional. And yes, he won at the golf. Easily. “It was a really posh course, too and we were there in our training kit and trainers. You could see the members all looking at us wondering what the hell was going on. I don’t think my round recovered from almost crashing the buggy, which was a bit embarrassing, but it was just nice to be part of it all. It would have been nicer to have been part of a proper match-day squad, obviously.” Those hopes were dashed in a conversation with Conte a few days before the start of the Premier League season. “My shirt was printed, I had a really good pre-season behind me. He said he’d been impressed but he felt I needed to play regular top-level football for a year and have another go at Chelsea the following year. If the manager tells you that, you know you’re not going to play. So the Eintracht Frankfurt loan, which had been in the background for a bit, suddenly felt very attractive. A chance to try life in a top league. That was different, tough, learning in a different culture.” He was sent off in his first two appearances for his latest loan club. “JT was one of the first people to text me – after my parents – saying: ‘Don’t worry, these things happen to centre-halves. Just keep focused and keep plugging away.’ He wanted to check everything was OK for me, living in a different country, and that I was coping. For him to do that for someone he’d known for, what, two months? That meant a lot.” That opportunity to play alongside Terry in a competitive match never materialised, with the cameo in Bremen his last appearance in a Chelsea shirt. Hector improved and impressed at Eintracht. He played 38 games at Hull City the following season, and 39 at Wednesday last year. Throughout that time, as his parent club recruited defenders or brought youngsters through from their academy, Chelsea maintained regular contact. There were detailed reports on his every display, and regular follow-ups by WhatsApp, text, in telephone conversation and even in person with the likes of Eddie Newton, who oversaw their army of loanees, and his deputy Paulo Ferreira. “It was a bit like school when you get your report card back, but good because you’re always learning about your game, what you’ve done well and what you need to improve,” he adds. “I’d basically be getting two lots of analysis, this constant stream. They’d come to a lot of games, or even visit the training ground to have a chat, and put clips together of my performances which we’d go through together. The level of feedback and advice was something else. I’m the type of player who likes to see how I can correct things or improve. At centre-back, you can save your legs, almost, and play on until you’re older. Even now, at 27, I can still learn and play at the top level – if I get there – for quite a long time. So you have to have an open mind. “But, while I was still improving – back at Reading, when Brian McDermott replaced Steve Clarke, they even spoke with Chelsea about using me in midfield to improve my distribution – it got to the stage where I needed more stability in my life. Every summer I wouldn’t know where I would be playing my football in the season ahead. I could be at Chelsea a few days before the start of the season, and then dispatched absolutely anywhere in the last 48 hours of the window. After a while, that becomes too much. “My son was born towards the end of my loan at Hull and, while I enjoyed playing in Sheffield the following year, after that loan I couldn’t do it anymore. I realised that about halfway through last season. We found it hard getting my son into a routine, even when he was up with me in Sheffield, and just needed to be able to plan a bit more long-term. It didn’t matter whether it was in London, wherever. I needed to put some proper roots down. “I want to play at the top level, I am still ambitious, but I have to do right by my family as well. Moving around each year started to feel selfish. It was the right time to go to a club where I could build something. Fulham was perfect. I still live in Essex, but travelling round the M25 is nothing compared to driving up north as regularly as I once did, or even moving to a different country with Eintracht. There was a sadness that things hadn’t worked out as I’d imagined they would at Chelsea, but moving to Fulham and playing… it felt like going home. “When I looked at the squad I was joining, it was scary to see how good the players they had were. I had played against them when they were promoted through the play-offs in 2018, and this is basically that squad with class players like Anthony Knockaert and Ivan Cavaleiro thrown in. You knew you’d have a great chance, seeing that. And a good, young manager in Scott Parker, too. My West Ham mates are always pestering me about him given his history there. I like his temperament. He’s so calm, the way he talks to the players… “It’s hard for him. We’re expected to smash this league, but the Championship’s not like that. Wherever you play, it’s a tough game. You’re always coming up against a side fighting for something. Teams want to sit in against us, too, which makes it harder still. But I’ve enjoyed working with him in the short time I’ve been here so far. I’d watched it all over the first four months of the season, desperate to be involved, and it was such a relief to get stuck in since the turn of the year. So now it’s another hiatus. But, when football returns, I’ll feel properly part of things.” The hope is, at some point, a promotion push can be resumed and Virgil van Mike might make a difference. Hector, five years on from Emenalo’s call, is finally making his mark in south-west London.

Chelsea’s Young Player of the Year: Mason Mount https://theathletic.com/1748203/2020/04/17/mount-mason-chelsea-young-player-year/ In the Roman Abramovich era, there has never been competition like it. Deciding on Chelsea’s Young Player of the Year is usually a fairly straightforward affair because of the lack of options, but that isn’t the case this season. That isn’t to say its recent winners at the club’s annual award ceremony haven’t deserved the accolade, or suggest that it has come easy. Boasting one of the best academies in Europe means there is always a lot of talent to consider regardless of whether they are in the first-team squad or not. But no class has shone as bright as that of 2019-20. This is the campaign which will go down in Chelsea’s history books as the one when youth was truly given a chance. Just look at the number of names in contention. Going by the same criteria the PFA uses for its young player award — you must be aged 23 or under when the season starts — there are seven who have made a minimum of 20 first-team appearances. Tammy Abraham, Christian Pulisic, Fikayo Tomori, Reece James, Andreas Christensen and Callum Hudson-Odoi, despite having to play his way into form after a serious injury, are all eligible for the honour. But one young man stands out from all the rest: Mason Mount. Inevitably there will be those reading this who don’t agree, but through his selection policy, head coach Frank Lampard has made it clear whom he values the most. In what is his first season playing in the Premier League, Mount is the only Chelsea player to have appeared in all 29 league fixtures. In terms of total league minutes played, only Cesar Azpilicueta (92.7 per cent of them) has been on the pitch for Chelsea more than Mount (88.2 per cent). Mount has made the squad for every Chelsea match this season, and has only failed to make the pitch for one of their 42 games (when he stayed on the bench for the 7-1 win over Grimsby Town in the League Cup). “To have that at that age, that level of mental strength to keep going, is remarkable,” former Chelsea goalkeeper Rob Green tells The Athletic. “Mount would have gone to all the Champions Leagues games too, and the travelling that entails. It’s a real credit to him. “This is the beauty of sending players out on loan. He had to get used to that schedule in the Championship at Derby under Lampard last season. He went into the play-offs and had a taste of high-pressure games. He already knew he could play regularly under Lampard. As a young player, playing every week, it is mentally draining. To be able to keep going through the season is a real testament to his mental fitness as well as his physical condition.” There have been a number of challenges along the way, from the very first match back in August. Not only was Mount part of the side that lost 4-0 to Manchester United at Old Trafford, his name — along with those of Abraham and Christensen — made the headlines as predecessor Jose Mourinho questioned Lampard’s selection policy. Mourinho, a Sky Sports pundit at the match, said: “You look to the performance of Mason Mount, the performance of Tammy Abraham, you look to the performance even of Christensen and for matches of this dimension you need a little bit more.” It had actually been one of those games when the final score bears no reflection to the balance of play. Lampard reacted incredulously on being told about his old manager’s verdict. “He didn’t like the performance of Mason Mount?” Lampard replied, shaking his head in disbelief. “Is that what he said?” Another blow, literally, came a month later when Mount’s Champions League debut was ended after just 16 minutes due to an ankle injury caused by a terrible challenge from Valencia midfielder Francis Coquelin. With hindsight it was perhaps not the wisest decision, but it is a measure of Mount’s character, determination and willingness to contribute that he trained the next day and started the following weekend against Liverpool. Three goals in his first five Premier League matches, either side of his England debut against Bulgaria in September, meant the midfielder was showered with praise and hype from an early stage. Yet people at the club noticed no change in his attitude. The attention didn’t go to the then 20-year-old’s head. The work rate remained the same. Sources at the training ground have told The Athletic how he regularly does extra drills after training, usually alongside Lampard. Indeed, while it wasn’t condoned by anyone at the club, there was little surprise that Mount was the one who broke curfew during the coronavirus lockdown to have a kickabout last month. As one insider put it, “Obviously it was the wrong thing to do and he was naive, but everyone also knew it was because he just loves football so much.” There have been dips in form along the way, but that is inevitable when a player is starting out. It should also be pointed out Mount, now 21, has had to play a number of different positions — midfield, on the flanks, as a No 10 and supporting the frontman — so perhaps it’s inevitable there have been fluctuations. Still, the statistics make good reading. In the Premier League, he has found the net six times and has five assists. It means he has been significantly involved in more than a fifth (21.6 per cent) of Chelsea’s goals. His overall output compared to Jorginho, Mateo Kovacic, Ross Barkley and Pulisic, to name just four, is strong. Mount has had more shots (68), created more chances (43) and contested more duels (267) than the others — an extremely impressive all-round contribution, even if his extra minutes on the pitch help to boost those stats. Tomori’s impressive run in central defence during the first half of the campaign, the crossing ability of James from right-back and Abraham’s 15 goals put them in the frame too, but Mount edges it. “He is now one of the Chelsea players you have to watch out for and that’s a credit to him,” Green adds. “That is no mean feat to reach in any Chelsea side. “He has an ability to shift the ball away from defenders and get a shot off. In general play he is always looking forward and that suits someone like Tammy. He is also someone Jorginho can thrive off because he runs into space — Jorginho can always look to find him. “Frank having him on loan at Derby last season has helped him no end. The challenge is that since the turn of the year he was becoming a marked man in every sense. His touch is going to have to be spot-on all the time because opponents are looking to be aggressive early. People won’t let him have a touch 40 yards from goal, because they know what he’s capable of. He’s become a marked man.” There is perhaps no greater compliment than that. Next week, The Athletic’s writers will be choosing their Player of the Year for their club and writing a piece explaining their pick. We are also hosting an awards night on our app and social media on Sunday April 26 to decide The Athletic’s awards for the season so far. Look out for details on Twitter and our podcasts soon.

If Giroud leaves, he would be a decent option for the 3rd CF. The price (free trans) is right.

Friday April 17 2020 Football Nerd Were Leicester really the best Premier League team in 2015-16? By Daniel Zeqiri Leicester pulled off one of the great shocks in sporting history CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES Through football's coronavirus hiatus, we are committed to providing a weekly newsletter of facts, analysis and retrospectives. If there is a topic you want us to cover please email [email protected]. Above all, stay safe. The league table never lies. It is one of football's oldest adages that we have all parroted when listening to another fan's hard luck story about their team's season. Except, it is not really true. We know this instinctively at the end of August, when a three-game sample size and the vagaries of the fixture list render it meaningless. Yet even across a 38-game sample, relatively small compared with the historical span of the game and our football watching lives, there is room for variance and unpredictable outcomes. Leicester's Premier League title win at 5,000-1 was certainly one of those, and a look back at the numbers from the 2015-16 season hammer home what an against-all-odds achievement it was (with apologies to the Phil Collins averse among you). Claudio Ranieri's team had the second-best attack in the Premier League with an Expected Goals tally of 69.31, only slightly more than the 68 they actually scored through Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy shredding teams on the counter-attack. However, according to xG their defence was only the eighth best in the league - allowing 46.10 xG against but only conceding 36 - giving them an xG difference of +23.21. Expected Goal difference is just one imperfect measure of a team's abilities, but does offer a strong impression of which teams are striking a balance between defence and attack: creating a healthy volume of chances and not exposing themselves at the other end. According to this measure, Leicester were the fourth-best team in the league in 2015-16 as the below graphic demonstrates. Premier League table 2015-15 based on xG difference: The disparity between the metrics and Leicester's 81-point championship-winning season is due to their defensive overperformance, conceding 10 fewer goals than the data 'expected' them to. A confluence of factors can explain this: good fortune; poor opposition finishing; some outstanding goalkeeping by Kaspar Schmeichel. It may also have been a consequence of their deep-lying defensive strategy. Teams who cede possession and look to soak up pressure tend to concede more shots than those seeking to dominate territory higher up the pitch. The cumulative effect of conceding a higher volume of shots can sometimes inflate a team's xG against figure. The number of bodies barricading a striker's path to goal are not always considered in xG models. When defenders of Wes Morgan and Robert Huth's frame are throwing themselves in front of shots and making last-ditch blocks, good chances can become average ones. What cannot be disputed is that Arsenal and Arsene Wenger have reason to sorely regret the 2015-16 campaign. According to xG, they had both the best attack and the best defence in the division albeit in a year when Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City all fell below expectations. How different things may have been had Arsenal signed an outfield player in the summer transfer window, Santi Cazorla not torn his knee ligaments in the autumn or striker Olivier Giroud not gone on a 15-game scoring drought after January. Arsenal underperformed their xG in attack by a shade more than five goals that season. Elsewhere, the value of using data to make predictions about future performance is clearly demonstrated. Although Manchester United finished fifth and won the FA Cup, their miserable xG difference of +4.53 shows they were right to part ways with Louis van Gaal. West Ham challenged for the Champions League places with Dimitri Payet producing several goal of the season contenders, but were ninth on xG difference and over-performed in attack by a full 10 goals. Their numbers were more akin to a mid-table team, and despite hubristic talk of challenging for Europe at the London Stadium the following season, they finished 11th. Sunderland produced another great escape, but according to xG had the most porous defence in the league and xG difference placed them 19th. Their luck would finally run out the following season when they were relegated. Chelsea and Liverpool both sacked managers during the 2015-16 season, but the data suggested they were not as bad as their league finishes of 10th and 8th suggested. Based on xG difference, Liverpool were a comfortable fifth with +14.49 and Chelsea clawed their way back from a disastrous start under Jose Mourinho to be sixth. Jurgen Klopp would use this season as the foundation for reaching the Champions League places the following season, when Chelsea won the title under Antonio Conte.

IF we only can get 70m euros (£61m) that has been floated as the ask price (I think that is bullshit, BUT maybe not with COVID added into the mix in a massive way) then perhaps I would say keep him but if we are talking my original £100m SELL then again, IF FFP is indeed out the window for several years, and if Roman doesnt care about losing a shit tonne (which he will if we keep Knate for 2 or more years more) then hell, keep him it isn't like he still cannot serve some roll if Lampard is ever to be worth his salt, then it is on Lamps himself to sort Kante's role into his (Lampard's) system COVID-19 has tossed a sheload of my calculations into the shitter I do hope to hell you are right about his injuries I say it is 50/50, maybe I could see 60/40 or even 65/35 in Kantes favour he doesn't fall into that pit thsi season has freaked me out about injuries overall wtf is going on???????? it is cray ps Barca can fuck off with s straight swap of Coutinho for Kante Clément Lenglet and ter Stegen, yes, I will take that

eeeeek, satin

Willian offered to Barcelona but Catalans not interested this time The Brazilian has been a target in the past but the club have other priorities now https://www.sport.es/en/news/barca/willian-offered-to-barcelona-but-catalans-not-interest-this-time-7921011