Vesper

Antonio Conte’s first season at Inter: Dynamite or a damp squib? https://theathletic.com/1718820/2020/04/04/antonio-conte-inter-martinez-lukaku/ It had been almost 60 years since an Inter Milan coach won his first game in charge by four clear goals. Never one to get too carried away, Antonio Conte resorted, as he did at Chelsea, to one of those pyrotechnical metaphors he’s so fond of. “Sparks aren’t enough,” he growled. “We have to be dynamite.” The crowd at San Siro were already blown away. Inter supporters had spent the last 18 months whistling Antonio Candreva, fed up with the wing-back’s wayward crossing and predictable decision-making. So imagine the reaction when he scored a screamer from 35 yards to round off an emphatic win over Lecce. Candreva looked like he couldn’t believe it himself, his incredulous reaction instantly becoming a meme. “You all think I show up and everything I touch turns into a swan,” Conte later said. Well, yes, what else do you expect after the transformation of an ugly duckling like Candreva. For starters, Conte set out what, for him at least, felt like a modest aim. He wanted to make Inter “credible” again. The feeling in the media was the club had achieved that without even kicking a ball. Their 28-year-old president Steven Zhang looked at Juventus and thought the best way to knock them off their perch was to hire the guys who had put them there in the first place: Beppe Marotta, the figurehead of the Old Lady’s recruitment for the last eight and a half years, arrived last December and it felt like only a matter of time before he picked up the phone and called Conte. Now free from the Financial Fair Play constraints placed upon them by UEFA in 2015 as punishment for breaching regulations, Inter broke their transfer record twice in the summer, committing to spend £66 million on Romelu Lukaku alone. In retrospect, the 14 goals he scored in his first 18 league games (the most prolific start by a new Inter striker, beating Christian Vieri’s 13 goals) meant the local papers probably felt vindicated in declaring them “winners” of the summer transfer window. But other signings from that period have not faired so successfully: Valentino Lazaro, signed for £20 million from Hertha Berlin, was sent packing by Conte, joining Newcastle on loan in January, and the 50-year-old’s faith was also shaken by the fading Diego Godin, who was signed on big wages from Atletico Madrid. If you have followed Inter at all this season, you’ll no doubt be familiar with his counterpoints to those people making the argument this team deserved consideration as instant title contenders. But Conte argues the team are in transition. Mauro Icardi, Ivan Perisic and Radja Nainggolan are all gone, shown the exit door in the summer (by him). And despite doing business with Manchester United for Lukaku and the on-loan Alexis Sanchez, Inter mainly bought from smaller teams such as Cagliari and Sassuolo, so don’t expect too much. Oh, and while you’re at it, forget about comparing them to his Juventus and Chelsea sides. Unlike Inter this season, those clubs were not in the Champions League when he arrived — here, he doesn’t have the same time to drill the players in his methods, nor the days to rest, recover and rotate. Conte’s paradox is that, despite his desire to play down expectations, nothing ever seems insurmountable to him. The harder the job, the better he does. He has built a reputation on turning around the fortunes of the biggest clubs. Inter have failed to win anything for nine years, so fit the bill, but it should be pointed out they still finished fourth last season. Competing for the title with this Inter side is a high-ranking achievement, for sure. But higher than winning the Premier League with Chelsea in his debut 2016-17 season, considering the toxic situation he inherited from Jose Mourinho? That was a team that finished 10th a year before. To turn around that side — and outwit Jurgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola and Mourinho in the process — took some doing. For all his protestations, nothing has ever seemed impossible for Conte, and making Inter serious contenders appeared no different. He was making it look easy enough. Conte became the first Inter coach since 1966 to win the opening six league games of a season. Their record on the road was perfect until Christmas time — seven straight victories — and the first away defeat in Serie A didn’t come until mid-February. The team showcased a mental toughness that differentiated it from others of recent memory. Recall the game against Sampdoria when Inter were 2-0 up and seemingly about to be awarded a penalty after Alexis went down in the area. Adjudged to have dived, he was instead shown a second yellow card and, all of a sudden, the game was back open again. Sampdoria pulled one back and it wouldn’t have come as a big surprise if the old insecure Inter re-emerged. But they didn’t collapse. Instead, Roberto Gagliardini added another goal and the 10 men got the win. The same would happen in Prague in November when Inter thought they had doubled their lead only for their goal to be disallowed and play to be brought back so far by the VAR official that opponents Slavia were given a penalty, from which they equalised. Moments like that, as Conte likes to say, “can kill an elephant”, but Inter put it — and two other disallowed goals — behind them to win 3-1. The mentality associated with Conte’s teams, his famous grinta, was instantly discernible in Inter and as such they were to be taken very seriously. Even in defeat, the recognition arrived. The hour Inter played in Barcelona in October was the best they have performed in Europe for years. It made their fans so proud. Inter won away to Napoli for the first time since 1997, then they came back from 2-0 down at half-time to beat Milan 4-2 (something nobody had done for almost 70 years). In no time at all, Conte had given the Interisti the sort of emotions and unforgettable memories they crave. Alone at the top of Serie A in December, the question was: how long could Inter keep it up? Conte feared a shallow squad would catch up with them; that one or two injuries would leave the team in a state of emergency. When Alexis tore ankle ligaments in October, Conte stopped Sebastiano Esposito going to the Under-17 World Cup and frequently had to supplement the bench with the teenage sons of Dejan Stankovic and Paulo Fonseca, Filip and Matias, as well as Edoardo Vergani, a 19-year-old forward. The lack of alternatives often meant Inter went into the final match of seven-game cycles without the intensity Conte demands. In front in Barcelona and Dortmund, they couldn’t finish the job and ended up losing both games. Come the winter, the pattern started to contaminate their league form, too. Inter have thrown away 11 points from winning positions, losing to Lazio and giving up equalisers in the final 15 minutes to Cagliari, Lecce, Atalanta and Fiorentina. It may indicate the team is tired, but also that the substitutions Conte makes are not refreshing the team. Going into the winter break, Napoli (65), Atalanta (59) and Juventus (59) had all made considerably more line-up changes than Inter’s 44. Marotta heeded Conte’s repeated calls for intervention in January with the signings of Ashley Young, Victor Moses and Christian Eriksen, players used to long, hard seasons in a country with three domestic competitions. Young has settled the quickest, but each of them has made a scoring contribution with either a goal or an assist. The 20-year-old Alessandro Bastoni has also stated his case to start beside Stefan de Vrij and Milan Skriniar over Godin, but the downturn remains with Inter’s xG goal difference declining through the winter. This graphic provided by StatsBomb shows how their xG (green line) has dipped in the winter, while their xG conceded (purple line) has increased, and the two figures have become almost the same. One reason for their poorer xG goal difference is they are creating fewer good chances. Atalanta’s Alejandro Gomez has suggested that’s because teams have worked Inter out. Gomez told Spanish newspaper El Pais: “Inter only had one move: playing out from the back, from the centre-back to one of the wingers, who crossed first time for the strikers, Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez. One looks to hold the ball up and the other gets in behind. And then the team moves up. We put our two centre-backs man-to-man with Lukaku and Lautaro. We won the ball back from them and we attacked.” Conte has become so dependent on the magnificent “Lula” partnership for goals — 39 goals between them in all competitions — that opponents go into games knowing that stopping them goes a long way to stopping Inter too. Alexis’ injury — subsequent surgery ruled him out for three months — forced Conte to lean harder on them, as did the sudden aridity of Inter’s midfield. It contributed six goals in the first month of the season. Since then, it has produced only six more in the league. The absence of Stefano Sensi, who had provided the X factor for this team until his injury in the first Derby d’Italia in October (a 2-1 win for Juventus), has been keenly felt. Involved in five goals in his first five games, the wait for a new Wesley Sneijder seemed over. Unfortunately though, Sensi has now missed half the games this season and is struggling to get fit. The invention deficit is noticeable, which explains why Inter pushed through a £17.6 million move for Eriksen from Tottenham even though they knew he would be available for nothing as a free agent in the summer. How he fits in a system without a traditional No 10 isn’t clear. Eriksen doesn’t have the low centre of gravity, aggression or acceleration Sensi possesses to move up from a position in midfield to one between the lines. Still, in the sparing opportunities Conte has afforded him thus far, the Dane has been used to mix things up in a way for Inter we haven’t seen since Sensi and Alexis were injured, with Conte playing Eriksen off the front two in either a 3-4-1-2 or 4-3-1-2. Aside from the Ludogorets games though, when he scored and assisted — and the free kick he rattled against the crossbar against Milan — his impact so far has been limited. At the time of the league’s suspension, Inter found themselves third, their lowest position of the season and six points off the top after back-to-back losses to title rivals Lazio and Juventus — defeats where Lukaku’s record of scoring in only one of seven games against top-six opponents did not exactly go unremarked upon. Confidence in Inter, it’s fair to say, has taken a bit of a knock. For a season with so many highs and the palpable sense that Inter are back, some of the air has been let out of their balloon. Conte is probably right to argue that the league is more competitive than it’s been in a long time. But with Juventus’ aura diminishing a little this season and Lazio unable to boast the same budget for transfers or wages, the serial winner in Conte must be frustrated he hasn’t taken full advantage. Critics will point out that while Inter have seven more points than they did a year ago, their position in the table is the same as at this stage last season and, as was the case under Conte’s predecessor Luciano Spalletti, they failed to make it out of the group in the Champions League when qualification was in their hands. Inter need to get their spark back if the season resumes, otherwise what looked like dynamite could end up a damp squib.

World-class with and without the ball – when will Germany learn to love Thiago? https://theathletic.com/1725980/2020/04/06/thiago-bayern-munich/ Pep Guardiola famously vowed that it would be “Thiago or nothing” when the then-Bayern Munich coach underlined his intention to sign the midfielder from Barcelona in the summer of 2013. Despite this full-hearted endorsement, however, the 28-year-old has never won universal recognition in the Bavarian capital. Talk to local journalists or to any number of fans: it won’t take long to find one who describes the Spain international as a luxury player, the sort who can’t be trusted to turn up in the big games and and put in a solid defensive shift. Even at the club’s HQ, they didn’t seem that sold on him earlier this year. Whispers from Saebener Strasse, Bayern’s HQ, suggest that the club might be prepared to sell him this summer to make room — on the balance sheet and in the starting XI — for the arrival of Bayer Leverkusen’s Kai Havertz. The club say they have offered to extend Thiago’s existing deal, which expires in 2021. Anyone who saw the deep-lying playmaker bully Chelsea’s Jorginho into submission at Stamford Bridge might be puzzled by this domestic under-appreciation but there are plenty of explanations for it. Some are cultural, some structural. Some might be personal, too. First, there’s still a natural tendency in the Bundesliga to overlook the importance of central midfielders who don’t dominate games by making thundering runs and diving into tackles but who orchestrate proceedings with a hundred delicate touches per game instead. When they are winning, their metronomic brilliance is often ignored in favour of “difference makers” further up the pitch. When they are losing, they are dismissed as lacking presence. It’s notable that the criticism of Thiago closely echoes the accusations that were routinely directed at fellow passing-machine Toni Kroos during his Bayern days. The Germany international’s true importance for Bayern’s ball circulation only became apparent once he had left for Real Madrid in 2014. In addition, Thiago’s career arc has mostly not run in harmony with the team’s tactical development. Earmarked to become the linchpin of Guardiola’s high-possession game, he missed the bulk of the Catalan’s first two seasons with injury and only established himself as a regular in 2015-16, when Bayern narrowly missed out on reaching the Champions League final. Having played Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid off the pitch in the second leg of the semi-final, Bayern went out on away goals. During the “wild west” years under Carlo Ancelotti and Niko Kovac, the adoption of a more reactive stance saw Bayern progressively lose their shape and identity as a passing side. The difference makers in attack were far too potent to stop the club winning domestic honours, but two early eliminations in the Champions League — against Real Madrid in 2017 and Liverpool in 2019 — spoke to the team’s collective demise. More than others, Thiago was lost in the chaos. He was an architect tasked with building a skyscraper on shifting sands. Tellingly, his best game came during a brief return to form and function when Jupp Heynckes had taken the reigns for a fourth spell in 2018. Thiago was superb as a sole holding midfielder in Bayern’s 2-2 draw with Real Madrid in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final, putting in one of those big, commanding performances that sadly tend to get forgotten when the team falls short. But his relatively low public standing is also partly self-inflicted. Thiago is a deep thinker and an excellent interviewee in a variety of languages — when’s he in the mood. On other days, though, he can give off a certain “I don’t give a fuck” vibe that mirrors his haughty elegance on the pitch. Bayern officials were aghast to see him turn up in his underwear, a towel wrapped round his waist, for a TV interview with a US broadcaster a couple of years ago. There’s a suspicion that some Munich-based journalists who never fully bought into Guardiola’s “Spanish” ideas consider Thiago a superfluous remnant of that regime, which could at least explain the otherwise baffling decision of “Kicker” magazine to omit him from their “best of” rankings in January. The grand old dame of football publishing in Germany found no space for him on a “defensive midfield” list that featured, in descending order of excellence, Joshua Kimmich (Bayern), Charles Aranguiz (Leverkusen), Laimer (RB Leipzig), Suat Serdar (Schalke 04), Denis Zakaria (Borussia Monchengladbach), Omar Mascarell (Schalke 04), Axel Witsel (Borussia Dortmund), Diego Demme (RB Leipzig), Sebastian Rode (Eintracht Frankfurt), Thomas Delaney (Dortmund), Maximilian Arnold (VfL Wolfsburg), Robert Andrich (Union Berlin), Daniel Baier (FC Augsburg), Julian Brandt (Dortmund), Florian Grillitsch (TSG Hoffenheim), Josuha Guilavogui (Wolfsburg), Jonas Hector (1.FC Koln), Nicolas Hoefler (SC Freiburg) and Christoph Kramer (Monchengladbach). Just in case you’re wondering, Thiago wasn’t ranked as one of top attacking midfielders, either. “Kicker” thinking that there are no “world-class” defensive or attacking midfielders in the Bundesliga at all is tough enough to understand as it is. But Thiago not featuring in either categories is indefensible in light of his performance data. Given his double role as a regista for Bayern, he should certainly be in the conversation in the former, and almost definitely be filed under “world class” for the latter. Here’s why. One myth that needs to be dispelled with Thiago is that he doesn’t do enough defensive work. This season, he ranks 9th of all Bundesliga players for tackles and interceptions per 90 minutes played (of those with 900+ minutes played). A remarkable figure, given he plays in a Bayern team that averages 63 per cent of possession per game. And of the players who are more defensively active than him, six are full-backs and the other two, Laimer and Koln’s Ellyes Skhiri, play much more orthodox defensive midfield roles. These stats should usually be adjusted for the amount of possession that a side has (and therefore the amount of time they need to defend), but in this scenario that would just elevate Thiago’s figures further. There’s also what he does with the ball, which is what he’s best known for, that separates him so much from others. While he’s not directly creating a ton of chances himself, he’s feeding the ball into the attacking third for Bayern’s players to wreak havoc — he does this more than any other player in the Bundesliga not named David Alaba. Furthermore, Thiago is also extremely “pressing-resistant” — as the kids like to say — thanks to his superlative technique and dribbling skills. This means that even when he is put under pressure by opposition players, he rarely gives the ball away — an invaluable skill for any side looking to build from the back. His ability to wriggle in tight spaces is borne out in the numbers too — turning the ball over in just 11 per cent of his touches. While there are several midfielders who are even safer with the ball, their passing is of the much safer type, too. By collating his ratings at certain skills — as opposed to just counting how much of each he’s done — we get a more well-rounded and accurate picture of how Thiago stacks up against others in his position. Smarterscout rates the Spaniard 90/99 for ball retention, which matches with what we see from the rate at which he loses possession, with only Axel Witsel (Dortmund) and Rodri (Manchester City) in Europe’s top leagues having higher scores. He also ranks in the top-15 defensive midfielders for his rating when tackling, with those above him rarely offering anything in possession. It’s not just that he’s an active defender, but a solid one too. Thiago’s importance to Bayern, therefore, is evident in his completeness. He combines a very unique skill set of defending, keeping the ball and progressing it forward at nearly unmatched rates. Notably, according to Smarterscout there are just three players in the top five European leagues this season that are similar to Thiago: Milan’s Ismael Bennacer, and Real Sociedad pair Ander Guevara and Igor Zubeldia. The length of that shortlist shows how rare his mix of skills are. Those skills are certainly appreciated by his peers. One Bundesliga newbie told The Athletic one of the things he enjoyed most about featuring at this level was the opportunity to watch Thiago’s mind-boggling ball-juggling skills in the warm-up from close quarters. Inside the Bayern team, there’s a wide-held belief that he’s “the best footballer in the squad”, one dressing-room source reveals, even if “he could perhaps do more on the pitch, considering all his talent”. Luckily for both him and the club, Hansi Flick’s renewed commitment to a well-structured possession game and its aggressive pressing have brought Thiago’s significance into sharper focus in recent months. He has especially thrived alongside Kimmich, who has provided added defensive cover for the back four as well as energy in the centre. They make for a formidable partnership. Thiago will turn 29 on April 11 but the situation hasn’t really changed much from when Guardiola pushed for the club to sign him seven years ago. There aren’t many who can do what he can for a team like Bayern. And they know it, too. The club have at last made him “an extremely fair, serious offer, without any corona discount” to renew his contract, as executive chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge revealed. As much as Bayern would like to freshen things up for next season, holding on to a player capable of knitting it all together is absolutely essential if Flick’s plans are to succeed in the long run. Signing the difference makers further up the pitch will have to wait.

Chelsea currently have a player who is more lethal than Eden Hazard or Diego Costa Chelsea have boasted some fine finishers in the past 10 years, but who is statistically the deadliest? https://www.football.london/chelsea-fc/news/chelsea-best-finishers-pedro-hazard-18052473

Chelsea hero and league record scorer Jimmy Greaves admitted to hospital https://www.chelsea-news.co/2020/04/chelsea-hero-league-record-scorer-admitted-hospital/ The former Blues, England, Tottenham and West Ham striker had a severe stroke some years ago, and is now “being treated in hospital for an unspecified illness.” The Daily Mirror report that it is not known to be coronavirus related. Greaves came through the ranks at Chelsea before a glittering career that saw him blast his way to fourth on England’s list of top scorers. He won the World Cup in 1966, and is Tottenham’s leading ever goalscorer, as well as the top scorer in England’s top division ever – 357. He got 124 goals for Chelsea alone, making him one of our most prolific players even just from the early days of his career which he spent at Stamford Bridge. We wish Jimmy all the best, and hope to see him well again as soon as possible. It takes a great man to bridge the Chelsea Spurs divide, and he manages it easily.

I really wonder if we get fucked over with Morota.

the Spanish papers are claiming its a done deal for Sancho with Manure I was just putting that Collins post up as he is supposedly now a wee target

Chelsea are ahead of Premier League rivals Manchester United and Arsenal in the race to sign Stoke City defender Nathan Collins, according to reports. https://metro.co.uk/2020/04/05/chelsea-leading-man-utd-arsenal-transfer-race-sign-nathan-collins-12512818/ Collins, 18, is regarded as one of the most talented and promising players outside of the Premier League. The teenager made his first-team debut at the start of the season and has gone on to feature 12 times for Stoke, who are currently 17th in the Championship. Manchester United expressed interest in signing Collins last year but he ended up signing a new contract at Stoke as the Red Devils stalled over launching a move. snip

I will not be super unhappy of Barks stays, he seems to have turned a corner a bit and can be a real weapon when he is on his game, I think he has learnt from his mistakes of recent vintage. I would MUCH prefer Grealish, but we have no clue what is going to happen due to the virus situ and also Coutinho coming into the picture if all these rumours are to be given any credibility at all.. As for another team (once fiscally cured from COVID-19) paying around £30-35m for him, hell yes they will. A 26yo, more than decent attacking ENGLISH MFer? I say that is in the ballpark. He would tear shit up on a Sheffield United side, would add a real forward projection dimension, same for SOTON.

PL’s hopes of 30% wage cut dashed after ‘utterly inconclusive’ player meeting https://theathletic.com/1723756/2020/04/04/premier-league-wages-30-per-cent-pfa/ The Premier League’s hopes of striking a deal to secure 30 per cent wage deductions or deferrals from players were in peril on Saturday night as footballers became increasingly concerned that agreements may benefit club ownerships more than non-playing staff or the emergency services. At 3pm on Saturday afternoon — an idea conceived by the Premier League’s interim chair Claudia Arney to mirror the traditional kick-off time — the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) held a conference call with players from the 20 Premier League clubs, in addition to club and League Managers’ Association (LMA) representatives. On Friday, it had been announced that Premier League clubs had unanimously agreed to consult their players over striking a deal “regarding a combination of conditional reductions and deferrals amounting to 30 per cent of annual remuneration”. One senior source present on the call described the talks at “utterly inconclusive” and, on Saturday evening, the PFA released a statement agreed by the 20 Premier League captains. The PFA statement called on Premier League clubs to give more than the £20 million already committed to charities and to increase funding to EFL and non-league clubs. However, players questioned the wisdom of a 30 per cent “salary deduction”. Sources close to the discussions have interpreted the statement as a near-on declaration of war by the PFA, who look as though they intend to fight tooth-and-nail against the clubs. Another source suggested this was the most extreme point of tension between Premier League players and their employers in the 28-year history of the competition. As tensions simmered, The Athletic can also reveal that one leading club’s board has been informed by players that they will not accept a pay cut — only deferrals — and on the guarantee that all staff members are retained on full pay. Those players are also now discussing a separate squad donation to the National Health Service via their net salaries or through a Professional Footballers’ Association communal pot. Liverpool’s Jordan Henderson had led a campaign by Premier League captains to make a collective donation to the NHS through the PFA but this is not yet finalised. This rival club’s players are becoming agitated by the delays and keen to help as the death toll rises, so the squad are now discussing a breakaway from the collective plan and fast-tracking the process by pooling money through a deduction to their net salary and sending it through the club as a charitable donation. Those players do not want the club owners benefiting from their gestures and bosses are now considering the proposals. In addition, some playing representatives want their commercial and media responsibilities reduced if they agree to substantial pay reductions. Some Premier League clubs sent messages to their squads last week informing them they will be required to undertake a range of media commitments to provide rights holders with content in the absence of live football. Elsewhere, rival clubs were left bemused by Liverpool’s decision to announce the furloughing of more than 200 employees on the day clubs were hoping to persuade players to sign up to deferrals, while there was already exasperation towards Newcastle owner Mike Ashley and Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy over their decision to furlough staff and reduce non-playing wages earlier in the week. Some clubs believe steps taken by their rivals have jeopardised hopes of an across-the-board agreement — something revealed by The Athletic on Monday — and each club may now need to negotiate with their players on a case-by-case basis. The situation is further inflamed as many players feel executives have allowed them to become public scapegoats and there is now a fervent public relations war brewing between players and their clubs. The PFA have, in essence, rejected the Premier League proposal for the 30 per cent cuts and deferrals. The PFA are confident they have the backing of playing representatives from all 20 Premier League teams. The PFA statement read: “The players are mindful that as PAYE employees, the combined tax on their salaries is a significant contribution to funding essential public services — which are especially critical at this time. Taking a thirty per cent salary deduction will cost the Exchequer substantial sums. This would be detrimental to our NHS and government-funded services. “The proposed 30% salary deduction over a 12-month period equates to over £500m in wage reductions and a loss in tax contributions of over £200m to our government. What effect does this loss of earning to the government mean to the NHS? Was this considered in the Premier League proposal and did the Health Secretary Matt Hancock factor this in when asking players to take a salary cut?” During Saturday’s voice-call conference, the Premier League made a presentation to prominent dressing room voices from each club. Executives and some managers, including Manchester United’s Ed Woodward and manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, were also on the call. It is understood West Ham’s Mark Noble, Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne and Watford’s Troy Deeney were the only players who spoke and it was questioned how wage cuts could be the same across all 20 clubs. Watford will hold talks with their players next week and are hopeful of finding an arrangement by the end of the week. Premier League players had initially been under the impression that any wage deferrals or reductions they agreed would ensure that clubs were able to fully pay non-playing staff. However, Tottenham proposed wage cuts in addition to placing staff onto the government’s furlough scheme earlier in the week. Bournemouth, Norwich, Newcastle and Liverpool have all followed in putting staff on furlough. The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme sees the government step in to cover 80 per cent of wages for the next two months, capped at a maximum of £2,500 a month. The latter four clubs have committed to topping up the wages to ensure employees continue to receive their full salary. However, Liverpool’s decision, in particular, provoked a public backlash as the club announced a pre-tax profit of £42 million on revenues of £533 million only five weeks ago. As clubs employ the government’s scheme and call in the taxpayer to cover salaries, players now want to understand where the money they sacrifice will go. The players are determined that any money they do give up should go to non-playing staff at their own clubs or the emergency services, unless the clubs can prove in their accounts that the organisation is under threat without the money. The Athletic has been told to expect more than 10 Premier League sides to resort to the furlough scheme in the coming weeks. It comes at a time when top-level players are showing genuine concern for the NHS. Jacob and Josh Murphy — contracted to Newcastle and Cardiff respectively — have been working as volunteers in Downham Market in Norfolk for the last two days, delivering Boots prescriptions to the elderly. Premier League clubs remain adamant that sacrifices must be made amid reduced revenue streams and also against the backdrop of major fears that the 20 sides may yet need to repay £762 million to broadcasters should the season fail to complete. The crunch talks on Saturday came amid certain clubs informing players that they would not be needed for training until at least May. Some leading foreign players have therefore taken the opportunity to return to their families in their own countries, hiring private jets to get home amid commercial travel restrictions. One Premier League club told players this week to treat this period as their offseason for the calendar year 2020. A source said: “This is their break and sorry if that means they can’t have a sunny holiday.” On Friday, Liverpool’s Henderson — in tandem with the PFA — led division-wide talks with Premier League captains that would see top-flight players make a donation to Britain’s health service. However, the Premier League’s announcement over potential 30 per cent cuts or deferrals saw the plans put on hold as players sought clarity over their club’s intentions. Some players therefore went cold on the bulk donation idea and Henderson, along with other players such as team-mate James Milner, thought it best to delay any announcement until details are finalised. # In addition, the idea of collective initiatives is complicated by the fact many players are already engaging in individual donations and schemes, such as Manchester United’s David De Gea making a £270,000 donation to the Spanish health services, while his team-mate Marcus Rashford has led a fundraiser worth in excess of £140,000 for meals for vulnerable children in Manchester. Henderson, along with Milner, wanted the division’s players fully unified before an announcement about the pot of money. There was also said to be frustration among Liverpool players that the club had announced the decision to furlough staff just as their captain Henderson had received public acclaim for attempting to rally support for the NHS. The prospect of a broad agreement for the 30 per cent wage deferral or cut is further undermined by tensions between the Premier League and the PFA. The players’ union felt the rug was pulled from under their feet when the Premier League announced on Friday that deferrals or cuts could be worth up to 30 per cent of player wages. Some clubs were also left unimpressed by the progress made in the Premier League meeting on Friday. One source with knowledge of the meeting said: “It was four hours of politically doing the right thing. Two hours of discussion and the two hours of wording the statement. But the Premier League had no agreement with the PFA. The clubs were asking the Premier League, ‘Can you enforce a wage deduction, a deferral?’ They said, ‘No we can’t. That’s down to each individual club. It is also down to each individual player’. That meeting was about the Premier League being able to put a statement out at the end to make them look good: now it’s up to the clubs and players.” This also came in a week where players felt the public mood had intentionally been turned onto them by the actions of Premier League owners, most notably Tottenham’s Levy. His decision to place non-playing staff on furlough, before agreeing a wage deferral or deduction with players, led to many public attacks on Premier League player’s wages and at a government press conference, health minister Mr Hancock told players “to do their part”. Discussions are expected to resume on Monday.

Kevin De Bruyne’s corridor of certainty — ranking his top 10 assists for City https://theathletic.com/1723203/2020/04/06/kevin-de-bruynes-manchester-city/ Kevin De Bruyne had racked up 16 assists in the Premier League before the campaign was derailed, leaving him just four away from breaking Thierry Henry’s record of 20, which has stood since the 2002-03 season. Over the past year or so, the Manchester City midfielder has created his signature assist — the low cross from the right-hand side that seemingly no defence can do anything about. He has created a corridor of certainty. De Bruyne has been conjuring chances out of nothing throughout his career, and has amassed quite a collection of assists during his near five years at the Etihad Stadium. So which is his best assist? 10. Crystal Palace 1-2 Manchester City, November 2016 Despite making that right-sided cross his trademark, it’s the variety of De Bruyne’s assists that have made him such a consistent threat. Going back to Pep Guardiola’s first season in England, here’s an example of how the Belgian does stuff out of the ordinary. On an already unpredictable afternoon at Selhurst Park — Yaya Toure made a sudden and shock return from almost three months in exile — De Bruyne set the ball down for a corner on the right-hand side and put his right hand in the air, a signal to his team-mates of what was to come. He then fired in a low cross along the ground that had enough pace on it to go pretty much exactly where it needed to. Maybe David Silva could have got to it, maybe he was a decoy, but the ball fell to Toure around six yards out, for the Ivorian to cap his surprise comeback with a match-winning goal double. With less than 10 minutes left and the score tied at 1-1, it was De Bruyne’s unusual delivery — the equivalent of a direct free kick sneaking underneath a jumping wall, which he’s also done — that made the difference. 9. Crystal Palace 1-3 Manchester City, April 2019 Not all of De Bruyne’s assists have come at Selhurst Park but this was another example of how he can carve open the most disciplined of defences. With City needing to win every game at the back end of last season to fend off the threat of Liverpool, this trip to Palace — five days after losing the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final across London at Tottenham — was earmarked as a tricky assignment, so much so that Guardiola had rested De Bruyne and Leroy Sane against Spurs for it. Less than 15 minutes in, De Bruyne picked up the ball inside his own half, took a few strides forward and then lasered a straight pass directly through the Palace midfield and defence. The ball slowed down perfectly the second Raheem Sterling met it inside the area. The England forward took one touch and buried a superb finish in the far top corner. Sterling still had plenty to do with the finish, but De Bruyne’s pass helped City on their way to an important victory. For good measure he also got the assist for their third goal by Gabriel Jesus at the end, which clinched a 3-1 win. 8. Manchester City 5-1 Leicester City, February 2018 The best De Bruyne assists are generally those that give team-mates a proper tap-in. In the past year, most of these low crosses to the back post have come from the right, but on this occasion he showed he can do it from the other side too, even with the angle against him. As part of a one-two with Sterling on the left, he ran down the side of the Leicester defence and then, perhaps because the pass was slightly behind him, perhaps because he felt it was the most unpredictable route, probably just because it was the best route, De Bruyne opened up his body, fading away to the left, and curled the ball to the back post with his right foot for Sergio Aguero to score his first of a four-goal haul. It was a display of fantastic technique that produced a cross precise enough to evade the defenders going one way and the goalkeeper going the other and, if you look closely, you can see his arms come out in celebration before the ball has even passed the last defender. He knew. 7. Manchester City 6-1 Newcastle United, October 2015 He could have done it with his left foot if he’d really wanted to. Going back to the early months of his first season at City, under Manuel Pellegrini, De Bruyne and Aguero combined to score basically the same goal as above, this time against Newcastle. Only when he got the ball in a similar area of the pitch here, he was facing the corner flag. As soon as the time was right, he swivelled in the opposite direction and played a first-time low cross with his left foot that evaded everybody and found Aguero at the back post, allowing the Argentinean to slide in his fifth and final goal of a very long afternoon for the visitors. A goal out of nothing. 6. Southampton 0-1 Manchester City, May 2018 This one was out of nothing, too, especially given the 92 minutes of drudgery that came before it. City needed to win at St Mary’s on the final day of the season to reach the 100-point milestone, but the match was played at a snail’s pace and little happened in it. Enter De Bruyne. This was far from his most artistic of assists but for the sheer significance of the goal, not to mention the scenes in the away end and on the touchline (did Ederson, a substitute, get booked for his celebrations?) it has to be on this list. Compared to his other efforts, this was a rather agricultural hoof over the top. But De Bruyne chose this as his third favourite assist in an interview last year: “It’s just precision, you have to manage how hard you’re going to kick it, but the main thing is that you get the ball over the defence, that it gets into his stride, without stopping, and he has to do the rest.” That was probably a rare example of De Bruyne making something that looks easy sound difficult, but had he not perfectly weighted that ball over the top from inside his own half, Jesus would never have been able to take it down and scoop it over goalkeeper Alex McCarthy to create one of the most iconic moments in recent club history. 5. Aston Villa 1-6 Manchester City, January 2020 Our top five places are reserved for true art. While this assist is not as symbolically important as No 6 was, it is a much better representation of De Bruyne’s abilities. Three of them in particular; the ability to drive the ball forward, to know where it needs to go, and to get it there. Just before half-time in a Villa Park hammering, he pulled out one of those pinpoint right-sided crosses, but added a few extra levels of difficulty. Normally he needs the help of somebody else to create those crucial spaces just outside the area for him, whether a one-two or sneakily arriving from right-back, but this time he did it himself. Picking up a fairly routine square ball just past halfway, he immediately set off towards goal, leaving two men in his wake. Within four seconds he was in that favoured spot of his and he knew somebody would be gambling at the far post. This time it was Jesus, who again was left with a pretty simple finish. Jesus was in so much space that you feared the intervention of the dreaded VAR, but replays showed De Bruyne had just bent the ball around what was left of the Villa defence. 4. Arsenal 2-2 Manchester City, April 2017 This one is maybe a bit more obscure, but it’s a great example of De Bruyne making the incredibly difficult look far too easy. Nobody quite knew what to make of this early-days Guardiola team late in the Spaniard’s debut season, when they went to the equally enigmatic Arsenal. After Danny Welbeck nearly scored with a slide tackle, Willy Caballero’s clipped goal kick into midfield was won in the air by Shkodran Mustafi. The ball was at hip height when it bounced up to De Bruyne, so he quickly positioned himself to propel it forward with his instep. The ball travelled between five Arsenal players and now Sane was racing in on goal. The German didn’t touch the ball until he was about 20 yards out, allowing him to dance past David Ospina and put the ball into an empty net. In the blink of an eye, City were in the lead. A lot of De Bruyne’s assists come from pre-planned patterns of play, but he’s always had the ability to conjure something out of nothing, and this is a fantastic example. 3. Manchester City 5-0 Liverpool, September 2017 Here’s another, and possibly another forgotten one, from a thumping of Liverpool that is looked upon a little differently given Sadio Mane’s red card midway through the first half. But before that wince-making collision with Ederson, City were a goal up — and De Bruyne created it. There was barely anything happening as the ball dropped at his feet from Fernandinho’s header in midfield, so much so that Liverpool’s famous press had no time to spring into action. As De Bruyne put his foot on the ball and turned his head to look towards goal, Aguero was on the move. “Give it to me!” he briefly gestured with his arms. Look at the clock in the grabs below: less than a second. De Bruyne did give it to him. From a square-on position he quickly turned and played a routine-looking ball straight through the heart of the Liverpool defence. Again, it ran so perfectly that Aguero did not touch it until he had set foot in the penalty area, again allowing him to nip around goalkeeper Simon Mignolet and finish into an empty net. ‘All’ De Bruyne did was put his foot on the ball, look to his left and play a 20-yard pass in a straight line. Simple, but devastatingly effective. 2. Everton 1-3 Manchester City, March 2018 This assist is a bit like the one at Arsenal, version 2.0. Maybe 3.0. It is a beautiful goal that happened so quickly, you’d do well to find a proper camera angle of the whole move. Again it started with a goal kick, but this time with a little more direction. The Everton players, not wanting to be caught out by a huge Ederson punt over the top, nor let visitors City play out too easily from the back, left acres of space in the middle of the pitch. Ederson clipped the ball right into the heart of that space, where Sane had burst inside to meet it. As soon as this happened, De Bruyne took off down the right. This was clearly pre-planned. Sane flicked the bouncing ball past a couple of players and lobbed it over the top for the Belgian. Again it was at around hip height at the time of impact, and he was on the stretch too, but that did not stop him helping the ball on its way to Jesus, who was in the right place to plant a header into the net, albeit off goalkeeper Jordan Pickford’s shoulder. It was not the cleanest end to the move but it was clearly planned to perfection, and to see it unfold in real time was a real privilege. It clearly meant a lot to the City bench, who celebrated with each other as if to say, “We knew that was gonna work”. 1. Manchester City 7-2 Stoke City, October 2017 You all probably guessed it was going to be this one, but it is the obvious choice because it’s the best. It’s the one that springs to mind most readily, no matter how many inch-perfect assists De Bruyne has delivered in more than two years since it happened. But first, an honourable mention to one of the best second-assists in Premier League history, when De Bruyne turned this shooting opportunity into a through-ball to Sane, allowing the winger to square it to Sterling for a tap-in. Stoke then scored two quick goals either side of half-time, which their then-boss Mark Hughes quipped only served to anger City, who answered with their fourth, fifth and sixth of the game all in the space of seven minutes; De Bruyne setting up two of them. First, he won the ball back from Kurt Zouma just inside the Stoke half, stormed onto the loose ball, charged down the right and fired in an inch-perfect cross that curled around the last defender and found Jesus at the far post. It was classic De Bruyne, that fabulous blend of industry and ingenuity. And that was just the warm-up. Just over five minutes later, he stretched to make a loose pass his, again just inside the visitors’ half. As he took one more touch forward he surveyed what lay ahead of him; Jesus was deep, because it was his bad ball that nearly got City into trouble. Sterling was pretty well covered and Sane was all the way over on the other side of the pitch, but Kyle Walker was open on the right. De Bruyne went for Sane. The result was something that looked more at home at the lawn bowls world championship, arrowing yet curling delicately towards its target, speeding up and then slowing down exactly when it needed to. Behind the midfielder yet in front of the defender, it still had enough legs on it to beat the full-back who was a good 30 yards away, and hardly in a bad position either, and roll straight into the path of Sane’s left foot, allowing him to stride on to it and score. De Bruyne said recently that he will extend his career an extra two years due to how much he is missing football during this coronavirus triggered lay-off. Here’s to many more of these inspired moments.

How the world of football transfers has been turned on its head https://theathletic.com/1721168/2020/04/04/coronavirus-football-transfers-scouts-recruitment/ April is usually the period where European clubs will finalise their transfer targets, make last trips to erase any doubts and carry out checks on behaviour and character. For the best-run clubs, deals can be all but completed in principle, even if the signing may ultimately depend on how a team finishes the existing campaign. This year, however, everything has changed. Indeed, FIFA is examining ways to reconfigure the dates and length of the conventional summer transfer window in a manner that would allow seasons to be finished and a period of player trading to take place. The issue is particularly grave as more than 500 players in Europe’s top five leagues have contracts or loan spells that expire on June 30. As such, budgets are up in the air and targets are changing. Clandestine suited-up meetings in hotel bars have been swapped for Zoom calls as agents and recruitment figures, according to one source, “wear a shirt and tie for the camera, with pyjama bottoms out of sight.” Some clubs appear to have abandoned their focus on future signings, after Newcastle United placed head of recruitment Steve Nickson, assistant Mick Tait and head of academy recruitment Paul Baker on the government’s furlough scheme. Staff emails have been disabled and the rules regarding to furlough insist that no work should take place during this period. The situation at Tottenham Hotspur is not quite as extreme, as chief scout Steve Hitchen and some other recruitment staff remain employed, albeit on a reduced wage, but some of the operation has been effectively closed down. The two clubs privately argue that this summer’s transfer targets are in place yet it is undeniable that key staff have been taken out of the picture at a tumultuous time. Elsewhere, however, the picture is rather different. The Athletic spoke to a series of sporting directors, scouts and data analysts across Europe, on the condition of anonymity, to understand how clubs are responding to the challenge, the impact on deals and what we should expect from the next transfer window. As Newcastle and Tottenham cut back, their rivals in the Premier League and beyond raised their eyebrows. One Premier League scout was baffled by the decision: “With Spurs, it might be they’ve already decided — a month or two ago — who they were going to go for in discussions with Jose Mourinho. They may have decided they weren’t going to sign six or seven players, but rather two or three to add to the squad. And they may know those players already. So the work may already be done. For Newcastle, though, they are a club who probably do need five or six players every season, and you don’t know who will leave. They are one of a load of clubs near the bottom who don’t know what division they’ll be playing in next season, or who will be leaving — even those who survive in the Premier League could have to sell a few. Teams that are relegated may sign more than 10 players.” Elsewhere, clubs have taken the reverse approach, sensing an opportunity to carry out the research that is usually hindered by the demands of a live season. Indeed, many clubs believe recruitment departments are set to become absolutely essential to the sustainability of the business, as there are now extensive doubts over future broadcasting deals and sponsorship agreements. One Championship sporting director says: “We, the recruitment guys, can now decide a club’s future more than ever. This is a crucial period to be creative, to gather information, to prepare for every eventuality and ensure the club is saving money by making the right signing not just this summer but also 18 months down the line.” At one middling Premier League club, the head of recruitment is holding daily calls over Zoom with his analysis team and scouts. One member of that team gave an insight familiar to many experiences shared by the general public coming to terms with home-working. He says: “It works OK but the problem is that not everyone’s internet is the same strength. When everyone starts talking at the same time, it is a nightmare. Then, there is the delay. It did become a little bit like whoever had the strongest internet would say the most. But it is working well, mostly. Zoom is also excellent for us because we can share a screen with video presentations, which means multiple people can be talked through the slide show at the same time.” The increased time at home for recruitment figures has opened up new opportunities. One large Scottish club has used this break as their cue to introduce video analysis platforms such as Wyscout for the first time. A Premier League club is focusing on young talents in North America’s MLS after being struck by the performances of Canadian winger Alphonso Davies for Bayern Munich. At one top-six Premier League club, a recruiter has spent much of the past fortnight studying matches from the top three Japanese leagues, while also studying under-23 and under-18 teams in that country. He says: “To step back and target a whole country like this has been a godsend. We can carry out research and study trends. Sagan Tosu, for example, have lots of young players under 24 and we have been able to examine potential.” At another club lower down the Premier League table, scouts and analysts have divided up parts of the world and been given special projects. Clubs suspect that post-Brexit immigration rules may make it easier to sign players from South America and as such, one scout was commissioned to make a report to ensure his club are ahead of the curve in those markets. To do so, they use video analysis apps such as Scout7 and Wyscout. The process begins by watching a round of games, then the scout notes down the players who impress and then returns to do intense analysis on those individuals. This will highlight the player’s background, through studying media reports, as well as identifying agents to contact and outlining contractual situations. The scout explains: “It means that if an agent comes on and says he has a right-back at Velez Sarsfield, we’ll have something on him already. Video work is great for initially finding players. Then you do need to go out and watch them play live. This will give us building blocks for when this is over to go and watch some of these players. Now, more than ever, recruitment is key. Transfer fees won’t be what they were after coronavirus. You won’t be spending £100 million on a player. You’re going to try to get value for money. So is there a £5 million player in Argentina who you can turn into a £25 million player in a year? There may be one or two there.” Even in the Championship, there is bewilderment at the steps taken by certain Premier League clubs. One Championship sporting director notes: “It is a bizarre and strange decision by Newcastle. Scouting and analysis is the department that you can do most at home. We can create and make more information than ever.” By placing recruitment staff on furlough, they are out of the game when it comes to dealing with agents. One scout still in work at a Premier League club says he is learning Spanish and has signed up to a video-analyst course during this period. He says: “It is 24-7. I’ll get calls at midnight from agents asking me about their players or from other scouts at the club telling me to have a look at X or Y.” In scouting circles, there is an expectation that clubs who cut or furlough their scouting staff will regret the decision. One scout at a Champions League club says: “There might be a brain drain from these clubs. Scouts will remember how they have been treated. Scouts can work 60-70 hours a week to much more in many cases. If you are abroad watching game after game, it takes a lot of your life up. I know of one head of academy recruitment in the Premier League who is only on £25,000-per-year and his senior scouts are on £35,000-per-year. They are treated appallingly. These chairman will gladly refurbish boardrooms or knowingly pay over the odds for a striker but the moment they cut costs, it’s the scouts. In the lower leagues, they may only get £400 per month but they work on it like a full-time job. There’s a lack of appreciation.” A sporting director at a central European club says: “This is typical. When English clubs are relegated, it is always the lowest-paid person in each department who gets cut. It is ridiculous. You have someone earning £50,000 per week and then you make someone earning £20,000-per-year redundant. “It splinters the clubs and makes a mockery of the family aspect so many clubs seek to promote. I have never understood it. It is not right. But the bigger problem is still to come because if you are reducing wages for your non-playing staff, how can you then, ethically, go and spend £20 million on a second-choice left-back this summer?” While clubs intensify their information-gathering, the question that lingers is whether chairmen and chief executives will have the financial capacity to act on the data. In France, for example, alarm bells are ringing after broadcasters suspended payments worth up to £100 million to clubs in the top two tiers. With social-distancing guidelines likely to remain in force for several months, Premier League and Football League clubs are fearful they will need to make sizeable repayments to television companies, with top-flight clubs informed that £762 million would be claimed back if the season fails to be completed. So, can anybody expect the usual billion-pound bonanza in the transfer window? The answer could be found when one German club this week received a call from a Premier League side, asking for a valuation of one of their players. The club’s sporting director explains: “The Premier League side rang me and asked for the price. They replied: ‘Great, thanks for the information but we just do not know yet if we can afford the amount. It all depends on Sky TV’.” Another European club’s head of recruitment says: “We don’t know if we’ll be able to buy players, under what terms, and even whether we’re going to survive as a club. We are a healthy club but in the end, if we don’t play matches eventually our existence could be under threat. In terms of deals this summer, we have done all the necessary groundwork, due diligence and hard yards, so we are in good shape. But now, any conversations will need to be by video call and we don’t know what will be possible, so everything has halted. My workload in terms of meeting agents is zero.” Other clubs are taking a more bullish approach, as top-flight English sides have sensed an opportunity to raid vulnerable clubs elsewhere in Europe. PSV Eindhoven are one club identified as possible prey while Porto, who failed to qualify for the Champions League group stage, are known on the circuit to need to raise more than £50 million — and that was before the pandemic. Valencia, meanwhile, have stated their financial model is based on sustainability and they intend to sell young talented players to finance the business. Higher up the food chain, Europe’s elite are monitoring Arsenal’s situation, as the club appear likely to have a third year without Champions League football and were struggling to secure a new contract for star striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. They will not be the only ones targeted, with most clubs keeping a list of teams who they believe to be in financial trouble. Another Premier League club’s recruitment analyst says: “Let’s take the view the Premier League completes the season and keeps its cash. If you are in a good financial state, you could clean up in the next window. There’s possibilities of really good deals. Maybe teams could have held onto players but not now. I don’t foresee £100 million deals but you can now pull off signings you wouldn’t have been able to do before. It is going to be really interesting. We do not rely on gate receipts but most clubs in Europe will do, so they will be much more vulnerable and fragile. Then we can say to them, ‘Do you want to sell us a £30 million player for £20 million?’. We will hold the cards. Europe will be a lower market than expected and it will be first-come-first-served. You need to find the most financially desolate clubs and take advantage.” On English soil, Premier League clubs are zooming in on lower-league sides to exploit. Gillingham’s resources are stretched and they will be forced to accept a lower fee for promising 20-year-old centre-half Jack Tucker, who Southampton are monitoring. A recruitment figure at one German club says: “I’ll give you an example. Two days ago, I read on Twitter that a club in Slovakia had gone into liquidation. The first thing I did was look at the squad, identify who we have seen and ask our data company to batter that squad and see who we can pillage and who might have been of interest. I wrote in our WhatsApp group, ‘I feel like a vulture’ but my boss said, ‘Clubs will be doing it to us. We will need the money’.” One German club’s sporting director says: “From what I hear, everything is on hold. Even our contract talks have stopped with players out-of-contract this summer. We can’t do anything until we know how much money we have. We have made offers, which were not initially accepted, but we cannot now return to players with a counter-offer. Due to the ownership rules in Germany, there are far less private investors who can pump money in. We are self-sufficient and we are going to have a massive deficit which affects our ability to trade. “We have had discussions about our target lists. We knew roughly what our budget was going to be this summer, the maximum we can spend on a player for transfer fees and salaries but it is now all on hold. We will have to sell players to make the money back we are going to lose. Then we will look at free transfers and loans. The loans will need to be a smaller percentage of wages, too. The scouting we are doing now is for free transfers. Even then, those clubs may offer these players better contracts to stay because they cannot afford replacements.” The Premier League confidence could soon dissipate as restart dates are pushed back and the usual streams of income reduce. One Championship sporting director says: “If they do not play the end of the season, they become as vulnerable as everyone else. Then the market does, in a way, level out, as most clubs will be in the same position. So some clubs will have bigger budgets but I see it decreasing in parallel lines. It is true that the next window looks like a window of loans. If it is to be more than that, we will need a cascade. When the big clubs start to spend, it is a cascade effect. “We need a big deal to happen to kickstart the market. It may not even be an eye-watering deal, but it will need the biggest buying clubs to feel brave and the selling clubs to be even braver. If you are thinking of selling a player at X price, you have to accept 20 per cent less and be confident you will spend 20 per cent less. Sevilla have been one of the best clubs for that over the years, often selling a little lower against public opinion, because they had the confidence of finding a player for cheaper. It is a challenge but people pay scouting departments to come up with the solutions to cope with these deficits. It is their time to shine.” The battle for free transfers will be fierce. One Premier League recruitment director says: “This summer is more looking at back-up options to the original plan. Every club will be in a similar boat. Free transfers will be so much more in demand. In a normal season, you will fight five clubs for a free transfer but this summer, it might be 10 clubs for the same player. It will be ferocious.” As clubs prepare themselves, even the busiest of sporting directors are concentrating on survival, rather than dealings. One says: “The clubs right now are sharing information about operations, legal issues and staff situations but nobody is making offers or even inquiring.” During a usual period, one Premier League scout explains that agents are in touch on a daily basis. He says: “You’ll get agents come to you and ask you to look at their player. They’ll come back a day later and ask what you thought of them but you’ve not had a chance to start yet. They think you’re just sitting there all the time, maybe going to one game a week. They don’t understand it. Their player might be good, but you might have five or six players who are as good or better and whom you’ve done the work on.” Now, however, realism is setting in, although several sources insisted stakeholders are still attempting to pull off deals. A top-six Premier League scout warns: “We still don’t know when travel restrictions will lift. Do we do medicals remotely and trust that? Can we even sign a foreign player if we have no guarantees as to when social distancing measures will lift? What will the insurance be like for players and clubs against the loss of earnings from future lockdowns?” For agents accustomed to cutting deals, it is a peculiar moment. One, who represents Premier League and Football League players, says: “A few clubs want to speak to us about players but I am taking it with a pinch of salt because I don’t even know when the season is going to finish, never mind a window opening. I find it all too up in the air. Half of me feels like it doesn’t sit right because people want to sign my players at the moment. How can anyone think of signing a footballer at a time like this? But at the same time, this is a player’s short career and we have a responsibility to them, as representatives and employers. “As an agent, it depends on the supply and demand. If you have a striker like Erling Haaland, this does not affect him because the top clubs will always want him and will pay a lot for him. His agent is in the best position possible. Lower down, however, clubs will be clear: ‘This is the budget, this is the top earning bracket — take it or you will be out of work’. People often put the blame on players but there are so many actions by clubs that are underhand. I expect them to play on the insecurities and worries of what is happening. They will lowball players in the lower leagues because they can, rather than because they cannot afford it. It will be, ‘You are worried about not having a job, so I do not have to pay you as much’. “I felt it had been quieter in the past couple of windows anyway and that was due to Brexit uncertainty. But this blows Brexit out of the park — and we still have that all to come, too. The Premier League will be ringfenced to a degree but the big issue will be the Championship. Look at Luton, who talked about how they can’t compete financially as they run a steady ship. A lot of clubs were already spending more than they should, particularly if you study wages as a percentage of revenue. Some clubs are in a whole world of trouble.” One non-League club have placed their players on furlough and cut wages without prior agreement from the star player and that player’s agent now intends to force a free transfer through this summer, spurning a potential six-figure windfall for the club. Another leading agent has reconciled himself to a quieter summer. He says: “I know some clubs in the Premier League are saying that a minimum of 50 per cent has been wiped off the budget they planned to spend. Transfer fees and salaries will be lower. People are talking, though. I’m talking to players and clubs about deals. But nobody can say right now, ‘This is the deal, let’s close it’. No way. It is a huge problem. Clubs have their targets and they have not changed; they just cannot make deals. It is impossible. I have agreed one deal in principle but there is no decision on salary or transfer fee, so in reality it is nothing.” Agents, just like clubs, players, and the rest of the world, can only watch on and wait.

FIFA to extend 2019-20 football season indefinitely https://theathletic.com/1724322/2020/04/06/fifa-football-coronavirus-season-indefinitely/ FIFA is to confirm an indefinite extension to the 2019-20 season across the globe, allowing each country’s football authority to determine when campaigns can finish. The game’s world governing body will also alter the dates of the summer transfer window and permit contract extensions for players whose deals run out on June 30. The plans, which are likely to be revealed in the next 48 hours, will afford maximum flexibility with FIFA appreciating the spread of coronavirus is different in each country. This comes after UEFA last week committed to finishing the current season and was moved to deny a report that its own president, Aleksander Ceferin, had set a deadline of August 3 to complete all outstanding games. While the decision from the highest authority in football does not take null and void off the table, it considerably reduces the chances of seasons being cancelled altogether. The planned announcement was greeted by one Premier League club as “really sensible”, with it removing the pressure to conclude the season at a time when the world is dealing with a pandemic. The Athletic understands timeframes were not discussed at great length in Friday’s meeting between Premier League clubs. There are significant fears that the 20 sides may yet need to repay £762 million to broadcasters should the season not be completed, with The Athletic revealing last week that the determination to finish the campaign even led to one idea of taking games to China. Insiders at a number of clubs say a reality seems to have finally dawned over the past week that, while ideas can be formulated for different scenarios around scheduling, until the outbreak passes over the top of the curve nobody will really be able to plan with confidence. While some Premier League clubs accept that there might be no option other than to resume seasons behind closed doors or even at neutral grounds in other “safe” countries, other clubs believe football should only return when fans are able to enter stadiums. It is on this battleground that the next debate in England is likely to be had, especially as some Football League clubs are concerned about extending contracts if there is no clear date for a return to football, knowing that they will have to carry out paying money with no signs of standard streams of income in that period. The situation with football contracts is a complex one, as The Athletic’s Matt Slater explained. One manager of an EFL club told The Athletic over the weekend that he has 13 players out of contract in June and 10 of those contracts are unlikely to be renewed. Some of his concerns related to the focus of his team and therefore the integrity of the league, considering he would have to ask a number of players to perform for him when they know they might not have jobs in the near future. He was also worried about the length of the next transfer window, questioning whether it would be long enough for him to sign enough players to be able to register a squad for the 2020-21 season. The Premier League summer transfer window is due to end on September 1 at 5pm and the EFL announced in February an “agreement in principle” to return to a traditional deadline day at the end of August. The Athletic also revealed how the Premier League’s hopes of striking a deal to secure 30 per cent wage deductions or deferrals from players were in peril on Saturday night as footballers became increasingly concerned that agreements may benefit club ownerships more than non-playing staff or the emergency services. Discussions are expected to resume this week.

United are backing youth again – after years of complacency and underfunding https://theathletic.com/1724448/2020/04/06/manchester-united-youth-team/ It’s not just Manchester United’s first team who were stopped in the middle of a promising run when football was suspended. The youth team were days away from playing Chelsea in the semi-finals of the FA Youth Cup. This year’s side includes Hannibal Mejbri, signed for £9.3 million at age 16 from Monaco last July. Such is his distinctive mop of hair, the substantial Leeds United following in the fifth round tie at Old Trafford dismissed him as “a shit Sideshow Bob”. Alongside team-mates Aliou Traore and Noam Emeran, Mejbri is one of three Parisian youngsters scouted by the same man in Goussainville on the outskirts of Paris, close to Charles de Gaulle Airport. United’s Paul Pogba and Anthony Martial — as well as Thierry Henry, Patrice Evra and dozens of other world-class footballers — hail from the same Parisian banlieues. United are recruiting well. They want the best English players for their first team. Failing that, they want the best players who have played English football all their lives, foreign talents who join at 16 or 17. They have a history of bringing through youngsters and hold the record of 10 FA Youth Cup wins, the first five by the Busby Babes in the 1950s. Ten years after Munich, eight home-grown players helped United become the first English club to win the European Cup. However, the youth team haven’t won the competition since 2011, when a side starring Pogba, Jesse Lingard and Ravel Morrison defeated a Sheffield United one including Harry Maguire. So this season’s cup run is long overdue. Liverpool are the holders but Chelsea have been the dominant force, winning the cup seven times in the last decade. Their first team is now benefiting from several players who have come through, from Tammy Abraham and Callum Hudson-Odoi to Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Fikayo Tomori. Tomori, Abraham and Mason Mount starred in a 5-1 victory over United’s youth team in 2016, something that would have been unimaginable 20 years previously. Two years later, however, things improved: United, captained by Brandon Williams and led from the front by hat-trick hero Mason Greenwood, inflicted a rare defeat on Chelsea, winning 4-3. Manchester City have reached the final four times in the last five years and are in the semis again this time. The dominance of City and Chelsea should be unsurprising: the clubs have spent the most on youth football in the last decade. The policy of both is to buy the best players from around the world. United do that too, bringing in 16- and 17-year-olds like Mejbri, but also want to build on a core of local players. After decades of success, United became complacent. Their youth system was underfunded, and the focus shifted to the first team. Louis van Gaal needed instant results and knew he wouldn’t be around for longer than three years. Youth development was not the priority to him as it is for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer now. Talented coaches were expected to work miracles despite losing out — usually to City — on players. City paid more. They put the siblings of young players into a private school and guaranteed their education until they were 18. United lost good players at 11, 12 and 13 because the club weren’t willing to bend over backwards to meet demands. They thought their reputation was enough. It wasn’t. United were not happy about City’s conduct. They considered it underhand. In one home match, City separated the opposition’s young players from their coaches and slowly walked them to the dressing room, deliberately letting players see plush play areas. It was almost as if they were saying, “This is what you could have won.” “City seemed to forget that we won the treble with the Cliff, which was tiny, as our training ground,” remarked one coach, but City had made progress. United had their reputation and the well-known fact that young players were given a chance in the first team, but City boasted superior players, more money and a better training ground, which included a 6,000-capacity stadium. United’s AON Training Complex at Carrington is a great training ground, but it’s not the best and some of United’s youth coaches changed in Portakabins until last year. Not for nothing did Phil Neville, Darren Fletcher and Robin van Persie put their children into City’s system. But Harvey Neville is now at United, having also benefited from three years at Valencia. United’s youth system is looking far better than it did five years ago. Though they don’t reveal the figures, United’s investment in youth has increased four-fold since 2015 — when you’re paying almost £10 million for 16-year-olds, it’s easy to see how. Barcelona, for one, baulk at paying such figures to take youngster to La Masia. As a partial consequence, the Barcelona academy is not churning out players for the first team as it did in the previous decade. United’s youngsters are playing more games than before, and in as many different types of football as possible: the EFL Trophy, extra under-18 tournaments… they’ve even started flying in top-level opponents to play the under-19s, including Hertha Berlin. They plan many more when the impasse is over. This isn’t the Busby Babes or the Class of ’92. United’s youth system isn’t complete. There are no full teams yet. All but two of the under-16s were let go before this season: not just because they weren’t considered to be United level, but to be fair to them and give them a better chance of making it elsewhere. But there are youth players who the coaches believe can become first-team regulars for a successful United first team. And in Solskjaer, you have a manager who clearly wants to keep alive United’s long run of games with a homegrown player in the first-team match-day squad. Solskjaer has a tough job, but he has changed the mood at United. He regularly watches the young teams, as do Michael Carrick and fellow first-team coach Kieran McKenna. Throwing youngsters into a first team low on morale is never ideal, but Solskjaer, who coached the club’s reserves from 2008 to 2011, has helped provoke an upturn in morale. When I asked Ed Woodward what United’s vision was this season, the executive chairman said: “Winning, playing attacking football with X-factor players and giving youth a chance. Added to that, we want players to come in who respect their team-mates, the club, the history. They must understand that they are creating a legacy by coming to Manchester United. Nobody is bigger than the club. “There should be a mixture of humbleness and arrogance. Humble when you are on the team coach and you wear the club suit; you do up your top button and wear your tie; then you sign autographs for 10 minutes for the people who pay your wages. Then, when you go into the dressing room, you put the red shirt on and you feel arrogant, self-assured. As Carrick said in his book, you want to take the ball, you want the ball in tight spaces, you want a never-say-die spirit. “Ole has brought a lot of the discipline back. Whatever manager we have has to buy into that philosophy and Ole is a walking, talking version of that. Let’s let this play out with Ole.” Let’s look first at the under-23s, managed by Stretford lad Neil Wood and assisted by former United midfielder Quinton Fortune. Both have played professionally. They’re second in the second tier of the reserve league (Premier League 2), three points behind West Ham, but with a game in hand. That they were even relegated shows how bad things became, with United’s reserves often asked to play without a recognised striker. Despite still only being 17, Mejbri, who plays best as a No 10, has played for the under-23s. “This is what United should be doing, bringing in the best young players not just in England but in the world,” says one coach. “Hannibal has the wow factor, the flair, the X factor, which United players should have.” There are others, too. Czech goalkeeper Matej Kovar is 19 and rated so highly that one coach thinks he’s ready now for first-team football at the top level. With Dean Henderson and Kieran O’Hara impressing on loan at Sheffield United and Burton Albion respectively, United appear to have a surfeit of goalkeeping talent. Loan moves are wiser, though with mixed results. Axel Tuanzebe, who has captained United at every age group including the first team, benefited from his 18 months at Aston Villa. The central defender, 22, is still coming out top of the endurance tests in training, but has been unfortunate with injuries this season. Scott McTominay is in the first team, Marcus Rashford, too. Fans are less convinced by Lingard and Andreas Pereira but they are also examples of homegrown talents who made the step up. Tahith Chong, 20, has signed a new contract to 2022 and needs to shine when he gets his next first-team chance. Angel Gomes, 19, who captained the under-23s in their last game at Stoke City — where he was marked by Ryan Shawcross, who came through the ranks at Old Trafford — has yet to sign the contract on offer to him. Midfielder James Garner would benefit from a loan move to help bridge the significant gap from under-23s football to the first team. Garner played in Astana in November with fellow 19-year-old Dylan Levitt, who has a superb passing range. Ethan Laird, 18, has been injured but is a fast, strong right-back. Di’Shon Bernard, 19, is a decent central defender who also played for the first team that night in Kazakhstan. Dillon Hoogewerf, a 17-year-old who plays as a No 10, scored the goal that knocked Leeds out of the Youth Cup. He signed from Ajax, who were unhappy that the Holland youth international left last year. Better for United to get him at 16 than at 23, when his price would have rocketed. “I want to debut as quickly as possible — Manchester United came up with a good plan and the intention to make my debut at an early age,” the 5ft 4in forward said on his arrival last summer. Teden Mengi is a 17-year-old Mancunian centre-half. He’s fast, tall and quick, with the right character and calmness to be a top-level pro. He’s captain of the youth team, went to Nicky Butt’s old school Wright Robinson College and grew up playing football on the streets of east Manchester. Butt is now head of first team development, having turned over the academy leadership to Nick Cox. There are people in the background at the academy such as Tony Whelan and Dave Bushell who have been there for decades. They know the environment required to create decent young men as well as footballers. Charlie Wellens, 17 years old and son of Swindon Town manager and United academy graduate Richie, is a midfielder who has trained with the first team and is promising. Anthony Elanga, a 17-year-old Swedish winger, is fast and very strong. Noam Emeran is another 17-year-old winger — this time from France. He’s confident in beating opponents and has that “wow” factor that United look for. Zidane Iqbal, 16, is a Mancunian attacking midfielder with British and Pakistani citizenship. Central defender Will Fish, 17, excelled on his debut with the under-23s and the club also expect fans to hear more about Mark Helm, an 18-year-old midfielder from Warrington. United Under-18s are coached by Neil Ryan, a former non-League player and son of former United player and Sir Alex Ferguson assistant Jim. He’s assisted by legendary non-League goalscorer Colin Little, who is from Wythenshawe and was a hero at Altrincham. These are streetwise Mancunians who have played football all their lives. And there are those players who have made the first team while still teenagers: Greenwood and Williams. Those coaches who worked with Williams think there is more to come from him, with his boundless energy and never-say-die attitude. He was never the best player technically, but he would run through brick walls for the youth team, where he played as a central midfielder. He was moved back to defence, but only shifted to left-back because Laird was at right-back. “He’s done very well, all things considering,” states one coach. “It’s a big jump to go from the under-23s as a 17-year-old to marking Raheem Sterling.” Below the 16-year-old youth-team players, Danny Kavanagh is the best of those aged 15. A Mancunian forward who can play across the front line, he has been picked by England in his age group. There is much uncertainty in football and the world, but the club’s youth system is in a far better place than it was five years ago. But will they ever get to play Chelsea in that Youth Cup semi-final?

I cannot see this happening, not with the way the pandemic is rolling only 2 things will stop it 1 Herd Immunity (and by going into lockdown that is now vastly delayed or will not happen at all, and in fact, the lockdowns guarantee a SECOND wave, what should have happened is the high risk 20% should have instantly locked down completely, and just let it run its course, (with a COMPLETE buildout of all medical healthcare infrastructure from the first week, I mean the ENTIRE resources of the nations turning to that) especially all the schoolchildren and under 30 years olds, as in EVERY epidemic, those are the cohorts who cause herd immunity. Locking down the schools, as I have come to mostly (not quite 100% there yet but close) believe given 2 months of research was quite possibly disastrous. China did not go to lockdown until it was already raging, so quite possibly has achieved or is close to achieving herd immunity. Testing is useless, so is contact tracing as this is airborne, BUT it is so so so so important to do universal ANTIBODY testing, as then we can see how close we are to hern immunity. 2 Vaccine (very late 2020, early 2021 if we are lucky) side note on my last point in point 1 Britain has millions of coronavirus antibody tests, but they don’t work https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/britain-has-millions-of-coronavirus-antibody-tests-but-they-don-t-work-j7kb55g89

Hakimi, the turbo full-back: wanted in London, Madrid, Munich and Dortmund https://theathletic.com/1713314/2020/04/04/dortmund-achraf-hakimi-tottenham-arsenal-chelsea-bayern-real-madrid/ It was back in early October when Ondrej Kudela, an experienced defender and Czech Republic international, attempted to put into words what it is actually like to confront Achraf Hakimi in full flight. Slavia Prague had just succumbed to Borussia Dortmund at the Eden Arena with the Moroccan scoring both the Champions League group game’s goals. Kudela, like his team-mates, had been left scorched by the whole sorry experience. “We obviously made a few mistakes which you can’t afford to do at this level and we’re still adjusting to this competition… but those counter-attacks were lethal,” he offered in the immediate aftermath. “It was like Hakimi climbed on his motorbike, revved it up and then roared away from everybody. There was absolutely no chance of catching him.” Plenty of fellow full-backs and centre-halves who have been left gasping in pursuit of Hakimi, his No 5 shirt forever powering further out of range, would empathise with that nightmarish feeling of hopelessness endured by Kudela that night. Dortmund’s tearaway loanee has subjected better players than him to a blistering run-around. The 21-year-old has rampaged through more impressive teams than Slavia, too. At his best, he can feel unstoppable: a force of nature whose rise to prominence has been charted forensically by elite clubs from the Premier League, Serie A and Bundesliga. Not to mention Real Madrid, his parent club back in Spain. Chelsea have been long-standing admirers while Tottenham Hotspur, back when Mauricio Pochettino was in place and influencing their transfer policy, had salivated at the possibility of luring him to London once his deal at Borussia had concluded. Across the capital’s northern divide, Arsenal are also credited with a keen interest, attracted as much by his versatility and excellence across a number of positions. Paris Saint-Germain made enquiries last year and Juventus have tracked his progress. Then there’s Bayern Munich, well aware of his blistering impact in the Bundesliga and Dortmund’s own desire to retain his services beyond the expiry of his two-year loan. At some stage, once football returns to something akin to normality and the frenzy of the transfer market is resumed, those suitors still eager to prioritise the youngster’s addition face the daunting challenge of talking Real into a sale. Logic suggests they will be met with stern resistance. Not that it is actually that outlandish to suggest the Getafe-born full-back-cum-winger could depart the Bernabeu. Everything will hinge on the pathway to first-team involvement. After two years of regular game-time, and rapid development, in Germany this is a player who would be reluctant to play second fiddle to a team-mate, whether that be Dani Carvajal or Ferland Mendy on either flank. Real will not be welcoming back a rookie when the loan expires. Maybe the focus has been drawn more towards the rise of Trent Alexander-Arnold on Merseyside or Alphonso Davies in Munich, but everything Hakimi has achieved in Westphalia has been startling. So what is all the fuss about? Well, it is born of the reality that Hakimi appears to have everything. He stands a shade under 6ft and, during the barnstorming 3-3 draw with RB Leipzig earlier this season, was clocked at 22.49 mph on one of his runs upfield, the quickest sprint recorded in the Bundesliga since detailed data collection began nine years ago. Dortmund’s coach, Lucien Favre, has described that pace as “a weapon”. “He’s so unpredictable with that speed, though,” added team-mate Mario Gotze. “That makes it so hard for defenders. He seems to know instinctively when to join in the attack, and appears from nowhere.” The basic numbers establish his reputation: no other player classed as a defender can match his rate of assists (0.4 per 90 minutes) or expected assists (0.21) in the German top-flight during the current campaign. He is a natural dribbler, ever eager to singe past a marker with the ball glued to his instep into attacking areas, particularly at the far post, from where he so regularly supplies those loitering in the six-yard box. Indeed, his own energy, and Dortmund’s attacking dominance in so many matches, sees him camped for long periods in enemy territory with the two-time Africa young player of the year basically operating as an auxiliary winger, ever eager to overload on beleaguered opponents. His delivery may lack Alexander-Arnold’s vicious whip or precision from further out, but there have been 10 assists in the league to date this season – all summoned from open play, whereas the Liverpool full-back tends to take set-pieces – and three goals. Nobody in Dortmund’s ranks mustered as many as his four goals in eight appearances in the Champions League this term, where the Germans exited in the last 16 with a 3-2 aggregate defeat to PSG. Furthermore, Hakimi has flourished whether starting out in a back four or five-man rear-guard, as a full-back or wing-back, or even as a more conventional winger – he shifted upfield during a Champions League tie against Inter Milan in November and scored twice – on either flank. So smooth has his adaptation been to life on the opposite side, a la Philipp Lahm, that he admitted late last year to being unsure as to where he is now strongest. “I’ve learned a lot playing on both flanks and that ability is a real string to my bow: any coach who has a player able to play on both wings, someone versatile, knows that this benefits the team,” he told Spanish sports newspaper AS. “When I’m on the right, it’s more about getting up the wing and crossing; on the left, it’s about linking up with others, cutting inside and shooting if I can. “I decided to come here because I wanted to keep on developing as a player, and the path you have to take isn’t always what you might have initially imagined. Sometimes you have to go somewhere else so you can get to where you want to be. In my case that meant coming to Germany. I also knew I had to improve a lot. And, bit by bit, I’ve been doing that. I’m a better player and am getting regular football. It has a real impact on your confidence. That’s what allows you to express yourself and play with freedom. I’m now a different Achraf.” He has certainly come a long way from the days when he and his friends would chalk up three goals on the walls of their street in southern Madrid and enjoy chaotic mass kickabouts on what was, in effect, a triangular pitch. He had played at CD Colonia Ofigevi in his youth before drawing the attention of Real’s scouts. His father, a street vendor, picked him up from school one day and produced a letter inviting the disbelieving youngster to a trial. He ended up joining La Fabrica, their academy, at the age of eight. “The training area, my team-mates, the whole organisation, the changing-rooms… I felt like I was already a professional player.” Money had been tight at home. This was a glimpse of a different world, and a chance even the young Hakimi felt had to be taken. That bond with family remains – his parents are Moroccan, with his instinct always to represent their homeland rather than Spain – with his desperation to progress partly born of a desire to repay them for the sacrifices they made when he was young. “We come from a modest background and my family has always struggled to earn a living,” he said. “But they gave themselves up for me. They deprived my brothers of many things for me to succeed. Today, I fight every day for them.” His progression eventually took him into the side at Real Madrid Castilla – the club’s B team – and, with Zinedine Zidane having persuaded him to reject the chance to move on loan to Alaves, into a first-team debut in October 2017. The man assigned to be Carvajal’s back-up ended up playing 17 times that season, including twice against Spurs, to ensure he ended with a European Cup winner’s medal. Zidane, he said, treated him “like a son”. “The fact he asked for the deal (to Alaves) to be called off and wanted me to stay… that meant a lot. He made me the footballer I am today by giving me that chance to play with the professionals. I learned something every day. Whatever happens, I’ll always have a good relationship with him.” Yet he still classes joining Dortmund, ahead of mooted loan moves to Napoli or Juventus, as “the best decision I ever made” and key to the speed of his development. He signed a new long-term deal at the Bernabeu through to 2022, with an option to extend, before departing, with the Bundesliga club, who did not pay a loan fee, actually trumping the wage the player would have earned in Spain over his two-year stint. There was no option written into the deal for Dortmund to make the move permanent, for all that they would be keen, now, to instigate talks. In truth, given the calibre of other clubs keen to secure the player, they may not be able to compete. Indeed, PSG’s Thomas Meunier has been suggested as a replacement. Hakimi has carried himself like a Real Madrid player at times, though that self-confidence – “airs and graces,” as one person close to Borussia put it – have actually been welcomed by a young squad. They have helped add an edge, with that strut pepping the group. It has certainly not affected his work ethic or eagerness to settle. It helped that Paco Alcacer, a fellow Spanish speaker, was on the books at the time, but he speaks English – like many of his club-mates – and has since made progress with his German. He is popular, both at Dortmund and with his national team’s set-up. He is a father himself these days after his partner, the Spanish actress Hiba Abouk, gave birth to a son at Madrid’s Ruber Internacional hospital in February. Hakimi, already capped 28 times, has graced a World Cup and points to his tussles with other African nations as having toughened him up. He already feels integral to a national team crammed with lavish attacking talents, from Ajax’s Chelsea-bound Hakim Ziyech to AZ Alkmaar’s rising star Oussama Idrissi. “Achraf was shy when he first joined up, but he laughs a lot and is a good room-mate,” Morocco captain and Wolves defender Romain Saiss told France Football recently. “He is very respectful and serious about what the does.” Hakimi also recognises there are aspects of his game that need to improve. Even Favre has winced at times at his defensive positioning, albeit that burst of pace tends to extricate him from awkward situations. “Look, he grew up at Real Madrid, where all the teams are used to having possession,” said Saiss. “It’s pretty much the same at Dortmund. When they play with five across the back, he has a bit more freedom to express himself. He’s still young, at 21, and still has huge scope to progress, above all defensively. When he plays for the national side in particular, he needs to be better at anticipating what to do when we lose possession. “He makes up for it all with his speed. When he’s in full flight, he’s difficult to stop even if, sometimes, I tell him, ‘It’s great that you run upfield, but think about tracking back now and again.’ He’s still a very good defender and hard to get past. He’s tough, too. In the years ahead, he has all the qualities to become the best in the world.” That tactical awareness will come. For now, it is the dynamism and attacking flair which catch the eye. Those link-ups with Jadon Sancho and Erling Haaland, or Thorgan Hazard and Julian Brandt, have taken the breath away in such a vibrant line-up. His absence will be keenly felt next season if, as Dortmund anticipate, he ventures elsewhere. The real dilemma, of course, lies with Real. Alvaro Odriozola, a €30 million addition from Real Sociedad in the summer of 2018, has disappointed and was loaned to Bayern in January. Carvajal, the regular right-back, is 28. They may want to freshen things up. Logic might suggest the time has come to fling Hakimi in as first-choice. Yet, if the club have other ambitions in the market and are looking for a means of raising funds, they might be tempted by offers up to €60 million, complete with a buyback clause, for the youth-team graduate. Therein lies the hope for Bayern – who enjoy an excellent relation with Real – or the English contingent, who would argue he is tailor-made for Premier League football. “Pace, it’s all about pace,” added the Dijon and Morocco defender Fouad Chafik. “He has a turbo in his legs.” An afterburner of which Ondrej Kudela was all too aware in Prague back in the autumn.

‘Fighter with a gentleman spirit’: Chelsea can build around Kovacic’s dynamism https://theathletic.com/1723159/2020/04/05/kovacic-modric-real-madrid-chelsea-lampard/ As he watched a brilliant Bayern Munich subject his Chelsea team to their heaviest-ever home European defeat in February, Frank Lampard saw only one player in blue worthy of publicly singling out for praise. “I think there were a couple of performances in our team — namely Mateo Kovacic — who played with a personality and a quality that makes you go, ‘OK, he can play in virtually any team at that level’,” he said afterward. In a match that saw Chelsea held to just a 36.7 per cent share of possession, their lowest of the season, Kovacic touched the ball more times (76) than anyone else in his team. Even more eye-catching was his tally of completed dribbles — eight of nine attempted, more even than Bayern’s roadrunner of a left-back Alphonso Davies. Several of them single-handedly broke a Bayern press that otherwise smothered the home side into oblivion. Kovacic was the only one of Lampard’s players who panicked Bayern, and therefore the only player who met the standard that Chelsea aspire to reach again. In spite of the circumstances, or perhaps because of them, it was one of the most impressive performances of his time at Stamford Bridge. It also suggested that, now 25 and with enough big-game experience already to make most retired players proud, he might be about to fully realise the talent that has helped him turn heads in Croatia and beyond for more than half his life. Andrea Stramaccioni, coach of Inter from March 2012 to May 2013, still remembers the first time he saw Kovacic. “Marco Branca (former Inter sporting director) was considering an offer for Sime Vrsaljko of Dinamo Zagreb and he requested my opinion,” he tells The Athletic. “I watched him in a Champions League match against Paris Saint-Germain but after this game, which PSG won 4-0, I went back to my sporting director in love with another player…” Even in a heavy defeat, Kovacic had been too good to ignore. “He was only 18,” Stramaccioni adds, “but from that date, I pushed my president, Massimo Moratti, to believe me and, in January (2013), Mateo signed for us. He has a natural skill with the ball. He is fast when driving and he can change direction without losing control of his body. He can beat everyone one-v-one in the middle of the pitch and he’s a hard worker.” Despite his youth, Kovacic was already established as a key figure at Dinamo. A year earlier, he had captained the side as a 17-year-old in a league match against Lucko, becoming the youngest player ever to wear the armband. Stramaccioni saw him in his second Champions League group stage campaign; in his first, he had netted a consolation in a 7-1 loss against Lyon to become the second-youngest scorer in the history of the competition (he’s since been pushed down to third by Barcelona’s Ansu Fati, the new leader at 17 years and 39 days). Dinamo were keenly aware that Kovacic would soon outgrow them in the manner of his idol, Luka Modric, but they expected to have at least one more season to enjoy him alongside fellow prized prospect Alen Halilovic. They were at a mid-season training camp in Bosnia when Inter’s offer arrived and the strength of the Italian giants’ determination took them by surprise. The deal, worth an initial £9.7 million, wasn’t done until deadline day. It was the second big move brought about by Kovacic’s prodigious talent. Six years earlier his father, Stipe, had relocated the family from the Austrian city of Linz to Zagreb at the invitation of Dinamo. Mateo had impressed in a game against them as a 10-year-old for LASK Linz and was rewarded with a chance to develop at a club with a unique appeal to Croatia’s most talented young footballers — as well as an unrivalled track record of helping them to fulfil their potential. Kovacic’s parents had returned to Linz by the time the Inter move materialised, leaving him in the care of grandparents, but Italy would be his first experience living away from his family entirely. “He arrived in Milan very young and in an important dressing room full of legends as Javier Zanetti, Diego Milito, Esteban Cambiasso, Dejan Stankovic,” Stramaccioni says. “I remember that Samir Handanovic and Stankovic helped him to get slowly more involved in the team. He is a really positive and quiet personality outside the pitch, but serious and quite a hard worker in every single session.” He took the No 10 shirt previously worn by Champions League winner Wesley Sneijder, and Stramaccioni brought him off the bench three days after his arrival, in a 3-1 away loss to Siena. “His decision to agree to wear the No 10 showed everyone he was ready to carry on a big responsibility,” Stramaccioni adds. “He was in good shape and the team for this game was in an emergency. I didn’t have any doubts about him. His first series of performances were really amazing for those who didn’t know him.” Kovacic became a man in Italy. His chest and legs grew thicker, adding a physicality that enhanced his technical skills. Displays of bustling creativity in Europa League home wins against CFR Cluj and Tottenham earned him standing ovations from the Inter fans, who voted him “Young Revelation of the Year” at the club’s end-of-season awards. Stramaccioni was replaced by former Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri, who imagined his young midfielder as a roving No 8 in the mould of Marek Hamsik. It was a difficult adjustment that resulted in less regular game time and moments of self-doubt. After one particularly fierce dressing down from Mazzarri in a training session, Handanovic pulled the visibly downcast Kovacic to one side. “Don’t worry about it,” he told him. “You’ll play for Real Madrid or Barcelona one day.” Madrid first tried to sign Kovacic in 2014. Talks took place while he was representing Croatia at the World Cup in Brazil but he ultimately decided it was too soon. The sales pitch — of joining the biggest club in the world and throwing himself fully into the role of Modric’s heir for club as well as country — was an enticing one but he had yet to make himself indispensable to Mazzarri at Inter. It was an understandable decision but also remarkably assured for a young footballer with first-hand experience of just how perilous the road to the top can be. According to those close to him, Kovacic cried for days when he broke his leg at the age of 14. He feared that his chances of justifying his status as the jewel in Dinamo’s academy might be ruined. “It was difficult for me, but not just me, also my family,” he said in an interview with Chelsea in July 2019. “They had moved and sacrificed everything, and then maybe it was over.” After eight months on the sidelines, he quickly regained his elite trajectory but the memory of what might have been could not be forgotten. A year after Madrid’s initial approach, Kovacic had improved his stock at Inter under new coach Roberto Mancini, making 35 Serie A appearances and scoring a career-best five goals. Circumstances at the club had changed, however; Inter were in danger of violating Financial Fair Play (FFP) and sending Kovacic to Spain for €29 million was their easiest way out. “We are all disappointed, from the president to the players, but faced with rules, we have to make sacrifices,” Mancini said. Modric welcomed Kovacic — who, as a 14-year-old, had shyly requested a photograph with Modric at Dinamo’s training ground — to Madrid with open arms. He drove his younger countryman to and from training and they socialised together with their partners. “When I came to Madrid, our friendship became incredible,” Kovacic said in an interview with Chelsea. “He gave me a lot of attention and we were together all the time. In those three years, we had an amazing relationship with our families and, until now, we talk every two or three days. “Football connected us, but outside the pitch is the most important thing. It’s great to have friends like him, and it’s for a lifetime.” Rafa Benitez, familiar with his new signing from his second spell in Serie A with Napoli, deployed him fairly regularly in a variety of midfield roles despite a wealth of more illustrious, experienced options. When the Spaniard was sacked in January 2016 and replaced by Zinedine Zidane, however, Kovacic’s relative youth began to work against him for the first time in his career. So too did the fact that he wasn’t a galatico signing. One person in a position of influence at Madrid at the time told The Athletic: “He is a good professional and nice lad. His problem was that he was not famous, so he didn’t have too much support from the top.” Having started just 19 times in La Liga and only twice in the Champions League en route to Madrid’s second consecutive triumph, Kovacic went into the summer of 2017 keen to leave. The succession wasn’t going to plan; far from fading, the 31-year-old Modric was in the form of his life, forming the best midfield partnership in world football with Toni Kroos. He was convinced to give it one more year but Zidane gave him little cause for optimism. Kovacic’s support status was underlined in that final season by twice being detailed to man-mark Lionel Messi in Clasicos. The first time, in a 3-1 win for Madrid at Camp Nou in the Spanish Super Cup, he earned praise for his diligence. The second, when he stuck to Messi’s side even as Ivan Rakitic surged past him to create Barcelona’s opening goal for Luis Suarez in a 3-0 humiliation at Santiago Bernabeu, saw him made the scapegoat. Injuries to Zidane’s other midfield options allowed Kovacic to play a significant role in Madrid’s run to a fourth Champions League final in five years, but the final straw was drawn when he failed to even make the bench as they beat Liverpool in Kiev. Chelsea had first registered an interest a year earlier and director Marina Granovskaia moved quickly to agree a loan deal when the opportunity arose. Madrid were reluctant to let Kovacic go, but he was insistent and, once he had left, he never had any intention of going back. “After three years filled with trophies, I have decided to move on,” he posted on Instagram. “Even though our paths now separate, I want to say a big thank you to Real Madrid family and all the fans for an amazing part of my life I will never forget.” Kovacic left Madrid because he wanted to feel essential to a team again — and he got his wish at Chelsea. Maurizio Sarri gave him more league starts (21) than he had in any of his three seasons in Spain, as well as picking him 12 times on the run to Europa League victory. While the winners’ medal he collected in Baku was the 10th major honour of his career, it was one of the first since leaving Dinamo that he felt he had truly earned on the pitch. But there was still a sense under Sarri that Kovacic’s game was slightly inhibited — not least in the way that was highlighted against Bayern. He is averaging 4.7 attempted dribbles per 90 minutes in the Premier League this season with a 79.3 per cent success rate, compared to only 3.2 attempted dribbles per 90 minutes last season with a 67.7 per cent success rate. That level of volume and efficiency is unrivalled among central midfielders across Europe’s top five leagues. Dribbling has always been Kovacic’s most dazzling gift and the one that separates him most clearly from Modric. During a match at under-17 level for Dinamo against bitter rivals Hajduk Split, he slalomed his way through half of the opposition team and then, as he was clean through on the goalkeeper, squared the ball for a team-mate to tap the ball into the empty net. The ability has translated into the senior game, making him a unique weapon: the most dynamic ball-carrying central midfielder in world football. A data analyst at Madrid once told him that he is a faster dribbler than Messi. There are, of course, more fundamental skills that central midfielders require. Kovacic is also an elite possessional passer, which is why he so enjoys playing with Jorginho, but he still needs to find a way to be more impactful in the final third; his expected goals per 90 minutes of 0.05, expected assists per 90 of 0.09 and key passes per 90 of 1.33 in the Premier League this season all compare unfavourably with N’Golo Kante, never mind Chelsea’s more creative options. Kovacic took more than 20 months to score his first Serie A goal at Inter, and he arrived at Chelsea in the midst of another mammoth goal drought. His low shot into the bottom corner from 25 yards against Valencia at Mestalla in November ended a barren run of 122 appearances stretching back three years. He celebrated by sticking his thumb to his nose and making a playful hand gesture in tribute to his nieces, one of whom has Down’s syndrome. “It’s nice when you score and you can celebrate with the family,” he said afterward. “They have waited a long time but now I hope I can continue like that.” Another goal arrived against Everton less than a fortnight later, but the broader body of evidence suggests Lampard has a lot more work to do to convince Kovacic to scale back his unselfish tendencies. Lampard is unlikely to ever transform Kovacic into a prolific goalscorer from midfield but the unique blend of abilities the Croatian does possess — the speed, the dribbling, the passing range, the tactical intelligence and the work ethic — offer a growing body of evidence that he is capable of being a foundational midfield pillar of the next great Chelsea side. Kovacic’s mental attributes also mark him out. When he arrived in the summer of 2018, officials at Cobham were struck by the way he carried himself and the winning attitude he brought with him after three years of staggering team success with Madrid. He settled in quickly, his five languages — in addition to Croatian, he also learned English at school and speaks Italian, Spanish and German fluently — enabling him to talk to most of his new team-mates in their native tongues. He is devoutly Catholic and leads a quiet life away from the pitch in London with his wife, Izabel, whom he met in church at the age of 14 when he was an altar boy and she was a choir singer. They run a foundation that bears his name and sponsors a clinic for children with autism, Down’s syndrome and other developmental problems in Croatia. He also made a number of donations to hospitals in Zagreb after the city was significantly damaged by an earthquake last month. At times, Kovacic has found it hard to hide his nice side on the pitch. “We were playing a key game in San Siro against Juventus and the referee whistled something against him,” Stramaccioni recalls. “It was maybe wrong but he never used to complain. This time he had a little reaction with him — but after a few seconds, he stopped himself and said sorry to the referee! “He was very young but I never met another player who behaved like that. A fighter with a gentleman spirit — that’s Mateo.” Kovacic’s personality is not that of a natural leader; never the most vocal on the pitch, he is still a little shy off it and generally reluctant to do interviews. But the nature of his game — constantly receiving the ball under pressure in tight spaces and regularly trying to commit several opponents with the ball at his feet — dictates that he takes responsibility for the team. He has not captained a team regularly since his days in the Dinamo academy, where they still remember the most remarkable example of his leadership style. At the end of another heated clash with Hajduk at under-16 level, a mass brawl broke out. Kovacic took his shirt off and handed it to the assistant coach before piling in. When they got back into the dressing room and the assistant asked why he had taken his shirt off, the teenager replied: “If I have to fight, I don’t want to in the Dinamo jersey.” Kovacic remains some way down the pecking order of future Chelsea captains but he has done enough this season to convince Lampard that he is worth building around. At 25, there is every reason to believe he has his best years ahead of him and there have been more than enough flashes so far to suggest his best years will be worth watching.

his BASIC wages in 2020-21 crack the million pound per week level!!! his total compensation (including sponsorships) will be around £150m next year the highest paid woman footballer in the world, Carli Lloyd, made £422,000 ALL year in wages

I agree overall, BUT there are A LOT of lower clubs who quite likely will go completely bust, pass go and straight to administration, do not collect yer 200 dollars (to paraphrase yank Monopoly, ihihihh), go right to football death row I mean finished, broken up and liquidated bust level that all remains to be seen how it shakes out there are some truly horrific doomsday possible scenarios looming out there

nothing I first posited was a big spend at all, in fact we had £6m LEFT over IF we bought those 6 at the prices they listed (I will admit those were some really low valuations they put out, but if you read on, you will see even a large, £50, 70m total increase for the 6 (5 as Ziyech is already locked in for pricing) is easily covered) no funny money, only real hardcore actual already done sales, real accrued cash and I alos, back when I did those massive tabulations, subtracted out to balance the books for FFP and again that does not include any potential sales of all our numerous dregs and loanees (and then there is.......... Kante, lolol, who jacks the war chest up by 100m or so, IF we sell him before he turns 30 <<< I still want my wet panty dream swap dealio for Varane, roflmaooo) and yes, I did also admit COVID-19 is a crazy wild card in the mix that may well blow all up for everyone, so we shall see

Mbappe would cost around £500m for 5 years (wages and transfer fee) only clubs who can afford that are same old big rotten 5 (and only 4 of those in reality) who FFP was put into place to protect, first against Berlusconi and AC Milan (and then we TRULY scared the fuck out of them back in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 plus PSG and Shitty came along) Real Madrid Barca Juve (the Agnelli family dynasty is INSANELY powerful and so under the radar nowadays) Manure Bayern (they would not be able to pull it off I think, unless they had a fire sale) PSG (who have him anyway, LOLOLOL), Shitty, and Chels are cock-blocked by FFP, the vermin scousers are too cheap and FFP hand-tied as well, same for Atleti Those 10 are biggest clubs in the world (AC MIlan is now a train wreck, and Spuds will come crashing back down to earth when the core ages out or is sold), and the top 5 are cemented in due to FFP

we normally agree, but sorry, Coutinho has only scored double digits in league goals ONCE and he is an AMF/winger, so goals must come, Cesc was never a huge goal scorer (he did have 19 all pro comps one season), but he was, over his career a top 5 ever EPL passer, he was INSANELY good at his peak, cray cray amount of assists (first and only player with 6 seasons of 10 or more league assists, De Bruyne has 3, counting thsi year) Cesc is one of the greatest EPL players ever, NO ONE is saying that about Coutinho. In 20116-17, he had the fourth most assists (12) in the league despite only starting 11 games (15 in all comps in only 1900 minutes total)! look at his assist to game played ratio all time EPL chart Coutinho teases but never delivers the monster goods that said, like I stated before, 60m euros (someone said that for his price), come on down Phil and slap on the Blue mate! versus Cesc Fabregas: The incredible stats of the Premier League’s assist king https://www.planetfootball.com/quick-reads/cesc-fabregas-incredible-stats-premier-leagues-assist-king/

We do have a fairly large amount of cash on hand FFP is out the window for at least 2 or 3 years and we have a shedload of players to sell so money is not a problem at all, especially given those prices listed above that I was working off of. IF we remove Sancho () and Chilwell from our targeting list, there are no insanely high priced players in all the mix (I already stated we cannot afford Havertz) UNLESS somehow, someway Lautaro falls into our lap, and his release clause (£97m and it is only in effect from July 1 to July 15th, 2020) is 30 or 40m quid less than what Sancho will go for (but still too high for what I think is our limit on a single player not named Sancho) I do NOT think we will make a run for any of the following huge priced players, probably, in most cases, ever: Jan Oblak (£106m release clause, noper) Paulo Dybala (really cannot see Juve selling him, he played wonderfully this season, was tracking to 25 goals, 25 assists in a 4000 minute season) Serge Gnabry (bullshit rumours, zero chance he leave the Bayern monsters) Saúl Ñíguez (AM are back to wanting his full, £132m release clause, so nope, he is worth 80 or 90m, but no way 132m) Sergej Milinkovic-Savic (he is now back to £100m or more level, so no chance we dump that) Raphaël Varane (Unless my pipe dream happens of a swap deal for Kante!!!!) Marco Verratti (Gilmour's target should be his level of play, I fucking love both wee lads, but PSG are not at all insane, they would only sell him for Saul release clause-type money) Mauro Icardi (PSG will surely exercise the option to buy, he was magnificent for them) Gabriel Jesus (zero chance Shitty would sell him to us) Ousmane Dembélé (damaged goods and a mental case, HARD pass) José Giménez no way AM sells him as long as Simeone (hard to believe he is only 49yo still) is there Kalidou Koulibaly (Manure bound I think for sure, and he turns 30 right after next season ends) Richarlison (Everton can fuck off with his £100m price tag, and it is hard to believe that so many freaked out when they paid £40m for him, now that looks a steal, lolol) Marquinhos (again, would LOVE to have him, but he would cast £90m plus, maybe £100m) James Maddison (£85-90m or so, hard pass) Milan Skriniar (I cannot see us dropping £90m or so on him) Ben Chilwell (hell no to £80m, the only 2 LB's on the planet I would pay that for are Robertson and Alphonso Davies, and to show you how times flies, Robertson turns 30 during the 2023-24 season, Davies is close to 7 years younger) Wilfried Zaha (hell no to £80m, in fact I would not pay over £40m for him, as he only has 2 under 30yo season left) José Gayà (hell no to paying his £88m release clause, madness) Alessio Romagnoli (Mino Raiola, enuff said, what a fucking shame, my dream CB duo (for ages and ages), would be Varane and Romagnoli, that's CL-winning level or damn close) I do have one BIG price tag (I would assume, Everton have not listed what it would take) player I would drop £70-75m or so on, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, he will be a top ten on planet striker I think, BUT Everton (seeing as their other prices are cray, would demand £90m I think, as he just turned 23 three weeks ago, is English, and is under contract until 2025 now, with his brand new extension) For £90m that gets us damn near Lautaro and Dybala level, who are better (atm) players. Håland will more than likely pass them all, and if he keeps going up in a similar arc to now, could be the 2nd (after Mbappe) £200m plus player, although hsi release clause from Dortmund is far, far, far lower (or he would not have signed) Bottom line on monster spends: Left Manure go burn what will be approaching a quarter of a billion quid on Sancho and Koulibaly (I would say they pay around £220-230m for the pair, at least pre COVID-19 that is what they would have went for) We are fucked from spending that level, due to the new stadium now officially done and buried.

I would rather go for Grealish he won't be going to Manure now that they have Bruno but, like I said, as long as he is a fair price, I will not lose my mind at all over Coutinho he is a class player and we would get 4 peak years or so out of him I am far less 'MY WAY OR THE FUCKING HIGHWAY' at this point with transfers, due to COVID-19 wrecking most all of a footie for a damn long spell (financially at least, I so so SO hope no players anywhere get so ill they die) hell, Coutinho plays a damn good LW at times can you imagine Grealish in the hole at No. 10 feeding Coutinho LW Ziyech RW Dembele or Tammy CF with Gosens or Telles bombing up on the left and Reece on the right that's an opposing defence's NIGHTMARE Villa are FUCKED, maybe administration bound if shit breaks badly so they will surely cough up Grealish at a decent price

Alex Telles €30m Gabriel Magalhaes €30m Coutinho €60m Jeremie Boga €15m Moussa Dembele €45m total cost for FIVE key, class players £158m <<<<< insane steal IF we pull all those off for that low price add Ziyech in, that is only £194m TOTAL gross that means we got 6 monster (counting Ziyech) upgrades and still have £6m left over (as we had £164m cumulative in the transfer kitty counting only DONE and future confirmed sales minus Kova and Ziyech spends) and that is not counting more sales to come we pull all that shit off I will shut my gob about Marina for a loooong time, especially if she also pulls Gosens and dumps BOTH of our dregs at LB