Vesper

Championship may need to break away from EFL to attract audience it deserves One way for the second tier to get the global attention it deserves would be to slim down in a repackaged league system https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2020/feb/06/championship-wider-audience-football-league Cedars Art Production has been making well-received Middle Eastern films and television dramas since the 1950s but it was not until three years ago that the Lebanese company realised its full potential. Everything changed when Al Hayba was showcased at Cannes. The TV series, set in a fictional, smuggling-funded mountain village near ancient Baalbek, blended action, romance, feudal politicking, emotional intelligence and bewitching scenery. Netflix executives spied an international hit and acquired streaming rights. Underpinned by themes sufficiently universal to resonate with globally diverse audiences, the Arabic soundtrack was given English, French, Spanish and Chinese subtitles. Soon Al Hayba’s lead actors, Taim Hasan and Nadine Njeim, were appearing in sitting rooms across North America, Europe and east Asia. For Cedars Art the stars had aligned. An ideal confluence of strong product and growing international appetite bridged the gulf between niche and mainstream. If only English football’s power brokers are brave enough, a similarly transformative “Al Hayba” moment could see a rebranded Championship establish itself on an infinitely bigger stage than its current, largely parochial platform. This seems a perfect time for the second tier’s anyone-can-beat-anyone human drama to be properly appreciated, at home and abroad. Admittedly narrowing the daunting chasm separating the Premier League and the old second division while widening the latter’s overseas appeal will take more than a trip to Cannes. Championship clubs need to divorce themselves from the English Football League, slim down and join a neatly trimmed top flight in a glossily repackaged, two-division Premier League, renamed PL One and PL Two. At present falling into the Championship feels like dropping off the edge of the world. PL Two would change that – albeit at a cost. Collateral damage could hit hard lower down an EFL ladder cut adrift and although pain invariably accompanies gain, the transition period would require careful management. Even so, the answers to necessarily hard questions could provide surprisingly sustainable long-term solutions. Does League Two really need to be fully professional? Might it and the National League benefit from merging before splitting into northern and southern divisions? Should neighbouring clubs share grounds and training facilities? Moreover, once the makeover was complete, PL Two’s new clout could reawaken the much-diminished enthusiasm of many television and newspaper executives for England’s lower leagues. Despite European crowd surveys showing that, in some recent seasons, only the Premier League and Bundesliga have attracted more fans to games than England’s second tier, the Championship has been under-reported by a national media in thrall to the top flight. Yet a frequently overlooked division is studded with skill and excitement. snip

Nicky Butt: ‘If a manager gets sacked we should be able to call our loan player back’ https://theathletic.com/1583299/2020/02/05/nicky-butt-manchester-united-manager-sacked-loan-players/ Nicky Butt has called for the rules around youth loans to be revised, arguing that the likes of Manchester United should be able to recall a player if the club they are on loan to sack their manager. Butt is head of first-team development at United and speaks with the same unflinching commitment to the cause that he displayed while playing in midfield for the club, which is why he feels there are areas for improvement in the modern game — such as allowing players to move at any point in the season. At present, loan players can only be signed during summer or winter windows, but Butt believes these parameters unnecessarily limit those under the age of 20 from gaining valuable first-team experience. The previous system, altered before the 2016-17 season, enabled clubs in the Football League and below to sign players on emergency loans in two periods outside of regular transfer windows on deals ranging between 28 and 93 days in duration. World governing body FIFA changed the rules to protect the “sporting integrity of competitions”. Butt feels that given the uncertainty over managerial tenures, parent clubs should gain greater control over players they have nurtured for a number of years and the regulations should allow for greater flexibility, particularly if the manager of the loan club leaves. It is a view Sir Alex Ferguson famously acted on when recalling three United players from a loan with Preston North End after the dismissal of his son Darren in December 2010. Ritchie de Laet, Joshua King, and Matty James went back to United — but those were exceptional circumstances and usually loaning clubs have no recourse in the event of a change of manager. At present a loan can be cancelled only if both clubs agree, though a player could not then join a new club until the next window. “It’s crazy, the window,” Butt tells The Athletic. “It used to be pretty much all year round until a few years ago, and as soon as those changes came in place it had an effect of stopping players going out. I would suggest that the rule-makers look at that. “We try and make that process as smooth as possible. There are times when you’ve got to rush them, because time runs out, they are the rules. “It is hard. I believe the rules should be if a manager gets sacked, you can call a player back, because the next manager could be someone who doesn’t like the player and he’s [the player] stuck there for a year. “You spend a fortune developing players up to 19 — from seven years of age, playing every week — and then you send them out on loan and all your control is gone. Because regardless of what people say, nobody can promise they will play every game. If they’re not playing well, they’re not going to play, it’s a fact. It’s not as easy as people think. It has to be really thought out.” James Garner was one United player looking at a loan last month, but ultimately the talented 18-year-old midfielder is staying at Carrington to continue his development around Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s first-team squad. Butt continues, generally: “Loans come when you’ve exhausted the reserves, you’ve burnt it up for a season, and it’s become too easy for you. But you’re not quite in the first-team dynamic. ‘OK, go get some men’s football, see how you develop’, come back and you’re in the first team or you make a career elsewhere. “That’s something you can’t just go and do like that within a week, you have to plan it. That is part of my role, with Les Parry [United’s loans manager]: find the right club, with the right beliefs. “Is it a club that sacks three managers a season? Because that’s no good for any of our players. You don’t know what manager is going to come next. “Is it a club that will play young players, and will let them make a couple of mistakes and not just drop them straight away. “Do they play the right way of football? Do we need a player to go on loan to get them to learn more stuff that they don’t get here, in academy football? Heading the ball, real 50-50 challenges, physicality? Or is it a player who needs to go out and play in a technical league? It is something we look at all the time.” Butt is speaking before the FA Youth Cup tie against arch rivals Leeds United at 7pm on Wednesday, which is expected to draw thousands to Old Trafford. Leeds have been granted 1,800 tickets and it promises to be a new atmosphere for many of the young men on the pitch. Butt himself played against Leeds in the final of the 1993 FA Youth Cup, alongside Paul Scholes, David Beckham, and Gary and Phil Neville, in front of a 30,000 crowd. “They beat us and it was a disaster, we expected to win it twice in a row,” Butt says. “Without being big-headed we were a really good team and it was rare we lost. It was a tough one to take.” Leeds won that final 4-1 over two legs, a year after the Class of ’92 had become United’s first winners of the competition since a 1964 side including George Best. Wales midfielder turned TV pundit Robbie Savage played in those games against Leeds 27 years ago and his son Charlie has a chance to feature on Wednesday night. As does Harvey Neville, son of former United stalwart and now England Lionesses manager Phil. Charlie Wellens, son of Richie, the Swindon Town manager and a former United contemporary of Butt’s, is expected to appear. United have not won the FA Youth Cup since 2011 and while Butt maintains that developing players is the primary aim, lifting silverware cannot be overlooked as part of the process. “The first game we played in the FA Youth Cup was really bad, we just scraped through,” he says of his own playing days. “I remember Eric Harrison [the legendary academy manager] going mad at us, saying, ‘The expectation is for you to win this.’ “I think that’s healthy, having expectation on players sometimes, especially in modern football. There is a time when you’ve got to show you’re capable of winning under the spotlight. To develop players, we know we have to put them out of their comfort zone. The FA Youth Cup is the time to say, ‘Show me what you got.’” Butt will be watching from the stands on Wednesday and has a clear idea of what he would like to see from the youngsters in red. “You want players who are going to be brave on the ball, accept the ball under pressure. Do what they do in training every day, work hard, drive themselves when it’s going wrong. If they go 1-0 down, how do they react? Is it arms in the air, ‘Not my fault!’, or do they go and take the challenge on board?” Butt is warming to his theme and it is compelling to listen to. He slumps his shoulders to make a point. “I hate seeing players react like that when they get 1-0 down,” he says. “Real players try even harder when they’re 1-0 down. Don’t shirk under any of the nonsense in a game, the bookings, the reactions. “If they are winning, one, two goals, do they start showboating, being silly, not be respectful? Or do they keep driving, getting three goals, four goals, five goals? “Are they challenging the opposition to have a go at them? Are they challenging their own players? You get a lot of academy players who don’t really speak to each other. They need to be able to have a go at each other, then put it to bed at the end of the game. There are lots of things on my mind.”

Mesmerising, maddening Ndombele remains as much of a conundrum inside Tottenham as he is to those outside https://theathletic.com/1586811/2020/02/06/mesmerising-maddening-ndombele-remains-tottenham-conundrum/ In the early stages of Tottenham’s 3-2 win over Southampton on Wednesday, Tanguy Ndombele did the sort of thing that has you involuntarily laughing to yourself. In fact, he did it twice within a few seconds. First he tempted Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg towards the ball only to nick it away at the last millisecond. Then, with Hojbjerg out of the picture, Ndombele made Oriel Romeu look similarly stupid with an equally audacious drag-back. As can be the case with Ndombele though, it came at a cost. Romeu committed a tactical foul and, in falling to the ground, Ndombele hurt his back. He did his best to run it off but seemed to be moving at half-pace at points until the break. So it has been for Ndombele since joining Spurs: the verve mixed in with the vulnerability. He is a player who is utterly compelling to watch — seemingly possessing the ability to bend time to his will when he is on the ball — but who physically still seems some way short of being a regular option for Jose Mourinho. A riddle wrapped up in a mystery inside a Cruyff turn. In last night’s FA Cup fourth round replay win for instance, he created the opening goal by booting a loose ball into the back of the net via Southampton’s Jack Stephens, but had to be substituted after 61 minutes with his reserves well and truly depleted. And this is the crux of the Ndombele debate at present: is he a lavishly talented player who requires patience as he navigates his debut season in English football, or does he need a kick up the backside to get himself into shape? The Athletic understands that it is as much of a conundrum within the club as it is for their fans on social media. To recap, this was only the 23-year-old’s second appearance, and first start, since he limped off after 25 minutes of the 1-0 loss away to the same opposition on New Year’s Day with a hip problem. After the match, Mourinho described Ndombele as being “always injured”. Six days earlier, Mourinho had said of Tottenham’s £55-million record signing missing the 2-1 Boxing Day win over Brighton: “He was not injured but not feeling in a condition to play.” In between all that, Ndombele produced a man-of-the-match performance — including a stoppage-time rabona cross — in a 2-2 draw at Norwich City. Publicly calling Ndombele out did not go down well with some members of the squad, The Athletic understands. Those uncomfortable about it felt Mourinho would have been better off dealing with the issue privately and that it should have been more of a discussion between the head coach and Tottenham’s medical staff. Others at the club, however, were supportive of Mourinho’s position and felt concern at Ndombele’s lack of conditioning and general fitness levels. After all, this was not the first time Ndombele has had these sort of issues. When he was with Amiens in 2016, he had to be sat down by the club’s director of football, John Williams, and told that he was “not really fit, overweight”. Ndombele then worked hard to get himself in the shape required for an elite-level footballer. More recently, Mourinho’s predecessor Mauricio Pochettino had been worried by the Frenchman’s condition. “For him it’s difficult. We cannot expect too much,” Pochettino said on the eve of the season starting. In total, Ndombele has started 42 per cent of Spurs’ games this season, completed the 90 minutes just five times, and in his 22 appearances so far have averaged only 54 minutes per game. All of which suggests he is a bit of a luxury player not to be relied upon. And yet… To watch Ndombele in action is to become a believer once more. Against Manchester City on Sunday, he was only on the pitch for 20 minutes, but still found time to create Son Heung-min’s decisive goal with a sumptuous turn and pass, and humiliate Rodri with an outrageous step-over and drop of the shoulder. He is a player who generates so much buzz that even some fairly rudimentary stretching before the Southampton game was quickly packaged into a two-minute video for Twitter. Shortly after, he entertained the crowd by indulging in a few no-look passes just for the hell of it. Once the game started, he was both mesmerising and maddening — a flicked pass on the volley here, a loose ball there. His first contribution was to lose Romeu with a balletic turn, only to instantly give possession away with a sloppy pass. Ndombele even appears to run differently when in and out of possession — the grace when on the ball giving way to a meandering lollop when off it. He is so relaxed that he was comfortably the last man out on to the pitch for the second half, and his 61 per cent pass completion — the second-lowest of Spurs’ outfielders — underlines that this is not a player too concerned with keeping things ticking over just for the sake of it. By the time the second half was under way, Ndombele looked close to running out of steam — making good on Mourinho’s pre-match assertion that he would not be able to last the full game. His head coach added afterwards: “I knew he couldn’t play 90 minutes.” To try and help the situation, Ndombele has been placed on a bespoke fitness programme, taking in nutrition, sports science and individual training work. This is a sensible step, according to injuries analyst Ben Dinnery. “Coming from Ligue 1, like Ndombele has, is a huge physical step up,” Dinnery he says. “Acclimatising to the Premier League is tough. The demands on the body are different, and all these changes he’s having to get used to could be going against the grain of some traits he’s been brought up with and played all his career with. Suddenly there are differences — even with Pochettino and Mourinho — and it’s about being able to tolerate and cope with that. “Ndombele is young, and comes with a big price tag, a big reputation. He wants to prove himself — but it’s always going to be difficult because if you’re not in peak condition, you’re more likely to pick up knocks and niggles. It becomes a vicious cycle where you keep getting close to getting fit but then forcing it.” Spurs will hope they have been patient enough to have ensured Ndombele will soon start to shake off these niggles. And when he does, he will surely be worth persevering with. Football is supposed to be fun, and players who can make you laugh and smile as regularly as him don’t come along very often.

this is the consensus of targets CF Dembele £60m LB Chillwell £80m Winger Sancho £130m AMF/winger Ziyech £50m DMF Soumare £50m total spend minus either, NOT both, Alonso or Emerson sold £340m <<<< cannot be done without selling Kante or dropping Sancho and rolling with Boga sell Kante and it becomes a doable £240m or so as we already have £160m from player sales already completely minus Kovacic buy not counting the sales listed here so the total spend is £80m but A Better Alternative CF Dembele £60m LB Telles AND Gosens...... around £60m AND this allows BOTH Alonso and Emerson to be sold generating £60m, so basically a wash Winger Sancho £130m Winger Boga £12.5m due to buyback DMF/CB Declan Rice... this allows AC to be sold so a net cost of around £50m, I see Rice as a WC CB within a few years, our new Terry DMF Soumare £50m AMF Grealish £65m <<<< we NEED CREATIVITY, Mount doesn't cut it, and RLC is yet to be shown to be the player he was before that horrid injury, and RLC is not a number 10 type anyway total spend minus the 3 sales listed £367.5m <<< only £27.5m more but with better and more players cost after a Kante sale, who can surely be sold now as we are bringing in both Soumare and Rice £267.5m or so total minus the already DONE or contracted sales revenue minus Kovacic buy that is £160m as of this minute £107.5m, so within the £150m budget with plenty of wiggle room if some cost more than I listed AND there will be other sales not listed as well bottom line Kante has to be sold no matter or we are never going to get the players all assume we will, starting with Sancho

Exclusive: Loftus-Cheek plays first game in almost nine months https://theathletic.com/1582518/2020/02/04/exclusive-loftus-cheek-returns/ Ruben Loftus-Cheek has moved one step closer to returning to competitive football after playing 60 minutes in a behind-closed-doors friendly at Cobham on Tuesday, his first game in almost nine months. Chelsea’s development squad used a match against Brentford B to measure the progress of Loftus-Cheek, who has been sidelined since rupturing the achilles tendon in his left leg during a post-season friendly against New England Revolution last May. He started the game and was substituted after an hour, displaying no ill effects from his first match back. It has been a particularly arduous rehabilitation process for Loftus-Cheek, marked by several setbacks — in contrast to fellow Chelsea academy graduate Callum Hudson-Odoi, who returned to first-team action a little more than five months after also suffering an achilles rupture during a Premier League match against Burnley in April 2019. Loftus-Cheek’s rupture was more serious than that of Hudson-Odoi, requiring a more complicated surgical procedure to fix and more time for the damaged fibres in the tendon to heal than even he initially realised. He told The Athletic after the 1-0 home defeat to Valencia in the Champions League in September that he expected to be playing again in six weeks. That timeframe proved too optimistic, but sources have told The Athletic that Loftus-Cheek has recently reported feeling as though he has made a breakthrough in his recovery, and that his left leg is now pain-free. He rejoined first-team training towards the end of last month after a brief spell building up his fitness with the club’s under-16s. Loftus-Cheek’s successful outing against Brentford B paves the way for him to continue training at Cobham during the February break, with a view to more appearances for the Chelsea development squad. His progress will continue to be monitored closely, and there is no timeframe as yet for his return to contention for first-team matches. “Where we are having a bit of time off for the players, he won’t, he’ll be working,” Lampard said of Loftus-Cheek last week. “He’ll be with the 23s to try and get some minutes – he’ll have to get some minutes. He’s had a full week of training with us for the first time and he has come through it. “It’s great to see him but he looks short, he knows he’s short. You couldn’t not be after he has been out for so long. So yes, under-23s progression and hopefully after the break we can talk about him more when he is going to come back into the squad.”

it is not just his transfer fee we still owe him £50m in wages after this season

both by the 2 Basque teams, Sociedad and Bilbao insane drinking tonight in Basque country

FT 1 nil Barca and Real both crash out within hours of each other

Iñaki Williams with a super header

wooooooooooooooooot 1 nil Bilbao score at the death AGAIN Barca out surely

Athletic's keeper who replaced Kepa looks better than Kepa Unai Simón

Ajax will not take legal action against UEFA despite costly referee 'mistakes' vs Chelsea Last season's Champions League semi-finalists were dumped out in the group stages by Valencia and Chelsea, but Ajax's chief says they will not be taking legal action https://www.football.london/chelsea-fc/news/ajax-chelsea-champions-league-referee-17702580

damn straight!!!!!

lol, we should just buy Lille pick out the best, liquidate the rest they have some serious and young talent Mike Maignan Goalkeeper Jul 3, 1995 (24) France Gabriel Magalhães Centre-Back Dec 19, 1997 (22) Brazil Domagoj Bradaric Left-Back Dec 10, 1999 (20) Croatia Zeki Celik Right-Back Feb 17, 1997 (22) Turkey Boubakary Soumaré Defensive Midfield Feb 27, 1999 (20) France Jonathan Ikoné Attacking Midfield May 2, 1998 (21) France DR Congo Jonathan Bamba Left Winger Mar 26, 1996 (23) France Cote d'Ivoire Victor Osimhen Centre-Forward Dec 29, 1998 (21) Nigeria Timothy Weah Centre-Forward Feb 22, 2000 (19) United States France

Last Minute Lucy aka Marina usually disasterbuys too

ahh, we are both 1992 babies best year!!! lololol you at beginning, me at the end bookends it is the first year of the Zennial micro generation born 1992 to 1998 neither full millennial nor Gen Z

thank you EPL for pull yer heads out yer arses

they can fuck off

Andersson he is Swedish usually double ss like Larsson, Ericsson, etc etc Andersson means son of Anders Larsson is son of Lars we do not use 's to show possession or 'of' ie. Stockholms Universitet

20 Of Another Kind Full Album Label: Polydor ‎– POLS 1006, Polydor ‎– 2383 524 Series: 20 Of Another Kind – Format: Vinyl, LP, Compilation Country: UK Released: 1979 Genre: Rock Style: New Wave, Punk

2019-20 Spanish Copa del Rey, Quarterfinals Athletic Bilbao v Barcelona HD Streams http://www.sportnews.to/sports/2020/copa-del-rey-athletic-club-vs-barcelona-s2/ https://www.ronaldo7.net/video/barcelona-live/barcelona-live-streaming.html https://www.totalsportek.com/highlights/juventus-vs-lazio-live-stream/

3 4 FT great win crazy game