Vesper

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Leoni has beast-level potential as a CB

The 2025 UEFA Super Cup in Udine: All you need to know Paris will face Europa League winners Tottenham at Stadio Friuli in Udine, Italy, on Wednesday 13 August 2025. https://www.uefa.com/uefasupercup/news/0299-1dd006b069f1-92c705b7362c-1000--the-2025-uefa-super-cup-in-udine-all-you-need-to-know/ Where will the UEFA Super Cup be played? The 2025 UEFA Super Cup will be held at Stadio Friuli in Udine, Italy. Home of Italian Serie A club Udinese, Stadio Friuli was one of six venues for the 2019 UEFA European Under-21 Championship. It hosted four games in all, including Spain's victory over Germany in the final. This venue will be the 13th to stage the UEFA Super Cup since the fixture switched from its long-term home of Monaco, after Prague (2013), Cardiff (2014), Tbilisi (2015), Trondheim (2016), Skopje (2017), Tallinn (2018), Istanbul (2019), Budapest (2020), Belfast (2021), Helsinki (2022), Piraeus (2023) and Warsaw (2024). Real Madrid won the 2024 UEFA Super Cup, beating Atalanta 2-0 courtesy of goals from Federico Valverde and debutant Kylian Mbappé at the National Stadium in Warsaw, Poland.

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I am ok with that, to a fairly significant degree. I am NOT ok with this: 🤬

Fichajes is just on hyper-drive with the wild claims/lies They claim Citeh are offering us €250m (€200m base fee + €50m in add-ons) for Palmer and that PSG are offering us €150m (€125m base fee + €25m in add-ons) for Enzo F

I resigned myself to the fact he is coming and I will back him fully until and if he proves he is not good enough. I hope he DOES become a monster (monster in a good way, lolol)

your new pillow

Enzo Maresca Chelsea decision proven right after controversial transfer plan Chelsea news as Robert Sanchez gets one over Mike Maignan and draws the support of Stamford Bridge, showing how far things have swung https://www.football.london/Chelsea-fc/news/enzo-maresca-Chelsea-decision-proven-32242380 Perhaps nothing sums up the change in mood at Chelsea better than Robert Sanchez. It was only in April that he was actively booed and jeered for the role played in an almost season-ending 2-2 draw at home to Ipswich Town. Sanchez was whistled and hounded by most of Stamford Bridge after passing short when 1-0 down to the almost relegated Tractor Boys in a game Chelsea could hardly afford not to win. The Matthew Harding Stand behind him, in particular, took offence to what they were seeing. When Sanchez went long and Chelsea conceded the ball it drew anger from Enzo Maresca but more from the crowd. Moments later he was picking the ball out of the net and the atmosphere was mutinous. Skip ahead four months (and just 19 games in all competitions, not all of which Sanchez has played) and he was greeted like somewhat of a hero. When running towards the same end that threatened to end his Chelsea career, Sanchez got a loud cheer and a warm round of applause. Maybe it was because Mike Maignan was in the opposite goal and Chelsea supporters wanted to prove a point to the keeper they almost signed at the start of June, or maybe there was genuine appreciation. After all, Sanchez had played as much of a key role as anyone in helping Chelsea to win the Club World Cup. Ironically, it was his direct kicking to the right flank which helped set up two of the goals. Playing over Paris Saint-Germain's press, Sanchez arrowed balls towards Malo Gusto and Cole Palmer, exploiting the space. When it comes to this sort of thing, Sanchez has always been good. For all of the weaknesses he does have in playing short and around his box, the Spaniard is excellent at picking out teammates further forward. He is also a terrific and ambitious cross collector. There are times when his decision-making proves costly, therefore giving the effect that he is bad in his area, but his long reach and impressive physical attributes (i.e., being really tall) are assets. Strip his game back and simplify it and Sanchez can be more than useful at Chelsea still. The fact that he will be No.1 is something that many have had to come to terms with an accept. Sanchez has never been massively popular but is maybe at the apex right now. He was signed during the peak of Brighton hysteria for Chelsea, when everyone and everything even related to seagulls was a target. Add in an embarrassing 'highlights' reel of mistakes and it is understandable why there was some consternation among supporters. His first season did little to settle people down and for large portions of 2024/25 was out of favour as well. Sanchez epitomised all that was wrong with Chelsea, or so it felt. Now he was welcomed back in as a world champion. Just how long this newfound goodwill lasts waits to be seen; football is fickle. There is optimism around Chelsea but that could vanish quickly if the season starts slowly. The direction of travel is upwards but the game is not easy or straightforward. Sanchez knows this as much as anyone so he will have enjoyed the reaction Maignan received here. During a break he was caught in line with a rogue sprinkler turning on, drawing laughter and mocking from the Matthew Harding End. Then, before Liam Delap blasted a penalty past Maignan, the crowd sung "you're just a **** Robert Sanchez." Most still believe that Chelsea need a new goalkeeper to be capable of challenging for titles again. The club are reticent to be too reactive in the market, though, especially without cost-efficient immediate upgrades available. This is why they did not push as strongly as fans wished for Maignan. There is also the case of Mike Penders. He is now on loan at RC Strasbourg, where he will continue to develop in senior football. Chelsea are essentially trying to bridge the gap between their current crop and Penders in the hope that he fulfils the potential of being not only a viable Premier League goalkeeper but a world class one. Sanchez still has a lot of work to do in order to confidently be that guy in the interim and do it with more total backing, but he is benefiting from the positivity as much as anyone.

Man Utd make final decision on Alejandro Garnacho swap transfer with four stars offered Alejandro Garnacho is looking for a way out of Manchester United and has made it clear to the club that he wants to join Chelsea and will not entertain any other transfers https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/garnacho-man-utd-future-Chelsea-35713089 Alejandro Garnacho has told Manchester United he only wants to join Chelsea with the Argentine agreeing to terms over a deal at Stamford Bridge until 2032. The winger has fallen out of favour at Old Trafford and has been tipped to leave all summer. The Blues' interest dates back to January when they considered a move and Garnacho has no intention of taking up any other offer. He sees west London as the best place to reignite his career having previously been seen as a future star on the red side of Manchester. GiveMeSport reports that a reunion with Erik ten Hag at Bayer Leverkusen and a lucrative switch to Saudi Arabia were also options put to him. Napoli even reignited their interest but Garnacho has no plans to join anyone but Chelsea. The 21-year-old is so determined to secure a move to the Blues that he will shun every other avenue and spend a year on the sidelines in Manchester if that's what it takes. Chelsea hope to seal a deal for around £30million, but that is about £20m shy of what United were hoping to recoup for their player. The Blues had put forward several swap proposals, including Nicolas Jackson, but there is no interest. READ MORE: PSG issue Gianluigi Donnarumma statement with Man Utd 'expected to make bid' Christopher Nkunku is another player who Chelsea have offered to the Red Devils. Axel Disasi and Renato Veiga were also put on the table but United have made it clear that they want cash to re-invest into their squad - not players. Last term Garnacho scored 11 times - the best total of his career - but had to deal with a midseason positional switch which saw Ruben Amorim try and utilise him as a wing-back. Come the end of the season and the Argentine found himself on the bench for the Europa League final - reacting angrily on social media. He is one of a number of big names - Jadon Sancho and Antony among them - who have yet to secure moves away from Manchester with time running out. Amorim has admitted that any players who are not sold will be bought back into the fold. The Portuguese boss said: “I understand the clubs are waiting for the last minute but they can have a surprise. I’m ready to receive the players, they have more competition, more competition if you want to play in the World Cup next year, so you need to play."

Chelsea have already asked Man City about signing their ‘extraordinary’ player who Pep Guardiola loves https://www.manchestercity.news/Chelsea-have-already-asked-man-city-about-signing-their-extraordinary-player-who-pep-guardiola-loves/ Manchester City News can exclusively confirm that Chelsea have enquired about signing Rico Lewis as several Premier League clubs have shown they are keen to sign the 20-year-old as well. Chelsea’s addition of Cole Palmer as well as Raheem Sterling has demonstrated how both clubs are willing to do business with each other, with City signing Mateo Kovacic in 2023 as well. Pep Guardiola wants a smaller squad and with James McAtee, Savinho and Jack Grealish all reported to be leaving, the decision-makers at the Etihad Stadium seem to be adhering to the Catalan’s demand. The Sky Blues’ stance on keeping Rico Lewis’ future has now come to the fore. Chelsea asked about signing Rico Lewis Our transfer expert, Graeme Bailey has been notified that Chelsea have asked Manchester City about Lewis’ potential availability, with Tottenham Hotspur, Aston Villa and Newcastle United have all expressed their interest as well. When Chelsea showed their interest in signing Nico O’Reilly, Manchester City News can reveal that they also discovered whether his teammate would be up for sale. With Manchester City News revealing that Ruben Dias’ new contract was a priority at the Etihad Stadium, so is Lewis’ extension for Viana — with both players ready to put pen to paper. Pep Guardiola has already made a bold Rico Lewis prediction at Man City Since breaking into the Sky Blues’ first-team, the youngster has been a revelation. So much so that Guardiola has entrusted the Bury-born wonderkid to play in a variety of roles, including right-back, left-back, central midfield and attacking midfield. In December 2022, Pep Guardiola heaped praise on Lewis by predicting him to be a star at the Etihad Stadium for the next decade. Guardiola said via Manchester City’s official website: “We had the privilege to almost announce that this guy will [have] a big decade, will have an absolutely incredible player for Manchester City because he is so intelligent, so humble.”

Tyler Dibling has the talent but is an instant Premier League return the right move for him? https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6545099/2025/08/11/tyler-dibling-southampton-everton-premier-league/ When the Championship season got underway over the weekend, one of the most talented young players in the country wasn’t involved. England Under-21 international Tyler Dibling was not injured or suspended. Instead, a player once said to have been valued at £100million was left out by new Southampton manager Will Still because he was “not in a headspace” to feature. “There are a few players who are where they’re at in their career and making choices,” Still told ITV Sport when asked about Dibling, while also referencing Samuel Edozie and Joe Aribo, who didn’t play in the 2-1 win against Wrexham on Saturday. Dibling, 19, is the subject of intense interest from Everton who have seen a couple of bids turned down, the latest being worth £40million ($54m) including add-ons. Southampton have made a counter-proposal of £45m plus £5m in add-ons and a 25 per cent sell-on clause, a package that might be too rich for Everton’s blood. Everton are more confident of bringing Jack Grealish to Hill Dickinson Stadium, which is a little ironic given how much Dibling is reminiscent of Grealish at his free, flying best while at Aston Villa. The pulled-down socks lend themselves to the comparison but Dibling is also Grealish-esque in the manner of his gliding, jinking running style. Able to beat a man with the nonchalant drop of a shoulder, there’s a bit of Chris Waddle about them, too. What You Should Read Next Tyler Dibling wears his socks so low Jack Grealish would blush – he’s Premier League ready Southampton head coach Russell Martin knows he has a special talent on his hands in Tyler Dibling - he looks at home in the top flight Ball-carrying is his outstanding attribute but anyone who saw Dibling often single-handedly carry a dreadful Southampton team up the field last season will have spotted how fearless, tenacious, inventive and almost impudent he was when taking the game to the opposition. Dibling made 20 Premier League starts, mostly from the right wing but also as an attacking central midfielder, showcasing the talent that had already been evident for many years on the south coast, including when he scored a hat-trick of near-identical goals for Southampton’s B team against Newcastle in a 4-2 Premier League 2 win three years ago. Dibling is keen to return to the top flight and has also earned admirers at Newcastle United and Aston Villa. Even in the second tier, Dibling’s contract running until 2027 means the ball is in Southampton’s court. They will not be minded to accept anything less than a premium price for one of English football’s most exciting young talents. The situation leaves Dibling at a career crossroads for the second time in his young career. A couple of months after he was named on the bench for a Premier League game as a 16-year-old by former Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl, Chelsea enticed Dibling to London before Southampton could offer professional terms when Dibling turned 17. In July 2022, via a lucrative financial package that Southampton couldn’t match, Dibling moved to Stamford Bridge. However, the shy 16-year-old struggled to adapt to his new big-city surroundings and was said to have felt like “an outsider”. By the end of August, having played just two games, Dibling returned to Southampton on reduced terms, with credit due to both clubs for facilitating the move, given the difficulties a homesick teenager was experiencing. “You have international after international from the first team down to the under-15s at Chelsea, and it is a ruthless environment,” former Southampton B-team coach David Horseman told The Athletic in 2022. “Tyler wasn’t ready for it.” Three years on, he looks set to move on again, but Southampton might ask whether the time is right for Dibling, who first joined their academy at eight years old, to fly the nest. Everton and their manager David Moyes have a history of moulding, trusting and nurturing young talents, so Dibling would likely get more playing time there than he would at other top-flight clubs, such as, well, Chelsea. But would Dibling benefit more from a year in the Championship, consistently playing week in, week out, in what is likely to be a winning team? Dibling may be worth £40m but he is still at the very start of his professional career, with only 2,404 minutes of senior football (in the Premier League and domestic cups) under his belt, the equivalent of just 26 full 90-minute matches. Many young English players honed their games in the second tier, not least Grealish with Villa, but also Morgan Gibbs-White, who flourished on loan at Sheffield United in 2021-22, and Mason Mount, who came to prominence during a fabulous season with Derby County in 2018-19 before winning the Champions League with Chelsea two years later. Dibling also has plenty to improve in his game, particularly his end product. There are still three weeks left in the window and all parties will want a solution sooner rather than later. “Ty’s just not in a headspace and not in a place that allowed him to get on the pitch today,” Southampton boss Still said on Saturday. “I thought that Ty wasn’t quite there and I understand it. He’s still young and there’s a lot going on, so we will see how that goes. “If nothing happens, then he will be a part of what we want to do and be important as well, but time will tell. It’s standard transfer window stuff.” Dibling and those around him have to work out where his potential will be maximised, a crucial decision. “Sometimes it’s better to stay in an environment where you feel at home and where everybody does everything for you,” former Southampton manager Hasenhuttl told reporters after Dibling had returned in 2022. “There’s a reason, in England, you say the grass is not always greener somewhere else.” Will Hasenhuttl’s words be prescient once more or will Dibling show he is ready to leave home?

Chelsea are more fluid, more instinctive. Their new faces are adding a whole new dimension https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6545386/2025/08/11/Chelsea-maresca-milan-leverkusen/ Pre-season, those tantalising few weeks when you’re not supposed to get too carried away. But given Chelsea’s run-up to the 2025-26 campaign — eight wins from nine, including their Club World Cup triumph and two more dominant displays over the weekend in the west London sun — it’s hard for their fans not to be excited. Chelsea have looked slick in possession, a team who seem increasingly familiar with the structured positional game second-year head coach Enzo Maresca has imposed. Defenders are comfortable on the ball, punching passes into a swirling midfield, while fresh faces occupy opposition centre-backs and run the wings. The usual caveats apply at this time, but as the old guard develop their understanding and new signings inject exciting variety, there are signs Chelsea have what it takes to start the season very strongly. GO DEEPER The Athletic's Premier League predictions for 2025-26: Title winner, best signing and much more Across both friendlies at Stamford Bridge this weekend – a 2-0 win against Bayer Leverkusen and a 4-1 thrashing of Milan – Chelsea’s build-up shape was relatively familiar. With Marc Cucurella pushing into midfield, the other defenders look to be progressive and break lines with their passing. Moises Caicedo is often the player most likely to receive the first pass, while Cole Palmer is given freedom to drift further ahead, where he can drop into pockets of space, receive the ball on the half-turn, and dance into dangerous areas where the front three await. What has felt fresh, however, is the variety of avenues Chelsea have used to slice through the opposition press, pulling defenders out of position with patient, probing play before advancing with precision through the centre of the pitch. In this first example, against Leverkusen on Friday, Josh Acheampong plays through straight to Palmer, who shows his technical ability to feign a touch before allowing the ball to roll across his body, quickly moving possession out to winger Estevao. Ten minutes later, Palmer pulls wide during the build-up, allowing Cucurella to push on and make a dangerous underlapping run just out of frame… … while in a later move, Trevoh Chalobah trusts Caicedo to handle a fizzed pass under pressure as Chelsea move the ball through the lines with a series of one-touch passes. Out by the touchline, Tyrique George finds the run of Cucurella with a clip into the box. That diamond-like structure in front of the three centre-backs, with Andrey Santos replaced by Enzo Fernandez in the starting XI against Milan on Sunday, brims with energy and invention. Cucurella’s aggressive movement without the ball dovetails nicely with Palmer’s ability in the pockets, while Caicedo and Fernandez bring press resistance and defensive bite, should possession be lost. The general shape is nothing new, but Chelsea’s build-up feels more fluid and instinctive, helping them move the ball forward with speed and precision, and find a new-look front three with more space to attack. In comparison to the midfielders, Chelsea’s front three have relatively few responsibilities during build-up; the wingers stay wide and stretch the pitch, while the centre-forward will ideally occupy the central channel, occasionally dropping in and linking up to allow a run behind the defensive line from a team-mate. The names are different now, but familiar positioning within the system helps Chelsea’s progressive players find newcomers Estevao and Jamie Gittens with repetitive ease, giving them plenty of opportunity to display their dribbling ability out wide. Here is another example of Chelsea’s build-up, this time when pressed closer to their own goal by Leverkusen. Notice how Cucurella’s movement drags Robert Andrich forward, creating space for Palmer to receive another excellent line-breaking pass from Acheampong. The Englishman turns, and without even having to lift his head, sweeps the ball out to Estevao, who drives at his full-back and forces a good save from Mark Flekken. It was Gittens’ turn to impress against Milan, another beneficiary of Chelsea’s increasingly intuitive ability to find their wingers in space. After just four minutes, Tosin Adarabioyo pops a ball to Caicedo, who moves it out to the right and draws the opposition press. It’s a trigger for Chelsea to quickly switch flanks, going direct to the winger, who instantly squares up to Yunus Musah and wins a foul after a tricky step-over takes him to the byline. From the resulting free kick, floated in by Reece James, Chelsea take the lead. On the opposite side, Pedro Neto rarely needed a second invitation to drive forward and hit the byline or cut in onto his left foot. He teed up Joao Pedro’s first-half header after carrying the ball down the line and chopping inside, showing the value that Chelsea’s front-footed wingers can provide when the conditions are right for them to attack. Joao Pedro and fellow new striker Liam Delap both scored twice over the two games but, through the middle, their role in build-up across both contests was limited. Joao Pedro took 12 touches in the first half against Milan, where he was mainly concerned with occupying defenders, making darting runs and being alert for when the ball came his way. Still, the former Watford and Brighton forward’s multi-faceted profile brings a lot to Chelsea, being equally comfortable playing with his back to goal as he is sprinting in behind. He was the player fouled by Andrei Coubis, who received a straight red card for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity, a sequence kick-started by the Brazilian’s spin and run to meet a long pass by goalkeeper Robert Sanchez. Remarkably, Joao Pedro has now found the back of the net with five of his seven shots in a Chelsea shirt, having signed during the Club World Cup. It is an unsustainable run of form, but his touch around the penalty area makes him the likely starter at home to Crystal Palace in next weekend’s Premier League opener, with fellow striker Nicolas Jackson’s future at the club no closer to being resolved. In an ideal world, Chelsea would retain Jackson’s distinct profile across the front line. He is a potent centre-forward on the transition who can tear through teams with powerful, head-down dribbling and lead breakaways on his own. According to Footovision data, Jackson had the most counter-attacking involvements via ball carries in the Premier League last season. Still, with Delap — another who can ruffle feathers on the break — providing competition from the bench, Chelsea can switch up their No 9s depending on the task at hand. Delap was desperate to make an impression off the bench against Milan following his arrival from relegated Ipswich, instantly chasing down and charging into centre-back Fikayo Tomori as he led the press from the front, before stepping up and confidently thumping home his first Chelsea penalty. His second goal of the match captured the advantages of Maresca’s pitch-stretching build-up shape, as a threaded pass through the lines, a neat lay-off and a snapshot finish wrapped up another win in style. It is, of course, extremely early, and there will be tougher tests to come. In attempting to press high but failing to bring the intensity required, Leverkusen and Milan played into Chelsea’s hands. Games against fitter, more physical Premier League sides and stingier, lower blocks will bring new challenges for Maresca’s summer recruits, who may not receive the ball in so much space. Even so, the signs are encouraging, and it’s not just the new names who are raising the levels. Positional football takes time to implement — in that regard, Chelsea look to have had a very productive summer.

Quadruple player sale won’t fix Chelsea’s new FFP problem as Clearlake stare down UEFA punishment “Madueke will have made up a big chunk of that, but you also have to remember that the profit on player sales is calcualted on the player’s amortised book value, not the headline figures. So the profit on his sale to Arsenal will have been around £30m. Similarly, they will only have broken even on the Dewsbury-Hall sale, not made any meaningful profit. “If Chukwemeka goes for £22m, as we understand is imminent, that will be an FFP profit of around £12m. For Ugochukwu, it will be about £6m. If they get £20m for Broja, that will be pure profit. But then again, none of those players were in Chelsea’s UEFA squad last year, so they will help the club with the allowable loss limit element of the UEFA’s rules, but not the provision that means they have to have a positive transfer balance. Chelsea will get there, and it has always been the plan to use players as trading chips anyway, but it means they still have work to do.“

Sheffield Wednesday in crisis: Protests, anger and uncertainty about what comes next https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6545418/2025/08/11/sheffield-wednesday-crisis-fans-leicester/ It is 4.30pm and as a new season begins inside the King Power Stadium, more than 2,000 Sheffield Wednesday fans can be found making a stand on the other side of locked turnstiles. “I don’t care about Dejphon (Chansiri),” they sing. “He don’t care about me. All I care about is Sheffield Wednesday.” A sold-out end is almost empty at kick-off and remains so until the opening five minutes have been played. Some do not make it inside to see Nathaniel Chalobah give the visitors an unexpected lead against Leicester City in the 26th minute, such is the backlog to gain entry. Not that it mattered. At the end of a chaotic summer, a draining close season of late wages, upheaval and anxiety, a protest against club owner Chansiri illustrated the growing desperation for change. “The whole protest movement, it’s something that goes against what you’re about as a fan,” says Otto Brookes, a Wednesday supporter handing out leaflets calling for Chansiri to sell up. “You want to support your team and the players to feel supported, especially in these circumstances. But there comes a point where you have to say if you keep funding the person in charge of the club, there’s not going to be anything left.” And that was the nagging concern on a day when Wednesday fans chose to draw a line in the sand. There had been low-scale protests against Chansiri last season but supporters have spent the summer mobilising against the Thai businessman. What You Should Read Next How Sheffield Wednesday descended into chaos under Dejphon Chansiri’s ownership Unpaid wages, a highly regarded manager on way out and very real fears for the future. A once proud club is on the brink The Sheffield Wednesday Supporters’ Trust has urged fans to boycott official merchandise and stay out of their seats for the opening of the new Championship season at Leicester City. The vast majority obliged and, with concourses at full capacity, turnstiles were closed down by stewards 50 minutes before kick-off. That left the bulk of a 3,500 away support making their feelings abundantly clear. “Dejphon Chansiri, get out of our club,” was sung on repeat and a loud cheer greeted the arrival of a plane trailing a banner that read, “Dejphon Chansiri out” in the clear blue skies above the King Power. One banner depicted Chansiri as Derek ‘Del Boy’ Trotter from the sitcom Only Fools and Horses. “This time next year, we’ll be bankrupt,” it said. Another had United States President Donald Trump wearing a “Make Wednesday Great Again” baseball cap. The mood was defiant as fans queued to gain entry long into the first half but it did not mask another unedifying chapter of Chansiri’s reign. “It’s hard to enjoy anything,” says Neil Atkinson, a lifelong supporter among those to see Wednesday’s season begin from outside Leicester’s home. Neil Atkinson was among the fans protesting on Sunday (Phil Buckingham/The Athletic) “How can you when your club is falling apart? The club means a lot to people. Most of the things I do in life are based around football. There are old people here and it’s all they know. Football is what gets them through, regardless of results. We’ve all known hard times before but this is ridiculous. This is way past hard times.” And his feelings towards Chansiri, the man who has owned Wednesday since 2015? “They get worse every day,” he says. “The guy came in and spent a lot of money but he’s never learned from his mistakes. Do the right thing and go.” “It’s been a summer of chaos, hasn’t it?” says Brookes, summing up Wednesday’s preparations for the new campaign. “It’s gone so far past worrying about what players we’re signing or what the starting XI is going to be, because it’s now about the survival of the club.” Few teams have known a pre-season anything like the one that drew to its close at the weekend. Catastrophic would be too kind. Hillsborough has been where hope has withered ever since a stripped-back squad reported back at the end of June. Renovated pitches at the club’s training ground at Middlewood Road were initially not ready and the players who remained, with the bulk in salary arrears, were forced to train on artificial surfaces until beginning a week-long training camp at England’s St George’s Park base. Adding to the farce was the absence of a senior coaching team. Danny Rohl, head coach for the previous 18 months, had already signalled his intention to leave and only briefly returned in order to agree his eventual exit on July 29. A decision to name his one-time assistant, Henrik Pedersen, as his successor was announced two days later but by then, more key personnel had moved on. Attacking figureheads Josh Windass and Michael Smith were allowed to leave as free agents in a summer exodus that has also seen Pol Valentin, Callum Paterson and Akin Famewo depart. The July sale of Djeidi Gassama, who joined Rangers for £2.2million ($3m), was a rare case of transfer money being recouped in Chansiri’s reign. Captain Barry Bannan’s decision to commit his future to the club he joined in 2015 offered a glimmer of hope to supporters but that confirmation arrived on a day players had chosen to boycott a proposed friendly at Burnley. Wednesday, who did not play a single pre-season friendly in public and visibly tired in the closing stages of their season opener, had been scheduled to visit the Premier League side’s training ground eight days before the Leicester match but the collective decision was made not to fulfil the fixture. That prompted a statement from the players, who have seen salaries arrive late in four of the past five months. Full settlements only came on Friday, 48 hours before the Leicester game. “We stand together in support with all our colleagues employed by the club who have been affected,” read the statement. “Players and staff are now feeling real, practical impacts in their professional and personal lives and we are extremely concerned at the lack of clarity regarding what is happening and when this will be resolved.” That invited a temporary question mark over the Leicester game going ahead but dialogue between the club, Professional Footballers’ Association and EFL last week soon allayed those fears. Players stressed there would be “no downing of tools”, despite just 15 senior professionals remaining. The EFL has kept a close eye on Wednesday this summer but has limited powers. It stresses that Chansiri has not met the threshold for disqualification under its owners and directors test, though pressure was placed upon the club to settle debts before the season got underway. Sheffield Wednesday fans make their feelings known (Phil Buckingham/The Athletic) Both the Premier League’s solidarity payment (£2.7m) and the monthly EFL basic payment (£460,000) were handed to Championship clubs last week, enabling Wednesday to pay all outstanding salaries to players and staff, as well as a small number of transfer payments to other clubs. That lifted the EFL embargo that Wednesday have spent the summer working under but restrictions remain. No fees, for either loans or permanent transfers, can be paid by Wednesday until the summer of 2027 after surpassing 30 days of late payments since July 1. The EFL has made it clear that the crisis must be curtailed. It outlined a wish to see a “strong, stable and competitive Sheffield Wednesday” in a statement issued 48 hours before the Championship season began, either through Chansiri addressing funding problems or “make good on his commitment to sell to a well-funded party, for fair market value”. Those final words were telling. A statement from Chansiri on June 26, his only communication to fans all summer, revealed that a £40m basic offer for his shareholding from a U.S.-based consortium had been rejected since the end of last season. The EFL has since been given no indication that Chansiri is close to selling but there is growing anger towards the governing body over the possibility it might yet make Wednesday’s challenge all the harder. A points deduction is among the punishments available for the late payment of wages, a step that could bring another deficit to overcome. “F*** the EFL,” was the blunt chant from the away fans in the closing stages, once Bannan had been dismissed for a second yellow card. Barry Bannan leaves the field following his red card (Malcolm Couzens/Getty Images) Even in a 2-1 loss, the trip to Leicester amounted to an afternoon of escapism for Wednesday’s supporters. There was sympathetic ovation from Leicester fans once the protest ended after five minutes and stoic defending was eventually undone by second-half goals from Leicester defenders Jannik Vestergaard and Wout Faes. It was enough to feel pride in their club, but it only provided a pause to the worry. Saturday brings a first game of the season to Hillsborough when Stoke City visit but it remains unclear how many supporters will get to see it after Sheffield City Council closed the North Stand, which bears Chansiri’s name in the seating pattern, last month. Concerns around the stand’s structural integrity must be addressed in the coming days or there will be a need to rehouse thousands of season ticket holders. The North Stand accounts for roughly 9,000 of Hillsborough’s 39,000 seats and Atkinson is among those who cannot say if he will be able to attend Stoke’s visit. “I have a season ticket in that stand and I’ve had no email or confirmation about where I’ll be sitting next week,” he says. “It’s six days from now and we still don’t know. It’s the lack of communication and transparency that’s really poor. If you’re in hard times, at least communicate with people.” Pedersen is at least trying that. The Dane is a likeable, calming figure leading Wednesday through their prolonged crisis. Sunday’s bench included seven players aged 21 or under but it was not until the 87th minute that a threadbare Wednesday team went under against an opponent relegated from the Premier League last season. Pedersen admitted afterwards that “five or six” Wednesday players had travelled separately from the main squad on the eve of the game, staying in a nearby hotel to aid preparations. He did not know if those players had been left to foot the bill themselves. The majority had made the one-hour coach journey to Leicester on the morning of the game to save costs. “I am sitting here with a very proud feeling,” Pedersen told reporters in his post-match press conference. “It has been some tough, tough weeks.” And every indication is that there will be many more to come for Wednesday until Chansiri finally grants the wishes of a beleaguered fanbase.

The House of Glass and Iron Buoyed by historic victory, Crystal Palace must move forward without the architect of their success: Dougie Freedman. Billy Carpenter investigates how the renowned talent-spotter transformed South London's pride https://scoutedftbl.com/the-house-of-glass-and-iron/ The original Crystal Palace, quite literally “the biggest thing in London,” was built with over 293,000 panes of glass and 4,000 tons of iron. The sprawling complex stood as a crown jewel of Victorian engineering. First constructed for the Great Exhibition of 1851, it was later relocated to Sydenham Hill, where it stretched over a thousand feet across the ridge. Walt Whitman waxed poetic in the Song of the Exposition: But the elements that made it a marvel also made it vulnerable. On a windy November night in 1936, a small explosion in a cloakroom ignited, and over 100,000 people came to watch the Palace burn into nothing. Among the sad onlookers was Sir Henry Buckland, the property manager, who was holding hands with his little daughter. He’d named her Crystal. The most beautiful things are often the most fragile. Triumph and fragility sit at the heart of the club which has the burned ruin's name. From an outsider’s perspective, Crystal Palace F.C. have successfully become the Premier League’s most watchable overachievers, now entering a thirteenth straight season in the top flight and never finishing above 10th or below 15th. But real stability, or the lasting feeling of it at least, can prove evasive. In mid-May, they enjoyed the greatest day in club history, an uproarious FA Cup final win over Manchester City. For the club that has flown a tifo that reads, “YOU GOT THE MONEY, WE GOT THE SOUL,” victory felt especially sweet. Eberechi Eze seals history against Manchester City. That trophy lift propelled them back to Wembley again, and yesterday they prevailed over the heavy-spending Liverpool. The difference in the club's respective Transfermarkt pages could hardly be more stark. Liverpool have spent nearly €300m on the likes of Wirtz, Ekitiké, Kerkez, and Frimpong. They’re not done, either: Isak links still float, as well as the potential signing of Palace’s own Marc Guéhi. Palace’s total spend so far this summer? €2.30m. They prevailed nonetheless. But beneath the laurel wreaths, things still feel precarious. A hunt-and-peck UEFA have banned Palace from the Europa League, citing John Textor’s stake in the club as a breach of multi-club ownership rules. Their spot is to be taken by Nottingham Forest, who would never, ever, ever, ever be involved in multi-club shenanigans, not ever. Textor has since sold his shares, but the club's appeal was today rejected. It’s not the only complication Palace face. Wealthier clubs encircle their top talent with lavish offers, key transfers are again left late, and their prized manager, Oliver Glasner, has expressed frustrations with the club’s “passive” window, saying he was “promised that we would be more active and bring in the new players earlier this year.” Woven through it all is the loss of one of their most valuable assets: today’s subject, club legend and renowned recruitment architect, Dougie Freedman. Freedman has left one palace for the kind of money that could buy him his own. After links to Manchester United and Newcastle, he accepted a surprising role at Al-Diriyah, a club recently promoted to the Saudi second-tier and owned by Diriyah Company, a firm backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF). Freedman’s reign with The Eagles carried many hallmarks of his treasured club: shoestring thriftiness, underdog mentality, flair, a true believer’s dedication to the unique culture surrounding Selhurst Park, and frequent brushes with the dramatic. Palace began the final day of the 2000-01 season in 21st place, and essentially needed a win to avoid relegation from Division One. Leaving it to the 86th minute, Freedman delivered perhaps the most important goal in club history until that point. Dougie Freedman: "Heartache, heartbreak, heart-make!" Jonathan Pearce bellowed on Capital Gold Radio. A decade later, the threat wasn’t exclusion from this league or that cup. It was extinction. In 2010, Palace entered administration, were docked ten points (again raising the spectre of relegation from the Championship), and faced a 24-hour deadline before liquidation. In a last-ditch move, lifelong fan and advertising executive Steve Parish posted a 500-word message on a fan forum, outlining his plan to buy the club. The response was immediate. “Within about five minutes of it reaching the fans' forum, it was on Sky Sports News, on the ticker at the top,” he recounted. “I thought: 'Wow. That's the power of football and the media.’” 3,000 supporters gathered outside Lloyds Bank on Gresham Street the next morning, as was documented in Where Eagles Dare, the wonderful docuseries on the club’s turnaround. Through tense, complicated talks, Parish’s consortium, CPFC 2010, secured the future of the club and stadium. The outfit had other divine inheritances. The first was what Parish called “our number one piece of fortune”: local boy and future club legend Wilfried Zaha. Born in the Ivory Coast and raised in Croydon, Zaha joined Palace’s academy at age 8 and had just begun breaking into the first team at 17. His debut came in March 2010, at the tail end of the club’s administration-hit season. Within months, he’d become their brightest hope and, later, their most valuable asset. Another inheritance? Freedman. The Scot, now the sixth-highest scoring player in club history, had already taken up a reserve-team coaching role while still suiting up. By March 2010, fully retired as a player, he was named assistant manager under Paul Hart during a desperate push to avoid relegation from the Championship. The brief was brutally simple: stay up. It came down to the final day of the season, and Palace clawed their way to a 2–2 draw that kept them up by a single point and sent Wednesday down. Survival, again. And for Freedman, it was the start of a long and winding journey at the heart of Palace’s technical and strategic build. Freedman was kept on as assistant manager under George Burley the following season, but after an unremarkable year, it was clear a longer-term reset was needed. Parish made his big swing, targeting Eddie Howe for a fresh start. It looked like he’d found his manager. He got a reality check instead. “I agreed everything with Eddie,” Parish recalled. “Then I woke up the next morning and he’d gone to Burnley. Obviously another little lesson about football.” There was a silver lining. “That really galvanised Dougie, who hadn’t really made representations up to that point. I remember, he demanded, ‘I need to see you. I know South London. I know these kids. I know how this place ticks. What we’re gonna try and do is difficult to impossible, but I think we can. And I think I can.’” A flair player in his day, Freedman brought a mix of expressive instinct and technocratic pragmatism to his new role. Alongside Parish, he began shaping a club ethos around developing young players, bargain-hunting, and prioritising cultural fit. His first campaign as manager in 2011/12 was stable but forgettable. His second was anything but. The 2012/13 side just clicked. Freedman found a core: Zaha’s young brilliance meshed with other club icons like Julian Speroni, Mile Jedinak, and Joel Ward, not to mention the throwback nine’ing of Glenn Murray, the unpredictability of Yannick Bolasie, and the pure solidity of so many others. For once, it was about more than survival. Then came the inevitable twist. Midway through the season, with the team flying, Freedman took the Bolton job. To say it stunned the fanbase would be an understatement. Looking back, he doesn’t hide his regret. “My circle of influence was wrong at the time. I was too impatient and I didn’t know what I had,” he said in an interview for the documentary. “I knew I made the wrong decision very quickly into my Bolton career. But it was a decision I made. And regrettably, it was the wrong decision.” Under Ian Holloway, there were early successes, but eventually, a cold period took root as Holloway tried to impose a more expansive brand of football. Pivoting back to more Freedman-esque tactics, the team rebounded and made the play-off. Zaha, the other great Parish inheritance, had already signed for Manchester United, and was desperate to provide a parting gift. In the playoff semifinal against Brighton, he scored twice in the second half to carry Palace to Wembley. Wilfried Zaha scores to send Palace to Wembley. In the final, Zaha won the penalty that sent them to the Premier League. He wouldn’t be gone from the club long, and in truth, his influence still saturates everything. It would be a longer period, five long years, before Freedman and Palace crossed paths again. Bygones firmly bygones, he returned as Sporting Director in August 2017. “Looking back, of course I wouldn’t have went,” he said. “I would have stayed here, and we would have had promotion [together]. And it’s probably one of the things that drives me on now: to make up for that disappointing decision I made.” In this fourth act, Freedman would rebuild his reputation, not just as a club figure, but as one of the most discerning talent evaluators in the game. And he did it in some unique, frugal ways that made him the envy of many clubs across Europe. So what did define Palace’s recruitment model under Freedman? What made it different? And where does it go from here? The Freedman playbook It’s tempting to reduce Freedman to “the guy who buys well from the Championship.” And sure, that has a lot of truth to it. But the reality is more interesting. Above all else, every successful football operation starts with a sense of coherent identity and vision. To use a business school-type quote (kill me) that is often attributed to Michael Eisner, but I can’t find good sourcing on: We tend to think of an entity’s “brand” as a logo or a marketing campaign. But it isn’t what you say it is; it’s what others say it is. And from a recruitment point of view, it’s reflected in the leagues you scout, how you negotiate, how you treat your players, your relationships writ large, your pathways, your play-style, and a million quiet decisions that add up to form a prevailing impression in the market. That identity starts with the reputation of ownership, and gets reinforced by the day-in, day-out choices of the sporting operation. “Everything at Palace’s training ground goes back to [Freedman],” one source told The Athletic in a wonderful piece by Matt Woosnam. “From the security to the canteen staff, sports science, everyone, he has full control of everyone in the building. It all goes through him. It’s almost like Alex Ferguson — I think that is probably his mentor.” Freedman built a modern football department in his own image: streamlined, data-literate, and obsessively hands-on. That does seem to imply that this is a sizable void to fill. That report details how, since his return in 2017, one of the most important structural changes has been the unification of recruitment and analytics. The staff has doubled by last count; academic backgrounds are preferred; emotion is deliberately stripped out of the early evaluation stages. All of this culminates in a recruitment year like this, one of the more impressive in recent memory: What principles underpin this kind of success? And what can we learn from it? Looking through the transfer record, not to mention every article and interview I could find, I tried to group patterns and reverse-engineer the strategy from there. Here are seven pillars of Freedman-style recruitment. 1. Take quality shots (and avoid stupidity) It’s an analogy. Bear with me. As you probably know, one of the most reliable indicators of a result is the difference in the shot quality of the respective teams. See this, from Soccerment: Per that research: You’ll see the impact of this in leagues worldwide. Almost everywhere, teams are passing up higher-quantity, more spurious chances for better-worked shots. It’s worth repeating: half of team performance can be explained by that statistic. Quality, not quantity. When we covered Palace’s hated rivals Brighton back in 2023, we talked about their frequent, yet considered bets in the market, a Goldilocks model of squad size that was neither too big nor too small, but just right. I thought they worked these levers perfectly, and contrasted nicely to some of the bloat that existed with clubs like Forest back then. Especially with loan rules changing, I’ve since argued that Brighton have now shifted too closely to a “spray and pray” model, in which they’re still signing great talents, but are having more trouble ensuring stable pathways and minutes for each of them. To me, this threatens their central selling proposition: “Come here, you will play the right amount of minutes to grow, it will be in a modern style of football, and you will get the jump you crave.” There’s context for all, but players from Gruda to Wieffer to Kadıoğlu to Ferguson didn’t necessarily get that experience last year. Any player offered this summer has to have a glimmer of doubt. I wouldn’t doubt their ability to readjust, but inefficiency has crept in. In that piece, we quoted some of the famed investor Charlie Munger’s “elementary, worldly wisdom,” including this nugget: This is where we get closer to the Palace model: And so: Avoid dumb stuff. Remember that shot quality, more than quantity, wins. Freedman has instilled these virtues at Crystal Palace. In the period since Freedman had his first full summer in charge (2018/19), up until his last window, Crystal Palace have made the fewest total moves of all teams who have appeared in the Premier League, equal with Liverpool (133). Palace have the 23rd-most arrivals of all teams in this list, and the fewest total departures. This is not a model built on churn. The spending reflects it. Since Freedman returned as Sporting Director, Palace have spent €333.77 million, good for 19th in the league. That’s less than half of what Brighton have shelled out. It’s behind Leeds, Fulham, Forest, Southampton. And unlike those clubs, Palace have stayed up every season. Their total outgoing sales over that period add up to €181.88 million, good for 23rd in the division, and behind the likes of Norwich and Watford. When they do spend, they pick their moments. The most expensive signing in club history technically remains Christian Benteke at €31.2 million, before Freedman was involved. The right model for one club is not the right model for every club. Brighton have found success by spreading their bets, working quickly across a diverse network, knowing they’ll actively sell, and acknowledging the impossibility of achieving “certainty” with something as complex as young football players. But for Palace, this patience, frugality, and simple lack of ‘panic buys’ then turns into a series of their own compounding advantages. 2. Screen for Crystal Palace DNA Freedman wasn’t only concerned with “Is he good?” He was just as concerned with “Is he one of ours?” Freedman knows what “one of ours” looks like because he’s done almost everything at Palace. As one source said: The sentiment was echoed by Patrick Vieira: That knowledge is baked into the process, and the culture is weaponised in negotiations. The Athletic reported that when recruiting wingers, staff may show clips of Wayne Routledge and Yannick Bolasie, and show how the faithful rewarded their expressiveness and flair. Above all else, Freedman seems to have a humility filter. “Dougie is not only big on talent, but on mentality and attitude,” said one agent. “He extensively checks out the people he’s going to sign beforehand. He tends to avoid players he might think are a big-time Charlie.” You can see the pattern. Eberechi Eze was released by both Arsenal and Millwall. Michael Olise had several failed auditions; it didn’t ultimately work out with Arsenal, Manchester City, or Chelsea. Both are internally motivated players. Marc Guéhi captained England’s under-21s. Joachim Andersen and Cheick Doucouré had mature qualities coming in. Palace supporter Mark Silverstein summed it up in 2021. “Clearly there are exceptions but many of Dougie’s recruits have had a character that is both steely but also human and relatable as people at the same time … When I think of our more recent recruitment: Eze, Guehi, Gallagher, Andersen and even going back to Kouyate and Guaita, each have that same mixture of decency and determination.” The lesson, as I see it, is to be as specific as possible about what makes your club’s culture different from others. When describing the players you want, it’s easy to turn it into a list of universal traits: all the good characteristics, none of the bad ones. Genius! But that’s not decisive enough. You have to identify your priorities, be honest about what you’re willing to sacrifice in pursuit of them, and clearly articulate why those choices fit your operation in particular. This creates self-perpetuating benefits because players can more readily understand why they should choose your club, without even talking to you. For Palace, that appears to be players who are a) humble, b) physical, and c) expressive on the pitch. A slight chip on the shoulder doesn’t hurt. 3. Run a consistent methodology In Mind Games, we explored the psychological traps that lead to poor talent evaluation, ranging from projection to bias to noise. To find solutions, one of the fields we borrowed from was behavioural economics. Max Bazerman, a long-time researcher in the space, developed a six-step framework for better decisions; though originally for business, it maps neatly onto scouting. Define the Problem: Identify the problem to be solved by a specific player search, and how the search will align with the longer-term vision. Identify the Criteria: Establish simple, yet precisely-worded criteria for assessment, which may encompass simple data, proprietary methods, and/or “intuitive” measures. Weigh the Criteria: From there, the relative importance to each criterion can be weighed based on its agreed-upon relevance. Generate Alternatives: Undertake the widest search possible for analysis – through means both technological (software) and human (reading, networking, travel) – and develop a system for “flagging” or “shortlisting” players for the deepest analysis. Rate Each Alternative on Each Criterion: Based on clear definitions, assign ratings to each criterion, and agree on how respective data and scouting metrics should be tallied. Compute the Overall Score: Aggregate the rankings. This is where data is so useful, and especially efficient at earlier stages when conducting wide searches. The simple reason is that there are so many fucking players, more than you can imagine, and you could be looking past them for any number of questionable reasons. “Data analysis is 1,000 percent more efficient than traditional scouting, where you’ve got to drive somewhere or catch a plane, to see someone play for 90 minutes… and then they might not even play, or they’ll play in a different position or formation to what you’re looking for,” said former Burnley technical director Mike Rigg, who is now the academy manager at Birmingham. “And then you might see their best ever game, or their worst.” To counteract this, Freedman empowered the nerds. From that Athletic article: In Mind Games, we covered how having a deliberate set of questions, a gut-check list if you will, is important for eliminating the silly biases that cloud our judgements. Freedman and Palace have taken that a step further: they methodically go through 29 data-led questions for every possible signing, leading to their shortlist. From there… 4. Eyeballs make the call Freedman trusts his own eyes. The Times notes that he “watches about 150 matches a year around the world” and, predictably, made personal scouting trips to Blackburn Rovers specifically to evaluate Adam Wharton before pushing to sign him for £18 million in January 2024; before signing Marc Guéhi, he watched him 15 to 20 times. Data has its place, but the eye test isn’t outsourced, or considered outdated. It takes the decision across the finish line. In-person viewing adds layers that numbers can’t. You can better see body language under pressure, how a player anticipates space, how their intensity changes late in games. You also catch social cues, interactions with teammates and staff, even how they carry themselves around the club. This groundwork was laid with Wharton. Now one of the most sought-after midfielders in the world and an English international, Freedman spotted him early. “Funnily enough, it was after my first Championship start which would have been late August, early September of 2022,” Wharton remembers. “Dougie [Freedman] was actually at that game, my manager told me. There was interest but I was never going to move at that time or anything.” This focus on in-person scouting carries that added bonus: it shows a player how much you care. “[It’s] like an incentive for me that I was a player that they were invested in, in a way,” he continued. “They were spending all that time interested. It wasn’t just a little impulse. So that was a factor that I took in to sort of help me make my decision.” Welcome to the Wharton age Introducing Adam Wharton: the low-socked Blackburn prodigy on growing up, his developing England career, and how Busquets and Frenkie shape his game. This process takes time, but it raises the certainty of the final call. By watching more and being around the player more, you fill in the gaps. You reduce the risk of personal or behavioural issues that can derail a signing. The tradeoff is that it’s manual and slow. Sometimes a deal falls apart while you're waiting for one more look. Palace have been willing to live with that. 5. Narrow markets = compounding benefits As we’ve covered, data can get a player in the door, but the eye test gets them a contract offer. The problem with the eye test is that it’s not as scalable as analytics. So if you value it, but you have finite time, staff, and budget, you must narrow the aperture. Romain Esse is a recent example. I got really intrigued with him at Millwall; his skill and work-rate impressed me. As I sang his praises, I wrote “TL;DR: I will be a little jealous on the inevitable Palace swoop.” You’ll never believe what happened next. (You will: he signed with Palace.) That’s what we call a strong brand. It’s easy to see how a deal came together. Young talent from that level knows what Palace are cooking: they had a track record of integration, clear role models, and a structure that didn’t chew you up. This also factored with Wharton. He has some of the deft touches, spray passes, and feel for the game that the top clubs in the world crave; the only question now is whether they can afford him. Here’s the thing, though: these qualities were always apparent, and he was always sought after. But aside from the time Freedman put in, he also went to Palace because Eze, Olise, and Guehi had already shown him the way: a clear path to stable minutes from the Championship. The fee of £18 million (potentially rising to £22 million) hardly feels sufficient now. The long game also paid off with Olise. Celebrating the attacker as the first signing in his managerial reign, Patrick Vieira talked about this recurring theme. “We’ve known him quite well because he’s a player the football club have been following for a long time,” said Vieira. “There were some big challenges, and to sign him, I think, is credit to Dougie [Freedman] and his staff.” Becoming an expert in certain markets has, I’ll say it again, compounding benefits. Freedman and his team got to know the Championship inside out, dating back to his time as a player. That meant not just identifying standout talents, but better understanding their roles, maturity, personality, and system fit. It meant knowing which clubs coached and scaled well, the tactical permutations and heritage of them, the little bits of context that only experts can know. You can also “double up” your scouting trips, more easily checking out multiple players at once. Palace could avoid obvious traps, and often lay groundwork before the rest of the market caught up. There is particular expertise in players who find themselves in that English Pyramid Limbo and are looking for stability. Freedman routinely looked for young players who had been stuck in deeper squads, like Guéhi, Conor Gallagher, Trevoh Chalobah, and recently Ben Chilwell from Chelsea. Lurking around Cobham is always a winning strategy. But it also applies to the likes of Will Hughes from Watford and Sam Johnstone from West Brom. The clarity of the performance data and the local expertise make them more knowable qualities than you can find elsewhere. France has rounded this picture out. Cheick Doucouré and Joachim Andersen (who came from Lyon, via Fulham) fit the model: well-schooled, physically ready, tactically teachable. Patrick Vieira himself qualifies, of course. Maxence Lacroix, the 25-year-old defensive fulcrum from France, came with a glowing character reference. The objective isn’t to find the most talented player, period. It’s to find the best player for your unique, well-defined environment. Whenever you have an information asymmetry on your opponents (through data, scouting, or in-depth knowledge of a region), you reap the rewards. If you can’t go wider, go deeper. 6. Be intense about intensity The Premier League’s intensity levels continue to spike year-on-year. This SkillCorner graph we shared last year shows how the demands stack up to the others. This has contributed to a more end-to-end style of play, with the smallest time spent in the middle third of any of the top-five leagues. Players are now performing more high-intensity actions and hitting higher peak sprint speeds than ever before. The baseline for physical output is getting astronomically taxing. That helps explain the types of players clubs are targeting, and Palace have been no different. According to Opta, Palace had the fourth-lowest possession (42.8%), the fourth-highest direct speed, and the second-quickest sequences in the league. Palace also ranked 3rd in the league last season for percentage of distance covered at high intensity, according to Hudl. The last window helped this considerably. One standout is Daniel Muñoz. The Colombian right-back joined from Genk in Belgium, seemingly an unlikely source for Palace recruitment. But he had that pluckiness and undervalued-ness that Freedman craves, as a cheap, 27-year-old late bloomer. He also, fittingly, had a character reference as Jefferson Lerma’s teammate on the national team. Lerma remarked that “Croydon is Colombia.” He had something else: an extreme engine. He was in the highest tier for high-intensity actions and direct runs among full-backs last season: That’s backed by what we’ve seen: a relentless hunger, smart timing, and consistent threat down the flank. His ability to repeat sprints and disrupt shape is core to Palace’s wide-overload patterns, and fits perfectly with a league trending toward chaos and transition. It also helped lead to Palace’s best moment. “Every session he’s the guy running the most, sprinting the most,” Glasner said earlier this season. “Every game, he plays with the most intensity. It’s the wish of every manager to have such a player.” Lacroix, meanwhile, is one of the faster centre-backs in Europe, routinely hitting speeds over 35 km/h at Wolfsburg. Palace signed him in part to defend in space, recover in transition, and drive forward with the ball. Then there’s the case of Ismaïla Sarr, who factored into both goals in the Community Shield. It’s another tale about how playing the long game, and knowing regions on a deep level, can pay dividends. The Guardian recently outlined the long tail of interest, tracing it all the way back to Freedman clocking him as a teenager just breaking through at Metz. Sarr had just arrived from Génération Foot, and clearly left an early impression. Consistently described as quiet and humble, he was priced out of a potential move to Palace by Watford, then endured a difficult spell at Marseille, where he reportedly didn’t enjoy his time much at all. Freedman and his staff stayed on the case. Once Michael Olise’s move to Bayern was confirmed, Sarr instantly became target number one. What’s striking in The Guardian’s account is how few clubs were seriously in for him, despite the versatile, hard-working profile that fits the current Premier League meta. At only €15m, that gap in the market became Palace’s gain. Sarr took over Olise’s No. 7 shirt, and despite a quiet opening stretch, became one of the most valuable wingers for his team in the league. Internally, he was described as “an absolute warrior,” one of those players who’s always sore but never misses a session. Glasner said it plainly: “He has great physicality like a sprinter combined with technical ability. This always helps to score goals.” So the data paints a clear picture. Teams like Palace are making sharper bets on physical profiles that can survive and thrive in the most physically demanding league in the world. High-intensity runners like Muñoz, fast recovery defenders like Lacroix, and speedy wingers like Sarr are helping usher in a period of scary intensity. 7. Patience is only worth anything when it’s hard Patience always gets lip service in peacetime. But when form dips, fans are calling for signings, the manager is frustrated, and the window’s closing, the chips are on the table. After some hard-won lessons on this front, Palace have held the line as a matter of course. Freedman returned during a turbulent stretch. Frank de Boer had been hired a little earlier, with players like Jaïro Riedewald being signed specifically for him. What followed was near-calamity: a few weeks in, Palace were 19th, with no wins and no goals. De Boer lasted 77 days. Everything at that time, from tactics to recruitment, felt disarmingly short-term. Even Alexander Sørloth, Freedman’s marquee signing that January, got a fairly quick hook. He made all of four league starts for the club. Palace learned from that. Their methodical pace now can feel like true laboriousness. Just ask Glasner. They don’t buy to flip, they don’t have a particularly impressive sales record, and they don’t cycle players to fund the next wave. They wait, and they avoid big mistakes. There’s a cost. As The Times reported: But it’s all by design. Jean-Philippe Mateta is a good example. He joined on loan in January 2021, scored a flicked goal at Brighton a month later, but didn’t lock down a starting role for two years. His permanent move wasn’t confirmed until January 2022, and even in the 2022–23 season, he made just six league starts. He went nearly a year without a league goal. Palace waited. In April 2023, he came off the bench to score a last-minute winner against Leicester, ending both the club’s 13-match winless run and his own 28-game drought. The next season, he was Player of the Year. Then came the FA Cup win. His hold-up play was crucial to the decisive goal. You see the same arc with others. Michael Olise didn’t start right away. Joachim Andersen took time to play his best. Odsonne Édouard got a long look. Even Riedewald, that player who signed to reunite with De Boer, stayed around for seven seasons. Next up? Eddie Nketiah, who had a modest first season with Palace, thanks in no small part to Mateta’s star turn. It wouldn’t surprise anybody if he had a delayed breakout. That slower pace sends a message: if we’re not moving on quickly from you, we expect you to stay and fight. For incoming players, it means they’re not signing up to be churned through a system. There’s a real shot to grow, to prove it, and to belong. In a league (and world) built on immediacy, Palace play the long game. …but it’s not all sunshine and rainbows It absolutely, positively doesn’t always work out. Footballers are too complex, and variables pop up too frequently. While the risk profile is generally low, Freedman still has his share of misses, and a few help tell that wider story. Alexander Sørloth came from a lesser league, had good numbers, passed the eye test, and has banged since (go look up his per-90 numbers from last year if you’re bored). But he may have arrived at the wrong time, too early, and not ready to use that big body of his; or he may have been a cautionary tale about the risks of impatience and unclear pathways for a young player like him. I imagine if Freedman signed Sørloth later in his tenure, he’d have ensured a wider berth like Mateta got. Later, Odsonne Édouard got plenty of time after a similarly exciting move, having racked up goals for Celtic, but never reached that next level Palace craved. More recently, Matheus França felt like a surprising Palace transfer. Hailing from Brazil, he wasn’t in one of the core markets and arrived for a big fee by Palace standards, especially for a 19-year-old: €20 million. It even had a €5m add-on if França is nominated for the Ballon d’Or (remember, all add-ons are not created the same). Freedman apparently scouted him for some time and pushed for the deal, but it hasn’t been a rousing success just yet. It may be a simple case of injuries; it may just be a reminder to not judge too soon. But it may also be a case of jumping for a player with too much uncertainty attached: particularly a less-assured league transition, and limited time against senior players. Another was Naouirou Ahamada. A product of Juventus Next Gen, Ahamada is a good athlete, is French, showed flashes in Germany for Stuttgart, and was likely data-flagged. But he hasn’t asserted himself in a crowded midfield. My estimation (more of a guess, really) is that this move was a little too clever, trying to get ahead of a player before they blow up. But he just hasn’t had enough game time to generate certainty, and has still only played about 2,000 senior minutes. Despite some of the outward-facing stability elsewhere, the technical area has been a place of tumult at times. After the De Boer era, Hodgson brought stability and survival, but things got a little static. Vieira came in to play more progressively, but the second season turned cautious and toothless, going 12 games without a win. Then Hodgson came back, and many fans saw it as a step backward, with the poor man dealing with health issues to boot. The attacking stats were woeful, and some of the players weren’t developing. It led to more tifos: “Wasted potential on and off the pitch. Weak decisions taking us backwards,” “No shared vision. No structured plan. Parish out. Yanks out.” It all changed under Glasner, when the tactics and recruitment finally started to rhyme. Mistakes are the price of doing business. Palace’s success rate seems lower when there’s less clarity, whether due to inexperience, unfamiliar markets, or when the usual model (based on patience) can’t be followed through. The misses are also disproportionately impactful compared to other teams, because the quantity of total signings is so low. But when they stick to their process, including narrow markets, clear identity filters, long-term bets, and deep research, the hit rate stays high. Life after Dougie The cup run was monumental. The Community Shield was a cherry on top. These were rousing validations of the Palace project. It was the hungry, carefully-scouted players who delivered the club’s first major trophy: Eberechi Eze scored the final’s only goal, Dean Henderson saved a penalty, and quintessential Palace signings like Jean-Philippe Mateta, Ismaïla Sarr, and Daniel Muñoz played starring roles. Glasner earned credit for transforming the team’s playing identity, but he also acknowledged what he inherited. It echoed what Patrick Vieira had said years earlier, crediting a recruitment team that knew what kind of player would fit the club. That shared vision, the alignment between recruitment and coaching, is the secret ingredient of any successful club. It is especially true at Palace. That brings us to the present, and the void left by Dougie Freedman. For all his understated style, Freedman built something unique: a recruitment model that was smart, thrifty, patient, and distinct to the club and fanbase. He’d saved the club from relegation on the final day as a player, pulled the club out of the bottom of the Championship in a promotion campaign, and has now helped engineer the first major trophy in club history. His status as a club legend gave him the credibility to see a vision through, even when resources were limited and things felt weird and slow. The tactics and the transfers began to strengthen one another. Players arrived from narrow pools of trusted markets. Pathways were usually clear. The team slowly built value without blowing the budget. Look around, and the difficulty of that job comes into focus. West Ham cycled through expensive forwards, and scattergun recruitment, with little to show. Countless others have struggled to stay in the top-flight. Even a club like Brighton, whose model is widely admired, has its trade-offs: constant churn, a feeling of everything being temporary, and a need to sell that sometimes clashes with fan ambitions. Vast uncertainty awaits. Success is not assured. What’s next? A few things come to mind as Palace step into the post-Freedman beyond. Keep the markets (and the signings) fairly narrow. Palace gain an edge by identifying fewer players from fewer regions, which helps maintain their identity and keeps pathways clear. The Championship, France, and maybe one or two South American markets should be the sweet spots. Taking over Freedman’s early, in-person eye-testing role, and building those relationships along the way, feels like the toughest job to replace. It’s hard to overstate how many of these stories include an early, meaningful Freedman scouting trip. Filling that gap will take real work. Increasingly target athletic robustness. Players like Sarr, Muñoz, and Lacroix settled in quickly for a reason. If need be, they’ll also attract interest from bigger clubs for that same reason. Keep mining Chelsea’s development castoffs, where value still exists. Never lose the flair. Zaha, Eze, and Freedman himself represent a through-line in the club’s identity. The right kind of player will want to carry that forward. Marginally speed up sales. As it stands, the speed often goes past “methodical” to just plain slow. Quicker decisions and more proactive exits can come without becoming a stepping-stone club. Palace have probably had too much turnover in the technical area over the years. That kind of instability leads to inefficiency: players bought for managers who’ve since left, inconsistent game models across the academy, and so on. Regardless of how long Glasner stays, I’d commit to his approach more broadly: lower possession, higher physicality, transitions, flair, and maybe even loosely committing to the 3-4-3 shape (where you can find value). When the playing style has bounces around a bit from manager to manager, the recruitment becomes less durable. This play-style fits with the wider heritage. And lastly: the academy. I don’t have the best visibility here. Players like Tyrick Mitchell got real chances, but it also feels a bit slow at the moment. If Palace can graduate one or two players every couple years, they’ll reduce transfer pressure and reinforce the club’s culture from within. That might be the biggest untapped advantage left. Freedman’s gone again, but the imprint remains. Same with Zaha and a long list of others. We can credit what they built without reducing it to a tidy “great man” fable; so many have contributed to what exists today. This is a club that, for all its recent success, still feels human-sized. Its victories have come from discipline, clarity, oft-beautiful play, and a stubborn defiance. It’s a place where even the triumphant moments feel fragile, threats still linger around the bend, but where a dogged persistence has carried them through. Glass and iron. This Crystal Palace is still standing.

Would absolutely prefer either one over Simons, and not bothered that it probably is summer 2026 till one comes, although before Levi's nightmare, I was not adverse to dropping £75-80m NOW on Rogers. If we do not buy Garnacho we STILL could do it.

Lol. I goat mouth it with my post listing the only truly 'big' wingers left out there:

9 now, cleverclogs

Sources: Goalkeeper situations - Part Two Meh... https://siphillipstalkschelsea.substack.com/p/sources-goalkeeper-situations-part I’m following up on my last article on the goalkeeper situations, and it’s not amazing news. Everyone knows we need to upgrade our goalkeepers. I think we all acknowledge that although Robert Sanchez had a decent end to the season and Club World Cup, it would still be hugely concerning to go into the new season without upgrading him. It will be a story that will come back to haunt the club, I’m so sure of that. As Kieran Gill of The Daily Mail wrote over the weekend, Chelsea risk real scrutiny throughout next season if they do not sign a new stopper. But the more I am hearing now, the more I feel this could be a genuine outcome at this point. I will start by saying though that I’ve still heard even at the end of last week from my two best sources that the club ARE still looking at goalkeeper names and opportunities, so there is still a chance that they sign one as what has been the plan all summer. They literally tried to sign Mike Maignan earlier in the summer but that broke down, so they clearly felt that they needed one, just like the fans do. There's even credible reports suggesting that they have looked at signing a former AC Milan goalkeeper in the shape of Gianluigi Donnarumma - which was also confirmed by our sources. Other names such as Andre Ter Stegen have also been discussed by the club this summer, that’s from our sources as well as others too. So make no mistake, whatever the reports might now say, Chelsea are clearly NOT happy with the current goalkeepers they have or have full faith in them. The Club World Cup performance by Sanchez is not going to change that thinking, or at least it shouldn’t because if it does, that would be insanity. Chelsea have still been and are still exploring the goalkeeper market. But there is growing belief now amongst sources that they will end up just sticking with what they have, and that’s the first time we have been reserved to this happening. There’s a real chance now that Filip Jorgensen is actually handed the number one spot this season. The problem here is that neither goalkeeper is going to accept being backup this season, and that has been communicated to the club by both keepers reps. Both keepers are likely to end up looking for a move away should they be the backup choice going into next season, Jorgensen’s reps have already explored a move away this summer. I sense that he could be handed more of a role now due to this. If Chelsea signed another number one stopper, such as Mike Maignan, then they would have even more problems keeping either Sanchez or Jorgensen happy. It’s a complicated situation now. Both keepers want to be number one next season, I’ve had that fully confirmed. Basically, if Chelsea sign a new goalkeeper this window now, it would need Sanchez or Jorgensen being sold, and that might be difficult to do. Another reason is Mike Penders and Chelsea waiting on him after a season out on loan. They think he’s the real deal so there are a few at Chelsea who believe they can do another season with Sanchez and Jorgensen, then bring Penders in as number one next summer. And another issue is the FFP stuff with UEFA. This is quite significant on new centre backs as well, which comes to light in my centre back article today. If they don’t get more player sales then they can be in the negative with UEFA and end up having to pay them more of a fine. This is also the reason Xavi Simons has not been done yet because Chelsea need to make more sales. Big sales like Nicolas Jackson, Christopher Nkunku, and others, could make the significant difference. But the issue is, Chelsea cannot sign loads more players in the positions needed. And this begs the question, why are we spending so much focus on Alejandro Garnacho when a new goalkeeper should be the priority as well as a new centre back now Levi Colwill is missing the majority of the season? More on that in the centre back sourced article today on the home page. Still a chance for a new goalkeeper, but I’m now concerned that they are going to make a big mistake and not action this.

Sources: Will Chelsea sign a new centre back? Meh.... https://siphillipstalkschelsea.substack.com/p/sources-will-Chelsea-sign-a-new-centre The centre back situation is very similar to the goalkeeper situation right now. As we have been reporting, the club have been exploring new centre backs all summer and just like they did with potential new goalkeeper, they literally actively tried to sign two centre backs and failed already this summer, and those were out and out centre backs not ones who can play there if needed. They tried to sign Dean Huijsen, then they tried to sign Jarrad Branthwaite. So like with goalkeepers, not one person can tell me that they are fully happy in the current options they have. Especially when you now add the fact that Levi Colwill is injured for pretty much the entire season. The problem again is they need sales to sign now at this point. Enzo Maresca and the decision makers always wanted to prioritise the attack first, and anything else comes secondary and needs sales to happen. One problem is Benoit Badiashile having no desire to leave the club and him being happy with a squad role. Chelsea would sell him but he’s not doing anything to leave and as he’s not actively for sale, then nothing is happening there. They also need to sell Axel Disasi, which has not happened yet and they expected him to be gone by now. Chelsea HAVE been exploring new centre backs all summer and they discussed the need for one again after the Colwill injury. Enzo Maresca has made it clear publicly that he wants a new centre back which I suspect at this point, might not have gone down too well with the hierarchy because at this point, I’m not sure they will get one in. Chelsea have looked at Marc Guehi all summer but they’ve had no indication that he has any desire to come to Chelsea and has other preferences. So that’s likely why that one is now off the table. But it’s all to do with the FFP with UEFA again and Chelsea needing to make more sales across the board. If they get on with sales and have another good week, then there is still a chance that they move for a new centre back as they have been discussing it. But right now, they need sales, and that is the running theme with all our situations right now. I’d not be content going into the season with our current options. I think we have decent options but is anyone trusting Wesley Fofana to be a sustained and trusted option? Jorrel Hato can play centre back, sure, and Josh Acheampong is class. But overall, I’d not be filled with confidence if this is what we stay with. We need to add another dominant front foot centre back in my view.

Chelsea https://thedailybriefing.io/i/170633014/Chelsea Chelsea’s talks with RB Leipzig for Xavi Simons continue, with Nkunku and Jackson expected to leave to make space for Simons and Garnacho; Nkunku and Tyrique George have been discussed with Leipzig. (Fabrizio Romano) Chelsea are open to selling Renato Veiga despite Levi Colwill’s injury, with the player seeking a move and talks set to progress with interested clubs after the Atlético deal collapsed. (Fabrizio Romano) Chelsea plan Nicolas Jackson and Christopher Nkunku sale before making moves for Alejandro Garnacho and Xavi Simons. (Fabrizio Romano) Enzo Maresca on Joao Pedro and Liam Delap: "They are both our strikers, we need them scoring goals during the season, and we are very happy with both of them..." Premier League club want Chelsea duo Axel Disasi and David Datro Fofana. (CaughtOffside)

Let's GO!!!!!