Vesper

Herve Renard emerges as serious candidate to become Saudi Arabia head coach https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5872138/2024/10/25/herve-renard-saudi-arabia-head-coach/ Herve Renard has emerged as a serious candidate to become the new Saudi Arabia men’s head coach. The 56-year-old has been identified as a potential successor for Roberto Mancini, who left his position by “joint agreement” on Thursday after 14 months in charge. While no agreement has been reached, a process is ongoing to recruit a new head coach, with three candidates in contention. Renard is leading the way as a potential option and should he be offered the position, it will be the second time he has managed the Saudi Arabia national team. Renard previously coached Saudi Arabia between 2019 and 2023, guiding them to the 2022 World Cup and a famous 2-1 victory over Argentina — who went on to win the tournament. Saudi Arabia exited at the group stages with defeats to Poland and Mexico. Renard subsequently left his position the following year to coach the women’s French national team. Renard took France to the quarter-final stage of the 2023 World Cup before being eliminated on penalties by host nation Australia. He stepped down from his role after the a quarter-final defeat to Brazil in the 2024 Summer Olympics, being succeeded by assistant Laurent Bonadei. GO DEEPER Renard: From cleaner to beating Argentina at the World Cup - via Cambridge United Renard has enjoyed a two-decade long managerial career with international stints in charge of Zambia, Angola, Ivory Coast and Morocco, alongside spells in charge of French clubs Sochaux and Lille. Mancini, meanwhile, was appointed as Saudi Arabia’s head coach on a four-year contract in August 2023 following his resignation as manager of the Italian national team. However, he won just one of his last five matches in charge and the nation are currently third in Group C of the third round of Asia’s qualification process for the 2026 World Cup. The top two sides from the six-team group will automatically qualify for the finals, which will be played across the U.S., Mexico and Canada, while the third and fourth-placed teams will advance through to the next round of qualification. Saudi Arabia will host the World Cup for the first time in 2034, with the nation’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) also investing heavily in club football. PIF funded a takeover of Premier League club Newcastle United in 2021 and has subsequently invested in domestic Saudi Arabian clubs, including Al Nassr, Al Hilal and Al Ittihad. Players such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Neymar, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino are among those who are playing their club football in Saudi Arabia.

The cult of ‘Cold Palmer’ has reached America – can he become a global brand? https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5850091/2024/10/23/cole-palmer-brand-america-celebration/ Cole Palmer is having quite a season. Six goals in the eight Premier League matches, plus five assists. He has also been awarded the Premier League’s player of the month for September and England men’s player of the year for 2023-24. Of the many signings made by Chelsea since the Behdad Eghbali-Todd Boehly consortium bought the club in May 2022 — spending more than £1billion ($1.3bn at current exchange rates) along the way — Palmer has been the greatest bargain. At £42.5m from boyhood club Manchester City on deadline day in September last year, he has been key to the London side’s transformation back into top-four contenders having finished 12th in 2022-23. Now Palmer’s influence is spreading beyond the pitch, helped by a few factors: his terrific form, certainly, but also some quirks of his personality that lend themselves to social media traction, as well as his distinctive goal celebration and the nickname which comes with it. Two recent events have illustrated the possibility of Palmer establishing himself beyond the confines of European football. One came during the NFL’s promotion of the Minnesota Vikings-New York Jets game in London this month, when they could have turned to any Premier League player to help publicise it but chose Palmer. In a video posted on Instagram, Justin Jefferson, a star wide receiver for the Vikings known for his ‘griddy’ touchdown dance, held up a ‘Palmer 20’ Chelsea shirt and mimicked the England forward’s ‘cold’ goal celebration. It has more than 270,000 likes. The other was when Trae Young, a point guard for the Atlanta Hawks and an NBA All-Star who happens to perform the same celebration as Palmer, was asked about sharing it with him. Young — who is nicknamed ‘Ice Trae’, hence the ‘cold’ move — talked about Palmer and the origins of the celebration, which was also recently mimicked by Gleyber Torres, a baseball player for the New York Yankees, who just qualified for the 2024 World Series. “I hear he (Palmer) is a pretty good player,” Young told Podcast P. “I just did it. I kind of ran with it, I didn’t get it from nobody.” Palmer, however, did get it from someone. Speaking to UK newspaper The Telegraph last week, he said: “It’s a nod to my former Manchester City academy team-mate Morgan Rogers (now in the first team at Aston Villa). It symbolises joy, passion and hard determination for the game, plus it’s funny as it works well with my name. Everyone knows it’s my celebration. Lots of people might have done it, but everybody knows it is my celebration.” Indeed, Palmer has made it his own, in the UK at least. Misha Sher, a board director at the European Sponsorship Association, tells The Athletic: “Visual identity is very important. If you are Cole Palmer and you have a celebration, and you are scoring all the time, those moments are frequent, so he can reinforce that unique visual identity all the time. “And because of how easily these things get picked up and shared, you are seeing NFL players and even kids in the playground copying the celebration. It’s quite simple, but it’s very powerful in the world of building a brand.” His nickname, too, seems to lend itself to spreading, particularly among the young audience: to many people, Cole Palmer is ‘Cold Palmer’. He is also funny, often unintentionally. Whether asking Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca why he is at their Cobham training ground or claiming not to know what is meant by AM and PM, viral clips of Palmer have endeared him to football fans and the wider public. It differentiates him and makes him more attractive than other players to businesses looking for help to sell products. “There is no doubt that brands have their eye on him,” says Tim Crow, founder and CEO of Crow Business Services and an expert in sports marketing, tells The Athletic. “I have had a number of calls about him from clients.” One brand to have already signed the 22-year-old Mancunian up is Burberry, the British luxury fashion house. In the firm’s video below, Palmer, wearing a Burberry duffle coat, simply goes fishing. The England international walks into frame, sits down on a chair next to a rod, occasionally gets up and walks out of shot, only to sit back down, sometimes stretching out his legs, sometimes stroking his chin. Not a word is said. The video lasts nine minutes and 34 seconds. It is very Cold Palmer. But is he a global brand yet? “Cole has elevated himself in the world of football with his performances, and he clearly has a personality,” continues Sher. “But it’s too early to make any judgements or predictions about him becoming a brand. That requires someone, over an extended period, to have appeal outside of just the sport they play. “The fact that he is getting those types of opportunities with Burberry strengthens his case and his ability to expand into popular culture, but in the past few years we’ve had Marcus Rashford, Raheem Sterling and other footballers who have featured in high-profile campaigns because of their relevance in that moment in time. “We have clearly not seen these guys go on to become brands, and that is a really important distinction to make. Becoming a brand is not easy, and it requires longevity of that kind of relevance over time.” Palmer also advertised boohooMAN, a fast-fashion retail company, on his Instagram page, where he has five million followers. He is also a Nike athlete and did promotional work for Electronic Arts (EA) for its popular FC football video games. On TikTok, where he has more than two million followers, a video of him advertising Toshiba got more than four million views. However, another of him putting his PFA (Professional Footballers’ Association — the players’ trade union in the UK) Young Player of the Year trophy for 2023-24 in a fridge — a play on ‘Cold Palmer’ — was watched 36 million times, indicating how much greater an audience response is when they feel the content is authentic. “What’s really interesting about him is that it doesn’t come across as planned,” adds Sher. “I don’t think he would have sat back and worked out the whole ‘Cold Palmer’ thing, it has organically happened, and that’s why it has taken off. But it is only a start, so you need to take that momentum and relevance and popularity that he currently has and build on it.” Palmer’s online reach will be music to potential commercial partners’ ears as they look to maximise exposure for their products, although it is not yet wide enough to start attracting the multi-million-pound deals reserved for football’s most marketable stars. “Seven-figure deals are a small category and they tend to be reserved for athletes who have longevity and appeal across multiple markets,” says Sher. “To command those deals, you need to have relevance outside of your home market, unless you’re American because the advertising market is so big and the budget is so big (in America).” Footballers who get the biggest deals include David Beckham, Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham, Palmer’s England team-mate. All have shown a track record in transcending their native audience through their performances on the pitch. Playing for Real Madrid, as all three of those do or did, helps too. Bellingham, who is 13 months younger than Palmer but has been playing regularly at the top level for two years longer, has already featured in campaigns for designer label Louis Vuitton and modelled for Skims, a fashion brand owned by American celebrity Kim Kardashian, along with starring in Adidas adverts. “Bellingham is playing for a huge club and in the Champions League, and that makes a huge difference,” adds Crow. “If someone like Adidas or Nike gets behind you and you get into the top tier of their campaigns, where you are featured in a global campaign, then that takes you to a whole other level and gets you noticed.” Palmer has yet to achieve the commercial pull of England team-mate Bellingham (David Rogers/Getty Images) Many athletes have been on the brink of transcending their sport and have broken into popular culture, only for their subsequent performance levels to hold them back. Manchester United and England forward Rashford, who has released multiple best-selling books as well as leading a successful campaign to force the UK government into a policy change over free school meals for children during the Covid-19 pandemic, has since struggled to move beyond his sport and follow in former United and England star Beckham’s footsteps. But in a world where top footballers tend to be trained by media advisors to always say the right thing, to never be controversial (to the point of being a bit dull, frankly), staying true to yourself is a lot harder than it looks, and if he can keep these performances going, that could be what helps Palmer achieve what others never quite did. “I can count on the fingers on one hand, over a one-month period, how many genuinely interesting (footballer) interviews there are,” says Crow. “Football thrives on controversy, but the communications and PR business inside football exists to put the lid on it. That’s the dilemma.” Jack Grealish, another of Palmer’s England team-mates and a former colleague at City, is a great example of getting it right. What you see tends to be what you get with the 29-year-old from Birmingham; a cheeky chappie-type of character who knows how to have a laugh at his own expense — and the brand deals, including one with fashion house Gucci, are rolling in. Sher and Crow believe that retaining his public personality is going to be crucial for Palmer. “You have to start with what is true and authentic because people can smell inauthenticity a mile off,” says Crow. “They (Palmer’s representatives) are going to have lots of offers, but you have to pick your partners carefully. “Authenticity is so important and picking the wrong partner and having a bad advertisement can set you back, so it is really important that you choose your partners carefully. The most important thing is: you are only as good as your last performance.” GO DEEPER Was Cole Palmer meant to be this good? We asked those who watched him grow

Chris Rigg https://www.ntt20.com/i/145049430/chris-rigg Sunderland — Championship, 2023/24: Born: 18 June 2007 Position: Attacking Midfielder / Winger League appearances: 21 League starts: 8 ⬆️ Youngest player… highest ceiling? Fittingly, we end our month of 21 Under 21 excitement by looking to the future. Sunderland signed 10 first-team players aged 21 or under last season, yet two of their most exciting young talents are homegrown academy products. Dan Neil is a 21U21 alumnus (2022) but a veritable old codger at 22, and three weeks too old to qualify for this year’s list; Chris Rigg, however, will still be eligible when we’ve all turned to dust. Rigg – the headline act of our hastily-abandoned 16 Under 16 series, before turning 17 last week – set numerous youngest-goalscorer records in 2023/24 but he makes the cut here entirely on merit, not novelty. Showing intelligence and versatility as well as great technical quality, he has looked completely at home in the Championship. And, of course, he still has so much time to improve further. This could theoretically be the first of six appearances in 21 Under 21, if it wasn’t for our certainty that he’ll leave the Football League behind before too long. Pizza charts informed by match data. Each chart rates a chosen player from 0-99 across different metrics (e.g. Dribbles) according to their “percentile rank”. A 75 score shows a player outperforming 75% of other players in the dataset. Each dataset is position-specific. Negative metrics are reversed. [Credit: Riley Roberts.]

Jose Mourinho wants Premier League return after Fenerbahce contract: ‘I am ready to go’ https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5870718/2024/10/24/jose-mourinho-premier-league-return/ Jose Mourinho said that he would be “ready to go” back to the Premier League at the end of his Fenerbahce contract in two years. The 61-year-old, speaking after his side’s 1-1 draw against Manchester United in the Europa League on Thursday, said that he would be prepared for a return to English football. Mourinho won three Premier League trophies across two separate spells as Chelsea manager, while he later had stints in charge of United and Tottenham Hotspur. The Portuguese head coach was asked about a future return to England after the match in Istanbul, where he has a two-year contract at Fenerbahce that runs until the summer of 2026. “Best thing I can do is to go to a team who does not play in UEFA competitions,” Mourinho said after the match. “So a club at the bottom in England who needs a coach in two years, I am ready to go. I don’t want to speak any more about it.” Mourinho also sarcastically called referee Clement Turpin “one of the best in the world” after he was sent-off in Thursday’s match. Mourinho was shown a straight red card by French official Turpin for his reaction after Fenerbahce’s Bright Osayi-Samuel went down under a challenge from Manuel Ugarte inside United’s penalty area. Turpin showed Mourinho a straight red card for his reaction to the penalty incident (Burak Kara/Getty Images) Replays appeared to show minimal contact from Ugarte on Osayi-Samuel. “I congratulate the referee,” Mourinho told TNT Sports after the match. “He told me something absolutely incredible, that he could see my reaction and the penalty incident at the same time. He had one eye on both at the same time. He has peripheral vision in an incident at 100 miles per hour. That is why he is one of the best referees in the world. “I watched the incident. I don’t speak about the incident.” Fenerbahce, who have five points from their three Europa League group phase matches, return to action on Sunday in the Turkish Super Lig against Bodrum.

Chelsea captain Reece James urged to show more leadership by Enzo Maresca https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5872199/2024/10/25/reece-james-Chelsea-captain-enzo-maresca/ Enzo Maresca has urged Reece James to show more leadership as Chelsea’s captain and added that he believes his squad lacks a “proper leader”. James was appointed club captain by Mauricio Pochettino ahead of the 2023-24 season following the departure of Cesar Azpilicueta to Atletico Madrid, but a combination of persistent injuries and untimely suspensions have severely restricted his opportunities to wear the armband on the pitch ever since. Chelsea’s 2-1 defeat against Liverpool on Sunday marked James’ first competitive appearance of the season, and Maresca said the 24-year-old has responded well to being told that more is expected of him on and off the pitch as captain. “I spoke with him and I expected more from him in terms of leadership, inside the changing room and for different kinds of things,” Maresca said of James after Chelsea’s 4-1 win over Panathinaikos in the Europa Conference League. “So he’s on the way, he’s doing well, he’s progressing but from Reece I expected more also in terms of leadership. “Most of the time when they are captain, they think that because they are captain they have more: ‘because I am the captain, I expect that you give me more.’ For me, because you are the captain you have to give more. You have to give more than the rest. And sometimes: ‘okay, I am the captain I can give less’, no. “He’s one of the captains and I expected from him, and his team-mates expected from him, to give always more in terms of leadership in general.” Asked how James responded to Maresca’s message, Chelsea’s head coach replied: “Good, that’s why I said he’s on the way. He understands that we expected more from him. He’s one of our guys from the academy but this is one of the reasons why he has to show more in terms of personality.” According to Transfermarkt, Chelsea’s average age of players used in the Premier League this season is 23.4, making them the youngest team in the division. Maresca admitted that youth is a significant factor in the shortage of leaders in his squad, but added that there are several players in his group who have the personality to grow into more influential roles. “When you don’t have a proper leader, you need to build that,” he said. “I think we don’t have a proper leader. We don’t have guys, you can see them… probably Tosin is one of the guys that is. So the rest we need to build them. “So Reece is there, he’s on the way but he’s not there. So he needs to make an effort in that one. The one that is doing fantastic in this kind of thing is Levi (Colwill). Levi probably at the beginning of the season was not a leader but now you can see that he is one of the guys that is always speaking. “We need to build that. We need as much as we have, then it’s perfect. Marc Cucurella is one of the guys, so we need more and more. “This is something that also goes with age. Probably in one or two years, three years some of them will be better in that. But, as I said, if they are not there we need to help them to understand, not only the football side, but also the leadership side that they need to grow.” GO DEEPER Reece James is back in Chelsea training. Now he has to prove he can stay fit and find form Is this fair on James? It should not come as a surprise that James is not a fully formed Chelsea captain. He is only 24 years old and has a naturally reserved personality. This is one notable difference between him and John Terry, who was given the armband by Jose Mourinho at the age of 23. Another thing to note is that James’ two primary dressing room role models at the beginning of his senior Chelsea career — Azpilicueta and Thiago Silva — were also less vocal in the dressing room by nature. Azpilicueta took time to grow into the job of club captain when he was given the permanent responsibility in 2019, and ultimately succeeded admirably in doing so. It is harder to show leadership when you are not playing and, as has often been the case with James, not even training with the main group. Injuries cannot be helped, but the two suspensions for straight red cards last season that set back James’ attempts to return to action certainly can be. Chelsea have an indiscipline problem within this group of players that stretches back to Pochettino’s tenure, and setting a better example in this regard should be an easy fix for James. The rest, as Maresca says, should come with time and the right support. Does this show Maresca’s authority? It certainly shows his honesty. There have been numerous examples of Maresca raising eyebrows with his straight talking this season — not least his admission after the Panathinaikos victory that Mykhailo Mudryk has been slower than most at Chelsea to learn what his head coach wants from him on the pitch. Time will tell whether Chelsea’s players appreciate their head coach discussing their areas for improvement publicly, but projecting authority in the media is one way for Maresca to maintain authority over a squad which, as he points out, is not stacked with strong personalities. Another way is to keep Chelsea’s performances and results on a positive trajectory, and Maresca has done a solid job of that so far.

Chelsea in a UEFA Conference League class of their own – only complacency can stop them https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5869840/2024/10/25/panathinaikos-Chelsea-conference-league/ Two minutes into the second half at Athens Olympic Stadium, a chasm suddenly opened in the middle of Chelsea’s defence and Panathinaikos winger Facundo Pellistri, a Uruguayan international on the books at Manchester United until last summer, charged purposefully into an ocean of space and directly towards Filip Jorgensen’s goal. In a truly competitive football match, this scenario would constitute real jeopardy — particularly with Chelsea only 1-0 up at the time — but the mood of the moment was something closer to mild intrigue and it was gone in seconds. The recovering Benoit Badiashile and Renato Veiga forced Pellistri to check his run before he reached the Chelsea penalty area and he sloppily gave the ball away as he tried to offload it to a team-mate. Within two minutes, Chelsea worked the ball forward unimpeded to the right flank, where Pedro Neto easily beat his man and floated a cross to the back post. Mykhailo Mudryk arrived and headed it into an empty net, doubling the visitors’ lead and ending any pretence of this Europa Conference League game as a contest with more than 40 minutes left to play. To say Chelsea cruised to victory against Panathinaikos would be a severe understatement. Joao Felix did whatever he wanted, Mudryk had his best game for the club and Christopher Nkunku maintained his impressive goals-per-minute ratio with a nerveless penalty despite rarely having to break into a sprint. The hardest working person in Athens Olympic Stadium might have been the Gate 13 ultra, who dutifully harassed the away side with a green laser pointer all night despite numerous stern warnings to stop from the stadium announcer. The most charitable explanation for Panathinaikos’ limp display is that they were without several key players on the night and understandably affected by the tragic death of George Baldock, who was the subject of numerous heartfelt tributes from both sets of players and supporters ahead of kick-off. That is undoubtedly part of the picture, but there was something else, too. According to Transfermarkt, Panathinaikos have the fourth-highest squad market value (€107.5m; £89.7m; $116.3m) of the 36 teams in UEFA’s third-tier competition. Gent, Chelsea’s first Europa Conference League opponents earlier this month, rank sixth in the same table (€68million). There are no prizes for guessing which club is first by a galactic distance and it should be no real surprise that neither match felt remotely competitive. Enzo Maresca made 11 changes to the Chelsea team that lost to Liverpool at Anfield last weekend. Reece James, Moises Caicedo, Nicolas Jackson, Levi Colwill and Malo Gusto did not even travel to Athens, while Cole Palmer, Romeo Lavia and Wesley Fofana are not registered in Chelsea’s squad for the Europa Conference League, yet their starting XI against Panathinaikos still cost more than £500million in transfer fees to assemble. With every outing, it feels more and more absurd that Chelsea are in this tournament — even as Maresca made a point of pushing back on that particular narrative in his post-match press conference. “If we play Conference, then it’s because in this moment we belong to the Conference,” he insisted. “If next year or two years we play Champions League, then it is because we deserve to play Champions League. I think football always puts you where you deserve to be.” But it is worth remembering that Chelsea are only here as a quirky consequence of Manchester United postponing their perennial crisis under Erik ten Hag for just long enough to upset Manchester City in the FA Cup final in May. The gulf in financial resources and footballing firepower between Maresca’s squad and the rest of the Europa Conference League field is bigger than anything seen in the modern history of UEFA competitions. Fiorentina and Real Betis are at least solid teams from top-five European leagues, but it would still be a major surprise if either of them knocked Chelsea out of the Europa Conference League. The big takeaway from the consolation goals conceded in the Gent and Panathinaikos wins, and the embarrassing near-collapse in the play-off against Servette, is that by far the most significant threat to Chelsea’s chances of winning the only European competition missing from their trophy collection is creeping complacency. Being such heavy favourites brings its own pressure, but it also offers rare opportunities. For the next few months, Maresca will be able to keep his expensive reserves in a good rhythm of match action without overloading his Premier League starters, a luxury not available to most of Chelsea’s top-four rivals. He will also get more opportunities to see what he has in talented Cobham products like Tyrique George, Shumaira Mheuka and Sam Rak-Sakyi, even if Josh Acheampong continues to be frozen out. Conference League action can also provide a platform for some towards the fringes of Chelsea’s squad to begin to push their way into Maresca’s plans for the Premier League. Look no further than Renato Veiga, whose versatility is making an impression on his head coach after a relatively assured performance at centre-back against Panathinaikos. “I just said to Renato, he has played already as a centre-back, a full-back, holding midfielder, attacking midfielder,” Maresca said of Veiga. “He has already played four or five positions. One of my first press conferences, I said that the reason why I really like and love Chelsea is because many players can be versatile. “In my idea, if they can play different positions, then it is better for the team and especially for the players. Today, if you just play one position, I don’t think it’s enough. You need to learn more positions. Renato, Malo (Gusto), they are playing in different positions and they are doing well.” Difficult personnel decisions will confront Maresca if he wants Palmer, Lavia and Fofana at his disposal for the Europa Conference League knockout rounds, but he should not need any of them to win the trophy. Chelsea are the class of this competition and it is not close.

1 3 FT Forest in 5th place now

I deffo rate him he gives me hope for the back 4, along with Aarón Anselmino, the great 19yo Argie CB we have coming in who is having a really good season with Boca Juniors

this is looking better and better he now has 7 EPL goals this season alone (in only around 700 minutes) on a hat trick tonight 22 goals in his last 2900 minutes, all but 1 are EPL goals

1 3 Wood on a hat trick

CHO hit the post after a superb move

1 2 Chris Wood

what a save by Mads Hermansen

1 1 Vardy

nil 1 Forest Yates

absolutely depressing if ALL those are moved on (including Carney)

https://www.soccershoes.blog/sports/2024/premier-league-leicester-city-vs-nottingham-forest-s1/

https://platform.soccerstreams100.io/event/eng-1/nottm-forest-vs-leicester-live-soccer-stats/704362

England. Premier League. Lеісеstеr Сіty vs Nоttіnghаm Fоrеst 25 October 2024 at 20:00. 99% Web 99% Web 99% Web 99% Web 99% Web 99% Web 99% Web 99% Web 99% Web 99% Web 99% Web 99% Web 99% Web 99% Web 99% Web 99% Web

https://www.vipleague.pm/epl/leicester-city-vs-nottingham-forest-1-live-streaming https://www.vipleague.pm/epl/leicester-city-vs-nottingham-forest-2-live-streaming

IF we get £30m for him we doubled our money BlueCo will say it was a huge win

the only CMFs who were actually available (so no Valverde, no Camavinga, no Pedri, no Gavi, no Barella, no Guimarães, no Zubimendi, no Zaïre-Emery, no de Jong, no Vitinha, no Fermín López, no Mac Allister, no Gravenberch, no Szoboszlai, no Paul Wanner) in summer 2024 that I would say 'ok, I will take therm over Carney' were (KDH WAS NEVER ONE OF THEM) bold are still available this coming summer João Neves Teun Koopmeiners Douglas Luiz Éderson Khéphren Thuram Quinten Timber Pablo Barrios pretty sure that is it I am so depressed that we are going to dump Carney (more than likely) and yet low talent KDH will stay what a fucking stupid buy KDH was not Drinkwater bad, not at all, but still it is on the same road

Mou red carded, lololol