The English Football Thread

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Håland with a hat trick for Norway

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lol, Sky is cranking up the Bale hype train like crazy

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17 hours ago, Jason said:

 

Rick Parry helped destroy the fabric of English football once, and now he's going for it again. His alliance with Manchester United, Liverpool and any fellow travellers within the Big Six is the most flagrant, abusive and ruinous power grab the domestic game has seen since the formation of the Premier League with Parry as its chief executive close to 30 years ago. That put the power in the hands of 20 clubs. Now Parry and the elite want this narrowed down to a cabal of six. They are promising all kinds of bungs and sweeteners to get their way, painting themselves as the saviours of the game, the friends of the little folk, but do not believe a single word of it

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Premier League: Radical reform plans could have 'damaging impact'

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/54499998

Radical proposals for the reform of English football could have a "damaging impact" on the game, says the Premier League.

Under the proposals, led by Liverpool and Manchester United, the English top flight would be cut to 18 teams.

 

The plans would see the Premier League hand over the £250m bailout required by the Football League to stave off a financial disaster among its 72 clubs.

The Premier League would also hand over 25% of its annual income to the EFL.

The proposals, dubbed Project Big Picture, would see:

The Premier League cut from 20 to 18 clubs, with the Championship, League One and League Two each retaining 24 teams.

The bottom two teams in the Premier League relegated automatically with the 16th-placed team joining the Championship play-offs.

The League Cup and Community Shield abolished.

Parachute payments scrapped.

A £250m rescue fund made immediately available to the EFL

£100m paid to the FA to make up for lost revenue.

Nine clubs given 'special voting rights' on certain issues, based on their extended runs in the Premier League.

But the plans have been criticised by the Premier League, the government and supporters' groups.

"English football is the world's most watched, and has a vibrant, dynamic and competitive league structure that drives interest around the globe," a Premier League statement said.

"To maintain this position, it is important that we all work together. Both the Premier League and the FA support a wide-ranging discussion on the future of the game, including its competition structures, calendar and overall financing particularly in light of the effects of Covid-19.

"Football has many stakeholders, therefore this work should be carried out through the proper channels enabling all clubs and stakeholders the opportunity to contribute."

Under the proposals, the EFL Cup in its present form would be abolished and the Community Shield scrapped.

In addition, the top flight's 14-club majority voting system would change.

The Premier League statement added: "In the Premier League's view, a number of the individual proposals in the plan published today could have a damaging impact on the whole game and we are disappointed to see that Rick Parry, chair of the EFL, has given his on-the-record support.

"The Premier League has been working in good faith with its clubs and the EFL to seek a resolution to the requirement for Covid-19 rescue funding. This work will continue."

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport condemned what it called a "backroom deal".

"We are surprised and disappointed that at a time of crisis when we have urged the top tiers of professional football to come together and finalise a deal to help lower league clubs, there appear to be backroom deals being cooked up that would create a closed shop at the very top of the game," a DCMS spokesperson said.

"Sustainability, integrity and fair competition are absolutely paramount and anything that may undermine them is deeply troubling. Fans must be front of all our minds, and this shows why our fan led review of football governance will be so critical."

Analysis - 'hugely divisive and potentially seismic'

BBC sports editor Dan Roan

This is a hugely divisive and potentially seismic proposal, threatening the biggest shake-up of the English game in a generation.

Angered by the way the story broke without their blessing, the Premier League has already given it short shrift, viewing this as a regrettable power-grab. In fact one well-placed Premier League source has described it as a "takeover attempt, rather than a rescue package".

Many will see this as an anti-competitive plot to concentrate power in the hands of the biggest clubs, opening the door to them controlling broadcast contracts, financial rules and even takeovers bids in a way top-flight bosses have always been desperate to avoid - a step towards a European Super League, and a means of freeing up space in the calendar to play more lucrative pre-season friendlies.

For years the bigger clubs have wanted more money and more sway. This is the most dramatic manifestation of that to date. But will it get off the ground? There will be huge doubts given 14 clubs would need to approve a plan that would mean fewer Premier League places. But the involvement of the two biggest clubs in the country means this surprising development has to be taken seriously.

At a time when the EFL is facing an unprecedented financial crisis however, it is easy to see why they would support a plan that would hand them the £250m they need to cover the loss of match-day revenue this season. And many in football will welcome the idea of a more redistributive financial model, with 25% of Premier League income shared at a time when the gulf between the divisions has been identified as a major problem.

Indeed, if the threat of this plan helps break the impasse between the Premier League and the government over a rescue package for the EFL, and a more redistributive financial 'reset', perhaps it can emerge as a positive development.

'Gap to Premier League is unbridgeable'

The English Football League confirmed it had been in talks over 'Project Big Picture' and that its chairman Rick Parry was in favour of the plans, first reported in the Daily Telegraph.

"The need for a complete rethinking regarding the funding of English professional football predates the Covid-19 crisis," he said in a statement.

"Discussion and planning around 'Project Big Picture' has been ongoing for quite some time, unrelated to the current pandemic but now has an urgency that simply cannot be denied.

"The revenues flowing from the investment and work of our top clubs has been largely limited to the top division creating a sort of lottery, while Championship clubs struggle to behave prudently and Leagues One and Two are financially stretched despite enormous revenues English football generates.

"This plan devised by our top clubs and the English Football League puts an end to all of that."

Parry says, in 2018-19, Championship clubs received £146m in EFL distributions and Premier League solidarity payments, compared with £1.56bn received by the bottom 14 Premier League clubs.

He added parachute payments made to eight recently relegated clubs totalled £246m and represented one-third of the total Championship turnover.

Parry said it created "a major distortion that impacts the league annually".

"The gap between the Premier League and the English Football League has become a chasm which has become unbridgeable for clubs transitioning between the EFL and Premier League," he said.

 

It is understood Liverpool's owners, the Fenway Sports Group, came forward with the initial plan, which has been worked on by United co-chairman Joel Glazer. It is anticipated it will receive the backing of Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur - the other members of England's 'big six'.

The idea is to address longstanding EFL concerns about the huge gap in funding between its divisions and the Premier League by handing over 25% of the annual income, although the current parachute payment system would be scrapped.

There would be a £250m up-front payment to address the existing crisis created by the coronavirus pandemic, seen by some as a bid to garner support for the proposals.

In addition, the Football Association would receive what is being described as a £100m "gift".

The Football Supporters' Association said it noted "with grave concern" the proposals, adding they had "far-reaching consequences for the whole of domestic football".

"Once again it appears that big decisions in football are apparently being stitched up behind our backs by billionaire club owners who continue to treat football as their personal fiefdom," it said in a statement.

"Football is far more than a business to be carved up; it is part of our communities and our heritage, and football fans are its lifeblood. As football's most important stakeholders, it is crucial that fans are consulted and involved in the game's decision-making.

"We have welcomed the government's commitment to a 'fan-led review of the governance of football'; we would argue that today's revelations have made that process even more relevant and urgent."

The organisation said it remained "open-minded to any suggestions for the improvement of the governance and organisation of the game".

It added: "We would however emphasise that in our discussions so far, very few of our members have ever expressed the view that what football really needs is a greater concentration of power in the hands of the big six billionaire-owned clubs."

No date has been set for the proposed new-style league to be in operation but sources have suggested 2022-23 is not out of the question.

In order to get down from 20 to 18, it is anticipated four clubs would be relegated directly, with two promoted from the Championship. In addition, there would be play-offs involving the team to finish 16th in the Premier League and those in third, fourth and fifth in the second tier.

It is also planned that, as well as the 'big six', ever-present league member Everton, West Ham United and Southampton - ninth and 11th respectively in the list of clubs who have featured in the most Premier League seasons - would be granted special status.

If six of those nine clubs vote in favour of a proposal, it would be enough to get it passed.

There is no mention of Aston Villa and Newcastle United, both of whom have featured in more Premier League campaigns than Manchester City.

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Why would they scrap the Community Shield? LOL, it as just one game and every remotely major football nation does it

its a trophy and just to get in it is a bitch

what's next, doing away with the Super Cup?

what they need to scrap are all these extra nation team stupid extra international games

the World Cup, the the European Championship and the Olympics are enough

fuck all the rest

all these extra games are causing injuries to explode (do not care nor worry about the CS, it is one game, a club game, and in a top 5 stadium on the planet)

in fact, I would like to see clauses inserted into the Big Five leagues player's contracts that blocks players from going down to backwater shitholes in AFCON (and now also the 2nd tournament, the African Nations Championship) where so many injuries take place due to thug play and horrid faculties/medical staffs

Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF) is even worse than UEFA

World Cup qualification games down there are bad enough already

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‘I was thinking, f*** you. I have as much right to be here as you’

https://theathletic.com/2126791/2020/10/11/gender-discrimination-womens-football/

On August 13, Georgie Bingham posted a tweet announcing that earlier in the week, she had been informed by talkSPORT radio that her contract was not being renewed for the new season.

“I would like to make it clear that this was not my decision,” she wrote. “I was told they’d like to take the weekend breakfast show in a different direction with more ‘football expertise’ and I was not offered any other on-air slot or any new shift agreement either.”

She left talkSPORT with little fanfare. There was no public thank-you for her service or even an acknowledgement that she had been let go. The Athletic understands that her departure was a programming decision with the Weekend Sports Breakfast programme continuing with Natalie Sawyer taking Bingham’s place alongside Tony Cascarino.

Bingham had worked at the station since 2011 and hosted its weekend breakfast show for six of those years, posting positive or increased listening figures in every quarter bar three. In the two weeks after revealing her departure on Twitter, she was inundated with over a thousand messages of support from listeners who couldn’t understand talkSPORT’s decision.

It’s just one part of a broader scenario that has left a broadcaster with more than 25 years of experience questioning whether she wants to continue to work in sports media.

“Why would I?” Bingham says. “Combine the social media issues surrounding outright hostility towards women with 10 years of ploughing a lone furrow at talkSPORT for an exit that didn’t even dignify a thank you for my service… At the moment, I don’t know if I have the appetite to work in this industry again. It would be like staying in an abusive relationship. After 25 years of putting up with bullshit, you just think, ‘Maybe I don’t need that anymore’.”

Bingham is speaking in the same week the Women in Football (WiF) organisation announced the results of its biggest-ever survey, sent out to over 4,000 members to coincide with their relaunch. It found that two thirds (66 per cent) of women have experienced gender discrimination in the football workplace, with just 12 per cent of incidents getting reported.

To try and build a better picture of what that discrimination looks like and why so much of it goes unreported, The Athletic has spoken to several women who work in the media sector of the industry about their experiences.

Some chose to speak anonymously, fearful of putting their careers in jeopardy. Others, including one who said she’d been through “a couple of really horrendous things in the last three years”, chose not to speak at all, terrified that their anecdotes would be traced back to them and cause further problems in the workplace.

The football media landscape is one that, from the outside, looks to be moving in a positive direction for women. There are more female football reporters, presenters and analysts than ever and while there remains a vast swathe of social media that will never accept a female view on the men’s game, there are many more who appreciate seeing, hearing and reading the views of female journalists.

But for those on the inside, there are still issues that need addressing.

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More than one football journalist described themselves as the most experienced, capable and knowledgeable they have ever been — but with the least work. Is that simply the impact of coronavirus? Perhaps in part. But there are also instances where women have been let go with the explanation that their employer wanted to bring in younger talent, while simultaneously seeing older male colleagues handed multi-year contracts.

“It’s a real issue which men don’t face,” says one source, “getting to mid-30s and suddenly being ditched for young women without any experience or even relevant qualifications.” Another says, “unfortunately, there are just too many decisions now that are made by middle-aged white men who decide who they like the look of when it comes to women. That is a lot of what happens in broadcast and it’s just so obvious.”

Bingham says, in her experience, it’s largely a generational issue and that while attitudes of the male generation who are now in their late 20s/early 30s are “very different and refreshing”, they are not yet the ones in positions of power and influence. “There is a level of misogynist that is the kind who thinks women should be in the kitchen. Then, there is a level of misogyny that protects the white, middle-aged man, and that’s largely what our management in this industry is.

“There’s a lot of men who don’t even realise they are misogynistic. They’re like, ‘I love women’, but they don’t respect women and don’t treat them as equals. That’s what we’re working against and it’s going to take a long time for the industry to flush out these people.”

Another source who has worked as a sports broadcaster and producer across television and radio for 15 years says that sexism in football is something that has taken time to become recognised as such. “It’s a bit like ingrained racism in society — something we’re only really now starting to uncover, so it’s not about the things we know not to say: it’s the things that are ingrained within society.”

A year or so ago, she was giving a talk at a business event when she found herself telling a story that she’d not spoken about publicly before.

At the time she was working on a football tournament for a large broadcaster and had been working in football for a number of years, but in broadcasting as a whole for even longer. Even so, she was delighted to be given a slot hosting her own bulletins solo (most were double-headed, with one male and one female broadcaster), meaning she was responsible for producing, writing and presenting the broadcasts. It was a real coup.

It was only when she arrived in the office one afternoon to find an invoice accidentally left on her desk that she realised her work was being undervalued. The numbers showed a male colleague, someone fresh out of university and with nowhere near the level of experience she had, was being paid £50 more per shift than she was. “It wasn’t even for doing the same job,” she says. “He was co-hosting, so only doing half the job I was.”

It was the first time she’d experienced such inequality and she decided she couldn’t ignore it.

“I asked for a private word with my boss and told him, ‘I’m grateful for the opportunity I’ve had but this hurts when I think of all the work I put in and the experience I’ve got’. He shut me down very quickly, told me it was none of my business what he paid anyone else and that I had five minutes to decide if I wanted to do the rest of the shifts or not.”

She left his office and mulled it over for 10 minutes before sending her boss an email explaining that, as a woman of her word, she would fulfil her shifts on the terms agreed but that she was disappointed and hoped his three daughters would never have to face what she’d had to.

His reply read: “I’ve backdated your pay to match his but I’ll never work with you again because you’re trouble.”

“The door swung open on gender pay some years after that happened,” she says. “But he never reached out to me about it. I often wonder if it’s something that ever crossed his mind again? I’ve never forgotten it. But that day at the business event was probably the first time I mentioned it out loud and I got gasps from the audience.

“I think, as women, we have these experiences and bottle them up. I’d normalised it so much in my own head that when I got that reaction, I was really surprised.”

Alison Bender has been working in football broadcasting for 20 years and says it’s only now that she feels able to talk about some of the experiences she’s had in the industry. “Weirdly, I have less work now than I had many years ago but I feel I have earned my stripes and can talk more freely. In the early days, I was so afraid that if I reported any sexism, people would be like, ‘It’s a privilege for you to be in this job. If you don’t like it, then get out’.”

As a mother of two, Bender has twice experienced returning to work from maternity leave. On neither occasion was it straightforward. After her first child was born, she made sure to be back at work as soon as possible, only six weeks after having her son, because she was “petrified” her job would be given away. She returned to find that her rush had been in vain. Her show was already being passed over to a younger female who had no experience of presenting.

“I feel sad for my young self that I rushed back in that quickly, but I felt I had no choice. While I was gone, there was a change of management and, because I came back part-time, I don’t think the new boss saw me as part of the furniture like I had been. He took me into his office and said, ‘We’re making some changes and you’re one of the casualties’. It was a terrible end, really. I can’t ever say that it was because I had a baby but I do know that because I had a baby I wasn’t in the office as much as I would have been.

“I don’t think there’s enough protection for women when they leave to have a baby. But at the time I didn’t have the courage to say anything.”

A few years later, Bender was working for a different company when she had her second child. She says the employer had been “very good” to her when her first was still very young, allowing her family to fly out to visit her halfway through a six-week assignment abroad: “If they hadn’t allowed that I don’t think I could have done it,” she says.

While she was off to have her second child, a replacement was hired but was not told that she was working as maternity cover. “There was a strange stand-off when I was due to come back,” says Bender. “I came back ready to do my job and was supposed to be flying to Monaco to interview Zlatan Ibrahimovic but they told me to take the day off because this other girl, with a much younger image than mine, was going to cover it: ‘We think it fits her style better’.

“I had a contract there but they just decided they liked her style better than mine. It’s frustrating, but you can’t really do anything.”

Reshmin Chowdhury, also a mum of two, has worked in sports broadcasting for 12 years, getting her first opportunity in Spain at Real Madrid TV in 2008. “There was nothing in England at that time,” she says. “It was such a closed shop, so there was no way to get into the industry unless you knew someone.”

Her experience in Spain helped her to get a job at BBC Sport when she returned, and that’s where she first experienced something that will be painfully familiar to most women working in football. “I call it the litmus test, where male colleagues would ask me these questions just to make sure that you knew what you were talking about.

“One asked, ‘Tell me about Lassana Diarra. What does he bring?’ I answered all his questions and he’s nodding his head as if to say, ‘You’ve passed the test’. I didn’t say anything but I was thinking, ‘Fuck you. I have as much right to be here as you’. I knew my work would prove it, so I just saw it all as part of the job — my role was to educate people and prove them wrong.”

Chowdhury says there are far fewer barriers to entry for women now than when she was starting out and that many of the misconceptions are gone, or at least going. While she struggled through the early years of raising two children while trying to fulfil all the challenges her role presented, often including foreign trips that meant being away from home for days at a time, she says young women now feel far more comfortable being open about the struggle for balance.

“I never talked about it, because no one else did. It was a given that you’d just get on with the job. It was about organising everything before I left; making sure all their laundry was done, the fridge was stocked and I’d prepared meals to make it easier for the people helping me out. Then, I’d prepare myself for the job. It’s like doing three jobs in one: being a nanny, a mum and a journalist all at the same time. It’s only now that I look back and think, ‘I don’t know how I did it’.

“I love my job, but it’s been hard. I can’t even begin to tell you how hard it’s been to do everything and the constant guilt of not being there for certain things.”

For all her experience and success, when Chowdhury surveys the landscape in sports broadcasting now, she isn’t sure how much further she can progress. “I’ve put in over a decade of hard graft and feel I’m on the cusp or should be the next person to have one of these top roles but I have this feeling that I’m going to be overtaken by people further down the continuum because broadcasters are looking for the ‘new face’.

“I feel I’m at the top of my game and I have got really good work but there’s more I want to achieve — I just don’t know if I can. It’s either that faces don’t change or broadcasters go for whatever is relevant at that time, and I might not be that. It’s not a meritocracy, this industry. It’s not always the most qualified people getting the jobs.

“I do feel there is a ceiling, which is why I don’t want to just be reliant on broadcasting. The landscape is still so based on who you know. If you have that one person who is your ‘backer’ and takes you everywhere they go, you’ll do really well. But if you don’t have that…”

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For Ebru Koksal, Women in Football’s chair, the results of its survey have shown exactly how much work still lies ahead.

“The feedback we have received from women about the issues they have faced in the industry makes for heartbreaking reading,” she says. “One story of bias, outdated perceptions and outright bullying is one too many.

“There is still a lot of work to do to ensure that women are encouraged to forge careers in the industry and this is where Women in Football will continue to play a big part.”

Its next steps are the launch of a new corporate membership scheme to support employers in becoming more gender-inclusive while WiF is also doubling the number of places on the Vikki Orvice Memorial Directorship Scheme, which aims to help recipients secure board positions within football.

The last two months have given Bingham time to pause and reflect on the industry she has been part of for a quarter of a century.

During her time working there have been incidents where Bingham feels she was treated differently to her male counterparts, even recounting instances where guests on her shows would not address her directly, only her male co-host.

But she makes it clear that the talkSPORT she joined a decade ago was very different from the company she left this summer, where more women have been welcomed on board (Reshmin Chowdhury fronts their GameDay coverage while Faye Carruthers has been appointed England correspondent alongside her roles hosting Saturday evenings and the Women’s Football Weekly show) and the “outright hostility” she experienced from “people who just expected that you’re stupid or token, or that you are invading their territory” has all but disappeared.

It’s a different world to the one where a young Bingham, just starting in the industry, was told by her first boss to go and work in the US, “where they want opinion and humour”.

“And that was right,” she says. “America was perfect for me. The UK really isn’t. Unless, of course, I was white and male, in which case, opinion and humour are positively encouraged.”

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History lessons, new homes and Ancelotti’s Blackpool fury: Everton’s dream start

https://theathletic.com/2127693/2020/10/12/everton-start-premier-league-ancelotti-coleman-rodriguez/

A couple of days before Everton’s home game against West Bromwich Albion last month, Seamus Coleman assembled the squad for a meeting. 

Everton had made a good start to the season, beating Tottenham Hotspur away on the opening day before following it up with a 3-0 Carabao Cup win over Salford City, but the club captain was still keen to impress on players — old and new — what it means to play for one of English football’s oldest sides. 

Coleman had requested a short video from the club’s media team over the summer, a part-educational, part-motivational montage of historic triumphs, club legends and recent highlights. With new players, including James Rodriguez, Allan and Abdoulaye Doucoure, performing in front of empty stands, Coleman also wanted to convey the power of Goodison Park and the passion of Everton’s fanbase. 

The video started with drone footage of the stadium from Howard’s Way, the popular film chronicling Everton’s success in the 1980s under legendary manager Howard Kendall, and a quote from Peter Reid, one of that side’s stalwarts. 

“There’s something unique about Everton, the spirit of the place grabs you, and once it grabs you, it never leaves you,” Reid said. 

Over 15 minutes, Rodriguez and the rest of the team saw Kendall’s great side conquer Bayern Munich in the European Cup Winners’ Cup semi-final, Goodison full to the brim celebrating goals and victories, and standout moments from current squad players. That weekend, Carlo Ancelotti’s Everton side beat West Brom 5-2.

The montage was particularly well received by in-form striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who is said to have commented that he had been inspired by the feats of club legends Andy Gray and Graeme Sharp. Calvert-Lewin, called up to the England squad for the first time this month, is continuing that fine vein of Everton striking tradition.

Buoyed by the new England cap’s goals, the astute management of Ancelotti and the addition of several big names over summer, Everton have made an outstanding start to the season. 

“There might have been a bit of scepticism when Carlo first joined about whether he has the appetite anymore or when James Rodriguez went if he was ever going to be the player from 2014,” says a source. “But those questions are getting answered now and people are taking notice.”

After seven games, Ancelotti’s side are top of the Premier League by three points, into the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup and boast a 100 per cent record across all competitions, scoring 24 goals in the process. It has been their best opening to a campaign since 1894-95. 

The form of Calvert-Lewin, who struck nine times in his opening six club games, has been pivotal. But so has the astute management of Ancelotti, the influence of his son, Davide, and Duncan Ferguson as assistants, and the impact of the new signings. 

Across the board, standards have been raised and Everton look like a different beast.  

It is a turnaround in fortunes that scarcely seemed possible after a tough end to 2019-20 in which Everton finished with just one win in their final six matches and lost 3-1 at home to relegated Bournemouth on the final day.

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Bloomfield Road. August 22  

Everton’s pre-season is just 11 minutes old but already they are three goals down to League One side Blackpool. They have not been at the races, either individually or collectively. For all Blackpool’s good work — and there has been plenty — the goals come about through a series of Everton errors. 

Overrun all over the pitch, the visitors are teetering. Ancelotti watches on ashen-faced, arms crossed. He has been here before. 

By half-time, Everton are back in the game through goals from Calvert-Lewin and Gylfi Sigurdsson but it is not enough to remove the furrowed brow from Ancelotti’s face. He sends his players out 10 minutes early for the second half. Few words but a clear message. Take responsibility.

It had been the same after defeats by Wolverhampton Wanderers and Bournemouth at the end of the 2019-20 season. Following the 3-0 loss at Molineux, skipper Coleman reminded the team in the away dressing room that they had fallen well below the standards required, before saying the same thing in front of the TV cameras. Privately, other members of the squad felt like they had been playing like a team a couple of goals ahead rather than one 3-0 behind.  

After the 3-1 humbling against Bournemouth, and again before the players went away for their short three-week break between seasons, Ancelotti demanded his squad come back to training with a changed mentality, renewed ambition and more desire.  

The worry, after Wolves, was that there had been no real response. Months later, in a similar situation against Blackpool, Ancelotti belatedly got one — albeit against League One opposition. From 3-0 down, Everton clawed their way back to draw 3-3.

“Blackpool could end up being a watershed moment,” says one source close to the dressing room. “They’d only just got back and it was more, ‘You could get embarrassed here. It’s not good enough.’”

The response seen on the Lancashire coast was a step in the right direction, but Ancelotti wanted more.

He turned to the transfer market and some familiar faces. 

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The arrivals of Allan, Doucoure and Rodriguez have not only given everyone at Goodison a lift, they have also added vital elements Everton have long been missing. 

“They’ve brought in a handful of class players who have gone into the first team,” says one source. “It was so obvious last year that there was this massive hole in the middle of the team. They didn’t have legs or anyone to sit in front of the back four. They’ve gone out and addressed that with quality players.”

Another regular observer with links to the club describes how Allan and Rodriguez, two players who have worked under Ancelotti before, have integrated seamlessly and helped drive standards.  

“They know what the manager wants immediately and that’s massive,” the source says. “Everton were too nice. There’s a difference in the camp now in terms of what’s expected and what’s allowed. Ancelotti is right in (at Finch Farm) after games whereas other managers would sometimes go away for a bit.”

Ancelotti was particularly pivotal in the deals to bring Allan and Rodriguez to Goodison, phoning up the pair before their arrivals to discuss how they would fit into his plans. Without the pre-existing bonds in place, it is hard to envisage Everton being able to secure Rodriguez.

“It’s given everyone a massive boost and everyone knows if they’re not on it they’ll be replaced,” one source tells The Athletic. “You can’t afford to have a poor season. The competition has brought the best out of everybody — you have to operate at another level.” 

The early signs are that Everton’s squad players are doing just that. 

Sigurdsson, an ever-present when fit last season, has started just one Premier League game this time around, but is having a quietly effective start to the campaign. He has responded to being dropped with a number of eye-catching displays in the Carabao Cup, backing it up in the Premier League win over Brighton & Hove Albion before the international break, and is arguably one of those benefitting most from the switch from 4-4-2 to 4-3-3. With extra legs and defensive solidity alongside him, Sigurdsson’s technical ability has come to the fore. 

The Athletic understands, though, that Everton were open to selling the Icelander to Saudi side Al Hilal on deadline day, only for the 31-year-old to decide to stay and fight for his place. 

Sigurdsson scored twice for Iceland on Thursday in their European Championship qualifier against Romania and, speaking to Icelandic TV, sent a message to Ancelotti after the game. “I hope Carlo was watching,” he said.

Others close to the Everton dressing room highlight Yerry Mina and Tom Davies as examples of players who have stepped up in recent weeks in the face of renewed competition. Mina, towering against Brighton as new £20 million signing Ben Godfrey watched on at Goodison, is widely considered to have had one of his best games in a blue shirt against Graham Potter’s side. 

---

Blundellsands is a sleepy suburb next to Crosby on Merseyside’s Sefton coastline, known for the historic West Lancashire Golf Club and Antony Gormley’s ethereal Another Place statues.

It’s also become the centre of a “New Everton” enclave. Ancelotti fell in love with the area at first sight and instructed his estate agent not to look any further after showing him the plush home he moved into in December, and Richarlison lives around the corner with his agent.

Just up the road in nearby Freshfield is Rodriguez, who chose one of the area’s most impressive properties; replete with six bedrooms, a tennis court, swimming pool, gym and putting green. If that’s not enough to keep the 29-year-old busy in his spare time, his new home even has its own floodlit football pitch in the grounds.

It is no coincidence the Colombian chose to live close to his mentor and fellow leading light in Everton’s attack. He speaks Portuguese and has already socialised outside of training with Everton’s core of South American stars.

While many players from the north west’s four biggest clubs choose to live outside of Liverpool and Manchester in nearby Cheshire, Everton players are increasingly following the example of their manager, who wanted to be embedded in the community of which his club is part. It’s typical of the growing unity on and off the pitch.

Half-an-hour’s drive from Blundellsands is Everton’s Finch Farm training ground, where Ancelotti’s methods have had time to fully settle in. While the Italian complained last season about a lack of directness and “vertical” passing from his team, he and son Davide have restructured sessions to counter the problem. There is a desire to communicate in English but Davide, who speaks Italian, Spanish, French and German, is also able to convey instructions in other languages — particularly as Everton’s South American contingent continue to learn English.

The result is quick, decisive attacking football that starts with bravery on the ball from defenders to get it into the feet of gifted attackers.

“Carlo is all about playing the ball through the lines quickly,” says a source close to the first team. “They’ve got those players there who can pick up the ball and drive.

“All the training is about breaking the lines as quickly as possible. It’s five against six for 20-25 minutes at a time. Wave after wave. It’s about getting the ball and slotting it through. 

“In defence, they’re setting out with a couple of banks and it’s ‘break us down’. That’s Ancelotti.”

It has also helped Calvert-Lewin, who has not looked back since Ferguson’s first game as interim coach in December, race to the top of the scoring charts.

---

Everton’s new balance was evident from the first game of the new season, before which Rodriguez received a standing ovation for his Brazilian initiation song and dance at a Shoreditch hotel.

Ancelotti’s side played with a sense of purpose, poise and control in north London, which was a million miles away from the dark days of Molineux in July. More importantly, they got a result that was an important early psychological landmark; their first win at Tottenham in the Premier League in 12 years.

“You can’t underestimate winning that game against Tottenham,” says a source. “The confidence is sky high and they trust and believe in the manager who has been there and done it.

“There has been a raising of standards across the club and there has been a shift in mentality. They look like a team of men.”

The growing belief and positivity even extended into the usually fraught last day of the transfer window.

Four years ago, in owner Farhad Moshiri’s first summer, Everton were gazumped close to the deadline by Spurs, who signed Moussa Sissoko from under their noses after the club had agreed to a deal with Newcastle.

This time around, they even completed their later business in a controlled fashion, signing Godfrey, one of the country’s highest-rated young defenders, from Norwich ahead of a host of clubs on Monday morning.

Replenishing their ranks of central defenders with the £20 million deal for Godfrey pushed Everton to their limits financially after being unable to offload as many highly paid fringe men such as Yannick Bolasie and Muhamed Besic as they would have liked. Nevertheless, they got the transfer done.

“Everyone is saying Everton have got a real player on their hands here with Godfrey,” says one figure close to the deal. “Lee Carsley (who coached Godfrey for England Under-21s) loves him and was raving to Duncan. Physically he’s there already and he really wanted to come.

“Everton are becoming a desirable club. Players in the Premier League and Europe are starting to view them as more than just somewhere to go for a pay-day but somewhere to go and challenge the top four soon.”

It’s still early days this season but the signs are certainly encouraging.

 

[Atomiswave 6,072]

7 hours ago, Vesper said:

Why would they scrap the Community Shield? LOL, it as just one game and every remotely major football nation does it

its a trophy and just to get in it is a bitch

what's next, doing away with the Super Cup?

what they need to scrap are all these extra nation team stupid extra international games

the World Cup, the the European Championship and the Olympics are enough

fuck all the rest

all these extra games are causing injuries to explode (do not care nor worry about the CS, it is one game, a club game, and in a top 5 stadium on the planet)

in fact, I would like to see clauses inserted into the Big Five leagues player's contracts that blocks players from going down to backwater shitholes in AFCON (and now also the 2nd tournament, the African Nations Championship) where so many injuries take place due to thug play and horrid faculties/medical staffs

Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF) is even worse than UEFA

World Cup qualification games down there are bad enough already

Our game has been hijacked long ago, as if that wasnt enough they propose this shit on top. Fucking pathetic.

[Vesper 27,342]

Words like 'self', 'serving', 'power' and 'grab' are being bandied about

POWER GRAB OR ALTRUISM? When Sunday’s big scoop about a mooted shake-up in the English football pyramid broke around noon, it caused much consternation among the country’s press pack. As anybody who has ever witnessed feeding time at the lavish Stamford Bridge media buffet will attest, football journalists are famously fond of their grub. With that in mind, forcing them to abandon Sunday lunch in order to digest the finer points of very elaborate and detailed plans to save football instead was never likely to end well, so it’s no great surprise so many of them seem to have found it thoroughly objectionable. Hatched by Liverpool’s American owners with the approval of their Manchester United counterparts and run up the flagpole by Football League chief suit, Liverpool fan, former Premier League CEO and suspected trojan horse Rick Parry, Project Big Picture is not entirely without merit, even if it does bear a striking likeness to Edvard Munch’s The Scream. Taking the extremely short-term view, the one Parry and his cohorts want you to take, EFL clubs in danger of going into Covid-related extinction would get a rescue package, the grassroots game would benefit financially, a much-maligned parachute payments system would be abolished and – most importantly – The Fiver gets some much-needed #content to write about on what would otherwise have been a very quiet Monday.

Plan to mend football pyramid's great crack should not be swept off table | David Conn Read more

But at what cost, eh? Since news of the plan broke, words like “self”, “serving”, “power” and “grab” have been bandied about by cynics who, while acknowledging Something Needs To Be Done to save clubs from going to the wall, have a feeling the motives of Liverpool and Manchester United might not be entirely altruistic. The government is appalled, the Premier League is appalled and several Football League clubs have also clutched their pearls over a wheeze they feel would scupper their chances of ever hitting the big time. In return for a gesture of apparent largesse that would cost them nothing and help them earn even more, members of the Big Six and three other clubs apparently picked at random from an upturned fez would ultimately seize control of all Premier League decision-making. “I don’t see it that way,” countered Parry, waving his pom-poms on various radio shows. “They care about the pyramid. This will come out, the truth will come out; their passion for the pyramid will come out.” Of course only time will tell if this hitherto concealed passion is unbridled enough to encourage the Premier League’s richest clubs to help out those less fortunate than themselves in a manner that isn’t so obviously self-serving. They could begin by rowing back on their fiendish plan to remove the Premier League’s all important “one club, one vote” ethos, an idea that flies in the very face of democracy. For now, though, at least a conversation has begun and it is shaping up to be quite the squabble that could ultimately end in a footballing civil war. For lower-league clubs who need financial assistance now, the wait for salvation looks set to go on and on. QUOTE OF THE DAY “I became too fond of the lifestyle that came with the money. I want to go back in time and hit that young lad on the head with a hammer. Make him understand what a chance it is. That he has something special … something he has to look after” – Nicklas Bendtner opens up to Donald McRae on how he lost his way.

 

[Fulham Broadway 16,409]

Special voting powers for clubs with more money? Seriously?? Lol Its like Football is run by Trump

 

[Fulham Broadway 16,409]

So this greedy cartel they want to set up

-Was this meeting with the two USA club owners about OUR football league taken place in the U.K. or was it in New York or Miami? Just asking.

[Atomiswave 6,072]

2 hours ago, Fulham Broadway said:

So this greedy cartel they want to set up

-Was this meeting with the two USA club owners about OUR football league taken place in the U.K. or was it in New York or Miami? Just asking.

Its really out of this world, 2 American owners meeting and deciding the fate, contacts a dodgy former executive and shit gets into motion......WTF man. Maryin Samuel is right, this will will be the end of the underdogs among other things.

[Fulham Broadway 16,409]

1 hour ago, Atomiswave said:

Its really out of this world, 2 American owners meeting and deciding the fate, contacts a dodgy former executive and shit gets into motion......WTF man. Maryin Samuel is right, this will will be the end of the underdogs among other things.

Yanks have sniffed out a mega earner, and want to control the game, then throw crumbs at the rest. I hope this is thrown out like for the criminal enterprise it actually is.

Cant believe some dumb fucks want to go along with this Liverpool/Man Utd bollox.

[Atomiswave 6,072]

39 minutes ago, Fulham Broadway said:

Yanks have sniffed out a mega earner, and want to control the game, then throw crumbs at the rest. I hope this is thrown out like for the criminal enterprise it actually is.

Cant believe some dumb fucks want to go along with this Liverpool/Man Utd bollox.

You said it man, proper bullshit of a move here. If this goes through you can kiss epl goodbye, its fucked as it is already. Who the fuck are you to propose such a thing?

They think they’re being slick with what their doing, but anyone with a brain can see that this is all just a big underhanded scheme where the so called “big 6” get richer, meanwhile the grass roots football teams get screwed over.

[Fulham Broadway 16,409]

16 minutes ago, Atomiswave said:

You said it man, proper bullshit of a move here. If this goes through you can kiss epl goodbye, its fucked as it is already. Who the fuck are you to propose such a thing?

They think they’re being slick with what their doing, but anyone with a brain can see that this is all just a big underhanded scheme where the so called “big 6” get richer, meanwhile the grass roots football teams get screwed over.

Next thing they'll control the media rights, then they'll fuck with the rules, dividing the game into 'quarters' -fucking touch downs or some such bullshit TV  adverts every 10 minutes (If anyones ever watched US sports on TV . its determined by advertising). 

[Atomiswave 6,072]

26 minutes ago, Fulham Broadway said:

Next thing they'll control the media rights, then they'll fuck with the rules, dividing the game into 'quarters' -fucking touch downs or some such bullshit TV  adverts every 10 minutes (If anyones ever watched US sports on TV . its determined by advertising). 

Hey you never know, such a thing is easily possible, potential is there sadly. The nerve of these roaches to plan such a move should receive a backlash imo, this will only make people hate them 2 even more....fucking bums.

[Fulham Broadway 16,409]

36 minutes ago, Atomiswave said:

Hey you never know, such a thing is easily possible, potential is there sadly. The nerve of these roaches to plan such a move should receive a backlash imo, this will only make people hate them 2 even more....fucking bums.

The way I see it, it's all about the big clubs making more money. The owners, in particular the Glazers only care about money and not football.
Don't scrap cups, the big clubs might not care but the other clubs do, especially if lower league clubs get drawn against a big team, its good for their fans and finances.

[Tomo 21,681]

There isn't a hope in hell these changes happen.