The English Football Thread

[Vesper 28,864]

11 hours ago, Blue Armour said:

Dont mind if we end up doing it ourselves., as I recall they were the ones that ruined ours.

Yes nil 1

Fucking Xavi Alonso

[Tomo 21,733]

1 minute ago, iceboy said:

talkSPORT

 

@talkSPORT

·

5m

 

BREAKING: Football stadiums will be allowed to let fans in from December 2 with 4,000 fans allowed in Tier 1 areas & 2,000 in Tier 2 areas

Common sense prevails!

[MoroccanBlue 5,306]

17 hours ago, Laylabelle said:

I dont think City are in it this year.  8 behind already

They look to be relying on KDB the same manner we relied on Hazard for years. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they finish outside Top 4. 

[Vesper 28,864]

2020-21 English Premier League

Burnley                 
Crystal Palace     

http://www.sportnews.to/sports/2020/premier-league-burnley-vs-crystal-palace-s1/

https://www.totalsportek.com/crystal-palace-epl/

[Tomo 21,733]

Happy place Turf Moor!

[OneMoSalah 8,778]

16 minutes ago, Vesper said:

2020-21 English Premier League

Burnley                 
Crystal Palace     

http://www.sportnews.to/sports/2020/premier-league-burnley-vs-crystal-palace-s1/

https://www.totalsportek.com/crystal-palace-epl/

Can't believe in modern day football, Roy Hodgson and Sean Dyche are still playing 442. I get Atletico Madrid play it also but fucking hell, dinosaurs. Although Dyce has done a good job with Burnley on the budget they have to be fair. 

[Special Juan 27,429]

Eze looks so good, needs to be away from Palace in the next year or two if he continues like this

[Fulham Broadway 16,863]

Up to 4000 to be allowed back in grounds....

[Laylabelle 9,359]

16 minutes ago, Fulham Broadway said:

Up to 4000 to be allowed back in grounds....

Only in Lowest risk and from sounds can't imagine being many places in that.

Tier 2 theyve said 2,000

Tier 3 none.

[Vesper 28,864]

2020-21 English Premier League

Wolverhampton Wanderers     
Southampton                            

http://www.sportnews.to/sports/2020/premier-league-wolverhampton-wanderers-vs-southampton-s1/

https://www.totalsportek.com/wolverhampton-epl/

 

[Vesper 28,864]

1 hour ago, OneMoSalah said:

Can't believe in modern day football, Roy Hodgson and Sean Dyche are still playing 442. I get Atletico Madrid play it also but fucking hell, dinosaurs. Although Dyce has done a good job with Burnley on the budget they have to be fair. 

caveman football

[Jase 43,479]

49 minutes ago, Fulham Broadway said:

Up to 4000 to be allowed back in grounds....

 

33 minutes ago, Laylabelle said:

Only in Lowest risk and from sounds can't imagine being many places in that.

Tier 2 theyve said 2,000

Tier 3 none.

Part of me is glad to see fans back at the stadium soon but another part of me feels this is somewhat rushed, when the pandemic is still ongoing and the vaccines aren't exactly ready yet. Here's hoping the league and clubs will handle the fans' return properly and not have any sudden outbreak happen in stadiums etc. 

[Laylabelle 9,359]

4 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

Part of me is glad to see fans back at the stadium soon but another part of me feels this is somewhat rushed, when the pandemic is still ongoing and the vaccines aren't exactly ready yet. Here's hoping the league and clubs will handle the fans' return properly and not have any sudden outbreak happen in stadiums etc. 

And thing is they'll no doubt be clubs not happy about having none. Not sure what cases are lie now but Liverpool,Manchester were all Tier 3 before

It does seem daft in a way. Cant see family but can watch a game. Agree part of it seems to soon but guess if can like you say do it properly and unlikely to be many that can have 4,000 anyway.. see how all pans out 

[Fulham Broadway 16,863]

1 hour ago, Jason said:

 

Part of me is glad to see fans back at the stadium soon but another part of me feels this is somewhat rushed, when the pandemic is still ongoing and the vaccines aren't exactly ready yet. Here's hoping the league and clubs will handle the fans' return properly and not have any sudden outbreak happen in stadiums etc. 

Our government is under pressure from half the backbenchers to open everything up, which is why it seems rushed.

It also distracts from them giving billions of our money to their wives and donors dodgy Covid companies that were quickly set up with no tendering process, and have not produced equipment. Theft in other words, but we're talking literally billions.

[Vesper 28,864]

2 hours ago, Fulham Broadway said:

Our government is under pressure from half the backbenchers to open everything up, which is why it seems rushed.

It also distracts from them giving billions of our money to their wives and donors dodgy Covid companies that were quickly set up with no tendering process, and have not produced equipment. Theft in other words, but we're talking literally billions.

[Vesper 28,864]

The Kroenkes

https://theathletic.com/2209159/2020/11/19/the-kroenkes-arsenal/

It was the day before the transfer deadline. The Los Angeles Rams were leading the New York Giants by ten to six at half-time, when Stan and Josh Kroenke broke off from watching the game to join a conference call. During a telephone conversation with trusted associate and Arsenal board member Tim Lewis, the owners authorised the club to trigger the €50 million release clause for Thomas Partey.

Such is life when you sit at the summit of a multi-billion empire spanning five sports and two continents. The Athletic has been told that the Kroenkes consider the Rams and Arsenal the twin jewels in the KSE crown. Some Arsenal supporters will take comfort from the fact the owners stepped out of a Rams game to attend to urgent transfer business. For others, the Kroenkes’ association with Arsenal still doesn’t feel right.

Stan Kroenke’s initial investment in 2007 was met with icy hostility, and the relationship with some fans has not thawed as his stake has increased. Until Kroenke arrived on the scene, Arsenal was a club that spoke not of “owners” but “custodians”. For many supporters, the Kroenkes are indelibly linked to a change in Arsenal’s traditions and culture, and a gradual slide towards being a corporation — just another “franchise” in KSE’s hefty portfolio.

The accusation is that a lack of focus has allowed Arsenal to drift. In the decade prior to Stan’s first involvement, Arsenal won three Premier League titles. They have not won one since, and it was 2014 before they won a trophy — the FA Cup. The club have slipped from Champions League certainties to Europa League regulars. At times, the club has appeared directionless. Is it possible to keep a firm hand on the tiller when you are overseeing an entire fleet?

There have been banners, hashtags and full-on protests. It has not been uncommon to hear the Arsenal fans tunefully urging Stan Kroenke to “get out of our club”.

Though some feel calling the owners passive is wrong. “It is unfair to say the Kroenkes are not in touch enough,” says one source. “They care about it, but in a way that care comes through the two or three people they trust 100 per cent. Then it’s very important that these people confirm their trust is well deserved, that they take care of the club as if they were the owners themselves.”

The club’s response to the pandemic has raised new concerns, with many supporters enraged by redundancies. Stan Kroenke is estimated by Forbes to be worth $10 billion, yet Gunnersaurus’ salary has been deemed unaffordable. Arsenal’s books for 2013-14 and 2014-15 revealed £3 million had been paid to KSE for “strategic and advisory services”, a sum which cannot possibly be worth to Kroenke what it cost him in goodwill.

But then we come to Partey, and Stan and Josh Kroenke finding the time to ensure Arsenal got the midfielder they needed. They found the money, too. Given the ongoing losses Arsenal are suffering as a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic, there’s no way they could have found the cash reserves required to buy out Partey’s contract without significant owner support. At the end of a summer in which Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE) had helped the club restructure their stadium debt, the outlay for Partey felt like another significant statement of intent.

The Kroenkes have long suggested their intention was to invest once they took Arsenal private as 100 per cent owners. The two years since they completed their takeover have not brought stability — it has been a period of tumultuous change. The year 2020 alone has seen Arsenal weighing the glory of an FA Cup win against the financial fallout from COVID-19. There have been wage cuts, redundancies and a substantial restructuring. Throughout, Arsenal’s position has been that those changes were designed to put the club in a position to strengthen the first team — and they undoubtedly emerged from the transfer window with a stronger squad.

This then is an appropriate time to take stock — to explore the nature of KSE’s involvement in Arsenal, and cast some light on the personalities behind the corporation. The Athletic has spent the past weeks speaking to those who know the Kroenkes best in order to paint a picture of Arsenal’s owners. Our findings include:

Stan Kroenke has attended Arsenal matches more regularly than reported.

KSE have a small network of trusted executives they use to monitor activity at Arsenal.

At no point during the Wenger reign did the ownership turn down a direct request for funds from the manager.

The decision to sign Nicolas Pepe was made at a BBQ at Josh Kroenke’s Los Angeles home. The ownership made certain financial guarantees in case the club was not able to sell players to fund the deal.

The players’ pay cut was not a mandate from the ownership. Executives made a presentation to the squad using the image and analogy of a sleeping bear.

Tim Lewis is now a “boots-on-the-ground” presence for the Kroenkes, has visited London Colney to observe training and was the man to tell Raul Sanllehi he was fired.

In the summer transfer window, Arsenal attempted to use instalment-based payment structures to land two of their top three targets from Partey, Houssem Aouar and Jorginho.

The Arsenal ownership are prepared to make further investments in the team, with Dominik Szoboszlai already under discussion with hierarchy and technical staff.

Three weeks after the transfer deadline passed, Arsenal won a league match at Old Trafford for the first time since Stan first bought into the club, 13 years ago. The Arsenal owner, 73, is understood to have been particularly delighted by Partey’s commanding midfield performance.

He would have had some idea of what to expect from the Ghanaian. As part of the recruitment process, technical director Edu walked the ownership through step-by-step on how Partey, along with other potential signings, would fit into Mikel Arteta’s tactical plans. While KSE place huge trust in their executive teams, when it comes to the biggest decisions “Silent” Stan Kroenke remains the man with the final say.

That particular epithet has been with Stan since he fell foul of a Denver sports columnist many years ago. It has stuck because Stan is not someone inclined to court the media. “He’s a better guy than people think he is,” says one former employee. “But he’d rather be private than be liked.” What’s more, the Kroenkes recognise that when it comes to sports ownership, actions speak far louder than words. Two years into their time as Arsenal’s sole owners, the presence of the Kroenkes is beginning to be more keenly felt.

It began with a meeting on a building site.

It was 2004 and Jeff Plush had recently been installed by KSE as an executive at their US soccer franchise, the Colorado Rapids. One of his first goals was to partner with a European football club, ideally in the Premier League. “I knew immediately we needed far more football knowledge, pedigree, connections,” Plush tells The Athletic. “And I wanted to talk to Arsenal — not just because I was an Arsenal fan, but because it’s a club whose pedigree speaks for itself.”

Plush reached out to Dick Law, a contact who had worked with Arsenal on their transfer business in South America. “I thought Jeff was crazy,” says Law. “The Rapids and Arsenal? This isn’t apples and oranges, this is watermelons and peaches. But Jeff never gave up.”

Plush eventually secured meetings in London with two Premier League clubs: Chelsea and Arsenal. He flew across the Atlantic and travelled to Stamford Bridge, only to be told the meeting was cancelled. When he explained how far he’d come, he was given a cursory meeting, but it was clear they had no real interest in collaboration. Watermelons and peaches indeed.

But at Arsenal, Plush found a warmer welcome. He met with David Dein and then commercial director Adrian Ford, who supplied him with tickets for the weekend’s game and were, in Plush’s words, “proper gentlemen”.

A dialogue began. Dein was eager to explore the commercial opportunities of a partner in the States. A year later, arrangements were made for the Rapids’ owner, Stan Kroenke, to meet Dein on the site of Arsenal’s new stadium project. This time Law joined Plush in attendance. “We literally met in Highbury House on the third floor in the midst of furniture being moved in,” he recalls. “There was nothing there except boxes, and we scraped together a table and about six chairs. And then David invited Stan to look at the stadium. The rest of us dutifully marched a few yards behind, and David and Stan walked over to the stadium.”

Their conversations proved fruitful. By February 2007, Arsenal and the Rapids had a formalised partnership. By April, Kroenke had purchased a 9.9 per cent stake in the club from Granada Ventures. It was Dein who brought Kroenke to the table, convinced that Arsenal required a billionaire backer to remain competitive with the likes of Chelsea and Manchester United in the shifting Premier League landscape.

Kroenke saw opportunity too. For a man with a background in real estate and sports, the Emirates Stadium project was incredibly appealing. “Stan understands the value of things,” says Law. “Not the cost, because there’s a difference, but the value. The best way that David Dein ever described Arsenal Football Club, was that in the world of global football there’s only so much ‘beachfront property’. Arsenal happen to be one of those beachfront properties. And Stan knew that.”

Kroenke saw the benefit of a London location, marvelling at how accessible the stadium was from the centre of a city that he regards as the financial capital of the world. Although he enjoys spending time at his main home in Missouri or his Texas ranch, in a pre-COVID environment he still made time for plenty of trips across the Atlantic. In one Arsenal season, he attended 14 matches home and away. As well as Josh, Stan’s wife (and Walmart heiress) Ann, and daughter Whitney have also attended games. Whitney is a passionate patron of the arts and is said to have brought some interesting guests to the directors’ box. In the Kroenke family, Arsenal is a dinner-table subject.

After the tour of the site back in 2007, Kroenke and his associates grabbed a pint stood outside Ye Grapes pub in Shepherd’s Market. At times, this billionaire can come across to others as a very ordinary guy.

His investment, however, was met with hostility, both by the supporters and other shareholders. The then chairman, Peter Hill-Wood, told The Guardian: “Call me old-fashioned but we don’t need Kroenke’s money and we don’t want his sort. Our objective is to keep Arsenal English, albeit with a lot of foreign players. I don’t know for certain if Kroenke will mount a hostile takeover for our club but we shall resist it with all our might.”

Arsenal’s Englishness had become a point of pride. At the 2005 FA Cup final, their fans taunted the Manchester United support with ironic chants of “USA! USA!” Even when the board came round to Kroenke Snr, when the death of Danny Fiszman in 2011 meant a decision had to be made on who might be Arsenal’s new custodian, hostility from the supporters endured.

That was most palpable at the shareholders’ annual general meetings, which took on a pantomime feel as the antipathy deepened. As recently as 2017, some stakeholders, including the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust, voted against the motion to reappoint Josh Kroenke to the board. That was something the Kroenkes anticipated, and were prepared for. They have been described to The Athletic as possessing a “rhinoceros hide”, with Stan particularly intransigent in the face of criticism. Their belief is that they cannot allow themselves to be swung by fan sentiment, or they will lose the handle.

There is, nevertheless, an acceptance at KSE that the early years could have been better. The AGM environment did not suit Stan, who does not share Arsene Wenger’s skill for oratory. The Arsenal Supporters’ Trust have been frustrated by Stan’s reluctance to meet with supporters’ groups personally. Executives believe they have engaged sufficiently with the trust, but say they are unable to provide personal access to Stan. Perhaps engaging more directly could have spared him a few enemies.

Stan’s first investment was in 2007, and in pure football terms the club did not lift a trophy for another seven years. Beyond that, there were other issues to overcome. Staff have not always felt valued: when the commercial department secured the landmark sponsorship deals with Puma and Emirates within the space of 12 months, there was disappointment at bonuses being capped below the expected level.

Some of these teething problems can be attributed to a steep learning curve — Arsenal are a different animal to KSE’s other sporting franchises; the UK is a different environment. On the subject of ticket pricing, there is a cultural difference between the US and UK that KSE have had to adapt to. Supporters in London simply won’t accept the kind of price hike that is plausible in the States. “You have to remember Stan is not a guy who is sat there in a board meeting thinking about left-backs and right-backs and strikers,” says one former staff member. “He’s thinking about numbers, because that’s his skill-set… but there’s good and bad to that.”

The key issue, however, was that the Kroenkes did not own the club outright. With a minority shareholder in Alisher Usmanov’s Red & White Holdings, the Kroenkes never had absolute authority at Arsenal. Despite this tension, there was no palpable antipathy from the Kroenkes towards Usmanov.

Steadily, the Kroenkes ingratiated themselves with Arsenal staff. Many at Arsenal appreciate that they are given the autonomy to do their jobs themselves. The ownership do not seek to interfere, merely to oversee.

KSE is a family business, and the Kroenkes have sought to welcome Arsenal staff into their wider family. During the 2012 Olympics, they entertained Arsenal executives and other business associates on their yacht which they had moored in Canary Wharf. The Athletic has learned of a tasteful, understated boat with beautiful Italian decor — one dwarfed in size and opulence by ones owned by the likes of Roman Abramovich. The Kroenkes also made arrangements to take the staff to one of the swimming events, in which Denver native Missy Franklin was competing.

If relations with the fans were sometimes rocky, the Kroenkes did at least begin to feel a unity with the board. Sources have suggested that being accepted into such company would have meant a great deal to Stan; that Arsenal’s sense of tradition and history are aspirational to him. There is no royalty in the United States, no aristocracy. For a man whose first job was sweeping a lumber yard floor in Mora, Missouri to be accepted into the fold by the old-Etonian crowd — to be welcomed into the marble halls — was significant.

When Kroenke’s elevated status sees him encounter world leaders, the international renown of Arsenal provides a frequent topic of conversation. It is one of the reasons staff close to him cite when they express a hitherto unheard sentiment: “Stan Kroenke loves Arsenal”.

---

In the spring of 2018, Josh Kroenke relocated to London for a period of around eight weeks. His intention was to immerse himself in the club and the culture; to gain a deeper understanding and experience of operations at Arsenal.

Until that point, the Arsenal executives’ contact with the Kroenkes was not day-to-day. Their most frequent point of contact was Tomago Collins, the communications expert who forms an invaluable part of the KSE infrastructure. Collins, who has joined the club on pre-season tours in the past, is said to monitor and understand the dynamics within Arsenal intimately. He has attended many board meetings, and provides a pair of eyes and ears for the Kroenkes as they balance their various commitments.

Collins is part of a small trusted network that Stan keeps close. “That’s born out Stan’s background,” says one former staff member. “Fifty years ago, as a real estate developer, you’re out there on your own with a vehicle and a phone. He’s comfortable with a small group of people. But that’s why it’s interesting that he chose to get deeply involved in a business that requires you to be around a lot of people. It’s a bit of a paradox.”

Josh’s arrival in London roughly coincided with that of Sanllehi as head of football relations, and the two struck up an easy rapport. Sanllehi was part of a new executive team, along with German scout Sven Mislintat and contract negotiator Huss Fahmy, that Gazidis had set up to help the club manage the transition out of the Wenger era.

Josh was not sent to London to deal with the Wenger situation. There had been those among the Arsenal hierarchy who firmly believed Wenger should go in 2017, after the FA Cup final win over Chelsea, but it was the ownership’s faith in their manager that saw him awarded a new contract. Consequently, his departure in 2018 was regarded by some as something of a formality.

It was not a decision anyone took lightly, however. Stan Kroenke knows the value of things, and in buying into Arsenal one of the assets he was effectively acquiring was Wenger — a head coach and sporting director in one, and someone who shared Stan’s conviction that sporting enterprises should be run in a self-sustaining manner. Dein’s decision to bring Kroenke to the table to help Arsenal rival the spending of Abramovich was in some ways mistaken: Stan wants to win, but not at any cost. While some felt that may have held the club back, there were also staff who were very proud of taking that approach. Kroenke is a successful businessman and has always been determined to apply those same business principles to his sports teams.

He is willing to invest when he sees a clear business logic. The ownership were involved in Arsenal’s acquisition of Stat DNA, and had contact with Jaeson Rosenfeld prior to the deal going through. Kroenke helped the club acquire a new CRM, which allows the club to communicate with its members in a bespoke manner. He backed the opening of  a club store in Brent Cross in 2012, but also saw it closed down a couple of years later. That is indicative of KSE’s approach: they are willing to back executive judgments, but it had better work. If they do not pan out, they will correct the course.

The question of whether KSE inhibited Wenger in the market is an interesting one. Wenger has spoken of working under financial restrictions. “I did that sometimes against my own deep desire,” he said earlier this year. “I did it even though I didn’t completely agree with what was going on. I did it, even though people inside the club sometimes let that noise come out.” The Athletic is told, however, that at no point during the Wenger reign did the ownership turn down a direct request for funds from the manager. If there was internal frustration about a lack of signings, it tended to be directed at Wenger rather than the ownership.

Wenger and Stan had a deep mutual respect. There was a personal element to that relationship too, with the Arsenal manager meeting for meals with the ownership several times. It was, therefore, a delicate situation when Josh Kroenke and Gazidis met Wenger at the training ground a few weeks before the end of the 2017-18 season to discuss his time as manager now coming to a close. The decision to announce prior to the end of the season intended to change the sentiment among the supporters and allow Wenger a fond send-off. It did lead, however, to a somewhat hurried and inglorious announcement on a Friday morning. Wenger did appear to enjoy his lap of honour, but had until that point been firm in his resolution to continue.

With Wenger’s fate now clear, thoughts inevitably turned to the future. Arsenal’s executive team flew to America to meet with the ownership to discuss the budget for the 2018 summer transfer window. The trip included a tour of the new LA stadium development, which impressed the Arsenal executives.

Their intention was to lay out their squad building plans, with potential investment levels set against different possible outcomes. The meeting did not go well. Sources have suggested that Arsenal’s executives felt wrong-footed, and that Stan felt cornered and reacted angrily. Conversely, some have suggested that in KSE terms this was a relatively mild grilling. The meeting was tough “but not so impolite that you shouldn’t handle it if you work in football and you are speaking with a billionaire,” said one source.

Tall, quiet, and withdrawn, it is easy for Stan to appear intimidating. The Athletic has been told that KSE employees have trembled in fear when faced with Stan in confrontation mode. Although generally quiet and calm, Kroenke is said to be intensely analytical with an impeccable memory, and not one to suffer fools.

Any conflict appears to have been predicated on a misunderstanding. The Arsenal executives believed they had prepared sufficiently in producing a detailed presentation. There is discrepancy over the degree to which Stan had been properly briefed about the content of the meeting.

Nevertheless, this proved an important moment for the executive committee — it provided them with an insight into how Stan operates, and showed that if they were to come to him in future, it was essential to do their due diligence.

In accordance with KSE’s ownership philosophy, the hunt for a successor to Wenger was entrusted to Gazidis and his new executive team. The owners like to have a good degree of understanding and involvement, while also granting autonomy to those they employ.

The executive recommended the employment of Unai Emery; their thinking being that this was a tactically-minded coach with Europa League success behind him. It was argued that he could maximise the talent already within the squad, and help establish a baseline of Champions League football. The recruitment process all-but complete, Emery flew with Arsenal executives on the red-eye to meet the Kroenkes. Although Emery’s English was not good, he impressed sufficiently for the owners to rubber-stamp the deal.

---

There are those among the Arsenal hierarchy who believe 2018 was simply a year of too much change. Wenger leaving was seismic, but the Kroenkes had not reckoned on the aftershock of Gazidis’ departure for AC Milan. The Kroenkes’ ownership style is based on trust, and in the space of a few months they lost two men they trusted implicitly.

When Gazidis left, the owners followed his recommendation to appoint Sanllehi and Vinai Venkatesham as head of football and managing director respectively. While some have queried the wisdom of that decision, there are others who understand it. “I’m not sure I wouldn’t have done the same thing,” says one former Premier League executive. “It’s difficult to find really good people in football. If you’re an electronics manufacturer, there’s lots of guys that can come in and be the CEO of your electronics manufacturing company, and you can do a public search and you can probably find someone really good. In football, that group is so narrow. Taking the word of someone they trusted is not a totally crazy thing to do.”

Another hugely important moment arrived when KSE completed their full takeover of the club in the autumn. While this was the source of more fan unrest, from the Kroenkes’ perspective it meant that Arsenal was finally their football club.

Unfortunately for Arsenal and the Kroenkes, the 2018-19 season ended in frustration. Emery’s team stumbled over the line in the Premier League, before succumbing to a 4-1 thrashing in the Europa League final against rivals Chelsea. Arsenal had failed in their attempt to qualify for the Champions League. Josh Kroenke flew back from Baku with the Arsenal executive team, bitterly disappointed.

The disheartening climax to the season fed directly into the fan-led “We Care, Do You?” movement. The campaign cut to the heart of many supporters’ issue with the Kroenkes: a belief that they simply don’t care.

Some of that can be attributed to the fact that for Stan, public relations has never been his priority. It’s not a story he has particularly sought to tell — arguably to his detriment. His focus is always on the numbers and the success of the team, with a belief that good press will follow. While it’s clear that Stan was not exactly a boyhood Arsenal supporter, he has now been invested in Arsenal for more than 13 years. Those who know him insist there is an emotional bond there and a love of London, which he views as the financial capital of the world.

Part of the issue is that he is simply not that expressive. Some have described Stan as shy, reserved or even socially awkward. When he has hosted post-game parties to celebrate Arsenal FA Cup wins, he has basked in the moment with an air of quiet content. When the Rapids won the MLS Cup in 2010 they were invited to tour the White House. Sources say Stan was filled with pride, but not inclined to show it. If Arsenal fans are hoping for a more public display of affection, Stan does not appear the type to provide it.

In that respect, Josh differs slightly from his father. Although father and son present a united front in business, they are not the same person — and passionate disagreements behind closed doors are not uncommon.

Stan and Josh did both play basketball; it is their first sporting love. Consequently the Denver Nuggets have always been a natural passion project for them. Stan maintains a good level of physical fitness, lifting weights and walking on a treadmill. He doesn’t sleep much, a function of a business mind that is always busy. He is an avid reader and enjoys spending time in nature — the family enjoyed a trip to Alaska earlier this year, although work was done on it. Stan is also a connoisseur of wine and has stakes in several wineries including Screaming Eagle, Jonata, and prominent Burgundy winery Domaine Bonneau du Martray.

Of the two, Josh is the more natural communicator. At 40, he is able to have a slightly more relaxed relationship with KSE athletes. The ownership is known to provide players with occasional words of encouragement via text message, or support if they’re going through an injury or personal difficulties. When Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang signed his new contract this summer, he received a congratulatory FaceTime call from Josh. When individual players sign big contracts, the ownership are inevitably involved to give sign-off. On the day Mesut Ozil signed his contract extension in 2018, Josh Kroenke was there at London Colney, as he was for many transfer deadline days.

As a college basketball player, Josh underwent media training to enable him to deal with inevitable questions about his family. When the Arsenal fans demanded a response, it was Josh who provided it. “We need to understand that we are a group together and we all have the same interests,” he told the club’s official website. “We’re really excited about the challenges that lie ahead and we’re not going to shy away from them. We’re excited to one day look back and point at these moments, where this group came together, as the start of something special.”

Against the backdrop of fan unrest, Arsenal set about making plans for the 2019 summer transfer window. There was some debate among the Arsenal hierarchy about whether the club should be prioritising major expenditure on a centre-back or a winger. Emery ideally wanted additions in both positions, but his preference was for a winger — ideally Wilfried Zaha — and as long as the head coach had the support of the executive committee and the board, KSE were resolved to back him.

During the pre-season tour of the US, Josh Kroenke hosted the Arsenal hierarchy for a barbecue at his Los Angeles home. In this more relaxed environment, the Arsenal executives were able to talk openly with the ownership about their plans for the summer. In the case of Zaha, Crystal Palace were reluctant to sell. At that stage of the window, they felt entitled to ask for at least £100 million for a player who could prove the difference between staying in the Premier League or being relegated to the Championship. With concerns over Zaha’s price tag and age bracket, conversation turned to Pepe.

Arsenal were said to be privy to an €80 million offer from Napoli, so were able to discuss the specifics of a potential deal. A consensus was reached, and approval was given — Sanllehi flew direct from America to negotiate the transfer. It was a club-record outlay, and one that meant Arsenal would have to sell players. To facilitate the initial transfer, the ownership provided financial guarantees against the required sales in case they did not go through.

The Pepe transfer illustrates something that casts doubt over one of the central narratives around Arsenal: this is now a club that spends money. The ownership had long suggested full ownership would lead to more substantial investment. Pepe arrived in that window alongside the likes of Kieran Tierney, David Luiz and William Saliba, all at considerable expense. The efficacy of that spending is of course another question, and The Athletic understands the ownership began to develop some concerns over efficiency in the transfer market in that summer of 2019.

Despite the substantial investment, Emery could not halt his team’s slide. Some felt the ownership were too slow to act — the Spaniard was allowed to go seven matches without winning before a home defeat by Frankfurt proved the final straw. KSE are reluctant to change any coach in mid-season, owing to the inevitable disruption. The only circumstance when that changes is when a coach has lost the dressing room. When such sentiment towards Emery began to filter up into the hierarchy, action was taken.

Sanllehi and Venkatesham had a pre-scheduled arrangement to meet the Kroenkes in America that fateful thanksgiving week. Over lunch, Josh Kroenke and the Arsenal executives reached a consensus on terminating Emery’s contract, and that recommendation was then made to Stan, who approved it.

When it came to hiring a new manager, the ownership decided to be more actively involved in the process. Their principal role was ensuring that everyone had a shared view of the future. Despite the club’s dismal form, the focus was not on saving the season, but charting a course for the next few years.

After Emery was dismissed on the Friday, Josh flew out to address the team on the Saturday. “My message to Freddie and the players was let’s get back to basics and most importantly let’s get back to having some fun,” he told the club’s official website. “I think footballers are at their best when I see smiles on their faces and going out there and winning matches. That’s a winning formula to me.”

The Kroenkes encouraged Arsenal’s executive team to meet as many candidates as possible — the interview process was an opportunity to learn how the club was perceived within the game. A decision was taken that neither Josh nor Stan Kroenke would meet with a potential candidate before the executive committee had arrived at a consensus. Josh visited London several times in December 2019 in order to be kept abreast of the process.

The question posed was straightforward: Who is going to be the best Arsenal manager for the next three to five years? Unanimously, the key decision-makers chose Mikel Arteta. On Sunday, December 15, a newspaper photographer caught Ventakesham and head of operations Fahmy leaving Arteta’s Manchester home. What they missed was that the following morning, Josh arrived for his own private audience with Arteta. As always, Stan was talked through the process before being made a firm recommendation. Given his knowledge of Arteta’s character from his time as club captain, he did not hesitate. Stan and Arteta have not been able to meet in person since his appointment, but have spoken over FaceTime.

Arteta’s impact was considerable — although the Kroenkes were not able to share in Arsenal’s FA Cup win in person, their first trophy as sole owners will have meant a great deal.

---

The year of 2020 has been testing for all football clubs, and Arenal are no different. Josh Kroenke has referred to the club having a “Champions League wage bill on a Europa League budget”, and consequently the financial impact of the pandemic hit Arsenal harder than most. Their reliance on revenue from gate receipts is greater than many of their rivals, so the absence of fans has taken its toll.

In April, with the fate of the Premier League season still in the balance amid the COVID-enforced shutdown, Arsenal became the first (and ultimately only) Premier League club to take a pay cut. This was not a mandate from the ownership, but a recommendation from executives. A presentation was made to the Arsenal players in the dressing room at London Colney. During this, executives projected a picture of a sleeping bear. They employed the analogy of the animal entering its cave to hibernate for the winter while hunting opportunities and food are in short supply, so that when spring arrives and nutrition returns that stored energy can hopefully be used to great effect, in order to explain why Arsenal needed to conserve their resources.

The wage cut proved a highly contentious issue, although the vast majority of the players eventually pledged their agreement. There was nevertheless considerable disappointment when the club announced 55 redundancies less than four months later, with some squad members left feeling angry and betrayed.

The keyword at Arsenal since the pandemic broke out has been “efficiency” — the economic crisis has forced a restructure that was in some ways overdue. Some within the hierarchy feel Arsenal had arguably become overstaffed in recent years, and that a degree of streamlining was inevitable.

When Sir Chips Keswick stood down as chairman in the spring, the decision was made not to appoint a new chairman. Due to the small size of the board, a chairman was no longer deemed necessary. However, the ownership did decide to add Tim Lewis to the board.

Lewis is a partner at Clifford Chance, who advised Stan Kroenke on his purchase of Arsenal from the very beginning. With Josh and Stan suddenly unable to cross the Atlantic, Lewis provided a boots-on-the-ground presence for the ownership in London. An Arsenal fan who had travelled with the board on away trips in the past, Lewis was well-positioned to help lead the club through such a tempestuous period.

Lewis’s legal background provided expertise and gave comfort on regulatory issues. He has even recently been spotted watching training alongside technical director Edu. As with Tomago Collins, the Kroenkes understand the value of having trusted people keeping an eye on matters. It sends a message: they are always watching.

The ownership are aware that when they themselves visit club facilities, staff are naturally cautious. They tend to see everyone on their best behaviour. It was thought that having someone like Lewis there more regularly to serve as eyes and ears could prove invaluable. Given the geographic difficulties and the Kroenke’s other responsibilities, perhaps an appointment such as this might have been made sooner.

Day-to-day, Lewis is still with Clifford Chance. On Arsenal matters, he is in regular contact with Josh Kroenke, as per Stan’s preference. Wherever possible, the Kroenkes like to follow a designed workflow. One of his first responsibilities was to help refinance the club’s remaining stadium debt — a long-term goal for the Kroenkes and something they would only have considered doing as 100 per cent owners. The AST estimate that the required loan from KSE would have been in the region of £184 million.

A board operations committee was formed to oversee a restructure of the club and ensure efficiency. That was comprised of Sanllehi, Venkatesham, Lewis, board member Lord Harris and CFO Stuart Wisely. It was this operation that led to the redundancies, and indeed Sanllehi’s departure.

In the case of Sanllehi, the club felt there was a need to restructure and adapt to the new economic climate — ultimately, Arsenal did not need two leaders.

More broadly, the ownership had concerns over transfers, relationships and the culture at London Colney. When it came to dialogue between the executive team and the ownership, the appropriate process and communication hierarchies were not always followed. Contact between Josh Kroenke and the executive leadership consequently diminished.

There was concern from the Arsenal hierarchy about the situation regarding David Luiz’s signing a contract extension. It is understood that the player had only wanted to leave Chelsea for a two-year deal. At the time, Arsenal were not thought to be in a position to offer him that, so they proposed one year with an option of an additional 12 months. In the summer, there were a series of tense conversations between executives and ownership over whether or not to trigger the additional year, culminating in Luiz’s post-match interview after the defeat at Manchester City on June 17.  “I should have taken a different decision in the last two months but I didn’t,” he told Sky Sports. “All about my contract, if I stay here or not. I have 14 days to be here and that’s it. I should have tried to decide my future as early as possible, but I didn’t.”

The deals to sign Pablo Mari and Cedric Soares permanently also proved divisive. The players were assured in January that their loan deals would be made permanent, but there is a discrepancy over to what extent the ownership were aware of that commitment. In each instance, the owners ultimately backed their executives and went through with the deals — but it did begin to raise questions. There were also rumblings of discontent over the degree to which agent Kia Joorabchian felt able to comment on Arsenal’s inner workings in the media, even if that was something outside of the executives’ direct control.

Sanllehi left Arsenal in the midst of a transfer window. He was leading Arsenal’s contract renegotiation with Aubameyang, as well as spearheading the club’s pursuits of Partey and Gabriel. It was Lewis who called Sanllehi to inform him of his fate. The timing of the head of football’s dismissal was undoubtedly awkward but deemed by the ownership to be essential given the recommendation that was made to them. To date, Stan Kroenke has not spoken to Sanllehi, although this is said not to be particularly unusual given the scale of his operations. Huss Fahmy wanted to leave the club, and the Arsenal hierarchy felt it was a good opportunity for a clean break.

Despite the considerable disruption, Arsenal feel they had a successful transfer window. In the final weeks, the club were involved in negotiations to sign more than one midfield player. There was optimism that if they could find a way to structure payments, they could land two of their top three targets: Partey, Houssem Aouar, and Jorginho. They ended up with just one in Partey but Chelsea’s Brazilian midfielder was not simply a back-up option — he is greatly admired by Arsenal’s technical staff, including Arteta.

As with all major football decisions, the ownership were across these internal debates. by the end of this most recent transfer window, Stan Kroenke is said to have been sufficiently au fait with football vernacular to discuss Arsenal’s midfield targets in terms of “sixes, eights and No 10s”.

---

A former Arsenal staff member suggests “the Kroenkes are good owners — as long as they have the right people running the club”. If your philosophy entails giving absolute trust to your executives, it becomes all the more essential you make the right hires.

Clearly, mistakes have been made in the wake of Wenger’s departure. Arsenal adopted a continental executive model that was Gazidis and Sanllehi’s vision and now have veered away from that entirely.

Arsenal are confident that their new set-up is leaner and more efficient. The relationship between Arteta and technical director Edu echoes the coach and general manager structure the Kroenkes are accustomed to in US sports. There is tremendous faith in this youthful team. Edu has impressed with his negotiating ability, but there is also an acceptance both from the Brazilian and ownership alike that he is still developing. South America and Europe provide very different contexts, very different challenges, and he will be given room to grow.

It is not unusual for Stan Kroenke to take a long-term view. When you’re a real estate developer, that is your business model. In terms of Arsenal, he is known to have raised the subject of Arsenal’s stadium naming rights deal, currently set to end in 2024, to board meetings many years before its potential expiration.

Until now, KSE’s different teams have been run in a somewhat siloed fashion. There are indications that could be changing. KSE recently struck a commercial deal with aluminium packaging company Ball Corporation, that will benefit teams across their network. If more of that kind of collaboration is forthcoming, there could be a benefit to being a part of this wider family.

The injection of funds for the Partey signing is not necessarily an isolated incident. The Kroenkes are aware that there may be similar market opportunities in the next 12-18 months. There is understood to be awareness that in the current market, cash is king. Dominik Szoboszlai, who has a €25 million release clause, is already the subject of discussion among the technical staff and hierarchy.

Szoboszlai has been discussed by the hierarchy  (Photo: Laszlo Szirtesi/Getty Images)

From a business perspective, Stan’s investment in Arsenal already looks shrewd. KSE insist they do not and will not sell; that this family business will remain just that. The fascinating thing now is whether the Kroenkes can yet win the hearts of the fans.

That will not be easy. KSE have not always struck the delicate balance between corporate efficiency and human empathy Premier League fans seem to desire. For some, the pay cut and the redundancies left a bitter taste in the mouth. Clubs being owned at the highest level by lifelong supporters is increasingly rare. “I think Arsenal want to be run by one of the ‘nice billionaires’,” jokes one former Arsenal staff member. “Maybe Oprah should buy a club?”

In 2019, the Arsenal fans asked, “We Care, Do You?”. There’s no verbal answer that could satisfy the supporters, and Stan is not about to change the habit of a lifetime and provide one. Recent events do, however, appear to form a riposte to the charge of “absentee owners”. KSE appear to be across matters, and determined to provide support when possible.

“I think the Kroenkes love Arsenal,” says a former executive. “I just don’t think they tell people.”

It begs the question: if not the Kroenkes, what kind of owner do Arsenal fans want?

[Vesper 28,864]

Diogo Jota’s story: The underdog who wants to emulate Cristiano Ronaldo

https://theathletic.com/2194126/2020/11/18/diogo-jota-cristiano-ronaldo-liverpool/

Speak to those whose lives have crossed with Diogo Jota’s, particularly in Portugal, and they tend to agree that he has the mindset of an underdog. His belief in himself is almost unshakable but that does not mean he thinks he belongs at the top of his profession.

“Diogo has some insecurities but they push him further than players with more talent, not that there are many — certainly here in Porto,” an old friend told The Athletic this week.

His faith along with his ability has taken him on an unusual path from one of the smallest top-flight clubs in his homeland, to a curious rejection at Atletico Madrid, to the champions of England in the space of four years.

“Nobody does what Jota is doing now without having real ambition,” says Jorge Simao, who was one of his first-team coaches at Pacos de Ferreira. “When he signed for Porto (on loan in 2016), I told a Portuguese website that, for me, Jota would be the successor to Cristiano Ronaldo. Obviously, that was quite a big claim to make at that time, because Jota had only played for Pacos and had not had a good time at Atletico Madrid.

“When Jota signed for Liverpool, I sent him a message to congratulate him. He replied, five seconds later, with a link to that old article about him and Ronaldo. It was the very first thing he sent! He must have had it bookmarked. Incredible! He hadn’t forgotten.”

Jota has scintillated in his early days at Liverpool, a club where the story of Steven Gerrard, arguably their greatest ever player, features suffering and success because of experience with similarly conflicting forces. Gerrard carried with him the sting of rejection and turned it into a positive. He did not accept it whenever he was told he could not do something, nor when he formed the impression that someone else doubted him. Gerrard’s fire was the desperation to prove people wrong.

When a Liverpool youth team faced Tottenham Hotspur’s a few years after he was turned down for a scholarship at Lilleshall, his memory did not betray him. Some of the Spurs players had been selected in his place and had since represented England. Gerrard proceeded to leave his mark; crashing into tackles and almost single-handedly winning the game with a statement performance that was so impressive, it made other Liverpool players doubt their own abilities.

In Jota’s case, he was overlooked by his hometown club Porto and joined neighbours Pacos as a teenager. Considering the success rate of Porto’s youth sector, it seems astonishing that a natural gravitational pull did not beam in a future full international who grew up less than five miles away from their stadium. Though he represented Porto’s first team at a later date via Pacos and Atletico, that earlier oversight, rather than diminish his appetite, made him hungrier to become a professional.

Though he was not knocked back from anywhere in particular, Jota did not grow up with lots of people telling him how talented he was. Nor from an early age did he have agents knocking on the door, presenting visions of a more guaranteed way of life. By the time he was playing regularly for Pacos, he was single-minded and had developed a sense of fearlessness. Married with his talent, this meant he relished the challenge of attempting to surprise some of the biggest institutions in the country.

One of his team-mates at Pacos was a midfielder named Pele. He was 24 when he played with Jota and had seen enough in his own career to understand what impresses more-experienced footballers the most, having already moved from Genoa to AC Milan and then to Benfica.

Jota had recently turned 19 when Pacos went to the capital just after Christmas 2015 for a League Cup game against Sporting Lisbon. It is fair to say they were not expected to get a positive result. Sporting were flying in the league — they eventually finished second, two points behind champions Benfica — and the match was being played in front of an expectant Jose Alvalade Stadium.

“He (Jota) had a really strong mentality for his age,” Pele tells The Athletic. “I remember playing at the Alvalade and being in the dressing room at half-time, with the score 1-1. He walked in and asked the rest of the team, ‘Guys, do you not want to win this game?’ Me and Bruno Moreira (a 28-year-old centre-forward) looked at each other, then at him. We asked him why he was asking. He said, ‘Because you need to give me the ball more!’ I looked at him and thought to myself, ‘Nineteen years old and he’s got that mentality already? Incredible…’”

Jota had started only 21 top-flight matches before that trip to Lisbon, but he was already confident enough to be demanding of more senior figures around him. By the end of a season where Pacos narrowly missed out on qualifying for Europe for only the fourth time in their history, Jota had scored 12 league goals — one of them a late winner in a 1-0 victory over Porto.

Despite being a first-team player, he continued to live in the club’s halls of residence with the academy kids. Pele “thought that was hilarious” considering he already had a girlfriend, Rute Cardoso, and this made him wonder what he did “when he wanted some alone time with her…”

It must have been tempting for him to make the 30-minute drive back to Porto and celebrate with his family after scoring decisively against his hometown club but instead he apparently decided to return to his shared dormitory to play FIFA on the PlayStation with boys he had already left behind professionally.

Pele describes him as “chilled” away from the training ground, “always on the PlayStation”. Yet as a player, “he was really determined… he knew what he wanted from his career. He helped us a lot with his goals, but also with his overall game, which was so useful for the team.”

Where did he believe Jota would end up?

“I remember thinking that this was a player who was going right to the very top level of world football.”

The A20 motorway sweeps around the northern outskirts of Porto and this makes it the quickest way to reach Gondomar, in the south east of the city, from Massarelos in the west — the quiet barrio where Jota grew up, which snuggles beside the Douro river and overlooks the distilleries that make the region’s most famous liquor.

This journey involves driving right past the east stand of Porto’s Estadio Dragao ground. Though the venue seemed tantalisingly close, Jota’s reality was in the junior section of a club, Gondomar, that has never made it higher than the Portuguese second tier. He always trained on a synthetic pitch and told anyone who asked him that his hero as a child was Benfica’s Pablo Aimar. Youth coach Ruben Carvalho told the A Bola newspaper: “He loved training. He worked hard, always at his limit.”

To distinguish himself from other Diogos as a child he would have “Diogo J” on his shirt, as he does now at Liverpool, because his full name is Diogo Jose Teixeira da Silva. The letter J in Portuguese is “jota”, which became his nickname and he is now known in the game as Diogo Jota.

He had turned 17 in his final year at Gondomar. This was a season where he scored 39 goals in 37 games, making him the top scorer for his age in the national championship. Sometimes, he played for the under-17s on a Saturday and the under-19s on a Sunday. Across the same weekend, he scored successive hat-tricks and according to the club’s president Alvaro Cerqueira, “it was the same goalkeeper in both games.”

This story was confirmed by coach Jose Carlos Magalhaes, who told newspaper Diario de Noticias: “It was against Candal. He even started the second game on the bench, because he was tired. He came on in the second half and scored three goals.”

Though Gondomar are naming their academy after him, he decided to leave for Pacos because he was disappointed that he was never given a chance with the senior side. “I wasn’t even called up to train with them,” he explained in an interview with website Vivacidade in November 2015. “I think I deserved that reward.”

Though he had trained a few times with Sporting Braga, further north, during his time at Gondomar, no offer was forthcoming there either. Benfica and Porto were supposedly sniffing around as well but again, nothing. His biggest fan was Gilberto Andrade, the youth coordinator at Pacos, who described him not only as “an innate talent” but a “wild horse”.

Andrade convinced the club’s president to sign him, and his cause was helped when Jota played well against Pacos for Gondomar. Jota told Vivacidade: “I thought it was the right time to make the step up to a bigger club. I was always an ambitious player and was hoping for the chance to play for a top-flight team. I jumped at the opportunity.”

He did not find it easy at the beginning, and Pacos considered releasing him. Andrade reasoned: “He was used to being the star of the team, and training with less intensity so he could play for two different teams at the weekend. He found a more competitive environment and took a while to adapt.”

On his debut for the first team in the Portuguese Cup, he created history by becoming the club’s youngest scorer in a game where he also set up two more goals. Across all competitions in his first season as a professional, there were four goals in 12 appearances. This led to him agreeing a four-year contract, which was an unprecedented move by a club who rarely hand out deals for longer than two seasons.

Jota was searingly honest at that point about how he saw the future. “I have a contract until 2019 but I would be lying if I said I planned to see it out,” he admitted. “I think this (2015-16) could be a season that pushes me to new heights.”

His position in the team was changing. “I started as a left midfielder, or on the left of a central midfield three. But I was always a midfielder who arrived in the box. At Pacos, I played as a striker. But I prefer to play as a false nine, or behind another forward.”

Under future Shakhtar Donetsk and Roma coach Paulo Fonseca in 2014-15, Jota played as a second striker. But when Simao took over, he moved to a wider area of the pitch. “Do I feel like a winger?” Jota asked himself in another interview. “I know I am one on paper, but it’s different out on the pitch. I like to move into the middle and get more involved in the game. I’m a special kind of winger, let’s put it that way…”

Simao, who has since been in charge of bigger Portuguese clubs including Braga and Boavista, having also taken in spells at clubs in Saudi Arabia and Belgium, tells The Athletic he knew little about Jota when he became Pacos manager in the summer of 2015, but the player caught his attention in early pre-season.

“In one of the first training matches, he did something that made me think, ‘Did I really see that? Did that actually just happen?’ He received the ball outside the penalty area, back to goal,” he says. “He flicked it over the defender’s shoulder with his first touch, spun around the other side of him, then hit a powerful shot before the ball hit the ground. It flew right into the top corner. Can you imagine the impression that made on me? An 18-year-old doing something like that? It was just incredible. A goal of that quality… it was not normal. I thought, ‘Wow, this kid has got real potential’.”

Simao wanted to use another youngster in a central attacking area instead of Jota, and this decision was made easier because of the latter’s versatility and willingness to help the team.

“Andrezinho (who was 16 months older than Jota) was very technically gifted and was brilliant at making the final pass, so I wanted to play him as a No 10. That meant moving Jota to the left wing,” he says. “But I looked at Jota and saw a player with this amazing ability to run at a defence with the ball at his feet, then get a shot off. I thought he was perfect for that position. It was just a matter of setting the team up, so he could play to his strengths. We wanted him to receive the ball in space, out wide, and drive inside.”

Simao’s only doubts related to whether Jota could perform consistently for a club who had low expectations and could get sucked into a relegation battle if they were not careful.

“But he never left the side and produced a staggeringly good season,” Simao remembers. “He dazzled the whole of Portugal. Over the course of the campaign, he proved himself. His technical quality was there for all to see, but lots of players have that. The difference was his competitive spirit. He always wanted to improve.”

Having been asked to play on the left of Simao’s attack, Jota worked independently on what he saw as the weakest parts of his game.

“I remember looking at him in a number of training sessions during that season and noting to myself that he was only using his left foot,” he says. “Without being asked to. Why? We never talked about it, but I believe it was because he understood that it was one of the areas he had to work on. He wanted to be able to cross better, shoot better, dribble better with his weaker foot. It was about personal development: he did it for himself.”

Simao disagrees with a previous description of Jota from his time at Gondomar. “He’s the opposite of wild; he’s very rigorous in his duties on the pitch,” Simao laughs. “He’s a really disciplined boy. He’s not anarchic in his movement. He was never one of those players who runs everywhere in search of the ball. You’d tell Jota what you wanted him to do and it was, ‘Bam, bam, bam.’ He would do it, and he would do it well. That made him really easy to manage. He’s a thoroughbred.”

One of Jota’s attacking partners was centre-forward Moreira.

“From the very first training session with the squad, Diogo showed that he was different to other players of his age,” Moreira says. “He had real personality as well as technical skill and physical qualities. We felt that he was a star in the making — that it was just a matter of time before he would break into the first team.

“He started by shining in training and then made sure he grasped every small opportunity that he was given. Everyone believed in him, and it was that confidence — as well as his ability — that helped him produce such a great season when he won his place in the side.”

“Diogo made my life easy up front,” Moreira continues. “He’s a very direct, vertical player. He always has his eyes on the goal during every move. We had a spectacular partnership: we knew each other’s qualities and we could predict each other’s movements.”

While Simao could see that Jota was attempting to improve his left foot, Moreira thinks his team-mate was so committed towards self-improvement that he made it seem “like he was always very two-footed… a natural talent.” He believes Jota was able to improve and forge a career in the game without joining any of Portugal’s biggest clubs from a very early age because of three characteristics: “mental strength, talent and a willingness to do the work. Look at the level he has reached now; that’s the evidence. He’s going to leave his mark at Liverpool and on the global stage.”

Simao had moved on to coach another Portuguese top-flight side, Chaves, by the time Jota finally signed for Porto on loan from Atletico Madrid in the summer of 2016 but from afar, it did not seem to him that the club placed their entire faith in him.

“He didn’t come through the academy. He didn’t have a big reputation. He came right from the bottom. He played for small clubs and had to fight to make his name. I think that helps to explain his mentality. He’s so, so competitive.

“People often ask me whether I’m surprised at the football he’s producing. But I’m not surprised at all, because he’s doing the same things he always did. It’s just that he’s doing it on a much bigger stage now. He plays in the same way for Liverpool that he did for Gondomar. Whether it’s the Estadio da Luz, with 70,000 fans, or an amateur game in front of a handful of people, it’s all the same to him.”

---

Jota was still a teenager when he signed for Atletico Madrid in July 2016, but he was unfazed about the challenge ahead of him when he was asked about comparisons with the team’s most influential player. “I like watching (Antoine) Griezmann,” he said in his first interview at his new club, who had recently lost the Champions League final on penalties to Real Madrid. “I believe I can do similar things to him. Physically, we are similar.”

It would seem that coach Diego Simeone thought differently as Jota did not see a minute of competitive action before he was sent to Porto for a season the following month and then sold to Wolverhampton Wanderers two summers later following a successful loan period there the previous season.

There are several different theories about why this happened, with sources in Madrid telling The Athletic that above anything else you hear about Jota’s short time in the Spanish capital, Simeone’s opinion matters most and ultimately, he did not think he was ready to cope with the substantial demands he places on players.

“The jump from Pacos de Ferreira to Atletico in one moment was too big because of what Simeone asks the team to do,” says an agent who has secured the passage of players both in and out of the Madrid club.

Jota, it is claimed, was not one of Simeone’s transfer targets, but was a part of a recruitment strategy that involved Miguel Angel Gil Marin, the club’s president, and Gestifute, the agency managed by Jorge Mendes.

Though reports suggested scouts from Arsenal and West Ham United had watched him for Pacos, Jota said he had turned down “various offers” in favour of joining Atletico because he had been impressed by the club’s style of business. “Atletico’s way of presenting their offer seemed serious to me,” he explained. “The financial offer was the same as the others. I liked how the club’s owner went about it.”

Jota had public support at boardroom level. Atletico sporting director Jose Luis Perez Caminero spoke enthusiastically about the possibilities at his introductory press conference. “He is young, very fast and direct, carries the ball very well and can beat a defender,” said the former Spain international midfielder. “Diogo has a lot of potential, and stands out for his one-on-one and his versatility, so he can play in different positions.”

The player, meanwhile, vowed he was ready for Simeone and his methods. “I have a test of fire and I hope to adapt,” he said. “It will be more difficult on a physical level, that is clear. I will have to close up spaces in defence and then come out on the break. (What I like about Atletico) is the commitment to the game and the family spirit. When a player is beaten, two more cover for him. There is a lot of solidarity in the team.”

His first training session at Atletico’s Cerro del Espino complex was overseen by the Oscar “El Profe” (“The Professor”) Ortega, the Uruguayan fitness coach invited back to Atletico for a third spell by Simeone upon his own appointment in 2011, having worked with the manager in roles at Estudiantes, River Plate and San Lorenzo in Argentina and with Italy’s Catania. “Atletico players have to be able to withstand both Simeone and Ortega’s expectations in the first weeks of pre-season training to be in with a chance of first-team selection,” says another agent who has sold players to Atletico on several occasions. “Otherwise, he can say goodnight…”

Jota, apparently, was fine but beside him in one of those early running drills was Bernard Mensah, a Ghanaian midfielder who reportedly vomited under the strain of the demands. Like Jota, he had joined (albeit a year earlier) from a Portuguese club, Vitoria de Guimaraes, where he had also forged a relationship with Mendes and the Gestifute agency, securing him a six-year contract in Spain. By the time Mensah left the club permanently for Turkish side Kayserispor in 2019, he had made a grand total of zero competitive first-team appearances over his four years on Atletico’s books and been sent out on four season-long loans.

Jota was not the only player Atletico farmed out the summer he arrived. While Mensah went back to Vitoria, also sent to other clubs were Axel Werner (Boca Juniors), Theo Hernandez (Alaves), Oliver Torres (Porto), Amath Ndiaye (Tenerife), Luciano Vietto, Matias Kranevitter (both Sevilla), Rafael Santos Borre (Villarreal), Javier Manquillo (Sunderland), Emiliano Velazquez (Braga), Hector Hernandez (Albacete) and Guilherme Siqueira (Valencia).

This high number led to questions about why none were able to break into Simeone’s set-up. One suggestion was that Atletico were signing lots of youngsters without really thinking about how they would use them. Another was that they should be credited for their policy of investing in low-risk potential that, at some stage, might stimulate financial growth.

One source in the agency world told The Athletic this week said that Atletico and Mendes have benefited “roughly equally” from their work together over the years because each one respects the other’s position and reach. Jota, it has been said, was signed without any great expectation he would immediately force his way into the first-team in his early years but the player possessed undoubted potential for the years ahead.

As it was, his Atletico career ultimately amounted to four-pre-season appearances that first summer. He made his debut in a friendly against Numancia before featuring for 30 minutes in a tour match against Australian side Melbourne Victory which ended in a 1-0 defeat. He would play six minutes against Crotone of Italy 10 days later, scoring a goal by sharply rounding the goalkeeper, but he was only named on the bench by Simeone when he fielded what was otherwise an understrength side in another defeat, this time away to Cadiz.

By the end of August, just five weeks after Jota had been presented in front of the cameras with a grinning club president Enrique Cerezo, Simeone had decided that another new signing, Nicolas Gaitan, would be used in the only available position in his team. Knowing Yannick Carrasco and Griezmann were also options on the right side of the attack, Jota was happy to move back to Portugal on loan for a year because there were higher possibilities of game time and Porto was, after all, a step up from Pacos.

His return to Spain in 2017 coincided with Atletico being banned from making transfers after breaching rules over the signing of minors but Simeone decided he still didn’t need Jota. This resulted in an initial loan deal with Wolves, where he was reunited with Nuno Espirito Santo, who had been his coach at Porto the previous season. His performances as Wolves romped to the Championship title led to a permanent agreement worth €14 million (£12.3 million), of which Atletico earned €11.2 million. A clause in the contract would have allowed them to buy him back for €20 million but instead he joined Liverpool for more than double that amount.

It is a curious chapter in Jota’s career but it is by no means a unique case of Atletico buying a player and selling him without them making much, or any, impression. Jonny Castro Otto, the full-back, joined Atletico for €7 million in July 2018 from Spain’s Celta Vigo and was then loaned out the very next day, also to Wolves, while the AS newspaper created a slideshow of 10 players Atletico have signed but never used.

In the end, Atletico would make just over €4 million on Jota, which isn’t bad for a player who never made a competitive appearance in their colours.

---

Wolves had first looked at signing Jota in the summer he went to Atletico, with new owners Fosun enlisting Mendes’ help in bringing in a glut of new players, and he would eventually arrive a year later when Nuno took charge.

During Wolves’ pre-season trip to Austria in July 2017, sporting director Kevin Thelwell was informed Jota was surplus to requirements at Atletico and he flew to the Spanish capital to meet president Cerezo and negotiate a deal.

Wolves were keen to structure their outgoings across financial years to help comply with FFP regulations and therefore signed Jota initially on loan with an option to make the deal permanent. They saw the then 20-year-old as an ideal fit in their new 3-4-3 system, owing to his versatility to play out wide or as a second, central forward.

Like almost all of Wolves’ many Portuguese signings, having compatriots in Wolverhampton helped Jota quickly settle in the area in their mini Portugal, which is spread across Tettenhall and Compton near the training ground.

He and midfielder Ruben Neves, along with their respective childhood sweethearts Rute and Debora, were particularly close. The Portuguese-speaking contingent, also including Ruben Vinagre, Roderick Miranda and Leo Bonatini, would frequently spend evenings at each other’s houses or at nearby Italian restaurant Fiume. Late-night drinking or parties were not in Jota’s schedule though, which all chimed with the club’s “no dickheads” policy of signing low-maintenance, mature, hard-working professionals.

On the field, the combative, aggressive, dynamic Jota was ideally suited to the rigours of the Championship. In the early days, he would whine to referees about the rough treatment he received, but he soon learnt to bounce back to his feet and use his deceptive strength to his advantage.

Jota scored 17 goals as Wolves ran the second division title by nine points. No one was in doubt that he would thrive in the Premier League, but a goalless drought of 13 games at the start of the 2018-19 campaign (not helped by a niggling ankle injury) knocked his confidence. Nuno stuck by his man and a switch in formation, unleashing Jota in his preferred central position, yielded instant success with his first goal coming during Wolves’ first use of a 3-5-2 system, in a 2-1 home win over Chelsea.

Starting with that Chelsea match, Jota scored 10 goals and provided seven assists in 21 appearances across all competitions, striking up a formidable partnership with striker Raul Jimenez. Jota was almost unstoppable in this period.

He scored a hat-trick in a 4-3 victory over Leicester City (Nuno ran on the pitch to celebrate his last-minute winner with him) and then a seminal goal in an FA Cup quarter-final win against Manchester United at a feral Molineux. In the semi-final at Wembley he was Wolves’ best player, incessantly dragging his team up-field as Watford hacked at him in vain, like zombies clawing at the last surviving human. Wolves were 2-1 up when Jota was substituted in the 89th minute – and lost 3-2 after extra time.

Despite his individual heroics, Jota was rarely talked about as a candidate for someone who would be lured to a bigger club, with Jimenez, Neves and later Adama Traore often taking the spotlight away from him.

He was happy and settled at Molineux. Away from playing football he’d spend his days… playing football. The virtual kind — honing his obsessions with FIFA as well as Football Manager.

In the management-simulation game, he would pick lower-league teams such as Wolves’ neighbours Telford United and his old side Gondomar and build them all the way up to European finals.

When The Athletic asked him if he saw a similar path in real life with Wolves, he said: “Maybe it’s me as a person.”

He also suggested that his football computer-game infatuation (playing on his laptop in bed while his partner slept next to him) helped him in the real world.

“In FIFA, you can (then) understand tactics better,” he said. “Yes, you play for fun, but you’re trying to work at different things. For example, the first half your opponent might play a specific way, so in the second half you try to counteract that.

“In terms of Football Manager you can better understand the life of a (head) coach. You understand what a manager likes and the things he has to deal with. For example, you can be involved in every single decision and aspect of the club, or let your assistant do the boring stuff.”

Back on the field, his final season with Wolves was defined by streaks which either involved a glut of goals in quick succession or going weeks without scoring. He scored the club’s first European goal in almost 40 years in a Europa League qualifier against Northern Ireland’s Crusaders, the first of nine in the competition as Wolves got to the last eight including two hat-tricks — one of which came in 11 second-half minutes against Besiktas of Turkey.

“He’s like a bee, buzzing around, you’re trying to swat him and you can’t get anywhere near him,” said Mel Eves, who had scored Wolves’ previous goal in Europe in October 1980.

In the Premier League however, he found goals harder to come by (only three in 16 appearances before Christmas), not helped by Nuno switching back to 3-4-3 for much of the season. Jota’s a confidence player and suddenly looked like he had none. He missed 12 “big chances” during the season while his xG of 11.51 (he scored seven) was ahead of Tottenham’s Son Heung-min and Richarlison of Everton, hinting that finishing touch was the main thing lacking from a player who looked fatigued towards the end of the campaign.

Nuno’s mind was made up — Jota could go in the summer if the price was right. He started only three of Wolves’ final eight matches and was the second substitute used in the club’s biggest game for decades, a Europa League quarter-final defeat to Sevilla, having dropped down the pecking order.

There was a feeling Jota had done all he could with Wolves.

A ceiling had been reached — to further his game he needed a fresh start in a team who created more chances. And the prospect of a fee up to £45 million was just too good to turn down.

---

In the summer of 2013, Liverpool thought they had finally made the breakthrough with one of Mendes’ most in-demand clients.

This was a period of uncertainty at Anfield. With Luis Suarez desperate to leave, the club missed out on successive attacking targets when Henrikh Mkhitaryan joined Borussia Dortmund and Willian moved to Chelsea.

Brendan Rodgers had told the club’s transfer board, led by Michael Edwards, that he wanted a powerful and mobile No 9 who was capable of reading the movement of Liverpool’s trickier forward options. Diego Costa was 24 and had broken into Atletico Madrid’s team, scoring 20 goals across all competitions the previous season having formed a deadly partnership with Radamel Falcao. With Suarez kicking up a fuss, there were some concerns about Costa’s own reputation for ill-discipline but having established with Mendes that he had a €25 million release clause, Liverpool were cautiously optimistic of completing a deal.

Inside three days, however, Costa had signed a new contract that would keep him in the Spanish capital for a season that would conclude with Atletico winning the La Liga title and another 36 club goals to his name. Jose Mourinho, back at Chelsea, had told Mendes he wanted to recruit Costa but was unable to for the time being because owner Roman Abramovich was desperate for Fernando Torres to establish himself as the club’s main centre-forward. Meanwhile, Mourinho also had a young Romelu Lukaku in his squad.

Mendes and Costa were asked to wait a year. By that point, Mourinho would be in a better position to make his move. Liverpool, stung by the experience, were left to imagine how devastating a Suarez-Costa attack could have been.

The club’s dealings with Mendes have since improved. There is a huge respect for the way the Portuguese agent operates and a belief he makes transfers a lot more straightforward than they often can be because he is so well connected and, ultimately, decisive. There is also recognition that key figures such as Edwards, who has since emerged as one of the most effective sporting directors in the world, were still learning on the job back then.

Having quietly completed the signing of Fabinho from Monaco in 2018 after discussions with Mendes, Liverpool were in a better position to broker a deal for Jota two years later. It became clear to them that they were not only an attractive option for the player because they were Premier League champions, but because Mendes and Wolves realised Jota had to move on as it was critical to that club’s recruitment model, which dictates potential new signings need to see there is a path for them to bigger stages if they perform well in the old gold.

Liverpool’s scouts had first monitored Jota in 2016, during his loan season at Porto. They had since watched him across three seasons at Molineux. When Jurgen Klopp decided the squad needed another forward early on in Liverpool’s title campaign, the recruitment department set about creating a dossier of targets, which was narrowed down to a shortlist of Jota, Timo Werner of Germany’s RB Leipzig, Watford’s Ismaila Sarr and Jonathan David, a Canadian winger at Belgian side Gent.

After Liverpool pulled away from a deal for Werner amid the uncertainty of the pandemic, it became clear that David, at 20 years old, wanted to be a regular starter and the possibility of this happening was greater for him at French club Lille, who had just sold their top-scorer Victor Osimhen to Napoli of Italy, than at Anfield.

Jota’s abilities were illustrated across a file of information, which included performance assessments covering 20 games. His case was helped by his impact in fixtures against Liverpool.

From a distance, Klopp concluded that Jota was a spiky character and saw parallels in his career with those he would be competing with for a place in the Liverpool side. None of Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino had taken the direct route to the top and given that Jota still had so much more to achieve, Klopp felt his ability and personality had the potential to drive up competition, keeping others hungry and driving them forward even further.

Jota’s seven goals in his first 11 games for Liverpool has included a Champions League hat-trick at Atalanta, which secured his inclusion in the side that drew away to title rivals Manchester City in the last match before this international break.

He has impressed Klopp’s coaches with his inquisitiveness and the way he embraces new ideas as well as the speed at which he can implement them on the training ground.

Most importantly, perhaps, the players have welcomed him and several think he has already become an important member of the team. For so long, it has seemed Mane, Salah and Firmino were an unshakeable front three but that is no longer the case. It is expected that if Jota doesn’t become one of their replacements, he will join them in the starting XI.

His journey to this point suggests he will find a way.

 

[Vesper 28,864]

Thousands of racist and homophobic team names on Fantasy Premier League

https://theathletic.com/2205695/2020/11/19/fantasy-premier-league-racism/

At the top of every page on the Premier League’s official fantasy football website is the logo for No Room For Racism, the league’s campaign to combat discrimination “wherever it exists in society”. But on the league’s own website, that seems a difficult task.

An investigation by The Athletic has discovered that the Fantasy Premier League game is rife with extreme racist language, with more than 130 team names including the word n****r and hundreds more mentioning Hitler, the Nazis, and making deeply offensive references to Jews and the Holocaust.

More than 250 team names featured highly offensive anti-LGBT slurs such as “p**f,” “f*****s” and “b** boys” at the same time as the league tries to combat homophobia through its Rainbow Laces campaign. Hundreds of other team names referenced rape and paedophilia, while more than 1,500 team names contained offensive slurs about disability.

Thousands more team names used offensive swear words like “c**t” and “fuck,” including many examples of abuse targeted at individuals, such as three teams called “Fuck Richard Masters,” the league’s chief executive. We have not published screengrabs for most of these examples as we didn’t feel the language was appropriate.

These names are against the game’s rules but still make it through the filters. This is not a minor problem — as many as one in 1000 of the game’s 7.5 million accounts have been flagged as using potentially offensive team names, according to a professor of statistics who analysed the data for The Athletic.

While the Premier League’s anti-discrimination campaigns are becoming more and more vocal, the problem of fighting bigotry is shifting from the pitch and the stands to the internet, especially during these times of no crowds. Football is coming under more and more pressure to clean up its act online, from removing racist content to moderating the waves of “pornbots” flooding club social media accounts with spam.

The Fantasy Premier League (FPL) uses extensive automatic and human moderation tools to root out offensive names, with repeat offenders booted off the platform for good. And thousands of the examples mentioned above were quickly changed when flagged by The Athletic, with a league spokesperson saying “there is no place for discrimination in football”. 

But with a significant minority of FPL users keen to use the most offensive words imaginable in their fantasy football team names, the tide of bigotry is hard to stop.

The Athletic was alerted to the scale of this problem by Adrian Barnett, a professor of statistics at Queensland University of Technology in Australia. He downloaded every FPL team name using the website’s API, or Application Programming Interface. Once he had downloaded details for all 7.5 million teams he began searching for offensive terms.

While some users try to “hide behind phonetical spelling or odd punctuation,” he says, many do not bother. Typing in the n-word without asterisks brings up lots of results.

Searching through these names is still not a straightforward process, says Barnett.

For example, a search for “Nazi” brings up references to “Internazionale,” the official name of Inter Milan, while “Nazir” is a common Asian name. An account named after the former Blackburn player Tugay may be flagged as potentially homophobic, while a reference to Grasshoppers Club Zurich may be flagged for using the word “ass”. Similarly, the word “Jews” may be used in a deeply offensive way, or be used innocuously by a Jewish person referring to their own community.

“The league do make checks of names, and there’s around 0.1 per cent of users with a team name of “CHANGED NAME,” indicating that the FPL has changed their name because it was offensive,” says Barnett. “That’s a high percentage of bad behaviour (1 in 1000 users).”

“It’s clear the FPL are trying but they are missing a lot of problems and I think their automated systems could be improved by adding more search terms. They might also want to make it easier for users to report bad behaviour, perhaps with a button on everyone’s page, as automated checks will never be 100 per cent accurate.”

The Premier League’s international popularity compounds the problem. For example, the FPL quickly removed hundreds of team names when they were flagged by The Athletic. But a word like “m***” is more complicated because Mongolia is a country and Mong is a relatively common name in parts of Asia.

Despite these complications and caveats, unquestionably racist team names were easy to find.

More than 130 team names include n****r, spelled in full. (There are likely to be many more examples using unconventional spellings to evade filters.) The sample includes uses of the word targeted at specific players including Inter Milan’s Romelu Lukaku and Chelsea’s Antonio Rudiger.

Troy Townsend is head of development for Kick It Out, an organisation which combats racism in football. “This shouldn’t be anything that we are surprised about,” he tells The Athletic. “Online gaming platforms are riddled with racial hatred and other forms of discrimination, and have continued to be for far too long.”

Removing racist language should be a “massive priority” for organisations like the Premier League, he says. “There should be no excuses, whether it’s one user or a thousand users.”

This is not the first time that racism in Fantasy Premier League has become a big issue. Last year the competition’s overall winner, Aleksandar Antonov, was suddenly stripped of his title. According to the Daily Mail, this was because Antonov made racist comments about Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling in a private Facebook chat. The prize was passed on to Joshua Bull, who originally came second.

---

Alongside racist language targeted at black people, FPL team names include a large volume of anti-Semitic abuse. More than 250 teams involve Hitler (spelled correctly), while many more reference the Nazis and the Holocaust, including references to “ovens” and “gas chambers”. Eleven teams were called “Hitler Youth” while three included the swastika character “卍”.

There were also several hundred team names including the word “y**”, an anti-Semitic slur which has been adopted by fans of Tottenham Hotspur as a reference to the club’s historic Jewish connections. Many high-profile Jewish figures have spoken out against this.

Others disagree, including Stephen Pollard, editor of the Jewish Chronicle and a Spurs fan, who spoke to The Athletic last year. “I will proudly chant ‘Come on you Y***,’” he says. “I think it is ludicrous to describe something that is said with affection, by people who mean it with affection, towards people who receive it with affection, as being racist.”

Dave Rich is director of policy at the Community Security Trust, a Jewish charity that works to protect the Jewish community from antisemitism. He says “y**” is an “anti-Semitic insult” which should have “no place in football”.

While FPL team names like “Y** Army” may have affectionate intentions, other names, such as “Y** Killers”, clearly do not.

“Online games are increasingly exploited by racists to spread anti-semitism and extremism, and even something as innocent as a fantasy football league is not immune,” says Rich. “Tackling racism in football does not stop at the stadium turnstiles, and the Premier League need to urgently put moderation controls in place to prevent this happening again.”

---

Homophobia is also widespread in Fantasy Premier League, including hundreds of references to “p***s,” “f*****s” and “b** boys”.

Robbie de Santos is associate director of communications and campaigns at the LGBT rights charity Stonewall.

“This not only shows a problem with homophobia and biphobia among sports fans but also how online anti-LGBT abuse and behaviour continues to be a serious issue,” he says. ‘Tackling offensive comments and names is a crucial part of helping LGBT people feel welcome and able to be themselves in sport, whether on the field or online.”

The Premier League’s Rainbow Laces campaign is aimed at giving people the confidence to tackle homophobic abuse and show visible support for LGBT fans, work which is made harder by offensive abuse online, says de Santos.

“Online platforms and organisations should be telling users how to report unacceptable anti-LGBT abuse and deal with incidents like these seriously and swiftly. Anyone participating in fantasy football can also play their part in kicking out discrimination by reporting these offensive team names.”

Alongside these examples of racism and homophobia, The Athletic found many more offensive team names, including more than 1,500 which used slur words about people with disabilities, including “m***”, “s*****c” and “r****d”. (These were all clearly offensive and not, for example, referring to Mongolia.)

There were also hundreds of references to “rape” and “rapists”, and hundreds of team names which referenced the crimes of high-profile figures convicted of sexual offences against children. There were also several team names which linked well-known footballing figures to rape and paedophilia, references which are completely unsubstantiated, and likely to be highly defamatory.

---

Nobody in positions of authority in the Premier League or its clubs want to see this sort of thing on a public platform that is popular with children, and with people of all races and sexualities all over the world. The league has been making some efforts to combat the issue of racist FPL names, although it clearly has not managed to stop the problem.

However, rooting out racism from fantasy football may be more complex than just slur words in team names.

Barnett, the professor who alerted The Athletic to the problem, spotted the possibility of a more subtle form of discrimination. While 36 per cent of Premier League footballers are black, there are multiple teams which contain no black players at all. Barnett says this happening by chance is “incredibly rare”, suggesting some players are intentionally omitting black players from their squads.

He also spotted hundreds of team names which do not include overt racial slur words but support political movements which go against the Premier League’s messaging on race, including ‘White Lives Matter’ and names supportive of the EDL, the English Defence League.

For all the subtleties and complexities of the issues of moderating offensive words online, there are clearly a large volume of people who are extremely committed to giving their fantasy football team names which use deeply offensive terms and reference some of history’s darkest moments and society’s most disturbing taboos.

Some people seem sufficiently motivated by this to make life difficult for the FPL’s moderation systems, such as setting up new accounts and changing names frequently in order to evade the filters. This makes the problem hard to stop in its entirety.

It also means the league’s anti-discrimination campaigns still have a lot of work to do.

“The Premier League will not tolerate discrimination in any form, anywhere. We strongly condemn offensive and abusive behaviour and remain committed to tackling all forms of discrimination,” a spokesperson told The Athletic. “The League undertakes wide-ranging action and works closely with its longstanding partners Kick It Out, Stonewall and colleagues at The FA and EFL to make it clear there is no room for discrimination in football.”