The English Football Thread

[Atomiswave 6,072]

6 hours ago, Blue Armour said:

in order to preserve the integrity of the competion.

No such thing as integrity in EPL, we are witnessing it game by game now, integrity went out the window long ago.

[Strike 6,961]

20 hours ago, Jason said:

As someone pointed here out yesterday, you would think Spurs are 10 points clear at the top instead of just 2 with the way people are going on about them. Yes, they are getting the results and all that but it's only 11 games in and Liverpool, who of course are the champions, are level on points with them.  

On the other hand, it's funny to see everyone's darling last season Liverpool barely getting any love in the title race so far this season, despite being joint-top. 

This. Liverpool with so many injuries are joint top. No other team is going into games vs Leicester and Wolves and dominating in the manner Liverpool are at the moment and it is a surprise that they are hardly mentioned in the context of the title race. 

I think they are on course for around a 80-90-point haul and I can't see Spurs or Chelsea keeping up all the way. I think the media is just happy that the league is still open in December. 

 

[Jase 43,479]

14 hours ago, NikkiCFC said:

This were the odds before the season by bookmakers:

Premier League outright odds 2020/21

4/5 - Man City

15/8 - Liverpool

10/1 - Chelsea

14/1 - Man Utd

33/1 - Arsenal

50/1 - Tottenham

Just going back to that, as you mentioned, that is before the season (how are Arsenal even ahead of Spurs!?). The latest odds are now this...

Liverpool - 7/4

Man City - 7/4

Chelsea - 11/2

Spurs - 11/2

Man United - 18/1

Arsenal - 250/1

[NikkiCFC 7,580]

7 hours ago, Jason said:

 (how are Arsenal even ahead of Spurs!?). 

They signed world class player Willian 

[MoroccanBlue 5,197]

3 minutes ago, NikkiCFC said:

They signed world class player, better than Ziyech and Havertz,  Willian 

 

[Atomiswave 6,072]

Scumbag

 

[Vesper 27,310]

Paul Pogba and comments timed to cause maximum disruption

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‘Seriously Marcos, do you know how a toaster works yet?’ Photograph: Matthew Peters/Manchester United/Getty Images

Barry Glendenning  @bglendenning

LESS THAN UNITED On any other day, news that Paul Pogba is apparently dissatisfied with life at Manchester United, has no intention of signing a new contract with the club and would like to leave as soon as possible would be greeted by whoops of delight, high fives and offers of lifts to the airport from Ole Gunnar Solskjær, assorted teammates, numerous members of the club hierarchy and tens of thousands of season-ticket holders. However, emerging as it did on the eve of a crunch Big Cup group match in Germany from which Ole and his brave boys need to take a point or go out, Manchester United have taken an understandably dim view of Mina Raiola’s interview with Tuttosport in which Pogba’s Mr 20% said his client wants a move. “Paul at Manchester United is unhappy,” sniffed Raiola. “He would no longer able to express himself as he would like and is expected of him. He has to change teams, he has to change the air. He has a contract that will expire in a year and a half, but I believe the best solution for the parties is to sell in the next market.” Raiola’s comments were timed to cause maximum disruption, coming to light at around the time Pogba and his colleagues would have been sitting down to dinner in their team hotel before Tuesday’s match against RB Leipzig. If nothing else, they will have at least prompted some interesting dinner chat.

Paul Pogba's agent says player wants to leave Manchester United in January Read more

The presumption now is that Pogba will not feature, not that he was likely to anyway considering United need a result and he’s about as reliable as the imminent tsunami of spurious transfer tittle-tattle that will link him with moves to Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain or a return to Juventus. “Get rid,” huffed Jamie Carragher on Sky Sports, upon being asked what United should do with their recalcitrant midfielder, who has pointedly not used any of his social media disgrace platforms to deny the claims. “I’ve been saying this for 12 months. Oh my god, he is the most overrated player I’ve ever seen in my life.” While United would almost certainly love to “get rid” of a player who happily trousers but rarely earns the £300,000 a week he gets from the club, finding anyone to take him off their hands for anywhere near the £89m they paid for him four years ago could prove tricky. The few clubs that can afford him may prefer to keep their powder dry for such time as the contract of a similarly expensive and disgruntled, but much better and more reliable big-name target runs out at Barcelona next summer. For now, United have more important things to worry about, but can take heart from the 5-0 gubbing they dished out to their opponents in October. Pogba played for 81 minutes of that particular game and even set up a goal, but after his boorish mouthpiece’s latest headline-grabbing antics, it will be a surprise if this unhappy camper gets to muddy his spats on the grass of the Red Bull Arena for even a single second. LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE! Join Paul Doyle from 8pm for hot MBM coverage of RB Leipzig 2-2 Manchester United, while Ben Fisher will be clockwatching the rest of Tuesday’s action. QUOTE OF THE DAY “I should have played more. Honestly, I don’t understand why I have not. I have done well every time the coach has called on me. I don’t know what else I can do. I cannot be satisfied and I’m not. I’ve never accepted the idea of not playing and I’m not going to now. It’s a very delicate situation and I don’t like it” – Miralem Pjanic is the latest happy punter at Camp Koe. Oh Ronald! RECOMMENDED LOOKING David Squires on … the booing of footballers taking a knee. It’s particularly good.

It really is. Illustration: David Squires/The Guardian

FIVER LETTERS “Arsenal supporters, it has been two years of further regression. Maybe the club’s problem wasn’t Arsène Wenger?” – JJ Zucal. “John Burridge is not the only petrolhead who has been psychologically scarred by the presence of uninvited waste products in their headwear (yesterday’s News, Bits and Bobs). Jeremy Clarkson apparently endured a similar experience which could help explain the genesis of the beloved epithet ‘Dirty’ Leeds” – Allastair McGillivray. “So, according to Neil Warnock, Stoke like to give visiting players stinky changing rooms (yesterday’s last line), An interesting move, but it may backfire. Years ago, the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks made a point of upgrading the visitors’ facilities. Posh towels, spacious lockers, toilets that flushed – the whole package. Why? Because it helped the club to recruit players when they became free agents. Perhaps Stoke’s management believes they are an attractive enough proposition without such gimmickry” – Mike Wilner. “Ed Taylor (yesterday’s Fiver letters) has brought up a wider philosophical question that may be answered when one-goal Joelinton squares up against a Baggies defence that has shipped 23 goals in 11 matches: what happens when a stoppable force meets a moveable object?” – Matt Richman. “Re: Capone and Fabinho being Untouchables (yesterday’s News, Bits and Bobs). I’m sure you’ll get the hallowed number of replies on this, but it was the team of agents hunting down Scarface that were untouchable, not Capone” – Matt Atkinson (and 1,056 others). Send your letters to [email protected]. And you can always tweet The Fiver via @guardian_sport. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’the day prize is … Allastair McGillivray. RECOMMENDED SHOPPING Available at our print shop now, Tom Jenkins’s pictures of the past decade. There’s also this Gazza picture there too. NEWS, BITS AND BOBS In a boost for free agent $exually Repressed Morris Dancing Fiver’s hopes of making the Euros, Gareth Southgate reckons a hectic Premier League schedule will lead to knacked England players next summer. “It’s very difficult to have a successful national team and the ­strongest league,” he sighed, fresh off a series of international friendlies.

There was a World Cup draw too, but we got distracted by those giant underpants in the middle. Photograph: foto-net/Kurt Schorrer/EPA

Newcastle might be able to play out a drab draw with West Brom now their training ground is open again after a Covid outbreak. Leeds defender Robin Koch will face a spell on the sidelines after undergoing surgery on the knee-knack sustained against Chelsea. Like George Benson and Whitney Houston before him, Jürgen Klopp believes the children are our future. “You still need the right kids, the right players,” he crooned, praising the youngsters who have stepped up during Liverpool’s knack-crisis. “Without them we would have been lost. Thank God it worked out.” Some Manchester City news. And in a blow for Barnsley fireworks shops, Mario Balotelli has joined Serie B side Monza. STILL WANT MORE? Our annual countdown of the top 100 female footballers in the world begins with Nos 71-100.

Here. We. Go. Illustration: Guardian Design

Booing those who take a knee is an act of violent disrespect, writes Barney Ronay. Jonathan Liew on the increasingly beleaguered art of crossing. Leipzig’s Dani Olmo and Juan Mata of Manchester United get their chat on together on Zoom. Liverpool’s relentlessness is ominously back, warns floating footballing brain in a jar Jonathan Wilson. Oh, and if it’s your thing … you can follow Big Website on Big Social FaceSpace. And INSTACHAT, TOO! MEANWHILE, IN THE PERSIAN GULF PRO LEAGUE …

[NikkiCFC 7,580]

Does London going possibly tiar 3 means no fans again? 

[Vesper 27,310]

6 minutes ago, NikkiCFC said:

Does London going possibly tiar 3  means no fans again? 

no fans

the little clubs will be fucked so hard

[ZAPHOD2319 3,873]

They may need to start issuing Prozac as a health crisis prevention to ManU fans. Their discussion of the upcoming Manchester derby,

https://www.redcafe.net/matches/manchester-united-vs-manchester-city.363/

[Vesper 27,310]

Fuck Michael Owen

the cunt said us playing Giroud is disastrous and that Manure will cruise into the CL round of 16

horrid little shitfucker

[Vesper 27,310]

Cashiered into Big Vase where they'll find old pal José Mourinho Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!  Thursday nights it is is then. Photograph: Odd Andersen/Reuters Scott Murray IT’S GOING TO HAPPEN. OF COURSE IT IS It’s hard to know what to make of Manchester United right now. Last weekend, they were beyond abysmal for an hour at West Ham, two-pass moves at a premium, yet by the final whistle Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s free-form jazz collective were stroking the ball around like Brazil at the Azteca. Against Basaksehir a fortnight ago, they wowed the continent with some old-fashioned United swagger, going three goals up in short swashbuckling order, before briefly threatening to fritter away that lead in a blind panic, which they would almost certainly have done were it not for the sturdiness of the Old Trafford woodwork. And then there’s Tuesday night in Leipzig, where, if you try to blot Harry Maguire and David de Gea out of your mind, United looked nearly as competent and only a little more skittish than the team they’d confidently swept aside by five goals just over a month ago. There’s no point asking us. All The Fiver knows is this isn’t normal behaviour. Solskjær says Manchester United 'didn't turn up' before Champions League exit Read more Somewhere in a parallel universe, United were five goals down by the half-hour mark. Over there, Emil Forsberg scored when free, 10 yards out, while Ibrahima Konaté’s header nestled in the top corner instead of bouncing off the post and along the line, or Willi Orban wasn’t offside when he rammed home. But in another, Nordi Mukiele would have diverted Paul Pogba’s cross past his own keeper in stoppage time, instead of hitting the monumentally confused and unaware Péter Gulácsi, and United would have completed the most outrageous three-goal comeback in the entire history of All Football: soft penalty, crisp volleyball bump-set-spike routine, own goal. How The Fiver wishes it had come to pass, partly to witness the large mushroom-shaped cloud of fume forming over the other half of the country, but mainly because we’d have lumped large on United to win Big Cup outright, a licence to print money with things clearly meant to be. But we’re here, in this dimension of the multiverse, and those things were most certainly not. United have instead been cashiered into Big Vase, where they’ll find themselves alongside other fallen kings of Europe such as Benfica, PSV, Milan and Red Star Belgrade. They’ll also discover an old pal in José Mourinho, waiting there with Spurs, a disconcertingly gentle smile playing across his troublemaking chops, another cigar on. “Of course United become one of the top favourites to win the competition,” he twinkled, ahead of his team’s not-particularly-vital match against Royal Antwerp. “United is one of the top teams!” With Spurs currently favourites for the trophy, José has clearly decided to start with the mind games early, ahead of the inevitable pairing at some point in the knockouts. No, we can’t wait either. Yes, we’ve also got a fair idea what he’s going to do if he wins. LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE Join Barry Glendenning for piping hot MBM coverage of Midtjylland 2-1 Liverpool Under-18s in Big Cup at 5.55pm GMT, while Scott Murray will be on hand for Manchester City 2-1 Marseille at 8pm. QUOTE OF THE DAY “It was 4am [when we trained] … it was a very big surprise because you are upset, tired, and you just want to go home” – Barnsley boss Valérien Ismaël lifts the lid on life under Felix Magath at Bayern Munich and reveals how he has helped repair a Yorkshire brass band’s broken tubas.  Valérien Ismaël, earlier. Photograph: Nathan Stirk/Getty Images RECOMMENDED LISTENING The latest Football Weekly will be here soon. FIVER LETTERS “Neil Warnock has not been a manager since Herbert Chapman was a lad without learning a trick or two. When the 926th club of your never-ending career plays poorly and three of your players crock opponents with challenges so agricultural you can smell the manure, you need to do something to change the subject. Complain about ‘stinky dressing rooms’ and 72 hours later you find the nation’s favourite topical tea-time mailout is running a letter on that very topic from Mike Wilner, rather than asking why Middlesbrough can’t do it on a sunny afternoon in Stoke” – David Carr. “Was that a good or bad performance? Are Manchester United in or out of Europe? Is a Scotch Egg a substantive meal? Ole is really Erwin Schrödinger and will meet FC Heisenberg in Big Vase. I’m just so uncertain” – Brendan Donnelly. “With the Fiver Awards coming soon, may I nominate Fiver Chief Economist Noble Francis as Real Letter Writer of the Year? A Fake Letter Writer ‘honour’ could be awarded, but it would be awkward if the awardee was discovered to be real” – JJ Zucal. Send your letters to [email protected]. And you can always tweet The Fiver via @guardian_sport. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’the day prize is … David Carr. RECOMMENDED SHOPPING Available at our print shop now, Tom Jenkins’s pictures of the past decade. There’s also this Gazza picture there too. NEWS, BITS AND BOBS Uefa will conduct a “thorough” investigation into claims that the fourth official, Constantin Coltescu, used racist language during PSG’s game against Istanbul Basaksehir. The Romanian official could face a minimum 10-match ban if found guilty of breaching Uefa rules. The Queen’s Celtic manager Neil Lennon thinks everything will be hunky dory now that the board have given him a vote of confidence. “I think it sort of settles everyone down,” Lennon cheered. “It’s full steam ahead. We just need to try to get some consistency and wins now.” Newcastle players have returned to full training after a Covid-19 outbreak led to last Friday’s match at Aston Villa being postponed. Jamie Vardy has written a message of support to Leicester’s LGBT+ fans group, Foxes Pride, on the rainbow corner flag he shattered while celebrating his winner against Sheffield United on Sunday. “We are proud and grateful for the support that Vardy and Leicester City FC continue to show for Rainbow Laces,” tweeted the group.  The message from Jamie Vardy on the corner flag he broke while celebrating. Photograph: Twitter/foxespride Get the coach booked, Spurs fans. With away supporters unable to attend Tottenham’s FA Cup tie at Marine next month, the Merseyside non-leaguers are offering Spurs season-ticket holders free entry to one of their games next season. It’s an eight-hour round trip (at best – Fiver Travel Ed) from N17 to L23, but it’s the thought that counts. And Fifa president Gianni Infantino has given himself a nice big pat on the back for providing $1.5bn in Covid-19 relief payments. “Fifa had its pandemic already five years ago and now we have our antibodies,” Infantino cheered. “We are strong, we are solid and we have been able to help.” STILL WANT MORE? Our annual countdown of the top 100 female footballers in the world continues apace with Nos 71-41 revealed today. Leroy Rosenior may no longer be the best known member of his own family, but the former player and manager is trying to drive change through his work as an anti-discrimination educator and broadcaster. He speaks to Ed Aarons. Oh Ole, oh no. But at least he has his old mates in the media, says Barney Ronay. Moles in the goal, and badgers too. Plus: Lincoln United hitting the big time, and a famous 1989 field full of future pundits. All in this week’s Knowledge.  Picture of the day, right there. Photograph: blickwinkel/Alamy Stock Photo Chelsea and Manchester City face an uphill task in trying to unseat Lyon from their WCL throne, writes Suzanne Wrack. Oh, and if it’s your thing … you can follow Big Website on Big Social FaceSpace. And INSTACHAT, TOO! STAT!

[Magic Lamps 11,449]

46 minutes ago, Vesper said:

Cashiered into Big Vase where they'll find old pal José Mourinho Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!  Thursday nights it is is then. Photograph: Odd Andersen/Reuters Scott Murray IT’S GOING TO HAPPEN. OF COURSE IT IS It’s hard to know what to make of Manchester United right now. Last weekend, they were beyond abysmal for an hour at West Ham, two-pass moves at a premium, yet by the final whistle Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s free-form jazz collective were stroking the ball around like Brazil at the Azteca. Against Basaksehir a fortnight ago, they wowed the continent with some old-fashioned United swagger, going three goals up in short swashbuckling order, before briefly threatening to fritter away that lead in a blind panic, which they would almost certainly have done were it not for the sturdiness of the Old Trafford woodwork. And then there’s Tuesday night in Leipzig, where, if you try to blot Harry Maguire and David de Gea out of your mind, United looked nearly as competent and only a little more skittish than the team they’d confidently swept aside by five goals just over a month ago. There’s no point asking us. All The Fiver knows is this isn’t normal behaviour. Solskjær says Manchester United 'didn't turn up' before Champions League exit Read more Somewhere in a parallel universe, United were five goals down by the half-hour mark. Over there, Emil Forsberg scored when free, 10 yards out, while Ibrahima Konaté’s header nestled in the top corner instead of bouncing off the post and along the line, or Willi Orban wasn’t offside when he rammed home. But in another, Nordi Mukiele would have diverted Paul Pogba’s cross past his own keeper in stoppage time, instead of hitting the monumentally confused and unaware Péter Gulácsi, and United would have completed the most outrageous three-goal comeback in the entire history of All Football: soft penalty, crisp volleyball bump-set-spike routine, own goal. How The Fiver wishes it had come to pass, partly to witness the large mushroom-shaped cloud of fume forming over the other half of the country, but mainly because we’d have lumped large on United to win Big Cup outright, a licence to print money with things clearly meant to be. But we’re here, in this dimension of the multiverse, and those things were most certainly not. United have instead been cashiered into Big Vase, where they’ll find themselves alongside other fallen kings of Europe such as Benfica, PSV, Milan and Red Star Belgrade. They’ll also discover an old pal in José Mourinho, waiting there with Spurs, a disconcertingly gentle smile playing across his troublemaking chops, another cigar on. “Of course United become one of the top favourites to win the competition,” he twinkled, ahead of his team’s not-particularly-vital match against Royal Antwerp. “United is one of the top teams!” With Spurs currently favourites for the trophy, José has clearly decided to start with the mind games early, ahead of the inevitable pairing at some point in the knockouts. No, we can’t wait either. Yes, we’ve also got a fair idea what he’s going to do if he wins. LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE Join Barry Glendenning for piping hot MBM coverage of Midtjylland 2-1 Liverpool Under-18s in Big Cup at 5.55pm GMT, while Scott Murray will be on hand for Manchester City 2-1 Marseille at 8pm. QUOTE OF THE DAY “It was 4am [when we trained] … it was a very big surprise because you are upset, tired, and you just want to go home” – Barnsley boss Valérien Ismaël lifts the lid on life under Felix Magath at Bayern Munich and reveals how he has helped repair a Yorkshire brass band’s broken tubas.  Valérien Ismaël, earlier. Photograph: Nathan Stirk/Getty Images RECOMMENDED LISTENING The latest Football Weekly will be here soon. FIVER LETTERS “Neil Warnock has not been a manager since Herbert Chapman was a lad without learning a trick or two. When the 926th club of your never-ending career plays poorly and three of your players crock opponents with challenges so agricultural you can smell the manure, you need to do something to change the subject. Complain about ‘stinky dressing rooms’ and 72 hours later you find the nation’s favourite topical tea-time mailout is running a letter on that very topic from Mike Wilner, rather than asking why Middlesbrough can’t do it on a sunny afternoon in Stoke” – David Carr. “Was that a good or bad performance? Are Manchester United in or out of Europe? Is a Scotch Egg a substantive meal? Ole is really Erwin Schrödinger and will meet FC Heisenberg in Big Vase. I’m just so uncertain” – Brendan Donnelly. “With the Fiver Awards coming soon, may I nominate Fiver Chief Economist Noble Francis as Real Letter Writer of the Year? A Fake Letter Writer ‘honour’ could be awarded, but it would be awkward if the awardee was discovered to be real” – JJ Zucal. Send your letters to [email protected]. And you can always tweet The Fiver via @guardian_sport. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’the day prize is … David Carr. RECOMMENDED SHOPPING Available at our print shop now, Tom Jenkins’s pictures of the past decade. There’s also this Gazza picture there too. NEWS, BITS AND BOBS Uefa will conduct a “thorough” investigation into claims that the fourth official, Constantin Coltescu, used racist language during PSG’s game against Istanbul Basaksehir. The Romanian official could face a minimum 10-match ban if found guilty of breaching Uefa rules. The Queen’s Celtic manager Neil Lennon thinks everything will be hunky dory now that the board have given him a vote of confidence. “I think it sort of settles everyone down,” Lennon cheered. “It’s full steam ahead. We just need to try to get some consistency and wins now.” Newcastle players have returned to full training after a Covid-19 outbreak led to last Friday’s match at Aston Villa being postponed. Jamie Vardy has written a message of support to Leicester’s LGBT+ fans group, Foxes Pride, on the rainbow corner flag he shattered while celebrating his winner against Sheffield United on Sunday. “We are proud and grateful for the support that Vardy and Leicester City FC continue to show for Rainbow Laces,” tweeted the group.  The message from Jamie Vardy on the corner flag he broke while celebrating. Photograph: Twitter/foxespride Get the coach booked, Spurs fans. With away supporters unable to attend Tottenham’s FA Cup tie at Marine next month, the Merseyside non-leaguers are offering Spurs season-ticket holders free entry to one of their games next season. It’s an eight-hour round trip (at best – Fiver Travel Ed) from N17 to L23, but it’s the thought that counts. And Fifa president Gianni Infantino has given himself a nice big pat on the back for providing $1.5bn in Covid-19 relief payments. “Fifa had its pandemic already five years ago and now we have our antibodies,” Infantino cheered. “We are strong, we are solid and we have been able to help.” STILL WANT MORE? Our annual countdown of the top 100 female footballers in the world continues apace with Nos 71-41 revealed today. Leroy Rosenior may no longer be the best known member of his own family, but the former player and manager is trying to drive change through his work as an anti-discrimination educator and broadcaster. He speaks to Ed Aarons. Oh Ole, oh no. But at least he has his old mates in the media, says Barney Ronay. Moles in the goal, and badgers too. Plus: Lincoln United hitting the big time, and a famous 1989 field full of future pundits. All in this week’s Knowledge.  Picture of the day, right there. Photograph: blickwinkel/Alamy Stock Photo Chelsea and Manchester City face an uphill task in trying to unseat Lyon from their WCL throne, writes Suzanne Wrack. Oh, and if it’s your thing … you can follow Big Website on Big Social FaceSpace. And INSTACHAT, TOO! STAT!

soft pen should be the insignium in ManUre's coat of arms.

[Vesper 27,310]

Goals, tricks and winning free kicks: Grealish is like Eden Hazard at his peak

https://theathletic.com/2246515/2020/12/08/jack-grealish-villa-eden-hazard/

In his final Premier League season, Eden Hazard was widely recognised as the player most likely to catch up with superstars Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as the pair entered the twilight of their remarkable careers.

The former Chelsea star hoped he could emulate Ronaldo and Messi by one day winning the Ballon d’Or.

“Messi, Ronaldo, they are on another planet, but yeah, why not? I try to be one of the best, so if I can be, why not?” he said in a 2015 newspaper interview.

In the same year, Hazard received the PFA Player of the Year award as he starred in the side that won the Premier League. For many opponents, the only way to stop the tricky Belgian was to chop him down.

Which brings us to Aston Villa’s captain Jack Grealish.

It was in the detailed analysis on Monday Night Football that Jamie Carragher drew the initial comparison between the pair, highlighting Grealish’s quick and inventive runs down the left side of attack and likening them to Hazard when he was on fire at Stamford Bridge.

Former Chelsea player Ashley Cole also compared their styles, saying: “He’s got that Hazard quality, he can beat players left and right.”

For close to two years, Grealish has been playing on the left side of attack, a blend of No 11 and No 10 — part mazy winger, part playmaker, part second striker. He is very much to Villa what Hazard was to Chelsea, and not just in terms of positioning, either.

As the Belgian was at Chelsea, Grealish is the star man in his team. He is Villa’s main source of goals and a great entertainer.

It’s too soon to suggest that he’s as efficient and productive as Hazard, who also had the on-pitch numbers (110 goals and 92 assists in all competitions) and trophies (two league titles, two Europa Leagues, an FA Cup and a League Cup) to back up his incredible talent.

But this season alone, Grealish is performing as well as the diminutive attacker once was.

Five goals and five assists after nine games means he’s on course to challenge Hazard’s 16 goals and 15 assists from 37 Premier League games in 2018-19 (his final, and most prolific, season in London).

Grealish is the most fouled player in the Premier League by some distance over the last two seasons (Photo: Tim Keeton – Pool/Getty Images)

Grealish is averaging the same amount of shots on goal (2.9) per 90 minutes in the Premier League as Hazard (2.9) managed in that season.

He averages around 20 fewer touches (63.3 compared to 82.4) per 90 minutes this season than Hazard did in 2018-19, yet makes more touches in the opposition box per 90 minutes (8.8 for Grealish, 7.4 for Hazard).

Hazard’s efficiency in his final season was what put him into that category to rival both Messi and Ronaldo.

His 16 Premier League goals had an expected goals (xG) value of 10.53, boosted by his spectacularly accurate finishing up to an expected goals on target (xGOT) rating of 15.24. The xG statistic measures the quality of Hazard’s shooting opportunities — i.e. how many goals he would be expected to score in a season. The xGOT rating measures the quality of Hazard’s shots from those opportunities. The fact that his xGOT is nearly 50 per cent higher than his xG shows that he was finishing chances excellently.

He converted 27 per cent of his shots and a remarkable 55.6 per cent of his 18 “big chances”, as defined by Opta.

This season Grealish has converted 19 per cent of his shots and two (40 per cent) of his five big chances. His five Premier League goals have an expected goals (xG) value of 2.58, boosted further to an xGOT rating of 3.03. He’s also created seven big chances after just nine games compared to Hazard’s 18 in his final season.

That’s the data box ticked, but the true likeness comes from the way Grealish bullies teams. That relentless energy on the ball is exactly what made Hazard such a success when he played in England. On top of that, Grealish has reached pretty much every other challenge set by him at Villa over the years, and his game continues to improve.

In the latter years of his Chelsea career, giving Hazard the ball essentially became Chelsea’s entire attacking system, and that’s how Villa operate with their star man now.

Away from his attacking talents, a theme in Hazard’s career in England was that every manager wanted a little more from him defensively.

“In my career, I’ve frustrated all my managers and I’ll also frustrate the next manager I have,” Hazard said in 2019.

With a team packed full of quality, every manager also managed to find a way to allow him to roam freely by rejigging the set-up that also allowed Chelsea to flourish.

In 2014-15 Jose Mourinho stuck the reliable and consistent Cesar Azpilicueta at left-back, with Nemanja Matic on the left side of central midfield in a 4-2-3-1 system that gave Hazard space to create. Diego Costa also occupied the centre-halves with strength and brute force as Chelsea won the league.

Antonio Conte’s 3-4-3 set-up then allowed Hazard even more freedom to attack. Not only did Marcos Alonso as the left-sided wing-back offer protection, but Chelsea also had a left-sided centre-back mopping up, with Matic and N’Golo Kante acting as the ball-winners. Chelsea again won the league in 2016-17, finishing with 93 points.

Even in his final season, Hazard helped Chelsea win the Europa League under Maurizio Sarri. He made no secret of how much he enjoyed playing with Olivier Giroud, a powerful striker whom he felt complemented his game brilliantly.

Grealish, it should be said, does get down and dirty when he needs to. He tracks back and occasionally makes important blocks and interceptions as Villa, unlike Chelsea, have to grind it out more often.

But can they consistently find solutions in other areas of the pitch to get the very best out of their top performer?

Grealish typically wins Villa a few more points with his performances, but Hazard used to win Chelsea trophies and league titles with his. Therefore, when Grealish plays so well for a side that hasn’t won a trophy for 24 years and has averaged just 36 points per season in their last eight Premier League campaigns, the debate will always be whether playing for another club will help him scale even greater heights.

For now, though, it’s interesting to see whether Grealish can maintain his current level and cement himself as one of the Premier League’s most feared attackers.

There’s also no intention to sell, for two main reasons: 1) he’s just signed a new five-year contract, and 2) his value has rocketed to over the £100 million mark, posing the question: which club can even afford to buy him right now anyway?

The Hazard comparison rings true because there are so many other similarities. Take the fouls for starters.

Villa’s medical staff are amazed at how strong Grealish’s ankles are. The physios have lost count of the number of times they have winced in the dugout as another challenge has left Grealish in a heap. Their take is that if it was any other player, a lengthy spell on the sidelines would follow.

It was, however, the same at Chelsea when Hazard used to peel off his strapping to reveal the cuts and bruises, scuff marks and scars after games. He won 638 fouls over his seven years, an average of one foul every half an hour of game time or 26 touches of the ball.

Grealish, incredibly, has a one-in-14 ratio of fouls to touches this season. He’s the most fouled player in the Premier League by some distance over the last two seasons. Some suggest that he goes down too easily, but boss Dean Smith disagrees: “If they’re not fouls, then the referee doesn’t give them.

“You tell me the top forwards who don’t go down easy. They get their bodies in really good positions so the defenders have to go through them.”

In some ways, then, it’s an art that Grealish has mastered. Hazard had a knack of winning penalties in a way that Grealish wins fouls all over the pitch.

Those who know each individual well say the constant kicking during games irritates them, but not enough to stop either player from loving the game. They are both free-spirited mavericks and in some ways have never left their innocent childhood years behind.

In his youth, Hazard would ping shots barefooted into the top corner after sneaking on to the pitch behind the family home in Braine-le-Comte, whereas Grealish would visit his Birmingham City-supporting friend’s house “because he had a bigger garden” and play one-on-one “Villa vs Blues” games.

It was ex-boss Steve Bruce who said that when he watched Grealish train, he could still see the excited schoolboy in the playground. Bruce, now head coach at Newcastle United, also described Grealish as Villa’s “crown jewel”.

A worrying thought for opponents is that many of Grealish’s team-mates believe he will get even better when supporters are allowed back inside stadiums across the country. He’s taken his game to a new level this season. The way he glides past opponents and is able to slow down and then speed up play in the same way that made Hazard such a success is receiving global attention.

Grealish is no stranger to living up to high expectations, though. When he ripped the Championship apart, he was always asked to show his qualities in the Premier League. When he performed well for England, he was then challenged to do it against the bigger nations.

Now, he’s spoken about in the same breath as a Premier League great like Hazard. It’s a stretch to think that Messi and Ronaldo will one day come into the conversation, but like Hazard said when he was asked about the two greats: “Why not?”

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Raiola mood-killer gives Man Utd decisions to make in both short and long term

https://theathletic.com/2244961/2020/12/07/manchester-united-raiola-leipzig-pogba/

It was an understated press conference from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Harry Maguire ahead of the biggest game in Manchester United’s season so far, but they said positive things and projected the right tone.

Maguire spoke plainly. “We fully expect to get out of the group. We’re in a good position, confident and we look forward to the game.”

Solskjaer expressed his belief United’s players will “show the reason” they’re at the club. “The character of the group is getting better and better,” he said.

Faced with a contest against RB Leipzig that could end in triumph or disaster, United’s captain and manager projected a picture of unity.

Mino Raiola, it appears, did not get the memo.

Arriving late to the party, and uninvited, Raiola changed the music and killed the mood. In an interview with Tuttosport to mark the Italian newspaper’s Golden Boy award – which Raiola clients have won four times in the last decade – the agent to Paul Pogba said: “I can say that it’s over for Paul Pogba at Manchester United.” That sound you can hear is a record player scratching to a halt.

United would not be drawn on Raiola’s comments but sources say there is deep frustration, bordering on anger, at the timing and sentiment. Executives have grown familiar with Raiola’s bombastic aggravations, but a new nerve has been struck. For such an unequivocal message to come out 24 hours before United are due to play a hugely important fixture in which Pogba could prove pivotal, the reaction from those close to the club has been withering.

Raiola, actually, went further. “It’s pointless beating around the bush. Better to be straight up about it. Paul is unhappy at Manchester United. He isn’t performing as he’d like and as we expect. He has to move, he has to change scenery. He has a contract that expires in 18 months, in summer 2022. But I think the best thing for all parties is a sale.

“Otherwise United, who we have a great relationship with, know very well they’d risk losing him for free given the player has no intention of extending. If someone doesn’t understand that, they understand little or nothing about football.”

Eye-rolls aplenty at Raiola’s “great relationship” aside, the rest of what he said is at least a fair representation of Pogba’s situation, as reported by The Athletic in November.

Juventus are said to be Pogba’s current destination of choice, and the Italian side will always be interested in a reunion. But as with Barcelona and Real Madrid, finances are an issue. Cristiano Ronaldo’s €31-million-per-year wages are a heavy burden on a budget which could only incorporate Pogba’s salary if another big name is sold.

Paulo Dybala is on the periphery in Turin and may again be made available for transfer. United held talks with the forward in the summer of 2019 and a swap deal at some stage seems a plausible prospect.

Solskjaer is known to think selling Pogba, freeing up around £290,000 per week in wages, and bringing in a player who wants to be at Old Trafford would be the best course of action. For now the United manager has more immediate concerns, and Raiola’s words only complicate matters.

After scoring against West Ham, Pogba was an obvious contender to start against Leipzig, particularly with Anthony Martial and Edinson Cavani out injured. But can Solskjaer really pick someone whose agent has launched a grenade with such deliberate intent? What message would it send to team-mates were Solskjaer place trust in someone who so patently wants to leave the club?

Maybe that is an idealistic way to observe the situation. Alternatively, all that matters at this moment is qualification to the knock-out phase of the Champions League and if Pogba can be useful then noses need not be cut off to spite faces.

Indeed, the scene is set for some pragmatism. Solskjaer went toe-to-toe with Paris Saint-Germain and helped produce an engaging occasion. This is a second-chance shootout but the safety net is removed. Lose and United are done. In the circumstances, caution would not be a betrayal of traditions.

Solskjaer, publicly at least, was not subscribing to that theory however. “You’ve got to approach the game as 90 minutes, anything can happen in any moment,” he said. “You can’t sit back and hope for a 0-0 draw, it’s not in our genes. We want to go out there and win a game. We showed that against PSG, you have to create chances, and we’ll do that again.”

Maguire did not deviate. “We spoke about it this morning, we’re not going to sit back. We created three or four very good chances to beat PSG. We go there and look to win.”

Leipzig give off the impression openings will occur at both ends of the pitch. They enjoyed a chaotic 4-3 win over Istanbul Basaksehir last week and shared a compelling 3-3 draw with Bayern Munich on Saturday. Dayot Upamecano, the centre-back United are tracking, is suspended, while for Solskjaer Luke Shaw and David de Gea are back fit.

If those details provide comfort, there is also an ominous precedent to cause an element of concern. On December 8, 2015, United travelled to Germany needing to win a final Champions League group game to progress, only to produce a tepid display and suffer defeat.

The match is memorable for Louis van Gaal sending on Nick Powell for his first appearance of the season, out of position up front. Unfortunately, Powell, then 21, was unable to cut through the confusion by inspiring a comeback. It proved to be his last game for United.

Van Gaal left at the end of that season too, sacked after failing to qualify for the Champions League, and Solskjaer knows all too well the value the competition still has for United and his position.

Reaching the next phase alone earns the club £8.5 million, nearly £1 million more than winning the whole Europa League. A quarter-final place in the Champions League is worth £9.5 million, a semi-final spot a further £11 million. Teams also share a market pool of television rights worth an estimated £263 million.

Losing in Leipzig would mean a significant drop in revenue, all the more pronounced amid the pandemic. More to the point, after starting the most difficult group so impressively, failure to actually seal progress would undermine Solskjaer.

 

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On the pitch, in the dugout, in the boardroom, United good intentions not enough

https://theathletic.com/2239329/2020/12/09/leipzig-united-naive-pogba/

Turn back the clock to December 2. It is the 69th minute at Old Trafford and Manchester United are losing 2-1 to Paris Saint-Germain thanks to a scrappy Marquinhos finish from a corner. United are have been swapping haymakers with last year’s Champions League runners-up, but Fred has just miscontrolled a pass from Harry Maguire and is about to make a tackle to protect possession from Ander Herrera.

The Brazilian makes a hash of it though, picking up his second yellow card of the game.

Fred has been a ticking time bomb for over 40 minutes in this match, and was lucky to escape an instant dismissal for leaning his head towards Leandro Paredes (below). Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s decision to persist with the midfielder rather than remove him at half-time left Fred walking a tightrope with the match officials, and he was eventually sent off.

Good intention from Solskjaer, who would say afterwards that Fred was playing well and he didn’t wish to remove him. Bad result. United end up chasing the game with 10 men and eventually fall to a Neymar goal in the closing stages.

In the 48th minute, with the score 1-1, Marcus Rashford has just exchanged a superb give and go with Edinson Cavani and squared the ball across the penalty area to Anthony Martial (below).

The Frenchman messes up his shot, spooning it horribly over the crossbar, perhaps put off by the attentions of defender Alessandro Florenzi. It is good intentional football, United’s talented forwards coming to life on the attacking transition. United are a team that can create chances like these at least twice a game but are erratic in finishing them. They will end up rueing this miss.

Go back further, to November 4. United are playing Istanbul Basaksehir. It is the 11th minute and an excitable United have played a short corner. Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s cross into the penalty area is cleared and then this happens.

United had good intentions on their trip to Turkey, but their overeagerness to play the ball left them vulnerable to the simplest of counter-attacks. The goal Demba Ba scored here would lead to an infamous upset and cause ripples in Champions League Group H.

Back to the present day. United are just over 90 seconds into their game at the Red Bull Arena against RB Leipzig and the home side’s Marcel Sabitzer has just delivered an interesting cross from deep on the left-hand side.

The pass blows past Victor Lindelof and Leipzig’s Emil Forsberg, but Wan-Bissaka is caught in two minds as to whether he should attack the ball (which is probably just out of his reach) or hold his position as the widest player on the right-hand side (which is something he should be checking for before he shoots off on his sprint). He has no idea Angelino has ghosted in behind him (below).

The full-back, on loan to the Germans from Manchester City, opens the scoring.

United came into Tuesday’s group finale needing at least a point to go through to the knockout phase and manager Solskjaer insisted beforehand that his team would not play for the draw. “We want to go out there and win the game. We showed that against PSG, you have to create chances to score goals and we’ll do that again,” he said.

But Angelino’s goal means his good intentions to attack early are thrown out of the window in the first two minutes.

United try to regroup. They are playing in a 3-5-2, with Alex Telles and Wan-Bissaka providing width, while Mason Greenwood and Rashford once again operate on a split striker system. Julian Nagelsmann has Leipzig in a similar 3-4-2-1, and while Solskjaer cannot field his preferred “McFred” midfield pivot due to the Brazilian’s suspension, if Scott McTominay can provide a solid base with Nemanja Matic and win the ball high up the pitch, then the plan can take shape. United’s strikers will have to drop deep when the team win the ball to drag Leipzig’s defenders out of position, before bursting into life when Bruno Fernandes is in possession to attack on the transition.

This is exactly how they manufacture a chance in the eighth minute.

Look at how much space United’s forwards have when the ball is played over the top.

Unfortunately, United themselves are not wise to Leipzig’s own game plan, which looks to build overloads in one area of the pitch before quickly switching the ball over. When Amadou Haidara collects the ball on the right in the 12th minute, look at the cluster of United players around him…

United are applying a decent amount of pressure on the ball and trying to close off channels but the Malian plays backwards to Sabitzer (No 7, to the right of the above image), who funnels the ball over Angelino (No 3, at the bottom of the image).

When Angelino delivers a cross from the left, everyone seems mostly assured of how they wish to defend it, but Luke Shaw does a little scan to his right as he enters the penalty area, as if he senses something is wrong.

But the Englishman and Telles (who is tracking Forsberg) both retreat to defend the same area inside of United’s posts. By the time the ball makes it back to Haidara, the United duo realise they have been swindled.

United had good intentions last night, but found themselves 2-0 down within 15 minutes.

Leipzig’s third goal is its own unique mess, coming after a small period of United dominance following a half-time reconfiguration and Solskjaer moving to a 4-2-3-1 with Shaw as an orthodox left-back and Donny van de Beek coming on in the midfield three for Telles. United are pushing for a goal, but after Fernandes rattles Leipzig’s crossbar from a free kick, the ball makes it down to the other end where an Angelino cross ricochets off Christopher Nkunku.

The deflection wrong-foots Harry Maguire and Leipzig forward Yussuf Poulsen, but also catches goalkeeper David de Gea in two minds as to whether attack the ball and make a save. The Spaniard tries to make a save, but doesn’t properly extend himself, and Justin Kluivert duly finishes.

That should have been the end of United in the 2020-21 Champions League, their good intentions frittered away and now three down after 69 minutes of a match they had to, at worst, draw.

But despite all of that, they get a lifeline, Greenwood collecting a long pass from second-half substitute Paul Pogba, whose presence in the game was a surprise due to some distracting, unnecessary, but very intentional comments from his agent Mino Raiola who (possibly sensing a moment of weakness in United with Fred’s suspension) stated the Frenchman’s time at the club is coming to an end. Despite this, Greenwood’s collection of Pogba’s pass results in a penalty that Fernandes converts in the 80th minute, and then two minutes later Pogba creates enough chaos at the back post from a corner to bundle in a second goal for United. He then nearly tees up a last-minute equaliser, but Peter Gulacsi manages to make a save.

The road to the Europa League’s last 32 is paved with good intentions, and United slipped into that competition due to a culmination of naive decisions against a series of more cynical and streetwise opponents.

Solskjaer is a man of good intentions, working well to rebalance and rework a sometimes sloppy squad to get them through a Project Restart period to qualify for this competition. But after this defeat, he could only offer a meek message. “We didn’t perform as a team well enough and that’s always the manager’s responsibility, to get everyone ready,” he said.

“We knew they were going to come at us, we knew they were going to put crosses in the box and unfortunately we conceded two goals and never got going. In games earlier (this season) when we’ve conceded the first goal, we’ve played pretty well. Today we just didn’t turn up until they scored the second goal. Suddenly then, we started playing again.”

Solskjaer is less than two weeks from his second anniversary as United manager and while his long-term vision for the team holds some promise, his squad can look devoid in confidence in defence and undercoached in midfield and sometimes wasteful up front. Despite the good intentions of those above him at the club, United have glaring holes in a number of positions including right winger, defensive midfield and centre-back.

Manchester United are one of the largest, most storied football clubs in the world. Their three European Cups make them one of the most successful teams in continental competition, but they will enter 2021 as a Europa League side — much to the chagrin of their bank manager — because they are an entity that rarely offers more than good intentions and the occasional flourish of individual quality. Other European superpowers have good intentions and act upon them appropriately, working on logistical, strategic and tactical levels to make sure everyone is pulling in the same direction on a week-to-week basis. United’s direction looks to be one of sideways drift with no change in the near future.

Manchester United have been eliminated from the Champions League because their attempts at operating solely on good intentions just aren’t enough at this level.

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Man United mailbag – How safe is Solskjaer? Will Pogba leave in January?

https://theathletic.com/2250546/2020/12/09/manchester-united-ole-gunnar-solskjaer-ed-woodward/

Manchester United’s miserable defeat by RB Leipzig has again left the Old Trafford faithful wondering just what is going on at their club.

Not only does the defeat raise questions on the long-term future of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as manager but it has put the spotlight back on executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward and his running of the club.

Your questions flooded in for our Manchester United expert Laurie Whitwell to give his insight into what is going on at United before the first Manchester derby of the season this weekend.

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Hi Laurie, assuming Ole’s position is safe for the immediate future, what will it take for the club to reassess this? And if Ole goes, shouldn’t Ed Woodward follow him? — Jonny W

Hi Jonny, I believe it would take a sustained run of bad form for United to dispense with Solskjaer. There are no indications at present the club is thinking that way. Alternatively, later in the season, a failure to qualify for the Champions League could prompt action. Woodward’s position is as safe as you can get. He speaks to Joel Glazer every day and the finances (aside from the pandemic) are good. That is the bottom line.

I find the failure to progress after such a good start really damaging to Solskjaer though. Yes players made individual mistakes, but it is up to a manager to stop them being repeated. That being said, the group always appeared difficult to progress from and United have probably hit par overall on expectations. But Solskjaer knows his job is to raise and fulfil those expectations.

United are committed to Solskjaer and feel that by sticking with a manager they will break the continuous cycle of styles which left the squad unbalanced and without an identity after Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement.

What would it take for Woodward to be moved from the football decisions? It’s been eight years now. Ole is obviously an easy talking point but distracts from the structural issues that permeate from the top year after year, transfer window after window, and after each inevitable sacking. It’s not even the personal vitriol that most fans have, it’s just more that the results are what they are — mediocrity and inconsistent form? — Sam B

A very salient point Sam. Woodward isn’t making football decisions, as such, but he is involved in the transfer spending, as led by Joel Glazer, which means United don’t get (Jadon) Sancho, for instance. I can’t see it changing any time soon

Hi Laurie, a few questions today: 1. What’s your opinion on hiring Mauricio Pochettino, is he a good choice? 2. Does he want the job? How does last night impact Ole’s long-term plan? Has Ole spoken with Pogba yet about Raiola’s comments? — Ted H.

1. I think that if United hired him (United are adamant Solskjaer is the guy, still by the way) he would be a good choice. He showed at Tottenham he can build a team and overshoot expectations. That being said, I don’t think he’s the guarantee of success some seem to paint him as. He didn’t win anything and his style relies on emotion.

2. He would definitely take the job. He’s been out of work more than a year now and United are one of the best draws in football.

3. It’s frustrating as going through would have been a clear marker of progress, but it doesn’t affect things fundamentally. If United beat City and win their game in hand it’s two points off top and pretty rosy.

4. I’m led to believe he has spoken to him, but trying to establish more details.

Do you have a view as to why our performances this season have been so inconsistent? I can’t work out if it’s a coaching problem or something that should sit with the players — to not seem up for the game last night, particularly after the first half performance strikes me that the players need to take accountability? — Mark D.

It has to be a blend. Solskjaer has made mistakes with selections at times, and the coaches should be looking at themselves to ask if their work is producing the best possible outcomes. But also this group needs additions. There is some excellent talent, yet young players will have ups and downs. A mobile midfielder with good passing, a proper right winger, and an established centre-back would help.

Do you think United’s current inconsistency may be solved by bringing in a more “seasoned” coach in terms of defensive discipline? — Vishal S

Some people do believe an addition would be good. (Mike) Phelan is as experienced as they come but coaching is led by (Kieran) McKenna and (Michael) Carrick. It’s a question that will be asked each time United suffer defensively.

In the wake of Raiola’s comments, do you think the club will send Pogba to the reserves to train until he’s found a new club? I agree with Rio Ferdinand. I feel like there should be some action taken to stop this from happening again. It always seems like he is looking to undermine Solskjaer. Furthermore, do you think plans for a new centre-back could be brought forward from the summer to the January transfer window in the wake of recent performances? — Rohit M.

As much as some may want that, there is no chance of Pogba being dropped to the under-23s. His abilities are too important to ignore totally. Solskjaer will have spoken to him, though. Not sure regarding a centre-back — (Dayot) Upamecano is a target but with Leipzig progressing any January move is unlikely.

Do you think Pogba will leave in the January window and do you think United will try and bring in another midfielder? Not necessarily a Pogba replacement — George K

I would be surprised if Pogba left in January, purely because of the numbers involved. But it was interesting that Solskjaer declined to say he would stay when asked on BT Sport.

Do United retain an interest in Jack Grealish? Not sure where he’d fit into the side at the moment but seems like a player who controls games and could take some of the creative burden off of Bruno, especially once Pogba leaves. Thanks! — Michael M.

I believe they do, Michael. His new contract protects his value for Aston Villa, but Grealish still has admirers at United. Personally, I love his style. 

It should be a simple question for the United board: Is there another coach realistically available who could get more out of this group of players than OGS? If there is (eg Poch, Julian Nagelsmann) then they should be planning to replace Ole with that person. Agree? — David N

Hi David, nobody can say definitively who would get more or less from this squad but your question is fair. I would say United should always be aware of the best coaches out there but to plan on that would be wrong. It undermines the incumbent. United are on a long-term project with Solskjaer

What are your insights into the structure of the club in the long term? Are we moving in the right direction? I feel like we’re so far behind local rivals both on the pitch and off it. What needs to happen to put us on the right track? — Tom B

Big question, Tom. The Champions League is deflating, but let’s see how the league goes. United go into a derby above City for the first time since 2015. If that sustains the gap will not seem as great. I accept Liverpool are well ahead, but they have had three extra years of Klopp. The United board and owners see this as a long-term project to build the squad with the right culture and character to win trophies.

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Special report: City Football Group. Part one – empire building

https://theathletic.com/2244423/2020/12/09/city-football-group-manchester/

A bad bounce, an untimely slip, the wrong tactics, awful signings, injuries, the bloody referee: these are the reasons most of us give when our side loses.

Ferran Soriano is not like most of us. He thinks such calamities are excuses, symptoms of short-term thinking and proof you have not thought hard enough about it.

He spent six years putting his theories into practice at Barcelona, wrote a book about how he might do it better next time and then got that chance when he met a different club in a hurry to win and with pots of cash.

The result is City Football Group (CFG), an empire that stretches from Yokohama to New York. Incorporated in 2013, five years after Sheikh Mansour’s money transformed the mothership Manchester City, it now has a “menu of clubs” — 10 across five continents — and chief executive Soriano is at the helm.

The Athletic has spoken to sources across the globe to help explain Soriano’s vision for CFG, why the group has chosen certain clubs and leagues, and how its sides share information and resources. In it we explain:

In Part II we will look at how CFG identifies, develops, loans and sells players — highlighting New York City FC in particular — and analyse the commercial aspect of a business whose most valuable asset, Manchester City, is valued by US business magazine Forbes at $2.7 billion (£2 billion). We also ask what the future is for a business that aims to become football’s version of the all-conquering All Blacks, New Zealand’s men’s rugby union team.

For some, CFG will always be an exercise in sportswashing, an elaborate ruse to circumvent financial fair play or just a fun way to fritter away a fortune. But for a growing number of industry experts, potential investors and even rivals, CFG’s multi-club model is the answer to many of the game’s structural challenges, a sound investment in global demographics and the best way to ensure you get fewer bad bounces, slips, ideas, signings, knocks and calls than the other lot.

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The vision: ‘Football as a sprawling entertainment business like Disney’

“There are essentially two fundamental components: Abu Dhabi and Ferran Soriano,” explains Professor Simon Chadwick, director of Eurasian Sport at Emlyon Business School. “Together, they bring a distinctiveness in approach that differentiates them from other multi-club groups, such as Red Bull (the owners of clubs in Austria, Brazil, Germany and the United States).”

Chadwick first met Soriano in 2005, when the latter was halfway through a spell on Barcelona’s board that revived the club’s fortunes. They hit it off. A year later, the Barcelona vice-president gave a presentation to Chadwick’s students at the University of London — the professor has kept the slides. And they continued to talk when Chadwick moved to the University of Salford and Soriano became chief executive at Manchester City in 2012.

“He was a tech millionaire by 30,” says Chadwick. “When he became a board member at Barca, he had to lodge a bond of one million euros.

“Part of his education was at ESADE in Barcelona, one of the world’s best business schools. It’s founded upon the principles of Saint Ignatius. He believed individuals should understand the world and develop a more robust vision of it; that they should lead, think and act in new ways.

“You see how this has shaped Soriano’s view of the world, from his early days making money, reforming Barca and later envisioning football as a sprawling entertainment business like Disney.”

After Sheikh Mansour had spent £210 million on buying Manchester City from former Thailand prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and clearing the debts, the United Arab Emirates’ deputy prime minister had run up almost £500 million in losses in four seasons. That investment brought an FA Cup in 2011 and the Premier League title in 2012, but by that point, the club had been without a permanent chief executive since Garry Cook’s resignation nine months before. UEFA’s new spending rules had come into force and Sheikh Mansour had seen enough to know his money was leaking through too many cracks in the business model.

Having pipped Manchester United to the title on the last day of the 2011-12 season, City looked at their crosstown rivals and tried to work out how they could match their pulling power. City had attracted players every bit as good, if not better, than those at Old Trafford but the club down the road cited more than 600 million global followers. How could City bridge that gap? Trophies alone would not be enough.

According to Killing The Game, Daniel Slack-Smith’s 2018 book about City’s transformation, it took club chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak and his board three months to identify Soriano as their top candidate and another nine months to persuade him to join their project. Or was it the other way around?

“Abu Dhabi was looking for vision at City while Soriano wanted a way back into football so he could translate his view of football’s future into a new reality,” says Chadwick.

Manchester City chairman Al Mubarak (right) and chief executive Soriano in August 2012 (Photo: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

“Abu Dhabi is an absolute monarchy — it is not constrained by the demands of its people or the vagaries of shareholder capitalism. Gulf economies are moving away from a dependency on carbon fuel revenues by diversifying into other sectors. This transition is designed to take decades, rather than a Premier League season or two.

“Abu Dhabi uses revenues derived from overseas investments to offset the need for a domestic tax system. By not having taxes, the ruling family legitimises its position. Getting investments such as CFG right are as much about remaining in power as they are about the emirate’s economic future.”

Both sides knew what they were getting. The English champions’ ambition could not have been more obvious, while Soriano had helped Barcelona become the dominant force City aspired to be. And City’s board could always read Soriano’s book, Goal: The Ball Doesn’t Go In By Chance, which Johan Cruyff and Lionel Messi were kind enough to endorse and included the author’s thoughts on the clubs that had become “global brands”.

In the book, Soriano explains that Europe’s elite must act like multinationals by developing better ways to engage with customers at home and abroad. He tells the story of Barcelona’s decision to launch a Japanese version of the club website and sell memberships to Japanese fans. That summer, the club toured the country and in a game against Yokohama F Marinos, the stadium was split evenly between fans of the home team and Barca’s local supporters. The latter even sang in Catalan.

    Andres Iniesta signs Barcelona shirts in Yokohama in December 2011 during the Club World Cup (Photo: Mike Hewitt/FIFA via Getty Images)

The experience clearly made an impression because, in 2014, City Football Group bought a 20 per cent stake in Yokohama F Marinos, making the Japanese side the fourth member of City Football Group.

The book goes on to outline three models for growing a club’s global brand:

Soriano also explains how he met Major League Soccer (MLS) commissioner Don Garber in New York in 2005 to find out if the American league would be interested in a Barcelona-branded team. First, they looked at Miami, then New York. He never closed that deal — although MLS ended up managing Barcelona’s US marketing and game promotion — but when he told City’s directors about it in the talks about the chief executive role, they loved it. In fact, what Al Mubarak wanted to know was: why stop at New York?

Seven years on, with MLS looking to add two more franchises, Garber again got in contact with Soriano — even before he had officially started at City, which had by then “risen to become a football powerhouse” in the commissioner’s eyes.

Soriano was sent to New York to start negotiations on his second day in the job. Nine months later, CFG became a reality when it paid MLS $100 million for the New York City franchise, the league’s 20th in total. As a senior CFG source puts it, “the alchemy for CFG happened during Ferran’s recruitment process”.

CFG was wholly owned by Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG), Sheikh Mansour’s private investment company, until 2015 when China Media Capital and Chinese state-backed investment firm CITIC Group paid $400 million (£298 million) for a 13 per cent stake. In November 2019, US-based private equity firm Silver Lake came on board too, paying $500 million (£373 million) for 10 per cent, leaving ADUG with 77 per cent.

Pacific Media Group’s Paul Conway is the co-owner of a football multinational of his own — the Championship’s Barnsley, Belgian first-division team KV Oostende and Swiss side FC Thun — and CFG’s positions make perfect sense to him.

“There are four key rationales for the multi-club model,” Conway tells The Athletic. “The first is commercial synergy and CFG does a good job of this. If you want to be a major sponsor for Manchester City, you have to sponsor the team in Uruguay (Montevideo City Torque), too. That bit of the deal might be only worth £50,000 but it adds up.

“The second is internal synergy, which is straightforward cost-saving. All these clubs do not need their own chief executives, chief financial officers, chief operating officers.

“And that leads to the third benefit: uniformity of strategy. It’s easy in this industry to lose money because of inconsistent or incompetent decision-making but you can mitigate that risk with a clear management structure and a single approach to commercial deals, player contracts and so on.”

The final benefit, Conway explains, is on the football performance side of the business: everything from having the right place to develop the right talent, to keeping transfer fees within the family.

There is, of course, another benefit to Sheikh Mansour’s massive investment in football: it has got people talking about how he has brought Sergio Aguero, Pep Guardiola and co to the Premier League, how he has poured money into East Manchester and even what a nice place Abu Dhabi is to visit, but not the UAE’s treatment of its migrant workers, poor human rights record or involvement in the brutal civil war in Yemen.

For organisations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, CFG is a giant exercise in misdirection, a brightly-painted screen behind which the UAE can hide attitudes and behaviour it knows will not play well abroad. And there are others who will simply scoff at all CFG’s claims of long-term investment horizons and rising enterprise values and say, “hold on, isn’t this all just a clever (but legal) way around FFP?” Or, as Liverpool owner John W Henry memorably tweeted when he heard about the £400 million, 10-year, naming-rights-and-shirt deal Etihad signed with Manchester City in 2011, “how much was the losing bid?”

Tweets are one thing, UEFA charges are another, and City’s owners have faced two sets of those since 2014. But just when it looked like the club’s relationship with its Abu Dhabi backers might derail the whole CFG project, City’s legal team won a famous victory over UEFA’s at the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the threat of sanctions, if not the debate itself, was put to bed, probably forever.

‘We would rather have a B team or a feeder club but we can’t do that in this country, so we have to look at other opportunities’

Soriano does not speak in public much these days, which is why his Q&A, via video link, during October’s Leaders Week conference was so eagerly anticipated.

Noting that CFG had just bought Troyes of the French second division, the interviewer asked Soriano, “I think that’s your ninth club, what’s the thinking there?”

“I have to correct you, we have 10, we acquired a club in Belgium,” replied Soriano, smiling. “Football is what we do and we have this network of clubs that allows us to help each other from a technical and football perspective, (as well as) develop good clubs that play good football and become financially sustainable and add to our group.”

Brian Marwood, managing director of global football at CFG, puts it another way. “We have clubs that we’re building to try to challenge at the top of their respective leagues, or to play in the Asian Champions League or the CONCACAF or obviously the Champions League,” he tells The Athletic. “There are other clubs that we feel can be a potential developmental platform for our young talent.”

CFG’s interest in developing young talent is a prime example of how it has evolved since plans for global domination were first drawn up in 2013. Marwood, City’s football administrator at the time, and director of football services Simon Wilson were moved into an external office to oversee “City Football Services”. It was at first, according to sources, primarily a commercial venture, with growing sponsorship revenues and the City fanbase prized far above all else.

The idea was simple: more eyes on CFG equals more commercial and brand partnerships and more affection for the club in Manchester. Player trading and development was essentially an afterthought, certainly compared to the sheer amount of time and resource pumped into it now.

At first, then, the huge emerging market of the US stood out (more on that later). Then came Melbourne and an opportunity for CFG to invest in an Australian club for only £7 million. There is a salary cap in the A-League but money has been pumped into infrastructure, coaching, medical, scouting and academy costs. One CFG source estimates an average category-one Premier League academy costs up to £3 million to run per year, which is equivalent to the amounts being spent on Melbourne City, which can also bring in revenue from crowds and television deals. The sale of Australia international Aaron Mooy, who moved to Manchester from Melbourne in 2016 before being sold to Huddersfield Town for at least £8 million, covered those costs for three years.

Last year, new ventures in the massive markets of China and India were announced, but CFG has adapted its approach over the past five years and the ninth and 10th clubs to join were those minnows in Belgium and France.

The change in thinking began within Manchester City’s academy. Part of the post-takeover plan in 2008 was to ensure the club, which had produced a large number of players for the first team in the 2000s, could still produce talent now that they had reached the next level, and were competing in the Champions League.

More than two years of research went into developing the City Football Academy as executives observed and borrowed ideas from the other sports around the world. They based their hydrotherapy facilities and recovery centre on those they saw in the NBA and NFL and visited Nike’s base in Oregon and the Australian Institute of Sport.

The idea was also to bring in some of the most talented 14-to-16-year-olds from around the world, including Karim Rekik (from the Netherlands), Rony Lopes (Brazil) and the slightly older Kelechi Iheanacho (Nigeria). They never made too big an impression on the first team but they were sold for big sums: Rekik for £4.5 million, Lopes £9 million and Iheanacho £25 million. Deals like those became regarded as proof of a business model and opened eyes to the possibility of replicating it on a global scale.

    Rekik facing Reading in the Premier League in December 2012 (Photo: Julian Finney/Getty Images)

As a consequence, CFG has shifted towards investing in clubs in more established footballing markets. The cycle had evolved. More fans means more partnerships, meaning more revenues that can be invested in better players who can be developed further to one day either play for Manchester City or be sold for profit.

With NYCFC and Melbourne, it was felt the future values of MLS and the A-League would soar, based on increasing broadcast deals. When Girona were brought into the group in 2017, they had just been promoted to a La Liga that had moved to a Premier League-style TV rights deal. This meant that instead of letting Barcelona and Real Madrid take the lion’s share, broadcast income would be distributed more evenly between all of the clubs.

A source close to the Girona deal says those commercial opportunities were the primary business justification for the investment, but the value of sending players to the Spanish top flight had also become much more important. CFG had recognised that there was year-on-year growth of 20 per cent in the transfer market and that even holding players for two years would see a rise in their value.

Manchester City had already been loaning players to Girona for a couple of years — 16 have moved from City to Girona since 2016. Pere Guardiola, Pep’s brother and an influential agent, and Jaume Roures, a businessman who has close ties to Soriano, had bought 80 per cent of the club in 2015. After the CFG investment, the two parties owned 44.3 per cent each, although following recent investment, Pere’s share has shrunk to 16 per cent and CFG owns 48 per cent.

Other clubs have been brought exclusively for their player development and trading capabilities.

Soriano has talked openly about his desire for Premier League clubs to have B teams in the EFL and the resistance to that has been another factor in CFG’s more recent determination to bring in clubs to help them develop and/or sell players.

“One of my biggest frustrations is that in this country we still haven’t recognised a greater ability to develop young players from the age of 18 to 22, and the loan system can be very hit and miss, it can create more problems than it solves,” Marwood says.

“In an ideal world we would rather have a B team or a feeder club but we can’t do that in this country, so we have to look at other opportunities. With Lommel (a club in Belgium’s second division), we can give opportunities to young players and allow them to grow and develop properly.

“We run the risk of losing that young talent. So we try to create platforms with some of our clubs and give these young players an opportunity.”

The acquisition of Uruguayan side Club Atletico Torque at the start of 2017 was “100 per cent” about investment in talent, according to one source. CFG is proud of the club’s promotion to the top flight but there is an acceptance that returns on sponsorship, crowd revenues or media rights will be small, at least at first. When City’s takeover was announced, Soriano noted the example of Bruno Fornaroli, a player CFG picked up from Uruguayan side Danubio for Melbourne and “became the best player in Australia”. Marwood cites the example of Valentin Castellanos, who left Torque for New York.

City have long had a big scouting presence in South America, headed up by Joan Patsy, a close friend of Manchester City’s director of football Txiki Begiristain, who had worked alongside Cruyff at Barcelona. The goal with Torque, rebranded and renamed Montevideo City Torque in January, is to help develop players across South America, although the focus is likely to be on Uruguayans.

“They have what’s called ‘baby football’ there, so they are playing football very, very early, on the kinds of pitches that would be akin to the ones we grew up on maybe 20 or 40 years ago,” Marwood says. “It’s a great place to start in terms of character and personality, having that kind of street fighting mentality, of hunger and desire. If you get the technical side right, you’re going to get some interesting players.”

Those familiar with CFG’s plans say clubs such as Torque provide “registration platforms”: in short, there is only so much space at Manchester City, so a network of clubs around the world helps CFG retain much larger numbers.

That has played a large part in the acquisition of Lommel and Troyes. Neither would be able to qualify for European competition as UEFA only allows one club under the same ownership structure to play in its tournaments. Lommel may also struggle to pick up fans given its relative proximity to Eindhoven and Genk, home to two successful and historical clubs.

But all of these clubs were obtained cheaply. Lommel were in disarray and would not have had their league licence renewed when City stepped in, clearing debts of around £2 million as part of the deal. Across the purchases of Troyes and Torque, CFG spent roughly £12 million.

Clubs in central Europe were also desirable because certain leagues and countries suit players better than others. CFG, for example, is doing more business in Japan thanks in part to Yokohama’s own scouts identifying top talents, and because they are generally very cheap. History shows that Japanese players have tended to do well in the Netherlands and Germany, and Belgium is seen as a similarly productive environment. Troyes or Girona, however, would be better suited to any players coming through Torque, as would MLS. Troyes also have a B team, providing further opportunities for player development.

The Australian market has also been popular because players generally cost no more than £150,000. They would be sent to more physical, English-style leagues. Marwood says the goal is to “create a menu of clubs” to give these players the best chance of success. There is another benefit to owning a club in continental Europe, too.

    Marwood speaks to England manager Gareth Southgate (Photo: Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

“Owning teams in other leagues is a hedge against Brexit,” says Conway, who is currently trying to buy AS Nancy, the French second-tier team CFG looked at this summer before opting for Troyes. “There are 26 professional teams in Belgium and eight of them have strategic investors, with most having an interest in an English team.

“Look how much talent is coming from Belgium and France. In the past, Manchester City have spent €2 million on a development player but now they’ve just bought Lommel for the same amount. I don’t know why more clubs haven’t worked this out.”

From January 1, players who would have moved freely to English clubs in the past will now be subjected to the same points-based work permit system as non-EU players. English clubs will also no longer be able to sign under-18 players from abroad.

How can Manchester City keep buying promising young players, such as Pedro Porro and Pablo Moreno, if those players do not meet the criteria for a work permit? Easy: have a CFG club sign them instead.

It could prove a slightly harder sell when the team on the contract is Lommel or Troyes rather than Manchester City, although the pathway will be the same. Diego Rosa, the 18-year-old Brazilian, has been linked heavily with a move to Lommel next year in a deal that could rise to more then £20 million depending on appearances.

New FIFA regulations also seek to limit the number of players on loan from a club at the same time to just eight, eventually falling to six. The pandemic has slowed those plans but the CFG model means Manchester City are better placed than most to deal with them. For example, last January, City signed Japanese player Ko Itakura and loaned him to Groningen. This January, CFG will sign Koki Saito for Lommel.

    Itakura playing for Groningen in October (Photo: Etienne Zegers/Soccrates/Getty Images)

As a bonus, players can get work permits in Belgium once they’re paid around £73,000 ($97,000) a year, while those playing in the Belgian league often come with lofty reputations and can be sold for big fees: for example, Jonathan David, a 20-year-old Canadian who signed for Gent in 2018, moved to Lille for £27 million this summer.

According to one source with knowledge of the market, that fee set a new benchmark and will soon be beaten again. As Marwood says, City intend to use Lommel for youth development and they have installed Liam Manning, academy director at NYCFC, as coach of a very young team.

It is estimated CFG has already spent around €12 million on talent and facilities at Lommel, making them one of the rare Belgian clubs to have a net spend rather than a net profit. The second-placed club in the top division, for example, spent €300,000 over the same period. Such spending is unheard of for a second-tier side but far from exorbitant by CFG’s standards.

The Yokohama F Marinos deal came about during discussions with a CFG global sponsor, the car manufacturer Nissan, which founded the Japanese club in 1972. CFG initially did not have a say in sporting director or managerial hires but, over time, the benefit of its global reach and resources has ensured a closer relationship. This benefits CFG through an increased understanding of Japanese football, culture and the local transfer market, even though it only has a 20 per cent stake in the club (Nissan still owns the other 80 per cent).

In China, progress is intended to be steady and CFG was slightly startled when its club, Sichuan Jiuniu, were unexpectedly promoted from the third tier to the second after the Chinese FA stripped 11 clubs of their licences for failing to pay players. Despite a £265 million investment from China Media Capital in 2015, CFG has found progress in the market slow and is happy to limit its expenses, establish relationships with local partners and bide its time before making its move towards the Super League.

“We’re learning the market,” says a CFG source. “We’re in a great city with a catchment area of 80 million — that’s more than the UK — we’re the standout professional sports franchise in the region and we’re ahead of schedule.”

The Chinese experience shows that not every club follows the same blueprint but an incredible amount of work goes into ensuring CFG’s 10 clubs, including its women’s and academy teams, are singing from the same hymn sheet.

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‘Taking the car apart and putting it back together again’: The City Football Group manual

There is a manual by which NYCFC were built, Melbourne rebuilt and every other future CFG club will have to abide. New clubs are audited, processes put in place and it is made clear that certain standards must be met, from infrastructure and technology to playing style.

One of Marwood’s responsibilities is to make sure this happens. He calls this initial process a health check that’s “very, very detailed” and involves “taking the car apart and putting it back together again”.

It applies to people as well as processes, from the head coach to the kitman. One external source with knowledge of how the group works says CFG is quick to “clear out deadwood”.

The framework was drawn up in 2013 and is based on the transformation that took place at Manchester City in the years following the 2008 takeover. They aimed to learn from the good and the bad, and apply it to clubs in different regions with different budgets.

There is a centralised database of information that means coaches in Mumbai can teach their players Guardiola’s positional play, club doctors around the world can share research on injuries and recovery methods, and a team of scouts can identify players for the Manchester City first team, Chinese second division or the women’s teams in Manchester and Melbourne.

There are global leads of football performance, human performance and talent management, and a daunting amount of modules that govern what best practice looks like. Each of those modules is subjected to five subsections of scrutiny.

When assessing scouting and recruitment, for example, the five areas will assess whether the right people are in place, whether the right processes are being followed, whether the infrastructure (for example, travel) is adequate, whether the right technology is available, and if there is room for innovation to achieve a competitive advantage.

Melbourne had never seen detail like it and had no objections, although more recently established clubs have been a little more resistant to the changes. Ultimately, there is no other option.

“We can share a lot of the sessions that Pep does (in Manchester) with the guys in Melbourne, New York or Montevideo,” Marwood says. “But a lot of those sessions are very detailed, so the coaches need to be coached. We set up a network that develops our coaches. They can go online and get access to several tools, where they can educate themselves.

“All the sporting directors are fully aware of the style of play and what the requirement is. In some respects, we put that above anything else. We’re very protective of that and we work very hard to make sure all of the clubs implement that in the best way they possibly can.”

Marwood, who can watch every match of every club live from his home, will speak to CFG’s different sporting directors at least once a week, and his team are in constant contact with their colleagues on the ground. The manual that governs best practice is updated every few months, and if a doctor in Melbourne is having success with a recovery technique that is not used at other clubs, it can be incorporated into the central framework, across men’s and women’s teams. The group’s shared medical expertise has been particularly helpful during the pandemic, with staff at Lommel and City able to share information about changing protocols, for example.

Coaches also tend to move between CFG clubs. Erick Mombaerts has been working with CFG for eight years, having been recommended to Marwood by Arsene Wenger and Gerard Houllier. He has coached both Yokohama and Melbourne, stabilising those clubs with a more “no-nonsense” footballing style. Mombarts is set to take on a new role coaching youth coaches at Troyes, and was replaced in Melbourne by former Australia international Patrick Kisnorbo, who had stayed with the club since retiring in 2016. Nick Cushing, Manchester City Women’s long-serving boss, became assistant manager in New York earlier this year.

    Mombaerts speaks to his Melbourne City players during the 2020 A-League Grand Final (Photo: Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

Aaron Hughes, the former Newcastle United and Aston Villa defender who signed for Melbourne in 2015, reached out to Marwood after finishing his career in India. CFG is now helping him complete a sporting director’s degree while he helps the group navigate the landscape of Indian football following their purchase of Mumbai City last year.

At many of its clubs, CFG has made an instant impact. The doctor’s office at Melbourne used to face the gents’ toilets, which had a door missing, meaning injured players were used to getting a rather full view of their team-mates. And that was nothing compared to the snakes in the dressing room. Torque didn’t even have a minibus and Marwood likens their facilities, both academy and first team, to a “pub team on a Sunday morning”. “It was appalling,” he says.

Not everybody speaks as glowingly about CFG methods, of course. There was also controversy around Anthony Caceres, who was signed by Manchester City from Central Coast Mariners and immediately loaned to Melbourne in 2016. There are no transfers allowed in the A-League and some rival clubs were livid that the rules had been bent. The Australian federation has moved to close the loophole, which is now known as the Caceres Rule.

While Melbourne reached their first Grand Final last season, some believe they would be better off focusing on big-name marquee signings, such as the spells of Alessandro Del Piero and Emile Heskey at Sydney and Newcastle Jets respectively, to attract more fans. David Villa had a very short-lived spell there before his time at New York but CFG prefers to focus on development.

CFG has also ploughed money into Girona’s infrastructure but they remain lower mid-table in a recently published ranking of budgets in Spain’s Segunda Division. Their €4.25 million spend is dwarfed by Espanyol (Chinese owners) with €45 million, Almeria (Saudi) €27 million, Mallorca (US) €19 million and even Sabadell (a group of international investors), newly promoted to the second tier, with €4.8 million.

The message is that Girona are “not Manchester City 2”, but none of the CFG clubs are — they all serve a different purpose.

Look out for Part II of The Athletic’s special report into CFG on Thursday — does this approach actually work?