Free Friday & LFC News, Media and Transfer Roundup – April 21st, 2023
Hindsight Bias Bullsh*t, Magnum Opus & the Value of Community, Family and Friendships
Free Friday will cover our work across The Tomkins Times’ Substack network, with it running via an opt-in or opt-out newsletter on The Main Hub (where almost all of the community commenting takes place), but covering TTT’s four sub-Substacks, or spokes.
Also make sure you check out Daniel Zambartas’ media round-up, which will be added to best of TTT from the previous week.
Best Comment of the Week
TTT legend Madchenkliop wrote this beauty after the six-one victory over Leeds Utd on Monday night:
Well, I'm going to stick my neck out and say TAA's performance was a watershed moment for the evolution of this team. I understand that it's rarely going to be quite such a perfect set up , courtesy of Leeds, for him to strut his stuff and teams will find ways to disrupt the tactic, but I think part of the beauty of it is that TAA can switch between roles/ formations depending on game state. I didn't notice it happening at the time, but I think it's a good sign if it's TAA telling Konaté to go wide. If it's going to be a long term weapon, it's going to depend on TAA leading the team - a bit like a quarterback does in American Football. What makes me feel so positive about it is how instinctively natural he looked in that role. I hadn't realised how 2 footed he is -maybe it's partly the Thiago influence, but i thought it was absolutely beautiful the way he was spreading the ball all over the place with such silky ease. Of course we're used to it from the right, but from that deep position, there was almost suddenly a doubling, tripling even, of the options where he could place it. It was a revelation and absolutely confused the fuck out of Leeds.
Obviously there's a lot of details still to work out. Konaté's pace and anticipation are crucial and I didn't really notice how much support work Hendo was doing, but presumably he was quietly snuffing out a lot of threat and also doing a good job of keeping them pinned back. It did occur to me that, if properly drilled, we might see Conor Bradley or Calvin Ramsay playing that Hendo role up really high. A lot of what he was doing was overlapping with Salah and whereas the times TAA did get forward, his interplay relationship with Hendo really helped, the fact that TAA was spending more time deeper seemed to make that right flank work better. Maybe there was less confusion or maybe it's that we/ they have been overestimating how important it was for TAA to get forward. But the simple decision for him to remain deeper changes the possibilities for the other positions. If that was the case, then a pacy wing back option like Bradley or Diaz even could work. I'm not sure to what degree Hendo's canny experience was pivotal to the shape working so well, but finding a midfielder in the summer capable of replicating what he does is a well flagged problem. It should be possible and that's going to considerably widen the options.
Curtis Jones lively performance - he looked like he could really run again! - showed what a huge difference that mobility can make. Likewise, Jota and Gakpo getting back. The blend of youth and experience worked well on this occasion. Unlike quite a few people, I didn't think the first 20 minutes was painful or sterile. It looked to me like the manager's instructions were, 'play for each other, keep the ball until you find your rhythm and suss out what the opposition are doing and above all, if anyone makes a mistake it's the whole teams responsibility to react and get the ball back asap.' That was one of the most pleasing things. Yes, towards the beginning, Jota and Curtis, both probably slightly more fragile confidence wise, made a few brainfart passes, but the whole team and they themselves were onto it in a flash. The team played as one and the confidence returned.
But also, that first 20 established a structure that was firmly in place by the time Leeds started to come out of their shells. I'll have to watch the game again, but it looked like we knew exactly where the spaces would be when that happened. Perhaps because of TAA's handball, we felt it was luck that created that scenario for the goal, but it looked more planned to me. It will be really interesting to see us play against Forrest. They are likely to be more resolutely parked bus, but will we respond with more of TAA in quarterback role? What I like about it is it makes very quick immediate use of all that space. It's dynamic.
TTT Main Hub
Lots on The Main Hub this week, but first of all there was the staple diet of the post-match analysis:
Yes we struggled with some controlled and sterile possession early on to break down Leeds, but that’s the same for us in previous seasons, and even Man City and Arsenal have similar problems against similar tactics this season. It’s tough. We had to be more patient, not forcing. A lesson for other games this season, particularly against Notts Forest on Saturday at Anfield - and even Spurs!
We missed six big chances vs Arsenal from eight - and score four from four in this... what a conundrum, but thankfully we had three players break a goal drought of differing proportions, and Mo score a brace to take his tally to 26 in all competitions this season as well as 11 (or 12) assists. What a terrible season!
My man of the match though: Trent Alexander “The Six” Arnold. 153 touches; 136 passes with a 91% success rate; two big chances created with two assists; four tackles, 11 recoveries, one interception and two clearances.
Klopp just called it our “best performance of the season”, and it’s hard to disagree.
And now for Paul’s magnum opus, which might take over an hour to read in full, but you won’t find a more in-depth and intricate analysis of Liverpool this season. Read it! Below is the free version as well for you non-subscribers.
Of course, there's the extreme reaction I heard a 'generalist' journalist saying on a podcast this weekend (just prior to the 6-1 win at Leeds), where he stated that Klopp should possibly have gone by now, and the team should have been broken up "in 2020, 2019" (I'm not sure if this guest on the podcast was drugs-tested) – so presumably breaking up the side before winning the title, when the team was still young; and before almost winning the quadruple last season.
It's about the most radical take on football I've ever heard; up there with "Looking back, Man United should have sacked Alex Ferguson in 1992", which was recently uttered by an inpatient and a maximum security facility.
A couple of goals last season and the entire narrative would have shifted to "the greatest team ever", which is why I found the comments so dumb. (Including further statements like "Fabinho has been at the club too long, van Dijk has been at the club too long". What, four years at the start of the season, when Fabinho was 28? I've been super-critical of Fabinho this season, but who thought he'd have such a bad season? Since when has 4-5 years for players been too long?!)
This is total hindsight bias bullshit (or just uninformed guff), even if last summer's recruitment plans failed regarding the midfield.
Breaking up the team in 2019 or 2020 is the medical equivalent of saying, "the cure to your headache, clearly, is to chop off your head".
As such, I despair.
There are very few specialists, and unless they also focus solely on the Reds, no one who watches, reads, thinks, writes and analyses the club like I do. So sometimes I end up listening to intelligent journalists talking utter nonsense, until I turn it off.
(Which is why I don't go around writing articles or talking on podcasts about teams I know next-to-nothing about compared to those who pay proper attention.)
I have a few specialties, like transfer spending analysis and the types of data I study when I delve into certain issues (and having played semi-professionally and been a season ticket holder at Anfield in my younger days, I think I 'get' the game in general), but my main attribute is as a Liverpool specialist who can knit some general ideas together, and attempt to make sense of things on various levels, and in depth, rather than just parrot the latest 30-second/25-word theory that's out there.
Even then, I'll beat myself up because I missed something, or didn't explain an idea quite as well as I should have. I’ll have blindspots, too. (Damn, what have I overlooked?!)
But anyway, I'll try, once more, to write a detailed analysis that explains as much as possible in a way that just stops shy of putting readers into a coma.
The Zen Den
This was last week, but as we didn’t have a Free Friday last week here’s Paul’s article on the possible connotations from the news that we’ve pulled out of a potential Bellingham deal.
This Red Planet
Here’s a brilliant free chapter from This Red Planet - the book! Football, and the Value of Community, Family and Friendships
Andrew Beasley
We are often told that people are becoming increasingly isolated thanks to the internet. That we live our lives online rather than in reality, more concerned with likes and retweets and thumbs-up rather than human interaction.
The lockdowns brought about by the pandemic only accentuated that feeling further, yet seven days after the UK first ground to a halt in March 2020 something truly remarkable happened.
But our story begins a little over 11 years earlier. As a fan of Paul Tomkins’ writing on the official Liverpool site, I joined his subscription website The Tomkins Times in November 2009. It’s fair to say it changed my life in more ways than one.
While there had long been online forums in which you could discuss the ups and downs of the mighty Reds, I had never partaken. To put things into context, I hadn’t long had an internet connection at home at this point. It was a very different world (for me, if not everyone).
Having spent a few days getting to grips with TTT, I was intrigued to see a new thread pop up at the end of my first week as a subscriber. It was regarding stats and the first two posts were from someone going by the handle ‘Arisesirrafa’. I approved of the username and the info he provided. Somehow the vital connection was made.
A few months later, TTT subscribers in London began meeting up to watch Liverpool matches together. Plucking up the courage to go along – meeting and talking to people I don’t know is a personal nightmare – I met Arisesirrafa, or Andrew Fanko in the real world, as well as loads of other great people. We started going to matches together, whenever he had a spare ticket, and continued to catch the Reds on TV too. It reached the point where members of the London chapter of TTT were going to each other’s stag dos and weddings. Genuine friendships borne out of a niche football website.
More was to come though. In 2018, Andrew and his wife Frankie decided to apply to go on one of the hardest quiz shows around, the BBC’s Only Connect. But they needed a third wheel for their team and knowing I loved the programme they asked me.
If you’re a football fan, you often measure your life by matches. The day after I got married, Liverpool won 3-2 at Loftus Road, for instance. And on the day of the Reds’ crazy 4-3 victory over Crystal Palace in January 2019, we took part in an audition to appear on Only Connect.
I enjoy a good pub quiz. I often guided teams to victory in work quiz nights back in the days when I had a proper job and wasn’t a freelance football writer (something else for which I have TTT to thank).
But Andrew and Frankie are incredible quizzers – way, way above my level. When we were conducting our audition, with mock questions for the show, they were answering them before I’d barely read them.
Fortunately, I was able to contribute more on the actual programme. Our aim was to win an episode. Do that and we could hold our heads high, and we’d always have the memory of a victory.
Except that we won and won and won again. On the night between our successful quarter-final and semi-final, the Reds brushed aside Porto 2-0 at Anfield in a quarter-final match of their own. I’ll leave it to you to decide if the Champions League outweighs Only Connect. Whatever your choice – as if I need ask – it was another major life event marked out by a Liverpool match.
We then won our semi-final the following day, and the final the day after that (with it being broadcast on the eighth day of lockdown). Five wins out of five. Oh campeoni!
We later returned to win a ‘Champion of Champions’ special episode too (which was filmed on the day Alisson Becker scored a remarkable winner at The Hawthorns; I listened to it on the train home and burst out laughing). Using the info from the back of the second Only Connect book, only two teams prior to the 007s (for that is our name) had won at least six episodes without losing any. Well, we have now done that too.
I’m a realist. Had I never met Andrew and Frankie they would have gone on the show with somebody else and still stood a very good chance of winning.
But thanks to TTT I was part of that journey too, and I now have my name on the Only Connect Wikipedia page.
That’s not bad going for a fiver a month to join The Tomkins Times, is it?
Dynasty
This is the first instalment of a major new series on Dynasty. Originally a series of articles covering the period 1992 (the year football officially began in England!) to Klopp’s arrival in 2017, it was written by TTT Subscriber Anthony Stanley, serialised on The Tomkins Times and then published by TTT as a book called A BANQUET WITHOUT WINE - A Quarter-Century of Liverpool FC in the Premier League Era.
The book is available here. It remains a definitive matter of record of Liverpool FC during the period in question.
In the UK, the divisive reign of Margaret Thatcher had ended two years previously after mass demonstrations against the introduction of the hated Poll Tax, but political and social turmoil continued to rage, culminating in a three-day riot in Bristol a month before the inaugural Premier League season kicked off.
In the footballing arena too, it was a period of massive and rapid change. The Taylor Report, published in the aftermath of the horrific and tragic loss of life that was Hillsborough in April 1989, had recommended that all major stadia be converted to an all-seater model. Following this, in 1990, the Football League stipulated that all football grounds from the top two tiers of English football should be all-seater by August 1994.
1990 was also, of course, the year when a nation fell in love with football again, and it’s debatable whether the soon-to-be-seen garish razzmatazz of Sky Sports and its digital pay-per-view model would be the success it was if England hadn’t performed as they did and captured the hearts of the country. In particular, Paul Gascoigne, a genius of a footballer on his day but a vulnerable soul who struck a collective national chord of empathy, was possibly responsible more than anyone for the love affair that was about to begin between the sport and England. On a balmy night in Turin, his tears following a yellow card which would mean he would miss the World Cup Final if the Three Lions beat Germany entered a nation’s consciousness. As Gary Lineker – another hero who encapsulated all that appeared to be good about the domestic game – gestured to Bobby Robson, an icon was born and with it a new-found positivity and optimism in football. Even as Stuart Pearce skied his penalty and Robson – suddenly a beloved uncle figure – looked on with exquisite forlorn resignation etched on his face, the Thatcherite and grossly unfair portrayal of football fans as yobs and hooligans was firmly entering its death throes. Suddenly, it was cool to like football again.
If the formation of the Premier League was driven by the ‘bigger’ clubs wishing to procure greater financial rewards, the brassy Sky Sports was the fuel that ensured that the journey went further than anyone could have imagined. Satellite television guaranteed that the elite levels of the English game could be globalised; almost overnight, an insular and borderline myopic domestic game became a worldwide phenomenon, helped by the rapid strides in marketing and communication made possible by Sky and the corporation’s vast reservoirs of cash.
The Transfer Hub
And finally, an in-depth look at a real talent in Spain: Gabri Veiga - In-Depth Scouting Report of Young Spanish Dynamo
Summary of the table:
Veiga leads the goals and shots metric, while being second in touches in the opposition box, progressive runs, expected assists and more.
Gravenberch is ahead in the defensive metrics along with similar touches in the opposition box as Veiga and more progressive runs than anyone on the table. Long legs certainly help in that.
Mac Allister provides solidity in passing, winning of duels and defensive work. His goal and shot-taking rate is not bad either.
Kamada is good in the creative and goal-scoring department and decent in other areas of his game.
There isn’t any need to pass judgements on a player after reading this table. But, it shows how good Veiga has been for Celta this season. Still 20, but the youngster has the quality and high ceiling to do great things in his career. Given that he prefers to play on the right-hand side of the midfield, he could be an option for Liverpool with the new switched role for Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Daniel Zambartas’ LFC News, Media & Transfer Round-Up
LFC interviews
Jurgen Klopp on Leeds win (Liverpool FC website)
https://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/jurgen-klopp-there-were-lot-good-moments-it-was-great-game
“The moment of the game, the best [one] I enjoyed the most, was the 92nd minute. I think it was already five or six-one, we lose the ball and four players chase the poor, poor player from Leeds down in that moment. I think that's the basis for the whole game because that gave us stability. It was, from a counter-pressing point of view, definitely the best game we played this season. In possession probably as well.
“I think the counter-pressing mode was set by Curtis and Hendo, it was absolutely top how they chased pretty much everything on the pitch. That was super-important. I didn't remember a situation where Robbo was in a one-on-one situation or Trent was in a one-on-one situation because we were always moving to the ball. So many important things and I liked it a lot.
On Trent Alexander-Arnold's central position in possession and overall performance: “He won the ball back for the first goal from that position as well, stepping really out there - it was good. Yeah, impressive. I think also the highlight was then the last pass [his assist for Nunez], but he had a few more from that position.”
Fabinho interview with the club (Liverpool FC website)
On Leeds win: “On the pitch it just feels good when you see everybody going in the same direction, everybody reacting. You saw that we recovered the ball much more in our offensive [area] of the pitch. I think our first two goals were after counter-presses and we took the ball and with the quality that we have we scored the goals. I think this is one of the important points of this team.
“And with the intensity that we play, the reaction must be there, the counter-press must be there. This is one of the biggest reasons why we won the game.”
On Trent’s new position: “In this position, of course he will have less time to think but I think he's a little bit used to being in this position. Even when he played right-back, he likes to drop a little bit and go to the middle. We can really use his quality of pass.”
LFC media
Jonathan Northcroft on how Liverpool can reset (The Times)
“To return to where they want to be, Liverpool need to return to what they were. Which, for a time, was the smartest club in football. Never the richest but the smartest, whose ability to add value in recruitment and coaching won them every prize in a cycle that began in that 2017-18 season and ended with defeat in the Champions League final last May.
“The club have not been portrayed as smart since Tuesday evening, when The Times’s Paul Joyce broke news of them withdrawing from the chase for Jude Bellingham. Supporters took it bitterly.
“[But] with no special levers to make the deal happen, Liverpool pulled out to avoid the risk of allocating a huge chunk of their budget and summer to a bidding war they were not favourites to win.
“Doing so offers a good chance of delivering what Klopp wants: several signings that arrive near the start of the window. That’s the decision dictated by common sense.
“On Tuesday, as the Bellingham news was emerging, a representative from Liverpool was arriving in Amsterdam for a meeting with Ryan Gravenberch’s father. Gravenberch, 20, is under serious consideration. An athletic and elegant midfielder, he can play at No 6, No 10 or even as a left-sided No 8.
“Frustrated by a lack of game time since joining Bayern Munich from Ajax last June, he is valued at about £25 million and would leave Liverpool scope to pursue other targets, including Mason Mount, for whom Chelsea are likely to want about £70 million.
“Liverpool are also now linked with both Alexis Mac Allister and Moisés Caicedo, both thought to be valued at about £80 million by Brighton & Hove Albion, and cheaper options such as Wolves’ Matheus Nunes and Chelsea’s Conor Gallagher.
“One key signing has already been made in Jonathan Power, the new club doctor. Addressing the worst injury record in the Premier League this season is key to a rebuild and the hope is that with a fitter team, stalwarts like Andy Robertson and Van Dijk will find their old form. Just maybe, Liverpool can do the same.”
Jurgen Klopp on ‘small steps’ LFC have to take (LFC programme notes)
https://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/jurgen-klopps-arsenal-programme-notes-lets-show-our-best-face
“I mention small steps, even though I know it is not necessarily what people want to hear, because it is clear that they are exactly what we require right now. The truth is that with each one we take we will move closer to getting back to the kind of team that we want to be and the results will follow. We might not want to be in this situation but we are, so it makes sense that we should deal with it.
“From my own perspective, I could not be more impressed by what they [Arsenal] have done and how they have gone about it. The job that Mikel has done has been outstanding and it is easy to forget now but there was a period when things were not going as well and Mikel stuck to his principles, so it is good to see him now reaping the rewards.
“The journey Arsenal are on is one that we are familiar with, of course. The doubts at the start are pretty normal, I would say, but then you start to see a team develop, a proper team, and the belief starts to grow.
“From there, everything becomes possible when previously so much had seemed unlikely. It takes a lot of hard work, real togetherness and a shared vision for this to happen and although Arsenal are a rival, it would be impossible not to be impressed by what they are doing.”
Paul Joyce on the importance of Luis Diaz (The Times)
“So far, Díaz has missed 30 games, which is more than the number of starts he has made for Liverpool — 29 — since an initial £37.5 million move from FC Porto in January 2022.
“Over that sample size, Liverpool’s win ratio has dropped from 69 per cent to 50 per cent without him, losses risen from four to 11 and average goals per game fallen from 2.17 to 1.60.”
Dom from the Road End podcast says Jones has all the talent to make it at LFC (The Red Kop Podcast)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0fg012d
Speaking on BBC Radio Merseyside's The Red Kop podcast, he said: "I have watched Curtis Jones since his youth days as I live right next to the academy.
"He has always been a confident lad and always looked like he could pull something out of the bag. He gets a lot of unwarranted criticism in the Liverpool first team, for me that is partly down to the run of games that he gets.
"Don’t get me wrong, he hasn't pulled up any trees when he has played on many occasions - although it must be difficult when you are in one week and out the next six. So I always have sympathy for players in that situation, but his ability has always been there and you can clearly see that from what he did for the goal [against Arsenal], with that backheel.
"He has got it in him, we just don’t see it enough. He has had injuries and things going on so it was nice to see him back in there. I just don’t personally see, if we are going to rebuild, how he is going to fit in.
"But that is up to him to answer that question."
Andy Hunter on LFC’s decision to withdraw from Bellingham deal (The Guardian)
“Liverpool made a profit last season of £7.5m. Before tax. And angry Twitter is asking why Liverpool, whose owners are seeking fresh investment, are not competing with UAE and Qatar for a player who could command a £135m-plus transfer fee and a contract worth at least £80m over five years.
“The possibility that Borussia Dortmund might not sell their prized asset this summer, with Bellingham under contract until 2025, or may sit back and watch an auction develop between Manchester City, Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and other interested parties also influenced Liverpool’s decision to withdraw.”
Jonathan Wilson on Trent Alexander-Arnolds new position (The Guardian)
“For full-backs to operate as high as, say, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson have for Liverpool, demands the press be all but perfect. If it is not, as in 2020-21 and again this season, opponents can exploit the space behind the full-back.
“When Mauricio Pochettino was at Tottenham, he in effect had four wing-backs on rotation because of the physical demands on them covering the length of the pitch; having them shuffle into midfield at least part of the time may be a way of mitigating the strain.
“Could Trent Alexander-Arnold’s travails at Liverpool be helped by stepping inside into midfield as the full-back role evolves?
“There has long been an argument that Alexander-Arnold would be better deployed as a midfielder rather than as a right-back, initially on the slightly spurious grounds that it would involve him in the game more (a line of thought that seems to underestimate just how important the full-back position is in modern football), and more recently because, as Liverpool’s press has faltered, Alexander-Arnold’s defensive shortcomings have been exposed.
“But then if Liverpool’s press improves again, those defensive issues may recede and it’s just about possible to imagine a future in which Alexander-Arnold can be both an overlapping full-back and a full-back/wing-half.”
Klopp backs Bellingham U-turn (The Guardian)
Klopp said: “You wouldn’t ask a five-year-old what they want at Christmas and if they say ‘a Ferrari’, you would not say: ‘Oh, that is a good idea,’”
“It’s not about Jude Bellingham,” Klopp said. “I never understood why we constantly talk about things we theoretically cannot have. We cannot have six players in the summer, every player being £100m. You have to realise what you can do and then you have to work with it. It’s about how much money you have, and you work with that.
“We are not children. You wouldn’t ask a five-year-old what they want at Christmas and if they say ‘a Ferrari’, you would not say: ‘Oh, that is a good idea.’ No, you would say it’s too expensive and you cannot drive it. If this kid spends the rest of his life upset he hasn’t got a Ferrari, that would be sad life.
“It is just a case of what you can do and you do it, and you work within that. Whatever I want, what we need, we try absolutely everything to get it but there are moments you have to accept that this or that is not possible for us and just step aside and do different stuff.”
Football media
“It’s no surprise that an English manager has never won the Premier League when our domestic culture sneers at education” (Matt Dickinson, the Times)
“From a parochial point of view, we seem bizarrely unconcerned that no English coach has won the Premier League in 30 years, with only a couple of domestic cups to show for the past two decades since Brian Little won the League Cup in 1996. Are we bothered? All that frustrated sniping at Gareth Southgate, yet so very little fretting about the system.
“And what is that system? To look around at the bloodbath of managers in English football is to conclude that any attempts to be more grown-up — to think that management could be a serious job by serious people building careers through learning — is wishful thinking.
“There have been 28 dismissals in the top two divisions of English football since last June. The average tenure in the top flight has fallen from five years in the 1960s to less than half that by the turn of the century; since 2020 it has reached a record low of one year and 19 days, excluding those still in a post. Of the managers dismissed this season, the average tenure was about 18 months.
“Are the best managers — and think what it took for Potter to rise from a development manager at the University of Hull to lead the world champions — not worthy of more consideration?
“This disdain feels comparable to the widespread cynicism about referees or MPs, which we all lapse into — but at what cost? We want the best people for the job but then wonder why we do not get them as we shout “Sack the fools!” and join the social media pile-on. It is a cynicism trap in which, I suspect, we all lose out.
“Potter tried to be different. He told Brighton & Hove Albion when he took the job that if they judged him within 18 months, they might be disappointed. He was clear about the necessary time to implement his strategy.
“Chelsea hired Potter the long-termist, then sacked him for being long-termist. Not angry enough, some said, which is a ludicrously reductive caricature of a guy who has been handling dressing rooms for 15 years. As Carlo Ancelotti once told me with a rueful smile: “They employ me for being calm, then they sack me for being too calm.” It was the perfect encapsulation of this madness.”
Sadio Mane struggling at Bayern Munich (The Athletic)
https://theathletic.com/4400490/2023/04/11/bayern-munich-sadio-mane-manchester-city/
“The 31-year-old has found the net 11 times in 31 appearances for Bayern across all competitions but is goalless since October.
“Five years on from helping destroy Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City with Liverpool in the Champions League quarter-finals (5-1 on aggregate), Mane isn’t a guaranteed starter when Bayern go to the Etihad to face City at that same stage of the competition tonight (Tuesday), even though Choupo-Moting is out with a back injury.
“Bayern officials have put forward several explanations for his less-than-expected impact.
“Chief executive Oliver Kahn recently admitted Mane was yet “to explode” in Munich, pointing at the need to adjust to Bayern’s cut-throat environment.
“He’s still in search of himself a little,” the former Bayern and Germany goalkeeper told Sky Germany. “He’s a player that needs a lot of encouragement. He’s not used to the type of competition for places we have here. It wasn’t like that at Liverpool. We hope he will come through for us sooner or later.
“Reports of a massive fall-out between Nagelsmann and Mane over the forward’s omission from the starting XI for the second leg of the round-of-16 triumph over Paris Saint-Germain last month — he only played for eight minutes — were widely overblown.
“But it is true that Mane could have had more TLC from Nagelsmann.”
Alan Shearer on the importance of team ‘togetherness’ and the challenge of rebuilding a team (The Athletic)
https://theathletic.com/4390173/2023/04/08/alan-shearer-selfish-tottenham/
“Players can be the whingiest whingers in Whingedom — and I whinged with the best of them. At Newcastle, Sir Bobby forced everybody to eat lunch together; nobody could start until he got there and nobody could leave until he finished. It drove me mad. I’d shout “Hurry up!” and bang on the tables. And then when I became manager, I implemented exactly the same policy because deep down I knew it was about forcing us together: to talk, to encourage a spirit.
“But back then as a player… Well, there was the school run to be back for, there was shopping to do, there were other pulls on my time. So I was part of a squad, but I was an individual, too, and I suppose this is where I’ve landed in this column. Every football club is a fragile ecosystem, one which has to be nurtured and in balance. As soon as any aspect is out of kilter, the whole structure is at risk of crashing down.
“Look at Newcastle now: third in the table and flying. Yes, they’ve spent money, but six of the team that hammered West Ham United 5-1 on Wednesday were at the club before the takeover, when they looked listless and hopeless and destined for relegation. Everybody has raised their standards.
“Contrast that with Graham Potter — another studious builder — going into Chelsea. Admittedly, it is a different club with a different context and very different demands to Newcastle last year, but you wonder how he was ever expected to control such a bloated, unwieldy dressing room crammed with egos; a long-term appointment judged over the short.
“Good managers bind everything together, knowing when to sell, knowing who to buy, keeping the atmosphere intact, making everybody better. And then it’s about finding a way to refresh themselves because a few years down the line, players start to switch off when they hear the same voice or are asked to do the same old things. Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger were geniuses at it. Jurgen Klopp is wrestling with it now.”
LFC news
Petition to make chanting about tragedies at football matches a criminal offence gains over 15,000 signatures (The Athletic)
https://theathletic.com/4401011/2023/04/11/tragedy-chanting-criminal-offence-petition/
“An online petition calling on the UK government to make chanting about tragedies at football matches a criminal offence has gained more than 15,000 signatures in the space of a week.
“Charlotte Hennessey, whose father James was one of the 97 Liverpool fans who died at Hillsborough in 1989, set it up in response to the vile chants from rival supporters that blighted the club’s recent Premier League fixtures against Manchester City and Chelsea.
“The death of our 97, the suffering of my family, other families and survivors is not your ‘football banter’,” she posted on social media. “Please support me in calling for hate chants to be made a criminal offence.”
“The government responds to all petitions that gain more than 10,000 signatures and if the total passes 100,00 over the next six months then it will be considered for debate in the House of Commons.”
30ft ‘no tragedy chanting’ banner to be held up at Anfield
“On Saturday, Forest visit Anfield for the first time in almost 25 years and a banner measuring 30 feet across will be held aloft in the away end.
“Martin has helped to create it, along with a group of similarly minded home-and-away Forest fans. “Respect the 97,” it will say, with Forest’s club badge in one corner and the Hillsborough memorial symbol in the other. “Solidarity with Survivors. No to Tragedy Chanting.”
“After years of sitting up in the press box at Anfield and listening to the hurtful chants from visiting Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City fans, my expectation is Liverpool’s supporters will be moved, impressed and, in some cases, maybe even emotional. The away end at Anfield is not always so generous.
“The vast majority of Forest fans will respect its message, too. The banner’s organisers are all known on the Forest scene: time-served supporters who have put in the hard miles. Some are veterans of the days when Brian Clough’s teams won European Cups and knocked Liverpool off their domestic perch (long before some other manager tried to patent that phrase).
Football news
New FIFA exam expected to reduce number of football agents (The Times)
“The number of football agents is expected to fall dramatically with the introduction of a new FIFA exam that requires applicants to study from a 528-page book.
“Agents are paying law firms as much as £800 an hour for online tuition, plus relevant study material, in a bid to pass, while some of the leading agencies have organised their own internal study groups.
“FIFA revealed on Tuesday that they have received 6,586 applications from 138 member associations for the first exam on April 19. If applicants have not passed the exam by October 1, they will not be able to participate in transfer deals until they have been successful.
“Since Fifa deregulated the industry in April 2015, the number of agents has grown significantly. Aspiring agents no longer had to pass a Fifa exam that had a particularly high fail rate, take out indemnity insurance or have any real understanding of contract law.
“Even in England anyone with £500 and no criminal record could become a Football Association-registered intermediary and by 2016 the number of English agents had risen from 518 to 1,516. Today there are more than 2,000, with Premier League clubs setting a new record by paying more than £318 million in agent fees for the period between February 2022 and January 2023.”
LFC transfer news
Liverpool end pursuit of Jude Bellingham (Paul Joyce, The Times)
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/jude-bellingham-liverpool-transfer-england-midfielder-xdf6963kn
“Liverpool are drawing up a list of alternative targets to Jude Bellingham after deciding that the scale of their summer rebuild precludes a move for the England midfielder.
“The merits of spending far in excess of £100 million on a single player have been widely debated at Anfield as Jürgen Klopp looks to revive the fortunes of his side after an underwhelming campaign that has left them adrift of the Premier League’s top four.
“Rectifying this season’s drop-off and infusing the squad with first-team talent means that committing such a huge chunk of this summer’s funds to one player is no longer regarded by the club as the best strategy. The overall package would also be swelled by wages.
“Liverpool are likely to sign at least two midfielders to bolster their engine room and have been linked to numerous targets such as Chelsea duo Mason Mount and Conor Gallagher, Bayern Munich’s Ryan Gravenberch, Brighton & Hove Albion’s Alexis Mac Allister and Moisés Caicedo, Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Matheus Nunes and Leicester City’s Youri Tielemans, who is available on a free transfer.
“Mount, in particular, will be the centre of attention should he look to leave Stamford Bridge, where he has one year remaining on his contract.”
“Almost every Chelsea player up for sale” (The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/apr/19/todd-boehly-chelsea-frank-lampard?CMP=share_btn_tw
“Chelsea need to recoup funds and there is talk that almost every player is up for sale. Sources have spoken of panic. Chelsea’s latest accounts revealed losses of £121.3m and a season without the income provided by European football will increase concerns over Financial Fair Play.
“They also have to think carefully about their academy products. Chelsea are crying out for identity but selling homegrown talents goes down as pure profit in FFP terms. Money talks and Mason Mount looks increasingly likely to join Liverpool, while there will be plenty of takers for Trevoh Chalobah, Conor Gallagher and Colwill.”
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