The Warm-Up: Neymar move sends shockwaves across football, England crash out
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Updated 04/08/2017 at 07:37 GMT
The biggest deal in football history has happened. Meanwhile, England suffer tournament heartbreak once again.
Brazilian forward Neymar, followed by his father Neymar da Silva Santos Sr, leaves his home in Barcelona to go to the airport
Image credit: Eurosport
FRIDAY'S BIG HEADLINES
The Neymar effect
Seismologists were last night reporting deep tectonic shifts across the football landscape, causing havoc and uncertainty. "Uniquely, the epicentre of this earthquake appears to be in two places at once: Paris and Doha," said Jim White, a scientist based at an early warning station in Osterley, West London. Large parts of downtown Barcelona are said to have been devastated by the shock waves, which measured 9.2 on the Figo scale.
In fact, the only consolation for Barcelona this morning – apart from the £198 million freshly deposited in their account, which is handy, as they went into their overdraft when they bought that last Sainsbury's shop and pay day is still a week off - is the realisation that at least this is nothing new, even if the sheer scale of Neymar's world record move to Paris Saint-Germain, confirmed last night, is completely unprecedented.
The numbers may be so high as to render all transfer fees essentially meaningless, but the underlying feeling is a familiar one. In fact, of the last 10 world transfer records, no fewer than three have involved Barcelona losing one of their greatest talents against their wishes, in infuriating circumstances.
The original Ronaldo had only spent one season at Barca before Inter prised him away for £19.5m in 2000 in a rancorous transfer. And, of course, the contractual and moral machinations behind Luis Figo's £37m move to Real Madrid in 2000 still leave a scar. Joan Gaspart, Barca president at the time of the deal, described the situation as "immoral... I’ll not forget this. Whoever is responsible for this will pay for it."
Which is to say, in a roundabout way which involves raking over all their previous traumas in a needlessly rigorous manner, that Barcelona have been through worse and come out the other side. Still, even if signing Neymar does not guarantee PSG will win the Champions League, it certainly damages Barcelona’s prospects. If you recall, it was only Neymar’s late penalty-free-kick-assist combo which inspired Barca to that famous 6-1 win over PSG in the last-16 last season.
How do you replace the irreplaceable? Barcelona have won four Champions Leagues since losing Figo, but they had a golden generation of academy products to rely upon. The future post Neymar is rather less certain. The aftershocks will be felt for some time.
England's dream dies
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An upset looking Lucy Bronze and Alex Scott of England Women sit on the bench after the UEFA Women's Euro 2017 semi final match between Netherlands and England at De Grolsch Veste Stadium on August 3, 2017 in Enschede, Netherlands
Image credit: Eurosport
And so to a result to anchor you firmly back in reality following all that Neymar nonsense. England are out of Euro 2017 after being beaten 3-0 by hosts Netherlands in the semi-final last night. England's run has been a heartening one for the national game but ultimately, after being made favourites for the tournament in the last four, Mark Sampson's side just didn't have the quality required against the Dutch.
The England manager spoke about having:
Twenty-four devastated women in the dressing room... They've shed a lot of tears. I made some mistakes. I'll go away and reflect and do a better job next time. Over the last year, they have given absolutely everything to try and help us win this tournament and they can look themselves in the mirror, go and see their family and friends and give them a good hug and tell them that they love them.
England had three penalty appeals waved away, hit the post and saw another effort cleared off the line. See the highlights here:
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Highlights: Classy finishing and calamitous defending ends England's Euro dream
Everton into the Europa League hat
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Everton’s Dominic Calvert-Lewin celebrates scoring their first goal
Image credit: Reuters
Wrapping up today's portion of news you probably should know about, Everton are in Friday's Europa League play-off draw after a 1-0 win over MFK Ruzomberok last night, giving them a 2-0 win on aggregate. Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored the winner from the bench after Wayne Rooney and Sandro Ramirez failed to make things happen in attack. Plenty of work still to do for Ronald Koeman:
I'm really happy to progress with two wins and two clean sheets. But we know we can and need to improve in our ball possession. We need create more than we did. It was a physical game and 90 minutes that the players needed. We are through to the next round and I'm really happy.
The Champions League and Europa League play-off draws are both live on Eurosport 1 and Eurosport Player from 11am today.
IN OTHER NEWS
The hottest of takes on the Neymar deal:
Why is a Nigerian civic technology institute tweeting like they are about to play Romelu Lukaku up front in a 4-2-3-1?
ZEROES AND, ER ZEROES
Zero: Jon Gaunt
Please RT? Please STFU.
Also Zeroes: Roma’s social media team
Stop it, please.
IN THE CHANNELS
Now, The Warm-Up isn’t in the business of blowing smoke up its rivals’ backsides, but credit where credit is due for BT Sport, who are previewing the new season with this clever video featuring Dele Alli, as the Tottenham star finds himself catapulted into their other big sporting properties. Bravo.
COMING UP
It’s back, baby! We made it. The domestic season returns TONIGHT as Sunderland host Derby County in a Championship match which is live on Sky Sports Football. BT are showing the start of the French domestic season as defending champions Monaco beging a disastrous season which will see them finish outside of the top four by hosting Toulouse.
Recovering from a huge weekend spent watching Sutton v Leyton Orient and Bolton v Leeds, Nick Miller is stepping in for Adam Hurrey on Monday.
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