The Warm-Up: The Premier League needs a pre-season

ByMarcus Foley

Updated 11/05/2020 at 08:51 GMT

Plus, Napoli go hard on fake news, Juan Roman Riquelme was uncoachable and how good was Jack Wilshere?

The Warm Up

Image credit: Getty Images

MONDAY’S BIG HEADLINES

Knock Project Restart on the head

Transfers

Bayern could offer Phillips an escape route from Man City - Paper Round

13/10/2023 at 07:32

Project Restart looked ill-advised before and borderline impossible after Boris Johnson's speech on Sunday night.

The idea of professional football returning in the current climate seems completely unworkable. In fact, it would be of a rather sizable surprise if the Bundesliga makes its return next week. The risks seem too great and the consequences too severe.

However, even if it was completely safe for football to return tomorrow it shouldn't. If it was morally and ethically sound to ask footballers to return to training there then should be at least a four-to-six week lag until actual competitive football returns. There won't be but there should be.

There has been a lot of talk about completing the league in its entirety to ensure its sporting integrity is retained. A valid point but to truly protect the sporting integrity, players and teams will need a pre season - otherwise that argument begins to look like a proxy for other less altruistic arguments.

The impact this six-to-eight-week layoff will have had on footballers' physical conditioning cannot be understated. Effectively they have had a close season and anyone who has been to a pre-season friendly will tell you that while they are entertaining, elite sport they are not. Cycling at a webcam while Jose Mourinho shouts encouragement is great and everything but adequate preparation for a return to action in the self-styled 'Best League in the World'? Nope.

So, if the Premier League are actually interested in protecting the sporting integrity of its competition - and by extension its brand - it will wait until it is safe for all to return to work, players, coaches and everything in between, to allow for clubs to return to optimal levels of preparedness and then restart.

When will that be? Who knows? But to protect its sporting integrity it is what is required. Do not do that and the brand of the Premier League will suffer.

'It's over' at PSG for star, Tottenham v United to battle it out - Euro Papers

Napoli go nuclear on fake news

As robust denials of transfer tittle-tattle go, this one from Napoli is right up there.

The basics are:

It was reported that Napoli were interested in Getafe player Marc Cucurella and president Aurelio De Laurentiis had called up Getafe president Ángel Torres Sánchez
Napoli tweet saying that De Laurentiis does not even know who Torres Sánchez is, which is fair enough, the fella doesn't even have a wiki page, but still.

Expect Cucurella to be paraded at the Stadio San Paolo at some point in the near future.

How to coach a talent like Juan Roman Riquelme?

The answer, according to his former coach, Claudio Borghi, is you don't, or can't. He is too good. Former Boca boss Borghi told Portuguese outlet A Bola that his mind was too quick or bright to be coached.

How do you correct someone who thinks faster than you?

"He is a very special player who sees everything on the pitch in a very simple way," said Borghi.

Seems a little defeatist on first inspection but then when you realise that Riquelme once nutmegged another professional footballer without touching the ball it all makes sense.

Complete and utter filth.

HAT-TIP

Remember when Jack Wilshere absolutely dominated Barcelona back in 2011?

You don't? Well, the Athletic's Michael Cox revisits the match to investigate just how good he was.

It was the match that promoted some-weapons grade passive aggressive chat from Pep Guardiola.

Wilshere is a top player. He is an excellent player; not just Arsenal but also for the national team. He is lucky because we have many players in the second team like him but he plays because there is no pressure at his club to win titles.