The Warm-Up: The transfer window gets weird and we're all for it
/dnl.eurosport.com/sd/img/placeholder/eurosport_logo_1x1.png){kind=logo}
Updated 31/07/2019 at 08:27 GMT
After an odd window so far, hats off to Manchester United and Juventus for giving the people what they want.
Romelu Lukaku (R) and Paul Pogba of Manchester United look on after a training session on July 19, 2019 in Singapore, Singapore.
Image credit: Getty Images
WEDNESDAY’S BIG STORIES
The transfer window gets funky with Lukaku-Dybala swap
It’s been a slightly odd transfer window in England. Liverpool haven’t bought anyone. Chelsea can’t buy anyone. Arsenal, in dire need of a central defender, have been stocking up on attacking players like a man with a hole in his trousers buying three new blazers and a colourful cravat. Manchester City identified a slight crack in the wall of their squad (Fernandinho getting on a bit) and reacted by essentially buying another wall (Rodri). Tottenham gave just a hint that they might have discovered their bank card (spending north of £50million on Tanguy Ndombele) before putting it back in the box, burying that box and pouring concrete over it. More on that later.
And then there’s Manchester United. Most would approve of the Daniel James and Aaron Wan-Bissaka purchases, but they’ve spent the rest of the summer chasing Harry Maguire like Benny Hill chasing a woman in a saucy maid outfit, while dealing with the whining of Paul Pogba’s agent Mino Raiola and the constant barking about Romelu Lukaku from Antonio Conte.
Now though, United are doing something we can surely all applaud. They have reportedly put their heads together with Juventus and are about to get weird and funky: reports on Tuesday evening suggested that a swap deal involving Lukaku and Paulo Dybala has been agreed in principle, and now all they need is for the players to agree to it.
THAT’s the stuff. This is the sort of weird, kind-of-makes-sense-but-could-actually-be-really-stupid deal that we want from the transfer window. United probably don’t need another quick, skilful, slightly inconsistent forward. Juve probably don’t need another big, slightly inconsistent centre-forward. But we’re damned if we’re not applauding this and will be watching with the greatest fascination to see how it pans out.
So well done United and Juve. Generally speaking you’re two behemoths of football clubs who have done more harm to the game in your respective countries than good, but on this day, we applaud you.
Poch stamps his feet
Mauricio Pochettino is not happy. Perhaps naively, he thought that reaching the Champions League final with a squad held together by spit and twigs would prompt Daniel Levy to start spending. And then, after the Ndombele signing, that the spending would continue.
Not so much. Spurs haven’t spent a bean since, have seen Kieran Trippier leave and Danny Rose has a foot out the door too. So you can see why he might be irked. And he is irked.
After Tottenham’s 1-0 win over Real Madrid in something called the ‘Audi Cup’ in Munich (think the Emirates Cup, but obviously less prestigious), Poch went off:
I am not in charge and I know nothing about the situation of my players. I am only coaching them and trying to get the best from them. Sell, buy players, sign contract, not sign contract – I think it is not in my hands, it’s in the club’s hands and [chairman] Daniel Levy. The club need to change my title and description. Of course I am the boss deciding the strategic play, but in another area I don’t know. Today, I feel like I am the coach.
What odds do you reckon you could get on Pochettino arriving for his next press conference wearing a t-shirt that says “SPEND SOME EFFING MONEY” on it?
Someone give Jose Mourinho a job, we’re starting to feel sorry for him
We never thought we’d see the day when we would have some sympathy for Jose Mourinho, but apparently it has arrived. Mourinho has spent the last few months shuffling around various TV studios, telling amusing anecdotes from his career and doing some punditting, but he now wants to work again. Proper work, like.
He told Sky Sports, in a slightly strange feature that involved him wandering around a beach in Portugal somewhere and being filmed in a car like he was being caught by a consumer affairs TV show:
I have some time to think, to rethink, to analyse and what I feel is exactly that ‘Ze’ (Mourinho’s nickname as a boy) is full of fire. My friends tell me: ‘Enjoy your time, enjoy your July, enjoy your August, enjoy what you never had.’ Honestly, I can’t enjoy. I am not happy enough to enjoy. I miss my football, I have the fire. The most difficult thing for me is to say ‘no’ to the possibilities I had to work. I have to be patient and wait for the right one and the right one is one at the dimension of what I am as a manager. I have to be patient and that is the most difficult thing because I had the impulse during this period so many times: [to say] ‘Yes, I go.’ No, I cannot go. I cannot go. I have to wait exactly for the right one.
He went on to claim – with a relatively straight face, it must be said – that absolutely nothing should be read into him learning German and he was just doing it for yucks, and that he wants a big job in one of Europe’s big five leagues.
So…anyone got a job they can give him?
IN OTHER NEWS
If you’re of a gaming persuasion you might have seen that the cover for the new edition of Pro Evolution Soccer was revealed on Tuesday. It featured four cover stars – see if you can spot the odd one out.
Well, there’s Leo Messi at the top, global icon, universally recognised genius, probably the greatest player of all time. A level below, Serge Gnabry, a young player of terrific promise who is thriving despite the trauma of not being rated by Tony Pulis. Then there’s Miralem Pjanic, the man who makes multi-Serie A champions Juventus tick.
Finally there’s…hang on…Scott McTominay. Scott McTominay? OK, sure.
HEROES AND ZEROS
Heroes: Chelsea
It is admittedly a relatively low bar to praise an institution for punishing someone for racist abuse, but it was at least slightly heartening that Chelsea yesterday banned for life the supporter who abused Raheem Sterling in December. At least they did something.
Zero: Gareth Bale
That’s in the opinion of John Toshack anyway, who launched what can only be described as a ‘verbal broadside’ against his countryman, from one Welshman who spent time in Spain to another. Toshack said on BBC Radio 5 Live:
Come out Gareth, do an interview, speak yourself. You’ve been here six or seven years now. You don’t speak the language. That’s an insult to the people that you’re working for. It’s not gone down well at all here in Spain, and it saddens me. He’s been important in Real Madrid. It’s just a great pity that he hasn’t engaged himself a little bit more with the country that he’s living in, with the supporters that are there every week. Gareth, come on. Take a little bit of time out and learn the language.
HAT TIP
The game between Juventus and a South Korean K-League All Star team last Friday in Seoul ended in a 3-3 draw but the winners may be lawyers as thousands of Korean fans are calling for their money back after Cristiano Ronaldo sat on the bench for the entire game – in breach, organisers claim, of contract.
Football used to be a pretty simple game, but now you have people being sued because a player didn’t appear in a pre-season friendly. John Duerden explains.
RETRO CORNER
For no real reason, here’s Gabriel Batistuta absolutely leathering the ball loads of times. There are surely no finer ways to spend your time.
COMING UP
Come and get your red hot Champions League qualifier action, including QARABAG taking on DUNDALK, ROSENBORG facing off against BATE BORISOV and who can forget AIK against MARIBOR.
Scan me
Related Topics
Share this article
Advertisement
Advertisement