Sacking a manager after a big transfer splurge brings some continuity back to Chelsea after the most unusual of tenuresSome continuity, finally, at Chelsea Football Club. Sacking your manager seven games into the season, with more than £250m spent on players and a couple of whispered wobbles behind the scenes. This feels like home, safety, a club coming back to what they know. Nature is healing itself.As of Wednesday morning 10am Chelsea no longer have Tommy Tuchel. Tuchel no longer, in the view of the board, knows exactly what they need. But it seems Graham Potter just might, if Chelsea really do feel like taking a punt on talent, brains and method over having actually spent a single minute of...
The manager has told his side to ‘toughen up’ – that advice and more must be taken to arrest their poor start to the seasonI was once told by a highly respected head coach that they treat every interview and press conference as if they are speaking directly to the players. That theory, it would seem, is being put into practice by Thomas Tuchel after he told his Chelsea squad to “toughen up” after their latest Premier League loss to Southampton on Tuesday.It was Chelsea’s second defeat in five games this season and they have conceded eight goals. Tuchel will want them to be more resilient because their flaws have been highlighted. At St Mary’s, the winner came in first-half...
The season’s first Merseyside derby, an Old Trafford blockbuster and crunch time for Bruno Lage at WolvesSeven games into the season in all competitions and Frank Lampard can finally select a recognised striker he wants in an Everton shirt. Providing someone at the Premier League has registered Neal Maupay in time for the Merseyside derby, that is. Lampard and Jürgen Klopp will be relieved to concentrate on the renewal of old rivalries after the distractions of a transfer window that both believe dragged too long into the season. Everton are without a win in the Premier League but building gradually. A derby debut for Maupay, signed from Brighton last Friday but not cleared to play at Leeds on Tuesday, would...
Inflated transfer fees are an everyday occurrence. But the thing about the Everton youngster’s one is its layersThere are generally five stages to a failed high-profile football transfer, those signings that are so grandly dysfunctional they become a kind of theatre in themselves, disaster-content, almost perversely, a success.Finding the most rewarding ways to describe Romelu Lukaku’s return to Chelsea, essentiality a Belgian man walking around looking bemused while other people play football nearby, has provided more heat, light and work hours than a bog-standard success story. To the extent Lukaku himself seems somehow elevated by it, imbued with another layer of celebrity grace. Continue reading...
Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United reign is already in crisis while Leicester may have to make do with what they’ve gotPersuading Daniel Levy to open his wallet is surely one of the greatest achievements of Antonio Conte’s career, but for as long as he refrains from using his new players, it barely matters. Though it does make some kind of sense to retain the men who earned a Champions League spot, making the point that places are earned by performances, not purchase prices, there is an Yves Bissouma-shaped hole in Tottenham’s midfield that on another day would’ve cost them the game. It’s true that Pierre-Emile Højbjerg scored a crucial goal, but it’s equally true that they were lucky to be...