Southampton’s new manager, highly regarded for his man-management and tactical nous, obsesses about the damage victory can inflict on players’ hungerThere were around 40 people on the coaching course Mauricio Pellegrino took when he was a player at Valencia in 1999 and he wanted to know what it was that moved them to be there, so he did something he has done ever since football took him from his home in the Argentinian pampas: he asked and he listened. There were all sorts of reasons but surprisingly few matched his. For some, it was just something to do. For others, it was about money, just a job. Not for Pellegrino. He asked a friend there whether he would take it...
Florentino Pérez has said that his club are not contemplating Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure but one day they will have to, and his equivocal tone suggests they are keeping their options open this summer“That’s not something I am contemplating.” The phrase was repeated often but that did not make it any more true. On Monday night Real Madrid’s president, Florentino Pérez, insisted he was not even thinking about a series of scenarios that he certainly is thinking about. He has to. As he said himself: “Things happen and you look for the best solution for everyone.” What happened was that the Portuguese daily A Bola broke the story that Cristiano Ronaldo wants to leave Spain; the question now is whether that...
From Real Madrid’s historic double to a bottom three in a league of their own, via explosive managerial cameos and that statue, it’s the annual awardsLuka Modric went to lift the trophy but there was nothing in his hands, just a look on his face that said it all. Beside him, Gareth Bale was giggling. Real Madrid won the league, shouting, embracing and leaping around the pitch at the Rosaleda where they had just defeated Málaga on the final day, but there was something missing. “What do you mean, no trophy?” the Croatian asked Madrid’s press officer. “They’ll hand it out at the start of next season,” came the reply. “So now we celebrate here, we go back to the...
Despite eventually learning self-control, Pepe is certainly no angel. But as he leaves Real Madrid, a touch sadly, it is time to acknowledge just how good a player he becameThe very last time Pepe put on his Real Madrid kit and ran on to the pitch, it wasn’t to play. Képler Laveran Lima Ferreira joined team-mates in celebrations at the Santiago Bernabéu on Sunday evening wearing all white, knowing that he will not be back. The day before, he had been left out of the squad for the Champions League final at the Millennium Stadium; the night after, he finally confirmed what had long been an open secret: “It’s clear that I won’t be continuing at Madrid,” he said. There...
The man nicknamed the ‘Ant’ is a keen photographer and Stone Roses fan but he knows how to get the best out of a football squad on and off the pitchThe day Ernesto Valverde left Olympiakos, bringing his second brief but successful spell to a close in 2012, Pep Guardiola was asked what he made of his departure. “Greece has lost a great coach,” he said, “and we’ve got a great photographer back.” Valverde’s work had certainly left an impression in Athens, hung on the walls of the Ileana Tounta centre for contemporary art and displayed in the trophy cabinets of the Giorgios Karaiskaskis Stadium, Piraeus – where, according to his fellow Spaniard Michel González, who eventually took over as...