With European football in turmoil and leading clubs out of sorts, the knockout stages offer some welcome unpredictabilityWhen the draw for the last 16 of the Champions League is made before Christmas, the warning always comes: wait till February. What can look a straightforward tie as the group stage ends may appear very different a couple of months down the line as form fluctuates and injuries, managerial changes and January signings take effect.Recently that has tended to mean the superclubs asserting themselves, financial muscle powering through whatever blips may have occurred in the autumn. But as the Champions League knockout stage begins on Tuesday, very little has settled down and the competition looks more open than it has done for...
Aurélien Tchouaméni and Benoît Badiashile have brought in €120m in the last six months – and the players keep comingBy Luke Entwistle for Get French Football NewsNew Chelsea signing Benoît Badiashile is the latest player to emerge from Monaco’s unrelenting conveyor belt of talent and he won’t be the last. The Monaco academy boasts a star-studded list of alumni: World Cup winners Thierry Henry, Emmanuel Petit, Lilian Thuram, David Trezeguet and Kylian Mbappé all graduated from the club. When Monaco tinkered with their successful formula of youth development, signing Radamel Falcao and James Rodríguez for big money, they won Ligue 1 and reached the Champions League semi-finals, but that strategy eventually proved unsustainable. They have since returned their focus to...
Absurdly wealthy owners with scant regard for the game placating absurdly remunerated players – is this really football?Was there a moment, back in August, when Christophe Galtier wondered what the fuss had been? Did he watch his Paris Saint-Germain team smacking in 21 goals in their first four games of the season and think how easy this all was? Take what is probably the starriest forward line in the history of the game, let them play and watch the brilliant goals stack up. Lionel Messi, after a disappointing first season in Paris, was re-energised. Neymar, playing alongside his mate, was thriving. And Kylian Mbappé …Well, what was Mbappé? He was still impossibly quick. He scored four goals in those first...
PSG forward is reportedly set for an automatic contract extension to 2027 on 1 July, a new twist on the modern game“We no longer want flashy, bling-bling. It’s the end of sequins.” No, not the sequins. How about diamanté? What is the official position, Nasser al-Khelaifi, president of Paris Saint-Germain, on the embroidered epaulette?In an interview with Le Parisien this week, Khelaifi took the chance to outline his vision of a new utilitarian PSG: a PSG staffed by hungry, flat-faced hair-shirt men who look like David May with toothache. Continue reading...
Two Argentinian managers, both looking for work, talk Neymar’s parties and why there’s no happiness in footballTopic: Mauricio Pochettino’s Zoom MeetingMon, 13 Jun 2022 01:51 AM (CET)[Marcelo Bielsa’s iPad has joined the meeting.] Continue reading...