The summer splurge on full-backs is a reflection both of ever-expanding wealth and of Antonio Conte’s tactical success with Chelsea last season. How rivals respond will be fascinating to watchThis is the age of the full-back – and that says a lot. For years full-backs were scorned as players who were not defensively sound enough to play in the middle of the back four nor technically good enough to play in midfield – “Nobody,” as Jamie Carragher has observed, “grows up wanting to be Gary Neville” – but this summer an astonishing amount of money has been spent on them. Most of the money, admittedly, has been splurged by Manchester City, who made Kyle Walker the most expensive defender in...
Barcelona want the Brazilian to follow Luis Suárez to Camp Nou, leaving Jürgen Klopp with a potential hole in his team just as the season is about to startAn unhappy transfer window for Liverpool has every chance of becoming more grim should Philippe Coutinho make a £100m-plus move to Barcelona and, though some well-rehearsed arguments are being heard from both sides over whether the club should make a stand or accept the inevitable, there is an unpalatable truth beneath all the posturing that is not being shouted so loudly.This is, simply and briefly, that Liverpool are a selling club. They might not see themselves that way, they might keep denying it and taking encouragement from Jürgen Klopp insisting that no...
Neymar’s move to PSG from Barcelona will make him the first player in 85 years to more than double the previous transfer record. An already inflated environment will feel the consequencesBernabé Ferreyra, according to his River Plate team-mate José Manuel ‘El Charro’ Moreno, never used to let his status as the world’s most expensive player bother him. “Bernabé earned as much money as he wanted but he was not concerned with keeping it,” he said. “He gave other people a lot of money, without asking for anything in return. When he shook your hand, you could be sure that you had a friend for the rest of your life.”But 85 years since the Argentinian striker moved from Club Atlético Tigre...
Barcelona inserted the Brazilian’s €222m buyout clause last year as a Not For Sale sign but playing second fiddle to Messi and the benefits of a world-record transfer have seemingly turned his headAt the end of Barcelona’s comeback against Paris Saint-Germain in March, their hero leapt on to the advertising boards at the north end of the Camp Nou, fans surging forward at his feet, still barely able to believe what they had just seen.At first he swayed a little but they held him steady and so he stood above them, fist raised, taking it in. From below, a match photographer, Santiago Garcés, pointed his camera. Within two days, 70 million people had seen the picture of the night, which...
Jerry Seinfeld didn’t care how a plane reached its destination and football fans should feel the same about the makeup of the teams they supportJerry Seinfeld used to perform a stand-up routine about aeroplane travel in which he addressed that irritating habit pilots have of informing passengers exactly how they’re going to get them to their destination. It’s the utter pointlessness of it all that perplexed the comedian – the excruciating minutiae of the cruising speed and altitude the pilot plans to reach, the direction the wind is blowing, the left turn he’ll make over Pittsburgh, followed by the right over Chicago before he takes the plane down to 15,000 feet. “He’s giving you the whole route; all his moves,”...