Chelsea spotted the midfielder 12 years ago and nurtured his talents before replacing him with Tiemoué Bakayoko, a player eight times more expensiveAt about 8pm last Thursday, Nathaniel Chalobah, then still of Chelsea, posted on Instagram a picture of the former Queens Park Rangers and Crystal Palace defender Fitz Hall. The subject of several weeks of transfer rumour linking him with Swansea, Southampton and Watford, perhaps this, finally, was a clue to Chalobah’s next move. Either that, or he just likes Fitz Hall. No words accompanied the picture, though for some reason there were three alarm clocks superimposed upon it. Related: Chelsea’s erratic youth policy and why they should give the kids a chance | Jacob Steinberg Related: England’s Under-21s...
With an £800m stadium to build and a low wage ceiling Spurs face a challenge to upgrade their team even with £50m from the imminent sale of Kyle WalkerOf all the tributes to Daniel Levy and his iron-fist-in-the-iron-glove negotiating style Sir Alex Ferguson’s is surely the most memorable. Dealing with the Tottenham Hotspur chairman, Ferguson recalled, “was more painful than my hip replacement”. It should be noted, too, that Ferguson got what he wanted from Levy. Despite all the agonies he was able to take the striker Dimitar Berbatov from Tottenham to Manchester United in 2008.Many people in the game do not get what they want from Levy. The very mention of his name can have agents and players letting...
The striker is leaving for Everton as a record scorer and multiple trophy winner but a large constituency of fans will not mourn his departureThe oddity of Wayne Rooney’s glittering 13-year Manchester United career is that he departs for Everton to only muted applause. Despite a record that features a glut of trophies and personal achievements a strong sense of “Ta-ra Wayne, it’s about time” prevails among supporters.This can be traced to the perception Rooney never adopted the fitness regime required to reach the heights of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi and the disquiet he caused when twice in three years nearly exiting the club. Related: Wayne Rooney and Everton are well placed for a fruitful and warm reunion |...
It already looks like another record-breaking summer of spending for English clubs, but the disconnect between footballers and the real world is growingLiverpool and Everton were first, Arsenal have just joined them, and Huddersfield Town managed it twice in the same week. The transfer window still has the best part of two months to run and the real horse-trading is yet to start, but this looks like it could be the summer when almost every Premier League club sets a transfer record.Perhaps such a development is a logical and inevitable corollary of the new television deal, the one responsible for making English clubs richer than ever before. Perhaps it is simply a matter of inflation, not just prices going up...
The manager had pinned his hopes on Lukaku leading the line and the striker’s imminent move to Manchester United raises questions about whether Chelsea have again taken their eye off the ball after winning the titleThe first thing to acknowledge is that there is time for Chelsea to make a success of this transfer window. It is the first week in July, not the last in August. Those within the club’s recruitment department can justifiably point to the late arrivals of David Luiz and Marcos Alonso last year, and the impact both players had on the team’s title success, as evidence that significant additions can be plucked from the ether right up to the cut-off.And yet, not for the first...