Subscribe to the podcast onSpotify here,on Acast hereoron iTunes hereIt’s very simple. We’re here to discuss the 100 best players in the world.We’ve decamped to the pub for this episode. The reasons we’ve done this are simple: It’s the end of the year, and we felt like it.Joining Conor Pope to go through the #FFT100 are editor James Andrew and staff writer Chris Flanagan.Read the FFT100 hereBuy the end of year magSubscribe to FourFourTwo magazineSubscribe to the podcast onSpotify here,on Acast hereoron iTunes here
Jesse Marsch’s life changed in January 2015. That was when he met Ralf Rangnick. “He blew my mind,” Red Bull Salzburg’s American coach tells FourFourTwo. “I always thought of the game as playing in transition, and we had similar ideas and thoughts about football, but I didn’t know what was out there.”Marsch’s meeting with the man nicknamed ‘The Professor’ – a godfather of German football who has been with the Red Bull group since 2012 – was not a coincidence. The American’s education in the art of gegenpressing has since set him on a journey traversing thousands of miles, multiple countries and viral internet fame.The 46-year-old two-time USA international has stayed within the Red Bull cluster since taking the reins...
There's no question that the appointment of Mikel Arteta as Arsenal's new head coach is not without risk. That's true of any managerial decision clubs take, but in this case the fact that he's never taken charge of a first team game adds an extra dimension to that.With the likes of Carlo Ancelotti and Max Allegri available, the safe option would have been to go for one of those men – with a track record of success at big clubs. But then Arsenal tried that with Unai Emery, and look where that left them.It wasn't all on the ex-Sevilla and PSG coach, but the Gunners gambled heavily on a quick return to the Champions League after the departure of Arsene...
Anyone who paid attention to this year’s Champions League group stage will know exactly how good a player Takumi Minamino is. They'll also appreciate just what a smart deal Liverpool are getting by activating his Red Bull Salzburg release clause, thought to be in the region of just £7.5m. Salzburg’s campaign may have have been headlined by Erling Haaland and US coach Jesse Marsch, but Minamino showed himself to be the kind of skilful, tactically aware attacking midfielder that almost any side in Europe could find a home for.What his precise role at Anfield will be remains to be seen, but he’ll presumably compete with Adam Lallana and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain as another midfield understudy, possibly also reinforcing the forward positions...
On Wednesday night, Barcelona and Real Madrid reminded us that there’s no magic in the fixture alone. This Clasico was still an occasion. Still rich in all its sporting and political symbolism and full of consequences, but it was like one of those battles at the end of a war which has already claimed too many lives.What’s clear now is just how spoilt we were by what these games used to be. Looking back to the years Jose Mourinho spent throwing whatever he could over Camelot’s walls, that was a rivalry at the extremity of its being. The kind, ultimately, which cannot be counted on even once a generation. That's becoming clearer and it's also, conveniently, a prism through which...