Jurgen Klopp remained very tight-lipped at the pre-Roma press conference when quizzed on why his number two, Zeljko Buvac, is getting the rest of the season off. Buvac has, all of a sudden, been heavily linked to the Arsenal job which has not been denied by anyone at the time of writing. Could this be why Kloppo looked a bit peeved at being questioned? He has called Buvac the ‘brains’ many a time so seeing him hot-foot it to a big rival could be a bit of a worry if it is the case that Buvac is the reason Klopp has done so well in management. Could they be a latter-day Clough and Taylor? (Ask your Grandad).
Speaking of managers with zero experience getting top jobs, Steven Gerrard is still very much the front-runner for the Rangers job. However, he is not in a rush and is more than happy to honour his BT Sport pundit gig tonight as well as last night before continuing the talks. I’m sure the Rangers fans would prefer to see a coach who is utterly unproven show a little bit more hunger to bite off the arm of their club for this opportunity.
It would appear that Chelsea’s scattergun transfer policy is warming up for the summer. With Antonio Conte absolutely not in charge next season can we garner any clues from the first player they’ve been linked to? Well, we can certainly rule out Jose Mourinho making another return to Stamford Bridge as Chelsea are thought to be making a ‘shock’ move for Anthony Martial. How exactly is this a shock, exactly? Martial is a quality player not being selected regularly and is available for transfer. It’s hardly registered on the Getting Sacked Richter scale. Once again the FA Youth Cup winning side can read today’s papers and forget their dreams of playing first-team football for the Blues.
Martial could well be a replacement for Eden Hazard who is still thought to be wanted by Real Madrid even if and when they win a third straight Champions League. Chelsea are prepared to accept that the Belgian might fancy winning proper silverware more than one season in a row and could ask for a move to the Spanish capital city.
Harry Kane, who I am sure all English fans would agree is somewhat fundamental to England’s World Cup plans, is still steaming at the FA over their tweet after the FA Cup Semi-Final. Kane has a point where there is a culture of mocking the England team (though he could never point the finger over here, surely? Mainly because I doubt he knows we exist) and questions whether other countries would do that to their players. All that said, there is no way this will get past anyone as an excuse for Kane not scoring in Russia and England crashing out in the group stages.
David Moyes is considering ‘making a stand’ against Andy Carroll, apparently. When I first saw this headline I did think that anything that helps AC get through 90 minutes would be a good thing, even if it is the support of a wooden stand but then I realised there had been a ‘training ground bust-up’. Yes, big Andy was seen to be far from impressed and not getting 20 minutes on the pitch so he could watch Manchester City pass the ball to each other from a better vantage point than the West Ham bench, situated half-a-mile from the playing area. He took this gripe to work the next day and told Moyes exactly what he thought, only to be sent home like a naughty schoolboy. Moyes is considering not picking Carroll for the weekend, which sounds like an odd punishment considering not picking Carroll at the weekend seems to be the norm.
Wolverhampton Wanderers were linked to Stoke City’s Joe Allen yesterday and are being linked to yet another Stoke City player this morning. They have realised Stoke are likely to go down, haven’t they? Maybe buying all their players isn’t the best way to stay up next season? Anyway, Wolves would like Jack Butland for £35m please and thank you. However, Getting Sacked have it on good authority that Butland to Liverpool is a done deal. So, there.
Paulo Fonseca, he’s the Shakhtar manager don’t you know, fancies the Arsenal job. I’m sure you do, Paulo, but does the Arsenal job fancy you? No, is my guess. Everton or Watford for you, I feel.
Finally today, Pep Guardiola has assured a worried public that Manchester City will make the ‘right’ decision over Joe Hart. The worried City public are taking that to mean that Joe is being let go this summer and are feeling slightly less worried now.
