Can we just promote Leeds now so that I can talk about them properly Premier League style, please?
What an absolute guy Marcelo Bielsa is.
The Argentine gave a 70-minute long training session showing the world how and why he spies on every single opponent his team plays. Journalists were having to get permission to leave the room as they needed to get back to their wives and children. Bielsa absolutely outmanoeuvred everyone by taking the sting out of the whole ‘FA enquiry’ and putting everything on the table.
The guy is a maverick genius and we need him in the top flight.
Frank Lampard should probably chalk this one up to managerial experience and be relieved that Southampton weren’t phoning in what Bielsa was saying about Derby during their FA Cup replay.
As Ralph Hasenhuttl said,‘If you lead Derby 2-0 twice and don’t win, you probably don’t deserve to be in the next round.’
I couldn’t have put it better myself, Ralph.
After months of speculation, Chelsea have finally got around to making a ‘formal offer’ for Juventus/AC Milan striker Gonzalo Higuain. A loan deal looks likely initially and Alvaro Morata is going to vacate his spot in the changing room by legging it to Atletico Madrid.
Another striker heading out the door at Chelsea is Michy Batshuayi who is interesting Thierry Henry’s Monaco. Chelsea would love some of the £40m they spent on the Belgian back.
Manchester City have gone for youth. They’ve agreed a deal for Hajduk Split’s Ante Palaversa who is being thought of here as the next Luca Modric. Palaversa will stay in Split for the foreseeable, however. I mean, there is no point him leaving first-team football in Croatia just to sit next to Phil Foden on the subs bench once a month, is there?
Arsenal, in a bit of a transfer tizz right now, have a plan. And it’s so cunning, and all that Baldrick jazz. They want to get rid of Mesut Ozil to Inter and then, just so that they keep their lazy playmaker quota intact, want to buy James Rodriguez from Real Madrid for £3m. They can see some profit in this, if not any sense.
Where Paul Pogba has seen his time at United improve under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the same cannot be said for Marouane Fellaini who has been told he can find a new club. Just be grateful it lasted this long, Marouane.
Everton’s forgotten-but-useful-when-he-plays striker Oumar Niasse is off to Cardiff City. After all, ‘to hell with the rest of the world’ eh, Neil? Go British all day long.
Bournemouth have noticed they need a bit of defence reinforcement and want Brentford’s Welsh international defender Chris Mepham. He’ll probably cost the best part of £15m.
