Joshing’ Pochettino and Chelsea are going to be fine, plus cancelled ‘deals’ and ‘Liverpool stances’
Mauricio Pochettino might be losing his touch as a football manager, but he’s still nailing the important stuff, which is talking well for the journos at press conferences. Plus some more Liverpool guff because there always is.
Pochiography
You could be forgiven for thinking things are a bit, well, sh*t at Chelsea right now. They’re in the bottom half of the table despite spending a billion quid on their team, and the manager is facing revolt from players, fans and players’ wives.
Mauricio Pochettino pretending not to understand why Chelsea (languishing in mid-table, conspicuously awful for most of the season) got more criticism for losing at Liverpool than Liverpool (top of the league, losing for only the second time all season) got for losing at Arsenal might also have suggested things weren’t going well.
But fear not, Chelsea fans! Kieran Gill of the Mail is here to reassure you all is well, with an astonishing bit of fan mail from Pochettino’s latest press conference. Mediawatch will never not enjoy the sight of journalists treating press conference pleasantries as more important than trivialities like results or performances or whatnot.
A few highlights:
This was half an hour of pure ‘Poch’, still smiling, still joshing, still conjuring up wild metaphors in the way that only he can.
Conjuring up wild metaphors in the way that only he can, you’ll never sing that.
One particularly energetic monologue saw Pochettino explain — with a little encouragement from the ever-polite Perez — why he is not going grey amid all the chaos surrounding his club.
Energetic monologues, your manager could never.
There was no sense of panic in Pochettino, despite Sunday’s 4-2 home defeat by Wolves and the questions which followed yesterday.
The Liverpool stuff sounded a bit panicked, to be honest.
A more petulant manager might have got the hump with Tuesday’s line of questioning. Maybe even make a hasty exit, like Jose Mourinho when he lost ownership of this room.
Yet Pochettino smiled his way through yesterday’s press conference, conducting it all with his usual charisma.
And that’s the real quiz. Smiling and joking with the press pack.
Pochettino is hoping one of his current Chelsea crop will stand up tonight, too, as he looks to buy the time that this project needs to prosper.
Sadly, it’s not recorded whether Gill was able to ask a question of his own at any point during this performance that captivated him so. We only assume it would have been “Mr Pochettino, your reign seems to have the momentum of a runaway freight train. Why are you so popular?”
Can you dig it?
The Liverpool Echo are still seeking mileage from Sunday’s game at the Emirates, and are at least not policing any celebrations which is definitely something. This headline, though.
Gabriel Martinelli aims dig at Trent Alexander-Arnold after Liverpool defeat to Arsenal
Actual Martinelli quote: “We knew that was the area of the pitch that we could get something from. Me personally I always do well against Liverpool.”
Think we’re very much in the territory here that really requires this to at the very least be termed a ‘subtle dig’.
Swede dreams
Magnificent mischief from the Daily Express in a piece of tish and fipsy about Spurs new boy Lucas Bergvall.
Tottenham new boy Lucas Bergvall has already sent clear message after ‘cancelling deal’
Now we’re sure any implication in this headline here that the cancelled deal might be the one he’s just signed at Tottenham is surely entirely accidental. They’ll be so upset when they realised they’ve inadvertently made it sound like that and got Spurs fans all clicking in a panic.
But what is the deal he’s cancelling anyway? It’s in quotes, so it’s definitely a real thing that exists, right? They must be quoting someone and it must very definitely be a deal that has been cancelled.
Lucas Bergvall personally took charge of his club future by cancelling a move to the Bundesliga in January, according to reports.
Hmm. We’re already not sure about this. Had a move to the Bundesliga been agreed? Had it really got to the point of a ‘deal’ that could be ‘cancelled’?
According to Bild, Eintracht Frankfurt tried ‘extensively’ to haul a deal over the line, even drawing up a long-term plan for Bergvall’s spell in Germany.
So they were interested? And tried to sign him? But didn’t? Lads, this is not what ‘cancelling deal’ means and the worst thing is we think you know this.
It wasn’t enough to turn the dial in their favour, though, as the 18-year-old pulled the plug on talks with Frankfurt once his move to Tottenham was finalised.
He stopped talking to other interested clubs once he’d agreed to join a different one? That truly is a clear message.
Let’s stance
The Mirror have an update on the next Liverpool manager, because that’s still a thing that’s going to rumble on for the rest of the season.
Xabi Alonso confirms Liverpool stance as ‘first approach made’ to replace Jurgen Klopp
In fairness to the Mirror, and to our enormous surprise, the ‘first approach made’ is a reasonable enough summary as long as you’re happy to take at face value the Foot Mercato article they’ve got their information from. But you’ve probably already worked out he has in no way confirmed any Liverpool stance whatsoever and has instead declared himself happy at Bayer Leverkusen and focused on winning the Bundesliga title.
Related video
Privacy Policy
Because that’s what he’s already said and really is the only possible thing he can say right now. And if he did say something more revelatory, you can be sure it would not be couched in a ‘confirms Liverpool stance’ style headline.
Still. He’s confirmed a Bayer Leverkusen stance, if anything.
While we’re here, though, we also very much enjoyed the following bit of Google translation on that original source article:
This season, Bayer is leading the Bundesliga and holding its own against the Munich ogre.
They’ve put a Shrek in it.
On-brand headline of the day
Neil Warnock kicks off at ball boys as Aberdeen boss loses first game back in management
Daily Star
Savio to Man City exposes the absolute sham of the multi-club ownership model
Hats off to Manchester City, who have pulled off a real coup in landing the in-demand Girona winger Savio in a deal that sees him join up with City this summer.
Of course, as a young left-sided attacker, he’s going to face plenty of competition for places at City despite his exploits this season, so it’s possible he’ll be sent out on loan. Very possibly to Girona again.
Again because he isn’t actually a Girona player. He’s on loan there from Troyes, a club languishing in the bottom half of Ligue 2 in France, a club for whom Savio has never actually played and a club who could probably have used a player of his quality over the last couple of years that he has instead spent at first PSV and now Girona.
But that’s just tough luck for Troyes, who were never going to see Savio in their colours unless something went dramatically wrong.
READ: Man City owners told to ‘get out of France’ as ex-pro calls for ‘protests’ after dodgy transfer ‘agreement’
Because Troyes, like Girona, are part of the City Football Group and this is a transfer that really exposes the absolute sham that is multi-club ownership. It’s basically a racket. Now this isn’t news, but the upcoming deal to take Savio to City is the first really big and significant transfer since rules were tightened and toughened to try and get a lid back on the potential for mischief that these new football empires represent.
Related video
FourFourTwo
Why Man City's 115 Charges Could See Them Kicked Out Of The Premier League | EXPLAINED | FourFourTwo
Why Man City's 115 Charges Could See Them Kicked Out Of The Premier League | EXPLAINED | FourFourTwo
You’ve got to hand it to City here: they are signing a player of enormous promise from not just one but two of their own clubs.
Both the Premier League and UEFA are likely to want to see evidence of ‘fair market value’ being paid for the Brazilian youngster and it will certainly be interesting to see how this all plays out. With profit and sustainability rules at last proving to have some teeth and their subsequent impact on the Premier League’s January spending, this is another new but related frontier in how modern football operates.
City are far from the only club in such a multi-club environment, but they are the biggest and most successful and established empire builders. The City Football Group has been around long enough that even Frank Lampard was shuttled between its clubs back in the day.
City were among those clubs who voted against proposals to at least prevent loans between related clubs in January while everyone waits to try and work out what’s going on. Other clubs have their own interests here. Newcastle, most obviously, given their owners and the structure of the Saudi league. Manchester United, too, are entering this world via Jim Ratcliffe’s INEOS and their ownership of Nice in France and Lausanne-Sport in Switzerland. If Everton’s takeover by 777 Partners ever happens, they too will become part of an empire of clubs across Europe and South America.
Best deals on hotels and holidays!
And then of course there’s Chelsea, who shouldn’t be ignored just because they happen to making a complete b*llocks of it. Boehly and Eghbali cannot possibly be as stupid as they currently appear, and the fact Clearlake Capital also own Strasbourg shouldn’t go unnoticed by anyone. Nor should Strasbourg’s apparent current transfer policy of selling all their older players and buying up young ones. It looks…familiar. They’ve even taken Andrey Santos on loan, which is good of them.
Meanwhile the 115 charges against City show no sign of ever actually leading to any actual outcome. It’s all so complex, so difficult, and time-consuming. It’s all well and good for legal experts and football experts to warn darkly that relegation is the very least City can expect if and when a guilty judgement finally comes when the chances of that judgement ever coming before the seas rise and claim us all is close to non-existent. Another legal trick here, a further delay here. None of us will live to see anything come of it.
We see City’s infamous ‘115 charges’ as a bit like that episode of The Simpsons where Mr Burns has so many diseases that none of them can actually get through the door to make him ill.
None of this is new information, of course. But the conveniently completed Savio deal coming at the precise moment that City put the hammer down in traditional style and start to look ominously capable of completing a double-treble is going to sharpen minds and focus once more.
We’ll no doubt get a fresh flurry of those alarmist stories that have popped up ever since Girona started making mischief in La Liga, pretending that the theoretical possibility of Girona keeping Man City out of the Champions League on ownership rules might ever actually come to pass.
Those rules are well intentioned, but the Red Bull clubs manage it every year and we’re pretty sure the City Football Group can too. Certainly it will not be City who miss out, with whatever ownership hoops are required to be jumped through duly jumped through as and when needed. There is quite literally zero chance of Girona winning La Liga and City coming second in the Premier League and the CFG response being “Ah well, Pep. Hard luck, but it’s going to have to be the Europa League for you.”
Because as this Savio deal shows yet again, multi-club ownership quite obviously doesn’t mean all clubs in the group are equal. It’s called the City Football Group for a reason.
NEXT: Stop getting Pep wrong: explaining the tactical key to why Arsenal, Liverpool will fear Man City charge