The breathless way Thomas Tuchel discussed his affinity for England during his press conference unveiling as the first German coach to lead the national team was, at times, almost poetic.
“It’s the country, it’s the humour, it’s the way of life, it’s the attitude from the supporters to the game and what they demand from the players,” he said of why he likes the country, in which he once managed Chelsea, and its football so much.
“I said it many times, it shapes the character of the players, how they live, their expression, how they approach their training towards a team effort. For me it was a one-of-a-kind experience. To breathe that again is a big privilege. I am very happy to be back.”
Not so happy, it transpires, to turn up for even one of the two Nations League games the country will play next week.
Maybe the trip to Greece, where England will play in Athens next Thursday, is a schlep too far. But Wembley the following Sunday, where they will host the Republic of Ireland? Why not at least make the two-hour flight for the first home game after you have been announced as the new manager, six weeks before your £5m-per-year contract officially begins?
Tuchel is, evidently, happy to wait until after he starts being paid, on 1 January, before he will breathe in that culture and atmosphere at Wembley. Before he will inhale the home fans hurling paper aeroplanes from the stands, hoping to hit the pitch, from around 10 minutes onwards. Before he will suck deeply on the Mexican waves that usually begin in the second half.
They are some of the things that you won’t pick up watching on the telly – an indication of the size of the challenge awaiting: that England fans are a tough crowd to please. One that can turn, quickly.
Tuchel spoke of his “passion” for England and English football, how he loved to live and work there, recalled his memories, how they shaped everything, of all these experiences and emotions adding a British edge to his German passport.
If people are to be judged by their actions, rather than their words, then not turning up to England’s next two games feels like a misstep for Tuchel less than a month after being named the new head coach.
He will obviously – hopefully? – watch the games on the telly. But it’s not even about assessing the players, weighing up who can accompany Declan Rice in central midfield, if Jordan Pickford is good enough with his feet, how to fit Phil Foden and Jude Bellingham and, now, Cole Palmer into the same starting XI.
This is about optics, about showing you care, about demonstrating that this 18-month contract, which will expire after the 2026 World cup, isn’t simply about picking up a lucrative pay-cheque in the best job that came along for a hugely successful yet out-of-work football coach.
Tuchel is getting a reputation for taking a quick payday (Photo: Getty)
In the past 10 years Tuchel has not lasted longer than two-and-a-half years at one club. That was Paris Saint-Germain. He managed two years at Borussia Dortmund. At Chelsea, he developed a strong, almost magic magnetism to England in 19 months. In his most recent job, at Bayern Munich, he was in charge for only 14 months – although the club had already announced after 11 that he was leaving at the end of the season.
It is no wonder he has developed a reputation as a mercenary manager – in for a quick contract and a few trophies then on to the next adventure. You’d hope the England job would be different – that the incumbent would care about it, as Southgate did deeply.
Mark Bullingham, the Football Association chief executive who appointed Tuchel, insisted the reason for the delayed start was that Tuchel wanted to focus on the World Cup only. That the FA had promised interim manager Lee Carsley the autumn Nations League games and he wanted to honour that.
“We always said to Lee he would have three camps and we were very clear he’d run the Nations League campaign,” he said.
When he was pressed on the ridiculousness of that plan, Bullingham claimed that “what was so impressive” about Tuchel “was his singular focus on us and the World Cup and that project”. Quite why that is impressive is unclear.
“It made sense for it to start on the first of January and made sense for Lee to finish the campaign in the Nations League,” Bullingham added, attempting to draw a line under the matter.
Quite why that makes sense is also unclear.
Why you would show such dedicated loyalty to the interim manager, who will soon return to coach England’s Under-21s, rather than get stuck in straight away with the expensive, high-profile, serial trophy-winning shiny new manager who has only some World Cup qualifiers and a handful of friendlies to craft a group of world-beaters into actual world-beaters – something no coach has been able to do since 1966 – is baffling.
Why he wouldn’t even turn up to sit in a warm box, where hot food and nice drinks will be served all evening, to watch his new players and show his face to the paying fans is equally as perplexing.
“Hopefully I can convince people and show them and prove to them that I am proud to be English manager,” Tuchel said in another of his several answers about how proud he is to be a part of this great nation. “I will do everything to show respect to this role and to this country.”
Everything, that is, except turn up to watch two matches before his contract begins.
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Ruben Amorim insists that while he is a better coach than two years ago, when his Sporting Lisbon side were humbled 5-0 at home by Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering Manchester City, one of his coaching inspirations remains a dot on the horizon in the managerial world.
That was before his exhilarating Sporting side weathered an early City storm and tore their illustrious opponents apart on an emotional night in Lisbon.
As has been the case since he walked in the door and began to revive this sleeping giant of Portuguese football, everything Amorim touches turns to gold, inflicting a third successive defeat on City, the first time that has happened since Guardiola arrived on our shores, in his final home match before beginning an even greater project.
The manner of the victory should get United fans hot under the collar. There were goals galore, three of them from a player who could well follow his current boss to Manchester in Viktor Gyokeres.
The emotion was obvious in Lisbon as Amorim prepared to say goodbye. Despite an initial, perhaps obvious sense of grievance, as one, the home supporters gave the man who has transformed their club’s fortunes an almighty send-off. The boisterous crowd unveiled a huge “Obrigado” tifo, with Amorim pictured with the trophies he has won at Sporting.
With United supporters tuning in for their first glimpse of Amorim-ball, the early stages will have given them that familiar sinking feeling.
Trying to play out from the back, Hidemasa Morita was caught on the ball, allowing Phil Foden to nip in and squirm a shot past home goalkeeper Franco Israel.
Unlike Amorim’s predecessor, Erik ten Hag, Bernardo Silva was at pains to point out pre-match that City’s injury crisis was no excuse for their back-to-back defeats, and the visitors should have been out of sight before the half-hour mark.
Erling Haaland saw four chances go begging in the first half alone, while Bernardo dragged wide from a good position.
But Amorim’s side survived further damage and remained a constant threat on the counter, with Gyokeres, who was at Coventry less than 18 months ago, racing clear of City defender Jahmai Simpson-Pusey before finishing superbly to get another goal-laden night started with a bang.
Back in the contest, the Alvalade raised the decibels in the second half and City crumbled, conceding 20 seconds after the interval, Max Araujo with the composed finish, before Gyokeres netted another from the spot, the penalty won 24 seconds after the restart.
In contrast, Haaland, by his standards, continues to suffer a severe bout of profligacy. Even when presented with the opportunity from the penalty spot to get City back in it, after VAR spotted a handball in the Sporting penalty area, he could not hit the target from 12 yards.
Gyokeres had no such issues, hammering home from the penalty spot to complete his hat-trick. It was the unstoppable Swede’s 12th goal in his last six games.
What a night for Sporting. What a night for Ruben Amorim. What a night for Manchester United supporters.
It is Amorim versus Guardiola again in six weeks time in the Premier League. Clear your diaries.
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Another Erling Haaland blank and another low scoring gameweek may have left some Fantasy Premier League managers pining for the next international break.
The average score in Gameweek 10 was just 39 points and already people are making drastic moves ahead of this weekend, with Haaland currently leading the way as the most sold player ahead of Saturday’s lunchtime deadline.
We never thought we’d say this but offloading Haaland may not be the worst idea. The Norwegian has returned just 14 points in his last five appearances – a total that 18 forwards in FPL can beat – and has a tricky run of fixtures with a trip to Brighton followed by a home game against City’s bogey team Spurs and a visit to Anfield.
The benefit to binning Haaland is that it frees up considerable cash in your FPL wallet, which allows you to build a stronger overall squad. Of course, he could make us all look very silly indeed by rattling in a hat-trick at the Amex, but sometimes in FPL you have to roll the dice.
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The Premier League have treated us all to a mouth-watering doubleheader on Saturday night with Brighton hosting Haaland’s City and Liverpool playing Aston Villa. Sunday’s schedule is equally appetising with Manchester United taking on Leicester, high-flying Nottingham Forest facing Newcastle and free-scoring Spurs entertaining Ipswich.
The gameweek ends with a juicy London derby too between Chelsea and Arsenal at Stamford Bridge.
The Gameweek 10 deadline is at 1.30pm on Saturday 9 November.
Bruno Fernandes had made a low-key start to the season, producing just one goal (from the penalty spot) and two assists from his opening 10 matches.
However, United have a promising short-term schedule against Leicester (h), Ipswich (a) and Everton (h) in their next three and will soon be under new management with Fernandes’ Portuguese compatriot Ruben Amorin taking charge later this month.
Admittedly the United skipper’s data isn’t great. Although he ranks fourth among midfielders for shots (with 32 in 10 games) he has only hit the target with six of them. On the flipside, he has been unfortunate to not register more assists having earned only two despite creating eight big chances.
It’s a punt but one that could pay off nicely. Amorim’s appointment could be just the spark that ignites Fernandes’ season.
Matheus Cunha retains his place in i‘s picks this week after providing an assist in Gameweek 10.
The Brazilian’s creativity sets him apart from every other forward in the division. Cunha has created at least seven more chances than any of his positional rivals and twice as many “big chances” – defined by Opta as a situation when a teammate is reasonably expected to score – with eight.
Only Bukayo Saka and Cole Palmer can better Cunha’s big chance output across the entire game.
His shot numbers are also right up there too. Haaland is the only forward to have attempted more (with 49) to Cunha’s 29. It is evident both from the data and the eye test that Cunha is central to Wolves’ attack, simultaneously their most likely goal scorer and goal provider.
Considering they have beaten Arsenal and Manchester City in the last three gameweeks, it is probably time that we all started taking Bournemouth assets more seriously.
Only two of their players are owned by more than one per cent of FPL managers at the time of writing: Antoine Semenyo, who is their leading points scorer and an admittedly excellent low-cost option in midfield, and Daniel Jebbison, a £4.5m forward currently on loan at Watford in the Championship.
Milos Kerkez excelled in Bournemouth’s win over Manchester City (Photo: Reuters)
Milos Kerkez’s popularity could soon surge after a sensational display against Manchester City in which he set up both goals in a 2-1 win. The young Hungarian loves to get forward and could produce more attacking points in the coming weeks given Bournemouth’s promising fixtures.
No, we’re not chasing last week’s points, honest. Dominic Solanke was sold en masse by FPL managers ahead of Gameweek 10 (including by yours truly) and punished the doubters emphatically by delivering a 16-point haul – the biggest individual score of the gameweek – as Spurs monstered Aston Villa.
For the first time since joining Spurs from Bournemouth, Solanke provided a consistent penalty box threat and looked as though he was on the same wavelength as his fellow attackers.
A quarter of Solanke’s shots and shots on target across the season came last weekend on his eighth league appearance.
The form of Spurs’s next opponents also boosts Solanke’s appeal. Ipswich have found the Premier League tough going so far with Jordan Ayew’s 94th-minute goal for Leicester last Saturday ensuring they remain winless after their first 10 matches.
Only Wolves have conceded more goals (with 27) than the Tractor Boys (21) so far which bodes well for Solanke and the rest of their attackers.
West Ham haven’t started the season particularly well, but their home form has been better than their away form of late. They have won back-to-back games against Ipswich and Manchester United ahead of this weekend’s meeting with Everton in east London.
Jarrod Bowen has been integral to those recent victories at the London Stadium. The England international scored and provided an assist in the 4-1 win over Ipswich and then followed that up by netting a dramatic added time penalty to down United.
Although Bowen ranks second among West Ham players for shots (behind Mohammed Kudus who has taken six more) he is comfortably their most creative asset having supplied 23 chances, at least 14 more than any other Hammer. That dual-threat makes him their standout pick.
Bowen can continue his purple patch at home against the Toffees, who have conceded nine goals in their first five away games.
There will be a few wry smiles at St James’ Park if – as is being whispered in football circles – Elliot Anderson graduates into the England senior squad this week.
Anderson’s potential excited Eddie Howe to the extent that he saw a midfielder capable of rivalling big money signings Bruno Guimaraes and Sandro Tonali for years to come when he initially broke into the first team.
Howe marvelled at his bravery on the ball and willingness to learn, telling colleagues he was the perfect fit for his game plan. A bespoke strength and conditioning programme was devised after he returned from a loan at League Two Bristol Rovers in 2022 with the intention of adding an explosive burst of pace to his repertoire.
It was a feeling shared throughout the club’s hierarchy. “He can do a bit of everything,” one senior source cooed to The i Paper as they predicted a breakthrough season 12 months ago. Unfortunately for Newcastle United he is now proving that fact in the red of Nottingham Forest.
Of all the frustrations around Profitability and Sustainability Regulations (PSR), it is the fact that the rules actively incentivise trading of academy graduates that feels the most insidious.
Because players who come through the academy have a “book value” of zero in the PSR world, any money banked for them is viewed as “pure profit”. Hence why Newcastle, panicked at the prospect of a points deduction for a PSR breach, sold Anderson to duck under the £150m limit.
This accounting quirk is creating a culture which is worrying some in the academy world. Premier League clubs denied access to the European market by Brexit are now ploughing many millions into youth football at home because it is being viewed as a PSR “cheat code”.
There is no top flight club or aspiring Championship side that doesn’t have full-time scouting roles in regions many hundreds of miles outside their own catchment areas.
That creates competition for players aged just 14 or 15 and some in youth football worry about the impact the associated inflated transfer fees and wages will have on the boys at the centre of these recruitment battles, some of whom are moving a long way from home, friends and support systems.
Forest signed Anderson in July (Photo: Getty)
The i was told last year that the Premier League had contacted academy directors throughout the top flight to consult on how some of these issues could be tackled but – somewhat predictably, given they are currently fighting multiple simultaneous legal battles – the issue is now on the back-burner.
So what we are left with are situations like Anderson’s, where a player who never really wanted to leave his boyhood team is sacrificed by a club who desperately wanted to keep him to satisfy a fake notion of profit. Just like PSR itself in its current form it makes no sense whatsoever.
The whole Financial Fair Play (FFP) facade is based on sustainability. If you lose too much money, its proponents say, you are putting the long-term future of your club at risk. But reducing the whole thing to an arbitrary set of numbers leaves aspiring clubs with nowhere to go and no margin for error.
Take Newcastle, for example. If you speak to those who have devised the club’s strategy since the 2021 takeover, there is no sense of recklessness about the money invested. You can make a moral case against the involvement of the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) but when it comes to a financial one, what have they really done wrong since buying the club?
Money has been poured into the academy, the commercial team, the data department and building a senior management team that was non-existent in the Mike Ashley era. Alongside that – because this is the bit that really matters – money has been invested in players to take them away from the lower reaches of the Premier League and make them competitive.
It was not a get-rich-quick scheme. Guimaraes was 24 when he was signed, Alexander Isak 22. Last summer they bought Lewis Hall and Tino Livramento, two young English full-backs, to develop, which is what Howe has done.
But now the spending taps have been turned off, not because they can’t afford to maintain a transfer policy of spotting and signing elite potential – and having a manager who can improve them – but because there is an arbitrary limit to investment in the Premier League.
There are alternatives, of course. Raising the PSR limit from its current ceiling of allowing £150m of losses across three years is one. As football finance expert Kieran Maguire points out, if it was index-linked to the revenues of Premier League clubs it would now be closer to £249m.
Other, more creative, solutions have been raised in Premier League meetings. One, proposed by a well-run club that have hovered around mid-table, was to auction off their PSR headroom to the highest bidder.
The idea was to reward clubs complying with the rules, rather than just punishing those breaching, but there were no takers.
Newcastle are now scrambling to devise a new strategy under director of football Paul Mitchell that will allow them to comply with tighter PSR but 2024 has been a painfully sobering year. No one inside the club is ruling out having to take further difficult decisions in the future.
It is a warning shot for other clubs who challenge the top four. Aston Villa may be riding the crest of a Champions League wave at the moment but sustaining it – as Newcastle found out – is desperately difficult.
And if a resurgent Forest, powered by Anderson, do make it into Europe will their PSR balance sheet allow them to build on what they’ve achieved? Don’t bet on it.
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You can’t win the America’s Cup with a low-grade boat, or a Formula One race without a quick car.
The logical extension of Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s analogy when assessing Ineos’ sailing defeat to New Zealand on the shores of Barcelona three weeks ago is that if Max Verstappen were a footballer he would not be challenging for the title with this Manchester United squad.
Even Sir Jim understands that United do not have enough players of the requisite quality to challenge for the top prizes.
He was asked whether he could take any lessons from the comprehensive defeat in the America’s Cup to United. And his response was clinical.
“I think there’s one little crossover, which is that you can’t win the America’s Cup, unless you arrive at the America’s Cup with a boat that could win the America’s Cup,” he said.
“Same in Formula One. I mean you put Max Verstappen in a Williams, he’s not going to win a Formula One championship. And with football it’s the same with the squad in a way. That’s the parallel for me.
“You can’t win anything in football if your squad isn’t good enough to win something. The quality of the squad is a bit like the speed of the boat. That’s the only parallel really.”
Another featureless grind against Chelsea highlighted the scale of the task facing Ruben Amorim when he clocks on at Carrington next Monday. Against top opposition, United are a blunt tool.
In their role as pundits, ex United players Gary Neville and Roy Keane head straight from the Sky studio for counselling every week to process what they have just witnessed, a team without identity of character.
So where does Amorim start? Who stays and who goes under the new regime?
The onion bag crisis
Let’s start with the attack, where United labour to make an impact. Just nine goals in 10 league games this season. Only Crystal Palace and Southampton have scored fewer. This is in part a function of chances created, but also the absence of a clinical edge.
Amorim will look to reinforce in the summer. Most fans would gorge on Viktor Gyokeres’ 63 goals in 66 Sporting Lisbon appearances, or maybe Amorim already had a replacement in mind for the reportedly Barcelona-bound ex-Coventry man.
Working with what he has, Rasmus Hojlund is a grafter, but spends a good deal of his time backing into centre-backs instead of hunting space. He is hurt by the absence of a natural left-footer down the wing, with both Alejandro Garnacho and Marcus Rashford seeking to come inside rather than hitting the byline.
This problem is exacerbated by the injuries to Luke Shaw and Tyrell Malacia, which has denied United an overlapping left-back for the best part of a year.
Hojlund’s back-up, Joshua Zirkzee, has offered little to suggest he is anywhere near the required standard since his arrival in the summer from Bologna. He lacks pace and physicality, and for a bloke standing 6ft 4in, is next to useless in the air.
Fancy footwork and back heels are fine for five-a-sides but have little application in the technical bear pit of the Premier League. Could easily be farmed out on loan if not sold.
Garnacho is quick and busy, but on balance a level below the best. And his retention on the left keeps Rashford from his best position. Rashford is thus pushed out to the right, where he struggles for traction and, worse still, displaces Amad Diallo, arguably United’s most effective attacker.
To fashion an immediate impact you would imagine Amorim would have to set Amad free down the right and alternate Rashford and Garnacho on the left.
Antony is already for sale. Unless Amorim really is a miracle worker there appears little chance of reprieve for the Brazilian.
Midfield, the problem of Bruno Fernandes and old legs
Fernandes is the only player at United who would slot easily into any top side. His problem has been compensating for the lack of quality around him. Less should be more under Amorim. By increments Manuel Ugarte appears to be finding his feet as the midfield anchor, which has released Casemiro higher up the pitch, where he is far more effective.
The problem is whenever United are hit on the counter Casemiro and/or Christian Eriksen are short of pace. Rashford and Garnacho lack defensive discipline and Fernandes is left trying to fill holes.
The burden on Fernandes would be considerably lighter were Mason Mount not made of balsa. Mount has made Shaw look unbreakable following his £55m arrival from Chelsea. On the plus side, the fee looks unlikely to reach the projected £60m with add-ons.
Man Utd’s squad – keep or get rid?
Amorim requires a major overhaul (Graphic: i)
Players to keep
Andre Onana
Lisandro Martinez
Leny Yoro
Matthijs de Ligt
Noussair Mazraoui
Bruno Fernandes
Kobbie Mainoo
Manuel Ugarte
Rasmus Hojlund
Marcus Rashford
Amad Diallo
Monitor
Altay Bayindir
Diogo Dalot
Luke Shaw
Alejandro Garnacho
Jettison
Victor Lindelof
Harry Maguire
Tyrell Malacia
Jonny Evans
Christian Eriksen
Casemiro
Mason Mount
Antony
Joshua Zirkzee
Loan
Ethan Wheatley
Toby Collyer
With Mount unavailable and supernova Kobbie Mainoo injured, Ruud van Nistelrooy was forced to deploy out-of-work centre-half Victor Lindelof in midfield when Ugarte was withdrawn against Chelsea. Maybe Lindelof is auditioning for a new role in what is set to be his final season since he is unlikely to feature as a starter in a three-at-the-back configuration.
Toby Collyer looks like a kid hopelessly over-matched in the Premier League. Needs time to develop, but Amorim has other priorities.
Defence
If the fundamentals begin in defence, the three summer arrivals at least give Amorim room for manoeuvre in the implementation of his favoured three at the back system. And in Sporting’s Pedro Goncalves, he has the answer to United’s left-sided issues should he be part of the next summer raid.
There is good news in the return to training of Leny Yoro, who looked the part in his brief summer tour. He is quick, athletic, has good feet and can pass.
Matthijs de Ligt is gradually getting up to speed. He was eventually overwhelmed in the pitiful loss to Liverpool after looking sharp when the game was in the balance. He reads the game well, makes his share of blocks and interceptions and marshals the defence well.
Amorim will doubtless value Noussair Mazraoui’s versatility.
Should Shaw or Malacia ever recover, thus freeing him from the left-back compromise, Diogo Dalot would be pushed to keep the right-sided slot. Competition is always healthy, of course.
Lisandro Martinez has suffered with the lack of stability around him. He would suit the left side of a back-three. In a calmer environment he would be less inclined to reckless interventions, and he is arguably the best left-footed passer in the team.
In goal Andre Onana has been impressive, United’s most improved player alongside Amad. Onana has cut out the errors, and with it grown in authority.
That in turn gives the team confidence. Amorim will seek to make even better use of his excellent feet to get the team firing.
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As general manager James Pickles tells i, they would have expected to pocket around £35,000 for a replay: gate receipts from a sold out Nethermoor Park plus a big slice of TV cash when the match was inevitably picked for broadcast.
But this year all of that has changed and it just so happens one of its most vociferous and influential backers is no longer employed in the Premier League – and probably won’t be any time in the future either.
“The lifelines for small clubs cannot be massive problems for clubs that play every three days,” Klopp said back in January 2023, when asked his opinion on FA Cup replays.
Liverpool were ninth in the league at the time, suffering with injuries to key men, and Klopp at his fractious worst.
Just over a year later – without a single conversation with the clubs it would impact or the EFL – the likes of Klopp got their wish and on Saturday we saw the first signs of its impact.
It wasn’t just Guiseley who missed out. Weston-super-Mare and Southend United also held higher league opposition at 90 minutes, only to lose over extra time or penalties.
To these clubs a five-figure windfall represents a significant boost. Not “life-changing”, as Guiseley’s Pickles admits, but a considerable amount for teams often fighting a losing battle for eyeballs and attention.
Here, then, is the danger of listening to people like Klopp or fellow replay scrapper Ralf Rangnick, another with plenty to say but little long-term skin in the game.
Trusting those at the top of the game in that moment to make the right calls when it comes to cherished institutions like the FA Cup is a fool’s errand.
Klopp might be a man of principle but like all of those involved in the decision to scrap replays to make space for an expanded Champions League, he was following the money. It is not his fight or Rangnick’s or Pep Guardiola’s and it never will be.
Instead the battle is being fought by people like Pickles, who spoke of his pride at Guiseley’s performance when i caught up with him on Monday.
He was honest enough to admit that after Will Longbottom’s late equaliser, he actually thought extra time and penalties might favour his side’s chances of a giant-killing.
“I thought they were there for the taking,” he rued. Now the dust has settled his opinions are worth listening to.
“Getting rid of replays was done for the elite clubs, freeing up their schedules. It was just dropped on us and as far as we’re aware there was no consultation with clubs, it was a Premier League-led thing.
He’s also a realist rather than a romantic, fully aware that the competition needs to move with the times.
For clubs like Guiseley, well-run, operating within their margins, FA Cup replay cash isn’t the difference between life and death.
Any club in their position relying on money from replays, Pickles admits, is “crazy”.
But what really rankles is that they took the easiest option when they decided to mangle the Cup in favour of a few extra Champions League games. Pickles has one suggestion.
“The ideal scenario would have been what they used to do in the FA Trophy,” he says.
“The default position in that competition was a replay, extra time and then penalties but if both clubs agreed before the game started they could do what they wanted.”
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Doing the 92 is Daniel Storey’s odyssey to every English football league club in a single season. The best way to follow his journey is by subscribing here
Stevenage are currently enjoying a well-earned renaissance, a return to the days when they finished sixth in League One in 2012 – the club’s highest ever league finish.
There may be short-term wobbles (four defeats in their last five league games) and longer-term fears about what happens next (Steve Evans left for Rotherham United at the end of last season) but, in general, life is good.
The rise under Evans, probably the EFL’s most notorious manager, was remarkable. A team that finished 22nd in League Two in 2022 were taken up automatically the next season and then held their own in the third tier in 2023-24. In the space of two years, Evans took Stevenage from 90th to 53rd in the EFL ladder. For a club of this size, that is ludicrous.
But that’s also only part of the story: for Stevenage to have even been in a position from which Evans could take them on was, at one stage, unthinkable. For that story, we must go back to 2019-20 and one of the most multi-layered relegation escapes imaginable…
The dreadful form
There were high hopes for Stevenage in July 2019, as silly as that may seem in hindsight. They had finished the previous season tenth in League Two but dropped only two points in their final six league games under Dino Maamria to offer hope of further progression.
A number of first-team players had left in the summer (the amount of change would eventually be labelled as a problem), but youthful replacements had been sourced on loan from Newcastle United, Derby County and Birmingham City. Jason Cowley, a free-scoring striker in non-league, had arrived from Bromsgrove Sporting as a free transfer gamble. If he made the grade in the EFL, Stevenage were at least an outside shot to make the playoffs.
Ah well. Stevenage’s season started badly (2-0 defeat at promoted Salford City) and got worse from there. They failed to win any of their first seven league games, by which point Maamria had been sacked and replaced, on a temporary basis, by former England women’s manager Mark Sampson. Sampson had been working as Maamria’s first-team coach.
Sampson managed the team for 13 league games and won two of them, making him by far the most successful coach of a wretched season. He was moved back to his old job when Graham Westley agreed to take a position he’d already held three times before. Westley was like a comfortable pair of old joggers. Pop them on and immediately you feel less frantic.
Except that the joggers had holes in the knees and were getting a little baggy after being washed so many times. Westley stayed for exactly two months, oversaw 14 league matches, won one of them and lost the final six in a row.
“We are uncomfortable making yet another change as Graham has worked tirelessly for the club since the day he arrived, setting up procedures and bringing some good quality new faces in,” Stevenage chairman Phil Wallace said, upselling the tenure.
“But with six straight defeats and one win in 13 league games, we are running out of time and we have to try something new,” he concluded, very much ending with a dose of realism.
Graham Westley took the Stevenage job for the fourth time (Photo: Getty)
You could see his point. With March rapidly approaching, Stevenage had won three of their 34 matches, as many managers as league victories. They appointed former striker Alex Revell, who had only retired the previous summer, with the hope of simply trying to rebuild an identity and bring the supporters back to the team. Trust had been broken: managers 4-3 league wins.
Stevenage had not been out of the relegation places at any point all season. Cowley, the goalscoring hope, was out on loan at Solihull Moors. When Revell lost his first two games as manager, Stevenage had 22 points from 36 games and had scored a pathetic 24 goals. No team stays up with that record.
The first saving grace
Stevenage already knew that relegation from League Two would be different in 2020. On 27 August 2019, Bury, who had been promoted from League Two the previous campaign, were officially expelled from League One – and the league itself – by the EFL due to the ongoing financial issues at the club that would eventually spell their demise.
Bury had desperately needed a takeover and had been given numerous deadline extensions to ensure that they could remain in competition. That last extension, until 5pm on the Tuesday evening, created some hope that Steve Dale may sell to C&N Sporting Risk. When that deal collapsed and the deadline wasn’t met, the EFL had little choice but to ask.
“No-one wanted to be in this position but following repeated missed deadlines, the suspension of five league fixtures, in addition to not receiving the evidence we required in regard to financial commitments and a possible takeover not materialising; the EFL board has been forced to take the most difficult of decisions,” EFL executive chair Debbie Jevans said.
That had a knock-on effect below Bury. The EFL concluded that only three teams would be relegated from League One, but four teams would have to be promoted from League Two to replace them and Bury for the following season.
With that leaving only 23 clubs in League Two if the usual relegation rules applied, it was decided that there would be only one relegation spot down to non-league. If Stevenage could avoid finishing bottom, they would be fine.
The global pandemic
Ah yes. 2019-20 might have been an odd year for Stevenage specifically, but it was also the strangest domestic football season since the league’s inauguration, with all organised sport suspended due to the Covid-19 outbreak, subsequent lockdowns and tragic loss of life that rendered communal leisure pursuits impossible to help stop the spread of the virus.
The League Two season was initially suspended on 13 March, that then extended indefinitely on 3 April. By 15 May, League Two clubs had voted to end the season immediately, with the final league table decided on a non-weighted points-per-game basis and the play-offs happening further down the line.
That would allow players and staff to be furloughed and costs saved as EFL clubs struggled to work out how they might keep themselves afloat without matchday revenue.
The vote may have been emphatically in favour of this approach, but Stevenage were an exception given their league position.
“My preference is to finish the league so we have the opportunity to play our way out of trouble,” owner Phil Wallace told the BBC.
“We have 10 games to play and are three points behind, with a game in hand. Why should I think it was not possible to get out of it? It would cost us £140,000 for the tests, we would have to bring players out of furlough and comply with a 47-page health and safety document regarding sterilisation of stadiums.”
It was also interesting that the League Two clubs asked the EFL to suspend relegation to the National League for one season, on the basis that the season could not be finished. That was considered by the EFL but subsequently rejected.
It’s not surprising that Stevenage wanted to play on because, as Wallace says, they were due to be relegated in any case so they had little to lose. But, actually, he must be mighty relieved that he did not get his way. Stevenage would eventually finish 0.1 points per game above the drop in a recalculated table, with Macclesfield Town below them (more on that shortly).
But look back at the results now. Stevenage had lost their previous eight league games. Macclesfield were on their own wretched run but had at least taken a couple of points from their previous seven games and still had the home game against Stevenage to play having drawn 2-2 at the Lamex Stadium. In the end, declaring as things were paid off after a late recount…
The relegation hokey-cokey
How do you stay up despite winning three league games all season? By having one relegation place removed and then hoping another club in your league suffers a number of catastrophic points deductions over a period of five months.
On 19 December 2019, Macclesfield Town were docked six points by the EFL for the failure to pay their players on multiple occasions and the failure to play their league fixture against Crewe on 7 December, due to players withdrawing over not being paid. At the same time, their winding-up order case was adjourned repeatedly over unpaid bills to HMRC. This punishment was reduced to four points after an appeal on 17 March, after football had been suspended for Covid-19.
Stevenage 1-4 Bolton (Tuesday 29 October)
Game no.: 31/92
Miles: 188
Cumulative miles: 4,939
Total goals seen: 98
The one thing I’ll remember in May: Stevenage choose to leave the floodlights off until very late. It creates a wonderful, ethereal glow as the lights within the stands shine against the black of the sky. It’s like LS Lowry for the TikTok generation, or something.
But Macclesfield also failed to complete another home game in December, this time against Plymouth, four days before Christmas. On 7 May 2020, the EFL docked Macclesfield another seven points from a league table that by now seemed unlikely to change in any other way thanks to lockdown and a likely vote to end the season. Macclesfield now moved down to 23rd in the table, ahead of only Stevenage.
There’s more. On 19 June, Macclesfield were docked two more points, with four more suspended, for another failure to pay players in March, although this time no games were missed. That final punishment meant that Macclesfield would remain in the EFL and finish above Stevenage by a single point (which would then leave them fractionally above in points-per-game terms).
“We would like to express our gratitude to the independent arbitration panel for their unquestionable diligence, in reaching what we deem to be a fair and unbiased conclusion,” Macclesfield’s statement read. If you can detect a strong sense of relief there, congratulations.
However, the EFL appealed against the sanction handed down by the panel, believing it to be too lenient given the pattern of behaviour and repetition.
On 11 August, the worst news for Macclesfield: the EFL had won their appeal, four more points would be deducted (making it 17 in total in 2019-20) and thus Macclesfield would finish three points (and 0.1 ppg) below Stevenage. This time, the decision was “final and binding”, according to the EFL.
Four weeks before the start of their National League season, Stevenage had been saved. Wallace, in an interview with PA Media, expressed his relief but also frustration at the length of the process.
“We couldn’t control it, it wasn’t our appeal. It’s a massive relief,” he said. “We believe it was wholly wrong and it was unduly lenient. We couldn’t see the logic in it and we weren’t the only club to feel like that and obviously the EFL did as well.
“You’ve got a choice, you can pay your players on time or choose not to and if you choose not to you get a three-point deduction, then six points, then nine and 12.
“There is a choice, don’t do it. Unless it’s like that, we’re going to have clubs take advantage – if there’s no deterrent. Most importantly in this case there would have been no consequences.
“It’s important the EFL appealed, they wanted to put their foot down. Clubs are crying out for clarity. What a waste of energy to go through, why don’t we get sanctions in place we all agree with, we know exactly what they are and if you break them this is what happens. It’s not difficult.”
Wallace is surely right that a predefined punishment structure would create certainty and transparency, but he must also have realised just how fortunate Stevenage were to survive.
They had been rotten all season. They had won three times in seven months. They had got fewer points than anyone else but had stayed up because Macclesfield had collapsed and because Bury had done the same.
Those two clubs no longer exist in the same form: Macclesfield FC play in the Northern Premier League Premier and Bury FC in the North West Counties League Premier.
Stevenage are in League One after consolidation, overhaul and then promotion. All of it started when football wasn’t even being played, following the worst season of Stevenage’s existence on the pitch, the one when they had more managers than wins.
Daniel Storey has set himself the goalof visiting all 92 grounds across the Premier League and EFL this season.You can follow his progress via ourinteractive map and find every article (so far) here
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