Moments before kick-off, supporters were asked to stand “to show solidarity with the people of Ukraine and all those affected by the ongoing conflict” following Russia’s invasion of the country earlier this week.
Liverpool fans began an impromptu rendition of club anthem “You’ll Never Walk Alone” during a minute’s applause, with singing continuing into the national anthem.
Ukraine flags and messages of support were visible in both the Chelsea and Liverpool ends, while blue and yellow flower wreathes were also placed on the pitch as a tribute to the country’s national colours.
It follows a similar show of support in Sunday’s Premier League game between West Ham and Wolves, before which West Ham players warmed up with the name of Andriy Yarmolenko, their Ukrainian team-mate, on the back of their shirts.
Liverpool fans sing You'll Never Walk Alone during a minute's applause in solidarity for the people of Ukraine #LFCpic.twitter.com/LlzyBDqvdQ
Declan Rice held Yarmolenko’s shirt as the London Stadium displayed a message “sending love and prayers to Andriy Yarmolenko and the people of Ukraine”.
Ahead of kick-off of the Carabao Cup final, Chelsea and Liverpool along with everyone in Wembley take a moment to stand in solidarity with Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/9MeuUIH23j
There had also been emotional scenes at Goodison Park on Saturday ahead of Everton’s 1-0 defeat to Manchester City, with Ukraine internationals Oleksandr Zinchenko and Vitaliy Mykolenko in tears as both sets of players emerged from the tunnel wearing pro-Ukraine messages.
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Thiago, who was spotted in tears as his team-mates came out of the Wembley tunnel, was named in Klopp’s starting XI, where the Reds sought a first League Cup victory since 2012.
The Brazilian was set to play in a midfield three alongside Jordan Henderson and compatriot Fabinho.
But Klopp had to make a swift alteration to his line-up, drafting in Naby Keita instead.
In a statement, Liverpool said: “Thiago has got injured during the warm-up. Naby Keita starts for the Reds instead.”
The switch also meant reserve Harvey Elliot was promoted to the substitutes bench. Thiago, 30, was consoled on the Liverpool bench by substitute goalkeeper Alisson.
“It massively changes things. That’s a huge blow,” said Sky Sports pundit and former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher.
“The partnership between Thiago and Fabinho – the record has been fantastic. In the last game at Stamford Bridge, that was the one area where Chelsea really dominated Liverpool in the centre.
“But I felt that with Thiago and Fabinho there, and Jordan Henderson coming back in, they would certainly have matched [Chelsea]. It’s a blow for Liverpool.”
Klopp opted for his regular 4-3-3 set-up against the Blues at Wembley, with Sadio Mane leading the line and Mohamed Salah and Luis Diaz off the main man.
Keita came in on the left for Thiago, with Liverpool’s regular left-back Andrew Robertson supporting him down the flank.
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Tomas Soucek celebrated his birthday with the winning goal as West Ham edged past Wolves in a crucial victory in the race for Europe.
The visitors dominated possession but were toothless in attack, failing to muster a shot on target until Ruben Neves’ speculative effort in the dying moments.
The Hammers created by far the better chances but struggled to apply the finishing touch against the visitors’ typically miserly defence until Soucek popped up in the 59th minute to toe-poke home Michail Antonio’s cross.
The victory moves West Ham above Arsenal and into fifth, although their London rivals now have three games in hand. Wolves remain in eighth.
Player ratings
West Ham
Fabianski 6
Johnson 7
Dawson 7
Zouma 6
Cresswell 9
Soucek 7
Rice 8
Bowen 7
Lanzini 7
Fornals 7
Antonio 8
Subs:
Vlasic 5
Diop 5
Wolves
Sa 7
Kilman 6
Coady 6
Saiss 6
Hoever 5
Neves 7
Dendoncker 6
Marcal 5
Trincao 5
Hwang 6
F Silva 5
Subs:
Neto 5
Podence 5
Jimenez 5
Reaction: Toothless Wolves ‘needed Jimenez on earlier’
With three games in the space of seven days, Bruno Lage opted to make five changes to his starting XI at the London Stadium.
The visitors dominated possession but struggled to create opportunities and did not hit the target until Ruben Neves’ long-range effort was saved with ease by Lukasz Fabianski in the dying moments.
“Everyone was surprised I think when they saw the teamsheet,” said Matt Murray, the former Wolves goalkeeper, on Sky Sports.
“Bruno Lage made the changes for the reasons he did, wanting to freshen it up with a lot of a games coming. The Wolves players left a lot out there [in the midweek defeat] against Arsenal.
“But I thought he might have turned to the bench a bit quicker. Podence came on just after they [West Ham] scored. But I still felt Raul Jimenez needed to be on there to give Wolves a platform. Wolves had possession, got into areas but didn’t really test Fabianski.
“David Moyes will be delighted with the clean sheet but from Wolves’ point of view they didn’t do enough and can’t really complain about the result.”
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The 55-year-old Russian billionaire said on Saturday that the strategic day-to-day matters of the club would now be in the hands of the Chelsea Foundation.
Here’s everything you need to know about Mr Abramovich stepping away from control of Chelsea.
Who is Roman Abramovich?
Wealthy Russian businessman Roman Abramovich became the owner of the companies that control Chelsea Football Club in June 2003.
Since taking control of the club, Chelsea has won the Champions League twice, the Premier League and FA Cup on multiple occasions, the Europa League twice and the League Cup three times.
In August 2021, they won the Uefa Super Cup and they recently won their first Club World Cup.
A one-time confidante of former Russian president Boris Yeltsin and current Russian leader Vladimir Putin, he has denied any improper links with Mr Putin or his regime.
In a statement on Saturday, on the eve of Chelsea’s Carabao Cup final match against Liverpool at Wembley, he said: “During my nearly 20-year ownership of Chelsea FC, I have always viewed my role as a custodian of the club, whose job it is ensuring that we are as successful as we can be today, as well as build for the future, while also playing a positive role in our communities.
“I have always taken decisions with the club’s best interest at heart. I remain committed to these values. That is why I am today giving trustees of Chelsea’s charitable foundation the stewardship and care of Chelsea FC.
“I believe that currently, they are in the best position to look after the interests of the club, players, staff, and fans.”
His statement did not refer to the invasion of Ukraine, but Chelsea later released a 24-word statement on Sunday where it described “the situation in Ukraine” as “horrific and devastating”. It made no mention of Russia and added: “Chelsea FC’s thoughts are with everyone in Ukraine. Everyone at the club is praying for peace.”
Will Mr Abramovich still own Chelsea?
Although the Chelsea Supporters’ Trust said it was “seeking urgent clarification” on what the new situation means for his involvement in the operations of the club from a strategic perspective, it is understood that the Russian businessman will remain as the formal owner of Chelsea FC.
Ahead of the move, Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel had said there were “so many uncertainties around the situation of our club”.
It is understood that Chelsea’s senior leadership team will not change, with chairman Bruce Buck now the west London club’s most senior figure.
Chelsea Supporters’ Trust said it was “ready to work with the trustees of the Chelsea Foundation in order to ensure the long-term interests of the club and supporters,” adding that “we stand with the people of Ukraine”.
BBC Sport has reported that Chelsea is currently not for sale and that the £1.5bn loan their owner gave to the club is not being called in.
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There might not be a murderball session this Wednesday.
But if Leeds United succeed in landing Jesse Marsch as replacement manager for the sacked Marcelo Bielsa, the squad will still have to deliver the same degree of physical dedication to justify their place in a Whites shirt.
The American is favourite to replace Bielsa and will be tasked with hauling Leeds away from the relegation zone and the petrifying prospect of another stint outside the top flight.
The 48-year-old is the No 1 choice at Elland Road after suffering the first setback to his promising managerial career that truly took off eight years ago at New York Red Bulls.
Until December, Marsch’s managerial trajectory had known no bounds. A stint as Ralf Rangnick’s assistant at RB Leipzig was followed by a trophy-laden two-year spell managing Red Bull Salzburg, before he headed back to Leipzig for a disastrous 21-game spell in place of Julian Nagelsmann, which ended in his sacking before Christmas last year.
Until December, Marsch’s managerial trajectory had known no bounds. A stint as Ralf Rangnick’s assistant at RB Leipzig was followed by a trophy-laden two-year spell managing Red Bull Salzburg, before he headed back to Leipzig for a disastrous 21-game spell in place of Julian Nagelsmann, which ended in his sacking before Christmas last year.
Marsch is understood to be keen on getting back into management and the Leeds project is attractive. US firm 49ers Enterprises owns a 44 per cent stake in the club and could soon buy out Radrizzani.
There was already talk of Marsch replacing Bielsa when the latter’s contract ended in the summer. Necessity has meant that this natural succession is brought forward a few months.
And Leeds fans will see shades of Bielsa in Marsch.
Tactically the American offers a similar approach – not quite the gung ho style Bielsa is famous for, but he requires the same level of dedication to the project.
Forward units are expected to press en masse, to force opposition defences into panic and pick up the pieces. His exuberance on the touchline will get the Kop roaring too.
Leeds fans idolised Bielsa after the Argentine returned the club to the Premier League (Photo: Getty)
Philosophically both Marsch and Bielsa get results championing hard work and mental fortitude over footballing quality. But the American is perhaps more pragmatic than that man he is expected to succeed.
Indeed, the immediate change Marsch should bring to this Leeds team is in its man-marking style. Bielsa challenged each one of his players to win the one-on-one battle with their opposite number. Do this and Leeds would blow opponents away. But fail and games would be lost within the first 20 minutes.
The loss of Bamford’s muscular pressing and hold-up play, and Phillips’ cross-midfield dynamism, in recent months meant Leeds could rarely maintain Bielsa’s system over 90 minutes.
Marsch, in contrast, is likely to favour a more fluid set-up that relies on territory to keep opponents at bay, rather than a strict man-marking regime. This could mean two men up top, switching to a midfield diamond or even going 4-2-2-2.
Don Revie and Billy Bremner are immortalised in statues outside Elland Road and, if many Leeds United supporters had their way, Marcelo Bielsa would be too.
There has been talk in recent weeks that Leeds are too good to go down. Against Tottenham on Saturday, they looked too bad to stay up.
Leeds’ defending was truly woeful again and the concession of 20 goals in the past five games prompted the Whites’ hierarchy to throw Bielsa out of a club he brought to life again.
It wasn’t supposed to end like this and it is hard to escape the feeling that a man who will remain much loved in the city of Leeds deserved better.
Nevertheless, Bielsa leaves having presided over a genuine renaissance at one of English football’s grand old institutions, albeit one in grave danger right now.
The 66-year-old arrived in West Yorkshire in June 2018 and took a team who had laboured to 13th in the Championship to a third-placed finish in his first season.
The following year, at the height of the pandemic, Bielsa got Leeds promoted as title winners and then inspired a ninth-placed finish in the top flight last term.
Moreover, he did it in style.
Leeds played an exhilarating, high-tempo brand of football which earned them the tag “the great entertainers” on their Premier League return.
Under Bielsa’s notoriously gruelling “murderball” training sessions, Leeds became incredibly fit, often out-running opponents while dominating possession.
Bielsa’s first game at Elland Road when Stoke City were blown away, the Spygate saga in January 20219, and the Pablo Hernandez-inspired win at Swansea which effectively secured Leeds’ return to the big time after 16 seasons away.
He lived alone in Wetherby town centre and would walk to the club’s Thorp Arch training every day, calling in at Costa for a cortado and often stopping to pose for pictures and autographs with fans.
He was even known to ask staff which number bus he should take to get to Leeds city centre.
He once spotted a Leeds fan wearing the jersey of his beloved Newell’s Old Boys, Bielsa’s hometown club in Rosario, then pulled out his phone, to show him some pictures of him managing the Argentinian club.
“I know Marcelo, that’s why I now follow Newell’s as well as Leeds,” came the supporter’s reply.
After such dramatic progress in the past three seasons, Leeds should have strengthened more significantly than they did last summer.
They needed a midfielder and probably another striker, but Dan James and Junior Firpo were the only notable arrivals.
In January, with Leeds wobbling and injuries biting hard, there were no major additions and that could now come to haunt them.
With Bielsa’s contract due to expire in the summer anyway, and Jesse Marsch having been on Leeds’ radar for a number of months, the club’s hierarchy decided after Saturday’s game against Tottenham that it was time for change.
The boos which rang out at half-time and again at the final whistle summed up the anger and frustration at the team’s current plight and Bielsa’s struggle to shore up the most porous of defences.
Still, the reaction to Bielsa’s sacking on social media from several Leeds players said much for the esteem and affection with which he is held.
History will remember Marcelo Bielsa as a Leeds United great.
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Leeds United have parted company with Marcelo Bielsa following a 4-0 defeat to Tottenham on Saturday, with Jesse Marsch expected to take over.
Marsch, 48, was most recently in charge of RB Leipzig and has previously coached in MLS and the Austrian Bundesliga.
Leeds chairman Andrea Radrizzani said: “This has been the toughest decision I have had to make during my tenure at Leeds United, taking into account all the success Marcelo has had at the club.
“With Marcelo as our head coach, we had three incredible campaigns and the good times returned to Elland Road. He changed the culture of the club and brought a winning mentality to us all. The moments created, particularly in the 2019/20 season and winning promotion to the Premier League, will of course live long in all our memories, myself and the fans included.
“However, I have to act in the best interest of the club and I believe a change is required now in order to secure our Premier League status. Recent results and performances have not met our expectations.”
Bielsa leaves with Leeds one place above the relegation zone and just two points clear of 18th-placed Burnley, having played two games more.
The Argentine was responsible for taking the Whites back to the Premier League for the first time since relegation in 2004 and kept them up at the first time of asking.
However, his four-year reign ended with Leeds shipping 20 goals in their last five games, defeat to Spurs at Elland Road following a 6-0 humiliation at the hands of Liverpool.
That epitomised question marks over his tactical rigidity, particularly in approaching sides who left the back four exposed.
There is no denying the remarkable legacy he leaves behind in Yorkshire nonetheless; one of the most influential coaches of a generation who was willing to take the reins in the second tier and who had a transformative impact on a squad still largely equipped for the Championship.
“Since arriving at Leeds United Marcelo had a huge impact on the club, on a scale I have not seen before,” director of football Victor Orta said.
“He has created a legacy, overseeing major infrastructure improvements at Thorp Arch, uniting the supporters and the players, and giving a clear pathway for young players to transition into the first team.”
Bielsa’s demise was certainly not helped by injuries to Patrick Bamford and Kalvin Phillips, the latter’s absence decimating a midfield who had previously been combative.
Marsch could be in charge for Leeds’ next Premier League game against Leicester City on 5 March.
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Roman Abramovich has announced he is handing control of Chelsea Football Club to the club’s charitable foundation.
“During my nearly 20-year ownership of Chelsea FC, I have always viewed my role as a custodian of the club, whose job it is ensuring that we are as successful as we can be today, as well as build for the future, while also playing a positive role in our communities,” Abramovich said in a statement.
“I have always taken decisions with the club’s best interest at heart. I remain committed to these values.
“That is why I am today giving trustees of Chelsea’s charitable Foundation the stewardship and care of Chelsea FC.
“I believe that currently they are in the best position to look after the interests of the Club, players, staff, and fans.”
At present, it is unclear whether that decision will have further implications for his status as majority shareholder.
Abramovich’s ownership of the club was discussed in the House of Commons this week following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. On Friday, Labour MP Chris Bryant used parliamentary privilege to suggest the oligarch’s assets should be seized. Bryant said that “Abramovich remains of interest to Her Majesty’s Government due to his links to the Russian state and his public association with corrupt activity and practices”.
“Surely Mr Abramovich should no longer be able to own a football club in this country,” Bryant added.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson corrected the record having initially said Abramovich was one of the individuals hit with sanctions by the UK Government in response to the conflict.
Abramovich has not provided reasoning for his decision to step away less than 24 hours before Chelsea play Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley.
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Poland has made clear it will refuse to play Russia in a World Cup qualifying match next month, in a move backed by its star player Robert Lewandowski.
Mr Kulesza said on Twitter: “No more words, time to act. Due to the escalation of aggression of the Russian Federation towards Ukraine, the Polish national team does not intend to play the play-off match against Russia.
“This is the only right decision. We are in talks with Swedish and Czech federations to bring forward a joint statement to Fifa.”
Retweeting the post, Mr Lewandowski added: “It is the right decision. I can’t imagine playing a match with the Russian national team in a situation when armed aggression in Ukraine continues.
“Russian footballers and fans are not responsible for this, but we can’t pretend that nothing is happening.”
The Polish FA said in a statement that the entire team supported the move: “It is not an easy decision but there are more important things in life than football.
“Our thoughts are with the Ukrainian nation and our friend from the national team, Tomasz Kędziora, who is still in Kyiv with his family.”
Several other players on the Polish national team retweeted the posts with their own messages of support for the refusal to play the match that was due to take place on 24 March.
The winner of the qualifier is due to host Sweden or the Czech Republic on 29 March for a place at the World Cup.
However, football authority Fifa has yet to take a clear position on Russia hosting or even playing against Poland.
European soccer body Uefa said Friday that in its competitions, all Russian and Ukrainian teams must now move their home games to play in other countries.
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Poland has made clear it will refuse to play Russia in a World Cup qualifying match next month, in a move backed by its star player Robert Lewandowski.
Mr Kulesza said on Twitter: “No more words, time to act. Due to the escalation of aggression of the Russian Federation towards Ukraine, the Polish national team does not intend to play the play-off match against Russia.
“This is the only right decision. We are in talks with Swedish and Czech federations to bring forward a joint statement to Fifa.”
Retweeting the post, Mr Lewandowski added: “It is the right decision. I can’t imagine playing a match with the Russian national team in a situation when armed aggression in Ukraine continues.
“Russian footballers and fans are not responsible for this, but we can’t pretend that nothing is happening.”
The Polish FA said in a statement that the entire team supported the move: “It is not an easy decision but there are more important things in life than football.
“Our thoughts are with the Ukrainian nation and our friend from the national team, Tomasz Kędziora, who is still in Kyiv with his family.”
Several other players on the Polish national team retweeted the posts with their own messages of support for the refusal to play the match that was due to take place on 24 March.
The winner of the qualifier is due to host Sweden or the Czech Republic on 29 March for a place at the World Cup.
However, football authority Fifa has yet to take a clear position on Russia hosting or even playing against Poland.
European soccer body Uefa said Friday that in its competitions, all Russian and Ukrainian teams must now move their home games to play in other countries.
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Elanga replaced Marcus Rashford in the 75th minute at the Wanda Metropolitano. Five minutes later, he scored, slicing a pass from Bruno Fernandes past a poorly positioned Jan Oblak.
“He plays with no fear,” Rio Ferdinand said on BT Sport. “He goes out there and all he wants to do is impress, he’s desperate to go out there and put his name in the lights.
“There’s an honesty to his game. That raw honesty that you love when you see a young player coming in. That willingness to run for balls that others would consider maybe dead balls.”
It was a stark contrast to Rashford’s performance, the 24-year-old not making the right decisions on the ball and shooting from distance instead of finding his team-mates in space.
Rashford too found himself the topic of post-match analysis. Paul Scholes in the studio described him as looking “anxious” and “trying almost too hard every time the ball comes to him”.
Cristiano Ronaldo was once touted as a mentor who could teach Rashford the tricks of the trade. Instead, the England international has appeared to lack confidence, even after his goals in consecutive games against Brentford and West Ham in January.
Meanwhile Elanga, despite his missed penalty against Middlesbrough which led to United’s elimination from the FA Cup, has been relishing every chance he has been given to make an impact.
The direct comparisons between the two United left-sided forwards were bound to arise, if only from supporters.
The reality is that they are at completely different stages of their careers, dealing with very different circumstances. Rashford’s own career started in explosive fashion and it is hardly cause for alarm that after a series of injuries and an intensely pressurised Euro 2020, he is suffering a dip in form.
Ralf Rangnick will no doubt be reluctant to thrust Elanga into too many games too soon, but United’s attack is undoubtedly stronger for having both on board. At the very least, he can ease the reliance on Rashford until he is back to his best.
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Everywhere you look the pair juxtapose. On the one hand is a manager with a track record for success and on the other is a club with one League Cup trophy in the last 21 years. Whereas Conte has a preference for working with experienced pros, Spurs have a youth-orientated approach to their recruitment. And while Conte is happy to play politics in public, Daniel Levy does his best to avoid the glare of the spotlight.
Despite their entrenched status as the Premier League‘s oddest couple, perhaps these two were made for each other. No club does boom-and-bust with such routine consistency as Tottenham Hotspur: any Spurs fan caught cold by a dismal defeat to a relegation-threatened side a few days after a thrilling victory against arguably Europe’s best team would be advised to find a new team to follow. This isn’t the club for you.
And no manager rides the emotional rollercoaster quite like Conte. If the Italian’s reaction to Saturday’s win over Manchester City was the theme park equivalent of someone beaming through their go on Space Mountain and posing for the camera on the way down, his response to the midweek loss at Turf Moor was that of a child throwing up after being spun one time too many on the local Ferris wheel.
In the space of four days, Spurs’ squad had gone from being “one of the best” that Conte has ever coached to the embodiment of the club’s woes post-2019 Champions League final. “The players are always the same, the club changes the coaches, the players are the same, but the result doesn’t change,” he sniped. Even by Conte’s standards, the shift in mood from Saturday’s high to Wednesday’s low was remarkable.
Having had a couple of days to digest that loss – a fourth in Tottenham’s previous five Premier League games – Conte was more reflective as he previewed Saturday’s match against Leeds, a club whose own crisis makes Spurs’ look minuscule in comparison. For now at least, the threat of an impending separation between Conte and Spurs has been eased. The cord is still intact.
“When you lose a game, I’m not the person to have dinner with,” he said of his post-match comments on Wednesday. “I am sorry if I show my disappointment because maybe it would be good to keep this inside and not show my emotion. I am an honest person, it is difficult for me to lie or hide the truth.”
Daniel Levy and more so Fabio Paratici, the Tottenham director who hired Conte while in charge of Juventus in 2011, would have been well aware of his penchant for drama. Conte twice threatened to walk out on Juventus before eventually doing so and appeared to be on the brink of leaving Inter in 2020 before leading them to their Serie A win last May.
This time feels a little more precarious, though, given the chasm that exists between Spurs and the top Premier League sides is wider than that at any of Conte’s previous employers. It will certainly take more than one transfer window to equip Conte with the tools he needs to succeed and his comments about the club’s January business indicated that he was unsatisfied with stage one of operation rebuild.
Although Conte reaffirmed his happiness and commitment to Spurs on Friday, his comments on the club’s project were ambiguous. “Here is a great experience because you have to build from the foundations and on one hand it could be very good to be totally involved in this to build a new structure,” he said. “On another hand for sure there is the will also to have a situation already made, already ready to fight to win.”
Conte played the role of project manager at Juventus, restoring a club that had been relegated and ridiculed after the Calciopoli match-fixing scandal to the pinnacle of Italian football. That was his longest managerial stint and even then it only lasted three years. Conte’s modus operandi is to stick around for a good time, not a long time. He’s the guy you call to fix a leak in the roof, not build a new one from scratch.
Whether he has the appetite to remain at Tottenham long enough to see them become winners will become apparent in the next few months. Until then, supporters and Levy face an anxious wait.
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Phil Neville loves a challenge. It’s why he has taken a route far less ordinary in a career which is now being tested in the United States, a place few Englishmen have trodden with sustained success.
The Premier League will always be a pull for the boy from Bury but right now, steering David Beckham’s Inter Miami into contention for MLS titles after two poor initial campaigns would constitute a job well done.
A host of new players arriving – and 15 from last year leaving – has given Miami a more youthful look, although everything depends on star man Gonzalo Higuain – and Neville himself.
The 45-year-old is the most high profile Englishman working abroad and America is a notoriously hard nut to crack, yet Miami footprints are growing locally. Winning matters, though.
The former Manchester United defender – and his old friend on the wing – want to succeed in doing it their way. Attendances have been decent, which is very encouraging despite there being little to cheer.
“It’s an old Sir Alex thing – if I’m going to die, I’m going to die trying my way,” Neville tells i. “That’s what we have done this pre-season. We have ripped up the roster.”
Growing up under Ferguson always pops up in conversation with Neville, who can also call on the experience of playing under some other hugely influential bosses. “Sir Alex, David Moyes, Sven Goran Eriksson, Glenn Hoddle all had a humility and a human side that went far beyond football,” he says.
“My best memories of David Moyes probably weren’t football related. He was the one that took me under his wing and to Manchester United as a coach. They are things that people do beyond what they teach you on any course. Gareth Southgate has done fantastically too. I learned so much from him when I was working for the FA.”
He has needed to draw on all the knowledge gained after severe MLS transfer sanctions meted out following the investigation of Blaise Matuidi’s arrival from Juventus in the summer of 2020 forced a complete rethink of transfer plans.
While opening day opponents Chicago Fire will proudly roll out new signing Xherdan Shaqiri for the first time at DRV PNK Stadium here in south Florida on Saturday, former Real Madrid and Chelsea striker Higuain, the now 34-year-old starting what could be his final season, is the home side’s biggest draw.
Well, other than their superstar, globe-trotting owner.
Beckham was a constant presence last season, both at matches and around the squad at the training ground, and will be on hand to give Neville support. Never backwards in coming forwards, Beckham regularly promotes his team and has been proudly posting pictures of himself wearing the new, pink Inter Miami shirt on a recent ski trip.
“We always joke that he has eight days in his week,” says Neville. “He’s like that Beatles song. He’s relentless.”
The importance of Beckham’s involvement should not be under-estimated.
“We get calls from some of the best players in the world wanting to come to Miami,” admits Neville, who is usually at the club’s Fort Lauderdale base as the sun comes up, working on ways to improve on a disappointing first campaign which saw just 12 wins all season and a dysfunctional team missing out on the minimum aim of reaching the play-offs.
Beckham (right) hopes Neville can turn Miami into one of America’s leading clubs (Photo: Getty)
His new-look squad is young – the average age is 24.5 years old – and needs managing as well as coaching. “Players nowadays are far more precious than before,” he says. “There is more scrutiny and distractions. You’ve got to manage every single one individually.”
Some believe Beckham has failed to make the impact he’d hoped for after a fraught first two years which saw his original sporting director Paul McDonough banned for two years following the lengthy MLS probe into a series of financial irregularities.
The legal battles involved in building what Beckham and fellow owners Jorge and Jose Mas, the locally based construction magnates, hope would be a fully functioning stadium and money generating business park and tech hub are on-going yet unlikely to be concluded any time soon, which is problematic to their long-term plan.
On the field, they should be more competitive. USA international DeAndre Yedlin, on-loan Wolves striker Leonardo Campana, highly rated Colombian winger Emerson Rodriguez, Jamaica’s Damion Lowe and former Santos midfielder Jean Mota give the team a refreshing new look along with Finnish winger Robert Taylor and ex-LA Galaxy midfielder Ariel Lassister.
Dawn Scott, the Newcastle born former US and England women’s performance director, has also arrived behind the scenes.
Neville’s son, Harvey, 19, is set to join the MLS roster for the new season after spending last year at their Fort Lauderdale sister club in the USL, which is effectively the second tier of the US soccer system and will remain the home of Romeo Beckham, David’s 19-year-old son who made his debut last season.
For Neville, family always comes first, although moving in the middle of a pandemic has been difficult. “My sister had a little baby but I have only seen them twice and I’ve only seen my mum five days in the last 18 months. It’s not easy,” he says. “You can’t just hop on a plane backwards and forwards.”
“Do I have ambitions to one day manage in the Premier League? Probably yes,” he said. “It’s not my North Star, though. I want to have a successful managerial career, doing things that make me happy and take me out of my comfort zone.
“People say foreign coaches aren’t a success here but I want to be.”
When Neville and hia brother Gary did go to Valencia in 2015 – Phil worked for four months under Nuno Espirito Santo before the latter was sacked, while Gary was fired just 16 games into his tenure in Spain – Phil’s wife Julie, who was running a nutrition business at the time, wasn’t initially consulted. This time, though, everyone was on board.
Harvey is waiting on a Green Card and will make his MLS debut having arrived from the Old Trafford youth team, while daughter Isabella is hoping to go through the American college system.
“People talk about my hobbies away from football,” says Neville. “But my hobby is on Sunday morning I got back from a pre-season tour in Charleston at 3am, and at 9am I was on the road with my daughter giving her a driving lesson.
“I’ve dreamed of doing that all my life. So that’s my hobby. Take it away and I’m literally the most useless person in the world.
“Was I a good instructor? I was really calm. We just went on the straightest road possible.”
Life in the Miami hotbed will never be straight-forward but Neville remains undeterred. “I feel as if now it is my team,” he says. “And that is why I have said to everyone: judge me now.”
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Jurgen Klopp was giving a speech to the next generation of German coaches hoping to follow in his footsteps and the onlookers were rapt.
The talk was on leadership, an area Klopp knows pretty well after delivering Liverpool’s first Premier League title in three decades, a first Champions League trophy in more than a decade and much more, all while playing an energetic, exhausting and exciting style of football.
Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Virgil van Dijk – three of the world’s best players – were signed on Klopp’s watch and he explained how he will meet one-on-one with transfer targets before the final contract is signed. They will chat for up to four hours – about football, family, life – to ensure the player understands how important they are to his club and so he can be certain they will fit his ethos.
The Liverpool manager was giving the address last year to students on the Fussball-Lehrer (Football Teacher) training course run by the German football association (DFB), providing the sort of guidance that has helped to develop the rich crop of coaches who now dominate European football.
It is a talent factory that has evolved over 75 years and boasts results unrivalled by any country in the world. That two of its graduates – Klopp and Thomas Tuchel – are in charge at two of English football’s biggest clubs and meet in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final is no surprise to those attached to the course.
Klopp remains a key part of the programme and gives as many as three talks a year to German national team coaches and the next generation in training, offering unique insights into his methods.
Manchester United boss Ralf Rangnick, another Fussball-Lehrer graduate, recalls Klopp giving a different talk in 2012 in front of 500 engrossed onlookers. Klopp revealed then that around 80 per cent of his tactical training focuses on what his players do without the ball, concentrating on how they win it back.
Rangnick believes Klopp sees the game “through the glasses” of the other team having the ball, as opposed to Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola who sees the game through the prism of his own team’s possession. But far from Klopp’s approach being interpreted as defensive, winning the ball back quickly and proactively can be aggressively offensive.
The history of the Fussball-Lehrer is far-reaching. First established in 1947 at the German Sport University in Cologne, the course predates even the Bundesliga (founded in 1963). Hennes Weisweiler trained coaches there from 1958 to 1970 before becoming one of the most successful managers in Europe in the 1970s. His pupils include two-time Champions League winner Jupp Heynckes and Euro 96 winner Berti Vogts.
In 2005 it became known as the Hennes Weisweiler Academy and was hosted and run by the German Sports University in Cologne until 2011, when it relocated to Hennef, a small town in west Germany.
This year will be the first time it is run from the DFB’s new home in the centre of Frankfurt – German football’s answer to St George’s Park – that opens officially in March. The bad news for rival nations is that it has recently been refined and improved based on analysis and feedback from German clubs and coaches.
The German FA’s new training centre in Frankfurt (Photo: DFB)
Any coach wishing to become a first-team manager in the top three tiers of German football must complete the 11-month course, and places are extraordinarily hard to earn. It is football coaching’s equivalent of Oxbridge.
The DFB used to take 24 participants but found that while around half became first-team coaches, the other half first took jobs in youth football. Chelsea manager Tuchel is one example. He was first hired by Rangnick – who had been Tuchel’s coach at third-tier SSV Ulm before a knee injury cut short his playing career – as a youth coach at Stuttgart, where Tuchel won the Under 19 Bundesliga in 2005. His first job as a top flight manager came via promotion from Mainz 05’s academy.
It gives some idea of how often German coaches cross paths, how one subtly influences another along their journey to success. In between Stuttgart and Mainz, Tuchel coached Julian Nagelsmann in Augsburg’s reserves. He later finished top of his Fussball-Lehrer class and became the Bundesliga’s youngest manager, aged 28. When Tuchel was poached from Mainz by Borussia Dortmund it was to replicate the high-pressing football of his predecessor, Klopp, who had coincidentally followed the same path from Mainz to Dortmund.
Tuchel got Augsburg to pay for the Fussball-Lehrer course as part of his deal. Erich Rutemoeller, the DFB’s former head of coach training, found the astute, intelligent student, who was not a big personality and often quiet in lectures and discussions very much at odds with the manager who lost his temper with referees so often that Augsburg started making him pay his own fines.
Now the DFB has created the A+ Licence, run specifically for youth team coaches, while the Pro Licence focuses on first-team coaches, offering only 16 places a year. And the application process is more rigorous and “even harder than it used to be”, DFB academy director Tobias Haupt tells i. Hopefuls must submit an essay, attend a two-day assessment centre, face in-depth interviews and a live coaching session in front of assessors.
Haupt helps train the next generation of German coaches (Photo: Getty)
The course itself has changed, too. Whereas previously it was almost impossible to work while attending, it is now shaped around working coaches so they can put their theory and training straight into practice. But it remains a gruelling experience: Uefa stipulates that coaches taking the Pro Licence must complete a minimum of 360 hours of study, whereas the Fussball-Lehrer has always incorporated more than 800.
At the end of the 11 months, participants submit a final thesis based on their coaching philosophy, which is then used to inform the next year’s course. So there is a little bit of Klopp, who attended in 2004, in Tuchel, who attended in 2006, and a little bit of Rangnick, who attended before them, in both, and so on.
“The most important thing for us is to give them the best education we can give them but I’m convinced the education doesn’t stop the moment they receive their licence,” Haupt says.
Given rival coaches are fiercely competitive and guard secrets as though they were crown jewels, how has the DFB cultivated such an open ethos amongst its coaches? Haupt explains that, even though coaches such as Klopp have regularly given back, even until three years ago there was the perception that most coaches and clubs operated in isolation.
“I would say it’s a different culture we created the last years and we are really open minded, not only regarding our national coaches but our international exchange of ideas is so important for us,” Haupt says.
The DFB has in recent years collaborated with the FAs of the Netherlands and Belgium. Another talk to Fussball-Lehrer participants last year was given by Manchester City and Belgium midfielder Kevin De Bruyne and his national team manager Roberto Martinez.
“It was really interesting for our coaches and the participants to get to know the coach’s perspective and the perspective of the captain of the Belgian national team,” Haupt says. “To see how they were different, what they had in common, how they approached things, how they come to solutions. For me the best thing to see was they were so open minded. They wanted to share their ideas. It was a really cool experience and a really great culture we experienced there.”
Haupt remains in contact with Tuchel and it is hoped that after a few years of switching clubs he will soon be able to share his knowledge with Germany’s next generation. Klopp, meanwhile, appears as enthusiastic about discussing coaching as he is about coaching footballers.
When he finds the time to give talks at conferences he enjoys having a beer with his counterparts after the sessions and simply talking about their job.
In the past, Klopp often found it odd that it was seen as a weakness to ask questions as a head coach, that you were supposed to be the one with the answers already, when in other professions, such as with doctors or scientists, the opposite is true.
His overarching philosophy is that when he enters the room the mood should not get worse. There is certainly no chance of that whenever he stands in front of aspiring coaches desperate to learn.
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Speaking to the media on Friday, Brentford boss Thomas Frank confirmed: “Christian will be in the squad and he will get on the pitch tomorrow. It’s a big day for all of us but especially Christian and his family.”
The 30-year-old stepped up his preparations by playing nearly 80 minutes in Brentford’s 2-2 draw with Rangers XI earlier this week, assisting both Mathias Zanka Jorgensen and Tristan Crama from a corner and free kick respectively.
Eriksen also played against Southend last week setting up one of Josh Dasilva’s three goals.
Speaking after the Rangers game, Eriksen said: “I am actually a bit surprised that my body is acting as it is… I’ve been training hard but I didn’t expect it to be as good as I feel now.
On the prospect of making his first appearance for Brentford, he added: “Walking on to the pitch is something that I still can’t really imagine how I’d feel but I’m looking forward to it.”
The midfielder left Inter Milan by mutual consent to sign with the West London club until the end of the season as the Italian medical authority does not permit anyone with an ICD to play in Serie A.
Frank labelled his newest signing “potentially the greatest signing ever for the club” and he will be eager for the ex-Spurs playmaker to add creativity to his team following a run of eight games without a win in all competitions.
Eriksen enjoyed a successful seven-year spell in English football previously scoring 51 goals and providing 62 assists in the Premier League for Spurs between 2013-20. In total, he played 305 times for the north London club.
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