Sterling has 82 caps for the senior national team, more than any other player in the current squad bar captain Harry Kane. But he last featured for England against France at the 2022 World Cup, injured for the international break in March and then prioritising his fitness in June.
“I always call players normally if they have been in the previous squad but aren’t in the next one,” Southgate said.
“With this one I was conscious that, firstly, he’s a player who has been a really big player for us, an important part of our team, and I wanted to address the fact that he’s playing really well. It’s not a decision I have made based on the three games he has played.
“Raheem is always really respectful with how he responds, and deals [with things], he will always say ‘I respect your decision’ but of course he wants to get back in the group. I wouldn’t expect that to be any other way… But we have got Foden, Grealish, Rashford, Saka, so there’s four for two positions.”
Those scrapping towards the foot of the Premier League may disagree, but it is possible that Chelsea‘s players have more pressure to perform than at any other club in the division: with so much competition for places, they are only ever one game away from losing their places or potentially being banished from the first-team picture for good.
On Wednesday night a left-footed England U21 winger who predominantly plays on the right scored a penalty to draw Chelsea level against AFC Wimbledon, approximately 90 minutes or so after news had broken that the club had agreed to pay £45m for another left-footed England U21 winger who predominantly plays on the right.
As Noni Madueke shared a dressing room with Cole Palmer during the Young Lions’ tournament triumph in Georgia this summer, he probably had an inkling that he could soon become a club colleague. Given how quickly negotiations accelerated, though, he might have only found out before kick-off as notifications on his phone began to flood in.
Regardless of whether Madueke was aware of Chelsea’s interest in Palmer or not, he will have probably have had a good idea that another winger would be joining the club before Friday’s transfer deadline anyway.
The club have recruited seven wide forwards, including Madueke himself, at a cost of over £200m in three windows since Todd Boehly’s takeover, after all.
With the exception of the ancient Raheem Sterling (28 years old), all of those players are aged 22 or under, which makes it difficult to see what pathway, if any, is mapped out at the club. Assuming only two can play at any one time, what happens to the rest?
Some like David Datro Fofana and Angelo Gabriel have been farmed out on loan where they will hope to develop sufficiently to challenge for a starting place at Stamford Bridge next season.
The problem is by the time they return the likelihood is that the path to the starting XI will be even more crowded. Boehly, like those social media accounts with pro players as their avatars, seems to relish transfer trading more than the sport itself.
Chelsea will hope that even those not playing for their first-team will retain or even rise in value due to their age and/or performances elsewhere, but it is a risky strategy. Not everyone signed will make good on their promise.
They need to play regularly and in the right environment in order to flourish and with spaces limited in Mauricio Pochettino‘s squad and a multi-club network (shudders) still to be established, that is far from certain.
Players moving to Chelsea are taking on a fair risk too despite the financial benefits that come with it. Palmer, 21, has made only three Premier League starts for City, accumulating less than 500 minutes in total from 15 appearances.
If he found it difficult to break into Pep Guardiola‘s starting XI, it’s not going to be much easier getting into Pochettino’s.
Madueke was one of the few players to impress against Wimbledon on a night when it was difficult to. There’s not much to be learned when a squad assembled for a billion quid takes on a side from League Two.
The 21-year-old committed full-backs with driving, penetrative runs, won and then converted a penalty and generally looked to make a positive impact in what was his first start of the season.
It was an encouraging performance that he will hope to build upon. The question is, will he get sufficient chances to?
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The draw is particularly significant for Newcastle, as it is their first appearance in the competition in more than two decades. Their first and only crack at it came back in 2002-03, when they reached the second group stage – a part of the competition that has since been scrapped.
Arsenal, too, have been absent for some time. They last graced Europe’s premier club competition in 2016-17, when they reached the round of 16.
The Manchester clubs have far more recent history. City, of course, come into this year’s tournament as champions, thanks to their 1-0 victory over Inter to complete their treble in June.
What time is the Champions League draw?
The Champions League draw is on Thursday 31 August starting at 5pm BST. However, there is always a significant amount of fanfare before the draw itself actually gets going, so don’t expect the balls to start coming out of the pots immediately.
The 2022-23 Uefa Men’s Player of the Year, Women’s Player of the Year, Men’s Coach of the Year and Women’s Coach of the Year awards will also be presented during the draw ceremony.
It will also be shown live on TNT Sports for subscribers.
Champions League group stage dates
Matchday 1: 19-20 September 2023 Matchday 2: 3-4 October 2023 Matchday 3: 24-25 October 2023 Matchday 4: 7-8 November 2023 Matchday 5: 28-29 November 2023 Matchday 6: 12-13 December 2023
How does the Champions League draw work?
The 32 teams are split into four seeding pots. Pot 1 consists of last season’s Champions League winners, Europa League winners and six domestic champions. Pots 2 to 4 are determined by Uefa’s club coefficient rankings, which are based on previous performance.
One club from each pot is drawn into each of the eight groups. Clubs from the same country cannot be drawn together at this stage.
Here are the pots for today’s draw:
Pot 1
Manchester City (ENG)
Sevilla FC (ESP)
FC Barcelona (ESP)
SSC Napoli (ITA)
FC Bayern München (GER)
Paris Saint-Germain (FRA)
SL Benfica (POR)
Feyenoord (NED)
Pot 2
Real Madrid CF (ESP)
Manchester United (ENG)
FC Internazionale Milano (ITA)
Borussia Dortmund (GER)
Club Atlético de Madrid (ESP)
RB Leipzig (GER)
FC Porto (POR)
Arsenal FC (ENG)
Pot 3
FC Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR)
FC Salzburg (AUT)
AC Milan (ITA)
SC Braga (POR)
PSV Eindhoven (NED)
SS Lazio (ITA)
FK Crvena zvezda (SRB)
FC Copenhagen (DEN)
Pot 4
BSC Young Boys (SUI)
Real Sociedad de Fútbol (ESP)
Galatasaray AS (TUR)
Celtic FC (SCO)
Newcastle United FC (ENG)
1 FC Union Berlin (GER)
Royal Antwerp FC (BEL)
RC Lens (FRA)
Fixtures will be confirmed after the draw, with the top two teams in each group advancing to the round of 16. The third-placed sides in each group transfer to the Europa League knockout round play-offs, where they will face the Europa League group runners-up for places in the last 16.
Where is the Champions League final in 2024?
The Champions League final will be held at London’s Wembley Stadium on 1 June 2024.
This will be a record eighth time Wembley has played host, and the third within the Champions League era. In 2011, Barcelona beat Manchester United 3-1, and two years later Bayern Munich beat German counterparts Borussia Dortmund 2-1.
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Friday will finally bring confirmation of the “biggest deal in Newcastle United‘s history”.
But transfer deadline day will also, barring a crunching change of gears from a club hierarchy not averse to a late rethink, end with no deal for the centre-back many feel is vital to maintaining the club’s slick upward trajectory in this challenging campaign. Newcastle are, according to those familiar with their thinking, likely now closed for incoming business.
Welcome to a club moving so fast that, in the words of CEO Darren Eales, they are “building the plane while flying it”. Newcastle under Saudi PIF ownership sometimes feels like a contradiction but so far, it has worked smoothly.
The next few days will be fascinating. On Wednesday night club officials were in Monaco, dining with a view of the Mediterranean Sea ahead of the Champions League draw.
With Newcastle in pot four, meetings with European superpowers are almost guaranteed. The prospect of welcoming Real Madrid or Barcelona, the club’s co-owner Mehrdad Ghodoussi says the Magpies aspire to overturn in the coming years, is mouthwatering for supporters who did not anticipate such rapid progression.
Participation in the Champions League is likely to add, in Eales’ words, at least “£45m to the bottom line” and that figure will balloon if they can escape the group stages, with each home match day worth £1m or more to the club.
Those are transformative figures but it is what being part of the elite competition does to the club’s profile and brand that is energising those inside St James’ Park the most.
On Friday morning, there will be tangible proof of that when a new kit deal with Adidas is confirmed that brings Newcastle back into line with some of their direct rivals.
It represents the club’s biggest-ever commercial deal and is worth “nine figures and hundreds of millions of pounds” according to one person with knowledge of the terms agreed.
The deal – brokered by chief commercial officer Peter Silverstone – is the first of what i understands are a raft of sponsorships that are in the pipeline. Innovative training ground and stadium partnerships are also being worked on to add zeros to a bottom line that needs to grow at the same rate as the team.
With just 48 hours until the summer transfer window closes – and with Newcastle reluctant to go too big in January unless the team’s fortunes require it – it looks unlikely that they will now make that move.
Jamaal Lascelles is in line to replace Sven Botman if he is ruled out due to injury (Photo: Getty)
The club’s delicate balancing act has always been to tend to the here and now while also looking after the future. The gamble they seem willing to take is that Fabian Schar and Sven Botman stay fit and in form until the New Year at least.
Given how quick breaking sides have troubled that partnership in the past, it is something that makes some Newcastle fans nervous.
That anxiety was hardly helped by the sight of Botman limping off during the defeat to Liverpool on Sunday, although there’s a measure of confidence that he will be available for the trip to Brighton – the latest tough game in a treacherous start to the domestic campaign for Newcastle.
Jamaal Lascelles is primed to replace him if Botman can’t recover but that comes with its own complications.
The defender was videoed as part of a late-night brawl in the city centre on the night following his team’s defeat at Manchester City on 20 August which has become the subject of a police probe.
But i has been told Newcastle bosses support Lascelles and there will be no club disciplinary action forthcoming. Indeed they are simply “relieved he is OK” following the incident. Sources close to the defender say he was acting in self-defence.
On the pitch, when the enthusiasm of Thursday’s draw subsides there are some issues of substance to wrestle with.
Newcastle created enough chances to beat Liverpool at St James’ Park but the manner of their defeat stung Eddie Howe, who headed back to his Northumberland home after the game to immediately analyse it. It demands a response at Brighton, who have begun the campaign brightly.
“If we don’t take collective responsibility and analyse the game properly then no, we can’t learn from it,” he said.
“But if you do those things and take ownership of what happened – and that includes me and the players – then I think you can come out of it stronger and I think that’s what we will endeavour to do.”
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Chelsea 2-1 AFC Wimbledon (Madueke pen 45+1′, Fernandez 72′ | Tilley pen 19′)
From the moment that James Tilley smashed his penalty straight down the middle of the goal toNoni Madueke’s equaliser, the thousands of AFC Wimbledon fans who made the short journey to Fulham Broadway savoured every second.
They were sat behind the Shed End’s “The Pride of London” banner and for 27 glorious minutes, they were, the temporary kings of King’s Road. Here was a League Two team beating Europe’s biggest spenders on their own patch. No wonder they roared every Wimbledon pass, and jeered every Chelsea mistake.
It was unlikely to last, but fun while it did and the only regret the Dons will have is that they gifted Chelsea their goals. Madueke levelled from 12-yards after winning it himself, before Enzo Fernandez slid into an empty net after Alex Bass’ attempted clearance bounced off Ian Maatsen and into his path.
Robert Sanchez set the tone for Chelsea’s aimless first half by careering into Harry Pell to concede the first spot-kick, while Chelsea failed to register a shot on target until Madueke’s 45th-minute equaliser despite having 88 per cent possession.
Madueke’s shushing of the away fans felt rather uncharitable, like a track athlete celebrating after winning the 100m race at their children’s sports day, but he had a better evening than most in a heavily rotated side. He’ll be pleased too, given Chelsea have struck a £45m deal with Manchester City winger Cole Palmer, another direct competitor for his place.
Wimbledon have Football Manager’s logo splashed across their shirts which felt fitting at Stamford Bridge given Boehly seems to be playing the game in real life.
Mauricio Pochettino made seven changes from the win against Luton and given the spinning nature of Chelsea’s revolving door, it would be no surprise if one or two of Wednesday’s starters move on before Friday’s deadline. Marc Cucurella is the subject of interest from Manchester United, while captain for the night Conor Gallagher has been linked with numerous clubs.
It was a testament to Wimbledon’s efforts, that Chelsea’s A-teamers were gradually peeled from the bench: Nicolas Jackson at half-time, Fernandez after 65 minutes, Moises Caicedo after 80. Levi Colwill was one of the four to retain their places, but grimaced as he came off holding his left ankle.
There was late chaos at both ends. Ali Al-Hamadi, a livewire of a centre-forward, almost grabbed a famous equaliser in the final minute before Fernandez fluffed a second chance to score into a vacant goal as Chelsea countered with Bass stranded upfield after a corner.
It was a satisfactory conclusion for Pochettino, who spent much of the evening quietly seething.
The Argentine was famously sniffy about domestic cups during his time at Tottenham, once remarking that winning the Carabao Cup would “not change the life” of the club. It was one of the few gripes that Spurs supporters had with the Argentine. Until now, at least.
It is unlikely to change Chelsea’s life either. Qualifying for the Champions League is far more imperative to Boehly’s grand amortisation plan. But Pochettino’s messaging has changed: “I want to win the Carabao Cup, I want to win the FA Cup, I want to win the Premier League,” he declared beforehand.
All three trophies remain up for grabs, but only just.
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You wake up, force your eyes open, pick up your phone and open a social media feed, because apparently that is life now. Small pieces of Lionel Messi’s late career are drip-fed to you in a broken order, your brain trying to work out the score on subconscious autopilot even though you really don’t care. This is the good stuff: uncontextualized clips from vastly different time zones of an elite footballer doing bits against low-level opponents.
Later the same or another day, a similar experience as Saudi Pro League football gets underway. An ESPN tweet screams that Cristiano Ronaldo “CAN’T STOP SCORING!”, which appears to be a social media strategy designed exclusively to host replays of the most tedious debates in history in the replies. In some far-off place, Riyad Mahrez crosses for Roberto Firmino to score and their celebrations sit somewhere between pre-season friendly and third goal in a 4-0 EFL Cup win over a second-string Championship side.
There is certainly some aesthetic benefit to this. If we would pay too much money to watch Messi juggling a tennis ball (and we would), him scoring goals against anyone has entertainment value. But after watching Messi everywhere else, it is a little like sitting down with a rumbling stomach to watch delicious food being made on the TV. You can appreciate the artform, but it doesn’t satisfy the senses nor your actual pressing need.
In fact watching the Saudi Pro League, even for just a few minutes, is a unique experience. Normally, as an invested neutral, you take in a match in its full context: where’s the ball? Where’s the next attack brewing? Is anyone out of position? Who is playing well (and poorly)? Where is the momentum?
Here, it is distilled into the actions of a few players. It is scary how quickly and easily the non-big names fade into your background to become football units who facilitate the work of the stars. Which is sort of the point, I suppose.
What links Messi in Miami and everyone part of the Riyal family in the SPL? This is everything that we are repeatedly told that young people want from football. New stadiums, big names, vast social media followings, smartphone light shows at half-time and games presented to us as mini-clips that hone in only when the best players do the best things.
Okay, so one of the managers and plenty of the players don’t even have Wikipedia pages, but who cares about that because nobody wants to find out more about them anyway. This is sport in 2023 and your kid wants an Al-Nassr shirt for Christmas.
Except that it isn’t. This isn’t an attempt to diminish every aspect of these ventures. Those who are watching Messi’s appearances and SPL matches live seem to be thoroughly enjoying the experience, and good on them for it. Their joy is worth no less than mine. But I cannot appreciate them as pure football experiences because they have not been designed that way for me.
Inter Miami are younger than the eighth Fast & Furious movie, a football club literally formed out of a clause in David Beckham’s playing contract. The Saudi Pro League is 40 years older, but has been reconstructed after the PIF acquired the controlling stakes in four of the biggest clubs. You can’t pretend that the Al-Hilal and Al-Ittihad rivalry is the same now half of each team have only signed up for the nonsensically large payday.
Messi is having the time of his life in the MLS (Photo: Getty)
In these clips, we are consuming football on a technicality. It is deliberately stripped of all context: history, jeopardy, rivalry, heritage, and so there’s no depth to it. Football excels because it is simultaneously a competitive endeavour and an aesthetic spectacle, but also because it brings along with it the back stories, the emotional and historical baggage.
Every fixture, every goal, every moment, is piling further fuel on the fire of history. Without that, football feels like a Netflix drama that stops when you turn off the television.
But then perhaps that’s the point. These clips are not produced to give us a glimpse into a football culture, be it Messi’s farewell tour, the Saudi Space Jam League or anything else. They are there to do the opposite: take this on its merit, feast upon the lack of context, don’t ask too many questions about how this bizarro framework all came together or who’s in charge.
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It is rare for owners to become so personally involved in a transfer but Roma owner and president Dan Friedkin, a qualified pilot, was so desperate to broker the move for Lukaku that he even flew the striker back from London to Rome.
Insiders say the negotiations – held over several days in London after a personal phone call from Jose Mourinho convinced Lukaku about the loan – progressed so smoothly between the two parties that future transfer business is a distinct possibility.
Roma will pay £6m to loan Lukaku for the year but there is no obligation or option to buy contained within the deal for the 30-year-old.
The finances behind the deal are fascinating and lay bare some of the considerations on these mega deals. i can reveal Lukaku’s net salary at Chelsea is £10.3m but such was his desire to play and “find love” away from the cold shoulder of Stamford Bridge he has agreed to reduce that package to £6m net to play in the Eternal City.
The Blues have already paid his wages for July and August and because he played a year in Italy last year, Roma get an unexpected benefit of paying just 20 per cent of the tax on his salary. That will save them some £3.7m over the year.
A permanent deal is not in either club’s thinking just yet but if he hits the ground running in Italy, his future surely lies in Serie A. Lukaku’s contract expires in 2026 and the current arrangement seems like a win-win for both parties.
“It was about a partnership between the clubs, he will come here, he will play, get value and then the idea of everyone is getting a next step for next season,” a source told i.
Lukaku lands in Italy ahead of his public unveiling (Photo: Getty)
For Roma the appeal is obvious, with Lukaku the crowning achievement of some nimble work in the market.
The club’s minimum target is to return to Europe’s top table and secure Champions League football this season but they have had to perform some financial acrobatics to get there after walking a Financial Fair Play (FFP) tightrope this summer.
The club’s director of football Tiago Pinto has overseen a transfer window bringing in seven new players, including Denmark defender Rasmus Kristensen and Portugal midfielder Renato Sanches, for around £9m in loan fees. That feels like impressive work in a summer of eye-watering transfers.
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The new Spurs boss insisted the competition had been a “priority” but added: “There is no European football, so how am I going to find out about our players?
“What opportunity would I have to do that other than the game? They are all part of our club… From my perspective, we’re very much at the discovery stage so we need to find out and give the players the opportunity to contribute.
“Because that’s why they’re here – they’re not just here to make up the numbers.”
The flipside is that without the added burden of European football, Spurs will now play a maximum of 45 games this season (and it would only be as high as that if they were to reach the FA Cup final).
There can be little fear of overworking Postecoglou’s first XI – the changes were not really about resting Son Heung-min, James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski, not least because he was forced to call on them in the second half.
From the point he took the job, Postecoglou had 84 days to size up a squad which he admits needs a “trim” to “get it to a more manageable state”.
He has already made concrete decisions about those who are not in his plans, but for whom the club has not yet found a buyer: Hugo Lloris, Eric Dier, Tanguy Ndombele and Japhet Tanganga.
The latter two are likely to secure loan moves to Serie A before deadline day, while a move outside the Premier League is also being considered as a potential option for Dier.
Some of Postecoglou’s starters at Craven Cottage would also be free to leave should a bid come in. Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg has emerged as a surprise target for Manchester United and Davinson Sanchez’s future is also unclear.
The absence of a director of football does not appear to have helped matters; indeed Spurs approach the end of the transfer window with at least five players they are trying to shift, and no guarantees that all of them will leave. There are elements of that group that date back to the Mauricio Pochettino era, let alone Jose Mourinho, Nuno Espirito Santo and Antonio Conte. The size and malaise of the squad is nothing to do with the hotseat’s latest incumbent.
It nevertheless puts Postecoglou in a difficult spot, but he has at least gained some valuable lessons from a cup gamble which ultimately backfired.
In his four Premier League games, he had already accumulated enough good will that even if his changes are considered a misstep, there is sufficient faith from his new army of fans that this was a necessary evil to learn more about the shape his squad ought to take in the coming days and months.
In the long run, it hinted at a greater role for Giovani Lo Celso, who was given his first start since January 2022, as an alternative option to Maddison, and Ivan Perisic and Manor Solomon as conventional wingers rather than wing-backs. These are not likely to be Postecoglou’s preferences, rather a set of Plan B’s that needed a trial run.
It was the first time Postecoglou has implemented a system other than 4-2-3-1, a tweak which did not quite work – Spurs struggled to break out of Fulham’s press and the greater numbers in midfield did little to restrict Tom Cairney, Bobby De Cordova-Reid and Adama Traore.
Son Heung-min looks dejected after Spurs lose to Fulham in the Carabao Cup (Photo: Getty)
There were a couple of instances when Fraser Forster looked to be struggling playing out from the back. Postecoglou said afterwards that that lack of cohesion and fluency was inevitable given the number of changes made, and with eight players making their first start since he took over.
Implicitly, this was an acceptance that the ceiling is that much lower this season. The top four is an aspiration but without Harry Kane, it is an ambitious one. A domestic cup would have been an easy PR win, though as Pochettino always maintained during his time in north London, it would have done little to aid the masterplan in the long term.
Spurs undoubtedly have a new identity, but this wasn’t it. It has, however, given Postecoglou ample evidence of who is ready and primed to buy into it – and he will not get many more chances to find that out when the stakes are relatively low. His tinkering, though unpopular, may yet prove to be a blessing in disguise.
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Besiktas are set to provide Mason Greenwood with an opportunity to restart his football career, with other offers yet to come in for the disgraced Manchester United forward.
Turkish side Besiktas, who have long kept an eye on the situation, are one of the few clubs who have not been completely deterred and are considering entering negotiations, one insider has confirmed to i.
In the meantime, Greenwood remains on full pay at United, having signed a deal until 2025. The full exit strategy is not yet finalised – United and Greenwood have only firmly concluded he cannot play for the club again. There are no immediate plans to release him from his current contract.
Besiktas believe that an initial loan spell, of around six months, could be agreed as a litmus test of public feeling. Then, should Greenwood excel and fans welcome him, a longer-term move can be discussed.
It is thought that the consent of the Besiktas women’s team would be needed for any move for Greenwood to be sanctioned.
“Of course they have seen what has been said in the UK and further afield,” the source said. “People think that Turkey is an easy way out for Greenwood, as he will just be able to get on with his career away from the public eye. But clubs know that is not how it works. Reporters will come from England to follow his progress wherever he goes, we are sure of that.
“A short loan is appealing, though. If things go wrong, he will return to Manchester quickly. If he comes to Istanbul and scores goals straight away, the boos will quickly go. That is just the way that football works, however bad a taste that leaves. I think Turkish fans will accept him.”
Despite clubs across the world distancing themselves from the 21-year-old, interest in a player of Greenwood’s ability was still expected to be plentiful.
Saudi Arabia’s human rights record is already the subject of intense scrutiny after its eyewatering investment in football and Greenwood’s arrival could do further damage to their reputation, a Middle East insider said.
Al-Ettifaq coach Steven Gerrard has already insisted any interest from his club in Greenwood is “fake news” and while other Saudi clubs could individually still make a move, the league’s centralised funding model means the Saudi Pro League itself has final approval on all marquee signings and the power to veto any transfer.
“Maybe a year ago Greenwood would have been of interest,” the insider added. “But look at the names already here. The league does not need to take as many risks, as other big-name players are coming, even those in their prime. Look at Aymeric Laporte, for example.
Greenwood last played for United in January 2022 (Photo: Getty)
“Greenwood just comes with too many issues the SPL don’t want to deal with. Great progress has been made in the women’s game.”
Reports of interest from Italy have also not been forthcoming, with no approaches made to United from any Serie A side as yet.
The impact on sponsors and other stakeholders makes a move to an English club extremely unlikely, leaving a player once destined for the very top of the game, now without competitive first-team action since January 2022, hoping others express more willing to take what would be a substantial risk.
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The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) is preparing to sack Jorge Vilda in the coming days as the fallout from Luis Rubiales’ conduct at the Women’s World Cup final continues.
According to reports in Spain, the RFEF has been weighing up whether a string of incidents involving head coach Vilda during and after the 1-0 victory over England on 20 August are sufficient grounds to terminate his contract.
Vilda publicly applauded Rubiales at a recent extraordinary meeting as the RFEF president spoke for the first time since kissing Jenni Hermoso on the lips, which the midfielder said was not consensual.
While Vilda later released a statement condemning the incident as “unacceptable” and “improper”, he has also been accused of mistreating his players and at the final, footage appeared to show him touching a female coaching member around the chest following Olga Carmona’s winning goal. The woman in question is not known to have made any complaint and Vilda has not commented on the video.
The majority of Vilda’s backroom staff have already left their posts in protest at Rubiales refusing to resign. Rubiales has already been suspended by Fifa as prosecutors launch an investigation into whether the kiss constituted sexual assault. His mother has since gone on hunger strike inside a Catholic church.
A total of 81 players, including all 23 members of the squad that won the World Cup in Sydney earlier this month, have said they will not play for the country again while Rubiales remains in charge.
Following the tournament’s conclusion, Rubiales had promised Vilda a new four-year deal but it is now thought unlikely that either of them will survive the revolution that has rocked Spanish football.
Their futures have always been intertwined. Vilda’s father, Angel Vilda, is a senior figure in the RFEF, heading up the department of women’s football, and an important ally of Rubiales.
When Vilda had little managerial experience outside coaching Spain’s female age-group sides, he was given a tilt at the national post and was backed by Rubiales even amidst the mutiny that followed Euro 2022.
Last year, a total of 15 players made themselves unavailable for selection for as long as Vilda remained in charge, alleging controlling behaviour and mismanagement of injuries that had damaged their physical and emotional wellbeing. Only three returned for the World Cup.
As the final whistle blew on their victory in the final, he was seen revelling with staff away from the squad, while players turned their backs on him in the main celebrations.
The RFEF are struggling to remove Rubiales because when the issue was put to regional football association bosses, they did not receive the required number of votes to axe him. Vilda’s future is in their hands, but it has been complicated by Rubiales publicly offering him an extension and a significant pay rise.
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Over the last 15 months, Chelsea have bought players for transfer fees of at least £10m at a rate of roughly one every 26 days. The clear intention: create a team that can compete again at the top of the Premier League and European football and thus sate the desires of every supporter.
Match-going supporters have their own priorities. They still want entertainment, for sure. They want to win – who doesn’t? They feel the aftershocks of the new signing buzz too, because with it comes hope and hope is everything for as long as it lasts.
But supporting a club in the flesh isn’t restricted to what happens this week or this season, but where their club will be in a decade or more. How much it spends on a player is less significant than how well it treats those who were here long before the days of summer and will stay long after they have gone. During a cost-of-living crisis and an associated rise in transport costs, the focus has shifted to the rhetorical question they never wanted to ask: how can we afford to keep doing this?
On Tuesday morning, Chelsea’s official supporters’ trust announced that, after conversations with the club (and despite the recommendations of them and those who relied upon the service), Chelsea are removing the £10 subsidy for away coach travel because it is not “financially sustainable”.
No football club has an obligation to subsidise anything. Those at the highest level can reasonably argue the economics of supply and demand: in an away end of 3,000, there is always likely to be someone willing and able to take your place. That is not really the point here. The CST remarks that those supporters who are most vulnerable are likely to be the ones who will lose out most.
If Chelsea are now pursuing financial sustainability, it’s not the £10s they need to be worried about; it’s the £10 millions. Maybe someone should convince the decision-makers that they could amortise the transport subsidy over a period of eight years and it might seem a little more attractive and daring?
Many of the online supporters may not grasp the significance of this decision. Some may even defend the club against criticism – there is increasingly an army of fans who see anything other than wide-eyed positivity as an agenda. “They’re just running the club as a business,” is one regular retort. Too many are prepared to lick the club-branded boot. They must do better – we are stronger together.
If nothing else, it is such a dismal public relations misstep. For the sake of (at the absolute maximum) one per cent of Enzo Fernandez’s transfer fee, you reinforce a connection with those who are best positioned to give you immediate feedback. Why would you want to make the atmosphere worse? How can you not see the immediate damage being done? What you consider to be the minutiae is anything but.
The supporters’ trust have urged an urgent rethink. They have also stepped in to fund the subsidy themselves and deserve immense congratulation for that work. But the responsibility should not lie at their feet. They are not campaigning for special treatment; they are asking for a small slice of common sense and decency.
Know this: Chelsea will actively burn bridges with match-going fans through this decision. They have made life harder for those who they purport to care about in marketing brochures and grand public statements but who too often fall through the cracks when it matters. And remember this: they don’t care about you, whatever they say. They care about what you are as a unit of value to them, what you will spend and how much they can stretch your loyalty before it breaks.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/giNT59z
