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Sancho sense
So the rumours linked Jadon Sancho to United have heated up in the last few days. Here’s why it makes perfect sense.
Need? United are in desperate need for a right winger and this potentially solves that problem for the next 10 years.
Fit? Personality wise Sancho seems like he would fit right in with Pogba, Lingard et al. Football wise, he is a quick direct winger, who can take his man on and has chipped in with plenty of goals and assists. Whether Ole or Poch gets the job, Sancho’s style of play would fit into either of their systems.
Price? The transfer market has been inflated since the Neymar transfer, prime example being Coutinho going for 140m. The going rate for a top young talent is around 50m, add to that the English and United taxes, 100m sounds about right. I have no shame in saying that I laughed at Liverpool paying 75m for Van Dijk and look how wrong I was, sometimes you just have to pay the price for the player you need.
Risk? There are obvious risks with paying 100m for an 18 year old who has had only 1 good season. However, the last two teenagers who went for monumental fees after 1 breakout season were Mbappe and Dembele, those moves seemed to turn out pretty successful. The last teenager United paid big money for after a breakout season became our top scorer ever.
Has a transfer ever made this much sense? The most important thing to do if we do sign Jadon Sancho, is keep him away from the cursed number 7 shirt. Let Sanchez take it with him when he inevitably goes to China.
Longsight Lad (Going to name my first born Ole)
Glad all over
May be a little late to the John Nicholson party here but while I mostly agreed with his piece, there were some aspects I thought would benefit from the opinion of a supporter of one of those 14 teams below the top six. The clubs that John reckons don’t know why they exist anymore.
Part of John’s argument is that Scottish football has kept its soul, that it is still close to the communities, still has a significant presence in the local area. Well, this isn’t exclusive to Scottish football, and in fact still exists in those clubs that John writes off as waiting to be woken from a nightmare by the sweet bliss of relegation. I’m going to use my own club, Crystal Palace, as the example here but I’m sure can’t be the exception.
Run by a Palace fan, managed by a former youth player who stood on the terraces as a boy with our two stand out players (Zaha and Wan-Bissaka) being local lads who have come through the academy, it is impossible to argue that Palace are not connected to its community. This year the fans have demonstrated their direct influence on the club, when the club agreed to relocate the Holmesdale Fanatics group so they could grow and occupy a larger area in the centre of the stand. This is the latest in a long line of initiatives that have kept the fans involved in the matchday experience and has included group allocations for cup games, end of season fan provided awards directly from the stands to the players on the pitch and local punk bands and DJs playing in the concourse 2 hours before our recent cup game against Tottenham. Every year the Palace for Life foundation run a marathon march that sees former players and fans raising money for the communities they are walking through. Just a few weeks ago there was a walk from Craven Cottage to Selhurst Park with both Fulham and Palace fans, organised by a bloke who sits behind me, to shine a light on mental health issues. When the weather takes a turn for the worse, Palace open up an area of Selhurst Park and provide a warm bed and food for the night for those with nowhere else to go.
Can you tell me that this football club has lost its soul? Don’t get blinded by the shiny marketing and the Super Sundays, there are still football clubs down here too. The presence of money and greed in our league is undeniable, and is something that our fans have tried to hold a mirror up to. But this does not mean there is an absence of everything you and I hold dear about football. You say enjoyment is what matters, I completely agree. Ask a Palace fan if we enjoyed beating Chelsea last season after seven games without a goal or a point. Ask us if we enjoyed Andros Townsends goal away at City. Or Crystanbul. Or being first on Match of the Day. Or any number of unexpected moments that bring you together in jubilation or despair.
Don’t fall for the marketing you so rightly criticise, the marketing that tells you only the top 6 matter. To use your own words, to tar the whole of the culture of football in the country is simply to not know these lands.
Ant, CPFC
Rodgers running away
For all the bigger job/smaller job talk about Celtic, Leicester, and Brendon Rodgers, I’m not sure I’ve seen anyone make the other point: he’s running away. Rangers are getting closer to being competitive, and therefore Celtic will soon have an actual rival for every domestic trophy. Rather than take on a challenge and fail, Brendon has done a bunk with his asterisked trophies. It’s not exactly a sign of someone relishing a challenge.
Rich AFC is clearly still not over that last minute penalty miss. Aww. Maybe next time, plucky goons. You did very well, defending deep and narrow and packing your own half. Resolute stuff. Tony Pulis would have been proud, both of your backs to the wall approach, and the subsequent fluster because it’s just not fair. I’ve heard different interpretations of the law so do not know if Kane’s penalty was correct or not. I’m well beyond caring. The game finished days ago, and arguing about encroachment on that utterly awful penalty seems a bit pointless. But you do you, Rich. At least you’re communicating. My office gooner has barely spoken this week. He looks so broken. I feel for you lot; so close to a momentous win after such a resolute and sturdy performance. Heartbreaking stuff for the underdog. Still, at least you’ve got the Europa to lift the spirits. You’re still in that, right? The coverage seems to have passed me by, but I’m sure it’s great fun.
All the best,
thayden
Take the armband off Henderson
Howard (promoting honest factual football journalism) is clearly a fan of Jordan Henderson, but less so of the factual journalism he claims to promote. Yes, journalists should watch the game before making an assessment, but I’d suggest Howard takes his rose tinteds off before he watches the next one. You can claim all sorts of additional influence Henderson has that doesn’t show in statistics, but the fact is Liverpool are a much worse team with Henderson on the pitch than when he’s absent. Across all competitions this season, Liverpool have played 1,766 minutes with Henderson on the pitch, scoring 33 goals and conceding 17. Without him they’ve played 1,654 minutes, scoring 41 goals and conceding 9.
Having Henderson as captain is the albatross around Klopp’s neck at the moment, as it seems to mean he has to be picked for big games, and leads to decisions like that against Everton, where Wijnaldum was subbed and Henderson left on. After this there was a noticeable shift due to the lack of a calm head in midfield (something you’d expect your holding midfield captain to provide). In Van Dijk, they have possibly the best leader in the Premier League, and the sooner he is given the armband and Henderson is put out to pasture the better.
James (promoting actual honest factual journalism)
To Howard’s missive, I thought I’d go over to WhoScored’s player comparison page and make some arbitrary comparisons.
Turns out Henderson is performing less effectively defensively than Fabinho, Matic and by some margin, Etienne Capoue.
The difference in definition between objective and subjective is available at any good dictionary website.
Stuart, London
…Re Howard: Is….is that you Jordan?
John Collins, Wolves, London
Run like the wind
Wow. We sure are getting a lot of stick for daring to be part of a title race. The key word here being ‘race’.
I don’t know how many of you have ever been in a race before, but sometimes you are at the front of the pack and sometimes you aren’t. Then the winner gets decided when you cross the finish line. So maybe we should perhaps just wait until the race is finished to start handing out the awards for bottlers and bed-sh*tters.
I’ve literally seen Mo Farah fall over during a race and still go on to win the thing. And can we also all just enjoy the fact that we actually have a ‘race’ on our hands for a change. Regardless of who is in it. Isn’t that what everyone wants at the beginning of the season anyway?
Ryan C, LFC (Got nervous and bottled that email halfway through, but pulled it back in the end)
Agent Harry
Dear Harry
Can you please go to all Sheffield United’s remaining games in the hope you are still cursed
Cheers
Steve (LUFC in case you didn’t guess)
