FRIDAY’S BIG STORIES
There’s only one place to begin…
The Premier League season starts tonight. The England captain is angling for a record move. And the two most expensive players in the history of British football have been signed within the last ten days.
Premier League
City prepared to pay £127m for Kane – reports
16 HOURS AGO
So naturally let’s start by talking about flying geese.
This is the story that Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola is fascinated by the formation of the birds in flight, and how they work together as one in their familiar arrow-shape.
For those of you who haven’t seen this story, Pep, apparently, saw this example of natural unison as one huge piece of coaching inspiration, so much so that it’s even made the cut in a documentary released by Man City this week.
“It must have been the end of last season, maybe,” club performance analyst Harry Dunn says during the doc. “We had geese fly over in an arrowhead.
It was about week later, I went on the manager’s computer to give him the analysis and he had a screenshot on there. He said: ‘Look at this’. It was the geese flying over. He said: ‘It’s amazing, they work together as a team’.
Forget false nines and double pivots, best to look out for the geese arrowhead formation this season then!*
Interestingly (maybe), Guardiola isn’t the first massively successful manager to take his lead from feathered friends of the goose variety.
Alex Ferguson was also apparently known to halt training session to admire the natural wonder of the birds in flight.
It’s another reminder that football managers are a special breed.
(* Yes, there are clearly parallels between the way geese fly in formation and the evolution of the 3-2-2-2-1 formation in contemporary football tactics. But for the sake of a droll joke can you please ignore that?)
‘Luk who’s back’
That’s enough about geese. On to the important matter, which is of course the latest developments in the transfer window.
In fact, sometimes it feels like we should just call the pesky football off and concentrate on the real drama of which club are signing who. It certainly generates more clicks and newspaper sales.
However, in this case, the signing of Romelu Lukaku genuinely does overshadow the opening game of the season as a story (sorry Arsenal and Brentford fans).
Romelu Lukaku
Image credit: facebook
Had Chelsea signed the Belgian last week he would have been the most expensive arrival in the history of British football. As it is, Jack Grealish has that honour. For now.
The reported figure of £97.5 million is an enormous amount for a club to spend on a 28-year-old at any time, let alone after a year of empty stadiums and Covid insecurity.
And that’s before we even get to the point that Chelsea owned Lukaku before. It has cost them just shy of £70m more to sign him now than they got for him in 2014, when – let’s be honest – it wasn’t a secret that the guy was a serious talent.
On one hand this is an enormously exciting signing. It’s one of the best strikers in the world joining a team where he seems to be a perfect tactical fit. And it should make the reigning European Champions an even more exciting side to watch in a Premier League that isn’t short of other exciting and talented teams right now.
And yet, on the other hand, this is all a bit depressing isn’t it? Chelsea and the club’s contract chief Marina Granovskaia are being heralded as transfer dons for buying back an asset they used to own, for more than three times as much as they sold it for.
Football sold its soul a long time ago, but if this transfer is seen as a universally good thing then something is truly broken.
Kane to City rumbles on
Talking of something broken, Harry Kane’s relationship with Tottenham Hotspur may just be damaged beyond repair.
That’s certainly what Manchester City are banking on, as they come back in with a bid that everybody knows is still significantly less than Spurs’ valuation of their star player.
A player who still has three years left on his contract. And a player that Tottenham don’t want to sell.
But, let’s be honest, if Man City are all in on Kane then this only ends one way.
England captain Harry Kane
Image credit: Getty Images
The question for Kane must now be: are City really all in?
Somebody seems to have convinced Harry and his brother/agent Charlie Kane that a £100m bid from City would be enough for Spurs to let him leave.
But that was never going to be the case. It doesn’t make sense for Spurs to agree to that sort of offer.
And now Kane faces a nervous waiting game to see if Man City want and rate him enough to reach a fee that Spurs will accept.
It remains not totally out of the question that he’ll still be at Spurs in a year’s time.
Which makes Sunday’s opening-weekend fixture between Tottenham and Man City all the more fascinating.
And once again we’re back to the idea of transfers being more exciting than the actual football. Maybe it’d be more box-office to just scrap the game and broadcast live from the centre-circle as Daniel Levy, Txiki Begiristain and Charlie Kane thrash out a deal.
“It’s the transfer negotiations… AND THEY’RE LIVE!”
RETRO CORNER
They don’t make footballers like Niko Kranjcar these days.
That’s certainly something you can imagine his biggest fan Harry Redknapp saying at least.
And so, on the day that the handsome devil turns 37, why not revisit one of the many moments when the Croatian made old ‘Arry proud.
Yes, it does appear that this goal was filmed on a calculator. But that doesn’t make it any worse a goal. And Spurs would certainly take something similar against Man City this weekend.
HAT-TIP
There must be a strange sort of pressure being a big-name feature writer on the eve of a Premier League season.
But clearly Jonathan Liew thrives under that sort of pressure, if his excellent preview in The Guardian is anything to go by.
There are even people in London who have no idea where Brentford is. But on Friday night, when they host Arsenal in the opening game of the season and become the 50th club to host Premier League football, the name of this little west London suburb will be beamed all over the world, lent the sort of heft and resonance that only really football can offer. Brentford – the place, and the club – will never be quite the same again.
COMING UP
It’s just the little matter of the first game of the Premier League season this evening, with Brentford vs Arsenal kicking off at 20:00 BST.
Andi Thomas will be here with Monday’s Warm-Up to dissect the nature of Brentford’s shock win over Arsenal.
Premier League
Tottenham season preview: Forget Kane drama, this has to be Dele’s season
YESTERDAY AT 13:14
Premier League
Chelsea season preview: Lukaku in, a lot of youngsters out and extremely high expectations
YESTERDAY AT 10:15
