When news broke that Boris Johnson was planning a return as Prime Minister, the German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel led its front page with his picture and a one-word headline: ‘Ernsthaft?’ In English: ‘Seriously?’
It is a question Graham Potter has every right to ask, if his employer suggests recruiting Cristiano Ronaldo for Chelsea this January. Seriously, boss? The guy who refuses to play if he is not picked to start? The guy who leaves the game early, even if we are winning? That guy, boss? Him? Seriously?
Todd Boehly wanted Ronaldo this summer having forged a friendship with his agent, Jorge Mendes. Thomas Tuchel, sensibly, did not. It may have contributed to the fissure between the club and its former manager.
So Boehly should already be aware of the divisions Ronaldo can cause, even in absence. His current stand-off with Manchester United, meanwhile, illustrates what can happen when present.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s actions last week put paid to any hopes he had of joining an elite club
Todd Boehly has to be aware of the divisions that Ronaldo could cause to the Chelsea squad
Last Wednesday, when Ronaldo chose to march down the tunnel and leave Old Trafford rather than remain and congratulate his team-mates on their best performance of the season, he did not just torpedo his chances of a meaningful existence at United. With him went any hope of being entertained as an option by a serious, elite club.
Earlier in the season, when it first looked like Ronaldo’s influence and importance to United was waning, there were suggestions his next destination could be Major League Soccer, or even Saudi Arabia. In September, it was reported that Al Hilal, of Riyadh, were willing to make him the highest paid player in the world, with a deal worth £210million across two seasons.
It seemed preposterous. Not the money, because we all know the Saudis have got that, but the idea of Ronaldo in a competition as unrewarding as the Saudi Pro League (SPL). This is a player who scored 24 goals in 38 matches last season. Most strikers would be delighted with such a return.
Ronaldo’s influence is continuing to wane and it is clear that he struggles to cope with that
Yet Al Hilal are watched by roughly 13,000 fans each week, and all but four clubs in the SPL have an average gate of around 5,000 or lower. Ronaldo, with an ego to match his talent, demands the biggest stage. The money aside — and he hardly needs that — why would he wish to play out his days in a backwater?
MLS would have more appeal but similar limitations. Plus, in the United States, there is the complication of a historic rape allegation against him which, although dismissed, could make him a target for protests and image-tarnishing debate. Plus, the football isn’t good.
With Lionel Messi still central to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League, Thursday night football is already a blow to Ronaldo’s self-regard, without him disappearing from the continent altogether.
Yet what else is there? His petulance when United were plainly at their best without him against Tottenham should serve as a giant red flag for any elite club valuing harmony alongside ambition.
His presence limits Erik ten Hag’s ability to play his preferred modern, high-pressing style
It isn’t true that Ronaldo was never a team player. In his prime, almost everything he did benefitted his team. Yet at 37, his contributions are less significant and he clearly struggles with that.
Equally, he limits any ability to play a modern, high-pressing game. Strategy has instead to be constructed around one player. Accommodating him, or not accommodating him, everything about Ronaldo is high maintenance. And why would Chelsea, or anyone, want that?
The rationale behind Potter’s appointment was that Boehly sought a coach who could grow with the club. He brought in a manager who had never even attended a Champions League game before taking charge of his first one, against Red Bull Salzburg.
Graham Potter has every right to question Boehly if he seriously proposes signing Ronaldo
Potter’s background is in Swedish football, plus Swansea and Brighton. That does not mean he cannot handle the stellar talents in Chelsea’s dressing room, but Ronaldo brings a set of needs and wants in a class of their own. Pep Guardiola was right. He can leave out Kevin De Bruyne, the greatest midfielder in the Premier League, he can bring him off at half-time, he could ask him to play right back, and the player would accept the decision as best for the team. Ronaldo is not like that.
United were beating and outplaying Tottenham, meaning Ronaldo hit the bricks because he was not part of a performance that was going swimmingly. He refused to come on and help his team see out the game for a few minutes at the end.
Chelsea are fifth and now under attack from six other clubs fighting for just four Champions League spots. Why would Boehly wish to then insert a potentially disruptive presence? If Ronaldo is no longer right for United, how can he fit in at Chelsea?
Less is more – something UEFA suits will never understand
This is a Champions League week, so what better way to celebrate it than with another terrible idea from UEFA? Having ruined the European Championship, made the qualifiers redundant and introduced a format for the Champions League that, when it starts in 2024-25, will make no sense to football fans at all, these geniuses have turned their attention to the UEFA Super Cup.
They are working on a revamp that will make it a four or eight-team pre-season tournament, additionally featuring the Champions League runners-up and the Europa Conference League winners. This summer’s edition would have therefore been between Real Madrid, Liverpool, Eintracht Frankfurt and Roma. Yet we saw Real Madrid play Liverpool last May. Why watch a rerun with less on it just two months’ later? As for Frankfurt and Roma, they are reasonable teams, no more, currently fourth and fifth in their respective leagues. It is hardly big box office.
Yet the four-team Super Cup would only be a gateway to the eight-team tournament involving, one imagines, all six European finalists, plus the losing semi-finalists in the Champions League. So, this summer, that would have been the four already mentioned plus Manchester City, Villarreal, Feyenoord and Rangers. And we all know how well Rangers acquitted themselves in Europe this year. UEFA’s Super Cup has never caught fire here but, much like FIFA’s Club World Cup, it has worth that only comes from what a team must achieve to get there. Competitors must win the biggest European trophy. Not reach a final, certainly not just a semi-final. They must go all the way.
Once the Super Cup is not for champions only, it is just another dull pre-season tournament
When Jurgen Klopp expressed his surprise that some regarded Liverpool’s participation in the Carabao Cup as more important than being crowned world champions, he pointed out that only one European club could participate — and then only the champions of Europe. Of course, we never consider it this way, but the Champions League is also the Club World Cup qualifying round.
The Super Cup is not dissimilar. Yes, the winners of the Europa League also get to play, but that is it. Winners only. No time for losers, as the song goes. And that is what UEFA are now trifling with: the unique selling point of their own competition. The one aspect that makes it special.
Once the Super Cup is not for champions only, it is just another pre-season tournament, and a rather dull one at that. All these idiots want is more, more, more — all they really deliver is less, less, less.
Let’s keep the Conte criticism in perspective
Tottenham are third in the Premier League. If they beat Sporting Lisbon at home tomorrow, they will be in the last 16 of the Champions League, too, for the first time in three seasons.
A close game against Newcastle ended a run of consecutive home wins going back to April, their best stretch in 16 years. So, naturally, they were booed off in both halves, with a big debate about Antonio Conte’s suitability on social media.
The criticism of Antonio Conte’s Tottenham side after last week must be kept in perspective
Only at Tottenham. Look, it has not been a good week. They were poor and unambitious against Manchester United, and losing to Newcastle was disappointing. Yet they had the chances to get at least a point and if Conte tacks towards the conservative, it has not exactly served the team poorly so far.
Even if Chelsea win their game in hand, Tottenham will still be in the top four. They signed a lot of new players in the summer, too. Maybe give it time.
Why doesn’t Gary listen to himself?
How strange that Gary Neville, writing on social media, should describe the Conservative Party as ‘a cancer to the UK’. Nothing greatly wrong with his choice of words, despite a furious reaction. Cancer is commonly used as a metaphor for rottenness or corruption. Those who believe Neville meant any disrespect to cancer sufferers are over-sensitive, and do not know the man.
No, what is bizarre is Neville’s aversion to Conservatives, given he has campaigned so relentlessly for government regulation of football. Whether Tracey Crouch, Nadine Dorries or Michelle Donelan — currently in charge at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, although Liz Truss never really got round to announcing this before her ruinous cameo ended — he has never met a Tory he did not want to gift the keys to the castle.
Gary Neville’s comments on the Conservatives are ironic given his relentless campaigning for government regulation of football
Frank fails his Villa interview
It was breathlessly reported that Brentford manager Thomas Frank had refused to rule himself out of the Aston Villa job on Sunday. He need not worry. Getting beat 4-0 by them probably did that.
Newcastle’s Saudi jaunt is hardly a shock
Why the fuss about Newcastle’s warm weather training camp in Saudi Arabia when the Premier League breaks for the World Cup?
We all know they are owned by Saudi Arabia, we all know they are financed by Saudi Arabia.
Where are they meant to go? Whitley Bay?
Eddie Howe will take his Newcastle side to Saudi Arabia for a training camp during the World Cup
Rainbow laces message being lost
No doubt it came as quite a shock to the Football Association when Manchester United fans began chanting homophobically during the match with Chelsea on Saturday. It is almost as if those rainbow laces and armbands mean absolutely nothing.
Platini and Co at fault for Qatar injury risk
As Raphael Varane left the field at Stamford Bridge, his face hidden inside his shirt as he forlornly tried to hide his emotions, one hopes Michel Platini and the other stooges who took this World Cup to Qatar in the middle of the European season were happy. This is their plan, their big idea.
A tournament by necessity inserted into the winter fixture programme, offering no recovery time and plenty of jeopardy for any player committed to club and country. Platini may have helped cost France one of their most important players. Let’s hope he is man enough to own that decision.
Michel Platini should be held responsible if Raphael Varane is out injured for the World Cup
Dixie Dean’s record under threat?
Erling Haaland is now a goal behind the total that won the Premier League Golden Boot in both 1997-98 and 1998-99. You will notice it is still October. Even more worrying is the extrapolation of the total he will be on if he continues scoring at this rate.
There are some records that are not made to be broken, that it is thought will remain the benchmark for all time. One such is held by Dixie Dean: 60 league goals for Everton in the 1927-28 season.
Yet Haaland is currently on course to amass between 58 and 59 goals across 38 matches. It was never even contemplated that Dean’s feat could be under threat, ever. We may be about to see something quite spectacular.
Erling Haaland’s start has been so remarkable that Dixie Dean’s record could be under threat
No enthusiasm for Fury-Chisora
Fight fans will not be alone in feeling deflated by the news that Tyson Fury will be taking on Derek Chisora, rather than Anthony Joshua, in December. Among some sports writers there was hope Fury-Joshua would offer brief respite from the rules and restrictions of a Qatari World Cup. No chance of that now. Nobody will be flying home to cover Fury-Chisora III with its enticing tag-line: Just Like The Other Two, Except Everyone’s Older.
The news Tyson Fury will take on Derek Chisora for a third time is a rather deflating thought
Huge gulf in class not doing rugby events any favours
There are two international rugby tournaments going on at the moment, and both seem increasingly defined by mismatches. England 75 South Africa 0; Samoa 72 Greece 4; Australia 84 Scotland 0; England 84 Fiji 19; New Zealand 57 Scotland 0; New Zealand 68 Jamaica 6.
Is it the Rugby League World Cup or the Rugby Union Women’s World Cup? Frankly, until the part of each competition arrives when the better teams are more evenly matched, who cares?
Valieva verdict SHOULD be published
Gaming the system as always, the Russian Anti-Doping Agency has announced it will not be releasing its verdict on Kamila Valieva, the schoolgirl figure skating sensation who failed a drugs test prior to the Beijing Winter Olympics. RUSADA are hiding behind Valieva’s age at the time, just 15. They say it makes her a protected person under the World Anti-Doping code. All the more reason why there should be a minimum age for international competition. If Valieva is old enough to compete, and potentially old enough to cheat, then she is also old enough to be judged by the same standards as the rest of the competition.