Mediawatch: Alexis Sanchez wants Spain or England or…

Headline for our times
‘Football Manager simulates how Kylian Mbappe would do at Real Madrid, PSG, Arsenal, Liverpool and Man City’ – Mirror.

Somebody is going to get kicked in the gonads for missing Man United off that headline.

 

Boys from Brazil
The MailOnline’s (not the Daily Mail’s, let’s make that very clear) obsession with footballers on holiday takes them to Brazil this week. Or rather it takes them to an Instagram post of three men in Brazil.

The headline?

‘Liverpool stars Roberto Firmino and Philippe Coutinho joined on holiday in Brazil by Barcelona ace Neymar.’

‘On holiday’? Or just ‘out for the night because they all, you know, come from Brazil’?

 

One rule for one…
The Daily Mail’s Martin Samuel has praised Monaco for doing ‘what they do in France’ and giving Tiemoue Bakayoko plenty of first-team football last season before selling him for £35.1m to Chelsea. And this is because Chelsea are evil and do not do the same thing with their young players. Thus, Monaco are to be praised. Well done, Monaco.

The Daily Mail’s Martin Samuel feels a little differently about Southampton, who ‘sell their best players’ and merely ‘have a fine Academy that generates revenue’. This is because he hates Southampton. Thus, Southampton are to be derided. Boo to Southampton.

 

Chalobah humbug!
Of course, Mediawatch cannot leave Martin Samuel there. Wonderfully, he is urging Nathaniel Chalobah to refuse a new contract with the Premier League champions and ‘do a Solanke’ so he can walk out next summer. Never mind that Chalobah himself has enjoyed his year with Antonio Conte, saying “I’ve learned so much from him tactically” and has a Premier League winner’s medal he seems quite happy about…

…because Samuel has decided that he has just wasted a season and will waste another if he remains at Chelsea under a brilliant manager.

‘What if he now takes the signing of Bakayoko personally and decides that, 23 in December, he is running out of time to be noticed? He can let his deal run down, as Solanke did, and leave on the cheap, too.

‘Maybe the club will react with annoyance and this will cost his place in the squad. But, even if he is frozen out this season, what is he actually missing? One start when it no longer matters? A few substitute appearances that lead nowhere.’

Mediawatch has been looking at that photograph above and to us, Chalobah looks pretty happy with his ‘one start when it no longer matters’ and his ‘few substitute appearances that lead nowhere’ (except a Premier League winner’s medal and a place in the England Under-21 squad that may lead to more glory’). He doesn’t look like it was all a bit pointless.

It is easy to equate his situation with Solanke’s but it is also wilfully misleading. When Solanke refused a new contract with Chelsea, he had played just once – for 17 minutes against NK Maribor. Right now, Chalobah has played 15 games for Chelsea and was included in 29 Premier League match-day squads last season. And just this week he said this:

“We won the league and I have got competition ahead of me in (N’Golo) Kante, (Cesc) Fabregas and (Nemanja) Matic. And we’re talking European Cup winners, World Cup winners and full internationals, and these are players that you can learn from every single day, in terms of what they do on the pitch and the way they are off the pitch.”

How about we let Nathaniel Chalobah decide whether he wants to ‘reject Chelsea before they reject him’?

 

Oh when the Saints…
Mediawatch cannot spend too long on Martin Samuel’s latest nonsense about Southampton but claiming that you ‘could argue’ that Swansea and Stoke are ‘more successful’ than the Saints is quite some claim. You could argue that, but you would be a damned fool with a massive axe to grind.

‘Let’s see, Swansea won the League Cup in 2013 and have gone further than Southampton in Europe…’

Yes, and they have just fought a relegation battle in a season that saw them employ three different managers. They have only once finished in the top eight over the last five years, which is a feat achieved in four successive seasons by Southampton.

‘Stoke have reached as many domestic finals this decade and got to the Europa League’s last 32.’

‘This decade’? Just about. They reached a domestic final in 2010/11, when Southampton were still in League One. And they have never once finished in the top eight.

Mediawatch suspects that Southampton fans are rather happier than their lot. But why let that get in the way of yet another pop at a club that has no ‘ambition’ (despite spending more on transfers over the last five years than every club bar the top six)?

 

Swap shop
The Daily Star’s back-page splash – courtesy of Chief Football Writer Dave Woods – claiming that Manchester City and Arsenal were in discussions about a straight swap deal featuring Sergio Aguero and Alexis Sanchez prompted three reactions in Mediawatch…

a) “Bullsh*t.”

b) “Yes, because straight swap deals always happen…”

c) “Wait a minute, hasn’t Dave Woods had an Alexis Sanchez transfer exclusive before?”

The answer to c) is that yes, the man who once advocated Sean Dyche for the Arsenal job claimed in March that ‘Alexis Sanchez has decided to quit Arsenal this summer and return to Spain’. Spain, you say? Well, Sevilla in particular because Sanchez ‘is a big fan of their boss Jorge Sampaoli, his former national team manager’. Never mind that Sevilla have neither the money nor the status to attract Sanchez, Woods believed he would move to Sevilla just for Sampaoli (they don’t even have him now). As Woods wrote…

‘Paris St-Germain and Juventus have already been strongly linked with a player who has bagged 20 goals in 34 appearances for the north Londoners this season.

‘He could also net a massive rise by moving to China, where several clubs have expressed an interest in him.

‘But he is believed to favour a return to Spain, where he spent three years with Barcelona prior to moving to Arsenal in the summer of 2014 for £30m.’

Almost four months have since passed and Woods has forgotten all that Sevilla nonsense and has instead plumped (and we do think ‘plumped’ is the right word here) for a swap deal with Sergio Aguero. But what about his burning desire to move back to Spain?

‘Paris St-Germain are also keen on Aguero but it is understood the Argentine prefers to stay in the Premier League.’

Contrary sod.

 

Big, bigger, biggest
Mediawatch’s favourite line in Woods’ nonsense:

‘A swap deal involving Aguero and Sanchez would be the most stunning straight exchange ever seen in the Premier League, but could prove ideal for both of the big-hitters.’

Bigger than Kenwyne Jones and Peter Odemwingie in 2014?

 

Lac who’s talking too…
According to Sky Sports, June 26: ‘Arsenal are in talks with Lyon to sign their highly-rated striker Alexandre Lacazette, according to Sky sources. The Ligue 1 club’s president Jean-Michel Aulas has told the forward, who came close to an exit last year, he can leave for £44m this summer.’

Which is odd because Jean-Michel Aulas himself has since spoken to L’Equipe, and has been in turn quoted on Sky Sports saying:

“We are talking about 50m to 60m euros [£44m-£53m], Arsenal are ready to pay for Lacazette. It will have to be at least that.

“Everyone knows that Atletico’s offer is 53m euros plus 12m bonus. That’s 65m euros [£57m]. As the leaders of Arsenal are well informed, they will be in those waters.

“But frankly I have not thought about Arsenal for the moment. I thought Alexandre would stay because of the failure, initially, with Atletico Madrid.”

Those ‘Sky sources’ didn’t quite get the full picture, did they?

 

Mystery man

Who could it be? Who could it be? Who could it be?

It’s Anthony Martial.

 

While we’re there…

Mediawatch notes the exclamation mark! She probably doesn’t judge him on his cars…

 

Recommended reading of the day
Matt Stanger on the importance of Paulinho to Barcelona

Paul MacInnes with Rachel Yankey.

Ed Aarons with Stefan Kuntz.