Chloe Kelly nailed on for SPOTY after ‘epic stuff’ from England
We can only start in one place, with England and with that nerveless penalty from Chloe Kelly. What. A. Player.
Send your view on England’s women and anything else to theeditor@football365.com
The votes are in already
Chloe Kelly SPOTY
Fantastic.
Brian (BRFC)
…YES. Come on England!!
Chloe Kelly. What. A. Player.
Jack, 31, London
READ: England retain the Euros: 16 Conclusions on heroes Carter, Hampton, Kelly and a broken leg
Appoint Wiegman and Carsley
Lee Carsley back to back U21 Euros winner with England. Sarina Wiegman back to women’s Euros winner with England. They should be appointed as joint managers of the senior men’s England team who would then have a great chance of winning the men’s World Cup next summer.
Dan, London
The future is bright
I watched the match like night with my 10-year-old nephew. He’s a proper football lad. Obsessed with Spurs (sadly) knows every stat of every player, has all the cards, stickers etc.
What was so nice last night was to see this knowledge extended to the women’s game. He knew the best players, the clubs they played for, who had won the Ballon D’or. And he was thrilled when England won.
No sarky comments, no need to compare to the men’s game, no putting anyone down. Just enjoyment of the football.
The future is in good hands.
Mike, LFC, Dubai
An odd e-mail to send just after full-time
If we can say Mikel Arteta looks made of Lego, surely we escape censure saying Sarina Weigman looks like an extremely anxiety-ridden Sally Field (and the Spanish gaffer looks like the cat from that angry cat meme that used to make the rounds) ?
Congrats to the Lionesses… epic stuff.
Eric, Los Angeles CA
Stop with the ‘woe is me’, Newcastle fans
I’m struggling with the “woe is me” attitude emanating from Newcastle fans at the moment. They’re acting like they are victims of a process, that they themselves didn’t sign up to and agree with.
There is a view that PSR was designed to “protect” the big clubs and I honestly don’t agree with the sentiment in the slightest.
Let’s presume that big clubs spend the most, win all the trophies and are regularly in the Champions League.
It’s worth looking at this, based on the last 5 years worth of data (while excluding 25/26 because nothing has been set in stone in terms of results or final spends.) meaning a data range from 2020/1 to 2024/25. I will concede very early on here that the next 5 year window, will show Liverpool sitting much higher up in the net spend data columns. So let’s have that chat in 12 months.
Who took out Champions League spaces during this time?
City (5x)
Liverpool (4x)
Arsenal (3x)
Chelsea (3x)
Spurs (2x)
United (2x)
Newcastle (2x)
Aston Villa (1x)
Seems pretty mixed. If you then go back to Leicester winning the league, then as of 2016/17, 9 clubs competed in the champions league. 45% of the league if you will.
That being said, I am sure you’re saying who cares, those clubs all spend WAY more than everyone. So.
Which clubs had the highest net spend* during this period?
*Using net spend as it reflects transfers being able to fund transfers and aren’t viewed in isolation).
Chelsea: £927m
United: £620m
Spurs: £525m
Arsenal: £489m
Newcastle: £415m
Villa: £237m
Liverpool: £236m
City: £-70m
Outside of those 8 clubs both West Ham and Forest have a higher net spend than both Man City and Liverpool. Newcastle have spent £179m more than Liverpool during this period. Weird.
What does the above suggest?
Spending loads doesn’t guarantee success. Neither West Ham or Forest have made the champions league once for example. And let’s be clear, Newcastle will remember the League Cup for much longer than the joys of finishing 4th/5th.
During this 5 year period the following clubs won a trophy (or multiples) domestically and abroad (this includes the Euro Conference) – City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs, Palace, United, Leicester, and West Ham. If I was being generous, I’d include a Community Shield for Arsenal. I won’t be, it is a large dinner plate and a friendly.
A total of 8 clubs also picked up honours, again, almost half of the league won something (big or small). Note the absence of Arsenal and Forest in that period too, despite large investments and adhering to PSR rules.
So what’s the conclusion to this data?
Clubs all collectively have more cash than ever but also waste more cash on transfers that don’t pan out, or help drive them towards an outcome of either silverware or joining the Champions League elite.
Newcastle will compete in the Champions League for the 2nd time in 3 seasons and that is in part due to Arsenal’s performance in the Champions League securing 5th place gets in. If Arsenal had faltered, Newcastle would be in the Europa League and no doubt having to accept that Isak would naturally want to leave, and that targets would also look elsewhere.
Someone with a longer lunch break would no doubt work through Wage Bill for this argument because it does have an impact and that can’t be denied. However, if that limit is based on revenue vs salary as a percentage, I don’t imagine it would hugely change the narrative.
It is also worth calling out that Newcastle has the 7th largest stadium in the league, which is greater than 20,000 seats less than United. I could be wrong, but spending money on facilities like Stadiums, sits outside of PSR considerations…
In conclusion
Newcastle, if you had a better structure in place at a senior level, and bought better players, you wouldn’t give two shits about PSR. But because you’ve not been able to use unlimited funds and “cheat” like City and Chelsea (allegedly) have, you’re crying foul.
And, if I am right, if another one of the clubs like Palace or West Ham went down the City route, you’d be screaming that was wrong too.
Sustained success improves commercial success. All the key components are there, it just can’t be done via a short cut any more and that’s ok too. Make peace with it. You’ll enjoy the game more I would hope.
Barry (Perth)
(PS: Data for net spend was sourced from the web, there are no promises that is accurate so potentially squashes chunks of this email)
READ: Liverpool fifth in Premier League net spend table over the last five years
More credit for Slot please
I thought Dave Tickner saying that Slot merely benefited from continuity and didn’t change much was a bit unfair. Describing Ryan Gravenberch’s positional shift from a very average to poor winger into the league’s best defensive midfielder as a “notable improver” as the season went on is a bit of an insult to both what Grav managed and what Slot saw in him.
Howe has done a great job switching Joelinton from being a very average striker into a pretty good central midfielder but I am not convinced any manager in the league since Wenger reimagined Thierry Henry as a striker instead of a Winger has had as huge an impact as Slot did switching Gravenberch.
The rest I take Dave’s point…Slot barely had to change anything although somehow the entire team stayed fit all season whereas Klopp was constantly going from one injury crisis to another towards the end of his Liverpool tenure. I’m sure that doesn’t imply a revolution from a training perspective. And of course the fact Liverpool rarely played the football we all got used to under Klopp doesn’t speak to Slot making any tactical changes.
Slot did still play 4-3-3 though just like Klopp. Except both imagined the entire purpose of the tactic rather differently which reflected in the way the teams look so different from one another despite the same people standing in the same places notionally on a tactics board…because in fact they did not take up the same positions on the actual football pitch when actual football was being played.
Anyway…I take your point. He barely had to turn up to win the league. It was Klopp’s title. We just never would’ve won it if Klopp has been in charge.
Minty, LFC
Spurs: Not idiots
You ran an article about Spurs transfer fails, and thanks, because I didn’t know we’d ever thought of signing Rivaldo.
But to attribute the Gibbs White saga to incompetence on the part of Tottenham is unfair. He’s a grown man and decides where he plays, and if he chooses not to move and to sign up to stay at Forest, that’s fair enough. Maybe his family is settled there or he feels loyalty to the club.
We made a bid, it didn’t work for the other parties, so the transfer didn’t happen. That’s not Spurs idiocy, that’s life.
Sam E
Man Utd’s next level
The Times have run an article saying that Cunha can take United to the next level. It made me smile. The next level for United is finishing 12th. The level down is relegation.
It will never not be funny.
Alex, South London
Could Gyok be the new Wrighty?
Whilst a striker from the Portugese league is no guarantee of success, a forward who has got their act together later than anticipated age wise and is hungry would be most welcome as the new Ian Wright. He didn’t do badly.
Ted Bythesea
Enjoying the Editor arsiness
It’s been a long time since I last wrote. But this isn’t going to be another boring mail on Victor Gyokeres or Alexander Isak. I would give my left kidney for a mailbox full of points on the UEFA Women’s Euro 2025, something else, anything else.
But I digress; the reason I’m writing this email is to tell you that your replies in the last mailbox were spot on, and that was the most enjoyable part of that mailbox. Particularly, the responses to people who think they know more than actual football writers and analysts.
Anyway, cheers to you, Ed. Here’s to more responses to snobby and sniffy F365 mailboxes.
Gaptoothfreak, Abuja, Nigeria
