Manchester United bring ‘laptop gurus’ back and Liverpool stunned by Kylian Mbappe bombshell
Manchester United are bringing ‘laptop gurus’ and the weird arguments against them back, while Liverpool have been hit by a huge Kylian Mbappe truthbomb.
‘Smooth’ operators
It has been a long old while since Mediawatch first laughed all sorts of body parts off at elements of the old press pack raging against the rise of the ‘laptop gurus’.
‘The committee have yet to explain how they came up with the figure of £29million to sign Brazilian forward Roberto Firmino from Hoffenheim, who finished eighth in the Bundesliga last season,’ remains one of modern football journalism’s greatest lines.
Like Michael Jackson’s passing, everyone remembers where they were when Michael Edwards ‘did a number’ on Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool.
Reds fan Andy Dunn ought to know better than to dredge up the phrase while scoffing at the increase in power of ‘smooth blokes in smart suits’. But there he is in the Daily Mirror, pointing out that ‘they might play a small part but the people who are almost wholly responsible for bringing trophies to clubs’ are players, managers and owners.
It is obviously a coincidence that England’s most successful club in recent years – and by quite some margin at that – have a phenomenal structure in place littered with such ‘smooth blokes in smart suits’. Pep Guardiola once said Manchester City director of football Txiki Begiristain is “one of the reasons I extended my contract two times,” adding that the club were “incredibly lucky to have him”.
That is without mentioning the undeniable impact of the famous transfer committee at Liverpool, how Brighton chief executive Paul Barber puts their excellence down to “high quality people on, off and around the field”, or the way pretty much every other elite club either has or is trying to put such frameworks in place behind the scenes.
Players, managers and owners are quite obviously incredibly crucial, but it feels like the individuals largely responsible for signing, appointing and assisting them are pretty vital too.
But Dunn reckons ‘the cult of the sporting director…has gotten steadily out of control’ in this ‘world of transfer markets for pen-pushers, wheeler-dealers and laptop gurus’.
Make no mistake: the importance of the roles Manchester United are aiming to fill is ‘over-hyped’.
Dunn explains that Newcastle ‘should not be too worried’ about the most recent updates – as we know, Dan Ashworth is rubbish and Manchester United are pursuing a dud – because Brighton ‘sailed on serenely’ when their technical director was poached.
And that is, of course, proof that ‘smooth blokes in smart suits’ don’t actually matter, rather than an example of these brilliant structures, the sort Manchester United are trying to put in place, working precisely as they should.
The weird thing is that Dunn says ‘the Manchester United in the summer transfer window of 2024 will be a very different Manchester United from the one in the summer transfer window of 2023,’ which is curious because they’ll probably have the same manager, many of the same players and the same majority owners. And as everyone knows, that’s all that really counts.
Yet ‘there is going to be a revolutionary feel about the place’ and while the influence of these executives Manchester United are pursuing is ‘exaggerated’, ‘their recruitment shows Ratcliffe wants the best in class off the pitch’.
Why does that matter, though, when ‘the people who are almost wholly responsible for bringing trophies to clubs’ are players, managers and owners?
The crux of Dunn’s article is Harry Kane because of course it is; this is a British newspaper after all. And his overall point is that ‘if he was looking to get back to the Premier League, would the Manchester United of the summer of 2024 be more attractive to Kane than the Manchester United of the summer of 2023? Too right it would be.’
Is he ‘looking to get back to the Premier League’? Dunno. He probably fancies giving this ambitious, life-altering career move more than a single season to work out, and Bayern Munich might point to the three years he has left on his contract as a signal that they would quite like a say in the future of an employee they invested a fair bit of money on. Plus Rasmus Hojlund might not be thrilled to see his excellent form greeted with the arrival of competition who would demand regular starts.
But Manchester United targeting these directors and heads of recruitment will ‘resonate with the best in class on the pitch. And as fanciful as it seems, it might even resonate with Kane.’
tl;dr: these ‘smooth blokes in smart suits do not bring trophies to football clubs,’ their influence is ‘over-hyped’ and ‘exaggerated’ and this is merely ‘the cult of the sporting director’; but also clubs who have these executives in place might suddenly ‘be more attractive’ to elite players for no apparent other reason, and no team which has achieved consistent success recently has done it without such structures.
Xabi chic
The next biggest story in all of football, beyond the ‘smooth blokes in smart suits’ Sir Jim Ratcliffe is chasing, is the identity of Liverpool’s next manager. Who will replace Jurgen Klopp?
Many hope and expect it to be Xabi Alonso but the Daily Mirror website has some bad news:
Alonso has dream list of five clubs he could join next as Liverpool face serious competition in race to replace Klopp at Anfield
And this comes straight from Guillem Balague, who said on The Football News Show:
I’ll tell you a little secret. When he went to Bayer Leverkusen, he told his agent ‘do you know what, I am thinking that if it doesn’t go well at Bayer Leverkusen, I’ll go back to Real Sociedad. But if it goes well, from here, it’s Liverpool, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich.’ Let me add Manchester City to the equation and that’s where Xabi Alonso could go next. When, is a different matter.”
Well that’s a ‘dream list’ of three clubs Alonso could join next, because Real Sociedad is on there as a contingency in the event he messed things up at Leverkusen, and Manchester City is on there because Balague just figured he’d stick them on there.
Also, Balague said this in an episode released on February 13, so it probably doesn’t belong at the top of any self-respecting website on February 16.
Flick of the wrist
On that subject, the Daily Mirror website present news on another option for Liverpool:
Flick makes his stance clear as Liverpool search for Klopp replacement
Hansi Flick is available at longer odds to become next Liverpool manager than Antonio Conte and Jose Mourinho, level with Roy Keane and Mikel Arteta; it’s not happening. But we’re here now so go on…
Former Germany boss Hansi Flick is itching to get back into management and has changed agents to make it happen.
Okay. What’s that got to do with Liverpool?
Sky Sports Germany report that Flick is on the shortlist for the Barca job and has also had inquiries from the Premier League in recent weeks.
There is no indication those ‘inquiries from the Premier League’ have come from Liverpool, though.
Whether he is of interest to Liverpool remains to be seen…
It doesn’t; he isn’t. But at least his ‘stance’ is finally ‘clear’: football manager wants job after a few months out.
Echo chamber
Phenomenal work from the Liverpool Echo who, having spent the best part of six years pretending on and off that the Reds might sign Kylian Mbappe, have decided that the announcement of his imminent free agency is the best possible time to reveal the following:
Despite Liverpool being huge fans of the player, the financial model of Fenway Sports Group meant there was never any realistic chance of such a transfer.
Mbappe isn’t coming to Anfield, and, in truth, almost certainly never was.
Could have done with those quite obvious admissions a while ago while you were busy pretending there was ever a real prospect of it happening. The question is: whose name will they put in the headline of every LIVE transfer blog now?
Who are we kidding? The answer is still Mbappe. Look…
Liverpool transfer news LIVE – Kylian Mbappe exit date confirmed, Trent Alexander-Arnold injury, Tim Steidten approach
Textbook.
