"In the event of Leonardo's departure, the profile of Fabio Paratici appeals to Qatari decision-makers. He was already in competition with the current sporting director of PSG to take the job in 2019."
Alternatively, PSG are too much of a hornet's nest for any self-respecting DoF to risk their reputation on ...anyone know what Comolli is up to?
Coach Mauricio Pochettino and France striker Kylian Mbappe, 23, are set to lead the high-profile exits from Paris St-Germain this summer. (L'Equipe, via Mirror) Expect Levy to try to take the piss out of Conte this summer if he thinks he can get Poch in. Conte either takes it or leaves…win/win for Levy Another summer meaningful spend avoided Ndombele/Lo Celso return with Levy hoping Poch will get the best out of them since he wanted them so bad bookmark this
Has Conte ever considered doing some training on set-pieces? I know it's been an issue for us for years, but we seem to be getting worse, if anything.
What gets me is we continue to be vulnerable to set pieces from the exact same areas we were routinely conceding from eighteen months ago Has somebody put a curse on an oddly specific part of every pitch we play on?
There it is again @Dier Hard. I'm reading this as: we lack real leaders in the squad. There are individuals who really need to step up to help us in our bid for the top 4, but they just don't. Not sure why he would make this a talking point if it isn't one. We've long said that Hugo isn't captain material but in 11 years no-one else has emerged or been brought in who looks more qualified. That in and of itself is symptomatic of the core issue, which is a staggering lack of leadership qualities across our most senior/experienced players.
Didn't Poch specifically say something along the lines of he wasn't looking to bring in leaders, but players who could become leaders? While he did instill an attitude of giving everything the players had for the cause such as Lamela or Dier, none of them really stood up and led - and that’s continued because we continue having several loyal, committed squaddies like Hojbjerg but they vary from being Vasquez one game and Hudson the next without a Hicks to hold things together
Well if he did say that he was moronic for thinking you can train someone to be a leader. And it explains volumes about how long it took for his signings to integrate into the team and play regularly. You can certainly train people to be more comfortable in leadership roles, or to develop leadership qualities. But at this level of elite sport it's the natural born leaders who make all the difference. I look at Luis Diaz at Pool and yes, I accept he is playing for a much better team, but the guy moves mid season to a superior league and just gets on with it. He looks ice cool and fearless. I like that in a player and it is one of the things I really liked about Lamela. Put Coco's mentality in Son's body and you have one of the best players in the world. For far too long we have signed 'confidence' players who look good but then crawl up their own backsides at the first poor performance. That's what's been refreshing about Kulu and to a lesser extent Bentancur. First signings in a long time who arrived and simply got on with it. And yes, as Hojbjerb regularly demonstrates, there is a world of difference between being a leader and a cheerleader.
I’m reading it as he’s hardly gonna say “come on Winks and Doherty, we need you!”. It’s a no brainer he’s asking Kane and Son (plus Lloris), they’re the ones who generally win us games. Moura who at one point people were saying was having his best season is on 2 league goals… says it all. Been a long while since we’ve had a team performance like the good Poch days where we had multiple players being responsible for wins, whether it was via dominant midfield performances or exceptional assists/ goals. If say we had “good” players instead of Kane and Son, let’s say Ings and Zaha, we’d be 12th-15th in the table with this squad. But because we have excellent players like Kane and Son, we’re still in with an outside chance of top four and that’s why these two - especially Kane - are far from the problems at this club.
Jose came in and said the same. That Dier was the only one in the squad who was really vocal about giving a **** and leading the team. Kane and Lloris were more leaders by example. FWIW I think we saw a lot of examples of Hugo being really vocal with the team during Covid and empty stadiums, Ali Gold talks a lot about how much you could hear him communicating from the stands. But GK is a difficult position from which to influence the team. Jose got a lot right at Spurs in terms of diagnosing the issues, but he was just never the man to fix them. We have plenty of players who can set the tone by their actions but we’ve badly needed more talkers too, for some time.
Paris St-Germain have made contact with Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte, who has a clause in his contract that allows him to leave Spurs at the end of the season. (Calciomercato, via Football Italia)
Just to avoid confusion I’ve quoted the below extract from Rwaeb’s post from the West Ham match thread as I figured my response would be more appropriate for here, lol. I think the best thing I'm seeing under Conte is who is definitely reliable going forward into next season. There had been reasons/ excuses made for some under previous managers but it's getting very clear to me as to who Conte will build around, assuming he himself stays. I’d say Kane (if he also stays), Son, Lloris, Kulusevski, Bentancur, Romero and Dier are his current untouchables. Lloris’ long term replacement will obviously need to be worked on though. Davies, Reguilon, Skipp and Hojbjerg are what’d I’d say are first teamers but can drop to the bench if/ when better options arrive. Skipp can and likely will be promoted to the above bracket with development. Lucas and Sanchez are his go-to squad players. Could be sold, especially for the right price but I think Conte would prefer to keep around for numbers purposes. Sess and Tanganga are also players I think Conte will keep, Sess especially if Reguilon returns to Madrid. After that, futures are much less certain. With varied reasoning, most of; Rodon, Doherty, Emerson, Winks, Ndombele, Lo Celso and Bergwijn are more likely to leave than stay. Youngsters like Scarlett, Etete, Parrott, White, John, Devine, Sarr and Gil will be assessed in the summer as to whether they should be loaned or kept around.
I think that Davies offers us an opportunity to upgrade, but he'd still be very useful in the squad. If we can find a left-footed Romero and keep the Welshman, then that'd be perfect. It's just a shame that he's not homegrown because of a very stupid rule.
Yeah agree, I think he’s had a decent season since Conte came in but he’s the one who’s most easily upgradable. Always been a steady Eddie though, something that I think over the years has been very much under appreciated by our fanbase.
Skriniar's been linked again in the last day or two, and given how Conte usually sets up a backline that would indicate a Romero - Dier - Skriniar back three with Davies on the bench Interestingly, if that were to happen, that would also give us flexibility as having Davies as a left-sided Romero would also allow us to play a right-sided Skriniar, which Sanchez would be right now
If Winks leaves it’ll be because he wants game time. Conte has repeatedly said he sees him as a reliable squad player.
