Teenage
Mutant Ninja
Turtle...Rafael’s
signing videoLeft out...
Giorgio ChielliniREPORTS WE COULDN’T MAKE UP
1
DROPPED
36-year-old veteran Giorgio
Chiellini might have thought
he’d heard every excuse in football,
but even he must have been
surprised to hear why he’d missed
out on Italy’s Nations League clash
with Bosnia & Herzegovina.
When asked after the game why
he’d chosen to drop the World Cup
winner,Azzurriboss Roberto Mancini
toldFootball Italia: “It was my fault.
They showed me the line-up, I didn’t
have my glasses on and just said it
was fine. I didn’t notice Acerbi was
there rather than Chiellini.”2
CZECH B TEAM
COVID-19 once again had
a big impact on a football
match, this time in the UEFA
Nations League clash between
Czech Republic and Scotland.
The Czech’s first-choice squad
was quarantined after two players
tested positive for coronavirus,
forcing them to call up an entirely
new selection. All 23 players were
domestically based, and only
two had previous international
experience. In spite of this,
the Czechs scored first, before
eventually going down 2-1.3
UNITED CITY FC
No, this isn’t an ill-fated plan
to try to combine the strength
of the two Manchester clubs, but
a response to the coronavirus
pandemic by MMC Sportz Asia.
The sports marketing firm createdthe Philippines-based club after
purchasing Ceres-Negros FC,
champions for the last three
years, and renaming them.4
THE CASE OF THE
MISSING TROPHY
While outlining plans to build
a museum that would showcase
their greatest achievements, the
Egyptian Football Association came
across a problem: they have lost
their AFCON trophy.
After winning the competition
for the third time in a row in 2010,
the North Africans were allowed to
keep the trophy, yet a decade on it
is nowhere to be found. Both CAF
and the EFA are conducting an
investigation into the case.
In1966, the World Cup
trophy went missing ahead of the
tournament, before being found in
London by a dog called Pickles.5
HEROES IN A HALF SHELL
Istanbul Basaksehir are the
latest club to announce a new
signing with an unusual video.
The player in question is former
Manchester United defender Rafael,
with the theme of the video inspired
by the cartoon,Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles. With the Brazilian full-
back (almost) sharing a name with
one of the shelled crime-fighters,
Raphael, the Turkish champions
revealed their new addition to the
sound of the programme’s theme
tune, and got the new boy involved
by giving him an eye-mask.
In England, Tottenham new
boy Matt Doherty’s reveal was
more downplayed, with the signing
announced via a video of him
deleting an old tweet saying: “I love
Arsenal forever and ever and ever.”GLOBAL FOOTBALL INTELLIGENCE
has yielded to something more physical
and all four Spanish Champions League
exits at least in part resulted from not
being able to cope.
Perhaps this is inevitable after a run of
such sustained success. To keep winning
is, almost unavoidably, to invite inertia.
Why would anybody change a formula
that is successful? The tendency will
always be to keep doing what works.
But as players age, or move on, and new
players struggle to integrate, that offers
the opportunity for others to overtake.
In the super club era, the problems
are magnified by the fact that they are
essentially unassailable domestically.
Last season was one of the worst in
Barcelona’s history and yet they still
came second.
There is entropy and complacency,
and that is seen most surely at Atletico,
a club that has forged its reputation in
not being complacent. For what feels
like an eternity, they have been locked
in a debate about style: how far can the
anti-futbolof Simeone take them, and
do they need to become more expansive
if they are ever to challenge Real Madrid
and Barcelona in the long run? The
familiar pattern played out: a summer
spree, some indifferent results, then a
return to basics and improvement.Joao
Felix, the iconic signing, didn’t even start
against Leipzig. He made a difference
when he came on, before being shut
down whenJulian Nagelsmann changed
shape and introduced Tyler Adams. The
sense throughout was that Leipzig were
simply tougher and smarter – two areas
in which Atletico would have expected
to dominate.
It’s only one season – and Sevilla did
continue their exceptional record in the
Europa League – but it does feel that
football is moving into a new era, one in
which the tactical ideas of Spain have
been supplanted by those of Germany.
Error...Raphael
Varane cost Real
Madrid against
Manchester City