the times | Thursday February 3 2022 2GM 71
Sport
to get stupid yellow or red cards. I got
a stupid card, no excuses. I did wrong.”
He was not, as assumed, shown a
second yellow for sarcasm towards the
referee but because he was
“aggressive”, which he finds
incredulous. “When I see what is said
to the fourth official on the touchline,”
he says, “I think I am very boring.”
He cannot, though, be boring as a
Premier League manager and is
recognised in his local Waitrose in
East Sheen, southwest London, more
often these days. “When you walk
down the street and people look, you
think: did they recognise you? I try to
be myself as much as possible.”
On Saturday Brentford face
Everton in the FA Cup, a difficult
game to prepare for, he says, because
the Merseyside club have a new
manager who has yet to set up his
team. Frank will, though, field a
strong side — the best way, he says, to
prepare for the league game four days
later against Manchester City. And
then, next up, will be The Christian
Eriksen Show — as close to a tear-
jerker for neutrals as football gets.
Fifa won’t stop
Dane playing
at World Cup
Fifa says that it will not prevent Christ-
ian Eriksen from playing at the World
Cup but will screen all players before
the tournament to discover anyone at
risk of a cardiac arrest.
Eriksen, who said he “died for five
minutes” after collapsing on the pitch at
Euro 2020, has set himself the target of
playing for Denmark in Qatar.
Fifa had rules on cardiac screening
for the 2018 World Cup in Russia but
says that the final decision will be taken
by the player and his country’s associa-
tion if any problem is flagged up.
A Fifa spokesman told The Times:
“When it comes to Fifa competitions,
all players must undergo a cardiac
screening to ensure that they are fullyThe quick
actions of the
Denmark team
played a big
part in saving
Eriksen’s life
after he
collapsed during
a Euro 2020
match last June;
his wife, Sabrina
Kvist Jensen, left,
was pitchside
as Eriksen was
treated and
taken to hospital
where he
recovered, rightSilva was close to ending his
stay at City last summerMarginalised Hitchen leaves
Spurs technical director role
Tom RoddySteve Hitchen has resigned from his
position as Tottenham Hotspur’s
technical performance director after
becoming frustrated with his reduced
role at the club.
Hitchen’s influence declined after the
appointment of Fabio Paratici as
managing director of football last sum-
mer. Hitchen, 45, had been the de facto
director of football after returning to
the club in 2017 but, after Paratici’s ar-
rival, Hitchen had little involvement in
the past two transfer windows or the
managerial appointments of Nuno
Espírito Santo and Antonio Conte.
Hitchen and Paratici developed a
friendship over the nine months work-
ing together but Hitchen had already
started to consider his future.
The pair even had a strong bond
before becoming colleagues, after ne-
gotiating a deal for Paulo Dybala to join
Tottenham from Juventus in 2019 — a
transfer that later collapsed.
Hitchen quit yesterday, on the eve of
his fifth anniversary at Spurs, with
Everton among the clubs interested in
hiring him as part of the restructuring
at Goodison Park.
The former Blackburn Rovers,
Macclesfield Town and Bangor City
defender first began working at the
north London club as a scout in 2005.
He had been recruited by Damien
Comolli, the former sporting director,
and is believed to have been involved in
the signing of players such as Luka
Modric. Hitchen left Spurs for the first
time in 2010 and was recruited byComolli again, this time at Liverpool,
where he was involved in the signing of
Luis Suárez from Ajax.
He returned to Tottenham in 2017 as
chief scout and was the last remaining
member of the football hierarchy that
took the club to the Champions League
final two years later under the former
head coach Mauricio Pochettino.
Hitchen was criticised by some sup-
porters for his recruitment, however,
having been responsible for the
signings of Tanguy Ndombele, a club-
record transfer, and Giovani Lo Celso,
who both departed during the January
transfer window, with Conte keen to see
them leave.
Ndombele has rejoined his former
club Lyons on loan and yesterday
blamed the managerial changes during
his brief time at Tottenham for his
disappointing performances.
Speaking at his official presentation
as a Lyons player, Ndombele said: “I’m
happy to be back. I’ve known five
coaches in 2½ years [at Tottenham]. It’s
not their fault but I had a little trouble
at Tottenham. I wanted something else.
Lyons, as I know, is better for adapta-
tion.
“Tottenham is not over, I still belong
to the club. I did not have any pressure
with the amount of my transfer.”
A Tottenham statement said: “We
can confirm that technical
performance director Steve Hitchen
has left the club. Steve was a scout at
the club from 2005-10, before returning
in 2017. We thank him for his work
over the years and wish him well for
the future.”City confident Silva
will sign new deal
after positive talks
Pol BallúsManchester City are confident that
Bernardo Silva will sign a contract
extension with the club after holding
positive talks with his representatives.
The 27-year-old, whose deal runs
until 2025, was close to leaving the club
last summer when he considered a
move to Spain that would have brought
him closer to his family.
Having remained at the Etihad, he
has played a starring role in City’s domi-
nant Premier League campaign and the
club have not hesitated to begin
conversations over a new deal.
Sources close to the squad say
that several players feel City is
the best place in the world to
play possession-based foot-
ball and that is understood to
have been an important fac-
tor in convincing the Portu-
gal international to stay.
With the two Spanish
giants, Real Madrid and
Barcelona, far from their
previous dominance in
the Champions League,
City’s displays in England
have strengthened their
position as one of the top
clubs in Europe.
A new deal seemed un-
likely last summer, when
Silva was keen to leave
after struggling to adapt toliving in Manchester during the first
Covid-19 lockdown. The club were
understood to have a gentleman’s
agreement to sell him if the right offer
came and Silva’s agent, Jorge Mendes,
studied several options until the last
week of the summer transfer window.
One of them was understood to be AC
Milan but none of the potential moves
convinced the player.
“Bernardo Silva is an exceptional
player,” Pep Guardiola, the City man-
ager, said last September after the
transfer window closed. “All I
want for him is to be happy. The
number one priority is happi-
ness, because he is a guy who
deserves the best.”
Once it was confirmed that
he was staying in Manchester,
Silva started playing some of the
best football of his career. He
has eight goals and two assists
to his name so far this season,
although his impact in Guardio-
la’s system goes beyond the raw
statistics.
“Bernardo is the best [player
in the Premier League],” Guardio-
la said last December after a
superb run of form. “When we
made 98 points two or three years
ago, he was the best too. Take the
videos and you will see.”
Silva will be following in the foot-
steps of his team-mate and close
friend João Cancelo, who
signed an improved con-
tract, lasting until the sum-
mer of 2027, on Tuesday.aware of anything that could affect
their health. The ultimate decision is
taken by the player and the relevant
member association.” Each participat-
ing country has to confirm to Fifa that
its players have undergone a pre-tour-
nament medical assessment.
Eriksen was released by Inter Milan
because Italian football has a ban on
those with implantable cardioverter
defibrillators competing. Eriksen told
Danish TV channel DR Sport last
month: “My goal is to play at the World
Cup in Qatar. If everything goes as it
should, then I hope I can. Whether I get
selected is completely different, and
whether I can find out how to play foot-
ball is something completely different.
But I’ve had the dream that I can come
back... and I can come back.”
Brentford sold a record number of
shirts after confirming that Eriksen
would be the club’s new No 21. It was the
biggest single day of shirt sales at the
club outside a new kit launch. Buyers
originated from Greenland, South
Korea, Australia and the United States,
while there was as many from
Denmark as England.WOLFGANG RATTAY/AFP/GETTY IMAGEShismpaignand the
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mMartyn Ziegler, Tom Roddy