The Times - UK (2022-05-23)

the times | Monday May 23 2022 1GG 9

thegame

Gregor Robertson

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TONY

CASCARINO

Weekend talking points

For the second successive week,

Manchester City’s big players

dragged them out of trouble and

proved their worth.

Like the previous Sunday at West

Ham United, City were terrible in the

first half against Aston Villa. Steven

Gerrard’s side were in control and it

appeared City could throw the title

away. Ollie Watkins, like Michail

Antonio previously, was causing their

back four problems with his runs in

behind, making Pep Guardiola’s

decision to start Fernandinho at

centre back and John Stones at right

back all the more bizarre. I was not

surprised when Oleksandr Zinchenko

replaced Fernandinho at half-time.

Yet, in another similarity with the

week before, they did not panic when

they went two goals behind. Top

players have the ability to turn it on

Inexperience cost

Arsenal and Arteta

City’s title winners showed their

millions were shrewdly invested

Alan Hansen’s ill-timed “you

can’t win anything with kids”

line is true in almost any situation,

as the top-four race proved.

Immaturity cost Arsenal against

Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle

United. Building a squad that

matches the likes of Spurs for

experience is Mikel Arteta’s priority.

Klopp needs to buy

marquee midfielder

Liverpool were also poor on

the final day. They looked

tired, and Thiago Alcântara going

off is a huge blow before the

Champions League final. He is key

to their midfield, but the modern

game is too quick to play through

injury, so he must recover quickly to

face Real Madrid this Saturday.

I am less concerned about the

impact of missing out on the title.

Jürgen Klopp will spend hardly any

time reviewing the Wolverhampton

Wanderers game and will instead

get his players focused on the final.

Liverpool are set to challenge

City for the title again next year,

but I expect them to make a big

signing this summer. Naby Keita

can get caught out and James

Milner is nearing retirement, so

splashing out on a midfielder would

be my choice. They will not be short

on players keen to join them.

Leeds and Burnley

gambles pay off

Jesse Marsch deserves lots of

credit for guiding Leeds United

to safety. He overcame injuries, a lack

of transfers and the pressure of

succeeding a club legend. Sacking

Marcelo Bielsa paid off. Equally, Mike

Jackson did a good job at Burnley and

I doubt they would have got more

points had they kept Sean Dyche.

— that is why you invest in them —

and City have such personnel in

abundance. Ilkay Gundogan and

Rodri provided that spark yesterday,

and their goals mirrored the famous

efforts of Vincent Kompany and

Sergio Agüero during City’s previous

title campaigns. Yes, the club has the

funds to sign such players, but finding

those that can be trusted to produce

brilliance at such moments requires

more than deep pockets.

On a darker note, the pitch

invasion by City fans emphasised how

the game has changed. Gone are the

days when the players could celebrate

with fans or share a pint after a game,

as was the case when I began my

career. The incident involving Robin

Olsen was a concern, but for the most

part the fans were more interested in

celebrating City’s victory.

Burnley

Cornet 69^1

RATINGS

Burnley (5-3-2): N Pope 6 — N Collins 5, K Long 6,

J Tarkowski 6, C Taylor 6 — C Roberts 5

(W Weghorst 46min, 6), J Cork 6, J Brownhill 6

(A Lennon 73), D McNeil 7 — A Barnes 5, M Cornet 7.

Booked Tarkowski.

Newcastle United (4-3-3): M Dubravka 7 — K Trippier

7, J Lascelles 7, D Burn 8, M Targett 7 — S Longstaff

8, B Guimaraes 7, Joelinton 4 (J Murphy 11, 6) —

M Almirón 7 (M Ritchie 89), C Wilson 8, A Saint-

Maximin 7 (C Wood 72).

Referee C Pawson.

Attendance 21,361.

Newcastle United

Wilson 20 (pen), 60^2

ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

The Burnley fan was wearing jeans

and a green hoodie. He was probably

in his fifties and when Wout

Weghorst fired narrowly wide after

sliding in at the far post, the man

reacted by falling to his knees and

punching a concrete step.

When news had reached him that

Leeds United were winning, he

muttered three words: “Shit, shit,

shit.”

When it was all over, officially, at

5:56pm, when Burnley and Leeds had

stopped playing, the tears came.

Burnley’s players, to a man, stood

motionless on the pitch. Their world

had crashed. Some then went to their

knees. Nathan Collins and Weghorst,

big men, cried openly on the pitch

from which they had not been able to

summon one final act to rescue a club

that could not afford to go down.

There is a “significant proportion”

of a £65 million loan to be repaid

soon, after six years of living the good

life with England’s elite, as result of a

leveraged buyout in 2021. The cost of

this relegation could be huge.

Burnley are likely to need the first

of the three parachute payments,

which will total £90 million if they are

not promoted within the next three

years, to deal with that. The sale of

top players like Maxwel Cornet and

Dwight McNeil would also seem

probable.

Mike Jackson, who went from being

the club’s Under-23 manager to

Tears at club who could

not afford to go down

succeeding Sean Dyche, who was

sacked on April 15, would not speak of

his own situation as interim boss. He

did, though, find the words to explain

the depth of his own devastation.

“I will suffer, yeah,” he said. “That

won’t go away for a long, long time. It

won’t. It won’t go away. It will always

be there. It is something I will have to

live with. It will never go away.”

On Burnley’s future, he added:

“There are good people at this club

and they will want to bounce back. I

think it’s hard to come out and say

what will happen. There will have to

be a time for reflection and the club

will have to take small steps to find a

way back.”

It was 2-1 when Weghorst, a

substitute, slid in at the far post to

connect with an Ashley Barnes cross.

It was the wrong side of the post. It

was not Burnley’s day. In injury time

Cornet missed another great chance

when sent through, failing to get the

ball out of his feet and in the mêlée

that followed Martin Dubravka, the

Newcastle goalkeeper, would fly to his

right to deny Barnes. That was it,

then, Leeds would score a second

soon after.

An old ground fell silent, bar the

celebrating Newcastle supporters,

tucked away in a corner of the

stadium.

On the Longside — what used to

be a vast terrace on the side of

Turf Moor — they had given it

their best. They stood and

clapped their players off; a final,

defiant chant of “Burnley”

came from the Barnfield Stand,

next to the cricket pitch.

Their side had trailed

from early in the game.

It seemed too much

for them, in those

opening stages —

the enormity of what

rested on something

as apparently simple

as 90 minutes of

football.

They would never

lead, all afternoon.

What joy such a

dramatic final Sunday

held in the Premier League was

always, agonisingly, out of each.

They trailed from the 20th minute.

A 17th-minute corner was sent over

from the Newcastle left by Kieran

Trippier and when Nick Pope came

he could only slightly touch the ball

with his right hand. It would look

much worse in replays, but some

instinct in Collins kicked in, and he

flicked out his right arm, clipping the

ball and taking it away from Sean

Longstaff. Immediately, Newcastle’s

players surrounded Craig Pawson,

there then came news that a VAR

check was taking place and,

inevitably, he was instructed to go to

a pitchside monitor and a penalty was

awarded. Callum Wilson slotted

home from 12 yards. Burnley had not

started, apparently buckled by the

pressure upon them.

Allan Saint-Maximin was denied on

a breakaway and just past the hour he

teed up Wilson for a second.

Something stirred then, Burnley

remembered to play. In the 69th

minute Cornet had an effort saved by

Dubravka and then smashed the

rebound into the Newcastle goal.

The volume went up, in London,

Brentford scored and that swept

through Turf Moor like a shot of

adrenaline. They were all up then, all

over the ground. Jack Cork had a

shot cleared off the line by

Matt Targett. Cornet saw a

header taken by Dubravka,

Jackson put his head in his

hands.

But then Leeds

scored and the

emotions

flattened once

more.

“We’ll meet

again,” sang

Newcastle’s fans.

Nobody knows

when.

“Today was a

very difficult day,

I’ve got

emotional ties to

Burnley,” said

Eddie Howe. “It

hurts to see the

club relegated. I

hope they bounce back

very quickly.”

MARTIN HARDY

NORTHERN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT

Weghorst applauds the

fans as Burnley go down

The future for Phillips and
Raphinha may yet lie away from
Elland Road, but Marsch will
regardless get the chance to
spearhead the post-Bielsa era.
“There’s so much to do,” Marsch said.
“I’ve heard a lot about how we always
think we have to do it the hard way.

“Part of the job of being the

manager of this club is to change that

mentality. We deserve more.

We have an incredible club;

an incredible team. I’ve heard this

is the Leeds way. But I’m not

buying into that. I only see the

potential.”