Ravens' 370-pound prospect from Nigeria has 'come light years'
It's hard to miss C.J. Okoye. That's how it works when someone is 6-foot-6 and 370 pounds.
But he's also making his presence felt on the football field with his play now, too.
Okoye had a sweet rush of the QB in Baltimore's preseason opener before knocking Daniel Jones to the ground.
Ravens coach John Harbaugh said Okoye is "making good use of all that size he has" and that "he's come light years."
MORE: Shedeur Sanders shows his NFL Draft slide might've been a mistake
Okoye grew up playing basketball in Nigeria, but he eventually was invited to a football camp hosted by former Giants star Osi Umenyiora that tries to identify football talent from African countries.
That earned him an invite to the 2022 NFL Africa camp in Ghana, and he played offensive line there.
It was then on to the NFL International Combine in London, where he was one of 13 players chosen for the NFL's International Pathway Program. And from there, he trained at IMG Academy in Florida and was one of eight guys who made the final cut that year.
Okoye was allocated to the Los Angeles Chargers, now as a defensive lineman. He recorded a sack in his first preseason game, the first organized football game he had ever played in.
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The Chargers kept him on their practice squad each of the past two seasons.
This offseason, the Ravens signed Okoye to a reserve/future contract in January.
Now, he's trying to prove he deserves his NFL regular season debut, and he's certainly making an impression.
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New York Times
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- New York Times
James Milner interview: ‘There's no hiding place now. Cameras in the dressing room? That can't happen'
The 24th season of James Milner's Premier League career began with a knock on the door of his hotel room at 5.15am on June 2, just eight days after the previous campaign had ended. He was on a golfing trip in America with a group of friends, but while the others were sleeping off their jet lag before the day's play, Milner and fitness coach Adrian Lamb were ready for work. Advertisement 'The 2025-26 season starts here,' Lamb told him with a grin — and so it did, a gruelling gym session representing day one of a 10-week build-up to the new campaign for the Premier League's oldest player. The Brighton & Hove Albion midfielder and Lamb go back a long way — to the summer of 2004, when the latter was taken aback by the sight of an 18-year-old Milner forcing his way to the front of the pack during a running drill on day one at Newcastle United under Sir Bobby Robson, an unexpected rival to the late Gary Speed's crown as the king of pre-season fitness testing. Milner's Premier League story goes back even further than that: as a 16-year-old, straight out of school, suddenly thrust into the first-team squad at Leeds United, training alongside his heroes, making his debut and then becoming the Premier League's youngest goalscorer nine days before his 17th birthday while still living with his parents. And look at him now, more than two decades later, five months short of his 40th birthday, 15 matches away from Gareth Barry's record of 653 Premier League appearances, counting down the days towards Brighton's opening game at home against Fulham on Saturday. He has come back for more despite spending most of last season on the sidelines, worrying that he might not even be able to walk again — never mind play again — after complications arising from knee surgery left him unable to move his foot for months. Pre-season was very different in those days at Leeds and Newcastle in the early and mid-2000s. 'You didn't get the balls out for the first two weeks,' Milner says. 'These days, you get your fitness from your football sessions on the pitch. Those sessions are intense, but it's a lot more ball-oriented as opposed to that base running on beaches and in forests, doing drills until someone was sick. Advertisement 'In those days, there was one fitness coach (at a club), two maximum. These days, you come in for pre-season and the first two days are pure testing: running tests, jumping tests, nutrition tests, blood tests, fat tests, balance tests, concussion tests, strength in your legs, your teeth, your eyes.' In his time at Liverpool, Milner was famed for winning the pre-season 'lactate test' — a brutal exercise which tests players' aerobic endurance and measures their lactic acid level — year after year. Having joined Brighton two years ago, he is no longer allowed to do some of the exercises — not to spare his younger team-mates' blushes but 'because of my age and because they're looking after me'. 'But I'm still covering a good distance when I play,' he says. 'The high-intensity running and top speed have come down a little, but I can still get about the pitch. And they say as you get older, the first couple of yards are in the head.' Did he ever question whether he wanted to carry on after last season's frustrations? Was there not a part of him that was starting to feel that, like Danny Glover's world-weary cop in the Lethal Weapon movies, he was 'getting too old for this s**t'? 'I always wanted to carry on,' he tells The Athletic at Brighton's training ground. 'But there were major doubts about whether I could. For a long time, I couldn't lift my foot up. That's probably enough for most people to have doubts about me. I can't really explain the feeling of trying to lift your toes, straining with everything you've got, and nothing is moving. 'Sean Duggan (Brighton's physio) did an incredible job looking after me all the way through. But with me not being able to lift my foot, we were both thinking it could be, 'That's it. Finished. Thanks for coming.' 'But we broke it down, took the time, worked hard to get the foot moving again and got the knee as strong as we could. It was a monumental effort on Sean's part to get me fit to come on at Spurs (in the final game of last season), and then the work has continued over the summer. I had literally a week off and then, from the start of June, I was straight on it again, trying to get ready for the season. Nothing changes.' Nothing changes? It is tempting to say that, since 2002, Milner has been the one constant in an English game that has changed almost beyond recognition. That 2002-03 season was the last time David Beckham played in the Premier League, the last Manchester City played at Maine Road, the last Chelsea spent under the ownership of Ken Bates before their history — and the entire ownership model in English football — was transformed by the Roman Abramovich takeover. Advertisement It is extraordinary to think that a player who played under a manager born in 1933 (Robson) is now working for one born in 1993 (Fabian Hurzeler). Likewise to think that a player who sat on the Leeds bench alongside former England goalkeeper Nigel Martyn (born 1966) for his Premier League debut in November 2002 — and immediately came up against a West Ham United full-back born in 1963 (Nigel Winterburn) — now shares the Brighton dressing room with a £30million ($41m) centre-forward born in 2007 (Charalampos Kostoulas). 'Mad, isn't it?' Milner says. 'We were working it out the other day and 15 of the lads here (Brighton) weren't even born when I made my debut — something daft like that. There are lads I played with at the start of my career whose sons I'm now playing with or against: (Bournemouth forward) Justin Kluivert, I played with his dad (Patrick) at Newcastle; I played with (Derby County midfielder) Bobby Clark at Liverpool and played with his dad (Lee) at Newcastle; (Brighton winger) Tommy Watson's girlfriend is (former Leeds full-back) Ian Harte's daughter.' This season might even bring him up against Arsenal's 15-year-old prodigy Max Dowman, who was born on the final day of 2009 — by which time Milner was already an England international with more than 250 senior appearances to his name at club level. Without wishing to make him feel even older, Milner was probably already in his thirties at Liverpool, retired from international football, by the time Dowman first heard his name or found his image in a packet of football stickers. It is one thing to break through early. It is quite another, having done so, to stay on the Premier League treadmill for 23 seasons and counting. It is often suggested that modern sports science has normalised longevity, but it isn't really true. Players such as Cristiano Ronaldo (40), Luka Modric (39), Lionel Messi (38) and indeed Milner are freakish exceptions. Should Milner appear in the Premier League after his 40th birthday in January, he will be only the fifth outfield player to do so and the first since Ryan Giggs and Kevin Phillips, both of whom were born in 1973. Greater professional standards and advances in sports science might have helped to increase players' longevity, but set against this is the increasing speed and physical requirements of the modern game, which in many cases seems to shorten careers at the highest level, particularly among early starters. Milner puts his longevity down to a combination of good fortune — he was an outstanding athlete from an early age — good influences (starting with his parents), good habits and a willingness to make sacrifices. As a teenager breaking into the first team at Leeds, he decided alcohol would not be part of his life. His unstinting dedication to his trade has at times seen him described as boring. So many hugely talented players fall victim to pitfalls of one type or another early in their careers. Even among those who make it to the highest level, many seem jaded by the time they reach their late twenties or early thirties. You don't have to think too hard to come up with examples of those who have either lacked a Milner-type mentality in the first place or who, whether sated by success and riches or weighed down by negativity, seem to have lost it somewhere along the way. He is diplomatic when it comes to other players' career trajectories — 'every situation is different and everybody is different' — but as a senior professional, dating back to his days at Liverpool and even before that at City, he has often felt compelled to take young players aside and spell out both the size of the opportunity and the number of pitfalls that lie ahead. Advertisement 'You've got to want to do it,' says Milner, whose drive was evident when working with him on his book about life as a footballer in 2019. 'You've got to have the love for it and the drive to do your best every day, season after season. The drive is probably the one reason I'm still playing. That thing of, 'I don't really feel like it today', I've never really had that. 'It's not easy when you're injured and you're in the gym every day, doing your rehab, or when you're getting up stupidly early on holiday to train. But if I didn't have the drive to do that, it would probably be time to retire.' As a 16-year-old playing and scoring for Leeds in the Premier League in 2002, Milner was earning £70 a week and still required to perform all the duties of a first-year apprentice — 'cleaning the first-team players' boots, picking their dirty kit up off the dressing-room floor'. With his first win bonus, he went out and bought 'my own phone line, my own Sky (satellite television) box and my own TV' for his childhood bedroom. It is a world away from the scenario faced by the Premier League's teenage stars today, many of them multi-millionaires while still in their teens. In some ways, Milner feels the integration from academy to Premier League is smoother these days for young players such as Ethan Nwaneri, 18, and Dowman at Arsenal and 16-year-old Rio Ngumoha at Liverpool. 'They're having proper training sessions at academies three times a week from eight years of age, playing tournaments all over the world in front of big crowds, getting used to it,' he says. 'It is more natural in some ways. There's all the support they have in academies these days. They're treated as professionals from a very early age. 'But the money, the social media, the hype… I don't think any of that makes it easier. It becomes so easy to get ahead of yourself. It's all thrust on them so early and there's no hiding place for them, just because they're amazing at football and playing first team at 16, 17, 18. Advertisement 'Everything is so public. There is talk about having cameras in dressing rooms, which for me is an absolute no-go. That can't happen. 'Some people are wise beyond their years, like (Brighton's 20-year-old midfielder) Jack Hinshelwood, but you have others who might be equally talented who have had a different upbringing and different journey and they're expected to grow up in public and somehow not make mistakes. 'They're on holiday, trying to get away from the pressure of it, and people are there with camera phones, recording their every move. And it's going to grind you down. Then you get criticised, which is obviously a lot harder to take. And maybe it can get to that point where, for lads who have had all that from the start of their career, with that buzz and that energy, it starts to become a bit tiresome. 'And then if you're not getting a proper break in the summer, that becomes even harder. That's another topic in terms of how many games people are playing. Every other year, players should get a full rest in the summer. But instead, it's more and more games, less rest. With the Club World Cup and all of that now, it's getting ridiculous. 'If you're expecting players to play from 18 to 32/33, when are they going to get a break? Everyone will burn out. It's going to become completely impossible.' If there had been no way back last season, if the doctors had told him it was over, would Milner have been able to make peace with that? 'One hundred per cent, yeah,' he says. 'I don't think it would be the ideal way to finish any career, but I've been incredibly fortunate. I've played two careers, really. Some people are lucky enough to get eight or 10 years in the Premier League. I've had… what's this? Season 24? Last season was unfortunate, but what have I got to moan about? You get to 34, 35 and you start to think, 'If it ends at any point now, I can't complain'.' Advertisement He was extremely grateful for the offer of a new one-year deal at Brighton at the end of that injury-ravaged campaign. He doesn't know whether this one will be his last. 'But if it is — maybe, maybe not — it would be nice for it to be more positive than last year was,' he says. What does he still hope to achieve? 'It's about being part of it and contributing to the team,' he says. 'That's always been it for me, to help drive the team and the club forward. I came here because I can see this club going places. This club is in a great position. We've got some great young players, a great young manager. 'The club's journey over the past 20 years or so has been incredible and I don't think it's beyond the realms of possibility to get into Europe again or win a trophy this season. There's so much potential here. We just need to keep pushing forward.' Is breaking Barry's record something he thinks about? 'Only every time I do an interview and I get asked about it!' he says. 'I keep hearing it's 15 games (to equal it). Fifteen games when you're 21 doesn't sound like much. But this time last year, I started the first three league games and then I was out for nine months. I might play every game this year or I might not get anywhere near it. 'It's one of those: if I get it, fantastic, but to be honest I would rather be remembered for winning every domestic trophy with two clubs (Liverpool and City) or winning the Champions League (Liverpool) or scoring in the Premier League for Leeds when I was 16.' Milner has had plenty of time to think about what might come next. At one point, he doubted whether he would be tempted into management or coaching, but he has earned his UEFA B and A Licence qualifications and, though he is yet to do the Pro Licence, he spent his time on the sidelines last season smartly, working closely with Hurzeler and his staff on an informal basis 'to give me a taste for it'. Advertisement 'I wasn't doing any actual coaching on the pitch,' he says, 'but I did a lot of stuff with the manager and the coaches — game prep, videos, stuff like that. I learned a lot from being in the meeting rooms and the manager was open to me giving my opinion on certain things. That was great, and hopefully I was bringing some value from his point of view as well. 'Whenever I do hang up my boots, I would still need that competition, whether that's in football, out of football, management, whatever other options there might be. I would fancy running a marathon or a triathlon or Hyrox, which combines running with sledge pulls and things like that. 'But whenever it is, I think a little break will be on the cards. It's been quite intense for 24 years or whatever, so I'll want to spend some time with my family.' The 24th season of Milner's Premier League career will involve a new shirt number: the No 20, which he will wear in honour of his former Liverpool team-mate Diogo Jota, who, along with his brother Andre Silva, died in a car crash in northern Spain on July 3. 'I loved the guy, absolutely loved him,' Milner says. 'Loved him as a player, loved him even more as a team-mate and a friend, absolutely loved him. Carlos (Baleba) wanted to change his number (Brighton's rising-star midfielder now has the 17 shirt), so the No 20 became available and it felt like the right thing for me to do. Every day when I put my kit on, I'll think of him. 'We were only together at Liverpool for three seasons and you might not have thought we had much in common — different nationalities, very different ages — but we hit it off immediately. Maybe it was because we were both so stubborn. Honestly, people say I'm stubborn, but Jots could give me a run for my money. 'He was an unbelievable guy, one of my favourite team-mates I've had in all my time playing. He was always up for a laugh, always winding people up. He was one of those you could put in any corner of the dressing room, next to any other player, and he would click with them straight away.' Advertisement They messaged each other the night before the tragedy. 'Nothing major, just checking in and asking each other how things were going,' Milner says. He was at Brighton's training ground when the terrible news began to circulate on social media that Thursday morning. 'Someone asked, 'Is that true?' and I didn't know at that point, obviously,' he says. 'I messaged someone at Liverpool to try to find out and… just horrific. Not many tougher days than that.' Liverpool arranged a charter flight to take a group of players to Portugal the next day for the funeral. Milner was determined to be there even if it meant a five-hour drive from England's south coast after training. In his attempt to make it to Merseyside, he ended up snarled in traffic on the M25, so he flew out from Luton instead. He is hugely grateful to Brighton, as well as to Liverpool, for allowing him to pay his respects. The footage of Jota's former team-mates arriving in his hometown of Gondomar late that evening, before the funeral the following day, is harrowing. Milner describes the whole experience as 'devastating' but says he felt 'privileged to be able to pay my respects with the other lads and to spend a small amount of time with his wife and his family, which was important. It's horrible to see a family go through that, but it's the least we can do, to show them we're there for them.' Milner looks and sounds like someone who still cannot believe what has happened. He keeps coming back to the same words: 'devastating', 'horrific'. At the same time, Jota's death has brought certain things into sharp context, about how fragile life — and within that, something like a football career — can be. 'It goes back to what we were saying about the season and life in general, about enjoying it, getting what you can out of it,' Milner says. 'As you go through life, you get these reminders that every day is precious. You only get one go at a football career. You only get one go at everything, so you've got to give it everything you've got.' Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
New York Times
a minute ago
- New York Times
The Alternative Premier League Table: No 1 – Making sense of season predictions and projections
Introducing The Alternative Premier League Table, a new series you can enjoy on The Athletic every Thursday during the season. We all know how compelling it is to stare at a league table. Whether your team is in the middle of a winning run or mired in terrible form, five minutes looking at the standings can convince you that a hundred different futures are possible. Advertisement Everyone knows the standard layout of a league table, and ours will contain several of those elements. What it will also have each week is one or two guest metrics that tap into the conversations taking place across the competition. It could be how the 20 sides are performing versus their expected goals, how many teenagers each team have fielded so far this season, how sides take corners, or how many times the coaching staff have been shown yellow cards. Frankly, the possibilities are endless — and exciting. Our aim is to enhance your holistic knowledge of the most popular football league on the planet, unearth and explain some of the season's underlying trends. Each week, Anantaajith Raghuraman will analyse the whole division, but in week one, with the games yet to begin, he starts by breaking down the Premier League season predictions and projections… The Premier League is back, and that means everyone from armchair fans to the most advanced supercomputers has plenty of thoughts about how the next nine months will play out. Opta's expected points model — based on 10,000 simulations of the upcoming season using their team strength model — is a solid starting point. And the first edition of The Alternative Premier League table below orders all 20 teams by their xPT (as of Monday, August 11). We have also included The Athletic's staff predictions by way of comparison. Oh, and you can sort the table by any metric each week by clicking the column title. While xPT will be our starting point for assessing the new season, it would be remiss not to acknowledge some of its limitations. Recent competitive form — which for most clubs means the 2024-25 season — is a significant indicator, which may explain some of the rankings in the above table. While taking in transfer activity via the impact of player trading on betting markets, the metric cannot measure the projected success of signings or the impact of departures. The same applies to managerial changes, too. Keeping all that in mind, we have divided the 20 teams into three distinct categories. Last season's big-name underperformers, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, have been similarly rated by the xPT model, with predicted finishes of 12th and 14th, respectively. United have retooled their attack by spending about £200million ($270m) on Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko. The need for an athletic midfielder and perhaps a reliable goalkeeper remains but this now feels like a squad with enough depth for a no-European-games campaign. Advertisement Ruben Amorim's methods required time on the training ground and following a busy preseason, they should get plenty of it during the campaign too. Their start to the campaign, by Opta's fixture difficulty scale, is the toughest in the league with Arsenal, Fulham, Burnley, Manchester City and Chelsea in their opening five games. Results early on, a Conference League spot and a deep cup run should be bare minimums for Amorim's second season. Who has the hardest (and easiest) start to the season? It's bad news for Manchester United, Bournemouth and Arsenal fans... United start with Arsenal, Fulham, Burnley, Man City and Chelsea — the hardest first five games of any team, based on Opta Power Rankings. Arsenal's… — Opta Analyst (@OptaAnalyst) August 11, 2025 As for Tottenham, Europa League success has been followed by the departures of coach Ange Postecoglou and captain Son Heung-min, and the arrivals of new coach Thomas Frank, winger Mohammed Kudus, and midfielder Joao Palhinha. The misfortune with injuries that hit the club for most of last season has continued into this summer. James Maddison may well be out for the entire season with a knee injury, while Dejan Kulusevski is still recuperating from knee surgery and Dominic Solanke missed plenty of pre-season. Playing in the expanded Champions League will pose its challenges, too. Tottenham hit their absolute floor in the league last season, but pre-season and Frank's press conferences have hinted at promise. Their expectation should be to finish somewhere between sixth, as predicted on average by our staff, and 14th. Newcastle's projected finish — above weekend opponents Aston Villa — may raise eyebrows too. Their form to end last season was middling, with two wins in their final six games, while their transfer window, as has been discussed endlessly, has been a struggle. With Callum Wilson gone and Alexander Isak — as it stands — in effective exile, a frontline that boasts Anthony Elanga, Anthony Gordon, Harvey Barnes, and Jacob Murphy still needs some extra firepower. Advertisement Pre-season has been tricky too, with defeats against Celtic, Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, and the K-League XI. While Newcastle have kept hold of many of their key players, have added defender Malick Thiaw and are pursuing forwards before the end of the window, their midfield still feels light outside of the first-choice trio of Bruno Guimaraes, Sandro Tonali and Joelinton. Joe Willock, who is currently injured, and Lewis Miley are their only real backups, which explains the interest in Jacob Ramsey. Ahead of the season's first game, it's tough to see them combine another top-five finish with Champions League participation. The wave of optimism has reached the banks of Selhurst Park too, with the xPT model seeing Crystal Palace mount a seventh-place finish. Success in the FA Cup and Community Shield are undoubtedly a factor, as is the fact that they have — so far — kept hold of their core from last season. Even considering all that, Conference League football is bound to take its toll and Palace's squad is not deep enough. Wide defender Borna Sosa is their only outfield addition of the window so far, while Eddie Nketiah, Matheus Franca, Cheick Doucoure, and Chadi Riad are all injured. Daichi Kamada joined that list after hobbling off against Liverpool at Wembley. The futures of Marc Guehi and Eberechi Eze are in doubt, too. Unless there's a flurry of activity in the final weeks of the window, a club-record seventh-place finish feels far-fetched. The same may be felt about Brentford, predicted to finish 10th by the xPT model. Along with Frank, his coaching staff and Mbeumo, they have also lost captain Christian Norgaard and goalkeeper Mark Flekken, while Yoane Wissa could depart too. The foundations currently in place should serve new manager Keith Andrews well. Caoimhin Kelleher and Jordan Henderson are handy additions, while Kevin Schade, Mikkel Damsgaard, Nathan Collins and Yegor Yarmolyuk, among others, are fantastic players. Advertisement Having finished 10th last season, a regression looks likely, though relegation — as predicted by a fair few of our staff — may be a step too far in a negative direction. Fulham, after an 11th-place finish in a campaign where they competed for a European spot for large swathes, have been predicted to drop all the way to 15th. They have been the least active Premier League side in this transfer window, only signing goalkeeper Benjamin Lecomte from Montpellier. Rodrigo Muniz, who has 17 league goals across the last two campaigns despite starting just 26 matches, is being linked with a move away. If so, he will need replacing but with most of last season's stars and Marco Silva still at Craven Cottage, another top-half finish shouldn't be ruled out. The three newly-promoted sides are an apt place to start this tier. Sunderland have signed Reinildo, Granit Xhaka, Noah Sadiki, Simon Adingra, Omar Alderete and Marc Guiu (on loan), with more deals in the works too. While some may deem a predicted finish at the very bottom, below Burnley and Leeds United, to be unfair, there is an undeniable 2018-19 Fulham feel to it all. At best, Regis Le Bris' team could fight for 17th. But a season akin to 2023-24 Luton Town and 2024-25 Ipswich Town ending in relegation after inciting brief whispers of 'Could they do it?' is a very real possibility. Leeds have also bolstered their ranks. Lucas Perri should be an upgrade over Illan Meslier, while Sean Longstaff, Jaka Bijol and Lukas Nmecha add Premier League-level physicality and potential. They drew with Manchester United, Villarreal and Milan in pre-season and the need for a goalscorer is evident, hence the upcoming signing of free agent Dominic Calvert-Lewin. Leeds' vocal fans and proud history are welcome additions, and the club will hope our staff's 17th-place prediction comes true. But a Daniel Farke departure midway through the season and a swift return to the Championship by the end of it are also very much on the cards. Advertisement Burnley head coach Scott Parker's Premier League record (nine wins and 30 losses in 52 matches) is only a minor improvement on Farke's (six wins and 35 losses in 49 matches). Parker's side have a more solid defensive identity than Vincent Kompany's 2023-24 side, but the overall structure of Burnley's squad should still breed scepticism. They are a largely inexperienced team with few Premier League-ready starters. They might put up a better fight than they did last time out in the top flight, but it's difficult to see them displace one of the established names. If one of these three are to stay up, Wolves could be that team to make way, according to our staff, who predict them to finish 19th, and they are not too far away on xPT either at 17th. They have lost three trusted players in captain Nelson Semedo, Matheus Cunha, and Rayan Ait-Nouri, with the latter two contributing a combined 19 goals and 13 assists in the league last season. Vitor Pereira has done an admirable job so far. Jhon Arias and David Moller Wolfe profile as direct replacements for Cunha and Ait-Nouri, and Fer Lopez is a talented player too. Jorgen Strand Larsen's loan deal from Celta Vigo has been turned permanent but he is the subject of interest from Newcastle United. Wolves still need more incomings, potentially in central midfield and central defence, to build on the second half of last season. At the other end of the table, the usual suspects Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester City are expected to fill the top three in exactly that order. A three-pronged fight for the title is on the cards, with all three teams given sizeable probabilities of a finish across the top three by our staff… … and Opta's prediction model. Liverpool are the consensus favourite to repeat their title success after adding Hugo Ekitike, Florian Wirtz, Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong, all of whom started their Community Shield defeat on penalties to Palace. Isak and Parma defender Giovanni Leoni may yet be added, too. Optimism at Anfield is through the roof but Arne Slot admitted after last Sunday's match that they need to find a balance between attack and defence. Liverpool have conceded 11 goals in seven games in preseason, having taken 14 games to do so in the league last season. Arsenal, meanwhile, struck that balance in their final preseason match, a 3-0 win over Athletic Club. Marquee signing Viktor Gyokeres scored while the Spanish side were limited to just two shots all game. Martin Zubimendi looks at home in midfield alongside Declan Rice, while Noni Madueke, Norgaard and Cristhian Mosquera, along with teenage sensation Max Dowman, have shown their value across pre-season. Jurrien Timber, Gabriel and Riccardo Calafiori are back to full fitness too. The vibes are good and having come second thrice in a row, perhaps this will be Arsenal's year. How their reconfigured attack functions will be decisive. As for Manchester City, they will have to cope with a Rodri-shaped hole in midfield in the early weeks at least, with the Spaniard not expected to be fully fit before the September international break. The 3-0 pre-season win over Palermo showed that Tijjani Reijnders and Rayan Cherki together could provide some solutions in and out of possession. Pep Guardiola finally has a true left-back in Ait-Nouri, while Omar Marmoush should be better after a full pre-season. Advertisement Defensive transitions could hurt them again if Ilkay Gundogan and Bernardo Silva are forced to play lots of minutes, but otherwise, this City team is much better equipped to deal with the top two than last season's. Right below the current 'Big Three' are Chelsea. Another busy summer has included Club World Cup success (and the theatrics that came with it) in the U.S. and eight arrivals, including Joao Pedro, Liam Delap, Jamie Gittens, Jorrel Hato and Estevao. This still-massive squad has been trimmed too, with 11 permanent departures. Levi Colwill's ACL injury is the only blot on an otherwise successful preparatory period that has included convincing wins over Bayer Leverkusen and Milan. This is still an inexperienced team, so a title charge could perhaps be a step too far but given their quality in depth, they can trouble all of Liverpool, Arsenal, and City. Nottingham Forest, 11th on the xPT table and predicted to finish 12th by our staff, round out this tier. An unexpectedly successful 2024-25 season had a further win at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which confirmed Forest's presence in the Europa League, replacing Crystal Palace. The summer has seen one key change in Elanga's departure to Newcastle, but the other changes have been around the periphery, with Danilo, Ramon Sosa, Andrew Omobamidele, Matt Turner, and Harry Toffolo all leaving. Dan Ndoye, Igor Jesus, Jair Cunha, and Angus Gunn have joined. Even when considering Nuno Espirito Santo's simple tactical improvements, Forest overperformed in many regards last season. Can Chris Wood score 20 league goals from just 13.4xG again? Will tiring legs and the variance that accompanies their direct approach turn in the opposite direction as they did late last season? The dreaded Thursday-Sunday double-act will undoubtedly bring complications too, and a fall-off feels inevitable. Aston Villa have had a quiet summer, which has led to varying opinions on their floor and ceiling. Evann Guessand is the only signing expected to improve their senior squad that did not bring Marcus Rashford, but kept hold of Ollie Watkins (for now). Ramsey could depart to Newcastle, but Emi Buendia, back from a loan spell at Leverkusen, could act as his in-house replacement. Advertisement Villa dropped two spots in the league last season after finishing fourth in 2023-24 and will also tread the Thursday-Sunday path this season. Another drop-off would be understandable but with Unai Emery, a settled squad, and the likes of Newcastle, their opening-day opponents, in turmoil, maybe less is more, and a European spot for the fourth season running is in the post. Also expected to compete for a European spot once again are Brighton and Hove Albion, predicted to finish ninth by our writers and eighth on xPT. They have been busy this summer, adding Charalampos Kostoulas, Maxim De Cuyper, Diego Coppola and Olivier Boscagli, while Joao Pedro, Simon Adingra, Pervis Estupinan and Valentin Barco have all departed. Joao Pedro, who scored 10 times in 27 league games last season, could be a big miss. Kostoulas, only 18, has big boots to fill alongside 34-year-old Danny Welbeck. Brighton's defence has improved on paper, though, and if they can hold onto Carlos Baleba amid interest from Manchester United, they should be primed for another season in and around the elite teams. Everton provide a more interesting case study. The second half of last season under David Moyes has prompted optimism, which has been compounded by the arrivals of Thierno Barry and Jack Grealish (on loan), even if fans remain divided on the new Hill Dickinson Stadium. Our staff have them finishing 14th, while the xPT model has them one place higher. But a quick glance at my colleague Carl Anka's amnesty for outrageous takes ahead of 2025-26 has seen several suggest Everton to fight for a top-half finish or even European qualification. Moyes did that with West Ham when few expected him to, so it may not be beyond the realms of possibility. Speaking of West Ham, they have said goodbye to multiple players, including a few stalwarts, this summer. Michail Antonio, Aaron Cresswell, Lukasz Fabianski, Vladimir Coufal, Kurt Zouma and Danny Ings have all left upon the expiry of their contracts, while Kudus was sold to Tottenham. El Hadji Malick Diouf, Mads Hermansen, Kyle Walker-Peters and Callum Wilson have joined. Advertisement A full pre-season should aid Graham Potter after the team struggled to break out of its Julen Lopetegui funk in the second half of last season. But the ceiling of this team still looks quite bleak, with our writers expecting them to finish 15th while they are 16th on xPT. Perhaps West Ham will surprise us all, but after the topsy-turvy nature of the last three seasons, nobody knows what to expect apart from Jarrod Bowen (13 goals and eight assists in the league last season) to be good again. The final team on this list are Bournemouth, coming off a summer in which they lost Milos Kerkez to Liverpool, Dean Huijsen to Real Madrid and Illia Zabarnyi to Paris Saint-Germain, while Kepa Arrizabalaga departed after his loan spell. Adrien Truffert, Bafode Diakite and Djordje Petrovic have come in, with more activity expected before the end of this month. Keeping hold of Andoni Iraola and Antoine Semenyo is a positive and the hope will be for fewer injuries after Adam Smith, Evanilson and Luis Sinisterra all spent extended time on the sidelines. Lewis Cook, Ryan Christie and Enes Unal are all currently on the injury table, though. Dango Ouattara could depart amid interest from Brentford, with The Athletic reporting on Wednesday that Bayer Leverkusen's Amine Adli could be his replacement. Bournemouth are ninth in xPT and were picked to finish 11th by our staff but could end up several places either side of those due to the chaotic nature of their football and big-name departures from last season's successful core. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
New York Times
a minute ago
- New York Times
Hansi Flick and the unique challenges of a second season at Barcelona
Back when he was Barcelona manager, the legendary Johan Cruyff used to say there was no tougher time in a managerial project than the second season at a club. The Dutchman saw it as an especially difficult period because a coach faced greater pressure and expectation than in the honeymoon days of their debut campaign — while still having to face the risks of reinvention. Advertisement This is exactly the stage Hansi Flick's Barcelona is entering now. But sticking on the topic of former managers for a moment longer, the situation at the club now feels a lot like an accelerated version of Frank Rijkaard's Barca — a team that was also led by Joan Laporta in the senior offices. After Rijkaard landed in 2003, his debut season was a successful one as Barca progressed significantly to finish second in La Liga behind Valencia, an improvement on the previous season's sixth under Louis van Gaal. The next season, having strengthened with additions that included Samuel Eto'o and Deco, they looked ready to take the domestic throne — and they won La Liga and the Copa del Rey. The evolution kept going, and one season later they won the Champions League, beating Arsenal in the 2006 final. Flick's team won a domestic treble of La Liga, Copa del Rey and Supercopa titles in his debut year last term. And his team is more talented than the one Rijkaard inherited. The season has not begun, but this Barca side now looks miles better than they were a year ago. Spirits are higher. The manager's ideas are well-absorbed. Every squad member has his role well-defined — and accepted. This summer's reinforcements of Joan Garcia and Marcus Rashford provide clear improvements to areas both the coaching team and the sporting direction wanted to bolster. Barcelona's players know they are in a good place. But they also seem convinced they can go further still and achieve greatness. There is a feeling of unfinished business within the squad, mostly related to the Champions League. Last season's semi-final heartbreak against Inter is still firmly in the minds of all dressing-room members, who want to use it as fuel to dream big again. The ambitions are massive. But there is room for improvement too. And knowing what we know about Flick, it wouldn't be surprising to learn that he is already well aware of the potential perils Cruyff was pointing to. Advertisement Flick has already proved excellent in navigating the particular challenges posed by Barcelona's entorno — the description coined by Cruyff (literally translated as environment or surroundings) to describe the unique pressures that constantly swirl around the club. Rare is the manager who does not fall foul of its fiery nature. Flick has shown himself to have something of a superpower when it comes to being a Barcelona manager; he does not want to be involved in the noise around the club any more than he has to be — a contrast to many previous coaches. He knows it's there, but tries not to care too much. Barca not only approves of his approach, they have taken steps so that he can pay it even less attention. This summer, Barca restructured their communications department, adding a new role of first-team director of communications. This was taken up by Gabriel Martinez, who previously worked at Barcelona-based PR firm Roman and Spanish bank Banco Sabadell. The idea behind the move was for the new position to act as a bridge between Flick and Deco, as well as other senior executives, to make sure key decision-makers are on the same page and there is a unified message on key talking points across the club. Ultimately, it means Flick should not have to worry too much about the busy world of Barca politics. Instead, he has to focus on the pitch, which is exactly what he wants to do. Flick's biggest challenge right now is improving Barca's defensive structure. His team did not have an awful defensive record last season; their 39 La Liga goals conceded were the fourth-best in the competition, one goal more than Real Madrid, nine behind Atletico and 10 behind Athletic Club. But there was certainly a sense that, at certain moments against certain teams, things could really get out of hand. Advertisement Barca let in seven goals against Inter over the two legs of their Champions League semi-final. Earlier in the competition, both Benfica and Borussia Dortmund put four past them in single games. Flick's aggressive instructions for his side to commit to a very high defensive line definitely brought rewards too, but it will be interesting to see if the situation is tweaked, especially against more serious opposition. On top of that, there is Inigo Martinez's departure. The centre-back was a fundamental piece of Flick's system last term and is a painful loss that can't easily be replaced with a new signing, given Barcelona's struggles with their salary limit. The German manager was disappointed to see Martinez go, but accepted his decision as the centre-back, after an excellent season and with one year remaining on his contract, earned his right to choose. It leaves Barcelona with Ronald Araujo and Andreas Christensen as the men tipped to replace him. The latter was not even eligible for selection for most of last term through injury while Araujo, far from his best, was heavily criticised for his performances. This is where Flick's man-management will have to make the difference again. He's tried hard with Araujo. Those close to the Uruguayan defender admit he was at his lowest point of confidence at Barca at times last season. In three league games out of the 11 he started, he was taken off at half-time or earlier. But Flick sees a player with a physical prowess like no other defender in the team. Araujo was given breathing space last season when he needed it, and this summer has been backed to stay and have a full pre-season with the team. 'Araujo to leave? I am surprised by those rumours,' Flick said during this summer's tour of Japan and South Korea. 'I don't have any indication he wants to leave, and I am very happy with him and the team I have.' Advertisement The 26-year-old is expected to start for Barca in Saturday's La Liga's opener, with Flick throwing him a lifeline in his career at the club. Araujo is not the only example of a player Flick has worked on, keeping them involved and connected with the team. There is also the case of Marc Bernal, the 18-year-old holding midfielder who suffered a season-ending knee injury in August last year, just as he was breaking into the first team. Flick stayed close to him during the recovery process, paying him visits in hospital to check on his progress. He gave him a book entitled 'Supera tus limites' (Overcome Your Limits) by psychologist Jordi Gil Martin. We can also look at Gavi, who did not have a dream 2024-25 campaign after coming back from an anterior cruciate ligament injury himself, failing to earn a regular spot in the team. Flick never stopped praising his talent, though, and this pre-season the 21-year-old has been a standout performer, scoring three goals in four games. And finally we can mention Eric Garcia, who has gone from being on the verge of leaving Barca permanently last January to being a likely starter this weekend. Flick blocked his departure in the winter window, granted the 24-year-old a chance to impress and has now unleashed a multi-functional and clever performer who is close to extending his contract at the club. There is an eye set on Robert Lewandowski, too. The striker turns 37 on Wednesday and is in the last year of his Barca deal. There is a belief at the club that the Pole might not have the same involvement as last season, when he registered 52 appearances across all competitions, scoring 42 goals. Given his age, and that Barca have to start thinking about life after him, the roles played by Ferran Torres and Marcus Rashford might be more important than expected. As with every football club, there are unresolved questions and key points of improvement that need to be handled carefully. But Barcelona fans still have every right to be very excited for the season ahead — so long as their usual registration issues can be sorted and the club's Camp Nou return finally goes to plan. Despite all the usual and unusual noise surrounding the club, the fundamental factor is simple: Barca have not looked this close to being a complete package for a long time. And that has a lot to do with the honest, careful work of their manager in his debut season. Now onto the next one. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
