Aidan Fitzmaurice: Mo Salah's success in Rome lays down the path for Evan Ferguson to thrive
Handed the No 11 shirt, he took it as a thing to treasure, not the heavy burden it had threatened to be, and then delivered a steady flow of performances and goals to get Roma into the Champions League and win the club's player of the year award. Roma turned the loan into a permanent deal, then went on to sell the player back to the Premier League for a €30m profit, while that striker went on to win Premier League and Champions League medals back in England.
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The Irish Sun
18 minutes ago
- The Irish Sun
‘I'm a wreck, everything hurts' – Man City boss Pep Guardiola reveals his plan to quit football and ‘focus on myself'
PEP GUARDIOLA says he is a 'wreck' as the Manchester City boss opened up on the physical toll that competing for major trophies has had on him. The Spaniard is desperate to restore City back to the top when the Premier League kicks off next month after a spell of four league titles in a row ended in failure last season. 5 Pep Guardiola opened up on the physical toll that competing for major trophies has had on him Credit: Getty 5 Guardiola caused concern last season after scratching his head in frustration 5 According to close friends, Guardiola's mood is said to range from 'euphoric' to 'depressed' Credit: Getty 5 Guardiola showed off his new moustache this week Credit: According to close friends, Guardiola's mood is said to range from 'euphoric' to 'depressed' as the 54-year-old reiterated his plans to Guardiola even half-joked being boss of the blue half of Manchester has taken years off his life when he said: 'Quite a few, especially if things are going badly. 'As I am now I'm 75 years old! I'm a wreck, everything hurts right now. 'So, if it's my biological age… maybe if I take the test, I'll come out younger. I hope to be better than I am now in a while. READ MORE IN football 'If things are going badly, the nights are harder, the day-to-day is harder. "The job of a coach, and I'm not just saying this for myself but for all my colleagues, is 24/7. If not, you won't get through it. 'The pressure on your shoulders is enormous, and you need people to lend a hand to put things into perspective, above all. 'You have to try to achieve stability when you have so many ups and downs and you're up to your neck in everything. Most read in Sport CASINO SPECIAL - BEST CASINO BONUSES FROM £10 DEPOSITS 'A friend of mine, who I think defined me very well, once told me that I have three states as a person: euphoric, depressed, and absent. Those are my three states. "So the point is to try to stay in the middle of these three.' Guardiola left scratching his head as City blow 3-0 lead against Feyenoord Guardiola Before the Club World Cup, the ex-Barcelona and Bayern chief revealed he And as he heads into a tenth season in charge of City, Guardiola has the hunger to reclaim that winning feeling. He told As I am now I'm 75 years old! I'm a wreck, everything hurts right now. Pep Guardiola 'I love failures. In this society where everything has to be perfect, where you have to post your food on Instagram… 'Oh, how good, how happy I am'. 'Every day we have to prove that we're happy. Well, yes, I'm sad, I fail and I lose. So?' Despite a struggle to qualify for the Champions League, Guardiola still signed an extension to his contract that now runs for a further two seasons. 5 Guardiola plans to take a break after his next spell with City Credit: Getty But he vows that by the end of the 2026-27 campaign he'll be calling at least a temporary halt to the career – as he did after leaving Barca before joining Bayern in Germany a year later. He said: 'I know that after this stage with City I'm going to stop, that's for sure. It's decided, more than decided. 'I don't know how long I'll stop for… a year, two years, three years, five, 10, 15, I don't know. 'But I will leave after this spell with City because I need to stop and focus on myself.' I know that after this stage with City I'm going to stop, that's for sure. It's decided, more than decided. Pep Guardiola Guardiola has this summer brought in new signings Rayan Ait-Nouri, And as City return to pre–season training he says he's up for the fight again – no matter his emotional struggles, adding: 'The important thing is to give it your all and do it well. 'And I haven't given up on that… next year I'm going to do better. That's what it's all about.'
The Irish Sun
2 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
Broken bones, bloodied noses and never-say-die spirit… and this lot win trophies too – Lionesses are pride of England
STUART PEARCE was lauded for trying to 'run off' a broken leg for ten minutes while playing for West Ham against Watford in 1999. After England's Lionesses successfully defended their Euros crown, Lucy Bronze revealed she had Advertisement 6 Lucy Bronze played throughout the Euros with a fractured shinbone Credit: AFP It's not scientifically true that women have higher pain thresholds than men. But the full-back — whose full name is genuinely Lucy Roberta Tough Bronze — clearly isn't bound by such trivialities as medical science. Keeper Hannah Hampton - who was told she could never be a professional footballer due to an eye condition - is another Lioness who laughs in the face of the doctoring profession. Hampton suffered a nosebleed and played with a tampon up one nostril during the quarter-final victory over Sweden — drawing comparison with Advertisement READ MORE ON LIONESSES England played 360 minutes of knockout football at these Euros and led for less than five of them — roaring back from behind in all three fixtures. So while Joey Barton and a dwindling number of Sid The Sexists on social media continue to howl the word 'woke' at the moon, it's hilarious the Lionesses have triumphed thanks to the attributes traditionally regarded as the strengths of the English men's game. Physical bravery, stoicism, never-say-die spirit. Three comebacks, two penalty shootouts, broken bones and blooded noses. Advertisement Most read in Football Latest England are queens of Europe England legend Lucy Bronze reveals she played Player ratings - see how England's finest in Chloe Kelly steals the show after Eagle-eyed fans stunned at where Joyous CASINO SPECIAL - BEST CASINO BONUSES FROM £10 DEPOSITS And this lot actually win trophies, too. Unlike in the last Euros on home soil in 2022, England weren't the best team in the tournament — that was runners-up Spain. England's Lionesses depart Zurich following their Euro 2025 victory There was some pleasing sour grapery among the beaten finalists about English 'luckiness'. Advertisement But when you keep on doing something over and over again, it can never be down to luck. England prevailed because they were mentally and physically tougher than any other side. They became the first English senior team to win a major tournament on foreign soil and they drew the highest TV audience of the year. Women's football is now an integral part of the national sporting landscape and that is a tribute to everyone who has helped to promote it during the move into professionalism over the past couple of decades. Advertisement There have been elements of positive discrimination in this. For a while, the game was over- exposed by the FA and much of the media, in comparison to the numbers of those who paid to watch it. But anyone uncomfortable with this needs to remember that women's football was banned in this country for half a century until 1971. 6 England celebrate consecutive European Championship wins Credit: Reuters Advertisement 6 Hannah Hampton was told she could never be a professional footballer due to an eye condition Credit: EPA Which sounds as weird as the fact beer was banned in Iceland — the nation, not the freezer shop — until 1989. But it legitimises all of the efforts to grow the women's game, which is now increasingly able to stand on its own feet. European club champions Arsenal have attracted sell-out crowds of 60,000 for matches at the Emirates. Advertisement And, from this coming season, they will hold all of their Women's Super League fixtures at the club's stadium, which will boost their average gate of 29,000. Watching a women's match live is a family-friendly experience, with the anger and hatred of the men's game largely absent. The game is different, the atmosphere is different, comparisons are tiresome and needless. Nobody feels the need to distinguish between men's and women's events when tallying up the gold medals won at an Olympics. Advertisement Keely Hodgkinson didn't have to suffer any sniping that she wouldn't have qualified for the men's 800m final when she won gold in Paris last summer, because women's athletics has been established over decades. Women's football is reaching a similar status. 6 Sarina Wiegman made it consecutive Euros wins Credit: AP And manager Advertisement After a promising start, Neville quit in 2021 after a run of seven defeats in 11 matches. The women's game will never be patronised in such a way in future. As part of this process, BBC TV pundits have sounded less like cheerleaders than in previous women's tournaments. And there wasn't much media soft-soaping of the Lionesses when they opened their Euros campaign with a deserved defeat by France. Advertisement This is as it should be. We are talking about elite international competition, not a school sports day. Chloe Kelly — the scorer of England's final winner against Germany three years ago, as well as the clinching penalty in Sunday's shoot-out in Basel — 6 Chloe Kelly scored the winning penalty Credit: EPA 6 Kelly was criticised by Spanish media for the cockiness of her celebrations Credit: Getty Advertisement But there is nothing nicey-nicey about her on the pitch. Criticised by Spanish media She marked England's latest success by sniping at critics on social media. And all of her team-mates will have similar stories. Advertisement Some of them started out at a time when the idea of girls playing football was seen as unusual. Such ideas are fading into distant history. Kelly, Hampton, Bronze and Co are rarely referred to as 'trailblazers' and 'pioneers' any more, because the trailblazing and pioneering has been done. Now they are simply regarded as habitual winners and champions. Advertisement NEW DRAMA THIS sort of thing isn't supposed to happen to Newcastle United anymore. The club's Saudi takeover should have ended the days of a star like Alexander Isak demanding a move. Should we be pleased Profit and Sustainability Rules have hampered the Geordie Arabia revolution? That depends if you're more bothered about the competitiveness of a title race or the widespread human-rights abuses of those bankrolling the club. Advertisement STICKY WICKET ENGLAND'S bowlers managed just two wickets in the last 142 overs of the drawn Fourth Test against India. The series has been compelling at times but the combination of flat batting tracks and a schedule with little breathing space, means both teams will be dead on their feet heading into Thursday's decider at The Oval. As in every other sport, there is little thought for player welfare when there are TV schedules to be packed. SPURRED OFF TOTTENHAM'S Europa League success, and subsequent Champions League qualification, was supposed to make them a des res for players in this summer's transfer market. Advertisement Yet their failure to land two leading targets, Morgan Gibbs-White and Bryan Mbeumo, shows there are no longer any easy pickings when attempting to raid Premier League rivals. Especially when you finished last season in 17th place. AUSSIE WHINES SO SWEET AUSTRALIAN rugby union may be down at heel, with the British & Irish Lions' tour Down Under far lower in profile than most such trips. And yet the series win by boss Andy Farrell and his crew, secured by a mighty comeback in Melbourne, remained a reason to be cheerful. Advertisement Because there is nothing so magical in sport than the sound of whingeing, defeated Aussies. SMALL WONDER I SPENT my Friday night in Ballybofey, Co Donegal which, with a population of around 5,000, is reckoned to be the smallest town in Britain and Ireland to host league football. Ballybofey's Finn Harps drew 2-2 with Roy Keane's ex-club, Cobh Ramblers, in an entertaining and refreshingly honest match. Also, you could pop to the local at half-time for a pint of the black stuff without anyone checking your ticket on the way back in. Advertisement
Irish Examiner
3 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Isak, Gyokeres and Ekitike herald a new age of the centre-forward
It's only been a decade since it seemed the centre-forward was being refined out of existence. Spain had won Euro 2012 with Cesc Fabregas as a false nine, and Germany, who largely took Spain as a model, were less than convinced they needed one at the 2014 World Cup. They fielded Thomas Muller as a false-ish nine until the quarter-final, when Jogi Löw finally went back to basics and turned to Miroslav Klose. That he was 36 only seemed to confirm that the old-fashioned No 9 was an old-fashioned phenomenon — a dying breed. Yet this summer, the main interest in the transfer market has been the carousel of strikers. Of course, strikers never entirely disappeared. The four leading scorers in the Premier League in 2014–15 were Sergio Aguero, Harry Kane, Diego Costa, and Charlie Austin. Mauri Icardi and Luca Toni topped the charts in Italy, while Cristiano Ronaldo, his conversion to a No 9 complete, was top scorer in Spain (although that he was followed by Lionel Messi, Antoine Griezmann, and Neymar suggested a greater variety of goalscorer there). The feeling, though, was that the cleverest football — the most advanced football — involved a central forward who was there at least as much for his movement and ability to link play as for his finishing. The phenomenon of goalscoring wide players — such as Messi at Barcelona, Arjen Robben at Bayern, or Eden Hazard at Chelsea, a mantle which has been taken up today by Mohamed Salah, Kylian Mbappe, and Raphinha — meant goals came from a greater array of sources. But while the goalscoring wide forward remains, there has been a return to top-level acceptance for the central striker. Pep Guardiola, the coach who seemed most sceptical of traditional No 9s — never even really seeming entirely convinced by Aguero — perhaps began it when Manchester City signed Erling Haaland. The big Norwegian has caused City to make a significant adjustment to their style. He does not join in play in the way every other Guardiola player does. He does not drop into midfield or pull wide — a creative tension that brought a treble in his first season at the club, but which was perhaps a factor in City's disappointment last season. At the same time, the most common criticism of Arsenal was that they lacked a centre-forward. They needed to play well to win, because they didn't have a player who could pounce on a half chance to steal a victory from a tight game, or at times even convert their good play into goals. Alexander Isak would have seemed a very natural fit for them, but a fee of £120m or more was never within range, and so they have ended up with Viktor Gyokeres. It's a calculated risk given he is 27 and has only really been prolific in the last four seasons — two in the Championship with Coventry and two in Portugal with Sporting — but so long as concerns that he takes too long to get his shot away in crowded situations prove unfounded, he would seem to answer a specific need, even if there are times when Kai Havertz is preferred in that central role. It's Isak, though, who stands at the centre of the great striker shuffle. He is tall and quick, his movement intelligent, and he has proved over the past two seasons a consistent Premier League scorer. It's understandable why Newcastle are so desperate to keep him, but understandable too that he feels undervalued on £120,000 a week/£6.2m a year. He has three years left on his contract, so beyond the fear that he could sulk, there is little reason for Newcastle to let him go. They can insist on a fee of £140m or more — certainly enough to buy a high-class replacement, possibly Benjamin Sesko from RB Leipzig. Which is what makes it odd that Isak made his availability public only after Liverpool had signed Hugo Ekitike, who has a similar profile to Isak but, at 23, is far less developed. Chelsea might also have been interested in Isak had they not already bought two centre-forwards in Joao Pedro and Liam Delap. Perhaps, by selling one or both of Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz, Liverpool could afford him. To sign a second central forward would be a remarkable step for a club where for several years one of the main roles of the center-forward has been to clear the way for Salah. That perhaps suggests change is coming — Liverpool beginning to prepare for life without Salah, who is, after all, 33. But Isak is not an old-school striker. Alan Shearer was perhaps the last of his line, at least at elite level in England. From Marco van Basten onwards, through Andriy Shevchenko and Thierry Henry, forwards have become much more complete figures, combining elements of the target-man, the channel-runner, and the poacher. Isak and Joao Pedro have the full range of skills; Ekitike and Sesko are developing them. Central forwards, with a wider range of attributes than their predecessors, are suddenly fashionable again as football moves into a new age of the striker. Guardian
