Latest news with #SebStaffordBloor
New York Times
10-06-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Is Thomas Frank ready to make the step up to Tottenham?
Following the announcement that Tottenham Hotspur had parted ways with head coach Ange Postecoglou — the man who ended the club's 17-year trophy drought — their attention quickly shifted to Brentford's Thomas Frank. The 51-year-old Dane has firmly established Brentford in the Premier League since earning promotion in 2021 but the Spurs job would represent a significant step up. Advertisement On the latest episode of The Athletic FC Podcast, Adam Leventhal was joined by Tottenham writer Jay Harris and Seb Stafford-Bloor to discuss whether Frank is ready to take the reins at Spurs. A partial transcript has been edited for clarity and length. The full episode is available to watch on YouTube below or listen via The Athletic FC Podcast's feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Adam Leventhal: Seb, how do you think Frank will deal with the tumble dryer of Tottenham? Seb Stafford-Bloor: I've never seen anything that makes me think he wouldn't deal with it well. He seems to be a really balanced person, thoughtful and intelligent, and his man-management is very good. I don't think there are many egos at Tottenham, even though Spurs players will be earning more in wages. But you're not talking about going from Brentford to Real Madrid. Where the difficulty lies is in the context of the situation. When the new season starts, there will be a lot of people in the stadium who still hanker after Ange Postecoglou, and who are still emotionally in Bilbao. You could make a case that this is one of the hardest times to become a new Tottenham head coach in recent memory. If he can deliver quickly and show competence, flexibility, tactical acumen, and knock over a couple of big teams in the Champions League, people will get on board. Postecoglou would become this historic legacy figure who allowed a new era to happen. It's going to be hard because Tottenham's summers are really difficult. It's only June and people are already getting nervous. We're already hearing conversations starting with comments like, 'We haven't done anything for two weeks, but look at what Manchester City are doing. Liverpool are about to sign Florian Wirtz and they've already signed Jeremie Frimpong, but Tottenham have done nothing'. It doesn't take much for people to get really nervous and negative, so these are the difficulties. But you just can't know. Jay Harris: Replacing Postecoglou is really tricky. Thomas Frank started badly at Brentford and at Brondby in Denmark, he didn't win any of his first eight games there. But there's no major international competition in Europe this summer, so he can go into pre-season and have a bit more time with the players. Advertisement They go on tour to Hong Kong and Korea, but they're only there for a week, which is shorter than last year when they went for two weeks. But he will get a significant chunk of time to work with the players early doors. Whereas last year, I can remember a lot of Spurs players were all over the place. Cristian Romero reached the Copa America final, and lots of players got to the latter stages of the Euros, including Micky van de Ven. So that will help Thomas Frank. I'm intrigued to see how he handles the media because when I covered Brentford for three years, he was always fantastic, very warm and very friendly. But a lot of the time, there were not that many people at those press conferences, especially for Brentford's away games. I would often be the only Brentford reporter there. At Spurs, he's going to have 10 or 12 people turn up every Friday to hear his thoughts, it's going to go on for ages, and we're going to pick the same wounds over and over again. So it'll be interesting to see if he still bats those questions away and deals with them well, or if he finds that step up in focus and scrutiny challenging. He's said multiple times that he's had 'close to the perfect football life at Brentford', and that he'd only leave if it was for a special project. Well, it's fair to say Spurs is going to be a difficult project, and I don't think he'll have 'close to the perfect football life' anymore. But he will have the right attitude and try to make a success of it. You can listen to full episodes of The Athletic FC Podcast free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and watch on YouTube.
New York Times
07-06-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Club World Cup team guide – Bayern Munich: A powerhouse progressing under Kompany
The inaugural Club World Cup kicks off in the United States on June 14, with its 32 teams split into eight groups of four for the opening phase. As part of our guides to the sides who will feature in this summer's tournament, Seb Stafford-Bloor gives you the background on Bayern Munich. Bayern are the 34-time German national champions. Only one of those titles was won before the domestic league's current Bundesliga structure came into place in 1963. In the years since, they have won the title in 33 of the 62 league seasons contested (53 per cent), including 12 of the last 13. They are also six-time European champions and won the Club World Cup twice in its former guise as an annual event. They are on their way back. Bayern's imperial era ran from 2012 to 2023, when they won 11 straight Bundesliga titles. They also won the Champions League in 2020, but had been in decline for a few years before Bayer Leverkusen ended their domestic dominance in 2024. Last season saw them reclaim the Bundesliga, though, and make big strides in the right direction. Advertisement Their domestic success still needs context. Bayern have won more Bundesliga titles than every other German team combined. They also enjoy a significant financial advantage over even their nearest rivals; Bayern hold the country's transfer record, with the €95million (£80.1m/$108.5m at current rates) spent on English striker Harry Kane in 2023, and have completed eight of the most expensive incoming deals in German football history. It's hegemony whichever way you look at it and so European competition, not domestic, will always be the measure of how good Bayern are. They made limited progress back towards the top in the 2024-25 Champions League, with eventual finalists Inter eliminating them at the quarter-final stage, while showing they still possess too many flaws to be considered a truly elite team. First-year head coach Vincent Kompany inherited a weak defensive group full of issues he is yet to cure and the centre of his midfield lacks the muscularity and definition that the club had there under some of his predecessors. So, this is still a team between eras. Bayern are good, but they are not as outstanding as they were. Through their placement in European football governing body UEFA's four-year ranking, having got as far as the Champions League quarter-finals three times and the semis once in that time. They want the ball, and they want control. A feature of their attacking play under Kompany has been to use attackers Jamal Musiala and Kane in deeper positions, often receiving passes well inside their own half, and then deploying their respective playmaking attributes at the start of moves, rather than just at the end of them. The wide forwards, particularly Michael Olise, are especially important and provide a lot of movement and thrust in the attacking third. With influential and incendiary full-back Alphonso Davies unavailable through long-term injury, Bayern will be even more reliant on Olise at this tournament. Elsewhere, Joshua Kimmich is the heart of the midfield and will want to orchestrate the possession phases from the middle of the pitch. Leon Goretzka, who will likely start alongside him, is a more vertical, physical player who will occupy a deeper No 8 role and arrive late into the opponents' penalty box. Advertisement One of Kompany's successes has been to vastly improve his players' work without the ball. Bayern are a high-pressing team who will try to lock opponents into their own third or force them to play long to get out of it. Are they always good at doing this? No. It's a work in progress, and that could still be a weakness. Kompany, the former Manchester City captain and one of the finest central defenders of his era, was a surprise choice when he was appointed in 2024. He came to Bayern directly from a Premier League relegation with Burnley and without any major trophies on his managerial record. The now-39-year-old Belgian was seen as lacking the credentials for the role, and his arrival was met with plenty of doom prophecies. But he has exceeded expectations. The players like him, and the younger ones have enjoyed his communication style and the instructive, detailed nature of his coaching. Off the pitch, he has adapted well to the environment. Bayern are always fraught with political issues and Kompany has navigated them smartly, staying away from the public arguments and media rucks that so undermined his predecessor Thomas Tuchel. Olise was Bayern's best player last season and Kane their top scorer, but Musiala is the star. The 22-year-old is a doubt for this tournament having not played since a hamstring injury in April, but at his best he is a fabulously gifted playmaker and one of the most elusive ball-carriers in European football. He had already equalled his best goalscoring season before that injury, too, a measure of not just his form but also the evolution in his game under Kompany. Olise is one of them. He was signed from Crystal Palace of the Premier League last summer, and even though he cost €50million, a big fee in Bundesliga terms, there was a sense he was coming in as a two- or three-year project, rather than as an immediate difference-maker. As it happened, Olise was outstanding almost from the get-go. He was one of the reasons Bayern were more watchable, more subtle and ultimately more dangerous than their 2023-24 team had been. The London-born France international is right on the cusp of stardom. Advertisement Bayern fans would also point to Aleksandar Pavlovic. The 21-year-old is a deep midfielder with a lovely feel for the game. His season was disrupted by a series of minor injuries and a bout of glandular fever, but when fit and healthy he passes the ball as well as anyone at the club and seems likely to be at the heart of their team for the next decade. And he's homegrown, too. Pavlovic was born in Munich and developed by Bayern's youth academy — something that already makes him extremely popular with their supporters. There are different answers to this. Locally, Munich is a two-club city, comprising Bayern, the Reds, and 1860 Munich, the Blues. However, 1860 have been plagued by financial dysfunction during the modern era and have fallen on hard times, currently playing in the German football's third tier. As a measure of how dormant the rivalry is, the two teams have not faced each other since 2008 — a year before Thomas Muller, who will leave Bayern this summer as their record appearance-maker with 751 (so far), had even made his competitive debut. Borussia Dortmund are a rival of sorts, even though Der Klassiker, as games between the two are called, is more of a marketing construct than a reality. Dortmund, a six-hour drive from Munich, would certainly consider neighbours Schalke to be their biggest rivals, though they are in Germany's second division. Bayer Leverkusen's rise under Xabi Alonso has made them a rival, with recent seasons breeding animosity among the respective players and even some rival board members, but that is very new and likely to disappear as quickly as it appeared with Alonso now gone to manage Real Madrid and Leverkusen selling star players. Bayern and Borussia Monchengladbach had a fascinating back-and-forth in the 1970s. Advertisement It was a political rivalry in a sense. In public perception, Bayern were the established power and Gladbach the younger, free-spirited challenger. The latter's informal nickname, 'the foals', is a reference to those teams and their coltish youth. But those dynamics have been embellished and do not bear much scrutiny at all — Bayern's teams of that era scored lots of goals and were full of rebellious, counter-culture characters. The rivalry was real enough, though, and games between the two have a habit of producing strange results, even today. Bayern were formed in response to pejorative attitudes towards competitive football. The club's 11 original members had originally belonged to Manner-Turn-Verein 1878 (MTV) and were the footballing department of what was principally a gymnastics club. At the beginning of the 20th century, organised gymnastics — 'turnen' — was wildly popular in Germany, and seen as a way of fostering collective, nationalistic spirit. By contrast, football was a game imported from England which bred competitive instincts many saw as vulgar. So, in February 1900, when MTV's football players moved to start playing competitive games and indicated their desire to join the local football association, their fellow members were aghast. In response to an impasse over the issue at a club meeting, the footballers walked out, went down the street to a nearby restaurant, and founded Football-Club Bayern Munchen. You can still visit the place in the city where it happened. The restaurant itself is long gone and most of the area looks very different, having been rebuilt after the bombing during the Second World War, but there's an obelisk marking the spot just a few yards from Odeonsplatz square, upon which the club's founding document is mounted. They are still majority-owned by their members. Business-world giants Audi, Adidas and Allianz each owns an 8.33 per cent stake in Bayern's football division, but the club's fans retain voting control. Bayern are a commercial powerhouse and hardly an underdog, but in a football world of sovereign wealth funds, sports washing and troubling morality, they manage to exist as a superclub without ethical quandaries. (Top photos: Getty Images; design: Kelsea Petersen)
New York Times
26-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Premier League roundtable: The best and worst of 2024-25
Manchester City's dominance finally came to an end, Liverpool were able to celebrate the title in front of their fans for the first time in 35 years, two of the 'Big Six' finished in the bottom six and the promoted clubs all went straight back down. Those might be the raw headlines from 2024-25 but this Premier League season offered so much more — this was the campaign, don't forget, when a player got booked for imitating a seagull. Seb Stafford-Bloor, Tim Spiers, Nick Miller, Oliver Kay and Stuart James reflect on the highs and the lows as another year of English top-flight football reaches its conclusion. Here at The Athletic, we like to think we know our stuff. We analyse football forensically, can dissect a corner routine like nobody else and our writers are constantly talking to those at the heart of the game. So you would think that makes us perfectly placed to predict how a season might pan out, wouldn't you? In August, we surveyed our writers and produced the following graphic based on what they said. Tottenham and Manchester United are the major outliers, while Liverpool defied the odds to win the title and none of them saw Nottingham Forest's impressive season coming. In fact, for this article, we asked six writers to commit their predictions to paper. None of them tipped Liverpool to be champions (five out of the six had them coming third), while four people said Forest would go down. At least five out of six said Southampton and Ipswich Town would be relegated and, at the other end, who honestly would have predicted Manchester City's dramatic demise? Anyway, let's move swiftly on from all that. Time to look back at what the actual footballers did right and wrong… Stafford-Bloor: The year that the old 'Big Six' was obliterated. In a very literal way, obviously — looking at you, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United — but also because so many interesting things happened at clubs outside of that traditional group that the league, finally, felt as broad as it always claims to be. Advertisement Spiers: Unpredictable. In November, Brighton & Hove Albion were third, Spurs were sixth, Crystal Palace were 19th and caretaker manager Ruud van Nistelrooy left Manchester United four points off a Champions League spot. A month later, Newcastle United were floundering in 12th and Wolverhampton Wanderers were buried in 19th. With unlikely cup-final wins for Palace, Newcastle and Spurs, it's been a season of twists and turns. Miller: Surprising, for the most part, which is always preferable to the alternative. There were a few months, as it became clear who was going to win the league and who was going to get relegated, when the season sagged rather. But the three big domestic trophies being won by teams that basically nobody predicted is undoubtedly a good thing. Put it this way: in a few years, when time has fogged our brains and we can't remember where we put our car keys, never mind what happened in 2024-25, this season's Wikipedia page is going to be a great read. GO DEEPER The teams who never win have won this season - and football is better for it Kay: Entertaining and fiercely competitive, which I think flies against the popular consensus. Of course, certain high-profile teams underperformed, and the promoted teams were well short, but I feel the extent of those struggles is symptomatic of a strong and competitive league rather than (as some suggest) the opposite. James: The season when Manchester City's hegemony ended, Manchester United and Tottenham were astonishingly bad, and there was no such thing as a relegation battle. Oh, I know it's not strictly 'Premier League', but Palace and Newcastle are Premier League clubs, so forgive me for mentioning how good it was to see them both win major trophies rather than the usual suspects. Stafford-Bloor: Manchester City 0-4 Tottenham, November 23. Imagine finding that result in the archives years from now. You would assume it to be a mistake, surely? A deeply silly game of football that was enormous fun — during which Spurs' goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario played (brilliantly) for 45 minutes on a broken ankle. Advertisement Spiers: In person, any game at Brentford. I went there three times and saw 18 goals, with a 4-3 thriller against Ipswich the highlight. High-octane in attack (they scored 40 home goals) but leaky at the back (35 conceded), Brentford were the team Spurs aspired to be. And they had some of the cheapest season-tickets in the league. Miller: I really enjoyed a couple of Tottenham games: one was that 4-0 win at the Etihad which, even considering how bad City have been, still feels like a fever dream as Spurs end the campaign just outside the relegation zone. And then there was the latter's 6-3 defeat by Liverpool a month later: the scoreline makes it look closer than it was, but I loved, in a slightly ghoulish way, how utterly Tottenham it was — going 5-1 down before starting to play a bit and getting a couple back, but then just as the words 'They couldn't, could they?' were forming on your lips, they let in another, and the game was killed. Kay: Manchester City 2-2 Arsenal in September, when most of us still imagined those two would be battling for the title again. It was tactically intriguing, attack vs defence after Arsenal's Leandro Trossard was sent off late in the first half. City celebrated John Stones's stoppage-time equaliser like mad, not realising at the time that it merely papered over the cracks that were about to be exposed by Rodri's injury earlier in the game. James: I'd probably say that City-Arsenal draw was the most compelling. A red card, lots of needle (Gabriel and Erling Haaland in particular) and four goals, including a 98th-minute equaliser after Arsenal had repelled wave after wave of City attacks. Little did we know it wouldn't matter a jot when it came to the title race. Stafford-Bloor: Recency bias is at work here, but Omar Marmoush's goal against Bournemouth earlier this week was as violent a strike as I've seen in a really long time. In addition, the 'No goalkeeper in the world would have saved that!' cliche has never been more true; I don't think I've seen a less saveable shot from that distance. Spiers: My favourite goals this season were both scored by agricultural centre-backs in the final seconds of stoppage time. Harry Maguire's winner against Lyon was in Europe, so, as this is a domestic round-up, it has to be James Tarkowski taking the roof off the net and Goodison Park with his spank against Liverpool. Advertisement Miller: Without doubt, Tarkowski's in added time of the Merseyside derby. Apart from anything else, it was an extremely satisfying hit, walloped into the roof of the net. But with it being the last men's derby at Goodison Park… in the 97th minute… to cap a chaotic and fairly spiteful game… and then with the Everton fans staying behind to bellow out I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues at the top of their lungs afterwards… wonderful. Kay: There are so many very similar goals, curled perfectly into the far corner from about 25 yards, but I really liked the team goal Chelsea scored against Newcastle in October: a wonderful turn and pass from Cole Palmer releasing Pedro Neto, who crossed perfectly into the path of Nicolas Jackson. I love it when a plan comes together. James: Kaoru Mitoma's goal for Brighton against Chelsea. That first touch to bring the ball down out of the sky – wow, just immaculate – and what followed after that wasn't bad, either. Also, being at the King Power Stadium to see Jamie Vardy's 200th goal for Leicester, in his 500th and final appearance for the club, was special. GO DEEPER The Athletic's end-of-season awards, 2024-25: Men's football Stafford-Bloor: Can I be incredibly unoriginal and say Mohamed Salah? Just because careers so often follow trends and his year, in that sense, has been so atypical. Salah had not had anything approaching a 30-goal Premier League season since 2017-18 and that was arguably when Jurgen Klopp's attacking three of him, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino were at their most potent. In fact, you could make a convincing argument that this, given the context, was his best season in English football. There are likely people out there who claim they saw this coming, but I'm not sure I believe them. Really — that season, at 32? Spiers: Phil Foden. He won every award going last year but isn't even in Manchester City's best XI right now. Injuries and personal issues have taken their toll, so let's hope he puts them behind him. In a positive sense, apart from the obvious picks, Lucas Bergvall, Jacob Murphy and Aaron Wan-Bissaka were pleasant surprises. Miller: Salah. There had been a gentle decline in his goalscoring numbers for the past few seasons, and with him turning 33 this summer, I expected that to continue — not for him to fall off a cliff, but maybe for him to be carefully phased out. As it turns out, he's been mostly sensational and Liverpool had little choice other than to give him a new contract. Kay: There's a strong case for saying Ryan Gravenberch at Liverpool or any of about half a dozen players at Nottingham Forest, but in terms of reaching levels barely previously even hinted at, it's hard to look beyond Jacob Murphy's impact at Newcastle in the season in which he turned 30. GO DEEPER Jacob Murphy interview: 'I hope England are casting an eye on what I'm doing' James: I guess that would have to be Forest's Chris Wood. I know he did well last season but to go and improve on that again and hit 20 Premier League goals is remarkable. An honourable mention for Murphy at Newcastle, too – eight goals and only Salah had more assists. Superb. Stafford-Bloor: Mikel Arteta giving Myles Lewis-Skelly his Premier League debut when he did. We tend to only focus on the upside of giving academy players their break, but that process is fraught with danger. Timed wrong, it can destroy a career. Lewis-Skelly played his first minutes as a 17-year-old against Manchester City, away, and in the months since has experienced all the confected controversy and silliness that so often comes under the Premier League spotlight. Think of the red cards, think of the shouting on social media, think of the Haaland moment; Arteta knew Lewis-Skelly was ready, and that was astute judgement. Spiers: Assuming it was his call, Arne Slot not signing any first-team players last summer (apart from the barely-used Federico Chiesa) was a masterstroke. The theory goes that if you don't strengthen your squad, you go backwards. Instead, with a couple of tactical tweaks, Liverpool got better. Miller: Sean Dyche telling Everton he had essentially taken them as far as he could. It was shrewd for a couple of reasons: firstly, he effectively resigned but in such a way that he would get the compensation package that comes with being sacked, but more importantly he knew the jig was up — things were toxic enough by his last few weeks, and if they had left it any longer he might have been in reputation-ruining territory. Advertisement Kay: Slot's conversion of Gravenberch from floaty No 8 into arguably the outstanding defensive midfielder in the league this season. It was an inspired decision, after missing out on Real Sociedad's Martin Zubimendi, and a lesson to those clubs and coaches who are addicted to signing players rather than developing them. James: I'm tempted to say anyone who turned down the Leicester City and Southampton jobs after Steve Cooper and Russell Martin, respectively, were sacked in December — talk about being on a hiding to nothing. On the flip side, it didn't work out too badly for David Moyes after he returned to Everton. One point above the relegation zone at the time, Everton finished comfortably in mid-table. Stafford-Bloor: Vitor Pereira. It's as if people have forgotten just how bad Wolves were before he got there in December. They were never quite in the Southampton category of being a total write-off, but they were certainly circling the drain. Nothing about Pereira's nomadic career suggested he was the right person for that job, either, and yet he has led Wolves to easy survival and charmed the locals with his personality, too. GO DEEPER A curry, a Carling and a table in front of the TV – touring Wolves manager Pereira's favourite pubs Spiers: Raul Jimenez's top-level career looked over when he went 18 months and 33 matches without scoring in the Premier League, still seemingly suffering the after-effects of his horrific near-death experience from 2020. To see him back to somewhere near his best at age 34, scoring 12 goals and winning international tournaments with Mexico again, is a truly beautiful thing. Miller: Any Southampton fan who went to every game of their season. To spend so much of your time and energy on a team quite so useless shows proper dedication. Hats off to you. Kay: There's a section of Liverpool's online fanbase that retains a weird scepticism about their sporting director Richard Hughes. It's as if people think a sporting director should be judged on other people's choices (Zubimendi's, Trent Alexander-Arnold's) rather than their own. Hughes' choice of Slot as Liverpool coach was inspired — likewise that of Andoni Iraola and numerous signings in his previous job at Bournemouth. He knows what he's doing. James: I'm with Seb — Pereira. Given how the final Premier League table looks, it's easy to forget what a terrible mess Wolves were in (five points adrift of safety and second bottom) when they appointed him. To turn things around so spectacularly, and build such a rapport with the fans so quickly, is testament to his coaching and his personality. In short, there's a lot to like about Pereira. Stafford-Bloor: Spurs. Winning the Europa League is not really mitigation, either, because their performances — even once the injury crisis eased — were well below average long before that success in Bilbao became a possibility. The home form was especially disheartening. Maybe the ends justified the means but so many of those defeats at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium were irritatingly naive, and an affront to a crowd who were still being charged exorbitant prices to watch. Advertisement Spiers: Obviously, Manchester United and Spurs (five home victories from 23 league matches combined since December 1… and two of those were against Southampton) but their hilarious ineptitude took the spotlight away from West Ham United, who were the eighth-biggest spenders in Europe last summer (£100million net spend) and had the most apathetic, beige, pointless season imaginable. Miller: Ruben Amorim. I spoke to a bunch of his former players just before he arrived, and it felt like here was an exciting young coach who would bring energy and fresh ideas to a club that needed it more than anything. But Manchester United have been utterly embarrassing in the Premier League and I'd be surprised if he lasts beyond October next season. Kay: A slightly different take on the word 'disappointment', but for me it was Jhon Duran leaving Aston Villa for Al Nassr in January. Not disappointed in him — it's a life choice and, financially, an understandable one — but, of all the players who have left for Saudi Arabia over the past two years, he was the one I was most disappointed to see go, having just turned 21. James: Manchester United and Tottenham, I'm looking at you here. How on earth have you managed to lose 40 matches between you? More broadly, the absence of a title race wasn't great, likewise that it now seems as though what goes up from the Championship must come down the following season. Yes, I miss Survival Sunday. Stafford-Bloor: Dan Ashworth leaving Manchester United. After all the faffing over his gardening leave and all the trouble of his departure from Newcastle, it was extraordinary that all parties were willing to give up on each other so quickly. What a waste of time and money. Spiers: San Marino winning more football matches than Manchester City in November and then Pep Guardiola having to clarify comments about wanting to harm himself after he scratched the entire dome of his head will take some beating on the unexpected-o-meter in 2025-26. Oh, and Iliman Ndiaye being booked for doing a seagull impression. Miller: Forest beating Liverpool at Anfield in September. This was before Forest's amazing season had revealed itself, but this was the game when it showed Nuno Espirito Santo was onto something: the perfect tactical game, decided by a brilliant Callum Hudson-Odoi goal. It was also enjoyable how much it seemed to utterly spin Slot out for months afterwards. Advertisement Kay: More a slow puncture than a moment, but Manchester City's collapse in form was no less unexpected for that. There are some obvious explanations for it, starting with Rodri's injury, but that run of just one win in 13 matches in all competitions in late 2024 was just astonishing. It remains to be seen how much long-term damage was done. James: Clearly, I didn't see Manchester City's demise coming. It wasn't just a blip; they fell off a cliff. I also didn't think Brentford would actually be better without Ivan Toney (Bryan Mbeumo, I underestimated you in particular). Stafford-Bloor: 'I said to Pep, 'If we meet again, you can't play in this system, because we will solve it.' Oliver Glasner, Palace's FA Cup-winning manager, knew exactly what he was doing. Spiers: 'The biggest success is not lifting a trophy, it's that we could give tens of thousands of our fans, south Londoners, a moment for their life. Maybe they have some problems at home. We can give them hours and days when they forget all of this. Just be happy and celebrate. This is the biggest achievement sportsmen can do' — Glasner after that Palace triumph at Wembley. Miller: 'I am not going to comment too much. I have huge respect for Gary Neville, he is the coach who replaced me when I was sacked at Valencia. So he was a coach himself.' Nuno gives a masterclass in the art of the subtle but devastating burn. Kay: 'I don't usually win things in my second year. I always win things in my second year.' Plenty ridiculed Ange Postecoglou as he struggled before and after this interview in September but he had the last laugh. James: 'We are being maybe the worst team in the history of Manchester United. I know that you want headlines but I'm saying that because we have to acknowledge that and to change that. So there you go, your headline.' Amorim, United's new manager, talking in January — and in a way that managers never speak. Stafford-Bloor: Manchester City will be nowhere near the title again. Whatever it is that holds a Guardiola team together seems to be on the wane now. Clearly, a period of renewal is underway at the Etihad, as reflected by their aggressive spending in January, but are the players they signed comparable to those who have departed in recent years, or those who have begun to decline? Not obviously so, and there's something which feels unhealthy about that project now. Advertisement Spiers: Maybe this is obvious but more of the same buffoonery from Manchester United and Tottenham, I think. Spurs finally won a trophy again despite Daniel Levy, not because of him, and will continue to float around in circles, changing managers, while he is at the helm. As for United, the whole club just feels off. It's really not about who the manager is. Miller: Bucking the trend of the past two seasons, one of the promoted teams will actually be quite good. Probably Burnley. Their remarkably tight defence (an absurd 16 goals conceded in the 46 Championship games) suggests they know the best way to survive in the Premier League is with a strong back line, and James Trafford seems to have matured from the clearly talented but slightly wide-eyed goalkeeper we saw in the Premier League before. Kay: Chelsea and Manchester City could pay a heavy price for their Club World Cup involvement this summer. Whether that's in terms of injuries or fatigue, I don't know, but I'm fairly sure the ideal preparation for next season would not include a four-week, 32-team tournament played in America at the height of summer. James: Arsenal's Max Dowman, who doesn't turn 16 until December, will become the Premier League's youngest-ever goalscorer (a record currently held by James Vaughan at 16 years, 270 days). (Top photos: Getty Images)
