Collymore’s column: Todd Boehly has no clue, Man City’s title to lose, ten Hags under pressure and more.
In his exclusive CaughtOffside column, former Aston Villa striker Stan Collymore discusses football’s biggest talking points, including why Todd Boehly was a disaster at Chelsea, why Man City are still favorites in the Premier League, and why Erik ten Hag is a player. a boss who is already very stressed and much more.
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The Saudi offer of 350 million euros per season for Vini Jr is ridiculous
It’s hard to wrap your head around the numbers coming out of the Saudi Pro League. I mean, €350m a year to buy yourself a possible poster boy for the 2034 World Cup is ridiculous.
They may put that €350m into Saudi football and infrastructure, but maybe this is the way they will go if they want to build a football environment and a football culture in Saudi Arabia.
I think the top players can get top money in Europe, win the Champions League, Premier League, La Liga… and they know they can still go to Saudi at the age of 32/33 and pick up the kind of money Ronaldo, who doesn’t have the spring chicken and the output is not as good as it was, you get it now .
If the Saudis had offered five or six of the best young players, budding players, and spread their recruitment to a few top Pro League teams, they wouldn’t have had to go to Ronaldo and offer him an absurd sum. .
Why don’t the Saudis just spend their money on fast-tracking young talent? Saudi success in the World Cup will be determined by changing its youth system in terms of players and coaches. Get the U17, U18 and U19 coaches working on their young talents, because if Saudi were to reach the semi final or final, that would have 10 times more impact than any marquee player going there now.
Investing in their football with that kind of money will get them success in the Saudi national team.
I am not at all sure that Vini Jr, if he had gone there with the kind of money on the table, would have been a name on par with Ronaldo.
The amount of money…doesn’t make sense, but the Saudis don’t want to make sense. They are looking to make an immediate impact in football, as they did with LIV golf, and as they did with boxing.
It’s just perfect, absolutely bonkers.
I will never look at Man City again for the title
As for the Premier League, I made my own league table and to be honest, I went through it with what teams were bought, what teams they already had etc., and unless Pep is not as strict as he usually is – which he shows no signs of at the moment – Manchester City will win the league.
Then it’s Arsenal, Arne Slot’s excellent first season with Liverpool finishing firmly in the Champions League positions, and I’ve replaced Villa with Man United fourth, Spurs fifth, Newcastle sixth, Chelsea seventh, Villa eighth, West Ham ninth and Brighton 10. There won’t be many wild swings next season.
European teams will find that influential.
I like the way West Ham are used and I think they have made a solid signing, which will give Lopetegui reasonable flexibility and a lot of options, so they have a very good window.
I really like the signing of de Ligt at Man United as well, and it will be interesting to see what kind of role he plays there. There have been questions of ‘why is it so cheap? Was he carrying injuries?’ but I think if they get de Ligt at his best, he will add to Man United.
At the other end of the table it will be interesting to see what Crystal Palace do.
Obviously, they’ve lost Olise and there are rumors of bids for Mateta and Guehi, so that will clip their wings from last season’s high water mark, which would be a shame because they were good.
It’s Everton’s last season at Goodison and that will mean they’ll want to go out with a bang, and Bournemouth’s loss to Solanke will be hugely flattering.
Will Ivan Toney be open and happy to be at Brentford, or is his head screwed on now, and he wants out? I think they can struggle. The forest will also be down near the ground but I don’t think they will go down, although I also don’t think they will kick much.
I think that all three of these teams that came up will end up going down.
Leicester have lost the likes of Dewsbury-Hall and the fans have yet to see what Steve Cooper is trying to do. Southampton like to drop the ball and like to play on the lines but I haven’t seen enough of them playing a system where they will be under a lot of pressure for big games, and whether they can come out. up. Can they finish it off with the teams physically?
Ipswich have the tactical flexibility to be able to get into opposing teams, they can stay a little bit deeper and they can play, but I think where they lose points is the fact that they don’t get much. Premier League experience.
The Chelsea transfer fiasco proves that Todd Boehly has no clue
I think when Todd Boehly first joined Chelsea I might have written in this column that the Blues now have a guy with money, who wants to grow the football club, that Chelsea will compete, they will win the league within two or so. three years, and they know what they are doing.
I will dismiss that.
I’m happy to admit when I’m wrong, and what we have is, apparently, someone who took his football advice from James Corden.
Under the reign of Todd Boehly, who is only two years and two months old, Chelsea have spent the 10th biggest money in the entire Premier League’s 32-year history.
You should expect that there is a direct correlation between what you spend and what you get in the Premier League. Leicester City were outsiders, Villa last season were underdogs, but for the most part, if you spend more money, you will win the title.
News that the club wants to bring back Joao Felix with mad house economics, and hire a mad man.
I thought this guy would come in as a big guy, big businessman, big money, big supporters, and know what he’s doing, but I will say that Todd Boehly just has no experience.
As we’ve seen with Conor Gallagher and Trevoh Chalobah, having them train with the U21s and what you have is an absolute disgrace, and something I’d like to see outlawed in football.
Players coming into the job and not being wanted by their club is good enough, but if you’ve been through the system at Chelsea since you were eight or nine years old and you’ve been bombed out then you’ve done nothing. what is especially wrong is the old, disgraceful way of treating professional men.
We talk about why football players don’t have a lot of integrity, but when you see home grown players being treated like dirt, it’s amazing.
It will also have an impact on the dressing room. It’s going to change with the Cole Palmers, the Sterlings, the coaching staff… and you end up with a club that just becomes a military base for anyone and everyone.
Chelsea, the Saudi Arabia of Europe.
Ten Hag is under a lot of pressure as the new season begins
Erik ten Hag is a manager under a lot of pressure this season.
He was given a contract at Man United not because he did well, but on the basis that ‘let’s make him feel calmer, a little bit more comfortable. We want to give him the benefit of the doubt.’
Of course, United won the FA Cup against Manchester City, and if they hadn’t, the ten-year-old Hag wouldn’t have kept his job.
If my analysis and other people’s assessment – which has made Manchester United back into the top four – is correct, but then they go out, I think the ten Hag will find themselves on the edge.
I don’t think we have anything to worry about with Julen Lopetegui at West Ham despite all the new players that need to be replaced, because he is a good enough manager for that team and he will be able to take them there. they want to be; in the next two or three seasons to get into European football regularly and maybe even win the domestic cup.
I don’t think anyone would be too shocked by that, so it must be a reasonable intention for Lopetegui.
He will have a little bit of pressure of course, but I don’t think it will be anywhere near the kind of shining light that will be on the ten Hag at Manchester United.
According to Arne Slot, I think Liverpool fans never fire the manager.
They have had ineffective managers, Roy Hodgson being the most notable example, but the Liverpool faithful held their noses respectfully to talk about that time.
It is not known what will happen, because they have just said goodbye to a really great person, a great character and a leader who goes with everyone.
So from that point of view, Slot will only be under pressure if the Reds are ranked 14th or 15th in the table. However, I think Liverpool will leave things until the end of the season before sacking him.
The USMNT job is a good move for Pochettino
I love Mauricio Pochettino and getting the USMNT job is a great move. The reason why they have a decent team now.
Yes, they are looking forward to the 2026 World Cup in Mexico, the States and Canada, so I think Poch will have a high profile for the world preparation, and in the same way as Emma. Hayes’ CV is nothing short of winning an Olympic gold medal with the US women’s team, I actually think this is a great career.
I was impressed with the US in the last World Cup. Not sure, but they have talent there, good young players.
I think that in a few years, if the USMNT were to reach the quarter finals or beyond it would be an amazing achievement for them, then I think that Poch can come back two years wiser, two years old, in big Europe. employment – or employment in England if available.
Lee Carsley got the nod for a while, and I think his job well done as long as he navigates the results, but there’s nothing you can say it’s nailed down.
So for me, if Poch does well in the World Cup, who knows?
Right job, right time, right man and I wish him all the best.
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