The Warm-Up: A shock in store for English sides in the Champions League?
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Updated 18/12/2018 at 08:36 GMT
Plus Tottenham's Spursy roof and at least the future looks nice for Manchester United, even if the present is grim
Liverpool's German manager Jurgen Klopp reacts ahead of the English Premier League football match between Liverpool and Manchester City at Anfield in Liverpool, north west England on October 7, 2018.
Image credit: Getty Images
TUESDAY’S BIG STORIES
Is this where the English teams get a nasty shock?
There seemed to be widespread relish after the Champions League second round draw on Monday. Perhaps that’s because three of the four English teams have been drawn against teams which should produce cracking games, but there was also a sense that those English clubs were terrifically confident, arrogant even, that they will plough on through.
But the Warm-Up reckons they’re in for a nasty surprise, if so. Sure, Manchester City will probably gobble Schalke up and spit them out like a hungry bear devouring a hiker with poor navigational skills, but can you really say Manchester United will breeze past PSG? Or that Tottenham will give Bundesliga leaders Borussia Dortmund a hiding? Or that Bayern are a mere formality for Liverpool?
“They certainly won’t be delighted with the draw, either,” warned Bayern goalkeeper and relentless cyborg Manuel Neuer. “They can counter quickly and they’re dangerous in front of goal, but they’re also vulnerable, as we’ve seen, and they’ll be up against a good Bayern attack.”
Damn right. The Warm-Up reckons only one of those English sides will make it through, possibly two at a push. Will that puncture the arrogance and hubris of the Premier League? No! Of course not! But perhaps it should.
Tottenham even have a Spursy roof
Just a quick one: you may have seen over the weekend some very nice shots of the new Spurs stadium, as a few thousand fans were allowed in for the first of their test events ahead of the big opening day…whenever that is.
The place looked great, particularly this entirely needless but magic looking beer dispenser:
However, according to a report in the Times on Tuesday morning, Spurs will have to deal with yet another problem because the roof is leaking. There’s a metaphor here somewhere…
The Times has been told that there are pools of water within the single-tier stand, which has been modelled on Borussia Dortmund’s so-called “Yellow Wall” at Signal Iduna Park and, with a capacity of 17,500, will become the biggest stand in the Premier League when the ground opens next year. Tottenham sources insisted last night that the leak was a minor problem that could be repaired quickly and would not affect the opening date, which was originally scheduled for three months ago.
Well, good news it will be opening as planned, then…
Pepe: actually a good guy?
If you’ve ever watched former Real Madrid bruiser Pepe play football, you’d be forgiven for thinking he has a heart as black as space and eats puppies for breakfast. But by all accounts he just suffers from probably the worst case of white line fever ever: on the pitch a demon, but off it a genuinely lovely, gentle guy.
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Portugal's defender Pepe celebrates after scoring a goal during a friendly football match between Portugal and Croatia at the Algarve stadium in Faro
Image credit: Getty Images
That’s something he apparently emphasised this week, upon leaving his latest club Besiktas: according to ESPN, the Portuguese battering ram left hefty cash tips for various maintenance, cooking and kit staff at the club, whose financial problems have meant wages are an occasional extra, rather than the guarantee you would like to think they are.
So there you go: never judge a book by its cover. Or do judge a book by its cover, then be pleasantly surprised when the inside of the book isn’t as awful as you thought it was.
IN OTHER NEWS
Assist: snow.
HEROES AND ZEROS
Heroes: Manchester United’s kids
If you’re a Manchester United fan at the moment, presumably you need something to cheer you up. How about your under-19s giving Chelsea a chasing in a 4-3 thriller, with a hat-trick by your new god and hero, Mason Greenwood. Watch and hope for the future. Of course the odds are stacked pretty high against most of these players making it and turning United into something like they used to have, but you can forget that for now.
Zeros: Manchester United’s adults
Not only is the Manchester United first team’s wretched form taking them down the toilet, they’re so bad they’re causing aspiring young blogger Juan Mata to cancel his weekly posts. For shame.
HAT TIP
For once, Brian Clough had nothing to say. He replaced the telephone receiver. It was October 1990 and Peter Taylor had died. The two had spent most of the last decade drifting further and further apart. It remains one of the great tragedies of English football. Two men who achieved such extraordinary feats in tandem could not share their triumphs in a way which allowed them to bask together in the afterglow.
Over on F365, Seb Stafford-Bloor writes about the sad end to one of football’s greatest managerial partnerships.
RETRO CORNER
Riyad Mahrez goes back to Leicester in the Carabao Cup with Manchester City tonight. Let’s see how he did in 2015/16. Summary: he did ‘quite well’.
COMING UP
Leicester v Man City is one of two Carabao Cup quarter-final games, the other being Middlesbrough v Burton Albion. This is the start of a couple of weeks over the festive period where there’s basically a game on every day, so let’s not slack off here.
Tomorrow’s Warm-Up will be brought to you by Alex Chick, whose commitment to you, the readers, means he wouldn’t dare miss a second of any football, no matter what his family says.
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