The Warm-Up: More Neymar misery, Everton's £50m punt
:focal(155x147:157x145)/origin-imgresizer.eurosport.com/2015/03/26/1443747-30871907-310-310.jpg)
Updated 25/07/2018 at 07:33 GMT
Plus: Cyclists are harder than footballers, and a welcome interjection from the President of Turkey.
Neymar faceplams during Brazil's World Cup defeat to Belgium
Image credit: Getty Images
WEDNESDAY'S BIG STORIES
Something else for Ronaldo to win
If the Ballon d’Or is the Ferrari of football awards, FIFA’s The Best is more like Stephen Ireland’s modified Range Rover; garish, tacky and altogether unnecessary.
Yesterday FIFA revealed its shortlists for 2018 – a vicious slap in the face to the 43.5% of the year that hasn’t happened yet.
And in an attempt to stay ahead of the Ballon d’Or, the winners will be announced on 24 September.
Anyway, the contenders for the best men’s player award run as follows:
- Kevin De Bruyne – Belgium/Manchester City
- Antoine Griezmann – France/Atletico Madrid
- Eden Hazard – Belgium/Chelsea
- Harry Kane – England/Tottenham
- Kylian Mbappe – France/PSG
- Lionel Messi – Argentina/Barcelona
- Luka Modric – Croatia/Real Madrid
- Cristiano Ronaldo – Portugal/Juventus
- Mohamed Salah – Egypt/Liverpool
- Raphael Varane – France/Real Madrid
Ronaldo? Check. Messi? Check. Best player for World Cup overachievers? Check. Token defender with no chance of winning? Check. Neymar? Ch... HANG ON A MINUTE! THEY FORGOT NEYMAR!
Yes, the man whose move to PSG was apparently motivated by a thirst for individual accolades has been cruelly snubbed. Unjustly punished for the ‘crime’ of not being quite as good as at least 10 other players in the January to July period. Just sickening.
Anyway, since a public vote makes up 50 percent of the weighting for the award, Ronaldo will probably win it, succeeding 2017 winner Cristiano Ronaldo, and 2016 winner Cristiano Ronaldo.
Shouts out to English nominees for the other awards:
- Women’s player – Lucy Bronze (England/Man City)
- Men’s coach – Gareth Southgate (England)
- Women’s coach – Emma Hayes (Chelsea) and *squints* Mark Parsons (Portland Thorns)
£50m: not what it used to be
Since Ross Barkley was beamed up to Neptune by aliens, or whatever happened to him, there has been a gaping hole at Everton.
A hole that can only be filled by a powerful yet skilful attacking midfielder who strings together a few impresses performances in the autumn, then does eff-all for the rest of the season (good way to ensure you never make a The Best shortlist).
Step forward Richarlison, whose brand of stepover-heavy inconsistency could cost the Toffees as much as £50m.
Malcom Ex
Remember those Roma fans from yesterday’s Warm-Up? The ones waiting at the airport for Malcom to arrive? Well, either they’ve just made another weary Caffe Nero run (they have Caffe Nero in Italy, right?) as they wait patiently at Terminal 2 arrivals, or they’ve had to trudge disappointedly home.
For Malcom is Barcelona’s, after a late €40m bid from the Liga champions.
Roma sporting director Monchi sounds exceptionally cheesed off with Bordeaux who, he claims, forced Roma to announce the transfer before accepting Barcelona’s offer.
We’re weighing up things at the club, to see if we can take any legal action. Although we don’t have any signed documents, I have lots of messages from (the player’s) agent and (Bordeaux’s) president. That’s something worth considering.
Ronaldo in better shape than you, every human that has ever lived
You know when Zlatan Ibrahimovic had his knee operation last summer, and he claimed the doctor told him he had the body of a bionic lion (or something)?
Well, there’s a hint of that about the report of Cristiano Ronaldo’s Juventus medical.
Along with the 7% body fat and 50% muscle mass comes the claim that Ronaldo, 33, has the physical capacity of a 20-year-old.
Fair enough, but the Warm-Up knows of no 20-year-old who looks like that.
Bruce-Villa summit talks to end the way we all know they will
If you drew a Venn diagram of Steve Bruce and Thierry Henry’s respective characteristics, you would have two circles on a piece of paper, with just a tiny overlap in the middle that reads “once visited Belgium”. Let’s just say it’s fair to call the pair stylistic opposites.
Anyway, today Bruce has the unenviable task of convincing Aston Villa’s new owners he is the man to lead the club into a brave new era. All this while Henry sits in the car park waiting for the call. All very You Vs The Guy She Told You Not To Worry About.
While Henry is young, stylish and altogether more marketable, the Warm-Up isn’t convinced the Frenchman and his zero matches of frontline managerial experience are exactly right for spearheading a promotion campaign. Not that the Warm-Up’s views carry any weight. Nor, in all likelihood, will Steve Bruce’s.
HEROES AND ZEROES
Hero: Adam Lallana
Gareth Southgate’s World Cup squad selection was met with a smatter of ill-merited chuntering from snubees Joe Hart and Jack Wilshere.
But Adam Lallana – who arguably had a better case for inclusion that either Hart or Wilshere – has said Southgate was right to leave him out.
Now of course there’s an element of calculation here, as Lallana wants to be in the next squad, but footballer self-awareness is always welcome regardless of context.
Gareth has been absolutely brilliant. It probably wasn’t a comfortable call for him but he made it, like he made it for the other lads who missed out. I know that if my season was different and I had been fit, I would have been there, but it was probably the right call.
Zero: Tayyip Erdogan
The Mesut Ozil saga is a thorny one, and for what little it’s worth The Warm-Up has plenty of sympathy for the ex-Germany midfielder.
But we can probably agree that Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan wading into the debate and claiming to have spoken to the player helps nobody.
On Monday night I spoke to Mesut. His attitude in the statement is completely patriotic. It is not possible to accept this kind of racist attitude towards a young man who poured so much sweat for the German national team's success. This cannot be tolerated.
Ugh, politicians.
RETRO CORNER
Yesterday Tim Krul went to Norwich on a free transfer. Not that there’s anything wrong with Norwich, but it’s a bit of a cry from four years ago, when he did this at the World Cup.
HAT TIP
Not to get all ‘footballers are wimps’ on you, but will you look at this from Tour de France rider Philippe Gilbert.
Average time to first Neymar-disparaging user comment: 7.2 nanoseconds.
COMING UP
The Warm-Up cannot contemplate competitive club football in July without immediately thinking of Artmedia Bratislava. Celtic will look to avoid a repeat of that debacle as they face Rosenborg in Champions League qualifying tonight (19:45).
Scan me
Share this article
Advertisement
Advertisement