Friday, November 8, 2024

Wednesday morning's US election result has naturally raised a lot of questions for most of the world, but there is relief in one lofty position. That is the Fifa president's office. Gianni Infantino has long had a far stronger relationship with Donald Trump than the Democratic Party. It was actually Infantino's connection to the returned president that ensured the Democrats "locked Fifa out", in the words of one well-placed source. There have been consistent reports of tension in the long build-up to the 2026 World Cup, especially with host cities complaining of how Fifa is putting so much financial responsibility onto them. Infantino now has a man he would probably consider a friend in charge. He and Trump message, having first developed a connection out of a dinner at Davos, of all places. Infantino of course sent the returned president a very public congratulations on his current communications channel of choice: his Instagram account.

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It is reflective of Arsenal's "surprise" at the Edu news that there is no succession plan in place. There isn't exactly a firm shortlist of names. That search is complicated by the exact parameters of the role. While there was no tension or any major ructions at the club, it's fair to say that the technical director position is naturally influenced by the expanding powers of Mikel Arteta. Arsenal's football side has been shaped around the manager, who has of course been promoted from head coach. The club are likelier to look for someone closer to a deal maker. Edu was good at getting deals over the line, in part due to that former player's personality. It did nevertheless lead to one quip from someone who has negotiated with him that he is best for "sitting there looking good in a white shirt". On the pitch, it hasn't been great of late either.

After watching his Sporting team let loose against Manchester City, Ruben Amorim possibly let something slip. There was one notable comment about the future of hat-trick hitting Victor Gyokeres, where his soon-to-be ex-manager said "has to stay until the end of the season and then his life will probably go somewhere else". There followed a flurry of messages from interested parties to the player's camp, and there are a lot of them. This very newsletter wrote two months ago about how Tottenham Hotspur were the only major club interested in the summer, but that has considerably changed. Chelsea were already watching at that point, but Gyokeres is now beyond that. He's probably the hottest target in Europe right now, with everyone looking. That's the impact of this form, as well as the greater focus on Amorim himself. That's all the more pronounced since there is such a premium on young goalscorers. United know that all too well. It perhaps says something about the development of modern strikers, given Gyokeres was someone who had been passed over and almost dismissed for some time. He revelled under Amorim, and it has already been discussed at Old Trafford how the Portuguese can perhaps have a similar effect on Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee. That topic did come up in negotiations.

As to the team that Gyokeres eviscerated, City are now facing more questions, not least from rivals. The wonder at other clubs is whether there is something more going on at the champions - and whether this might be a newly open season. Some have been keen to stress that this is a dynamic that happens almost every year, and particularly at this time of year. Pep Guardiola's specific training programme aims for City to be at peak condition just before Christmas and then coming into the run-in, so there is always a drop-off around autumn. The hope for others this time, however, is that there are many other new issues. The loss of Rodri has been profound, denying Guardiola the player that completes and amplifies his tactical system. Alongside that, squad planning has not been as effective as in recent seasons, and has been compounded by other injuries. Some are putting that in the context of the uncertainty from the Premier League hearing, which has also fed into the uncertainty around Guardiola's own future. The champions certainly don't have the same focus. That doesn't mean it will remain that way, but it might create a much greater margin for error in the title race. As one figure at another club said, "they're there to be got at".

Football features

Miguel's Dispatches

If you will permit a bit of indulgence this week, Thursday saw the release of my new book, States of Play. It has "sportswashing" on the cover but it is really about much more. The idea inevitably came from a lot of my work reporting on many of these issues for the Independent, from the influence of state ownership to the general direction of the game in a political-economic sense. I gradually realised so much of this was so intertwined that there was something bigger to be written - and it really had to be in a book. Because, as timely as the topic of sportswashing is, you can't talk about about the issue without talking about the wider context of football… and there's a lot there. States of Play is consequently a modern history of football more than anything else. It's also striking how much starts to leap out at you when you look at things from that wider perspective over 30-40-year spans, like how the 1994 World Cup directly led to the Super League. You can buy the book here.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"It was written it had to be like this..."

Ruben Amorim on his last big game at Sporting, a 4-1 evisceration of Manchester City, that will obviously have such resonance for Manchester United

Reading the game quiz

Six managers have won LaLiga in Spain and also managed in the Premier League. Name them.

(You can find out the answers here. The answer page will be updated weekly and contains answers from previous newsletters, too)

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