Keeping the keeper
When Leicester City’s relegation was confirmed last weekend, it sparked a lot of debate as to how a team with so many good players had succumbed to the dreaded drop.
James Maddison, Harvey Barnes, Wout Faes, Wilfred Ndidi, Youri Tielmans, Tetê, Jamie Vardy, Timothy Castagne... that may not be the backbone of a team that will win you the Champions League, but it should be more than enough to keep you safe from relegation.
As the debate raged on, there were a variety of suggested causes for the Foxes’ demise, including not replacing key players that had been sold, general complacency from the owners, sticking with Brendan Rogers for too long and picking the wrong replacement when they finally fired him.
And all those arguments, to varying degrees, have some mileage.
However, if you take a closer look at Leicester’s season from hell, I think the point at which their fate was sealed is simple to identify and would have been so easy to avoid. And that point was when the club refused to give Kasper Schmeichel the contract he wanted.
According to reports, the Danish keeper wanted a three-year deal to stay at the King Power Stadium but the club, presumably because of him being the ripe old age of 36, only offered him a oneyear deal. So he packed his bags, jumped on the Eurotunnel and signed for French side Nice – on a three-year deal.
And just like that, in one fell swoop, Leicester lost their leader, their heartbeat and their driving force; the man who marshalled the defence, organised his team mates, encouraged those under pressure and generally kept everything moving.
Oh, and they also lost a great goalkeeper; in his prime.
The men tasked with replacing him between the sticks – first Danny Ward and then Daniel Iversen – are both decent goalkeepers, but not as good as Schmeichel. Simple as that. And neither of them had any of his leadership skills.
Had Schmeichel been around, the team may possibly still have been embroiled in a relegation battle. But I am all but certain that the outcome would have been different.
Don’t tell me his superior goalkeeping talents wouldn’t have earned the team at least one extra point over the course of the season; or that his leadership skills wouldn’t have turned one draw into a win or one defeat into a draw.
And let’s not forget it was only goal difference that sent them down.
The benefit of hindsight makes identifying these sort of key moments pretty simple – I admit that.
But not offering such a key player the deal he wanted just because he happened to be the wrong side of 35 (a mere child in goalkeeping terms, by the way) was a catastrophic decision for which Leicester have paid dearly.
And for which they may continue to pay for a long time to come.
José goes too far
Regular readers will know that I have, in recent years, turned into a bit of a José Mourinho fan. It’s sad, but true.
For example, despite having no tangible allegiance to Roma, I still found myself wanting them to win this week’s Europa League final; just because José is their manager.
While I am highly aware that he massively divides opinion, I have grown to enjoy his passion, self-confidence, honesty and lack of fear when it comes to speaking his mind.
But events last week changed all that. Mourinho is not one to shy away from blaming others for his failings; which is what he tried to do after last Wednesday’s defeat, deciding that referee Anthony Taylor was responsible for him losing his first European final.
Not only did he blame him to the media, he went a step further and confronted Taylor in the car park after the match, swearing at him as he doubled down on the blame game.
Unfortunately, José’s inability to accept defeat with any sort of dignity had nasty consequences, and Taylor was attacked by Roma fans at the airport as he was leaving Budapest.
Not just Taylor, but his family too, with all of them having to be dragged away from the angry mob by security guards before chairs started flying.
Would this incident have happened if José had accepted defeat like a man instead of a petulant toddler having a tantrum? Possibly – fans can be very stupid.
But his behaviour and misplaced accusations undoubtedly helped fire up the supporters and give them added incentive to take it out on Taylor.
There is a fine line between being opinionated and being ignorant. Last week Mourinho crossed it.
And I hope UEFA throw the book at him.
the unwanted
When Mauricio Pochettino gets his feet under his new Stamford Bridge desk, the first thing he will undoubtedly do is present the board with a player hit-list.
That’s a pretty standard move when a new manager takes over at any club, especially so when the club in question is one of the biggest in Europe.
However, in Pochettino’s case there will be a twist. This won’t be a shopping list, it will be a list of the unwanted: players he wants moving out of the club.
One of the biggest problems at Chelsea, which caused Graham Potter countless headaches, and did the same for Frank Lampard during his short spell in charge, is the severely bloated squad.
When the club’s new owner went on their back-to-back transfer window spending sprees, they simply bought too many players, too fast.
Having excessive numbers on the books is, in many ways, worse than have a threadbare squad. At least when you are struggling to put bodies on the grass, the players you do have get plenty of game time.
But when you are overloaded with players you end up with a bunch of grumpy, disappointed, frustrated men wandering around the place wondering why they aren’t getting picked. And that brings morale crashing down, especially when those who get on the pitch aren’t getting the right results.
Pochettino will have some players he wants to bring in – he certainly needs a striker or two if he is to rebalance the team. But his last of don’t-wants will probably be considerably longer.
Some he will want to see the back of on a permanent basis, others he will want sending out on loan if he thinks they have potential for the future.
But one thing you can be sure of, by the time the new season gets under way, Chelsea will have a much leaner, tighter and more focussed squad.
“Not offering such a key player the deal he wanted just because he happened to be the wrong side of 35 was a catastrophic decision for which Leicester have paid dearly
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