Key events
Brendan Rodgers has been reflecting on the sacking of former Rangers adversary Russell Martin, speaking at a Celtic press conference today.
Rodgers and Martin only faced off in one Old Firm derby, which ended in a 0-0 bore draw at Ibrox at the end of August.
You’re always disappointed when any manager loses his job and Russell will be no different. It was a challenge that he’ll learn from in his career, he’s got many more years left as a coach and a manager and I’ve always said, when you manage here at Celtic or Rangers, the pressure really is relentless.
And you find out things about yourself in this role, in this job, and I’m sure he will have done that. I wish him all the best and he’ll probably have a bit of time out and then look to go again and use this experience.
Our handy guide to your sporting weekend. Quiet one.
Glasner on chances of signing new Palace contract
Oliver Glasner has been talking about the prospect of him signing a fresh Crystal Palace contract. He spoke about his discussions with chairman Steve Parish during the international break and their vision for the immediate future of the club.
Glasner said: “I met Steve on Sunday and we had dinner and talked, I met him on Tuesday and Wednesday and we talked, and we talked today , so we’re talking almost everyday.
“It’s not that I need conditions or I want something, Crystal Palace wants to be successful, it wants to continue this pathway. Not just the last 18 months, it was always between 10th and 11th to 14th, 15th. We’re discussing how we can continue this pathway.
“In any company if you have two leaders with different visions, you go separate ways and then you can’t achieve your goal. If we can find the same goal for Crystal Palace, not for Oliver Glasner, we will enter the talks.”
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Tottenham are no stranger to new manager bounces. They got one in the early Ange days, of course. And hosting Aston Villa on Sunday, they’ll be favourites to make it 17 points from a possible 24 under new broom Thomas Frank.
With Dejan Kulusevski, James Maddison, Radu Dragusin, Kota Takai, Yves Bissouma and Dominic Solanke all out injured right now, Frank deserves some praise. How long can the honeymoon period last? Their fixtures after Sunday look rather tricky.
Thanks John. We’ve got one final hour in us. There’s been far more correspondence about Ange Postecoglou than anything else, which is interesting.
And with that, I pass over to Dom Booth
John Swan joins the Ange train: “This has all the appearances of a pile-on, but Ange appears to me to be a busted flush. I’m not a Forest fan, but I do have a soft spot for them having been to Uni in Nottingham during the latter Brian Clough period where I regularly stood in the Trent End watching Des Walker, Stuart Pearce, Ian Woan and a young Roy Keane among others.
“Anyway, my heart sank when Nuno got the push and sank further still when I saw who they had lined up to replace him. I fear we’re going to get more of these snarky, pass-agg pressers and, worse, one-dimensional and self-defeating team performances. I hope I’m wrong, but you know what they say about hope.”
A memorial service was held in Liverpool for Matt Beard, the former manager of Liverpool FC’s women’s team.
The latest on the Aston Villa v Maccabi Tel Aviv story.
More Ange, courtesy of Jamie Glover: “Ange Postecoglu’s opinion of himself is truly staggering. He’s incapable of humility or of being willing to learn a lesson. I’ve been a Spurs fan for the best part of 56 years and the football that we were playing in the league at the end of last season was truly some of the worst that I can ever remember.
“With all due respect to the Australian and Japanese leagues, success there is of virtually no importance when compared with a league like the Premiere League. And Celtic have won 11 of the last 12 Scottish Premierships.
“He had a period of short success when he first arrived at Spurs because people were understandably dazzled by his own sense of self. But it quickly became clear that there was no Plan B and if that you peeled away those layers of self-aggrandrisement, there was absolutely nothing there – no plan, no pragmatism, no clue. I feel genuinely sorry for the Forest fans.”
No holds barred there. Ouch.
Bit of Ange positivity to follow but first Owen Harris gets in touch: “I am a Spurs fan and have / had quite a soft spot for Ange. However I think he made a mistake coming back to manage in the same league so quickly.
“He was on a terrible run of form in the league (and to be honest we were pretty lousy for large portions of the the Europa league. We were lucky to scuff a goal in against a similarly abject team). If he had gone elsewhere and done well, or just taken some time off, he would have hit the ground at a new club with some excitement and would be able to style out the ‘I win a trophy’ bravado. But after being sacked and the subsequent manager being lauded as sorting out many of the problems left by Ange means his statements just look hubristic.”
Justin Madson: “Big Ange is really facing a difficult task which isn’t being helped by the constant questioning and over-analysis over the validity of his work by a media who critical of his hiring since it was rumored. It’s enough to drive any sane man over the edge.
“A note that wasn’t mentioned in the blog here is his very valid point that losing one of England’s all time best strikers in Kane would have an impact on any team. Not to mention multiple injury issues to important players like Kulusevski, and questionable reinvestment of funds after Kane’s departure. While nobody will argue that Thomas Frank is an excellent coach, it would have been interesting to see what Ange could have done with this team. Some might say he even deserved the chance to try.”
Rangers latest: the new favourite to succeed Russell Martin, Steven Gerrard having decided to not grasp the chalice last week (mixed metaphor alert). Muscat, a player with a mixed reputation, played 22 SPL games for the Gers. The rest of his CV seems rather familiar, as a former South Melbourne player, and a J-League-winning coach with Yokohama F Marinos. It’s just who he is, mate?
Rangers play Dundee United on Saturday, with Under-19s coach Steven Smith taking on duties for the foreseeable.
Asked at the pre-match media conference if Muscat was the type of character Rangers needed to go forward, Smith said this about the prospective manager’s time at the club: “Probably. It’s an interesting question. We’ve had every type of manager, but the priority is always to win. I was a young player, so I only came across him a few times. When I was a young player, my job used to be to clean Alex McLeish and the coaching staff’s boots, so I used to pass him in the corridor and, again, as a person, he was really pleasant.
“I know there’s a reputation there as a player. But the communication I had with him, he was always very pleasant to the younger players.”
Earlier, Eddie Howe spoke about the long-awaited appointment of Ross Wilson, a name you may recognise from Nottingham Forest, as Newcastle’s sporting director.
“I’ve known him for a number of years but not to any depth. He has been around the game for a long time. He has had a number of jobs and done really well from the outside.
“Working with him now, the first impressions of him and his work have been very good. He is a really good person and has fitted in really well so far. I am sure he can make a huge difference.”
“I wasn’t heavily involved. I wasn’t totally away from the process, but not heavily involved. I certainly back his appointment and hope we can bring further success.”
Newcastle had a difficult summer with the Isak affair but have ended up with a decent squad and a new folk hero in Nick Woltemade. They are at Brighton on Saturday.
Peter Oh gets in touch: “Speaking of music, when I read the ‘Me and a trophy’ quote by Ange Postecoglou, I instantly heard the opening guitar strums of this Paul Simon tune in my head.”
Jamie Jackson heard from Ruben Amorim today.
Sunday’s game is the 100th staging of the fixture. “I know that it’s special for our club, I know that they are fighting all the time for the titles, the number of titles [with Liverpool],” said Amorim. “I know what it means to the fans. But, again, it’s one game that we need to prove again that we are playing better. I think we are playing better, we need to do better in both boxes. So it’s one more game that we need to win.”
David Hopkins gets in touch: “A minor point towards the end of the Ange rant perhaps, but I’m really not sure that citing his having allowed the Spurs team to go out on the lash prior to a Premier League game is quite the mitigating factor he seems to think. There’s one thing prioritising a cup competition, but another in downing tools altogether.”
Not yet seen much support for Ange yet. Perhaps he is right that he doesn’t fit in.
Talking of the murky world of multi-club ownership, Everton fans may recall Josh Wander.
The indictment charging Wander with wire fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy to commit those crimes was unsealed Thursday in federal court in Manhattan. Most of the charges carry a maximum prison term of 20 years.
Nuno Espirito Santo is still in Forest fans’ hearts. He’s at West Ham now, who face Brentford on Monday. It’s his first game in charge. Typically calm stuff here.
“We haven’t changed anything specific, just implementing routines. For me, it’s hard to analyse what’s happened before. We want to improve, and we know home form factor is important. It’s always hard to work in the international break, but those who stayed here worked really hard, which pleased us and gave us confidence moving forward. Looking ahead isn’t important – what’s important is what’s next and that’s Brentford.”
Contrast Ange to Vitor Pereira, the Wolves manager. Who would you rather have a pint with? Wolves play Sunderland in a huge game for the team still to win a Premier League match this season.
“I don’t feel the pressure from the outside because I don’t read anything, I don’t see anything and I don’t watch TV. I live in my world – and my world is about me and my team. The pressure that I put on myself is the pressure that I feel. I know we can do better because we have good players and we have a good team. With the way that we’re working every day, the results will come for sure.”
The murky world of multi-club ownership takes another turn.
The former Crystal Palace owner John Textor has suffered another setback with the UK commercial court ruling he has a case to answer in a $97m (£72m) claim from an investor in his multi-club group, Eagle Football.
The dispute stems from Iconic Sport’s $75m purchase three years ago of a 15.7% stake in Eagle, which holds majority stakes in Lyon, Botafogo of Brazil and the rebranded Belgian club RWD Brussels (formerly RWD Molenbeek). Eagle was also the biggest shareholder at Palace until July, when Textor sold his 43% stake to former US ambassador Woody Johnson.
Lovely feature on walking football, the game for the more senior citizen.
David Estherby gets in touch: “If only Ange could develop just a suggestion of self-awareness he would save himself a whole heap of the criticism he gets; everything he just said in that presser is demonstrably true but when delivered in that sarky, snooty, eyes-looking-at-the-floor way that he seems incapable of not doing, he does himself no favours whatsoever. Thin ice and it ain’t getting any thicker.”
So does Jack Kirkby-Lowe: “First up, I thought you’d be the perfect person to ask if the Guardian would ever consider doing a Knowledge column, but for music. I can’t be the only nerd out there who’d like to ask obscure music history questions to the finest minds at The Guardian and by proxy the wider readership. This is a multi-million pound idea that could save journalism as we know it and I’m offering it for free!
“Secondly, speaking as a Spurs fan, I was never as taken with Postecoglou’s “straight talking” as so many others seemed to be. To me, he always seemed to be a pretty aggy and contrarian so-and-so, especially after results stopped going our way. His multiple run ins with fans I think further indicate that Big Ange just Loves the Drama, personally.
“I’d feel a lot more kindly towards him if he exercised a little humility – I don’t see why he doesn’t acknowledge that the Premier League is a more challenging environment than anywhere else he’s worked and his achievements, whilst excellent, simply aren’t like-for-like. If he truly believed he’s been operating at the same level, why would he have left Scotland/Japan/Australia in the first place?”
Thanks, Jack. In my formative years reading the music press, there was a chap called Fred Dellar who used to carry out that function. Fred is no longer with us, sadly, but I could never repeat that level of knowledge. There’s plenty of heads out there of far deeper cuts.
Feels like not many people are buying Ange’s latest rant.
Senne Lammens was backed by Ruben Amorim with these words, rather sullied by him comparing the Belgian keeper to the greatest of all, give or take Paddy Roche.
“It is possible, you have to prove during the week. It is possible he is going to start the game. The first impression in this game is really important. To maintain the level is even more important. He is not [Peter] Schmeichel yet. But he show a lot of composure.”
Krishna get in touch: “‘The club wishes to thank…’ Who will be the first? Forest or United?”
Has to be Big Evangelos rather than Big Sir Jim.
John Brewin
For Rafa’s rant read Ange’s angry outburst? Angry Ange-son, for you Neighbours fans out there. He certainly dealt out some cold chisel there. It’s not his first, of course.
I’m sure there will be plenty of reaction to that Postecoglou rant. I think it is a certified rant, in press conference terms.
Maybe John Brewin can make some sense of it. He’s taking the live blog now.
Here is the main thrust of what Ange Postecoglou said amid the pressure he’s feeling at Nottingham Forest, referring to the stick he got at Spurs and as he took the job at the City Ground.
“I guess I just don’t fit. Not here [at Forest], just in general. If you look at it through the prism that I’m a failed manager and I’m lucky to get this job , and I can find the print where that’s said , then of course this first five weeks looks like ‘wow, this guy’s under pressure’.
“Of course there’s an alternative story you can look at. I came into the Premier League two years ago, I took over ‘Spursy’ Tottenham and I was told by the chairman that the club has to win a trophy. Spurs had finished eighth with no European football, we finished fifth in my first year. But somehow that year has disappeared from the record books , the first 10 games were an anomaly apparently, whereas the first 10 games here are very important.
“But all I’ve heard about my time at Tottenham is that we finished 17th last year. But there are some basic explanations about why we finished 17th, look at what I prioritised. The last game against Brighton the players were out partying beforehand, which I sanctioned.”
Postecoglou: ‘Give me time … it ends with a trophy’
Ange Postecoglou is the latest Premier League manager to have held his press conference and has just issued an approximate four-minute long monologue on why he needs more time at Nottingham Forest to implement his ideas.
One of the quotes is: “If you give me time it always ends the same, with me and a trophy.”
More to follow.
Here’s Amorim on the prospect of going to Anfield on Sunday:
I remember [last season] we played really well but it was a draw. I was really upset at the end of the game. We proved at the end we can compete against any opponent. I know it is special for our club. I know they [Liverpool] competing for a number of titles. It is one more game we need to prove again that we are playing better. We need to be better in both boxes. It’s one more game that we need to win.
Amorim responds to Ratcliffe’s ‘three years’ comment
Today was the first opportunity for journalists to put Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s comment about Ruben Amorim needing three years to prove himself at Manchester United, to the manager himself.
Amorim revealed similar conversations have been held between himself and Ratcliffe, plus other members of the United hierarchy. Whether he gets such time is another matter, as the Portuguese also admitted.
“He [Ratcliffe] tells me all the time, sometimes with a message,” said Amorim. “The most important thing is the next game. Is really good to hear the support also because of the noise. Omar [Berrada] and Jason [Wilcox] tell me that all the time.
“I feel the support everyday. The pressure I put on myself is often bigger. It is really good to hear that and helps our fans understand that the leadership knows it will take time. It is good to feel the support but focus on next game.”
Speaking of Manchester United, Ruben Amorim has just wrapped up his press conference.
He’s revealed that Noussair Mazraoui and Lisandro Martinez are United’s main injury absences for the Liverpool game. There were concerns over Bruno Fernandes after he missed a training session coming back from Portugal duty but Amorim said “the guys returning from national teams are ready to play”.
Prepare yourselves, Manchester United fans. Jamie Jackson tackles the club’s near decade-long run without a victory at Anfield.
Deep breath …
And again from Guardiola on his City future. Is there a little flicker that he may walk away? If there is, he’s hiding it brilliantly.
I have the feeling you want to sack me! I’m fine, we changed a lot in the last years before but especially the last time and still the energy that my staff brings me and the new players. I had the feeling in Barcelona, I had the feeling in Munich and now here that if I am a problem I will step aside. I still have the feeling that I have the energy to help the players make better season than last season. This is my target. I never sit here in November saying we’re going to win this or this. I don’t know what is going to happen against Everton but before the international break we were far away from the top of the league and now we are closer. We want to arrive in competitions being close. That is the target I have and I see things that we are doing things much better than last season and every game we are better and better. That gives me the energy that it is not job done, it is unfinished business and that is why I am here.
More from Pep.
On whether he will take a break from City/management: “In 2035, I will start to think about it. When you do the same thing for many decades, it’s completely different. It comes naturally. The relationship I have with the chairman is so close and we are incredibly honest when we feel this moment to make another step, for the club, for everyone. So I am still here in front of you. We will see.”
On Jack Grealish, with City facing Everton this weekend: “His impact has been massive since day one. He is playing well , it’s what he wanted. The position we have with him, he is a lovely unbelievable guy but he didn’t play for us for different reasons. He is back to real business. He is playing every game.”
On Rodri’s fitness: “No news. He is not ready for tomorrow. I don’t know when he will be back.”
Guardiola warns that Haaland’s levels will drop
Pep Guardiola has rallied around his Manchester City players to ensure they pick up the slack when Erling Haaland’s form finally hits the buffers this season.
Haaland, who helped Norway take a huge step towards qualifying for the World Cup this week, has bagged 12 goals for club and country so far this season , 15 if you include the Club World Cup.
Guardiola was full of praise for the striker. He said: “I think it’s the best shape he has been in. He is doing really well right now. His performance levels are outstanding. But you cannot sustain this level always. When he is going to drop, I will be there. We will be there. We just have to sustain his levels. He doesn’t need compliments and anything special.
“To go to the World Cup, for him and Norway, it’s really nice and important.”
Pep Guardiola has been talking about various things at his Manchester City press conference, including Erling Haaland’s form and the manager’s own future at the Etihad (or beyond). We’ll run through his comments next.
I think Arsenal very much hope Gyökeres will quickly become a Porsche, or a Lamborgini or whatever the cool kids are driving these days. At 27 they decided to sign a No 9 for the here and now , the only option they had given their recent title near-misses , rather than considering Benjamin Sesko or a younger ‘development’ striker.
Arteta clearly would love more goals from the Swede, but his attacking options are so rich that the pressure has been lifted a tad.