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Hello! Manchester United’s squad is primed for a firesale, but one player is off limits. And no wonder.
On the way:
❤️ Why Ratcliffe loves Fernandes
🆕 Chelsea’s £40m Quenda deal
🛗 Mourinho’s ‘elevator’ feud
⛔ Pandemic shutdown, 5 years on
Last-chance saloon: Drinker No 1: Man Utd (treble on the rocks for Fernandes)
If time and money were no object, Sir Jim Ratcliffe would pull Manchester United’s squad to pieces. Not good enough was his verdict this week. Overpaid in some quarters, too. Far from speaking generally, he actually named names.
Only one player got a generous pat on the head. “The captain is a fabulous footballer,” Ratcliffe said in a BBC interview. “We definitely need Bruno (Fernandes).” The vote of confidence neatly preceded Fernandes’ hat-trick in the Europa League last night, the midfielder’s broad shoulders utilised again.
Fernandes has a talent for carrying United — God knows, somebody has to — and in retaining the faith of the club’s hierarchy, he’s an isolated example, an exception to the rule.
On Monday’s edition of The Athletic FC podcast, I asked our United expert, Laurie Whitwell, if there were any red lines at Old Trafford, because frankly it sounds as if everybody (and everything) is up for sale. “Bruno, because he’s so integral,” Laurie said. “But you’re right, with near enough most players in the squad, we’ve either heard about clubs being interested or United being open to offers.”
Fernandes’ three goals against Real Sociedad yesterday, turning a 1-1 first-leg scoreline into a no-messing 5-2 aggregate win, nudged United into the quarter-finals of the Europa League. Two of his finishes were penalties and when the time comes to step up, the crowd looks to one man and one man alone. “He’s a perfect captain,” Ruben Amorim said.
The Europa League matters intensely to United. It’s their final hope of Champions League qualification. Financially, the club can’t do without that. Competitively, they can’t do without Fernandes. In a phase when Ratcliffe would hawk the shirts off his players’ backs, something priceless does exist.
Drinker No 2: Spurs (Young Odobert will take a double, please)
Whether Tottenham Hotspur win this tournament or not, it’s no less vital for them to keep their season alive. The last thing Ange Postecoglou wants is a couple of lame months that cast him as a lame duck.
So job done in that respect after his team held their nerve against AZ. We got a little glimpse of what Spurs might get from talented 20-year-old Wilson Odobert in the future, too. Like United, Tottenham have a chance of going all the way, which would brighten the skies around them. We’ve got two drinkers in the last-chance saloon.
Drinker No 3: Saint-Maximin (in the corner, writing poetry)
Fenerbahce, on the other hand, won’t be going all the way. They were eliminated in Glasgow by Rangers on penalties, with Jose Mourinho up to his old tricks.
Believe it or not, he’s fallen out with one of his star names, Allan Saint-Maximin. In other news, it’s Friday. The two of them have been exchanging philosophical barbs after Mourinho criticised the winger’s fitness and bombed him out of yesterday’s squad.
Saint-Maximin kicked things off with this post on Instagram:
🗣️ “When a lie takes the elevator, the truth takes the stairs. It takes longer but it always arrives in the end.”
Mourinho responded as only he would, saying:
🗣️ “I didn’t know Saint-Maximin was talented in poetry. When a football player works well, works hard, trains every day, he is fit and can climb the stairs. He doesn’t need an elevator. If a player doesn’t train well, arrives late, is overweight, is not ready to play, he needs an elevator. Because he gets tired quickly on the stairs.”
Never dull.
Closing time
In the Conference League, Chelsea are into the last eight. They made slightly hard work of Copenhagen, but not as hard work as Rapid Vienna made of this double chance against Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Borac Banja Luka. One of those where it was harder to miss.
News round-up
- A bigger story out of Chelsea: they’ve agreed terms to sign 17-year-old winger Geovany Quenda from Sporting CP. United were keen and Amorim’s prior history with Quenda made them an obvious move, but it’s Stamford Bridge for him. The fee will be £40m ($52m) or thereabouts.
- Thomas Tuchel’s first England squad has landed and there are three surprising lines from it: the inclusion of Marcus Rashford, the recall of Jordan Henderson, and a first call-up for Newcastle United’s Dan Burn. No Nottingham Forest players is another real turn-up. You’ll find live reaction here.
- Kylian Mbappe’s pre-Christmas absences from the France squad were slightly weird and something national boss Didier Deschamps struggled to explain. But anyway, the Real Madrid forward is back in the mix for France’s Nations League quarter-final against Croatia. He’ll captain them, too.
- Multi-club activity is rife across football and Brighton’s clever owner, Tony Bloom, is right in the thick of it. He’s purchased a 19 per cent stake in Australia’s Melbourne Victory and now has four teams in his portfolio — Hearts in Scotland and Union Saint-Gilloise in Belgium the other two.
- It’s official: Joshua Kimmich has signed a new contract at Bayern Munich, to 2029. Why an agreement proved so complicated to conclude I’ll never know. He’s an asset they had to keep.
- Barcelona, meanwhile, are keeping 33-year-old defender Inigo Martinez a little longer. A one-year extension to his deal means he’s on board until 2026. He’s been pretty integral this season.
Penalty Poll: Was it right to rule out Alvarez’s strike?
Alvarez slips as he takes his penalty in the shootout against Real Madrid (Angel Martinez/Getty Images)
I’d love to know where you all stand on Julian Alvarez’s disallowed penalty for Atletico Madrid. It’s the sort of incident that fires up the airwaves and it consumed yesterday’s podcast.
Here’s my view: if football wasn’t a paranoid mess (and let’s not forget how much referees are under fire in Spain, by Real Madrid no less), the officials could have let it go. But my instant reaction when Alvarez scored was, ironically, “lucky boy” — because his slip was very close to sending the penalty over the crossbar.
And isn’t that the point? While he was deliberately going high with his effort, he wasn’t going that high, and what transpired was the perfect, unsaveable strike. With regret, and if we’re accepting Alvarez illegally touched the ball twice, ruling it out was the right call.
Greg O’Keeffe is on the other side of the fence. He reckons the law is an ass and I do think a retake would be fairer than an automatic red cross in instances when any infringement is accidental. Europe’s governing body, UEFA, says it will ask for the rule to be re-examined. Hit us with your take at theathleticfc@theathletic.com — ideally, only once.
Around TAFC
- Lionel Messi had played in 48 countries and 179 cities but never Jamaica or Kingston before last night. Did he tip up there and score in Inter Miami’s CONCACAF Champions Cup win over Cavalier? Of course he did.
- Down the years, some of football’s most skilful exponents used the ‘scoop’ pass: Ronaldinho, Michael Laudrup, Gianfranco Zola, Andres Iniesta. Martin Odegaard is trying it out for Arsenal but is learning that it’s harder than it looks.
- I was intrigued to read that an increasing number of female footballers in the U.S. are bypassing the traditional college pathway to join the NWSL directly. It makes me wonder if soccer there is heading down Europe’s path, where the development ecosystem is all about clubs and their academies.
- In honour of what went on at Atletico on Wednesday, we dredged up the weirdest rules in sport. Untucked shirts leading to free throws in the NBA is wonderfully officious.
- Most clicked in yesterday’s TAFC: the Alvarez penalty.
Quiz question
As an ode to David Moyes, can you order all the clubs he has managed (NB: two spells at Everton and West Ham United) by win percentage, from worst to best?
Those clubs are: Preston North End (1998 to 2002), Everton (2002 to 2013), Manchester United (2013 to 2014), Real Sociedad (2014 to 2015), Sunderland (2016 to 2017), West Ham (2017 to 2018), West Ham (2019 to 2024), Everton (2025-).
Answers here later today and in Monday’s TAFC.
Catch a match
(Selected games, times ET/UK)
Saturday: Premier League: Manchester City vs Brighton, 11am/3pm — Peacock Premium (U.S. only); Women’s League Cup final: Chelsea vs Manchester City, 8.15am/12.15pm — BBC One (UK only). La Liga: Villarreal vs Real Madrid, 1.30pm/5.30pm — ESPN+, Fubo/Premier Sports. Serie A: Milan vs Como, 1pm/5pm — Paramount+, Fubo/OneFootball. MLS: Charlotte vs Cincinnati, 7.30pm/11.30pm — MLS Season Pass/Apple TV.
Sunday: Carabao Cup final: Liverpool vs Newcastle United, 12.30pm/4.30pm — Paramount+/ITV, Sky Sports. Premier League: Arsenal vs Chelsea, 9.30am/1.30pm — Peacock Premium/Sky Sports; Leicester City vs Manchester United, 3pm/7pm — USA Network, Fubo/Sky Sports. Scottish Premiership: Celtic vs Rangers, 8.30am/12.30pm — CBS, Fubo/Sky Sports. La Liga: Atletico Madrid vs Barcelona, 4pm/8pm — ESPN+, Fubo/ITV, Premier Sports. Serie A: Atalanta vs Inter, 3.45pm/7.45pm — CBS, Paramount+, Amazon Prime/TNT Sports, OneFootball. MLS: Atalanta United vs Inter Miami, 7pm/11pm — MLS Season Pass/Apple TV.
And finally…
On Wednesday, Zach Harper went back in time for The Bounce newsletter by writing about the Covid-19 virus shutting down the NBA. The tension and confusion of the night when basketball hit the point of no return oozed from his copy.
In England, football ground to a halt in similar fashion. A positive test for Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta made the game face facts and sent the dominos tumbling. Five years ago, this was the first weekend with an entirely blank English calendar. As clear as the memories are, you’ll always wonder if any of it was real.
The thing I prefer to cling to, and my abiding memory of that time, is the final game I covered before the UK’s first lockdown, a Championship West Yorkshire derby between Leeds United and Huddersfield Town at Elland Road. Luke Ayling stole the show with a volley for the ages (above). It’s been immortalised in a mural a mile from the stadium — the last time for a long time that the city felt alive.
(Top photo: Visionhaus/Getty Images)
