Hello! And in the hours ahead, say hello to 2025. A happy new year to you all. We’ll see you next on January 2.
⏪ A sideways look at 2024
⬇️ Could Manchester United be relegated?
🇪🇸 Barca’s Olmo setback
🥳 Dream NYE party guests
A Year To Remember: The good (players), bad (tackles) and ugly (goals) of 2024… who to watch in 2025
From all of us at TAFC, a big thank you for reading and for your continued support. At the risk of sounding very un-Scottish, stay safe tonight and drink in moderation. We’ve decided to see out 2024 with a little review of the past 12 months.
Best moment: I loved Bayer Leverkusen’s maiden Bundesliga title. Too many of Europe’s domestic leagues are closed shops or thereabouts but Leverkusen are proof the ceiling can be broken. In that spirit, let’s see the Serie A title drop for Atalanta in 2025.
Worst moment: A personal one for me: the death of Sol Bamba in August. We stayed in touch after his spell with Leeds United and I still can’t believe his brilliant smile has gone at 39. God bless him.
Best game: Manchester City 2 Arsenal 2. This, in September, was the full package: goals, a red card, a massive onslaught, a stoppage-time equaliser and Erling Haaland trolling Gabriel by pinging the ball off the back of his head. Like heavyweight boxing from the 1970s.
Best player: Lamine Yamal. Winning the Euros a day after his 17th birthday, and serving up trivelas like he’s built by AI? It’s true what My Chemical Romance sang: teenagers scare the living s*** out of me.
Best goal: I know, I know — I used to cover Leeds. But I saw Patrick Bamford’s volley against Peterborough United in the FA Cup in the flesh, and I’d like somebody to answer me this: how in the name of Marco van Basten did a shot so hot fail to make the shortlist for the Puskas Award?
SIMPLY. BREATHTAKING.
PATRICK BAMFORD. OH MY WORD. 🤯🤯🤯@LUFC #EmiratesFACup pic.twitter.com/0xVnnDfXRv
— Emirates FA Cup (@EmiratesFACup) January 7, 2024
Worst goal: To Uruguay, for a league game between Danubio and Deportivo Maldonado. There’s something for all of us here (two minutes 29 seconds, folks): a stupid pass, a defender falling over for no reason, a goalkeeper flapping, another defender letting the ball roll in and a striker tumbling into the net. All that, and then a dog celebrating like Black Beauty in the background. Frame it.
Transfer of the year: In 2023, Argentine Andre Orellana — then with Honduran club Marathon — took out two Olimpia players with this appalling tackle (double red card-worthy in my opinion). Olimpia then welcomed in 2024 by signing him.
Stat of 2024: It’s not easy to beat ‘King Kazu’, the Japanese footballer who’s on for professional season No 40 (he’s 57). But have you heard of Strathspey Thistle in Scotland’s Highland League? Their record in 2024: four league wins, 159 goals conceded, their worst defeat peaking at 11-0. Dull yin, as the Scots would say.
Favourite quote: Chris Wilder, as Sheffield United were getting relegated last season: “I’ve been to see the referee. One of his assistants was eating a sandwich, which I thought was a complete lack of respect. Hopefully he enjoyed his sandwich while he was talking to a Premier League manager.” Pity the poor official, who didn’t realise he was having an audience with the Pope.
Did that really happen? How, back in March, did Nectarios Triantis of Edinburgh club Hibernian manage to smack two team-mates in the face with the same free kick? As a fan of cross-city rivals Heart of Midlothian, I’ll tell you: it’s Hibs.
That’s some free-kick routine! 😮
Hibernian’s Nectarios Triantis manages to take out two of his own teammates with an incredible bit of pinball against Rangers at Ibrox.#BBCFootball pic.twitter.com/ZY5J8jWlbK
— BBC Sport Scotland (@BBCSportScot) March 31, 2024
Player to watch in 2025: Ben Doak. He’s looked great, both on loan at Middlesbrough in the Championship and for Scotland. His chance will come at Liverpool. I’m also keen to see how Estevao Willian progresses at Chelsea.
A wish for 2025: Is it wrong to ask for the dissolution of FIFA? Everything it does annoys me. On a positive note, I hope Uruguay stay the course with Marcelo Bielsa. They won’t regret it.
Are Man United in a relegation fight?
Part of Ruben Amorim must be ruing the decision to forego a cushy number at Sporting CP. Life in Portugal was orderly and progressive. His world at Manchester United is chaos, so much so that he has been reduced to talking about relegation.
Newcastle United breezed into Old Trafford, won 2-0 and breezed out again. The resistance to them was soft-touch stuff. Amorim’s warning that his team are not too good to go down — “our club needs a shock”, he said — was worryingly necessary because his players give the impression of sleepwalking towards a cliff.
Quelle surprise: a squad built with piecemeal incompetence (and for other coaches) is struggling to get to grips with Amorim’s system. Individual form is rank and Joshua Zirkzee’s miserable start at United got worse when he was hooked after 33 minutes and jeered from the pitch with Newcastle two goals up.
“I feel sorry for him, there’s a human being in there…” 🎙
Joshua Zirkzee is replaced by Kobbie Mainoo after half an hour. pic.twitter.com/v9FBAvkK3x
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) December 30, 2024
Marcus Rashford returned to the fold for the first time in four games but didn’t get off the bench. There’s no point in Amorim trusting blindly in stout-hearted warriors stepping up because he doesn’t appear to have any. A priceless win for Ipswich Town over Chelsea yesterday left United 14th, seven points above the Premier League’s bottom three — and Amorim is not alone in thinking that’s too close for comfort.
News Round-Up
- Breaking in the past couple of hours: Championship club Plymouth Argyle have parted company with head coach Wayne Rooney. There’s no surviving four wins from 23 league matches.
- A fresh bid by Barcelona to register Dani Olmo for the second half of the Spanish season has failed. As it stands, from tomorrow, he’ll be unable to play for them. Their next league fixture is on January 18.
- Milan’s appointment of Sergio Conceicao as their new head coach was confirmed yesterday. They wasted no time after sacking Paulo Fonseca.
- NWSL club San Diego Wave are poised to hire Jonas Eidevall on a three-year contract. He replaces Casey Stoney a couple of months after stepping down as Arsenal Women’s head coach.
- Ex-England boss Gareth Southgate is to become Sir Gareth Southgate. He’s been knighted in the UK’s New Year’s Honours list, six months on from England’s Euro 2024 final defeat.
Around The Athletic FC
Top Reads
We took a trawl back through the 2024 archives to see which stories captured the imagination of TAFC’s readers. Here are your three most-clicked articles:
1: Match officials at Norwich City failing to spot that USMNT striker Josh Sargent had run the ball a mile out of play seconds before Norwich scored.
2: Wrexham’s James McClean being given dispensation to leave the pitch by the shortest route possible, to shield him from supporter abuse.
3: Tim Howard having a pop at Christian Pulisic after the forward’s Donald Trump dance-style celebration last month.
Oh, and you loved the interview with Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher too.
Catch A Match (Times ET/UK)
Wednesday:
Premier League: Brentford vs Arsenal, 12.30pm/5.30pm — USA Network, Fubo/TNT Sports.
Championship: Sunderland vs Sheffield United, 3pm/8pm — Paramount+/Sky Sports.
And Finally…
Getty Images / design Eamonn Dalton
In a dream world, The Athletic asked us to name the three footballing figures we’d choose to spend New Year’s Eve with tonight. I picked ex-Everton firebrand Duncan Ferguson, former Hearts owner and submarine dweller Vladimir Romanov and coaching doyen Arrigo Sacchi. I’ll let you know how we go.
What do you want to see in 2025?
If you’d like to send us any thoughts or ideas for things you’d like to see in TAFC in 2025, hit us at our email address: theathleticfc@theathletic.com.
(Top photos: Getty Images)
