NEW PRIORITIES
It’s been a dark 48 hours for Football Daily. The sweats, the shakes, the extravagant retching in the Waitrose deli aisle. We’re like this every February, as we come down from our last hit of Done Deal, the increasingly popular drug that turns adults into morons. The January transfer window has become a fundamental part of English football since it was introduced in 2003. We appreciate what the FA is trying to do, we really do, but we just need one more transfer saga, like. WE NEED ONE MORE UNCONFIRMED AIRPORT SIGHTING.
That won’t be happening until May, and The Man says we’re not even allowed to change our name to Transfer Daily, so we’re left with no alternative but to watch actual football rather than immerse ourselves in an imaginary world in which Peter Odemwingie is still banging in 50 goals a season for QPR. The Premier League resumes after a two-week break, starting with Fulham’s trip to Chelsea on Friday night. Fulham have the chance to do the double over Chelsea for the first time in their history, but all the talk is of Enzo Fernández, Chelsea’s British-record signing, who may be eligible to make his debut. Some weirdos are suggesting that the return from knack of Reece James and Ben Chilwell is actually more significant for Chelsea’s top-four prospects than the signing of Fernández. How many times have they been trending this week?
The leaders Arsenal go to Everton on Saturday, hoping for once to avoid comparison with the Invincible-era team. Arsenal’s greatest ever side had a piece of Kryptonite called Samuel Allardyce, who ruined their title defence in 2002-03 and tipped Arsène Wenger over the edge in 2004-05. The closest to Allardyce in the modern game is Ol’ Gravel Voice, who takes charge of Everton for the first time hoping to remind Arsenal of a time when the first three letters in Gunners stood for “Grim Up North”. Not that Arsenal will care, such is their irrepressible optimism. There is even a credible scenario whereby they are eight points ahead of Manchester City with a game in hand come Sunday evening. That will be the case if they win at Goodison Park and City fail to beat Tottenham at the Overdue Rights Deal Stadium. Spurs have been such a shambles at home of late, with four defeats in the last five league games, that Pep Guardiola must be fearing a progression towards the competent.
The other top-four teams, Newcastle and Manchester United, have home games against West Ham and Crystal Palace, respectively. Erik ten Hag said it best when he said nothing at all about Mason Greenwood, whose future at Old Trafford has yet to be decided. The new loan signing Marcel Sabitzer, who is so useless that he couldn’t even get a game for Bayern Munich ahead of Joshua Kimmich and Jamal Musiala, will be in the squad. All of which is very very, but it can’t replace the euphoric rush we feel when a yellow breaking-news ticker rumbles into action to inform us that Jon Russell has joined Barnsley from Huddersfield for an undisclosed fee. But there might be a temporary solution, a promising new elixir we’ve heard about – one that feeds the imagination and is grounded in reality. Brighton play Bournemouth on Saturday afternoon, which is another chance to watch the most exciting player in English football right now. If Kaoru Mitoma can’t make us love Actual Football more than Transfer Nonsense, nothing will.
LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE
Join Rob Smyth from 8pm GMT for hot Premier League MBM coverage of Chelsea 0-0 Fulham.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I think the vegan food is quite nice – I enjoy it. Chips are vegan, I didn’t know that. It is a worry with the planet. It is a shame what is happening: you can see it is happening and we are all starting to be aware of it. What is going to happen to our kids and grandkids? It’s real. The club has been great, it is fantastic what they are doing. Other clubs should be taking it up … I had a wee bit of vegan curry, a wee pie and mash today. I haven’t tried the burger yet. I might try one on Saturday if we get a victory” – new Forest Green boss Duncan Ferguson gets his chat on about everything from the League One survival battle to that of the human race.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
Am I alone in being a tad underwhelmed at Kazuyoshi Miura’s goal return (yesterday’s Football Daily)? I mean, hats off to the guy, amazing longevity in such a physically demanding sporting career and all that, and clearly devoted to his craft. But given a 38-or-so-year career as a striker, and a return of 259 total goals, works out by my reckoning at around seven per season? Or am I being a bit picky?” – Lee Smith.
Re: playing football with the stars (Football Daily letters passim). For a while in the early-2000s, I played in the BBC midweek football team with Ed Bazalgette, who I’m guessing the vast majority of readers won’t know but will have danced around at some point in their life to his guitar-playing on the early-1980s hit Turning Japanese, by The Vapors. He was by that point directing TV programmes” – Brendan Mackinney.
In 1951, at the age of 11, I played in a match at Bispham, near Blackpool. On my team was a neighbour: Malcolm Philips, who subsequently had a stellar career as a centre-three-quarter for England rugby union. Also on the team was another 13-year-old, a classmate of Malcolm’s called Jimmy Armfield. So I played in a team with two internationals. My subsequent career was less than impressive, culminating with a season in Nottingham and District Division 1. Sadly, the sport was table tennis” – Chris Lakin.
Send your letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’ the day is … Chris Lakin.
This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.
