Liverpool
I’ve had Liverpool fans asking me about Jose Enrique’s surprise comments, when he seemed to ‘leak’ the fact that Ryan Gravenberch would be joining the Reds.
Honestly I’m not aware of this deal. Bayern wanted to keep Ryan Gravenberch in January despite lot of interest and nothing has changed at this stage, we will see in the summer. He’s a fine player who surely has a big future, but it’s too early to say right now where his future lies.
Manchester City
Another hat-trick for Erling Haaland as Manchester City thrashed Burnley. An unbelievable player in the form of his life!
PSG
Lionel Messi already received a proposal from PSG to extend the contract — Leo didn’t ask for the same salary as other players, despite some reports to the contrary. But Messi wants to understand more about how the PSG project is going to look before making his final decision, after initially agreeing a verbal pact in December.
Real Madrid
Carlo Ancelotti: “Eder Militao’s the best centre back in the world. He’s not perfect because sometimes he is not 100% focused, also he is not that handsome!”
Carlo Ancelotti on his future: “The club has to decide. I’d really love to stay at Real Madrid for my whole life, but it’s impossible. I want to continue here. If they want me to stay 3 months, I’ll enjoy 3 months. If they want 3 years, I’ll enjoy 3 years.”
Shakhtar Donetsk
Ukrainian centre-back Mykola Matvienko is set to sign new contract with Shakhtar Donetsk valid until June 2028. Brighton had a €20m bid rejected last January, when Shakhtar were asking for a €30m fee, and my understanding is that Brighton remain among the clubs still tracking Matvienko ahead of summer. We’ll have to see how this new deal affects his situation, but it looks like suitors will still be there for this talented defender.
Tottenham
It’s very clear – Antonio Conte was furious after yesterday’s game and he didn’t hold back with his statements against the players. He said the players needed to stop their excuses, and that they had no fight or desire. Conte was already furious weeks ago and this is one of the reasons we’ve had rumours about his future, but he never had any concrete or advanced negotations over a new contract.
It’s up to Tottenham, but for sure the feeling around sources is for Conte not to be Spurs coach next season – it was already like this after AC Milan UCL clash. It’s also partly because of personal reasons, as well as his expectations of the players. He’s not happy with many decisions, he wanted to decide at the end of the season but the feeling now is that he won’t still be their manager next season, the plan is to change. We’ll have to see when he will communicate this, or if the club will decide something before then.
I’m not sure there are issues with the ownership, he’s not happy with the players and their attitude more than the ownership. He wants to see different attitude, this is why he’s really unhappy with the current situation.
A reminder of some of those explosive Conte quotes again:
“They are used to it here at Tottenham. They don’t play for something important. They don’t want to play under pressure, under stress. It is easy in this way! Tottenham story’s this for 20 years, there’s the owner but they never won something. Why?”
“I see selfish players, players that don’t want to help each other and don’t put their heart into this. There’s no fire, no desire. You need to have this in every moment. When you are NOT a team, you can’t improve. Here we play for the badge. We play to make Tottenham fans proud of us. You need fire in yours eyes. This is unacceptable also for the fans. They follow us, pay for the ticket and this performance is unacceptable.”
We’ve had many rumours, but Tottenham have not started the process of hiring a new manager yet. Pochettino wants to return to coaching and Luis Enrique too but it doesn’t mean they will join Spurs. I think the best solution would be Pochettino’s return or modern, young, new coach like Ruben Amorim.
Marco Silva is another name linked with the Tottenham job, but when asked about the links he made it clear he’s happy with the Fulham project: “I’m really pleased and happy in this football club, I’m happy with Fulham project. We have the ambition to do better, to improve, we want this club to keep growing. I trust this project.”