Loan star
In August, Doak was sent to Middlesbrough in the Championship for the season. He has thrived, with a goal and three assists in 10 games.
His potential has excited people for a while and Doak owning Gvardiol showed he could be realising it. He is exceptionally precocious and genuinely could be that good. From here, you’re going to hear a clamour in Liverpool for two things.
The first is a new contract for Salah, which has to be done. The second is a first-team run for Doak when he returns from Middlesbrough. How you achieve both is another matter, but Friday was a moment of reassurance for the Premier League leaders. The Salah era has to end one day. They might just have a contingency at hand.
News round-up
(Jhony Magallanes/AFP via Getty Images)
Carsley cruise: Caretaker gets England promoted in final act — so what will Tuchel inherit?
(Charlotte Wilson/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)
Lee Carsley and England are done and in answer to last week’s TAFC question — will Carsley go out with a whimper or a bang? — he served up a bang. Yesterday’s 5-0 rout of the Republic of Ireland sent England back into the Nations League’s top tier. Thomas Tuchel, the floor is yours.
Carsley, broadly, has done a tidy turn as interim head coach. He came across as a short-term stop gap, but the final game under him showed that Tuchel is taking on a rich talent pool.
Jack Pitt-Brooke has highlighted the two biggest dilemmas for the German: how tightly to nail his colours to Harry Kane’s mast and how to deal with the fact England are teeming with excellent attacking midfielders — in reality, too many to field en masse. March will give us the first glimpse of Tuchel’s intentions.
A few additional points of note from the international front: Cristiano Ronaldo got another two goals for Portugal against Poland and Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario had another nightmare with set pieces, conceding from a corner and shipping an own goal in a 3-1 defeat to France last night. Plus ca change…
But here’s something heart-warming from South America. Remember the talk of Marcelo Bielsa and Uruguay heading for the rocks? Well, a 101st-minute goal from Manchester United’s Manuel Ugarte (below) bagged a massive World Cup qualifying win over Colombia, just when the away side looked to have ruined Uruguay’s night. Bielsa loved it. Have predictions of an impending meltdown been overstated?
Show viz
Premier League clubs are like expensive cars. Forget the price of the motor itself. The thing that’s going to ruin you is the cost of the upkeep and the constant need for new tyres.
Nothing spells that out as vividly as this article from The Athletic’s Philip Buckingham, which lays out exactly how much the existing owners of all 20 Premier League clubs have spent on them, via the original purchase price and subsequent funding. I picked out a few nuggets:
- Manchester City have been a superb investment (albeit, I’m saying that without any foresight of how their financial battle with the Premier League will end). City cost £200m to buy. Owner funding totals £1.3bn. Their value if they were sold tomorrow would be way, way above those figures. Wonga.
- Everton. What on earth can you say? Farhad Moshiri spent £128m buying them. He has forked out another £750m to take them nowhere. It’s an extraordinary waste of money, hence why he’s getting out of Dodge.
- Liverpool, in contrast, are a frugal project on the part of the Fenway Sports Group. Owner funding is at £136m and none has been recorded since the 2015-16 season. It goes to show that by top-flight standards, success is possible on a relative budget.
Around TAFC
Quiz answer
Friday’s teaser wanted you to name the eight current Premier League players with 350 appearances or more in the competition.
They were: James Milner (637), Ashley Young (462), Kyle Walker (402), James Ward-Prowse (386), Jonny Evans (384), Raheem Sterling (383), Lukasz Fabianski (366) and Seamus Coleman (365).
Catch a match
(Selected games. All 2.45pm ET/7.45pm UK and shown on Viaplay in UK unless stated otherwise)
UEFA Nations League, Group A1: Croatia vs Portugal — ViX, Fubo; Poland vs Scotland — ViX, Fubo; Group A4: Serbia vs Denmark — ViX; Spain vs Switzerland — Vix, Fubo.
CONCACAF Nations League, quarter-finals, second legs: USMNT vs Jamaica (agg. 1-0), 8pm/1am — Fubo, Peacock Premium (only in US); Panama vs Costa Rica (agg. 1-0), 9pm/2am — CBS, Paramount+ (only in US).
And finally…
Lewis Richards is a defender with League Two Bradford City and as such, this might be his first and only mention in TAFC.
It’s a shame it comes courtesy of him taking a throw-in in the manner of a player with his ankles tied together, but there’s no way we could let this epic fail slide. Nice to see him take it with a smile.
(Top photo: Craig Foy/SNS Group via Getty Images)
