We have to get used to a winter World Cup but first, Liverpool and Man City have strikers to match their managers and more…
1) The World Cup won’t come with the summer sun
In any normal environment (snigger – the English language is quite liberal, you know), the World Cup would now be kicking off. One of the most potentially exciting summers has been expunged; Wimbledon tennis and Test match cricket will no longer act as a backing track to the greatest football show on earth. Now, we have warring footballers’ wives in court and a tournament that starts in November. You might not like it but at least it’s an international break with a bit more importance thrown in. And don’t forget the women’s Euros minus Phil Neville and his hair.
2) Gareth Southgate will not boldly go
The Nations League always sounded like an unholy alliance between reluctant European nations. Anyone watching the Three Lions plod around the pitch for the last four games might think the same. Things pepped up or us lounge lizards when Jack Grealish and Jarred Bowen started to cause Germanic angst before Hungary invoked the maddest result since that 6-3 Wembley tonking. Gary Lineker said it all: England always look better when they go for the jugular. Southgate is a reinsurance man, not a risk-taker. That’s all there is to it.
3) Manchester City and Liverpool have proper bloody strikers
Well, they gave it a long run-up but Manchester City will now have to get used to life with a man that regularly puts balls into nets. How on earth will Pep cope with this lethal force of nature amid the control of the collective? Nunez v Haaland has all the makings of a UFC fight without the punching. It could be spectacularly engrossing. Two kids playing around in a giant global playground. Whisper it – but Liverpool also have a mega striker now rather than a converted factory of wingers-cum-goalscorers. The Uruguayan is probably the only man who made Alisson look invisible as a last line of defence. Watch this space. Defenders will have to.
4) Jose Mourinho has a new profile
If anyone thought Jose Mourinho was not in vogue anymore he just proved that ‘see trophy win trophy’ will always find a way. Why on earth Tottenham ditched him days before that EFL Cup final for the relative merits of Ryan Mason’s bionic Screwfix brain will always be a pub question for the ages. Anyway, he schooled us all by getting his Roma warriors to win a first European trophy for 60 years….
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