This article was originally published on Fabrizio Romano’s Daily Briefing, a subscription service. If you would like to receive Fabrizio Romano’s exclusive articles via email ahead of publication on caughtoffside.com, please sign-up for the service here: thedailybriefing.io
—
Blue cards in football? It’s a red card card from me
This week has seen the announcement from the International Football Association Board (IFAB) that blue cards will be introduced and are going to be trialled for acts of dissent and cynical fouls. The showing of the blue card will also mean that the player receiving it will spend 10 minutes in a ‘sin bin.’
Speaking purely as a football fan and not a journalist, I’m not a big fan of this development and I can’t see the sense of changing the current rules in terms of cards. It looks already good enough to me, so… I’m not pro-blue cards, at all. I do think the game needs different changes, just not this one.
Tim Steidten would be a huge loss for West Ham
There would appear to be multiple stories in the media which suggest that Tim Steidten is going to walk away from West Ham if David Moyes stays. To be completely honest guys, I don’t have anything confirmed on this at this stage.
For sure, losing Tim Steidten would be a huge loss for West Ham in any case, as he did an excellent job in the summer.
There were important signings made and a new, fresh vision for the club in terms of the project, other signings and more. He’s done great work at both Leverkusen and West Ham recently.
Thiago will decide his future this summer, not now
Despite the rumours that Thiago doesn’t want to extend his contract at Liverpool, nothing is concrete yet between him and any other club. This is one for the summer.
Thiago is too serious and too professional to agree on a deal with another club now and not tell Liverpool about it.
Everything will be decided in the next months, nothing has been agreed yet.
FFP to dictate Barcelona’s transfer business
I’ve no information about the situation surrounding Frenkie de Jong so far.
In general guys, Barcelona around May will understand the situation in terms of Financial Fair Play and what they have to do in terms of outgoings.
Deco was clear two days ago when he said that Barcelona don’t want to sell top players.
However, Financial Fair Play could dictate their movements in the market and this will be clarified in the summer, not now.
Difficult time for Chiesa but he’s valued by Juve
I’m also not aware of Kenan Yildiz becoming the de facto replacement for Federico Chiesa at Juventus. Not at all.
In fact, Juventus are very happy with both players being part of the squad.
Chiesa hasn’t disappeared from the radar of the big clubs as he remains an excellent player, but it has been a difficult season for him with injuries.
Man United are already preparing a new contract for Kobbie Mainoo
Kobbie Mainoo is one of the best talents around the world and doing fantastic for Manchester United in the midfield.
So much so that Man United are already preparing a new contract proposal. This is not something that they will prepare for in the future, they are already preparing the new deal for Kobbie now. Why?
It’s not an urgent situation so Man United are not forced to do it as soon as possible, but they want to do it this year, in 2024, because the player’s contract is still long.
They want Kobbie to be one of the faces of the project for the present and the future. He is a great talent who deserves a salary to match, but it’s just as important to make him feel like an important player for Manchester United.
From what I’m hearing, initial discussions with the player’s camp, with his agents already took place. There were positive exchanges and conversations because Kobbie is very happy at Man United.
There are no details yet on the deal as it’s very early stages, but I’m sure Erik ten Hag, INEOS and all the people at the club have zero doubts about him. They all want Kobbie to have an important contract and future at Manchester United.
Ivan Toney will join a top club this summer
Ivan Toney will not continue at Brentford after the summer. This is the expectation with one year left on his contract.
Ahead of the January transfer window, between October and November, Brentford were looking to ask for £60m-£65m for Ivan Toney. Then what happened?
On the market, there were no other strikers available. Osimhen wasn’t available. Sesko wasn’t available and many others were not available, and so they decided to put a different price tag on Ivan Toney, something around £100m.
No one made a proposal because they didn’t want to spend that money for a player who was out of contract in summer 25. So now, in the summer transfer window as the manager Thomas Frank mentioned, the idea is for Ivan Toney to join a top club.
He’s had a new agent since August so let’s see what’s going to happen at Arsenal. They never made a proposal in January but he’s always been one of the players appreciated by the club.
Let’s see what’s going to happen at Chelsea too because we know that Victor Osimhen is on the list.
No way Enzo Fernández leaves Chelsea
One player that’s already at a top club is Enzo Fernández. His agent has gone public to deny all the stories on the possibility of Enzo leaving Chelsea in the summer.
And I can tell you guys that people close to Enzo, people close to the family, people close to the agents – so Enzo’s camp in every single way – are denying in a strong way this possibility for Enzo to leave.
Enzo knew from the first moment that he joined Chelsea, in that moment at the beginning of a new project, there was probably a risk and he had many other possibilities, but Enzo is not stupid.
He had the opportunity to go to different clubs at different stages of their projects but still chose Chelsea because it’s a long term process, not just six months or one year.
This is why so Enzo is denying the story in every possible way and has sent a very clear message that he never considered to leave Chelsea in the summer transfer window.