A Champions League tale of three coaches. Plus: Edu’s exit and Odegaard’s comeback

By
James BAOUCH
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We’re talking top Champions League managers today. And one who’s under pressure.

Coming up:

Coaches at crossroads


(LFC Foundation/Liverpool FC via Getty Images

Alonso on memory lane

There’s a parallel universe in which Xabi Alonso is managing Liverpool this evening, while Arne Slot waits for a Premier League job to drop in his lap. A different conversation earlier this year and the technical area at Anfield would have been Alonso’s to fill.

Even so, Liverpool versus Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League tonight won’t be tinged with regret. Slot has been a bang-on choice to replace Jurgen Klopp. Alonso’s impressive stock will hold up fine, no matter whether Leverkusen (as seems unlikely) retain Germany’s Bundesliga this season. All sides got what they wanted, which is a rare feat in football.

Alonso reappearing at Anfield, though, is the return of an adopted prodigal son, invoking memories of a footballer whose immense, unadulterated midfield style deserved to coincide with a more golden period for Liverpool.

Sure, he won a Champions League in 2005 and an FA Cup the following year, but Alonso was exceptional enough to have won it all. Soak up some happy memories of his goal from the halfway line against Newcastle United (above). Steve Gerrard summed Alonso (nicknamed ‘spray gun’ on account of his sublime passing range) up nicely in his autobiography: “Top signing. Pure class.”

Whether Alonso ever coaches Liverpool remains to be seen. That boat might have sailed but he’s a hot talent, and another boat is potentially waiting for him elsewhere.

Ancelotti’s strife

Carlo Ancelotti won’t go on indefinitely at Real Madrid. If this season doesn’t pick up, Real won’t be slow in changing tack. Alonso is touted as a future manager at the Bernabeu. As an ex-Real player and a rising star as a coach, it’s hard to think of many candidates in Europe who would suit the role more.

Real are at home to AC Milan later and they’re craving a result to keep the wolves from the door. They’re nine points off the pace in La Liga, well adrift of Barcelona, and our Spanish crew have been trying to get to the bottom of the overnight stagnation under Ancelotti:

  • Toni Kroos’ retirement in June left a gaping hole in Real’s midfield. His influence was no secret but it’s arguably more obvious without him there.
  • As a result, Jude Bellingham is dropping deeper. Look at his heatmap in the recent 4-0 Clasico defeat Against Barca (below) and you’ll see why he’s nowhere near matching last season’s 25 La Liga goal contributions.

Ancelotti has his hands full. And I wouldn’t confidently predict that it will get better for Real before it gets worse.

Amorim’s apprenticeship

That was essentially the issue with Erik ten Hag at Manchester United. Better days showed no sign of coming— hence why Ruben Amorim has taken Ten Hag’s job there.

This week, you might have seen photographs on social media of Amorim at United’s Carrington training round with Jose Mourinho many years ago. Mark Critchley has written about how and why that happened, and the apprenticeship Amorim received from Mourinho. Jose’s a bit of a teddy bear, really.


(High Performance Football; design: Eamonn Dalton)

Amorim still has a couple of weeks to serve out as Sporting Lisbon boss. Sporting host Manchester City tonight, which is neat timing because before saying yes to United, Amorim was being held up as a possible successor to Pep Guardiola at the Etihad. Small world.

Catch a match (ET/UK time)

(Selected games)

Champions League: PSV Eindhoven vs Girona, 12.45pm/5.45pm — Paramount+, Fubo/TNT Sports; Celtic vs RB Leipzig, 3pm/8pm — CBS, Paramount+, Amazon Prime/TNT Sports; Liverpool vs Bayer Leverkusen, 3pm/8pm — Paramount+/Amazon Prime; Real Madrid vs AC Milan, 3pm/8pm — Paramount+, Fubo/TNT Sports; Sporting Lisbon vs Manchester City, 3pm/8pm — Paramount+/TNT Sports.

News round-up

  • Fulham spammed Brentford’s box with 43 crosses in the Premier League last night. Their approach paid off dramatically at the death, with two Harry Wilson finishes in added time earning a 2-1 win. The first of them, above, came from a gravity-defying flick of the heel — laced with a big shot of luck.
  • Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis has lost his appeal against a five-game stadium ban for allegedly spitting at match officials. It’s the naughty step for him, then.
  • Some strong words from Ancelotti on La Liga failing to call off all of last weekend’s fixtures after serious and deadly flooding in Spain: “Nobody wanted to play.”
  • Manchester United haven’t seen much of Mason Mount this season but he’s back in full traininghaving recovered from a head injury — just in time for Amorim’s arrival.

Adieu to Edu


(Kristian Skeie/UEFA via Getty Images)

Edu and Mikel Arteta have been tightly intertwined for a long time. The same could be said about Edu and Arsenal.

The Brazilian was their first-ever technical director — later to become sporting director — and the man responsible for pinning his colours to Arteta by recruiting him as head coach — later to become manager — in 2019.

More than that, Edu oversaw a shift in transfer policy, moving away from expensive earners, including Mesut Ozil, to fresher talent, such as Martin Odegaard. The strategy pushed Arsenal firmly into Premier League title territory. But it emerged yesterday, somewhat suddenly, that Edu is exiting the building — moving on to join the stable of clubs run by Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis.

From the outside, this looks like a big deal. Edu says he wants to “pursue a different challenge” but in the absence of more detail, I asked one of our Arsenal experts, James McNicholas, if he could expand:

“Edu has been interested in a multi-club model with international scope for some time and, with Arsenal looking unlikely to adopt that strategy, this move would have been appealing. He’ll be very well rewarded in his new role, which doesn’t hurt.

“There may have been other contributing factors. Arsenal have moved towards a more manager-centric model, and Edu might have felt his influence on sporting matters was waning. It’ll be interesting to see how Arsenal replace him.” Count on James to be all over that process.

Growing reports of racism

Only the deluded would think that football is far enough down the road towards beating racism. A mere eight days ago, an investigation was launched after alleged racist abuse of three Barcelona players (Lamine Yamal among them) during their Clasico win over Real Madrid.

But of renewed concern is the prevalence of incidents involving abuse aimed at players of East or South East Asian heritage. Last season, they accounted for 12 per cent of complaints stemming from England’s professional leagues — and the numbers are rising (see above).

Two high-level cases in recent months have brought this issue into the public eye: a 10-game ban imposed on Marco Curto, a defender with Como in Italy, for a derogatory comment made towards Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Hwang Hee-chan during a friendly, and remarks from Tottenham Hotspur’s Rodrigo Bentancur about South Korean team-mate Son Heung-min that led to a Football Association charge.

In total, and across the sport, Kick It Out — a UK body that monitors and challenges bigotry in football — recorded that 48 per cent of player reports last season targeted East or South East Asian footballers. It’s a deafening alarm bell if ever there was one, and it speaks to a viewpoint in this article today: that education is sorely lacking.

Around The Athletic FC

(Top photo: Leon Kuegeler/Getty Images)



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