Which former player would you bring back?

Which former player would you bring back?

Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com.

Southgate, but…
Gareth Southgate is right on course to become England manager on the basis that he knows not to put the milk in his tea first, spells colour correctly, has watched an episode of Coronation Street, and was likely once given a Rupert The Bear annual for Christmas by his Nan who didn’t know what else to get him. No need to even consider anyone else. He’s the last turkey in the shop on Christmas Eve. He will have to do.

Now, I like him. I may have laughed at the “What’s the quickest way out of Wembley Stadium” joke in 1996, but I think he should be part of the coaching set up until that neatly trimmed beard on his face turns as grey as Britain’s dominant squirrel population (no doubt, the vanquished red squirrels plight is what initially kept Daily Express and Mail readers so transfixed with fear of other immigrants). He’s a nice dude, and undoubtably a decent coach. However, all eyes on the pacyderm in the room please: all the Englishmen are shite. It’s time to go for a nice man from across the seas again instead.

“But it didn’t work the last two times”.

So the dwindling English contingent of coaches not yet used (Southgate, Bruce, a reluctant Howe, Throaty McThroatison at Burnley) are better than Wenger, Blanc, Hiddink or Bielsa? It might not work again, but at least it’s just a little bit inspiring as opposed to not at all. Oh, and to say Sven didn’t work when compared to Roy, Schteve, Keegan and Hoddle is revisionist in the extreme.

“International matches should be about pitting our best against another countries best, including coaches”.

Absolutely. However, nearly every other international team is abusing or have abused that rule. Germany’s record breaking striker Klose was Polish; France’s 1998 and 2000 teams weren’t so much French, but more a combined France and Africa XI; Spain currently have a Brazilian striker; Portugal won Euro 2016 with a goal by a guy from the Cape Verde Islands in a final full of players from the French and Portuguese colonies; Italy and Argentina have historically traded players like Panini stickers; Qatars team in 2022 will probably have a single Qatari player; Japan, Croatia and other sides haven’t been adverse to using Brazilian talents; most of the Ireland team in 94; Dutch legends like Kluivert, Gullit, Davids, Seedorf and Rijkaard could have lined up for Surinam; Belgium have Bobby Martinez; Wales feature a clutch of Englishmen, including a guy (Johnny Williams) who used to live down the road from me in Kent. Let’s not forget Hargreaves and Barnes for England as notable examples of stretching the concept of nationality either.

Yes, when you look at that lot it makes you wonder what the point of it all is. I agree, but it didn’t stop Paris erupting with joy in 98 or Lisbon hailing Renato Sanches as their hero just this summer. I want to see England win something before I die. As long as I stop eating Pringles by the can, I reckon I’ve got 40 years left to see that happen. Now Gareth’s not going to manage that is he?

Look, Wengers practically English by now anyway. I bet he can hum the Archers theme tune. Ask him.
Jae, Tunbridge Wells.

Gareth Southgate’s decision to send Harry Kane back to Spurs to continue rehab is one of the most sensible decisions by a football manager I’ve seen in a long time.

Kudos Gareth, you’ve got my vote to keep the job.
Brian (England may very well may be in a golden era, without superstars) LFC

Why wouldn’t you take Rooney on a free?
I have also come up with a way of working out what teams might want to take Rooney on a free.

A while back someone suggested we shouldn’t use stats to compare players. In reply other people confirmed that they do have their place. So on that’s basis I thought I’d pop over to whoscored and take a look at how other teams’ number 10s and 8s (in particular, some f365 favourites) are doing this season.

Mata: 875 minutes, 3 goals, 1 assist, 7.04 rating
David Silva: 867 minutes, 0 goals, 2 assists, 7.37 ratio
Cazorla: 856 minutes, 2 goals, 3 assists, 7.25 rating
Ozil: 800 minutes, 3 goals, 1 assist, 7.35 rating
Firmino: 890 minutes, 6 goals, 3 assists, 7.91 rating
Sterling: 1377 minutes, 5 goals, 4 assists, 7.24 rating
Deli Alli: 1456 minutes, 3 goals, 1 assist, 6.87 rating
Mahrez: 856 minutes, 1 goal, 1 assist, 6.71 rating.
Sanchez: 909 minutes, 6 goals, 3 assists, 7.78 rating
Hazard: 918 minutes, 7 goals, 1 assist, 8.03 rating
De Bruyne: 762 minutes, 2 goals, 6 assists, 7.69 rating
Eriksen: 866 minutes, 0 goals, 3 assists, 7.08 rating
Lallana: 773 minutes, 3 goals, 5 assists, 7.25 rating
Coutinho: 843 minutes, 5 goals, 5 assists, 8.09 rating
Barkley: 834 minutes, 2 goals, 1 assist, 6.83 rating

For comparison:
Rooney: 1088 minutes, 4 goals, 6 assists, 6.98 rating

With no comment, I’ll just leave that there for the hive mind’s interpretation and consideration.
Guy S (Coutinho really will light up La Liga)

Rooney (and bringing back a former player)
Behave, the very idea of Rooney at Southampton is horrifying.

First, (and obviously most importantly) there is zero chance of us selling him to Liverpool which right away is a serious problem. 200k a week would also blow the wage structure out of the water as Jose Fonte, at a third of that, is our top paid player on around 62k a week.

On current form, I’d also say Austin is a better player who seems to be going along nicely at a goal every other game.

If United are looking to offload players however, I’d happily take Shaw and Schneiderlin back. Their replacements (Bertrand + Romeu) are performing admirably. It’s just so disappointing seeing such talented players who were up there with the best in the league a year or two ago, crashing and burning.

Which brings me to a wider point, if you could bring back any former player (whose still playing) to your current team, who would it be?

Bale would obviously be the super star, though he hardly played many games for us. Despite a poorly handled transfer, I’d still welcome Lallana back with open arms and Alderweireld is one of the best cb’s in the league. Wanyama and Mane are great as well, which doesn’t even mention the good squad players like Clyne and Lovren. In fact, if we could bring back most of those who’ve left over the last 3 years, with Pochettino in in charge, we’d have a decent shot at the title.

Surely no other team has seen so many good players pass through in such a short period of time??
Tom Saints (I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for Peter Crouch despite him being the first to tread that well worn path to Liverpool…)

Thoughts on the Ox
Have to say I completely agree with Matt Stead’s views on Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

I found his TV appearance on Goals on Sunday a few weeks back amusing for two reasons. Firstly, when they showed his career statistics, he winced, clearly embarrassed by his numbers of goals, assists and even starts he’s made. Yes, he’s been somewhat unfortunate with injuries, but they cannot be used as an excuse forever and he was clearly aware of that.

Secondly, he basically said that he just needed to be given chances. But as Matt alluded to, he’s had them. He was positive on the opening day against Liverpool, before following this up with poor displays from the start in consecutive games against Leicester, Watford, Southampton and PSG. At a club that have title winning aspirations, you just can’t afford to be completely anonymous for four games on the bounce. Against Watford for example, we were absolutely excellent going forward but he was the exception to that rule.

Recently he scored twice against Reading and once against Ludogorets. When Walcott was injured he was rewarded with a start against Sunderland. After delivering a superb cross for Sanchez, he raced through on goal in the second half only to completely fluff his shot, leading to a friend to text me asking how confident I’d been that he’d actually score. The answer was ‘not very’, completely agreeing with Matt’s point that he can often display both confidence and fearfulness in the space of 90 minutes.

Personally I cannot see him ever really making it properly at Arsenal with him forever being a ‘potential’ player. I am much more a fan of Wilshere’s attitude and pray with each passing week that he runs the show for Bournemouth and will come back and take his place in the side.
Joe, AFC, East Sussex

Liverpool’s January
It was unsurprising that you put forward a quasi-replacement for Sadio Mane as Liverpool’s most pressing need in the upcoming January transfer market. Unsurprising in the fact that Klopp has said so himself, but as its a slow international week I thought I’d take a closer look at the matter.

January will be busy for Liverpool with a full league schedule, FA Cup action and the possibility of a two-legged League Cup semi-final on the cards (not counting my chickens yet though!). Mane provides pace, pressing, natural width alongside an ability to seamlessly transition with Firmino who is the incumbent as our false nine. Klopp has a few options in my opinion. The first would be to install Sturridge or Origi to the starting XI. Neither are like-for-like replacements as Sturridge would likely take up position as a ‘pure’ number 9 (with Firmino moving to the right) but in doing so Liverpool, while gaining Sturridge’s expert finishing, would lose the important pressing that Firmino provides as the nominal spearhead. Origi has the ability to be more fluid in his positioning but still feels somewhat raw and in his cameos has been preferred up top rather than out wide.

Speaking of raw, Klopp’s second option would be to look to the Academy where two wingers have impressed, albeit in different ways. Sheyi Ojo broke into the team with some bright cameos towards the back end of last season but his pre-season and early season were blighted by a troublesome back injury. Fast, skillful and a known entity to Klopp his recent return to first team training may provide fresh impetus in January. The second winger is more of a wildcard. Harry Wilson was capped by the Welsh senior side at 16-although it was an obvious attempt at securing his allegiance for future years as he has been absent from subsequent squads. He has always been highly rated at Melwood but has really kicked on this year, captaining the u21 side and getting among the goals. Klopp has never been daunted by promoting youth but this may be a step too far.

Finally, Klopp could open up his man-bag and throw some cash around. Considering he turned a profit over the summer I’m sure FSG would be happy to pony up. The problem is the January transfer window is notoriously hard to succeed in. Numerous players fit the bill but are completely unrealistic (e.g. Carrasco from Atleti). Even Pulisic from Dortmund would require silly money to pry away half way through the season and we saw with Alex Teixeira that Klopp will walk away from a deal if he feels the fee is too high. It is here where one has to back the player recruitment systems in place at the club. While keyboard warriors will rattle off names that they unearthed during their lonely hours of Football Manager (Hi, Iain Mc you modern day Chaucer!), you can be sure that Michael Edwards, Klopp and their team of scouts have heard of them all.

It is stating the obvious that only hindsight will reveal if the option Klopp settles on is the correct one but I would recommend a proactive approach. It would be a tragedy if hesitation in January
caused us to drop the proverbial quaffle and lose our momentum (once again, trying not to count my chickens here). With a lack of European football and many of our direct rivals in rebuilding phases this feels like the time to really go for it and let the pieces fall where they may.
Osric the Brave (Quincy Promes from Spartak Moscow would be my left-field shout for right forward), Cape Town

An early weekend preview
International break is boring (poppy armbands, FIFA rules, Southgate blah blah zzzzzzzz) so I am going to start the weekend previews early.

Am I the only Arsenal fan more worried about the possibility of Aaron Ramsey starting on Saturday than Sanchez playing tomorrow for Chile (I pray that he doesn’t play for Chile but we already know how this one ends)

My concern is the absence of Cazorla being the perfect opportunity for Wenger’s prodigal son to get back into the team and stop our momentum, the momentum which has already shown signs of slowing in recent weeks. Ramsey is not the answer to our central midfield. He is merely a myth. A myth that he is a world class player in the making, A myth that he was one of the outstanding players of the Euros, a myth that Barca had been interested in him, a myth that he could fetch £40 million if he were to be sold.

Wenger please go with a solid Coq and Xhaka/Elneny combo until Santi comes back.
Frankie AFC

English Ander
This question popped into my head as I was reading this fantastic interview of Ander Herrera lavishing praise on Wayne Rooney as an individual.

He said every time Spain didn’t call him up, Rooney would say, “Good. You’ll end up playing for us.” I’m not sure if FIFA rules would have allowed that as Herrera has represented Spain at lower age levels, but it is an interesting thought. England do have some decent midfielders these days, but the fact that Rooney was shoe-horned into the midfield role shows that the coaches are still not confident in the ability of English midfielders.

Ahead of the England-Spain match, I do hope Mata and Herrera get some game time. Just give Herrera a few minutes Lopetegui!

Anyway, back to the question. How many caps would Herrera have got if he qualified for England? (And still had his Spanish technical abilities, of course)
Avant. (He makes a good point on Rooney allowing Pogba and Martial take penalties despite being close to Bobby Charlton’s record)

Winter is coming for Wales
Sorry Naz, Gooner, but either you missed the point or were trying to be deliberately disingenuous. The point being made was that the difference between confidence, over-confidence and arrogance is narrow. And did their WC qualifying results indicate they had gone over the precipice? To answer the question by throwing out stats in qualifying for Euro 2016 showing they had a decent run up to that point is meaningless. Unless you separate them out to before and after Euro 2016.

After all, England could show similar or better performance during that period – Played 27, Won 21, Drew 3, Lost 3 (2 losses of which were friendlies against superior teams.) Even bettering Germany who played 29, Won 17, drew 4 and lost 8 (4 losses of which were friendlies.)

But Wales’ before Euro 2016 and after Euro 2016 are quite different. Watching the Wales team leading up to the game was now more about the selfies, the funky team pictures. I was just waiting for them to come out wearing white suits.

This is not to say Wales’ won’t qualify, there is a long way to go, but they seem to have lost a bit of an edge as the ‘underdog’ – fully focused, fighting for every ball to the last second of the game, pressing hard as if their lives depended on it, the win being everything. The question was, is it because they have teetered over the edge, is it over-confidence, was it that they were average and have been found out by the opposition?

Of course, being cute with the friendlies, we won’t see them again until the next qualifying game.
Paul McDevitt

All hail Panama
One of the best stories in CONCACAF has been the slow but steady rise of Panama. A longtime minnow, they first announced themselves on July 16, 2000, in an early 2002 World Cup qualifier at home to Mexico. Their fans, like the team itself, are known as the Marea Roja, and 21,000 packed the Rommel Fernández stadium to see their heroes outplay the big boys for 87 minutes of 0-0. But as these things so often happen, the big boys got the winning goal, and the campaign soon fizzled out.

But Panama were quickly back on the front foot. In the qualifying for 2006, a superb last-day 3-0 win at home to El Salvador put them in the CONCACAF Hexagonal for the first time. It was a bridge too far, and the team failed to a win a single match, but they managed a famous draw at home to Mexico with this immortal equalizer from Luis “El Matador” Tejada (at 2:20):

They then went on to gain regional honors, making consecutive finals in the UNCAF championship, losing to and then defeating Costa Rica, both on penalties. An unlucky draw for the 2010 WC qualifiers matched them early on in two legs against El Salvador, and an 87th minute goal knocked them out. But in the 2014 qualifiers they beat Canada to make the Hexagonal once again, coming within a heartbeat of fourth place and the inter-confederation playoffs, where they would have been favorites against New Zealand. Leading the USA in stoppage time of the final round, with the playoff in their sights, they froze – how often have we seen it? – and Graham Zusi’s unmarked header put Panama out and Mexico in.

But they wasted no time in regrets. They nabbed an experienced international coach in Hernán Darío Gómez, who had taken both Ecuador and Colombia to the World Cup. And now they’re back, in some style. They got the luck of the draw this time, breezed past Haiti and Jamaica into the Hexagonal, and in Saturday’s opener won 1-0 at Honduras to score their first ever Hex away win. It was a difficult, physical match, but the boys in red were brave, pushing forward all game, outplaying the hosts over 90 minutes. Alberto Quintero, twisty and tricky in attacking midfield, won a 22nd minute free kick just outside the area. Fidel Escobar, excellent in central defence all afternoon, smashed it home through a porous Honduran wall. Jaime Penedo, earning his 123rd cap, pulled off a brilliant second-half double save to preserve the victory.

The trajectory continues upward. It’s early days, but could this be the year they qualify for the Mundial? Tonight they’re once more home to Mexico. The Marea Roja are ready to go insane. I’m ready to go insane with them. ¡Vamos Panamá!
Peter G, Pennsylvania, USA (Klinsmann out after the USA lose at Costa Rica)

 

Away fan fetish
Reading Daniel Gray’s bit on away fans had me grinning like a Cheshire cat this lunch time.

When your team scores a big goal away from home, there’s nothing quite like it. From my own experience, the wildest scenes I was ever a part of was with Chels at the Etihad three seasons ago (a 1-0 win). City went into the game with a perfect home record, and had battered many visiting sides. Even with Mourinho in charge, there was a feeling that City could turn us over comfortably in the form they were in. Alas, a 20 yard piledriver from Branna with his swinging left boot sent me, my old man and my brother, along with 3,000 other chelsea fans into pure pandemonium. I think Dan said it perfectly – the more surprising the goal, the wilder the celebrations.

Even watching games on the television, involving any side (even when it’s not your own), you can still massively appreciate the scenes of seeing a set of away fans going mental at a big goal. It’s always been my biggest football fetish. Bloody love it.
James, London

Love for Johnny
I am surprised to admit I have enjoyed Johnny Nic‘s recent work. I like it a lot more without the constant music references and reminders that he never worked for a salary or wore a suit (neither do Uber drivers, does that make them anti-establishment heroes?).

I understand his role is to be provocative and he puts forward arguments, which don’t necessarily reflect his views, but in the past I’ve found a lot of them to be quite weak; especially when there’s some blindingly obvious counterpoints which are wilfully ignored.

Lately though he seems to believe what he’s writing more, and his tone has been less angry at the world; perhaps in the Trumpian, Brexiting world anger has become mainstream, and serenity is now anti-establishment? Who knows. Either way, long may it last (commendation to Matt Stead, ever-improving and interesting to watch as he publicly develops his writing style).
Colm, London

Bridge too far
Wayne Bridge seems like a decent chap.

That’s all,
DC, BAC