The Mailbox asks whether Declan Rice is currently one of the best half-dozen players in Europe, and if William Saliba is second-best in the world. Also: England; Ben White; Alexis Sanchez; sharing wealth; and more…
Get your views in to theeditor@football365.com…
Black and White issue?
City fan here. This is what Southgate does. He picks the odd Toney, Branthwaite and Gordon-types for friendlies, to keep the noise down and may even experiment with different, more attacking formations for the same reason. But, when it comes to the tournament proper, he will revert not only to his favourite players, but the same old, two holding mids and balls hoofed up to Kane style of play.
And so, with utterly depressing inevitability, Southgate picks, yet again, Henderson, Rashford and Maguire. Why? Of the three, I might, at a real push, make a case for Maguire given his recent appearances for United, but it would be under the strongest protest. He will, I promise you, select the same three for the Euros and, not only that, but he’ll start them in pretty much every game. I doubt anybody in this mailbox would complain that an injustice has been done to Kalvin Phillips, but this begs the question, yet again, as to what criteria Southgate employs in his team selection? Occam’s razor applies I would suggest.
Oh, and Ben White. “Hello John (McDermott), it’s Edu here. Just calling to let you know that Ben doesn’t want to be called up.” “Oh, OK mate. Thanks for letting us know.” (Later). “Oh Gaffer, just had a call saying that Ben White doesn’t want to play.” Southgate (For it is he) “Really? Oh, that’s a shame.). Because, of course, in neither of those conversations, did anybody actually ask, “Well why the f*ck not?” And it follows that it’s a perfectly reasonable thing for an England manager to be completely ignorant as to why a player he ‘likes’ doesn’t want to play for the National team.
Because that makes sense right?
And why don’t the journos grow a pair and nail these things on him now and not, as always seems to be the case, after the England team get hyped to death and, following failure, do they then only seem to pile on with gusto?
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Can you imagine what either Klopp or Guardiola would do with the current riches of English talent at their disposal? Because Southgate won’t.
Mark (If we do win, it’ll be despite him, not because of him.) MCFC.
Read more: Eight players who rejected England before Benjamin White – and why they turned national team down
Bored of the same company
Harold Eduardinho Hooler’s email really resonated with me because I am a very frustrated Liverpool fan. Nothing to do with the team who are doing us proud, but with my fellow fans. The discourse these days is quite toxic and it really makes me despair. I am in a Liverpool whatsapp group where every week there are multiple posts about referee and FA conspiracies against Liverpool and endless posts about how the world world is against our club and other questionable claims along those lines. On social media, the discourse is even worse- just truly toe-curling conspiracy theories, rage about bias against Liverpool by not just refs but pundits as well, rage against fans of other clubs and just general nonsense If you don’t agree with the furious majority, you get abuse from your fellow fans and I have had so many arguments with other fans of my club because I refuse to buy into the ridiculous conspiracies.
Of course it’s not just Liverpool fans- I have seen countless comments from fans of other clubs (especially fans of the top 6) that are deeply embarrassing to say the least and I notice the more ridiculous those claims are the more viral they get when posted on twitter. Even the F365 mailbox has missives from non-Liverpool fans that sound every bit as paranoid and deranged as the worst of my fans. However I am focusing more on Liverpool because they are my club and I more exposed to their fans and what they say. It’s just so difficult to have any discussion with any level of nuance and logic these days. It’s just pure raging anger and logic-defying claims and makes me despair- it really does.
Anyone else feels the same about their own club?
Anon (the people I am criticizing might be reading the mailbox so dont ‘publish my name please!)
No one likes us
Firstly, want to say thank you to all the mailboxers who sent such kind words after my last message. I gave a few Arsenal games a miss, just because I found the emotions overwhelming, but now I’m back! I felt my brother would have wanted me to watch them and enjoy us thumping people.
But I’ve noticed something peculiar in my hiatus, there are certain fans who seem to get irate at ANY LITTLE THING Arsenal do as a club. And the weird thing is, it is rarely our closest and bitterest rivals, Spurs. It’s Chelsea, United and Liverpool fans who are tweeting and posting throughout our games. Yet Spurs fans don’t seem to be part of that. And that makes sense. Half of my friends are Spurs supporters, the other half Arsenal, and we banter on Whats App, but none of us are posting memes.
Yet the fans of Chelsea, United and Liverpool seem to have their piss boiled at every club announcement, every new thing we do, every time we celebrate. The amount of times I’ve read ‘come back when you’ve won the CL X number of times.’ – Like, do you think we don’t want to win the CL? Of course we do. Are we jealous of your wins, of course we are. But if the only joy you get from football is diminishing other team’s achievements, you’re doing the sport wrong.
If my club had spent £1billion on players, and were mid table, I’d keep my head down and my mouth shut.
If my club was still in the death spiral caused by the loss of their talismanic manager, I’d probably shut my face.
And if I was a Scouser, I’d probably be more worried about what the club was going to do after losing a talismanic manager like Klopp.
I’m sorry to all those fans who hate seeing us do well, with a young squad of talented players, managed by a young manager in his first managerial appointment, but you know what, we don’t care. If you heard the Emirates on Tuesday night, you’d know, we Arsenal fans are loving this, and will continue to. I hope we over celebrate wherever we go! I don’t even care if we don’t win anything this season, we are showing progress year after year. Can you say that about your clubs?
John Matrix AFC
Get over it, Garth
For something slightly different (and excuse a further complaint from an Arsenal fan…..)
My beef is with Garth Crooks Team of the Week on BBC. More often than not whenever there is an Arsenal player in said TOTW, Mr Crooks seems to take it as an opportunity to have a dig at Arsenal. Case in point Mr Ben White from 11th March 2024:
Ben White (Arsenal): Brentford boss Thomas Frank was absolutely right. Kai Havertz had no right to be on the pitch when he scored the winner in Arsenal’s 2-1 win over Brentford. The Germany international, having received a caution for throwing his elbow, elected to dive in the Brentford penalty area in order to try to seek a clear advantage. However, what was more troubling was that referee Robert Jones refused to do anything about it, even though the Brentford defenders were waving an imaginary card in the air in an attempt to bring the incident to his attention.
For Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta to then glorify the “manner of the win” in his post-match interview, having seen him gloating with Havertz at the end of the game, was a poor advert and only served to rub salt in Brentford’s wounds.
Fortunately for Arsenal, White was on hand to play a pivotal role in Arsenal’s victory over the Bees. Two beautifully floated crosses provided excellent assists in what was otherwise a rather grubby affair by the Gunners. If Arsenal are going to win the title please don’t win it like this
Two paragraphs having a pop at Arsenal. Compare with one VVD:
Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool): What a performance by Van Dijk in the 1-1 draw against Manchester City. It started with a superb interception by the Liverpool skipper when Phil Foden was about to receive the ball in the game’s opening exchanges. Then a cross from Bernardo Silva was destined for the head of Erling Haaland and looked as though it had beaten Van Dijk, but the Netherlands defender coolly headed the ball out of play.
His general passing and distribution of the ball was [Bobby] Charlton-esque, while Van Dijk never gave Haaland a kick throughout the match. However, the sliding tackle on Foden in the second half, as the City forward was about to instigate a counter-attack, was telling. Firstly, because you seldom see Van Dijk on his backside, but the occasion demanded it and the quality of the tackle brought a respectful pat on the back from Foden.
This was a Van Dijk masterclass.
Spot the difference? My point is not whether he was right about what he said, but more that he doesn’t talk about the player.
Mild complaint over.
Dave, Amersham Gooner
Sanchez on the spot
As an Arsenal fan watching Alexis Sanchez stepping up to take a penalty for Inter last night, I knew he would miss.
From memory at Arsenal I seemed to remember him having a poor penalty record.
Then following his miss I did some research and it seems in regular match penalties he has scored 10 and missed 11! Extending out to penalty shoot outs it’s been reported that he has only scored 16 out of 29.
Is this the worst record for a top-flight player who has taken more than say 10 penalties?
Sure, there will be some players that have missed 3 out of 4 or something like this but then stopped taking penalties however how, in the world have they let him take 21 penalties in matches?
Cheers,
Paul K, London
Saliba second-best in the world?
Good morning footballing debating fans, A hugely entertaining clash of opinions has erupted in spectacular fashion in a feisty whatsapp group and its ongoing, passionate longevity has inspired me to write into the hallowed pages of the Mailbox to harvest the opinions of others who know their stuff on this contentious topic…
The debate centres around one William Saliba and whether he is in the top two centre backs in the world based on current form, i.e. this season only?
Eloquent arguments have been made through statistics such as clean sheets, the eye test and even fantasy football points and rankings that Saliba is second only to Van Dijk in both the Premier League and the world. The… counter argument led by a Trumpian member of the group has loudly ignored said statistics and instead claims Ruben Dias is better this season but has merely been unfortunate with injuries and squad rotation rendering him without a consistent run of games or steady partner. (David Alaba was mentioned by said eejit but he withdrew him rapidly after much ridicule as a selection claiming ‘sarcasm’).
Remember, historical form and achievements are not being taken into account. Based on current form, this season, is Saliba the second best centre back in the world?
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Eric (looking forward to this weekend!), Dublin
Esteemed Rice
Is it knee-jerkery to claim that Declan Rice is now in the top six players in Europe right now ?
Above him only Mbappe, Haaland, Bellingham, Rodri and Griezmann ?
Peter, Andalucia
Solidarity payments
A brief(ish) reply to Lee since he actually asked for one.
Some history:
For most of it’s existence, the football league shared gate receipts between both clubs. For every match.
Before the Premier League TV revenue was (up to the mid 80’s) split equally between the clubs. All 92 clubs.
From 1992 to 2006 none of the Premier League broadcasting money was split with the EFL. What happened was that clubs who were relegated from the Premier league tended to go bust. The financial disparity between the 2 divisions was too great.
Hence: Parachute payments. These were introduced (I think at a point 50% of EFL clubs had been insolvent since 1992) to mitigate the relegated teams going bust issue. However this would have been an unfair advantage to the relegated teams leading to essentially a 23 team premier league with 3 teams swapping places every year….
Hence: Solidarity payments. This is what you and other mailers are complaining about. Solidarity payments exist because the parachute payments exist. For my club in league 2, we get a 24th of 3% of the TV money. Compared to a 92nd of 100% in the 1980s.
That’s the history. A few fact checks from your mail:
Arbitration for transfer fees only happens when a player is under 24 and moves at the end of their contract. Since EPPP (I’ve written at length on this topic a few times here, and won’t bore everyone again – google will probably get you there) most of those transfers happen at a fixed/formulaic price. It is not a price which nets the ‘selling’ club much money.
It also means that clubs have a weakened negotiating position for players still in contract (most league 2 contracts are 2 or 3 years, no one is doing a Chelsea here) since they know they will not do too well out of the player moving at the end of their contract.
Some opinion:
You absolutely could get rid of solidarity payments, but you’d also need to get rid of parachute payments. And to do that you’d probably need to bin relegation from the premier league. In some ways it would make sense – the premier league is keen on the Americanisation of football and not really arsed about competition. My guess would be that you’d lose a fair bit of leagues 1 & 2…or at least you’d need a 5 year lead in to allow clubs to fold themselves or convert to becoming semi-pro clubs. Many would fold, thousands of players would lose the chance to live the dream of becoming a professional footballer. The pipeline of footballers into the premier league would be either reduced, or diminished since the overall quality of players before they hit the premier league academies would suffer (oh yeah, even league 2 clubs fund and provide coaching &funding in their local areas which goes if they go).
I’m pretty much resigned to the idea that my club will not exist as a professional league club at some point in my lifetime. The direction of travel is clear, EPPP, solidarity payments, the 3pm Sat blackout – all shall bow before the mighty premier league pound. Lee – it’s entirely up to you if you give a tuppeny-toss about any of this. It seems increasingly that more and more fans of the established EPL teams absolutely don’t – why send £26k a year to Colchester when you could spend it on a days wages for Salah? I think it’s a shame, but recognise I’m in the minority.
Jeremy Aves
…Just a quick missive regarding Lee’s mail on the football pyramid scheme.
Firstly, everything you say is correct if you think the single most important thing about a football club is it is a business above all things. Then yes, standard evil business practices do apply. For those of us that believe a football club is different (or can be different) and is about a shared experience, a love of the game and a uniting force then money isn’t the be all and end all.
Secondly, why should they give the leagues lower down any money? How about they can bloody afford to for starters. The English Premier League is already by far the richest in the world bar none. By giving some money to the clubs further down the pyramid and grass roots they will not affect their global standing compared to leagues in other countries in the slightest. There would be no competitive advantage lost at all. Perhaps it could be allocated better from richer clubs to poorer clubs and ALL clubs would ideally run within their means too.
Why should the obscenely rich give anything to the less well off? Well that’s quickly becoming a defining question of the times we are living in. I’d argue ‘to prove you’re not a complete dick’ would be a good place to start.
Funstar (AVFC) Andy
…Some great mails on the current EPL/EFL funding impasse, that shows this is not so clean and clear cut.
If we are going to go back before the EPL was created to determine how evil it was, then at least set the context correctly.
Before the EPL, Serie A clubs dominated Europe, sucked up the best players from all countries and received higher TV revenues as a result. A lot of us Brits watched Serie A. They played the best football and had the stars everyone wanted to watch.
It was TV that went to the clubs to discuss the formation of a super league. Not the other way around. The Government, at the time, encouraged it.
The idea of sharing funds downstream started after the EPL offered parachute payments to the relegated clubs to ‘ease their pain’ as they worked on how to rationalize their costs as they earned less in the Championship. And this turned into adding ‘solidarity’ payments as EFL clubs said (rightly) these parachute payments really imbalanced the Championship – and Championship clubs chances of being promoted to the EFL. This is still the case and biggest objection. It partly explains the Championship financial arms race: their finances are even more out of whack than any other level in the pyramid.
But the EPL were never obliged to make any payments over the parachute payments. While at some level EPL clubs recognize the value of having the pyramid in place, producing talent, etc, they could also run quite nicely without it.
We can all argue how fair that is to the rest of the EFL, but when an EFL club calls it ‘insulting’ and a millionaire pundit who part-owns and EFL team calls it a disgrace, you can see why EPL owners might call a halt; feel insulted. And then to have the Government – a government that has managed the country atrociously – say it will take over and do what exactly? Tell independent business they need to give other businesses a helping hand? Why doesn’t the Government do that then? Would that happen in any other industry? Will the courts see it the same way? I doubt it.
So sure, the EPL clubs have a self interest. A significant amount of money is being taken from their pockets to support other businesses who, for the most part, do not run themselves well. And it is always going to be difficult to get a consortium to agree, but much harder when other self-interested parties are sh*t talking you. Some EFL clubs badmouthing EPL clubs, a Government trying to shore up its awful record by trying to win points by finding an enemy everyone else can ‘hate.’ I can see their intransigence at moving forward. They’re damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
In reality the parachute payments do seem unfair but it is because of those, the solidarity payments were created, and both at higher amounts as the EPL earns more. And all clubs are earning more than they ever earned in the 80s. But like everything else the increased revenues drives up costs disproportionately. It’s a double edged sword.
If the Government and the EFL’s view is that getting more money from EPL clubs will fix everything, think again.
It’s a sad situation and all the rhetoric from those looking for a hand out only makes it sadder.
We will just be kicking the ball down the road.
Paul McDevitt
Rodri escape
Mark SK2 Blue, not saying you are wrong about Richarlison being offside prior to Rodri’s handball, but play was stopped for an offside on the left wing after the handball. The VAR check does not seem to review offside prior to the handball, only the handball itself. The clip does not show the restart so you cannot tell whether it was Richarlison offside in the build up, or the one on the left wing that was given. There may be another clip that shows this, or perhaps an explanation after the game from PGMOL, but the evidence provided does not quite do enough to prove your case.
Andy the Hammer (Thursday 5:45pm is an ungodly hour for a football match)
… I’d like to thank ‘Mark SK2 Blue’ (I always dab a bit of that on when I’m in the duty free) for his evidence in the Rodri 2022 handball case. Now, I’m not quite sure what was said between the two officials from the Greater Manchester area and what the various hand signals implied at the time, but it does appear a verdict was passed down from the authorities shortly afterwards:
And I’ll tell you what would stop ‘f*cking going on about” these things, is if there weren’t multiple examples of them from other wafer thin title races in the last decade or so.
Cheers,
Rob.
…Mark SK2 Blue what it looks like to me is that there is an offside after Rodri’s handball which is why the referee was able to stop play to confer with VAR. Once that conference was concluded, play restarts at that point, hence Tierney making the offside gesture. Tierney was never going to just stop play (not in the protocols remember?) and as the ball was active that’s the only logical explanation.
You got away with one. Again.
James Outram, Wirral
Coefficient corner
An update for all coefficient fans (and fans of Villa and Spurs in particular). A good night for England, with West Ham and Arsenal overturning deficits and Villa putting away Ajax. Here’s how the leagues rank.
1. Italy: 4 of 7 teams left
Looking strong, despite Inter & Napoli’s elimination. No teams in the CL but EL and ECL give just as many points, and you’d expect at least one of Milan, Roma or Atalanta to go far.
2. Germany: 3 of 7 teams left
Was very nearly 2 of 7, but Alonso’s Leverkusen team just about managed to turn things around. The issue Germany will have is that 2 of their 3 teams are in the CL. Neither Dortmund nor Bayern are amongst the favourites and the quarter finals would may well be their limits. Which would see England move into second.
3. England: 5 of 8 teams left
Looking strong, despite currently being 3rd. Arsenal, City, Liverpool and Villa would all be strong contenders to make the final or win their respective competitions. Even West Ham are 4th favourites to win the EL. Unless most of these teams are eliminated in the quarter finals and none reach the final, England should be getting its 5th place.
4. France 3 of 6 teams left
Not impossible. But you’d probably need all of PSG, Marseille and Lille to make the final or win their competitions. Seems unlikely.
5. Spain 3 of 8 left
Almost impossible. Their 3 representatives are all in the Champions League. If they made up 3 of the 4 semi-finalists and one of them one it, then it’s just about possible. But not going to happen.
So basically, in the Premier League, the battle for 5th is on.
Mike, LFC, Dubai
West Ham duo Michail Antonio and Jarrod Bowen.
Glorious Antonio
Just watching the hammers game and isn’t it wonderful to watch Michail Antonio in full flow?
I know he’s had his troubles with injuries but there are times he’s just unplayable, I love him
Fat Man
Steady on
Did Matt Stead just write a whole article just so he can say ‘Kalvin decline’? So bad it’s good. You might as well bring the non-football story of the day back. Pretty please.
Zdravko
