The power of merchandising is never more obvious than at Manchester United. Since United signed Alexis Sanchez from Arsenal the club have been selling huge amounts of Sanchez No7 shirts throughout the world. This is three times the previous record amount of shirts sold for any single United player! The Sanchez signing also set new records for posts on Instagram and manager Jose Mourhino says that he is completely satisfied with his striker and forward options Mata, Rashford, Martial, Lukaku and Alexis. However, the club are monitoring all movements at Real Madrid where Gareth Bale is rumoured to be leaving soon. Antoine Griezmann is also on their radar. The attraction to the club is that they know their shops, agents and merchandising outlets worldwide will create more enormous profits from those famous names.
The problems at Chelsea
Speaking to several Chelsea insiders at the training camp in Cobham, it is clear there is a lack of leadership in the dressing room. Before he transferred to Aston Villa, long time captain John Terry was the leader and he was also very influential when it came to organisation on the field, spirit on and off the field and most of the senior players and all of the juniors looked up to him. Chelsea are struggling to remain in the top four in the Premier League and manager Antonio Conte’s departure at some stage soon looks more likely than ever. The players are negative because of the manager’s position. Then there was the row with Diego Costa which damaged the club spirit. Players need a positive atmosphere and my sources tell me that if things do not improve there will be major changes at Stamford Bridge.
Setback for Arsenal
Arsenal tell me that the injury to Alexandre Lacazette has shocked manager Arsene Wenger and has set back his plans for the Premier League and the Europa League. Alexandre is likely to be out for up to six weeks a medical scan revealed on Tuesday. He has nine goals and four assists in 26 Premier League games this season and although he has recently lost his place to new arrival Pierre Emerick-Aubamyeng he would have played in the Europa League because Pierre is not eligible to play.
Drogba and Salah giving back
My congratulations and admiration go out to two of the best strikers in the last 20 years:
Didier Drogba is a Chelsea legend and one of the best strikers of his generation. He is grateful to his home country Cote d’Ivoire for the life football has given him. To help repay this debt he is giving back to his native country by opening a school which will ultimately help over 350 children in a poor rural area. He is running this through his Didier Drogba Foundation which he founded with funds from his highly successful soccer career and with donations from wealthy contacts. Didier said, “My foundation has always been if we give children access to health and education, we will build future generations of doctors, scientists, businessmen and women and that is how we build a better Africa.”
Meanwhile in his home country of Egypt Liverpool’s brilliant striker Mohamed Salah has invested some of his millions in setting up a charity, has plans to build a school and has helped finance a local hospital to provide a complete ventilation room, incubations and an ambulance unit. Two players who do not just take the money and run but are giving back to society.
I pray Conte stays
If Antonio Conte does leave Chelsea for Italy at the end of the season - or even before that - I will, for one, be very sad. I will miss the Italian’s incredible energy, nervous shouting, jumping up and down, running half the length of the pitch to scream or cheer and his crazy arm waving. I love the shine of his brightly polished black shoes reflecting off the flood lighting and his coat tails flailing from side to side as Antonio lets rip with another high energy burst of craziness. He is a passionate man, he lives every breath his players take, he kicks every ball and he feels every defeat like it was a personal bullet to the heart. If he leaves it will be a sad day for the Premier League because managers like him don’t come along too often.
Liverpool’s goalkeepers fight it out
I spoke with several Liverpool back room training people after the Reds worked on some moves for the Champions League. It looks like goalkeeper Loris Karius has done enough to persuade manager Jurgen Klopp to retain him as No.1 for the Champions League and will rotate with Simon Mignolet for the Premier League matches. This pattern was adopted by Klopp at the end of last season and led Mignolet to complain that it was not in the club’s best interests swapping and changing and it unsettled both players. Mignolet has let it be known that if this continues he will consider his future at the end of the season and might ask for a transfer.
Update on David Luiz
I spoke with Chelsea on Tuesday regarding the position of David Luiz who is not currently featuring in the first team. When you have a world class defender like Luiz, who cost the Blues £30million in 2016, and he does not feature in the team, the rumours fly around. The facts are that when David was injured young Danish defender Andreas Christensen stepped into his shoes and has played exceptionally well. He has linked up well with defenders Cesar Azpilicueta and Antonio Rudiger. Manager Antonio Conte has recognized Andreas’ performances and he has retained his place in the team. Luiz was linked with a transfer to Arsenal, but Conte has only spoken about the defender’s current fitness issues, rather than his future at Stamford Bridge. At a press conference, the 48-year-old manager told us: “He’s injured. He was injured two days before the game against Newcastle. An injury in his ankle. He’s trying to recover and needs a bit of time.” Since then Luiz has played just 32 minutes of Premier League football. Now that he is fit again he cannot regain his place. I am assured by Chelsea that there has been no rift between Conte and Luiz despite many reports which said that they had a big argument.
@Baba Mono Haxor
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