Alonso is an excellent coach tactically and some would say he shoud’ve waited for a better job. But the big appeal for him here is he also wants a lot of control instead of the modern head coach-sporting director type relationship. He wants an Arteta-type blank canvas where he can override the board to make signings that he wants.
For Chelsea’s board, their recruitment model is not good, so Alonso’s demands are a better bet than trusting the guys in their hierarchy to build the squad. We have a 4 year sample size of transfer failure with them. Alonso shaping their recruitment vision, is a last Hail Mary to save the Clearlake era as they have shown themselves incapable of forming a hierarchy who makes good decisions.
Whether Alonso has a good enough vision to warrant this type of control is still TBC and make or break for this appointment to work. Recruitment at Leverkusen was purely handled by Simon Rolfes who is excellent and gave him excellent young talents to develop. Alonso instructed Real Madrid to sign Huijsen, Carreras & Mastantuono which is a mixed bag.
Generally I’m against coach’s having majority recruitment power. They have too many responsibilities to be doing this job as well as coaching the team. But there are instances like Arteta where the pros outweigh the cons.
Alonso’s player pull will also likely be big, so overall I would’ve done the same in Clearlake’s situation. Look forward to seeing the first transfers as it will tell us a lot about the direction/success of this appointment.
RB Leipzig have now decided to make a final push at the end of the season to convince Yan Diomandé to extend his contract, offering a significant pay rise that would also include a release clause for the following summer. Jürgen Klopp is heavily involved in the process, and the club are prepared to exhaust every option, fully aware of the message it would send if they were to lose their standout player after just one season.
Nevertheless, there is a growing sense within Leipzig and across the wider industry that Diomandé already has a clear destination in mind. There were indications as early as January, first revealed by me, that a personal agreement with a Premier League club could already be in place, with Bayern Munich representatives having the feeling that the destination is none other than Liverpool FC, England’s most mythical footballing institution.
Diomandé has repeatedly made it clear that his dream is to play in the Premier League, a stance that was already communicated to Leipzig even before his official signing and later reiterated directly to Bayern during negotiations, where they were ultimately rejected and informed that an agreement is already in place with a Premier League club, while the identity of that club remains undisclosed. This was first reported by me at a time when narratives suggested a move to Bayern was on track, a narrative that, four months later, has not just faded but been completely overtaken by reality.
Surprisingly, I see no Newcastle accounts commenting on Wissa's statement or 'behavior' for releasing this statement — seems like when a players does it in their favor is right, but if Isak does it…
Like by now fellow Ghanaians,Then the whole country starts to panic,Due to the Pope’s Death,we Ghanaians living in our somewhere have to start paying Pope levy,Trump Levy and China Levy 8.90,000%.Herh We’ve suffered before 🤣🤣🤣
@Cassielforson Honourable, thanks for making yourself available.
Please try and terminate the SML contract and make SIC the only insurer of all the government of Ghana assets too.
#JoySMS#AMShow