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ROSEBUD
In the 1941 RKO Radio Pictures/Mercury repertory theatre production Citizen Kane, Orson Welles essayed a man who began as a whirlwind of prolific energy, only to spectacularly fizzle out, to the extent that near the end, stubborn pride his only remaining fuel, he could barely move around or achieve anything of note at all. Football Daily isn’t sure how any of this relates to Charles Foster’s namesake Harry, or his recent Geopolitics World Cup campaign; nor are we sure what bit of Welles’ career Harry’s mooted move from Bayern Munich to Al-Hilal would be comparable with. The flawed masterpiece The Magnificent Ambersons, perhaps, or that thing where he loses his mind over Findus peas.
But potential transfers are all the rage right now, nestled as we currently are in the otherwise barren taint betwixt the aforementioned GWC and the new domestic season. Arsenal are in the market for a centre-back, because they always are – the foundations built by George Graham go wide and deep – and are sniffing theatrically around Ezri Konsa of Aston Villa and Bayer Leverkusen’s Jarel Quansah. Either would suffice. Or possibly both. Quansah’s former club Liverpool are desperate for defensive reinforcements too, so naturally they’re concentrating their efforts on yet another slight forward, Ethan Nwaneri the latest name on a long list that also includes half of the PSG squad and will probably lead nowhere. To be fair, their sporting director Richard Hughes is reportedly off to Al-Hilal once this window shuts, and there’s all this Kane stuff going on, the poor man can’t be expected to do everything at once.
By way of contrast, Manchester United have been much more proactive in the market this summer. Having signed just a single useful central midfielder between 2007 and 2025 in Bruno Fernandes (subs please check), it now appears they’ll land three in as many months. They’ve already thrown Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans into that big gaping hole that’s been in the middle of Old Trafford for decades, and are now very close to adding 2024’s Carlos Baleba to the mix. The only question will be whether the difference between the £100m previously demanded by Brighton and the £65m the Cameroon international could now cost is either a smart bit of business by United or a big red flag. Football Daily certainly isn’t sure, so without anything useful to contribute, and the weather outside finally turning, we’re off to prepare for the onset of winter. Now, where’s that goddamn sled? We can never find that goddamn sled.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“We are so close to making history for unbeaten games in a row. This isn’t normal in football” – former Watford boss Xisco Muñoz tells Sam Cunningham how he plans to lead all-conquering Johor Darul Ta’zim to AFC Big Cup glory.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
Don Revie and his merry henchmen [Tuesday’s Memory Lane, full email edition] getting ready for a night on the lash, as it was back then. Lest we forget: one-club man Jack Charlton once said ‘I cant play football, but I can stop those that can’. Diamond geezer eh?” – Alvin Jordan.
It was bewildering to read in Tuesdays’s Football Daily that ‘Kevin Lamour was a lone dissenting voice inside Fifa’s lair when Gianni Infantino’s plot to flog part of the World Cup to private investors – potentially on the cheap – was rumbled’. He was far from lone. Fifa’s secretary-general, Mattias Grafström, called the FFE plans a ‘sad and reproachable series of events’ in an email to staff. Fifa’s chief of global development, someone called Arsène Wenger, pronounced the withdrawal of FFE ‘absolutely necessary and beyond question’. Above all, Infantino’s right-hand man, the Fifa senior advisor Carlos Cordeiro, stated: ‘I cannot stand by while Fifa considers selling a stake in the World Cup. Let me be clear: I had no involvement in this proposal, and I oppose it unequivocally. It is a bad deal for Fifa’s member associations, a bad deal for football, and a bad deal for the long-term future of the game.’ And unlike Lamour, Grafström, or Wenger, Cordeiro put his money where his mouth was and resigned” – Simon Skinner.
Talking of players’ wages, my Middlesborough friend who knew Wilf Mannion told me that when he was chosen to play for England at Wembley that they gave him a third-class rail ticket to get there. Unfortunately the train was so crowded that he had to sit on his suitcase in the corridor the whole way to London (not an unusual situation in those days)” – Bob Hopper.
If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s prizeless letter o’ the day winner is … Simon Skinner. Terms and conditions for our competitions can be viewed here.
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