4 Jan 2023
What do you make of Paul Pogba’s move to Monaco?
Of course it’s going to be hard. He’s going to be under a lot of pressure, including the pressure he will put on himself. He didn’t play for almost two years, and I think he’svery excited to be back on the pitch, but I’m sure it will be very emotional for him as well.
Once he gets back on the pitch for the first time, after everything that happened, and he receives that big welcome back, he will feel really good again. He just has to be careful with all that excitement, and all that pressure that a player can easily place on themselves.
On the physical side, the fitness staff need to speak with Pogba a lot. They need to try and manage him, always communicate with him. Sometimes he will want to play each game, but maybe hehas to rest because he’s not been playing for two years and the speed of the game changes. That can be hard, it’s going to be difficult for him. And they will need to tell him when he has to rest.
But everybody that loves football would love to see him find the kind of magic from him that we saw years ago. Or even if he can’t reach those exact heights again, they’d love to just see him find his enjoyment in playing again. And yeah, I hope that he can. He’s my daughter’s favourite player. She and everybody else is waiting to see what he’s going to do.
Will Pogba be Ligue 1’s top star the second he steps onto the pitch?
Yeah, definitely. Because who else is a bigger star? Who was a big star before him? Maybe Achraf Hakimi, maybe Desire Doue. But to have a player of Pogba’s stature in the league will be very good for the image of Ligue 1. We all know, everything in football is commercial now. It’s all about marketing. So, when you have players such as Pogba who have huge publicity and huge recognition, and at the same time a lot of quality still, it’s always good for the league.
Pogba will have plenty of rust to shake off, but the World Cup is only a year away and it could be his last chance to play at one. Will that have a bad effect on his comeback efforts?
His first target will always be to get back on the field and to enjoy football again. To get out there and play football. The second target will be avoiding injuries, because when you don’t play for two years, it can be the most difficult thing in the world to avoid getting injured very quickly. Hopefully he does not encounter anything more serious than little injuries, little tweaks related to shaking off the rust, and hopefully he is okay.
Then and only then, will he be thinking about the World Cup. And it’s his dream to make that World Cup. But you have to be careful. And that’s why the management of Pogba and the communications with the fitness and medical staff will be very important. He has to listen to them, and they have to listen to him. Sometimes he will say he feels good and wants to play the next game, and it’s their job to say he needs to rest for one game because he’s still coming back. He will be feeling pressure to be his best self and will want to play every game, and they are the ones who need to manage that because you can’t control 100% when injury may strike.
With all of this in mind, do you think Monaco was the best choice for him to try and get back to his best in time for the World Cup?
Yeah. Compared to Marseille, where he was also linked, the atmosphere and the local lifestyle are completely different. I think there will be less pressure from the fans at Monaco, while he gets rid of the rust and finds his flow again. The staff at Monaco as well, are very, very good. There is great staff at a lot of top clubs, but I think at Monaco he will have the best possible circumstances to return. I think it’s the best club he could have signed for, out of all the possible choices.
Chelsea won their Club World Cup semi-final, thanks to a Joao Pedro brace, and will be in the final at the weekend. What are your thoughts on their performances so far?
Pedro’s performance against Fluminense put pressure on Nicolas Jackson. And I think when the season starts, that could cause trouble for his place in the starting XI. When you’re the first choice of your manager for any position, it’s like the door is open and you have been allowed inside. You then want to lock the door behind you, so that nobody else can get in there. And what happened here, is I think Nicolas has left the door open.
And I saw Joao play for Brighton. He has a real quality, not just outside of the other team’s penalty box but also inside the box. He has shown that already, for Chelsea. And he’s going to give the manager a real headache. And they also have Liam Delap, who is young and learning but will be hungry to prove himself as a striker at a higher level than Ipswich. We don’t know when, but if he develops like Chelsea want him to, he will also give the manager a headache. But Jackson has definitely left that door wide open now, and he only has himself to blame for that.
Reaching the CWC final is a great achievement, but playing devil’s advocate, what do you make of the quality of their opposition so far?
Well, Fluminense are a top-class club on their continent. They have undeniable quality. They have a huge history. But as we continue to see, the top clubs of Europe are a different level. Chelsea are in the final, and they may win it. Either way, congratulations to them. They’ve done what they set out to do so far. Their next job is to finish the work and win the final.
We know the final will be a very good test. It could be an early sign of how good the current Chelsea side are, and whether they will go back into the top competitions like Champions League smoothly.
So far, they’ve played Benfica. And Benfica are also a great club, but with all due respect to Benfica and Fluminense, they are not the highest possible test. The Club World Cup final will offer that highest test.
Chelsea know they are going to play a giant of football in that final. I don’t think the manager has to deliver a message to the players for this final. They know exactly what they have to do, and they know exactly what they want to go out there and prove ahead of the new season. They will be ready.
Win or lose in the CWC final, do you think Chelsea are showing encouraging signs towards returning to the top of football? You said previously it could take another two or three years.
I think after the final, it’svery important that Chelsea manage their players well. It’s such a busy schedule, and they should take every chance they have to rest before they start the Premier League. That’s going to be crucial.
And if they can manage the physical side of it well, then we know that from a mental side they are going to start the new season with so much confidence. Winning the Conference League, making the final of the Club World Cup, making serious signings in the transfer window… their mental levels will be very strong. On that, they can have a great season in 2025/26 if they manage the tiredness of the schedule well.
Either way, I do not think they will win the Premier League in this coming season. I think top three is more realistic this time. But they are moving in the right direction, after everything that has happened in recent years.
Do you think Chelsea can win the Club World Cup? Or will the final be one step too far?
Anything can happen. They’re going to play a recent Champions League winner in the final, but above all else I know that Chelsea will be ready, and they will be motivated. The manager, Enzo Maresca, will watch the PSG vs. Real Madrid semi-final very carefully to try and find opportunities and solutions and ways to win. It will not be easy, it will be a huge test, but absolutely Chelsea have a chance to win.
People have criticised Chelsea’s decision to buy a lot of young players in recent years and launch a total rebuild, away from the very top of the league. Is it finally starting to pay off?
I was one of those who criticised them. A rebuild was necessary, and building a close bond of young players is wise, but how much did they spend? A billion? A billion and a half? So we can call it a rebuild but it’s still spending a lot of money, and the aim is always to win the Premier League and the Champions League, right? They’re about three years into this rebuild, and you could say a rebuild and a focus on youth takes three or four years, but because of how much they’ve spent, you cannot help but expect that sort of money to deliver a Premier League or a Champions League in two years. So,it’snot quite the same as what a rebuild means for other teams.
And even now, I think this season Chelseaaren’t realistic for the Premier League trophy or the Champions League trophy. They will probably make another forward step. Win the FA Cup. Continue to move forward. Not finish fourth or fifth. Normally, this is good, but a billion and a half? Everyone who spends that, should be fighting for the top trophies. And people will say that if you didn’t lift the trophies, you failed.
So they are moving in the right direction now, but it’s hard to say that the timeframe is acceptable for the amount of money involved.
What will be Tottenham’s expectations for Thomas Frank? Given his predecessor, Ange Postecoglou, won a trophy in his second season and was still fired.
This season, success for them will be qualifying for the Champions League, I think. With this squad, they won the Europa League. The league finish was terrible, but the quality was proven to be there. So they will want to have a league finish that makes everyone forget about what just happened, if that league finish under Postecoglou was enough to cost him the job.
But it’s going to be a tough job for Thomas. It’s going to feel like he needs to deliver results straight away, and that is always difficult. Especially when you arrive somewhere and you have to change almost everything about how you want your team to play, and how your players need to play. It’ll be a completely different system for the Spurs players this season.
If they can get into the latter stages of the Champions League and finish in the top four – because last season it was unacceptable for a club of Tottenham’s size to finish seventeenth – then I think everyone will be very happy at the club.
One player linked with Spurs has been West Ham’s Mohammed Kudus. If Spurs are to make some player changes from last season, do you think Kudus could be one of the best options for them?
Kudus is a winger, and he can play centrally as well. He’s versatile, and Spurs will need some freshness. Son has just turned 33. Happy birthday to him, but at his age, the team will need some fresh options in attack, on the wing. They’ll need more speed, and some quality that can change a game late on from the bench or even late on if they started.
As a defender myself, I know the younger players can make it very difficult for me, knowing where they will go with the ball or what they will do. So as good as Son is, something like what Kudus offers could really help. And the current players will appreciate the boost, because mentally they will still be thinking about how they finished 17th last season.
Someone coming in who doesn’t have those exact memories - West Ham did not finish well last season either, but the feelings for them will be much different and it will be a different experience - will help them forget all of that, especially if he starts well. He could be a ray of light as Tottenham try to start over.
What are your thoughts on Arsenal’s big signing Martin Zubimendi?
The way he has played for Real Sociedad, and the job that he has done at the base of the midfield… that’s what they need. That’s what Arsenal need. To have that player just in front of the defence, allowing the other midfielders who do maybe half defensive and half attacking duties to really focus on creating goals for Arsenal. And the fact that Liverpool and Real Madrid were also both very interested in Zubimendi shows you a lot. It shows you how highly regarded his skills are.
It also looks like Arsenal will indeed seal the signing of Viktor Gyokeres, a striker who has been prolific in Portugal and does have some English football experience. But will a Premier League title race be something he’s ready to deliver goals for?
He’s not just making one step. It’s more like two or three steps, from Sporting to Arsenal right now..He’ll be playing against defenders who are really strong, maybe the strongest. In the first season, he will need to adapt. He’s tall, he’s massive, so I may get attacked for saying this but in Portugal, he had a much bigger advantage on the defenders. He will need to adapt to the Premier League defenders quickly.
There’s a chance that his second year is much stronger than his first year at Arsenal. But Arsenal will not be wanting to wait for a major trophy any longer. And the signing of a striker is seen as that last piece of the puzzle to do exactly that.
I hope that, if he comes in, he comes in and hits the ground running. We’ve all been waiting for Arsenal to sign a killer. Only time will tell if Gyokeres is an assassin in the Premier League.
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