Chelsea want Brighton’s Winstanley to join Stewart on recruitment team

 

Chelsea are set to continue the rebuild of their recruitment department by appointing Monaco’s Laurence Stewart and are also looking to poach Brighton & Hove Albion’s head of recruitment, Paul Winstanley.

Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital have been making changes to Chelsea’s infrastructure since buying the club in May and are looking to build a strong recruitment team around the head coach, Graham Potter. Christopher Vivell, who was fired by RB Leizpig last month, is poised to join as technical director and Joe Shields is due to arrive as co-director of recruitment once he has seen out his gardening leave at Southampton.

A deal to hire Stewart, Monaco’s technical director, has been agreed and Chelsea have held talks over taking Winstanley from Brighton. Winstanley has developed a good reputation at Brighton, who have earned plaudits for their smart signings in recent years. The Guardian reported that Chelsea were looking at him last month and the club are ready to solidify their interest.

It is believed that Winstanley will work closely with Shields, Stewart and Potter’s recruitment analyst, Kyle Macalauy. Winstanley knows Macaulay well from his time at Brighton.

Chelsea want at least four recruitment experts, with Vivell potentially given the responsibility of coordinating the department. Plans to hire a sporting director have been put to one side.

There have been suggestions that Boehly and Clearlake would like to create something akin to a transfer think-tank. The recruitment team could feed up to Boehly, who has been working as interim sporting director since June.

Boehly took that role after Marina Granovskaia left, with the departures of Scott McLachlan and Petr Cech leaving other holes to fill. Chelsea had initially looked to hire a sporting director and were close to appointing RB Salzburg’s Christoph Freund, only for that deal to collapse.

The indications are that Chelsea would rather have several recruitment experts than be reliant on one person. They want a collaborative approach, with links between the coaching staff, recruitment department and ownership. Boehly, who oversaw a heavy summer spending spree, could continue to take an active role in transfer negotiations in January.

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Chelsea could also look to appoint a new chief executive and a football operations manager.

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Cristiano Ronaldo: Manchester United forward must face consequences, says Erik ten Hag

Ronaldo refused to come on as substitute - Ten Hag

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has said there "has to be consequences" after confirming Cristiano Ronaldo refused to come on as a substitute against Tottenham on Wednesday.

Ronaldo, 37, left Old Trafford before full-time after leaving the bench and walking down the tunnel in the 89th minute of United's 2-0 win.

He has been dropped for Saturday's game at Chelsea and is training alone.

Asked directly whether Ronaldo refused to come on, Ten Hag said: "Yes."

He added that after the Portugal international did the same at half-time of the friendly against Rayo Vallecano in pre-season, he felt he had to act.

"The talk is between Cristiano and me. The statement is clear. It is also in the statement that he remains an important part of the squad," Ten Hag said.

"I am the manager, I am responsible for the culture here. I have to set standards and values and have to control them. We are in a team.

"After Rayo Vallecano, I said it was unacceptable, but it wasn't just him. The second time there has to be consequences. That is what has happened.

"We miss him tomorrow, that is a miss for us and the squad, but I think it is important for the attitude and mentality of the group and now we have to focus on Chelsea - that is the most important."

Cristiano Ronaldo's behaviour 'unacceptable' - Micah Richards

Ronaldo's actions have been widely criticised, with Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker calling them "unacceptable" while former United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel said this was the first time he had been "disappointed" in the player.

On Thursday, Ronaldo said "the heat of the moment" had got to him, though he stopped short of apologising.

He has scored just one goal in eight Premier League appearances this season, and also showed his displeasure at being substituted in Sunday's 0-0 home draw with Newcastle.

United go into Saturday's game at Stamford Bridge just one point behind Chelsea in fifth and Ten Hag said his players would not be distracted by this week's drama.

"It's part of playing in top football," he said.

"There are rumours and noise and you can't get distracted, you have to remain on the job and get the result."

Analysis

Erik ten Hag couldn't have done any better.

He addressed the major issue around Cristiano Ronaldo directly, then explained why he felt it was important to take the action he did.

Then, once the broadcast media had finished, he answered more questions from the written press, which will appear in Saturday's newspapers.

It was not the first major test of Ten Hag's authority. But it was the biggest - and he has come through it with his status enhanced and Ronaldo's diminished. If there is a winner in such situations, Ten Hag is it.

The other point worth nothing is when he first took the United job, Ten Hag's English was hesitant. Now he can communicate with the media effectively - and forcefully.

With United beating Tottenham as well, it has been a good 48 hours for the Dutchman.

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Ballon d'Or: Karim Benzema wins award as best player in world football for first time

 

Real Madrid and France forward Karim Benzema has won the Ballon d'Or - awarded to the best footballer of the year - for the first time.

Benzema scored 44 goals in 46 games as he helped Real win the Champions League and La Liga in 2021-22.

Lionel Messi (seven) and Cristiano Ronaldo (five) had won the award on 12 of the previous 13 occasions.

Bayern Munich's Sadio Mane, who was at Liverpool in 2021-22, was second ahead of Manchester City's Kevin de Bruyne.

Barcelona's Alexia Putellas retained the Women's Ballon d'Or, awarded to the best best female footballer of 2022.

England Euro 2022 winner and Arsenal forward Beth Mead was second.

Premier League champions Manchester City, who had six nominees at the ceremony, were awarded Club of the Year ahead of Liverpool.

The Ballon d'Or is awarded to the best footballer of the year, based on performance over the 2021-22 season.

Zinedine Zidane (right) was the last Frenchman to win the Ballon d'Or First Frenchman to win prize since 1998

Monday's ceremony in Paris saw French F1 driver Esteban Ocon arrive at the Theatre du Chatelet with the Ballon d'Or trophy in a racing car.

Benzema is the first Frenchman to win the prestigious award since Zinedine Zidane in 1998. Zidane was at the event to present his countryman with the prize.

"This prize in front of me makes me really proud," said Benzema. "When I was small, it was a childhood dream, I never gave up. Anything is possible.

"I'm really proud of my journey here. It wasn't easy, it was a difficult time for my family as well."

Benzema was the overwhelming favourite to win this year's award.

His 44 goals included a hat-trick in 17 second-half minutes against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League, and another away to Chelsea in the quarter-final first leg.

He also scored three more goals over two legs of the semi-final against Manchester City.

The 34-year-old, who has been at Real Madrid since 2009, is expected to play a key role for France at the World Cup in Qatar which starts on 20 November.

The Ballon d'Or is voted for by 100 journalists from around the world.

Warm reception for Haller

Borussia Dortmund's former West Ham striker Sebastien Haller, who has recently undergone chemotherapy for a testicular tumour, received warm applause from the audience when he walked on stage to present the Yashin Trophy to Real Madrid's Thibaut Courtois for best goalkeeper.

Liverpool's Alisson was second, with Ederson of Manchester City and Chelsea's Edouard Mendy third and fourth respectively. Tottenham's Hugo Lloris was 10th.

The Kopa Trophy, awarded to the best performing player under the age of 21, went to Barcelona and Spain midfielder Gavi, who turned 18 in August.

Sebastien Haller on stage at the Ballon d'Or awards ceremony

Borussia Dortmund midfielder Jude Bellingham, 19, was ranked fourth and England team-mate and Arsenal forward Bukayo Saka, 21, was eighth.

Barcelona's Robert Lewandowski won the Gerd Muller Trophy awarded to the best striker after scoring 57 goals for Bayern Munich and Poland in 2021-22.

The inaugural Socrates Award, a humanitarian prize, went to Mane for his charity work.

Five-time winner Ronaldo ranked 20th

Messi and Ronaldo have dominated the award in recent years, apart from in 2018 when Croatia midfielder Luka Modric won it.

Messi had already won the trophy more times than any other player and his seventh success in 2021 came after wins in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2019.

However, he was not nominated this time after an underwhelming first season at Paris St-Germain.

Manchester United's Ronaldo, who last won it in 2017, was placed 20th of the 30 players nominated, the Portuguese's lowest Ballon d'Or ranking since 2005.

Ballon d'Or results

1. Karim Benzema (Real Madrid, France).

2. Sadio Mane (Bayern Munich, Senegal).

3. Kevin de Bruyne (Manchester City, Belgium).

4. Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona, Poland).

5. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool, Egypt).

6. Kylian Mbappe (Paris St-Germain, France).

7. Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid, Belgium).

8. Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid, Brazil).

9. Luka Modric (Real Madrid, Croatia).

10. Erling Haaland (Manchester City, Norway).

11. Son Heung-min (Tottenham Hotspur, South Korea)

12. Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City, Algeria).

13. Sebastien Haller (Borussia Dortmund, Ivory Coast).

14. Fabinho (Liverpool, Brazil) tied with Rafael Leao (AC Milan, Portugal).

16. Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool, Netherlands).

17. Luis Diaz (Liverpool, Colombia) tied with Dusan Vlahovic (Juventus, Serbia) and Casemiro (Manchester United, Brazil).

20. Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United, Portugal).

21. Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur, England).

22. Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool, England) tied with Phil Foden (Manchester City, England) and Bernardo Silva (Manchester City, Portugal).

25. Joao Cancelo (Manchester City, Portugal) tied with Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich, Germany), Mike Maignan (AC Milan, France), Antonio Rudiger (Real Madrid, Germany), Darwin Nunez (Liverpool, Uruguay) and Christopher Nkunku (RB Leipzig, France).

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Hasenhuttl accepts importance of midweek clash with rivals AFC Bournemouth

Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl during the Premier League match between Southampton and West Ham at St Mary's Stadium. Photo by Stuart Martin..

RALPH Hasenhuttl accepted the importance of Wednesday’s clash with AFC Bournemouth but insisted he retains “all the belief” in what Saints are doing.

The St Mary’s side visit the Vitality Stadium five points behind their fellow south-coast Premier League rivals after 10 matches.

Bournemouth, first managed by Scott Parker before Gary O’Neil took over on an interim basis, were firm favourites for relegation before the season began.

They were defeated 9-0 by Liverpool but are the only team in the division to remain unbeaten since, despite a difficult summer of recruitment and many feeling they have a weaker squad.

Saints, who are in the bottom three with eight points, must start picking up victories and crucially against teams they are likely to be competing with come the end of the season.

"For us, it's a Premier League game and an important one,” Hasenhuttl said, asked if there is any added incentive given the locality and shared objectives of the clubs.

“We go there and I think we know that they are in good shape at the moment, but we go there like we have always gone into in the past with all the belief in what we are doing to make it a good evening for us.”

The meeting comes off the back of a 1-1 draw with West Ham United, at St Mary’s, that ended a run of four straight defeats in the Premier League for Hasenhuttl and Saints.

It could have been a first win since the August victory over Chelsea, after Romain Perraud put Saints ahead and Che Adams squandered two big chances.

"For everybody it is very frustrating because these are the moments where you can make a big step forward,” Hasenhuttl admitted.

“But it would still be a long way to go. There's no guarantee that you win games but it makes it a little bit easier. And then you can definitely play a little bit calmer but we are never in the situation."

He added: "Let's say every point we get is a point gained and we know that we need every point.

“We are now going to Bournemouth and then against Arsenal so another two games this week. We have to be ready for the Wednesday game, immediately focus is on the game and hopefully we can get a win there."

Story continues

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Contrasting fortunes in spending and success mean Manchester derby only a barometer of progress for United

 

Summer signing Erling Haaland has 11 goals in his last six games for City (Getty Images)

Manchester United were back on top, restored to the summit of the English game, reaching a historic high. When their financial results were released last week, their wage bill, of £384.2m, was the biggest ever in the Premier League.

As it came in their worst season since the 1980s, when they finished 35 points behind their neighbours and as close to Watford as to Manchester City, it showed the cost of failure has never been higher.

United reclaimed their title as big spenders in the summer; given the inflated fees, it might be wrong to say they brought in £200m of players, but they did pay out £200m. Meanwhile, Manchester City made a transfer-market profit and signed a striker, in Erling Haaland, who now has 11 goals in his last six games.

The Manchester derby is the moneyed derby nonetheless. It is a generalisation to state that, since Sir Alex Ferguson retired, both have spent a fortune, City well and United badly, but there is some truth in it. They will not be erecting statues of Wilfried Bony or Eliaquim Mangala outside the Etihad Stadium but whereas United’s £1bn splurge has arguably only yielded one unqualified success, in Bruno Fernandes, City’s annual nine-figure outlays have produced several, with Kevin De Bruyne topping the list. This summer, they were also far better sellers than United.

But if expenditure can be analysed individually, and if so it is worth noting that Kalvin Phillips’s 13 minutes of football mean he has scarcely delivered value for money so far, while Jack Grealish’s £100m fee means he has not either, the broader test is collective. City have five Premier League titles since Ferguson retired, United none. Since United’s last trophy, the 2017 Europa League, City have won 11.

The eventual verdict may be that, like Pep Guardiola before him, Erik ten Hag initially paid over the odds to secure signings who would be transformative in the framework of his blueprint, or that United’s scattergun spending continued to create problems for a very different successor. It is too soon to say.

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Sunday instead will be a barometer of progress, a test of a revival. United’s victories over Liverpool and Arsenal owed something to the losers’ flaws but were genuinely encouraging nonetheless.

The Etihad Stadium has a curious status for United; they can win battles on enemy territory but, over a season, comprehensively lose the war. They have won four of the last six meetings on City soil and yet two of the post-Ferguson reigns started to unravel there. David Moyes had a solitary defeat before a September 2013 visit. It proved particularly chastening for Marouane Fellaini, his lone recruit by then, as United went 4-0 down in 50 minutes. United lost at home to West Bromwich Albion six days later and Old Trafford’s air of invincibility started to be pierced.

Rewind to March and Ralf Rangnick travelled across Manchester with a more-than-respectable haul of 26 points from 13 games. Another 4-1 defeat started another downward spiral. It reflected justified fears of City’s midfield supremacy. Cristiano Ronaldo was absent, injured and in Portugal, but had been dropped anyway as Rangnick preferred two false nines, in Paul Pogba and Fernandes.

Ronaldo forms part of the backdrop. United’s wage bill would not be so colossal were he not the best-paid player in the country. It is little over a year since City’s surreal flirtation with him prompted United’s delusional coup of re-signing the veteran; such long-term planning as may have existed at Old Trafford might have consisted of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer luring his former Molde charge Haaland to be the future of United’s attack, but one Norwegian was sacked long before another opted for City.

If Ronaldo gets a cameo, it will be his first derby at the Etihad since a 2008 red card but City can savour the symbolic sight of United possessing the past and them fielding the future. Ronaldo is an emblematic figure: over the last nine years, City have allied vast resources with greater strategy and more continuity, fewer knee-jerk reactions and lacking the same addiction to big names or tendency to lumber themselves with debilitatingly big contracts for the elderly. Their squad suits the manager they have.

Meanwhile, United’s accounts made still more unpleasant viewing because of pay-offs to sacked managers. Ten Hag will be the third Guardiola faces in as many derbies. Last November’s 2-0 victory at Old Trafford was more emphatic than the scoreline suggested.

If Cristiano Ronaldo gets a cameo, it will be his first derby at the Etihad since a 2008 red card (Getty Images)

He saw off Jose Mourinho without the bitterness that characterised their rivalry in Spain. Solskjaer seemed his opposite, under-qualified and over-promoted, but shaped up as his unlikely nemesis, albeit only over 90 minutes. Only Jurgen Klopp and Mourinho have beaten Guardiola more than Solskjaer did. Three of his four wins came at the Etihad Stadium. United had 39, 34, 28 and 27 per cent of possession respectively as they prevailed.

If Ten Hag was supposed to be their ideologue, a manager from another branch of the Ajax family tree, given Guardiola’s devotion to Johan Cruyff, there has been a pragmatic element to recent progress. Only one of their four consecutive league wins, at Southampton, came with a majority share of the ball, and not by much. United had just 29.5 per cent against Liverpool.

The Solskjaer formula based around counterattacking pace remains United’s best chance. The side furnished with £200m of new arrivals have to play like underdogs. But, as usual in modern Manchester derbies, they are underdogs.

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