The Daily: Thursday 15th June 2023

Might the Nations League provide Croatia & Modric with a fairytale ending?

If the 2022 World Cup ended up being owned by Lionel Messi, then it might just be possible that on an appropriately more modest scale, the same could be happening in the Nations League with Luka Modric and Croatia. Although they’ve been outstanding in international competition since re-entering the game as an independent country in 1990, they have yet actually lift a piece of silverware.

The same therefore goes for Luka Modric, who’s now 37 years old, well and truly into the twilight years of an incredible playing career, and who may well very much fancy capping everything off by lifting not only his but also his country’s first piece of silverware. After a record 165 appearances for Croatia, it would be difficult to argue that he didn’t deserve it.

All concerned took a huge step towards achieving this goal with a 4-2 win against the Netherlands in Rotterdam last night, a result which punctured a Dutch balloon over hosting this competition while retaining the feeling that Croatia have moved seamlessly from being “that team that is always the ‘surprise’ team in the final stages of a tournament” to “one of the great football nations of our time”.

They came from a goal down to lead 2-1 going into stoppage-time before a Noa Lang goal for the Netherlands after 96 minutes took the match into extra-time, where Bruno Petkovic put Crotia back in front, with Modric himself putting the result beyond doubt from the penalty spot with four minutes to play.

It’s that inner steel that gets them through these things. Conceding an equalising goal six minutes into stoppage-time at the end of a very long season should have sent the narrative in one direction only, but Croatia saddled back up, got back on with it, and deservedly won the game.

Those who can remember back far enough may recall from Euro 2000 a similar Dutch collapse in this very city, when they crumbled in a face of a semi-final penalty shootout against Italy. Spain play Italy in the other semi-final in Enschede this evening, but the winners of this match won’t be bothering the host nation, who now have a third-place play-off in Enschede on Sunday afternoon, a match apparently scheduled as a little aperitif for the final.

But for Croatia, the opportunity to crown off Modric’s career by lifting something remains in view, and even wily foxes such as Spain or Italy will already be aware of the experience in their number. Croatia were eventually brushed aside in the semi-finals of the winter World Cup, but the Nations League offers them the chance to earn a piece of the silverware that their years of consistency merits.

Relegation may not save Everton from their own recklessness shocker

If bad news comes in threes, Everton may yet have one to go. Earlier this week, it was reported that they are being sued by Carlo Ancelotti for the rather vague reason of “general commercial contracts and arrangements”. All this is coming two years since Ancelotti left Goodison Park.

It remains to be seen, just how much Ancelotti believes himself to be owed by Everton, but in the overall scheme of things it’s likely that it will be a relative drop in the ocean in terms of Everton’s broader financial position. What may matter more could be the damage to their reputation that could be caused should they lose the case, or even arguably for being sued by a former manager in the first place.

After all, while Sean Dyche remains in a job at the moment, Everton have had seven managers in seven years—not including caretakers—and the upshot of this is that, well, they may be in the market for a new manager in a year or two. And when we consider that the Everton brand has already been diminished enough by seven years of mismanagement at an executive level, the sudden and unexpected withdrawal of their ‘main sponsor’, and years of messy recruitment of both playing and coaching staff, all managed while spending reckless amounts of money and trying to build a new stadium at the same time, they probably can’t afford to become ‘that club who doesn’t cough up what they owe’, either.

And there was further bad news with the revelation in the Guardian that the club could be in deeper trouble still than this. It was reported that Leeds United, Leicester City, Southampton and Burnley are planning to sue Everton for a vast amount of money, should Everton be found guilty of having broken FFP rules. We’ll be waiting a while for an answer; the case is not due to be heard until the last week in October.

But we should probably pause to remind ourselves of what an absolute scandal and disgrace the way the club has been treated in recent years. Everton have been a much-beloved corner of their community for 145 years. Who on earth do these absolute pillocks think they are, to come in and trash the club by acting as bulls in a china shop rather than the custodians that it is absolutely reasonable to expect them to be. What do they care about Everton? They don’t love this club. They couldn’t give a damn. No-one who loved Everton would. Few other football club’s owners deserve to be chased out of town with burning pitchforks as these.

And while we’re about it, where are these supposed ‘governing’ bodies while this is going on? Where’s the Premier League, while one of its very own original driving forces is having its name smeared in the manner of a dirty protest? Where are the FA, the guardians of the game, as this bloke from London and this bloke from *checks notes* Uzbekistan kick this club from pillar to post?

An individual under government sanction is reported to have been sitting in on managerial appointments, and there has been little to suggest that any action whatsoever has been taken. If there is a reason that isn’t illegal concerning these ongoing links, we’d all love to hear it. But there’s been little to indicate that this has even been seriously examined.

In the vernacular of football, we often talk of clubs being ‘saved’ from relegation, a quasi-religious curio from a game which has much in common with the worshipping game. But there’s been no salvation at Goodison Park. Or rather, if there has, it’s been the temporary balms of doing just enough to swerve relegation. Salvation from dropping into the pits of hell that is the EFL Championship.

But there are two problems with this. Firstly, if the Championship is hell for Everton, this is only the case because they’ve made it so for themselves. If successful, they’d be able to pick up 40,000 crowds at Goodison Park in the second tier. Couple that with parachute payments, and under different ownership Everton might have been in a strong position to waltz straight back to the Premier League.

But with the club’s ongoing ownership issues—the MSP Partners deal beleieved to be going through now is only for a 25% stake in the club—money continuing to leak from every hole and FFP continuing to bite, there are no guarantees of anything like that. Still, three directors have gone this week and chairman Bill Kenwright is strongly rumoured to soon be departing too, so that’s something. And when you’re saying “and that’s something” over losing three or four board members in a couple of days, well, that rather speaks for itself, doesn’t it?

The serious answer here is that MSP could be moving into position. But Moshiri will remain. As for Usmanov, well.

Manchester United take on Mount optimistic

The arguments are reasonably well-rehearsed. Transfer fees are too high. Infinite money equals zero risk. The only correct price is one that the buyer will buy for and the seller will sell for. And yes, yes, yes, I know all about amortisation. But sometimes you just know when a low-ball offer is being made.

Manchester United rolled £40m at Chelsea for Mason Mount like they were playing crown green bowls. It’s fair to say that Mount had a disappointing season for Chelsea last time around, but then again who didn’t? Not thatmany. And in the commercialised world of the modern game, he has also remained a consistent part of the England squad since making his debut in 2019. That carries a premium in terms of his transfer value. It could yet be just that there’s ‘only’ few million pounds between the two clubs. We shall see.

I’m not going to sit here and pontificate on what he actually is worth, but I know a low offer when I see one. If there is an agreement to be reached here—and it is to be assumed that there is—it’ll likely come at five to eleven in the evening on transfer deadline day itself. In the past Manchester United have hardly been the speediest in the transfer market, but with new ownership still pending, all that could be about to change.