On The Premier League
What are your kind of thoughts on the title race?
I think it's Liverpool’s title to throw away, they're in the driving seat. They haven't had a blip yet though and every team goes through a little spell where, I'm not saying they're going to lose games, but they could draw games which you don't expect.
They've got the Champions League where they’re heavily involved, still in the cups.
You can say they've got a very good squad, but it does take its toll as it's shown on Man City.
Arsenal are obviously going for everything as well, and they probably have a stronger squad, but they’re getting injuries now.
Arsenal have had funny results. They haven’t been that convincing. They go on a run where they win and you think, here we go, and then they'll go and throw points away when they're in the driving seat.
But Arsenal stick at it. Arsenal will be there. They're desperate, I think, they really want to win the Premier League. Liverpool's in the driving seat, but I am waiting for that blip.
Which Liverpool haven't had yet.
Chelsea have got a great squad, and if they can put a run together and get the belief back in their game, then they could get back into the race. They're in the Conference League, where they can play a second team basically into the quarter-finals.
Liverpool have played very, very well this season, but as I said, they've got a lot of heavy fixtures to come. The Champions League doesn't get easier, it gets harder. They're in the League Cup, which, let's be honest, they've got a very good chance of getting to the final again. The FA Cup starts up this weekend.
You can rest a few players, but a club like Liverpool wants to win everything. So it's going to be an interesting second half to the season.
Who would you consider to be the best player in the Premier League so far this season?
It’s hard to look beyond some of Liverpool’s players because they’re top of the league and playing well, but it’s all about the team performance, obviously Salah is having a wonderful season.
Diaz looks great, Van Dijk looks great, and Mac Allister looks fantastic in midfield.
If you're looking at individuals, I'd say Cole Palmer always catches the eye. He’s a great creative player. People forget the creative part of the game is the hardest part of football. I think Cole Palmer has been absolutely outstanding for Chelsea. He's got so much ability, and he scores goals. Palmer would be my star player so far.
I also have been really impressed by Morgan Rogers at Aston Villa. I think he's grown, and he’s getting better every season. A lot of the play at Villa goes through him now. He carries the ball ever so well. Big, strong lad. A lot of ability. He started adding a few goals to his game. So, I've been very impressed with him.
On Nottingham Forest
Whether people think Nottingham Forest have over achieved, I’m not sure, but there's always a team who does really well that surprises people every season.
Nottingham Forest have been outstanding, give them credit. Nuno got a lot of stick at Tottenham because he was very defensive minded. He was the same at Wolves, to an extent, but he's gone to Forest and he's playing Anderson, Gibbs-White, Hudson-Odoi, Elanga. They're four offensive players who love to show their ability, love to pick the ball up, love to dribble, and create.
Fair play to Nottingham Forest. It's not like he's got them there by winning 1-0 in every game, they’ve been offensive. They've got four players who can change a football match very easily.
Chris Wood, whatever people think of Chris Wood, you're not going to pick him for his dribbling skills and his creative skills, but he's on the end of these crosses and he's on the end of rebounds. Whatever happens, he's there and he's doing his job. I can't fault Chris at the minute.
Chris Wood has got the belief and confidence that he's going to put the next one in even if he misses a chance. He's had a very, very good first half of the season.
Who would you consider to be the best English player in the Premier League?
Cole Palmer. I think if Thomas Tuchel doesn't build a team around him - people can argue and say we've got Bellingham - but if you don't build a team around Cole Palmer, and I think he is the best way forward for us if we want to go out and try and win a tournament.
Bellingham's a very good player, but you've got to give Cole Palmer the license for England that he has at Chelsea. You've got to build a team around him.
England are blessed in the midfield. With Palmer, the way he plays and the way he sees things. He sees a pass more than any other player we've got. It would be daft not to build a team around him.
On the other side of the coin, who is the player or players that have been the biggest flop/you’ve expected more from this season?
I think if you look at the players who disappointed, then Zirkzee at Man United, who was brought in from Bologna, would be top of my list. It’s not happened for him.
He doesn't look like he’s in good shape, he’s probably getting his fitness back. There's a lot of teams in the division who are looking for a certain type of player and unfortunately that type of player is not there anymore.
Man United is looking for a number nine. They're on about Gyokeres from Sporting, who was at Coventry. Nobody fancied him at Coventry. He's gone to Sporting and he's done well, but let's be honest, there's three teams in Portugal and one of them is going to win it. It's not like the Premier League. He's done well at Sporting, but who hasn't done well at Sporting in the centre-forward role?
For Amorim, it's great for him to say, ‘I've worked with this guy, and I know what he's got,’ but the Premier League's a different animal and to find that number nine is very, very difficult. Man United definitely need a centre-forward, we know that.
On Newcastle United
Does Eddie Howe need to deliver a trophy this season to satisfy the ownership there?
We've been talking about Newcastle winning a trophy since 1969. Eddie is in the same bracket as every other manager that has gone to Newcastle. Bobby Robson had a great opportunity – it didn't happen. Kevin Keegan – it didn't happen.
Obviously, Newcastle fell away a little bit over the years, but they’ve came back under Eddie, got into the Champions League and you thought that Eddie would be the man to end the trophy drought.
I don't know whether some clubs are jinxed or not. It doesn't happen for Newcastle. It doesn’t happen for Tottenham. They're both in a semi-final of the League Cup, but they've both got very difficult games. Both teams are desperate for silverware.
Newcastle need to win a trophy. It's been far too long for a club of that size not to win a trophy. They are the form team going into the semi-finals, they're winning. They rode their luck a bit against Tottenham in the second half, but with the way they're playing, Eddie has got his first team settled now.
Newcastle play high tempo, they go for it, they entertain, which the fans want up there.
It's going to be a point where people are going to say, you've got to win something.
It's already entertaining. Now listen, to get in the top four is winning something for me.
It's the equivalent. If Newcastle can get back in the Champions League, we're talking big bucks and that allows you to bring in better players. You can build on that and advance.
Newcastle are on a great run at the minute. Let's see how they go against Arsenal. They're full of confidence, they'll fancy their chances. We know how strong Arsenal are defensively, they don't give much away, but, at the moment, they probably don't create as much as Newcastle. It's a cup game. It's two games where Newcastle will fancy their chances, definitely. Arsenal are playing game after game with all the competitions they're in at the moment.
Newcastle is not going to get a better chance to win a trophy than this opportunity with the League Cup. It's a great opportunity for them and Eddie Howe should be really trying to win it, not worrying about resting players. If he goes for it, this could be the year that Newcastle lift a trophy.
On the Champions League places as well, Newcastle, their tails are up. How confident are you that Newcastle can really put their foot in that top four door?
The big advantage for Newcastle United is that Eddie’s getting his injured players back, and he's got a settled team. He's got a strong bench, and they don't have to worry about anything at the moment.
They've got the League Cup to go for. They haven't got to worry about Europe. They're getting clear weeks, getting a lot of rest. The players are fresh for the next game. They’ve come through Christmas period, which is always difficult, and they've got momentum now.
There's no reason now why they can't kick on. If they get a slight knock, they’ve got a full week to recover. So, it's in their favour for them to push for that top four.
Forest will probably think they're in the same boat. They're not playing as many games. They're getting plenty of recovery. They're not getting a lot of injuries. The teams will be thinking, can we nip this top four?
Teams like Villa, City on paper should be in the top four. Tottenham should be a lot higher. But they're in Europe and it takes its toll.
And if you get a few injuries, you can't really bring kids into Premier League games and sometimes you can't bring them into Europa games, it's very difficult to balance your squad when you're in Europe. Newcastle haven't got that. So, it's a massive advantage for Newcastle now to keep this form going.
Do you have any concerns about Eddie Howe and Paul Mitchell working together on recruitment in this window given their strained relationship?
He's going to look at it and think I've got everybody fit. Botman came back, played for 93 minutes and went out with cramp. I think central defence is the area that Eddie will be looking at if he is to add another player, that and possibly bring someone in as a back-up to Isak because Wilson has his injury problems.
They tried to buy Guehi from Palace, which went on for weeks but never happened. They had to sell players in the summer because of the PSR situation and not qualifying for the Champions League.
Eddie’s got the young lad from Sheffield United, William Osula. He’s not bad, but he's young and very raw.
So Eddie could probably do with a centre forward and a centre half. They've got enough squad depth in other positions to shuffle the pack.
Alexander Isak, all of the papers are saying Arsenal would love to take him. That's definitely going to be a conversation for the summer. Is Champions League football a must in order for them to hold on to him?
We don't know if Isak is very interested in going to Arsenal. Moving to London, heading south, that appeals to a lot of players.
Isak doesn't really do a lot of interviews. He doesn't really give a lot away, just gets on with his game. He's had injury problems in his career. Arsenal might be thinking twice about spending £100 million plus on him because of that history.
He's a very good centre forward. He's a player who I didn't expect to do as well as he has. He can dribble, he can run, he's got pace, he can finish. You know, he's a good centre forward for modern day football.
He's got very quick feet and I can see why Arsenal are looking at him as a priority because he would instantly improve their team.
Keeping him fit is the main thing. If you keep him fit, you've got an ideal centre-forward for the Premier League.
One player that has been linked with a move to Newcastle, and Liverpool are also reportedly interested, is Southampton’s Tyler Dibling. Have you been impressed by what the youngster has shown this season?
The thing I like about Tyler Dibling is he's performing well in a struggling side. He just goes out and he plays. He does the positive things. He carries the ball; he takes people on. He's not afraid to look for a killer pass, or a pass which could get you a goal. He's totally off the cuff. He believes in his ability, and he's got a lot of that.
He's a young player who's come on the scene. The hard part is doing it in your second season, because people get to know about you, and they look at your weaknesses.
That is all part of the learning curve for a young player. He’s definitely one that you look at and think he has got a lot of ability. He's got everything that you need to be a top player in the game.
He's going to have a lot of clubs interested in him. If he keeps developing the way he is, we'll be talking about a future international.
On Tottenham
On Tottenham’s struggles this season
Tottenham have had a horrendous time with injuries. I feel for Ange. Sometimes I watch Tottenham, and I think, have you got a plan B? Obviously, it's plan A all the time.
But realistically, it's very easy to jump on people's backs, but he's had a horrific injury problem as well. You know, you're playing Archie Gray and Spence at centre-back in the Premier League against Newcastle.
You've probably got to play Liverpool with those two at centre-back on Wednesday.
I feel sorry for Ange. I love the way he plays football. When you get injuries and when you get a lot of problems with keeping your best players fit, when you’re forced to throw in players in roles their not familiar with, it’s always going to be difficult.
I just wish, even if they went one up, that they would hang back a bit and think, ‘We've got pace here, we can catch teams on the break…Do we really need to put the back four on the halfway line?’
At that level of football, you're gifting good teams opportunities. That's the only thing that looks a bit strange to me, and that’s why he needs to have a plan B?
Tottenham fans are watching entertaining football, but they're not getting the results at the moment.
Ange Postecoglou is on thin ice at Tottenham. Should they stick with him? What does success look like for Spurs this season?
There's two ways to look at it. When Ange has had his full team out, they were doing alright. They were scoring goals, they were creating, but they were still leaking silly goals when they were doing well. They were in every game; you thought they were going to win more than they lost and then the injuries occurred. We're talking about three of the back four, the goalkeeper too.
Ange’s midfield's been all over the shop. There's no balance to it.
Solanke has been all right, obviously he stayed fit, but their other attackers have been in and out.
Last season, especially in the first half of the season, everybody was looking at them and saying, what a team. They were brilliant going forward, pressing high. Getting the ball back by swarming over their opponent. Offensively, I still think they’re fantastic. There aren’t any questions about that, but the defensive side of it, even when everyone is fit, there are serious question marks.
Against the level of players, you come up against in the Premier League, you can't stand on the halfway line thinking you’ll win every foot race if the opposition goes over the top. They rely too much on Ven de Ven’s pace. It’s suicide football at times. The defensive line doesn’t need to be that high.
When it comes off, it looks great, but top-level players will always find a way to exploit that line.
No disrespect, but this is not the Scottish league. This is the Premier League. I like the way he plays. He's very brave. It's great on the eye, but sometimes you just think do you to be so risky?
They’ve been involved in some basketball games. Ange must look at it and think at certain times, against good players, they need to drop off, but they refuse to do it.
The amount of goals Tottenham give away, cheap goals, let's be honest. A lot of them are just through balls, square balls, tap-ins. How many times is this going to happen?
Tottenham needs to find a balance of when to drop off and when to press.
Daniel Levy is always in the firing line of the clubs fans. How much responsibility should he shoulder for what has happened at the football club this season?
I think Tottenham have a structure of what their aims are, what they're going to do. They're not going to spend £60-70 million on a 28-30-year-old.
If you look at Tottenham over the years, they spot bargains and sign young players that they can sell in the future. It’s a good business model but is it a business model that is going to enable you to build a squad that wins trophies?
If you're trying to build a team to win the league and compete in the Champions Leagues, you've got to keep your best players and you’ve got to buy players that are Premier League ready.
Liverpool for example, they buy players like Mac Allister from Brighton, a guy that has proven he can do it in the Premier League and is ready to make the next step. They also aren’t in the habit of selling their best players, which hasn’t been the case at Tottenham.
Nobody knows the financial side of Tottenham Hotspur. The stadium and training ground are probably the best in the world. That costs a lot of money. We don't know if they're still paying the debts off.
Obviously with the stadium, Covid must have taken its toll. No crowds and they were paying it off. So, you just think how many years is it before they clear the debt? Arsenal had the same problem with the Emirates. Now all the debts have been paid off at Arsenal, and they're buying players quite easily. That is where Tottenham need to get to.
It comes down to the bigger question: what is the purpose of Tottenham as a football club? If ENIC don’t want to win trophies, if they don’t want to get their club as competitive as possible, then they should sell up. There must be so many people who would want to buy Tottenham Hotspur.
If you could sign one player for Tottenham, who would it be and why?
They need another good centre half, the problem is that with the way Tottenham look at recruitment, they’re never going to be able to go out and get a top, top quality centre-back from a big club because they shop in a different market. They’ve had some great success with Van de Ven joining from Wolfsburg and Romero from Atalanta, but finding players of that quality every single time is difficult. I think we’ve seen how difficult that can be with the capture of Dragusin from Bologna. Not all of these players that play for the clubs juts outside of the elite bracket in their own leagues are going to be good enough.
That’s where I have sympathy for Ange. In many ways, his hands are tied because of Tottenham’s recruitment policy. You can’t keep pulling rabbits out of hats.
Tottenham need trophies
It’s a bit like Newcastle; Tottenham must start hunting down trophies. It wasn't long ago that they lost to Liverpool in the Champions League final. Everybody thought, wow, this team looks like it's going to go on, but it didn’t happen. It’s always been the same problem at the football club.
Myself, Gazza, Glen Hoddle, and more recently Modric, Bale, Kane – the best players always leave.
Tottenham fans must think, when is it going to happen? We've got the stadium, got the training ground. When are the trophies going to start arriving?
Daniel Levy gets a lot of stick. He's the chairman, but it's not his club. I think if the chairman and the senior figures at the club actually communicate with the media a bit more, because the fans want to know what's going on every day, then perhaps there wouldn’t be so much negativity towards him.
Unfortunately, a lot of these clubs do not communicate with the media enough to let the fans know what their plans and ambitions are, so they get frustrated. Tell the fans what the ambition is. These are the people who support the club week in, week out
One player that has been linked with Tottenham, because we know that he's available, is Marcus Rashford. Would that be a move for you?
There's a lot of mind games going on with Marcus Rashford. I think there are a lot of doubts about his desire, his passion and his ambition.
If he went to Tottenham and the fans were singing his name, would he be happy with that and think, ‘That's it, I've arrived, I don't need to do that anymore.’
Whoever gets him, they're going to get a player for six months. After that, can he keep that appetite and hunger to go on? Can he prove to everybody he should be playing left wing for England? To do that, he needs to be playing week in, week out for his club side.
What is he doing at the minute? They said he was ill yesterday, not in the squad. No disrespect, but he's not young anymore. People keep talking as if he was 21. He's not.
He's had an in and out career. We all know he's got ability, but we’ve seen this story with so many players before. Players like Dele Alli, Ross Bartley they come on the scene, burn brightly and then disappear. Both of those players were talked as world-beaters when they were younger, and they couldn’t do it over the curse of their careers. There are so many players who were tipped to become the next big thing, and it didn’t happen for them. The only person that can change it is Marcus Rashford.
I expect him to move on. He needs to move on from Manchester United. Whether it's a loan until the end of the season, whether it's permanent, he must think to himself ‘I've got to get away. I'm wasting time, I need to get in the England squad, I need to be playing, and I want to show everybody how good I can be.’ He had that season where he scored loads of goals, but that is becoming a distant memory. He’s been bang average since.
On Tottenham vs Liverpool
In a recent fixture against Tottenham in the Premier League, Liverpool made light work of Tottenham, winning 3-6 in London. Do Tottenham need to be worried that Slot’s men could rack up an aggregate score that goes into double figures here?
I think Liverpool will make a few changes. Whoever they bring in is still good, whether it's Jota, they're still good players. Tottenham don't have that strength in depth.
Liverpool can make four or five changes. Bradley can go right back; he's a good player. You look at their team, and even with changes, you think it's not that much different from the team they would put out in the Premier League. There isn’t really a drop-off.
Tottenham can't afford to rotate, and they don’t have the squad to rotate at the moment. Tottenham's going to have to go with the same squad that was available against Newcastle.
It’s a Tottenham team that have been leaking goals. I think they will want to stay in the game – they can’t go to Anfield in February out of the tie.
The scoreline could be anything. I can see Tottenham scoring, but I can obviously see them conceding.
Will Ange just play the way he plays, or will he play a little bit deeper? It's not a one-off game, so the most important thing is staying in the tie.
I do worry that he will try and go toe-to-toe with Liverpool, and if he does that, there's only going to be one winner.
Spurs have got the Europa League, they've got this two-legged tie, the FA Cup as well. Could there be a danger if they were to take a walloping over this two-legged tie that Ange could be cut loose?
People will be starting to demand that he goes more, the noises would certainly get louder if Tottenham took a walloping. I think there's a section of the fan base who say, tactically, he's not getting it right. Some have sympathy because of the injuries, which have taken its toll. When you're losing international footballers, it's very difficult. The under-21s did very well last year in their league, but they're not ready for the Premier League – it’s probably a year or two too early for them.
Ange has been very unlucky with injuries, I've got to say. Before that, they were in games.
They lost a few, but they were in the games, and it was nip and tuck.
On The FA Cup
Spurs face Tamworth in the FA Cup. It has the hallmarks of a potential banana skin. Were you involved in any upsets as a player? Do the likes of Tamworth and even Bromley who face Newcastle stand a chance?
I got beat at Bradford and at Port Vale. 1-0 with Tottenham at Bradford, 2-1 at Port Vale, Tottenham again. When I look back at the Port Vale game and the Bradford game, we had a young squad, players had left, I think this was a time when Neil Ruddock and Paul Moran were coming through.
We had all these players in the team. We lost 2-1 to Port Vale on a very muddy, heavy pitch. Tamworth are not flying in the Conference. They've got weapons, they've got a big long throw, a massive long throw. They'll put the ball in the box a lot, they'll ask questions.
I mean, realistically, I know we're talking about upsets, but I cannot see Tamworth beating Tottenham.
With these injuries, Ange will be tempted to rest players, but, on the other hand, they'd be looking and thinking, I cannot lose to Tamworth.
Listen, there'll be a lot of people who'll be thinking that there's an upset on the cards there, especially with the way Tottenham's playing and conceding goals at the moment.
On England
What do you think about Thomas Tuchel's appointment as England boss, how do you assess how his coaching style fits with this current England squad?
He's won the Champions Leagues. He's basically won everything as a manager, hasn't he? He's always worked with good players. He came through the ranks at Dortmund and did well there. PSG, won trophies. Chelsea, won trophies. You look at his CV and it's very, very good.
I think the appointment is strange. It’s a short contract; he hasn't taken over until now.
His first game's March. It's an interesting one.
He's got the CV. He's got the credentials at club levell. We all know international football is different. It's getting the right blend and getting the right mixture of players. At clubs, you work with players every day, you get to know them, you know the characters, you know what they're good at, you know what they're bad at.
With international football, you've got to get the balance right and you've got to get it right quickly, because you know what England's like. If we don't win the first two games, it'll be, ‘Why did we employ him?’
Listen, as a club manager, he’s been brilliant. It's a different world doing international football. Whoever he picks, people are going to say, ‘Great pick.’ Then they're going to say, ‘Why not pick so-and-so?’
The problem is picking everybody that the media and the fans want. You've got to be strong and pick a team. He needs to pick a group of players who he thinks can win that world cup in America, Mexico and Canada.
You got to get a team going into that tournament that can have a possibility of winning it. It's not about picking the players he had at Chelsea. You've got to be brave, and you've got to build a team. If that means leaving a so-called star player out, so be it. You have to deal with it. You have to be strong.
You've got to pick players that will fit into your system, not the media system, not the fan system, your system.
On Liverpool
Can the uncertainty around the futures of Trent, Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk unsettle Liverpool’s season?
Van Dijk, Alexander-Arnold and Mo Salah have been fantastic servants for the club, but there comes a time where you move on. We don't know what all three of them want to do.
The fans will want to keep them all, thinking, ‘He's scoring, he's defending well, he's doing this.’ For Liverpool, they’ve got to look long term.
Mo Salah will have a lot of opportunities to go and play in other leagues. He could probably go back to Italy and play for another four or five years. If you look at the average age in Italy, it's a lot older than England. The Premier League is a lot more demanding physically than other leagues.
Maybe his comments are designed to put the ball back in Liverpool’s court. He might be asking for ridiculous amounts of money, and those kinds of contracts are always going to be difficult for players on the wrong side of 30. He's not getting any younger.
He doesn't get a lot of injuries. Perhaps Liverpool have already identified a replacement for him. Perhaps they are thinking, ‘We need to change now. We need to get some new players in and move on from Mo and Virgil.’
Alexander-Arnold, it looks like he's going to leave for Real Madrid on a free transfer. I'm sure there'll be a contract offer from Liverpool on the table, regardless.
Van Dijk is another one. The cruciate ligament injury, after that, he didn't look as confident as he used to be. This year he looks very confident again, but he's not getting any younger. Football clubs look at that and wonder if they need to pay top dollar for these guys. They’re going to get nothing if they let them go now, or they could spend millions of pounds on a two or three-year contract. Eventually the club has to make a decision to move on.
Clubs like Liverpool, United, Chelsea, they can't stand still. They've got to keep looking at the next option. Sometimes players leave and you wonder why they are getting rid of them. The club must have looked at all the options and thought, ‘It's not in our interest to give van Dijk a three-year contract when we don't think he will play enough games for us.’
Alexander-Arnold is a very talented player who goes into midfield a lot and has great passing range. But is he thinking, ‘I've been at Liverpool all my life, I want to go and experience Real Madrid?’
I can see van Dijk and Salah being offered one-year deals, two maximum. Perhaps they want something more than that.
Transfer Rumours
Another name that has been in the rumour mill for the last few months is Paul Pogba. Could you see him returning to the Premier League? Would he still be able to cut it at Premier League level?
When he joined Man United under Mourinho, he didn't really do a lot. Nobody raved about how good he was. The first time we saw him, we thought, ‘Wow, what a player.’ He went to Juventus, and we saw what he could do. Towards the end, before he got the suspension, he wasn't really playing particularly great football. He's a gamble.
If somebody says we can sign him now till the end of the season, basically on a trial period, and you don't have to pay him much money, then I can see the appeal. If he does well and then earns a better deal for himself, it’s a win win for him.
I think he’s still got a good couple of years left in him. It would have to be a short-term deal wherever he goes.
No disrespect, but I think a lot of clubs in the Premier League will be looking at other players before they look at Paul Pogba because he's been out of the game for a long time, and he wasn't pulling up any trees before his ban.
He’ll interest clubs, no doubt, but I can’t see any of the top, top Premier League clubs taking a punt on him, even if it was for six months.
Jack Grealish. Is it time for the former Villa man to seek a departure from Manchester City to start enjoying his football again and is there a club that you think he would thrive at?
I do think that it’s time for Jack to have a serious think about his future, that’s the stage he’s at now, which is unfortunate.
At Aston Villa, he had a lot more freedom to show what he could do. When he went to Man City, he's basically played as an out-and-out left winger, and he’s not a left winger. I've been pretty critical of him over the years, saying he can't beat a man and is always passing backwards.
He probably isn’t playing at the moment because Rodri is injured and there is no one for him to pass the ball back to!
He carries the ball, he gives City good balance, checks back, gives it to Rodri, and that's what he's done for the last few years.
I remember watching him at Villa, he had a lot more to his game than that. He was criticised for not being in good shape by his manager, that’s never a good sign. I have to say, he has looked a little heavier. That happens when players are frustrated.
He's never been a permanent fixture in the team since he arrived. If I was Jack, I'd be thinking I want to go play somewhere, I don't want to play on the left, I want to play as a number 10 or as part of a midfield three.
He's got to be looking at a club who wants to take him as a midfielder rather than a winger. He definitely needs to start again and go off, because he's not going to get any joy in his football at Man City.
If he can't get in the City team, that means he's not really going to get picked for England. He needs to start playing regular football to get his confidence back and to give him a chance of getting back in the England squad.
I think it’s telling that when Foden and De Bruyne have been injured, he hasn’t had a sniff playing as a central creative player for Pep at City.
When you're looking at your career, if you’re not playing a lot, you need to move on. At the end of the day, you're a footballer. You don't want to be sat in the stands.
He's had his time at City, it hasn't really changed for him, so I think he's better off thinking, ‘I need a new challenge, and I want to play as a midfield player.’
Dani Olmo is a player that I imagine you’re a big fan of. If he is available, do you expect him to arrive in the Premier League and which clubs out of those that have been linked for him do you think he would suit best?
Olmo is the type of player where, if you give him the ball and let him create, he can be a major asset for any club.
It’s a ridiculous situation that he has found himself in at Barcelona. That isn’t his fault of course, but it says a lot about the state of Barcelona at the moment and I think that this should act as a warning sign for other players that they are looking to bring in. Barcelona are a legendary club, but the way they’ve bee runover the last five or six years is abysmal.
If the Barcelona thing doesn't sort itself out, he'll have a lot of offers, whether he wants to come to England, whether he wants to go back to Germany.
Whoever does get him will be very lucky because he's a very talented footballer. I think he would be an excellent signing for any of the top Premier League clubs. He is a little bit light weight, he’s slight, but technically, he’s phenomenal.
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