Pep's succession

GM football fans. Route One here, and we’re covering Pep’s succession planning, Brentford’s innovative bonus structure, and much more.

STATS

Premier League - Matchday 1 Best Stats

→ At 39 years and 39 days, Ashley Young is the oldest player to ever be sent off in the Premier League.

→ Only Mohammed Kudus has completed more dribbles than Manchester City’s Savinho across Europe’s big five leagues since the start of last season.

→ James Milner is the first player in Premier League history to play a match for a manager who’s more than seven years younger than him.

→ The last three players to score and assist in three consecutive Premier League appearances have all been African (Mohamed Salah, Riyad Mahrez and Yoane Wissa).

→ Since 2021-22, only Bukayo Saka has been involved in more goals in London derbies than Bryan Mbeumo.

Plus…

• Leicester come back from behind to earn a draw against Tottenham on their Premier League return, FT: 1-1 (More)

• Carabao Cup second-round fixtures dates announced (More)

• Manchester City are interested in resigning Ilkay Gundogan; he also retires from international football (More)

• Al Ahli approach Brentford to sign striker Ivan Toney (More)

• Leicester City sign midfielder Oliver Skipp from Tottenham for £25mn (More)

PREMIER LEAGUE

Pep Guardiola's succession plan in the works

Manchester City wants manager Pep Guardiola to decide whether he will sign a new contract with the club by Christmas, per Sky Sports.

While City chairman Khaldoon Al-Mubarak is having talks with Guardiola to try to convince him to sign another contract extension, time is ticking on the Spaniard’s contract which runs until 2025. There is still uncertainty about whether Guardiola will sign another extension:

• He has previously admitted to having ambitions to manage a national side - and the upcoming 2026 World Cup in the U.S., Canada and Mexico will be enticing.

• And, ultimately, he hasn’t made up his mind yet.

As it stands, Guardiola is reassuring City fans as much as a ‘maybe’ would to a wedding proposal.

Succession plan in action

Sky Sports reports that insiders have informed them that Manchester City has started succession planning, drawing up a list of potential replacements should the 53-year-old call time on his career at the club.

It’s hard to say whether this is a genuine ‘scoop’ or not, but it’s likely as City recognise they can’t hold onto the Spaniard forever.

It’s good practice: Former CEO of Southampton, Martin Semmens, speaking on BBC Live Radio in 2022 said he had told then-manager Ralph Hasenhuttl who his managerial replacement would be - even before any conversation of him leaving began.

“We do a huge amount of scouting on new managers,” Semmens said. “We do know potentially who our new manager will be and Ralph and I have talked about it.”

While it would be controversial for a boss to say this in normal circumstances, Semmens's underlying point was that the Austrian would eventually leave the club - as every manager does - so, of course, they’re monitoring other coaches. When scouting, clubs usually look out for a few bits of data to measure against key indicators:

• Whether the potential successor gives young players minutes or not.

• Their style of play.

• How they fare in a division that is comparable to the Premier League.

Finding a replacement that stacks up against Pep’s indicators won’t exactly be easy. The more time the better.

POLL

HEAD START

🔵 Chelsea agree to sign Joao Felix. The Blues have reached a £46.3mn agreement with Atletico Madrid for the permanent signing of Portugal forward Joao Felix. The 24-year-old has agreed personal terms on a six-year contract, per The Athletic. It’s reported that Conor Gallagher’s move to the Spanish side is expected to go forward now the two clubs have agreed a deal for Felix.

💰Wolves plan on spending only a fraction of £94mn. Wolverhampton Wanderers will only spend £20mn of the £94mn banked from the sales of Pedro Neto and Max Kilman, as the club continues to safeguard their financial position. Manager Gary O’Neil is keen to sign another winger, but it depends on the sale of fringe players including Daniel Podence, Goncalo Guedes and Fabio Silva happening first.

👋 Thierry Henry steps down as France Under-21s manager. The former Arsenal and Barcelona striker's contract had been due to run until after next year's European Under-21 Championship in Slovakia, but Henry has decided to step away from the role. The 47-year-old cites “personal reasons” as the motivation for his decision. Henry won four of his six matches in charge of the under-21s and eight of his 11 games in charge of the Olympic team.

PREMIER LEAGUE

Brentford’s new structure could change the way clubs do bonuses

Player bonuses are evolving in the Premier League and becoming fairer for clubs and players.

There are bonuses for just about everything in the football world: goal bonuses, win bonuses, appearances bonuses. Essentially, bonuses for doing your job - imagine that.

Bonuses are big money: ‘Football Leaks’ revealed six years ago that players like Alexis Sanchez were receiving £75,000 per appearance, and would’ve been rewarded £2mn if he hit 40 goals and assists in a season.

Yet, in the past, bonuses have been a cause for concern around integrity, per The Telegraph: 

• Managers have been accused of subbing on players for a share of their appearance bonuses.

• There have also been cases where off-the-book cash payments were reportedly left in player boots for discreet collection.

Brentford’s innovative bonus approach

The Telegraph claims that Brentford are giving bonuses based on their set-piece performance. In other words, they tally set pieces as their own goal difference.

As long as the Bees stay in the Premier League, a positive set-piece ‘goal difference’ at the end of the season is rewarded. Apparently bonuses can potentially reach £200,000 per goal.

The reason? Set-pieces are so crucial to manager Thomas Frank’s philosophy - and thus to Brentford’s survival in the English top flight.

This isn’t common. Clubs at the top of the table focus on silverware bonuses, while clubs in the bottom half are told it’s best to offer financial rewards for securing points against clubs around their position in the table.

Play style over results: Not many clubs are as data-driven as Brentford, but their new bonus structure - which is based on style of play and not results - could catch on if it works well.

And what’s a better way to encourage someone to win their duels at a corner than hundreds of thousands of pounds?

AROUND THE FOOTBALL WORLD

🇦🇷 Argentina national team: Lionel Messi has been left out of the Argentina squad for their upcoming World Cup qualifiers after suffering a right ankle injury in the Copa America final (More)

🇮🇹 Serie A: Napoli manager Antonio Conte has apologised to fans after their 3-0 defeat at Verona in his first game in charge (More)

🇨🇭Switerzland national team: Goalkeeper Yann Sommer ends his national team career after 94 games at age 35 (More)

🇭🇷 Croatia national team: Luka Modric, 39, has been named in Croatia’s 24-man squad for the opening matches of their UEFA Nations League campaign; there was uncertainty over his international career after Croatia’s group stage exit at Euro 2024 (More)

🇸🇦 Saudi Pro League: Manchester City defenders Kyle Walker and Joao Cancelo are on Al-Hilal’s three-man shortlist to reinforce their defence (More)

PHOTO OF THE DAY

King Kenny. A documentary on the life and career of Liverpool legend Sir Kenny Dalglish will be released next year on Amazon Prime.

The Glasgow-born striker is considered one of Liverpool’s greatest players, having filled the shoes of Kevin Keegan when he was purchased from Celtic in 1977. His success was immediate, capping off a brilliant first season with a sublime winning goal in the European Cup Final.

Dalglish went on to play 515 games for the Reds and managed them 381 times over two spells, winning 18 major trophies in total which included three European Cups and eight League titles.

ROUTER’S VOICE

Yesterday, we asked you: Do you think that players are entitled to make public statements like Raheem Sterling’s?

Routers think that these conversations are better held in private.

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 👏 Yes, they should… (29.2%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🔐 Nope, it should be done in private… (67%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ ✍️ Other (write in!)... (3.5%)

Your punditry takes:

• 🔐 Tyler P voted ‘Nope’: “These conversations should take place in private, between players and club leadership like the adults they are. Sterling's move was highly unprofessional in my opinion. Kind of like Todd Boehly grabbing his gear and disappearing after that second goal...”

• 🔐 Julie O voted ‘Nope’: “These things should be discussed with club and not in such a public way. Washing laundry in public causes much more speculation than is needed and statements like this cause more trouble. [The fans] do not own these players or make the decisions within the club - there is a right way to do this.”

• 👏 Mersis voted ‘Yes’: “I think it would make football more transparent and we would see footballers as humans more than only professionals trying to entertain us.”

• ✍️ A P M voted ‘Other’: “It's quite fair to make a public statement as the one Sterling made. Though one hour before kick-off, is a tad untimely and one could think it was made to create a stir. A stir that isn't necessary right before a match, it being the first of the season or another match for that matter. I support Micah in his statement, that Sterling let his teammates down.”

EXTRA TIME

Jude Bellingham asks his teammates to finish in the attack.

Jamie Vardy reminding Spurs that he’s won a Premier League title.

John Obi Mikel’s rant on Chelsea being comfortable with mediocrity…

… and his reaction to Nicolas Jackson’s finishing.

Red card given in Peru as a player ‘relaxes’ during an injury break.

Luis Garcia gets burned on live TV… no really.

How many reciprocated rivalries are there in English football? | Reddit discussion

That awkward moment when Joe Hart thinks Joelinton’s name is “Joe Linton”.

Analysis: Will Salah thrive under Slot?

GAME FACE ON

Question: Who am I… 

• I scored 12 goals for Red Star Belgrade, but I’m not an attacker.

• I moved to Inter Milan in 2014 after a successful spell in the Premier League.

• I won my first European medal against Chelsea in 2008.

Scroll below for the answer.

ON TODAY

FOOTBALL

UEFA Champions League play-offs

• Bodø/Glimt vs Crvena zvezda (20:00 BST)

• Dinamo Zagreb vs Qarabağ (20:00 BST)

• Lille vs Slavia (20:00 BST)

English National League

• Full list of fixtures here.

*EST -5. PST -8. CET +1. CST +8. JST +9.

Answer

Nemanja Vidic.