Joe Green Sports

4 years ago on the 24 th May, as Brendan Rodgers’ Liverpool were thrashed 6-1 by Stoke in Steven Gerrard’s last game for the Reds, and Tottenham Hotspur scraped to a 1-0 win at Everton with academy product Harry Kane scoring the only goal, a Champions League final for either side would have seemed an eternity away. When Peter Crouch nodded in the 6 th in the 87 th minute, much to the delight of the jubilant Stoke supporters who could hardly believe what they were seeing, Liverpool fans could be forgiven for thinking that the future was bleak with another year of Europa League football on the horizon and only a single League Cup to show for the 10 years that had passed since that night in Istanbul. For Tottenham, led by the unproven Mauricio Pochettino whose CV included being sacked mid-season by Espanyol and a mid-table finish with Southampton, the next few years will have also looked hazardous as a club who had prided itself on competing with the big boys on a fraction of the bud...

BUSY BAYERN After a disappointing season that only resulted in a 7th consecutive league title and reaching a domestic cup final, Bayern Munich seem to be trying to put the woes of only winning the league by a single point instead of the usual 30 and losing to Liverpool in their own back yard by splashing the cash as much as possible. With club legends Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben finally leaving the club after making 474 appearances between them across a trophy-laden 12 years, as well as the departure of Rafinha and the likely exit of James Rodriguez, a revamp of the Bayern squad is desperately needed. The 5-time European champions have already reached triple figures this summer as they snapped up French World-cup winning left-back Lucas Hernandez for a club record £71 million, a purchase which was quickly followed by the signing of another world champion full-back as Benjamin Pavard arrived from relegated Stuttgart for £35 million. The Bavarians have now moved their attention to o...

Best Premier League Transfers 18/19 James Maddison – Norwich to Leicester - £22 million James Maddison’s signing from Championship side Norwich for £22 million at the time seemed a significant gamble, but the midfielder has not only adapted to the Premier League but has integrated himself to such an extent that he is now a vital cog in the counter-attacking machine that is Leicester City. His 7 goals and 7 assists don’t do justice to the way he has effortlessly moved up a division and guaranteed himself a starting spot in an era when clubs would much rather spend £30m on an unknown Spaniard called Jaime Maddiguez than give an Englishman a chance. If Gareth Southgate wasn’t so universally adored then maybe more would have been made of his criminal decision to include Jesse Lingard, who hasn’t done anything noteworthy since February, in England’s Nations League squad instead of Maddison, but time is on the side of the 22-year-old and he looks to set to continue to flourish under Ro...

Paul Pogba is quite possibly the most divisive player in the Premier League, both in the media and in the Manchester United dressing room, as Jose Mourinho knows all too well and Ole Gunnar Solksjaer is beginning to discover. The Frenchman polarises opinion, with some lambasting his showboating antics both on and off the field and accusing him of a lack of commitment, while others point to his vital part in France’s World Cup triumph, during which a video emerged of Pogba giving a rallying speech to his team-mates moments before the final against Croatia. The midfielder’s statistics for Man United can also be interpreted to prove Pogba is both a goal scoring genius and a mere penalty merchant, as although his 13 league goals may appear impressive on paper, 8 of these goals have come from the spot while another was a rebound from a saved penalty. While I am by no means saying consistently converting spot-kicks is easy, it hardly makes Pogba unique or worthy of a place in the PFA Team ...