Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal is hailed as the most exciting young talent, while Brentford are yet to keep a clean sheet despite a strong start to the season.
The Swiss-based research group CIES Football Observatory is reliable and doesn’t allow itself to climb aboard the tabloid train.
Hollywoodbets’ Gary Lemke takes a dip in and out of their latest findings…
Lamine Yamal of Spain celebrates winning the UEFA EURO 2024 semi-finals soccer match between Spain and France in Munich (Pic – EPA/Ronald Wittek)
Yamal Rates As Most Valuable Young Talent
This past week they released the results of the most valuable under-21 footballers, with a market transfer value if they were to be put out “for sale”.
Topping that list is Lamine Yamal, the 17-year-old Barcelona star. He’s valued at 180 million euros (£150m), which sounds fair.
Second is Man United’s Alejandro Garnacho at 115m euros (£95m). The only two other U21s over 100m euros are Warren Zaire-Emerry (PSG) at £90m and Man City’s Savio Moreira at £84m.
Brighton is club with the most players in the top 100 of the most valuable under-21 footballers (Pic – Supplied)
Brighton Have An Eye For The Youth
In the same report, and given it’s a reliable discussion document, a real; eye-popper was the club with the most players in the top 100 of the most valuable under-21 footballers. They’re in the English Premier League … Brighton.
They have six players – Evan Ferguson, Carlos Baleba, Yankuba MInteh, Jack Hinshelwood, Julio Enciso and Brajan Gruga. They must have some scouting system! In the top 10 the most valued footballers are wingers (4), defensive midfielders (3) and centre forward, fullback and attacking midfielder (all 1).
The Bees need to organise their defence in a hurry (Pic – Supplied)
Brentford Need To Plug The Holes
As the English Premier League makes way for another International break, it’s worth looking at where things stand in terms of some statistics. With Man United beating Leicester 3-0 last week, it ended the Foxes’ record for scoring in every EPL match this season. Now, there’s only one team with a perfect scoring record after 11 games – Man City.
At the other end, there is now also only one team who have yet to keep a clean sheet in those 11 games and that’s Brentford. They are 11th on the table but only Wolves have conceded more. The Bees need to organise their defence in a hurry, because if the goals up front start drying up so will the points.
Manager of Bournemouth Eddie Howe (Pic – Supplied)
Where Are The English Managers?
With Ruben Amorim arriving at Old Trafford this week with fanfare befitting the second coming of a Portuguese “Special One”, it’s worth reflecting on the nationalities of the managers in the English Premier League. If only, because the numbers suggest that managers from England aren’t highly-rated.
There are currently three such managers in the EPL – Sean Dyche (Everton), Eddie Howe (Newcastle) and Gary O’Neill (Wolves). A deeper dive shows that only six domestic trophies have been won by English managers since 1992-93, and the last was Harry Redknapp’s FA Cup success in 2008. The last English manager to win the top-flight title was Howard Wilkinson (Leeds, 1992) and the last English manager at Arsenal was Don Howe in 1983.
Coote To Be Shown Red Card After Videos
Referee David Coote has blown his last game in the English Premier League. As if a video leaked of him, albeit from a few years ago, calling Liverpool “arrogant” and being less than complimentary about Jurgen Klopp wasn’t bad enough, a second video showing him using a US banknote to hoover up a white powder in his hotel room at Euro 2024 will have sealed his fate.
There’s no coming back to refereeing in England for the 42-year-old. The Sun tabloid seemed to revel in the detail. “On the bedside table alongside the four-inch line of white powder are scattered packets of prescription drugs, a credit card, and the Terry Hayes novel The Year of The Locust,” they trumpeted.
Lineker’s Bbc Tv Seat Up For Grabs
One of football’s most recognisable faces, and voices, Gary Lineker, has been forced out of his Match of the Day presenter’s role at the BBC after 25 years. Lineker, who carried some authority given he scored 48 goals for England in 80 matches, volunteered to take a £350,000 cut from his salary, to chop it to £1m a year.
The BBC said no to the 63-year-old as they look for a fresher face. Former England and Arsenal women’s star Alex Scott (40), is a 2-1 favourite to replace Lineker with Mark Chapman 5-2.
