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The regular season has been compressed this year, and the finals series expanded to allow for five teams to be in contention

Daniel Brettig16-Dec-2019When Alistair Dobson speaks about the effect that the Big Bash League has had on the Australian sporting landscape, he does so with the experience of having been a part of the rival sports impacted.Dobson was about halfway through a long stint at the AFL in various marketing and fan development roles when the BBL burst onto the Australian sporting scene in 2011. In a few short years, it allowed Cricket Australia to effectively double the game’s broadcast and spectator audiences, while also pushing the game towards children and families in a way that many have wanted to emulate since.Certainly, Dobson can recall that for just about the first time in his years at the headquarters of Australian football, the advent of the BBL and the subsequent addition of the WBBL had the game’s decision-makers thinking about playing catch-up to cricket.”The ability for the Big Bash at the time and still largely today to be so single-minded on targeting kids and families with a new format and a new product and being able to deliver that so successfully was something that I think all sports will be looking at with a degree of envy,” Dobson told ESPNcricinfo. “The ability to be so single-minded on that and to do it in such a way that is such fun and colour and entertainment was something I remember reflecting on that at the AFL, and I think all sports will be looking at it the same way.”The final few years Dobson spent at the AFL were to bear witness to those catch-up attempts, from the fast-tracking of the AFLW competition without anything like the same degree of long-term planning and investment made by cricket, to the creation of a “second generation” format for junior and overseas markets – AFLX. Yet, for all the flurry of activity, the BBL had stolen a vital march on the competition, so much so that in May this year, Dobson chose to move across from football to cricket, replacing Kim McConnie as the head of Big Bash Leagues.”The similarities are really clear in terms of two really professional, well-run organisations that put on the best possible sporting events in the country,” he said. “The culture of excellence and high performance at both organisations is really strong. I’ve really enjoyed the change in environment, everyone’s been really welcoming, particularly in the sense that everyone loves the Big Bash and to come and work on a competition that people want to talk to you about and love having conversations about it, it’s a really fun place to come to work.Melbourne Renegades are the defending BBL champions•Getty Images”Lots of similarities to previous roles in relation to a league, working with clubs, trying to get to know the clubs well, what are their pressure points, what are their opportunities and how can we as a league provide the best value possible. The role of the league is to make sure our clubs are healthy and strong and successful so spend a fair bit of time getting to know their businesses better and really looking forward to the next eight weeks.”The success of a move to a standalone WBBL, complete with a raucous conclusion to the tournament when the Brisbane Heat sent a noisy Queensland crowd delirious at Allan Border Field by besting the Adelaide Strikers in the final, has provided Dobson and his department with a highly promising start to a season in which the ninth edition of the men’s event is expected to do more heavy lifting than usual.”A great way to finish it with a sell-out crowd in Brisbane,” he said. “I had a few people there who were involved in cricket for a while who’d never seen such a parochial crowd watching a WBBL game. This was how you imagined evolving WBBL cricket to be, really passionate local crowds cheering on their teams. So that was a real milestone day I reckon for the WBBL, to have a sell-out crowd with a passionate, parochial home audience.”It’s now about fine-tuning some parts of it, whether that’s specifics around start times and day games versus night games and weekends versus midweek, it’s really trying to listen to our players and fans and over the next month or two we’ll do lots of consultation around which of those in the mix around day games and night games, weekends and midweek worked. They all come with different dynamics, particularly when you’re not in a school holiday period, you’ve got other considerations around families and kids being able to go. So I think the work next is around fine-tuning those parts.

New ideas can come from different places, a lot of these ideas have come from our clubs, our fans or our broadcast partners. If they’ve been successful in other leagues then that certainly plays a role

“In addition to being the right move for the WBBL on its own, it’s also a really important strategic opportunity for cricket and particularly for our BBL clubs who have got their brand and their product in market now for the best part of four months instead of only a couple. Brisbane Heat, for example, are now a brand in Brisbane from October right through to February, which creates so much momentum and opportunities for our clubs as well as Australian cricket broadly now has good, strong, consistent product in market for that whole time.”That lengthening of the season in terms of Big Bash teams and tournaments has arrived parallel to plenty of tweaks for the men’s BBL, namely the compressing of the regular season so that it concludes before the end of the school holidays, and then the expansion of the finals series to allow for five teams and more permutations to be contemplated by the clubs and analysed by broadcasters, media and fans.”Primarily this year we listened to our fans who told us last year that the duration of the season was too long, and to be able to bring the regular season back within the school holiday period was our No. 1 priority,” Dobson said. “That comes with some flow on effects around travel and other considerations, but overall we’re really happy with how that’s resulted.”The players had told us they wanted to play more games in less days. They felt last year there were times where they were sitting around for too long between matches and the ACA [Australian Cricketers’ Association] was right on board with some of those priorities we had around the fixture. That said we’ll learn again this year and see how it goes and continue to make whatever changes are required. But shortening the duration was a priority, and we think it sets us up really well.”In a season when the Australian team will be off-Broadway playing limited-overs matches in India through much of January, the BBL will provide the most high-profile cricket being played at home around the Australia Day long weekend, something organisers have capitalised on by scheduling seven games in four days around a game at Adelaide Oval on the January 26 itself. This will in turn serve as a lead-in to the tournament finals and its addition of a fifth competing team, while also adding greater value to the prize for finishing first or second.Brisbane Heat pose with the Women’s Big Bash League trophy•Getty Images”There’s a massive chance that over that weekend every one of those seven games is live in some respect into the new finals series,” Dobson explained. “It was a combination of making sure the teams that finish first and second have got the appropriate benefit from that position and history will show that in the final four model we had, that wasn’t playing out that way, so we wanted to make sure the teams at the top had due opportunity.”At the same time, now if you finish fourth or fifth you’ve got to win four games in a row. While more teams can make it, it’s actually harder to win notionally from fourth than it was in the past. Easier for first and second and harder for fourth, and we think that’s the right model. At the same time, having five teams in the finals gives more fans the opportunity to be part of action, it keeps more games live late in the season, but certainly not at the expense of the legitimacy of the finals series, where the top two teams get the best possible chance to win it.”There is evidence, too, of the creeping influence of the IPL. For the first time, the BBL will feature strategic time-outs – essentially giving broadcasters an extra 90-second window for advertising – while gold caps will be worn by the league’s leading run-scorer and wicket-taker in what has been termed a “yellow jersey” style award.”New ideas can come from different places, a lot of these ideas have come from our clubs, our fans or our broadcast partners,” Dobson said. “If they’ve been successful in other leagues then that certainly plays a role. We’ve got a couple really exciting innovations there that may have history in other leagues but will have a unique BBL flavour to them this year. It will add some good interest for the fans and the players and we’re looking forward to seeing how they roll out.”The IPL may itself add another complication to the league if the expansion of the Indian event to ten teams and an earlier start date come to fruition, but for now Dobson and CA are hopeful that this edition of the BBL, bolstered as it is by the presence of AB de Villiers and the increased availability of the likes of Steven Smith, Aaron Finch, Glenn Maxwell and Chris Lynn will allow the tournament to scale heights not seen since 2015-16, the last time the league was required to form the centrepiece of the summer opposite a lower key international schedule.”We think this is a great year with the schedule and the window we’ve got, whether that’s to be able to bring international players in our equally some great clear windows for Australian players to be able to play in the BBL – that does set the competition up really well,” Dobson said. “I think the place the BBL has found in the summer of cricket, being late December, through January is now a really strong, traditional window where families can settle in and watch.”This year is a unique one in the context of other countries coming in and playing international cricket, so we think it’s a great year for the BBL to have a big season.”

Aston Villa suffered a 3-1 defeat away to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League quarter-final first leg on Wednesday evening.

Despite the quality on show for PSG, it was the Villans who took the lead, and what a goal it was. Marcus Rashford played a perfectly weighted pass into the path of Youri Tielemans, who fired a cross to the back post where Morgan Rogers was waiting to tap home.

The home side hit back just moments before the halftime whistle. The electric Desire Doue was the goalscorer, cutting inside onto his right foot and curling his shot into the top right corner, past Emiliano Martinez.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia gave PSG the lead in the 49th minute with a goal that put his side in the box seat.

It was a remarkable effort, carrying the ball from just inside the Villa half into the penalty box, before rolling it onto his left foot and firing home high into the back of the net. Nuno Mendes sealed the win in the second minute of stoppage time, selling Martinez a dummy and rifling his effort home into a near-empty net.

It was a tough night at the office for Unai Emery’s side, who came up against some high-quality attackers. Matty Cash was one player who struggled to cope at times.

Matty Cash's performance in numbers vs PSG

It is never easy as a defender when you are coming directly up against Doue, Kvaratskhelia and Ousmane Dembele. Poland international Cash certainly struggled at times at right-back and had little respite from the Les Parisiens attackers.

Indeed, those attackers in a PSG shirt were relentless and really had Cash tied up in knots at times. The Villans number 2 picked up a yellow card for a cynical foul in the 17th minute to stop a counter-attack.

This made it tough at times for him to engage, given that he was at risk of committing a foul and receiving a second yellow card.

In fact, the stats from the game reflect just how tough of a night it was for Cash. As per Sofascore, the 27-year-old won just three of eight attempted ground duels and committed four fouls. Impressively, he did manage to win all three of his attempted tackles.

It was certainly a tough evening and it was perhaps unsurprising to see he was substituted at half time for Axel Disasi.

He will surely be hoping the second leg at Villa Park is a little more forgiving. However, he was not the only Villa player who struggled at the Parc des Princes.

Aston Villa's other underperformer

As much as Villa had to do defensively on Wednesday night, it meant their attackers did not get much joy going forward, aside from Rogers’ goal. One of the players who suffered that fate was homegrown hero Jacob Ramsey.

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Football FanCast’s Chalkboard series presents a tactical discussion from around the global game.

The boyhood Villa star did not necessarily play badly against the French giants but did not have much joy going forward. He also had his work cut out defensively, having to track Achraf Hakimi, who mauraded forward a lot throughout the game.

Indeed, Ramsey’s stats from the game show just how tough it was for him. The Villa number 41 had 29 touches of the ball, completing 61% of his passes and losing the ball ten times. He won three from four duels but failed to win his only attempted tackle.

The 23-year-old received a 5/0 post-match rating for his performance from Goal journalist Richie Mills. He described Ramsey as “quite quiet” throughout the game and explained that “much of his work involved trying to track back” and defend against Hakimi.

It will be interesting to see if Ramsey keeps his place in the starting lineup in the next seven days. Villa have the already-relegated Southampton away from home over the weekend before the return leg against PSG next Tuesday.

Emery has several options at his disposal. PSG Lonaee Marco Asensio replaced Ramsey on the hour mark at the Parc des Princes, and Ollie Watkins also missed out on a starting spot.

Perhaps Emery will turn to one of those if he decides to look for more directness in the attack, thus rotating Ramsey out of the side for a huge clash next week.

He was worse than Disasi: Emery must drop 4/10 Aston Villa dud after PSG

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Celtic travel away from Parkhead to take on Dundee United in the Scottish Premiership on Saturday, knowing that a point will be enough to seal the title.

The Hoops simply have to avoid defeat to clinch their fourth league title in succession, which means that this could be the weekend that they are crowned champions once again.

Brendan Rodgers’ side beat St. Johnstone 5-0 in the semi-finals of the SFA Cup last time out at Hampden Park, but the Northern Irish boss could make some changes to his side, starting with dropping James Forrest to the bench.

Why James Forrest should be dropped

The long-serving Celtic winger was selected to start on the right side of the attack against the Saints last weekend and, once again, failed to contribute much at the top end of the pitch.

Forrest has started the last two matches and has not been involved, with a goal or an assist, in any of the ten goals scored by the team, which has been the story of his season.

The Scottish forward has played 27 matches in all competitions this season without scoring a single goal for the Hoops, which illustrates his lack of impact in the final third.

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Football FanCast’s Chalkboard series presents a tactical discussion from around the global game.

With this in mind, Rodgers must take the ineffective winger out of the starting XI for this trip to Dundee United, who are not an easy team to play against. They have only conceded 40 goals in 33 matches, which suggests that Celtic need their best attackers on the pitch, including Nicolas Kuhn.

Why Nicolas Kuhn could win Celtic the title

Dundee United, as shown by their defensive record this season, will be tough to break down and that is why the German attacker must be unleashed to win the title for the Hoops.

Forrest has shown, with zero goals in 26 games, that he is unlikely to make much of an impact as a starter on Saturday. Whereas, Kuhn has been in excellent form this season at the top end of the pitch.

The left-footed forward has racked up 18 goals and 14 assists in all competitions for the Scottish giants this term, including two assists in his last four league starts.

As you can see in the table above, Kuhn has delivered 18 goals and assists combined in the Premiership so far this term, which shows that he can get on the end of passes to score, or he can be the player who makes the killer pass to split open a defence.

The former Rapid Vienna star, once hailed as “magical” by Rodgers, could provide the cutting edge in front of goal that is seemingly going to be required to break down the Dundee United backline, whilst Forrest’s form this season suggests that he is not the man for that job.

Therefore, Rodgers could increase his team’s chances of winning the title on Saturday by dropping the Scottish forward in favour of Kuhn on the right flank.

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As Xabi Alonso and his move to Real Madrid gains more traction, reports have emerged that the tactician is now eyeing a “world-class” Tottenham player for his potential new-look Whites side.

Tottenham looking at 'sell-to-buy' summer window

Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou may not be in the dugout for much longer, with some outlets claiming that the 59-year-old could part company regardless of their success in the Europa League (The Telegraph).

Fabrizio Romano update after Tottenham contact ex-Bayern Munich boss

Spurs are reportedly identifying replacements for Ange Postecoglou.

By
Emilio Galantini

May 1, 2025

The prospect of yet another new manager hunt from chairman Daniel Levy is seen as a realistic one, and Spurs must also figure out how to combat the next transfer window with fairly limited funds.

As per Matt Law, Tottenham may have to employ a ‘sell to buy’ transfer policy this summer, with Levy and the Lilywhites board set for a headache when it comes to attracting their desired targets.

Spurs could look to find a buyer for right-back Pedro Porro, as Djed Spence’s resurgence into a key first-team player hands Postecoglou or any new head coach a ready-made replacement for the Spaniard.

Meanwhile, Richarlison is attracting interest from Brazilian clubs, as Tottenham consider offloading the striker following an injury-ridden campaign.

“Speculation has been that Palmeiras, Fluminense and Flamengo are preparing a proposal to buy the player in the middle of the year,” said South American journalist Jorge Nicola last month.

“The big news on this subject is that Tottenham, very bothered by the center forward’s series of injuries, are considering negotiating [selling] him permanently starting in July.”

Everton are also believed to hold a serious interest in Richarlison, according to GiveMeSport, and the prospect of him returning to Goodison Park is fairly realistic – so this could be one to watch as Levy seeks to balance the books and raise transfer funds.

However, the big name who appears more and more likely to depart N17 is star defender Cristian Romero.

The Argentine is a top target for Atlético Madrid, as per various reports, with Diego Simeone personally keen on tempting Romero with a switch to the Spanish top flight.

Xabi Alonso asks Real Madrid to sign Tottenham star Cristian Romero

Romero has reportedly informed Tottenham of his desire to leave this summer, and this has also piqued interest from Alonso, as the 43-year-old begins planning for the Real Madrid job.

That is according to reports in Spain, which state that Alonso has asked Real to consider signing Romero as part of a three-man centre-back shortlist, with the former Liverpool midfielder extremely keen to reinforce their backline.

Tottenham value the 27-year-old at around £60 million, so it won’t be a cheap operation for Florentino Perez, with Levy keen to make as much money as possible off the defender’s potential sale.

Romero formed an excellent partnership with Micky van de Ven during Postecoglou’s debut season in charge, but injuries have stopped him from making that same desired impact on a consistent enough basis this term.

Called “world-class” by van de Ven, the ex-Atalanta star could be even more tempted by a move to Spain if Real come forward with a proposal.

Aston Villa have four games left to save their season. It has been a frustrating few weeks after they were knocked out of the FA Cup and the Champions League, leaving themselves without a chance to win a trophy.

The Villans, however, can still clinch a successful campaign by finishing in the top five in the Premier League to secure a place in the Champions League for the 2025/26 campaign.

Unai Emery’s side, who were narrowly beaten by PSG in the quarter-finals of the competitions this term, are looking to climb at least two places in the Premier League table to land a spot in Europe’s premier cup competition.

The Villans are currently seventh in the top-flight, three points behind Chelsea in fifth spot, and this means that there is still plenty to play for heading into the final four games of the campaign.

David Ornstein reported earlier this week that Marcus Rashford, however, is unlikely to play any part in those four matches after sustaining a hamstring injury that looks set to end his season.

One of the club’s other loan stars, Marco Asensio, could step up to be a difference-maker in the remaining games to make up for the English star’s absence.

Why Marco Asensio's Aston Villa move has been a big success

The Villans swooped to sign the Spain international from PSG in the January transfer window on loan until the end of the season, without an option to make the deal permanent.

Asensio was, essentially, brought in to provide the team with an instant boost, and that is exactly what the 29-year-old dynamo has done over the past three months or so.

The Spanish star has scored eight goals and provided one assist in all competitions for Villa to date, including two goals in one game against Club Brugge in the Champions League.

These statistics show that Asensio has succeeded in making an instant impact at Villa Park with his contributions at the top end of the pitch, which has also been the case in the Premier League specifically.

As you can see in the table above, the PSG loanee has been directly involved in four goals in five starts in the top-flight, despite missing two penalties in one match against Southampton earlier this month.

The loan move has, therefore, been a big success so far because he has made the desired impact in the final third since joining on a temporary basis from the French giants.

It was reported by TEAMtalk in March that Villa have opened talks over a possible deal to sign the winger on a permanent basis for a fee of £18m in the upcoming summer transfer window.

Instead of splashing £18m on the 29-year-old attacker, however, Emery could find a perfect replacement for Asensio by bringing Emiliano Buendia back into the first-team fold, after his loan at Bayer Leverkusen expires.

The former Norwich City winger could return to take the Spanish gem’s place in the squad next season, saving the club £18m in the process.

Why Emi Buendia could be Marco Asensio's replacement

It is fair to say that Buendia has not lived up to the hype that came alongside his, at the time, club-record £33m move from the Canaries in the summer of 2021.

Chalkboard

Football FanCast’s Chalkboard series presents a tactical discussion from around the global game.

The Argentina international produced nine goals and nine assists in 78 appearances in all competitions in his first two seasons at Villa Park, which is a decent, but unspectacular, return, for an attacking midfielder.

The diminutive talent arrived at the club off the back of a haul of 15 goals and 16 assists in the Championship for Norwich in the 2020/21 campaign, but failed to immediately translate that kind of form over to the top-flight with Villa.

Unfortunately, Buendia then suffered an ACL injury ahead of the 2023/24 campaign and missed a whopping 56 competitive matches, and 328 days of action, before his return in the summer of 2024.

This disrupted his development at Villa and caused him to fall down the pecking order by the time he returned to the team at the start of this season.

Buendia played just 124 minutes of football across 12 substitute appearances in the Premier League during the first half of the current campaign, along with one goal – against Wycombe Wanderers – in two starts in the League Cup.

His lack of minutes on the pitch during the first half of the season led to him being sent out on loan to Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen until the end of the campaign.

The 28-year-old star, who was once described as a “little warrior” by Steven Gerrard, has scored two goals and created two ‘big chances’ in nine appearances and two starts in the Bundesliga to date, most recently impressing against Augsburg last weekend.

As you can see in the table above, Buendia put in a fantastic all-round display for Leverkusen on the wing, winning his duels, creating a chance, and scoring a goal from a low xG chance.

It further illustrates how good the Argentine star, who once provided an unbelievable assist for Norwich in the clip above, can be on his day at the top level.

Buendia is yet to justify his £33m price tag at Aston Villa but his form since joining Leverkusen and his incredible performances for the Canaries in the past suggest that is worth giving him one more chance to impress in pre-season to save his Villa career.

The right-footed wizard has the potential to come back as the perfect replacement for Asensio as an attacking midfielder who can provide goals and assists, if he can finally hit his stride in the Midlands, and that means that he could save the club £18m by preventing them from needing to sign the Spaniard permanently.

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It is now down to Emery to provide the former Norwich maestro with a chance, in pre-season, to show that his loan spell with Leverkusen has helped him to rediscover his best form.

Wolverhampton Wanderers have avoided relegation back down to the Championship and will be competing in the Premier League once again next season.

Vitor Pereira has left the club to safety and will now have the chance to bring his own players to Molineux in his first summer transfer window with the Old Gold.

The Portuguese head coach, however, may also have to contend with some of his star players moving on from the club, including Rayan Ait-Nouri.

Why Rayan Ait-Nouri could leave Wolves

The Telegraph recently reported that Wolves want to offer the defender a new deal, but that there is still doubt over his future at the club due to interest from elsewhere.

It was revealed that Manchester City and Liverpool have both sent scouts to watch the Algeria international, who is valued at £50m by Wolves, in action this season.

Ait-Nouri, who produced three goals and two assists in all competitions last season, has improved his output at the top end of the pitch, with a return of five goals and seven assists for the Old Gold this term.

His form has attracted interest from two of the best teams in the Premier League, which is why he could be on his way out of the club in the summer if significant bids come in for him.

Journalist Graeme Bailey recently revealed that Wolves are keeping tabs on Sunderland defender Dennis Cirkin, and a move for the Englishman could allow the club to forget all about Ait-Nouri.

Why Wolves should sign Dennis Cirkin

Wolves should swoop to sign the Black Cats star in the summer transfer window because it would ease the blow of losing the Algerian left-back to Liverpool or Manchester City.

Transfer Focus

Mega money deals, controversial moves and big-name flops. This is the home of transfer news and opinion across Football FanCast.

Cirkin, who was hailed as “eye-catching” by pundit Sam Parkin, was described as “the best full-back in the Championship” by journalist Josh Bunting, which speaks to how impressive the full-back has been in the second tier.

The 23-year-old ace, who has helped his side to keep 11 clean sheets in 30 starts, is an excellent defender who could offer more solidity down the left flank than Ait-Nouri currently does for Pereira.

As you can see in the table above, the Sunderland dynamo has the potential to offer more to the team from a defensive perspective because he makes tackles, interceptions, and clearances more frequently, while also winning a higher percentage of his aerial contests.

Cirkin can also maraud forward to make an impact at the top end of the pitch, having scored three goals and provided two assists in the Championship this term, which means that he could still offer a threat going forward as well.

Of course, the caveat is that the former Spurs youngster is currently playing in the second tier and is an unproven quantity in the Premier League, but he is a young player with time left ahead of him to develop and improve and has shown plenty of promising signs in a Sunderland shirt.

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By
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Therefore, Wolves could forget all about Ait-Nouri, and sanction a sale for the defender, if they can strike an agreement with the Black Cats to bring the impressive Cirkin to the Molineux this summer.

While they were less successful on the trophy front than the current Tottenham Hotspur team, it would be fair to say the side Mauricio Pochettino built was the best the club has seen in the modern era.

From front to back, the team was filled with simply sensational players who really should have won at least a couple of major honours during their time in North London.

The likes of Harry Kane and a younger Son Heung-min would give opposition defenders nightmares, while Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld did the same to opposition attackers.

However, arguably, the most talented player in that squad was Mousa Dembélé, and now it looks like Ange Postecoglou might be brewing his own version of the Belgian.

Mousa Dembélé's Spurs career

Dembélé joined Tottenham in the summer of 2012 from fellow Premier League side Fulham for a fee of just £15m, which, in retrospect, has to be looked at as one of the deals of the century.

It didn’t take long at all for the former Cottagers star to settle into life with the Lilywhites, scoring his first goal for the club on his debut – a 1-1 draw at home to Norwich City.

He finished his first campaign in North London with two goals and five assists to his name in 44 appearances, and while he looked the part, he only improved when Pochettino took charge ahead of the following season.

Under the Argentine, the Antwerpen-born titan became the all-action “monster,” as dubbed by Eric Dier, that he’s remembered as today.

It was practically impossible to get the ball off of him, and if he didn’t have it, you could be sure that he’d do everything he could to win it off the opposition – usually to great success.

The 37-year-old icon was the engine of that Spurs side, and to say his teammates appreciated him would be a massive understatement, with Kyle Walker once describing him as “the best player I’ve ever seen play football” and Harry Kane simply calling him “incredible.”

After making 249 appearances for the club, in which he scored ten goals and provided ten assists, the midfield maestro finally left in January 2019 to join the Chinese Super League.

However, some of his teammates would have liked him to stay for the rest of that season, as Kieran Trippier would later claim that Spurs could have won the Champions League with him still in the side.

He might have done what the club’s new Dembélé did for them against Manchester United on Wednesday night.

The Spurs star becoming their new Dembélé

Okay, so the first thing to say here is that we aren’t arguing that anyone in the current Spurs squad is as good a player as Dembélé was, as that would be absurd.

Chalkboard

Football FanCast’s Chalkboard series presents a tactical discussion from around the global game.

However, there is one youngster who starred on Wednesday night and has some of the characteristics that could see him develop into the team’s modern version of the Belgian: Pape Matar Sarr.

The Senegalese international joined Tottenham under Nuno Espírito Santo’s reign for around £14.6m, and after spending the 2021/22 season on loan with the French side, made his way to North London, where he has continued to develop since.

Much like the club’s former number 19, the 22-year-old is primarily a central midfielder but has the ability and flexibility to play in defensive midfield and, even on occasion, slightly further up the pitch.

In terms of his style of play, the “sensational” dynamo, as dubbed by Spurs content creator tehTrunk, is constantly on the move, be that darting forward to help out in attacks or covering ground to help out the defence, and while he’s not quite as safe on the ball, you’d have described the former Lilywhites star in a similar way.

We saw all of these characteristics in Bilbao, with Spurs writer Alasdair Gold awarding him a 9/10 match rating at full-time for his ‘constantly running display’ and how well he did ‘to break up United’s play.’

Ultimately, while we would never say Sarr is on the same level as Dembélé, we do think there are parts of his game that are quite similar, and with another few years of development, he could get close.

Spurs' 18-year-old "monster" is going to be better than Romero & Van de Ven

The tremendously exciting youngster could be special for Spurs.

1

By
Jack Salveson Holmes

May 23, 2025

Chelsea can end the 2024/25 campaign in the perfect way on Wednesday night. They face Real Betis in the UEFA Conference League final at the Stadion Wroclaw in Wroclaw, Poland, and have the opportunity to finish Enzo Maresca’s first season in charge with a trophy.

The Blues have been the dominant side in the competition this term. According to Sofascore, they have scored more goals than any other side, finding the back of the net 38 times, which is 16 more than their opponents. Their nine goals conceded were only bettered by two other sides, too.

The Blues surely go into this game as favourites, given their form in the competition so far. Indeed, Maresca seems to have much of his first-choice squad available for their final game of the campaign.

Chelsea’s team news vs. Betis

Luckily for the Blues, their final Premier League game of 2024/25 last Sunday saw them avoid any inquiries. That means star players, including Cole Palmer and Moises Caicedo, will be available for the final this evening.

Further inclusions and absences have been noted, with there two first-team players who will certainly not make the squad this week. They are Wesley Fofana, who is still out with an injury, and Romeo Lavia, who is not registered in the squad.

On a more positive note, Nicolas Jackson will come back into the squad for the finale, given his Premier League suspension is not in effect in European competition. Another player who could return is Christopher Nkunku.

The Frenchman was not involved against Nottingham Forest on Sunday, but his record in the Conference League is excellent. He has five goals and three assists in nine games in the competition, so he could make a real difference.

With that in mind, it will be fascinating to see who Maresca lines up with on Wednesday. Given the importance of the game, it seems the likes of Palmer, Caicedo and club captain Reece James will start, in what will surely be a strong lineup.

Another player who could be in line to start the game is defender Trevoh Chalobah.

Why Chalobah could start vs. Betis

It has been a curious season for Chalobah in 2024/25. After spending the first half of the campaign on loan at Crystal Palace, he was recalled to Stamford Bridge and has since been an important player under Maresca.

Since returning from his loan spell, the “outstanding” defender, as Statman Dave once called him, has featured 18 times across all competitions, with four of those games coming in the Conference League.

The 25-year-old has helped to keep two clean sheets in that time, playing a total of 245 minutes in the competition. Now, perhaps he will be in line to start the final. He is a player experienced in European finals, having helped Chelsea win the UEFA Super Cup back in 2021, a game which he started and played 120 minutes.

The defensive “monster”, as described by talent scout Jacek Kulig, has been called up to former boss Thomas Tuchel’s latest England squad, although he did not start at the weekend. However, if he does come into the team for the final, potentially for Tosin, he will have the job of keeping Antony quiet.

The Manchester United loanee has been a standout player during his loan spell at Betis. In 25 games, he has nine goals and five assists. Half of those goal involvements have come in the Conference League, so he really does his best work there.

In fact, the Brazilian is similar to Palmer on FBref for this competition. For example, he averages 0.47xGA and 5.02 shot-creating actions each game. In comparison, Chelsea’s number 20 averages 0.48xGA and 4.11 shot-creating actions per 90 minutes.

It will be a tough task for Chalobah to keep Antony quiet, but it will surely be crucial for Chelsea’s success. He has proven in the past few months that he has the potential to hurt opponents when given time and space, so Chalobah’s excellent reading of the game will be crucial to preventing that.

Although the winger does operate on the right-hand side, he tends to drift inside a lot and look to cut in on his left foot to get a shot off. Thus, Chalobah may well have to come up against him directly.

However, that is a battle the Chelsea defender should be comfortable handling. His defensive stats for the Blues this season, via Sofascore, are impressive. For example, he averages 1.8 combined tackles and interceptions and wins 1.9 aerial duels per game. On top of that, he has been dribbled past just once in that famous Blue shirt this term.

If he does get the nod from the start, the boyhood Chelsea star has the chance to become a key player for the Blues as they look to win more European silverware. They could become the first side in history to win the three current European trophies. Chalobah has a huge role to play.

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