All-time Premier League draft, Vinicius Jr’s contract stand-off, Arena questions Pochettino

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Hello! Can you pick an all-time Premier League XI? Can anybody?

On the way:

🏈 The Athletic’s EPL draft

💸 Vinicius Jr eyes $34m Real deal

🇺🇸 Arena questions hiring of Poch 

✍️ Arsenal in Partey contract talks

Draft decisions: Who would you pick in an all-time Premier League XI?

In a matter of hours, NFL aficionados will have the fun of the 2025 draft. It’s an aspect of U.S. sport which world soccer will never countenance and a hiring system which world soccer doesn’t really get, if we’re being honest.

In that spirit, The Athletic asked a group of writers to edge out of their comfort zone and get into draft mode by picking their all-time Premier League line-ups. It was conceived as a bit of merriment but the debate yielded some salient conclusions — and underlined the challenge of building the perfect team in an environment where money can’t buy everything.

First, a rundown of the rules: four of our scribes took part, using a snake order (where the order of picks changes for each round. The NFL employs a more linear process, with roughly the same order from start to finish). They had 60 seconds to choose each player and because the Premier League is more than 30 years old, they were under instructions to include five who appeared in it before 2010.

Broadly speaking, those favoured are Premier League royalty. Duncan Alexander’s choice of Paulo Ferreira, a three-time title winner at Chelsea, as pick No 20 was the only left field selection (but still perfectly valid). And as an example of how strong the calibre of footballer is, Erling Haaland is nowhere to be seen. His record-breaking at Manchester City wasn’t enough to make the cut. Or not to date.

No mavericks

You’ll find the full draft order and the teams constructed by our writers here (and above). The discussion will be published in full as a podcast this weekend, so look out for that.

A few of the things that were noted: there’s no room for mavericks like Matt Le Tissier (ex-Southampton). Trophies clearly outweigh isolated genius. Jacob Whitehead spotted a scarcity of wide options, in comparison to a wealth of choice through the spine of a side. And Duncan made a great point: with names like Roy Keane and Steven Gerrard, you can “feel the sweat” of them firing into each other. They’re in the ether of the Premier League, in a way that Haaland isn’t. Yet.

But more than that, you realise that there’s actually no such thing as an undisputed Premier League XI, simply because the best 11 players of all time don’t automatically provide balance or chemistry. Who plays up front depends on who’s playing in behind. The right choice of attacking assets depends on the defensive strength around them. And so on.

So whose line-up floated my boat? I’m going with Duncan’s, purely because it’s madness: Luis Suarez paired with Sergio Aguero, Dennis Bergkamp in their slipstream, David Beckham out of position with Yaya Toure and Tony Adams reading the riot act at centre-back. Artificial Intelligence is taking over football and it would have a fit if it saw this XI. Which is reason enough to give the team some love.

Vinicius Jr’s $34m stand-off: Real Madrid want new deal for Brazilian but could he go to Saudi?

Reports in Spain that Vinicius Junior is on the verge of extending his Real Madrid deal appear to be greatly exaggerated. The club think the process is advanced. The player’s camp say talks are at a bit of a standstill — which is odd considering a renewal is in Real’s interests.

As the world knows, Saudi Arabia covets Vinicius Jr and it has deep enough pockets to tempt the biggest and the best to the Gulf. Mario Cortegana hit the phones to find out what’s really going on:

• According to Mario’s info, Real are offering a base salary in line with Kylian Mbappe’s, worth close to £17m ($23m) a year. Vinicius Jr wants nearer £25m ($34m) per season, like Cristiano Ronaldo once pulled in at the Bernabeu.
• The Saudi Pro League reckons it is in a position to offer the Brazil international “the biggest contract in the history of sport”. Prior deals warn against dismissing that as grandstanding.
• Should Vinicius Jr depart (and Real have some control over him, because his existing deal runs to 2027), Manchester City’s Erling Haaland is the superstar name they’d like to buy with the money. What a trade-off that would be.

Nothing is happening but lots is happening, a classic contractual saga. You’ll get the full picture from Mario’s piece, which is as definitive as anybody can be.

News round-up

Waiting Game: Arsenal’s draw means Liverpool are set to win title at Anfield on Sunday

Sky Sports

By a whisker, the Premier League crown still isn’t Liverpool’s. They’ll wrap it up when they face Tottenham on Sunday instead — and in front of their own crowd, that’s the optimal scenario. Half of the Netherlands will be looking on with pride.

Crystal Palace did their best to get Liverpool over the line last night, but a 2-2 draw at Arsenal fell just short of the required win. Pray silence for one of the goals of the season, though: a stonking equaliser from Jean-Philippe Mateta, who made a long-odds chip look like child’s play (above). It’s the FA Cup semi-finals next for Palace and after a few punishing weeks, this was encouraging preparation.

Further afield in Europe, Milan had Inter’s number — again. Having turned over Inter in the final of the Italian Super Cup in January, they buried Simone Inzaghi’s side good and proper in the last four of the Coppa Italia yesterday. Very few sides rinse Inter 3-0 but Milan are their cup kryptonite. There ends Inzaghi’s treble quest.

Arena questions Poch: Ex-USMNT boss says Argentinian does not know domestic game

Yesterday’s TAFC, alongside a news line about Mauricio Pochettino, cautiously suggested that “the honeymoon is over, if indeed it ever started.” Judging by comments made by one of his predecessors as USMNT head coach, our observation was on the money.

Bruce Arena managed the U.S. twice, from 1998 to 2006 and 2016 to 2017. Allied with his MLS record, he’s regarded as America’s finest football coach. So Arena criticising Pochettino on a podcast with former internationals Tim Howard and Landon Donovan was going to cause a stir. This is what he had to say:

“If you look at every national team in the world, the coach is usually a domestic coach. And I think when you have coaches that don’t know our culture, our players, our environment, it’s hard. (Pochettino) is a very good coach (but) coaching international football is completely different (to) club football.”

In essence, Arena thinks hiring Poch was an error. Which is worthy of reflection because some would say that on the basis of the past couple of years, the USMNT were crying out for someone to come in from the outside and shake things up; a fresh take, if you like. If football culture in the U.S. is beyond the wit of a talent like Pochettino then I’m not sure what the answer is. But no question he’s started poorly — and nay-sayers will emerge as a consequence.

Around TAFC

Catch a match

(Selected games, times ET/UK)

Coppa Italia semi-final second leg: Bologna (3) vs Empoli (0), 3pm/8pm — CBS, Paramount+, Amazon Prime/Premier Sports.

La Liga: Leganes vs Girona, 1pm/6pm — ESPN+/Premier Sports; Atletico Madrid vs Rayo Vallecano, 3.30pm/8.30pm — ESPN+, Fubo/Premier Sports.

League One: Stevenage vs Birmingham City, 2.45pm/7.45pm — Paramount+ (U.S. only).

And finally…

Is this the world’s worst-ever long throw? We found it in Saudi Arabia’s Pro League, where defender Radhi Al Otaibi made a horse’s arse of trying to salvage a point in the dying seconds of Al Ettifaq’s 3-2 defeat to Al Ittihad. What’s the opposite of cometh the hour?

(Top photo: Clive Mason/Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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