NFL
By: Ty Reeves
The European league seasons are over. The 2021 European Championship is just a couple of weeks away. The transfer window is open, and fans are excited to see which players are going where. For those that don’t know the summer transfer window is a period of change for both players, managers, clubs, and fans. It’s almost like a breath of fresh air for the world of football. And with this breath, we’ve already seen Sergio Aguero and Gini Wijnaldum sign for Barcelona as free agents.
Now put those two moves aside, nothing crazy has happened yet. As far as player transfers go. However, the world of football coaches is going mad. We’ve seen a handful of expected departures as well as unexpected ones with unexpected hires. It’s only May and we already know we will be seeing some new faces at big-time clubs next year.
To start it off, Jose Mourinho was sacked as manager of Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League. Not to say the decision wasn’t expected, but the timing of the decision was very much not. Tottenham still had a month left of the Premier League season and to make matters more interesting, they would hand the team over to 29-year-old Ryan Mason. Now no disrespect to Mason, you don’t usually see someone in their twenties managing one of the largest clubs in England.
As soon as I actually started to feel bad for Mourinho, Bam! Weeks after his sacking at Spurs, Mourinho was hired as the new manager of Italian club Roma for the 2021-2022 season. Mourinho is known for his winning teams. Winning the Champions League as coach of Inter Milan and Porto. When he came to Spurs he said he was there to “win trophies”. Unfortunately, Spurs’ trophy cabinet is still empty, so for Jose let’s hope that’s not the case at Roma.
And this ladies and gentlemen is where the madness began. Since then we’ve seen managers go in and out faster than ever, and some of these moves are truly shocking.
Yesterday, it was announced that Antonio Conte would leave Inter Milan immediately. This move has shaken the world of football after Inter won the Serie A title this past season, stopping Juventus’ run at 8 consecutive titles. It’s reported that Conte and the club’s ambitions did not align after it was rumored that the club will need to sell $80 Million dollars worth of players to fix their financial situation. Conte has the track record of a winner. He has won 3 Serie A titles and 2 Italian Super Cups with Juventus and won both the Premier League and FA Cup with Chelsea in 2017. Conte is now on the market looking for a new home and clubs will definitely be keeping an eye on the Italians situation.
Inter will pay around €7m to Antonio Conte to part ways immediatly [salary was €13m until June 2022]. The agreement has been reached today. 🚨 #Conte
Conte will be available with immediate effect. Inter will look for a new manager: Simone Inzaghi and Allegri also in the list. pic.twitter.com/jNJbHyRJqs
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) May 26, 2021
However, for Inter Milan, they’ve already found their replacement at the helm of their squad going into the next season. It was announced today that Simone Inzaghi would leave competing Italian club Lazio to become the new manager at Inter. Talk about loyalty. In his time as manager, Inzaghi won 3 major trophies with Lazio. He’s coming into a team that still has immense talent and he will have one of the best strikers in the world in Romelu Lukaku at his hands.
Simone Inzaghi to Inter, done and completed. He’s going to be the new manager to replace Antonio Conte, contract set to be signed in the next hours. Here we go confirmed. ⚫️🔵🤝 #Inter
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) May 27, 2021
Juventus club legend Andrea Pirlo was named manager going into the 2021 season with a lot of expectations. And one of those expectations was keeping Juventus on top of Serie A. Juventus took home both the Italian Cup and Italian Super League Cup but finished 4th in Serie A barely hanging on to Champions League football. This is the first time since 2012 that Juventus didn’t win Serie A.
I’m not sure if you can tell but the football world is a tough world to live in and that includes Andrea Pirlo. It was announced today that he would be sacked immediately by the club and that Massimiliano Allegri would return as manager of Juventus to start his second tenure at the club. Allegri was the coach of Juventus from 2014-2019 before stepping away from managing for a brief two-year period. During his first tenure, Allegri was able to win Serie A 6 times. He also won the Italian Super Cup 2 times and the Italian Cup 4 times. Now it’s time to see if he will lead Juve to Champions League glory next season.
With one-second tenure starting, another one ended. Breaking news came from Madrid yesterday as Real Madrid confirmed Zinedine Zidane would step down as manager. It was always expected Zidane would step away at the end of the season and that’s what happened. This season Real Madrid finished 2nd in La Liga, two points behind Champions Atletico Madrid. Madrid also exited the Champions League in the Semi-Finals losing to Chelsea.
Zinedine Zidane has communicated tonigjt to people who work around him and players that he’s 100% leaving Real Madrid. Confirmed. 🚨⚪️
Zidane will speak with Florentino Perez and announce his decision officially in the next hours but he’s leaving. It’s over. ⏳ #Real #Zidane https://t.co/5mgJPfIOyD
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) May 26, 2021
He wasn’t able to find the same success as he did in his first tenure as manager, but he was still able to win a Spanish Super League Cup and a league title. Overall, Zidane won 2 La Liga titles, 3 Champions League titles, 2 Spanish Super Cups, 2 FIFA Club World Cups, and 2 UEFA Super Cups during his time as Manager of Real Madrid.
Allegri was the favorite to replace Zidane at the end of the season, but now that he’s off the board, Los Blancos will need to look in a different direction.
It seems to be a trend to win your respective league and leave directly after, and Lille Manager Christophe Galtier is doing exactly that. Just days after winning the Ligue 1 title in France, putting an end to Paris Saint-Germain’s three consecutive titles, Galtier is set to leave Lille and join OGC Nice, a fellow Ligue 1 club. Nice finished 9th in the league this past season and haven’t seen Champions league football since 2017. Galtier was able to lead Lille to their first title since 2011. Galtier said to L’Equipe that he simply felt his time at Lille was over.
Christophe Galtier’s priority is OGC Nice since April. The agreement is ‘imminent’ and expected to be completed in the next days. Just last details to be fixed then Galtier will sign his agreement with Nice. 🇫🇷🤝 #OGCNice https://t.co/j3HIlEagwZ
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) May 25, 2021
Tottenham, Real Madrid, and other top teams around still search for a manager, and to say they have the pick of the litter is an understatement. With Antonio Conte, Nuno Dos Santos, Frank Lampard, and other major coaches available, it is safe to say that this summer will be a good one.
