Conte helps Terry to earn £1.8m Spartak Moscow deal

his skills were harnessed by running and bobsleigh. In 2004, he thought: “Hey, I’m very good at long throwing, so why can’t I teach others to do that?” He went to his local library for a book on long throwing. There was none. So Gronnemark got in contact with AC Horsens, a Danish Super League team, and offered to help teach long throws. Teaching also helped Gronnemark better understand the “25, 30 different parts of the body” that go into throwing a football. In 2010, he unfurled a remarkable 51.33-metre throw, which is still a world record. Gronnemark believes there are “three kinds of throw-ins”: long, fast and clever. For each team, their specific style will dictate which is most useful. With FC Midtjylland, the data-minded side for whom Gronnemark was a consultant during their first two Danish league titles in 2014/15 and 2017/18, long throws were used to great effect. Midtjylland scored 19 goals from throws in two seasons, more than one goal every four games. After working with Gronnemark on using his body more efficiently, Andreas Poulsen, a left-back who has now moved to Borussia Mönchengladbach, improved his throwing distance from 24 to 38 metres. “It’s easier to keep possession if you have a greater area to throw in. When you have a long throw-in, it can be a set-piece weapon.”

Liverpool will not be replicating the methods of Midtjylland or Tony Pulis’s Stoke any time soon. The dynamism of their attack renders fast throws the most suitable. “You can’t be offside on a throw-in, so that gives a lot of opportunities to run in some normally hidden areas on the pitch,” Gronnemark says. “I love this speed.”

A model for this goal was for Denmark in a friendly against Mexico just before the World Cup. Henrik Dalsgaard, who has worked with Gronnemark at Brentford, had a throw-in just inside Mexico’s half. He took it quickly and fed Christian Eriksen, making a run behind the defence: from throw-in to goal in five seconds.

Liverpool have scored only four goals from throw-ins in their past 11 seasons; under Pulis, Stoke once scored nine in a single season. Each Premier League goal is worth about £2million; Gronnemark’s pitch is that focusing on throw-ins, with the same meticulousness that NFL teams focus on particular facets of play, might just be the cheapest way to get more goals.

“There is a big potential for improvement – in how the players are moving when you have a throw-in, how precise the players can throw, how fast the throw-in is made. In football in general, a lot of balls are just thrown away.” Premier League teams lose possession from one-fifth of all throw-ins.

For all the sports science and global scouting networks, one of the most fundamental parts of a football game – there are 45 throw-ins in an average Premier League match – has barely been coached at all. Gronnemark’s hope is that, as it has already done with Midtjylland, his work with Liverpool will reveal the possibilities that a team can open up when they take throw-ins seriously. John Terry is set to earn £1.8 million after tax by signing a one-year deal with Spartak Moscow, following a recommendation from his former Chelsea manager Antonio Conte.

Former Chelsea captain Terry was filmed in Italy yesterday, having undergone a Spartak medical ahead of formally joining the Russian club.

The 37-year-old had been linked with a return to Aston Villa, where he played last season, but received an offer from Spartak last week.

Spartak turned to free agent Terry due to a defensive crisis caused by French defender Samuel Gigot sustaining a cruciate ligament injury.

The Russian club are managed by Massimo Carrera, who was Conte’s assistant at Juventus and with the Italian national team. It is understood Carrera consulted Conte on Terry and received a glowing reference.

Terry made only nine Premier League appearances during Conte’s title-winning season at Chelsea but was hailed for his professionalism on and off the field.

Spartak, opponents of Steven Gerrard’s Rangers in the Europa League, are chasing the domestic title, just two points off leaders Zenit St Petersburg, who are captained by Terry’s former Chelsea team-mate Branislav Ivanovic.

Terry had considered hanging up his boots after having the summer off, but said: “I am in the best condition I have been in for the last eight to 10 years of my career.”

His Spartak deal is thought to include an option for a second year.