Warnock has lost all perspective over Sala
goalkeepers in the world. everyone understood the temptation of Real Madrid. Yet De Gea looks to have been affected by a poor World Cup with spain and this season has been erratic.
His contract expires next year — but why should that give him a view on signings? Does he want to pick his own defenders? Who is in charge here?
That is the problem. At United, many years of prioritising marquee signings has created an atmosphere of arrogance and entitlement. lukaku has lost his place in the team — but who does he think he is to talk of decamping to serie A rather than fighting to win it back?
Alexis sanchez came on for 12 minutes against Manchester City and touched the ball once. shouldn’t he try to affect that next time, rather than flee?
Whatever mistakes have been made, to be a United player should have meaning. It is why those from a past era are so prickly about the present squad. They know the club is being sold short, they know it has been treated without care. The good news is that if this lot want to go, the majority will not be missed. AS A man who once announced ‘to hell with the rest of the world’ while sitting in front of a Visit Malaysia sign, at a Welsh football club owned by a Malaysian-Chinese businessman, with a Cypriot chairman and players from 10 countries, Neil Warnock is not always conversant with the bigger picture. Even by his standards, though, the appraisal of Cardiff’s defeat by Fulham was misguided. Warnock viewed Ryan Babel’s winning goal through the lens of what his club had lost when the plane carrying Emiliano Sala crashed. ‘It just brings it home to me how disappointing it was with the Emiliano tragedy,’ he said. ‘I felt he could score 10 goals by the end of the season. So it is blow after blow, really, the things we have had to put up with.’ That he said this within a day of the death of Sala’s father, Horacio, from a heart attack at the age of 58, shows football’s self-absorption. Sala’s death was poor luck for Warnock, and for Cardiff, but the real tragedy was a personal one, for his family and, unlike the pain of relegation, can never be eased. Warnock was speaking after a defeat and would have chosen his words more carefully given time. Even so, it is a reminder we can quickly lose perspective about football and life. Bill Shankly was wrong. It’s not more important than that. DOMINIC Calvert-lewin has scored eight goals for everton all season. Two were against Rotherham, now relegated from the Championship, another two were against Huddersfield and Cardiff. Nor can lack of opportunity be blamed. Calvert-lewin may be 22, but he has started 21 games and featured in another 16. ‘There is always going to be something,’ he says. ‘If I get to 15 goals, people will want 20, then they will want 25.’ Maybe so, but if Calvert-lewin (below) scored 20 people wouldn’t be talking about everton needing a new striker, because six goals in a Premier league season wouldn’t put him among the top four scorers at Bournemouth.