Ruud: City’s clock ticking
RUUD GULLIT believes Manchester City’s time to win the Champions League has come – and they had better grab it.
The Holland legend, who lifted the European Cup in 1989 and 1990 as an attacking midfielder for AC Milan, reckons
Pep Guardiola’s intense methods have a strict best-before date.
He feels Liverpool are suffering the same kind of burnout this season that hit City last year.
And Gullit (below) says the challenge for Guardiola now is to take the Champions League back to the Etihad for the very first time after turning the Premier League title race into a procession.
Gullit, 58, said: “It is incredibly difficult to play the way Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Manchester City play.
“If you want to execute those ideas to perfection you are asking so much both mentally and physically from players.
“Success can only stretch to two seasons, three seasons maximum.
“I admire players and the managers who are getting their teams to play in a great attacking way. But there is another side to it.
“Look at Liverpool. Exactly the same is happening to them as what happened to Manchester City last year.
“There has to be a decline at some point.
“Pep tried to refresh by buying new players and moving out other players. But in the end, it was impossible to keep that high level last season for the simple reason that any new players need time to adapt and to fit in.
“This season, Pep’s team are far superior in the Premier League with their offensive style.
“And in the next couple of months I want to see that they can keep this high-level attacking game until the final of the Champions League.”
Jurgen Klopp left behind Liverpool’s domestic slide to guide his team to a 2-0 first-leg win against RB Leipzig in Budapest in midweek to take a giant step towards the last-eight of the Champions League.
Two years ago, they made up for losing out to City in a tight title race by winning the European crown for a sixth time by beating Tottenham in Madrid.
But Gullit added: “I see Liverpool dropping their form more and more. I actually expected this to happen to them last season.
“In Europe it did, but after the Covid break Liverpool did manage to win the Premier League for the first time.
“Their drop in form is supposed to be caused by injuries and by the difference in quality with different players coming into the club.
“There is some truth in that, but all these factors are the result of the high-level play and the way players are being squeezed.
“It gets to be impossible for them to take their foot off the accelerator at all, without that seeing the form of the team dropping to a lesser level.”
ARSENAL have made Bruges midfielder Odilon Kossounou one of their top targets for the summer.
The 20-year-old Ivorian is one of the rising stars of African football and his impressive form this season has been a factor in his side’s climb to the summit of the Belgian top flight and their performances in the Europa League.
Kossounou (above) would cost around £8.5million with performance-related add-ons. Italian giants Inter Milan are also keen and there is interest in him from Spain.
But the Premier League is an attractive prospect for the player, who joined Bruges from Swedish side Hammarby, having started his career with Asec Mimosas in his homeland.
Former Arsenal stars Gervinho and Emmanuel Eboue are both understood to have given the club glowing references for Kossounou when asked about him.
EDDIE HOWE is favourite to become the next boss at Crystal Palace.
He heads a shortlist of three names as the Eagles look to call time on Roy Hodgson’s reign.
Unless Palace slip into relegation trouble, chairman Steve Parish will allow the former England manager to run his contract down and leave in the summer.
And the trio of potential candidates to succeed Hodgson, 73, are former Bournemouth boss Howe, Burnley manager Sean Dyche and Swansea City’s Steve Cooper.
Howe, 43, is interested in the Palace job and instantly available – but it will prove harder to extract Dyche and Cooper from their present clubs.
Hodgson, who was appointed at Selhurst Park in September 2017, is relaxed about his future having enjoyed a stellar career in coaching and management spanning 45 years.
And it’s why Parish and the Palace board are keen to handle the change in a respectful manner.