The Weekly Take, Issue 329: A Sudden End to a Legendary Career

In June 2011, Real Madrid paid RC Lens €4 million to sign an 18-year-old centre-back who had shown signs of promise, though he wasn’t necessarily most people’s immediate answer to the question of who at the time was a superstar in the making. More than 13 years later, Raphaël Varane retires as a World Cup champion from 2018 as well as the proud owner of four Champions League and three La Liga titles with Real Madrid. The Frenchman has sealed his place as one of the greatest centre-backs of all time.

Although Varane didn’t become a regular starter at the Santiago Bernabéu until the 2014-15 season, his fourth in the Spanish capital, the youngster from Lille had shown obvious potential during his relatively limited minutes before then - so much so that in the final of the 2013-14 Champions League final against city rivals Atlético Madrid, Varane was selected as part of the starting line-up.

Once Varane became a fixture in Real’s starting 11, he ended up becoming a key part of what many (myself included) regard as the greatest team in the history of club football. From the 2015-16 to the 2017-18 seasons, Real became the first team in the modern era to clinch a Champions League three-peat; Varane was a cornerstone of the club’s success, especially in the 2017-18 season when he ascended to the status of the world’s best defender. Following Real’s third consecutive continental title - the first by any team since Bayern Munich achieved the feat from the 1973-74 to 1975-76 season - Varane was selected as part of the Champions League Team of the Season as well as the FIFA FIFPro World11.

Varane’s breakout season didn’t stop there. That summer in Russia, Varane was a key part of the France squad that won the second World Cup title in the country’s history. He was a veritable brick wall at the back, starting all seven of Les Bleus’ matches, stepping in as captain against Denmark, and crucially denying Eden Hazard a goal in France’s semifinal victory over Belgium. Varane even scored one of France’s two goals in their 2-0 quarterfinal win against Uruguay. For his efforts, Varane was deservedly selected as part of the 2018 World Cup team of the tournament.

Varane’s achievements for his national team didn’t stop there. He was a key contributor in France’s 2020-21 UEFA Nations League victory. Varane would later go on to be a starter in all but one match of France’s 2022 World Cup campaign as they fell just short of becoming the first team in 60 years to win back-to-back World Cups titles, losing to Argentina 4-2 in one of the single most iconic football matches of all time. That being said, Varane’s performances were a key reason why France were able to stave off the “defending champion’s curse”, avoid an underwhelming World Cup title defense, and make it all the way to the final.

In between the Nations League victory and World Cup runner-up finish, Varane ended his decade-long stint at Real where by then he had cemented his status as a club legend. For the shockingly low transfer fee of €40 million, Manchester United secured Varane’s services - a massive get for a club that had just finished second in the Premier League and were gearing up for a serious title push.

However, things began to fall apart at Old Trafford on and off the pitch throughout Varane’s three-year stint at United - quite literally, in the latter case. Varane himself had his time at United consistently interrupted by injuries, though he did play a part in United’s memorable 2023-24 FA Cup victory which they clinched with a remarkable upset victory in the final over cross-town rivals and Premier League juggernaut Manchester City.

Varane left United for Serie A club Como in the 2024 off-season; however, a severe knee injury almost right as his time in Lombardy began brought an abrupt end to a legendary career at just 31 years old. Varane confirmed his retirement via an Instagram post in September 2024.

Despite having to bow out the way he did, Raphaël Varane is undoubtedly the greatest defender to ever come out of France and an easy pick for the Mount Rushmore of centre-backs; his name deserves to be mentioned alongside the likes of Franz Beckenbauer, Carles Puyol, and Alessandro Nesta, among other all-time greats.

The Weekly Take, Issue 328: A Possible Dark Horse Contender?

Featuring an all-new Swiss bracket, the UEFA Champions League is once again up and running. The standout fixture of the tournament’s first matchday of the 2024-25 season was the match which saw Manchester City host Inter Milan.

Despite heading into the match as the obvious underdogs, Inter defied the odds with an impressive performance, holding City to a goalless draw. Inter’s defense did an outstanding job in keeping probably the world’s best player in Erling Haaland largely quiet throughout the match. While City did attempt 22 shots, not many of them were genuine high-quality goalscoring opportunities.

In the closing minutes of regulation time through the entirety of stoppage time, City had a flurry of chances to score the winning goal, but Inter held firm to prevent City from filling the net and ensure that one of the pre-tournament favourites would begin their Champions League campaign with dropped points.

Although Inter won last season’s Serie A title by a massive 19-point margin, the Nerazzurri failed to rise to the occasion in the Champions League. Inter only qualified for the round of 16 as the second-placed team from Group D - a group which on paper they ought to have topped. They then proceeded to lose to Atlético Madrid in the last 16 via a penalty shootout. Given Atlético’s struggles last season, this was a fixture in which Inter once again ought to have come out on top.

However, if Inter’s match against the reigning Premier League champions is anything to go by, this season could very well be completely different. Inter’s performance against City proved that last season’s Serie A champions are not to be overlooked in continental play as well as domestically. Simone Inzaghi’s team entered the Etihad Stadium with a clear game plan in mind and executed it to great effect.

To say that Inter “understood the assignment” would be accurate. Inter knew that if they were to attempt to straight-up outplay City and go blow-for-blow with them, they’d likely be soundly defeated. With this in mind, Inter knew that their best chance would arise by absorbing the pressure that City would apply, then striking on the counter-attack.

That being said, Inter certainly didn’t fall into the trap that many teams set up to attack on the break do - that of playing overly passively. Inter were proactive and created several viable chances to score. In fact, there’s an argument to be made that Inter came closer to finishing the match with the win than City did. In the second half, veteran midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan got on the end of a cross sent in by Denzel Dumfries; however, the Armenian failed to convert his shot from just outside the six-yard box. That was quite possibly the best chance that either team had to find the back of the net.

Despite a slower-than-expected start to their Serie A campaign, Inter seem to have built on their dominant league triumph from last season. They had an under-the-radar yet highly productive off-season transfer window, bringing nine players to the blue half of the San Siro and spending just a touch over €60 million to do so. Opting not to go all-in on a splashy signing who might not have panned out, Inter instead wisely opted for balance and depth - and this has paid off. This was highlighted by the performances of new arrivals Carlos Augusto and Mehdi Taremi against City - perhaps their best in an Inter jersey to date.

What has to be encouraging for Inter is the fact that despite the early-season slump of superstar striker Lautaro Martínez, Inter’s supporting cast have stepped up. Players such as Nicolò Barella, Marcus Thuram, Hakan Çalhanoğlu, and Francesco Acerbi have been in excellent form through the early portion of the season. Once Inter’s Argentinean ace breaks out of his slump, Inter will turn into a serious force - and perhaps a sleeper contender to go all the way in the Champions League.

Though their overall results so far might not seem to bear it out, the outlook at Inter Milan certainly has to be positive right now. Their match against Manchester City proved that they do have, at the very least, a puncher’s chance against the consensus top-tier, elite teams. They did make it to the final only two seasons ago - if everything breaks right, something similar might just be coming.

The Weekly Take, Issue 327: Another Difficult Season Lies Ahead

 Heading into the first North London derby of the Premier League season, Tottenham Hotspur had endured a slow start to their campaign with just one win from their first three matches. Tottenham had dropped points against Leicester City and Newcastle United prior to the clash against arch-rivals Arsenal. The derby itself only made things worse, showing how far they have to go if they are to mount a serious challenge for a top-four finish for just the second time in six seasons.

Despite attempting more than twice the number of shots as Arsenal did and having almost two-thirds of the possession, Tottenham succumbed to a 1-0 loss on home turf. Brazilian centre-back Gabriel Magalhães scored the Gunners’ winning goal in the 64th minute. The result ensured that Arsenal would keep pace with league leaders Manchester City. As for Tottenham, on the other hand, their second straight loss saw them slip five points behind fourth place and the last Champions League spot after just four matchdays.

This match could have been said to be a microcosm of Tottenham’s last few seasons. Even when it seemed as though Tottenham appeared to be turning the corner, the reality was the exact opposite. It seemed as though Tottenham were in control of the majority of the match; however, it was actually the case - and hardly surprising - that Arsenal were outplaying them the whole time.

First and foremost, on the surface this current Tottenham squad almost certainly doesn’t have the personnel to finish in the top four. Despite spending over £100 million in the off-season transfer window, Tottenham somehow managed to make no signings which moved the needle in any significant way. To make matters worse, almost all of that money was spent on two players: Archie Gray and Dominic Solanke. Neither of them should ever have required Tottenham to bring out such hefty transfer fees to sign them.

Tottenham once again fumbled the transfer window. Last season, they could easily have made better use of the windfall they received following the departure of club legend Harry Kane to Bayern Munich. While they did use the money to overhaul the squad, one does wonder if what they did was “too much too soon”. Bringing in 11 new players including five starters as well as a new coach in Ange Postecoglou did raise eyebrows - and while they got off to a hot start, in due time it became clear that many of these signings were a case of “just because they can doesn’t mean they should”. The team never quite gelled as they should have; the pieces didn’t quite fit in the way Tottenham would’ve hoped - a major reason why they again missed out on Champions League qualification.

Even more damningly for Tottenham, this match exposed their general lack of heart and grit. Taking a closer look at the corner kick from which Arsenal’s goal came, it could be seen that Tottenham’s players shied away from the ball and allowed Gabriel enough room to put his header into the net. This more or less summed up Tottenham under Postecoglou thus far: as smooth and appealing as their play might look on the surface, in reality basically nothing has improved, especially in crucial game-changing situations such as that.

Last season, Tottenham lost the lead to emerge with a draw or loss in an alarmingly large number of matches. They’ve brought that with them into the new season - though they never led against Newcastle, they did concede the winning goal in the 78th minute after having pulled level around 20 minutes before. Just like they did against Arsenal, Tottenham had the vast majority of the possession and shots against the Magpies but couldn’t turn that into a win. The way things are going, such outcomes are almost expected at this point.

Postecoglou’s time in the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium could start being called into question before too long. After the initial boost which so often comes with hiring a new coach, the reality of where Tottenham stand under him has now become evident; he might just get the axe before too long.

“Lads, it’s Tottenham” isn’t a meme for nothing. For years they have been labeled as an unserious club - and given their achievements (or lack thereof), it’s difficult to argue against the tag being a deserved one. The outlook isn’t promising to say the least.

The Weekly Take, Issue 326: There's No New Era on the Horizon

Despite appearing to be one of the most stacked teams in the history of international football, the Belgium team that spanned the period from the 2014 World Cup to the 2022 World Cup will undoubtedly go down as one of the biggest underachievers to ever show up on the international scene. Across three World Cups and two European Championships, Belgium only made it to the semifinals once - in the 2018 World Cup when they lost to France.

If the opening match of this season's UEFA Nations League is anything to go by, Belgium's next generation doesn't seem as though it will even come close to the level of its illustrious yet underperforming predecessor. This was underscored by Belgium's tame 2-0 loss at the hands of France. Randal Kolo Muani opened the scoring just before the half-hour mark to put Les Bleus a goal ahead. In the 57th minute, Ousmane Dembélé scored France's second to make the victory safe.

At no point during the course of the match did Belgium seriously appear to even be somewhat likely to win. Despite having the bulk of the possession, Belgium did almost nothing of note with it. It was a generally lacklustre performance that proved that once the previous generation's players have all retired from international play, Belgium will almost certainly slip even further back - perhaps all the way back to the irrelevance they had found themselves in prior to the emergence of the so-called "Golden Generation" who never came close to living up to that moniker.

Just one look at Belgium's roster against France tells the story. Outside of legendary midfielder and captain Kevin De Bruyne, there's absolutely no one who particularly moves the needle in any way. Not even one member of Belgium's squad outside De Bruyne is even on the level of someone like Romelu Lukaku or Axel Witsel, let alone all-time greats like Eden Hazard, Thibaut Courtois, or Vincent Kompany. Belgium weren't even playing against France's strongest starting 11 - Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappé started on the bench - and yet were nonetheless taken apart.

At one point, it seemed as though there would be an almost never-ending stream of promising talent coming out of Belgium and that the true impact of the generation before would be to set up Belgium's future by putting the country on the international football map. While they certainly did the latter, it has turned out that the next crop of emerging talent isn't anything particularly impressive to speak of. Against France, the performances of players such as Loïs Openda, Jérémy Doku, and Dodi Lukébakio were all extremely unimpressive to say the least. Indeed, it's not likely that even one of Belgium's current players under the age of 30 would have been able to be a starter had they played in the previous era and been part of the 2018 World Cup squad.

In a post-match interview, De Bruyne lambasted the rest of his teammates as well as head coach Domenico Tedesco's tactical approach. The Manchester City player claimed that the rest of the team showed next to no effort whatsoever - so much so that he tore into them at half-time, though his words then ended up having no effect whatsoever. De Bruyne essentially implied that at this point, most of Belgium's players aren't even taking matches as seriously as they ought to be - a clearly worrying sign for things to come.

De Bruyne also implied that from a tactical standpoint, Tedesco's approach is costing them potential wins by stripping the team of all cohesion, leaving a disconnect between defense and attack. While all of this may seem excessive at first, it has to be kept in mind that these are the frustrations of a decade finally surfacing all at once - first with the previous generation's underachievement when they ought to have been perennial title contenders and now with the current squad having fallen off as far as they had.

In spite of their failure to step up on the biggest stages, Belgium did at the very least have a capable squad for the best part of a decade. This doesn't appear to be the case anymore - they look disjointed, discombobulated, and outright unimpressive. It's safe to say that Belgium's new generation doesn't offer any hope that they'll be back at the top table of international football any time soon.

The Weekly Take, Issue 325: As Though He Never Left

As the 2024-25 Premier League season started, many understandably expected a drop-off from Liverpool following the departure of Jürgen Klopp. The German departed Anfield in the off-season after having coached the Reds over a legendary nine-year stint in which he helmed Liverpool to a Champions League title in 2019 as well as a Premier League title in 2020 while, for the majority of his tenure, ensuring that the Reds were Manchester City’s closest challengers on the domestic front. Under Klopp, Liverpool had experienced their most successful era in more than three decades.

As such, when Arne Slot took over, to say that the former Feyenoord head coach had a tough act to follow would have been a colossal understatement. However, though it’s still early in the season, Slot has so far appeared to have picked up from right where Klopp left off - and evidence of this could be seen in their dominant 3-0 victory over arch-rivals Manchester United.

Liverpool and United had been through sharply contrasting off-seasons. Liverpool struggled to land any players at all while United, now under new ownership, spent heavily to bring in a slew of newcomers to Old Trafford. However, the way Liverpool showed up to United’s own turf and absolutely decimated them, it certainly didn’t look that way at all.

Luis Díaz scored a late first-half brace with both goals coming within a seven-minute span. After the break, Mohamed Salah made it 3-0 in the 56th minute, notching his 12th career league goal against the Red Devils and thus extending his all-time record for league goals scored against Manchester United.

There have been countless cases in which a new coach who takes over from a legend ends up unable to live up to the predecessor’s reputation, collapses under the pressure, presides over a period of struggle, and is ultimately fired in short order. So far, though, Slot seems to have avoided this - he’s taken to Liverpool seamlessly and instead, even seems to be benefiting from the “new coach boost” which in the cases of those who replace a club legend who’s just left, often doesn’t apply.

Slot came to Merseyside after a highly impressive three-year tenure at Feyenoord. Prior to arriving at Liverpool, he had coached the Rotterdam club to the Eredivisie title in the 2022-23 season and won the Rinus Michels award as the league’s best coach in two of his three seasons. That said, some apprehension was understandable on the part of Liverpool fans as Slot had never coached in a major European league before - and now he’d be thrown into the fire as he would be replacing Klopp.

Instead, Slot has been thriving so far. Perhaps the main driver of Slot’s early success in the Anfield dugout lies in the fact that the Dutchman hasn’t strayed too far from Klopp’s tactical blueprint. In this way, perhaps Liverpool’s relative failure, the signing of Federico Chiesa notwithstanding, has turned out to be something of a blessing in disguise because it has allowed Slot to generally stick to what has been working, not change too much, and thus not overcomplicate matters from a strategic standpoint.

Something which Liverpool will likely benefit from during Slot’s time in the position will be his development of young players. Slot’s first coaching post was as a youth coach at PEC Zwolle; he has continued to carry the mentality of one until today. At Feyenoord, Slot was known for placing great emphasis on the club’s youth academy with several of its alumni getting plenty of game time under his watch. With this in mind, the timing of his entry at Liverpool couldn’t have been better due to the fact that Liverpool’s youth academy have produced several very promising youngsters in recent years; don’t be surprised if many of them get a notable bump in minutes played under Slot.

Although it was never going to be easy to replace Jürgen Klopp, Arne Slot appeared to be someone who checked all the boxes - and so far, Liverpool’s on-field product has backed that up. While there’s no doubt that things will get tougher in certain ways as the season progresses, there are nonetheless lots of green flags up - at least for now. If any team can possibly end City’s stranglehold on the Premier League title, it’ll likely be Liverpool.

The Weekly Take, Issue 324: Getting There Is One Thing, Staying There Is Another

Following a historic 2023-24 La Liga campaign at the end of which they qualified for the Champions League for the first time ever, Girona understandably expected to back it up with another season at least close to that level in 2024-25. However, two matchdays in, the Catalan club have been served a harsh reality check.

The second matchday of the fledgling La Liga saw Atlético Madrid host Girona. Last season, Girona defied the odds to finish third in the league, five points ahead of Atlético. Prior to 2023-24, Girona had never finished higher than 10th at season’s end in Spain’s top flight but went on to stun the football world with a season virtually nobody saw coming. However, if this most recent match is anything to go by, Girona have serious work to do if they’re to avoid being a one-season wonder.

This should have been Girona’s opportunity to prove that they deserve to be regarded as perennial contenders for Champions League qualification. Instead, Girona never even looked close to Atlético and crashed to a 3-0 loss. Shortly before half-time, Atlético legend Antoine Griezmann put the Madrid club a goal ahead with a free kick sent into the bottom corner after Girona goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga committed a handball outside the penalty area.

Atlético doubled their lead soon after the interval via a spectacular goal scored by Marcos Llorente. The wing-back received the ball in his own half, after which he took advantage of the open space in front of him, running with the ball to just outside the penalty area where he unleashed a powerful shot that left Gazzaniga with absolutely no chance at all. In stoppage time, club captain Koke scored Atlético’s third goal - a tap-in after being set up by Llorente.

Last season was truly unprecedented for Girona in many ways. In addition to clinching their first-ever qualification for continental play at all, let alone the Champions League, Girona also had a player win the Pichichi award as the league’s top scorer for the very first time. Ukrainian Artem Dovbyk scored 24 goals to lead the league, edging Villareal’s Norwegian striker Alexander Sørloth by just one goal. Despite losing Dovbyk to Roma and midfielder Aleix García to Bayer Leverkusen while watching winger Savinho’s loan deal expire, Girona had a busy off-season, signing seven players and bringing three more on board via loan deals to cushion the blow.

Girona began the season with a draw against Real Betis - a result that did raise some eyebrows. This was now a match in which Girona would’ve been expected to pick up the win. Instead, despite having almost two-thirds of the possession, Girona were only able to muster two shots on target. Although at the time the result was regarded as being no more than “just the first match”, this most recent clash against Atlético has clearly revealed that there now ought to be cause for concern.

Girona were outplayed in almost every facet of the game. Despite once again having the bulk of the possession, they were completely unable to turn their time with the ball into high-quality goalscoring chances. To add to that, Girona’s many new acquisitions haven’t yet gelled. Their play in both league matches so far has seemed rather disjointed and largely devoid of cohesion - something that has to be addressed if they’re to make another push for a Champions League spot.

Girona’s struggles in front of goal are especially notable - it’s evident that they’re sharply feeling the effect of Dovbyk’s and Savinho’s departures. As of right now, they look nothing like the team that scored 85 league goals last  season - a figure second in the league, only behind Real Madrid by two. Though it’s only been two matches in, Abel Ruiz hasn’t quite seemed to be able to keep up; admittedly, however, part of this could be fatigue linked to his participation in Spain’s gold medal-winning Olympic team. That being said, there’s no getting past it - he as well as Portu and Bryan Gil have been misfiring thus far.

Throughout football history, there have been many teams which put it all together for one remarkable season only to flame out in the immediate season after. If Girona are to ensure that such a fate won’t befall them, it’s obvious that they’ll have to make adjustments from this point forth - what they’ve shown so far simply won’t cut it.

The Weekly Take, Issue 323: Shuffled the Deck and Drew a Brick (Again)

The highlight of the opening Premier League matchday of the 2024-25 season was undoubtedly Chelsea’s home match against reigning league champions Manchester City. Having spent in excess of £160 million across eight new signings while also adding Tosin Adarabioyo on a free transfer, Chelsea entered this season seemingly reloaded and ready to prove that they weren’t just carried by Cole Palmer to sixth place in the league last season.

Instead, the clear gap between the two teams was more than evident. City were never really threatened as they eased to a 2-0 win over the Blues. Erling Haaland opened the scoring in the first half before Mateo Kovačić added a late goal against the club at which he’d spent four seasons.

For Chelsea, this was nothing short of a reality check. Heading into their opening fixture, many Chelsea fans had high hopes for the coming season due to their strong finish to the prior campaign that saw them climb into a Europa League spot, the hiring of Enzo Maresca who left Leicester City after coaching them for one season in which he helmed the Foxes to promotion into the Premier League, and their many new signings. However, as has so often been the case at Stamford Bridge since winning the league in 2014-15 (their league title two years later notwithstanding), it was once again a case of “back to the drawing board” for the London club.

Aside from Roméo Lavia and Cole Palmer, Chelsea brought absolutely nothing to the table against the Citizens. They were outplayed right from opening kick-off and never stood a chance. Chelsea’s back four in particular have to be questioned, in particular full-backs Malo Gusto and Marc Cucurella who were, for the majority of the match, easily outplayed by City wingers Jérémy Doku and Savinho—and on top of that, Doku and Savinho weren’t even close to City’s best players this time around.

For this same reason, Maresca’s selection of the starting 11 has to be questioned. While it’s understandable that the Italian might have prioritized continuity by benching all of Chelsea’s new signings, the real question ought to have been “is continuity even a good thing in this case?” That’s because Chelsea’s main issue last season was their over-dependence on Palmer (more on that later). Given the current starting 11’s struggles, perhaps it would’ve been a good idea to throw one or more of the newcomers into the fire and see if that would’ve changed anything.

Maresca also started Enzo Fernández at the attacking midfield slot which, while a position he can play to some extent, is far from his ideal. There’s a strong case to be made that Enzo ought to have started at his usual central midfield slot, moved Palmer to attacking midfielder, and started new signing Pedro Neto out wide, benching Ecuadorian midfielder Moisés Caicedo in the process.

On a related note, the off-season incident in which Enzo uttered racist epithets while celebrating Argentina’s Copa América victory has clearly impacted the team as a whole. It not only understandably drove a wedge between Enzo and his black teammates; it also dampened the morale of the team in general. The friction within the team was evident against City - and what really didn’t help was Maresca’s decision to delegate the captaincy to Enzo in the absence of regular captain Reece James and vice-captain Ben Chilwell.

Even more alarmingly for Chelsea: if this keeps up for too long, how many more years will Palmer remain one of theirs for? There’s every chance that if this ineptitude goes on for too long - and there’s no reason to assume it’ll stop any time soon - the Mancunian who even at age 22 is already Chelsea’s best player will seek a move out of west London to a club where his career can truly blossom.

Of course, this is just the first match - and one against the reigning league champions who are expected to defend their league title without too much difficulty at that. However, even with that in mind, it can’t be denied that the signs at Stamford Bridge are clearly concerning. Chelsea clearly haven’t fixed enough of the issues that have plagued them in recent years. A third consecutive season outside the Champions League spots - and plausibly worse - is likely.