In his exclusive column for CaughtOffside, former Aston Villa attacker Stan Collymore discusses some of football’s biggest talking points, including why Premier League teams are bothered about winning in pre-season, why West Ham fans should be happy with their transfer window so far, why Victor Osimhen could become the poster boy for the Premier League and much more.
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Premier League teams have one motivation in pre-season… and it isn’t winning
I’m talking as purely as a pundit but obviously using my experience as a player… pre-season is several things for an individual player. First, it’s to get fit. Secondly, to avoid injury. Thirdly, it’s to get yourself on the line on match day one and be as close as possible to not blowing out of your backside on what is guaranteed to be a hot, sunny, August day.
So, beyond pure fitness, if you can rattle in a few goals, fantastic – though it’s not the be all and end all.
I think the point I want to make in this… pre-season games are so far removed from what playing on match day one to match day six in the Premier League is like that it’s actually quite frightening.
There is very little in terms of pre-season work that prepares you for the first day of the season because usually it’s a warm day in August and the crowd dictates that you come out of the traps at 100 miles an hour when you haven’t got 100 miles an hour in your tank.
In all honesty, I think that for most players, as long as they can get through pre-season unscathed, that’s all that matters.
Don’t forget that some players have still got to come back off holidays after the Euros and who haven’t been available for selection yet. They’re going to be undercooked when it comes to the first five or six games of the season.
The primary motivation for any coach and manager is to see their players come through pre-season unscathed and so that there are no serious injuries to key players that could have a material impact on the first few games of the season.
If you remember, Man City in the Premier League at the start of last season were undercooked, but it still didn’t stop them comfortably winning the title.
Emile Smith Rowe can reignite his club and international career at Fulham
Fulham’s a great club, they’ve got all of the facilities that a high profile player would want, and Emile Smith Rowe wouldn’t have to move very far.
I think that it’s interesting that two years ago, maybe just a bit over, before Unai Emery came in, Villa were interested in Smith Rowe. Arsenal fans were like “no chance, small club, Villa – why would you want Smith Rowe?”
And yet, within a couple of years, he’s gone to a club who finished last season in a much lower place than Villa.
I don’t think he’s a lad that’s lost his way in the way that some younger players do. They become big time Charlie’s and they go off the rails a little bit, start going out on the town etc, and Smith Rowe doesn’t seem like that kind of lad at all.
I think it’s just a case of he’s been underused, and when you have a manager like Mikel Arteta, just as he did with Aaron Ramsdale, once you cross the line into being a player that he doesn’t want, he’s not one of those that goes ‘everybody’s got a clean slate here, and we’re going to use lots of different players during the season,’ Arteta has got his ideas who he wants, and based on the ones that he doesn’t want, he expects them then to be moved on fairly quickly.
I think Fulham will be a revelation for Smith Rowe, and as long as he doesn’t go “I’ve come down a step because I was at Arsenal, now I’m at Fulham,” everything is there for him to progress.
From an England point of view, a new coach is coming in and you’ve got a player there that’s got undoubted ability, and who should be wounded enough leaving Arsenal to basically stick two fingers up to Arteta and show him what he’s missing.
If he starts the season very well there is no good reason why he couldn’t see himself in an England squad come the Nations League.
Being ‘the man’ at Chelsea and in the Premier League could weigh heavily on Victor Osimhen
When I broke the British transfer record, you had players that would periodically do it, particularly through the early to mid 90s, as more and more money came into the Premier League.
Roy Keane broke the British transfer record I think at £2m-£3m, Andy Cole went for £7.5m, I was £8.5m and then Shearer nearly doubled it with his £15m signing for Newcastle.
So, the birth of the transfer record player became a big deal.
That player, whoever it was, got talked about way beyond whether they were good, bad or indifferent on the pitch. It was always that the record signing would be expected to make the difference which I always thought was very unfair.
If you fast forward to say Jack Grealish, which is probably the apex of recent transfer windows, I think it was the opposite. Grealish could blend into the Man City squad even though he was, by far and away the biggest transfer deal.
Things are different again now, because you’re looking at Financial Fair Play and PSR being a real thing.
At this point of a window previously, we might’ve expected a number of clubs to be breaking their transfer records but they haven’t, so all of a sudden we’re going back to the sort of mid to late 90s outlier.
The big-name signing that won’t just entertain us but will also become the poster boy of both his club and the entire Premier League.
That could well be the case for Victor Osimhen if his rumoured move to Chelsea comes off, because the mind boggling numbers then puts unfair pressure and expectation on him.
West Ham fans should be delighted with their transfer window so far
I remember saying that when Julen Lopetegui signed Max Kilman, that’s the manager getting his own way, getting his feet under the table and being placated.
Fans perhaps don’t understand how long it takes to get a deal over the line. It’s all ‘get it done, get it done’ but it’s never as simple as that. Transfers have got to be done at the right time and for the right price as well.
Fullkrug, I thought did well for Germany at the Euros and he harks back to a British type centre-forward.
West Ham have generally been more successful when they have a big man there (Andy Carroll/Michail Antonio), so I think that Jarrod Bowen and others playing off him is a great idea for West Ham.
Wan-Bissaka for £10m-£15m would give West Ham a steady full-back, and we know what he can do. He’s got pace even if he does have questionable defensive abilities at times, in the same way that Trent Alexander Arnold’s capabilities have also been questioned.
So, Fullkrug, Wan-Bissaka, Kilman and Crysencio Summerville… I think that’s good, solid business from West Ham in this window.
No place left in the English game for Bruce, Allardyce, Pardew, Redknapp and McLaren anymore
Unless you get to the end of November and a club says ‘we need somebody to come in and steady the ship for a few weeks, but the aim is to keep us in the Premier League,’ then English top-flight clubs now need to steer well clear of the likes of Steve Bruce and Sam Allardyce at al.
I’m not dismissing those guys achievements, but they were, for the most part, years ago.
You could argue that Sam Allardyce’s best team was Bolton from 20 years ago. You could argue that Alan Pardew’s best moment was his dance on the sideline for Palace in the FA Cup final – which was over 10 years ago. You could argue that Steve McLaren’s best work was at Middlesborough, some 20 years ago. Steve Bruce’s best work came at Birmingham City and that was 14 years ago or more.
We’re not talking about guys that should be feeling hard done by and coming out saying ‘it’s a disgrace that I can’t get a job.’ These are guys that had long managerial careers, and the ones that had shorter managerial careers was because they didn’t do very good jobs at their second, third, fourth or fifth club.
A recent example of Andoni Iraola, a rookie Premier League manager keeping Bournemouth up by playing the kind of quality football that fans want to see, will prove that we don’t need to have an Allardyce or a Pardew anywhere near a Premier League club again.
I’m very surprised and really disappointed with Steve McLaren getting the Jamaica job too.
FIFA put a lot of money into countries like Jamaica and Barbados, and with my heritage, I’ve always been interested in seeing where the funds pop up during World Cups on the FIFA website.
This is where all that money you pay for tickets and sponsorship goes and that’s an important part of the FIFA puzzle.
Jamaica had the Reggae Boys and a very positive legacy to build from including expat, dual nationality players that can play, and dual nationality expat Jamaican coaches that could coach.
I think it’s nothing short of a disgrace that the Jamaican Football Association should be going back to an old dude from Europe.
Steve McLaren going there flies in the face of what that money is supposed to be for.
