When Gareth Southgate made the call to have England line up with a back three it piqued the interest of a nation. When the manager then named Kyle Walker on the right side of a back three the intrigue turned to puzzlement. The 28-year-old is considered by many to be the best right-back in the Premier League. Pep Guardiola, a man who rarely settles for second-best, was so convinced of his quality...

It was Gareth Southgate’s coming of age moment as England manager. Until that point, the suspicion was the former Middlesbrough boss had been the Football Association’s patsy, the cheap option, the only man they could persuade to take the poisoned chalice. Asked if Manchester United defender Chris Smalling was unable to play out from the back prior to England’s friendlies with Ge...

The fact Manchester City spent £130million on full-backs alone last summer was, for a time, used as a stick to beat them with, a sign of their transfer-market decadence, spending exuberant fees on a department considered perhaps the least important in any squad. That point of view was quickly proven misguided, however, as anyone who was intimately familiar with Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona and...

Now more than ever, full-backs are expected to provide creativity as well as defensive solidity. While the idea of a full-back popping up in advanced areas is hardly a new concept, their prominence in a team’s attacking philosophy has been thrillingly demonstrated by the two most recent Premier League champions. Marcos Alonso and Victor Moses were key to Chelsea’s title success last se...

As we edge closer to the end of another Premier League campaign, we find ourselves looking back as well as peering into the future. With Manchester City’s thrilling yet predictable dominance, it hasn’t quite been the classic season we were hoping for. However, it’s still been a highly productive campaign for several Premier League stars. In fact, statistically speaking, some of t...

The FA Cup may be a competition increasingly derided for its significance in the age of Premier and Champions League billions, but Tottenham‘s defeat to Manchester United in the semi-final has led to a series of questions being asked about Mauricio Pochettino’s tenure as manager. Not that there is any genuine doubt or uncertainty cast over the Argentine’s position but nearly four years into...

“If you’re a full-back, you’re either a failed winger or a failed centre-back. No one grows up wanting to be Gary Neville.” Jamie Carragher’s assessment of full-backs is no longer accurate. Yes, full-backs used to be known as failed wingers. But football has evolved and now these frustrated wide players are key cogs in some of the most complex systems thought up by ma...

Manchester City certainly made an impression in the summer, signing Bernardo Silva from Monaco and spending £130million on three full-backs. For those of a Sunday League persuasion, such an idea will seem like madness. Many of those who have graced the likes of Hackney Marshes or their local park at a weekend will have often found that one of their team-mates is crowbarred in at full-back, simply...

For most, Pep Guardiola’s first season in England was slightly underwhelming. His Manchester City side threatened at the start of the 2016/17 campaign before declining and failing to put forth a credible title challenge or a concerted Champions League run. However, eight games into the current league season, the coach’s ideas seem in place. A 7-2 thrashing of Stoke City on Saturday afternoon offer...

England secured their passage to the 2018 World Cup with 1-0 victories over Slovenia and Lithuania. The Three Lions can now look forward to another summer festival of football, but who should travel to Russia as part of the squad next year? Gareth Southgate has shown he is not afraid of making bold decisions, bringing several uncapped youngsters into recent squads and tinkering tactically with the...

All the best things in life are worth waiting for, and for Tottenham Hotspur the signing of Serge Aurier from Paris Saint-Germain feels like it’s taken an eternity. A one-time Manchester United and Chelsea transfer target, Spurs have won the race for PSG defender. There are legal issues to sort, but reports from France say the 26-year-old has an agreement in place with the London club who wi...

The final days of the transfer window are upon us and football fans are beginning to get tetchy. Most are anxious about the fact their club hasn’t done enough business yet with too few players coming in. Just search Arsenal, Newcastle United or Tottenham on Twitter and you’ll get a flavour of the mood. Among supporters of English clubs there seems to be an insatiable thirst for their teams to buy...

It hasn’t been a good summer for fans of Tottenham Hotspur’s right-backs. Kyle Walker was sold to Manchester City before Kieran Trippier was worryingly substituted with an ankle injury during Spurs’ pre-season friendly win against Juventus. While Mauricio Pochettino says the club do not yet know the full extent of Trippier’s injury, there are growing concerns he will miss t...

The Pep Guardiola revolution took a while to get into full swing. During the tactician’s first season at Manchester City, the club spent big. And, ahead of his second campaign at the helm, the club are spending even bigger. Indeed, City’s net spend in the summer transfer window thus far is higher than that of potential Premier League title rivals Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea put together. The ex...

Rarely has the race for the Premier League title seemed so competitive. Gone are the days of one team dominating – be it Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United or Arsène Wenger’s Arsenal; now is the time of six genuine first-place hopefuls. And in these times when the difference between first and sixth, between Champions League seeding and Europa League ignominy, between success and failure, is so...

Little more than 24 hours after missing out on Dani Alves, Manchester City are closing in on Tottenham Hotspur defender Kyle Walker who, with a £50million fee agreed, would become the most expensive defender in history. Walker has been a long-term Manchester City transfer target but City had also been keen on former Juventus star Alves who Pep Guardiola coached to great success at Barcelona. Alth...

Each morning, Football Whispers pore over Europe’s major news outlets in search of the latest transfer reports relating to your club. We then assess the reliability of the rumours, determine the likelihood of the moves, and analyse where the potential signings would fit in. Today’s edition of the European round-up includes reports of Chelsea hijacking the Kostas Manolas deal, Paris Saint-Germain j...