What did you make of Manchester United vs Arsenal?
It wasn’t a great game, but sometimes, you just have to win, and that's what Arsenal did. Because it was the first game of the season, you’re playing away against United. Everybody knows Manchester United are terrible at the moment, but it's still a big club, a big name. You have still got to play at Old Trafford, with your fans and lots of things at play. Even if they didn't play well, Arsenal can go back to London with the three points, and that was the most important thing.
Arsenal
They have their striker - has Mikel Arteta got no place to hide come the end of the season?
I think if you look at the Arsenal squad size now, it’s the second biggest squad in the Premier League. I think they’re just behind Liverpool, and they look strong - they look scary. Arsenal now look ominous because they’ve got so many good players. There are players on the bench who can now start and you won’t worry about them. So that means Arsenal can have a good rotation and Mikel Arteta has options.
What you need are players on the bench who are also good enough to be in the starting 11. To win the Premier League, you need that strength in depth.
That is what I the Arsenal fans were waiting for. They have the striker now in Gyokeres. Right now, they have so many choices. If one of the first 11 is injured, Arteta has so many choices. So they don’t have any more excuses. If they don't win the Premier League, nobody can have any excuses about Arsenal. This is a group of players that is capable of winning major trophies.
If Arsenal doesn't win the Premier League this season, I don't want to hear anything about injuries, or the referee, or a red card. Even if Saka or another player gets injured, they need to find a way of working around it. So that's why now I think the pressure will be higher on Mikel Arteta than it has been in the last two years. He’s got to deliver something special for Arsenal this season.
What are your expectations this year?
To be honest, the last two years my expectations were to see Arsenal win the Premier League because for me, other clubs were underperforming and they had the chance.
But they didn’t do it, so this season what I expect from them is to change their mentality. I think yesterday sends a message because even if they didn't play well, they held onto a 1-0 lead and took three points back home to London. They could not do that last season, so sometimes you have to understand you can’t play well, but you still have to win. That’s vital.
And what I expect from them as well is to have more personality, more character on the pitch. I really want to see players fighting in a positive way. Because we know the season is going to be long. We know sometimes there will be trouble against some teams and sometimes you have to show your character.
Not just some of the players, but all of them. We know at the back they have Gabriel who can do that, and we know Declan Rice can be that guy too, but more need to step up. I want to see others who take responsibility and shout at their team-mates if they’re not doing enough.
Do Arsenal have to win a major trophy this year?
Arteta doesn’t have five more years! Listen, with that squad, we are not talking about winning the FA Cup, the Carabao Cup. We are talking about the Premier League. We are talking about the Champions League. Nothing else.
If you asked the Arsenal fans to choose winning the Premier League and the Champions League, I think they would choose the Premier League.
That's why Arteta is going to have a lot of pressure on his shoulders, and as you said, he can't hide from anything. If he doesn’t win either trophy, he’s the one to blame. We have been waiting to see if he’s a manager who can win - now’s the time.
What do you make of Tony Adams’ comments about the captaincy?
We have to respect Tony Adams. We have to respect him. We have to listen to him. He was a legendary player at Arsenal. Maybe I played against him just one time in 2002.
When I played against him, I had just arrived in the Premier League and he had such a presence at Arsenal. He would talk to his team-mates if they needed it, and he would shout at them if they were not doing well.
As a captain, you’realmost like the second manager. Because the manager, when he’s sat on the bench, sometimes he is too far from the situation. So you need your captain to represent you. Tony Adams knows exactly what the captain has to do.
He won big trophies with Arsenal. I remember that run from the back in 1998 against Everton. Arsenal get the ball, he carries on his run and scores that great goal. It was just magnificent. It was magnificent to see that happen. Trust me, all the centre backs in the game loved seeing that.
The captain now needs to be the first person to speak to players on the pitch, to motivate them or to shout on someone if that player is sleeping. The last two years, that hasn’t happened. So I agree with him - maybe Declan Rice would be a better choice than Martin Odegaard.
What do you think of signing Noni Madueke?
When he signed for Arsenal the fans were not happy with the signing. There was a petition against signing him. I said hold on guys, the boy was born in Barnet, he’s a North Londoner. Maybe he was an Arsenal fan growing up.
When you see a player who starts regularly for Chelsea and he wants to sign for Arsenal, you have to think for a second. The fans that signed that petition should take a look at themselves, speaking out about a player who wants to come to the club.
It was a fundamental mistake to do that. But I think they’ve brought in a fan of the club. He is coming somewhere he thinks he can feel good.
He played regularly at Chelsea and is willing to take a risk to not have that at Arsenal, and the fans need to respect what he’s done. Playing well will be the best response to shut a few of these fans up.
It's not easy. It was a little bit like that when I moved between London clubs, but for me it was different because I'm not British. I was not born in London. When I moved to Arsenal, some fans booed me. When I moved to Tottenham, some fans booed me, but you have to put yourself in a bubble. You have to tell yourself, okay, you are not happy I'm here, no problem. You know me, I'm here just to show you that I'm going to perform.
At the same time, adversity, it gives you that strength. I think hehas to do the same thing. And what is good with football, you can play badly one day and be brilliant the next. That means he has to stay focused and ignore everything on the outside.
On Eberechi Eze’s future amid Arsenal and Tottenham interest
It's always the same question in this situation. What does the player really want? You know, he will try to see what is in the best interest for himself. It’ll be about money. It will be about if he will have enough time, enough minutes to play.
If you’re Eze, youdon’t want to go from Crystal Palace, where you were the main guy, to move to one of the biggest clubs if you’re not going to play much. You don’t want to join a club and become frustrated with your minutes.
Eze will try to find the best solution for himself. Even if Spurs won the Europa League last year, you probably have more chances to win things at Arsenal over the next few years.
Arsenal got close to winning the Champions League last year, but then they came up against Paris Saint-Germain and made a mistake - they didn’t take their chances and were punished. So it really depends on how he sees his career. Does he want to play every week or does he want to get his hands on more trophies?
Chelsea
What did you make of the Chelsea draw this weekend?
It’s not great. It wasn’t a good result. Don't forget the boys may be tired, they didn't have so many days to recover after the Club World Cup.
For the first game at home, that draw is not the best start, but they get one point. So, the pressure is going to be on Maresca, because of what he achieved in the first season.
In the first season, he won two trophies. So, he did well. This season, I'm sure the owner expects Chelsea to lift another trophy. I don't think it will be the Premier League, but they can win different trophies.
He's going to have pressure on his shoulders, but you know, when you manage a big club, you accept there will always be pressure on you. He won’t be surprised.
How hard will their four derbies in a row be?
It'sa very difficult start to the season for Chelsea, four London derbies on the spin. We know when you play in a derby, you don’t really play for yourself or the club, you play for the fans. And the fans will be telling you all week that you have to win at the weekend, so they can have that feeling.
So to play four London derbies in your opening games is not ideal. Even though Chelsea are stronger on paper and normally should win all four, we saw with their draw that it’s not as easy as that.
Chelsea need to find the strength to get three points in the next game.
On Colwill’s injury
Levi Colwill getting injured is a massive blow for Chelsea. You know why he is injured? It's because Chelsea have asked him to play too many games, and I worry that it will happen again to one of their players sometime soon.
The schedule has been relentless. None of them have had enough time to rest. Football players aren’t robots, they’re humans. Even with all the medical expertise, you can still get exhausted. You can still get really bad injuries. It will be difficult without Levi, because he was the main man at the back.
Were you impressed with Josh Acheampong?
When you are young, you always want to show your quality. Especially for players in defence, when you have the opportunity to play, you have to take your opportunity. You have to perform very well. So for him to have a good performance is always good, but I think in the future he will need to go up a level. And he will need someone there to help him do that.
Look at how many young players we see, players who have the potential to be world-class defenders. And in the end, they get stuck below that level. You have to have an experienced player next to you. That is essential, you don’t become world class without it. Now football has changed and Chelsea just want to play with young players. But that harms the development of their players, and they aren’t thinking properly of their evolution.
When I see youngsters starting I want to see how they’re doing, and I compare them with how I was when I was a teenager..I always think that they have more quality than me, but they hardly ever get to where I managed in the end. It’s such a shame to see that talent wasted.
On waiting to sign Alejandro Garnacho
Clubs try to leave things to the last minute sometimes, to strike a tough deal. But they need to be careful. Garnacho is a good player, and yes maybe they can drive his value down by waiting. However, I remember players at Tottenham who would have to wait until the very last day of the transfer window for Daniel Levy to let them leave for the biggest price. Daniel would always make sure he got what he wanted for players.
There were big players he’d do this too. Gareth Bale and Luka Modric. So for Manchester United, they know when they will have to sell him, but they will also know when they want to just keep him, and I think that would be a mistake. There’s still two weeks to find out - if it was me, I would try and get him out of the club before the last day of the transfer window because if they leave it too late, they may have to take an offer that they don’t really want.
I think Garnacho is a good player. Will he be a difference maker at Chelsea? I’m not sure, but he has lots of potential.
Is Enzo Maresca Chelsea’s best manager since Jose Mourinho?
Not yet. Don’t forget Antonio Conte came after Jose’s second spell. He won the Premier League, and an FA Cup And he won before in Italy, ahead of coming to Chelsea. He had won a lot.
I can’t jump in yet and say Maresca is better yet. He did well, but we have to respect what Conte did with Chelsea, and what he won elsewhere.
Don’t forget, Chelsea also won the Champions League with Thomas Tuchel, who had won multiple titles around Europe before that.
Maresca, he’s just at the beginning of his managerial career - you can’t compare him with someone like Jose Mourinho or Antonio Conte.
So we have to wait to see what Maresca can achieve, to see if he can match Conte after he followed Jose.
Tottenham
Do you think keeping Cristian Romero is important for the coming season?
I think Romero has got that personality that can deal with the pressure. He can handle having more on his shoulders, so it was a good decision to appoint him the club captain.
For Tottenham, that’s good news because they’re going to keep him now for this season. Lifting that trophy last season means they will give him more confidence that they can win other trophies, and his value will be even higher.
He’s 27 now. I think this will be his last season with the club. I think he will still try to get another experience in another league, and if he has a good World Cup, he’ll be a very attractiveoption for clubs. I can see him playing in Spain next season.
But for now, it’s good to know that Romero is going to stay. He will be the captain. He’s an inspirational player.
The question is whether Frank will rotate his players. Don’t forget what happened under Ange Postecoglou, with the central defenders all getting injured. That ruined their domestic season. It’s vital that the new manager keeps his squad fresh and protected.
How do you keep Daniel Levy happy?
It’svery difficult to keep Daniel Levy happy. I think you keep him happy by qualifying for the Champions League - just not how Ange Postecoglou did it!
You know, if Tottenham qualify for the Champions League every year and lift one domestic trophy, Daniel Levy will be very happy. He’ll be ecstatic!
If Thomas Frank can do this, it means that Daniel Levy can put in more money to sign better quality players. Then, one day, Tottenham will be ready to fight for the Premier League.
For many years Tottenham got money from the Champions League so that they could spend more on players, but you have to say, sometimes they didn’t bring in the right ones.
That's another way you can make Daniel Levy happy. If you get the recruitment right and can sell players for a profit, he’ll be pleased. Tottenham didn't really buy many players this summer, so Thomas Frank has to be in the top six, and get European football. If they qualify for the Champions League, that is a huge bonus, and then you will see him with a big smile.
What’s your expectations for Tottenham this season?
They need to be in the top six. I think the top five will be difficult. Top five is going to be hard because you already have so many teams pushing for that spot. When you look at the other squads, there are stronger squads than Spurs. And last season, they finished 17th and won the Europa, so they’re far from perfect. I think the top six is doable though, from what we’ve seen in pre-season.
Premier League
Who will win the title this season?
It's difficult for me to answer that question. When I look at all the clubs who can win the league, I can’t say for sure. Even now Arsenal have their striker, now they’ve got Gyokeres and a strong squad, it’s hard to say because they’ve let me down so many times.
Liverpool is maybe that club who have the strongest chance of winning the Premier League, for a few reasons. They’ve got a strong squad. I think they will also be fighting for every game because they will want to win everything for Diogo Jota.
What was it like when Gareth Bale and Luka Modric wanted to leave Spurs and what do you think of the Isak situation at Newcastle?
I don't know with Gareth, but with Luca. I know it was hard for him. He was furious that his move dragged on. He was very angry with Daniel Levy.
When you look at the situation of Alexander Isak, we all know he wants to leave the club. The club wants to keep him, but he won’t train. He’s trying to force his way out, but that’s not the best way to leave the club. Because when you leave, and join a new club, you have to be ready physically. You don’t want to be out of shape for your first day with your new team-mates. If you move, you still have to train with your current club.
Personal trainers don’t give you the same atmosphere, it doesn’t give you the edge or the challenge that you have when you’re training with team-mates. When you train with the squad, you work on so many things – one-v-ones, or two against two. You can’t do that with a personal trainer.
Sometimes players have to be careful when they decide to move. And if the club does not agree at the beginning and then you try to force that move, you should still train with your teammates. Then, afterwards, you speak to the board and you speak to your manager. You tell them you want out, but you’re still training. No problem. The player should always do what he has to do, and shouldn’t give the manager any problems, but everyone knows that you see your future elsewhere. That’s fine, it's your career, and it’s a short one. Communication is key in times like these.
I think the way Isak has handled this, it looks like he’s been givenbad advice from his circle. Simple. (The current situation) That is (a result of) bad advice from his people. But at the same time, listen, I won't only blame him because I also think that Newcastle must take some responsibility for what is happening here. I'm not sure I agree with the approach the club has taken.
The player has scored loads of goals every season. Last season, he hit more than 20 goals. You’re going to double your money for him with Liverpool’s offer. He gave everything to Newcastle in those last few years, and sometimes you have to let players leave at that point. It doesn’t seem fair to make his life so hard when a huge offer comes in.
Some players really don’t care about the clubs they play for, and think only about themselves. They don’t see it as clubs giving them the opportunity, and they don’t think fine, I’ll stay another year. You can’t say that Isak hasn’t given everything for Newcastle since he joined the club. Some of his teammates, if a big club comes knocking, rather than staying for another year and paying the club back, they may be encouraged to act like he has done to ensure that they get a move.
Ultimately, Newcastle should let him go.
What do you make of how Newcastle are handling Alexander Isak?
I think what Newcastle tried to do is what Daniel Levy tried to do many times with Gareth Bale and Luka Modric.
But with those two, the situation hadn’t come this far. They were still training. They weren’t in the newspapers. They were professional. It wasn’t a saga.
Newcastle have to be careful. Hugo Ekitike scored twice already, and Liverpool won their game. So they have to be careful about how they handle it from here, because if Newcastle ask for a ridiculous price, Liverpool could walk away from the table and then you have a situation where the player is in limbo and Newcastle will probably have to accept less money for him in January while also having a weaker squad for the first half of the season.
