On Leicester City & Birmingham City
How much does form and momentum carry into the next season, even if between different leagues?
It’s very important, when you think of it that way.. Let's go back to Leicester's Premier League winning side. They had their last 10 games of the previous season, and I think they won eight of them to stay up. They were literally down - they're dead and buried. And then they won those games and stayed up.
The next season, they won the league. So yeah, there's a momentum to be had in that sense. It's a little bit different now, because I would say the gulf between the two leagues is so much larger.
You've got to spend a lot of money to really compete within the Premier League, because the other clubs have established themselves with the transfers they’ve already made.
Leicester will drop into the Championship and expectations will be high, but it’s a tough, tough league.
Just how competitive is the Championship and how competitive would you say it is next season compared to recent years?
The great thing about the Championship is that it’s always competitive. I played in the Championship in the last couple of seasons of my career with Bolton, and it was absolutely ferocious then. The intensity is incredible, not to just do it week in, week out, but they often have to do it twice a week. So many games.
The intensity that people play at is crazy and everyone's dream is to get into the Premier League, and get the Premier League money, to get the notoriety from the Premier League. Every club wants to play at the highest level in the football pyramid.
You've got Birmingham City now, who are not shy on spending money. They will spend money to mount a title charge as soon as possible. They're building a new stadium. They're building the club from the ground up again. They're paying really good money for their players. They were already doing that in League One.
I can imagine Birmingham going all out to try and get to the Premier League next season. The intensity and everything else is going to be crazy in the Championship - there are so many huge clubs in the Championship that will have their eye on promotion.
Can Leicester bounce back at the first attempt next season?
I think they took too much damage in the Premier League. Relegation really set them back. They're gonna have to lose a lot of players. They're going to be hit with fines. They're going to be hit, I'm guessing with points deductions. I hope not, but it’s looking that way.
They might start the season 10 points behind, their best players already sold. They will be trimming the squad and looking for new, committed players. It’s not an easy start to launch a promotion attempt.
What do they need to do to achieve this and is Ruud van Nistelrooy the right man?
It’s tough in a sense that we're not a club that builds with a long-established strategy. We’re not a club that buys players and builds a team based on the club's philosophy. We buy players on what the manager wants. So if you don't know who the manager is, you don't know what we want.
Whereas you look at other clubs, they're buying players to suit their style and the fundamentals of the club. That’s not how Leicester operate, so we first need to figure out where we stand now, where we want to get to, and who is the manager to take us there. Then we can start acting smart in the market.
Where do you think Leicester will finish next season?
The main thing for Leicester is that they’re challenging and not falling away. I don't think they'll go straight back up necessarily, but I think they will be challenging and giving a good account of themselves.
The toughest part for them is whether they bring in the right players that are going to let them mount a challenge, and just as importantly, who's going to be the manager and what sort of style of play will we have?
We've gone from Brendan Rodgers to Enzo Maresca to Steve Cooper to Ruud van Nistelrooy to now - not knowing whether it is Ruud or someone else. There's been so many different styles of play that we've got to really come back to looking at who we are as a club, who we are as a city, and what it is that we want.
Another of your former clubs, Birmingham City. Can they make waves this upcoming season, under settled ownership and with an expensively assembled squad for lower league football?
It puts pressure on them to make it work right away. But they've set their stall out that they want to get up to the top of the table, then into the Premier League again.
They've put their money where their mouth is and, again, it's going to be an interesting one to see how they fit within the rules for PSR?
Because even in League One, they were spending a lot of money and they managed to get promoted, They will have to push hard to try and do that again.
The only thing is when you have that push and you don't make it, it sets you back so much, because you start selling your players to raise funds, you lose your best assets.
I hope Birmingham don't get to that point, get close to promotion and can’t take the final step. I really hope they don't get to that point because it's a fantastic club that needs to be challenging, and it'd be great to see that the Birmingham derby in the Premier League again. It would be great to see them achieve back-to-back promotions.
Jay Stansfield scored 24 goals last season in League One. Can he make the step up and what do you feel his ceiling is as a striker?
100% Stansfield can step up. His confidence now will be sky high after banging in the goals last season. So he'll be putting himself up in there and saying, well, why can't I do it against them?
That's the key thing when going up, even when going up into the Premier League. If you've done it in the Championship, you've got to back yourself, to have the belief to go and do it up against the Premier League elite as well. So he'll be looking at himself and thinking, I’ve done it in League One, I’ve done it in the cup competitions, so I can do it in the Championship.
Big sides will be looking at him, definitely. When you're playing at the under-21 national team level you're always being analysed and looked upon by the bigger clubs.
He'll have admirers, not just in England. Clubs in Germany and Italy will be interested. They’ll see if he can cut it in the Championship and then one of them might take a leap to see how he handles the highest level. Jobe Bellingham has joined Borussia Dortmund from the Championship, and players like Jamie Gittens go abroad, prove themselves, and then the Premier League comes calling.
Can Birmingham go up?
They’ve got a really good manager in Chris Davies, so while I wouldn’t say it was definite that they will go up at their first attempt, I’d say it’s 50-50.
One thing you have to get right is firstly your style of play. It's. It's an interesting one with Birmingham and the Championship. When it comes to style of play in the Championship, we did it with Leicester where we were really possession-based football, and it looks fairly easy.
Then you go open to the Premier League and you seem to find that it is a different kettle of fish. You start off not knowing what to expect and quickly you find yourself, two, three four down really early on in games. There's a huge culture shock.
On Liverpool
Jamie Carragher mentioned in the week that the centre forward position will be a priority signing this summer for Arne Slot. Who would you like to see Liverpool bring in up top to lead the attack next season?
I can’t see it happening because I think they’ll have to move heaven and Earth to get a deal done, but Newcastle’s Alexander Isak would fit in perfectly for the way Liverpool play.
They’re missing a player to link everything together like Bobby Firmino did. He worked in that system to join up with Sadio Mane and Mo Salah, but he wasn’t exactly a No.9. He dropped deep, he had an exceptional workrate, just phenomenal.
Someone like Isak works really well. But I can't see Newcastle selling it if I'm honest with you. And why would you want to sell your prized asset unless you're getting a stupid offer?
At the moment, if you’re bringing in Florian Wirtz, you need a striker to make that work, because Wirtz is creative and he needs someone to get on the end of things, not get in his way.
You need someone to stay high, stretch the play.Victor Osimhen, if he doesn’t go to Saudi Arabia would be awesome, but you’d be wary of just how much money it would take to do that deal.
With rumours that Liverpool are open for offers for the likes of Diaz and Jota, would Anthony Gordon be an ideal replacement to come in on that left hand side?
I think Anthony Gordon would be great. I like Diaz and I wouldn't ordinarily want to sell someone like that, but if you're bringing in someone who's younger, who can do a similar job, and you’re getting a decent fee, then I’d take that offer.
He’s 29 or so, no spring chicken. It just makes sense if Diaz moves on and the transfer fee is large enough to pay for his replacement.
With Gordon, I think Newcastle would listen to offers in a way they wouldn’t for Isak. They’ve got all that money but they can’t spend it because of the way PSR works. So they’ll be willing to make deals if it frees them up for other transfers.
Jota, too, I would ideally love to keep him because when he’s on the pitch, he’s magnificent, but he spends a lot of time in the treatment room, and it might make sense for him to move on for the right price.
Mo Salah has a two-year contract - do you think he will see it out or do you predict an SPL move next summer?
We can’t rule out that he’ll move on in a year, but I think the club will want him to see out two years, and I think he will too.
I think he's so happy at the club that he doesn't really want to or need to go anywhere else. His family's happy. And that's one of the key things that people forget at times. When your family's happy, you don't really want to upset that.
And we all talk about replacing Salah when the time comes, but there’s nobody out there right now producing the numbers he produces. He might have the off-day, but there’s just nobody else like him at the moment.
It seems Bryan Mbeumo will be moving to United, did Liverpool miss out on the perfect successor to Salah?
It’s hard to ever say Liverpool make mistakes in the market, because their strategy is usually just so solid. I would have loved to have seen Bryan Mbeumo at Anfield with Liverpool though. He’s got loads going for him.
He was someone that is tried and tested in the Premier League for a few years as well. His work rate's astounding. He knows where the goal is. He’s very, very technical and understands the way that Liverpool would want to play. So it was interesting to see that they never really went in for him.
Can Conor Bradley replace Trent Alexander-Arnold?
I think Conor Bradley's more than good enough to take over at RB.
defensively, he'll be more defensive minded, whereas Frimpong will probably be more attacking minded. So it would be horses for courses. But yeah, they're both more than capable of taking over from Trent and I suspect they will both be used for different types of opponents.
We've got to remember Frimpong was a winger at first, so that's probably why he is so good going forward. He could be even more attacking than Trent. But the only thing is Trent gave you so many assists. I would love to have played alongside Trent because all I’d have to do is make runs. You look at how Beckham used to supply Yorkie and Coley. Trent's the same. You know, he would whip balls in. And all you do as a forward is make the runs, and you know you’re getting two or three chances in every single game.
Was Kelleher given a fair chance?
Probably not. The reality is I don't think he put a foot wrong whenever he was given the opportunity. But when you're number two, you're a number two. When you're number two, it’s very difficult to get the club and the manager to give you that opportunity to be the main man.
You can come in and do really well but you know Alison is coming back after you as soon as he’s fit or back from suspension.
So the key thing for him was to ask himself, am I good enough to be number one. He knew he was, so the next question is where is he going to get treated like one, and it wasn’t Liverpool.
When they brought in Giorgi Mamardashvili, they would have had a strategy and a long-term plan. They would know in advance that they would need someone to come in and cover for Alisson, who has the odd injury. They obviously didn’t have Kelleher featuring prominently in these plans. But he’s better than that, and he would never have been given the chance to show that week-in-week-out.
What is the weakness that caused them to fall away at the end of the season?
I’m not worried by how Liverpool finished their season. There is room for improvement, obviously, and it won’t necessarily be easy to find the finishing touches and tweaks over the summer, but let’s be realistic. They got their job done, and they won the league.
There’s no major problem to look into, and they might not have finished as strongly as they played at times, but did they need to exert themselves at that point? Not really. The title was already won.
Should they cut their losses with Federico Chiesa?
Federico Chiesa is in a tough spot. I watched him play well at Southampton away in the cup, and I was really impressed. I didn’t understand why he didn’t get too many chances. On the other hand, some players just don’t fit the system of what the manager ends up going with.
I don’t think he’s done a whole lot wrong, but I don’t know if it’s a great idea for him to stay on. He’s got to think of himself, think of what he wants from his career.
We can look at how the club used him, if he should have got more chances. He’s technically very gifted, but if he doesn’t fit in, he shouldn’t be staying at a club and warming the bench. He’s an Italy international, and he’ll get more chances somewhere else. Moving on could well be the right move for him.
What was it like playing with Jari Litmanen?
Phenomenal. It's an interesting one because when you play with elite players, they see things so quickly and they execute things extremely quickly.
So I played with Stevie and I played with Jari. I played with Michael Owen, I played with Danny Murphy, I played with Didi Hamann. All these players, they see things before everyone else. A lot of time I would just make a run and the ball's coming to me, they’d spot me right away.
But then I went to Birmingham and no disrespect to Birmingham, but I was playing with lesser players and I was making runs and I couldn’t work out why I wasn’t getting the ball. The reason was the Birmingham players didn’t see it as quickly and then you realise just how good the elite are.
With Jari, I’d make a run and the ball would be at my feet. He’d just say, make your runs and I’ll get you the ball.
Do you think the treble you won with Liverpool gets the credit it deserves?
I mean, we definitely get credit from Liverpool fans for what we did. It was a great period. You go to three cup finals, win them all - amazing.
The reason we don’t get the credit from neutrals is because we didn’t win the league, and because the UEFA Cup isn’t as prestigious as the Champions League. But they’re all major competitions.
One, the League cup, we've got to remember is the first available cup to win. So that sets you on a roll, that puts you on a pedestal already compared to a lot of teams. And then the FA Cup is one that everyone wants to win because the FA Cup is the game that everyone remembers when they were kids. We used to watch the FA Cup on television, everyone would be interested.
Then the UEFA Cup, yes, it's the one below the Champions League, but it's still huge. Absolutely massive. So for me, some people give us enough credit, but United fans probably don’t!
Who was the best player you played with at Liverpool?
I would say Steven Gerrard was the best of everyone I played with, because he had everything. If he needed to be that rough and tumble, he had that. He had that fight. He was caressing balls and he was finding players, he had that. He had the engine to get up and down, up and down. He had the strike, the wonder strike. He had everything. And he's six foot one, six foot two.
I think he made the right decision to stay almost to the very end of his career, because he's a local lad, and he's become a legend. It's difficult when you're leaving your local team, especially when it's Liverpool or you're leaving a Manchester club, and you're such a big legend within the city.
Going to say Chelsea or Arsenal or someone like that is going to be tough when you come back with a London team. If you're going abroad, it's not as bad, even if Trent was getting grief recently.
But as we saw with Michael, as we saw with McManaman, and players like that, it's not as bad. But when you go to Chelsea, like Steven almost did, that's tough. I believe it was right for him to stay even though he probably would have won league titles if he left. It’s interesting, because there was a point where even Rafa Benitez thought he was the manager who had sold Steven to Chelsea, but it didn’t go through in the end.
On England
What did you make of Tuchel’s post-Andorra comments?
I think it's honesty and we ask for honesty from our football managers as fans. Then we get honesty, we criticise. He said the tempo wasn't good enough. Roy Keane talked about everyone looking bored and unfortunately, some of them games against that level of opponent, they're like that.
Sometimes when you're playing against a lesser team and you've got to try and break them down, You need something else. You need those players who can unlock a door, players that can work within those small spaces. Cole Palmer is one of those. England has players that can work within those areas, but sometimes we push them too far forward to cause havoc. Sometimes you need your cute players to stay in the danger areas and not worry too much about tracking back.
One thing fans don't like is wingers that just keep turning back and passing it back. Turning back and passing it back. No, how about taking your full back on and if he tackles you, how about taking him on again? And if he tackles you again, how about taking him up again? Just keep going. Because nothing is worse than someone just coming back and coming back.
What did you make of the Andorra game?
Tiredness plays a part. The key thing is the football calendar is saturated. The most difficult job in football is for national team managers. You get seven or 10 days with your players. You need to pick a team, choose a system, and get them to work to your philosophy.
At the same time, you need your formula to gel with all the other ideas the players are used to with their clubs. You’ve got no time. You might have a player with their club on Monday, arrive Tuesday night, then play midweek, it’s difficult.
2026 World Cup Under Tuchel
Is Tuchel’s short contract likely to create a distraction in the lead-up to the WC? Would you give him a new deal soon if things are going well?
That's just life. That's just how things are. I think in the background the hierarchy will be assessing that and making sure that they're ready to deal with the situation at hand.
Players often struggle to cope with the demands at Real Madrid, are you worried Trent Alexander-Arnold might risk his spot at the WC by taking on such a huge challenge next season?
Well, not really. I think this is the key thing for Trent. You've got to back yourself. And I think he backs himself. Whether it be in a World Cup year, Euro Championship year or whatever it is, you've got to back yourself. You can't sit there and say, what if.
No, he needs to be confident in what he’s doing and show people what he’s about. That’s what he’s doing at Real. OK, it’s a risk, but every player takes a calculated risk with their transfers. And I think he'll be fine if it doesn't work out. But you can't say that he didn't try.
Premier League headlines
Should City have let De Bruyne go?
No, City should have kept KDB. That's my personal opinion in the sense that I still think he has a lot to give on the football pitch.
He’s been a great player for Manchester City, but I understand the decision, because it’s fair to say that he might not be able to play with the intensity that Pep Guardiola needs anymore, and not for as long as he really wants. He can’t do that on a regular basis.
However, I still think that he has loads of ability and can still cut it in top-level football.
Why do you think Mbeumo chose Utd?
The thing is with United is that they still have the pull to attract players. Normally, Mbeumo would be wanting Champions League football, knowing what the club are going to do.
Even now, without Europe, in a transitional phase, United can still get hold of players like him and Matheus Cunha.
It’s a bit like when I chose Liverpool, who weren’t yet at their best. I always supported Liverpool, but I always wanted to be in on the ground floor on their comeback. I understood the assignment, and I saw where things were going if they went well.
Mbeumo probably feels the same. He can be part of something that can be great again. Let’s be honest, it’s Liverpool and United when you’re abroad. They’re the only two clubs who matter to the rest of the world.
Regardless of where United are right now, the shirts and support are worldwide. City might be mounting their campaign to become more prominent, but they’ve a long way to go yet.
Where should Vardy go next?
The thing with Vardy is that he’ll give you everything he’s got. He’s suited to one of the teams coming up. He’s a proven goalscorer. He’ll get you goals.
The other side of that is he can only really do that if you’re providing for him, and the promoted clubs will need to make sure they have the system and the players to get something out of him.
With Erling Haaland leading the line at Man City, do you think physical strikers like you are coming back in vogue?
I think they are. Everything comes around in circles, doesn’t it? And I think that sort of big man striker, we've seen it with Chris Wood and Liam Delap.
I don’t want to take anything away from Chris Wood because he’s scoring so many goals, playing well, but a large part of it is that he is just in the right place at the right time. The big man has become effective again, and people are putting him on a pedestal.
But he’s what the game needs, and what his team needs. He holds the ball up, takes the pressure off. That can be vital, especially with smaller teams. He gives the rest of the team a break and allows others to run off him, he buys fouls. As well as that, when the ball goes into the box they can find him easily and he converts.
Is Guardiola going to turn things around?
Yeah, I think they can do it. Pep and his staff are phenomenal in finding new ideas and systems. He's had to reinvent himself a couple of times now, hasn't he? And they've done that. So it'll be interesting to see him do it again with the players that he's actually brought in already and will bring in next. How does it look? What does it look like? Because when you're looking at it now, these inverted fullbacks, he's been doing that for a while, hasn't he? Now everyone wants to do it.
The really interesting one is, how do I change up my style now to surprise people? Because I think a lot of people kind of understand what he's all about. Can he spring a surprise on everyone? Can he change everything up another time?
And he is under pressure in the sense that he's not won anything last season, but that's not a bad thing.
What do you make of the signing of Liam Delap and can he be Chelsea's number one striker?
An interesting transfer. I think it’s worth remembering that Enzo Maresca has worked with a lot of those young players for a while now, and he knows Cole Palmer from Manchester City too. He also knows Delap from his time at City, too.
The advantage Enzo has for next season is that of his players, he really knows what they're capable of and what they can bring. I think they've signed a fantastic player in Delap.
He’s an interesting player because we've gone away from that type of striker, the old school 9. Delap is the latest example of a more traditional centre forward. He can do more than just score, but he comes alive working in the box. I think it's fascinating to see these types of players making a comeback.
Chris Wood is another, at Nottingham Forest, he’s just doing what he always had but compared to everyone else, he brings something different to the pitch.
I played that position too, an out-and-out centre-forward, but I also played off the wings, played as a 10, and I could run with the ball. In those days, strikers were more rounded, we’d work the channels too. Now, players up front are pigeonholed, but forwards used to be able to do a bit of everything.
On Career Nostalgia
Memories of 5-1 v Germany and golf celebration
Wow, that was an amazing night. We lost to Germany 1-0 in the last game at the old Wembley. A Didi Hamann goal, of all people, from a free kick.
We went into the 5-1 game full of confidence, to be honest. Not arrogance, but we just knew what we could do. We went 1-0 down early, but when Sven was in charge, we were compact, and knew how we could play. We knew how to hit them on the break, and we scored at key times.
They scored early, after a few minutes, but then we scored to level it and made it 2-1 just on half-time. Anyone in football knows that when you hit a team just before half-time, you’ve dented their morale, and then we come out and score again early in the second half. At that point, we knew they were finished. The fourth and fifth, they were just the last nails in the coffin.
Is there a side you almost joined?
AC Milan. So I was leaving Liverpool and I was speaking to AC Milan. It's an interesting one. I was leaving Liverpool and I was talking to AC Milan about the possibility of going there, but I ended up in Birmingham.
I’m not too sure who the manager was to be honest. I was talking to one of the technical directors about the possibility. It didn’t matter to me who the manager was sometimes, it was more about the opportunity. AC Milan would have been fun.
What do you make of Beckham’s knighthood?
When you talk about David Beckham, he’s one of the biggest icons in British sporting history. Not just football, British sport in its entirety.
He brings so much to the table. He’s done it for the country on a wider basis, with his cultural impact. He was a star for Manchester United, Real Madrid, AC Milan, England, and went to MLS. I see no reason why he shouldn’t get his knighthood. If anything, he should feel aggrieved that he didn’t get it earlier.
Best England striker you played with?
Michael Owen. Me and Michael played together from England under-18s. Michael's two years younger than me, but we played together in England under-18s. And yeah, since then, he's been phenomenal.
I think our styles matched and we knew each other from a long time back. We understood the assignment of what we had to do to make it work as well.
On Aston Villa
If you were Morgan Rogers would you be tempted to sign for Arsenal if they put in an offer?
I think he needs to really be careful. He's a huge asset for Villa, Right now he’s a fantastic player. But he's got to choose wisely in the sense, I would stay at Villa if I was him, establish myself, play more football. Because if you go to a theoretically bigger club and you don't play football, you're wasting your talent.
He's got to play. I love the way that he plays. He plays with enthusiasm, he plays with freedom and he's a very good player. So I would suggest he stays at Villa for another season at least.
Would you keep Marcus Rashford if you were Aston Villa? Has he done enough to merit his wage demands?
He's done enough to earn a move in football terms, but the figures don't match the value of what they’re willing to pay. His wages are astronomical.
They’re too big for Villa, I think. They could probably afford it, but it would stop them doing any other business, and it doesn’t make sense. If they pay up for him too, their current players are going to be asking to have their contracts looked at as well. It sets an awkward precedent.
Is Rashford good enough for Barcelona?
Probably not, if I'm honest with you. Raphinha has done fantastically, hasn't he? And then where's Rashford gonna play? Is he gonna play through the middle and replace Lewandowski? I don’t think so. How many goals has he got this season for Barca, thirtysomething?
The only reason I can see it working is if he realises Barcelona play 60, 70 games a year and he’ll get a lot of game time when the bigger players need a rest or are injured. But at the same time, if I’m Marcus and I want to push the move through, I back myself. You can’t play a career and not have conviction that you’re good enough for the team you want to play for.
When I was at Leicester, and then Liverpool, what I felt was the biggest club in the world. Initially I wasn’t too confident then I checked myself. I said no, I’m good enough, I’ll show everyone. That’s what he needs to do now. At his best, he’s good enough, but he can’t just talk about it, he has to actually do it.
Would Emi Martinez moving to Man Utd be a step down for the keeper?
He's got the presence to play for Manchester United. And he's very confident. Whoever goes into Man United, you have to have some serious presence. You have to have some serious belief in yourself. And I think he's got that because the pressure is going to be on from day dot, because when you look at Onana, his confidence is on the floor.
Whoever comes in next, they have to hit the ground running. Emi is an interesting character, and you’d need to be that to take on a challenge like United right now.
He’s probably the closest goalkeeper in attitude to Fabien Barthez, and you need that. It’s a huge club, absolutely massive. He’s won the World Cup, he’s played with Lionel Messi, so he’s well suited as far as we can tell.
We won’t know for sure until and unless he moves, because we’ve seen goalkeepers crumble in minutes, like Massimo Taibi, with the pressure of United. They make a few mistakes and then you never see them again. The only reason that’s not happened to Onana yet is because their other keepers are no better than him. If you can’t look to your number two at all to take the pressure off, then there’s a huge issue there.
Can you see Jack Grealish getting back to his best if he returns to Villa Park?
I imagine he probably would consider going back to Villa, but I don’t know if that’s the right thing to do.
First off, it rarely works out when players go back to their old clubs, it usually is a bit of a disappointment. But as well as that, Jack isn’t the same player who left. He changed his game, he’s older, he’s had a couple of disappointing years.
The same goes for Villa, they’re not the team he left. They’re on their way up with Unai Emery and I’m not certain there would be a role for Jack at Villa.
Tottenham might be an option, but that all depends on who goes in there. We don’t know who is taking over, and if it’s Thomas Frank, we don’t know if he wants him.
On The Club World Cup
Is this the perfect setting for Paul Pogba to make a cameo and relaunch his career?
Yes, I think the Club World Cup is the perfect place for Paul Pogba to relaunch his career. I know he's been out of it for a long time but he has to show what he can do. You want to put yourself at the highest level. It might work, it might backfire.
It could all go wrong quickly. because you might be absolutely miles off it or you might be able to hold your own.
He's been out of it for so long. We've got to remember this is elite football. There's no other sport that you can be out of for that long, and think you're gonna just walk back in, and be up against the best. No, no. So he's got to be really careful with that.
I’ve not seen him play for so long. Taking touches in five-a-side, running around a pitch with his mates, it’s nothing compared to the real thing.
As a former striker, who do you think will be the top scorer at the FIFA Club World Cup this month?
It's not going to be Ronaldo, is it? You’ve got Liam Delap at Chelsea and Vinicius Jr. at Real Madrid, but I’m not convinced it’ll be either of them.
But at Real, you’ve got Kylian Mbappe, who just beat Thierry Henry’s record for France. He’s in good form right now, and he’s settled, so I’ll go for Mbappe to top-score at the tournament.
The question for me on Real and the other teams, too, is that it’s a lot of games and it’s been a long season. Are these clubs going to be mentally dialled in for that many more games? That’s the toughest part, not even discussing the physical side of things.
We’re going to get to a point where we're gonna be criticising these players for mentally tuning out during the season. We’ll say they’re not focused, or they’re not at their peak. That’s going to be true at some point, but it will be because they’ve not had a break… And that's the key thing.
I think the European giants will want to try and win this tournament, so Real Madrid, PSG, City, they have to be the favourites - they’ll want to win it. I can see Kylian Mbappe looking to put his stamp on the tournament.
Who do you see as favourites for the tournament in the USA?
There’s Dortmund, who’ve just got Jobe Bellingham, but I think you've got to put Man City in there. Real Madrid are in there. City and Real are there as the favourites. PSG will want to flex their muscles after being crowned European champions.
The question for all the sides is whether they want to risk putting out their strongest elevens. They’re coming off the back of tough, tough seasons, but City especially have to win it. They’ve not landed a trophy this season, but so they need some glory.
More than that, the sheer size of the prize money means they simply can’t ignore it. They have to go hard, even if they’re tired. City and Real would be my favourites.
Is there pressure on City at CWC?
Yeah, 100 percent. City have to win or give everything to get as far as possible, for the financial side, too.
They’re buying all these players. They're getting all these players coming in, so this would actually help them as well. They've just got Ait-Nouri from Wolves, they've got Cherki coming in from Lyon, so you've got to really pay for all this. So I'm guessing they've really got to have a go.
What happens if City fail at the CWC?
Nothing will happen to Pep if City struggle at the Club World Cup, to be honest, even if they’ve had a rough year up until this point.
Let's be honest. I wouldn't say he's bulletproof, but he's not far off. The thing with Pep is that he’s just brought so much to Manchester City, to the club. He’s brought so much to the Premier League and to the country, too.
So the players need to give everything, but I don’t see any pressure on Pep if things go wrong in America.
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