We almost asked him. It was on the tip of our tongue.
Instead the former Sunderland manager and chairman chatted all matters Premier League ahead of the start of a new season kicking off this Saturday.
Are Arsenal really a team interested in selfies and six packs as Roy Keane stated?
“I was out in Singapore at the Barclays Asia Trophy and you could feel it that they are at a different place. You’ve got what we always called young players coming through and would they make it? The question is out there now but they seem to have a good stock answer. The Wilsheres and what have you. Oxlade-Chamberlain.”
“They’re not kids with flair anymore. They’ve got to be men this year to deliver. Bringing somone like Petr Cech into the dressing room to create that is huge. I don’t think you can underestimate that. I felt there was a spark in that team and they were responding to feeling good about where they sit as a team right now.
“I spoke for many seasons about having a defensive midfield player that can drive people on. Maybe people spoke about the centre halves more than that but all of us agreed that with a world class goalkeeper everything else would come alive.”
Is Benetke worth the money Liverpool paid for him?
“He could have a huge impact. It alters the way Liverpool play but I look at him and Lukaku they are giants. They have this ability and all the things that go with that. If they adapt to having Benteke in the team, the flair players adapt to having him in the team, and that’s not simple. That can be an alteration that causes hiccups as well.”
“It’s not going to suddenly just happen and after five or six games teams work out how you play a bit more and the analysis will be coming at them about how to stop Benteke and nullify him.”
“But he’s that powerful and if Liverpool play to his strengths, the flair players take to him and read him and play off, you have a whole new dimension to Liverpool. But it will want to take something special to make them title contenders in my opinion.”
Will Manuel Pellegrini last the season at Manchester City with rumours of Guardiola still about?
“He’s under a different kind of pressure. Last year, it did go back a step. They’re giving him this third year and with the signings he’s made, I wonder if there’s a different approach. They still need David Silva, he’s the most important player they’ve had in the last few years. And Aguero. If the two of them have a good season, then Pellegrini, whatever we say about him, should be alright.”
“Yaya Toure’s head seems good, he seems committed, he’s kicking on a bit. Milner leaving to Liverpool, there’s still a few questions marks to be answered on that one and we’ll see. Obviously Sterling could become a bit of a show over the year.”
How would you have handled the Sterling situation if you were at Liverpool?
“Maybe it’s my GAA background of playing for where you’re from or whatever, but I was disappointed. He’d been in trouble, Liverpool helped him out great during that period. When you’re a young player and fame hits and trouble hits, the club did really well for him and turned him into what he is – a hugely exciting talent and a brilliant footballer.”
“But the other stuff is gone out of the equation now, his trouble that he was getting himself into. He forgot about that instantly in the quest for the big move, and I didn’t like that.”
Why are Irish players finding it hard to break through in England?
“What I remember from our first few years in the Premier League is that we were getting B list foreigners coming in and getting twice as much money as the players that were in there for the home countries.”
“That was all very fine until you got up to the top four and six who were able to attract the bigger ones. The issue changes when you have a team down the bottom that is getting so much money next year for staying up. The increase next year is incredible so what do you do to try and get it. Do you get the A list foreigner? No. Do you pay too much for the B list? Definitely.”
“And for me that’s that bit down the end, and all those people who aren’t paying for top six teams who the top six won’t buy and never will buy, they’re the ones who I feel are holding up the development of the home countries and their players because they are sitting on the contracts and they’ll make their way through the game and come and go.”
Who’s going to win the league?
