The Athletic FC ⚽ is The Athletic’s daily football (or soccer, if you prefer) newsletter. Sign up to receive it directly to your inbox.
Welcome! Age is just a number in the Premier League. Coming up:
👦 Brighton’s boyish boss
🤔 Will Ramsdale move?
⛺ Vardy, oxygen tents and Red Bull
👕 More best/worst kits
A fresh face: The coach younger than five of his players
He’s younger than his goalkeeper. And his captain. And every single other permanent manager in Premier League history. Oh, and the Premier League itself.
Meet Fabian Hurzeler. Schooled in Bayern Munich’s academy and fresh from winning promotion to the Bundesliga with St Pauli, the 31-year-old (31?!) head coach is now taking on the Premier League (the division that had its 32nd birthday this month) with Brighton & Hove Albion.
Hurzeler beats the record of Chris Coleman, who was 32 years old when appointed Fulham manager in 2003. The Texas-born German is younger than five members of Brighton’s first-team squad — James Milner, 36, Jason Steele, 34, Danny Welbeck, 33, Lewis Dunk and Joel Veltman, both 32 — and 86 players who played in the Premier League last season.
So what’s it like to play for him? What do the older players in the squad think? Are his methods working?
Players have hailed Hurzeler as exuding a wisdom beyond his years.
“After the first day I went back home to my wife and said there is no way I am older than the boss, which is a credit to him,” goalkeeper Steele tells our Brighton writer Andy Naylor. “To capture the room and have that aura and charisma… he has definitely got that.
“The moment he took his first meeting it was, ‘Wow, this guy is here and he is ready’. Everything about him screams ‘boss’ and that is the biggest compliment I can give him.”
His attention to detail, efficiency and sense of humour have also shone through.
“We review every training session every morning,” defender Adam Webster adds. “We go through what was good and where we can improve, so the level of detail is fantastic.”
Obviously the players are hardly likely to publicly criticise their new boss, but such wholehearted praise is promising.
What are his methods? Are they working?
Regaining possession quickly is a key part of his philosophy, so training sessions can be gruelling to ensure players are fit enough to implement his intense style.
They can be innovative and fun too, including tennis ball drills — where the ball is passed around by hand, two against one, in a small space — to improve agility and anticipation.
It seems to be working. Hurzeler began his Brighton reign with an impressive 3-0 win over Everton. The result even left his side top of the Premier League.
Just no one ask him about pagers or floppy disks…
Vardy On Ice: Striker stars after cryotherapy, oxygen tents and… Red Bull
Another player older than Hurzeler is Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy — although age is seemingly not something the 37-year-old pays much attention to.
He continued to defy his body in Monday’s 1-1 draw against Tottenham Hotspur, leading the line for Leicester and scoring the equaliser with a clinical header, after finding himself unmarked at the back post in the second half (below).
He played 79 minutes despite missing the majority of pre-season through injury. So what’s the secret of the man who is called a ‘freak of nature’ by those close to him? He revealed that to Sky Sports last night.
“Tomorrow it’s off-feet, get the massages, cryotherapy, in the pool, stretching. Then more cryotherapy at home, sauna, an hour in the oxygen tent. It’s a bit boring in the oxygen tent and nine times out of 10 I fall asleep and the kids have to come and find me.”
He also drinks a half-time can of Red Bull and wasn’t afraid to laud it over Tottenham fans about his Premier League winner’s medal when substituted. Never change, Jamie.
Transfer Talk: Latest on Ramsdale, Felix and Gundogan
Ornstein’s One To Watch: Marc Guehi
Design – Eamonn Dalton; photos: Getty Images
Our transfer guru has highlighted the Crystal Palace centre-back in today’s DealSheet. Here’s his analysis:
Newcastle have made a series of bids for the England international, with the latest reaching £60million guaranteed plus a further £5m in add-ons. Palace, meanwhile, are holding out for around £65m plus £5m.
Given the discrepancy in valuations — Newcastle seem to be at their limit and Palace refuse to blink — the Tyneside club are now exploring other options in case the Guehi pursuit does not materialise.
Newcastle already have strong defensive options, including Fabian Schar, Emil Krafth, Dan Burn, Lloyd Kelly and Sven Botman, who will return from injury in December.
There is also interest from Fulham in Guehi’s centre-back partner Joachim Andersen, but that has not developed since The Athletic reported the last bid a week ago.
There appears to be an impasse in the Guehi and Anderson situations.
Guehi is appreciated by other sides in the Premier League, including Liverpool. They are looking at centre-back options in case both Joe Gomez and Sepp van den Berg leave. They also know Virgil van Dijk has entered the last 12 months of his contract and there has been no fresh news about a renewal.
Newcastle are the only suitor to enter meaningful talks. That makes Guehi the one to watch this week, especially considering the transfer deadline is next Friday (August 30). Everyone needs a resolution, one way or another.
How do I look? Best and worst kits outside Premier League
We couldn’t resist another kit feature. The Athletic’s Nick Miller continues to angle for a job at Vogue as he casts his eye over standout new strips from outside the Premier League. He covers retro throwbacks with varying degrees of success, homages to local landmarks (the Eiffel Tower and Blackpool Pleasure Beach, styled by Kyle Joseph above, feature in the same sentence) and so very many collars.
The highlight? Spanish third-tier outfit Alcorcon have produced a retro-collared, reverse Boca Juniors style beauty. Kappa rarely misses.
The lowlight? Xherdan Shaqiri may have had second thoughts about leaving MLS to return to his boyhood club Basel when he realised their home shirt was adorned with flames.
Around The Athletic FC
(Top photo: Masashi Hara/Getty Images)
