Troy Deeney has admitted he wants to see one Premier League club fail this season due to their ‘moronic’ fan base. The retired striker unleashed a huge rant against supporters this week.
The business end of the season is fast approaching, with teams still fighting for the title, European spots and survival in the English top-flight. However, Deeney openly hopes one team falls short of their aims for the campaign.
The former Watford and Birmingham City forward has had an ongoing feud with Arsenal supporters, and he’s once again had a go at the Emirates faithful. Following the weekend victory over north London rivals Tottenham, Deeney had some seriously strong words for Arsenal fans.
Troy Deeney Slams Premier League Fanbase
Deeney’s frustrations came from his perception that Arsenal fans have very short-term memories. Mikel Arteta’s side dropped crucial points against bottom-of-the-table Wolves last Wednesday, casting serious concern within the fanbase.
However, the feel-good factor returned extremely quickly with a big derby win against Spurs at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday. The striker-turned-pundit vented his annoyance on ‘The Football Exchange’ podcast this week.
The retired striker has made some sensational claims about Arsenal’s chances of winning a trophy under Mikel Arteta this season.
He said: “Arsenal fans have this skewed opinion. When they win, it’s like the last week-and-a-half, two weeks, three weeks, months never happened.”
After recalling an incident where his young son had done something to annoy him before forgetting just moments later, he continued: “That’s an Arsenal fan in a nutshell. An Arsenal fan will go like, ‘Wednesday never happened’. You know when they were all melting down and like, ‘If we lose to Spurs, the season’s gone and Arteta’s got to go.’
“Then they win against a terrible Spurs team, a terrible Spurs team, and it’s like, ‘Yeah, we’ll win the league, we’re gonna win everything, the treble.’
“Honestly, that’s the only reason I don’t want Arsenal to win the league. Not because of Arsenal, because of Arsenal fans. They’re f*****g moronic.”
Troy Deeney’s History With Arsenal
Troy Deeney
While playing for Watford in 2017, the big centre-forward took issue with comments made by then Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger. The Hornets had just beaten the English giants 2-1 at Vicarage Road when the French boss criticised a penalty decision.
Deeney, who scored the spot kick, then went on an angry tirade against the Gunners. “I have to watch what I say, but it’s [having] a bit of cojones, is what I’ll say. Whenever I play against Arsenal, I’ll go up and think ‘let me whack the first one and see who wants it,'” he said.
Troy Deeney has been left unimpressed with one Manchester United player’s ‘tough guy’ act.
The Englishman added that he found the north Londoners to be on the soft side, claiming they weren’t up for the battle. In comments that still annoy the fanbase, he continued:
“I came on today and jumped up with [Per] Mertesacker — I didn’t even have to jump, actually — I nodded it down, the crowd gets up: ‘Yeah we’ve got somebody who can win it’, and they all just backed off.
“For me as a player, I just think ‘happy days’. That’s my strength — if you’re going to let me do my strength against you, you’re going to have a tough afternoon.”
According to reports, the schedule for England’s game against Mexico is set to be changed. The game was supposed to take place at 6pm local time in Mexico City, but will be moved.
There were fears that thunderstorms could cause delays on the day of the last 16 fixture. According to the Met Office forecast, the storms are expected to begin an hour before kick-off and last one hour into the World Cup clash.
As such, the game is now set to be moved to Sunday at 12:00 PM, six hours earlier than the intended kick-off. As such, if the change goes through, viewers in the UK wiill now watch the game at 7pm (GMT).
Even England’s best player understands the task ahead.
England Set To Have New Kick-Off Time vs Mexico
Hannah Mckay via Reuters
A report from Mexican news outlet Claro Sports explained that FIFA will change the kick-off time ‘due to the risk of a thunderstorm. A post on social media noted:
Claro Sports has learned that the round-of-16 match between Mexico and England is changing its schedule due to the risk of a thunderstorm. The match will take place this Sunday at 12:00 PM, in a key adjustment for one of the most anticipated clashes of the World Cup.”
Tottenham have received an official offer to sell one of their players in the summer transfer window from one of the ‘big teams’ in Turkey.
We could see a host of players leave Spurs in the summer transfer window, with Roberto De Zerbi’s side looking to bring in a host of reinforcements.
Spurs have already confirmed the signings of Mateus Fernandes, Jan-Paul van Hecke, Andy Robertson, Marcos Senesi, and Martin Dubravka, which could lead to a number of players leaving the club.
Midfielder Joao Palhinha has already confirmed that he won’t be remaining with Spurs next season after the North London club had an opportunity to sign him on a permanent deal following his loan spell.
Yves Bissouma also departs at the end of his contract, but further exits are likely.
He won’t be a Tottenham Hotspur player next season
Tottenham Receive Official Offer
According to journalist Yagiz Sabuncuoglu, Tottenham have received an official offer from one of the big sides in Turkey, likely meaning Fenerbahce, Besiktas or Galatasaray, for Brazilian forward Richarlison.
It’s unclear which team has submitted an offer for Richarlison or how much. Either way, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Spurs were willing to accept the deal.
Richarlison is unlikely to be the starting striker for Spurs heading into the new season. It wouldn’t be a surprise if De Zerbi’s men look to bring in a new centre-forward.
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Tottenham to Make Big Loss on Richarlison
Regardless of how much Tottenham have received in terms of the offer for Richarlison, they look set to make a huge loss on the Brazilian forward.
Considering he has hardly set the world alight during his time in North London, it is going to be difficult for Tottenham to even get near that in terms of a sale.
It would be a shock to see Tottenham receive even £30 million for Richarlison. They may have to accept that they are going to make a huge loss in order to get him off the books.
A former USMNT manager has gone viral this week after being called out for comments he made about Mauricio Pochettino following the USA’s 2-0 win over Bosnia in the World Cup Round of 32. The Stars and Stripes secured their first World Cup knockout victory since 2002 on Wednesday night.
Folarin Balogun – one of the standout performers at this summer’s tournament – played both hero and villain in Santa Clara. He scored the crucial opener to put his side in the driving seat, but then threw a spanner in the works for Pochettino and co. when he was shown a red card in the 64th minute. That left Mark Tillman to step up late on and double the co-hosts’ advantage.
After topping their group and recording back-to-back World Cup wins for the first time since 1930 with victories over Paraguay and Australia, the USA have well and truly caught football fever this summer. There’s a sense of optimism surrounding the team unlike anything seen before – but that doesn’t mean everyone is jumping on the bandwagon.
Ex-USMNT Manager Bizarrely Puts Pochettino on Blast After Bosnia Win
Phil Noble via Action Images via Reuters
Perhaps a little salty, Gregg Berhalter was unimpressed with Pochettino’s tactical set-up during the 2-0 victory over Bosnia, and believes superstar Christian Pulisic needs to be utilised more ahead of their Round of 16 tie vs Belgium.
Speaking on FanDuel’s Coaches Corner, which features Berhalter alongside fellow former coaches Bruce Arena and Bob Bradley, he was critical of the way the US was getting ‘Captain America’ involved. “I want to touch quickly on Christian, because I don’t know if you guys remember the first time he touched the ball in the game?” he asked the studio.
“It really came from us building in our shape, it was like a 3-1-6 (formation) almost. (Bosnia) are playing, as Bob, mentioned a 5-3-2. So they shifted over once to our three, but then on the next pass to our open center back, they’re released with a midfielder. When they did that, Antonee Robinson was high, Malik (Tillman) was high, Christian was wide and we played in the ball.
“Malik runs behind the back line and Christian cuts across the middle of the field like a knife – just accelerating across the field. That was a really dangerous attack.
I would have liked to see that more. Stay wide, get the ball, take the opponent on and have been have players running from there. I don’t think we did that enough. I don’t think there was enough intention to get Christian the ball in those positions to really set him loose.”
While Berhalter – who has sat in Pochettino’s seat on two separate occasions, between 2018 and 2022, and again between 2023 and 2024 – was just providing some analysis, as he was called upon to do, he has been destroyed by his former supporters after the video quickly went viral on social media.
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Gregg Berhalter looks on before the game between the United States and Bolivia in a 2024 Copa America match at AT&T Stadium on June 23, 2024.Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
Pochettino’s tactics are superior to those of the fired coach. That’s the opinion of a majority of USA fans right now, and so scrutiny towards the current manager’s predecessor has been swift, with one X user remarking: “Yes, let’s ask the guy who was fired for being bad at his job what we should’ve done,” as others pointed out that he “failed” to do what his heir has managed to do.”
“He needs to stay in his lane,” a third added, as a fourth wrote: “His opinion is irrelevant.” Elsewhere, a fifth brutally concluded: “If I were Greg Berhalter watching what’s happening right now I think I would be spending 100% of my time trying to make sure people don’t remember that I exist.”
Opta’s Supercomputer claims Lionel Messi’s Argentina have a stronger chance than England
In his first spell in charge of the USA, Berhalter’s side reached the last 16 of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and won the Concacaf Nations League Gold Cup in 2021, but his second spell lasted only 14 games. After a 1-0 defeat to Uruguay to knock them out of the Copa AMerica at the group-stage, he still claimed he was the right person to lead the team to the 2026 World Cup, but faced the axe instead.
