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Daily Mail
28 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
How Chelsea are leaving rivals dumbfounded by making their line-up the toughest to predict in football - and Jorrel Hato adds another dimension
James, Josh & Malo may sound like a London solicitors' firm but in reality, they were Chelsea 's hat-trick of options at right back last season. Who started? Who knew? Could be Reece James, possibly Josh Acheampong, maybe Malo Gusto. Manager Enzo Maresca even played a pair of centre backs in Wesley Fofana and Axel Disasi out of position on occasion, as if he delighted in gaslighting opposition analysts and those of us who file weekly predicted XIs. Until Chelsea submitted their team sheet to the Premier League 75 minutes prior to kick-off, we were all playing his guessing game, unable to say for sure who would be used and where. It was different on the other side of Maresca's defence, however. There it was a lonely story involving Marc Cucurella. The 27-year-old Spaniard was Chelsea's only natural left back, hence why he finished 2024-25 with 5,000 minutes played for club and country. That was more than any of his team-mates and he managed 2,989 of those in the league — pretty much as many as James, Acheampong and Gusto combined. Now, Cucurella has cover arriving in Jorrel Hato from Ajax after the two clubs agreed a £37million deal. Denunciations of stockpiling be damned. Sources at Chelsea say they want to provide Maresca with enough squad depth to rotate across all areas of the team. With Hato on board, that is looking like at least two players per position. Hato was identified for his potential, first and foremost. Chelsea tracked him throughout last season when Mail Sport first reported on their interest in this teenager. He is a 19-year-old Netherlands international with six caps. He was Ajax's youngest ever captain at 17 and has already made more than 100 senior appearances. He is a skilled player who can move inside and is used to playing for a team who control possession. He can play at centre back, though Chelsea primarily see him as a left back competing with Cucurella. Chelsea made 419 changes to their starting line-ups under Maresca last season — more than any other club in Europe's top leagues. Hato is set to further complicate those Monday morning briefings between analysts and managers. He may take time to adapt, but the message is: good luck predicting which players will be used by Maresca and where from now on. Cole Palmer was primarily used as a No 10 last season, but Maresca deployed him on the right wing in their Club World Cup triumph over Paris Saint-Germain last month. A Stamford Bridge insider described Maresca as a 'master of rotation', adding the 45-year-old Italian does not have a best XI, and nor does he desire one. He wants the best squad. He picks his teams based on a tactical plan, the opposition, training and playing load. When Chelsea beat Djurgardens 4-1 in their Conference League semi-final first leg, for example, they arrived back in London at 4am on the Friday morning. They then beat Liverpool 3-1 in the league on the Sunday, with Maresca making eight changes. Cucurella was one of those who survived the rotation in a needs-must situation. This summer was identified as a time to strengthen in order to compete in what is being described as a 'dual season' for the club in England and Europe. They do not simply want to have retuned to the Champions League. They want to compete. Once Hato has signed, he will join other recruits such as Liam Delap (£30m), Joao Pedro (£55m) and Jamie Gittens (£48.5m). The Brazilian wonderkid Estevao Willian has also arrived from Palmeiras. RB Leipzig's Xavi Simons remains a target, as does Manchester United's Alejandro Garnacho. Chelsea are set to enter into a minuscule pre-season with the players due back this week to prepare for friendlies with Bayer Leverkusen and AC Milan. They could yet receive offers for Nicolas Jackson, though Maresca is currently planning to have him compete with Delap as a striker — again, options — while leaning on Joao Pedro's versatility across the attack. The choices available to Maresca were already as rich as any manager's in the top flight — and even more now Hato is on the way.
The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
‘I am going to hunt you down & find you' – Ex-Premier League boss fumes at his own fans who threw CHAIR at rival player
IAN HOLLOWAY has blasted a Swindon fan that allegedly threw part of a chair towards Walsall goalkeeper Myles Roberts. The Robins were beaten 2-1 by Walsall despite the Saddlers being down to 10 men from the 21st minute of the encounter. 5 5 5 Evan Weir had put the Midlands side in front after just eight minutes, but his team's task was made much more difficult when Brandon Comley was shown the first red card of the new EFL season. Swindon finally levelled via Will Wright's 79th minute penalty, but 10-man Walsall grabbed a dramatic 91st minute winner courtesy of Connor Barrett. In the closing stages of the match, Saddlers goalkeeper Roberts went down with what appeared to be a calf issue. An object was then thrown from the crowd towards the goalkeeper, with goalscorer Barrett picking it up and handing to the referee. Holloway, 62, was incensed by the incident. Following his side's 2-1 defeat, the Swindon boss fumed: "I am a human being who loves this game but I also love other human beings. "I am here to represent my wonderful football club in a way that is courteous in defeat – tenacious as well, I want to fight for things, but you don't rip out a seat and throw it at someone. "I wouldn't want Walsall thinking that about all of us, so anyone stood next to them, I want them dobbed in because that's not right. BEST ONLINE CASINOS - TOP SITES IN THE UK 5 "These people creep into football and no one does anything about it. I am standing up for Swindon Town, a magnificent club and we don't want anything to do with this. "Whoever you are, you should be ashamed of yourself. I am going to hunt you down and find you." Neil Warnock hints at shock return to management with 'unbelievable' crisis club Speaking to Sky Sports, former Blackpool, QPR and Crystal Palace boss Holloway added: "Well done to them (Walsall) I thought their crowd was great. Disgusted with our crowd throwing something on the pitch. "Who the hell do you think you are? You represent us and you represent me - how dare you do that. "That's absolutely disgusting, so I hope whoever that was gets banned." Swindon will be back in action next Saturday, when they host Cambridge United in their first home game of the season. 5
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Holders Kingussie into Camanachd Cup final as music festival curtails card
Holders Kingussie won through to the final of the Camanachd Cup with an eventually comfortable 3-0 victory over Fort William at Bught Park, Inverness. Kingussie will now return there on 20 September to meet Newtonmore or Oban Camanachd, who contest the second semi-final in Fort William next took Dylan Borthwick just two minutes to give Kingussie an early advantage. The tie then hung in the balance, with chances for both sides, but just after the hour Thomas Borthwick put the holders into the driving seat with their second before Ruaridh Anderson added the shinty programme was severely reduced on Saturday after no fewer than 15 teams requested a free Saturday, mainly to attend the Belladrum music the Premiership does have new leaders following Oban Camanachd's 5-1 victory on MacMillan, Daniel MacVicar, Daniel MacCuish and Joe MacVicar had Camanachd 4-0 up by half time in Portree. Willie MacKinnon pulled one back but Malcolm Clark restored Camanachd's four- goal advantage just a minute later to secure their ninth consecutive Oban side now head Fort William by a point, with Newtonmore one and Kingussie two further adrift. However both have a game in now require only two points from their last three games to gain promotion back to the Premiership following a 3-1 success at Inveraray, where Ben Delaney scored two. Glasgow Mid Argyll reduced Col Glen's cushion in the second promotion place to two points with an away victory over their rivals by the same Auryn Kerr pulled the score back to 2-1, the outcome was in doubt until John Sweeney's late third for Mid remained in distant promotion contention when Josh Cowan scored four in their 8-3 home win over Kilmallie.
