Managers and players speak for first time on European Super League

Managers and players have decided to speak for first time on those controversial European Super League as the story continues to develop.

Plans for the midweek tournament involving some of football’s richest clubs have been met by widespread dismay from fans, pundits and former players.

English football’s so-called “Big Six” are among 12 clubs who have agreed to form the breakaway competition to rival the Champions League, with the project backed by US banking giant JP Morgan.

A total of 20 teams are expected to join before the inaugural season, with 15 “founding clubs” guaranteed a place in the league without the threat of relegation.

Gary Neville demands for a points deduction to be handed out when talking about the English clubs choosing to sign up for the European breakaway league.

The former Manchester United defender has launched a scathing attack on the big six’ clubs that have signed up to a join the tournament, as he urged football authorities to dock points from them in this Premier League season.

You can see more of what Neville and those in the Sky Sports studio made on the plans by clicking HERE.

Time to look at what the managers and players of the English clubs involved who speak for the first time on the European Super League plans.

They include comments from Jose Mourinho before he was sacked by Spurs on Monday.

Managers and players speak for first time on European Super League

Jurgen Klopp

The German manager reportedly voiced his opposition to plans for a European Super League in 2019.

According to the Liverpool Echo, Klopp told German sports magazine Kicker: “I hope this Super League will never happen.

“With the way the Champions League is now running, football has a great product, even with the Europa League.

“For me, the Champions League is the Super League, in which you do not always end up playing against the same teams.

“Of course, it is [financially] important, but why should we create a system where Liverpool faces Real Madrid for 10 straight years?

“Who wants to see that every year?”

However Klopp did previously joke he would be keen on the idea of a European Super League, saying it would mean “a lot less games and much more money.”

Asked for his thoughts on the proposition in 2018, he said: “I have no real opinion. It sounds nice, really nice, because it would mean a lot less games and much more money.

“I’m completely fine with league football and how it is at the moment. At least it’s an idea that won’t happen immediately, I’m not sure if somebody has spoken about it to be honest.

“All the other wonderful ideas of UEFA and FIFA they do it immediately – they don’t ask – you see then, ‘oh now we have 20 more games – all of us – and no more money.'”

His latest comments on the plans came prior hsi sid’es game against Leeds on Monday…

🚨 | Jurgen Klopp speaks about the European Super League…

The #LFC manager explains his thoughts on the breakaway proposals and reveals him and his players were not consulted on the decision.

Watch #MNF live on Sky Sports Premier League now! pic.twitter.com/DLSXeT1Lze

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) April 19, 2021

Pep Guardiola

The Manchester City boss warned “we cannot kill the lower divisions or the Premier League” when he was asked about plans for a European Super League earlier this year.

Speaking back in January, Guardiola said: “I have the feeling we cannot lose the local leagues, what it means for the FA Cup, the leagues.

“What we should do is make every single league in Europe stronger than what it is, less teams, better championships, better League One, better League Two, better Premier League with less teams in every competition. Go to the quality over quantity.

“To make a super Premier League, you have to reduce the teams, but we cannot kill the lower divisions or the Premier League itself.”

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

The Manchester United manager claimed he only learnt of the latest developments surrounding the European Super League on Sunday.

After his side’s 3-1 win against Burnley, he told Sky Sports: “I’ve seen this morning the news and speculation.

I can’t really say too much, my focus has been on this game.

“I got the news today as well.”

He added: “I don’t really know all the ins and outs – I need to find out and the club will issue a comment probably.”

“I can’t say too much, my focus has been on this game.”

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer speaks to Sky Sports after #MUFC were linked with plans for a breakaway European Super League. pic.twitter.com/0NosY4gXYm

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) April 18, 2021

Mikel Arteta

The Gunners boss claimed he was unaware that the club had agreed to be part of the European Super League as he faced questions after their 1-1 draw with Fulham on Sunday.

A reporter asked: “Are you saying you’re not aware of it at all? You haven’t heard anything from the club?”

Arteta replied: “No.”

He went on to say: “Once I know every detail and I have all the information then I can evaluate and give you my opinion.”

Jose Mourinho

Before he was sacked on Monday, just hours after the club announced its plan to join the European Super League, Mourinho had been tight-lipped about his thoughts on the breakaway competition.

Asked for his views during a press conference in October last year, Mourinho said: “I leave it for Mr Levy,” referring to Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy.

However on Monday morning, there are rumours that he didn’t want to take his players out onto the training ground to show how much Jose opposes the plans.

Thomas Tuchel

The Chelsea boss said he “trusts” the club “to make the right decisions” after he was asked about their plans to join the European Super League during a press conference on Monday.

Tuchel, who was appointed in January, said: “I’m part of this club. I want to play in hard competitions. I trust my club to make the right decisions.

“I think it’s too early to judge everything and it’s not my part.

“On my badge from Chelsea it says I have to play my role. Everyone has to play his role.

“My role is to be a coach and to be focused.”

Other managers and players speak for first time on the European Super League plans, making for interesting reading.

WAYNE ROONEY

“I can speak from being at Man United at such a long-time,” he said.

“The last thing they would want to do would be to jeopardise their relationship with the fans.

“They would want to keep them involved. Let’s see what the proposals are when they come out.”

SIR ALEX FERGUSON

“Talk of a Super League is a move away from 70 years of European club football,” Ferguson told Reuters.

“Both as a player for a provincial team Dunfermline in the 60s and as a manager at Aberdeen winning the European Cup Winners’ Cup, for a small provincial club in Scotland it was like climbing Mount Everest.

“Everton are spending £500million to build a new stadium with the ambition to play in Champions League.

“Fans all over love the competition as it is. In my time at United, we played in four Champions League finals and they were always the most special of nights.

“I’m not sure Manchester United are involved in this, as I am not part of the decision making process.”

RALPH HASENHUTTL

Discussing the prospect of the new competition, Saints boss Hasenhuttl said: “It does absolutely worry me. But I must say that the message from the Premier League was a very clear one and I 100 per cent agree with what they say about this. 

“This is for me absolutely unacceptable what is going on behind the scenes and I think nobody wants it. Not even the fans of the clubs who want to go there want it, so hopefully we will find the right steps to not let it happen.”

Asked why he feels it is unacceptable, Hasenhuttl added: “Because they know there were a lot of powers of negotiation inside the Premier League going on about the future and they were not one time speaking about this Super League. 

“Suddenly it crops up and it means that there were some negotiations in behind in the background and this is something which is for me unacceptable.”

“I spoke about the big threat I have because of this Super League. Especially for the Premier League, it is the league that has the biggest impact from such a league. 

“Especially when UEFA will then try to ban them from the national league because the Premier League will not be the same without these clubs. I always spoke about, it is nice to watch the big games but it is also nice to see sometimes a smaller team winning against a big team. 

“This is what makes the Premier League special. It is very hard to imagine that this all should go from one time to the other. It is a big threat. 

“This is definitely something that we have to take very, very serious. It can be an earthquake for football – not only in Europe, but worldwide. UEFA and FIFA have a tough job now.”

We continue our look at managers and players choosing to speak for the first time on the European Super League…

JOHN MCGINN

Journalist Oliver Holt tweeted: “Milan, Arsenal, Atlético Madrid, Chelsea, Barcelona, Inter Milano, Juventus, Liverpool, Man City, Man United, Real Madrid, & Tottenham Hotspur. Once proud clubs. Now known as the Dirty Dozen.”

To which it captured the attention of Aston Villa player John McGinn who in his witty way replied to it.

He simply trolled those taking part, saying: “Pro evolution names til the end of the season for them. Man Blue v Merseyside Red”

NIGEL CLOUGH

“I have only seen the headlines, not the full details, and the good thing is I don’t think it’s going to affect us,” he said.

“But I think it’s a very dangerous development.

“When terms like ‘breakaway’ and clubs going off doing their own thing are used, usually it’s for the benefit of those few clubs involved and to the detriment of everyone else in football.

“These top clubs view themselves as exclusive and almost as if they have a god-given right to be one of the best clubs in Europe and the world. But it goes against the competition side of it.

“In English football we have our stories like Wimbledon years ago going up through the leagues and even Burton a few years back going from non-league to the Championship.”

He added: “The principle of competition is that anyone can go up or go down. I think this goes against that principle.

“If you have no relegation then it doesn’t matter if you are bottom, second from bottom or third from bottom, it doesn’t make any difference to you.

“In this exclusive competition if you are not going to win it and you have five or six games to go, what are you playing for? They’ll just send out the U23s or something.

“It needs a lot of looking at, a lot of discussion by the wider football community, rather than just the few clubs.

“You have to to engage everybody and try to find the best way forward.

“The powers of the governing bodies of football throughout the world are diminishing slightly. But they still hold significant powers about when players can play and they have to use them.”

“Fans of teams outside that top six and even fans within that top six that are fair-minded will be concerned about it,” said Clough.

“It is an absolute lifeline for clubs to draw one of the top six. I know that from our experience at Burton when we drew Manchester United all those years ago.

“To take that away I think that is extremely selfish by the top six. I don’t think the football fan base will be too accepting of it.

“I think even those top six clubs would want the opportunity to play those cup ties as well.

“They don’t want to be just playing Juventus and AC Milan or whoever in this exclusive group. If you are a football supporter you love the cup games as well.

“It might only be once in five or 10 years that a League Two side will get that opportunity. When it does come along people remember it for years and years. It will be a tragedy if that is taken away from us.

“This has been rumoured for quite a few years but it’s always been batted back.

“To get this sort of thing through is still unlikely but it’s concerning they are now discussing it at this level.

“How it affects everyone else further down the pyramid we’ll have to wait and see.”

ARSENE WENGER

‘I would say that’s a bad idea,’ Wenger said. ‘Football has to stay united, it’s the most important thing.

‘It’s based on sporting merit and overall to respect the history that has been built from European football.’

But despite initially predicting the formation of a new tournament, similar in concept to the new Super League, back in 2009, Wenger believes the idea ‘will not go far’. 

He added: ‘I don’t know what exactly is behind (it). There is a more dangerous idea behind it and it’s a big threat for the Premier League.

‘When I was still in charge it was a lot going on from other countries to diminish the dominance of the Premier League and a project like that would certainly accelerate that.’

We continue our look at managers and players choosing to speak for the first time on the European Super League…

PODENCE AND FERNANDES

Podence’s post reads: “The ball. The song. The dream. The Zidane’s volley… Kaka’s solo… Liverpool in Athens… Ole in Barcelona… Cris and Seedorf… There some (sic) things we just can’t really pay for.”

Responding to the post, Fernandes replied: “Enorme (enormous).”

The Red Devils star later shared the post to his own Instagram Story, and included the text: “Dreams can’t be [bought],” alongside clapping emojis.

IAN HOLLOWAY

Holloway told Plymouth Live: “I think it’s the end of football as we know it.

“The world has finally gone mad and greed is what these people are basically doing it for. We have got to make a stance really, the rest of us.

“This is business, not sport, and football has been heading that way for years and years, even with the Premier League.

“This is a bigger version of it. That was where it all started. It’s all wrong.”

Holloway continued: “We are coming out of a Covid situation where we are dragging ourselves out of something that was the most horrific thing we have ever had to live through.

“You could argue the world wars were worse but I’m not sure because with this virus we don’t know where it is and who has got it.

“I hope we come out of it with a less selfish attitude, and I think it’s worse.

“On Saturday I watched the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral and I thought it was absolutely wonderful when you look at his life.

“He gave up his own career to stand by his wife’s side, no matter what happened, he kept going. He made everybody keep going.

“He was selfless. What he did with the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme, I remember doing that at school. It made you want to be something.

“Two days later the opposite has just happened. Greed has finally taken over the brains of these owners.

“They should be stripped of their football clubs because they don’t deserve it.

“They are too selfish to uphold the integrity of the game. Are they fit and proper owners? The truth is no they are not.

“They are selfish. They don’t care about the game. They only care about their football club. That’s not right.

“Football belongs to people, whoever you are, whatever you do. However your team is faring, it belongs to you.

“The integrity of the leagues stands because if you are not doing very well you are forever down the pyramid.

“If you are doing brilliantly you are at the top of the pyramid, but you shouldn’t guarantee yourself being there. You have to work for it, you have to earn it.

“This is the opposite to that and for me there is no competition. Life is about competition, football is about competition.

“It’s a competition sport where you can become part of a team and find your own true self. None of us are any good on our own.

“We all need to work and be together in a social set-up and a social pyramid where if you work hard then everybody looks after you.

“It’s not like that at all anymore. I would love to hear what Bill Shankly and Sit Matt Busby (the legendary former Liverpool and Manchester United managers respectively )would say about this.

“It absolutely goes against every sinew of my body and my person of who I wanted to be.

“It’s absolutely disgraceful. If you are one of the clubs who are in it, you don’t care about anybody else, and surely that’s what we want to get out of the world?

“Selfish attitudes should be banished. What are we saying? We have got all of the food and you can’t have some? That’s what they are saying. It’s the same thing.

“All of us football people, we are going to support 12 clubs are we because the rest of the football will be useless without them in it because you can’t climb into it and catch them?

“Only five teams, if I read it right, will be able to do that. That’s just nonsense. You have got to earn the right to be there.

“We have all got to unite and stand together and stop this absolute charade happening.”

JOEY BARTON

“I just think it’s sad, I think it’s really really sad,” he said. “But I think it’s just an indictment of where the game’s at the moment. I wrote about this and spoke about this for at least, I reckon, a decade.

“I always felt they were going to go down an NFL model, I always felt they were gonna try and close the shop, because that was the only way that these multi-billionaire owners could turn these football and community clubs into franchises that generate millions and millions of pounds.

“It will ruin the English pyramid, there’s absolutely no doubt about that. I think the legacy of these six clubs making these decisions will have incredible ramifications across the game in this country and probably the rest of the globe’s game enormously.

“I sit here as a very, very wealthy individual off the back of the Premier League being formed and the money that football has been able to generate in recent years.

“But also we must remember that the Premier League was a breakaway from the old Football League but it was also endorsed by the Football Association and I think the Premier League on the whole has improved the well-being of the football pyramid.

“Its allowed a lot more money to cascade down the football pyramid and help keep probably a lot of local and smaller community-based clubs alive. And I think we could do it a lot better, so that we do have a more healthier ecosystem.

“I think this move by the six in our country and the six from Italy and Spain is very, very worrying for the football pyramid as we know it in England.”

“Could we carry on our football pyramid without Tottenham? Probably, Tottenham in my lifetime haven’t been very successful.

“Chelsea? Well I remember Chelsea being crap when I was a kid. No disrespect to them, but they weren’t Chelsea as they are now.

“Legitimately, Manchester City when I was there were not what they are now. They were in the third tier when I was first at Man City, winning the play-off final against Gillingham.

“OK, Liverpool and Manchester United have sat at the top tier of English football for a long period, and if you take Liverpool and Man United out of the football pyramid it would be affected, but the other four clubs, even Arsenal, if you take Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City and Tottenham out of it, that wouldn’t really faze me.

“I think Liverpool and Man United leaving is a huge factor. They are the big global clubs that people come and look for.

“It’s sad, it’s really, really sad, but hopefully there’s enough opposition to it from the fans. It looks like there’s going to be an uproar and if enough people are against it and enough people don’t support it, we might have a salvation.”

Everton star Richarlison responds to European Super League plans by retweeting THAT Gary Neville video, quote retweeting it with a clapping hands emoji.

Mesut Ozil wrote: “Kids grow up dreaming to win the World Cup and the Champions League – not any Super League. The enjoyment of big games is that they only happen once or twice a year, not every week. Really hard to understand for all football fans out there.”

What do you make of what the managers and players said as they speak for the first time on the European Super League? Just like the fans, majority of those within or to have experienced the game after against the proposals.