Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp and Huddersfield manager David Wagner go way back, having played together at Mainz in the early 90s and coached together at Borussia Dortmund. Wagner was Klopp’s best man at his wedding (though he didn't do a great job at it).
Now as opposing coaches in the Premier League, they’re maintaining their friendship — to an extent.
We should be used to this by now, but for some reason it still comes as a surprise.
Another big match involving Jose Mourinho became all about the Portuguese manager, despite an enthralling Chelsea-Manchester United match in the first 96 minutes on Saturday at Stamford Bridge.
Dan Blank, the author of the SoccerIQ Series, remarks in all of his books that if you want to coach and play soccer, you have to believe details matter.
He’s absolutely right.
Despite only being appointed manager of AS Monaco on Saturday, Thierry Henry has had to approach his first head coaching job like one of his trademark goals from the left wing: with remarkable speed. The traditional Ligue 1 power sits in 18th place after nine matches, and Saturday’s trip to Strasbourg represents a massive opportunity to begin the climb out of the relegation places.
Didier Deschamps was a pretty good player in his days. He won a World Cup with France in 1998, won Champions League titles with both Marseille and Juventus and also appeared for Chelsea and Valencia in a lengthy, trophy laden career.
Thierry Henry is returning to the club where it all began for him. The Arsenal and France legend, who also played for Barcelona, Juventus and New York Red Bulls, was hired as manager of AS Monaco on Saturday, his first head coaching job.
Henry, 41, served as an assistant coach for the Belgian national team (which lost to France in the 2018 World Cup semifinals) for two years and reportedly had offers to coach Aston Villa and the Egyptian national team.
The World Cup was an absolute shit show for Argentine manager Jorge Sampaoli. Jettisoned into the job in May of 2017 as the savior of Argentina’s horrendous qualifying campaign, the former Sevilla boss managed to secure passage to Russia on the final match day (although Lionel Messi’s hat trick in Quito certainly helped).
However, with one armageddon avoided, the next promptly arrived — the finals themselves revealed what many had known about La Albiceleste since the cycle began: The beaten 2014 finalists weren’t very good anymore, apart from Messi.