How Guardiola intends to use Semenyo

It took Manchester City only a week into the January transfer window to sign Bournemouth’s Antoine Semenyo for £62.5 million.

Speaking with City insiders I was able to discover how Pep Guardiola intends integrate the winger and wide midfielder into his Premier League squad.

Semenyo was undoubtedly on many European club lists but the player himself chose City as his next career move. Having scored ten goals and made three assists this season he is surpassed only by his new team-mate Erling Haaland and Brentford’s Thiago. Semenyo is an entertaining winger who has pace, dribbling skills and a thunderous right foot and he can also score with his left.

The 26 year-old isn’t a typical City player and at Bournemouth he was essential to coach Andoni Iraola’s brand of football: high intensity, counter attacks which did not rely on well-rehearsed formations across the pitch and ball possession.

Semenyo is joining a well-packed attacking side and his signing gives Pep Guardiola even more options joining Haaland, Doku, Grealish, Cherki and Foden. Pep has changed his attacking options several times this season and as he puts it he “rolls with the punches”. Semenyo brings more to the party and mirrors Doku’s relentless dribbling, Haaland’s blockbusting penalty rushes and Rayan Cherki’s ability to break down defences with his technical ability. Semenyo will make things happen from the touchline but he will also be able to construct a counter-attack which is fairly new to Pep’s usual well-rehearsed build-up from the back.

Liverpool’s options during January transfer window

With only two weeks to go until the January transfer window closes Liverpool, as expected, have had a quiet beginning to 2026.

This could all change with the knee injury to Conor Bradley who is likely to miss the rest of the season. Giovanni Leoni underwent surgery on an ACL and Alexander Isak has a long term recovery period after fracturing his leg in last month’s win against Spurs. Hugo Ekitike and Waturu Endo also have injuries although they are close to returning as is Mo Salah who will be returning from the Africa Cup of Nations.

With everything taken into consideration, coach Arne Slot will still be short of options and discussions are taking place at Anfield to bring in one or two recruits to bolster up the playing squad. Liverpool are hampered because they already have the full quota of 17 overseas players and therefore can only sign homegrown talent unless they sell. They are still interested in Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi but Oliver Glasner does not want to break up his backline of Guehi, Maxence Lacroix and Jefferson Lerma.

The man who tied down Saka until 2031

Arsenal fans have a new hero: Andrea Berta. The Italian businessman took over as Sporting Director at the Emirates last year and has been working with Mikel Arteta to secure new contracts for several of the Gunner’s most important players. After a long negotiating period Berta has finally agreed with Bukayo Saka’s representatives a new five-year contract which the winger has now signed. The deal, which improves his current salary of £200k a week, will be increased to £300k which for a 24 year-old is one of the leading salaries anywhere in Europe.

Berta has been the mastermind with the business experience and acumen to arrange such deals and his next task involves extending both Declan Rice and Jurrien Timber’s contracts.

Ethan Nwaneri, Myles Lewis-Skelly, William Saliba and Gabriel Maghalhaes have all agreed new terms with Arsenal.

Tottenham fans plan protest

With angry fans and disillusioned players, Thomas Frank’s survival as Tottenham coach is looking more and more unlikely.

There are four powerful board members in the Totttenham hierarchy who still support Frank and believe he can turn things around as the team lurches from one failure to another. They are keeping him in the hot seat for now but even that support is weakening.

A third round FA Cup loss to Aston Villa has intensified the pressure even further. It is the first time the club has failed to reach the fourth round since the 2013/14 season and things are going to get worse for the ex-Brentford manager. When Spur’s meet West Ham this weekend fans are planning a protest which will be led by the supporters’ group ‘Change for Tottenham’.

The supporters are not calling for the head of Frank but they are demanding that the club spends in the transfer window to strengthen the team. They also want to be told of the club’s long term strategy for achieving results.

Will any top manager risk his reputation at United?

Following their embarassing knockout blow inflicted by Brighton, which saw the Red Devils exit the FA Cup, United fans drifted out of Old Trafford wondering how far their team could fall this season.

United suffered their fourth home defeat in five matches and have no place in either domestic cups having been ejected from the Carabao competition earlier this season. Consequently the club will play only 40 games this time around which is their lowest number for 111 years!

Only an absolutely top class manager with the highest cv can ultimately rescue United’s dismal lack of consistency but the problem is: Would any first class manager with the right credentials risk taking on the poison chalice of turning United and the whole club around?

I went up to Manchester early in the week and discovered what exactly has been going on regarding the appointment of Carrick until the end of the season.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was interviewed twice to take over until the end of the season and was favourite to move in. However, things changed dramatically on Monday when several senior players went directly to the management to register their objections to the Norwegian taking over. They said Michael Carrick had the confidence of the players and Solskjaer did not. The board listened and Solskjaer was immediately removed from the list and Carrick was appointed.

Manchester United vs Manchester City

Can United conjure up a win against City in what will be a bitterly fought contest between the two Manchester derby sides?

City are not the rock solid certainties they once were and opposition teams are having success against the former title holders. They are still chasing Arsenal but keep losing points in vital games.

Rodri, Bernardo Silva and Tijjani Reijnders will control midfield and Rayan Cherki, Phil Foden and Erling Haaland can create chaos in the United defence if newly appointed interim coach Michael Carrick hasn’t had the time to prepare his team in training.

A mouth-watering battle should be in the offing with arguably the world’s best goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma against Benjamin Sesko, Matheus Cunha with his long shots at goal and Patrick Dorgu who has hit a spell of good form.

It will be interesting to see how Michael Carrick sets up his team. Darren Fletcher turned down a role under Carrick after managing United for a couple of games and therefore it is reasonable to think the team could be rotated too. One thing is sure, Carrick agrees with club legend Sir Alec Ferguson that Kobbie Mainoo has a great future at the club and he will be seeing considerably more action than he did under Ruben Amorim.

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