All-time Premier League draft, Vinicius Jr's contract stand-off, Arena questions Pochettino

The Athletic FC is The Athletic s daily football (or soccer, if you prefer) newsletter.

Sign up to receive it directly to your inbox .

Hello! Can you pick an all-time Premier League XI? Can anybody? On the way: The Athletics EPL draft Vinicius Jr eyes $34m Real deal Arena questions hiring of Poch Arsenal in Partey contract talks Draft decisions: Who would you pick in an all-time Premier League XI? In a matter of hours, NFL aficionados will have the fun of the 2025 draft .

Its an aspect of U.S.

sport which world soccer will never countenance and a hiring system which world soccer doesnt really get, if were being honest.

In that spirit, The Athletic asked a group of writers to edge out of their comfort zone and get into draft mode by picking their all-time Premier League line-ups.

It was conceived as a bit of merriment but the debate yielded some salient conclusions and underlined the challenge of building the perfect team in an environment where money cant buy everything.

Advertisement First, a rundown of the rules: four of our scribes took part, using a snake order (where the order of picks changes for each round.

The NFL employs a more linear process, with roughly the same order from start to finish).

They had 60 seconds to choose each player and because the Premier League is more than 30 years old, they were under instructions to include five who appeared in it before 2010.

Broadly speaking, those favoured are Premier League royalty.

Duncan Alexanders choice of Paulo Ferreira, a three-time title winner at Chelsea , as pick No 20 was the only left field selection (but still perfectly valid).

And as an example of how strong the calibre of footballer is, Erling Haaland is nowhere to be seen.

His record-breaking at Manchester City wasnt enough to make the cut.

Or not to date.

Youll find the full draft order and the teams constructed by our writers here (and above) .

The discussion will be published in full as a podcast this weekend, so look out for that.

A few of the things that were noted: theres no room for mavericks like Matt Le Tissier (ex-Southampton).

Trophies clearly outweigh isolated genius .

Jacob Whitehead spotted a scarcity of wide options, in comparison to a wealth of choice through the spine of a side.

And Duncan made a great point: with names like Roy Keane and Steven Gerrard, you can feel the sweat of them firing into each other.

Theyre in the ether of the Premier League, in a way that Haaland isnt.

Yet.

But more than that, you realise that theres actually no such thing as an undisputed Premier League XI, simply because the best 11 players of all time dont automatically provide balance or chemistry.

Who plays up front depends on whos playing in behind.

The right choice of attacking assets depends on the defensive strength around them.

And so on.

Advertisement So whose line-up floated my boat? Im going with Duncans, purely because its madness: Luis Suarez paired with Sergio Aguero, Dennis Bergkamp in their slipstream, David Beckham out of position with Yaya Toure and Tony Adams reading the riot act at centre-back.

Artificial Intelligence is taking over football and it would have a fit if it saw this XI.

Which is reason enough to give the team some love.

Vinicius Jrs $34m stand-off: Real Madrid want new deal for Brazilian but could he go to Saudi? Reports in Spain that Vinicius Junior is on the verge of extending his Real Madrid deal appear to be greatly exaggerated.

The club think the process is advanced.

The players camp say talks are at a bit of a standstill which is odd considering a renewal is in Reals interests.

As the world knows, Saudi Arabia covets Vinicius Jr and it has deep enough pockets to tempt the biggest and the best to the Gulf.

Mario Cortegana hit the phones to find out whats really going on : Nothing is happening but lots is happening, a classic contractual saga.

Youll get the full picture from Marios piece , which is as definitive as anybody can be.

News round-up Waiting Game: Arsenals draw means Liverpool are set to win title at Anfield on Sunday By a whisker, the Premier League crown still isnt Liverpools.

Theyll wrap it up when they face Tottenham on Sunday instead and in front of their own crowd, thats the optimal scenario.

Half of the Netherlands will be looking on with pride .

Crystal Palace did their best to get Liverpool over the line last night, but a 2-2 draw at Arsenal fell just short of the required win.

Pray silence for one of the goals of the season, though: a stonking equaliser from Jean-Philippe Mateta, who made a long-odds chip look like childs play (above).

Its the FA Cup semi-finals next for Palace and after a few punishing weeks, this was encouraging preparation .

Advertisement Further afield in Europe, Milan had Inters number again.

Having turned over Inter in the final of the Italian Super Cup in January , they buried Simone Inzaghis side good and proper in the last four of the Coppa Italia yesterday.

Very few sides rinse Inter 3-0 but Milan are their cup kryptonite.

There ends Inzaghis treble quest .

Arena questions Poch: Ex-USMNT boss says Argentinian does not know domestic game Yesterdays TAFC, alongside a news line about Mauricio Pochettino , cautiously suggested that the honeymoon is over, if indeed it ever started.

Judging by comments made by one of his predecessors as USMNT head coach, our observation was on the money.

Bruce Arena managed the U.S.

twice, from 1998 to 2006 and 2016 to 2017.

Allied with his MLS record, hes regarded as Americas finest football coach.

So Arena criticising Pochettino on a podcast with former internationals Tim Howard and Landon Donovan was going to cause a stir.

This is what he had to say: If you look at every national team in the world, the coach is usually a domestic coach.

And I think when you have coaches that dont know our culture, our players, our environment, its hard.

(Pochettino) is a very good coach (but) coaching international football is completely different (to) club football.

In essence, Arena thinks hiring Poch was an error.

Which is worthy of reflection because some would say that on the basis of the past couple of years, the USMNT were crying out for someone to come in from the outside and shake things up; a fresh take, if you like.

If football culture in the U.S.

is beyond the wit of a talent like Pochettino then Im not sure what the answer is.

But no question hes started poorly and nay-sayers will emerge as a consequence.

Around TAFC Catch a match (Selected games, times ET/UK) Coppa Italia semi-final second leg: Bologna (3) vs Empoli (0), 3pm/8pm CBS, Paramount+, Amazon Prime/Premier Sports.

La Liga: Leganes vs Girona, 1pm/6pm ESPN+/Premier Sports; Atletico Madrid vs Rayo Vallecano, 3.30pm/8.30pm ESPN+, Fubo/Premier Sports.

League One: Stevenage vs Birmingham City, 2.45pm/7.45pm Paramount+ (U.S.

only).

And finally...

Is this the worlds worst-ever long throw? We found it in Saudi Arabias Pro League, where defender Radhi Al Otaibi made a horses arse of trying to salvage a point in the dying seconds of Al Ettifaqs 3-2 defeat to Al Ittihad.

Whats the opposite of cometh the hour? (Top photo: Clive Mason/Getty Images).

This article has been shared from the original article on theathleticuk, here is the link to the original article.