Back from a rare weekend off. All change in the white half of North London. Why did it take so long? Was it the right decision? I will try and make sense of it below, also it is goodbye to Mo. So much for a quiet week in football. Issue 85. Go.

Igor Tudor departing Tottenham by mutual consent on Sunday, seven days after overseeing a 3-0 home defeat to relegation rivals Nottingham Forest. Why did it take seven days for a decision to be made? A lack of replacement the main factor.

The Tudor reign ending with just a point collected from the 15 on offer, the North London outfit hanging perilously above the Premier League’s relegation cliff. Fast forward 48 hours after the former Marseille boss left, another former Marseille boss arrives.

Step forward Roberto De Zerbi, the Italian securing a five-year contract - a masterstroke in terms of negotiating from his end of the bargain. That five-year deal surely the reason the ex-Brighton boss steps in now and not back in February.

Because when Thomas Frank was sacked and shown the exit door at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, De Zerbi was a name that was mooted as a potential replacement for the Dane.

The sticking point at that stage was the Italian not wanting to take the job last month with such high stakes attached to it. Better to let the campaign play out and work out if the post was still an attractive one at the end of May.

In the initial weighing up of De Zerbi’s interest, there is no way a five-year deal was offered to the 46-year-old. A two or three year contract likely to be put forward but of course, a lot changes in the space of five league games,

The desperation from the Tottenham ownership structure there for all to see, easy pickings for someone who can name their price to take the job now and not wait until a potential relegation takes place.

Five years penned, no relegation clause either. That may be viewed as a positive for Tottenham fans weighing up if this is the right move or not - somebody who is not going to jump ship if there is a shipwreck at the end of all of this.

Stylistically, Tottenham have not got the time to wait for new methods to bed in, they have 12 days at the time of writing before their trip to Sunderland. Things have to click, they have to click right away.

There has been an incredible amount of pushback from pockets of Tottenham’s support on Social Media. Not without merit but if fans of the club want to start petitions for everything they do not agree with, forward progress will never be made at the club.

The coaching of Mason Greenwood at Marseille and comments suggesting he is a ‘good boy’ are rather unpalatable but the former Manchester United forward is not coming to North London with De Zerbi, there has to be some disconnection from that.

In addition to that, the Italian is nothing short of combustible and you are already counting the days until the first bust up with a player. Then again, maybe this current Spurs squad need a rocket up them and it puts some noses out of joint, so be it.

This of course means that De Zerbi is going to be far from a unifying force in N17, he could end up making things more divisive than they ever were - things are certainly going to get interesting between now and the end of the season.

A season distilled into seven matches, a calculated gamble by Tottenham’s board. Stare into the abyss and wipe off £350m in lost revenue due to relegation, spend £20m now in a bid to secure survival. They had to twist, if they stuck, they would already be down.

The news cycle has already moved on from Mo Salah’s announcement (that is what happens when you miss an issue of your own newsletter), his departure not the biggest surprise but still something of a shock when the news was broken.

Liverpool preparing to say goodbye to their Egyptian king, deep down this feels like a decision that works best for everybody. Go now while history is still kind to you, do not stay another year and further unravel all the good that you have done before.

The new contract was always going to be a litmus test as to how much Salah still had left in him. A salary of £400,000 at the age of 32 is always going to be tilted more towards a reward of previous effort than what is required going forward.

That said, a considerable level of output is still required to justify such a handsome salary and it is fair to say that it has not been there. Good by Premier League standards, not great by the benchmark that Salah built himself.

Not to forget, the falling out with the club earlier in the season. That always felt like the beginning of the end in terms of Salah’s tenure, many felt the end would have come about in the January transfer window.

No January sale but the summer shift will make life easier for whoever is in charge next season. Arne Slot perhaps winning the battle (if there ever really was one), Xabi Alonso or anyone else not having a large but fading presence to contend with.

The fact that Salah has decided to take free agency and forego a season’s worth of £400,000 salary per week should be lauded. It would have been very easy for him to wind down the clock and cash the cheques while putting his feet up.

Now the discourse pivots to where Salah will end up next. A move to Saudi Arabia seems likely, whether the gold rush has slowed down at the wrong time remains to be seen but there is no doubt his departure from Anfield will be taken at the right time.

He will go down as one of Liverpool’s best ever players and in a few years time once he has retired, everyone will reminisce on just how good he was but as Harvey Dent in Batman’s The Dark Knight said:

You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain

Obviously need to paraphrase that into footballing terms, but you get the central point. Another season may have just taken the sheen off a little too much, that sheen will be largely protected now as Liverpool move into a genuine new era in the summer.

The news that Ben White was to be recalled to the England squad after four years away from the setup was certainly divisive. His return to international duty on Friday saw him play the role of pantomime villain.

Booed when he came on the pitch as a second half substitute, booed by some pockets of the Wembley support when he scored England’s only goal against Uruguay and choice language spouted in his direction when he conceded a late penalty.

In the thick of it on his recall but now that Thomas Tuchel has called him back into the squad and the hot air of England’s support has been collectively exhaled, will supporters of the Three Lions care all that much?

The reasoning as to why White left Qatar in 2022 has never been made public. Some suggest that it was due to not preparing for a game properly (watching previous clips) and drawing the ire of assistant Steve Holland.

Whatever the reason, if White is given a ticket to North America - which in itself is far from a guarantee and he has a good World Cup, nobody is going to worry about what happened in 2022.

Football fans collectively are a massively fickle bunch. Do something in the now, the past is quickly forgotten. That is how fandom has worked for many years, that is how it will work in the summer. Let’s say Qatar for now when it comes to White’s previous commitments.

11 Arsenal players all ruled out of international duty in midweek due to injury.

How many will be fit for the weekend? Place your bets in the comments. I am going with 10.

Just a week or so after the controversy regarding who actually won the 2026 AFCON tournament, comes the announcement that the tournament will expand in size in two years time.

With 24 nations currently making the finals, that number will swell to 28. A number that does not make a whole lot of sense in terms of a tournament, if anything it is one of the worst possible numbers.

If we put our maths hats on for a moment, any tournament in the order of 2 works best. That means either 8, 16 or 32. That way, you get the top two from groups go into the knockout stage. Easy, balanced, fair.

AFCON and other tournaments such as the European Championships and the World Cup do not work to that order. 24 or 48 teams and you get in the murky ground of third place teams making the knockout stage. It rewards defensive football, backs up failure, I don’t like it.

Which begs the question as to what format would work for 28 teams. Assuming that 28 then has to be whittled down to 16 for the start of the knockout phase.

I guess, it would be seven groups of four. Top two of each go through leaving you with 14 and then the two best third-placed best teams also go through. As always, more games equal more money but it once again fails to make sense.

With Michael O’Neill working as both Northern Ireland and Blackburn manager, what happens on the international stage may have a direct effect on the Championship relegation battle.

Northern Ireland having to face Wales on Tuesday, a whole host of Oxford, West Brom and Leicester players in the squad. If O’Neill was feeling devilish he could play those involved for 90 minutes and tire them out for their club games at the weekend.

Blackburn fans will be praying that is the case. Their rivals praying their star names are given a rest. Watch this space.

Remember when Colin Kazim-Richards was purchased by Brighton from Bury with the help of Coca- Cola? A nationwide competition almost 25 years ago saw the drinks giant put aside £250,000 to aid the transfer of a player to any of the then 72 Football League clubs (Championship, League One and League Two in current money).

Brighton were not the Premier League mainstay they are now and could not believe their luck when a supporter of theirs won the competition. A quarter million pounds spent on Kazim-Richards, a solid career both home and abroad subsequently followed.

Fast forward 25 years and Kazim-Richards has now taken over as manager of Crawley Town. The Sussex outfit hanging dangerously over the relegation zone but picking up a 2-0 win. Some early fizz in his new job but will it be enough to avoid the drop from League Two?

Every wanted to watch eight minute highlights of every Premier League game ever contested?

Now you can!

The Premier League has unrolled a treasure trove of content

Dig in at your leisure here »»»»»» Pandora’s Box

Right, that’s the end of issue 84 as word continues to spread around the football world.

This isn’t a newsletter that follows the crowd. It sets the lens through which you see the game and more than 200 subscribers are now viewing it through that lens.

If you’re serious about understanding football, staying ahead of the stories, and cutting through the noise, keep this in your inbox - send it to your friend’s inbox as well.

Issue 86 drops Friday. I’ll be back with another round of insight, analysis and trends that matter. Any feedback or comments on this issue, contact me below:

[email protected]

Follow me on Twitter (x) - https://x.com/dantracey1983

Follow me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dantracey/