Collymore’s column: Eberechi Eze, Alexander Isak statement row, Premier League review, and more

In his exclusive column for CaughtOffside, former Liverpool striker Stan Collymore discusses some of football’s biggest talking points, including Eberechi Eze’s decision to join Arsenal over Tottenham, Alexander Isak’s statement, the talking points of the Premier League opening weekend, and more.

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Eberechi Eze is a very good signing for Arsenal

It makes a lot of sense that Eze has decided to join Arsenal over Tottenham, given that he is a fan of the club. The mood music and the news coming out was that it wasn’t a done deal with Tottenham, and it was a bit of a worry when it started to drag on. And as a player in that situation, your agent can call you and say ‘two or three other clubs are interested, what do you think?’ And when one of those clubs is Arsenal, of course it’s going to be of great interest to him.

I think he gives a really good option. I think it definitely strengthens them. I think that having somebody other than Bukayo Saka that can really go past people five times a game and set up goals is a very exciting option. It’s an 8/10 signing for me, because he makes Arsenal stronger.

But does it make Arsenal favourites for the Premier League title? Not for me. But I’m licking my lips at the thought of Saka on one side, Eze on the other. And if it doesn’t work on one side, I would like to see a little bit more tactical flexibility from Mikel Arteta to put Saka on the left and Eze on the right – because having those two gives Arsenal a lot of attacking flexibility.

Where do Tottenham go for here following Eze snub?

As for Tottenham, I think that some of this is going to sting a little bit because of the Gibbs-White situation – and also because they have one or two injuries like Maddison and Kulusevski. They’re desperate to get bodies in.

I can understand some of the reservations they had about agreeing a fee earlier, because they could feel that £60m is expensive for a 27-year-old, because the reality of the situation is that Eze is probably going to be at his most productive now for only two more years. But still, it is definitely a blow for Tottenham.

But I’m sure that with another week or 10 days to go in the transfer window, there are plenty of pacey wingers around Europe that Tottenham can spend money on. Of course, the preference is always to buy Premier League players that are known quantities, but there will be many, many more wide men that can do what Eze does across the continent.

Alexander Isak has been naïve during Newcastle stand-off

I think the situation with Alexander Isak shows the modern player wants his cake and eat it. And it also shows the naivety of the player and his agent. If you in a contract say Isak, if he, after two seasons, is a regular in the first team and scoring goals, he should’ve tried to negotiate a new contract with Newcastle that included a buyout clause of £75-80m. These are fairly standard now, but that’s the thing. Isak’s agent and Newcastle didn’t put a buyout clause in, which would have allowed the player to speak to anybody.

The second thing is the naivety of the player and the agent to trust any football club. And this isn’t about Newcastle, because I’ve had lots of experience of transfers. When you’re sitting there around a table with a friendly CEO that says, ‘we love you, we want you, you’re the best thing since sliced bread’, the thing is that can all change. If you don’t play well, you get blanked and ignored. If you do play well, clubs are rallying around you, trying to offer you a new deal or looking for potential suitors.

So the fact is that Newcastle could have sat around that table and offered him to be king of England, or they were going to give him a £6bn yacht. But the reality of the situation is, unless that was written down, never trust a football club. And I’d say that specifically to any player. If you want something in your contract, have it written in there and you’ll get it. If not, it’s rubbish. And lots of players will be nodding their heads in agreement reading this saying that I’m right.

My advice to Isak is to get back with your teammates, get back in the dressing room, let the agent and the club sign a brand new contract that includes a buyout clause. And then if he does well, he’s could go in January. If Liverpool are still in need of a striker, then go to them in January. Or just play this season and go to Liverpool at the end of the season. Every club on the planet will know what his buyout cause is.

If the reality is that Liverpool are not going to pay £150m, then he’s got to get his head down. He’s got to get back in the fold and he’s got to start scoring goals sooner or later.

Aston Villa should be worried about Morgan Rogers situation

I worry a little bit about Morgan Rogers, because I think that players get their head turned very quickly. Although he’s a Midlands lad, he’s used to moving around to different clubs. So he’s one of those players that will go where he feels that he can achieve things. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Villa fans thinking that because he’s a Midlands lad that he’s going to stay at Villa any longer than he would if it was any other club. I’d just brace yourself. Because the PFA Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year is voted for by your fellow players, and chairmen and owners of clubs like those accolades, just like being an international footballer. It rubber stamps your status.

I don’t think, at this point, a club will come in with a bid for Rogers before the transfer window. But this time next year, if he continues the trajectory that he’s on and starts to add more goals and more assists, then it’s not going to be a surprise if Arsenal, Man United, Man City or even Liverpool make a move.

Villa need to do whatever they can do now to safeguard that asset, because if I was one of the top four or five teams, I would take Morgan Rogers in a heartbeat.

Ruben Amorim has decisions to make about his tactical setup

Bryan Mbeumo was my favourite Premier League player in the last two or three seasons, so the fact that he’s gone to Man United won’t really change that. He’s a really good ball carrier, and that’s excellent when you’re looking to counter-attack – likewise Cunha, they both can pick the ball up on the halfway line and travel with the ball.

That’s going to be great on away days. I think that Man United’s counter-attacking this season is going to be really interesting to see because they’ve got players that can now hit you on the counter. On away days, I would be stunned if Ruben Amorim doesn’t do that.

But I think that the issue will come around about they’ve got to defend a much higher line. It’s okay hitting Arsenal on the counter-attack at home now and again, and it’s okay if they do that against Liverpool or Man City. But against Brentford, against Crystal Palace, against Brighton, against Bournemouth, they’re going to expect to dominate the ball. And that comes with defending a much higher line.

The truth is that I do not rate Man United’s defenders or the midfield as much as their forward players. So how is Ruben Amorim going to play a high press, a high line at home with lots of green grass behind defenders that teams can potentially take advantage of? That’s the big question mark for me.

Will Man United effectively do what Nottingham Forest did very well last season, in becoming a counter-attacking team? Now it might work if they’re in the top six of the Premier League table, but sooner or later, Man United are going to have to go with a back four that defend to the halfway line, and they’re going to have to have a manager in place that’s confident in the back four doing that. I don’t think they’re there yet.

Viktor Gyokeres needs time to adapt to the Premier League

I think that any pundit, fan or influencer throwing any new signing under the bus is football illiteracy of the grandest order. It’s to the credit of the players that they can come in from different clubs with different philosophies and be able to embed themselves so quickly. But that’s not the norm. The norm is that players take time to understand the system that everybody has to play, to create partnerships and relationships on and off the pitch with the city that they have moved to, the players that they train with and play with every day.

Gyokeres should not be judged  until at least the Christmas period is out of the way. Because you’ve got the lovely light nights, then the clocks go back, then the real week in and week out October to December grind of playing European football. And then you’ve got the classic cliché of the busy Christmas period.

So as I said, if anybody is stupid enough to write a player off until at least the new year, then be my guest. But until then, you just cannot judge how a player is settled on and off the pitch, blended with his teammates and enjoying the experience as his new club.

Liverpool fans should not be concerned about their defence

I think that Liverpool supporters shouldn’t have concerns about their defensive performance against Bournemouth, because Arne Slot clearly wants to play on the front foot attacking football. It’s a different flavour of Jurgen Klopp football, but still they want to attack. They want to use the intimidation of Anfield, and if you’re committing lots of bodies forward, you are going to automatically create risk in your defensive areas.

Now, Virgil van Dijk, as good as he is, and as good as he is at covering round, he’s getting older. And there’s an argument that whoever stands next to him as a central defender is nowhere near the kind of level of reading the game or as good a defender. And I think that both with Kerkez and Frimpong are no different to how Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold were during their prime years.

Bournemouth are a very good team that can hit you on the counter-attack very well, so I think that Liverpool will settle in very well and they will create a lot more going forward than they give problems going back. We’ll see if they’re good enough against the very best in those very big Sunday games against Man City or Arsenal. In those matches, they will need to defend more, stay on a tight leash alongside the two central defenders and defend well in their own defensive third for a game. But I think that going forward, I think that Liverpool’s ethos is entertainment and creating and scoring goals. And Kerkez and Frimpong will absolutely give more than they take away from the team.

James Tarkowski handball decision is one of the worst I’ve seen

The James Tarkowski handball is one of the worst decisions I’ve ever seen in very modern football. Deliberate handball was introduced into the laws of the game to avoid cheating, such as when a defender dives and handles the ball to stop it from going into the net. That was the thinking from the fathers of the game.

What I saw with Tarkowski was so many rule changes that don’t acknowledge the physiological reality, the biological reality of players having arms. It was quite frightening. When the ball was struck, bearing in mind we’re talking a split second from the ball being struck to the infringement, is that a defender has so little time to decide what to do. They’re not watching it in slow motion on a replay that we all get to watch a thousand times.

None of the VAR officials or the referee on the day used common sense. Because if they would have done, they’d have seen that it could not be deliberate. It could not be deliberate because James Tarkowski was pulling his arm away from the ball. The ball’s coming at him quick. He’s had to lean into it because he’s thinking to block the ball with his breastplate or shoulder, and he’s brought his arm away from the ball. That is not the body movement of somebody that wants to deliberately handle the ball. And that’s why it’s such a disgrace of a decision.

Leeds and Sunderland supporters need to be their 12th man

Traditionally, if you look at the clubs that have gone down regularly, the likes of Southampton, Norwich, West Brom, Burnley, Sheffield United – they’re all great clubs. I’m not going to knock any of these clubs, they’ve all had their achievements. They’ve all got fans that pay a lot of money to go and watch their club play. But what I would steer readers towards is, when you think of Southampton last season, do you believe that the supporter base were the 12th man that made it hostile, raucous, difficult at St Mary’s? No, they weren’t.

And I think that with Leeds and Sunderland, because of the raucous nature of both sets of supporters, I think that any team going there that are not at their very best or not up for it, can get picked off. If you get picked off, that means points for Leeds and Sunderland.

The thing that Sunderland and Leeds have in their favour is that they can pick up points when their supporters turn out and make it raucous. They help the team, they get the team over the line, they get them at it for 90 minutes. And even if it’s one point, that might be enough to finish above Wolves, Brentford, West Ham this season.

For me, it’s not a case of there’s a mythical 12th man that are going to carry them every game to wins, which would see Sunderland and Leeds end up finishing in the top 10. But I think that whereas Southampton’s support didn’t seem the most raucous, I know that Leeds and Sunderland fans will be like that.

And I cannot express enough that – as a player that’s played for some big clubs – when you get that raucous atmosphere, you can be on the back of a fairly poor run and still eke out a draw or eke out a win just because of the raucous nature of the support. So it sounds cliché, but I think that even if it’s a point or two that Sunderland and Leeds managed to get from the energy of their supporters, that may be enough to stay in the Premier League at the end of the season.

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