🏆 PSG are champions of Europe - but have they outgrown Ligue 1? Since 19/20: PSG: 2.30 PPG Monaco (next best): 1.81 PPG ➤ Gap: 0.49 (biggest in Europe) Other leagues: 🇩🇪 0.34 🇮🇹 0.26 🇪🇸 0.09 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 0.08 📈 With Club World Cup riches coming, the gap may only grow.

❓Is Premier League experience overrated? 💵Players with prior PL experience cost 10-15% more. 📈In season 1 they play 55% of mins vs 47% for others. 📉By season 3? Just 52% vs 48%. ⚖️Short-term edge fades fast. Is the premium worth it?

❓Where does Thomas Frank rank for value extraction? 📈 Brentford: 1.32 pts/game vs 0.79 expected on their wage bill (+0.53 ppg - best in PL). 🔝 Only Pochettino at Spurs matched Frank’s longevity among top 10 overperformers. 👉 Consistency + outperformance.

Wages have long been the best financial barometer of how a club will perform - but what of transfer fees? Are they ever indicative of success? It's complicated. *Loved* doing this piece for The Athletic | Football - built on the brilliant research of Aurel Nazmiu nytimes.com/athletic/64507…

What exactly can the Club World Cup tell us about football around the world? 🇧🇷 Where does the Brazilian league rank globally? ↕️ Is the Saudi top flight actually improving? ⚖️ Which leagues are the most and least competitive? Mark Carey dives into the data and explains

❓Are Man Utd bad at selling? 💰They’ve made €560m in sales over 10 seasons - 36 clubs made more. 📊With €770m in revenue (5th globally), we’d expect closer to €850m. ⚖️That’s €290m in ‘lost sales’ - only 3 clubs worse. In the PSR era, smart selling is no longer optional.

❓Arsenal are signing Viktor Gyökeres from a non-major European league. 📉Strikers from non-Big 5 leagues average 3.97 goals in their 1st PL season - 53% less than Big 5 signings. Only 13% hit 10+ goals. ⏳Gyökeres may buck the trend, but history suggests patience is key.

🏆 Euro 2025: A success by every measure! 🎯Quality: Record 3.4 goals/game, 79% pass success. 📈Jeopardy: Tighter matches (1.7 goals sep. avg). England led for just 1.4% of time in knockouts! 🔗Connection: 623k fans (+8%), 400M+ live audience.

🔴 Isak to Liverpool? ⚽️ 43 non-penalty goals in 3 seasons (0.58 p90) - only 4 PL players better. 📊 0.60 non-penalty xG p90 (top 1% since 2014/15). 📈 Accounts for 20% of NUFC's xG (vs. 16% avg for 40+ goal strikers). A Premier League all-time best?

🏆 Lucas Chevalier wins a trophy on his PSG debut – what does he offer Donnarumma didn’t? 🛑 Donnarumma: elite shot-stopper (14.7 goals prevented in 22/23 & 23/24) but weaker with feet. 🎯 Chevalier: top 10% shot-stopper, +8% passes, 43% long pass accuracy vs 21%.

🏆 Title-winning PL squads average 2.58 years at their clubs (from Leicester’s 1.61 in 15/16 to Liverpool’s 3.69 in 24/25). 🔵 Man City’s current squad? 2.62 years - right in the sweet spot. ⚖️Stability vs renewal: City look balanced again.

❓ How balanced are PL squads? 🥅 Man Utd: 55% of value in forwards (+10% vs avg) but only 12% in midfield (-9%). ⚪ Fulham: 44% in defence, league-high. ⚒️ West Ham: Just 5% in strikers, lowest. 🔄 Bournemouth: Strength in wide attack. 🔴 Sunderland: Most balanced.

❓ Should Rúben Amorim change formation? 📊 He’s used 3-4-3 in 98% of games - far above the PL average of 58%. ⚽ Only Keith Andrews has been less flexible (but from just 2 matches). 🔮 Will Amorim’s loyalty to 3-4-3 be a masterstroke or a hindrance in England?

🔴 Arsenal finally landed a striker – but are they still too reliant on set-pieces? 📊 Since 2023, just 69% of their xG has come from open play (only Everton lower at 62%). City & Liverpool? 77%. 🔎 To unlock their new No.9, Arsenal must find more solutions in open play.

Nottingham Forest's new manager, Postecoglou, is a polar opposite to his predecessor. Can a team this ingrained in one style successfully pivot to a completely different one?

📉 Liverpool have lost four in a row - and the numbers show why. Their non-penalty xG per game has fallen from +1.2 to +0.3, the biggest drop in the Premier League. ⚽️ xG for ↓ 0.45 🧤 xG against ↑ 0.45 ❓ Is this just a blip — or the start of something deeper?

🔴 Sean Dyche’s arrival at Forest should feel familiar - at least in style. ⚽ Avg. 41% possession under Dyche (Nuno: 42%) → compact, structured play. 🧤 4.4 final-third recoveries per match (Nuno: 3.5) → more pressing. Evolution, not revolution, for Forest.

🐐 Messi has signed a new deal at Inter Miami - keeping him until 2028, past his 40th birthday. ⚽ 1.01 goals + 🎯 0.57 assists per game = 1.58 goal contributions - the best in MLS history. 🇦🇷 Did Messi leave Europe too soon - or just in time to chase one more World Cup?

✈️ Welbeck has a 1-in-7 chance of being on the England plane next summer. He’s currently 36th most likely to make the 2026 World Cup squad (14%). That could rise if his form continues and he’s back in international contention. 17 players have >50%, just 9 >90%. Who sneaks in?

🔴 Mo Salah has posted the biggest season-to-season drop in attacking contribution of any Premier League player since 2018/19. 📉 npxG/90: 0.55 ➜ 0.28 📉 xA/90: 0.42 ➜ 0.20 ➡️ Total: –0.49 per 90 He's contributing almost half an expected goal involvement less per match.