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Pep Guardiola and José Mourinho have founded the Manchester Money Pit
Come to Manchester city center to see Pep and José shovel the salaries of Bastian Schweinsteiger and Joe Hart into a giant hole.
Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images
When you hire Pep Guardiola or José Mourinho, you get a lot of great things. They’re experienced, proven winners, and have developed defined styles of play that they know how to coach better than anyone else in the world. But they also produce expensive white elephants.
Bastian Schweinsteiger is making an eight-figure salary at Manchester United, but Mourinho has no intention of playing him. It doesn’t look like they’ll have a ton of luck selling him either, as Schweinsteiger says United is his last club in Europe. Chinese, Qatari or Emirati interest could materialize, or Schweinsteiger could choose to take a massive pay cut to move to America, but right now he’s just a money pit for United.
The same thing is happening with Joe Hart, who Pep plans on making third choice while the club insists he won’t be sold or loaned for a cut rate. England’s starting goalkeeper and a City academy product might not get to play for City or anyone else this season.
Mourinho and Guardiola’s stubbornness is part of what makes them great, but it’s annoying for the people who have to sign the paychecks.
Goal of the day
35-year-old Peter Crouch has still got it. (r/soccer)
In the news
Neymar’s hair is blond now. (Fox Soccer)
American DeAndre Yedlin has moved from Tottenham Hotspur to Newcastle. (NUFC)
Sigi Schmid says that his relationship with Clint Dempsey "wasn't as productive as it needed to be" at times, as Dempsey got frustrated with his service. (ESPN FC)
Pepe is expected to return for Real Madrid this weekend. (Marca)
And Barcelona expects to welcome back Marc-André ter Stegen and Javier Mascherano. (Sport)
Aaron Ramsey and Jon Williams are going to miss the next Wales World Cup qualifier. (BBC)
Sampdoria has signed Dennis Praet from Anderlecht. (Football Italia)
Hertha Berlin’s Ondrej Duda is out at least four weeks. (Bild)
A Welsh player made a tackle so bad, he’s going to jail. (SI)
You should be reading
Gabriele Marcotti on the changes to the Champions League format. (ESPN FC)
Dustin Ward with everything you need to know about the new Bundesliga season. (Stats Bomb)
James Milin-Ashmore on the always underappreciated James Milner. (These Football Times)
From the rumor mill
Please don’t take anything in this section too seriously, for your own sanity.
Arsenal and Stoke are interested in Phil Jones, but he doesn’t want to leave Manchester United. (Guardian)
Spurs want Moussa Sissoko, and they’re willing to throw in Nabil Bentaleb. (Mirror)
Saido Berahino would rather screw over West Brom than transfer somewhere now. (Mail)
A lot of clubs want Dortmund’s Christian Pulisic. (Bild)
Valencia is really not interested in selling Paco Alcácer to Barcelona. (Marca)
West Ham is trying to compete with Napoli for Simone Zaza. (Football Italia)
And they could sell Pedro Obiang to Fiorentina. (Gazzetta)
What happened on Tuesday
Roma absolutely fell apart against Porto, and they’re out of the Champions League. (Chiesa di Totti)
What to watch on Wednesday (click for listings, all times ET)
Champions League: Five games (2:45 p.m.) -- Monaco vs. Villarreal is the one to watch.
MLS: Six games (from 7 p.m.) -- No clear must-watch or must-miss stuff here. Pick a game and it’ll probably be good.
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