Giuseppe Rossi exclusive: Luis Enrique can become an all-time great, Arsenal are Premier League favourites and Mourinho will expose Real Madrid’s egos
Giuseppe Rossi exclusive: How Luis Enrique can replace Sir Alex Ferguson as the GOAT, Chelsea’s threat to Arsenal in the title race thanks to Xabi Alonso, and why Jose Mourinho can spark a player exodus from Real Madrid.
Former Italy international and La Liga cult hero Giuseppe Rossi has backed Luis Enrique to win a third Champions League in a row this season, and warned the rest of Europe that the only team that can stop Paris Saint-Germain is Paris Saint-Germain themselves.
In an exclusive interview with BetBrothers ahead of the start of a new season of top-flight football in Europe’s major leagues, the retired Villarreal forward looked ahead to how the next few months could unfold in England and Spain.
After failing to win a permanent move to Barcelona, Rossi considered what could be next for Marcus Rashford after his return to United, and identified Xabi Alonso’s Chelsea as a potential factor in the Premier League title race. With Rodri expected to leave Manchester City for Barcelona, the US-born Italy star gave his view on whether Enzo Fernandez can fill the gap for Enzo Maresca in midfield this season.
Over in Spain, the return of Jose Mourinho to Real Madrid is headline news, and following a season beset by infighting last year, Rossi believes heads could roll in the Spanish capital if the big egos inside that dressing room don’t do as their new manager demands.
Read the full interview below:
Can anyone stop Paris Saint-Germain winning a third straight Champions League this year under Luis Enrique?
I don’t see any team that can stop Paris Saint-Germain winning it again this year, and that’s the crazy part! They’re such a fun team too but I don’t see anybody being able to stop them. The only team that can stop PSG this year, is themselves.
If Khvicha Kvaratskhelia or Ousmane Dembele wake up one day and decide they want to do something else with their lives, or something happens to them and they can’t play an important game, maybe someone has a chance against PSG. I think that’s the only way this team can lose, if they beat themselves somehow.
It all comes down to Luis Enrique, and props to him for what he’s created at PSG and what he’s doing with that team. What a great coach, and what a great person he is! He’s playing football the right way, teaching the game the way it should be taught to these guys.
They could lose one of those players this summer, Bradley Barcola, and Paris Saint-Germain can just move him on and bring in Ferran Torres. Of course it helps to have all the finances in the world to pay for any player you want but it’s about more than that too.
Look at PSG before Luis Enrique. They signed Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe and it didn’t work. The difference now, with all this money spent, is that they are together as a team. You could throw all the money in the world into a team and if you don’t have the right person to lead it, direct the ship, put in the right values, you’re not going to win anything. That’s why Luis Enrique is the man.
Does Ferran Torres moving to PSG this summer only make it more likely that Bradley Barcola will leave to join Arsenal or Liverpool before the end of the window?
The question Bradley Barcola has to ask himself this summer is where he can adapt to their style of play while staying true to being the player he is, and if he finds that at Arsenal or Liverpool then the sky’s the limit.
It all depends on his mindset, how he approaches this move, and what he wants from his next team but if his starting point is to look at Liverpool needing him to play down the right and viewing that as an obstacle, it will always be an uphill battle.
If he looks at these opportunities and thinks I’m blessed to be playing for a big team every single day, to be able to perform to my best, then it’s going to be easier for him to succeed in the Premier League and approach this season in the right way.
How long before we consider Luis Enrique as a contender to be the greatest manager ever given what he is achieving in the game?
Luis Enrique still has a little way to go before we consider him to be the greatest manager of all-time.
There are coaches and managers who built up a real continuity in the biggest leagues. In England that’s obviously Sir Alex Ferguson. Luis Enrique is working in France and as great as Paris Saint-Germain have been in Europe, winning the Champions League twice now, you do get a lot of benefits when you play in a lesser league to the competition in England and Spain.
I mean no offence to the French league but it’s not at that level so let’s see. Of course, if Luis Enrique is able to win four or five Champions League titles in a row it won’t matter if it’s for a club that plays in France. That’s probably going to put him up there.
But if he came to England, Arsenal are the club where he would fit in best.
I’ve never been sure about the idea of Luis Enrique coming in at Manchester United. Sure, I would love to see it, but I don’t think it would work out because of what Manchester United is as a club. There is a culture there and anyone who steers away from it ultimately fails to succeed.
You look at the number of great managers they’ve had since Sir Alex Ferguson retired. Jose Mourinho did win a few things but it didn’t last. They had Louis Van Gaal and all these other guys. They didn’t follow the United way and stay true to what the fans and the club expect from the football, the players and everything else.
That’s why Arsenal would be a fun place to see Luis Enrique. He’d have all the freedom to do the work he would need to do, just like Mikel Arteta does now.
How do you see the title race playing out this season in the Premier League?
It is Arsenal’s title to lose this season.
Usually Manchester City are always everyone’s biggest rival, and they still have the players, but I think the changeover from Pep Guardiola to Enzo Maresca is going to be a very big shift. I think they’re going to slack off a little bit and that leaves Arsenal are the clear favourites.
I won’t throw away the fact that I think Manchester United have a chance this season but they will have to find the momentum again they showed after Michael Carrick first took over last season. I think they can at least go on another good run this year but I have high hopes for United and the direction Carrick is taking the club. I trust him to do the right things.
Can Xabi Alonso make Chelsea title contenders without the distraction of European football?
Xabi Alonso is going to get Chelsea playing some nice football but will that be enough in the Premier League? I don’t know if that translates to success at a club like Chelsea.
But you look at Antonio Conte in 2016 and what he did without European football for a season. That was 10 years ago this season, and we’ve seen what Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti have done at Chelsea too. Then again, other great managers have come to Chelsea and not done well.
My hope is that Xabi Alonso is able to bring forth his way of doing things that we saw at Bayer Leverkusen, where he did win the title, and we’ll be able to see that impact on the field because you look at the squad and he’s got all the talent at his disposal to be winning games of football.
Can Michael Carrick get the best out of Marcus Rashford or should Rashford have looked for a new start at a different club?
Marcus Rashford needs to go to another club for his own sake. I think his time as a Manchester United player has run its course. It’s very interesting that Barcelona didn’t keep him because I thought he was a pretty good player for them, and a good fit for how they play in the end.
I don’t think he feels like a Manchester United player anymore, he doesn’t have that mentality, and you don’t want those sorts of players around your club, bringing down what you’re trying to build. It would be the best thing for everyone if they could all move on quickly this summer.
Could Rashford go and reinvent himself in Italy as Scott McTominay has? It’s an interesting idea but I don’t see him thriving in Serie A. The league is too tactical. I think Rashford still fits the English way of playing best, although truthfully he did well at Barcelona.
He needs a move to another Premier League club this summer, and it would be cool to see him at a side like Tottenham Hotspur or Everton. He needs a club where he’ll be given the chance to feel free to play his way and bring the team back some glory. He would do well in that sort of environment.
Who is the missing piece in United’s midfield jigsaw to replace Casemiro after signing Tielemans and Santos this summer?
Manchester United don’t need to sign a third midfielder. They need to play Kobbie Mainoo.
It’s not always about spending money and going out and buying the biggest stars. It’s about trying to develop your team and your philosophy as a coach and as a club and mesh it all together with the players you already have in your squad.
If you can do that without spending any money, great! But United have bought well. Youri Tielemans is a great pick up. I’m very happy they got him and he is a great replacement for Casemiro with his quality and experience too.
I think United are on the right path now with their plans for midfield. It’s just about making sure everything is set up and balanced in the way Michael Carrick thinks it should be.
With Barcelona leading the race to sign Rodri, could now be the time for Frenkie De Jong to finally make the move to the Premier League?
I love Frenkie De Jong. If Rodri goes to Barcelona and De Jong becomes available, he’s the only other midfielder I would want to see signed by Manchester United this summer. He is an amazing player to have on any team whether it’s Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea or Bayern Munich because he dictates the tempo, moves between the lines and his understanding of space and positions is so very sound.
That should be the sort of player a club like Manchester United always want.
Listen, I don’t think they need another midfielder this summer, but if De Jong became available, he’s a player you sign.
Could Enzo Fernandez be the answer for Manchester City to replace Rodri without losing ground in the title race this summer?
Rodri is one of one. There is no one else. It’s impossible to replace him. So what would Manchester City be getting instead? Enzo Fernandez is a very good player. I’d go as far to say he is an amazing player. But he’s not Rodri.
I do think Enzo would fit Manchester City’s style of play. He knows Enzo Maresca from Chelsea. It would all fit together. In that respect, he would be a very good replacement for Rodri, but not to replace the player that Rodri is. That can’t be done.
How do you think Jose Mourinho will fare at Real Madrid?
Jose Mourinho will create a winning culture at Real Madrid and that could be a problem for some of their players after the infighting we saw last season.
We will see the bad actors exposed and they’ll slowly want to leave and find themselves managed out of the team. Mourinho has the track record of doing that.
He knows Real Madrid very well. He understands the culture of the fans and the club. I think that makes him the right person at the right time to go into that dressing room and take them back to winning ways, because with Mourinho it’s his way or the highway. It’ll be as simple as that.
For as long as Jose Mourinho and Florentino Perez are on the same wavelength, he will have the authority to do what he needs to do in order to knock Real Madrid back into shape, regardless of what the players think about it.
Would Manchester United’s recent history have looked a lot different had Mourinho replaced Sir Alex in 2012 instead of David Moyes?
Had Jose Mourinho replaced Sir Alex Ferguson instead of David Moyes, it would have ended up the same.
That’s Manchester United. You follow the club’s culture or you will fail. We’ve seen it time and time again.
Mourinho was maybe the most successful manager since Ferguson for the trophies he won but I look at Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as one of the managers who did the best and I think Micahel Carrick is doing very well now. They do well at the job of managing Manchester United because they understand Manchester United.
We all believed it was the genius of Sir Alex Ferguson and he managed the club for 26 years so we never saw it until after he left but it all came back to following the Manchester United way of doing things, and that’s why I believe Carrick can do an outstanding job now as manager.
Can Sebastian Berhalter fire Middlesbrough to the Premier League this summer?
Sebastian Berhalter will be a good piece on the board for Middlesbrough this season but I don’t know if he is the type of leader that is going to take them to the Premier League himself, but he is a good piece for them to use to get there.
For Berhalter, it is very important that he establishes himself in the European game and has a very good season for Boro. So I’ll be rooting for him and I’ll be rooting for Middlesbrough and we’ll see what happens on whether this is the season they can make it back into the Premier League.
With departures to key players and Eddie Howe leaving the club, do you think Newcastle could be in a relegation scrap this season?
Football is full of these one hit wonders. That’s why the greatest players, the greatest managers and the greatest clubs are all about continuity. It’s so very important at the very top of the game, and it’s very hard too.
Eddie Howe did a great job for Newcastle United. They achieved amazing things. He was building that sort of continuity. Now they’ve got a new coach, new players, and they’ve sold their best midfielders to Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, and lost Anthony Gordon to Barcelona. What’s that telling us?
I wonder if the owners want to continue to build and get bigger or if their plan all along was to win a trophy, get into the Champions League, and cash in a bit, maybe look to sell it on. That’s something they have to figure out internally and find their identity again because it’s hard to see what Newcastle want to be and where this direction will take them right now.
Newcastle have been heavily linked with Florian Balogun but after losing Eddie Howe and so many key players would he be better off looking at other options?
For Florian Balogun this summer it’s all about feel. He needs to study his options. What will each team want of you, how do they play, what suits your style best, and where are they going as a club?
I think it’s great for a player like Balogun to have so many options because then he can make the best choice, and I think that’s so important for a player. Everybody in life should be able to decide the best path forward for their own future, rather than being forced into doing one thing and one thing only, so he’s in a great position. He’s a smart guy. I’m sure he’ll make the best decision for himself.
Could Balogun go and replace Ferran Torres and Robert Lewandowski at Barcelona after what we saw from him this summer? I think he needs to show us more, first. Go and show me the consistency that you can perform like that at a certain level before we consider you that type of player, but it’s a big year for him. Let’s see what he can do at a higher level.
Could Cristiano Ronaldo still make an impact in the USA if he decided to leave Saudi Arabia?
Cristiano Ronaldo to New York Cosmos? Imagine that, man! That would be something crazy, alright. I would invite him to the club with open arms. I just don’t know if we could afford his salary but I’m sure we could try and figure something out.
Could he still do it for a club at the level of the Cosmos? 100%! It’s a second division team out there but listen, Cristiano Ronaldo could score 20, 30 goals a season still in MLS if he wanted to. He has the football IQ. He knows the movement, the patterns of play he’ll have seen for years and years and years at this point. A player like Ronaldo could still dominate MLS in his sleep, so we’d love to have him come to the Cosmos and follow in Pele’s footsteps.
