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Kohli has made many bold – and sometimes unpopular – calls in his captaincy, but taking on the board might be the boldest

Sidharth Monga18-Dec-2021This is not an attempt to link Game of Thrones to suspected palace intrigue in Indian cricket. This is Alliser Thorne, even though he doesn’t like him, even though he will go ahead to commit treason because of his decisions, handing out an important leadership lesson to Jon Snow. This is a lesson, it seems, Virat Kohli has never needed.Related

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For Kohli has never second-guessed himself. The trickiest part of leadership is making choices on behalf of others and living with them. In his first Test as captain, Kohli dropped R Ashwin for Karn Sharma. The opposition’s experienced, accurate offspinner won them the Test with 12 wickets. India’s rookie legspinner never played cricket for India again.It is the kind of choice that can torture and scar a person, dissuade them from making bold calls in the future. “Would we have been chasing fewer if I had played my No. 1 spinner?” “Would the young spinner have had a better career if I had played him when he was ready?”Such questions can haunt you.Kohli, it would seem, is wired differently. He has always given the appearance of a man who has unquestionable faith in his ability to make decisions in the best of the team. Once he makes a call, he doesn’t appear to question himself. To him, hesitating means inviting errors on the field. There is a certain amount of self-righteousness in this. He feels the most annoyed when asked if the result might have been better had he played his “best XI”. To him it implies he picked less than the “best XI” on purpose.These things work differently with different people and different cultures, but it is a remarkable quality to have nonetheless. All through his career Kohli has made bold choices, which might seem like big risks to someone on the outside. Not least was when he refused to work with the then-coach Anil Kumble, arguably India’s biggest match-winner and someone who had the public sympathy and the past legends on his side.Kohli single-handedly took everyone on then. Everything was thrown at him. Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman in the Cricket Advisory Committee were against what he wanted. By extension, he was told he was taking on even Zaheer Khan and Rahul Dravid, who were originally appointed in the support staff, as Kohli’s choice as coach refused to work with them. Only a naïve person wouldn’t have known that he would be hauled over the coals if he didn’t deliver the results.Like him, hate him, you can’t deny his strength of conviction. A lot of this clarity, Kohli says, comes from being with a strong partner, Anushka Sharma, who has herself made unpopular choices as a film and TV producer in the current political climate in India.If he looks back to the Kumble episode, Kohli will see that the board did exactly what has enraged him today: half-truths, innuendo, smear campaign. Kohli himself was dignified throughout the episode. He neither said nor suggested anything derogatory against Kumble. The same goes for Kumble. It was a professional disagreement, and, as far as Kohli was concerned, nobody on the outside had any business knowing the details of it.In 2018-19 when India played four fast bowlers in Perth and lost – none of whom could bat – Kohli was asked at the end of the Test if the decision was forced on him by any injury besides the one to Ashwin. Kohli categorically said it was a judgement call made in the best interest of the team. Sure enough, with the criticism from former players mounting, within a week Ravi Shastri reported that Jadeja didn’t play because he was “60-70% fit”. That is not a response you would get from Kohli, who always wanted to own the decisions he made.Despite being a batter himself, Kohli has never hesitated to make things difficult for batters in order to win Test matches. He is not the first one to play just the five batters, but he has done that with unprecedented consistency. Even during a personal barren patch, Kohli didn’t shy away from getting pitches that turned from day one.This is not to bag former captains. They often lacked the freedom and complete support that the Committee of Administrators (CoA) gave Kohli. MS Dhoni, for example, hardly ever got pitches of his liking at home. He also had to deal with difficult seniors. The new coach Dravid is a relevant example, having quit captaincy because all the shenanigans that come with it dragged him down. Kohli had none of this to live with.Even in the post-CoA world, even with his own runs drying up, even with pressure mounting after the WTC final loss, Kohli didn’t shy away from dropping Ashwin, another one of India’s biggest match-winners, a man at the peak of his popularity and form, throughout the series in England because he believed a different combination was best for India. Just as the wins don’t necessarily vindicate Kohli, the losses don’t necessarily prove him wrong.

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Through the years, disregard for optics and the refusal to second-guess himself has remained. So has self-righteousness. For good or for bad, the BCCI is a wheel with different spokes that are variously on top at different times as the wheel moves. Kohli now found himself facing the wrath of the BCCI leaks that are not necessarily baseless but are shared either not in their entirety or without context. Kumble faced it too, but didn’t retaliate.Even Sachin Tendulkar didn’t resist this wheel when he came to know through the media that he had been removed as the captain. He enjoyed many years of soft power, and revealed the hurt only after retirement. Lesser players don’t say anything at all because their post-retirement careers depend on the whims and fancies of unaccountable office bearers. In that regard, Kohli has been more Sunil Gavaskar than Tendulkar.Getty ImagesAt one level, this captaincy change was a routine affair. Kohli resigned from one format, the board said fine. The board felt both the limited-overs sides should have the same captain, and Kohli said fine.Under the still waters, there was resistance. Kohli threw them a curve ball with his surprise announcement before the World Cup, forcing them to come up with a hurried release. He also essentially dared them to remove him from ODI captaincy by announcing to the world he still wished to take the team into the 2023 World Cup.They went ahead and sacked him, which was a perfectly reasonable call as Kohli himself conceded, but the manner in which it was done lacked grace. The communication to Kohli was fine – being told 90 minutes before a selection meeting is not the luxury captains in India usually get – but the communication to the public was shoddy: a line in the postscript of the announcement of another team’s selection, and a half-hearted acknowledgement of his achievements a whole day later.Ganguly gave Kohli the biggest opening by divulging the unofficial details of the meeting where Kohli informed them he was leaving T20I captaincy. It doesn’t matter whether it was true, false or half-true. Kohli once again, with calm and calculated righteousness, threw the flame back at the board, leaving them to choose between accepting that their president was lying or saying that the captain is lying. In one measured stroke, Kohli has snatched away the board’s most effective weapon: unattributed half-truths and innuendo. Now everything has to be on the record or on an official document.Sourav Ganguly chats with Virat Kohli at an event in Kolkata in 2018•Getty ImagesThis is not about who is right or who is wrong, or if it will affect India’s performance on the field. Their first Test win in South Africa, remember, came at a terribly tumultuous time when Ganguly himself contributed crucial runs to a team in which he was not welcome. Other stories of fractious dressing rooms winning big Tests are yet to be told. Indian cricket has too much talent and too much depth for this to affect them on the field. Once they cross the line, they all play to win, for personal pride, and also, during such a competitive phase in Indian cricket, their own places. There is simply too much to lose.This is more about a captain openly taking on the board, which hasn’t happened since the days of Gavaskar. Like Gavaskar, Kohli is the most equipped to do so: he is articulate, wildly popular and not shy of a scrap, which makes it difficult to isolate him. Yet an angry board is the last thing you want on your back in the final quarter of your career. The board is not used to getting rattled this way. Its reprisal is known to be cold.At a time when Kohli is walking into a world he is unaccustomed to – shortage of runs, his power no longer absolute, no longer indispensable since the win in Australia – this might just be his biggest gambit yet.

The last few months have been a rollercoaster of emotions for Newcastle United.

We don’t dwell too much on that transfer saga during the transfer, but despite the form of new fan favourite, Nick Woltemade, the Toon have struggled to find consistency.

In the league, Eddie Howe’s men have won just two of their first eight games but in the Champions League, they are soaring high.

Defeat to Barcelona is no embarrassment and since then they have bounced back well, beating Union Saint Gilloise 4-0 in match week two and then seeing off Jose Mourinho’s Benfica 3-0 on Tuesday evening.

This was one of Newcastle’s best performances of the season, Anthony Gordon and Harvey Barnes both on the scoresheet.

While Howe was missing Sandro Tonali, it was arguably no surprise that one of the best results of the campaign came when Anthony Elanga and Joelinton were both on the bench.

Elanga has failed to score since his mega-money £55m move from Nottingham Forest while it does look as though we’ve now seen the best of Joelinton in black and white.

Newcastle's Joelinton problem

After suffering a 2-1 defeat to Brighton last weekend, Howe rang the changes for the visit of Mourinho’s men.

Jacob Murphy – who assisted Gordon’s strike – came in for Elanga on the right flank while in midfield it was all change.

Jacob Ramsey and Lewis Miley came into the team at the expense of the unavailable Tonali and the out-of-form Joelinton.

The Italian is likely to walk back into the team once he returns to full fitness but the future of their Brazilian warrior is less certain.

The £40m man’s time in the north east has been that of a movie. He joined as the club’s record signing during the Steve Bruce era and was initially acquired as a centre-forward.

Yet, after bagging just two goals in his debut Premier League campaign with the Toon, an alternative solution was thought of.

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Football FanCast’s Chalkboard series presents a tactical discussion from around the global game.

Howe’s arrival at St James’ Park coincided with Joelinton’s transition to become a central midfielder. Since then, he’s been a wonderful asset to the club. He’s been a mainstay, missing just nine top-flight games last term.

He was also vital as Newcastle ended their trophy drought in 2024/25. Journalist Craig Hope remarked that the 29-year-old had his “greatest game in black & white” during the final at Wembley.

Yet, 2025/26 has been a tale of woe for such a much-loved figure. The nadir of his season so far came in that game against Brighton.

Hauled off at half-time, he was criticised by various sections of the media, including Toon reporter Mark Douglas who said that he is now “nowhere near his best”.

Minutes played

45

Touches

39

Accurate passes

21

Dribbled past

2

Dribbles

0

Shots

0

Key passes

0

Crosses

0

Aerials lost

100%

While Joelinton’s downfall is sad, for the sake of Newcastle’s season, Howe needs fresh blood and that’s exactly what he got against Benfica on Tuesday.

Newcastle's Joelinton solution

During their 3-0 win in midweek, Howe turned to a midfield trio we have never seen play together before.

Bruno Guimaraes kept his place in the middle of the park but he was joined by summer signing Ramsey and young Miley.

Ramsey has missed a lot of football since moving to St James’, largely due to injury, and did perhaps struggle on Tuesday. The Chronicle’s Lee Ryder noted that the former Aston Villa man ‘did not fully grasp his opportunity’.

Yet, Miley certainly did. In fact, he’s grasped his opportunity incredibly well in the last two games. Hailed as “the next young English superstar” by BBC Sport’s Pat Nevin, it’s easy to see why comparisons to fellow academy graduate Elliot Anderson have begun to be made.

It was Miley who produced the assist for Woltemade’s goal against the Seagulls a few days ago and it was Miley who ran the show in the middle of the park against Benfica.

The aforementioned Ryder summed up his performance well, writing that ‘the teenager stepped up to the challenge with ease. He battled well against seasoned European campaigners and passed with purpose and showed no fear.’

No fear is precisely what the 19-year-old has showcased since bursting onto the scene. After all, it was the young Englishman who dazzled PSG as a 17-year-old during Newcastle’s last Champions League venture.

Miley’s career has been rather stop-start since then due to injury, but the few cameos we’ve seen from this week are a timely reminder of just how good a player Howe has on his hands.

His performance against Benfica was remarkably complete, something the numbers help substantiate.

Minutes played

90

Touches

51

Accurate passes

37/41 (90%)

Shots

2

Expected goals (xG)

0.53

Key passes

1

Tackles

2

Interceptions

2

Recoveries

5

Duels won

4/6

He completed 90% of his passes and completed 100% of his pass attempts inside his own half, dictating the play beautifully. While he did not pick up an assist on this occasion, he did register a key pass and also had two shots.

Miley also demonstrated what a marvellous ball winner he is, winning both of his aerial battles and winning 50% of his ground duels.

This performance, in particular, should have made him undroppable for the game versus Fulham on Saturday. In the process, he may well put a permanent end to Joelinton’s Newcastle career too.

For the Brazilian, this should be the end of his time as a regular starter and it would not be a surprise if new sporting director Ross Wilson soon deemed him surplus to requirements.

Daniel Farke looked long gone as Leeds United manager heading into an intimidating run of matches in the Premier League.

Not even the most optimistic Elland Road supporter would have expected the Whites to grab some much-needed points against Manchester City, Chelsea, and Liverpool.

Yet, after this trio of difficult clashes, Leeds are four points better off with a win and a draw secured, which also – most importantly – means they’re two points above the dreaded relegation zone.

Farke will just keep his fingers crossed that this high-energy approach can be replicated versus the likes of Brentford and Crystal Palace to come, away from turning on the style against some of the division’s flashier opponents.

More positive results ahead would give Leeds a huge boost in their bid to avoid relegation, with the January transfer window also providing the Whites with an opportunity to add some standout signings to help them secure their survival.

Where Leeds could strength in January

Even though there has been a dramatic upturn in form, when Farke once looked like a dead man walking, Leeds will still likely be active in the hectic window to come.

Indeed, rumours are already beginning to circulate that the Premier League newcomers have Tromso midfielder Jens Hjerto-Dahl on their radar as transfer season edges ever closer. Moreover, the relegation-threatened outfit has also been linked heavily with a move for AC Milan striker Santiago Gimenez to bolster their centre-forward options.

Away from all this gossip, though, transfer expert Fabrizio Romano has also come out to state via his YouTube channel that Farke and Co have even made a concrete approach for an attacking playmaker in the form of Martin Baturina.

Romano stated: “In the last few days, Leeds has been in touch, the teams are starting to move.”

The £21m midfielder, who only signed for Cesc Fabregas’ Como in the summer, is struggling for consistent first-team minutes in Serie A at the moment. Yet, despite his predicament, he isn’t overly keen on a switch to West Yorkshire, according to Romano, with Como allegedly turning down the approach.

Still, transfer stories can change in the blink of an eye, so don’t write this one off completely.

How Baturina can become Farke's next Rutter

If Leeds were eventually successful in their mission to land the captivating 22-year-old, Farke could sign Leeds’ new version of Georginio Rutter, with the 15-time Croatia international capable of being a terrifying assist machine, much like the former number 24 was at Elland Road.

Rutter did manage to hammer home some memorable strikes when still situated at the Whites, with eight goals tallied up. But, it was his unerring ability to create chances for fun that made him really stand out as a fan’s favourite during his short, but sweet, 66-game stint at the club.

TalkSPORT’s Jeff Stelling would herald him as a “class act” at Leeds for the way he managed to make creating chances galore look effortless, with a bumper 18 assists coming his way across that string of matches.

In league action alone across the 2023/24 season, Rutter would muster up a ridiculous 22 big chances created, which led to the silky Frenchman securing himself a deserved £40m move to Brighton and Hove Albion.

While it hasn’t gone Baturina’s way at Como to date, with just one Serie A start handed to him by Fabregas this season leading to zero assists being tallied, it’s clear from his explosive time at Hadjuk Split that he has the same devastating ability to carve team opens that Rutter possesses.

Fabregas has already waxed lyrical about the 22-year-old’s “immense” nature to make things happen in “key moments” when first moving to Italy.

The clip above saw the £21m-rated midfielder calmly tee up his teammate for a golden opportunity in the Champions League back in 2024, with the assists flowing throughout his time at Split, leading to scout Jacek Kulig once hailing him as one of “the biggest talents” in Croatia.

League stats: Baturina vs Rutter

Stat

Baturina

Rutter

Games played

114

60

Goals scored

17

6

Assists

36

17

Big chances created

38

23

Stats by Sofascore

Albeit from a wider pool of matches than the Seagulls star, Baturina would see out his time in his native Croatia with a staggering 38 big chances created from 117 league contests, which trumps Rutter’s own creative prowess.

Analyst Ben Mattinson would weigh in with some praise of his own by stating that the new Como number 20’s passing range was “outstanding” throughout his much-talked-about Split stay, with Farke now hopeful – if a move can be pulled off – that Baturina can enhance Leeds’ attack even more, after the goals have started to come naturally against the likes of Chelsea and Arne Slot’s Reds.

Of course, there will also be a worry in the air that for £21m, Leeds are risking their money on a midfielder who hasn’t ignited into life in Serie A.

Still, the Whites were here before with Rutter when splashing the cash on him in a January window, and while it took time for him to acclimatise, he is now seen as a modern great. Could Baturina soon follow in his esteemed footsteps?

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He’s a wanted man.

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Sometimes a press conference comes around and you just need to fly under the radar; that’s never been more apparent than at Tottenham Hotspur in the last six months.

As Spurs celebrated the Europa League, Ange Postecoglou triumphantly declared that season three is always better than season two. He was sacked just weeks later.

For Thomas Frank, he’s also found out that perhaps just staying quiet is the best form of approach in the media. Last week, he was asked about the club’s failed move for Eberechi Eze.

“Who’s Eze?” That was Frank’s reply, and although he said it with a wry smile and to make a joke, it’s come back to bite him.

He found out just who Eze is on Sunday as the boyhood Gooner scored a devastating hat-trick to seal a 4-1 win for Arsenal over their distraught neighbours.

Spurs came to frustrate but in doing so, failed to come up with any inventive attacking play. Their creativity was abysmal, and if it wasn’t for a brilliant yet flukey Richarlison strike, they’d have left the Emirates Stadium without a goal.

What went wrong for Spurs at the Emirates

On paper, Frank’s game plan in north London on Sunday made sense. They were the only team in the Premier League this season not to lose on the road. The Dane clearly knows what he’s doing when Spurs play away.

Yet, against Arsenal, if you’re putting all 11 men behind the ball, then it does rely on you frustrating your opponents for longer than the 36 minutes it took for Leandro Trossard to score the opener.

To Frank’s credit, Spurs had sucked the life out of the Emirates during the opening half an hour. Arsenal created openings, notably when Declan Rice was played in by Eze, but the visitors frustrated and made it difficult to play between the lines.

Yet, once the floodgates opened, there was no stopping Arsenal, particularly as Spurs had a total lack of creativity once again.

Despite scoring courtesy of Richarlison, they failed to create a single big chance, had just three shots and provoked only a solitary save from David Raya. Arsenal, by contrast, had 17 shots. Worryingly for Spurs, the home side simply wanted it more.

There were several folks in white to blame. In attack, Wilson Odobert and Mohammed Kudus were completely marked out of the game by Jurrien Timber and Riccardo Calafiori. Richarlison, for the most part, was bullied by William Saliba and Piero Hincapie. The Brazilian only completed five passes all evening and won just one of his five aerial duels.

In defence, Bukayo Saka regularly had the beating of Destiny Udogie down Arsenal’s right flank while Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero were uncharacteristically poor. Van ve Ven notably completed just 71% of his passes and won only six of his 13 duels.

But, the biggest culprit of all was a man who, ironically, was sent off during the international break. He’s becoming something of a Serge Aurier to Frank.

Spurs' new Serge Aurier

Mention Aurier’s name around those at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and it’s likely to send a shiver down spines.

Signed for £23m in August of 2017, he arrived at White Hart Lane from PSG after a rough time in France, where he was handed a suspended prison sentence for assaulting a police officer.

“You will see the real me,” he declared upon arrival. Well, if the real Aurier was a gluttony of mistakes, we certainly did.

The Ivory Coast international had another tricky stint at Spurs, but this time it was all unravelling on the pitch, rather than off it.

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Where to even begin with the mistakes? The right-back committed a hat-trick of foul throws against Crystal Palace in 2018. While that may not have cost Spurs greatly, his clumsiness meant that he always had a moment of madness in him.

He notably gave away a penalty against Leicester City in December 2020 from which Jamie Vardy scored, but his most costly blunder came against Manchester City in the 2021 Carabao Cup final when he committed a needless foul on Raheem Sterling. The end result was a free-kick from which Pep Guardiola’s side scored the winner.

Speaking at full-time, Jamie Redknapp commented: “Aurier does well to start with – he follows the one-two and then just makes the most ridiculous and rash decision, which we see him do so often. Just stand up, don’t dive in, don’t give the foul away – elementary mistake.”

It wasn’t the first time the Ivorian had attracted criticism during his time in England. Two years prior to that moment, Rio Ferdinand stated: “As a defender I have never really rated Aurier. He’s rash and he’s let his team down far too often.”

Simply a giant liability in that Spurs team of back then, unfortunately, Frank has found another rash and unreliable figure in his team; Rodrigo Bentancur.

The Uruguayan was signed for £22m from Juventus in January 2022 and has featured 131 times for the Lilywhites since.

However, while he’s flirted with some impressive performances here and there, for the most part, he’s been a letdown.

He has become a symbol not only for Spurs’ lack of creativity but their lack of robustness and dynamism from the middle of the park. Despite that, he has started nine times of the 12 Premier League games Spurs have competed in this term.

The fact of the matter is that he shouldn’t be starting with that regularity.

Tottenham presenter Hollie Agombar called him “a lucky boy” after a studs-up challenge on Chelsea’s Reece James at the beginning of the month saw him avoid a red card. In the words of the Daily Mail’s Kieran Gill, it was a “terrible” challenge.

Things went from bad to worse when Spurs visited Arsenal on Sunday. The tone was set when he brought down Saka on the edge of the box in the first half and was brandished with a yellow card as a result.

While he was nowhere to be seen as Mikel Merino clipped a delightful ball into the box for Trossard’s opener, he was particularly poor for Eze’s first.

Bentancur vs Arsenal

Minutes played

66

Touches

27

Accurate passes

16/17 (94%)

Key passes

0

Shots

0

Dribbles

0

Tackles won

0

Interceptions

2

Duels won

0

Stats via Sofascore.

The attacking midfielder skipped beyond Bentancur all too easily as the Uruguay international went to ground inside the area.

He was handed a 3/10 match rating by The Standard as a consequence, with the publication writing he was ‘doing nothing to give Spurs some much-needed control’. The very fact that Guglielmo Vicario received 15 passes – six more than Palhinha and Bentancur combined (9) – in the first half said it all.

All that said, it’s perhaps no surprise that analyst Raj Chohan has described him as a “candidate for worst centre-midfielder at a big six club”.

Like Aurier, he’s a major underperformer. He’s a liability and a player that Frank cannot trust. He shouldn’t be starting regular games for Spurs any more.

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Posts ByEthan Lamb Nov 24, 2025