Frank G. Barnes, Author at The Trivela Effect

Every Premier League Big Six club’s best candidate to sell in the January 2027 transfer window

2Oct

By Frank G. BarnesNo Comments

Analysis

Every Premier League Big Six club’s best candidate to sell in the January 2027 transfer window

It's been five Matchdays into the 2026/27 Premier League season, and the leading candidates to win the league are the same as they were last season and in most of the previous five seasons: Arsenal and Manchester City, with a touch of Liverpool. But the rest of the Big Six isn't even in the top six, as underdogs Brighton, Brentford, and Leeds have been flying high whereas Tottenham Hotspur are in the relegation zone again and both Chelsea and Manchester United are shaping up to be disappointments once more. Even the top teams, though, have players they might be interested in getting rid of this winter transfer window. Starting with the worst team, Spurs, and ending with league leaders Manchester City, let's take a look at the best candidate from every club to sell when the next transfer...

Three U23 Bundesliga forwards you need to buy in Sorare Classic and why

1Oct

By Frank G. BarnesNo Comments

Analysis

Three U23 Bundesliga forwards you need to buy in Sorare Classic and why

Sorare Classic doesn't have any financial rewards and isn't the most popular way to play the game, but it's my favorite way because you feel like a football club, "investing" in young player cards and watching them perform and develop over the years. The Bundesliga is so rife with amazing young players who are going to become household names in the future. I mean, just look at what Erling Haaland and Jude Bellingham have become since leaving Borussia Dortmund. I am targeting three U23 Bundesliga forwards who I think will get serious points this season and beyond, and they are already doing great things in the 2026/27 season. Now, since prices fluctuate, I will make the prices vague and go by a maximum price point of around the most money, in US dollars, you could expect the limited v...

Florian Wirtz is the right player on the wrong team

1Oct

By Frank G. BarnesNo Comments

Analysis

Florian Wirtz is the right player on the wrong team

Since he joined Liverpool at the start of the 2025/26 season, I don't think there has been a single player in the Premier League who has been under the microscope more than Florian Wirtz. Every single pundit seems to have a strong opinion on Wirtz, who was a multi-time Bundesliga Player of the Season at Bayer Leverkusen before he even turned 23 years old, leading Leverkusen to indisputably the greatest season in Bundesliga history as his team went undefeated in 2023/24 to break up Bayern Munich's record run of consecutive titles. (And oh by the way, his coach, Xabi Alonso, has not achieved a single thing since then.) Wirtz, though, is facing a heavy weight of expectation at Anfield, and the price tag of his transfer, an initial 100 million pounds, certainly didn't help matters. But the ...

Cole Campbell looks like an American in the Bundesliga worth getting excited over

29Sep

By Frank G. BarnesNo Comments

Analysis

Cole Campbell looks like an American in the Bundesliga worth getting excited over

I was doing my usual periodic trolling of random games around European football, and the Bundesliga just happens to be my favorite league to check games out from because 1) their atmospheres and overall games are more likely to be entertaining and 2) you never know which breakout stars you're going to stumble upon. And I decided to check out Schalke both out of a feeling of nostalgia and a desire to look at what Loris Karius is up to these days, as well as scout up Timo Becker and Nikola Katic defensively. Schalke managed to keep the clean sheet in a 0-0 draw with new Bundesliga darlings Elversberg, but the player who jumped off the page the most to me was still an Elversberg attacker. And I couldn't help but notice their 20-year-old American left winger Cole Campbell. Now, Americans...

Pep Guardiola’s legacy has been shattered by the Manchester City verdict

29Sep

By Frank G. BarnesNo Comments

Analysis

Pep Guardiola’s legacy has been shattered by the Manchester City verdict

Pep Guardiola will always be looked at as one of the greatest managers of all time, and even if you can't stand the guy, I think it's impossible to take at least that from him. Because Guardiola not only won too much consistently throughout his career to be anything less than a great manager, but he really did change the game in terms of how teams approach possession, movement off the ball, and dominance. In a lot of ways, he set the stage for how clubs in Spain, Germany, and now England play, especially the biggest clubs in the world like Bayern Munich. At the same time, Guardiola's legacy always came with a bit of an asterisk. See, unlike the coaches he often gets compared to in debates about the greatest modern manager, namely Jose Mourinho and Jurgen Klopp, he never actually built a...

We don’t talk enough about how great Petr Cech was for Chelsea

28Sep

By Frank G. BarnesNo Comments

Analysis

We don’t talk enough about how great Petr Cech was for Chelsea

Growing up, I swore Petr Cech was the best goalkeeper in the world. I think at that time, most people were on the Iker Casillas and Gianluigi Buffon trains. And for good reason. They were the faces of the two most prestigious clubs in the world, at least at that time, in Real Madrid and Juventus, and they were also the faces of the Spanish and Italian national teams. Call it a flavor of bias, but I was in love with those old Czech teams with Pavel Nedved and Tomas Rosicky in midfield, Jan Koller and Milan Baros up top, and then Cech in goal. It was unfortunate, too, that the Czechs were basically chronic underperformers and Cech had a couple of bad blunders in a national team kit, but as someone who prided themselves on watching every single game instead of falling for narratives, I alw...

Portugal have finally found the right balance with Cristiano Ronaldo under Jorge Jesus

27Sep

By Frank G. BarnesNo Comments

Analysis

Portugal have finally found the right balance with Cristiano Ronaldo under Jorge Jesus

Cristiano Ronaldo almost seems bigger than Portugal to the detriment of both himself and the team. He becomes the magnet for criticism, pinpointed as THE problem, seemingly absolving the others of accountability, whenever Portugal lose, but he also becomes disproportionately the conversation to the point where he looms over everyone else no matter what happens. Portugal have to prepare for life after Cristiano at some point, even as it is abundantly clear that, at 41 and in the Saudi Pro League, he is still the best option they have at striker despite, you know, never really being an out and out striker in his career. But as Goncalo Ramos continues to flop for club and country in terms of taking that next step towards being a top striker, Ronaldo becomes harder and harder to leave on th...

Which club should Antonio Conte manage next?

26Sep

By Frank G. BarnesNo Comments

Analysis

Which club should Antonio Conte manage next?

Antonio Conte is one of the most volatile but entertaining managers in world football. He is the heartthrob clubs know will ultimately turn on them and hurt them, but for those chasing that one fleeting season of glory - or, more foolishly, thinking they can change his ways - Conte is the Siren's Song of managers. He's undoubtedly one of the best managers in the world, and although he blew things up in smoke at Napoli, pretty much everyone expected that. I mean, Aurelio De Laurentiis is so difficult to work with that even Carlo Ancelotti said he couldn't deal with him anymore and escaped to Everton, of all places. As far as Conte goes, his reputation is actually even higher than it was before, because I still don't know how he turned Scott McTominay into a Serie A MVP and Napoli into Sc...

Cristiano Ronaldo’s 2021/22 season for Manchester United deserved so much better

26Sep

By Frank G. BarnesNo Comments

Analysis

Cristiano Ronaldo’s 2021/22 season for Manchester United deserved so much better

In my estimation, one of the saddest stories in world football during the 2020s was Cristiano Ronaldo's return to Manchester United. I think for a lot of people who didn't watch Ronaldo's time at Man United when it actually happened, they don't understand how special his rise was. Everyone knew from the moment he stepped foot at Old Trafford that he could be something unique, but it wasn't easy for him at first because he wanted to play so freely and so differently than what people were used to seeing in English football. It honestly rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, including some of his teammates. But it wasn't only Sir Alex Ferguson who took Ronaldo in and backed him to the fullest, believing in his talent. As a collective, the Manchester United fan base rallied around him in a w...

Obviously, Raphinha isn’t the best player in world football

26Sep

By Frank G. BarnesNo Comments

Analysis

Obviously, Raphinha isn’t the best player in world football

Raphinha is honestly one of the best stories in world football when you really think about it. Guy gets plucked out of obscurity, becomes a hero for a team most people don't care about in the Premier League in Leeds United, gets courted by Arsenal and Chelsea to make the next step up, and then somehow ends up at one of the biggest clubs ever in Barcelona at a time when they desperately need to win the league in order to avoid going insolvent in the future because they mortgaged their future debt and TV revenue. And Raphinha ended up repaying Barcelona's gamble on a winger who could barely get 10 goals and 10 assists in a season for Leeds. He didn't get 10 goals or even 10 assists in his first season with Barcelona, but he won the league immediately, combining with Robert Lewandowski to ...