To me he isn't even the best midfielder on our team. Don't get me wrong, I rate Ødegaard highly and think he is having a great season, especially now that he has added goals to his game, but for me the MVP for us so far this season has been Partey. He really is world class!
I believe Partey and Xhaka have both been as vital as Ødegaard for the team. It's pretty clear Xhaka is the leader of the team and Partey is the most important player cause no one else can come close to what he brings on and off the ball in his position. I believe Ode and Saka are filling that talisman-ic role for the team (Jesus was filling that role earlier in the season).
He is definitely up there with the best of them. I don't think you can name 10 players in the whole league more technically gifted than him.
Its hard to separate them in terms of their importance. Obviously Ødegaard's goals this season are assisting his cause in being hailed as the best player in the PL by the media. All that is clear is that we have the best midfield in the PL currently.
These Athletic articles are so verbose lol I wonder if it's actually good content or just filler writing?
Daniel Taylor
Jan 21, 2023
The man in charge of Manchester City’s transfer business had a choice to make. Did he tell the truth? Or did he say something that was untrue because he knew, ultimately, it might work out better for City that way?
Sitting opposite him was a fresh-faced Martin Ødegaard, just turned 16 and already a Norway international. The boy was with his parents, Hans and Lene. The scene was City’s training ground and everything, it seemed, was going swimmingly.
It was late 2014 and Txiki Begiristain, City’s director of football, was hosting Ødegaard at a time when almost every elite club in Europe wanted the player who, eight years on, captains Arsenal in their bid to become Premier League champions.
Manchester United were on that list and, never reported until now, their manager, Louis van Gaal, flew to Norway to try to persuade Ødegaard that Old Trafford was the best choice. Ødegaard had already spent time with United as a 14-year-old, training for three days in their academy. A year on, the scouting reports were so impressive United took a top-level decision that there was no need to offer him a trial. They just wanted to sign him.
But City had a plan of their own. They were managed at the time by Manuel Pellegrini but already had Pep Guardiola prominently in their thoughts. It was Begiristain’s job to make Project Pep happen and, within a year, everything had been put in place. Ødegaard, the wunderkind of Norway, was viewed as ideal for Guardiola’s way of playing.
He had been shown around City’s village-sized training complex, because how could that not impress him? He had heard from Begiristain about their vision to dominate English football. The money was good because, with City, it always is.
But the player’s father had a question. Real Madrid, he said, had promised his son would go straight into their first-team squad and train with the Galacticos. So could City offer the same?
That was the moment when Begiristain knew the whole deal hinged on his reply. Did he try to pull the wool over their eyes? Or did he tell the truth?
“I could make the same promise as Real Madrid,” he said. “But I have to be honest with you and, realistically, it is going to take longer.”
Ten out of 10 for honesty. The bottom line, however, is that it had consequences for City.
“We had him in the building but we couldn’t make it happen,” says one City executive, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We thought it was close. But you can be close in football and also a mile apart. The truth had to be told and the truth in this instance was not what they wanted to hear.”
Eight years on, City should not beat themselves up too badly about missing out on the player who, at 15 years and 253 days, had become Norway’s youngest international.
Kevin De Bruyne joined the following summer. Ilkay Gundogan has shown why Guardiola wanted him as his first signing. Bernardo Silva has not done too shabbily since he arrived a year later.
Still, though, it is tempting to think Guardiola might have a few regrets when it comes to the player who, perhaps more than anyone, is inspiring Arsenal’s attempts to depose City as Premier League champions.
Ødegaard is hoping to end the season as a Premier League-winning captain (Photo by Visionhaus/Getty Images)
Not that Guardiola is alone on that front. All the major clubs were chasing Ødegaard after his breakthrough with Stromsgodset in Norway’s Eliteserien. He had offers from all over Europe and, before making up his mind, he and his family embarked on a tour of the relevant cities and stadiums — the superstar footballer’s equivalent of university open days.
Erling Haaland did something similar before moving from Borussia Dortmund to City last summer. With Ødegaard, however, it is always worth bearing in mind his age. His father, in particular, had a considerable say. He and Ødegaard made it a condition that he wanted to learn from the best by training with the elite players — or there was no deal to be had.
The right decision? Van Gaal is on record saying it was a mistake. Ødegaard, he said, needed the “best education” and Madrid was not that place.
So, was United? Ødegaard and his family talked at length to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the club’s most successful Norwegian. But United encountered the same issue as City.
In an email exchange with The Athletic, Van Gaal recalls part of the conversations. “His (Ødegaard’s) management wanted him to train with the ‘A’ team if I remember correctly… after that, I did not hear or see anything of him.”
Barcelona were keen and that appealed to Ødegaard bearing in mind he had grown up, like many boys his age, with posters on his bedroom walls of the team’s most famous player.
It was a unique selling point for Barca. They had the sunshine and the allure of Camp Nou, but nothing was more attractive for prospective signings than being offered the chance to play alongside Lionel Messi.
Ødegaard was shown around by Andoni Zubizarreta, then Barca’s director of football. There was a tour of the stadium and an invitation, three days after his 16th birthday, to watch Messi in action.
On December 20, 2014, Luis Enrique’s team had a game in la Liga against Cordoba. Messi scored two in a 5-0 win. It was a peacock-like spreading of Barca’s feathers. They were on their way to the Spanish title and, watching in the stands, Ødegaard took it all in.
Lionel Messi’s masterclass in 2014 against Cordoba took place in front of a watching Martin Ødegaard (Photo: David Ramos/Getty Images)
Unfortunately for him, Barcelona had also been given a 14-month transfer ban for breaching FIFA’s rules on the recruitment of players under the age of 18. That meant they could not sign anybody throughout the whole of 2015 and that counted against them. Even at such a young age, Ødegaard did not want to put his career on pause.
Madrid, on the other hand, had their own, simple way of seducing prospective new signings: presenting their offer in the room where they displayed their record haul of European Cups.
Madrid had just ended their long, obsessive wait for ‘La Decima’, their 10th European Cup. It was the team of Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Luka Modric, managed by Carlo Ancelotti. Of course Ødegaard was keen. Of course he wanted to pull on that silky white shirt and imagine getting his hands on that trophy.
It was not until the autumn of 2019 that another detail, initially unreported, came out via Football Leaks, amid its stream of revelations about the financial secrets of Europe’s top clubs.
Ødegaard’s father had been offered a job coaching Madrid’s under-11s. Hans, a former footballer himself with Stromsgodset and Sandefjord, had been the assistant manager at Mjondalen in Norway’s second division. He accepted Madrid’s offer and, on the day his son put pen to paper, signed his own three-year contract.
This happens in football, especially at the highest end of the sport, where it is a common ploy for clubs to offer jobs to family members.
There was, however, one detail of the Football Leaks story that jumped off the page: Ødegaard Sr’s contract was allegedly worth £2.7million ($3.5m) — roughly 10 times what would ordinarily be expected for a job of that nature.
Martin Ødegaard was largely restricted to appearances for Real Madrid’s B team (Photo: Denis Doyle/Getty Images)
As it turned out, Ødegaard eventually came to realise that Van Gaal was correct: maybe Madrid was not the best place for him, after all.
It felt right at the time, though, and Madrid tried everything to put themselves in a favourable position. A private jet was sent to Norway to pick up the Ødegaard family. Florentino Perez, the Madrid president, was waiting at the Bernabeu and, midway through their first meeting, there was a knock at the door. Zinedine Zidane walked in.
Zidane introduced himself and told Ødegaard he had been looking forward to meeting him. He said he had heard all about his talent and would personally be involved in his development. For Ødegaard, it was exactly what he wanted to hear.
The deal cost Madrid an initial £3.5million, with roughly the same in add-ons, and the player signed a three-year contract. Financially, it was life-changing. It just quickly became apparent it was not going to work out the way Ødegaard had anticipated. Madrid already had Modric, Toni Kroos, Casemiro, Sami Khedira, James Rodriguez and Isco. Ancelotti left the Bernabeu at the end of the season and his replacement, Rafa Benitez, also had no room for a player who was still too young to buy a bottle of Estrella in Plaza Mayor.
You must think I'm Trilly or 2Smokeyy or one of these other Arsenalmania urban youths. Sounds like unconcious bias from yourself.Man said "verbose"
Pump returning with an extensive vocabulary, loving the growth young blood.
Their articles read like a student trying to reach the world limit on an essay.
It really breaks my heart you'd patronise me like this. I was going to say sesquipedalian but I thought that word was too many syllables for the Arsenalmania faithful.
Maybe, but i wouldn't want to be without Ødegaard in midfield for an extended time. We did fine except vs united(which actually went fine except for 3 attacks and other bullshit stuff that ****ed the game). We haven't really played without Ødegaard.
I never used Google or ChaptGPT I just have a wide vocabulary because I’m intelligent and wise. You read all those long Atheltic articles and haven’t improved your lexicon?
