Steve McManaman: My standout winners from Royal Ascot

This past month we’ve been treated to the Epsom Derby and Royal Ascot, and there’s still plenty of great racing to come over the summer. Steve McManaman returns with his column to discuss which horses impressed him most at Royal Ascot, why Westover is the one to beat in the St Leger and why he’s backing Desert Crown over Emily Upjohn for the King George next month. 

Over the weekend, Baaeed, Nature Strip, Saffron Beach and Inspiral really stood out at Royal Ascot. 

“There were a number of horses that impressed me at Ascot over the weekend. The first race was Baaeed’s where he took his record to eight out of eight. You’d take that all day wouldn’t you? There were so many to be impressed by on the first day but Nature Strip, the Australian horse, was particularly brilliant. Saffron Beach won really well after stepping up and Inspiral, another Cheveley Park horse, was great considering she hadn’t run this year. Those four horses were the winners that stood out most due to how easily they won. Other horses worth a mention were Aidan O’Brien’s Meditate and Broome, who ran really well to beat Hurricane Lane in the Hardwicke Stakes.”

Westover’s end to the Epsom Derby justified why he’s the favourite for the St Leger. 

“I do believe Westover is the horse to beat in the St Leger. The way Westover finished the race in the Epsom Derby was very impressive in regards to the way he flew at the end and did a lot of his work in the latter part of the race. Those extra few furlongs could really help him. I don’t know whether he will go over to Ireland first or head straight to the St Leger, but when you see some of the eye catchers who were a bit unlucky down the field, then Westover in the Epsom Derby was one of them.”

If Desert Crown and Emily Upjohn go head to head in the King George next month, then I expect the Epsom Derby winner to be victorious. 

“Emily Upjohn was very impressive in the Epsom Derby, but with her and Derby winner Desert Crown potentially competing in the King George next month, then I’m going to have to choose the latter as a potential victor. The fact that Emily Upjohn came around the outside of the field in the Derby then you’d have thought that she should have won the race. However, Desert Crown was very impressive. They both won at York and if I had to side with one of them, then I’d say Desert Crown considering how well he won in the Derby.”

Now the football season is over, hopefully me and some of my former teammates can attend some race meetings this summer. 

“As a player, only on a couple of occasions were my teammates and I able to attend race meetings in the off-season. It was only me and Robbie Fowler who had horses and between us we had around 30 winners and we were only able to go and see them live twice. I have a horse currently in a syndicate with some of the lads called Box To Box. I went down to watch him on Derby day at Epsom in the first race and it was nice to be there and see him in action. A lot of the boys are involved in the syndicate, but it’s just so hard to get everybody down to a meeting. I was there at Epsom with a few other friends, but none of my ex-teammates or any other ex-footballers. Box To Box is currently at Michael Owen’s stable and we’re hoping that more of us are free to attend races over the summer considering that the football season is finished.”

Onto the football, I believe Liverpool have made a statement by completing the signing of Darwin Núñez.

“Darwin is different from Erling Haaland. You don’t necessarily have to go tit for tat. If Manchester City signs somebody then Liverpool don’t have to sign somebody as you’ve got to take into consideration that both clubs will be seeing players leave over the course of the transfer window. Manchester City have needed a striker since the Harry Kane deal fell through last summer and with Erling Haaland they’ve got a superstar in the making. 

“For Liverpool to go and sign Darwin Núñez is a statement of intent. He cost a lot of money and I think it was his performances against Liverpool in the Champions League that have effectively brought him to the club. I saw him a number of times last season and in the early stages of the Champions League he looked quite raw and as if he had a lot to learn. He’s only 22 year-old but as the season progressed you could see him getting better and better. I thought his second performance against Liverpool at Anfield was outstanding and that’s what made Jürgen Klopp sit up and take note. How quickly he’s progressing is very exciting but he still has to keep on improving as he’s only young and this season has been his first standout year. He needs to keep on improving to enable him to hit the heights, but he looks incredibly promising at the moment. He just needs to stay patient because of his age and relative inexperience. He’s young, he’s got the right physique, he causes lots of problems and he’s a different type of player from what Liverpool have got already. 

“Sadio Mané has been an incredible footballer for Liverpool and it’s really sad to see him go. However, when players want to leave, then they usually find a way to leave. He’s given Liverpool a lot over the past few years and if he fancies playing in Germany then the best thing that could have happened was that Sadio sat down with Liverpool, stated that he wants to leave and organised a dignified exit which enabled Liverpool to get a replacement early in the window. It’s been relatively quiet regarding Liverpool bringing Núñez in and Mané leaving. Any other year then you’d think that would cause all sorts of fireworks and once again I believe Liverpool deserve a lot of credit regarding how they’ve gone about it all.”

Liverpool don’t have the space in the squad to make any more signings this summer. 

“I don’t believe Liverpool need to make more signings this summer. Where would you put them? They’ve made three signings already this summer. They’ve brought in Fábio Carvalho and Calvin Ramsay, who are two players for the future and they’ve also brought in Darwin Núñez, who’s another player for the future to a certain extent but has cost them a lot of money. Players will have to leave as there isn’t enough space to fit everybody in. Keeping the players happy now is as hard a job as it is to jam all of these players into the team. I can see a number of players leaving, with Liverpool beginning to recoup some of the money they’ve spent. That just makes business sense. The only way they could potentially go for somebody else is if five or so players leave this summer. There’s talk of Neco Williams leaving, which is completely correct as he needs to start playing football regularly and the same goes for Nat Phillips. They’ve both had great seasons with both Fulham and Bournemouth respectively, after helping their clubs get promoted to the Premier League. At the moment though, there are just too many bodies to keep bringing people in.”

Even though I don’t believe Liverpool need new additions this summer, they will have to start planning for the signing of a midfielder sooner rather than later.

“Regarding a potential Georginio Wijnaldum return, I presume the reason he left is that he was getting a big pay packet from Paris Saint-Germain. I don't know whether that will be doable for him to come back to Liverpool and take a pay cut. I’m not even sure what would happen. I was very complimentary about him last year when he was leaving as I think he’s a great player, he played in every game. This hasn’t been the right move for him. PSG, as I've mentioned previously, are a very strange club. They brought in five players on a free contract last season that caused chaos within the squad, so I don’t know whether he wants to leave and come back. I still trust him as a player and I still think he’s a great player.

“As for a marquee midfield signing next year, who knows? There’s talk about Nicolò Barella and there’s talk about Jude Bellingham because he’s a young Englishman. Two players that I’ve spoken about very highly are Declan Rice and Kalvin Phillips, but I don’t know whether Liverpool needs that type of player because they already have Fabinho and Jordan Henderson. I think they will need a midfielder possibly next year and I think it’s right to start planning for that signing as James Milner is getting older and Jordan Henderson is getting older too. They have to start looking at those positions.”

I, like all Liverpool fans, remain hopeful that Mohamed Salah stays at the club.

“I want him to stay, of course I do, but it’s entirely up to him and his agent. I have no idea what wage demands he’s asking for. He’s just been voted Player of the Year so he’s coming off a stellar season where he had a lot of goals and assists so his stock is extremely high. I don’t know whether he’s asking for money that Liverpool can’t give him, I’m not entirely sure, but I’d love him to stay as he’s a super player. He could go to a foreign club in January. Let’s be honest, it’s not even going to take a year because in January he can speak to the foreign teams if that’s his or his agent's thinking. He needs to tell Liverpool if he’s leaving because they can start lining up a player for when he’s going to go. I, like most people, would love him to stay because he’s Liverpool’s best player and has been for a number of years and he’s given Liverpool fans such an incredible time over the last few seasons”.

Raheem Sterling looks like he’s on his way to Chelsea. Manchester City will be losing a tremendous player.

“I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s better than Riyad Mahrez and Jack Grealish. I don’t think that’s the right comparison because they’re all different players. Raheem’s a great player and his goals over the last few years have proved that. Riyad Mahrez’s goal ratio has been exceptional but Raheem has probably played more than Mahrez over the past few years. There must be some truth in this story because this rumour has started to rumble on and on for the last week or so. If it was a no go and Chelsea weren’t interested, then this story would have been shut down a while ago, so there must be some truth in it especially if Romelu Lukaku goes. 

“I think it’ll be a good move for Raheem because he’s an excellent player. There is the fact that you’re letting one of your players go to a title rival, but Pep Guardiola might be happy for him to do that because he knows he’s going to keep Bernardo Silva, Riyad Mahrez and Jack Grealish. Pep let Leroy Sané leave a couple of years ago and we all thought he was a really good player. They still continued to go on and win the league. You just have to trust Pep and what he wants to do, and what the player wants. If the player wants to play more games and tells the manager they want to leave, then that’s football now. If you speak to the right people involved and you come to some agreement you can move on and get a replacement, but Manchester City are blessed in those positions.

“Manchester City are the favourites for all the trophies next year. Chelsea are not. Chelsea have lost players and I’d say the players at Manchester City have got a better chance of being successful.  There are too many question marks around Chelsea at the moment regarding the takeover; which players are leaving, a number of their hierarchy leaving, which players are going to come in and how large a transfer budget they’ve got.”

We all hope to see Jack Grealish step up at Manchester City next season.

“We all love Jack don’t we? We all hope he steps up next season. His first season has been a learning curve in my opinion. He’s gone from being the main man at Aston Villa, where everybody looked at every opportunity to give him the ball to being one of 11 or 16 main men at Manchester City. He’s not the most important player at Manchester City, so he has to evolve, but that’s what good players do. They  know what they have to do and come back in pre-season and put it right. They start strong and then go on from there. There’s no doubting Jack’s talent. With a  little bit of luck here or there, then he could have got a few more goals, he could have scored against Real Madrid in the semi-final, so anything could have happened. You get moments like this in football and as long as you learn and you come back stronger, you’ll be ok.” 

Arsenal could be the perfect destination for Gabriel Jesus.

“Is he better than what Arsenal have got? The answer is yes. Manchester City are more than happy to let him go because they brought in Erling Haaland, so have Man City improved in that area? Probably, yes. It’s only natural that Gabriel Jesus will start to look at Haaland and think that it’s time to leave. He has the potential to go to Arsenal and be their star man. There are Brazilian and Portuguese-speaking players at Arsenal already. Mikel Arteta has worked with him before and he’ll be the main man. Alexandre Lacazette has moved on and I know they’ve just re-signed Eddie Nketiah to a new deal, but Jesus will probably come in and know that he’s playing every week and that centre-forward spot is his own. It works for everybody, It’s pointless Manchester City keeping him if he's going to be really unhappy.  Arsenal need a centre-forward and he can be the main man as he already has huge amounts of Premier League experience, and it pays the bills for the Erling Haaland move.

“He has been linked with Chelsea and Tottenham too, so the factor of playing in the Champions League would weigh on your mind. You always want to play in the Champions League and the same goes for Jesus. He’s used to being successful with Manchester City so, of course, you want to play at the team which offers you Champions League football. Tottenham is less of a choice for him because they’ve got Harry Kane and Heung-min Son, who've both had great seasons, so suddenly that becomes competition for you. For Chelsea, it’ll all depend on whether of course Raheem Sterling turns up there or Romelu Lukaku goes, but they’ve got a plethora of people there, so Arsenal are the one team crying out for his type of player and of course he’s worked with Mikel Arteta so maybe that negates the fact that they’re not in the Champions League. He can go there and be comfortable with someone he knows already.”

He may already be linked with a move to Real Madrid, but I certainly hope that Erling Haaland stays for more than two years at Manchester City. 

“There’s talk of a clause in his contract, and I don’t know if that’s the case or whether that can be activated at any time, but it doesn’t make much sense for him to only go to Manchester City for two years. I can’t see that happening at all. Otherwise it just wouldn’t make any sense for Manchester City, even though they’d get a profit on their money. They’re not necessarily bothered about profits - they’re bothered about winning the best trophies. I can see Haaland staying at Man City longer and I can see Real Madrid waiting for the finished article. Real Madrid don’t really need to bother with people ‘trying to get to the top’, when they can just go and buy them when they’re at the top. So it makes perfect sense for Real Madrid in three or four years, when Haaland’s 26, to try and buy him.

“I do think Mbappé has burned his bridges, but football is a strange world, as we know. In three years time, Kylian Mbappé is going to be on another free contract, which is absolutely bonkers after the deal he’s just signed with Paris Saint-Germain. So when he’s 26, he’s going to be coming up on another free contract. So, yes, I think he’s burned his bridges at the moment because [Real Madrid president] Florentino Pérez has said as much on the television and in interviews to suggest so, but if he’s still the superstar that he is and he’s on  a free contract in three years’ time then they’re going to be interested again. We have no idea of the situation Paris Saint-Germain are going to be in. We’ve read all this stuff about Kylian having the power to do this and the power to do that. The sporting director, Leonardo, has gone. The manager, Mauricio Pochettino, has gone. Who’s going to come in? What players are they going to keep? In two years time, is Neymar going to be there? Sergio Ramos, of course, won’t be there. All these are big characters. Is Lionel Messi going to be there? Probably not. You never know what the structure of PSG is going to be like in three years, when Mbappé is coming up to his new contract again. He’s incredibly important for PSG. He’s incredibly important for the French nation and I think him staying in the end wasn’t such a surprise when you see how many people got involved. People wanted him to stay. But it wouldn’t surprise me in three or four years if there wasn’t a turnaround again. 

“I certainly hope Erling Haaland stays more than two years at Manchester City. I think it would be weird if he came and left two years later. Especially if we want him to be a success. Everybody likes him as a kid, he’s very exciting, and you want him to show how good he is. You want all the superstars of the world to be playing in the Premier League at the minute.”

I think Kieran Tierney would be a good addition for Manchester City if they’re looking for a new left-back. 

“He’s a good left-back  and City need a left-back. I mean they’ve got Oleksandr Zinchenko who’s been in and out. The Benjamin Mendy case is ongoing. They’ve played a number of people at that position and they don’t seem to be comfortable at it. Guardiola doesn’t seem to be entirely comfortable with Nathan Ake playing there, Zinchenko playing there, Cancelo playing there. He’s played a lot of people in those positions over a number of years now and I think he wants a left-back. Whether someone moves on and he brings a left-back in, but I think Kieran Tierney would be absolutely fine playing there. Man City seem solid enough centrally. They seem solid enough on the right-hand side. Joao Cancelo can play on the left, but he’s better as a right-back, so these are gaps that Guardiola will probably think need plugging a bit. You can also see people leaving Man City if they are to bring people in, because the squad is so talented, that’s the hard part of managing these squads now - keeping 20 international players happy.”

I don’t think Real Madrid need Jude Belligham at present. 

“I presume Jude’s next move would be the Premier League. I don’t think Real Madrid necessarily need Jude Bellingham. They’ve just bought Aurélien Tchouaméni. They’ve got Eduardo Camavinga, who’s rarely starred. Federico Valverde. You’re not going to play the three young kids together. Unless you’re buying them and trying to stockpile and sell them on at a later stage, you have to play them when you have them. Camavinga will come in eventually. Luka Modric has just signed a new contract for another year. They’ve still got Toni Kroos, Federico Valverde and Casemiro. You can’t just buy Jude as well, and have four of them. I get the fact that it might be next year, the year after,. etc. But at this moment in time, if Jude was going to leave Borussia Dortmund, a Premier League team is probably a better proposition than a Spanish team. Barca are still trying to sort out their finances. Madrid could buy him but they’ve just bought Tchouaméni and got Camavinga already. The makeup of that team that finished against Manchester City looked relatively young, so I don’t necessarily think they need Jude at the moment, although I do think he could fit into that team. A better proposition would be an English team.”

I believe Arsenal or Tottenham would be a good next move for Marcos Asensio. 

“Yes, I think he would suit the Premier League. He’s a good player. He definitely needs to play more. That goes without saying. Isco’s leaving. Marcelo’s left. Gareth Bale’s left. I think Real Madrid are just trying to take stock a little bit. It wouldn’t surprise me if they bought somebody else. They may need a forward. They’ve got Karim Benzema, Vinicius Jr and Rodrygo, but they probably need Asensio as well at this moment in time. If they are to let him leave, I think they’ll bring somebody else in. They haven’t got enough forwards to let people go. He’s an excellent player, he’s just not hit the heights at Madrid as he did when he burst into the team. He probably hasn’t progressed enough for them. So he hasn’t really nailed down a starting position for himself. It’ll be interesting to see what he does. Real Madrid are sometimes happy to let players run down their contracts and leave on a free. They may just say ‘stay until the end of the season, then you can go’. It will be surprising if they let him go now without bringing somebody in, it really would.

“The way he plays, I think Tottenham or Arsenal would suit him. You don’t want to be disrespectful to teams like Newcastle, but they’re still a work in progress.. I think the better a team he goes for, would help Asensio. I don’t think he’s a player that you could stick in that Newcastle team at the moment and hope that he’s going to beat ten men and score loads of goals. He’s not that type of player. I think he’s more suited to a well-rounded team. Tottenham and Arsenal; teams that are around the top of the league and play that style of football.”