Sports Category
Sports news, commentary and scores with wit and added value. We compare and contrast the best and worst sports reporting in the mainstream press, blogs, TV and online. We love the English Premier League (Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs, Manchester United and Manchester City) and all things football but we cover cricket, rugby, the Olympics, tennis, golf, F1 and highlights of the sporting year.
Transfer Balls: Gareth Bale back to Spurs (not Manchester United) and Gabriel to Arsenal (soon)
Arsenal are “closer than ever” to agreeing a deal with Lille’s Brazilian defender Gabriel Magalhaes, 22, says the BBC. The source for this story is L’Equipe. The website offers no source for its information, stating only that the “southpaw and the Gunners have never been so close to an agreement, which is due in the coming hours.’ How may hours is unspecified. and that’s just as well for the Sun which is playing both sides of the story.
On the blue bit of North London, Spurs are looking to re-sign Gareth Bale from Real Madrid, says the BBC.
Or as the Manchester Evening News put it on March 8 2019:
Gareth Bale has reportedly bought a house in Manchester and agreed personal terms with Manchester United ahead of a potential transfer this summer.
And in May 2018 the Daily Express told us of a bold “claim” – presented as an SEO-friendly fact:
And as the sun out it in January 2020:
Bale has not agree to rejoin Spurs. He also hasn’t agreed to join Manchester United, Liverpool or Yeovil. Yet.
Posted: 20th, August 2020 | In: Arsenal, Back pages, manchester united, Sports, Spurs | Comment
Arsenal launch 2020-21 kit with shades of Harry Potter, a naked David Seaman and Kieran Tierney holding a carrier bag
It’s enjoyably odd that the better bits of the video launched to herald the arrival of a new Arsenal kit features a former player with no kit on – a naked David Seaman – and a current player Kieran Tierney with a plastic shopping bag.
Arsenal sack Sanllehi from the absurd ‘head of football’ job
Arsenal have sacked Raul Sanllehi from his job as – get his – “head of football”. The new head of football is managing director Vinai Venkatesham, who used to work as an oil trader. “Working with Vinai, we have built a top team for the future,” says Sanllehi, who arrived from Barcelona three years ago. “I’m proud and pleased with my contribution over the past three years.”
He joined Arsenal in November 2017, a replacement for the terrible Ivan Gazidis, the American whose talk of leading a “catalyst of change” under the god-awful Kroenkes saw the post-Wenger Arsenal tumble down the Premier League table.
Sanllehi’s departure coincides with the club’s internal investigation into how and why they signed Nicolas Pepe, 25, from Lille for £72m. Sanllehi was part of the key team that recruited the hapless but likeable Unai Emery. Arsenal have demolished their scouting network and turned for help in recruitment matters to agents. What could possibly go wrong?
Posted: 15th, August 2020 | In: Arsenal, News, Sports | Comment
Transfer Balls: Jadon Shancho to Manchester United for £50m, £108m and a moving weekly wage
Jadon Sancho will not join Manchester United this summer, says the BBC. He will remain a Borussia Dortmund player. The German club’s sporting director Michael Zorc tells everyone: “We plan on having Jadon Sancho in our team this season. The decision is final. I think that answers all our questions.”
Or as the papers put it: the deal is on! But how much is the transfer fee? And how much will Sancho earn at Manchester United? The papers have all the facts:
Such are the facts.
Posted: 10th, August 2020 | In: manchester united, News, Sports | Comment
Transfer balls: Coutinho agrees to join Arsenal who don’t want him; Higuain set for debut
You know the routine by now, of course. The newspapers report that a A-list player (Reus / Benzema / Zaha) is on his way to Arsenal for a huge fee. We reached peak balls with the Sun’s story that Arsenal had actually signed Gonzalo Higuain from Real Madrid. It was utter tosh. The story is still live on the Sun’s website. The papers are shameless in their pursuit of clicks. Bad reporting – fake news – is part of the process. Shout out enough rumours as fact and eventually you should be right once. You can then advertise yourself as the paper with the inside track on transfers. You read it here first. So to the news that Philippe Coutinho to Arsenal is done! He has agreed.
The papers say Coutinho has “agreed” terms to join Arsenal from Barcelona. The Mirror, Sun and talkSport agree on news of his agreement.
And having said Coutinho has agreed to be a Gunner, the Mirror invites Matin Keown to tells readers his “three reasons why Arsenal are making correct Philippe Coutinho decision”. That decision is explained: “Mirror Sport understands Arsenal have opted to sign only the latter as soon as his contract at Chelsea expires at the end of the month.” What readers can “understands” from reading the Mirror is that you can say pretty much anything and pass it off as fact.
The nonsense is so ripe that if you can play Google, you can pass off a fake photo of Coutinho in the Gunners kit as fact and shout, “Philippe Coutinho – Welcome to Arsenal 2020”. Such an image is one of the key search results for ‘Coutinho Arsenal’ on Google:
And in place of no news, other news sources can say because Coutinho has not signed, any deal has been cancelled. Get this in the Mail:
On August 8, the Mail said Arsenal have ended their interest in Coutinho. The same day as the Sun was reporting: “The £145m former Liverpool star will arrive at The Emirates in a season-long loan deal – after a whistle-stop tour of their training ground.”
Such are the facts.
Posted: 9th, August 2020 | In: Arsenal, Back pages, Sports | Comment
Transfer balls: Jorginho to quit Chelsea; Lampard wants Rice; West Ham seek £60m; Arsenal sign Willian
It’s transfer season and Chelsea midfielder Jorginho wants to be with people who love him. “Everyone knows there is a very strong rapport between [Juventus manager Maurizio] Sarri and Jorginho after five years working together, I’d be a hypocrite to deny that,” the players’a agent, João Santos, tells the Telegraph. “But I also want to remind you that Jorginho has three years left on his Chelsea contract.” Thanks for reminding us.
Declan Rice’s agent has yet to go public with how many years are left on the player’s contract at West Ham (it’s 4), or that he is on the relatively miserly sum of £30,000 a week. But Chelsea and their manager, former Hammer Frank Lampard, want the player and will need to offer around £60m to get him.
That a footballer on the kind of weekly wage some Chelsea players earn in a day can command such a huge transfer fee will surely not have escaped Rice’s agent. Another four years at West Ham would potentially cost his man a fortune. The transfer season is not just about the players – it’s that time when players look at what other players are getting and wonder about getting a new agent.
Rice may well flutter his eyelashes at Willian’s Mr 10%. The brilliant Chelsea and Brazil winger, 31, has agreed a three-year deal with Arsenal worth £100,000 per week, says ESPN. That’s not too shabby. You could get around 55 non-playing staff for that mind of money.
Posted: 7th, August 2020 | In: Back pages, Sports | Comment
Arsenal Transer Balls: Willian, Coutinho, Partey and Carlos in; Guendouzi, Kolasinac, Sokratis and Mustafi out
Thursday nights remain good telly night for Arsenal fans thanks to the club winning the FA Cup and qualifying for the Europa League. When you’re holding the Cup all the suffering doesn’t quite go away because Arsenal finished 8th in the Premier League. And they’re looking to bolster their strange squad – how many average centre backs can one team have? – by recruiting Chelsea’s brilliant winger Willian, 31, Barcelona playmaker Philippe Coutinho, 28, and Atletico Madrid’s midfielder Thomas Partey, 27.
As Arsenal fans dream of replacing the irritating Matteo Guendouzi, expensive Mesut Ozil, limited Sead Kolasinac, likeable Sokratis Papastathopoulos and plodding Shkodran Mustafi, team captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang tells Le10 Sport he’d like to play alongside Barcelona’s French forward Ousmane Dembele, 23. So you can add Alexandre Lacazette to the fire sale.
The obvious need for a towering, fast centre back means the Gunners are looking to recruit Sevilla’s Diego Carlos. Here’s Carlos, then with Nantes, keeping his cool as the referee loses the plot:
Bias Balls: Arsenal and Chelsea contest the FA Cup final facts
Media Bias: A look at biased football reporting. Arsenal won their 14th FA Cup with a 2-1 win over Chelsea. The game featured a penalty (VAR approved) and a red card, both given in Arsenal’s favour. What say the clubs’ websites.
The Penalty:
Chelsea: “a good Arsenal pass from the back sent Aubameyang away behind the Chelsea defence and onside this time. Azpilicueta gave chase but was judged to have fouled the Arsenal skipper as he entered the box and a penalty was awarded.”
Arsenal: “Kieran Tierney put Aubameyang away with a fine ball up the left. The Gabon international was hauled down by Cesar Azpilicueta in the box – penalty.”
The Red Card:
Chelsea: “Our Cup final prospects took another blow soon after when Kovacic was booked for a second time and was therefore sent-off. It was hugely debatable whether his contact with Xhaka’s foot warranted a yellow.”
Arsenal: “Matteo Kovacic was sent off for a second bookable offence”
The Hot Debate
Chelsea: “Another question was whether the Arsenal keeper later handled the ball outside of his penalty area when claiming a ball during the second half. He went unpenalised.”
Arsenal goalkeeper Martinez did not handle outside the area – which is why it wasn’t penalised.
Such are the facts.
Posted: 2nd, August 2020 | In: Arsenal, Back pages, Chelsea, Sports | Comment
Transfer balls: Aubameyang and Ceballos to stay at Arsenal: Sancho will walk to Manchester United
Let’s kick off this morning look at football transfer news in the media with the BBC’s ‘Gossip’ page. The State broadcaster’s headline is clear: “Transfer rumours: Sancho, Costa, Jimenez, Ceballos, Harrison, Aubameyang.” Before the rumours the fact: the name of Arsenal’s stellar striker, Aubameyang, appears in the headline only.
The striker is nearing the final year of his current Arsenal deal. Will be stay on? He’s 31 and looking for a three-year deal. He’ll get it. But the stories of any departure and interest from Juventus, Barcelona, Manchester City and more will keep the clicks coming. Why does the BBC need to do this? The BBC website hurts local news sites and now seems to want to take the traffic from football blogs and clickbait farms. The BBC is funded by a tax. Is this value for money? An attempt to be all things to all people?
The newspapers need clicks. Traffic is up but ad revenues are down. The Mirror says Borussia Dortmund’s England winger Jadon Sancho, 20, “may” have to instigate a move to Manchester United. Or he may not. The Star syas because Arsenal’s Brazilian defender David Luiz, 33, was terrific against Manchester City in the Gunners’ 2-0 FA Cup semi-final win, manager Mikel Arteta “could” decide not to try to sign a brilliant, young, fast, reliable and strong centre half. Or he coild wait a few moments, look on as Luiz makes a hash of a routine clearance and realise he should buy urgently.
Oh, and Dani Ceballos wants to stay at the club. The Spaniard is playing lovely football in the sun. But British football is mostly played under rain and cloud, conditions in which Ceballos has shone less brightly. Buyer beware.
Posted: 20th, July 2020 | In: Arsenal, manchester united, Sports | Comment
CNN obituary to Jack Charlton is US soccerball wrong
RIP Jackie Charlton. Stalwart of the mighty Leeds United, a World Cup winner with England in 1966, leader of the raucous Green Army when he took the Republic of Ireland into Italia ’90, defying the odds and making a country believe that maybe – just maybe – they could do it, and all-round good bloke. He gave many people a lot of joy. So how to pay tribute to the ‘Big Giraffe’?
Virtually all the newspaper front pages lead with a picture of ‘Our Jackie’. “Forever a hero,”says the Sunday Telegraph. And for millions of us who love football he was. Americans love football too. Well, the marketing says they do. This is how CNN hails the great player and manager:
If only there was something out there, some kind of electronic database, perhaps, where a US researcher could working for the news station of record could find out what the figure dominating the headlines did.
Posted: 12th, July 2020 | In: Back pages, Key Posts, News, Sports | Comment
Transfer balls: Arsenal to sign Dani Ceballos
According to the BBC Arsenal are in a fight with AC Milan, Valencia and Real Betis in their attempts to sign midfielder Dani Ceballos, 23, on a permanent deal. The Spanish player signed to Real Madrid has been on loan at Arsenal this season. The BBC’s source is the Daily Express, the newspaper built on clickbait and SEO tricks. So we click.
The Express has been watching the telly. It repeats the words Mikel Arteta, the Arsenal manager, told everyone with a TV before Arsenal’s match with Leicester last Wednesday. “I’m really happy with him, the way he’s [Ceballos] evolving, and I love how much he likes to play football – the passion he puts into every training session and every game, you just have to see his celebrations,” says Arteta. “I think he’s evolving in the right way and he’s becoming a really important player for us.”
And then Express readers get a load of ifs and buts and coulds. If Arsenal quality for the Champions League – which they won’t do – they “could” sign Ceballos. So much for the scoop.
But hold on a moment. Just over a week ago, a few days before Arteta was hailing Ceballos as a “big talent” he wanted to keep at the club, the Express’s sister title, the Daily Mirror told readers:
Arsenal reportedly won’t sign Dani Ceballos when his loan spell from Real Madrid ends – as the midfielder has not done enough to impress manager Mikel Arteta.
The source was The Sun:
The Sun‘s source? There isn’t one. It’s almost as if the tabloids don’t have a clue what they’re talking about and design content for clicks. As it is, Arsenal are looking to sign Ceballos. And given his recent efforts, he’d be well worth the investment.
Posted: 11th, July 2020 | In: Arsenal, Sports, Tabloids | Comment
Wigan Athletic: a victim of Premier League greed
Away from the greed and vanity of the absurdly hyped Premier League lies the EFL. It’s in the news because Championship club Wigan Athletic have gone into administration. EFL chairman Rick Parry, the former Liverpool and Premier League chief executive, says Wigan’s plight is “the “tremendous shock”. It is? Well, it is to the Wigan players and staff who knew nothing of the disaster until the very new owners said they’d had enough.
Wigan Athletic changed Hong Kong-based owners a month ago. The new owners, Next Leader Fund, have put the club into administration. The club have been duly handed a 12-point deduction, which could see them relegated. The owners say they injected “more than £40m” into Wigan’s coffers. After taking control, Au Yeung said he was “excited to join the Wigan Athletic family”.
So who is to blame? The Guardian notes:
The EFL’s test and takeover process involves determining that a new owner has the money to buy a club and support it financially for at least the remainder of the season and the whole of the following season. However less than a month later and a week since Au Yeung was announced as the majority owner, the club has appointed the administrators Gerald Krasner, Paul Stanley and Dean Watson of the insolvency practitioner Begbies Traynor.
Rod Liddle tells Times readers:
Rick Parry, the EFL chairman, was secretly recorded by a Wigan fan darkly suggesting that the decision to put the club into administration may have had something to do with a very big bet placed in the Philippines on Wigan being relegated this season. The apparent implication being that the prospect of Wigan going down would be somewhat enhanced, if not ensured, by the mandatory 12-point deduction for going into administration. All rather hard cheese on the manager, Paul Cook, who had hauled his side out of the danger zone and into comparative safety since February (thus, of course, lengthening the odds for their relegation).
So much for the theories. Parry has been talking with the BBC:
Rick Parry: “It was a tremendous shock – a bolt from the blue.
“Normally if a club is facing administration you get warning signs. Generally they don’t pay HMRC, they don’t pay the players, there are problems with creditors and it happens gradually.
“It is really unprecedented for an owner [Au Yeung Wai Kay, the head of Next Leader Fund that took ownership] to put his own club into administration, literally overnight. It is completely unprecedented for an owner who has only just acquired the club for £40m to put his prized asset straight into administration and therefore destroy its value to him.
“It makes absolutely no sense to us – it’s a real mystery, I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”
Roan: Does the EFL need to take some responsibility?
Parry: “He passed the tests. You can criticise them and say they need to be beefed up, but he did pass the test. He wasn’t a complete newcomer because there had been a transition from the previous owner, who had been there two years.
“The previous owner had been putting something like £24m in, and had secured Wigan in the Championship. He introduced the new owner, there had been partnerships, it had evolved. This isn’t somebody who appeared from nowhere.
“Our test, bluntly, is limited, it’s an objective test, there are limited grounds to turn down an owner. It is a test that, by definition, the more foreign owners you have the more difficult it is to apply because of the amount of information that is available.”
Roan: Was the EFL lax in the application of the rules?
Parry: “No – he passed the test, albeit it self-certifications and he provided the assurances. What none of our rules can legislate for is an owner changing his mind.”
Roan: Does this all show that the ownership rules need to be tightened?
Parry: “It’s no use just talking about owners’ and directors’ tests as if that is going to solve all of the problems. You really need to go back to why did we end up with Chinese owners in the lower reaches of the Championship in the first place?
Can we follow the money?
“We need to make our clubs sustainable – we shouldn’t be relying on random foreign owners.”
Roan: Is coronavirus a plausible excuse?
Parry: “If he said it in February, then it would be plausible. What I don’t get is given we are coming out of the crisis and heading towards playing again, why would you buy a club in June and then put it in administration at the end of the crisis? That’s the bit that doesn’t quite stack up.”
It all stacks up. English football is a bubble pumped up by marketing guff that attempts to make gambling an essential part of the match day experience, and foreign investment by people for whom the sport is a property-based business. The Premier League is run on greed. When the bubble bursts, more clubs will go to the wall.
A few more bits:
In a Hong Kong stock exchange document setting out its reasons for selling, IEC [International Entertainment Corporation] cited the “unsatisfactory financial performance” of the club, due to the punishing economics of the Championship, and also mentioned the suspension of football because of the coronavirus pandemic and the impact of Brexit. It said Brexit “could have material long-term impact on the economy and the future growth of the UK which may damage investors’ confidence in the UK and also reduce local consumer spending, which could further deteriorate the performance of the [club]”.
Since buying the club the company said it sustained increases in players’ wages to £17.5m, from £10m in 2017-18, and sustained a £9m loss for the 13 months to 30 June last year.
Read it all: Wigan Athletic: EFL chairman Rick Parry says English football has been ‘disrespected’
Transfer Balls: Partey wants Arsenal move, agrees terms but prefers Manchester United
In today’s look at the twilight world of football reporting, the BBC says Arsenal are in the box seat to sign Atlético de Madrid’s Ghanian midfielder Thomas Partey. Is he turned on by the change to play with Musatfi and Xhaka and hang out with Gunnersaurus? Not quite and not all. The Gunners have offered to triply Partey’s wage, says AS. The Express says Arsenal want to pay the £45m transfer in instalments. The Sun says Partey is “ready to come” to Arsenal. The Mirror says his is a “massive boost” to Arsenal. The Express says Partey “wants to play for Arsenal”.
And then the news gets shaky. The web is full of news that Partey has and has not agreed personal terms with Arsenal. TeamTalk says: “Thomas Partey has told Atletico Madrid he wants to leave this summer and that his preference is to sign for Manchester United”. “Arsenal target Thomas Partey prefers Man Utd transfer,” says the Express – the same paper that says he dreams of playing for Arsenal.
Does the player know what he wants? JJ Sport, the agency representing the player, posted on Instagram a picture of Partey alongside the words “pick his club” and the colours of Manchester United, Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain. How long before he kisses the badge at one of those clubs remains to be seen.
Posted: 4th, July 2020 | In: Back pages, manchester united, Sports | Comment
Arsenal News: Bukayo Saka signs new Gunners contract
Dash those reports that Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka as ready to lave the club. The 18-year-old star in the making with 33 appearances to his name has just signed a new “long-term” contract with the Gunners.
It was never in doubt. Well, not unless you’ve heeded some of the tosh written about Saka in the past few months. Get a load of this in the Express. The ‘stumbling block’ was ‘stumbling blocks’ – he didn’t want to leave and wasn’t for sale:
Such are the facts.
Fantastic photographs of Manchester United and Manchester City fans in the 1970s
Iain S.P. Reid’s brilliant photographs of football fans in Manchester in the late 1970s are being shared. People are coming forward to say ‘That’s me in the picture’. And that’s great. A book of Iain’s pictures will feature your names and your stories. So please spread the word. We really want to hear if you or someone you know is in Iain’s pictures of Manchester United and Manchester City fans enjoying the carnival of match day.
As part of the project we’ve also got prints of many of the photos at the Flashbak Art Prints Shop.
See lots more of Ian’s photos on Facebook.
Posted: 30th, June 2020 | In: Manchester City, manchester united, Sports | Comment
Arsenal balls: Ceballos won’t stay; Edu talks nonsense; Thomas Partey too expensive
How do you reward the player who scored the goal that took you into the FA Cup semi-finals? If you’re Arsenal, you assure Dani Ceballos, 23, for it is he, that you will not try to buy him when his loan deal from Real Madrid ends. So bad are Arsenal at player recruitment, so scattergun their transfer policy, that Ceballos should write a thank you letter to whoever it is who runs the club for not trying to sign him.
Incidentally, who does oversea transfers at Arsenal? Who actually identifies and picks players? Does anyone know who thought Lichsteiner, Xhaka, Mustafi and Denis Suarez were good investments?
Raul Sanllehi says Arsenal must “outsmart the market”. What doe that mean? Is Thomas Partey at £45m too expensive or smart?
Sanllehi is the club’s ‘head of football’ and should not be confused with the Arsenal ‘technical director’, Edu. And there’s the head coach, who might also be termed ‘head of football’ or technical director, Mikel Arteta. Says Edu: “Mikel has to be involved in recruitment, he must. We talk about what we need, the characteristics of the players, the system we’re going to play and then I start the process internally.” With whom? Who does Edu talk with internally to hire players? Is it Josh Kroenke, the absentee owner’s son, a marketing man possessed with less football acumen than a kitten with a beach ball?
There are four people on the Arsenal board and two of them are called Mr Kroenke. Here’s what the Arsenal website says about the owners:
Stan:
Mr. Kroenke is a well-regarded real-estate developer with a diverse international portfolio that includes commercial and residential real estate, ranches, vineyards, shopping centres, warehouse facilities and hotels.
Josh:
Josh works closely with Kroenke Sports & Entertainment executives on multiple business operation issues, ranging from finance to marketing.
Arsenal: the London office of a marketing and real estate empire.
Arsenal balls: Luiz, Mari, Soares and Ceballos all sign up for a another year of misplaced unbearable hope
Good news, Gooners. And even better news for strikers playing against your club. Arsenal have beaten FC Desperado to secure the signature of David Luiz. The Brazilian will play for Arsenal for another season.
Joining him in the Premier League’s most over-priced defensive bunfight are Pablo Mari and Cedric Soares, who have also agreed to stay at the club.
Dani Ceballos has extended his loan deal from Real Madrid until the end of this season. And – who knows – the Spanish midfielder might prove to be a better defender than the lot of them.
As Arsenal fans wonder if the club’s recruitment policy is based on an attempt to make Xhaka and Mustafi look as good as their teammates, the club’s technical director Edu explains how it’s all part of the big plan.
“I am really happy that we will have these players in our squad for the future,” says Edu. “They have been part of the long-term technical plan [manager] Mikel [Arteta] and I have developed. They bring the right balance to our squad.” Luiz is 33. What long term plan is he part of?
“David is a really important player for us. He has played most of our matches this season and has been important for the team,” says Edu. “His passing, his communication with the team on and off the pitch – he helps everyone.” Just last week Luiz helped Manchester City to three points in a 25-minute spell that featured two bursts of hapless defending that led directly to two City goals and a red card.
Arsenal balls: The Bernd Leno miracle
Remember when Bernd Leno, the Arsenal goalkeeper, suffered a “horror injury (Mail) in a match with Brighton? So horrible was the injury that the Sun told us that BT Sport refused to show it in a replay.
As I pointed out, Arsenal fans are made of sterner stuff than those BT softies and could watch the gore fest on their club’s family friendly official website.
As the world prayed for Leno, the Sun looked at five goalies Arsenal could sign to cover for Leno should be be out for year with what could be cruciate knee ligament damage.
And then prayers were answered. It turns out that Leno had merely sprained his knee. He will walk again! There will medical journals telling of Leno’s knee. Religionist will will point to Bernd ‘Lazarus’ Leno as evidence of god’s love.
Amen.
Posted: 23rd, June 2020 | In: Arsenal, News, Sports | Comment
Pray for Bernd Leno: watch the ‘horror’ injury before the watershed
Another days and with it another injury to an Arsenal player. This time it’s Bernd Leno, the talented Arsenal goalkeeper who jarred his knee in a match against Brighton. So bad was the “horror injury” that according to the Sun, broadcaster BT Sport “refused” to show it on the telly. Dead bodies, war, famine and George Floyd having his neck sat on by a policeman for nearly nine minutes in America (he was pronounced dead not long after) are all suitable items for tea-time watching. But the German goalie jarring his knee is unacceptable to Arsenal fans who have seen in recent years two players (Euduardo and Ramsay) carried from the pitch with badly broken legs and another (Diaby) badly hurt.
For anyone keen to see the incident help is at hand because you can watch Leno jarring his leg on the official Arsenal website. Elsewhere you can see Leno cussing at the Brighton player who clattered him, contributing to the injury and leaving the ground on crutches. We can assure viewers that Leno will walk again. In other news: 60,000 people are dead from Covid-19. As you were…
Posted: 21st, June 2020 | In: Arsenal, News, Sports, Tabloids | Comment
Beat Lockdown with your own Backyard Golf Course
Beat the lockdown with this Backyard Golf Course from 1960. To make your own, you’ll need: a putter, golfball, string, tin cards, cardboard, a backyard and a more odds and sods from around the home. And because it’s your own golf club, you can set the rules and ban whoever you like:
Spotter: Collection Jim Linderman
Arsenal : Injured Mari, Hapless Luiz, Terrible Mustafi and the worst defensive crisis in living memory
When Arsenal’s Pablo Marí was injured just a few minutes into the restarted Premier League season, the obituaries were ready to be written. The defender’s injury sustained in a 3-0 hammering at Manchester City is as bad as you want it to be. The Sun says the player’s season is over and he will need surgery. The Mail says the player’s loss is a “huge blow”. It is a “serious injury”. The prognosis is better in the Mirror, which reports that Mari “could sideline him for several weeks”. Or to rephrase it, he might not be sidelined for several weeks.
The narrative is that Arsenal are in a state of “crisis” because of the injury. But that’s bunkum. The truth is that Arsenal have lots of centre backs: Shkodran Mustafi and Rob Holding are fit, Sokratis Papastathopoulos is back next week and Calum Chambers – arguably the club’s best centre-half – is nearing full fitness after a lengthy injury-induced layoff. Oh, and in two games time the Gunners can call on the services of David Luiz. There’s also Mavropranos, who can be recalled from loan. And William Saliba, who could arrive at a push.
The official word on Mari is that it is a “significant injury which is currently undergoing further specialist assessment”.
The unofficial observation is that Arsenal have lots and lots of players – and most of them are not fit to tie Tony Adams’ laces.
Fabulous Photographs and Art Prints of Manchester United and Manchester City Football Fans 1976-1977
Thanks to the Flashbak art prints shop for showing us these brilliant photographs of football fans in Manchester in the late 1970s. They were taken by Iain S. P. Reid in 1976 and 1977. The photographs zoom in on Manchester derby games between Manchester United and Manchester City. Plans are for the photographs and the stories around them to appear in a book. So i you are in any of the photographs or know someone was is, please get in touch.
Sadly Iain passed away in November 2000. He was cremated at Hazelhead Crematorium, Aberdeen on the 8th November 2000. The mourners were so many that some had to stand outside…. A testament to his life. He was much loved by many. His photographs are arguably the best images of British football culture in the 1970s. More from the Manchester series are being posted on Iain’s Facebook Page.
15% of all profits from prints and the book go to the charity Melanoma UK.
You can buy the art prints here.
Please follow Iain’s Facebook Page for more of these great photos.
All images are the copyright the Estate of Iain S. P. Reid and must not be used without permission.
Posted: 2nd, June 2020 | In: Key Posts, manchester united, Sports | Comment
Coronavirus Club: what happens if Premier League players refuse to play?
We’ve heard a fair a bit about footballers testing positive – and most of them testing negative – for coronavirus. But what if they don’t want to work in an environment so unsafe that they need to be tested for a potentially life-threatening virus twice a week? No players or club staff tested positive from 1,130 tests conducted last Thursday and Friday. But they might have. So they’ll all be tested again next week. Does that sound safe to you, or an admittance that things are dangerous? Aston Villa’s Tyrone Mings is unimpressed. He says players were the “last people to be consulted” over the Premier League’s “financially driven” Project Restart. Mings says players are just “commodities” and the Premier League lacks integrity. Yeah. Who knew?
“Project Restart is financially driven. I think everybody accepts that,” he tells the Mail. “I am all for playing again because we have no other choice. As players, we were the last people to be consulted about Project Restart and that is because of where we fall in football’s order of priority. That isn’t a problem. We got the option to come back to training and that’s fine because we didn’t have to but if the FA and the EFL and the government and Uefa and the Premier League all say you are going back to play, it really doesn’t make any difference what the players think because you are going back to play. It is get in or get out.”
So what happens if player decides to down tools and not play? Surely they’ll be in breach of contract with their club. But would their club fine them? We may well get to find out.
Football team populates stands with sex doll WAGs
To South Korea, where FC Seoul being are being cheered on by a platoon of immaculate WAGs. But take a closer look and these women are entirely made of man-made fibres. Has Vicky overcooked the injections and filler? No. These are factory-fresh, coronavirus-proof sex dolls.
“We will think hard about what we need to do to ensure that something like this never happens again,” says an FC Seoul rep who mistook Bot345 for Victoria Beckham. “We want to sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused by the instalment of the mannequins. Our intention was to do something lighthearted in these difficult times. We will think hard about what we need to do to ensure that something like this never happens again.”
Said one player: “She never took her eyes off me nor even blinked. It filled me with energy and desire. Now I feel a bit deflated – which is how Bianca was looking after we left the hotel. Please don’t tell my wife.”
Posted: 26th, May 2020 | In: Sports, Strange But True | Comment
Cancel the Premier League season: AFC Bournemouth player tests positive for coronavirus
Why anyone still think it’s sane to resume the Premier League season is beyond most of us. The German Bundesliga has restarted but with no crowds it’s a moribund, soulless spectacle. And now an unnamed Bournemouth player is one of two new coronavirus cases discovered by the latest round of Premier League tests. The players will now self-isolate for a week.
Speaking on Friday, Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said he was “as confident as we can be” about restarting in June. To which the question is: if it was you or your child a kicking ball around, perhaps with a young child or pregnant partner at home, would you be “confident” about playing contact sport?
