The Importance of Sport (NEW CONCEPTS)

[Mick Harper]

Who Remembers Scott McTominay?

[Mick Harper]

I got this flyer from the Guardian:

[Wile E. Coyote]

So Spurs come up with the cracking good idea of sacking the guy that won a spot in next year's Champions League, whilst the guy at Man U that lost the trophy and the chance of European football is entrusted with lots of cash to improve his side.

It's called penalising success, rewarding failure.

It just shows how clever, clever these folks that control football clubs really are.

[Mick Harper]

Yet both decisions were correct. The difference is that Postecoglou's time had come and Amorim's won't arrive until just before Christmas. You cannot say that winning/losing a competition in which the only worthwhile competition was one another, is any sort of guide.

When AE says not to judge by results it is not referring to thirty-eight results added together. That adds up to the Mark of Cain. I know. I support a team that once sank to seventh place. We had no choice but to appoint a new manager. Herbert Chapman.

[Mick Harper]

This strikes me as important

[Mick Harper]

Andorra 0 England 1

I was hoping for nil-nil because we always win the World Cup when our first match of the campaign finishes as a goal-less draw. (England 0 Uruguay 0, 1966.) I've checked all the other twenty-seven, so you don't need to bother.

But it wasn't to be. Now we'll have to win it on merit. Watching the lads, albeit at double speed, we're in with a shout. There is though one difference between 1966 England and 2026 England. I'd heard of most of the 1966 team.

[Mick Harper]

[Wile E. Coyote]

US sports commentators still have that optimism about their boys winning that we gave up on many years ago.

A case in point was the Merab Dvalishvili vs. Sean O’Malley fight. Sugar Sean had lost the first fight, but we were assured he had trained better (stopped smoking) and undertaken a good training camp.

"Sean's looking better"

"He has learnt the lessons from the first fight"

"Merab's finding it much more difficult"

"Sean needs to get back on his feet"

"I think that the fight is turning in Sean's direction"

"Sean really needs to get to his feet"

"Sean always knew this wasn't going to be easy"

"His wrestling on the ground is much improved"

"I am starting to think that Sean is getting taken down too easily"

"He really needs to get to his feet"

"Merab's ground and pound is really dangerous. Sean needs to get to his feet, he has still got another two minutes to last out"

"Sean can't afford to give up his back"

"Wow, that choke looks really tight"

"Hey, that is why Merab is thought to be best in the world"

[Mick Harper]

[Mick Harper]

Now that India has overtaken China as the most populous nation on earth, isn't it time to pour scorn on both of them for being such panty-waists when it comes to anything except table tennis and cricket. While we still can.

[Wile E. Coyote]

Sort of misdirected at Wiley, as the last Chess World Championship was between Ding Liren and Gukesh Dommaraju. We mainly supply the commentators. No doubt we know more about the game, it just appears that they are a tad better as they are prepared to put in the hard slog.

It's a shame that Ding didn't follow Wiley's advice.

[Mick Harper]

As a hospital porter, I was chatting up a Chinese nurse who said her name was Ding. I burst out laughing. I couldn't help myself. It was not irreparable to our relationship but I had to go some to recover. We were all racist and sexist in those far off days. Before we discovered it pays to pretend we aren't.

[Mick Harper]

Because government regs require World Cup matches to be on terrestrial channels we never get a decent round up of other results. So I thought I would provide an ongoing skeleton service for the AEL. Here's the one you might have missed but shouldn't have on account of it being great news

Albania 1 Serbia 1

When the two powerhouses in your group both drop points it's better than two awaydays in Andorra. And what about the real powerhouses, the ones we'll meet after qualifying in a canter? More good news

Norway 3 Italy 0
North Macedonia 1 Belgium 1

[Wile E. Coyote]

I am not sure about Viktor Gyökeres at the prices quoted, what you are looking at is a talented fella that did well at Coventry, whose stats have gone off the scale since he transferred to Sporting.

The problem is that the Portugese League is a bit like the Scottish League (to be fair they have 3 big clubs rather than two) so most of his goals are against sides that are massively inferior, Beleneses, Boavista, Académica de Coimbra, Vitória de Setúbal, Braga and so on.

[Mick Harper]

How many did he manage against Andorra? Playing against patsies is no guarantee.

I have been swinging back and forth between this dude and the other Arsenal striking target, RB Leipzig's Benjamin Sesko. Knowing nothing about either I have had to employ my AE box of tricks, viz

* Both players' price has been going steadily up (so this means nothing)
* Nobody else has been in for Sesko (mark against Sesko)
* Somebody has been in for Gyökeres (mark for Gyökeres)
* It was Manchester United (mark taken away)
* Sesko had a dip in form last season (mark against)
* RB Leipzig had a dip in form last season (mark partially restored)
* Gyökeres was bangin 'em in good style last season (mark for)
* Like every season for anyone he was playing for (double plus good)
* Sesko is described as 'a work in progress' (at eighty plus million, I'll let him progress at someone else's expense.

We'll prolly end up with Sesko and he will be another of the high-priced striking failures to put alongside Havertz and Jesus. Gyökeres might be a failure too but only of the 'we did the right thing and failed' kind.

Something's going badly wrong in Arsenal's vaunted New World Transfer Order. Even the Zubimendi deal is now said to be in trouble. We haven't signed anyone in the first sesh. But I don't know what it is.