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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Our ongoing competition "How many footballers worth more than £30 million o.n.o. are named after your home town" has me in the lead with two after Jobe Bellingham joined Borussia Dortmund from Sunderland for a fee of £28m, potentially rising to £32m.
PS Who remembers Alan Sunderland?
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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England 1 Senegal 3
I didn't mind this defeat at all. Senegal were the first African side I've seen who can play the full Eurobrand of footy. (Gawd 'elp us down the line though, soccer might get like long-distance running and we'll all lose interest.)
England are at the Arsenal-of-a-few-years-ago stage: not organised to press, nor to play their way out of a press. That's fixable with a couple of weeks in training camp for players who do it for their clubs week in, week out.
It was good watching a five foot white female French ref reading the riot act to two hulking blackamoors (one English, one Senegalese). It was also heartening to note everyone soon settled down to abusing her as if she was the full male monte.
Eze confirmed he won't be playing for Palace next season. Kane scored a goal but was otherwise gumming up the midfield. Is Tuchel the man to drop him? Let's hope so. In fact now he's done his duty by the old stagers they should all go. This new crop is even better than the old new crop.
We're well on our way to lifting the Jules Rimet. O.N.O.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Let's Be Frank
Given the comparatively snakebelly low expectations Thomas Frank shoulders in his current role, Brentford’s manager could be forgiven for wanting to know exactly what will be expected of him in N17 Guardian |
Good question so I'd better provide the answer. A manager is a 'value added man'. Not necessarily adding very much--Brentford have accepted a ten million 'transfer fee' for him which wouldn't buy more than the left leg and shin guard of a middling Premier league striker.
So what would a middling Premier league manager be expected to do for Tottenham? He would put them where they are supposed to be, behind the obscenely rich (Man City, Newcastle), behind the super-rich (Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Man Utd) and ahead of the merely rich (the rest of the Premier League).
So, Thomas, if you think you can put Spurs a smidgeon ahead of Brentford, sign on the dotted line.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Trent Alexander-Arnold’s big day in Madrid
We were certainly impressed when Alexander-Arnold stood behind a lectern in the bowels of the Bernabéu at his unveiling as a Real Madrid player, giving a welcome address of more than 60 seconds in what appeared to be perfectly fluent Spanish ... he appears to have been taking lessons for a while which will do little to allay the suspicions of Liverpool fans that he has been plotting his move to the Spanish capital for a very long time. Guardian |
I just can't see it. Attack! attack! Continental sides like Real Madrid manage only by having no-nonsense, scowly types at the back who know their place. Much as I love Trent, it is an educated right foot that is his mark of distinction, not his no-nonsense attitude to tricksy wingers. I predict the 26-year-old will
* fail as a right-back
* be tried out in midfield
* take his place in the 'ex-right back, now unclassifiable, galactico enclosure'
* (where Gareth Bale spent his declining years) before becoming
* a legend in Saudi Arabia.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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The big new Club World Championship starts today. Gianni could not have predicted that staging it in America (and ditto next year's World Cup) would coincide with Trump sending ICE to attend matches. Not to inspect tickets when people are going in, but to check their ID's as they come out.
| It's a well known scientific fact that the only people interested in sarkar are illegal immigrants |
PS Would you mind keeping the Chelsea fans even if their documentation is kosher? Or send them to El Salvador. Those Central American gangs need sorting.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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World Test Championship
| ‘Chokers? This win squashes that’: Bavuma hopes victory can unite South Africa. Guardian |
OK, Australia, you can stand down. Mission accomplished.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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I was listening to a report about how the crowds at the World Club Championship were surprisingly large. 80,000 for example in the case of PSG vs Atletico Madrid, but fair-sized turnouts for Auckland being on the wrong end of a ten-goal pasting from Bayern Munich and the nail-biting nil-nilller between Al Ahly and Inter Miami.
Fair do's, I said to myself. Respect. All power to your elbow. But then the truth emerged from that Guardian of anti-Americanism, the Guardian
| USA’s year of World Cups gets off to a mild start. Fifa’s much-hyped Club World Cup and Concacaf’s sideshow opened to crowds far short of what organizers might have hoped |
You pays your money. Or in many cases apparently you don't but get bussed in as students to make up the numbers. Chelsea tonight. They'll be bussing in pensioners for that one.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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First Test vs India
After the first coupla days I was going to write a snarky piece about the unwisdom of playing India in the heat of summer when it suits them, rather than in January when the frozen pitches would benefit our quicks. But I've decided not to.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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I'm on a whistle stop tour of the United States and you'll never guess who I've spotted. Man City have arranged a friendly against Al-Hilal (of Saudi Arabia for Chrissake) and Chelsea have got one on with Benfica. Nobody could pretend either match is decent preparation for the start of the season so the local publicity machine is calling them 'eighth-finals in the World Club championship'. Yeah, right.
Back where you are (and I am in bodily form), Arsenal are 6-4 favourites to sign Eze from Palace for £68 million. But we're only doing it to spite Spurs. Eze on one wing, Saka on the other... I suppose it could work, having two of the greatest of all time up top but ideally I would prefer someone in between to pop the ball in the net occasionally.
No can do, we're too busy signing the world's (once and still) most expensive keeper (Kepa) to understudy the world's greatest goalie (Raya Sunshine). Not to mention Brentford's captain and inspiration (Christian Norgaard) in case our Spanish sensation (Otamendi) doesn't work out. We only signed him because he comes from the same village as Arteta. I expect his mum nagged Arteta's mum, you know what Basques are like.
And a few other odds and sods because 'the squad is a bit thin'. We'll hardly have room on the bench for our young lads currently steaming it up for the England U-21's and U-18's. I'm not in favour of purchasing Alexander Isak for £200 million. Let Man City have him for when Haaland's injured. It's tough at the nearly top.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| That may be all about to change with the introduction of live TV interviews with substituted players – part of a range of broadcasting tweaks introduced as part of a new four-year TV deal worth £6.6bn. In exchange for that enormous wad of cash, Sky and TNT’s camera operators will be allowed to encroach on goal celebrations and peek into dressing rooms, while reporters wave their mics at hooked footballers on the touchline. Guardian |
For that kind of money I'd want post-coital interviews with footballers' wives. No, but seriously, what is the biggest difference between British and American footballers?
* I have listened to hundreds of interviews with British footballers and never once have I heard anything above the level of a young person being asked what he did at school today.
* I have listened to hundreds of interviews with American footballers and never once have I heard anything below the level of a politician being asked for his thoughts about the state of the nation.
Why such a stark difference? Is it because every American footballer has been to college, and every British footballer went straight from the academy to the first team training ground? No, that would advantage the British. I'm still hunting for the answer.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| Pep Guardiola fears that Manchester City’s Copa Gianni exertions could ruin the rest of their season. “Maybe in January, I’ll say: ‘We are exhausted. The [Copa Gianni] destroyed us,’” he pepped before Monday’s game with Al-Hilal. Guardian |
I should cocoa. With Chelsea and City set fair to go further, even the whole way, their players will arrive exhausted in August, never mind January.
Of course, this happens every time there is a Euro or a World Cup, but the big difference in those years is everyone's exhausted before the off. This year... just Chelsea and Man City. No wonder the supercomputer has next May reading:
Liverpool
Arsenal
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