Manager heads for hero’s welcome at former club Barnsley with his new team third after implementing the same direct styleAside from Liverpool, West Bromwich Albion are the only team in the top four tiers with an unbeaten league record at home this season. They also have the best defensive record in the Championship and are third in the table, five points off the summit, but not all supporters are feeling the festive cheer there. On Friday, Valérien Ismaël will return to Barnsley – whose fans developed an unconditional love for him during a remarkable run to the play-offs – for the first time as an opposition manager and knows his popularity at Oakwell could plummet if he picks up three...
Seven straight league defeats have manager clinging to his job as he faces popular predecessor Neil Warnock’s MiddlesbroughLast week Neil Warnock borrowed Forrest Gump’s famous line, comparing the unpredictability of his Middlesbrough team to a box of chocolates. “You never know what you’re gonna get,” he said, doing his best impression of Tom Hanks. On Saturday he visits his previous club, Cardiff City, whose form is anything but irregular after seven straight league defeats for the first time since 1934, an alarming run in which they have scored a solitary goal – a Sean Morrison header from a corner when trailing 4-0 at Blackburn – and conceded 17. If Derby had not been docked points for entering administration, Cardiff would...
It is the club’s own fault but a transfer embargo and other player regulations mean the Rams can barely field a side let alone compete in the ChampionshipAt least Wayne Rooney was able to see the funny side when, on the eve of the season, a journalist asked whether he breaks games down into chunks of six or eight to target points. “In blocks of one,” Rooney replied, laughing, having already answered questions about the eye-watering sums attached to the Jack Grealish transfer, a world away from Derby’s financial predicament. “At the minute I can’t spend £100 on one player, let alone £100m.”After losing Colin Kazim-Richards to a long-term injury on Saturday, the club successfully applied to the English Football...
The decision to replace the conservative Vladimir Ivic with the inexperienced head coach inspired the club to promotionFor Watford to have joined Norwich in bouncing back to the Premier League at the first attempt, given the benefits of parachute payments in this of all years, is anything but surprising. But if their promotion was predictable their path to this point has been unusual, verging on the extraordinary. Related: ‘Just relegate them’: Fans discuss England’s ‘big six’ after the ESL farce Related: Footballers and clubs to boycott social media in mass protest over racist abuse Continue reading...
Rodgers reaches his first English final, Spurs wait on Harry Kane’s ankle and Norwich make a welcome returnBrendan Rodgers’ previous FA Cup semi-final visit, in April 2015, ended in disaster, a deserved 2-1 loss with Liverpool to an Aston Villa team inspired by a teenage Jack Grealish. That was an afternoon when Liverpool froze but six years on, Rodgers is a manager with considerably more chops. His Leicester team approached their Sunday night visit to Wembley with poise, confidence and patience. On the sidelines, and even above the 4,000 fans in the stadium as part of a post-Covid experiment, Rodgers’s baritone was audible, talking his players through each passage of play. His suit is always reassuringly expensive but Rodgers remains...