The nine-time Australian Open winner is keen to put debacle of deportation behind him but his public reputation is tarnishedNovak Djokovic’s quiet return to Australia this week could not be starker in contrast to the absurdity surrounding his arrival in Melbourne and subsequent deportation last January.There has been no social media post nor any official words from the nine-time Australian Open champion as yet, though he did practise on Wednesday at Memorial Drive in Adelaide. Continue reading...
The Chelsea manager, unlike Jürgen Klopp, does not want to lay down the law on players getting protectedThe latest update about the number of Premier League players who are vaccinated against Covid-19 shows that English football is crying out for strong leadership when it comes to getting jabs in arms.The figures are infuriating. On Monday it was revealed that 16% of top-flight players remain unvaccinated. The vaccination journey has crawled along and even now, with Omicron forcing a raft of fixture postponements, some players are still refusing to do their civic duty. The willingness to digest misinformation about the vaccine on social media remains a problem, although perhaps there will be a shift in attitudes if different rules are brought...
We are told the safety of players and supporters is paramount but that is demonstrably untrue in the Premier LeagueTwo cases. In the beginning that was all it took. First Mikel Arteta at Arsenal. Then Callum Hudson-Odoi at Chelsea. And, although a few other clubs had seen some cough-like symptoms and were beginning to fear the worst, it feels vaguely surreal now to recall that back in March 2020, the entire professional footballing apparatus in England and Scotland was brought to a halt on the basis of two positive tests.Over time, just like the rest of us, football moved on. It hardened and desensitised. Our concept of suffering and loss began to fracture and diffuse; it stopped being something happening...
If a short pause happens, while the worst of this Omicron wave passes, then clubs and players must be supported properlyThere would be chaos if non-league football shut down because of the latest Covid-19 wave. The public health situation may yet render it necessary but, having worked through all the problems we encountered earlier in the pandemic, I would worry about the consequences. Have the National League made a plan for what happens if the campaign gets cut short or games move behind closed doors? I saw no evidence of one at the start of this season and can only hope they are putting financial measures in place.At Hereford, we are still dealing with the fallout. We received a short-term...
The sudden Covid outbreaks at clubs threatens to derail the busy festive programme with fears of another shutdownMidnight on Monday is an unusual hour to announce a fixture postponement. Manchester United would not be playing Brentford on Tuesday, a Premier League statement with a timestamp of 23:53 said, because of “an ongoing Covid-19 outbreak within Manchester United’s squad”. If the news had to be released under the cover of darkness, it was tempting to wonder, how ongoing might the outbreak actually be?Clubs do not publish data on Covid cases within their squads and the Premier League doesn’t breakdown its division-wide stats, either. But earlier on Monday a record number of positives across the league had been confirmed, 42 in a...