While the more deserving await the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year award verdict on Sunday night, here is our list of sporting anti-heroes from 2019The Military World Games may have received little publicity in Britain, which is not one of the 140 countries from Albania to Zimbabwe who participate but it was one of the year’s greatest festivals of sport, attracting nearly 10,000 participants to the Chinese city of Wuhan in October. Related: Ben Stokes on pole to take BBC sports personality of the year award Continue reading...
It may look petty, but this online antagonism shows that many football clubs have become relatively savvy online operators after their faltering first steps a decade agoIf you, like many people right now, are yearning for common courtesy, a sense of civility in these stricken times, a balm that might heal the nation’s wounds, then a word to the wise: don’t start with the official Leeds United Twitter account.Leeds were knocked out of the Championship play-offs by Derby County a fortnight ago. Turned over 4-2 in their own backyard no less. You might have thought a period of humility and introspection would follow. Not so. Whoever runs the Leeds account has instead seen fit to use the time to cultivate...
McGinn was signed for £2.7m from St Mirren but showed against Derby he will not be out of place in the Premier LeagueAbove a baying, swaying sea of claret and blue Jack Grealish, alongside James Chester, lifted the play-off winners’ trophy up high in the royal box but it was the Aston Villa captain’s overlooked supporting cast that propelled them to the Premier League.None more so than John McGinn, the Glaswegian who spent the buildup to the final telling everyone there is more to Grealish than junior-size shin pads, flashy haircuts and sunbeds. By the same token that Grealish is not the Jack the lad his manager, Dean Smith, said he envisaged on taking the job in October, McGinn is...
Suspension of disbelief will be necessary as fans of Norwich, Sheffield United and either Aston Villa or Derby contemplate Premier League life. Luckily football supporters are good at thatIt was a privilege to be at Elland Road for the play-off second leg between Leeds and Derby, not only because it was one of the most grippingly exciting Championship games of the season but because it was a throwback to a rawness and immediacy that is gradually disappearing from football at the top level.Walking in to the ground late along with hundreds of others affected by an M62 closure in late afternoon, it was impossible not to be struck by the raucousness and sheer volume that could be created by 36,000...
Derby County’s new left-back spoke well on television and refused to indulge the idea that England of 2002-06 should have won at least one major tournamentIt was fun to see Ashley Cole on Sky Sports on Monday Night Football. There wasn’t any obvious peg for having Cole on the show, no link to either of the clubs playing that night. But he was an excellent and engrossing guest after a nervous start, standing very still behind the lighted plinth in his skinny black tie and black suit, looking like a handsome celebrity undertaker.Part of the fascination of Cole is that he has a rare kind of distance around him, the authority of a man who has shunned public appearances to...