The caretaker manager could secure the job full-time with a World Cup qualifying win as well as end the reign of his opposite number, Gordon StrachanThere was a point when Gordon Strachan was hoping to persuade Andy Murray to deliver some words of inspiration before Scotland’s players walk out at Wembley on Friday. Not that Gareth Southgate seemed too concerned when it was brought up in his company before England’s final training session. “Unless he is playing at left-back he is not going to affect the game,” England’s caretaker manager pointed out. And that was the moment one of the Scottish journalists at the back of the room interrupted. “I wish he was,” came the response. Related: Wayne Rooney will...
Ramsey’s Wales return, Yiadom’s controversial Ghana inclusion, Southgate and Strachan heading in opposite directions and a fairytale comeback for FalcaoGareth Southgate is at the beginning, Gordon Strachan could be approaching the end. But both managers are under pressure before Friday night’s qualifier at Wembley. While Southgate has shown that he is not afraid to make big calls, dropping Wayne Rooney for the fortunate goalless draw in Slovenia, England’s caretaker oversaw underwhelming performances in hisfirst two matches and would not be seen as an inspiring permanent appointment if his team fails to convince against Scotland. The return of Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling should enhance England’s threat, however, and it is Strachan who has bigger problems. Robert Snodgrass has been in...
Each Remembrance Day we now seem to be reminded just how badly the present crop of moisturised millionaires would struggle in a muddy trench, as if the rest of us would fare any betterIf sport is war by other means, football is always getting found out on the frontline. Even as the annual poppy row rumbles on – this year’s incarnation concerning Fifa’s ban on shirt poppies for England v Scotland on Friday – José Mourinho is presenting white feathers to two of his defenders. Chris Smalling and Luke Shaw have fallen short in a variety of martial metaphors: they haven’t put their bodies on the line, they haven’t played “at any cost”, they are cowards by another name. The...
One of the most ancient and grudging of rivalries will be renewed in World Cup qualifying at Wembley on Friday nightEngland and Scotland, who meet at Wembley on Friday in only the fourth competitive fixture since annual encounters were abandoned in 1989, are the two oldest international teams in the world. They have played each other more often than anyone else, took part in the first ever international fixture in Glasgow in 1872, and enjoy – if that is the word – one of the most ancient and grudging of rivalries.Or they used to. These days the Scots would rather take on the Auld Enemy in a referendum than a football match. The sad decline of Scotland as a force...
There is a nagging feeling that the contrast between the manufactured controversy and the act of remembrance threatens to undermine the entire point of Armistice DaySo the ridiculous Poppygate saga has come to a conclusion. Of sorts. The English and Scottish football associations have declared they will bravely defy Fifa and their players will wear black armbands with poppies printed on them when they meet on Armistice Day. As they should, if they wish.But has the gulf between the silliness of the debate and the seriousness of the cause ever been quite so wide? Related: David Squires on … football and Remembrance Day Related: Spare us the phoney poppy apoplexy | Marina Hyde Continue reading...