Frenchman did it his way during three seasons in the Bernabéu hot seat and is leaving before his legacy can be spoiled“It might look like a strange moment but it is the right moment,” Zinedine Zidane said. And so, 878 days after taking over as manager and only five since he led them to the European Cup again, he walked away from Real Madrid. During the press conference at which he announced the decision, the president, Florentino Pérez, sitting alongside him wearing a dark suit and a darker look, Zidane was repeatedly asked if things might have been different.Mostly he said “no” and the president too insisted there was no point trying to change his mind. And yet at the...
Max and co talk the FA Cup final, dramatic scenes in Italy, club legend departures and a former Swan deciding the Turkish titleRate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Priya Ramesh and debutant Will Unwin to discuss the weekend’s football, starting with the FA Cup final, which may bring the end of Antonio Conte’s reign at Chelsea, despite their victory. José Mourinho used his post-match press duties to open a few familiar cans of worms, from ‘imagine if my team played boring football’ to ‘our opposition were predictably one-note’. Continue reading...
Inter-bound Stefan De Vrij was at the centre of a wild collapse as Lazio surrendered a Champions League place to InterStefan De Vrij folded himself up small and hid his face underneath a training top, but he could not stop the cameras from honing in on him as he sat for the final time in Lazio’s home dugout. The curtain was coming down on the 2017-18 Serie A season, and the team whose shirt he was still wearing had just lost its Champions League spot to the one he will play for next year.A messy situation under any circumstances, but even more so for how events unfolded. Lazio had led 2-1 with 12 minutes remaining against Inter, in a game...
This time it really was the end for The Kid, taking his final bow with Atlético on an emotional evening at the WandaDefeat hit hard and so did the coach, apportioning blame and pointing the finger; they had let everyone down, he said. It was 2001, Spain had been knocked out of the U17 World Cup, and during the flight home Fernando Torres and Andrés Iniesta, close friends since they had met at 14, decided to put their feelings into words. As they sat on the plane, they wrote a letter outlining everything that had gone wrong. They never posted it but the writing helped and when they touched down back at Barajas airport they swapped shirts, dedicating them to...
Max and co discuss Arsène Wenger bowing out, the extraordinary seasons of Salah, Vardy and Kane, scary bedtime greetings and moreRate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Amy Lawrence and Nick Ames to discuss the final weekend of the Premier League season. We starting with Manchester City and the Gabriel Jesus goal which helped break the record for points won in a Premier League season, to add to all of the other records they’ve broken this season. Continue reading...