New manager will have to deal with a powerful dressing room and a club that demands success with style“It’s not normal to take over at a team that’s top,” Quique Setién said after the call that took him from a stroll among the cows in Liencres, Cantabria, to a job among the sacred cows at the Camp Nou. “When you’re out of work, waiting for an opportunity, you imagine a team near the bottom, in trouble,” said Barcelona’s new manager. Instead on Sunday night he will occupy his place in the dugout at a place where they have not seen their team lose for 38 games, going back more than a year – not since the last time he was...
New clothes, ‘same dickhead’: for the third time in his career, Maurizio Sarri has his team in pole position at the halfway pointMaurizio Sarri had to update his wardrobe after taking over as manager of Juventus. A man who has always felt most comfortable in a tracksuit showed up for his first day of work in Turin sporting a shirt and tie. He soon confessed that his contract obliged him to wear such a uniform when representing the club away from the football pitch. For matches, a compromise was reached. Sarri’s sideline attire at Juventus has typically featured suit trousers and a zip-neck sweater. Related: Barcelona in managerial limbo after Xavi Hernández turns down role An explosive start for Juve!⚫⚪...
The Spanish trophy’s derided trip to Jeddah sees Barcelona fans buying just 300 tickets and Valencia shifting as few as 27The sports newspaper Mundo Deportivo last week offered advice for football fans travelling to Spain’s new, revamped Supercopa, which begins with Valencia v Real Madrid on Wednesday night and Barcelona v Atlético on Thursday before Sunday evening’s final between the winners. The fourth of an eight-point checklist informed them they would not be allowed to take ham or any pork product, “even if it is vacuum packed”. A couple of days later one Barcelona fan told the radio show El Larguero that he would be doing so anyway but not many will defy the rules – if only because not...
Abelardo’s side sense a ‘turning point’ in their season. It needs to be: no team has survived on fewer than 12 points at halfway“Maybe I’m a masochist,” Abelardo Fernández had said and maybe that explains everything: it explains why they called and why he came; it might even explain why this could just work. That, at least, is the hope and at least there is hope now. The noise had just about died down, supporters heading home happy, when Espanyol’s new coach appeared, their third in half a season. It was almost midnight, cold outside, and his throat was raw but he was smiling. “You have a bad time of it, you suffer, but you enjoy it,” he admitted, “and...
Sunday’s Saudi Arabia showpiece deepened concerns over Serie A’s serial champions. Inter and now Lazio are on their tailThe 2010s will be remembered, in Italian football, as a decade dominated by Juventus: winners of eight out of 10 Scudetti, four Coppe Italia and four Supercoppe as well. Yet they began with a different team – Inter - winning the treble. They end amidst suggestions that the Old Lady’s crown might once again be starting to slip. Related: 'This can’t be Milan': Boban embarrassed by worst loss in 21 years Related: Flick to stay as Bayern head coach until end of season, Real Madrid slip up Ehm, scusate, dovremmo portarla a casa... pic.twitter.com/MpCBMhOBRUFiorentina 1-4 Roma, Torino 1-2 SPAL, Inter 4-0 Genoa,...