Pep Guardiola offered a wholesome message but almost every managers press conference is a charade were all in onI know we are winners and losers and thats all. But I think its not a good message for society, for our kids, for our teenagers, showing that just the winner is perfect. We are creating a depressed people, loser people. In football I know we want to win but just win once and the other is disaster? Its not, it doesnt work in that way.Finally. A true message about the meaning of sport. It is not just about winning. It is about the journey, the fight to improve, bettering ourselves. How refreshing. Related: Manchester City owner sells 10% share for 389m...
A 2-1 loss and some unpleasant vitriol from the stands made it a day to forget for Boro’s manager on his first visit back to Elland RoadAs football soundbites go, the summer declaration by the Middlesbrough owner, Steve Gibson, that his club would “smash the league” in their attempts to return to the Premier League this season is slowly but surely looking like one of the more misguided utterances.It certainly threatens to become a millstone around the neck of his manager, Garry Monk, whose return to Leeds United – the club he left in controversial circumstances to work for Gibson following Middlesbrough’s relegation last season – ended in a defeat that ended his team’s recent mini-revival. Related: Leeds United 2-1...
The county’s fortunes have waned but Garry Monk, Carlos Carvalhal and David Wagner are overseeing promotion challenges with three sleeping giantsIt did not take Garry Monk long to start second-guessing the inevitable question. Why on earth did the former Swansea City manager want to risk his career at Leeds United, a chaotically run, fallen giant emblematic of Yorkshire’s footballing rust belt?As if working for Massimo Cellino, Leeds’ eccentric owner, was not bad enough, had Monk not read Gary Neville’s analysis of the national game’s changing topography? “The north is being cut adrift in English football and I fear the damage may be permanent,” wrote the former Manchester United captain turned pundit last year. Continue reading...