After frustration and in some cases ridicule, players who have suffered from injury torment will be desperate to show what they have to offer as a new season gets under wayHarry Redknapp used to be tickled by the notion that top professionals would move clubs primarily for sentimental reasons. Many times he made the sort of quip that he delivered in 2012 when there were suggestions that Carlos Tevez might take a big pay cut to leave Manchester City for Redknapp’s Spurs. “He’s always wanted to play for Tottenham,” said Redknapp, deadpan as you like. “Ever since he was in Argentina he had a picture of Hoddle on the wall and Ricky [Villa] and Ossie [Ardiles]. I want to play...
Paul Scholes was mystified at Karius, Carvajal and Salah’s tears but the former Manchester United midfielder’s past suggests a sympathetic soul lurks beneath the gruff exteriorA week on from a Champions League final that proved remarkable on many different levels and the tears have, presumably, dried. When they had been seen streaming down the faces of Loris Karius, Mo Salah and Dani Carvajal, among other grief-stricken footballers, it was intriguing that Paul Scholes found himself at something of a loss. A star guest at a viewing party in London, the former Manchester United midfielder wasn’t so much critical of these grown men being so publicly reduced to sobbing wrecks, as generally bemused by their ostentatious displays of emotion. Related: Mohamed...
The Brazilian was pivotal to Monaco’s Ligue 1 title success and his arrival at Anfield suggests Jürgen Klopp’s side will put in a stronger challenge for the title next season“During the transfer window and even the month after it was a little difficult to live with the situation,” Fabinho admitted in December. “I had to leave, I did not leave, etc. But I do not think about it any more, the page is turned.”A little more than six months later and the boy who left his home near São Paulo for the bright lights of Rio as a teenager has finally been granted his wish. Yet while his wife, Rebeca Tavares, could barely contain her excitement as she filmed their...
What did Real Madrid’s Sergio Ramos intend when grabbing the Egyptian’s arm? He might say he was reacting to Liverpool’s own concussive approach. Either way Salah was doneAnd fade to white. By the end of a messy, thrilling, occasionally grisly Champions League final in Kiev the most unexpected note was that Liverpool’s fearless run to this stage should end with regrets and a quiver of what might have been.It seemed even crueller still that the final image of Mo Salah’s joyful season should be the sight of the Premier League player of the year leaving the pitch in tears with half an hour gone. But then there are reasons why Real Madrid win these games, why the same faces keep...
The Welshman was the match-winner off the bench but his two goals against Liverpool could prove to be a glorious farewellFor a moment there was silence and then there was a small smattering of applause. At the Liverpool end, they were stunned, and they were not alone. The goal that won the European Cup had to be watched twice and they still couldn’t believe it; even the replay on the giant screen didn’t entirely shake them out of it. For the second time, the second Real Madrid goal, they were left wondering whether that had really happened. The first goal was surreal, perhaps the stupidest the European Cup final has seen; the second was sublime, perhaps even the most brilliant....