Gone are the days when it was enough for a new strip to look good. Designers are obsessed with spinning a complex yarnIn 1976 the groundbreaking choreographer Peter Darrell debuted Mary Queen of Scots, an attempt to tell the story of the doomed monarch entirely through the medium of dance. “Darrell’s ballet is historically pretty accurate,” James Kennedy wrote in his review for the Guardian. “The events, as here transmuted into classical dance, did (more or less) happen. Why did Darrell and his lively company do it? Well, you can have marvellous historical plays and poignant, if imperfect, historical operas, so why not a successful historical ballet?”Forty-three years have now passed since Darrell’s ballet opened to the public, a near-half-century...
Bruce’s happiest times were at smaller clubs and he starts his biggest Premier League job as a manager with eyes fully openSteve Bruce is normally a safe if somewhat unexciting pair of managerial hands, though as supporters of Sheffield United, Birmingham City and Wigan Athletic will attest, he does have a penchant for resigning or leaving to further his career elsewhere. As recently as January he was claiming his 10th club, Sheffield Wednesday, might be the last he would manage, but presumably he always knew that if the call came from Newcastle he would find it hard to resist.What he does at most clubs is steady the defence, sort out a settled team and begin to make small but significant...
Statement spending can work in the Premier League but for every Virgil van Dijk there is a Paul Pogba or Romelu LukakuMike Ashley is the Premier League equivalent of Captain Rum – the seafarer from Blackadder who runs his ship in a contrary manner to “all the other captains” – though much as it must depress supporters to lose their leading scorer so soon after a popular manager, the bottom line in Ayoze Pérez’s move to Leicester stands up to scrutiny.Newcastle’s owner knows more about trading than most – he has certainly made plenty of money through his grasp of markets and mark-ups – and, though critics might accuse him of caring for little else, it cannot be denied that...
Supporters’ group fighting Ashley is calling for a St James’ Park boycott – but would not be first to find apathy in their wayA couple of hours after finishing what was intended to be the first and final draft of this column, I was forced into a rewrite. An excoriating, potentially award-winning polemic that will now never see the light of day, the original version was mildly critical of the kind of football fans who relentlessly bore everyone to tears with grievances regarding their dissatisfaction with the owners of their football club, but are invariably too apathetic to do anything even remotely useful that might in some way lead to the departure of those custodians who are the source of...
Rafa Benítez stood in the way of Jürgen Klopp’s title challengers but fate had other plans on a topsy-turvy night at St James’ ParkLunchtime was fast approaching when Liverpool’s morning charter flight taxied towards the private terminal adjacent to Newcastle airport. Travelling Premier League teams do not usually touch down with only hours to spare before kick-off but, right now, almost every conceivable margin is becoming uncomfortably tight for Jürgen Klopp and his players.With a domestic title and an improbable Champions League semi-final comeback to pursue, Liverpool are all out of wriggle room and it is not only their travel schedule that is being squeezed. On the pitch there is no room for error; not when Klopp’s team headed back...