Gareth Southgate has let the forward know how serious his transgression was, with Sterling apologising to the squadThis time it is not so easy to defend the guy. It is not a witch-hunt, it is nothing to do with his choice of body art, where he shops or what he eats for breakfast and, if you happen to think Raheem Sterling is treated differently in parts of the media because of the colour of his skin, that does not change the fact he has genuinely messed up. Related: Raheem Sterling sorry after arriving 12 hours late for England training Related: Raheem Sterling is a victim of vicious tabloid snobbery Related: Clarke Carlisle criticises ‘unfair’ treatment of Raheem Sterling Continue reading...
A feline invader merits a Uefa inquiry, while Danny Welbeck showcased with impunity the English talent for deception also displayed by Sterling, Vardy and of course Dele AlliPresumably, everyone is up to speed by now about the reassuring news from Uefa, permanently trying to find different ways of curing football’s ills, that it has launched disciplinary action against Besiktas because of the pitch invader that briefly interrupted the club’s Champions League tie against Bayern Munich.Even by Uefa’s standards, it’s a belter of a story given that it was actually a ginger cat who had wandered in off the streets to investigate what all these silly humans were up to. Unfortunately for Besiktas, nobody at Uefa appears to be aware that...
Manchester City player’s stoic reaction to racially aggravated assault is proof he is an impressive young man but it should not gloss over horror of what happenedThere were plenty of extreme reactions to England’s Euro 2016 exit at the hands of Iceland, a defeat so gruelling even the players’ faces seemed to deteriorate in the late stages, mouths drooping, skin the texture of wet cardboard, resembling in their TV close-ups the kind of doomed minor zombie-movie characters who end up lying sweating on their bunks saying things like “It’s not … much of a bite” as the chief zombie-terminator shoots a pained look at his No2 and tenderly cocks his rifle.A common response was to accuse the players of being...
Manchester City’s manager has the raw material so why is he not bringing the best out of such players rather than attempting to buy other clubs’ top performers like Alexis Sánchez?The final days and hours of the transfer window seem to be conforming to the usual pattern, the one that makes everyone wonder why, if clubs can get so much done in so short a time, they could not have compressed all their business into a few selected weeks of the close season.The possibility of Alexis Sánchez moving from Arsenal to Manchester City is one that already seems to have been around for several lifetimes and there are even claims the Arsenal players are now hoping it goes through because...
The Manchester City wing tormented his former Liverpool team-mates with his attacking verve on the wing but clearer heads took centre stage at the EtihadAt one point during Manchester City’s early-season training Pep Guardiola became so frustrated by Raheem Sterling’s puppyish eagerness to cut inside and join the crowd, thereby messing with his precision fine-tuning, he drew a chalk spot on the right wing of City’s training pitch and told Sterling to stand there. When in doubt to seek the chalk spot.Watching this wild, brilliantly entertaining Premier League game, reduced at times to a selection of bruising collisions around the centre circle, you feared for Pep’s chalk spot. Sterling did stay wide, but also found himself snared into the crush of...