The widely carried rumours are the latest example of social media concoctions that swell well beyond their substanceEven in dark times, the idealism of some football fans remains a beautiful thing to behold. Suggestions over the past week that the Glazer family were considering selling Manchester United to a certain party were greeted with delight in various quarters. As one United supporter positively willing the deal to happen put it: “We deserve better.” Better, in this case, would be Saudi prince Mohammed bin Salman, a man whom journalistic cliche demands we style as “in the news for all the wrong reasons”. But hey – nobody’s perfect. Related: José Mourinho charged with improper conduct after Newcastle match Continue reading...
City’s acclaimed behind-the-scenes documentary shows the soft power that has been bought by their Abu Dhabi ownersIt was the best of times, it was arguably not really the worst of times. Either way we once again have football public relations to thank for a tale of two cities. In Manchester we have Manchester City, whose enjoyable and interesting fly-on-the-wall Amazon documentary has received almost nothing but plaudits.Despite the series having been quite clearly subject to a form of copy approval by the club, City have been praised for their “risk-taking”. The results have been described as “not sanitised” in the Daily Mail, which was presumably still high on the Dettol fumes. I note one particular guy in Manchester did not...
Home coach goes into the opener against Saudi Arabia knowing his out-of-form side are under fire but is confident fans will embrace the World Cup once it startsStanislav Cherchesov smiled when asked by a Danish journalist whether he had a message for the Russian people on the eve of the opening match of a World Cup finals that is taking place in the largest country on the planet.“You would be hard pushed to get around the labyrinth of the Russian soul,” the Russia coach replied. “I think half the country will find out that we have a World Cup when the whistle blows. It takes a long time for us to start driving but I think when we press the...
Twenty-three nations have booked their places for the World Cup in Russia, with the holders and Brazil looking in good shape but we rank England in 13th place, below IcelandIf the world champions were frustrated by their failure to win continental honours at Euro 2016 they have certainly taken it out on everyone else since. Germany won 10 qualifying games out of 10 and, even if San Marino’s presence in Group C needs taking into account, a record 43 goals scored suggests things are back in their old working order. So too did their Confederations Cup title in July, achieved with an experimental squad; Joachim Löw can select from an unrivalled depth of talent and, while winning back-to-back World Cups...