THE problem with successful people is they believe they are good at anything and everything. Thanks to the world’s over fascination with celebrity status and wealth, such individuals are indulged by the broader population, partly because deep down, everyone wants to be the golden boy or girl and also, because they also despise the rich […]
THE PANDEMIC may be having an unexpected impact on the football management sector in that fewer managers have been sacked so far in 2020-21. With the Premier League at the halfway stage, only one manager, West Bromwich Albion’s Slaven Bilic, has departed in a mid-season taxi. There will surely be more to come, but the […]
FOOTBALL club accounts for the 2019-20 season have become a cause for concern, the big losses incurred in a partially compromised season indicating that unless normal service is resumed, 2020-21 will be a complete financial disaster. With no sign of a major change occurring before the middle of 2021, football has to come to terms […]
THE City Football Group (CFG), Manchester City’s holding company, continues to expand its influence, forming a partnership with Bolivia’s leading football institution, Club Bolivar. This latest move by CFG, coming just a few months after Belgian club SK Lommel and France’s Troyes became the 9th and 10th clubs to come under the influence of the group, is different […]
A FEW week ago, after Arsenal had won at Old Trafford, the backside seemed to be dropping out of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s world. Manchester United had been beaten by Crystal Palace, Tottenham and Arsenal at home and the knives were out. Now, some 11 games later, United are top of the Premier League, they are […]
A NUMBER of top managers have questioned the logic behind continuing top level football as a new, more lethal, variant of the covid virus sweeps Britain and is now impacting the game. The recent FA Cup ties involving Aston Villa and Derby County featured well below full strength line-ups due to players being infected with […]
WITH Britain now divorced from the European Union, the early indications suggest it will be a little harder for FA Premier League sides to sign players from some of their traditional markets. At the same time, in the new order, South America could become a more accessible market. Anyone thinking that leaving the EU may […]
IT SEEMS amazing that it took until 1985 for Juventus to win their first European Cup. They had gone close prior to that, losing 1-0 in both 1973 (Ajax) and 1983 (Hamburg), but they invariably under-achieved in the competition. Sadly, the achievement was overshadowed by the death of 39 Juventus fans in Brussels, caused by […]
THE COPA Libertadores has gradually become more global over the past two years, largely thanks to the 2018 debacle when Boca Juniors and River Plate met in the final in Madrid after a string of highly publicised disruptions in Argentina. The Buenos Aires duo are back in the semi-finals again, but after disappointing results in […]
BETWEEN 1968 and 1971, the late Dave Sexton, Chelsea’s softly-spoken and erudite manager, received a string of letters – written with a duck-egg green Osmiroid pen – that highlighted the skills and attributes of a midfielder plying his trade with Manchester City. The young lad who wrote these testimonials was giving Sexton the benefit of […]
LIFE is never dull at Chelsea since they became a super club. As the Blues unveiled their latest financial figures, other statistics were being pored over, those that indicate Frank Lampard, club legend and all-round good fellow, could be losing his way at the moment. There has been paper talk that some players are confused […]
AT first glance, Real Madrid’s 2019-20 financials do not appear to be too troublesome, but with a major redevelopment plan for the Bernabéu Stadium in progress and a higher level of net debt, a 6% drop in revenues to € 715 million is arguably the start of the club’s near-term challenges. With expenses at a […]
THE RECENT death of Nobby Stiles underlined that notable players from football’s golden age are passing away at a rapid rate. It rekindled a romantic moment in the history of the game, when a diminutive, toothless and short-sighted character won the World Cup. Such occasions are increasingly rare today. Little Nobby’s involvement in English football’s […]
