Category: Football

“I’d love to see two or three — and not players you have to Google and say, ‘Who’s that?’” is one of the great lines in modern English football. It had a bit of everything: the spice of an ambitious player calling out his own club for their lacklustre signings, contextualised by a current, technological example. In an age when Premier League footballers are…

Spurs return to Premier League action after a victorious north London derby in the Carabao Cup, hoping to build upon their recent good form and ignore the rumours circulating around manager Mauricio Pochettino and Old Trafford. They'll fancy their odds, considering Everton have not beaten them in the league in the past 12 attempts. However, Richarlison will be a man to watch out for,…

On a cold day in Chorley in the early 1920s, a male professional goalkeeper challenged Lily Parr to beat him from the penalty spot. His tone was condescending. From his point of view a woman could never strike the ball with enough power, let alone sufficient accuracy, to beat him from 12 yards. Parr accepted, determined to show him up. He saved her shot,…

Game of the weekend When Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was relegated with Cardiff in 2013/14, few expected his next Premier League job to be with Manchester United. The Norwegian is indeed the man occupying the hot seat at Old Trafford until the end of the season, following the dismissal of Jose Mourinho on Tuesday. The Red Devils are 11 points adrift of the top four,…

The debate of who will succeed Jose Mourinho as next Manchester United manager has dominated the headlines since the 55-year-old's departure. But following years of muddled thinking in the transfer market and on the training ground since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013, there is a growing sense that United must also appoint a new director of football to oversee operations above the next…

Mauricio Pochettino has inched closer to winning his first trophy with Tottenham Hotspur with a comfortably victory against rivals Arsenal. For a competition that has often seen second strings played by the top Premier League clubs (and even the not-so-top Premier League clubs) all the way up until the final, there were two sides out at the Emirates that, bar a few omissions, were…

The first north London derby of the season was always going to take some beating. The lead exchanged three times, six goals in total, two penalties – one as a result of a highly suspicious tumble from Heung-min Son – seven cautions and a late red card all made for a heart-thundering watch for anyone invested in the game. The crackling excitement of that…

It was almost a nightmare start to a youngster’s Premier League career. Oliver Skipp, making his first full appearance in the competition after a three-minute cameo in Tottenham Hotspur’s 3-1 triumph over Southampton earlier this month, was caught in possession in the fourth minute of Saturday’s clash with Burnley, forcing Moussa Sissoko to intervene and prevent a goalscoring opportunity for Sean Dyche’s men. The…

After an atrocious start to the season, Manchester United's worst since 1990, Jose Mourinho has finally been sacked. From falling out with star man Paul Pogba and bitterly criticising most of his squad to producing consistently turgid performances and average-to-poor results, Mourinho's tenure at United has been hugely damaging for all involved. His sacking hardly comes as a surprise, even if there were a…

Jose Mourinho is a bit like Myspace. You never could’ve expected to see such a sharp decline in popularity and fortune. You never could've really seen it coming to this, but here we are.  In the early 2000s, Myspace was the best thing the internet had ever seen. Myspace was the social network. Before Facebook and Twitter and and Instagram and Snapchat and YouTube,…

Jose Mourinho‘s troubled tenure as Manchester United manager has come to an end. The club announced on Tuesday morning the 55-year-old has left his post with immediate effect with a “thorough recruitment process” now taking place to find his successor. Michael Carrick, who has been a coach at the club since he retired from playing in May, will take training and United are set…

With Jose Mourinho ignominiously sacked on Tuesday morning, it’s been a gleeful time for his detractors and people who dislike Manchester United. Draw that as a Venn diagram and it would subsume the vast majority of the population, which perhaps explains the extreme schadenfreude which has accompanied his departure. Though there were many, many failings during Mourinho’s tenure at Old Trafford, his transfer record…

When you read the words ‘Iñigo Martínez’ and ‘own goal’ in the same sentence, you might immediately recall a memorable moment in Manchester United’s recent history. You’ll remember Wayne Rooney twisting and turning inside the Real Sociedad box, hitting the post with his shot, and Martínez getting his feet wrong and planting the rebound into his own net. You’ll remember that happening just 69…

Sacked: Manchester United show Jose Mourinho the door. [fcrp_feat_sc sc_id=”30516″] Manchester United have announced the departure of coach Jose Mourinho after their worst start to a season since 1990-91. In a statement, the club said: “Manchester United announces that manager Jose Mourinho has left the club with immediate effect. The club would like to thank Jose for his work during his time at Manchester…

Thursday nights are synonymous with Europa League football. So much so, in fact, that various derogatory chants to that effect have been popularised at Premier League grounds in recent years. It appeared that thanks to Uefa rules, however, Arsenal would buck the trend when they were matched with BATE Borisov in the last 32 of the Europa League. In the aftermath of the Europa…