Dion Fanning
On the day before the Champions League final, the main story on Uefa’s website featured Jose Mourinho. Last week, it was hard to believe a football match could take place, that anything could take place, without Jose Mourinho’s imprint. His image and his name itself had become part of the negotiations during the long week […]
10 years ago
After Chelsea had lost at home to Liverpool last October, Jose Mourinho held a meeting with his coaching staff in the centre circle at Stamford Bridge. Mourinho had refused to answer questions in his post-match TV interview. “I have nothing to say,” he repeated for most of the 55 seconds on camera, before heading off […]
10 years ago
From the moment Brendan Rodgers arrived in Glasgow on Monday, it was hard not to feel that his union with Celtic could be a perfect match. On Monday afternoon, Celtic tweeted a picture of Rodgers in the people carrier taking him to Celtic Park, and there was already the sense that everything was going to […]
10 years ago
From the moment Brendan Rodgers arrived in Glasgow on Monday, it was hard not to feel that his union with Celtic could be a perfect match. On Monday afternoon, Celtic tweeted a picture of Rodgers in the people carrier taking him to Celtic Park, and there was already the sense that everything was going to […]
10 years ago
By Saturday evening the FA Cup was an irrelevance once again. It had been pushed to the margins by the return of Jose Mourinho, who was minding his own business ringside at the David Haye fight in London when the news came through that he is expected to take over at Old Trafford on Tuesday. […]
10 years ago
Are those in charge losing control?
10 years ago
But would Mourinho sort it out?
10 years ago
For a man who believes that nothing will be achieved without relentless industry, Jurgen Klopp might have been happy with the shortcut victory in the Europa League would have provided for his Liverpool side. But there are no shortcuts for the kind of football Klopp believes in, and there were none for Liverpool who were […]
10 years ago
After England were knocked out of the World Cup in Brazil, Roy Hodgson reflected on the manner of his side’s exit from the tournament. England had lost to Italy in their opening game, and had then been torn apart by the genius of Luis Suarez when they played Uruguay. “All of a sudden,” Hodgson said, […]
10 years ago
We live in an age of direct action. People are mad as hell and they’re not going to take it anymore. Often the direct action they take is no more direct than a like or a retweet, but there are some places where they understand the power of protest, some places where they believe in […]
10 years ago
There for the taking
10 years ago
Justice at last
10 years ago
Tribalism is clouding judgement
10 years ago
At the Emirates on Thursday night, the stadium will once again fill with the ranks of the disaffected and the despondent. The disaffected and the despondent will stay away as well, with some expecting as many as ten thousand empty seats. Arsenal have key games remaining in their season, but they are not the key […]
10 years ago
The UFC featherweight champ has had the same impact on the public as Roy Keane
10 years ago
The Theatre of Dreams
10 years ago
There was a time when Arsene Wenger could sit in the boardroom before a London derby and feel confident about all that was going to happen when his team played. “I think they know what to do,” he replied when somebody once asked him before Arsenal played Spurs if, as it was now getting close […]
10 years ago
When the two clubs built by petro-dollar empires meet in the quarter-final of the Champions League, most people probably wouldn’t expect the game to be shaped by a moment of staggering incompetence. If Fernando’s mistake was the most glaring error, PSG looked inept at times too, comically in the seconds leading up to City’s second […]
10 years ago
Some people called Dr Max Jacobson the “bat wing and chicken blood doctor”. He had worked in hospitals in World War One before going on to complete his medical qualifications. He became fascinated by methamphetamine – speed – and when he set up a practice in New York, he mixed it with vitamins, enzymes, animal […]
10 years ago
During the era of Arsene Wenger exceptionalism, Arsenal’s supporters had a disdainful chant for all of those who failed to follow the purity of their methods. It wasn’t as much a chant as the dismissive swat in the direction of an annoying fly. “Hoof!” they would roar when an opponent sent a ball long towards their defence. […]
10 years ago