Manchester United: Zlatan Ibrahimovic confirms reunion with Jose Mourinho next season June 30, 2016 Zlatan Ibrahimovic will rejoin former manager Jose Mourinho at Manchester United next season, the Sweden star has confirmed. A free agent since his lucrative £1.1m-a-month contract expired at Paris Saint-Germain last summer, Ibrahimovic took to Instagram to tell United fans "I am coming" underneath a photo of the club's crest. "Time to let the world know," he [...]
Wales must harness power of world’s most expensive player to beat Euro 2016’s most expensive team Belgium June 30, 2016 They have already confounded expectations but in order to beat Belgium and reach the semi-finals of a major competition for the first time in history Wales must achieve they are yet to manage at Euro 2016: avoid defeat against a side with a higher market value. Wales’s historic quarter-final in Lille on Friday pits Euro [...]
Gareth Southgate set to plunge Football Association search for Roy Hodgson’s successor into turmoil with disinterest in England manager position June 29, 2016 England Under-21 boss Gareth Southgate is set to plunge the Football Association’s plans to find a successor to Roy Hodgson into disarray after it emerged that he is reluctant to take the position, even temporarily. FA chief executive Martin Glenn, who conceded earlier this week that he was “not a football expert, has said that Southgate would [...]
Football betting: Hazard could give Wales a moule-ing on way to Golden Boot June 29, 2016 Chelsea fans must be wondering which version of Eden Hazard will return to their club for the next Premier League campaign. He had a forgettable season but, going into Friday's Euro 2016 quarter-final against Wales, he’s finally showing the form that won him PFA Player of the Season for the 2014/15 campaign. It’s bad timing for [...]
Football betting: Portugal to win with Ronaldo and Lewandowski poles apart June 29, 2016 Euro 2016’s first quarter-final takes place in Marseille on Thursday as Poland take on Portugal. Both sides have flattered to deceive so far in France, but one of them will be lining up as semi-finalists in a few days’ time. Portugal, spearheaded by Cristiano Ronaldo, are yet to actually win a game in normal time at the [...]
“Why would anybody want it?”: Chairman Greg Dyke admits FA faces battle to attract top managers June 29, 2016 Football Association chairman Greg Dyke has admitted the organisation faces a battle to convince top managers to take the England job. The FA has begun the search for a replacement for Roy Hodgson, whose underwhelming four-year tenure was brought to an abrupt end by Monday’s humiliating Euro 2016 elimination by Iceland. England Under-21 boss Gareth [...]
We beat you before and we’re even better now, Gareth Bale tells Wales’s Euro 2016 opponents Belgium June 29, 2016 Talisman Gareth Bale has warned Belgium that Wales have evolved into an even better team than the one that beat the feted Red Devils during qualifying for Euro 2016. The teams meet in Friday’s quarter-final in Lille, a rematch of last June’s fixture at Cardiff City Stadium, in which Bale’s 25th-minute goal sank Belgium and [...]
Arsene Wenger is a genius but is not the man England need to end decades of underachievement June 29, 2016 It's tempting to believe that Arsene Wenger – one of the most sophisticated minds to shape the English game over the last two decades and a man on the Football Association's shortlist to succeed Roy Hodgson – could be the right man to rescue the national team. After all, the Frenchman is synonymous with the attacking flair that England [...]
Euro 2016: Wales forced to defend leaked video of celebrations as England crash out of tournament June 28, 2016 Full-back Chris Gunter insists the Wales camp harbour no regrets over footage which captured members of their squad exuberantly celebrating as England were dumped out of Euro 2016. A video of Wales players and staff cheering and hugging after England slumped to a 2-1 defeat against European minnows Iceland in Nice on Monday was leaked [...]
I’m sorry, I haven’t a clue: Roy Hodgson baffled by need to explain England’s Euro 2016 fiasco as FA chief Martin Glenn admits: “I’m no football expert” June 28, 2016 England's Euro 2016 humiliation took another farcical turn on Tuesday when departing manager Roy Hodgson insisted he did not need to explain the team’s failure and the man tasked with hiring his replacement admitted: “I am not a football expert.” Less than 24 hours after tendering his resignation in the wake of a 2-1 defeat to [...]