Go away, Jose: Mourinho and his team receive £19.6m pay off from Manchester United February 14, 2019 Former Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho and his coaching team received a £19.6m payoff after getting sacked from the club, its accounts reveal. The club’s quarterly accounts list the £19.6m payment under exceptional items describing it as “compensation to the former manager and certain members of the coaching staff for loss of office”. Mourinho was [...]
Tottenham 3-0 Borussia Dortmund: Son Heung-min and Jan Vertonghen lead perfect second-half performance for Spurs February 13, 2019 As the Tottenham fans funnelled into the depths of Wembley at half-time last night there would have been nerves. Spurs had fashioned just one opening in the first 45 minutes as they continually ran up against the yellow wall of Borussia Dortmund. The passes weren’t sticking up front, the midfield were struggling to penetrate and [...]
England’s top three batsmen still up in the air for this summer’s Ashes following inconclusive West Indies series February 13, 2019 Only one Test match now stands between England and the start of this summer’s Ashes. Despite having just spent the last three weeks playing that very format in the Caribbean, they are no closer to solving their perennial problem. The phrase “first name on the team sheet” is a common one in sport; right now [...]
Chelsea face a season-defining fortnight starting with a Europa League trip to Malmo, but they are yet to win away in 2019 February 13, 2019 On the back of Chelsea’s worst defeat in Premier League history, Maurizio Sarri faces a battle to galvanise his side for a season-defining fortnight. The Blues meet Manchester United in the FA Cup fifth round on Monday night, Manchester City, who humiliated them 6-0 last weekend, in the EFL Cup final a week on Sunday, [...]
Italian football club Juventus enlist Morgan Stanley to help in €175m bonds sale February 13, 2019 Italian footballing giants Juventus have ramped up their efforts to raise money after paying €100m to buy Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo last summer, issuing bonds to investors. The club originally planned to offer €150m (£131.4m) worth of bonds maturing in around five years at a 3.5 per cent yield, but City A.M. understands this has increased to €175m. Read more: [...]
Trevor Steven: Goalscoring genius Sergio Aguero is my leading striker of the Premier League era February 12, 2019 Ian Rush got it right this week when he said that we have Sergio Aguero to thank for reminding us what it means to be an old-fashioned centre-forward. Rarely do you see Aguero on the flanks or even outside of the width of the penalty area. He is too focused on scoring goals; that is [...]
Manchester United v Paris Saint-Germain: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer faces decisive period in bid to prove he’s more than a managerial super-sub February 11, 2019 Timely interventions were his calling card as a player, so perhaps it should be no surprise that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer the manager has lived up to his old super-sub billing at Manchester United. Since replacing Jose Mourinho mid-season, Solskjaer has overseen an almost flawless spell utterly at odds with the joyless months of foreboding that [...]
Never mind the Big Six, it’s all about the Premier League’s Big Three as Manchester City, Liverpool and Tottenham underline gulf in quality February 10, 2019 We all know about the Big Six, the Premier League’s half a dozen richest clubs who monopolise the top places in the table, effectively creating a two-tier division of haves and have-nots. It’s plain to see in the current rankings, with the biggest gap between positions anywhere in the top flight being the 12 points [...]
Premier League plots streaming service for live football matches February 10, 2019 The Premier League is planning to launch its own streaming service for live football matches in a bid to bypass broadcasters and boost revenues. The Netflix-style streaming service was due to be tested in Singapore, but the Premier League backed out of the project. Instead, the league sold rights to the next three seasons to Singapore [...]
Norwich City v Ipswich Town: Rivals meet in East Anglian derby amid backdrop of contrasting fortunes February 7, 2019 It’s not often that a derby comes around with two sides in such opposing circumstances as Norwich City and Ipswich Town. The East Anglian derby arrives on Sunday with Norwich flying high at the top of the Championship, boasting one league defeat in four months. Local rivals Ipswich, meanwhile, are 23 places and 39 points [...]