How Brentford play the transfer market to overachieve in the Championship and turn a profit August 28, 2018 Outside of Staffordshire and west London, Ryan Woods’s move from Brentford to Stoke City on Saturday didn’t cause much of a stir. Here was a talented central midfielder swapping one Championship side for another on loan, with the 24-year-old set to sign for a fee in the region of £7m in January once the transfer [...]
Five things we learned from the Premier League this weekend: Moura the man, Alonso the alternative, Arsenal’s defence shaky and more August 27, 2018 Jose Mourinho’s selection roulette did not pay off tonight. The Manchester United manager made six changes, mixing his squad up to face a familiar-looking Tottenham side. After a first half in which both sides missed countless opportunities, Spurs made their move as Harry Kane and Lucas Moura prompted chants of “you're getting sacked in the [...]
Why UK Sport’s funding review should mean less money for athletics, cycling, swimming, rowing, sailing and equestrian August 27, 2018 Katherine Grainger is a poster girl for Britain’s funding of elite sport, winning medals at each of the five Olympics since John Major ushered in the current highly successful support system. Now she is chair of UK Sport, although but a boardroom novice, and must make a pair of connected decisions that will define the [...]
Why are Premier League clubs being paid in Bitcoin for their commercial deals with trading platform eToro? August 23, 2018 If 2018 has been the year of football dipping its toe into the world of cryptocurrency, then this week saw some teams go a little deeper into uncharted waters. On Tuesday, seven Premier League clubs including Tottenham and Crystal Palace announced that they had signed commercial partnerships with investment platform eToro. What made these deals [...]
Arsenal v West Ham: Old foes reunited as Unai Emery and Manuel Pellegrini meet again with new clubs August 23, 2018 Familiarity will be in the air at Emirates Stadium on Saturday when West Ham visit Arsenal. Most eyes will be trained on Jack Wilshere, who is set to face the club at which he spent his formative footballing years for the first time since his summer switch from north to east London, while Spanish forward [...]
Motty lends his voice to Football Index’s advertising push August 23, 2018 Match of the Day’s legendary commentator John Motson is lending his voice to a new trading platform dedicated to football. Motson, who has commentated on some of the Premier League and FA Cup’s biggest matches since the late 1960s, will be the face and voice of fresh fintech venture Football Index’s TV and radio adverts. [...]
La Liga to play matches in the US: Why the Premier League will be watching Spanish football’s stateside experiment closely August 22, 2018 The hackneyed joke about Spanish football’s top flight used to be that there was only one fixture worth watching: the bi-annual collision of domestic superpowers Real Madrid and Barcelona. La Liga’s announcement today that it is to stage matches in the United States has rubbished that notion further still – there will be no shortage of [...]
Cristiano Ronaldo: The sports streaming service DAZN aim to build on back of Juventus forward’s endorsement August 22, 2018 As a new face in the marketplace it’s advisable to make a splash in order to get noticed. The sports broadcasting industry is currently in flux as new players challenge the big names for their slice of a lucrative business. For sport live-streaming service DAZN – pronounced “Da-zone” – the best way to attract attention [...]
Trevor Steven: Arsenal coach Unai Emery must get defence and midfield in sync but will need time to fine-tune his new team August 21, 2018 Arsenal’s 3-2 defeat at Chelsea on Saturday was the sort of random early-season match that’s great fun to watch but unlikely to be repeated later in the campaign when teams like these with new managers have corrected the relationship between defence and midfield. From what I have seen of them under new coach Unai Emery, [...]
Crystal Palace 0-2 Liverpool: Five things we learned as Mohamed Salah makes the difference for the Reds August 20, 2018 Mohamed Salah is often at the forefront of games and tonight was no different. Liverpool’s star man had the most shots of any player on the pitch and was the instigator in all of the match’s major incidents. Strangely for him he was wayward in front of goal and yet he was still vital to [...]