Trevor Steven’s Premier League preview: Manchester City will see off Liverpool in a two-horse title race and Arsenal could surprise everyone | City A.M. August 9, 2018 With the World Cup long forgotten already all focus has switched back to the Premier League and, like everyone, I’m hugely looking forward to the new season starting this weekend. It’s the best league in the world and that’s not just my view – Chelsea’s new boss Maurizio Sarri has said it himself. People want [...]
From supply and demand to game theory, football is full of economics lessons | City A.M. August 8, 2018 The football transfer window closes tomorrow, and the opening days of August have seen the usual flurry of activity at all levels. The window in the rest of Europe stays open until the end of the month. Do we detect here the hands of Monsieur Barnier, in another dastardly European Commission plot to do us [...]
All change at Arsenal: What Stan Kroenke’s buyout and new manager Unai Emery mean for the Gunners’ Premier League hopes | City A.M. August 7, 2018 Patience is a difficult virtue to preach to a set of fans who waited years for a change of direction at their club. But now that change has come at Arsenal – and to the extent that scarcely any corner of the club remains untouched by the overhaul of the last few months – patience [...]
Stan Kroenke tables £1.8bn cash offer to buy Arsenal | City A.M. August 7, 2018 US sports tycoon Stan Kroenke has made an all-cash offer to buy Arsenal in a deal valuing the club at £1.8bn. Kroenke already owns 67 per cent of the football club’s shares, but wants to buy the remaining stock and make the company 100 per cent privately owned. The second largest shareholder of the club [...]
Fulham season preview: Why optimism is in the air on their return to the Premier League | City A.M. August 6, 2018 Newly promoted sides are expected to feel a bit of apprehension upon the dawning of a new season. Making the step from the Championship to the Premier League is undoubtedly a tough task, after all. For Fulham, that task is made harder by their route to the promised land. Slavisa Jokanovic’s side beat Aston Villa [...]
Is the Premier League spending spree over? Transfer window alteration and broadcast revenue dip could explain expenditure | City A.M. August 1, 2018 If not quite at death and taxes levels of certainty, there has been a marked predictability about the volume of spending indulged in by Premier League clubs during every close season. Each summer for the last eight years, the total amount spent on new players during the transfer window by England’s top-division clubs has reached [...]
Trevor Steven: Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho doesn’t need new players, he needs a better relationship with his current ones | City A.M. August 1, 2018 Jose Mourinho’s future as Manchester United manager is back in the spotlight after he complained about his players and a lack of new signings during the club’s pre-season tour of the United States, but in my view his problems lie closer to home. Think back to Leicester’s incredible Premier League triumph in 2016: what was [...]
England v India: How the hosts have used the Merlyn bowling machine to get to grips with spin bowling | City A.M. July 30, 2018 The recent break in the weather has brought an abrupt end to the heatwave in this country, but with India in town and more hot, dry days forecast, England know one factor may go a long way towards deciding the centrepiece of the cricketing summer. While Edgbaston, the venue for Wednesday’s first Test, isn’t renowned [...]
Tottenham Hotspur Stadium: Why don’t Spurs have a naming rights deal? | City A.M. July 26, 2018 Back in October 2008, when Tottenham’s new stadium project was still in its infancy, chairman Daniel Levy addressed the opportunity to sell the naming rights to their proposed new ground. “It’s a necessary and critical component of financing a modern football stadium,” he said. Yet six weeks out from the £850m venue’s official opening, Spurs [...]
Sky post a solid set of figures July 26, 2018 Sky revealed a solid set of full-year results as earnings jumped by 9 per cent and like-for-like (LFL) revenue rose by 5 per cent. Average revenue per user held steady at £45. The company had a strong finish to the year as it added 20,000 new customers in the UK and Ireland. In the final three [...]