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 [...]
Carlos Kaiser: Brazilian football’s scammer extraordinaire – and how his story reached cinemas via the City of London | City A.M. July 25, 2018 Remember Ali Dia, the Senegalese semi-pro handed a Premier League game by Southampton in the 1990s largely on the strength of a bogus reference from someone posing as then-World Player of the Year George Weah? Well Brazil has its own tale of an impostor conning his way into the ranks of the professionals – only [...]
Trevor Steven: Liverpool are winning the transfer window so far, plus my verdict on Tottenham, Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and Arsenal | City A.M. July 24, 2018 With the window closing in just two weeks’ time, the most surprising thing about this summer’s Premier League transfer activity is just how little business has been done so far. Of the top six teams to have traded, however, Liverpool stand out as having made the strongest signings by a distance. Alisson, whose £67m move [...]
How a World Cup run might turn £1 into £65,000 – the power of investment compounding July 20, 2018 The World Cup is underway, so what better way to explain the miracle effects of compounding than via a football analogy? We recently attended a meeting of company pension fund trustees where the chairman felt the need to clarify one observation with the line: “And, of course, because of compounding, a 10% increase in performance [...]
World Cup 2018 glory may have eluded England but planets could align for Gareth Southgate’s exciting team in 2020 | City A.M. July 12, 2018 Football might not be coming home just yet, following England’s World Cup semi-final defeat to Croatia on Wednesday, but it will soon be returning to its heartlands in at least one sense. The next European Championship, in two years’ time, has been designated a uniquely pan-continental affair involving 12 host cities in 12 different countries [...]
World Cup 2018: Are Sweden, England’s quarter-final opponents, another Iceland? July 5, 2018 On Saturday England’s burgeoning hopes of long-awaited international success hinge on seeing off unfancied Scandinavian opponents who are widely seen as game but ultimately inferior. Sound familiar? Two years ago it was Iceland who knocked England off their pedestal with a 2-1 victory in Nice. It proved the pinnacle of a run to the quarter-finals [...]
Chef’s Table: M Restaurant Chef Mike Reid interviews former England and Manchester United star Andrew Cole July 5, 2018 This month, M Restaurant chef Mike Reid cooks lunch for former Manchester United and England striker Andrew Cole, as they discuss the pressure on footballers, recovering from a kidney transplant, and why Australia is terrifying. STARTER: Cured Sicilian red prawns with potato sauce, peas and almonds; Burrata with baby tomatoes, spiced bread and red pepper; [...]