Wigan manager Paul Cook has urged players to volunteer for NHS or find other ways to help their communities in this crisis. A lot of selfishness in the football industry, he admits, but this is an opportunity to reassess priorities and do some good theathletic.com/1713064/2020/0…#wafc
“It was disgusting that Bury were allowed to go under. Now we’re hearing about clubs who worry they can’t survive 3 or 4 weeks without a home game. If clubs can’t survive for 3 or 4 weeks with no income, something is going seriously wrong with football.” theathletic.com/1713064/2020/0…
“My thoughts are going to be clouded by what’s best for my club. But if I’m honest, that would be a totally selfish position to take. Playing out the season is obviously the right and proper thing to do. But then we’re left looking at when that can happen” theathletic.com/1713064/2020/0…
This crisis has shed a certain light on some individuals and companies (in football and beyond) who instinctively do the wrong thing — and others who instinctively do the right thing. You can safely put Paul Cook down as one of the very good guys theathletic.com/1713064/2020/0…#WAFC
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This is Adrian Doherty, who would have turned 50 today, described by Sir Alex Ferguson as “the boy with the most amazing football skill, but happiest with his books, poems and guitar.”
And by one of his ex #MUFC youth-team-mates as “Bob Dylan in a No 7 shirt”
I first stumbled on Adrian’s story in 2011 when researching a feature on Ryan Giggs. I asked @TheRealBozza and @Alan_Tonge whether Giggs stuck out a mile in #MUFC youth team, expecting to hear "Yes of course he did."
Instead, both replied: “Have you heard of Adrian Doherty?”
Only very vaguely.
Beyond his home town of Strabane and a tight band of #MUFC youth aficionados, Adrian seemed totally unknown as a footballer. There was nothing about him on the internet except a tribute put together by Matt Bradley, who coached him as a youth player in Derry.
When @TheAthleticUK launched a year ago, I was watching from afar, nervous to see how it all went. Answer: amazingly. A year on, I'm going to plug a handful of my favourite articles by my colleagues. 1) @AdamCrafton_ on the tragedy of Emiliano Sala theathletic.com/1127774/2019/0…
2) Sticking with the Argentinian theme, absolutely loved this @PhilHay_ piece on Marcelo Bielsa and his love affair with #LUFC. Phil is one of our 27 (I think) club correspondents, bringing you the best and most dedicated coverage of your club theathletic.com/1901739/2020/0…
3) I could include absolutely anything @GeorgeCaulkin has written. He's annoyingly brilliant. But I'd picked out this one. It's about him and @stevehowey624, but it's also about life and drink and .... well, read it. It's just so good theathletic.com/1385204/2019/1…
Starting on July 28 on @TheAthleticUK@TheAthletic, it's ... The Premier League 60, counting down the greatest players of the Premier League era.
The project is explained here, along with a few disclaimers before we start ... theathletic.com/1938977/
@TheAthleticUK@TheAthletic We start with @GeorgeCaulkin on Les Ferdinand theathletic.com/1947390/2020/0…
"Ferdinand had everything you'd want in a centre-forward. But what set him apart was the hang time, the way he took to the air and then stayed up there, as if the world had stopped turning, just for him" #PL60
“Is this the start of a title-winning dynasty, Carlo/Roberto/Manuel/Jose/Antonio/Pep/Jürgen?” #LFC have quality, hunger and a manager with a long-term outlook others lacked.
But domination of the type they enjoyed in 70/80s and #MUFC in 90s/00s? Unlikely theathletic.com/1884388/2020/0…
One thing that struck me is that Mancini, Mourinho & Conte blamed poor title defences on failure to strengthen in transfer market. #LFC could easily have gone that way after winning CL last year (bought two back-up GKs). But Klopp & players didn’t allow it theathletic.com/1884388/2020/0…
.. but it also underlines importance of continually trying to renew/rebuild. Henderson 30, VVD and Wijnaldum 29, Salah, Mané & Firmino all 28. Difficult times financially, but can #LFC afford another quiet summer when there are rebuilding challenges ahead? theathletic.com/1884388/2020/0…
I know live football is back now, but there are some anniversaries that demand nostalgia.
Ten years today since England 0 Algeria 0 in Cape Town -- one of the worst matches I've EVER seen. Relive England's 2010 World Cup fiasco in gruesome detail here 😃 theathletic.com/1687794/
"The worst England game I was ever involved with,” said @PhysioGaryLewin, who was the team's physio for 18 years theathletic.com/1687794/
(He had moved on before the Iceland debacle at Euro 2016 😱😱😱)
... which means that yesterday was 10 years since John Terry's infamous "I was born to do stuff like this" press conf.
"If it upsets him (Capello) or it upsets any player, so what? I really think, ‘Sod it’" 😱
England at the 2010 World Cup. A shambles theathletic.com/1687794/
The only serious obstacle to ”Project Restart” should be health & safety, but the PL’s bottom six raise a new issues at every turn. We shouldn’t be surprised. English football’s crazy financial model breeds brazen self-interest. It dominates this argument theathletic.com/1806000/2020/0…
e.g. this idea that there should be no promotion/relegation if Championship can't restart. It's not a crazy argument -- many agree -- but there's no way e.g. Norwich/Villa would have gone along with that a year ago, or Bournemouth/Watford in 2015 (contd) theathletic.com/1806000/
or Brighton in 2017 or West Ham in 2012 or, frankly, Newcastle in 2017 or Man City in 2002. Would Leeds or West Brom be eager to restart if they were in the bottom six of the PL? Almost certainly not. So the whole argument smacks of self-interest (contd) theathletic.com/1806000/