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Joined April 2017
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Remember Cantona at Old Trafford and Klinsmann at White Hart Lane, Jonah at the Olympic Stadium, Hadlee at the Gabba, Graham Lowe's Kiwis in '83, and Alan Hewson's salute in '81.
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Roosters versus Storm on Friday night was a classic on so many levels and crystallised the absolute fact that these two teams, more than…
Sir Alex Ferguson famously said he took on the challenge of managing Manchester United "knock Liverpool right off their f***ing perch. And you can…
The fortunes of your favourite sides in the English Premier League or any of the major European leagues these days unfortunately but necessarily revolve…
Two articles headlined the BBC football website 'gossip' column this morning. Like so many others I watch this feed intently, hoping beyond hope that…
Last year the Penrith Panthers couldn't win beautifully. Now they're winning ugly. I know which one I'd rather as a long-suffering Panther's fan. The…
Manchester United edged their match against Brighton last night, an unlucky deflection taking the ball past the excellent Mat Ryan and proving the decider.…
Sam Whitelock has been named to captain the All Blacks for today's test against Wales. It will be his 95th test and his first…
Michael Cheika is an emotive coach at the best of times, so the weekend's loss to England was going to draw a response worthy of…
Monaco played their best game of the Champions League qualifying stage overnight, very much deserving the 1-1 draw they gained against group leading Turkish…
We saw a great finals series match again on Saturday, with Melbourne pushed so hard by a Parramatta team that refused to be intimidated.…
Form lines are hard to read in the NRL. The evenness of the entire competition leads to successive weekends like those Eels fans have…
I'm not much of stats guru – who has the greatest number of hat-tricks or goals in consecutive appearances is beyond me. But what…
Tautau Moga is a great footballer and athlete. Watching him as part of the wrecking ball that was the Broncos backline as it tore…
It is fantastic from a neutral point of view to see Brighton and Hove Albion securing the first automatic spot for promotion to the…
Arsene Wenger has publicly asked his English players to take control of Arsenal's future, short and long term. But the longstanding coach has never managed…
I came to Australia in 1996. By the time Rod MacQueen had led the Wallabies to a second World Cup I was almost ready…
A one-all draw overnight away to Anderlecht leaves Manchester United with work to do in the return leg of their Europa League quarter-final at…
Statistically, Sunderland can stay up in the Premier League this year. That's why statisticians work in finance and insurance, anyone with a passing appreciation…
Wayne Bennett made a comment to the media during the week, the sort that gets relegated behind the salaciousness of Panthers players being suspended…
I became a Manchester United fan in the early hours of a May Sunday morning, glued to black-and-white images of Alan Sunderland sinking dreams…
Ponga doesn’t seem to be the type of person to say things lightly, if I was a betting man I’d find a bookie offering odds on him playing in the black No.15 jersey in the next world cup
A Kalyn Ponga code-switch would haunt the Wallabies, not help them
If Freddy etc are going to pick on form, then he certainly is better as it stands. You could make all the usual arguments about a forward pack going forward etc but he gives you the feeling he could get the most out of any forward pack
Keary learns fast
I thought Kearney might be the point of difference when he arrived.
The Warriors struggles are the same as those of the Auckland Blues in Super Rugby, their squads are loaded with talent that the players seem to turn on and off like a tap, with no rhyme or reason to the consistency or lack of. Tana Umaga turned up at the Blues and he couldn’t work out how to keep the tap on.
The Warriors are set for a CLASSIC Warriors season, up and down, winning when they shouldn’t. So, they will finish either eighth or ninth, it will be in the balance until the final moments of the final round. They’ll get there by beating Melbourne twice and destroying the Roosters, and then losing to the Titans minus everyone.
If Kearney goes during the season, who the hell is going to want to take this on?
The Warriors have already bottled 2019
Great article and I reckon the prediction is pretty much on the money. I really like watching Milford and Nikorima, they seem like two good guys who like putting on a show of attacking football. But they struggle without go forward and I reckon James Graham and Paul Vaughan are a whole different kettle of fish to last week, when Pangai Jr etc rolled absolutely wherever they felt like.
Brisbane will win mainly because St George haven’t worked out where their points should come from, especially if Lafai misses the game on top of everything else.
Brisbane Broncos vs St George Illawarra Dragons: NRL Thursday night forecast
Totally agree about the forwards who have left the Storm, often it is the ones who haven’t done much at other clubs and then gone to the Storm who make an impact, I’ll be interested to see how Albert Vete goes for them.
Under the radar: The five most underrated signings of 2019
United will have caretaker management for the long remainder of what will become a pointless season once PSG get to illustrate how far behind the Red Devils have fallen in the Champions League.
What next?
There is still enough in the brand to attract the very best managers. The recruitment since Ferguson retired has been so scatter gun and ineffective that the defence and midfield could almost be sold en masse and any manager will have to be given the ability to buy big. The biggest fear I have is that so much has gone on since Ferguson that maybe the best players don’t really want to come anymore.
Ferguson's curse continues: Manchester United sack Mourinho
Great piece, great to hear the thoughts of such a thinker. Fox mentions how ‘aspirational’ rugby still is in New Zealand and the steady stream of extremely talented players who emerge year after year.
The Wallabies don’t have the benefit of that and never will.
I know nothing about AFL but I am sure there are any number of those great athletes who would have made great Wallabies.
Nathan Cleary seems like a very gifted ‘Number 10’ type player who thinks deeply about the game but he was only ever going to play league.
Stephen Larkham is involved with the Wallabies as Wayne Smith and Ian Foster, and Fox, have been for the AB’s.
I think the Wallabies outperform really in those terms, they just under perform when measured against freak teams like those Larkham was part of.
The Wrap: What can Australian rugby learn from Grant Fox?
Good point, although that seems to get threatened and then forgotten like a Trump impeachment
Manchester is Blue for the foreseeable future
There’s no denying City’s access to money, but there have been a lot of clubs spend a lot of money and get no where near the level of dominance they look likely to exert for years yet. Guardiola is pure class, and he must be a magnet for the players as much as the salary offered.
Manchester is Blue for the foreseeable future
I love Kieran Read as a player. Is he as hard headed as Richie McCaw learned to be though? That McCaw story about the run up to the last world cup highlighted how he needed to change the way he dealt with pressure in pivotal moments.
Coming for the cup? Irish knock off New Zealand 16-9
With regard to Lukaku I hope that Jose sees him as being Drogba-esque. He doesn’t have much praise for Romelu, but he hasn’t gone at him yet either a la Luke Shaw.
I was always a great fan of Edgar Davids, and remember how much time he spent cooling his heels at Milan before tearing it up at Juventus. Milan must have wished he’d remained bored and aloof at the far end of their bench, rather than running Juve’s midfield alongside Zidane and making Serie A a one horse race.
Manchester United is lacking pace and width
I saw that! Sterling flying down the wing in the dying moments and City are looking as uncatchable as ever.
I’m not sure what the answer is re the youth system.
I haven’t got Fox but I would be interested in seeing the matches you describe. It’s always the way that there are prodigies at age grade level who 5 years later have completely disappeared and you wonder what happened to all that potential. Watching the age grade in NRL is the same, so many young men look like world beaters. Injuries would play a role. More so would be the fact that that last step to really realising potential is exponentially harder than all the others.
The class of ’92 was a once in a lifetime thing for United.
I have seen a doco (on SBS I think, a while ago) which was a bit of a wake up call about the reach of the Manchester City youth system, how the club was making things so enticing they were beating United to many signatures and even taking players from United. And Chelsea, and Arsenal.
Not much evidence of the results yet, but then maybe Pep will unleash the class of ’18 or ’19 and then we will all be in a whole new world of trouble.
Manchester United is lacking pace and width
Buddy,
I agree. United put together a good ‘Fergie-esque performance and whopped Watford, and suddenly it’s ‘what are you whinging about?’ all over again.
Leading into the City game, and with the real Champions League to come, all that really sticks in my mind is the sight of United playing turgid nonsense to get a draw at Anfield. Living off the best keeper in the world, who will go back to Spain.
Yes we are well on the way to being the new Liverpool, and if we’re not careful will wake up after a couple of ‘anomalies’ and ‘seasons of building’ and realise we haven’t troubled the engravers at the EPL in a decade.
And once you get there in the modern environment there is just about no way back.
You end up as Liverpool are now, buying the second tier players and those looking to showcase themselves for the real deal teams as in Suarez to Barcelona.
I don’t agree that United are anywhere near there yet. United is still a brand that can attract the best.
There absolutely was a strange holding pattern feeling to United under Moyes, and he did inherit a team ready for a huge overhaul.
And recruitment under Van Gaal was all over the place. Players probably saw him as dead man walking. We got players such as Falcao and Di Maria who were simply adding to their CV’s.
United threw up the class of their youth system in the early ’90’s and that was the basis of their success under Ferguson.
But he also added the right players at the right time.
Some great teams came and went during Ferguson’s tenure, Wenger’s Arsenal at times, Chelsea had a couple of world class sides.
United always came back to the top of the pile because you can’t beat playing the game fast with width and Ferguson recruited or developed the best at doing that.
Mourinho recruited down the spine of the team, the thing that Ferguson always said had to be right before the rest can be. The first real sign that United are not a team that the very best players naturally look to is that Victor Lindelof is the best that could be found for the middle of a defence that was crying out for a Jaap Stam equivalent.
Personally I think Pogba is the type of ego that a team could be built around, and Lukaku is the type of striker who could end up with a record to match the best that United have had.
If he got the sort of service that Andy Cole, Dwight York, Ruud Van NIstelrooy etc got week in week out from Giggs, Beckham etc.
Manchester United is lacking pace and width
Sanchez would be a fantastic addition.
I don’t follow other European leagues very closely, Bayern based their game around the pace of Robben and Ribery, are there other wide players taking their place in Germany?
Accordiing to everyone United have unlimited funds, I’m not sure about that as a listed company but what the hell why not go for Sanchez and Bale?
Manchester United is lacking pace and width
gone for 3 games now apparently, that’s perfect with big games coming up
Manchester United is lacking pace and width
Ibrahimovic being back will change a lot of things as you say, but I agree wholeheartedly that Rashford and Martial are excellent as attackers, they don’t add enough naturally from the flanks for the real strikers in Lukaku and Ibrahimovic.
I’m not sure about the Rooney thing, they need a 10 definitely, a no. 10 and 2 flying wingers and things would be different.
Manchester United is lacking pace and width
I think Pep is a lot closer to his ideal team that Jose is at the moment.
I don’t think that you can diminish what Jose achieved in Portugal, the UCL does throw up some strange connotations, especially once the later rounds come at the pointy end of domestic seasons when teams are tiring / dealing with injuries.
Manchester United is lacking pace and width
maybe I’m biased about Bale, I just think he has a quality about him that doesn’t come along very often, the ability to do things at extreme speed and if there is one thing that no defence handles very well it is extreme pace.
I’d be interested who you think is a better option, and available
Manchester United is lacking pace and width
I like it,
his game plan is different to Pep’s at the moment….. because he needs width and pace!
As much as City’s strikers are making their season what it is, Raheem Stirling is carving it up…..
Manchester United is lacking pace and width
These are clubs playing a lot of games in a season, I’m not sure how many of those games he missed due to injury and how many he missed due to rotation
Manchester United is lacking pace and width
Once he was established at Spurs Bale went 4 seasons without major injury and until last season he was the same at Madrid.
Manchester United is lacking pace and width
They will definitely score with the players they have and the form they are in.
With Pogba back we stand a chance of equalling them in creativity through the middle.
I just think the best thing you can do against defenders like Kompany is to stretch the guys either side of him at pace and see what happens
Manchester United is lacking pace and width
I think Rashford especially will be a very very good wide attacking player, but I think both of them are still naturally attackers, whereas Giggs and Beckham and players of that ilk weren’t even really thinking about scoring, they were intent on getting to the byline and getting the ball into the middle for poachers like Van Nistelrooy, Yorke, Cole.
I don’t know if Mourinho wants so many 1-0 wins, he is different to Ferguson but he is not George Graham.
Manchester United is lacking pace and width
I was listening to a commentator talking about the hole De Belin has left in the Dragons, not just in games but in training.
Sharks with Graham in look completely different don’t they, even watching their warm ups he was running the show. I’d love to see them bash up some of these favoured sides now he’s back.
Wade Graham has arrived and the Sharks are now a genuine contender