Arsene Wenger and the Arsenal hierarchy are convinced they have landed a major coup by signing 26-year-old French striker Alexandre Lacazette from Lyon. Arsenal fans, who have repeatedly criticised the board for failing to invest large sums of money on new signings, should be delighted by the club’s willingness to break the club record transfer fee and complete a […]
Football
Summer signings key to avoiding the drop
Although Tony Pulis may argue otherwise, the current top half of the Premier League should all comfortably avoid a relegation battle next year. However, the same cannot be said of the seven teams from 11-17. If they fail to recruit astutely, any of these teams could find themselves facing a tough 2017-2018 season. In descending […]
Football sleepwalking towards a drugs scandal
The beautiful game is failing to confront the ugly spectre of doping. It emerged last week that no binding drug tests have taken place in Spanish football by anti-doping authorities for almost a year and yesterday the English FA was forced to handle doping misdemeanours in its own league. Manchester City was charged with failing to provide details of training sessions […]
Writing on the wall for Terry
A club stalwart such as John Terry must have had mixed emotions watching Chelsea in recent weeks. Antonio Conte’s side – for it is undeniably his side and not his captain’s now – had until their defeat against Tottenham, won 13 league matches in row. Only in one of these games was the veteran defender’s […]
The match they dare not lose
Manchester City face Arsenal on Sunday with both sides eager to prove a point after failing to keep up with runaway leaders Chelsea. Pep Guardiola has so far failed to live up to the admittedly sky-high expectations at the Etihad. The Citizens travel to Liverpool on New Year’s Eve, and pressure is mounting to make […]
English and Scottish FA’s poppy stance admirable…but wrong
In the run up to England’s win against Scotland last night, the major talking point was not the history of the tie, but Fifa’s refusal to allow either team to wear a poppy on their shirt or armband. Fifa reminded both nations that its regulations do not permit teams to wear “political, religious or commercial” messages on the […]