“Greetings to you and the MBM footer team,” emails Ian Copestake. “You have been much missed! Your description of how Torreira is viewed reminds me of how Henderson used to be viewed by our lot before becoming a captaining legend!”
Greetings to you all. Henderson probably gives a bit more energy, and we should remember that he started life playing right-midfield, so creativity was part of his job-description. Which is a long-winded way of saying that no, I didn’t not expect him to hoist big ears and 90s nightmares in successive seasons.
More Ryan Fraser reflection:
We see another clip of the Rashford interview I mentioned earlier. He says that because of the break, he’s been able to get fit at his own pace without feeling the need to rush back. He must also be on the most monumental buzz – I do not envy Serge Aurier’s Friday night.
Back on Sky, Matthew Upson is rhapsodising Billy Gilmour. I can’t wait to see him play again, and wonder if he’s ready to start on a regular. Chelsea’s midfield needs something, and he might just be it.
How well do you know yourself? Find out with our quiz on the Premier League season so far.
Newcastle are home to Sheffield United on Sunday. It’s odd to think that Steve Bruce could and probably will keep them up with plenty to spare, but might still lose his job in the summer. It’s not necessarily the worst approach – consider what Southampton did with Nigel Adkins and Maurcio Pochettino – but explains why players and managers make the decisions that are best for them. Football is a brutal business.
In short: what an absolute mess. Football has been let down by so many politicians, owners and governing bodies.
Our Louise Taylor emails in a Newcastle update: “Yet another twist in Newcastle United’s seemingly interminable takeover saga has seen Henry Mauriss, an American ‘TV mogul’ register a formal offer to buy the club from Mike Ashley for £350m.
That’s, rather strangely, £50m more than the price the current consortium – Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, supported by Reuben Brothers and Amanda Staveley – have agreed with Newcastle’s current owner.
With Ashley having already exchanged contracts with the largely Saudi funded consortium and received a non-refundable £17m deposit, the only way Mauriss’s bid could possibly succeed is if the Premier League do not approve the deal they have been considering for the best part of three months.
Should the Saudi led proposal fail the League’s owners’ and directors’ test, Mauriss – the chief executive of ClearTV who is understood to believe he could take control of Newcastle as early as September – would be free to finalise a fresh agreement with the sports retail tycoon.
The Saudi buy out has been shrouded in controversy, prompting objections from human rights groups and concerns about television broadcast piracy. On Tuesday/yesterday a World Trade Organisation report found damning between Saudi Arabia and such piracy, although there was no specific reference to Newcastle or Pif.”
My guess is that Arsenal will look to get at City down the left, with Bukayo Saka driving at Kyle Walker so that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang can run off him towards goal. But the effort it takes to establish that position, never mind execute from it, is immense, and if Leroy Sané is back, keeping the width on the opposite side, the play will be very stretched. I don’t see Arsenal coping with that.
I fear for Arsenal tonight. A fully-focused, full-strength Manchester City are – in my opinion – probably best side in the world, and it’s hard to see how Arsenal can cope with that. City’s defence is still rinsable, but keeping them out and getting the ball is a different matter.
I’m now watching yet another interview with Marcus Rashford, who is explaining the knock-on effect of doing without meals – how lives can spiral out of control, and how he didn’t know the extent of the problem until recently. That first point is a really important one, I think. It’s not just hungry kids, which is bad enough, but hungry kids feeling rejected, cranky in school, and consequently unable to lift themselves up. And consider for a moment the toll hungry kids takes on a marriage, or a family, or on the mental health of the individuals involved.
Sad news from elsewhere.
Matthew Upson and Nigel Reo-Coker are on telly saying that black players need white players to support them and, they’ll be relieved to know that I agree. Players also need the support of their clubs and countries – how powerful would it be if, the next time a newspaper attacks by dogwhistle, their reporters were banned from matches?
Xhaka is supposedly injured tonight. If so, that’s a big chance for Lucas Torreira, who offers much better protection to the back four but needs ti get better at passing the ball forwards, quickly.
Something about which I’m also wondering: what is Jack Grealish? He seems to have spent most of this season playing off the left – is that because he’s a defensive liability in midfield, or because Smith wants to reduce his defensive responsibility so he can just create?
Basically, I’m saying that this is a great game with which to get underway.
I’m interested to see what Dean Smith does tonight. He’s a keen tactician, and against Sheffield United tactics are necessary because no other team plays as they do. He’s also had the best part of three months to plan, on which point I wonder what Chris Wilder has refined in that time.
So Villa-Sheffield United, then. On the one hand, you’d think the proximity of games and ability to use five subs helps the richer clubs, who have greater squad-depth. But then you think about Sheffield United, who tend to use the same players in nearly every game, and how helpful to them the rest might have been. Their run-in is far from daunting, and if they can grab momentum tonight, they’ve got a decent chance of making the Europa League, at least.
“People realise, this is the time racism should stop,” he says. He goes on to say that it’s time to act not time to talk, and is encouraged by what the Premier League is doing. He reflects on his time living under apartheid, and how amazing it is that he got from South Africa to Leeds, and what it meant to represent his people.
Lucas Radebe is on Sky talking about racism. What a man he is.
Back to Villa, did you know that they once played a game behind closed doors, as European champions?
“Couple of points from me,” begins James Crane.
“1. Marcus Rashford (insert as many heart emojis as you see fit, but 1.3 million feels apt).
2. Now that pre-match handshakes have been binned (not before time), what chance we can go back to starting games with the glorious and proper tradition of a captain charging out the tunnel at full pelt and jumping to head an invisible ball?”
I was a big fan of the teams jogging out together, then peeling off to their end, shoulder inclined. I would happily support any move to restore that.
I guess it’s understandable in a way that Fraser doesn’t want to jeopardise any future move by getting injured, but it’s also surprising in a way that, as a player, he doesn’t want to play and do his best for his team-mates, who are in a relegation ruckus.
Presumably that means Fraser won’t play for Bournemouth again now. That’s a huge blow for the club, who could very much do with his energy and creativity.
Allow me to interrupt myself: Ryan Fraser hasn’t signed a short-term extension to his Bournemouth contract, so can’t play for them after 30 June. Simon Francis, Andrew Surman, Artur Boruc and Charlie Daniel have all signed on until the end of the season.
Tonight’s fixtures, then. I wonder if Dean Smith will chuck McGinn in. He spoke earlier this week about the need to be careful, but Villa desperately need points and it’s hard to imagine any player, never mind a player like McGinn, being happy to sit at the side despite being fully fit.
We’ve all been there.
And what happened yesterday?! I still can’t wrap my cerebrum around it however many times I reiterate what happened, but Marcus Rashford of Manchester United and England called out the government for allowing children to go hungry, and the government knocked him back then did what he said! In the history of English football, I can’t think of any achievement to compare with that.
So here it is, merry this league, everybody’s having no fun. Look to the future now, Villa 0 Sheff United 1.
This is a great day. Football helps us feel good, brings momentum, identity and love to our lives – my days we need that now – and provides employment to lots of people relying on clubs to survive. So, though it’s easy to be cynical about a league that, ultimately is restarting because rich people and corporations can’t afford for it not to, this is a rare occasion where what benefits them also benefits us.
Let’s be having you!