PREMIER LEAGUE 1-0 MANCHESTER CITY?
“I’m not moving, I can assure you,” husked Pep Guardiola in the social media drop announcing his contract extension until 2027. The clip focuses on Pep’s crow’s feet and coal-black eyes, each line possibly marking the efforts required to win the multiple trophies he has brought Manchester City. Still, in bringing the news City fans so craved, it was understated, low-budget even, in these times of people living their best lives on Insta-disgraces with the production values of Kevin Costner’s vehicle Waterworld.
Football Daily has seen higher budget gender reveal videos, greater expense shelled out on web adverts for growing your hair back and injecting lead into the pencil. (It’s not just us, right, who are getting these?) But why such parsimony? Perhaps the legal department had been in touch. City’s collection of m’learned friends, some of them on Kevin De Bruyne wages, it is said, were facing down a significant defeat in their battle to take down the football establishment. They needed enough votes to blow out the Premier League’s rewriting of the associated party transaction rules but, aside from Aston Villa, Newcastle and Nottingham Forest, found not enough takers.
Droned a Friday PL statement: “The purpose of the APT rules is to ensure clubs are not able to benefit from commercial deals or reductions in costs that are not at fair market value (FMV) by virtue of relationships with associated parties.” In other words, City’s ownership’s adjacency to a series of businesses in the UAE does not mean they can receive a blank cheque from companies that may or may not be owned by the relatives of their owner, Sheikh Mansour, a private individual according to City, but who happens to be the current vice-president and deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates and member of the ruling family of Abu Dhabi.
What does that mean for well, you know, actual football, the stuff you read this email for? Er, it probably means it may not be quite so easy for Pep and incoming sporting director Hugo Viana to buy every player on the market required to replace the ageing legs of De Bruyne, Kyle Walker, Bernardo Silva, John Stones and/or stand in for Rodri while he recovers from knee knack. City had previously lawyered up to overturn pesky measures of fair market value and smash the saboteurs in a case that may or may not be related to ongoing financial charges (is it 115 or is it 130?) the club’s legal team are also fighting and that the club deny.
For those Blues who now get their kicks from lawyerball rather than watching their team crush everyone in sight, this appears a significant blow. Though they did have that special night when they celebrated shareholder value being brought into the picture, a kick against the dastardly red cartel seeking to end their flying on a blue dream. Elsewhere, possibly relevant: City face Tottenham on Saturday, having lost their previous four.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Latte art is a little hobby of mine. I did a course where they taught you how to extract coffee and how to foam milk correctly. I bought my machine as a sort of treat to myself after promotion … It is a serious piece of kit. I use it most days. We have a barista here but if she is away, the lads are like: ‘Come on, Yatesy, give us a flat white’” – Nottingham Forest’s Ryan Yates discusses his coffee hobby, hotel spinach and why he wanted to sign his new contract in a snorkel in this superb interview with Ben Fisher.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
The English National Opera, which is decamping from London to Manchester, is promising projects bringing together opera and football. I see opportunities here for an entirely new, star-studded international operatic repertoire, featuring ‘Don Carlos Tevez’, ‘The Marriage of Figo’, ‘Thuramdot’ and, for local City fans, ‘Tosca Bobb’. And presumably there’ll be a penalty aria – Adrian Irving.
Re. this on the LDV Vans Auto Windscreen trophy (yesterday’s News, bits and bobs): ‘And the Bristol Street Motors Trophy is being rebranded – mid-competition, no less – to the Vertu Trophy. You’ll doubtless be reassured the EFL has provided a pronunciation guide: VUR-CHOO.’ Seems like typical Vurchoo-signalling to me – Mark Read.
Send letters to [email protected]. Today’s letter o’ the day winner is … Adrian Irving, who lands their very own piece of Football Weekly merch. Terms and conditions for our competitions can be viewed here.
RECOMMENDED SHOPPING
You can now get your very own copy of the latest David Squires cartoon. And Big Website’s football bookshop has the latest release from David himself, along with those from Miguel Delaney, Nick Miller and Jeff Stelling.
AMORIM SETS SIGHTS ON 2027-28 GLORY
In the white-hot environment of Manchester United’s training ground press conference, Ruben Amorim was unleashed to the lions of His Majesty’s press corps and … escaped pretty unscathed, actually. Smouldering handsomely in the weak Cheshire sun, Rubes, his beard as yet ungreyed by the task in hand, delivered his mission statement. Sidestepping the usual “special one” guff that became standard for any Portuguese manager in 2004, he opted for the following self-appraisal, a mix of self-assurance and realism.
“I truly believe I am the right guy in the right moment, I could be wrong but the world still will turn, the sun will rise again, I don’t worry about that,” cooed Rubes. “I truly believe I’m the right guy for this job.”
He set sail for an assault on the Premier League title … in a few years. “I understand that we will need more than two and a half years, we will have to win something somewhere, but in two years you can understand if you want to continue in this path or you change. We will see how long it will be.” Be still the beating hearts of Top Reds the world over: Ruben’s at the wheel, Manchester United are back, man.
NEWS, BITS AND BOBS
Tottenham have not fined Rodrigo Bentancur for using a racial slur against teammate Son Heung-min despite their midfielder being found guilty of “aggravated misconduct” by the Football Association.
Arsenal’s Ben White is set to be out for “months” after surgery on a knee injury. “We decided to do surgery, he agreed with that and that’s going to keep him out for a few months,” sobbed Mikel Arteta. “We have to see how he reacts post-surgery, I don’t expect it to be half a year but I can’t say exactly how long it will be.”
The men’s Nations League quarter-finals draw has been made: Spain face the Netherlands in a replay of the 2010 World Cup final, France play Croatia in a repeat of the 2018 World Cup final, Germany take on Italy in a repeat of the 2006 World Cup semi-final, and Portugal are up against Denmark.
Uefa has launched an investigation after Khadija Shaw was struck by an object thrown from the stands during Manchester’s City’s 2-1 Champions League victory at Hammarby on Thursday.
Sean Dyche is hopeful Armando Broja is close to his Everton debut after an achilles injury.
STILL WANT MORE?
Sport may be a blunt tool of social change, but it’s time to take a stand against Israel, writes Jonathan Liew.
Megan Swanick previews the NWSL final, a showpiece featuring that rarest of things: the two best teams in the league.
Matthew Hall writes that a Saudi wealth fund’s expansion into North American football is raising questions.
Manchester United are out for WSL revenge on Saturday after their painful 6-0 mauling by Chelsea last season, writes Tom Garry.
Pay your £2, scrabble around desperately for a pen, nip to the bar, and come up with a dreadful team name based loosely on a pun around current events … it’s time for the quiz of the week!
Ten things! To look out for! In the Premier League? This weekend!
MEMORY LANE
On this day in 2008, John Terry quietly suggests to the assistant referee that the ball may just have crossed the line during Chelsea’s Premier League game against Newcastle at Stamford Bridge, while Shay Given looks studiously innocent. No goal was given and the eventual 0-0 draw didn’t impress Chelsea manger Luiz Felipe Scolari – “Who won today? Newcastle because they came here to draw with us” – but was enough to persuade Newcastle to keep on interim manager Joe Kinnear until the end of the season. Kinnear’s health, though, deteriorated post-Christmas and after some managerial musical chairs – Chris Hughton taking over, then Alan Shearer for the final games of the season – Newcastle were relegated.
