Rob Smyth's Blog, page 26
August 17, 2024
West Ham 1-2 Aston Villa: Premier League – as it happened
Amadou Onana scored on his debut for Villa, who took all three points thanks a superb winner from Jhon Durán
Here come the players. These players, to be precise.
West Ham (possible 4-2-3-1) Areola, Coufal, Kilman, Mavropanos, Emerson; Soucek, Rodriguez; Bowen, Kudus, Lucas Paqueta; Antonio.
Substitutes: Fabianski, Cresswell, Summerville, Ward-Prowse, Fullkrug, Ings, Todibo, Wan-Bissaka, Irving.
August 16, 2024
Premier League returns: team news and Manchester United v Fulham buildup – as it happened
Ipswich signed Kalvin Phillips and Sammie Szmodics, while Burnley’s Wilson Odobert moved to Tottenham
Krishnamoorthy isn’t quite as optimistic as ten Hag:
“Tonight’s game is the ONLY chance for United to top the table at least for 13 odd hours. Hope they do not blow it but oh we are talking about United who needs no opposition to disintegrate.”
Continue reading...Football Daily | Ready or not, Manchester United’s Premier League reboot starts now
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Are you ready for the new Premier League season? Because Manchester United aren’t! In a mature, realistic observation that has already been disingenuously twisted by shameless emoji-wielding wrong’uns, Erik ten Hag said his team may not come roaring out of the blocks when they play Fulham tonight. “We had the USA tour squad, then we added the players who did the Euros and Copa América, and now new signings,” he said. “Now we have to make a team from it. That team is not ready, but the league starts – and there are more managers to deal with this problem. We can’t run away from it, so we have to deal with it.”
This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.
Continue reading...Premier League returns: team news and Manchester United v Fulham buildup – live
Hello and welcome to this football live blog.
The Premier League is back!
Continue reading...August 13, 2024
Football Daily | Transfers, done and undone, are all we’ve got to offer for now
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Football Daily is feeling a bit green around the gills. It’s nothing to do with the eight cans of Pre-Season Optimism, our new favourite 9.2% Alcohol By Volume India Pale Ale, that disappeared last night. It’s because we’ve been instructed to watch this bleedin’ transfer merry-go-round for the last month and we’re starting to get a headache! That and the dehydration anyway. The merry-go-round will continue for another fortnight, but at least we’ll soon have some real football to distract us from the increasingly unnerving sight of a Sky Sports News panel discussing whether a player who hasn’t signed yet – and probably never will – has the ability to score 45 goals before the schools go back.
Great to see my grandfather popping up in the Football Daily recently with a snippet about his days as Kettering Town’s mascot (Friday’s Memory Lane, full email edition). Very much a self-appointed mascot too. Known to everyone as Tug, he spent more than a decade clad in a red friar’s habit, patrolling the touchline at Rockingham Road while clanking an old air-raid warden’s bell. Tug enjoyed unrestricted access to the home dressing room too, or so he decided, and even joined in goal celebrations. The brush with officialdom mentioned (yesterday’s Football Daily letters) was by no means his only clash with a referee – on another occasion the game was stopped to give him a talking to, as his dashes down the wing were confusing a linesman into raising his flag. Truly they don’t make them like that any more. Cheers” – Peter Wilson.
I’m puzzled as to why Yves Bissouma was recorded inhaling nitrous oxide (yesterday’s News, Bits and Bobs, full email edition). Surely two seasons watching the Spurs defence at close quarters would have produced sufficient side-splitting hilarity without needing to turn to artificial help” – Alan Giles.
This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.
Continue reading...August 11, 2024
Sheffield Wednesday 4-0 Plymouth Argyle: Championship – as it happened
Wayne Rooney had a difficult start as Plymouth manager at Hillsborough, where his team were thrashed by a very impressive Wednesday
9 min Wednesday are smothering Plymouth, with almost all of the play so far taking play in one half.
7 min “Rooney’s appointment in the summer was announced the same week as Kompany’s hiring by Bayern Munich, and both appointments were widely discussed as cases of ‘failing upward’,” says Phil Podolsky. “Which I suppose tells us that everything is relative. Personally speaking, I’d rather take a nice job in the West Country than having to answer to the kind of types who sit in the executive seats at the Allianz Arena. Whenever Bayern lose, the camera always zooms in on the facial reactions of former players who you’d rather admire from afar than have as your boss.”
Continue reading...August 9, 2024
Spain beat France 5-3 after extra time to win Olympic men’s football final – as it happened
Spain trailed 1-0, led 3-1, were pegged back to 3-3, but eventually prevailed 5-3 in a classic encounter
Follow the rest of day 14’s live action at the Olympics2 min “This had better be good,” fumes Charles Antaki. “The Spain women’s team were an absolute bust against a dismally defensive Germany, the thing settled by a successful penalty against a poorly taken and any case not particularly well-deserved one. So far then, Spain nil, entertainment nil. Time for Fermin Lopez and company to step up.”
1 min Sergio Gomez goes down holding his face after a hand-off from Sildillia. The crowd jeer heartily and eventually he gets to his feet.
Continue reading...Football Daily | Farewell Pepe, the man who would stop at nothing to keep a clean sheet
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Lee Carsley will don his janitor’s jacket and take caretaker control of England while the FA continues to throw names around the room as it tries to find a replacement for Gareth Southgate. Carsley will step up from his role as England U-21 manager for next month’s Nations League games against – wait for it – the Republic of Ireland, who he represented 40 times. He’ll also be in charge against Finland “with a view to remaining in the position throughout autumn while the FA’s recruitment process for a new permanent head coach continues”. Carsley added: “It’s an honour to lead this England squad on an interim basis. As I am very familiar with the players and the cycle of international football, it makes sense for me to guide the team while the FA continues the process to recruit a new manager. My main priority is to ensure continuity and our goal is to secure promotion in the Uefa Nations League.”
It’s golden – we are [Big Sports Day] winners! Hats off to what you have done with Checker in the last year and a half. I am so excited. Let yourself go and celebrate now” – Thomas Müller might not have won Big Cup this year, but he’s played a part in providing Germany with a gold medal thanks to his part-ownership of a 14-year-old grey gelding who can leap like no other.
Re: yesterday’s Memory Lane, full email edition. Thank you for restoring the !, !!, and !!! to the USWNT (USA! USA!! USA!!!). Getting their stripes back has been something richly deserved and grittily earned by America’s scuffling sweethearts; and generously recognised by Football Daily, the outlet where the heart of soccerball beats the loudest. Meanwhile continuing to withhold ! etc from the USMNT, pending better performances on a consistent basis in the – alas – infinitely receding future. From thousands of miles away in beautiful California the return of ! has been noted!! Thank you, Chelsea and British football in general, for preparing Emma Hayes so well to pull our flagship national team out of its unaccustomed drift and doldrums. In gratitude: UK! UK!!! UK!!!” – Anthony Pearsall [this was only because it was a reference to their ! !! !!! era. But come Saturday night, maybe again – Football Daily Ed].
There’s been a lot of talk about the quickest route from Arsenal to Fulham (Football Daily letters passim). Just don’t ask Alex Iwobi for his route, as his path from Arsenal to Fulham involved taking a long detour to Merseyside” – Dan Davis.
Hopefully Tim Ream’s transfer will not lead to a stream of Football Daily letters providing the best options for travel from Fulham the Charlotte” – Trevor Wastell.
Good to see the readership of the Daily are levelling up the north-south divide, or whatever, by spending a week discussing how to get from the cultural desert of north London to the city’s fiscally deprived west. I can tell you that the best way to get between the northern powerhouses of Leeds and Manchester the other night was, once again, a rattly minibus hastily put on a whole hour after the actual trains were all suddenly and unexpectedly cancelled. I suspect if that kept happening when you were all trying to get back to Brighton, it’d be front page news in Big Paper, not a frippery in a football newsletter” – Jon Millard (very well balanced, chips on both shoulders).
This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.
Continue reading...August 3, 2024
Hearts 0-0 Rangers: Scottish Premiership – as it happened
The Scottish Premiership season began with an entertaining goalless draw at Tynecastle
A reminder of the teams
Hearts (4-2-3-1) Clark; Taylor, Rowles, Kent, Penrice; Grant, Devlin; Dhanda, Shankland, McKay; Vargas.
Substitutes: Gordon, Kingsley, Halkett, Oyegoke, Oda, Spittal, Forrest, Boateng, Boyce.
August 2, 2024
France 1-0 Argentina: Olympic Games men’s football quarter-final – as it happened
Jean-Philippe Mateta’s early header settled a febrile game that ended with a 30-man dust up at the final whistle
France take an early lead!
4 min Olise morves elegantly down the right to win the first corner for France. From which…
Continue reading...Rob Smyth's Blog
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