Jonathan Liew's Blog, page 62

Aramco cricket deal again proves sport will ignore reality for revenue | Jonathan Liew

The oil giant’s place in cricket’s landscape shows once more the Saudi regime’s art of blending into the sporting canvas

Three years ago, Aramco, the oil giant predominantly owned by the Saudi royal family, underwent a subtle rebrand. And subtle is the operative word here: the company’s distinctive logo, a white star on a blue and green background, remained in place. But somehow the blue was rendered just a little bluer, the green just a little greener, the typeface softened into grey lowercase, the word “Saudi” and the Arabic script above it quietly removed.

This was the logo upon which Sam Curran stood as he prepared to bowl for England against Pakistan in their final Twenty20 World Cup warm-up on Monday, a little heap of sawdust at his feet. At the boundary’s edge, a band of Aramco billboards – blue as blue as the sky, green as green as life – flickered into the Brisbane night. Curran examined the ball in his hands, launched into his hop-skip approach and fixed his gaze on a set of Aramco-branded stumps about 40 yards away.

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Iker Casillas and the tweet that helps maintain a silence in men’s football | Jonathan Liew

A post from Spaniard’s account about coming out led to ‘a stupid joke’ and vitriol but what hidden damage was done?

It was just a joke when Brian Clough said it, too. Very little footage of the short-lived mid‑1990s ITV panel show Sport In Question has survived to the present day. But there is one widely shared clip in which Clough, then a couple of years out of management, is asked by an audience member whether he feels responsible for transfer fee inflation. “I feel responsible for Justin Fashanu!” retorts Clough, with a wicked glint in his eye, as the audience crackles with laughter. “It took me about three months to twig him. But I twigged him.”

Yes: just a little gag on primetime television about a footballer being gay, without the faintest hint of distaste or pushback. At least two decades later, in 2014, when Terry Venables chuckled that he and Clough had looked like a “pair of woofters” when they walked out hand in hand before the 1991 FA Cup final – just a joke, of course – the Sky Sports presenter Ben Shephard had the presence of mind to issue an instant apology. And it was just a joke when Ian Wright went on the radio just before the 2018 World Cup and responded to a comment about Russia’s institutionalised hostility to gay people by quipping: “I won’t wear a dress, then.” Wright expressed regret for his “ill-judged remark” after being reminded of his responsibilities by the BBC.

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Euro 2024 qualifiers: England given Italy rematch, Ireland face daunting group

Ukraine, North Macedonia and Malta also in with England Ireland up against three former winners; Scotland to play Spain

The draw for the Euro 2024 qualifiers has thrown up a repeat of the 2020 final, with Italy facing England in Group C. There were gasps at the Festhalle in Frankfurt as the former Germany striker Karl-Heinz Riedle pulled England’s name out of the second pot of seeds. On paper, it is England’s toughest qualifying group in more than two decades, with Ukraine and North Macedonia also contesting the two available places at the finals in Germany. Malta complete the five-team group.

In part England have been penalised for their shocking performances in the most recent Nations League, which saw them relegated to League B and meant they were absent from the top pot of seeds for the first time since the 2010 World Cup. The double-header against the defending champions represents their first time they have been drawn against one of the giants of European football in qualifying since facing Germany ahead of the 2002 World Cup.

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On-song Xhaka banishes discord to become symbol of Arsenal’s progress | Jonathan Liew

Once mocked, the former captain now reminds the Premier League leaders’ supporters of how far they have come

A couple of months ago, Granit Xhaka was warming up at the Vitality Stadium before Arsenal’s game against Bournemouth when he noticed that the travelling fans were serenading Oleksandr Zinchenko, one of the club’s summer signings. (“Zin-chen-ko! Always believe in your soul!”). Xhaka sidled up to his new colleague. “Alex,” he joked. “I’ve been here for six years and I don’t have a song. You’ve been here for three weeks.”

And somehow you just know how Xhaka would have said it, too: with that unique Xhaka-esque blend of blitheness and hurt, insecurity and defiance, the throwaway comment that actually comes from the most tender of places. Every player knows their songs. Every player knows when they don’t have one. And while some players don’t care, Xhaka has never been very good at disguising how much he cares about things.

Take his extraordinary outburst after the 2-0 defeat at St James’ Park at the end of last season: a scathing rebuke to his teammates delivered not in the intimacy of the dressing room or on an access-all-areas documentary, but on live television, straight down the camera. “If someone isn’t ready for this game, stay at home,” he spat in disgust. “If you’re nervous, stay on the bench, don’t come here. We need people to have the balls to come here and play.”

For much of his Arsenal career, Xhaka’s no-filter approach won him as many adversaries as admirers. The passion was never the problem; rather it was the lack of self-control, the red cards, the simple errors, that time he told the fans to “fuck off” after getting substituted against Crystal Palace. As Arsenal floundered on the pitch, Xhaka somehow came to embody everything that was holding them back: all mouth and no assists, a thermostat set permanently to “heatwave”.

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Celtic left with mountain to climb after André Silva’s rapid double for Leipzig

The pride and optimism that filled Celtic before their Champions League campaign this season is quickly giving way to a harsher, colder reality.

Defeat here leaves them with one point from three games, and means they will probably have to get something away at Real Madrid to qualify from Group F. Which is not impossible, of course. But with every step they are learning some stern lessons and this time it was the turn of a skittish but improving Leipzig side to dish them out.

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Spurs and Antonio Conte frustrated in Champions League Frankfurt draw

Ed Sheeran played this stadium a couple of weeks ago, and so at least this was not the first time Deutsche Bank Park had been treated to an insipid mid-tempo performance that some people bafflingly insist is the work of a generational genius.

This was not the best of Tottenham, and frankly nor is it the best of Antonio Conte. The fundamentals were sound, the defence just about held tight and this was at least a major improvement on their derby collapse on Saturday.

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Scrapping promotion and relegation in Super League betrays a lack of ambition | Jonathan Liew

IMG’s proposals are an admission the sport’s biggest clubs are too fragile and insecure to be left to winds of sporting chance

The hooter sounds and Blake Ferguson sinks to his knees and in that moment everything seems to dissolve a little. The exhausted Leigh Centurions players collapse into each other’s arms; fans cling to each other in the stands; the shy and retiring Leigh owner, Derek Beaumont, reluctantly steps on to the pitch, looking genuinely dismayed that the television cameras seem to be homing in on his leopard-print shirt and extravagant dance moves.

Still, everyone can be excused a little exuberance. For once more Leigh are back in Super League.

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Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend’s action

Erik ten Hag’s derby selection backfires while Mikel Arteta appears to be building something special at Arsenal

Erik ten Hag is nothing if not a Serious Football Man, but there was an element of comedy about Manchester United’s unravelling at the Etihad. It was there in the comment from Ten Hag that Cristiano Ronaldo did not appear “out of respect for his big career”. That may or may not be a brilliant caustic joke. More significantly it was there on Casemiro’s face as he came on with the game already dead, having worked his way through five Champions League medals only to discover that, in fact, he’s not as good as Scott McTominay. So, some useful information there for the Brazilian. Ten Hag is the latest United manager caught between ill-fitting celebrity signings and coherent team building. A 37-year-old celebrity black hole was never likely to be a Ten Hag kind of guy. But not starting Casemiro, a midfielder who has been the best in the world in his role, made very little sense. Barney Ronay

Match report: Manchester City 6 -3 Manchester United

Match report: Leeds 0-0 Aston Villa

Match report: Arsenal 3-1 Tottenham

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Arteta leads joyful Arsenal resurgence in contrast to Conte’s pragmatism | Jonathan Liew

Win or lose the Gunners are enjoying themselves and it showed again as they gave their coach a win to savour over Tottenham

In the 90th minute, Mikel Arteta finally had to start enjoying himself. Hard work, sacrifice, suffering: most of the time, these are the foundation stones of the Arteta method. You work, you fight, you suffer, and if you’re lucky you get to do it all again in five days. Even in the closing stages here, as Arsenal gleefully toyed with Tottenham and the Emirates lapsed into calypso mode, Arteta had lost none of his skittish focus: still urging his team forward, still whirling his arms round and round like a damaged toy.

But as Kieran Tierney let fly from distance, almost scoring a spectacular fourth at the death, something in Arteta finally broke. As he turned to his bench, he melted into a broad, shimmering smile. It was the moment he realised – possibly the last man in the stadium to do so – that after 13 long days of waiting and worrying, of running through the permutations of this game over and over again in his mind, everything was going to be fine.

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Manchester derby overshadows other clubs in region’s football tapestry | Jonathan Liew

City and United grab the attention but Bury and Macclesfield have gone under although Stockport are thinking big

Greater Manchester on derby day feels like a place on the cusp of a great awakening. All morning the trains pull into Piccadilly and Oxford Road, spitting their cargo on to the streets. The pubs begin to swell and heave. Everyone seems to have somewhere to be, even the people who don’t. And then the great gathering flood: a wave of red and blue washing through the city, powered along by songs, San Miguel and a skittish nervous energy, picking a careful detour around the half-and-half scarf sellers. For a few restless hours, this city feels like the very centre of the footballing universe.

And by many measures, of course, it is. Come 2pm on Sunday the gaze of the world will be fixed on the latest instalment in the City/United rivalry. No other city in the world – not Milan, not Madrid, not London – can boast two clubs of this size or wealth. The conversation will flow in a dozen languages. The sweeping curves and coiled towers of the Etihad Stadium will be beamed into almost every country on Earth.

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