Now that all the transfer hullabaloo is over and Premier League clubs have broken the spending record for a January window again, Sky Sports News can finally return to what only itself considers to be normality, (or normalcy for our American readers).
With slightly less news now being available avid viewers will get the chance to hear reporters repeatedly reporting reports which have already been reported repeatedly or repeatedly reported.
This means that massive headline news, such as “Yeovil Town tea lady trips over pair of boots carelessly left lying around after Tuesday’s training session!” will now be aired every ten minutes instead of every fifteen. That’s now 144 times per day rather than 96! You lucky people, you!
Eric Bailly – Should be available in March
In actual “real” news José Mourinho expects Zlatan Ibrahimović and Eric Bailly to be back in contention by the end of the month.
Well, jolly dee for them, especially the Swede as it looks as though he is going to regain his fitness just in time to fly to Los Angeles.
He has been well worth the money this season!
Bailly, on the other hand, will be welcomed back with open arms so that United can attempt to make it through the season without their goalkeeper having to be the ‘Player of the Year’ yet again!
Mourinho has also started a “state the obvious” campaign by saying that his team will not catch Manchester City this season. Nice one José!
Over at The Etihad…..
Kevin De Bruyne – Looking for more protection from referees
And Kevin De Bruyne, along with Bernardo Silva, agree with their boss. No surprise there then! They think other teams are going over the top with some of their challenges on City players. They are right and it is very doubtful that it has anything to do with either Arséne Wenger or José Mourinho, whose comments that some City players “go down very easily”, would not produce the kind of reaction seen recently with Cardiff City and West Brom players.
As we have said before, if these offences are only deemed worthy of a yellow card, that means the referee hasn’t seen them properly, especially when admitting, after the match, that it should have been a red card. If the referee hasn’t fully seen the offence then, regardless of the yellow card, retrospective action should be taken.
The Manchester Evening News had quite an interesting take on these tackles whereby they feel that the punishment should fit the crime. In other words, if Leroy Sané for example, is out for seven or eight weeks, then Joe Bennett should be suspended for the same amount of time. It would be a difficult punishment to administer exactly but it may be worth a second look.
Down at The London Stadium…..
Mrs. Peschisolido – Has upset Leicester City with comments made about their chairman
In a slight deviation from our usual top six norm, West Ham are in a bit of a tizzy! Karren Brady has upset Leicester City or, more precisely, their chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and Tony Henry has upset everyone in Africa.
It is reported that West Ham’s failure to sign Islam Slimani from Leicester was entirely down to the club refusing to do any business with them because of Brady. Here’s the story, along with the Tony Henry comments as reported by Jacob Steinberg in The Guardian.
Henry, in e-mails and telephone conversations, apparently said that he didn’t want any African players bringing to the club because they have “a bad attitude” and they “cause mayhem when not in the squad”.
Whether true or not they are hardly the most racist comments ever likely to be heard. How many times have Germans been described as arrogant? How many times have the French been described as ignorant? We British are known as “Ros Bifs” to the French, is that racist? We think not but it isn’t for us to judge.
These are remarks which, to be fair, and as with many such lighter comments could actually be aimed at lots of people from many different backgrounds but, in truth, there are certain races who display particular traits more than others.
It is not necessarily being racist when all that is really happening is that the truth is being told about some people.
The bottom line is that we are quite happy to sit on the fence on this one.
Still in London and…..
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – Probably has flu so will probably miss Arsenal’s next game, probably
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is probably ill. Stubborn Old Man has admitted that Henrikh Mkhitaryan will probably make his home debut against Everton but will have to do so on his own as the man from Gabon probably has a fever.
He also admitted to something which everybody else in the world already knew and that was that he should have bought a defender during the transfer window.
In fairness, he did try, in exactly the same way as he tried to buy Thomas Lemar in the last window. He realised, on the last day, that forwards were not a priority and totally ignored Alan Pardew’s advice which had been to “not come knocking on our door on the last day of the window when we have no time to replace anyone” .
Still, that’s one of the many reasons Wenger is known as Stubborn Old Man.
And finally…..
Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur haven’t done anything newsworthy lately so we’ll leave it to Sky Sports News to bring you the latest on them.
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 