THE REAL QUIZ
The countdown is on. Not the Third World War, or the appearance of a former author of this email at teatime on Strictly Christmas, or even Rúben Amorim’s first match as Manchester United manager. No, the countdown has been started to inform us that at the time of writing this article, planet Earth is precisely at 23 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds and 0 reason of the first press conference before Amorim’s match as Manchester United manager.
There has been a lot of hype around new managers before, particularly when José Mourinho visited west London in 2004, told everyone he was special and gave a generous warning to the hackers gathered by informing them that Chelsea would win the Premier League title at Bolton. on April 30, 2005. Amorim is surely the hottest newcomer since Pep Guardiola arrived in 2016 to wage war on stereotypes about water, wind, night and Stoke-on-Trent. But there is a difference. In 2016, typing “When will Pep Guardiola’s first press conference at Manchester City take place?” in Google would have produced nada. Nothing. Eff everything. Try Amorim’s equivalent and your computer will turn into a 180°C oven in seconds.
On a purely footballing level, Amorim’s arrival is very exciting indeed, especially as it is coupled with Guardiola’s decision to extend his contract with Manchester City, an announcement which had a fairly clear subject: “You Do you feel special, punk?” But the amount of content surrounding his arrival makes us long for the days of blissful ignorance and Elton Welsby presenting The Match on ITV about 30 seconds before kick-off. At the time, it was gaming that predominated. Today, he fights for primacy in the face of the incessant news cycle. You don’t believe us? See if you can guess how many of these recent titles we came up with:
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‘Ruben Amorim’s grandfather’s coach at Man Utd can’t say two sentences in English’
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“Man Utd fans left ‘jaded’ as Rúben Amorim predicted to ruin his career”.
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“Five things we learned from Rúben Amorim’s first training session”.
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“Rúben Amorim has ‘his own whistle’ when he calls Antony”.
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“Marcus Rashford gives three-word verdict on Rúben Amorim’s first Man Utd training session”.
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“Casemiro gives two-word verdict on Rúben Amorim’s first Man Utd training session”.
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‘Rúben Amorim’ to make exciting Man Utd request ‘ahead of Ipswich debut – EXCLUSIVE’.
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“Supercomputer reveals how tough Rúben Amorim’s first five games are at Man United – and how they compare to their Premier League rivals”.
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“Supercomputer predicts Rúben Amorim’s Spotify 2024 Wrapped playlist”.
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“Five things we learned from Rúben Amorim’s choice of coaches for this first training session.”
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“What Rúben Amorim’s 3-4-2-1 Formation Reveals About His Favorite Lovemaking Technique”.
None. These are all real headlines. OK, the last three are not realbut that’s the direction of travel and we give it three more permanent United executives before they show up on Google. This desperate search for information, clicks, exclusives, clicks, shots, clicks, clicks and clickityclickclickclicks is the symbol of a culture in which football itself sometimes feels like an annoying interruption . This has meaning far beyond the weary irritation of an emailer who just wants to go back to 2004 and hear Franz Ferdinand’s album for the first time. Amorim will face a level of scrutiny – and, sometimes, a level of infantile questioning – that would break 99% of managers. How he handles this will permeate what still matters most, pretty much: association football. It all starts on Friday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 4:30 p.m.
LIVE ON A MAJOR WEBSITE
Join Sarah Rendell from 8pm GMT for minute-by-minute coverage of Arsenal 2-0 Juventus in the Women’s Grand Cup.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Some managers say they can’t do without football, but I’ve never been like that. I think there’s more to life” – George Burley talks to Nick Ames about his cancer diagnosis, which propelled Ipswich to great heights, and their resurgence 20 years later.
DAILY FOOTBALL LETTERS
Let’s not give to Wales Also lots of credit (yesterday’s Football Daily); after all, they only beat Iceland. Surely any half-decent team could make easy work of it advancing in an international tournament… oh” – Chad Thomas.
BC.Game, Leicester City’s shirt sponsor, has reportedly been declared bankrupt, which could prompt some questions from the board about what kind of due diligence they have done and how it could affect their PSR already very slim in the entirely improbable event that they were not paid. at the front. After all, this was a crypto-casino from Curacao whose TwiXer social media post announcing their sponsorship attracted 2.2 billion views, making it one of the most viewed of all time. Given that they’ll probably now be looking for a new sponsor, perhaps the team will soon find themselves adorned with John Terry’s monkey pictures” – James Blanchard.
Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s Letter of the Day winner is…James Blanchard, who lands his own Football Weekly product. The terms and conditions of our competitions can be viewed here.
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
The Football Weekly Extra podcast is here, here, here.
RECOMMENDED PURCHASES
You can now get your own copy of David Squires’ latest cartoon. And Big Website’s Football Bookstore has the latest from David himself, as well as those from Miguel Delaney, Nick Miller and Jeff Stelling.
A LITTLE POLITICS
That the late former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott was a sportsman was evident in the famous left hook he threw at a protester in 2001; Prescott had won boxing prizes while a merchant seaman, his prizes awarded by former Conservative Prime Minister Anthony Eden. A proud rugby league fan and manager of Hull KR, part of Prescott’s persona was that of the Northern man at a sportsman’s dinner. He turned out for the House of Commons football team and was loyal to Hull City, which experienced great turmoil before later achieving success during his 40 years as a local MP, including near extinction, then moving on to KC Stadium and premier league football. for the first time. Warm tributes were paid by the club, although Prescott had been a public supporter of the former owner’s attempts to rename the club Hull Tigers. Politicians and football are a heady mix, Prescott provides proof. At Brighton he is fondly remembered for his interventions enabling the construction of the club’s new stadium at Falmer. Elsewhere, while campaigning against Scotland’s independence vote in 2014, he proposed a joint England-Scotland team to a Glasgow audience, receiving predictable blows as a result.
NEWS, BITS AND BOBS
Lebanese youth international Céline Haidar remains in an induced coma, four days after being hit by shrapnel during an Israeli airstrike.
Real Madrid striker Vinícius Júnior has spoken about his fight against racism, describing it as an ongoing battle that he is happy to lead, but warning that he alone “cannot fight against everything that black people suffer”.
Kosovo prepares appeal to CAS after UEFA handed them 3-0 defeat for dropping out of Nations League match against Romania in Bucharest, which was abandoned when they opted not to return . The visitors left the field in stoppage time after hearing chants of “Serbia” from the home fans.
Chelsea are through to the Round of 16 of the Women’s Big Cup with two games remaining after beating Celtic 3-0 for an 11th victory on the rotation.
Unlucky Reece James is back on the Chelsea sidelines after straining his hamstring again.
It was Also quiet at West Ham recently, so with Julen Lopetegui facing two crucial games to save his job, the club have been exploring potential replacements during the international break. Edin Terzic, Kasper Hjulmand, Roger Schmidt and Sebastian Hoeness are four names on their list.
The new England team led by Thomas Tuchel has taken a strange turn with the addition of Chelsea goalkeeping coach Henrique Hilário.
Ipswich Town are leveraging the fame of their minority owner and sponsor to facilitate transfer activity, according to trial leader Mark Ashton. “This summer we were trying to persuade one player in particular to join the club and we quickly realized he was an Ed Sheeran fan,” he coos. “Ed did a Zoom call with him at the training ground just before he went on stage with Taylor Swift, I hope that was a key part in getting the player over the line.”
Juan Mata is the first active player to partner with a USA USA soccer franchise. “Joining San Diego FC as a partner is an exciting opportunity to help build something truly special in a city and league that is experiencing incredible growth,” he said.
And the Sherpa Van Bristol Street Motors Trophy is being renamed – mid-competition, no less – the Freight Rover Vertu Trophy. You will no doubt be reassured, the EFL has provided a pronunciation guide: “VUR-CHOO”.
DO YOU STILL WANT MORE?
Who should be the next Match of the Day host? Max Rushden gives us some thoughts on the sixth favorite of 2015.
New tests await Pep Guardiola after his new contract, writes Jamie Jackson.
Ahead of his first match against Manchester United, people who know Rúben Amorim well explain to Will Unwin how he got there.
David Squires on… uniting the world, one fiery round of the A-League at a time.
And I remember the moment Arsenal’s title hopes flickered when in-form Forest came to town; Steven Pye dusts off some memories from 1989.
MEMORY TRACK
It’s not quite the dust that has engulfed London in recent days, it’s the snowy soccer scene in downtown Nuuk, Greenland, 22 years ago, as tougher souls and more resistance fighters that we are getting into their game.