SECOND LEVEL CHEER
For every TNT or Sky Sports cheerleader who wants you to believe that the Premier League is arguably the best league in the world, there are plenty of fans who insist it is not England’s best. While Football Daily has a solid stance on the second side, today is probably not the time to defend the Isthmian League Premier Division as the best of its kind in the world, despite the false justifications our local team play on. Admission to nearby home games only costs around a tenner, you can drink beer in the stands and no one cares who wins.
Far higher up football’s food chain, the Championship is once again proving to be a far more intriguing competition than the league it claims to be superior to, if not “better”, if only for its inherently stone-axed wild unpredictability. . After all, in what other league in the world can a team as seemingly ill-fated as Sheffield Wednesday go on a run of five wins in six games without moving up a single place in the table?
Following the Owls’ latest win against Plymouth Argyle last night, their manager Danny Röhl couldn’t have been more pleased. The German player, who denied his 34 years with a boyband haircut, said, “When you look now, for the first time we are not a few points behind the line, there is only a goal difference.” “So big, so big! “I get this win today and we go forward again.”
Although Wednesday remain second from bottom, the bottom half of the Championship is so tightly packed that neither relegation nor a late surge towards the play-offs can be completely ruled out. Although bottom club Rotherham’s relegation is now just a formality, there is only a four-point gap between the nine teams immediately above them. England’s second division is so unpredictable that long-suffering Sunderland fans dare not look down as their team sits in a relatively high 10th place despite suffering five consecutive defeats.
The Mackems’ latest defeat came at the hands of league leaders Leicester, who have Jamie Vardy to thank for stopping a worrying three-game losing streak. The Foxes are clear at the top of the table, where three of the top four places are teams relegated from the top division last season, as well as the relatively poor church mice of Ipswich, who come from League One. Ciaran McKenna’s Tractor Boys were almost guaranteed automatic promotion in another season with 78 points and just 10 games to go, but in this particularly crazy season, Championship security is their only available cast-iron guarantee.
LIVE ON MAJOR WEBSITE
Join Simon Burnton at 20:00 BST for hot updates on Manchester City 4-0 Copenhagen (7-1 aggregate) in the Big Cup last 16 second leg; Taha Hashim will be ready against Real Madrid 3-0 Leipzig (total: 4-0).
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Nobody said ‘no’ to being club captain, it was only for certain matches… but they didn’t want to say it themselves, other people came to me and made me say it. It was disappointing. A different generation, Generation Z. It’s petty and shows a lack of ambition” – Ole Gunnar Solskjær on the appeal of the Manchester United armband during his time at the club.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
And the most popular (some say the best of the best) of alluring fate charts is this one from Big Website. Germany will probably go and win now, won’t they… on penalties… against us” – Noble Francis.
Answer: Monday’s snow joke episode – oh how quickly people forget the USA USA USA v Costa Rica match from March 2013; The game, played at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in usually sunny Colorado, came to a near halt in the 56th minute. But to be honest, I’m not sure how much I value claims of advantage due to environmental circumstances. After all, announcements at Colorado Rapids games, for example, heavily emphasize the fact that the teams will be playing at altitude (about a mile above sea level). “Anyone who follows the Rapids knows that this advantage is rarely reflected in real results” – Sarah Rothwell.
If Nottingham Forest fans decide to leave the game at the City Ground early as a result of a dodgy referee decision, do you think the seats will be ‘Clattety, Clatt, Clatt, Clattety, Clatt’?” – John De la Cruz.
It is fascinating, and in many ways predictable, that under the new regime Manchester United will decide to shake things up radically by transferring their scattered recruiting efforts from the pitch to the boardroom, presumably with the expectation of the same delivery. Ashworth, Berrada, Freedman, who’s next? And how many of them will already be on gardening leave by the time you finish reading this sentence” – Jeremy Boyce.
Send a letter to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s winner of the non-prize letter of the day is… Jeremy Boyce.
WE RECOMMEND YOU LISTEN
Max Rushden and the pod team discuss Harry Kane doing what he does best to keep Bayern’s Major Cup hopes alive with a 3-0 home win against Lazio.
NEWS, TITS AND BOBS
Paul Gascoigne described himself as a “distressing drunk” and said he lived in his manager’s spare room while revealing the extent of his struggle with alcohol addiction on the High Performance podcast. “I don’t go out and drink, I drink indoors. If I want to turn this day into a bad day, [all I need to do is] go to the bar “If I want the day to be good, I take out my fishing rod and go fishing,” he said. Gascoigne also said he recently attended an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.
Arsenal were criticized for failing to stop a pro-Palestinian rally after Jewish fans said they were afraid to leave before their Women’s Super League match against Tottenham last Sunday.
Southampton’s Championship match against Preston was scheduled to kick off at 7.45pm UK time this evening. Postponed due to a massive fire in a building next to St Mary’s Stadium.
Lawyers for Australian and Chelsea striker Sam Kerr will seek to have a criminal charge of racially aggravated harassment dropped at a hearing in England in April.
Sheffield Wednesday will not be able to pursue their interest in defender Nico Schulz after a backlash from a fan group. The free agent appeared in court last month accused of assaulting his former partner on three separate occasions in 2020 and was ordered to donate more than £128,000 to five charities over a three-month period to stop the case.
Carlo Ancelotti had reason to raise an even higher eyebrow than usual after news emerged that a Spanish prosecutor was seeking a four-year and nine-month prison sentence for the Madrid boss accused of evading €1 million in taxes on image rights.
In other Madrid-related news, Jude Bellingham was handed a two-match ban for entering the referee’s grid approximately 0.0003 seconds before the official victory in the 2-2 draw with Valencia.
Kylian Mbappé netted with one of his two goals for PSG, who defeated Real Sociedad 2-1 and sent the famous European bottlers into the Grand Cup quarter-finals with a 4-1 aggregate score.
Sorry, Jordan Henderson probably has a few but leaving Liverpool isn’t one of them. “I think it’s the right time for me as a player, but also for them as a team,” he said, before saying he was “shocked” to hear Jurgen Klopp was leaving and wanted Anfield to have a “fairytale” ending. cute german.
And Liverpool were given a huge boost when Henderson’s old friend Mo Salah returned to the training ground for two weeks with hamstring strains.
ONE OF THE BODY OF AN OWNER
It’s approaching that time of year when some EFL clubs jet off to train in the warm weather for a fortnight with internationals, leaving fans in England cold and bored. Unless you’re a lucky Hull fan. As you can see, Tigers’ head coach Acun Ilıcalı wants to take 100 of his fans to his hometown, Turkey, so they can experience his “beautiful country” firsthand. “I’m so excited to welcome more City fans to my beautiful country, Turkey,” he exclaimed. “The support since we arrived in Hull has been incredible. I feel at ease whenever I’m around you and that’s why I want to thank you and give you the opportunity to experience my own country! Liam Rosenior and his players will be accompanied by fans on the flight to Antalya on Monday, March 18, where the temperature will be 20 degrees. Okay. How do we enter?
STILL WANT MORE?
Have you ever wondered which players exceed their personal xG in the Premier League? Ben McAleer from Who Scored has the answer.
No team at the top can win games with similar margins and consistency as Arsenal. Nick Ames assesses Arsenal’s resurgent title charge as their confidence grows.
Officials in Germany are preparing for Euro 2024 with a common approach, thanks to their world-famous efficiency. Right? Wrong, writes Jonathan Liew.
Which European cup-winning team managed to be relegated in the shortest time? Meet this week’s Knowledge.
Heavy snowfall has hindered MLS matches lately, but changing the schedule is a bad idea, writes Ryan Baldi.
WITH MEMORY STRIP
Sticking with the winter theme, we see the late Jimmy Greaves getting ready for a training session (or should that be a snowball fight) at White Hart Lane in 1966.
THE SUN SMELLS VERY GOOD