Cristiano Ronaldo will be the only show in town when the Premier League returns - or would be if TV companies could screen it.
Instead, BBC 5Live will have exclusive commentary on Ronaldo’s second coming when Manchester United face Newcastle on Saturday, September 11.
And, according to BBC Sounds controller Jonathan Wall, it has “potential to be the biggest football commentary opportunity ever” because it will not be shown on either Sky or BT Sport.
Neither TV company picked that game so, unusually for a United game at Old Trafford, it will be played at 3pm on a Saturday which meant that the BBC got first pick of that live game ahead of talkSPORT’s Game Day show.
talkSPORT get live commentary of the two TV games - Crystal Palace v Spurs and Chelsea v Aston Villa - and second pick of the 3pm games.
The BBC were originally planning to a live radio commentary from Leicester v Manchester City but switched when it was clear Ronaldo was going to sign - and have come up trumps because it is one of the biggest transfers of all time.
Former United boss Sir Alex Ferguson undoubtedly drove the emotional side of the Ronaldo transfer, talking to him and urging him to come back.
But Ed Woodward, the club’s executive vice-chairman, deserves huge credit for getting the actual deal done in incredibly quick time. It stole all the headlines in what was an incredible transfer window.
The club lost £150m in the pandemic but the sponsorship and commercial deals - sometimes criticised by fans for being more important than the football - allowed United to put together a mega deal at short notice.
Woodward also played a key role in the Raphael Varane and Jadon Sancho deals and the new set-up including John Murtough is working well.
United have been inundated with unprecedented media requests for the Newcastle game which shows Ronaldo’s global pulling power.
In the 24 hours after the announcement, the Instagram post became the most “liked” ever on social media as it is currently on 12.9m likes. It is also the most liked and retweeted post on Twitter while United gained 3.7m new followers across all channels.
Ronaldo to United is also the most talked about transfer ever on Twitter as it beat Lionel Messi to PSG by 700k mentions in the first 24 hours. The reaction and excitement has been off the scale. It also underlines United’s status as a global power house and arguably the biggest club in the world.
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Sean Dyche continues to do an incredible job at Burnley against all of the odds.
Dyche has built a team based on experienced Premier League players so it was noticeable that, after the club signed Maxwel Cornet from Lyon last week, the Burnley boss said it was chairman Alan Pace who drove the deal.
Burnley’s new owners want to go with younger players who have a sell-on value, the club has seen the departure of several staff members in the past few months and fans will be anxious Dyche does not go when his deal expires next summer.
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It was curious to see that Laura Woods is not presenting Sky’s Carabao Cup coverage just weeks after she signed a contract with rival broadcaster DAZN to present their boxing.
Woods is terrific and has been Sky’s golden girl but working for DAZN who beat Sky to the boxing rights caused raised eyebrows to say the least.
Sky are notorious for being unforgiving with staff. Woods is hugely popular with viewers but is on a freelance contract.
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The red list row over players being released for international duty rumbles on with no sign of a compromise in sight.
One idea which was put forward was St George’s Park being offered as a quarantine hotel to allow players to train while self isolating on return from red list countries. But it did not work as the players would be mixing “bubbles” with other clubs.
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Roberto Rosetti, the chairman of UEFA’s Referees’ Committee, believes the secret to VAR’s success during the Euros this summer was having all the video officials based at one central hub in Nyon, Switzerland.
Rosetti said: ““This meant that the whole of the VAR team were able to work together as a close-knit unit. Meeting, preparing, studying, holding debriefing sessions – our specialist instructors, Carlos Velasco Carballo and Vlado Sajn, provided outstanding support, and the outcome was uniform and consistent interventions throughout the tournament.
“We were very pleased at the quality and reliability of the video assistant referees at the EURO – all of their 18 corrections of decisions in the 51 matches were 100% right. But now the EURO is behind us, and we have to reset and look ahead – with the results at the EURO giving us the impetus to challenge ourselves every day and further improve our standards.”
