TIED UP IN NOTTS
It’s been a long time since an occasionally belligerent, labrador-walking football coach renowned for his straight talking and quick temper oversaw training at Nottingham Forest. While the club is unlikely to ever re-scale the preposterous heights scaled under Brian Clough, they have taken what they will hope is a step in the right direction by welcoming Roy Keane back to the City Ground. A Forest legend who once declared “my heart is in this club” six months before his inevitable departure for pastures more lucrative and successful, Keane has agreed to become the club’s assistant manager, resuming his gig as Even Worse Cop to Martin O’Neill’s Bad Cop in a reprise of the roles the duo performed for the Republic O’Ireland with varying degrees of success (and more latterly abject failure).
Unlike most assistant managers, who tend to be appointed with a minimum of fuss and fanfare, Keane’s return is a major talking point, not least due to his O’Ireland time with O’Neill. Previously a manager with Sunderland and Ipswich Town but content for now as an assistant, Keane is renowned for generating conflicting emotions in – and conflict with – his charges. One suspects his decision to take the role will be the source of considerable dressing-room trepidation. “Basically, you’re $hit,” he once told his bemused players at Sunderland before a game at Aston Villa. “Try and enjoy the game. You’re probably going to get beat. But just enjoy being $hit.” And to be fair, while this stirring rhetoric would prove sufficiently inspirational to help his team earn a draw at the time, his assessment would ultimately prove correct. Clough and Taylor 2.0 or a Stan & Ollie reboot? Either way, Forest fans are almost certainly guaranteed entertainment.
Whether or not it will be of the car-crash variety endured by fans of neighbours Notts County remains to be seen. Adrift at the bottom of League Two, eight points off safety and looking likely to lose their status as the oldest club in the Football League after 156 years, Notts County have endured a torrid time of it in recent years, not least in the two years since they were bought by “Big Alan” Hardy. Criticised in Big Sunday Paper for misadventures on social media, including the goading of a local newspaper editor, assorted fans of his own club and more successful Midlands rivals, Big Alan responded by inadvertently posting a picture of “Little Alan” on Social Media Disgrace Twitter while attempting to pick yet another row. He has since announced he is selling the club.
“After considerable soul-searching, I no longer feel I can continue as the owner of Notts County Football Club,” he said in a statement. “I would like to make it clear from the outset that the club’s current league position is not a factor in this decision, nor are any of the events which have unfolded in the media this weekend.” The man who declared promotion a “dead cert” before the season now wants out, following an extraordinary two-year masterclass in how Notts to run a football club.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I’m glad that [Gonzalo] Higuaín has gone. I hope we’ll never see him again in Milan because he really behaved in an unworthy manner. I don’t like mercenaries in politics or football” – Italy’s interior minister, Matteo Salvini, who has threatened to sue captains of boats who rescue migrants, has a pop at a footballer’s morality.
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NEWS, BITS AND BOBS
Neil Warnock has admitted that walking away from management has crossed his mind every day since Emiliano Sala’s plane disappeared. “[It’s been] the most difficult week in my career by an absolute mile,” he said.
Chelsea are set to hear from Fifa whether they will be banned from making transfers after being investigated over potential rule breaches with regard to more than 100 foreign players under the age of 18.
Manchester United vibes man Ole Gunnar Solskjær is planning for next season whether or not he gets the full-time gig. “We have quite a few talents in that youth team you’d like to see,” he anti-Mourinhoed.
Marco Silva is definitely not panicking after Everton’s FA Cup exit at Millwall made it four defeats in five. “I am not panicking. We as a club cannot panic, even if we are not happy … I am not panicking because we as a club cannot panic,” he panicked.
And Wimbledon boss Wally Downes says the fear of being humiliated on TV inspired his players to their FA Cup upset of West Ham. “If we had played like we did on Tuesday, it would have been a cricket score,” he tooted. “Fear is the biggest motivator in the world.”
STILL WANT MORE?
Ten talking points from the weekend’s FA Cup action, right here.
Rachel Brown-Finnis runs the rule over the latest round of Women’s Super League games.
Football must go in hard on Bahrain over the Hakeem al-Araibi affair, writes Sean Ingle.
You wouldn’t have seen a lovely rainbow over Girona v Barcelona in sun-blessed Miami! Sid Lowe on the USA! USA!! USA!!! game that wasn’t.
Schalke left Berlin knacked and nursing a headache after their fresh start in Bundesliga was stymied by Hertha, writes Andy Brassell.
Serie A was stuffed full of madcap fun this weekend, nowhere more so than at Atalanta, whoops Paolo Bandini.
Our Ligue Un crew on Thierry Henry.
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