⚽ News, buildup and discussion before today’s action
⚽ Premier League: 10 things to look out for | Get in touch

Pep Guardiola spoke to the press yesterday before West Ham v Manchester City today. In his usual understated style, Guardiola revealed that when he [perhaps the greatest manager in the world, in charge of a well-resourced and highly successful football club] loses a game 3-0, everyone makes a big ol’ fuss.

Oh Pep! Never change.

Clearly the suits at Sky Sports thought Wrexham v Swansea City on a Friday night needed its own sideshow. A clash between two historic Welsh clubs just five points apart in the battle for the Championship playoff places may not appeal to the TikTok generation. If only there were some Hollywood actors on hand to step into the content void, relegating Daniel Mann and Andy Hinchcliffe to second-string commentary choice.

Luckily, Wrexham’s co-owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac were happy to oblige on the fifth anniversary of their £2m takeover of the then National League outfit. “As with our decision to take over Wrexham, we genuinely have no idea how this will go,” the pair chimed – presumably in unison – on a cheery press release before the broadcast.

⚽ News, buildup and discussion before today’s action
⚽ Premier League: 10 things to look out for | Get in touch

Pep Guardiola spoke to the press yesterday before West Ham v Manchester City today. In his usual understated style, Guardiola revealed that when he [perhaps the greatest manager in the world, in charge of a well-resourced and highly successful football club] loses a game 3-0, everyone makes a big ol’ fuss.

Oh Pep! Never change.

Clearly the suits at Sky Sports thought Wrexham v Swansea City on a Friday night needed its own sideshow. A clash between two historic Welsh clubs just five points apart in the battle for the Championship playoff places may not appeal to the TikTok generation. If only there were some Hollywood actors on hand to step into the content void, relegating Daniel Mann and Andy Hinchcliffe to second-string commentary choice.

Luckily, Wrexham’s co-owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac were happy to oblige on the fifth anniversary of their £2m takeover of the then National League outfit. “As with our decision to take over Wrexham, we genuinely have no idea how this will go,” the pair chimed – presumably in unison – on a cheery press release before the broadcast.

⚽ News, buildup and discussion before today’s action
⚽ Premier League: 10 things to look out for | Get in touch

Pep Guardiola spoke to the press yesterday before West Ham v Manchester City today. In his usual understated style, Guardiola revealed that when he [perhaps the greatest manager in the world, in charge of a well-resourced and highly successful football club] loses a game 3-0, everyone makes a big ol’ fuss.

Oh Pep! Never change.

Clearly the suits at Sky Sports thought Wrexham v Swansea City on a Friday night needed its own sideshow. A clash between two historic Welsh clubs just five points apart in the battle for the Championship playoff places may not appeal to the TikTok generation. If only there were some Hollywood actors on hand to step into the content void, relegating Daniel Mann and Andy Hinchcliffe to second-string commentary choice.

Luckily, Wrexham’s co-owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac were happy to oblige on the fifth anniversary of their £2m takeover of the then National League outfit. “As with our decision to take over Wrexham, we genuinely have no idea how this will go,” the pair chimed – presumably in unison – on a cheery press release before the broadcast.

Steve Borthwick must throw off the shackles in Paris to inject some attacking energy into his far-too predictable side

The inquest into England’s Six Nations campaign has already started and when that is the case before the championship has even finished it is never a good sign. Everyone has their own opinions on what is wrong and I’m sure that is the same within the squad too. When you are on runs like England are, different players come up with different reasons for their problems and different fixes – and that makes the situation all the more difficult.

If there is one thing holding England back it is their gameplan. I don’t say that as a reaction to these three defeats, I felt that they stagnated during the autumn and tightened things up despite chalking up four victories. The best illustration I can give is the 2024 tournament. England had lost to Scotland , went to York in the fallow week, contrived to throw off the shackles in attack and it paid immediate dividends.

The revamped Hundred will bring us the awkward spectacle of men in chinos struggling to keep the lid on a Pandora’s box of political volatility

When the England and Wales Cricket Board promised, in a glaze of beaming positivity, that the Hundred would bring a new audience, new energy, a shiny new online presence, it probably didn’t have in mind a barrage of hate-threats and terrorism accusations against the 34-year-old female owner of what was previously the Northern Superchargers.

But hey, it’s all energy. It’s eyeballs. Can we clip some of this up? Just blue-skying here, but what are the hate-threat merch opportunities? Is there any way, and there are no bad ideas in this room, we can leverage some really strong online nuclear war chat?

Steve Borthwick must throw off the shackles in Paris to inject some attacking energy into his far-too predictable side

The inquest into England’s Six Nations campaign has already started and when that is the case before the championship has even finished it is never a good sign. Everyone has their own opinions on what is wrong and I’m sure that is the same within the squad too. When you are on runs like England are, different players come up with different reasons for their problems and different fixes – and that makes the situation all the more difficult.

If there is one thing holding England back it is their gameplan. I don’t say that as a reaction to these three defeats, I felt that they stagnated during the autumn and tightened things up despite chalking up four victories. The best illustration I can give is the 2024 tournament. England had lost to Scotland , went to York in the fallow week, contrived to throw off the shackles in attack and it paid immediate dividends.

The revamped Hundred will bring us the awkward spectacle of men in chinos struggling to keep the lid on a Pandora’s box of political volatility

When the England and Wales Cricket Board promised, in a glaze of beaming positivity, that the Hundred would bring a new audience, new energy, a shiny new online presence, it probably didn’t have in mind a barrage of hate-threats and terrorism accusations against the 34-year-old female owner of what was previously the Northern Superchargers.

But hey, it’s all energy. It’s eyeballs. Can we clip some of this up? Just blue-skying here, but what are the hate-threat merch opportunities? Is there any way, and there are no bad ideas in this room, we can leverage some really strong online nuclear war chat?

Steve Borthwick must throw off the shackles in Paris to inject some attacking energy into his far-too predictable side

The inquest into England’s Six Nations campaign has already started and when that is the case before the championship has even finished it is never a good sign. Everyone has their own opinions on what is wrong and I’m sure that is the same within the squad too. When you are on runs like England are, different players come up with different reasons for their problems and different fixes – and that makes the situation all the more difficult.

If there is one thing holding England back it is their gameplan. I don’t say that as a reaction to these three defeats, I felt that they stagnated during the autumn and tightened things up despite chalking up four victories. The best illustration I can give is the 2024 tournament. England had lost to Scotland , went to York in the fallow week, contrived to throw off the shackles in attack and it paid immediate dividends.

The revamped Hundred will bring us the awkward spectacle of men in chinos struggling to keep the lid on a Pandora’s box of political volatility

When the England and Wales Cricket Board promised, in a glaze of beaming positivity, that the Hundred would bring a new audience, new energy, a shiny new online presence, it probably didn’t have in mind a barrage of hate-threats and terrorism accusations against the 34-year-old female owner of what was previously the Northern Superchargers.

But hey, it’s all energy. It’s eyeballs. Can we clip some of this up? Just blue-skying here, but what are the hate-threat merch opportunities? Is there any way, and there are no bad ideas in this room, we can leverage some really strong online nuclear war chat?