Sport

A most Spurs-y summer

You have to hand it to Tottenham. While they certainly haven’t come anywhere close to curing their basketcase ways, they’ve at least learned to shroud it in bigger happenings in the soccer world to avoid attention. When they fired Jose Mourinho, essentially admitting to and correcting a gargantuan mistake all at once,… Read more…

Sport

Can Italy score enough to make some serious noise?

While the teeth-gnashing on these shores during the last World Cup were enough to drown out the laments of everyone else in the world, you may have forgotten that a true giant of the international game wasn’t in Russia either. That would be Italy, the first time they didn’t partake in the tournament since 1958. […]

Sport

Man City’s Pep just can’t help himself

Perhaps the true sign of a great manager is how long he can leave his team on autopilot once his system and tactics are installed. While each game requires minor adjustments here or there, they shouldn’t amount to much more than the grade on the tires. The engine remains the same. And no team should […]

Sport

Leicester found a new way to blow it, and their fans probably won’t care

The warping of European soccer and its priorities make judging Leicester City’s last week of the season decidedly foggy. Twenty years ago or so it would be easy. Win the FA Cup, finish fifth, that’s an unqualified success. But that’s not the world we live in anymore, and that’s what makes it so unclear. Read […]

Sport

Man City are the standard, and indeed, built for ‘this’

When it comes to Manchester City, they’ll never be free of the debate or criticism that their success is bought through Saudi oil money. And their counter that they have the best manager in the world in Pep Guardiola will never be enough to convince anyone who focuses on the first point. The truth is […]

Sport

N’Golo Kante wrecked Real Madrid

When Chelsea were struggling under Frank Lampard, I was one of many who wondered what exactly they could get out of N’Golo Kante at 30. It was fair to ruminate if he could be the one-man typhoon in the center of midfield that he had been for Premier League-winning sides at Leicester and Chelsea. It […]

Sport

Jose Mourinho has broken Tottenham, possibly for good

It’s not a surprise that Jose Mourinho’s tenure at Tottenham Hotspur has gone completely balls up. Anyone who watched the end of his stays at Chelsea (The Sequel) and Manchester United could have told you how this would go. An initial circling of the wagons that yields some promising early results, before giving way… Read […]