QUOTE
“I’ve watched Home Alone so many times. It’s on every Christmas, isn’t it? So, four or five times each year.”
Every day is Christmas for Jack Grealish. Well, four or five days in the year any way.
Babayaro enters the history books
You know the way Wikipedia entries are often edited by rascals who insert misinformation about a particular person, often of quite a rude variety? Well, an eagle-eyed tweeter by the name of Kieran Booker spotted an edit in the entry for Celestine Babayaro, the former Nigerian international best known for his spell with Chelsea.
It’s not rude, it might not even be misinformation, but it’s exceedingly, well, quirky and tremendously random:
Premier League round-up: Gabriel Jesus haunts Crystal Palace again as Arsenal close gap at top
Jimmy Dunne scores late winner as in-form QPR come from behind to beat Preston
New boss Ivan Juric ready for ‘really big challenge’ at Southampton
‘Proud’ Pep Guardiola defends Erling Haaland as Manchester City’s miserable run continues
“On 11 January 2004, in a 4-0 victory against Leicester City, Babayaro scored the final Premier League goal of Dr Harold Shipman’s lifetime; Shipman died two days later.”
To which you can only reply: what?
WORD OF MOUTH
“George Best was a great footballer who made history. Kvaratskhelia, however, gives me the feeling of having something more. He is, perhaps, a stronger footballer, with more drive and physical strength.”
That’s some claim about Napoli’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. Mind you, it came from his agent, Oscar Damiani.
Gary Neville on his very brief and very unsuccessful spell as Valencia gaffer: “I made three mistakes……”.
Roy Keane: “The first one was getting on the plane.”
Poor Gaz.
“They had a bid lined up from Leicester to sell him for £600,000, I said there’s no way the boy is going to go for that. In my opinion, he would have eaten £600,000′s worth of food since he’s been 10 years of age at the club. It would have been an absolute nonsense to let him go for that.”
Tim Sherwood on refusing to sell Harry Kane to Leicester in 2014, partly because the bid wouldn’t have covered the amount of grub he’d consumed during his time at Spurs. That’s a big appetite.
‘Let me loose in a prison and I’ll end up owning the place’
The legend that is The Guardian’s Sid Lowe had a terrific interview last week with Pedro Porro, the Spanish international who joined Spurs on loan from Sporting Lisbon back in January.
Porro has had a shaky enough start to his time in London, prompting no little criticism from the pundits, among them former Spurs player and manager, Tim Sherwood.
“I don’t want to keep picking on the kid, but he needs to be relieved of his duties at the moment,” he said after Porro’s debut. “He is so bad it’s unbelievable. His positioning is disgusting.”
How did Porro respond to that rather harsh assessment? “I really hope he keeps saying bad things about me, makes me stronger. Tim Sherwood won’t be the first to have had to shut his mouth.”
And?
“Let me loose in a prison and I’ll end up owning the place”.
Don’t mess with the lad.
NUMBER: 800
That’s how many top level goals Lionel Messi has now scored after his peach of a free for Argentina against Panama last week. Useful.
MORE WORD OF MOUTH
“I’m looking at the Man United players. They’ve got their hands on their hips, scratching their heads.”
Dion Dublin on Erik ten Hag’s highly flexible crew.
“Dele Alli could not come at this time. It’s raining, I guess that’s why he couldn’t come. We’re trying to hear from him. We could not reach him by phone. Hopefully he didn’t have an accident.”
Besiktas coach Senol Gunes suggesting that the English man had gone AWOL, something Alli denied (“The club gave me permission to attend a doctor’s appointment today. I’m due back in training tomorrow as normal.”). You sense Alli would quite like to depart Turkey pronto.
“I’d let Conte go now and get Tim Sherwood in. I would. I think you can do a lot worse than getting Tim Sherwood in.”
Teddy Sheringham with a suggestion that left Spurs fans not sure whether to laugh or cry.
“I have no problem saying I had a bad career run, but there’s no time for regrets. Life goes on and, doing well or not, it was part of my growth. When we are at the top of the mountain, we often cannot see what is below.”
Cristiano Ronaldo reflects on his ill-fated return to Manchester United as only Cristiano Ronaldo could.
