Ken Early

Columnist

Ken Early: All VAR does is annoy everybody while delaying everything

Wrong refereeing decisions cannot be eliminated from football because most of the time wrongness is a matter of subjective perception

Mon Jan 27 2025 - 06:00

Ken Early: Denis Law one of the very best in the days when players were the only ones who mattered

Football now increasingly subject to the influence of forces that never appear on the pitch

Mon Jan 20 2025 - 06:00

Ken Early: If Mikel Arteta really loves Arsenal’s players, he should let them play

Gabriel Jesus’s injury and another unconvincing performance by Kai Havertz underlined how badly Arsenal need a new forward

Mon Jan 13 2025 - 06:00

Ruben Amorim’s anger in Liverpool augurs well for Manchester United

Sunday’s Premier League match at Anfield suggested there could be some sense to selling Trent Alexander-Arnold to Real Madrid

Mon Jan 06 2025 - 06:00

Ken Early: The pursuit of calm, running from risk and Euro nationalism mark a mixed year of football

Moments of magic being sapped from the game as managers opt to cut out risky business

Mon Dec 30 2024 - 06:00

Liverpool enjoy Spurs’ farcical nonsense

Ange Postecoglou needs to review his risk-and-reward calculation

Mon Dec 23 2024 - 06:00

Flash of inspiration from Amad casts Amorim’s dropping of Rashford and Garnacho as a masterstroke

United manager’s faith in Amad Diallo helps secure a memorable Manchester derby victory over struggling City

Mon Dec 16 2024 - 06:00

Ken Early on World Cup draw: Ireland face task to overcome Hungary, their football opposites

If Irish football has been subsisting on the poverty line, Hungarian football has had billions pumped into it

Fri Dec 13 2024 - 22:28

Ange Postecoglou seems more concerned with his own brand than with Tottenham’s results

Great managers such as Alex Ferguson and Jurgen Klopp understood the difference between rhetoric and reality

Mon Dec 09 2024 - 06:00

Arne Slot has gotten Liverpool excited by showing them they can get even better

Mohamed Salah talking about his contract shows he wants to stay at Anfield - but notice the silence from Trent Alexander-Arnold

Mon Dec 02 2024 - 06:00

Manchester United’s current crop will struggle to adjust to Amorim’s system

The new manager has a crystal-clear idea of how his side should play but he lacks the players to make that vision a reality

Mon Nov 25 2024 - 06:00

Ken Early: Naive Ireland need to remember this pain and at least learn to whinge

Ireland’s second-half capitulation against England again exposed this team’s fatal lack of gamecraft

Mon Nov 18 2024 - 06:00

Liverpool must think Mamardashvili is something very special if they believe he’s better than Kelleher

Evan Ferguson at one end and Caoimhin Kelleher come up with big plays, alongside a regen of Craig Bellamy

Thu Nov 14 2024 - 22:56

Ken Early: Arsenal once looked eager and energetic but have now become too scripted and controlled

Just moments after taking the lead, and with half an hour still to play, Arsenal looked like they were already trying to kill the game

Mon Nov 11 2024 - 06:00

Damien Duff’s unwavering belief in Irish football has elevated the whole league

The fact that one of Ireland’s best ever players has immersed himself in his Shelbourne role shows a real faith in the value of the domestic game

Mon Nov 04 2024 - 06:00

Ken Early: Worst night of Mbappé’s club career as Barca steal the show

French striker endured a nightmare outing, caught offside eight times, as Barcelona ended Real’s 42-game unbeaten league run in spectacular style

Mon Oct 28 2024 - 06:00

Ken Early: Liverpool and Chelsea showcase ‘S**t on a Stick: 2024 edition’

Arne Slot says he has only changed a few small details since taking over from Jürgen Klopp - so why does it already feel like a different club?

Mon Oct 21 2024 - 06:00

Ken Early: Unless execution improves, Ireland will not be qualifying for anything for a while

Bodies on the line defending can only take this team so far as Ireland offer more gifts to grateful Greeks

Mon Oct 14 2024 - 06:00

Ken Early: Robbie Brady gives Ireland fans another night to remember in Helsinki

Heimir Halgrímsson’s side showed plenty of character to bounce back from half-time deficit to claim first competitive win of 2024

Thu Oct 10 2024 - 22:16

Ken Early: Nations League games offer Ireland a chance to liberate ourselves by embracing football failure

Let us dream of a place beyond desire, beyond hope, where nothing that happens to our team can hurt us any more

Wed Oct 09 2024 - 20:05

There is an obvious solution to Man Utd’s managerial woes

Ken Early: The club’s denial of reality has been repaid by its worst ever start to a Premier League season

Mon Oct 07 2024 - 06:00

Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal are disgustingly accomplished, with a hint of Tony Pulis

Tottenham getting about €117 for Harry Kane seemed like a lot of money until they spent more than half that on Dominic Solanke

Mon Sept 16 2024 - 06:00

Ken Early: Relegation beckons for Ireland as the booing gets louder

Nil-all at half-time was already a big improvement on the last time Greece were here in October 2023. Then Ireland lost whatever semblance of control they had in midfield

Wed Sept 11 2024 - 06:00

After Jack Grealish scored, it appeared that football was ultimately just a joke at Ireland’s expense

England dismissed Ireland while producing one of the most one-sided periods of play ever seen at the Aviva Stadium

Mon Sept 09 2024 - 06:00

Ken Early: It seems evident that Hallgrímsson sees Ireland much as Trapattoni, O’Neill and McCarthy did

The new manager signals a return to a pragmatic first principles

Sat Sept 07 2024 - 06:00

Ken Early: Manchester United fans losing patience as familiar flaws are evident again

Three games and two defeats into the new Premier League season and the choice to keep ten Hag already looks unwise

Mon Sept 02 2024 - 06:00

Ken Early: Miserable Chelsea could almost put you off football

Clearlake Capital are presiding over an extravagant mess at Stamford Bridge

Mon Aug 19 2024 - 11:19

Ken Early: The Premier League is back and it needs Manchester City not to win it more than ever

Owners, lawyers, referees and other once-extraneous things have now dominate conversation as much as on-field action

Fri Aug 16 2024 - 14:32

Second Captains podcasters share €817,000 production fee pay pot

Company’s cash pile increases sharply

Tue Aug 13 2024 - 16:47

Ken Early on Euro 2024: Spain take the trophy but nobody wins in modern-day blame game

There was plenty of fun and the best team won, but the tournament also laid bare the impact of social media on the game and its increasingly burnt-out players

Tue Jul 16 2024 - 06:00

Ken Early: How can Southgate have made this many mistakes, and still gotten England to the final?

England have ranged between dull and bad, in contrast to Spain who always look clever, lively and inventive

Sat Jul 13 2024 - 06:00

Watkins seals final place for England in performance light years ahead of early rounds

Euro 2024: Aston Villa striker finds the net in the 90th minute to knock out the Netherlands

Wed Jul 10 2024 - 22:08

Ken Early: Toni Kroos castigated after tackling tough subject carefully. That’s social media for you

The Germany midfielder found himself in the centre of a storm because of controversial comments he didn’t make

Mon Jul 08 2024 - 06:00

Ken Early: England braced for finely-tuned Swiss machine unbeaten since Yakin-Xhaka peace deal

Three Lions likely to adopt Switzerland’s 3-4-2-1 formation for Euro quarter-final after Swiss eased past four-man-defence Italy

Sat Jul 06 2024 - 06:00