The story of Arsene Wenger and Arsenal began when a Rolls-Royce sunk into the grass outside a house in north London in 1978…

10 years ago

When Fiji were destroying Great Britain at the rugby sevens during the Olympics in Rio, the comedian Dara O’Briain tweeted that it shows “how much fun it would be for us Irish if they put hurling in the Olympics. I mean, unfair, sure, but fun.” If Gaelic Games had reached that level of global participation, […]

10 years ago

At the dawning of the television age, the public embraced those who could tell them more about the world they lived in or how it came to be. In the late 1960s and 1970s, series like Civilisation and The Ascent of Man became widely popular and made stars of their presenters Kenneth Clark and Jacob […]

10 years ago

Last October, Jurgen Klopp picked up his first league win as Liverpool manager at Stamford Bridge, but in time he may consider this result to be more significant. Under Klopp, Liverpool have performed well in big matches so it could be argued that nothing has changed, that their next two league games against Hull and […]

10 years ago

The Premier League demands that its key fixtures become more than just a game of football.  If possible, they must be about personalities, not principles. Even the Manchester derby can be boosted by a bit of this stardust. If the summer was about anything other than spending more than a billion, it was about the […]

10 years ago

If you were concerned about the future of international football, Ireland’s game against Serbia might have added to your fears. Or you may have concluded that the jig was up and decided to enjoy it. In tough conditions, this was spectacularly bad football. This was a game which deserved 90 minutes to itself in a […]

10 years ago

For Sam Allardyce, it begins on Sunday evening when England play Slovakia, but maybe something came to an end last week when he left Ross Barkley out of his squad and then it was revealed that Paddy McGuinness and Bradley Walsh would be hosting a quiz to entertain the England players. For some, these developments […]

10 years ago

When Henry Shefflin read about the Kerry players who had lingered on the Croke Park pitch last week after the defeat to Dublin, it brought back his own final days as an inter-county player, which he had dreaded for so long. The difference between Kilkenny hurlers and even Kerry footballers at the moment is that […]

10 years ago

At first all he could see was rain. Before he left Auckland, they joked with Bundee Aki about the weather where he was going, but he wasn’t going for the weather. He might not have been sure where he was going, but he knew why he was going. He thinks it rained for those first […]

10 years ago

If one of Robbie Keane’s great gifts was to score in games which would otherwise be forgotten, then the match against Oman was the perfect send-off. Nobody will remember anything about this evening except that it was the chance to say goodbye to Ireland’s captain. Ireland scored four goals, but Oman were so poor that […]

10 years ago

What now for Bastian Schweinsteiger? Schweinsteiger has excelled in a sort of ambassadorial role since arriving at Old Trafford last summer, regularly engaging with the Manchester United fans, and enjoying the whole experience of being a United player in the style of a diplomat who becomes something of a local character while on a new […]

10 years ago

When he announced his retirement from international football on Wednesday, it was no surprise that Robbie Keane singled out the night in Ibaraki during the 2002 World Cup as a special moment. “I will cherish all of those memories,” Keane said, “but one in particular stands out – the 2002 World Cup and scoring the late […]

10 years ago

Apart from the organised doping, the abandonment of a whistleblower, the fabrication of a robbery, the allegations of corruption in boxing, the arrest and detention of a member of the IOC, the unnecessary spending in a country whose vital services could do with the money, the scandal of the Paralympics and the cloud that has […]

10 years ago

On Wednesday, many people took to social media to reassure students waiting for their Leaving Cert results that this day would not define them. Of course it wouldn’t, but if these students had been waiting for the reports about the results on news bulletins, they would have caught another story which should have given them […]

10 years ago

When Graeme Souness was dominating Liverpool’s midfield, his manager Bob Paisley summed up his gifts: “Most midfields are made up of a buzzer, a cruncher and a spreader. This boy is all three.” Liverpool could have done with just one of them among the three players they had in midfield at Turf Moor on Saturday […]

10 years ago

Arsene Wenger faces another crucial weekend, another game on which everything depends. Who knows what will happen if Arsenal lose again on Saturday, but it won’t be pretty and if things have been bad so far, they may get even worse. Is there anything Wenger can do? Probably, but the truth is that Wenger is […]

10 years ago

Dundalk’s manager Stephen Kenny didn’t want to criticise the referee after Dundalk’s defeat on Wednesday night. In fact, he felt referee Deniz Aytekin had a good game overall, except for one moment. Unfortunately that moment was the key one in the game. “I’m very disappointed at the really appalling decision that swung the game.” Kenny […]

10 years ago

For Dundalk, this defeat was a victory. It may sound like a condescending way of dealing with their defeat to Legia Warsaw at Lansdowne Road on Wednesday, but a Champions League play-off was their great achievement. For much of the night, it did seem like more was possible against an ordinary side, but even if […]

10 years ago

Five hours after his belief that an Olympic gold medal would be his had been shattered, Michael Conlan wasn’t making any attempt to be philosophical. How could he after what had taken place on a Brazilian morning? As he talks through the fight, the anger comes quickly back. The first round where he felt he was […]

10 years ago

“Oh, Christ, these men.” My wife’s words as she watched Match of the Day on Saturday night seemed to be as fitting a slogan as any for welcoming the new season. Many supporters will have similar thoughts over the course of the year, many moments when they will think, “Oh, Christ. This man.” There are […]

10 years ago

A couple of years ago, Jose Mourinho reflected on the differences between the Chelsea side he managed in his first spell and the team he took to a title in 2015. The side he managed until last year was more “artistic”, Mourinho said in an interview with Gary Neville, but in 2004-2006, the players were […]

10 years ago

The silence was the first thing and the silence was the last thing. In the end, after Pauric Mahony’s free had been snatched out of the air by Eoin Murphy, there was mayhem. And then there was quiet. “Well, at least Waterford put up a fight,” a man dressed entirely in the blue and white […]

10 years ago

Is it too much to hope that Wenger will usher in a new age of reason in English football as a whole and not merely at Highbury? – The Guardian, October 1996. Each man kills the thing he loves. Arsene Wenger transformed English football, but in recent years, he has also transformed summers at Arsenal. […]

10 years ago

When Paddy Barnes lost on Monday, many experts rose from their sofas and identified the reason for his defeat. Barnes had been tweeting too much this rant masquerading as an argument went. Perhaps, they said, if he had concentrated a little more on his boxing and a little less on his social media profile, he would […]

10 years ago

One of the greatest weeks in the history of the League of Ireland has ended with the FAI and some clubs in dispute, but the Director of Competitions Fran Gavin insisted on Sunday that the views expressed by St Patrick’s Athletic and Derry City are not widespread. “I don’t think it’s all the clubs,” he […]

10 years ago

Last month, the chief executive of NBC Universal, Steve Burke, looked forward to the Rio Olympics. The games, he said, were on course to be “the most profitable Olympics in history”. Another NBC executive Seth Winter told the LA Times that the station’s ad revenue was already at $1.2 billion dollars which was in excess […]

10 years ago

In the questionnaires that used to appear in Shoot magazine, the interviews with the top footballers asked them to detail their likes and dislikes, a section which often provided a window into the souls of these players. Their likes could be anything. If it hadn’t featured in the food and drink section, steak and lager […]

10 years ago

When Colm Collins returned from America, he decided it was time for a change. Before he had left Ireland on a career break to spend four years in Yonkers, Collins had been a schoolteacher. He had settled among the Irish community in the city and he’d found Clare people there too, but those years working […]

10 years ago

When Voon For Chin left Malaysia, he headed for the Emerald Gardens. He was 20 years old and spoke no English when he arrived on South Main Street in Wexford. Here he found the Emerald Gardens, the Chinese restaurant his aunt ran in Wexford and where Voon For Chin would work as a chef. In […]

10 years ago

Exclusive with Rafa Benitez

10 years ago

There is a passage in Sam Allardyce’s autobiography where he explains the draining nature of managing West Ham United. His wife Lynne developed what Big Sam describes as a “morbid fascination” with the fans’ website “Knees Up Mother Brown” which she would check daily to see what they were saying about her husband. “It upset […]

10 years ago

Perhaps the most damning thing that can be said about Didier Deschamps in the European Championships is that during the final on Sunday, he appeared to be outmanoeuvred by his counterpart in the Portuguese dug-out, Cristiano Ronaldo. Ronaldo’s metamorphosis from narcissist to leader of men was the most extraordinary development during Sunday’s game which seemed […]

10 years ago

When he met the media on Friday in Manchester, Pep Guardiola attempted to explain the fascination with managers of football clubs. The fascination will increase next season as Manchester becomes, if not the centre of the football universe as some suggest, the centre of the universe for those wondering if Pep and Jose Mourinho might […]

10 years ago

Country versus club… No contest

10 years ago

For four years, England wanted to believe in Roy Hodgson. More importantly, for four years, England wanted to believe that Roy Hodgson was somebody other than Roy Hodgson. Hodgson lowers expectations to such a degree that his players feel compelled to meet them, not surpass them.  His experience at Liverpool was ignored, dismissed as the […]

10 years ago

Before Ireland faced Italy last Wednesday, Roy Keane faced the media and talked about the short-term and long-term issues for Irish football. Looking back over failures that had lasted for generations, Keane also tried to see beyond the game against Italy and beyond Ireland’s ultimate exit from the tournament. “You’ve got to be able to […]

10 years ago

For 45 minutes, it looked as if Lyon would be the location for the greatest day of all. For 45 minutes, it was possible to believe, not just that Ireland wouldn’t go down meekly as Martin O’Neill had promised, but that they wouldn’t go down at all. Robbie Brady’s early goal had signalled a first […]

10 years ago

On Wednesday night, a few men in Ireland jerseys were walking through Lille after Ireland’s victory over Italy when they came across another group of Irish fans, among them a woman who was pregnant. “There’s only one name for that baby now,” one of the men said to the woman with a smile as they […]

10 years ago

Everything looks different today. At dawn in Lille Flandres station on Thursday morning, a familiar cry drifted up from the metro. If things had gone another way at Stade Pierre-Mauroy on Wednesday night, if things had played out as many had expected, it might have been a bit tiresome hearing ‘Stand Up for the Boys […]

10 years ago

When they’d ask Jeff Hendrick what he wanted to be when he grew up, he always gave one answer. “Professional footballer,” he’d say. Be realistic, they’d say. He’d think about what they said for a minute, muster all the realism he could and reply, “Professional footballer”. From the age of eight, Hendrick played football with […]

10 years ago

There used to be tendency to bristle when managers of opposition teams spoke about Ireland in an old, familiar way. On Tuesday in Lille, Antonio Conte talked about this Irish side in terms we have heard many times before. Martin O’Neill’s team, he said, were a “physical, powerful side” who would be relentless in their […]

10 years ago

Roy Keane said all the right things when he talked to the media in Versailles on Monday morning, but there may come a time when he wants to say different things. Keane was in warrior mode, sending a message that beating Italy in Lille on Wednesday is not impossible for Ireland and, even if it […]

10 years ago

Bordeaux on Saturday night was full of Irish people crashing up against reality once again. At this stage it’s becoming as much a part of tournament tradition as ‘The Fields of Athenry’ and kind words from strangers. A 3-0 defeat to a country ranked second in the world will always provide a reality check. Maybe […]

10 years ago

It’s lucky for Ireland that Belgium’s players can’t stand their coach. As Romelu Lukaku slotted home the third goal after Ciaran Clark had made another calamitous mistake in Bordeaux following his own goal against Sweden, it was tempting to wonder what this Belgian side would be like with a manager who gets it right. Marc […]

10 years ago

When the FAI recruited Martin O’Neill as Ireland manager, it was with the hope that he would make a difference on weekends like these. Martin O’Neill’s career has been built on making a difference on weekends like these. O’Neill’s idiosyncratic approach to management has always depended on his ability to understand how footballers think. “If […]

10 years ago

When Roy Hodgson walked into the press conference in Lens on Thursday night, he was giddy and it was hard to blame him. At half-time, England’s ongoing participation in the tournament beyond the group stages looked doubtful. They were booed off the field by England supporters who were ready to turn on the manager and players […]

10 years ago

At half-time in Lens, England needed more than a result, they needed a new philosophy. Again. There were already signs that some were beginning their routine post-tournament inquisition, unusual in this instance because England had only played one-and-a-half games in the competition. But they did have form. As Hodgson pointed out at the World Cup […]

10 years ago

Roy Hodgson likes to imagine himself as the little guy, maybe because for a long time he was the little guy. A career shaped at clubs like IK Oddevold and Neuchatel Xamax will do that to a man. For some of his career, Hodgson didn’t have to lower expectations, simply because there weren’t any. Clearly […]

10 years ago

When Martin O’Neill spoke in the Stade de France after Ireland’s opening game on Monday night, it was hard not to think Ireland had been here before during his time as manager. Once the memory of Wes Hoolahan’s goal has begun to fade – although that might take some time – it might feel as […]

10 years ago

Before Wes Hoolahan could walk, he would kick a balloon around his cot. When he took his first steps, a football was rarely far away. He made his way to school with a ball at his feet, and he reluctantly gave it up for the hours in class before he could play again. In the […]

10 years ago