Category: Sport News

MANCHESTER: Manchester United’s new co-owner Jim Ratcliffe has revealed the real reason he didn’t sack Erik ten Hag even though the club is enduring its worst season in the Premier League era.

Ratcliffe, 71, also explained why he felt the club had lost its way before his arrival and he was working to rebuild the English giant.

United finished the 2023-24 Premier League campaign in eighth place, the fastest achievement since the 1989-90 season.

A negative goal difference for the first time in 34 years and 14 league defeats – the worst since the 1989-90 season – further soured United’s image under Ten Hag.

But victory over rivals Manchester City in the FA Cup final ensured United will continue to play on the European stage this season.

When fans and observers called for the Dutch manager to be sacked, Ratcliffe decided to continue giving Ten Hag a chance rather than looking for a new manager for the sixth time after Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013.

“Erik is a good guy and did his best, but it was too much work.

“He’s trying to reshape the squad but at the same time trying to ‘repair the roof’,” Ratcliffe said.

MANCHESTER: Julian Alvarez is set to leave Manchester City to join Atletico Madrid for £81 million.

Man City bought the 24-year-old Argentine player for 14 million pounds from River Plate in January 2022.

After helping Argentina win the 2022 World Cup and 2024 Copa America, as well as two Premier League and European Champions League titles at club level, Alvarez’s price has soared.

Alvarez scored 36 times in two seasons at the Etihad as Pep Guardiola’s side became the first team to win England’s top four league titles four times in a row.

However Alavarez was second choice behind Erling Haaland throughout

playing in Manchester.

City now needs to find a new striker to support the Norwegian bomber.

ORLANDO: Barcelona beat Manchester City 4-1 on penalty kicks after the two teams tied 2-2 in a pre-season friendly in Orlando this morning.

The match at the Camping World Stadium was postponed for 80 minutes due to weather problems, the same situation that occurred during City’s first action when they lost 3-4 to Celtic in the tour series in the United States (US).

After the match started, Erling Haaland thought he had scored in the first 15 minutes but his visible push of the ball over the goal line was ignored by the referee.

Barcelona on the other hand opened the curtain on Pau Victor in the 24th minute. He managed to shoot a shot into the penalty box even though Kalvin Phillips tried to tackle him.

City equalized through 19-year-old Nico O’Reilly but Barcelona were back in front just before the break when Victor’s fine cross was finished with a precise shot by Pablo Torre.

The two teams made exchanges at the break seeing Pep Guardiola replace Haaland and Ederson.

City equalized soon after through Jack Grealish after getting a pass from Mateo Kovacic for the score to end at 2-2.

In the penalty shootout, Phillips was among the City players who failed to score the spot-kick that allowed Barcelona to win 4-1.

City’s next game is against Chelsea in Ohio on Saturday while Barcelona face La Liga challengers Real Madrid in New Jersey.

LONDON: World Cup winner, Joachim Low is reportedly also interested in the position as England manager.

Low, 64, who managed Germany for 15 years and helped the country lift the World Cup trophy in Brazil in 2014, is seen ready to discuss the matter with the English Football Association (FA) following the resignation of Gareth Southgate.

Apart from him, another German manager and former Liverpool manager, Jurgen Klopp, has also been the talk of the town in England but he is said to be clearly not interested in returning to football this summer.

Eddie Howe, Graham Potter and Lee Carsley are also reportedly on the FA’s shortlist.

The FA may prefer to choose a local operator but has not ruled out the possibility of hiring an outside manager.

The last game Low managed before stepping down as Germany manager was when the team lost 2-0 to England at Wembley in the Euro 2020 best 16 competition, three years ago.

The former Stuttgart and Fenerbahce manager then decided not to work since then.

Southgate earns 5 million pounds a year to manage The Three Lions and Low was only paid half of that amount during his last contract with the German FA.

Klopp earns 15 million pounds per season with Liverpool and the estimated average salary seems reasonable for the FA.

Under the management of Low, Germany also managed to advance to the final of Euro 2008 but lost 1-0 at the hands of Spain.

LONDON: The Swiss media claims that Murat Yakin’s squad need not be afraid when facing England in the Euro 2024 quarter-finals this Saturday.

England came out with an erratic performance in the tournament this time but they were still able to progress to the last eight after coming from behind to beat Slovakia 2-1 in extra time.

The Three Lions squad is scheduled to face Switzerland who eliminated the defending champions, Italy 2-0.

Switzerland’s biggest newspaper, Blick, believes Gareth Southgate’s England are not a big threat.

The newspaper referred to England’s lackluster performance in the Euros so far.

The publication referred to England’s ‘fragile performance’.

Blick also commented on the dullness of England’s attacking machinery which has only managed to score four goals in four games so far.

The last competitive meeting between the two nations was in the Nations League third-place playoff in 2019 which saw England win on penalties with goalkeeper Jordan Pickford among the scorers.

Switzerland finished second in Group A at this summer’s tournament with five points from three games.

England also collected five points in the group stage but managed to emerge champions of Group C.