Football Daily | Lionel Messi, the iconic pink and black, and that Ronaldo rivalry

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now! There are various notions of what, if anything, differentiates humans from other animals, one being the power of imagination. And, though animals haven’t yet abused that power to dream up horrors such as MK Dons, Pepsi Max mango and the Conservative party, they also haven’t devised inspired names for football clubs – Inter Miami, for example. For those wondering what makes it quite so special, the genius is that it parodies the name of another club, Internazionale, who are known by the unknowing as Inter Milan, but also because “Inter” sounds like “Into”, creating not just a pun but a double pun. There’s playing on the words … and then there’s dancing on them like they’re the soft, fleshy inside of Stephen Hughes’s right thigh. If yesterday’s Football Daily thinks that Declan Rice’s purchase for £105m ‘could ultimately prove a snip’, I wonder what the £35m paid by Liverpool for Alexis Mac Allister, who made Rice Krispies of the midfielder when Brighton beat West Ham 4-0 a few months ago, could ultimately prove. How about ‘snap, crackle and pop’, as penned by the Rolling Stones in 1964?” – John Weldon. Re: football presents (yesterday’s Football Daily letters). My brother is a Spurs fan and, many moons ago when he was in his early-20s and playing regular Sunday football, he was after a pair of socks that were distinctive and easily identifiable in the dressing room. So obviously I bought him Arsenal away ones for his birthday. Those purple-and-blue-hooped numbers from 1994-95. He opened the present and promptly popped the socks on the barbecue, incinerating them” – Matt Atkinson. May I be the 1,057th Manchester City fan to remind you that Niall Quinn’s 1999 goalkeeping exploits for Sunderland (yesterday’s Memory Lane, full email edition) were not that strange. On 29 April 1991, Quinn scored for City against Derby County, then went in goal when Tony Coton was sent off for conceding a penalty. Quinn saved the penalty from Dean Saunders and City won 2-1 to confirm Derby’s relegation” – John Caley (and no other Manchester City fans). Continue reading...

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US owners understand profit but do they appreciate clubs’ tradition and values?

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‘Emotional’ Leah Williamson to make first England start in almost a year

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* Euro 2022-winning captain missed World Cup with ACL injury * Defender brings ‘flexibility in defence’, says Sarina Wiegman Sarina Wiegman has confirmed Leah Williamson will start for England against the Republic of Ireland on Tuesday night in their second Euro 2025 qualifying group game. Williamson, the Euro 2022-winning captain, said she would be emotional at the Aviva Stadium when she steps out with England for the first time in almost a year, after she was sidelined with an anterior cruciate ligament injury last April. Continue reading...
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