Sports Burst - Dynamite Vs. Dinosaur As Jurgen Klopp Takes On Jose Mourinho
New Wave v Old Skool at Anfield, Neymar’s new deal and Zizou takes on a president. 5 water cooler wonders in a manic Monday of sport.
By Tim Stannard
1) Mourinho facing extinction level event at Anfield
The final Premier League match of the week has an apocalyptic vibe to it, especially in the media chattering classes.
Liverpool’s Anfield clash against Manchester United is being portrayed as the ultimate battle between the new wave of attacking, dynamic football championed by the attacking, dynamic Jurgen Klopp against the old skool, digging-deep, curmudgeonly style of play beloved by the old skool, digging-deep, curmudgeonly Jose Mourinho.
Monday will see whether Liverpool are the meteorite to cause an extinction-level event for Mourinho, whose side lost to Manchester City at home last month, or if the old dinosaur still has some bite left in him. Tune into the XTRA on Monday for all the highlights at 7PM ET followed by the best analysis on the Locker Room from 7.30PM ET.
2) Neymar to pen new Barcelona deal to 2021
Barcelona’s big match-up against Manchester City doesn’t happen until Wednesday, but that hasn’t stopped the Camp Nou club getting all busy with the headlines. On Monday, Javier Mascherano popped by the offices to sign a deal to keep the Argentinean at the club until 2019.
But that wasn’t all! Barca also announced that Neymar will be dropping in on Friday to pen a contract extension to 2021 that was agreed over the summer. Coincidentally, Ivan Rakitic is claiming that Barcelona will now be enjoying the services of the next best player in the world, once little Leo hangs up his boots.
3) Zidane opens up on President of France
Zinedine Zidane has given his reaction to the frazzled thoughts of France president, Francois Hollande, who criticized Karim Benzema along with footballers in general by arguing in a book that they should take "gym classes for the brain."
“They're not prepared psychologically to know what is right and wrong,” wrote Hollande. The key difference there being that leading French political figures know the difference between right and wrong but still chose the latter option.
Speaking ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League clash with Legia Warsaw, the Real Madrid manager remarked that "it's not normal to talk about my players and it's annoying, it bothers me.”
4) Icardi faces punishment for Ultras attack
A couple of bad days for Inter striker, Mauro Icardi, could be about to get a little bit worse.
The Argentinean striker is set to have his club captaincy taken away from him on Monday after remarks were published in an autobiography over the weekend boasting of how he stood up to Inter’s all-powerful Ultras during a spat after a game against Sassoulo. The aforementioned Ultras did not take too kindly to that.
Inter’s Sporting Director Piero Ausilio hinted that losing the captaincy was going to be the general punitive direction for Icardi. "We'll protect the team and the club so that we're in the best shape possible for our matches.” At least Maxi Lopez is going to be smiling somewhere.
5) Serena bows out of season’s end in Singapore
The tennis season is officially over for Serena Williams. The world number 2 has pulled out of the WTA finals in Singapore next week citing a shoulder injury as the course. "It's been a really tough year for me," claims the 22-time Grand Slam winner on a 2016 that has seen Serena competing in just eight tournaments.
A thumping sound from Down Under was the noise of bad boy tennis player, Nick Kyrgios, being hit by book chucked by the ATP. The Australian has been banned for eight weeks for his general rancorous behavior in the recent Shanghai Masters where the 21-year-old was accused of not really trying. Kyrgios has since admitted he is a bit sorry about that.
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The life philosophy of Sports Burst is that if you are not upsetting someone, then you are not trying hard enough. SB is a daily trawl and troll through the morning's sports news to bring you fact-nuggets to make you both smile and swear. Hopefully at the same time.
