Sports Burst - England Axe Greatest Ever Coach
Sam Allardyce regrets “entrapment”, hipsters take a hit and Serena Williams breaks silence. 5 calories of goodness in the granola bar of sport.
By Tim Stannard
1) England start search for (another) new manager
In a relentless period of 24 hours that would even have had Jack Bauer needing a sit down, muffin and a foot rub, the English saw their newly-crowned national coach exposed in a newspaper sting, meeting with his bosses and then standing down after just two months and one match in charge.
As it happened, that game was a victory giving Sam Allardyce a 100% record but ‘Big Sam’ has now been left with the reputation of being a little careless and a touch grubby after telling undercover reporters posing as investors how they could get around rules on player 3rd party ownership – a big no-no.
Despite apologizing in a statement on Tuesday night, Allardyce has complained the following morning that "entrapment has won" but admitted that he was "silly." The story may not yet be over with the newspaper involved, The Daily Telegraph, alleging that eight current or former Premier League managers stand accused of taking illegal payments in player transfers.
2) Zizou and Ronaldo make-up in Dortmund draw
Although it was not a win, Real Madrid and Cristiano Ronaldo picked up a more than credible victory against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League on Tuesday to see all nonsense talk of a rift with Coach Zizou squashed.
Leicester City did manage to go one better though with a victory over Porto, Sevilla defeated Lyon and Juventus picked up a 4-0 win on the road against Dinamo Zagreb with three of the team's new summer signings getting on the scoresheet.
3) Atletico host Bayern in Wednesday’s big game
The Champions League returns on Wednesday and the looks-good-on-paper-might-be-dull-stalemate is Atletico’s home clash against Bayern Munich. The match that is guaranteed goals is the imperious Manchester City visiting the very leaky Celtic. And the match for geekdom has Napoli hosting Benfica.
Barcelona supporters won’t give a hoot for any of that though as the Catalan club heads to Germany to take on Borussia Monchengladbach, a game that sees Ter Stegen up against his old club, a match that the fine people of Canada can enjoy live on beIN SPORTS.
4) Another coach bites the dust in La Liga
Hipster’s favorite, Paco Jemez, has lost his job at Granada. The Spanish manager’s long-standing love of not really bothering with the art of defending saw his now former team second-from-bottom of the La Liga table without a win from the first six games of the season.
5) Serena Williams no longer “silent” on police violence
Serena Williams has posted a letter on her Facebook account saying that she will no longer “be silent” on the issue of police violence against minorities, writing that she fears for the safety of her 18-year-old nephew. The US tennis icon posted that “what if I have a son and what about my daughters?”
WHAT IS SPORTS BURST?
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.