by TOP OF THE HEAD?
It might not be the catchiest headline of the day [Football Daily makes ball shape with hands] but the news of Jordan Henderson closing in on a move to Ajax, having apparently terminated his contract with Al-Ettifaq, would certainly send any time traveler blasting through a wormhole from, say, last January. Yet here we are: six months after earning Liverpool a £12m fee, Hendo is on his way to another European powerhouse, who would not have easily paid £12m for him. Meanwhile, he has played 17 games in Saudi Arabia, scoring no goals, making four assists and pocketing £10m in wages. Jordan, as the kids say, is out here playing 4D chess. Or something like that.
Still, the side-step to Amsterdam via Dammam has been made some collateral damage to the Henderson brand. As a long-term champion of LGBTQ+ rights and a vocal supporter of the Premier League’s Rainbow Laces campaign, his decision to bring his talents to a nation where homosexuality is illegal and punishable by death achieved something we thought was impossible: a modern footballer was Seriously. we are disappointed. Liverpool’s LGBTQ+ fan group Kop Outs have questioned whether their former captain was “ever an actual ally”. Jake Daniels, the first active British male footballer to come out for more than 30 years, called Henderson’s move from Saudi a “slap in the face”.
In his six months of jogging and aiming in front of four-figure crowds, Henderson has tried to ask questions straight off the bat, as Mrs Merton might have asked, what first attracted him to the Super club. wealthy Saudi Al-Ettifaq. . In a train interview with Luthchleas Gael, he tried to keep some conflicting stories on the rails – the move was not about money, but “you have to feel valued … and money is part of that”. Henderson also claimed to understand the “frustration and anger” of the LGBTQ+ community, while offering the false counter-claim that “someone with [my] there are only opinions and values in Saudi Arabia”. Did he still support Rainbow Laces? Yes of course. Would he wear rainbow laces in Saudi Arabia? No, no, no.
Henderson’s move ruined his career as well as his off-field reputation – we’d like to think those boos at Wembley were attacking his hypocrisy, rather than his lack of big-game practice, but we weren’t born yesterday. Of course, there is another argument to be made: that he does not deserve more criticism than the dozens of players who flew out to fill cases with knights without ever giving their thoughts to the cruelty of the persecution groups around them. While he was impatient, Henderson insisted he was worried about fans who felt betrayed by his decision, as he indulged in a burst of inflammatory speech. He could try to turn the move to Ajax as a result of a crisis of conscience. Then again, Henderson isn’t the only big-name signing hanging around the exit gate in Riyadh these days. A far more likely motivation is his role with England, the looming Euros and the multitude of flexible hybrid backs ready to fill Gareth Southgate’s midfield. Call us cynical, but modern football made us this way.
LIVE ON A BIG WEBSITE
Join Dominic Booth from 5pm GMT for minute-by-minute Afcon coverage of Morocco 2-0 Tanzania, with Scott Murray on deck for this afternoon’s FA Cup third round replay.
STATEMENT OF THE DAY
“It’s going to be a hell of an event. It’s a quarter-final against Manchester United, for me the biggest club in this country, in Europe and in the world… I can’t wrap my head around it to be honest, they’re incredible names. Manchester United coming to Rodney Parade is a huge achievement. I don’t know when it’s going to drop in, I’m sure my family are doing Irish ports around the house at the moment” – Newport County manager and huge United fan Graham Coughlan remembers the FA Cup date at home to the Jonny Evans. All-Stars is the biggest game in the club’s history, even bigger than the Cup Winners’ Cup quarter-finals in 1981.
DAILY FOOTBALL LETTERS
I’ve been tracking the equivalent of David Rose’s Fair Play Times (yesterday’s Football letters) for a couple of years now, sharing time of possession with pundits dedicated to figuring out which teams are the fastest to foul when out of possession. Chelsea and Liverpool have been in the top four of all time for the past three and a half seasons, with Leeds and Brighton also regularly present. At the other end of the scale, West Ham tend to be the cleanest team, or at least the slowest with dirt. Crystal Palace are consistently among the fastest be dirty when they have the ball, along with Aston Villa before and after Jack Grealish’s departure. High possession teams such as Manchester City and Liverpool have the lowest relative frequency, although teams also appear to foul Manchester United infrequently. I’m bored.” – Rob Hamilton.
Men in green jackets were standing together at the back of the dugout to brush their teeth and read from books apparently to promote their new film Argyle and Todd Boehly’s shocking stunt during the Chelsea game v Fulham last weekend. In response, I urge Chelsea fans to attend cinemas showing Argyle and get up together in the auditorium during the film to deliver their favorite football chants” – Mick Beeby.
Send your letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. The winner of today’s letter is … Rob Hamilton, who offers a copy of The Africa Cup of Nations: The History of an Underappreciated Tournament, published by Pitch Publishing. Visit their football bookshop here.
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
It’s an Afcon special in the latest Football Weekly podcast.
NEWS, YEAST AND BOBS
Hertha Berlin club president Kay Bernstein has died aged 43 after a suspected heart attack. “The entire club, its governing bodies and staff are saddened and horrified by the news,” the club said. “The entire Hertha family is mourning Kay’s death and thinking of his family and friends. We ask everyone to respect their family’s privacy during this difficult time.”
Eni Aluko says the abuse she suffered as a result of Joey Barton’s social media posts left her fearing for her safety and afraid to leave home. “I felt threatened this week,” she said. “I felt that something is going to happen to me. And I don’t say that to make anyone feel sorry for me – I say that people can understand the reality and the impact of hate speech, the impact of racism, the impact of sexism, the it is influenced by mythology. we are all women in the game, in sports broadcasting.”
Newcastle United chairman Yasir al-Rumayyan is facing a £58m lawsuit for allegedly “carrying out the instructions” of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammad bin Salman with “malicious intent”.
Norwegian FA president Lise Klaveness, the football executive who tried to hold FIFA to its commitments on human rights in Qatar, called on the governing body to publish its report on possible failures at the World Cup. “The word on the ground was that it should be ready around Christmas and it wasn’t,” she explained. “So we are a bit now [further on] and more impatiently waiting for him. It’s one year after the World Cup, it should come now.”
More FA Cup play-off news: Bristol City are through to the fourth round after beating West Ham 1-0, with Saïd Benrahma sent off after a challenge from Joe Williams. “It’s unbelievable that they give the best cup competition in the world,” said David Moyes. “But one week you have VAR, one week you don’t. I’m glad they try to claim that, but it’s not fair for every club.”
Luton are also in the last 32, coming from behind to beat Bolton 2-1, as are Birmingham and Wolves, who proved their tie wins against Leicester (pretty meh) and West Brom (delicious), respectively.
And Dazn is raising its paywall on all women’s football content, meaning UK Women’s Cup coverage will be free for the foreseeable future.
MOVE THE TARGET POSITIONS
“Much has been made about the rigors of our fixture calendars and the impact on players who are not given the right environment for the demands of so many games, but here we are ready to play anywhere between 50 and 60 games, with games. to be played in every month of the year.” Ada Hegerberg writes exclusively for our sister email, Moving the Goalposts, about the excessive demands on top players.
STILL ABOUT MORE?
Have any football clubs faced each other more than three times in a row? The Knowledge knows.
Saudi Arabia may have beaten Oman in their Asian Cup opener, but all is not well within Roberto Mancini’s squad, reports John Duerden.
Nicky Bandini sifts through the aftermath of Mourinho’s hurricane at Roma.
And Jacob Steinberg asks if FFP-angst has hampered the Premier League’s transfer spending.
MEMORY LANE
Snoop Dogg joins Rio Ferdinand at Ordsall Community Centre, Manchester, in July 2010, where volunteers were donating their time to projects in exchange for a ticket to the rapper’s concert at the Apollo that night. Snoop, who wears a regular shirt in football, later performed at home to United.
‘BUT you seem to have a bad case of amnesia’
