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- š¤ Ratcliffe's SIXTH bid... š¤
š¤ Ratcliffe's SIXTH bid... š¤
Gm football fans. Route One here.
Letās get into it.
Todayās newsletter includes:
š° Morning briefā¦ Sancho exiled, Makelele leaves role at Chelsea, Barnes out til 2024
šš¼ Deep diveā¦ handballs on the rise? Explained
š°United takeoverā¦ Ratcliffe is getting desperateā¦
RESULTS
Caraboa Cup - Third Round
Tuesday, 26 September 2023
FIXTURES
Caraboa Cup - Third Round
Wednesday, 27 September 2023
šļø MORNING BRIEF
Everything you need know
šØUnited players urge Sancho to apologise to Ten Hagā¦ but heās refusing to swallow his pride. He has been āexiledā from first-team facilities including the team dining roomā¦ more in The Mirror.
šš¼ Claude Makelele leaves his role as technical mentor at Chelsea. This comes a day after reports that Bruno Saltor left his role as first team coachā¦ whatās going on at Chelsea? š¤
āļø United fans fly āGlazers Outā banner over Tampa Bay Buccaneers stadium. This comes as Jim Ratcliffe revitalises his proposal to take over the clubā¦ more on this story below.
š¤ Arsenal backtrackā¦ and say that Declan Rice could be fit for their game against Man City on October 8.
š¤ Harvey Barnes is out until 2024 due to a āsubstantialā and āvery unusualā foot injuryā¦
COLLAB
Something you didnāt expect to see todayā¦
Tim Cook, Appleās CEO, visits Real Madridās headquarters in Valdebebas today. He shared a video of his visit on X.
Cook was keen to learn more about how the youth teams were managed and how they handled the GPS data during matches and training sessions via iPad.
It was officially not a business trip, but the club does hope to collaborate with the tech giant in the near futureā¦
DEEP DIVE
Handballs on the riseā¦? šš¾ ā½ļø
Three things are certain in life:
Death
Taxes (a lot of them)
A penalty awarded for handball
The Athletic
The Athletic analysed handball decisions this seasonā¦ but weāll skip over the boring stuff.
So, apart from the 2016 season (letās be honest, that was a whacky year anyway), penalties awarded for a handballs are substantially higher from 2020 onwardsā¦
Why is this?
// A new rule was introduced in 2020 which penalised players who make their bodies āunnaturally biggerā.
This means there is little leeway for defenders.
The PL guidelines say that a player should be penalised for handball if:
The hand/arm is clearly away from the body and outside the "body line".
The ball travels some distance.
A deflection clearly makes no difference to the ball touching a hand/arm that is clearly extended away from the body and/or above the shoulder.
Immediately after touching the ball with the arm, even accidentally, the player scores a goal or creates a goal-scoring opportunity.
// Also, intent does not matterā¦ except if the playerās body is āa consequence of, or justifiable by, the playerās body movement for that specific movement for that specific situation.ā
// and, well, VAR has played its role
But, the main issue isā¦ what does āunnaturally biggerā mean?
Can it be argued that John Egan is making his body unnaturally bigger against City this weekend?
What about Romero against Arsenal?
These are natural positions for a defender when theyāre balancing their bodies.
The distance from ball to hand is a yard, if not less.
The letter of the law deems them handballsā¦ and while this is be good news for FPL managers, itās not ideal for the Premier Leagueā¦
TAKEOVER
Ratcliffeās SIXTH bid for Unitedā¦
There are two questions that no one can answer confidently:
Is there life after death?
When is the Man United takeover saga going to endā¦?
At this point, weāre just going round in circles.
Bloomberg has reported that Jim Ratcliffe is restructuring his Man United takeover bid.
What do we know so far?
// Earlier this year, Ratcliffe proposed a 69% takeover of share in United. But this wasnāt well received by minority share holdings, including Lindsell Train, Ariel Investments LLC, and Eminence Capital, who felt that deal offered them little benefit
// This restructuring means that Ratcliffe is willing to submit a 6th (!) bid to the Glazer family.
Ratcliffeās previous deals were ādead in the waterā but his new proposal may revitalise his chances of taking over.
AROUND THE WORLD
What else is thereā¦
Duncan Ferguson, former Scotland and Everton striker, is the new manager at Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
Xavi Alonso is set to replace Carlo Ancelotti as Real Madrid manager next season after impressing in his first year as Bayer Leverkusen coach.
Phil Jones has returned to Man United to complete his global football sport directorship course with the FPA.
Roma want to turn Romelu Lukaku loan into a permanent transfer, and are willing to offer Tammy Abraham back to Chelsea as part of the deal.
BIG-GAME PLAYER
The puzzle section
Todayās quiz is based on the 2022-23 Premier League seasonā¦
Which goalkeeper kept the most clean sheets?
How many of the leagueās 10 top scorers were English?
How many different managers took charge of a Chelsea game last season?
Tuesdayās answer:
Against who did Shearer score his first friendly goal for Newcastle United? Lincoln City
Which team did Newcastle defeat to win the 1951 FA Cup Final? Blackpool
What was Newcastle first called, when they were founded in 1892? Newcastle East End
MEME
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