FRIDAY’S BIG HEADLINES
Jesse says yesse
Manchester United last night announced a new four-year deal with their official social media partner, a 24-year-old Warrington start-up called Lingard. Okay, being fair the man now trousering up to £100,000 per week is more than just a lively Twitter timeline with a sideline in Snapchat-friendly secret handshakes and attention-grabbing Instagram posts.
He plays in a few positions, has a neat habit of scoring in major cup finals and is the kind of useful United squad player who’ll wrack up around 200 appearances before going into semi-retirement at Sunderland in about five years.
But Lingard, who cleverly made sure he referenced his “great manager” when announcing his deal, protecting him from being Luke Shawed any time soon, hardly has the full approval of United fans, many of whom were last night questioning the wisdom to give him a seven-figure deal.
To that, we simply cite this tweet:
Griezmann getting tetchy over United talk
While Lingard has secured his place at Old Trafford next season, one potential recruit appears to be getting fed up with the constant chatter about his likely switch to United.
At least, that was the message Antoine Griezmann sent as he spoke at an event in Spain for, erm, Head and Shoulders. Although presumably it’s called Cabeza y los Hombros over there.
“ I don’t know what to say. It is always the same questions. I have said it many times and I have been on the front pages of newspapers saying so. I have answered; I will not answer that again. I am not fed up, but almost.“
Absolutely fine, Antoine. We understand. No more rumours about United. You’re right, the press has spent too much time and energy trying to link you with a move to Old Trafford based on the flimsiest of evidence. We get it. Right, anything else on your mind?
“ My idol was David Beckham and he wore the number seven shirt at United.“
F*&”^$*&%(W%*W*%W&%!!
One more year! One more year!
Arsenal’s Chilean striker Alexis Sanchez (L) celebrates with teammates after scoring the opening goal of the English Premier League football match between Arsenal and Hull City at the Emirates Stadium in London on February 11, 2017.AFP
Liked this year’s Alexis Sanchez contract saga? Then you’ll LOVE next year’s! Yes, according to the Daily Mirror, there’s a chance we’ll have to do it all again. Gloves will be cast to the ground in anger, key players will be dropped for big games after petty training ground shenanigans and Atom and Humber will still be smiling their doggy smiles all over social media. According to John Cross, Alexis Sanchez is ready to give Arsenal another shot.
It’s super news for Arsenal, if it is true that Sanchez is pretty happy with life in London and is willing to give the club another year to convince him that he might be able to win some serious trophies as an Arsenal player. Less palatable is the possibility that, as the Mirror reports, a free-transfer move to Chelsea next summer will materialise if they can’t convince him of this.
Arsene Wenger’s stay-or-go dilemma just got *even more* important.
IN OTHER NEWS (SERIE A SPECIAL)
When you’re trying to convince your best player to ignore the lure of Europe’s biggest clubs this summer, a player who is top scorer in Serie A with 23 goals for Torino, what better way than to present him with a crystal rooster, with the help of a clown in a chicken suit? How can Roman Abramovich possibly compete with that? Chelsea may as well give up right now.
The Warm-Up has often thought that English players get a bit of a raw deal when their intellect is unfavourably compared with that of their continental counterparts; how often are revealing and engaging interviews with foreign players a result of a florid translation? Anyway, Giorgio Chiellini has blown that theory out of the water by only going and getting a bloody master’s in business administration at the University of Turin. Gary Cahill hasn’t even done a woodwork GCSE.
IN THE CHANNELS
The Warm-Up isn’t against a bit of self-promotion, so in that spirit hats off to our French office for managing to convince Chelsea defender Kurt Zouma to come and play journalist Martin Mosnier at a game of FIFA. We suppose we shouldn’t be surprised that a professional sportsman has a competitive streak but still, Zouma *really* gets into it.
RETRO CORNER
Adam Hurrey’s tangential mention of Renford Rejects in Thursday’s Warm-Up got Friday’s Warm-Up thinking. Not of the kids’ show, but the adult (and far, far superior) counterpart which also debuted at the end of the 90s. Yes, seminal Sky show Dream Team. There’s so much uncondensed genius to pick from, but where better to start than the drama of the 1999 FA Cup final and the sniper in the scoreboard. Yes, this really was broadcast on TV.
COMING UP
Brighton can take a step closer to their first ever promotion to the Premier League when they visit QPR, live on Sky Sports 2 at 7:45pm. Meanwhile, the pick of the foreign football sees Villarreal take on Athletic Bilbao – the team they replaced at the top of the hipster power rankings about 18 months ago. You can catch that on Sky Sports 5, if your TV goes up that high.
Adam Hurrey is not fed up with writing Monday’s Warm-Ups, but almost. Join him again after the weekend’s action.
