SILVA USED HULL FOR HIS OWN GAIN
IF REPORTS are correct that Marco Silva will return to Hull for three of their best players, he really is the gift that keeps on giving. Silva did not, after all, keep Hull in the Premier League, but now – having stayed up himself by landing the job at Watford — he is back to strip them of their best players.
Kamil Grosicki was recruited on his watch, as was Omar Elabdellaoui, who was only ever on loan; but goalkeeper Eldin Jakupovic was a Steve Bruce signing from 2012, the club having been alerted to his talent by Nick Barmby. With Hull’s owner ever more reluctant to reinvest, a relegation fire sale could prove hugely damaging to hopes of a Premier League return.
Ultimately, Hull was only ever going to be a stepping stone for Silva; it was always about his future, and the club was just his vehicle. SO, in the end, Arsene Wenger stayed with a two-year contract and no imposition of a director of football. What was all that about then? If Arsenal, having lost their regular berth in the Champions League, end up surrendering Alexis Sanchez as well, how harmful and unnecessary has the saga of Wenger’s contract been? Almost as unnecessary as offering £87million for Kylian Mbappe of Monaco when Real Madrid have already had £105m turned down. A RATHER spiteful analysis of Tiger Woods’ downfall is that we are now seeing the real man, or the human beneath a manufactured image. It implies that Woods’ flaws are somehow greater, or more significant, than his genius.
That isn’t true. If all you ever knew of Woods was his golf, if you avoided clicking on debasing police videos or did not pore over the gossip columns for details of his private life or medications, your experience was no less real. Golf is the key to it all for Woods. You saw what drove him, what obsessed him; you saw what made him the man he is.
Actually, we already glimpsed the real Woods in the lurid details that emerged when his marriage broke up. Woods had a voracious sexual appetite and used it to take the professional pressure off.
Hookers, strippers, waitresses, porn actresses, girls in casinos, in clubs. Rather than contemplate the rivals gunning for him every week, Woods used female company as a distraction.
Corporate America couldn’t handle that reality, and neither could the media or his fans, and so he was forced to publicly repent, embrace Buddhism and carry on playing his airbrushed role.
He is a man in pain now. Not just the pain of greatness lost but actual, physical pain. Diego Maradona was the same and it drove him half-mad, too. By the time he failed his drugs test in 1994, he was still trying to win the World Cup for Argentina, yet needed a combination of powerful drugs to get out of bed in the morning.
It is the same for Woods as he fights to revive his career. Woods in a chemical stupor is no more real than Woods at the tee was fake. If it wasn’t for his desperation to return to golf, he wouldn’t even need the medicine.
Some may feel the latest footage represents a comeuppance or the peeling away of a cosily contrived image. But many would accept nothing less than that pretence — and having judged him harshly then, shouldn’t get to judge him again now. IT IS Scotland against England on Saturday, a game we are increasingly told is an inadequate contest, losing its lustre as Scottish football declines. Could Celtic, therefore, offer hope? No matter the flaws in Scottish domestic football, to go a season unbeaten in all domestic competitions is an exceptional achievement. BATE Borisov have never done it, despite their 11 consecutive Belarusian title wins. Scotland’s previous Invincibles — Rangers in 1898-99 — didn’t do it, either. They won all 18 league games, but lost the cup final to Celtic. So Brendan Rodgers has built a Celtic team with the potential to inspire a new generation. It may take time, but there is no reason why this cannot be the foundation of a Scottish resurgence.