SALE AWAY... AFTER ALWAYS HITTING THE BULLSEYE
THE indomitable Charles Sale has retired after 20 years as this newspaper’s brilliant Sports Agenda columnist. England manager Gareth Southgate led the praise for our Charlie at the Football Writers’ Association’s tribute evening at The Savoy last month. Southgate also presented him with the ‘infamous’ dartboard used for player against press matches at last summer’s World Cup. After a media blackout followed Sale’s story that goalkeeper Joe Hart had organised a darts tournament for squad members at Euro 2016, Southgate’s England introduced a regular competition between press and players in Russia last summer. The duels came to encapsulate ‘how much better relationships with the media are under Gareth’s more enlightened regime’, said Sale, who was beaten by Gary Cahill in the inaugural clash between players and the media in Repino last June. We wish Charlie a long and happy retirement, and hope he enjoys reading your new-look Sports Agenda column, which will run every Monday in the Daily Mail.