Stealthy Abramovich stays under the radar
IT IS rather unfortunate for Thomas Tuchel that Chelsea’s little wobble appears to have coincided with a period when Roman Abramovich (right) is making a rare visit to this country. He was at Stamford Bridge for the 1-1 draw with Manchester United, for the first time in three years. Typically, though, his visit passed beneath the radar, undetected by any TV camera, photographer or journalist on the day. He’s no friend to managers, we know, but a successful chairman who invests, makes the big calls, but stays in the background is a rarity these days. New money, but rather old school.
YORKSHIRE have sacked their entire coaching staff in reaction to the county’s racism scandal. So they were all racists? It seems many will dispute that tainting of reputation, and may do so in court. Yorkshire would have to be careless indeed to have recruited 16 staff with the same backward mind. It seems a colossally sweeping reaction to a problem that would have been better addressed case by case, yet drew an immediately positive reaction from Julian Knight, chair of the dCMS committee. ‘The experience of azeem Rafiq at YCCC demanded no less,’ he said. This is why, of course, if one government minister gives grounds for dismissal, all the others go, too. It is incredible the standards politicians demand from other industries, given those set at Westminster. Who else carried the can for Matt Hancock’s inefficiency in the pandemic? not even Hancock, until his position was untenable.
THE strangest thing about football’s government regulator zealots is the way they talk as if things that didn’t happen, happened. The Super League did not form, defeated by negative reaction and rulebooks already in place. No club went skint due to the pandemic shutdown, which separates professional football from just about every industry, none of which have subsequently been told they need the Government checking their books. There have been hard times for football, and will be ahead, but that’s true everywhere. Equally, the idea there is some orchestrated pushback, as if anyone opposing a regulator is incapable of independent thought, is an insult. As far as I know, there was only one WhatsApp group formed in the media to campaign on this issue — it was created by Gary Neville with a very good public relations man to rally the country’s leading football writers and commentators to the regulator’s cause. After this, there was then one writer who publicly opposed the uniformity of opinion and was therefore removed from the group. You’re reading him.