Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
SCUDAMORE THE FOOTBALL REVOLUTIONARY TO STAND DOWN GREEN LIGHT FOR TWO-WEEK WINTER BREAK
RICHARD SCUDAMORE last night announced he will stand down from the Premier League by the end of the year.
Scudamore has overseen the biggest revolution in English football and made the Premier League the most popular and lucrative in the world.
Bristol-born Scudamore, 58, wants to stand down as executive chairman after nearly 20 years in charge having overseen the latest TV deal.
The announcement came shortly after the Premier League announced the final two TV rights packages for the latest £4.55billion deal, including one
DANNY ROSE is already a winner and a World Cup ball has not been kicked.
Even if his searingly frank interview nudges just one struggling footballer towards help with mental health, Rose will have done the worthiest of deeds.
But what might have been blurred by the jolting honesty is exactly how the environment of the national team and the prospect of representing his country at a World Cup became crutches as he limped through dark times.
His openness has made him stand out in a squad which has been communicative, relaxed and happy but has generally stuck to safe party lines.
Yet it is clear Rose is relishing the camaraderie that tournament camps cultivate.
And if he had an extra fizz in a game that occasionally, and predictably, fell a little flat, it was because he was competing in one of the few areas where selection is far from predictable.
Manager Gareth Southgate, in many more ways than one, is a staunch supporter of Rose but a heavily-disrupted season, leading to questions about his conditioning, has seen the Spurs man lose ground to Ashley Young. Indeed, in horse racing parlance, he looked like he needed this run.
As they say on the turf, he will come on for this outing but even against a Costa Rican side who looked like they had the hump over not playing at Wembley, there was still enough to make a convincing argument for Rose ahead of Young in the World Cup opener against Tunisia.
Young might have had an impressively consistent season for Manchester United but Rose still looks a more natural, more comfortable fit on that left flank.
Not that this was any sort of credible test of his defensive capabilities and that is why these pleasant Elland Road events will only have a sliver of influence on Southgate’s final selection. Marcus Rashford’s violently sumptuous strike and purposeful showboating will not earn him a starting role, the same goes for the confidence and intelligence of midfielder Ruben Loftuscheek.
Southgate is not going to make late judgement swings on the basis of an enjoyable, attractive performance against unambitious, halfcommitted, opponents.
That is why when Liverpool skipper Jordan Henderson gets the nod ahead of Tottenham’s Eric Dier, it will be based on his season’s body of work rather than this tidy, string-pulling effort.
But there are also players Southgate believes in despite recent travails.
And that is why the faith will be kept in Manchester City defender John Stones, despite an unconvincing performance, and that is why Rose could well be preferred to Young.
After his troubled physical rehabilitation, after a struggle with depression made all the more painful by an uncle’s suicide, racial abuse of his mum, and a shot fired at the family home, a starting place would not just be testament to his ability, it would be testament to his strength of character.
Through his troubles, he said England has been his salvation.
If Southgate puts his faith in this most honest of players, no-one will be more determined to repay him than Rose.