It’s Ryder Cup time

THE Ryder Cup takes place in Paris from Friday to Sunday. When I watched a golf tournament at Le Golf National earlier this summer I was happy to conclude that the Europeans would be favourites to beat the USA in this year’s competition. And then I saw the respective captains’ team selections.

The selection process for both sides is simple: both teams select the first eight players based on merit, and then each captain has four wild card selections based purely on personal choice. And this is where I think the USA’s Jim Furyk stole a march on Europe’s Thomas Bjorn. There’s no point debating the merits of each side’s first eight players because as stated they will be in France on merit, but comparing the wild cards shows some potentially glaring inadequacies within the European squad. Europe’s wild cards: Paul Casey, Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson, Sergio Garcia. USA’s wild cards: Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Tony Finau, Bryson Dechambeau.

Unlike Furyk, Bjorn was faced with the fact that his first eight selections included five golfers who were without any Ryder Cup experience and not unreasonably he felt that he needed some wise old heads to supplement the rookies — but did he pick the right old heads? Unfortunately captains, when in this situation, tend to favour experience over form. I can go along with Casey and Poulter, who are having pretty good seasons in the United States, but Stenson has had a poor year and Garcia has done nothing since winning the Masters in the spring of 2017. England’s Matt Wallace, who has been on fire this season, certainly deserved selection, but as I said Bjorn favoured the experience of Stenson and Garcia over Wallace’s sterling form. I hope he doesn’t come to regret that decision.

By way of contrast Furyk’s wild card selections are probably about right. Woods is playing his way back to form and fitness after a few, shall we say, bothersome years, while Lefty is probably the least deserving selection given his relatively poor year to date, but we all know what he can bring to the table. Dechambeau is playing ridiculously good golf as of late and fully deserves his place, while Finau is a tough, dogged professional who can be expected to hang in there if the going gets tough. So who’s gonna win? With the world’s current number one-, five-, six- and seven-ranked players I want to say Europe, but with the world’s current number two, three, four, eight, nine and 10 I make the USA favourites. However, as I hinted earlier, I like the look of the course from the European perspective and if the rough has been allowed to grow this inland links should favour Europe.

How much?

The amount Sheik Mansour has ploughed into Manchester Citeh in the 10 years since he bought the club: £1.5 billion. Value of the current match-day squad: £880 million, making it the most expensive ever assembled. With that in mind I bet he wasn’t too pleased on Wednesday when Citeh went down 2-1 at home to Lyon (squad value £325 million) in the Champions League.

Team of the week

David De Gea, United; Andrew Robertson, Liverpool; Joe Gomez, Liverpool; Declan Rice, West Ham; Andriy Yarmalenko, West Ham; James Milner, Liverpool; Ryan Fraser, Bournemouth; Leroy Sane, Citeh; Roberto Firmino, Liverpool; Josh King, Bournemouth; Eden Hazard, Chelsea. Manager: Jürgen Klopp, Liverpool.

This week’s games to watch

Today: 2.30pm Fulham v Watford; 5pm Burnley v Bournemouth, Cardiff v Citeh, Palace v Newcastle, Leicester v Huddersfield, Liverpool v Southampton, United v Wolves; 7.30pm Brighton v Spurs. Tomorrow: 3.30pm West Ham v Chelsea; 6pm Arsenal v Everton.

Championship — today: 7.30pm QPR v Norwich; Friday: 9.45pm Bristol City v Villa, Sheffield Wednesday v Leeds. Scotland — tomorrow: 2.30pm Kilmarnock v Celtic.

Game of the week: Brighton v Spurs. When I was perusing the early-season fixture list I assumed that this match was just another run-of-the-mill league game for my beloved Lilywhites. How wrong I was, and I could even surmise that tonight’s match is arguably Spurs’ most important fixture of the season.

Why is this the case? Spurs’ problems this season have been well documented; no less than nine first-teamers returning late to the club for pre-season having been involved in the World Cup final weekend; the lack of invigorating new blood following a hugely disappointing transfer window; and of course the delays in the new stadium build. Things started well for the club with three wins on the bounce, without in truth playing particularly well. Then came the 2-1 defeat at Watford, having been a goal to the good; the 2-1 loss at Wembley to Liverpool where the team selection, formation and tactics were simply bewildering; and finally Tuesday night’s painful Champions League defeat at the San Siro, again 2-1 after taking the lead, before allowing Inter back into the game in the 85th minute and handing them all three points in time added on.

Thus for the first time since he took the reins at Spurs Mauricio Pochettino has seen his charges lose three in a row and a fourth defeat simply cannot be allowed to happen.

The only problem is Brighton, led by ex-Spur Chris Hughton, are no pushovers at the Amex Stadium and they will strongly fancy their chances of knocking off Spurs, especially from set pieces where for some reason what was the best back line in the English game now has more holes in it than the proverbial colander.

The key man for Spurs is, of course Harry Kane; if he rediscovers his shooting boots than all will be well assuming, that is, that Christian Eriksen has shaken off his own substandard start to the season. It may be sacrilege but it may be time to rest Kane and go with a front three of Lucas Moura, Son and Erik Lamela. It would also help considerably if Dele Alli was back from injury. I’d also like to see Harry Winks get a start in midfield alongside fellow recent long-term injured Victor Wanyama, with Dembele and Dier joining Kane in the rest room.

And finally

Last week I referenced the 1990 FA Cup semi-finals where over the three games played 16 goals were scored. I then wanted to know what was unusual about those 16 goals. The games were, of course, Liverpool 3-4 Crystal Palace, Oldham 3-3 Manchester United and then Oldham 1-2 United in the replay. What was unusual about all this was that the goals were netted by 16 different players. In a welcome return to form John Grundey was first in with the correct answer.

This week: connect Gillingham FC with the President of Liberia.

Karaoke wars: the latest instalment took place last Sunday evening and saw many unheralded performers taking centre stage. Audrey and Sally received many plaudits for their spirited (with the emphasis very much on spirits) rendition of Stumbling In, while Peter Dawson as ever was smoothness personified in every song he sang and Ian Williams entertained yet again with Boom Bang-a-Bang. (Might be an idea to expand the repertoire, Ian.) The winner, however, was Joe from Upper Hale, which I am told is a posh place near Liverpool. His performance of Kenny Rogers’ The Gambler was spot-on, as was his a cappella version of Seven Drunken Nights. A special shoutout to John Grainger; he may not have won on the night but anyone who sings Arlo Guthrie’s superb City of New Orleans is never going be a loser.