1. It’s safe to say there will never be another Ali. His legacy, social impact and undeniable charisma reside on a mountaintop all by themselves. In the 40 years since his sudden decline, boxing has been in a desperate search for his successor. Some came close, but none quite measured up.
“Sugar” Ray Leonard had Ali’s flash, but not his honesty and desire. Tyson was the most fearsome man on the planet—but he never achieved his own potential athletically. Oscar De La Hoya had the smile and the cojones but never exuded even an iota of danger. Mayweather, the boxer with whom McGregor has had a number of contentious exchanges, had the persona down pat, but not the integrity and courage required to be truly great.
McGregor has it all—the patter, the edge and, most importantly, the will to be great. In just three years he’s reinvented the MMA game, won UFC gold and become the first fighter to successfully slug it out against Dana White, the most powerful promoter in combat sports. And he is reinventing a game built for a modern world that only amplifies personalities like that of “The Notorious.”
Before Conor McGregor took on Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205, Jonathan Snowden from Bleacher Report examined if the Irishman was the biggest fighter since Muhammad Ali.
2. Look at the present Premier League table and you will find nine of the top 10 teams under foreign coaches, with Burnley’s Sean Dyche the only Englishman getting a look-in.
No one considers this unusual any more, though in 1996, when Wenger moved to Arsenal from Japan, it was the first time a club had deliberately looked abroad to bring in new ideas. Gullit was already at Chelsea in a playing capacity, and was chosen to represent consistency when Glenn Hoddle left for England in May 1996, and though the FA Cup in 1997 was a significant achievement the Dutchman only lasted one more year.
Hoddle took over a Chelsea previously overseen by John Hollins, Bobby Campbell, Ian Porterfield and David Webb. After his departure for the national team he has been followed by an unbroken line of 14 overseas appointments.
The most successful manager in 1996 was not English either, Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United would win a third title in four seasons after Blackburn’s rise to the top of the league in 1995 proved short-lived, though 1996 did feature that rarest of events from a modern perspective – an English manager making a serious bid for the title.
Newcastle United under Kevin Keegan were widely expected to win the league after staying on top for the first half of the season and building up a 12 point lead over Manchester United by January. Famously they did not manage it, and Keegan now has to be content with being the last English manager to guide a side to runners-up spot in Premier League history.
The Guardian’s Paul Wilson looks at how 1996 was a turning point in English club football.
3. It is something every club should experience at least once in a lifetime whether at junior, intermediate or senior level. When you are involved closely with a club there are any number of disappointments, near misses, final defeats, internal disputes and then, one day comes along when everything just goes right.
The effect on community spirit is amazing and the scenes afterwards and even since are hard for me to comprehend – and I thought I had seen most things in football.
You can talk about county football all you want, but the club game is personal. A county winning an All-Ireland or even a provincial title inspires young people to try and emulate their heroes. It is the broad stroke of the pen.
At club the hero plays on the same pitch, talks to everyone and probably helps out coaching some of the younger players. Eventually they may play together at senior level; some of our players who won medals last Sunday were playing senior before some of the younger ones were born. Where else could you get families and generations interwoven in a rich fabric of giving and sharing?
Writing in the Irish Independent, Colm O’Rourke explains why winning the Meath SFC title with Simonstown with his son Shane, was one of the highlights of his sporting career.
4. In truth, golf does not know what to think as it continues to tiptoe its path around this moral maze like a drunk trying to find his way out of Augusta National after passing out in the dogwood. For the past 18 months, it has been wondering what to do about Trump and the influence he bears as an owner of some of the most high-profile courses, including the Ayrshire links which famously played host to the Duel in the Sun.
As Trump upset Mexicans, Muslims and a rather substantial section of the human race known as “women”, the game’s authorities tried to negotiate their positions through contracts already signed and majors already allotted.
Yet they did so assuming that Trump would be cast as a pariah at the conclusion of that mud-slinging campaign – and not as the leader of the free world. The outcome of the Duel in the Dung has changed everything.
Certainly, the United States Golf Asscociation will be relieved. America’s equivalent of the R&A – yes, it thinks of itself just as royal and comes across just as ancient – was expecting the controversy to intensify over its stance to keep next year’s US Women’s Open at Trump’s course in Bedminster, New Jersey.
The Telegraph’s golf correspondent, James Corrigan, deliberates how golf says no to Donald Trump.
5. Pick up any dictionary and check the definition of honesty. There will be references to integrity, loyalty, candour, right-mindedness, authenticity. All of these describe the Andy Murray I have come to know and, without wishing to confer sainthood on the poor man, the best tennis player these islands have had – and the freshly crowned No1 in the world – would still seem to be incapable of telling a lie.
That is at the core of his genius. There is nothing fake about what Murray does on court or, as far as evidence suggests, off it.
The sweary, chuntering, foot-dragging sufferer who prevails to conquer all real and imagined demons will not change just because he now looks down from the mountain instead of up.
It is one of his towering achievements that he is essentially no different to the Murray barely any of us knew when we first became aware of his talent a decade and more ago.
More than likely, he has changed little in character or demeanour since his mother, Judy, gave him and his brother tennis rackets in Dunblane when they were no higher than the net at the local club.
Kevin Mitchell in The Guardian praises Andy Murray for staying grounded after reaching the top of the tennis rankings for the first time in his career.
6. Overall, the Premier League’s top sides feel particularly structured and systemised this season, thanks to the appointment of managers with very strict philosophies. Playmakers who like playing in a free role have found themselves in stricter roles, or out of the team.
The most obvious loser has been Cesc Fabregas, the league’s most creative midfielder two seasons ago but a player who required freedom from tactical responsibilities to thrive. Conte cannot find a place for him and the Spaniard has started only one league game.
Elsewhere, Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva have continued as Manchester City regulars but in much deeper, more disciplined roles than they have been accustomed to, and Adam Lallana has been excellent at Liverpool – again, with stricter positional instructions.
Michael Cox in The Guardian looks at five tactical trends that have developed so far in this Premier League season.
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