Antonio Conte started with an apology. The Tottenham manager was an hour late for his unveiling on Friday and he wanted his Zoom guests to know that it was because a video analysis session had overrun.
“I’m sorry,” Conte said, steely-eyed and stony-faced. But he wasn’t, really, because his new club is in a mess, he has joined mid-season, with no proper run at instilling his philosophy, and the time is ridiculously tight.
It is rare that a new manager has his presentation to the media after his first game, Conte having arrived on Tuesday to succeed Nuno Espírito Santo, waited for his work permit until Thursday morning and gone straight into the Europa Conference League home tie against Vitesse that night. Af…
Amina Hanif remembers the day she turned up for her first football trial. She was 14 and eager to impress the coaches at Watford with her nimble footwork and sheer pace. But, as she made her way from the car park to the training ground, she asked herself some serious questions.
“I questioned my life decisions there and then,” says the 22-year-old, who now plays for the Women’s National League side Chesham United and the Pakistan national team. “We were walking to where all the coaches, players and parents were and I remember my mum turning to me and saying: ‘They’re all staring!’ and, after wishing me luck, she headed straight back to the car and left me to fend for myself!”
Born into a British-Pakis…
Today, for the first time since Christmas Eve 2016, the Cleveland Browns did not lose a game, playing the Pittsburgh Steelers to a 21-21 overtime tie. It was still, inevitably, a pretty big disappointment for Cleveland. But before things got extremely Cleveland, they were very un-Cleveland, as new QB Tyrod Taylor led the team on a fourth-quarter comeback from a 21-7 deficit, culminating with a fantastic catch from Josh Gordon with two minutes to play in regulation. The teams stalemated in the extra period, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. After trading some punts back and forth, the Steelers had a shot at the win with a 42-yard Chris Boswell field goal. He missed. The Browns punted on their next possession, too, but gained new life with under a minute to go when Joe Schobert picked …
We wrote a lot of long stories this year that you probably didn't have time to read. Now is your chance to get caught up. How Jon Jones Became The Baddest Motherfucker On Earth The baddest motherfucker on Earth and I are in a posh restaurant in a poor city with two guys he picked up at some point or another to shoot guns and drink beer with whenever he isn't elbowing people in the face, and we're laughing, the four of us, hearty guffaws that crash around the table. I'm telling them a funny story I heard during my week here in Albuquerque, about a fighter who was knocked out the first time he fought on pay-per-view, with all his friends and family watching at home. It starts with him sprinting across an eight-sided chain link fence, chin out, fists low, and ends wit…