With the exception of Belarus, South Korea and now, Germany, global football is currently suspended. The Premier League has been given the all clear by the government to restart in June, behind closed doors, and today brought news that training, in small groups, can now resume.
However, there are still plenty of questions to be answered when it comes to Project Restart, and we’ll learn more as the days and weeks go by. Until football actually returns, we still have plenty of news items to cover. So let’s take a spin through the Manchester United community in cyberspace.
We start with central defender Victor Lindelof naming his Swedish countryman Zlatan Ibrahimovic as his all-time greatest United teammate. It’s a surprising choice…well, okay not not really, it’s not that shocking after all.
“I’ve played with some really good players but, if I have to pick one, I’ll go for Zlatan,” Lindelof said to the club’s official website, as cited in Metro.
“I think he’s a great player and I got the chance to play with him in the national team and also in United. He’s the best player.”
They only played togethers five times, in 2017-18, as Ibrahimovic was still recovering from a serious knee injury he suffered that April. In the previous season, Ibra was the leading scorer on a United team that won a quasi-treble; kind of.
Jose Mourinho’s first season in charge saw the club claim the Community Shield, League Cup and Europa League titles.
Elsewhere, the Scottish Premiership officially ended their season today, declaring Celtic the league champions. (This is their ninth stright title)
It also means that Hearts have been relegated, and United goalkeeper Joel Pereira will now return to Old Trafford. He had a very poor season in Scotland, writes Stretty News, registering just one clean sheet before eventually getting dropped.
The only time we’ve actually seen him play at United in recent years is during overseas summer preseason friendlies, and those are all obvioulsy cancelled now on account of the pandemic. Buried beneath David de Gea and Sergio Romero on the depth chart, not to mention on loan shot-stopper Dean Henderson, there really is no place for him with the Red Devils.
His contract with United runs until next summer with a club option of extending an additional year. Not sure right now what picking up that option would actually accomplish though.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly contributes to WGN TV, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Now and SB Nation.
You can follow Banks, a former writer for Chicago Tribune.com, on Twitter and his cat on Instagram.