It continues to be a very exciting summer at Manchester United, with plenty of topics to discuss. What offseason, right?
So let’s take a spin through the latest news and notes items making the rounds on the internet today.
-Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho is doing World Cup punditry for the Kremlin funded television network, Russia Today this World Cup. One of the hottest topics of this tournament is player diving, especially the antics of Brazil superstar Neymar. Social media has had a lot of fun at the expense of Neymar this tournament, and deservedly so, given all the theatrics that have accompanied his diving.
Mourinho, while acknowledging all the play-acting that Neymar has done, doesn’t think it’s right to single the Brazilian out.
“People are focusing on Neymar, but if it was only Neymar I’d be happy — but it’s not only Neymar,” Mourinho said on RT.
“Every team has lots of diving, lots of pretending, lots of putting pressure on the referee. The game loses quality, and for me that was the negative point. It’s not about England and Colombia, it’s almost every match, they are creating such a difficult job for the referees in every match. Even with VAR the players are creating problems.
“I was surprised to see central defenders like Harry Maguire, normally he is a very honest guy, diving in the attacking box asking the referee for VAR,” Mourinho continued.
“The players should feel the responsibility of playing in the World Cup in front of billions of spectators.”
If Neymar picks up one more yellow card in tomorrow’s quarterfinal against Belgium, and Brazil advances to the semi-final, he would be suspended for that match.
-Likewise for Paul Pogba; if he picks up a yellow tomorrow and France defeats Uruguay, he would be suspended for the semi-final.
-Switzerland star Xherdan Shaqiri, a target of several teams, including Manchester United and Liverpool, said he will announce his new team soon. With the Swiss now eliminated from the World Cup in the round of 16, he is free to focus on the next step in his career. He spent the last season with Stoke City, but with the Potters relegated he wants to move on to a team stay stays up in the top flight this season.
“At the moment, I can’t say anything. You are going to hear soon on my future,” Shaqiri said (This is Anfield).
“I was not thinking about this because I was just focused on my national team and wanted to make a good tournament for my team and my nation.”
“It’s pretty normal to be aware of clubs being interested. I don’t know, it’s not dependent on me sometimes. Of course, I would like to play on the biggest stage in football. Everybody knows that. I hope I can stay in the Premier League. I hope so, you never know with football. I don’t rule out anything.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, is currently a regular contributor to SB Nation, WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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