With the exception of Belarus, South Korea and starting this Saturday, Germany, global football is currently suspended. The Premier League has been given the all clear by the government to restart after June 1, behind closed doors, and with that in mind, teams are now training awhile adhering to social distancing guidelines.
However, there are still plenty of questions to be answered when it comes to Project Restart, and we’ll learn more this week as meetings are held and votes taken.
Until football returns, we still have plenty of news items to cover. Interesting enough, our first two items relate to former United manager Jose Mourinho.
Regardless of what you think of him, your feelings about him are probably strong, and that’s why he is indeed the straw that stirs the drink. First off, Mourinho didn’t get along at all with Anthony Martial, and that’s not news.
What is news however, is that when he tried to sell him, it was Joel Glazer who thwarted the plan. Not that any Glazer is beloved by the United fan base right now, but in this one instance, he was in the right. Mourinho, previously, has said that he wanted to sell Martial and why, but here we now have the specifics. Glazer believed in Anthony Martial and his potential, so he stopped Mourinho from selling him off. The Daily Star has more.
The other Mourinho related item here pertains to Nemanja Matic, one of Mourinho’s all-time favorite players, and his de facto manager on the pitch. This narrative, another case of a story from the past now being unearthed, actually relates to their time at Chelsea together, prior to their joint stint with United.
Mourinho once became so furious with Matic (amazingly this was during a friendly!) that he threatened to sell him. This was actually just six months after Matic returned to the club too. And for what it’s worth, Chelsea would go on to come back and win the friendly, against AFC Wimbledon.
The Daily Mail has more at this link.
Finally, Matic, when asked who United’s best player is by The Guardian, responded with Marcus Rashford, and pegged him to be among the best strikers in the world.
“We have a lot of young players, but they have maybe not reached their top yet, but Marcus Rashford has the ability to be one of the best players in the world in his position,” Matic said.
“He’s still improving, but he has everything to reach that top level.”
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.