United are truly reeling this international break, having suffered a brutal Manchester derby defeat to their neighbors and rivals this past Saturday. The 2-0 score line doesn’t do justice to how really one-sided it actually was.
Now they have to lick their wounds, all the way until 10 days time, when they’ll visit Watford in league play. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will stay in charge, despite calls to sack the embattled manager only growing in both volume and number.
It was thought he was going to be sacked after the Oct 24 thrashing by Liverpool, 5-0, but yet he’s still the gaffer. In fact, three Premier League managers have lost their jobs since that date, and OGS is not one of them. Why is that?
Well, according to club legend, television pundit and coach Gary Neville, CEO Ed Woodward doesn’t want dismissing the Norwegian to be his final major act while in charge. Woodward handed Norwegian a nice contract extension just four months ago, and having to buy it out would obviously convey just how disastrous the decision to extend him truly was.
Woodward will step down at the end of this calendar year, and clearly, he doesn’t want to go out on a whimper.
Meanwhile the club is fading fast from the title race and could easily find themselves out of top four contention before too long, but I guess Woodward doesn’t really seem to care about that. Guess the club’s owners, the Glazer brothers, don’t really care too much either.
Elsewhere, flashy midfielder Paul Pogba has suffered what the French national team deemed a “right thigh injury” and he’s withdrawn from the squad. He’ll miss both of Les Bleus upcoming games this international period, as he was replaced by Jordan Veretout.
French outlet RMC Sport claims that Pogba could be out for 8-10 weeks with the injury. And finally, Marcus Rashford, MBE, had his formal ceremony to receive his royal honor from Prince William today.
Rashford received his medal, awarded for the work he did in bringing awareness to the plight of under-privileged schoolchildren. Rashford’s work brought public awareness to the children who were denied school lunch despite having an extreme dependence on it.
“There’s a lot of work to be done,” Rashford told the assembled media at Windsor Palace.
“We’re nowhere near where we want to be, or where we feel the kids deserve to be. We’ve just got to stick at it and keep going.”
Congratulations @MarcusRashford ?
Keep continuing the vital work you are doing for vulnerable children across the UK pic.twitter.com/VO0J13LqQM
— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) November 9, 2021
He also posted on his Twitter account: “An honour to spend the morning with you [Prince William]. Thank you for making the day so special for me and mum. Very proud.”
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Bank (TheSportsBank.Net) and author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” as well as “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune, and co-hosts the After Extra Time podcast. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.