The coronavirus pandemic has brought all of world football down for the foreseeable future. The Premier League announced suspension of play until April 30, and at that point they will re-evaluate again. That said, there is still plenty of interesting Manchester United related news and notes to go over.
Let’s take a look at some of the news items trending in cyberspace right now during these very strange days and extremely uncertain times. (For today’s MUFC transfer rumors round-up, go here) We start with leading scorer Marcus Rashford, who made a very young fan’s day by responding to his letter about missing football.
Hi Alex, thanks for your lovely note. I am staying safe thank you. Working hard, reading lots. I’m a bit sad about not playing football too. I hope you’re keeping up with your school work. Loving your PJs! Be a good boy for your mum and get to bed buddy ??
— Marcus Rashford (@MarcusRashford) April 1, 2020
As part of an assignment for home schooling, Alex was asked to write to someone important. He choose the Mancunian living the dream for his hometown team. Alex wrote: “I am missing playing football on the weekends with my team Harefield United.”
Alex’s mother Lucy then sent it to Rashford via Twitter, who then responded:
“Hi Alex, thanks for your lovely note. I am staying safe thank you. Working hard, reading lots. I’m a bit sad about not playing football too.”
“I hope you’re keeping up with your school work. Loving your PJs! Be a good boy for your mum and get to bed buddy.”
Lucy’s thank you note is below:
Ahh thank you for the reply @MarcusRashford Alex will be chuffed to bits when I show him this in the morning. Hopefully we'll see you soon, once the season resumes. Take care ??@MapleCrossJMI
— Lucy (@Allin12Lucy) April 1, 2020
It’s great to see some good news right now. Anything positive, anywhere, when perusing news sites of any sort is always a very welcome development these days.
Elsewhere, United are reportedly no longer in the market for another left back. They’re fine with Luke Shaw and Brandon Williams, with the development of the latter supposedly making the Old Trafford brass realize they are good to go with what they have.
The Sun has an article quoting a United source as saying: “Ole loves Brandon’s attitude and he will be here next season. The bosses think he will save them £50 million.”
Finally, Harry Maguire, the world’s most expensive defender all time and current United captain, has opened up about life wearing Red Devils arm band.
“It’s a great honour to be the captain of this great club,” Maguire said to the Daily Mirror. “I’ve not really felt any different or acted any different.
“I see myself as quite a presence on the pitch and quite vocal around the lads.”
“We’re a young group and we need experience and we have the likes of Victor [Lindelof], David [De Gea] and Juan [Mata], who are really experienced around the dressing-room.”
“We need to help these young boys develop and make sure we develop into a top team and go and start challenging for big trophies.”
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 appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
You can follow Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com on Twitter here and his cat on Instagram at this link.