Arsenal are just a franchise, Manchester United prioritise profit, Chelsea’s structure is skewed but Manchester City may be on the up – a management expert discusses Premier League clubs May 6, 2016 Build a strong team, win games, lift silverware: the external barometers for a football club are long established, but a new report suggests there is much more to look at when analysing how well a club is run. A new index from Organizational Maturity Services LLP (OMS LLP) judges Premier League clubs on their management [...]
Liverpool 3, Villarreal 0 (Agg: 3-1): Klopp taunts club’s critics as Liverpool torpedo sinks Yellow Submarine May 6, 2016 Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp taunted the club’s detractors and urged his side to complete their Europa League mission after blitzing Villarreal with a high-octane showing in Thursdays semi-final second leg. An early own goal from Villarreal defender Bruno Soriano wiped out their first-leg arrears, while Daniel Sturridge and Adam Lallana netted second-half strikes as visiting [...]
These Final Hours review: Plus our pick of the best films showing this weekend May 5, 2016 These Final Hours (15) Dir. Zak Hilditch | ★★★★☆ A low-budget Australian drama about a young man struggling to get to a party to celebrate the end of the world, and the young girl he meets along the way. Setting out boldly into this well-worn territory, These Final Hours is a smart film that loses its [...]
Knight of Cups review: Christian Bale stars as a traumatised Hollywood screenwriter in this faintly surreal movie May 5, 2016 Sporadic film maker Terence Malick is enjoying the most prolific period of his career, having made as many films in the last five years as he had in the previous thirty. His seventh film stars Christian Bale as Rick, a Hollywood screenwriter left hollow by success and tortured by family trauma, who embarks on a [...]
Florence Foster Jenkins review: Meryl Streep appears as the tone-deaf opera singer in this tender biopic May 5, 2016 Comedy can be a tough gig, even for Hollywood’s finest (just ask Robert De Niro). Nevertheless Meryl Streep has balanced comedic roles with more serious fare in recent years and, as with most things she does, made it look effortless. Her latest is based on the life of Florence Foster Jenkins, a New York heiress [...]
Shit-Faced Shakespeare review: a hilarious, unpredictable and booze-fuelled remix of A Midsummer Night’s Dream May 5, 2016 In Shit-Faced Shakespeare, five actors attempt to rattle through a condensed version of the bard’s pixie-fuelled sex comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Each night however, one member of the cast gets catastrophically pissed before curtain call, drinking their way through a trolley of booze as showtime approaches. Audience members are armed with a gong and [...]
Betting: Ruthless United to push nervous Norwich closer to relegation trap-door May 5, 2016 When Norwich beat Newcastle just over a month ago, the Canaries were six points clear of the Magpies, and four clear of the drop zone. But they welcome Manchester United to Carrow Road on Saturday lunchtime after three successive defeats, and are now two points behind Newcastle and safety. While that win, and another the [...]
Leicester City brand has grown more than any other club this season but Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea still top the list May 5, 2016 Leicester City have been placed above Manchester City, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur in a ranking of the strongest Premier League brands after catching the world’s attention with their historic title triumph. The newly-crowned champions are this season’s biggest risers on the Brandtix rankings of Premier League brand value, which measures both a team’s on-pitch and off-pitch [...]
Football betting: Manchester City and Arsenal can edge closer to Champions League spot with a point May 5, 2016 It wasn't supposed to be this way for either of these two sides. When Manchester City against Arsenal was scheduled for the penultimate weekend of the season, it looked like a mouth-watering clash that could decide the fate of the Premier League. Instead, the Gunners travel to Manchester on Sunday with the trophy already in the [...]
Tottenham in talks to stage next season’s Champions League matches at Wembley, confirms FA chairman Greg Dyke May 5, 2016 Chairman Greg Dyke yesterday confirmed that the Football Association is in negotiations with Tottenham over the north London club playing its Champions League matches at Wembley next season. Spurs later released a statement affirming their intention to consider playing European games away from White Hart Lane in order to comply with Uefa stadium regulations. Next [...]