Everything is finally coming up Klopp again after a nightmare start to the season for Borussia Dortmund. Jurgen’s boys recovered from conceding a goal to Mainz in the first minute on Friday to win 4-2, giving them two consecutive wins and helping them jump out of the relegation zone to finish a week that also saw Marco Reus turn down bigger money elsewhere to sign a contract extension with the club. Naturally, all of this has Klopp very fired up.
Author: Brooks Peck
Avram Grant says Prince William asked him to be Aston Villa manager
Following the dismissal of Paul Lambert, Aston Villa are in need of a new manager and FA chairman Prince William has apparently notified his first choice. Even though he has no official affiliation with the club (aside from being their most powerful fan not named Tom Hanks).
Fresh off losing the African Cup of Nations final in a shootout ended with a penalty scored by a goalkeeper, Ghana coach Avram Grant tells Sky Sports:
“I met Prince William and he asked me ‘why don’t you come to Aston Villa?’. I said ‘when you become the chairman, I will come’.
“As long as my name is mentioned, I feel good with this, but not more than that. I want to continue with Ghana.”
It’s probably not a good sign that the future King of England can’t even convince someone to take the Villa job.
The five best quotes from Sport Magazine’s interview with ancient football warrior Diego Costa
Though Diego Costa has quickly established himself as one of the most formidable players in the Premier League, the language barrier has limited his ability to express himself primarily to his many goals and even more confrontations on the pitch. The one memorable quote we do have from Costa’s time in London so far comes from the second-hand tale of when he had Oscar round up their three toughest teammates (John Terry, Gary Cahill, and Branislav Ivanovic) on his first day and told them “I come into battle. You come with me.”
This sounds like a line from an old samurai film, but as Costa’s new interview with Sport Magazine reveals, this is actually how he talks. Naturally, this interview has several quotes that need to be highlighted.
Derby County partly credit success to a reduction in swearing
Steve McClaren’s Derby County are currently third in the Championship (just one point behind leaders Middlesbrough) and first-team coach Paul Simpson says that the team’s conscious attempt to reduce how much they swear at people has helped them achieve that position. Because they have apparently discovered that most human beings don’t enjoy having curse word shouted in their face.
Greedy Premier League player provokes hard-working fan into throwing more undeserved money at him
Not content with the £5.1 billion television rights deal signed by the Premier League a day earlier, Newcastle defender Fabricio Coloccini displayed the pure, unadulterated greed of the modern footballer by making a coin fly from the hand of a supporter at Selhurst Park, just as they were distracted by their own blinding fit of rage, and directly at his face.
Flare smoke creates haunting images from Greek Cup match
The quarterfinals of the Greek Cup has rivals AEK Athens and Olympiacos facing each other and the first leg was kicked off amidst an atmosphere worthy of such a menace-filled encounter. Smoke from the multitude of flares lit throughout Olympiacos’ Karaiskasis Stadium filled the air and settled over the pitch, making it look like the match was being played in some kind of eerie netherworld.
Conspiracy Theory: Harry Kane is a character designed by the FA and a marketing company
Harry Kane, the 21-year-old Spurs striker currently enjoying a run of form to rival Lionel Messi’s for best in the world, is not the person he seems to be. Of course, that’s easy to say when most observers of the game only just learned of his existence this season, but the creation of “Harry Kane” has been more than a decade in the making. And the objective is to produce the perfect mix of talent and benign likability in order to further propel the Premier League and English football to even greater financial and sporting success.
Mario Balotelli finally scores Premier League goal for Liverpool, gets berated for not celebrating
With Liverpool and Spurs even at 2-2, Mario Balotelli replaced Daniel Sturrridge in the 74th minute for the home side. To many observers, this seemed like a curious and futile decision, since Balotelli hadn’t scored in his previous 12 Premier League appearances for Liverpool even with a healthy number of quality chances afforded to him.
But in the 83rd minute, Balotelli ended his goalless streak by sweeping the ball into the net from close range. He then did his trademark non-celebration before getting mobbed by his teammates, and Liverpool went on to win 3-2.
The inner monologue of Man United’s press officer as Louis van Gaal defended his long balls
Oh God, what’s happening. What are these papers he has? Are they photocopies of his arse? I really hope they aren’t photocopies of his arse. This is bad. This is bad. This is bad. They’re going to eat him alive for this. What do I do? Should I just run? I can run and run and run and start a new life in Vienna, maybe. Surely they have nice, quiet football clubs where the managers don’t know how to use Microsoft Excel there.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic takes a selfie with himself
A wax figure of Zlatan Ibrahimovic was unveiled at the Grevin Museum in Paris on Monday and the real Zlatan made the most of the opportunity by taking a selfie with himself. His caption for the photo was even more Zlatan than a photo of two Zlatans, though.