We no longer try to understand why Real Madrid win the Champions League final - we just acceptThe German arms industry giant Rheinmetall is now paying to bask in the reflected glory of DortmundMon Jun 03 2024 - 06:00
Ken Early: Effortlessly elegant Ancelotti deservedly considered among the world’s bestReal Madrid manager has talked openly about his lack of philosophy and the adaptability which has allowed him to flourishFri May 31 2024 - 17:44
Ken Early: Manchester United face a choice over Erik ten Hag, but not a difficult oneThe awkward questions being thrown at the Dutch manager after the FA Cup final actually managed to unite the club’s fans behind himMon May 27 2024 - 06:00
Dublin Europa League final defies all prematch expectationsMaybe it’s good for football that magnificent Atalanta denied Leverkusen a perfect seasonThu May 23 2024 - 06:00
Ken Early: A guilty verdict on Manchester City’s 115 charges would poison Guardiola’s legacyTriumphant City boss doesn’t need to wait around for things to turn sour and could be best to take a leaf out of Jurgen Klopp’s bookMon May 20 2024 - 06:00
Ken Early: This is the worst Manchester United team in more than 30 yearsUnited will need four points from their last two matches just to equal their worst-ever points total in the Premier League eraMon May 13 2024 - 06:00
Ken Early: Liverpool may find inspiration for their new manager from beyond the starsVarious metrics say that Arne Slot will be a good successor to Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool - but all that matters is when he speaks, do the players listen?Mon May 06 2024 - 06:00
Ken Early: Postecoglou’s gung-ho principles come at a cost for SpursTottenham Hotspur have conceded 14 goals from set pieces this season but Ange Postecoglou refuses to hire a specialist coach to address the issueMon Apr 29 2024 - 06:00
Ken Early: FAI’s farcical search for an Ireland manager has an answer staring them in the faceFAI seems incapable of making a decision but they already have a candidate who satisfies criteria, who is available, and who they know wants the jobMon Apr 22 2024 - 06:00
Ken Early: Erling Haaland isn’t a beautiful footballer but he has the most important skillManchester City striker’s all-round game isn’t great but he is still the top scorer in the Premier LeagueMon Apr 15 2024 - 06:00
Ken Early: Patient England show how far Ireland have to goEngland calmly and methodically won the game despite a late barrage inspired by Megan Campbell’s long throw-insWed Apr 10 2024 - 06:00
Ken Early: It was typical Liverpool at Old Trafford – creating chances but lacking the ruthlessness to take them The Manchester United-Liverpool match was far more entertaining than the nullity of Manchester City v Arsenal, but which team do you think will win the title?Mon Apr 08 2024 - 06:00
Ken Early: Arsenal and Manchester City have produced three appalling matches this seasonGuardiola’s team are sluggish and have won only three of their last six in the league. This is not the kind of surge you expect from them at this point in the seasonMon Apr 01 2024 - 11:51
Ken Early: FAI inertia may yet net John O’Shea the Ireland jobTypical of these encounters, there were few chances with Xherdan Shaqiri’s free-kick the crucial momentWed Mar 27 2024 - 06:00
Ken Early: John O’Shea’s Ireland on-trend with a healthy nod to Bayer LeverkusenFrom the interim manager’s point of view, this might have been just a winning goal short of perfectionMon Mar 25 2024 - 06:00
Ken Early: John O’Shea steps up to fill the void as sense of drift persistsThis could have been a big week for the FAI – new season, new coach, new sponsor, new startSat Mar 23 2024 - 06:00
Ken Early: Manchester United may have reached a kick-start moment with chaotic win over LiverpoolIf any fool could see that Liverpool’s players have played more games than they can handle why did Klopp play so many first team players on Thursday?Mon Mar 18 2024 - 06:00
Ken Early: Liverpool, and the referee, let Manchester City off the hook Dramatic match left title race in balance and reminded Liverpool fans how hard Jürgen Klopp will be to replaceMon Mar 11 2024 - 06:00
In John O’Shea the FAI has found an Irishman who wants the job and believes he is ready for itFAI’s technical director Marc Canham gave the impression that he has a new permanent manager already lined upTue Mar 05 2024 - 06:00
Ken Early: How have Manchester United come to accept such mediocrity?For United, there was a quiet pride in only having lost 3-1. That’s where United are now – thinking that at least it wasn’t 6-1Mon Mar 04 2024 - 06:00
Ken Early: Klopp’s dream factory helps Liverpool tap into emotions of the gameJurgen Klopp has built a dream factory at Liverpool and his understrength side showed the belief to prove more than a match for big-spending ChelseaMon Feb 26 2024 - 06:00
Ken Early: Hiring Alonso as Klopp’s successor is a no-brainer for LiverpoolIt might be a risk to entrust the team to a coach with limited experience at the top level, but all options are risky when you have to replace KloppMon Feb 12 2024 - 06:00
Ken Early: Van Dijk gives his worst performance of the season but remains a key part of Liverpool’s future Van Dijk had a poor outing at the Emirates and Liverpool fans must hope his head has not been scrambled by the uncertainty clouding the club's futureMon Feb 05 2024 - 06:00
Ken Early: Another dramatic week in the history of the incredible shrinking BarcelonaIf you don’t have stars you’d better at least have a plan, and currently Barca have neitherMon Jan 29 2024 - 06:00
Ken Early: The shadow of Jürgen Klopp will loom over Liverpool for yearsThe German has managerial superpower of extracting consistently brilliant performances from almost every playerFri Jan 26 2024 - 22:00
Ken Early: For those who succeed in the game, all can be forgiven By hiring former Manchester City executive Omar Berrada, United are saying: this man has already built one superclub, now watch him build anotherMon Jan 22 2024 - 06:00
Ken Early: Sancho was never a good fit for Premier League footballJadon Sancho has returned to the level of football where he belongs; a star player for one of the Bundesliga’s supporting castMon Jan 15 2024 - 06:00
Ken Early: The Havertz signing looks like the rock this Arsenal season will perish onThe shambles belied Arteta’s post-match insistence that ‘merit-wise, there is no question about who deserves to win the game’Mon Jan 08 2024 - 06:00
Ken Early: Did I really say that? Time to look back in humility at an up-and-down year Going through my columns for 2023, some themes emerge: the rise of Darwin Nuñez; Stephen Kenny’s fall; Evan Ferguson’s form and Manchester City’s resilienceSun Dec 24 2023 - 06:00
Damp squib at Anfield as Liverpool fail to fire While Jurgen Klopp juggles his midfield options trying to hit on the right balance, his centre forward Nuñez’s goalscoring stretches to 10 gamesMon Dec 18 2023 - 06:00
Ken Early: Unai Emery’s remarkable turnaround at Aston Villa owes much to the inept Steven GerrardEmery is going an excellent job, but the success and failure of players and coaches can hinge on factors over which they have no controlMon Dec 11 2023 - 06:00
Ken Early: Method in Postecoglou’s madness as Spurs make their pointTottenham manager’s progressive tactics reap some reward following a difficult monthMon Dec 04 2023 - 06:00
Ken Early: The Premier League is not corrupt – Everton knew the rules and they broke themIf enforcing its own rules makes the league corrupt, what would we call one that didn’t enforce them?Mon Nov 27 2023 - 05:00
Ken Early: Stephen Kenny took over an old bad team and turned it into a young bad teamThe next manager of Ireland needs to find a balance in the tactical set-up that has been sorely missingWed Nov 22 2023 - 06:00
Ken Early: Ireland have been outwitted again and again in Euros campaignThe Netherlands defender Stefan de Vrij showed Ireland players the way forward. They should follow his exampleMon Nov 20 2023 - 06:00
Ken Early: The Stephen Kenny era was a mix of hope, expectation, frustration and, finally, downfallRepublic of Ireland manager’s time in the job saw periods of hope, expectation, frustration and, finally, downfallSat Nov 18 2023 - 06:00
Ken Early: League of Ireland is thriving amid alienating developments in Premier LeagueDomestic football offering something authentic and very different from the alienating developments in the top level of the sportMon Nov 13 2023 - 06:00
Ken Early: Spurs are in their element as Ange Postecoglu gets chemistry right Tottenham, in the grips of a new euphoria, hope to intensify Mauricio Pochettino’s Chelsea headache on MondayMon Nov 06 2023 - 06:00
Ken Early: Erik ten Hag doesn’t get that football DNA should come from him, not Manchester UnitedThe Dutch coach was meant to bring something different from Ajax to Old Trafford. He has failed so farFri Nov 03 2023 - 20:29
Ken Early: Manchester United’s misery was summed up in two moments as City eased to victoryIf United’s supporters were feeling peeved about the result, they will not have felt any better having listened to the analysis of their coachMon Oct 30 2023 - 06:00
Ken Early: Has there ever been a worse time to be a goalkeeper?Mudryk goal for Chelsea against Arsenal was clearly a freak and not keeper Raya’s faultMon Oct 23 2023 - 06:00
Ken Early: Let Stephen Kenny finish his term with as much dignity as he can gatherDespite some saying Kenny’s three years were wasted, this was a better performance vs Gibraltar than under Mick McCarthy in 2019Mon Oct 16 2023 - 22:39
Ken Early: Results didn’t match rhetoric, but at least Stephen Kenny went down tryingIreland manager’s credibility dipped gradually, and then suddenly, but at least he was given the opportunityMon Oct 16 2023 - 06:00
Ken Early: Trash talk gives way to rubbish display as Ireland stink out the Aviva Ireland vs Greece review: An already-doomed campaign sees empty seats and a team that played like they didn’t want to be thereFri Oct 13 2023 - 22:28
Ken Early: Football devoid of those laughable errors is nothingDefending used to be about getting your body between the ball and goal. Not anymore; now coaches have a new tactical wheezeMon Oct 09 2023 - 06:00
Ken Early: We don’t have to persist with this nonsense - get rid of VARThe use of a video assistant referee has accomplished exactly the opposite of what it was supposed to achieve. And it’s making this column increasingly boringMon Oct 02 2023 - 06:00
Ken Early: London derby draw exposes Arsenal’s shortcomings in front of goalArsenal’s furious press initially disrupted Spurs’ patient build-up play, but feeling gaining traction Harry Kane sold at exactly the right timeMon Sept 25 2023 - 06:00
Ken Early: Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag looks devoid of skills to manage star playersHome defeat to Brighton a stark reminder of still absent Ajax style and worrying development of feuding with the expensive talentMon Sept 18 2023 - 06:00
Ken Early: The bare facts look ugly for Stephen Kenny as Ireland’s qualification campaign is all but overWhen the most common arguments for you include “Who else could do better with this squad?”, things are not looking goodSun Sept 10 2023 - 22:57
Ken Early: Ireland’s young players will deliver eventually, if they can endure and matureOn Sunday we must beat the Netherlands to keep our slim Euro 2024 hopes alive, but this Dutch side will be confident of victorySat Sept 09 2023 - 05:00
