Quote
“Disgusting, pathetic, insulting, hang your heads in shame you shower of arseholes.” – James McClean not taking tremendously kindly to Derry being labelled “Londonderry” in a map that featured in the FAI’s match programme for the women’s play-off against Wales.
By the Numbers: 10,583
That’s how many miles Mackenzie Kinsella travelled from his Sydney home for Saturday’s Merseyside derby ... which was postponed. Strewth.
Bitter Becks
The Mirror had big news last week: David Beckham might soon be a Sir, rumours swirling that he’ll be knighted in King Charles’ New Year’s Honours List.
They noted that no one would be more surprised than Beckham himself after emails he sent to a business associate were leaked in 2017 in which he complained that the OBE he received in 2003 hadn’t been ungraded to an MBE. Evidently, he felt an OBE was the equivalent of winning the Carabao Cup, while an MBE was more Champions League.
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Describing the Honours Committee as “unappreciative c***s”, he let rip. “I expected nothing less. It’s a disgrace to be honest, and if I was American I would have got something like this 10 years ago.”
The he dragged poor old Katherine Jenkins in to it after the Welsh singer had been awarded an MBE. “For what? Singing at the rugby and going to see the troops? F*****g joke.”
But the Mirror reckons all will be forgiven and he’ll be given that knighthood, the World Cup of honours. If he misses out and Jenkins is made a Dame, his next set of emails will be unrepeatable.
Word of Mouth
“I drove here with my dad beside me and he kept looking down at me with no trousers on. Mam was in the back with the needle and thread.” Damien Duff on his trip to the SSE Airtricity/Soccer Writers awards after splitting his pants. Mercifully, his Mam had mended them by the time he accepted his Personality of the Year gong.
“It’s a lot to take in.” Rasmus Højlund admitting that he and his team-mates are struggling to come to grips with Rúben Amorim’s instructions – ie to score goals and not concede them.
“This has been going around for a while now – I can’t deny there are similarities. The hair and the low socks give rise to the story.” Nottingham Forest’s Jota Silva on being dubbed the ‘Aldi Grealish’. Which sounds a bit disrespectful, but he did, after all, cost €93 million less than Jack.
“I just want to say you’re led by a man named Jonny, I just know him as Jonny and he’s a winner and he’s the president and I’m the president. We’ve known each other a long time ... I want to send my highest regards and respect to Jonny.” Donald Trump saying hello to Fifa president Jonny Infantino, better known as Gianni, in a pre-recorded message during the draw for the Club World Cup.
Team-mate Terrors
It was always unlikely that Rafael van der Vaart’s reflections on his time playing alongside Cristiano Ronaldo at Real Madrid would go down tremendously well with the Ronaldo man himself.
“He was unbelievably selfish,” said the former Dutch international. “If we won 6-0 and he did not score, he was not happy. When we lost but he scored twice, it’d be all right. But he was the first one on the training pitch and the last one who left. I always say as a joke: Ronaldo is the only player whose willy I never saw.”
Ronaldo’s response on Instagram? “Who is this guy?” That was Rafael put in his place.
City Circus
Pep Guardiola on aping José Mourinho at Anfield last week by holding up his fingers to remind the crowd how many Premier League titles he’d won: “He won three, I won six.”
José Mourinho on being told about Guardiola’s comment: “Guardiola said he won six trophies while I won three. However, I won them fair and clean. I don’t want to win while having 150 legal cases.”
Meanwhile, Arne Slot on being asked about Mo Salah hinting that he wouldn’t be playing against Manchester City next season: “Maybe Mo knows more about the 115 charges so he expects them not to be in the Premier League next season. That will probably get the headlines, but it was a joke. I repeat: it was a joke.”
This is proving to be a long old season for poor old City.
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