Spain discusses the difference between **** off and **** you
Jude Bellingham’s sending off in Real Madrid’s game against Osasuna led to a unique debate on the difference between saying ‘**** off’ and ‘**** you’. The player claimed he said the former, and that he’d aimed it at himself out of frustration, but the referee insisted he said the latter to him, hence the red card.
Carlo Ancelotti defended Bellingham, suggesting that the ref’s lack of English had led to a misunderstanding. “Jude said ‘**** off’, not ‘**** you’, which in Spanish means ‘don’t **** with me’.” Pep Guardiola even had his say on the matter. “My English is good, but I don’t understand the difference between ‘**** off’ and ‘**** you’, but the best thing is to leave the referees in peace.”
Madrid used “a recognised forensic lip reader” to try to prove that the player had said ‘**** off’, but a disciplinary panel concluded that he said ‘**** you’ and gave him a two-match ban.
The quirkiest take on it all, perhaps, came from Real Madrid old boy Rafael van der Vaart. “Everyone in England says ‘**** this’, ‘**** that’. There’s quite a difference between saying ‘f*** off’ and ‘f*** you’. It’s not polite, but it’s almost like ‘thank you’.” So, eh, next time someone holds a door open for you in England, you know what to say.
Jude Bellingham’s red card sparks debate on the intricacies of swearing
Denise O’Sullivan says Carla Ward’s preferred style of play ‘is not going to happen overnight’
Genius-level Mohamed Salah enters his imperial phase to guide Liverpool to win at City
Shamrock Rovers apologise to supporters after postponement of Cork City game
Word of Mouth
“Lookman was not supposed to take that penalty, he is one of the worst penalty takers I’ve ever seen. He has a frankly terrible record even in training, he converts very few of them.”
Atalanta manager Gian Piero Gasperini stopping short of calling Ademola Lookman a spot-kick king after his miss in the Champions League defeat by Club Brugge.
“Me dad said, ‘if you don’t make it in England you can come back and be a sparky’. That wouldn’t have worked out because I’m colour blind. I don’t think you’d want me doing your house. Turn the kettle on and your phone rings, that would have been it.”
Alan Mahon, the new assistant manager of the Republic of Ireland’s women’s team, on it being just as well that he became a footballer instead of an electrician.
“You should have signed for a big club.”
West Ham fans taking too much delight in beating Declan Rice (and Arsenal) on Saturday.
“Look at De Ligt, the amount of money they spent on him is almost obscene. He plays like a robot. Sometimes he can clear the ball but he puts it out for a corner.”
Martin Keown reckoning Matthijs is barely worth €45, never mind €45 million.
In words
“This league was called the problem child, but believe you me ... the biggest problem child in Irish football is the FAI. End of story.”
That’s Damien Duff off Abbotstown’s birthday card list.
In numbers
6.4
That’s how many million Euros Shamrock Rovers earned from their Conference League run, some consolation for that penalty shoot-out heartache.
Arsenal fans have to pay a pretty penny to see their team play PSV
Most aggrieved fans of the week? We’ll go with the Arsenal faithful, and not even because they saw their title challenge (potentially) go belly-up with that defeat to West Ham on Saturday. Before that, the club was drawn against PSV Eindhoven in the last 16 of the Champions League, the away leg taking place on March 4th.
Alas, as sports fans of all sorts of persuasions have long since learnt, air fares can rise a touch the moment a draw is made. So, for the one hour flight from London to Eindhoven, with a certain budget airline ...
... if you took the earliest flight on March 2nd, it would cost you €19. The earliest flight on the day of the match, two days later? €447. By the Daily Mail’s calculations, before the draw the return trip would have cost around €48. After? €909. Rowing might be a better option.
Jim Ratcliffe’s lack of knowledge on women’s game is caught out
Since he became part-owner of Manchester United last year, Jim Ratcliffe hasn’t shown a great deal of interest in the women’s side of the operation, not even turning up at last season’s FA Cup final when they beat Spurs. But while he admitted that the men’s team is his chief focus, and is no doubt giving him sleepless nights, he insisted that he did indeed have an interest in the women’s game. “It’s growing really quickly in popularity and size, we need to participate in that.”
But as The Telegraph revealed last week, he displayed a slight lack of knowledge about it all when he toured the club’s training ground last year. ‘What do you do,’ he asked one employee when he met her at the facility, possibly expecting her to say she worked in the canteen. Who was she? England international Katie Zelem and captain of United for five years (who also happens to come from Ratcliffe’s hometown of Failsworth near Oldham). Ah Jim. Do your homework.
