11 h. ago Benjamin Sesko is latest player damned by a pitiless conveyor belt of takes and memes | Jonathan Liew

Manchester United’s striker is a topic of context-free condemnation as social media’s sluice of aggravation sinks us allThe first thing you need to do is find a photo of Rasmus Højlund looking happy in a Napoli shirt. There you are. Now you find a photo of Benjamin Sesko looking sad in a Manchester United shirt. Like he’s just missed an open goal. No, obviously you don’t need to find a photo of him missing an open goal. The less context here, the better. Now pop the photos side by side. Overlay the goal stats in big buffoonish font. Don’t forget the emojis. Post to all social media channels.Will you mention that Højlund’s tally includes goals in the Champions League while Sesko is not competing in Europe at all? You will not. Nor will you mention that four of Højlund’s goals have come against Belarus and Greece, or the fact that Denmark are a much better team than Slovenia and create many more chances. You run socials for a big media brand, pure liquid engagement is what puts food o...

Sport

9 d. ago England beware: terminally obsessed Marnus Labuschagne has gone back to basics | Jonathan Liew

Australian batter, an evangelical Christian who believes this is all written out in advance, may force his way back for the AshesMarnus Labuschagne carefully spreads butter on both sides of a slice of white bread. “That’s the key,” he tells the camera as he brings down the lid of his sandwich grill. “Boom. Then you get it crisp on both sides.” He lifts the lid to reveal a golden square of pure toasted goodness, the melted cheese happily bubbling away inside. “So this is the trick of the trade,” he announces. At which point, he does something horrific and unspeakable.Already, I sense, a glaze of ennui is beginning to form across your eyes. The red lights of sportswriting pretension are flashing wildly. You’re probably aware that Labuschagne scored 160 for Queensland this week and is being feverishly talked up for an Australian Test recall before the Ashes. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago West Ham tumble in modern football’s vortex, with home now a distant memory | Jonathan Liew

A feeling of loss and dislocation surrounds the East End club, which has never been part of tourist or establishment LondonGraham Potter still turned up for work on Saturday morning, even though there was no work left for him to do. A team meeting was arranged, at which Potter announced to general bewilderment that he had been sacked. Potter left. Training was delayed because nobody was available to take it. Eventually the new coach, Nuno Espírito Santo, arrived on site and hastily began preparations for the Everton game on Monday.Perhaps on reflection it was inevitable that West Ham United’s big set-piece appointment went the same way many of their set pieces have gone this season. “We’re not West Ham any more,” disgruntled fans have been chanting at recent protests against the club’s ownership, but consider the evidence. A bungled sacking. A fiesta of contradictory leaks and briefings. Chaotic performances on the pitch. A vacuum of leadership and direction. Catastrophic recruitmen...

Politics

3 w. ago Manchester United player ratings vs Brentford as five get 5/10 but Benjamin Sesko good

Man United lost 3-1 to Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium and here are how the players rated.

Sport

3 w. ago Ageing revolutionary Guardiola is waging war on his own tactical orthodoxies | Jonathan Liew

What is the City manager’s new faith? Punting for territory and bypassing the midfield combat zone often entirelyForgive me father, for I have sinned. This is my first confession.Thirty-three per cent possession against Arsenal. Five shots. Gianluigi Donnarumma getting more touches than Phil Foden. And at this point, we have to acknowledge that Pep Guardiola is one of the principal reasons this kind of possession pornography exists in the first place: a serendipitous consequence of reinventing the game at exactly the moment we could start measuring the ways in which he was reinventing it, and exactly the moment we could beam it around the world in meme-sized fragments. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago The populist right wants to remake the UK in the image of Dubai. We should all be careful what they wish for | Jonathan Liew

Politicians and influencers eulogise the emirate as a place of cleanliness, convenience and low crime. The truth is far darkerI arrived at my friend’s apartment close to midnight, crumpled and groggy, too weary to do anything except brush my teeth and go to bed. Open the suitcase: no toothpaste. No problem, my friend insisted, grabbing his phone with the little twinkle in his eye that people get when they’re about to show off a neat trick. They deliver everything here, he said. We’ll call the store downstairs. And so it was with a kind of slack-jawed astonishment I answered the doorbell nine minutes later to a man in a motorcycle helmet, proffering a single blue carrier bag containing a single tube of Colgate, taking the money and receding wordlessly back into the night.This, a decade ago, was my first contact with Dubai. And though of course you can get gig-economy groceries in most major cities these days, Dubai still stands out as a world of shortcuts and simple conveniences, a w...

Politics

last month Vuelta chaos shows selling sport as a tool for peace can create its own battlefield | Jonathan Liew

Once teams promote a country, are owned by states or have to reflect government policy, sport becomes a playground for powerHigh fives all round at Hamas high command. The triumphant clink of Gaza Cola tins pings across the bunker. It’s been a tough week for the lads, what with five of their members being killed in the Doha airstrike, but you’ve got to celebrate the little victories, yeah? And as they use what remains of their fragile satellite internet connection to refresh the Cyclingnews live blog for the final time, the Hamas Grand Tour Disruption Division (Vuelta Branch) can toast an operation executed to perfection: the successful mobilisation of more than 100,000 members of the Madrid battalion to force the curtailment of stage 21 of the Tour of Spain.“They asked us to quit the Vuelta, but we did not surrender to the terrorists,” said Sylvan Adams, co‑owner of the Israel-Premier Tech team targeted by mass protests that disrupted several stages. O...

Events