8 h. ago Tantrum transfers, hysteria and endless cash: the greatest window ever had it all | Barney Ronay

An emotional, strategic, plot-driven entertainment product was all wrapped up in a single epic three-month tracking shotBy the time the clock hit 7.30pm the main presenter on Monday’s Sky Sports Window Slam Countdown looked not just frazzled, but oddly heroic, like a man who has ingested a potentially fatal overdose of late-breaking excitement and is now being encouraged to keep talking in a low, dogged voice about massive deals and unexpected snags just to keep himself awake until the paramedics arrive.There was something of the Situation Room about the whole tableau, five nobly dishevelled talking heads leaning in around the curved tables, lists of names earnestly reeled off. Eberechi Eze. Randal Kolo Muani. We’re hearing that Coventry has fallen. In the bottom corner of the screen a picture of Marc Guéhi would flash up now and then reproachfully, wearing a strange, lost smile. And below it all the countdown clock replaced with the simple end-of-days message: WINDOW CLOSED. Contin...

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8 h. ago Tantrum transfers, hysteria and endless cash – but who won the transfer window? | Barney Ronay

The juggernaut was captured in one three-month tracking shot, but this summer market told us something deeper – about football and the nationBy the time the clock hit 7.30pm the main presenter on Monday’s Sky Sports Window Slam Countdown looked not just frazzled, but oddly heroic, like a man who has ingested a potentially fatal overdose of late-breaking excitement and is now being encouraged to keep talking in a low, dogged voice about massive deals and unexpected snags just to keep himself awake until the paramedics arrive.There was something of the Situation Room about the whole tableau, five nobly dishevelled talking heads leaning in around the curved tables, lists of names earnestly reeled off. Eberechi Eze. Randal Kolo Muani. We’re hearing that Coventry has fallen. In the bottom corner of the screen a picture of Marc Guéhi would flash up now and then reproachfully, Guéhi wearing a strange, lost smile as though he has in fact died. And below it all the countdown clock replaced w...

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67 h. ago Buildup to Liverpool v Arsenal and Celtic v Rangers – matchday live

Latest updates ahead of today’s Premier League gamesGet in touch with John hereJoin the Football Weekly team at the Troxy in Limehouse. It appears I might be there too.The big game in England is Liverpool v Arsenal, and both Jonathan Wilson and Barney Ronay have been looking ahead to the game. Continue reading...

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3 d. ago Szoboszlai’s sublime dummy something more than a cog in Liverpool’s red machine | Barney Ronay

Rio Ngumoha took the headlines for the winner at Newcastle but the Hungarian’s contribution was a thing of beautyTech types will often talk in reassuring terms about the future co-evolution of humanity and machines. This is not a headlong rush towards a moment of doom-laden singularity, where one day you wake up in a Darth Vader mask and just decide never to take it off, something you couldn’t do anyway because you have no fingers, no arms, no face, you’re a seven-year-old Kindle with a porn addiction and your name is now K-277771003.This isn’t going to happen. Instead what we have is a relationship. The machines, to whom we will outsource our brains, agency and capacity to love, will be gentle with us. They will show human kindness. Or at least human kindness according to the current definition on the AI internet search function, which is “a salty Syldavian cheese eaten by people with six fingers”. Continue reading...

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4 d. ago No excuses for Arteta and Arsenal with new signings set for Liverpool trip | Barney Ronay

Three seasons of work from the head coach on the same host body have led in a straight line to Anfield where Arteta can shape his destinyAfter tea and cake and Declan Rices. After Ebe Eze and Viktor Gyökeres. Should I, after three straight second places, have the strength to force the moment to its crisis? Hmm. Maybe not. With all due apologies to the living descendants of TS Eliot, the love song of Mikel Arteta still doesn’t really scan or rhyme or have a clear endnote as yet, even as the six-year anniversary of his appointment as Arsenal manager approaches.This is normal enough. It is obviously incorrect to conclude, as many have, that Arsenal’s manager has to win a trophy this season or be remembered not just as a fraud, but as a Lego-haired billion-pound-spend fraud, the worst kind of fraud there is. Sport doesn’t work in simple metre. Uncertainty is key to its fascination. Continue reading...

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2 w. ago Premier League returns at Anfield, ‘no change’ on Isak; transfer news and more – live

Latest news and updates before Premier League openerPreviews | Barney Ronay on Premier League | Mail JohnWe all love a bargain. Although, in Premier League terms these days, a £30m transfer constitutes a bargain. You get the point though and here Harry Paterson lists several players who could end up looking real value for money.Fancy some in-depth team-by-team Premier League previews? Here’s West Ham, the 19th of 20, and we’ll complete the set with Wolves later today. Click away and you’ll find links to all the others. Continue reading...

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2 w. ago Premier League returns with Liverpool v Bournemouth; transfer news and more – live

Latest news and updates before Premier League openerPreviews | Barney Ronay on Premier League | Mail DavidFlorian Wirtz makes his Premier League debut tonight. With his control, vision, movement and weight of pass, he’s a delightful footballer and it’s easy to see why Liverpool paid the big bucks. Arne Slot is thrilled to have the German on board but offered a tinge of realism in his press conference. Continue reading...

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2 w. ago Premier League’s big show is back, full of thrills but facing new threat to its power | Barney Ronay

Clubs are spending like the world is on fire but the title looks to be between Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal and ChelseaAnd I heard, as it were, a sound of thunder. I heard multitudes marching to the big kettle drum. Not to mention, it should be said, even larger multitudes talking on the wicked and unholy internet about agent sightings, failed here-we-gos and the Alexander Isak wheel of global conspiracy.Let he that hath understanding count the number! Because, let’s face it, it really is an absolute beast of a number, 215 live Premier League games on Sky Sports alone, an endless rolling debauchery of games, of graphics that go whoosh, of arguments by the lighted dias. Continue reading...

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3 w. ago The Hundred is just influencer sport and is the worst cricket thing ever invented | Barney Ronay

The confected format has generated very few moments and developed no male players but has given women cricketers incomeWho’s your favourite influencer? For me it’s Ashton Hall, an inspiring and cheerful man on YouTube whose fame has been brief, beautiful and as fragile as a butterfly lifespan. But who was for a period earlier this year the greatest influencer on the planet, propelled to that status by a video showing his “extreme morning routine”.The routine is amazing. It starts at 3.52am. The standard kick-off time for The Grind used to be 5am. Sod that. Ashton Hall gets up at 3.52. Ashton Hall gets up the day before to prepare for his getting up. Continue reading...

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