‘PLASTIC BRIT’ ROW BELONGS IN THE PAST

land’s football head coach Gareth Southgate, Dear England is billed as “a gripping examination of both nation and game.”

Expect missed penalties at Euro 2020 and their aftermath, in which race loomed large in the public discourse.

I’ve booked my ticket.

Southgate hasn’t single-handedly changed social attitudes, but he is swimming with a welcome tide.

As yet, the England football team is drawn almost exclusively from those both born and developed as players in England itself. But in time this will surely change.

With Premier League clubs sourcing prodigies from overseas for their academies, and as the Home Office consid- ers easing the flow of talent into Britain, we could see residency qualify footballers for England who some might deem “plastic” – or at least would have done in that earlier, more bigoted age.

(*Turkey was subsequently stripped of its other Istanbul medal because of a doping offence.)

SAT ON A FENCE BUT...

The view from St James’ Park, under pressure, then and now: “We have not resorted to that, but I’ll tell you, you can tell him now if you’re watching it, we’re still fighting for this title, and he’s got to go to Middlesbrough and get something, and... and... I’ll tell you, honestly, I will love it if we beat them, love it!” Newcastle United manager Kevin Keegan in April 1996 with Sir Alex Ferguson clearly in his head as the title race neared its conclusion. He resigned nine months later.

“We will win the Carabao Cup. We will win the FA Cup. We will win the Champions League and we will win the Premier League.” Newcastle co-owner Amanda Staveley after defeat to Manchester United in the Carabao Cup final last month.

“Time is a very small commodity when you are sat in my shoes.” The Magpies’ current manager Eddie Howe last week.

Howe is the 24th Newcastle manager in the 26 years since Kevin Keegan – including Keegan himself who returned for seven months in 2008. There have been 29 different managers in the Premier League so far this season, not includ-

Grave Situation

Colin Graves (pictured left) is poised to make what it describes as a “controversial return” as chair of Yorkshire

Cricket, according to The Cricketer. The county may be deeply in hock to his family trust and desperate to find ways to satisfy this creditor, but if the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) endorses the return of Graves, who was Yorkshire chair in 2013-15 and then chair of the ECB itself from 201520, I think it’s fair to say its new broom will have snapped in two. The rights and wrongs of the past are in one way irrelevant: fresh leadership is surely a prerequisite if cricket is to move beyond its current governance crisis.

Whistle Up A Storm

A petulant Bruno Fernandes lays hands on a referee’s assistant while captaining Manchester United to a 7-0 defeat and the chief executive of charity Ref Support UK gets quoted in the national media expressing his concern for football officials.

A quick check of the Charity Commission website shows Ref Support had income of £643 last year, expenditure of £655 and £564 cash in the bank (no missing zeros). How’s that for PR leverage?

£ Ed Warner is chair of GB Wheelchair Rugby and writes at sportinc.substack.com