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It Is hard to
believe Zinedine
Zidane has gone from
trying to force Gareth
Bale out of Real Madrid
to making him part of
his first-team plans.
More likely, Bale (right)
is on borrowed time
until Eden Hazard is fit.
Yet he performed well
against Celta Vigo and
looks to have played his
way into the squad, at
least. these are the only terms on which staying
with Madrid makes sense. He is far too good and,
at 30, too young to slip into Chinese backwaters
or play for a team beyond the elite. Yet Zidane
must continue giving him a chance. An even
worse option than mid-table or points east would
be to sit, unused and unloved, in the stand.Daily Mail, Friday, August 23, 2019Oliver proud
to be Irish,
until he’s not
If tHERE was
anything positive
about Manchester
City’s disallowed goal
last weekend, it was
the sight of all those
playing at being the
only grown-up in the
village being exposed
as imposters, the
former referees and
many hipsters who
sneeringly told critics
that if they had just
paid attention in the
summer they would
know that the VAR
verdict was correct.
Delightfully, it turns
out they don’t know
the handball rule
either. Kevin De
Bruyne, the
Manchester City
player who
complained most
bitterly, was smugly
concluded to be an
ignoramus by people
who had as smart a
take on it as Ian
Holloway. De Bruyne’s
only mistake was in
completely accepting
the official
explanation for why
Gabriel Jesus’s goalwas disallowed, when
it was wrong and
based on a bogus
interpretation. De
Bruyne was informed
that any handball in
the build-up to a goal
is an offence, when
the rule actually
states: ‘It is an offence
if a player gains
possession/control of
the ball after it has
touched their hand/
arm and then creates
a goalscoring
opportunity.’
Yet Aymeric Laporte
in no way gained
control or possession
from his glancing
deflection, and when
the ball ended up with
Jesus, he still had to
beat several
tottenham players to
score. so it isn’t the
law that is an ass, but
VAR as applied in this
country. the fault, as
ever, is human. We are
told the kinks in VAR
will settle down but
for that to happen
common sense must
prevail. there is scant
evidence of it so far.RATHER handy for Ole Gunnar
Solskjaer that reports leaked of his
fury behind closed doors, following
Manchester United’s penalty fiasco at
Wolves on Monday. Until that point, he
was beginning to look a bit soft.
Solskjaer’s appeal was always, in part,
that he was not Jose Mourinho. He
was not dark, he was not seething
beneath the surface, he was not
manipulative. He was a bona fide,
straight-talking Manchester United
hero, with a smile, a cheery, upbeat
demeanour and a helpful hotline to
Sir Alex Ferguson. Yet at Molineux he
looked a mug. How can any team of
ambition not know who their penalty-
taker is, prior to kick-off — certainly
now football is governed by VAR? How
can Solskjaer not have made it clear
that Marcus Rashford’s execution is
superior and preferred right now?
Yes, there is the matter of Paul
Pogba’s ego. That a man who had
missed three of his last eight should
even enter into discussion with
Rashford — no matter who won the
penalty — says much of his flaws as a
team player. Yet Solskjaer invited that
ego to overwhelm the moment if he
did not make clear before the game
that Rashford was now the go-to
penalty-taker. By all means name a
reserve in case Rashford is
unavailable, but that should be the
matter closed. Instead, Pogba talked
the younger man out of it, and missed,
and Solskjaer then had the unenviable
task of defending him.
Later it emerged that, privately,
Solskjaer came over all masterful and
took Pogba off future penalty duties.
He also has the support of the team. It
all sounds rather convenient,
protecting the image of the manager,
again placing the blame on Pogba.
Ultimately, though, it is Solskjaer’s
job to manage, particularly the
high-maintenance players in high-
maintenance situations. All evidence
suggests that did not happen on
Monday until it was much too late.POGBA’S EGO BLAMED...BUT
IT’S OLE WHO LOOKED A MUG
Four games in and still no wins for
new Anderlecht boss Vincent
Kompany. After a defeat at home to
oostende on the opening day and a draw
with Mouscron and Mechelen, Saturday
brought a 4-2 defeat at Kortrijk, with the
player-coach at fault for three goals.
Kompany is an Anderlecht legend and
will no doubt be given time in his first job,
but carry on like this and a television
studio and Super Sunday cannot be far
away. Nobody watches Belgian football
over here anyway. It will be as if it never
happened.WHo knows what Nick Kyrgios
— the world’s most tiresome
sportsman — has in store for
the Us open next week.
swearing? spitting? Abusing
the umpire? tanking? Maybe
a row with an obvious supe-
rior? It’s all on the table. Great
tennis? Unlikely.
Kyrgios is indulged by the
myth he is box office. Yet what
is entertaining about watch-
ing a player squander his
potential? Where is the fun in
hearing him abuse better men,who are not in the position to
answer back, let alone climb
down from the umpire’s chair
and confront this brattish
little twerp with the home
truths he deserves?
If Kyrgios stopped acting up
he would have to play prop-
erly. And if he treated his
sport and his talent with
respect, he might find out he’s
not as good as his giant ego
believes. Kyrgios calls out
Novak Djokovic, Kyrgios calls
out Rafael Nadal. Who cares?What matters is the result
and Kyrgios has won only
a single match against the
big four.
He has played Nadal, federer
and Andy Murray — never
Djokovic — on seven occasions
in slams and achieved a lone
victory over Nadal at Wimble-
don five years ago. Murray has
faced him down across all four
slam events and Kyrgios won a
solitary set in 13. He lost in
straight sets to federer at the
Us open and his most recentmeeting with Nadal, this
summer, ended in four.
In the biggest competitions,
Kyrgios is ordinary. He has
played in 25 slams and never
gone deeper than two quarter-
finals: 13 times exiting in
rounds one, two or qualifying;
seven times in round three.
so, if your idea of fun is lousy
tennis played with a raging,
inexplicable sense of entitle-
ment, Kyrgios may well be
your idea of a superstar. for
most, he’s a crashing bore.OLIVER NORWOOD is
the captain of
Sheffield United in
the Premier League.
That is a lot of
responsibility and a
huge amount of
commitment is
required. Sheffield
United will not
survive this season
without getting the
most out of every
member of Chris
Wilder’s squad and
Norwood (below) is
huge for them. It is
his first season as a
Premier League
footballer and the
immediate casualty
is his international
career. This
week, after
57 caps, he
called it a
day with
Northern
Ireland.
Michael
O’Neill, his
manager, said
he was making a
huge mistake.
Former player Jim
Magilton believes he
will regret it. David
Healy, now manager
of Linfield, added
that the decision
beggars belief.
‘He could play
international
football at the same
time,’ Healy insisted.
‘Steven Davis has
done it, Jonny Evans,
Gareth McAuley,
Craig Cathcart. Even
back in the day
players like Neil
Lennon, Steve Lomas
and Keith Gillespie
did both. I did it
myself.’
Notice anythingabout that list? All of
the players
mentioned are from
Northern Ireland.
Davis, Evans,
McAuley, Cathcart,
Lennon, Gillespie and
Healy were born
there. Lomas was
born in Hanover,
Germany, but only
because his father
was in the army. By
the age of two, he
lived in Coleraine.
Norwood is from
Burnley. He played
for England at Under
16 and Under 17 level,
and then reappeared
in Northern Ireland’s
teams from Under 19,
and has
remained
with the
country
ever since.
He
qualifies
through his
grandfather
and has been a
loyal mainstay of
O’Neill’s team. Yet
last season Norwood
made himself
unavailable for the
first four European
Championship
qualifiers — and now
this. The problem
with allowing
players to switch
nationalities is that it
makes international
football a jacket that
can be tried for size
and discarded when
it doesn’t suit. No
doubt Norwood felt
very proud to be
Northern Irish —
right up until the
moment he felt
prouder to play in
the Premier League.Box office? Kyrgios is a brattish twerp
Tantrum: Nick
Kyrgios loses
his rag again
earlier this
month USA TODAY