The Times - UK (2022-04-05)

Times Crossword 28,256 across down Yesterday’s solution 28,255

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SECT SALAMANDER

U E U P C O A

LANGUOR PICKLED

T O N A E O L I

AUTOP I LOT MEANS

N A R I M R H

APPREHENS ION

S H D N E D S O

K INDERGARTEN

E C C O T E E

ROAST WEAR I NESS

O V A M S O R I

TREMBLE PON I ARD

I I L N E G E

CONTESTANT WEED

1 Associates bully fat people heading

off (2-7)

6 Needle game’s inconclusive (5)

9 Flyer opposing pedestrian facility

(7,8)

10 Some calumnious old students (6)

11 Dredge watering hole briefly

— deer returning (8)

13 Artless image on smart card

contains file (10)

14 Female group by banks of Liffey

showing craft (4)

16 Spot area knight has captured (4)

17 Police escorting the lady when

drunk like some spirits (10)

19 Left at jail without old locker (8)

20 Seat on elephant who had hiccups

(6)

23 They’re likely to be told to belt up?

(4-4,7)

24 Go round little lake circling hotel

(5)

25 Perked up, seeing red cuckoo (9)

1 Collar gunmen’s oil supplier (5)

2 Hair around mouth that could

form a wet oscular mush (6,9)

3 Money lodged in bank not long ago

(8)

4 Regularly recognise Times (4)

5 It’s about keeping right hole for

illumination (5,5)

6 Part of flower, first planted in

raised border (6)

7 Fleet see Heath maybe coming on

board, thinking shrewdly (5-10)

8 Vigilant editor follows each elegy

in translation (5-4)

12 State emphatically split during a

glut (10)

13 Rider grasps this burden with Bob

(9)

15 Ruddy beetroot’s top coming into

view (8)

18 Tool chap’s placed in church with

letter on plate? (6)

21 Watered and weeded around close

to beds (5)

22 Carpenter’s former increases

announced (4)

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y(7HB7E2*OTSKMS( |||+=!&

Paul Hirst

Wayne Rooney said that Manchester
United’s decision to bring Cristiano
Ronaldo back to Old Trafford has
backfired and that the club should look
for a younger striker to lead the attack
next season.
Rooney gave a brutally honest
assessment of United’s dismal season
during an appearance on Sky Sports’
Monday Night Football. Rooney

described United as a “team of individ-

uals” and said that even after a signifi-

cant rebuild it would take them up to

three years to challenge for the Premier

League title.

The former United captain said that

the team would be better off without

Paul Pogba, who is out of contract this

summer, and claimed that Mauricio

Pochettino should be the next manag-

er, rather than Erik ten Hag of Ajax.

When asked whether the re-signing

of the 37-year-old Ronaldo had worked

out, Rooney said: “You would have to

say no at the minute.

“He has scored important goals in

the Champions League, and he scored a

hat-trick against Tottenham [Hotspur],

but if you are looking to the future you

have to go with younger, hungry

players to do the best to lift Manchester

United over the next two or three years.

“Cristiano is getting on a bit. He is not

the player he was in his twenties and

2GM Tuesday April 5 2022 | the times

Sp ort

GLYN KIRK/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Hopes soar for

Woods return

Rick Broadbent Augusta

Tiger Woods’ prospects of making a

remarkable comeback from last year’s

life-threatening car crash could be-

come clearer today when the tee times

for the Masters are released.

There is no deadline for the 15-times

major winner to inform tournament

chiefs that he is withdrawing from the

year’s first major, but if he is included on

the list then it will suggest he is happy

with his two days of practice.

Speculation about his return from

last year’s 85mph crash, in which he suf-

fered multiple fractures to his right leg,

made for a febrile atmosphere at

Augusta National yesterday with huge

crowds following his every move. A

potential first competitive outing since

the 2020 Masters is the talk of the

locker room as well as the galleries.

Continued on page 67

Rooney: Let Ronaldo leave

that happens. He is a goal threat but in

the rest of the game they need more.”

Pogba’s second spell at United has

also been disappointing, according to

Rooney. “It’s got to the point now where

it’s probably better if he moves on,”

Rooney said of the 29-year-old mid-

fielder. “If Paul is honest with himself

he has probably not had the impact he

would have liked since he returned. I

watched him play for France and he’s a

Continued on page 63

Former United captain says club better off without ageing star and Pochettino should be manager

Palace win 3-0

to put the boot

into Arsenal’s

top-four bid

Pep: I love my

crazy tactics

Paul Hirst

Pep Guardiola has sarcastically denied

suggestions that he overcomplicates

his tactical approach to knockout

games in the Champions League.

Manchester City play Atletico

Madrid this evening in the first leg of

their Champions League quarter-final

and the Catalan has often been criti-

cised for his left-field team selections in

the final stages of the competition.

The most obvious example came in

last season’s final, when he played

without a defensive midfielder in the

1-0 defeat by Chelsea in Porto.

“I overthink a lot,” Guardiola said,

smiling. “It’s absolutely [fair]. It would

be boring, my job, if all the time I had to

win the same way. That’s why I love to

overthink with stupid tactics, and if I

don’t win I look stupid. I will do incredi-

ble tactics [today]. We’ll play with 12.”

Champions League previews, pages 61-63

Mateta scored

the first goal as

Arteta, inset,

endured a

miserable night

Rangnick is right, United’s

problem is all in the mindset

Page 60

Henry Winter

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