England

The career trajectories of England’s Marcus Rashford and the USA’s Christian Pulisic have escalated quicker than Donald Trump’s various horrible statements.

The England National Team's Wayne Rooney era appears to be drawing to a close after interim manager Gareth Southgate announced the captain would be dropped against Slovenia.

After a performance from Rooney against Malta that involved a lot of standing around and not very much doing things, Southgate must have felt he had no choice in the matter, even though Sam Allardyce and Roy Hodgson had been cowed into keeping Rooney in their respective England teams. Southgate appears to have followed the example set by Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho in dropping the player.

Former USMNT coach Bob Bradley was appointed manager of Swansea City this week, the Welsh side eliminating Francesco Guidolin like 20,000 emails being wiped from the Clinton Family Server. Having saved them from relegation only a matter of months ago, it feels like a rough deal for Guidolin. The British press, however, have reserved their sympathies for another supposedly wronged man: Ryan Giggs.

Why, you might ask, is a multi-millionaire former footballer with a penchant for other people’s wives receiving the sympathies of Fleet Street?

Bob Bradley is the coach of Premier League side Swansea City. Let that sink in for a second. 

Crazy, right?

Well, if you’re Bob Bradley, then no, it’s not that crazy. According to Bob Bradley, he is on the same managerial level as Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and Carlo Ancelotti. So the chance to manage a club in the Premier League makes sense. 

There’s no doubting Mesut Ozil’s quality. You don’t win 81 caps and a World Cup for Germany, a La Liga title with Real Madrid and collect two FA Cup winner’s medals with Arsenal by riding on the coattails of others. However, a criticism of that nature is frequently thrown at Ozil. His languid style leads to cries of having gone AWOL during big matches — particularly during his time with Arsenal.

Aston Villa suck, and as such are in the market for a new manager who can (hopefully) make them not suck anymore. They appear to have their sights set on Huddersfield Town manager and Jurgen Klopp protege David Wagner.

The problem here is, again, Aston Villa suck, and Huddersfield Town, at least in the context of the Championship, do not suck. Huddersfield Town are in first place with 25 points. Villa are in 19th place with 10 points.

We can forgive Robbie Savage's ignorance of the hiring process because, as a person who has spent his career as a footballer and football pundit, he probably hasn't gone through it very often. We are going to make fun of him anyway, though, because he has some thoughts on Ryan Goggs and job interviews and those thoughts are frankly hilarious.

I don't think Ryan Giggs needs an interview process to get a job, yes meet him to find out what he is like as a bloke or what his philosophy

Last week, Massimo Cellino took the bait, and was filmed advising fake businessmen how to circumvent third party rules and profit from illegal player sales. Thanks to his shortsightedness, he is now subject to yet another FA investigation, and now has four active cases under review by football authorities.

Watch as Cellino proposes selling 20 percent of Leeds to a fictitious investment firm to help share profit on future player sales:

There is nothing worse from a football supporters’ perspective than not knowing how to find your side’s game on television. Perhaps it’s a sign of the times that with a click of the remote or a flick of one’s fingers on the keyboard, you’re immediately given access to a global range of football matches. 

Long gone are the days of pouring through websites in Russian or staying up until the early hours of the morning to catch a game on tape delay. Soccer has truly arrived — unless of course you’re a Newcastle United supporter and want to watch the English League Championship.