Inspiring

Not many outside Scotland remember Paul Wilson, who played for Celtic and, for one 15-minute appearance, the Scottish national team. In fact, even in the land of celebrated Scots Robert Burns and Sir William Wallace, his name registers with only the most diehard fans of both club and country.

Who are the longest serving managers in Premier League history? Well, if we exclude the time before the Premier League’s formation in 1992, Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger tops this list, but we’re not going to do that. Including both the Premier League and the original First Division, here are the 10 longest serving managers at any one club in English football history.

Lionel Messi was never a little-known quantity. When he scored nearly 500 goals for Newell’s Old Boys as a young boy, people took notice. That’s why Barcelona made the highly unusual decision to sign a 13-year-old foreign player. That’s why, aged 17 years, three months and 22 days, he became Barcelona’s youngest-ever representative in an official competition. It’s why he represented La Albiceleste, the two-time world champions, at 18.

For those who watched any of this fall’s 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup, you might’ve noticed one distinct trait which unified the entire playing field. Whether the teenagers on show played for India, Mali, Honduras or New Caledonia, they all tried their best to look like Neymar.

With socks worn above the knees, a right wrist covered in orthopedic tape, hair shorn on the sides and left to do whatever up top, you could tell the youths were focused on the task at hand but also in a revery over what their tattoo sleeves would look like come their 18th birthday.

When Barcelona visit the San Mames on Saturday to take on Athletic Bilbao, we’ll all bear witness to a historic matchup featuring two of the three clubs that’ve never been relegated from the top division — the other being Real Madrid. The history between the two sides goes way back, but perhaps no individual performer has shone as brightly as Ronaldinho when the Blaugrana have locked horns with los Leones.  

This is dumb, but in some ways Sergi Roberto is simply too good. He’s too intelligent, too tactically aware and too adaptable. The likes of Pep Guardiola, Luis Enrique and Ernesto Valverde never complained, but it’s also made the 25-year-old something of an unknown quality outside of those who watch FC Barcelona play week in, week out.

“Your whole life, like a sandglass, will always be reversed and will ever run out again, — a long minute of time will elapse until all those conditions out of which you were evolved return in the wheel of the cosmic process. And then you will find every pain and every pleasure, every friend and every enemy, every hope and every error, every blade of grass and every ray of sunshine once more, and the whole fabric of things which make up your life.”

There's happy. And then there's 65 years worth of happiness resounding in a stadium after your team beats a rival for the first time in six decades.

Just check out the atmosphere at The John Smith's Stadium after Huddersfield unexpectedly dismantled Manchester United on Saturday: