Fergie time continues

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Head Start

FOOTBALL

Ben White tells Southgate, no thank you

Ben White has told England and Gareth Southgate he does not want to be considered for England squads. This contrasts with White’s Euros 2020 call up which he described as amazing.

But after a review of White’s recent international history, it’s clear why the Arsenal right-back - who is currently in great form - has made a U-turn on England: 

• Steve Holland, England’s assistant manager had a row with White at the last World Cup about his lack of effort in training sessions.

• White, rumoured to be struggling as a squad player at the last World Cup, left the tournament early to resume pre-season with Arsenal. 

• Plus, White has played zero minutes in the last two major tournaments he’s been picked for. 

For the record, Southgate denies the row with Steve Holland impacted White’s decision to turn down his country. This only leaves White’s lack of minutes as his reason to say no.

Regardless of his reasoning, many will see this ‘Thanks but no thanks’ as adding to White's perception of having no real interest in football.

 FOOTBALL 

Reading offers training ground to rivals

Reading Football Club faces serious financial problems. The beleaguered owner, Dai Yonggee, is struggling to find a takeover and there are concerns over the club’s ability to cover March’s wages and their HMRC payments, with a £1 million shortfall to overcome this month. Reading has already faced a six-point deduction and failure to meet their demands in March will almost certainly result in further points deduction. 

Reading are currently training at a £50 million training facility that was built in 2019. With their financial pressures mounting, Yongee has sanctioned the cut-price sale of their state-of-the-art training ground to local rivals Wycombe. 

Supporters of the club will stage a protest in an attempt to prevent the £25 million sale of the training ground. But Wycombe will be keen to complete the deal as they’ve been searching for its own training facility since they’ve been using local 4G pitches due to flooding at the Marlow Road site.

RACING

Fergie time continues

Sir Alex Ferguson was a notorious winner as a Manchester United manager. The 13-time Premier League winner celebrated his first Cheltenham Festival win as a co-owner and then completed a double 40 minutes later. Ferguson jumped for joy but tempered his celebrations having broken a rib when saluting his win with Spirit Dancer in Bahrain last year. 

His old rival and ex-Premier League manager Harry Redknapp denied him the treble. Redknapp tasted victory when Shakem Up’Arry won the Trustatrade Plate.

RUGBY

Rugby’s first (official) death

For years, there have been question marks over players' safety in rugby. Yesterday, it was reported that the first confirmed diagnosis of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTA) in a fully professional rugby union player has been made in New Zealand. 

Scrum-half Billy Guyton died in May last year at the age of 33. His brain was donated to the brain bank at the University of Auckland, with his family receiving a summary of the results which details “changes consistent with chronic traumatic encephalopathy”. The diagnosis of a young person with CTA is extremely rare and, in Prof Maurice Curtis’ words, “indicates how early in life the brain has been affected by head knocks.” 

A growing worldwide consensus of scientists believes CTE is caused by repeated blows to the head. Guyton suffered from multiple concussions and decided to retire because of symptoms he was experiencing in 2018 at the age of 28. 

Dozens of former professional rugby players have been diagnosed with suspected CTA and have joined hundreds of other former players in taking action against the governing bodies.

Across The Field

MORE FOOTBALL NEWS: Netflix has confirmed it will air a documentary series about Jose Mourinho’s career in football next year (More) | Manchester United has cleared £120 million from their revolving credit facility following Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s $300 million cash injection (More) | Liverpool’s Ibrahima Konaté called up to the French squad for this month’s friendlies against Germany and Chile despite his injury as Chelsea’s Axel Diasi was left out (More)

ALSO IN THE NEWS: The WBC has defended Francis Ngannou’s top-10 ranking following his knockout defeat to Anthony Joshua saying that “Ngannou came close to beating the WBC champion Fury” (More) | The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) will not boycott this year’s Paris Olympics, despite restrictions on athletes imposed by the IOC (More) 

BUSINESS: Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Sport delivered a profit of £33.8 million during the 2022-23 financial reporting period on the back of strong performances from its darts and boxing verticals (More) | Barcelona has been hit by the resignation of Eduard Romeu, the vice-president in charge of financial affairs and a key figure attempting to rebalance the club’s finances (More) | All American sports teams want to build wants to build a mixed-use development around there stadium because it is fast becoming each teams third highest income source (More)

Your Home Advantage

FOR THE WEEKEND

→ Diego Maradona at Barcelona: Wild parties, wilder brawls - and a feeling of what might have been (Read)

→ The actual cost of owning Dorking Wanderers, managing his mates & non-league stories (Watch)

→ Which club will be the first to reach one billion in revenue? (More)

Extra Time

The optimum FPL team picked by AI for GW 29.

The stats behind Europe’s most disappointing teams revealed.

Southgate reveals that Ben White didn’t want to be called up to the England squad.

Soccer Saturday will never be the same without Jeff Stelling.

A clip of Sir Alex Ferguson’s horse, Monmiral, producing a Fergie Time win at Cheltenham. 

Why are footballers cutting holes in their socks? 

The power of Anfield explained by two current players.

On This Weekend And Today

THIS WEEKEND

The complete guide to sport on TV for Saturday and Sunday can be found here.

TODAY

GOLF

PGA Tour: The Players Championship (10:45 and 19:00 GMT, Sky Sports Golf)

TENNIS

ATP: Indian Wells (18:00, 20:30 and 23:00 GMT, Sky Sports Tennis)

BOXING AND COMBAT

WWE: Smackdown (01:00 GMT, TNT Sports 1)

NHL

NHL: Multiple Matches (12:00 GMT, Viaplay)

“We had a call from [Arsenal’s sporting director] Edu last week saying Ben didn’t want to be considered for England squads at the moment.”

-Gareth Southgate when announcing his squad for friendlies against Belgium and Brazil on Wednesday