The Warm-Up: Liverpool move on from despair by going shopping
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Updated 29/05/2018 at 07:05 GMT
Plus: an old friend is back, Raheem Sterling gets a tattoo and Bobby Moore advertises the pub
Liverpool agree deal to sign Brazilian Fabinho
Image credit: Reuters
TUESDAY’S BIG STORIES
Liverpool get over their heartbreak by going shopping
People deal with grief in many different ways. Some stoically soldier on. Some sit in a small room and stare at the walls blankly for days. Some drink heavily. Some bury their pain in buying things.
Liverpool have chosen the latter option, the trauma of their defeat in the Champions League final still buzzing around their heads like a troublesome fly, they have beefed up their midfield with some gusto by signing Fabinho from Monaco. Never mind a goalkeeper: he’s exactly the sort of player they need, a tough guy type to patrol the midfield and let the attacking lot do their stuff.
And this was a deal that seemed to come from nowhere, murmurs emerging later on Monday afternoon before the deal was actually confirmed by Monday evening. It didn’t even have time to really develop as a rumour, let alone graduate into a saga.
“This is something that I always wanted – this is a giant of a team,” Fabs said. “The infrastructures of the club look exceptional. A football club of this size coming after my services, I didn’t have to think that much about coming over.”
And if you need that translated into transfer speak, he means: it was a no-brainer.
Finally, Coventry have some good news to celebrate
Coventry City haven’t had much by way of good and nice things happen to them of late. From gradually slipping down the divisions from the Premier League to League Two, to financial oblivion…it’s been a rough few years.
But now they do have something positive to consider, after winning promotion from League Two by beating Exeter City in the play-off final. It was their first promotion since 1967, following the first time they had finished in the top six of any division since 1970.
Goals from Jordans Willis and Shipley, followed by one from Jack Grimmer, were enough to seal things and send Coventry into League One, and give us all something to feel warm and fuzzy about in a broadly unforgiving and miserable world.
Look who’s back…
Some four years after he last appeared for the Italian national team, Mario Balotelli got a run out for Roberto Mancini’s boys against Saudi Arabia. And…it went quite well…
Italy won 2-1, while elsewhere Portugal drew 2-2 with Tunisia, France beat Ireland with goals from Olivier Giroud and Nabil Fekir, while Son Heung-min scored for South Korea in their victory over Honduras.
IN OTHER NEWS
Woof.
IN THE CHANNELS
Sterling gets a tattoo, which is front page news apparently
This isn’t usually the sort of forum for the Warm-Up, but this morning a UK national newspaper put the startling development that Raheem Sterling has a tattoo of a gun on his leg on their front page. We won’t tell you which newspaper, but you can probably guess and if you can’t then you can probably find out easily enough.
This is just the latest in a long line of things Sterling has apparently done wrong, including but not limited to buying his mum a posh sink, asking for a payrise, having a dirty car, flying on a budget airline which turned out to be the only flight running on the desired route, eating breakfast and visiting a shop. A more comprehensive rundown can be found here.
Make your own mind up as to the reasons Sterling might have been featured in a few media outlets for those reasons, but let’s focus on something nice that he’s done instead, eh?
And, if you think an explanation for his tattoo is required, he provided one on his Instagram account…
HAT TIP
I’ve achieved pretty much everything I wanted to with Chelsea except maybe the Champions League, which I could still do somewhere else. I love to travel and sample new cultures; the opportunity to play in Europe and learn a language is a big one. But there have been a lot of tears. I was crying on the pitch in Bristol. I have such a strong bond with the people I work with and questioned whether I’m ever going to experience that again with a new team, whether I’ll be that happy – the doubts start creeping in.
Eni Aluko speaks to Martha Kelner in the Guardian, about leaving Chelsea and moving abroad.
RETRO CORNER
On this day in 1963, Bobby Moore became England’s youngest ever captain, aged 22 years and 47 days, on just his 12th appearance for the national team. It’s a record that still stands, so to celebrate this remarkable achievement, here’s an advert Bobby did with Martin Peters and their respective wives for ‘the pub’. Features the most patronising game of darts you’ve ever seen.
COMING UP
Erm…Seychelles v Madagascar? Malta v Armenia? Just give the football a rest for a few weeks. Might do you some good. Or it might send you peculiar. Keep thy powder dry for a few week’s time, eh?
Tomorrow’s Warm-Up will be brought to you by Alex Chick, whose powder is always dry.
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