‘Turning his back’ after all he’s done for English Rugby … these sorts of headlines are the reasons he’s going, fair play to him, he’s earned it! Legend!
Owen Farrell will turn his back on English rugby at the end of this season with the Saracens fly-half signing a two-season deal with Racing 92
✍️ @CRichardsonTel
#TelegraphRugby
Are Newcastle and Chelsea in a crisis too?
Have Eddie Howe and Poch lost the dressing room too?
Or are these Headlines just reserved for ten Hag and #MUFC?
Because news flash, we're above both in the league.
We've been poor, but above both, yet, we're the only ones that are constantly spoken about.
🏴 Owen Farrell vs Fiji:
🤩 Scored 20 of the 30 England points
🏉 Kicked an all-important drop goal with the score at 24-24
The England skipper led from the front as the Red and Whites booked their spot in the Rugby World Cup semi-finals in a 30-24 quarter-final win over Fiji 💪
The Princess of Wales was there to give the England win the royal seal of approval 👑👏
Last thing about United
Look at Arteta’s Arsenal. 8th, 8th, 5th, 2nd. He was allowed to let players go who he wanted to leave, even at the cost of the club. They backed him with smart recruitment led by a scouting team. Plenty of calls for him to be sacked were ignored
Erik needs time. It is not his team yet, that 11 today was nowhere near his ideal 11. Has he made mistakes, sure who doesn’t. But he needs backed by the players, owners and fans. Give him time
Erik ten Hag was appointed to restore standards at #MUFC. The team had lost its identity and, in parts, its discipline. The club had lost its way, partly because the owners' focus is solely on money. Team and club need a reboot. Whatever happens today against #BHAFC (well-run team, brilliantly-run club, proper owner), Ten Hag has to be allowed to continue this difficult but vital team rebuild.
He has some exceptional players, Rashford, Onana, Bruno etc. He has the promise of Hojlund, Garnacho etc. Ten Hag's a good manager who quickly identified the malaise, the selfishness of some, and the inability or unwillingess of others to fit his tactical plan. He's won a trophy, returned United to the Champions League, and still has some clearing out and strengthening to do. Some people don't like his honesty but he's simply delivering home truths. And United need that.
As @Cristiano scores 3 goals & provides a brilliant assist for Mane, whilst looking fitter & hungrier than ever, a reminder that Erik ‘I’m a genius, just ask me’ Ten Hag deemed him surplus to requirements for a Manchester United team which can’t hit a barn door.
@NOW - have a NOW TV membership through my new BT TV package but cannot get the account to activate and your online support section is no use whatsoever, ridiculous.
Nigel Pearson is a hard bastard.
The former Leicester gaffer once strangled a player on the pitch, and yelled “fuck off and die” at one of his own fans.
But no story beats the time he was attacked by a pack of savage wild dogs.
To survive, he resorted to grisly measures.......
Our story begins in Romania's Carpathian mountains, where Nigel Pearson has just arrived for a solo hiking holiday.
Locals advise him not to wander deep into the wilderness without company.
“It’s home to brown bears and wild dogs,” a kindly farmer warns.
Nigel ignores their warnings and heads into the hills. Alone.
But when he stops for a mid-morning picnic, things turn scary...
Suddenly, a pack of salivating wild dogs emerge from the woods. The hounds encircle him and begin to growl.
"There was five of them,” Nigel recalled later. "One goes for you and the others circle around until one of them can bring you down – what they essentially do is rip the throat out.”
Terrified, Pearson tries to shoo them away with his ski poles, before throwing himself in a “patch of brambles and nettles”.
He plays dead for several minutes, waiting for the dogs to move on before sprinting away.
But suddenly the pack appear again, hungrier and angrier than before.
“I backed myself against a tree,” he recalled. “I thought ‘I don’t want to get attacked from behind’. I was absolutely goosed by this point."
For most of us, this would spell a grisly end.
But the quick-thinking gaffer turns full action hero.
Using his walking poles, he gouges the dogs’ eyes out one-by-one.
Once they are blinded, he kicks the leader’s jaw in and shepherds the rest of them into a bed of stinging nettles.
And with that, he flees back down the mountain to safety.
Years later, after strangling Crystal Palace's James McArthur on the pitch, Nige told the press: "I can take care of myself, don't you worry.”
That's pretty clear...