Latest news with #RowZ
New York Times
2 days ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Row Z: Chelsea's defensive headache, FIFA football, and Heaton's wait goes on
We're back for another season of Row Z, The Athletic's weekly column that shines a light on the bonkers side of the game. From clubs to managers, players to organisations, every Tuesday we'll bring you the absurdities, the greed, the contradictions, the preposterousness and the oddities of the sport we all love… Chelsea have a big problem. No, it's not that their £253million ($343m) six-pronged attack (Joao Pedro, Pedro Neto, Jamie Gittens, Cole Palmer, Estevao and Liam Delap) could only muster three shots on target against Crystal Palace on Sunday. It's the other end of the pitch that's the real issue, where one injury has left them desperately short at the back. Levi Colwill's hugely unfortunate ACL injury couldn't have come at a worse time for the FIFA Club World Cup champions, who were already short of cover in defence. Head coach Enzo Maresca now only has 12 senior defenders (combined cost £300m) to fit into four gaps at the back. Unfortunately, the options available to Maresca, as the Italian stated last week, just aren't enough and the only solution is to buy another defender. 'The club know exactly what I think — I think we need a central defender,' Maresca said. 'We are looking for an internal solution, but as I said, the club know exactly what I think.' Reece James, Josh Acheampong, Tosin Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile, Marc Cucurella, Axel Disasi, Malo Gusto, Trevoh Chalobah, Jorrel Hato, Wesley Fofana, Renato Veiga and Aaron Anselmino = not enough defenders. In fact, Veiga, who played five games at centre-back for Portugal last season, isn't even worthy of consideration at the moment and is expected to be sold. Ditto, France international Disasi. Chelsea also signed up-and-coming centre-back Mamadou Sarr in the summer after tough negotiations with French club Strasbourg, but decided to send the teenager back on loan after handing him an eight-year contract. Advertisement It's a difficult situation for Chelsea, who since the start of the Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital era have been consistently short of cash and new players, only spending £1.5billion on 49 new arrivals in three years, with a major problem being that some of the players, like Gabriel Slonina, Cesare Casadei and Deivid Washington, may not even exist. As Krusty the Clown once said: 'My house is dirty, buy me a clean one.' Anyway, none of this is captivating enough for Boehly, who had to be reminded to look interested as Chelsea searched for a late winner against Crystal Palace on Sunday. Todd Boehly's wife telling him to get off his phone because he is on the telly 🙃 — Rob 🅼 (@Im_RobM) August 17, 2025 Ah, the highs and lows of being a backup goalkeeper. Tom Heaton, third choice at Manchester United, must have been feeling pretty optimistic with life when, having been on the bench for Sunday's match against Arsenal, he saw Altay Bayindir flap a corner on to Riccardo Calafiori's head. Andre Onana's future looks iffy, Bayindir is gaffe-prone… maybe it's Heaton's time to shine? Or maybe not, given this was the face Ruben Amorim pulled when it was put to him that Heaton should play… Still, if Heaton's luck is out, pity the guy who pledged not to cut his hair until United won five games in a row. That was 318 days ago… A report in the Guardian that the Club World Cup could become a biennial tournament and expand to 48 teams is likely to be met with eye-rolling by fans and with dollar signs in the eyes of owners. Is there not enough football already? Sky Sports are showing 215 matches this season, as you may have heard (although they're keeping it on the down low), there are 189 matches in the Champions League now (up from 125 in 2023-24), ditto the Europa League, plus 153 in the Conference League, an expanded World Cup of 104 matches on the way next summer (up from 64 in 2022), the Euros and AFCON have both expanded to 24 countries in the past decade. Plus, there are Nations League tournaments now, too. Advertisement Plus, you know, with its masses of empty seats, matches delayed for unbearable weather, its on/off anti-racism messages and utterly bizarre closing ceremony, can we not just wait and digest whether this year's Club World Cup was a success or not first? Or at least see the knock-on effects on knackered players during the new domestic season? Nah, there's money to be made. FIFA and UEFA became an Alan Partridge sketch a long time ago, to be fair. 'Domestic leagues, domestic cups, the Champions League, the Europa League, the Conference League, the World Cup, the Euros, Copa America, AFCON, the Nations League, the Club World Cup, post-season friendlies in Asia and the Emirates Cup, what does that say to you about football tournaments?' 'There are too many of them?' 'That's one way of looking at it… another way of looking at it is: people like them, let's make some more of them.' Racing Club in Argentina landed a big signing this week when they secured former Manchester United defender Marcos Rojo on a one-year deal after he had his contract terminated at Boca Juniors. The 35-year-old will no doubt be looking forward to showing off the Rojo name at the club's 55,000 Estadio Presidente Peron. Except, well, there's a problem with his name. Rojo means 'red' in Spanish and also happens to be the nickname of Racing Club's fierce rivals, Independiente, whose alternative names include El Rojo and Los Diablos Rojos (The Red Devils). It's basically like West Bromwich Albion appointing Wolfgang Wolf as their new manager. El Primer GrandeCETROGAR MARCOS R. 6 Sur Finanzas — Racing Club (@RacingClub) August 10, 2025 Racing Club's solution? Ignore the name Rojo at all costs. A tweet announcing his signing omitted any mention of the Rojo name, he's down as Marcos R on their team sheet and has got Marcos R on the back of his shirt. That's the kind of extreme pettiness that Row Z can firmly get behind. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
New York Times
12-08-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Row Z: Isak's project motivation, Wilson has bridges to build and welcome Tottenham Hotspaw
Welcome back to another season of Row Z, The Athletic's weekly column that shines a light on the bonkers side of the game. From clubs to managers, players to organisations, every Tuesday we'll bring you the absurdities, the greed, the contradictions, the preposterousness and the oddities of the sport we all love… You'll read thousands upon thousands of words about football this season and it's important to remember not to believe all of them. Alexander Isak, April 2024: 'Of course I want to be here in the future. I came here for the project. I absolutely love playing here. I really feel at home.' Isak, March 2025: 'I've commented on my situation and my confidence in Newcastle several times. I've described how much I love the city and the club and how much I like it there. As usual, I don't think about the future. I just want to perform for Newcastle.' Advertisement Isak, August 2025: Well, nothing as yet. Yep, no matter how incredibly happy a player says he is, no matter how outstanding the overall package is and no matter how recently they've signed a new contract, things will probably change in the near future. Benjamin Sesko, June 2024: 'I had a good first year at RB Leipzig and am incredibly happy to be here. Team, club, city, fans — the overall package is simply outstanding for me. The early contract extension was therefore the logical next step for me.' In fact, the contract could have been signed as recently as four months earlier and marked with a contract signing celebration (mimicking signing a signature), complete with pointing to the badge and blowing kisses to the crowd, and it still probably would have meant very little. That was Matheus Cunha on February 1. And this was him on February 22: 'I am so happy to be here. I hope to continue doing good things. I never think about leaving, honestly.' June 1: Leaves. Words matter and they may come back to haunt you, no matter how frivolous they were at the time. Callum Wilson once compared West Ham United lifting the Europa Conference League to winning a trophy on FIFA. He may have only been joking around with his mate Michail Antonio on a podcast, but social media never forgets nor forgives. Wilson also scored a few goals against the Hammers over the years and, in his own words, gave 'an extra five or 10 per cent each time' he played against them owing to the friendly rivalry with Antonio. The West Ham fans after Wilson signed for them last month… well, yeah, they've taken it pretty maturely and are looking forward to getting behind their new striker. This guy was pretty pleased: 'Delighted to welcome Wilson — a man who mocked our European trophy, said Antonio would never play CL, and made a career out of scoring against us. Truly the West Ham way.' Advertisement Another happy fan here: 'I'll never get behind Callum Wilson, even if he puts on the Claret and Blue. 'Banter' or not, he's repeatedly belittled and disrespected the club we all pour our hard-earned money into. I refuse to back him.' And here's another measured reaction: 'Worst signing in the history of West Ham, genuinely fuming and hope he gets booed every game.' Wilson addressed the fans in his unveiling interview, mostly referencing the goalscoring record. 'There's a wrong that I need to make right with the West Ham fans especially,' he said. 'Hopefully, yeah they'll get behind me at some point and once we're scoring and we're now we're on the same side, it will be forgiven and forgotten. 'What's gone on before is gone, the past is in the past.' Good luck, Callum. Wrexham's rise from the National League to the Championship, wherever you sit on the fairytale-o-meter, is incredibly impressive, but there's no doubt the club's financial backing has played a hugely significant role. Their revenues when in League Two surpassed not only all clubs in that division but also in League One and were higher than 11 Championship sides, while wages were £3million ($4m) higher than any other club who released their figures that season. They've broken their transfer record numerous times and attracted players of whom divisional rivals could only dream. But hey, that's fine, it's how football works — something manager Phil Parkinson knows only too well, having signed Ben Foster in non-League and Jay Rodriguez in League One. Anyway, here's Parkinson, after Wrexham's opening-day Championship defeat by Southampton, on what settled the match: 'Listen, Southampton have put subs on worth probably about £30-£40m today and that is obviously the difference.' Financial disparity in football — so annoying! Welcome to Wrexham big school. It's been a big summer of clubs announcing very important partnerships with a multitude of weird and wonderful businesses. We can all rest easy now that Nottingham Forest have an Official Battery Power Product Partner (their caps, not ours) in NOCO. Liverpool told us in July that they've signed up with the leading forex, indices, equities and commodities broker in a multi-year global partnership. Great. Advertisement And West Ham were delighted to announce an extension to their deal with Jeton, their Official Unified Finance App partner. But there were two partnership signings in particular that really stood out for saying so much about the clubs who announced them. Could there be anything more Fulham than having an official champagne, rose and cognac partner? Moet Hennessy, naturally. Jumpers for goalposts and all that: 'On a Fulham FC match day, Moet Hennessy will form part of every celebratory, goal-scoring moment for hospitality guests throughout the Riverside Stand, becoming an integral part of the club's success on and off the pitch.' But Spurs managed to top that with the most on-brand corporate nonsense you'll read all season. This was genuinely the tweet: 'We are delighted to announce a partnership with premium pet food brand Frontier Pets to become our Official Pre-Season Tour Sleeve Partner, Official Pet Food Partner and Official Partner of our groundbreaking Supporters' Club for dog-owners, Tottenham Hotspaw.' And Frontier Pets chairman Vaughn Taylor added: 'We hope to inspire football fans around the world to feed their pets better with Frontier Pets.' But the team can't even hold onto a lead, etc. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
New York Times
02-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Row Z: Commentary neutrality, the Wolves packs and Ipswich complete the social set
Welcome to Row Z, The Athletic's weekly column that shines a light on the bonkers side of the game. From clubs to managers, players to organisations, every Friday we'll bring you the absurdities, the greed, the contradictions, the preposterousness and the oddities of the game we all love… A couple of weeks after TNT Sports commentators 'Fletch', 'Rio' and 'Sav', full names Darren Fletcher, Rio Ferdinand and Robbie Savage, cheered Manchester United to victory against Lyon (with United losing and a boy in the crowd pictured crying, Fletch said: 'Let's hope we can put a smile on that young man's face by the time we finish'), the trio stayed nice and neutral in Bilbao on Thursday night. 'CALMA' 😤@rioferdy5's reaction to that Bruno Fernandes penalty in Bilbao 🍿 — Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) May 1, 2025 A night earlier in Barcelona, Ferdinand had expressed his bias for the Premier League as an entity, not just United, when eulogising over Raphinha's performance against Inter. 'It makes you wonder how he was ever allowed to leave the Premier League,' Ferdinand queried. Yes, massive mistake by the Premier League to allow him to move. They should have stepped in to protect their asset when Raphinha swapped Elland Road for the Camp Nou in 2022 and given him a five-year contract at West Ham instead. Wolverhampton Wanderers, a story in numbers from 2023-24. Revenue £177million ($235m), player sale profit £64.6m, player wages £142m, fees paid to agents £14m. Also Wolves: We are 'One Pack'. Also also Wolves: No we won't pay £1.5m for our women's team to be promoted to the Championship. Two packs? For context, a promotion application had to be submitted by February, committing to raising the club up to Championship standards should they win promotion (which Wolves ultimately fell just short of on the final day last week). Advertisement The official line is the club were worried about the club's finances in February should the men's first team be relegated (parachute payments going into the tens and tens of millions notwithstanding). They also don't like the idea of running the women's team at a loss despite the increased investment. But hey, what football club doesn't run at a loss? Anyway, if they had won promotion they'd have been competing with big spenders Charlton, Bristol City, Portsmouth and Durham, which feels like a step too far for a club like Wolves with its multi-billion pound Chinese owners. To be fair to chairman Jeff Shi, who made the call not to bother with promotion (although whose idea it was to not tell the players until the end of the season isn't clear), he's made his stance on Wolves Women pretty clear. Here he is in 2022: 'We still have not been pumping too much money into the women's team, but what we're doing is providing good conditions, or facilities to the girls. I think it's more important to provide the local girls with a strong chance to participate in football from a younger age, so they can share the training facilities here, they can share the pitch here. 'But we still have no strategy to spend a lot of money on the squad to try to promote again for next season, no.' There you go then. Men's team, have our money. Women's team, you just have a bit of a kickabout. Continuing the theme of weird, PR, non-reality tweets from clubs who have been relegated from the Premier League, this week was Ipswich Town's turn. You may remember Southampton kicked off this nonsense by tweeting a long, long time ago when they were officially relegated: 'Today's result confirms our place in the Championship next season.' They couldn't bring themselves to say the word relegation and the tweet read like they had qualified for the Championship. Well done Saints. Advertisement Leicester followed suit last week with: 'Today's result means our place in the 25-26 Championship has been confirmed.' This was alongside a picture of an empty stand at the King Power, laying the groundwork for next season's low attendances. Anyway, Ipswich were a little bit better, at least basing their tweet in the real world by actually mentioning they had been relegated… Following back-to-back promotions to the top tier of English football, today's result confirms our relegation from the Premier League. We've fought all season with you always behind us, Town fans. 💙 — Ipswich Town (@IpswichTown) April 26, 2025 They still couldn't help getting in that PR positive about back-to-back promotions though, could they? Leicester missed a trick: 'Following our incredible title success in 2016 and our FA Cup win in 2021 under the same family ownership, today's result confirms our relegation from the Premier League.' Some excellent social media content this week (yes, this still exists). Tottenham Hotspur were surprisingly competent on Thursday night in the Europa League, but that doesn't make this pre-match tifo suggestion being any less funny. Thank you for the £16k donations for the fan funded tifo. Excited to see it come to life later — Ben (@InsideN17) May 1, 2025 Crystal Palace fans had the time of their lives when beating Aston Villa 3-0 in the FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley last Saturday. This bloke wasn't going to let something frivolous like a broken arm stop him supporting his team. This bloke can't clap so he's whacking his head instead 😂😂 #facup — Steph (@GwenSteph88) April 26, 2025 The steaks were high for these Oldham Athletic fans heading to Forest Green Rovers last weekend. The team lost the match, but their fans won best fancy dress of the season. Oldham fans dressed as butchers off to Forest Green today… Forest Green are the worlds first fully vegan football club. 😭 #OAFC — Football Away Days (@FBAwayDays) April 26, 2025 Port Vale's brilliant X account has rightly featured prominently on Row Z in recent weeks and, after securing promotion to League One last weekend, they didn't disappoint. 🎶 We're on our way… — (P)ort Vale FC (@OfficialPVFC) April 27, 2025 And finally this week, here are Matlock Town attempting to take 'parking the bus' to extreme levels. 21' A car has taken an unexpected detour and found himself pitch side at the fittingly named Proctor Cars Stadium 🧐 ⚔️0-0🩷#YourCity • #COYDB • #ADAW — Lancaster City Football Club (@LancasterCityFC) April 26, 2025
New York Times
25-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Row Z: Potter cries conspiracy, farewell Riza and the FIFA jamboree on Channel 5
Welcome to Row Z, The Athletic's weekly column that shines a light on the bonkers side of the game. From clubs to managers, players to organisations, every Friday we'll bring you the absurdities, the greed, the contradictions, the preposterousness and the oddities of the game we all love… As if the world wasn't annoying enough already, embattled West Ham United manager Graham Potter wants us all to lie more. Last weekend his team could not beat the side currently enduring the joint-worst season in the 33-year history of the Premier League, drawing 1-1 at home to Southampton. For context, there have been 672 individual team seasons since 1992 and Southampton are =671st, so yeah, that's pretty bad (West Ham are probably having the most pointless, apathetic Premier League season on record, but let's park that for now). Advertisement Potter wasn't happy, saying the performance 'wasn't good enough' and 'nowhere near what we want to do'. Striker Niclas Fullkrug went one step further (very tentatively, in case he pulled his dodgy hamstring again), unleashing both barrels on his team-mates, saying: 'Very angry today, not disappointed, just angry, on what we did after the (first) goal. 'We didn't have the ability or the motivation to push up again… but the motivation? Sorry we were s*** and I'm very angry.' Lovely stuff. Having reflected, Potter didn't like Fullkrug being too honest. He said at Thursday's pre-match press conference: 'Sometimes I could be honest, how I really feel, but I don't think it's helpful to the players. I don't think it's helpful to the club. You've got a perspective (as a player on the pitch) and this is the great thing about the media — you ask a player after the game and he'll have his opinion but it'll be based on very little. 'The reality of it is you guys aren't bothered about that. You just want the drama.' Guys, it's the media's fault! What's happened here is that the Sky Sports interviewer dared to ask Fullkrug: 'Why weren't you able to put the game to bed?' You just can't ask questions like that in 2025. It's sensationalism as its worst. Shame on Sky. Potter might not like honesty but he surely can't argue with facts, as Rafa Benitez might say. Facts like West Ham have gone six games without a win for the first time since February 2024, or West Ham were 14th when Potter took over in January and they're now 17th. The truth is a little bit too painful at the moment, it seems. You may remember Omer Riza being a little bit too honest last week when the-then Cardiff City boss said about his team's supporters: 'I read all the comments from fans and, unfortunately, a lot of them are clueless.' Cardiff unsurprisingly binned Riza off after a 2-0 defeat at Sheffield United last Friday left the Bluebirds deep in the relegation mire. But that wasn't before Riza endeared himself once more, this time to the media, during his final post-match interview. Advertisement Interviewer: 'What can you do differently on Monday to get a better result?' Riza: 'Score goals and not concede.' Interviewer: 'Is it as simple as that?' Riza: 'Well it's football isn't it? You've got to score more than the opposition.' Interviewer: 'How do you go about doing that?' Riza: 'You tell me how I go about doing it. You tell me how I go about doing it.' Interviewer: 'Well I'm not the manager of Cardiff City, am I?' Excellent factual response. See, these managers just respond better to facts rather than opinions. 'We'd like to thank Omer for his passion and effort during his time as Cardiff City manager and wish him the very best for his next steps in the game,' Cardiff said in a statement. Passion is one word for it. If you had £354,000 ($471,113) to spend on something every single day for the next 10 years, what would you splash it on? The possibilities would be endless. You could just buy a property every 24 hours. You could save up and buy a small country if you wanted. Basically, you'd be able to do whatever you wanted for the rest of your life. Amazing. Alternatively, you could spend it on taking a successful football club and leading it from being Champions League winners to the Conference League, from first place in the Premier League to sixth (via a drop to 12th), from winning four domestic trophies in four years to none in seven seasons. Never change, Chelsea. Never change. The FIFA Club World Cup, 2025, a summary… The news this week then that Channel 5 will broadcast Club World Cup matches in the UK could not have felt more apt. And we finish this week with more bizarre tweets from official club accounts. First up, Crystal Palace who, after drawing 2-2 at Arsenal in midweek, decided this tweet was a good idea: 'You're welcome Liverpool…' At best this may have been tongue in cheek. At worst it was just a bit embarrassing and got the deserved treatment from Thomas… — Thomas (@thomashammond__) April 23, 2025 As we discussed in a recent Row Z, Southampton announced the club's relegation to the Championship like they had low-key claimed a spot in the League One play-offs, saying: 'Today's result confirms our place in the Championship next season.' It was certainly less emotional than their previous relegated-from-the-Premier-League tweet in 2023: 'A heart-breaking moment, as our relegation is confirmed.' Advertisement That's more like it! Emotion, pain, heartache, realism! Anyway, Leicester City continued the corporate, ignorance-is-bliss theme by also refusing to mention the word relegation, tweeting… Today's result means our place in the 25/26 Championship has been confirmed. — Leicester City (@LCFC) April 20, 2025 Ipswich Town, we're watching you closely. A 1,000-point bonus if you tweet: 'OH FFS WE'VE BEEN RELEGATED. ABSOLUTELY GUTTED.'
New York Times
18-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Row Z: Chelsea and the notion of trust, ruffled Riza and Nuno's succinct programme notes
Welcome to Row Z, The Athletic's weekly column that shines a light on the bonkers side of the game. From clubs to managers, players to organisations, every Friday we'll bring you the absurdities, the greed, the contradictions, the preposterousness and the oddities of the game we all love… A tale of two differing viewpoints from Chelsea to kick us off this week. Here's Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca on his team's current fortunes: 'This season we have been top four most of our season. I was not here last season, two years ago. So I'm not judging what's happened last year or two years ago. I'm just judging this season. Advertisement 'And this is the reason why I think fans, they have to trust the team, they have to trust the club, what we are doing now. I think it's quite clear that the direction is the right one.' Chelsea fans (safe to say this contains explicit language): Enzo Maresca says Chelsea 'lost confidence' and conceded because of 'the environment'. 😳 He said Sanchez was forced to go long due to the pressure from the crowd causing the 2nd goal. 🫣 — Soccer Forever (@soccerforeverhq) April 14, 2025 A connection between manager, team and supporters is vital to the success of any club. Nuno Espirito Santo and Nottingham Forest certainly have that, but it's safe to say his warmth doesn't exactly extend to programme notes. Anyone paying £3 just to read the thoughts of Forest's boss might feel a tad short-changed… Always love 'Nuno's Notes'. Never in depth, but always deep #zen — Guy Mowbray (@Guymowbray) April 12, 2025 It's even less than he used to write when he was at Wolves… A compact programme for Wolves this season to fit in with Nuno's minimalist approach to his notes. #wolves #wwfc — Nick Mashiter (@nickmashiter) August 19, 2019 At this rate, in a couple of years it'll just be: 'Welcome, thanks, Nuno.' And then at the other end of the fan/manager scale entirely comes someone who's been saying a bit too much recently. 'I'm very excited for the remainder of the season and I hope that you Bluebirds fans are looking forward to joining us.' Where, in League One? Omer Riza seemed pretty confident of survival when he was appointed as Cardiff City's permanent manager in December, having had a decent spell as interim boss. They were 20th at the time, two points above the Championship relegation zone. And now, with four games left? One point below the safety line in 22nd and facing the prospect of demotion back to the third tier, where they have not resided since 2003. As you'd expect given that he's steered the team into the bottom three, Riza is sympathetic to the club's long-suffering supporters and can't really complain if they're having a moan on social media, given the dire situation in which Cardiff find themselves. No, wait, he thinks they're idiots. 'I do read comments,' he said this week. 'I read all the comments from fans and unfortunately a lot of them are clueless.' Slagging off the fanbase ahead of four absolutely crucial games in the club's modern history, where unity and togetherness can go a long way? Nice one, Omer. Probably best not to consider a career in PR after you've been sacked. The 'game's gone' moment of the week came from this horrific online exchange between the social media admins of Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund. After a captivating Champions League quarter-final tie ended with Barcelona going through 5-3 on aggregate despite suffering a 3-1 defeat in Germany, Barca elected to thank their hosts on X. Advertisement Sick bags at the ready. They said: 'You've made it very difficult for us; you've been a great rival. Good luck for the rest of the season, and we'll see you next time.' And Dortmund replied with… Go win this thing 🤝 — Borussia Dortmund (@BlackYellow) April 15, 2025 There's no hope for this sport anymore folks, time to go home. But there remains, unbelievably, a ray of light on social media. Port Vale, who you might remember from last week's Row Z recently enlisted a Fred-Elliott-from-Coronation-Street video to take the proverbial out of Walsall's mascot, are well worth a follow. If it's petty, completely unnecessary sarcasm you want from your social media accounts, you can do a lot worse than Vale. No mate, we'll be playing in Cumbria. — Port Vale FC (@OfficialPVFC) April 12, 2025 Elsewhere on social media this week, a couple of excellent 1960s/1970s music references for Row Z readers of a certain generation. First up, some advice towards Jude Bellingham was turned into tweet of the week from the Cultras Football Podcast. Paul McCartney's first draft: — Cultras Football Podcast (@thecultraspod) April 16, 2025 And, well, no words required for this (but they wore it well)… Rod Steward. #PUSB — Liam Dixon (@Dixon23Liam) April 9, 2025 And finally this week, you feel like MK Dons will forever fight a losing battle when it comes to earning the respect of football supporters. But their social media admin isn't really helping matters with this intended double wide shot of former player Dele Alli. 🤍#COYD — Milton Keynes Dons (@MKDonsFC) April 11, 2025
