Five years since Fergie left, and Manchester United still look in transition. What’s gone so wrong with a club of this size? The key to their solution is probably lurking around the corner, waiting for them to look hard enough.
Inspiration is a peculiar concept. It has a magical and profound meaning, yet is most popular in its absence, when it can be used as a crutch for inability; it’s a man-made thought, yet you feel the weight when it hits you in the face.
I’m mid-air as I write this, “sitting in a tin-can” like David Bowie would’ve called it. The parting visuals from the airport lounge spurred me to ditch the in-flight siesta I was looking forward to. England just won a riveting cricket match against India, and two men, from Durham and Northampton, have been the catalysts. Ben Stokes and Sam Curran are a great reflection of why the current England cricket team, unrecognisable in their methods from previous generations, are a formidable force; they’re technically proficient, yet fearless, aggressive and in your face.
English football is also at one such inflection point, especially after the exploits of the national team at the recently concluded World Cup. Gareth Southgate’s men, like Trevor Bayliss’, are fresh-faced, spunky and ready to take the fight to herculean oppositions. With the Premier League now playing host to the best coaching seminar of the world, these are good times, or at least the dawn of a promising future.