Features

By Brian Sears 12 April 2013 Three north-east clubs have played in the Premier League in its 21-year existence and though their fortunes have ebbed and flowed, one club has clearly been the regional dominant force over that time – Newcastle. In the 20 completed Premier League seasons, Newcastle have finished the best of the […]

* Sunderland’s replacement of the sacked Martin O’Neill with Paolo Di Canio dominated a nation’s sporting agenda for the whole of last week. But, Ian Herbert argues, the real scandal of the Italian’s appointment has nothing to do with far right politics or his past affection for war-time dictators. . By Ian Herbert 8 April […]

* The Premier League has never been richer – and yet most of its clubs have never been more fretful. When the new three-year cycle of TV deals for 2013-16 begins this summer, some £5.5bn of TV cash alone will pour into England’s top division. That makes it more important than ever for clubs to […]

By Brian Sears 29 March 2013 QPR face a London derby this Easter weekend that will partly determine whether their season can be resurrected. That one is played on Monday, and a week later the two clubs from Manchester – champions-elect United and champions (reigning) City – will also meet in a derby, at Old Trafford. […]

. Recent months have seen some extraordinary numbers bandied around for the values of English Premier League clubs. Arsenal were rumoured to be the target of £1.5bn offer by a Middle Eastern consortium, who have gone strangely quiet since. In January, Forbes said Manchester United had become the world’s highest value ‘sports franchise’ worth $3.3bn (£2.1bn). […]

* IT would be nice to think that definitive answers exist to every question, that truth is absolute and there is only one way to see things – because then we could always be clear and what is right, wrong, true, false. But life isn’t like that, not any walk of life from medicine to […]

By Brian Sears 15 March 2013 It’s run-in time in the Premier League with every team having nine or 10 games remaining. Those at the bottom end of the table are nervous, fretful, adding up the possible points that can get them to safety. Those around the top four are hoping to edge into it […]

  * ALEXANDRA WILLIS is a multimedia tennis journalist who flits between Wimbledon, SportingIntelligence, the TennisSpace and a few other outlets, while tweeting copiously and trying to improve her (terrible) backhand in her spare time.    “If I were to go to a tennis tournament, it would be Indian Wells. No question.” That statement was not uttered by an […]

* Social networking has myriad upsides, few would disagree. And no journalist working on a national platform can expect that their work will pass without criticism. It’s never been quicker or easier for readers can make summary judgement, for good and ill – and many routinely hurl abuse. Getting that kind of feedback is par […]

By Brian Sears 28 February 2013 So Rafa Benitez isn’t feeling the love from the Chelsea fans, who have made plain their disdain for their Spanish manager. He doesn’t like being interim, or at least hates being called ‘interim’, and the animus aimed at him is damaging Chelsea’s chances of a top-four finish. So he […]