Paul Hayward

4 days ago | observer.co.uk | Paul Hayward

Any approach from Wrexham to Jamie Vardy to help them reach the Premier League is highly unlikely to succeed. The two Hollywood big hitters who own Wrexham may see a synergy with Vardy’s filmic career – but the word is he still feels he has unfinished business at the top. Even at 38, Vardy is reluctant to vacate the big stage. But we do know he is vacating Leicester City. He plays his final home match for the club next weekend against Ipswich Town.

1 week ago | observer.co.uk | Paul Hayward

Harry Kane spent his final day in the waiting room in civvies, in Leipzig, while his Bayern Munich team-mates endeavoured to liberate him from the curse of being the best modern player never to have won anything. The first trophy is almost in his grasp. Bayern’s 3-3 draw at Leipzig means that Bayer Leverkusen will have to overturn a goal difference of 30 to pull off a miracle. Kane, 32 in July, made his league debut on loan at Leyton Orient in January 2011, away at Rochdale.

1 week ago | observer.co.uk | Paul Hayward

When Keir Starmer’s government looked for inducements to make Donald Trump go easy on the UK, the US President’s sporting obsession was an obvious place to start. ‘Inducements’ might seem a soft way of describing the government’s apparent hope that the Royal and Ancient will award the 2028 Open Championship to Trump’s Turnberry Course in Scotland. ‘Bribe’ would be a pithier term if one of the jewels of the British sporting summer were handed to an unpredictable foreign leader as a quid pro quo.

2 weeks ago | independent.ie | Paul Hayward

Pep Guardiola bids to end this alien era of head-scratching in charge of Manchester CityPep Guardiola embraces Manchester City's Nico O'Reilly. Watching exiled Manchester City players has been more entertaining than the team that discarded them. Cole Palmer (Chelsea), Morgan Rogers (Aston Villa), Liam Delap (Ipswich) and Julian Alvarez (Atletico Madrid) excelled while City’s authority was broken.

2 weeks ago | observer.co.uk | Paul Hayward

David Stancombe is running in the London Marathon to raise money for projects in memory of his daughter, one of three girls who died in the attack on a dance class last year, he and his wife Jenni tell Paul Hayward A year ago last weekend in Southport, a seven-year-old girl watched with her father as more than 50,000 runners pounded through the streets of the capital. She told him: “Dad, I want you to run the London Marathon.”Twelve months on, the dad is running.