Rory Smith

4 days ago | independent.ie | Rory Smith

A season so rich in promise that has curdled into regret for ArsenalArsenal manager Mikel Arteta. Photo: Adam Davy/PAAll that remains, then, is the final indignity. In all senses but the administrative, Arsenal’s campaign is over. A season that seemed so rich in promise has curdled into regret. There are three more games to play, an obligation and an ordeal, but nothing tangible to play for. The Premier League title is gone for another year, as of Wednesday, the Champions League too.

4 days ago | observer.co.uk | Rory Smith

The remedy might have been noxious, but the diagnosis was correct. In the months of clandestine talks that led, four years ago, to the abortive launch of the European Super League, one motivation above all drove the project forward. It was not, as received wisdom has it, simple greed, a desire among the game’s elite to ringfence as much of football’s wealth as possible. It was fear. For the six continental European teams publicly involved, the Super League was almost an option of last resort.

4 days ago | observer.co.uk | Rory Smith

All that remains, then, is the final indignity. In all senses but the administrative, Arsenal’s campaign is over. A season that seemed so rich in promise has curdled into regret. There are three more games to play, an obligation and an ordeal, but nothing tangible to play for: the Premier League title is gone for another year; as of Wednesday, the Champions League too. That would be painful enough.

1 week ago | observer.co.uk | Rory Smith

That promise, his undeniable shimmering brilliance, is the primary explanation for Yamal’s staggering rise. Simone Inzaghi, the Inter Milan coach, seemed just a little awestruck by his encounter with the teenager on Wednesday. “He is a player I had not seen live before,” he said. His tone indicated he felt genuinely privileged to have done so at last. Perhaps that explains why some of his praise went just a little overboard.

2 weeks ago | observer.co.uk | Rory Smith

Bodo/Glimt offer one of sport’s most romantic stories. The next chapter will be written tomorrow night, when they play Tottenham Hotspur in the Europa League semi-final Photographs David M. TorchThere is an immutable order to these things, an arc to follow and a pattern to fit. The setting is always different, of course. The characters vary, and the precise details with them, although the roles they play are always familiar.