The Daily: Tuesday 13th June 2023

Kylian Mbappe is about to become this summer's news magnet

I thought I’d try something a little different to try and make this better value for money, a brief morning round-up of stories of note from the previous day. This will run alongside everything else and will run more like an actual newletter rather than some high falutin’ blog.

Kylian Mbappe news will dominate the summer

Okay, it’s possible that it might not. It’s possible that he agrees something with Real Madrid very quickly, or that he changes his mind and opts to stay in Paris instead…until his move has been finalised, all options are obviously on the table.

But roll over, Harry Kane. The announcement that Mbappe will not be triggering the extension on his contract with PSG beyond its end next year has all the ingredients of being The Transfer Saga of the summer. There’s a lengthy pre-existing narrative of previous dances between Mbappe and Real Madrid, and there will undoubtedly be all manner of caterwauling from the entitled, who believe that they deserve him, not that other phenomenally rich football club.

And then, of course, there’s the small matter of Saudi Arabia. What better disrupticate association football and Make a Statement than by throwing a gazillion dollars a week and all the oil he can drink at him? It would certainly reduce a little of the sting that they felt as a result of missing out on Lionel Messi to Inter Miami.

It would certainly be a change of policy from the Saudis, who seem to want to throw many hundreds of millions of pounds at building a retirement league for professional footballers in their mid-to-late thirties. But it’s not difficult to see how Mbappe might be better business than paying N’Golo Kante for the ten or twelve games they’ll get out of him before something in one of his legs goes twang yet again.

The news has gone down like a cup of cold sick in Paris, of course, and it’s tempting to wonder whether there might have been some distraction going on as a result of the interminable Manchester United takeover talk. Coming on top of the departure Karim Benzema for Saudi Arabia and Lionel Messi for Miami, and with the possibility of Neymar leaving also having received considerable attention, it does feel a little as though the last few weeks have seen PSG come apart at the seams, slightly.

Bloody hell, Wigan

Things just keep going from bad to worse for Wigan Athletic. As if getting relegated, having four points deducted, and then having another four points deducted wasn’t enough, they’re going to be back up before the beak on the 26th July following the presentation of a winding up petition by HMRC over unpaid taxes. It has been two and quarter years since they last exited administration under new ownership, and if they can’t come up with something satisfactory by then a return visit to the insolvency practitioners could yet be on the cards this summer. More on that, later this week.

Bordeaux red

Exactly thirty years after their finances were found to be in such a state that they were relegated from Ligue Un, Bordeaux repeated that trick in 2021 and haven’t yet returned. Well, that seems to be the state of play after their promotion back to the top flight was cancelled by the Ligue de Football Professional following an attack on an opposition player during the final league game of their season.

Bordeaux went into their final match against Rodez on the 2nd June needing a win to return to the top flight, but the match was abandoned after a Bordeaux supporter pushed the goalscorer Lucas Buades to the ground as his team celebrated scoring the opening goal of the evening. They were involved in a two-way race with Metz and needed a win from this game, but the LFP decided to award the game to Rodez, a result which not only denies Bordeaux promotion but also spares Rodez relegation.

The club states that they will be appealing the decision, but a home supporter getting onto the pitch and attacking a goalscorer is exactly the sort of disorder that French football has been struggling with since crowds returned after the pandemic, and it’s not particularly surprising to see them coming down like a ton of bricks on a case so egregious as this. Of course, there’s plenty of time for a higher authority to assume a somewhat more supine position over it all, but there are no guarantees that the original decision will be overturned.

Weirdly ‘intimate’ headline of the day

(Daily Mail)

A new daily column in which the weird language of football intersects with the altogether more sensible language of English and produces the sort of mush seen above.

This morning, the Mail rears its head with its traditional ‘Why write a headline when you can cram almost entire article into the headline?’ policy.

Bloody hell, calm down a bit there, lads. The Gettysburg Address was only 272 words.