Jessica Ennis goodnight

issue 269, August 17 2012

Radar

09 Aston Martin car parts In a lifesize Airfix-style kit. We don’t recommend you put it together yourself

10 Vuelta a Espana Some of the toughest – and prettiest – climbs in road bike racing begin this week

12 Olympic legacies The stadiums from Games of old that could do with a little more love and attention. We all could

o this coming weekFeatures

18 The London Games All the glory, all the golds, all the highs – and one or two lows – from a soaraway summer

30 The Premier League: it’s back We say with absolute certainty what will happen this season. What could possibly go wrong? 44 Designed to Win Behind the scenes at Oakley’s 2012 athlete ‘safe house’

extra time

54 Grooming Our razor-sharp collection of rather nice electric stylers 56 Mieke Dockley Spurs defender’s girl who stripped off in Camelot. We want a shrubbery!

58 Kit The Prem kicks off tomorrow – we’d put their shirts on it

60 Gadgets All the gear to create a disco in your bedroom – apart from an aggressive bouncer on the door 62 Entertainment Arnie and Sly are back with more action cliches than you can wave a gun at in The Expendables 2

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| August 17 2012 | 09

Some assembly requiredhankfully, the Evanta Motor Company

hasn’t adopted the IKEA business

model of self-assembly for a real car,

because if our childhood Airfix exploits are

anything to go by most people would end up

sticking the parts to their own hands before

sinking into a glue-induced hallucination.

It wouldn’t pass an MOT, is all we’re saying.

This is, in fact, a 1:1 scale model of the Aston

Martin DBR1/2 driven to Le Mans victory in 1959

by Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori, two men

who definitely weren’t high on solvents. So clear

out some garage space – the 21ft x 11ft artwork

will be auctioned at Goodwood Revival next

month, with a guide price of £20,000-£30,000.

evanta.co.uk ric

ha

rdp

ard

on

.co

.uk

p10 – Saddle up with the Racing Post’s new iPad app

p10 – Climbing the Vuelta a Espana

p12 – Olympic stadia: a rotting legacy?

T

ere at Sport, we probably don’t

need to find more ways to gamble

our hard-earned (really) cash – but

then along came the Racing Post iPad app.

It’s just like the newspaper, but better.

And it’s available from 8pm the day before

the paper is published. Top features include

a breaking news service, with betting moves

direct from the racecourse, an incredibly

detailed database, customisable racecards

and updated results as they happen through

the day. Our favourite bit, though, is the

oak-panelled library backdrop for the

database. Very classy, very us.

You can download the Racing Post app in the

App Store. It’s free for the first 30 days,

then £1.99 per day after that

Bet your life

10 | August 17 2012 |

RadarP

ete

Go

din

g

ith Bradley Wiggins sleeping off the

hangover of his life, Chris Froome

leads Team Sky in the year’s final

Grand Tour. Cycling writer Daniel Friebe

picks out the toughest climbs facing

Froome in the Vuelta a Espana.

Puerto de Ancaras – Stage 14, 1,470m

“It’s often described as the most beautiful

climb in Spain – it’s very

green, very sparsely

populated. It’s also very

steep towards the end. Most

climbs are steep at the start, but this is 9km

long and the really hard part is after 7km,

when it goes to a 12-13 per cent gradient.

That’s where a lot of damage will be done.”

Lagos de Covadonga (pictured) –

Stage 15, 1,120m

“This is the most iconic climb of the Vuelta.

It’s a really incredible natural amphitheatre.

W

Pain in Spain

H

It’s difficult in the second half – the last

kilometre goes down and then up again,

and that’s where some key time gaps will

be made.”

Bola del Mundo – Stage 20, 2,247m

“It’s high for the Vuelta – at that height,

lack of oxygen is a factor. The general

classification will probably be decided by

then, so it won’t be pivotal. But it is brutal.

It never goes below 10 per cent, and with

1km to go it’s 23 per cent – which means

you’re almost toppling over backwards.”

Mountain High:

Europe’s Greatest

Cycle Climbs –

Saddlebag Edition

by Daniel Friebe

and Pete Goding,

(Quercus), out now,

£9.99

For our preview of

the Vuelta a Espana,

turn to page 50

hat happens to Olympic venues after

the big event has ended? It’s a timely

question and one that’s been superbly

explored in The Olympic City project. From LA

to Mexico City, the two photographers behind

the venture have visited former host cities to

record their post-Games state. Some facilities

– such as Barcelona’s diving platforms – are

still in some use and retain an eerie beauty.

Others, such as many of the Athens 2004

arenas, haven’t been so lucky (see right). Still

a better fate than hosting West Ham games.

Find out more at olympiccityproject.com.

A book is available to pre-order now

12 | August 17 2012 |

RadarJ

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A lasting Olympic legacy

From sinking Fox to soaring Eagles

The Eagles soar (1998)The greatest upset in Challenge Cup final

history involved one of the sport’s oldest

clubs, Wigan Warriors, and Sheffield Eagles –

who had only existed for 14 seasons. Wigan

had won a record 16 finals and were odds-on

to land another, but Sheffield coach John Kear

had a reputation for galvanising underdogs,

and this was his finest moment. The Eagles

took the game to Wigan, with skipper Paul

Broadbent leading by example. Alongside

fellow prop Dale Laughton (pictured), he drove

the ball hard down the middle to lay a platform

for victory. After the game, Broadbent walked

into the post-match press conference still in

his kit, with two hands firmly on the trophy.

When asked about his efforts on the field, he

said memorably: “I ran me blood to water.”

Offiah’s wonder try (1994)Wigan were in their seventh consecutive

final against a Leeds side coached by Doug

Laughton – the man who had discovered

Martin Offiah. Offiah was on the wing for

Wigan and just 13 minutes into the game he

opened the scoring with one of the greatest

tries ever seen at Wembley Stadium.

Receiving the ball just 10 metres from his

own posts, he broke through two tacklers

and found himself in open space. Once into

the Leeds half, Offiah only had Alan Tait to

beat. They had been teammates at Widnes,

but Tait couldn’t lay a finger on Offiah who

swerved inside to check the full-back, then

accelerated outside to the line. After touching

down, he sank to his knees, stunned at what

he’d done on rugby league’s greatest stage.

Not really, David (1968)This Leeds and Wakefield Trinity match

became known as ’The Watersplash Final’ as

rain, lightning and hailstones threatened to

turn it into a farce. With seconds left, a Bev

Risman penalty seemed to have won the

game for Leeds 11-7. However, Wakefield

still had time to restart. Don Fox opted for

a grubber kick, Trinity winger Ken Hirst

hacked the ball towards the posts twice and,

with defenders slipping and sliding, touched

down. Many Leeds players couldn’t bear to

look as Fox stepped up to convert. However,

his standing foot slipped and he sent the ball

wide. Minutes later, David Coleman told the

distraught Fox that he’d been voted man of

the match. “Is it any consolation to you?“ he

asked. Fox replied: “Not really, David.“

head of next

weekend’s

Challenge

Cup final between

Leeds Rhinos and

Warrington Wolves

at Wembley Stadium,

we pick our three

most memorable

moments from one

of rugby league’s

showpiece events.

Starting with one for

our older readers...

Get your tickets for

next week’s final

from therfl.co.uk

Athens’ Olympic beach volleyball stadium as it looks today. Renovation is probably not top of Greece’s to-do list

cool, confident Tom Daley making our Nation Proud

Supported by adidas Ice Divedeveloped with athletes adidas.com/bodycare/uk

ad

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14 | August 17 2012 |

Radar Editor’s letter

Editor-in-chief

Simon Caney

@simoncaney

Sport magazine

Part of UTV Media plc

18 Hatfields, London SE1 8DJ

Telephone: 020 7959 7800

Fax: 020 7959 7942

Email: firstname.lastname@

sport-magazine.co.uk

Editorial

Editor-in-chief: Simon Caney (7951)

Deputy editor: Tony Hodson (7954)

Associate editor: Nick Harper (7897)

Art editor: John Mahood (7860)

Deputy art editor: William Jack (7861)

Digital designer: Chris Firth (7624)

Subeditor: Graham Willgoss (7431)

Senior writers: Sarah Shephard (7958),

Alex Reid (7915)

Staff writers: Mark Coughlan (7901),

Amit Katwala (7914)

Picture editor: Julian Wait (7961)

Production manager: Tara Dixon (7963)

Contributors: David Lawrenson,

David Conn, Jonathan Wilson

Commercial

Agency Sales Director: Iain Duffy (7991)

Business Director (Magazine and iPad):

Paul Brett (7918)

Business Director: Kevin O’Byrne (7832)

Advertising Manager: Steve Hare (7930)

New Business Sales Executive:

Hayley Robertson (7904)

Brand Creative Director:

Adam Harris (7426)

Distribution Manager: Sian George (7852)

Distribution Assistant: Makrum Dudgeon

Head of Online: Matt Davis (7825)

Head of Communications:

Laura Wootton (7913)

Managing Director: Adam Bullock

PA to Managing Director:

Sophia Koulle (7826)

Colour reproduction: Rival Colour Ltd

Printed by: Wyndeham Group Ltd

© UTV Media plc 2012

UTV Media plc takes no responsibility for

the content of advertisements placed in

Sport magazine

£1 where sold

Hearty thanks this week to:

Craig Burley, Sainsbury’s for the

patriotic hamper

Don’t forget: Help keep public transport clean and tidy for everyone by taking your copy of Sport away with you when you leave the bus or train.

LAUNCH OFTHE YEAR

2008

Total Average Distribution: 304,700 Jul-Dec 2011

www.sport-magazine.co.uk

@sportmaguk

facebook.com/sportmagazine

T oday, my little boy is two years old. I mention it not just out of paternal pride, but because this column is about him.The Olympics have largely

passed him by, in all honesty. His sister

was quite taken by the gymnastics.

But overall, as ever, both preferred

to switch over and watch Peppa Pig.

But it is they who should benefit most

from the wonderful Olympics that we have

just witnessed. We have heard the word

‘legacy’ thrown around for seven years

now, without any real substance. Now is

the time to see what it really means.

Well, if there is to be a lasting effect

from these Games, how about this for

a start? More sport in schools. More

sporting facilities. Better equipment.

Better coaching. No more playing fields

being sold off. No more signs in parks that

say ‘No Ball Games’.

Yes, it will cost money, and yes, I’m well

aware we are in an age of austerity. But

the long-term benefits for our society far

outweigh the short-term cost. And I know

there are those who claim there is no

proof that sport can do good, but that’s

because no government has ever had the

balls to set in motion a long-term plan to

get the country active.

But it’s obvious. Sport reduces crime,

reduces obesity, unites communities. On

a micro-level, there are great examples.

Look at the brilliant work of the Beyond

Sport movement, where there is startling

evidence of the good that sport can do.

And when we enjoy success at the highest

level, as we have seen these past few

weeks, it makes us enormously proud.

There will probably be some statistic that

says output has doubled/halved/done

nothing at all during the Games, but that

does not tell the real story.

Instead, the very fact that people have

been smiling, and chatting, and engaging

with each other is a huge positive. A happy

country is a more productive country.

Yes, I’m preaching to the converted

here. If you’ve picked up a magazine called

Sport, then chances are you’re going to

enjoy sport. But spread the word, get

talking and make this a debate that is

heard the length and breadth of the

country. The current government’s

record on this front is not good, although

they now talk a good game. If they do not

act, however, then vote with your feet at

the next election. This is an issue that may

not seem as important as NHS reform or

cuts in education, but it is intrinsically

linked to them nonetheless.

So happy birthday, Felix Caney.

You don’t know it yet, but these Olympics

could have an enormous impact on the

rest of your life.

No more empty wordsNow we have to make the phrase ‘Olympic legacy’ actually mean something

Download the free Sport iPad app from the Apple Newsstand

Ima

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Watch this space: the Games have finished. Now Britain’s

Olympic legacy must begin

Reader comments of the week

A superb #olympic games

complimented throughout

by a superb

@sportmaguk. Good job

@simoncaney et al

@fypcoaching

Twitter

Great article by

@simoncaney. I live in

Stratford & will miss all the

ppl, the buzz. @London2012

have done awesome job

@_ashpatel

Twitter

I’ve been an avid football

fan since 1978 and I can

honestly say I’ve never

been so uninterested in

the start of the football

season.

Steve, via email

@simoncaney epic last

section of your ‘Silence of

the cynics’ article in

today’s Sport... #TeamGB

#wehaveshowntheworld

@sibucknall10

Twitter

If you get copy of @

Sportmaguk today - read the

top 20 premier league

moments. VERY funny.

Laughing all the way through

my commute!

@giftedapollo

Twitter

Free iPad app available on Newsstand

Cover of the Year

18 | August 17 2012 |

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Rule Britannia

annia!| 19

For 17 days

across July and

August, Britannia

ruled the waves,

the Velodrome,

the Olympic

Stadium (for 45

surreal minutes)

and in the very

specialised

discipline of

Putting On An

Inspirational And

Awe-Inspiring

Olympic Games.

Team GB may not

have ultimately

reigned supreme

at the top of the

medal table, but

they were never

likely to. What

they did was bring

home more gold

and greater glory

than we ever

dared imagine. If

it all feels a bit of

a blur now, let us

recap the most

glorious Games in

British history...

London 2012

20 | August 17 2012 |

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London 2012

Day 1. Let the Games truly begin Saturday July 28

The morning after the opening ceremony

before, and when the firework fug finally lifted

over London on the first day proper, gold was

supposed to quickly follow, via the thunderous

thighs of Mark Cavendish in the men’s road

race. Alas, it seemed those dastardly foreign

types had other ideas and Cavendish was left

complaining that no other teams had helped

him win his gold as he huffed home in 29th.

In the women’s 400m medley, Hannah Miley

also came up short, finishing fifth and out of

the medals. This was not the start we’d been

promised, and we went to bed in a funk.

Gold 0 Silver 0 Bronze 0

Day 2.Misery of the Mansfield Mermaid Sunday July 29

A new day brought new optimism, what with

Rebecca Adlington swimming for gold and

a new pair of Choos in the 400m freestyle.

The hot tip for everyone who knows next to

nothing about swimming, Adlington swam like

a woman with a stitch, trailing home in third

behind two women who clearly weren't

British. This was, in no uncertain terms, a

bloody outrage. But at least Team GB was

off the mark with Lizzie ArmiTstead taking a

brave silver in the women's road race –

'brave' because she wasn't expected to win.

It wasn't the medal we craved as a nation, but

silver can sometimes looks a bit like gold if

you stare at it for

long enough. And we

were on our way.

Gold 0 Silver 1

Bronze 1

Day 3. Most unappealing

Monday July 30

Another day of disappointment arrived to start

the week, with Team GB awarded just one

bronze medal for four years' hard work. It was

all starting to feel like hosting a birthday party

but not being allowed any cake. Tom Daley

and the other less celebrated bloke

were in the running for a medal of some kind

in the 10m synchronised platform diving, until

they chose the arse-first bomb for their

fourth dive and had to settle for fourth place.

For a short time it seemed we’d be celebrating

another silver in the men’s team artistic

gymnastics, until Japan argued long enough

that they should have it instead and Team GB

were relegated to bronze. The nation still

celebrated like it was gold, because by now we

were desperate – and because the bookies

were offering odds on us not winning a single

gold medal all Games long. >

Gold 0 Silver 0 Bronze 1

Highs and lowsHigh A skydiving Queen

Liz, an ode to the NHS and

the birth of the Industrial

Revolution. Then came Mr

Bean, the pogo-ing punks

and David Beckham in his

speedboat. We still don’t

really know what was

going on, but Danny

Boyle’s opening ceremony

was a triumph of weird

and wonderful.

Low When South Korea’s

flag was used beside a

shot of a North Korean

footballer on the Hampden

Park scoreboard before

they faced Colombia, the

crackpot state pulled their

players off in disgust.

But it was just a clerical

error, we assured them,

and they came back

out laughing.

High Proving the athletes

are not all that different

to you and I, Germany’s

Stephan Feck produced

the ‘dive’ of the Games

in the 3m springboard

preliminaries. Up, down,

twist, tuck and splash -

into the pool on the flat of

his back. Textbook stuff.

He didn’t progress any

further, amazingly.

Low When matchfixing in

badminton, it’s usually

advisable not to arouse

suspicion by repeatedly

serving into the net in

front of a global audience

of millions. No one

mentioned this to the

eight shady ladies from

China, South Korea and

Indonesia, who were

duly disqualified.

High As part of the

Olympic celebrations,

flag-waving mayor

Boris Johnson went on a

zip-wire above Hackney

- which got stuck half

way and left him dangling

on high for five sorry

minutes. “The judges will

mark him down for

artistic impression,”

said a spokesman.

Low Hoy, Pendleton,

Purchase and Hunter

- these were the Crying

Games alright, and no one

cried longer or louder

than South Korean fencer

Shin Lam, whose tears

formed part of an

impressive but ultimately

futile hour-long sit-down

protest. She may still be

weeping now.

THERE

WAS

NEVER

JUST

ONE

BOURNE LEGACYTHE

JEREMY

RENNERRACHEL

WEISZEDWARD

NORTON

IN CINEMAS NOW

© 2012 UNIVERSAL STUDIOSWWW.THEBOURNELEGACY.CO.UK /THEBOURNELEGACYUK

12ACONTAINSMODERATE VIOLENCE12ACONTAINSMODERATE VIOLENCE

22 | August 17 2012 |

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Day 6.Welcome to the Velodrome

Thursday August 2

With the Velodrome finally open for business,

Team GB added gold in the men’s team

sprint, despite a scare when Philip Hindes

fell off his bike in what was either an accident

or a calculated ploy. “I did it on purpose to get

a restart,” said Hindes, kindly clearing things

up. But because he’s a bit German, he claimed

he’d misunderstood ze question and it was all

just a terrible accident. The only bummer in

the Velodrome came in the women’s team

sprint, when Victoria Pendleton was relegated

for being too lovely, or some flimsy technicality,

taking Jess Varnish with her. But by now the

golds were rolling in, with two more in the men’s

canoe slalom double and the shooting

men’s double tRap. And by this point,

according to photos posted on a popular social

network, Bradley Wiggins was still at the booze.

Gold 3 Silver 3 Bronze 0

Day 7. God save the Queen

Friday August 3

In her last Olympics before she goes off to

agonise over something else completely,

Queen Victoria Pendleton took gold in the

women’s keirin, finishing a country mile ahead

of her nemesis Anna Meares. The men’s

team pursuit took another gold, and the

French cycling suits started sniffing round

and wondering if there was more to it than

met the eye. Throw in a third gold in the

women’s double sculls, Katherine Grainger

finally getting her hands on gold after three

previous silvers, plus four other bronze, and

Team GB was bedding in nicely behind China

and the USA on the trophy table. The biggest

disappointment of the day came in the

Aquatics Centre, where national treasure

Rebecca Adlington was beaten in the 800m

freestyle by a seven-year-old American girl

wearing water wings. Adlington complained

of feeling old and was last seen heading Up

West on a mobility scooter. >

Gold 3 Silver 0 Bronze 4

Highs and lows

Day 5. The gold rush begins

Wednesday August 1

Finally, on the Fifth Day, the Gods finally

dropped a gold Team GB's way. Down on the

water, Heather Stanning and Helen

Glover took gold in the rowing, but missed

out on the full 15 minutes of fame due to

Bradley Wiggins tearing through Surrey

like a man on heat, obliterating the field in the

44km time trial. Taking his own medal tally to

seven, this elevated Wiggins to the status of

Britain's most prolific Olympian, one ahead

of Sir Steve Redgrave, who could be seen

weeping gently in the bushes at Eton Dorney.

Wiggins then announced that only Olympic gold

counts (possibly just to annoy Chris Froome's

girlfriend, as the Tour de France winner's

personal man-servant had lagged home with

the bronze), then pedalled off to get pie-eyed

on gin. Finally, at long last, Team GB was rising.

Gold 2 Silver 1 Bronze 2

Day 4. A silver lining Tuesday July 31

With just a single, solitary silver added, in

equestrian team eventing, Team GB found

itself sitting beneath the superpowers of

Lithuania and Kazakhstan. Stop the Games,

Lord Coe, we want to get off.

Gold 0 Silver 1 Bronze 0

High Michael Phelps took

just the six medals in

London - four gold and

two silver - which took

his tally to a ridiculous 22

in all and made him the

most decorated Olympian

of all time. And yet what

we recall most fondly was

his admission that he

pissed in our pool.

High More memorable

even than Chad le Clos’

fingernail victory over

Michael Phelps in the

200m butterfly final: his

dad Bert going into mad

parental meltdown in

the BBC studio. “Un-

believable. Un-believable,

un-believable,

un-believable.”

Low All those empty

seats? Now if the seats

left scandalously empty

had featured the logo of

the company whose suit

hadn’t bothered to show

up, we’d be able to identify

them with ease from afar

and then act. Boycott their

business and send them

dog dirt through the post.

High North Korea’s tiny

Om Yun Chol lifted three

times his own bodyweight

in the clean and jerk to

take a shock gold, the

exertion seeming to make

him go a bit mad. “I believe

the great Kim Jong Il

looked over me,” he

claimed, clearly delirious

or reading from a card.

High Within 15 seconds of

walking into Horse Guards

Parade for the beach

volleyball, the Benny Hill

music had kicked in and

the MC was imploring the

crowd to “make some

noise, it's party time!” It

was 9.15am on a Tuesday.

And one day, all sport

will be like this.

London 2012

Highs and lows

| August 17 2012 | 25

Day 10. J’accuse, monsieur Monday August 6

Another day, another week and another

brace of golds. This time they came in the

equestrian team jumping (for the first

gold in that event since 1952) and from

Jason Kenny in the men’s sprint. The sight

of the slight Lancastrian being chased around

the Velodrome by the seething French mass

of Grégory Baugé in the final may well be the

abiding memory of London 2012. Afterwards,

the French finally snapped. “How have they

gained so many tenths of seconds,” demanded

team director Isabelle Gautheron, who’d

suspected something was amiss when British

cycle supremo Dave Brailsford mentioned

they had “specially round wheels”. “They hide

their wheels a lot,” she harrumphed. “The ones

for the bikes they race on are put in wheel

covers at the finish.” What she failed to mention

was that the wheels are not only round, but

also manufactured in France. But, as Sir Chris

Hoy’s dad put it: “You’ve got to upset someone.

It might as well be the French.” >

Gold 2 Silver 0 Bronze 1

Day 9. The morning after the night before Sunday August 5

After the deluge, a depression, of sorts: Team

GB won only two golds today. They came from

the ever imperious Ben Ainslie in the men’s

Finn and the tennis men’s singles, where

Andy Murray very almost cracked a smile

after obliterating an imitation of Roger Federer

in the final. Murray also took a silver in the

mixed doubles with Laura Robson, but the

challenge of having to play his singles final and

mixed doubles final simultaneously on different

courts proved too demanding. Elsewhere,

Christina Ohuruogu took silver in the

women’s 400m, likewise Louis Smith on the

pommel horse, who missed out on gold thanks

to some obscure ruling about execution of

something or other. Elsewhere, Bolt beat

Blake in the men’s 100m final – but because it

didn’t add to Team GB’s tally, we shan’t dwell.

Gold 2 Silver 4 Bronze 2

Day 8. Golds galore Saturday August 4

Saturday. Super Saturday. Super Soaraway

Saturday. Super Soaraway Sodding-

Sensational Saturday, the day when golds

rained down on a disbelieving nation. Further

golds had already been added in the women’s

team pursuit cycling, the men’s four

rowing and the women’s lightweight

sculls doubles, but nothing had prepared

Blighty for what was about to unfold in the

Olympics Stadium. First, the little-known

heptathlete Jessica Ennis took gold in style,

dominating from start to finish and racing

home to clinch victory in the 800m. Jessica

Ennis, goodnight indeed. Minutes later, Greg

Rutherford flung himself into the nation’s

living rooms with a jump (8.31m) that no one

could better, before Mo Farah did the

seemingly impossible, beating the unbeatable

Africans in the 10,000m – and then celebrated

by rolling perilously close to a large puddle

of pure white phlegm coughed up by silver-

medallist Galen Rupp. With all three medals

coming within 45 extraordinary minutes of

each other, the nation retired to its bed blind

drunk on glory – though the strong continental

lager may have also helped.

Gold 6 Silver 1 Bronze 0

Low Will we ever see the

best of Chinese superstar

Liu Xiang again? Gold in

Athens, injured in Beijing,

and out of London after

crashing in the 110m at

the very first hurdle. Last

seen heading for the exit

in a wheelchair.

High Usain Bolt retained

his 100m, 200m and

4x100m titles with

awe-inspiring ease, then

invited the Swedish

women’s handball team

back to his room and

declared: “I am a living

legend.” Which is

undeniably true. But stop

right now, big man, for

your work here is done.

Low If you were a

drunken cretin who’d just

lobbed a bottle at Bolt and

Blake on the starting line

of the men’s 100m final,

the last person you’d want

to find standing next

to you is Dutch judo

champion Edith Bosch.

She gleefully beat

the moron up until

security arrived.

Low During the hysteria

of Super Saturday, when

nothing could prick the

nation’s pride, the male

footballers had a good

go by exiting lamely on

penalties to South Korea.

Luckily, it didn’t really

matter because it’s not an

Olympic sport. But even

so – the hopeless frauds.

High The world witnessed

a dish served cold in the

Aquatics Centre when

France came from behind

to snatch a glorious gold

from the USA in the

4x100m freestyle.

Four years previously,

the Americans had

pulled the same trick

on the French.

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Low The most painful

interview of the Games:

15-year-old Lithuanian

Ruta Meilutyte took shock

gold in the women’s 100m

breaststroke and then

froze before the BBC

camera. “I can’t believe it,”

she said, repeatedly, for

five awkward minutes.

Leave her alone, Davies,

you brute.

London 2012

26 | August 17 2012 |

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London 2012

Highs and lows

Day 11. The Queen is dead... Tuesday August 7

Perhaps we were getting greedy by now, and

adding another four golds to surpass the

Beijing gold tally was not to be sniffed at,

but it’s the one that got away that sticks in

the craw. In her final ride, reluctant national

treasure Queen Victoria Pendleton was

supposed to race to a crowning victory in the

women’s sprint, while wearing a crown, before

racing off into the future crying tears of

unbridled joy. Instead, thunder-thighed Aussie

villain Anna Meares elbowed our hero aside

and raced off with her glory and her gold.

Still, Sir Chris Hoy’s gold in the keirin raised

spirits and was as impressively muscular as

it was inevitable, to all but his mother at least.

It bagged Hoy his sixth Olympic gold, one more

than the previous record holder Sir Steve

’Huggy Bear’ Redgrave. But perhaps the most

significant gold of the day came courtesy of

Laura Trott, taking gold in the final race of

the women’s omnium and offering hope and

expectation for the future. The Queen is dead.

Long live the Queen.

Gold 4 Silver 2 Bronze 2

High Highly impressive to

see the Royal three-piece

of William, Kate and Harry

present at every single

game on the Olympic

calendar, sometimes

being at several events

concurrently. Quite how

they got so much time

off work or were so lucky

in the ticket ballot...

well, who knows?

High The true star of the

Velodrome was not Hoy,

Pendleton, Kenny or Trott,

but the man dressed like a

member of the Gestapo

doing laps on a 1930s

motorcycle. Sadly, he

never quite managed

to hang on for gold.

Low Of the big Brit

disappointments, medal

hope Dai Greene was

never at the races,

staggering into the 400m

hurdles final and crawling

over the line. Worse,

though: Phillips Idowu.

A genuine medal hope,

only he will ever know

what went on in that

head of his.

High In his debut Olympic

final, the 800m, Kenyan

David Rushida formulated

a simple but effective

plan: “I just decided to go

for it.” He did just that,

setting a seemingly

effortless world record in

one of the moments of the

Games. Lord Coe passed

out in a puddle of awe.

High Britannia’s first

Olympic medal-winning

brothers in the same

individual sport in 112

years, the Brownlee

brothers took gold

(Alistair) and bronze

(Jonny) in the men’s

triathlon. But for Jonny’s

15-second time penalty,

we might well have had

a frisky one-two.

Day 12. And breathe Wednesday August 8

A day of rest. Not officially, just in terms of

Team GB medals – Tim Brabants being the main

medal hope that didn’t materialise. But at this

stage, third place was as good as in the bag.

Gold 0 Silver 0 Bronze 0

Day 13. Dance and destruction Thursday August 9

As a nation of keen pugilists, Team GB taking

gold today in flyweight boxing and taekwondo

should have come as no real surprise – even if

neither Nicola Adams nor Jade Jones was

quite expected to take the big medal. But who

knew Britain bred such magical dancing nags?

Charlotte Dujardin and the prancing

Valegro hot-stepped their way to gold in

equestrian’s individual dressage – horse

dancing to you and I. And in other business,

the world stopped once more this evening as

Bolt beat Blake again, this time in the 200m.

He celebrated by doing some press-ups. >

Gold 3 Silver 0 Bronze 1

MANY ROADS LEADTO THE MEDAL,BUT ALL BEGIN WITHA GREAT START.

SIR CHRIS HOY, 6X OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALLIST

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NOTHING BEATS

A GREAT START.

28 | August 17 2012 |

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London 2012

Highs and lows

Day 14. Jolly hockey sticks

Friday August 10

Four years after crashing out in Beijing,

Shanaze Reade came up short of the medals

in the BMX, a frustrating sport in which

whoever got to the front first always seemed

to win. In the men’s taekwondo, controversial

British pick Lutalo Muhammad looked

embarrassed to be in the last 16, where he

went out tamely but fought back to take

bronze. As did the women’s hockey team,

beating Holland in the third-place playoff and

securing GB’s first medal in that sport for 20

years. On a day of no golds, a brace of sailing

silvers were as glorious as it got. Suddenly, a

few nerves had begun to creep in – Old Mother

Russia had begun to rouse herself and was

slowly reeling Team GB in on the medal count.

Gold 0 Silver 2 Bronze 3

Day 15. Rise of the Mobot

Saturday August 11

Though not quite as Super, Soaraway or

Spectacular as the previous Saturday, the

sight of new national hero Mobot Farah

taking gold in a pulsating and punishing 5,000m

won’t ever be erased – a day early, this was

the only closing ceremony London 2012

needed. Luke Campbell in the bantamweight

boxing and Ed McKeever in the canoe sprint

added two more golds to keep the Russians at

bay, while Tom Daley took a bronze as good

as gold in the men’s 10m platform.

Gold 3 Silver 0 Bronze 2

Day 16. 29+17+19=65

Sunday August 12

With two golds in the funny Fast Walking,

Russia crept ever closer to Team GB in third

place, but ran out of time and medals. By the

time Anthony Joshua was adding one last

gold in the men’s super-heavyweight division,

Bradley Wiggins was just about sobering up

and Team GB were securing third in the table

with 29 golds (just 22 more than the sorry

Aussies). Only the superpowers of USA and

China sat above them, and Team GB had as

good as won the whole Olympics. From here,

the only way may be down – but let’s enjoy the

view from on high for a while.

Gold 1 Silver 2 Bronze 0

Nick Harper

Final medal countGold 29 Silver 17 Bronze 19Predicted* final medal countGold 19 Silver 24 Bronze 21

*according to The Times/Infostrada predictions

Low In the 4x100m relay

semi, Team GB raced

home behind the

untouchable Jamaicans to

book their place in the

final. Sadly, they were

disqualified for having

truly buggered up the

baton change. It would

have been comical had

it not all been so sadly

predictable.

Low Kicked out of the

Games for not trying

properly in the 800m,

Algeria’s Taoufik

Makhloufi was reinstated

when he turned up with

a doctor’s note claiming

he’d been injured – then

romped to gold in the

1,500m final, laughing

all the way to the line and

his tainted medal.

Low Azerbaijan

bantamweight Magomed

Abdulhamidov was

knocked down five times

in the final round against

Japan’s Satoshi Shimizu,

yet still somehow won.

On appeal, the referee

was found to be partially

sighted and entirely

incompetent, and the

decision overturned.

High It’s easy to forget

now that, prior to the

Games starting on July 27,

it had rained constantly

for the previous 365 days

and nights. London 2012

would not have been quite

so joyous in the rotten,

hosing rain, but clearly

Lord Coe has a hotline

to the gods.

High The closing

ceremony was a

shambling, rambling,

shouty mess, with the

suspicion that they were

simply making it up as it

went along. And yet in all

those things, it reflected

Blighty nicely. Not a patch

on the opening ceremony,

but a fitting finale

nonetheless.

Number of

Golds at the

Atlanta

Games, 1996

30 | August 17 2012 |

Ninety-seven days on from the most dramatic denouement in its 20-year history, the greatest league in the worldTM is back - and bigger and better than ever. This alone is a good thing. Factor in the Championship, Leagues One and Two, the Champions League, a new World Cup qualifying campaign on the horizon and the return of La Liga (the other greatest league in the world) and we may well explode with excitement...

So, to whet your appetite, we've stuck our necks out to tell you how it will all go down

25No. 1Manchester city will prevail againthe premier league champions have

all the pieces in place to retain their

title, and this time with more than 10

seconds to spare. Here, the club’s

powerhouse midfielder, Yaya Toure,

explains why they’ll get better with

age and experience:

“With a big club you expect them to

sign big players, but we already have

a fantastic squad. It’s very young too.

I think the average age is 24 or 25,

which is great for the long term. The

boss has signed his new contract

and some of the players have or will

renew their contracts. That stability

is important, because we have

played together for one or two years

now – and when you work together

all the time, you play better as a unit.

“What’s also good is that the club

has so many natural leaders. Vinnie

[Vincent Kompany, above] is one of

them: he’s a great player, he’s young,

he’s focused and his commitment to

this club is unbelievable. Then you

have Joe Hart, who is quite young,

but is a leader. We have [Nigel] De

Jong, we have [Gareth] Barry, who

don’t talk a lot but set an example.

That’s important in games, because

in certain situations you need

characters like the ones we have.

“Even more than last year, I know

teams will be focused on us; on

trying to beat the champions. But we

will be ready for that and it will make

us raise our level. We would love to

take this trophy again – and we will

fight very, very hard to do that.”

Why Manchester City can dominate the

decade, by David Conn, page 36*Possibly not guarantee. But mostly – with one or two could-dos and the odd question

The Premier League Returns

| 31

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Download the free Sport iPad app from the Apple Newsstand

No. 2After 380 gAmes, they will finish up like this...1. Manchester City (C)

2. Manchester United (CL)

3. Arsenal (CL)

4. Chelsea (CL)

5. Everton

6. Liverpool

7. Tottenham

8. Newcastle United

9. Sunderland

10. Stoke City

11. Queens Park Rangers

12. Aston Villa

13. Wigan Athletic

14. Fulham

15. Norwich City

16. Southampton

17. West Ham United

18. West Bromwich Albion (R)

19. Reading (R)

20. Swansea City (R)

No. 3the striker isn’t deAd

No. 4promoted plAyers who will perform if the premier league’s three newcomers are to survive – or

better – this season, they will need

to learn some lessons from Messrs

Lambert and Rodgers. They will also

rely on the performances of either

the men who did so much to get

them up last year, or the ones they

have signed to keep them there...

SouthamptoNAdAm LALLAnA & Rickie LAmbeRt The other recently promoted

Lambert was top scorer in the

Championship with 27 last season.

Unlike Norwich, the Saints have held

on to their man who, at 30, is making

a late entrance on to the biggest

stage in much the same way Grant

Holt did last season. Expect him to

have a similiar effect. Lallana made

10 and scored 11 from his attacking

midfield role last year. Can he do the

same this season? Yes he can.

ReadiNgAdAm FedeRici& PAveL PogRebnyAk The Royals kept more clean sheets

than anyone last season, shutting

the opposition out 20 times – 18 of

which ended in a win. Federici can –

and will – replicate that form. At the

other end, Pogrebnyak’s six goals in

12 games for Fulham proves he can

be prolific for a side of comparitively

limited means. Five in his first three

made the Russian the quickest player

to reach five goals in Premier League

history. Expect more of the same.

WeSt hamJussi JAAskeLAinen& JAmes tomkinsIn Kevin Nolan, Carlton Cole, Ricardo

Vaz Te and Nicky Maynard, the Irons

have four 12-goals-a-season men.

But will they all fire in the top flight?

If not, it’s at the back where points

will be won. Rob Green’s move to QPR

is a blow. But, at 37, Jaaskelainen can

continue the Brad Friedel trend of

reliable keepers nearing (or over) 40

finding a new lease of life at a new club.

In defence, it’s time for James Tomkins

– at 23 – to fulfill his promise. >

football writer Jonathan wilson tells us why, despite Spain

eschewing the striker entirely in Euro 2012 and the majority

of sides opting for two holding midfielders in a 4-2-3-1, the

trusty 4-4-2 will remain the norm in the Premier League.

“The way Cesc Fabregas played in the Euros was very

unusual and different to what we’ve seen. It’s almost a target

man – not in the aerial sense we’re used to, but as a board at

the front of the midfield they can bounce passes off. He retains

possession, which creates a new angle for the midfield.

“Now, I don’t think anybody in the Premier League will do

that. But Chelsea, who have loaded their squad with really

good creative technical midfielders – Marko Marin, Eden

Hazard, Oscar – don’t really have a centre forward if

Fernando Torres doesn’t fire. Imagine a situation in which

Torres doesn’t play well and Daniel Sturridge is injured

– what do they do? Maybe stick a midfielder up there

and, through circumstance, are forced to play like Spain.

“There is a very slow evolution towards a 4-2-3-1 in

England. It wouldn’t surprise me if Swansea move to one

under Michael Laudrup, but there are a whole bundle of mid-

and lower-ranking teams who default to 4-4-2. The reason

for that? It is what most British coaches and players grew

up with, and it means there’s no danger of overcomplicating.

“That logic takes over when coaches are terrified of being

relegated, or on a run of five or six bad results. Look at what

happened to Roberto di Matteo with West Brom – he got

them promoted and playing really good football, and then

they got one point from nine games and he gets sacked.

He won the Champions League, so he’s not a bad manager.

But there’s that fear – that short-termism – that clubs can’t

allow bad runs to set in. They panic, and so stick with what

they know. You don’t experiment because it might end up with

you being sacked.”

Jonathan Wilson writes on tactics for The Guardian and is

the editor of football quarterly theblizzard.co.uk

No. 6This man will never be sacked

32 | August 17 2012 |

The Premier League Returns

No. 5There willbe bloodThe bookmakers are rarely far out on the sack race predictions for the new

season. If making money off another

man’s misery is your game, consider

the following...

sam allardyce West Ham 6/1

steve clarke West Brom 6/1

nigel adkins Southampton 6/1

mark hughes QPR 10/1

roberto di matteo Chelsea 10/1

brendan rodgers Liverpool 20/1

andre villas-boas Tottenham 25/1

arsene wenger Arsenal 33/1

roberto mancini Man City 50/1

sir alex Ferguson Man Utd 50/1

*All odds courtesy of Ladbrokes

roberto martinez might finally move on to bigger and better things this

season, but he won’t be sacked – not

even if Wigan repeat the form they

opened with last season: 10 defeats,

six draws and three wins by the turn

of the year. Dave Whelan understands

that few men could do a better job

on the budget Martinez has had,

or do it half as stylishly.

No. 7avb could be riPFoRMeR PReMieR LeAgUe STAR CRAig BURLey TAkeS A CLoSeR Look AT THe LAne’S neW HeAd HonCHo

“Make no mistake, hiring Villas-Boas is a massive

gamble. What did David Levy see in the period that

AVB was at Chelsea that said ’here’s a guy who

can manage in the Premier League?’ I don’t see it.

“The worry for Tottenham fans is that AVB

seemed incapable of controlling problematic

players at Chelsea, and he’s going to have the

same scenario at Spurs – Luka Modric wants to

leave, Gareth Bale can see bigger and better

things, and they can’t afford Emmanuel Adebayor.

Senior players suss out a bullshitter pretty quickly,

and he goes to Tottenham with a poor reputation

– his Porto record long forgotten.

“On top of that, AVB liked to play in a rigid

structure at Chelsea, and this is a Tottenham side

that likes to play in a free-flowing, expressive way,

with Bale floating around and the full-backs attacking.

Is he going to try to change that, or just let them play?

“He’s coming into the same situation as he did at

Chelsea, with problems from day one. It’s sink or

swim. If it goes the same way it did at Stamford Bridge,

he’s toast in this country. I hope I’m wrong, because a

lot of good work has gone on at the club and they put

themselves in a great position last season. They fell

just short, but I can see them going backwards this

season because I think they will lose some of their

top players. It will be more of a struggle – just fighting

for the top six could be their aim this year.”

ESPN will broadcast Newcastle v Tottenham live and

exclusive tomorrow at 5.30pm. ESPN.co.uk/tv

not a ball yet kicked in earnest and

we’re wondering how long the coach

of last season’s Champions League

winners has left in the job. It’s a

nonsense, of course, but that’s

football, particularly when

the man you call The Boss

is Roman Abramovich.

He never wanted Di

Matteo to have the big

job – he wanted a

prestige name making

astronomical salary

demands. But the

Miracle of Munich forced

his hand. So he gave the

Italian a slap in the face

with a two-year contract,

all the while fluttering his

eyelashes at Pep Guardiola.

There remains the

suspicion that many of

Chelsea’s key, inspirational players

were playing on a combination

of pride and spite last season.

Di Matteo hadn’t somehow inspired

and re-energised them – they were

just playing to prove Andre

Villas-Boas wrong and make him look

stupid. If the Chelsea coach doesn’t

hit the ground running this time

round and look to have built a team

capable of mounting a title charge

and a Champions League challenge,

the club will be looking for their sixth

No. 9Guardiola would say ‘si’ To chelsea“Pep is currently recharging his batteries playing golf with Johan

Cruyff, travelling [New York] and

seeing his family,“ says Barcelona-

based football journalist Andy Mitten.

“His agent has been speaking to

other clubs with a view to him

coaching again next season, but

an offer may present itself before

then. Would he take the Chelsea job

given the constant meddling of

Roman Abramovich? Yes, I think

he probably would.“ >

No. 8roberTo di maTTeo is on borrowed Time

manager in four years. The Russian

despot sacked Carlo Ancelotti for

returning empty-handed in 2011, a

season after winning the Premier

League (and FA Cup), but one in

which they could only finish second.

Even though di Matteo delivered the

one trophy Abramovich truly craved

– the one that gives him credibility

and kudos – unless he shows signs

of being able to repeat the trick

this season, his end will be swift

and merciless.

27%Roberto Martinez’s win rate at Wigan

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The Premier League Returns

No. 10Financial Fair Play rules won’t mean Playing Fairthis season is the second of three that count towards

the first financial fair play assessment in 2013-14

– clubs that want to compete in Europe aren’t

allowed to lose more than €45m (£35.4m) over the

three years. So clubs such as Manchester City, who

made losses of £197m in 2010-11 (the biggest in

football history, the year before the regulations

kicked in), will have to rein in their spending if they

don’t want to fall foul of UEFA’s sanctions, right?

Well, not quite. Although City’s balance sheet

probably looks a little healthier for 2011-12 thanks

to the money from their Champions League debut,

their costs are still astronomical – their wage bill

exceeded revenue in 2010-11, and that’s unlikely

to have changed with the acquisitions of Sergio

Aguero and Samir Nasri last summer.

Luckily for City, loopholes abound that will let

the club keep spending, should they want to.

They can increase the amount of cash coming in

legitimately through sponsorship deals, which

sounds fair until you realise that City’s major

sponsors are all owned by the UAE government –

of which club owner and benefactor Sheikh Mansour

is a key component.

There are plenty of ways to reduce outgoings

without actually reducing spending, too. It’s already

common practice for transfer fees to be amortised

over the length of a player’s contract. So, for

example, Sergio Aguero’s £38m transfer fee would

appear on the books as six lots of £6.3m, one for

each year of the player’s contract.

Another possibility is cutting the wage bill through

related third-party deals. So, if Carlos Tevez wants

£500,000 a week, you can pay him half that, and sort

him out with a deal with one of your sponsors to

make up the difference – by making him the face

of ’Fly Emirates to Argentina (and don’t come back

for six months)’, for example.

It becomes very difficult for UEFA to track and

apply sanctions when money is coming in freely

from different sponsor companies. The sanctions

themselves are yet to be challenged in the legal

arena, and UEFA have already had to can a planned

ban on transfers for clubs that do transgress the

rules because of potential legal issues. This is the

greyest of grey areas already.

Mancini has already signed Jack Rodwell this

summer – and will no doubt add to that acquisition.

When he does, City will be able to pick and choose

which loophole they want to employ in order to get

around – perfectly legally – the Financial Fair Play

regulations.

| 35

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Download the free Sport iPad app from the Apple Newsstand

No. 11Shinji Kagawa anSwerS United’S prayerSwesley Sneijder and Luka Modric proved out of reach, but in Shinji

Kagawa, Manchester United might

have found – for £17m – the

playmaker they badly require.

“Kagawa has exceptional

technique, amazing vision

and that knack of

operating in the

tightest of spaces and

yet always finding the

right solution,“ says

German football writer Uli Hesse.

“He’ll run until the sun goes down –

he’s learned that in Dortmund,

because Borussia’s game was based

on constant movement – and he can

score as well as create. Think the

new Paul Scholes rather than the

new Roy Keane.“

No. 12reaL Madrid retain La Liga as Barcelona-based football journalist andy Mitten explains, post-Pep Barça could

struggle to hit their previous heights: “Barcelona’s new coach Tito Vilanova is

following Barça’s greatest ever in Pep Guardiola – and the demands are almost

impossibly high. If he’s unable to regain the title from Madrid or win the

Champions League, it will be considered a failure. Vilanova is well liked and

popular with the players, but the mood will turn quickly if his Barça side are

not as impressive as Guardiola’s. Vilanova doesn’t have Guardiola’s force of

personality, nor his status as a club legend on the pitch.

“Some players idolised Guardiola the player before he became Guardiola the

coach. Vilanova will have to convince the players he’s the right man and shift

from being a pally assistant coach to someone who lays down the rules in a

dressing room full of egos. And all the while, Jose Mourinho will be trying to trip

him up in the media. It’s a tough one to call for the title, but I’d go Madrid.“ >

36 | August 17 2012 |

The Premier League Returns

The football nation watched it happen – last season’s Premier League title

euphorically grabbed in the 94th minute of a crazy final match – and yet it still

feels faintly surreal to dutifully describe Manchester City as this season’s

formidable favourites to dominate. The recent rise of City, the club that in the

1980s and ’90s won only “cups for cock-ups”, as lamented by former player

and then chairman Francis Lee, remains difficult to comprehend.

Just four years ago, City finished ninth in the Premier League, having for

three decades never worried the top places. They were written up as the

’real’ Manchester club, in contrast to United’s triumphs and corporate

money-making. The Sky Blues had an owner – former Thai Prime Minister

Thaksin Shinawatra, on the run from corruption charges in his home country

– who was trying to offload the football club he had landed with a wage bill he

could no longer afford to service.

Now Sir Alex Ferguson persistently complains the transfer market is

overpriced for United, whose owners, the Glazers, have drained more than

£550m from the club since 2005 to service the debts of their own takeover.

City, by glittering contrast, field Yaya Toure (one of the world’s greatest

midfield players in his prime), Spain’s sparkling David Silva, and the power of

Argentinian striker Sergio Aguero, who scored that injury-time title-winner

against Queens Park Rangers. Mario Balotelli’s fiery performances for Italy

at Euro 2012 finally explained why City’s manager, Roberto Mancini, retains

faith in a player with so combustible a temperament. City have arguably the

league’s strongest central defence in captain Vincent Kompany, signed

for only £6m from Hamburg during Shinawatra’s ownership, partnering

England’s Joleon Lescott. And Joe Hart, the only City player featuring

regularly in last season’s title run-in who had been at the club since his

youth (Micah Richards was on the bench for the crucial final matches),

is England’s goalkeeper.

So, City are truly the team to beat. The only complication in what should

be a tale of sporting romance is that the ’real’ Manchester club’s revival is

down to the arrival of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi –

their outlandishly rich owner. Since he bought the club from Shinawatra in

2008, Sheikh Mansour, a member of the oil-rich emirate’s ruling family, has

spent around £1bn, principally on buying players and paying wages large

enough to attract them.

Toure came in for £24m from Barcelona in 2010, the summer of most lavish

expenditure, on a wage that touches that of Carlos Tevez. The Argentine is

contractually guaranteed to be City’s highest paid player, on a basic £198,000

a week. In the title-defining derby against United, three matches from the end

No. 13ManchesTer ciTy can doMinaTe This decade by david conn

| 37

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of last season, it was Toure’s overwhelming of Paul Scholes, the 37-year-old

hauled out of retirement to anchor United’s midfield, which encapsulated the

divergent fates of the Manchester clubs. Silva cost £26m from Valencia;

Balotelli £24m from Internazionale, where Mancini previously did his best to

manage him. In 2011, Mansour’s City bought Aguero for a mountainous £38m,

and two Arsenal Frenchmen whose departures shocked an ashen Arsene

Wenger: Samir Nasri for £24m, and Gael Clichy for £7m.

This muscular and powerful squad faces this season with the confidence

of winners, having vanquished in that final match not just QPR, but the ghosts

of City’s past – the failures under pressure, the cock-ups of modern times.

Wenger has repeatedly attacked the scale of City’s spending, although

sympathy for Arsenal, whose former English shareholders made £300m for

themselves after selling their stakes to the American Stan Kroenke, is

running lower than it previously did.

Around Europe, many are aghast at the English game allowing clubs bearing

the names of towns and cities to be sold in the global marketplace. UEFA’s

Financial Fair Play rules, operational from 2014, are aimed at dampening

down players’ wage inflation by preventing clubs running up losses (City’s

deficit was £197m last year) even if bankrolled by an owner. It remains to be

seen how firmly UEFA are prepared to enforce these rules, although City are

trying to bring costs down. Their income, though, is escalating with success.

When Shinawatra, his assets frozen in Thailand, was hawking the

Manchester club in the Gulf four years ago, City were in genuine danger of

falling insolvent. Mansour, a son of Sheikh Zayed, the visionary leader who

steered Abu Dhabi’s composed investment of its oil bonanza that began in

the 1960s, was at the time looking for a club to buy.

The Premier League has, since its own pay-TV windfalls began in 1992,

gradually overtaken Spain’s La Liga and Italy’s Serie A to become the most

watched domestic competition on televisions around the world – including in

Abu Dhabi, according to City’s appointed chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak.

Mansour considered buying Everton before City piqued his interest, but the

Manchester club had the attributes he wanted. It was a major Premier League

club; its supporters had proved their bloody-minded loyalty during the long

years of decline – including a season in the third tier of English football (now

League One) just 10 years earlier. Unlike Everton, struggling at beloved,

outdated Goodison Park, City also had a new stadium, built with £127m lottery

and local council taxpayers’ money for the 2002 Commonwealth Games –

and converted for the club thereafter.

Mansour did not want to spend the first few years of his Premier League

football club ownership adventure with planners, architects and builders

poring over a new stadium project. He wanted to buy players and appoint

a coach to launch his chosen club rapidly towards winning trophies.

Marshalled by Al Mubarak, a new team of executives has rebuilt

Manchester City expertly to do that, win in four years the league the club

had not won for 40 before Mansour. And then win many more.

Unlikely as the story is – repellent to some, a delight to most of the club’s

supporters – Manchester City are the overwhelming 2012-13 Premier League

favourites because of the inherited fortune of a sheikh in the ruling family of

an oil-rich emirate some 3,500 miles away.

David Conn is a football writer for The Guardian. His book Richer Than God: Manchester

City, Modern Football and Growing Up is published by Quercus and out now

No. 14Sky Blue IS The Colour

+48%Increase in Manchester City fans since January – according to their Facebook page, anyway

+62%Increase in Man City shirt sales at prodirectsoccer.com, between 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons >

38 | August 17 2012 |

The Premier League Returns

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No. 15The so-called experTs will conTinue To insulT your inTelligence in this hi-tech era, most of us have learned to watch Match of the Day on Sky+

so we can just fast-forward through the seemingly endless banality. But, if you

find yourself trapped in front of live TV for some reason, here's a little game to

get you through. If you're the first person to be subjected to all of these

occurrences, you win. Sort of.

1. Gary Neville can’t get the ‘Sky pad’ to work

2. Alan Shearer sports a double-collared shirt

3. Alan Shearer simply describes what’s happening in a clip, as it happens

4. Jamie Redknapp uses the word literally incorrectly or references his dad’s time at Spurs

5. Gary Lineker makes a knowing reference to “You can’t win anything with kids”

6. Sky commentator shouts “And it’s live” going into a break, as if that’s never happened before

7. Alan Hansen describes something as a ‘disgrace’ or says ‘shocking defending’

8. Mark Lawrenson makes an awful pun instead of providing any kind of insight

9. Lee Dixon says ‘at the end of the day’ or refers to Arsenal’s famous offside trap

10. Ray Wilkins says “my word” at least five times

Date completed:

No. 16There willbe no honeymoon for brendan rodgers... goodwill ambassador luis suarez

has signed a new contract, ageing

talisman Steven Gerrard looks like

starting the season somewhere

approaching fitness and, wait for

it, tricky youngster Joe Cole is back

from his year abroad. But not

everything in the Anfield garden is

rosy for new man Brendan Rodgers,

who might find life a little tougher

than when cutting his Premier

League teeth in an impressive first

season with Swansea last term.

Manchester City are sniffing

around stylish defender Dan Agger,

deceptively soft hardman Martin

Skrtel has been linked with AC Milan,

and the Kenny Dalglish comedy

collective of Downing, Henderson

and Carroll remain. Rodgers has

stated a desire to play the game

the ’Liverpool way’, but universal

approval has not been forthcoming

from a Kop unconvinced by the

former Chelsea employee’s

appointment – and there must be a

question mark over how much cash

John W Henry is willing to spend

beyond the £25m used to bring

in Fabio Borini and Joe Allen.

Rodgers is a an effective operator,

but he’ll need to be much more than

that if he’s to drag Liverpool from

the Europa League mediocrity

bequeathed him by King Kenny.

No. 17expecT fireworks on sepTember 15 The day Queens park rangers entertain chelsea

in a derby given added spice by the Anton

Ferdinand-John Terry episode from last season

and this summer. But that's old news, right?

Stand well back! nine other friSky looking fixtureS for the new SeaSonNovember 17: arsenal v TottenhamOctober 7: barcelona v real madridOctober 7: ac milan v internazionaleDecember 8: manchester city v manchester unitedFebruary 24: internazionale v ac milanMarch 2: Tottenham v arsenalMarch 3: real madrid v barcelonaApril 6: manchester united v manchester cityMay 4: manchester united v chelsea

... or paul lamberTThe other new boy to impress with a

promoted side last season has also

moved on, with Aston Villa his slightly

less intimidating destination. The

improvement required from owner

Randy Lerner and a generally

downbeat Villa Park faithful should

be within Paul Lambert’s reach, so

dismal was life for pretty much

everyone under Alex McLeish. But

the Scot will have his work cut out

rebuilding a squad that is short on

strength in depth and that age,

injury and illness threaten to deprive

of a spine that, in Messrs Given,

Dunne, Petrov and Bent, is actually

still pretty handy on paper. >

ALLformal shirts and Red Herring suits

Now on

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BUSINESS

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NEW LINES ADDEDPLUS 70% OFF**UP TO

*Excludes Je� Banks White and Thomas Nash Ultimates. Full price menswear only. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other o� er. O� er ends Monday 27 August 2012. **Selected lines only. Debenhams Retail plc.

The Premier League Returns

40 | August 17 2012 |

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No. 18This loT can’T be as good again, can They?1. PaPiss Demba Cisse newcasTleThirteen goals in 14 Premier League

appearances after joining Newcastle

in January, including one run of nine

in six games and the most ridiculous

strike of the season in a 2-0 win

at Stamford Bridge. No goal in his

last two, mind, so his bubble has

clearly burst. 

2. NikiCa JelaviCeverTonThe former Rangers hitman scored

11 in 16 in all competitions after

arriving from the former Rangers

last season. He looks proper handy,

but by now will have read the memo

that says any Everton player must

be useless until at least February. 

3. CliNt DemPseyFulhamTwenty-three goals in one season?

From a Yank? Who isn’t even a

striker? And plays for Fulham?

How can this man be stopped?

Oh, Liverpool have been on the

sniff? That should do it.

4. RobiN vaN PeRsiearsenal/manchesTer uniTed/ wherever Thirty goals in one Premier League

season was ridiculous enough from

the Emirates one-man show, but that

he managed a full 38 appearances in

the process is a feat the Dutchman

ain’t going to be repeating any

time soon. Had a crap Euro 2012

too, so he must be finished. 

5. stePhaNe sessegNoNsunderlandNine assists and seven goals in the

Premier League last season – and

when the Benin international scores,

the Black Cats don’t lose. Can’t be

long before his pace and trickery

are nullified by Martin O’Neill’s

increasingly joyless approach to

the game, however.

No. 19while This loT simplycan’T be any worse 1. PatRiCe evRamanchesTer uniTedA folk hero beginning his seventh

season at Old Trafford, but Patrice

Evra’s budding romance with Luis

Suarez last season helped mask

the fact that he is a growing liability

as a defender. Laurent Blanc noticed

as much during Euro 2012, replacing

him with Gael Clichy at left-back in

the France team – how long is it

before Fergie realises the same?

Not long, we’d wager.  

2. JoRDaN heNDeRsoN liverpoolInexplicably found himself on the

plane (after Michael Carrick's

stubborn refusal to be considered

even as a substitute) to Euro 2012

after a season in which 37 league

appearances yielded two goals and

almost no quality. There is still hope

that he can prove himself to be

worth even a fraction of the £20m

Liverpool paid for him, but not much. 

3. lee CatteRmole sunderlandCombative. Dogged. Tenacious.

Cattermole was none of those

things last season, as 10 Premier

League bookings and one red card

left him with a disciplinary record

cleaner only than that of one

Joseph Barton. The adjective you

are actually looking for, we believe,

is cretinous.

4. ChaRles N’ZogbiaasTon villaFrom Wigan saviour to Villa flop in

the matter of months, his pace, flair

and eye for a goal negated by Alex

McLeish’s reign of doom. A steadying

of the ship by Paul Lambert must

surely stop the Frenchman

floundering.

5. stewaRt DowNiNg liverpoolHe can, though. And he almost

certainly will.

No. 20Torres is back!

The problem in predicting Fernando Torres

will be back to his former self and finally

justifying his £50m price tage is that we’ve

been here before. Several times. Last

season he waited six games to open his

account, but then scored four in five – and

we wondered: Is He Back? But then he went

25 games without scoring and played like

a man with the weight of the world on his

shoulders and his boots on the wrong feet.

In April, he killed off Barcelona and scored

a hat-trick against QPR – and again we

wondered: Is He Back? But he didn’t score

again that season and was left seething on

the bench for Chelsea’s Champions League

final. But, with Didier Drogba gone and

Torres now the big dog, and with him

summering so well with Spain and winning

the Golden Boot, albeit on a technicality,

let’s try again. Torres is back! For now. >

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42 | August 17 2012 |

The Premier League Returns

No. 21It’s Real MadRId’s ChaMpIons league – alMost by default

It’s still too early for Manchester City

to mount a serious charge, though

they should at least reach the

knockout stages this time.

Manchester United, Arsenal and

even holders Chelsea lack the

quality, and Barcelona without Pep

Guardiola have suddenly become an

unknown quantity. Bayern Munich

may yet prove us wrong, but it’s

hard to imagine anyone other than

Jose Mourinho walking away from

Wembley with old jug ears next May.

No. 22Roy hodgson’s honeyMoon Is oveRthrown to the lions with so little time to prepare,

a ceasefire was declared at the European

Championship – and Roy Hodgson couldn’t lose,

even when England lost. It wasn’t his team, it

wasn’t his fault. Now it begins, though.

And Hodgson will discover that being an amiable

fellow counts for nothing if England aren’t winning

and winning, and winning well. The World Cup

qualifying campaign opens away in Moldova on

September 7, with the relative big guns of Ukraine

and Poland following in September and October.

By then, we should have found out if keeping all

11 men behind the ball was part of Hodgson’s

longer-term plan. And if by then the knives are

out, he’ll have discovered if he made a terrible

error in ever saying yes.

WoRld Cup QualIfyIng fIXtuResMoldova v england, friday september 7 2012england v ukraine, tuesday september 11 2012england v san Marino, friday october 12 2012poland v england, tuesday october 16 2012san Marino v england, friday 22 March 2013

Montenegro v england, tuesday March 26 2013england v Moldova, friday september 6 2013ukraine v england, tuesday september 10 2013england v Montenegro, friday october 11 2013england v poland, tuesday october 15 2013

| 43

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Download the free Sport iPad app from the Apple Newsstand

No. 23This is how The ResT will FinishFooTball league expeRT MaRk CleMMiT Talks us ThRough The Rise and Fall oF The season ahead

No. 24ThRee good Reasons blaCkbuRn RoveRs won'T bounCe sTRaighT baCk1. Venky's.2. Steve Kean.3. Nuno Gomes, 43.

No. 25CelTiC should win The splprobably, we reckon. But as ever,

any one of those 12 teams could

sneak it. That's what makes the

SPL so unmissable.

League Twopromotion Fleetwood Town will be up

there, having invested hugely since

they came up. They’ve lost one of

their star forwards to Leicester in

Jamie Vardy, but they’ve brought in

quite an array of players to get them

goals. Below them, Steve Evans

knows how to manage at this level,

so I expect Rotherham to go well in

their new stadium. The third for me

could easily be Cheltenham – if they

can start like they did last season.

playoffs My surprise package in here

would be Oxford United, and I think

they could go up. They’ve seen

steady increments of progress

under Chris Wilder. Other than that,

expect Southend and Torquay to be

there or there abouts again this

season, and I think Bristol Rovers

have brought in a few decent names

and could cause a bit of an upset to

make up the quartet.

Relegation At the bottom of the

Football League, it’s the lack of

resources that cost teams. It will

be an interesting season for

Accrington Stanley, who will have to

get used to life after manager John

Coleman, who moved to Rochdale.

He’s been responsible for so much

of their growth, so they could be

in trouble. The overwhelming

favourites for the drop, though,

have to be Barnet.

After surviving on the last day

three years on the trot, I would not

like to be a Barnet supporter this

year. Other than that, I guess the

likes of Burton, Morecambe and

Dagenham & Redbridge could well

get dragged in because they just

don’t have the resources. There’s

only so many times you can tell a set

of players that they’re better than

the opposition and hope that will

carry them through.

Championshippromotion Bolton really haven’t lost

too many of their players, and Owen

Coyle has been here before when he

took Burnley up in 2008, so the

Trotters will be looking to make an

immediate return. The other automatic

spot should go to Leicester.

Sven-Göran Eriksson accumulated

many good quality Championship

players – Neil Danns, David Nugent,

Kasper Schmeichel – and they’re all

still there. Sven also brought too high

a profile, but Nigel Pearson now has

the player quality to get them up.

playoffs There’s a change with the

arrival of Stale Solbakken at Wolves,

who must be a bit demoralised after

last season’s relegation, but I think

they’ll be in the playoff mix because

they have too much quality, even if

Steven Fletcher goes. Despite the

Bahrani takeover failing, I think you’d

have to say Leeds will be there on

Neil Warnock’s reputation alone.

He’s done promotion seven times, so

they’ll be in with a good shout. I’ve

got a feeling Nottingham Forest will

be the surprise factor with the

money behind the new takeover and

and with Sean O’Driscoll at the helm.

He was undermined at Doncaster,

but his teams play lovely football, so

he has a point to prove and he’s

brought in some good names.

Blackpool could be in the mix, too,

simply because of Ian Holloway's

influence. Outside those four,

Charlton, Middlesbrough, Sheffield

Wednesday and Ipswich are probably

the main challengers – but they’ll

need a good start.

Relegation You’d have to say, in

terms of resources, Barnsley and

Peterborough are likely to struggle.

With the greatest of respect to their

managers, I do wonder sometimes

whether, pound for pound, they

can keep up and keep the players

believing they can topple bigger

clubs. The other one I’d be worried

about would be Millwall. They had a

bad second half of last season, so

they need to start well again. I also

think Huddersfield are going to find

it harder than they are expecting.

League onepromotion Obviously the whole Ched

Evans thing derailed Sheffield United

last season, but I was there at that

playoff final defeat and the pain and

devastation on the players’ faces

means they’ll be very keen to lead

the charge once more. Elsewhere,

I’d back Swindon to go up again.

Paolo Di Canio has just confounded

everyone, and now he’s had a bit

of a clearout and brought in some

players better suited to this league,

I think they might go straight

through. Hanging on to Paolo is the

big challenge for them.

playoffs Notts County are a very

ambitious outfit and I expect them to

be up there again, along with MK

Dons. I thought Coventry finished

quite well in the Championship, and

went down because of their early

season performances – so they can

be up near the top. My surprise

package is going to be Preston.

There’s been a hell of a lot of

disruption there, and Graham

Westley has cleared out just about

every player there, but I’ve just got

a feeling he can do what he did with

Stevenage and get Preston up.

Relegation Bury are going to

struggle, having lost their manager

10 days before the start of the

season. Walsall have been down

there too often, so their luck might

run out. I worry how much there is

left in the Yeovil tank after two

promotions in recent seasons, while

Leyton Orient didn’t have a brilliant

season last time round, and Oldham

struggled as well. The unpredictable

team is Portsmouth, because of

their 10-point deduction and the

fact their squad is currently made

up of youth players and trialists.

Michael Appleton has a brilliant

reputation, but they’re probably

going to struggle.

44 | August 17 2012 |

An exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the place where hundreds of athletes retreated to avoid the worldwide glare of the Olympic athletes’ village...

WORK, REST AND PLAY

Away from the hustle and bustle of the Olympic

village, hundreds of athletes have spent the

past few weeks relaxing at the state of

the art Oakley ‘safe house’, situated above

the Design Museum next to the Thames.

It’s been a home from home for them, offering all

manner of comforts. Technology on tap (many of the

Oakley athletes have been Skype-ing family at home),

top-notch food and drink, and of course plenty of big

screens on which to watch the Olympic action. Not only

that, but many athletes have also visited after their

events had finished, so were able to make full use of

the bar. They’ve also been able to customise their

own sunglasses, with all manner of weird and

wonderful designs.

Oakley and Sport are partners of the latest Design

Museum exhibition, Designed To Win, and Oakley

wasted no time in snapping up the space above the

museum. “It’s been an amazing few weeks,” said Cuan

Petersen, performance sports director at Oakley.

The setting of Oakley’s ‘safe house’ for athletes – next to Tower Bridge – proved a huge draw. Inside, visitors were able to meet up, relax or simply watch the big screens. Beneath the safe house, the Design Museum is currently hosting a sporting exhibition, called Designed To Win.

“The athletes have been able to come here and relax,

away from the village. They’ve been able to sit out on

the balcony, with a great view of London – Tower Bridge

is next door and the city skyline is a stone’s throw away.

Many of our athletes haven’t been to London before, so

they have really enjoyed it. Our barbecue evenings have

been very busy, and the place was packed with athletes

wanting to watch the 100m final on the screens.

“We’ve provided custom-made product to more

than 700 Oakley athletes from 203 countries, covering

19 sports – all competing over the past three weeks.

The safe house has also been open to our other

ambassadors – for example, Kevin Pietersen and

Shaun Pollock have spent time with us.”

The exhibition at the Design Museum below the

Oakley safe house has also been a hit. It showcases

design in sport over the past 50 years, and is a great

insight into the advances of technology in everything

from football boots to bobsleds. The exhibition runs

until November.

Sport promotion

| 45

Amount, in pence, you

would have won with

a £1 accumulator

on Frankel’s three

runs this year

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7 DaysAUG 17-AUG 23

HIGHLIGHTS

» Athletics: Diamond League, Lausanne » p48

» Golf: The Barclays » p50

» Cycling: Vuelta a España » p50

» Football: The Championship » p52

» MotoGP: Round 11 » p53OUR PICK OF THE ACTION FROM THE SPORTING WEEK AHEAD

46 | August 17 2012 |

WEDNESDAY HORSE RACING | JUDDMONTE INTERNATIONAL | YORK RACECOURSE | CHANNEL 4 3.40PM

Chances to see Frankel, the finest horse of a generation, are running out.

Tomorrow he contests the Juddmonte

International at York and, after that, he

will race just one more time – in the Qipco

Champions Stakes at Ascot in October.

It has been a privilege to watch him, and

the fact that he was kept in training as a

four-year-old, when most horses of his

stature are retired, was a great sporting

gesture by his owner, Prince Khalid Abdullah.

Tomorrow’s race could even be seen as

something of a risk: it is over a mile and

a quarter, and Frankel has never raced

beyond a mile before. But, as his last race

demonstrated, he is now so much better

than every other miler that there are no

horses left for him to race at that distance.

And his breeding suggests that stepping up in

distance will be no problem – his dad, Galileo,

won the Derby over a mile and a half.

Going up against specialist 10-furlong

horses will give him something to think about,

however. More importantly, it will give his

jockey Tom Queally pause for thought too.

Queally has his critics – and on occasion has

not ridden Frankel as well as he might have

done, often charging unnecessarily from

the front. Over a mile, Frankel has the insane

pace that doesn’t let his rivals get close, but

over a longer distance, Queally needs to

exercise a little more caution. He can switch

on the afterburners whenever he likes but,

while Frankel dismissed Frankie Dettori’s

mount Farhh with contempt over a mile at

Goodwood, that horse is proven at 10

furlongs. There is no cannier jockey than

Dettori, too, and if anyone is going to

pounce on a Queally mistake, it will be him.

Other rivals are falling away, however.

Nathaniel and Cirrus Des Aigles might both

have given Frankel a race, but have opted

to swerve him, and that leaves the mighty

beast officially rated almost a stone better

than anything else in the field. So, on all

known form, there is no reason why the

great horse will be beaten. We may never

see his like again.

Catch him while you can

THE LIMITS OF POSSIBILITY HAVE BEEN REDEFINED | LIMITED EDITION OAKLEY RADAR®

OFFICIAL PRODUCT OF TEAM GB

UK.OAKLEY.COM©2012 Oakley, Inc. | 01727 795791

Sevens might be making its Olympic bow in Rio in four years (token Olympic

mention out of the way), but it’s the

15-a-side form of the game that’s set

to take the stage when the newly

formed Rugby Championship gets

under way tomorrow morning, with

world champions New Zealand taking

on Australia.

The All Blacks are generally the team

to beat, and this year is no different,

having added a Super XV title

(courtesy of the Highlanders) to last

autumn’s World Cup win. Conrad

Smith’s injury is a blow to Steve

Hansen’s men, but the availability of

Sonny Bill Williams should soften that

blow, while Dan Carter and Aaron

Cruden are both on fine form and look

set to battle it out for the fly half slot.

The Aussies, meanwhile, will have

to do without James O’Connor and

captain James Horwill. But they will

be looking to target the All Blacks’

breakdown through the power of

new skipper David Pocock and Scott

Higginbotham, as well as the creativity

of their little genius Will Genia

(pictured) behind the pack. Stop him

and keep Pocock quiet, and New

Zealand will be well on their way

to victory.

Later in the day, history will be

made when Argentina head to South

Africa to take their place at the

southern hemisphere’s top table. The

Springboks have been hit by injuries to

JP Pietersen and Schalk Burger, while

their dearth of second-row options is

embarrassing for a side known for

their forward power. The Pumas

couldn’t have hand-picked a better

opening game (away from home,

at least), but they’ll need a huge

performance from their front three

and their big-name stars – Juan Martin

Hernandez finding his form would go

a long way to helping, too. Whatever

happens, it’s good to see the Pumas

finally given a crack at the big stage.

Oh, and rugby – it’s good to have you

back, dear friend. Ca

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48 | August 17 2012 |

7 Days

THURSDAY ATHLETICS | SAmSung DIAmOnD LEAguE: LAuSAnnE | STADE

OLympIquE DE LA pOnTAISE | BBC THREE 7pm

SATURDAY RugBy unIOn | RugBy CHAmpIOnSHIp: AuSTRALIA v nEw

ZEALAnD | AnZ STADIum, SyDnEy | Sky SpORTS 3 10.30Am

Being a legend doesn’t mean you can just sit on your legendary backside, as Usain

Bolt (pictured) is about to find out.

The Jamaican 100m and 200m Olympic

champ is set to run in the Lausanne

Diamond League event next Thursday,

proclaiming a special affection for the

Stade de la Pontaise and “one of the

best curves I have ever seen”.

Sadly for the three Swedish handball

ladies with whom he was recently

pictured in particular, Bolt is talking

about the splendid bends of the track

rather than anything he laid his eyes on

in Stratford. So it’s no surprise that

he’s since decided upon the 200m for

his debut outing as a double, triple-

Olympic champion – or, in short, as a

legend. He has, however, eschewed the

opportunity to compete on the boring

old straight of

the 100m.

His closest

rival and

compatriot,

Yohan ’The

Beast’ Blake, is also set to compete in

Lausanne, although at time of writing

has not yet laid his marker down on

either sprint distance. With Bolt likely

to have spent much of the past week

DJing and searching for the future

Mrs Bolt, Blake might fancy his

chances against his golden nemesis.

Or he might take the easy option and

run the 100m. With American duo

Tyson Gay and Justin Gatlin also

confirmed for Lausanne, however, it’s

unlikely to be a summer stroll for Blake.

Elsewhere, Olympic champs

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (100m),

Sally Pearson (100m hurdles), Kirani

James (400m) and the mostly drunk

Russian Ivan Ukhov (high jump) are also

competing. It’s like the Olympics

all over again. We wish.

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50 | August 17 2012 |

7 Days

THURSDAY > GOLF | THE BARCLAYS | BETHPAGE BLACK, NEW YORK | SKY SPORTS 3 8PM

SATURDAY > CYCLING | VUELTA A ESPANA | PAMPLONA | BRITISH EUROSPORT 5.45PM

Four majors down? Check. WGCs all contested? Check. Good, it’s time

for the PGA Tour to start playing

for some real money. Depending on

who you ask, this is either the most

exciting bit of the season or quite

the silliest. But the next four weeks –

which the PGA Tour likes to dub

‘The Playoffs’ – will see someone

crowned FedEx Cup champion.

And with that title comes a prize

fund of a mind-boggling $10m.

That’s Ten. Millon. Dollars.

It all begins this week at The

Barclays, contested at the legendary

Bethpage Black. There will be 125

golfers in the field, who will be

whittled down to 100 for the

next event, the Deutsche

Bank Championship,

then 70 for the BMW

Championship, before a

final 30 tee it up for the

Tour Championship. In

short, this is a four-event

shootout for untold riches –

won last year by journeyman Bill

Haas (pictured), who collected

the $10m thanks to victory in the

Tour Championship.

The 2011 Barclays had to be cut

to three rounds because of poor

weather, and it was Dustin Johnson

who came out on top, two clear of

Matt Kuchar.

This year, all eyes will be on the

pairing of new US PGA champion Rory

McIlroy and Tiger Woods over the

first two rounds. Should be

some battle – but

our money’s on the

wee fella from

Holywood.

Paying the Bills

He had to take second billing behind Bradley Wiggins in the Tour de France, but at the Tour of Spain Team Sky’s

Chris Froome will get to play the lead

role he’s shown he’s more than capable

of fulfilling.

The Kenyan-born rider won bronze

in the Olympic time trial – once again

behind Wiggins – and has excellent

form in the Vuelta, having finished

second in last year’s race, just 13

seconds behind winner Juan Jose

Cobo. That podium place saw Froome

relegate teammate Wiggins into third,

despite having started the race on the

assumption he’d be riding as support

for Team Sky’s main man.

At the time, it was the highest finish

achieved by a Brit in a Grand Tour

for some 24 years. Wiggins’ feats in

France this year have now topped that,

of course, but with the Tour de France

winner giving the Vuelta a miss this

year, Froome has a chance to grab

some glory of his own.

He’ll be up against the home

favourite, Alberto Contador, who’s on

the comeback trail after his return

from a two-year doping ban. After

finishing eighth in his first race back

– the Eneco Tour, which took place at

the beginning of August – the Spaniard

said: “I’m in good shape. I’ve felt better

and better every day and I believe

there’s still room for improvement

in the coming week.”

Froome says Contador will go into

the race with plenty to prove after

his time away, but the same could be

said of the Team Sky man himself,

who will want to show team principal

Dave Brailsford and company that he’s

more than capable of filling Wiggins’

skinny trousers.

Stepping up

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52 | August 17 2012 |

7 Days

Chasing status

FRIDAY Cardiff v Huddersfield | Cardiff City stadium | sky sports 1 7.45pm

The Championship is littered with fallen giants – some, such as Newcastle or

West Ham, bounce back at the first

time of asking, while others find

themselves sliding even lower down

the football pyramid. Fans will get a

chance to see what’s in store for their

teams this weekend, as the first round

of games kick off, with another lot on

Tuesday night. Here’s a few to keep

an eye on this weekend.

Defeated playoff semi-finalists Cardiff have had a bit of a makeover over

the summer – they’ll line up in red

home shirts as part of a Malaysian

investment that will see them pushing

for automatic promotion. They’re up

against Huddersfield, who did rather

better in their own playoff campaign,

winning promotion from League One

with a penalty shootout victory over

Sheffield United. Keep an eye on

Terrier Jordan Rhodes (left), who

scored 36 goals in 40 league

appearances last season – it’ll be

fascinating to see if he can carry

that form into a higher division.

SATURDAY leeds united v Wolves | elland road | sky sports 2 12.45pm

SATURDAY Burnley v Bolton | turf moor | 3pm

Wolves will want to bounce back at the first time of asking under new

manager Stale Solbakken, but their

first assignment will be a reminder of

just how difficult that can be. Leeds fell

through the trap door eight years ago

and are still trying to find their own

way back, finishing 14th in the

Championship last season. Wolves’

Norwegian manager has, so far,

managed to hang on to their top talent

– rejecting hefty bids for the likes of

Matt Jarvis (left) and Stephen Fletcher

– while Leeds have lost talented winger

Robert Snodgrass to Norwich.

Owen Coyle abandoned Burnley to the

Championship when he left them during

their sole season in the Premier

League to manage Bolton. Two years

on, he’s back at Turf Moor to face a

Burnley side who finished 13th under

Eddie Howe last season. Trotters

chairman Phil Gartside has vowed to

halve the club’s wage bill, but Ivan

Klasnic is the only significant

departure thus far. On-loan Arsenal

striker Benik Afobe is ready to step in

– he hit a hat-trick in the club’s

penultimate pre-season friendly – and

the return of Chung-Yong Lee (left)

from long-term injury is like a new

signing. With Stuart Holden due back in

October, Trotters fans are confident of

a return to the Premier League at the

first attempt. This tricky away tie,

however, might temper expectations.

Other games

satUrDaY 3Pm

Barnsley v middlesborough, oakwell

Birmingham v Charlton, st andrew’s

Crystal palace v Watford, selhurst park

derby County v sheffield Wednesday,

pride park

Hull v Brighton, kC stadium

ipswich v Blackburn, portman road

leicester v peterborough,

Walkers stadium

millwall v Blackpool, the den

nottingham forest v Bristol City,

City Ground

tUesDaY 7.45PmBrighton v Cardiff, ameX stadium

Bristol City v Crystal palace, ashton Gate

Charlton v leicester, the valley

Huddersfield v nottingham forest,

Galpharm stadium

middlesborough v Burnley,

riverside stadium

peterborough v millwall, london road

sheffield Wednesday v Birmingham,

Hillsborough

Watford v ipswich, vicarage road

Wolves v Barnsley, molineux

tUesDaY 8PmBlackpool v leeds united, Bloomfield road

Bolton v derby, reebok stadium

The big news in MotoGP at the moment – after a

three-week gap in the schedule – is that, from next

season, seven-time world champion Valentino Rossi

will be returning to the Yamaha team with which he

had so much success. The Italian has struggled with

his Ducati for the past season and a half, but has still

managed to score points in all but one race so far

this time round. His forthcoming return to a team

that suits him is a clear wake-up call to the other

riders – if you want to win the world title do it now,

because next year it could be a lot harder.

Rossi’s future teammate Jorge Lorenzo is still

best placed to do just that, despite being beaten by

Casey Stoner in the last round at Laguna Seca.

He still has a 23-point lead over second-placed Dani

Pedrosa in the championship as it heads across the

US to Indianapolis. The MotoGP track, which hosted

its first race in 2008, incorporates some of the

famous oval circuit, with the remainder of the lap

winding through the infield.

Defending champion Stoner won here last year

on his way to the title, but his overall record at

Indianapolis is not good – that was his first

podium finish in three attempts. It’s that kind of

inconsistency, so rare in his championship years,

that has plagued the Australian of late – can he use

his Laguna Seca win to launch a run of race victories

and end his career on a high?

| 53

SUNDAY MOTOGP | ROund 11: IndIanaPOlIs | IndIana, usa | BBC TwO 6.30PM

Motor city

Helly Hansen

catwalk

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a 26.2 mulit-lap trail maratHon

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22nd september 2012, stonor park,

Henley-on-tHames. sign up and join us

on tHe Helly Hansen catwalk at www.

HellyHansenbeautyandtHebeast.co.uk

FRIDAY

CRICKET England v

south africa:

Third Test day 2,

lord’s, sky sports 1 10.30am

GOlF wyndham Championship day 2,

sedgefield Country Club,

north Carolina, sky sports 3 8pm

RuGBY lEaGuE super league:

london Broncos v warrington wolves,

Twickenham stoop,

sky sports 2 8pm

FOOTBall Mls: nY Red Bulls v

Houston dynamo,

Red Bull arena,

new Jersey, EsPn 1am

SATURDAY

FOOTBall sPl: Ross County v Celtic,

Victoria Park, dingwall,

EsPn 11.30am

TEnnIs Cincinnati Masters 1000:

semi Finals, lindner Family Tennis

Center, Ohio, sky sports 4 6pm

RuGBY lEaGuE super league:

widnes Vikings v Hull FC,

Halton stadium, sky sports 2 6.15pm

FOOTBall la liga: sevilla v Getafe,

Estadio Ramón sánchez Pizjuán,

seville, sky sports1 7.30pm

SUNDAY

FOOTBall FIFa u20 women’s world

Cup: Brazil v Italy, urawa Komaba

stadium, saitama, Japan ,

British Eurosport 7am

FOOTBall sPl: dundee utd v dundee,

Tannadice Park, sky sports 4 12.45pm

TEnnIs Cincinnati Masters 1000: Final,

lindner Family Tennis Center, Ohio,

sky sports 4 5.30pm

MONDAY

CRICKET England v south africa:

Third Test day 5, lord’s,

sky sports 1 10.30am

BasEBall MlB: la dodgers v

san Francisco Giants, dodger

stadium, downtown los angeles,

EsPn 3am

TUESDAY

CRICKET ICC u19 world Cup:

semi Final 1, Tony Ireland stadium,

Townsville, sky sports 2 12.30pm

WEDNESDAY

CRICKET CB40: Kent v Yorkshire,

st lawrence Ground, Canterbury,

sky sports 1 4.30pm

THURSDAY FOOTBall supercopa:

Barcelona v Real Madrid,

Camp nou, sky sports 1 8.55pm

BEST OF THE REST

Download the free Sport iPad app from the Apple Newsstand

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Extra time Grooming

54 | August 17 2012 |

Making the most of your time and money

Give them a buzzIf you want a five o’clock shadow, a goatee

or just want to look a bit like Louis Smith,

one of these super trimmers should do

the trick. And stop using your dad’s, son

Making the most of your time and money

P60

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with lamps inspired by a 1980s

Soviet video game. Or else

Braun cruZer6 precision£19 | boots.com

Sassoon for Men: Titan Series Rechargeable Beard Trimmer£20 | amazon.co.uk

Philips Multigroom: Grooming Kit Pro£30 | boots.com

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| 55

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The UK’s top sport magazine The biggest interviews The best previews

56 | August 17 2012 |

Extra time Mieke Dockley

Magic

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| 57

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Extra time Kit

58 | August 17 2012 |

Your favourite

shirtFans united behind Team GB are

now divided – here’s how you tell

| 59Download the free Sport iPad app from the Apple Newsstand

Top row: Arsenal | £45, Aston Villa | £45,

Chelsea | £50, Everton | £50, Fulham | £45

Second row: Liverpool | £45, Manchester

City | £45, Manchester United | £50,

Newcastle | £50, Norwich | £45

Third row: QPR | £43, Reading | £40,

Southampton | £42, Stoke | £45,

Sunderland | £50

Bottom row: Swansea | £45, Tottenham | £45,

WBA | £45, West Ham | £45, Wigan | £40

Extra time Gadgets

60 | August 17 2012 |

Disco inferno

Recreate a night out from the comfort

of your own bedroom – well, everything

except the ill-advised kebab shop visit

1. Mio Spirit 697 LM This sat nav can find your car

if you forget where you parked,

tailor routes to your requirement

(shortest, fastest, easiest, most

economical), and actually tells

you in which lane you’re meant

to be travelling in advance. It

also comes with lifetime map

updates, while voice entry

means you’re one step closer to

driving KITT from Knight Rider.

£170 | eu.mio.com

2. Skullcandy Mix Master DJ Headphones These nauseatingly dubbed

‘celebriphones’ were designed

in an 18-month (!) collaboration

with DJ Mix Master Mike of

the Beastie Boys and include

DJ-ready features including

dual-channel cue control and

one-touch mute, so you can

check the crowd’s reaction to

the sick beats you’ve dropped.

£250 | skullcandy.co.uk

3. Denon AH-D7100 For a more refined listening

experience, look no further

than Denon’s new flagship

headphones. With ear cups

crafted from mahogany, they

provide reference-quality audio

thanks to their Free Edge Nano

Fibre drivers. We’re not sure

what any of that means, but

at a grand a pair we’re willing

to bet it’s something good.

£1,000 | denon.co.uk

2

3 4

1

5

4. Tetris LightIf you love Soviet-era nostalgia,

or just want to fill your living

room with kitschy tat, then this

game-inspired lamp is perfect.

You can rearrange the blocks

to any configuration you want

and the light will keep shining,

though beware – if you happen

to accidentally make an

uninterrupted row, it could

disappear. No refunds.

£30 | firebox.com

5. Pioneer DDJ-Ergo-k Any idiot with a laptop and

a collection of 1990s song

samples to rip off can make a

hit record these days. Join their

ranks with this DJ controller,

which plugs into your laptop

and, in conjunction with the

included software, will let you

mix and scratch to your heart’s

content. You’ll be DJing eighth

birthday parties in no time.

£429 | pioneer.co.uk

Download the free Sport iPad app from the Apple Newsstand

Marley

Perfectly timed on the month Jamaica celebrates

50 years of independence is the Monday release of

this definitive Bob Marley documentary. Interviews

with family, pals and ex-Wailers is

mixed in with live footage, such

as the free concert Marley gave

in Kingston days after a bullet

injured him in an attempt on his

life. A compelling portrait of a

man even Usain Bolt is awed by.

Darksiders IIVideo game heroes used to be

simple folk, such as Pac-Man or

Mario. Darksiders II’s protagonist,

Death, looks like Skeletor on

steroids and probably chews

Italian plumbers for breakfast.

He’s also one of the reasons this

new action-RPG is immense fun.

Controlling this agile hulk and his

twin scythes – battling demons,

dragons and giants – looks an epic

experience. The surrounding realms

are also far more expansive than

the original, and you even get your

own pony, Despair, to explore this

imposing backdrop. Just don’t ask

this nag to do dressage – we get

the feeling it’s not for him.

Wilfred Season 1

This darkly amusing US

sitcom starts with Elijah

Wood mixing an overdose

milkshake, before a new

buddy pulls him from his

despair. That’s Wilfred,

his neighbour’s dog – who

looks normal to others

but is a crass, funny,

advice-giving Australian

to our hero. Hmm. We’d

still prefer the milkshake.

Sleeping Dogs (PC/PS3 Xbox 360)

Ever wanted to smash

up Hong Kong like you’re

Bruce Lee taking down

Triads? Sleeping Dogs

gives you this chance

and – despite a troubled

development – the game

has arrived to surprise

critical acclaim, winning

praise for its fast, fluid

martial arts combat and

a bustling open-world

city. Enter it from today.Umbrella Will Self

He’s a fan of abstruse language, so reading Will Self

usually involves having a dictionary open – but he’s

often worth it. There are Booker Prize whispers

for his latest novel, an ambitious

effort encompassing a maverick

psychiatrist, a Victorian mental

asylum and a patient he brings out

of a 53-year-long coma. Expect

rave reviews and a Danny Dyer film

adapatation (okay, not the latter).

The Expendables 2

The first was a box office hit, so Sly Stallone has

rounded up his (literally) old pals for a return. Arnie,

Bruce and Jet Li are back, joined by Jean-Claude Van

Damme playing a villain called – wait for it – Jean

Vilain. As for the plot? Well, that’s

thinner than Bruce Willis’ hairline,

but you can expect explosions,

creaky violence and some cheesy

one-liners (Jason Statham’s “I now

pronounce you man and knife” is

just a starter). Oh Sly, you have

been good to us! Out from today.

To

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Ky

ria

co

u/R

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Fe

atu

res

62 | August 17 2012 |

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