Month: May 2020

Having looked over 28 years of transfer data for my list of the 100 best Premier League transfers -- 100-51 here and 50-1 here -- it is time to go in the opposite direction. Say goodbye to Thierry Henry and hello to Bebe. It's time for the 50 worst transfers in Premier League history.I tried to keep the rules for determining the worst transfer simple. In short, I wanted to measure the impact a player had on a club versus the impact he would have been expected to have when he signed originally. I paid special attention to anyone whose story or impact off the pitch was particularly notable. And while I considered only a player's performance as a Premier Leaguer in the best transfers piece, in this feature I factored in what he did after relegation if it continued to make the transfer look w...

May 6, 2020For the past couple of years, the United States men's national team has been in constant tinkering mode. Both current coach Gregg Berhalter and his longtime interim predecessor, Dave Sarachan, constantly experimented with lineups -- Sarachan played 56 different players in just over a year, while Berhalter has played 50 since taking over in December 2019.All that tinkering makes it difficult to glean much from the matches the U.S. has played, even more so when we look only at matches against solid competition. Under Berhalter, the U.S. has played just nine matches against teams in the top 50 of the FIFA rankings: two defeats to Mexico (1-0, 3-0), draws against Uruguay and Chile, a 3-0 pasting by Venezuela, two wins over Costa Rica (2-0, 1-0), and a win-loss split (0-1, 3-1) agai...

May 6, 2020The good news for Premier League fans is that there really only are two obstacles standing in the way of a return from the pause because of the coronavirus pandemic. One of them may well be out of their hands, and yes, it's partly their fault at this stage. The other is nothing that can't be resolved with common sense, serious negotiation and goodwill, though the way the sport is set up in England makes it more difficult.Let's deal with the one the Premier League can't really control: establishing a medical protocol for training and matches that both satisfies government regulations in terms of safety, and satisfies those players and coaches who have legitimate concerns.I touched upon this on Monday, so I won't dwell on it, but the fact that they're only dealing with this now i...