Ken Early: Any fair-minded person wanted Celtic to fail, but Hearts’ ‘cheat code’ takes the gloss off Veteran manager’s title success achieved by old-school values against a data-driven opponentMon May 18 2026 - 06:00
Ken Early: Arsenal will be the champions this fearful Premier League deservesThe fact the Football Writers’ Footballer of the Year award went to Bruno Fernandes tells us something Sun May 10 2026 - 22:14
Ken Early: Liverpool have become awfully comfortable with losing under Arne SlotKobbie Mainoo caps comeback win amid mounting pressure on Arne SlotMon May 04 2026 - 06:00
Ken Early: Mohamed Salah will long be remembered as one of Liverpool’s best playersNever a lethal finisher like Messi, Son or Kane, but he was the best at getting chances to scoreMon Apr 27 2026 - 06:00
Ken Early: For Arsenal, the worst has already happenedMikel Arteta’s squad did not play terribly against Manchester City and the worst has already happenedMon Apr 20 2026 - 06:00
Liverpool want fans to keep singing as they lose 4-0, then say nothing as they charge moreThe club seems to be saying: your job is to keep singing for us even as we lose 4-0, then shut your mouth when we charge you moreMon Apr 13 2026 - 06:00
Ken Early: Chelsea’s model would work if it wasn’t reliant on human beingsAt Stamford Bridge, it seems the manager needs to be more attuned to board morale than player harmonyMon Apr 06 2026 - 06:00
Ken Early: ‘Why won’t Ireland score?’ – Six-year-old fan at Aviva sums up the eternal mysteryBut goalless draw against North Macedonia shows glimpse of future Irish talent despite World Cup hurtTue Mar 31 2026 - 22:32
Ken Early: You have to wonder if the Ireland players were affected by people totally losing their headsThe emergence of the self-aware, self-memifying crowd has been an unfortunate development for Irish national team fan cultureMon Mar 30 2026 - 06:00
Ken Early: Ireland’s loss to Czech Republic leaves us in a Kafkaesque nightmareThere’s little point raging at Ryan Manning, Finn Azaz, Alan Browne, Hemir Hallgrímsson or any other individualSat Mar 28 2026 - 06:00
Ken Early: This Ireland team gave everything in Prague. It wasn’t enoughIreland let their grip on this game slip in the first half by giving away a penalty Fri Mar 27 2026 - 06:00
Ken Early: Ireland may want to avoid penalties in the home of Antonín PanenkaScorer in 1976 Euro final has seen penalty technique copied worldwide, and Czechs have shootout recordThu Mar 26 2026 - 06:00
Ken Early: Caution and stop-start play are taking all the fun out of footballArsenal’s boring, risk-averse game backfired spectacularly against Manchester City in the Carabao Cup finalMon Mar 23 2026 - 06:00
Ken Early: Hallgrímsson is staying until Euro 2028. But it isn’t all good newsContract extension reflects faith in long-term project as squad faces defining weekFri Mar 20 2026 - 06:00
Ken Early: When the Liverpool crowd sound like they’re in Lidl, it’s time to check outThe fans are fed up with Slotball, and the team play as if they just want it to be over quicklyMon Mar 16 2026 - 06:00
Ken Early: The ‘world’s biggest football reporter’ reveals the value of saying nothingThe world’s biggest ‘football reporter’ reveals the value of saying nothingMon Mar 09 2026 - 06:00
Ken Early: Infantino unlikely to reflect on World Cup host US attacking participant IranFifa chief has never been afraid to risk a little embarrassment in pursuit of what he wantsMon Mar 02 2026 - 06:00
Ken Early: How do you solve a problem like Tottenham Hotspur?Years of mistakes are coming together as Spurs stumble towards Premier League trapdoorMon Feb 23 2026 - 06:00
Ken Early: Why has football boycotted Russia but not Israel?Ireland would face serious consequences for deciding not to play against Israel. That doesn’t necessarily mean they shouldn’t refuseMon Feb 16 2026 - 06:00
Ken Early: Liverpool succumbed to a familiar hysteria in late collapse against Manchester CityThe Reds have built a squad according to a schizophrenic ethos that combines crypto-bro extravagance and self-defeating stinginessMon Feb 09 2026 - 06:00
Ken Early: It would be best for all concerned if Pep Guardiola called it a dayHis protege, Mikel Arteta, is reaping rewards after turning away from methods he learned from the masterMon Feb 02 2026 - 06:00
Ken Early: Manchester United see Arsenal’s rugby and raise them some footballMikel Arteta’s refusal to take risks is adding angst to their Premier League title challengeMon Jan 26 2026 - 06:00
Ken Early: Manchester United shouldn’t make the same mistake twice with Michael CarrickInterim manager covered himself in glory last time he held the role, only to be replaced by Ralf RangnickMon Jan 19 2026 - 06:00
Ken Early: Sensible Liam Rosenior may not be the fantastical creature Chelsea need More and more Premier League clubs look set to suffer from a lack of belief in ‘unicorn’ managers Mon Jan 12 2026 - 06:00
Ruben Amorim leaves United with one of the worst stats records. But it wasn’t why he was sackedFirst red flags for Amorim appeared in January last year, just two months after his arrivalMon Jan 05 2026 - 19:29
Ken Early: Amorim and Maresca departures evidence of football’s growing turf warsFor those within the football bubble, titles matter, and ‘manager’ implies more power than ‘head coach’Mon Jan 05 2026 - 12:16
Ken Early: Reading back on my columns, I notice a contradiction in how I write about two teamsAfter a year of complaining, it was nice to be reminded how football could be fun when Ireland beat Portugal and HungaryMon Dec 29 2025 - 06:00
Ken Early: The Saipan film makes the conflict between Keane and McCarthy less interestingIt’s frustrating to think a new audience might assume the fake parts of the film’s account are trueMon Dec 22 2025 - 06:00
Fifa does not have to rip off World Cup fans to this extentGianni Infantino is deploying a deliberate strategy to benchmark the World Cup against the most expensive live event in sportsMon Dec 15 2025 - 06:00
Ken Early: Trump and Infantino’s maniacal new World Cup orderWorld Cup draw took place against a backdrop of Europe being continually told it no longer mattersMon Dec 08 2025 - 06:00
Ken Early: Arne Slot is mild, understated – just like Liverpool’s response to every defeatIn an era that demands showmanship from managers, he is struggling to inhabit the role of leaderSat Nov 29 2025 - 06:00
Roma manager’s joy as Evan Ferguson finally scored was a moment to cling toGian Piero Gasperini believes the Irish striker has the qualities to be a star for his title-chasing teamMon Nov 24 2025 - 06:00
Ken Early: How big a mess is the Czech football team right now? Thursday’s playoff draw sees Ireland play the least intimidating opponents they could have been pitted againstFri Nov 21 2025 - 06:00
The most astonishing quarter-hour in Irish football history Ireland’s win over Hungary saw the most dramatic Irish late winner ever followed by the best goal celebrationMon Nov 17 2025 - 05:53
Ken Early: This Ireland team has brought the nation together at lastThe game is about lines and tactics and skill but it’s also passion, the battle of wills, and this is what people love to seeSat Nov 15 2025 - 06:00
Ken Early: Ireland’s best home win in years. Not even in our dreams did we see this comingOne can only imagine Gianni Infantino’s reaction to the news Ronaldo could be suspended for World Cup games. Trump might intercedeFri Nov 14 2025 - 06:00
Ken Early: Portugal may have defensive frailties, but Ireland need to leave their shellHungary have put four past the group leaders in two games, but unlike Ireland, they had a right goThu Nov 13 2025 - 06:00
Ken Early: The saddest comparison was that between Doku and Salah Free-scoring Manchester City thump Liverpool in riposte to Arsenal’s corners-and-duels visionMon Nov 10 2025 - 06:00
Ken Early: Thomas Frank has made Tottenham better but the fans are furiousThere are few fates in football bleaker than being a set-piece team whose set-pieces aren’t workingMon Nov 03 2025 - 06:00
Ken Early: Clasico defeat lays bare Barcelona’s reluctance to learn from their mistakesReal Madrid demonstrate oddly casual approach to set-pieces but prevail largely thanks to the clinical finishing of MbappéMon Oct 27 2025 - 06:00
Ken Early: An uncomfortable fact is staring Liverpool in the faceIt seems Liverpool’s players don’t know how they’re supposed to fit together - and neither does their coachMon Oct 20 2025 - 06:00
Ken Early: Probably best to hold off for now on booking the flights to AmericaHeimir Hallgrímsson’s decision to go with a 5-4-1 formation when a win was required made no sense Tue Oct 14 2025 - 22:31
Ken Early: Portugal flexed their star power and the referee duly obligedIreland can’t realistically outplay Portugal, but they proved they could at least make them anxiousSun Oct 12 2025 - 16:00
Heimir Hallgrímsson seems like more of a bystander than the actual Ireland coachAs Ireland face Portugal, the team are still haunted by the shambolic defeat in Yerevan that cost any realistic chance of World Cup qualificationSat Oct 11 2025 - 06:00
Ken Early: Is it time for Arne Slot to drop Mo Salah?New signings Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike are too big – and expensive – to fail. Will Arne Slot pay the price?Mon Oct 06 2025 - 06:00
Ken Early: What the hell is going on at Manchester City?Guardiola’s system disintegrates but Arteta fails to learn from his mistakesMon Sept 22 2025 - 06:00
Manchester United have become the Republic of Ireland in club football formParallels between Premier League side and Irish national team are uncanny, not least their capacity for self-delusion Mon Sept 15 2025 - 06:00
Ken Early: Ireland’s defeat to Armenia was an utter farceIf there’s one thing this team has taught us over the last 20 years, it’s that things can always get worseTue Sept 09 2025 - 19:44
Ken Early: Time for Ireland to be aggressive, our passivity has become a problemSlow starts, at the beginning of both the first and second half, have been hampering Heimir Hallgrímsson’s teamMon Sept 08 2025 - 18:19
Ken Early: Ireland’s second-half siege of Hungary felt like something from Jack Charlton era Adam Idah's late equaliser provided relief but only a fool would dismiss debacle of the first 15 minutesSun Sept 07 2025 - 14:56
