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
Ken Early: Jack Charlton would not have been surprised by what Heimir is asking of Ireland teamRepublic of Ireland team are now more in line with modern game ahead of World Cup qualifierSat Sept 06 2025 - 06:00
Too little, too late from overly defensive Arsenal at Anfield‘Arsenal’s regrets can all be traced to the “first, do not lose” mentality of their coach’Mon Sept 01 2025 - 06:00
Newcastle only have themselves to blame for farce over wantaway Alexander IsakStriker is determined to join Liverpool, but Magpies can hardly complain when they have botched the whole affairMon Aug 25 2025 - 06:00
Ken Early: New season, same glaring weakness – how have Man United allowed this issue to persist?After almost half a billion spent over three transfer windows, Casemiro remains at the heart of midfieldMon Aug 18 2025 - 06:00
Ken Early: Liverpool’s summer changes leave Mo Salah looking lostYou can’t drop a performance like this as one of the best-paid players in the league and expect not to be criticisedMon Aug 11 2025 - 06:00
Ken Early: Newcastle's struggle to attract players is one of the stories of this summerChampions Liverpool spend big to consolidate position as Arsenal and Manchester United attempt to take giant leapSat Aug 09 2025 - 06:00
Ken Early: Heimir Hallgrímsson’s plan very nearly pays off in Ireland’s solid performance against SenegalManager Heimir Hallgrímsson put a lot of store into the set pieces at Friday night’s friendly against Senegal, and they very nearly paid off Fri Jun 06 2025 - 22:36
PSG’s costly failures entertained Europe for years, but now they could be on the brink of an era of dominationEnrique’s brilliant Paris Saint-Germain triumphed in most one-sided final in Champions League historyMon Jun 02 2025 - 06:00
Ken Early: Champions League final is chance for PSG and Ousmane Dembele to finally reach their potentialFormer Barcelona winger has stepped up his game at PSG and dispelled notions he doesn’t have the heart for battleFri May 30 2025 - 18:29
Ken Early: Emi Martínez commits one of the most expensive mistakes in Villa's historyAston Villa rue what might have been, Manchester United notch up unenviable record and Alexander-Arnold signs off at AnfieldMon May 26 2025 - 06:00
Crystal Palace beating Manchester City in the FA Cup let us see the real purpose of footballThe way football has gone has made moments of true joy and celebration so rareMon May 19 2025 - 06:00
Ken Early: Trent Alexander-Arnold could improve shambolic Real Madrid, but can Xabi Alonso?While Liverpool fans were venting bitterness at Alexander-Arnold, Barcelona may have done him a favour by humbling Madrid Mon May 12 2025 - 06:00
Ken Early: Declan Rice should concentrate on playing to his strengths Arsenal and England require something different from Declan RiceMon May 05 2025 - 06:00
Ken Early: Arne Slot’s remarkable debut season at Liverpool helped by no-shows from title rivals Slot is the model of the modern football coach: collaborative, egoless and technically-mindedSun Apr 27 2025 - 19:00
Ken Early: The future of Real Madrid is suddenly uncertainSince Madrid have spent the last decade getting so used to victory they should thank Arsenal for reintroducing them to disappointment and humiliationMon Apr 21 2025 - 06:00
Ken Early: Mo Salah and Lewandowski show football is increasingly a country for old menWe have seen a trend where players continue to excel at ages when their equivalents of the past were already running pubsMon Apr 14 2025 - 06:00
Manchester United’s problem has been too much Milton Friedman All systems went awry at Old Trafford when the club’s owners lost sight of Alex Ferguson’s will to winMon Apr 07 2025 - 06:00
Manchester City’s 2024-25 season is a textbook study in burnoutA potential $150m payday from the Club World Cup risks creating an injury nightmare for Pep GuardiolaMon Mar 31 2025 - 06:00
Ken Early: Evan Ferguson gives Ireland fans a glimpse of the player they dream he will becomeA fourth win in eight games under Heimir Hallgrimsson gives us something dangerous – hopeSun Mar 23 2025 - 22:28
Ken Early: The Bulgaria game went to plan and a coach cannot ask for much more Ireland’s methodical diagonal switches and deep far-post crosses eventually pulled apart the Bulgarians as they had the FinnsSat Mar 22 2025 - 06:00
Ken Early: League B of this silly competition won’t be seeing the last of Ireland just yetNations League: Troy Parrott shines as Heimir Hallgrímsson’s side enjoy rare comfortable second half Fri Mar 21 2025 - 06:00
Newcastle were perfectly primed to surprise a tired Liverpool in Carabao Cup finalArne Slot’s reluctance to trust in his extended squad left his side vulnerable to a chastening final defeatMon Mar 17 2025 - 06:00
Arsenal’s season of regression puts pressure on Mikel ArtetaManchester United need new players and an unlikely summer encounterMon Mar 10 2025 - 06:00
Ken Early: Watching Messi in Miami, it’s clear that a sixth World Cup is possibleI was one of the people paying way over the odds to see Messi play for Inter Miami against New York CityMon Mar 03 2025 - 06:00
Record crowd a sign that many Irish fans now care more about the League of Ireland than the national team Shamrock Rovers manager’s criticism of Heimir Hallgrímsson may have missed the point but his outburst will do the domestic game no harm Mon Feb 17 2025 - 06:00
Ken Early: Fifa president Gianni Infantino has relentlessly sucked up to Trump since 2017Infantino and Trump share one common enemy – the thing that used to be called the mainstream mediaMon Feb 10 2025 - 06:00
Erling Haaland’s arrogance comes back to bite him as Arsenal humiliate the Man City strikerWhile Mikel Arteta’s side hope to push on for the Premier League title, Manchester City look like they want the season to finish nowMon Feb 03 2025 - 06:00
Ken Early: All VAR does is annoy everybody while delaying everythingWrong refereeing decisions cannot be eliminated from football because most of the time wrongness is a matter of subjective perceptionMon Jan 27 2025 - 06:00
Ken Early: Denis Law one of the very best in the days when players were the only ones who matteredFootball now increasingly subject to the influence of forces that never appear on the pitchMon Jan 20 2025 - 06:00
Ken Early: If Mikel Arteta really loves Arsenal’s players, he should let them playGabriel Jesus’s injury and another unconvincing performance by Kai Havertz underlined how badly Arsenal need a new forwardMon Jan 13 2025 - 06:00
Ruben Amorim’s anger in Liverpool augurs well for Manchester UnitedSunday’s Premier League match at Anfield suggested there could be some sense to selling Trent Alexander-Arnold to Real MadridMon Jan 06 2025 - 06:00
Ken Early: The pursuit of calm, running from risk and Euro nationalism mark a mixed year of footballMoments of magic being sapped from the game as managers opt to cut out risky businessMon Dec 30 2024 - 06:00
Liverpool enjoy Spurs’ farcical nonsenseAnge Postecoglou needs to review his risk-and-reward calculationMon Dec 23 2024 - 06:00
