Phil Jones has opened up his next step after ‘stripping everything back’ to find his purposeCredit: Getty
2
Advertisement
Jones retired from football in AugustCredit: Getty
The 32-year-old has struggled with injuries throughout the latter half of his career, which saw him not play at all for more than two years before he announced he was hanging up his boots.
The ex-defender has since opened up on the mental health struggles he faced and has now lifted the lid on how he reflected on himself and what he wanted to do as his next step.
Writing in an emotional column for BBC Sport, Jones explained how this saw him find a renewed purpose in his career and family life.
He said: “I only announced my retirement in August but I knew for a while before then that I would be finishing.
Advertisement
“To come to terms with that, I had to re-evaluate everything and unpick myself personally and professionally, with therapists and psychologists, to find myself.
“I’ve talked quite a lot recently about how that worked for me and helped me deal with the issues I faced mentally, but it’s important for anyone reading this to know that the process is the same in every aspect of life, not just sport, if your circumstances change or things are not going well for you.
“For me, that meant stripping everything back to understand who I was and where I wanted to get to next in life, and then thinking about the challenges I would face to get there.
“Part of the purpose I have found is as a husband and a father, because I always wanted to be the best I could be at both for my family, but it applied to my future in football too.
“It meant going away and trying to almost rediscover what had got me to that point in my career in the first place, and thinking about what I had actually achieved, before I was able to take the next step.
“I have had some difficult times, but I am ready for anything now.”
‘He’s done!’ | How woeful tactics & Dalot shocker saw Spurs smash Man Utd to spell end for Ten Hag
He added: “Unfortunately there were times when I was at United when I did not look for help.
“My coping mechanism when I had any problems was to stay silent, and that was probably my downfall.
“I didn’t open up to anyone, and I would hide my injuries from other players and the staff. I put a shield up so no-one knew what was going on, apart from my close family.
Why NOBODY is the right man to replace Erik ten Hag at Man Utd
Advertisement
SunSport’s DAVE KIDD says Erik ten Hag’s time at Man Utd is up… and explains what’s wrong with all the potential candidates to replace him.
THIS is a mid-table squad at an underachieving club, with a lot of unwanted players on big money.
And Ratcliffe is an instinctive cost-cutter who may not pay top dollar to the next manager.
If this club wasn’t called ‘Manchester United’, it wouldn’t be an especially desirable job.
Advertisement
The good news for United is that their new sporting director, Dan Ashworth, is a very decent judge of a manager.
He has been instrumental in three previous managerial appointments — Gareth Southgate for England, Graham Potter for Brighton and Eddie Howe for Newcastle.
None were wildly popular at the time, all were conspicuous successes.
Interestingly, Ashworth’s No 1 choice for the Newcastle job was Unai Emery, who turned him down to stay at Villarreal but has since proved that judgment right by excelling at Aston Villa.
Advertisement
Emery may well deliver the coup de grace to Ten Hag on Sunday — especially with Bruno Fernandes suspended and Kobbie Mainoo an injury doubt.
And the Spaniard would be an excellent fit for United — yet there is next to no chance that he would abandon Villa’s Champions League campaign to take the Old Trafford job, not least because he isn’t a stark raving madman.
Howe would be another good candidate to succeed Ten Hag but, although he has become frustrated on Tyneside, the Saudis would surely not allow Ratcliffe to poach Howe, as they reluctantly did with Ashworth.
Potter is available but his Chelsea experience and lack of charisma would make him a tough sell.
Advertisement
Which brings us to Southgate, who remains close with Ashworth and is an excellent man-manager who was seriously considered by United last spring.
Yet, despite having led England to two of their three major finals, Southgate’s reputation for over-caution was only enhanced during the Euros.
Mauricio Pochettino, passed over twice by United, is out of the equation having taken the United States job.
Thomas Tuchel would be a popular and gettable option but, despite being a fine coach and a very engaging man, he is considered something of a loose cannon.
Advertisement
Likewise, Roberto De Zerbi, now at Marseille after his brief Brighton stint sparkled then fizzled out.
Kieran McKenna — a gifted former United coach who has won back-to-back promotions with Ipswich Town — is an intriguing candidate but the imminent vacancy may come a year or so too soon.
Marco Silva, the extremely under-rated Fulham boss, has been on United’s radar and should not be discounted.
Sporting Lisbon’s Ruben Amorim, last season’s ‘next big thing’, was passed over by West Ham as well as Liverpool this summer and is not an easy man to pin down.
Advertisement
Zinedine Zidane, who has taken over from Alan Curbishley as a 20-1 shot for every Premier League job, is a ‘figurehead’ manager and not an Ashworth type.
Ruud van Nistelrooy, the former United goal machine who joined Ten Hag’s coaching team in the summer is the bookies’ favourite. Simply because he’s in the building and he’s Dutch.
So, yes, getting rid of Ten Hag is the easy part.
“I only spoke about this for the first time on a podcast last week, but one of my lowest moments was when I was trying to play through the pain of my knee injury, when it had got to a point where the doctor had to inject my knee before every game I played so I didn’t feel it.
Advertisement
“I was on the bench for a game at Brighton but one of our centre-halves was struggling in the warm-up, so I thought I would be pro-active and get the injection before kick-off.
“It was embarrassing for me because I didn’t want anyone to see that I was struggling, or in pain – I was meant to be a tough guy as a defender, remember – so I went into a cubicle in the changing room just as the manager started his pre-match talk, and got the doc to inject me in there.”
He first tore his meniscus as an 18-year-old at Blackburn and, although Sir Alex Ferguson signed him for United, it was the beginning of his injury nightmare.
As the injury absences became longer, Jones became the subject of horrific abuse and ridicule both online and face-to-face in the street, which he opened up about in an interview with SunSport.
Advertisement
But Jones is now excited for his future in management, having spent last season working with United’s Under-18s and going through his various coaching badges.
Help for mental health
If you, or anyone you know, needs help dealing with mental health problems, the following organisations provide support.
The following are free to contact and confidential:
Advertisement
Mind, www.mind.org, provide information about types of mental health problems and where to get help for them. Email info@mind.org.uk or call the infoline on 0300 123 3393 (UK landline calls are charged at local rates, and charges from mobile phones will vary).
YoungMinds run a free, confidential parents helpline on 0808 802 5544 for parents or carers worried about how a child or young person is feeling or behaving. The website has a chat option too.
Rethink Mental Illness, www.rethink.org, gives advice and information service offers practical advice on a wide range of topics such as The Mental Health Act, social care, welfare benefits, and carers rights. Use its website or call 0300 5000 927 (calls are charged at your local rate).
Heads Together, www.headstogether.org.uk, is the a mental health initiative spearheaded by The Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales.
WITH his arms outstretched, holding the Europa League aloft, Jose Mourinho took the acclaim of Manchester United’s faithful.
The date was May 24, 2017. The venue was the Friends Arena, Stockholm.
3
Mourinho with the Community Shield in 2016Credit: Getty – Contributor
3
Advertisement
He won the League Cup the same seasonCredit: AFP or licensors
3
Mourinho ended 2017 winning the Europa LeagueCredit: PA
At that moment — more than any other in the turbulent 11 years since Sir Alex Ferguson retired — it really did feel like Manchester United were back.
They had faced a young Ajax team who were tipped to showcase the future with their short passing and high pressing against a man some were beginning to write off.
Mourinho out thought his opposite number Peter Bosz who, after the final whistle, would bemoan the tactics United had employed.
Advertisement
They were simple. If they want to press high and pass short we’ll whack it over them onto the head of Marouane Fellaini and he’ll lay it off to Marcus Rashford and go from there.
It worked a treat, Paul Pogba and Henrikh Mkhitaryan getting the goals in a 2-0 win.
Not long after, in a conversation with former chairman Martin Edwards, he said that the club really believed they were on to something special with Mourinho.
He had already bagged the League Cup that season in what is still probably the most exciting final the new Wembley has seen as United beat Southampton 3-2.
Advertisement
Foreign coaches tend to hold a lot more store by the Community Shield, or Super Cups as they are called abroad, so Mourinho was happy to claim a treble as he got his players to hold up three fingers at the final whistle in Stockholm.
At the start of that season Mourinho was being written off as a United boss after a 1-0 away loss to Feyenoord sandwiched between defeats to Manchester City and Watford.
Advertisement
Jose Mourinho booked after putting his laptop in front of TV camera to highlight referee’s wrong decision
Yet it had been on the eve of that Feyenoord clash late at night outside a hotel in Rotterdam that Mourinho was returning from dinner with his staff and happened across three of us in the Manchester press pack.
Asked for a chat, he came over and explained, off the record, what he was having to do to unpick the Louis van Gaalfootball to create his own brand.
His football brand that was a step up from the drudgery under Van Gaal although not always popular with the United faithful.
But they liked him, and the fact he won, he gave United standing again, an image, they felt big.
Advertisement
True that first Premier League season did not go well as they came sixth.
Asked for a chat, he came over and explained, off the record, what he was having to do to unpick the Louis van Gaal football to create his own brand.
But he had worked out late in the campaign the Europa League would provide the easier route back into the Champions League and cleverly rotated his squad accordingly.
The following season he boasted it was one his greatest-ever achievements to lead United to Premier League runners-up spot behind City.
He would deny the neighbours claiming the title on derby day as the Red Devils came back from 2-0 down at the Etihad to win 3-2.
Advertisement
It was Pogba’s only good game. It is often forgotten that Mourinho also led the Red Devils to an FA Cup final that season going down 1-0 to Chelsea in the final.
So it was all heading in the right direction as the season ended. Then came the summer in LA and we all realised something was not right.
In a building at their training base in UCLA he was asked an innocent question as to whether he thought he had the squad to now go a step further and challenge for the title.
He replied: “I cannot answer that question.” Eyebrows were raised.
Later in the tour he would be seen in the foyer of a stadium snarling down the phone ‘it’s s**t, s**t’. Uh-oh.
Advertisement
It seems an unsuccessful pursuit of Harry Maguire was part of it but his relationship with executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward was fracturing.
Nobody wanted this all to unravel but the unravelling had started.
He refused to engage in the traditional on-tour relaxed interview with the English media that every United boss has done. And saw criticism and injustice which was not there.
The meltdown continued after a 3-0 home loss to Spurs he demanded ‘respect, respect respect’ from the media because he had won three titles.
Advertisement
By the club’s Champions League exit to Valencia, he was questioning whether United had a ‘football heritage’ in Europe.
Later in the tour he would be seen in the foyer of a stadium snarling down the phone ‘it’s s**t, s**t’. Uh-oh.
Less than a week later, after a 3-1 defeat at Liverpool he was gone.
“How on earth did it get to that point?” I asked Woodward later. He suggested if I had had to work with Mourinho, I would have known.
Five-time Premier League winner Patrice Evra says the future at Manchester United is “not bright”, with his old club having been “in a chaos” for more than a decade.
The Old Trafford side last won the league title in 2013, their last season under legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson, and sit 12th in the table under current boss Erik ten Hag.
Evra left a year after Ferguson and the former France captain believes United are still counting the cost of losing such trophy-winning experience.
“It’s always tough to talk about United right now because back in the day we used to play for the fans, for the badge, for the history,” he told BBC Sport NI.
Advertisement
A smiling Evra added: “I blame myself, I blame Sir Alex Ferguson”.
“When we left, we left too early and it’s difficult for the players because they don’t have any example,” he added.
“I’m not inside, I don’t know what the problem is. The manager Ten Hag is trying to do his best – it’s not good enough. But it’s not just about this season, it’s since we won the last league in 2013, the club has been like in a chaos.”
“I don’t think there’s any question in anybody’s mind that I will be in the lineup for Game 1,” he said Tuesday during a Zoom news conference.
Advertisement
By Game 1 on Friday, Freeman will have had a week since running on his sprained right ankle in NL Championship Series Game 5 against the New York Mets.
Of course, the final lineup decision rests with manager Dave Roberts after discussions with the front office.
The All-Star first baseman missed Games 4 and 6 of the NLCS. Freeman was 3 for 18 against the Mets after hitting .286 in the NL Division Series against San Diego.
Advertisement
Freeman said he can hit and walk comfortably but his ankle flares up when he takes the first step to run. He’s been receiving hours of treatment for the first sprained ankle of his long career.
“I want to get this thing as calmed down as I possibly can, to give my best self and be ready to go by Game 1,” he said.
Freeman hurt his ankle on Sept. 26 against the Padres while trying to avoid a tag at first base by San Diego’s Luis Arráez and missed the Dodgers’ last three regular-season games.
Mumbai City FC grabbed their maiden victory of the Indian Super League (ISL) 2024-25 season with a closely-fought 2-1 win against FC Goa on Saturday.
Mumbai City extended their unbeaten streak to 13 games against the Gaurs to reaffirm their upper hand in the recent history of the fixture.
Two strikes in the first half from Nikalos Karelis (21st) and Yoell van Niff (40th) were sufficient for the Islanders as the spot-kick that Armando Sadiku (55th) converted for the home side in the second half of the game came as consolation.
The win for the Petr Kratky-coached unit was spearheaded by their Dutch midfielder Yoell van Nieff, whose sublime skill sets in the offensive half of the field helped the visitors pierce through a well-organised FC Goa backline repeatedly.
Advertisement
Hmingthanmawia Ralte, also known as Valpuia, was an energetic presence for Mumbai City and it was he who earned a free-kick for them from the right flank in the 21st minute that led to the Karelis’ opener.
Van Nieff stepped up on the set-piece and delivered a perfectly dipping curled ball inside the box that met an onrushing Karelis at the centre of the 18-yard area. Karelis thundered the ball into the back of the net through his head, getting the Islanders an important lead in the contest.
Seven minutes later, former Mumbai City midfielder Rowllin Borges came close to helping Sadiku secure the equaliser for FC Goa. Now with the Gaurs, Borges squared up a pass to Sadiku from the right flank, and the striker twice attempted to score but to no avail.
Van Nieff ensured to capitalise on a moment in the 40th minute, driving an attack forward with his sheer pace and trickery on the ball.
Advertisement
He dazzled ahead from the middle, but instead of taking the passing route, the 31-year-old opted to test his fortunes from distance. The ball landed into the bottom left corner and helped Mumbai City head into the half-time break with a comfortable two-goal lead.
In the second half, Valpuia committed a foul on Sadiku inside the 18-yard box in the 54th minute. He was shown a yellow card for the same and Sadiku made sure that he didn’t fluff this time, hammering the ball into the top right corner a minute later to give FC Goa a sneak back into the proceedings.
Mumbai City held their nerves impressively thereafter though, as FC Goa could not turn the tides despite coach Manolo Marquez making some inspired substitutions with Dejan Drazic and Nim Dorjee coming on late into the game.
FC Goa will play their next match against Chennaiyin FC on October 24, whereas Mumbai City return to action against Odisha FC on October 27.
The rankings take into account a fighter’s wins/losses, quality of competition, finishing rate/dominance and frequency of fights.
Fighters are no longer eligible to be ranked after they’ve been inactive for 24 months, either due to injuries, drug/conduct suspensions, contract disputes or self-imposed hiatuses.
Fighters serving drug/conduct suspensions are eligible to be ranked, so long as they’re not inactive for more than 24 months.
To the best of our ability, fighters will be ranked in their primary weight class. Catchweight fights and bouts outside the fighter’s primary weight class can have a positive or negative impact on the ranking. However, non-titleholders can be ranked in only one weight class at a given time, and in most cases, they won’t be ranked in a new weight class until they’ve had their first fight at that weight.
Seldom asked to do much aside from recycle the ball to Gabriel or Saliba until the final stages
Pushed a potentially dangerous cross out of danger in the 84th minute. Pulled out a magnificent low save in injury time before claiming a dangerous cross to keep his clean sheet.
BEN WHITE – 6
Back in at right-back today and played as if he had never been out of the team.
Advertisement
Received a yellow card in the 34th minute. Subbed at half-time for Mikel Merino.
WILLIAM SALIBA – 7
In the team after his red card against Bournemouth, played like his typically assured self marshalling the defence.
One or two sloppy passes late in the second half but otherwise can have no complaints with another solid performance.
Advertisement
GABRIEL MAGALHAES – 5
Sloppily gave the ball away to hand the visitors a dangerous chance out of nothing. Had another lapse just after the opener but in the end he was bailed out by Calafiori.
Marked improvement in the second half.
RICCARDO CALAFIORI – 6
Advertisement
Skied a golden chance over the bar after six minutes. Tested the goalkeeper again after 24 minutes.
Dragged his foot and went down injured after skipping under a tackle in the 67th minute. Replaced by Myles Lewis-Skelly in 71st minute.
THOMAS PARTEY – 6
Comfortable evening in midfield for him. Recycled the ball well when at his feet and kept play ticking over.
Advertisement
Moved to right back as White was hooked but didn’t have too many worries. When he was caught out of position Rice was able to cover.
DECLAN RICE – 6
Like Partey, he had a quiet night in midfield with Shakhtar unable to retain meaningful possession.
Moved into the six as White was hooked and Partey moved to right-back. Cut out a dangerous low cross at the edge of the area.
Advertisement
LEANDRO TROSSARD – 4
Nothing quite went right for him all night with some sloppy touches ending attacks and putting Arsenal in trouble.
Summed up his night by missing a 77th minute penalty and was hooked in the 88th minute.
GABRIEL JESUS – 8
Advertisement
Wore the captain’s armband and looked bright down the right wing.
Denied a well-deserved goal by the feet of the keeper in the 43rd minute after Havertz played him in.
Second half saw more good link play, but never had another chance to end his goal drought as he was replaced by Sterling in the 68th minute.
GABRIEL MARTINELLI – 7
Advertisement
Grew into the game following a quiet start and was rewarded with a goal, of sorts, after 30 minutes.
Brazilian cut inside from the left wing before firing a shot to the near post before the shot rebounded off the woodwork and hit the goalkeeper Dmytro Riznyk to go in the net.
KAI HAVERTZ – 7
Centimeters away from getting Arsenal’s second in the 39th minute after Jesus squared a volley back across goal.
Advertisement
Returned the favour to set up his team-mate moments later only for the goalkeeper to prevent a goal.
Won a free-kick at the very end of the game to run the clock down.
SUBS
Mikel Merino (on for White HT) – 6
Advertisement
Some nice touches and stitched play together well. A solid yet unspectacular performance.
Raheem Sterling (on for Jesus 68 mins) – 6
Tried to play on the shoulder of the last man but did not have the pace find the clear cut chance he would have liked.
Myles Lewis-Skelly (on for Calafiori 71 mins) – 6
Advertisement
Slotted in at left-back and was not afraid to show for the ball but often did not receive it while tucking infield.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login