have heard Jürgen Klopp cite inspirations as varied as heavy metal music and Rocky Balboa so I wouldn’t be surprised if the Liverpool manager was also familiar with Aristotle. After all, Klopp showed in January that his football philosophy is very much in line with the great Greek thinker who believed that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. Klopp shocked many ...

Arsène Wenger took the seismic decision to walk away from Arsenal on his own terms because he was mindful of the very real threat that he would be sacked at the end of the season. The club’s majority shareholder, Stan Kroenke, and other directors had grown increasingly concerned by the team’s dismal Premier League performance and the huge number of supporters that have ...

Mauricio Pochettino says that an FA Cup triumph this season would not change Tottenham’s life, as he looked ahead to Saturday’s semi-final against Manchester United. The manager did not waver from his long established view about the importance of the domestic cups and, in the process, he set up an intriguing discussion point. Facing him at Wembley is José Mourinho, a ...

Michael Carrick has revealed he asked not to be picked for Englanda after becoming “depressed” on international duty. The Manchester United midfielder has played 34 times for his country, the last in a friendly against Spain in November 2015, but said his experience at the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa left a lasting impression. Carrick told BBC2’s Premier League Show: “I’d been ...

Three days before the FA Cup semi-final against Tottenham, and in the aftermath of Sunday’s pathetic defeat by West Brom, a drama-free win is enough for Manchester United. That is what they achieved thanks to goals by Chris Smalling and Romelu Lukaku. The result tightens their hold on second place in the Premier League and raises spirits, at least a little, ...

The decision by the US president, Donald Trump, to launch air strikes on Syriawith backing from the UK and France has proved globally divisive, with some countries praising the military action while others condemned it as provocative and unacceptable. Among the strongest critics of the airstrikes were Russia and Iran, staunch allies of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, who both have a military ...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that further Western attacks on Syria would bring chaos to world affairs, as Washington prepared to increase pressure on Russia with new economic sanctions. In a telephone conversation with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani, Mr Putin and Mr Rouhani agreed the Western strikes had damaged the chances of achieving a political resolution in the ...

French President Emmanuel Macron has said he convinced US President Donald Trump not to withdraw troops from Syria and instead commit “for the long term”. Earlier this month, Mr Trump declared that the US would “be coming out of Syria very soon”. On Saturday, joint US, UK and French strikes targeted Syrian government sites in response to an alleged chemical ...

Russia, the Syrian regime’s top ally, reacted strongly to the air strikes launched by the United States and its allies on Damascus and Homs early Saturday, warning of “consequences.” The U.S., U.K. and France launched a series of strikes on three locations identified as critical to Syria’s production of chemical weapons, including a scientific research center in Damascus, and a ...

Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned U.S. coalition airstrikes in Syria as a violation of international law. In a statement posted to the Kremlin website, Putin called the coalition airstrikes an “act of aggression against a sovereign government” and accused the United States of compounding the humanitarian catastrophe in war-torn Syria. Putin called for emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council to ...