Nottingham Forest boss Sean Dyche on Tuesday said he would not be weighing his players when they return after Christmas, unlike his next opponents Manchester City’s manager Pep Guardiola, but he does expect them to use their common sense while digging into their festive dinner.
Guardiola said he would be controlling his players’ weight when they return to the club tomorrow, and anyone judged to have overindulged would not travel to take on Forest in the Premier League on Saturday.
“I think it’s unlikely. I presume you’re talking about Pep, is he weighing himself do you think? I wonder ... one rule for one... Come on Pep,” Dyche said with a smile. “I always say to the players, on your passport it says ‘professional footballer’ not just ‘footballer,’ so, everyone wants to be a footballer, what about the professional side of it?”
Photo: Reuters
“I’m just looking for the players to use a bit of common sense,” he told a news conference.
Forest on Monday lost 1-0 at Fulham to remain 17th in the standings and five points above the relegation zone, but Dyche still wants his side to enjoy their time off before facing second-placed City.
“I don’t mind them having a Christmas dinner, why not? Sometimes, the psychology is as important as anything with athletes and within reason you want them to enjoy their Christmas Day,” Dyche said. “I certainly do. It’s a big part of their life. I do consider fitness important, but I’m not obsessed with weights and all that sort of stuff.”
“They’ll be encouraged to enjoy their day; they have got the day off, which I wanted to do,” he said.
Dyche pulled out an impression of Brian Clough when asked how Forest’s greatest ever manager used to run things at the club.
“Get the bairns [children] on the knee, have a lager if you wish to, but be prepared,” Dyche said.
A runner who stopped during a marathon in China to pose doing the splits and another who hoarded energy gels have been banned for two years, the local athletics association said yesterday. The incidents happened during Sunday’s marathon in Sichuan Province’s Chengdu and were widely shared online. Videos showed a female runner stopping suddenly and dropping to the ground in the splits position, holding up her arms in a heart shape as she apparently posed for a photograph. She “committed obstructive fouls during the race, affecting the safe participation of other runners,” the Sichuan Athletics Association said in a statement, which identified
Liverpool star Mohamed Salah on Tuesday said that he would leave the English club at the end of the Premier League season, marking an earlier-than-planned departure for one of the club’s greatest-ever scorers and soccer’s biggest names. The 33-year-old Egypt forward, who has scored 255 goals in 435 appearances for Liverpool, “reached an agreement” to quit the team a year before his contract was due to expire, the Premier League champions said. Salah’s form has dipped in his ninth year at Anfield, to such an extent that he was dropped for a stretch of games late last year — leading to the
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli yesterday vowed to “keep raising the bar” after winning the Japanese Grand Prix to become the youngest driver in Formula One history to lead the championship standings. The 19-year-old Italian took advantage of a mid-race safety car to jump into the lead after a dreadful start from pole position, crossing the line ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Antonelli’s Suzuka victory came two weeks after the first grand prix win of his career in China, and sent him top of the championship standings after three races, nine points ahead of team-mate George Russell. Mercedes are struggling to
There were some big games to be played yesterday in the NBA, with the Atlanta Hawks to play the Detroit Pistons in a matchup pitting a Hawks team who are rolling against a Pistons team trying to lock up the Eastern Conference’s No. 1 seed. The Oklahoma City Thunder were to play the Boston Celtics, a showdown featuring the two most recent champions, while the Houston Rockets faced the Minnesota Timberwolves, a game that could factor mightily into Western Conference seeding. Elsewhere, the Washington Wizards were to play the Utah Jazz, with the Wizards on a 16-game slide visiting against a team
RSS