The Sports Buff ⚽️ ⚾️ 🏈

In a game that is often branded as beautiful and aesthetically pleasing, football can certainly have some dark traits, including the dark arts aspect. From feigning injury to footballers, waving imaginary cards against a fellow professional, football can be quite ‘ugly’. 

Quite the irony, that I, Ayyaz Malik, a writer, am lost on what’s the best word to describe football’s alter ego. Lambasting referees by managers and players alike is a tough one too, but one of the real dark arts of the modern game is ‘tapping up’. 

This implies that a rival football club approaches the star player of another football club and engages in behind-the-scenes negotiations. To a point, think Ashley Cole and his subsequent move to Chelsea. 

When at Arsenal, the left-back legend and his entourage secretly had talks with The Blues and not too much longer after that, the now England under-21 assistant manager was a Blue. 

Jaap Stam, then of Manchester United, was another who was allegedly tapped up. That’s if you believe the man himself. In this transfer window, Alexander Isak appears to be exploring a way out of Newcastle and looking for a move elsewhere. 

The Swede was linked with Liverpool, but with the Premier League champions signing Hugo Ekiteke, even for them, a deal for the 25-year-old now seems a way off. 

Chelsea have signed Joao Pedro, and Arsenal have all but signed Victor Gyokeres. As a Man United fan, please get the North East to turn into the North West. Then the alarm clock sounds off, and I realise I was in a dream world, thinking such a thing was even possible. 

It’s hard to see where Isak could go, but Man United would need a 10-year instalment plan to secure Isak. I am not saying Liverpool have unsettled the player. When The Reds want a player, they get said player. The business they do is done so efficiently. 

Football will never be able to stop this completely, but I have mentioned Isak’s footballing future being linked to being tapped up because it wasn’t too long ago that the former Real Sociedad man signed a new deal at St James Park. 

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