The Sports Buff ⚽️ ⚾️ 🏈

Hello, good morning sports fans. I hope you’re well, looking after yourselves and are in good health. The football season is back within the next month, and this season, like we say with all seasons, promises to be one of the best Premier League seasons yet.

There have been several new managerial appointments in the League, which feels like something unique in itself. Sure, there will be managerial changes, but the amount of new managers, even at the so-called big six clubs, is a lot as well.

Note: I refer to them as new managers when it comes to Messrs Carrick and De Zerbi. In the Premier League, in recent seasons there have been three, maybe four, teams who are trying to break into the top six.

Leicester were one of them, before falling by the wayside; Aston Villa continue to be another and Newcastle are one of those sides too. The thing is with The Magpies, they’re just not competitive enough consistently, just yet.

From the outside looking in, you could see the talent was there, but just agonising details were missing; it’s hard to say what they were. After the goings on of the past week, maybe two (Eddie Howe leaving the club), they now might be that much further away from being consistently in the top six.

Dear sports fans, admittedly, I don’t know too much about the new Newcastle United manager, Mathias Jasle. Still, the 38-year-old former Leipzig manager has enjoyed some success with the clubs he has previously been at.

But he’s unproven in the Premier League. When Southampton dispensed with the services of Nigel Adkins to replace him with a then-unknown Mauricio Pochettino, do you remember what happened? Yes, that’s right. The Saints finished in a respectable seventh that term.

Another example could be that of the very popular Simone Inzaghi. The younger brother of Filippo, Simone wasn’t quite the player his big bro was, but he has become a very well-respected coach.

So when he left the club to join Al-Hilal in the Saudi Pro League, there was scepticism. This intensified when Inter named Christian Chivu as his successor. Despite being a club legend, he had critics to silence and prove wrong.

All be it just one season, the former centre-back did win the Coppa Italia and Scudetto double.