Key events
I’m going to hand this blog now to Tom Bassam, who will guide you through the next few hours. Thanks for reading, and hope you enjoy the rest of your day, whatever you are doing.
Gary Naylor, a contributor to these pages, has been in touch. “Fifteen long years ago, I wrote this about John Robertson, every sixty-something Evertonian’s favourite ‘other’ player,” he emails.
In a race with Ryan Giggs from the halfway line to the goalline, Ryan would be careering into the net as John Robertson just entered the D, already blowing hard. But Robertson was the fastest player I ever saw over one yard, and that was all he needed to play the killer ball. It helped that Robertson didn’t really run at all, he just paused, waiting, then shuffled and passed. He didn’t tackle back (but he never gave the ball away either) and was always an outball for a defence under pressure and was, therefore, not a maverick but a team man in every sense. He was never prolific as a goalscorer, though he got 12 in Forest’s title-winning season, but he always seemed to score vital goals, including the one that won Forest’s second European Cup (after presenting Trevor Francis with a near unmissable chance to win Forest’s first).
Robertson’s biggest fan was his manager Brian Clough, who knew a bit about players. There are many quotes attributed to Clough concerning Robertson, but my favourite (possibly apocryphal, but true in a larger sense) concerns a half-time team talk. A young substitute is being briefed by Clough, “… and when you get the ball, young man, just give it to The Genius”.
The substitute, confused and intimidated, hesitantly points across at the first £1M player, scorer of the goal that won the European Cup, the footballing thoroughbred Trevor Francis. “Not him – HIM!” shouts Clough pointing at a slump shouldered, slightly overweight Scotsman puffing on a fag. Genius indeed.
Looking further ahead to Saturday’s Premier League fixtures, Brighton feel that they can cause an upset at leaders Arsenal, despite being winless in their last four games. Here’s what manager Fabian Hurzeler had to say in his pre-match press conference:
We know what the issue is, we have to overcome the consistency thing and play for 90 minutes well. We have shown we are capable of doing big things, and the most important is to do the small margins right against Arsenal. Stay alive for the 90 minutes, but we can’t go there with the mindset of only to defend. We have to play with courage and bring our style of play to the pitch. We know that we can beat every team in the league and, although it will be a big challenge, we go there to win.”
Re Arsenal, please enjoy these two pieces. One on Declan Rice, who is now arguably the Gunners’ most important player …
… and one on the players’ festive visit to Great Ormond Street hospital.
A reminder that this is what CFG’s chairman, Khaldoon al-Mubarak, said back in 2019 when they bought Mumbai City:
We believe this investment will deliver transformative benefits to Mumbai City FC, to City Football Group and to Indian football as a whole. City Football Group is committed to the future of football in India and to the potential for Mumbai City FC within that future. We are very much looking forward to playing an active role in Mumbai City FC’s fan and local communities, and working with our co-owners to further develop the club as quickly as possible.
If you are catching up on what is going on with the Indian Super League, this John Duerden piece from August is a useful read.
In other Indian football-based news, this also broke in the summer.
Khalid Jamil, a former India international, was appointed in August. The AIFF sacked Igor Stimac in June last year before appointing Manolo Márquez, who left the national set up to rejoin Indian Super League club Goa. India are 142nd in the world rankings and were eliminated from World Cup 2026 qualifying in the second round.
Breaking: City Football Group divests stake in Mumbai City
The City Football Group (CFG) has divested its stake in Mumbai City amid uncertainty over the future of the Indian Super League (ISL), the team announced on Friday.
CFG, which owns several top clubs including Manchester City, had acquired a 65% stake in Mumbai in 2019, with the club going on to win two league titles. However, the ISL is in a state of limbo with the national governing body, the All India Football Federation (AIFF), struggling to find a new commercial partner after its 10-year deal with the previous one expired.
“The founding owners will assume full control of the organisation moving forward,” Mumbai said in a statement on their official website. “CFG has made this decision following a comprehensive commercial review and in light of the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the future of the Indian Super League.”
The ISL was put on hold in July with stalled negotiations for a renewal of the AIFF’s contract with its commercial partners, Reliance-led Football Sports Development Limited, cited as the reason.
Talks to renew the 2010 agreement came to a halt after India’s Supreme Court asked the AIFF not to renew the deal with FSDL until it had issued an order over a separate case to implement a new constitution for the federation. Reuters
There were some interesting quotes from Ruben Amorim before Manchester United’s game against Newcastle.
Mainoo is struggling to get a game this season yet he is now being called the future of the club by his manager. A reminder that the 20-year-old wasn’t included in United’s squad at all for the 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa. It will be interesting to see if Mainoo reemerges in Amorim’s squad after Bruno Fernandes’ injury.
Afcon had a day off yesterday but all 24 teams have now played. This is a handy roundup of all the goals so far from the first matchday of this year’s tournament.
Morocco and Senegal are seen as the favourites but Algeria are a fascinating team, led by 34-year-old Riyad Mahrez. The winger, who now plays for Al-Ahli in Saudi and earns more than any other player at this year’s tournament, scored two in his country’s opening game on Wednesday, with Luca Zidane, son of the former Real Madrid and France superstar Zinedine Zidane, also impressing for Algeria.
An email from Bogdan Kotarlic:
“I was 10 years years old in 1982 and I collected stickers for my World Cup album, played that summer. I had three stickers of John Robertson and I still can remember it, although I don’t know where those stickers finished in the end. I just know that John Robertson in that sticker was different from many other football players. The sticker he had an aura of a good man, of a good soul. With that relaxed expression and the smiling eyes, he instantly became one of my favourite players.”
While we are on Robertson, this Donald McRae interview with the great man from 2015 is well worth a read …
… and this quote (also buried in this 2015 piece from Daniel Taylor) from Jimmy Gordon, Forest’s trainer during the Clough years, is quite something.
I saw a lot of Tom Finney and Stan Matthews in my time and it was very difficult to choose between the two. But when you look at what Finney and Matthews had to offer, John had a bit of both – and something extra on top.
First they come for Boxing Day, now the 3pm blackout. Do these people have no respect?
The relative lack of Premier League football does however give the Football League (and non league) a festive time to shine.
And this might not be top of most people’s priorities, but most of the Premier League players had a rare Christmas Day off!
This Boxing Day is unusual in that there is only one Premier League fixture. Normally, it’s (more or less) a full house, which is a Christmas tradition here in the UK – the history of which you can enjoy in this handy video.
The reasons for just one Premier League game this year are here. Make of that what you will.
Boxing Day lands on a Friday and that has left the Premier League with a scheduling conundrum because of an expanded Champions League and a commitment to preserving a platform for the FA Cup.
The league must deliver 33 weekends of fixtures as part of its commitment to broadcasters and is struggling to locate another weekend to play games should at least half of the matches, as is tradition, be moved to Boxing Day.
On a standard Premier League weekend fixtures are, by default, played at 3pm on Saturday unless they are moved to a specified broadcast slot. This season there is only one broadcast slot reserved for a Friday.
First up, we must mention the sad news about Forest and Scotland legend John Robertson, who died on Christmas morning.
Tributes have been pouring in from all corners of the football world, but none more sincere than from his family, former teammates and those than played under him as a highly-successful coach.
Feel free to get in touch with your own memories or thoughts of Robbo (or anything else you fancy): michael.butler@theguardian.com.
Preamble
Sick of your family and hiding out in the loo? Can’t quite face the actual news. Welcome to the warm embrace of your Boxing Day football liveblog, in which you can forget all your worldly troubles and concentrate on the important business of Manchester United v Newcastle (8pm GMT), a full Football League fixture list and four Afcon matches: Angola v Zimbabwe, Egypt v South Africa, Zambia v Comoros and Morocco v Mali.
Four Afcon matches (Jeremy), that’s insane.
