Roma manager Jose Mourinho said some of his players had adopted a "superficial approach" in Thursday's Europa League game against Servette in Geneva.

From losing his representation to falling out with Inter Milan, what comes next for Romelu Lukaku with Roma and the Belgium national team?

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now! Bob Mortimer hates opinions. The preface of his (excellent) autobiography, And Away … includes the important point that the book contains “very little opinion or advice”. And yet he loves football, a sport where it is almost impossible not to have an opinion. And he has a football-related podcast, Athletico Mince, where he is forced to give his two pence. “I have spent 50 years making sure I have no opinions,” he explained to Adam Buxton in 2018. “And then I signed up for a football opinion show, so I had to change that quite quickly.” Football will do that to you. Referees, managers, pundits and tea-timely emails are all paid to have an opinion. And thank goodness for that. It would be deathly boring if everything in the beautiful game was a statement of fact. If everyone agreed that Alejandro Garnacho’s volley was better than Wayne Rooney’s, or that José Mourinho is a better manager than Pep Guardiola, then the world, the pub, the pillow-talk – we presume – and the group chat would be a poorer place. An unfortunate incident with a Video Assistant Referee in Paris? But let’s not forget the true winner – the petrochemical industry” – Darren Leathley. While technically brilliant on his behalf, Alejandro Garnacho’s overhead kick at Everton came about because of a hopeless cross, as many of these goals do. I prefer a team goal with many passes (Barry Glendenning and I agree on the beauty of Ethan Pinnock’s goal against Liverpool) or a blistering counterattack. I propose separating out the over-hyped overhead kick from the real goal of the season contenders” – Tony Wilson. Mention of World In Motion (yesterday’s Memory Lane, full email edition) reminds me to share this. If you’ve never heard it [we have, but others might want to feel our pain – Football Daily Ed], I can only apologise, but I’ve suffered long enough and it’s your turn now. Yes, it’s Peter Beardsley doing the rap” – Mike Slattery. Continue reading...