Robin Sainty

Thought that the Super League was the biggest threat that the English Premier League has faced? Maybe it’s time to think again. The takeover of Manchester City by the City Football Group, a holding company with the majority stake owned by the Abu Dhabi United Group in August 2008 was merely the first step in […]

Martin Penney’s excellent piece got me thinking about my own international cricket experiences. Cricket is my other great sporting love, and I’ve been lucky enough to go to most Trent Bridge Test matches since the late 80s, with the occasional trip to Edgbaston and Lords thrown in. Trent Bridge was always the big day out […]

Just when you think things can’t get any worse, the FSA has just informed the Canaries Trust of the details of the EFL broadcast deal for 2024 – 9. Inevitably, these show a significant increase in the number of games that will be shown, because why would you want to leave your comfy armchair and […]

We’re still in the group stages of the World Cup but already the pre-tournament concerns that Qatar would revert to its standard approach of oppression of minorities and strongarming journalists, and that FIFA would simply roll over and do nothing about it have been shown to be totally accurate. A Danish film crew filming a […]

It’s quite often a tweet that motivates me to write something for MFW. In this instance, it was one from Kieran McGuire, the football finance expert pointing out that Manchester United had spent more money on Anthony than the 24 Championship clubs combined in the entire summer transfer window. Unless you live, under a rock […]

Those of you who read my column in the EDP will be aware that I’m pretty disillusioned with the direction of travel of the game of football. Maybe I’m just becoming a curmudgeonly old git (this is very much my wife’s view), but it just seems to me that there is a constant diet of […]

With FIFA desperately trying to force through two-yearly World Cup’s with all the lucrative money-making opportunities they would bring and £100m transfer fees now barely raising an eyebrow, the game seems to be intent on hurtling towards a point where will see more and more clubs crash and burn as they try to stay aboard […]

It was the gentlest of preseason workouts, but for the many City fans who had turned up at The Walks, it was much more than the chance to see some new heroes for the first time. Having been starved of live football and the sense of community that the lockdown restrictions have taken from us […]

If you fancied a nice feelgood article today then please stop reading now, because this is my take on why a variation on the European Super League is inevitable and may happen sooner rather than later. To set the scene, let me refer to two things that appeared on social media this week. The first […]

The close season has barely begun and already we are being bombarded with stories about the future of Emi Buendia, some clearly clickbait nonsense but some from sources that are generally fairly reliable. It is hardly a surprise that a player who bestrode the Championship like a colossus this season and has just been picked […]

Just like the rest of humanity the Canaries Trust has had to evolve to cope with the lockdowns. Suddenly we were no longer meeting our board colleagues in the pub before the game and although we could continue to meet via Zoom and converse via WhatsApp, it was strange to lose the human contact that […]

It’s been talked about for long enough and now it seems that it’s finally coming to pass. Welcome to the European Super League. Never mind that well over a century of history will be going into the trash; never mind that Covid hit fans of the “elite” clubs will have to stump up for away […]

None of us could have imagined at the turn of the year that anything could break the annual cycle of football seasons bringing joy to some and despair to others, and plenty for all of us to chew the fat over during the cold winter months. Now however the old certainties have been torpedoed by […]

“Today is 47 days before the start of the League One season and Charlton remain in limbo. The EFL should issue an immediate public explanation of what is happening and should take decisive action so that alternative futures for our club can be explored if necessary. That clock ticks more loudly with every passing day.” […]

This is a story of being overtaken by life. Last Monday I started writing about football, as I’m unlikely to be doing so for the foreseeable future I might as well publish it anyway: Black and white, night and day, matter and anti-matter. Pick the antonym of your choice but they could all be applied […]

Other children of the 60s may remember an Australian series called the Magic Boomerang in which said implement when thrown would suspend time for all but the thrower. Apparently a number of Wolves players were carrying one on Sunday judging by their second goal, with three attackers fighting to get the final touch with not […]

To say that being a Norwich City fan is hard at the moment would be an understatement of monumental proportions. As the central defensive carousel turned once again at Brighton due to even more injuries there was plenty of cause for concern before a ball was kicked, but the performance itself was the toughest of […]

It would be difficult to underestimate the influence of Stuart Webber on Norwich City, even though, as I discovered last week, there are still a few people out there desperate to criticise him, however inaccurately. In that particular instance it was an attempt to hold the Sporting Director, who is not involved in the commercial […]