Euro 2016
The fallout from England’s exit and Roy Hodgson’s subsequent departure as manager continues to rage.
Emmet Malone writes about the difficulty the FA face in finding a replacement for Hodgson with English-born managers particularly thin on the ground.
The pool in which the the FA will first go fishing includes not only the usual suspects but also the likes of David Moyes, Roberto Martinez and Slaven Bilic.
Don’t be surprised if Martin O’Neill, who previously interviewed for the post but was said to have interviewed poorly, gets a mention.
Meanwhile Ken Early looks at the cycle of dread and resentment that follows the English national team around, stifling the players abilities at major tournaments.
“The issue of concentration seems to be a problem for England in other ways. Over the last few days, the stories coming out of the camp were mostly club-related nonsense. The FA were said to be annoyed with Jamie Vardy for conducting contractual negotiations with his club while on tournament duty. Some players were supposedly irritated by the social media output of Vardy’s fame- hungry wife. Raheem Sterling, whose morale had taken a beating after reading too many mean tweets about himself, had taken a call from Pep Guardiola who had promised to “fight for him” at Manchester City. It seemed as though their focus wasn’t entirely on the match they were about to play,” he writes.
In the final instalment of his Lost Shoes Diaries, our FAI insider looks back at a memorable night out after Ireland's Euro 2016 journey came to an end.
Meanwhile, you may have seen Iceland players and fans performing their ’Huh!’ war chant in unison after they advanced to the quarter-finals by beating England.
If you were wondering where that chant came from, Motherwell probably wouldn’t have been at the top of your list.
But it should be. Eamon Donoghue takes a closer look.
GAA
Darragh Ó'Sé writes this morning that there is still plenty of time for Mayo to bounce back despite their shock Connacht exit at the hands of Galway which leaves them needing to beat Fermanagh in the qualifiers.
“I always think there are three types of teams in the qualifiers. Half of them are just killing time until it’s all over so they can get on with the summer and forget about the whole thing. Most of the rest are hoping to go on a run, get a bit of momentum and maybe make a quarter-final or even a semi-final if it all goes well. And each year there is usually one team in there who still have the All-Ireland in mind,” Ó’Sé says.
Meanwhile Seán Moran looks at how the provincial football titles still matter, particularly to the likes of Tipperrary.
This weekend Tipp will play Kerry in the Munster final for the first time in 72 years without the assistance of an open draw.
“When people talk about restructuring the championship to have more matches and greater opportunity and to shelve the anachronism of provincial competition it can be forgotten that the provinces provide an outlet through which teams can register mezzanine achievements, which they understand are probably as much as is realistically on offer.”
However, excitement for the final in Killarney looks to be at less than fever pitch with projected attendances at a possible less than half of the 32,233 that attended the Munster final replay last year.
Rugby
Gavin Cummiskey looks back at the career of Luke Fitzgerald, who retired from rugby yesterday.
The 28-year-old left the game at an early age after paying a high physical price for early exposure to the profesisonal game.
Fitzgerald won a total of 35 caps and represented the Lions at the age of just 21, despite an injury-ravaged career.
Golf
Yesterday Shane Lowry became the latest golfer to withdraw from this year’s Rio Olympics due to fears of contracting the Zika virus.
Lowry joins a list of names which include Rory McIlroy, Jason Day and Adam Scott. Philip Reid looks at how golf's return to the Games is already becoming a damp squib.
On a more positive note, Paul Dunne will make a return to the British Open this year after winning the qualifying event at Woburn for the third year in a row yesterday.
The Greystones golfer will go to Royal Troon as a professional, 12 months after leading into the final round at St Andrews.
Wimbledon
Yesterday's play at SW19 went largely to plan as Andy Murray and Nick Kyrgios both eased through to the second round as expected.
In the women's competition, Serena Williams looked just as fiercely competitive as ever as she beat Amra Sadikovic in straight sets.
Europa League
St Patrick's Athletic drew first blood in their Europa League first round qualifier with a 1-0 win over Jeunesse Esch at Richmond Park.
The Saints will take the slender lead to Luxembourg next week.
