July 30, 2022
The brief from today:
South African great joins United
Former South Africa striker, Benni McCarthy, has joined the ranks at Manchester United as part of new coach Erik ten Hag’s team. McCarthy has been coaching since 2015—two years after he retired from playing—and held assistant positions in Scotland (Hibernian) and The Netherlands (Sint-Truiden) before returning to South Africa. Once back in his home country, he secured more senior roles as head coach of South African Premier League sides: Cape Town City, and later, AmaZulu. Finishing second in the league with AmaZulu in 2020/21—a record best finish for the club—helped gain McCarthy further recognition for his coaching ability, with him collecting the Coach of Year award that season. The following campaign also saw AmaZulu play in the CAF Champions League for the first time in their history. McCarthy left AmaZulu in March of this year, but has now landed his new assistant coach position at United. From an official title/role perspective, it is a slight downgrade for him, but from an exposure/experience standpoint it’s certainly an upgrade. McCarthy is now expected to work primarily with the United forwards in his new position; with 93 goals in 272 club matches as a player, he has some valuable insight to provide.
McCarthy is set to join ten Hag’s staff at Manchester United
Spezia and Sena part ways
In the midst of the summer transfer window, it isn’t uncommon to see players refusing to turn up for training aiming to force through transfers, or even more drastically, contracts being terminated by mutual agreement between the club and player. In the case of Spezia’s Brazilian midfielder, Leo Sena, however, things are oddly different. The player missed all of last season after contracting COVID and then having subsequent health issues. Apparently further medical tests were performed at the end of the campaign in May, and while the results weren’t publicized, they seemed to leave more questions than answers. Following all of that, both parties have now announced a decision to cancel the contract, and just like the test results, question marks remain as to what prompted the decision. Spezia’s official statement didn’t give much away simply saying, “To Leo Sena, the best wishes for a future full of satisfaction, sporting and not.” Hopefully, for Sena’s sake, it’s purely a sporting decision, and not one related to his overall health after his bout with COVID.
Hopefully Sena’s health improves after a prolonged bout with COVID
US preseason tours conclude
With the European club seasons now only a week or two away, depending on the league, the preseason tours in the US will wrap up this weekend. After a couple of years without some of Europe’s biggest sides making the trek due to COVID, this summer showed the massive interest for the sport in the US. Matches have sold out in: Florida, Texas, DC, Wisconsin, Las Vegas, and of course California. One of the marquee matchups will actually take place tonight between Real Madrid and Juventus, and once again it will be another sellout crowd. This time the venue will be the famous Rose Bowl in Pasadena, and the 90,000 capacity stadium, which also hosted the 1994 World Cup final, will be buzzing. Safe to say the marketing revenue gained by all the teams that made the journey this summer will be incentive to bring them back in the future.