“Watching him play was always like watching a highlights reel on YouTube,” laughs Rhys Denton, who worked with the latest English prodigy to emerge at Die Schwarzgelben during his time in the youth ranks at Reading.
“He always had phenomenal feet, and he was always a kid who would put in the extra work.
“What you’re seeing now is exactly what we saw at Bearwood Park [Reading’s training ground].”
The precocious 20-year-old winger scored his fourth goal in just five Champions League matches against Dinamo Zagreb on Wednesday night.
His latest strike was potentially the best of the lot, some call given the quality of the others.
With four minutes to go in the first half, Gittens picked up the ball just inside the Zagreb half, ran at a terrified defence before unleashing a crisp shot that curled elegantly into the top corner.
Europe drooled.
Dortmund’s scouting network, meanwhile, would have been toasting another steal from Manchester City who could soon be worth a sum that puts Jadon Sancho’s £73m transfer to Manchester United firmly in the shade.
“He’s in good hands,” says Gary Gordon, the former Dortmund academy coach and a man who knows the German giants as well as anyone.
“I worked with Nuri Sahin [Dortmund’s current manager] when he was coming through the youth ranks at the club – he knows what the club is about, he knows how important it is to nurture young players like Jamie.
“He also knows that he needs to make the most of him because these kinds of players don’t hang around for long. It won’t be long before he follows Jadon Sancho and Jude Bellingham out of the door.
“But he’s definitely at the right club. And at the right time too.”
The Borussia Dortmund winger moved to Germany four years ago (Photo: Getty)
Gittens, who was born in Reading, began his career at Caversham Trents, the Berkshire club that also boasts Fran Kirby among its alumni.
He also played alongside another prodigiously talented player in Michael Olise during his time at Reading before leaving the club to join Manchester City at the age of 14.
His period with Reading did, though, coincide with a revolutionary change of approach to the way young players were coached.
Under the watchful eye of Lewis Goater, then the Berkshire club’s head of coaching in the foundation phase, a role he now holds at Arsenal, Gittens benefitted hugely from an emphasis on one-on-one skills.
“It was all about me and my ball,” Denton says.
“We wanted the players to focus on their dribbling, getting round the defender. The way he was brought up in the Reading system, there was a real focus on what you can do with the ball when you’re in possession, how you can be successful with the ball at your feet.
“And when you haven’t got the ball, how you can work hard to win it back and start dominating.”
Reading’s approach at the time mirrored the FA’s desire to create a DNA for the modern footballer.
In many ways, Gittens, Bellingham and Sancho are the embodiment of that – all schooled in England before graduating with honours at the Signal Iduna Park.
“They’ve had a great grounding, all of them,” Gordon says.
“Then they come to Dortmund and get the chance of regular first-team football when back home they would be playing for the reserves or the Under-23s.
“Dortmund is the perfect place for them to develop because if you’re good enough you’re going to get the opportunities. And Jamie is definitely good enough – the crowd here absolutely love him.”
And what’s not to enjoy? In an entertainment business, Gittens tearing at defences – both in the Bundesliga and the Champions League – is currently one of European football’s most exhilarating sights.
“There are a lot of wingers who will get the ball and it’s their role to keep the ball in possession or cut inside,” Denton says.
“When you see Jamie you know he’s going to drive at players, you know he’s going to commit, you know he’s going to win his one-on-ones.
“You expect there to be a shot on goal or an end product whenever he has the ball.”
On his debut for the club in a friendly in Switzerland against Athletic Bilbao back in July 2021, Gittens had a shocker. He injured ankle ligaments within minutes of coming on as a substitute in a clumsy challenge that kept him out of first-team contention for the next four months.
On his return to fitness, he scored six goals in five Uefa Youth League matches and by August 2022, he was making his Bundesliga bow. He hasn’t looked back since.
Feted in Dortmund, the former Royal is looking an increasingly regal presence.
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West Ham 2-5 Arsenal (Wan-Bissaka 38′, Emerson 40′ | Gabriel 10′, Trossard 27′, Odegaard pen 34′, Havertz 36′, Saka pen 45+5′)
THE LONDON STADIUM — Every opponent knows about Arsenal‘s set-piece prowess by now but their ability to innovate and adapt means it remains a potent weapon for Mikel Arteta‘s team.
Stratford was the scene for a daft London derby and the first Premier League game in 12 years to feature seven first-half goals. There were no shortage of talking points: Bukayo Saka was brilliant (again), Declan Rice was booed and applauded by the West Ham faithful in equal measure, Julen Lopetegui is surely sleepwalking towards the sack and Emerson Palmieri scored a ludicrously good free-kick.
But the opening goal of the game from Gabriel Magalhaes was the catalyst for the ensuing chaos.
When Saka lifted his head after placing the ball down on the quadrant to take an early corner, he may have briefly wondered where all of his mates had gone.
He may have sensed Martin Odegaard and Leandro Trossard in his peripheral vision loitering on the edge of the box, but might have had to squint to see the other five attackers congregating at the back of a crowded penalty area.
The bunching at the back post was clearly designed pre-match, but there was a brief huddle between Saka, Odegaard and Gabriel before the kick was taken to jog the memory.
Gabriel delivered the refresher course to the rest with his mouth concealed, Saka raised his hand in signal and the men in black dutifully rushed towards the front post.
It was cleverly worked. Jurrien Timber scuttled nimbly across the goal-face and gave Lucas Paqueta a gentle nudge as Saka sent the cross in.
Meanwhile, Gabriel was using Riccardo Calafiori as a human shield from Michail Antonio as he hurtled from one end of the six-yard box to the other, timing it just right to glance Saka’s inswinger in at the far post.
It was the 20th set-piece goal that Arsenal have scored in the Premier League since the start of last season, more than any other team. It was also Gabriel’s fifth set-piece goal since the start of last season, more than any other player.
Arsenal’s peerless record clearly owes much to the quality of the delivery into the box, but in Gabriel they possess a player who attacks the ball brilliantly.
Their fifth goal also came via a swish of Saka’s left boot although it won’t count towards their peerless set-play record. Gabriel beat Lukasz Fabianski to the ball and won his side a penalty after being clattered by the keeper, with Saka converting the spot-kick. Gabriel scored once and effectively set up another from the exact same corner kick routine. This is becoming a cheat code.
West Ham’s players would have breathed a sigh of relief when the Brazilian failed to reemerge for the second half with Arteta correctly predicting that his side could maintain their three-goal cushion without him. Besides the blow to the temple, Gabriel was nursing a knock sustained in Lisbon in midweek and no risks were taken.
The home side’s complete inability to cope with Arsenal’s inventive corner routine meant that they just kept doing it.
Timber almost emulated Gabriel’s effort but was denied by a point-blank Fabianski save and the veteran Pole had an uncomfortable time dealing with other crosses dropped devilishly above his head.
Not every team will be as vulnerable to Arsenal’s aerial bombardment as West Ham were: only Wolves and Southampton have conceded more times from such situations than the Hammers this campaign.
But Arsenal will keep finding ways to keep their opponents second guessing and in Saka they possess a superb corner taker.
It is an element of the winger’s game that is rarely praised, but one that merits it given the consistently pinpoint accuracy of his delivery. Saka rarely hits the first man and almost always seems to whip them in flat and at pace.
With 10 league assists and five goals to his name already, Saka is having a wonderful season. You suspect the Saka and Gabriel combination will continue to be a handy goal method for Arsenal in their pursuit of the title.
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WEMBLEY – The Camden accent was not out of place but plenty else about Emma Hayes’ homecoming had the potential to unsettle England. As they held the USA to a stalemate they will look back on this as a much improved defensive display but one which did not answer looming questions over their creativity.
Back on familiar turf, Hayes set the tone with a pair of colourful shoes and a near-slip into singing her own national anthem. Her tenure is not only poised to be a fascinating one because it is her first in international management, having left Chelsea after 12 glittering years.
The impact has been immediate, guiding her adopted nation to Olympic gold in Paris this summer, and instilling a fresh willingness to gamble on youth – partly imposed by the four-time world champions falling so desperately short at the 2023 World Cup.
Yet missing Sophia Smith and experimenting with a host of youngsters, there was little sign of the tepidness which at times plagued England in front of an improved crowd of 78,346.
To lean on an Americanism, Hayes’ early priority has been building up the “roster”, hoping Emma Sears (23), Jaedyn Shaw and Alyssa Thompson (both 20) will be key to her regime for years to come, while others are departing – Alyssa Naeher made her penultimate appearance in goal before hanging up her gloves. The 17-year-old Lily Yohannes earned a place on the bench having recently declared her allegiance post tug-of-war with the Netherlands.
If England do not successfully defend their European crown next summer, the accusation levelled at them will be that they did not use their friendlies and dead rubber ties effectively enough to try out new personnel. There were glimpses of tinkering here but Jesses Naz and Park struggled to penetrate a well-organised US unit.
The major plus for the Lionesses was a rare, resiliently won clean sheet – their first of the calendar year. Mary Earps and Lucy Bronze impressed, the latter tested in a series of 1v1s with Thompson.
Earps, making her second consecutive start after losing the No 1 shirt to Hannah Hampton due to a combination of a hip injury and form, thwarted Thompson and Casey Krueger from close range and was England’s player of the match.
Sarina Wiegman’s other remaining conundrum is how her side, used to having so much more of the ball, should cater for this calibre of opponent. It is still hard to know exactly what the midfield will look like at Euro 2025, finishing up with Fran Kirby on the pitch after England had lacked cohesion there all evening.
These are the world’s two highest ranked teams but there were moments when the hosts looked overawed; as the US peppered Earps’ goal, danger could have been averted had the Lionesses been prepared to press higher and take the initiative. Alex Greenwood was rightly given her opportunity at left-back, but Beth Mead did just as much defensively down that side.
It is little wonder, though, that England are hesitant to be bolder given recent history. The alarm bells from the kamikaze defensive display in the 4-3 defeat to Germany here last month were still ringing.
Even the prospect of facing the Olympic champions was another chastening reality check; Team GB did not make it to that tournament at all courtesy of England’s underwhelming performance in the Nations League.
There were near misses – Lindsey Horan ruled offside after poking the ball past Earps and a nonsense penalty given against Greenwood for handball overturned by VAR. This week Hayes and her players spent Thanksgiving in London but perhaps it was England who will have come away counting their blessings, satisfied but with plenty to reflect on as they wrap up 2024 against Switzerland at Bramall Lane on Tuesday.
Hayes addresses Albert boos
Hayes insisted fans who booed Korbin Albert were “entitled to their opinion” as supporters voiced their anger following the controversial USA midfielder’s anti-LGBT+ comments.
Albert has previously come under fire for sharing a video on social media from a Christian preacher describing being gay and “feeling transgender” as wrong.
After the 21-year-old was jeered as she came on at Wembley, Hayes said: “Of course I understand the booing and everybody is entitled to their opinions on it without doubt. My job is not to weigh in on the debate. I’m a football coach.
“My job is to produce a football team and Korbin being a player within that, like I always do, I’ve sat down with her, I’ve had several conversations with her in and around these things to make sure that self development piece is there.
“But there have been opportunities for Korbin to be interviewed about this post game and maybe people haven’t asked the questions, even at the Olympics.”
Both captains wore rainbow armbands in support of Stonewall’s Rainbow Laces campaign, which is taking place this weekend.
“No one’s going to enjoy that [being booed],” Hayes added.
“But you have to appreciate that there is a community that support our team and everybody wants to feel that, I know for me, we create an environment that’s not just inclusive, respectful and tolerant, which I do do, but I cannot control what happens outside our environment.
“I’m sure when the moment comes and Korbin is asked about it, then it’s for her to address, not me. But I totally appreciate the fans doing that, and they’re entitled to do that.”
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SELHURST PARK — It was very nearly an ugly win, but leading 1-0 after zero shots on target going into second-half injury time, Newcastle succumbed to what did not exactly feel inevitable.
Crystal Palace huffed and puffed, and it felt as though the woes of the league’s most inefficient side would go on, only for Daniel Munoz to pop up late on with a header that made amends for his earlier miss.
It was a sucker-punch for Newcastle, who led thanks to Marc Guehi’s own goal, and six days on from their home defeat to West Ham, this had laid bare the issues Eddie Howe will somehow look to address before they host Liverpool on Wednesday – namely their creativity problems, and quite where their captain should actually play.
“It’s a strange performance from us,” Howe said. “Nothing in the final third. A lot of set-plays, opportunities to get a head on something, but we look a little low on confidence. We were without a recognised striker [after losing Isak], we were just lacking a cutting edge.”
Asked about why scoring has become an issue, he added: “It’s a difficult one to answer but we haven’t changed our attacking philosophy. It’s difficult to give a clear and direct answer, but one we’re aware of. I’ve got no issue with the quality of players we have.”
It was not an exhilarating affair, although that was perhaps no surprise given this was a match between two clubs among the lowest scorers in the league.
The first half proved a frustrating stop-start affair, with mainly Newcastle knocks disrupting the flow of a game that was struggling to flicker into life.
Early on, Bruno Guimaraes was gesturing and talking with Alexander Isak, urging more movement from his striker, while Anthony Gordon – starting on the right – could have set Tino Livramento free but didn’t see the pass that looked obvious from the stands (easy for us to say, etc).
Once Isak went down for a second time it looked to be game over for the Swede, and so by the third time he lay on the turf – just moments after Joelinton had picked himself up – it led to a forced change for Eddie Howe.
On came Harvey Barnes for Isak in the 22nd minute, which moved Gordon to centre forward, and initially it appeared as though Barnes would enjoy his time searching for space between Tyrick Mitchell and Marc Guehi.
Just two minutes after coming on, Barnes left Mitchell trailing before flashing a low cross past everyone, but that promising start from the Newcastle winger with a point to prove was followed by a bright spell for Palace, with Nick Pope saving superbly from Ismaila Sarr before Munoz missed the target when it seemed easier to score.
Munoz is yet to score for Palace, and that showed, the right-footed right-back the last player the hosts would have expected and wanted to be by the left post attempting a left-footed shot once Sarr’s perfectly-weighted low cross rolled invitingly into his path.
The foundation of Palace’s purple patch was arguably Will Hughes and Jefferson Lerma winning the midfield battle, the industrious pair teaching Newcastle’s midfielders a thing or two – with Lerma in particular sticking to Guimaraes like glue and breaking up numerous attacks.
Guimaraes was playing No 8 for the first time in the league this season, a shift up from No 6 with Sandro Tonali dropping back. The pair were starting together for the first time in five matches, and on the first half’s showing, it was very much the case of an experiment still in its infancy when, given it is late November, Newcastle fans would rather have hoped the time for such trials were over.
Newcastle United’s Bruno Guimaraes was followed close throughout (Photo: AFP)
All this while Joe Willock was a relative passenger of the first half, and having shown glimpses of his best earlier this month, there was a requirement – for Newcastle to have any hope of troubling Palace consistently – that he raised his game along with his midfield mates.
For proof of Newcastle’s lack of creativity, the half ended with just the one shot blocked despite the fact they had more possession, and given Barnes had already come on, it was not clear what move Howe would make next.
At least the 10-year-old Newcastle fan – who in broad Geordie declared Joelinton his favourite player – buried his penalty at half-time, while just yards away Callum Wilson stayed warm perhaps smarting from the fact Barnes had been subbed on over him.
After the break, there was more endeavour from the travelling pack, and while Willock and Joelinton at times traded places on the left it was down the right where Newcastle were getting joy.
That’s where they found the breakthrough, too, albeit from a set-piece, masterfully played out as Lewis Hall played it to Tonali, who then fed Gordon – his cross ricocheting off Marc Guehi for an own goal from a player who almost joined Newcastle in the summer.
That a training-ground routine paid off was a blessing for a Newcastle side who had otherwise been struggling to cut through, and the one-goal led to them sitting back instead of go searching for a second.
There were also signs of Guimaraes’ personal frustrations boiling over, a needless foul before the hour-mark putting his team under pressure, while it was then another out-stretched hand in apology when a pass intended for Willock was overhit.
Soon after, Pope was on hand to deny Sarr again before Dan Burn brilliantly blocked Munoz’s goal-bound effort, and as another decent Palace spell raised the noise levels around Selhurst Park, Burn could be seen calling for calm moments before he headed a corner away.
Willock’s yellow for a rash foul on Hughes was another indication the tide was turning, with Lerma then watching his attempt from distance deflect wide.
Guehi then headed over from a corner in the 70th minute, which happened to be Palace’s 10th shot of the match, and after Sarr saw their 11th saved and Mateta fired their 12th over, it was further proof that the tale of the Eagles’ season so far is what truly dictated this game.
Palace boasted the worst goals per shot ratio in the Premier League heading into this match, 0.05, a rate that was worsening with each shot which failed to ripple the net, but just when it appeared Newcastle looked to be thanking their lucky stars, fortune finally changed for Palace – and Munoz – with their 15th shot of the match.
His header broke Newcastle hearts, making the long journey back a little more awkward for Howe.
He will have to consider quite where this creative spark is going to come from, and whether the trio of Tonali, Willock and Guimaraes works – in truth, it didn’t, and nor did Joelinton on the left – and against Liverpool it may not get much better. They’ll need St James’ Park at its best to trouble the league leaders in midweek, and where Guimaraes starts is back to being anyone’s guess.
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You will struggle to find a stadium in the UK located in a more picturesque setting than The Rock, home of Dumbarton FC.
Stood imperiously above a single-tiered stand containing just over 2,000 yellow and black seats is Dumbarton Castle, a medieval fortress perched on top of an extinct volcano and nestled cosily into the imposing rockface. At ground level, the pitch sits alongside the banks of the Clyde, a safe enough distance away to prevent too many footballs from escaping into the river.
Dumbarton moved to The Rock, officially named the Marbill Coaches Stadium for sponsorship reasons, in 2000 following the sale of Boghead, which had fallen into disrepair at the back end of their 121-year tenancy.
The relocation has proven to be both a blessing and a curse. The stunning backdrop makes it a perfect spot for Sons supporters and football day trippers to while away a Saturday afternoon, but it has also attracted property developers intent on replacing the stadium with houses with the aim of making millions.
That second part is important because it helps to explain Dumbarton’s current predicament. On 18 November, Scotland’s fifth-oldest club entered administration, triggering an automatic 15-point deduction that saw them tumble to the bottom of the League One table.
Promoted via the League Two play-offs last season, Dumbarton are back to square one on zero points. Inverness Caledonian Thistle are the only reason they are not completely adrift after they were hit with the same penalty for the same offence in October.
Quantuma, the firm overseeing Dumbarton’s administration process, stressed that the nuclear option was taken out of necessity. The scale of Dumbarton’s financial ruin is uncertain, but the problems are serious enough that Police Scotland have launched an investigation into “suspected fraud” at the club.
Documents from Companies House paint a grim picture. Accounts from the latest financial year show that Dumbarton recorded losses of £12,500 per month and that scheduled payments from a contentious £1.8m land sale in 2021 have been missed. The terms and funding of that deal, agreed with More Homes Ltd, have been the source of much conjecture.
“The directors of the club were left with no option other than to appoint administrators, following the non-receipt of significant funds that were owed to the club from the sale of development land in 2021,” Quantuma’s managing director Ian Wright said.
“As administrators, we will be investigating the circumstances surrounding this transaction and other issues affecting the club, but will not be in a position to comment further at this time.”
Whenever a historic club falls into the hands of administrators it causes ripples of shock around the wider footballing community: if it could happen to them, it could happen to us.
In contrast, those who have been paying attention and who follow the Sons home and away have long suspected that this day would come eventually. The element of surprise is reduced when the ambush is already expected.
“The Sons Supporters Trust is saddened but not shocked by today’s developments at Dumbarton Football Club,” the club’s official fan group said.
“For almost twenty years now the controlling interest in the club has resided with parties whose principal aim has been to employ Dumbarton FC as a vehicle to enable housing development on the club’s iconic site at Dumbarton Rock.
“Today’s announcement marks the continued failure of that endeavour.”
Owners Cognitive Capital were at the helm when the ship hit the iceberg, but Dumbarton had been drifting off course long before the group’s takeover in 2021. For the past 16 years, Dumbarton’s custodians, past and present, have tried to separate the club from The Rock.
In 2008, Dumbarton were bought by a St Helens-based company Brabco 736, who began exploring potential sites for a new ground. They proposed to build a new 4,000 seater stadium, double the attendance at The Rock, at Young’s Farm at Dalmoak – situated on a flood plain on the River Leven – in Renton village, West Dunbartonshire.
The proposal was rejected by the local council in 2018, but it was a close-run affair ending 10-9, much to the relief of supporters who worried about the ramifications of moving the club further out of town.
“The main motivation, it became clear, was for investors to be able to profit from the relocation through an associated housing development,” Simon Barrow, a Dumbarton fan and former associate director and press officer at the club, tells i.
“But was a larger ground really needed? Would it even be sustainable? Did the investors have the resources to actually make it work for all concerned? The answer to all three questions proved ‘no’. Until planning permission was finally rejected the issue dogged the club and hampered its development at the Rock.”
“We weren’t happy about it. We thought it would spell the death knell of the club,” David Brownlee, chair of the Sons Supporters Trust, tells i.
With their plans rebuffed, Brabco sold up to Cognitive Capital in 2021. The consortium was led by Henning Kristoffersen, a Norwegian financial services entrepreneur, and outlined grand ambitions for the future which included recruiting promising young players from Scandinavia who could be sold for a profit, establishing Dumbarton as a “stable Championship club” and initiating a “transition to a full-time squad”.
Tellingly, their six-point blueprint also sought to “reignite plans for a new, increased capacity community sports and leisure facility at Young’s Farm, without the residential element that previously caused objection”.
“They soon realised that plan was, pardon the analogy, dead in the water,” Brownlee says.
Outside Dumbarton’s iconic stadium (Photo: Getty)
Undeterred, they turned their attention to building housing directly on the site at The Rock instead, on a plot of land currently used as a car park on match days. Understandably, fans were not exactly enamoured with the idea of a multi-storey new build looming over the pitch. It soon became clear that was a non-starter too, at which point everything started to unravel.
The Cognitive Capital era at Dumbarton was doomed to failure from the start. Concerns over the firm’s resources have mounted with fans hoping the ongoing police investigation will unearth definitive answers to some of their long-held suspicions.
There were practical pitfalls too. For over 100 years, the site at The Rock was owned by the Denny family and used for shipbuilding. The land was formerly a dry dock but neither Brabco nor Cognitive Capital had soil samples collected to determine whether the foundations were suitable for building on. A neat metaphor perhaps for the failure of their ownership.
The apparent hastiness to act first and think later prompted Scottish Labour MP Jackie Baillie to accuse Dumbarton’s guardians of chasing a “get-rich pipe dream”, an obsessive pursuit that has left the club in limbo for much of this century.
Clive Hyman, a director at Cognitive Capital, disputed Baillie’s claim by saying “it is in nobody’s interest that the football club should stagnate”.
The uncertainty has been exacerbated by a lack of clarity and communication from Cognitive Capital, who have been described as “opaque” by the Sons Trust. Some directors appear to have been involved with Dumbarton in one way or another for some time.
“Administration was probably inevitable for a long time,” says Barrow.
The plight of Dumbarton and Inverness has prompted renewed discussions about Scottish football’s ability to regulate itself and ensure that owners who take charge of historic, community clubs have their best interests at heart.
The publication of a report titled Rebuilding Scottish Football, prepared by the Scottish Football Supporters Association [SFSA] which was co-founded by Barrow in 2015, brought the topic to the table.
The report stressed the importance of greater transparency and accountability through independent scrutiny, with Barrow saying that an independent regulator would be “the last stop on the train line” for greater protection of clubs.
However, it remains to be seen whether the Scottish Football Association [SFA] will bend to calls for regulations to be tightened.
Last December, Ian Maxwell, the SFA’s chief executive, dismissed the need for Scottish football to have an independent regulator at a government health, social care and sport committee, claiming that the challenges faced by clubs in Scotland were different to those faced by clubs in England.
“I suspect the Scottish Football Association will be dragged screaming and kicking to agree to an independent regulator,” Barrow says.
“But I definitely think there needs to be some sort of due diligence done when companies want to buy clubs like ours with 152 years of history.”
In the interim, there is a growing appetite from across Scottish football for greater fan involvement at boardroom level. Dumbarton have local directors in place but their influence during the Brabco and Cognitive Capital eras was severely limited.
“In the case of Dumbarton, Inverness Caley and other clubs that may be too near the brink, the solution is specific, local and community-focused,” says Barrow.
“It is about ensuring that football clubs are run as effective small businesses with good community and customer relations at their heart – not as magnates for speculators, chancers and accumulators.
“I think many people looking to take a stake in the game also fail to appreciate that a football club is not a standard commercial business. It has far deeper roots than that in people’s hearts, lives and communities.”
Brownlee adds: “We want a model that A) puts football first and B) has community involvement. I don’t envisage a complete fan takeover, but certainly very close fan involvement.
“We have a small supporter base. We will need private money in there but we want the administrator to be sure that folk interested in buying the club’s motives are for the benefit of the community and not planning to develop the land and make a profit.”
Dumbarton’s story has highlighted Scottish football’s murky underbelly, but the football community’s swift response to help out has proven that the bonds that bound fans and clubs together remain as strong as ever.
The day after meeting the administrators, the Sons Trust set up a GoFundMe campaign to pay player and staff wages and “keep the lights on”.
An initial £50,000 target was reached within a couple of days and a new £100,000 goal was set to “address anticipated funding shortfall for the remainder of the season”. That has currently surpassed the £80,000 mark and the Trust have stated that any surplus funds will be reserved for community benefit initiatives once a takeover has been completed.
“The goodwill towards the club and how this news has been received in the community gives us great confidence that the club will be in a better place when all this is finished, even if we end up being relegated,” Brownlee says.
“The response from supporters of other clubs has been quite humbling, really, the money that they’ve put in. It would be nice to say thank you to supporters of other clubs who have supported us. It has been really heartening and we hope that the police investigation gets to the bottom of what’s happened so no other club gets put in this position.”
Dumbarton’s James Hilton against Inverness Caledonian Thistle (Photo: SNS)
Administration is a terrifying prospect but there is cautious optimism that a desperate situation can be a catalyst for much-needed and long-awaited change. Encouragingly, Quantuma are “confident there will be a positive outcome”.
“The club is either going to come out of this in better shape than it was before, or it’s possibly not going to come out of it at all. That’s basically the situation,” Barrow says. “But with the right will and commitment, there’s no reason why we can’t survive, and then flourish again.”
If Dumbarton do pull through it is imperative that supporters are at the heart of their rebirth to ensure that the needs of the football club are put first. Fans like Brownlee, who attended his first game in 1958, and Barrow, who has supported the club for 55 years. The fanbase may be small, but there are plenty of people at home and overseas who care deeply about the club.
Although the uncertainty over the club’s financial position and the involvement of Police Scotland may make Dumbarton a less attractive proposition to potential owners, their fans are hopeful that there will still be sufficient interest from parties with the means and ambition to propel the club upstream after years of treading water.
Through his role with the SFSA, Barrow has been working with a group of people hoping to implement “community-facing ownership”, while Brownlee says that the Sons Trust are aware of interest from prospective consortiums and have been informed by administrators that they will be involved in the sale process.
There will surely be a taker for one of Scotland’s oldest clubs and whoever does come in should heed the desire to remain at The Rock. It is the club’s USP – the elephant on the badge symbolises the shape of The Rock and the castle from above – and has become its home. The drive to uproot it has succeeded only in strengthening the resolve to stay put.
“If you look at any book of iconic football games in the world you’ll find it in there. It’s such a historic site,” says Brownlee.
“We want to work with Historic Scotland so that they can promote Dumbarton Castle, rather than just Stirling and Edinburgh! There’s huge potential.”
“The area was once a powerhouse in Scottish football,” Barrow adds. “Our ground is situated underneath the Rock which hosts one of Scotland’s five historic castles. How could this not be a fantastic asset and brand, handled with care and imagination?”
Perhaps a more community-centred ownership would lead to greater collaboration between the town’s football club and historic landmarks. One idea that has been floated is to use the floodlights from the pitch to light up the castle at night.
“We need a fresh chance, fresh thinking, and a fresh approach to making a football club about football and community working and flourishing together,” says Barrow.
Dumbarton have endured their darkest day, but there is hope and optimism for brighter days at The Rock.
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The image of a blood-stained baby blue and white scarf is one of the more shocking from the fallout of Manchester City and Liverpool games of the past six years.
It belonged to a 15-year-old girl who her father said had been left “scarred for life” after a plastic cup full of coins was hurled from the away end at the Etihad Stadium, when City hosted Liverpool for a Carabao Cup tie in 2022, and cut open a one-inch gash in her face.
Greater Manchester Police vowed to catch the person responsible and the teenager’s father called for help in outing them. People will know who threw it, but such is the omertà of football tribalism police sources told i this week that GMP had to close their investigation after being unable to identify the perpetrator.
It is one of many striking memories of their meetings.
There were the images of the Manchester City bus being pelted with bottles, bricks and flares when it arrived at Anfield for a Champions League quarter-final in April 2018. One of the most ferocious photographs of Jurgen Klopp – of which there are many – growling at fourth official Gary Beswick before he was sent off, is from a Premier League game against City in October 2022.
There has been graffiti scrawled by City fans in Anfield toilets accusing them of being “murdering scum” captured on smartphones, tragedy chanting, Klopp stirring up referee conspiracy theories, Pep Guardiola’s famous “this is Anfield” comment after seeing a goal disallowed following a narrow defeat. City fans retaliating with an attack on Liverpool’s bus leaving Manchester last year. City reporting to Liverpool that staff were spat at in the Anfield dugout – Liverpool investigating but finding no evidence.
As bitter football feuds go, rarely has there been one with so many flashpoints in such a short space of time.
Is this evidence of a fierce new rivalry taking root in the modern era that will live long into the decades ahead? Or could it, in fact, be a rivalry manufactured on the Manchester City side, in the belief that being at loggerheads with another big club is an essential facet of a global mega club, a notion suggested to i this week?
After the 2018 bus attack, the Manchester Evening News ran a survey which found that Liverpool were the most-picked rival by City fans – ahead of Manchester United. Yet the Liverpool Echo later described it as “a one-way street” and asked in another article exploring the emergence of this fierce animosity: “Are Liverpudlians really bothered about them?”
Jurgen Klopp vs Gary Beswick during the Man City game (Photo: Getty)
Their point is that the Manchester United rivalry, while not based on geography, has survived the decades due to the two clubs’ mutual respect for building world-leading clubs through historical success. When a temporary Liverpool-Chelsea rivalry flared in the 2ooos, back then Liverpool fans compared Chelsea’s success to winning the lottery. And the same is, largely, felt about City now.
In these mini rivalries, for a period of time two sets of fans will hate one another while their respective clubs compete for trophies and the managers tear strips out of one another on the touchline and in press conferences, but take both of those out of the equation and the animosity fades.
“It’s a weird one because it almost seems forced, and engineered,” Matt Ladson, who has been going to Liverpool games for over 30 years and is editor at This Is Anfield, tells i. “Maybe that’s just City as a club, it’s something that’s been manufactured.
“It’s not a rivalry in the sense of Everton or Manchester United. When Everton and Manchester United are crap, they’re still a rival, we still hate playing against them, they’ll still cause us problems and vice versa. When we weren’t good and United were winning the league, they would’ve hated playing against us.
“If Man City were to go back to being a mid-table club, there wouldn’t be a rivalry anymore. They’d just become irrelevant. They’d just be another team in the Premier League.
“Much like Liverpool see Aston Villa, who previously had massive games against Liverpool but now they’re not, because they’re not competing for trophies.
“It’s somewhat similar to the Chelsea rivalry and how that emerged in the early, mid 2000s, Rafa Benitez and Jose Mourinho. We were always playing them in Champions League semi-finals and FA Cup finals, games where the title might be an outside chance for Liverpool under Brendan Rodgers.
“It’s a similar kind of thing. I wouldn’t say City are a rival because if they dissipate a little bit then it’s not there anymore and we’d forget about them.”
Tensions will be heightened again on Sunday when City visit Anfield clinging desperately to the title race: the triumphant, all-conquering empire starting to crack and crumble around its emperor, preparing to do battle with an opponent they thought had fallen away but has found a resurgence under Arne Slot.
Liverpool have a chance to move 11 points clear at the top of the table, a gap that would take yet another feat of magnificence from Guardiola to chase down, even with two-thirds of the season still to play.
He was so vexed by his team’s current malaise (five defeats and a draw representing his longest winless run) that he scratched his face so badly it looked like he’d gone 12 rounds with a cat after throwing away a three-goal lead in midweek against Feyenoord.
Already, one viral post on X, seen by more than half a million people has directed Liverpool fans to greet City’s coach as it arrives at the stadium on Sunday via Anfield Road in a nod to 2018. “Make the streets red,” the flyer says. “Make it as horrible as we can for City.”
Certainly, on the online battlefields, the apex of football tribalism, the mutual resentment runs deep.
One popular Manchester City influencer declined an interview, citing the severe abuse they have received from both sets of supporters each time they have discussed the rivalry.
And while the Liverpool fans i spoke to don’t necessarily see it as something lasting long into the future, the present hostility remains fierce, for several reasons.
There is a feeling that had some major refereeing decisions not gone City’s way, Liverpool could have made more of a dent in City’s trophy tally.
“Jurgen alluded to that several times,” Ladson says.
Ladson recalls going unbeaten at home and amassing 97 points – the fourth highest points total in English football history – in the 2018-19 season and finishing second by one point. In a game between the two, which City won 2-1, John Stones made a goal-line clearance and Hawkeye revealed the ball was 11mm from crossing the line.
He refers to the 2021-22 season, when City again won the title by one point, and Rodri’s handball against Everton that wasn’t given as a penalty. Everton complained and received an apology from Mike Riley, the head of referees at the time. City won the game 1-0.
“All these absolute near misses, that does make you think, we all talk about fine margins in sport, but sometimes just the slightest indecision by a referee can lead to not winning a league title and that’s frustrating,” Ladson says.
“Liverpool have had those near misses and with a couple of decisions going their way, or whatever it may be, Liverpool could easily have three of City’s league titles.”
Tensions boil over between Rodri and Salah (Photo: Getty)
The superficial rivalry has emerged, Ladson believes, as a result of each game against City carrying such significance creating a series of successive “big matches”. Not only the knockout games but the tightness of the title races has made the two league meetings immensely significant.
And lingering in the background, nagging away behind all of it, has been investigations into City breaching regulations and the on-going hearing into the 115 charges, which could have huge implications on the perception of how they built their success.
If the book is thrown at City – who deny all wrongdoing – when the outcome is published next year, Liverpool will be the side who feel they were denied the most.
“I’m sure if you asked an athlete competing against Lance Armstrong at the time, he still competes to his best but it’s only afterwards the true frustrations [come out],” Ladson says.
“If – and I emphasis if – the result goes a certain way, nobody wants to win a title from six, seven, eight years ago. It doesn’t change anything.
“I don’t think we’re getting Victor Moses and Kolo Toure back together and parading them through the streets of Liverpool for a title 10 years ago! It’s not going to really change anything much.
“You compete in that moment. The focus just has to be on now, trying to win the trophies we missed out on in the past.”
Meanwhile, a simmering frustration remains that in the one season they did pip City to it the country was in lockdown during the pandemic and the club, its city and fans were unable to celebrate fully.
“Until we do get that monkey off the back again and win the league it’s always going to be there, we’ve not been able to do it the way we wanted.
“It feels now a little bit like when Liverpool won the league, City had fallen off and Liverpool were relentless, wining 23 out of 24 games. We’ll see.”
Standing in their way, yet again, is Manchester City.
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In 2018, Frank Lampard began his managerial career with a Championship club based in the Midlands with ambitious aims of reaching the promised land.
Six years and three Premier League jobs later and he is back where he started, this time with Coventry City 50 or so miles west of Derby where he cut his coaching teeth.
Lampard’s new club are currently closer to the bottom three than they are to the top six, but significant investment in the playing squad over the previous three transfer windows, albeit largely funded by the sales of Gustavo Hamer and Europe’s most coveted striker Viktor Gyokeres in 2023, is proof of their aspirations.
“I’ve put on record that we want to be in the play-off mix in three out of every five years, and hopefully in one of those we sneak through the door. I think that is a realistic ambition,” owner Doug King told i in September.
He was more bullish when addressing Coventry supporters in an open forum following the controversial dismissal of Mark Robins earlier this month. “I believe we have a top six squad. We have the ability to get out of this league,” he said.
With Coventry 10 points adrift of 6th place, King made the drastic call to fire the hugely popular Robins.
During seven years in charge, Robins took Coventry from League Two to League One to the Championship to a penalty kick away from the Premier League. There were four trips to Wembley along the way, ecstatic trophy-winning visits mixed with the agony of last season’s FA Cup semi-final defeat.
Robins was the third longest-serving manager in the EFL at the time of his dismissal and his departure leaves big boots to fill. Some supporters are unconvinced by Lampard’s ability to squeeze his toes into them after tricky spells at Everton and most recently at Chelsea in a caretaker capacity.
“Robins is as close to a God as Coventry are likely to have,” Joey Crone, from the Nii Lamptey podcast, tells i.
“The only thing you’ll be able to hear in the first five minutes of the game [against Cardiff on Saturday] is people singing Robins’ name. We’ve not had a home game since he left, Saturday is the first one. I thought to save Lampard’s face they might have just got that one out of the way before installing him.
“We recorded a podcast a couple of weeks ago after it had happened and one person was in tears for the full two hours of the podcast! I was a bit bemused by it but that’s not unrepresentative of people. Coventry University have just given him an honorary degree. He’s a huge, huge figure.”
Lampard is back for another crack at the Championship (Photo: Getty)
Crone, like many, is unconvinced that Lampard is the right man to replace Robins. When Lampard takes his seat in the dugout this weekend it will be his first match in management in 552 days, since a calamitous caretaker spell at Chelsea ended with a 1-1 draw against Newcastle.
He lost eight of his 11 matches in charge after answering Todd Boehly’s SOS call. When Lampard returned to Stamford Bridge it initially looked like a win-win scenario; quickly it unravelled into an exercise in damage limitation.
“On Lampard, there are two things: Firstly, I would like to see him be given the benefit of the doubt. Secondly, if you’d asked me for my three bottom choices for the job I probably would have said Lampard, Gerrard and Rooney,” Crone adds.
“I think people see him as a status symbol because he’s managed in the Champions League… On that basis, we may as well have got Roberto Di Matteo in. He’s only managed in the Champions League because he was given a job by a club he played for. It’s not like he took Fulham into the top four.”
King’s appointment of Lampard has also led to a restructure. Robins’ success and longevity ensured he was regarded as a manager in a traditional sense, an overseer of all aspects of the club. A key factor in his downfall appears to be the severing of ties with his former assistant Adi Viveash in the summer, a decision that King insists was made by Robins following a breakdown in the pair’s relationship.
“This is a really difficult league and needs an elite coach and tactician,” King said. “I said the risk of parting company with Adi is he [Robins] would become exposed, and that’s what’s happened.”
Lampard’s job title is head coach rather than manager, indicating that he will have a hands-on role on the training ground. When he took charge of his first session on Thursday, Lampard was fitted almost head to toe in the club’s striking royal blue Hummel tracksuit. He has been joined at Coventry by two trusted lieutenants Joe Edwards and Chris Jones, with whom he will share the workload.
While Crone is unconvinced by Lampard’s coaching ability, Thomas Alcock of the CCFC Analysis substack is more positive about his credentials.
“If you look at the Derby days and the first stint at Chelsea they set up in a 4-3-3, were on the front foot, used a high press and played an attacking style which is not too dissimilar to what [Mark] Robins was trying to do. It wasn’t possession for the sake of it, he wanted to get the ball forward quickly but it was on the ground and looking to play,” Alcock tells i.
“I think it’s simplistic to compare Lampard with Rooney and Gerrard, group them all together and view them as all the same.”
Lampard’s spell at Derby, more so than either stint at Chelsea and the survival mission at Everton, is the most obvious reference point for his new role.
Lampard succeeded Mark Robins at Coventry on Thursday (Photo: PA)
A criticism of Lampard is that he was unable to take the Rams into the Premier League despite using his contacts book to bring Mason Mount, Fikayo Tomori and Harry Wilson to Pride Park. Derby finished 6th in the table before losing to Aston Villa in the play-off final with Lampard leaving for Chelsea soon after,
“There’s this argument that they had a high-profile squad and he should have achieved what he did. But if you go through the Derby squad that year and what those players are doing now – ok they had Mount and Tomori who were 19, 20 at the time and have gone on to things – but a lot of them haven’t particularly kicked on,” Alcock says.
“So it’s not as clear-cut for me that it was just a high-value squad that he did ok with. I think the squad was probably not quite as good as people think.”
“I always thought it was criminal that he didn’t get promoted with that Derby squad,” adds Crone. “But looking at it now you maybe think that 6th is what that team should have got.”
The play-offs may seem a remote concern for Coventry right now, but there is always one slow burner in the Championship that recovers from a poor start to gatecrash the top six in the final weeks of a season. Coventry did just that under Robins in 2022-23, falling to Luton Town at the final hurdle. The points deficit to those prized spots is not chasmic and if Lampard can instigate an instant improvement in results there may be another barnstorming run on the horizon.
“What you would say about Coventry is that he has a squad that is way above its current league position. This is a ready made good job for someone,” Crone says.
“We’re not a basket case, we’ve got money to spend in January, the first team is the same as it was last year and they finished 8th after a huge turnover. We’ve spent the third-most money in the Championship over the past two years. It looks like an easy fix for someone to come in and turn things around.”
“Managing a club like Robins did that was backs to the wall with no money or no budget and do an unbelievably job with no resources is a totally different one to what the job is now,” says Alcock.
“We have resources and good players now and are stable financially. It’s a very different world to manage in and maybe that wasn’t quite right for Robins now.” One that Alcock believes Lampard is better equipped for.
Coventry may be an attractive job given the quality of their squad, but taking it on now as the immediate successor to someone as beloved as Robins is undoubtedly a risk. How does one follow “God?”
Lampard evidently thinks it is a gamble worth taking and spots an opportunity to rebuild his reputation from a lower base by galvanising Coventry’s fortunes. Arne Slot has shown it can be possible possible to succeed a dynastic manager and flourish.
A fast start would do him the world of good, though, encouraging the Robins devotees that the future remains bright with him gone. Bruised by his last two jobs, Lampard needs to get the fans onside and needs this to work out. A brilliant player remains an enigma as a manager. Here is perhaps his final chance to show he can master his second career as he did his first.
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