Archive May 18, 2025

“I don’t believe Jim questions need to be asked more.” They stated that their main concern is the game.

The issue was Sir Jim Ratcliffe, a minority owner of United, who had watched his men’s side lose to Chelsea on Friday at Stamford Bridge.

At Wembley, co-chairman Avie Glazer and technical director Jason Wilcox, as well as former chief executive David Gill, sat with chief executive Omar Berrada.

However, it seemed significant that Ratcliffe was absent. He pulls the football operation’s rules from the people in charge. Ratcliffe did not appear in the women’s team because Serena Williams was moving through the mixed zone towards the victors’ dressing room 15 minutes after Millie Bright had won the trophy.

When the TV cameras caught her during the game, Williams did not appear overly engaged. However, her husband, Alexis Ohanian, was unaware that he had just invested £20 million in the Chelsea women’s team, giving him an 8 to 10% stake in the club.

Naturally, Skinner was being asked why Ratcliffe wasn’t there. He continued to say that he was unaware.

It’s not his thing in some ways. Ruben Amorim would most likely not be able to provide any explanations as to why Ratcliffe did not play for the men’s team at Old Trafford on any given day.

“In all truth, I don’t know why he wasn’t here, but we were well represented, along with Jason and Omar Berrada,” Skinner said.

Important Old Trafford players complain that the focus is on Ratcliffe and United despite the fact that other significant Premier League clubs and their owners are not involved in their presence at women’s games.

Even a passing nod to the apparent hierarchy at Wembley was made to Skinner.

Before trying to reroute the conversation to his own club, with whom he is contracted until 2027, he said, “Let’s see how many times they fly over in the season for Chelsea.”

“In actuality, the investment in the team is necessary, not whether you are visible,” he said. We need to close the gap created by investing as a means of showing support.

However, the situation is not always straightforward.

Ratcliffe’s involvement is still questioned, but investment will remain a question.

In reality, the course has already been determined for the women’s side, and it doesn’t attempt to match the growing resources Chelsea spent putting forth to make Sonia Bompastor’s debut season a domestic triple-winning effort.

In the wake of the widely reported departures of England goalkeeper Mary Earps and forward Nikita Parris and the so-called substandard training facilities, United are still betrayed by the criticism they faced at the start of the season.

The club is hoping to complete a significant training ground upgrade, both for the men’s and women’s sides, by August, with hundreds of millions of dollars going into it.

They contend that this will enable them to maximize their potential.

Any mention of the word “recruitment” raises questions about Manchester United because of the problems on the men’s side because they have a clear goal.

Given that Phallon Tullis-Joyce, who was once United’s deputy, has been excellent all season and was outstanding at Wembley, making two brilliant first-half saves as United battled to keep their opponents at bay, it is true that whoever made the decision to let Earps go got it right.

Is a fight with Chelsea still possible?

Although there was much discussion about the Champions League, Skinner’s side faces dangers if they advance to the lucrative main draw. To pass the second qualifying round, they must first have to pass both the semi-final and the final. Inter Milan and Roma are well-known potential opponents, but Swedish side BK Hacken is also in the draw and reached the quarter-finals in 2023-24.

If United can survive that, they must defeat a heavyweight final-qualifying-round foe that might include Real Madrid, Paris FC, or Sporting Lisbon.

Officials at United believe their club is expanding. After all, it is only seven years old.

They were competing in their third successive FA Cup final. In the 74, 412 crowd, there were a lot of genuine United fans.

According to those officials, Leigh Sports Village’s attendances are comparable to those of any top-flight team playing outside of their home stadium. On average, they hover around 4,500.

They require more, though. It is no surprise that United’s women will play in this month’s controversial World Sevens tournament in Portugal as a club where the men’s team will travel to Asia for two games in order to make more money.

To maximize the available funds, all options will be explored.

Skinner is correct. Ratcliffe’s investment is what he needs, not to advance United’s women’s team.

However, “the optics” are not very good.

And it is not a negative having the ownership watching on, as Bompastor pointed out a while after Skinner had spoken.

She remarked, “It’s a big lift.” Everyone is involved in the women’s team when we discuss having the right support from the entire club.

It demonstrates to a woman that you belong in the appropriate club. You really want to include that back on the pitch to all of these people.

At Wembley, United engaged in a fierce battle. Even if they could no longer claim to deserve victory, there might have been a different outcome if they had taken chances at the start of each half.

England Test captain Ben Stokes claims he gave up drinking alcohol in the hopes that his injury-related recovery would be aided by his abstinence at the start of the year.

After tearing during the third Test match against New Zealand, Stokes, 33, underwent surgery on his left hamstring in December.

Although he was initially ruled out for at least three months, Durham has not yet made a County Championship appearance.

Starting on May 22nd, England’s one-off Test against Zimbabwe will take place at Trent Bridge.

Stokes, an all-rounder, said he has changed his approach to rehabilitation this time, including reflection on his relationship with alcohol, after a similar injury occurred last summer at The Hundred.

“I remember the shock of it after my first serious injury, and I was thinking, “How has this happened?” Stokes explained the story to Spencer Matthews’ Untapped podcast.

We did have a little bit of a drink four or five nights ago, I thought. Could that have been a factor? It wouldn’t have been helpful.

Then I thought, “OK, I need to start changing what I do.”

Stokes claimed that since the beginning of January, he hasn’t had an alcoholic beverage.

He added that he has learned to manage his behavior with alcohol and that it’s unlikely that he will ever completely give up it.

He claimed to be drinking but not being sober.

Stokes discussed the differences between the drinking habits of cricket in the modern, professional era in his podcast interview.

There were unbelievable stories about drinking in the 1990s and 2000s. Over time, it’s definitely settled down, Stokes said.

The body is more physically demanding than it was then.

It’s just impossible for the body to withstand all that, according to the statement, “even with the drawbacks of what a few beers at the end of the day can do to you for the next day.” There is so much more cricket, there is so much more in the schedule.

Stokes’ recent injury history, which included knee surgery at the end of 2023, has raised questions about his future and ability to play all-around in England’s Test team.

He added, however, that he had no desire to stop and that he had fully committed himself to this most recent strict rehabilitation program.

Stokes hopes to play a full role against Zimbabwe after posting footage of him bowling in training with Durham on social media in recent weeks.

He said, “I think the moment I wake up and can’t seem to stop doing the training program is approaching when I don’t really want it any more.”

“But I don’t want to stop, I think.”

“It’s just getting getting harder to do everything,” says the author, “so why do I feel like I have to work so much harder away from the field, in the gym, and all that stuff” to give me the best chance of performing.”