Chris McMenamy

Scanning through the fixtures for this year’s World Cup, I tried to be methodical in picking out the games I actually wanted to watch. Staying up past 2am on a Saturday to watch Scotland vs Haiti was a no-go, but hanging on until 11pm on a Monday night for Marcelo Bielsa’s Uruguay was a no-brainer.

Leeds United’s new away shirt launch included Anton Stach walking across Ilkley Moor dressed in tweed and a flatcap, shouting “ey up!” to someone stood out of shot. The video matched the hyperlocal feel the shirt itself evokes — a white rose placed on top of the traditional yellow that Angus Kinnear promised us would never sell well. The return of the Yorkshire Rose crest also plays up to another stereotype that Leodensians are often labelled with — being tight.

As the line-ups for Fiorentina’s goalless home draw against Sassuolo were announced late on Sunday morning, the young fans trudging through the gates at Artemio Franchi in front of me looked at their phones with bemusement. This was basically a dead rubber as their side’s flirtation with relegation had subsided, but they couldn’t quite comprehend the team their manager Paolo Vanoli had named.