Managers

It’s the question that has plagued Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane throughout his time in charge of the club: What’s the deal with James Rodriguez? Does the French coach even rate the Colombian playmaker?

Following a season in which James only appeared in 26 La Liga games for the club, his lowest total since arriving in 2014, would James be shown the door this summer? The player has continued to excel for Colombia on international duty, where he's the focal point of the attack, but he's taken a back seat in Zidane's preferred 4-3-3 formation at Real. 

Following Tata Martino's resignation after the Copa America Centenario, the Argentina National Team has a new manager: Edgardo Bauza.

Bauza comes to La Albiceleste from Sao Paulo, the same club the Mexico National Team lured their current manager, Juan Carlos Osorio, away from. Bauza, an Argentine, collected three caps for the team he now manages.

Bauza has been a manager for almost 20 years, collecting multiple Copa Libertadores trophies in that time.

As FourFourTwo set about compiling a list of the top 50 managers in world football, one of their resident experts, former Dutch international Pierre van Hooijdonk, revealed the difficulty in ranking such a role: “If you changed all the managers in the league for cats, there would still be a champion.

You know you are one of the greatest when you manage to convince a 19-year-old kid to pass up massive deals to play for Barcelona or Real Madrid and sign with Manchester City. And guess what? That’s exactly what Pep Guardiola did.

Young Gabriel Jesus was getting bombarded from all sides with offers from top notch clubs and incessant questions from the media. We can only guess what kind of pressure that can put a 19-year-old under.

Messi's family has informed Goal that the Argentinian star will not play in the next round of World Cup qualifiers for La Albiceleste after he retired from international duty following the 2016 Copa America Centenario.

The prevailing wisdom is to never look too far into preseason matches, but when those matches are repeatedly beating you over the head with the obvious, you should probably take notice.

Last year, under the guidance of Steve McClaren, Newcastle recorded just two victories in seven matches. They were defeated by Club Atlas, the Portland Timbers reserve squad and League Two side York City F.C. 

That disastrous preseason form led to an opening run of eight Premier League games without a victory. In hindsight, the club was doomed for relegation as early as October 3rd. 

Liverpool spent the last few days training in Palo Alto, California, as part of their USA tour, and during that time Liverpool's training staff found time to take on that of Stanford University in a friendly.

What happened next will shock and outrage you.

Sigi Schmid is no longer the head coach of the Seattle Sounders after they "mutually" agreed to part ways. 

OFFICIAL: #Sounders, Sigi Schmid mutually agree to part ways: https://t.co/Pj8RBLYUCm pic.twitter.com/5s40QG2NLt

— Seattle Sounders FC (@SoundersFC) July 26, 2016

The headlines of 2016 continue to amaze and bewilder in equal measure. Now, we’ve reached peak-2016 with the announcement of Jose Mourinho banning Pokemon Go before matches.

That’s right. A “source” has informed the Daily Star that Mourinho is determined to have his players focused on the task at hand and not on triumphing at the Old Trafford gym.

Patrick Vieira’s initial appointment as the manager of New York City FC raised more than a few eyebrows around footballing circles. He’d previously been employed as Manchester City’s reserve team and Elite Development squad coach, but his profound experience as a player saw him linked with massive jobs such as manager at Newcastle United.