Razik's pen

At a time when we have all been away from the normal life and for sports fans who have been starved of any sporting events happening across the world, it is a right time to learn some behind the scenes of our beloved sports teams, have to narrow it to football for now, there is a little bit of cricketing stuff too, but for now let's call it the breakdown of Indian football clubs, the funding, the revenue, the expenditure and achieving sustainability. As I say Indian football clubs, we are mainly going to see it revolve around the Indian Super League - the young, fancy and soon to be the Tier 1 of Indian football system. Because not only very few care about the soon-to-be Tier 2 I-League clubs anymore but the ISL is on a whole different level to the I-League, it demands higher things, the best example would be the case of Bengaluru FC, the club had expenses shot up from Rs. 15 crore while in I-League to around Rs. 50 crore in the ISL, that's the differential ISL demands...

NOTE/DISCLAIMER: Collar button in this part of the world refers to the shirt's top button. Also, ties can be wore without collar buttons, ask YouTube.  The collar button despite being an utterly useless thing to exist on the planet has never faced an existential crisis. It is neither useful nor attractive but still, it somehow continues to survive. It would have indeed felt like an endangered species when the collarless tees came up on the market but that hasn't stopped the buck. A little bit of history explains a lot about the birth of this once great now pointless invention, in the mid-nineteenth century, humans didn't care to bathe or wash their clothes as much as we do now, but this accumulated a lot of dust on their collars, obviously, so they had only detachable collars which were switched daily and can be made possible only with the help of collar buttons. But now the collars form part of the shirt, yet this has been still around, a perfect example of th...

There is no better way to travel in Delhi than by Delhi Metro, the country's largest metro system will take you to each and every nook of the capital city with ease and comfort. My visit to Delhi was for 3 days and the incredible metro network helped me to cover 15 tourist destinations and shopping hubs in such a short period of time. Having arrived by flight, I took the Airport Express line of the metro from IGI Airport station in terminal 3 which brings you to the city centre in just 20 minutes. If you are arriving in Terminal 1 or 2, you can take the metro from the new Terminal-1 IGIA station (Magenta Line). I checked into my hotel in the morning at Paharganj, a busy market area that is filled with a number of hotels and restaurants attracting both domestic and foreign tourists. The neighbourhood is advantageous for all tourists since it is situated in Central Delhi with its main bazar road having the New Delhi Railway station on its east and RK Ashram Marg Metro station on...

So, now it being officially announced, weeks of expectations and excitement finally comes to an end for Manchester United fans around the world as everything goes in United's favor triggering football's biggest transfer - Paul Pogba to Manchester United. THE TRANSFER FEE The amount Manchester United paid for the move varied from source to source before the transfer but one thing was clear - WORLD RECORD. The highly reliable Di Marzio quoted a figure of £110m gross which includes other fees related to the transfer, so the net payment figure to Juventus by Manchester United will be a little over £100m as claimed by the Italian journalist. And agent Mino Raiola who secured the deals of Henrik Mkhitaryan and Zlatan Ibrahimović earlier in the window will be receiving a figure of £10-20m for Pogba's move to his boyhood club. Once the transfer got finalized and was announced officially on Sunday, Juventus surprsingly quoted the transfer fee on the statement as  € ...

After completing two tedious, prolong and boring two months, Manchester United are finally back on the pitch in the decorated pre-season tournament Champions Cup with wins against Club America, San Jose and treble winners FC Barcelona, most importantly by fielding the entire squad through the 90 minutes. The league campaign is set to begin next week and let us take a look on how the season is expected to unfold. INS AND OUTS Welcome! The only exciting thing during the two month break is the transfer window. And undoubtedly we had the best one of all and club chairman Ed Woodward deserves a lot of credit for not only avoiding anything similar to the Summer of '13 but for also doing what other clubs can only dream of. New signings Morgan Schneiderlin, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Matteo Darmian being unveiled at a press conference in Seattle, USA. Memphis Depay (£25m) : The earliest signing and the most expected arrival of the four new reds. At just 21, Memphi...

There has been some iconic goal celebrations in recent times by players around the world. For a club of Manchester United's stature, goals have been flowing, so are the celebrations that follow. There have been lots of amazing celebrations by the red-devils in the past two decades. Here are the top seven goal celebrations by Manchester United in my opinion. 7. Lee Sharpe (Arsenal 1994/95) Manchester United's Lee Sharpe was famous for his trademark goal celebration of shaking his hips like a dancer. Throughout his United career, most of his goals were followed by this stylish celebration. The most notable of all came against Arsenal in front of the Old Trafford crowd as Sharp ran towards the corner flag and pretended it to be a mic and sang like a rock-star along with his trademark hip-shake. 6. Robin Van Persie (Stoke City 2012/13) The goal might have just come through a penalty-kick, but it meant a lot for him. The Dutch international finally ended hi...

The big day has almost arrived for the red-devils to achieve an impossible task. In-form Bayern Munich visit struggling English champions Manchester United who are sitting 7th in the league table. Every football fan around the globe knows the favorites of this game. But, when Manchester United are involved in a game, anything is possible. A win for David Moyes against Guardiola's side would be a great boost for the unsettled scot. David Moyes' men will need to take inspiration from the '99 Champions League finals as they look to pull a miracle against the Bavarians. It's never going to be easy to beat a German top side that won the league with 7 games remaining and are also 18 matches unbeaten in all competitions. The last time the German giants saw a defeat was in the hands of a determined Manchester City side who pulled a sensational comeback, four months ago. United players will need to pull their socks up and Moyes needs to keep his tactics no less tha...

A good goalkeeper is half the team, Vicente Del Bosque knows why it matters to pick the best three shot stoppers on the plane to Brazil in their quest to defend the FIFA World Cup. With Valdes injuring his knee against Celta Vigo playing for the Spanish champions has put an end to his chances of getting into the team.  Inspite of not starting many matches this season for his club, Iker Casillas has always remained part of Del Bosque's plans, making the Real Madrid legend an ideal choice for La Roja's World Cup team. Whether the current Spain No.1 is the first choice goalkeeper or not, he is surely part of the star-studded squad. “He’s active, he’s training, and he is playing in the Champions League, I don’t see a problem to call him up. Physically, he’s fine.” - Del Bosque on Casillas. Now, it stands between Pepe Reina, Diego Lopez and David de Gea to get their ticket to one of the most decorated sports event o f  all time. With two spots remaining let's see which on...