Go to Turf Moor on a matchday and the price of a ticket includes a history lesson. A former player is invariably brought out at half time. Sometimes it is a survivor of Burnley’s 1987 team who narrowly avoided relegation from the Football League.
Supporters who, depending upon the opposition, have been watching some of the world’s most famous footballers are then greeted by the sight of one who, as a member of the 90th best team in England 30 years ago, may not have been in the top 1,000 in the country at the time. The guest is nevertheless guaranteed generous applause. It can seem incongruous. It is also right.
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Read more
■ Premier League team of the week: Kane gives White Hart Lane a fitting finale
■ 'True warrior and Man City legend': A tribute to the departing Pablo Zabaleta
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Football can seem to live in the present, but it is about the past too. It provides a context which is essential for understanding. It gives clubs an identity which can be shaped by any one player or team, but which is nevertheless greater than them. They are part of something bigger. It links them with those who came before and those who follow after. That bond, that common denominator, is most evident to the fans who have cheered them all.
It was apparent in the closing ceremony at White Hart Lane on Sunday, just as it was in the equivalent farewell to Upton Park a year ago. To critics, these events can seem exercises in mawkish sentimentality, yet it is not necessary to have an allegiance to Tottenham Hotspur to find Sunday's events moving.
It was about the connection between then and now, symbolised when Mauricio Pochettino and Ricky Villa walked around the pitch together. The current manager was only nine when his fellow Argentine scored arguably the greatest goal in FA Cup final history. It was about the way the legends, as they were branded, included David Howells, Justin Edinburgh and Vinny Samways, 1991 FA Cup winners but prosaic players who sacrificed themselves for greater talents. They were nonetheless correctly celebrated for their service.
It was about the way men with little in common reached for their phones to record it for posterity. The flamboyant David Ginola seemed to be filming himself. The 72-year-old Martin Chivers, the 44-goal hero of the 1971/72 season, looked rather less proficient with technology but also wanted to capture the moment. So did one half his age.
Dimitar Berbatov can cut an ethereal figure. His game was characterised by distant, nonchalant expressions of superiority. He grew up 2,000 kilometres from White Hart Lane in Bulgaria, and yet he was filming too, recording images of four men who won the league-and-cup double in 1961, 20 years before his birth, showing the iceman felt the emotion of the occasion.
Berbatov left Tottenham in 2008. His move to Manchester United was acrimonious. Yet the ovation he got showed relations have been repaired. He has forgiveness and his place in the pantheon. His time at Tottenham touched Berbatov; he appreciated being back in the fold.
It was tempting to recall the words attributed to Keith Burkinshaw, Spurs’ 1984 Uefa Cup-winning manager. “There used to be a football club over there,” he is alleged to have said in annoyance after Tottenham were listed on the stock exchange.
Perhaps Burkinshaw was ahead of his time. Since then, more football clubs have become commercial entities, investments and playthings. They have been used as vehicles for ambition and as stepping stones. They can seem soulless when run by the wrong people and appear depressing when they enter tailspins. There are times when searching for some meaning in it all feels a fruitless task.
Tottenham have had seasons of mediocrity and times when they seemed a selling club. It is easier to applaud them now, with their highest finish in 54 years guaranteed and with a genuine progressiveness about Pochettino’s regime. Yet to see the reception granted to men who served them with such distinction over the past six decades and their conspicuous pleasure in being at White Hart Lane was a reminder there will always be a football club there.
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Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
Petrarch: Everywhere a Wanderer
Christopher Celenza,
Reaktion Books
Klopp at the Kop
Matches 68; Wins 35; Draws 19; Losses 14; Goals For 133; Goals Against 82
- Eighth place in Premier League in 2015/16
- Runners-up in Europa League in 2016
- Runners-up in League Cup in 2016
- Fourth place in Premier League in 2016/17
The End of Loneliness
Benedict Wells
Translated from the German by Charlotte Collins
Sceptre
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Leap of Faith
Michael J Mazarr
Public Affairs
Dh67
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
TEST SQUADS
Bangladesh: Mushfiqur Rahim (captain), Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Imrul Kayes, Liton Das, Shakib Al Hasan, Mominul Haque, Nasir Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Mehedi Hasan, Shafiul Islam, Taijul Islam, Mustafizur Rahman and Taskin Ahmed.
Australia: Steve Smith (captain), David Warner, Ashton Agar, Hilton Cartwright, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Matthew Wade, Josh Hazlewood, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Matt Renshaw, Mitchell Swepson and Jackson Bird.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Our legal consultants
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre V8
Power: 503hp at 6,000rpm
Torque: 685Nm at 2,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Price: from Dh850,000
On sale: now
Fire and Fury
By Michael Wolff,
Henry Holt
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League last 16, second leg
Liverpool (0) v Atletico Madrid (1)
Venue: Anfield
Kick-off: Thursday, March 12, midnight
Live: On beIN Sports HD
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More from our Neighbourhood series:
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
If you go
The flights
Emirates (www.emirates.com) and Etihad (www.etihad.com) both fly direct to Bengaluru, with return fares from Dh 1240. From Bengaluru airport, Coorg is a five-hour drive by car.
The hotels
The Tamara (www.thetamara.com) is located inside a working coffee plantation and offers individual villas with sprawling views of the hills (tariff from Dh1,300, including taxes and breakfast).
When to go
Coorg is an all-year destination, with the peak season for travel extending from the cooler months between October and March.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
