Marcus Rashford remains the best of us – The Warm-Up
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Updated 16/06/2020 at 09:05 GMT
Marcus Rashford penned an open letter to Boris Johnson and every other MP, and when the Manchester United star felt the response from the British government was not good enough, he used his platform to further pressure the government.
Marcus Rashford
Image credit: Getty Images
TUESDAY’S BIG STORIES
Marcus Rashford is a pillar
On Thursday, Marcus Rashford announced he had in collaboration with the charity FareShare hit his target of providing three million meals for vulnerable people within the UK - an achievement that prompted my Warm-Up co-star Tom Adams to announce Rashford as the very best of us. On Sunday night he wrote an open letter to every MP asking them to extend the national voucher scheme through the summer to ensure that the most vulnerable in society have access to free meals. On Monday he further presented his case in the form of one-to-one interviews, detailing his own experiences to provide focus on an objectionable but purely preventable situation.
The basics of what Rashford is asking for is that the government allow the most vulnerable children continued access to the national voucher scheme over the summer holidays - a scheme that provided free school meals to eligible children who are not in school during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
"This is not about politics; this is about humanity. Looking at ourselves in the mirror and feeling like we did everything we could to protect those who can’t, for whatever reason or circumstance, protect themselves. Political affiliations aside, can we not all agree that no child should be going to bed hungry? Food poverty is a pandemic in England that could span generations if we don’t course correct now," wrote Rashford.
He added:
The government has taken a ‘whatever it takes’ approach to the economy – I’m asking you today to extend that same approach to protecting all vulnerable children across England. I encourage you to hear their pleas and find your humanity. Please reconsider the decision to cancel the food voucher scheme over the summer holiday period and guarantee the extension."
The prime minister's official spokesperson mustered this as a response.
"The PM understands the issues facing families across the UK, which is why last week the government announced an additional £63m for local authorities to benefit families who are struggling to afford food and other basic essentials. The PM will respond to Marcus Rashford’s letter as soon as he can – he has been using his profile in a positive way to highlight some very important issues."
The above is just a collection of words that do not address the situation as put to them by Rashford. However, Rashford remained laser focused, taking to social media to use his platform to intensify the scrutiny on the government with the following tweets:
Marcus Rashford remains the best of us.
Transfer rumours we absolutely want to believe
Said Benrahma has had a nomadic career. His seven years as a professional have seen the 24-year-old play for seven clubs as diverse and not at all diverse as Nice, Nice II, Angers, Angers II, Gazélec Ajaccio, and LB Châteauroux. Now, the Algerian international finds himself at Brentford, with whom he signed for a paltry £1.5 million in 2018.
Benrahma has been excellent at Griffin Park. He contributed 10 goals and 14 assists in his first season of Championship football, and had scored 10 and assisted seven this season when the season was brought to a halt due to COVID-19.
He's an excellent player. However, his brilliance can't be measured by fact and figures. His brilliance lies in the way he plays the game. It is complete joy. Here are some of his best bits:
Anyway, seeing Benrahma linked to Chelsea, Leicester and Arsenal is, well, glorious. Get him in the Premier League sharpish.
That's Operation Mbappe in full swing then
Real Madrid have an MO when it comes to signing a player, or attempting to sign a player. It is basically using their players to unsettle players at other clubs, and it has started again with Kylian Mbappe. Luka Modric was the latest to drop the not-so-subtle tapping up quotes.
Here they are.
"Mbappe has everything to dominate the scene," Modric told Italian publication La Gazzetta dello Sport (£). "But I think that to make the leap in quality he needs to go to a championship in which his team does not win so easily."
It feels fairly inevitable that Mbappe will end up at the Bernabeu, as stated by Eurosport France's Cyril Morin when he appeared in the Game of Opinions podcast:
History points towards Mbappe to Real Madrid. He is a fan of the club and there is Zidane, which will play a huge role.
So, if it is inevitable that Mbappe will end up at Real Madrid, then what is the point of Operation Mbappe? Don't know to be fair.
HAT-TIP
Seb Stafford-Bloor over at FourFourTwo runs the rule over Dominic Calvert-Lewin - an U20 World Cup winner whose progression into fully fledged, if hard to define, Premier League marksman has gone under appreciated.
More broadly, this is what makes Calvert-Lewin not only a bit of a throwback character, but also fascinating. You don’t know what else he’s capable of revealing and it’s that slight air of mystery that places him within a different kind of era. After all, most players today just re-state their abilities over time. Every weekend, they reaffirm their capacity to perform a specific trait or action. With him, though, it’s almost the opposite. He doesn’t always play with superficial finesse, nor has he ever been a particularly hyped player. Consequently, as people start to pay attention to his performances, they notice little details and causes of effect which, up until then, had remained unseen and unappreciated.
COMING UP
Football. Absolutely everywhere. Get your fix of the Eliteserien where newly promoted Aalesunds take on champions Molde at 17:00 live on Eurosport 1 and Eurosport Player, before Sarpsorg tackle Valerenga at 19:30. Then Bayern and Barcelona are in action later in the day.
If Andi Thomas can drag himself away from Bicester Village he'll be here on Wednesday as the hype person ahead of the return of Premier League football.
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