Sports
Transfer window: What’s it like being a partner of a footballer on deadline day?
For now, Jessica’s career in law is on hold, she instead has a job in social media and works from home.
She also posts about her experiences on TikTok, regularly using #wag and #waglife.
“My career can be picked up at any time – whereas his career is right now and you’ve really got to take every opportunity,” she says.
“As much as people say it’s a glamorous lifestyle you do make sacrifices so your partner can have their dream and get themselves as far as they can in football.
“At the end of the day, as much as I’m involved, it’s his career. That means in order for me to support him properly I can’t get emotionally involved.”
This includes not getting too emotionally attached to where they live.
“We usually rent newer houses that are a blank canvas so we can make them our own, although this last season the accommodation was provided furnished by Argyle,” she says.
“We put a lot of Xavier’s toys and garden stuff in storage and referred to our Plymouth accommodation as ‘the holiday house’.
“It can be hard when he asks us to get things like his trampoline which we don’t have with us.”
Owen’s career is always the priority, Jessica says.
“When Owen was at Oxford he had one year left on his contract and I loved it there,” she says.
“But the best thing was for him to go and get game time somewhere miles away. So we moved.”
While Premier League footballers can earn tens of thousands of pounds a week – sometimes hundreds of thousands – life in the lower leagues can be very different.
“When you think ‘Wag’ [players’ wives and girlfriends] and you think ‘footballer’, both of those terms come with this stereotype that our lives are easy,” Jessica says.
“People also put League One players in the same bracket as Premier League players.
“In the Premier League they’re often set up for life – we can’t live in that way because we have to prepare for life after football.”
Adding to the uncertainty of where they will be playing is also the possibility or relegation or injury.
“When we were at Portsmouth, Blackpool was still his parent club and they got relegated,” says Jessica. “Owen wasn’t even involved that season, but his wage was still affected.
“You have to be prepared for everything. You just can’t live outside of your means.
“But it’s still a really fortunate position to be in.
“Luckily, Owen’s been good with injuries. There are some players who they get injured in the last month of the season and they’re out of contract.
“In football things can be really positive or really negative.”
The uncertainty also affects their children – four-year-old Xavier and two-month old Etta.
“Now that Xavier is growing up – he’s fast approaching school age – another thing that will have to be added into the mix is his stability,” says Jessica.
Even normal things like organising his recent fourth birthday party aren’t always straightforward.
“We couldn’t plan to have a party in Plymouth with balloons and cakes etc because we didn’t know if we were going to be there,” she says.
“Instead we planned a party near my family in Stoke-on-Trent – we needed to make something work regardless of what happens with Owen’s job.
“As much as I worry about Xavier and Etta, I also think how amazing it’s going to be for them when they’re older to be able to tell their life story and say they’ve lived in all these different places.
“I think it’s teaching them a good life lesson that they don’t need to be tied to one place.”
She says they have made every move a positive experience.
“We’ve said to Xavier that we might be moving soon and when we do we’re going to get his bike back out of storage,” says Jessica.
“That way he knows that moving is a possibility and hopefully he’s not thinking about what he’s going to lose but what he’s going to gain.
“The fortunate thing for us is that Xavier loves football. He gets a lot of excitement as well from the new strips and the new chants and all of that kind of thing.”
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Sports
Newcastle: How project is changing after departure of Eddie Howe and Matthias Jaissle’s arrival
Training always goes up a level when a new manager arrives, as players look to impress, but the intensity of the German’s double sessions are said to have been “off the charts”.
Such effort is a non-negotiable for Jaissle who, like Howe, wants his players to train the way they play and take that vigour into games.
During his spell at RB Salzburg, where he won back-to-back titles and reached the last 16 of the Champions League, Jaissle’s aggressive side ranked first per game in the Austrian league for high turnovers (9.8) and possession won in the final third (5.6) per match.
Al-Ahli posted similarly fierce numbers under him – making 8.2 high turnovers per game and winning 47.6 duels per match – even as he adapted his approach with a new group to win successive Asian Champions League titles.
Striking a balance, as Jaissle did in Saudi Arabia, will be crucial if he is to succeed in the Premier League after he combined front-footed, vertical football with strong defensive foundations.
No wonder Jaissle has already stressed the importance of clean sheets, and the players were left sapped by the sheer number of recovery runs during a particular session.
Training was pared back on Thursday after Jaissle – stopwatch hanging from his neck – recognised the legs of his squad were “heavy”.
He cuts a calm individual in interviews, but morphs into a rampaging figure on the training pitches, even physically moving his coaches to demonstrate the intensity he is after.
Jaissle has brought three assistants with him in Alexander Hauser, Engin Yanova and Florens Koch, two coach analysts in Maximilian Fischer and Steffen Konrad and a goalkeeping coach, Alexander Bade.
But he made it clear how important it was for those already at the club to also “raise the standards” in his opening address.
Knowing Liverpool have had more time to adapt to life under a new manager, Andoni Iraola, staff have been working right up until the early hours on preparation and analysis.
New Czech Republic goalkeeper Hornicek only arrived less than a week ago, for example, but he has been getting a crash course on the added physicality of set-plays in the Premier League and how to cope with towering opposition players attempting to pile in on him following his £25.7m move from Braga.
Is he ready for the fight?
“For sure,” Hornicek said.
Newcastle‘s young side will need such a spirit in the weeks, months and years ahead.
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Sports
New Zealand’s Tour of South Africa: All Blacks pull away late on in flattering 38-21 win over Stormers | Rugby Union News
New Zealand’s first full-scale tour of South Africa in 30 years began with an underwhelming 38-21 win over the Stormers.
The scoreline flattered a scratch All Blacks side which was favoured to win comfortably.
The makeshift Stormers – in pre-season mode – rallied twice to tie the score, which was knotted at 14-14 until 13 minutes to go.
When the Stormers lost their second scrum-half and had no more reserve backs, the patched-up backline was ruthlessly exposed by New Zealand, who scored three tries in the last eight minutes.
But the result only papered over a performance that was blighted by ill-discipline, three yellow cards, and a struggling set-piece.
They overcame those with six tries to three by the Stormers in front of a 47,130 crowd.
New Zealand started with an unconvincing win on their tour of South Africa
The good news for the All Blacks was they appeared to finish with no major injuries, seven players made their first appearance in the black jersey this year, and two more made their debuts off the bench; prop Siale Lauaki and inside back Josh Jacomb.
But the most impressive players in the stadium were Stormers fly-half Yaqeen Ahmed, who looked comfortably cool in his first-class debut at age 20, and flanker Deon Fourie, the dynamo who will be 40 next month.
“It was a good introduction for us to South African rugby,” said New Zealand head coach Dave Rennie. “We started very well and it looked like which side had the ball got rewarded by the referee.
“When we had the ball we were really dangerous. We knew they would bring line speed [in defence]. We just weren’t quite clinical enough to expose them.
“They came at us with their set-piece and we need to be better in those areas. We expected a lot of aerial attacks and we probably did not handle that as well as we could have.”
Watch New Zealand’s Tour of South Africa live on Sky Sports
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A win for SunRisers Leeds saw the elimination of Birmingham Phoenix from the men’s competition, just as with their women’s team earlier.
SunRisers moved up to second place in the table after a big net run rate swing, while Phoenix are the second men’s team to be knocked out after London Spirit last night.
SunRisers were too powerful for the home side, their opening partnership of Mitchell Marsh and Ryan Rickelton firing once again, racing to 52 off 32 before they were separated as Marsh played tentatively to Usman Tariq, the only Phoenix bowler to come out of the day with any credit, despite conceding 17 off his last five balls.
Harry Brook flickered briefly before Tariq trapped him in front and from there the SunRisers tailed off slightly, Rickelton being relatively starved of the strike, run out off the 93rd ball having hit 65 off 37.
It was only due to two sixes from the last three balls that the visitors got up to a score with which they could feel comfortable.
Any fear about giving up the chance of moving up the table into the qualification spots were soon allayed however, as Brydon Carse (3-17) bowled the first 10 and got rid of Mitchell Owen and Matthew Potts (3-22) followed up by snaring Will Smeed.
Carse got Rehan Ahmed for a duck and the game seemed as good as up before the powerplay was done.
Joe Clarke and Sean Dickson delayed the inevitable and Jordan Thompson thumped a couple of late sixes but the class of the SunRisers’ attack was in evidence as the Phoenix finished 45 short.
England quicks Carse and Potts both finished with an economical three wickets while leggie Abrar Ahmed went at less than a run a ball.
‘It is getting tight at the top’
Meerkat Match Hero, Ryan Rickelton, speaking on Sky Sports Cricket:
“It’s getting tight at the top, so it was nice to get a big net run rate win here. Mitch [Marsh] takes quite an aggressive route up front really early on and he allows me to cruise behind him. I’d much rather play with him than against him!
“We left about 10 or 20 out there… but the bowlers are really carrying us through at the moment and hopefully that will continue.”
Remaining men’s and women’s group fixtures
Saturday August 8: MI London vs Trent Rockets, The Kia Oval (women’s game 11am, men’s 2.30pm)
Saturday August 8: Southern Brave vs Manchester Super Giants, Utilita Bowl (women’s game 2.30pm, men’s 6pm)
Sunday August 9: Sunrisers Leeds vs Welsh Fire, Headingley (women’s game 11am, men’s 2.30pm)
Sunday August 9: London Spirit vs Birmingham Phoenix, Lord’s (women’s game 2.30pm, men’s 6pm)
Monday August 10: Trent Rockets vs Southern Brave, Trent Bridge (women’s game 3pm, men’s 6.30pm)
Tuesday August 11: Manchester Super Giants vs Sunrisers Leeds, Emirates Old Trafford (women’s game 3pm, men’s 6.30pm)
Wednesday August 12: Welsh Fire vs London Spirit, Sophia Gardens (women’s game 11.30am, men’s 3pm)
Wednesday August 12: Birmingham Phoenix vs MI London, Edgbaston (women’s game 3pm, men’s 6.30pm)
Friday August 14: Eliminators (women’s game 2.15pm, men’s 6pm) – Reserve Day, Saturday August 15
Sunday August 16: Finals (women’s game 2.15pm, men’s 6pm) – Reserve Day, Monday August 17
Watch every match of The Hundred through to the finals on Sunday August 16. Watch The Hundred and more contract-free on NOW
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New Zealand’s Tour of South Africa: All Blacks pull away late on in flattering 38-21 win over Stormers | Rugby Union News
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