"If you are not moving forward, you are moving backward" — Mikhail Gorbachev
201 years after football got the better of William Webb Ellis, the game appears to have learnt nothing.
Football. Beautiful yet tough. Simple yet complex. An addiction masquerading as a passion. The devil is in the detail, and the intricacies of the game will get you.
That’s why the most popular sport on the planet — the teams, the managers, the players, sometimes even the ball boys — are fixated on picking the brains of other sporting behemoths as they search for every micro-advantage imaginable.
Antonio Conte famously visited Eddie Jones' England squad "to gain inspiration and tactical ideas" as he stormed to the title in his first season at Chelsea in 2016/17
Eddie Howe goes out of his way to remind people he is a big believer in the All Black's no dickheads policy — presumably speaking about his squad, rather than the ownership.
Even the multiple series D funded, "greatest of our time", Pep, has been seen chewing the ears off the Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla, having hijacking a post-season photo-op earlier this year.
As they search for an edge, one has to wonder how, of all moments across the history of all sports, Yerson Mosquera, Wolves defender, settled on John Hopoate's 2001 NRL moment as THE moment to soak up when faced with an opening day Premier League fixture against the competition's annual bottlers.
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While there is no doubt Seadog Saints' Manager, Adam Ogle, will cry to the heavens about the yellow card Jesus received for his reaction in falling victim to The Hopoate, even he will know that as he and Kev prop up the table, there are bigger things to worry about than fingers in bums.
Gameweek two is upon us.
Game on.