Journalist. Writer. Editor of @ICPmagazine. Views my own.
London
Joined August 2011
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Neil Trainis retweeted
Pavarotti fue extraordinario, eso es indiscutible. Pero Jonathan Tetelman tiene algo especial… Su interpretación de Nessun dorma transmite un sentimiento difícil de describir. ¡Grandioso!
The @premierleague has been the toughest league in the world for a long time because most games are a battle, no matter who you play. In Spain, Italy, France, Germany, games against lower teams are like training sessions. Stardust must earn the right to flourish in England.
It is a complicated picture, with a multitude of factors, but perhaps the flip side of the Premier League’s greatest selling point, its strength from top to bottom, is that it has become less attractive to the biggest talents in the game.
It certainly doesn’t look a whole lot of fun for creative players right now.
Florian Wirtz, at Liverpool, is the most obvious case, but Cole Palmer, Bukayo Saka and Phil Foden have all found it heavy going at times over the past couple of seasons.
Then you look at Michael Olise, Luis Diaz and Harry Kane at Bayern Munich, at Anthony Gordon, Raphinha and Lamine Yamal at Barcelona and, in particular, at Desire Doue, Ousmane Dembele and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia at Paris Saint-Germain and it looks like they are playing a different sport, one played with joy and freedom of expression.
Trophies, glamour, recognition, status, sunshine (in Spain at least), the opportunity to express yourself without fearing that every game is going to be a war of attrition.
It is not just that the Premier League lacks stardust by comparison.
It is also that stardust often seems to vanish into thin air in the Premier League, lost amid the blood, the thunder and the driving rain.
📝 @OliverKay
🔗 nyti.ms/4z2RDIi
Neil Trainis retweeted
Bill Shankley of Liverpool helps clear snow before a match vs Sunderland. 1964
Neil Trainis retweeted
It's a tabloid phrase you're unlikely to hear often on BBC News, but 'double-whammy' seems a fitting description of what BBC staff have faced in yet another week of editorial turmoil and fresh announcements of cuts.
The Telegraph's revelations that civil servants have been working on secondment at the BBC, contributing to articles and blog posts misleadingly bylined as written by members of 'BBC News' and 'BBC Verify', have been met with irritation and bafflement.
✍️ Charlie Walsham
Article | spectator.com/article/inside…
Neil Trainis retweeted
Sir Jeremy Hunt - a former Tory chancellor who campaigned for Remain - says returning to free movement would be a 'hammer-blow' to trying to get people off welfare and into work
He says that there is a risk that it paralyses the government because the issue is so divisive, and that there is an unwritten rule that major constitutional issues should only be returned to once a generation
He tells @bbclaurak: 'We have 1million people not in employment, education or training. The government says it is serious about getting them back into work. To suddenly say you are prepared to negotiate allowing people from all over Europe to come and take those jobs would be a hammer blow to those plans to get people off welfare and into work.
'Whatever your views are on the European issue - and I voted Remain - going back to that old model where employers were giving jobs to people from all over Europe and we were parking people on welfare here must be a step back.
'When you have to have these big, constitutional debates you have to have an unwritten agreement that you are only going to come back to them once in a generation. Otherwise it is so divisive.
'I was at the top of a government that was paralysed for several years while we were trying to wrestle with the implications of that vote. I think that having made a decision we should stick with it.'
Neil Trainis retweeted
Bournemouth’s excellence should not be overlooked in all the inevitable forensic frenzy over Manchester United’s shambles. Deserved 3-0 winners at Old Trafford. 5-0 would not have flattered them. They targeted United's weaknesses - openness in midfield, lack of belief, pace and concentration at the back. Bournemouth superior in every department to United, including off the field in recruitment and general running of a club.
Bournemouth's starting XI at Old Trafford cost only £169.5m. How much is the MOTM Rayan worth now? At least double the £24m Bournemouth paid for him. Or James Hill, who cost them £1.6m. Superb today. Or Evanilson, Bournemouth’s goal machine, the king of Brazil, the No 9 who scored one of the goals of the month, and was relentless in his pursuit of the ball and pressing United’s creaking defence. Cost £31m; worth double now. At least.
Or the widely-coveted Junior Kroupi returning from injury. Cost Bournemouth £12m; already featured in £80m headlines. Smart recruitment. Good characters as well as good characters.
Good performances throughout. Again. Four wins on the spin, four clean sheets in a row, 11 goals scored. Players fitting into Marco Rose’s tweaking of the successful system he inherited; more breaking at pace through the middle as well as wing-play. Board’s appointment of Rose looking shrewd. Well-run team, well-run club 🙌 #AFCB🍒
Neil Trainis retweeted
BRITAIN AND FRANCE — some thoughts.
British and French politics are now moving in different directions.
Macron destroyed the French centre-left/right parties in the 2017 presidential election. They have never recovered. But Macron’s centrist movement hasn’t filled the vacuum.
Nor, even as his failures multiplied over almost a decade, was there a renaissance of the centre left/left but the rise of more extremes — Mélenchon’s LFI on the Left, Le Pen’s RN on the Right.
Latest polls indicate they will juke it out in the presidential 2nd round next May — with Le Pen the easy winner.
In Britain the rise of Reform on the Right and the Greens on the Left since the 2024 election + the collapse of Labour/Tories in the polls suggested, if not a Left/Right polarisation like France, then a new politics of multi-party democracy.
But 2026 brought a major correction — it’s been a dire year for Reform and the Greens, whereas Labour/Tories (but especially Labour under Burnham) have enjoyed something of a renaissance from their polling nadirs.
So, as French politics increasingly becomes a choice between populist Left and Right, the mainstream centre left/right has become once again the story in British politics.
With the most recent polls showing Labour in the lead, the Tories second, Reform third (and still slipping), Greens nowhere (along with LDs).
At the moment Labour must be favourite to win an election (at least end up the largest party).
Of course Labour/Tories are still a long way off their former dominance in share of the vote. But they are, at least for now, on the way back, which is more than can be said for their French counterparts.
Neil Trainis retweeted
When Sven-Göran Eriksson revealed in January 2024 that he had terminal cancer, the former England manager admitted there was one job he had always dreamed of doing but never had the chance.
Despite managing England, Lazio, Benfica and some of Europe’s biggest clubs, Sven had never managed Liverpool.
And having supported them since he was a little boy growing up in Sweden, it was something he had always wanted.
“I’m a Liverpool supporter.”
“I’ve always wished to be the manager of Liverpool.”
His love for the club came from his father, who had supported Liverpool for as long as Sven could remember.
When Swedish television began showing English football on Saturday afternoons, the family would gather around the television hoping their team had been selected.
“We always hoped they would show Liverpool.”
By 1979, Sven was managing IFK Gothenburg in Sweden and decided to write a letter to Liverpool manager Bob Paisley.
He wanted to visit Anfield and see how one of the best teams in Europe worked behind the scenes.
“They said I was welcome to come.”
Sven travelled to Liverpool, watched the players train and was invited into the famous Boot Room after a match.
“I remember the training.”
“It was very simple, very high quality.”
But one of the things that impressed him most happened while he was having tea with the Liverpool coaching staff.
Manchester United were challenging Liverpool for the title, and Sven was curious to know how their rivals had got on that afternoon.
They had been sitting in the Boot Room for about an hour when he finally asked.
“What about United, what did United do today?”
The Liverpool coaches looked at him.
“We don’t know.”
Sven could hardly believe it.
“Can you imagine that you are so secure of yourself like Liverpool were?”
“They did it their way, they didn’t care what others did.”
He went on to enjoy an extraordinary managerial career, eventually becoming England’s first foreign manager in 2001.
Then, in January 2024, Sven revealed that he had pancreatic cancer and had been told he might have around a year left to live.
During an interview about his diagnosis, he spoke about his lifelong ambition to manage Liverpool.
When Jürgen Klopp heard what Sven had said, he decided to make him an offer.
“He’s very welcome to come here.”
“He can sit in my seat in my office and do my job for a day if he wants.”
There was also a Liverpool Legends match against Ajax coming up in March, with Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres and several other former players returning to Anfield.
Robbie Fowler helped get the conversation started about inviting Sven to manage the Liverpool team.
And soon enough, the club contacted him with an invitation.
“When they asked, I thought it was a joke.”
“Of course I will come to that.”
On the 23rd of March 2024, Sven arrived at Anfield to take charge alongside John Barnes, Ian Rush and John Aldridge.
Almost 60,000 supporters had filled Anfield, and when Sven walked out of the tunnel, the entire stadium rose to applaud him.
Then You’ll Never Walk Alone began playing.
Sven stood alongside the players as thousands of Liverpool supporters sang the song he had loved since childhood.
“I cried.”
“It was beautiful.”
But there was still a football match to manage.
And after all those years dreaming of taking charge of Liverpool, Sven found himself facing a problem at half-time.
Ajax were winning 2-0.
Sven made substitutions, altered the formation and told the players to give themselves more width.
The changes worked.
Liverpool scored four times in the second half, with goals from Gregory Vignal, Djibril Cissé, Nabil El Zhar and Fernando Torres securing a 4-2 victory.
Afterwards, Steven Gerrard was asked about the difference between the two halves.
“He changed everything at half-time.”
“He’s still got it, he’s still got the magic.”
“He made the difference.”
And when the final whistle blew, Sven joined the players on the pitch for another lap of Anfield.
Later, Sven was asked what the afternoon had meant to him.
“To sit on the bench for Liverpool was the dream all my life.”
“Now it has happened.”
He had managed some of the biggest names in football and led England at three major tournaments, but his final appearance in the dugout had been for the club he had supported since childhood.
“It was beautiful, absolutely fantastic, incredible.”
“A memory for life.”
#football
🤖 Made with AI
Neil Trainis retweeted
David Johnson would be 75 today. He was born in Liverpool on 23 October 1951 and started his career at Everton. After a four-year spell at Ipswich, 'Doc' signed for Liverpool FC in 1976, where he enjoyed six successful years, before re-joining Everton.
He scored 78 goals for the Reds, winning four First Division medals, three European Cups, two League Cups and a European Super Cup. That's a tremendous six-year spell.
Sadly, David passed away on 23 November 2022. May he rest in peace.
Neil Trainis retweeted
EXCLUSIVE from @oliver_wright
People who fail to pay their tax bill will find the money taken directly from their bank accounts under new powers to be given to HMRC at the budget
In an attempt to recover up to £4bn of small unpaid debt John Healey, the chancellor, will announce that HMRC will have the authority to automatically deduct money from current and savings accounts when they fail to engage with the taxman
It is the latest move to close Britain’s £60bn tax gap — the difference between the amount of tax that should in theory be paid to HMRC and the amount that is collected
At present HMRC has limited powers to take money directly from taxpayers without their consent
The tax authorities can only take money from bank accounts if it would leave someone with at least £5,000 remaining after the debt had been recovered and if the debt owed is more than £1,000
But ministers are concerned that the high threshold means a significant number of taxpayers are deliberately ignoring HMRC demands for money in the knowledge that the taxman is unlikely to come after them
Under the new rules HMRC will be given powers to automatically deduct instalment payments from people with lower-value debts who persistently do not engage with the taxman. The threshold for debt recovery will be lowered to as little as a few pounds and the deductions could also include repaying fines and interest
thetimes.com/uk/politics/art…
Neil Trainis retweeted
The family of Liverpool’s first European Cup-winning captain has decided it is time to sell his collection of memorabilia — which includes shirts and medals.
“We thought, ‘Let’s get them out and share them with the world.’
The collection of Emlyn Hughes, who won four league titles, two European Cups and plenty more, is expected to fetch over £500,000.
@JamesPearceLFC went to speak to his family.
nytimes.com/athletic/7698159
Neil Trainis retweeted
Born #OnThisDay in 1961... From 1980-87 & 1988-96, Ian Rush became Liverpool's all-time leading goalscorer with a 346 goals. He holds the records for being the highest goalscorer in the history of the League Cup & the finals of the FA Cup. What a goalscorer. #LFC #YNWA @Ian_Rush9
Neil Trainis retweeted
Non-surgical cosmetic procedures, particularly botox injections and dermal fillers, are increasingly commonplace in the UK.
Concerns about training, consent, and aftercare remain unresolved
bmj.com/content/395/bmj-2026…
Neil Trainis retweeted
HUNT. GOAL!!!! May 1965. Liverpool 3 Inter Milan 1. Sir Roger Hunt scores in the Semi-Final of the European cup, 1st leg.
Who was at this game the week we first won the FA Cup and Anfield was absolutely rocking?? #LFC #YNWA #LiverpoolFC #milanitaly #InterMilan
My latest column on the Royal College of Pharmacy’s decision to stop Teva UK sponsoring and exhibiting at its conference next month.
It’s irresponsible for the @rc_pharm to politicise its role by stopping the UK arm of an Israeli pharma company from sponsoring and exhibiting at its conference next month, says ICP editor @NeilTrainis.
independentpharmacist.co.uk/…
Neil Trainis retweeted
France is in flames (yet he wants to rejoin the EU).
Trump is selling out Ukraine, cosying up to Putin again
A cost-of-living crunch is looming this winter, especially fuel bills.
He still hasn’t told us how or when defence spending will reach 3% GDP.
Inflation is rising once more, as are interest rates.
Russian forces are threatening our infrastructure, especially undersea data and energy links.
The Strait of Hormuz remains closed, our Gulf allies are under attack.
And PM Burnham drivels about this!!
It’s like the opening sketch from Saturday Night Live.
Neil Trainis retweeted
Important - and not just for those of us with proud Moroccan Jewish roots.
The new Museum of Moroccan Jewish Culture opened its doors in the city of Fez on Monday, marking the first time in history that an Arab Muslim country has allocated public funds to establish a museum entirely dedicated to Jewish culture.
"The new Museum of Moroccan Jewish Culture opened its doors in the city of Fez on Monday, marking the first time in history that an Arab Muslim country has allocated public funds to establish a museum entirely dedicated to Jewish culture.
The museum offers a rich and diverse collection of ritual and everyday objects; archaeological, ethnographic, and artistic artefacts; archives and rare manuscripts; crafts; along with traditions, practices, and testimonies handed down through the 2,500 years of Jewish history in the country."
Neil Trainis retweeted
A former prisoner who has accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and defended Hamas terrorism is now employed by the BBC to advise on the use of AI in its news output.
🔗: telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/10…
Neil Trainis retweeted
GB Energy, the useless state-owned company established by Labour, has so far spent £14.2m on running costs — and £5.8m on investments.
Running costs included the almost £400,000/year paid to its ineffective CEO and six executives on more than £100,000 each. What any of them has done to earn these sums is one of life’s mysteries.
Perhaps it’s a blessing it’s invested so little. The £5.8m it has earmarked is for a proposed floating wind farm off the north coast of Scotland — a sure-fire loss-maker if ever there was one.