Welcome to Row Z, The Athletic’s weekly column that shines a light on the bonkers side of the game.
From clubs to managers, players to organisations, every Friday we’ll bring you the absurdities, the greed, the contradictions, the preposterousness and the oddities of the game we all love…
Singing from the same hymn sheet
A tale of two differing viewpoints from Chelsea to kick us off this week.
Here’s Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca on his team’s current fortunes: “This season we have been top four most of our season. I was not here last season, two years ago. So I’m not judging what’s happened last year or two years ago. I’m just judging this season.
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“And this is the reason why I think fans, they have to trust the team, they have to trust the club, what we are doing now. I think it’s quite clear that the direction is the right one.”
Chelsea fans (safe to say this contains explicit language):
Enzo Maresca says Chelsea ‘lost confidence’ and conceded because of ‘the environment’. 😳
He said Sanchez was forced to go long due to the pressure from the crowd causing the 2nd goal. 🫣 pic.twitter.com/YUCMDHfa73
— Soccer Forever (@soccerforeverhq) April 14, 2025
Nuno keeps it short and sweet
A connection between manager, team and supporters is vital to the success of any club.
Nuno Espirito Santo and Nottingham Forest certainly have that, but it’s safe to say his warmth doesn’t exactly extend to programme notes.
Anyone paying £3 just to read the thoughts of Forest’s boss might feel a tad short-changed…
Always love “Nuno’s Notes”. Never in depth, but always deep #zen pic.twitter.com/Jv8EDl1Xe6
— Guy Mowbray (@Guymowbray) April 12, 2025
It’s even less than he used to write when he was at Wolves…
A compact programme for Wolves this season to fit in with Nuno’s minimalist approach to his notes. #wolves #wwfc pic.twitter.com/3xmsnLGpXX
— Nick Mashiter (@nickmashiter) August 19, 2019
At this rate, in a couple of years it’ll just be: “Welcome, thanks, Nuno.”
Riza’s rallying cry
And then at the other end of the fan/manager scale entirely comes someone who’s been saying a bit too much recently.
“I’m very excited for the remainder of the season and I hope that you Bluebirds fans are looking forward to joining us.”
Where, in League One?
Omer Riza seemed pretty confident of survival when he was appointed as Cardiff City’s permanent manager in December, having had a decent spell as interim boss.
They were 20th at the time, two points above the Championship relegation zone. And now, with four games left? One point below the safety line in 22nd and facing the prospect of demotion back to the third tier, where they have not resided since 2003.
Riza has struggled with Cardiff since being appointed on a permanent basis (Ryan Hiscott/Getty Images)
As you’d expect given that he’s steered the team into the bottom three, Riza is sympathetic to the club’s long-suffering supporters and can’t really complain if they’re having a moan on social media, given the dire situation in which Cardiff find themselves.
No, wait, he thinks they’re idiots.
“I do read comments,” he said this week. “I read all the comments from fans and unfortunately a lot of them are clueless.”
Slagging off the fanbase ahead of four absolutely crucial games in the club’s modern history, where unity and togetherness can go a long way? Nice one, Omer. Probably best not to consider a career in PR after you’ve been sacked.
An admin love in for the ages
The “game’s gone” moment of the week came from this horrific online exchange between the social media admins of Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund.
After a captivating Champions League quarter-final tie ended with Barcelona going through 5-3 on aggregate despite suffering a 3-1 defeat in Germany, Barca elected to thank their hosts on X.
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Sick bags at the ready. They said: “You’ve made it very difficult for us; you’ve been a great rival. Good luck for the rest of the season, and we’ll see you next time.”
And Dortmund replied with…
Go win this thing 🤝
— Borussia Dortmund (@BlackYellow) April 15, 2025
There’s no hope for this sport anymore folks, time to go home.
Valiant effort
But there remains, unbelievably, a ray of light on social media.
Port Vale, who you might remember from last week’s Row Z recently enlisted a Fred-Elliott-from-Coronation-Street video to take the proverbial out of Walsall’s mascot, are well worth a follow.
If it’s petty, completely unnecessary sarcasm you want from your social media accounts, you can do a lot worse than Vale.
No mate, we’ll be playing in Cumbria. https://t.co/u4cJCwKydM
— Port Vale FC (@OfficialPVFC) April 12, 2025
Lyrical footballs
Elsewhere on social media this week, a couple of excellent 1960s/1970s music references for Row Z readers of a certain generation.
First up, some advice towards Jude Bellingham was turned into tweet of the week from the Cultras Football Podcast.
Paul McCartney’s first draft: https://t.co/GdW8IPB3Pe
— Cultras Football Podcast (@thecultraspod) April 16, 2025
And, well, no words required for this (but they wore it well)…
Rod Steward. #PUSB pic.twitter.com/yTraHlqQgv
— Liam Dixon (@Dixon23Liam) April 9, 2025
Don Dele Don’t
And finally this week, you feel like MK Dons will forever fight a losing battle when it comes to earning the respect of football supporters.
But their social media admin isn’t really helping matters with this intended double wide shot of former player Dele Alli.
🤍#COYD pic.twitter.com/ODTnng2Trq
— Milton Keynes Dons (@MKDonsFC) April 11, 2025
(Top photo: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
