Cannon Fodder News and Links: Welcome back

This weekend, the Premier League finally returns after more stupid distractions international football. Huzzah! The Guardian has a look at the title contenders and how things are looking thus far.

More from The Guardian, here are 10 things to look out for this weekend. Let’s see how things shake out. Anybody do anything weird/creative with their fantasy teams?

Hey look, it’s another thing about shirt sales, which everybody seems to have become obsessed with this year. I’ll give you a hint: the kit manufacturers come out on top. Teams don’t really see that money!

Well, okay. That’s neat, I guess.

Here’s more from the outstanding Unusual Efforts, this time about women’s soccer in Spain.

Imagine a national team that has been led by the same head coach for 27 years. A head coach that has been never held accountable for the performance of his team, that has never put together a proper development plan and doesn’t even travel abroad to scout the best players, who have had to emigrate to play the game they really excel at. Now add a big amount of totalitarianism, a patronizing attitude and a total disrespect for the players. Stir it all and spice it up with a federation that overlooks and underestimates the players’ formal complaints about the way the team is run. Finally, top it with the fear of never being called up again if, as a player, you ever decide to speak up about the situation. There you go, you got yourself the Spain women’s national team.