Football Daily | Liverpool, inflexible sheep farmers and why a change can do you good

IT JUST HITS DIFFERENT

There is a story about a wise old man who lived, many years ago, high in the Indian mountains. Every day the man ate the same food, not just the same breakfast or the same lunch but the exact same thing for every single meal, every single day, like Mariah Carey. He ate only this one thing, and though the precise details have been lost in the mists of time that thing was mainly rice so it was already quite boring – not just for him, but also for the person whose job it was to prepare his meals. Eventually the cook confronted him. “Why do you always eat the same thing?” the cook asked. “Are you not as bored of eating it as I am of cooking it?” The old man shook his head. “It is not the same food,” he said. “How can I eat exactly the same thing twice? Every day is different.”

Four years ago this month the Guardian ran an article by the Welsh sheep farmer Wilf Davies about his life. “I have a routine, just like nature,” he wrote. “That extends to what I eat. I’ve had the same supper for 10 years, even on Christmas Day: two pieces of fish, one big onion, an egg, baked beans and a few biscuits at the end. For lunch I have a pear, an orange and four sandwiches with paste. When I go to the supermarket, I know exactly what I want. I’m not interested in other food. I’ve never had Chinese, Indian, French food. Why change? I’ve already found the food I love.”

The film-maker Christian Cargill read this article and thought it was a tale the world needed to hear, making Davies the central character in his short film Heart Valley. “There was a story there that needed to be told,” Cargill said. “I think it’s a universal message. It’s a message of hope. It’s a message of appreciating our place and every day we have in the world. Some people may judge him and say he’s not experiencing new things. When we discussed that with him he said, ‘I get to have my favourite meal every single day. What could be better in life than that?’ I think that says it all.”

Talking of consuming an infinitely repeating menu of basically identical stuff, the Premier League is back – and what, indeed, could be better in life than that? The recent international break forced an unwelcome pause in our Daviesian diet, leaving us all utterly desperate for action to restart. “I definitely am because it has been 15 or 16 days, or even longer, since I last managed a game,” said Liverpool-based tactician Arne Slot. For Slot this unhappy period followed another unhappy period in which his side lost successive games to be booted out of the Bigger Cup and flub the Milk Cup, but perhaps it has worked to his team’s advantage. Maybe sometimes, Slot mused, change is good. “It was maybe a good moment,” he said. “You go to your international team and things are new again. Maybe that helped as well. It is nice when players go to a different environment.”

On Wednesday Slot’s champions-in-waiting host local rivals Everton, whose recent improvement has surely saved them from going to a different environment of their own, in the form of the Championship. The last Merseyside derby ended in February in a 2-2 draw and with Slot being sent off, an embarrassment the Dutchman is refusing to rule out repeating. “I am hoping I will act differently but I can’t promise,” he said. “What I am sure about is that I will be so, so, so surprised if I ever experience eight minutes of so many controversial decisions to our disadvantage again.” And surely he will not. After all, how can he have that experience again? Every day is different. Now it’s time for a sandwich with paste.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

I don’t really look at social media [abominations] or the media too much. Once I’m away from the pitch, I focus on enjoying myself and my family and friends, and I think that allows me to be at my best. It’s about having people around you that allow you to do that. Mine is also my dog [Brody]. When I come away from the pitch, I take the boys for a walk. They’re my little sons. That’s the way I look after myself and switch off” – Chloe Kelly tells Sophie Downey about how her family – and furry friend – help her cope with being in the spotlight now she’s back in the England fold.

FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS

Re: Memory Lane (yesterday’s Football Daily, full email edition). I reckon it must be Chelsea v Blackburn at Stamford Bridge on 31 January 2007. Chelsea won 3-0. They used to attack in those days, before José became a cantankerous old git” – Mike Grant (and a few other amateur sleuths).

May I suggest that could be Artur Jorge on the bench. I can’t find any evidence of Créteil, of whom he was then manager, having such a Blackburn-esque shirt although they do play in blue. FC Grenchen anyone? Do we care?” – Simon McMenamin.

Through some detective work with my colleague Adam Thoroughgood, we think we have identified what match the still on the Nokia N73 is from. We initially thought the wording on the bench said Chelseafc.com and was a still from a potential game against Blackburn, however as this would be a kit colour clash we couldn’t find a game where both Chelsea and Blackburn wore their home shirts. From Googling on kit websites I found that Porto wore a Blackburn-style half-white/half-blue shirt in the 2001-02 season. This led us to think the wording on the bench was Uefa.com so would be from a European game. Wiki told us José Mourinho became Porto manager in January 2002, which then limited it to four potential Big Cup games. We didn’t think it looked like the Bernabéu or Sparta Prague benches, and through watching the Panathinaikos game on YouTube, José’s coat looked too rain sodden in that game for it to be that one. So it leads us to believe the image of the handsome, resplendent-coat-wearing José on the Nokia is from Porto 1-2 Real Madrid on 27 February 2002” – Michael Pilcher.

You want us to identify a match from a blurry image on a near-20-year old phone? OK, go on then. The kit looks like Porto’s 2002 strip and I think it says Uefa.com at the back of the dugout so maybe a Big Cup match? I’m going to stick my neck out and say it’s Real Madrid v Porto on 19 February 2002. And the headless chap in the foreground is Carlos Secretário. Probably. The next mystery is why pick a four-year old photo to advertise a new phone” – Jon Gregory.

Send letters to [email protected]. Today’s prizeless letter o’ the day winners are … Michael Pilcher and Adam Thoroughgood (because we think it is at Porto). Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we have them, can be viewed here.