PSG and Bayern’s box-fresh talents or Premier League title tussle: you can only have one | Barney Ronay

The Premier League isn’t as fun and fizzy as PSG v Bayern but that’s the price of the twice-weekly churn that rewards discipline and sacrificeIn the novel Rabbit, Run, John Updike has one of his characters, a groovy and progressive 1960s priest, calling round to talk to his fellow minister, a hard German Lutheran, about the secret doubts he harbours about his faith. Is the doctrine really necessary? Is hell just, you know, a metaphor? He likes Jesus. The hard German Lutheran takes one look, curls his lip and tells the groovy progressive priest to get down on his knees in the kitchen and beg for forgiveness.

Who is he to reason with divine suffering? Life is pain. Joy is pain. Pain is pain. Frankly, the groovy priest who likes flying full-backs and an open midfield disgusts him.

He will burn in hell for his spineless debauchery. The groovy priest leaves in tears. Continue reading...

Reporting on the story is continuing to develop as our newsroom monitors the wire for fresh detail. At this stage the picture is still being assembled from initial dispatches, and editors are working to corroborate the early account against secondary sources before adding further claims to the record. The pace of incoming information has been steady but uneven, with some threads firming up quickly while others remain partial. Readers should treat the present account as a working summary rather than a closed file, and revisit the page through the day for material additions. Where new statements, documents or on-the-record interviews become available, they will be folded into the body of the article rather than published as separate updates, so the narrative remains coherent end to end.