James Sharpe

@thesharpeend.bsky.social

Sports Reporter for Mail Sport | Former Leicester City correspondent at Leicester Mercury | SJA feature writer of year shortlist 2021 | Co-host of Fantasy Island FPL podcast

I went to Dagenham to measure the KSI effect ⚔️ 🗺️ ‘putting town on map’ 🤩 hordes of star-struck kids 📈 1800% spike in Google searches 📹 more stream views than PL games But at what cost to be part of the content machine? Is it worth it? Does it even matter?

Behind the scenes at KSI's Dagenham & Redbridge revolution

JAMES SHARPE: A football match was starting in half an hour, but it was already clear who was the main event and what was the sideshow.

dailymail.co.uk

🏟️ Forget Doing the 92 ❌ @steveb2307.bsky.social has been to more than 5,600 football grounds. Travelled nearly a million miles. These are his 20 you MUST see. 🪨 built into a quarry 🗻 in shadow of Ben Nevis ⛴️ kick-off dictated by the ferry

I've been to 5,000 football grounds - these are the UK's top 20

Forget 'Doing the 92'. Steve Broughton has visited a staggering 5,630 grounds and travelled almost a million miles, in a hobby that's stretched more than 40 years.

dailymail.co.uk

🚨🔴 NEW: Secrets of Sunderland 🎳 Kingpin Xhaka 🏃‍♂️ New Kante? 🧘‍♂️ Mr (Tactically) Flexible Le Bris 💪 Duel monster Mukiele ⛔️ High press AND low block 🧤 Superman Roefs Latest edition of #TheBreakdown is how the Black Cats became the blue print. #SAFC

THE BREAKDOWN: The secrets of Sunderland success

Sunderland clearly did not receive the memo. Promoted sides are not supposed to enjoy Premier League life as much as this, and certainly not a club that has been away for almost a decade.

dailymail.co.uk

🔍 Analysis: How Spurs will look under Thomas Frank. 🔁 Premier League's most adaptable manager 📝 Specific tactical plans for each opponent 👑 Turning Brentford into set-piece kings 🔑 Why Maddison could hold key #thfc #coys

How Frank's Spurs will play and why he CAN replicate Brentford success

In swapping Big Ange for Flexible Frank, Spurs chairman Daniel Levy has switched one of the Premier League's most unshakably principled managers for one of the most adaptable.

dailymail.co.uk

⚒️ Calling West Ham fans. Now the transfer window is open for business, what would you like to know? Players coming and going, Graham Potter, plans for next season. Whatever you like. Putting together the next Q&A. Will try to answer them all! #whufc #coyi

🥶 Wood's hot streak goes cold 📉 Defensive numbers off a cliff 🥵 Thin squad stretched to its limits Why #NFFC's Champions League dream is falling apart — but why it's wrong to say they're bottling it. (Also, don't worry, you're playing Leicester next.)

The reasons why Forest's Champions League dreams are falling apart

Champions League football looked firmly within the two-time European Cup winner's grasp. One win in six has seen Nuno's side drop out of the top five with just three games to go. What's gone wrong?

dailymail.co.uk

🚨 Promoted sides didn’t all go down for nearly 100 years…now it will happen two seasons in a row. 💩 Worst bottom three ever 🫣 Freak or concerning trend? 💰 Why spending big isn’t enough This week’s column is on how to survive. #LCFC #SaintsFC #itfc

How to secure Premier League survival as a promoted club - SHARPE END

THE SHARPE END: All this has led to the question: is this the worst Premier League bottom three of all time? That's the easy bit: yes.

dailymail.co.uk

🧤Are goalkeepers getting worse? Onana. Ederson. Two of the most expensive GKs ever, both making mistakes. 🙈 Errors on the rise…but why? 📉 Save percentages falling 🛡️In defence of the modern keeper This week’s column.

The 'dreadful' numbers that show goalkeepers are getting WORSE

THE SHARPE END: Onana's two years at United has been littered with mistakes, like when he charged out of his goal to hand Ipswich an early goal in February

dailymail.co.uk

NEW: The Darwin Nunez Conundrum 🔴 🙈 Proof he’s one of the worst finishers 🔥 One area where he’s still elite 🎯 Why Haaland is more clinical 🤔 …but is he actually getting BETTER? This week’s column is on the Liverpool enigma. ⬇️

How Darwin Nunez became the most wasteful striker in England

THE SHARPE END: When Liverpool announced the £85million signing of striker Nunez just a day after Erling Haaland joined Man City, it felt like it could be the dawn of a great Premier League rivalry.

dailymail.co.uk

🧘🌟 Don’t get distracted by Haaland stuff, Myles Lewis-Skelly is a star. ⚽️ why he’s an elite ball-keeper ⚖️ restores balance to Arsenal’s left 🚀 allows Declan Rice to thrive Here’s why the kid’s special. #AFC

How Arsenal's Myles Lewis-Skelly took the Premier League by storm

JAMES SHARPE: Who are you? Erling Haaland asked Arsenal's teenage debutant Myles Lewis-Skelly after John Stones had snatched a dramatic late point for Man City at the Etihad in September.

dailymail.co.uk

"It feels like the club is pulling in the same direction." 💡 influx of 'new ideas' 📝 more tactical sessions 🤗 making Paqueta feel wanted 👶🏻 closer relationship with academy Insiders reveal how Graham Potter made his mark on West Ham. #WHUFC

How Graham Potter turned West Ham around in just three weeks

JAMES SHARPE: For the first 10 days, Graham Potter couldn't even go home. So chaotic was life as the new West Ham manager that Potter lived out of his hotel room in Stratford.

dailymail.co.uk

🔴 NEW: Where would #MUFC be without Bruno Fernandes? 🦹 panto villian or top-class talisman 🎭 theatrics mask vital goals 🔧 defensive work goes unnoticed 🔎 does he go missing in big games? 🦁 leader like Keane or Bruce? This week's column ⬇️

Where Man United would be without pantomime villain Bruno Fernandes

JAMES SHARPE: It's fair to say that, sometimes, Bruno Fernandes doesn't help himself. A misplaced pass from a team-mate and up go the arms and out comes the sigh.

dailymail.co.uk

So, what does Erling Haaland offer when not scoring goals — what’s gone wrong? 🤕 key #MCFC injuries killed service ⚽️ more ball but not where he wants it 📉 how finishing fell off a cliff This week’s Sharpe End column.

The mounting problems Haaland has faced since Arsenal jibe

THE SHARPE END: As my mum always used to say, pride comes before a fall and so it was after those words to Arteta that Haaland embarked on his worst league run of goalscoring in a City shirt.

dailymail.co.uk

Tomas Soucek raised nine fingers and then Jarrod Bowen held up the shirt. Two tributes to Michail Antonio on one huge, emotional night for West Ham. How big for West Ham’s season, how important for Julen Lopetegui and how damning for Gary O’Neil. #WHUFC #COYI www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba...

West Ham 2-1 Wolves: Bowen provides stunning finish to secure win

JAMES SHARPE AT THE LONDON STADIUM: Two tributes to team-mate Antonio, lucky to be alive in hospital after his horrific car crash, after two huge goals on one emotional night for West Ham.

dailymail.co.uk

Trying to make sense of Tottenham's consistent inconsistency 🤷🏻‍♂️ ⚽ keeping ball when they're better without it 🏡 how they are SO much worse away from home ❄️ why they either win BIG or lose... This week's The Sharpe End column. www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba...

Five reasons why Tottenham are so consistently inconsistent

THE SHARPE END: Trying to make sense of Tottenham is, and always has been, an impossible task. Why can Tottenham beat the big clubs but get turned over by those they should beat?

dailymail.co.uk

Bit of personal news: I am taking over covering West Ham for Mail Sport. Excited to get stuck into a great club, looking forward to getting to know everyone and bringing supporters the stories, interviews and analysis that matter. DMs open for stories, debate (and abuse 😁). ⚒️ #whufc #coyi

Remarkable conversation with my mum about Pete Wicks’s dogs home VT on Strictly. “I’d give him all my votes now.” “Why?” “He loves dogs.” “It’s a dance competition not a who loves dogs competition…” “Anyone who adopts from a dogs home should be in the final.” “Of a dance competition?” “Yes.” 😳

Leicester took far too long to act on Brendan Rodgers so credit this time for being decisive on Steve Cooper. It was clearly not right. No connection between him and the players or the fans. It’s a shame because he’s a good man and a good coach. It just didn’t fit. Who next for #LCFC?