• “Finally, after 27 years of horror, heartbreak and struggle, the families have seen a jury deliver the verdict they, their loved ones, and those who suffered and survived but found themselves targets of South Yorkshire police’s ferocious campaign required. The families were people mostly trusting of the police, who after their horrific loss found themselves in a nightmare, fighting the police’s false case and repeated letdowns by the legal system. Derided and denigrated as “animalistic”, they were ultimately driven on by the power of human love and loyalty, and the bonds of family.”

– The Guardian’s David Conn concludes his outstanding coverage of the Hillsborough inquest, as justice was finally delivered for the 96 victims.

Johnny Manziel AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

• “While his name is invoked as a cautionary tale, it is often used as a punch line and as TMZ click bait. He is the sports world’s Lindsay Lohan — a child star admonished for squandering all that talent, all those chances, all before growing up.”

– On NFL draft week, John Branch of the New York Times charts the sad demise of Johnny Manziel just two years after he was taken as the 22nd pick by the Cleveland Browns.

• “The point is that you do not have to be a rampant free-marketeer to recognise the value that good footballers generate. And this is a value measured not just in coins and notes, but in skills and thrills and occasionally pure happiness. More than that, footballers can — if they want — provide a bridge to the world, using their fame and platform to achieve something genuinely good. Think Didier Drogba and Craig Bellamy’s charity efforts. Steven Naismith’s work with the homeless. Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s substantial contribution to the internet meme industry.”

– Jonathan Liew of The Telegraph examines Juan Mata’s assertion that footballers earn “a ridiculous amount”.

Juan Mata Martin Rickett Martin Rickett

• “He is older now and perhaps wiser. Certainly he is under less pressure and so probably able to think more clearly. Or perhaps it’s merely the environment: Leicester’s squad is smaller so there are fewer options. Whether for reasons of luck or the efforts of their medical department, Leicester have had very few injuries this season. With no European football, Leicester’s title charge has been uniquely unburdened by midweek fixtures.” 

– As Leicester City close in on the Premier League title, The Guardian’s Jonathan Wilson compares and contrasts Claudio Ranieri’s two spells in English football.

• “When I was younger, I heard racy stories so often that I either thought nothing about what was happening, or dismissed it as ‘boys being boys.’ So this is what’s normal, right? At that age in particular, men are taught that women are essentially trophies. I knew in my heart that what was happening in the stories I was listening to was wrong, but my mind was muddled with what ifs. And I used those what ifs to give guys the benefit of the doubt. And this is the same culture that’s still alive today.”

– Remarkable stuff from Deandre Levy of the Detroit Lions on sexual assault and masculinity in The Players’ Tribune. 

Mauricio Pochettino EMPICS Sport EMPICS Sport

• “Amalia proudly showed me a number of photographs from the first few years of her son’s professional career. His self-assurance was evident in a photo alongside Diego Maradona during the latter’s brief spell at Newell’s in the buildup to the 1994 FIFA World Cup, in an earlier shot as a team-mate of Diego Simeone and Eduardo Berizzo in an Argentina youth side and in a third in which he stood tall and proud in the black and red of Newell’s prior to one of his earliest appearances for the first team.”

– Bleacher Report’s Nick Dorrington profiles Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino.

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