David McLaren

To clarify: I will be with Sky for several events this year. The world feeds are now part of the DPWT and PGAT and operate most weeks but not the Players or majors. They are solely Sky with the full Sky commentary team which I’m fortunate to be part of. Roll on the Masters.👍🏽

Good morning! Anything missing from today’s breakfast?

There’s a definite sense this morning that Spring has finally arrived in East Lothian.

Wanted to go on the Guinness but tomorrow but it is fully booked, was really looking forward to it, maybe next visit 😞

Honestly, this is what question time SHOULD be like. 1 from each of the major 5 parties on the panel every time. If they do want a journalist or expert, they should pull up a 6th chair instead, or do a rotation so every party gets to be in the show 4 weeks out of 5

Barcelona's seven goals tonight equal the most they have ever scored in a Champions League knockout match, matching their 7-1 destruction of Bayer Leverkusen in 2011/12. Newcastle's seven goals conceded is tied for the most by an English club in UEFA competition history, matching Tottenham's 7-2 loss to Bayern Munich in October 2019. Two records, one scoreline. On opposite ends of the same result. That is the story of what happened at Camp Nou tonight. Think about what Newcastle actually did in the first half before you write them off entirely. They went to Camp Nou, oneof the most intimidating stadiums in European football, and matched Barcelona blow for blow for forty five minutes. Raphinha scored in the sixth minute. Anthony Elanga equalised in the fifteenth. Marc Bernal put Barcelona ahead again in the eighteenth. Elanga equalised again in the twenty eighth. Four goals in twenty eight minutes. Newcastle were not just surviving. They were competing. Barcelona became the first team in Champions League history to take the lead three times in the first half of a match. They needed to do it three times because Newcastle kept pulling them back. Then Lamine Yamal scored a penalty with the last kick of the first half and everything changed. Yamal became the youngest player in Champions League history to score ten goals, at just 18 years and 248 days, overtaking Kylian Mbappe who was 18 years and 350 days when he reached the same milestone. That penalty did not just give Barcelona a half time lead. It broke Newcastle's spirit completely. Four unanswered second half goals followed, making it the biggest margin of victory for a Spanish side against an English opponent since May 1966. Robert Lewandowski became the oldest ever goalscorer in a Champions League knockout match at 37 years and 209 days, and the oldest player to score two or more goals in any Champions League game. Records were being broken at both ends of the pitch simultaneously. The oldest goalscorer in knockout history on one side. The joint worst defensive performance by an English club in European history on the other. Anthony Elanga had not scored in 35 consecutive Premier League and Champions League appearances before tonight. He scored twice in thirteen minutes at Camp Nou and briefly made sixty thousand people in Barcelona slightly nervous. His goals will be a footnote by morning. But they tell you something important about Newcastle's character, that even on a night like this, they refused to simply lie down. They tried to stay alive- until Barcelona trampled upon them. It was not enough. It was never going to be enough against a Barcelona side this good in the second half. But Newcastle came to Camp Nou and left two records behind them. One they will want to forget. One, that Elanga might quietly remember. My name is Ajoje. I am a FIFA Licensed Agent and International Sports Lawyer. I write on the Law and Business of Football, a lot. Repost and Follow if you want to read more posts like this.

Dinner with a mate at The Tollhouse in Canonmills. First visit; delicious.