A penny for the thoughts of Sadio Mane, as he watched, from the flat he shares with a colleague while house-hunting in Bavaria, the events at Old Trafford on Monday.
The last time he played in a Liverpool-United fixture, he brilliantly set up one goal and scored another in a 4-0 victory. That was only in April, recent enough for his absence from Merseyside to be felt poignantly on a night United comfortably beat Liverpool.
The day before United’s galvanising 2-1 win, Bayern Munich had played Bochum, who like United, spent the weekend at the bottom of their division. It turned into quite a rout, although Bayern’s 7-0 triumph was only by a small margin their biggest win of the short season so far.
They have racked up 15 goals in the opening three league games, 20 in their four competitive matches of 2022/23. Mane already has a handsome stake in this exhibition of firepower. He is averaging better than a goal every 90 minutes for the club he joined from Liverpool in June.
Mane’s move, for a little over €35 million, was one he sought, wanting a fresh challenge and leaving, without rancour, a club where he was loved and respected. He is only 30 and among the top five candidates for this year’s Ballon d’Or.
The destination made sense, with Bayern preparing to say farewell to Robert Lewandowski, Mane looking for a club with Champions League-winning ambitions and geared to the sort of attacking energy he was used to at Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool.
Scan the data and Bayern and Liverpool mirror one another in their aggression: So far this term, Liverpool have commanded possession in their league outings – 70 per cent on average per game – and their appetite for goals, with an average of over 17 shots per match. Bayern’s tendency is 67 per cent of the ball; they have been firing in 23 shots per fixture.
But filter the statistics, and bigger differences emerge, some of them too stark to be explained by the relative strength of Premier League defences compared with those of mid- and lower-table Bundesliga opposition.
Liverpool have scored four times in a Premier League that so far shows Klopp’s poorest start to a season since he became their manager in 2015. All those shots have yielded just four goals in three league games, none of them victories. The collective Liverpool radar is a little awry: just over four efforts on target per game. Mane is meanwhile playing for a team who put nearly half of all their shots in the right place.
These are early days but a nostalgia for Mane, who over six years collected a winners medal in every possible competition with Liverpool, is easily felt.
No doubting the quality and long-term future of the striker Liverpool signed in the summer of his departure, 23-year-old Darwin Nunez, but the Uruguayan has already had to interrupt his early momentum – three goals in competitive games – because of the suspension, for a hot-tempered butt on Crystal Palace’s Joachim Andersen that kept him out of the United game, a 2-1 defeat, and removes him from contention against Bournemouth on Saturday.
Nunez had previously proved a good man to turn to when Liverpool needed to recover from falling behind, a habit that started developing towards the end of their sapping, 63-game campaign of 2021-22 and has not been corrected.
Mane, despite his own exhausting schedule last season, with its Africa Cup of Nations triumph with Senegal and World Cup play-off dramas, was a regular rescuer of setback.
Gallery: Eintracht Frankfurt 1 Bayern Munich 6
In the chase for the quadruple last spring, Mane struck the winning goal after the second leg of the Champions League semi-final at Villarreal had Liverpool trailing 2-0 at half-time.
Thanks to Mane, who struck the winner after Liverpool had gone 1-0 down against Aston Villa in his penultimate Premier League outing and the equaliser when Wolves went ahead in his last, Liverpool took their chase for the title deep into the last day.
He was the leader of Liverpool’s trademark pressing, too, the vigorous harasser of opposition goalkeepers. Ask Villarreal’s Geronimo Rulli or Manchester City’s Zack Steffen, pickpocketed en route to last season’s FA Cup success. David De Gea was among the happiest United players on Monday to face a Liverpool line-up without Mane in it, to see Mohamed Salah orphaned of his old ally.
Julian Nagelsmann, the Bayern manager who has watched Mane open his account in Germany with a headed goal, two left-foot finishes and a right-footed penalty, cited Klopp when he celebrated the impact the Senegal star has made in Munich. “Klopp used to say Sadio improved the club and the team from day one. He’s been the same here.”
Defence review at a glance
• Increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 but given “turbulent times it may be necessary to go faster”
• Prioritise a shift towards working with AI and autonomous systems
• Invest in the resilience of military space systems.
• Number of active reserves should be increased by 20%
• More F-35 fighter jets required in the next decade
• New “hybrid Navy” with AUKUS submarines and autonomous vessels
Financial considerations before buying a property
Buyers should try to pay as much in cash as possible for a property, limiting the mortgage value to as little as they can afford. This means they not only pay less in interest but their monthly costs are also reduced. Ideally, the monthly mortgage payment should not exceed 20 per cent of the purchaser’s total household income, says Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching.
“If it’s a rental property, plan for the property to have periods when it does not have a tenant. Ensure you have enough cash set aside to pay the mortgage and other costs during these periods, ideally at least six months,” she says.
Also, shop around for the best mortgage interest rate. Understand the terms and conditions, especially what happens after any introductory periods, Ms Glynn adds.
Using a good mortgage broker is worth the investment to obtain the best rate available for a buyer’s needs and circumstances. A good mortgage broker will help the buyer understand the terms and conditions of the mortgage and make the purchasing process efficient and easier.
RESULTS
6.30pm: Maiden (TB) Dh 82,500 (Dirt) 1.600m
Winner: Miller’s House, Richard Mullen (jockey), Satish Seemar (trainer).
7.05pm: Maiden (TB) Dh 82,500 (D) 2,000m
Winner: Kanood, Adrie de Vries, Fawzi Nass.
7.50pm: Handicap (TB) Dh 82,500 (D) 1,600m
Winner: Gervais, Sandro Paiva, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.
8.15pm: The Garhoud Sprint Listed (TB) Dh 132,500 (D) 1,200m
Winner: Important Mission, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer.
8.50pm: The Entisar Listed (TB) Dh 132,500 (D) 2,000m
Winner: Firnas, Xavier Ziani, Salem bin Ghadayer.
9.25pm: Conditions (TB) Dh 120,000 (D) 1,400m
Winner: Zhou Storm, Connor Beasley, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.
'The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window'
Director:Michael Lehmann
Stars:Kristen Bell
Rating: 1/5
The specs
Price, base / as tested Dh135,000
Engine 1.6L turbo
Gearbox Six speed automatic with manual and sports mode
Power 165hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque 240Nm @ 1,400rpm 0-100kph: 9.2 seconds
Top speed 420 kph (governed)
Fuel economy, combined 35.2L / 100km (est)
How has net migration to UK changed?
The figure was broadly flat immediately before the Covid-19 pandemic, standing at 216,000 in the year to June 2018 and 224,000 in the year to June 2019.
It then dropped to an estimated 111,000 in the year to June 2020 when restrictions introduced during the pandemic limited travel and movement.
The total rose to 254,000 in the year to June 2021, followed by steep jumps to 634,000 in the year to June 2022 and 906,000 in the year to June 2023.
The latest available figure of 728,000 for the 12 months to June 2024 suggests levels are starting to decrease.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
MATCH INFO
Newcastle 2-2 Manchester City
Burnley 0-2 Crystal Palace
Chelsea 0-1 West Ham
Liverpool 2-1 Brighton
Tottenham 3-2 Bournemouth
Southampton v Watford (late)
RESULTS
Manchester United 2
Anthony Martial 30'
Scott McTominay 90 6'
Manchester City 0
The specs
Engine: Direct injection 4-cylinder 1.4-litre
Power: 150hp
Torque: 250Nm
Price: From Dh139,000
On sale: Now
MATCH INFO
Scotland 59 (Tries: Hastings (2), G Horne (3), Turner, Seymour, Barclay, Kinghorn, McInally; Cons: Hastings 8)
Russia 0
If you go
The flights
Emirates (www.emirates.com) and Etihad (www.etihad.com) both fly direct to Bengaluru, with return fares from Dh 1240. From Bengaluru airport, Coorg is a five-hour drive by car.
The hotels
The Tamara (www.thetamara.com) is located inside a working coffee plantation and offers individual villas with sprawling views of the hills (tariff from Dh1,300, including taxes and breakfast).
When to go
Coorg is an all-year destination, with the peak season for travel extending from the cooler months between October and March.
