Key events
I feel a bit old reading this. Sounds sort of fun though.
England captain Harry Kane has enlisted the help of Google’s AI tool Bard to help his family get ready to settle into their new life in Munich.
Kane left boyhood club Tottenham in August to join Bayern Munich in a £100million transfer and has already scored 22 goals in 20 appearances for the German outfit.
While Kane has hit the ground running with Bayern, he has been living in Munich on his own after his wife Kate gave birth to their fourth child Henry a week after his big-money move.
However, Kane’s family are set to permanently join him in Germany shortly and the 30-year-old has joined forces with Google to showcase how Bard can help with every day situations on and off the pitch.
“I am excited to be teaming up with Google, especially on a product as impressive as Bard,” Kane said.
“I recognise how the potential of AI can help me in all sorts of ways with my move to Germany and to get my kids settled into a new life in Munich.
“Bard even suggested some new goal celebrations – we’ll have to see if I use them on the pitch!”
During a series of short video clips, Kane asked Bard to help his children adjust to life in Munich by coming up with a bedtime story to explain why they should be excited about moving to Germany.
He also used Google’s AI tool to plan a treasure hunt through Munich’s most famous sights and got Bard to translate his most commonly used English phrases in post-match interviews to German.
Google UKI’s Eileen Mannion added: “We’re thrilled to be teaming up with Harry Kane on our latest campaign, which shows how Google’s conversational AI Bard can help anyone, even the England’s football captain, in everyday situations.” (PA Media)
Scenes! João Pedro celebrates his winner for Brighton against Marseille.
If you missed last night’s European action, here are the highlights…
Ref Support UK criticise Arteta let-off
Mikela Arteta escaping a Football Association punishment for his post-match rant at refereeing standards after Arsenal’s controversial defeat at Newcastle last month has raised plenty of eyebrows.
That includes those of Ref Support UK, a charity that represents referees. “I believe this is nothing more than clever representation by a KC than a just outcome,” said their chief executive Martin Cassidy. “If those remarks and actions are deemed acceptable in the modern game then football is on a very difficult road for match officials.”
The Gunners boss was charged with breaking Rule E3.1, which includes bringing the game into disrepute and might have resulted in a ban, but has been cleared of wrongdoing. There were no set sanctions had Arteta been found guilty but a fine or touchline ban would have been the likely outcome. An independent regulatory commission dismissed the charges as “not proven”. Cassidy has called on the FA to appeal against the commission’s decision.
Preamble
Hello! After a great night for British teams in Europe – well, Liverpool’s youngsters aside – the Premier League returns with a Friday night kick-off at the City Ground as Nottingham Forest and Tottenham reprise the 1991 FA Cup final.
Saturday sees Manchester City host Crystal Palace before they jet off to contest the World Club Cup. Or is it the Club World Cup? They’ll know in Brazil because they absolutely love it; here, not so much.
And finally to Sunday when the top three (strange to write that and it doesn’t include Man City) are all in action. Aston Villa travel to Brentford, Arsenal host Brighton and then the big one: Liverpool v Manchester United at Anfield. Let’s get this thing started!
