Among the Premier League’s smallest clubs, Bournemouth surprisingly boasts one of the league’s largest carbon footprints. In August, Inside Sport disclosed that the club’s management chose to fly a mere 100 miles from the South Coast to London for their clash with Tottenham Hotspur.

The team repeated this aerial journey last weekend, opting to fly to the capital again on Friday for their Saturday face-off with West Ham United. This short flight could have been replaced by a roughly 20-minute journey on land.

Given that train travel from Bournemouth to Waterloo takes less than two hours, and driving between the stadiums can take about two and a half hours without traffic, the decision likely raised a few eyebrows once more.

Bournemouth opted to fly to London to face West Ham – a journey that takes just 20 minutes – rather than use public transport

Although Bournemouth declined to comment, sources suggest that manager Andoni Iraola emphasizes minimizing travel time to maximize preparation for upcoming matches.

The Premier League, which introduced its Environmental Sustainability Strategy last year, also chose not to remark on the matter, as transportation choices rest with individual clubs.

In a different travel scenario, devoted Torquay United fans faced a shock after their team suffered a 4-2 defeat against Eastbourne Borough. They were further dismayed to discover they had been removed from their own return coach because the players preferred it to the bus they had initially used.

The staggering situation was shared online by the Torquay United Travel Club, amid claims that the squad, currently second in National League South, had moaned when they discovered that the fans had the audacity to enjoy more leg room than they did.

In a mealy-mouthed exercise in tautology, Torquay claimed the club and its staff were forced to use a replacement bus to the ground because of breakdowns and were unaware that the replacement for the replacement had been swiped off their own supporters by the travel company they share, Roselyn Coaches. 

Sympathy was perhaps understandably in short supply when a Manchester United supporting fan influencer decided it would be a good idea to turn up outside the London Stadium before her team played West Ham holding a sign which read ‘West Ham are s***’ – and ended up with a pint of beer over her head.

And it was a similar situation at Molineux last week when streamers Ronaldo and Marlon, sat in hospitality, decided to remove their gifted Wolves shirts to reveal Arsenal tops and goad a home support which tends to be one of the more animated in the country.

Clips quickly spread online and anger followed. After the game Wolves apologised to supporters who contacted the club, describing the behaviour as unacceptable and made clear it would not happen again. Wolves also stressed the guests hadn’t been invited, but accepted that their requests had been accommodated naively.

As it turned out home fans had the final say when a dramatic equaliser at the death sparked scenes of celebration inside Molineux – with plenty taking obvious delight in reminding the streamers that football content does not always go to script.

In an awkward postscript, the duo streamed their visit to Wembley Stadium two days later. One imagines the dress code was chosen more carefully.

More bad news for Leicester . The hapless Foxes, who find themselves in danger of relegation to the third tier less than a decade after lifting the Premier League title, want James McCarron, from the City Football Group, to become their new sporting director.

McCarron is currently head of player development for CFG, which is continuously raided by other clubs for talent. According to insiders, while City are happy for their staff to develop and take bigger roles elsewhere, they have insisted that McCarron work his notice period, which is expected to run until the end of the season.

Not a great look from IOC President Kirsty Coventry, who responded to being blindsided by three questions on recent developments that she should have been aware of by publicly pinning the blame on her media team.

Instead of revelling in the clear success of her first Winter Games, Coventry reacted poorly to queries on FIFA President and IOC Member, Gianni Infantino, joining Donald Trump‘s peace board; the potential for a Olympic Games in Germany in 2036 – exactly 100 years after the Nazi Olympics and developments on Russian systemic doping issues at Sochi Winter Olympics.

IOC President Kirsty Coventry’s handling of questions from the press left a lot to be desired

On each occasion Coventry said her team had not made her aware of the developments in question and in her frustration remarked that someone needed to be dismissed.

Interestingly, long-term IOC comms chief Mark Adams has been recently linked with a switch to working for his friend Sir Keir Starmer after the Prime Minister’s director of communications Tim Allan stood down.

However, with a generous salary north of £420,000 Adams may not be too keen on switching bosses, despite Coventry’s outburst which, if anything, should have taken place behind closed doors.