Culture
A footballer shaved his head and it led sports coverage on opening weekend. The haircut is not interesting. Why a haircut can lead the coverage is.
City have won this fixture almost every time it has been played. That record was built by a manager who is no longer here, and that is the whole story of the opener.
Two entertaining sides open the 2026/27 season on the south coast. The scoreline will fade fast; the storylines underneath it are the part worth reading.
The noise is the easy part. Underneath it sits a discipline built almost entirely around managing energy, and once you can see that, the whole afternoon changes.