How the sporting year could unfold – from Anfield to Augusta and from Delhi Capitals to Donald Trump

The first weekend of 2025 is the perfect moment to assess the sporting prospects for the year ahead. Here, then, is my month-by-month guide to 2025's potential winners and losers, seasoned with some snide remarks about people far more talented and successful than myself:

January

Let's start with an obvious one. After Sunday's Premier League fixture at Anfield finishes Liverpool 12 (Twelve) Manchester United 0, Ruben Amorim is sacked. United's owners, desperate to find a manager capable of coaxing some attacking verve out of the squad, appoint David Moyes OBE.

February

There's an unconventional half-time show at Super Bowl LIX. Instead of the customary cocktail of pop stars, pyrotechnics and eyeball-grabbing commercials, the 120m viewers are simply instructed to talk among themselves while the players catch their breath after all that rough-and-tumble in the first two quarters.

March 

The Indian Premier League, cricket's most lucrative tournament, starts on March 14 and one player to watch is dashing young Australia opener Jake Fraser-McGurk, whose life story sounds like the plot of a low-budget superhero film – 'Batsman Begins', perhaps.

Sent home from the Under-19 World Cup in South Africa four years ago after being scratched by a monkey, Fraser-McGurk grew a mullet, hit lots of sixes and ended up earning an £850,000 contract with Delhi Capitals.

April

A hectic month of sport includes the Grand National meeting at Aintree, the Masters at Augusta, the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield and the London Marathon in, er, probably Riyadh.

At this time of year, though, all anybody wants to talk about is who's choking in the Premier League title race. Who are this season's bottle jobs? Who would finish third in a two-horse race?

I'll spend most of April bombarding talkSPORT with phone calls until I get to explain to the nation that every team in the league is trying their best but the nature of the competition means only one club can be crowned champions at the end of the season. Mind you, if Liverpool blow it from this position …

May

The club season ends with wall-to-wall European glory for Premier League teams. Aston Villa win the Champions League, Ryan Mason's Tottenham claim the Europa League and Chelsea sack Enzo Maresca three minutes after he masterminded an emphatic Conference League triumph with the club's Under-15 team.

June 

It may be an odd-numbered year but English football fans can still get insufferably excited about a major tournament as the Three Lions successfully defend their European Under-21 Championship crown under the soon-to-be Sir Lee Carsley.

July 

The feelgood factor among England supporters continues with the Women's Euros – at least until the Lionesses' trophy defence ends with a shock group-stage defeat to Wales. Joey Barton maintains a dignified silence.

In other news, the bloke I backed at 33-1 to win the Wimbledon men's singles makes it to the semi-finals, by which time his outright odds have drifted to 66-1. He then loses 6-1 6-1 6-0 in 27 minutes.

August 

You know that player you've been incessantly tweeting, blogging and vlogging about ever since the end of the January transfer window? The good news is that he's signed for your club! The bad news? He's absolute pony.

September 

The Ryder Cup has occasionally been marred by boorish, xenophobic behaviour but the 2025 showdown in Long Island is a far more gracious affair, thanks largely to the influence of USA captain Donald Trump and his faithful vice-captain Nigel Farage.

October 

The first Manchester derby of the season finishes in a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford. Patrick Bamford gives City a first-half lead before a late Josh Windass equaliser for United but both clubs remain outside the Championship playoff places.

November 

An eagerly anticipated Ashes series begins in Perth. England, as usual, go on to lose 5-0 in Australia but Piers Morgan vehemently declares that we would have wiped the floor with the Aussies if it wasn't for Alex Carey's disgraceful dismissal of Jonny Bairstow at Lord's in July 2023.

December

Remember, 12 months is a long time in sport so it comes as no surprise when the 2025 BBC Sports Personality of the Year award is won, heartwarmingly, by David Coote.

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