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» Where Tottenham vs Villarreal is on TV for free as Champions League game not on TNT Sports
Tottenham Hotspur get their UEFA Champions League campaign underway tonight, with new boss Thomas Frank making his European debut.
» Benjamin Sesko comment speaks volumes as he's confronted with same Rasmus Hojlund issue
Benjamin Sesko was handed his first Premier League start for Manchester United in the 3-0 defeat to Manchester City on Sunday, but the striker was left isolated
» Richard Keys and Andy Gray clash over Hugo Ekitike transfer - 'I'm certain Liverpool said'
Hugo Ekitike turned down a move to Newcastle United this summer in favour of a move to Liverpool before the French forward has been warned about the return of Alexander Isak
» Ruben Amorim can save Man United job with seven January transfers
Manchester United have endured a difficult start to the season, with Ruben Amorim's side winning just one of their opening four Premier League games
» Sir Alex Ferguson favourite sends clear Ruben Amorim sack message - 'No other way'
Ruben Amorim has come under increasing pressure at Manchester United in recent weeks, and former coach Rene Meulensteen believes the Portuguese tactician could be sacked before Christmas
» Ruben Amorim told harsh truth as Man Utd sack verdict issued – 'It's not working'
Ruben Amorim is under increasing pressure at Manchester United after a poor start to the season, with the Red Devils currently languishing in 14th place in the Premier League
» Everything we know about Thomas Partey's rape charges from court date to lawyer comments
Despite being charged with several counts of rape and one of sexual assault, former Arsenal midfielder Thomas Partey is set to play for Villarreal in the Champions League
» Man City labelled an 'amateur team' in brutal blast as Kevin De Bruyne warning sent
Manchester City's defence has been called out ahead of their Champions League opener with Napoli urged to take advantage when they and Kevin De Bruyne take on the Premier League side
» Ange Postecoglou a 'huge risk' for Nottingham Forest as Jamie O'Hara slams appointment
Ange Postecoglou took charge of Nottingham Forest for the first time on Saturday as they were beaten 3-0 by Arsenal in the Premier League
» Liverpool drop Alexander Isak debut hint as Arne Slot gets mixed injury news
Alexander Isak was among the Liverpool players training on Tuesday ahead of their Champions League clash against Atletico Madrid
» Ex-Barcelona star Eric Abidal forced to deny own death rumours - 'I'm fine'
Former Barcelona defender Eric Abidal has spoken out following rumours on social media over the weekend that he had died due to complications from a previous liver transplant
» Andre Onana given reality check in Turkey as media respond to ex-Man Utd star's debut
Andre Onana has been praised following his Trabzonspor debut against Fenerbahce, with Turkish media and fans hailing his leadership qualities and ability on the ball
» Mikel Arteta given brutal Arsenal sacking condition - 'There's no other option'
Mikel Arteta has overseen a huge upturn in Arsenal's fortunes - aided by some huge investment in the squad - and is now under pressure to end a five-year wait for a trophy
» Ryan Reynolds' £33m gamble branded 'nuts' as Wrexham boss given stark warning over future
Wrexham's £33m transfer splurge has come under scrutiny following a difficult start to their Championship campaign, leaving manager Phil Parkinson under mounting pressure
» Dean Smith makes blunt Aston Villa claim after Premier League struggles - 'half a billion behind'
Aston Villa are the only team in the top four divisions yet to score a goal this season and Dean Smith believes the club are still playing catch-up from their relegation to the Championship in 2016
» Athletic Club vs Arsenal referee sparked manager's fury with three controversial calls
Arsenal face Athletic Club in their first Champions League fixture of the season, but the choice of official for the fixture could prove a headache for Mikel Arteta if a past European fixture is anything to go by
» Man Utd accused of 'criminal offence' after transfer blunder allows rivals to pounce
Manchester United were linked with a move for Gianluigi Donnarumma when it became clear that he was going to leave PSG - only to let Manchester City win the race for his signature
» How to watch Tottenham vs Villarreal for FREE: TV channel, live stream and kick-off info
The Champions League is back with a bang this week, as Tottenham Hotspur kick-off their next European campaign with a visit from LaLiga side Villarreal on Tuesday evening
» Sheffield Wednesday fan boycott continues with Grimsby to heavily outnumber home support
Sheffield Wednesday take on Grimsby at Hillsborough in the third round of the Carabao Cup tonight and the away support is set to almost double the number of home fans in the stadium
» Barcelona 'confident' of signing Erling Haaland in shock transfer swoop for Man City star
Manchester City tied Erling Haaland down to a huge nine-year contract back in January but that hasn't stopped Barcelona from plotting an ambitious swoop for the Norway star
» Jamie Carragher unimpressed as David Beckham makes 'surprise' Champions League prediction
David Beckham, Jamie Carragher and Micah Richards have lodged their predictions for the new Champions League season, naming which team will lift the trophy and who will claim the golden boot
» How to watch Athletic Club vs Arsenal: TV channel, live stream and unusual kick-off time
Mikel Arteta and Arsenal kick off their latest Champions League campaign against Athletic Club in Bilbao, looking to emulate last season's run to the competition's semi-final
» What Italian media said about Jamie Vardy's Cremonese debut amid boos, roars and just seven touches
Leicester City's long-time talisman played his first game since leaving the club on Monday night as new side Cremonese played out a goalless draw with Verona in Serie A
» Aston Villa transfer theory shared as owners' approach slammed - 'So publicly scared'
Aston Villa have made a poor start to the new Premier League season and Richard Keys believes he knows why Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens are not spending
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» David Squires on … Nottingham Forest’s mythical quest for a new champion

Our cartoonist tells the ancient Greek tale of one godlike figure’s pursuit of glory at the City Ground

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» Gaborone United ‘break all records’ to put Botswana on world football map

After becoming first club from the country to win a regional trophy, team set their sights on the CAF Champions League

First there was Letsile Tebogo, who put Botswana on the sporting map when he won gold in the 200m at the Paris Olympics. Now, there is Gaborone United Ladies, who became the country’s first football team to win a regional trophy and will make history when they appear at the CAF Champions League this year.

United claimed the Cosafa Women’s Champions League Cup – a tournament played among southern African clubs – when they defeated the Zambian side Zesco Ndola Girls 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in August and their victory means they will represent the region at the eight-team CAF Champions League tournament this year.

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» Unai Simón: ‘Winning a cup with Athletic fulfils me more than 10 titles anywhere else’

Athletic Club’s goalkeeper on hosting Arsenal in the Champions League and the magic of San Mamés

“Sometimes you need some luck; that was mine,” Unai Simón says. “What I thought might happen in five, six, seven years happened in 19 days.”

It was August 2018, Simón was 21 and although he had been training at Athletic Club for a decade, and with the first team for three years, the son of police officers from Vitoria didn’t think there was a chance of playing in Bilbao any time soon, if at all. It was all he wanted but he didn’t even live there any more, moving 800km in search of an opportunity with second division Elche. Which is when weird things started to happen.

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» Thomas Partey could play for Villarreal at Tottenham on eve of court hearing
  • Partey due in court on Wednesday to answer rape charges

  • Villarreal manager says midfielder is ‘prepared to play’

Thomas Partey is scheduled to appear at Southwark crown court on Wednesday morning to answer rape charges – after his new club, Villarreal, kick off their Champions League campaign at Tottenham on Tuesday night.

It is an extraordinary situation with Partey, who spent five years at Arsenal before joining Villarreal in August on a free transfer, guaranteed a hot reception at Spurs’ stadium.

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» Mikel Arteta determined to end ‘painful’ run of Champions League near-misses
  • Club have spent £250m since last season’s semi-final loss

  • Manager reveals Saka is still some way off injury return

Mikel Arteta has said he wants to change Arsenal’s European fortunes and finally lead them to a Champions League title, with their semi-final last season providing the proof they are good enough and the pain that could push them a step further.

Defeat against the eventual winners Paris Saint-Germain was Arsenal’s third semi-final and the coach insisted that, while they have to “start from scratch” against Athletic Bilbao at San Mamés, lessons had been learned. That was addressed with the £250m spent on strengthening the squad this summer; now the test comes on the pitch as they embark on their 23rd season in the competition.

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» Amazon to offer Champions League viewers new immersive in-game data
  • Prime Vision will feature xG and player statistics

  • Service will launch for Tottenham’s game with Villarreal

Amazon Prime Video will give Champions League viewers a new kind of match coverage this season, dripping in data and taking its inspiration from video games.

Prime Vision will offer a version of broadcast coverage in which datapoints will be overlaid on to live play, enabling fans to see a player’s name, their running speed, the distance of a pass and even the passing options as part of the extra information. The service will be unveiled in the UK on Tuesday night for the Tottenham v Villarreal league-phase game and will run alongside traditional coverage.

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» Serie C club Crotone placed under judicial administration due to mafia infiltration
  • Italian club last played in the top flight in 2020-21

  • Ndrangheta clans had infiltrated ticketing operations

The Italian third-tier club Crotone have been placed under judicial administration for a year because police found “sufficient evidence” of pervasive mafia infiltration, prosecutors said on Tuesday.

Crotone, based in the southern Calabria region that is home to the powerful ’Ndrangheta mafia, are seventh in group C of the Serie C league, on five points from four games. They played in Serie A for two consecutive seasons almost 10 years ago, and in 2020-21.

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» High fives for Arsenal and Manchester United – Women’s Football Weekly

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Emma Sanders and Tom Garry to round up all the weekend’s WSL action

On today’s pod: the panel rounds up all the weekend’s WSL action as Manchester United and Arsenal both scored five in convincing wins, with Alessia Russo and Melvine Malard stealing the headlines. Chelsea were far from their best but still saw off Aston Villa, with Sam Kerr only needing 13 minutes to mark her return with a goal.

Elsewhere, Leicester held on for a gritty win over Liverpool, Spurs cruised past Everton at Goodison Park, and Manchester City came from behind to beat Brighton. The panel also touches on drama in the Championship, Ash Thompson’s suspension at Sheffield United, England’s newly announced autumn friendlies, and whether Barcelona could really sell off their women’s team.

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» After a strange down season, Phil Foden looked back to his best in the Manchester derby | Jonathan Wilson

The attacking midfielder sparkled against United, giving City a boost for the season and England hope for the 2026 World Cup

One of the many mysteries of last season for Manchester City was Phil Foden. When he was a teenager, everybody knew how good he was. He had been probably the key player shortly after turning 17 as England won the Under-17 World Cup in 2017, and there had been a clamour for him to play for Manchester City long before Pep Guardiola began to start him regularly in 2020-21. For four seasons he was one of the best players in the league and then, suddenly, there was nothing – at least by the exceptionally high standards he had set.

Foden had not had a good Euros in 2024. He has never really produced his best for England, a function perhaps of him playing for a club with such a specific style of play. Take him out of that regimented environment where he knew exactly what runs to make, exactly where his teammates would be moving, and he found it hard to adapt. And England generally did not play well at that Euros, despite reaching the final; the front end of the team was a mess, lacking the balance of previous Gareth Southgate sides.

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» Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend’s action

Newcastle’s new striker makes his mark, Martínez is in Villa’s good books again and Madueke has dream week

Premier League top scorers 2025-26: who is leading race?

Is Gianluigi Donnarumma a Pep Guardiola goalkeeper? He may or may not be, but he is an exceptional goalkeeper. Manchester United didn’t offer enough of a test even to begin to assess whether Donnarumma is good enough with the ball at his feet to allow City to play as Guardiola would like them to. Nor did they test whether his starting position is advanced enough to sweep up behind a high defensive line and prevent the sort of chances City yielded up to Tottenham and Brighton. But his save to keep out a Bryan Mbeumo volley, hurling himself to his right to push the ball wide, was spectacular, and drew congratulations from pretty much all his teammates. Even if he is not the perfect stylistic fit, Donnarumma’s presence, his commanding stature and the aura he projects make him the right goalkeeper for now as City begin the process of rebuilding with a notably young squad. Jonathan Wilson

Match report: Manchester City 3-0 Manchester United

Match report: Burnley 0-1 Liverpool

Match report: West Ham 0-3 Tottenham

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» WSL talking points: Kerr strikes after 634 days and Liverpool woes mount

Russo shines in the No 10 role, bluntness costs Liverpool and London City struggle with juggling act

Alessia Russo opened her account for the season in style, powering an effort from the edge of the box into the top corner and converting a second from the spot in Arsenal’s 5-1 defeat of West Ham. The England forward also provided the assist for Stina Blackstenius’s goal to put the visitors in front in the second half. Russo showed how effective she can be in the No 10 role as well, her goals and assist coming once she had dropped deeper after Blackstenius came on. “She is really good from those positions – that’s why we’ve been working with Less every now and then in that position,” said the head coach, Renée Slegers. “We have two really good 9s and sometimes we need a Russo player type in the 9 and sometimes we need the Blackstenius player type in the 9, and then we know that Less can do the 10 as well.” SW

Match report: West Ham 1-5 Arsenal

Match report: Everton 0-2 Spurs

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» Manchester City dismiss bar worker wearing United shirt at stadium during derby
  • Worker shown serving pint in social media post

  • City confirm ‘individual has now been removed’

Manchester City have dismissed a bar worker who wore a Manchester United shirt while serving drinks at the Etihad Stadium during the derby on Sunday.

The club were made aware of the worker via a post on X from an account called @Mataniels. It included a photograph of the man in question handing over a pint while wearing a black shirt containing a clearly visible United club crest, alongside the caption: “Absolute joke @ManCity – letting one of the bar staff in block 315 wear a United shirt on Derby Day #mcfc.”

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» Hillsborough law will mean serious wrongdoing is punished, says Lammy

Deputy PM says legislation will ensure public officials have duty to act with ‘honesty and integrity at all times’

Public servants who deliberately cover up state-related disasters will face up to two years in jail under a new Hillsborough law, David Lammy has promised, following concerns from campaigners that it could be watered down.

Writing in the Guardian, the deputy prime minister and lord chancellor said legislation would ensure that state actors from “the bobby on the beat to the highest office in the land” will face “serious punishments for serious wrongdoing”.

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» Bruno Fernandes hits out at Manchester United’s lack of control in derby loss
  • All goals in 3-0 loss to City were avoidable, says captain

  • Mazraoui and De Ligt concede United need to improve

Bruno Fernandes has criticised Manchester United’s lack of control in Sunday’s 3-0 defeat at Manchester City, the captain stating that each of the goals his team conceded at the Etihad Stadium could have been avoided.

Phil Foden’s header came after Jérémy Doku moved too easily past Luke Shaw, while Doku’s assist for Erling Haaland’s first goal derived from the space allowed by United’s defence. The Norwegian’s second goal was a breakaway finish and again resulted from suspect defending by the visitors. Defeat leaves United with four points from their opening four games of the season.

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» Chris Wilder appointed Sheffield United manager for third time with goal of promotion
  • Wilder returns after three months with club bottom

  • He departed following playoff defeat to Sunderland

Chris Wilder has been confirmed as Sheffield United’s new manager on a contract to 2027 after Rubén Sellés was sacked on Sunday. It is the 57-year-old’s third spell in charge of his boyhood club – and comes just three months after he was dismissed by the hierarchy. He takes over a team bottom of the Championship after defeats in all five of their league matches.

United said in a statement that promotion remained the ambition for the season. The club are nine points off the playoffs and 13 behind the leaders, Middlesbrough, after the 5-0 loss at Ipswich on Friday that triggered Sellés’s dismissal.

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» Phil Foden ‘struggles with criticism’, admits Manchester City teammate Doku
  • Doku says ‘talent-wise you can’t say a word’ about Foden

  • Belgian reveals he was due to be baptised after the derby

Jérémy Doku has stated that Phil Foden can “struggle when people criticise” him and backed the Manchester City forward to return to his best.

Foden scored City’s opener in Sunday’s 3-0 derby win over Manchester United at the Etihad Stadium. Last season he struggled owing to injury and off-field issues, after the finest campaign of his career in which he scored 19 Premier League goals and was the driving force in City’s fourth consecutive title, earning the Professional Footballers’ Association and Football Writers’ Association men’s player of the year awards.

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» Emanuel Emegha’s move to Chelsea provokes fresh fury at Strasbourg

The team is climbing up the Ligue 1 table but fans are sick of being treated like ‘pawns’ by the Chelsea owners

By Get French Football News

Strasbourg are a club torn between inertia and evolution. Change is visible all around the Meinau: in its recently developed stands and on the pitch where, in two years, they have gone from perennial relegation strugglers to Champions League candidates. The motor for change was BlueCo’s purchase of the club in 2023. The takeover was met with stout opposition and the team’s upward trajectory since has done little to remould public opinion.

“I feel like we are back at the beginning. I am so disappointed with the reaction,” complained Liam Rosenior on Sunday, exasperated by the latest fan protests. You needn’t scratch too much to uncover the resentment that bubbles beneath the surface of the Meinau. The 15-minute strike, where the club’s ultras remain silent at the start of matches, is now just a common feature of Strasbourg fixtures, and you are never more than a few weeks away from a lengthy and often explosive supporters group communique denouncing some facet of the management of the club.

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» Sweet relief for Simeone as Atlético finally win amid doubts about evolution | Sid Lowe

Coach broke with tradition after first league win of season that helped calm talk about ability to take club forwards

Happiness was this once; now there is only relief but it is something. In fact, for a little while on Saturday night, it feels like everything. At the end of each game when the final whistle goes, so does Diego Simeone: sprinting down the tunnel and straight up the stairs, not a word to anyone and not outrun by anyone either, no stopping and no looking back. This time, though, is different. Juan Martínez Munuera brings Atlético Madrid’s 2-0 win over Villarreal to a close a little before 11pm, 63,312 fans erupting; a little after 11pm, at the top of the steps under the stand where the fourth official awaits his colleagues and the visitors trudge past tearing off tape and turning right, there’s still no Simeone.

Usually the first through, not even slowing here once he’s safely out of sight of supporters and cameras, a figure in a skinny black suit dashing past a pair of security guards, down the corridor to the left and into an empty dressing room, this time Atlético’s manager is outside under the lights instead. He heads on to the pitch, embracing his players. He screams at Koke, his captain, crushing him with a cuddle. Pulls Antoine Griezmann close and whispers something in his ear, only he has to shout to be heard over the noise. High fives his son Giuliano, who is also one of his wingers. And then joins the rest of them celebrating before the south stand, communion complete.

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» Oh brother: Thurams trade goals as Juve and Inter deliver a derby that had it all | Nicky Bandini

A sensational game had siblings as frenemies, an English defender’s first Serie A goal and a teenage match-winner

Igor Tudor sat down, straightened his tie and acknowledged we had all just witnessed a “particular game”. Seven goals (including some absolute screamers), back-and-forth lead changes, brothers as frenemies, a star turn from one of Serie A’s emerging talents and a deciding goal from a teenager. “Particular” was one word for this season’s first Derby d’Italia. “Completely bonkers”, might be two more.

Let us go back to the beginning. Juventus were hosting Inter on Saturday evening in a game that felt like it might have arrived a little too soon for everyone involved.

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» Köln spoil Wolfsburg’s birthday party with latest ever Bundesliga goal | Andy Brassell

Home team were heading for a win to celebrate their 80th, but then up popped Jakub Kaminski in the 14th minute of added time

“I thought we got off to a good start until the thunderstorm.” In context it was a standard, anodyne, flat-batted answer by Köln’s Marius Bülter as he strove to analyse his team’s efforts. Quite unwittingly, it captured the chaos of the afternoon perfectly. It was an afternoon that was supposed to be about VfL Wolfsburg as the club celebrated their 80th birthday with as much flourish as this industrial corner of Lower Saxony could muster, with billowing clouds of green and white smoke accompanying club legends including 2009 champion Grafite and iconic defender Naldo leading the team on to the pitch in front of a (rare) sold-out crowd.

Yet typically Köln, the club that does football drama like few others, rudely barged in and made it all about themselves. In Lukas Kwasniok they have a new coach who, like the club’s best down the years, knows how to lean into the emotion and Effzeh are already an invigorating watch. As they trailed 2-1 going into stoppage time, Kwasniok had thrown attacking substitutes such as Ragnar Ache and the lively teenager Said El Mala into the mix to make something happen. Little did the coach know his team would have to equalise not just once, but twice in that period.

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» Manchester United seem to have accepted their mediocrity, but how long can it go on? | Jonathan Wilson

Ruben Amorim is not the biggest problem at Old Trafford, but it is becoming harder to deny he is one of the issues

Perhaps the best that can be said of Ruben Amorim’s Manchester United is that you know exactly where you stand with them. It’s 10 months since he was appointed but he is yet to win back-to-back league games. Having beaten Burnley last time out, amid scenes of revealing euphoria, they were never going to win at Manchester City.

Which must have been a relief for City, who had lost two of their first three games this season for the first time in 21 years. There was, for them, particularly after half-time, a pleasing sense of normality returning. Rodri, shaky early on, began to dominate as he used to before his knee injury, while there were fine performances from Erling Haaland, Jérémy Doku and Phil Foden.

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» Ronaldo’s sudden interest in return to US is World Cup Trump card that Fifa craves | Barney Ronay

Portugal star will hand Gianni Infantino the perfect publicity coup if he does play in America for the first time in more than 10 years, having already begun cosying up to Donald Trump

Is it still safe to stage the World Cup in the United States? After more headline evidence this week of the extreme nature of American gun violence, some may conclude that the answer is no. Nine months out from the opening game, it is now almost impossible to ignore this. But believe it or not statistics suggest more than 300 people will have been shot in America last Wednesday alone.

The same number will also be shot on Friday, Saturday, every day next week, and every day of World Cup year. On average 127 of these unnamed, largely non-famous people not called things such as the superstar influencer Charlie Kirk will die each day. Within this, youth gun deaths will be both alarmingly high and a register of social injustice: a disproportionate 46% of all young people shot will be black.

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» The road to the 2026 World Cup: who has qualified and who is at risk

Forty-eight teams will participate in next summer’s World Cup and 30 places are still up for grabs

Forty-eight teams will participate in next summer’s World Cup, with the hosts, Canada, Mexico and the United States, granted automatic entry. A further 43 places are determined by qualifying competitions from the six confederations and the remaining two will be decided at March’s six-team intercontinental playoffs in Monterrey and Guadalajara. After this month’s internationals, 18 countries have places booked. The draw is due to take place on 5 December at Washington’s Kennedy Center.

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» ‘StradiVardy’ strikes right note as Cremonese embrace unlikely new soloist

An upbeat Jamie Vardy insists he is ‘never to old to learn’ on his unveiling at the newly promoted Serie A club

In Cremona everything is about music: the city, located in the heart of the Po Valley, is where the greatest luthier of all time, Antonio Stradivari, was born. His violins – unique pieces, each identified by a name – are today in the hands of some of the greatest musicians in the world and can fetch a price of more than £10m.

So it was no coincidence that the Violin Museum, in Piazza Guglielmo Marconi, was chosen to unveil who the city’s football team, Cremonese, hope will become their greatest soloist: Jamie Vardy.

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» Lopsided Asian Champions League set to have fewer surprises

Shutting out a hefty majority of countries – 35 out of 47 – is a risky strategy for premier club competition in the world’s biggest continent

There are plenty of similarities between the Champions Leagues run by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and Uefa. The two tournaments now follow the same calendar – Asia recently transitioned from a spring start to an autumn one – and the group stage, which kicks off next week, has the same unwieldy format whereby teams play eight opponents once. Also, neither competition involves many Asian nations. Uefa’s version has two – Israel and Kazakhstan – while the AFC’s has 11, with Australia coming in from Oceania to complete the dozen.

However, whatever the problems with Europe’s biggest club tournament, every country is represented and has a theoretical chance of getting to the group stage and, ultimately, all the way to the title. Fifty-three out of the 55 member associations (Russia and Liechtenstein are the absentees) have at least one hopeful. That is true of only 12 of 47 in the AFC Champions League Elite. Three-quarters of Asian countries are either nowhere to be seen or located in the two lower-tier tournaments, which pretty much amounts to the same thing.

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» Brazil have reasons to believe despite their worst qualifying campaign | Tom Sanderson

Brazil lost qualifiers in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia … just like they did before the 2002 World Cup

Despite how it might look on paper, Brazil did not necessarily hit a new low at high altitude by losing 1-0 against Bolivia this week. As their place at the World Cup was already reserved, Carlo Ancelotti could afford to field a second-string side with seven changes. It looked like they would return home from 4,000 metres above sea level with a draw until Bruno Guimarães gave away a penalty.

Miguel Terceros smashed the spot-kick past Alisson, securing a place in the playoffs for the hosts, who are now dreaming of reaching the World Cup for the first time since 1994, which is, of course, when Brazil won the tournament in the US. This has been a successful campaign for Bolivia. Not so Brazil, who finished fifth in the table with just 28 points from 18 games, making it the worst qualification campaign in their history.

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» Florian Wirtz is a sure bet at Liverpool but Newcastle are gambling on Nick Woltemade | Philipp Lahm

Two of the summer’s biggest transfer moves from Germany to the Premier League are starkly contrasting prospects

What must a footballer who costs €80m, €100m or more be able to do and prove? He should be a promising prospect at the age of 17 to 20; occupy a clear position on the pitch; be one of the five most important players in a team; perform consistently over many years; prove himself in international competition; and be physically strong. This applies to virtually all those players in this price range: Kylian Mbappé, Neymar, Ronaldo, Erling Haaland, Jude Bellingham and Ousmane Dembélé.

Two German footballers moved to the Premier League for such a sum in the summer. One of them meets these criteria. Florian Wirtz’s career has been impressive. He caught the football’s attention as a teenager. It was only a matter of time before he made his breakthrough.

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» Barcelona in Miami; Milan in Perth? Welcome to the league of anywhere | Jonathan Liew

What goes on tour, stays on tour as Uefa meets to discuss La Liga’s and Serie A’s request to play competitive matches abroad

The caramel-coloured tiles on the facade are long gone, and the name changed eight years ago, and there are now wraparound LED screens and an “immersive” museum experience and a lot more bright yellow than you would ideally want. And it’s harder to park right next to the ground like you used to, and many of the locals still insist on calling it El Madrigal. But still they come every other weekend, and buy horchata from the stalls out the front, and sit with the same old friends in the same old bars with the same old faded photos on the wall. Because for all that has changed over the years, this is still their town, their team, their tradition. And when their beloved Villarreal are playing there is nowhere else they would rather be.

But when they play their home game against Barcelona the week before Christmas, the Estadio de la Cerámica is likely to be sitting empty. For the small industrial town of 50,000 just off the A7 motorway, it will feel just like any other night. The classic club anthems will reverberate not in Castellón but more than 4,000 miles away in the Miami suburbs. And football’s dystopian, fungible future will never have been closer to becoming its dystopian, fungible present.

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» Tuchel uses history and a boyhood dream to fuel England World Cup ambitions | David Hytner

Major step to qualification with win in Serbia brings back memories of Waddle, Gascoigne and Italia 90 for head coach

Thomas Tuchel has not been short of recommended reading material since his appointment as England’s head coach. Or documentaries to watch. The suggestions have come from everywhere, but especially the media, who are eager to help out with presumed gaps in his knowledge of the nation’s football history. This is the real cost of turning to a guy from overseas.

Has Tuchel seen the fly-on-the-wall programme with Graham Taylor from 1994: An Impossible Job? No? He has to put that right. In fact, wouldn’t it be great if Tuchel could allow the cameras in for a sequel as he targets glory at the 2026 World Cup? It was put to him a few months back. Strangely, he did not seem keen.

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» Postecoglou and Marinakis reputations on the line after Forest’s day of upheaval

Nuno exit was inevitable after he went public but successor will need to win over squad and learn from errors

Crossing the Nottingham Forest owner, Evangelos Marinakis, is rarely a wise move. When Nuno Espírito Santo went public about the deteriorating relationship between the two most important men at the City Ground, a parting of ways became inevitable.

Nuno deserved better after leading Forest back to Europe after 30 years away and his popularity within the club means it will be difficult for Ange Postecoglou to replace him. Players and staff will not immediately embrace the change because of the admiration and warmth they felt for Nuno.

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» David Squires on … Daniel Levy’s greatest hits at Tottenham Hotspur

Our cartoonist looks back at a departed hero’s memorable moments after his 25-year reign at Spurs

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» Ivan Toney: ‘If Al-Ahli were in the Premier League, we’d be close to the top four’

Former Brentford striker missed out on England’s qualifiers but he believes the standard of Saudi football should not be ignored

Ivan Toney is aware of the outside noise. He hardly needs reminding that plenty of people have had their say since he swapped the Premier League for the Saudi Pro League just over a year ago. An Asian Champions League winner’s medal and 35 goals for Al-Ahli later, the striker is defiant, even if he found himself on the outside as England played their latest World Cup qualifiers.

“Those that know me, know that I do what I want to do,” Toney says. “If there is something I want to go for, to try, then I will do it. If people want to talk, they can talk. It doesn’t hurt me, doesn’t bother me, I just concentrate on myself. I do what makes me happy.”

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» Roman Kemp: ‘Compassion and connection at the heart of football can help prevent suicide’

TV host explains how a new Premier League initiative can help to end the taboo around mental health issues

“I go to football every week, all my life. Home, away, England away, all of it,” says Roman Kemp. “And there is something about it that is transcendent. It almost feels like religion to me. Like if you go on holiday and you go into a church, even if it’s empty, you can feel the energy it’s got in there. A football stadium is the same.”

Kemp, the kind of Gooner who performs his own statistical analysis of Arsenal’s season (“I look at the league and I do a side-by-side comparison of points gained, points lost”), brings to his passion for football the same all-encompassing enthusiasm that has made him a star of TV, radio and podcasting. And he believes that the game, and its unique place in society, can play an important role in addressing another subject close to his heart: suicide.

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» Onana’s United exit leaves Amorim with more questions than answers

Offloading the error-prone goalkeeper has added to rather than solved the goalkeeping conundrum at Old Trafford

Altay Bayindir: age 27, seven Premier League appearances for Manchester United and a catalogue of game-costing errors. Senne Lammens: age 23, has never played in English football. Tom Heaton: age 39, last Premier League game January 2020, for Aston Villa. André Onana: age 29, 72 Premier League matches, Champions League and Europa League finalist, and a catalogue of game-costing errors.

The first three are goalkeepers Ruben Amorim can field on Sunday in the derby at Manchester City and beyond. The last is the keeper who is joining Trabzonspor for the season in what appears to be one more head-scratching development at a club that continues to seek clarity.

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» England fans’ chants cast Keir Starmer as first prime minister to become The Enemy | Barney Ronay

British prime ministers have been pretty much invisible on the terraces … until now. And football is always telling you things

If you’d told Keir Starmer last summer that just over a year after his election as prime minister he would single‑handedly, and by the sheer force of his own personality, have stopped England fans from singing songs about the IRA and Ten German Bombers, he would no doubt have been delighted. I guess they must really like me then. Phase One Goals. You warned me off, Jeremy, but I knew the Arsenal thing was a good idea.

Either way Starmer has now made this happen. England fans are not singing about those things any more. They are instead singing about him being a wanker and how he should fuck off, something they continued to do this week from Birmingham to Belgrade. So, a partial success then, Sir Keir. Delivery. Pragmatism. Yes, I think we can work with this.

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» Football Daily | Sheffield United and a volte-face so extreme it could lead to whiplash

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Before the Championship season started you would not have required the prescience of Mystic Meg to correctly predict that a team from the Steel City would be bottom of the table with no points after their first five games. With their club’s very existence under very real threat, most Sheffield Wednesday fans had resigned themselves to relegation at best before a ball was kicked, as long as their owner Dejphon Chansiri refused to sell up. A month on, the presence of their bitter city rivals one place below them at the foot of the table must be a rare source of happiness for Owls fans, in what looks likely to be a long season of unrelenting misery mixed with trepidatious uncertainty. Having lost last season’s Wembley playoff final to a late, late Sunderland winner, the Sheffield United hierarchy elected to end Chris Wilder’s second spell in charge of their club and embark on a new direction. And while “downwards into League One” might not have been the specific one they had in mind, it is certainly the new direction they appear to have taken after losing their first five games by an aggregate score of 12-1.

After the goal, Marcus said ‘well done’, with the eyes of a brother, but he wasn’t laughing. He teases me about headers, and so does Dad, so I’m happy” – Khéphren Thuram enjoyed scoring in Juventus’s madcap 4-3 win over Inter – especially so given that he got one over his big brother, who was also on the scoresheet. Nicky Bandini has the lowdown on a sensational Derby d’Italia here.

I pay no attention whatsoever to Scottish fitba, except when Scottish clubs go out of Bigger Cup, and it’s already September, so that’s long gone. However, I couldn’t help but notice that Rangers are nine points off Celtic and only two places off the bottom of the table after five games, which was puzzling until I remembered that Russell Martin was managing them. And also that fans of top-of-the-table Celtic are, and I quote, ‘mutinous’” – Noble Francis.

Like Chad Thomas (Friday’s Football Daily letters), I also love the verb play that Football Daily does. Sadly, I very seldom get to see my favourite verb used these days, because Alex Ferguson doesn’t make the headlines as often, and typically isn’t angry as much. Gone are the days that he ‘purpled’ on a weekly basis. Nostalgia always gets you” – Todd Van Allen.

This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.

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» Trouble in paradise: How Barcelona’s crisis left women’s team short of players

La Liga’s salary limit applies to the whole club and with six players leaving this summer, is the club’s golden era over?

How times have changed. For the past few years Barcelona have been the team everyone wanted to join: five consecutive Champions League finals, stylish football, leaders in women’s football, a stunning city and Ballon d’Or winners for teammates. However, 10 years after becoming professional, the three-time European champions are a club in trouble.

Restricted by La Liga’s financial fair play rules, the women’s team have had a calamitous summer transfer window. There have been six departures – all to the Women’s Super League – while the midfielder Alba Caño is leaving for the NWSL in January. They made only one signing, Laia Aleixandri on a free transfer from Manchester City.

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» TV viewing figures for the NWSL are down: is there cause for concern?

Star names have been missing but second half of campaign should bring renewed interest after ratings spike last year

Halfway through the NWSL’s 13th regular season, the league reported TV ratings were trending down. But August has already shown glimmers of recovery and context adds important caveats to that downward slope.

As first reported by Sports Business Journal, when the league took a month-long break midway through the year in July, ratings were down by 8% across their multiplatform media partnership. That partnership, which is now in its second year, was signed in November 2023 with CBS, ESPN, ION (Scripps Sports) and Prime Video for a deal worth $240m – a huge increase from their previous one-party partnership with CBS worth $4.5m. In its first year, the league saw a big uptick in viewing numbers as matches proliferated across a variety of outlets, reaching a wider audience.

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» Premier League top scorers 2025-26: who is leading race for golden boot?

See which hot shots are leading the way in the English top flight’s goalscoring charts this season

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» Manchester is blue and Arsenal brush Postecoglou aside: Football Weekly - podcast

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Lars Sivertsen and Jonathan Wilson as Premier League football returns after the international break

Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.

On the podcast today: Manchester City comfortably win the derby at the Etihad. They were the better side across the pitch and Phil Foden’s performance will be heartening for City fans. Conversely, United make familiar mistakes so the panel ponder what Ruben Amorim is doing to address them.

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» Which teams have worn parts of three different kits in the same match? | The Knowledge

Plus: more First Division players from unusual places, and the first team with a star on their shirt

  • Mail us with your questions and answers

“In their Conference League game away to Legia Warsaw, Hibernian wore parts of all three of this season’s kits – third shirt, away shorts and home socks,” noted Euan Williamson last week. “Has any other team done this before?”

As mixed kits go, the ensemble worn by Hibs in Poland – black shirt, green shorts and green socks – looked good. Hibs, who had lost the first 2-1 at Easter Road, came within seconds of a famous triumph before eventually losing in extra-time.

Any more examples? Email us here…

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» Women’s transfer window summer 2025: all deals from world’s top six leagues

Every deal in the NWSL, WSL, Liga F, Frauen-Bundesliga, Première Ligue and Serie A Femminile as well as a club-by-club guide

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