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“Every team from Newcastle in fourth down to Crystal Palace in 12th have had games they will remember fondly and would be more than worthy English representatives in European competition next season.”

Jonathan Wilson on the Premier League’s burgeoning middle class:

• Madrid hail ‘one of the best coaches in the world’

• Leverkusen manager to join Spanish giants on 1 June

Xabi Alonso has been appointed as Real Madrid’s new manager on a three-year contract. The Spaniard and former Madrid midfielder, who announced he was leaving Bayer Leverkusen earlier this month, will replace Carlo Ancelotti, who is becoming Brazil’s first foreign head coach.

Ancelotti led Madrid to a farewell 2-0 victory over Real Sociedad on Saturday and Alonso will now take over in time for the Club World Cup, which begins next month.

• ‘I will say what is in my mind and what is in my heart’

• United’s problems bigger than he first thought

Ruben Amorim will make a public apology to Manchester United fans on the pitch after their final home game of the season, but the head coach admitted he does not know how long it will take the club to challenge at the top of the table again. United face Aston Villa on Sunday to conclude a desperate season without a trophy and potentially in 17th place, but the players will undertake a lap of honour at Old Trafford.

Their last chance of salvaging something from the campaign ended with a dismal performance in the Europa League final on Wednesday, losing 1-0 to Tottenham, ensuring United will not compete in Europe next season.

• Liverpool coach went to see the Boss at Manchester

• ‘At 75, he does three hours on stage with no rest’

Arne Slot believes his Liverpool players can take inspiration from Bruce Springsteen as they aim to repeat the success of winning the Premier League next season. The Dutchman went to see the Boss behind enemy lines in Manchester on Tuesday night to witness a masterclass of a different kind.

Liverpool will be awarded the Premier League trophy by Alan Hansen after their final game of the season against Crystal Palace on Sunday. The next challenge for Slot will come when his players return for pre-season training on 8 July and the Dutchman waits to see if his squad can build on the glory days achieved during his first season in charge.

Six of Sunday’s 10 games potentially have something riding on them – testament to the English elite’s enduring rude health

In a perfect world, what would the final day of the Premier League season look like? You’d have two sides going for the title – perhaps three or even four, all playing teams of similar standard and motivation. You’d have maybe six teams contesting the three relegation slots, possibly playing each other, and also a skirmish for European qualification.

Ideally all 10 games would mean something and there should be times over the course of the afternoon when each side have the set of results they need to achieve their aims. And there should definitely be a moment when it becomes apparent that a harassed television presenter has forgotten or overlooked a goal so viewers can mutter furiously at the screen: “For heavens’ sake, that puts Brentford in ninth.”

Gunners’ victory was built on a multi-layered courage that respected but was not overawed by Barcelona or by fatalism

There is always a little more time than you think. A red number 7 blinks across the pitch from the fourth official’s board. Seven minutes of injury time: it’s a lot. Against Barcelona, it’s an age. Against this Barcelona, in this heat, in this game, it may as well be all of eternity.

But you push through. You pace yourself. Beth Mead goes down under a challenge; there’s 30 seconds right there. Kim Little rolls the ball up the left touchline to no one: eight seconds. Daphne van Domselaar hesitates over a free-kick, squeezing out those seconds like drops from a towel. You push through because whatever happens in these seven minutes, however those minutes make you suffer, seven minutes is still less than 18 years.

Charlton’s manager divides opinion but nearly 40,000 fans at the League One playoff final won’t be complaining if he takes them up

Seconds before Charlton secured a place in the League One playoff final Nathan Jones, a born-again Christian, dropped to his knees, clasped his palms and prayed. The fourth official had just told him the game was up, the final whistle imminent. Jones got to his feet, looked to the skies and covered his face. Then, at full time, he crumpled into a shell, face down in the turf of his technical area. The footage went viral.

“People close to me said it was a bit over the top,” he says. “I was just in the moment. It wasn’t fabricated, it wasn’t because the TV cameras were there, because I didn’t realise they were. I wouldn’t say it was an out-of-body experience, but it was an outpouring of emotion, a deflation of all the pressures.”

Mat Sadler’s side recovered from losing a 12-point lead at the top of League Two. Now they face AFC Wimbledon

The team that has gatecrashed their way up into the playoffs so often has the momentum in seeking the final promotion place. Walsall are hoping this year it is the team that has crashed down into them that prevails when they take on AFC Wimbledon in Monday’s League Two final.

Mat Sadler’s team were 12 points clear in January. They had won nine successive league games for the first time in their history. Their 6ft 4in teenage goal sensation, who ended up as the League Two young player of the year, was finishing off much of the high pressing and long balls of a well-drilled, young side.

Twenty years on from being at that win over Milan, I still cherish the company I kept as much as the comeback I witnessed

We can tell ourselves something different but, the truth is, getting old is rubbish. There are various reasons for this but the main one is loss. The loss of vigour, the loss of mobility … the loss of hair. Most of all, though, it’s the loss of people.

There are loved ones – friends as well as family – who pass, and then there are those who you share a special moment with and never see again. And so it is that this piece is for David, his dad and his mate. The trio I knew for only a day but which happens to be one of the greatest days of my life.

In the Premier League’s shifting landscape, this struggling team can no longer carry a winger lacking straight-line pace and a goal threat

Jack Grealish is prowling. The wind tousling his hair, the ball at his feet, the way it was always meant to be. In front of him a wall of Bournemouth defenders jumpily stands guard, eyes wide like stags ready to bolt. Grealish shuffles inside, body feinting, hips dancing. You want to know what happens next. What happens next is that the referee blows for full time.

It’s the 97th minute; Grealish came on in the 91st. In that time Bournemouth somehow managed to score a goal. It wasn’t Grealish’s fault, but it did eat up most of the time in which he was hoping to make an impression. No matter. As the game ends, the cameras hunt down a treble-winning City legend making what might well be his final appearance at the Etihad Stadium. Kevin De Bruyne takes his handshakes and his tributes. Grealish slips quietly down the tunnel.

Our fans network reviews the season with one game to play: the highs, the lows and the moments that made them smile

It’s been yet another “always the bridesmaid, never the bride” season. There were times it felt we were destined for glory, but injuries and red cards cost us. We still had jaw-dropping moments, though, especially in a phenomenal Champions League campaign. As they say, it’s the hope that kills, but even this jaded old lag had begun to believe I’d finally tick that big-eared prize off my bucket list. Still, 8/10.

Bernard Azulay onlinegooner.com; @GoonerN5

Jonathan Pritchard

Here’s how to follow along with our coverage – the finest writing and up-to-the-minute reports

• Tommy Watson’s 95th-minute goal secured 2-1 victory

• Sheffield United’s Chris Wilder concedes a bitter blow

Régis Le Bris said the 19-year-old Tommy Watson’s dramatic stoppage-time winner to clinch Sunderland’s promotion to the Premier League encapsulated a rollercoaster season and suggested team spirit will be key if they are to cope with the step up next season. The French head coach masterminded Sunderland’s return to the top flight after eight years in his first season at the club.

Watson, a 73rd-minute substitute, scored in the fifth minute of added time to complete a dream comeback victory after Eliezer Mayenda cancelled out Tyrese Campbell’s well-taken opener. Watson, who joined Sunderland aged eight, will move to Brighton next month after the clubs agreed a £10m deal in April, but the forward gave his boyhood club the perfect parting gift. “We’ll see each other in the Premier League next year, in the big time,” Watson said.

Tales of the unexpected still exist in Scottish football after all. History repeated itself in such wonderful fashion for Aberdeen, denying Celtic the domestic treble widely thought inevitable. As The Northern Lights of Old Aberdeen blared out at Hampden Park, the backdrop to moving and euphoric scenes, a 35-year wait for the Scottish Cup had ended.

In 1990, as in 2025, Aberdeen saw off Celtic on penalty kicks. In 1970, as in 2025, they halted Celtic’s clean sweep quest. Celtic’s campaign has been one of highs, especially in Europe, but this will sting for a summer.

Chelsea braced for City Ground cauldron, Rodri back on the scene and party vibes all round at Anfield

• Golden Boot: how the leading scorers stand

Bournemouth’s hopes of European football were dashed by the defeat at Manchester City on Tuesday but the Cherries, 11th on 53 points, could still achieve ninth spot and match their best finish in the Premier League (under Eddie Howe in 2016-17, although that was reached with only 46 points). A home game against relegated Leicester looks to offer the perfect opportunity but the closing stretch has been tough for Andoni Iraola’s side, with the past 12 league games producing only two victories. Remarkably, a three-game league form table puts Leicester in fourth after home wins over Southampton and Ipswich either side of a 2-2 draw at Nottingham Forest. Perhaps this won’t be the walkover most are expecting, and there could be a wistful feeling in the air at the Vitality on Sunday afternoon. No one can deny it has been a strong season but what a party it might have been. With Dean Huijsen off to Real Madrid and Milos Kerkez linked heavily with the champions, Liverpool, how many of the goodbyes on the traditional end-of-season lap of honour will be permanent? David Tindall

• Mbappé scores twice in 2-0 win against Real Socidead

• Stuttgart win German Cup; PSG seal domestic treble

Real Madrid gave Carlo Ancelotti and Luka Modric a victory in their final game at the Santiago Bernabéu, with Kylian Mbappé scoring twice in a 2-0 win over Real Sociedad to end their La Liga season.

Ancelotti will become Brazil coach after leaving Real, while Modric is set to leave the club after next month’s Club World Cup, which will be held in the United States.

• Manager was serenaded by supporters at parade

• ‘I haven’t had any discussions – I won’t be distracted’

Ange Postecoglou has yet to discuss his Tottenham future with key figures at the club after guiding Spurs to a first trophy in 17 years, but joked he will turn up next season anyway.

Speculation over the Australian’s tenure has been rife due to poor Premier League form, but Europa League glory may have earned the Australian a reprieve.

A big club in most of the ways that matter chose to dream of glory but now face a challenge to keep their young talent

Sunderland are Premier League again and they deserve it. They earned the right thanks to a season of hard toil and nerveless endeavour. They sealed the deal by staring down more experienced opponents in this playoff final, expressing an appetite for victory that would not be quenched. Two goals of top-flight quality got them over the line, and delirious communion with their supporters at the final whistle sealed a small moment in history.

They don’t talk much about the romance of the playoffs, they’re just too brutal for that. A year’s work can be overturned in an instant. A collective loss of form, an individual lack of concentration, and years of planning and ambition can be set on fire. The playoffs break hearts more than they make dreams come true and, often, celebrations at Wembley are followed by tears just a year later.

Few expected the team to challenge this season but the club held off Inter to spark Neapolitan fireworks that could put Mount Vesuvius to shame

Antonio Conte had asked a city not to get ahead of itself, not to celebrate this Serie A title before its team earned it. “I don’t want to see flags here and there with numbers on,” he said after the draw with Parma in the penultimate round. Everybody knew what he meant: Napoli were in touching distance of their fourth scudetto but, for a superstitious manager, now was not the moment to say it out loud.

Supporters held off for as long as they could. Not until the final moments of Napoli’s 2-0 win over Cagliari on Friday did the giant white sheet come cascading down the stands of the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona with an enormous black “4” in the middle. Green and red flares were set off either side to create the colours of the Italian flag. The same that appear on a scudetto badge.

After plumbing new depths at the final in Bilbao, the crisis at the club may at last hurt the people who actually own it

Oh yes, Europe. Now you see it. Now you understand why we’re harvesting your players, hoovering up your football culture, poaching your 27-year-old rollerblading hyper-nerd coaches. This is the spectacle we’re creating over here on our island of trade and innovation. Behold our Europa League final, our Wednesday night field of the cloth of gold. Look on our works and … well, maybe go out for a sandwich instead.

The all-English Europa League final has already taken some stick for not being a spectacle worthy of the occasion. Or at least, for looking like what it was: two muddled teams scrabbling for the last escape ladder. It would be normal at this stage to bring out the phrase about a pair of bald men fighting over a comb. But baldness at least has a pattern. Baldness is orderly. Baldness is noble. This was more like two men with bad, failing hair transplants fighting over an emergency toupée.

Footballing great, dedicated family man and surprisingly outspoken, the playmaker leaves the Premier League this weekend after a decade of entertainment

Kevin De Bruyne is leaving Manchester City, and I’m going through all five stages of grief at once. Denial (the club will give him a new contract); anger (how could they not renew his contract?), bargaining (at 33, he’s past his peak and injury prone), depression (life without Kev is no life) and acceptance (it was never going to last, and I not only got to watch him for 10 years, I got to meet him.)

They say you should never meet your heroes. I’ve always stood by that maxim when it came to Manchester City players, with the one exception. Oh Kevin De Bruyne. (For the uninitiated, chant endlessly to the chorus of Seven Nation Army.) As De Bruyne is a law unto himself as a player, so he is as an interviewee.

Manchester City, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur may be saying goodbye to legends in the summer transfer window

By WhoScored

Cristian Romero’s time at Spurs seemed to be drawing to a close. The Argentinian criticised the club in December, blaming the board for a lack of progress. “Manchester City competes every year,” he said. “You see how Liverpool strengthens its squad. Chelsea strengthens their squad, doesn’t do well, strengthens again, and now they’re seeing results. Those are the things to imitate. You have to realise that something is going wrong. The last few years, it’s always the same – first the players, then coaching staff changes, and it’s always the same people responsible.” Real Madrid were previously linked with a move for the World Cup winner, but Atlético Madrid now seem more likely to sign the centre-back – if he is not enticed by the prospect of playing Champions League football for Tottenham.

Remarkable revival under director of football has given Orient a chance of reaching England’s second tier for first time since 1982

When Martin Ling received a call from Leyton Orient asking him to come back as director of football in 2017, it changed his life. “There’s no doubt in my mind,” he says. “To be where we are is a minor miracle. There’s a Hollywood story everyone talks about with Wrexham. But we’re probably more of a Wood Green story – it’s just we haven’t got the famous actors behind us.”

Ling, a former midfielder who made more than 150 appearances for the O’s and spent six years as manager at Brisbane Road, thought his career was over after experiencing mental breakdowns while in charge of Torquay and then, in 2015, at Swindon. In 2017, new owners stepped in at Orient after the turbulent era under Francesco Becchetti during which they dropped out of the Football League for the first time, after 112 years.

Winner of four Champions Leagues over two spells, club’s most successful manager will for ever be adored by fans

Sometimes things don’t go the way they were planned, they go better. The call that ended with Carlo Ancelotti back at Real Madrid started as something completely different. It was August 2021, he was manager at Everton and he had phoned to ask Madrid’s chief executive, José Ángel Sánchez, about borrowing players, but talk turned to their search for a coach. Zinedine Zidane had walked out again, dropping a letter bomb on the way, and Ancelotti wondered whether they had found anyone yet. Madrid were struggling and Sánchez said no, they were still looking. Which is when the Italian replied that they needed the best and luckily they were already talking to him. “Or have you forgotten about 2014?” he said.

It was classic Carlo. Gently done, an idea cleverly slipped in as if it were not an idea at all, just a throwaway line, another true word said in jest. And like so much of what he does, it worked wonderfully. In 2014, Madrid’s 12-year wait for the European Cup, an obsession that had come to feel eternal, finally ended. The coach who delivered the decima – their 10th and their everything – was him and frankly, yes, he had been a bit forgotten. Now, though, he is for ever.

• Late winner seals City women’s 1-0 win over Incheon Red Angels
• City play Wuhan Jiangda for $2m pay day in final on Saturday

Teenager Shelby McMahon produced a wonder goal at the death to steer Melbourne City to a 1-0 win over Incheon Red Angels and into the Women’s Asian Champions League Final.

With a huge prize packet on the line, City appeared bound for extra-time against the South Koreans at the Wuhan Sports Center Stadium on Wednesday night.

The Yellow Submarine won at Barcelona to seal fifth place and vindication for a manager they sacked nine years ago

Villarreal had given everything all season when with one game left the roof fell in on them, but not like that. It had been 10 long, hard months of “solidarity and commitment … methodology, work, honesty and dedication”, their manager said, yet this was no late lament, all that for nothing; instead, this was reward and release, “time to enjoy it”, to let go, so they did. Outside at Montjuïc, Barcelona had begun their party, even 2025’s first league defeat and killjoy keeper Wojciech Szczesny saving an outrageous overhead kick from his own son not spoiling the fun; inside the dressing room, the club from the small town 200 miles south had begun theirs too, and nothing could ruin this either. Someone put La Morocha on and the players were bouncing about, drumming the rhythm on the ceiling when, in another triumph for cheap construction, the first beam came down. Captain Juan Foyth, looking like a kid who’d put a football through the neighbour’s window, raised his arm to protect his teammates, quietly laid it to one side, and they carried on.

The track was changed, Handel now, and they lined up. Some tipped their heads back, gazing at the ceiling they had broken. Others put hands on hearts. Most laughed. All of them scatted and sang, at least the word they knew: maybe not die meister, maybe not die besten or les grandes équipes, and definitely not eine grosse sportliche veranstaltung, but certainly the champions. The flag they carried read “the village wants the Champions League” and now they had it. Villarreal, the team from the place whose population could fit into Montjuïc, had come to Catalonia, handed the newly crowned champions a guard of honour and then beaten them 3-2, helped by Barça’s hangovers, to secure fifth and a return to Europe’s biggest competition with a week to spare. The season, Santi Comesaña said, had been “almost perfect”.

• Emma Hayes named a 24-player squad for upcoming games
• US set to play China on 31 May, and Jamaica on 3 June

US women’s national team head coach Emma Hayes has named a 24-player squad that will play two friendlies during the next international window. The squad is notable for first-time call-ups from two of the best teams in recent NWSL seasons: Kansas City Current midfielder Lo’eau LaBonta and Orlando Pride defender Kerry Abello. Claudia Dickey, goalkeeper for Seattle Reign, has also received her first call-up to the national team.

“First of all I think she’s deserving of the call-up. It’s the right moment to do it,” Hayes said of LaBonta said on Tuesday, adding that she thought Abello has been one of the most consistent performers for one of the NWSL’s best teams and that Dickey has been “the best performing goalkeeper in the NWSL this season.”

In any sane version of Britain’s public discourse, the departing Match of the Day presenter’s views would have been drowned out by figures of genuine relevance

Welcome to the end, if you will, of a Linekera. As we head towards Sunday night and last things, last days, last matches, Last Matches of the Last Days, towards the inevitable husky, poignant, carefully scripted farewell, towards the sense, because this is the BBC sofa, of something that feels less like a broadcaster ending his term of employment, more like three men in shiny shirts burying their pet rabbit. As we head towards all of this, it is probably a good time to look back at Gary’s best bits.

This is easy enough. For the past 22 years, capped by this weekend’s accelerated farewell from the BBC , Gary Lineker has been an excellent sports broadcaster and an ideal avatar of the courtly, cosy, quietly A-list BBC identity. Not just very good saying things such as “And now to Goodison” in between some football highlights, but also perfect for the role of flagship anchor, a kind of televisual red pillar box, out there in iconic tight silky shirt, heartstrings-smile, the shared journey from lithe and boyish camera magnet through the extended silvery dad-fox years.

Emotion of Europa League final victory hits hard, particularly tangled in with homesickness watching from Australia at 5am

I didn’t really cry until Son Heung-min was handed the trophy – the camera hadn’t cut to him enough at full time. Of all the players who look sad when they’re sad, Sonny really looks sad. Building up to the Europa League final all I could imagine was a disconsolate South Korean walking around the pitch applauding mournfully. The Harry Kane walk. His smile when shiny-shoed Aleksander Ceferin hands him the trophy broke me. Apparently it weighs 15kg – the same as my three-year-old. That trophy certainly looked lighter than when young Ian demands to be carried home from the park.

As a very sleep-deprived middle-aged dad of young kids, the emotion of football back home hits a lot harder than it used to. I found myself weeping at the videos of Crystal Palace fans after the FA Cup final. Someone focused from person to person, pausing for just enough time on each of them to give you the impression that you could see the etched lines of disappointment they’d experienced over the years just evaporating into the air.

There was a sense of disbelief at Wembley as the team I support ended a wait of almost 120 years to win a major trophy

When Marc Guéhi and Joel Ward went up to collect the FA Cup, we were there. Although it still seems like a dream. The sense of disbelief Crystal Palace supporters felt when the full-time whistle at Wembley ended their wait to win a major trophy will probably take a few more days to fade away given it’s taken almost 120 years to become a reality. But with most of the 30,000 wearing red and blue having travelled from south London in hope rather than expectation, finally, it was our moment.

After an agonising 10 minutes of stoppage time that seemed to take an eternity, the emotions of defeat in Palace’s two previous FA Cup finals came pouring out. Everywhere you looked there were grown men – including me and the former Guardian stalwart Dominic Fifield – moved to tears. The comedian Mark Steel just kept shaking his head, unable to comprehend what had just transpired. It even spread to the royal box, where the chair, Steve Parish, who had been pictured with his head in his hands moments earlier, was greeted with a bear hug from Palace’s largest shareholder, John Textor.

The departure of the men’s team from the ground marks the end of an era for many. Will new hosts Everton Women continue its legacy?

Jamie Yates was heavily medicated, in a secure mental health unit, and in the middle of a breakdown when he had a profound dream. He was back in Liverpool, walking with his daughter along the tightly packed terraced streets which surround Goodison Park, home of the football club he had supported all his life.

When he left the hospital he took out a map, drew a half-mile radius around Everton’s ground and started looking for somewhere to rent.

Our cartoonist looks at the Tottenham coach fulfilling his prophecy by lifting a trophy in his second year with the club

Football coverage no longer stops after the final whistle. And in this new era, the former Liverpool defender reigns supreme

Jamie Carragher’s legs were aching. He had been speaking to a Sky Sports cameraman for 25 minutes. Usually for a news interview it’s just 10, but today called for something more. Reports were coming out that Trent Alexander-Arnold, who inherited Carragher’s mantle as the local mainstay of Liverpool’s defence, was about to announce his long-expected departure from his boyhood club, and so, as sure as day follows night, a camera crew had been hastily dispatched to Carragher’s whereabouts to find a quiet spot, hit record and get his opinions out to viewers before they’d had a chance to fully form their own.

How much was there to say about a subject that had already been talked about all season long? Quite a lot, it turned out. Like a hunter-gatherer extracting a week’s worth of food from a seemingly arid wilderness, Carragher – occasionally prompted by a Sky Sports anchor in the studio – launched into nearly half an hour of pure, free-flowing, agenda-setting football opinionating. From this monologue, Sky would carve out a TV report, YouTube interview, news article and three short-form videos. When Carragher says something – about Alexander-Arnold’s future, Arsenal’s attack, Chelsea’s owners or Fifa’s executives – we tend to hear about it very shortly after.

Former Hull striker on his push to raise awareness, thriving as a pantomime villain and his most famous goal

The framed photograph hangs just inside the front door. It shows Dean Windass, somehow larger than life even with his back turned to the camera, standing with arms aloft on the balcony of Hull City Hall and inhaling the adulation of thousands. Two days earlier he had, at the age of 39, scored a winner for the ages at Wembley and sent his boyhood club to the Premier League. He could not have caught the ball any more sweetly after Fraizer Campbell had chipped it across; it was no hardship that, even then, he knew it would follow him for ever.

“It changed my life,” Windass says, sitting in his living room on a quiet May morning. “I scored 234 goals and everyone only talks about that one.” To this day he swears a scorcher at Wycombe in 1992-93, “volleyed in with my left foot from 950 million yards”, was superior to his museum piece from 2008. But he is synonymous with the playoffs now; they are his thing, a sporting event he still anticipates like few others, and when we meet he correctly predicts Sheffield United will meet Sunderland in Saturday’s Championship final.

Sound the tram bells, unleash the smoke plumes from the Tasty Jerk shack – Crystal Palace have finally won a major trophy

As the final whistle was blown at Wembley there was a moment that seemed to stretch out and become frozen in time. The Crystal Palace players collapsed where they were standing, crumpled across the grass like a battle scene fresco. The colours made it beautiful, red and blue against the deep green, new optics, new names, the unstyled celebrations of players unused to these moments, Jean-Philippe Mateta face down, Will Hughes flat on his back, arms spread like a snow angel.

There was a rush of noise as the clock began to tick again. And that was that. Sound the tram bells, unleash the smoke plumes from the Tasty Jerk shack – 119 years into Crystal Palace’s existence this mercurial club with the clanky corrugated stadium has finally won a major trophy.

Opinionated football journalist, who has died aged 93, loved the sport but detested much about the modern game

Brian Glanville, who has died aged 93, was what Groucho Marx might have been had the old master of the one-liner shown any interest in football. I doubt if the greatest soccer scribbler of them all – the London-born son of a Dublin dentist and an Old Carthusian expensively educated in literature and song – met Groucho (Brian knew a host of famous people), but their exchanges would surely have blistered the paint off the walls.

Nobody swore so elegantly as Glanville, who hovered in the press box like Banquo’s ghost, the gathering’s invisible conscience, ready to deliver a scathing observation, relayed, sotto voce, to a nearby colleague like a chorus baritone in one of his favourite operas.

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This means more. Though in truth, this means more money. Probably not enough money. But a lot of money nonetheless. The long weekend stretching ahead involves English football turning its attention to Wembley and the Football League playoffs. Step forward, David Prutton, Andy Hinchcliffe and, of course, Gary Weaver, the poet laureate of portentous commentary, teeth gritted in anticipation that the very next moment could be the one that changes destiny, changes history, becomes time for heroes. Unleash the Weavergasm.

I get that emotions are high, you’ve got two teams that have got a lot at stake fighting it out on the pitch. But we as a football club can’t accept somebody spitting in the face of one of our staff” – Ross County chief suit Steven Ferguson condemns the Livingston fan accused of spitting on assistant boss Carl Tremarco after the teams’ Scottish Premiership playoff final first leg 1-1 draw.

As a confirmed slacker who has been lazily praying for a big fat pay-off from The Man for some time now, it saddens me to see Ruben Amorim offer to leave without compensation should his employers have noticed that he really isn’t very good at the job (yesterday’s Football Daily). Perhaps young Ruben would like to spare a thought for all of us other hopeless underachievers out there, for whom a compensated pay-off is a goal rather than an unnecessary encumbrance” – Colin Reed.

Re: Kevin Goddard’s missive (yesterday’s Football Daily letters), the avian description he is desperately looking for is ‘C0ckerels’. Furthermore, it stands out a mile that he’s not watched Spurs recently because, believe it or not, that poor final with its scrappy goal was by no means the most awful and inept performance we have had to endure this season” – Stephen Rankin.

After watching the paint dry on Wednesday evening in Bilbao, I spared a thought for Harry Kane and wondered which was the lesser trophy-winning achievement? Beating the 16th-placed Premier League team in a European final of low quality, or capturing the Bundesliga with perennial underachievers, Bayern Munich (16 out of the last 20 titles, but who’s counting?). Anyway, congrats Harry and Ange and Tottenham” – Che Matthews.

The Blaugrana face Arsenal after what Caroline Graham Hansen calls an ‘emotional’ campaign under a new manager

Normalising the extraordinary. Even in their “worst season”, Barcelona are going for a second quadruple in a row and third consecutive Women’s Champions League title. Few may have predicted that late last year, after a defeat at Manchester City prompted a new narrative: this was the season they were finally not going to win anything.

In the end, they won the Liga F title but only after losing twice. That may not sound terrible but it is the first time since the 2018-19 season they have been defeated more than once in the league. So a crisis of some sort. The loss at City also prompted some soul-searching for a team in their first season with a new manager, Pere Romeu replacing Jonatan Giráldez last summer.

Whether fans were celebrating, saying goodbye to an old home or remembering those no longer with us, the game’s power was on show this weekend

• Sign up for Soccer with Jonathan Wilson here

What was striking on Saturday, after Crystal Palace had beaten Manchester City to win the FA Cup, was how many people were in tears. The camera roamed the stands, capturing the images of Palace fans in disbelief after winning their first ever major trophy. Some were hugging those next to them, some waved their arms incoherently and others just stared, overcome. But a significant proportion were sobbing. Soccer can often seem an angry game, with crowds fuelled by rage; this was something very different, very hard to explain.

Palace’s pre-match tifo had shown an image of a father hugging his two sons in the stand at Old Trafford after Darren Ambrose had scored a 35-yard drive there for Palace in a League Cup quarter-final in 2011-12. It turned out the two lads were among the Palace fans at Wembley and that their father had passed away in the intervening 13 years. They were, needless to say, also in tears.

Emily Husband, one of only two female coaches in the league, can create history against Melbourne Victory on Sunday

The Central Coast Mariners weren’t supposed to crash the A-League Women grand final, but they face Melbourne Victory at AAMI Park on Sunday.

Two years ago they didn’t even exist. The Mariners’ women’s programme was in its 13th year of inactivity after being mothballed for financial reasons (serious concerns over the ever-impecunious club’s viability still linger). On the field, they made a celebrated return for the 2023–24 season, riding the wave of momentum born from Australia hosting the 2023 Women’s World Cup to stun Victory in an elimination final, before running into the eventual champions Sydney FC in the semi-finals.

Plus: more strange player-of-the-match awards and shot-shy winners; and did Brian Clough deliberately go down to 10 men?

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“In terms of aggregate league position, will Tottenham v Manchester United be the worst European final ever?” asks Phil Taylor (and dozens of others).

Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United, who meet in Bilbao tonight, put all their eggs in the Europa League basket sometime before the clocks went back. They are 17th and 16th in the Premier League respectively, giving them an aggregate position of 33. It is, to take a couple of unashamedly gratuitous examples, equivalent to Oldham Athletic playing Southampton in the Uefa Cup final of 1992, or Sabadell meeting Racing Santander in the same competition in 1987.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, John Brewin and Lars Sivertsen as Spurs win their first trophy since 2008 and their first European silverware in more than 40 years

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On the podcast today: Ange Postecoglou promised silverware in his second season and he duly delivered in the Europa League final. It wasn’t pretty, but no one associated with Spurs will care. They soaked up what little pressure Manchester United were able to offer and got the decisive goal through top scorer Brennan Johnson.

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Robyn Cowen, Freddie Cardy and Lucy Bronze to break down Chelsea’s FA Cup final win and preview Arsenal’s huge Champions League final against Barcelona

On the podcast today: Sonia Bompastor’s stunning debut season is hailed after Chelsea complete a domestic treble with a 3-0 win over Manchester United in the FA Cup final. The panel review the game, which featured a Wembley brace from Sandy Baltimore and a cathartic goal for Catarina Macário, and ask what’s next for a side that insists the job isn’t finished without European glory. Plus, Chelsea and England star Lucy Bronze joins the show to reflect on an impressive first season for Chelsea and look ahead to Euro 2025 this summer.

The panel also assess Manchester United’s campaign, dissect Marc Skinner’s post-match comments, and reflect on the contrasting scenes between Chelsea’s ownership and United’s absent leadership.