Find a Football Team

Chelsea and Liverpool could both be vulnerable, Nathan Aké has a rare chance and are Newcastle the Entertainers again?

Last season Liverpool won 15 league games by the odd goal, and began their title defence in similar style, beating Leeds 4-3 in an indecently entertaining match. But this habit is not an easy one to sustain, and it is worth nothing that they have lost five of their past 14 games, conceding 19 times in the process. It is true that now is a good time to play Chelsea – Kepa Arrizabalaga is still first choice, Ben Chilwell and Hakim Ziyech are unfit, and Timo Werner and Kai Havertz have not fully settled. But Werner still looked sharp against Brighton, while Havertz can change the course of a game at any moment. If Chelsea somehow refrain from tossing goals in their own net, they will ask some serious questions of a back four that has looked more vulnerable of late. DH

The Welshman is set to join Tottenham on loan after seven years at Real Madrid, but instead of sadness there is only relief

The saddest thing about Gareth Bale’s departure from Real Madrid is that no one is really sad at all. Instead, there is anger and disappointment but mostly a kind of weary relief, a release. He’s gone? Good, we can all get on with our lives. And no one more so than him: maybe the Welshman can play a bit of football again, and maybe he’ll be brilliant too, just not at the Bernabéu where it has been effectively over for some time. Now at least, now at last, it is actually over – four European Cups, two league titles and more than a hundred goals later.

Which, when you put it like that ...

The Brazilian has made rapid strides in recent seasons and should add a presence his new club’s backline has sorely missed

Shortly after Gabriel Magalhães played his first and, as it turned out, only game for Dinamo Zagreb’s senior team he was called into the manager’s office. Nikola Jurcevic had seen enough during a Croatian top-flight game against Rijeka in April 2018 to know that, perhaps ambitiously given the club’s managerial churn, he needed to nail down a long-term plan for the centre-back.

Related: Emiliano Martínez joins Aston Villa from Arsenal in £20m deal

The £24.5m winger, who will inherit his idol’s No 21, on joining Manchester City, Messi staying at Barça, and his beach training

As a young Valencia fan Ferran Torres’s heroes were David Villa, Juan Mata and David Silva when they played for the club he joined as a six-year-old.

Now 20 and at Manchester City after his €27m (£24.5m) transfer last month the winger will wear the recently departed Silva’s No 21 shirt and is at ease comparing himself to Leroy Sané, who left for Bayern Munich in July.

• Lokomotiv Plovdiv 1-2 Tottenham Hotspur
• Harry Kane also on target in Bulgaria

Tottenham might hope Gareth Bale had better things to do than watch this. They managed to extricate themselves from trouble against a limited Lokomotiv Plovdiv but only after the Bulgarian side had imploded when the finishing line was in sight.

Related: Liverpool agree £27m fee to sign Thiago Alcântara from Bayern Munich

• Saints have no interest in selling talismanic striker
• Gareth Bale flying to London to complete loan move

Tottenham have had a formal approach for Danny Ings rejected by Southampton, who remain hopeful of securing the England striker to a new contract.

Spurs have not bid for the forward but José Mourinho is desperate to bolster his attacking options and has identified Ings as a target, with Harry Kane his only bona fide striker. The club’s pursuit of Gareth Bale on a season’s loan from Real Madrid has moved closer to completion and the Wales international is due to fly to London on Friday.

• ‘His teammates think he deserved to be the captain’
• Goalkeeper was banned but denied making racist remarks

Marcelo Bielsa has defended his politically freighted decision to name Kiko Casilla as the Leeds captain for the Carabao Cup defeat against Hull Wednesday night, maintaining it was a move fully endorsed by the Spaniard’s teammates.

The former Real Madrid goalkeeper received an eight-match Football Association ban and £60,000 fine in February after being found guilty of racially abusing the forward Jonathan Leko in a game against Charlton last September.

• Just seven players fielded due to coronavirus concern
• SG Ripdorf/Molzen II players watch from safe distance

German amateur side SG Ripdorf/Molzen II sacrificed a tight defence for social distancing as they fielded only seven players as a coronavirus precaution in a 37-0 loss to local rivals SV Holdenstedt II.

The preparations for Sunday’s match in Lower Saxony’s 3. Kreisklasse – the 11th tier of German football – were complicated when it emerged that Holdenstedt players had been in contact with an opponent infected with Covid-19 in a previous match.

After 146 years a winding-up order means oblivion beckons for club that defied odds but was often a misstep from the brink

The announcement was shocking but registered as no surprise. Like the £500,000-plus the club owed its creditors, Macclesfield Town had been on borrowed time. After a long series of court dates and adjournments, Judge Sebastian Prentis, via a virtual hearing, wound up the club on Wednesday in a specialist insolvency and companies court.

It will be the fans who suffer. A Macclesfield Town supporter does not dream of the Champions League or signing Gareth Bale on loan but it is the shared camaraderie of icy afternoons on the Star Lane End or a 500-mile round trip by coach to Torquay that will be lost. And in their own way, Silkmen fans followed a club with much to be proud of, as a powerhouse of the non-league scene in the late-1980s, a Football League club against the odds after that and somewhere that gave three Black managers in Sol Campbell, Paul Ince and Keith Alexander opportunities.

The arrival of a host of stars is great for women’s football but contracts which last only a few months can also be disruptive

Two games into the Women’s Super League season and we’re starting to see some patterns emerging, with high-quality teams across the division but a few that look a cut above. The standard of overseas players coming into the league this summer demonstrates the way it’s seen now around the world, and will increase the quality still further, though I do have reservations about some of the signings.

I know of at least five clubs who have brought in players on short-term deals. For example Alex Morgan, the USA player and World Cup winner who has joined Tottenham, is a fantastic addition to English football but has joined initially for only four months. The season lasts the best part of a year, and includes the FA Cup and Continental Cup, and personally I’m not a big fan of this kind of arrangement.

All the summer’s Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and Serie A deals and club-by-club guides

• Women’s summer transfer interactive: all the latest moves

• Liverpool meet Bundesliga club’s asking price for midfielder
• Spain international set to sign four-year contract

Liverpool have agreed a deal to sign the midfielder Thiago Alcântara from Bayern Munich for €30m (£27.3m). The Spain international is set to sign a four-year deal with the Premier League champions.

Related: Thiago Alcântara: ‘The most important thing in football is thinking fast’

• Private jet taking Real Madrid forward and left-back to London
• Tottenham fail with approach to sign Ings from Southampton

Gareth Bale and Sergio Reguilón have been booked to fly on the same private jet on Friday from Madrid to London, where they are set to put the finishing touches to their transfers from Real Madrid to Tottenham.

Bale will arrive on a one-year loan and continue to earn his basic £600,000-a-week wage, with Real paying a percentage of it; the Wales winger will become the highest-paid player in the Premier League. Reguilón, the 23-year-old left-back who excelled on loan for Sevilla during their Europa League-winning campaign last season, will join for £27.6m on a long-term contract. Both players have already completed their medicals in Madrid in line with Covid-19 guidance.

• Palace splitting £20m fee for Sørloth with Trabzonspor
• Dijon goalkeeper Runar Alex Runarsson set for Arsenal medical

Crystal Palace have agreed to sell the striker Alexander Sørloth to RB Leipzig and are hoping to use the proceeds to fund a move for Brentford’s Saïd Benrahma.

Palace are splitting the £20m they will receive for Sørloth equally with Trabzonspor, where the Norway international was due to spend a second full season on loan with an option for a permanent transfer.

• Kevin Blackwell and Ronnie Jepson in charge on Saturday
• Manager also stayed away from midweek Carabao Cup game

Neil Warnock has tested positive for coronavirus and will miss Middlesbrough’s Championship game at home to Bournemouth on Saturday.

Boro’s manager was also absent from the home Carabao Cup defeat by Barnsley on Tuesday after feeling mildly unwell. A positive test subsequently confirmed the 71-year-old had Covid-19 and he is working on transfers and game plans from home. Kevin Blackwell and Ronnie Jepson will again take temporary charge this weekend.

• Manchester United captain will self-isolate for 10 days
  
• City’s Lucy Bronze pulls out of squad after weekend injury

Katie Zelem has withdrawn from the England Women’s training camp at St George’s Park after testing positive for coronavirus, while Lucy Bronze has pulled out because of injury.

Zelem, the Manchester United captain, will now self-isolate for 10 days in line with protocols, her club said.

• Administrators outline difficulty of finding buyer amid Covid
• Offers over £2m wanted for team, stadium and training ground

The administrators trying to find a buyer for Wigan Athletic fear the club could become the next Macclesfield, because of the difficulty of finding willing investors during the pandemic.

Covid-19 was cited by Wigan’s Hong Kong owners as the reason for pulling the plug in the first place, plunging the club into administration and triggering a 12-point deduction that saw them relegated into League One, and Paul Stanley of the corporate recovery specialists Begbies Traynor admits that selling an empty stadium is a much harder task than dealing with a football sale in normal circumstances.

Will the rookie manager steer Juventus to a 10th straight title or could Inter, or Lazio or Atalanta, finally topple them?

Millions of Italian children went back to school on Monday. So did the manager of Juventus. Andrea Pirlo was completing the final stage of his Uefa Pro licence course, defending a thesis he had submitted two weeks earlier under the title “My Football”.

His writings will soon be made available, joining those of every other coach who has passed through Italy’s famous Scuola Allenatori (Managers’ School), in the library of the technical centre in Coverciano. Most of us, though, will get our first real insight into Pirlo’s vision for how the game should be played when Juventus host Sampdoria in their Serie A opener on Sunday.

A successful three-mile keepie-uppie attempt showed the talent of one of the Championship’s most exciting teenagers

“When I was younger, and I’m not just saying this, Wayne Rooney was one that I looked up to,” Louie Sibley says, smiling, acutely aware someone once considered a faraway idol is now his captain at Derby County. “What he did for [Manchester] United and England was amazing and now to be here to learn from him is great. His aggression I have taken into my game. He has always had that bit of bite about him and that’s the way I play as well.”

Related: Football League rings alarm for Premier League to help save clubs from ruin

Aston Villa manager on his five-year plan, what Jack Grealish asked for after England duty and the truth about the signings

Dean Smith did his job exceptionally well last season, his first in the Premier League in a managerial career that began at Walsall in 2011. Almost everything that could go wrong for Aston Villa did – including key injuries and chronic individual mistakes in a rapidly assembled squad – but Smith kept morale high and made shrewd use of the pandemic-enforced suspension to repair what had been the top-flight’s leakiest defence and, ultimately, pull clear of the drop.

Related: Emiliano Martínez joins Aston Villa from Arsenal in £20m deal

The Real Madrid pair would give José Mourinho more options and his team more balance in attack and defence

By Martin Laurence for WhoScored

It has been a fairly typical transfer window for Tottenham so far, with a huge number of players being linked with the club but most of those rumours falling flat. However, that is looking increasingly likely to change, with new arrivals Pierre-Emile Højbjerg and Matt Doherty perhaps being joined by an eye-catching duo from Real Madrid. Sergio Reguilón is expected to sign for Spurs this week, following a fine season on loan at Sevilla, and a return for Gareth Bale appears a real possibility.

No team should be judged on one game, but the manner of Spurs’ defeat to Everton at the weekend suggested there is big room for improvement. For all his merits as a dependable defender, Ben Davies’ lack of attacking threat leaves the side imbalanced. They are also lacking strength in depth in attack – a problem that was evident throughout last season.

Plus: multiple same-name scoring teammates, refs riding roughshod over rules, and an umbrella-holding goalscorer

• Mail us your questions or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU

“Eddie Niedzwiecki took temporary charge of Reading following the departure of Mark Bowen. Eddie was previously Reading’s caretaker manager way back in 1991. This means he went 29 years between matches as our manager. Is this a record?” asks Tom Brailli.

If we bend the rules a bit, it’s not. Here’s Chris Page: “I can beat that … sort of. But we’d have to count a spell as assistant manager. Former manager of Real Madrid and Brazil’s national team, Vanderlei Luxemburgo, has taken charge of just about every major team in Brazil over the last 40 years. One of his earliest roles was assistant manager of Vasco da Gama until he departed in 1982 before returning as full-time manager last year. That’s a whole 37 years between spells.

Gareth Bale is returning to Tottenham Hotspur after a glittering but turbulent spell at Real Madrid. The Welshman joins on a season-long loan, linking up with former Real manager José Mourinho. Bale has seen many highs during his time in the Spanish capital, most notably winning the Champions League four times and La Liga twice. However, during his recent years at the club, Bale has struggled with injuries as well as selection issues under the tenure of Zinedine Zidane

• Gareth Bale flying with Sergio Reguilón to seal Spurs loan after passing medical

Chris Wilder has spoken vehemently about the decision to allow a small section of fans into stadiums for some fixtures this weekend. 'We can have 1,000 people in the ground but I can't go and have a pint with my mates unless there's only six of us', the Sheffield United manager laughed as he said he 'hasn't got a clue' what's going on

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta hailed debutant Willian after he made all three goals in a 3-0 victory against Fulham in the opening game of the new Premier League season on Saturday.

 Arteta had warm words for another Brazilian debutant, after Gabriel showed early signs of promise having defended well in addition to scoring the second goal. 'They were both really good,' Arteta said about the two players, 'I don't think it gets any better than that'.

• Willian dazzles on his debut as sparkling Arsenal show Fulham no mercy

The transfer window can be a time of huge excitement or heartbreak for football fans across the world. Italian football journalist Fabrizio Romano, who prides himself on being the first to break the latest transfer rumours, shares his insight into what it is like to work during the transfer window, his unusual sleeping pattern and the challenges Covid-19 have presented to closing a deal

Alexis Sánchez revealed in an Instagram video that he asked his agent whether he could leave Manchester United and return to Arsenal after only one training session. 

The 31-year-old has used a six-minute long Instagram post to tell his side of the story about his failed move to Old Trafford in 2018. Sánchez endured a torrid spell after signing under José Mourinho, scoring five goals in 45 appearances before being loaned to Internazionale last season and joining them on a free this summer.

'I think I remember that at the first training I had there, I realised many things. I got home and I told my family and my agent: can’t the contract be cancelled and I go back to Arsenal? They started laughing,' he said

Wolves captain Conor Coady and young Manchester City midfielder Phil Foden have been called up to the England squad for the first time. Gareth Southgate's team face Iceland and Denmark in the Nations League and both players will be hoping to earn their first caps. 

'When I was young, you know, every kid on the estate used to dream of playing for England and pretending that they were players,' said Foden. 'That's something I used to do, and now I'm in the senior team'

After players rejected a new CBA offer talks are in deadlock and the impact on the game in Australia could be severe

To say A-League players did it tough to get the domestic season completed is akin to saying Harry Kewell had the merest hint of talent. The Wellington Phoenix squad have only this week emerged to see if their families still recognise them, after entering a hub in Australia over 80 days ago. The players from the three Victorian clubs meantime, probably still wake up in cold sweats over their abortive attempts to cross the New South Wales border.

The players also took a big hit financially. A short-term collective bargaining agreement was struck, after some intense negotiating, that saw some take salary cuts of up to 80%. Yet just a fortnight after Rhyan Grant thrust his chest out, sprinter-style, to get Sydney FC over the line for a fifth title, the A-League’s 300-odd professionals are again back at the starting blocks.

The game will be remembered for its splenetic finish but it was also the night Marseille planted a flag in the title race

By Eric Devin and Adam White for Get French Football News

“Imbeciles.” “Red with Shame.” “OM breaks Paris.” The headlines in France after Le Classique could not have been more damning. The match, always a showpiece for French football, was settled by Florian Thauvin’s goal in the first half. The narrative of PSG coasting to another title has been changed. However, the focus at the end of play was on the five red cards shown by the referee in injury time – two to Marseille and three to the hosts – and Neymar’s accusation of racism against Marseille defender Álvaro González.

That such a big match should end in ignominy will be a real source of disappointment for the league. Aside from a dull goalless draw between Lyon and Bordeaux on Friday, the weekend’s action had been exciting, with plenty of goals, including a spectacular finish from Irvin Cardona in Brest’s 2-0 win at Dijon. However, there was never any doubt that the big story of the weekend for the world at large would come from the Parc des Princes. It was certainly a spectacle, although not always for the way in which the two teams played.

Fortunes were mixed but for the most part the sizeable group of Matildas joining Sam Kerr in England did not look out of place

Last week, when asked about Sam Kerr’s performance during Chelsea’s Community Shield win over Manchester City, head coach Emma Hayes responded in a way that was at odds with the melodramatic “Wembley nightmare” headlines written in the game’s wake.

“She caused problems and created chances,” Hayes said. “If you’ve got a striker who’s not creating chances, that’s a concern. Sam has been outstanding in pre-season and I expect that she’ll be on the training pitch tomorrow, working on her finishing.”

Midfielder served Barça well but they wanted rid of him a year ago and now the Croat is back where he believes he belongs

“Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.” Better still, bring a Sevilla shirt and put his name on the back. Ivan Rakitic’s transfer to Sevilla from Barcelona was foretold with a reading from the bible, quoted by the club: Luke 15:22, the parable of the prodigal son. After six years away, the man they called sevillano has returned home and, as the father declares in the next verse of the new testament, this calls for celebration.

In Seville, that is. In Barcelona, the reaction was more like relief, some sort of resolution finally reached: at least this time they had done the right thing. A little late perhaps and with little reward, but they had. A year after Barcelona tried to force Rakitic out, using him to try to prise Neymar out of Paris and prompting him to note that he is “not a sack of potatoes”, they said farewell. Some did so more fondly than others but, take a step back, and they must see him for what he is: a man who served them so well, a central figure in the team that won it all before the end came.

The 17-year-old is a strong, smart and skilful midfielder who will only improve while playing for Rennes and France

By Eric Devin and Adam White for Get French Football News

Eduardo Camavinga handles pressure better than most. “I remember the fire as if it were yesterday,” Camavinga told Ouest-France in May. “I was at school and through the windows I saw the firefighters. I saw the damage with my own eyes, the burned house.” His family had moved from Angola and built that house themselves. Now they were watching it burn. “Things were really not going well for my family,” said Camavinga. After relocating the family to a new home, Camavinga’s father turned to his 10-year-old son and said: “Eduardo, you are the hope of the family, it is you who will raise us up.” He has not let his father down.

Many children would find such expectations difficult to bear, but Camavinga took it in his stride. “At the time it made me laugh,” he says. “I was carefree. I didn’t necessarily take it seriously.” Now, however, he takes a great deal seriously. The 17-year-old’s focused, magnetic and domineering performances helped Rennes qualify for the Champions League and he has now been rewarded with his first call-up to the France squad.

Our cartoonist looks at a fittingly unique climax to a campaign like no other

• Take a look through David’s archive of cartoons

The defender, whose improvised goal landed the Sky Blues a record fifth A-League championship, has become the focal point of his team’s sustained success

After rupturing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in 2013 Rhyan Grant told reporters: “It’s a long road ahead but I’m positive and looking forward to getting back on my feet.”

After rupturing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in 2017, Grant’s enthusiasm remained undimmed. “It’s disappointing, but I’ll be alright,” he said. “These things happen in football and it has happened to me before so I know what it takes to recover and come back stronger.”

Two of Ligue 1’s new clubs showed the benefits of playing a well-organised, contemporary style of football

By Eric Devin for Get French Football News

It is easy to get carried away with the results of one round of football, especially in France where we have been deprived of Ligue 1 for more than five months. Cardiff City and Norwich City have enjoyed early 3-2 wins over Manchester City in recent Premier League seasons, but both sides went on to finish bottom of the table. So, while newly promoted Lorient and Lens are historic clubs with passionate fans who will be popular with neutrals in Ligue 1, we must take their fine performances on Sunday with a grain of salt. That said, neither side appears likely to drop back into Ligue 2 immediately and they seem determined to stay up while playing some surprisingly compelling football.

Lorient hosted Strasbourg on Sunday, playing a 4-2-3-1 with record signing Adrian Grbic leading the line, the Austrian youth international having shaken off a knee injury. Grbic, who finished as the second top scorer in Ligue 2 last season while at Clermont, combines physical power with plenty of innovation and a keen ability to involve his teammates. Lorient’s front three of Grbic, Yoane Wissa and Stéphane Diarra (who was unfortunately forced off early), left the Strasbourg defence – normally the picture of calm under the organised Thierry Laurey – chasing shadows with their pressing and insistent running.

The league is behind only the NFL and MLB in terms of average attendance at games, but attracting television viewers is still tough

The ties between the MLS Is Back Tournament and TV were undeniable. The mid-season tournament, designed to keep the league rolling during the Covid-19 pandemic, was by its very nature a TV product right down to its hosting at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando, Florida. No fans in the stands didn’t mean no fans watching.

In fact, with almost every other major sports league in the United States put on ice over the early part of the summer this was a chance for MLS to dominate the airwaves. The NBA would eventually join MLS in gathering in Florida, but there was nearly a month between the start of the MLS Is Back Tournament and the resumption of the basketball season. Soccer had Walt Disney World to itself for weeks.

The Women’s Super League was badly hit by the pandemic. But now fans can watch the world’s best … remotely

For more than two decades, the Premier League has sought to attract the finest male footballers in the world. But despite the huge influx of money, the very best – including Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé – have remained tantalisingly out of reach. The Women’s Super League (WSL), on the other hand, seems to have no such trouble.

In the past week some of the world’s best female footballers have signed for English clubs, highlighting a power shift in women’s football globally and setting up an enticing season, which will be watched, at least remotely, by more fans than ever before.

In passing an international century, Ronaldo has constructed a monument to himself that may never be surpassed

Eat, sleep, score against Armenia, repeat. And repeat. Then repeat again for the next 13 years until there are no more rungs left to climb, and the entire Fifa-mapped world, from Oceania to Concacaf, has been coloured a shade of Cristiano.

Yes, I watched all 101 of Cristiano Ronaldo’s international goals so you don’t have to. It was a brilliantly absorbing watch too, a flick-book version of the journey from there to here, with a sense of the past beginning to stir, older Ronaldos coming into view, Ronaldos beyond the Ronaldos.

Leeds went toe to toe with the champions in a majestic opening half-hour that broke all the rules of football as we know it

Oh yes, you can definitely come again. This was, frankly, a bonkers game of football. At 5.30pm Michael Oliver blew the starting whistle on Liverpool’s defence of their Premier League title. At which point, enter: the Bielsa zone.

In that opening half-hour the hands of the clock seemed to spin, the sun turned a shade of purple, the birds above Anfield flew backward through the sky.

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!

If Gareth Bale had his way, he would have been firmly embedded at Jiangsu Suning by now, perhaps mastering Nankinese, exploring museums with wondrous collections of Ming and Qing imperial porcelain and straining every well-preserved sinew to get on the end of passes from Wu Xi, Yang Boyu and the rest of the lads. But nasty Real Madrid thwarted that dream more than a year ago and now Bale is on the hunt for a new gig. It’s a passion that drives him like a sweetly struck T!tleist Pro.

Today’s fluff will get it together and get it all done

They might have missed out on the Tottenham-bound Sergio Reguilón but Manchester United are still in the market for a left-back, and Thursday’s A Bola announces that Porto’s Alex Telles is “back in their plans”, with the Portuguese side apparently willing to consider selling the 27-year-old Brazilian so long as there is at least €20m on the table.

In other left-back news Bayer Leverkusen have emerged as the most likely destination for Arsenal’s Sead Kolasinac, with Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Lucas Torreira and Folarin Balogun also available as the Gunners seek to fund a dream move for Lyon’s Houssem Aouar.

Roy Hodgson showed his ability to improvise, while Fulham and West Brom may well struggle without reinforcements

The cameo lasted 10 minutes but Eberechi Eze looked, er, at ease as he made his debut for Crystal Palace against Southampton. Repeating an almost constant condition of his time as manager, Roy Hodgson had been forced to play a patched-up side. He had central midfielders in central defence and wingers up front. But the adaptability of the manager means he can always find a way with the numbers. It is extra quality that Palace need. Alongside the return of Michy Batshuayi on loan, the addition of Eze looks to have ticked that box. Signed from QPR for £16m, he brings fresh qualities to the side. Hodgson is clear he wants more signings, but those numbers need to be the right ones if Palace are to improve their league position. Extra quality around Wilfried Zaha, the decisive figure against Southampton, might also help with his wanderlust too. Paul MacInnes

The latest in a Guardian Print Shop series featuring classic sports images. This week’s picture captures the joy of Leeds United beating Liverpool in a seven-goal Charity Shield thriller, on the eve of the first ever Premier League season

When Leeds United and Liverpool met in the Charity Shield in the curtain raiser for the inaugural Premier League season in 1992, Leeds were the reigning First Division champions and Liverpool, winners two years prior, were the FA Cup holders. Leeds arrived at Wembley boasting a formidable squad including the likes of Gary McAllister, John Lukic, Gordon Strachan, Gary Speed, Lee Chapman and Eric Cantona. The enigmatic Frenchman (pictured here) would guide Leeds to a 4-3 victory with a hat-trick, and weeks later would become the first player to score three in a single Premier League match. However, Leeds would ultimately lose Cantona to Manchester United in November that season – an irreconcilable loss – and limp to a 17th-place finish, only narrowly avoiding the drop; meanwhile, Liverpool would finish sixth and endure a further 27 years of domestic heartbreak before landing the big one last term. Now, these two rejuvenated titans will face one another in the league for the first time in 16 years, as the 2020/21 Premier League season gets underway.

Every year, Uefa ask a group of players and managers to pick a standout performer from the final. Who has won the award?

Who was the man of the match in the 2019 final?

Mo Salah

Jordan Henderson

Virgil van Dijk

Sadio Mané

Who was the man of the match in the 2018 final?

Gareth Bale

Luka Modric

Isco

Loris Karius

Who was the man of the match in the 2017 final?

Casemiro

Cristiano Ronaldo

Mario Mandzukic

Karim Benzema

Who was the man of the match in the 2016 final?

Sergio Ramos

Toni Kroos

Antoine Griezmann

Jan Oblak

Who was the man of the match in the 2015 final?

Andrés Iniesta

Neymar

Javier Mascherano

Luis Suárez

Who was the man of the match in the 2014 final?

Cristiano Ronaldo

Ángel Di María

Gareth Bale

Marcelo

Who was the man of the match in the 2013 final?

Thomas Müller

Mario Mandzukic

Arjen Robben

Ilkay Gündogan

Who was the man of the match in the 2012 final?

Didier Drogba

Frank Lampard

John Terry

Thomas Müller

Who was the man of the match in the 2011 final?

Lionel Messi

Xavi

David Villa

Pedro

Who was the man of the match in the 2010 final?

Diego Milito

Wesley Sneijder

Javier Zanetti

Samuel Eto’o

Who was the man of the match in the 2009 final?

Xavi

Thierry Henry

Samuel Eto'o

Sergio Busquets

Who was the man of the match in the 2008 final?

Cristiano Ronaldo

Edwin van der Sar

Didier Drogba

Rio Ferdinand

Who was the man of the match in the 2007 final?

Filippo Inzaghi

Paolo Maldini

Pepe Reina

Kaká

Who was the man of the match in the 2006 final?

Sol Campbell

Henrik Larsson

Samuel Eto’o

Ronaldinho

Who was the man of the match in the 2005 final?

Steven Gerrard

Hernán Crespo

Dietmar Hamann

Xabi Alonso

Who was the man of the match in the 2004 final?

Paulo Ferreira

Deco

Ricardo Carvalho

Patrice Evra

Who was the man of the match in the 2003 final?

Andriy Shevchenko

Edgar Davids

Paolo Maldini

Alessandro Del Piero

Who was the man of the match in the 2002 final?

Raúl

Luís Figo

Michael Ballack

Zinédine Zidane

5 and above.

Enjoy the final on Sunday

6 and above.

Enjoy the final on Sunday

7 and above.

Enjoy the final on Sunday

8 and above.

Enjoy the final on Sunday

4 and above.

Enjoy the final on Sunday

3 and above.

Enjoy the final on Sunday

2 and above.

Enjoy the final on Sunday

1 and above.

Enjoy the final on Sunday

9 and above.

Well played. Enjoy the final on Sunday

10 and above.

Well played. Enjoy the final on Sunday

11 and above.

Well played. Enjoy the final on Sunday

12 and above.

Well played. Enjoy the final on Sunday

13 and above.

Well played. Enjoy the final on Sunday

14 and above.

Well played. Enjoy the final on Sunday

15 and above.

Well played. Enjoy the final on Sunday

16 and above.

Well played. Enjoy the final on Sunday

17 and above.

Well played. Enjoy the final on Sunday

0 and above.

Enjoy the final on Sunday

18 and above.

Well played. Enjoy the final on Sunday

Bulgaria exploded in pure identity, while the rest of the world enjoyed a moment of luscious joy in the misfortune of another

Not much makes the world simultaneously bigger and smaller, but the World Cup boasts that precise, precious capacity. While celebrating our differences – all those songs, all those chyrons, all those haircuts – it also highlights our similarities – all those souls, all those feelings, all that love – which together compel our species into a single endeavour of collective bliss.

But rarely has rapture been as rampant as when Yordan Letchkov’s header gave Bulgaria victory over Germany at USA 94. His team weren’t even meant to be there; needing to beat France in their final qualifier, the score was 1-1 with 90 minutes played. But then out of nowhere a fantastic pass from Lyuboslav Penev found Emil Kostadinov racing towards the box … and he absolutely mulleted a sensational finish in off the bar. “God is Bulgarian!” hollered Nikolay Kolev in commentary. “God is Bulgarian!”

The latest in a Guardian Print Shop series featuring classic sports images from the likes of Gerry Cranham, Mark Leech and Tom Jenkins – yours to own for just £55 including free delivery

• Also, check out our ‘Euro Classics’ prints featuring the likes of Ruud Gullit and Paul Gascoigne

Footballing legend Jack Charlton died last week aged 85, leaving behind memories of a glittering playing career for both England, with whom he won the World Cup in 1966, and Leeds United. He played for the Yorkshire club 773 times – a club record – and enjoyed two spells in the top flight, the latter of which saw Leeds become a dominant domestic force under manager Don Revie. A tough-tackling centre-back, Charlton marshalled their defence as Leeds won the League Cup in 1968, the league title in 1969 and the FA Cup in 1972. He and his teammates also recorded the now famous “Leeds, Leeds, Leeds” song in the lead up to the 1972 cup final. Originally a B-side, the anthem is still proudly sung at Elland Road as the club march closer and closer to a return to the Premier League.

The best stories from the beautiful game that you may never have heard before, written by some of the world’s leading sports journalists, and spanning more than 100 years of sporting history from across the footballing planet.

In this episode: Primetime TV would prove the inspiration for one of the most shambolic managerial appointments in football history.

• How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know

Read the text version here

As the Premier League kicks off, meet the supporters changing the face of the beautiful game

Manchester City’s 22 June match against Burnley – a brisk, 5-0 dismantling in the ghostly expanse of a spectator-free Etihad Stadium – will not go down as a vintage contest of the Covid-disrupted 2019/20 Premier League season. But it will, regardless, live on ignominiously in the memory. Shortly after the kick-off of a game that had begun with players, staff and officials taking a knee in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, the whirr of a light aircraft was heard overhead. Eyes went up. And there it was: a chartered plane towing a banner that read: “WHITE LIVES MATTER BURNLEY”.

The public outcry was swift (Burnley promised lifetime bans for those involved; the alleged key organiser, Jake Hepple, was sacked by the engineering company he worked for). But for those who have been paying attention to the atmosphere around domestic football in recent years – a climate that has seen a Brighton supporter jailed for eight weeks after screaming racist obscenities during a Tottenham game; and an FA Cup fourth round qualifier abandoned because Yeovil Town fans were hurling slurs and objects at Haringey Borough’s black players – this incident was both wholly shocking and grimly predictable.

Sky’s Soccer Saturday host on sackings, saving someone’s life without knowing it and changing his views on female pundits

“It’s been a difficult few weeks because it would be like I’ve lost the entire midfield just before the start of the season,” Jeff Stelling says as, in a deserted pub in Winchester, I compare him to a football manager. The usual giddy optimism of a new season is missing for Stelling as he starts his 22nd year of hosting a bizarre but cherished Saturday afternoon programme in which he barks out scores across the English and Scottish leagues while four former footballers in the Sky studio watch games on television monitors we cannot see. A seemingly ludicrous concept has worked seamlessly ever since Stelling helped launch Soccer Saturday in 1998 – four years after he joined Sky’s Sports Saturday programme.

This Saturday will not be the same. Three of Stelling’s four closest colleagues have been axed from the show and the 65-year-old host, whose good cheer and smooth professionalism provide the bedrock on which Soccer Saturday has built its popularity, still seems hurt and perplexed. Phil Thompson, Charlie Nicholas and Matt Le Tissier were told last month they were no longer wanted by Sky.

Kelly Cates on pundit wrangling, the challenge of broadcasting during a pandemic, and why she can’t wait to get back to work

I love that this season is starting in September. It’s always felt like the best time for a fresh start, to coincide with the change of seasons and the new school year. I’ve already stocked up on stationery for work and have a rainbow of coloured pens and highlighters. I much prefer to work off paper and find that the information filters through better if I write it down, but it usually ends up on an iPad for practical reasons. Sadly, evolution hasn’t yet caught up with my need for more than two hands to hold a microphone, steady a strong-willed umbrella in a gale, balance a sheaf of papers and still retain the capacity to handle the microphones thrust at me by departing players and managers.

The first live game back for me is at Anfield for Liverpool v Leeds. I can’t think of an opening-day fixture where the absence of fans is going to be felt more keenly. There’s a school of thought that the historic old grounds are never really empty. That they hold the energies of past atmospheres and ghosts of previous games and while that description suits my overly romantic nature and may well have an element of truth when completely unoccupied, I can tell you that on a Covid matchday, it’s a load of rubbish.

How the manager rebuilt Leeds – and why he wanted hillocks removed and a wood stove installed at the training ground

There was consternation at Leeds council. Why had a painted blue line appeared on the streets of Wetherby, running from outside Marcelo Bielsa’s flat to Leeds’s Thorp Arch training ground? The call duly went into the club to ask the question and it is good fun imagining the reaction. “Blue paint? Ah, OK. Yes. Absolutely. Yes. Ridiculous. We’ll look into it. Yes. We know.”

Bielsa and one of his assistants, a wizened old guy from Chile, had been spotted walking the route with a trundle wheel and the video was uploaded to social media. It looked like a scene from Last of the Summer Wine and the paint would appear the following day. Apparently, the Leeds manager had planned to cycle into work and he did not want to have to concentrate on the logistics, merely lock on to the blue line and leave his mind free to think about other things – namely his club’s quest for Premier League promotion.

Eidur Gudjohnsen’s son, the new Paul Pogba and Barça’s Ansu Fati are among our 60 most talented players in the world born in 2002. Check the progress of our 2018 picks | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014

^{Photographs by DZfoot, BackpagePix, Club Atlético Belgrano, EFE, EPA, Getty Images, Uwe Gruen/Hoffenheim, AMA/Getty Images, Rex/Shutterstock, Zuma Press/PA, FIFA, Tigres, Damir Krajac/CROPIX, Alamy, Daniel Reyes/Ecuafutbol, Reuters, Atromitos, Imago/PA, fotoBERNAMA, New Straits Times, José Alonso Paredes Sánchez, Agencja Gazeta, David Price/Arsenal FC/Getty, AP, Asian Football Confederation, Danubio FC and Championat Asia}

The Guardian selects the best young players at each club born between 1 September 2002 and 31 August 2003, an age band known as first-year scholars. Check the progress of class of 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014

_{Photographs by David Price/Arsenal/Getty Images, Neville Williams/Aston Villa/Getty Images, AFC Bournemouth, Paul Hazlewood/BHAFC, Paul Dennis/TGS/Shutterstock, Clive Howes/Chelsea/Getty Images, Danny Loo/PPAUK, Emma Simpson/Everton/Getty Images, Nick Taylor/Liverpool/Getty Images, Manchester City/Getty Images, Ash Donelon/Manchester United/Getty Images, Jason Dawson/Jasonpix, James Wilson/Sportimage, Simon Bellis/Sportimage, Robin Jones/Digital South/Southampton FC, Tottenham Hotspur/Getty Images, Alan Cozzi/Watford, Arfa Griffiths/West Ham United and Sam Bagnall/AMA}

From Rashford to Tielemans, we check in on how our initial Next Generation players have got on before the 2019 ones are announced this week

• Harley Willard: what happened next to one 2014 selection?

In 2014 we decided that it would be interesting to pick the best young players from each Premier League club – as well as 40 from around the world – and follow them for five years to see how they progressed.

The idea was to try to get a sense of how difficult it is to become a professional footballer despite being one of the best in that country at the age of 16 or 17.