» Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend
Lucas Paquetá is struggling, Ruud van Nistelrooy nears Old Trafford farewell and will Luis Díaz play as a striker again?
Brentford have scored nine and conceded six in their past two Premier League home games. Their leaky defence did not cost them in victories over Wolves and Ipswich but they were shown up by Harry Wilson’s injury-time double on Monday night at Fulham to suggest things need to improve at the back. Wilson’s goals both came from crosses. Brentford allowed Fulham to cross the ball 43 times, although Thomas Frank was not too worried about it and was surprisingly relaxed that they led to two goals. With Ethan Pinnock and Nathan Collins, he does have centre-backs capable of dealing with the majority but it is a dangerous game to play. Bournemouth will have taken note and their fine wingers and full-backs will probably target the space afforded out wide. Will Unwin
Brentford v Bournemouth, Saturday 3pm (all times GMT)
Crystal Palace v Fulham, Saturday 3pm
West Ham v Everton, Saturday 3pm
Wolves v Southampton, Saturday 3pm
Brighton v Manchester City, Saturday 5.30pm
Liverpool v Aston Villa, Saturday 8pm
Manchester United v Leicester, Sunday 2pm
Nottingham Forest v Newcastle, Sunday 2pm
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» Amad Diallo ends Manchester United’s European drought by seeing off Paok
Hold on to your hat: Manchester United are victorious in Europe after three consecutive Europa League draws and three more games without winning in last season’s Champions League.
So a 380-day drought stretching to a 1-0 win over FC Copenhagen at Old Trafford ends courtesy of Amad Diallo, whose explosive wing play was crowned by his double. The first was a clever 50th-minute header. The second an exhibition of aggressiveness as he mugged Abdul Baba along the right, shrugged off the defender’s manhandling, then fired a shot into the left corner, via a deflection.
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» Victor Osimhen fires Galatasaray past Spurs as Lankshear scores and sees red
When everyone had gathered breath, the only surprise was that Tottenham had run Galatasaray so close. There was certainly little shock in the fact that these particular teams contrived a wild, breathless encounter whose openness could have lent itself to a cricket score. Such a tally would have run in the home side’s favour had they converted a seemingly endless string of chances, Victor Osimhen spurning enough openings for a double hat-trick, and the patched up nature of Spurs’s side was only partly an excuse for their inability to assert any control.
Osimhen had to content himself with two first-half goals and, in the end, Galatasaray won because they were just about clinical enough before the interval. They fluffed their lines frequently thereafter and Ange Postecoglou was correct that Tottenham, down to 10 men for the final half-hour, improbably looked the likelier scorers in the dying moments. If Dejan Kulusevski had taken the chance to catch out the goalkeeper Fernando Muslera during added time, Galatasaray’s unwillingness to apply the handbrake would have been shown up.
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» Lee Carsley says he has not spoken to Thomas Tuchel about England squad
- Carsley: ‘He is fully respectful that I am in charge’
- Harwood-Bellis and Hall called up for Nations League matches
Lee Carsley has revealed he is yet to speak to Thomas Tuchel about the England squad he will hand over to him in the new year.
Carsley is preparing for his final camp as the interim head coach, taking in the Nations League ties against Greece in Athens next Thursday and the Republic of Ireland at Wembley three days after, and his headline selections were the first call-ups for the left-back Lewis Hall and the centre-half Taylor Harwood-Bellis.
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» Europa League roundup: Dessers grabs Rangers point at Olympiakos
- Philippe Clement’s side still in contention to progress
- Shamrock Rovers beat TNS in Conference League
Rangers’ hit-and-miss striker Cyriel Dessers redeemed himself against Olympiakos with a second-half equaliser in the 1-1 Europa League draw in Greece.
On a night when the Rangers captain, James Tavernier, was dropped to the bench, the visitors did lots of things right in the first half but Dessers, who regularly frustrates his own fans, spurned two good opportunities and there were other half-chances for the Scottish side.
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» João Félix leads the onslaught as Chelsea hammer eight past Noah
- Chelsea 8-0 Noah
- Félix and Nkunku hit doubles in thrashing
When the idea for the Conference League first came to Uefa, it is unlikely that anybody in Nyon envisaged that one day a club of Chelsea’s means would be pumping six unanswered first-half goals past an Armenian side who were founded only seven years ago.
The point is that this competition was brought into existence for the benefit of Europe’s smaller clubs. There is little for Chelsea to gain, much as the prospect of adding another European trophy to their extensive haul will appeal to their supporters, and the truth is there was something faintly preposterous about this 8-0 victory over Noah.
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» Arsenal happy to take as long as six months over Edu replacement
- Jason Ayto to step up during recruitment process
- Mikel Arteta expected to play a key role in appointment
Arsenal intend to take their time over appointing Edu’s successor as sporting director, with his deputy, Jason Ayto, set to step until the recruitment process has been completed.
Mikel Arteta admitted before Wednesday’s 1-0 defeat at Inter that the Brazilian’s departure had taken Arsenal by surprise and “everything happened very quickly”. It is understood that Edu – who is expected to join the multi-club network of Nottingham Forest’s owner, Evangelos Marinakis, on a reported £5m a year – is beginning a six-month notice period with reduced responsibilities as Arsenal look for a replacement.
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» Coventry sack Mark Robins, Championship’s longest-serving manager
- Sky Blues sit 17th in Championship after poor start
- Coventry interested in Wycombe’s Matt Bloomfield
Coventry City have made the surprise decision to sack Mark Robins, with the Championship club’s board unhappy over “the performance of the team over an extended period” despite describing the 54-year-old as one of the Sky Blues’ “greatest ever managers”.
Robins was the longest-serving manager in the second tier and third longest-serving in the top four divisions, having been appointed in 2017, and he oversaw two promotions from League Two to the Championship. Robins also nearly guided Coventry back to the Premier League, having lost the 2022-23 Championship playoff final on penalties to Luton Town, and was again unfortunate at Wembley last season in the FA Cup semi-final loss to Manchester United, another shootout defeat.
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» Kylian Mbappé left out of France’s latest squad after Deschamps talks
- Didier Deschamps says he has made a ‘one-off decision’
- Player will sit out the matches against Israel and Italy
The Real Madrid forward Kylian Mbappé was not named in France’s squad to face Israel and Italy in Nations League games, the head coach, Didier Deschamps, said on Thursday.
Deschamps did not say whether Mbappé, who played with his club in the 3-1 Champions League defeat by Milan on Tuesday, was injured, saying his choice was a “one-off decision” and that the player “wanted to come” and join the team.
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» Football Daily | Mings the merciful and a tale of two handballs
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A pint of foaming shaft belonging to the hardest bloke in the pub. The wrong child from nursery. Somebody’s else’s suitcase at the airport carousel. Who among us hasn’t picked something up by mistake and been forced to rue our error? However, few have done so as publicly as Tyrone Mings, who in front of 23,466 largely delighted attendees at the Jan Breydel Stadion, made the critical error of picking up the ball after a short goal kick had been prodded his way by Villa goalkeeper Emi Martínez during Aston Villa’s Bigger Cup match against Club Brugge. While Football Daily can only guess what was going through the skipper’s mind as he leaned over, picked up the ball and placed it on the edge of the six-yard box, we have a fair idea what his manager was thinking when the ref proceeded to award the home side a penalty for handball. Unai Emery’s expression ran the gamut from bafflement, through withering contempt and finally settled on pure thunder.
I can assure you that the fan who chucked a pig’s head on to the field at Corinthians v Palmeiras (yesterday’s Football Daily) was a Corintiano because no away fans are allowed into either stadium for derbies between these teams” – Ryan Lloyd.
In these corporate days of uber-professional football, with managers having a dozens of people in their coaching teams, marginal gains, and players having chefs, trainers and strict regimes, Mikel Arteta being so dozy he picks the ball up before it has gone out of play and Tyrone Mings being so unobservant he picks up the ball to place it for a goal kick just after Emi Martínez has already taken it is a heartening throwback to a bygone era. In which case, can we also bring back £5 admission and no waiting lists for season tickets?” – Noble Francis.
Arguably Celtic’s best European display for two decades received a paltry 22 words of coverage in my third favourite tea-time daily football email newsletter (yesterday’s News, Bits and Bobs, full email edition). That’s almost short enough to be conveyed in haiku form, in fact:
Celtic roars at home,
Leipzig silenced, three to one,
Press turns a blind eye” – Joe Brown.
Flogging the dead horse which is the ‘great headlines’ thread (Football Daily letters passim) while simultaneously patting myself on the back, I humbly submit one I wrote when working as a sports reporter/sub for the Slough and Windsor Observer. Windsor and Eton FC were knocked out of the FA Cup in the qualifying round by the Met Police and our headline was: ‘They fought the law … and the law won.’ Enough years have passed that I can confess that although I covered the fortunes of W&E, I was hoping they would lose solely so I could use that” – Andy Stiff.
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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» Hugo Lloris: how the gift of a luxury watch made me realise Spurs would accept second best
In exclusive extracts from his autobiography, the goalkeeper tells of his dismay at a well-meaning gesture by Daniel Levy before 2019 Champions League final
Less than a year after the World Cup final, I found myself in the Champions League final against Liverpool. In doing so, I became one of a very select band who had played in a Euros final, a World Cup final and then a Champions League final in succession. The day before the match, in Madrid, I ran into Dejan Lovren, the Reds’ defender and my former teammate at Lyon. “Hey, Hugo,” he called out. “You got the World Cup, you can let me have the Champions League!”
I did not let him have it. It was snatched from us. The penalty awarded by referee Damir Skomina 24 seconds into the match – when the ball struck Moussa Sissoko’s body and rebounded on to his hand – killed the final and wiped us out. From 2 June 2019, a change in the rules meant that a penalty would no longer follow if the ball struck a player’s hand after touching another part of their body. The final took place on 1 June 2019, and something which wouldn’t have been an offence the following day sealed the fate of the final before it had really begun.
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» VAR has magnified handball injustices – time to adjust the penalties | Max Rushden
In this week’s Champions League games players were punished for having arms and moving. I’ve lost sense of what handball is
The first draft of this column began with me rehashing one of my three anecdotes. Not the microwave or the six-pound peach, the one where I ranted on TalkSport about how repetitive and boring the Lord of the Rings films are to the point where the boss texted to ask whether I’d ever considered being so energised about football.
So it was with some disappointment when the editor sent this back to say I had used the same story TWO WEEKS AGO – literally my previous column! Nothing like repetition when criticising something for being repetitive. If I was smarter, I could say I meant it.
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» ‘Out of control’: Spain players open up on Rubiales in poignant documentary | Moving the Goalposts
The new Netflix programme shows how a controlling environment created factions in the team and how the problems predated Jorge Vilda
They still bear the scars. All of them. Scars from being infantilised, torn down, belittled, mocked, abused and divided.
Despite having confronted a status quo and a system built to protect and extend the stranglehold of those in power, with the odds against them, and having come out the other side, the scars are visible in the tears, the emotive retellings, and the stoic faces of the members of Spanish women’s national team.
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» Mark Robins gave Coventry hope against all odds: his hasty exit stinks of ingratitude | Jonny Weeks
Decay had set in this season but the manager helped a fanbase fall back in love with the club – he deserved more loyalty
Really? After almost eight years, two promotions, an agonising Championship playoff final defeat on penalties and a toenail offside which cost them a place in last year’s FA Cup final, Mark Robins has been sacked as Coventry City’s manager.
In English football’s top four divisions, only Pep Guardiola had been in his job longer – and let’s be honest, he had it easy in comparison. After Robins returned to the Sky Blues in 2017 for his second spell, he was a stabilising presence amid the surrounding tumult as the club became homeless and almost went bust. He operated under a vicious financial stranglehold at the hands of former owners Otium but somehow brought triumph after triumph, navigating a return to the Championship from the depths of League Two, overseeing four trips to Wembley and reigniting a fanbase that had fallen out of love with the club.
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» Champions League review: Slot and Amorim shine as a Swedish star rises
There were boosts for Liverpool and Manchester United (by proxy). We hand out honours and dishonours from the latest round of action
Liverpool
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» Arsenal have lost their fluency and Ødegaard’s return won’t solve it all | Barney Ronay
Although unlucky in Milan Arsenal have forgotten how to score away from home and are looking to returning captain
To borrow a line from Catch-22: just because you’re trailed around the continent by a frothing cloud of online paranoia over questionable refereeing decisions, doesn’t mean the game isn’t also out to get you.
Arsenal were undoubtedly a little unlucky in the divvying up of competing penalty claims during the first half of this 1-0 defeat by Inter at the San Siro. But bad luck does also tend to look for a space to loiter, a ledge on which to perch. The continent-wide Masonic refereeing conspiracies may eventually get you in the end. But you can also make it difficult for them.
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» ‘Hard to accept’: Arteta hits out at penalty decision during Inter defeat
- Arsenal manager angry at handball against Mikel Merino
- ‘I don’t understand – it’s a deflection. There is no danger’
Mikel Arteta was left fuming after a controversial penalty for Inter ended Arsenal’s unbeaten record in the Champions League.
The Arsenal manager felt that his side should also have been awarded a spot kick after Mikel Merino was “punched in the head” by Inter goalkeeper Yann Sommer just before the Spain midfielder was penalised for a handball inside his own area.
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» Championship roundup: Millwall’s rise continues as Tanganga sinks Leeds
- Leaders Sunderland held to draw at Preston
- Luton move out of drop zone with Cardiff win
Japhet Tanganga fired in-form Millwall to a 1-0 win over Leeds to move the hosts up to fifth in the Championship table.
The defender struck in the 40th minute to secure a fourth consecutive 1-0 victory for Neil Harris’s side and hand Leeds just their second league defeat of the season.
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» Lopetegui’s position to be reviewed if West Ham suffer Everton setback
- Manager under increasing pressure after poor start
- Club alarmed to be only six points above bottom three
West Ham will review Julen Lopetegui’s position if they lose at home to Everton on Saturday. Although the hope is that the manager will turn the situation around, he is under increasing pressure after a poor start and another setback would leave him hanging by a thread.
There have been mixed signals over Lopetegui’s immediate future and the sense at the start of this week was that the Everton game was not viewed as make or break. David Sullivan, West Ham’s majority shareholder, has a history of sticking by his managers. But the club are hugely alarmed to be only six points above the bottom three after last weekend’s defeat by Nottingham Forest. At the minimum it is believed that losing again would prompt West Ham to use the international break to line up short- and long-term candidates to take over.
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» Is this really all about Rodri? Reasons behind Manchester City’s slump
After three straight defeats for Guardiola’s team, the run can be blamed on injuries but also some surprising tactics
With Kyle Walker’s knee injury meaning he was unable to apply his afterburners and torch any Sporting attack that broke Manchester City’s high line on Tuesday, Pep Guardiola’s team lacked the speed in their rearguard to counter how most opposition hope to prosper against them. Even with Walker in the side this classic way to break down the Premier League champions can be successful and with the captain an unused replacement at the Estádio José Alvalade, alongside Nathan Aké – and John Stones and Rúben Dias not fit enough to travel – a lack of defensive nous is also costing them. Jahmai Simpson-Pusey was given a full debut, the day after he turned 19.
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» Edu’s Arsenal exit explained: transfer trouble and the Joorabchian connection | Ed Aarons
Director’s decision to leave Emirates to join the Marinakis setup raised eyebrows but the club dynamic had changed
Evangelos Marinakis is no stranger to acquiring footballers but the Nottingham Forest owner was an interested observer at a different kind of auction last month. The Tattersalls October Yearling Sale at Newmarket was particularly busy for Kia Joorabchian’s Amo Racing group, with the renowned football agent shelling out more than £8m on three signings – including £4.6m on a filly produced by the great Frankel and the 2018 Royal Ascot winner AlJazzi. “God, I hope we haven’t bought a dud,” Joorabchian commented to the Racing Post this week on his record-breaking spending spree.
Those purchases took Amo Racing’s outlay this year to more than £24m for the group fronted by Joorabchian, who is perhaps best known for his role as representing Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano for their controversial moves to West Ham. The 53-year-old has made no secret of his desire to make an impact in the sport of kings and lists a member of the Qatari royal family as one of the investors in Amo Racing. It remains to be seen whether Marinakis plans to follow suit. After he was spotted with Joorabchian at June’s prestigious Goffs London Sale, the Greek shipping magnate said he was not part of the investment group. “No, I’m just here to enjoy the day,” he said.
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» Steph Houghton: ‘That human touch wasn’t there with England. I felt let down’
The former England captain on the quest for parity, struggling under Sarina Wiegman, and her husband’s battle with MND
“There were times when I thought: ‘I don’t want to do this any more,’” Steph Houghton says as she remembers the hard years when she led the struggle to gain some parity for women in the unequal world of English football. Houghton won 121 caps for England, and captained her country from 2014 to 2021, but her most significant achievements happened far from the pitch. She worked closely with a small group of fellow players and went into battle with male executives, managers, administrators and sponsors who showed an often demeaning attitude towards women’s football.
The 36-year-old Houghton looks up, her gaze full of the fire and frustration she felt when it was difficult to make a lasting breakthrough. “I’d come in from training, having sacrificed time with my husband for a meeting, and take a call and feel deflated. You’d be like: ‘What is the point in this?’ But that’s why you need a group around you because, when you do get pissed off, that’s when someone else steps up and fights. So I’m very grateful it wasn’t just me. There were a number of people who had such a big influence on the changes we eventually made.”
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» David Squires on … Rúben Amorim’s big job and suspicious minds elsewhere
Our cartoonist on Manchester United’s hive mind choosing the next manager and José Mourinho’s latest antics
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» Nostalgic Serie A five-a-side teams: picking a lineup for … Milan
Marco van Basten is the only non-Italian to make this team that spent a combined 84 years in a Milan shirt
By Mark Gordon for The Gentleman Ultra
You often hear the phrase ‘nice problem to have’ being used when it comes to a manager with a selection headache due to having a lot of players. The sheer number of quality if not legendary, players who have donned the famous Rossoneri shirt of Milan made this task near impossible. In the end, there were a few players who simply could not be left out, under any circumstances. The nice problem of having so many players to choose from wasn’t so nice when I had to leave out some of my favourite players. That said, the five I settled on would be unbeatable.
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» Rúben Amorim reluctantly takes centre stage after farewell gift to Sporting fans | Simon Burnton
The incoming Manchester United manager delivered a Champions League rout of Manchester City on an emotional night
After the final whistle Rúben Amorim trudged on to the pitch clutching his gilet, realised the next 10 minutes of his life would be better spent without a gilet and trudged off again to get rid of it. It was the only misstep of an extraordinary final evening at a raucous José Alvalade, during which his side conceded after just four minutes, somehow clung on to a single-goal deficit during an opening 35 minutes in which Manchester City threatened to bring his era to a jarringly humiliating conclusion, and then across a remarkable second half executed a joyful filleting of the English champions.
After this result the first thing Amorim will have to manage in Manchester is expectation, and that work started straight after the game. Asked if he had a message for United’s fans, he did not hesitate: “This means nothing,” he said. “Don’t take anything from this. We were lucky. It was a one-off. It doesn’t mean anything.”
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» Goalkeeper pulls off amazing save despite getting foot trapped in net – video
Frankie Leonard from Bearsted FC made an incredible save in their game against Fisher FC despite his foot getting stuck in the net, after he ran back to his goal to chase down a lob that hit the bar. Despite Leonard's heroics, Fisher claimed a 1-0 win in their Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division encounter
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» Rúben Amorim warns 'Manchester United cannot play the way Sporting do' – video
Rúben Amorim said Sporting’s 4-1 rout of Manchester City was a dream way to sign off in his last home game as head coach but warned that when taking over Manchester United he cannot be as 'defensive' as the Portuguese champions. 'We cannot transport one reality to another,' he said. 'United cannot play the way we play, they cannot be so defensive. Of course it’s good to beat City. But I’ll be living in a different world, we’ll have to start from a different point'.
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» 'Nobody watches': José Mourinho embarks on VAR-inspired rant about Turkish football – video
José Mourinho has slammed the quality of refereeing and the VAR in Turkish football after he watched Fenerbahce defeat Trabzonspor 3-2 in their Super Lig match. Mourinho stated he'd never watched the league before and suggested few people outside of Turkey do, but added that he had been warned about what may happen on the pitch before he arrived to take charge
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» Moments of silence held for Spanish flood victims before La Liga games – video
A moment of silence was held before Barcelona v Espanyol, Atlético Madrid v Las Palmas and Sevilla v Real Sociedad to pay tribute to the victims of the recent Spanish flooding. The floods rank as the deadliest in Spain’s modern history and the number of people missing remains unknown.
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» Mikel Arteta says Arsenal 'weren’t our best version' in defeat by Newcastle – video
Newcastle beat Arsenal 1-0 at St James' Park thanks to an early header from Alexander Isak, making it six league games since Arsenal kept a clean sheet. Mikel Arteta said: "It's not about the hope of winning the title, it's about being our best version every single week. Today, certainly, we weren't our best version."
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» Diego Simeone says 'it makes no sense' for teams to play in Spain after floods disaster – video
Several matches in La Liga have been postponed after Spain experienced the deadliest floods in the country's modern history. At least 211 people have been killed after four days of rain flooded Valencia. But Atlético Madrid and Barcelona are playing on Sunday against Las Palmas and Espanyol, respectively. Atlético manager Diego Simeone said: 'I think we are in a situation where they tell us that we have to go on and on we go.' Barça counterpart Hansi Flick added: 'I think it's not easy to make the decision of what to do.'
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» Jackson Irvine: ‘This Bundesliga experience is what I’ve always craved’ | Joey Lynch
The St Pauli captain and Australia midfielder believes he is only getting better at the age of 31 while leading a club closely aligned with his values
The streets surrounding the Millerntor-Stadion, deep in the heart of the St Pauli district of Hamburg, are blanketed with stickers. There are posters and other decorations too, but it is the sheer volume of brown, white, red and black decals dotting the walk from the Reeperbahn that catches the eye. They’re celebrating FC St Pauli, as well as the numerous fan and ultra groups that pledge their allegiance to the Bundesliga club and the values that have helped it gain a level of global standing that far outweighs its accomplishments on the pitch. Rainbow flags and anti-fascist messaging also stand out on the walk to the ground, as do warnings that Nazis have no place here.
On a roller door next to a coffee shop is a sticker featuring captain Jackson Irvine alongside four teammates, their heads drawn on a mountainside to create a version of Mount Rushmore. The caption is a rallying cry “geht nicht zu bruch!” which roughly translates to “this won’t be broken!”. It’s one of several decorations to be found bearing the Socceroo’s likeness in the vicinity, but given that he’s a regular at this cafe – some of the staff even wearing his wife’s Ur So Cool brand of clothing – it seems an apt place for the homage to be found.
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» Rennes’ turnover model becomes talent trap in season of reckoning | Eric Devin
Julien Stéphan’s side were once a guide for sustainable growth, but has player-churn policy led to Ligue 1 slump?
By Eric Devin for Get French Football News
Have Rennes taken it too far in their constant churn of players? The likes of Eduardo Camavinga, Jérémy Doku and Ousmane Dembélé have all benefited from their time at Roazhon Park, a club which has made its name selling and producing young players and investing the proceeds. In recent years, the club also became a regular in Europe, having not missed out since 2017-18 – at least until this season.
With their coffers swelling from their turnover in player sales and regular participation in European football, one would have thought that recent heavy investment in their playing staff – Enzo Le Fée, Amine Gouiri and Arnaud Kalimuendo each cost more than €20m, a statement sum for any team aside from Paris Saint-Germain – would have kept this going at a canter.
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» Former Manchester United striker Dwight Yorke named Trinidad and Tobago head coach
- 52-year-old was captain of Soca Warriors at 2006 World Cup
- Yorke was sacked from only other manager role in Australia
Dwight Yorke has been named head coach of Trinidad and Tobago, aiming to lead the home islands back to the World Cup.
The appointment comes after Yorke was controversially sacked from his only other coaching job in Australia with Macarthur, which he led to the national cup title in 2022 before leaving last year. Yorke later won a settlement case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport against the club over the dismissal.
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» Saudi Arabia World Cup bid report accused of ‘whitewashing’ rights abuses
Law firm AS&H Clifford Chance failed to include alleged abuse of migrant workers in assessment for Fifa 2034 bid, say rights groups
A report by the Saudi arm of a global law firm on Saudi Arabia’s 2034 Fifa World Cup bid has “whitewashed” the Gulf kingdom’s record of exploiting and suppressing the rights of migrant workers, rights groups have claimed.
AS&H Clifford Chance was commissioned to independently assess the human rights implications of the bid, but the report “contains no substantive discussion of extensive and relevant abuses in Saudi Arabia”, according to a statement released by 11 organisations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
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» Old habits die hard in Turkish football despite wonderkids thriving abroad | Michael Butler
Turkey’s golden generation owes little to domestic academies but Galatasaray, who face Spurs next week, are at least starting to move away from high-earning veterans
Turkish football is having a bit of a moment. The teenager Kenan Yildiz – recently given the No 10 shirt at Juventus and a contract until 2029 – was the saviour for the Bianconeri at the weekend, scoring two late goals in the Derby d’Italia to earn a remarkable 4-4 draw at Inter. Hakan Calhanoglu missed that match but on Monday he became the first Turkish man to feature on the Ballon d’Or shortlist since 2003, finishing 20th above Bukayo Saka and Cole Palmer, among others. Oh, and then there’s Real Madrid’s Arda Güler, the nation’s unequivocal poster boy, who was voted the second best young player in the world – behind only Lamine Yamal – in the Ballon d’Or’s Kopa Trophy award.
Bolstered by these talents playing overseas, Turkey look stronger than they have in decades, and were unfortunate not to beat Netherlands in their Euro 2024 quarter-final. Yet of the 10 outfield players that started against the Dutch only four players were born in the country or brought through a Turkish academy. The pathway for domestic-based Turkish talent remains filled with obstacles.
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» Cheerful Conte has Napoli dreaming again after clinical win at Milan | Nicky Bandini
It is too early to talk of a title tilt by the 2023 champions but their mastery of small details and swagger bodes well
When Antonio Conte looks this happy, you know it is time for rivals to start worrying. The Napoli manager grinned broadly as he strode about his old stomping ground at San Siro, acclaiming players, clapping backs and dispensing belligerent bear hugs. “This is one of the best groups I have worked with in my career,” he told the broadcaster Dazn. “I’m breathing clean, beautiful air. I’m breathing the passion and the enthusiasm.”
His team had just beaten Milan 2-0, moving seven points clear at the top of Serie A after 10 games. A fleeting moment – the teams immediately behind them are yet to play in this midweek round – but still an astonishing turnabout for a Napoli side who finished 41 points behind the champions, Inter, last season.
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» ‘I want to inspire’: Jackline Juma on historic manager’s job in men’s Kenyan Premier League
Division’s first female coach discusses the reaction from the club’s players and fans and why she is not feeling pressure
“I can say so far so good,” Jackline Juma says, two and a half months after becoming the first female coach of a men’s team in the Kenyan Premier League. Results have been mixed after five points from five games but there are signs of progress that FC Talanta are on course to achieve her first target: avoiding a repeat of last season’s relegation battle, when the Nairobi club survived by a point. Really though, the 38-year-old wants a top-six finish in the 18-team league.
There is, of course, a bigger picture. Being a female coach of a top-tier professional men’s team could be a gamechanger if it goes well, but what if it doesn’t? “I don’t feel the pressure of being a representative female coach,” Juma says. “The chances of failing are possible; all coaches know that. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose but when you do [lose] it must be a learning process. I do not feel pressure as I know I am capable.”
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» Nostalgic Serie A five-a-side teams: picking a lineup for … Pisa
The Tuscan club have been out of the Italian top flight since 1991, but still boast a couple of familiar names
By Michele Tossani for The Gentleman Ultra
Picking a five-a-side team for a side whose glory days were 30 years ago could look like a mere rhetorical exercise. But we are still talking about a squad representing Pisa, one of the best-known and most visited Italian cities. Who doesn’t know the Leaning Tower of Pisa?
Pisa is also well regarded for its famous Scuola Normale Superiore, considered one of the best universities in the world. The football club has never reached those heights; Pisa SC had its best days back in the 1980s, under the ownership of Romeo Anconetani, one of the classic small-club owners of that age.
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» Barça’s Lamine Yamal bares teeth and turns the Bernabéu into his playground | Sid Lowe
The 17-year-old became the youngest scorer in the clásico as Hansi Flick’s side ran riot in second half
A young boy with train-track braces in blue and red like Barça defeated the giant that couldn’t be defeated, he and his friends standing tall in the place where everyone else falls. There were 13 minutes left in the opening clásico of the season, the first of a new era that wasn’t supposed to be theirs, when Lamine Yamal Nasraoui Ebana bared his teeth.
Bared his teeth, pointed at the name on his shirt and danced with Alejandro Balde for a bit, four celebrations in one starting with a calm down, I’m here: down in the south-west corner of the Santiago Bernabéu smiling, the ball in the net for the third time, victory secured and history written. Maybe a new future too.
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» Next Generation 2024: 60 of the best young talents in world football
From Franco Mastantuono to Estêvão, we select some of the most talented players born in 2007. Check the progress of our classes of 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 … and look at the editions from further back
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» Next Generation 2024: 20 of the best talents at Premier League clubs
We pick the best youngsters at each club born between 1 September 2007 and 31 August 2008, an age band known as first-year scholars. Check the progress of our classes of 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 … and look at the editions from further back
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» Next Generation 2023: 60 of the best young talents in world football
From Warren Zaïre-Emery to Endrick, we select some of the best players born in 2006. Check the progress of our classes of 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018
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» Gianluca Busio, Gio Reyna and the rest of Next Generation 2019: how have they got on?
The two Americans were on our list five years ago but their paths show the professional game is rarely straightforward
Career paths are rarely straightforward, whether in football or any other area of life. Circumstances often change. Injuries and illnesses happen, there are often changes in leadership which have an impact on the individual while personal lives also play a part.
Career paths are therefore very difficult to predict. Looking down the list of our 2019 Next Generation, which we have now followed for five years, there were no guarantees any of the players would become household names. OK, Alex Holiga, who covers the Balkans for us, was confident that Josko Gvardiol would make it big – which he has – but apart from him, and perhaps Ansu Fati, Eduardo Camavinga and Jérémy Doku, there were no certainties.
A remarkable year for the youngster. Made his Bundesliga debut on 18 January and has not looked back since. He now has 23 first-team appearances and has established himself as a starter and one of the most talented young players in Europe. “I’m still learning a lot tactically,” he said in August. “There is a very big difference between youth and professional football. Making the right movements and creating space for myself and others is what I still need to learn the most.
A tumultuous year for the young American who was caught in the crossfire of a feud between his own family and the USMNT coach, Gregg Berhalter, after the World Cup, during which he played a mere 52 minutes of the US’s four games. Injuries have once again hampered him but he is back to full fitness now and a US return seems likely too after talks with Berhalter.
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» Weston-super-Mare’s heartbreak, Arsène Wenger and the debate over football governance | Nick Ames
Decision to scrap FA Cup replays reopens discussion about what buckles next in an increasingly unsustainable calendar
Weston-super-Mare’s ground, the Optima Stadium, holds around 3,500 fans. It was last packed to the rafters when Doncaster Rovers arrived a decade ago, a convincing defeat hardly dampening the night’s magnitude. Had the clock stopped at 90 minutes in their FA Cup first round tie at Bristol Rovers on Saturday, a 1-1 draw would have guaranteed an occasion unmatched in their 137‑year history. The National League South side would have hosted a competitive derby against one of the local giants for the first time; broadcasters would almost certainly have been interested and the five‑figure windfall would not have harmed long-term ambitions to redevelop their home.
Instead the tie went to extra time and, as should be expected from a decently resourced League One team against flagging legs, Rovers pulled two goals clear. Weston-super-Mare’s time in the sun was over and, barring an unprecedented rise through the divisions, they will not hit radars again until whenever the FA Cup draw next falls in their favour. As a timely thread on X pointed out over the weekend, they were one of five non-league teams that missed out on a home replay for identical reasons. That would not have been the case before the Football Association’s decision in April that all FA Cup fixtures must be decided at the first time of asking, justified primarily by the imminent strain from expanded Champions League and Club World Cup competitions on those higher up the chain.
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» Ennui is The Thing: welcome to the death-football of late-stage capitalism | Barney Ronay
Manchester United and Chelsea demonstrate that boredom is a key part of the sport and an element of its beauty
Well, something definitely happened there. But what exactly? There is an affectionate joke about good, punchy Australian sports writing, which basically involves saying Here’s The Thing, right, then spelling out exactly what The Thing is in 800 brutally frank words, pounding The Thing into submission, shaking hands with The Thing, then, ideally, going off for a quick drink with The Thing.
What was the thing here? Trapped energy. Drift. Ennui. A good goal by Moisés Caicedo. The death-football of late-stage capitalism. Casemiro lying down a lot, often to surprisingly good defensive effect.
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» The WSL’s new TV deal is a great step forward but so much work remains
A £65m domestic deal is a positive start for the WPLL but what will it mean for fans and is it maybe for a year or two too long?
The Women’s Super League has secured a vital dose of off-pitch stability for the next five seasons, with the news that Sky Sports and the BBC have agreed a record £65m domestic television rights deal, and with it, the new company running England’s top divisions has completed one of its first essential assignments. When it took over in August, there could be no ifs, no buts, no excuses – it had to get a new broadcast agreement over the line swiftly, and it has done so, with a record fee to boot.
A word we have heard regularly from Women’s Professional Leagues Limited [WPLL] is that it is a “startup”. That is the embryonic stage it feels not only the WPLL, but the women’s game more broadly, is still at financially, after decades of relative underinvestment compared with men’s football. If that is the case, then like any other startup the WPLL will be delighted to have guaranteed such an income stream until 2030. It is a sizable uplift on the current deal, which is understood to be worth approximately £7m-£8m per year.
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» Football Daily | Pigs’ heads might fly if you brave the Corinthians v Palmeiras derby
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The Derby Paulista is a big football match. Possibly not as big as Take That singer Gary Barlow’s son, but fairly massive nonetheless. Contested by Corinthians and Palmeiras, rival sides in the Brazilian city of São Paulo, the most recent one was a league match played on Monday night and won 2-0 by Corinthians, whose striker Yuri Alberto scored one of their goals. However, the 23-year-old’s smart finish at the end of a lightning fast second-half counterattack wasn’t his only strike of note in the game. While the match was still scoreless with a little over 30 minutes played at Corinthians’ NeoQuimica Arena, Palmeiras were awarded a corner but before they could take it, Alberto trotted towards the sideline to boot a beanbag or pillow thrown from the crowd off the pitch. It was only on impact that he realised it wasn’t in fact a beanbag or pillow, but the disembodied head of an actual pig.
United cannot play the way we play, they cannot be so defensive. Of course it’s good to beat City. But I’ll be living in a different world” – Rúben Amorim, there, pouring a big jug of cold water all over the giddy hopes and dreams of Manchester United fans after Sporting’s 4-1 shellacking of the perennial Premier League champions.
Tuesday night was a disaster of epic proportions. After four years of continuing success by a brilliant team with world class leadership, our hopes were dashed resoundingly. It doesn’t augur well for the future and the winning man threatens to destroy all our hopes. (And Donald Trump defeating Kamara Harris wasn’t good news either)” – Don Berry (Manchester City fan for 70 years).
With reference to your previous letters on headlines, my favourite was when an unusually good performance from QPR’s Karl Ready back in the 90s led to the headline in the Ealing Gazette of ‘Top marks for Karl’” – David Rowland.
Milan comfortably beating the artist that used to be Real Madrid in Bigger Cup with four members of Frank Lampard’s transfer embargoed Chelsea (Pulisic, Tomori, Loftus-Cheek and Abraham) suggests that the Blues would have been far better off if they’d appealed to make the embargo permanent, not shorter” – Noble Francis.
Re: harsh red cards – I was playing in a top-of-the-table U18 junior league game and, on being fouled whilst going for goal and getting nothing from the ref, I uttered a frustrated swear word in a stage whisper which was clearly too loud. The ref, who was FA-approved while still the same age as the rest of us, shouted ‘No 10, come here, No 10!’ I trudged over to plead my case and he said: ‘I’m booking you for using foul language. What’s your name?’ I looked at him for a couple of seconds in disbelief. ‘What’s your name?’ he insisted. I said: ‘Mate … we’ve lived in the same street all our lives and been in the same class at school from the age of five to the present day. And you’re asking for my name?’ He promptly sent me off for (apparently) refusing to give my name. I subsequently had to appear before the County FA and was fined £4 – which at the time (1971) was two weeks’ paper round!” – Michael Goulding.
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» Sporting thrash City to give Amorim perfect farewell party – Football Weekly Extra
Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Lars Sivertson, and Philippe Auclair to discuss Tuesday night’s Champions League games
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: Rúben Amorim’s farewell gift to Sporting Lisbon is a 4-1 win over Manchester City, marking City’s third consecutive loss. The panel explored the abilities of hat-trick scorer Viktor Gyökeres and questioned whether it’s fair that we won’t see how far Amorim can take Sporting in this tournament.
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» Malard breaks duck for United and record WSL TV deal – Women’s Football Weekly podcast
Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzanne Wrack, Sophie Downey and Tim Stillman to chew over the WSL results and international action
On today’s pod, the panel talk through the 1-1 draw between Manchester United and Arsenal in which the dominant Gunners were denied victory by a late goal from Melvine Malard, who scored on her WSL for the home side.
Elsewhere, there were big away wins for City and Chelsea, and the pod show some love to the impressive form of Brighton and Nikita Parris.
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» Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend’s action
Forest and Bournemouth shine again, Gordon provides Toon tonic, while Gomez and Solanke are winning over doubters
If Ruud van Nistelrooy was supposed to wash the nostalgia out of the Manchester United system then perhaps that was achieved, though maybe not as intended. If Rúben Amorim was distracted from preparing Sporting for Manchester City on Tuesday, he will be more aware of a United squad bereft of confidence. United’s first 60 minutes against Chelsea saw them fumble pathetically for creativity. Not even the presence of one of the club’s greatest strikers has lifted the finishing quality in a group low on goals. Alejandro Garnacho and Marcus Rashford were both bereft of touch and instinct; substitute Joshua Zirkzee’s signing remains a mystery. There was something of Van Nistelrooy in Rasmus Højlund winning Bruno Fernandes’s penalty, and the goalscorer’s knee slide towards the tunnel at the Stretford End. But there was to be no Ferguson-era ecstatic denouement. This United don’t do them. Van Nistelrooy has two games remaining until United seek the progressive future postponed by mistakenly retaining Erik ten Hag. John Brewin
Match report: Manchester United 1-1 Chelsea
Match report: Newcastle 1-0 Arsenal
Match report: Tottenham 4-1 Aston Villa
Match report: Liverpool 2-1 Brighton
Match report: Wolves 2-2 Crystal Palace
Match report: Bournemouth 2-1 Manchester City
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» Women’s Super League: talking points from the weekend’s action
Arsenal’s Emily Fox stands out at United despite tricky buildup and Nikita Parris plays her part as Brighton go third
The Arsenal right-back Emily Fox defied her busier-than-usual international window to play a key role in their 1-1 draw at Manchester United. Fox was involved in all three of the United States’ games between 25 and 30 October, including playing the final half an hour of their 3-0 victory over Argentina on Wednesday in Louisville, Kentucky. It is understood that the 26-year-old’s flight home did not land until late on Friday afternoon, yet she was at her typically energetic best on Sunday. She played the full 90 minutes and crucially made a bursting run into the penalty area to unlock Manchester United’s defence and provide the assist for Alessia Russo’s opening goal. Arsenal’s interim head coach, Renee Slegers, said: “She came back with a delayed flight and performs like this, I’m very impressed. Foxy ended up making that run into the box pocket, and the timing of that run is just great, the first touch is very good and then her awareness of the run in the box, it’s a very good part of her performance.” TG
Match report: Manchester United 1-1 Arsenal
Match report: Everton 0-5 Chelsea
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» Have Ipswich recorded the longest sequence of palindromic results? | The Knowledge
Plus: plenty more pitch trickery, team captains on loan and the Manchester United player with a one-second career
“Borrowed from the excellent http://twtd.co.uk, Ipswich’s nine results so far this season form a mirror image/palindrome (0-2, 1-4, 2-2, 1-1, 0-0, 1-1, 2-2, 1-4, 0-2 seeing as you ask). Longer/longest streaks please!” tweets Nigel Smith.
Ipswich’s palindrome went pop when they lost 4-3 to Brentford at the weekend, unless they have an even longer one in mind and are going to lose 4-3 to Leicester on Saturday. The nine-match streak they inadvertently put together isn’t quite a record for the top four divisions in England. We know this because of Chris Roe’s Magic Database™.
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» Spain’s Bonmatí continues reign but Ballon d’Or contest is getting tougher
Barcelona star won again but teammates Caroline Graham Hansen and Salma Paralluelo will have run her close
Among the Parisian glitz and glamour, Aitana Bonmatí wrote herself into the headlines once again. As she was called to the stage to win her second Ballon d’Or Féminin award, the iconic Spaniard continues her reign at the very top of the women’s game. It was somewhat apt that she received her trophy from Natalie Portman, a sprinkling of Hollywood stardust to top the occasion.
There is no doubt that the 26-year-old midfield magician continued to be at the height of her powers as Barcelona dominated the European stage. I wrote in my Ballon d’Or piece last year that watching her play is a privilege and that sentiment has not waned. Over the course of last season, she was quite literally at the heart of her club’s success as they picked up every domestic trophy available (the Liga F title, the Copa de la Reina and Supercopa). She added another Champions League win to her collection and was named UWCL player of the season. Silverware also came for her country as Spain lifted the inaugural Nations League back in February and she was named player of the match in the final against France.
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» Football Daily | Sunderland’s French revolution leads weird and wonderful Championship
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Hands up who had heard of Régis Le Bris before the summer? Be honest … yeah, thought so. Sunderland supporters could have been forgiven for feeling a little underwhelmed at the appointment given their club had been linked (somewhat unrealistically) with Graham Potter and Steve Cooper, as well as the elusive Anglo-Belgian tactician Will Still. Le Bris landed in the Stadium of Light instead and even those familiar with his work harboured major doubts, given he’d just been relegated from Ligue 1 with Lorient. It’s easy to dig at Sunderland’s owners in the post-Netflix era but perhaps Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, the 27-year-old billionaire owner, has struck gold this time. So forget your Simon Graysons, your Chris Colemans, your Alex Neils, your Lee Johnsons – how many have we forgotten? – under Le Bris, the Black Cats are five points clear at the top after 12 games.
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» Rúben Amorim has the Ferguson aura but will the United job eat the rising star? | Jonathan Wilson
Old Trafford’s muddled succession planning has seen a host of talents flop but the Sporting manager shares that outsider glow
Forget the details, forget the noise. Forget the specifics. Imagine you run a big club on a losing streak. You are looking to appoint a new manager. What do you want, ideally? You want a young manager on the way up, someone fresh, with vision and drive and personality. Someone who could perhaps still be leading the club a decade later.
At the very highest level, most managerial careers are relatively short. The notion of a “proven winner” is a consoling but meaningless shorthand. There is no such thing; everything is fluid, everything is contingent; there is always a context; every career has an arc.
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» Sue Campbell: ‘After the Euros win I thought: how many girls have we lit a light in today?’
The former FA director of women’s football, who retired on Friday, believes the women’s game is in great shape but there is more to be done
When it transpired that eight-year-old Sue Campbell had not shown up to school for a week, despite her confused father knowing she had got on the bus each morning, he decided to follow her. The explanation soon became clear. Unable to play football at the all-girls school she had been sent to, she was getting off the bus at the local primary school, hiding in the bushes and jumping out to play football with the boys at break. “I was very naughty,” Baroness Campbell says. “But the boys I played football with every night in the street were getting better than me because they played every day at lunchtime, and I didn’t like that.”
Unable to pursue a career as a footballer, Campbell went on to play netball for England but frustration at the perception that girls could not play football was burning inside her again when she was later training to be a PE teacher and the course taught her how to teach netball, hockey, athletics and tennis. Which was why, when Martin Glenn, then the chief executive of the Football Association, approached her with a job offer in 2016 she could not resist it, even though she was at retirement age and could have been forgiven for wanting to put her feet up after her spell as the chair of UK Sport during the London 2012 Olympics.
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» The sports psychologist making a difference with a dog and a bench at Brentford
Michael Caulfield opens up the place where Bees’ players and staff are happy to air their thoughts and anxieties
“Any chance?” asks Michael Caulfield, Brentford’s sports psychologist, and with that Paisley, a lurcher-whippet with a marble-cake coat, hops out of the boot of his car at the training ground. He stops for a chat with the groundstaff, on their hands and knees repairing black netting chewed by urban foxes in this part of west London.
“When a fox sees Paisley, they scarper off to Surbiton,” Caulfield says, walking past the place he calls Augusta, by which he means the immaculate pitches in front of the Robert Rowan Performance Centre named after their technical director who died six years ago. “It sounds pathetic but I walked past his portrait this morning and went: ‘1-1 last night [against Sheffield Wednesday], penalties, you wouldn’t believe it, but we got there. Hope we get a home draw.’”
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» Mystifying culture of entitlement has left Arsenal unable to ride out adversity | Jonathan Wilson
Defeat at Newcastle latest example of defensive laxity and attacking bluntness that is undermining title challenge
Is that, then, it? On the first weekend of November, is Arsenal’s Premier League title challenge over for another season? Perhaps not quite, because Rodri’s absence and Arne Slot’s inexperience in the Premier League mean this could be an unusual campaign even before the possible consequences of the charges against Manchester City are taken into account. But if Arsenal are to win the league for the first time in 21 years, it is going to take a monumental improvement and, at the moment, they look a side who have lost their way and self-belief.
As a rule of thumb, in this era it takes a minimum of 90 points to win the Premier League. That means teams can only afford to drop 24; Arsenal have already dropped 12 – which is to say half what they can lose with a quarter of the season played. It’s true that the fixture list has not been kind, that they have already played their away games against Manchester City, Aston Villa, Tottenham and Newcastle, but still, their margin for error in the 28 games that remain is extremely limited.
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» The 100 best male footballers in the world 2023
Erling Haaland has been voted the best player in the world for 2023 by our 218-strong panel, with Jude Bellingham finishing second
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» The 100 best female footballers in the world 2023
Aitana Bonmatí, Sam Kerr and Salma Paralluelo top the list of female footballers in the world in 2023 according to our judges
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» Erling Haaland voted the world’s best player – and he’s just getting started | Niall McVeigh
The Norwegian is only 23 but his devastating goal record has seen him voted as the No 1 player in the world by the Guardian’s expert panel
When Pep Guardiola tearfully claimed Manchester City could not replace the departing Sergio Agüero in May 2021, he didn’t just create a meme. Guardiola was soft-launching a global audition for his team’s new attacking talisman. An unsuccessful pursuit of Harry Kane in the summer of 2021 came between two title-winning seasons where Ilkay Gündogan (13) and Kevin De Bruyne (15) were the club’s top league goalscorers. Guardiola’s slick creative machine needed a new front man, and they found him in Erling Haaland.
Like Agüero before him – and in contrast to many of City’s most successful Pep-era signings – Haaland arrived as a bona fide superstar, a plug-and-play addition to an already stellar lineup. Whether he was a bargain is another question. The release clause paid was €60m (£51.2m), but some reports suggest Haaland’s five-year deal could cost the club in the region of £300m. And while there was an ominous logic to the move for City’s rivals, questions remained.
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