Find a Football Team

It was a night when Borussia Dortmund penned one of the finest chapters in their history, a seemingly unremarkable team – low on stellar names – doing something utterly astonishing.

It has felt as though they have been written off repeatedly this season, starting with when they were plunged into the Champions League group of death. They won that with a measure of comfort, ahead of Paris Saint-Germain, Milan and Newcastle.

Italian formerly managed Bavarian club and claims he was not supported. He hopes to prevail in deep-seated rivalry again

Carlo Ancelotti said he was on the “good side” of European football’s grandest rivalry and, on the eve of the Champions League semi-final second leg between Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, revealed the ­Bavarian club did not support him when he was coach.

The Italian, though, insisted he remained friends with Uli ­Hoeness and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, the ­former president and chief ­executive ­respectively, and that the Bayern coach, Thomas Tuchel, would think he was on the good side too as the pair prepare for the most tense of ties, which starts level at 2-2. “Today, we enjoy; tomorrow, we will worry,” he said.

Change is probably coming with Manchester United playing so badly, so often, but this is a club trapped in constant transition

Erik ten Hag arrived at Manchester United promising to inspire flowing, thrilling transition football. And, you have to say, mission accomplished. You only had to watch Crystal Palace pouring forward at speed on Monday night, or Sheffield United bombing up the pitch at Old Trafford a couple of weeks ago, or indeed Coventry City in the recent FA Cup semi-final. Thanks to Ten Hag, United fans are being treated to sumptuous counterattacking fare on a near-weekly basis, even if – unhappily for Ten Hag’s job prospects – most of it these days seems to be getting played by the opposition.

Yes: it’s an even-numbered year, so we’re discussing whether the Manchester United manager should be sacked. And so to David Moyes (2014), Louis van Gaal (2016), José Mourinho (2018), Ole Gunnar Solskjær (a pandemic-delayed 2021) and Ralf Rangnick (2022) can almost certainly be added Ten Hag (2024), another well-credentialled manager who just didn’t have what it takes to manage a massive club like United. Seriously unlucky! How do they keep ending up with these guys?

Bolton secured their place in the League One playoff final despite being beaten by Barnsley at the Toughsheet Community Stadium as Ian Evatt’s side edged the visitors 5-4 on aggregate.

Holding the upper hand after last Friday’s 3-1 semi-final first-leg win at Oakwell, Bolton had their lead cut in the 36th minute by Sam Cosgrove before hitting back with a fine Aaron Collins strike and an Eoin Toal header in quick succession just prior to the break.

• Miami-based company accused of fraud amounting to £279m
• ‘We demand a decision now,’ Premier League is told

Everton shareholders have urged the club’s owner, Farhad Moshiri, and the Premier League to end the “farce” of a proposed takeover by 777 Partners after the troubled company was accused of fraud worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

The investment firm 777, co-founded by Josh Wander and Steven Pasko, agreed a deal to buy Moshiri’s 94.1% stake in Everton eight months ago but has been unable to meet the Premier League’s criteria for allowing the takeover to proceed. These include the repayment last month of a £158m loan to MSP Sports Capital and two local businessmen, Andy Bell and George Downing, with 777 having been granted a short-term extension to repay the loan. The Miami-based company was also reportedly late last week with a £15m loan to Everton for working capital. It has loaned the financially troubled club more than £200m.

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

Now then, where were we? The last time Football Daily preached to the masses [honk – Football Daily Ed], Jürgen Klopp was firing shots at TNT and waiting for Amnesty International to intervene over the crime that is the 12.30pm Saturday kick-off. By late Sunday, under the Anfield sunshine and in front of Sky cameras, the departing Liverpool manager was a much happier bunny, firing jubilant fist-pumps after his side’s 4-2 win over Tottenham. Yes, this was a long ol’ weekend built upon fierce mood and local election swings, which means it’s time for a recap Craig David would approve of. Saturday brought another routine Arsenal victory, their fourth on the bounce as Bournemouth were swept aside 3-0. Smiles all round, the Emirates still believing, bottles waiting to be popped … until, for the second weekend in a row, Manchester City cruised through their evening game to kill the mood in north London. Erling Haaland, clearly reeling from second-season syndrome after a staggering freshman year, scored just his, erm, wait … 33rd, 34th, 35th and 36th goals of the season. Trampolining at the far post to head home his second in a 5-1 demolition of Wolves, Haaland provided a reminder that he remains the biggest, meanest, scariest presence on the playground.

What is the matter with you? Where is the editor when editing is so badly required? The opening sentence on Jürgen Klopp (Friday’s Football Daily) was by my count 61 words long. Business English teachers suggest a sentence of 17 should be the maximum. Most of us can follow a line of thought quite well. Even sequences of related sentences, often referred to as ‘paragraphs’, are well within our grasp. Stop treating me as if I were stupid. The better technique is to write up to me, not down” – Murray Todd.

Let’s work this out together. David Moyes had a disastrous first go-around at West Ham. But the club brought him back, he sorted out the defence, and led them to European glory (well, Tin Pot). And he’s now available again. Moyes already had his first term at Manchester United, their defending is atrocious, and Europe beckons. Sing it with me. ‘♪ He’s coming home ♪ He’s coming home ♪ He’s coming ♪ Moyes is coming home’” – Mike Wilner.

One of the main reasons I think Arne Slot will seamlessly adapt to Anfield is that he is trading De Kuip for De Kop” – Peter Oh.

Can Mark Clattenburg be charged for bringing Gladiators into disrepute?” – Martyn Shapter.

As a rube from across the pond, I’m quite grateful for you alerting us to the presence of a Bank Holiday, as otherwise I’d be blaming a serendipitous glitch in the internet for the absence of a Football Daily missive. Just one question though: why do Brits celebrate certain holidays by going to banks? Seems terribly buttoned-down” – John Nielsen-Gammon.

• Owner Acun Ilicali says ‘visions for the future are not aligned’
• Rosenior’s playing style and results at Hull widely admired

Liam Rosenior has been sacked by Hull City after his team narrowly missed out on a Championship playoff place.

Hull finished seventh, three points behind sixth-placed Norwich, who are preparing to face Leeds in a playoff semi-final. Despite that disappointment Rosenior had impressed many onlookers during an 18-month stint.

• Forest three points above relegation zone with two games left
• Points docked for breach of profitability and sustainability rules

Nottingham Forest’s appeal against a four-point Premier League ­deduction for breaching ­profitability and ­sustainability rules (PSR) has been rejected.

Forest said when the ­punishment was imposed in March that they were “extremely ­disappointed” and claimed ­spending ­restrictions on ­promoted clubs ­undermined the league’s “integrity and competitiveness”.

With facilities destroyed and lives cut short, the conflict has brought destruction to a previously thriving sporting scene

Mohammed Abu-Hujair was booked on a flight to Spain last October. A scout from Real Madrid had visited Gaza in August and invited Mohammed, a 17-year-old who plays on the left wing, to join a football academy with the hope that, if he did well, he would stay in Spain. Mohammed also had the promise of a contract with Gaza Sport Club, making him one of the youngest players to sign with the team.

Then came the 7 October attacks on Israel, and the war in Gaza. Mohammed didn’t make that flight. “My life has turned upside down in a blink of an eye,” he says.

• Club announce end of Scotsman’s second stint in charge
• Former Spain and Real Madrid manager set to take over

West Ham are closing in on the appointment of Julen Lopetegui after confirming that David Moyes will leave his post as manager when his contract expires at the end of the season.

Lopetegui, who has been out of work since leaving Wolves last summer, has agreed a deal in principle to take over after holding multiple rounds of talks with the London Stadium club. The 57-year-old Spaniard was lined up after West Ham decided to shelve plans to hand a new deal to Moyes, who is set to depart after four and a half mostly successful years in east London.

Our cartoonist on the Tractor Boys embarking on another great adventure in the top flight after consecutive promotions

• Get yourself a copy of this cartoon in the Guardian Print Store
• Like what David does? Consider supporting our journalism

The competition latched on to the Matildas’ success but some feel that more could have been done to move the game forward

• Moving the Goalposts: sign up for our free newsletter

Was the 2023-24 A-League Women (ALW) season the best in the competition’s history? Possibly. There were certainly enough standout games, players, narrative, and intrigue to provide enough fuel to carry a long pub debate. What can be said more definitively, though, is that the campaign just concluded with Sydney FC edging Melbourne City to win a record fifth title was one of, if not the most consequential since the league’s inception.

Generally, you only get one post-World Cup season to capitalise and, after the 2023 tournament, this was the year for the ALW. And the ground was fertile. Putting aside their historic achievements on the field, what the Matildas achieved across that tournament was unprecedented, taking hearts and minds of the country in a stranglehold and altering what was thought achievable not just in women’s football, football, or sporting context, but on a cultural level itself.

Two female WSL managers are leaving for reasons of work-life balance. When it comes to sacrifice, it’s not the same for men

Famously, when Emma Hayes was agonising last autumn over whether to leave Chelsea and take the US national team job, she sought the advice of her son, Harry, at bedtime. “Let’s go to the USA, Mummy!” came the reply, a moment that Hayes later described as the “endorsement” she needed. And so we must at least brook the extremely funny possibility that an entire era of modern women’s football – from this season’s enthralling WSL title race, to the trajectory of Chelsea, Lyon and their European rivals, to the fate of the next Olympic Games and World Cup – will swing on the verdict of a sleepy five-year-old child.

And, frankly, why not? When you consider some of the decisions adults have taken for the health of the game in recent years, it’s hard to make the case that children would have done a markedly inferior job. A five-year-old child would certainly not have sanctioned the introduction of VAR, because waiting is boring, and they would have been right. A five-year-old child could have devised far better World Cup venues than Qatar or Saudi Arabia, although it remains to be seen whether Pizza Express would have had the capacity to host a gathering of such magnitude.

Faye and Suzy are joined by Anita Asante and Jenna Schillaci to round up a dramatic weekend in the WSL, check in on what’s happening lower down the pyramid and preview the Women’s FA Cup final

Chelsea lost, then Manchester City lost then Chelsea won – that’s the week in a nutshell. After Emma Hayes waved the white flag on Wednesday, by Sunday she declared “it’s not over!”

The panel also preview Sunday’s FA Cup final between Manchester United and Tottenham.

Early season disappointments put the Argentinian coach on the hot seat, but a resurgent Lionel Messi has shown the value of experience

Riding a six-game unbeaten streak in MLS, leading the race for the Supporters’ Shield and with their star players featuring at the top of the goals and assists charts, all is well in the world of Inter Miami.

Yet little over a month ago, head coach Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino was on the hot seat. A humiliating 4-0 defeat to New York Red Bulls in late March was followed by elimination from the Concacaf Champions Cup at the hands of Mexican side Monterrey in early April.

• United thrashed 4-0 by Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park
• Dutchman says team ‘underperforming’ and ‘not good enough’

Erik ten Hag admitted that Manchester United’s season reached a new nadir after they were thrashed 4-0 by a rampant Crystal Palace.

Two goals from Michael Olise helped Oliver Glasner’s side record their second-biggest victory ever against United as they followed up their win at Old Trafford in September by completing the double. The result left Ten Hag’s side in eighth place in the league with just three games to play having fallen behind Newcastle and Chelsea in the race for European qualification after their victories at the weekend.

• Club captain happy to remain at club after Jürgen Klopp departs
• ‘There will be a lot of changes – it is quite interesting’

Virgil van Dijk has paid tribute to ­Jürgen Klopp and said he wants to be part of the “big transition” that will take place at Liverpool following the German’s departure.

Klopp has two games remaining as Liverpool manager – at Aston Villa next Monday and what is sure to be an emotional occasion at Anfield for the visit of Wolves on the final day of the Premier League season. No doubt there will be tears in the stands as Klopp says goodbye after nine and a half hugely successful, and ­transformative, years on Merseyside, with his exit inevitably leading to speculation about the future of his players.

• Manager says leap to top flight has created ‘so much joy’
• ‘It’s an incredible turnout … everyone deserves it’

The Ipswich manager, Kieran McKenna, hailed his side’s “amazing achievement” as they celebrated promotion with a bus parade around the town. Premier League football awaits the club for the first time in 22 years after confirming promotion with a 2-0 win over Huddersfield thanks to goals from Wes Burns and Omari Hutchinson.

The Tractor Boys completed stunning back-to-back promotions on Saturday as they became the first team since Southampton in 2011 and 2012 to win successive promotions to the top flight from League One.

• PSG tasked with overturning 1-0 deficit from first leg
• ‘We don’t need to score right away, we just want to win’

Paris Saint-Germain lost 1-0 to Borussia Dortmund in their Champions League semi-final first leg but that does not mean they will go all out to score twice in normal time on Tuesday, Luis Enrique has insisted.

The Ligue 1 champions overturned a one-goal deficit against Barcelona in the quarter-finals, winning 4-1 in the second leg, but PSG are prepared to take the game with Dortmund to extra time if required.

The Dutchman will head for Liverpool after a dream tenure and can emulate how Jürgen Klopp makes fans feel special

For most of Sunday, Rotterdam sat under a thick blanket of cloud, but as day ticked into evening, just as fans were streaming into De Kuip for Feyenoord’s penultimate home fixture of the season, the skies cleared. On what became a glorious, balmy evening the team comprehensively outclassed PEC Zwolle. Arne Slot, overseeing his 100th league game in charge, watched from the touchline and his son, Joep, who for the best part of three years had dreamed of being allowed into the noisiest part of the ground, stood among the ultras in the Gerard Meijer Tribune.

In the 82nd minute, the entire ground sung his father’s name and, just as Slot lifted his hands above his head to return their applause, Santiago Giménez scored the final goal in a 5-0 win. When the final whistle blew, and Slot walked towards the fans to bid farewell, the PA eschewed the ear-splitting techno that had soundtracked the rest of the night and played You’ll Never Walk Alone. Football rarely permits moments of such infinite perfection.

The grumblings have begun. But Tottenham’s improvement from a year ago should not be forgotten

• Sign up to Jonathan’s weekly newsletter here

The good news for Tottenham is that they did not concede a goal from a set play against Liverpool on Sunday. But there wasn’t much else. A 4-2 defeat meant they had lost four successive league games for the first time since 2004 and if Tottenham are to clinch fourth place from Aston Villa, they have to win their remaining three games, one of which is against Manchester City, and hope that Villa don’t win either of their two.

A measure of perspective is essential. Spurs finished eighth last year and the season ended in rancour and recrimination. Antonio Conte had left at the end of March, by which point he had made clear he didn’t much want to be at the club, while fans had tired of his grindingly negative football; what can be tolerated when it’s bringing results soon palls when those results dry up.

Michel’s team of misfits showed against Barcelona why they deserve their plaudits despite the big blue elephant in the room

Cristian Portugués Manzanera was lying on the physio’s bench, pissed off, his manager pointing at him. It was the morning of the best day of their lives and Miguel Sanchez Muñoz, Michel II of Vallecas, Prince of all Girona, had just named the team that would go down in history. This time, Yan Couto wasn’t in it and he wasn’t happy either, so the coach took him aside and explained. Which is when the Brazilian saw his teammate getting treatment. “Look at Portu,” Michel insisted, “he scores goals and I never start him. He says: ‘You’re sinking me, but OK, I’ll just go out and score again.’”

And so it was.

Neroverdi have a reputation for running a tight ship but face a struggle to stay up despite doubling up against Internazionale

This was one of those results that felt like an instant piece of sports trivia, future material for the writers of football-themed pub quizzes. “In 2023-24, Inter won their 20th league title with a dominant league campaign in which they only lost two games. Which opponents beat them?” A trick question, as both defeats were to the same team. And an unlikely answer: Sassuolo, who are on course for relegation.

We might be getting ahead of ourselves. There are still three games left in this Serie A campaign, time enough for Internazionale to lose again, or Sassuolo to steer themselves to safety. Still, it will always be a peculiar truth that Simone Inzaghi’s formidable team had a 28-game unbeaten run sandwiched by slip-ups against one of the worst sides in the division.

Football manager who nurtured a free-flowing style of play and led Argentina to their first World Cup title in 1978

The football manager César Luis Menotti, who has died aged 85, led Argentina to their first ever World Cup trophy in 1978, a 3-1 victory on home territory against the Netherlands in the deafening noise of the Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires on a pitch strewn with ticker tape. It was a joyful occasion, but one that for many – including Menotti himself – was soured by the fact that the country was led by a brutal military junta, for whom the win was valuable propaganda.

Long-haired and left-leaning, Menotti was, as Esquire magazine once said, “the embodiment of everything the junta opposed”. But there was a symbiotic relationship between the two parties, for Menotti’s job as manager was reliant on the patronage of the dictator Jorge Rafaél Videla, who had come to power in a coup two years earlier, and Videla was wise enough to recognise that Menotti represented Argentina’s best chance of glory.

Mikel Arteta keeps cool, Jacob Murphy proves his worth and Elijah Adebayo states his case for a top-flight stay

From touchline handbags in London with his manager a week ago to this: an individual performance of verve and efficiency to go with collective success, Mohamed Salah smiling once again. Much has been written and said about the Egyptian forward, of his recent struggles, future and behaviour. But a career as storied as his requires him to put aside the noise and go again, an internal wiring that is present among only the best. Salah was electric against Tottenham, striking the bar with a cross-turned-shot and forcing a strong save from Guglielmo Vicario inside the first 10 minutes. The post was struck not long after, though the offside flag went up too, and then came the goal just 16 minutes in, masterful movement at the far post preceding a clinical header. He was present in the build-up to Liverpool’s other three goals, allowing Jürgen Klopp a gorgeous afternoon of Anfield sunshine and fist pumps as that final goodbye inches closer. Taha Hashim

Match report: Liverpool 4-2 Tottenham

Match report: Manchester City 5-1 Wolves

Match report: Brighton 1-0 Aston Villa

Match report: Arsenal 3-0 Bournemouth

Ipswich Town supporters turned out in force to celebrate with their heroes after the Tractor Boys became the first team since Southampton in 2011 and 2012 to win successive promotions to the top flight from League One. The team celebrated their Premier League return with an open-top bus tour

• ‘Amazing achievement’: McKenna full of pride as Ipswich savour promotion

Erik ten Hag admitted that Manchester United’s season reached a new low after they were thrashed 4-0 by a rampant Crystal Palace. The result left Ten Hag’s side in eighth place in the Premier League with just three games to play, falling behind Newcastle and Chelsea in the race for European qualification. Ten Hag said: 'It was a team performance that was not correct, making big mistakes. Not following the plan or the script. We have individual mistakes but we should cover each other, we let each other down'

• ‘We let each other down’: Ten Hag admits Manchester United at new low

Jürgen Klopp launched an extraordinary rant at footballing authorities and broadcasters in a press conference ahead of Liverpool's Premier League clash with Tottenham Hotspur. The outgoing Liverpool manager specifically called out TNT Sports - referencing his side's quick turnaround between games and frequent 12.30 kick-offs - saying that players in England are overworked and play too many matches. 'I watch a lot of football all over the world, Premier League is the best league in the world. It's not overrated, the players are overworked,' he said. 'Thursday, Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday 12.30 is a crime. I was actually waiting for Amnesty International to go to them.'

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has denied reports that Manchester United are set for a summer clearout of their players in the transfer window, calling them a 'joke' and 'totally crap'. 'It's a joke,' he said. 'As long as I've worked here, every summer, every window, I think 200 players are getting interest from Manchester United. I think be calm and also take some responsibility when you make such a headline. Think, find a good source if there is some truth in it and this is totally crap.' The Dutchman also commented on Jadon Sancho's impressive Champions League performance for Borussia Dortmund and underlined his 'high value'

Leicester will return to the Premier League as champions after they sealed the Championship title with victory over Preston. The team celebrated wildly on the pitch surrounded by overjoyed fans before continuing the party into the dressing room and beyond.

Arne Slot caught the eye of Liverpool’s recruitment team with his track record of improving young talent, success on a relatively modest budget, European experience and a style of play that is not a dramatic departure from Jürgen Klopp’s. The Feyenoord coach has earned a reputation for high intensity on the pitch and has led his team to success multiple times.

Since joining the Rotterdam club from AZ Alkmaar in 2021, Slot has won the Eredivisie in 2022-23 and the KNVB Cup this season. He also led Feyenoord to the Europa Conference League final in 2022, where they lost to José Mourinho's Roma.

• Arne Slot: the overachiever and ‘good guy’ who can spark a revolution

Departing legend played his part in helping his hometown club approach the second leg against PSG with spirits high

“He is,” said Edin Terzic, “a living legend.” The stars have not always aligned for Marco Reus as he has wanted or deserved but on this first weekend of May, everything clicked into place.

This was the first part of a two-stage tribute at Signal Iduna Park for one of Borussia Dortmund’s most beloved players of the modern era. It was emotional – and emotion is what this arena always does best. With his good friend Jadon Sancho looking on from the centre circle, clapping and spellbound, Reus approached the Yellow Wall for his applause at full-time, his young daughter in his arms.

• Menotti led Argentina to success in home World Cup in 1978
• He also coached Barcelona and Atlético Madrid

The World Cup winning coach César Luis Menotti, who led Argentina to the title in 1978, has died at the age of 85, the Argentine Football Association (AFA) said on Sunday.

Menotti, who played for Rosario Central, Boca Juniors and Santos, began his coaching career at Newell’s Old Boys and won the Argentinian championship with Huracán in 1973, before taking over as head coach of the Argentinian national team in 1974.

• Messi has record-setting game with a goal and five assists
• Inter Miami remain top of East on six-game unbeaten run

Lionel Messi had a record setting night for Inter Miami.

He scored a goal and had five assists as Inter Miami trounced the New York Red Bulls 6-2 on Saturday night – with the Argentine great and eight-time Ballon d’Or winner as the game’s best player setting no fewer than three Major League Soccer records in the effort.

• Alou Kuol scores six minutes from time to settle final in Muscat
• Success adds to Mariners’ A-League Men premiership this year

Manager Mark Jackson was left pinching himself after a late Alou Kuol winner led the Central Coast to their first Asian title and kept an unprecedented treble bid alive. Kuol came off the bench in the AFC Cup final, scoring in the 84th minute to down Lebanese outfit Al Ahed at Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex in Muscat.

Kuol’s goal ensured the Mariners became the first Australian club to win an Asian title since Western Sydney Wanderers lifted the 2014 Asian Champions League. And the striker’s last-gasp heroics netted $2.3m in prize money while keeping the flame burning for an historic Mariners treble.

• Real Madrid defeat Cádiz 3-0 before Barça suffer decisive loss
• Guerreiro injured for Bayern Munich in defeat at Stuttgart

Real Madrid are champions of Spain for the 36th time after their 3-0 win over Cádiz was followed by a 4-2 defeat for Barcelona at Girona that meant Carlo Ancelotti’s side’s lead at the top of La Liga is unassailable.

Goals from Brahim Díaz, Jude Bellingham and Joselu earned Madrid an eventually comfortable win over lowly Cádiz. With four games remaining, Real climbed to 87 points and extended their lead to 13 points over second-placed Girona and 14 clear of Barcelona in third.

Despite the team’s rise on the global stage, players are often underpaid so look for opportunities in the armed forces

• Moving the Goalposts: sign up for our free newsletter

Despite the increasing interest in Zambian players from clubs abroad after their impressive recent performances, which have helped the women’s national team qualify for all major international tournaments in the past two years, including the Paris Olympics, there exists a desire among them to be recruited into the Zambian military.

In April, three Copper Queens first-team players – Margaret Belemu, Ochumba Oseke and Mary Wilombe – graduated from Zambia air force training as noncommissioned officers. As a result they missed the Olympic Games qualifiers in February, having also missed the 2024 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) qualification round last November.

• Melbourne City 0-1 Sydney FC
• Late strike by Connors clinches fifth championship for Sydney

Shea Connors was celebrating before the ball had even hit the back of the net, wheeling away as she scored what would prove the winning goal in the 69th minute of Sydney’s 1-0 triumph over Melbourne City in Saturday evening’s A-League Women grand final.

Connors had been on the park for all of 120 seconds to that point, brought on to replace Princess Ibini. Now she was being mobbed by teammates converging from the pitch and the bench, having put her side on the way to a historic fifth title.

City Football Group’s New York branch is up and running, Orlando City are floundering and Wilfried Nancy has built a continental juggernaut

Welcome back to the Guardian’s MLS Power Rankings, where I have a beef with your specific team and your specific team alone. If you have complaints, toss ‘em in the comments down below, but be warned: I’m better at blocking out negativity than Pedro Gallese has been at stopping shots this season.

Now, as a reminder, these aren’t your standard, run-of-the-mill power rankings. We’re still ranking teams from worst to first. But along with the rankings, we’re diving deep into a handful of teams from around the league who are doing particularly interesting things.

League commissioner Jessica Berman talks ballooning franchise values, the merits of expansion and reducing injuries

No soccer league in the world is experiencing a boom comparative to the NWSL in 2024. Last month, the world’s first purpose-built stadium for a women’s sports franchise opened in Kansas City, marking the new home of the Current. San Diego Wave broke its NWSL home opener attendance record with over 32,000 fans, while the NWSL was listed at No 5 on the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2024.

“At the NWSL we are working to drive innovation, growth and increased investment in women’s soccer,” Jessica Berman, the NWSL’s commissioner, tells the Guardian. “I’m excited about the 2024 season and to see what else we can accomplish in the women’s soccer space.”

Erling Haaland has been voted the best player in the world for 2023 by our 218-strong panel, with Jude Bellingham finishing second

• 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012
• Meet the judges | Best female footballers to launch in January

Aitana Bonmatí, Sam Kerr and Salma Paralluelo top the list of female footballers in the world in 2023 according to our judges

• Putellas tops 2022 list | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | Meet the judges
• Spain and Barcelona lead the way after year of success
• Subscribe to our free women’s football newsletter

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.

Aitana Bonmatí the clear winner of the Guardian’s best 100 female footballers in the world with 15 Spaniards on the list

• The 100 best female footballers in the world 2023

After Alexia Putellas reigned in 2021 and 2022, her Barcelona and Spain teammate Aitana Bonmatí has been crowned the top female footballer of 2023 by the Guardian’s panel of 112 experts. The World Cup winner triumphed by a clear margin, finishing more than 500 points ahead of second-placed Sam Kerr.

Injuries and a World Cup meant there was a definite changing of the guard feel to this year’s list, sadly emphasised by the fact last year’s top two – Putellas and Beth Mead – missed a large chunk of our 12-month voting period with ACL injuries.

Last year I logged into iFollow to watch Cambridge maintain their League One status. This year I did exactly the same

As middle age creeps along, I am continually finding new, and less interesting, ways to measure the passing of time. For much of my 20s and all of my 30s I lived on a street with a food market and after a couple of years of burritos and Turkish flatbreads, I realised the greatest advantage was the refuse collection. Every day was bin day.

I took this freedom and wild abandon for waste completely for granted. I didn’t have to plan or think or tear cardboard boxes to shreds. Just toss a plastic bag on the street before 5pm and it was whisked away. I was truly alive. Now it’s a Sunday evening ritual: peer down the street – is it recycling or garden waste? That time again, eh, Frank? Feels like it was only last week we were dragging the yellow bin on to the curb. Do you have space in your green bin, Janet? I’ve been doing some pruning. There we all are, wheel them out and wait for the 6am trash-truck Monday morning chorus. Another week closer to death.

The Argentinian’s afterlife – a horror story of allegations and legal wrangles – has taken another turn

The noise from the middle tier of the stand at the Spartak Stadium was strangely persistent, rising above the pre-match hum of Argentina versus Iceland in Moscow, the pitch a humid pocket of shade, the far end still pounded by heavy mid-afternoon sun.

It was a banging noise. And a rattling noise. And a yelling noise. People had already begun to turn and point. Looking up, the first thing you saw from below was the fold of chins and sub-chins. Then it was the cigar, protruding like a gun snub above the lip of the balcony. And finally it was the face of Diego Maradona craning over the rail, arms spread in a papal gesture, and looking like, if not the most excited man of all time, then surely the most excited man yet.

Player-led matches are one of the fresh concepts at academy that aims to give players tools for success beyond football

A few weeks ago AFC Wimbledon Under-18s won 4-3 at Cheltenham Town in the Youth Alliance Cup. The visitors went 3-0 down but did not panic, tweaking tactics and adjusting systems before storming back. It was a wild contest, a remarkable turnaround, but what was even more impressive was Wimbledon were in effect managerless for the day, with the game designated as one of their player-led matches, a pioneering concept at the heart of their academy programme. Apart from booking the team bus to Gloucestershire, the onus was on the youngsters to organise everything and cope with the challenges: absorb the pressure, problem-solve on the spot and play.

It is an idea that hands the initiative to players and one Wimbledon do a few times a season from the under-nines to under-18s. Safeguarding rules differ between age groups but a physiotherapist is always present, as legally required. “When you see 10-year-olds trying to dissect the game, looking at formations, telling people what position they are going to play in, it is empowering,” says their academy manager, Michael Hamilton, who has been asked to share the concept at Premier League and Football Association conferences. “Life is not easy. There are going to be ups and downs. You might get released when you think you shouldn’t, you might not get a run of games. It is about having a bag of tools you can go into and say: ‘What do I need today?’”

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Barney Ronay and Lucy Ward as both Arsenal and Manchester City refuse to blink in the Premier League title race

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; Arsenal comfortably beat Bournemouth before Manchester City comfortably beat Wolves, will this be the story until the end of the season?

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

While anyone who actually watched last Saturday’s lunchtime draw in the Premier League could be forgiven for thinking Liverpool’s inability to beat West Ham was down to Liverpool’s inability to defend crosses into their penalty area and repeated insistence on firing shots wide of, over and against the woodwork, Jürgen Klopp used his press conference this morning to set them straight. Clambering aboard his soapbox ahead of his side’s 15-goal thriller against Tottenham on Sunday, the outgoing Liverpool manager laid the blame for the damaging draw in east London squarely at the door of TNT Sports, who had broadcast the game for armchair and bar-stool viewers in the UK.

With regard to the suit clearout at Manchester United, CFO Cliff Baty may have been asked to Do One at the end of the season but surely interim CEO Patrick Stewart has been encouraged to Boldly Go” – Declan Houton.

I’m one of those readers lucky enough to have friends to go to the football with regularly. My buddy will happily regale me with tales of being bought drinks by German fans after that night in Munich, or bunking off school to see his beloved (and sadly no longer with us) Nuneaton Borough play away in the FA Cup at Firewall FC’s Old Show Ground. Therefore when you posted your gallery of images from the new FSC book At The Match, I thought it would be something that he would enjoy, especially since he has a big birthday coming up. After scrolling through them, lo and behold there he was with his family staring back at me from the picture of Yorkshire v Parishes of Jersey. Thanks for saving me the hassle of thinking of something appropriate to buy him, and hopefully you won’t see through this blatant attempt to save the £40 by winning the prized Letter o’ the Day so I can spend more money buying him beer at the NCEL Premier Playoff Final on Saturday! Up the Miners!” – Chris Richardson.

Plus: Championship stalwarts who never played in Premier League, top-scoring for the longest streak and more

• Mail us your questions or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU

“In the 1975 FA Cup, I was surprised that in the quarter-final that season Ipswich and Leeds had taken four games to resolve their tie, with a total attendance of 143,000. My question is: which is the tie with the highest total attendance?” asks Nicholas Idoine.

“As the FA recently bowed to the Premier League and replays are to become a thing of the past, I was intrigued by this question and consulted 11v 11.com and Marching on Together websites to come up with an answer,” begins Michael Haughey. “The match quoted between Ipswich and Leeds (142,849) was seen by fewer people in four games than the 154,201 who saw the three games it took to settle Leeds v Sunderland in 1967. This included Elland Road’s record crowd at the replay.

As one of two WSL sides without Premier League backing this term, Lauren Smith’s team were up against it from the start

• Moving the Goalposts: sign up for our free newsletter

As the clock hit full time at Ashton Gate on Sunday evening, Bristol City finally succumbed to the inevitable. Relegation was confirmed after a 4-0 defeat to Manchester City, a final nail in the coffin in their Women’s Super League campaign. Only 371 days after achieving promotion, the Robins were condemned to the Championship to start rebuilding once again.

The table does not lie. With only one win all season – a thrilling 3-2 triumph at West Ham in November – Bristol City’s struggles have been evident. Their defensive problems, in particular, have been impossible to ignore. Context is key, however, particularly in a sport where the parameters are quickly shifting.

Faye Carruthers is joined by Sophie Downey, Emma Sanders and Chris Slegg to discuss the second legs in the Women’s Champions League semi-finals, the weekend’s WSL action and focus on Crystal Palace’s ascent

On today’s episode, the panel discuss the Champions League semi-finals as a record attendance at Stamford Bridge in a women’s game witnessed Chelsea bowing out Barcelona. A departing Emma Hayes let her feelings be known following the game, but were the refereeing decisions fair?

The panel also look at all of the weekend’s WSL action as Manchester City extended their lead at the top, confirming Bristol City’s relegation in the process. They take your questions and weigh up the challenge ahead for Crystal Palace next season after they sealed promotion from the Championship.

Our cartoonist has a guide just for you to help choose which official to blame when your striker misses a sitter from six yards out

• Get yourself a copy of this cartoon in the Guardian Print Store
• Like what David does? Consider supporting our journalism

Plus: players injured warming up on touchline, points-per-game differentials of long-serving players and more

• Mail us your questions or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU

“Leverkusen’s Bundesliga title win has broken Kingsley Coman’s remarkable run of winning the league in each of the last 11 seasons (with PSG, Juventus and Bayern). Can any player in world football ever boast of a longer run of consecutive league titles?” asks Richard Forsythe.

“It’s worth bearing in mind that Coman technically won 12 league titles in 11 seasons,” writes Sean DeLoughry, who gets the ball rolling as we spin off from this 2022 question and answer. “He played once for Juventus in Serie A at the start of the 2015-16 season before joining Bayern.

Our cartoonist on the scrapping of replays, fixture congestion, drama at Wembley and that Nottingham Forest statement

• Get yourself a copy of this cartoon in the Guardian Print Store
• Like what David does? Consider supporting our journalism

There have been some glaring mistakes by VAR but it also appears to have increased officiating standards on the pitch

Seven months ago Englandthe country came the closest yet to entering thermonuclear war over a refereeing decision. When the referee Simon Hooper mistakenly ruled out a Luis Díaz goal at Tottenham for offside and the video assistant referee Darren England failed to correct him, the initial response was heated and only bubbled up from there.

“They said it was significant, that’s very significant,” said Gary Neville on Sky at full time when a Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) statement dropped acknowledging “significant human error” in ruling out the goal. “It makes you wonder how many others they’ve got wrong as well,” chipped in Jamie Redknapp.

The former Arsenal midfielder has sought help from Uefa’s career transition expert, to navigate the world outside the dressing room

Robert Pires will never forget what it was like coming to terms with being a retired footballer. “You don’t want to say stop because I had been playing for 19 seasons and football meant everything to me,” says one of the stars of Arsenal’s Invincibles, who was part of the France team that won the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000. “Even now, football is my life and it’s in my blood, so that’s why when I said it was game over, it was very difficult to accept.”

Luckily for Pires, help was at hand. He first met Stéphane Ehrhart – a former player who is now Uefa’s career transition expert – in 2009 while playing for Villarreal, when the decision to hang up his boots had barely even crossed his mind.

Owner Farhad Moshiri once said the club were ‘robust’ enough to fund stadium but now they need working capital injections

At Everton’s annual general meeting in January 2019, the owner, Farhad Moshiri, made a dramatic promise.

Speaking about the club’s ambition to build a 52,888-seat stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock, the club’s majority shareholder pledged: “I’ll throw as much money as needed. Private markets will provide £350m, naming rights will give us some more and we will maybe have an equity gap of £100m.”

The England manager’s honesty and systems expertise are just what is needed at the haunted house Old Trafford has become

And so we entered the age of the noble, blameless bald men. This is a pretty good moment to be Ineos at Manchester United. Nothing really matters yet. Every problem is someone else’s problem. Every solution is your own.

For now you’re just hope, blue sky. You’re a silent reproach on a gantry. You’re a tieless Tony Blair jamming with Shed Seven in the Downing Street garden. And even the bad things are kind of good, because you’re not the bad things.

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

• Next Generation 2023: 20 of the best Premier League talents

We pick the best youngsters at each club born between 1 September 2006 and 31 August 2007, an age band known as first-year scholars. Check the progress of our classes of 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 … and look at the editions from further back

• Next Generation 2023: 60 of the best talents around the world

Five years ago we picked 80 of the most talented players in the world to follow their progress in a cut-throat business

It is the time of year when we check in on the Next Generation players we picked in 2018 to follow for five years, to assess their progress amid success, setbacks, injuries, trophies won and transfers made.

Next Generation started in 2014 with the aim of showing the difficulties that even the best prospects in the Premier League (we pick one from each club at first-year scholar age) and the rest of the world (we choose 60 born in a specific calendar year) face on their way towards the top.

A defensively minded midfielder who is incredibly strong (he used to be a wrestler) but with an excellent touch to go with his physicality. Made his debut in the Swedish top flight as a 16-year-old last year and captained Sweden as they reached the quarter-finals of the Euro Under-17 tournament in England this summer. Has taken an unusual path to the top. He left the top-flight side IFK Göteborg for sixth division Angered MBIK as a 14-year-old as he felt that he was not getting the right support for his football education. Another Gothenburg club, Häcken, snapped him up in 2017 and he made his senior debut that season. Has signed a new contract with the club from Hisingen until 2021 despite interest from Real Madrid and Benfica and trials at both Manchester clubs.