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Eddie Howe was not exactly overjoyed to learn that, rather than being cup-tied, Antoine Semenyo was free to play for Manchester City here.

Sure enough the Newcastle manager’s worst fears were realised as the winger – who played in the competition this season for Bournemouth – scored City’s opener and had another “goal” disallowed before Rayan Cherki’s stoppage-time second put the smile back on Pep Guardiola’s face.

• Steve Holland and Jonathan Woodgate also on staff

• ‘I know what it takes to succeed here,’ insists Carrick

Michael Carrick has called on everyone at Manchester United to “pull together” in order to bring ­success back to the club, after being appointed on Tuesday night as head coach until the end of the season.

The former midfielder has brought the ex-England assistant Steve ­Holland and Jonathan Woodgate to work alongside him. They will join Jonny Evans, Travis Binnion and Craig Mawson in the backroom staff. It is Carrick’s second spell leading the team, having taken charge previously of three games after Ole Gunnar ­Solskjær was dismissed in 2021.

• Players had been frozen out under Enzo Maresca

• Chelsea’s preference would be to move players on

Liam Rosenior will hold talks with Raheem Sterling and Axel Disasi before deciding whether the pair have a future at Chelsea.

The head coach, who wants to assess his new squad before con­cluding whether signings are required this month, has been focusing on preparations for the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg at home against Arsenal on Wednesday and has not had a chance to look at whether Sterling and Disasi should be brought back in from the cold.

• Manager hopes to find ‘solution’ to defensive problems

• Saliba and Trossard doubts for first leg on Wednesday

Mikel Arteta has acknowledged that Arsenal must overcome their injury problems in defence if they are to maintain their challenge in four competitions. Arteta spoke after ­revealing that William Saliba is a doubt for the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final against Chelsea on Wednesday.

Saliba and Leandro Trossard did not feature in the FA Cup victory against Portsmouth on Sunday. It was widely thought both had been rested. However, Arteta confirmed on Tuesday that the France defender could miss the game at Stamford Bridge because of an unspecified injury, while ­Trossard is also a doubt.

Hired as a systems coach, the manager was undermined at a club where players – and Florentino Pérez – call the shots

Pep Guardiola sat in the press room at the Santiago Bernabéu and told Xabi Alonso to do it his way but around here, he knows, it tends not to work out like that, which is precisely why he said so. Saying it is one thing, doing it another, doing it successfully something else entirely and a month and day after being offered that advice, handed that defence, Alonso was gone. On Monday afternoon, not long after landing from Saudi Arabia, a meeting was held at Valdebebas and then came the statement, short and unsentimental. He was a “legend” as a player, but no longer coach at Real Madrid.

Alonso is the 11th manager to last less than a year in two decades under the president, Florentino Pérez. He had begun work only seven months before, and that was earlier than he intended. It had started with the Club World Cup in the US, his first big decision to accept the demand to take over sooner than he wanted, and it ended with the Spanish Super Cup in Jeddah, where it was an open secret that final judgment awaited. For a month it had been impossible to avoid the feeling of a manager on borrowed time, especially for the manager himself, exposed and undermined, and you cannot go on like that. There will be hurt pride, regret, but release too.

Club furious after being sanctioned for paperwork error regarding Canada international Florianne Jourde

Paris Saint-Germain have lost only one league game all season yet are still only fifth in the Première Ligue. How is that possible?

On Monday 22 December, just after the final league game of 2025, the French Football Federation issued a bombshell statement: three of PSG’s wins this season had been turned into defeats (0-3) because of a licensing issue regarding the Canada international Florianne Jourde.

Former Liverpool teammates meet for the sixth time in international football, with Salah still waiting for meaningful victory

The Olembe Stadium, Yaoundé, 6 February 2022, the Africa Cup of Nations final. Senegal and Egypt drew 0-0. Penalties followed. The first three kicks were scored, then Egypt’s Mohamed Abdelmonem hit the post. Mohamed Abou Gabal immediately saved from Bouna Sarr but Édouard Mendy saved the fourth Egyptian effort, from Mohanad Lasheen. After four penalties each, Senegal led 3-2; Sadio Mané had the chance to win it.

Mané had missed a fifth-minute penalty in the game. He had missed a penalty against Cameroon in the shootout after the quarter-final in Franceville in 2017. “I can’t explain how tough it was for me,” Mané said. “I was sleeping four or five hours a night, five hours maximum. I had a big pressure in my head. I would go to bed and wake up maybe at 4am and I could not sleep any more … Everybody knew I was obsessed about this tournament and wanted to win it with my country … Thinking about this penalty I can say it was one of the hardest things in my life.”

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In the Seinfeld episode The Opposite, serial loser George Costanza realises his life is a monument to bad choices, his every impulse is wrong and his gut instinct is not to be trusted. Instead, he decides to do the “opposite” of whatever the little George inside him suggests and within days has landed himself a stunning girlfriend, been offered the job of his dreams and moved out of his parents’ house. While the makers of Seinfeld have always insisted that there are no lessons to be learned from their sitcom, George’s decision to override his brain suggests that if your current instincts and habits aren’t getting you the results you want, doing the opposite might well be the only logical path to success. While Football Daily has no wish to go all High Performance on our readers’ collective @ss, this episode of Seinfeld kept springing to mind as we have tried to make sense of Manchester United’s managerial succession plan (or apparent lack thereof) following the dismissal of Ruben Amorim.

As we approach the 10th anniversary of the best thing ever to happen in football, this Leicester City fan notes that we are currently in a bigger hole than we were round about 2014, when this wild ride started. If, back then, you’d offered me a Faustian pact – the league title, followed by ignominy – I’d have snatched your hand off. I offer this by way of consolation to Crystal Palace fans, who I have always kind of liked for the fantastic atmosphere they generate at Selhurst. If you were offered this 12 months ago, you’d have taken it – it’s better than a pair of fifth-round exits. The pain will pass, but you will always have the memory of that glorious day at Wembley” – Gumley Slats.

Thanks for providing the name of the photographer beneath the picture of the Rooneys’ interview at Macclesfield (yesterday’s Football Daily). Now we know who shot JR” – Dan Westacott.

Our cartoonist looks back on a glorious day for the non-league side as they knocked out the FA Cup holders

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Former England midfielder needs to avoid the same pitfalls as Ruben Amorim, but he showed a dogmatic streak at Boro

In many ways Michael Carrick is the antithesis of Ruben Amorim but Manchester United’s soon-to-be-appointed interim head coach does have something significant in common with his Portuguese predecessor.

Like Amorim, Carrick has proved remarkably resistant to tactical change. So much so that at Middlesbrough the former United and England midfielder’s determination not to compromise a philosophy constructed around a patient, possession-heavy passing game arguably cost him his job.

The Côte d’Ivoire winger was his nation’s best player in Morocco, but his place in a post-Amorim world is uncertain

It’s often easy to forget that Amad Diallo is only 23. In the five years since he joined Manchester United from Atalanta for a reported £19m (about $25m) plus add-ons, the winger has seen plenty of ups and downs.

Once a much-hyped prospect, Amad struggled to earn minutes at United in his first season with the club and was soon sent out on loan to Rangers and Sunderland. Now, three years since he returned to Manchester, Amad is no longer sidelined or dismissed; he has become a difference maker.

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Today’s rumours are misty-eyed

The fun has only just begun at Old Trafford where Michael Carrick will become the head coach until the end of the season. As someone who knows a thing or two about central midfielders, Carrick will immediately realise Manchester United are desperately in need of one. Al-Hilal’s Rúben Neves is on the radar, as is Atlético Madrid’s Marcos Llorente. The 30-year-old is valued at £30m, leaving Jason Wilcox and chums plenty to ponder.

There are, supposedly, admirers of Sassuolo’s Tarik Muharemovic at United but if they really want to acquire the centre-back’s services they will need to overcome competing interest from Tottenham and Newcastle.

Coroner’s court hears how Ollie Long, 36, became ensnared in debt after using offshore operators run by ‘international criminal networks’

A football fan took his own life after his love of the sport fuelled a gambling addiction that led him to bet with illegal offshore operators that “prey on” vulnerable people, a coroner has heard.

Ollie Long, from Wendover in Buckinghamshire, died in February 2024, aged 36, after struggling with his addiction for eight years.

• Spurs make Atlético Madrid offer worth £25m upfront

• Former Chelsea man keen on Premier League return

Tottenham look to have beaten Aston Villa to the signing of Conor Gallagher from Atlético Madrid after agreeing a transfer fee of up to €40m (£34.6m) for the England midfielder.

Talks with Atlético have progressed rapidly and Gallagher is understood to be keen to move back to the Premier League to boost his chances of making England’s World Cup squad, having made just four starts in La Liga this season. Spurs were in the market for midfield reinforcements after Rodrigo Bentancur sustained a hamstring injury that is likely to keep him sidelined for three months. The club have identified the 25-year-old as their primary target.

The scoreline was far more convincing than Liverpool’s performance against League One opposition. Barnsley made Arne Slot’s side battle for the right to host Brighton in round four while their head coach, Conor Hourihane, accused Dominik Szoboszlai of disrespect for gifting his team a goal while showboating. Slot appeared inclined to agree.

Liverpool were grateful for a late Florian Wirtz-inspired flourish for an ultimately comfortable margin of victory and banishing any anxieties. But this had been another slog against a low defensive block until the expensive substitute swept home a fine third goal and created a stoppage‑time fourth for Hugo Ekitiké. There was no more relieved man inside Anfield than Szoboszlai.

• Midfielder unhappy in England and keen on Brazil return

• West Ham would like to keep him and reject €35m bid

Lucas Paquetá asked to be left out of West Ham’s FA Cup tie against QPR and is keen to join Flamengo this month. The Brazilian club had a €35m (£30.3m) bid rejected on Monday but are willing to go to €40m.

The midfielder has grown disillusioned with life in England and wants to return to his homeland. Paquetá was last year cleared of alleged breaches of the Football Association’s betting regulations, and it is unclear whether he will play for West Ham again. The uncertainty over his future increased when he missed the third‑round win against QPR despite being fit.

• Keeper opted to join City rather than Newcastle in July

• ‘I’m a big fan of his,’ says Eddie Howe before semi-final

The prospect of James Trafford joining Newcastle from Manchester City in the summer heightened on Monday when Eddie Howe spoke admiringly of the goalkeeper and Pep Guardiola left open the prospect of a move.

Trafford chose City ahead of Newcastle when he left Burnley in July, expecting to become the first choice at the Etihad Stadium. Since the deadline-day arrival of Gianluigi Donnarumma, however, he has played in only four domestic cup ties and one Champions League match.

Ousmane Dembélé becomes our seventh winner as he beats Lamine Yamal into second and Vitinha into third on our list of the best players on the planet

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The Frenchman, who has been named the best male footballer in the world by the Guardian, has benefitted from PSG’s focus on the team rather than individuals

What makes a good player great, and a great player the best? This question has been occupying me since 2014, when the Guardian first asked me to contribute to its inaugural Next Generation feature. My job was to look for a France-based talent born in 1997 who could go on to have a stellar career.

After a great deal of research, I narrowed it down from my shortlist of five by asking questions not about the players’ football ability, but about other attributes: resilience, adaptability, decision-making, creativity, work ethic, response to feedback and willingness to learn. Qualities we cannot see, and are harder to measure.

Aitana Bonmatí has been voted the best female player on the planet by our panel of 127 experts ahead of Mariona Caldentey and Alessia Russo

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The margin may have got smaller but the brilliant Spanish midfielder makes it a hat-trick of No 1 finishes

They say the best things come in threes, and Aitana Bonmatí has written herself into the Guardian’s top 100 history as the first player to finish at the top of the tree for a third consecutive year.

Last year the majestic midfielder emulated her Barcelona and Spain teammate Alexia Putellas by winning for a second year running, but the 27-year-old has now gone one better, establishing herself once again at the top of the women’s game.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Wilson and Osasu Obayiuwana as the Africa Cup of Nations reaches its last four.

On today’s pod: it’s an Afcon special as the final four are decided. Hosts Morocco look increasingly like favourites after seeing off Cameroon; the panel asks whether Brahim Díaz’s remarkable form is a surprise, and questions how far long-term investment has taken them. Nigeria, meanwhile, remain perfect so far as they brush aside Algeria to set up a heavyweight semi-final clash.

Elsewhere, the panel discusses Egypt's chances as Mohamed Salah looks to enter African football folklore by winning the tournament, after Egypt beat Côte d’Ivoire. The panel ask if Senegal overthink their midfield after they squeezed through against Mali to tee up another chapter in the Salah v Mané rivalry.

Plus, a wider look at CAF’s decision to move Afcon back to a four-year cycle, the impact of winter scheduling, infrastructure in Morocco before the 2030 World Cup, and more

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Earring-gate prevents Estelle Cascarino from making her West Ham debut while City continue to lead the pack

The sight of coaches issuing a tactical team talk while their goalkeeper receives medical treatment has become increasingly common in the WSL but it became particularly controversial after the goalless draw between Arsenal and Manchester United, especially when the visiting defender Dominique Janssen appeared to admit in an interview with Sky Sports that they had orchestrated it on purpose. Janssen said: “Phallon [Tullis-Joyce] went down for us to discuss tactical changes,” when asked about how United adapted to going down to 10 players. Marc Skinner later said that Tullis-Joyce had felt something and needed treatment, but Renée Slegers said perceived time-wasting was “frustrating for the players”, adding: “There’s so many people investing so much to come and watch us, in the stadium, on TV. I think the product needs to be attractive and I think this is probably one of the areas that brings the entertainment down a little bit.” Tom Garry

Match report: Arsenal 0-0 Manchester United

Match report: Chelsea 5-0 West Ham

The Africa Cup of Nations has been a brilliant display for a continent carrying no doubt about quality on the pitch

More than any other continental tournament, there is always a sense with the Africa Cup of Nations that it is a referendum on the continent’s football generally. Perhaps it’s because so many of the players are familiar to those who habitually watch the European leagues or the Champions League, but the question is less about individual quality of players – that is a given – than it is about organisation and structures. Somewhere in the background, perhaps, lurks Pelé’s notorious prediction, made in 1977, that an African team would win the World Cup by the end of the 20th century. Is a World Cup win for Africa any closer than it was half a century ago?

In Morocco at this year’s edition of the tournament, there has been an extra element: the country’s status as World Cup co-hosts with Spain and Portugal in 2030. What are facilities like? Is the infrastructure there? This question is readily answered: in terms of stadiums, pitches and hotels, Morocco is already well on the way to being able to stage the World Cup. All six cities hosting games at this Cup of Nations are candidates for 2030.

Plenty of prospective candidates for Germany’s World Cup squad caught the eye in a 4-1 cruise at the BayArena

If ever there was a weekend to show up on your best form, then this was it. Stuttgart travelled to Bayer Leverkusen for Saturday night’s Topspiel not just facing a team with whom they have had a healthy sporting rivalry with over recent years, but with an audience to perform to. Starting with an XI containing seven current national team players they were – of course – under the gaze of Rudi Völler, who served Leverkusen as player and sporting director over two spells amounting to almost 25 years and, though now the sporting director of the DFB, still lives locally and is a frequent visitor to the BayArena.

So if he enjoyed this early-year shockwave to the Bundesliga’s established order, it would have been in a professional rather than a personal capacity. Games between these two have tended to be among the highlights of recent Bundesliga seasons; intriguing, edge-of-the-seat, push-pull affairs between a team that took the express elevator to the very top under Xabi Alonso and one which never blinked for a second when faced by them, emboldened by an inspiring coach of their own in Sebastian Hoeness. “Even in their top year two years ago when Leverkusen dominated everyone, Stuttgart were the only team that played on equal terms in both games,” noted Völler as a Sunday guest on Sport1’s celebrated Doppelpass,

Scott McTominay has a long way to go to top his wild 2025. But his double at Inter was a very solid start

Scott McTominay said recently that he hopes to carry on playing top-level football for another decade. And, if he does, will he ever have another year better than the last one? In 2025, he won Serie A and helped deliver Scotland to their first World Cup this century – scoring sensational goals in the games that sealed both achievements. He has described himself as “obsessive” when it comes to self-improvement, but some feats are hard to top.

Still, if he was looking to set some intentions for 2026, there are worse places to do it than San Siro. On Sunday night, Napoli’s title defence would be severely tested away to Inter. But every time they strayed into danger, McTominay led them back out.

We can relate to the struggles their club has experienced in recent years so can only wish them well in the FA Cup

By The Football Mine

“And that is the last kick of the match. One of the greatest FA Cup giantkillings has happened here in the sunshine at the Moss Rose. The holders, Crystal Palace, have been knocked out. What a turnaround of fortunes for Crystal Palace: winners at Wembley in May, losers in Macclesfield in January.” John Murray, speaking on BBC radio, provided the epitaph to Palace’s dismal, desperate defeat by a mid-table team from the National League North.

As everyone now knows, the gap of 117 places in the football pyramid is the largest ever to be overcome by a lower-placed club in 155 years of the oldest competition in the football world. The fact that the last kick was propelled into the sky by the Silkmen’s captain Paul Dawson was apposite. Dawson had set the tone from the outset. Within 10 seconds of kick-off he had put in the first of countless robust challenges, which ended up with him and Palace centre-back Jaydee Canvot requiring treatment after an accidental clash of heads.

League One club offered behind-the-scenes access for FA Cup tie and manager Gary Caldwell will not let crushing loss at Manchester City define them

“The team to win today, lads” begins Gary Caldwell. Exeter City are two hours from kicking off against Manchester City in the FA Cup third round, and their manager is addressing his players at a hotel shortly before they travel to the Etihad.

“You know why I said that?” he continues, his thick Scottish accent filling the room. No one knows. He explains the phrase is borrowed from Roberto Martínez, under whom Caldwell won the competition with Wigan in 2013. It was used to bring humour and break tension when his team were inevitably written off.

For Barcelona’s Uruguayan defender, the 3-2 victory over Real Madrid in the Super Cup wasn’t just about the title

Not many people saw the exact moment Ronald Araújo lifted the Super Cup to the sky and a weight from his mind but the men that matter most did: they were right there, standing by him. They had welcomed him back, 47 days later and in a final, lifted him up towards the light, and handed him the captain’s armband. Now, after they had beaten Real Madrid 3-2 together in Jeddah, they handed him the captain’s responsibility and a captain’s honour, inviting him to raise the trophy for all of them. Which was when someone walked in front of the camera, went whoops and walked back again.

By the time the shadow left the screen, Araújo was holding with the cup over his head, teammates roaring around him, and the Real Madrid players who stayed to watch had turned down the tunnel. They had been close to trading places. In a final of sudden storms – three clear chances and a goal in 2min 54sec after half an hour, three goals in 3min 33sec of first half added time, three golden opportunities saved in 10 second-half minutes – theirs had been the last. Some 134 seconds passed between Marcus Rashford smashing wide and two glimpses of salvation appearing before Madrid but they couldn’t grasp either, on 95.04 and 96.42. So Barcelona had the first trophy of the season.

Celtic’s firing of the Frenchman brings back memories for two US coaches who faced similar struggles

Bob Bradley has never seen Ted Lasso, the TV show set around an American college football coach who finds himself leading a soccer team in England.

“Everybody tells me that I should watch it but I have not,” Bradley said from his home in New Jersey, almost nine years on from his experience. “I lived that a little bit, so I’m not ready to watch it yet.”

Australia have sent scouts across the US, Canada and Mexico to see which cities have the best facilities, hotels and general vibes to suit the team

Home is where the heart is, or at least where there is a good brew and a comfy bed. And with the 2026 World Cup six months away, key Socceroo figures have spent several weeks deep in a process that often flies under the radar but could be a secret ingredient in their quest to do something special: finding their home away from home for the global footballing showpiece.

Alongside the rest of the qualified nations, Australia submitted their preferred options for a North American base to Fifa earlier this week, with the governing body expected to assign base camps using a criterion of geography and world rankings by the end of January. Drawn to play games on the west coast, this means that Australia has 16 regionalised camps in the official Fifa brochure to consider. But they’ll also sit behind host nations the United States and Canada, as well as higher-ranked Switzerland, Belgium and Iran in the pecking order.

Liverpool forward will face his former teammate Sadio Mané in Afcon semi against Senegal after arguably the Pharaohs’ best performance since 2008

It is a long time since Egypt had a night this good. There have been two World Cup qualifications since their golden age of three successive Cups of Nations came to an end in 2010, and they’ve got to the finals of two Cups of Nations since, but this had a different feel to the knockout phases in 2017 or 2021 (played in 2022). This wasn’t grinding through, doing just enough (across the knockouts in 2017 and 2021, Egypt won one game without needing extra time or penalties; a grim 1-0 against Morocco in the 2017 quarter-final). It was taking on one of the giants of African football and beating them well. A 3-2 victory over Côte d’Ivoire was probably Egypt’s best single performance since they beat the same opposition 4-1 in the semi-finals of Ghana 2008.

That game in Kumasi was always going to cast its shadow over this quarter-final. Saturday’s coaches were on opposite sides when Egypt beat Côte d’Ivoire on penalties in the 2006 final in Cairo – Hossam Hassan as a 39-year-old squad captain and unused sub and Émerse Faé in the centre of midfield – but it was the semi-final two years later this game most resembled. The 4-1 hurt Côte d’Ivoire far more than the final had, the image of a bewildered Kolo Touré running away from Amr Zaki as he scored Egypt’s third a symbol of the Pharaohs’ superiority that night. Within four minutes on Saturday, Odilon Kossounou had got in a similar mess, legs tangled as Omar Marmoush sped by him to put Egypt ahead.

Why is the film of Ireland’s 2002 World Cup falling-out not a documentary but a drama that takes liberties with events?

All history is to some extent narrative. You cannot tell a story without in some way editing it, reducing it, compressing it. Which means that anybody telling a story about a historical event, particularly one from the relatively recent past, risks outraging those who have studied it or who remember it. Often those complaints are pedantic, trivial, but sometimes they are not. It’s one thing to elide two minor characters or to tweak the timeline to simplify a story, quite another to imply misleading motivations.

Saipan, Glenn Leyburn’s and Lisa Barros D’Sa’s film about the cataclysmic row between Roy Keane and Mick McCarthy shortly before the 2002 World Cup, came out in Ireland on Boxing Day and will be released in the UK on 23 January. It is obsessed by detail: the tracksuits, the sweatshirts, the kits are all right. It’s startling when the film cuts between reproductions of interviews and press conferences and actual footage to realise just how accurately these scenes have been recreated. Which raises two questions. What is the point? And how can such care have been taken over the look of the film when there are such grotesque inventions and inaccuracies in the plotting and motivation?

The club are in a decent position but there is dissatisfaction with the ownership and the new head coach must not get caught in the crossfire

The way Chelsea are run will come as no surprise to Liam Rosenior. He has longstanding relationships with three of the five sporting directors and will know from his time at Strasbourg, who are part of the same ownership, that the head coach’s best chance of surviving is not to make the mistake of rebelling against the structure.

Rosenior will have to show more political savvy than Enzo Maresca, who talked himself out of the job last week. Yet given the 41‑year‑old is familiar with the working conditions at BlueCo, the investment vehicle that owns Chelsea and Strasbourg, his biggest challenge is unlikely to be managing upwards. Rosenior will know where to train his focus and not to rock the boat. Crucially, he does not inherit a team in crisis. Chelsea are fifth and earned a creditable draw at Manchester City on Sunday; despite the rancour of Maresca’s final days, this is not a situation that calls for a major rebuild.

Even the return of Martin O’Neill is unlikely to placate supporters frustrated by poor performances, a lack of investment, and chaos in the boardroom

Any club confirming the end of an error after eight games owes an apology to their supporters. In Celtic’s case, even the admission of an all-time blunder in hiring Wilfried Nancy would be unlikely to placate the masses. Remorse has not been forthcoming anyway. As Martin O’Neill’s return as manager was confirmed, office bearers took it in turn to express disappointment at the Nancy affair. Which was very good of them.

Celtic do not have a monopoly on bad decision-making. It just currently feels as if that is the case. A club who have dominated in Scotland for more than a decade, who have vast resources and more scope to plan than others of much lower stature, should never have been seeking a fourth manager in one season. That they are points firmly towards a lack of strategy and direction. It is a preposterous situation. Celtic are lucky that O’Neill, 73, retains an appetite to work. He also ticks another box, that of being idolised in the stands.

Price tag for winger’s move to Manchester City would make headlines in any other country but not in England

Antoine Semenyo, it seems likely, will soon join Manchester City from Bournemouth for a fee of £65m. Given how well Rayan Cherki and Phil Foden have played from the right this season, it is not immediately obvious why City need him, but the modern game is the modern game, the rammed calendar makes large and flexible squads essential and Pep Guardiola may have some esoteric plan for the Ghanaian anyway. But perhaps what is most striking about the deal is the fee – or, more precisely, how little attention it has drawn.

English football has become inured to big transfers. The fee feels about right. Semenyo is 25. He has four and a half years left on his contract. He is quick, skilful, intelligent and works hard. He is disciplined, but has the capacity to do the unexpected. Of course a player of his ability costs that much. Yet £65m would make him the third-most expensive player in Bundesliga history. He would be the seventh-most expensive in Serie A history, the 14th-most expensive in La Liga history. Only nine non-English clubs have paid a fee higher than that. Even in Premier League terms, Semenyo sneaks into the top 25.

Our cartoonist on a typically sedate start to 2026 at two of the Premier League’s biggest football ‘projects’

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Bournemouth will find it hard to replace a player at the peak of his powers, an attacker polished up perfectly for the elite

Antoine Semenyo’s rise is a reminder the big clubs’ scouting systems are not infallible, that not all players will flower at the same time. Fulham, Arsenal, Crystal Palace, Millwall, Reading and Tottenham rejected the schoolboy Semenyo. At 15, he took a year’s absence from the game.

A decade on, a circuitous route to the top alights at Manchester City, who beat a queue of big hitters to his signature. Bournemouth’s ability to find talent the elite passed over continues to prove profitable. Pep Guardiola’s squad has another player who pairs physical power with a high skill level. It also adds a long-throw specialist to the armoury; City are towards the bottom of the metrics in that voguish category.

Tottenham totem shone under Bill Nicholson’s tough love, inspiring League and Uefa Cup triumphs, but struggled with the stresses of fame

The Martin Chivers route from record signing to Tottenham legend was anything but simple. White Hart Lane needed time to learn to love him and Bill Nicholson, who paid Southampton £125,000 in 1968, never understood either the player or the man until years later. Yet it says everything for the curative power of time that the pair walked out arm-in-arm when it came to Nicholson’s second testimonial against Fiorentina in 2001.

Chivers arrived at Spurs with a headline-grabbing century-plus goals for Southampton. Initially he appeared weighed-down by the fee and the expectation. This was a time when English football was only slowly coming to terms with a “new football” which was abandoning the archetypal battering-ram centre-forward expected to be toe-to-toe with an equally robust centre-half. Chivers stood 1.85 metres (6ft 1in) yet a firm touch and game intelligence enhanced a deceptive physical strength and eventually contributed to his “Rolls-Royce” aura.

The man widely expected to be the next Chelsea head coach once opined on a wide variety of topics in his Guardian column

Coaching may be Liam Rosenior’s forte but, during his days as a Brighton defender, the man widely expected to be Chelsea’s new manager was also a pretty useful Guardian columnist. His eagerly awaited dispatches were invariably packed with thought‑provoking opinions on an assortment of topics, ranging from dead balls to Donald Trump. Below are excerpts from a cross-section of Rosenior’s thoughts during his three years with us, alongside a sense of what they tell us about the 41‑year‑old and how he could carry out his duties at Stamford Bridge. It is important to remember, of course, that Rosenior’s views may have changed in the intervening period.

England defender publicly confronted racist abuse at the Euros and ended 2025 a title winner with club and country

The Guardian Footballer of the Year is an award given to a player who has done something remarkable, whether by overcoming adversity, helping others or setting a sporting example by acting with exceptional honesty.

Jess Carter has spent her life grappling with when to hold back and when to speak up; wrestling with being naturally herself, embodying the characteristics her parents instilled in her of being open, honest, vocal and confident, and subduing herself because, while society values those traits, in a black woman they can be viewed negatively.

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Between them, Wayne and Brent Gretzky hold the record for most points scored (2,861) by a pair of brothers in National Hockey League history. The more senior of the two, Wayne notched up 2,857 of them while his little brother’s contribution to the tally was just four. Of course, Brent isn’t the only professional sportsman to have tried to make his name in the shadow of an iconic older brother named Wayne and while John Rooney enjoyed a perfectly decent career as a journeyman midfielder playing in the lower leagues, going through life best known for being the less talented and more unsuccessful younger brother of one of the most famous England players in recent memory can’t have been easy. On Saturday afternoon, however, it was Wayne who could be seen blubbing tears of pride at Moss Rose, having just watched his sibling mastermind a thoroughly deserved victory for the semi-professionals of the phoenix club Macclesfield over Crystal Palace in what was unquestionably the biggest FA Cup upset of all time.

‘She has everything to be a world-class striker – fast, two great feet, good with the head and strong,’ says the coach who set the forward’s career rolling

Since they were promoted to the Women’s Super League in 2019, no Manchester United player has managed to score more than 10 league goals in a single season. In Lea Schüller they have signed someone who has surpassed that mark seven seasons in a row in Germany’s Frauen Bundesliga, so it is easy to understand why United are so enamoured with their new striker.

With a formidable 54 goals in 82 internationals, the Germany forward arrives at Carrington with a prolific record and the match-winner profile the club have been craving. At 28 years old she could spend the best years of her career at United, where she has signed a contract until June 2029.

Once they seemed an unstoppable force but a huge gap between the Nordic leagues and Europe’s elite has emerged in the past 20 years

For a brief period in the early 2000s, Scandinavian clubs seemed unstoppable in European women’s football. Umeå lifted the Uefa Women’s Cup in 2003 and again in 2004, using a blend of technical skill and tactical intelligence. The Swedish side were a powerhouse and attracted top talent from around the world, including Marta, widely regarded as the greatest ever female player.

That dominance feels very distant. In 2025, a Norwegian, Swedish or Danish club winning the Women’s Champions League is almost unthinkable. Vålerenga were the only Scandinavian team to reach the Champions League league stage this season and they did not qualify for the knockout phase.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Wilson and Osasu Obayiuwana as the Africa Cup of Nations reaches its last four

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On today’s pod: it’s an Afcon special as the final four are decided. Hosts Morocco look increasingly like favourites after seeing off Cameroon; the panel asks whether Brahim Díaz’s remarkable form is a surprise, and questions how far long-term investment has taken them. Nigeria, meanwhile, remain perfect so far as they brush aside Algeria to set up a heavyweight semi-final clash.

Elsewhere, the panel discusses Egypt's chances as Mohamed Salah looks to enter African football folklore by winning the tournament, after Egypt beat Côte d’Ivoire. The panel ask if Senegal overthink their midfield after they squeezed through against Mali to tee up another chapter in the Salah v Mané rivalry.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, John Brewin and Sam Dalling as sixth-tier Macclesfield FC beat the holders Palace

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On the podcast today: what a moment for Macclesfield. The club were out of existence six years ago and have now beaten Crystal Palace, the holders, to book their place in the fourth round.

Crystal Palace’s stars wilt, Manchester City’s youngsters shine, and Liam Rosenior starts in stylish fashion

Playing against lower-league opposition as a top-flight side in the FA Cup is like batting on the first morning of a Test match – you cannot really win and failure can prompt humiliation and reputational damage. To that end, some members of the Crystal Palace side deservedly beaten by Macclesfield perhaps learned a valuable lesson at Moss Rose. Marc Guéhi and Adam Wharton are linked regularly with big moves away from Palace, but part of succeeding at elite clubs – the pair are admired by Manchester City and Manchester United respectively – is coping with being overwhelming favourites. Oliver Glasner, too, may have designs on bigger things, with United again a possible destination, but to see his side schooled by part-timers was a blow to his burgeoning reputation. Glasner slammed his players after the defeat but the Austrian must take a portion of the blame. They must all do better. Dominic Booth

Report: Macclesfield 2-1 Crystal Palace

Report: Manchester City 10-1 Exeter

Report: Manchester United 1-2 Brighton

Report: Derby 1-3 Leeds

From PSG’s Ibrahim Mbaye to Brazil’s next hope, we select some of the most talented players born in 2008. Check the progress of our classes of 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 … and go even further back. Here’s our Premier League class of 2025