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• O’Neill says he pulled himself off floor after job offer

• Unclear if Ipswich manager McKenna would favour move

Martin O’Neill has insisted his return to Celtic will be “short term” as the Ipswich manager, Kieran McKenna, emerged as a candidate to replace Brendan Rodgers.

In a shock move on Monday evening, Rodgers resigned from Celtic with his team eight points adrift of Hearts in the Scottish Premiership. Equally surprising was the return of O’Neill, whose previous, hugely successful spell in charge ended in 2005. The 73-year-old said he had to “pull myself off the floor” when taking a call from the club’s main shareholder, Dermot Desmond. Rodgers was castigated by Desmond in a statement posted on Celtic’s website within 15 minutes of the manager’s departure being confirmed.

Our cartoonist dons his best threads to check out which aesthetics are back to dominate the football fashion world

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• David’s latest book, Chaos in the Box: get it now

• Case to be heard by independent regulatory commission

• Langley’s sacking by Newcastle unrelated to charges

Newcastle United Women have been charged with misconduct by the Football Association after allegedly making illegal approaches to six junior players contracted to their second-tier rivals, Sunderland.

The case will now be heard by an independent regulatory commission, with Newcastle potentially facing a heavy fine if found guilty.

Today’s newsletter looks at the most clinical forwards at the tournament in Morocco, which has reached the last-16 stage

The 2025 Under-17 Women’s World Cup is well under way in Morocco with Brazil, China, Canada and Spain among the countries who have reached the last 16. After an intriguing group stage here are some of the young stars who have stood out so far:

Giulia Galli (Italy): Italy have been one of the surprise packages of the tournament so far, spearheaded by the goals of Galli. The 17-year-old has enjoyed an eye-catching year for club and country: she was at the heart of her nation’s run to the semi-finals of this summer’s Under-17 European Championship, their highest finish in more than a decade that booked their spot at this World Cup. Since then, she has found herself in and around the Roma senior team, scoring her first goal for the club – the winner – in their Serie A Women’s Cup fixture against Milan. She has led the charge once again in Morocco as Selena Mazzantini’s side won all three group games to progress. All five goals to date have demonstrated her uncanny knack of breaking defensive lines as well as her instinctive clinical ability inside the box.

This is an extract from our free weekly email, Moving the Goalposts. To get the full edition, visit this page and follow the instructions. Moving the Goalposts is delivered to your inboxes every Tuesday and Thursday.

Forward reflects on a changed landscape at north Wales club and looks forward to Tuesday’s big Carabao Cup clash

“I want to get north Wales back up there and hopefully one day I can get them to the Premier League,” says Wrexham’s record signing, Nathan Broadhead. Back at the club after a 17-year absence, he did not miss a clash with Cardiff in that time but the rivals renew acquaintances in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night, with the Red Dragons looking down on the boys from the Welsh capital.

The enmity between Wrexham and Cardiff has cooled given they have not faced each other since a Welsh Cup semi-final in 2004 and last met in the league in March 2002 but a lively atmosphere can be expected at Stōk Cae Ras in the battle for a quarter-final spot. The two passed each other this summer, when Wrexham continued their journey up the leagues to the Championship, while the Bluebirds dropped into the third tier for the first time in 22 years.

• TV deals and squeezed calendar cause conundrum

• Boxing Day lands on Friday, which has one broadcast slot

The traditional Boxing Day feast of top-flight football may end up looking like leftovers this winter, with a squeezed calendar meaning there may be only one Premier League fixture.

Boxing Day lands on a Friday and that has left the Premier League with a scheduling conundrum because of an expanded Champions League and a commitment to preserving a platform for the FA Cup.

Mikel Arteta’s side have experience of being top of the table but have been unable to finish the job in previous seasons

All the signs point to it finally being Arsenal’s season. But given that they have spent almost 800 days top of the table since last being champions in 2004, nothing will be taken for granted at this stage. After an outlay of more than £250m in the summer, Mikel Arteta has a formidable squad that has been able to cope with injuries to important players such as Kai Havertz and Martin Ødegaard – a problem that derailed them in three successive runner-up finishes.

• England beat Australia in semi-final of home tournament

• ‘We broke their hearts so it will feel like a revenge game’

Ella Toone has said she expects Australia to treat Tuesday’s game against England as a revenge mission after the Lionesses “broke their hearts in the World Cup”.

England last faced Australia in Sydney in the semi-finals of that 2023 tournament, earning an emphatic 3-1 win over the co-hosts before losing 1-0 to Spain.

It was just like old times as Dani Carvajal sparked a full-time ruckus with Barça’s teenage star after his pre-match barbs

“As long as I win they can’t say anything,” Lamine Yamal said once, but this time he didn’t win and they were coming for him. They said he spoke too much; they replied that, yeah, they would see him outside; they told him talk is cheap. And that was just the players: there was more from the preachers in their pulpits, men who never lose.

On the eve of the clásico, the teenager who claims he left fear behind in Mataró suggested that Real Madrid rob and moan, or so it goes. He also offered a reminder that the last time he had been at the Santiago Bernabéu – a kid with blaugrana braces, a glint in his eye and a right foot they didn’t know he had – he beat them 4-0. But that was then and this was now. And, an adult now, exactly a year on, he was beaten back. He knew, they told him so.

Recent history has seen all three sides promoted from the Championship be relegated the same season – Régis Le Bris’s side could break the spell

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Last season, all three promoted sides in the Premier League were relegated. The season before that, all three promoted sides were relegated. The fear was that the gulf between the Premier League and Championship had become too big, with the increasing stratification of the English game essentially making it impossible for the promoted sides to survive, much less to thrive. It’s a self-perpetuating issue; the longer the other 17 remain in the Premier League, fattened on television rights, the harder it will be for teams coming up to make an impression.

There was a need for the promoted sides to put up a better fight than they managed last season when, between them, Leicester, Ipswich and Southampton collected just 59 points. Nine games into this season, not quite a quarter of the way through, Sunderland, Leeds and Burnley already have 38 points between them. None of the three are currently in the relegation zone. But most striking have been the performances of Sunderland, who have taken 17 points already and, to widespread surprise, lie fourth in the table.

Arsenal’s title tilt is built on solid defence, Chelsea miss Cole Palmer and what happened to clampdown on shirt-pulling?

“One-nil to the Arsenal” may not be thrilling but it is certainly effective. Sunday’s victory over Crystal Palace was Mikel Arteta’s side’s third by that margin in nine Premier League games. Last season, Arsenal managed that result five times in the league, while also drawing 1-1 in seven matches. Clean sheets in just half of those might have made for an intriguing title race. For all the noise surrounding Arsenal’s attacking talent, their defence is just as vital. It is their solidity at that end of the pitch that will probably lead them to glory, with three goals conceded in nine top-flight games so far. Sunday also marked a century of games across all competitions since they have conceded more than twice. The last to put three past David Raya? Luton – remember them? – back in December 2023. Sam Dalling

Match report: Arsenal 1-0 Crystal Palace

Match report: Aston Villa 1-0 Man City

Match report: Brentford 3-2 Liverpool

Match report: Manchester United 4-2 Brighton

Match report: Everton 0-3 Tottenham

• Inter Miami star delivered remarks in an NBC interview

• Messi reiterated his desire to play in the 2026 World Cup

Lionel Messi said that MLS must loosen its spending restrictions in order to become a top league in the world of soccer and said that he is hopeful that he will be physically able to contribute to Argentina at next summer’s World Cup.

In a rare interview with an American outlet, Messi sat down with NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Llamas at Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In the interview, Messi was asked if he felt that soccer could become as popular in the US as American sports like football, baseball, and basketball. Messi said he thinks the sport could get there, but that teams need to have more freedom first.

• Owls could face two more deductions over rule breaches

• ‘Four or five interested parties look like the real deal’

Sheffield Wednesday could face two further points deductions this season for breaching English Football League regulations but the administrators of the Championship crisis club are optimistic there are “four or five” credible bidders. Wednesday are bottom on -6 points after the chair, Dejphon Chansiri, placed the club into administration last Friday, triggering an automatic 12-point penalty.

Wednesday have failed to pay wages on time for five of the past seven months. An independent commission hearing will determine the sanction for the non-payment of March’s and May’s player wages. Wednesday are expected to be charged with further breaches this season, thought to relate to the non-payment of wages in June, July and September, for which they could also be docked points. If Wednesday are deducted further points, it is expected the penalties would apply this season.

• Cincinnati and Minnesota go up 1-0 in best-of-three series

• Columbus and Seattle to host Game 2s

Kévin Denkey’s goal in the 78th minute was enough for hosts FC Cincinnati to claim a 1-0 victory over the Columbus Crew in the opener of their Eastern Conference opening-round series on Monday.

Match 2 is Sunday in Columbus. A deciding match, if needed, will be on 8 November in Cincinnati.

• Tudor departs after just seven months in the job

• Sunday’s defeat to Lazio was third loss in the last week

Juventus have sacked their head coach, Igor Tudor, after failing to win their last eight matches in all competitions, the Serie A club said on Monday.

“Juventus FC announces that it has today relieved Igor Tudor of his duties as coach of the men’s first team, along with his staff,” the Italian club said in a statement, a day after their 1-0 defeat to Lazio. Massimo Brambilla, head coach of the reserve team, will temporarily take over as the first team manager, the club added.

• 371 of 571 referees in pro leagues found to have accounts

• 152 officials found to be actively placing bets

Turkey’s football federation (TFF) will launch disciplinary action against referees found to have bet on football matches after discovering that hundreds of them had betting accounts, its president said on Monday.

The TFF president, Ibrahim Haciosmanoglu, said a federation investigation — based on data from state institutions — revealed that 371 of 571 active referees in Turkey’s professional leagues had betting accounts, and 152 of them were actively gambling.

Serie A’s best player last season showed his class against Inter despite his coach getting mouthy with former players

Scott McTominay could have been forgiven for a moment of self-pity after Napoli’s 6-2 defeat to PSV in the Champions League last week, a night when he scored twice and still wound up on the wrong end of a historic shellacking. Instead, he was the voice of reason.

While Antonio Conte debuted a new line of complaint, putting aside a career’s worth of laments about employers failing to back him in the transfer market to this time protest that Napoli had bought him too many new players, McTominay said simply: “It’s football. You have to take it on the chin.”

Incidents in both games generated a lot of noise, not least the yellow card for Dorgu when Minteh was running towards goal

Two fixtures at the weekend generated a lot of noise in terms of refereeing decisions: Manchester United v Brighton and Brentford v Liverpool. In each case there were incidents that can serve as good educational pieces for understanding the calls that match officials make.

Starting at Old Trafford, the yellow card for Patrick Dorgu after fouling Yankuba Minteh, when the Brighton man looked as if he was through on goal, frustrated a lot of people. Everybody screams: “Last man, you’ve got to go” – which is absolutely false. Just because you’re the last defender it doesn’t mean you have to be sent off. In this kind of incident, the referee awards a foul and then has to consider the criteria of what fits the denial of an obvious goalscoring opportunity.

Will Still kept Lens competitive last season despite losing key players. They’re climbing even higher under Pierre Sage

By Get French Football News

When the Lens president, Joseph Oughourlian, set out the club’s “No 1 objective” before the season, he did not mention European qualification, a points target or even a cup run. The task at hand was to “rediscover financial solidity”. Sporting ambitions have taken a backseat role at Lens since Oughourlian announced the introduction of austerity measures in the summer of 2024. His words have been mirrored in the club’s actions.

Since running Paris Saint-Germain close for the title in the 2022-23 season, when they finished one point behind the eventual champions, the Lens squad has been decimated. First, it was Seko Fofana and Loïs Openda; then it was Abdukodir Khusanov, Elye Wahi, Brice Samba and Kevin Danso; and this summer it was Neil El-Aynaoui, Andy Diouf and Facundo Medina.

The Liverpool legend is the subject of a new film directed by Asif Kapadia on the Scot’s remarkable career in football and connection with his adopted city

‘We got the bus and went down to Sheffield to visit the supporters who were in hospital,” Kenny Dalglish says as he remembers how he spent the Monday after the tragedy of Hillsborough in April 1989. “All the players were there so we split up and they walked into different wards to see people. We were trying to give them a wee bit of confidence or belief of anything that could help them. And there was a family around a young boy’s bed and he was unconscious.”

Sean Luckett was 20 years old and one of the thousands of fervent Liverpool supporters who had travelled to Hillsborough to support the team who Dalglish managed and had played for with such sublime talent since arriving from Celtic in 1977. Ninety-seven Liverpool fans eventually lost their lives after the unbearable crush during the club’s FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest.

What has happened, why has it happened and what happens now – and could a regulator have prevented this?

The owner of Sheffield Wednesday, Dejphon Chansiri, has placed the club into administration. He has done the same with the company that owns Hillsborough, Wednesday’s stadium. As a result, administrators have taken over the day-to-day running of one of England’s historic clubs, with a view to stabilising financial performance and, ultimately, finding a new owner. Going into administration is a measure of last resort for any struggling business and carries sanctions in English football. Sheffield Wednesday have been docked 12 points by the EFL, leaving them adrift at the bottom of the Championship on -6 points, 13 behind Blackburn Rovers, the next side in the table.

The Argentine has been as excellent as ever in his later years, but his presence and performance has yet to push MLS into the US mainstream

OK, show of hands. How many of you knew that Lionel Messi – a global superstar who has committed to spend his next three years in the United States – just completed the best individual season in Major League Soccer history?

Be honest.

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

We pick the best youngsters at each club born between 1 September 2008 and 31 August 2009, an age band known as first-year scholars. Check the progress of our classes of 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 … and go even further back. Here’s our 2025 world picks

The clock in the Santiago Bernabéu showed 98:40 when Pedri picked up the ball on the edge of his area and went on the final run of an exhausting afternoon when so much happened that it was not just the players who struggled to keep up. Here was one last chance to salvage something, the Barcelona midfielder somehow hauling himself up the pitch in search of a final twist; instead, as he reached the other end, a tired touch and a desperate lunge saw him take out Aurélien Tchouaméni – the world upside down – and get sent off. And so the clásico was over, bar the shouting and the pushing.

There was plenty of that, players squaring up then and again when the final whistle went a few seconds later, Thibaut Courtois and Lamine Yamal confronting each other; so too Vinícius Júnior, who had stormed off when he was substituted, and Raphinha, who had not even played.

• Retired defender offered coaching role by Vincent Kompany

• Boateng found guilty last year of assaulting former partner

The retired defender Jérôme Boateng has pulled out of a planned coaching internship at Bayern Munich after fans voiced their objection because of the 2014 World Cup winner being found guilty last year of assaulting his former partner.

The former Bayern and Germany centre-back, who played for the club between 2011 and 2021, had discussed a short internship with the head coach, Vincent Kompany. “Following the recent discussion regarding myself, I have decided to focus on my issues such as the A training license … that is where my focus is,” he said in a social media post addressed to Bayern and Kompany. “Your focus should be solely on the pitch and on extending this 13-match winning run.”

• Kimmich, Guerreiro and Karl capitalise on Castrop red

• De Bruyne off injured after scoring as Napoli beat Inter

Bayern Munich needed more than an hour before breaking the resistance of Borussia Mönchengladbach, to earn a 3-0 victory over opponents who spent more than 75% of the game with 10 men. It was the Bundesliga leaders’ 13th win in 13 matches across all competitions this season.

Joshua Kimmich slotted in after 64 minutes and the substitute Raphaël Guerreiro added another five minutes later before the teenager Lennart Karl, who had scored in their Champions League win against Club Brugge on Wednesday, made it 3-0 in the 81st. Bayern have a maximum 24 points from eight league matches, five ahead of RB Leipzig, 6-0 winners at Augsburg.

The Western Conference’s No 1 seed can become the second expansion team to win MLS Cup

As San Diego FC prepare for their first playoff appearance this Sunday, they do so with the deserved title of record breakers. The expansion club has earned the Western Conference’s No 1 seed and set records for most victories (19) and points (63) in a single season by an MLS expansion team. As a result, they will be at home for the remainder of the playoffs, and would host MLS Cup if they make it there and meet anyone other than Inter Miami, Cincinnati, or the Supporters’ Shield-winning Philadelphia Union.

Now, they’re aiming for more history – to become the first expansion side to win MLS Cup since 1998 when the Chicago Fire achieved it against DC United.

With their election looming, the Argentinian club hope stable leadership can reverse worst form in four decades

Stefano Di Carlo was two months old when, in 1989, his grandfather, Titi, became the president of River Plate, taking over after the resignation of Hugo Santilli. He was seven months old when, that December, his grandfather narrowly lost the presidential election. He was three years old when his grandfather took him to his first River Plate game.

Titi Di Carlo remained a senior figure at the club and was on the board when he went to a Copa Libertadores quarter-final against Banfield with the 16-year-old Stefano. The first leg had finished 1-1.

Stunning goals by Eli Kroupi and Loum Tchaouna mean they are forcing their way into my brain at the expense of Ian Juryeff

I managed to watch last Saturday’s Match of the Day without knowing the scores. It really is one of life’s enduring thrills. So the first time I’d seen or heard of Loum Tchaouna was when he picked up the ball in the 68th minute at Turf Moor, looked around a bit and thought: “Sod it, I’ll just whack it from here.” And how! What a brilliant way to introduce himself to my brain – which was perhaps not his ultimate goal; in this instance a goal was very much his ultimate goal.

By the time of this last-on-MOTD wonderstrike, I’d obviously spent the previous hour watching various other footballers at work – most of them pretty familiar. The odd one did require a cursory Google. Who is Eli Kroupi? Who are all these Chelsea players? Do they really have the same sized squad as all the other teams? If I was cloning footballers in a laboratory and slipping them into the Champions League squad, I’d call them Reggie Walsh.

Brighton forward is playing the best football of his career at 34 and Thomas Tuchel could have a vacancy next summer

Age appears no barrier for Thomas Tuchel’s England. An 18-month contract as a one-shot deal – North America or bust – little need to plan for the future. Any legacy is bound up in the success or failure of Mission 2026, hence the expected presence of “good tourist” Jordan Henderson, 36 less than a week after the World Cup kicks off.

Though Harry Kane is immovable, undroppable, there may yet be a vacancy for an athletic, intelligent, hard-working forward, capable of linking play and leading the press, should Ollie Watkins or Dominic Solanke falter. Anyone meeting the demands of modern forward play: apply within.

In an embarrassing climbdown, the game in Miami is off with the league having alienated the players and even Villarreal, the club that was on its side

If there is a moment that defined La Liga’s fourth failed attempt to play in Miami, an image to explain why everything went wrong, it may have been the moment it was all over. On Tuesday night, Spanish television broadcast reaction to the news from the Estadio de la Ceràmica, live and unfiltered.

Cameras caught someone else who felt dismissed and disrespected, treated as if they didn’t count. This time it was someone who was supposed to be on the league’s side, but now appeared as a portrait of poor planning and poorer communication, a lack of consideration that pushed the project to collapse.

Our cartoonist looks back at the doomed and very short reign of Ange Postecoglou at the City Ground

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• David’s latest book, Chaos in the Box: get it now

Manager inherits a group of players that suits him and has a track record of creating camaraderie in his squads

Sean Dyche was often spotted at the City Ground while out of work. The Nottingham Forest job has been of interest to him for a long time, and not only because he lives close by. The circumstances in which the role has become available are not ideal for an incoming head coach but his appointment is the pragmatic choice in ludicrous circumstances.

Ange Postecoglou was never the right man, inheriting a squad that did not suit his style and did not adapt quickly enough, though it did not help that he told the players their previous achievements meant nothing. His tenure will go down in history for all the wrong reasons. Dyche, on the other hand, has plenty of respect for what Forest achieved under Nuno Espírito Santo and is far more aligned with that conservatism than with what was witnessed under Postecoglou.

After eye-catching showings for Aston Villa, piano-playing psychology student is ready to step up for England duty

Lucia Kendall was watching TV, probably a drama, and missed Sarina Wiegman’s call. She wasn’t expecting it. Certainly not this soon. The 21-year-old joined Aston Villa from the WSL 2 club Southampton in the summer but her start in the top division has been so impressive that it has yielded a first senior England call-up for the friendlies against Brazil and Australia.

“It’s surreal really,” Kendall says at the team’s St George’s Park training base. “I don’t think it’s really sunk in. I’m just here to learn as much as possible. This team’s just gone and won back-to-back Euros so to be able to be in their environment is something I really didn’t think I’d get to do so soon.”

Former England midfielder has always been a disruptor and says Saturday’s match will show his kids he can fight

David Bentley has never been one to turn down a challenge, even if it is to his detriment. In 2008, on England duty, he got roped into playing what was meant to be a lighthearted game with Jimmy Bullard, shouting “Postman Pat” at Fabio Capello in training, on account of the manager’s likeness to the children’s character. Capello – perhaps unsurprisingly – did not see the funny side and Bentley never played for England again.

Bentley has always been audacious. When coming through at Arsenal, he accidentally sat in the seat of the club captain, Patrick Vieira, in the canteen. When the Frenchman tapped the then teenager on the shoulder, ordering him to vacate the seat in front of the rest of the squad, Bentley refused as a matter of principle. “I wasn’t going to let anyone mug me off,” Bentley says. “If I was on the street, no chance. I’m not moving. There’s a hierarchy but I don’t know, I’m not having that. But I can feel his hand on my shoulder now.” He spent the next three months getting kicked in training by Vieira and excluded from nights out with the team.

More than half the 26 places appear to be locked down but big names are at risk with qualification secured and the tournament looming

Fresh from breaking Gordon Banks’s record for consecutive England clean sheets, Jordan Pickford remains the undisputed pick in goal. A miserly defensive record is a positive for Thomas Tuchel, even if the shutouts have come against poor sides. John Stones, such an elegant centre-back, is back in the team and will start at the World Cup if he stays fit. But who will partner him? Tuchel likes Ezri Konsa, whose versatility also makes him an option at right-back, and Marc Guéhi; big Dan Burn also looks established after making his international debut in March. It is more uncertain at left-back, but Reece James will play at right-back as long as his body does not let him down.

Perhaps the only surprising thing about Hearts’ victory over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership on Sunday was just how surprised people (who presumably don’t pay too much attention to football played north of the border) were when news of the result and its ramifications for the top of the table filtered through. While this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which leaves the Jambos top of the table and eight points clear of Celtic, was seismic in nature, nobody who has been following the fortunes of either team this season will have been even remotely shocked by the result. For each of the past 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish league between them, reducing fitba to something of a punchline in the process. Nine games into the current campaign it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who number Stephen Hendry, Sir Chris Hoy and Ken Stott among their celebrity fans – might just be ready to strike while the Old Firm iron is freezing cold.

My first team was Yeovil Town on the sloping pitch when I was 10 years old growing up in Somerset. Then I lived in Sutton in my early 20s and used to go along there occasionally. In 1979 I started going to Highfield Road because my near neighbour Ian was a Coventry City fan. I adopted them as my team although I sometimes fell asleep during the matches as I’d drunk too much at the Tam o’ Shanter club with his dad. I’ve got my FA Cup final and Charity Shield programmes signed by John Sillett and I’ve even watched them play against Forest Green in League Two. And now they’re being tipped as promotion candidates. It really is the hope and expectation that hurts, isn’t it?” – Leslie Hand.

No letter from Noble Francis on Friday about Sheffield Wednesday’s woes? Discarding the chance that you didn’t publish because it wasn’t funny as too remote, can we conclude that Noble has spent the day drinking Tin and missed the deadline?” – Noble Fr Andy Neill.

Apropos of nothing, Ange Postecoglou grew up a Liverpool fan” – Jarrod Prosser.

This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.

Today’s newsletter looks at the next World Cup hosts as they prepare to take on England and Italy with a squad with an average age of 24

The road to the 2027 World Cup is long and winding for all teams hoping to qualify – apart from the hosts, Brazil. Having won their ninth Copa América Femenina in the summer, their next major tournament will be the World Cup in 20 months.

That may seem like a long time but the head coach, Arthur Elias, is aware that every minute of preparation counts, starting with their friendlies against England in Manchester on Saturday and Italy in Parma on Tuesday.

The former Tottenham manager made a rash Premier League return, and it will probably be his last

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The weirdest aspect of Ange Postecoglou’s 40-day reign at Nottingham Forest was how inevitable it all felt. The only shock was that he was sacked on Saturday, within minutes of a 3-0 home defeat to Chelsea, rather than a day or two later. But by then, it was obvious this ill-starred adventure had run its course; perhaps it was kinder to everybody to bring it to an end. Forest, certainly, had to act quickly if they are to make the most of their first European campaign in three decades.

But why was such an obviously terrible appointment made in the first place? What was it that made the Nottingham Forest owner, Evangelos Marinakis, ever think that Postecoglou was the right man to succeed Nuno Espírito Santo? They met in July at an event staged by the Greek league to celebrate Postecoglou winning the Europa League with Tottenham, but was it really just that? That they got on well over a glass of wine?

This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Have a question for Jonathan? Email soccerwithjw@theguardian.com, and he’ll answer the best in a future edition.

The duo face Germany and Sweden respectively in this week’s semi-finals and should each have enough to win

First leg: Friday, Düsseldorf, 4.45pm (all times BST). Second leg; Tuesday, Caen, 8.10pm

Max Rushden, Sanny Rudravajhala, George Elek and Ben Fisher discuss Brendan Rodgers leaving Celtic, Frank Lampard taking Coventry top of the Championship and Sheffield Wednesday entering administration

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On the podcast today; as with what seems to be every Football League-facing podcast, breaking news the day before gets in the way. This time it’s Brendan Rodgers’ decision to leave Celtic and the incredible club statement that followed it.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Sam Dalling and Dan Bardell as Arsenal extend their lead at the top of the Premier League to four points

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: a brilliant weekend for Arsenal who achieved a six-point swing in their favour as they beat Crystal Palace at home while Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea all lost.

This week’s action saw an astonishing 71 goals over two nights, with the Premier League responsible for many of them

• Barcelona’s youth system. Ahead of Sunday’s edition of El Clásico between Barcelona and Real Madrid, the two clubs won their midweek matches. Real Madrid’s opponents were Juventus, in the type of heavyweight clash the Champions League’s rejig into a 36-team group stage was supposed to throw up on a regular basis. Wednesday’s meeting fell short of classic encounters like 2003’s meeting of Madrid’s Luís Figo and Zinedine Zidane with Juve’s Pavel Nedvěd and Alessandro Del Piero. In 2025, Juventus are not the force of yore, though they made Madrid sweat. The sole goal came from Jude Bellingham, England’s great enigma.

Plus: Austria’s full-house of goals and assists, more free-kick purple patches and seeing red after scoring a hat-trick

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“Is Ange Postecoglou’s 40-day spell at Nottingham Forest the shortest for a full-time manager in the English top flight?” asks Donna Stevens.

Any Nottingham Forest manager aspires to emulate the achievements of Brian Clough at the City Ground, or at least pay some kind of success-based tribute. Alas, Ange Postecoglou’s spell at Forest was more reminiscent of Clough’s time at Leeds – short and sour.

Ron Futcher, Charlton 5-3 Barnsley, Division Two, March 1985
Futcher’s hat-trick put Barnsley 3-0 ahead; he was then sent off with the score 3-3 before Charlton completed a spectacular comeback.

Hristo Stoichkov, Atlético Madrid 1-4 Barcelona, La Liga, September 1992

Benni McCarthy, Porto 5-3 Santa Clara, Primeira Liga, April 2002

Marco Gabbiadini, Sunderland 4-0 Ipswich, Division Two, March 1989
Quite an achievement, this one – after 87 minutes Gabbiadini had scored only one goal. He added two more in the 88th and 89th before being sent off in the 90th for an alleged right-hander.

Chris Iwelumo, Preston 1-3 Wolves, Championship, September 2008

Hugo Almeida, Werder Bremen 3-0 St Pauli, Bundesliga, November 2010

Every deal in the NWSL, WSL, Liga F, Frauen-Bundesliga, Première Ligue and Serie A Femminile as well as a club-by-club guide

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