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In an age in which every gripe is highlighted and performative fury is good business, there is an argument that long-termism has become impossible

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Last week, Thomas Frank was sacked as manager of Tottenham and Sean Dyche was sacked as manager of Nottingham Forest. Both decisions were entirely explicable in their own terms. Frank had won only two of his previous 17 league games and Dyche only two of his previous 10. Both saw the improvement of West Ham under Nuno Espírito Santo and felt the drag of potential relegation. When fear sets in and something has to change, football tends to sacrifice the manager.

Excluding caretakers and interims, their departures take the number of Premier League managers to leave their jobs this season to eight, with Oliver Glasner to come at the end of the season, when Marco Silva and Andoni Iraola are also out of contract. Last season there were 10 departures, in 2023-24 nine, in 2022-23 an absurd 18. To give a little context, in the first season of the Premier League, 1992-93, there were only four changes (five if you include Dave Webb at Chelsea, who was effectively an interim, although he did not officially have that title). The average life span of a Premier League manager has dropped from about four seasons to about a season and a half.

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Back in September, when the Rangers website revealed the club “were thrilled to announce” the signing of a Portuguese striker from Everton for £8m, the reaction from fans could only have been more downbeat if the player in question had been Beto. On Reddit, one overwrought supporter described the deal to bring Youssef Chermiti to Ibrox as being “everything that is wrong with football”, noting that the 21-year-old had “rocked up” in Glasgow with nothing to show for his short time in the game except a £5,000 Van Cleef & Arpels bracelet and “teeth straight out of a designer dentist”. (At this point it is probably also worth noting that Football Daily has been knocking around since before Youssef was even a mischievous gleam in his father’s eye and has achieved so little that we’d never even heard of the high-end jewellers until we read the disparaging post in question.)

While goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin’s last-gasp header meant more for the hosts, Madrid cannot take the challenge lightly in the Champions League playoff

Nineteen days later, Real Madrid fly back to Lisbon to try again. For all the drama, for all that Benfica’s goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin rose through the rain to head an astonishing 98th-minute goal and José Mourinho raced up the line with his arms around a ballboy, everyone in the Estádio da Luz losing their minds; for all that Álvaro Arbeloa’s team “crashed out” of the top eight, the biggest club of all have a second chance. Which is, of course, the way the Champions League is designed. So here they go again and things are better now. But they thought that back then, too.

What followed, as one headline had it, was a “total write-off”, Madrid not just beaten 4-2 but battered. Trubin’s late goal, the moment of the competition, changed everything for Benfica but didn’t really alter Madrid’s fate; already destined for the playoffs, it just deepened the “shame”, in Kylian Mbappé’s words. Three weeks on, they meet again on Tuesday in Lisbon – Madrid against Benfica, Mourinho against “my boy” – with an opportunity to start over, some hope and enthusiasm allowed back in. A little easily perhaps, renewed belief built on not much and yet to withstand a proper test, but there may be something in it.

Lauren James shows what Chelsea have been missing, Villa get a ‘cruel’ crushing and the leaders bounce back

If there were any questions about how Manchester City would respond to seeing their unbeaten league run end, they were quickly put to bed. Andrée Jeglertz’s side were back to their free-flowing attacking best, putting six past Leicester. Dominant seems to be a bit of an understatement when describing this performance. The league leaders created 31 chances, with 15 on target; had an expected goals of 4.63; registered 66 touches in the opposition box; and made 600 of 660 passes (91%). The front four of Lauren Hemp, Bunny Shaw, Kerolin and Vivianne Miedema is formidable and they were involved, to some degree, in five of the six goals. Hemp starred down the left, creating 11 chances that include two assists; Shaw sent home a trademark header for her 15th league goal of the season; Miedema pulled the strings and grabbed herself a double; and Kerolin scored the pick of the bunch and registered an assist. Sophie Downey

Match report: Chelsea 2-0 Liverpool

Juve directors condemned Pierre Kalulu’s dismissal but beyond the outrage there were reasons to take heart

At the end of a spectacular, ferocious Derby d’Italia, none of Juventus’s players nor their manager would answer questions from the media. Instead, their chief executive, Damien Comolli, and director of football strategy, Giorgio Chiellini, spoke on the club’s behalf. They were not there to discuss tactical nuance.

“You can’t talk about football today,” said Chiellini. “Something unacceptable happened.” Comolli offered an even more grave verdict: “Juventus lost three points, but Italian football lost much more.” A strong claim. If true, might Comolli have done better to acknowledge his part in it?

Sebastian Hoeness’ side are back in the top four but face test to keep hold of top talent again this summer

Köln had been here before. “It’s not the second time, but the fifth or sixth time,” said forward Marius Bülter, “that we’ve sat in the locker room after a game, not able to blame ourselves much, but still left with zero points.” His coach, Lukas Kwasniok, described it as “Groundhog Day,” after “a more than decent performance against top opponents”.

Their words are the signal, if it were needed, that Stuttgart really have arrived at the top of German football. Effzeh’s players and coaching staff alike felt that this fitted snugly into a growing list of hard-luck stories; last week’s home loss to RB Leipzig, last month’s game with Bayern Munich when the champions didn’t take the lead until late on, or even the autumn defeat at Dortmund where they were beaten by Maxi Beier’s goal deep into stoppage time.

Guardian sources say MLS’s inquiry into Ernst Tanner has been held up by concerns over non-disclosure agreements

Philadelphia Union sporting director Ernst Tanner continues to be under investigation by Major League Soccer and remains on administrative leave with no resolution expected to come soon, multiple sources told the Guardian last week.

Tanner was the subject of wide-ranging allegations of misconduct raised by a Guardian investigation late last year, including a complaint made by the MLS Players Association to the league alleging multiple instances of racist, sexist and homophobic behavior. After the Guardian published its story, the Union placed Tanner on administrative leave and MLS reopened an investigation into his behavior that had been closed early in 2025 due to lack of corroboration. Tanner has denied the allegations throughout, saying he will cooperate fully with the league as he “[works] to clear my good name and reputation”.

After Macclesfield’s FA Cup giantkilling, the quiet Cheshire town remains suitably unassuming in the spotlight after years of heartbreak

Along the passenger bridge at Macclesfield railway station, a frieze celebrates the town’s history. Towards the far platform it reads “1874, Macclesfield Town established”. The next entry is “1979, Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures released”. Local humour has it that for 105 years nothing happened in Macclesfield. “Macc’s Macc,” say those who know of a place where change is for ever slow, many Maxonians happy enough with that.

The town, in the east of Cheshire, a gateway to England’s north-west, is a classic northern mill town, though silk was the product not cotton. It once would have been described as a bustling market town until falling victim to the nationwide death of the high street, its Marks & Spencer branch boarded up in disuse and footfall low. That said, the outdoor Treacle Market, selling artisan foods and trinkets, held on the last Sunday of each month, claims to be the region’s “biggest monthly event”.

Pressure is telling on Scott Parker at Burnley while Dominik Szoboszlai is reaching new heights for Liverpool

The lack of pressure on Scott Parker this season, despite a collection of desperate performances and an impending relegation, has been mystifying. Plenty at Turf Moor feel a strong sense of loyalty to Parker, especially the chairman, Alan Pace, but support in the stands is dwindling. The lack of backing in the winter transfer window left the squad short of quality and with limited routes out of their current predicament. The Burnley head coach’s Premier League record is miserable and the style of play is devoid of entertainment. At the weekend he had the chance to follow a first league victory in 17 matches at Crystal Palace with FA Cup progress against third-tier Mansfield, but instead Burnley were deservedly eliminated. The second-half efforts of the Clarets bordered on embarrassment in a half-full ground and it feels like things cannot continue like this much longer. Will Unwin

Match report: Burnley 1-2 Mansfield

Match report: Aston Villa 1-3 Newcastle

Match report: Liverpool 3-0 Brighton

Match report: Burton 0-1 West Ham (aet)

Match report: Hull 0-4 Chelsea

Pierre Sage’s team thrashed Paris FC 5-0 to go top of the table yet he is still talking about avoiding relegation

By Get French Football News

Marseille have a propensity to explode. So when they lost 5-0 to Paris Saint-Germain last Sunday and then lost their manager, it was no surprise. But seeing PSG having to put out fires is an unexpected turn. All the while, Lens have been a tranquil and unassuming force, keeping their dream of a Ligue 1 title alive – even if they don’t yet fully believe in it.

By this time last season, PSG were on the march. Unbeaten domestically until the end of April, after which point the league title was already mathematically ensured, Luis Enrique’s side were infallible. But that is not a word that applies to them in the present, as their 3-1 defeat to a managerless Rennes side proved this weekend.

Former Chelsea and Real Madrid idol wants merely to be remembered as ‘a good player and a funny guy’ after a career of multiple titles – and spats with Mourinho

If Italy is a boot, Lecce sits right on the heel. It is here, deep in the countryside a few kilometres outside the baroque city, that the noise of the Bernabéu and the intensity of Stamford Bridge feel like a lifetime ago. The setting is rustic, quiet and slow-paced: a stark contrast to the frenetic energy that defined Eden Hazard’s career on the pitch.

It has been almost three years since he stopped playing, and the silence since his retirement at 32 has been notable. After an injury-hit spell at Real Madrid brought a premature end to a dazzling career, Hazard did not seek the spotlight. Surrounded by vineyards rather than defenders, slumped in an armchair, he seems entirely at peace, remarkably comfortable with his life after football.

Frank Lampard’s team started the season with a blaze of goals but Kim Hellberg’s side are now title favourites

By WhoScored

The last time these two teams met, on 25 November, Coventry were on an 18-match run that delivered 13 wins, 50 goals and a 10-point lead at the top of the Championship. Middlesbrough, by contrast, entered the game without a head coach. Rob Edwards had taken the Wolves job and his replacement, Kim Hellberg, watched from the stands as the team conceded two late goals to lose 4-2. Boro were still second in the table but were staring up at what looked like an unbridgeable gap to the leaders.

And yet, as these two sides prepare to meet again a little more than two months later, the table tells a different story. Middlesbrough’s 2-1 win against Sheffield United was not just their sixth in a row, but it also took them above Coventry at the top.

Hearts will take no consolation whatsoever from the fact their progress to the status of serious entity in a Scottish title race was demonstrated by the atmosphere at Ibrox. The scale of celebration that met Rangers’ victory decreed they had not defeated also-rans. Danny Röhl, the Rangers manager, went cavorting down the touchline as his team scored a fourth.

This proved the game of the season in Scotland. A genuine thriller. It was also one Rangers dare not lose; that they took three points properly fuels hopes of snatching the league from Celtic’s grasp. An inspired second half from Rangers was sufficient as their visitors wilted.

• Keeper did not think Guardiola would sign Italian

• ‘It’s football, you’ve got to keep grafting every day’

James Trafford has admitted he did not expect Manchester City to sign Gianluigi Donnarumma after his transfer from Burnley last summer, with the deputy goalkeeper potentially leaving this summer.

Trafford returned to City after two years at Turf Moor on 31 July in a deal worth £31m before Pep Guardiola informed the club executive that the manager also wanted Donnarumma. The Italian joined on 2 September from Paris Saint-Germain for £26m and became Guardiola’s first choice.

It has been a testing few months for the man who scored the winner for Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final last season. But after being substituted at half-time during the disappointing draw with Brentford on Thursday, perhaps this competition could help to breathe new life into Eberechi Eze’s Arsenal career.

As well as providing assists for Noni Madueke’s and Gabriel Martinelli’s goals – albeit against a poor Wigan side languishing in the League One relegation zone – the England midfielder’s swagger was back for the first time since he scored a hat‑trick in the north London derby in November.

Precipitation not perspiration was the order of the day at the Kassam Stadium, as the rain hammered down on the banks of a bloated river Thames and Sunderland made it to the FA Cup fifth round without having to break a sweat.

Habib Diarra’s first‑half penalty provided only a narrow margin of victory for Régis Le Bris’s visitors, but the margin flattered Oxford United. With two teams of reserves contesting a tie in a competition that is a priority for neither club, this was a drab match in sodden surrounds. There was little in the way of the magic of the Cup, but to their credit 9,879 spectators created a decent atmosphere all the same.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, John Brewin and Dan Bardell to discuss the fourth-round weekend and a big day in Scotland.

On the podcast today: all hail Mansfield Town – their win at Turf Moor kept the magic of the cup alive this weekend, even if it’s impossible to be surprised by a Burnley defeat of any kind. Elsewhere, was this a great weekend for VAR? There were some questionable decisions, especially at Villa Park.

Sunday was a pivotal day in the Scottish Premiership title race, with Celtic coming back from two goals down and Rangers coming from behind to beat Hearts at Ibrox.

Plus: Igor Tudor to Spurs, Thomas Tuchel staying with England, a mudbath at Grimsby, a director of football going in goal and your questions answered.

Chapters:

00:00 - Coming up...

01:27 - Burnley 1-2 Mansfield

09:26 - Villa 1-3 Newcastle

19:44 - Grimsby 0-1 Wolves

22:08 - Burton 0-1 West Ham

24:05 - Birmingham 1-1 Leeds

28:10 - Liverpool 3-0 Brighton

30:51 - Arsenal 4-0 Wigan

35:41 - Hull 0-4 Chelsea

36:37 - City 2-0 Salford

42:00 - Fitba round up

47:00 - Who or what is Igor Tudor?

54:10 - Why did Barry kill those chickens?

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Lucy and Pippa Tallant have opened the Crossbar, in Brighton, to create a place for women to feel comfortable watching all sport

You can’t miss it, the giant “Crossbar” flanked by two stylised crosses in black on the whitewashed outside walls glares down the street, a stone’s throw from Brighton’s Churchill Square. Outside is the narrow shelf that the co-owner Lucy Tallant, the DIY enthusiast of the pair, attached to the wall for those wanting to hang around outside. As she worked on that shelf, two girls walked past and one proclaimed: “Yeah, they’re opening a lesbian club.” “A lesbian club?” replied the other, “Yeah, there’s one outside now.”

Lucy was in stitches, and so was social media when she posted about what she had overheard. The shelf has become a thing, with lesbians posing for photographs and then sharing online with versions of “there’s one outside now” as the caption.

Their best players and managers may move on, but this thoroughly modern club keep punching above their weight

When the news cycle spins so fast, it’s worth remembering where Brentford were in the summer. They had lost their popular manager of seven years, Thomas Frank. They had lost their two best forwards, Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa. They had lost their goalkeeper Mark Flekken. And they had lost two stalwarts in Christian Nørgaard and Ben Mee (even if the latter’s involvement the previous season had been limited as he turned 35). Departure and replacement is an unavoidable part of life for a club such as Brentford, but this seemed a like a lot to deal with.

Their summer signings were hard to judge. As a rule of thumb, if Brentford are signing someone about whom you already have considered opinions, it’s likely something has gone awry. That said, Caoimhín Kelleher’s gifts are clear, and a fee of just under £13m seemed good value for a goalkeeper with Premier League experience, while Dango Ouattara had demonstrated at Bournemouth how effective he could be either through the middle or out wide. But Antoni Milambo, Michael Kayode and Kaye Furo were unknown quantities.

Croat never stays long but is an expert at doing what is necessary and also comes with a reputation as a taskmaster

In Italy, the interim manager of a football club is often referred to as “un traghettatore” – a ferryman. When waters are choppy, you do not need some ambitious captain with notions of heading out on an adventure. All you really want is someone who can get you safely to shore.

Igor Tudor is not keen on the word. Hearing it applied to him when he arrived at Juventus last season, he observed that every manager, everywhere, is living from game to game. “You can have a contract for five years and get sent home after three matches,” he said. “You have to construct your tomorrow today.”

Ritualistic Spurs manager sacking is a marker in the year, but the failing lies with executives responsible for some really vague recruitment

Don’t talk about Spurs. Don’t talk about Spurs. Don’t keep returning to Spurs, bloodshot and shivering. Don’t end up twitching on a Manhattan street corner, nodding at Jean-Michel Basquiat as he drifts past, waiting for your Spurs man to appear out of a fire escape, uncork his Spurs pouch, and say what do you need, while you chatter about just wanting to return to the club DNA, whatever that is, nobody knows, but it’s Spurs, and Spurs is your wife and it’s your life and, you know, sources close to sources say a swoop for German wunder-coach Helmut von Wangerburg may actually be at an advanced …

So, Spurs then. It’s true that the media are addicted to this club. But it is also an understandable response to an entity that has become a content machine, perfectly structured to meet the requirements of any moreishly successful streaming drama.

Extending his England men’s team contract until 2028 means increased stability and a less relentless form of pressure

Thomas Tuchel was supposed to be here for a good time, not a long time. It was win or bust when he signed up to become England’s head coach in October 2024. The target was clear – lead the side to glory at the 2026 World Cup – and it came with an acceptance that the German was nothing more than a very expensive gun for hire.

An 18-month deal, which began on 1 January 2025, saw to that. Tuchel talked about it giving him focus. He said it streamlined the role. “It’s a little bit of a step into the unknown for me,” he said. Tuchel would have to adapt. He loves being out on the training pitch, working with his players, honing their understanding of his tactics. Wouldn’t he get bored during the long months without a game? Wouldn’t he get itchy feet as soon as he saw a job open up at a big club?

Tax exile has already proven himself a terrible club owner; now his ill-informed diatribe about immigration has poured fuel on wider flames

Well I, for one, am shocked. Shocked to learn that a tax-exiled English expat who made his billions squeezing chemical plants doesn’t have liberal, let alone accurate, views on immigration. Or at least, in public anyway.

It seems highly likely Sir Jim Ratcliffe knew what he was doing in the course of his now semi-recanted Sky News interview. And it is above all vital that at least one part of his empire of influence – football, sport, Manchester United – rejects it, as the club have done to some extent in their statement.

The Colombian icon joined the MLS side in a short-term deal with an eye toward fitness for the 2026 World Cup

Two weeks ago, few could’ve expected that the most notable international acquisition of the MLS offseason would be made by Minnesota United.

The team’s marquee import until last week was Finland striker Teemu Pukki, with honorable mentions for Colombian playmaker Darwin Quintero and ex-Porto midfielder Ibson. The Loons aren’t known for paying sizable transfer fees, and their wage bill last year was the league’s fifth-smallest.

After just eight games, it’s fair to ask if the former Columbia University math major is having the best-ever season for a US coach in Europe

Pellegrino Matarazzo stood there, still and composed. Brown pants. Black sweater. Arms crossed, one hand to his chin and grey beard. The New Jerseyan looked less like the manager of Real Sociedad, a club that placed in La Liga’s top six for five straight seasons before last year, than a math professor. That’s what he well might have been, had his life taken only a slightly different turn; he graduated from Columbia University with a degree in applied mathematics, after all.

Instead, he was there on Saturday, at the Anoeta Stadium, calmly coaxing his side past Elche, 3-1, pumping a single fist when La Real scored, occasionally waving those arms to push his side further upfield. As if Matarazzo’s being there, as if his team taking yet another lead, was all just a matter of course. Just a big-time manager at a big-time club, doing big-time things.

Leander Schaerlaeckens’ book on the United States men’s national soccer team, The Long Game, is out on 12 May. You can preorder it here. He teaches at Marist University.

VAR’s application has been a divisive topic everywhere it has been introduced. It was more of the same in Serie A

You might not be shocked to learn that Daniele De Rossi thinks football has gone soft. Since retiring and moving into management, the man with the “beware the sliding tackle” tattoo has acknowledged he sometimes misses getting to stick the boot in. But would the stick figure seen flying into an opponent on the back of his right calf even stand a chance in this era of VAR?

“I don’t know what to say any more,” lamented De Rossi after his Genoa team lost 3-2 to Napoli on Saturday. “The football we played no longer exists. We were naïve, but it seems I don’t know anything. I don’t know what sport I am coaching.”

Win against Stuttgart was a reminder that unity remains St Pauli’s greatest strength in defying the odds again

It had begun to look like a lost cause. In a season where the Bundesliga’s relegation battle increasingly promises a richness that the title race may lack (with all due respect to Borussia Dortmund’s efforts to stalk Bayern Munich at closer quarters in recent weeks), it has felt like St Pauli were, like fellow minnows Heidenheim, ready to be cut away. The Hamburg club’s best-ever start to a top-flight season, two wins and a draw from their first three games, felt like an age ago. Nine successive defeats will do that to you.

Yet these masters of the unusual and the unexpected had another surprise up their sleeve this weekend; not least, one suspects, to themselves. Stuttgart travelled north on a fine run of form, sitting pretty in a Champions League spot and fresh from a week of qualifying for the DFB Pokal semi-finals, a trophy which they have every hope of retaining. With one league win against largely hopeless Heidenheim since that golden start for their hosts, who are also harbouring an injury list as long as one of Scottie Pippen’s arms (to paraphrase Jay-Z), it looked straightforward for Sebastian Hoeness and his men.

As ‘the pressure of the haircut’ enters the game’s lexicon, the extent to which football revolves around winning and losing games appears to be fading

“I don’t care about his haircut at all,” Matheus Cunha said this week. “I don’t really look at other people if they need to go to the hairdresser or not,” Bruno Fernandes said at the weekend. Michael Carrick, for his part, said he was aware of the haircut issue. But the Manchester United coach insisted it would not factor into his team’s preparations for their game against West Ham on Tuesday night.

And so, here we are. Many games of football end up being remembered for reasons far outstripping their original significance: the 1914 Christmas Truce, the 1962 Battle of Santiago, the 2020 pandemic curtain‑raiser between Liverpool and Atlético Madrid. To these we can add the Haircut Game: a mildly arresting 1-1 Premier League draw at the London Stadium that posterity will nevertheless recall as the game when a man did not get his hair cut at the end.

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If Tottenham are waiting for Pochettino part two, then season three of Postecoglou might bring the right survival vibes

It’s panic time at the bottom of the Premier League and, if the past couple of days are anything to go by, probably don’t go following Ange Postecoglou into a job any time soon. Others who have followed it more closely can do Nottingham Forest and their 4 (four) managers. This is a piece about Tottenham Hotspur, or as I like to call them, my big team who win things.

November 2023 feels like a lifetime ago. Spurs were top of the league. Angeball was at its peak. Dynamic free-flowing football – they were 1-0 up against Chelsea thanks to Dejan Kulusevski (injured). It’s the 14th minute, Spurs neatly play themselves out from the back down the right, it breaks to Pape Sarr who rolls the ball to Destiny Udogie (injured), and Brennan Johnson (Crystal Palace) steams down the left. He plays a perfect first-time ball with his left foot into the path of Son Heung-min (LAFC), who rolls it home. Tottenham are 2-0 up against a team they lose to at least twice a season.

Evangelos Marinakis is close to appointing fourth head coach of season after Sean Dyche’s sacking and it’s a mess of his own making because he should never have fired Nuno

Sacking three head coaches in a season does not reflect well on Nottingham Forest or their owner, Evangelos Marinakis. It is a mess of their own making, which started with the exit of their most successful manager in recent history and has the latest P45 going to the man brought in to sort out the problems created by an ill-judged appointment that lasted eight winless games.

Twelve months ago Forest were battling for a Champions League spot under the stable stewardship of Nuno Espírito Santo. A lot has changed and they will become the first Premier League side to have four permanent managers in a season, which was not a record the club were aiming for in August, when hoping to build on a seventh-place finish, an FA Cup semi-final and qualifying for Europe for the first time in 30 years.

Vivid dreamscape sold to fans in 2021 is yet to materialise amid layers upon layers of bureaucracy, economics and geopolitics

Layer two: Nick Woltemade, signed for £69m in the hot madness of summer, has stopped scoring. Anthony Elanga, a £55m winger, has struggled for game time and goals. Malick Thiaw, a £35m centre-half bought from Milan, keeps making basic errors. Last summer’s transfer window, conducted without a sporting director and with an outgoing chief executive, looks increasingly like a disaster. The football seems a little slower and less urgent these days, St James’ Park a little quieter and more anxious. Eddie Howe is basically holding this thing together with hugs and smiles.

Layer three: turns out Alexander Isak lighted the exit path so that others might follow. Sandro Tonali’s agent decided to make a little mischief on transfer deadline day, putting Arsenal on alert. Perhaps Tonali will be the next painful transfer saga, perhaps Bruno Guimarães or Lewis Hall or Tino Livramento. The sporting director, Ross Wilson, is still getting his feet under the table. The chief executive, David Hopkinson, reckons Newcastle can be the best team in the world by 2030. They sit 11th in the Premier League. No signings arrived in January.

Our cartoonist looks back at the mayhem on Merseyside as visitors’ late win reminded Arsenal they’re still in the hunt

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Small town club’s Serie B adventure captivated football and inspired a famous book. That spirit remains and is being passed to their successors

The WhatsApp group flickers into life at about 6am every day. It is the manager who goes first because, when you are 79, old habits die hard. “Good morning,” Osvaldo Jaconi hails his former players and staff before, little by little, the salutations roll in from across Italy. Maybe it is someone’s birthday or another special occasion; the conversation may be accelerated by an in-joke that recalls why, three decades ago, they were brought together in the first place. Just in case anyone could forget, the group’s title says: “Serie B.”

This is how miracles stay alive. Perhaps it is the point of what Castel di Sangro achieved in 1995-96. A rag-tag bunch from this backwater in mountainous Abruzzo had risen from local amateur leagues and then, in a crowning triumph with little precedent, made it to the second tier. “It’s like 30 years haven’t passed,” says Angelo Petrarca, who was nominally the masseur but often resembled a one-man backroom. “It shows how much love everybody has for each other, and did back then. As if everybody is still right here.”

When Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac became club guardians in 2021 the Premier League was a dream. Now it’s a target

Two Chewbaccas handed out flyers to passersby. No one making their way towards the Turf batted an eyelid, but then again, for five years now, a touch of Hollywood has become pretty much the norm in Wrexham.

Ninety minutes before kick-off the city’s most famous public house was heaving. Lying in the shadow of the Racecourse Ground, it is the watering hole of choice for locals, and, thanks to landlord Wayne Jones’s prominent role in Welcome to Wrexham, the hit documentary following the club’s many fortunes, a tourist attraction.

After impressive work by Manchester United and Liverpool and disappointment for Chelsea, we assess every team’s business

With the contracts of so many senior players expiring in June, Arsenal’s focus was on preparing for the summer when they are expected to go through a major rebuild. Therefore their quiet window was no surprise, but they will be relatively pleased to have brought in a star of the future, Smilla Holmberg, at right-back and to have fulfilled their need for a backup goalkeeper, with Barbora Votíkova’s deadline-day loan. Much more significant, though, is the positive progress they are understood to have made in their attempt to sign Georgia Stanway on a free at the end of the season, and big decisions such as not seeking to extend Katie McCabe’s stay, as they prepare to refresh the team.

Will Arsenal regret Nwaneri move? Have Sunderland traded brilliantly again? We run the rule over every team’s business

The foot injury sustained by Mikel Merino made the last few days of the window a bit more interesting for Arsenal supporters, although in the end there was no big signing. Deadline-day links to Sandro Tonali of Newcastle and Leon Goretzka came to nothing, and Arsenal missed out to their north London rivals Tottenham on the 18-year-old Scotland striker James Wilson. They did sign the England Under-19 defender Jaden Dixon from Stoke but will Mikel Arteta regret allowing Ethan Nwaneri to join Marseille on loan with Merino poised to be out for at least two months? Ed Aarons

Chile’s female players are newly protected under labour law and are hoping their official status can help the game thrive in South America

The Chilean players’ association officially became a union in December, and its president, Javiera Moreno, believes there needs to be women’s representation in players’ unions around the world.

“We want this movement to become massive,” says the former Universidad Católica captain. “Our goal is to spread this to other countries. I don’t know if in other places the path will be to have a specific union for women. This was needed here, but I think there needs to be at least representation of women’s players within every country’s footballers’ union.”

US captain reflects on her playing career in France and the need for greater competition as she prepares for a summer move to Denver

Lindsey Heaps is sitting in the heart of Lyon, a city that has witnessed her transformation from a self-described “baby” into the authoritative captain of the US women’s national team. Now wearing the No 10 shirt for OL Lyonnes, inherited this season from Dzsenifer Marozsán, Heaps is reflective. She is a veteran, a leader who has won almost everything, yet she remains a student of the game, constantly seeking the “good struggles” that defined her early years.

The timing of our meeting is poignant. This month Lyonnes reasserted their dominance over the Première Ligue with a 1-0 victory against Paris Saint-Germain, before winning 4-0 against Saint-Étienne in a derby. The results leaves OL in a league of their own: 14 points clear of second-placed Nantes, with PSG cast adrift in fifth place, 17 points behind the leaders. For Heaps, these numbers are not just a source of pride; they are a symptom of a wider problem.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, John Brewin and Dan Bardell to discuss the fourth-round weekend and a big day in Scotland

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On the podcast today: all hail Mansfield Town – their win at Turf Moor kept the magic of the cup alive this weekend, even if it’s impossible to be surprised by a Burnley defeat of any kind.

Arsenal make the leaders pay, Sonia Bompastor is defiant and Manchester United’s squad is working in harmony

Andrée Jeglertz said Manchester City’s “decision-making wasn’t ideal all the time during the game” in their 1-0 loss to Arsenal at the Emirates stadium on Sunday. He’s right. City may have had 22 touches in the opposition box to Arsenal’s 19 but they had only had one shot on target to Arsenal’s four. To some extent though, they have a hall pass for that lack of solid decision-making because it’s just so rare. Despite the defeat, City are sitting pretty at the top of the WSL table, their lead still a hefty eight points ahead of Manchester United. Should Arsenal win their game in hand, City’s lead will still be seven points. In a 12-team league and 22-game season, it’s incredibly unlikely that that gap will be bridged. Their goal difference is also 10 better than United’s. This is City’s title to lose and with the talent they have at their disposal the likelihood of any rot setting in is extremely slim. They play bottom-placed Leicester next, then struggling Aston Villa, who suffered a third back-to-back defeat, and those teams should fear City’s frustration. Suzanne Wrack

Liverpool rue costly mistakes, Viktor Gyökeres builds up a head of steam and Rayan gets the hype train chugging

• Premier League top scorers: the latest standings

Arne Slot was close to landing a coup against Pep Guardiola, the coach he admires most. Then came more of the individual errors that have ruined Liverpool’s title defence. Aching weaknesses within Slot’s squad were exposed again. Dominik Szoboszlai playing Bernardo Silva onside for Manchester City’s equaliser was an error midfielders playing full-back will make. Szoboszlai’s late red card was, though, foolish. Alisson’s foul on Matheus Nunes for Erling Haaland’s decisive penalty was another rush of blood. Liverpool’s huge summer spend was motivated by their executives’ belief in buying the best individuals to unlock the Premier League’s tactical cages. City’s key individuals showed such a policy can pay off, with Silva inspirational, Gianluigi Donnarumma making the save that sparked the game’s chaotic final scenes, Marc Guéhi looking an astute defensive signing and Haaland supplying Silva’s goal. City had been unconvincing but their mentality held, allowing them to eventually profit from Hugo Ekitiké’s misses and the waning of Mohamed Salah. John Brewin

Match report: Liverpool 1-2 Manchester City

Match report: Brighton 0-1 Crystal Palace

Match report: Arsenal 3-0 Sunderland

Match report: Newcastle 2-3 Brentford

Plus: footballers’ weddings on live television, the most successful fictional teams, and more

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“Ian Muir played 95% of his games for Tranmere,” writes Robert Abushal. “One-club players aside, who’s the closest to 100% without being 100%?”

One-club men and women are among football’s more celebrated groups, the players who dedicated their entire career to one particular cause. Athletic Club give out the One Club Man and One Club Woman awards each year; the list of recipients include Paolo Maldini, Matthew Le Tissier and Malin Moström.

We haven’t included non-league teams, which rules out Paul Scholes (three games for Royton) and Le Tissier (Eastleigh) among others. We’ve also excluded Hamburg legend Uwe Seeler, whose one appearance for Cork Celtic was in a sponsored event.

Data on appearances for individual players can vary from source to source, particularly for older players. We made a judgment call in each case, so the figures may only be 99.82% correct. But that’s appropriate for this question, right? Right?

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

• Premier League dominates list | How every judge voted | Our methodology | The top 100 female players for 2025

• 2024 edition | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012

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

• 2024 list | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018

• Meet the judges | See how every judge voted

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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.

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