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Will Unwin got to sit down with Liverpool’s hottest striker.

What other guidance has Slot offered Ekitiké? “Obviously keep my shirt on,” he says with a smile. “I would say he’s on my back, but not for a bad thing. He just wants to help me, so I don’t take that badly. He wants me to give more and more. Maybe sometimes you feel like it’s a little bit too much and you want to complain. It’s a good thing because I think if a coach doesn’t like you, he will not speak to you or not try to get the best of you.”

Assistant coach is using psychological, tactical and physical profiling to help Thomas Tuchel give his England team an edge at the World Cup

Ten years ago, life looked a little different for Anthony Barry. The England assistant coach, whose focus is fixed on helping Thomas Tuchel win the World Cup next summer – nothing less – was playing for Accrington Stanley in League Two. He was in the twilight of a career spent in the bottom two divisions of the Football League and in non-league, and he had taken the first step on the journey that would define him, accepting a voluntary position as the Accrington Under-16s coach.

“It was in the evenings, third of a pitch, asked to do 11 v 11 … flat balls, not enough bibs,” Barry says with a smile. “I was hooked. I’d found what I was destined to do and I thought about what it could become. I’m pretty sure nobody else could see it. But that’s part of dreams.”

• Manager feels ‘pain in tummy’ at end of clean sheet run

• Régis Le Bris praises his team’s character in ‘masterclass’

Mikel Arteta told of his “disappointment and frustration” after Arsenal were denied a win by an injury-time Sunderland goal at the Stadium of Light. A 94th-minute strike from the substitute Brian Brobbey claimed a point for the home side, who are fourth in the table.

“It’s not a nice feeling,” said Arteta. “It’s disappointment and frustration, because we wanted the three points. We had to navigate through a tough game. We knew that. [They were] very disruptive. We had to deal with situations that were obviously difficult to deal with.”

• Amorim: ‘We have a lot of problems, we’re just in the beginning’

• Frank defends substitutions after jeers from fans

Ruben Amorim accused Manchester United of feeling too comfortable after they salvaged a draw from the jaws of defeat at Tottenham in a game they had led for long periods.

Matthijs de Ligt’s 96th-minute header ensured United are five games unbeaten but their levels varied wildly in a match they controlled after Bryan Mbeumo’s first-half goal. They were overhauled by strikes from Mathys Tel and Richarlison before the last-gasp salvation act and Amorim expressed concern that they had drifted through spells of the game while ahead.

Afghan Women United is comprised of players forced to flee their homeland and is another step in beating barriers

“When I step on to the pitch everything else is automatically erased from my mind,” says the captain of Afghan Women United, Fatima Haidari, when asked how football helps her cope with the traumas she has suffered.

“I train, I play, and a fire inside me is lit, not just because of the power that I feel at that moment as a player, but because I feel I have many other girls with me. It’s like I’m taking their hands. Like I’m playing with them. It’s not just for me, and I feel powerful.”

Relegation beckons when all it takes to undo 51 minutes of hard graft is a blow from a full-back hardly known for terrifying opposition defences. Wolves, though, are scared of everything these days. They are in a miserable state – so much so that Rob Edwards might want to think twice about leaving Middlesbrough to take charge at Molineux – and ended this game looking beaten, miserable and destined for the drop.

It turned into a rout once Malo Gusto popped up at the start of the second half to give Chelsea the lead with the first senior goal of his career. The right-back had not scored in 165 games for club and country but Wolves made it easy for him. Nobody reacted when Alejandro Garnacho, who finished with two assists for the first time in a Premier League game, swung in a cross from the left. The marking was dreadful and it did not need Gusto to be the best finisher in the world when he set Chelsea on the path to victory by heading past Sam Johnstone from close range.

• Two goals controversially ruled out in draw with Chelsea

• ‘We need just decisions …. That’s where VAR can come in’

Renée Slegers said teams in the Women’s Super League “need just decisions” and called for video assistant referees and the use of technology after two controversial disallowed goals were among officiating talking points in Arsenal’s 1-1 draw with Chelsea.

“In a game like this we need just decisions. We need justice. That’s where I think VAR and technology can come in,” said the Arsenal manager. “There’s more and more at stake in the WSL, at the top but also in the relegation battle and everywhere in between. We have to look at how we grow the game in all aspects.”

• Danilho Doekhi puts Union Berlin ahead twice in 2-2 draw

• Parma 2-2 Milan, Juve 0-0 Torino, Atlético 3-1 Levante

Harry Kane headed in a stoppage-time equaliser to prevent a first defeat of the season for Bayern Munich but their 2-2 draw at Union Berlin ended their record winning start across all competitions.

Union thought they had won it with Danilho Doekhi’s second goal in the 83rd minute but Kane headed in the leveller. Bayern top the Bundesliga on 28 points and in fact extended their lead to six, as RB Leipzig lost 3-1 at Hoffenheim.

• Leicester condemn Norwich to eighth straight home loss

• Club: ‘We have no choice other than to make a change’

Liam Manning has been sacked by Norwich in the wake of a 2-1 home defeat by Leicester, which left them 23rd in the Championship, with nine points from 15 games and without a win at Carrow Road since May.

The Canaries have lost all seven of their home matches in the Championship this season, with another defeat coming in the Carabao Cup, and are now four points adrift of safety. After going ahead on 62 minutes through Mathias Kvistgaarden’s second goal in successive games, Norwich were pegged back by substitute Bobby Cordova-Reid 10 minutes later and then suffered a nightmare ending when Jordan James headed a dramatic second for the visitors.

With time limited by a packed calendar, only incremental change is possible, pausing transitions for Slot and Guardiola

Time is the enemy of all modern managers. There simply isn’t enough of it. The calendar is too packed, the demands on players too great and, just because there is something almost hypocritical about managers moaning about the number of games they have to play when the fixture list is a direct result of the greed of the clubs they work for, that doesn’t mean their fundamental point is not a valid one.

Transition is always difficult, particularly when it involves not only a change of players but of style. Arsenal may have brought in more players than Liverpool this summer, but it would require a particular obtuseness to think that bolstering and finessing a system that already fundamentally works is a source of greater disruption than implementing an almost entirely new style.

Two midweek matches in England had a backdrop of war and geopolitics, but only one drew large protests

How would you feel if the owner of the football club you support was implicated, even as those implications are repeatedly denied, in famine, ethnic cleansing and the deaths of 1,500 men, women and children?

Compare this with the more familiar list of bad things football club owners do, the real sack‑the‑board stuff. Failure to buy a striker. Inadequate Showing Of Ambition. The hiring and/or firing of David Moyes. Mike Ashley was pretty annoying. He had shops full of quilted coats hung really high up close to the ceiling.

This match was as dismal as last season’s Europa League final and in a routine league game nerves are no excuse

Never underestimate the haplessness of this Manchester United. Never underestimate the haplessness of this Tottenham Hotspur. Never underestimate the capacity of the Premier League to uncover drama in the least plausible situation. The embers of a game of little quality seemed cold and dead but somehow burst into glorious flame in the final six minutes plus stoppage time.

What it means is anybody’s guess, other than that these are two sides who remain deeply flawed. The shadow of Bilbao and last May’s Europa League final was unavoidable; in purely technical terms, that game was just as bad as the first 84 minutes of this one, but it at least had a sense of edge. Nervousness is permissible if there is something to be nervous about. Such scrappiness in a routine league meeting is far less explicable.

Despair and rancour stalk the concrete corridors of the place that still feels nothing like home for West Ham. Though hope is not yet extinguished. A second home win in succession for Nuno Espírito Santo’s team, with old faithful Tomas Soucek key in defeating a fellow relegation contender in Burnley.

Three points wrested from a contest low on proficiency may prove vital in the fight against the London Stadium staging Championship football next season. “It means everything,” said Nuno.

Once Soucek had scored the Hammers’ second, before his shot was spilled into fellow sub Kyle Walker-Peters’ path for the third, home fans were singing lustily. They had already made it known once again, and in no uncertain terms, what they think of those running the club. Following protests against Crystal Palace, the boycotting of the Brentford game, a sit-in against Newcastle, a pre-match march had been staged.

The onus is not only on Everton’s goal-shy strikers to turn promising play into points, David Moyes had stated before Fulham’s visit. “I want more goals from my centre-halves and midfielders as well.” The Everton manager’s wish was duly granted as Idrissa Gana Gueye and Michael Keane delivered a deserved victory over Marco Silva’s toothless team.

Everton’s second win in nine matches arrived in relative comfort with Fulham demonstrating why their leading scorer this season is opposition own goals. A 20-minute spell in the second half aside, the visitors were easily subdued by Everton’s greater urgency, physicality and quality. Fulham will be in trouble on this evidence. The hosts had three goals disallowed for offside too but a poacher’s finish from Gueye in first-half stoppage time and Keane’s late effort ensured there would be no reprieve for the former Everton manager.

• Boro coach was stood down from Birmingham match

• Edwards poised for Molineux move after Pereira sacking

Middlesbrough have agreed to let Rob Edwards hold talks with Wolves over their managerial vacancy, with a deal for the Boro head coach expected to be completed within the next 48 hours.

Edwards had earlier been stood down from taking charge of Saturday’s match at home to Birmingham, with the 42-year-old now set for a return to Molineux.

• Republic of Ireland body alleges two statute violations

• FAI approved a resolution to submit a formal motion

The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) has approved a resolution to submit a formal motion to Uefa urging it to ban Israel from European club and international competitions.

The governing body’s resolution – proposed by the Dublin club Bohemians – cited alleged violations by the Israel Football Association (IFA) of two provisions of Uefa statutes. They are its alleged failure to implement and enforce an effective anti-racism policy and the organisation of clubs in occupied Palestinian territories without the consent of the Palestinian FA.

• ‘Fans will understand if we go out with pride’

• Tuchel ‘re-energised’ by time in charge of team

Thomas Tuchel has opened the door to staying on as England’s manager after next year’s World Cup and has said his future does not necessarily depend on leading the team to glory.

Tuchel, who handed recalls to Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden on Friday, signed a contract with the Football Association in October last year only till after the tournament. That arrangement gave a short-term feel to the role, but the German has hit his stride in recent months and has said managing England has rejuvenated him after draining spells at Bayern Munich and Chelsea.

It starts with singing, banter or enthusiastic goal celebrations – and leads to so much more. Six groups of fan friends share how they met

Like so many football fans, I have my own routines and rituals with which I tie together the home games of a league season. Last year, one such routine involved the older gentleman in the seat to my right. I’d nod hello and, above the strains of pre-match music, ask him what he thought of Norwich’s chances – 23 times I asked, and 23 times he replied along the lines of: “We’ll probably get thumped” or “I don’t see where our goals are coming from.” A shred of contempt would be spared for the referee. Always, the referee was known to him and, always, I’d be forewarned that this or that referee was an “arsehole”, a “wanker”, or – once – “an arsehole and a wanker”.

This neighbour of mine was a retired engineer, a Norfolk boy, and a follower of both first team and academy, home and away. He was just one of thousands with a season ticket at the back of Carrow Road’s lower Barclay stand: a Saturday afternoon companion, a stranger at the start of the last season who became a little less strange as the matches went by. I was able to glean, for example, that after decades of loyal (if pessimistic) fandom, he would soon be moving to Yorkshire with his partner, unable to ignore his dreams of the Dales. He had already decided that he wouldn’t be renewing his season ticket. My first year in this part of the ground was his last.

New York’s mayor-elect has taken on powerful institutions. With the World Cup taking place in his city, he should challenge Fifa next

After winning the election for mayor of New York City, an exuberant Zohran Mamdani took to the stage at his victory speech and said, “If there is any way to terrify a despot, it is by dismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power.” He was alluding to Donald Trump, but the sentiment also applies to Fifa, the world’s governing body for soccer.

In September, Mamdani’s team kicked off a “Game Over Greed” campaign targeting Fifa’s use of dynamic pricing for 2026 men’s World Cup tickets, calling it an “affront to the game.” His petition demanded that Fifa cease its rapacious dynamic pricing scheme, place a price cap on tickets that are resold on Fifa’s ticketing platform, and reserve a tranche of tickets for local residents. Mamdani, a longtime Arsenal fan, told the Guardian’s Football Weekly podcast, “I have long been quite troubled by how the supposed stewards of the game have opted for profit time and time again at the expense of the people that love this game.”

The Real Madrid midfielder is part of an attack-minded squad but the manager will be watching him carefully

One snub was enough. Another and it would have started to look vindictive from Thomas Tuchel, who is far too wily not to know that winning the World Cup is probably going to require help from Jude Bellingham, even if it is also on the midfielder to fit into the tactical structures and squad hierarchies required with England now that he is back in Tuchel’s warm embrace.

The manager wants Bellingham’s edge, his fire, but it is about using it in the right way. Individual quality matters but England know from bitter experience that there is a price to pay when celebrity takes over. Still, a point has been made.

Coventry’s manager on rejuvenating the Championship leaders, coaching highs and lows, and why the ‘golden generation’ debate is overplayed

“I’ve got a bit of a fat ankle, you can probably see the swelling,” Frank Lampard says, legs crossed, looking towards his right foot. At first glance it could be mistaken as evidence of his hands-on approach at Coventry training, collateral damage from partaking in those snappy rondos. The reality is a world away from frontline coaching. “I twisted it playing with the kids in Hyde Park on a Sunday,” he says, breaking into a broad smile.

It is Lampard down to a T. As a youngster he was ticked off by his late mother, Patricia, for wearing football boots to bed and once spent a weekend in Bournemouth at his uncle Harry Redknapp’s house breaking in a pair of moulds. Lampard has always been immersed in the game, from joining Heath Park boys’ club and fulfilling his dream of pulling on a West Ham shirt to cementing his place as one of England’s greatest midfielders across 13 years and countless trophies at Chelsea. Those days have gone – Coventry represents his fourth club as a manager – but the 47-year-old still believes in being in the thick of things.

The Ballon d’Or winning midfielder is still missing but Pep Guardiola is not short of options and needs to make one of them stick

In the 14 months since Rodri sustained an anterior cruciate ligament injury against Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium, the midfielder has played only 588 minutes for Manchester City due to a series of setbacks, the last of which excluded him from Wednesday’s 4-1 win against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League. While Pep Guardiola says “he will not be out for a while”, the 29-year-old is fundamental to the manager’s vision of the game. His alternatives are assessed …

Some of them are not old enough to drive to training but they are driving results for the biggest clubs in the country

By WhoScored

When Max Dowman came off the bench for Arsenal against Leeds earlier this season, he became just the third 15-year-old to play in the Premier League. A few days later, when 16-year-old Rio Ngumoha scored Liverpool’s winner against Newcastle, it felt like a confirmation of a trend: teenagers are not just filling gaps in squads, they are driving results.

At a time when clubs can spend more than £100m on a player – Liverpool did it twice in the summer – the Premier League is witnessing a quiet revolution: the rise of the teenagers. Teenagers made 430 appearances in the league last season – the highest in 19 years – and they have already made 130 appearances this season.

Bob Birarda, jailed in 2022 for assaulting players, is not listed by Canada Soccer or BC Soccer. The country’s new Safe Sport director says the omission exposes a major gap — and is calling for a global registry of banned coaches.

Two years after receiving an 18-month jail sentence for sexually assaulting players under his care, a former Canada women’s national team coach is yet to appear on any public sanctions list published by Canada Soccer or BC Soccer, the regional governing body for soccer in British Columbia, where the crimes took place.

The revelation has prompted the executive director of the Canadian organization newly appointed to manage reports of abuse and misconduct to call for an international registry of offenders to track individuals who have been banned from sports for misconduct.

Our panel breaks down the parity-packed season, the state of the league, the dark horses and danger teams – and why everyone is still chasing the Current

… Kansas City’s dominance. The NWSL, like all US sports leagues, is usually built on parity. The Current made a mockery of that notion, winning 21 and drawing two out of their 26 games to finish 21 points ahead of second-place Washington. Their goal difference was an absurd plus-36, scoring seven more goals than any other team and conceding 12 fewer than anyone else. Beau Dure

• 17-year-old defender named in Australia squad for friendlies in US

• Irvine and McGree back from injury to face Venezuela and Colombia

Tony Popovic has opened the door for a Socceroos World Cup selection shock by including 17-year-old fullback James Overy in the squad for two crucial friendlies later this month.

The Manchester United youth player has trained with the first team at club level since returning from Australia’s campaign at the U-20 World Cup in Chile last month, reportedly impressing Red Devils coach Ruben Amorim.

The Borussia Mönchengladbach midfielder returns to the national team for the first time since March as injuries and recoveries rule out regulars

Gio Reyna and Joe Scally will make their US men’s national team returns in the upcoming international window, while Christian Pulisic is among several regulars set to miss out. But while the Milan midfielder has just recovered from an injury suffered during his most recent time with the national team, Weston McKennie’s absence is a bit more surprising.

Reyna and Scally, both of Borussia Mönchengladbach, are among a 25-player squad named by manager Mauricio Pochettino for two friendlies: against Paraguay on 15 November at Subaru Park in Chester, Pennsylvania, and against Uruguay at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida on 18 November.

Undeniably strange and redolent of wider horrors at one remove, this was a groaning platter of geopolitics with a tiny little sprig of sport dusted across the top

You could almost, almost have played it for laughs. If it wasn’t so bleak, or so profoundly unsettling. But then, this is Birmingham, so there does have to be some gallows humour buried in there.

Either way an hour before kick-off on the streets outside Villa Park it became clear that the 700 police officers present were being asked to keep apart three distinct, and equally energetic factions: pro-Palestine, pro-Israeli and pro YouTubers.

Gianni Infantino has a new idea, and like most of his ideas it’s not one many are going to like, except maybe Donald Trump

A perfectly friendly-looking American guy, sharp suit, early 50s is wandering around Miami. He tells me that in the past 10 years the city has turned into a “magnet for dreamers, doers and visionaries, a launchpad where ideas take flight, where connections spark movements, where legacies are born”.

I nod sagely, pretending to know what that means before clicking the X in the top right of the YouTube tab. The man in question is in fact the mayor of Miami, Francis Suarez, encouraging me and other leaders of industry to pay lots of money to attend the America Business Forum. The website tells me “America Business Forum comes to the United States for the first time” – which begs the question where they’ve held it previously. I’m no chief executive, I don’t keep a diary, but I’d have put America right up there as a location to hold a forum on American business.

Fallout from the goalkeeper’s autobiography a reminder of the danger inherent in sport becoming a disposable human drama

“Why do you write like you’re running out of time?
Write day and night like you’re running out of time
Every day you fight, like you’re running out of time
Keep on fighting in the meantime …”
Hamilton (2015)

But let’s leave Mary Earps to one side for a moment. Let’s leave Hannah Hampton and Sarina Wiegman and Sonia Bompastor, and who did what, who said it when. Let’s talk about you. How do you feel you’ve conducted yourself during the past few days? How would you rate your words and actions? To what extent do they stack up against your own personal morals and values?

Eddie Howe’s team have the richest owners in the world. But they are still to mount a title challenge since the Public Investment Fund came knocking

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Eddie Howe is not a manager given to histrionics or grand public pronouncements. So by his standards, his press conference after Sunday’s 3-1 defeat to lowly West Ham counts as a furious tirade. His side took an early lead but West Ham were ahead by half-time, as well as hitting the post and having a penalty overturned by VAR, leading Howe to make a triple change at the break.

“That was the frustrating thing about the first half,” Howe said. “I almost could have taken anyone off and I think that was a reflection of where we were in that moment in the game and it’s very, very rare for me to feel that way. In fact, I don’t think I have since I’ve been manager of Newcastle, so I felt the team needed some shaking up at half-time. That’s why I did what I did.”

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.

Our cartoonist on how even a comic-book hero could become a greedy narcissist if the game continues to eat itself

• Buy a copy of this cartoon in our Print Shop

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

In October 2024, lifelong Manchester United fan Frank Ilett vowed not to cut his hair until his side won five matches in a row. Now, more than a year later, Ilett is still waiting for a trip to the barbers as his hair grows ever larger. 

But how often do Premier League teams win five-in-a-row and how likely are United to achieve the feat this season?

Former England manager was engaging with selfies and sharing his sense of purpose on the York stop of a promotional book tour

Gareth Southgate has a good story about cockapoo vomit. Alone, exhausted and about to leave England’s impossible job, it was the first thing that greeted him on returning home from defeat in last year’s European Championship final. Obviously, he immediately set about clearing it up and consoling the pup suspected of overeating. Another moment of pathos in a life that has experienced the extremes of the public eye, another hurdle cleared.

Southgate is on a promotional tour but you wouldn’t guess at first glance. He has a book coming out this week and has only just started talking about it. After a swift round of interviews with the BBC on Monday morning, in the evening he moved to the Barbican in York; a perfectly commodious venue with decent acoustics, but not a customary place for launching a nationwide media blitz.

In an exclusive extract from her autobiography, goalkeeper reveals the painful road to her shock England exit

England felt like such a safe space for me. It was usual to have a team review after a big tournament and after the Euros in 2022 we came together in the Club England meeting room at St George’s Park, the team’s headquarters.

The emotional security that I felt within England was bolstered by the culture and values that had underpinned and contributed to our success. Non-collegiate behaviour was not tolerated. We came back together to the news that Hannah Hampton had been dropped from the squad: her behaviour behind the scenes at the Euros had frequently risked derailing training sessions and team resources.

Former England goalkeeper reveals full story behind her international retirement, her problems with eating and alcohol, and why she’d struggle on The Traitors

• Read an exclusive extract from Mary Earps’ book

“I’ve learned a lot about what truly matters in life,” Mary Earps says on a quiet and cloudy afternoon as, at Paris Saint-Germain’s training centre on the outskirts of the French capital, the former England goalkeeper reflects on the achievements and drama of her last five years. “My life has accidentally come into the court of public opinion. People talking about your performance comes with the territory but when it starts to become about your character, and assumptions people make about you, that can be really, really challenging.”

Between 2020 and 2023 Earps overcame depression, a drinking problem, eating issues, won the Euros with England, forced Nike to change their attitude to female goalkeepers, saved a penalty in a World Cup final and won the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year.

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

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Sunderland have come a long way since their Netflix documentary b@nter-era nadir. It was a time of turmoil. A time when TV cameras were welcomed into the Stadium of Light to record their Brentian chief executive using a cryo-chamber studiously avoided by the players whose recovery it was supposed to aid. A time the club hierarchy famously spaffed £4m on a flame-retardant Will Grigg in a deadline-day panic buy. And a time when Jack Rodwell took up residence in the treatment room on his £70,000 per week League One contract. While local club staff worked as hard as they could to maintain their dignity in the most trying circumstances imaginable, Sunderland suffered back-to-back relegations from the Premier League and became marooned in the third tier and something of a laughing stock due in no small part to being co-owned by a posh bloke who thought an Ibiza house anthem was more suitable than Prokofiev’s Dance of the Knights as player walk-on music and often wandered around Wearside wearing red trousers.

I think Gianni Infantino may be sending us a subliminal message with his new Fifa Peace Prize, Football Unites The World (yesterday’s Football Daily): ‘FU The World’” – Peter Allan.

So Infantino believes that ‘football stands for peace’. He obviously never saw Tommy Smith, Vinnie Jones or the entire Leeds team of the 1960s and 70s play” – Ian R West.

While I share Football Daily’s scorn for Fifa’s ludicrous Pretend Peace Prize, on the flip side I am very much looking forward to the awards ceremony for this year’s inaugural Nobel goal of the season” – Phil Taverner.

Oh go on, I’ll bite, as if I need to further prove my lack of a life. The kit car minibus based on Nissan parts you so desire (yesterday’s Memory Lane, full email edition) has passed through four pairs of hands since old Wembley shut, has never been on the road, but hasn’t been scrapped and is registered off the road, somewhere. It’s got a weird little engine, so what four people wanted with a sluggish, underperforming ragbag of this and that loosely connected to football is beyond me. Mind you, it would suit the Daily, I guess” – Jon Millard.

Library science graduate who made the Ballon d’Or shortlist has Wafcon title defence and World Cup in his sights

At 61, most top-level head coaches have nostalgic moments as they reflect on the high points of their topsy-turvy careers. But for Justine Madugu, who made the 2025 Ballon d’Or shortlist for women’s team coach of the year after dramatically leading the Super Falcons to a record 10th Women’s Africa Cup of Nations title in Morocco in July, his managerial odyssey is only beginning.

Returning to Morocco to win an 11th Wafcon title for Nigeria is the next feather he desperately wants to add to his cap. It could have been so different for the library science graduate of Bayero University, in the northern Nigerian city of Kano, who looked as if he would never get a crack at international management, after being an assistant coach of the Falcons for 12 years.

Right-back discusses Emma Hayes’s tactical messages, new blood in the national team and how Champions League win changed her

Emily Fox made her 68th appearance for the United States in the first of two recent friendlies against Portugal and the Arsenal right-back has been a steady hand for Emma Hayes.

Hayes has her eye on the 2027 World Cup after winning Olympic gold 15 months ago, and has used 2025 to evolve and evaluate the pool of players. Over the course of 10 wins and three defeats in that timeframe, Fox has been a dynamic force difficult to dislodge from the right flank of a new project. Her speed and skill are essential to the team’s defence and intrinsic to their attack.

This week’s action saw Vincent Kompany’s men roll on, surprise results and a brilliant performance from a Liverpool defender

• Vincent Kompany’s Bayern Munich. They rule supreme in Germany and are on a 16-match winning streak. Beating the defending champions, Paris Saint-Germain, on Tuesday was further proof of Bayern’s credentials. Luís Diaz, whose combativeness is sorely missed by Liverpool, scored two, but he took the aggression too far when his challenge on Achraf Hakimi led to a first-half red card. That meant the second half became a test of defensive credentials that Bayern passed. “I also want us to enjoy it when we have to defend,” said Kompany. He was by no means his club’s first-choice as coach in the summer of 2024 – relegation from the Premier League with Burnley had damaged his reputation. But in Bavaria, the noise from the boardroom has been quelled – for now – by the brilliance of his team’s play.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Liew and Nicky Bandini as Liverpool earn a huge win over Real Madrid and Spurs run riot against Copenhagen

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On the podcast today: Liverpool beat Real Madrid 1-0 in the Champions League. But for Thibaut Courtois it would have been much, much more – this was Arne Slot’s side’s best performance of the season.

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Sophie Downey and Emma Sanders to discuss all the reaction to former England goalkeeper Mary Earps’s new book, All In. Plus, the panel discuss the talking points as the WSL returned after the international break

On today’s pod: Mary Earps’s new book hasn’t been short of headlines. From personal admissions of past struggles to her strained relationship with the current England No 1, Hannah Hampton. People in the game have shared their opinions on the content, but Faye, Suzy and the panel look as well at some of the decisions that went into publishing such a tell-all book now.

Elsewhere, the WSL returned from the international break with the top five all winning and a six-goal fun-fest between Aston Villa and Everton.

Arsenal’s run without conceding goes on, Thomas Frank plays down tensions, and Eddie Howe’s gamble backfires

First the P45, then the pints. Vítor Pereira could be excused for having a drink on Sunday after his departure from Wolves, with the silver lining for the Portuguese being a decent payout. It is the fourth mid-season dismissal this campaign – there have never been more permanent sackings in Premier League history at this stage of the year (3 November). And while Evangelos Marinakis might have something to answer for, trigger-happy owners and directors are becoming increasingly erratic: that Pereira lasted just 45 days into a new three-year contract reflects as badly on the Wolves board as on the manager, just as Erik ten Hag’s sacking this time last year, coming less than three months after his own contract extension, reflected badly on the Manchester United hierarchy. Backing a manager and then pulling the rug so quickly is baffling, while a board’s desire for a “new manager bounce” so early in the season stinks of desperation and should be seen as an admission of guilt. Michael Butler

Match report: Fulham 3-0 Wolves

Match report: Burnley 0-2 Arsenal

Match report: Nottingham Forest 2-2 Manchester United

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