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Manchester City’s losing sequence is over – just. But they remain a listing ship that can go down at any moment. “Fragile” was Pep Guardiola’s summation of his team’s state, and a clue to the manager’s own mood was the cut to his nose that he stated was self‑inflicted, by a finger, due to the ­contest’s travails.

City were 3-0 up after 75 minutes but a late horror show ceded the advantage as Feyenoord preyed on home nerves via Anis Hadj Moussa, Santiago Giménez and David Hancko, who drew ­Feyenoord level to secure a well-fought point.

This was some response to charges of being goal shy. Arsenal knew they needed to discover a cutting edge abroad and duly located it at the home of the Champions League’s form team. Their best European away performance of the past half-decade was beautifully timed, furthering the sense that they are back to their old selves and making swift passage to the knockout stage look significantly more realistic.

When Leandro Trossard completed the scoring it felt a trick of the mind that Sporting had blown Manchester City away on the same pitch this month. It was hardly an obvious venue for Arsenal to cut loose and score five times on the continent for the first time since October 2008. Beyond a 15-minute spell after the interval, when Gonçalo Inácio put a dent in their three-goal lead and the home side briefly looked capable of causing serious alarm, they were in complete command and superior in every department.

• Real Madrid midfielder felt mistreated by England press
• ‘It felt like the whole world was crumbling down on me’

Jude Bellingham has said he felt the “whole world crumbling down on me” after being mistreated and made a scapegoat for England’s defeat in the European Championship final.

The Real Madrid midfielder, back in England for the Champions League tie at Liverpool on Wednesday, posted on social media that he had “got my smile back in an England shirt” after the recent Nations League win against the Republic of Ireland. In a searingly honest explanation of why the joy of playing for England had gone, the 21-year-old cited personal criticism in the aftermath of the Euro 2024 final defeat by Spain and media intrusion that he believes crossed a line.

• PSG outside playoff places after 1-0 defeat by Bayern Munich
• Inter top after beating Leipzig; Barcelona best Brest 3-0

Bayern Munich battled past 10-man Paris Saint-Germain 1-0, thanks to Kim Min-jae’s winner, to improve their chances of automatic qualification and leave the visitors in trouble after a third defeat in the competition.

With PSG’s only win so far coming against Girona in their opener they were desperate for points, but Bayern struck first with South Korea’s Kim heading home from close range after the goalkeeper Matvei Safonov fluffed a corner in the 38th minute.

• Former national coach to make Scottish football history
• She will also assist B team and monitor coach progress

Hearts will create Scottish football history by appointing Shelley Kerr, a former manager of the women’s national team, to a key position relating solely to the development of male players.

The Edinburgh club are poised to confirm Kerr as their first technical development manager, giving the 55-year-old significant responsibility for the transition from academy to first-team football. Kerr will become the first woman to take on such a position at a major Scottish club. The Uefa pro licence holder will also assist with the Hearts B team and monitor the progress of coaches at the training base.

• Hoops chasing fourth successive home win in Europe
• Champions League progress will define club’s season

Caution from Brendan Rodgers over Celtic’s prospects in the Champions League is perfectly understandable. Thoroughbred racehorses know how to time their run. That Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Atlético Madrid, Milan, Benfica and Paris Saint-Germain started this week behind Celtic in the newfangled version of European football’s premier club competition is likely to prove a temporary impasse.

Celtic, despite a hugely promising start, were 15th before Tuesday evening’s fixtures. The Scottish champions have not altered their goal of reaching the playoff round. Seven points from a possible 12 has not changed aspirations that existed before a ball was kicked in anger.

• Club made 250 members of staff redundant in summer
• Total debt rises to £714m after £200m transfer spend

Manchester United spent £8.6m on redundancies in the first quarter of its financial year due to Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s drive to reduce the workforce from around 1,000 by 250, the club’s latest accounts show.

Ratcliffe, the largest minority shareholder, began pruning the 250 jobs in July, a decision aimed at cutting United costs. Most of those left in the summer or autumn. The first‑quarter results for the period ending 30 September 2024 may also take in related fees for auditors and other payments.

• ITUC-Africa raises ‘severe concerns’ over labour practices
• Organisation calls on Caf to press Fifa on human rights

A trade union organisation that represents 18 million African workers has submitted a complaint to the United Nations against labour practices in Saudi Arabia. It has called for “immediate and decisive action” with the country poised to be granted World Cup hosting rights next month.

In an account that collates claims of malpractice and abuse alongside testimonies from migrant workers, the African Regional Organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa) argues that “the relentless cycle of abuse and exploitation mark the daily existence of African migrant workers in Saudi Arabia.

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Previously described as “schoolyard stuff, mate” by Ange Postecoglou, the first recorded use of the term ‘Spursy’ is unknown but is believed to date back approximately 11 years. The dictionary – well, Urban Dictionary – has plenty of entries describing the soft underbelly and lack of backbone that has been the hallmark of Tottenham teams going back far longer than a decade. Students of its etymology believe it may have its origins in the three-word pre-match “Lads, it’s Tottenham” address to his Manchester United players by Sir Alex Ferguson before a meeting between the two sides at Old Trafford at some point during the 12 years Roy Keane played for the club.

Olaf Janssen will be the first coach in professional football to be mic’d up on 8 December. His coaching orders, discussions and talk will be heard with a time delay” – football fans watching Magenta Sport in Germany will have the pleasure of hearing the almost-live effing and jeffing of Viktoria Köln’s perma-tanned manager when they take on VfL Osnabrück in the third division. What’s German for “hit the [eff]ing channel”?

Hurray! A ‘trailblazer’ scheme. If there’s one thing that a multi-billion-pound industry like the Premier League desperately needs, it’s the ability to get the government-subsidised labour of people who ‘will lose their benefits if they refuse to take up opportunities’. And note, of course, that opportunities means ‘work or training’. Or, as we used to call it in the olden days, ‘general dogsbody, making tea and photocopying’” – Noble Francis.

Manchester City becoming ‘Spursy’ (yesterday’s Football Daily letters)? Please! City invented that concept. Does no one remember ‘typical City’? We have always been able to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory” – Pat Condreay.

Firstly, kudos to Spurs’ Guglielmo Vicario for keeping a clean sheet against City despite playing an hour on a broken ankle. Now that he’s going to be recuperating from surgery for a wee while, will he be living Vicario-usly through Fraser Forster? Sod it, I’m not even a little bit sorry” – Derek McGee.

When spelling out a phrase, such as ‘fair market value’, followed by its abbreviation in brackets (FMV), it is common practice to then use said abbreviation in any further use if the phrase. In your article on the Premier League v Manchester City (Friday’s Football Daily) you failed to follow this protocol, and spelled out ‘fair market value’ in the subsequent paragraph, thus wasting a number of key strokes. And I’ve wasted something like 465 writing this email” – John Ellen.

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

• He said he mimicked as satire what white racist would say
• Defendant said to be ‘dumbfounded’ when police came

An Arsenal fan has received a three-year football banning order after racially abusing Thomas Partey, despite claiming he was mimicking as satire what a white racist would say. Charles Ogunmilade, 28, previously admitted posting a “grossly offensive” message on X, attacking the midfielder for missing a chance during the 3-3 draw with Southampton on 21 April last year.

Partey sent a shot over the crossbar, and the court heard Ogunmilade posted: “Nah, when Partey skied that shot I actually screamed you dirty black cunt.”

Sunderland extended their unbeaten run to 10 games but, as the ­smattering of gentle boos that greeted the final whistle testified, it was most certainly not a cause for celebration on Wearside.

Instead a fifth successive draw against highly efficient, if ­somewhat unambitious, opponents well practised at pinching ostensibly unlikely points led to Régis Le Bris’s early pacesetters slipping to third in the Championship. West Brom’s reward for the obduracy that so frustrated mildly disgruntled Stadium of Light season ticket holders was a drop to seventh in an increasingly ­fascinating second tier.

Our cartoonist on how the Premier League champions may need a hand from Swindon’s paranormal investigator

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Manchester United left-back was never going to let rehab end her dream and hopes for Wembley bow against USA

Gabby George had been with Manchester United for one month when her move of a lifetime turned abruptly into a season to forget after she tore an anterior cruciate ligament for the second time. The rehabilitation is daunting but George, knowing the prize on offer was playing again for the club she had supported since she was a little girl, there was never any doubt in her mind she would make it.

In September, after 11 months out, George returned to competitive action and an additional reward has emerged: a place in the England squad for the first time since November 2022. It was a call from the Lionesses head coach, Sarina Wiegman, that stunned the left-back.

Revamp after Jürgen Klopp’s exit didn’t help and now time is short for club to make their talisman feel wanted again

Mohamed Salah’s admission that he is “more out than in” at Liverpool creates a tremor in an otherwise serene debut season for Arne Slot. The Liverpool head coach can take comfort in the fact there is zero evidence to support Salah’s claim on the pitch and, while he and sporting director Richard Hughes are new to the club, contract posturing by the Anfield superstar is not.

Salah rarely stops to give post-match interviews but what happened at Southampton on Sunday was not unusual in many respects. There was the removal of the shirt following a match‑winning goal that invited a yellow card but also revealed a chiselled physique. Just in case anyone is still wondering what condition he is in at 32. Another decisive job done, with Liverpool sitting eight points clear at the top of the Premier League after his 11th and 12th goals of the season, and Salah seized his next opportunity, telling waiting reporters he was disappointed not to have received a formal contract offer and a resolution is “not in my hands”.

César Tárrega, whose home town was badly hit by the floods, scored the first goal in an emotional defeat of Betis

Somewhere in the mud and the destruction a ball appeared, left there by the flood. Six days after the worst catastrophe in Spanish history had taken 229 lives and devastated thousands more, on a street still caked in sludge a game began. Someone recorded it, sharing a moment’s happiness amidst the pain, a little light and hope let in: four boys from the small town of Aldaia covered in dirt, playing among piles of furniture from broken homes. Nineteen days later and seven miles away, a fifth local boy scored the goal of this or any season.

At 2.12pm on Saturday, seven minutes into Valencia’s first game since the catastrophe – not so much a football match as an expression of community, one giant, collective embrace – the ball dropped to César Tárrega at the south end of Mestalla. It was a simple finish, but if these fans have seen better goals, they hadn’t felt any like this. Suddenly, the silence – and it had been so, so silent – was broken, all those emotions escaping. Tárrega had cried in the quiet before kick off; now he let go, tears returning to his eyes. Then he ran to collect a shirt, holding it high. On the back, a message had been printed: “Tots junts eixirem.” Together, we will come through this.

Former Chelsea manager is back in London for friendly with Lionesses and targeting World Cup glory with USWNT

Sitting in a makeshift press conference room on the dancefloor of Camden’s Underworld music venue, beneath the World’s End pub, Emma Hayes breaks into a big grin. “Thankfully it still smells of fart and feet,” she says. “It was a big indie place for me back in the day. I’ve definitely not seen this place in the daylight, so that’s refreshing.” Hayes is home in London and with another grin declares: “I’ve got my mojo back.”

The head coach of the USA women’s national team is back where it all began for her in preparation for the showpiece friendly on Saturday between her Olympic champions and the European champions, England, at Wembley. This week her cultures are colliding, as she brings her team from the US, where she spent a number of formative years coaching, to London, where she grew up, played, then became one of the world’s best. Thanksgiving will be celebrated at the training ground of the team she supported as a child, Tottenham. This will be a special week.

On a bitterly cold Tyneside night West Ham finally remembered how to fight back. Even better for their beleaguered manager, Julen Lopetegui, a team inspired by standout performances from Tomas Soucek, Jarrod Bowen and Lucas Paquetá exhibited the sort of ruthless precision strangely absent from Newcastle’s game.

Expertly taken goals from Soucek and the similarly impressive Aaron Wan-Bissaka reinforced Lopetegui’s fragile job security, lifting West Ham to 14th, six points clear of the bottom three and three behind Eddie Howe’s team as Newcastle’s hopes of Champions League qualification sustained a dent. It did not help the home cause that Alexander Isak, Bruno Guimarães and Anthony Gordon all had unusually poor games.

• Manager rebuffs questions about his nine stars over 30
• De Bruyne says Guardiola staying could decide his future

Pep Guardiola has denied that a key factor in Manchester City’s run of five consecutive defeats is that nine of his squad are aged 30 or older, with the manager pointing to how the same players were Premier League champions last season.

The 4-0 defeat by Tottenham on Saturday was their second loss in the sequence to Ange Postecoglou’s team, the others coming against Brighton, Sporting and Bournemouth. This is City’s poorest run under Guardiola and the worst of his 17-year coaching career.

• Keeper played hour of win at Manchester City with injury
• Spurs facing tough December without key players

Guglielmo Vicario has had surgery to repair an ankle fracture that he sustained in Tottenham’s 4-0 Premier League win at Manchester City on Saturday. The news has rocked the club so soon after such a morale-boosting result and it will deprive them of one of their key players and leaders at a busy time of the season.

Spurs have not put a timeframe on the goalkeeper’s absence but he stands to be a long-term casualty. The manager, Ange Postecoglou, will most likely turn to the 36‑year‑old backup Fraser Forster, who has started three times so far this season – once in the Carabao Cup, twice in the Europa League.

Goalkeeper is at heart of team reviving and defying expectations thanks to seven straight Serie A wins

David de Gea said on day one that he wanted to “make history” with Fiorentina. Three months later, you could make a case he has already succeeded. The Viola won their seventh consecutive Serie A game on Sunday, 2-0 away to Como. Only once before – back in 1960 – have they achieved such a run in the Italian top-flight.

The Spaniard has been essential. De Gea collected his fifth clean sheet against Como, more than any other goalkeeper has managed since he made his league debut on 15 September. He is having to work for them, too.

Manager arrived with a reputation for transformation and rejuvenated team with spirited 4-3 win against RB Leipzig

Less talk, more action? Having stepped out of Austrian football for the first time in his career, Christian Ilzer has taken the opposite approach as he seeks to establish himself and to find his feet at Hoffenheim. Appointed to the top job little more than a week ago, the new head coach took over an alarming situation, with his new European-qualified team teetering just above a weak-looking bottom three. Yet he immediately felt that making time to chat was the best start. “Of course, it takes a lot of conversations to find out what makes the guys tick,” Ilzer enthused. “When you’re dealing with people, one of the most important skills is listening. That was one of my main jobs.”

In an era when a head coach’s ability to create their own brand is still thought of as imperative, taking a moment to assess exactly why Pellegrino Matarazzo’s reign fell apart needed to happen. Understanding, rather than recrimination. The degree of faith Ilzer has already fostered is evident. There were many moments when Hoffenheim could have shouldered arms on his Saturday debut against RB Leipzig, but they never did. Three times they came from behind and after the last of those, Jacob Bruun Larsen headed in a winner to inspire the closest you will get to delirium in the stands of the ProZero Arena.

Éric Roy’s side have enjoyed early success in Champions League but could be fighting relegation at season’s end

By Eric Devin for Get French Football News

While they were humbled by an attack-minded Monaco on Friday evening at the Stade Louis II, as Brest prepare to take on Barcelona in the first “big test” of their maiden Champions League campaign (Bayer Leverkusen notwithstanding), it’s worth reflecting on the Bretons’ progress to date and a look at how Tuesday’s match may shape up given some unfortunate injury news for Éric Roy’s side.

Despite playing gamely against a Monaco side who have been mightily impressive this season, Brest lost 3-2 but, more importantly, lost Pierre Lees-Melou. The veteran midfielder had only recently returned from an injury and his positive influence on the team was palpable in the draw against Leverkusen.

Discourse on social media platform lacked toxicity of the old place but there were signs it will eventually go that way

Hello, I’m new here, though you might know me from the other place. The sun is shining in the sky, there ain’t a cloud in sight, I’m here for good humour and polite social media intercourse. Thanks for the starter pack. Welcome, then, to Bluesky, where the algorithm isn’t jammed hard-right, the self-policing not too strong-arm, though there was that strange chap who listed the schools everyone attended.

After the Twitterectomy (to use Nick Cave’s indelicate term for this liberal migration) to a promised land where Elon Musk doesn’t quote-tweet articles on the Great Replacement Theory as being “interesting”. Now, how would this new Xanadu shape up when placed into the hottest kiln of public debate known to humankind? Forget geopolitics and burning social issues, forget even Donald Trump, the truest test is a Premier League weekend.

Juve’s visit to Villa Park this week conjures memories of when both clubs were at the centre of the football world

The champions of Europe side by side with more than half the champions of the world.” The first line of Barry Davies’s Sportsnight commentary is so succinct that, 41 and a half years later, there is no need for a new introduction. Aston Villa’s European Cup quarter-final against Juventus in 1983 had a unique selling point.

The clubs meet again on Wednesday in the Champions League but back then Villa were the holders of the trophy – although six of the Juventus team had started for Italy when they beat West Germany in the 1982 World Cup final. And they had the best player from the teams that finished third and fourth, France’s Michel Platini and Poland’s Zbigniew Boniek.

Digesting the deathly spirit of this team in the flesh will have emphasised to the coach the complexities of his task

Well, something to work on there then, Ruben. It would be tempting at the end of this decelerating game of semi-football to talk about Ruben Amorim at least realising the scale of the job he faces.

Except, given Amorim almost certainly possesses a TV set and is interested in football, he already knows the scale of the job. And the scale is: really very big indeed.

Footage shows players from Lydney Town AFC in Gloucestershire heading the ball and swimming in waist-deep floodwaters as they refused to let Storm Bert stop them from taking to the pitch. The club shared the footage on social media alongside the caption: 'Can’t believe I’m saying this … but GAME ON! Teams are out and kick off is imminent'

Walton & Hersham's efforts in their match against Gloucester were aided by an own goal from the Gloucester goalkeeper only four minutes in. Heavy wind took hold of the ball as Jared Thompson tried to play out to his defence. Instead he inadvertently fired it against the right hand post before it bounced into the net. The match ultimately ended in a 4-4 draw.

Wroxham FC goalkeeper Ollie Sutton, son of the former footballer Chris Sutton, scored his first career goal during their Isthmian League North match against Grays Athletic. Sutton Jr drop-kicked the ball from the edge of his box and it travelled the length of the pitch and bounced into the opposing net, assisted by high winds in Essex. The game ended 5-2 in favour of Wroxham, earning the Norfolk side their third league win of the season.

Fenerbahçe manager José Mourinho has rebuffed claims that he could try to bring Cristiano Ronaldo to the Turkish club, after rumours emerged that the pair had spoken on the phone about a potential move.

When asked about the possibility of signing the Al Nassr forward, whose contract expires at the end of the 2025 season, Mourinho told reporters he is more likely to catch up with his former player over a meal, saying 'Only if he comes for lunch. If, you know, Saudi Arabia to Portugal. Istanbul is almost midway. Maybe, one day, he comes in his private flight. He stops in Istanbul and he says I want to see my my old friend Jose'

Ruben Amorim said Manchester United are going 'to suffer for a long period' after his managerial debut at the club ended in a 1-1 Premier League draw at Ipswich. He added: 'We start now, we risk a little bit, we suffer a little bit and in the next year we will be better at this point so we have to risk it a little bit. They are thinking too much because we are changing too much with two training [sessions] now without space to improve in training'.

• Amorim’s Manchester United pegged back by Ipswich after rapid start

Ruben Amorim said he is a 'dreamer' in his first press conference as Manchester United head coach after joining the club from Sporting.

The 39-year-old signed a two-and-a-half-year deal to replace Erik ten Hag who was sacked in October.

He has been compared to José Mourinho because of his nationality and success and said: 'He [José Mourinho] sent me a message and told me that this is a lovely club, a big club, with lovely people, and that is correct.'

He added: 'I am different from Mourinho. I am a different person.'

After sticking with the Orlando Pride through nearly a decade’s worth of mediocrity, the Brazilian was rewarded for her loyalty with her first win in a final at club level in 13 years

For so long, on so many occasions, it felt like Marta’s time. On Saturday, it finally was.

The Orlando Pride, captained by the 38-year-old Brazilian playmaker and spearheaded by incandescent striker Barbra Banda, completed one of the most dominant seasons in NWSL history on Saturday with a 1-0 win over the Washington Spirit in the league’s championship game. The title is the team’s first ever, and Marta’s first win in a final at club level since the 2011 WPS championship with the Western New York Flash.

• Red Bulls beat NYCFC 2-0 to reach MLS Cup last four
• No 7 seed will face Atlanta or Orlando in East final

Dante Vanzeir notched an assist on a first-half goal by Felipe Carballo and then scored nine minutes later, and Carlos Coronel made them stand up by posting his seventh career clean sheet against New York City FC in the New York Red Bulls’ 2-0 victory in an Eastern Conference semi-final at Citi Field on Saturday night.

The seventh-seeded Red Bulls will play the winner of Sunday’s semi-final between No 9 seed Atlanta United and fourth-seeded Orlando City for the conference championship and the right to play for the MLS Cup.

• Man City forward to miss friendlies against Brazil and Taiwan
• Fowler will still travel to Australia to spend time with family

Football fans in Queensland and Victoria will miss out on seeing Mary Fowler in coming friendlies against Brazil and Taiwan after the Matildas forward withdrew from the Australian squad citing mental and physical fatigue.

The side is already without striker Sam Kerr as she continues her rehabilitation after a serious knee injury, as well as winger Cortnee Vine who has taken a mental health break from football.

• Madrid beat Leganés to move four points off Barcelona
• Lukaku takes Napoli back to top spot in Serie A

Kylian Mbappé ended his four-game goal drought and England’s Jude Bellingham scored too as Real Madrid eased past Leganés 3-0 in La Liga on Sunday.

Leganés’ defence kept Real at bay for the majority of the first half but the visitors took the lead three minutes before the break when Vinícius Jr teed up Mbappé, who slotted home for his seventh league goal this season. Real enjoyed most of the possession in the second half and the Uruguayan midfielder Federico Valverde scored with a powerful low free-kick in the 66th minute after Bellingham had been fouled on the edge of the box.

• Bundesliga club move to Bluesky and urge fans to follow
• St Pauli concerned X may influence German election

St Pauli have become the first major football club to leave X, ­describing the social media site as a “hate machine” and expressing concern that it may influence the outcome of the forthcoming German election.

Scrutiny of the role played by X in platforming hate speech, far-right conspiracy theories and racism has intensified since Donald Trump’s victory in last week’s US election. Trump was vociferously supported by the entrepreneur Elon Musk, who bought X – then known as Twitter – in October 2022. Musk was given part-control of a new “department of government efficiency” this week.

• ‘My life has dramatically changed over the past two years’
• No timeframe but player vows to return ‘stronger than ever’

Matildas winger Cortnee Vine will prioritise her mental health and take a break from football after an “overwhelming” rise to prominence over the past few years.

For the second consecutive international window the 26-year-old made herself unavailable for selection and was again a notable absentee from interim coach Tom Sermanni’s 36-woman squad for Australia’s upcoming friendlies against Brazil and Taiwan.

Salento club may not have a storied history but players did not have to stay long to make their mark

By Michele Tossani for The Gentleman Ultra

Picking five players for a rational Lecce side should be easy, on paper. Salentini are a club that first stood in Serie A in 1985-86, which is relatively recent. The first Lecce game I remember was the 2-2 that the newly promoted side imposed on the then Campioni d’Italia of Verona in September 1985.

But Lecce are a club that featured great players. So, in the end, building Lecce’s five-a-side lineup was not as easy as expected to be.

• Controversy remains over Saudi Arabia’s 2034 bid
• The 54-year-old was re-elected Fifa president last year

Gianni Infantino will avoid any ­scrutiny of the controversial decision to give the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia next month after Fifa opted to stage the qualifying draw for the 2026 tournament as a virtual event.

Saudi Arabia’s successful 2034 bid will be confirmed by acclamation at an extraordinary Fifa congress, to be held online on 11 December, while the Guardian has learned that the draw for European qualifying for the 2026 World Cup two days later will also take place remotely.

• Spain great starts first major venture since retirement
• Club are currently seventh in 12-team division

Andrés Iniesta has become co-owner of the Danish third-tier club Helsingør in the Spain legend’s first major off-field venture since retirement.

Helsingør announced that NSN, the sports management and consulting company jointly founded by Iniesta, would take control alongside the Swiss investment group Stoneweg. They are seventh in their 12-team division, to which they were relegated last season. According to NSN’s website, the firm had been working with the club on a consultancy basis to “consolidate its position and give the opportunity to worldwide talents to come and play in Europe”.

From Franco Mastantuono to Estêvão, we select some of the most talented players born in 2007. Check the progress of our classes of 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 … and look at the editions from further back

We pick the best youngsters at each club born between 1 September 2007 and 31 August 2008, an age band known as first-year scholars. Check the progress of our classes of 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 … and look at the editions from further back

From Warren Zaïre-Emery to Endrick, we select some of the best players born in 2006. Check the progress of our classes of 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018

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

The two Americans were on our list five years ago but their paths show the professional game is rarely straightforward

Career paths are rarely straightforward, whether in football or any other area of life. Circumstances often change. Injuries and illnesses happen, there are often changes in leadership which have an impact on the individual while personal lives also play a part.

Career paths are therefore very difficult to predict. Looking down the list of our 2019 Next Generation, which we have now followed for five years, there were no guarantees any of the players would become household names. OK, Alex Holiga, who covers the Balkans for us, was confident that Josko Gvardiol would make it big – which he has – but apart from him, and perhaps Ansu Fati, Eduardo Camavinga and Jérémy Doku, there were no certainties.

A remarkable year for the youngster. Made his Bundesliga debut on 18 January and has not looked back since. He now has 23 first-team appearances and has established himself as a starter and one of the most talented young players in Europe. “I’m still learning a lot tactically,” he said in August. “There is a very big difference between youth and professional football. Making the right movements and creating space for myself and others is what I still need to learn the most.

A tumultuous year for the young American who was caught in the crossfire of a feud between his own family and the USMNT coach, Gregg Berhalter, after the World Cup, during which he played a mere 52 minutes of the US’s four games. Injuries have once again hampered him but he is back to full fitness now and a US return seems likely too after talks with Berhalter.

Portugal’s coaches and players are all the rage in part thanks to links forged between academia and the game

They always knew Ruben Amorim was a special one at the faculty of human kinetics. “I interviewed him for the course and from the start it was obvious,” says Prof António Veloso, José Mourinho’s former classmate, who runs the high-performance football coaching course at the faculty, which is affiliated to the University of Lisbon.

“The students needed to do an essay on specialist topics and Ruben’s results were fantastic. He had a leadership role in the group. When we were doing tactical drills on the pitch all the other students were looking at Ruben’s and asking for his opinion. But he was very humble.”

Few managers are idealists but the truth for the man in charge at St Mary’s is that his players aren’t good enough to stay up

There has, at least, been a win to break the pattern. But Southampton’s victory over Everton was followed immediately by defeat by Wolves and so they spent the international break bottom of the table. They have taken four points from 11 games. In only two games this season have Southampton had the better xG – on the opening day, when they lost 1-0 at 10-man Newcastle, and in the 1-1 draw at Ipswich. They are, barring something miraculous, doomed.

The routine has become familiar. Southampton play their goal-kicks short. They pass the ball neatly. They have a lot of possession; 56.6% – only three teams in the Premier League are averaging more. They don’t take their chances – no side have hit a lower percentage of shots on target this season. Somebody makes a mistake – perhaps one of their players, perhaps the referee – they concede and the game is lost.

From a nightmare spell in Moldova to drawing a blank in Houston, some players enjoyed a unique professional life

Rohan Ricketts started out with Arsenal in 2001 and ended up playing in more countries than some people visit in a lifetime. Deals in Canada, Hungary, Moldova, Germany, Ireland, India, Ecuador, Thailand, Hong Kong and Bangladesh were steered over the line by his increasingly imaginative agent. The attacking midfielder had played once for the Gunners before a more notable three-season spell at Tottenham. There were loans around England with Coventry, Wolves, QPR and a full-time deal with Barnsley before his globetrotting commenced. In 2011 he won the Irish title with Shamrock Rovers, but Dacia Chisinau in Moldova was “an absolute nightmare … I never got paid”. In happier news he came off the bench for Shamrock Rovers to a warm reception at Tottenham in a 2011 Europa League tie. Exeter City and Leatherhead later appeared on Ricketts’ odyssey, although he stayed at the Grecians less than a month, eventually rounding things off with a spell at the gloriously obscure Canadian outfit Unionville-Milliken.

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Talk about show and tell, doing your opposing manager’s team talk for him. On Saturday, while Ange Postecoglou prepared Tottenham for their tea-time kick-off, the Etihad was staging a celebration of Rodri’s Ballon d’Or, Ballon d’Or, Ballon d’Or that WWE would have been proud of. Only the great man’s knee-knack prevented him doing the full Vince McMahon power strut down the red carpet. There it was in huge gold letters, the answer to Tottenham’s prayers, the name of the man that City are lacking, and will continue to lack, Rodri. Spurs duly won 4-0. A one-man team? Let’s not get silly now. Mateo Kovacic, holder of four Big Cup winners’ medals, was also missing. An old team? Perhaps we’re getting closer since in the five-game losing run that has Pep Guardiola rubbing his cranium like he’s polishing an unearthed Roman coin, there has been much creaking. Worse, a lot of pointing. A true giveaway sign of the ageing pro is asking others to do as I say, not what I do as my legs can’t get me there.

Well, we are almost in December and I haven’t received any offers yet to stay in the club. I’m probably more out than in” – Mohamed Salah there, reminding Liverpool that they need to hurry up with a bank-busting contract offer or he may take his suitcase of goals and assists elsewhere.

‘Caveat emptor’ – I think Pep Guardiola suffered a severe case of buyer’s remorse on Saturday. His [Mr 20%] should have warned him before he signed the contract extension” – JJ Zucal.

Clive Allen once quoted former Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp as saying ‘when we go, we really go’. After their drubbing on Saturday, will there be a final chapter where Manchester City start becoming Spursy” – Dedric Helgert.

Max Rushden is joined by Seb Hutchinson, Lucy Ward and Dan Bardell as Manchester City extend their losing streak to five games with a 4-0 hammering at home to Spurs

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On the podcast today; Manchester City are thrashed by Tottenham to make it five losses on the spin and leave them eight points behind Liverpool after the Reds’ win on Sunday. City are lacking in midfield but Spurs were brilliant – in particular the aging (his words) 28-year-old James Maddison.

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“I make Rúben Amorim the seventh Portuguese to manage in the Premier League,” writes Daniel Keown. “What’s the record for a country outside the home nations? And have any major football countries not produced a Premier League manager?”

On Sunday afternoon, at Portman Road, Amorim will indeed become the seventh Portuguese manager of a Premier League team. José Mourinho was the first, when he joined Chelsea in 2004, and he was followed (in chronological order) by André Villas-Boas, Marco Silva, Carlos Carvalhal, Nuno Espírito Santo and Bruno Lage.

We’ve included temporary managers who were either in charge or originally appointed for a minimum of five Premier League games. That means Cristian Stellini makes the cut; Spurs appointed him for the last 10 games of the 2022-23, only to sack him after four. But Ruud van Nistelrooy isn’t included as he was only ever appointed for two league games. The figure in parentheses covers your Van Nistelrooys and your Saltors.

Nationalities are taken from the official Premier League site. Technically there have been no African managers in the Premier League era, but Jean Tigana (France), Patrick Vieira (France) and Nuno (Portugal) were born in Mali, Senegal, and São Tomé and Príncipe, respectively.

A club that punches above its weight, Le Zebrette have calmness, flair and focal point up front in Oliver Bierhoff

James Oddy for The Gentleman Ultra

For a club that have never won a Serie A title, picking a five a side team made up of former Udinese players proved monumentally difficult. Nestled in north-east Italy, Udine is significantly closer to Slovenia’s capital of Ljubljana than Rome. Yet it has been a nursery for many elite players, as well as providing the stability and seclusion for the more mature player to find their feet and flourish.

This side is a mixture of youth and experience and helps to emphasise just how much talent has graced the Stadio Friuli. My selection based primarily on players who played during my lifetime and ones that would flourish in the five a side game.

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Jenna Schillaci and Sophie Downey to discuss all the weekend’s WSL games

On today’s pod, the panel discusses Chelsea’s rise to the top of the WSL table after a hard-fought win over Manchester City. Is this the start of their title charge?

The panel also looks at the late drama across the league, with Fran Kirby’s goal sealing Brighton’s victory and Ebony Salmon coming off the bench to give Aston Villa their first win of the season.

It may have been an absolute mess, but McClair’s two-yard wonder strike was a window into the human soul

The reality of corporeality is a hard thing to process; just look at what we look like! But somehow, the agglomeration of weird shapes and freaky textures that comprises us responds to instructions from the quivering lump of jelly that really comprises us, and thus does football eventuate. Jesse Armstrong once said that if a joke isn’t working, one thing to try is sticking it an enclosed space so “the characters are up in each other’s physicality” and such is our beautiful game: a chaotic, hilarious gumbo of bodies controlled by brains that are fickle, stressed and distractible, having been socialised into the fanatical pursuit of an arbitrary aim to which has been ascribed inherent moral value.

Many of the most preposterous events I’ve seen in my life have been football-related: consider John Terry arranging for himself to take a Champions League-winning penalty and adjusting his captain’s armband en route, then slipping and crying, or Steven Gerrard coming on for his last appearance against Manchester United after spending the entirety of the first half being wound up by the away end, then getting himself sent off 38 seconds later. For balance, I was also at the Stadium of Light on the last day of 2011-12, but we all have our own favourites: those moments when players, asked to process footballing obsession multiplied by the human condition, simply cannot.

Midfielder enjoyed glittering career around the world and had impact off the field as advocate for LGBTQ+ community

As the final whistle blew in Stockholm on Saturday afternoon, fans of Rosengård and hosts Djurgården rose to their feet. Signs and flags were raised aloft at the Olympic Stadium and a standing ovation ensued as Caroline Seger, a name synonymous with Swedish women’s football for the best part of two decades, walked off a competitive football pitch for the final time.

Every footballer dreams of ending their career on a high but relatively few manage to achieve it, particularly when they have already bid farewell to the international stage. Seger, however, has managed to go out at the very top, a deserved finale for an individual who has transformed the game in Sweden on and off the pitch.

Former Ipswich manager is enjoying the club’s resurgence under Kieran McKenna, having taken them to great heights more than 20 years ago

Every so often, George Burley takes a walk through the park and bumps into a vision of his younger self. Kieran McKenna is practically a neighbour; the greetings are always warm and the common ground bountiful. They are the only two men alive who know exactly what it takes to guide an Ipswich side to the Premier League and both have come to understand how success in Suffolk can propel a reputation towards the stars.

In Burley’s case it was a fifth-placed finish in the 2000-01 top flight, straight after going up, that sent him into the pantheon. He was named manager of the season, the first of only five times when the recipient did not win the title, and it capped a fairytale story that barely feels possible now. “It couldn’t get any better, it was an honour, an incredible feat,” he says. “I don’t know if a team that comes up could equal or beat that now. It might never happen again.”

Whoever takes over the hot seat will find the foundations are strong – this is a thing that doesn’t need messing with

When I was young, and random old people my parents knew would ask what I wanted to do with my life, I’d always answer: “Be Des Lynam,” – at the time mainly to end the conversation so I could go back upstairs and play Sensible Soccer. But it seemed like a fun thing to do.

So it was with some excitement a couple of weeks ago that I received a screengrab of the odds for the next host of Match of the Day. I was sixth favourite at 12-1! Gratifying stuff – it was now simply a case of somehow disposing of Dan Walker, Colin Murray, Jeff Stelling, Manish and Chappers and the chair was mine. I guess people might have got suspicious after the first couple disappeared.

Inter legend enjoyed a remarkable career in Spain and Italy, but football was not his only love growing up in Sydney

I am having to explain to Christian Vieri that despite us being in London and only a few miles from Lord’s, organising a game of cricket with Sir Ian Botham is probably going to be a bit tricky. I just don’t have that sort of pulling power, but also because the former Ashes legend is in Australia and a bit banged up after falling into crocodile-filled waters on a fishing trip.

The thing is, Vieri – the former striker who at one time became the most expensive footballer in the world when he moved to Internazionale in 1999 for about £30m – doesn’t just like cricket, he loves it, having spent most of his childhood in Australia.

In a country where thousands of migrant workers have died since 2016 a huge building project lies ahead. December’s coronation will stand as surely the most wretched, bloody, damaging act in the history of global organised sport

“People will die.”
Amnesty International

“You can never say again that you did not know.”
William Wilberforce

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

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The Norwegian is only 23 but his devastating goal record has seen him voted as the No 1 player in the world by the Guardian’s expert panel

When Pep Guardiola tearfully claimed Manchester City could not replace the departing Sergio Agüero in May 2021, he didn’t just create a meme. Guardiola was soft-launching a global audition for his team’s new attacking talisman. An unsuccessful pursuit of Harry Kane in the summer of 2021 came between two title-winning seasons where Ilkay Gündogan (13) and Kevin De Bruyne (15) were the club’s top league goalscorers. Guardiola’s slick creative machine needed a new front man, and they found him in Erling Haaland.

Like Agüero before him – and in contrast to many of City’s most successful Pep-era signings – Haaland arrived as a bona fide superstar, a plug-and-play addition to an already stellar lineup. Whether he was a bargain is another question. The release clause paid was €60m (£51.2m), but some reports suggest Haaland’s five-year deal could cost the club in the region of £300m. And while there was an ominous logic to the move for City’s rivals, questions remained.