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Fans protested against the leveraged takeover but were offered little support and the toxicity has had a lasting impact

The first time the Glazer family visited Old Trafford, in June 2005, they paid a visit to the megastore. Outside, hundreds of furious Manchester United fans turned up with banners and placards, shouted slogans such as “Die Glazer die”, and a few clashed with police. Inside, the Glazers were doing a spot of – and here we must stretch the word to its broadest possible definition – shopping.

For Joel, Avram and Bryan had no intention of doing anything quite as undignified as parting with their own cash. Instead they swarmed the aisles, scooped up armfuls of replica shirts and merchandise, which shop staff dutifully ran through the tills and bagged up. When the time came to leave, the Glazers simply took the bags and left. This was, after all, all their own property, theirs to take and use as they pleased. And as a metaphor for how they intended to run Manchester United over the next 20 years, it is about as good as any.

Who ever believed the form book counted for much in the playoffs anyway? No team has ever entered the English playoffs in worse form than Sunderland, after their five successive defeats, but goals from Wilson Isidor, his first in 14 games, and Eliezer Mayenda, after a disastrous back-pass from Milan van Ewijk, enabled Sunderland to earn their first victory over Coventry since 2007 and become favourites to reach the Wembley final against either Sheffield United or Bristol City on 24 May.

Jack Rudoni, who grew up a Chelsea fan, Frank Lampard his hero, had headed Coventry level within two minutes of Isidor breaking his long goal drought. But then, in the 88th minute, Mayenda was gifted a clear run on goal by Van Ewijk’s nightmare of a blind pass back towards his goalkeeper Ben Wilson. The Spanish striker rounded the Sunderland academy graduate in Coventry’s net and scored the goal that has turned expectations on their head. The 2,400 travelling Sunderland fans reprised the Roker roar in their small corner of the CBS Arena.

• Manchester City manager admits standards dropped
• ‘If you don’t win … you cannot be here next time’

Pep Guardiola has described this season as the “most difficult” of his 17-year managerial career. Manchester City sit third with three Premier League matches remaining and play in the FA Cup final next Saturday but have struggled to match the form that brought them four Premier League titles in a row, at one point winning one game in 13.

Victory at the bottom club, Southampton, on Saturday would put City level with second-placed Arsenal, who visit the champions, Liverpool, on Sunday, as Guardiola inches closer salvaging the season with Champions League qualification.

• Slot talks up Conor Bradley in relation to PSG’s Hakimi
• ‘We are going to miss a very good human being’

Arne Slot has insisted Liverpool will “generate new stars” when Trent Alexander-Arnold leaves and compared the right-back’s potential successor, Conor Bradley, to Paris Saint-Germain’s Achraf Hakimi.

Slot admits Alexander-Arnold’s decision to leave as a free agent this summer has come as a major disappointment. But he urged fans to focus their energies on the team that faces Arsenal at Anfield on Sunday and as “less as possible to Trent, unless it’s positive.” Slot confirmed Bradley will start the game as he plans for life without the Real Madrid-bound defender.

After Champions League exit and title run that petered out, the Arsenal manager says his team still have much to achieve

For Mikel Arteta, there has been no time to dwell on the pain. “Not now,” said the Arsenal manager when asked if he was emotionally exhausted after a week when his team were eliminated from the Champions League. “Probably because I have so much to achieve and do, and we need to improve and get done. That is what drives me every day,” he said. “But if there is somebody that has raised the standard and the expectation the highest, it has been me. Because I have been demanding and expecting much more, and after that much more.

“For me it is the only way to do it, for everybody to have really high standards and demands. We are very, very close to achieving it. I understand the disappointment, and the criticism. It is all part of it. At the end there is one winner and the rest of them aren’t going to win, so they need to reinvent themselves and do better. That is part of the cycle.”

• US set to host in 2031, the UK in 2035
• Fifa approves strategy for Afghan women’s football

The Women’s World Cup will expand to 48 teams from the 2031 tournament onwards after the proposal was approved by the Fifa council on Friday.

The UK is set to host the event in 2035 and that tournament will now involve 12 groups of four teams and more than 100 matches, with the format mirroring the newly expanded men’s World Cup. It is understood Fifa took this decision after consulting the continental confederations and believe expansion of its most important tournament befits the rapid growth of the women’s game.

• American looking to increase stake beyond 80%
• NY Jets owner Woody Johnson also in frame to buy club

John Textor is attempting an audacious takeover of Crystal Palace but faces competition from the New York Jets owner Woody Johnson as the battle for control at Selhurst Park heats up before the club’s appearance in the FA Cup final next Saturday.

It is understood that Textor, who failed in his bid to buy Everton last year, has held talks with his fellow American shareholders David Blitzer and Josh Harris about buying their shares in Palace, which constitute about 36% of the club. That would take Textor’s stake to more than 80% and mean he would be able to complete a full takeover, a situation that could threaten the future of the long-serving chairman, Steve Parish.

• Leverkusen agree to cut contract set to run until 2026
• Alonso led club to unbeaten Bundesliga title last season

Xabi Alonso will leave Bayer Leverkusen at the end of the Bundesliga season, with the expectation he will take on the imminently vacant seat at Real Madrid.

“We can let you know that this week the club and I, we have agreed that these two games are going to be my last two games as a Bayern Leverkusen coach,” Alonso told a Friday press conference. “We have been talking during this week that is always about the moment and now is the right moment to announce it.”

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Newcastle and Chelsea battle for a Champions League place on Sunday before Arsenal give Liverpool a guard of honour

Saturday 3pm Venue Craven Cottage

Tottenham’s riches have underpinned Europa League progress but, win or lose in Bilbao, they need to be decisive about their manager to thrive at home

Take the emotion out of it. It is easier said than done. Tottenham Hotspur are not in the business of hoarding silverware and there will be a temptation to stick with Ange Postecoglou if they beat Manchester United in the Europa League final. The pressure on Daniel Levy to give Postecoglou another chance would be intense. It is not hard to see which way a chair with a history of populist moves would go.

Yet there is rarely much to gain from the impulsiveness of judging a manager on the basis of a one-off game that could be won on penalties or with a lucky late goal. The obvious cautionary tale is provided by United keeping Erik ten Hag after last season’s triumph in the FA Cup, only for the Dutchman to be sacked five months later. Serious clubs are supposed to be clinical. The mistake is often to look for wider meaning in a weird and illogical cup run.

• ‘They will push each other’ for places against Tottenham
• Manager will be careful with Mount and Maguire

Ruben Amorim expects ­Manchester United’s training sessions to be intense as his players compete for a place in the Europa League final against Tottenham.

United face Spurs at San Mamés in Bilbao on Wednesday week after a 7-1 aggregate victory against ­Athletic Club. In three meetings with ­Tottenham this season, including one in the Carabao Cup, they have been beaten three times.

• Club sets sights on promotion under new ownership
• Scholes, Giggs, Butt and Phil Neville sell their shares

Salford City have been taken over by a nine-member consortium headed by Gary Neville and David Beckham, who has said the ambition is to take the League Two club into the Premier League.

The former Manchester United players were already co-owners but their fellow Class of 92 members Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Nicky Butt and Phil Neville have sold the respective 10% share they bought, alongside Gary Neville, in March 2014. Peter Lim, who bought the remaining 50% that September, sold 10% to Beckham in January 2019 and his remaining 40% to Gary Neville last August.

There are high stakes at St James’ Park, City could yet nab second and will Forest cope with playing on the front foot?

Antonee Robinson has been one of the best full-backs in the league this season. He flies up and down the left flank, defends well and whips in crosses. However, the Fulham defender was not at his sharpest during his side’s defeat by Aston Villa last weekend. He found it difficult to contain Morgan Rogers and his crossing was not up to its usual high standards. The concern is whether Robinson, who had missed Fulham’s previous game, is in peak physical condition. It has been a long campaign but Marco Silva needs the USA international to be ready to go when Everton visit Craven Cottage on Saturday. Robinson’s raids are a key part of Fulham’s attacking setup. Jacob Steinberg

Fulham v Everton, Saturday 3pm (all times BST)

Ipswich v Brentford, Saturday 3pm

Southampton v Manchester City, Saturday 3pm

Wolves v Brighton, Saturday 3pm

Bournemouth v Aston Villa, Saturday 5.30pm

Newcastle v Chelsea, Sunday noon

They say you cannot win a two-legged tie after just 90 minutes but Sheffield United took a giant step towards the Wembley playoff final showpiece after surging to a 3-0 victory over 10-man Bristol City. For the Blades, who had an early goal questionably chalked off, their task was made considerably easier after the City defender Rob Dickie was sent off on the verge of half-time, allowing Harrison Burrows to strike from the penalty spot and give Chris Wilder’s side a leg-up. In the second half the substitutes Andre Brooks and Callum O’Hare sealed victory.

This time the billowing red smoke on the pitch came from the delirious United away end, where the injured homegrown Blades midfielder Ollie Arblaster was among those enjoying themselves. For all of the talk of the gulf between these teams, the 22 points which separated third-placed United and sixth-placed City in the regular season, ultimately the sending-off transformed this match. Now City’s only hopes of reaching the final hinge on an unthinkable – and sizeable – victory on Monday.

Chelsea’s status as London’s prime European trophy hunters remains inarguable. Winning this season’s Conference League would add to a set of two European Cups, two Europa Leagues and having twice been ­winners of the old Cup Winners’ Cup.

If Uefa’s minor competition is not meant for global super-clubs, more clubs such as Djurgården, swept aside easily over two legs, Blues fans can look forward to an eighth European final, having won six of seven. It is a haul Arsenal fans licking painful wounds from Paris can only dream of.

From rocks being thrown at cars to spectators being given the red cards, readers share their experiences of the most shocking scenes at children’s soccer games

The first manager my son had, when he was seven, got the parents together and told us how shouting could affect our sons’ development and behaviour, not only as players but as human beings. Usually, I don’t behave so badly. The worst I’ve done is to complain to the referee and I’ve sworn once or twice. But mostly I’ve been civil. There was one time, though, when a game was interrupted because the other team had fielded ineligible nine-year-old players. There was a lot of swearing and shouting from managers and dads. My wife decided enough was enough and took our son from the field to go home. He was the team’s only keeper so without him there was no game and several of the other team’s dads taunted us, shouting: “Are you running?”, “Are you scared?”. My wife ignored them and headed for the exit but one of the dads pushed her. Another guy punched me from behind and I completely lost it and punched back. Both teams were expelled from the tournament.
André Pereira Leme Lopes, 53, Brazil

The Copa do Brasil is back after a nine-year break but there are concerns about Brazil’s top flight before a first World Cup in South America

After a nine-year hiatus, fans of Brazilian women’s football will once again be able to support their clubs in the Copa do Brasil. The cup will bring together 65 clubs from the three divisions of the national women’s football league, starting with a preliminary round on 21 May and concluding with the final in November. It is a return that has long been requested by the women’s football community in Brazil in order to expand the calendar for lower-division clubs and gives high-profile teams such as Flamengo, Corinthians and Santos another opportunity to compete for silverware.

However, all is not rosy on the Brazilian club scene only two years before Brazil are to host the Women’s World Cup for the first time. There have been a few years of growing sponsorship and visibility in the top tier, the Brasileirão A1, but this season has exposed the challenges facing the game.

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Chelsea are far better with Lavia – as they showed against Liverpool – but he is yet to complete a full game for the club

By WhoScored

“When he is fit, he is one of the best midfielders,” enthused Enzo Maresca after Chelsea’s 1-0 win over Everton a few weeks ago. His team had laboured to a narrow home win but the manager was full of praise for his young midfielder. Chelsea have paid huge transfer fees for midfielders in recent years, breaking the British transfer record to sign Enzo Fernández from Benfica for £107m and then upping the record to bring in Moisés Caicedo from Brighton, but Maresca knows his team is at its best when Roméo Lavia is available.

Fernández and Caicedo have performed superbly in recent weeks as Chelsea have chased down a place in the Champions League. The Ecuadorian has done particularly well at right-back, having been moved out of midfield to accommodate Lavia in the starting XI. Caicedo has dropped into defence and operated as an inverted right-back, doing so to a better standard than both Reece James and Malo Gusto.

Amid a gloomy season, pyrotechnics lit up Old Trafford and Mason Mount led United into the Europa League final

This match meant everything to Manchester United’s season, the one that could save it from oblivion. Amid the Sir Jim Ratcliffe penny-pinching, there was budget for pyrotechnics to complement the tifos and raucous chanting from both sets of fans to create a glorious backdrop for what could be one of the final great European nights at Old Trafford.

With plans in place to knock down the Theatre of Dreams and replace it with a 100,000-capacity stadium in as soon as five years and the current United squad going through a transition under Ruben Amorim, the prospect of reaching the final four in major competitions before the final brick is laid is not guaranteed.

While Fifa’s chief of global development focuses on offside toes and noses, VAR needs a helping hand somewhere else

Five years ago, Fifa’s chief of global development, Arsène Wenger, outlined his bold plans to change the offside law.

“The most difficult [issue] that people have [with VAR] is the offside rule,” he said. “You have had offsides by a fraction of a centimetre, literally by a nose. It is the time to do this quickly.

Régis Le Bris’s side have lost five in a row before meeting with Frank Lampard’s resurgent Sky Blues

Sunderland’s players are unlikely to forget Monday 28 April anytime soon. The squad were in Portugal, settling into a pre-playoff training camp, when the lights went out as one of Europe’s biggest power cuts plunged the Iberian peninsula into chaos.

Although Régis Le Bris made light of the inconvenience and emphasised that the Algarve sunshine had been “re-energising”, no one is quite sure whether he has managed to fix his team’s own worrying electrical faults. There was certainly no sign of a backup generator kicking into action and restoring the attacking power as Sunderland returned from the Atlantic coast to lose 1-0 to QPR at the Stadium of Light last Saturday. It was their fifth straight defeat.

• Mallory had been absent from Chicago Stars of NWSL
• Her first child with Chicago Cubs shortstop

Chicago sports power couple Mallory and Dansby Swanson are expecting their first child.

Mallory Swanson is a forward for the Chicago Stars of the National Women’s Soccer League and the US women’s national team; her husband is the All-Star shortstop for the Cubs.

Riyad Mahrez and Roberto Firmino starred in tournament but unbalanced format reflects political power in continent

It’s been quite a journey for Roberto Firmino, Riyad Mahrez and Al-Ahli, who lifted the AFC Champions League Elite trophy for the first time just before midnight on Saturday in front of 60,000 fans in Jeddah after a 2-0 win over Kawasaki Frontale of Japan.

Firmino has not been registered in the Saudi Pro League (SPL), where teams are allowed only 10 foreign players, this year. The former Liverpool man’s spot was taken by Galeno, his fellow Brazilian signed from Porto in January for around £45m. In Asia, however, there are no such restrictions and “Bobby” has come back into the fold and played so well that he was named tournament’s MVP.

From flop in Manchester to prince of Seville, flying winger is rivalling his new best friend for title of La Liga’s finest player

Antony Matheus dos Santos has played football with some bad men. Raised in Inferninho (Little Hell), a favela outside São Paulo, the way the Real Betis winger tells it, he grew up without shoes to play in or a bed of his own to sleep in, surrounded by drugs and guns. Some days he wouldn’t eat and one day, when he was six or seven, he had to jump over a dead body to get to school. Life was just the way it was, even on the rough concrete courts where his bleeding feet moved faster than the rest. “I played against traffickers and all sorts,” he said. “If you ask if I was scared, of course I was. But I always had a strong personality and the harder it was, the more I wanted to be there.”

So when someone threatened to kidnap him a week ago, Antony just laughed – and so did everyone else. This wasn’t São Paulo, this was Seville. And, like a lot of what is said there, it was just a joke, even if there were true words said in jest, born of fondness and admiration, a kind of desperation too, a disbelief that he is here with them and a determination to keep it that way. There was no anonymous letter this time, no ransom note cut from newspaper letters; instead, there was a message on Isco’s Instagram. “Antonio of Triana,” it read, “we’re going to kidnap you: this is your first warning.” A few days later, the second came. “If I have to provide the car to kidnap him, I will,” said former Betis player Joaquín. “However it happens, he has to stay.”

After winning over Bayern’s hardcore support, the prolific Engländer has led the charge to the Bundesliga title

After Harry Kane’s three final heartbreaks with Tottenham and England his first major trophy win, the Bundesliga title we originally thought to be immediately inevitable, was on reflection never going to be straightforward. Last week’s yellow card against Augsburg kept him in the stands for Bayern Munich’s potential title clincher at RB Leipzig (a visibly annoyed Kane suggested referee Bastian Dankert had been “trying to make a name for himself” after the harsh booking, issued when he didn’t return the ball quickly enough after he was whistled for a foul). Then Yusuf Poulsen’s 95th-minute equaliser for the hosts meant Bayern weren’t quite there mathematically, even though Thomas Müller felt comfortable enough to lead the players and a trench-coated Kane through some frolics with the away fans on Saturday. Leverkusen only drawing at Freiburg on Sunday has, at last, finally sealed the deal. Kane’s Bayern destiny has been fulfilled, and no apparent jinx could get in the way this time.

On the day he signed in August 2023 Munich was balmy, in terms of weather and mood. It was the morning of Bayern’s DFL-Supercup game against RB Leipzig and as the thermometers crept above 30C, hot and bothered fans queued outside the multiple Bayern fan shops in the city centre with the aim of getting their hands on one item: the new, white-with-red-trim home jersey with “Kane 9” on the back. The red-on-white, multi-lined font of name and number – a throwback to the figures adorning the backs of Bayern’s 1974 European Cup winners – hinted at a new era of glory.

Super League patron Florentino Pérez sets the tone with his destructive acts of pettiness, dragging down a once noble club

Referees have never been so disdained and despised as they are now. Those who do not think they are corrupt, think they are incompetent. Standards, apparently, have never been lower. Clubs and their fans rage about conspiracies. But even in the present context, the scenes at the end of last Saturday’s Copa del Rey final were unprecedented as Antonio Rüdiger threw an ice-pack at the referee Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea.

And to think this is a club that used to pride itself on its sense of its señorio, its gentlemanliness, to the extent that in Steve McManaman’s day players were given a code of conduct; the familiar line used to be whingeing about referees was for the cry-babies of Barcelona.

Barcelona’s 17-year-old forward is a once-every-20-years talent who is causing the internet to spasm with man-worship

There’s always that guy. Never be that guy. Fight the urge to become that guy, to yearn always for the old, good, safe things, to feel headphone-panic and selfie-disgust, to see moral decay in haircuts. Except, sometimes it turns out you just are that guy, propped up in your easy chair, eyes blazing, smelling slightly of damp laundry, and holding forth on a theme as old as all human life.

That theme is always the same. You know that thing you like? Well, it’s actually bad. And in a way that I will now explain at great length. So here he comes again, that guy. And this time he’s talking about Lamine Yamal. Enjoyed that, did you?

I am not a Liverpool fan but this week I have crossed a sacred line – and I’m struggling to feel sorry

This column begins with a confession. One I am afraid and not a little ashamed to make. One that my instincts tell me I should be taking to a priest who is bound to silence, or at the very least an understanding therapist. Certainly not to a forum of sports fans with strong opinions and keyboards full of potential swears.

Scourging rods at the ready, then: this week I have been wearing a Liverpool top. And I am not a Liverpool fan.

Parachute payments system benefits the elite when teams such as Burnley and Leeds rejoin top tier within three years

For the second year running, all three clubs promoted from the Championship to the Premier League will make an immediate return to the second tier. It would be tempting to say this is the natural order of things given the financial challenges faced by clubs suddenly thrown into the world’s richest domestic football competition.

Even when they do spend huge amounts in order to give themselves a chance of survival, as Southampton and Ipswich did, respectively spending £62.8m and £106m net in the summer of 2024, the gap appears too big to close. Yet what has happened to them used to be an exceptional occurrence.

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Our cartoonist on intense motivational techniques and banter in north London before European semi-finals

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Most fans who visit Buenos Aires want to watch Boca or River. I plumped for reigning champions Vélez Sarsfield

By The Football Mine

When imagining a football match in Buenos Aires many fans visualise La Bombonera shuddering to its foundations by the jumping mass of blue and yellow Boca Juniors supporters or the majestic Estadio Monumental bedecked in streams of ticker tape when hosting Argentina’s victory in the World Cup final in 1978. Last Sunday, the Monumental was at full capacity as 85,000 fans watched River Plate beat Boca 2-1 in a tense Superclásico. However, a few weeks ago my experience of going to a football match in Buenos Aires was very different indeed.

As I discovered when planning my trip to Buenos Aires, gaining admission to one of the Argentinian capital’s largest clubs, such as Boca or River Plate, is by no means straightforward. Both clubs have significant numbers of members, with more than 340,000 each (only Real Madrid have more). These socios have priority when it comes to buying tickets so there is limited availability. One of the only ways to buy tickets in advance is through a third party, who charge $150 upwards. Kick-off times are only announced a week or so in advance, which makes life even more complicated.

As a new ‘Liguilla’ gets underway, we’ll answer five of the biggest questions about the competition, from least specific to most

The Liga MX playoffs, better known as the Liguilla, kick off on Wednesday, running until a champion is crowned on 25 May. Whether this is your first time with the tournament or you’re a diehard fan, there’s reason to be excited. Here’s everything you need to know about this year’s version, starting with the most basic question there is.

Clubs’ tussle for supremacy in Germany may be at its end as the futures of Alonso and Wirtz remain uncertain

Early on Sunday evening Bayern Munich’s players arrived a few at a time in a swish restaurant that had been opened just for them, as they prepared to commemorate a 33rd Bundesliga title (34 if you include the pre-Bundesliga crown of 1932) not quite as they had hoped, in their street clothes rather than their football strips. Bild even claimed that as Freiburg took the lead late in the first half against Bayer Leverkusen on the big screen in front of the Bayern squad (a game the 2024 champions needed to win to mathematically prolong the race) there was a loud exclamation of “Scheiße!” from at least one player who had wanted Bayern to officially finish the job themselves at home to Borussia Mönchengladbach next Saturday.

It had not quite been the titanic end that anybody had hoped for, with Bayern letting in a 95th-minute Yussuf Poulsen equaliser that stopped them officially sealing it on Saturday, Harry Kane suspended so he couldn’t take part at all and Leverkusen getting a leveller in the fourth minute of stoppage time at Freiburg on Sunday which ended up meaning little to anyone apart from the hosts and their rivals for Champions League qualification.

Southampton, Leicester and Ipswich are returning to the Championship. Which of their players deserve to stay up?

By WhoScored

Leicester were relegated at the weekend and will join Southampton in the Championship next season. Ipswich are 15 points from safety with five games to play, so it’s only a matter of time before they too are consigned to the second tier. The three sides have been extremely disappointing this season, picking up just 10 wins between them, but they have some talented players who will be targets for Premier League sides in the summer transfer window.

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Having had time to reflect on Arsenal’s semi-final defeat at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain in Bigger Cup, Football Daily has arrived at the conclusion that there are a couple of ways to frame the exit of Mikel Arteta’s side. The first is to say that, despite being plagued by long-term knack to key personnel and endlessly persecuted by referees at home and abroad, they played extremely well for long periods across both legs and were perhaps unlucky to come up against a mighty state-owned behemoth. A mighty state-owned behemoth that is backed by limitless financial resources and is able to field a goalkeeper who is in the form of his life, and who had his task made a little easier by the fact that Arsenal were forced to field a side with no recognised centre-forward in both matches. Yes, that sounds fair.

I know Atlético Madrid were supposed to be looking to sign him, but after Wednesday night’s performance in Paris, will anybody want to fight for the right to Partey?” – Declan Hackett.

Following another barren season for Mikel Arteta’s team, may I suggest they have a nickname similar to the Neverkusen epithet foisted upon Bayer at the start of this century? ‘Nahrsenal’ perhaps” – Duncan Roberts.

Re: yesterday’s Memory Lane (full email edition) and Ron Springett being unveiled as the new Sheffield Wednesday goalkeeper. Is this the first (and potentially only) example of a new signing being unveiled before the press pack and performing keepy-outies? Admittedly he does appear to be nowhere near his goal or even in the 18-yard box but anyway …” – Derek McGee.

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Union captain Lisa Heiseler, who has been at the club since she was 13, talks about promotion to the Frauen-Bundesliga

“I can’t describe how I feel,” Lisa Heiseler says as she reflects on a momentous weekend for Union Berlin Women. Just three days after her side secured a historic promotion to the Frauen-Bundesliga, the captain is clearly still processing everything that has happened to her and her teammates.

27 April 2025 will be a date for ever etched in the memories of Union Berlin’s women’s team and their supporters. A 6-1 victory over Borussia Mönchengladbach in front of more than 14,000 jubilant fans at the Stadion An der Alte Försterei saw Ailien Poese’s side secure promotion with three games to spare, one that will see them play in the top echelon of German football for the first time and at the first time of asking.

In a freakish season at the top and bottom of the league, competing incentives for the rest are unusually fractured

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As Eddie Howe delivered his post-match press conference after Newcastle’s draw against Brighton on Sunday, Chelsea, his club’s rivals for Champions League qualification, took an early lead against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge. Howe gave a wry smile and was immediately asked whether it annoyed him that Liverpool had made six changes to their lineup from the side that had sealed the league title against Tottenham last week. Being Howe, and therefore both unflappable and impossibly earnest, he replied that team selection was their business: “Liverpool have got to do what Liverpool have got to do for them. I’m not involved in their football club, so I’ve got no opinion on that.”

And of course he was right to say so, partly because it’s true and partly because criticising other managers’ team selections is a slippery slope. All clubs have their own priorities and their job is to do what is right for them, with all due nods to the integrity of the league and satisfying those who have paid for tickets or broadcast rights. Liverpool have won the title early: giving fringe players a run out is a prerogative they have earned, and it’s not their concern how that affects other sides. But at the same time, Chelsea were given an easier game than they probably would have been had they met Liverpool a week or two earlier before the league title was wrapped up.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Lars Sivertsen and Paul Watson as Spurs and Manchester United progress to the Europa League final

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On the podcast today: there’s very little jeopardy for either Spurs or Manchester United, who both deservedly progress to the Europa League final with comfortable two-legged wins over Bodø/Glimt and Athletic Club, respectively.

Plus: league-leading teams nosediving, more statistically average seasons and final-day survival turnarounds

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“Daniel Farke has won the Championship for the third time,” notes Giacomo. “Who has won the English second tier the most? And are there any second-tier masters around the world?”

Dirk Maas begins by pointing us in the direction of another manager who scooped up three English second-tier titles with two different teams.

• Luigi Simoni: Genoa (1975-76), Pisa (1984-85 and 1986-87)
• Carlos Babington: Banfield (1992-93), Huracán (1989-90 and 1999-00)
• Miguel Ángel Russo: Lanús (1991-92), Estudiantes de la Plata (1994-95), Rosario Central (2012-13)
• Dennis van Wijk: KV Oostende (1997-98), Royal Charleroi (2011-12), KVC Westerlo (2013-14)
• Dan Alexa: Poli Timișoara (2014-15), Rapid București (2015-16), Dunarea Calarasi (2017-18)
• Enderson Moreira: Goiás (2012), América Mineiro (2017), Botafogo (2021)
• Alekos Vosniadis: Apollon Smyrnis (2012-13), Niki Volou (2013-14), Athens Kallithea (2023-24)

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Emily Keogh and Jamie Spangher to reflect on Chelsea’s WSL triumph, a dramatic final day in the Championship

On this week’s Guardian Women’s Football Weekly: Chelsea are crowned WSL champions for a record sixth season in a row. With games to spare, can Sonia Bompastor’s side complete an unbeaten domestic campaign?

Elsewhere, Arsenal’s back-to-back defeats against Aston Villa and Brighton raise questions about their defensive frailties, while Manchester United and Manchester City play out a dramatic derby with European football on the line. Meanwhile, Everton shine in the Merseyside derby, and Crystal Palace leave it late to deny Leicester.