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A slow summer has tempered expectations but guile of Morgan Rogers and guidance of Unai Emery should inspire again

Guardian writers’ predicted position: 5th (NB: this is not necessarily Ben Fisher’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)

Last season’s position: 6th

• Claim relates to finding of unlawful transfer regulations

• Group says about 100,000 players seeking money

Fifa is facing a multibillion-pound claim for compensation from a group of former players after last year’s ruling by the European court of justice (CJEU) that its transfer rules are unlawful. The Justice for Players foundation, a Dutch group that has the former England assistant manager Franco Baldini on its board, has served notice of its intention to file a class action against Fifa and the football associations of France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark.

Justice for Players is seeking compensation on behalf of players who have lost income because of Fifa’s transfer rules since 2002. It says the legal case will involve about 100,000 players.

• Former Arsenal midfielder has denied rape charges

• Partey has agreed contract and taken medical

The former Arsenal midfielder Thomas Partey is poised to join Villarreal on a free transfer this week.

Partey is due to appear at Westminster magistrates court on Tuesday after being charged with five counts of rape and one count of sexual assault last month, a few days after he left Arsenal having failed to agree a new deal. He has denied all the charges.

Influential supporters’ group are leading the protests against what they see as Uefa’s unjust demotion of their club to the Conference League

When the Holmesdale Fanatics say they are planning something, it is usually worth paying attention. The receptionist at Uefa’s headquarters in Nyon looked bemused when presented with a suitcase full of fake bank notes last month by members of the Crystal Palace supporters’ group. They claimed it represented the “contradictions of their supposed ‘fundamental values’ of integrity and fairness and the reality of their business methods and general conduct”.

Uefa has said it followed the correct procedures after its club financial control body demoted Palace from the Europa League to the Conference League because they were deemed to have broken multi-club ownership rules. But for the HF, it was a call to arms.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Ali Maxwell and Dan Bardell as Son Heung-min bids farewell to Tottenham after a decade and the Football League returns

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On the podcast today; Son Hueng-min leaves Spurs after a decade having captained the side to their first trophy in 17 years in May. The panel discuss where he sits in the pantheon of Premier League greats.

Mikel Arteta enters a pivotal season after finally buying a centre-forward and reinforcing his midfield and defence

Guardian writers’ predicted position: 2nd (NB: this is not necessarily Ed Aarons’ prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)

Last season’s position: 2nd

• Captain unhappy with display in 2-2 Everton draw

• ‘It’s not the place it needs to be,’ he says of the squad

Manchester United’s captain, Bruno Fernandes, let rip at his teammates after their 2-2 pre-season draw with Everton, saying their performance was “lazy” and calling for further reinforcements. A second-half goal from Mason Mount had United on course for victory in Atlanta, Georgia, after Fernandes’s opener was cancelled out by Iliman Ndiaye, but a bizarre 75th-minute own goal by Ayden Heaven gave Everton the draw.

The result put a slight dampner on United’s tour of the US, after promising victories over West Ham and Bournemouth.

Today’s rumours are heavily invested

There is a sense that the transfer window is entering a period of calm before the inevitable storm. The chitter-chatter of agents is at a lull and the same old names are being bandied around in the hope someone will finally have a nibble.

Tottenham’s Son Heung-min is on his way out and therefore a replacement needs to be found by Thomas Frank. At this stage of August, it is sensible to target someone who is definitely available. Real Madrid’s Rodrygo will be allowed to leave the Spanish capital and moving to the British equivalent may be a reasonable selling point to the Brazilian, not to mention the joys of testing himself in the Premier League rather than sitting on a number of La Liga benches.

Its young, diverse and passionate fanbase offers a huge opportunity, but too many clubs are only scratching the surface

The Lionesses are simply the most successful England football team in history, winning back-to-back European Championships and becoming the first England senior team to win a major tournament on foreign soil. It is an incredible achievement and one that will reverberate through the women’s game for many years to come.

The head coach, Sarina Wiegman, is simply world class; it’s an overused phrase but absolutely fitting in this case. To reach five major finals in a row (including a European Championship win and a World Cup final with the Netherlands before joining England) is a record that may never be surpassed. She was an inspired choice by Kay Cossington, the former Football Association technical director who targeted her for her ability to build a strong culture and sense of team as much as her obvious tactical acumen.

The first Asian to become a genuine Premier League star, Son Heung-min raised Spurs’ profile in the region. Now they must kick on without him

Just as opposing fans in the Premier League have experienced feelings of dread over the past decade when Son Heung-min picked up the ball on the edge of their area, there had been a summer of worry among his millions of followers in Asia that his time in England was coming to an end.

As the South Korean’s legs slowed last season, reports of a move elsewhere gathered pace. His 10 years at Tottenham may have ended with a trophy, the Europa League in May, but the legacy had been in place for some time. The 33-year-old has changed the way Asian players are perceived around the world and much more besides.

BBC Archive release of 1993’s On The Line shows much has changed in the sport but self-interest is always rife

Nostalgia for the 1990s remains heavy. Just look at all those stadiums and parks the Gallaghers are filling. Football from the late 20th century has a similar cachet. No video assistant referees, no sportswashing; just good, hard, honest, simple fare, when men were men and pressing was what you did to your Burton suit. If the past is a foreign country then a recent BBC Archive release is a primary source of a time when the continental import remained exotic and not the dominant division of labour.

“Is English Football In Crisis?” asks an edition of On The Line in October 1993, broadcast the night before Graham Taylor’s England played a key World Cup qualifier in Rotterdam. You know the match: Brian Moore correctly reading Ronald Koeman’s free-kick – “he’s gonna flick one” – and the pathos of Taylor’s hectoring of the linesman as England’s hopes of qualifying for USA ’94 sink into the briny.

All the latest Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and Serie A deals and a club-by-club guide

• Women’s transfers summer 2025: all the moves

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

• Men’s transfers summer 2025: all the moves

• Luke McCowan’s 87th-minute goal secures win for Celtic

• Steven Pressley’s Dundee lose 2-1 at home to Hibernian

Luke McCowan’s deflected strike earned Celtic a 1-0 victory in their Premiership opener after St Mirren had frustrated the champions for 87 minutes at Parkhead.

The substitute collected Daizen Maeda’s square pass on the edge of a crowded penalty box and fired a shot which appeared to spin off Mark O’Hara’s leg and nestle into the bottom corner of the net.

Rodman had not played since 12 April due to a lingering back issue, but helped the Washington Spirit to a win over Portland Thorns.

Trinity Rodman scored in stoppage time of her first game since April to give the Washington Spirit a 2-1 victory over the Portland Thorns in the National Women’s Soccer League on Sunday.

Rodman was on the bench to begin the game before entering to the roar of the crowd at Audi Field in the 76th minute. Rodman had not played since 12 April because of a nagging back issue.

• Fan from Swindon end targeted Walsall goalkeeper

• Holloway: ‘Shut your face and get out of the game’

Swindon Town have launched an investigation into what their manager, Ian Holloway, called “absolutely horrific” behaviour by one of their fans in the moments after Walsall scored a late winner against them in their 2-1 League Two defeat on Saturday.

A supporter from the away end at Bescot Stadium was seen throwing an object at Walsall goalkeeper Myles Roberts, while Swindon said they were also aware of “a number of serious incidents” including “the use of pyrotechnics, objects being thrown, abuse directed at stewards, staff, players and match officials, as well as damage caused to property within the stadium”.

• Newcastle reported to have made £65.5m Sesko offer

• Ramsdale joins on loan as Wilson seals West Ham move

Eddie Howe has admitted he does not know what is going to happen next after Liverpool had a bid for Alexander Isak turned down by Newcastle on Friday. The striker has made it clear he wants to leave this summer and is particularly keen on a move to Anfield.

Newcastle, meanwhile, are understood to have made an offer worth around €75m (£65.5m) for the RB Leipzig striker Benjamin Sesko. On Saturday, they announced the signing of the goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale from Southampton on a season-long loan.

• Huddersfield ease past Orient, youthful Cardiff win

• League Two: Harrogate stun Bristol Rovers at home

Plymouth lost their first game since relegation from the Championship, beaten 3-1 at home by 10-man Barnsley on League One’s opening weekend.

The visitors scored two first-half goals against the run of play as Tom Cleverley’s side dominated, with a series of decisions going against them. Barnsley’s Jack Shepherd – booked in the first half as tempers flared – was then shown a second yellow for handball after an hour, but Argyle could not find a way back into the game, and Davis Keillor-Dunn added the visitors’ third late on.

Manchester City manager may still relish a title chase but, as the declines of Mourinho and Wenger prove, nothing lasts for ever

Perhaps the most revealing aspect of the interview Pep Guardiola gave to GQ was how tired he sounded. The headlines that he was contemplating a 15-year break from the game didn’t entirely reflect what he said – “I don’t know how long I’ll stop for: a year, two years, three years, five, 10, 15, I don’t know. But I will leave after this spell with City because I need to stop and focus on myself, on my body” – but his weariness was clear.

To an extent it is not a surprise. Jürgen Klopp was exhausted (and self-aware) enough after almost 15 seasons at Dortmund and Liverpool (plus seven at Mainz) to quit last summer. There were times last season, particularly in that four-month spell either side of Christmas when City’s form dipped alarmingly, that Guardiola seemed shattered. By his own admission, his decision last November to sign a contract extension to summer 2027 was motivated in part by guilt at the downturn. “The problems we had in the last month, I felt now was not the right time to leave,” he said. The problems got much worse.

Veteran manager tells Donald McRae about his 45-year-career, upcoming tour and missing out on Virgil van Dijk

‘I was at Crystal Palace and I wanted a centre-half,” Neil Warnock says as, after 45 years as a manager, he describes how football has changed since his rise from non-league to the Premier League. “I sent Ronnie Jepson, my assistant, to Scotland to watch a centre-half. And he came back and said he would cost us around £4m, but he was very good. So I told the people at Crystal Palace.”

Warnock resists identifying Steve Parish, Palace’s chairman, by name for he is deep in a story that illustrates how data analytics is not always infallible. “He asked for 24 hours and went to the data people. The next day he said: ‘We don’t want to go ahead.’ I asked him why and he said they don’t think he’s quick enough. I said: ‘He might not look quick enough, but he’s in second gear in Scotland. If he had to sprint, he’d sprint.’”

Dale Vince’s team are giving away seats to a local doctor to be prescribed as an alternative to antidepressants

Dale Vince, the green energy entrepreneur and owner of Forest Green Rovers, has been mixing football and social causes for years. And so it’s perhaps not surprising that he is one of the partners in an initiative where GPs can prescribe a day out watching his National League team as an alternative to antidepressants.

“Our country’s facing a difficult time,” Vince says. “We’ve got extreme poverty at one end and extreme wealth at the other end, and football is the thing that binds us, it’s the thing that brings us together every week with a common purpose and a common cause. Modern life has stripped a lot from us as people and led to a mental health crisis. Football could help put that right.”

Attention has quickly turned towards Brazil 2027, but how will Sarina Wiegman’s team evolve before then?

The shiny ticker-tape had not even been cleared from the pitch at St Jakob-Park when the gauntlet was thrown down. As England celebrated their Euro 2025 triumph, King Charles wrote on the royal family’s Instagram account: “Well done, Lionesses. The next task is to bring home the World Cup in 2027 if you possibly can!” No pressure, then.

The short-term future for England players will centre around two things; a holiday – unless you are a National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) player like Jess Carter, who had to fly straight back to the US to play club football – and more accolades, the latest of which came on Friday as the National Football Museum announced every squad member and Sarina Wiegman will all be inducted into their Hall of Fame. More awards will surely follow but, eventually, everyone will catch up with the king’s mindset and focus attention on 2027.

Livingston’s head of football operations on the fallout from his 10-game ban for betting on matches

Conversation with Brian Rice flows easily. Brian Clough pounced to sign the red-haired midfielder after he failed to agree a contract with Hibernian in the summer of 1985. “Eff me, it’s Steve Davis,” roared Clough as Rice entered the manager’s office for the first time.

It took until September ‘85 for a tribunal to determine Nottingham Forest would have to pay Hibs close to £200,000 for Rice. He had been unable to play until that dispute was resolved. Clough bawled at Rice again as he walked on to the training pitch the following day. “‘You’ll need to go back to Scotland. I’d need to sell the stand to sign you son,’” Rice recalls.

Driven by the ambitious ownership of Tom Wagner and an NFL icon, the Blues intend to take the second tier by storm

Unsurprisingly, Tom Brady, a seven-time Super Bowl champion and global sporting icon, is braced for the challenges that await Birmingham City, where he is a minority owner. “Just because you were successful last year doesn’t mean you’re going to be successful this year,” he says, alluding to a season that culminated in promotion and a record-breaking tally of 111 points. “You have to put the same amount of work, commitment and discipline in – sometimes more – because the stakes only get higher. When the competition gets tougher, the margin of error gets smaller.”

It is his final answer in an interview that takes in everything from the “blue-collar nature of Birmingham”, which he compares with Cleveland and Cincinnati, to the Championship landscape and the bubbling rivalry with Aston Villa, which he was educated on during his first visit to England’s second-biggest city after acquiring his 3.3% stake.

Familiar tones of rage, pain and betrayal that envelop men’s football were missing during England’s joyful run to glory

“You can’t stand their voices? ALL women’s voices?” “Yes.” “Are you married to a woman?” “I am. And she feels the same.” Hmm. To be fair to Dave from Egham, whose name has been changed to protect the confused, the whole setup here was pretty bleak. It was Dave’s destiny a week on from England’s victory at Euro 2025 to find himself going viral after an appearance on LBC radio.

In the clip Dave objects to the sound of all women’s voices, even if they’re Adele or Billie Holiday. Specifically he objects to women talking about women’s sport, which Dave hates because it is being thrown down his throat, and thrown down his throat to the extent he has to ring up a radio station and talk about the women talking about the women’s sport, simply to disentangle its tendrils from his throat, to steal a few gargling, sputtering final breaths.

Choosing the best matches from Switzerland provokes plenty of debate along with the outstanding players and the pick of the goals

England seemed to have lost it once, twice, three times against Sweden on a night of nail-shredding drama that sharpened the sense that destiny had rich bounty in store for Sarina Wiegman’s side. It was also the first match, no doubt of many over the coming years, that made a hero of Michelle Agyemang. Nick Ames

• England will host China at Wembley on 29 November

• Prize fund for Women’s FA Cup frozen for another year

England will play China in a friendly at Wembley on 29 November, their first confirmed fixture following the Lionesses’ Euros triumph at the weekend.

The match will be the third of four friendlies for Sarina Wiegman’s victorious team across the autumn, with the first two, in October, still to be announced, and pits the Asian champions against their European counterparts. It will also be the Lionesses’ third Wembley fixture of 2025, following victories over Spain in February and Portugal in May.

In a Euro 2025 special, we look at other champions with short-lived leads and young England award-winners

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“Chloe Kelly scored the goal that won Euro 2022 and the penalty that won Euro 2025. Including penalty shootouts, has anybody else scored the winner in two major international tournaments? And which women have dominated a whole competition?” asks Emma Pollard.

For a player who has never started a knockout match at a major tournament, Chloe Kelly has had … a reasonable impact. She scored the winner against Germany in extra time in 2022, and the winning penalty in the shootout against Spain on Sunday. Kelly also set up Alessia Russo’s equaliser in the final, played a key role in both goals against Sweden in the quarter-finals, kept England in the tournament with a nerveless penalty in the subsequent shootout, and then scored a 119th-minute winner against Italy in the semi-finals.

Semi-final first leg: scored Sweden’s second equaliser in 3-2 win away to Italy

Semi-final second leg: scored both goals in 2-1 win (5-3 agg)

Final: scored Sweden’s only goal across the two legs against England, which ended 1-1 on aggregate, then scored the winning penalty in the shootout
(NB: The tournament began at the semi-final stage)

Quarter-final: second goal in 2-0 win over Sweden

Semi-final: opening goal in 3-0 hammering of England

Final: equalised in the 10th minute v Denmark, then scored in the 89th minute to seal a 4-2 win

Last 16: scored two penalties in 2-1 win against Spain

Quarter-final: scored both goals in 2-1 win over hosts France

Semi-final: didn’t play v England due to injury

Final: opened the scoring from the spot in 2-0 win over the Netherlands

The US owns a good recent record against Euro 2025 teams, but the transition to a new generation under Emma Hayes could be limiting for now

Sunday in Switzerland, England’s Lionesses clawed their way to a second straight Euro title after defeating the reigning world champions, Spain, 3-1 in a penalty shootout. With a record 1.35m watching stateside, at least one wondered if, in some alternate universe in which they could play in the Euros, they would have won it.

Asked that question on a recent episode of The Women’s Game podcast, US captain and OL Lyonnes midfielder Lindsey Heaps suggested that they could. While debriefing England’s wild quarter-final comeback against Sweden with retired World Cup champion Sam Mewis, Heaps began by noting the difficulty of comparing Emma Hayes’ program in transition to mid-tournament teams: “It’s so hard because we’re obviously missing a lot of players,” she said. “But we have a lot of new, young players, inexperienced players, that are doing so well. I think it would be so hard to say. Also, Emma would fully prepare us for a tournament, and tournament mode. So it’d be a little bit different than what we’ve been doing, and how we’ve been playing.”

• Melbourne-based club reports $11m loss in 2023-24

• ALM’s outgoing transfer fees offer one positive sign

Western United is haemorrhaging cash at a rate of close to a million dollars every month, but as the A-Leagues pivot to focus on financial sustainability officials are confident the competition’s conga line of outgoing transfers is a positive sign for the local game.

The Tarneit-based outfit reported a loss of almost $11m for the 2023/24 financial year in accounts lodged to Asic this week, following a deficit of more than $12m for the preceding period.

Influenced by Pep Guardiola, Roberto De Zerbi, Luis Enrique and others, no team in the world relies on buildup quite like this newly-formed group

For a goalkeeper under pressure, there’s one safe way out: turn away from the opponent, shield the ball with your body and boot it long.

A few minutes into the second half against Nashville last weekend, Pablo Sisniega did the exact opposite.

Spurs and Newcastle are two of the clubs who have made signings from the world’s fastest growing talent pools, with greater recognition of the technical ability they bring

Arsène Wenger was ahead of the curve in 2013 when he identified one of the world’s fastest growing talent pools. “I find a new market that is very interesting and very competitive is the Japanese market,” he said. “Look at the number of Japanese players who play now in Germany for example.”

And now England. This summer, Japan’s Kota Takai became part of the new Thomas Frank era at Tottenham while Birmingham have added another two Japanese players to take their contingent to three. They also have the South Korean midfielder Paik Seung-ho while his compatriot Park Seung-soo has joined Newcastle from Suwon Bluewings.

Playing an entire tournament with a fractured tibia is the type of undiluted commitment and individual sacrifice which carried team to glory

For some reason, as Chloe Kelly’s penalty hits the net and the England players explode across the pitch like streaks of white light, as Sarina Wiegman and Arjan Veurink embrace on the touchline, as England fans clutch each other in the stands, the eye is drawn to Khiara Keating of Manchester City.

Keating has not played a minute for England at this tournament. In fact, she has never played a minute for England at all. In fact, there was not the remotest possibility that she would play a minute for England at this tournament, and she knew this all along. Her entire Euros has consisted of training, travel and watching football from a hard bench. And yet at the moment of victory, nobody celebrates harder than England’s third goalkeeper.

Host country provided a record attendance and a summer spectacle despite a relatively modest football infrastructure

Twelve hours before Euro 2025 reached its crescendo the Uefa executive director of football, Giorgio Marchetti, addressed a hall of delegates in Basel. The morning coffees were still taking hold as officials from clubs, federations and other stakeholders settled down for a forum designed partly to debrief the previous month. There was no mistaking the congratulatory mood and Marchetti was determined to see it last. The tournament would not be “like a butterfly, over in 24 hours”, he said; instead its reverberations would be felt far into a burgeoning sport’s future.

There was certainly little sign of any effects dulling as afterparties swung long into the night following England’s heist against Spain. The overwhelming sense was of euphoria, sprinkled with relief, that host and governing body had pulled off what some viewed as a high‑wire act. Switzerland’s relatively modest football infrastructure, not to mention its muted appreciation of the women’s game, had raised eyebrows but it staged an event that delivered to the last.

Arsenal’s new signing arrives with a reputation for goals but also mystery around his iconic celebration

Every goalscorer needs a trademark celebration and the one Viktor Gyökeres has shown off over the past few years has certainly increased its reach of late – fingers interlocked, thumbs pushed up, a mask formed across his mouth and nose.

As Gyökeres’s transfer from Sporting to Arsenal has edged along, fans of the London club became increasingly desperate for clues. They were convinced they spotted one when the defender Riccardo Calafiori was pictured at their kit launch with the shirt pulled up towards his eyes; mask‑style. And then there was Myles Lewis‑Skelly, another of their defenders, looking at a Gyökeres-to-Arsenal story on his phone and copying the gesture.

United have lacked bite in the centre of the pitch for years and Ruben Amorim must prioritise this area to revive the side

The way we discuss football has changed a lot in recent times, tactics and data to the fore. Nevertheless, there remain some simple, simplifying truths that, when delivered by someone with elite-level experience, must be taken seriously. So, when Graeme Souness reminds us that “the team that gets to the ball first wins”, we should pay just as much attention as when hearing about hybrid pressing, on-ball value and chance-creating actions.

The players most obliged to reach that ball first are, like Souness, central midfielders. And, though there are operative off-pitch factors, the longstanding absence of players able to do that is a significant reason why Manchester United have been so poor for so long.

Our cartoonist looks at how the Lionesses retained their crown as European champions

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• David’s new book, Chaos in the Box: buy it now

Stockport have shown plenty of ambition in the transfer market while Darren Moore’s Port Vale look to stave off drop

Last season was grim for Luton, culminating in them suffering a second successive relegation. But there remains plenty of quality at Kenilworth Road. Teden Mengi could easily be playing in the top flight, while Millenic Alli is a leading light of the recent intake. Most importantly, perhaps, the manager, Matt Bloomfield, knows this division well. Cardiff were also relegated from the Championship last season and will be hoping their new manager, Brian Barry-Murphy, can arrest the Welsh club’s slide.

Bristol Rovers will be hoping theirs is a short stay in the fourth tier, while another difficult season awaits Accrington

MK Dons finished 19th last season but Paul Warne is a good manager and the club have backed him in the transfer market. Aaron Collins has arrived from Bolton for £800,000, a huge fee in the fourth tier, with Will Collar also joining from Stockport.

Fifteen players have represented both Arsenal and Chelsea in the Premier League but that is not a record

Noni Madueke has made the short journey across London to join Arsenal from Chelsea. Some Arsenal fans have expressed annoyance at their club giving yet more money – £52m – to their rivals for a player deemed surplus to requirements at Stamford Bridge. The road from Chelsea to Arsenal is a well worn path. Kepa Arrizabalaga swapped south-west London for north London earlier this summer for £5m, following in the footsteps of Kai Havertz and Jorginho, who made the same move in 2023 for a combined £77m.

A total of 15 players have represented both Arsenal and Chelsea in the Premier League, with Havertz and Jorginho joining Ashley Cole, Cesc Fàbregas, Petr Cech, Olivier Giroud, David Luiz, Emmanuel Petit, Lassana Diarra, Nicolas Anelka, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Raheem Sterling, William Gallas, Willian and Yossi Benayoun.

A photographic celebration of England’s journey to Euro 2025 victory, from the opening defeat to beating World Cup holders Spain in the final

Over little more than three weeks in July, from Zurich via St Gallen, and Lancy to Basel, Guardian writers have followed every step of England’s journey across Switzerland during the Women’s Euro 2025. Under Sarina Wiegman, the Lionesses became the first England team to win a trophy on foreign soil. Here are our favourite pictures coupled with excerpts from our match reports and blogs.

GAME 1: GROUP D

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It’s taken almost two years but the good news is that if you bet on Lucas Paquetá to be cleared of those gambling charges you can finally go and collect. And if the 12 that signifies a hurricane is the highest measure on the Beaufort scale, you can almost certainly bet your bottom dollar that the West Ham midfielder’s sigh of relief upon discovering he had been cleared of spot-fixing accusations registered in the very high teens. Had Paquetá been found guilty of charges he deliberately got booked on multiple occasions so that assorted folk back home in Brazil could make the staggeringly insignificant sums reported to have been involved in this alleged global conspiracy, he was staring straight down the barrel of a lifetime ban from football.

In today’s Rumour Mill, the author labelled Kieffer Moore as ‘prolific’ due to his record of 60 goals in 203 Championship games. It is hard to detect irony or sarcasm in the written form, and with no use of italics or other such such writing tropes, one had to take the sentence seriously. His goalscoring record, although not shabby, can’t be termed as prolific. At an average of one goal every 3.4 games, extrapolated across a full Championship season, works out at just 13 goals for the league campaign after 44 matches. If that is now prolific, then going by the Moore Goals Ratio Method, my 14 goals in the 1990 season of the Primary 5 Glasgow School League also meant I had a prolific year” – Paul ‘Goals’ Kenealy.

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Our newsletter takes a look at how the two expansion teams are taking different approaches as they prepare to enter the ever-so competitive league next year

On 13 March , the NWSL will commence its 14th regular season as the pre-eminent league in the United States. For the first time in its history, it will do so with 16 teams. That is double the number from the inaugural season in 2013 and a rapid rise from the nine teams that played out the 2020 campaign.

There is an inevitable aura of excitement surrounding the latest expansion as new opportunities for fans and players acceleratein an aspirational league. Halfway through the NWSL’s 13th regular season – which resumes this weekend after a prolonged summer pause – how are the expansion clubs, new and old, holding up?

Super Falcons were two goals down to Morocco in the final but comeback repaid Justine Madugu’s faith in his team

Eyebrows were raised when Justine Madugu was appointed as the new Nigeria coach in September last year, having had no head coach experience in international football before taking on the role.

On Saturday the “gamble” – if you call it that – paid off when the Super Falcons came from 2-0 down to beat hosts Morocco 3-2 in the final at the Olympic Stadium in Rabat to win the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations.

After years spent in striker-less formations, the Premier League’s top teams are seemingly all set to rely on a big body (or two) up top

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It’s only been a decade since it seemed the center-forward was being refined out of existence. Spain had won Euro 2012 with Cesc Fàbregas as a false nine, and Germany, who largely took Spain as a model, were less than convinced they needed one at the 2014 World Cup. They fielded Thomas Müller as a false-ish nine until the quarter-final, when Jögi Löw finally went back to basics and turned to Miroslav Klose. That he was 36 only seemed to confirm that the old-fashioned No 9 was an old-fashioned phenomenon – a dying breed. Yet this summer, the main interest in the transfer market has been the carousel of strikers.

Of course, strikers never entirely disappeared. The four leading scorers in the Premier League in 2014–15 were Sergio Agüero, Harry Kane, Diego Costa and Charlie Austin. Mauri Icardi and Luca Toni topped the charts in Italy, while Cristiano Ronaldo, his conversion to A No 9 complete, was top scorer in Spain (although that he was followed by Lionel Messi, Antoine Griezmann, and Neymar suggested a greater variety of goalscorer there).

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Sanny Rudravajhala and George Elek to preview the return of league football this weekend

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On the podcast today; the Football League is back with League One and League Two kicking off this weekend. While most fans are concerned about their summer signings there are two clubs in real peril: Sheffield Wednesday look set to start the season in the Championship without a manager, a full playing squad or even a complete stadium - can they find a buyer? Meanwhile, Morecambe seem like they have found a buyer but can’t sell - what’s going on there?

Today’s whispers are being squeezed out

The question of who will lead the Manchester United forward line remains uncertain. Ruben Amorim has been blunt in his assessment of Rasmus Højlund, despite the player’s desire to stay. United could offer the striker to RB Leipzig and plan a separate deal for the Bundesliga club’s Benjamin Sesko, who would cost at least £55m. All aboard the merry-go-round.

Jadon Sancho could be on his way back to Borussia Dortmund, where he spent the second half of the 2023-24 season on loan. The 25-year-old winger clearly enjoyed his second spell with the club and is said to be pushing for a permanent move after being left out of United’s pre-season tour. The Englishman, who joined United in a £73m deal from Dortmund in 2021, has reportedly agreed to a 50% pay cut to make the move happen. Chelsea are rumoured to be preparing a bid for another outcast, Alejandro Garnacho, before the transfer window closes.

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Tom Garry and Sophie Downey to celebrate England’s historic Euro 2025 triumph over Spain — and reflect on an unforgettable tournament in Switzerland

On the podcast today: It’s come home … again! England have retained their European crown with a dramatic penalty shoot-out win over Spain in Basel. Sarina Wiegman’s side, held together by tape, grit and fractured bones, battled through three games of extra time and two shoot-outs to defend their title and become back-to-back champions of Europe.

The panel relives the final in all its nerve-shredding glory, from Alessia Russo’s equaliser and Chloe Kelly’s penalty to Hannah Hampton’s spot-kick heroics. They also break down Wiegman’s bold decisions, Bronze’s fractured tibia, and what this win means in the context of England’s footballing history.