Key events
Time to wrap this blog up. I’ll end with this: a lovely sketch sent in by Keith Williams.
“Since I haven’t been at a trophy parade since 1991 I took meself down the Tottenham high road with my sketchbook and managed to get these done while being jostled about.” Enjoy the night, Spurs fans.
I’ve tuned back in to the Tottenham parade, where Son Heung-min, shades on, takes it all in:
“The last two days gone so fast. I just felt like I sleep five hours. With a lot of joy, a lot of happiness, and it was incredible. I dreamed this moment and it finally happened. I’m so glad I did it here, I did it with a Spurs shirt. I’m so proud of this group.”
Your weekend, planned to perfection:
John Brewin’s Football Daily tees up the big one at Wembley: Saturday’s playoff final between Sunderland and Sheffield United. It’s just hit me that Sunderland have spent eight years away from the Premier League, their relegation responsible for the greatest football docu-series ever.
The Tottenham players have hopped on to the open-top bus. The club are actually live-streaming the whole thing; if you’re not planning to hit the streets yourself, here you go:
“Scotland’s national sport has a serious behavioural issue, one which threatened to spiral long ago as authorities turned blind eyes. Adding alcohol to the mix would be absurd.”
Ewan Murray dissects the crowd disorder in Scottish football:
ICYMI: here’s the full story on the latest England squad. Ivan Toney is back in the mix.
Jamie Jackson
It emerged today that Manchester United, who had previously informed most of the 150-200 potential people Sir Jim Ratcliffe will make redundant in his latest round that they are at risk, have now done the same regarding a small number of those in football-facing positions, as this was deferred until the end of the season. More horrible tidings that will affect families and friends.
Spurs and Harry Kane have broken their trophy droughts this season. It feels strange that it wasn’t together.
Jack Snape provides a view from Australia of Ange Postecoglou’s success.
For Australian football followers, a defeat for Postecoglou’s side against Manchester United was almost too painful to imagine. In that universe, his meek failure at one of the best-resourced clubs in world football would likely have precluded an Australian from a similar opportunity for a long time to come. Australians might still be welcomed in the game’s proletariat of players, were they up to it. But in the culture-setting class of men’s football management, that would have been it. After Ange, no more mates.
Kieran McKenna has been pretty transparent on Liam Delap: Ipswich have given him permission to speak to other clubs.
“Of course there is a lot of interest – and rightly so. I think part of his week has been having some of those conversations,” McKenna was quoted saying by PA Media.
“It looks more likely than not that he will move on this summer and he has interest from pretty much every club in the league, and I don’t think there are many clubs in the world who wouldn’t want to have him.
“If he stays with us, we will be delighted, and if he moves on this summer, it will be a positive sign for the club to have developed and sold a player at that sort of level and hopefully it will be a good move for him as well.”
The former Manchester City striker has been linked with their cross-town rivals, Newcastle and Chelsea.
Even with that tussle for Champions League football, it’s not going to be a classic final day in the Premier League, the champions and relegated sides sorted an age ago. Ed Aarons went through the best final-day finishes last year: the obvious one is Agüerooooooo, but 2022 was remarkable, too.
Not mentioned is 2005’s Survival Sunday, when no side had been relegated before the final day. West Brom began it at the bottom of the table … before victory over Portsmouth prompted jubilation at the Hawthorns.
More from Guardiola here on Champions League qualification, Kevin De Bruyne and Rodri:
Craig Gordon, 42 years young, is still ticking along. Scotland’s oldest men’s international has signed a one-year contract extension at Hearts, his boyhood club – he made his first-team debut for them all the way back in 2002.
Pep Guardiola has spoken about Phil Foden and his desire to look after the attacking midfielder. Foden, not named in the latest England squad, has admitted to having a “frustrating” season hampered by an ankle problem.
“We want to help him, that is the most important thing,” said the Manchester City manager. “He needs rest and it’s going to happen now, after Sunday. Step by step he is going to come back, is what we want. I just want to, want to help him. I don’t care about his performance on the pitch. I want him to feel good and after the rest will come in an easy way.”
The pics are rolling in of fans gathering for Tottenham’s trophy parade, and they’re partying like it’s 1984 (not a dystopian reference). If you’re there, drop us a line.
The parade kicks off at 5.30pm BST from Edmonton Green says the Spurs website, though there’ll be “a DJ, live music and Legend Q&As from 3pm”.
Former Manchester United defender sentenced after car crash
Here’s a story from PA Media on Brandon Williams, released by Manchester United last year.
The former Manchester United full-back Brandon Williams has received a suspended jail sentence for dangerous driving after he reached almost 100mph seconds before his vehicle collided with another car.
Williams, 24, was spotted driving at high speeds and in an erratic manner in an Audi A3 on the A34 near Handforth, Cheshire, on 20 August 2023.
His vehicle collided with a Ford Fiesta before crashing into the central reservation. Williams was on loan at Ipswich at the time of incident.
Last June, Manchester United announced he would leave the club at the end of his contract. In March, Williams pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and having no insurance.
On Friday, at Chester Crown Court, he was sentenced to a 14-month jail term, suspended for two years.
Recorder Eric Lamb also banned him from driving for three years and ordered he must undertake 180 hours of unpaid work as part of a community order.
Nuno Espírito Santo has been linked with a move to manage Roma, something he was asked about in his press conference. He replies: “Do you really think I’m going to waste time on that? So much things to think, so much things to get ready. My main focus is in preparing the team, trying to get the best solutions and details for the players, nothing else. Nothing else.”
Wharton named in England Under-21s training squad
Adam Wharton, Tino Livramento and Liam Delap are included in the England Under-21s squad named for a “preparation camp” before this summer’s Euros.
Goalkeepers: James Beadle, Owen Goodman, Teddy Sharman-Lowe, Tommy Simkin
Defenders: Dennis Cirkin, Charlie Cresswell, Ronnie Edwards, CJ Egan-Riley, Tino Livramento, Teden Mengi, Brooke Norton-Cuffy, Jarell Quansah
Midfielders: Elliot Anderson, Jobe Bellingham, Archie Gray, Hayden Hackney, Jack Hinshelwood, Tyler Morton, Alex Scott, Adam Wharton
Forwards: Liam Delap, Harvey Elliott, Tom Fellows, Omari Hutchinson, Sam Iling-Junior, Ethan Nwaneri, Jonathan Rowe, Dane Scarlett, Jay Stansfield
Paul MacInnes
The government is to amend a key part of the Football Governance Bill to allow the regulator to impose a financial settlement on the Premier League and EFL.
A failure to strike a new deal on financial redistribution, whereby the Premier League shares some of its broadcast revenue with clubs lower down the football pyramid, has been one of the driving forces behind the creation of an independent regulator for the game.
As part of the regulator’s proposed powers, the bill would provide for a ‘backstop’ mechanism whereby either party could ask the regulator to intervene should they be unable to strike a deal between themselves. Under the original legislation, however, any settlement would have to be proposed by the Premier League or EFL first, before the regulator could enforce it.
Under new amendments published today, however, the regulator is to be given the ability to select a third plan of its own making. This would come into effect should the proposals from competition organisers not meet the regulator’s objectives of protecting ‘the financial soundness of clubs’ and ‘the financial resilience of English football’.
The updated process is seen by the government as moving away from a ‘winner takes all’ model to a negotiated solution, albeit one which will be driven by deadlines set by the regulator. The Football Governance Bill is in the process of completing its process through parliament, and has reached the final ‘committee’ stage in the house of commons.
David Moyes has some injury updates, too: Jarrad Branthwaite is out for four to five weeks with a hamstring problem and Seamus Coleman will miss the last game of the season because of a thigh strain.
On the confirmed departure of Abdoulaye Doucouré, he said: “I think he’s been a great servant for the club who’s done a great job over many years. We made him an offer and he’s got a better one to go elsewhere. We have to live with that. We’re quite comfortable with that. We wanted him to stay but obviously he’s chosen to take a better offer.
“We’ll miss him but I’ve got no hard feelings from his decision.”
There’ll be more news on players soon to be out of contract such as Dominic Calvert-Lewin next week, Moyes adds.
Afternoon, all. Vítor Pereira says Jørgen Strand Larsen is a doubt for Wolves’ clash with Brentford. He’s asked if he knows of any players who will say farewell to the club on Sunday (a roundabout way of asking about Matheus Cunha’s future):
“To be honest, I don’t know the players that will leave. I’m waiting to understand. I don’t know, I really don’t know.”
And that’s my brief stint done. I’ll now hand you over to Taha Hashim for the rest of the afternoon. Thanks.
Talking of big-name players making an exit, Will Trent Alexander-Arnold play in Liverpool’s final home game against Crystal Palace? Arne Slot was asked the question and rather hid his answer away.
“I haven’t decided on that one yet. But I think this should be a day that everybody is going to enjoy. It’s been 35 years, everybody is waiting for this moment and I think we’ve set the example against Tottenham. I don’t think I’ve ever been part of seeing celebration done in a nicer way than that day.
“And one of the two things that made me emotional was how we arrived at the stadium when the fans were singing for us. And the second one is that I’ve met in the last few weeks multiple people telling me, ‘I’m going to Anfield now for all my life but I’ve never felt a day what was more special than that one, Tottenham at home.’
“So, I am hoping that we can add a moment like this to it. And I think everybody that’s in the stadium deserves to be there – the fans, the staff, but also the players and one of my players is Trent, so he definitely deserves to be there as well because he’s been part of an incredible, successful season and incredible, successful years at this club. I can only hope that we do it one more time over what we did against Tottenham and I have a lot of trust in our fans to do the same again.”
How many of these household names will be heading to pastures new? Ben McAleer of WhoScored takes a look at some likely departures.
Krishnamoorthy v gets in touch and delivers this pithy Manchester United take. United host Aston Villa while Spurs are at home to Brighton.
“If I were Amorim, I would instruct my team to lose the last match (and pray Spurs do not lose theirs). That way Man U will finish 17th. Any finish next season will be as good or better if Man U are not relegated. The corporate world calls this ‘strategic thinking’.”
To be honest, I think United are perfectly capable of losing it without any instruction.
What next for Gary Lineker, with his BBC departure imminent? Lineker, by the way, was runner-up in the 1986 Ballon d’Or. I honestly think you’d have 100 guesses or more and still not get who won that year!
A lunchtime read here from Media editor Michael Savage.
Liverpool boss Arne Slot was asked earlier if Mo Salah has a great chance of wining the Ballon d’Or. The Egyptian has 28 goals and 18 assists this season, both chart toppers in the Premier League.
Slot: “He’s had very, very, very good seasons at Liverpool but this one probably stands out in terms of numbers. And if you add to that we also won the league, that would probably give him a fair chance.
“But fortunately for all the football fans around the world, he’s not the only player that has had a great season. I think we were able to watch great football players this season again. But if there’s ever a chance for him, it would be this season. If not, then he’s going to try to push even harder next season. That’s what I already know with him.”
Manchester City travel to Fulham for their closing game of the season. Here’s Pep on the the Craven Cottage clash:
“We have to look at ourselves. We need one point to be in the Champions League next season and we have to go to win against a top side.”
Guardiola reveals that everyone is fit except defender John Stones although Rodri, who has returned to the squad after a long injury absence, isn’t ready to start.
Pep on the Spanish midfielder: “We’re really pleased he’s back, really pleased for the reaction for our people to him, I’m pretty sure he’s so pleased with that. There’s still a long way to be the Rodri he was.”
Pep Guardiola is now speaking to the press. I noticed yesterday that if the Premier League season had started at halfway, Manchester City would actually be top on goal difference. They’ve accumulated 37 points over the last 18 games, the same as Liverpool and Aston Villa and three more than Newcastle. Arsenal are fifth and Crystal Palace sixth in the second-half-of-the-season table. Then again, that doesn’t really take into account Arne Slot’s side taking their foot off the gas after the title was secured.
Thanks Luke. Let’s start with this rather lovely piece from Scotland.
And, talking of Scotland, allow me to post this from another corner of The Guardian. Those with good memories may recall Is This Music? soundtracking Match of the Day’s Goal of the Month competition.
My work here is done. David Tindall is here to take you through the next bit.
Speaking of Ben Fisher, he will be at Wembley tomorrow to answer your questions about the Championship playoff final in the buildup to the big game: Sheffield United v Sunderland. If you have a burning desire to ask him something, please email [email protected]. You’ll also be able to post your questions in the comments on tomorrow’s blog.
Ben Fisher
At Bournemouth’s uber-cool Canford Magna training base, a 57-acre site on a former golf course, Andoni Iraola is surrounded by bells and whistles. There is a hydrotherapy pool and an altitude chamber. “For me, those are like the extras,” says a manager used to getting his hands dirty from his days at AEK Larnaca in Cyprus and Mirandés in northern Spain.
“I come from clubs where everybody has to do their job – and something else. I’ve needed to cut videos, make things, set up; we didn’t have goals with wheels so four of us would move them.” At Rayo Vallecano, even after promotion to La Liga, he explains how they happily made do with “training on one pitch and a third”.
What are the road closures for Tottenham’s Europa League trophy parade today, I hear you cry. Haringey Council has published this handy guide:
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High Road (White Hart Lane to Lansdowne Road/Lordship Lane) 11am until midnight
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Fore Street/High Road (A406 to White Hart Lane): 12pm until 8pm
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Northumberland Park, Park Lane, Worcester Avenue and Lansdowne Road: 1pm until midnight
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The Broadway (Edmonton Green to Plevna Road): 1.30pm until 8.30pm
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Shelbourne Road (Lansdowne Road to Northumberland Park): 4.30pm until 9pm
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Sterling Way and the A406 westbound slip-round: 4.30pm until 7.30pm
The Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca is not feeling extra pressure ahead of a decisive three days when his players will fight to seal their place in the Premier League’s top five, before facing Real Betis in the Uefa Conference League final.
Five clubs will battle for three available Champions League slots on the final day of the English top flight, with fifth-placed Chelsea visiting seventh-placed Nottingham Forest, who are a point below them. Chelsea then fly to Poland for Wednesday’s Conference League final.
“I felt pressure since I joined the club, because this is a club where you need to win games,” Maresca said. His team could be boosted by the return of forwards Christopher Nkunku and Marc Guiu from injury, with both available for selection.
Maresca attempted to quash rumours about the possible departure of Enzo Fernández, saying “yes” when asked if the Argentinian midfielder would stay at Chelsea.
“He is one of our captains … this season has been very good and he can be even better next season, starting from the first day,” Maresca said.
Maresca said he would make changes before Wednesday’s Conference League final, as there was not enough time to recover after Sunday’s match.
The manager was concerned that not enough attention was being paid to player welfare, highlighting a packed calendar that could continue until July with Chelsea playing in the Club World Cup starting next month.
“If (some players) are going to be tired, they’re not going to play… I don’t think there is (much) attention about player welfare. Otherwise it’s not normal, the amount of games that they play,” he said. (Reuters)
Quiz of the week, anyone?
A dispatch from Australia from Jack Snape:
Ange Postecoglou’s Europa League triumph has delivered a record audience for Stan, which has been on a spree of acquisitions to consolidate its status as a major rival to the Dazn-owned Kayo Sports amid heightened competition in Australian sports broadcasting.
Stan’s live audience for Tottenham’s 1-0 win over Manchester United on Thursday was the highest for a Europa League match since the streaming service obtained the Uefa club competition rights in 2021.
