Gossip: Man Utd retain Semenyo interest
Tottenham have stepped up their interest in Bournemouth's Antoine Semenyo, while Manchester United also remain admirers of the 25-year-old Ghana forward. (Sky Sports), externalWant more transfer news? Read Tuesday's full gossip columnFollow the gossip column on BBC Sport
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Reuters
26 minutes ago
- Reuters
Gareca steps down as Chile coach after failure to qualify for World Cup
SANTIAGO, Jun 10 (Reuters) - Ricardo Gareca confirmed he has stepped down as Chile head coach after their hopes of reaching the 2026 World Cup ended with a 2-0 away loss to Bolivia on Tuesday. "We made a decision, with the coaching staff (...) with the entire delegation. We told them that we want to ease the situation," said Gareca during a brief press conference after the match in El Alto, where he did not take questions. "The results never went with us, at any time. We did not produce results, Chile is in a situation that no one would have wished for." The defeat left Chile bottom of the South American table with only 10 points and two games remaining in the qualifying round. "La Roja" will miss out on the World Cup for the third time in a row, after failing to qualify for Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022 following a historic era that saw them win the Copa America in 2015 and 2016. Under Argentine manager Gareca, who was appointed in 2024, Chile only managed one win in 13 official games.
Daily Mirror
43 minutes ago
- Daily Mirror
Erik ten Hag 'tried to cancel disastrous Man Utd transfer' but was ignored
Antony will go down as one of the worst Manchester United transfers in recent memory after failing to justify his £85m price tag - and a recent report has claimed ex-manager Erik ten Hag never wanted him in the first place Former Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag reportedly tried to stop the club signing Antony for £85million in 2022 despite previously working with the Brazilian at old club Ajax. However, it's claimed the club ignored him because they were worried Arsenal would swoop. Ten Hag bought two players with him from the Amsterdam club when he arrived three years ago, with Antony joining Lisandro Martinez, while fellow Dutchman Tyrell Malacia signing from Feyenoord. Last year he signed his old Ajax defender Matthijs de Ligt. But Antony in particular struggled to repay that huge transfer fee and was heavily criticised over his inconsistent performances. In his first two seasons in the Premier League, he managed five goals and three assists. This season, he failed to start a game in the top flight under Ten Hag before he was sacked in October. Things didn't improve under his successor Ruben Amorim, who sent him on loan to Real Betis in January and he now looks set to leave the club in the near future after a hugely successful spell with the La Liga side - which just added to questions of whether it was the Brazilian or the culture at Old Trafford that was the issue. Now it's claimed Ten Hag never wanted to bring Antony to United in the first place and attempted to pull the breaks on the transfer, despite previous suggestions he was key to the move happening. The claim also suggests United pushed through with the move after learning Arsenal were set to make an approach for the player - but Ten Hag still supported him and tried to help him during his time at the club. Kees Vos, the co-founder of Ten Hag's agency, wrote in the book ' Liverpool and the Dutch': "Ten Hag and Vos were not in favour of this and wanted to stop the transfer. "But the club wanted to push through at all costs, because Arsenal was also interested in Antony. The risk of a stronger competitor would be great. Ultimately, Manchester United paid almost €100million for Antony. "Although Ten Hag did not support this transfer, it stuck with him throughout his entire time in Manchester that he took over the attacker from Ajax for this ill-fated amount, who was never able to fulfil his promise." Antony has been a much bigger success in La Liga, where he has scored nine goals and provided two assists and has become a much-loved member of the squad under new boss Manuel Pellegrini. Betis are hoping to sign him permanently this summer and Antony has previously spoken about how he has a smile on his face again after struggling with his mental health at United. In an emotional interview last month, Antony broke down in tears as he revealed he went days without eating and locked himself in his room. Speaking to TNT Sports Brazil, he said: "(Betis) changed a lot because i needed to find myself, because of everything I went through in my personal life. As I said, I wanted to do things, but they didn't see to work out because I wasn't happy, I didn't feel that desire to play football, and I needed to find myself and be happy again because playing football was always something I loved. "I went through difficult times [at United] when I no longer felt that pleasure. I even always told my brother, I told him that I couldn't take it anymore. [My brother] told me to hold on a little longer, that things were going to change. It even made me emotional, because they were very hard days for me." Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Eberechi Eze offers England's brightest spark amid end-of-season gloom
The beer cups are not yet being hurled. Tabloid editors have not yet decided which root vegetable would Photoshop best onto his face. Helicopters are not yet being despatched to take aerial shots of his house. We are still probably at least two defeats away from our first World War Two-themed front page. But perhaps in hindsight, this was the week Thomas Tuchel finally became the England manager. The night he finally felt the weight of the hairshirt. Finally glimpsed the depth and darkness of a job in which all defeats are humiliations, where the default temperature is set permanently to 'scorn', where every decision is a betrayal of somebody, somewhere. And, you know, fair enough. Ahead of this camp you would probably have got pretty long odds on England emerging from games against Andorra and Senegal with a negative goal difference. England have neither attacked well nor defended well, and indeed have looked for the most part exactly what they are: a group of exhausted talents sapped by a long season in the most physically demanding league on the planet. Trevoh Chalobah and Levi Colwill were a weird choice of centre-half pairing given both are still trying to pace themselves for a gruelling Club World Cup campaign. Kyle Walker had seemingly prepared for an 8pm rather than a 7.45pm kick-off. Bukayo Saka did four-fifths of very little. Conor Gallagher skittered around like a puppy at Sunday lunch: darting in between legs, knocking things over, eternally sniffing something out, but largely at a loss as to what. And so can we really have learned anything from a game that kicked off five minutes late, where the vibe was so end-of-term you half-expected to see people signing each other's shirts with felt-tip pens? Well, perhaps we did. Amid the loose ends and loose passes, we were treated to Eberechi Eze's best game in an England shirt. That Eze got 90 minutes – for the first time in his 11 caps – was a statement in itself. As Tuchel rolled through his substitutions, Eze kept glancing over to the touchline, half-expecting to see his number. Harry Kane and Anthony Gordon went off. Gallagher went off. Saka and Declan Rice went off. Finally in the 88th minute, Ivan Toney lurked at the side of the pitch. The board went up. It was Myles Lewis-Skelly. Why did Tuchel want to see more of Eze? Why does he refer to Eze as 'Ebs' and Morgan Gibbs-White as 'Morgan Gibbs-White'? As Kane came off and England went strikerless for the first time since the disastrous home defeat against Greece in October 2024, we got our answer. Unleashed in a mobile central role, Eze – flanked by Gibbs-White and Morgan Rogers – was at the heart of England's best period of the match. Already there had been some promising glimpses. England began with a kind of box midfield in possession, Kane and Eze both offering themselves to receive while the two wingers stayed high and stretched the pitch. Out of possession it was Eze who led the press alongside Kane, Eze who won the ball from Lamine Camara for England's opening goal. But it was after the hour that Eze truly came alive. Within seconds of going up top he was bringing down a long ball and playing a frankly ridiculous backheel to Gibbs-White. A few minutes later, with England now 2-1 down, he did it again, and Gibbs-White should have done better with the shot. Later a low cross across the penalty area begged for a touch. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion Already it is clear that Tuchel sees Eze as more of a No 10 than a wide option, perhaps even an alternative No 9 in Kane's absence. His main competition is probably Cole Palmer, another player who seemed to be running on fumes against Andorra at the weekend. Palmer is probably the superior short passer, the superior creator, the superior set-piece taker. Eze, for his part, is a more assiduous off-the-ball presence, a more versatile player, a faster and more direct runner. Either way, this is not as simple a call as it might have been six months ago. For Eze has one more asset in his favour: the wind at his back and the confidence of his coach. His first England goal against Latvia seems to have stirred him to a new level, a stunning late-season run of form that earned him seven goals in six games, the winner in an FA Cup final, and a first European campaign next season if Crystal Palace can somehow navigate Uefa's dual ownership rules. Clearly the noise will abate. Senegal and Nottingham will feel like ancient history by the time Tuchel assembles his players for their next camp. But if Eze ends up playing a pivotal role in England's World Cup side, Tuchel may just reflect that a night of boos and incoherence was not entirely in a lost cause.
