Chelsea FC stance on Nicolas Jackson exit revealed as Newcastle eye transfer after Benjamin Sesko blow
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Metro
13 minutes ago
- Metro
Man Utd plan secret friendly to get two players ready for Arsenal clash
Manchester United are looking into the possibility of holding a behind-closed-doors friendly this week to get two players ready for their Premier League opener against Arsenal. Ruben Amorim's side kick-start their 2025-26 Premier League campaign with a mouth-watering clash with Mikel Arteta's Arsenal next weekend. United concluded their official pre-season schedule with a 1-1 draw with Fiorentina on Saturday. Manchester United's pre-season also included games against Premier League rivals Leeds United, West Ham, Bournemouth and Everton. Speaking after the Fiorentina game, Amorim said he 'had an idea' of the team he would pick to face Arsenal at Old Trafford on Sunday. In The Mixer: Exclusive analysis, FPL tips and transfer talk sent straight to your inbox every week – sign up, it's an open goal. However, he also urged his players to show 'fight' in training this week to 'change his mind'. Many of those players may be given a final chance to stake their claim in a behind-closed-doors friendly that Manchester United are considering organising. According to The Times, United are exploring the viability of a game at Carrington against a 'local rival' to give Benjamin Sesko and Andre Onana some 'real world' training. Sesko was unveiled to Manchester United fans at Old Trafford on Sunday following his £74m move from RB Leipzig. It remains to be seen whether Sesko starts against Arsenal next week given he will barely have any training sessions with his new teammates. 'That [a selection headache] is a good thing, it is supposed to be like that, not like last season that we have to struggle to put 11 players on the pitch. 'This is the normal thing so I need to think and they [the players] need to fight during the week, so they can change my mind, I have an idea but they will change my mind during the week. 'It is going to be tough because we try to arrange a full week of training, so we will have two really strong sessions with time to work and then we are going to break a little bit and then two days to really think about the strategy for the game and we will be ready.' Ruben Amorim speaking after Manchester United's final pre-season friendly against Fiorentina Amorim opted to play Mason Mount as a false nine against Fiorentina, with Rasmus Hojlund left on the bench ahead of his likely transfer exit. As well as giving Sesko some game-time, a behind-closed-doors friendly would also give Onana the chance to prove his fitness after he missed the entirety of pre-season with a hamstring injury. Manchester United believe Onana should be fit for Arsenal's trip to the Theatre of Dreams, but if not Altay Bayindir will have to cover United's No. 1. But neither Onana or Bayindir have inspired confidence and United have shown interest in a number of new goalkeepers during the summer transfer window. An ex-Manchester United goalkeeper, David de Gea, hopes his former club can 'do something big' this season following the signings of Sesko, Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo. 'Sometimes this is football, you can't win all the time,' De Gea said after his emotional return to Old Trafford with Fiorentina. 'I know it's been some years that United struggle a bit but it's one of the best clubs in the world. More Trending 'It's a massive club and hopefully this year with the new signings and the manager starting a new era they can do something big and that's it. 'Hopefully this year they can win something and be there where they deserve.' Manchester United's first Premier League opponents Arsenal finished third for the third year in a row last season. The Gunners have spent around £200m on new recruits this summer, bringing the likes of Viktor Gyokeres, Martin Zubimendi and Noni Madueke to the Emirates Stadium. For more stories like this, check our sport page. Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. MORE: Nicolas Jackson asks to join Premier League club but faces Chelsea transfer battle MORE: Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish gives Arsenal and Liverpool hope of signing Eberechi Eze and Marc Guehi MORE: Chelsea offer two players in deal to sign £60m star Xavi Simons
The Guardian
44 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Premier League 2025-26 preview No 11: Leeds United
Guardian writers' predicted position: 17th (NB: this is not necessarily Louise Taylor's prediction but the average of our writers' tips) Last season: 1st in the Championship Can Leeds resist the increasingly powerful gravitational pull of the Championship? Could they defy the growing expectation that, these days, promoted teams will be restricted to one-season top-tier stays? Daniel Farke is certainly behaving like a man on a mission to avoid immediate relegation and seven summer signings have added much-needed height and aggression to last term's technical but slightly diminutive squad. Yet while the arrivals of Lucas Perri, Jaka Bijol, Sebastiaan Bornouw, Gabriel Gudmundsson, Sean Longstaff and Anton Stach have fortified the goalkeeping, defensive and midfield departments, Lukas Nmecha remains the sole attacking signing. Given Patrick Bamford has been told he will be sold and Mateo Joseph and Joe Gelhardt have left on season-long loans Leeds are racing against time to rebuild the front end of the team. 'We are not naive,' Farke said after the 1-1 friendly against Villarreal. 'We know that in the offence we are not ready for Premier League level. We know that even in comparison to our Championship offence you could say that we are not much improved. 'I can't guarantee that for the first game everything will be ready and we are fully equipped but we definitely have to make sure that, latest, after the first international break in September, we have a really competitive squad for the Premier League. We're not anxious but we are fully aware we need to do something.' In the interim, Joël Piroe, last season's Championship golden boot winner, has a chance to show he is a top-tier striker. If the imports look sound – and the Slovenia centre-half Bijol, a £15m buy from Udinese, seems a particularly shrewd purchase – an awful lot hinges on how swiftly they adapt. Leeds fans must hope the team's framework is sufficiently robust to showcase the talents of last season's stars, most notably the Wales winger Dan James and the Japan midfielder Ao Tanaka. Too many managerial media addresses are anodyne, but the amiable Farke, almost always interesting and evidently emotionally intelligent, is a welcome exception to the rule. The one-time economics student with the look of a former heavy metal star has achieved three promotions to the Premier League, the first two with financially challenged Norwich sides. The 48-year-old German remained dignified in the face of intense speculation regarding his Elland Road future last May. The Leeds chair, Paraag Marathe, ended it by declaring 'he's my man, but the task is undeniably formidable. As Farke says: 'In the past 21 years, Leeds have spent three seasons in the Premier League but that's where this club belongs. My job is to keep us here.' Running Leeds has always been challenging, but the San Francisco-based 49er Enterprises is faced with the tricky task of staying on the right side of profitability and sustainability rules while remaining competitive on the pitch. This balancing act is only complicated by the reality that promotion has coincided with a major redevelopment project intended to expand Elland Road's capacity to 53,000. With a formal planning application now submitted to the city council, building work could start before Christmas. While Robbie Evans, an analytics expert, is the club's new managing director and replaces the former CEO Angus Kinnear, who is now at Everton, the long-serving Adam Underwood has been promoted to sporting director. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion Farke believes England's domestic market represents bad value, but central midfielder Longstaff has been bought from Newcastle for an initial £12m, potentially rising to £15m. Only the excellence of Sandro Tonali, Bruno Guimarães and Joelinton kept the cricket-loving Tynesider out of Eddie Howe's first XI, but he is too good not to be playing regularly. With 171 Premier League appearances behind him, Longstaff brings invaluable experience and is an excellent character off the field, always ready to support and encourage teammates. Games are often won and lost in midfield and with Longstaff, Stach, Ethan Ampadu, Tanaka and Illia Gruev competing for places, the engine room appears well staffed. Harry Gray, the grandson of Frank Gray and great nephew of Eddie from the Leeds sides of the 1970s, and the younger brother of Tottenham's Archie Gray, is a poised, two-footed striker, equally adept as a No 9 or a No 10. The England Under-17 international has made one first-team appearance last season and does not turn 17 until October, but his cool, incisive finishing, precocious technique and advanced ability to read the game dictates he is the subject of considerable excitement at the club. Leeds are anxious not to rush Gray's development, but Premier League defenders are unlikely to relish being introduced to his precocious skill set. 'I probably have something to prove in the Premier League,' said Wilfried Gnonto this summer. It is important to remember that his exquisite dribbling skills and extraordinary change of pace belong to a winger who does not turn 22 until November. Gnonto has 13 Italy caps, but his challenge is to establish hitherto elusive consistency and nail down a regular place in the starting XI. Few top-tier defenders will welcome the experience of him running at themand the time has come for Gnonto to eliminate erraticism from his game.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Crystal Palace sink Liverpool on penalties to claim Community Shield
The rest of the Premier League take note: Liverpool may have spent almost £300m on new players this summer but that doesn't make them unbeatable. Goals from Hugo Ekitiké and Jeremie Frimpong and an impressive performance from Florian Wirtz had looked like being enough to seal a narrow victory against Crystal Palace in the Community Shield, as Arne Slot's summer signings made an instant impact for the Premier League champions. But even with the possibility that they could still add Alexander Isak to the array of attacking talent already on the books, Oliver Glasner's well‑drilled side showed that the Reds' new‑look defence is fallible and Palace deserved to take this game to penalties after equalising for the second time in the afternoon, thanks to Ismaïla Sarr. It was left to Justin Devenny, on as a substitute, to seal victory for the south London club after Mohamed Salah, Alexis Mac Allister and Harvey Elliott all missed in the shootout. For the FA Cup winners, who contested this occasion for the first time in their history, it was another moment to savour as they await the outcome of their appeal to the court of arbitration for sport against their demotion from the Europa League, which is due to be announced on Monday. However, after Frimpong and his fellow new signing Milos Kerkez struggled to contain Sarr and the outstanding Eberechi Eze at times, Liverpool may decide to step up their attempts to sign the Palace captain, Marc Guéhi, who left the field with cramp after another all-action display before returning to lift the trophy. Only eight teams that have won the Community Shield in the Premier League era have gone on to win the title so Slot will not be losing too much sleep over this performance. But having conceded that his side go into the new campaign as favourites after their spending spree, he will be hoping they can be more clinical when they kick off against Bournemouth on Friday night. It has been a summer of contrasts for these two clubs since they gave each other a guard of honour at Anfield in May. While Slot was able to name Ekitiké, Frimpong, Kerkez and Wirtz – whose fee could end up being a British‑record £116m – in his starting lineup, Glasner selected the same side that started against Manchester City in the FA Cup final. Plans for a repeat of the fantastic tifos that the supporters' group, the Holmesdale Fanatics, produced for the wins against City and Aston Villa in the semi-final had to be shelved because of new strict Wembley regulations. Liverpool's fans behind one goal unveiled a banner in tribute to Diogo Jota before kick-off, with both teams observing a minute's silence for the Portugal forward and his brother André Silva that was interrupted by a small section in the Palace end. Slot had confirmed that Ryan Gravenberch was unavailable after his partner gave birth on Saturday night, with Dominik Szoboszlai and Curtis Jones anchoring midfield. It did not take long for his new boys to make an impression as Wirtz and Ekitiké exchanged a one-two on the left-hand side of the Palace penalty area in the fourth minute before the latter fired past Dean Henderson. Another clever touch from Ekitiké to play in Salah set up another golden chance for Cody Gakpo, only for the Palace goalkeeper and the assistant's flag to deny Liverpool a second. But Palace have shown they are a match for most these days and they responded immediately after Jean-Philippe Mateta found himself through on goal. He could not take the opportunity as Alisson spread himself but, a few seconds later, Virgil van Dijk was slow in spotting the danger from Sarr and the referee, Chris Kavanagh, had no option but to point to the penalty spot when the Dutchman mistimed his tackle. This time, Mateta made no mistake. Having looked vulnerable against Eze in defence, like his predecessor Trent Alexander-Arnold, Frimpong is far more comfortable going forward. He was attempting to pick out Ekitiké at the back post when his cross looped over Henderson and in off the far post to restore Liverpool's lead. Palace's misfortune continued when Daichi Kamada was forced off with an injury on the half-hour, and his replacement Will Hughes failed to direct a volley on target just after coming on but otherwise added some bite to their midfield. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion Ekitiké spurned a brilliant chance to extend Liverpool's lead at the start of the second half when he headed a Kerkez cross wide with the goal gaping. The Hungary left-back, who was signed from Bournemouth for £40m, looked assured in attack and another excellent cross picked out Ekitiké, only for him to miss the target again. Palace were growing in confidence as their fans repeatedly voiced opposition to Uefa. Chris Richards tested Alisson from a corner before Eze drew an excellent save from the Brazilian at his near post after being played in by Adam Wharton. Liverpool seemed to have weathered the Palace storm but a lapse in concentration from Kerkez 13 minutes from time allowed Wharton to play in Sarr and his finish went in off the post. Had it not been for Kerkez's late intervention, Sarr could have settled it moments later but the Liverpool defender was able to deflect his shot over the bar. Salah finally had his first sight of goal with eight minutes to play yet the Egypt forward could only fire straight at Henderson, while Devenny was almost Palace's hero in the last minute before he kept his cool from the spot to send their fans wild after Borna Sosa had missed his chance to seal the shootout.
