Paris St-Germain v Tottenham: Team news
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The Sun
11 minutes ago
- The Sun
Man Utd transfer news LIVE: United ‘PUSHING for £120m Baleba', £50m Hjulmand eyed, Wharton ‘linked with shock move'
Gianluigi Donnarumma latest Paris Saint-Germain star Gianluigi Donnarumma is on the move in the final weeks of the summer transfer window. Donnarumma has been linked with a massive transfer to the Premier League. Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea have all been touted as potential destinations for the goalkeeper. Major developments are expected to take place very soon.
Telegraph
13 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Diogo Jota's unoccupied seat in dressing room will be an inspiration and a weight
Beyond the floral tributes, banners, silences and songs, it is an empty space within the Anfield dressing room which serves as the most poignant reminder of a tragically lost team-mate as Liverpool begin their Premier League defence on Friday night. No Liverpool player will approach the spot where Diogo Jota readied himself every match day. That is how it is at the Axa Training Centre, too, an unoccupied seat alongside Harvey Elliott becoming its own unplanned memorial, players and staff intuitively keeping a respectful distance. New recruits can anticipate a polite tap on the shoulder should they naively venture into Jota's space, aware that – just like the No 20 jersey – it must remain permanently vacant. At some point before the opening game against Bournemouth, and no doubt for the rest of the current generation's careers at Anfield, there will be glances towards where Jota should be in a reminder of an eternal quest to honour his name. Since the morning of July 3, when Jota and his brother Andre Silva were killed in a car accident, the direction of the forthcoming campaign, and every other for those who played alongside, worked with or supported the Liverpool footballer, irreversibly changed. The reigning champions are now playing for more than a sporting prize. They are burdened with and in some way horribly inspired by commemorating their friend, a thankless task with the potential to be emotionally overwhelming. We have already witnessed the scenes at Preston North End's Deepdale Stadium, across Asia during the summer tour, the pre-season games versus Athletic Bilbao and at Wembley before the Community Shield, albeit the minute silence was unfortunately interrupted. A floral tribute remains outside Liverpool's training ground, as do the banners bearing Jota's name, the players offering a sober acknowledgement as they drive past every day. There will be more tributes on Friday night. A Kop mosaic will be unveiled during You'll Never Walk Alone and a minute's silence held. The Chelsea squad, in a gesture of solidarity with their Premier League rivals, have also agreed to include Jota in the distribution of £11.4m in player bonuses from winning the Club World Cup. The money will be donated to Jota and Silva's families. Jota's name will be chanted on the 20-minute mark on Friday night, and most likely in every game for the foreseeable future, the Kop's vocal hug offered to his family the most appropriate means of reassuring them that the sentiment 'never forgotten' is not hollow. The club also commissioned a sculpture for Jota and his brother, while the emblem 'Forever 20' has been stitched on to shirts and the hem of the stadium jackets worn upon arrival on match days. The ceremonies will not stop. All future meetings with Wolverhampton Wanderers, Jota's first English club, will naturally become the most emotional of any season. Should Liverpool draw a Portuguese side in this year's Champions League, the clubs will immediately liaise to ensure supporters and players pay another tribute. If Liverpool get close to winning another major trophy, the club will not be shy in stating to whom they want to dedicate such success. The closer Liverpool have come to a return to competitive action, the greater their awareness a balance must be struck between sombre reminders and professional responsibilities, players and staff attempting to navigate the path between private grief and public duty. Liverpool's tone has been admirably stoic in the face of this unimaginable trauma. From the outset, the squad's leadership group took their role alongside the manager and club's hierarchy, through the Fenway Sports Group (FSG) boardroom chain of Liverpool chief executive Billy Hogan, FSG football CEO Michael Edwards, technical director Julian Ward and sporting director Richard Hughes. Whatever else Arne Slot achieves as Liverpool manager, he will never deliver more consequential words than those penned in the first responses to Jota's death. 'Be yourself, don't think you have to be different than your emotions tell you,' he told his players. 'We will always carry him with us in our hearts, in our thoughts, wherever we go.' It was a recognition, as has so often been said and written following other sporting tragedies, that there is no monopoly on grief; no set of rules or blueprint to rigidly follow. Some Liverpool players will wish to pay meaningful tributes to their friend each time they score or the team win, and will speak freely about their enduring feelings when asked. There are others more inclined to keep their sense of loss private, believing any questions on the subject intrusive. Both positions are entirely correct. Some of the Liverpool squad had trouble coming to terms with the news upon hearing it. Others – especially the more experienced members of the squad – accepted a role no footballer ought to, effectively acting as grief counsellors to younger players. When you consider those senior squad members are themselves only in their early and mid-thirties, their extraordinary contribution to Liverpool's history as elite athletes is now but one facet of their monumental role in an era of triumph and tragedy. When the club pondered if the players ought to be protected from sensitive questions regarding Jota, captain Virgil van Dijk felt it his duty to speak as and whenever required, as did Andy Robertson. Van Dijk will reference Jota in his programme notes once more on Friday, aware the world is watching in greater numbers than when Liverpool made their Anfield return in a pre-season friendly earlier this month. The message Van Dijk most wishes to emphasise is that whatever the players have been through over the past two months, it is Jota's family, his wife and children, who must and will command most support. The squad's visit to Anfield to witness the floral tributes which began to be laid within hours of Jota's death was, for many, as painful as the funeral. Alisson Becker and his wife, Natalia, guided Jota's widow, Rute, towards the messages left outside the Main Stand amid scenes of unutterable heartbreak. The world moves on quickly while the anguish lingers at Anfield and in Portugal. One need only witness the number of pre-season articles referencing Liverpool's exciting transfer window because of so many expensive signings to realise that empathy is in short supply, and what there is rapidly evaporates. For the players and staff, it has been the most horrendous summer of their careers, and Van Dijk reiterated last weekend that this will be the toughest season in memory. He was not talking only of the footballing challenge ahead. As the players missed their penalties at Wembley in the Community Shield defeat, few – if anyone – stopped to ponder if any of them were thinking that winning the first trophy of this campaign would have meant so much more, or wondered if they were weighed down by their yearning to deliver another meaningful Jota tribute. The Portugal national team will experience the same when playing at next year's World Cup. Yet no harsh judgement is being delivered on any external failure to recognise this. If Liverpool get off to a tough start over the next month, they are realistic enough to know that while there should be understanding of the mitigating circumstances, sporting tribalism means there will be more criticism of on-pitch performances than sympathy for what has been endured off it. The No 20 was supposed to be emblazoned on every corner of Anfield for different purposes this season. For so long that was a number synonymous with equalling Manchester United's league title-winning record, which Liverpool did amid such joyous celebrations last May. Not anymore. The hope by the end of this season is Liverpool's honours board will have moved on to No 21.
Rhyl Journal
28 minutes ago
- Rhyl Journal
Richard Masters wants domestic bodies involved in Club World Cup planning
The new top-flight season kicks off on Friday – fewer than five weeks since Chelsea defeated Paris St Germain in the final of FIFA's expanded 32-team tournament in the United States. Manchester City, who lost in the round of 16 to Saudi Pro League club Al-Hilal, were the other English team to take part. With player welfare relating to the number of matches played during a season a major ongoing talking point, Masters concedes the true impact of the world governing body's new-look competition will only be determined during the forthcoming campaign. 'The Club World Cup in its current form – once every four years, 32 teams – has only just come in and I suppose the jury is out on how successful it's been,' he said. 'The leagues and the players have not been consulted at all on the timing, the scheduling of the competition. 'Whatever iteration of it may come next, we do need to be consulted on that because obviously it does have an impact on the scheduling of the Premier League season – that much is clear. 'We're asking for a seat at the table, for proper discussion for the leagues – not just for the Premier League but for all domestic competitions – when you're scheduling new competitions.' FIFA was initially founded to regulate the global game and run international football. Earlier this summer, England manager Thomas Tuchel said the involvement of City and Chelsea in this summer's Club World Cup would hand the likes of Liverpool and Arsenal a 'huge advantage' in the title race. Masters believes there is greater appetite for the competition, which previously involved six to eight clubs and was staged during the Premier League season, among non-European sides. 'The actual impact of it, we'll have to wait and see,' he said 'I don't ever want to be in a situation where players or managers are having to make choices about which competitions people play in, because I think that will be the wrong direction to take the game. 'Obviously, FIFA was put on Earth really to regulate the global game and to run international football, and the Club World Cup is a move into club football. 'It has its detractors in Europe but the wider world feels more comfortable with this concept because of its redistributive nature. 'My job is to work out whether it impacts competitions, in particular the Premier League, because I don't want to see our future altered by new competition in a way that we can't manage. 'There has to be evolution, there has to be change, there has to be more opportunity but it must be done in the way where all stakeholders have a view.'
