Villa's suffer pre-season defeat against Marseille
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Daily Mail
15 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Aston Villa given fitness boost for key man ahead of Premier League opener against Newcastle
Aston Villa are increasingly hopeful that Morgan Rogers will be fit for Saturday's Premier League opener against Newcastle. The forward, a contender for the PFA Young Player of the Year award, damaged his ankle in a pre-season friendly against Roma on August 6 and did not feature in the preparation games against Marseille and Villarreal. But Rogers has been involved in training this week and confidence is growing that he will be ready for the clash with Eddie Howe 's team at Villa Park. Rogers, 23, was one of the breakout stars of the last Premier League campaign, hitting double figures for goals and assists in all competitions, and breaking into the senior England squad. Aston Villa are hopeful Morgan Rogers will be fit for Saturday's Premier League opener against Newcastle He signed a new deal with Villa less than a year ago but his progress has been so rapid that the club are expected to offer him improved terms in the coming weeks, as first revealed by Daily Mail Sport on July 21. Villa have been relatively quiet in the market this summer, though they remain in talks to sell homegrown midfielder Jacob Ramsey to Newcastle for about £40million, after Villa brought in Evann Guessand from Nice for about £28m to bolster their attack. Instead, the focus has been on securing the futures of their key players, with Boubacar Kamara and Lucas Digne signing new deals and others, including Youri Tielemans and John McGinn, expected to follow. Villa are also looking at a deal to bring back Marco Asensio, who spent the second half of last season at the club on loan from Paris Saint-Germain.
BreakingNews.ie
15 minutes ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Thomas Frank proud of Spurs players as ‘special operation' fails against PSG
Thomas Frank acknowledged his 'special operation' failed but felt pride in his players after Tottenham surrendered a two-goal lead to lose the Super Cup on penalties to Paris St Germain. Set-piece goals by Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero had Spurs halfway towards another trophy – only three months on from Frank's predecessor Ange Postecoglou clinching Europa League success in May. Advertisement Champions League winners PSG, who only returned to pre-season last week following their Club World Cup exploits in July, fought back impressively – with substitute Kang-in Lee pulling one back with five minutes left before Goncalo Ramos grabbed an equaliser in the fourth-minute of stoppage-time. It was initially advantage Tottenham in the shoot-out when Vitinha missed PSG's first kick and Rodrigo Bentancur put the Premier League club two up, but it was followed by Van de Ven and Mathys Tel failing to score as Frank's competitive debut ended in a 4-3 shoot-out defeat after a 2-2 draw. The Danish coach paid tribute to his squad after he lined them up in a back-three formation to largely good effect, in a fixture where they constantly looked a threat at set-pieces. 'Very, very proud of the players, the team, the club, the fans,' Frank reflected. Advertisement Tottenham lost out on penalties. Photo: Adam Davy/PA. 'I think the players gave everything, playing against one of the best teams in the world, maybe the best at the moment and I think we were 75, 80 minutes perfect. Almost giving nothing away. 'I knew we had to do something a little bit different against PSG. It was a special operation. In medical terms, the operation succeeded but the patient died, so not that good in the end. 'But we worked on a gameplan that was a little bit different and very close to succeeding. 'First and foremost I'm extremely proud of the team, the players, the fans, the Club.' Thomas Frank's reaction 🗣️ — Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) August 13, 2025 'It was a little bit of special operation because it clearly went in spells a little bit more direct, because we knew that we could hurt them there. Big, big focus on the set pieces, from all areas of the pitch, but we will have focus on set pieces no matter what.' Advertisement Frank's game-plan had worked perfectly until the 85th minute – with Van de Ven's opener just reward for a disciplined and dynamic Tottenham first-half display. Romero's header from Pedro Porro's free kick three minutes after the break had Spurs fans in dreamland, which remained the case as they put bodies on the line to thwart PSG until a raft of substitutes by Luis Enrique helped tip the scales. New Tottenham boss Frank promised to swiftly lift morale before Saturday's Premier League opener at home to Burnley, adding: 'Every game matters. 'I think if you look on the face of the players and all of us, we are hugely disappointed and I have my rule for 24 hours. I can be disappointed for 24 hours. Advertisement LET'S GO GUYS! 🏆❤️💙 — Paris Saint-Germain (@PSG_English) August 13, 2025 'We want to compete in a lot of different tournaments and if you want to do that, you need to be ready to do a quick turnaround and go again. I'll make sure the players are ready and come flying out on Saturday.' Luis Enrique was honest in his assessment of PSG, who competed in the Club World Cup final exactly a month ago. 'To be honest, I'm not sure we deserved this trophy,' the Spanish coach admitted. 'The difference was stark between Tottenham. They've had six weeks of preparation and we've had six days. Advertisement 'It was huge and we were trying to play our football and just couldn't for the first 80 minutes. We had a lot of poor passes and maybe we were lucky. Lady Luck was smiling on us.'
BBC News
15 minutes ago
- BBC News
The Africans to watch in 2025-26 Premier League
The 2025-26 Premier League campaign kicks off on Friday, when Liverpool begin the defence of their title at home against star Mohamed Salah is the reigning player of the season and will be bidding to pick up his fifth golden boot as he forms a new-look front line for the Reds alongside big-money signings Hugo Ekitike and Florian Wirtz.A number of fellow African stars have secured high-profile transfers of their own, while there are new arrivals from countries including DR Congo, Morocco, Mozambique and 50 players from the continent could have their Premier League campaigns interrupted by the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon), which runs from 21 December to 18 Sport Africa casts an eye over some of the players settling in to new teams and looking to make an impression over the coming nine months. Can Mbeumo restore United to former glories? Cameroon international Bryan Mbeumo was the subject of the biggest deal involving an African player in the close season, joining Manchester United for an initial £65m ($87m).The 25-year-old forward scored 20 league goals and registered seven assists for Brentford last season but now faces a step up at "the club of his dreams".United are in a rebuilding phase under boss Ruben Amorim after finishing 15th, their worst-ever performance in the Premier League will face instant pressure to perform alongside fellow big-money arrivals Matheus Cunha and Benjamin Sesko - with United having spent £200m ($271m) on the attacking trio - even if there is no European football for the Old Trafford off-field passion for playing the piano and chess are well known, and now United need Mbeumo to hit the right notes and execute his best strategies on the pitch. Will Kudus be ideal replacement for Son? Another big transfer saw Mohammed Kudus end his two-year stay with West Ham and join Tottenham Hotspur for a fee of £55m ($74m).The Ghana midfielder impressed in his first season in east London but his second campaign was underwhelming as he struggled to adapt to Graham Potter's wing-back glittering performances at Ajax had made him one of European football's hottest properties and Spurs will be expecting the 24-year-old to rediscover that in the Champions League again was one reason for his switch to north London, while the Black Stars man was also enticed by the opportunity to play for new Spurs coach Thomas Frank, who has made the switch from Brentford."From where [Frank] has come from, and seeing the amount of talent he has developed to become great players, it's a big sign as to why I wanted to work under him," said Spurs legend Son Heung-Min departing and James Maddison set to miss most of the season through injury, Kudus could find himself in a pivotal role from the offset. Can Ait-Nouri help City rediscover swagger? After slipping to third place - and ending 2024-25 without a major trophy - Manchester City are expected to mount a more sustained challenge for the Etihad outfit moved early in the window for left-back Rayan Ait-Nouri, and the 24-year-old has already seen competitive action with City since his £31m ($41.5m) move from Wolverhampton Algeria international, who described his switch as "a dream come true", started three games at the Fifa Club World Cup before Pep Guardiola's men exited in the last provided a serious attacking threat from wing-back even as Wolves struggled last season, bagging four goals and seven assists, and was also occasionally used in a more advanced adapting to City's possession-based style, Guardiola will no doubt be looking for his new man to improve on those attacking metrics. Six bid for survival on Wearside Sunderland are back in the Premier League for the first time since 2017 and have been busy in the transfer market, making 11 there has been a distinctly African feel to their recruitment, with six of those arrivals from across the Black Cats shelled out a club-record £30m ($40m) on Senegal midfielder Habib Diarra as well as adding DR Congo pair Arthur Masuaku and Noah Sadiki, Mozambique defender Reinildo and Moroccan winger Chemsdine TalbiIvory Coast's Afcon winner Simon Adingra has also been tempted from the south coast to the north east after only starting 12 league games for Brighton last one of the few players in the Sunderland squad with Premier League experience, the 23-year-old winger will need to translate his trickery into points if the Wearsiders are to avoid an immediate return to the Championship. More moves to follow... Kudus may have departed the London Stadium but West Ham will still have an African in their ranks after paying Slavia Prague £19m ($25.5m) for El Hadji Malick boss Potter says the 20-year-old Senegal wing-back is "hungry and ambitious"."I think he will be a very positive addition to the group," he Congo centre-back Axel Tuanzebe, meanwhile, will be looking to avoid a second successive relegation, having swapped Ipswich Town for can teenage left-back Adam Aznou force himself into the Everton side in the Toffees' first season at their new stadium after the Moroccan joined from Bayern Munich?With the transfer window open until Monday, 1 September, there is plenty of time for more deals involving Congo star Yoane Wissa has been angling for a move away from Brentford, while Senegal striker Nicolas Jackson has been given the green light to leave Chelsea.
