Latest news with #SteveMadeley
New York Times
19 hours ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Rayan Ait-Nouri to Manchester City: Transfers TLDR
Manchester City have signed Rayan Ait-Nouri from Wolverhampton Wanderers in a deal worth €37million (£31.2m/$42.3m). The 24-year-old Algeria international has signed a five-year contract. As part of this summer's transfer coverage on The Athletic, in addition to breaking news, tactical analysis and in-depth reads, our Transfers TLDR series (you can read them all here) will bring you a quick guide to each of the key deals. Born and raised in Paris, Ait-Nouri left the French capital to start his football education with Angers in the north-west of the country. He turned professional aged 16, making his senior debut six months later, and was still only 19 when he joined Wolves, initially on loan, in 2020. The move was made permanent a year later and in the past two seasons he became a fixture in Wolves' starting XI, excelling as an attacking force, mainly from left wing-back. Having represented France at youth levels, he switched international allegiance to Algeria, where his parents were born, and won his first cap in 2023. Steve Madeley Ait-Nouri loves to showcase his ability on the big stage, so City fans can look forward to an array and flicks and tricks to go with the Algerian's natural athleticism and ball-carrying ability. He is also adept at weighing in with goals and assists. But despite spending much of his career playing left-back or left wing-back, he remains raw defensively, so don't expect to see consistent excellence in that aspect of his game. Steve Madeley Left-back is an area City have struggled to strengthen across Pep Guardiola's nine-year reign. Looking at their current squad, Ait-Nouri should, in theory, be an undisputed starter from the off. He often played left wing-back for Wolves, with his ball-carrying standing out. Ait-Nouri combined that with a variety of chipped and grounded crosses and cutbacks to make seven assists last season in 37 Premier League appearances. He often operated high and wide in what was his final year at Molineux but is quite two-footed and capable of inverting into midfield, as he does below in December's match against Tottenham Hotspur, in which he got two of those assists. Defensively, Ait-Nouri is susceptible to lapses in concentration and occasionally slow to react to evolving moves. He has not played enough minutes as a specialist left-back for Wolves either. There will be some learning and unlearning required, but the 24-year-old is a necessary addition. Anantaajith Raghuraman Ait-Nouri had multiple niggles early in his time with Wolves, though none resulted in lengthy lay-offs. At Angers, his worst injury was a broken jaw which ruled him out from early January 2020 until the Ligue 1 season was halted in the March because of the pandemic, before it was later abandoned. He has had a relatively clean bill of health over the past two seasons, featuring in 70 of the 76 league games, with 66 starts. Anantaajith Raghuraman 'He's matured an awful lot,' Wolves' then head coach Gary O'Neil said last season in a news conference, having restored Ait-Nouri to the team following an exile under predecessor Julen Lopetegui. 'I didn't know him last year, but I'm led to believe he's made huge improvements in his maturity and his demeanour and how he is around the place and how he trains every day. It shows on the pitch, and he's been one of our best performers throughout the season.' Steve Madeley Ait-Nouri has joined City on a five-year deal, ending in June 2030. City have paid Wolves £31.2million for the Algeria international. Three weeks of the fee will be accounted for in City's 2024-25 financials, alongside Ait-Nouri's salary for the rest of this month. Wolves' annual accounting date was previously May 31 but has been shifted to June 30 this year, so they'll book all of their profit on the deal into an extended 13-month accounting period covering the 2024-25 season. Chris Weatherspoon Assuming agent fees of 10 per cent on the transfer, Ait-Nouri's signing will add £390,000 in amortisation costs to City's 2024-25 figures. Thereafter, to the end of the 2029-30 season, the fee spent here will be charged at a rate of £6.8m annually in City's books. Ait-Nouri's wages at his new club are unknown, but it goes without saying that the full cost of signing him will stretch well beyond the estimated £34.3m City are paying in transfer and agent fees. Advertisement Wolves signed Ait-Nouri in July 2021 from Angers, after he had spent much of the previous season on loan at Molineux. That deal set them back around £10m. Ait-Nouri signed a five-year contract back then which was never renewed or extended, leaving his book value now at an estimated £2.2m. As part of the deal with Angers, Wolves agreed a hefty 50 per cent sell-on clause in respect of any profit made if and when Ait-Nouri was eventually sold on. That would make a big dent in their profit on this deal, but there was a further proviso whereby Wolves could buy out that clause. The Athletic understands the cost of doing that to be around £8.5m ($11.5m at the current rate), which looks a no-brainer when set against the £10.5m Wolves would have to hand over as 50 per cent of their profit. Assuming they do buy it out, we estimate Wolves' accounting profit on selling Ait-Nouri, booked into their 2024-25 financials, will be £20.5m. Chris Weatherspoon
New York Times
09-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Premier League predicted line-ups: Who do our writers think will start in Gameweek 36?
As we approach another weekend of action in the Premier League, our writers have had a go at naming the starting XIs for the upcoming matches. There could be late changes or injuries, but our staff have predicted these line-ups given the information available at the time of writing. Ben Dinnery is also holding his weekly Fantasy Premier League live Q&A today. Follow the Premier League and FPL on The Athletic How to watch: Not available (UK); Peacock (U.S.) Notes: Reiss Nelson, Timothy Castagne, Sasa Lukic, Harrison Reed (injured); Rodrigo Muniz, Andreas Pereira (doubts) Justin Guthrie Notes: James Tarkowski, Jesper Lindstrom, Orel Mangala (injured) Patrick Boyland How to watch: Not available (UK); Peacock (U.S.) Notes: Wes Burns, Chiedozie Ogbene, Sammie Szmodics, Arijanet Muric, Jaden Philogene (injured); Leif Davis (suspended); Nathan Broadhead, Conor Townsend (doubts) Ali Rampling Notes: Aaron Hickey, Josh Dasilva, Fabio Carvalho, Vitaly Janelt (injured) Jay Harris How to watch: Not available (UK); USA Network, Fubo (U.S.) Notes: None Nancy Froston Notes: Rodri, Oscar Bobb, John Stones, Nathan Ake (injured) Thom Harris How to watch: Not available (UK); Peacock (U.S.) Notes: Yerson Mosquera, Enso Gonzalez, Sasa Kalajdzic (injured); Hwang Hee-chan, Jorgen Strand Larsen (doubts) Steve Madeley Notes: Solly March, Georginio Rutter, Ferdi Kadioglu, James Milner (injured); Joao Pedro (suspended) Andy Naylor How to watch: Sky Sports (UK); NBC, Fubo, Peacock (U.S.) Notes: Enes Unal, Luis Sinisterra, Ryan Christie, Dango Ouattara (injured) Dan Barnes Notes: Marcus Rashford, Youri Tielemans (injured) Jacob Tanswell How to watch: TNT Sports (UK); USA Network, Fubo (U.S.) Notes: Lewis Hall, Matt Targett, Joelinton (injured) George Caulkin Notes: Wesley Fofana, Marc Guiu (injured); Mykhailo Mudryk (suspended) Simon Johnson How to watch: Not available (UK); Peacock (U.S.) Notes: Diogo Dalot, Joshua Zirkzee, Lisandro Martinez, Ayden Heaven, Toby Collyer, Matthijs de Ligt (injured) Carl Anka Notes: Michail Antonio, Crysencio Summerville (injured) Roshane Thomas How to watch: Sky Sports (UK); USA Network, Fubo (U.S.) Notes: Callum Hudson-Odoi (injured); Murillo (doubt) Paul Taylor Notes: Mads Hermansen, Abdul Fatawu, Stephy Mavididi, Ricardo Pereira, Bobby De Cordova-Reid (injured) Rob Tanner How to watch: Not available (UK); Peacock (U.S.) Notes: Radu Dragusin, James Maddison, Lucas Bergvall, Son Heung-min (injured) Jay Harris Notes: Chadi Riad, Cheick Doucoure, Adam Wharton (injured) Matt Woosnam How to watch: Sky Sports (UK); NBC, Fubo, Peacock Notes: Joe Gomez, Tyler Morton (injured) Gregg Evans Notes: Takehiro Tomiyasu, Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel, Kai Havertz (injured) Art de Roche (Top photos: Anthony Gordon, left, and Conor Bradley; Getty Images)
New York Times
09-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Molineux mailbag: Do you have a question for our Wolves correspondent?
Are Wolverhampton Wanderers supporters breathing a little easier? Are you starting to look ahead to next season in the Premier League? And is there anything in particular on your mind? Now that survival in the top flight is all but secured thanks to a four-game unbeaten run, Wolves fans can begin to turn their attention to the future. So we've decided it's time to open our Molineux mailbag for the first time in a while. We need your questions about all things gold and black. We understand that there will be questions about Matheus Cunha, the figure who has dominated most conversations around Wolves in recent months. But we will be running a piece on Thursday, which will hopefully answer a lot of them, and we want questions on other things, too. So if there's something you want to know, drop it in here and our Wolves reporter Steve Madeley will do his best to answer as many as possible next week. Steve Madeley April 9, 2025 Updated 6:04 am EDT
