To some, it is a glorified friendly. To others, it’s a third of a Treble. Isn’t that right, Jose? Regardless, we have 20 teasers on the FA Community Shield… Saturday’s top-flight curtain-raiser sees Manchester City host Manchester United in a repeat of the FA Cup final. It’s cool to downplay the significance of the Wembley clash, but even cooler to know your s*** about the Shield. We’ve have questions, 20 of them, about the history of the English Super Cup. Your pass

1) Leny Yoro (Lille to Manchester United) – £52m plus add-ons Man Utd fans want you to believe that they ‘beat Real Madrid’ to the signing of Leny Yoro, as if he didn’t have a choice in the matter. Nevertheless, this is a brilliant signing for the Red Devils, who have landed one of the best teenagers in world football. Another centre-back remains on the agenda with Sir Jim Ratcliffe meaning business.   2) Joao Neves (Benfica to PSG) – £50m

Are Liverpool reverting to the mean? It’s very easy, as a Liverpool fan, to be philosophical about the defeat in France last night. The team was disjointed, never got into a flow (just like the Luton game), and deserved to lose. And it’s a game that they can afford to lose, so it isn’t a big deal. But VAR again – I mean, WTF was that all about? A two minute check, the referee signals a goal, and then literally

Liverpool… back to normal? People this morning are questioning if Liverpool are returning to “normal” following a couple of very poor performances. However, before that, let me address the VAR, I have consistently stated that I always apply the “what if it was against us” attitude and had that been a Toulouse equaliser, I would have wanted the handball, perhaps not in the comical way it was dealt with but I think the right decision was made. Worryingly last seasons

Erling Haaland has scored 42 goals in 2023 and that just keeps him clear of Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappe and co. Mbappe led the 2022 top goalscorers list by six goals from the old man Robert Lewandowski at Barcelona. But he could not win France the World Cup, the daft fraud. The criteria: All club goals in all competitions for clubs in Europe’s top 10 leagues.   10) Serhou Guirassy – Stuttgart (24 goals) And 15 of those goals have come in

Newcastle United are made to rue ‘one of those nights’ as Borussia Dortmund seriously dampen the hosts’ hopes in the Champions League group of death… Three weeks ago today, Newcastle United were in dreamland following that night at St James’ Park against Paris-Saint Germain. Fast-forward to this week and Eddie Howe’s men were back on home turf for – what they hoped would be – another special Champions League night. A bloody good performance against Borussia Dortmund was required if Newcastle were going to

The Mailbox offers five reasons why Tottenham can not only win the title but go unbeaten while doing it. Also: Arsenal need Aaron Ramsdale’s chaos; and send our refs to Europe… Get your views in to theeditor@football365.com… Invincible Spurs? First of all congratulations to Big Ange on achieving the best start to a premier league career in history. It’s difficult not to feel optimistic following our stunning start to the season. When you start with nine games unbeaten it’s time to

Manchester United have won three games on the bounce in entirely unconvincing fashion. And we won’t let victories get in the way of negativity. The crisis remains real amid a dramatic dip in form for the vast majority of Erik ten Hag’s squad. We’ve ranked the form dip of the United stars this season from last, from least to most. Players must have started at least three games in each season to be eligible.  14) Scott McTominay You would have

The Mailbox argues why Mikel Arteta is being clever by signing Kai Havertz from Chelsea. Also: bonnie Scotland; ‘gullible’ Liverpool fans respond; sportswashing; and more… Get your views in to theeditor@football365.com…   Mikel knows Hello all, long time reader, first time writer. I normally think of things to write and then never do it but unbeknownst to me this subject has willed pen to paper (or thumb to the notes app). Does anybody else think the reporting around Kai Havertz’s possible transfer is

The transfer window is now in Full Swing and next season will be upon us before you know it. And at (almost) every club, that means someone who desperately needs to move on and re-energise a stalled career or just Escape Their [Insert Team] Nightmare. Here is one such player for each Premier League club who needs a transfer, apart from the three promoted clubs because even we aren’t such bastards as to tell players who’ve just got promoted that

Jack Grealish did nothing wrong but party with his teammates but Stan Collymore wants to give him a kicking. Of course he does. Jack the lad After the nonsense of the Jack Grealish coverage last week, what was clearly missing on this subject were the views of one Stanley Victor Collymore. And he’s not impressed. Because having been given permission to party in celebration of a momentous achievement for several days, obviously Grealish should not have done any such thing. Collymore ‘writes’

Barcelona legend Lionel Messi will join Major League Soccer side Inter Miami this summer amid links to Saudi Arabia, according to Spanish football expert Guillem Balague. The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner will make his last appearance for Paris Saint-Germain in their final Ligue 1 outing of the campaign against Clermont at the end of May. The 35-year-old’s departure after two years at PSG had long been anticipated and it was officially communicated by Cristophe Galtier at a press conference last week.

Here are the 10 players bought and sold for the biggest profit. Includes only players for whom a fee was paid before being sold on. No freebies… 10) Antony – £67m Ajax paid an initial fee that was the equivalent of £13m for Antony when they bought him from Sao Paulo in 2020 and in 2022 finally agreed a deal with the dithering Manchester United that started at a guaranteed £80m, though another £13m was due to be sent to the

Arsenal, Burnley and Luton may all welcome new club-record signings soon. No current top-flight side made their most expensive buy longer ago than Man Utd. This is not a list of every Premier League side’s five biggest signings ever, but a collection of their five most recent transfer record buys. And those things are different. So you can delete that comment now and get over yourself. ARSENAL Andrei Arshavin – £15m (Zenit St Petersburg, February 2009) Mesut Ozil – £42.5m

It was a miserable weekend for Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal but Leicester, Forest, and Brentford dominate the Premier League weekend’s flops. Here, according to WhoScored ratings, is the worst XI from a miserable weekend for the leaders, Champions League chasers, and the bottom three…   GK: Daniel Iversen – 5.35 The Leicester keeper seems to have been punished for his inactivity, which seems odd since he spent Saturday evening facing up to Manchester City. Iversen wasn’t directly at fault for any

Arsenal have to not win the title to prove the point that nobody but Man City can win the title apparently… What’s your excuse this time? Arsenal have over-achieved to be in this Premier League title race. But Arsenal are still f***ing it up. Both of those things can be true at the same time. There is no doubt that having got themselves in this position, they may have irredeemably screwed things up by throwing away two two-goal leads. The performance

Liverpool don’t need Jude Bellingham to challenge for the Premier League. The win over Leeds served as a reminder of how brilliant their recruitment is. Despite Jurgen Klopp’s public appreciation, widespread reports of interest and talks, and England teammates tapping him up, Bellingham to Liverpool always felt a bit unlikely. His price tag would have been a stretch at the best of times. And it’s felt more implausible as the season’s gone on, not because of Liverpool’s Premier League position

Barcelona just keep winning in La Liga, but their issues in registering Gavi are symbolic of systemic problems which only seem to be getting worse and worse. The most superficial view of Barcelona, a passing glance at a league table, would suggest that normal service has been resumed at one of European football’s giants following last summer’s drama. On Sunday evening they reopened a nine-point lead over Real Madrid at the top of La Liga with a 1-0 win at

Kneejerk reactions were made after the opening round of Premier League fixtures, which will be reversed this weekend. And boy, we got Man Utd ever so wrong. These kneejerk predictions were made after the opening round of Premier League fixtures. With those games reversed this weekend, what better time to revisit them and laugh at how stupid we were? 10) Ralph Hasenhuttl will be the first Premier League manager to leave his post It would be easy to blame the failure

FIFA are set to confirm the format for the 48-team 2026 World Cup, and the good news is that of the two utterly dreadful options available, they’ve picked the very slightly less utterly dreadful option. There was no good option available because of those 48 teams. Once FIFA’s top brass, dollar signs spinning round their eyes as usual and also as usual with absolutely no regard for the wellbeing or quality of the sport they occasionally profess to love (whenever such

Oliver Skipp looked destined to become an unfortunate footnote in recent Spurs history but is firmly grasping his unexpected chance to shine. Despite the evidence of pretty much everything else we do here, sometimes it is nice to be nice. And sometimes nice things happen and it makes us smile. Obviously we still prefer laughing at misfortune for the most part – thanks, Chelsea! – but just occasionally our cold heart is warmed. Oliver Skipp has done just that. He appeared almost

Manchester United have won the Carabao Cup so obviously they will win three more trophies, starting with the FA Cup – which is practically in the bag. The Quad game No sooner have Manchester United won one trophy, but we all have to pretend that they might now win four. Because narrative. The Telegraph try and list ‘The five factors that will decide Manchester United’s quadruple bid’. It’s a 150/1 shot, guys. There are more than five factors but the first and

Wheeling out the ol’ Harry Kane List for another spin, because a) why not? and b) he’s helped himself to some more individual honours and c) despite Spurs being quite alarmingly sh*t for large parts of this season there remains a non-zero chance he might ruin it all and win something. Straightforward rules here. It’s not just the big prizes – your Premier Leagues, your Champions Leagues, the World Cups of this… world – we’re talking here about any trophy.

The World Cup final takes place on Sunday afternoon at the Lusail Stadium. Argentina take on France and both teams are full of undoubted talent, with Kylian Mbappe leading Les Bleus and Lionel Messi doing Lionel Messi things for the South American country. Combined XIs seem to be the rage and what bigger game is there in football than the World Cup final? None. Literally none. So we have made one here consisting of players from the two teams set

Croatia and Morocco have to recover from their crushing disappointment this week in time to do battle for the quickly-forgotten honour of being the third-place finisher at the World Cup. England have lost a couple of these gatherings before, and I vaguely recall Holland taking a sort-of-bronze in 2014. The outcome of any other semi-final losers meeting was a mystery before looking them up just now. I was perfectly content living in such ignorance. Why devote precious memory space to

Why would any sane person in their right mind want the f*cking job? In becoming the England manager you expose yourself to never ceasing, merciless, vitriolic criticism not only from every journalist and pundit walking the face of the earth who has ever waved the cross of St George but a rabid fan base which demands justification for every move you make and then continues to ridicule you for your choices, it requires you to counsel young men, particularly young

The best Switzerland national team that has ever existed’? Murat Yakin will certainly need to proffer more evidence to back up that particular claim, despite his Swiss side starting their World Cup campaign with victory over Cameroon. Of course, in the context of their result, Yakin will give few sh*ts that Switzerland looked unimaginative while seemingly going through the motions for large parts of their opener. Points not performance is the objective at any tournament and in that respect at

Another goalless game had Danny Murphy thinking outside the box despite FIFA rules meaning it must be a point apiece for South Korea and in-vogue World Cup dark horses Uruguay. This was the fourth 0-0 draw in 14 games – there was one in the entire tournament four years ago – and it’s not particularly hard to fathom what might be causing the number of cagey stalemates in an unprecedented mid-season winter World Cup. A cagey first half followed the

By borrowing against future revenues, Barcelona are betting on a ‘virtuous circle’ which certainly hasn’t appeared in the Champions League. In the end, it was over before it even really began. A couple of hours before they kicked off their penultimate Champions League group match against Bayern Munich, Barcelona sat their players down to watch their own elimination from the competition. A 3-3 draw with Inter in their previous match had already left their hopes of progressing from the group

Portuguese clubs are thriving but Spanish sides have reached a historic low. Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool have taken a welcome step back. Winners Portuguese clubs Benfica and Porto are guaranteed safe passage and Sporting have retained absolute control over their fate with a game remaining. Only four countries have ever had three or more representatives in a single season’s Champions League knockout stage. It is an achievement which England, Germany, Italy and Spain have taken for granted but Portugal stand

Fresh from saving English football, Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp are saving the England national team, while Bukayo Saka is openly courted. Ish.   By the Buk Obviously it’s hard to keep up but Arsenal are actually top of the Premier League and not Liverpool (we covered this on Monday), but of course that does not halt speculation that the Gunners’ best players could up and join the far superior Reds, presumably because This Means More and all that. And what