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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Nick Miller and Niall McVeigh (briefly)

Premier League news, clásico buildup and more – as it happened

Pep Guardiola takes Manchester City to Wembley on Monday evening.
Pep Guardiola takes Manchester City to Wembley on Monday evening. Photograph: Matt McNulty - Manchester City/Man City via Getty Images

And with that, it’s probably time to call this one for the day. We’ve all had a nice time, right? Enjoy the weekend’s football, or whatever you do until the crushing realities of everyday life return on Monday. Thanks for reading!

Breaking news

Liverpool Women have appointed Vicky Jepson as their new manager: not a clattering shock, given she’d been doing the job anyway since the surprise resignation of Neil Redfearn on the eve of the season.

She said:

I am absolutely delighted to have been given the opportunity to take charge of Liverpool FC Women.

I have been at the club for a number of years now, so I know what is expected and I will be looking to carry on the good work from the players and staff in recent weeks.

The club holds a special place close to my heart, so I am absolutely thrilled to have been appointed as the permanent manager. The players have been fantastic since Chris and I took charge last month so hopefully we can continue with our recent good run of form.

Previewpreviewpreviewpreview: Fulham vs Bournemouth.

Arsenal fans: if you needed some further validation for your fine run, here it is, from Mr Roy Hodgson:

(Emery’s) brought back that energy and quality of play that Arsene also had for many years. Certainly when he took the league by storm playing that type of football.

People used to talk about Arsenal walking the ball into the net, because they were so good around the box; they didn’t shoot on sight, they played around you two more times before setting someone up to walk into the goal.

To do that you need the quality of players that have been accumulated over the years, and a lot of players that are doing very well are players Arsene actually brought in, and (Emery’s) inherited them and is getting the best out of them.

Fancy a quick read from earlier this week? I can recommend this, first of new series on youth football, by Gavin Willacy. This one’s on Tottenham, and locally-sourced players.

It’s the Fiver, and it’s about Cardiff City and their impending shoeing by Jurgs and the boys.

Cesc and Mathieu’s new album of holiday crooning classics: out just in time for Christmas.

This is, what I believe they call, a lovely gesture.

Who are the most improved teams in Europe this season? Allow Martin Laurence (not that one) to enlighten you.

Match preview time: all you need to know about Brighton & Hove Albion vs Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Pep Guardiola! Here he is BLASTING Manchester City players who aren’t training well, and HAILING Tottenham Hotspur.

Here’s some more from Mauricio Pochettino - on Real Madrid, on Manchester City, on NFL and on turf, from our man Ed Aarons.

Updated

More boundless positivity here from Mr Happy, Jose Mourinho. When asked by Sky about David de Gea’s contract, and the prospect of the keeper signing a new one, he said:

I am not confident. But I’m not also... how do you say the opposite of confident? I am not worried. I am not more than worried. I cannot find the word in English.

Let’s see what happens. Only the club, David and David’s people can answer to that. My comment is only one: everybody knows how good he is, everybody knows how important he is for Manchester United.

And if Manchester United wants to be better than it is now and not worse than it is now, obviously that would be very important to keep David.

Match preview time: it’s Southampton vs Newcastle.

You may have seen that FA chief executive Martin Glenn had suggested in the last couple of days that the shortfall from the now nixed sale of Wembley could be made up with a levy on football betting. In short, the plan would have been to get a little something from each bet placed on football, and direct it to the grassroots of the game. Impractical? Absolutely.

Now the gambling industry have responded, and they’re dead keen on the id...just kidding: they’ve invited Glenn to do one. Gillian Wilson, chair of the Senet Group, an independent body which manages the campaign to promote responsible gambling on behalf of the betting industry, told the Press Association:

What’s surprising is that football already receives large volumes of revenue from the gambling industry; serious amounts of cash flow from the gambling industry to football.

Therefore one would think they could use some of those revenues to fund the grassroots game. To call for another tax out of the blue is quite surprising.

This is just inappropriate, as a link. It would be going in the opposite direction of travel to what most reasonable people think is sensible. We should be very concerned about protecting young people, particularly young men, and vulnerable people.

Someone call the cops, Xherdan has nicked Joel Matip’s strides...

Speaking of Real, let’s Clasico! One of the numerous strikes against Julen Lopetegui has been that he hasn’t used Brazilian youth Vinicius Jnr, silly as that might sound when discussing an 18-year-old with minimal experience. You could say easing the kid in (just 12 minutes over two substitutes appearances in the league so far), when the team is collapsing around his ears, is one of the few things Lopetegui has got right.

Anyway, a Hail Mary pass might be available to Lopetegui in the shape of Vinicius, as the youngster is available to play. He’d been sent off in a recent Real B game after two yellow cards, but having appealed to the better nature of the disciplinary committee, they have decreed that the second of those - an apparent dive - was incorrectly given, so he’s free to play. But will he? No! Probably not! But let’s speculate he will anyway!

A few more bits from Mauricio Pochettino’s press conference earlier. Firstly, he reckons the Wembley pitch will be absolutely fine on Monday for their game against Manchester City, despite the NFL having a game there on Sunday. Fine for Spurs, that is: a lovely deployment of the old FA Cup non-leaguer playing a Premier League team, ‘the pitch could be a leveller’ gambit here:

Maybe it is good for us because we are going to face one of the best teams in Europe and the world in Manchester City and maybe it will help us. It wasn’t a plan for us to play in that period at Wembley and now we cannot complain.

Only we need to accept the reality and know that we cannot change that. We hope that the weather will be good and not kill the pitch and we can play in a very good condition. I am sure all the people that are involved in the pitch are going to work so hard to get it in a really good condition. That is my wish and I hope it can happen.

Poch was also asked about the prospect of being approached for the Real Madrid job, should Julen Lopetegui be shoved through Florentino Perez’s big trapdoor. He...sort of answered.

Here’s some more Fifa stuff, from the man you want telling you about Fifa stuff, David Conn.

BREAKING NEWS

Sam Vokes has signed a new contract at Burnley, keeping him at the club until 2021. Congratulations to the beefcake of the Valleys (even though he was born in Southampton and only qualifies for Wales through a grandfather from Colwyn Bay).

Shall we have a look at his finest moment in a Wales shirt? Prepare to go all misty-eyed, Welshers.

More Jurgs on Warnock, here:

I’m really looking forward to meeting him, I heard a lot. They deserve all our respect and they will get it. He looks like a character - a very, very emotional and lively person. I watched a lot of the final period of the Championship last year and it was impressive how they did it.

Here’s a quick update from Andy Hunter, who’s been at Everton’s pre-match press conference ahead of their trip to Manchester United on Sunday.

Marco Silva has a fully fit squad to select from for Sunday’s trip to Manchester United - for the first time in his Everton reign - and insists Yerry Mina’s price-tag will not promote his chances of starting at Old Trafford.

The £28m summer signing has yet to appear for Everton since arriving from Barcelona with a foot injury, and then suffering another in training, but has been back in full training for a fortnight. In his absence, Michael Keane and Kurt Zouma have struck up a good partnership in central defence and the Colombia international may have to wait longer for his debut.

“What the club spent on him is not important when I make my decision,” said Silva. “The money is not important for me. The important thing is Yerry is working hard and working well. He is involved every day and understanding our model after losing the first two months. He is working hard to get in the starting eleven but the other two are playing well. The good thing for me as a coach is to see him fighting every day for his place and enjoying the club. When his chance comes he needs to be ready.”

I don’t think Jose Mourinho will manage Real Madrid again, you don’t think Jose Mourinho will manage Real Madrid again, Jose Mourinho probably doesn’t think Jose Mourinho will manage Real Madrid again. But former president Ramon Calderon thinks Jose Mourinho will manage Real Madrid again:

If this president is with the team for a few years, and I think he will be, Mourinho will be here. No doubt. It’s the only coach the president has respected.

For better or worse. I think he will be here -- if he leaves Manchester, of course. But sooner or later, I think he will be here.

Elsewhere from the great big Fifa powwow...

Let’s have some more piping hot clásico chat. Here’s Luiz Suarez, Barcelona firebrand and leader of their attack this weekend with Leo Messi absent. He told the Barca website:

El Clasico is always El Clasico. Look at El Clasico last year; we were practically champions already but the intensity was the same as in any Clasico. It’s like that, you’re always up for it.

You do have to look at the teams’ most recent results but the Clasico is the Clasico and nobody thinks about the other team’s morale or if they’ve been playing badly or better.

Clasico means clasico. Incisive stuff.

Here’s Rafa Benitez, speaking as Newcastle go into the weekend without a win to their name. Key theme: we did it before, we can do it again.

Always I am realistic. We did it last year - it’s not like we did it ten years ago. We were in the bottom five [last season] and finished tenth.

To be in the bottom three is always bad news, but to have the situation we had last year - that is my hope, we know we can do it. We work hard, and change little things, but we are very close to the first win and the first win changes everything.

I understand why Benitez is still there, but at the same time I have no idea why Benitez is still there. What’s he getting out of this, apart from gainful employment of course? The adulation of the fans is grand, but surely that only nourishes you so far, and even that might disappear at some point.

You do sometimes wonder what managers new to England make of people like Neil Warnock. Here’s Jurgen Klopp’s quick take.

PEP AIMS VERBAL BROADSIDE AT JOSE AS HE RULES MANCHESTER UNITED OUT OF THE TITLE RACE

Hello Nick Miller here again, full of ham and cheese baguette. Remember: send your emails to Nick.Miller.casual@theGuardian.com, or tweet @NickMiller79.

And here’s Pep on Spurs: “They don’t have much money to spend, because they’re building an incredible stadium. They were the first team I lost to in England, and I could see how strong they were. We played really good against them last season. I learn when I watch them, they have everything.”

With that, I’ll hand back to Nick...

Here’s Pep!

On the Champions League: “After losing to Lyon and conceding early to Hoffenheim, the situation was critical. But now it’s back in our hands, and we played at a high level against Shakhtar.”

He adds that Ilkay Gundogan is still recovering from a knock, but he has no new injury concerns for the trip to Wembley. His thoughts on the pitch: “it is what it is”. It won’t have a bearing on whether Kevin de Bruyne starts after his injury.

Coming up – hot presser chat from Pep Guardiola, Jürgen Klopp and Rafa Benítez. Until then, here’s Stuart James talking to West Ham stopper and all-round good egg Lukasz Fabianski:

Updated

Here’s yer first match preview for this weekend, as Liverpool host Cardiff – a visit Neil Warnock has labelled “virtually impossible to win”. Cardiff are available at 33-1 to get the job done at Anfield.

Here’s a few words from David Wagner, who takes his winless Huddersfield to Watford this weekend.

“This group has the right attitude, desire and passion, and I believe the wins will come. We have performed at a high level in recent weeks, but we’re not happy. It’s a result-driven business, but at first, you have to perform.”

Brighton host Wolves tomorrow, in the clubs’ first top-flight meeting since 1982. Glenn Murray is a doubt for the game after being knocked unconscious against Newcastle last weekend, and receiving hospital treatment. Chris Hughton is calling on his other forwards to step up in Murray’s expected absence. As Jacob Steinberg writes here, it could be a big day for Jürgen Locadia:

Afternoon all, Niall here filling in while Nick takes a quick break. Let’s check in with Mauricio Pochettino, who’s been straight talking on Dele Alli, Hugo Lloris and Wembley ahead of Monday’s match:

On Lloris: “He’s disappointed, as we all were, because we could have got more from the [PSV] game. For me, Hugo is one of the best goalkeepers in the world, he was man of the match against West Ham. For me it was a yellow card, it wasn’t a sending off, and that put us in a difficult situation.”

On Alli: “I think it’s good news [he is fit], but we need to be careful. We are happy he is training with the group, and he is available – but I’m not sure if he’ll be in the squad.”

On the NFL game at Wembley on Sunday, he jokes: “maybe it’s good for us. We are facing one of the best teams in the world!” Then, less jovially, “it wasn’t the plan for us to be playing at Wembley now. That is the problem. We can’t complain, it’s the reality of the situation.”

The nice thing about advancing in years is that you can unashamedly resent the young, particularly precocious types who achieve enormous things at a young age/privileged upstarts who benefit from being related to people who have enormous things.

With that in mind, here’s a quick story from Reuters about Inter’s new president:

Inter Milan have appointed 26-year-old Steven Zhang as their new president, the Serie A club said on Friday. Zhang, who becomes the 21st president in the club’s history, is the son of Zhang Jindong, chairman of China’s electronics retailer Suning Holdings Group which bought a majority stake in the club in 2016.

He has been on the board of directors for the last two years and has effectively been responsible for the day-to-day running of the club.

Inter announced the appointment by posting a video on social media.

“When I close my eyes, I see a city with so much history and more to be written,* said Zhang in the video. “People with ideas, with the will to improve what*s around them and themselves. A club that plays beyond the field to win the hearts of everyone. But then I open my eyes and see that all this is already here. I’m ready, are you?”

“Hey Nick,” begins Louis Smith. “As trite a response as it may be, Mourinho and Manchester United would be my candidates for the most unsuitable partners. A fanbase that fetishises long-termism and attacking football, with a larger interest in commercial viability over practical squad building paired with the ultimate defensive pragmatist - who doesn’t even have good defenders at his disposal. As a Liverpool fan the schadenfreude has been excellent!”

Spot of team news from Tottenham: Dele Alli, who has been out with a hamstring problem, is back training and available to face Manchester City on Monday. Danny Rose and Jan Vertonghen are both still out, however.

More clásico stuff. Here’s Marcelo, on Real Madrid, Lopetegui and the game in general.

We will try and turn this situation around, we are not so bad, but we want to be better. Lopetegui is trying everything possible to put Madrid at the top, where it should be.

In this game whoever makes fewer mistakes will win. We must be alert, we know Barcelona’s quality and the important players they have up front. [But] we will play our own game, we know the potential we have ourselves.

Happy 27th birthday!

Doesn’t sound like Irish forward Andy Keogh - playing for Perth Glory these days in Australia - is enormously keen on Usain Bolt rocking up in his league. Bolt may or may not have been offered a contract by the Central Coast Mariners, despite being a 33-year-old not professional footballer.

Keogh told Off The Ball:

He’s got a touch like a trampoline. It’s nice to have the attention on the A-League but him playing in the A-League, that’s not for me.

He’s shown a bit of potential but it’s a little bit of a kick in the teeth to the professionals that are in the league.

If there’s someone who genuinely thinks he’d be a good football addition, I don’t think they should be in a position to make those calls.

One of the bigger selection problems of the weekend, in terms of the player’s important to his team, is whether Glenn Murray has recovered from the concussion sustained at Newcastle last week in time to play up top for Brighton against Wolves. Chris Hughton said:

We’ll need to make a decision on Glenn Murray. What you have to do is go through a correct protocol during the week. We’ve done that and at this moment he feels fine in regards to the actual knock itself.

Glenn has been super for us this season and his goal record since he’s been here says that. But we’ve got competition in the squad. When somebody misses a game it’s a really good opportunity for somebody else. That’s how it always has to be.

Quick line from the courts/the world of Antonio Conte: reports in Italy (specifically from Sportmediaset) that Conte has finally come to an agreement with Chelsea over his contract. They’re spinning this as clearing the way for him to take over at Real Madrid, but if you can think of a top club and top manager less suited to each other, I’d love to hear them.

Infantino says the taskforce on the Club World Cup/global Nations League proposals - which, publicly at least, are powerfully vague at the moment - will report by the next Fifa Council meeting in March. He also asks if anyone has any suggestions, they should make them to Fifa: think he was talking about the various associations and officials, but if you’ve got a cunning plan, drop the big man a line.

Infantino has also been speaking about the proposal to play Spanish Liga games in America - he says that it’s the view of the relevant “stakeholders” that games such as that should take place “within the organisation’s territory.” I suspect people like Charlie Stillitano, one of the men behind the wheeze, will just accept that and move on, mind.

Gianni Infantino has confirmed that AP story from earlier that they will “bolster the consultation process” and “set up a task force” about the Fifa World Cup Club/global Nations League reforms.

If you want, should you wish to punish yourself for some non-specific reason, you can watch the Fifa Council question and answer session here.

The good news is that now they’re not having that vote, Fifa have more time to focus on the important issues.

Good point, well made...

Tell you what’s weird: Aaron Ramsey’s contract situation. According to the man himself, a deal had basically been agreed, but it was withdrawn for reasons unclear. He said:

Hopefully somebody will come up and tell me why. I’ll accept that if there’s a reason. When the time is right, I probably will find out but that hasn’t happened yet.

There is no contract on the table at the moment so there is nothing for me to consider or whatever. We all know that the contract was taken away off the table. I’m not sure exactly why because a few weeks before we sort of agreed and I was ready to sign.

Here’s Amy Lawrence with some more, from Lisbon last night.

Here’s some expanded Mourinho, from our man Jamie Jackson. Features some red hot United team news, which we can summarise thus: they’re all injured, and it’s someone else’s fault.

To Barcelona v Real Madrid. With Cristiano Ronaldo now splitting his time between Turin and his lawyers’ office, and Leo Messi nursing a broken arm, this will be the first clasico not involving the big two since 2007. It’s going to be weird.

Beyond the actual game, the biggest story around this one is that defeat could be curtains for Julen Lopetegui, said to be on the verge of the big managerial bin anyway, but if they lose to Barca...well. According to Marca, the Real players are keen to keep Lopetegui around, perhaps because of the alternatives (see update at 10.27), or perhaps because of their own guilt at getting another manager sacked. Probably the alternatives thing.

If he does go, after all that palaver in the summer, can you think of a manager who has so flamboyantly torpedoed his own career with just one decision?

More Mourinho, if you can stand it. Here he is talking about how he can’t rest Romelu Lukaku, who hasn’t scored in eight games and generally looks like he’s playing wearing boots made out of osmium:

We are not in the best moment to try to think about resting players or try to find solutions, the solutions is to find the players we have.

One day will be and one day he will score and one day his confidence levels will be back to normal, which clearly they are not there but I always feel that.

Fifa to delay overhaul, averting crisis for now

Interesting breaking news from Rob Harris of the Associated Press, on the Fifa proposals (summary at 10.58). Looks like an implosion won’t happen today...

A Fifa decision on a $25 billion overhaul of competitions was expected to be delayed again on Friday after opposition from European soccer leaders and clubs intensified.

Fifa President Gianni Infantino had hoped to secure an agreement from his council on the concept of revamping the Club World Cup and establishing a Global Nations League. Instead, a taskforce is set to be created to explore in more detail the merits of the new formats, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the conversations ahead of the council meeting were private.

By backing down in the face of Uefa opposition, Infantino was likely to avoid the prospect of European representatives carrying out a threat to walk out of the meeting when the new competitions were discussed.

Charles Antaki is here to drink milk and throw a cat among the regulation pigeons - and he’s just finished his milk: “The FIFA rule banning extra-time subs is going in the wrong direction. They should make it mandatory that a particularly rubbish player from each side is removed every minute, preferably selected by public chanting, whistling and booing, and replaced by someone from the crowd who has spent the entire match claiming that their 12-year old could do better. Or indeed, by the 12-year old.”

Big news: from this weekend the yellow ball returns to the Premier League. Do we care? Will you notice? Are any of you going to join me in refusing to watch another minute of Premier League football until they use the adidas Telstar (the old, 32-panel, 1970 World Cup vintage one) as standard?

Another quiz! The sports quiz of the week, as put together by Paul Campbell. There’s some non-football stuff in here, but don’t let that put you off.

Here’s Mark McBeath with some thoughts on the proposed rule to prevent time-wasting by banning substitutions during injury-time.

“Rather then tweaking rules at the margins, I’d like a trial where time-keeping isn’t the ref’s responsibility, as in some other sports.

“Each time the ref whistles to stop play, an official time-keeper could stop the clock, and restart it when the ref signals to, or as a throw-in is taken or as the keeper takes a goal kick. No added time at the end, the clock simply runs to 45 minutes, the time-keeper gives a signal and the ref does the peep peep peep to end play.

“One less thing for the ref to worry about and for fans to argue over.”

Some light reading: a Golden Goal - Ronaldo (Brazilian) vs Compostela in 1996 by, erm, me.

This is faintly depressing...

Roy Hodgson speaks, about Crystal Palace’s recent late defeat to Everton, and indeed a bunch of recent defeats to a bunch of teams:

I’m afraid I’ve been disappointed in several defeats, because they’ve come at times when we’ve had enough control over the game [to take something]. The only positive we can take is that we haven’t been outplayed in these games.

Here’s some more from Infantino, who told the Associated Press:

I really think we have to think out of the box to think about new models to preserve football and the relevance of football and the structure of football.

I don’t think there is anything that dramatic or wrong to discuss about competitions, to discuss about how to commercialise these competitions. I don’t understand this hype.

You might think that Cardiff don’t have a prayer of beating Liverpool at the weekend, but at least Neil Warnock is in optimistic mood. He roared:

It’s virtually impossible for any team in the current game. I think the front three is probably the best in the world. We’ve all got to play at the top of our potential to give them a good game and hope they have an off day.

So then: Fifa. As mentioned, the Fifa Council is meeting in Kigali, Rwanda today, and there may be trouble ahead. Basically Gianni Infantino has a bunch of proposals for changes to the Club World Cup, and introduce a new global Nations League, based on the European one we’ve all been enjoying.

Infantino wants the Club World Cup to be a bigger deal, and just bigger, with proposals floating around for it to become a four-yearly thing in place of the Confederations Cup, or an annual tournament to be held in the summer, with the number of teams increased from the current seven teams to as many as 24, including 12 from Europe.

Of course this might be a high-minded concept to spread the word of football even further, or it might just be another wheeze to generate more money. About $25billion, according to the BBC, when you throw in the global Nations League thing too.

Among those not keen on the plans is Infantino’s successor as Uefa top dog, Aleksander Ceferin, who feel they are being railroaded into plans that won’t suit their members. In fact, they will reportedly stage a walkout if Infantino tries to press for a vote on the proposals today.

We’ll get to the big Fifa stuff shortly, but there could be an interesting tweak to the laws of football when the International Football Association Board (the people who control and change the rules and regulations) meet in March.

An IFAB member told the Times:

Looking at ways to cut down on time-wasting, speed up the game and increase playing time is one of our priorities.

A rule to say there should be no substitutions during added-on time is an interesting one and could work well. Referees add on 30 seconds for a substitution but in practice it can eat up a lot more time than that.

There would, however, need to be trials to see if there are any unforeseen ramifications.

Thoughts? Would this make a difference? Would this not just lead to a stack of subs between minutes 85 and 90?

Turns out Gennaro Gattuso wasn’t impressed at all with Milan’s performance in their Europa League defeat to Real Betis last night. He said, possibly while strapping on a cilice and punching himself in the face:

It’s only right that my position is under discussion. It’s difficult for a coach to sleep after a performance like this, one of the worst.

It was a terrible, embarrassing performance. I saw a team that was switched off and that has given me cause to reflect. I’m worried, disappointed and angry, especially with myself.

This team cannot think about doing well in the championship with that sort of mentality. I can’t accept a performance like that.

Quiz? Quiz! Mesut Ozil became the Premier League’s top scoring German this week, so here are some questions about some other nationalities.

Spicy old report in El Pais, which if accurate doesn’t sound like Thibaut Courtois is wild about the prospect of a couple of former managers taking over at Real Madrid.

Diego Torres reports - and, we should stress, this is what he says a witness told him - that Courtois said during training, with a “pale” look on his face:

I can not believe it! Here I am the only one who has worked with Conte and with Mourinho. I left London to not have to go through something like that again and now it turns out that Conte comes, and if not, Mourinho.

We don’t know the context. So keep that in mind. Maybe he was saying it in jest. Maybe he was deadly serious. Whatever the true picture, we know this: it’s funny.

Here’s more from Mourinho:

We play against Newcastle and we go to the national team period in a good situation and then after two weeks we lost Dalot in Portugal, we lost Fellaini in Belgium. We lost Alexis with Chile, we lost - who else? - McTominay with Scotland.

And some of them, the national teams they were very professional with us and they send the players back and we could start the process early.

But some of them, they weren’t and they kept the players and we didn’t even know the dimension and the nature of the injuries, so when the players arrived here two days before Chelsea, we have no idea what is going on.”

Jose speaks! And, remarkably, it turns out all of this is someone else’s fault. In short he seems to be blaming the World Cup and assorted other international games for some of the fitness problems his Manchester United players have been suffering. Specifically, that some national teams don’t take care of his players. “Some [national teams] aren’t professional. They kept the players and we did not know the nature of the injuries.”

Fuller quotes coming up. Sources have told the Guardian that no other Premier League teams have international footballers.

He also says United won’t be re-signing Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Have you read Eni Aluko’s column this week yet? If not, you should probably get on that. It’s about Karen Carney but more broadly social media abuse, and this passage is particularly notable.

The huge problem for me is that there aren’t enough consequences for people who do this sort of thing – if they knew that writing that kind of sentence could potentially get them a jail sentence or a ban from Twitter, they wouldn’t do it. Instagram, Twitter and Facebook need to get real about the consequences and deterrents for users.

Rumour Mill! The transfer window doesn’t open for another few months, but gossip never sleeps. Get stuck in.

If your weekend doesn’t start here, it should start with the 10 things you need to look out for in the Premier League, by your pals Simon Burnton, Niall McVeigh and Jacob Steinberg.

Plenty of big football coming up, lots of big stories, but perhaps the most extraordinary is that Andy Carroll is back in training for West Ham. Imagine that! Obviously the chances are something will snap off him before he gets near the first team, but there’s always hope.

“Andy is recovering,” said Manuel Pellegrini yesterday. “He started this week working, part of the warm up with the whole squad so we will see in the next week how he improves and I hope that maximum 15 days he will at least working with the squad, completely.”

Good morning, hello, and welcome to your weekend football countdown. Exciting, eh? Plenty going on today, looking forward to the on-pitch action over the next few days: we’ve got the build-up to Manchester City v Tottenham, what must be the first Messi and Ronaldo-less Barcelona v Real game in a while, whatever José Mourinho’s latest excuse/explanation for Manchester United being no good is, plus a whole bunch of other stuff that you should know before the weekend kicks off.

Plus, the Fifa Council are meeting in Rwanda, and trouble is afoot. The Uefa delegates are threatening to walk out over a whole heap of issues, which we’ll get into later, but the short version is there could be an absolute s-storm brewing.

So stick around, we all might learn something. Or just waste a few hours while staring intently at the clock. Maybe both. Together, we can do it.

If you fancy emailing in thoughts on anything - preferably football, but let’s not restrict ourselves - then direct those to Nick.Miller.casual@theGuardian.com, or tweet @NickMiller79

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Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's Relationship Questioned by Fans Who Say They Look Awkward—Is the So-Called 'Endgame' Just for Cameras?
Fans question Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's relationship, claiming awkward public moments cast doubt on the so-called 'Endgame' pairing.
International Business Times UK
International Business Times UK
Tori Spelling recalls her childhood friendship with Paris Hilton
Describing a long-standing bond between their families that began when they were young, Tori Spelling has recalled her childhood friendship with Paris Hilton.
BANG Premier
BANG Premier
Is dark chocolate healthier than milk chocolate? 2 dietitians explain
Easter chocolate is all over supermarket shelves. Some people reach straight for milk chocolate eggs while others pause at the darker varieties, assuming they’re healthier.
The Conversation
The Conversation
Astronauts may struggle to reproduce in outer space, study suggests — what does that mean for the future of space colonization?
A new study found that microgravity simulated on Earth hindered sperm cell movement, egg fertilization and embryo development ‪—‬ findings that have serious implications for the future of space colonization.
LiveScience
LiveScience
Keith Urban Allegedly Claims Nicole Kidman 'Villain Narrative' Is 'Very Unfair,' Vows Revenge
Keith Urban is reportedly furious over a perceived 'villain narrative' around his split from Nicole Kidman, after she omitted him from a recent interview and left him feeling erased.
International Business Times UK
International Business Times UK
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