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Winger flickered during his time at Stamford Bridge but failed to provide consistency and Maresca is thinking biggerThe best way to respond to Chelsea having to pay a £5m penalty fee because of their failure to meet a £25m obligation to buy Jadon Sancho from Manchester United is with a shrug.There is no tale of excess, no evidence of scattergun thinking from the recruitment team at Stamford Bridge, no stick with which to beat Todd Boehly. In fact it is not even much of a punishment. A penalty clause is one way of framing it; another is that it is the equivalent of a standard loan fee and that all Chelsea are doing is making a delayed payment after not being asked for one when the deal to borrow Sancho went through on the final day of last summer’s transfer window. Continue reading...

Jeglertz to stay in charge of Denmark for Euro 2025Cushing in temporary charge since sacking of TaylorManchester City are close to agreeing a deal to appoint the Denmark national team manager, Andrée Jeglertz, as their new women’s head coach.It is understood that the proposed move would enable the Swedish coach to remain in charge of Denmark until the conclusion of the European Championship in Switzerland this summer, before taking over the Women’s Super League side that finished fourth in the English top tier last season. Continue reading...

Bayern Munich’s domestic dominance returned and Arminia Bielefeld’s remarkable cup run provided the shocksIt’s Bayern Munich, despite Mainz and Freiburg, unexpected troublers of the European places, deserving praise for their stratospheric improvement from 2023-24. The Rekordmeister is rarely more provoked than when presented with serious opposition, and Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen had done just that with last term’s domestically unbeaten double-winning exploits. Leverkusen were still excellent but could simply not match Bayern’s pace in the end. They played with dazzle but Vincent Kompany also did the one thing that was beyond Julian Nagelsmann and Thomas Tuchel in beginning to sort out Bayern’s leaky defence, conceding their lowest total in the Bundesliga (32) since Hansi Flick’s treble-winning season of 2019-20. He also made them competitive in the Champions League, in which they were unlucky to lose to Inter. Continue reading...

Plus: late-career goalscoring centurions, huge gaps between league title wins and trees on pitches• Mail us with your questions and answers“The success of Scott McTominay, Billy Gilmour, Harry Kane and Eric Dier means that British players have won three of the ‘big five’ leagues this season. Has that happened before? And have any countries managed five out of five?” wonders Philipp Lohan.To answer the first question, yes, it has happened before and not too long ago. Robbie Dale emailed in to highlight the 2020-21 season, when Kieran Trippier (Atlético), Ashley Young (Inter) and Phil Foden, John Stones and few others (Manchester City) also ticked three of the five boxes for British players. If we move on to nations who provided players who won all of the ‘big five’ leagues then we had better get busy making a list. Continue reading...

Manchester United captain spoke with Al-Hilal president‘Ruben Amorim really tried to talk me out of it’Manchester United’s captain, Bruno Fernandes, has confirmed he has turned down a money-spinning move to Saudi Arabia because he wants to “stay at the highest level”. The 30-year-old midfielder has been the subject of speculation linking him with a £100m switch to Al-Hilal, with the Saudi Pro League side reportedly prepared to pay him £700,000 per week.However, Fernandes confirmed he had rejected the chance to move after speaking to Ruben Amorim and his own family. “The president of Al-Hilal called me a month ago to ask about the possibility of me moving there,” Fernandes said, according to the Portuguese news outlet O Jogo. “I had to wait a while to think about the future. As I’ve always said, I would be willing to do it if United thought it was best to move on. Continue reading...

Italian feared he would be thrown out of French OpenCarlos Alcaraz crushes Tommy Paul to set up Musetti tieLorenzo Musetti admitted that he was “scared” about potentially being defaulted after accidentally kicking a tennis ball at a line judge during his win over Frances Tiafoe in the quarter-finals of the French Open.On Tuesday, the eighth seed Musetti held his nerve in treacherous windy conditions to close out a stellar 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 win over the 15th seed Tiafoe and reach the semi-finals in Paris for the first time. The match, however, included a moment of jeopardy after he kicked a ball towards the back fence. It rebounded against the shoulder of an unflinching line judge. Musetti received a code violation warning for unsportsmanlike conduct. Continue reading...

Midfielder brings forward retirement decision Kirby: ‘I didn’t ever want this day to come’Fran Kirby has announced her retirement from international football with immediate effect, after learning that she will not be part of Sarina Wiegman’s squad for the European Championship this summer.In interviews with the BBC and ESPN, released shortly after England’s 2-1 defeat against Spain on Tuesday, the 31-year-old midfielder explained that she had already been planning to retire from England duty after Euro 2025 in July but she has brought that decision forward after being told she will not be going to Switzerland. Wiegman will name her final squad of 23 on Thursday. Continue reading...

England 246/3 bt West Indies 251/9 by seven wickets (DLS)Batter hits quickfire 64 to drive run chaseA day that started for England with walks and bike rides ended with runs, and plenty of them. With a barrage of boundaries from Jamie Smith and Ben Duckett the home side took control of a match that was delayed after the players got stuck in traffic, and then abbreviated by rain, before with an explosive cameo from Jos Buttler they sped to victory by seven wickets, with 62 balls to spare.The series thus ended as it started, with a one-sided victory. The match in between was much more competitive but this was a very different display from England, whose fielding was as sharp as it had been sloppy on Sunday, and in particular from their openers who in Cardiff had scored a combined total of nothing but here each reached rapid half-centuries. Continue reading...

Former Sheffield United footballer died aged 27 in 2023Jury needed due to ‘significant public interest’ in caseA jury should be convened for the inquest into the death of the former Sheffield United midfielder Maddy Cusack because of the “significant public interest” in the case, her family’s lawyers have said.Cusack died aged 27 on 20 September 2023 at her home in Derbyshire. Within a week of her death her family had submitted a written complaint to Sheffield United outlining issues allegedly stemming from her relationship with the club’s manager at the time, Jonathan Morgan. Continue reading...

Royal Challengers Bengaluru 190-9: Punjab Kings 184-7Phil Salt and Liam Livingstone impress in close finalRoyal Challengers Bengaluru and Virat Kohli ended their drought by winning a maiden Indian Premier League title, beating Punjab Kings by six runs in the final in Ahmedabad on Tuesday.Bengaluru posted a modest 190 for nine with Kohli, their leading scorer this season, top scoring for them with a composed 43. It was, however, their bowling which secured their win after they restricted Punjab to 184 for seven despite Shashank Singh’s unbeaten 61 off 30 balls. Continue reading...