Football transfer news

Liverpool manager Arne Slot intends to keep his emotions in check if his players are able to secure the Premier League title against Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield.

The Reds need just a point from their clash with Ange Postecoglou’s Europa League semi-finalists to deliver Slot the title in his first season at the helm.

The Dutchman has experience of winning top-flight titles, after besting Ajax and PSV Eindhoven with previous employers Feyenoord, but he revealed in the build-up to the game that he won’t be going crazy if and when Liverpool get over the line.

“I enjoyed it a lot when Feyenoord won the title – but I don’t go crazy,” Slot said. “It wasn’t like I ran three times around the stadium. I was just very, very happy inside and I shared my emotions with the people around me and the fans. But I will never be the one who is the loudest nor the weirdest in the moment. I’m not like that.”

Liverpool’s success this season has caught many by surprise. Though Slot wasn’t expected to struggle, the transition to his way of working from the eight-and-a-half-year tenure of Jurgen Klopp has been seamless – allowing the club to take advantage of a rare off-season for Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City.

Champions League semi-finalists Arsenal also haven’t been able to keep pace with Liverpool in the Premier League, but Slot says he’ll leave the analysis of the job he’s done to others – his primary responsibility being to assess the performance of his wider coaching team.

“It is for other people to judge,” Slot continued. “It would be a bit weird to judge myself, but I can judge the performance for my staff and the medical staff – and they should get a lot of credit over the course of the season.”

“If you start to work here, then quite quickly you get a certain feeling,” he added on the bond he’s creating with the club and supporters. “I feel part of it. But to say I am a scouser now would be too much. The good thing about the people here is that they welcome you from the start and you feel part of them.

“But it would be weird if I said after ten months that I feel the same as people who have lived here for 30 or 40 years. Ask me after ten years.”

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Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim insisted that the decision to let Marcus Rashford and Antony leave the club on loan was worth the short-term pain for the long-term gain.

The two forwards, who are both on course to return to Old Trafford when their deals with Aston Villa and Real Betis respectively expire at the end of the season, have impressed away from Manchester. Antony has been directly involved in nine goals while leading Betis into La Liga’s Champions League qualification spots and the Conference League semi-finals.

Rashford has averaged a goal or assist every 94 minutes for Villa this year, delivering a brilliant individual display against Manchester City in midweek which captured the renewed verve and vigour he has enjoyed away from his boyhood club.

United have desperately struggled for any sustained attacking threat in the duo’s absence. As Amorim admitted this week: “We lack a lot of things in the team. We saw with Milan in the past, a lot of problems – big teams that when you get inside [the club and understand], in one context, it’s really hard. And in January we lost Rashford and Antony and we didn’t bring new ones – [it] was a risk.”

However, the Portuguese boss defended the club’s transfer activity. “There are things here that are more important than scoring ten more goals this season. We are trying to do something that is more important. We can hurt the squad now but in the future it will help the club.”

Amorim revealed that is was “my idea” to let Rashford and Antony leave, but insisted that the club’s hierarchy offered him their full support. “That is clear,” he said. “I try to help the team and sometimes help the players that needed something different – that’s all.”

The 40-year-old coach has previously explained that he “couldn’t get Marcus [Rashford] to see the way you’re supposed to play football and to train the way I see it”.

United’s transfer policy wasn’t the only aspect of Amorim’s tenure he defended before his side’s Premier League clash with Bournemouth.

The former Sporting CP manager had asked to remain with the Lisbon outfit until the end of the season before ultimately accepting United’s ultimatum of joining now or never. “If you ask me four months ago, with all the problems, maybe I have the feeling I should be stronger in saying I will start at the beginning of the season,” Amorim admitted.

“But today, I am feeling it is something that is going to help us in the future.

“We are suffering a lot here. There is a lot of frustration but I feel, in this moment, maybe because we are near the end, this is the most important time, maybe, in the next few years.

“We are going to use all the information to prepare better the next few years, so [I have] no regrets.”

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Peering through a pair of mirrored sunglasses with another set resting on his peroxide blonde hair, Barcelona’s triumphant teenage phenom Lamine Yamal declared that Real Madrid simply “can’t beat us” this season.

Yamal provided the assist for two of Barcelona’s goals in a bonkers 3-2 victory over their arch-rivals in Saturday night’s Copa del Rey final. This season, the Catalan giants have already romped to a 4-0 thumping at the Santiago Bernabeu and cantered through a 5-2 demolition of Madrid in the Supercopa de Espana final, proving the 17-year-old’s point.

After a one-sided first half saw Barcelona take a 1-0 lead which did not accurately reflect their dominance, the introduction of Kylian Mbappe, swiftly followed by Luka Modric and Arda Guler, shifted the momentum in Madrid’s favour. The returning French talisman equalised with the first direct free kick of his senior career before Aurelien Tchouameni headed the capital club into the lead.

Yet, as Yamal laughed after the game, Barcelona weren’t worried. “If they scored one goal, it wouldn’t matter, if they scored two, it wouldn’t matter either,” the teenager shrugged. It was Yamal’s devilish scooped pass which teed up Ferran Torres for an 84th-minute equaliser, sending the contest into extra time and the early hours of Sunday morning before Jules Kounde struck a final blow in the 116th minute.

“This year they can’t beat us,” Yamal said, “and that’s been proven.”

There was a growing possibility that this engrossing final may never have even taken place. Referee Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea broke down in tears during the pre-match press conference when discussing the pressure exerted on officials by Real Madrid’s in-house media channel. The reigning Spanish champions boycotted their press duties before belatedly turning up for the showpiece.

Yamal wasn’t the only one to aim a jibe at Real Madrid. At the final whistle, former Barcelona centre-back Gerard Pique tweeted in Catalan: “In the end, the good guys always win.”

No one could argue with Yamal’s assessment of Barcelona’s superiority over Real Madrid in this season’s Clasicos, but his teammate Frenkie de Jong questioned his celebratory outfit. “Everyone has to do what they want. But there wasn’t any sun, so there’s no point in wearing sunglasses,” the Dutchman tutted.

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Chelsea are not expected to pursue either Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne or Bayern Munich striker Harry Kane this summer, according to a recent report.

Enzo Maresca recently hinted that Chelsea will target experienced players in the summer transfer market to balance out their remarkably young side, leading to links with former midfielder De Bruyne and ex-Tottenham Hotspur star Kane.

De Bruyne, who will be 34 years old in June, is leaving City this summer and will be available on a free transfer, while Kane has a release clause that could facilitate a Bayern departure as Chelsea eye attacking reinforcements. However, according to The Telegraph, neither will be considered.

They reveal that De Bruyne “could cause a selection headache” as he would battle for minutes with former City teammate Cole Palmer, while the Belgian has also show significant signs of “slowing down” following another injury-hit campaign.

The figures involved in signing Kane are deemed “highly prohibitive” and the striker’s release clause also needed to be triggered during the most recent winter transfer window to have made a summer deal possible as per previous reports from Germany.

Chelsea’s striker search has also included links with Victor Osimhen and Ollie Watkins but there are “attitude concerns” among English clubs regarding the former and the latter’s age and dimishing goalscoring returns could dissuade Chelsea from making a move.

In their hunt for more experience, Chelsea reportedly made an approach to sign Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk, who was set to be out of contract this summer but instead signed a fresh contract with the Reds.

The Telegraph add, however, that Chelsea are not interested in signing older players with vast experience. Their plan is to instead ensure that the “majority” of their new recruits have “plenty of first-team games under their belts” regardless of age.

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Liverpool have been destined to claim their second Premier League title for some time but their fate can finally be mathematically confirmed this weekend.

Over eight months of hard work can be rewarded with the ultimate prize when Tottenham Hotspur arrive at Anfield on Sunday afternoon, with the home crowd desperate to seal silverware in style against struggling Spurs.

Liverpool supporters were unable to properly celebrate their previous Premier League triumph in 2019/20, the result of the Covid-19 pandemic putting a limitation on gatherings, but will more than make amends when honouring their title-winners this time around.

Here’s how the Reds can wrap things up on Sunday.

Having witnessed Arsenal stumble again in midweek, as they drew with Crystal Palace, Liverpool’s assignment against Spurs is straightforward. The Reds need just one point to secure the crown, meaning even a draw at Anfield this Sunday will guarantee them the title.

Given Spurs are in desperate Premier League form and have a crucial Europa League semi-final first leg to prepare for this coming Thursday, Liverpool will be strong, strong favourites to win on Sunday. Avoiding defeat, which is all they must do as a bare minimum, seems inevitable.

However, if Spurs were to stun the Anfield crowd, Liverpool would be forced to wait until next weekend to win the title. They face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in a weeks’ time but would be crowned champions the day before should Arsenal fail to beat Bournemouth.

Liverpool currently lead the division with 79 points and have five games remaining, meaning they can accumulate a total of 94 points should they win the rest of their 2024/25 clashes.

If they achieve maximum points during the remainder of the term, Arne Slot’s side would achieve the sixth-highest points tally in Premier League history and the fifth-highest for a winning team – Liverpool cruelly managed 97 points without actually finishing first in 2018/19.

It will only be Liverpool’s third-highest total, however, due to the aforementioned 97 points followed by their 99-point return in the 2019/20 season when they finally won a first Premier League-era title.

Liverpool can clinch the title in front of the Anfield crowdon Sunday but they will have to wait to get their hands on the trophy. The Reds will be presented with their prize after the final game of the Premier League season at home to Crystal Palace on Sunday 25 May.

The Reds will then enjoy a first Premier League trophy parade having seen the last one cancelled in 2020, with an open-top bus tour of Liverpool expected on Monday 26 May, a UK bank holiday.

This season marks just a second title of the Premier League era, since 1992, but it is a 20th overall for Liverpool. That is significant because it equals the all-time English record currently held by fierce north west rivals Manchester United, who overtook Liverpool’s previous record with a 19th title in 2011, and then extended it to 20 in 2013. They haven’t been close to winning another since.

Liverpool’s next title will be their 21st and, assuming it comes before United’s – a likely probability, will restore their position as England’s most successful league club, having previously held that status for for almost four decades from the early 1970s until 2011.

The club won a first ever English league title at the end of the 1900/01 season, enjoying sporadic success until Bill Shankly’s arrival in 1959 sparked the creation of multiple successive dynasties that dominated the domestic football landscape for the next 30 years.

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