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ST JAMES’ PARK — Newcastle United need to throw everything at persuading Lewis Hall to sign another long-term contract this summer. Such is the speed of his progress this season, a commitment until 2029 no longer feels like enough.

Hall is a quiet character off-the-pitch, almost unassuming in the way he carries himself. But put him on the biggest of stages – and they do not come much grander than a direct duel with Lamine Yamal in a Champions League knockout tie – and he is a man transformed.

Barcelona’s prodigous forward may have ended the night celebrating his match-saving penalty with an insouciant shrug in front of the Leazes End but it was the only time Yamal had looked comfortable all night. For most of it he struggled to lay a glove on Hall.

That is seriously impressive stuff. Good enough, surely, to punch his ticket for the World Cup where – if Thomas Tuchel has an ounce of sense – he will start at left-back when England step out against Croatia in Texas in June.

It was that sort of night, when reputations are enhanced and markers laid down. Hall began well against Yamal but it was his in-game IQ that really stood out. When Barcelona briefly wrested back the initiative mid-way through the first half – the point at which Hall and Dan Burn nearly conspired to let the visitors have a sight of goal – he stepped deeper to address the danger.

But mostly he was on the front foot in a way that evoked memories of Ashley Cole’s epic battles with Cristiano Ronaldo. Cole won his spurs because he took the game to the brilliant Portuguese, betting that his pace and technical ability would cause his opponent as many problems as he would face. Hall took a leaf out of that book here.

It sets up both players for a fascinating second leg. Yamal, like Barcelona and a visiting press pack who laughed, chatted and took phone calls through Hall’s pre-match media briefing, seemed to arrive on Tyneside with the air of visiting royalty. You can bet they have a bit more respect for Newcastle next week – which will surely make Hall’s night that bit more difficult.

But Eddie Howe’s side should travel to Spain with belief, even if the late leveller means they are outsiders to progress to the quarter-finals. If Joelinton and the outstanding Jacob Ramsey – who is quietly turning into Newcastle’s king of quick transitions – can replicate their muscular displays there is no reason why the Magpies can’t cause them problems.

Yamal’s late goal means they will have to do it the hard way but that has been the case all season. A sickness bug meant Anthony Gordon, the Champions League’s second top scorer, couldn’t start against Barcelona and once again, the problem was converting chances rather than creating them.

As for Hall, this was the sort of performance that gets scouts purring. There has been much conjecture about the future of Sandro Tonali and Tino Livramento but Newcastle’s left-back could have his pick of Europe’s best. “Outstanding” was Howe’s appraisal and his performances in the Champions League have shown he belongs on that stage.

Newcastle know that and a new deal is understood to be in their thoughts. It really should be a priority.

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Igor Tudor’s reign is turning into one of the all-time managerial disasters.

In Madrid, spineless Spurs were left shamed, abject, morose. If it is possible, they look even more broken than they did under Thomas Frank. The rut feels both strangely familiar and unprecedentedly bad – it is the first time in the club’s history they have lost six in a row.

It is not fair to judge anybody simply on optics and still it is hard to conceive of 17 minutes of worse vibes. Antonin Kinsky, the 22-year-old second-choice goalkeeper, was thrown in for his Champions League debut. After a gut-wrenching horrorshow that saw him taken straight back off, he did not receive so much as a nod of acknowledgment from the interim manager.

Not since Loris Karius has any stopper endured a Champions League night quite like this. Karius would never recover from the mortification.

There is hope that Kinsky may yet, because he had the support of three teammates in particular: Joao Palhinha, Conor Gallagher and Dominic Solanke, who followed him down the tunnel to console him, all perhaps as bewildered at the team selection as he was.

Under Tudor, Tottenham have lost four out of four games and conceded 14. There were the usual mitigating factors; the injuries, a pitch that seemed to have been greased with vegetable oil. Oddly there were elements of this 5-2 defeat that were not that bad, but there can be no losing sight of what Tudor was brought in to do.

The three-month contract he was handed in February was effectively a free hit. Try not to insult the players. Put some of them in the correct positions. Get the fans on board. Take responsibility and offer solutions, rather than diagnosing three problems with the Tottenham Hotspur of 2026: the attack, the defence, and come to think of it, the midfield.

That was the prognosis after the loss at Fulham, and the goalkeeping situation was a notable omission from Tudor’s synopsis. He refused to accept that his system was even a relevant talking point.

A nightmare moment for Kinsky on his debut as his mistake leads to Llorente's opener for Atlético Madrid @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/SsHpJxYNIz

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) March 10, 2026

Yet he chose Atletico Madrid away as the moment to drop Guglielmo Vicario – not entirely without reason. The Italian has the most clean sheets in the Champions League this season but his domestic form has long been a problem; it was far from unthinkable that his back-up should be given an opportunity.

It was from there that Tudor’s approach became inexplicable. Such was his peculiar attitude towards his own players that when Djed Spence was substituted, he made a point of tapping his coach on the shoulder, as though to make a point that they ought to be shaking hands. There is a vacuum of leadership at all levels of the club.

Even as he remains wedded to his back three and to not starting Palhinha in a game tailor-made for the occasion, no one could seriously blame Tudor for the state in which Spurs find themselves – all but out of Europe and a point above the Premier League drop zone.

He was only asked to avoid two things – relegation and humiliation. On the latter count he has surely failed already. One Atletico fan was seen in the stands revelling in such complacency that he began to make a batch of Iberian ham sandwiches.

To be so ridiculed and unserious is the worst nightmare of a club of Tottenham’s stature. All while hoping to lure back Mauricio Pochettino. As he sat in the crowd there must have been a temptation to blindfold him and whisper that it was 2019 and Harry Kane was still the No 9.

Before the game some had the temerity to question if Atletico, famously the bridesmaids of Spanish football, were the most cursed club in the world.

As Spurs fans began walking out after 20 minutes, wondering if this was the new manager bounce, there can be no arguments. Imagine what might have happened without a new-manager bounce.

The peak of the Tudor period so far has been a half-hour spell that still ended in a 4-1 defeat in the north London derby. Or was it the brief rally at Fulham once the game was beyond their reach – no, the optical illusion of taking a lead against a weakened Crystal Palace before self-destructing moments later?

In the scheme of those results, a comprehensive defeat at Atletico ought not to signify. It matters only in that it feels terminal – and there is zero evidence that Tudor can dig them out of it.

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Bournemouth will reopen contract talks with manager Andoni Iraola in the upcoming international break in an effort to ward off potential interest from Crystal Palace, Tottenham and Manchester United.

Iraola’s current deal runs out at the end of the season and his achievements on the South Coast – especially after losing some of the club’s best players in the last six months – have seen his stock rise.

He is a target for Palace and sources have indicated he has been discussed at both Spurs and Old Trafford – as well as for potential vacancies in Italy and Spain.

Iraola’s future

Palace’s interest is perhaps the biggest threat as they look to replace Oliver Glasner but Iraola was on the shortlist last summer when Spurs eventually decided to hire Thomas Frank and is certain to figure in their thinking if they manage to stay up.

Iraola has kept his cards close to his chest but Bournemouth are aware of how highly rated he is and want to resolve his future before the end of the campaign.

The club believe that they have illustrated their ambition and done everything they can to match Iraola’s own aspirations in a year in which they had to sell players to address issues around profitability and sustainability rules (PSR).

While there is an element of confidence that they can persuade Iraola to stay, talks over a new deal first began a year ago and are yet to reach a breakthrough. Recent reports suggesting Iraola is close to signing a fresh contract are inaccurate, which may indicate he is keeping his options open.

When talks are set to begin

Talks have been paused as the club focus on pushing for another top 10 finish – with Europe an outside possibility – but the international matches coincide with a three-week break for Bournemouth and is viewed as the perfect time to reengage.

Iraola has a reputation for carefully considering his options when it comes to his career and would never have left Bournemouth before the end of his contract, whatever offers came his way.

There is hope that he will have seen the fates of fellow up-and-coming managers like Frank and Ange Postecoglou and decide that a stable club with well-defined structure and a supportive owner in billionaire Bill Foley is his best bet.

Bournemouth have managed to sell more than £300m of talent since the end of last season thanks to a smart recruitment strategy. The sales were necessary as the club’s PSR position was potentially perilous.

Bournemouth’s summer plans

The i Paper understands Bournemouth’s squad cost ratio is now around 80 per cent, which gives them leverage to invest without selling in the summer. Although Marcos Senesi will leave in the summer, and there are release clauses in the contracts of several other stars, another close season of departures is not expected.

Indeed there is real satisfaction at how desirable the club has become to potential new players.

Bournemouth’s signing of Brazilian wonderkid Rayan from Vasco da Gama is viewed as a good example of that ambition. He had interest from top Premier League clubs and two firm offers that outstripped Bournemouth’s, from Al Hilal and Zenit Saint Petersburg.

Yet Bournemouth’s ability to develop players before allowing them to sign for the likes of Real Madrid, Paris Saint Germain, Liverpool and Manchester City has caught the eye of agents and players.

Rayan wanted to play regularly and saw Bournemouth as the best chance for that. He has a €100million (£86m) release clause that can be activated at any time but there’s an expectation that he stays for at least a season. The Cherries will hope Iraola is on the same timeline.

How Iraola’s sides could line up

By James Price

Iraola’s predecessor, Gary O’Neil, had led the side to 15th in the 2022-2023 season before departing. Iraola arrived and delivered a 12th-placed finish, creeping into ninth the following season.

The Cherries are just eight points behind Liverpool in sixth and the promised land of European football.

Iraola’s sides are flexible whilst being high-pressing – almost to a fault – with Bournemouth ranking sixth for goals conceded in the top flight this season – the same as Tottenham.

Here’s how both Palace and Spurs could line up under Iraola’s preferred system.

Tottenham (4-2-3-1): Vicario; Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Udogie; Sarr, Bergvall; Simons, Kulusevski, Kudus; Tel

Crystal Palace (4-2-3-1): Henderson; Munoz, Lacroix, Riad, Mitchell; Wharton, Doucoure; Nketiah, Pino, Johnson; Mateta

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If you were to ask Pep Guardiola, Arsenal are “the best team in the world”. Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler screams at them to “f***ing play football”. It is fair to say the ability to grind out wins can divide opinion.

Over two-and-a-half years in north London, Declan Rice has got used to all the noise. First, the £100m fee, then three successive title races. Arsenal are on the cusp of a first Premier League trophy in 22 years – and should there one day be history books written on this season, his set pieces will be among the first chapters. There can be no doubt as to their effectiveness.

“We’ve got something we’re really good at – so much goes into it, it’s not just we whip in a corner and someone heads it in,” Rice tells The i Paper.

“Execution, the timing, what we plan has to be bang on the money for us to score a goal – and we’ve done that many times this season. So credit to all of us because they’re long meetings going through set pieces, doing it on the pitch, repetition.

“Every team changes the way they play and the way they defend against us, so it’s on us to find ways to score and we’ve been doing that.”

Arteta-ball is quite clearly being emulated across the country. No other team has enjoyed the same results: 19 set-piece goals, with Manchester United, Tottenham and Newcastle closest behind on 15.

“It comes from us, the way we set up and then everyone talks about it and then everyone does it – so it’s confusing!” Rice says.

“But they’re not doing it to the level that we do it. You can see that when you’re seeing teams take corners. We can still get better and that’s the good thing about it.”

This could well turn into Rice’s greatest season. His first at Arsenal, upon arriving from West Ham in 2023, produced seven goals and eight assists. He is currently on four and five respectively, with the Gunners still in four competitions. Does he pay attention to those stats either way? Yes and no.

“I’ve been in and out of that in my career, to be honest. I was probably worried about my numbers, then not worried about the numbers.

“In your career, I don’t think you ever know what you’re going to go on to achieve. As the seasons evolve and you’re playing week in, week out, and the game gets better and better, there can end up being no limits to what you can achieve.”

Rice’s own evolution into a No 8 is partly a result of how the pieces of Arsenal’s midfield have shifted around him. At first, he operated most regularly with Thomas Partey (58 appearances together) and Jorginho (48). Both have since moved on. He has forged a new partnership with Martin Zubimendi that has added “different bits to my game”.

Zubimendi, he argues, is a “typical Spanish No 6”.

“He moves the ball so well through the lines, keeps it calm, simple, a real calm presence who’s won a lot in his career already”. The other alliance which may yet prove to be the most important of his career is a burgeoning one with Elliot Anderson, the “high-energy” England teammate set to partner him at the World Cup.

“We’re like a hybrid of each other really,” he says of Anderson. “We both play six, we both play eight, both love to attack the box, defend the box. He’s a player I really admire.”

Rice is currently odds on to win the PFA Player of the Year, having already been named Men’s Footballer of the Year at the London Football Awards. And should they win the Premier League or Champions League, this Arsenal team will go down as one of the club’s greatest ever. The players are well aware of “what you can become” if they deliver either of those, Rice admits.

Then, inevitably, there are Ballon d’Or rumours, which he laughs off.

“That is far, far away. There’s still so long to go in the season, need to win a few trophies, need to keep playing well. I don’t get caught up in it, just try to live in the moment. Keep playing football and see what happens.”

The curious thing about the focus on his attacking stats – and the fixation on Arsenal’s goalscoring more generally – is that it can lead to other aspects of a potentially title-winning side being overlooked.

In games like the 1-0 victory over Brighton, which prompted Hurzeler’s comments, the aim is still always to “play good football, exciting football”.

“Sometimes you’re going to have games where it isn’t going to be that for obvious reasons,” Rice says. “One, if you don’t play well, two, the opposition do something to stop you playing well. We play against good teams, good managers, that’s the reality of the Premier League.

“We didn’t play the best against Brighton – it’s down to them to find a way to score against a team that didn’t play well. We kept it strong – an amazing part of our game is defensive solidity. We’ve got different ways of winning – and we’ll keep using them.”

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As ambassadorial appointments go, Ryan Giggs being employed by a betting site to promote International Women’s Day is even more jaw-dropping than Peter Mandelson being made the UK’s envoy in the US.

In case you missed it, Giggs put on his Instagram page the weirdest, clanging, inappropriate piece of content that you are likely to have seen in a long while.

It is a 25-second clip for betting firm F168 of the former Manchester United player standing in front of what looks like an AI generated cartoon utopian meadow using his best monotone hostage voice to say “today we celebrate the strength, beauty and achievements of women everywhere”. 

View this post on Instagram

The problem here is the evidence that came out in court in a trial which ended just under three years ago, when he was up on charges of coercive and controlling behaviour and assault of his ex-partner and her sister. He was cleared of all charges, as his ex-partner did not want to give evidence. 

But even though he walked free (figuratively – he was not there when the verdict was read out) in July 2023, during the trial, he showed himself to be an utterly unsuitable role model for F168, an Isle of Man-based gambling portal aimed at a Vietnamese audience, and their campaign to celebrate women.

He admitted under oath during his trial that he had sent message after message of abusive, aggressive, expletive-laden content to his ex-partner. He also said that he had never been faithful in any of his previous relationships, including his wife, who he cheated on with his sister-in-law.

One of his threats, via email, read: “I am so f**king mad right now I am scaring myself because I could do anything.” By “anything”, one presumes he didn’t mean reading off a cue card for money: “To all the amazing women in our community, keep shining and inspiring us all.”

Shining and inspiring. Well now. At this juncture, it is worth returning to Manchester Crown Court, and the question one of the jurors asked the court near the beginning of Giggs’ trial: “What is gaslighting?”

Look, we know people can change. Maybe Giggs really has turned over a new leaf and is ready to walk the earth as an ally for women, not as an entitled 52-year-old former footballer, desperate to cling on to the prestige, fame power and attention that comes with playing for a championship-winning football club.

Maybe he really did mean it when he began his monologue, with: “Hello, everyone, I am Ryan Giggs, brand ambassador for F168. Happy Women’s Day.” He certainly meant it when he ended it with: “Don’t forget to have some fun and games at F168.”

So perhaps this is the first step to redemption for Giggs. Admittedly a moral vacuum such as a tax-exile gambling company is an odd place to start clawing back a reputation, but at least it is a start.

Maybe an apology, some education or a donation to a charity would be more appropriate. But F168 it is. You never know, F168 one day, the Sky Sports Super Sunday sofa the next. Fellow former Manchester United idol George Best, who also got into spots of bother with women, was a former Sky employee, so there is hope for Giggs yet.

But hang on a minute. This creepy advert enticing us to gamble (via a VPN, as the site is not accessible in the UK) will not make us forget that Giggs admitted in court that his email threat detailed above was not idle.

The prosecuting lawyer, Peter Knight KC, followed up Giggs’ admission with: “What were you suggesting you could do?” Giggs just said: “I don’t know.”

Maybe he would give the same answer if we asked why the hell he put his name to such a tone-deaf attempt at a reinvention.

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It was only Defence Force FC, the champions of the Trinidad and Tobago Premier Football League, but for Manchester City-bound Cavan Sullivan it still marked a big milestone.

Two goals in a 7-0 home win for Philadelphia Union, Sullivan’s current club, were the first in senior football for a 16-year-old attempting to live up to his billing as one of the world’s best young talents.

It says much about the hype surrounding him that the attacking midfielder already has a clutch of lucrative endorsement deals, including a tie-up with Adidas that has seen him collaborate with his idol Lionel Messi.

Sullivan for Sullivan

15-year-old Cavan Sullivan subs on for brother Quinn. pic.twitter.com/7P2U3Y13KS

— Major League Soccer (@MLS) April 6, 2025

His progress has been tracked on an Apple TV mini-series and he is the youngest debutant in the history of the MLS.

But with the clock ticking down on his move to the Premier League at the end of 2027, this probably needs to be a breakthrough year if he is to meet those sky high expectations.

“He’s absolutely got the talent,” says Jonathan Tannenwald, The Philadelphia Inquirer‘s football writer.

He is close to Sullivan’s family and has monitored his progress since the first whispers that the club were hothousing a “special talent”.

“What we don’t know yet – or we have only seen in glimpses – is whether he can do it against guys twice his age.”

‘Sullivan won’t be the next Adu’

Alongside the hype there has been scepticism.

It is incredibly tricky to predict the trajectory of wonderkids.

Freddy Adu, hailed as the next Pele when he emerged at the age of 14 only to become a journeyman in Europe’s lower leagues, remains a cautionary tale.

“He won’t be the next Adu,” Tannenwald says.

“The infrastructure of the league, the coaching staff, the academy structure, the education and support is on another level from what it was 21 years ago.”

A major signing coup

City – who have invested more than £3.5m in the deal – continue to monitor his progress closely and invited him to Manchester in the summer to train with their under-23s.

They beat off competition from Borussia Dortmund and Eintracht Frankfurt, as well as a clutch of rival Premier League clubs, to persuade his family that they were the right place for his development.

In an illustration of the meticulous work that goes into their academy recruitment, they presented “incredible” data that benchmarked Sullivan against other players of his age and showed him why they wanted him.

City’s highly-regarded director of recruitment Sam Fagbemi was personally involved in a signing that insiders believed was a sizeable coup.

With US interest in the sport taking off, there would be huge commercial benefits for City if Sullivan fulfiled his promise and became a Premier League regular in Manchester.

Great expectations

But that pipedream was always going to collide with reality at some point.

As part of the negotiations Sullivan, with City’s blessing, opted to stay in the US and sign his first professional contract with Philadelphia.

The alternative was to be farmed out to SK Lommel, the second division Belgian outfit that are part of the City Group network but there was a belief that staying close to his family – who have a long history in professional sports and football – would be a huge benefit.

So far he has played 15 times but Tannenwald says the expectation was that it would be more.

He earned plaudits in the under-17 World Cup though couldn’t break into the Union first team.

This season promises to be different, with Sullivan seen as potentially a key man in a reshaped Philadelphia squad.

There is a clause in the original agreement that allowed City to pull him out of the MLS club early if he was pulling up trees but with more first-team opportunities next season, it is highly unlikely that will be triggered.

Instead the hope is that he becomes Philadelphia’s main man before getting experience of European football with one of City’s partner clubs.

After that, he either excels at the Etihad or is sold off for a tidy profit.

The next 12 months might tell us much about which route he is going to go down.

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RACECOURSE GROUND – Something Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney did not bargain for when they attempted their Hollywood epic in north Wales was just how unpopular Wrexham are becoming.

Of course, much of the vitriol coming their way has more than a tinge of envy. From total obscurity to the cusp of the Premier League is already a blockbuster tale. What they have created, and how they have gone about doing it, however, has already fast-tracked their superficial status to that of the supervillain, over the all-conquering hero, in many eyes.

Billed as a FA Cup giant-killing, box-office smash, Wrexham came up agonisingly short as Chelsea needed extra time to secure a spot in the quarter-finals at a raucous Racecourse Ground. But this was no ordinary David and Goliath tussle, despite what the billboards said.

10-man Wrexham think they've equalised deep into extra-time against Chelsea but the goal is judged offside by VAR

@tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/mzlQbb0H7b

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) March 7, 2026

Being in attendance at a buoyant Racecourse only added to the feeling that, especially for the traditionalists among us, there is something overly-manufactured, even unsavoury about what is happening in north Wales.

“How far have you travelled today?” one interviewer asked outside the stadium pre-match.

“I live just over there,” came the reply from a rather less zealous supporter in red. Not what the excitable American had wanted to hear.

While the numbers have obviously swelled as interest in this struggling Welsh town has gathered momentum, there remains a core support within the Racecourse who have been there long before the dollars poured in.

As Chelsea initially laboured under great pressure on a bitter Saturday evening, Wrexham supporters stayed true to their roots with their jibes: “Are you Chester in disguise?” A team who used to be their wealthy, bourgeois rivals.

When Wrexham stormed into a second-half lead, however, another terrace chant summed up the bizarre circumstances we found ourselves in: “You’re only here to see the Wrexham.”

To have American broadcasting behemoths like Bleacher Report and Fox News competing for time with half-cut Welshmen outside, what five years ago, was a non-league ground, is just part of the furore, here and across the Atlantic, Reynolds and McElhenney have started. Chelsea, one of the most glamorous elite Premier League clubs, were hardly discussed. Everyone really was here to see the Wrexham.

Flight trackers flooded social media pre-match, checking that their star-studded overlords would be in their box, high in the Mold Road Stand. Blake Lively hanging onto her billionaire husband only increased the need for more cameras and microphones being pointed towards them than the action itself.

There was still plenty of minnows-against-top-flight elite feel about the occasion. A cramped press room full-to-bursting. Free FA Cup shirt-sleeve badges handed out. Programmes sold out an hour before kick off.

That is where labelling Wrexham alongside any of their lower-league peers ends.

While the obvious parallels between this encounter and the defeat of Arsenal in 1992 dominated the pre-match discourse, that team, led by Mickey Thomas, was a world away from a club who had United Airlines as its shirt sponsor in League Two. Or a team who generated £14m in revenue in League One. Or one who has a net spend of £35m this season in the Championship, double that of any opponent.

The project has done wonders for the wider area. Tourism, jobs, stadium redevelopment, new training facilities, a town and its people enjoying a mood shift of grandest proportions. The benefits for the owners, with Welcome to Wrexham season five starting soon on Disney+ and Reynolds and McElhenney, rather controversially, on Sky Sports co-comms for the Welsh derby clash with Swansea City on Friday – conflict of interest, anyone? – far outweigh the social byproducts of the success.

On this weekend five years ago, a few days before Reynolds and McElhenney’s investment was confirmed, Wrexham were playing Sutton United, behind closed Covid doors, in a stadium that had 750 seats. The match ended 0-0.

Taking Chelsea to extra time, so early into their project, is way beyond Reynolds and McElhenney’s wildest dreams. The owners gushed with pride after the match. As they made their way onto their luxury transportation, supporters climbed fences, no matter how dangerous, numbering in their hundreds, begging for autographs, desperate to express their gratification.

“You promised me a hug,” a rather delirious female supporter screamed – one of the few promises the pair have not followed through with. This “Hollywood script”, swiftly becoming football’s most tiresome moniker, is still only in its infancy. Whether we like it or not.

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