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An abridged Premier League weekend thanks to a Monday night fixture and two FA Cup semi-finals, but plenty of moves made and positions that matter continue to bunch up.

Arsenal carried on Arsenalling, a set-piece goal in a tight victory to go back to the top. Tottenham won for the first time in the league in 2026 but then saw their move matched by West Ham and Nottingham Forest to leave us as we were at the bottom. Forest’s scoreline was surely the most surprising of the season.

The other huge point of interest are the European places, a tussle potentially extending all the way down to Crystal Palace, 13th but with a game in hand. And the chances of the Premier League having six Champions League places just went up…

Here is one piece of analysis on each of the top flight clubs who played this weekend (in reverse table order)…

This weekend’s results

• Fulham 1-0 Aston Villa
• Liverpool 3-1 Crystal Palace
• West Ham 2-1 Everton
• Wolves 0-1 Tottenham
• Arsenal 1-0 Newcastle

Wolves’ leading issue

We know what Adam Armstrong is. Anyone who signs Adam Armstrong knows what he is. Heck, even Adam Armstrong must know what he is.

Armstrong has scored seven goals in 98 career Premier League appearances. In the Championship since August 2020, he has scored 63 goals in 131 appearances. So when Wolves signed him in January for £7m and sold Jorgen Strand Larsen, it was clearly with one eye on next season.

As with Rob Edwards, however, impressions towards the end of this season matter. And Armstrong isn’t just failing to score; he’s failing to take the chances that have come his way and failing to have many shots at all. In 816 minutes in the league, he’s had just 13 shots of any kind and managed a total of 0.13 xG per 90 minutes played. The question: do you trust this to just click into place back in the Championship given Armstrong is now 29?

Positives and negatives for Tottenham

Only the results matter. With Forest and West Ham winning, failing to beat the worst team in the Premier League would surely have consigned Tottenham to relegation. Now they have a chance. From green shoots, trees can grow quickly.

But we are still allowed to dwell upon the negatives. Dominic Solanke and Xavi Simons, Roberto De Zerbi’s first-choice striker and creator, left the field with injuries. More importantly, Spurs looked perfectly pleasant in possession but hardly offered any goal threat from open play.

Palhinha wins it at Molineux pic.twitter.com/F1JgnG2Xdx

— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) April 25, 2026

Obvious statements: Tottenham have to avoid defeat at Villa given the other results and they will need to be far more inventive to do so. For now there is still light, even if it is only a flicker. Richarlison and Lucas Bergvall might be two of their defining players now.

West Ham’s unlikely saviour

Crysencio Summerville and Jarrod Bowen are brilliant. Matheus Fernandes has been exceptional since moving slightly higher up the pitch. West Ham signed two strikers in January and both have contributed. But if they stay up this season, they will thank Callum Wilson more than most.

Wilson looked like he was leaving in January (there was talk of a move to Leicester City, which is a sliding doors moment for both clubs). But why would you want to lose him, when even as third choice his goals have been worth seven points?

Wilson has played 1,084 league minutes and scored six times. That minutes-per-goal ratio puts him in the same ballpark as every Premier League player this season bar Erling Haaland, Igor Thiago and Eli Junior Kroupi.

Nottingham Forest’s magic trick

Given Tottenham and West Ham’s results, Nottingham Forest ended the weekend in roughly the same place they began it. And yet it hardly feels like it given the margin of victory at Sunderland an unbeaten run that now stands at eight matches in all competitions.

The magic trick? Two strikers. At half-time against Burnley, Vitor Pereira took off a winger (Dilane Bakwa) and brought on a striker (Igor Jesus). He put Morgan Gibbs-White in a position best described as “left 10”, nominally a wide player but told to find space infield.

The cherry on top from Elliot Anderson! pic.twitter.com/vW3JPTrG8N

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) April 24, 2026

Since then, Gibbs-White has scored four goals and assisted another in three halves of football and Forest have scored nine goals. Chris Wood occupies central defenders and his movement is excellent, creating space for Jesus (who looks revitalised with a strike partner). Keep this up and Forest will not go down.

Newcastle’s £120m headache

Last summer, in a recruitment process that we know Eddie Howe was a large part of, Newcastle spent £120m on two forwards that they believed could replace Alexander Isak. There have been injuries, but it is the end of April and the only game that Yoane Wissa and Nick Woltemade have started together was at home to Bournemouth in the FA Cup.

Howe has to change that. He may feel that William Osula is his best striker option right now, but a) that hardly paints his own recruitment in a good light and b) Newcastle cannot afford to have two expensive forwards on the bench. It is not as if Osula in the team without the other two has provoked a vast improvement in attacking quality.

Nick Pope receives a yellow card for this challenge on Gyokeres pic.twitter.com/MdcimH1Tg5

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) April 25, 2026

If Howe wants to keep his job beyond this season, the next few weeks are an audition for what might happen in 2026-27. With so many other areas of the squad needing surgery this summer and with key players likely to be sold, Howe surely has to try Woltemade off Wissa to create some better vibes for both players?

Crystal Palace can’t finish their dinner

You will never guess what; Crystal Palace played pretty well against Liverpool. They conceded to a few half-chances and they failed to take a couple of more presentable opportunities that they created themselves. Jean-Philippe Mateta was twice guilty.

This is the story of Palace’s domestic season, really: a good football team that failed to maximise the periods in which they are on top because they don’t finish their dinner in front of goal. Only Wolves, Burnley and Sunderland have scored fewer times this season. Only Wolves have scored with a lower percentage of their shots than Palace.

Unsurprisingly, Palace also have the worst record for goals vs expected goals (by an absolute mile) and for the difference between the number of goals scored and big chances missed (-21).

Le Bris rumours prove unhelpful for Sunderland

Last week, there was a media rumour that Regis Le Bris’ position as Sunderland manager could come under pressure if the club fail to qualify for Europe. The Black Cats quickly moved to deny anything of the sort, but you wonder whether it played into the club’s shambolic defensive performance on Friday evening.

Le Bris has done a phenomenal job here, but will also know that he cannot lose control of this season. Sunderland rank 17th in the Premier League over their last 20 and 25 matches; their fabulous start to the campaign has carried them through.

In that context, Le Bris overseeing Sunderland’s joint heaviest margin of home defeat in the club’s history came at an inopportune time. It would be nice to see the club publicly back him and create a little serenity before the final weeks of the season.

Do Everton have an April problem?

After Everton lost late against Liverpool and late again against West Ham to dampen the mood of prospective European qualification, supporters were quick to point out that, for all the progress of this season, there is a chance the Toffees could finish in roughly the same position as 2024-25.

It also begs an interesting question (particularly given the same has been said of Mikel Arteta at the top of the table): does David Moyes struggle in the month of April, when things get real?

Over his last 21 April Premier League fixtures, a run stretching back to 2021, Moyes has taken only 24 points. It is a far lower rate than his season average and, if it continues, it is going to annoy Everton fans.

All hail Fulham’s four weeks of madness

The Premier League’s middle pack is often congested, but the increase in European places (and this season could be unprecedented) has changed the rules of engagement. These “other” clubs are not only competing for prize money. At least one of them is going to make Europe and their inconsistency makes it impossible to get a handle on the whole thing.

Fulham are the perfect example. Before Saturday, they were winless and goalless in three successive matches and the fanbase was getting itchy about Marco Silva’s potential long goodbye and another season that promised plenty and ended in perceived mediocrity. Fulham have finished 10th, 13th and 11th since promotion.

About yesterday. pic.twitter.com/6SvXvd8xZL

— Fulham Football Club (@FulhamFC) April 26, 2026

And Fulham are 10th again, only this time that puts them potentially two points off a Champions League spot and level on points with one team who will reach the Conference League. The mood turns with one win. Which is silly this far into a season, but I’m here for it.

Why everyone wants Aston Villa to win

It doesn’t really matter to Aston Villa whether they finish third, fourth or fifth (although Unai Emery will obviously be urging them to finish as high as possible). They are eight points ahead of sixth and that margin is surely not going to be overturned by anyone below them.

But for all of those clubs – and sixth to 12th are currently separated by four points – Villa’s Premier League form really does matter. Because if Villa win the Europa League (and they are favourites to do so) and finish fifth (a position they currently occupy), sixth place will qualify for the Champions League.

It creates a bizarre situation: supporters of Brighton, Chelsea, Brentford, Bournemouth, Everton, Sunderland and Fulham will all be cheering on Villa in the Europa League and cheering on their opponents in the Premier League.

Liverpool fans protest against ticket price increases

“You greedy bastards, enough is enough,” sang the Anfield crowd, plenty of them holding up yellow cards in protest at the move from owners Fenway Sports Group to put up season ticket prices again.

And good on those supporters. It’s always the same: football clubs talk up the importance of their home atmosphere as a genuine difference maker to team performance. And then they price out that grassroots support quite deliberately. And then, when form turns for the worse, they urge that they need the supporters to help them.

Make no mistake: the emotional blackmail about PSR and everyone having to help out is nonsense. Ticket revenue is a small percentage of the whole. If costs go up, there is one party capable of swallowing it (the club) and one who really can’t (the long-term season ticket holders). This isn’t a dilemma; it’s a choice.

Arsenal are doing it their way

The supposition was that the title race potentially coming down to goal difference might be a good thing for Arsenal. With their previous matches being uber-tense and uber-tight, margins reduced and set pieces becoming the only likely source of attacking joy, this gave Arteta a get out. He wouldn’t be sacrificing his principles; he’d simply be adapting to the needs of the situation by being more attacking to seek an advantage.

That did not happen against Newcastle, a team in no form at all who had conceded two or more goals in each of their previous four matches. Arsenal scored from a corner routine – setting a new Premier League record in the process – and largely refused to test Newcastle’s resolve from that point onward. They were fortunate for Newcastle’s own profligacy.

What a BEAUTY from Eberechi Eze! pic.twitter.com/lnqt3aBni8

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) April 25, 2026

Perhaps the plan is to win every game their way and hope Manchester City stumble. Perhaps they will be more expansive against Burnley and score enough goals to pip City. But Arsenal have now gone seven games without scoring more than one goal. Which is an interesting vibe when the title might come down to how many you’re scoring.

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Here we go again. Let’s all laugh at Manchester City supporters, who cannot even fill half of Wembley for a cup semi-final. What a tin pot club. If it’s not the Emptihad, it’s another stadium with plastic on view.

Manchester United supporters, often of the internet variety, love to join in the vitriol. It would never happen to them, of course, who could fill the whole of Wembley 10 times over, whatever the occasion.

The reality is that it is remarkable City sold as many tickets as they did, for what was their 23rd appearance at the home of football in less than 10 seasons. Next month’s FA Cup final will be their third trip to Wembley in seven weeks.

Think about that for a second. A return train. Often a hotel as matches kick off too late to make any public transport home. Even without touching a drop of alcohol, you are talking towards £500 for accommodation, transport and a match ticket.

Semi-finals should not be played at the national stadium. You and I both know that. Dragging thousands of fans from Manchester or Leeds down to London, on the same weekend of the marathon, is way beyond the illogical.

Nico Gonzalez scores a stunning goal, and it could be a huge moment at Wembley

Watch live on TNT Sports and HBO Max pic.twitter.com/llUcAmH8tu

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) April 25, 2026

So when seasoned City followers choose to skip one mammoth journey, against a Championship side, ridiculing a largely working-class Mancunian fanbase for not being able to afford to travel down south again is sickening.

What people forget is that City’s match-going fanbase is not anything like the size of their behemoth northern rivals Manchester United or Liverpool.

It was not so long ago Maine Road hosted League One football, before the Abu Dhabi takeover of the club, and Pep Guardiola’s era of total dominance.

Their global audience is growing all the time – that’s what endless success does. The demographic of those visiting the Etihad on a weekly basis is noticeably different than it was a decade ago. Trophies put you in a position to drive revenues like never before.

Those who follow the team to Wembley, in the regular seats are, largely, the traditional Mancunian matchgoers. Finals will get those flying in from overseas for the day trip, but not a last-four tussle with Southampton.

Therefore, numbers were always going to be a struggle on Saturday. What we should be doing is commending the 25,000-plus who made the arduous journey down to London, again, using whatever disposable income they had left.

Leeds United supporters travelled down in their droves for Sunday’s semi-final against Chelsea, as they looked to reach the FA Cup final for the first time in 53 years. Yet, as of last week, the only train fares home left were in first class and would set another mainly working-class fanbase back upwards of £250, one way. When will it stop?

No true football fan should ever ridicule others for not attending matches. If those angry keyboard warriors, who more often than not have no idea the costs involved in following teams week after week, really want to target their ire at someone, there is the easiest of alternatives.

Read more

• Pete Hall: I am concerned Phil Foden is finished forever
• Pete Hall: I went in search of Mark Goldbridge – and found why Gary Neville paid him millions

Empty Wembley seats have to be a wake-up call to the authorities. If Saturday’s victory was at Villa Park, or fairer for Saints supporters too, it would have been packed to the rafters, making for a vibrant atmosphere a soulless, half-full Wembley could only dream of.

Guardiola even acknowledged that the numbers in the stands had dwindled in a light-hearted exchange with journalists after another Wembley win.

“They will be here for the final, don’t worry about that.” He is not wrong there. But let’s not make fun of those who cannot do it every other week.

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WEMBLEY — He had everything in place to be the greatest England player of all time. Talent in abundance. Under the tutelage of the greatest manager in history. Part of various Manchester City teams who belong in the pantheon of the Premier League greats.

Instead Phil Foden, at a juncture in his career when he should be approaching his footballing peak, should not be even anywhere near England’s World Cup squad this summer – never mind the starting XI.

As Pep Guardiola shuffled his pack for City’s FA Cup semi-final clash with Southampton, Foden was given a rare start. He needed to show an element of sabre-rattling, some semblance of being capable of any form of renaissance, after a second successive season of a few highs but a myriad of lows.

Yet, as domestic treble-chasing City stormed to a record fourth successive FA Cup final with a hard-earned 2-1 victory, Foden could only watch on from the sidelines as Nico Gonzalez slammed home the stunning winner. He had been hauled off 12 minutes into the second half, having offered zero threat, zero guile and most unsettlingly of all, no desire to have any effect on the game at all.

Why his alarming decline is so concerning is we know he can still do it. In late November, early December, Foden plundered six goals in five games, his sensational late winner against Leeds the standout. This is the Roy of the Rovers character he always threatened to be for City, deciding crucial games with jaw-dropping individual moments of brilliance.

He hasn’t scored since in 25 appearances. Many of those appearances have been late substitute cameos, which is telling in itself. Guardiola simply does not trust this once generational talent at the time of year when results matter most.

It isn’t for want of trying on Guardiola’s part. Foden has been his pet project in Manchester ever since he arrived a decade ago. As soon as he laid eyes on the Stockport Iniesta, he knew the phenom he had at his disposal.

Despite everyone else telling him that a young Foden should have gone out on loan to learn his trade as he struggled to hold down a regular first-team spot early in his City career, Guardiola kept his fledgling talent on the training ground – no better place to learn, under the watch of the figure who has had the most transformative influence on English football.

Even in the campaign when he reached optimum level two years ago, his stunning strike against West Ham clinching City the title, and Foden the PFA Player of the Year gong, Guardiola made sure to keep laying down challenges. He would insist even after his best performances that his midfield maestro needed more pausa to become complete.

Two successive seasons of nothing gives Foden the unwanted honour of being the only major project Guardiola has failed to see through.

“It is a question of time, playing more,” Guardiola said after City’s comeback victory at Wembley. “He [Foden] was not bad. It was not easy for him in the first half because we were playing in the pockets, in his position he was man-marked. It’s not easy to find him.

“Always you expect one connection with Rayan [Cherki] in the first half, always good passes. It is a question of time”.

Read more

• Michael Hincks: Man City are getting cocky – if this can’t fuel Arsenal, nothing will
• The i Paper Team: Will Arsenal bottle the title race? Our football experts’ predictions

Time is, however, running out. Mentally, it appears Foden’s slump is taking its toll. This isn’t just a severe bout of the yips. That wouldn’t last two years.

Perhaps a change of manager will do Foden good, if Guardiola does choose to leave in the summer. Not because the Catalan has done anything wrong in tutoring Foden, but something needs to change to reignite the fire within.

Maybe even a summer switch away from his boyhood club is the answer. It simply cannot go on like this.

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Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-1 Tottenham Hotspur (Palhinha 82′)

MOLINEUX STADIUM – The prospect of this being a Championship fixture next season was unthinkable in September, when a third-placed Tottenham Hotspur drew with bottom-club Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Now Tottenham are desperately fighting to prevent that from becoming the case, a gritty 1-0 win their first in the Premier League of 2026, and only secured thanks to a worldie Antonin Kinsky save keeping out Joao Gomes’ free-kick in the final minute.

A rare victory, then, and one only slightly soured by the fact relegation rivals West Ham United won against Everton as well.

It means Spurs remain in the Premier League relegation zone with four games to go, but their prospects are brighter than they were at 4.15pm on Saturday – when there was a four-point gap between themselves in 18th and West Ham in 17th.

At that point, Wolves fans revelled in singing “You’re going down with the Wanderers…” and “Premier League you’re having a laugh…”, but it was then Spurs supporters basking in the Wolverhampton sun after Joao Palhinha bundled the ball in from a corner in the 82nd minute.

And, what a shock, that is what can happen when you put corners in the box.

Somehow, in this game of probabilities, Spurs opted to send a first-half corner to the edge of the area, where Pedro Porro met the ball thinking he was Paul Scholes. The volley was as high as it was wide and a reminder the Spurs full-back does not quite boast the technique of the ex-Manchester United midfielder.

So when Spurs did find the breakthrough, it arrived in basic fashion, a messy corner resulting in Palhinha poking home the loose ball.

Few saw it coming. Spurs had look clueless in attack, had lost both Dominic Solanke and Xavi Simons to injury either side of half-time, and utterly lacked a creative spark with a starting midfield of Rodrigo Bentancur, Conor Gallagher and Yves Bissouma.

Sometimes then you just have to put it in the mixer. It wasn’t pretty, but it doesn’t matter.

West Ham winning means the gap remains two points, and going forward the main worry for Spurs will be that no club they face after this – Aston Villa, Leeds United, Chelsea and Everton – are quite as bad as already-relegated Wolves.

The second worry: injuries. Again. Solanke hobbling off and Simons going off on a stretcher – sparking ACL fears ahead of the World Cup – means Spurs will have to limp their way over the line. If that is without Simons, then it is without their most creative outlet.

And at this rate, now onto 34 points to West Ham’s 36, the 40-point mark may not be so magic. West Ham were relegated with a record-high 42 points back in 2003. It’s unlikely that will be required this time, but it could be close.

And for Spurs, Saturday was a reminder of what they must fight to avoid. They have become the team everyone wants to lose, and should they drop down to the Championship, they would become the club every other second-tier club desperately wants to beat.

It would be relentless, and not merely because of the schedule, as 46 times they would face teams who would nothing more than contributing to their spiral.

They have four games to avoid that. It is out of their hands, but by going back to basics, they have a chance.

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ROCHDALE — The only way to sum up the most astonishing end to a football season you could ever imagine? One set of supporters stormed onto the pitch to celebrate the goal that won them a title and promotion. And they were not the club that got promotion or won the title. Confused? I’m still processing it too.

The end result, I think we can at least conclude now, is that York City are back in the Football League. They are a club that went through dark years, relegations, financial crises and unpopular owners. Even those felt less stressful than the last 20 minutes on Saturday lunchtime, when their world turned upside down and back.

“So please, be tolerant of those who describe a sporting moment as their best ever,” wrote Nick Hornby in Fever Pitch, a necessary textbook in everybody’s football education “We do not lack imagination, nor have we had sad and barren lives; it is just that real life is paler, duller, and contains less potential for unexpected delirium.”

Hornby was writing about Arsenal’s title win over Liverpool after a final-day, winner-takes-all shootout in 1989. There have been similar instances since with both teams having already secured promotion. But Saturday was the first time in England’s top five men’s divisions in 37 years that everything was on the line on the final day.

OH MY WORD

YORK HAVE EQUALISED IN THE 102ND MINUTE TO WIN PROMOTION

Watch LIVE NOW at https://t.co/17IGNhwWu5 pic.twitter.com/GSexKSCwht

— National League on DAZN (@DAZN_NationalLg) April 25, 2026

And it delivered a denouement of the most outrageous quality, live sport at its genuine best. It would be impossible to design a better final-day scenario. It would be impossible to imagine a more sensational end to it. They left Spotland shaking, whether they supported either team or were there as a neutral observer.

Rochdale had largely laboured, failing to have a shot on target when second-half stoppage time was announced at six minutes. In the fifth of those, a deep cross to the head of Mani Dieseruvwe. Rochdale needed one goal to be in the Football League and they had it. Cue invasion number one.

Then a 15-minute delay and the desperate attempts of home supporters to get their peers from the playing surface and allow the final moments to play out for the proper celebrations to begin. In the Pearl Street Stand, they congregated around the pitch and waited for the three whistles that would declare their dream real.

And then the madness happened: crosses, shots, saves, blocks, all in the space of 15 seconds. A shot from Josh Stones, his umpteenth of the match. A desperate defensive dive to clear it off the line. An entire stadium turning their eyes to the assistant referee; there is no goalline technology here. One yellow flag waved in the air. One ludicrous twist of fate. One club going up at the expense of another.

The numbers of the National League title race were already extraordinary. York City had taken 107 points, scored 113 goals and had a +73 goal difference and promotion was still not secured. Rochdale had 105 points and a chance.

In recent weeks, the tussle has become farcical thanks to Rochdale’s run of late winning goals: 99th, 90th and 97th minute in their last three league wins. Last weekend, York waited on the pitch to celebrate before the news filtered through. They can hardly moan; York have scored 30 goals after the 80th minute this season. More silliness.

There is something particularly titillating about an old football ground on uniquely important days, like a village church full for midnight mass. When I last came to Spotland (and I will always call it that), a 4-1 win over Boreham Wood in February, there were 2,356 in attendance. Saturday lunchtime was a 7,200 sellout.

Read more

• Daniel Storey: Blackburn Rovers are having an existential crisis
• Daniel Storey: How Hull City made the data nerds look silly

We must extrapolate this further; it merits appreciation. In no other football nation would a fifth-tier sporting fixture raise this level of interest or audience. The average attendance of half the clubs in France’s second tier is lower than Saturday’s crowd. The football pyramid – its depth, its tradition, its enduring popularity – is England’s greatest cultural asset. Its future should be protected as such.

It is impossible not to wish York City well; they were the division’s top scorers, the better team on Saturday and somehow drew upon reserves of strength after going behind so late that I cannot begin to envisage possessing. That is the most astonishing aspect of a ridiculous day: they were psychologically buried and broken. And still they came back.

But goodness you hope that Rochdale can pick themselves up to navigate the play-offs. Careers change on days such as these; clubs find new eras. Rochdale have been through plenty enough for one lifetime. They looked redemption in the eye and it headbutted them back. How do you get over something like this so quickly?

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My Sporting Life is The i Paper’s look behind the curtain at what drives sports stars to greatness. James Milner is the Premier League’s record appearance-holder, winning three titles and one Champions League across spells with Manchester City and Liverpool. He also won 61 England caps, featuring at two World Cups and two European Championships. At 40, he is still playing for Brighton & Hove Albion.

I couldn’t lift my foot for six months

Last year was the closest I came [to retirement], in terms of not being able to lift my foot for six months. At my age and the injury I had, but that sort of drove me on really to be able to come back from something like that at my age. That’s probably carried me through my career in terms of ‘I’ll show you, you don’t rate me, I’ll prove you wrong’. It’s going to end at some point. Football changes very quickly.

How I stay fit at 40

We’re very fortunate how we get looked after, sports science-wise and physios. After training I’d do extras every single day into my early 30s, then you get to a certain age and you have to adapt a bit. Your training gets adapted in terms of the amount of distance you’re covering, because I’ve always been one of the players who does the most distance. Then there’s that scientific side, getting treatment, doing your extra gym stuff, making sure your body’s getting the extra work in the gym to protect yourself from injuries – ice baths, recovery, eating the right things, making sure you’re getting your fluids, sleep.

It’s not really having a day off in terms of being a footballer. You can have days off in your rest days, but in terms of thinking what you’re doing, when’s the next meal, when’s my next game? There are hard times when you’re on holiday with the family and you’ve got to leave around the pool to go and do a session.

The Premier League won’t stay like this for long

This period right now is more set pieces and a certain style, but football goes through fashions and three or four years it’ll change again. Teams might go back to playing one small striker one big striker, it might be five at the back. Because we look at other teams and who’s been successful, teams will start doing that and this is the phase we’re in for this season. It doesn’t mean that it’s going to be the same next year. If you look back through football, it’s always had those changes and formations and things teams are doing. That’s this season, I don’t think it’ll go on in that certain way.

I can’t decide if I want to be a manager

It gives you a buzz to go out and coach, but then on the other side, the pressure and the amount of leeway you get as a manager, you can be doing really well with new contracts and then you’re sacked six weeks later because you can’t win a game. It’s pretty relentless and ruthless. I think my opinion on coaching changes every day. One day I’ll think it’ll be a great idea and others not.

I’m old enough to be the Brighton players’ dad

There’s quite a few players here old enough to be my son. I suppose in my world, I’m pretty old. It’s important for me to try and understand them. We have a lot of players from different parts of the world, different personalities. As you get older, you become more patient if someone’s not doing something they should be – it’s not just ‘give them a rollicking’. It’s ‘what’s the reason?’ Does he not understand? Is he missing back home? Are we not being clear enough how we show him?

My one regret

I got relegated with Leeds. It’s your hometown club, and I only get a chance to play for two seasons. The year before I made my debut we’d got to the Champions League semi-final. Maybe if I could have been born a year earlier, I’d have been involved in that. Maybe I wasn’t good enough – [Arsenal’s] Max [Dowman] playing at 15, I was 15 and a half at that point so maybe I should have been better at that age to get involved in the Champions League. But being relegated with Leeds is a big regret.

I wouldn’t still be playing if I hadn’t retired from England duty

It was definitely the right moment to step away [in 2016]. I went to a major tournament and was playing well with my club and didn’t play too much in the tournament. Sam [Allardyce] took over, I’d played with Sam, he didn’t say ‘we don’t want you’, or anything like that. It was an open honest conversation. It just felt like the right time to do it. Then Gareth [Southgate] took over and after that, asked me to come back but by that point I’d already committed. I had no regrets.

I wouldn’t be playing now if I hadn’t done that. Also for the England team, in terms of taking up a squad spot and being a good traveller when younger players can come in and take that spot. I’ve never really missed it since that moment, so that’s a nice thing for me that I was in control of that. It was a major honour playing for England and going to World Cups and Euros, but since that I had a successful time in my club career and still going now, so I think it was the right thing to do.

The advice Jurgen Klopp gave me

Jurgen always said to me, whatever you do next, I think you need a break after you finish. I feel like the intensity I’ve been at for such a long time, that’s something that’s important to have a break, see the family a bit more than I have. Jurgen, as an all-round manager, as a man, he could give you a rocket, or around him you were a bit nervous, but also I could go up and have a joke and a laugh with him.

The ‘Boring James Milner’ Twitter account was good fun 

I quite like the boring tag, to be honest. It means people don’t know a lot about me. I wasn’t on social media at the time. and it was just obviously a bit of craic, then when I started doing social media I thought it was good fun to jump on the bandwagon.

James Milner has been working with Specsavers’ Best Worst Team campaign, bringing grassroots football back to the forefront of the game.

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Andre Onana could be about to make his stay in Turkey permanent as two clubs look to seal a permanent switch for the Manchester United loanee.

Onana is on loan at Trabzonspor in the Turkish Super Lig, where he has impressed after a disappointing time in the Premier League.

The i Paper understands, as a result, Trabzonspor are hoping to make the Cameroon international’s stay permanent, while Turkish giants Besiktas are also understood to be interested.

At this stage, it is unclear what both would be willing to pay. United would look to recruit some transfer fee, given the club splurged £50m on the Cameroonian stopper three years ago.

“Onana’s career is already established,” Trabzonspor president Ertugrul Dogan said this week.

“We like him. I’ve said this before. He has a certain plan for his career. If the conditions are right, we want him to stay. The final decision will be Onana’s.”

Onana’s time in Manchester was error-strewn, with his last appearance coming in the embarrassing Carabao Cup defeat to Grimsby in August, when he kept out one penalty in the shootout but couldn’t prevent Ruben Amorim’s side from losing in sudden death.

His efforts in shootouts have drastically improved. On Thursday night his three saves from spot kicks from Lubomir Satka, Marius Mouandilmadji and Yunus Emre Cift helped Trabzonspor overcome rivals Samsunspor after a goalless 120 minutes of football to reach the Turkish Cup semi-finals.

The Turkish club will now face Genclerbirligi on 13 May for the right to play Besiktas or Konyaspor in the final on the last weekend of the season.

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Those closest to Onana harboured the belief that the 30-year-old could still have a future at United, even after his loan spell.

Senne Lammens’ quick assimilation to life in Manchester has put pay to much of those hopes. Onana is due a payrise as a result of United potentially returning to the Champions League next season, which is why the club’s hierarchy are keen to get him off the books.

Turkey international Altay Bayindir is also expected to leave in the summer, with a return to Turkey also likely. Radek Vitek, on loan at Bristol City, is highly regarded and could become understudy at United to Lammens next season. Onana is seen as far too expensive an outlay to sit on the bench.

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