World news

West Ham might have sacked Nuno Espirito Santo in January, when their winless run stretched to 10 games. He might have gone in May, when that pitiful surrender at Newcastle all but condemned them to the second tier. Relegation could have sealed his fate a week later.

At the fourth time of asking, Nuno leaves with West Ham having won fewer than half their Championship games. That is a damning statistic for a side expected to walk the league.

Six months ago, Nuno was hauled before club bosses to fight for his future and somehow pulled it off. The hierarchy were sufficiently impressed that he was trusted to lead their summer overhaul after losing Crysensio Summerville, Mateus Fernandes and El Hadji Malick Diouf.

A break from Brady and Sullivan

Tuesday was the day Nuno finally ran out of answers. There was no explaining away the dire performances in back-to-back home defeats to Southampton and West Brom that have left the promotion favourites eighth, outside the play-offs. A number of players were understood to be unhappy and bewildered by his tactics, a charge which has followed him from job to job.

There are obvious pros and obvious cons to appointing Scott Parker in his place. Nuno’s football was uninspiring in the Premier League and relegation did not change that – even as the biggest club in the division. You imagine Parker will take West Ham up, and probably with a brand of football that is not eye-catchingly different to Nuno’s.

There is merit in leaving the “what next” for now. Parker was loved as a player, respected as a Championship manager and has a relationship with the sporting director, Mark Noble.

The biggest reason for optimism, though, is that West Ham have done what West Ham never do. Graham Potter and Julen Lopetegui lingered on long after it was clear they would be sacked.

David Sullivan and Karren Brady managed to appoint eight permanent managers in 15 years and still fail to act with any purpose when required. For all the talk of West Ham as a big club – particularly at this level – it is a long time since they have acted like one.

They have spent years vacillating and stalling on managers. If is one thing more unforgivable than the abject player recruitment of the past decade and a half, it might just be that.

Parker’s to-do list

Karim Virani, the acting chief executive, has moved in on Nuno with two thirds of the season left to play. Parker’s to-do list is long: West Ham have conceded first in eight of the last 15 games in all competitions. They have conceded 10 goals in the first 20 minutes of matches this season.

He will have a decision to make on leaving Mads Hermansen in goal and how to address a midfield that is being overrun for 45 minutes every week because neither Arne Engels nor Divine Mukasa provide any defensive cover.

Read more

• Championship: Derby County’s form is the least of their worries
• Daniel Storey: West Ham’s future is uncomfortably fragile

He has summer signings overseen by Nils Koppen that have not been consistent, or in the case of Adama Boiro have barely been used at all. West Ham are actually in the top five Championship sides for fewest shots conceded and yet only Millwall have let in so many goals in the top half.

West Ham are not without leaders but both Potter and Nuno fell into the trap of discarding their most experienced players. Tomas Soucek has made one start in the Championship. Within moments of West Ham posting news of Nuno’s departure it had been liked by Edson Alvarez.

Under the previous ownership there was a near-total absence of leadership from above too. Sullivan oversaw 16 years of decay before Daniel Kretinsky’s takeover and West Ham were in serious danger of wasting one more. This will not be viewed as a sign Kretinsky has got everything right – only that West Ham are not coasting anymore.

from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/uGIMUsn

Newcastle 0-1 Everton (Ramsey sent off 90+8 | Barry 49′)

Newcastle United were booed off at St James’ Park for the second successive game.

Let’s be honest – it wasn’t that visceral. Being jeered off implies real anger but what we saw at Newcastle United on Monday night was apathy – and that is much more worrying.

It’s five years since St James’ Park felt as flat as it did against Everton. That was before a takeover that transformed Newcastle United, turning them for a few seasons into a side who would give anyone a bloody nose, especially on Tyneside. But what we witnessed on Monday was a club regressing rapidly and a public not buying what the head coach is selling.

That, as much as the run of four defeats in five games, should be setting alarm bells flashing on the black and white dashboard. It’s not just the back-to-back home losses that are turning people off, it’s Matthias Jaissle’s entire style of football that is coming under increased scrutiny. To put it bluntly – the public are far from convinced, and that’s becoming an unwelcome problem for a hierarchy that are “all in” on a manager they paid more than £9m to extricate from his contract at Al-Ahli.

Yet again it was painful to watch Newcastle attempt to put his “vertical football” philosophy into practice against Everton. This is a team low on confidence and in the first knockings of a big rebuild. But it is a damning indictment that the system they are being asked to play seems to be diminishing them.

Jaissle is vexed by the lack of a natural “six” in his squad, despite Newcastle spending hundreds of millions on midfielders. But his answer against Everton was to play a “double six”, Nico Gonzalez and Joelinton asked to bring the ball from deep and get Newcastle up the pitch quickly.

It had worked well in training, we were told, where optimism was high that there would be a response to last week’s damaging Carabao Cup defeat to the same opponents. But it disintegrated quickly, Newcastle once again setting up in a system that left huge gaps in key areas that Everton were happy to exploit.

It was alarming how quickly things curdled. Long, aimless punts have become a feature in recent weeks and they were played with alarming regularity here – with an accuracy rate of 22 per cent. It’s a record that would make Neil Warnock blush.

Jaissle said afterwards that it wasn’t his plan. He talked in the post-match press conference of the players lacking the bravery to do what they’d spoken about all week and how the performance was unrecognisable from what they’d worked on. But diagnosing the problems is one thing – coming up with a solution for them is another thing entirely. So far the jury is very much out on that one.

Where do Newcastle go from here? The message from the top is that there will be no panic. But the run of games after Saturday’s must-win at Fulham is tortuous – Arsenal at St James’ Park, high-flying Brighton on the South Coast before a midweek visit from Manchester United that might well be under the charge of Eddie Howe by then.

Oh – and then comes a Tyne-Wear derby against Sunderland that already looks like a potential red letter day for the Newcastle manager.

It is unchartered territory for PIF, whose ownership has largely followed an upward trajectory. There has been bouts of mediocrity – last season’s slump under Howe caused disquiet – but their patience is yet to be tested. It is interesting that Jacobo Solis, PIF’s head of European investments and a key Newcastle board member, has remained on Tyneside to carry out meetings over recent days.

There is no desire to rip things up and start again but these are uncomfortable moments for the architects of “Newcastle 2.0”. Sporting director Ross Wilson oversaw a significant rebuild in the summer but most of his big recruitment picks aren’t being utilised by Jaissle. Aladji Bamba – first-team ready, according to sources in the summer – is miles away while Bazoumana Toure got three minutes. They cost a combined £76m.

Read more

• Exclusive: Newcastle squad hold talks with Matthias Jaissle over tactical concerns
• Newcastle: Dan Burn’s desperate cameo exposes Newcastle’s £179m problem

Wilson loaded all his chips on Jaissle, speaking glowingly in September about their initial meetings. They believe he is an elite coach in waiting and for the sporting director this has to work. But there needs to be some robust conversations this week because sooner or later something has to give.

If he wants his team to have more control the criminally under-utilised Sean Steur will surely start at Fulham but the system needs to be tweaked too. Daniel Farke did it last year and turned his Leeds career around. Jaissle needs to follow suit and make Newcastle resemble a Premier League team again.

He said he would “analyse everything” when I asked if he would now tweak things and sacrifice bits of his “vertical football” style. If he is to escape this bout of Tyneside turbulence, he has no other choice.

from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/4wtPQUs

Oli McBurnie feared his chance to terrorise Premier League defences again and end a five-year exile from Scotland duty had gone for good.

He was wrong on both counts, as it turns out, and Hull City are now reaping the benefits of a remarkable renaissance which has fuelled hopes of survival.

McBurnie’s 19 goals fired Sergej Jakirovic’s men to an unlikely promotion last season, with his dramatic late strike securing a 1-0 victory over Middlesbrough in the Championship play-off final.

It was not enough, however, to earn the 30-year-old striker a place in Steve Clarke’s World Cup squad.

New head coach Sebastien Pocognoli, by contrast, selected McBurnie and started him in all four of Scotland’s recent Nations League matches.

McBurnie, who has scored twice in his last two top-flight appearances, tells The i Paper: “There were definitely times when I thought that dream was over – both playing for Scotland again and getting back to the Premier League.

“Five years is a long time but certain things happen and it shows that one good season, and a change of manager, can change everything and you’re back in the fold.

“There were also times when I thought a recall might have come sooner.

“It never did, but being recognised and called up for your country and playing at the top level is what you want to be doing.

“He [Pocognoli] FaceTime’d me asking if I was free and I was just sat at home with the missus and kids.

“He said he’d been watching me and spoke of his plans for me, so it was hard to keep the smile off my face!

“My family were delighted and came up to watch the games at Hampden because everything I do is for my kids.

“I never thought they’d get to see that but they have so that’s been great.

“I was really impressed with the gaffer and learnt a lot – I probably should have had a couple of goals.

“But he started me in all four games and, whatever happens now, I’ll always be grateful for the opportunity to represent my country again.”

McBurnie joined the Tigers on a free transfer in August 2025 after spending the previous season in La Liga with Las Palmas.

The former Sheffield United frontman has flourished under the charismatic Jakirovic, adding: “The gaffer’s man-management is brilliant.

“He knows how to speak to you in every situation, whether that be on the pitch or sometimes it’s not even about football.

“He might just bring you into his office for a chat to crack a joke.

“He’s not a dictator in terms of it being his way or the highway.

“Of course he will go into a match with a gameplan but if it’s not working he’s not afraid to throw it out the window and completely change everything.

“As a group, that suits us and me as a player as well.

“I can play in a couple of different ways but ultimately he’s given me the freedom to go out and play how I want to play by getting into positions to score a goal.

“I’m enjoying dropping in and getting on the ball a bit more and helping make us hard to beat.”

Confounding the critics is fuelling Hull’s push for survival, with McBurnie explaining: “It was probably the easy thing to say that we were going to be the worst Premier League team ever.

“Within our dressing room we’ve always had belief because we deserve to be here.

“Getting off to a good start was vital for us and that’s exactly what we did by beating Man United and Coventry in our first two games.

“We’re happy with where we’re at and we just need to maintain our momentum because we haven’t achieved anything yet.”

Read more

• Big read: The unlikely rise of a Hull City cult hero
• Rival watch: How Sunderland plan to save Regis Le Bris – with January signings ahead

Hull are built on togetherness and McBurnie is certainly not afraid to put his body on the line.

He cracked a rib during the recent 2-2 home draw with Brentford, which left him coughing up blood, and is also nursing a broken finger.

McBurnie adds: “It was a challenge with Aaron Hickey, who I played with for Scotland – and I hope he didn’t actually mean to do it!

“But he caught me right in the solar plexus and, having cracked a rib last year in the Championship, I’ve done it again.

“I told the doc ‘I’m coughing up blood’ but he said ‘it’s alright’, so I just cracked on.

“I broke a finger a couple of weeks earlier against Everton – it snapped in half during a tackle.

“All the boys in the dressing room are cut from the same cloth and since I came here we’ve played through injuries and with injections.”

Reflecting on his journey with Hull and his return to the Scotland fold, McBurnie smiles: “It just shows that you should never stop believing.”

from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/m3LvSFo

Sunderland have staked out their position on under-pressure Regis Le Bris – and believe he still has the backing of the dressing room to turn around the Black Cats’ season.

Sunderland will not be sacking Le Bris and see him as “central” to the club’s plans and ambitions despite a run of form that has seen them lose four of their last five Premier League games and drop to the foot of the table.

The club accept results have been unacceptable and recognise supporter frustration but it’s understood that Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and Florent Ghisolfi are “on the same page” when it comes to Le Bris’ future.

‘Stability’ at the Stadium of Light

There’s a feeling inside Sunderland that the situation is retrievable and “does not feel broken”. The i Paper has been told that senior players and the dressing room are “very much still with him”.

A decision was taken to communicate Sunderland’s position on Le Bris on Monday morning to stave off any speculation about his future. Saturday’s damaging 3-1 defeat at Coventry set alarm bells ringing after similarly limp defeats against Bournemouth and Brighton.

But there is belief that Le Bris remains the right man to turn things around, with the club believing “stability”, “collective responsibility” and a “united approach” are the best response to Sunderland’s issues.

January plans

The i Paper understands that recruitment meetings have taken place recently and the club are prepared to back Le Bris in January if required. Part of the issue is that Sunderland’s summer signings have taken time to bed in – but there’s a feeling that there are signs of green shoots when it comes to Malick Fofana, the Black Cats’ big deadline day capture.

Add to that drops in the level of the likes of Granit Xhaka and Robin Roefs – two key men last term – and the razor thin margins they were coming out on the right side of last season have suddenly swung the other way. Correcting that is going to be key to extricating themselves from trouble – and Sunderland are trusting Le Bris to do it.

It feels like the right call given he has built up substantial credit after a wonderful first season in the Premier League. Results in Europe – and progress into the last eight of the Carabao Cup – are a decent counter-point to woeful domestic form but patience is unlikely to be unlimited.

Louis-Dreyfus has made big calls before when he feels things are not going in the right direction but club sources are adamant that this is different.

The underlying stats

Indeed it’s understood the club are also taking into account advanced performance metrics in their assessment of the season so far. In a reversal of last season – when they far out-stripped their xG for most of the campaign – Sunderland are performing considerably worst than performances and chance creation suggest they should be.

Read more

• Sunderland: Four reasons behind the Black Cats’ slump
• Mark Douglas: How Sunderland plan to fix their second-season syndrome

They are 11th in Opta’s “expected points” table, although the Black Cats track deeper metrics than that. The feeling is that things need to “click” and the fact that the season is only eight games old suggests they need more time.

Sunderland have back-to-back home games against Dinamo Zagreb and Chelsea before the international break and need results in both. A Europa League win would maintain momentum in that competition before a game against a hit-and-miss Blues side that were well-beaten at the Stadium of Light last season.

Part of the reason for Sunderland’s continued backing of Le Bris is that against the better teams this season (think the brave defeats against Arsenal and Manchester City) that have tended to perform well. They need that to happen again this week.

from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/MUEnJBb

This is The Score, a subscriber-only newsletter from The i Paper. If you’d like to get this direct to your inbox, every single week, you can sign up here.

In Anfield’s press room on Sunday afternoon, you could have thrown a medium-sized blanket into the air and covered a decent all-time Premier League team. Alan Shearer and Daniel Sturridge up front, perhaps. Theo Walcott and John Barnes on the wings. Milan Baros and Vladimir Smicer offered a Czech connection. Lee Hendrie and Jason McAteer for your streets-never-forgetting quota.

This only happens at the biggest matches and Liverpool vs Arsenal was Sunday’s only show in town. If that disappointed those eyeing up a full afternoon on the sofa, it was prescient too. A thought dawned as I sat in my seat during the first half.

Manchester City may well not be a Premier League club next season. Manchester United are in their own shame spiral and should be left in a league of one to work it out. Brighton are upstarts for sure, but still only that. Chelsea and Tottenham are in stages of transition and maybe always will be. Neither have finished in the Premier League’s top two since 2017.

Liverpool and Arsenal has never felt like the Premier League rivalry: too late-1980s coded, too steeped in history, too much missing each other and taking it in turns to surge, too many other clubs complicating things with their geographical rivalries.

But this could become its time to shine. Sunday felt seismic. Its importance – either Arsenal making a statement or Liverpool hauling themselves into a title race – hung heavy in the air. The atmosphere was hardly the stuff of fevered vitriol, but there was absolutely a prickly dislike.

Liverpool are their own work in progress, of course. There are still component parts that must improve to match the champions. Milos Kerkez, aka the man who refuses to win a duel, is simply not good enough. Florian Wirtz is still impacting games in a way that just about passes for satisfactory but it’s been 15 months and so many millions and we’re still waiting for a high-profile match to be bent to his will.

Still, we have the makings of something: feistiness, lots of booing and gnashing of teeth, enough talented young attacking players to make it fun for a while, the occasional scrap. If nobody else in the Big Six is going to step up, I could get used to Liverpool and Arsenal properly hating each other.

Are Brighton in the title race?

There are two relatively simple pieces of evidence in the affirmative here: Brighton are third in the Premier League and they have beaten Arsenal and Manchester City without conceding a goal. That alone means Fabian Hurzeler’s team merits being in the wider conversation.

The numbers are phenomenal, too. Nobody has scored more goals than Brighton. Nobody has kept more clean sheets. Nobody has created more big chances. Nobody has scored more set-piece goals. Nobody has won the ball with more regularity in the opposition third of the pitch. They are the real deal.

Of course, there are caveats. The Conference League will get harder in the knockout rounds, eventually. The squad is not as deep as those around them. The shift from a centre forward presence to a fun band of zippy attackers has caught opposition coaches off guard and they may adapt.

But, right now, why would you focus on any reasons to doubt Brighton. They are magnificent and they are magnificent to watch. They are appointment television and that’s enough for me.

Nottingham Forest and the xG problem

Oliver Glasner is now officially in firefighting mode. After Nottingham Forest again created the better chances, again failed to score and again lost, Glasner spoke at length about players needing to buy into his era – and the chance of yet another managerial change at the City Ground if they don’t.

"If it doesn't work, the sixth manager will come in and it will be the same… then the seventh and it'll be the same."

A frustrated Oliver Glasner speaking after Nottingham Forest's 2-0 defeat to Brentford pic.twitter.com/U1XAhT2Gqj

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) October 31, 2026

His entire campaign so far has been baffling. The xG table has Forest third and only three teams have created more big chances, yet Glasner’s group are the lowest scorers in the division. They spectacularly fail to finish their dinner, make individual mistakes in defence and have proven incapable of stopping setbacks ruining the entire game plan.

The problem is that the numbers only hint at what may happen in the future. With the mood in the fanbase eternally chaotic because their club has long matched that vibe, Glasner knows he needs a squad that is fighting to shift what already feels like an ingrained pattern. From what he said at Brentford on Saturday afternoon, the culture within the club is fragmented.

Gameweek 9 highlights

Player of the weekend – Evanilson (Bournemouth)

A brilliant Premier League striker whose form continues to go under the radar as a result of where he plays his football.

Evanilson presses, creates and scores goals, this time for the fourth league game in a row. And Bournemouth have now won six straight games without conceding.

Evanilson has six goals and assists across his last six games for Bournemouth – including three Man of the Match ratings!

Erling Haaland is the only player with more Premier League G/A this season than Evanilson. pic.twitter.com/zFlMwFRni1

— FotMob (@FotMob) October 31, 2026

Goal of the weekend – Julio Enciso (Ipswich Town)

I could have picked either of Ipswich’s goals, but long-rane specialist Julio Enciso wins out.

His quick feet skip him through a melee, before he opens up his body to get the natural curl with his left foot. Woof.

Julio Enciso with the trick then serving up a treat @IpswichTown pic.twitter.com/CY2kJLunQB

— Premier League (@premierleague) October 31, 2026

Villain of the weekend – Lisandro Martinez (Manchester United)

The other week, Lisandro Martinez publicly criticised his club’s hierarchy for a failure to invest adequately in the squad.

Well hear this, pal: you cost £60m, you keep getting injured despite seemingly always being available for Argentina, you have been the worst player in the Premier League so far this season and your lack of discipline is a joke. Jason Wilcox should come out and say it.

Read more: Michael Carrick’s Man Utd reign has turned into a cruel humiliation ritual

Statistic of the weekend

Tottenham Hotspur have won three straight Premier League games for only the second time since December 2023.

The squad is deep enough to be better than so many other Premier League teams and it’s finally showing.

Read more: Tottenham’s £185m engine is driving the De Zerbi revolution

from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/moJQcR4

Liverpool 0-1 Arsenal (Havertz 16′)

ANFIELD — The last time Arsenal won at Anfield, Mikel Arteta got booked. That time, there was definitely no touchline discrimination from match officials because it was 2012 and Arteta was playing for the victors in central midfield. This one took his team clear at the top, again. It’s beginning to feel ominous once more.

Liverpool and Arsenal has never felt like the Premier League rivalry: too late-1980s coded, too steeped in history, too much missing each other and taking it in turns to surge, too many other clubs complicating things with their geographical rivalries.

But this could become its time to shine. Sunday felt seismic. Its importance – either Arsenal making a statement or Liverpool hauling themselves into a title race – hung heavy in the air. The atmosphere was hardly the stuff of fevered vitriol, but there was absolutely a prickly dislike.

Arsenal won because they took a lead, quite simply. You have to go all the way back to February for the last time that Arteta’s team dropped any Premier League points from a winning position and they have led an awful lot of league games since. That was at Molineux, the late 2-2 and mini psychodrama. They don’t even have those much anymore.

They also won because they pressed high and won the ball. If that seemed to surprise Alisson and Jeremy Jacquet, there was a decent excuse. Last season, only Brighton won possession in the final third more often than Arsenal. So far this season, Brighton are still top but Arsenal rank down in eighth. The Gunners have been more circumspect, more controlled. Hence the criticism from the aesthetes.

This was billed as Liverpool’s opportunity to force their way into a title race and they fell short. Andoni Iraola’s side tested Arsenal before half-time, rattling a crossbar and Arteta’s resolve. Arsenal’s manager simultaneously called for calm while screaming at the top of his voice. Declan Rice did his own version of the same act after a short passing failure.

Liverpool’s problem? They proceeded to get worse rather than better. The introductions from the bench only made their attack more piecemeal and fragmented, as if scoring an equaliser had to come in the style of the final challenge on Supermarket Sweep. They needed composure, not a mad mass of ingredients.

At these times, you call upon your creative influences. Nobody really expected Milos Kerkez to haul Liverpool back into the game, because he is a man who simply refuses to keep his head or win a duel. You cannot expect the new signings or the substitute academy kids to make the difference against experienced heads.

What about Florian Wirtz, who cost more than £100m and has been here 15 months? He had three shots, none of which were on target. He failed to create a chance. He failed to complete a dribble. He played lots of pretty passes but none that actually caused any panic for the best defence in the league. Which is sort of the point.

After the game, Arsenal’s own £100m man – and goal creator on Sunday – spoke on the pitch to the media with the broadest grin on his face. If you want to win a title, your most expensive parts have to turn up in the biggest games. Rice, to quote Andy Gray back in the day, does that time and time and time again.

Wirtz does it in fits and starts. Liverpool will grow stronger; this is clearly only the beginning of the journey. Arsenal can barely get any stronger than this. They win whenever they go in front, they manage big matches like a team of bouncers and they have a three-point lead at the top of the table.

As the banner at one end of Anfield read, “Arsenal run this country again”. It’s hard to find many arguments to offer a repudiation of such a forthright show of dominance.

from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/e2uzPHB

Jamie Carragher should think twice before questioning a club’s ambitions again.

The former Liverpool defender is accustomed to seeing his name in headlines, but this week marked a remarkable chapter in his punditry career as he challenged – and seemingly lost – a war of words with Aston Villa supporters.

Speaking across several media platforms, Carragher eulogised Unai Emery and repeatedly stressed his suitability for the Manchester United job, which is currently vacant.

Few would disagree with that assessment. But when the former England international suggested Villa must accept their place in the football chain and, crucially, told supporters to “shut the f*** up”, the mood soured.

At best, Carragher’s verdict was clumsy and uncouth. At worst, it was disrespectful to any club, let alone one of Villa’s stature.

Aston Villa will initiate legal action against Jamie Carragher for his unacceptable insults about the Club and its fans.

Aston Villa will not allow anyone to stop our ascension in English and European football.

Nassef Sawiris, Chairman pic.twitter.com/xUEcFKsiEx

— Aston Villa (@AstonVilla) October 30, 2026

It prompted a scarcely believable response from co-owner Nassef Sawiris, who announced plans to begin legal proceedings against the pundit over his “unacceptable insults” about the club and its supporters.

“Aston Villa will not allow anyone to stop our ascension in English and European football,” the social media post added.

Carragher was quick to apologise. It is unlikely that genuine fear of legal action prompted his public backtrack. More likely, it was a recognition that the row was rapidly spiralling into a public relations disaster.

And yet it is Villa, not Carragher, who emerge from this debacle with egg on their face.

Suggesting the 48-year-old can somehow halt Villa’s rise is nonsensical. As for legal action, what form would that even take? How can a club sue someone for expressing an opinion, however unpalatable, that is grounded in some fact?

It was a head-spinning escalation in what had previously felt like a storm in a teacup.

Yet such is the strength of feeling at Villa that Sawiris, who rarely communicates publicly, felt compelled to make his anger known.

After a summer in which Villa lost several key players to Premier League rivals, the prospect of Emery also jumping ship is understandably alarming.

The club’s inability to compete financially in the transfer market, coupled with the constant need to sell their best players, has created an underlying current of frustration at Villa Park. There is a growing sense that they are being frozen out by the establishment.

For the rich and powerful, that will not wash. We live in an era in which the Premier League is shaped by nation states, private equity firms and self-made entrepreneurs, none of whom are accustomed to being told no.

Carragher is not the first pundit to face the wrath of a Premier League club. His colleague Gary Neville was banned from attending a Nottingham Forest game in 2025 after criticising owner Evangelos Marinakis.

In 2020, former Leeds United co-owner Andrea Radrizzani defended a tweet mocking Karen Carney’s coverage of the club, while this season Hull City chairman Acun Ilicali took aim at Joe Cole and Carlton Cole following their admittedly crass comments about the team and city.

That is before considering the more serious end of the spectrum, with Manchester City’s ongoing legal battle with the Premier League threatening to trigger a cascade of litigation across English football.

In recent months, Everton were ordered to pay Burnley damages after breaching financial regulations during the 2021-22 season, while an independent appeal board upheld the six-point deduction imposed on Leicester City following a protracted dispute with the Premier League.

Remember the good old days when the only contests in football were fought between the white lines? The willingness of club owners to resort to legal proceedings at the first opportunity is a worrying trend that shows no signs of abating.

In Villa’s case, the latest incident felt particularly petulant. Carragher’s comments were inconsequential. They should have prompted little more than an indifferent shrug, rather than the threat of a legal battle.

Tribalism, once the preserve of supporters, should not so readily influence the thinking of those ultimately responsible for running the sport.

Read more

• Paul Brown: Jack Grealish’s career is at stake – he can’t let Everton down again
• Kat Lucas: Michael Carrick’s Man Utd reign has turned into a cruel humiliation ritual

It was also entirely unnecessary. Villa’s focus should be on a week in which they face trips to the Nou Camp and Old Trafford – perhaps the clearest evidence yet of their standing among the big hitters.

Instead, they have attracted unwanted attention and raised further questions about their credentials among the elite.

“We’ve conquered before. We’re ready for more,” read a tifo at a recent Villa game. It is a message the club would do well to heed. 

from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/xIFGqto