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Mikel Arteta will not recall on-loan defender William Saliba from Saint-Etienne for Arsenal’s Premier League run-in despite his one-year deal having lapsed, but warned fans not to expect the finished article when the 19-year-old finally makes his Gunners bow next season.

Saliba was loaned back to the Ligue 1 side after completing a £27m transfer last summer, and despite an injury-hit season helped them reach the final of the Coupe de France. The team will play Paris Saint Germain on 24 July.

It means the 19-year-old will be allowed to complete the season with Saint Etienne, but leaves Arteta with holes to fill in a defence that has been stretched by injuries either side of the lockdown.

David Luiz limped out of the team’s 2-1 win at Sheffield United in the FA Cup on Sunday, while Pablo Mari and Calum Chambers remain long-term absentees.

Arsenal will have little margin for error when they face Norwich at the Emirates on Wednesday having taken just three points from three games in their race to qualify for the Champions League.

Nevertheless, the manager said he is prepared to wait for Saliba.

“I think he needs to stay there,” said Arteta. “We had an agreement with Saint Etienne, he’s been all year over there, he’s earned his right to play in that final if the manager wants to do that. I think we have to give him the opportunity to do that, to enjoy that, and we can have him after that.”

Saliba played 13 times for Saint-Etienne before Ligue 1 was suspended in March and subsequently cancelled.

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His season was curtailed in November by a metatarsal injury and the club have fared badly in his absence, plummeting from the European places to the brink of the relegation zone.

“I spoke with him a few times,” said Arteta. “He’s been [to Arsenal] a few times here as well. He’s been following us this season. As a young player, he’s had a difficult season with injuries that he’s had. But it’s part of his process.”

The France under-20 international is likely to be phased in gradually back at Arsenal next season, with central defenders Mari and Luiz having last week signed extended deals.

Arteta added: “I know how high the expectations are of him for next year, but we have to bear in mind the age he’s at and what he’s done in the past. I’ll make sure we create the right environment for him so he can keep growing as a player.”

Mesut Ozil is set to miss out yet again against Norwich as he continues his recovery from a back injury.

Dani Ceballos' fresh legs and sharp mind save Arsenal after some familiar failings in defence | @AdamLanigan #AFC https://t.co/1cnhMJopVW pic.twitter.com/mU7GI5ZNQD

— i sport (@iPaperSport) June 28, 2020

The club’s highest-paid player is yet to feature since the Premier League resumed last month and continues to face criticism for pocketing astronomical wages for little return.

However, Arteta remains firmly behind his Gunners ex-teammate and says the money has no  impact over his team selection.

“I think Mesut has unique qualities,” he said “He’s a very special player for the position he plays, how specific he is in the quality he has and what he can bring to the team.

“[His wages] are an agreement that the player and the club were really happy to do to move ahead and it’s never a question. I think players are paid whatever they deserve. There are both parties here and it should never be something that I have to judge him on.”

Arteta remains confident Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s four-game scoring drought is a blip that will end soon. He added: “I don’t think [contract talk] has affected him. He’s having chances, he’s creating situations, and hopefully [against Norwich] he can score a few.”

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More on Arsenal

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• Is it really worth it? Arsenal need to take a long, hard look at their relationship with this super agent
• Opinion: What Arsenal’s ‘nauseous’ statement on Ozil and China says about the club
• The road to 2024: How a new Champions League format could leave Arsenal high and dry
• Magee: Arsenal’s Europa League exit shows Arteta cannot work miracles with this squad

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ELLAND ROAD — Marcelo Bielsa may well be guiding Leeds back to the Premier League after a painful 16-year absence, but this amounted to one of the most frustrating 90 minutes of his Elland Road reign.

The 64-year-old Argentine was almost beside himself as Luton Town, bottom of the Championship, forced Bielsa’s promotion favourites to settle for a solitary point.

Take nothing away from Nathan Jones’ men; Leeds certainly took little from them and it needed a Stuart Dallas equaliser in the 63rd minute to deny the visitors victory.

Bielsa paced his technical area with growing exasperation as the game wore on, barking orders at his players while above him managing director Angus Kinnear and director of football Victor Orta watched on nervously.

This was another point closer for Bielsa and his players, but it felt like two points lost. You cannot write the scripts of Leeds United.

In-form Brentford are breathing down the necks of Leeds and West Bromwich Albion in the race for automatic promotion.

Luton substitute Harry Cornick entered the fray at half-time and within five minutes had produced a delightful finish to put his team ahead.

Advancing on to a fine pass from Ryan Tunicliffe, Cornick showed remarkable composure and skill to evade the attention of Ben White and curl a sumptuous right-foot shot into the top corner from the left-hand edge of Leeds’ penalty box.

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Dallas had the time and space to finish clinically from substitute Ezgjan Alioski’s neat pass, but Leeds lacked the clinical touch to find the winning goal as chances were spurned.

To win promotion at any level requires a special kind of spirit. You need a certain togetherness and a willingness to put your head in where it hurts. You have to be able to call on a collective desire.

The same could be said about avoiding relegation and there was certainly no hiding place for Luton last night. Not that they suggested they were looking.

The Hatters remain bottom and face a mountainous task to avoid the drop, yet they are now unbeaten in six and will take great heart from their performance here.

Luton soon began to gain a foothold on proceedings last night, while Leeds lost captain Liam Cooper to injury early on.

The defender landed awkwardly when defending a free-kick and, although he tried to run off the complaint, he was withdrawn and replaced by Gaetano Berardi.

Buoyed by Callum McManaman’s strong running up front, the visitors had a penalty claim turned down in the 15th minute.

Berardi’s clearance ricocheted off McManaman and the forward took a tumble inside Leeds’ penalty box, with Luton’s loud calls for a spot-kick ignored by referee John Brooks and his assistants.

At the other end, Tyler Roberts lashed a fierce shot over Luton’s crossbar before Luton captain Sonny Bradley planted a header goalwards from James Bree’s right-wing corner.

It drew a decent save from Leeds’ rookie goalkeeper Illan Meslier, but five minutes after the restart Luton led when Cornick produced his moment of magic to stun Bielsa and his trusted coaching staff.

Leeds brought on Alioski at the break and the Macedonian quickly made a telling impact on their left flank, while mercurial playmaker Pablo Hernandez entered the fray on the hour.

Moments later, Alioski’s pass found Dallas in space and the Northern Ireland international had the time to slot home a well-taken leveller.

From there Leeds pushed hard for a winner but inspired goalkeeper Simon Sluga made a series of impressive saves.

Alioski headed wide and Sluga again came to Luton’s rescue before Bamford failed to connect when he attempted to head home.

For Leeds and Bielsa, it was that kind of night.

Follow i sport on Facebook for more Leeds United news, interviews and features

More on Leeds United

• Ayling exclusive: ‘Last season still hurts – but now Leeds are ready for the Premier League’
• Kevin Garside: Every team had a bruiser but few were as gifted as the Leeds United general
• ‘Sealing Leeds United’s promotion was the most important goal of my career’
• Bamford exclusive: ‘I owe a lot to Marcelo Bielsa. He’s the first boss to see me as a No 9’
• ‘Spygate’: Bielsa taught Lampard and all of English football a lesson

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AMEX STADIUM — Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer demanded goals from a group of players who were already scoring quite a lot of them, and they duly delivered several more goals on Tuesday.

It was a slightly unexpected outburst from Solskjaer, who on the eve of the game against Brighton had warned his young front three that if they did not keep scoring he would look elsewhere for alternatives.

This despite his two main forwards, Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford, sitting on 19 goals each for the season and on the verge of becoming the first United front two to score 20 each in a campaign for almost a decade, since Dimitar Berbatov and Javier Hernandez.

His 18-year-old from the academy, Mason Greenwood, makes up the trio and is enjoying a phenomenal breakout season which got even better with the opening goal of an eerily, unsettling United-of-old performance that leaves Brighton only six points clear of relegation.

United, meanwhile, are on a 15-game unbeaten run stretching either side of lockdown and victory edged them into the Fifth Place of Champions League Uncertainty, as it shall from hereon in be pithily known.

Manchester City and about a third of the Premier League are eagerly awaiting the verdict from the Court of Arbitration for Sport on City’s appeal of their two-year Champions League ban, which is due in July.

The three points took United ahead of Wolves on goal difference, joint on 52 points and only two points behind fourth-place Chelsea, who do have a game in hand.

Even Leicester, on 55 points in third but also with an extra game to play, could need fifth place to secure a Champions League place that look nailed on before the break as their post-lockdown form tanks.

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Gary Neville, on commentary for Sky Sports, was some 20 rows in front of me but could be heard exploding with excitement at Greenwood’s strike on 16 minutes.

It was some goal: a pass from Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Greenwood did the rest, quick feet and a lethal low finish from inside Brighton’s penalty area.

With 13 goals now this season in 40 games, the comparisons begin and the omens look good. Against Brighton, he became the first Manchester United player to score six Premier League goals in a single season before turning 19.

Marcus Rashford, 22, had scored only 12 goals before he turned 19 and Greenwood is still three months shy of his next birthday.

Cristiano Ronaldo did not score more than 13 goals until his fourth season at United, although this was back when he was known for too many step-overs and no end product.

To add to the Greenwood frenzy: two years ago, when Jadon Sancho was the same age, the Borussia Dortmund winger was only just getting in the Bundesliga side’s first-team and scored once in 12 appearance. The following season he netted 13.

The Greenwood trajectory knows no bounds.

Solskjaer is demanding more goals from his front three – let’s not forget Martial also scored a hat-trick two games ago – but the great United sides of the Norwegian’s era found goals from everywhere and he will be pleased that Bruno Fernandes already has six in 13 games since signing in January, adding two more against Brighton.

His first, United’s second of the evening on 30 minutes, was the product of trial and error. Not long before the strike, he met a sideways pass from Paul Pogba first-time and found the bottom of the right post with a low effort aimed towards the bottom corner.

For the goal, Pogba played an almost identical pass to an almost identically-placed Fernandes who this time found the sweet spot he had previously tried for.

His second, United’s third shortly after the second half resumed, was the sort of direct, deadly counterattack play that United used to be renowned for and Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool have since mastered.

On the break, Harry Maguire header out of his own box, Nemanja Matic with a chest and volley pass to Greenwood on the left, his cross found Fernandes who volleyed past Brighton goalkeeper Mathew Ryan.

Fernandes’s six goals for United combine with the 14 he had already scored for Sporting Lisbon and the Portugal national team this season before he arrived at Old Trafford, and if the former Manchester United striker-turned-manager is desperate to add goals to the team then he seems to have found them in a big signing – £47million – and an academy teenager. Oh, and the two forwards he already had scoring regularly this season.

But they had better keep it up – or else.

Follow i sport on Facebook for more Manchester United news, interviews and features

More on Man Utd

• New leader: How Fernandes made an instant impact – and lifted all those around him
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Chris Wilder has admitted that the coronavirus crisis has totally rewritten Sheffield United’s financial game plan with the club fearing losses of up to £30 million.

The Blades boss has seen his side return from lockdown with a draw and three straight defeats.

The run is threatening to undo a memorable first season back in the Premier League and Wilder admits that, in terms of strengthening his squad this summer, the financial fall-out from football without fans has forced a re-think.

Wilder said: “Our landscape has definitely changed, I’m not embarrassed to say that.

“We will lose a chunk of change; we’ll lose between £20-30m. So does that affect budget and investment in the team? Yeah, that’s going to be the case.

“I accept that and it’s up to me to find a way around that, I’m not embarrassed by it and once again I’ll do what I have to do to make the group better, which we have to do.

“Decisions are still to be made and budgets finalised, this is a moving situation because things can change off the back of that.

“No one knows if fans will be in the ground next season so commercial aspects, we rely on – sponsorship deals, stadium, shirt sponsorship deals – will they be affected? No one knows.”

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Top of Wilder’s list is a bid to try and re-sign keeper Dean Henderson for another year on loan from Manchester United.

But he must also decide whether to offer new deals to a group of out-of-contract players headed by veteran defender Phil Jagielka.

Wilder said: “Jags has put himself in a position to earn a new contract but it’s a moving situation.

“Some boys will not be with us, that’s the natural progression of a club and it’s my job that when we come to pre-season, we’re stronger than when we started in the Premier League.”

The visit of Spurs on Thursday night promises to be another tough test for struggling United and Wilder, a big fan of Jose Mourinho, admits he has a new nickname for himself to rival “The Special One.”

Wilder joked: “I’m ‘the very, very ordinary one’ at the moment or ‘the very very frustrated with my team one!’

“Of course it’s frustrating, especially because seven of the eight goals we’ve conceded since the restart have been down to individual errors, people not concentrating and not being disciplined.”

Follow i sport on Facebook for the latest Premier League news, interviews and features

More on the Premier League

• Back on their perch? How Liverpool pulled level with Man Utd on major trophies won
• Kevin Garside: Man City’s attention should now turn to Europe… with hope of becoming Liverpool 2019
• Lampard defends role as Chelsea boss after Sterling criticism
• From world-beater at Liverpool to a failure at Barça, Newcastle may be Coutinho’s only hope
• Exclusive: Heskey talks Sterling, racism and doing an internship at 42

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Carlo Ancelotti insists that Moise Kean still has a future at Everton despite the young Italian striker enduring a miserable first year in English football.

The 20-year-old has started just five league games, scoring one goal, and attracted controversy during the recent coronavirus lockdown when he was pictured at a house party, in contravention of isolation laws.

Kean has made two fleeting substitute appearances since the league restarted and Ancelotti revealed he spoke to the youngster about his behaviour.

But the Everton boss claims that the £24.5million former Juventus prodigy will be involved at home to Leicester on Wednesday and still has a future role at the club.

Ancelotti said: “I spoke with him, I spoke with everyone, about how important their behaviour is on the pitch and outside of the pitch.

“He knows really well how to behave and everyone knows how they have to behave. Everyone knows what I expect of them.

“It is important to consider the fact he came to a new country and, secondly, you have to consider that he is really young so maybe takes time to adapt.

“And thirdly, for most of the players it was difficult to move through this period because most of the time they were alone at home.

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“We have to take all this into consideration and next season will be better for him.

“Moise is part of the team, of the squad. He didn’t play a lot this season but you have to consider that the competition up front is really high because we have fantastic strikers.

“But as I tell them, when they don’t play, they have to stay focused and be ready because the opportunity will come.”

Everton host Leicester currently in 12th place but with Ancelotti harbouring thoughts of qualifying for next season’s Europa League, especially with games to come against other teams in the fight for Europe like Wolves, Sheffield United and Spurs.

Ancelotti said: “It would be a great achievement for us but there is a long way to go – although not too long because we don’t have a lot of games left.

“The next two games, against Leicester and Tottenham, will be important because there are a lot of teams involved and it will be an exciting fight.”

Everton welcome back defender Yerry Mina from injury into their squad for the visit of Leicester tonight.

Follow i sport on Facebook for the latest Premier League news, interviews and features

More on the Premier League

• Back on their perch? How Liverpool pulled level with Man Utd on major trophies won
• Kevin Garside: Man City’s attention should now turn to Europe… with hope of becoming Liverpool 2019
• Lampard defends role as Chelsea boss after Sterling criticism
• From world-beater at Liverpool to a failure at Barça, Newcastle may be Coutinho’s only hope
• Exclusive: Heskey talks Sterling, racism and doing an internship at 42

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After a bumpy landing on the runway of Project Restart, Arsenal now have back-to-back wins to their name.

Though it took a late goal from Dani Ceballos for them to edge past Sheffield United in the FA Cup at the weekend, it was a tough match at Bramall Lane and they did well not to crumble under sustained pressure from Chris Wilder’s side.

That followed a straightforward win against Southampton in the Premier League last week.

After their dire opening defeats to Manchester City and Brighton, there have been tentative signs of improvement.

Mikel Arteta rotated against Sheffield United which, given that games are coming thick and fast, was no surprise.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang didn’t feature, while Dani Ceballos, Rob Holding and Eddie Nketiah were all restricted to appearances from the bench.

Arteta is likely to rotate back when Arsenal face Norwich at the Emirates on Wednesday evening.

Here’s how Arsenal are expected to line-up against the Premier League’s rock-bottom team.

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Defence

With Bernd Leno still recovering from the knee injury he sustained against Brighton, Emi Martinez will continue in goal.

Arteta has trialled a back three over the last couple of games and, given that the change has coincided with consecutive victories, it would be a surprise were he to return to a back four against Norwich.

David Luiz picked up a knock at Bramall Lane, however, and may not feature. In his absence, Kieran Tierney could start on the left side of the defence with Shkodran Mustafi in the middle and Rob Holding on the right.

Meanwhile, Sead Kolasinac and Ainsley Maitland-Niles are likely to make way for Bukayo Saka and Hector Bellerin at left and right wing-back respectively.

Expected starters: Martinez; Bellerin, Holding, Mustafi, Tierney, Saka

Midfield

Out with an ankle fracture since March, Lucas Torreira is now close to making a comeback.

Norwich will come too soon for him, however, so Granit Xhaka is likely to start at the base of midfield once again.

Brought on as a substitute to great effect against Sheffield United, Ceballos should slot in alongside him.

Mesut Ozil is out with a back injury, apparently, so Arsenal are likely to set up without a traditional No 10.

Expected starters: Ceballos, Xhaka

Attack

After scoring the opener against Sheffield United, Nicolas Pepe now has two goals since the resumption of the season.

Having struggled so badly for confidence earlier in the campaign, he will be desperate to preserve his newfound momentum.

He should start on the right of the front three, with a well rested Aubameyang slotting in on the left.

Alexandre Lacazette started at Bramall Lane but went a fourth consecutive game without a goal, which could well see Nketiah replace him.

Expected starters: Pepe, Nketiah, Aubameyang

More on Arsenal

• Cunningham: Arsenal’s players should ask for their money back after Kroenke’s £325m windfall
• Is it really worth it? Arsenal need to take a long, hard look at their relationship with this super agent
• Opinion: What Arsenal’s ‘nauseous’ statement on Ozil and China says about the club
• The road to 2024: How a new Champions League format could leave Arsenal high and dry
• Magee: Arsenal’s Europa League exit shows Arteta cannot work miracles with this squad

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Having seen a notable spike in coronavirus cases over the last two weeks, Leicester has been put under the UK’s first full local lockdown.

Where pubs, cinemas and restaurants will start to re-open across the rest of England this weekend, Leicester will remain under tight restrictions. Non-essential shops have already shut and schools are set to close for most pupils on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Leicester City are meant to host Crystal Palace at the King Power Stadium on Saturday. While every Premier League game has been able to go ahead as scheduled since the restart earlier this month, that could feasibly be about to change.

Asked about how the local lockdown could affect his team after their FA Cup defeat to Chelsea on Sunday, Brendan Rodgers said: “Nothing has changed in terms of how we have been working thus far in this situation, but I’ve always said we will react accordingly.

“We have to have agility in this period… we will just keep working until we are told otherwise.”

While Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said that the game against Palace will go ahead, Premier League chief executive Richard Masters has left open the possibility of a postponement.

There is also the option of playing the match at a neutral venue. Asked how he would feel about the game being moved elsewhere, Palace boss Roy Hodgson said: “I am perfectly happy to let the Premier League take care of that. I am certain they will tell us where and when the game should be played.

“I am certain if they can’t play at Leicester, they will find an alternative venue and we are happy to go up and play against Leicester City wherever the Premier League tells us to play.”

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Contingency plans in place

Appearing in front of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee on Tuesday, Masters made it clear that the Premier League has a range of options were it deemed unsafe for Leicester to host games at the King Power.

“I would say just about every eventuality has been discussed by ourselves and DCMS officials at some point,” he said. “We have had huge discussions about the use of neutral venues.

“We are waiting to hear, but if what is happening in Leicester does affect their ability to host home games – either the match on Saturday against Crystal Palace at 3pm or subsequent matches – we have the opportunity to put them elsewhere or postpone the matches until it is safe to [play them]. Contingency plans are part of our overall planning.”

Leicester have three more home games this season, with the Palace match followed by fixtures against Sheffield United and Manchester United currently scheduled for 15 July and 26 July respectively.

Masters also confirmed that the season could still be cut short if there are further spikes in the infection rate. “There’s always that possibility, yes,” he said. “We’re dependent on the course of the virus and the government’s decisions in response to that.”

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Cautious optimism

With most clubs, including Leicester, facing seven more games before the end of the season, there is still a long way to go before the campaign is concluded successfully.

“Obviously we’re cautiously optimistic and what’s happened in Leicester overnight is something we’re responding to now,” said Masters.

“We’ve been planning for quite a long period of time to adapt to a neutral venues model if necessary for a variety of different reasons. I think we can clearly cope with the situation in Leicester.

“If it means the club can’t play its home games for the foreseeable future or just this weekend, we can adapt to that.

“But if that were to happen in multiple areas, or the course of the virus creates other risks, then obviously there’s that risk that we can’t complete the season.”

Follow i sport on Facebook for the latest Premier League news, interviews and features

More on the Premier League

• Back on their perch? How Liverpool pulled level with Man Utd on major trophies won
• Kevin Garside: Man City’s attention should now turn to Europe… with hope of becoming Liverpool 2019
• Lampard defends role as Chelsea boss after Sterling criticism
• From world-beater at Liverpool to a failure at Barça, Newcastle may be Coutinho’s only hope
• Exclusive: Heskey talks Sterling, racism and doing an internship at 42

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Sports Interactive, the creators of the renowned Football Manager computer game, have made changes to their player database to reinforce equality after accusations of racial stereotyping.

In June 2019, an article published by Quartz accused the manufacturers of the world’s most popular football management game of racial stereotypes after it claimed that there was a correlation between the darkness of a player’s skin and perceived negative personality attributes.

The article’s author claimed that newgens (young, fictional players created by the game engine) with a higher skin tone figure (where one is the lightest and 20 the darkest) were more likely to rank poorly for professionalism, loyalty and sportsmanship.

Miles Jacobson, Sports Interactive’s studio director, refuted those claims in a Twitter thread last month, pointing out that newgens of darker skin tone were also likely to rate better for attributes such as ambition, temperament and controversy. In a subsequent tweet, he accused the author of the Quartz article of concluding their argument and then selecting data intended to prove it.

But i has learned that Sports Interactive have made changes to the game’s database to eradicate any suggestion of profiling or negative stereotyping, having been made aware of the accusations.

While the company was confident that the existing system was not biased in any way, they have altered the process by which personality attributes of newgen players are created to reinforce a message of equality.

Rather than using a template based on the averages of existing players of a certain nationality, all personality attributes of newgen players are now generated randomly for every nationality. So where before a Nigerian newgen would have personality attributes calculated according to every active Nigerian player in the game, that process no longer occurs.

Football Manager relies upon a global network of head researchers and assistants, who scout thousands of players across hundreds of leagues in order to replicate accurate statistics and, famously, make predictions about which young players may become superstars in real life. Cesc Fabregas, Kylian Mbappé and Sergio Aguero are three high-profile players who were tipped by the game to become international stars.

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That vast group of researchers might include data analysts at professional clubs, Uefa-qualified coaches or enthusiastic amateurs who have consistently impressed SI with their scouting and assessment. It is the job of the head researchers to analyse and criticise the profiles created, which include personality attributes.

So detailed has Football Manager’s scouting network become that it has been used by professional clubs as a scouting tool for their real-life transfer activity, including those participating in the Premier League and Champions League.

Information about Sports Interactive’s decision to alter the engine for newgen creation comes at a time when the language surrounding black players and their potential profiling is under scrutiny. A study published on Monday by Danish company RunRepeat – in association with the Professional Footballers’ Association – concluded that the football media is more likely to praise white players for their intelligence and hard work. Black players were less likely to receive commendation for those attributes, with the media instead focusing on their pace, power and athleticism.

The PFA urged commentators, pundits and journalists to address their unconscious bias, detailing that as well as black players being described in physical terms, they were also more likely to be treated negatively than white players.

Football Manager began its life in 1992 as Championship Manager and released its first title under the new name in November 2004. Since then it has gained further popularity worldwide, with the current edition allowing managers to control clubs in 53 countries. Football Manager 2019 sold more than two million copies across all formats.

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Where the prospect of Jadon Sancho or Kai Havertz leaving Germany this summer is enough to inspire manic excitement in even the most casual fußball fan, a player of similar importance has just made a relatively quiet exit from the Bundesliga.

With the expiry of his two-year loan deal at Borussia Dortmund, Achraf Hakimi has slipped out of the Westfalenstadion with a smile and a wave. Addressing Dortmund fans on Twitter on Tuesday morning, he said: “The time has come to close a very beautiful stage in my life. After two wonderful years, I’m ready to leave this club that has given me so much joy.

“From the first moment, the care and attention by the club and the city has been amazing. Now I know that I was right to choose Dortmund as my home two years ago.”

There’s no doubt that Hakimi’s career has benefitted massively from his time in Germany. Having been at Real Madrid from the age of eight, he arrived at BVB in 2018 as a promising teenager with only 17 domestic appearances to his name.

After two seasons in which, barring a spell on the sidelines with a broken metatarsal last year, he has been near ever-present for Dortmund, he is now one of the most exciting young full-backs in Europe.

While Dortmund have fallen short over the last couple of seasons and missed two presentable chances to lift the Meisterschale, Hakimi has been one of their standout performers. A full-back with all the best traits of a winger, he is stupidly versatile. He reads the game well, passes like a playmaker and combines razor-sharp reactions in the final third with tenacity, neat dribbling and natural pace.

Though many expected him to return to Real Madrid come the end of his loan and compete with Dani Carvajal for a starting spot at right-back – Hakimi can also cover on the left and plays further forward on occasion – it now looks like his future lies elsewhere.

Speaking to Sky Italia at the weekend, Inter Milan CEO Giuseppe Marotta confirmed that the club was in “advanced negotiations” with Real Madrid over a transfer. Assuming that Inter can get the deal done, other clubs will have a right to feel jealous.

Gracias @BVB ???????? Thanks @BVB ???????? pic.twitter.com/nCVth0Gf6R

— achrafhakimi (@AchrafHakimi) June 30, 2020

Premier League clubs miss a trick

While Dortmund’s back line has often been overexposed over the last couple of seasons – down in no small part to Lucien Favre’s heavily frontloaded set-up – Hakimi has been one of their more dynamic defenders.

Whether as a wing-back in a back five or a right-back in a back four, he is one of the few players with the requisite speed to balance all-out attack with snap covering runs when his side lose possession.

It’s Hakimi’s attacking numbers which tell the real story, however. He has five goals and 10 assists in the Bundesliga alone this term, statistics to rival most out-and-out wingers.

His goal tally rises to nine in all competitions thanks to four strikes in the Champions League. Two of those came in Dortmund’s 3-2 win against Inter in November, both after lightning-fast runs in behind the defence.

He wasn’t to know that it was an audition of sorts but he left a lasting impression on Antonio Conte, clearly.

Having deployed Victor Moses, Ashley Young and Antonio Candreva at right wing-back with varying degrees of effectiveness over the second half of the season, Conte could do with an upgrade and Hakimi certainly fits the bill.

Now 21, Hakimi has the ideal mix of youth and experience. Having made his senior debut for Morocco when he was still turning out for Real Madrid Castilla, he is a mainstay at international level and played every minute of their last World Cup campaign at only 19.

Unsurprisingly, Inter are not the only side credited with a long-running interest in him. Manchester City have been widely linked over the last few months and, given his technical ability and in-game intelligence, he would have made a textbook Guardiola player. Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham were all bandied about as potential destinations and, with ESPN reporting that he will move to Inter for around €40m (£36.5m) plus add-ons, a move would not have been beyond the realms of possibility even in football’s upturned financial landscape. It’s hard not to feel as if Premier League clubs have missed a trick.

Conte has a strong track record when it comes to unlocking the potential in attacking wing-backs, not least given the way he used Moses and Marcos Alonso during his title-winning season at Chelsea. That may have made Inter a uniquely attractive option for Hakimi, while their recruitment over the last couple of seasons suggests they are going all out to challenge Juventus’ domestic dominance. While Hakimi looks set to make Italy his home for the next few seasons, he would have been an astute signing for any side in England. As things stand, the Premier League’s loss is Serie A’s gain.

More on the Bundesliga

• Jadon Sancho interview: ‘This has been a crazy year – I never would have dreamt it’
• The wonderkid factory: How Dortmund became the world’s best finishing school for young footballers
• The rise of Gio Reyna: ‘Fearless’ Sunderland-born wonderkid destined for big things at Dortmund
• ‘You cannot hide’: Bibiana Steinhaus on refereeing, sexist footballers and learning to be herself
• Rabbi Matondo interview: ‘I could never say anything bad about Man City – but I’m so grateful to be at Schalke’
• Exclusive: David Wagner on Huddersfield, Klopp and a new test at Schalke
• ‘I didn’t come here just to play football’: Everton loanee Kenny on Schalke, Wagner and his Goodison struggles
• ‘One of the most surreal days’: Uwe Rosler talks about how coronavirus stopped the Bundesliga in its tracks

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BBC Two is reshowing Marvellous, its touching drama about the life of Neil Baldwin.

The BBC describes the 90-minute film as “the inspirational and incredible true story of Neil Baldwin, a man who refused to accept the label of learning difficulties, and who has led an extraordinary life”.

He is played by Frost/Nixon actor Toby Jones.

Baldwin is an honorary graduate of Keele University, a registered clown and a former Stoke City kit man.

He was appointed to the club in the 90s by manager Lou Macari, who once described him as “the best signing I ever made”.

Here is his incredible true story…

Who is Neil Baldwin?

Baldwin was born in Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire in March 1946. He was diagnosed with a learning disability as a child and required speech therapy.

He left school aged 16 to join Sir Robert Fossett’s Circus, the oldest circus in England, where he performed as Nello the Clown for three seasons.

Keele University

When he was 14 he started turning up to nearby Keele University, where his mother worked as a cleaner, to greet new students.

Baldwin was not asked to do this, nor was he paid, but his cheery demeanour quickly gained him a reputation at the university, who welcomed him with open arms.

He was granted honorary life membership of Keele University Students’ Union in 1968, and in 2013 he received an honorary degree from the university.

He is something of an unofficial mascot for the university. On 12 March 2000, his own team of Keele University students (the Neil Baldwin Football Club, formed in 1967, whose president was Kevin Keegan) played an all-star side of former Football League players including Macari.

Stoke City FC

Macari made Baldwin Stoke’s kit man in the 90s, and much like he did with Keele’s students, he lifted morale amongst players with his joyful attitude towards life.

In 1993 Mancari brought Baldwin on as a substitute for five minutes in Gordon Cowans’ testimonial match against Aston Villa.

The former manager also dedicated seven pages of his autobiography to Baldwin, calling him a “man without an angle and there aren’t many of them in football”.

In 2015 Stoke City named him their supporter of the year.

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The quick turnover of managers in the Premier League is often referred to as many things.

A revolving door. A merry-go-round. A sack race. Strangely, they all have slightly childlike, fun qualities to them. Who didn’t like running round and round that revolving door once upon a time? Who didn’t like the merry-go-round, or the sack race?

Yet if you analyse the statistics in the Premier League, it is anything but fun for football managers.

To date, 244 different managers have been employed at 49 different clubs. That includes several managers who have had multiple cracks of the whip at various clubs, so 406 separate appointments have been made in total, during 28 years. That works out at 14.5 different appointments every season, meaning on average almost 75 per cent of managers will make way at some point during each campaign for a fresh face. Staggering, right?

Now consider how bleak those numbers are if you are a black, Asian or minority ethnic manager trying to make it into English football’s elite.

How many do you think there have been in the Premier League’s near three decades? Hazard a guess… okay I’ll tell you: nine. Paul Ince, Chris Hughton, Ruud Gullit, Avram Grant, Jean Tigana, Chris Ramsey, Darren Moore, Terry Connor, Nuno Espirito Santo.

That’s roughly one new Bame manager given a go every three years. If you’re a white manager, almost nine of you are given a shot every season.

Of those nine Bame managers, four of them have managed for less than a year in the top-flight. Ince, six months. Ramsey and Moore, nine months. Connor, four months.

A few have been given more than one shot. Hughton has had three spells at Premier League clubs. Grant had three. Gullit had two. That’s still brings the total to only 14 of the 406 appointments made in Premier League history.

I’ll be completely honest here, if the above statistics are not spot on it is because I have tried to work it out myself. What I can say is that they will not be a million miles away. But that is part of the problem: as far as I’m aware these types of statistics do not exist in English football, even though it is a practice recommended by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, to ensure that a sport with a large Bame player representation does not allow itself to have so few Bame managers.

To put the above into some kind of context, while Bame managers have been appointed 14 times since the Premier League began, Sam Allardyce has been appointed seven times. Mark Hughes six.

Alan Pardew, Steve Bruce and Harry Redknapp, five each. So five white managers have been appointed 28 times – twice as many times as all the Bame managers in league history.

That is, to be clear, to say nothing against those white managers. It is not their fault that when club owners and executives get together and decide that the current manager is not working, the same faces, mostly the same colour, spring to mind.

Read More

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Therein lies a major barrier: the top of the pyramid, in the boardrooms – the owners, the executives, the decision-makers.

I interviewed Jason Roberts in October 2018 after he had started as director of development at Concacaf. The former Blackburn Rovers striker said that in his view the best way to effect change was to become one of the power-brokers, to change diversity at the top so that change filters down.

“When people discuss this point they take it back to we’re not getting opportunities so that means people are that dreaded word everybody hates – racist,” Roberts said. “It’s groupthink. It’s people picking people who remind them of themselves. It’s people picking people from a certain social class they feel more comfortable with. It’s not the ‘r’ word. It’s about challenging perceptions we all have, about challenging the systems we have in place and asking ourselves if they’re the right systems.”

It is an invisible problem, a problem nobody can see that spreads from person to person, infecting everyone within the group. A bit like a coronavirus.

It is club owners and their inner circles picking the faces which fit comfortably with them, who pick the faces which fit comfortably with them, and so on and so on.

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Who, then, must take responsibility to tackle that problem?

The individual clubs? It seems unrealistic to expect organisations who have for so long ignored the problem to get their own house in order.

Some would argue the Football Association, as governors of the game in England, should take the lead, but they have no plans to enforce change. “We’re not looking where we would ever try to force anything, and I don’t think we’d have the power to do that,” Mark Bullingham, their chief executive, said recently, when Premier League players first started taking the knee before games.

So the Premier League and English Football League? Or are we ignoring who really holds the power here? The TV companies. One thing the coronavirus has revealed is just quite how much power they yield. In the next round of TV broadcast negotiations could they not introduce financial penalties if the make-up of Premier League boardrooms is not transformed by a certain date?

This is not merely a “football problem”, it is an issue with businesses and organisations across the country. But if football wants to enjoy the special benefit of being the pastime to lift the nation’s spirits, then football has to lead by example and sort out its diversity crisis that has been around for far longer than Covid-19.

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• Back on their perch? How Liverpool pulled level with Man Utd on major trophies won
• Kevin Garside: Man City’s attention should now turn to Europe… with hope of becoming Liverpool 2019
• Lampard defends role as Chelsea boss after Sterling criticism
• From world-beater at Liverpool to a failure at Barça, Newcastle may be Coutinho’s only hope
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A new study has found that racial bias is prevalent in television commentary of football.

The research, conducted by Danish research firm RunRepeat in association with the Professional Footballers’ Association, discovered that in match commentary analysed from 80 games during the 2019-20 season 63.33 per cent of criticism was aimed at “players with a darker skin tone” while 62.60 per cent of praise was aimed at “players with a lighter skin tone”.

While making clear that “the commentators may not have intended to further racial stereotypes” the study says: “We now need everyone in football, including commentators and broadcasters, to consider the part they play in furthering implicit bias towards people with darker skin tones. This must be the moment that we all, collectively, begin to address deep-rooted racial stereotypes.”

Other key findings revealed that commentators were six-and-a-half times more likely to refer to the physical “power” of players with a darker skin tone, and more than three times more likely to discuss the “speed” of players with a darker skin tone. Comparatively, 60.40 per cent of praise for “work ethic” was in reference to players with a lighter skin tone.

The report says: “Players have been unified in their support of the Black Lives Matter movement, sending a strong message about equality. However, the players themselves still have to navigate systemically racist structures, despite their significant platforms and professional success. This racial bias study makes the nuances of that structure apparent.”

It adds: “The narrative of black people’s primary value laying in their physicality and not their intelligence dates back to attitudes modern society is determined to eradicate. While this type of unconscious prejudice has become less overt, even subtle racial bias is damaging, continues a legacy of pain and has long-reaching societal consequences.”

To conduct the research, a team from RunRepeat, led by chief executive Jens Jakob Andersen, analysed commentary in 80 games from the Premier League, Serie A, La Liga and Ligue 1. All of the commentary was in English and the commentators worked for media outlets in the UK, US and Canada. Researchers used the detailed skin tone attribute in the Football Manager video game, which gives a score from 1 (the lightest) to 20 (the darkest) and categorised those with a “lighter skin tone” as 1-11 and those with a “darker skin tone” as 12-20.

PFA equalities education executive Jason Lee, the former Nottingham Forest striker, said: “To address the real impact of structural racism, we have to acknowledge and address racial bias. This study shows an evident bias in how we describe the attributes of footballers based on their skin colour.

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“Commentators help shape the perception we hold of each player, deepening any racial bias already held by the viewer. It’s important to consider how far-reaching those perceptions can be and how they impact footballers even once they finish their playing career. If a player has aspirations of becoming a coach or manager, is an unfair advantage given to players that commentators regularly refer to as intelligent and industrious, when those views appear to be a result of racial bias?”

On Monday , the Premier League, PFA and EFL launched a Bame coach placement scheme aimed at increasing the number of black, Asian and minority ethnic players transitioning into coaching.

The scheme, funded by the PFA and Premier League, will provide six coaches per season with 23-month intensive work placements at EFL clubs. The players, who can apply at any point in their career, will work in either the first-team or academy. The first intake will launch in the 2020-21 season.

Darren Moore, the chairman of the Premier League’s Black Participants’ Advisory Group and Doncaster manager, said: “We all know and agree that the diversity of coaches and managers must increase and this placement scheme represents a positive step.

“There are lots of roles in the academy system all the way through to first team and young coaches can slot in at different points to begin that journey. We need to have the right structures and people in place to develop their careers,” added Moore.

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Brighton manager Graham Potter is determined to help Tariq Lamptey demonstrate the teenager got it right when he made the tough decision to turn his back on Chelsea and switch to the Amex Stadium in January.

Lamptey, 19, who joined Chelsea’s academy at the age of seven, moved to the south-coast club in search of more first-team chances after making just one substitute appearance in the Premier League for the Blues.

After impressing in his first top-flight start in Saturday’s goalless draw with Leicester City, the right-back is expected to retain his place for Tuesday’s visit of Manchester United, and Potter is confident the player will show he took the right career path when he signed a three-and-a-half year deal with Albion.

“Everyone is the same, everyone wants to play and find an environment that fits them and I’m sure it was a difficult decision for Tariq, he has a lot of feeling and a lot of respect for Chelsea,” said the manager, who confirmed Lamptey has recovered from the facial injury he sustained against Leicester.

“But, like anything, you have to make decisions as your career goes on and we are happy he is here with us and we will try our best to help him maximise his career.”

‘Humble Lamptey a delight to work with’

Potter insists he has been impressed by what he has seen so far. “He’s been great, he’s only young so you have to give him time to land, settle into the new environment, a new club, team and teammates because he had been at Chelsea a long time,” he added. “He is such a fantastic kid, really humble, wants to work for the team, help the team and plays with that bit of sacrifice which I like.

“He has been a joy to work with and you saw his qualities, we see them everyday but it is another thing to make the step into the Premier League especially the position that we are in we have to make sure it is the right thing for the team and the player himself and I am delighted he contributed.”

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s United side will attempt to register their first win at the Amex Stadium while Brighton will attempt to extend their post-lockdown form that has brought four points from two games and widened the gap between themselves and the relegation places to six points.

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Tariq Lamptey (Brighton & Chelsea) is the first teenager to feature in a #PL match for two different clubs in the same season since Harry Kane (2012/13 – Spurs & Norwich)#LEIBHA pic.twitter.com/4WljYpaQiV

— Premier League (@premierleague) June 23, 2020

Potter admits results following the return to action has strengthened his side’s belief. “I’d be lying if I said it hasn’t, but I would also say that it wasn’t necessarily doom and gloom before,” he said. “In the Premier League, we drew away at Wolves before lockdown, 0-0 is a good result, especially how we played, we played quite well and we weren’t lucky to get a point because we competed against a very, very good team.

“We’ve only lost three games this year but hadn’t won and the story is easier to say that you haven’t won in 2020. But still we were aware of the fact, it was nice to win to get that point off your back if you like.

“And like anything, if you’re winning football matches then things become a little bit easier. But at the same time, we know we need to carry on, we need to keep fighting, we’re not out of the situation, we’re not out of trouble.”

More on the Premier League

• Back on their perch? How Liverpool pulled level with Man Utd on major trophies won
• Kevin Garside: Man City’s attention should now turn to Europe… with hope of becoming Liverpool 2019
• Lampard defends role as Chelsea boss after Sterling criticism
• From world-beater at Liverpool to a failure at Barça, Newcastle may be Coutinho’s only hope
• Exclusive: Heskey talks Sterling, racism and doing an internship at 42

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Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has warned his young, in-form strike force that he expects improvements – or will look for alternatives.

Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood are in the midst of impressive individual campaigns that have helped Solskjaer’s side amass a 14-game unbeaten run in all competitions.

On Tuesday, United visit Brighton with Rashford and Martial each on 19 goals in all competitions and poised to become United’s first 20-goal pairing since Dimitar Bernatov and Javier Hernandez hit that mark in 2010-11.

But Solskjaer insists that despite his team’s improvements, he will not hesitate to replace players who stagnate.

Solskjaer said: “You need competition for places at Man United.

“If you think you’ve got a divine right to be playing every game and are doing so well that we’re not going to look for players to replace you, you’re in the wrong place.

“I’ve been here myself for so many years as a striker and Teddy Sheringham comes in, Dwight Yorke comes in, Ruud van Nistelrooy comes in, Wayne Rooney comes in.

“We’ve always got to look at improving, and if they don’t improve, we might have to look somewhere else to get better because we have to be better. We’re too far away from where we need to be and want to be.”

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The form of Martial and Rashford, in particular, has vindicated Solskjaer’s controversial decision last summer to allow Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez to leave the club without replacements being bought.

That left United’s striking responsibilities to three players with an average age of barely 21.

But Solskjaer insists that, much as he trusts them, he still wants to see continued improvements from the trio.

He said: “Romelu’s a very good goalscorer. He’ll score goals in any team that he plays in.

“It was time now for him to move on and pursue other dreams.

“For us as a group it was time to allow our forwards to feel that confidence and feel that demand of playing and being demanded to play every game, two, three, four, games, five, six, seven games on the bounce and perform.

“In the end that’s how you get to another level, a different level. I think all three that we have talked about have had a good development this season but they can be so much better.

“All three, I’m still waiting to see them blossom because there are parts of their game that they still need to improve on.

“I’ve always had faith in the forwards we have at the club – Mason, Marcus and Anthony.

“I think they’re boys who improve on trust, I think they’re good boys to talk to, discuss and sit with and they know that I trust them, they know I want the best for them, but they also know I’ve got to make decisions for the team and the club.

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“They’ve all taken responsibility at different parts of the season and I’m delighted with all of them.

“It doesn’t give me any personal satisfaction because I made the decision that I thought was right for the club early on to give these players the opportunity, and Odion [Ighalo] has come in and helped us.”

One United youngster who appears to have no future at Old Trafford is Angel Gomes after contract talks with the 19-year-old proved inconclusive, leaving the winger as a free agent from Tuesday.

Solskjaer said: “Angel’s a top kid but of course there’s people around him that advise him to do different things.”

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More on Man Utd

• New leader: How Fernandes made an instant impact – and lifted all those around him
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• Lockdown diaries: ‘I missed my brother’s wedding for a Man Utd game’
• Kevin Garside: Well done to Chadwick for reminding us all to be kind
• 5 players Man Utd could sign this summer

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