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Nott’m Forest 0-1 Liverpool (Mac Allister 90’+7)

CITY GROUND — At one point, he was hot on the heels of Kevin De Bruyne as the Premier League’s hottest attacking midfield metronome. Now Alexis Mac Allister looks spent. Jack of zero trades. To be this ineffectual all season is less of a blip; it is much more terminal than that.

Going into Sunday’s trip to Nottingham Forest, the struggling Liverpool playmaker had mustered the most shots of any player yet to score a league goal this term. Two assists hardly negated the profligacy. Neither did the fact he does not even rank in the top five Liverpool players for tackles or passes completed.

Liverpool's late goal is ruled out after a VAR check! pic.twitter.com/xAUhPhb0d3

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) February 22, 2026

It appeared that barren run had been brought to a fortunate end as Ola Aina’s clearance in his own six-yard box went in off Mac Allister’s back to hand Liverpool the luckiest of lucky late winners at the City Ground.

A VAR reprieve was congruous with Mac Allister’s wretched season. The 97th finish from close range that did secure a last-gasp victory count was not. The run finally broke, in the most dramatic circumstances.

A thoroughly undeserved victory could save Liverpool’s season, with a top-five finish imperative for the reigning champions and their besieged manager. The undeserved winner needs to have an equally galvanising effect on the goalscorer.

In Florian Wirtz’s absence, the German injured in the warm-up, Liverpool were as poor as at any point this season in the first half.

Shorn of ideas and, more alarmingly, energy, despite having a much longer break between games than their opponents, Liverpool were second best from the first whistle. They faced the most shots they have conceded in the first half of a Premier League game since the famous Stoke City match in May 2015, a 6-1 defeat in Steven Gerrard’s Liverpool bow.

Crucial to that was how Elliot Anderson, who could usurp Mac Allister in the Anfield engine room next season, dominated his Liverpool counterparts in the Nottingham sunshine.

As well as mustering four shots at goal, double the entire Liverpool first-half output, Anderson completed eight more passes than Ryan Gravenberch and Mac Allister combined.

Arne Slot shuffled his midfield around in the second half, with Mac Allister playing off the front three. The improvement was marginal, without causing Forest any problems.

To Mac Allister’s credit, he kept coming. But the passes were just not coming off. Nerves set in with the ball at his feet – not what you want from your chief creator.

Time and again he was dispossessed, seemingly unable to keep the pace with Ibrahim Sangare opposite. Approaching the supposed age where the peak is firmly in view, being a yard, or two, off the pace against relegation candidates is cause for serious concern.

VAR was not ready to release Mac Allister from his burden, with one of those handball calls that would not have been a thing a few years ago seemingly denying Liverpool a vital three points.

After Virgil van Dijk’s header was saved, Mac Allister arrived right on cue to settle the contest with the last kick of the match. The scenes were of jubilation and mighty relief.

Mac Allister lingered longer than anyone else, coming back to salute a fervent following one more time.

“What he needed was what he showed in the last six, seven or eight games, a run where he is slowly getting back to his usual level,” Slot said.

“I see much more consistency. It is always nice for a player to score, especially in extra time of extra time.

“We needed to be on the right side of things once in a while. Today it felt we have been lucky.”

How Mac Allister harbours that winning feeling and utilises a change in fortune will determine whether he can reach his previous heights again. And how much renovation Liverpool will do to their midfield in the summer.

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Manchester City increased the pressure on Premier League leaders Arsenal by beating Newcastle and reducing the Gunners’ advantage to just two points.

Elsewhere in the Premier League, West Ham were held to a 0-0 stalemate by Bournemouth as they continue their battle to escape the relegation zone.

England were thrashed 42-21 by Ireland as Steve Borthwick’s side suffered back-to-back defeats in the Six Nations.

Their hopes of achieving a first title since 2020 now seem incredibly slim, with difficult games in Italy and France coming up.

In the Six Nations, Scotland beat Wales, who were looking for their first win in 14 games in the competition.

In Saturday’s other Premier League games, Burnley held Chelsea to a 1-1 draw, Tammy Abraham netted a late equaliser as Aston Villa drew 1-1 with Leeds, and Brighton beat Brentford.

Team GB missed out on the opportunity to pick up another gold medal as they were beaten by Canada in the final of the men’s curling. Britain’s Zoe Atkin will take part in the women’s halfpipe final following its postponement.

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In the enclosed away end at HSK Zrinjski Mostar on Thursday, Oliver Glasner’s once peerless relationship with Crystal Palace supporters was left beyond repair.

It seems inevitable that Glasner’s departure, originally scheduled for the summer, will be accelerated and Palace will sever ties with the manager imminently.

The chants in Bosnia & Herzegovina were damning: “sacked in the morning”, “we want Glasner out” and “zero games undefeated, playing football the Glasner way” – a stark contrast to the 19 games undefeated chant in Lublin in October 2025.

The Palace supporters, who have often been split, were unanimous in their contempt. When asked about the sentiment on Friday, Glasner responded: “Maybe I would sing the same”.

That furore kickstarted a chaotic 24 hours that put Glasner’s immediate future in doubt. The direction of travel now is that he will struggle to make it to the end of the week, let alone the end of the season.

How Glasner’s reign reached breaking point

This situation has been simmering for a while. Supporters, whether right or wrong, began to lose faith in Glasner when he announced he would leave at the end of the season on the same day he confirmed club captain Marc Guehi would join Manchester City.

The following day, he launched an attack on the club’s hierarchy that could have been a sackable offence, suggesting they had “abandoned” him and his side. His arguments may have merit, but he publicly dragged the club’s name through the mud and his card has been marked since. The spiritless draw against Zrinjski was just the latest episode and the noise now appears too loud for him to survive.

Every mistake, poor result and misplaced word in a press conference is pounced on to argue that he has checked out of the job. Glasner himself admitted that results have not been good enough.

“I take responsibility, I’m just not good enough right now to replace the players we sold, integrate the new players and cope with the schedule,” he said on Friday.

His team have lacked purpose and their counter-attacking identity has been lost in a flurry of aimless passing. The moment teams get in their faces or there any signs of adversity, Palace crumble. They have notoriously struggled to break down low blocks throughout his tenure – the consensus among supporters is that he is too rigid in his approach, and too devoted to his 3-4-2-1 system.

Oliver Glasner does not look happy following the 1-1 draw with Zrinjski.. @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/PzjYzW2q83

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) February 19, 2026

If Palace decide to pull the trigger, it will be due to a combination of the team’s torrid form, growing toxicity among the fanbase, and his own critical comments.

Chairman Steve Parish is not usually reactive in such situations, but he does tend to follow the mood of the supporters. When they turn, it usually signals the end for a manager – as was the case with Roy Hodgson and Patrick Vieira.

What they do between now and the end of the season is tricky, as several of Palace’s favoured candidates to succeed Glasner would not want to come into the role mid-season.

Crystal Palace’s next manager – the options

German manager Roger Schmidt, who has not stepped back into the dugout since leaving Benfica in 2024, is on Palace’s shortlist to replace Glasner. Rayo Vallecano boss Inigo Perez and Bournemouth’s Andoni Iraola are also ambitious options.

A lack of immediate options that align with the club’s long-term vision may force Palace to employ a stopgap manager until the end of the season. One possible avenue is former Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou, who boasts experience winning European silverware and is seeking to rebuild his reputation after a calamitous spell at Nottingham Forest – though it may be difficult to land a manager of his stature on a short-term deal.

The focus at Selhurst Park until the end of the season must be winning the Conference League, although Palace are not yet safe in the Premier League. The current instability may see them dragged back into a relegation battle and that would make Glasner’s position untenable.

His legacy as the club’s most successful manager is already secure – he bucked trends, shattered the glass ceiling and delivered moments of glory that will always be treasured. Yet it now comes with the caveat of the disarray that followed, including a run of just one win in 15, including defeats to Burnley, Macclesfield and Leeds.

He arguably still has the tools to deliver both safety and push for the Conference League title. However, his increasingly downcast demeanour suggests he may no longer have the will to achieve those things. Among the supporters, that belief has all but evaporated. Now it is over to the hierarchy.

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As Newcastle United planted one foot in the last 16 of the Champions League with a swaggering display in Azerbaijan, they looked like a club who could get used to this kind of thing.

Barring a disastrous collapse in the second leg against Qarabag next week, Eddie Howe’s side will create another little bit of history by going further in the competition than any other Newcastle team has managed.

But the Magpies’ north star is to make this kind of thing routine.

The next step on the journey, to quote one insider, is to be at the business end of Europe’s elite competition every year.

Until now it has felt precarious, reliant on Howe’s ability to overachieve annually.

Behind the scenes there is talk of an ambitious business plan, signed off by majority owners Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) at the turn of the year, that can provide them with the armoury to support Howe, viewed as an elite manager who retains the faith of the board.

Underpinning that confidence is a new set of financial rules, known as squad cost ratio (SCR) that are coming into force next season and which Newcastle campaigned hard for before a Premier League vote back in November.

Senior figures at St James’ Park, it is safe to say, are big fans.

While its predecessor profitability and sustainability rules (PSR) became synonymous with holding Newcastle back, there is a belief that the new regulations give the club the chance to upgrade the stadium, build an elite training ground and super-size operations without impacting on transfer funds.

It may not unlock an immediate splurge – sources suggest the impact will be more medium to long-term – but it could be significant.

“We worked hard for SCR, we advocated for it,” an insider told The i Paper.

Why SCR is good news for Newcastle

While PSR was tied to profits, limiting clubs to a rolling three-year loss of £115m which Newcastle nearly breached in 2024, SCR is related entirely to football-related revenue.

“The pluses outweigh the minuses for Newcastle because they’ve got a fanbase which is big enough to fill an enhanced or new stadium and plenty of capacity to increase revenue as their international profile grows,” football finance expert Kieran Maguire explains.

What it means for the summer

Newcastle are going to have to box clever on transfers due to the new rules.

In the short term, they can only spend 70 per cent of their revenue – whether on wages, transfer fees, or agents fees.

Given they are seeking squad upgrades or competition in at least four positions this summer (goalkeeper, left-back, central midfield and maybe a new forward), player trading feels inevitable to finance their recruitment plans.

They have worked hard to comply with Uefa’s 70 per cent limit, and believe they won’t follow Aston Villa and Chelsea down the route of breaching financial rules, which landed both with fines and restrictions on spending.

Long-term impact

If revenue grows as chief executive David Hopkinson predicts – and the team continue to do well – that pressure should ease.

The new regime believe Newcastle haven’t been pulling some of the levers they should when it comes to revenue.

A renewed focus on the US and the Middle East might pull in more big name partnerships.

Insiders point out that SCR also means Newcastle can add new staff in a variety of non-football roles without exceeding the limit.

The appointment of a chief strategy officer, seen as key to pushing growth, is close.

And on the bigger ticket stuff like the stadium and training ground, there is more freedom around how they finance such projects.

Previously, any interest payments from loans taken out to pay for the stadium would have counted towards their running PSR total.

“We don’t want a [financial fair play] regime that will constrain our ambition,” is the message from inside Newcastle.

It is why they believe they won an important battle in pushing SCR through.

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The whole point of getting Michael Carrick in as interim head coach until the end of the season was so Manchester United could carefully identify a stellar name, preferably with Premier League experience, to become their next manager.

Four wins from five and two contract renewals later, and the dial has shifted.

The i Paper has been told that Carrick now stands as good a chance as any candidate of getting the job on a permanent basis.

Why Carrick has impressed

First and foremost, Carrick is really impressing in his temporary role. Not just on the pitch. His relaxed aura, a man of “few, but meaningful words”, has helped calm the waters after a turbulent end to Ruben Amorim’s time in charge.

Sources have insisted the dynamic among Carrick’s backroom staff is the “perfect balance”. Jonathan Woodgate has surprised many with his tactical insights and has taken time to work individually with young defenders Ayden Heaven and Leny Yoro to help them assimilate to life in the United fast lane. His ability to speak Spanish has also proved vital.

Steve Holland’s experience has provided Woodgate and younger faces around him in the coaching setup to operate cohesively. One source admitted being surprised a man of Holland’s knowhow and ability had not been snapped up by another Premier League rival.

Taking United’s beloved academy seriously also reflects well. Faith in youth borders on obsession at Old Trafford, something which Amorim never quite grasped.

While the Portuguese rarely attended youth games, Carrick is a regular, whether at Carrington or elsewhere. His son is part of the youth setup, but he even travelled down to Oxford this week to watch the Under-18s. Something that has not gone unnoticed.

The other major boost to Carrick’s hopes of getting the job full time is that other options are, one by one, dropping out of the race.

Carrick’s rivals out of the race

Thomas Tuchel was one of the United hierarchy’s top picks. The German is more combative than some senior figures would ideally choose, but his track record, especially in the short term, was more than appealing. His new England contract takes him out of the running.

Rumours have been circulating for some time that Luis Enrique wants a new challenge having achieved all he can at Paris Saint-Germain. The Spaniard’s English is perfect and is seen by a large portion of United’s fanbase as the ideal candidate.

Sources in Paris have been adamant all along, however, that Enrique will instead sign a new deal in the French capital. It is understood that new deal is now close to being agreed.

PSG’s capture of wonderkid Dro Fernandez from Barcelona, beating Manchester City, Chelsea and other top European clubs to his signature, was partly completed as a sweetener to persuade Enrique the project in Paris is only just beginning.

Sources in South America have also said Carlo Ancelotti is about to commit his future to the Brazil national team, too, taking another marquee name off United’s list. That deal is expected to be finalised in the coming weeks.

Other elite coaches who could be approached remain. Roberto De Zerbi is another top pick, but he is understood to be under serious consideration for the permanent Tottenham job, a role he is keen on, sources close to the fiery Italian said.

Some in the United hierarchy have doubts over Oliver Glasner, fearing he is of the same level as Amorim when he was appointed. The feeling within the club’s boardroom is that they got it wrong with the former Sporting boss – he was not ready for a role of United’s magnitude.

They will not make the same mistake again. No approaches will be made yet. Not while it is going this well with the current set-up.

While the club is in good hands for now, there is no need to rock the boat and start conversations with other options. The approach, like it has been in terms of player recruitment, will be carefully planned and take time. There will be no more knee-jerk reactions. Conversations will start towards the end of the season.

The next appointment is one senior figures are determined to get right. Carrick gives them plenty of food for thought.

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There he is, sandwiched between Kylian Mbappe and Harry Kane as Erling Haaland trails in a distant fourth.

Anthony Gordon has always been adamant that he belongs in the pantheon of elite modern day forwards and, statistically speaking at least, his football appears to be doing the talking for him in the Champions League this season.

Mbappe (an impressive 13 goals) may have a healthy lead in the competition’s golden boot leaderboard but Gordon (now sitting on 10) isn’t doing too badly for a player who has only played through the middle eight times this season.

Returned to the centre-forward role that he was thrust into in desperation at the start of the season, Gordon suddenly looks like a player transformed by the responsibility. Four goals against Qarabag to effectively seal Newcastle’s place in the last 16 of the Champions League was impressive but it was also part of a trend for the England man.

He has six goal involvements since Eddie Howe shook his forward line up at Anfield three weeks ago and the experiment to push him into the middle appears to be working.

Anthony Gordon rifles in Newcastle's third from the penalty spot @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/Aq4Hd00Vw0

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) February 18, 2026

Credit has to go to Gordon, who can be a lightning rod for criticism in this Newcastle side. His look, swagger and tendency to talk himself up can jar when the goals aren’t flowing.

But when he plays like this – even brushing off a demand from captain Kieran Trippier to hand over penalty responsibilities to Nick Woltemade late in the first half – you really do see what all the fuss is about.

For Thomas Tuchel, who has always liked the Newcastle forward, it is food for thought. It would be no surprise if he started against Croatia in Dallas in four months’ time.

Gordon was electric in Azerbaijan, destroying opposition that had sprung a few surprises in making it into the Champions League play-offs. Qarabag had taken points off Copenhagen, Benfica and Chelsea in the league phase but looked utterly out of their depth against a Newcastle side who seem to be relishing the more open, up-and-at-them style of sides in Europe.

It is admirable that Qarabag boss Gurban Gurbanov felt his side could go toe-to-toe with Newcastle but he had perhaps not factored in that Howe, looking for answers to save the Magpies’ season, has reconfigured his forward line completely in the last week or so.

Out has gone the out-of-sorts Yoane Wissa and Woltemade and in has come Gordon, whose energy and incision has refreshed Newcastle’s attack and allowed them to press from the front again. All of a sudden they look much more like the team that etched their name in club history in the second half of last season.

It helps that Gordon has stopped overthinking things in front of goal. Just two minutes were on the clock in Baku when he was fed a through ball from the marauding Dan Burn and his finish was instinctive, dispatching past Mateusz Kochalski without missing a beat.

It set the tone for an embarrassingly one-sided first half. Malick Thiaw nodded a second from Trippier’s excellent cross before Gordon tucked him the first of two penalties Newcastle were awarded.

For the second Gordon was encouragingly selfish, ignoring Trippier’s overtures for him to allow Woltemade to take the spot kick. But why should he? Gordon is the penalty taker, he’s fantastic from the spot and he’s a live contender to win the Champions League golden boot. You’d be disappointed in any forward who felt charitable in that position.

For Howe it couldn’t have gone better. A five goal cushion means he can rest players for the home leg next week as Newcastle build momentum. Don’t be surprised if Gordon, with Mbappe in his sights, petitions to play, though.

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So far in 2026, I’ve heard boos from away supporters towards their own team and manager. I’ve heard home fans chanting for their own manager to be sacked, booing at full time and jeering one of their own players for poor set-piece delivery.

I’ve heard the fanbase of the team top of their division drowning in angst, one bloke screaming repeatedly at a winger for not doing something right from a distance that made his individual words audible to their target. I’ve heard a team get booed off at half time. I’ve heard angry chants against broadcasters, owners and referees… always referees. I’ve heard furious claims that multiple governing bodies are corrupt.

I quite like booing. There’s something comical about using a pantomime gesture to translate rampant frustration and despair. But the rise in anger across all four divisions of English football is undeniable. It raises a question: why does it feel like vast swathes of people don’t like the game or the club that they love?

The wider context is inescapable. Football is the most significant cornerstone of British culture. Nowhere else in everyday life do more people congregate in larger groups than at football matches.

Anger is a rising epidemic across the general population. A recent study recorded that almost a quarter of people surveyed say they felt anger on a daily basis, up significantly in a decade. Research into the treatment of customer service workers revealed that 60 per cent had experienced serious verbal hostility over the past 12 months.

Negative news cycles, perceived social injustice, a feeling of being ignored by those in power, social media as a highly addictive tool of amplification and reinforcement of things specifically curated to annoy you; these are the causes. And at football, we gather together like nowhere else.

On that last point, football is probably the best example after politics. You surround yourself with those who agree and you all get angry together towards those who don’t. Tribalism has fragmented over the last decade, from “us vs you” to “us vs you, but also us vs each other”. Factions exist over debate and extremism runs wild.

Football matters more now to those who go to watch it, a sweeping statement but a correct one. The notion of simply going along to watch the game and seeing what happens, football as soap opera, is now archaic.

There is always another week and another season but the second football epidemic, desperation culture, provokes a heightened sense of need for success to happen immediately. I think we used to see football as one entire mass. Now it is more of a food chain fight with its economics reinforcing that hierarchy in concrete.

If we have become more emotionally entwined with on-pitch performance then, crucially we also have more insight into club life and access to more performance data and analysis than ever before. It’s one thing to watch a team play badly, but if you have read four theories of how they could be better and articles about how injuries could be better avoided or how the sporting director is failing, you’re more likely to express frustration in person.

But the angry football fan is a creation of the sport itself. The rise in ticket prices, merchandising and concessions, far above inflation (and decency) irrevocably increased expectations of the product being sold, which in football’s case is either success, entertainment or both. Previously, supporter loyalty would extend to the “thick and thin” principle. Increasingly that loyalty is exhausted simply through the financial effort of being at the game. They made us like this.

If you believe that the club cares about you less (and that is the overwhelming sentiment of matchgoing supporters in 2026), the club loses its own leeway. This is a two-way street. Treat supporters as customers for long enough and they begin to believe it. If your washing powder stains your clothes, you complain or switch brands. If your team loses badly at home, you can’t switch so you complain doubly loud.

To which we then add the myriad other (entirely valid) complaints by the same people, from kick-off times at the behest of broadcasters and the sanitisation of the match experience to the limitations of Profitability and Sustainability Rules and the emotional blackmail of clubs who pretend matchgoing supporters matter when it suits.

That presents rising anger not only as a product of football’s market economy, but a marker of its success. You see everybody is still here. Despite everything, crowds continue to rise. Fourth-tier crowds averaged over 6,000 in 2024 and 2025 for the first time in 60 years. Rank all second-tier crowds in England over the last 70 years and the last two sit first and second.

The more they gouge, the less it seems to make a difference to football’s in-person popularity. If everybody who was angry left, they would probably be replaced by happier, clappier attendees. But we don’t. We simply stay, getting less for more, changed and warped but still stuck in the cycle of hope and despair and thoroughly addicted to the whole thing. Booooo!

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The difficulty we face in the fight against racism, former Liverpool icon John Barnes holds, is not tackling the racists themselves. They are effectively lost to us. The problem is persuading those who believe themselves not to be racists that they also inflict hurt and damage in their responses to it, effectively giving the prejudiced licence to abuse.

I give you Jose Mourinho. I give you Mark Clattenburg. I give you the Benfica comms department, all of whom would vehemently deny being racist but in their own ways demonstrated the damage they do when addressing what appears to be a clear racist incident as Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni insulted Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr. 

Mourinho insisted that Vinicius should have celebrated “in a respectful way”. Asked if he believed the forward had incited the crowd, he said: “Yes, I believe so.” Clattenburg for his part suggested the player had made it “very difficult” for the referee.

Vinicius had just scored the worldie that would decide the outcome of the match and celebrated in true samba style at the corner flag. This wilful joy fried the brains of the opposition, triggering playground rage that turned nasty. This is a blight he has confronted throughout his career in the Iberian peninsula, where his flamboyance in the cause of Real Madrid meets the base impulses of racists who use it as an excuse to let rip.

The difficulty in legal terms is establishing the fact of what Prestianni said, because his mouth was concealed. We can infer from the shirt pulled over his mouth that Prestianni was not saying well done.

Vinicius complained to the referee, making clear the word he had heard was “monkey”. According to Vinicius’ teammate, Aurelien Tchouameni, Prestianni denied racism, claiming the insult he used was in fact homophobic. Great. That’s okay then.

Either way the game was stopped for 10 minutes as per Uefa statutes before playing to its conclusion. The matter was never going to rest there, and shouldn’t. The response of others like Mourinho and Clattenburg show how far we are from understanding the problem, never mind dealing with it. 

Real Madrid’s tie with Benfica was halted for 10 minutes after Vinicius Júnior reported alleged racist abuse pic.twitter.com/yHJfwved0e

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) February 17, 2026

The Barnes thesis at least provides a framework for helping white people understand what white privilege means, that it is a thing, and the damage it can do when good people fail to recognise how their behaviours make progress impossible.

Mourinho wanted this to be about the goal celebration, essentially blaming the victim for the abuse he received, rather than the abuser for giving it. Clattenburg positioned himself at Mourinho’s shoulder with the same interpretation of events. The fact that the match referee raised crossed arms to indicate suspension on racist grounds was not uppermost in their considerations.

Mourinho would later double down on his harmful intransigence by offering the Benfica career of legendary black player, Eusebio, as evidence that the club could not be racist. This is the kind of devastating primary school reasoning that doubles down on denial and blocks mainstream recognition of the issue.

Benfica went even further in producing a clip of match footage as evidence that the Real Madrid players were too distant from the alleged abuse to have heard anything. This was contradicted by a number of Vinicius’ teammates, including Trent Alexander-Arnold, who spoke out against the abuse after the game.

What Benfica’s position does show is intention and bias. Their interest is not in understanding how the incident impacted Vinicius, but on defending their own player and thus themselves. They are not prepared to take a black man at his word. They are of course not saying that his claims are untrue, only that they cannot be corroborated by evidence. Thus is Vinicius gaslit in his moment of need by Mourinho and Benfica.

The institutions of the game, coach, club, ex-referee are choosing not only to look away but to shift the pretext. This is not an isolated incident but is playing out in context of black people’s experiences the world over.

It is an insult to history’s tortured victims of racism to ask the question, but what would be gained by a black man charging about the pitch opportunistically accusing a white opponent of racism? I mean it never happens, right? And besides, who needs that kind of attention?

By reacting as they have, Mourinho, Benfica et al perpetuate racism by not confronting it head on. Blinded by white privilege they have made this Vinicius’ problem not theirs, not the game’s, not ours, when in truth it is on all of us to make a stand. Shame on them.

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Brighton & Hove Albion began this season in a better position than most. They were the highest-ranked Premier League team in 2024-25 to not qualify for Europe. Without that workload, so the supposition went, they could properly kick on and finally challenge the elite consistently in the manner that had always been the end goal.

The same manager was in place, Fabian Hurzeler, likely better off for his debut campaign in English football. Joao Pedro was the only first-team departure who left an obvious hole, but Brighton spent £30m on Charalampos Kostoulas as a replacement. Between June 2024 and August 2025, they invested around £310m on transfer fees.

Brighton have won one league game since the end of November, at home to Burnley. Ten days ago they were booed at the end of a home defeat to rivals Crystal Palace and, since then, they have lost further matches in two competitions without scoring. A team that was flawed but eminently watchable has become lethargic and easier to defend than at any point over the last four years.

Brighton supporters are quickly losing – or have already lost – faith in Hurzeler. He stands accused not just of underperformance but a particular brand of frustrating overthinking whereby players are picked in seemingly unfamiliar roles that has knocked confidence and prolonged this funk.

You see the point. In 26 Premier League games, Hurzeler has started six different players as a defensive midfielder, four at right-back, six on the right wing and five on the left. Ferdi Kadioglu has started in four different positions, Diego Gomez in four too. Mats Wieffer has played most of his games at right-back and Georginio Rutter most of his as a No 10. Not enough of it makes sense and the results prove as much. Were this the first season, fine. But…

Brighton clearly don’t want to sack Hurzeler. He was given a show of faith by chief executive Paul Barber in the Palace programme notes, Barber referring to “growing fan impatience across large parts of the football landscape”. Brighton haven’t sacked a manager mid-season since Sami Hyypia in 2014 and they crave certainty.

The German, if he is to blame for this messy, unformed season, is also a useful distraction from a recruitment methodology that has achieved mini-miracles over the last half decade but has made its first significant missteps.

That £310m spend includes six players signed for £25m or more, but only two have started more than half of Brighton’s league matches in 2025-26. Brajan Gruda has already been loaned back out to RB Leipzig, while Matt O’Riley and Kostoulas have started four matches between them. Danny Welbeck’s Benjamin Button football career remains a blessing; his goals have been worth eight league points.

This is no calamity, of course. Brighton have proven themselves capable of overcoming hurdles inflicted upon them by others (read: Chelsea) and their managerial recruitment is typically excellent. That is a product of the environment. This is a fine place to work and every employee I have ever spoken to has been at pains to mention as much.

Brighton also are not going to go down, even if this home straight arrives with an unpleasant limp and a stitch. Take a step back; that is extraordinary. If this is a step backwards, it is only because the consolidation years (2017-2021) made way for the potential ceiling being lifted while Brighton supporters rarely worried about the floor.

We are about to find out whether this is a Brighton problem or a Hurzeler problem; supporters certainly have far more faith in the leadership than the head coach. He has done well to last until now, given the last three months. His club has reached a phase in which moving forwards is the only option. This season, there were fewer excuses than ever.

Because Brighton must also know that they are selling a vision and a commitment that they will not go the same way as other smart upstarts who eventually lost their way. If supporting this club over the last 15 years has been a dream, it is not easy when you suspect that the peak is always one more climb away.

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Newport County had a dream to be different. When Huw Jenkins bought a majority stake in January 2024, he arrived with a vision to replicate his own successful past in this part of Wales: passing football, developing players, rising up through the EFL to who knows where. At Swansea City, with Jenkins, the ceiling never seemed to exist.

It was a brave plan with one slight problem: forget the ceiling; it was the floor that scared everybody in Newport. Having lost two League Two play-off finals, a long funk had set in. In the last four seasons, Newport have finished lower each time: fifth to 11th to 15th to 18th to 22nd. It goes without saying that they cannot afford to finish lower this time.

And yet: Newport County are bottom of the Football League. They have won four league games since 9 August and have two home wins in all competitions over the last 11 months (although both were since Christmas).

In the short term, Newport have not scored in four games. Christian Fuchs, appointed as manager in November, has 10 points from 15 league games and that is not going to be enough.

There are historical reasons for the threat of relegation to cause deep fear here. The last time Newport left the Football League, in 1988, they were expelled from the Conference and the club faced liquidation.

It took until 1994 for Newport to get back to Wales, exiled through financial necessity. It took until 1999 for the club to even get their original name back and 14 further seasons for Football League promotion. Nobody can face going through all that again.

At a fan’s forum event in December, Jenkins stressed that he has been seeking outside investment to help the club’s financial situation. Jenkins said that his own arrival in 2024 came 48 hours before an inability to pay the players and that he has invested £3m of his own money to keep the club on a stable footing.

The problem is that Jenkins said that an external cash injection has been complicated by Newport’s league position. That is the crux of this issue, an unpleasant catch-22: Newport need more money to be better, but they need to be better to attract more money.

And so the question inevitably grows in significance and volume: is the plan itself so flawed that it will not work?

Jenkins’ hope was to mimic the best bits of that Swansea model: young players signed on the cheap from less glamorous clubs and sculpted into a specific way of playing before being sold on as the team improved.

Newport have the youngest squad in League Two. They try to play passing football (they rank eighth for accurate passes but low for possession, aka they get the ball and pass it around the back a lot). They are 20th in the division for touches in the box and the lack of attacking penetration has reached a nadir over the last four games.

The recruitment plan has been emphatic and largely split into two areas over the last 18 months: clubs in Wales (Haverfordwest, Merthyr Town, Penybont, Barry Town) and U21 loans and free transfers (Swansea, Queens Park Rangers, Newcastle United, Cardiff City, Sunderland, Leicester City, Manchester United).

There was a slight shift in January, when Newport signed loanees aged 29, 29 and 30. But is that too late?

“The model is obviously to buy young players and try to sell them on but it feels like we’ve not got the blend of experienced and inexperienced players right,” season ticket holder Dan Grace tells The i Paper.

“The hope is that some of these young players will settle in and improve, but clubs in League Two rarely manage to then sell for decent money anyway, because players normally just leave when their contracts expire.”

The added complication is the managerial recruitment.

Fuchs is a big name with a Premier League title as a player, but this is his first full-time head coach job. Newport have appointed their last three managers from Maritimo B, Barry Town and Charlotte SC (where Fuchs was an assistant).

If you are going to develop young players in this environment in this league, surely you need some experience around them?

“This really plays into the narrative that we’re trying to do this on the cheap,” Grace says.

“With our coaches over the last couple of seasons it feels like even they’re learning on the job, which can’t help the players. The comment from Fuchs a few weeks ago about us not being in a relegation battle after we had won one game just speaks to that naivety.”

The last time I came here, I was minded to enthuse about any small club in a provincial city trying to do something different. It is undoubtedly brave to embark upon a project that you believe can work if it rides out the first two seasons.

But there is an obvious counterpoint and it is gaining significant support amongst supporters: this just is not going to work here. At their best, Newport County was a team that fought for its relevance and bruised the noses of clubs who would always have bigger budgets. There is a substantial risk that Newport have lost sight of what they are good at in favour of something that is failing to land.

This can only get harder if the worst happens between now and May and that is increasing in probability with each winless or scoreless match. Forget the ambition for a moment; Newport are in firefighting mode and the worry is whether the last decade is being quickly fragmented into pieces.

“Our EFL status is the main selling point for anyone who might want to invest,” Grace says.

“We don’t own our own ground, training ground – we’ve got no assets.

“Once our EFL status goes we become a really unattractive club and attracting outside investment becomes even harder. Then what happens?”

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