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If Everton come up short in the race for European qualification this season, there will be more than a pang of regret for David Moyes.

In his second stint at Everton, Moyes is a man in a hurry. While the club’s football leadership team is building for the long-term – with the ambition of establishing themselves alongside the likes of Aston Villa and Newcastle United as regulars in gatecrashing the Champions League places in the next year or two – the Scot believes there is no time to waste.

That is why when some see issues for Everton qualifying for Europe – the squad would need significantly more than the planned-for four or five major signings to cope with the expanded fixture list – he sees a golden opportunity. And it is a chance that, if Newcastle, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea get their act together, might not be as easy to achieve as this season.

After stumbling in recent weeks, it now looks like a long shot. Three wins from their final four matches – starting with Monday night’s visit of title-chasing Manchester City – might be required.

Whatever ultimately ends up happening, the club have progressed. On and off the field, where a £30m front-of-shirt sponsorship deal with CMC Markets has been struck, there is confidence going into a summer where Everton – who have funds and scope to make first team-ready additions – intend to be “front foot” and attack the transfer market.

Ambitious targets – and Grealish optimism

First through the door is likely to be the returning Jack Grealish, with sources understood to be increasingly confident that a deal can be struck with City to extend the England winger’s time on Merseyside.

Everton are hoping for another loan, having committed around £12m to his first year, and there is a belief that Grealish’s desperation to return to the Hill Dickinson Stadium will help negotiations with City, which will open at the end of the season.

Beyond that, Everton’s approach will be fascinating. The dynamic between the football leadership board, who will lean into data and analytics, and Moyes is a fascinating one.

The Everton manager, for example, was advocating that the club speculated to accumulate in January, pushing for experienced signings that would strengthen their push for Europe.

In the event the club, mindful of financial restrictions that have landed the club in trouble in the recent past, decided to keep their powder dry ahead of what one source suggested would be a “big summer” at the club. Now they have decisions to make.

Striker and right-back at the top of the wishlist

The club desperately need a striker and – whatever happens next with Thierno Barry after a decidedly mixed first season following a £27m move from Villarreal – they intend to add another forward.

There is some support for reviving interest in Liam Delap, who opted to move to Chelsea last year and is likely to be made available this summer for around the £30m he cost 12 months ago, but it is by no means unanimous. His first season at Stamford Bridge represents a red flag to some and other well-placed sources believe the club are more likely to turn to the European market again, given inflated Premier League prices.

Right-back is a priority area but two centre-back names being explored are Arsenal’s England defender Ben White and John Stones, who is understood to be keen to remain in the North West when he leaves City in the summer.

The 31-year-old spent three years at Everton – working with Moyes for six months – and possesses the  leadership qualities and experience that the Toffees coach believes will be key to moving the squad forward.

Contract extensions incoming

There will also be continuity, with Everton close to triggering a year extension in the contract of left-back Vitalii Mykolenko. There is also a desire to extend Idrissa Gueye’s spell for another year, but that extension requires the veteran midfielder to agree. It is not viewed as a certainty that he will stay.

And Everton insiders remain confident that midfielder Merlin Röhl and Tyler Dibling, who has been used sparingly this season, will come good after slow first years.

Conversations with agents ahead of the summer have been positive. There is a sense that Everton is once again seen as a “destination”, with Grealish’s presence and the excellent form of the likes of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and James Garner giving them a platform to sell themselves to potential targets.

“Whatever happens this season, we’re absolutely moving in the right direction,” one source says.  

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It’s complicated, but to quickly summarise Burnley’s financial position; they are not in as perilous a position as people think. The major cause for concern is the club’s footballing strategy.

Given they have debts of around £115m, most of which came because of owners ALK Capital’s leveraged takeover of the club in 2020, there were fears a fire sale of players would again be needed to simply stay afloat next season.

While £200m of new recruits over the past few years failed to even make a fight of it back in the Premier League, off the field, The i Paper has learned that financial restructuring on loans taken out to fund their transfer market failings is under way.

“ALK and Velocity [Sports Partners, the sports investment arm of ALK Capital] are manipulating what they know – finances,” one source says.

“Managing the football side and communication is a very different story.

“There is a certain level of arrogance, audacity in ALK/Velocity believing that they can replicate the operations of Tony Bloom and Matthew Benham [at Brighton and Brentford] when nobody at the club comes from that modelling background and has not been refining their capabilities in the field for the best part of 30 years or more.”

Brighton and Brentford’s Moneyball approach, taking a strong data element to their recruitment approach, before selling their incredible finds for hundreds of millions and still progressing, has reached new heights this season, with qualification for next season’s Champions League, astonishingly, still a possibility for both.

Burnley tried it on their last sojourn in the Premier League under Vincent Kompany – spending money his predecessor Sean Dyche could only dream of – in 2023-24. All it did was saddle the Lancashire side with even more debt, and very few points.

The policy – to build, maintain and develop a core of young, inexperienced players mixed in with some seasoned pros – remains one similar to that of Kompany’s ill-fated top-flight campaign.

“The club appear to be in the early part of this new strategy that unfortunately has seen few positive signs and has left a significant proportion of the fanbase having no faith in the owner, recruitment team, the manager and his coaching team, along with many of the players,” a source adds.

“There remains a need to reduce the size of the squad. Outgoings are expected and if they are fringe players, it could easily be around 10 or more – there are so many injured and out on loan. Plus there are a few who don’t look like they will make the grade

“There should, unlike last time, not be the need to sell more than one or two of the core group.”

ALK completed a takeover of Espanyol earlier this season, a team tipped to challenge for the Champions League places. Instead, the La Liga side are just above the relegation zone.

“There remains a need to reduce the size of the squad,” a source continues.

“Outgoings are expected and if they are fringe players, it could easily be around 10 or more – there are so many injured and out on loan. Plus there are a few who don’t look like they will make the grade

“There should, unlike last time, not be the need to sell more than one or two of the core group.”

To bring in much of the current crop, Burnley took on what are effectively payday loans, adding to worries over finances.

Burnley entered into a £40m factoring agreement with London-based Fasanara Capital in January 2025; this means that a proportion of incoming transfer fee instalments goes to them rather than the club. This factoring loan is thought to close in January 2027.

There has been no refinancing at the club since it borrowed a reported nine-figure sum from American private equity group MGG in January 2024, to pay off £89m in debts and gain some additional funds.

Around 75-80 per cent of the debt, upon release of the club’s last accounts, was scheduled to have been paid off by the close of this financial year, the majority of that last season. The next accounts should confirm this when they are shown at Companies House early next month. The current loans are scheduled to end in 2028.

One potential problem that could put a severe dent in the finances is that midfielder Florentino’s loan move is understood to have an obligation to make the deal permanent at the end of the season, taking the total fee to around £22.5m, just under their club record.

The squad is evidently not good enough for the Premier League. But is it even capable of securing another immediate return to the top flight?

“No team has ever yo-yoed three times consecutively and next year’s Championship will possibly one of the hardest ever to get out of, given who is going down and the possibility of the likes of Southampton, Ipswich, Middlesbrough, Wrexham and Birmingham City alongside the relegated trio,” another source adds.

“Some may be complacent about Burnley’s last four seasons in the Championship each with automatic promotion, earning 93, 93, 101 and 100 points respectively in the process.

“All of that was done with key players signed by Sean Dyche – there are none left now and there is nowhere near the same knowhow or fight in what is there now.”

Some names could leave. Zian Flemming has impressed and scored goals. Former Manchester United midfielder Hannibal Mejbri could attract suitors, as could Maxime Esteve and Jaidon Anthony.

Top earner Kyle Walker is expected to leave, too. However, that is about it in terms of players whom the club would struggle to keep. Another damning indictment on a transfer policy where past mistakes have simply not been addressed.

Read more

• Michael Hincks: Birmingham City and the big ‘what-if’
• Daniel Storey: Stoke City are the most depressing club in English football

Whether Scott Parker stays put remains to be seen, with Steven Gerrard understood to be a potential option should he leave. Whoever is in charge is nonetheless likely to have a more settled squad than many of his relegated predecessors. The jury is still out on whether that is a good or a bad thing.

“I think we are more likely to do a Leicester,” another source says. “The recruitment has been that bad.”

Burnley did not respond to The i Paper’s requests for comment.

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Birmingham City are as high up the football ladder as they have been for a decade, and yet their solid Championship campaign still ends with what-ifs.

Chris Davies’ side sit 10th in the table heading into the final day of the regular campaign on Saturday, travelling to Portsmouth for what has evolved into a dead-rubber.

Just above them, Wrexham, Hull City, and Derby County will all fight it out for sixth place, with the final play-off spot up for grabs and just one point separating all three sides.

To say Blues fans are jealous is too complicated to say with complete conviction, but undoubtedly Wrexham’s possible shot at reaching the Premier League will sting Birmingham’s owners.

Wrexham and Birmingham came up from League One together, and the former were 18th after 10 Championship games before a turnaround propelled them into play-off contention.

The fact Birmingham – seven points adrift – can point towards just a few more results going their way to have been in contention themselves is what has drawn mixed feelings from this campaign among supporters.

It is not lost on Blues fans that 10th is a sign of progress. The club previously circled the Championship drain for seven years before they eventually, and what felt inevitably, went down in 2023-24.

They responded emphatically, buoyed by the backing of co-owner Tom Wagner and spending big to return to the Championship in record fashion as an entirely different beast.

This time around, survival was not the aim. Norwich City, Southampton and Ipswich Town have achieved back-to-back promotions to the Premier League before, and Wagner felt Blues could as well.

There was, though, an understanding.

“This ambition is there to inspire us, but because of what happened last time they know how unforgiving it can be,” Davies said in August.

“The ambition is great but there’s a clear understanding of how hard it is.”

The Championship is a field of dreams, with 19 of the 24 second-tier clubs having played Premier League football since 1992, and eight of those clubs playing 10 or more seasons in the top tier in that time.

That does not include Birmingham, who have enjoyed seven Premier League campaigns but none since 2010-11. They are, therefore, one of plenty have-been wannabes bouncing around the Championship and below, although no second-tier club, they would argue, have quite the same vision.

This was marked when plans for their new 62,000-capacity stadium were revealed in November, proof their ambition was as lofty as the 12 chimneys set to surround the ground.

Birmingham were 11th at the time of this unveiling. They had previously been as high as fifth – in August after three games – and as low as 17th in October. They wanted to look up, but they were back in 17th come January as patchy streaks of form made for muddled reading.

It has, therefore, been a funny, see-saw season. A seven-game winless run was followed by eight unbeaten, while more recently two sets of three-straight losses checkered any play-off hopes.

The atmosphere at St Andrew’s turned toxic in their last home defeat, to Blackburn Rovers on 3 April, with frustrations over their style of play and decisions over personnel, sticking with certain favourites and dropping defender Phil Neumann, bubbling over into jeers.

The boos put Davies’ position in the limelight, raising the awkward question of whether the 41-year-old, in his first role in management, has taken them as far as he can, but a late flourish has included a win over Wrexham and soothed some dissenters.

“For the fans to show that kind of appreciation to me on the final game definitely means a lot,” Davies said, having felt the love from the stands after the win over Bristol City.

Read more

• Daniel Storey: Birmingham City’s naked ambition is becoming a problem
• Tom Wagner: My four-year plan for Birmingham City

Four unbeaten at just the right time, and a willingness to adapt that might just have bought Davies a season. This upturn in results has coincided with Neumann being recalled and consistent starts for August Priske, the 6ft 5in striker, and winger Carlos Vicente.

Both Priske and Vicente are January signings, proof Birmingham are forever on the move, and while the identity of the eventual play-off winners may leave them green with envy, supporters will know they are in a far stronger position than where they were two years ago.

They would have taken 10th at the start of the season, and while that did not quite allude to the rollercoaster that followed, this strange hinterland looks to be the foundation for a much stronger push next term.

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Real Madrid is a club overrun with over-inflated egos, one more won’t make any difference. Jose Mourinho can just slot right in alongside the real gaffer, Kylian Mbappe, Jude Bellingham, Vinicius Junior et al, and glory in the specialness of it all. 

Whether it will be enough to placate the fans and avoid a second trophyless season is another matter. Since his initial three-year stint at the Santiago Bernabeu ended 12 years ago, Mourinho has become a football itinerant, as well as irritant, wringing the last drops of that once-powerful cache to maintain what relevance he can.

In terms of coaching significance and ideas, the Mourinho manual has little application left. His brand of minimalist, joyless, utilitarian football began to erode during his second spell at Chelsea. Despite being unbeaten since his return to Benfica in September, they trail Sporting Lisbon by seven points in Liga Portugal.

Madrid is so unlike any other institution since the coach is secondary in importance to the real centre of power, the players. Or make that one player, Mbappe. Like Cristiano Ronaldo before him, Mbappe embodies absolutely a galactico culture that goes back all the way to Alfredo Di Stefano and Ferenc Puskas.

Mourinho is more effective at lesser clubs where the star power inheres in him alone, where the need is theirs for him. Clearly at Real Madrid and Manchester United, the special ones wear boots. It is the players who forge the brand. Even Sir Alex Ferguson understood that.

Though control is sacrificed, there are compensations. The coach at Madrid enjoys the same structural advantages Mourinho identified at Manchester City in his recent takedown of Pep Guardiola. In other words it is hard to fail if you play by the rules, which means following Mbappe’s orders and drawing media fire where necessary.

It was too much for Mourinho to acknowledge the greatness of Guardiola, the zeitgeist monster at Barcelona during their shared seasons in La Liga. Yeah, sure, a great coach, beautiful football and all that, but, he claimed, no Ferguson, who built the infrastructure that delivered the team as well as the methodology that coached it.

So what would Madrid be getting? Brand? Tick. Previous club experience? Tick. Theatre? Tick. Compliance? Tick. Deference? Tick. Vision? Don’t be silly.

At Manchester United, the touchline-skipping energy that helped forge the Mourinho mystique during Sporting’s Champions League victory at Old Trafford 22 years ago, had reduced to parking the bus. He was frankly a disaster, his shrunken vision wildly at odds with the United way and the grandiose sense that he had of himself.

The gathering poverty of his football at Old Trafford was camouflaged by a League Cup and Europa League double in his first season. Ultimately it was this that persuaded Tottenham Hotspur to give him a go in 2019 after United got rid following a desultory 3-1 defeat at Anfield.

They loved him at Roma. Well, Serie A, where he burnished his early reputation at Inter Milan, is perhaps best suited temperamentally to Mourinho’s counter-culture values. Moreover, victory in the Conference League put a European trophy in a Roman boardroom for the first time since Caesar controlled the Forum.

Read more

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• Kevin Garside: The BBC’s football coverage is dying without Gary Lineker

For all that, the trajectory was unmistakably downward. Twelve years on from arguably his greatest achievement, winning the Champions League with Inter, here he was framing Conference League victory as elite success when in reality it was a low grade token at third tier European stock.

His brief, 14-month spell with Fenerbahce was searingly apposite, perfectly reflecting the taciturn malcontent he has become. The football was pedestrian and colourless, he fell out with the board and could not lay a glove on Galatasaray. He left by mutual consent, which was a polite way of saying get outta here and don’t darken our door again.

Florentino Perez is exercising his presidential prerogative to push for Mourinho’s return. In the context of a disappointing campaign in which Xabi Alonso came and went and Alvaro Arbeloa respectfully put the bibs out, Mourinho at least represents familiarity and carries sufficient legacy power to win over the gullible until something better turns up or he forgets himself and tries to bin Mbappe.

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Sheffield Wednesday are the Football League club most embedded in crisis; no arguments there. At best the sirens still sound, the uncertainty reigns and next season will be a fight to avoid a consecutive relegation. Nobody sensible would swap places with Wednesday.

But proximity to calamity is not the only way to measure misery; sometimes being too far from anything at all can be just as depressing. This weekend Wednesday will fill Hillsborough because of what there is to fight for. Last weekend at Stoke City, home supporters went simply because they have always gone. And they lost again. This is existing more than living.

Stoke have now finished in the bottom half of the table for 10 seasons in a row, two in the Premier League and eight in the Championship. Their last half-decade has seen glacially slow decline but decline all the same: 14th, 16th, 17th, 18th. Finishing 19th is still in their hands and who would bet against them? Ask the owners, I guess.

The most lamentable element of this story is that Stoke have so many advantages. They have a local family who are extremely wealthy and perfectly prepared to fund the club. The Coates have written off £210m in loans to leave Stoke debt-free. The club now own the training ground and stadium. Ticket prices have been frozen for almost 20 years. Stoke rank in the top half for Championship wage bills. They get 24,000 in most weeks.

And for what? Persistent failure versus expectation and stated ambition. A fanbase that laughs at the lack of progress otherwise it would cry and cry. A blame game that is often more interesting to supporters than the matches – and seasons – that they are forced to endure.

That blame starts with the players. This team perennially collapses when in promising positions – remember they were second in the Championship at the end of November. What happens to them in the second half of each season? Three wins in their last 19 now. Five wins in their last 23 last season. Six in 22 in 2023-24.

But then the faces change and everything else stays the same. Stoke have signed 30 players – an entire first-team squad – since June 2023 and that fails to include 18 incoming loans over the same period. They can’t all share some deep physical or psychological weakness.

And how on earth is this club so continually incapable of servicing its strikers? The last time a Stoke player scored more than 15 league goals in a season, Ashley Cole had just made his England debut. It is the longest run in English professional football.

So we should blame the managers, then. Certainly Mark Robins has done himself few favours and is under pressure. Stoke rank 20th for xG and 19th for xG against – translation: this is quite a bad football team. His 30-odd per cent win record is not what anyone was signing up for.

But then that’s just what happens in this Bermuda triangle of managerial competence. Stoke have had eight different head coaches in eight years, of various shapes, sizes and philosophies. Each arrives with hope and hunger and sees both fade into the fog. See the paragraph on players and play it again.

Blame the sporting director, then, and plenty of supporters are. Former player Jon Walters was appointed to oversee long-term development and football operations in April 2024. Recruitment has not worked. Managers have not worked out. Performances and results have not improved. They ask: is he just here because he knows the place?

One emblematic issue is Dutch striker Milan Smit, signed on loan in January with Nathan Lowe leaving for League One, also on a loan deal. Smit has scored two goals and there is a reported £4.8m obligation to make the move permanent this summer. It all just smacks of expensive tail-chasing.

Blame the guy who appointed Walters, then. John Coates – sister of Denise – was appointed vice-chairman in 2015, joint-chair in 2020 and became outright owner in 2024. He is the ultimate authority and the decision maker. The buck stops with him.

And we arrive roughly back where we started. The Coates family have certainly spent money – north of £400m. There is no doubting the commitment or the generosity. But at every level of this club, application is lacking.

Read more

• Daniel Storey: Portsmouth’s survival is the most underrated story of the season
• Daniel Storey: Rochdale, York City and the maddest final day of a season I’ve ever seen

Nostalgia can be unhelpful inside football clubs and their fanbases. That’s one theory here: Stoke had such an extended purple patch, a decade in the Premier League after almost quarter of a century without top-flight football, that its absence created a vacuum where little could grow because nothing could ever match up. You start falling and realise that drifting might be the only other thing you ever do.

I think that lets Stoke City off the hook. Supporters aren’t yearning for Tony Pulis, Rory Delap and the 2010s, as much as they might still think of them and the pictures still adorn the walls. They’re simply asking for a little competence and for this desperate cloud of futility to be lifted by those who clearly possess the wealth to do so, if they could only get things right.

Fail to do so soon and the problems really start stacking up. A generation of Stoke City supporters will see atrophy as normality and will rightly wonder what the point is at all.

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A picture may be worth a thousand words but it rarely tells the whole story. Yet many have rushed to judgement following the latest round of viral Jack Grealish photos.

The 30-year-old has been photographed asleep at a bar in Manchester, with a table of drinks in front of him and what appears to be a friend trying to rouse him to no avail.

Sold to The Sun and now spread across social media, the photos have elicited extreme assumptions about the Manchester City winger, who is currently on loan at Everton.

Without knowledge of how much he has drunk, claims of alcohol problems. Without any further context, questions over his professionalism, given both City and Everton were playing around the reported time. And without knowing his mood, he is supposedly either sad, depressed or relaxed.

All this from a few still images. What we can safely assume is that he was tired, and what we do know is that Grealish has been out of action since January and will miss the remainder of the season – a foot injury ruling him out of World Cup contention as well.

EXCLUSIVE: England ace Jack Grealish spotted snoozing at rooftop bar after boozy afternoon drinking session https://t.co/FVHCHCnAHW

— The Sun Football (@TheSunFootball) April 26, 2026

He may not play a competitive match for seven months in total. He has shared his own pictures of the arduous rehabilitation process – featuring scooters, saunas, physiotherapy and gym sessions – on Instagram, and yet these photos of him snoozing are supposedly proof he has chosen alcohol over his comeback.

Such leaps are made because social media is a platform for assumptions, and because in this crossover age of celebrity and camera phones, we have allowed for the most minuscule pieces of information to form conclusions about people we don’t actually know.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DVoiG-sCN7h/?img_index=1

The smartphone is a torment for celebrities. The public are the paparazzi, and this normalisation has drastically blurred the lines around privacy – many forgetting, or not caring, that what takes a split-second can impact a lifetime.

Past Premier League footballers may lament the modern money but they are glad to have missed the era of camera phones – the constant request for selfies, the attempts to antagonise while being recorded, and the YouTubers who attend games only to record themselves.

Add the sly photos and videos taken beyond the pitch and out in public. Erling Haaland walking down a street, Pep Guardiola on a bike, Grealish in a bar. Football in the 1990s would have played out very differently had there been this same level of intrusion, and while some may think Grealish better fits this bygone generation, he is merely the current player who the camera is pointed on most.

He can feel the lens too. In 2023 Grealish bristled at his “party boy” reputation after celebrating Manchester City’s treble with plenty of alcohol and no regrets.

“I just enjoy myself, I’m living my dream,” he said back then. He alluded to there being a fixation with them which arguably only David Beckham, Paul Gascoigne and Wayne Rooney can relate to among England footballers.

“I wasn’t the only one,” he added. “I think a lot of the time you’ll see everyone recording me, I could show you all this stuff of other people where they were the same… We all enjoyed ourselves, other people enjoy themselves where the cameras weren’t.”

With the spotlight firmly on him, for some that alone makes these new photos inexcusable. You can’t get snapped asleep at a bar if you’re not out in public asleep at a bar, and yet here is Grealish gifting the vultures.

That is his fault and the fault of those around him, but around the wider issue of privacy he remains easy prey. When the pound signs flash up, and the moment prompts opportunity for profit, any worry over what may count as intrusion becomes secondary. Look! A regular guy in an irregular job drinking alcohol. And because we all consume that content, we are all to blame.

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OLD TRAFFORD — Academy-obsessed Manchester United supporters will never admit it, but there was some logic behind Ruben Amorim’s controversial sidelining of Kobbie Mainoo.

His finesse on the ball belied his fledgling status, with his unerring ability to control games from deep, despite being a teenager when first thrust into the limelight, unfathomable at times.

Off the ball, however, there were justified Mainoo concerns. Time and again pacier midfielders would leave the youngster trailing in their wake. Defensively, he often couldn’t get close enough to his opponents to make a tackle.

Amorim noticed this very early on and felt, right up until his acrimonious departure, that Mainoo’s deficiencies were enough to keep him on the periphery.

Mainoo’s seamless assimilation to life back in the first team under Michael Carrick has, of course, made Amorim look foolish in the extreme. But even in the local hero’s impressive displays in recent months, the defensive concerns have persisted.

Against Brentford, as a leggy United all-but secured their return to Champions League football next season with a somewhat fortunate 2-1 win, Mainoo the midfield all-rounder came of age.

You can't keep Kobbie Mainoo away from the action!

@ManUtd pic.twitter.com/njEiIRIBhr

— Premier League (@premierleague) April 27, 2026

He almost registered the assist of the season in the opening few minutes, sashaying past four defenders before laying it off for Amad Diallo, who somehow contrived to miss, even with the goal at his mercy.

The 21-year-old’s two breathless pursuits of his marker to win possession back inside the first five minutes will have pleased Carrick most, however. Given it was so out of character.

After Mainoo’s midfield partner Casemiro had headed United in front, the Brazilian’s ninth of an incredible final season in Manchester, the hosts have rarely looked more porous defensively as Brentford, top goalscorer Igor Thiago in particular, somehow kept on missing chance after chance to level. Some of the gilt-edged variety.

Bruno Fernandes then moved to within one of the record for number of assists in a Premier League season, setting up Benjamin Sesko for a well-taken, somewhat undeserved second before half time.

United took their foot off the gas in the second half, feeling comfortable in their two-goal advantage. All except Mainoo who continued to fly into tackles, all while using his fleet of foot to keep United purring in attack.

Brentford finally made one count late on, Mathias Jensen rifling an arrowing strike past the despairing dive of the otherwise impressive Senne Lammens in the United goal.

United held on to solidify third spot and that European return, aided by a homegrown talent who should be front and centre of the forthcoming summer revolution.

“I just thought on the back of the Chelsea game, he was particularly good,” Carrick said of Mainoo. “Showing a bit of everything, his build up play, starting attacks, duels, one-v-ones, recovery runs, in the last couple of games he has taken that up a level.

“We are trying to give him responsibility and still not expect too much of him but it is great to see.”

With Casemiro heading off for pastures new, who the United hierarchy bring in to partner Mainoo could be their most important signing in years. Whether that is one or even two acquisitions.

Blockbuster energy and a dynamism severely lacking around Old Trafford in recent times is the order of the day. Elliot Anderson would be the perfect foil.

Then, with Fernandes at the tip of that midfield three, Mainoo could be part of something very special indeed.

Not so long ago, Mainoo himself saw his future elsewhere. A World Cup spot was a distant dream. Now, seemingly determined to rectify the only deficiency in his game, there is no reason that he cannot become a Old Trafford great alongside the best to ever grace the hallowed turf.

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There will always be a magnetism towards wariness at Fratton Park when it comes to money. There exists a generation of Portsmouth supporters who will not remember that their club was once a byword for economic implosion, Icarus FC. There are plenty others happy to remind them: the past can be a handbrake on the future.

The only thing that really matters is that Pompey still exists. That has become part of the fabric. Last season in the Championship, Portsmouth recorded one of the lowest annual losses. They had the lowest wage in the division by almost 20 per cent. In a division of gross overspending, Portsmouth’s wage-to-revenue turnover actually improved. It was also the best in the league.

In that context, the last two years represent significant overachievement and consistency. In 2024-25, they won 14 games and stayed up. With one league game remaining, they have won 14 matches and stayed up. They are an outsider in this company according to their financial might; they are still firmly inside.

With respect to Michael Eisner, the US owner who did so much of the reconstruction post-collapse and supporter ownership, this is the house that John Mousinho rebuilt. There is no exact measure, but there are few higher performing managers in England over the last half decade.

Mousinho was registered as an Oxford United player when he was approached – and appointed – by Portsmouth in January 2023; he had played in the FA Cup for Oxford two months earlier. It was a significant gamble by a club that had become a little stuck in League One, 15th and drifting their seventh straight third-tier season.

Mousinho lost two of his last 18 games in 2022-23 to take Pompey to eighth. The following season they took 97 points – second highest total in the club’s history – and won the title. Championship consolidation has followed without Portsmouth ever dramatically loosening the purse strings.

The usual weakness of newer, younger managers is struggling to adapt to adverse periods of form: Michael Carrick at Middlesbrough, Russell Martin at Southampton, Rob Edwards at Luton, many others. They are able to maintain momentum through the delivery of their tactical message. But when form turns, addressing it is too much of a challenge and the tenure fades to grey.

That is where Mousinho has impressed most. Portsmouth took nine points from their first 14 games last season; he oversaw a recovery. At the end of March, they had taken one point from their previous six games and lost 6-1 away at QPR.

They then beat Middlesbrough, Ipswich and Leicester without conceding. The resilience – and the way that resilience is instilled into the team – is incredible and still catches its own disciples off guard.

As such, Mousinho is rightly adored. After their 3-1 win at Stoke, the travelling Portsmouth support serenaded him with “One more year, one more year, John Mousinho”. That they chose only a 12-month extension is indicative of the acceptance that their manager is destined for loftier climes.

It also puts Portsmouth at a difficult crossroads. After safety was secured, Mousinho spoke extensively about how far behind the rest of the Championship the club is in terms of infrastructure, training ground, staff networks, playing budget.

“If we don’t invest, on and off the pitch,” Mousinho said. “I think we’ll perennially be in this relegation fight and we need to try to move away from it.”

Which is true, but the finances of English football are scary for everyone and terrifying for any club that has tasted the poison of administration. And Eisner knows that only too well.

“No club can survive for the long-term in this system and if that continues, catastrophe will happen,” Eisner said in March.

“We need effective player salary cost controls, real attention to fairer distribution of media revenues… My family is walking headstrong into this storm, but if I was a historic fan in Portsmouth, I’d scream for change in the structure to protect the beautiful game.”

The problem: Portsmouth have two conflicting forces that they must fight their way through. They have invested in the academy, but it is still category three. They are aiming to improve their player trading model (they have signed seven players on permanent deals aged between 20 and 25 this season). Eisner has transferred the majority of his shares to his sons as a means of future proofing; he is 84.

But all these are long-term projects and the short-term aim is keeping one of the best managers in their history happy. There will be suitors for Mousinho this summer and he deserves them. It would be brilliant to believe in the club and manager growing together into a promotion contender, but it takes a huge suspension of belief.

Portsmouth, a club accustomed to walking through a storm and remaining whole, are having to continuously rebottle lightning or risk their own financial future again. That seems deeply unfair.

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

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

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

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

This weekend’s results

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

Wolves’ leading issue

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

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

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

Positives and negatives for Tottenham

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

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

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

— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) April 25, 2026

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

West Ham’s unlikely saviour

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

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

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

Nottingham Forest’s magic trick

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

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

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

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

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

Newcastle’s £120m headache

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

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

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

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

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

Crystal Palace can’t finish their dinner

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

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

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

Le Bris rumours prove unhelpful for Sunderland

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

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

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

Do Everton have an April problem?

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

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

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

All hail Fulham’s four weeks of madness

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

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

About yesterday. pic.twitter.com/6SvXvd8xZL

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

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

Why everyone wants Aston Villa to win

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

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

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

Liverpool fans protest against ticket price increases

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

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

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

Arsenal are doing it their way

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read more

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read more

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

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

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

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

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