Month: May 2023

Luton captain Tom Lockyer has thanked medical staff for their “swift and thorough response” after collapsing during his side’s Sky Bet Championship play-off final victory against Coventry.

The defender fell to the floor while running back during the match and received treatment before being carried off the pitch on a stretcher.

The game went to penalties after Jordan Clark’s opener was cancelled out by Gustavo Hamer to finish 1-1 after extra time, and the Hatters secured Premier League football for next season with a 6-5 victory on penalties.

Luton players held up Lockyer’s shirt throughout their celebrations and the captain posted an update on Instagram.

He said: “Well not quite where I thought I’d be celebrating at the final whistle!

“I would just like to say a massive thank you to the amazing physios and doctors at Luton and Wembley for the swift and thorough response.

“A much scarier moment for everyone else than myself I am sure!

“Commiserations to Coventry a fantastic opponent over 3 games which had to be decided by penalties.

“I am currently in hospital under precaution and will stay here overnight for further tests in the morning.

“I am feeling very much myself, helped by the way the lads left it all out on pitch! It’s such an honour to be part of this team.. Premier League baby.”

A thrilling finale at Wembley saw victory secure a return to the top flight for Luton for the first time since 1992.

It is a remarkable turnaround given just nine years ago the Hatters ended a five-season stretch in the fifth tier, but manager Rob Edwards admitted emotions were “mixed” afterwards following Lockyer’s collapse.

“I felt a bit numb. I just made sure I shook Mark’s hand and his staff,” Edwards said.

“I don’t want to be that guy that just starts running off and celebrating before I’ve seen the other manager.

“I just felt very numb. I still do. It hasn’t sunk in quite yet. It might take a few days, but it’s great. It does feel good.

“It was mixed because of Locks (Lockyer), that’s why I couldn’t really go for it celebrating.”

Manuel Ugarte is set to become Chelsea’s first summer signing after agreeing a six-year contract.

The Blues endured a dismal season despite splashing the cash over the last two windows and are yet to confirm who will be in the dugout next campaign.

But according to reports in Uruguay, Todd Boehly is pressing ahead with his plans and has agreed to meet the defensive midfielder’s £52million release clause.

Liverpool have also been strongly linked with the eight-cap Uruguayan international, 22, and could yet pip their rivals as Jurgen Klopp masterminds a midfield revamp.

Ugarte’s agent has revealed that he expects his client to be on the move when the window opens but remained tight-lipped about his potential destination.

Chelsea already shelled out over £100m to sign Argentina’s Enzo Fernandez after his superb World Cup and could potentially partner the young playmakers together for years to come.

Mason Mount’s future at Stamford Bridge is up in the air after talks over a new contract stalled, while N’Golo Kante and Mateo Kovacic have also been linked with exits.

Striker is another issue for the Blues, with Italian media suggesting that Mauricio Pochettino could give Inter Milan loanee Romelu Lukaku a chance to impress should he take over.

In other news

Real Madrid will pay £87m for Jude Bellingham with another £21m in potential add-ons, according to The Mirror.

The same outlet claim that Premier League rivals Tottenham and Newcastle are keen on Wolves striker Hee-Chan Hwang.

Football Insider believe that Liverpool have entered the race for Wolves midfielder Ruben Neves, who has drawn interest from Barcelona.

Ethan Pinnock has signed a new four-year contract at Brentford.

The defender, who turns 30 on Monday, will now stay with the Bees until the summer of 2027.

Pinnock joined Brentford from Barnsley in 2019 and has made 153 appearances for the club.

Bees boss Thomas Frank told the club’s official website: “This is great news for Brentford and I am incredibly pleased that we have Ethan with us for four more years, I am sure our fans are delighted.

“Ethan has been a mountain in defence for us for the last four years. He played a key role in our journey to the top half of the Premier League. He is a top, top player and a great person.

“He has stepped seamlessly in the Premier League and it is an amazing story for him, and for football, that he can progress from non-league to the top of the game so quickly.

“He has proven himself to be a typical Brentford signing, he meets every challenge he faces and we think there is still more development for him.

“Ethan has been so reliable and consistent for us and I am sure that will continue. He will be spending the prime years of his career with us and we look forward to him helping the team be successful in the coming seasons.”

Arsenal have reportedly set their sights on Moussa Diaby. 

The tricky Bayer Leverkusen winger has set the Bundesliga alight, bagging nine goals and providing eight assists.

However, the Gunners could face competition for his services with Paris Saint-Germain reportedly interested in a reunion with the forward. 

As the Gunners prepare to end their season by hosting Wolves, preparations will have already begun for their summer plans. 

We take a closer look at one of the potential new arrivals.

Important summer ahead

Mikel Arteta admitted last week that Arsenal’s title charge had been affected by their relatively thin squad compared to champions Manchester City.

He said: “When you get closer to the top then the margins are smaller. 

“Having three-to-four injuries or having a full squad in key moments defines a season. So what we have ahead of us in the summer is extremely important and we have to absolutely nail it.”

Versatile options like Diaby, who can play on either flank or through the middle, are invaluable at the business end of the season.

Shooting on sight

Diaby’s excellent ball-striking ability makes him a particularly exciting target. 

He shoots frequently, averaging 2.64 shots per 90 in the Bundesliga ahead of this weekend. 

All nine of the Parisian’s goals to this point have come from open play and he is extremely dangerous on fast breaks. 

Given Arsenal’s goalscoring responsibility is spread around the squad, Bayer Leverkusen’s No19 could be a perfect addition.

Leading on the pitch

Diaby revealed that Xabi Alonso has entrusted him with the responsibility of leading by example in attack.

He said: “[Xabi Alonso] wants me to contribute, to show that I’m an important player and that I’m capable of pulling the team in the right direction by playing well, scoring goals and providing assists. 

“If my team-mates see me do that, they’ll want to do the same themselves. That’s why this team is so consistent, everyone here has the same mindset — a winning mentality.”

Challenging Saka

Diaby’s arrival would enable Arteta to give Bukayo Saka a rest — something he has not been afforded much in the Premier League this season, clocking 3,131 minutes. 

With Champions League football next season, Arsenal need a player that can step in and perhaps even challenge the Englishman for a starting spot. 

The 23-year-old Frenchman is a brilliant creator, conjuring 58 chances in the league going into this weekend. 

Diaby has also completed 58 dribbles this term and leads the Bundesliga in fast breaks (12) prior to the Bundesliga’s final matchday.

Ending on a high

After the disappointing end to the title race for Arsenal, Arteta will want to end the campaign with a win. 

The Gunners’ next opponents Wolves have already secured survival despite scoring just 31 goals. 

But Arsenal will have to work hard to get past a side that has managed to keep 11 clean sheets this season, with Saka likely to be crucial to unlocking their defence. 

Having gone so close to the title, Arteta will be keen to go one better next season — and Diaby could help him do just that.

Michael Beale is looking for players to “step up into leadership roles” next season following the departure of Allan McGregor, Scott Arfield and others.

Veteran goalkeeper McGregor, 41, and 34-year-old midfielder Arfield, along with Ryan Kent, Alfredo Morelos and Filip Helander, have played their last games for the Ibrox club with their contracts expiring this summer.

Robby McCrorie took over in goal from McGregor for the trip to St Mirren on Saturday where Arfield came on as a second-half substitute in the 3-0 cinch Premiership win thanks to a double from Fashion Sakala and close-range effort from substitute Antonio Colak.

Beale will revamp his squad to challenge champions Celtic next season and told RangersTV that he is now looking for new leaders.

He said: “Robby has come in and we’ve seen no change in terms of him coming in as a young goalkeeper taking over from someone like Allan, who has been a stalwart for many years.

“I want to mention him and Scott because we’re losing a lot of experience and standards, so I’m expecting one or two others to step up now.

“That’s the message to the group, those two players have been there and seen it at this club, played in the Premier League, and we’re going to need one or two others to step up into those leadership roles.”

St Mirren achieved their highest league finish since 1985 – sixth – albeit they failed to win any of their last seven fixtures with five defeats and two draws, which meant a potential European place was ultimately out of their reach.

Manager Stephen Robinson, however, put a tough end to the season for the Buddies into context.

The Northern Irishman said: “Maybe people only remember the last few games but I want people to remember just how close we took Hearts – (2-2) a club much bigger than ours – and how close we took Celtic in every game we played them.

“We have fallen short for Europe but that’s understandable. It’s a building block, and I think the fans appreciated that.

“My job is to run the football club prudently to make sure we don’t get into the debts we had previously but also try to build a successful squad.

“That is the challenge and it’s one we are right up for and I will get plenty of support.”

Barnsley boss Michael Duff insists he never doubted his decision to take on the job last summer after relegation had left the club in disarray.

The Reds had just crashed into the third tier after winning only six Sky Bet Championship matches, but now stand on the brink of an immediate return.

They face local rivals Sheffield Wednesday in Monday’s League One play-off final, 11 months after Duff left Cheltenham to try and turn Barnsley’s fortunes around.

Disillusioned fans had lost count of the players who either departed or arrived at Oakwell following relegation and despite three defeats in their first five league games this season, Duff never had any regrets.

He said: “No because I back myself no matter what. I didn’t win a game for 10 games at Cheltenham and I didn’t doubt myself at that point.

“I learnt a lot, but I didn’t doubt myself. So a bit older, a bit wiser, a bit greyer, a lot fatter, but when I did my first interviews here and people asked where did I think we would finish, I never said anything.

“It wasn’t me being evasive, I just thought ‘we’ll see’. But I know I work hard, I believe in what I do and obviously now we’re in a shoot-out to get promoted.”

Duff led Cheltenham to League Two promotion and then 15th in League One, their highest English Football League finish, before replacing Poya Asbaghi in June to become Barnsley’s sixth manager in less than three years.

After an indifferent start, former Burnley defender Duff moulded a new-look team into automatic promotion contenders.

Barnsley halted Wednesday’s 23-game unbeaten league run in a thrilling 4-2 win at Oakwell in March to extend their own unbeaten streak to 12 matches.

That run included 10 wins and catapulted them into top-two contention, but Duff still publicly refused to set his side any targets.

“I think talk is cheap,” he said. “You can talk and talk about philosophy and all that sort of stuff. It’s nonsense in my opinion.

“It’s about can you get a group to work hard and stick together and find a way of playing and that’s what we’ve done as the season has gone on and we’ve proved to be good at it.”

Duff, whose side’s automatic promotion hopes were dashed in late April when they lost at home to Ipswich, said the players’ belief has grown steadily throughout the season.

“You get the players to set their own target, but how much they believed it I don’t know because sometimes they pay lip service,” he added.

“We’d just been relegated, what is the target? Is it the play-offs? The players almost feel they have to say, ‘yeah, we’ve got to get in the play-offs’, but I don’t know how much they believed it.

“But once you start working day-to-day with them, you break it down. The first 10 games we set a target of 16 points, because generally 1.6 points per game gets you in the play-offs.

“That was the group’s first target, to break it down. It’s those day-to-day, week-to-week habits.

“We’ve got to the point now where the players can look back and say, ‘we didn’t need to say that, but now we do believe’.

“Now, can they have that belief one more time?”

Lionel Messi produced a Wembley masterclass as Barcelona beat Manchester United 3-1 in the Champions League final on this day in 2011 to become European champions for a fourth time.

Pep Guardiola won his second Champions League as Barca head coach in three years after a dominant performance from his side.

They reached the final after defeating El Clasico rivals Real Madrid 3-1 on aggregate in the last four, with United sweeping aside Schalke 6-1 in their semi-final.

Guardiola’s side outplayed United in the first half, enjoying 68 per cent possession and having 22 shots, but were still level at half-time as Pedro’s opener was cancelled out by Wayne Rooney, who side-footed home from 15 yards after a one-two with Ryan Giggs.

Barca’s dominance continued after the break with Messi, who moments earlier had seen a shot cleared off the line by Patrice Evra, firing in a low shot from 25 yards.

Messi’s dribbling then caused panic in the United defence and David Villa capitalised to whip a shot into the top corner from just outside the penalty area and secure Barcelona’s third Champions League title in six years.

Eric Abidal, who had undergone surgery only two months earlier to remove a tumour in his liver, was given the honour of wearing the captain’s armband during the presentation ceremony and he was the first player to lift the trophy.

After the match Guardiola hailed Messi as “the best player I have ever seen”, while United boss Sir Alex Ferguson said: “In my time as manager it is the best team we have faced.”

Roberto De Zerbi hopes to help goalkeeper Jason Steele gain England recognition after claiming Lewis Dunk’s international recall is a comparable achievement to Brighton qualifying for the Europa League.

Seagulls skipper Dunk has been included in Gareth Southgate’s squad for next month’s Euro 2024 qualifiers against Malta and North Macedonia, having been in international exile since his debut in November 2018.

The 31-year-old has been rewarded for his key role in Albion’s sixth-placed Premier League finish.

Former Middlesbrough, Blackburn and Sunderland keeper Steele has also been instrumental during a remarkable season at the Amex Stadium after dislodging Robert Sanchez as first choice in early March.

Brighton head coach De Zerbi believes the 32-year-old is capable of joining Dunk in the national team set-up to compete with the likes of Jordan Pickford, Aaron Ramsdale, Nick Pope and Sam Johnstone.

“It’s great news,” the Italian said of Dunk’s call-up.

“I think it’s maybe the same big news like Europa League because to help one of our players to achieve a target so important, so prestigious is a proud (moment).

“We have to be proud – not only the coaches but the players – for one player.

“We will work in the next season to help Jason Steele to achieve the same target of Lewis Dunk because he has the quality to achieve one target so important.

“In my vision, in my idea, Jason Steele is a top keeper. It’s difficult to find another keeper of this level.

“I study football 24 hours per day but it’s very hard to find another keeper with this quality.”

Steele, a former England Under-21 international who represented Great Britain at the London 2012 Olympics, had never played in the top flight until last term.

He has registered six clean sheets and one assist during the past three months, having been preferred to Sanchez due to his ability to play out from the back.

Steele joined the Seagulls in June 2018 – on the back of suffering successive relegations to League One with Blackburn and Sunderland – and had to wait more than three years for his league debut.

“Football is nice because the past is not important,” said De Zerbi.

“I have to analyse the present and sometimes the potential in the future but the past is not important.

“You can change your life in one day, if you believe in yourself and you believe in work.

“And I told him the same: ‘Jason, you have to think you can change. I give you the possibility to change your life, to change your career and you have to believe in yourself because I help you and you help me and you help the team’.”

Brighton complete an unforgettable campaign at Aston Villa on Sunday after cementing their Europa League spot with Wednesday evening’s 1-1 draw at home to champions Manchester City.

De Zerbi, who succeeded Graham Potter in September, feels Albion can progress significantly next term.

“I am looking forward to working in pre-season because I think we can improve in a lot of things,” he said.

“We have played not more than 70 per cent and we have another 30 per cent of improvement.”

Pep Guardiola has no doubt “goal machine” Erling Haaland is ready to fire in Manchester City’s two upcoming finals.

The prolific Norwegian’s output has slowed in recent weeks with just one goal in his last six games.

For someone who has plundered 52 in a remarkable season that is a relative drought but that is hardly troubling Guardiola ahead of the FA Cup and Champions League finals.

Premier League champions City face Manchester United at Wembley next weekend before travelling to Istanbul to take on Inter Milan for the European crown seven days later.

City manager Guardiola said: “I’m not going to doubt about the scoring machine, Erling, right now.

“We had the chances. Maybe he’s waiting for the right moment. He will be ready in the right moment to score the goals. He’s ready.

“I’m very pleased he’s achieved all he’s achieved, and the goals and the records.

“Then he goes to Brighton and plays the way he played. He still did damage (without scoring).

“He could say, ‘I’m waiting for the two finals’ but it’s completely the opposite and I like that.”

Guardiola has been impressed by how Haaland has dealt with expectation in his first season in English football.

“I don’t feel he’s felt much pressure,” Guardiola said. “I think he’s handled it really well. He laughs, I think, when people (mention) expectations.

“I remember in the Community Shield, we lost 3-1 and he missed one clear chance – all the memes, all the people talked about that.

“I was close to him and he said, ‘Don’t worry, I will score goals’. He’s this type of guy. He has incredible self-confidence in himself that all he needs is the chance to score the goals.

“It doesn’t matter what happened, he’ll never lose confidence. You define the football players and the athletes in the bad moments. It’s how you react.”

City, who secured the title last weekend, wrap up their Premier League campaign at Brentford on Sunday.

The Bees inflicted City’s only home defeat of the season when they won 2-1 at the Etihad Stadium with an Ivan Toney double in November.

Toney will not be involved this time after the striker was banned for eight months for breaching betting regulations.

Guardiola hopes the player bounces back after he has served his punishment.

Guardiola said: “Everyone has problems. If he made a mistake, you accept it and learn from that and (take) a new opportunity. I’m pretty sure he will be (back) better.”

Mikel Arteta believes the timing of injuries that hit his squad late in the season ultimately cost Arsenal in their bid to hold off Manchester City and win the Premier League.

The team’s collapse largely coincided with a back injury sustained by defender William Saliba during their Europa League exit to Sporting Lisbon in March, with stand-in centre-back Rob Holding struggling to match the standard set by his team-mate.

Arsenal were also without strikers Gabriel Jesus and Eddie Nketiah, defenders Oleksandr Zinchenko and Takehiro Tomiyasu and midfielder Mohamed Elneny for large parts of the season as they were eventually chased down by City despite leading the table for 248 days.

It hands the club the unwanted record of the most number of days spent top of the league without becoming champions.

Collecting just nine points from their last eight games extinguished the challenge from Arteta’s side, but the manager pointed to three draws in April – away at Liverpool and West Ham and at home to bottom-side Southampton – as the period where critical damage was done to their title hopes.

The Gunners threw away two-goal leads at Anfield and the London Stadium before gifting Saints a 3-1 lead at the Emirates, from which they could not recover to win.

Arteta felt his team should have beaten all three opponents in spite of Saliba’s absence, but noted that the title was usually won by sides that did not suffer the bad luck with injuries that hit Arsenal this season.

“There were a few things (that caused the collapse) because we could have won at least three of the games that we drew without Willy and two of them really comfortably,” said Arteta. “But we didn’t.

“We had some critical moments where we didn’t maximise the opportunity that we had in front of us. You have to arrive at this stage with 24 fit players in the best condition, ready to go.

“It happened last season. In the last stages we lost three or four key players and it’s happened this season.

“It’s a big lesson, because when you look who wins and how doesn’t win, they have the 24 of them with the knife in the teeth, ready to go physically and mentally, all going for it and they can have real momentum. We didn’t have that again.

“Timing is everything. Moments define the season in your own way and for opponents. That’s dictated by many, many, many factors and you have to acknowledge that. There are certain things you don’t control and certain other things not.

“We fail in certain (moments) in our control, but I’m sure there are things we could have done different or better.”

Arteta was asked whether he feared for Arsenal’s prospects of challenging again next season, given the difficulties that Liverpool have endured this campaign after pushing City to the final day last May.

Jurgen Klopp’s team have failed to make the top four despite finishing a point behind the champions last season after a pulsating title race.

As well as the loss of key players and feeling the impact of an ageing team, it had been suggested that there had been a mental hangover at Anfield from last year’s pursuit of Pep Guardiola’s side.

“Whatever we do now in the last game and what we’ve done in the last week is just to build into what is going to happen afterwards,” said Arteta.

“Painting a very clear picture of where we want to go and who wants to be part of that journey.”

The manager also reiterated his commitment to the club after a year in which his personal stock has risen greatly.

He added: “I am very happy here, I’m very happy with my contract. Let’s move on and let’s have a great season again.”