Vesper

Romano seems convinced that Rodrygo is leaving Real Madrid this summer

Arsenal and Liverpool want 35-G/A “amazing footballer”, transfer meeting likely next week Arsenal and Liverpool are among clubs keen on signing Julian Alvarez from Atletico Madrid at the end of the season. https://www.caughtoffside.com/2025/05/22/arsenal-and-liverpool-want-julian-alvarez/ The 25-year-old is one of the best strikers in La Liga, and he could be an exceptional acquisition for the Premier League club. According to a report from El Chiringuito, meetings will begin with the clubs interested in Julian Alvarez next week. The Spanish club could consider selling the player if a substantial offer is presented in the summer. Arsenal need a reliable centre-forward Arsenal are in desperate need of a quality goal-scorer, and the 25-year-old could lead the line for next season. They have looked toothless in the attack at times, and the lack of a reliable finisher has cost them another league title. Alvarez will add goals and creativity to the Arsenal attack if he joins the club. In addition to that, he is a hard-working player who will help out defensively and with his playmaking abilities. The South American is versatile enough to operate anywhere across the front three, and he could be an asset for Arsenal if they manage to get the deal done. Liverpool need Julian Alvarez Similarly, Liverpool are crying out for a reliable forward as well. Darwin Nunez has been very underwhelming, and he needs to be replaced. Signing the World Cup winner would be a major coup for Liverpool. It remains to be seen whether they can convince the player to return to England. He has proven his quality in the Premier League with Manchester City in the past, and there is no doubt that he could hit the ground running if he joins Liverpool or Arsenal. Alvarez has been hailed as an “amazing footballer” by Erling Haaland. The player has 29 goals to his name this season, and he has picked up six assists as well. He is unlikely to be a cheap acquisition, and it remains to be seen whether the two English clubs can convince Atletico Madrid to sell him. His winning experience could prove to be vital for Liverpool as well. He has won the Premier League title, UEFA Champions League, FA Cup, Club World Cup, and the World Cup and the Copa America with his country.

it is ALWAYS about the money and the grift with Trump always

  Jonathan Ames Legal Editor Good morning. Governments and civil servants love jargon and this morning David Gauke has given them a gift with “earned progression”. Gauke, a former Conservative justice secretary, has provided the first of two independent reviews to the current office holder, Shabana Mahmood, that are designed to sort out the prisons and the courts. Gauke’s report, published at 6am this morning – handily in time for a full blast on Radio 4’s Today programme – is primarily aimed at easing overcrowding in the jails. To put you out of your misery, the early progression model will involve offenders progressing through three stages: custody, during which they will be “incentivised” to behave well, post-custody, where they will be managed under strict supervision, and something called an “at-risk” stage, where they are not actively supervised but can be recalled if they commit further offences. Sir Brian Leveson – the former judge who spent hours listening to an angry Hugh Grant during an inquiry into media practices – is still to produce the second report ordered by Mahmood, which will aim to tackle the ever-growing backlog of cases in the crown courts. Be warned: you’re on jargon alert. We have a bumper Times Law today, including our Student Law supplement and the winning essay in our annual competition organised by the newspaper and One Essex Court. In the main Times Law section we look at the government’s controversial plans to stem rising immigration and the Law Commission’s proposed overhaul of the law around wills. We also have a comment from last year’s Bar leader, who calls on the government to stop talking and walk the walk on backing the UK’s legal services. Last week’s question to readers – which asked whether the Criminal Cases Review Commission should be ditched and a new miscarriages of justice watchdog created from scratch – elicited many one-word answers of: yes. Scroll down for a selection of the slightly longer responses. And this week’s question: should the government implement a programme of “earned progression” for convicted criminals? Email me using the button below and I’ll feature some of your best responses in the newsletter next week. By the way, if you are a London-dweller, you might be interested in our new newsletter all about life in the capital. You can sign up here. Until next week, Jonathan

Well that is certainly a nice uplifting prognostication. 😢

another trophy for Timo btw

never really rated him that much at all his type of football is not EPL level

it was pure shittery

bye bye perfect finals record for Casemiro

the Spuds team is across the board so much better than Manure (and many other teams) I completely understand why Manure are shit, they have horrid players, almost zero that I would take (maybe Bruno and Yoro, that is IT) but spuds have some real talent, more than a few I would take you have to blame the manager I suspose

Spuds now have 5 (4 are UEFA) European trophies to Arsenals 2 (1 is UEFA) and 3 of Spuds are for the Europa League

and only 38 points! which has gotten teams relegated before

lol spuds get the google fireworks

spuds win worst CL team from the EPL in decades

absolute shitter of a game so far

1 nil spuds

Casemiro has 12 wins, no defeats in European, South American, and global club finals

I understand that argument, but I can NEVER go for Spuds unless they need to win to get us a trophy or into the CL

Odin strike me down but I have to go for Manure my utter hatred of Spuds trumps all

  The chamber today MPs waved to Teddy, a six-year-old self-professed “eco-warrior” in the public gallery, as the PM agreed he could meet “the relevant minister” to discuss recycling plastic tubs Max Kendix and Daisy Eastlake Political Reporters Sir Keir Starmer committed serious news straight off the bat at prime minister’s questions, something millions of people discovered almost instantly in notifications on their phones. Perhaps Kemi Badenoch should have checked hers, instead of focusing so intently on her pre-prepared script.   At a glance 12pm: Sir Keir Starmer offers his “deepest condolences” to the families of Martyn Sadler, Jennie Logan and Dave Chester, who died in a fire at a former RAF base in Bicester last week.   12.16pm: Starmer says it is “undeniably the case that the current arrangements don’t work” after Sir Ed Davey asked the prime minister what he expects family carers losing up to £12,000 per year due to benefit cuts should do.   12.25pm: Starmer insists he is “very proud” of deporting 24,000 people after the Reform MP Lee Anderson disputed exactly what type of migrants were included in the figure.   12.30pm: Starmer says he will “always support the actions taken by our police and courts” after Rupert Lowe asked if the 31-month sentence for Lucy Connolly was an “efficient or fair” use of prison.   Stuck to the script If the prime minister performs a screeching U-turn right in front of you and you don’t notice, are you a good leader of the opposition? Offered a planted question on what more the government could do for pensioners, Sir Keir Starmer gave ground on one of the biggest and most unpopular decisions his government has taken. “I recognise that people are still feeling the pressure of the cost of living crisis, including pensioners,” he said. “That is why we want to ensure that as we go forward, more pensioners are eligible for winter fuel payments. As you would expect, we will only make decisions we can afford and that is why we will look at that as part of a fiscal event.” To everyone watching, that was a clear statement that at least some of the ten million or so pensioners who lost their winter fuel allowance thanks to Rachel Reeves’s decision last summer will now get it back. Or nearly everyone, that is. “I’m going to ask him a simple question,” Kemi Badenoch sneered. “It only requires one word, yes or no. Is he planning to U-turn on winter fuel cuts?” At this point, one half-expected Starmer to simply reply: “I just did.” He opted for the more diplomatic “as I made clear in my earlier answer” instead. Badenoch carried on regardless. “I made it really easy for the prime minister, just a simple question, yes or no and he could not answer... when this inevitable U-turn on winter fuel cuts comes, and it will... how can [the British public] ever trust him again?” Perhaps it is a worrying sign of the political gain to be had in changing course if the first person who responds to your announcement doesn’t realise what it actually was. Badenoch did not bother to ask directly about the extraordinary revelation this morning that Angela Rayner wrote a note to Rachel Reeves directly challenging her authority by proposing tax rises. Instead, the rest of the back-and-forth at the dispatch box was wearily familiar: Badenoch said Labour was hurting the economy, Starmer said actually it’s not doing that badly and certainly not as badly as when the other lot were in charge. Yawn. Last week at PMQs we learnt that in Starmer’s mind, Badenoch is not the real opposition. This week, she did little to help that perception.   From the gallery Tom Peck Parliamentary Sketch Writer Woah woah woah, hang on. Wasn’t that news? What was news doing, here at prime minister’s questions? This, as Monty Python never quite said, isn’t news, this is argument, and, more often than not, abuse. PMQs is not for the announcing of policies, it’s for the shouting of banalities. No prime minister comes to PMQs to actually say what they’re going to do, they come to blame the previous government for the things they haven’t. A planted question from Sarah Owen, Labour MP for Luton North, prompted Starmer to reveal he would “look at” his own loathed cuts to the winter fuel allowance. This was a big deal. Far too big a deal for PMQs, to be frank. What was he thinking? What followed was a masterclass in how not to do a U-turn. The public quite like U-turns. They like it when politicians admit they’ve made a mistake. Starmer, in possibly unprecedented scenes, tried to claim the credit for his own change of policy. “We had to stabilise the economy with tough decisions but the right decisions,” he said before announcing the change. Is that really right? That his tough-but-right decisions to stabilise the economy had been so tough, and so right, that now, barely months later, he could start reversing them? It was time to give back the money he’d taken. The promise to “look at that as part of a fiscal event” was also what you might call sub-optimal. The next fiscal event is the budget in the autumn. If you’re going to do a U-turn, it’s best to crack on with it quickly. Once you’ve announced to your passengers that you’re going in the wrong direction, their desire for you to, you know, maybe turn around or something, tends to become quite urgent quite quickly. It’s probably best not to keep going the wrong way for six months or more. ... that’s all for now

🍿

Rodrygo is streets ahead of Gordon.

The Athletic’s end-of-season awards, 2024-25: Men’s football https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6336642/2025/05/20/athletic-end-of-season-awards-2024-25-men/ The Premier League title has long since been won and the battle to avoid relegation was also decided weeks ago, leaving the fight to qualify for European football in 2025-26 as the major outstanding issue of this season. As the 20 clubs of the domestic top-flight prepare to wrap up their league campaigns over the next week, including Sunday’s 10-game final day, The Athletic’s team of experts have been voting in our annual end-of-season awards. These cover the Premier League, the Championship and also the big competitions in Europe. We have done the same for women’s football — you can find out about them here. But without further ado, let’s reveal the winners in the men’s game… Premier League Player of the Season: Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) Mohamed Salah set standards nobody could get close to as he propelled Liverpool to the title. The prolific Egyptian flourished under new head coach Arne Slot, breaking the record for most goal involvements in a 38-game Premier League season (46 and counting). The previous best was 44, achieved by Thierry Henry of Arsenal (2002-03) and Manchester City’s Erling Haaland (2022-23). Salah, who is also on the brink of winning his fourth Premier League Golden Boot in eight seasons as the division’s top scorer, has tormented top-flight defenders. As well as netting 28 league goals, he has also been the champions’ most creative force with 18 league assists. Across all competitions this season, he has 33 goals and 23 assists in 51 appearances — climbing to third place on the club’s all-time scoring list with 244. He’s signed a new contract to replace the one that was expiring this summer too, so Premier League defenders face having to deal with him for two more years. Premier League Young Player of the Season: Morgan Rogers (Aston Villa) Morgan Rogers is a unique footballer. He is nimble and fleet of foot, but is seemingly built of concrete. His physicality has created a rare type of attacker — a brilliant ball-carrier who is hardly ever outmuscled. Combine all of this with a developed end-product and you get a 22-year-old who is a critical cog in manager Unai Emery’s Aston Villa system. Few players enjoy a rise as swift or sharp as Rogers’ has been, going from a so-so midfielder at Middlesbrough in the second-tier Championship and during a string of previous EFL loans, to an England international and elite playmaker in less than 18 months. Premier League Manager of the Season: Nuno Espirito Santo (Nottingham Forest) There are a few managers who have earned their place in Nottingham Forest history by inspiring truly remarkable transformations in the club’s fortunes. Brian Clough took Forest up from the second tier in 1978 and over the next three seasons made them not just domestic champions but kings of Europe — twice, Frank Clark followed another top-flight promotion in the early 1990s by swiftly earning UEFA Cup qualification and Steve Cooper took over a team fighting relegation to the third tier in September 2021 and within nine months had the club back in the Premier League after 23 years away. With the job he has done at the City Ground since replacing Cooper in December 2023, Nuno Espirito Santo has more than earned his place among that group. Forest spent the previous two seasons fighting against relegation. Many pundits predicted back in August that it would be the same story again. But Nuno has proved Forest’s doubters wrong. There’s been a battle alright, but of a much more enjoyable kind for the team and their fans. After they climbed to third in the table before Christmas, it seemed Forest were on course for a top-five finish and Champions League place. While they might have stuttered slightly over the race’s final furlong, they have still qualified for Europe for the first time in three decades and could still cross the line in the top five to return to the continent’s elite they conquered under Clough. Nuno has given Forest an identity again, a mentality that has seen them beat Liverpool, Manchester City, Aston Villa and Manchester United (twice) this season. He has allowed their fans to dare to dream that nothing is impossible. Premier League Team of the Season Nottingham Forest spent a lot of time and money trying to find a reliable goalkeeper, and in 2024 winter-window buy Matz Sels they finally found their man. No Premier League keeper has more clean sheets this season than his 13 and few, if any, have been as important to their team. Champions Liverpool provide 50 per cent of our all-star team’s back four. The departing Trent Alexander-Arnold added six more assists to his Premier League total, while his Anfield captain Virgil van Dijk is the league’s top-goalscoring central defender (25) since he came to the English top flight with Southampton in 2015. Talking of goals, Arsenal’s set-piece devourer Gabriel retains his position from last year’s XI, with Bournemouth’s overlapping-run merchant Milos Kerkez completing the quartet. Arsenal are represented in our midfield three too, with the increasingly influential Declan Rice bouncing back from that much-debated red card against Brighton in August to dominate games on both the domestic and European stages. Meanwhile, Liverpool provide the incredibly consistent Alexis Mac Allister (five goals and five assists in his first Premier League season for the club, and now the same again in year two) and Ryan Gravenberch, whose conversion by new head coach Arne Slot into a No 6 was one of the tactical shifts of the campaign. Up front, we have Salah, a player who must now own more records to do with scoring and/or assisting than most other footballers have actual goals. The Egyptian is joined by Alexander Isak — just the third Newcastle player to hit 10+ goals both home and away in the same Premier League season — and Chris Wood, who after a sensational season with Forest (20 league goals so far) is now the record Premier League goalscorer for both them and Burnley. And if that doesn’t earn you a spot in a team of the season, then what does? snip

new shiny object for BlueCo another teen CF Zepiqueno Redmond