Vesper

1 1 FT

nil 1 Trossard assist for Sterling

I was a British tourist trying to leave America. Then I was detained, shackled and sent to an immigration detention centre Graphic artist Rebecca Burke was on the trip of a lifetime. But as she tried to leave the US she was stopped, interrogated and branded an illegal alien by ICE. Now back home, she tells others thinking of going to Trump’s America: don’t do it https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/05/i-was-a-british-tourist-trying-to-leave-america-then-i-was-detained-shackled-and-sent-to-an-immigration-detention-centre Just before the graphic artist Rebecca Burke left Seattle to travel to Vancouver, Canada, on 26 February, she posted an image of a rough comic to Instagram. “One part of travelling that I love is seeing glimpses of other lives,” read the bubble in the first panel, above sketches of cosy homes: crossword puzzle books, house plants, a lit candle, a steaming kettle on a gas stove. Burke had seen plenty of glimpses of other lives over the six weeks she had been backpacking in the US. She had been travelling on her own, staying on homestays free of charge in exchange for doing household chores, drawing as she went. For Burke, 28, it was absolute freedom. Within hours of posting that drawing, Burke got to see a much darker side of life in America, and far more than a glimpse. When she tried to cross into Canada, Canadian border officials told her that her living arrangements meant she should be travelling on a work visa, not a tourist one. They sent her back to the US, where American officials classed her as an illegal alien. She was shackled and transported to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention centre, where she was locked up for 19 days – even though she had money to pay for a flight home, and was desperate to leave the US. Burke had arrived in the US during the Biden administration, only to become one of 32,809 people to be arrested by Ice during the first 50 days of Donald Trump’s presidency. Since February, several young foreign nationals have been incarcerated in Ice detention centres for seemingly little reason and held for weeks, including Germans Lucas Sielaff, Fabian Schmidt and Jessica Brösche. (Brösche, 26, spent more than a month in detention, including eight days in solitary confinement.) Unlike these other cases, Burke had been trying to leave the US, rather than enter it, when she was detained for nearly three weeks. I had been following news of Burke’s trip since she arrived in the US on 7 January. To me and my family, Burke is Becky, our neighbour and, for two and a half years, the person who took care of my kids after school. Her London home was only five doors down from us, but we met online, through a website that matches families with people offering childcare. Becky spent her mornings as a graphic artist and comic-book editor, and her afternoons collecting my son and daughter from primary school and entertaining them back at my place, making them snacks and refereeing their squabbles. Best of all, she drew with them. When my daughter turned seven, she asked if she could have a comic-making party; all her friends went home with little zines Becky had helped them make. We felt so lucky to have her in our lives. Two years ago, Becky went to San Francisco for two weeks on a Workaway placement, staying in a family home free of charge in exchange for sweeping floors and walking the dog. Last August, she used Workaway again, in Switzerland. The internet was opening up the possibility of another life for her – one where she could see the world on a shoestring. In September, Becky told me she was going to leave London in January to go travelling on her own. We were sad to see her go, but I was full of admiration for her; I wish I had been as bold and free in my 20s. We threw her a farewell party just before Christmas; everyone cried. I kept up with news of her travels on Instagram, and there were regular postcards and WhatsApps: pictures of the tattoo she had got in Portland; a video she filmed of herself on a forest walk. She told me she had seen bald eagles and woodpeckers, deer and seals. And then, on 26 February, everything went silent. Becky wasn’t someone who liked to be immersed in global news. But, even if she had been, she could never have foreseen what would happen to her. She booked her plane ticket six months ago, while pundits were still predicting a close race for the presidency, or a Kamala Harris victory. Her story gives a glimpse of what America has become since then. I meet up with Becky at her parents’ house, in Monmouthshire, six days after she arrived back in the UK. After so long in detention, she wants to spend as much as possible in the sunshine, so we sit in the garden while their dog – a cocker spaniel named Mr Bojangles – runs circles around us. Becky is much paler than the person my family knew so well. Her eyes are hollower. She began her trip with a stopover in Iceland, taking in the northern lights, going on to spend three nights in a hostel in New York City. Having already stayed in San Francisco on a Workaway placement, she didn’t feel she had anything to hide when she landed in New York. She would have told the border official her plans in full had he asked about them, she tells me. But he didn’t. The homestays were a big part of the appeal of her trip. “I really liked becoming part of these other families. You don’t get placed so firmly in the community if you’re going to a hotel that’s sterile and separate.” Her first placement was three weeks with a household just outside Portland. Becky would “destroy dandelions from their lawn” and cook meals; her hosts took her on day trips, including an overnight stay at the seaside. They drove her to her next homestay, which was in Portland itself. Becky’s second host took her on forest hikes. “She knew every single plant, every single bird call. It was like having a personal tour guide,” Becky beams. “It was incredible. I thought, this is going too well, I’m having too much fun here.” Both her hosts had been worried about how the US was changing under Trump. “I’m hearing so many scary stories about Ice raids and passports being detained,” Becky WhatsApp’d me on 8 February. Her first host had a transgender friend whose passport had been seized after she tried to change the name on it. But Becky felt like a spectator to it all. “I was worried on their behalf – an abstract worry and concern for others – rather than for myself. Because, I thought, I’m getting out of here.” On 26 February, Becky boarded a Greyhound coach for the three-hour ride from Seattle to Vancouver. She was due to spend two months in the home of a divorced father who wanted help with meal prep and laundry during the one week out of every two that his kids lived with him. Becky had never been to Canada before and was looking forward to this part of her trip. She sat at the back of the coach, listening to a comedy podcast, watching the world flash by. She wasn’t thinking about the dismal state of US-Canada relations when she handed her passport to the Canadian border official. He asked what she was planning to do in Canada. Travel, she replied. He asked where she was staying. Living with a man and his family, she said. He asked how she knew him. Becky said they had met on Workaway, and that she would be helping out around the house. The official told her they needed to research what Workaway was. He told Becky’s coach driver to leave without her. Workaway warns users that they “will need the correct visa for any country that you visit”, and that it is the user’s responsibility to get one, but it doesn’t stipulate what the correct visa is for the kind of arrangements it facilitates in any given country. Becky had always travelled with a tourist visa in the past – including to the US in 2022 – without any problems. She checked that work visas were only required for paid work in Canada. She had had months to plan her trip, and would have applied for a work visa if it was necessary, she says. But the Canadian officials told Becky they’d determined she needed a work visa. She could apply for one from the US and come back, they said. Two officers escorted her to the American side of the border. They talked to the US officials. Becky doesn’t know what was said. After six hours of waiting – and watching dozens of people being refused entry to the US and made to return to Canada – Becky began to feel frightened. Then she was called into an interrogation room, and questioned about what she had been doing during her seven weeks in the US. Had she been paid? Was there a contract? Would she have lost her accommodation if she could no longer provide services? Becky answered no to everything. She was a tourist, she said. An hour later, Becky was handed a transcript of her interview to sign. She was alone, with no legal advice. “It was really long, loads of pages.” As she flicked through it, she saw the officer had summarised everything she told him about what she had been doing in the US as just “work in exchange for accommodation”. “I remember thinking, I should ask him to edit that.” But the official was impatient and irritable, she says, and she was exhausted and dizzy – she hadn’t eaten all day. “I just thought, if I sign this, I’ll be free. And I didn’t want to stay there any longer.” So she signed. Then she was told she had violated her tourist visa by working in the US. They took her fingerprints, seized her phone and bags, cut the laces off her trainers, frisked her, and put her in a cell. “I heard the door lock, and I instantly threw up.” At 11pm, Becky was allowed to call her family. Her father asked what was going to happen next. “I looked at the officer and he said, ‘We’re going to take you to a facility where you’ll wait for your flight. You’ll be there one or two days – just while we get you on the next flight home.’” Becky was shackled and put into the back of a van. “I had no idea where we were going. It was just bumping around in darkness with handcuffs on.” At 2.30am, she arrived at the Ice facility in Tacoma, Washington. She was made to change into standard-issue underwear, a yellow top and trousers. Officers took away all her personal belongings, measured her height and weight, made her pose for a mugshot, and assigned her an “A” number (short for “alien”). Whenever she asked the people processing her arrival how long she would be detained for, they told her they couldn’t help: they worked for GEO, the private company contracted to run the facility, and not Ice, the government body that would decide her fate. At 5.30am, she was taken to the dorm that she was to share with 103 other women: a massive room filled with metal tables, benches and bunk beds, some cells around the perimeter, and a row of payphones, “like a hospital mixed with a canteen”. It was bathed in bright halogen light that Becky would come to learn would always be on, albeit slightly dimmed between 11.30pm and 5.30am. Becky’s bunk was on a mezzanine level. Burke’s sketch of her bunk in the detention centre. Illustration: RE Burke All Becky wanted to do was sleep, but instead she headed to the payphones to make the one free call she had been told she was entitled to, to tell her family how to put money into her inmate account. “In my head, this was a thing I had to do immediately, otherwise I’d be stuck without a way to communicate with the outside world.” She gave her parents her A number, and they tried to reassure her. It’s just one or two days, they repeated to her. A horrible experience. But over soon. As soon as the call ended, Becky went on one of the detention centre iPads, which had apps allowing inmates to send messages to Ice and check the balance on their inmate account. “I sent a message to Ice straight away saying: ‘I am a tourist. I was just backpacking. I have not outstayed my visa. I’ve only been in America one month and two weeks. I don’t know why I’m here. I want to go home. Please can you help?’” She frantically refreshed the app to see if her account had been credited. (It took longer than expected, because funds can only be transferred into accounts for “illegal aliens” from within the US. Becky’s father, Paul, discovered he could only do it through an American friend.) “I was seeing no money arrive, and I was getting really upset thinking I told them the wrong A number.” As she sobbed holding the iPad, Becky found herself surrounded by other inmates who wanted to comfort her. A woman called Lucy offered to let Becky use her phone credit if money hadn’t appeared in the account within a few hours. Rosa, a Mexican woman who spoke barely any English and had already been detained for 11 months, offered Becky a Pot Noodle she had been able to buy from the commissary, the shop where they could purchase luxuries. At 8am, Becky finally curled up in her bed to sleep, with Rosa praying in Spanish in the bunk below. Becky quickly learned the monotonous rhythms of the detention centre. Wake-up time was 5.30am. Breakfast – which for Becky was cold potato and a sachet of peanut butter, the only vegan option – was at 6am. Lunch – black beans and more cold potato – was anytime between 11.30am and 2pm. Four times a day, inmates had to sit on their bunks for an hour so they could be counted by staff. Dinner frequently arrived after 8pm. They were often ravenous between meals, which was why the commissary was so vital. It was also the only place they could access shampoo, deodorant, nail clippers and anti-shank toothbrushes. On her first day in the facility, Becky asked for a scrap of paper and a pen, and began to draw the inmates on the table next to her. She was immediately inundated with portrait requests. A Mexican woman called Lopez, who had a photo of her children stored on one of the iPads, told Becky she would buy her some paper and colouring pencils from the commissary if Becky drew her kids. She soon became the dorm’s unofficial artist-in-residence, with women huddling around the dirty mirrors to make themselves look presentable before they sat for her. They would decorate their cells with Becky’s drawings, or send them to their families. Lopez declared herself Becky’s manager. “She kept saying, ‘Becky, you need to ask for stuff in exchange. Ask for popcorn.’ And I’d be like, ‘Lopez, I don’t need anything.’ I thought, I’m here briefly, you’re stuck here a long time. I’m not going to take your food away from you.” The majority of the women were from Latin American countries, but some were from India, China, Iran, Afghanistan and Gaza. “Most of them were asylum seekers, but there was this handful of new people who had come in recently who did not know why they were here.” Lewelyn joined the dorm a few days after Becky. She had just returned from visiting her family in the Philippines; she had been living in the US since 1976, working as a lab technician at the University of Washington hospital’s cancer centre. “She’d had a visa issue that had been resolved many years ago, but now it was flagging on the system again.” Kseniia, a Russian woman who had been working for two years in a California nail salon, had permission to work in the US but was handcuffed while waiting for her husband to come out of an Ice interview. “She was so confused. She kept saying to me, ‘I’ve got a work permit.’” Burke’s sketches of some of her fellow detainees. Illustration: RE Burke There were other tourists, too. Bana, from Romania, was on holiday in Canada and visited Peace Arch park, on the international boundary between the US and Canada. She told Becky she had been taking selfies with her husband when a US border official told her they had strayed into American territory without the right visa and took her into custody. Becky had arrived in the detention centre on a Thursday. She soon realised she would not be out of it before the end of the weekend. No one ever replied to the message she sent to Ice on the iPad; she found out the Ice officer assigned to her case had gone on annual leave. The following Monday, Paul contacted the Foreign Office in London, and the British consulate in San Francisco. “They were doing the diplomatic bit,” he tells me. “But, after seven days, I could see it wasn’t really working. My perception is the British consulate couldn’t get Ice people to respond to them. There was no end in sight.” After Becky had been incarcerated for more than 10 days, Paul decided to go to the media. A quiet, unassuming man, he found himself live on Newsnight, Sky News and Good Morning Britain. Becky made it to every national newspaper in the UK, and had coverage in US press, too. Hours after her story broke, she was visited by an Ice officer who told her she was now “at the top of the pile” to be processed. Four days later, on a Thursday, another Ice officer came to the facility to tell Becky her flight had been booked for the following Monday. Becky’s face began to appear in the newspapers they received at the facility. At one point, her face flashed up on one of the three TV screens they had in her dorm. “Everyone clapped. After that, a few people came up to me and said, ‘Can you put me on TV, too?’” She feels very guilty that she was able to leave. “I was aware that it was from a major position of privilege that the press listened to this story. I was a British tourist, I had these images of my trip on Instagram, and I had contacts with journalists, so I was very lucky. And I wanted the same thing that Ice wanted, which was for me to go home.” At lunchtime on 17 March, officers came into the dorm, barked Becky’s name and told her to get ready to go. She had hidden some of her drawings among her official paperwork – her signed transcript and the document declaring her an illegal alien – in the hope she could smuggle them out. She wasn’t allowed to tell her family she was on her way home, but one of the women offered to ring her parents to notify them. Becky was shackled at the ankles, wrists and waist, and then made to shuffle out into a van. “When I got close to the airport, I felt really relieved and also overwhelmed, watching people with their suitcases, people going on holiday. It was a bit like whiplash – reality whiplash. Did that just happen?” But her ordeal was not over. She was taken to the basement of Seattle-Tacoma international airport for a security check. While every item in her bag was swabbed and dismantled, she was subjected to a full body search. “I was in this very loud, weird, industrial space with pipes and conveyor belts and lights and sirens, being told to open my legs. I was silently crying, watching all my stuff being torn apart as someone else was searching every crevice of me.” She boarded the plane before any of the other passengers. “I found my seat, threw my bags on it, and went into the toilet and sobbed in the cubicle, with the British Airways classical music surrounding me.” Six days after she landed at Heathrow, Becky still sleeps with her lamp on. She is enjoying home-cooked food and long showers, but feels guilty for resting in comfort when she knows her friends are still incarcerated. “I’m thinking of them every day,” she tells me. She is working on a comic that will tell the story of what happened to her, and the women she shared 19 days with, based on the drawings, notes and official documents she managed to take out of the detention centre. Becky still doesn’t know why she was incarcerated for so long. She suspects it might be because Ice is simply overwhelmed. “Maybe border security have been pressured to prove they’re stepping up.” She shrugs. “It did feel like they wanted to get me from the moment I was walked to the American side.” On 4 March, the White House issued a statement celebrating how “Ice arrests of illegal immigrants have surged 627%” during Trump’s first month in office. Jasmine Mooney, a Canadian woman who was detained by Ice for two weeks, says while the private companies who own the facilities are run for profit, there’s no incentive to get people out quickly. But in the era of Elon Musk’s department of government efficiency (Doge), it seems counterintuitive for public money to be deliberately wasted on detaining illegal aliens with the will and means to return home. Trump’s border tsar, Tom Homan, promised “shock and awe” from day one of his administration. Perhaps Becky’s incarceration was political theatre – or performative cruelty. Whatever the reason, in Trump’s America, a tourist who makes a mistake can be locked up, seemingly indefinitely. The deportation paper Becky signed bans her from the US for the next 10 years. Paul tells me they are going to try to appeal it, but Becky says America isn’t the country she thought it was. Her advice to anyone planning to travel to the US is simply not to go. “First, because of the danger of what could happen to you. And, secondly, do you really want to give your money to this country right now?” She has emerged from the experience with new eyes. “I was naive to think that what was going on in the world, or at the border, wouldn’t affect me,” she tells me, her arms folded across her chest. She had believed if she was honest and acted in good faith she would be insulated from harm, but now thinks that might have been naive, too. “If I’d lied, I’d be on holiday in Canada right now.”

only 4 games left at Goodison Park

https://www.vipleague.pm/epl/everton-vs-arsenal-1-live-streaming https://www.vipleague.pm/epl/everton-vs-arsenal-2-live-streaming https://www.vipleague.pm/epl/everton-vs-arsenal-3-live-streaming https://redditsoccerstreams.org/event/everton-arsenal/1509796 https://soccer-100.com/event/eng-1/arsenal-vs-everton-live-soccer-stats/704584

Man City and Man United midfielders set for summer exit, Arsenal transfer update, Liverpool centre-back wants to leave & more Plus all the latest updates from the world of footbal Chelsea More on Enzo Fernández. Chelsea always considered him as important part of their plans, summer exit was never a possibility. Planning for midfield future includes Enzo and he’s also fully focused on reaching Champions League football with Chelsea.

Stay Agile in the Louis Vuitton Sneakerina https://www.sneakerfreaker.com/releases/louis-vuitton-sneakerina-price-buy-release-date/ The Balletcore movement has officially infiltrated the sneaker scene with many embracing the elegant low profile style of the contemporary ballet flat. Credited for the rise is the hyper feminine sneaker movement, kicked off with the likes of Cecilie Bahnsen and many others. Now, shooting up the ranks of certified sneaker x ballet crossover aficionados is Louis Vuitton, who’ve come correct with a new model dubbed the Sneakerina. Streamlined, minimal and sleek, LV’s latest footwear invention opts for the less-is-more approach and reminds us of a female-skewed version of their Footprint Soccer Sneaker. Made in a slew of colourways, each boasts an upper with very few panels but hosts bold ‘LV’ branding on the lateral and medial. As to be expected, the material mix is opulent, featuring metallic leathers, calf-skin suede and glittered sequin embroidery. Finishing each off is the bevy of Vuitton signatures like monograms and the LV Circle. If the Louis Vuitton Sneakerina is up your alley, they launch as an LV app-exclusive on April 4 with a drop at their stores on April 11. https://en.louisvuitton.com/eng-nl/women/shoes/all-shoes/_/N-t1mcbujj?dispatchCountry=SE

Get Ready to Pounce on the Nike SB PS8 ‘Wolf Grey’ https://www.sneakerfreaker.com/releases/nike-sb-ps8-wolf-grey-FV8493-004-price-buy-release-date/ Nike SB are dropping a fresh ‘Wolf Grey’ version of the PS8, a model inspired by the legacy of skate legend Sandy Bodecker and the eight problems skaters found with previous skate shoes. The PS8 was first showcased at the Nike's 'On Air' expo in a 'Safari' colourway, with performance features like layered Flyknit upper, leather overlays and updated Flyplate tech for enhanced durability and responsiveness. For the newest iteration, the upper has tumbled leather overlays in the titular 'Wolf Grey' finish, with a soft white underlay and black accents on the Swoosh, Flyknit tag, lace loops and the front of the tongue. The PS8 is rounded out with translucent rubber outsoles and a hint of light blue for that final flair. Built with input from the Nike Sports Research Lab and top skaters, the PS8 hit the scene in 2024, bringing a fresh take on comfort and innovation. With solid support, smooth responsiveness and a grippy, lightweight feel, the model looks set to take on whatever challenges skaters throw at it, from high-impact landings to tight corners, all while keeping you locked in and connected to the board. The Nike SB PS8 'Wolf Grey' is available right now via Nike – hit the link below to cop! https://www.nike.com/au/t/sb-ps8-shoes-Mc4xps/FV8493-004

Chelsea’s sale of women’s team to themselves still being assessed by Premier League https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6252232/2025/04/04/Chelsea-ffp-womens-team-sale/ Chelsea’s sale of their women’s team to themselves is still being assessed by the Premier League and will not count towards UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules. On Monday, Chelsea released a statement regarding their financial results for the year ending June 30, 2024, and reported a pre-tax profit of £128.4million. They registered a profit of £198.7m through the sale of their women’s team and other subsidiaries to themselves. Chelsea transferred ownership of their women’s team to the club’s parent company — BlueCo 22 Midco Ltd — just two days before the 2023-24 finances were due to be registered on June 30. The club’s statement noted £198.7m had been registered as a “profit on disposal of subsidiaries”, meaning the women’s team was either sold for just shy of £200m or contributes to that overall figure. Although the Premier League announced earlier this year that no clubs had been charged with a breach of its profitability and sustainability Rules (PSR) for 2023-24, it is still assessing the sale of Chelsea Women from a fair market value standpoint. This is the same process that took place for the 2022-23 financial year when Chelsea sold two hotels — the Copthorne and Millennium — to a sister company in a transaction worth £76.5million. Chelsea noted at the time that they had appointed two independent valuers to assess their valuation of the hotels. Following the fair market value process carried out by the Premier League, the £76.5m was adjusted, although neither party confirmed the amount. Catch Up On The Story How did Chelsea stay compliant with PSR? Despite no Champions League revenue and having a poor domestic season in 2023-24, Chelsea stayed on the right side of Premier League rules UEFA’s rules, however, are more rigid and do not allow for the sale of tangible assets to sister companies to count towards their FFP calculations. Clubs’ financial submissions are analysed and reviewed in accordance with Article 66 of UEFA’s Club Licensing and Financial Sustainability Regulations. If applicable, profits from the sale of assets are neutralised and only the excess proceeds are taken into account. Any income that is neutralised or removed is not considered as relevant for UEFA’s regulations. European football’s governing body permits teams competing in their club competitions to lose up to €90m — if UEFA deems their balance sheet to be in good order — over a three-year reporting cycle. If Chelsea are found to have breached UEFA’s regulations, then the most likely outcome is a fine, given the governing body has dished out this punishment in the past. In September 2022, UEFA charged eight clubs with failing to comply with FFP, including French side Paris Saint-Germain who were hit with a €10m fine after failing to stay within the FFP limits. Manchester United were finned €300k in July 2023 for a “minor” breach of FFP rules. Chelsea sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, say the club is comfortable with their position and are not anticipating any issues. At the same time PSG were fined, the Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) First Chamber, an independent panel within UEFA tasked with policing FFP, announced that Chelsea, along with a host of other clubs competing in Europe in 2021-22, were going to be “monitored closely”. PSG were fined €10m for a UEFA FFP breach in 2022 (Julien de Rosa/AFP via Getty Images) “The profit for the year before taxation was £128.4m compared with a loss of £90.1m for the prior year as the club benefitted from increased profit on disposal of player registrations and repositioning of Chelsea Football Club Women Ltd,” the club’s statement on Monday read. “Decreased operating expenses, including matchday and non-matchday costs, profits on disposal of player registrations of £152.5m and a profit on disposal of subsidiaries of £198.7m, led to the group recording an overall net profit of £129.6m after tax.” The sale of the women’s team to the club’s parent company will almost certainly have helped Chelsea stay compliant with PSR in 2023-24. PSR allows Premier League sides to lose no more than £105m over a three-year cycle, although deductions are allowed to be made for investing in youth development, women’s football, infrastructure and community work. At the Premier League’s Annual General Meeting in June, not enough top-flight clubs voted in favour of stopping clubs from being able to sell fixed assets to themselves. Even though it was voted against last summer, that is not to say there will not be another vote on it in the future. For the proposal to be put to a vote again, another club, or even the Premier League, would have to table the motion. However, the general consensus is that it will not happen any time soon as not enough clubs are talking about it.

Chelsea’s Romeo Lavia and Wesley Fofana undergo scans on muscular injuries – Enzo Maresca https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6254873/2025/04/04/Chelsea-injury-news-fofana-lavia/ Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca has said Romeo Lavia and Wesley Fofana have had scans on muscular injuries and is awaiting news on a timescale for their absences. Lavia and Fofana missed Chelsea’s 1-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur on Thursday with the issues and have already been ruled out of Sunday’s Premier League fixture at Brentford. Both players had only just returned from a spell on the sidelines. 24-year-old Fofana played twice before the international break after being ruled out for three months with a hamstring strain, while Lavia, 21, made his comeback after two months out from a muscular injury a few weeks ago as a late substitute against Arsenal. Maresca admits Fofana is looking like the more serious of the two and said: “We don’t know yet (how long they will be out). We are waiting for the test results for both. Romeo is looking a better injury compared to Wes in terms of he can be back earlier than Wes.” What You Should Read Next Chelsea are worse without Wesley Fofana – but can they rely on his fitness? Defender Fofana has played less than 25 per cent of all first-team minutes since joining Chelsea for £70m in summer 2022 Lavia has yet to complete 90 minutes for Chelsea since he joined from Southampton for an initial £53million in 2023. He made just one appearance, lasting 32 minutes, in 2023-24 due to a variety of injuries and has played only 13 times in this campaign. When asked if Lavia’s lack of game time is becoming an increasing concern, Maresca added: “If you compare Romeo’s games this season to last, he has already improved. The target with Romeo is just to keep him fit as much as we can and next season to play more games than this season. “We are trying to do the same with Reece James (who has played just 15 times under Maresca due to injury). Reece was on the bench against Tottenham and he is one of our best players. Why was he on the bench? It is because we try to take care of him. “We know in this moment he cannot play every three days but hopefully soon he can start to play every three days. But the main target with him, Romeo and Wes is to keep them fit because we know how important they are for us.”

Enzo Maresca needed Chelsea’s win against Spurs – for his relationship with the fans https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6254067/2025/04/04/Chelsea-tottenham-enzo-maresca/ Enzo Maresca desperately needed Chelsea’s 1-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur to build some rapport again with supporters. Stamford Bridge has not had a positive atmosphere for a game like this since before Christmas. There is nothing like the visit of Tottenham, even when they are as dire as they have been this season, to galvanise the fanbase to forget all recent gripes about a manager and focus on beating their London rivals instead. After a bright start to his Chelsea tenure, Maresca’s popularity has waned of late. Writing off his side’s title hopes when they were second in the table in December did not go down well. Suggesting that going out of the FA Cup fourth round to Brighton & Hove Albion was a positive because the team could focus on the Premier League and the UEFA Conference League was even worse. There have been mixed messages over whether qualifying for the Champions League via a top four/five finish is a target or not, while the quality of football (and results) have deteriorated as well. Maresca needed this result and felt the impact of the Stamford Bridge crowd. “My feeling from the bench was that we had the best environment since we started the season with the fans,” he said afterwards. “If they keep being the way they were tonight, we’re going to achieve important things because they push us, they help us. I’m very happy.” Maresca joined Chelsea from Leicester City in June 2024 (GLYN KIRK/AFP via Getty Images) Chelsea have lost just once at home to Tottenham in 35 years so Maresca, like many of his predecessors, will have felt the pressure to keep the streak going. And the Italian showed the strain he was under. This was as animated as Maresca has been on the touchline all season. Every missed opportunity was greeted with an anguished gesture as if bad fortune, rather than bad finishing, was the cause. When Nicolas Jackson fired one shot over the bar before the half-hour mark, Maresca could not hide his frustration. But then he quickly used that raw emotion for a more positive effect — he turned to Chelsea fans in the East Stand and urged them to make more noise. Maresca has rarely done this, if at all, since taking charge last June. Significantly, they responded to his request. They could see Maresca had set Chelsea up to try something different. Another cause of the rising angst towards him has been due to the team playing a slow methodical passing game with little attacking intent. The manner of the 1-0 defeat at Arsenal before the international break was the worst exhibition of the lot. But with Jackson leading the line again after two months out with a hamstring injury, Chelsea no longer looked like they were operating in a straitjacket. Trevoh Chalobah hit a ball over the top within the first minute for Jackson to chase and it could have been an early goal. Soon after, goalkeeper Robert Sanchez struck it deep into Tottenham’s half for Pedro Neto to run on to. This was a deliberate bid to mix it up, something Chelsea fans have been crying out for. Of the 462 passes Chelsea made, 65 were long. Data from WhoScored shows that the only Premier League game they have played more long balls was against Crystal Palace three months ago (68). In contrast, only 36 of Tottenham’s 458 passes were long balls. Enzo Fernandez celebrates after scoring the winner against Spurs (Alex Pantling/Getty Images) “We are together nine months. I don’t know how long we’re going to be together, but until the day that I will be here, I will tell you that our game plan depends on the opposition,” Maresca said of the change in tactic, when asked by The Athletic. “We don’t do the same game plan. We cannot do the same game plan against Tottenham and against Leicester because they play a completely different way. Tonight we use more balls in behind. It’s because of Tottenham, the way they defend, the way they press.” And he was proved right. Their opponents struggled with it throughout and in the end, the 1-0 defeat, with Enzo Fernandez scoring the winner, flattered Ange Postecoglou’s side. After getting a lot of criticism from supporters for seemingly having only one way of playing, Maresca showed that he is willing to adapt and it can work when he does. This was also Chelsea’s fifth successive home league victory. It was crucial, lifting them back up to fourth in the Premier League. Their record at Stamford Bridge means only Liverpool (38) and Arsenal (34) have accumulated more points at home this season than Chelsea’s 31. Maresca has sparked a turnaround in this department, given they ranked 10th in January. However, it has coincided with a decline in their away results — their last league triumph was at Tottenham in December. It would be premature to say Maresca has become a fan favourite again. It has become the norm for Tottenham to soothe Chelsea’s problems. Maresca’s approval ratings will still depend on where Chelsea finish in the standings and if he can win the Conference League. No matter the quality of the fixture, beating Tottenham again has done him and Chelsea some good. Now he is tasked with keeping that good feeling alive.

Arsenal’s Nico Williams interest? Liverpool and midfielders? Guehi future? – Ask Ornstein https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6252753/2025/04/03/arsenals-nico-williams-interest-liverpool-and-midfielders-guehi-future-ask-ornstein/ Today, we ran the latest edition of our subscriber-exclusive Ask Ornstein Q&A. Once a week for an hour, The Athletic’s subscribers can ask me for my views on anything from the football world. I have pulled together some of my favourite questions and my answers are below. Got a question? Join us again next Thursday. Ivan S. asked: “Are the reports about Andrea Berta meeting with Nico Williams’ representatives true and if so how likely is a move to Arsenal this summer?” David Ornstein: Arsenal’s long-running pursuit of Williams — based on Mikel Arteta’s desire to sign him — is well documented. A recruit in that position has been on the agenda for some time and it remains the case. I have no reason to doubt the reports of a meeting taking place between his agent and Andrea Berta, however that is pretty normal… you’d be more surprised if meetings with the representatives of targets were not happening. Clearly, it seems like Arsenal will try again and I doubt they will be alone; Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Chelsea and Liverpool are among the many clubs to have considered and/or pursued him. But this is a highly challenging deal to do and therefore there is no guarantee it will happen. There is a release clause in the region of €60million (£50.6m, $66.3m) and that needs to be paid in full, plus a very healthy salary. We reported some time ago that Williams is expected to be more open to a move in the summer of 2025 than previously. However, he is still only 22 and his ties to Athletic Club and their coach Ernesto Valverde are very strong. Not an easy one for me to call, I’m afraid. Harry J. asked: “Are Liverpool targeting any midfielders, and if so, what names have you heard floating about?” Ornstein: This doesn’t seem to be a department at the top of their priority list, Harry, and — if that’s the case — you can understand why. Martin Zubimendi was viewed as a market opportunity and when Liverpool’s pursuit didn’t come to fruition they decided against pivoting to another target; it was he who they wanted. That call appears to have been vindicated with Ryan Gravenberch’s outstanding season, Waturo Endo’s contributions, Alexis Mac Allister’s consistency and Curtis Jones shining when called upon. Liverpool saw Zubimendi as a market opportunity (Angel Martinez/Getty Images) Aaron W. asked: “Are you hearing anything regarding Marc Guehi?” Ornstein: Not that we don’t already know. He figures prominently on the lists of some of the top clubs in England and overseas. There has been no indication so far that he intends to sign a new contract at Crystal Palace and, unless that changes, they will need to cash in on him this summer or face losing him for nothing in June 2026. You imagine the asking price would be a bit lower than when Newcastle tried to sign Guehi a year ago, yet for club and country, he seems to be getting better… so this is certainly one you could see developing. Todd M. asked: “Is the City dynasty over?” Ornstein: No. Manchester City have built an incredibly impressive operation and while we don’t know what will happen in the 115 case, they are set up to continue flourishing at senior and youth level on the men’s and women’s sides — and across the business. The multi-club model has faced challenges in certain areas, like Troyes. But then, when you see New York City FC’s stadium plans, for example, there is plenty of reason for them to anticipate further growth and success. Andrew D. asked: “Any Villa transfer news, David? Will it massively depend on where we finish? Wages to turnover will be very tight without Champions League income. What about the chances of our loanees sticking around?” Ornstein: Villa always seem to plan well — even if that planning must consider different scenarios and budgets based on factors like European competition — and they always seem to be busy. Let’s see if they turn Marcus Rashford into a permanent signing for £40million as a starting point. An outgoing wouldn’t come as a huge surprise; there are always clubs looking at Jacob Ramsey, while Morgan Rogers is generating some big admirers. That is not to say these guys are leaving and certainly the club will not want to lose their best players. But it will be another big summer as Villa look to kick on again. Hammad N. asked: “Are there any indications Arsenal are looking to add a defender in the summer window? I’ve read numerous articles about Dean Huijsen, listing Arsenal as one of the clubs interested. Can you elaborate a bit on the extent of that interest?” Ornstein: I’m not aware of Arsenal being in for Huijsen, Hammad, and I could only see a centre-back arriving if there is a departure. The obvious name that springs to mind is Jakub Kiwior, but we’ve been here before. He generates interest, especially from Italy, but so far, nothing has come to fruition. Kieran Tierney and potentially Oleksandr Zinchenko leaving would theoretically create space to strengthen at left-back, but the presence of Riccardo Calafiori and Miles Lewis-Skelly means that is by no means certain. Huijsen has shone for Bournemouth (Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images) Adam asked: “What is Jamie Gittens’ future? Liverpool and Chelsea are reportedly interested. Have you heard anything?” Ornstein: He is definitely a player Chelsea are considering. I don’t know about Liverpool but there are a host of interested parties. There is a good chance he leaves and I think there’s a release clause in the event of Borussia Dortmund failing to qualify for Europe, but I would need to check that. Nothing is set in stone at this stage. Joe M. asked: “There’s a lot of talk about Liverpool being in the market for a new No 9 this summer. Are you aware of any genuine interest from Liverpool in certain players in that position?” Ornstein: Just the Alexander Isak stuff we and others have covered previously. They will have multiple options, of course, but I think Liverpool will first want a clearer picture of the Mohamed Salah contract situation, what’s happening with Luiz Diaz and whether Darwin Nunez is definitely leaving. They remain confident Salah will renew, Diaz is certainly one to watch given there has still been no new deal and he has plenty of suitors, and there is a decent chance Nunez goes. So you can definitely see somebody coming in, but we don’t have many names yet. Gbenga S. asked: “Hey David! We know United will be looking to offload a lot of players this summer. Is Mason Mount on that list, too?” Ornstein: You never know in this industry, but I don’t expect Mason Mount to leave. Manchester United will be focused on keeping him fit and bringing the best out of him, because they think he is a great fit for Ruben Amorim’s setup and style. Furthermore, I can’t see any club offering Manchester United the level of money to produce an accounting profit — and there will naturally be reservations about his injury record. I imagine he’s going nowhere. Johannes E. asked: “What will the goalkeeper situation at Chelsea look like next year? Will there be any new signings? What will happen to Djordje Petrovic?” Ornstein: There could be movement in this department, Johannes. Chelsea will be analysing whether Robert Sanchez or Petrovic can make the position theirs or if Filip Jorgensen or Mike Penders can take over. So there could be an arrival, but that would require an exit or two. I hear there’s quite a bit of interest in Petrovic from Europe. It’s obviously an important situation, although signing a striker and winger remain Chelsea’s priorities. Petrovic has impressed for Strasbourg (Fred Tanneau/AFP via Getty Images) Chad E. asked: “Is there any hope Victor Osimhen will come home to Chelsea?” Ornstein: There seems to be a consensus among Premier League clubs that Victor Osimhen’s most likely destination is Saudi Arabia. Part of that will be down to the affordability of his wages. But let’s see. Brian M. asked: “Hi David, what in god’s name is going on at West Ham? After winning the Europa Conference, we should have kicked on like Villa and Newcastle, (but) we’ve now been overtaken by Bournemouth and Fulham. Who is for the chop, and any ideas on who is coming in?” Ornstein: I get your frustration, but the trophy (plus a sequence of strong domestic and European campaigns under David Moyes) is better than most teams fared over the same period and now let’s see if Graham Potter can get them moving in a similar direction. The Julen Lopetegui tenure and sporting director upheaval have not helped matters. Their recent win at Arsenal showed the levels they are capable of reaching. It will be interesting to see what happens with Mohammed Kudus. He’s under contract until summer 2028, with an option to extend by 12 months, but his deal contains a release clause and that’s probably why there has been a lot of speculation over his future. I understand the clause is only active for the first 10 days of July and is valued at £80million for European clubs, £85m for Premier League sides and £120m for Saudi teams. That feels steep considering this season has not gone as well as he would have liked. However, we know he has huge quality and is still only 24 (25 in August), so it’s obviously a situation worth keeping an eye on.

Gyokeres, Isak, Sesko, Nunez: The 15 strikers who could define the summer transfer window https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6252369/2025/04/04/transfer-summer-window-strikers-analysis The striker situation is already a key aspect of this coming summer’s transfer window, with a number of top Premier League sides desperate to bring in an elite No 9. Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United could all be looking to bring in a centre-forward this summer, so expect a busy summer of movement for forward players. But who are those players? How do they operate best? And what does the market for them look like this summer? Here, The Athletic’s experts analyse the 15 strikers we expect to be of interest this upcoming transfer window. Viktor Gyokeres Age: 26 Club: Sporting CP Contract expires: Summer 2028 Who are they? Gyokeres has been nothing short of a goal-scoring sensation with Sporting CP. The Sweden international has racked up 85 goals and 26 assists in 92 games for Sporting, helping them lift the Primeira Liga last year. In this 2024-25 league campaign, he has scored 30 goals in 26 appearances. A record like that has forced a host of elite clubs to take a long, hard look at him — among them, Arsenal. How do they play? Gyokeres’s speed and power give him a considerable advantage in the Portuguese league, where few central defenders can handle him. He favours drifting out to the flanks before making diagonal runs in behind — and once he gets up a head of speed, he is very difficult to stop. Interestingly, for a player who is so tall and powerful, he hardly scores any headed goals. That suggests his arrival would necessitate a change in Arsenal’s style, which focuses heavily on build-up on the wings and crosses from the flanks. It also remains to be seen whether Gyokeres’ physical dominance and goalscoring prowess could be replicated in a more challenging environment, such as the Premier League. Why are they in play this summer? Gyokeres turns 27 in June, so it looks like a case of “now or never” if he is going to make a move to one of Europe’s biggest clubs. There have also been indications that Sporting may be prepared to do a deal for less than Gyokeres’ €100million release clause, with talk of a fee in the region of €70m. That reduced price tag makes Gyokeres a much more attractive proposition. What do we know of who’s interested? Most of the Premier League’s biggest clubs have watched Gyokeres in action. Given that he played under Ruben Amorim in Portugal, Manchester United look like a logical fit. Thus far, however, their interest has been relatively tepid. They hold reservations over Gyokeres’ price tag, potential salary and age. Arsenal are in a different position: they have a pressing need for a new No 9, and ideally, one who can make an immediate impact. New sporting director Andrea Berta is a longstanding admirer of Gyokeres and is expected to propose him as a strong candidate for the central striking position. It remains to be seen if Berta’s advocacy is sufficient to convince Mikel Arteta, as Arsenal continue to consider other options such as Alexander Isak and Benjamin Sesko. James McNicholas Alexander Isak Age: 25 Club: Newcastle United Contract expires: Summer 2028 Who are they? Isak needs fewer introductions than any player on this list, but here are the raw facts. The Swedish international has scored 59 goals in his first 101 appearances for Newcastle United, including the decisive goal in the 2025 Carabao Cup final, the club’s first domestic trophy in 70 years. The third-highest scorer in the Premier League this season, Isak, who combines clinical finishing with a languid elegance, is already one of the world’s elite strikers. How do they play? One of Isak’s greatest skills is his movement, which allows him to fulfil pretty much any role in attack: rotating with a winger, dropping deep to link play, dribbling directly at defenders, or using his pace to play off the shoulder. Isak’s ability to improvise finishes in congested spaces has also rapidly improved, allowing him to score more poachers’ goals. Newcastle grant their forward a large amount of freedom while in possession to allow Isak to choose how to weaponise his abilities best, meaning at times he can appear inactive before springing into action. That has the benefit of managing his workload — and Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe has also focused extensively on his defensive responsibilities, meaning he is now a willing contributor to a team looking to press high. Why are they in play this summer? Well, this is the key: he may not be in play at all. Newcastle are desperate to keep him, while Isak’s contract runs until 2028, and he has not yet expressed any inclination to move. With players of this quality, there will always be speculation, but it will be likely to remain as just that, speculation, unless Newcastle fail to qualify for the Champions League. This is relevant for two main reasons: for Isak’s desire to play at the highest level, which exists even if not expressed vocally so far, and for Newcastle’s ability, financially, to resist astronomical offers. Teams will sense weakness if Howe’s side fail to finish in the top five — expect attempts to unsettle the player, with a sale only a possibility if he agitates to move. What do we know of who’s interested? Pretty much every team in the world is interested in an elite No 9; the issue is one of affordability. Arsenal and Chelsea hold a long-standing interest in the player, with the former club especially keen to recruit in the striker market this summer, choosing not to spend in January so as not to inhibit their upcoming recruitment. Chelsea made a bid last summer. Barcelona are also admirers — and want to find the long-term replacement for Robert Lewandowski — but it is unclear whether their financial situation will put them in any position to make a competitive bid. Liverpool’s senior recruitment figures admire Isak, but it’s highly unlikely that Liverpool would agree to pay £150million for him. Jacob Whitehead Benjamin Sesko Age: 21 Club: RB Leipzig Contract expires: Summer 2029 Who are they? Benjamin Sesko is a Slovenian striker who plays for the Bundesliga club RB Leipzig. His profile — 6ft 5in (195cm), swift, can jump high enough to kick a basketball hoop — means that he has been the subject of transfer interest from Europe’s biggest clubs since turning 18. So far, he has chosen to stay at Leipzig, viewing it as a pressure-free location to try to put his rare traits together. How do they play? Sesko’s best singular attribute is his ball-striking — he simply shoots with incredible force, which can lead to scarcely believable goals. His height and subsequent ability in aerial duels mean that he operates well as the focal point of an attack. That said, he is not as well-rounded as some other players on this list. He combines elite traits with others which need improvement, such as his link-up play and consistency of finishing. Sesko may have failed to take the huge step forward this season, which some anticipated, but there are still shoots of encouragement. He has already matched last season’s goal total. But in a Leipzig side who are struggling far more than the previous campaign, with Sesko forced to assume much more of the mantle, this is already an impressive achievement. (Maja Hitij/Getty Images) Why are they in play this summer? Sesko has been patient, but in short, all parties have accepted that this is the right moment to move on. In choosing to agree new terms at Leipzig last summer, Sesko’s representation managed to secure a gentleman’s agreement that the club will cooperate if they receive a bid of €70million — with negotiations on the expected structure beginning at that number. For clubs unable to afford Isak, this fee is one step back. For their part, Leipzig want to sell one of Sesko or strike partner Lois Openda in order to invest in a squad which needs a wider refresh, underscored by their likely failure to qualify for next season’s Champions League (they are sixth in the Bundesliga having recently sacked head coach Marco Rose). Sesko’s youth and scoring record mean he could be close to peak value. What do we know of who’s interested? Last summer, four Premier League clubs — Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, and Newcastle United — all expressed interest. He was Arsenal’s top target before choosing to remain at Leipzig. Newcastle and Manchester United now appear to have dropped off that list as a realistic destination — with Chelsea emerging as another major player. Isak and Gyokeres have now eclipsed him at the top of many of these clubs’ lists — with Sesko possibly a fallback option should they miss out on either of the Swedish pair. A team that prioritises him early in the window may face less competition than might be expected. Jacob Whitehead Liam Delap Age: 22 Club: Ipswich Town Contract expires: Summer 2029 Who are they? Delap has been a shining light for Ipswich this season, scoring 11 of their 30 Premier League goals to keep them clinging to their top-flight status with their fingertips. Having joined Manchester City’s academy from Derby County aged 16, Delap had spells on loan at Stoke City, Preston North End and Hull City, where he scored eight times in 31 Championship appearances to earn his move to Portman Road last summer in a deal worth up to £20million. How do they play? Delap is something of a throwback No 9, a physical presence up top who wears his shorts like a 1980s Rugby League player and clatters into opponents with a ferocity to match. But he is also skilful, capable of linking play and driving with the ball. He also runs the channels well. His shooting power stands out too, and he will attempt to score from various angles and distances. His latest goal, at Bournemouth, rolled these characteristics into one move. As Delap helped build up from midfield, he passed out wide to Conor Townsend, moved into the middle of the box and unleashed a thunderous strike to finish when the ball came back his way. Why are they in play this summer? His impact on the Premier League in his first season has taken people by surprise, and the deal Ipswich agreed with City contains exit clauses that make him an appealing target, especially in the event that Ipswich go down. Clubs can trigger a release for around £40million, although City also have a buyback option about that fee. Delap’s age, his homegrown status, his mentality, and his clear football improvement make him a centre-forward that ticks a lot of boxes. What do we know of who’s interested? Several Premier League clubs are watching Delap. Chelsea have so far shown the most interest, with Manchester United also looking at him as a potential summer signing. United need to find a way to score more goals, and Delap has scored more in the Premier League than Rasmus Hojlund, Joshua Zirkzee and Alejandro Garnacho combined. Jason Wilcox, United’s technical director, knows Delap well, having been City’s academy director when he joined the club. Newcastle have been linked with Delap, while City continue to monitor their former player too. Laurie Whitwell Victor Osimhen Age: 26 Club: Galatasaray (on loan from Napoli) Contract expires: Summer 2026 Who are they? You may remember Victor Osimhen from such hits as “firing Napoli to a first Serie A title since the days of Diego Maradona” and “becoming the first African player to finish as Italy’s leading scorer” in 2023. He is, though, currently starring in a slightly more arthouse production in Turkey. How do they play? Outside Erling Haaland, it is hard to imagine a more complete centre-forward, in the traditional style, than the Nigerian. Osimhen is tall, strong and explosive; at his best, he is both almost unplayable in the air and technically adroit. Like most elite strikers, he has a range of finishes available to him. He can be a target man, a poacher, and he can stretch defences with his movement. Osimhen is, in other words, the whole package. It is ultimately quite strange that he has spent one of the peak years of his career in Turkey. (Ahmad Mora/Getty Images) Why are they in play this summer? This is a long story, but in short: Osimhen signed a new contract at Napoli a few months after that title success. He understood it to mean that the club would not stand in his way if an offer for his asking price – somewhere in the region of £120million – arrived. Last summer, though, the only suitor willing to pay that price was in Saudi Arabia. Osimhen did not want to leave, and threatened not to play unless Napoli negotiated. That is not how Aurelio De Laurentiis, Napoli’s president, works. He made it plain that he would happily leave Osimhen out of the squad entirely. Eventually, he joined Galatasaray on loan for the season, but that is not likely to be a long-term solution. What do we know of who’s interested? Chelsea contemplated signing him last summer and most likely would have done so had De Laurentiis been prepared to budge. But that is likely just the start: Osimhen is the sort of player who could play for any team in Europe. The problem will be finding out which is able to do a deal with De Laurentiis. Rory Smith Darwin Nunez Age: 25 Club: Liverpool Contract expires: Summer 2028 Who are they? Nunez is a Uruguay international who is coming towards the end of his third season at Liverpool. The 25-year-old striker has scored 40 goals in 136 games for the club since arriving from Benfica in the summer of 2022 for a fee potentially rising to £85million. Nunez started his career at Penarol in his homeland before moving to Spain to join Almeria in 2019. His career took off at Benfica where he netted 48 times in 85 appearances. He caught the eye of Jurgen Klopp, who was convinced about his ability to succeed in the Premier League. However, Nunez has struggled to replicate that form at Anfield. How do they play? Nunez is a No 9 who loves the ball being played in behind for him to run onto. He’s got pace and strength in abundance. When it comes to finishing, he’s at his best when it’s instinctive. It tends to go wrong when he has plenty of time to think about picking his spot. There’s a good reason why Nunez is known as the ‘agent of chaos’. He’s erratic, and you never really know what you are going to get. He’s capable of producing the spectacular, but he’s also been guilty of some glaring missed chances. Why are they in play this summer? Having scored 18 goals in all competitions last season, Nunez only has seven to his name this time around. His role has dwindled since Arne Slot took over from Klopp. Nunez has only made 17 starts in all competitions this season, with a further 23 appearances off the bench. Slot has preferred playing either Diogo Jota or Luis Diaz through the middle, and in February, he criticised Nunez’s work ethic in the games against Wolverhampton Wanderers and Aston Villa, when he missed an open goal. Given his price tag, it’s hard to see Nunez staying around as a squad player. A parting of the ways is likely to suit all this summer. What do we know of who’s interested? There was interest in Nunez from the Saudi Pro League in January. However, Liverpool were adamant that he was not for sale as they wanted to keep the squad together as they challenged for the Premier League title. They also knew that trying to recruit a suitable replacement in the winter window would be problematic. Suitors are unlikely to be met with the same kind of resistance come the summer. Nunez has also been linked with Milan, but it’s the prospect of selling him to Saudi Arabia which gives Liverpool the best chance of recouping most of the money they paid Benfica for him three years ago. James Pearce Hugo Ekitike Age: 22 Club: Eintracht Frankfurt Contract expires: Summer 2029 Who are they? Eintracht Frankfurt’s French forward moved to Deutsche Bank Park in January 2024 after getting lost at Paris Saint-Germain. Slowly at first, but now in great strides, he has recovered his momentum and — again — has become one of Europe’s Bright Young Things. How do they play? You could be mistaken for thinking that he’s just a technical player. Not unreasonably, because he possesses a delicate touch and an array of tricks capable of befuddling most defenders one-on-one. Before Omar Marmoush was sold to Manchester City in January, the two had struck up a dangerous partnership at Frankfurt. Often, Ekitike was the more creative half of that pairing and showed delicate, imaginative touches around and inside the box to create chances. Frankfurt make great use of Ekitike’s speed on the break and ability to go past opponents. He thrives against disorganised defences, too. He is a bigger target than he looks, though, and a threat in the air. It does not mean that he is a complete centre-forward, not yet, but neither is he just a tricky player, either, or a lightweight who will not compete in the box. (Swen Pförtner/picture alliance via Getty Images) Why are they in play this summer? Because of the strength of his talent. Premier League clubs will concede that Ekitike is still growing into his potential and developing, but for all but the absolute wealthiest, this will likely be the last summer during which he’s in financial reach. Not that he will be cheap now. Frankfurt will not take less than €80million for him at the end of the season because — unlike Marmoush — they believe that he still has developing to do in the Bundesliga and become even more valuable. What do we know of who’s interested? Premier League or nothing, most likely, given that he will not be in a rush to go back to Paris. The finances also preclude any other German club from competing, while Bayern Munich have other priorities. Newcastle have an interest and tried to sign him pre-PSG, while Aston Villa are also suspected to have had their curiosity. Ekitike grew up supporting Manchester United. Sebastian Stafford-Bloor Lois Openda Age: 25 Club: RB Leipzig Contract expires: Summer 2028 Who are they? RB Leipzig’s dynamic goalscorer. Openda, like most everyone else at Leipzig, has suffered a down year, but he remains a dangerous, sniper-like forward who can score with his right foot, his left and his head — and is a problem for most opponents on the counter. How do they play? Like a modern Jermain Defoe, really. His game is not really about holding the ball up, but he can do it and he is also capable of bringing team-mates into an attack. His meat and drink, though, is accelerating into space, and fashioning shooting chances that he can take with power and short backlift. At his best, he really is gifted — in the all-round, technical sense. Can he score with the kind of consistency required to make it at the very top of the game? That is a question that still needs answering. Eight goals and five assists in 23 Bundesliga appearances this season is good, especially in the context of the team’s disappointing form and the long injury absence of Xavi Simons, but it has not been enough to advance his reputation. The Belgian is largely still theory, even in his mid-twenties, and his next move could either be a great success or a really expensive failure. Why are they in play this summer? Perhaps because Leipzig will need to sell. Most likely, the Saxony club will only part with one of Openda or Sesko this summer, but failure to reach the Champions League would mean that someone would certainly have to leave to balance the club’s budget. Additionally, it’s easy to imagine Openda succeeding, either as a No 9 or, in certain teams and systems, as an inside forward. He does have exceptional games, too — Bayer Leverkusen’s long unbeaten record fell at his feet back in the autumn — and, at his fittest, he is physically robust on the ball, in a way that would suit most leagues. What do we know of who’s interested? At the moment, there is nothing compelling. Openda has a release clause that will come into play in 2026, but Leipzig’s asking price between now and then — €80million — feels very steep, particularly given that this has not been his best year. Will he be available for less than that? Most likely. But it’s still difficult to know who might get close to such a figure. Sebastian Stafford-Bloor Nick Woltemade Age: 23 Club: Stuttgart Contract expires: Summer 2028 Who are they? Woltemade is Stuttgart’s giant (6ft 6in) centre-forward. He moved south from Werder Bremen on a free transfer in the summer of 2024 and has blossomed into one of the Bundesliga’s most exciting, all-round young forwards. How do they play? Positionally, somewhere between a No 9 and No 10. Woltemade can look like a target man, but that’s just an assumption based on his size. Actually, he is a delicate footballer with a creative mind, who can be physical and aerially dangerous in the way you would expect, but also skilful and subtle on the ball in a way that you might not. He’s like a young, raw Harry Kane. Woltemade probably is not headed for the same level, but he has a similarly broad skill set and combined with size and speed, that makes him a really interesting prospect. (Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images) Why are they in play this summer? Because he is fascinating and German football has not created a forward like him for a long time. Stuttgart will also miss out on the Champions League but could qualify for the Europa League through the DFB-Pokal: they face third-tier Arminia Bielefeld in the final in May. Lose that, and they will be without any sort of European football — or any income from it, more importantly. Woltemade is still a work in progress, but the way he takes defenders on and the amount of attacking production he is able to generate — for himself, or through shots for others — will surely make him desirable. He would be a gamble, no question, but a very interesting one. What do we know of who’s interested? At the moment, it’s only Bayern. They have not formalised their interest but see Woltemade as a potential backup to Kane and, in the long term, an eventual successor. It makes sense. Whether it’s achievable, given Bayern’s other priorities this summer (they need a full-back, a centre-back, and probably a wide forward, if one of Leroy Sane or Kingsley Coman leaves) is another matter. Sebastian Stafford-Bloor Matheus Cunha Age: 25 Club: Wolverhampton Wanderers Contract expires: Summer 2029 Who are they? Cunha, aged 25, is Wolverhampton Wanderers’ talisman and the man who will have played a bigger role than anyone in keeping them in the Premier League if, as now seems likely, they stay out of the bottom three this season. He signed in January 2023 and was slow to get going. But he scored 12 goals in 32 Premier League games last season before adding 13 in 26 so far this season, with seven and four assists, respectively. How do they play? Wolves signed Cunha to play as a central striker, but it soon became clear that was not the role for him in the Premier League. Instead, he has flourished as a left-sided No.10 in Wolves’ front three, which usually features one centre forward with two players behind him. Cunha’s direct style and dribbling ability have made him a major threat on the counter-attack. Why are they in play this summer? Cunha signed a few five-year contract at Wolves in January, so ordinarily he would not be on the move this summer. But his deal included a release clause, believed to be worth around €75million, which means he will be affordable for the bigger clubs in England and other major European leagues. Wolves will need to generate funds for their own incoming transfers, so selling Cunha would make some sense. What do we know of who’s interested? Arsenal and Nottingham Forest both showed interest in January and are known admirers of the Brazil international, but the London club opted against moving then, suggesting that other forwards are above him on their list. A move by Forest would hinge on who leaves the City Ground for how much, and on their ability to convince Cunha that this season is not a flash in the pan for them. Manchester United have also shown interest in the past but would only be able to offer Champions League football next season if they win the Europa League. Steve Madeley Thierno Barry Age: 22 Club: Villarreal Contract expires: Summer 2029 Who are they? Thierno Barry is a young striker who has made an impressive step up to play an important role in Villarreal’s bid to qualify for next season’s Champions League. Barry was signed last summer by Villarreal for €13.5million from FC Basel, where he scored 17 goals and made five assists during the 2023-24 campaign. The 22-year-old has nine goals in his first 27 La Liga games and made his France Under-21 debut against England last month. How do they play? Barry is capable of playing anywhere across the front line, either as a centre-forward, wide right or wide left. At Villarreal, he has often played in a 4-4-2, generally with strike partner Ayoze Perez a little deeper. Barry can both hold the ball up and bring others into play, or look to stretch the opposition defence with runs in behind. While not starting every week at Villarreal, Barry is generally picked ahead of ex-Arsenal striker Nicolas Pepe by coach Marcelino. “He’s a young kid, so it’s normal for him to lack a bit of consistency,” the manager said recently. “We’re happy with his attitude and his day-to-day work.” His best moment was a hat-trick against Leganes in December, including two poacher finishes inside the penalty area and a coolly converted spot kick. At Getafe last weekend, Barry showed a spectacular mix of pace and technique with a run behind the defence and a first-time volley for the winning goal (he also found the net twice more — only for VAR calls to rule those out). Why are they in play this summer? Villarreal’s business model requires the club to wheel and deal in the market, investing in younger talents and selling them players for profits when the opportunities arise. Recent examples include Filip Jorgensen to Chelsea for €24.5million, Nicolas Jackson to Chelsea for €37m, and Samuel Chukwueze to Milan for €21m. At Barry’s presentation in Villarreal last August, sporting director Tena openly called his purchase an “investment”, which fit well within this practice. What do we know of who’s interested? Villarreal’s solid financial position means they have no need to cash in quickly. Champions League qualification for next year (which looks quite likely at the moment) would also make it more likely they keep hold of Barry and other younger talents, like defender Logan Costa. Dermot Corrigan Dusan Vlahovic Age: 25 Club: Juventus Contract expires: Summer 2026 Who are they? The Serbian striker was, back in 2022, supposed to be the future of Juventus. He had, over the previous 18 months, established himself as possibly the most coveted talent in Italy, thanks to a series of devastating performances for Fiorentina. Six months after the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo, Juventus identified him as their next great superstar. He cost £60million or so, but seemed to be worth it when he scored within 33 seconds of his Champions League debut. How do they play? Vlahovic is an attractive blend of power and elegance. He is a relatively traditional type of striker — his closest comparison might be a sort of late-era Kane — but in truth, it is a little difficult to know exactly where his level is. Vlahovic has been trapped in a stuttering Juventus team for so long now that he has shown only flashes of the brilliance that brought him to the club. (Isabella Bonotto/AFP via Getty Images) Why are they in play this summer? Well, partly because of Juventus’ problems: the club fired Thiago Motta last month, after a first season that was supposed to herald a new dawn turned sour, and the squad is likely going to need considerable surgery this summer. Vlahovic may have to be sacrificed to pay for that. But his own form has been an issue, too: the 25-year-old has only scored more than 10 goals once in three and a half seasons for the club. It feels like perhaps he has not quite blossomed into what Juventus hoped. What do we know of who’s interested? Arsenal considered signing Vlahovic before he joined Juventus. There are also plenty of other Premier League sides on the hunt for a striker this summer. The question mark that all of them will have, though, surrounds Vlahovic’s pace and whether he has the dynamism to play in a team that wants to press high. Rory Smith Moise Kean Age: 25 Club: Fiorentina Contract expires: Summer 2029 Who are they? There is something about Fiorentina that brings out the best in strikers. After all his initial promise, Kean’s career seemed to have ground almost to a halt before he arrived in Florence last summer: he had scored four goals in four years for Everton, and failed to break double figures in three seasons at Juventus. (There had, in between, been a pretty good loan spell at PSG.) Under Fiorentina manager Raffaele Palladino, though, he looks reborn: he has 16 goals in Serie A already and started both of Italy’s Nations League games against Germany last month. How do they play? What made Kean such an enticing prospect when he first emerged at Juventus was the breadth of his talents: though he can play as what is now called a pure No 9, he is also happy to play wide, particularly from the left. At Fiorentina, though, he has excelled as the team’s focal point, suggesting that might be the best way to ensure he fulfils his potential. Why are they in play this summer? Kean is thought to have a £43million buyout clause in the contract he signed in Florence last summer, an appealing price in a market where strikers are in relatively short supply and a bargain if he can maintain the form he has shown this season. What do we know of who’s interested? Fiorentina insist Kean is happy in the city and will hope that a successful push for Champions League football might persuade him to stay, but they will be under no illusions that they cannot resist the financial muscle of the Premier League’s clubs. Rory Smith Jonathan David Age: 25 Club: Lille Contract expires: Summer 2025 Who are they? Jonathan David is a cunning, goal-scoring Canadian who has been one of the most discussed forwards of the past few transfer windows. At 25, the Lille forward is in the prime of his career, and his numbers speak volumes. He’s bagged 107 goals in 225 appearances for Lille, the third-most in the club’s history. In just 18 Champions League appearances, he scored 10 times. Add in another 32 goals in 61 appearances for Canada, tops in men’s team history. The only question left for David to answer is whether he can score in one of the world’s best leagues. His track record suggests the transition is one David can manage. How do they play? Perhaps David’s most valuable trait — besides his unrelenting ability to find the back of the net — is his adaptability. This season, he’s played almost exclusively as a centre forward. But David can, and has, logged time as a pure No 9, a second striker, a winger and a playmaking No 10. He’s verging on a master of sniffing out soft pockets near the goal and making the smartest run possible. Canada head coach Jesse Marsch, who has coached in the Premier League and the Champions League, has called David “the most intelligent footballer” he’s ever coached. “Having that freedom to move around, to be a bit everywhere would be preferred. In that sense, I can get the attention off me and find the space to make the difference,” David told The Athletic in November of his preferred position. That ability to seamlessly blend into lineups in different positions could make him more valuable to teams this summer. David has the potential to fit into a variety of manager’s needs. (Hector Vivas/Getty Images) Why are they in play this summer? David’s name has popped up as a transfer option during the last few windows, but his five-year deal expires in June. Lille president Olivier Letang wanted to keep David in France during the last window with his club in the hunt for a Champions League spot, and David stuck around. David has since confirmed he will leave Lille on a free transfer this summer. For interested clubs, David’s situation represents a unique opportunity: the chance to add a goal-scorer without a transfer fee. That said, his new contract and signing bonus shouldn’t come cheap. Let the bidding begin. What do we know of who’s interested? David himself has told The Athletic his dream is to play for Barcelona, as they were “always the team I grew up supporting. When you grow up supporting a team, it’s your dream to play for them.” But the La Liga side will have to get in line if they’re going to take a run at David this summer. Every week, another club from England, Spain or Italy appear to show interest in David’s services. That includes many of the top Premier League sides. With interest in David likely to continue, a bidding war could emerge. To his credit, David has remained open to different possibilities while also coy about his future. He’s a unique talent and personality. Expect a club of some repute to figure that out after they land him this summer. Joshua Kloke Jean Philippe-Mateta Age: 27 Club: Crystal Palace Contract expires: Summer 2027 Who are they? Crystal Palace striker Mateta has come alive in the past 18 months, with 12 Premier League goals this season on top of 16 last term, including 14 in his final 16 league fixtures, which led to his call-up to the France men’s team for the Paris 2024 Olympics in the summer. “If I get given my chance, I can be one of the best goalscorers in the Premier League,” he told The Athletic last April, and those words proved to be prophetic with that run of goals. The 27-year-old signed initially on loan from Mainz in January 2021 before the move was made permanent a year later. Palace last summer unilaterally triggered a club option to extend the deal he signed in 2021 by a further year. He has ambitions to represent France at senior international level and had hoped for a call-up during the recent international break due to his club form, but any thoughts of that were ended when he was subject to a challenge by Millwall goalkeeper Liam Roberts in the FA Cup fourth round in March and required 25 stitches to his ear. How do they play? Mateta is best when playing on instinct. He thrives with the ball at his feet or when it is played ahead of him, despite his tall frame, although his hold-up play and aerial prowess have significantly developed since he first arrived at Palace. His excellent close control means he can carry the ball out well on the counter-attack, and his powerful shot makes him dangerous when presented with opportunities. Given too much time to consider his options, his decision-making can occasionally be found wanting, but his finishing is generally strong. Why are they in play this summer? While Mateta has two years remaining on his contract, he walked away from negotiations with the two parties significantly apart. He wants to play for France and believes he can play in the Champions League. Those two aspirations are difficult while at Palace and therefore a move away would suit him. His outstanding performances over the past 18 months have caught the eye. That goalscoring record, which included five at the Olympics as one of France’s three players over the age limit of 23 as they finished runners-up, is impossible to ignore. With uncertainty over his contract, Palace may look to maximise the potential return by allowing him to leave with his value at or close to its maximum. What do we know of who’s interested? Various clubs made initial enquiries over his potential availability last summer and that attention has not disappeared, but no formal offers were or have been received by Palace as yet. He was linked with a move to Manchester United, but they are not thought to be one of the clubs who have presented serious interest to sign him. He is in the peak of his career and any move is likely to be expensive given his record and importance to Palace, meaning the pool of clubs to whom he would be available may be somewhat limited.

Welcome to the era of Daily Mail socialism Morgan McSweeney’s relationship with Britain’s most important tabloid is as ideological as it is strategic. https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/2025/04/welcome-to-the-era-of-daily-mail-socialism On the staff of the Morning Lark, the fictional tabloid that crops up in a few Martin Amis novels, readers of the paper are known as its “wankers”. Editors ask, “Is this of genuine interest to our wankers?” The political positions of the Lark are weighed up, “out of deference to the deepest personal considerations of our wankers”. Any drop in readership is described as “losing wankers”. The readers aren’t seen simply as a vulgar blob either, but a genuine social stratum. Clint Smoker, one of the Lark’s senior reporters, explains: “The quality broadsheets are aimed at the establishment and the intelligentsia. The downmarket tabloids are aimed at the proletariat.” The Lark – aimed at “the unemployed” – is a second cousin to the Daily Star, dealing in royal news, football news and pornography (ideally all three at once). Couched between solidarity and contempt, this language would surely not be found in a real newsroom. But the truth in this satire is that newspapers have types. Where Mondeo Man is a psephological fantasy, newspapers have what we might call imagined communities, vast numbers of readers who otherwise know nothing about each other, yet breathe the same cultural snorkel of information, opinion and sudoku. And in an age of low circulations, as newspapers fall back on their core constituencies, these communities are only more pronounced. This makes them a vital subject for political study. Where else can strategists find herds of voters who form one inky silhouette? You don’t have to turn to satire to find the Sun’s type, at least you didn’t during the 1980s when its readership rallied to the side of Margaret Thatcher. According to Chris Horrie and Peter Chippindale’s history of the paper, Stick It Up Your Punter!, its greatest and most terrible editor, Kelvin MacKenzie, summarised it during an office argument over an article on the legalisation of marijuana: “You don’t understand the readers, do you, eh? He’s the bloke you see in the pub – a right old fascist, wants to send the w*** back, buy his poxy council house, he’s afraid of the unions, afraid of the Russians, hates the queers and weirdos and drug dealers. He doesn’t want to hear about that stuff!” In so far as the Daily Mail imagines its community, Morgan McSweeney, Labour’s chief of staff, very much wants it for his own. “If I could marry a front page, it would be this one,” McSweeney said last year, after the Mail splashed “Starmer: UK nuclear deterrent is safe in my hands”. The quote is from Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund’s book Get In, and the echo of Thatcher’s declaring the NHS “safe in our hands” to ward off fears of privatisation was unmissable. If McSweeney did marry that front page, his head might have recently been turned by: “Finally! Patients to be put before NHS bureaucrats” (this represented the Mail ’s enthusiastic response to the abolition of NHS England). Things have been tougher between Labour and the Mail since late March: Rachel Reeves’ Spring Statement has been pilloried harder than Prince Harry’s charity shenanigans in its pages. But when the PM contributes a Mail op-ed telling its readers they “are RIGHT to be angry about illegal immigration”, as he did recently, we know who McSweeney’s talking to. For some of Labour’s modern constituency, the McSweeney turn is viewed as betrayal. The public sector is their people; institutions are there to be preserved, not flattened. And when it comes to Starmer’s welfare reforms and maintenance of the two-child benefit cap – that’s not Labour behaviour. There’s a reason they’re called “Tory cuts”. But viewed from the bloody crossroads where Fleet Street and Whitehall meet, British political history isn’t that straightforward. Sneering at Michael Foot’s advocacy for the Falklands War in Iron Britannia, Anthony Barnett spoke of “Daily Express socialism”. Linking Foot’s invective against Leopoldo Galtieri to his days on the Express during the Second World War, Barnett’s aside captures a tradition that is vivid in Labour Party history. It is patriotic yet unafraid of class warfare; it’s redistributive, but cheerful about defence spending; and it interprets public opinion instead of trying to patronise it. McSweeney, for instance, is mindful of polling showing the two-child benefit cap, loathed by Labour MPs, is popular among voters. With the ascendancy of McSweeney’s Labour Party, we are seeing this Labour tradition in its 21st-century form. This is the age of Daily Mail socialism. And its enemies are as easily personified as its Middle England constituents. McSweeney again: “Why should Labour be the party of the judges? Why should we be the party of the BBC?” For the parts of the left that turned Brenda Hale into an anti-Brexit hero, for the public-sector workers who reliably vote Labour, such talk will seem heretical. This is the most potentially transformative part of what was once called the Starmer project. McSweeney accepts the criticisms of progressives as his premises. The left, he believes, has abandoned “its people”; it no longer speaks the national demotic; it must accept the ambient social conservatism in British culture if it is to achieve its goals. Reorienting Labour around these axioms might be seen as McSweeney’s historic mission – copy of the Mail folded under his arm. But in a Labour Party of declining popularity, the question for its strategist remains (in the unreconstructed language of the Morning Lark) : who are the Labour Party’s true wankers? And can one bunch be so easily exchanged for another? [See also: Putin’s endgame]

Trump’s Tariff Gamble: Global Chaos or Calculated Concessions? Paul Mason 4th April 2025 A looming trade war and security threats leave European leaders scrambling to decipher the American president’s true intentions. https://www.socialeurope.eu/trumps-tariff-gamble-global-chaos-or-calculated-concessions There are two strategic implications that can be drawn from Donald Trump’s decision to declare a tariff war on the rest of the world. One is that he intends to restructure the entire global economy around US interests, destroying the export models of numerous emerging and global south economies and plunging the world into a recession. A second implication is that, under threat of the above, he merely hopes to extract concessions on the domestic economic policies of rival countries that are favourable to the USA and the dollar, but non-catastrophic for the rest. In geopolitics, we’ve already faced the same kind of dilemma. After Trump sent Pete Hegseth and JD Vance to blow up the Rammstein Group and then the Munich Security Conference, in February, European security chiefs asked themselves: does Trump mean to walk away from collective security altogether? Or is this a ploy to force us to spend more money on defence, take on more of the burden of European security, and support for Ukraine? The fact that, in the parallel worlds of defence and trade, policymakers are facing the same cognitive challenge tells us something significant about the Trump administration. It has decided to achieve things through uncertainty. Over the past six weeks, I have asked every policymaker I meet who has access to intelligence: do you know what Trump’s endgame is? Most have confessed ignorance. Some speculate that, when it comes to defence, Washington is factionally divided between a group that only wants to reorient toward confronting China and another that – in order to do so – is willing to make a strategic deal with Russia, carving Europe out of the peace talks over Ukraine, out of access to the Arctic, and allowing Putin to menace his next targets in the Baltic, the high North, or the Black Sea. Even in macroeconomics, a harder science than geopolitics, I have analyst notes on my desk saying there’s a good chance that the tariffs are gestural and may be withdrawn, with all the soaraway consequences for stock markets that would presage. Since Trump came back to power, my watchword with the MAGA crowd has been: focus on what they do, not what they say. Their outpourings of invective, insult, and disinformation are – as far as modern statecraft is concerned – a distraction technique, nothing more. But we do now have a consistent and observable pattern of action: the Trump administration is prepared to take actions that destabilise their allies, both economically and in security terms, and to use uncertainty and disinformation as weapons to achieve this end. In response, there is one rational course of action for European liberals, Greens, and social democrats: prepare for American autarky and isolationism and pursue European greatness. It would be irresponsible to do anything less. The EU, together with the CPTPP countries, South Korea, and Norway, represent 35 percent of global import demand, while America accounts for 15 percent. These countries also wield immense fiscal firepower and institutional strength. But we face a challenge. Whatever first-order measures we take – which could be retaliatory tariffs, industrial strategies that re-shore production, or, in the defence sphere, seeking technological sovereignty – it is the second-order effects of Trump’s actions, our reaction, and the reaction of China that will ultimately shape the mid-21st century. In 1930, for example, when the Smoot-Hawley Act raised US tariff barriers against the world, neither Britain nor France retaliated. The UK was determined to remain the last free trade power standing. But as its exports to America collapsed by a third in the space of a year and its balance of payments went negative, the Labour government of Ramsay MacDonald was forced into an austerity programme which led to a naval mutiny, a back-bench rebellion, and summary collapse. The National Government that replaced Labour was forced to abandon both the Gold Standard and free trade because the second-order effects of Smoot-Hawley – the surge of cheap imports into the unprotected British economy – were unstoppable. So the facts have changed, and, as John Maynard Keynes put it, we must change our minds. Social democrats in Europe are looking at the combined prospect of having to rearm rapidly and doing so in conditions of rapidly restructured global supply chains. As we address these tasks, it is vital that Europeans do so proactively, asking – as Keynes’ generation did during the Second World War – what does the world look like when we win? The most fatal stance we could adopt is that of the passive victim, mourning the death of the rules-based order, while reacting to other countries’ agency but never using our own. “Winning” can no longer mean defending the status quo. It means imagining a new status quo to be attained once the Trump experiment has crashed and burned. It means assembling a coalition of countries whose voters still want to live in a world governed by international law and universal concepts of right and justice. And it means an appeal to the working people of the world – whose factories in countries like Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and Nicaragua may soon be shuttered – to join us in a new project of free and fair trade, human rights, and labour rights. The global working class is bigger than it has ever been, and its industrial heartlands will now become landscapes of class struggle at an intensity not seen in the era of globalisation. What Trump has done since taking power – both on the security agenda and on trade – is an expression of pure national self-interest: blowing up the game because America was losing. From now on, European liberalism, centrist conservatism, and social democracy should converge on a project not just to defend their welfare states, the Single Market, and collective security. They should seek the widest cooperation from like-minded democratic countries to extend and solidify their open and progressive systems across continents and oceans. Europe does not have to be a rule taker from Trump, whether on digital services, abortion rights, hate speech, or chlorinated chicken. And if it chooses to continue making its own rules according to the liberal internationalist values it was founded on, the European Union will need to make the UK an offer it cannot refuse. Sure, there are billionaire-backed pro-Trump media outlets trying to set the UK’s agenda; and there is Musk and X.com; and relentless Russian hybrid operations in British civil society. But none of that is strong enough to force the UK into an act of strategic self-harm – which is what aligning with Trump would constitute. I don’t think even the Conservative Party, which is now full of MAGA fanboys and girls, could stomach seeing the UK become Trump’s economic colony. Europe has the muscle memory of state direction and, in the Nordic countries, active expertise in state-led industrial strategies. It has strong national and pan-national institutions. It has, above all, a population whose majority is for now resistant to ethno-nationalism and prepared to see the continental project as the greater good. Thus, both on trade and security, it falls to Europe to reorganise the world around its own strategic self-interest, and for the UK to become part of the project, not part of the problem. I think we will see the economic impacts of Trump’s tariffs happen fast. The financial impacts – as in 2008 – will only be predictable when we see how much risk has been hidden within the global shadow banking system and how exposed it is to trade. What nobody has properly focused on, however, is the class struggles that could ensue. Behind every prediction of a slump in US imports is a factory in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Honduras, or even China that is going to close. And in an information economy, it is unthinkable that the trade war will fail to spill over into the world of brands, social media platforms, intellectual property, and free speech laws. If Trump really did just press the demolition button on globalisation, then the positive-sum game the world has been playing is over. That means, in the short term, adapting social democracy to a zero-sum world. To create a new positive-sum game between the consumers of Europe and the producers of the global south requires this generation of centre-left politicians to do something they weren’t trained for: to fight and win a systemic conflict – first against Russia in Ukraine, second against America over tariffs, and third against the CCP over democracy. Absolute clarity in the selection of these goals is what I want to see from those in power in Europe. This is a joint column with IPS Journal

U.S. stock market has wiped out $9.6 trillion since Inauguration Day https://www.marketwatch.com/livecoverage/stock-market-today-dow-s-p-and-nasdaq-set-for-further-losses-after-1-679-point-blue-chip-tumble/card/u-s-stock-market-has-lost-9-6-trillion-in-value-since-inauguration-day-6NL1f3p5I5eUhbOGt2Wy U.S. stocks have had a rough go of it since President Donald Trump was sworn into office for his second term in January. Since Jan. 17, the Friday before Inauguration Day, the U.S. stock market has seen $9.6 trillion in value erased, according to data from FactSet and Dow Jones Market Data. Of those losses, $5 trillion has been erased just over the past two days -- the largest two-day loss on record. Major equity indexes were seeing their losses deepen in early trading on Friday. The Dow was down by more than 1,200 points in recent trading, bringing its losses since the market opened on Thursday to nearly 3,000 points. The S&P 500 was down by 3.6%, while the Nasdaq Composite was off by 3.8%, leaving it on the cusp of bear-market territory. The Russell 2000 has fallen by another 4.1% since it became the first major U.S. equity index to enter bear-market territory on Thursday.

Murillo and Huijsen

gold is a safety valve, a hedge against inflation and economic turmoil

UK police charge comedian Russell Brand with rape https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/uk-police-charge-comedian-russell-brand-with-rape/ar-AA1Cim1R

"American Empire Is in Decline": Economist Richard Wolff on Trump's Trade War & Tariffs