What the papers say

Amorim admits United’s lack of forward quality and says he is still under pressure

What the papers say - Tue, 04/01/2025 - 23:37
  • ‘I will not have the time. We have to get it right, fast’
  • Manager put Harry Maguire up front as late substitute

Ruben Amorim bemoaned Manchester United’s toothless attack as Nottingham Forest completed a Premier League double over his side and reiterated he is under pressure to ensure his team “get it right fast”.

Forest enhanced their chances of qualifying for the Champions League with a third successive league win, courtesy of an extraordinary counterattack goal by the former United forward Anthony Elanga, while United are 13th and yet to record back-to-back wins in the division this season.

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Nottingham Forest 1-0 Manchester United: Premier League – as it happened

What the papers say - Tue, 04/01/2025 - 22:42

Forest completed their first league double over United since 1992 thanks to Anthony Elanga’s glorious nine-second 93-yard dash

2 min: Gibbs-White chases a long pass down the left. He can’t get past De Ligt, who initially looked out of position and did well to get back to stop the Forest man nipping away.

Manchester United get the ball rolling. Nuno looks relaxed in the dugout, Amorim smiling as he prowls the touchline. Here we go, then.

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Electric Elanga haunts Manchester United with Nottingham Forest winner

What the papers say - Tue, 04/01/2025 - 22:05

At the weekend the lasting shot was Ryan Yates haring towards the Nottingham Forest supporters in celebration and here another episode at breakneck speed earned victory. This time the subject was Anthony Elanga, who tore up the City Ground turf, eating up 85 metres in nine exhilarating seconds, to score the only goal of the game against his former club and maintain Forest’s unlikely push to qualify for the Champions League.

The other moment that Forest may look back on as pivotal if they go on to earn a place in the game’s grandest club competition arrived six minutes and 18 seconds into stoppage time. Harry Maguire, thrown up front as an unconventional striker, a needs-must move by Ruben Amorim, prodded the ball goalwards but Murillo hacked it off the line with almost the last kick of the game. A few seconds later, with Forest’s first league double over United since 1991-92, when Brian Clough was in charge, secured, Rockin’ All Over the World blared over the speakers and the locals set off a round of fireworks that soared into the sky above Trent Bridge.

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Amorim insists Fernandes not leaving Manchester United amid Madrid reports

What the papers say - Mon, 03/31/2025 - 22:30
  • Manager says captain is crucial to challenge for titles
  • Harry Maguire and Leny Yoro fit for Forest trip

Ruben Amorim has said Bruno ­Fernandes is “not going anywhere” this summer after Manchester ­United’s captain was linked with a move to Real Madrid.

Fernandes has again been United’s standout player this season, scoring 16 goals in 44 matches, including seven in the past seven games. In 277 United appearances Fernandes has 95 goals and 81 assists.

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FA Cup quarter-finals and more: talking points from the weekend

What the papers say - Mon, 03/31/2025 - 08:06

Manchester City’s fire still burns bright, Marcus Rashford reminds critics of his ability and Eberechi Eze’s great week

A seventh semi-final in succession showed that Manchester City, at least, see magic in the FA Cup. The quarter-finals saw them cast as unwelcome outsiders, lacking the romance of their fellow hopefuls. None of the other seven had won a major trophy this century, four never in their history. Pep Guardiola’s frenzied reaction after Omar Marmoush scored his team’s second at Bournemouth showed his fire still burns brightly. Surely nearing the end at City, Kevin De Bruyne played the 90 minutes, remaining influential and mobile throughout. He and his teammates have played better this season but this display at the Vitality saw real gutsiness, a key part of the makeup during the glory years. If the hosts, shorn of Dean Huijsen and Milos Kerkez, were incapable of holding City’s hand to the fire as they had in November, a new City is emerging. Nico O’Reilly added impetus from the bench. So did Marmoush, both offering the pace, strength and vigour their manager now desires. John Brewin

Match report: Bournemouth 1-2 Manchester City

Match report: Preston 0-3 Aston Villa

Match report: Brighton 0-0 Nottm Forest (3-4 on pens)

Match report: Fulham 0-3 Crystal Palace

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‘It’s a battle for football’: Manchester United and FC United fans unite against Glazers

What the papers say - Sat, 03/29/2025 - 17:32
  • Protest staged at FC home game against Stockton
  • Sit-in demonstration to be held at Manchester derby

FC United of Manchester and The 1958, a Manchester United fan group, held a joint action against United’s 20-year Glazer ownership, with The 1958 announcing they will stage a sit-in at next Sunday’s derby with Manchester City at Old Trafford.

Around 200 FC and United supporters gathered at Broadhurst Park before FC’s hosting of Stockton Town in the Northern Premier League Premier Division. Outside the ground flares were let off in the red of FC and United along with green and yellow ones, the colours of Newton Heath, United’s founding name. Anti-Glazer chants and songs were sung by fans, with one displaying a flag that showed an image of the former United forward, Eric Cantona, and the legend “Eric the King”.

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Grealish, Wilshere and Van Gaal’s ‘kiss’: Newcastle’s parade has a lot to live up to

What the papers say - Fri, 03/28/2025 - 17:00

Eddie Howe’s team will celebrate their Carabao Cup win on Saturday but there can be pitfalls along the way

When the celebration of Newcastle’s first trophy in decades became a point of heated civic discussion, it served as a reminder that party planning can be problematic.

“Extensive work and long-term planning behind the scenes have continued with Newcastle City council, Northumbria police, Freemen of Newcastle, the North East Combined Authority, NE1, Nexus and the emergency services,” groaned a club statement this week, ending fevered speculation that Saturday’s ticketed, controlled event on the Town Moor would be the only place to see Eddie Howe, Dan Burn et al show off the Carabao Cup and/or thank Yasir al-Rumayyan for the Saudi Arabian riches that funded success.

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Football Daily | Jadon Sancho and the art of paying up to not play a player

What the papers say - Thu, 03/27/2025 - 17:07

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Something that goes viral now and again is the particulars of the house sale of someone rich, famous and very possibly lacking in taste. Sure, that saloon bar created in the style of the East End pub off Goodnight Sweetheart felt like a good idea at the time, as did that mirrored master bedroom ceiling adorned in the style of Jeff Koons’ Cicciolina period. How will it sell on the open market? Quartz and pine are very much out, and as for that kitchen island … how much are they going to have to lower the price to get shot? It’s a doer-upper, surely.

This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.

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Manchester United and FC United fans to hold joint anti-Glazers protest 20 years on

What the papers say - Mon, 03/24/2025 - 12:03
  • United United Day a first formal linking of clubs’ fans
  • Chelsea would have to pay £5m to send Sancho back

FC United of Manchester and The 1958, a Manchester United fan group, are staging a joint action on Saturday to “unite” against 20 years of Glazer ownership of Manchester United.

The protest, called United United Day, marks a first formal attempt by FC United and a Manchester United supporter group to link forces since the non-league club’s foundation in 2005, which caused some division between fans.

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The Guardian view on Manchester United’s stadium plans: put the fans first | Editorial

What the papers say - Sun, 03/23/2025 - 18:25

A £2bn new arena for Britain’s biggest football club will bring regeneration to the surrounding area. But matchgoing supporters are right to be circumspect

Visitors to Salford’s Lowry art gallery this summer will be able to enjoy a new take on one of the greatest paintings about sport. Depicting thousands of supporters bent purposefully towards a 1950s football stadium, LS Lowry’s Going to the Match has become part of the iconography of the national game. As part of its silver jubilee celebrations, the gallery is staging an immersive experience of the painting, including a nostalgic soundtrack evoking the sounds of a lost world.

So much for the past. Barely a mile away from the Lowry, at Manchester United’s Old Trafford base, it is the ghosts of football’s future that are being summoned up. To great fanfare, this month the club unveiled computer-generated images of Lowryesque hordes approaching the new £2bn stadium it hopes to build by 2030.

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A temple to extravagance. And that goes for Manchester United’s new stadium, too | Rowan Moore

What the papers say - Sat, 03/22/2025 - 16:00

Could Norman Foster’s £2bn design for the club, which will be seen 25 miles away, turn out to be a case of hubris before ruin?

There’s a phenomenon in architectural history whereby great empires build their grandest monuments just before they fall. The Parthenon was completed just before Athens embarked on the devastating Peloponnesian War. Manhattan’s most celebrated skyscrapers went up on the brink of the Great Depression. The British inaugurated the imposing government buildings of New Delhi 16 years before the end of the Raj. I won’t say that this will definitely be the case with the £2bn stadium designed by the Mancunian Norman Foster for Manchester United Football Club, but it’s striking that it’s proposed at a time when the club has closed its staff canteen and made redundant hundreds of workers to cut costs.

Every good thing is promised. It is to be “the world’s greatest football stadium”, iconic AND sustainable, with both rainwater harvesting and a “trident” of 200m-high masts visible from 25 miles away. There is to be a “public space” twice the size of Trafalgar Square and a “mixed use mini-city” around it. There are things to like about the plans, including an attempt to avoid the fortress-like exteriors presented by most stadiums in favour of something more open and lively. But they’d probably do well to concentrate on doing fewer things as well as possible. Otherwise, the building might be like one of those football teams made up of extravagant signings who somehow don’t gel.

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‘Tax exile’s half-baked scheme’: Jim Ratcliffe challenged over Man Utd plan to use public funds for £2bn stadium project

What the papers say - Sat, 03/22/2025 - 14:20

Club co-owner’s request for hundreds of millions of pounds to help regenerate local area labelled ‘outrageous’ by critics

Jim Ratcliffe, the co-owner of Manchester United, has been challenged over the proposed use of hundreds of millions of pounds of public funds to deliver his vision of building the “world’s greatest stadium”.

Ratcliffe, who has an estimated fortune of about £12bn, quit the UK for tax-free Monaco in 2020. He is now urging ministers to help support the club’s vision of the stadium with public funds to regenerate the surrounding area.

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From Sels to Salah: a Premier League best XI of the season so far

What the papers say - Sat, 03/22/2025 - 11:00

We select a starting team that features players from seven clubs and the manager most worthy of being in the dugout

Perhaps the most difficult decision in the XI. David Raya has been excellent at Arsenal and Mark Flekken quietly impressive behind a loose Brentford defence. But that Sels has been the third-busiest keeper in the league (89 saves) behind Flekken and Southampton’s Aaron Ramsdale, yet has conceded the fourth-fewest goals (35) shows his importance, particularly when nine of Forest’s 16 league wins have been by one goal (even if his best stop, a remarkable fingertip save on to the bar against Brighton, came rather unnecessarily in a 7-0 win).

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Phil Jones: ‘My bread and butter is on the grass. It’s what I really enjoy’

What the papers say - Wed, 03/19/2025 - 18:00

Former Manchester United player felt ‘bitter’ about long-term injury but is excited to launch his coaching career

After Phil Jones sent his final message to the Manchester United players’ WhatApp group after the announcement of his retirement last summer, he “gave it a minute”. There was no response and so he departed.

Phil Jones has left the group.

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A new Manchester United stadium isn’t about regeneration and never will be | Jonathan Liew

What the papers say - Tue, 03/18/2025 - 08:00

If ‘New Trafford’ is such a nailed-on wealth generator, then why aren’t Ratcliffe and the Glazers funding it themselves?

The roof of the proposed new Manchester United stadium has three points, which is more than can often be said for the team who will play underneath it. According to Nigel Dancey of the architectural firm Foster + Partners, the three giant masts will “create a distinctive presence on the skyline”, presumably in the same way that Roy Keane created a distinctive presence on Alf‑Inge Haaland’s knee.

But of course aesthetic quibbles are the least of our concerns here. If Manchester United want to erect a giant plastic canopy over their new 100,000-seat stadium in a way that evokes a chicken being wrapped before roasting, then frankly who are we to demur? Beauty is in the eye of the freeholder, and all that. The more pressing question – as someone who, unlike part-owner Jim Ratcliffe, still pays income tax in this country – is what exactly the rest of us are getting out of this.

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Manchester United insist season-ticket price increases are ‘fair and reasonable’

What the papers say - Mon, 03/17/2025 - 18:45
  • Cost of visiting Old Trafford to go up by 5%
  • Chief executive says measures are necessary

Manchester United have defended their decision to raise season-ticket prices despite the club’s faltering on-field performance.

Tickets at Old Trafford will go up by 5% next season, with under-16s the only group to have their prices frozen. United’s chief executive, Omar Berrada, said the increase in cost was “fair and reasonable”, arguing it was necessary while the club faces “financial issues”.

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Women’s League Cup final and WSL: talking points from weekend’s action

What the papers say - Mon, 03/17/2025 - 12:23

Crystal Palace’s fighting spirit boosts their survival chances while Amber Whiteley’s revolution continues at Liverpool

Chelsea’s unbeaten manager Sonia Bompastor felt there was “room for improvement” in their display despite winning the League Cup final against Manchester City on Sunday. Asked about her winning mentality the Frenchwoman said: “I know this team has more than what we showed. But my first experience as a coach was as head of the academy in Lyon, and sometimes it was difficult for me because the main thing there with the young players was to prioritise the performance. But when you play with these big first teams, your job as a manager is to make sure you win, that’s the most important thing. I would love to have both [performance and result] but when it’s not possible, the one I would pick is winning.” Tom Garry

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Premier League: talking points from the weekend action

What the papers say - Mon, 03/17/2025 - 08:00

Højlund finally finds the net, top-four battle hots up while Willian proves class once again

He finally scored. Rasmus Højlund broke his 21-match goal drought – dating back to 12 December – with a composed strike to put Manchester United 1-0 up against Leicester at the King Power Stadium. Having received the ball from Bruno Fernandes around 40 yards out from goal, he carried it into the penalty area before unleashing a powerful low shot into the bottom-left corner. You could just sense the relief on the striker’s face as he walked back to the halfway line for the restart. It was also a positive evening for Alejandro Garnacho, who ended his 25-game stretch without a goal, dating back to 28 November. It should give both players a much-needed confidence boost heading into the final stretch of the season. “The most important thing for me is the work they are putting in, especially defending,” Ruben Amorim said. “They live for assists and scoring goals. Rasmus, really good control right foot and then Garnacho is always trying to score a goal and he deserved that feeling.” Emillia Hawkins

Match report: Leicester 0-3 Manchester United

Match report: Arsenal 1-0 Chelsea

Match report: Manchester City 2-2 Brighton

Match report: Everton 1-1 West Ham United

Match report: Ipswich Town 2-4 Nottingham Forest

Match report: Fulham 2-0 Tottenham

Match report: Bournemouth 1-2 Brentford

Match report: Southampton 1-2 Wolves

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Leicester v Manchester United: Premier League updates – as it happened!

What the papers say - Sun, 03/16/2025 - 21:20
  • Minute-by-minute coverage from the 7pm (GMT) kick-off
  • Email Tim with your views on the action

1 min We’re off! And United have a chance to put a long throw into the box.

As both teams go into their huddles, Bruno Fernandes is making a point quite forcefully. “Guys! I can’t score all the goals!”

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Rasmus Højlund ends goal drought as Manchester United cruise past Leicester

What the papers say - Sun, 03/16/2025 - 21:02

Jamie Vardy rolled the ball into the Manchester United net to huge cheers and about 10 minutes later, amid swirling rain, Ruud van Nistelrooy’s name echoed around this stadium. The only problem for Leicester was Vardy sent the ball over the line during a break in play while Ayden Heaven, forced off early in the second half, received treatment, and it was the United supporters singing about Van Nistelrooy. The Dutchman took charge of United in the reverse fixture in November, signing off from his spell in interim charge with a 3-0 victory, but this time he was on the receiving end of the same scoreline.

That four-match unbeaten run with United must feel halcyonic for Van Nistelrooy, who has now lost 13 of his past 14 league matches. The numbers make grisly reading: Leicester have not scored here since early December and after firing blanks in this defeat they recorded unwanted history, becoming the first Premier League team to lose seven home matches in a row without scoring. Leicester are nine points adrift of 17th-placed Wolves and have a vastly inferior goal difference.

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