The Liverpool manager has missed out on a key defensive signing as the club show an inability to learn from past mistakes in the transfer marketTransfers are not part of Peter Moore’s remit as Liverpool’s new chief executive and the club’s alleged tapping up of Virgil van Dijk predated his official start date in the job, but his first Premier League meeting in Harrogate on Thursday will have been awkward regardless. Southampton are not the only member club to regard an emissary of Fenway Sports Group with scepticism and suspicion.Liverpool’s owners, including John W Henry and the chairman, Tom Werner, were heavily involved in the damaging decision to withdraw interest publicly in Van Dijk on Wednesday, 24 hours after Southampton...
To improve his rickety defence and demonstrate Liverpool’s determination to win the Premier League, there is no better signing Jürgen Klopp could makeOnly three players in the Premier League have the ability, when at their awesome best, to make everyone else on the pitch look like immature creatures, toddlers trying and failing to compete with giants. Two of those players are on the wane – Yaya Touré and Zlatan Ibrahimovic – but the other should be approaching his prime. If Liverpool sign Virgil van Dijk they will be making the ultimate upgrade to their team.On one level it could be argued that to splurge £60m or thereabouts on any player is to blare a huge scouting or coaching failure, since a...
John Terry will say goodbye to Chelsea with the title, José Mourinho will pick his weakest team yet and Manchester City should tread carefully at WatfordThe best team in the league face the worst team in the league in a match that will be played in a carefree atmosphere by everyone except John Terry, whose 717th and final Chelsea appearance will end with him – together with Gary Cahill – lifting the Premier League trophy, followed by a teary-eyed farewell speech to the fans. Sunday is the end of an era for Terry, his club and their opponents Sunderland, relegated at last after 10 successive top-flight seasons. Terry’s beer-glass-emptying, disabled-bay-filling, rival-abusing, full-kit-wearing past means he gets little love from rival...
Chelsea and Spurs face challenges of a differing kind despite their success, Paul Clement justified his appointment and Marco Silva is likely to leave HullThe Dozen: the weekend’s best Premier League photos Related: Rainbows and tears on Tottenham's last day at White Hart Lane | David Hytner Related: The Dozen: the weekend’s best Premier League photos Continue reading...
It was a first win for Arsenal at Southampton since the Invincibles era, but conflict looms between the manager and chief executive Ivan GazidisAfter 15 minutes of tepid football, Arsène Wenger rose from the bench for the first time and went for a wander around his technical area, presumably just for a change of pace. A few seconds later, despite not having done much in the way of experimental arm waving or bellowing in a bid to raise his team’s level, he meandered back to his seat next to Steve Bould. Like everyone else inside St Mary’s, Wenger had clearly decided that there was not much worth saying yet.The Arsenal manager’s many critics might respond to that by pointing out...