Premier League

The long-awaited announcement is imminent: Jack Grealish will complete a transfer to Manchester City. Grealish’s reported $140 million price tag makes him one of the most expensive English players ever. 

The biggest deal in English football is effectively done. Jack Grealish is on his way to Manchester, ahead of a medical tomorrow morning. Everything else is completed, he will now become the first £100m English player.

What’s your lasting memory of the 2020-21 Premier League season? Is it Zack Steffen lifting the trophy to the heavens? Or is it Bruno Fernandes wheeling away from a penalty, mouth agape in celebration with enough room for a large cantaloupe? Or maybe it’s Jorginho hopping, skipping and prancing to the spot before necking the Chelsea badge?

One thing’s for certain — there were way, way, way too many penalties last year, giving rise to one of the most odious sentences in all of football: “There was contact.”

Speculation and excitement grow surrounding Champions League victors Chelsea in the quest to sign a new star striker. Even though the club spent around a whopping $150 million last year to bring in forwards Timo Werner and Kai Havertz, they are still shopping for a special striker before the 2021/22 season. While Havertz was battling Covid issues and Werner couldn’t win over the fans last season, the Blues will look to add a lethal striker to the club. 

Players from all 20 Premier League clubs will continue to take the knee ahead of games this season to highlight their opposition to racism, the league said on Tuesday.

The Premier League said it "wholeheartedly supported" the decision, adding that players and match officials will continue to wear a No Room For Racism badge on their shirts.

Players and staff have been taking a knee prior to kickoff since the league returned to action in June last year to show their support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

Liverpool supporters have spent the summer watching the club's rivals get linked to big-name signings. 

Manchester United has signed Jadon Sancho and Raphael Varane, while its neighbor Manchester City is linked with $100m-plus moves for Harry Kane and Jack Grealish. Down in London, Chelsea is being tentatively linked with Borussia Dortmund star Erling Haaland while Arsenal is in the hunt for Inter striker Lautaro Martinez. 

Crystal Palace supporters have good reason to be excited for the coming Premier League season. The Eagles, not generally known for efficient or exciting business in the transfer market, are in the midst of a youth revolution in the current window as they seek to improve on last season's 14th-placed finish. 

Chelsea has once again caused a stir with its new away kit. If there's something that characterizes the London club year after year, it's the annual release of away jerseys that always generate opinions and rarely leave fans feeling indifferent.

This is the case for the 2021-22 season. After unveiling the home uniform, which has a clear nod to the past, now it's the away shirts turn.

Come August, there are always a few clubs that capture the imagination with their audacious summer spending before inevitably collapsing by October. Usually this is Everton. 

The return of a club legend, the signing of a highly touted prodigy or a loan move for a big-name player whose career has stalled (or preferably all three in one window) are the usual fixings for getting way too hyped before the start of a new campaign.  

English football will limit the number of high-force headers in training to 10 per week from the 2021-22 season to protect players as part of new guidelines, the Premier League and other governing bodies said on Wednesday.

Headers that involve higher forces are typically those taken after a long pass of more than 35 metres or from crosses, corners and free kicks, a joint statement from the governing bodies said.

The statement said that initial studies showed most of the headers are taken in training and the majority of those involve low forces.