New Everton manager Rafa Benítez says he is hoping to forge a winning mentality at the Premier League club and convince fans that he is the right man for the job, despite facing a backlash over his appointment in recent weeks.
The Spaniard was hired by Everton on a three-year deal last month, but the move proved to be an unpopular one given Benítez's illustrious past with Liverpool, who he managed from 2004 to 2010.
Scottish Premiership side Hibernian hosted Arsenal for a preseason friendly on Tuesday in a match that was very much a tale of two teams heading on opposite trajectories.
One club was preparing for European football after coming off its best league finish in 15 years — a season where it reached the semifinal of one domestic cup and the final of another.
The other was Arsenal.
The Gunners were reeling from a second consecutive eighth-place finish in the EPL and will be without European football this season for just the third time in the Premier League era.
"Chelsea refuses to give up Haaland" is the headline used right now by Bild regarding the drama involving the European champions and the Norwegian golden boy. After an initial refusal on the part of Dortmund to the millions put on the table by Roman Abramovic, the London club could propose a massive offer.
Christian Pulisic continued his recent transformation into a Florida Man with an epic juggle fail video while out big-game fishing. On vacation after winning a Champions League title with Chelsea and Nations League trophy with the USMNT, Pulisic has been in Florida, taking in MLS thrillers and swimming with the fishes.
In football, as in life, sometimes it's better to be lucky than to be good. And if you were a decent French-speaking footballer in the first half of the 2010s, there was a chance that Newcastle United's bulging pocket book and obsession with Ligue 1 players would make you a very rich man.
The "French Revolution" began after Newcastle's Premier League promotion in 2010, as the club signed French winger Hatem Ben Arfa and Ivorian holding midfielder Cheick Tioté. Ben Arfa and Tioté were just two of the 20+ French-speaking players Newcastle signed over the next half-decade.
The England winger Jadon Sancho, the great hope and star of British soccer, is leaving his club Borussia Dortmund to join Manchester United in the English Premier League. This was announced on Thursday by the German club, which revealed that the Jadon Sancho transfer fee was about $100 million, a record figure for this summer market.
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We have agreed a deal in principle for the transfer of Jadon Sancho to United! ⚪⚫#MUFC
Brendan Rodgers and Leicester City have confirmed their first signing of the summer. Patson Daka has arrived at the King Power Stadium after a $30 million move from RB Salzburg.
We can confirm that exciting young striker @PatsonDaka20 will join the Club on a five-year-deal from 1 July, subject to Premier League and international clearance #WelcomePatson
There will be plenty of people with mixed feelings on Merseyside on Wednesday. The initial rumors that ex-Liverpool manager Rafa Benítez was being considered for the Everton job were met with shock and disbelief, and now it's a done deal: Benítez returns to Merseyside to take charge of the Blues on a three-year contract.
We can confirm Rafael Benitez has been appointed as our new manager.
— Everton (@Everton) June 30, 2021
Arsenal and Tottenham are not two teams known for their defensive solidity over the years. Yet three center backs who came to prominence at those two clubs just shut down Cristiano Ronaldo, Diogo Jota, Bernardo Silva, Bruno Fernandes, João Félix and Portugal.
Not so Spursy after all.
The Premier League said on Friday it is funding defibrillators at grassroots clubs and facilities to save lives if someone suffers a cardiac arrest in the wake of Christian Eriksen's collapse at the European Championship.
The former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder collapsed in Denmark's group opener against Finland. His life was saved when CPR was administered to him on the pitch and his heart was re-started with a defibrillator before he was taken to hospital.