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The Joke Is About To Be On Everyone Bar Spurs Or United
Richarlison gets his celebrations on.Photograph: Mats Torbergsen/NTB/AFP/Getty Images
THE FULL ENGLISH
Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur have given Football Daily plenty of ammunition over the years, but with both sealing their place in a European final on Thursday with comfortable victories in their respective semi-finals, this is not meant to be a snide missive about their latest achievements. Sure, Athletic Club can only recruit players from an area the size of Wales, were missing their first-choice centre-back Dani Vivian through suspension, their best three attacking players through injury (Iñaki and Nico Williams, plus Oihan Sancet), were 3-0 down from the first leg and still gave United’s band of global internationals a frightful scare by taking a first-half lead at Old Trafford. But fair play to United, they roared back in the second half, and ended as comfortable winners, 4-1 on the night and 7-1 on aggregate. In reaching the final, Ruben Amorim has a real and tangible reason to be proud of his team, and it’s also nice to see Mason Mount being good at football again.
And sure, Bodø/Glimt’s total transfer spend last summer (€7m) was just over 10% of the fee Tottenham paid for Dominic Solanke (Bodø also sold players last summer for a total of €18.6m, a profit of more than €11m), and the Norwegians’ stadium has a capacity that would make them the 16th largest ground in League Two, but genuine credit should be given to Spurs for succeeding in the Arctic Circle where others have failed – this season Porto, Besiktas, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Olympiakos and Lazio have all been beaten by Bodø in Bigger Vase. Tottenham put in a professional display and deserve their place in the final. Chapeau.
Ange Postecoglou has a big opportunity now to do one of the least Spursy things of all time by winning this major trophy, a result that would also probably mean the Australian keeps his job and delivers on that much-mocked promise of flamin’ silverware in his second season. “If it’s so easy to get to a final, then why doesn’t everyone who finishes in the top three do it?” barked Postecoglou. “It’s going to upset a lot of people isn’t it? Who cares if we’re struggling in the league? It’s a separate thing. It’s got nothing to do with league form. I couldn’t care less who’s struggling and who’s not. I think both us and Manchester United have earned the right to be there.
“I love winning,” continued Postecoglou, ignoring his own comments on Spurs’ league form in the paragraph above. “That’s what I’ve done my whole career. People will dismiss it, that’s fine. We’ve been losing players, key players, and yet they’ve still found a way to stick together. That gives me the belief that the challenge we have of trying to overcome a tough opponent in a massive game.” At least the two finalists will be evenly matched. Despite their much maligned Premier League campaigns, Manchester United (15th) and Tottenham (16th) are just one game away from a European trophy and the riches of Bigger Cup qualification. Just think how many Old Trafford staff lunches that could potentially pay for. Tottenham might even be able to renew Fraser Forster’s £75,000-a-week contract. From the bottom of Football Daily’s can of Tin, good luck to both teams in the final.
LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE
Join Yara El-Shaboury from 8pm BST for hot Championship playoff semi-final minute-by-minute coverage of Coventry 0-0 Sunderland.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“It’s not the moment to talk about the future. Now we know, we want to have a proper farewell on Sunday for some players and for myself. We have to enjoy this moment with mixed emotions. We can be happy and proud of what we have achieved during this time. I’m very thankful from the first day to the last one. You’ve got the announcement finally after chasing it” – Xabi Alonso announces his departure from Bayer Leverkusen at the end of the season (and has a jab at hacks doing their jobs), paving the way for a widely expected move to Real Madrid.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
Re: yesterday’s Football Daily. Can I suggest that after Arsenal provide a guard of honour on Sunday, Liverpool repay the compliment twice to acknowledge the titles Arsenal would have won in the last two seasons if it wasn’t for the pesky ‘team with the greatest number of points is first’ nonsense?” – Dominic Hodgson.
One point that yesterday’s Football Daily omitted – Arsenal got further in Bigger Cup than rivals Liverpool, Aston Villa, and Manchester City. I rather suspect that Mikel Arteta would be mildly pleased if you now referred to the semi-finals as the new ‘Round of Arsenal’” – Mike Wilner.
Apologies to anyone who watched Salford (yesterday’s Class of 25, full email edition) in the Northern Premier back in the day, but Salford City? Salford City? The answer to the problems with football in that area of Manchester is Salford City? I’m no fan of FC United, to be honest (the angst is wearing), but if jaded millionaires really wanted to make a statement and pose an existential crisis to the club that made them and yet is tanking under a leveraged buyout, there was one obvious choice. But no, they went for the vanity-stroking path of high fives with Tom Brady and Ryan Reynolds in a dull Netflix documentary about the Championship playoff struggle. Tell me, one Salford fan, that you view United as an actual rival, and don’t just check your phone for updates about Josuha Zirkzee” – Jon Millard.
Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s prizeless letter o’ the day winner is … Dominic Hodgson. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, can be viewed here.
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Football Weekly (bonus)? Football Weekly (bonus)!
TIME TO GET THE CLAWS OUT
Can a team who have been coasting for three months ever get the old engine purring again? That’s the question facing Sunderland when they kick off their Championship playoff campaign at Coventry. Régis Le Bris and his squad pretty much knew automatic promotion had gone when back-to-back defeats against Leeds and Hull left them 10 points off the top two in mid-February. Since then the form table has them 17th, sandwiched between Oxford and Sheffield Wednesday, and they enter the post-season on the back of five straight defeats and two goals in their last seven. Indeed, though Sunderland finished a whopping 13 points ahead of Frank Lampard’s side, the gap was 14 points in mid-October. To compound things, Coventry hammered them 3-0 in mid March, but in truth the Sky Blues have hardly roared into the playoffs themselves – meek defeats at Plymouth and Luton, both subsequently relegated, meant the 2-0 win over Middlesbrough on the final day was a necessity rather than a flourish. Something will have to give and it should kickstart a weekend of the usual playoff high-drama.
NEWS, BITS AND BOBS
In this-is-definitely-a-good-idea-I-see absolutely-no-problems-arising news, the Premier League has asked clubs to give broadcasters the right to film inside dressing rooms or conduct in-game interviews during live coverage from next season.
WSL and Women’s Championship teams will continue to be relegated beyond 2026, the idea of temporarily removing relegation no longer being pursued.
Chelsea Supporters’ Trust have called for a formal investigation into the ticket sales process for their Tin Pot semi-final home leg against Djurgården after hundreds of away fans purchased tickets for the home sections of Stamford Bridge (and made no secret of it). CST called the situation “the most serious breach of stadium security in recent memory”. A 1-0 win means Blues face Betis in the final.
David Kogan has been urged to take “concrete steps” and demonstrate his impartiality after being endorsed as the chair of football’s independent regulator by a select committee of MPs.
West Ham’s Aaron Wan-Bissaka has been called up by DR Congo for the first time. And in other Hammers news Aaron Cresswell, Lukasz Fabiański, Vladimír Coufal and Danny Ings are to do one in the summer.
Liverpool’s Mo Salah and Arsenal striker Alessia Russo are the Football Writers’ Association men’s and women’s players of the year.
It’s all about next season now for Mikel Merino and Arsenal. “Having played in the Bernabéu, having played PSG, it’s going to be a huge learning point for the future. We will be back stronger, we will be back more ready,” he tooted.
And Newcastle have risked upsetting some fans by announcing plans to redesign the club’s badge for the 2026-27 season. “As football and the world changes so, too, must the symbol that unites us,” cheered the club.
STILL WANT MORE?
“I punched another dad” – our seemingly violent readers share stories of the worst parent behaviour at kids’ football (and that quote is far from the worst of it).
Leeds, Burnley, Lionesses, PSG and the playoffs? It’s our quiz of the week!
Why are Saudi Arabia at the Gold Cup? It’s the latest in the Kingdom’s soft power campaign, writes Karim Zidan.
Roméo Lavia is the ideal cog in Enzo Maresca’s machine – when he is fit, reckons Ben McAleer.
And even with three games left, there are still plenty of things to look out for in the Premier League this weekend. Ten of them, in fact.
MEMORY LANE
Kevin Nolan generally enjoyed a chicken-style dance to celebrate scoring, and here some Newcastle fans demonstrating it in the stands at St James’ Park (April 2011) after he grabbed the opening goal in a 4-1 victory.
