Key events
The FA has announced thats England’s Women’s Nations League tie with Spain in February will be played at Wembley. The 8pm kickoff will be a rematch of the 2023 World Cup final – should be a proper event.
An exclusive from Matt Hughes: Rodrigo Bentancur has not been fined by Tottenham despite receiving a seven-game ban and £100,000 penalty by the FA for using a racial slur against Son Heung-min.
Scotland to face Greece in Nations League playoffs
The draw for the Nations League quarters and various playoffs has taken place. Scotland, who got their act together in the nick of time, finished third in group A1 and will take on Greece in their bid to stay at the top of the competition.
The quarter-finals are appetising:
Netherlands v Spain
Croatia v France
Denmark v Portugal
Italy v Germany
And here’s the rest:
There’s some good news for Newcastle, with Callum Wilson getting closer to a first appearance this season. They’re up against West Ham on Monday evening.
“He’s doing well, we anticipate he’s going to train with the group today,” said Eddie Howe, as quoted by PA. “Whether he’s quite there for West Ham let’s see. There is a chance he could be involved but we need to get through the next few days in training first. The most important thing is that Callum does come back and when he does come back he’s in a good place to contribute and make a difference.”
Wilson has had plenty of injuries but he adds some important depth up front and has a very solid goalscoring record: he’s a dozen shy of 100 Premier League goals.
This is a great interview with Nottingham Forest’s Ryan Yates by Ben Fisher. Particularly enthralled by this bit:
When it’s you and the hotel room, what can you conjure up? I’d buy half a chicken from Tesco, a packet of rice, some spinach – I couldn’t boil broccoli because I just had a kettle – so I would pour a bit of water into the bag of spinach, squeeze it out, so it became wilted spinach. God, those were the days. I remember just thinking: ‘It’s all going to be worth it.’
Slot’s contenders against Klopp’s champions? Andy Hunter weighs it up.
Worth remembering just how ridiculous that Klopp side were: they won 26 of the first 27 league games of the season, the outlier a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford.
Suzanne Wrack and Tom Garry had their eyes on the WCL action last night, with victories for Manchester City and Arsenal.
Some news from last night: Manchester City have announced a new two-year deal with Pep Guardiola. Here’s what he had to say:
I want to be honest, I thought this [season] should be the last one. But the problems we had in the last month, I felt now was not the right time to leave.
I didn’t want to let the club down. I felt I could not leave now, simple as that. Don’t ask me the reason why. Maybe the four defeats was the reason why I felt I cannot leave.
Arne Slot has been offering some injury updates ahead of Liverpool’s meet with Southampton.
Virgil [van Dijk] is all good, he’s training with us today. Trent [Alexander-Arnold] isn’t training with us yet but he’s getting there so we expect him to be back with us soon. Harvey [Elliott] is training with us again so that’s the positive thing. He’s been out for many weeks but he’s on a training ground again with the team so that’s a positive thing for him.
[Diogo] Jota is still apart from the group, same as Federico [Chiesa] who’s coming back into the session, maybe in one exercise today, so they’re all expected to be back within now and a few weeks. The last part of recovery is always the most difficult one so let’s wait and see. But Virgil is completely OK.
Alisson is back in training but won’t feature on Sunday, Slot added.
Here’s the full story from Paul MacInnes on the Premier League APT vote:
And on to the actual football … here’s what to look out for this weekend:
On a more serious note, the vote stands as a blow to Manchester City. Here’s Paul MacInnes’ reporting from Thursday:
City have declared their opposition to the rule changes – having previously taken the league to arbitration over its APT rules. They have lobbied clubs strongly for support, including two league-wide letters from their chief legal officer, Simon Cliff, which challenged the validity of the plans. The league has spent weeks negotiating with clubs over their concerns, citing independent legal analysis from the KC Daniel Jowell to support its case.
Premier League clubs vote through APT amendments
And we have the result of the vote … clubs have approved changes to the APT rules. In a statement the Premier League said:
“At a Premier League Shareholders’ meeting today, clubs approved changes to the League’s Associated Party Transaction (APT) rules. The Premier League has conducted a detailed consultation with clubs – informed by multiple opinions from expert, independent Leading Counsel – to draft rule changes that address amendments required to the system.
“This relates to integrating the assessment of Shareholder loans, the removal of some of the amendments made to APT rules earlier this year and changes to the process by which relevant information from the League’s ‘databank’ is shared with a club’s advisors.”
What does this all mean?
Preamble
Hello, hello, hello and welcome to my attempts at hyping up the weekend: after some international interruption, the Premier League is back! And it’s live! And there’s some key admin stuff to sort out!
Yes, there’s been a league vote today on some associated party transaction stuff – I can sense your excitement. For Manchester United fans there’s a chance to hear from their new messiah, Ruben Amorim, ahead of his first game in charge.
Let’s get into it. Share your thoughts, queries, weekend plans, whatever you fancy.
