Key events
Some transfer news for you now. Having moved to France last September, Ross Barkley has been released by Nice and is now a free agent. Nicolas Pépé and Joe Bryan will also depart the club, having spent the season on loan from Arsenal and Fulham respectively.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live before making the trip to Turkey, Erling Haaland has raised the terrifying prospect of getting better at football. “I am still young and can improve a lot,” he said. “There are a lot of things I can do as there is a lot to improve.
“But I am in the perfect place, working with the best coach and the best players in the world. Pep is a details freak and all about developing them.”
Here’s one more to be going on with: John Stones on his standout season and how he has turned things around under Guardiola’s guidance.
Phil Mongredien isn’t as impressed by City’s relentless onwards march. “Many football fans actively loathe the way that City’s financial muscle has distorted the English game over the past 15 years,” he notes. “Having succeeded in making the Premier League so boringly predictable, extending that chokehold to Europe by beating Inter on Saturday would hardly be something to celebrate.
“And that’s before we even get to the more than 100 financial doping charges brought against the club by the Premier League earlier this year – which they vociferously deny. As long as this enormous question mark is hanging over whether they reached their position of dominance by effectively cheating, why would any neutral want them to (further) prosper?”
Karen Carney feels City’s success is symptomatic of the strength of the Premier League more broadly. “The competitive nature of the Premier League is helping its clubs in Europe,” she writes. “City rarely had an easy weekend this season and had to fight for their points, regardless of who they were playing. There is strength throughout the league, which means the best teams have to push themselves … the need to maintain standards benefits a club such as City when they face quality opposition in the Champions League.”
Jonathan Wilson has dipped into the 15th anniversary edition of Inverting the Pyramid, charting the rise of superclubs, mega-spending, celebrity players and modern managers. Contains added Guardiola.
Let’s kick off with some of our coverage from the past week, building up to the big game in Istanbul. First up, here’s what Kyle Walker had to say when asked about City’s ambition of emulating Manchester United’s 1999 Treble winners.
The countdown to the Champions League final has begun, with Manchester City and Inter fans no doubt veering between excitement, anxiety and deep, gut-wrenching nausea. This is it: the Big One, the Grand Finale, the Golden Goblet, the Destroyer of Worlds. Pep Guardiola laid out what’s at stake earlier this week when he said: “We must accept that if we want to make a definitive step as a big club, we must win in Europe. We have to win the Champions [League] – that’s something you can’t avoid.” No pressure, then, lads. Not that pressure has been much of a problem this season, given City have already won the Double and utterly crushed all challengers to their imperial dominance.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame has unveiled its list of 173 modern-era nominees for the
The Colorado Buffaloes established their dominance both on and off the field with Saturday’s matchup against Colorado State. Not only did Deion S
GREEN BAY – Newly minted Packers Hall of Famers Jordy Nelson and Josh Sitton are among the 173 modern-era nominees for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Cla
An Alabama high school band director was shocked with a stun gun and arrested by police after he refused to stop his band's performance following a football gam
