It’s time to wrap up today’s blog – I’ll leave you with the Friday Fiver:
To mark International Women’s Day, Arsenal’s Kim Little and Leah Williamson spent time on Zoom calls with women and girls in the Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan. The club’s foundation work with Save the Children to run the Coaching for Life programme in the world’s largest refugee camp for Syrians fleeing war in their homeland. Suzanne Wrack has more:
Our writers take a look at all the weekend’s top-flight fixtures here:
Government sees Candy and Boehly-Wyss as serious Chelsea buyers
The UK government views the British property tycoon Nick Candy and a consortium headed by Todd Boehly and Hansjörg Wyss as serious contenders to buy Chelsea after inviting potential bidders to approach it with takeover proposals.
Chelsea are in an unprecedented state of limbo after sanctions were imposed on Roman Abramovich, with the Russian oligarch barred from selling the club for the time being, but the feeling in Westminster is that the government believes the process of finding a new owner will not be derailed by this week’s dramatic developments.
Read more below:
Leicester’s Brendan Rodgers has given his take on the Chelsea turmoil. Rodgers, who spent four years at Chelsea from 2004-2008 as head academy coach and then reverse them coach, said: “I’ve got a lot of friends at Chelsea, good people who have been there for a long time, so it’s obviously a difficult situation they’re having to manage.”
“Of course you feel for Thomas [Tuchel] and the players because it’s out of their control. You can only imagine. We’re outside it and nothing to do with it and it’s the first question you’ve asked, so for Thomas, he’s probably getting peppered by loads of questions when really his only focus is very much the football.”
“I’ve total empathy for him and for the players, but they’re very professional. They’re an outstanding team and I’m sure they’ll focus on that element between now and the end of the season.”
The Brazil coach, Tite, has called up Gabriel Martinelli for the first time as he named his squad for their final two World Cup qualifiers, against Chile and Bolivia. Brazil have already qualified for the finals, and Tite has left out forwards Gabriel Jesus and Roberto Firmino, the latter having just recovered from a muscle problem. Neymar returns, and there is still room for 12 Premier League players in total.
Brazil squad: Alisson (Liverpool), Ederson (Man City), Weverton (Palmeiras); Danilo (Juventus), Dani Alves (Barcelona), Alex Telles (Man Utd), Guilherme Arana (Atletico Mineiro), Thiago Silva (Chelsea), Éder Militão (Real Madrid), Marquinhos (PSG), Gabriel Magalhães (Arsenal); Casemiro (Real Madrid), Fabinho (Liverpool), Fred (Man Utd), Lucas Paquetá (Lyon), Arthur (Juventus), Bruno Guimarães (Newcastle), Philippe Coutinho (Aston Villa); Neymar (PSG), Richarlison (Everton), Vinícius Júnior, Rodrygo (both Real Madrid), Gabriel Martinelli (Arsenal), Antony (Ajax), Raphinha (Leeds).
What do Chelsea’s top-four rivals make of the situation? Watch to get the views of Liverpool’s Jürgen Klopp, Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola and Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta.
The Scottish Cup reaches the quarter-final stage this weekend – it’s an all-Premiership affair, with both Old Firm sides heading to Dundee. Celtic face Dundee United on Monday night, while Rangers play Dundee on Sunday.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst will assess John Lundstram and Joe Aribo, after both picked up injuries in the 3-0 Europa League win over Red Star Belgrade. For Mark McGhee’s side, Lee Ashcroft and Charlie Adam are major doubts while Adam Legzdins and Cillian Sheridan are both unavailable.
Hearts host St Mirren on Saturday, and rivals Hibernian go to Motherwell on Sunday. Hibs have suffered a big injury blow, with the news that striker Kevin Nisbet could be out for nine months after undergoing knee surgery on Thursday.
More from Richard Jolly on Jürgen Klopp’s press conference, where the Liverpool manager issued a textbook title-race rallying cry to his players.
“If you want to look back later in life on very successful times, you should give absolutely everything now,” Klopp said. “We have no time and no points to waste.”
The sanctions imposed on Roman Abramovich have plunged Chelsea’s men’s and women’s teams into huge uncertainty – but both sides took to the field and won their games on Thursday night. Here’s our report from Dagenham, where Emma Hayes’ side kept their WSL title bid on track:
Everton have home games against Wolves (on Sunday) and Newcastle (on Thursday) – matches they surely need to get something from. He has Demarai Gray and Ben Godfrey available, and has brushed off reports of “crisis meetings” after the 5-0 thumping at Tottenham.
“This idea of a crisis meeting. It’s just language and a lovely headline. It’s not a crisis, it is very normal ... the idea is we find the answer and solution. To hear players speak a bit is important for me and some players spoke and that’s good. But the ownership of it has to be mine as coach.
“I am fresh to the club so sometimes I find it a bit hard to take the constant negativity which kicks in instantly here when something goes wrong, because I don’t feel that. This is football, it happens and we have to correct it. The only way to correct it is by training well, showing resilience and showing character. That’s my message.”
The Everton manager, Frank Lampard, has given his thoughts on the Chelsea situation but played down any personal relationship with Roman Abramovich.
“It’s a tough moment for [Chelsea],” Lampard said. “Everton is my priority and we’ve got testing things in front of us but of course on a human level, people that are just doing their jobs and if their jobs are in danger, you care a lot about that.”
When asked about Abramovich, he said: “I can probably count on one hand how many times I’ve seen him in the last many years. I worked for Chelsea, which was an absolute pleasure for 13 years. And that’s where I want to leave that one.”
Taking a brief diversion from the Premier League now, and France Football, organisers of the Ballon d’Or, have announced changes to the way football’s most coveted baubles are awarded.
The big change is that the awards will now be based on performances in a single season, rather than a calendar year. So the 2022 prizes will be based on the 2021-22 campaign, including the women’s Euros this summer. Performances at the men’s World Cup in Qatar will count towards the 2023 award.
Beyond that, France Football are expanding the panel who draw up shortlists, and restricting votes to the world’s top 100-ranked nations. There will also be less focus on a player’s past achievements – all of which sounds like bad news for the Big Two.
Leeds play Norwich on Sunday, looking to move on quickly from Thursday night’s one-sided home defeat to Aston Villa which saw sections of the home support chanting Marcelo Bielsa’s name. The new manager, Jesse Marsch, admitted “it won’t be easy for me to sleep” after the 3-0 defeat – but he has a plan to get his players back on track.
“We just started trying a bunch of things that we never talked about and we have to stay to the plan,” Marsch said. “If we don’t do that then we’re weaker. We see the weaknesses of our players and not the strengths. So that will certainly be a message.
“I know with the fans you have to earn it. It’s not given, right? It’s the same with players, the same with directors ... but I’m not afraid. I’m here for the right reasons and I want to help this club be the things I really believe it can be.”
One major positive for Marsch is that Patrick Bamford should be fit to make his first start since September, after coming on a substitute against Villa. For Norwich, Sam Byram, Christoph Zimmermann and Mathias Normann could all face late fitness tests.
Thanks, John. I’ll kick off with our match preview for Tottenham’s trip to Old Trafford on Saturday evening:
And with that I will pass stewardship of today’s blog to my estimable colleague Niall McVeigh.
More from Friday’s pressers: Roy Hodgson says he’s enjoying the challenge of trying to keep Watford in the Premier League:. “Yes, I enjoy it,” he said. “I came back knowing what was in front of me, I came back feeling that I could do a job for the club and I still feel that. But whether or not I can produce what they really want, i.e: the change from being down the bottom and not winning to suddenly winning and shooting up the table – I can’t guarantee that, I can only work towards it but I shall enjoy the work towards it, yes.”
Updated
Another line from Jürgen Klopp’s press conference earlier: the Liverpool manager was asked whether he had spoken to Thomas Tuchel about the Chelsea situation. This was his response:
“No, Thomas and I know each other but we are not that close that we chat around the games, not in other moments. I feel for him and the players because it is nothing they are for, what happens around. There is one man that is responsible for that and that is Vladimir Putin, in the first place. I don’t know about Roman Abramovich’s role in all these things but over the years you could guess that maybe he is pretty close [to Putin] and then I think the British government is right, to be 100% honest, but it is still not cool for all the people at Chelsea and all the supporters, I get that, but I think the government is right.”
Ralf Rangnick was tight-lipped about Cristiano Ronaldo’s trip to Portugal which occurred last weekend when he was injured and was reportedly not sanctioned by the club. The Manchester United interim manager said: “No, it doesn’t make sense to look back on what happened the last six or seven days, what is important is what happens tomorrow [against Tottenham]. Not to go through all this. He and Edison [Cavani] are both available for tomorrow. He resumed training yesterday, he trained the whole training session and I expect him to train today. I would’ve thought he was available tomorrow.”
Asked if Ronaldo is content at United, Rangnick said: “I haven’t asked him if he’s happy at Manchester at this club, he’s fit again, resumed training yesterday and we shall see which formation we will line up with tomorrow.”
The only Saturday 3pm kick-off (!!) in the English top flight this weekend is a big one at the bottom. Brentford welcome Burnley to west London with the sides separated by just six points and the Clarets with two games in hand in their pocket. An away win would drag the Bees right back into the relegation dogfight – victory for Thomas Frank’s side, on the other hand, would be a major step towards safety.
Thomas Tuchel has said he would be happy to see Chelsea’s shirts carry a message for peace. The mobile phone company Three suspended its shirt sponsorship on Thursday.
“You can always wear a message for peace and it can never be the wrong message,” said Tuchel, before adopting a more lighthearted tone. “Of course maybe the worry is to find enough shirts that we can play with the sanctions! But as long as we have enough shirts and as long as the bus is full of fuel we will arrive and we will be competitive. This is what everybody can be sure of and what we demand of ourselves. When it’s a big storm you dig in and you are all together.”
Pep Guardiola has also been up in front of the press today ahead of Manchester City’s visit to Crystal Palace on Monday. He insists he’s not thinking about a Treble this season and is instead focused solely on taking each game as it comes.
“It doesn’t motivate me, absolutely zero, lower than zero,” he said of the prospect of three trophies. “These are fairytales. The reality is tough. Sport at a high level is so difficult.”
“Selhurst Park is always a difficult place to go,” the Spaniard said. “It is a final for us and we know it. Hopefully we can prepare well to arrive on Monday in good shape to face the opponent.
“Always in my mind when we start to play the last 10 games of the Premier League every game is a final. When you have to play 55 games it is not a final but when you have 10 games left it is a final.”
It feels very much in the background today, but there is a full set of fixtures in the Premier League this weekend. Two teams in entirely different veins of form meet at the Amex on Saturday:
What next for Marcus Rashford? Jamie Jackson takes a look at the Manchester United forward at a crossroads …
Sophie Downey was at the Chigwell Construction Stadium in Dagenham on Thursday night to talk to fans of Chelsea Women about a turbulent day for the club. Emma Hayes’s side had little trouble on the pitch but uncertainty is rife off it.
Boris Johnson’s deputy spokesman has been speaking to the lobby this morning and was asked about the Chelsea situation:
“We’re in constant contact with the club and the Premier League over any issues that have been raised through the sanctions and the licence that the Treasury has issued them. In terms of process, it’s now up to the club to apply for any amended licence. I believe Chelsea have said that they will do that, and we’ll obviously work with the club to consider any operationally necessary changes. But as we said yesterday, the measures we put in place are to ensure that any revenue generated can’t find its way back to the Putin regime.”
They were also asked about the Chelsea fans chanting the name of Roman Abramovich at Norwich on Thursday night:
“We understand the strength of feeling that Chelsea fans will have, and their passion for the club. But it’s important to remember that these sanctions are being imposed on those who have provided support to the Putin regime and the brutal assault on Ukraine.”
Eddie Howe has been speaking ahead of his Newcastle side’s trip to Chelsea on Sunday. He doesn’t expect matters off the field to impact the game on it. “I don’t think it will have any bearing on Chelsea and how they play,” he told PA Media on Friday. “For us, you can’t change our preparation in any way. I’ll be watching Chelsea historically and trying to build a game plan to try to go there and win, so I don’t expect anything on the pitch, really, to be any different.”
Allan Saint-Maximin and Joelinton are both injury doubts for Newcastle.
A nice lunchtime read from Steven Pye and the Guardian Sport Network:
And with that, I’ll hand you over to John Ashdown to keep you company for the afternoon. Bye.
Patrick Vieira has been bigging up Michael Olise, and warning off potential suitors. “No, all I can tell you is Michael is a Palace player and we love him,” Vieira said in his media conference when asked if Olise’s contract included a release clause. “He is happy being with us and enjoying his football. Hopefully he will be with us for a long, long period of time.”
“When he was at Reading and talking to the manager [Veljko Paunovic] at the time, he really believed that Michael had that quality to play in the Premier League. It was just about creating this kind of place where he could keep improving himself. We knew how good he was. He arrived and he was injured, so he had a difficult first couple of months – he couldn’t train and he couldn’t play.
“He was really frustrated but he managed to get back on the field and his work ethic is unbelievable. He is a young player who wants to spend time on the field and wants to improve himself. He is in a really good place – playing well, enjoying his football, and it is good for the team.”
Antonio Conte has expressed his sympathy with Russian athletes who have been banned from competing at top level sports as a result of their government’s invasion of Ukraine, reports PA Media.
While Conte has voiced his horror at the war and Russia’s actions, the Spurs manager says the impact on sporting stars is “very sad” given the dedication it takes to get to the highest level.
“I repeat, it’s very sad that this serious situation, this war between Russia and Ukraine, is affecting football and the sporting [world],” he said. “To know that Russia athletes are banned from competition is very sad. I think it’s not fair. I know very well the work that they do every day for this competition.
“You have to pay for this situation, I think it’s not right. Honestly, I hoped the situation is going to be solved, because it’s creating a lot of damage. We’re in 2022 and to see this is horrible for everybody.”
Conte was a former employee of Roman Abramovich and said: “We are talking about four or five years ago. At the time, Chelsea, also now, we’re talking about a fantastic club. With an owner that made this club big. Don’t forget that in the period he was the owner, Chelsea won everything. But it was for Chelsea. I think also we have seen other Russia owners in other teams. Not only in football but in many sports.”
Suzanne Wrack has been talking to Arsenal’s Kim Little and Leah Williamson about the Arsenal Foundation’s work with Syrian refugees in Jordan.
If you offered me a chance to go and visit that camp at the weekend instead of playing my game it would be a moral dilemma. What’s more important when you actually really start to think about it? Yet we are in a performance sport where if we don’t win, or if we don’t play well, then we don’t have that impact. So it’s a constant existential conversation.
Jürgen Klopp speaks
A few nuggets from Klopp’s presser: inevitably, he was asked about Roman Abramovich. “I don’t know a lot about the Abramovich role [with the Russian government] over the years but you can guess it’s pretty close so the UK government is right in its approach. It’s not good for Chelsea or their fans, I get that, but it’s for the government to decide.
On Mo Salah’s contract talks, the Liverpool manager is asked whether the signing of Luis Diaz might convince the Egypt forward to sign a new deal. “I think Mo expects this club to be ambitious but it’s not about that, it’s a decision for Mo, it’s all fine with Mo at the moment from my point of view, nothing further has happened, so we’ll just have to wait for that – there’s no rush.”
Potential Chelsea buyers told they can approach UK government
Prospective Chelsea owners have been told to approach the UK government with potential takeover proposals, after the sanctioning of its current oligarch owner. The government effectively acting as a kind of administrator, then.
Here’s our story:
Matip named Premier League player of the month: Ah yes, some football.
Making an impact at both ends of the pitch 💪
— Premier League (@premierleague) March 11, 2022
Joel Matip is the @easportsfifa Player of the Month for February 🔴#PLAwards pic.twitter.com/zkTr2qbTu4
Trivago maintains Chelsea links
Three may have suspended its sponsorship of Chelsea yesterday but Trivago is sticking with them for now, saying it “is important to us continue supporting the club”.
“The uncertainty over the current ownership situation of Chelsea FC has been challenging,” Trivago said in a statement. “Moving forward, it is important to us to continue supporting the club, the fans and community along with the essential work that the Chelsea Foundation does to help those in need. We are looking forward to a transition of ownership as soon as possible and want to support the club in this process. We will provide any update to our business relationship if and when appropriate.
“As a company of global citizens, we cannot condone the unprovoked and catastrophic invasion of Ukraine. We believe in a free world, freedom of speech and peace. We continue our efforts together with our teams to support the humanitarian efforts and to ease the suffering of the affected population. We stand with Ukraine.”
A more heartening one you may have missed from yesterday, the biggest girls’ school football session in England, with around 90,000 taking part across 1,450 schools. Still work to be done though, with only 63% of schools offer girls’ football in PE and only 40% offer extra-curricular football to girls.
A spot of team news: Manchester City may have been dragged into a proper title race but the Premier League leaders remain in pretty formidable form, and this weekend they visit Crystal Palace, who are seeking an unlikely double over them.
City are hoping Nathan Ake and João Cancelo are fit after missing the Champions League nonevent against Sporting Lisbon through injury and illness respectively. Kyle Walker is also back in contention after being suspended for the Sporting game but Ruben Dias (thigh) is still out.
For Palace Jean-Philippe Mateta, who has impressed of late, could again start up front while Joel Ward (groin) and Nathan Ferguson (hamstring) are set to miss out once again. James McArthur is also still absent with a knock after just completing his return from a hamstring problem.
Arsenal launch Ukraine supporters club: this just in from their supporters’ trust:
AST has been in talks with Arsenal this week about how we can show support & solidarity with our Ukrainian fans. We suggested creating an Arsenal Ukraine Supporters Club. Arsenal embraced this & it launches today. There is also an Arsenal Save the Children fundraising page 1/3
— AST (@AST_arsenal) March 11, 2022
Please RT: All Arsenal Ukrainian supporters and their friends, families and allies can now sign up to Arsenal Ukraine https://t.co/o99OS3PfAT. All Arsenal fans can donate to the special Arsenal Save the Children Fund https://t.co/gXjrBPcj36 2/3
— AST (@AST_arsenal) March 11, 2022
We’ll talk about football eventually but some more financial basket case news first, from Derby, whose administrators say they are still working with potential buyers, a day after one group declared their interest was at an end.
The American businessman Adam Binnie, whose family have made two bids for the club, told the BBC on Thursday that administrators had rejected their most recent bid of £30m and would not speak to them again unless they increased their offer.
But administrators Quantuma said on Friday that there is still interest in buying the club. “The joint administrators are continuing to work with prospective purchasers who remain interested in buying the club,” the administrators’ statement said.
“It is our duty to secure an appropriate valuation for Derby County and to ensure we have a suitable bid to present to the EFL.”
They added that they wished to assure supporters that “discussions with interested parties are ongoing and focused on making the club financially sustainable for the long term”. The EFL said on 3 March 3 it had received assurances from the administrators that sufficient funds were in place to see out the season. The Binnie family has no appetite to increase its offer.
The Fair Game campaign, set up in the wake of the European Super League fiasco, gains ever more relevance as the Chelsea mess unfolds. And its director, Niall Couper, has blamed their crisis on a football culture that ignores sustainability.
Couper told PA Media: “The situation at Chelsea is yet another example of why football needs a radical rethink. The question marks over the club’s future are a result of a culture that ignores financial sustainability. Too many clubs are being bankrolled. And the question has to be asked what happens when [those benefactors] disappear? We need to move away from a culture that is largely dependent on owner benefactors.
“In 2020, 52% of clubs were technically insolvent and that was before the pandemic. Those numbers need to change. We need real-time financial reporting, powers to intervene when problems arise and crucially the Sustainability Index.
“An index that uses the vast sums of funds from the TV revenues to reward well-run clubs, clubs that are financially sustainable and can survive without an owner benefactor.”
Yet more Chelsea news: Sky reports that Nick Candy is still interested in buying Chelsea, the property developer having announced a £2.5bn bid earlier in the week. He plans to attend Sunday’s game against Newcastle.
West Ham’s narrow defeat to Sevilla last night was a proper European occasion at a proper European stadium in a proper European city, but they may have to make do without Jarrod Bowen again in the second leg. The forward suffered a heel injury at Liverpool last weekend and it still hasn’t cleared up, to the bafflement of David Moyes, his manager.
Bowen has undergone scans but the club are still in the dark about the extent of the problem. “I have no idea at the moment,” said Moyes. “We’re still trying to clear up exactly the injury. In all the scans and information we have it does not look too bad, but his action coming off the pitch at Anfield made it look more serious than we thought. And that has not added up.
“Since then Jarrod is slightly improving but not as fast as we hoped. We did not think it was anything serious. So we are still trying to get to the bottom of it.”
Government minister urges Chelsea fans to stop singing Abramovich’s name
Government minister Chris Philp has urged Chelsea fans to stop singing Roman Abramovich’s name (thereby probably prompting them to do it even more loudly). PA Media has the story:
Chelsea fans have been asked to refrain from chanting in support of their owner Roman Abramovich by a Government minister. Supporters of the west London club sang Abramovich’s name during the Premier League win at Norwich on Thursday night, hours after the Government had imposed sanctions on him due to his links to Russian president Vladimir Putin.
… The technology minister Chris Philp urged Blues fans to remember why Abramovich had been sanctioned in the first place.
“I’m a football fan myself, I’m a Palace fan, in south London. So I understand why fans are very attached to their football clubs,” he told BBC Radio Four’s Today Programme on Friday morning.
“But Roman Abramovich is someone who has been sanctioned now, yesterday morning, for his very close links to Vladimir Putin and the Putin regime.
“And I just say respectfully to the Chelsea fans, I know he’s done a lot for the club, but the humanitarian situation in Ukraine and what the Russian regime are doing to civilians – shelling maternity hospitals and shooting civilians who are fleeing down humanitarian corridors – and that is more important than football.
“And I say that as a football fan myself, and I would just ask them to keep that in mind.”
Updated
Preamble
Morning everyone, and welcome to a weekend destined to disappoint the “keep politics out of sport” brigade, if anyone still buys that argument, with the fallout from the Roman Abramovich asset-freeze dominating the football talk of the moment. Reports and speculation continue to swirl around Stamford Bridge, including of impending staff redundancies, with the club unable to sell tickets and merchandise or operate in the transfer market.
On the pitch of course, Chelsea shrugged it all off with comfortable wins last night for their men at Norwich and their women at West Ham and Thomas Tuchel tried to put a brave face on it all by insisting it was “business as usual”. You can read all about the reaction here, Sean Ingle on what it all means here, and there’s a must-read from David Conn here on how the game turned a blind eye for years on the source of Abramovich’s wealth and power. And wouldn’t you know it, Chelsea’s opponents this weekend are Newcastle, who in a more ethically and properly regulated game wouldn’t have the owners they currently do either. Ah, the beautiful game.
On the field, there are only three Premier League matches on Saturday, with a relegation battle between Brentford and Burnley and a top-four tussle between Manchester United and Tottenham the picks. And we’ll have press conferences from Liverpool, Everton, Manchester United and Arsenal during the course of the day.
So buckle up and get in the mood with ten things to look out for this weekend:
