Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino hinted he would consider walking away from the club if they were to crown his fifth season at the helm with Champions League glory. 

Spurs will attempt to overturn a 1-0 semi-final deficit against Ajax at the Johan Cruijff ArenA on Wednesday after Donny van de Beek s strike proved the difference between the sides in north London last week.

Pochettino s work since arriving at Tottenham in 2014 has seen him linked with some of the most high-profile jobs in world football. 

This season he was touted as the next boss of both Manchester United and Real Madrid before Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Zinedine Zidane filled the respective vacancies at their former clubs.

With Tottenham now in residence at their impressive new…

Barcelona can qualify for the knock-out stages of the Champions League when they face Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday night but Xavi Hernandez had a warning for his players before their trip to Germany.

After two seasons in which they failed to progress beyond the group stages of Europe’s top competition, something once unthinkable for the Catalan giants, Barcelona can wrap up qualification with two games to spare when they face Shakhtar in Hamburg.

But while they have cruised through Group H campaign so far, scoring eight goals and conceding only once in three wins, Xavi was left angered by his side’s performance in a sluggish 1-0 win over Real Sociedad at the weekend.

The coach felt his side were still carrying something of a hangover from their 2-1 home defeat…

Bruno Fernandes has been delighted by Alejandro Garnacho’s progress but warned the Manchester United teenager that he cannot relax if he is going to fulfil his potential.

A year and two days after his starring role in the club’s FA Cup Youth Cup triumph against Nottingham Forest, the 18-year-old was once again in goalscoring form at Old Trafford on Saturday.

Garnacho had been out for two months with an ankle injury and he returned with a bang against Wolves, with the substitute scoring a fine, late goal in front of the Stretford End to wrap up a 2-0 win.

A special message from the scorer of our 100th goal in 2022/23: !

— Manchester United (@ManUtd)

Skipper Fernandes threaded through the Argentinian to score and hopes the nascent talent c…

Simone Inzaghi praised Romelu Lukaku s contribution since he returned to Inter on loan from Chelsea, as he backed the Belgian striker to hit top form sooner rather than later ahead of their trip to Lazio.

Inter have made a perfect start to their Serie A title bid, following up a last-gasp win at Lecce on the opening day by beating Spezia 3-0 last time out.

Lukaku, who fired the Nerazzurri to the Scudetto in 2020-21 with 24 league goals before heading to Chelsea, needed just 82 seconds to find the net when making his second Inter debut at Lecce.

While the Belgian then failed to score in Inter s routine win at San Siro last weekend, Inzaghi was content with his display and believes it will not be long until he is scoring regularly once more.

I think he did…

The team of rudderless under-achieving stars finished off the pace in the title race having won only half of their 38 matches, with the overwhelming sense that an injection of talented youth was the way forward.

This same ragged bunch fell short in a bid for redemptive Champions League glory by virtue of a lacklustre 1-0 aggregate defeat in the semi-finals.

Thankfully, Pep Guardiola was on his way to sift through the rubble – Barcelona would never look back from that inspired appointment in May 2008.

It does not take the Catalan tactician’s famously meticulous eye for detail to notice these forgettable statistics and traits are also common to Manchester City, circa 2015-16.

His Barcelona experience pours cold water on the view that Guardiola was merel…

Unai Emery has found life in Ligue 1 a lot more complex than he imagined. Photo: www.sportal.co.nz

Last season, Paris Saint Germain clinched their fourth straight Ligue 1 title. That is indeed impressive, but it s not why they set a whole slew of records. For starters, Les Parisiens will need to win three more in order to match the impressive seven on the trot that Lyon won between 2002 and 2008.

Still, it was by far one of the most dominant displays football fans had seen in a while. The title race was effectively over by matchday 30, and were one to remove PSG from the league table, it would have looked more like what we saw in La Liga or the Premier League. Although they were unable to make history as the first French team to finish a season sans defeat, some began t…

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola confirmed Kalvin Phillips is set to undergo shoulder surgery but remains hopeful the midfielder could return to action ahead of England s World Cup campaign.

Phillips, a key member of Gareth Southgate s side that reached the Euro 2020 final on home turf last year, made a £42million move to City from Leeds United during the close season.

Fitness issues have restricted the 26-year-old to only three cameos off the bench for the reigning Premier League champions, with Phillips entirely absent for Saturday s 3-0 win over Wolves.

Now the defensive midfielder, named by England for this month s final pre-World Cup games in the Nations League against Italy and Germany, looks likely to require an operation to deal with a persistent s…

Andre Onana believes Manchester United made the right decision to keep Erik ten Hag as their manager despite a difficult second season in charge.

Ten Hag s future was the subject of rife speculation in the second half of the season as United slumped to their worst-ever finish in the Premier League, ending the campaign in eighth.

However, the Red Devils finished the campaign on a high by beating Manchester City 2-1 to lift the FA Cup, booking a place in the Europa League after missing out on the European places due to their league finish.

The Dutchman also lifted the EFL Cup in his first season in charge, while his Premier League win percentage of 54% (41/76) is better only by Alex Ferguson (65%).

Ten Hag penned a contract extension earlier this month, and…

Lionel Messi s contract details becoming public knowledge was not the fault of Barcelona, the LaLiga club have claimed.

A report by El Mundo claimed the deal Messi signed at Camp Nou in 2017, which expires at the end of this season, is worth more than €555million over the course of four years.

That would mean the six-time Ballon d Or winner is in possession of the most lucrative contract in sports history something that jars against Barcelona s worsening financial plight.

Accounts for the 2019-20 season showed the club s gross debt had reached €820m as the coronavirus pandemic began to take a considerable toll on their finances.

A fractious presidential election is set to conclude in March, with a strained relationship between Messi and the former b…

West Brom and Leeds United benefited from late winners as they took full advantage of a defeat for Preston North End in the Championship.

Leaders West Brom defeated Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 at home on Saturday, while Marcelo Bielsa s men won by the same scoreline away to Luton Town.

Preston fell to a 1-0 defeat away to Derby County, meaning Leeds moved above them into second place, two points behind the Baggies, who have only suffered one defeat in 17 league games.

Blackburn Rovers, Brentford, Stoke City and Millwall were the other winners in Saturday s action.
 

BAGGIES AND LEEDS LAND LATE BLOWS

West Brom and Leeds looked like they were heading for draws that would have stalled their promotion bids before late interventions.

Charlie Aust…