Key events
Real Madrid conclude their La Liga campaign against Real Betis on Saturday night, with the small matter (insert irony) of the Champions League final against Borussia Dortmund to come in a weekâs time.
Aurélien Tchouaméni has been ruled out of the Wembley showdown with injury, Carlo Ancelotti confirmed today, while Toni Kroos is in contention to start what will be his final game in club football.
âToni Kroos has made his decision to leave at the top, we spoke but he decided to retire,â Ancelotti said. âToni has balls, we have to respect that.â
Some Bournemouth news before we get to the City pre-final presser.
The Cherries have announced the appointment of Tiago Pinto as their new president of football operations. The 39-year-old will start in his role next week, after he left AS Roma. Itâs part of a reshuffle at the south coast club, with Richard Hughes departing as technical director to join Liverpool. Simon Francis is taking up that role and will work with Pinto.
We’re delighted to welcome our new president of football operations, Tiago Pinto ð¤
He will start in his role next week and will work with the clubâs chief executive Neill Blake and technical director Simon Francis on all football matters.
Welcome, Tiago ð pic.twitter.com/fMheEM6301
— AFC Bournemouth ð (@afcbournemouth) May 24, 2024
Thanks Barry. I wonder if anyone will ask Ten Hag about the swirling speculation surrounding his job. It feels like Louis van Gaal pre-cup final areas, to me â¦
(We wonât be finding out until the embargoed section is released at 10.30pm unfortunately).
Handover: With pre-FA Cup final press conferences from Pep Guardiola and Erik ten Hag very much ahoy, itâs time for Dominic Booth to take up the cudgels.
Wolves season ticket renewal prices spark outrage
Wolverhampton Wanderers: The club have released their renewal prices for next season, prompting fury and open revolt among fans at the massive price hikes across the board. Wolvesâ most expensive season ticket will now cost £939, while their cheapest remains £525.
Adults in Molineuxâs family enclosure have seen the price of their tickets rise by 22.8% to £780, while the price of season tickets for supporters aged under 14 in the same area have gone up by an eye-watering and scarcely believable 133.3% from £105 to £245. Some under-14 fans, seated elsewhere in the ground, are facing a price hike of 176%.
Wolves last week: Scrap VAR, the fan experience is so much worse. It’s VAR that’s damaged the relationship between fans and football
Wolves this week: Pay us £735-£939 for a season ticket, 17% more than last year, in a city with the 2nd highest unemployment rate in the country
— Tim Spiers (@TimSpiers) May 24, 2024
Scottish Cup final: Having already masterminded victory over Aberdeen in the League Cup, Rangers boss Philippe Clement is hoping to win his first game against Celtic at the fourth time of asking in tomorrowâs Scottish FA Cup final.
Unlike his Celtic counterpart Brendan Rodgers, Clement has several injury concerns and saysd he may ask several players to play through the pain barrier at Hampden Park tomorrow. Oscar Cortes, Rabbi Matondo, Danilo, Connor Goldson, Tom Lawrence, John Souttar, Borna Barisic, and Leon Balogun all sat out last weekendâs league draw with Hearts.
âThis is a final game, a decisive game,â said Clement. âMaybe we need to take some risks with players that we normally donât do. The last six, eight weeks, itâs been difficult with all the players falling out, coming back from injury but missing rhythm, others falling out.
âItâs now about this one moment, about 90 minutes, 120 minutes, 120 minutes and penalties, to give everything with the whole squad, with everybody who is available. I think a few guys even want to come on the pitch with crutches. I cannot allow that, of course, but weâre going to go hard with the team with every energy that is available in the building.â
Scottish Cup final: Celtic have played Rangers four times in the Scottish Premiership this season, beating them three times and drawing once, at Ibrox in April. The Glasgow rivals meet for a fifth time in the Scottish Cup final at Hampden Park tomorrow but despite his sideâs supremacy over Rangers, Brendan Rodgers insists his players wonât be complacent.
âWe have a humility in how we work,â the Celtic manager said ahead of tomorrowâs final. âYou can never have that arrogance. We respect every opponent we play, whether itâs Rangers, Raith or whoever. From a football perspective thereâs no different approach to this game than the other four in the league, we want to impose ourselves.
âFor the supporters itâs everything,. They live their life for Celtic. To deliver it for them would be great. Any final is always a challenge, a Celtic-Rangers final is a great occasion, but for us itâs focusing on our game and how we can win it.â
DFB-Pokal final: After a surprise run to the German Cup final, fallen giants Kaiserslautern, who spent the season battling against relegation from the second tier, need a miracle against Xabi Alonsoâs champions â but they still have hope. Words: Will Magee.
FA Cup final: While a strong Manchester City side will start at Wembley on Saturday, a rotating cast has helped propel Pep Guardiolaâs side through the earlier rounds. Will Unwin reports â¦
A-League All Stars 8-0 Newcastle United
Newcastle have been slaughtered in the second of their two end-of-season friendlies in Melbourne this week. Eddie Howeâs young and inexperienced side boasted no first team regulars and conceded eight without reply against a combined A-League XI.
Next up in the Marvel Stadium double-header? The A-League Womenâs All Stars v Arsenal.
Rooney linked with vacant Plymouth job
In news that may come as somerthing of a surprise to anyone who recalls his disastrous 15-match spell at Birmingham City earlier this season, Wayne Rooney is being linked with another managerial post in the Championship.
It is being repoorted that the 38-year-old former England striker is ready to have talks with Plymouth Argyle, with a view to becoming their head coach. Plymouth are in the market for a new head coach after sacking Ian Foster a month ago.
The clubâs director of football Neil Dewsnip and coach Kevin Nancekivell took over for the remainder of the campaign and managed to keep Plymouth up at the expense of Birmingham, who were relegated on the final day of the season. When Rooney took over at St Andrewâs following the dismissal of John Eustace, the club were sixth in the table.
Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna will manage in the top flight from August onwards but, with the merry-go-round gearing up for overdrive before 2023-24 has breathed its last, doubts continue to swirl over around where it might be. Our resident Tractor Boy, Nick Ames, types through salty tears to explain exactly why the young coach from Northern Ireland is in such massive demand â¦
West Ham fear Lucas Paquetá’s career could be over …
The clubâs outstanding Brazilian midfielder is in a world of trouble after being charged with several breaches of gambling regulations that include four allegations of match manipulation in the form spot-fixing.
West Ham fear their star playerâs career could be banned for 10 years to life if he is found guilty of deliberately getting booked on four separate occasions. Paquetá denies any wrongdoing and has vowed âto fight with every breathâ to clear his name.
A-League All Stars v Newcastle United: When Eddie Howe inevitably starts complaining about the intensity of the fixture schedule and player burn-out in six months time, it is to be hoped that somebody will remind him that he and his players went straight to the airport after their final game of the Premier League season, boarded a plane and flew all the way to Australia to twerk their collective money-maker in a couple of exhibition matches.
On Wednesday, Newcastle beat Tottenham Hotspur on penalties at the MCG after the two teams played out a 1-1 draw. Right now, Howeâs side are getting walloped by a team of A-League All Stars at Melbourneâs considerably smaller Marvel Stadium. Theyâre in the second half and itâs currently 3-0 to the hosts.
Preamble
The Premier League may have ended last weekend but there are still a few loose ends to tie up before the season officially draws to a close. The main orders of business will be conducted at Wembley Stadium over the weekend, starting with tomorrowâs FA Cup final between Manchester United and Manchester City, followed by Mondayâs playoff decider, in which Southampton and Leeds United go toe-to-toe.
Meanwhile in Scotland, Celtic and Rangers face off in the Scottish Cup final at Hampden Park, where Rangers will attempt to record their first win over Celtic in five attempts this season. Brendan Rodgersâ men are hoping to record a league and cup double, while their Old Firm rivals from Ibrox can make it a domestic cup double and salvage some pride after ending the Scottish Premiership season with something of a whimper.
With no end of high profile managerial vacancies to be filled, what might have been a quietish day on the football front could prove extremely busy. Weâll bring you news from the pre-final press conferences, flag up any other talking points of interest and highlight any speculation regarding the managerial merry-go-round that happens to come our way.
