Key events
Australia. Stan Sport pundit, former Crystal Palace captain, humanitarian and all around good bloke Craig Foster has tweeted in support of Ellie Carpenter. The Australia defender, whose error allowed Lauren Hemp to score England’s second goal in the World Cup semi-final, has been the target of vile misogynistic abuse on social media.
Newcastle United: Eddie Howe takes his side to Manchester City for one of the weekend’s more mouthwatering games tomorrow night and Eddie Howe has already spoken to the press. He told reporters that if Newcastle’s reported deal to sign 18-year-old Chelsea left-back (and occasional midfielder) Lewis Hall is signed sealed and delivered, he expects that to be the club’s last bit of transfer business in the current window.
Newcastle have already added Sandro Tonali, Harvey Barnes, Tino Livramento and Yankuba Minteh to their squad this summer. “It’s a loan deal,” said Howe of Hall. “He’s a player I like — very versatile with really good potential. Let’s see what happens today. If we do bring a player in, that will be our transfer business concluded, unless we suffer injuries.”
Romeo Lavia is en route to Chelsea
Having snubbed overtures from Liverpool, even after Chelsea signed Moises Caicedo from Brighton, Romeo Lavia has gone to Chelseas for £35m and will be unveiled at Stamford Bridge today after signing a seven-year deal. The Belgian midfielder has bid farewell to Southampton and their fans on his Instagram page.
“As I saw goodbye, I want to say a big thank you for everything you have given me during my time here,” he wrote.
“I’ve instantly felt the love from you all despite us not achieving our shared goals. I’ll never forget the belief the club and Saints all around the world showed me and I hope I was able to repay the faith you put in me.
“I would especially like to thank all my teammates and all staff members within the club involved closely or not for putting your arms around me since the day I walked through the Staplewood Campus and for all the daily work and help behind the scenes making me become a better person, athlete and football player. You have all played a massive part into making my integration into real professional football easier.
“I will forever be grateful to you. For those reasons, this club will always remain close to my heart. Good luck this season and I look forward to seeing the club marching back to the Premier League where it belongs very soon.”
Theo Walcott announces his retirement
Those of us who already felt old when Sven-Goran Eriksson included the whey-faced 17-year-old Arsenal winger in England’s squad for World Cup 2006 will be weeping salty into our Ovaltine tonight now it’s been revealed Theo Walcott has retired from football.
Calling it quits at the ripe young age of 34, Walcott had offers to continue his career in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, Walcott has decided the time is right to hang up his Nike Phantom GTs. “It’s very scary, I can’t lie,” he told Gary Neville in an episode of the Overlap podcast. “It’s scary because football’s all I’ve known from the age of 16 or even younger. I want to try new things I never experienced as a kid – I missed out on a lot. I just feel like I want to experience life – things [usually] revolve around football for me.” We wish him well in his dotage.
It’s a very big weekend …
Sarina Weigman and her Lionesses will take centre stage in Sydney, when football fans of every stripe across England and will be foregoing their usual Sunday rituals to tune into the Women’s World Cup final. England take on Spain and a nation expects. Well, two nations expect. Or at least hope … and we all know that’s what kills you.
Closer to home, unless you happen to live Down Under, there’s no shortage of other fairly high profile football action to look forward to over the next few days. Still in its infancy, the Premier League campaign enters its second round of fixtures, which means we’ll bring you news from the press conferences of a whole host of top flight managers, as well as any other talking points that arise during the day.
Ahead of Tottenham’s home game against Manchester United tomorrow, a penny for the thoughts of Ange Postecoglou, who can finally look forward to his first media briefing as Tottenham manager without having to field questions about the future of Harry Kane. Wouldn’t it be funny if he was forced to face a barrage of relentless questioning about the future of Davinson Sanchez instead?
Such flights of fancy aside, the top flight action kicks-off tonight at the City Ground, where Nottingham Forest host Sheffield United, before concluding on Monday evening at Selhurst Park, when Crystal Palace host their fellow London side Arsenal. But in truth, while some may beg to differ, the only game that really matters kicks off in Sydney on Sunday at 11am (BST).
