Key events
Brighton have missed Pascal Gross so much – Pascal Groß if you will, they are reconsidering signing him back from Borussia Dortmund. Their midfield does lack a bit of experience in midfield. Here’s Fabian Hurzeler: “I definitely like him as a player and also, when he was gone, I had contact with him because we tried to get him to stay here, but he wanted to follow his dreams, which we respected. We continued to follow him because he’s a player who did great things for the club. We rate him highly.”
John Brewin
Here we go, here we go, this is it. What magic can greet us in 2026?
Today’s blog is a bit like the village bicycle, everybody gets a ride. Latest to hop on is John Brewin.
Football Weekly Extra is out now!
Max Rushden is joined by Lucy Ward, Lars Sivertsen and Mark Langdon to discuss Chelsea parting ways with Enzo Maresca.
You can listen to that via the link below (or wherever you get your podcasts):
Africa Cup of Nations: tie-by-tie analysis of the last-16 matches
Afcon has reached the knockouts and Osasu Obayiuwana has put together a handy guide to each of the last-16 matches before they get underway on Saturday. My personal pick is South Africa v Cameroon on Sunday at 7pm GMT, neither side are perfect but both have good pedigree and it should be an entertaining watch. Bafana Bafana’s pre-match gwijo singing is always worth tuning in for.
Read the full guide here:
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Morning football fans, let’s keep things moving with some soundbites from Sean Dyche, shall we?
Forest have suffered three straight defeats, including losses to Fulham and Everton, which have left them in 17th place and Dyche reckons a fixture against high-flying Aston Villa might suit his team more.
We’ve just shown lately, we’ve taken on some of the bigger teams, or the ones that are fancied every year, and done very well against them.
And a couple of teams maybe not as fancied, we haven’t done as well against them. That’s probably the challenge of the group – rising to the expectation of each game rather than just big games.
Forest were in the bottom three when Dyche became their third manager this season and despite the recent poor form are four points above the relegation zone.
We’re in a better position than when I got here, and also the Europa League, but (we need to) concentrate on the Premier League for now – there’s a building process.
I think we’ve done some good work and the players have as well, and then it’s the ups and downs of it. They’re all minor things but they all count.
All of a sudden, you’ve lost three when it could have been certainly a couple (of wins), if not three draws. So it’s frustrating in that respect because of the softness of the goals and not finding that real killer moment to open up the opposition.
Time for another baton change: Tom Bassam’s now in the chair. Laters.
Eddie Howe is having none of the idea that Newcastle have no plan B, reports PA Media, and rejected suggestions they were under the cosh in their win at Burnley.
Howe bristled at suggestions they had come under an onslaught at Turf Moor and there was nothing they could do about it. He said: “An onslaught? What, against us? Have you seen the stats of the game? You must have been watching a different game then. There was no onslaught.
“Yes, we had moments, of course. We had moments the other way. I would never describe it as that. If it was an onslaught, I’d give you my opinion and say, ‘Yes, I thought it was’.
“But a plan B? That’s always a difficult one because if you have too many plan Bs, that means your plan A is flawed and your players are then thinking of what’s next rather than trying to deliver the plan A to the best of their ability.
“We have loads of different ways of playing, but within the structure and the principles of what we believe in. I see countless managers asked the same questions on plan Bs and, as I say, you have to be careful.“We have a very strong plan for every situation. We just need to deliver it better. That’s sort of where I am and the focus is towards the players on trying to improve our performances all the time.”
Newcastle host Crystal Palace on Sunday.
West Ham agree deals for Castellanos and Pablo
Jacob Steinberg
West Ham are poised to boost their attacking options by signing Gil Vicente’s Pablo Felipe and Lazio’s Taty Castellanos at a cost of up to £47m.
Both deals have been driven by Nuno Espírito Santo, who is looking to help his struggling side’s fight to stay in the Premier League by adding more firepower. West Ham considered a move for the Wolves striker Jørgen Strand Larsen but decided against making a bid after concluding that his £40m valuation was too high.
Much talk about possible incoming Chelsea gaffer Liam Rosenior’s credentials. Michael Butler profiles him here.
Liam Rosenior started this decade as a columnist for the Guardian and is now the favourite to replace Enzo Maresca as manager of Chelsea. While the prospect of Barney Ronay or Jonathan Liew making the move into management is a tantalising one, Rosenior’s rise – from a youth coach at Brighton to an assistant and interim manager at Derby before full-time management at Hull City and Strasbourg – shows just how far the 41-year-old has come.
After a very respectable playing career at Bristol City, Fulham, Reading, Hull and Brighton, Rosenior earned a coaching job at the latter, managing the Seagulls’ under-23 side and supplemented that with punditry roles.
Would like to know what Strasbourg fans think of all this too. Because one of the (many) problems with multi-club ownership is that the “junior” clubs in such arrangements are prone to having their setups disrupted on the whim of the “senior” ones. Strasbourg are seventh in Ligue 1, eyeing the European places.
A little slice of Mikel Arteta chat, in which he was being pretty noncommital about Arsenal’s possible January transfer activity: “We are open to every option [for new signings] – we can find short, medium and long-term solutions but let’s see what happens and we’ll try to make the right decisions.” Asked about whether players such as Ethan Nwaneri might be shipped out on loan, the manager insisted that “every player is important, has a role that can change through the season and every player should be ready to play”.
Arteta had some warm words for Enzo Maresca: “I wish him all the best. I really like Enzo as a person and professionally – he has done a terrific job at Chelsea.” Arsenal visit Bournemouth tomorrow evening.
Who was at a game yesterday? Commiserations to those at the Gtech Stadium for that Brentford-Spurs stinker, and Liverpool v Leeds wasn’t exactly a barrel of fun either. Sunderland (and Arsenal) fans will have enjoyed their own stalemate rather more though. Meanwhile Ipswich are coming up on the rails in the Championship promotion race and Bristol City filled their boots in a 5-0 romp against Portsmouth.
Here’s some accounts of yesterday’s action:
Thanks Taha, morning everyone. And as it’s that time of the year again, I’ve sifted through some transfer tittle-tattle for you.
Time for a switch: Tom Davies will take over from here.
Right then, why not share what you’re most looking forward to this year (in a footballing sense, of course). Or any predictions: your World Cup, Champions League winners, top-scorers, summer transfers etc.
So Enzo Maresca has left the building. It was a very decent stint on paper, one with two trophies, including a Club World Cup victory which may grow in significance if the tournament becomes a properly serious thing in the future. But it was pretty turbulent, too; Jacob Steinberg has the inside story on what went wrong.
Preamble
Hello, hello, hello and welcome to the first Friday blog of 2026. We’ve already had some drama at Stamford Bridge with the departure of Enzo Maresca, and there’s plenty of Premier League action to review/preview. But let’s just ease up before going full throttle and take in this excellent interview with Jess Carter, the Guardian Footballer of the Year.
A lot of people don’t like the way I play football and that’s absolutely fine, but then attacking someone because of what they look like? I can’t do anything about that one, and I wouldn’t want to. I could never imagine going on to my social media to tell you how I think you’re doing at your job.
