Jose Mourinho has played down his personal rivalry with Pep Guardiola ahead of Saturday s eagerly-awaited Premier League derby between Manchester United and Manchester City.
Mourinho and Guardiola have a long-running feud after the latter was given the Barcelona job over the former in 2008, but the scent of a truce has been in the air in the build-up to the game at Old Trafford.
The Portuguese insisted previous meetings with Guardiola s teams are not relevant and will have no impact on what happens in Saturday s match, with both sides defending 100 per cent records in the Premier League.
They are completely different situations, Mourinho told Sky Sports.
Barcelona is Barcelona, it s not Manchester City. Inter Milan and Real Madrid are not Manchester U…
Jude Bellingham has conceded he did not expect to become as influential for Borussia Dortmund as quickly as he has, crediting the club s coaches for helping his development.
The 19-year-old England international has become an integral part of Edin Terzic s side, starting 52 matches since the start of the 2020-21 campaign.
Moving to the Bundesliga two years ago from Championship outfit Birmingham City, Bellingham s rise has been meteoric – boasting 15 caps for England alongside his vast experience at club level.
While Bellingham has long been touted to become a star, he himself has admitted that things have moved far quicker than he ever anticipated.
All of it has been a bit of a surprise I didn t think I d come here and have the impact that I ve had…
Kylian Mbappe regretted only getting a chance to click with Neymar and Lionel Messi late in Paris Saint-Germain s season and was guarded on how it would affect his future.
Mbappe and Neymar scored hat-tricks as PSG claimed a 6-1 victory over Clermont on Saturday, sending Mauricio Pochettino s men 15 points clear at the Ligue 1 summit.
It was the first time two team-mates have scored trebles in the same top-flight game since Mbappe and Edinson Cavani did so for PSG against Guingamp in January 2019. The most recent occasion prior to that was Albert Gemmrich and Gerard Soler for Bordeaux against Valenciennes in August 1979.
Neymar and Mbappe set one another up once each, while Messi had a trio of assists to become the first player to achieve that on three occasio…
Phil Foden hailed Manchester City s courage after they inflicted a 4-1 defeat on champions Liverpool to take a significant step towards regaining the Premier League title.
Foden played a starring role as City extended their winning run to 14 matches in all competitions – a joint-record for top-flight clubs in England.
City had to stay patient after Ilkay Gundogan missed a first-half penalty, but their opener arrived when Alisson pushed Foden s shot to the feet of the Germany midfielder.
Mohamed Salah equalised from the penalty spot, Liverpool s first home league goal in 410 minutes, before glaring Alisson errors took the game away from Jurgen Klopp s side again.
Foden superbly set up Gundogan when Alisson gifted him the ball, then the goalkeeper playe…
Brad Friedel believes the authorities are doing as much as they possibly can when it comes to treatment of concussions in football.
Questions were raised about the decision to keep Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez on the pitch after he took a blow to the head during the 4-0 defeat to Newcastle United last week.
Martinez was eventually replaced, but it led to the Professional Footballers Association to call for temporary concussion substitutes to be introduced to the game.
Speaking to Stats Perform, former Villa shot stopper Friedel said the protocol is improving for dealing with such incidents.
Concussions are tough to detect, he said. We play without helmets and, of course Petr Cech did in his career because he had a fractured skull [but] you do…
According to Washington Post, DC United are interested in signing Mesut Ozil from Arsenal.
Though extremely influential for the Gunners when on form, the attacking midfielder has often been criticized for a lack of consistency throughout his time at the Emirates. He joined the club in 2013 from Real Madrid, and he has so far played 231 competitive games for them, scoring 43 goals. He has helped Arsenal win the FA Cup three times.
There has been plenty of speculation about his future in the last 18 months or so, despite him signing a new contract that has made him the best-paid player at the club in February 2018.
DC United are set to lose Wayne Rooney who will be returning to England at the turn of the year as a player-coach for Derby County, and they are lookin…
Liverpool are back on our perch after winning the Champions League, according to the club s chief executive Peter Moore.
The Reds beat Tottenham in Madrid in June to lift the famous trophy and make amends for their loss in the 2018 final.
Manchester United s legendary boss Alex Ferguson famously said on his arrival at Old Trafford that he wanted to knock Liverpool right off their perch with the Anfield club then the dominant force in English football.
While Liverpool are still yet to win the title in the Premier League era, Moore feels Liverpool have now usurped their old rivals, who have struggled since Ferguson s 2013 retirement, thanks to their steady growth and the work of their manager, Jurgen Klopp.
We lived through some dark times of a diffic…
Former Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko has been handed a lifetime ban from involvement in future Olympic Games by the IOC.
Mutko, who held the post from 2008 to 2016 and is now deputy prime minister, was sanctioned on Tuesday after the release of the Schmid Report, commissioned by the IOC, confirmed allegations of widespread manipulation of anti-doping procedures during his tenure, chiefly at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Based on the findings of the report, the IOC Executive Board also announced a ban on Russian athletes at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, though individuals will be able to compete under a neutral flag if they comply with strict conditions.
Mutko serves as president of the Russian Football Union and chairman of the World …
Connor Wickham scored his first goal in more than two years as Crystal Palace compounded a miserable week for Tottenham with a 2-0 FA Cup fourth-round win at Selhurst Park.
Wickham had not started a match for Palace since November 2016, thanks largely to a long-term knee injury, but he needed just nine minutes to score his first goal in 799 days as a Spurs side featuring eight changes started slowly.
Palace kept the pressure on and won a penalty that ex-Spurs winger Andros Townsend converted after 34 minutes, and when Tottenham won a spot-kick of their own at the other end Kieran Trippier blasted it well wide.
Spurs improved in the second half with Erik Lamela on the pitch but, in the absence of the injured Dele Alli and Harry Kane, Mauricio Pochettino s men – …
Romelu Lukaku s reported £75million switch to Manchester United sees the Belgium international become the fifth most expensive player in history.
The Everton striker was prised away from Goodison Park by Jose Mourinho as United look to strengthen their attacking options following the departure of Zlatan Ibrahimovic after one season at Old Trafford.
United pipped Premier League rivals Chelsea to Lukaku s signature but had to splash the cash in order to get the 24-year-old.
The deal sees Lukaku knock Luis Suarez s switch from Liverpool to Barcelona out of the top-five transfers, but his fee is some way behind the amount United paid for Paul Pogba.
Here, we take a look at football s big movers that now includes Lukaku.
Paul Pogba Juven…