• Mowbray took charge of eight games after January appointment
• He plans to return to game after recovery and time with family

Birmingham City have announced Tony Mowbray has stood down as manager as he targets making a full recovery after major surgery for an unnamed illness.

Mowbray temporarily stepped down in February before taking a formal leave of absence in March but will not return to the dugout at St Andrew’s. He won four of his eight games after being appointed in January.

Continue reading...

Oleksandr Usyk’s scrap with Tyson Fury in Saudi Arabia upheld the sport’s time-honoured tradition of sportswashing

I bought the fight. Obviously I bought the fight. It cost £24.95, money that was previously sitting in my “ethical” bank account until I decided to exchange it for the privilege of watching two men hit each other in the face live from Saudi Arabia. I tell you this so you can be assured that what follows comes from no place of sanctimony or moral purity or even intellectual coherence. Cuff me. Haul me in. What is the charge? Enjoying a fight? A succulent heavyweight boxing fight ?

This is the evil genius of big-time boxing: it speaks to the darkest recesses of your soul, strips away the layers of equivocation and apologia, forces you to stare at the ugly thing until you can lie to yourself no longer. As Mike Tyson almost said, everyone has a principle until they want to watch someone get punched in the face. Terrible men throughout history have known this as fact, and perhaps the nicest thing we can say about the rulers of Saudi Arabia is that they are at least following a time-honoured tradition.

Continue reading...

At AZ and Feyenoord I encountered a coach who was tactically sharp, an exceptional analyst and an astute man-manager

I was playing at FC Groningen when my teammate Etiënne Reijnen told me: “I’ve been called by my former teammate Arne, who was asking about you; how you are as a player and person.” That was my introduction to Arne Slot. He was assistant at AZ and I was told he was a very good coach. Soon after, I moved there and got to know him as a very tactical and knowledgable coach, who took a genuine interest in you as a human being as well.

As an assistant he did the tactical team talks and analysis of training sessions and he was very detailed, providing solutions to game situations while working on it in training. He motivated me every day to become a better player, to have a bigger goal in mind and to work very hard for that. So I already had that bond with him when he became head coach at AZ after a year and a half.

Continue reading...

The best managers, finest signings and most dramatic matches – plus the biggest flops and greatest gripes of the season

Martin Ødegaard and Declan Rice were the driving forces in Arsenal’s midfield that pushed Manchester City all the way, and William Saliba excelled in the division’s meanest defence while barely breaking sweat. The blistering late-season form of Cole Palmer, Ollie Watkins and Michael Olise also deserve a mention, although it’s hard to look past City’s two most influential players this season: Phil Foden and Rodri . Foden came of age in the lengthy absence of an injured Kevin De Bruyne and has deservedly been crowned player of the year by the Premier League and Football Writers’ Association . Rodri was mystifyingly left off the shortlist for the former but his achievement of going the season unbeaten in a City shirt, other than in a game lost on a shootout, underlined his importance to everything they do. Ed Aarons

Continue reading...

As many of the world’s most talented golfers with disabilities returned to Woburn Golf Club to compete in the G4D Open, our photographer was there to take in the action and share some of the competitors’ stories

You might have thought that last week the entire golfing world only had eyes for the second major of the year, the US PGA . But away from the action on the course at Valhalla and off the course at Louisville police station , another major was happening, the G4D Open, essentially a version of the Open Championship for the world’s best disabled golfers.

Established last year, this 54-hole championship, held in partnership with the R&A and the DP World Tour, was the most inclusive to date. A total of 80 competitors from 19 countries, men and women, amateur and pro, featured in nine sport classes across multiple disabilities. The tournament took place at the beautiful Duchess Course at Woburn in Buckinghamshire.

Golfers on the 14th green during day two of the golf for disabled G4D Open at the Duchess Course, Woburn Golf Club.

Continue reading...

• Left-back Luke Shaw one of several fitness concerns
• Southgate selects provisional squad for Euro 2024 on Tuesday

Gareth Southgate will give his defensive injury doubts the opportunity to prove their fitness when he names his provisional England squad for Euro 2024 on Tuesday – with Luke Shaw and the left-back position his greatest headache.

The England manager is pleased that Uefa have given the go-ahead to a continuation of 26-man squads for the finals rather than reverting to 23; he offered his backing to the move at a coaches meeting in April largely because of the uncertainty he has over a number of players.

Continue reading...

• Charge relates to incident at Exeter’s Sandy Park in November
• Former England international posted details on social media

A 31-year-old man is to be charged with racially aggravated harassment of the former England international Ugo Monye.

Devon and Cornwall police confirmed on Monday that the man will appear before Exeter magistrates’ court on 24 July following an incident at Sandy Park after the Chiefs’ victory against Gloucester last November.

Continue reading...

• Club face competition from Chelsea and Manchester United
• Robert De Zerbi left Amex Stadium by mutual consent

Brighton are pushing to complete a deal to appoint Kieran ­McKenna as Roberto De Zerbi’s replacement, but they still face competition from Chelsea and Manchester United for the Ipswich manager.

McKenna, who has emerged as one of the brightest young managers in the country after masterminding Ipswich’s promotion to the Premier League, is in line to move to the Amex Stadium if all the pieces fall in place. It is understood that certain obstacles have to be overcome if McKenna is to join Brighton, who have a vacancy to fill after parting company with De Zerbi by mutual consent.

Continue reading...

This feels like an act of disruption from club’s US investors but there is logic to appointing a super-smart yet low-cost tyro

Welcome, then, to the dicing and slicing of Arne Slot. As ever with the appointment of a new manager at one of the Premier League’s heritage-level clubs, it is necessary to make a prediction; to judge before anything has actually happened whether this will prove to be a successful hire.

The real answer to which is, of course: nobody knows. Football is a field of endless variables. Even the most dominant manager has a diminishing range of influence. Every appointment is a gamble, every managerial hire a playing of the slots.

Continue reading...