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AC Milan goalkeeper Mike Maignan looks set to leave the club at the end of the season as a free agent, with no new contract talks scheduled with the Serie A side. Juventus are closely monitoring the situation and are interested in bringing the Frenchman to Turin, while several Premier League clubs, including Chelsea, are also considering a move for the highly-rated keeper.

• Maignan to leave Milan at the end of the season

  With his contract expiring at the end of the season, Maignan can begin negotiating with other clubs as early as January, raising the possibility of leaving Milan on a free transfer. Milan had reportedly offered an extension until 2028, increasing his salary from €2.8 million to €5.5m per year, but he has not been convinced to sign on the dotted line with reporting that no further talks are scheduled between the goalkeeper and club. Juventus have emerged as serious contenders for his signature, hoping to capitalise on the uncertainty and secure one of Europe’s top goalkeepers without a transfer fee.

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  Juventus facing competition from Chelsea

  Premier League clubs have also shown strong interest in Maignan, who has been a key player at Milan since he joined from Lille in 2021, with Chelsea emerging as the most serious contender. The London club are actively searching for a long-term replacement for Robert Sanchez and view Maignan as an ideal fit. Chelsea attempted to sign him in June but failed to reach an agreement with Milan. In fact, they were close to finalising a deal this summer before Milan manager Massimiliano Allegri intervened to block the transfer, partly influenced by the club’s ongoing efforts to sign Strasbourg right-back Guela Doue.

  Chelsea’s chances may now improve, especially as Juventus’ renewed interest in the 30-year-old comes at a difficult moment for the Italian side. UEFA has opened fresh proceedings into alleged financial irregularities between 2022 and 2025, raising the risk of further sanctions. This could weaken Juventus’ ability to compete financially for a top signing.

  With Maignan able to begin talks in January and Milan hesitant over his renewal due to concerns about his long-term fitness, the transfer race is increasingly favouring Premier League bidders – particularly Chelsea, who remain determined to bring him to Stamford Bridge.

• Maignan's impact at Milan

  The France international made an immediate impact at San Siro after replacing Gianluigi Donnarumma, helping the Rossoneri to the Scudetto in the 2021-22 season while recording the most clean sheets in Serie A. His shot-stopping, leadership and calm presence quickly made him one of the league’s standout goalkeepers. However, the following two seasons were disrupted by injuries that affected his consistency and availability, leading to concerns within the club about his long-term reliability. Despite those setbacks, Maignan has returned strongly in the current campaign. He has kept four clean sheets in the league and delivered decisive moments in big matches, including saving penalties from Paulo Dybala and Hakan Calhanoglu in crucial wins over Roma and Inter, respectively. His resurgence has re-established him as a key figure for Milan while also attracting interest from major European clubs.

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  Can Milan extend Maignan's contract?

  Milan have reignited their Serie A title hopes under Allegri, highlighted by Sunday’s derby win over Inter thanks to a goal from Christian Pulisic. With no European commitments this season, Milan are serious title contenders, and the allure of silverware could be used to persuade Maignan to extend his contract. Juventus remain interested, viewing Maignan’s European experience as a valuable asset to rotate with Michele De Gregorio. Meanwhile, Chelsea are expected to reopen talks with his entourage, recalling their previous agreement with the goalkeeper. Enzo Maresca could push for the move, seeing Maignan as a potential final piece to strengthen Chelsea’s title ambitions. Maignan’s decision will be pivotal for Milan, with clubs across Europe keen to secure one of the continent’s top goalkeepers.

Glasgow Rangers underwent a squad overhaul during the summer transfer window after a change in ownership and a change in the coaching department with Russell Martin’s arrival.

Kevin Thelwell also joined as the team’s new sporting director and the former Everton chief was given plenty of money to play with to bolster the squad ahead of the 2025/26 campaign.

Unfortunately, as shown in the graphic above, that ended with Martin winning five of his 17 matches in charge of the Ibrox giants before being relieved of his duties last month.

Thelwell’s attacking signings, in particular, have to be placed under the microscope as he signed Youssef Chermiti from his former club for a fee of £8m, the most money spent on a Rangers signing since Tore Andre Flo for £12m in 2000.

So far, the Portugal U21 international has only scored one goal in all competitions for the Light Blues, which shows that they have not received value for money on that £8m yet.

Chermiti was brought in after the club sold centre-forward Hamza Igamane to Lille for a fee of £10.4m, and it is fair to say that they have not replaced him very well on current evidence.

Where Hamza Igamane ranks in the most expensive Rangers sales

The Morocco international only went for a fee of £10.4m because of a reported release clause in his contract, which would have been in place before Thelwell took over as sporting director, which means that he cannot be blamed for that situation.

Igamane ended his only season with the Ibrox giants with a return of 16 goals and three assists in 49 appearances in all competitions, which included 12 goals in 33 outings in the Scottish Premiership, per Transfermarkt.

The 23-year-old attacker also showcased his quality in the biggest matches, scoring the winner against Celtic in the clip above and scoring four goals in the Europa League.

As you can see in the table above, the Morocco international does still rank as the third-most expensive sale in the club’s history, behind Nathan Patterson and Calvin Bassey, but the release clause possibly stopped him from climbing higher up that list.

His departure has been a big loss for the Gers, on top of that, as Chermiti and fellow summer signing Bojan Miovski have combined for two Premiership goals after coming in to replace him and Cyriel Dessers.

Whilst Igamane was a big loss in the summer, there is a Rangers star attracting interest whose departure from Ibrox would be an even bigger loss for Danny Rohl.

Rangers star attracting interest ahead of January

Journalist Pete O’Rourke has revealed that there are clubs circling around Light Blues central midfielder Nicolas Raskin ahead of the January transfer window.

O’Rourke told Football Insider: “There was interest in Raskin in the summer window from a number of clubs in the Premier League and across Europe as well. There is still interest in the Belgium international and that’s not going to go away.

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“I’m sure clubs are keeping tabs on the situation at Rangers. I don’t think Rangers ideally would want to lose him midway through the season. It would have to be a big, big fee for Rangers to even consider selling him, that’s what I think it would take for them to let him go in January.”

Football Insider adds that the Belgium international is ‘tempted’ by the prospect of a move to the Premier League in January, amid interest from Leeds United and Tottenham Hotspur.

However, as O’Rourke outlined in those comments, it would take a significant fee for the Scottish giants to consider parting ways with the midfield star, whose contract expires at the end of next season.

Why Rangers must keep hold of Nicolas Raskin

The Light Blues must resist any attempts to prise the Belgian star away from Ibrox in January because losing him would be an even bigger blow than it was to sell Igamane in the summer.

Of course, the Morocco international’s goals were important and his absence has been felt, mainly because of Chermiti and Miovski’s struggles, but he mainly impacted games in possession with his attacking play.

Raskin, however, is an exceptional box-to-box midfielder who can influence matches with his play in and out of possession, which means that he is even more important than Igamane to the overall structure of the side.

The 24-year-old star, who scored against Dundee in the Premiership before the international break, produced four goals and ten assists in the Premiership during the 2024/25 campaign, whilst also winning 57% of his duels, per Sofascore.

In the current campaign, the midfielder has delivered one goal and two assists along with 6.7 duels won per game at a success rate of 54%, per Sofascore, which shows that he is impacting matches at both ends.

As you can see in the table above, the Belgium international ranks highly among his teammates in a host of key metrics both in and out of possession in the league this season.

In fact, Raskin ranks within the top 11% of midfielders in the division for duels won (60) and the top 18% for tackles won (20) in the Premiership this season, which shows that he has been a standout defensively both by Rangers and Premiership standards.

The former Standard Liege ace, who was once dubbed “sensational” by former teammate Scott Arfield, is clearly crucial to what the Gers do at both ends of the pitch, with his contributions offensively and defensively.

That is why losing him would be an even bigger blow than when they lost Igamane in the summer, as the Moroccan forward only won 39% of his defensive duels and made 23 tackles over the entire season in the Premiership last term, per FotMob.

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Therefore, even if a ‘big’ offer comes over the desk in the January window, the club should look to keep hold of him until they have the summer window to take their time to replace the midfield star.

Rangers aren’t doing too much to keep the supporters happy right now, and an official club announcement has not gone down too well at all.

Rangers boardroom receiving endless criticism

Thursday’s 3-0 defeat away to Brann in the Europa League was the latest dire result for the Gers, bursting Danny Rohl’s bubble in his opening game in charge, on a night when it was hoped they would turn a corner.

Rangers legend Ally McCoist was one of many not remotely amused by the performance of the players, not holding back in his criticism of the team, on Friday morning: “Last night is probably as depressed as I have been during this whole debacle, because I actually feel for the manager. I don’t know what he is going to do.

“He might improve them in terms of a little bit of organisation – set plays, you can do all that, bits and pieces, but I do not think there is anywhere near the level of improvement in that team that will even be required to get them up the league domestically, to tell you the gospel truth. There are just absolutely miles off it. They are getting outfought, outrun, outmuscled – I mean, it’s actually very sad to watch.”

It isn’t a happy time at Rangers, so it is important that those within the club cause further unrest, but they aren’t helping themselves at the moment.

Rangers kit announcement slammed

On Saturday, Four Lads Had A Dream reacted angrily to Rangers announcing their 2025/26 fourth kit, saying the timing was bad after such a poor run of form: “Great launch. Smashing kit. Timing & awareness of wider feeling, completely ignorant.”

It certainly isn’t the best timing from the Gers, who need to be aware of how frustrated the fans are at what has gone on so far this season, making this a bizarre time to market a chance for fans to invest more of their hard earned money into the club.

While supporters often like new kits, many fans feel that the players aren’t even worthy of wearing it this season, given the nature of the results and performances on show. Hopefully, things change for the better for Rangers from this weekend onwards, with Rohl’s side facing a must-win home clash against Kilmarnock in the Scottish Premiership on Sunday afternoon.

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Yet more dropped points would only further see momentum dropped, and their new boss will be praying that he can mastermind a positive result.

After another successful weekend of Premier League action, Arsenal will have shifted their focus to the Champions League.

Mikel Arteta’s side have been faultless in the competition so far this season, beating Athletic Bilbao, Olympiacos and Atlético Madrid by an aggregate score of 8-0.

The North Londoners will be faced with a fresh challenge on Tuesday night, though, as they take on the fiery Slavia Prague away from home, likely without Viktor Gyokeres.

However, while the Swedish international will be a miss, Arteta could replace him with a youngster who has won some flattering comparisons to Liverpool’s star strikers.

Gyokeres' start to life at Arsenal

To say that there was a lot of pressure on Gyokeres to hit the ground running at Arsenal would be an understatement.

Yes, he didn’t cost anywhere near as much as some other strikers, but he was incredibly prolific for Sporting CP, and the narrative around the Gunners last year was that they were a forward short of winning the Premier League.

So there was a lot of pressure on his shoulders, and while he has had some underwhelming performances and looked a little clunky here and there, it would be fair to say he’s had a reasonable start to life in North London.

For example, while he has not been as lethal as some hoped he would, the Stockholm-born ace has now got six goals to his name, two of which came against a top team in Atlético last time out in the Champions League.

Moreover, against Burnley on Saturday afternoon, the 27-year-old put in what many have described as his best performance in an Arsenal shirt.

Not only did he open the scoring in the 14th minute, but he also helped create the second goal and could have had two assists if Bukayo Saka had his shooting boots on.

Unfortunately, he did come off at halftime, with Arteta later claiming he had a muscular problem.

Since then, Arsenal writer Charles Watts has confirmed that he did not participate in the last training session, and therefore, it appears he won’t be available to play against Slavia.

While this is far from ideal, Arteta does have a solution available to him, and no, it’s not Mikel Merino.

The Arsenal player Arteta should start instead of Gyokeres

With Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus still out injured, Merino feels like the obvious solution to Gyokeres’ absence.

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However, Arteta turned to the Spaniard on Saturday, and the team suddenly became a lot less threatening and fluid.

Therefore, he should be brave and hand yet another start to one of Hale End’s most exciting stars: Andre Harriman-Annous.

It would be a bold move, but the 17-year-old looked lively against Brighton & Hove Albion in the League Cup, and while he didn’t score a goal against the Seagulls, Saka’s goal came from his saved effort.

Moreover, while Merino has more experience, the youngster is far more mobile, and as one analyst points out, “has shades of Isak and Ekitiké” in his game, particularly in the way he can float out wide and come back in.

Another reason he should be given this chance is that he has already proven he can score at the junior level.

For example, in 35 appearances across the u18s and U21s last year, the 17-year-old racked up an impressive tally of 15 goals and three assists.

Appearances

35

Minutes

2559′

Goals

15

Assists

3

Goal Involvements per Match

0.51

Minutes per Goal Involvement

142.16′

Finally, while it would perhaps be foolish of Arteta to start the Hale Ender in the league due to the level of competition, handing him this opportunity in a relatively low-stakes European game against weaker opposition could be the perfect chance to get him more experience.

It would also stop him from risking the only other senior back-up he currently has for Gyokeres.

Ultimately, starting Harriman-Annous would be a gamble, but based on his performances in the academy and last week, it’s one Arteta should take in light of Gyokeres’ injury.

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Keep up to date with all the movements around the counties as preparations are made for the 2026 women’s Tier 1 county season.DurhamIN:
OUT:
OVERSEAS:EssexIN: Liberty Heap (Lancashire)
OUT: Maddie Blinkhorn-Jones, Kelly Castle (both released)
OVERSEAS:HampshireIN: Pippa Sproul (academy)
OUT: Mary Taylor (Warwickshire), Freya Davies (retired), Daisy Mullan (released)
OVERSEAS: Amanda-Jade WellingtonLancashireIN:
OUT: Liberty Heap (Essex), Hannah Rainey (released)
OVERSEAS:The BlazeIN: Emma Jones (Surrey)
OUT: Sarah Glenn (Yorkshire), Scarlett Hughes (released)
OVERSEAS:SomersetIN: Bea Willis (academy)
OUT: Fran Wilson (retired), Laura Jackson, Amelie Munday (both released)
OVERSEAS:SurreyIN: Emily Burke (academy), Rachel King
OUT: Emma Jones (The Blaze), Alexa Stonehouse (Warwickshire – loan)
OVERSEAS:WarwickshireIN: Mary Taylor (Hampshire), Alexa Stonehouse (Surrey – loan)
OUT:
OVERSEAS:YorkshireIN: Sarah Glenn (The Blaze), Olivia Thomas
OUT:
OVERSEAS:

Ruben Amorim has revealed that a blunt and emotionally charged half-time team talk was the catalyst for Manchester United’s much-needed 4-1 victory at Molineux on Monday night, after his side briefly flirted with embarrassment against struggling Wolves. The two teams went in level at the break, but the Red Devils fired in three goals in the second half to walk away with all three points.

• First half scare at Molineux

  United had started brightly and appeared fully in control when Bruno Fernandes swept his team into an early lead. But a lapse in concentration allowed Jean-Ricner Bellegarde to find the equaliser, which ended Wolves’ nine-hour Premier League goal drought. What had been a calm evening suddenly felt volatile, and Amorim insisted the solution was not tactical reinvention, but rather psychological.

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  Amorim reveals what was said during half-time

  Speaking after the match, Amorim said that he demanded more clarity and conviction from his players during the interval.

  "It wasn't tactical," he said. "It was so clear we are dominating the games but not finishing the plays as we should. We need to be better in the details. Trying to explain to the players we have 45 minutes to win the three points that are crucial for our life."

  Amorim criticised the sloppiness that followed Fernandes’ opener, saying it handed Wolves, who are rock bottom of the Premier League with only two points, a belief they didn’t previously have.

  "Once again, after we scored a goal, we were a little bit sloppy on the ball and that gave a little bit of hope to the opponent," he said. "We should have finished that half in the different way, and then in the half time they understood that we have everything to win the game, to win three points – and they did that."

  Despite bouncing back to secure a comfortable win that edges United close to the Champions League spots, Amorim refused to entertain discussions about the significance of sixth place.

  He added: "Nothing. It's always the same feeling we should have more points. But that's in the past, let's focus on the future. Bournemouth (on Monday) is going to be a different world. So we need to to know that, but in our club, it doesn't matter. We need to to improve the way we play."

  The manager also confirmed that United remain in negotiations with Cameroon, the Ivory Coast and Morocco in the hope of delaying the departures of Bryan Mbeumo, Amad Diallo and Noussair Mazraoui for the Africa Cup of Nations.

  "Let's wait for the middle of the of the week," he added. "I don't know for sure, but we are doing our job and the national teams are talking with us and that is a good sign."

• Mount ready for a new beginning at United

  Beyond the victory, one of the night’s most encouraging subplots came from Mason Mount. The midfielder, whose United career has been repeatedly interrupted by injury, scored a crisp volley from a Fernandes cross, his second goal in three matches, in another sign that he is finally rediscovering rhythm. Mount had made only five league starts in each of his previous two United seasons and missed 52 matches across that period. This campaign, however, he has featured in 12 of 15 league fixtures and looks increasingly comfortable in Amorim’s system.

  "Anytime I play I obviously want to play to the best of my ability and perform," Mount told Sky Sports after the win over Wolves. "I've had setbacks. I've had difficult times, I feel now I'm ready to keep pushing on and building on these performances. Getting in the goals, that's the most important thing as a forward player and just keep going and working hard. That's exactly what I'm focusing on now."

  On his volley, Mount added: "As soon as I see Bruno [Fernandes] with the ball and has time and space to turn, that's my trigger to try and get in behind and try and time my run. I thought it was going to be a bit close [to offside] but the defender dropped back and bit and kept me onside. Delighted with that. And as I said before, it was about being ruthless in the second half and finishing our chances off. We all know the calibre of player he [Fernandes] is. When he gets on the ball he's always trying to create something. He's a joy to play with as a player that's higher up the pitch because you know he's having a look and he's going to play the ball over the top."

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  What comes next?

  The win lifted United to within a point of fourth-placed Crystal Palace, strengthening their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League. Amorim knows consistency is now essential. United host Bournemouth next Monday, and the Portuguese coach is determined that the performance at Molineux becomes a platform rather than another fleeting glimpse of promise.