Archive July 30, 2025

The club are “running out” of time, according to Everton manager David Moyes, who claims the club is “going to make the summer transfer window.”

Moyes claimed that his team has money to spend, but the deals they were hoping to close are still unfulfilled.

An attempt to lure Kenny Tete north from Fulham failed when the Dutchman made the decision to sign a new deal at Craven Cottage, while club sources have distanced themselves from a potential move for Manchester City’s unwanted England midfielder Jack Grealish.

Everton has signed young left-back Adam Aznou from Bayern Munich, who has been linked with numerous players.

Moyes said he could not guarantee that Aznou, 19, would be immediately thrust into the senior starting lineup and that bringing in seasoned players to Everton this summer was problematic.

Before his side’s Premier League Summer Series clash with former club West Ham, he told reporters in Chicago, “The truth is we’re not getting a lot of the deals over the line at the moment,” he said.

It will be nine weeks since Everton’s season ended with a win over Newcastle at St James’ Park, which is their best start since 2021.

It appeared as though a reboot of a once formidable club was in the cards with ambitious new owners and a summer move to their magnificent new stadium.

Not as Moyes had hoped it would.

The addition of five seasoned regular starters, including Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Abdoulaye Doucoure, by four new players, including Aznou and reserve keeper Mark Travers, does not account for the loss of these two.

Before making a Premier League Summer Series appearance in the United States, Everton faced League Two rivals Accrington and lost to Championship side Blackburn.

Moyes, 62, claimed he needed six more players after Saturday’s 3-0 loss to Bournemouth.

We’re having a bit of a struggle getting fans in quickly, said Moyes, and the one thing I’ll do is tell the fans straight.

“I think Everton is such a big club with great traditions, and the new stadium is an exciting move for us,” I said.

A World Cup winner doesn’t visit a coffee shop in central Manchester every day.

However, there are no autograph signings or fan selfies. Curtis Anderson’s situation has changed.

As he explains why he abandoned his dream and instead became a financial adviser, Anderson, a former Manchester City goalkeeper, enjoys sipping his flat white in relative tranquility as he sips his flat white.

Anderson is the only player who is no longer playing football at any level out of the 21 players who triumphed in India eight years ago.

Anderson is in charge of the sports department for an independent financial adviser.

He spends the majority of his free time with football players, helping them make informed financial decisions to maximize their earnings from a short career.

According to Anderson, “You can literally change people’s lives by removing financial stresses.”

Making things clearer for people and assisting them keeps me motivated because “people don’t understand the fundamentals of finance.”

“I want to assist as many people as possible.” I’m so passionate about teaching young football players. “

Anderson won the title of world champion on October 28, 2017.

Anderson didn’t miss a minute as Steve Cooper’s men reached the U17 World Cup final in India five months after England spent the majority of its campaign on the bench.

England made a remarkable comeback to defeat Spain 5-2 after going behind 2-0 with the addition of former Premier League stars Phil Foden, who was named player of the tournament, Conor Gallagher, Callum Hudson-Odoi, and Marc Guehi.

Nobody panicked because we were so relaxed and self-assured, Anderson recalls.

We pulled a goal back and then went into half-time believing “we’ve got this.” No one in the dressing room became anxious or crazy. “

Anderson was still at City when the transfer window closed after a failed loan to a Championship club. He sought a move away and sought out more opportunities.

Anderson made the decision to resign from the United Soccer League’s Charlotte Independence in March 2019 with only a few options open.

He regretted making the decision; three months later, Anderson was fired as manager and found himself in disrepute.

What was I in a rush for when I look back and wonder, at age 18? Anderson remarks.

I was “in such a desperate rush to do everything.” I anticipated everything after the World Cup. I didn’t really value the path I was taking when I was watching other young players and what they were up to.

My trajectory would have been straight forward if I had played for City and England. “

Anderson left Wycombe Wanderers for a year before moving to non-league before retiring in 2023.

He claims that the “spark of football” simply wasn’t present.

Anderson was a young footballer like most of the others.

His first experience with football was in his hometown of Barrow-in-Furness, where he both played in the under-six team coached by his father and in the outfield.

Before long, he was scouted by Blackpool, where he played until the two Manchester giants called.

The 11-year-old was both wanted by Manchester United and City, but the latter’s plans for the state-of-the-art City Football Academy swayed him and his family.

It was a challenging transition from a small Cumbrian town to a new city and elite club, but Anderson believes it helped him grow as a person and change his profession years later.

Not many kids are exposed to that, he says, “being in a high performance environment every day, where you try to achieve the highest level, working as hard as you can, and being called out if you’re not at the level.”

It “shaped” you as a person. People frequently ask me if I regret my football career, but I don’t.

Anderson began to wonder how the money he had earned at City had been dwindling away when the Coronavirus lockdown prevented him from finding a new club.

He claims that it was intimidating when I was 17 and unsure of what to do with the money.

After getting advice from the Professional Footballers’ Association, Anderson successfully passed the accounting and finance exams.

He made the decision to pursue a career that was not for him, and he ended up working as a financial adviser close to the home of his parents.

Since then, he has worked in financial planning and financial guidance, turning down numerous offers to join the Football League because of his heartlessness.

His new endeavor gave him a degree of control and security, as well as a sense of purpose that playing lower-league football couldn’t.

He claims that I would frequently receive questions from older players at Wycombe. I became aware that football does not offer enough education and support for finance.

Young people with high earnings do not receive enough education, guidance, and support.

Your first priority should be making plans for life after playing football if you’re a lower-league player. If everything is well, you can financially secure your family for years.

I consider what I currently know to be relevant and need to offer my best assistance to as many football players as possible. “

Does he have any regrets about seeing his former England team-mates win the game?

He says, “I’m proud to see them doing so well; I don’t sit there and wonder what could have happened.”

I’m not envious and have no regrets. Simply put, I have stopped enjoying it. I wouldn’t trade what I’m doing for what I’m doing right now if you offered to put me in their circumstances, where I play week-in-week-out in the Premier League.

Maro Itoje and Willie John McBride were speaking hours apart and from various parts of the world, but a few things connected them. Both were/are locks and, as of last Saturday, both knew how it feels to lead the Lions to a series victory.

The oldest surviving victorious Lions captain is McBride, who is 85 years old and a leader of the immortals of 1974 in South Africa.

Just four people made up that happy band before the weekend, with Finlay Calder (1989 in Australia), Martin Johnson (1997 in South Africa), and Sam Warburton (2013 in Australia). There are now five.

What message do you want to send to Maro? McBride asserts. “Well done, son,” I would say. Bravo. They’ve won a series in the southern hemisphere, which is never simple.

On Saturday morning, I watched it at home. I couldn’t possibly enjoy listening to all the experts’ opinions and the garbage in the club.

“The game was fantastic,” he said. The best image I’ve had in a very long time. I have a hard time understanding modern rugby. Line-outs are no longer what I understand. Nobody knows what’s going on, so I have no idea why they bother doing scrums.

When I was captain, we had 32 players, a coach, and a manager. The backroom staff currently employs more than 32 people. 22 matches were played. Although everything is different, I’d assume that the feeling of victory has not significantly changed.

Generations divide them, but each generation has a unique way of engrossing them. McBride, an Ulster protestant, and an Irish captain who fought in the trenches while others tried to blow them up, played through the Troubles.

Itoje’s admiration for him comes in a different form: through his efforts to provide a quality education to children from Nigeria, the country of his parents’ birth. Through his Pearl Fund, he is changing the lives of young orphans, fatherless, and poverty-stricken youth.

McBride is aware of the impact Itoje would have had on Saturday night, but he is unaware of its significance. When asked about the select band of captains he’s now joined, Itoje replies, “I’m very grateful and it’s obviously a tremendous honor to be in such esteemed company.”

“These occasions and these tours are going to be the experiences I look back on with a lot of nostalgia,” said the woman.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if I found a rugby player from the United Kingdom who said they didn’t want to play for Lion.” Each player values it dearly in their hearts. The players want this for as long as rugby is being played, and they will do it for the rest of their lives.

You can’t shoot at it too much, they say. No one tour is ever guaranteed for the next. It has a special quality. You might never have another opportunity if you don’t miss one.

It’s been said before, but it shouldn’t really work in many ways. You have four distinct societies, four distinct ideologies, and various game-playing and analytical philosophies.

Itoje is currently considered to be one of the greats. When the Lions take on the Wallabies in Sydney’s final dance on Saturday, he will have played in eight straight Lions Tests (seven as a starter).

His captaincy is quiet and almost sage. He frequently makes arrangements with others to deliver the fire and brimstone in the dressing room. He once said that he was “deeply thoughtful, prone to overthinking, actually,” which is part of what makes him interesting.

He plays rugby, is a Christian, and is a fan of politics because he “speaks to my soul” and is a strong advocate for anti-racism. When questioned about the most interesting message he’s received since the series wrapped up last weekend, he claims it came from foreign secretary David Lammy.

Itoje is a lock who wreaks havoc with his will, charisma, and strategic acumen. His durability is incredible. He has played every game of Six Nations history for six years.

He has gone the distance in 37 of his last 38 games for England and the Lions. He speaks like a hard man. A player who joined rugby late and later became captain, but who has made an important impact on the game and who is only 30 years old, to make that mark even bigger.

Which will he keep in mind during this trip: the people or the rugby? It’s difficult to tell apart, he said. In the end, it will be the people, according to Itoje. “The rugby makes it sweeter.

One more step must be taken, turning 2-0 into 3-0, which would mark the Lions’ first consecutive Test victories on the road since McBride’s Lions of 1974.

Itoje remarked, “We want to be a part of something very special. What would be an absolute dream to go out there and perform to the level we believe we can do in order to win the third game is undoubtedly very special, but winning a Lions Test series is one of the most extraordinary things.

Although the first two games were fantastic because we won both games, there is still a sense that we haven’t arranged things in a way that we are confident in. We want to chase down the performance we’ve been looking for, which is what makes us tick.

It would be the first unbeaten tour in Australia since 1974, and it would also be the first time since. McBride can’t help but pull you up when you give him this potent piece of history. Unbeaten ? They were beaten against the Pumas in Dublin, weren’t they? That was included in the tour, wasn’t it?

The great man is still guarding his boys and their place in history more than 50 years later. Always a warrior, once one. Itoje has since enrolled in that program.

Itoje remarked about the need to win the series 3-0 after saying, “I think we owe it to ourselves.

The country’s women’s football revolutionized when England won the European Championship in 2022.

Match attendances increased exponentially, investment increased, and media coverage increased.

But after England triumphed in Switzerland on Sunday to retain their European crown following a dramatic penalty shootout against Spain, England manager Sarina Wiegman said: “We’re not there yet”.

The significance of England’s first major women’s trophy, Euro 2022, will be difficult to overstate. It is the country’s first major women’s trophy.

However, the success of Euro 2025, which is the first major trophy to be won on foreign soil and the first time an English senior team has won a title, may prove crucial in furthering the game’s place in society.

Captain Leah Williamson, speaking before Sunday’s final, said: “You don’t want to be a flash in the pan, a memory, and when we spoke before 2022 we said it was the start of something.

The success of the Lionesses’ game in England is equivalent to the success of the women’s game.

After the Euro 2022 victory, interest in the domestic game piqued with every Women’s Super League club seeing increased attendances the following season. Following the 2023 World Cup, England lost to Spain in the final to a similar effect.

The biggest crowds were attracted to the elite Lionesses’ home stadium, with Arsenal drawing the most and setting a new WSL attendance record of 47, 367 in their first game away from home at Emirates Stadium following Euros.

The Gunners have gone on to break the WSL attendance record another three times, but last season average attendances dropped by 10% compared with the previous campaign.

Attendance increased in the wake of Euro 2022, not just in terms of attendance. Here are some other significant developments:

The players have never shied away from their role in advocating for positive change for women and girls ‘ football.

Lotte Wubben-Moy, England defender, spearheaded an ultimately successful campaign just hours after winning Euro 2022, when the Lionesses’ squad wrote an open letter to the then-government requesting girls’ full access to school football.

Since then, successive governments have taken action, and on Monday, ministers announced plans to double the time that women’s and girls’ football teams are allocated at government-funded sports facilities.

” These girls are constantly using their voice for change, “said former England striker Ellen White.

“Wishing to inspire a country and expanding opportunities for young people and girls.” They are so motivating and want to change. They are perfect role models. “

They have demonstrated that they don’t shy away from speaking out against causes they support. Williamson, who plays for England and wears a rainbow armband in support of LGBTQ+ rights, previously said it was “false to advise players to stick to football and stay away from politics before the men’s World Cup in Qatar.

Before the last Women’s World Cup, former Lionesses goalkeeper Mary Earps called out Nike for failing to sell England women’s goalkeeper shirts, which led to the sportswear giant making a U-turn.

The Lionesses decided they would no longer knee before games because they didn’t think it was having enough of an impact after defender Jess Carter was the subject of racist abuse during Euro 2025. They stated in a statement that it is obvious that football and football must find a different way to combat racism.

Win or lose, the Lionesses feel a sense of responsibility for women’s football and frequently talk about inspiring the next generation of young boys and girls to play.

Williamson said, “Everything we do is for us and our team, but we also do it for the country and the young girls,” after celebrating with fans in central London.

While the legacy of Euro 2022 is clear, everyone involved in women’s football knows there is still a long way to go.

The WSL Football, which has taken over the WSL and WSL 2 this year, called it “a massive ignition moment.”

“In some ways, I think we’re even more prepared to take advantage of this opportunity now that we have the independent business established,” he said. “It’s our job to take the inspiration and take it as quickly and hard as we can.”

Most WSL clubs are reliant on financial support from a men’s team, although London City Lionesses will become the first team with no affiliation with a men’s club to play in the women’s top flight this season.

Positions for clubs are much more precarious outside of the top flight. Blackburn’s latest example is that they made the decision to leave the second tier, or WSL 2, for this season because they could not meet the league’s financial and operational requirements.

Last summer Reading, who were in the WSL as recently as two years ago, decided to withdraw from the second tier and drop to the fifth because of financial issues.

The WSL is on a “good trajectory,” according to FA CEO Mark Bullingham, and success at Euro 2025 will “turbo-charge” that along with plans for grassroots growth.

We want to get to the point where, he said, “we have a job to do” that we need to have boys and girls playing football as boys and girls do, but before that happens, we must have to do it.”

FA director of women’s football, Sue Day, agreed there was much more to be done for women’s football in England.

She stated on Radio 4’s Today program that “we want more games on the TV, we want more opportunities for fans to get involved, we want more money to be able to pay the players with,” and that she wants more children playing in schools.

“So we must really capture this moment and make it everything that girls want football to be like.”

The England team have already shown in the aftermath of their latest triumph that they will continue to make their voices heard.

Manager Wiegman said at a Downing Street reception on Monday: “We need some more investment. We are not yet there.

” In England we’re up there but England needs to stay the trailblazer, it needs to be the big example – the players first but also the Football Association, the clubs, the government, the country, the fans. Let’s continue to lead the pack.

And the players are already making plans for their next steps.

Midfielder Georgia Stanway said:” The point is now we don’t have to keep winning to create a legacy and create change… but the fact that we win, it opens the doors so much more, gives us so much more opportunity to make change.