Archive June 20, 2025

Premier League clubs are busy preparing their squads for the start of the 2025-26 season, which kicks off on August 15 when champions Liverpool take on Bournemouth at Anfield. The summer transfer window is in full swing.

Significant agreements have already been made.

Liverpool have agreed a £116m deal to sign Germany attacking midfielder Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen, and are in talks to sign Bournemouth’s Hungary left-back Milos Kerkez for a fee of around £40m-£45m.

Meanwhile, Manchester City confirmed the signings of AC Milan and Netherlands midfielder Tijjani Reijnders for an initial fee of £46.5 million, while Brazil forward Matheus Cunha moved from Wolves for a sum of $ 62.5 million.

However, there are plenty of bargains to be struck because many seasoned Premier League players are free to sign for free until July 1st.

Will they stay in England’s top-flight – or move elsewhere?

Lukasz Fabianski will leave West Ham after seven years with the Hammers after turning 40 in April.

The Polish goalkeeper, however, appears to be in no hurry to hang up his gloves.

The veteran of 376 Premier League appearances – and 92 clean sheets – for Arsenal, Swansea and the Hammers won the FA Cup with the Gunners in 2014 and was on the bench when West Ham beat Fiorentina to win the Conference League in 2023.

Could Fabianski make a solid backup with that level of experience?

He signed for £1 million from Fleetwood Town, and he joins Leicester City with 200 goals.

Jamie Vardy, 38, is unlikely to be short of offers despite his age. His goals helped Leicester win the Premier League title in 2015-16 and the FA Cup in 2020-21.

According to reports, the former England striker is wanted by Rangers.

What will Christian Eriksen do after a successful career that included playing for Ajax, Tottenham, Inter Milan, Brentford, and Manchester United?

Victor Lindelof and Jonny Evans will all leave Old Trafford this summer, according to United.

Will Eriksen return to homeland or look to sign for another Premier League club?

Danny Ings, 17, made his first appearance for the Cherries in the 2009 EFL Trophy while they were in League Two.

Fast forward 16 years and the forward, who has scored 72 goals in 240 Premier League appearances for Burnley, Liverpool, Southampton, Aston Villa and West Ham, is looking for a new club.

According to reports, Wrexham, who are funded by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, want Ings, who made his final three appearances for England in 2020.

Even though Everton released him, Ashley Young claims he has no plans to retire on July 9 and that he is celebrating his 40th birthday.

Full-back Young has spent most of his career playing in the Premier League for Watford, Aston Villa and Manchester United, while he also enjoyed a stint in Italy with Inter Milan, before joining the Toffees in 2023.

I’m not ready to retire, Young told Talksport in May, “I just want to keep playing, however that may look, however that may appear.”

The 485 Premier League veteran has been linked with Wrexham, a newcomer to the championship.

A product of the Manchester City academy, Ben Mee spent a decade at Burnley before moving to Brentford following the Clarets ‘ relegation at the end of the 2021-22 season.

As Brentford finished ninth in his first season, the defender won the supporters’ player of the year award.

Mee, 35, has made 277 total Premier League appearances for Brentford, totaling 67 times overall.

Will Neal Maupay stay in France after spending the season on loan at Marseille?

After a incredibly disappointing three years on the books at Goodison Park, Everton have unsurprisingly decided not to offer the French forward, 28, a new contract.

The Toffees have only allowed one goal in their 29 Premier League games.

Maupay disrespected Everton on social media when, after the club’s 2-0 home defeat by Nottingham Forest in December, he posted on X:” Whenever I’m having a bad day, I just check the Everton score and smile. “

Victor Lindelof, 30, will still feel confident that he can continue to perform well elsewhere in Europe.

The Sweden defender, who is leaving Manchester United after eight years, has been linked with moves to his former club, Fulham, Everton, West Ham, Wolves, Fenerbahce, and many others.

Lindelof made 194 Premier League appearances for United and helped the club win the EFL Cup in 2022-23 and the FA Cup in 2023-24.

Lindelof is said to want to stay in the Premier League.

Everton will be a part of my life today, I promise. I will be forever Blue, “said Abdoulaye Doucoure after confirming he was leaving the club after five years.

In a famous winner against Bournemouth against Bournemouth on the final day of the 2022-23 season, Mali midfielder Doucoure, 32, ensured Premier League survival.

Carlo Ancelotti, Rafael Benitez, Frank Lampard, Sean Dyche, and David Moyes were the five permanent Everton managers who he served at Goodison Park.

Doucoure is a reported target for Leeds United as they get ready for their Premier League return.

When his contract expires at the end of the month, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who joined Everton from Sheffield United on deadline day in August 2016, may decide to leave.

The 28-year-old has scored 57 goals in 239 Premier League appearances.

He endured another tough season at Goodison Park and only found the target three times in the 2024-25 league campaign, but his top-flight know-how and his role as a central striker still only in his late 20s, is sure to attract interest.

Everton have confirmed that discussions are ongoing between the forward’s representatives regarding new terms are ongoing.

Coufal, 32, served the Hammers for five years and played in the 2023 Uefa Conference League final when West Ham defeated Fiorentina 2-1 in Prague.

With Everton, Leeds, and Wolves all linked with a move, the Czech Republic defender has 147 Premier League appearances but has potential.

Kyle Walker-Peters’ contract expires on June 30, 2025, after initially joining Southampton on loan from Tottenham in 2020.

The 28-year-old is set to move away from St. Mary’s after five years where he has established himself as a consistent and quality performer at full-back.

Walker-Peters was named in the Championship team of the year after Southampton’s promotion to the top flight at the end of the 2023-24 campaign and made a 33 out of the possible 38 Premier League appearances.

In the upcoming days, some famous names will be out of contract.

Cristiano Ronaldo, who now plays in the Saudi Pro League for Al-Nassr, is one of those whose deal is up.

However, the 40-year-old Portuguese superstar appears to be working out of a new contract with his club.

Neymar, 33, signed a short-term deal with his hometown team Santos in January and becomes a free agent there as well.

Argentina vs. the British and Irish Lions

Dublin’s Aviva Stadium Date: Friday, June 20 Kick-off: 20:00 BST

Building relationships has always been more important than tactics and systems for British and Irish Lions manager Andy Farrell, who believes the latter.

He frequently makes his desire for players to become the “best versions of themselves” when speaking to the media. The best “versions” are not the best tacklers, goal-kickers, or scrummagers, but the best ones.

Ask the players about Farrell, and they will gush. Johnny Sexton is more familiar with him than most. He currently plays for the backroom team of his country’s British and Irish Lions. He was Ireland’s captain under him.

Sexton compared watching Farrell in Lions’ camp to being “amazing to see already.”

Everyone has a voice and a say in the first week, and he’s already made the standard of training, the atmosphere, and the environment really inclusive.

When you’ve won or lost the series, Andy doesn’t want people to say “we should have done this, we should have done that,” he says. “The last thing Andy wants is fast forward four or five weeks.”

He desires your intervention right away. That’s the best aspect of the environment, because it’s a very special place to be right now, and I’m confident that things will improve.

The decision-makers for the British and Irish Lions unanimously supported Farrell as the man to lead the summer’s tour to Australia. Farrell’s ability to convey clarity and confidence to those in his orbit extended to them.

No one was surprised when he was appointed as the head coach in January 2024.

When he leads the Lions into Friday’s pre-tour game against Argentina in Dublin, the 50-year-old is finally prepared to tackle one of rugby’s most challenging coaching challenges.

Farrell’s leadership abilities were present at a young age, but in a different code.

He was only 16 when he first started playing rugby league, became the youngest Challenge Cup winner in 1993, and became the youngest player to lead Great Britain at age 21.

In the 13-man discipline, things weren’t all that good. Twenty of his 34 Test appearances in Great Britain ended in defeat, and he was the tour’s captain in 1996, which saw New Zealand suffer three Test defeats.

The loose-kicking goalie had the idea of competing in Australia’s National Rugby League, which he regarded as the pinnacle of the game.

However, he made the decision to switch to rugby union with Saracens in 2005 after a move down under failed.

His quest to become a cross-code phenomenon was hampered by injuries. Although his 2007 World Cup was severably short due to a calf issue, he still retained his enthusiasm to become a coaching powerhouse despite winning eight caps for England.

Before joining Stuart Lancaster’s England team as the defense coach in time for the 2012 Six Nations, he had the opportunity to work for Saracens as Mark McCall’s assistant.

You need a strong second voice in the changing room, someone who can lift some of the load off your shoulders a little bit, both as a player and as a head coach, as you could tell from him. Andy played that part for me, Lancaster stated in a statement released last year on the BBC’s Rugby Union Weekly podcast.

Before the final third Test against Australia, Lancaster also referred to Farrell as a “great orator,” which Lancaster later made known when he addressed the now-famous “hurt arena” address to the British and Irish Lions squad.

Within a month of his England exit, which occurred following the 2015 World Cup, the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) decided to appoint him Ireland defense coach under Joe Schmidt.

Although Farrell and Schmidt had a three-year apprenticeship, it quickly became apparent that Farrell’s coaching approach to coaching was fundamentally different from the New Zealander’s.

He emphasized the significance of holding presentation ceremonies that frequently involved the players’ families, which would seem appropriate in a Lions setting where many players don’t know each other. This is done because many players don’t know each other.

In the beginning of Farrell’s rule, Ireland lock Iain Henderson said, “There’s a different mentality around the place – a different relationship between players and coaches and a different relationship between players and players, going over things together.”

“Before, the guys might have been a little hesitant when they asked questions and went out. out of fear that others will think they are unaware of their particular knowledge.

Sexton’s comments echo Henderson’s words five years later. It demonstrates how important it is for Farrell to create a collaborative environment during training and to empower the players to express their opinions.

Sexton, who had struggled with his first two years in charge, was forced to come out in favor of him.

Soon, however, Farrell took over one of Ireland’s greatest periods, with speculation that he might become the next Lions manager starting to grow. In 2022, Ireland won a historic series victory in New Zealand under Farrell.

Since taking over as Lions manager, Farrell has kept what he knows, pulling 16 Ireland players out of his squad along with four coaches: Sexton, Simon Easterby, Andrew Goodman, and John Fogarty, all of whom will be absent on Friday.

In addition, he took the squad to a pre-tour training camp in Portugal’s Quinta do Lago, which has previously been Ireland’s warm-weather base prior to the Six Nations and World Cup.

Although it is still early in the process, Farrell has already made a lasting impression on those who have first gotten in touch with him.

Welsh scrum-half Tomos Williams described him as having “such an aura around the place.”

When he speaks, “everyone turns their heads.” He has always been a class act, and his attention to detail and clarity are exceptional.