Archive September 1, 2025

Freiburg’s Germany Under-21 midfielder Merlin Rohl has a contract extension that will require him to purchase for £17.3 million in 2026.

As part of David Moyes’ ninth summer transfer window, Rohl, 23, is regarded as an “energetic and athletic” central midfielder.

I’m “absolutely excited and full of joy” to join Everton, Rohl told the club’s website. It has a large club with a strong history and strong supporters.

“I’m excited to join Everton,” I said. The club’s experience seems to be shifting. I’m excited to be a part of the future because it looks promising.

“I’ve closely followed the club’s development. There are many positive things going on with the stadium and the manager.

Dele Alli, a former England international, has left his current job at Como in Italy.

The 29-year-old joined Como in January, but he only made one appearance before being dismissed ten minutes later.

Due to the fact that he was not in Cesc Fabregas’ plans for the 2025-26 season, he has now been released.

“Como and Dele Alli have agreed to mutually terminate his contract,” read a club statement.

Dele wants to secure regular playing opportunities, so both parties felt it was the best course of action to split before the transfer window closed.

Dele had previously been let go by Premier League side Everton in June 2024, and he had already signed an 18-month contract with Como earlier this year.

He made his professional football debut in March, playing for Besiktas on loan from Everton for his first time since February 2023.

The former Tottenham midfielder made his Como debut in the 81st minute, but he was dismissed for a quick challenge on Milan midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek in stoppage time.

Luke Donald is continuity captain for Europe, not just because Bernard Gallacher became the continent’s first repeat skipper in 1995.

For Europe’s attempt to defend the Ryder Cup in what, he claims, will be a Bethpage “bear pit” at the end of this month, choosing 11 of the 12 who won in Rome two years ago makes perfect sense.

In the 161 – 112 victory over Marco Simone two years ago, all six of his wildcard selections participated: Shane Lowry, Sepp Straka, Jon Rahm, Ludvig Aberg, Viktor Hovland, and Matt Fitzpatrick.

The only change is Rasmus Hojgaard’s twin brother Nicolai, who won his debut through automatic qualifying. In Ryder Cup history, there has never been such a lack of player rotation between teams.

And while Marco Penge’s prodigious hitting, Harry Hall’s world-class putting, and Matt Wallace’s passion could all have been advantages, Donald is relying on experience for this task.

Donald told BBC Sport, “It is extraordinary, and even more extraordinary that we recently switched our brother for another.” I never imagined that Rome would be the place where we’ve changed one initial.

Donald wants to find the formula that can give him the first away win since the 2012 “miracle at Medinah” by utilizing that sense of consistency. The skipper is doing that by getting his team ready for the anticipated hostile environment.

Of course, having those memories, those feelings about what we accomplished as a team in Rome is pretty special, he said.

However, I want to approach this with a different perspective, with a different set of eyes, to present this as a unique challenge. This will not be Rome’s style.

“We’re entering the bear pit,” the statement read.

So the approach may be changed, but the personnel may be essentially unchanged. Donald continued, “We have to approach this with a really refreshed view of how we’re going to handle it.”

This was my first thought twenty-seven months ago when I was elevated to the position of captain once more. What have been the shortcomings of previous away Ryder Cups, and how can that be fixed?

I’ve approached it from a different angle of conversation with the players, understanding what the environment necessitates, and thoroughly researching both those factors and best practices.

As a captain, I want to leave these players with fond memories. We must do it in Rome, and hopefully we must do it in New York, giving people a week to remember.

And I thought Rome turned out to be pretty good. Therefore, making this week even better is a big task.

Donald would not know whether he would have preferred Keegan Bradley, his opponent’s player, to have declared himself the playing captain.

The 47-year-old European skipper remarked, “I’ve always tried to keep my leadership around things that I can influence, and that was completely out of my control.

He is one of their best players, they are certain. And if he played, he would be strong.

We also understood that trying to balance both would be difficult if he made the decision. However, they appear to have many plans in place.

He has chosen his course. He has determined that he will succeed in his position with plenty of talent.

“I have a good relationship with Keegan. He’s a good friend of mine, and I am aware that he will try to get his troops pretty fired up.

However, we now enter the fake war, a four-week buildup that will see both teams gain competitive reps on either side of the Atlantic.

This week, Tyrrell Hatton, Shane Lowry, and Rory McIlroy compete in the Irish Open. The team will compete in Wentworth’s BMW PGA Championship the following week along with the rest of the team.

The majority of Bradley’s lineup competes on the PGA Tour at the Procore Championship in Napa, California, on that day.

In the intervening period, there will be a lot of discussion, with neither side overly interested in winning the Bethpage showdown.

Donald has already begun. On paper, they appear to be very strong, he said. That is a good home advantage. So I still think we are “underdogs” in my opinion.

But as expected, armed with potential upsetting the circumstances.

Erik ten Hag, the ex-Manchester United manager, describes Bayer Leverkusen’s decision to fire him after just two league games as “a complete surprise.”

After serving for two and a half years in charge at United, the 55-year-old was only hired by the German club in the summer.

Ten Hag criticized the club’s management in a statement, calling his dismissal “unprecedented” and saying that “this was never a relationship based on mutual trust” for not giving him the “time” or “space” to “implement his vision.”

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was fired by Besiktas on Thursday, and Jose Mourinho left Fenerbahce on Friday, making him the third former United boss in a week.

The previous five-game sacking record was broken by the fastest sacking in Bundesliga history.

“It came as a complete surprise when Bayer Leverkusen chose to give me a leave of absence this morning. It’s unprecedented to end a relationship with a manager after just two league games, Ten Hag said.

“Many important players who were a part of the squad’s successes this summer have left.” Time and trust are required to create a new, cohesive team.

“I had full conviction and drive when I first started this job, but I regret regretfully that the management did not give me the time and trust I needed. This relationship, in my opinion, was never one of mutual trust.

Every season I’ve been able to see through as a coach has resulted in success throughout my career. Clubs who trusted me have received success and silverware.

From their first two league games, Leverkusen have only managed one point.

After leading 2-0 and 3-1 at home to Hoffenheim, they let slip a one-goal lead and lost 2-1 at home to Hoffenheim. On Saturday, they conceded two late goals against 10-man Werder Bremen to draw 3-3.

Ten Hag’s first game in charge was a 4-0 victory over SG Sonnenhof Grossaspach on August 15 with a German Cup win.

After Leverkusen won the German league and cup double in 2023-2019, he was appointed Real Madrid manager and signed a two-year contract with the Spanish national in May.

No one wanted to do this, according to Everkusen’s website, according to managing director Simon Rolfes.

However, recent weeks have demonstrated that using this set-up to create a new and prosperous team is not feasible.

Leverkusen CEO Fernando Carro added that it was painful to end relationships at this early stage of the season.

After losing a number of key players in the summer, Ten Hag was given the task of bedding in more than a dozen brand-new players this year.

Florian Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong both signed for the Reds for a fee that grew to £116 million, and Granit Xhaka and Florian Wirtz both signed for Sunderland for an additional £13 million.

Goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky joined Monaco, while defender Jonathan Tah signed for Bayern Munich on a free transfer, and winger Amine Adli signed for Bournemouth in a deal worth up to £25.1 million.

This summer, Malik Tillman from PSV Eindhoven, Jarell Quansah from Liverpool, and Eliesse Ben Seghir from Monaco all signed for a sum of 88.4 million euros plus add-ons, making them the three most expensive signings in Leverkusen’s history.

Rolfes continued, “This decision was not an easy one for us.”

We firmly believe in the character of our team, and we will make every effort to implement a new set-up as we move forward with our development.

Ten Hag’s replacement was not named by the club, who claimed that “the assistant coaching staff would take over the training work for the time being.”

Carro continued, “We remain determined to achieve our goals for the season, and to do that, we require the best possible conditions at all levels and across the entire first team,” he added.

It’s now necessary to fully implement and use these conditions once more.

Leverkusen, the champions of the Champions League last season, will face Manchester City on November 25 and Newcastle on December 10 as their opponents.