manager

Ray Montgomery is just three weeks into his interim tenure as Angels manager. And as his responsibility grows, he’s well aware that so does the pressure.

“All blame, no credit,” he said Monday as the Angels began a seven-game homestand before the All-Star break. “And I get that. That’s just how it goes.”

Since taking over as manager on June 20 for Ron Washington — who will remain on medical leave until the end of the 2025 season — Montgomery has guided the Angels (44-46) to an 8-8 record entering Tuesday.

They’ve had the good: taking two of three from the Braves in Atlanta last week. And they’ve had the bad: getting swept by the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre over the weekend.

Montgomery said he understands the expectations aren’t what they were a few years ago — when the Angels lost 89 or more games from 2022 to 2024 — and that the Angels aren’t so far away from their first postseason berth since 2014 thanks to their young core having a few seasons under its belt.

“We’re not here to develop, although that’s a piece to what we do,” Montgomery said. “We’re here to win. And for the Angels, it’s important for us to have an opportunity where we are.”

If anything, there’s a case to be made that the Angels could be over .500 if a few plays had gone their way. Since Montgomery took over as manager, the Angels are 2-5 in one-run ball games, including all three games in the Toronto series.

When asked what the Angels need to do or adjust to end up on the other end of those one-run contests — of which they’d been 17-11 across the full season — Montgomery pointed to big swings and specific plays.

“You can point to the big hits, I get it, but you can also point to the execution on smaller plays, too, that prevent runs,” he said. “We made some mistakes in those games.”

The Angels got one of those big plays on Monday night. Nolan Schanuel drew a walk-off walk for a 6-5 victory over the Rangers, wiping away miscues such as a dropped third strike that led to a score-tying RBI double.

Montgomery, in his fifth year with the Angels — fourth as a member of the coaching staff — turned to a decision he made in Atlanta last week as proof that one moment can change the game.

Against the Braves last week, Yusei Kikuchi had been brilliant. The Japanese left-hander was two-thirds into the sixth inning of his then-scoreless outing. Instead of keeping Kikuchi — at 100 pitches — in to try to finish off the side as he worked through the Braves lineup for the third time, Montgomery pulled the left-hander in favor of right-hander Ryan Zeferjahn with two runners on base.

It backfired. Sean Murphy, who struck out twice against Kikuchi earlier in the game, hit a three-run home run to give the Braves a 3-2 lead, an advantage that would turn into an 8-3 loss.

“If I leave Kikuchi in Atlanta, right, and he gets a guy he handled pretty good during the game, we may sweep that series too,” Montgomery said. “[Games are] magnified now — I get it.”

Decisions like those are where Washington and Montgomery’s managerial strategies may differ. Washington, a longtime MLB coach, comes from an era of giving starting pitchers a longer leash (it goes hand in hand with the Angels using just five starting pitchers so far in 2025).

Montgomery, who comes from a scouting background in his post-playing career, may value analytical strategy more — holding pitchers from facing a lineup a third time through the order and playing matchups more.

Angels catcher Travis d’Arnaud, who has played for new-school managers that emphasize analytics such as Kevin Cash, as well as old-school managers such as Terry Collins, says Montgomery toes the line in between both managerial styles.

“He’s got a good feel,” d’Arnaud said. “He trusts the staff, which is really good, and also trusts the bullpen, which is also really good. He has really good communication with every player, lets them know when they’re playing — which is more of a younger thing — and so it’s a mix of both [new- and-old school].”

Strategy could be the difference between Murphy facing Zeferjahn rather than Kikuchi. Strategy may be the difference between a win and a loss — or staying in contention for an American League wild-card spot.

“It’s tough to say,” right-hander Jack Kochanowicz said when asked about the difference between Washington and Montgomery. “You feel like each game is different. It’s hard to really put an identity to either one of them, especially since Ray’s so new to it, too. It’s a small sample size.”

For Montgomery, he said he’s not going to dwell on the could-have-beens. Squarely in the chase — and in the zone between the franchise deciding between buying and selling at the trade deadline — he’s just happy the Angels are in the conversation.

“If you told us coming up on the All-Star break, that we were in the mix a couple games above or below .500 — and I’m not ignorant of the fact that we’ve cost ourselves a few games, we should be a little better than we are — I would be happy with where we sit right now,” Montgomery said.

As the manager of Guns N’ Roses during the band’s debauched heyday, Alan Niven has no shortage of colorful stories.

The LAPD fetching Axl Rose from his West Hollywood condo and bringing him directly to the stage so Guns N’ Roses could open for the Rolling Stones at the L.A. Coliseum.

Slash going off script and taking a Winnebago for a joyride — and then standing in rush hour traffic and brandishing a bottle of Jack Daniels — while filming the “Welcome to the Jungle” music video.

Guitarist Izzy Stradlin carrying a $750,000 cashier’s check that Niven had to take from him and hide in his own shoe for safekeeping during a raucous trip to New Orleans.

About 15 minutes into a thoughtful Zoom conversation, the garrulous Niven poses a question of his own: “Why was I managing Guns N’ Roses?”

Given what he describes, it is a good question.

“Because nobody else would do it,” he says, noting that the band’s former management firm “could not get away fast enough” from the group. “No one else would deal with them. Literally, I was not bottom of the barrel, darling — I was underneath the barrel. It was desperation.”

Case in point: his very first Guns N’ Roses band meeting. On the way into the house, Niven says, he passed by a broken toilet and “one of the better-known strippers from [the] Sunset Strip.” Stradlin and Slash were the only ones who’d shown up. Once the meeting started, Stradlin nodded out at the table and Slash fed “a little white bunny rabbit” to a massive pet python.

“And I’m sitting there going, ‘Keep your cool. This may be a test. Just go with it and get through it.’ But that was my first GNR meeting.”

These kinds of stranger-than-fiction anecdotes dominate Niven’s wildly entertaining (and occasionally jaw-dropping) new book, “Sound N’ Fury: Rock N’ Roll Stories.” With brutal honesty and vivid imagery, he describes the challenges of wrangling Guns N’ Roses before and after the band’s 1987 debut, “Appetite for Destruction.” These include mundane business matters (like shooting music videos on a budget) and more stressful moments, such as navigating Rose’s mercurial moods and ensuring that band members didn’t take drugs on international flights.

But “Sound N’ Fury” also focuses extensively on Niven’s time managing the bluesy hard rock band Great White, whose lead singer, the late Jack Russell, had his own struggles with severe addiction. To complicate the entanglement, Niven also produced and co-wrote dozens of the band’s songs, including hits “Rock Me” and “House of Broken Love.”

Niven mixes delightful bits of insider gossip into these harrowing moments: firing for bad behavior future superstar director Michael Bay from filming Great White’s “Call It Rock ’n’ Roll” music video; Berlin’s Terri Nunn sending President Reagan an 8-by-10 photo with a saucy message; clandestinely buying Ozzy Osbourne drinks on an airplane behind Sharon Osbourne’s back.

And his lifelong passion for championing promising artists also comes through, including his recent advocacy for guitarist Chris Buck of Cardinal Black.

Unsurprisingly, Niven says people had been asking him for “decades” to write a book (“If I had $1 for every time somebody asked me that, I’d be living in a castle in Scotland”). He resisted because of his disdain for rock ‘n’ roll books: “To me, they all have the same story arc and only the names change.”

A magazine editor paid him such a huge compliment that he finally felt compelled to write one.

“He said, ‘I wish I could write like you,’ ” Niven says. “When he said that, it put an obligation on me that I couldn’t shake. Now I had to be intelligent about it and go, ‘Well, you hate rock ‘n’ roll books, so what are you going to do?’ ”

Niven’s solution was to eschew the “usual boring, chronological history” and structure “Sound N’ Fury” more like a collection of vignettes, all told with his usual dry sense of humor and razor-sharp wit.

“If you tell the stories well enough, they might be illuminating,” he says. “I saw it more as a record than I did a book. And you hope that somebody will drop the needle in at the beginning of the record and stay with the record until it’s over.

“For me, dialogue was key — and, fortunately, they were all more f— up than I was,” he adds. “So my memory of the dialogue is pretty good. … There’s some dialogue exchanges in there that imprinted themselves for as long as I live.”

One of the artists that doesn’t get much ink in “Sound N’ Fury” is another group known for its hedonistic rock ‘n’ roll behavior, Mötley Crüe.

“The fact that people are still interested in what you’ve got to say about things that happened 30 years ago is almost unimaginable,” Alan Niven says.

(ECW Press)

Niven promoted and facilitated distribution of the independent release of the band’s 1981 debut, “Too Fast for Love” and helped connect Mötley Crüe with Elektra Records. He doesn’t mince words in the book or in conversation about the band, saying he feels “very ambivalent about the small role I played in the progression of Mötley Crüe because I know who they are. I know what they’ve done to various people. I know how they’ve treated certain numbers of women. And I am not proud of contributing to that.

“And on top of that, someone needs to turn around and say, ‘It’s a thin catalog that they produced,’ in terms of what they produced as music,” he continues. “There’s not much there and it’s certainly not intellectually or spiritually illuminating in any way, shape or form. They are brutish entertainers, and that’s it.”

Still, Niven says he didn’t hesitate to include the stories that he did in “Sound N’ Fury,” and by explanation notes a conversation he had with journalist Mick Wall.

“He sent me an email the other day saying, ‘Welcome to the club of authors,’ ” he recalls. “And I’m going, ‘Yeah, right. You’ve been doing it all your life. I’m just an enthusiastic amateur.’ And he said, ‘Welcome to the club — and by the way, it’s cursed.’”

Niven pondered what that meant. “A little light bulb went on in my head, and I went, ‘Ah, yes, the curse is truth,’ because a lot of people don’t want to hear the truth and don’t want to hear what truly happened.

“There are people in the Axl cult who won’t be happy. There will be one or two other people who won’t be happy, but there’s no point in recording anything unless it’s got a truth to it.”

Niven says when the book was done, he didn’t necessarily gain any surprising insights or new perspectives on what he had documented.

“The fact that people are still interested in what you’ve got to say about things that happened 30 years ago is almost unimaginable,” he says. “I never used to do interviews back in the day. But at this point, it would just be graceless and rank bad manners not to respond.

“Occasionally people go, ‘Oh, he’s bitter,’” Niven continues. “No, I am not. I don’t think the book comes off as bitter. Many times I’ve said it was actually a privilege to go through that period of time because I didn’t have to spend my life saying to myself, ‘I wonder what it would have been like to have had a No. 1. To have had a successful band.’ Well, I found out firsthand.”

Niven stresses firmly that management was more than a job to him.

“It was my way of life,” he says. “People who go into management and think it’s a job that starts maybe at about half past 10 in the morning once you’ve had your coffee and then you check out at six, they’re not true managers.

“They’re not in management for the right reasons,” he adds. “Rock ‘n’ roll is a way of f— life. It’s 24/7, 365. And that was my approach to it.”

PORTO manager Martin Anselmi is reportedly set to be sacked after the club’s dismal Club World Cup form.

Porto failed to win a single game in the competition as they were dumped out in the group stages – sparking angry reaction from fans.

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Anselmi, 39, was only appointed in January, but Portuguese outlet CMTV have reported that he is now set to be dismissed.

The manager is said to already be aware he will be sacked, despite his current deal running until 2027.

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Brentford set-piece coach Keith Andrews is frontrunner for the vacant manager’s job at Gtech Community Stadium.

BBC Sport understands the club are not putting a timescale on the appointment, and discussions are progressing well.

The Bees have been looking for a new boss since Thomas Frank left for Tottenham Hotspur this month.

Andrews, 44, was appointed to Brentford’s coaching staff in July 2024, after being part of Sheffield United’s backroom team. This would be the Irishman’s first managerial role.

Between 2020-23, Andrews was assistant manager to Stephen Kenny for the Republic of Ireland, after winning 35 caps for the country.

As a midfielder, he began his career at Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1999 and also played for Hull City, MK Dons and Blackburn Rovers.

Other candidates linked with the Brentford job have included Ange Postecoglou, Kieran McKenna and Francesco Farioli.

Frank, 51, was in charge of Brentford for seven years, guiding them from the Championship to the Premier League in 2021.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts will serve a one-game suspension Friday night against the Nationals after Thursday’s benches-clearing altercation against the San Diego Padres.

In addition to the suspension, Major League Baseball announced Roberts was fined an undisclosed amount. Padres manager Mike Shildt also was suspended one game and fined, and Padres right-handed pitcher Robert Suarez was suspended three games and fined for “intentionally hitting” Shohei Ohtani with a pitch in the ninth inning.

“I support it. I think that obviously, I never want to make the game about the managers, it shouldn’t be,” Roberts said Friday. “It should be about the players and winning.”

He continued: “It unfortunately came to a point where we became the focus and that’s not the way it should be.”

Bench coach Danny Lehmann will manage the Dodgers against the Nationals.

The back-and-forth animosity on the field came to a peak Thursday when Dodgers relief pitcher Jack Little hit Fernando Tatis Jr. with a pitch in the ninth inning.

Shildt exited the dugout and pointed at Roberts, causing the Dodgers manager to charge toward home plate. Roberts bumped Shildt, causing the benches to clear and bullpens to empty. Both managers were ejected.

Angels manager Ron Washington will be out indefinitely because of health issues, and bench coach Ray Montgomery will manage Friday night’s series opener against the Houston Astros.

Washington, 73, experienced shortness of breath and appeared fatigued toward the end of a four-game series against the Yankees. He was cleared by Yankees doctors to fly home with the team Thursday night and underwent a series of medical tests on Friday.

General manager Perry Minasian announced Washington’s status before the game.

The Angels did not specify what symptoms Washington is experiencing, but said the manager was able to address the team in the clubhouse along with Minasian on Friday, and he was planning to watch the game from the GM’s Angel Stadium suite. Washington was not made available to the media.

“Wash has not felt great the last couple of days,” Minasian said. “We want to make sure he’s 100% before he’s back in the dugout and managing. How long it’s going to take, I don’t know. I don’t expect it to be too long.

“We all know how important this is for all of us, but health is more important than anything, and me personally, I’m not letting him back in the dugout until I know he’s 100% OK. I love the guy too much.”

Washington, who managed the Texas Rangers to back-to-back World Series in 2010 and 2011, was hired by Minasian before a 2024 season in which the Angels lost a franchise-record 99 games.

The Angels entered Friday night’s game at 36-38 — 6½ games behind the Astros in the AL West. The Angels are 15-6 in one-run games, a major league-best .714 winning percentage, and 5-0 in extra innings.

“He wants to manage — I don’t know if he’s ever missed a game–but at the end of the day, you have to make tough decisions,” Minasian said. “For me, I want to make sure the guy is absolutely healthy, and physically, he’s in the right place before we put him back in the dugout.

“We play some close games. They’re not the types of games you can sit back, kick your feet up and just watch. They’re pretty tight games, stressful games, and I want to make sure he’s good to go health-wise before he gets back in the dugout.”

Seven times in the last 10 days, the Dodgers and San Diego Padres have faced each other.

In the last inning of the last one of those games Thursday night, mounting tensions between the clubs — and their respective managers — finally spilled onto the field.

At the end of the Padres’ 5-3 win against the Dodgers, San Diego star Fernando Tatis Jr. was hit by a Dodgers pitcher for the third time over the two recent series between the National League West rivals.

Moments later, Dave Roberts and Mike Shildt were face-to-face, engaged in a screaming match that prompted both benches to empty in a heated melee behind home plate.

As soon as Tatis got plunked, taking a 93-mph fastball off his hands from debuting Dodgers rookie Jack Little, Shildt came storming out of the dugout, walking over to check on Tatis while barking in Roberts’ direction.

Whatever Shildt said, Roberts took exception. Suddenly, he was charging onto the field, too, meeting Shildt with a slight bump with his body while their two teams poured onto the field around them.

The benches clear as Padres batter Fernando Tatis Jr. is assisted by a team trainer after being hit on the hand by a pitch from Dodgers reliever Jack Little.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Padres and Dodgers players stand on the field after the benches clear in the ninth inning.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

The scuffle didn’t get overly physical, with some light shoving between the clubs pushing the pile into the screen behind home plate. But emotions were running hot the whole time, with Roberts and Shildt having to be separated before each was ejected.

The fireworks didn’t stop there.

After the Dodgers (46-30) scored twice in the bottom of the ninth, Shohei Ohtani was hit by Padres closer Robert Suarez with two outs. This time, the benches stayed put — in part, it appeared, because Ohtani waved for his teammates to stay in the dugout as he walked up the first-base line. But because the umpires had issued warnings after the previous skirmish, Suarez was ejected, forcing the Padres (40-34) to turn to Yuki Matsui with the tying run at the plate.

Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani reacts after being hit by a pitch from Padres pitcher Robert Suarez in the ninth inning. Suarez was ejected.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Matsui nearly blew it, walking Miguel Rojas (who had been inserted for Mookie Betts the inning before, with the game seemingly out of reach at 5-0) to load the bases before spiking a breaking ball against Dalton Rushing (who had pinch-hit for Will Smith for the same reason) that bounced under the chest protector of catcher Martín Maldonado, plating a run and moving the Dodgers’ other baserunners into scoring position.

Alas, Rushing struck out. The Padres held on. And a heated two-week stretch of rivalry baseball between the Southern California foes came to an end.

Postecoglou’s style of play at Spurs proved divisive, with a notoriously high line featuring prominently before being ditched for the crucial Europa League run-in.

Frank is known for his use of data in the game, previously stating he is not a lover of shots from outside the box.

Last season, 23% of Brentford’s efforts came from outside the area – the lowest in the league – compared to 28% for Spurs.

Last season Brentford attempted 675 crosses, while Spurs delivered 752. Frank may bring with him the need to be more picky in wide areas.

A statistic that stands out is his side’s willingness to compete in the air, with last season’s 1,210 aerial duels the highest figure in the league and dwarfing Tottenham’s 872.

Expect Tottenham to contest things that bit more but, as with shots from range or crosses, Frank seems to want to be smart when it comes to competing.

Brentford fouled far less than Spurs across the past two seasons – indeed, only Manchester City committed fewer fouls than Brentford last season.

SAN DIEGO — Dave Roberts wasn’t pretending to be calm. He was calm.

None of this was new to him, the depleted starting rotation, the fatigued bullpen, the division rivals within striking distance.

Under similar circumstances in past seasons, Roberts pointed out, “We’ve gotten to the other side.”

The Dodgers won a World Series like this last year. They have won the National League West in 12 of the last 13 seasons.

They usually reach “the other side.”

So rather than panic, Roberts waits. He waits for the end of a particularly difficult 26-game stretch, and when Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell can pitch again.

Roberts won’t say this publicly, but the Dodgers just have to tread water until they are whole.

They claimed a 5-2 victory over the San Diego Padres on Wednesday to win for the second time in their three-game series at Petco Park, preserving their lead in the NL West.

The Dodgers host the second-place San Francisco Giants in a three-game series that starts Friday and the third-place Padres in a four-game series that opens Monday, after which their schedule will become noticeably softer.

Their remaining opponents before the All-Star break: the Washington Nationals, Colorado Rockies, Kansas City Royals, Chicago White Sox, Houston Astros and Milwaukee Brewers. The post-All-Star Game schedule is extremely manageable as well.

Provided a couple of their starting pitchers return as anticipated, the Dodgers should be able to not just win their division but also secure a top-two seed in the NL, which would give them a first-round bye in the playoffs. As it is, the Dodgers are 41-27, only ½ game behind the Chicago Cubs, the league’s current No. 2 team.

Dodgers players have taken on Roberts’ understated confidence and make-do-with-what-you-have approach, which explains how the team has survived a 19-game stretch in which every opponent had a winning record. The Dodgers were 10-9 in those games.

“Character,” Roberts said.

Roberts specifically pointed to Teoscar Hernández, who broke out of a slump Wednesday to hit a key three-run home run; to Freddie Freeman, who he revealed is now dealing with a quadriceps injury in addition to his ankle problems; to Mookie Betts, who has continued to play high-level shortstop while playing with a broken toe.

“Guys are not running from the middle part of the season, the stretch we’re going through,” Roberts said. “We’re just finding ways to win.”

Teoscar Hernández circles the bases after his three-run homer.

(Derrick Tuskan / Associated Press)

The series win against the Padres was also a credit to Roberts’ ability, and willingness, to play the long game.

With Tony Gonsolin put on the injured list last week, the Dodgers were forced to schedule two bullpen games in San Diego. By punting on the first and refraining from using any of his go-to relievers in a loss, Roberts ensured his team would be positioned to win the series finale.

Again, this was nothing new, as Roberts basically forfeited games in both the NL Championship Series and World Series last year with the remainder of the series in mind.

Roberts elected to send opener Ben Casparius back to the mound to pitch a fourth inning on Wednesday rather than replace him with Jack Dreyer, whom Roberts has grown to trust. The extra inning made a difference. Lou Trivino pitched to the bottom of the Padres’ lineup in the fifth inning, allowing Roberts to deploy Dreyer against the heart of the order in the sixth.

When Michael Kopech walked the bases loaded in the seventh inning, Roberts responded with the necessary degree of urgency rather than allow the recently activated Kopech to try to pitch his way out of trouble. Roberts summoned Anthony Banda, who retired Luis Arráez and Manny Machado to maintain the Dodgers’ 4-2 advantage.

“The bullpen has certainly been used and pushed,” Roberts said. “I just think it speaks to the character.”

And it says something about the manager as well.

Roberts is now in his 10th season as the manager of the Dodgers. He has managed 1,426 games for them in the regular season and another 100 in the postseason. At this point, there’s not much he hasn’t seen, including what the team is dealing with now.

Wales captain Ramsey had taken temporary charge as Cardiff were relegated from the Championship last month, Omer Riza having been sacked with three games of the season remaining.

But while it is not clear if a final decision has been made, Barry-Murphy is now the frontrunner to land a first senior manager’s position since leaving Rochdale in 2021.

He would become the Bluebirds’ ninth manager in four years as they prepare to play in the third tier for the first time since 2003.

The Irishman has been on Cardiff’s radar for some time having been under consideration to replace Mick McCarthy in 2021.

Barry-Murphy is a former midfielder with Cork City, Preston North End, Sheffield Wednesday, Bury and Rochdale, becoming player-coach at the latter in 2014 at the age of 35.

He succeeded Keith Hill as manager in 2019, winning praise for the side’s style of play and work with homegrown talent despite the team’s relegation to League Two in 2021.

Barry-Murphy resigned from the job to take to take up the role at Manchester City’s academy, succeeding future Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca and winning two youth titles, coaching the likes of Cole Palmer, Oscar Bobb and Romeo Lavia while working under Pep Guardiola.

After quitting the Etihad three years later, Barry-Murphy went on to be named as part of Ruud van Nistelrooy’s backroom staff at Leicester in December 2024.

But Barry-Murphy had been keen for a frontline role of his own and could now be handed the challenge of returning Cardiff to the Championship.

Buckingham, who guided Oxford to League One promotion in May 2024, has also held talks with Cardiff.

The 40-year-old is currently without a club having left the Kassam Stadium in December following a poor run of results.

Buckingham, who previously coached in New Zealand and managed City Football Group clubs Melbourne City and Mumbai City, had previously been under consideration by the Football Association of Wales (FAW) before the appointment of Craig Bellamy as national boss.

ZINEDINE Zidane rejected a blank cheque to join Manchester United as manager, according to his old team-mate.

Former Chelsea centre-back Marcel Desailly is adamant that Zidane is NOT driven by cash.

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Zidane has been approached by some of the biggest clubs in the world since quitting Real Madrid after failing to win a trophy in 2021.

The World Cup icon was heavily linked with a move to Man Utd before, during and after Erik ten Hag‘s rollercoaster two years.

One of the reasons he supposedly turned Old Trafford chiefs down was becasue he didn’t feel confident speaking English.

A few years on and ahead of the upcoming 32-team Club World Cup, Zizou was offered an eye-watering £84million to commit to a one-year contract at Saudi Pro League runners-up Al-Hilal.

And his former team-mate Desailiy has revealed how difficult it is for club’s to persuade him to join, and where he’s likely to go next.

Desailly said: “Will Zinedine Zidane be tempted by Saudi Arabia?

“Well he had a blank cheque on the table from Chelsea and a blank cheque from Manchester United and turned them down.

“He isn’t in it for the money. I don’t see why money will change anything, I know privately that he won’t change his lifestyle.

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“He likes to travel and always keeps an eye on the France national team. He’s ready because Didier Deschamps has started the transition.

“France will be one of the favourites for the World Cup and win or lose it’s not the end of this era for France.”

Zidane is the only manager in the world to have won a staggering three Champions League titles in a row during his first spell with Real.

And he followed that up by lifting two LaLiga titles during his second stint, having only managed the Spanish giants.

Desailiy believes that Zidane is most attracted to the France job because they have a new generation of superstars, including Champions League hero Desire Doue.

He added: Since 2016, France have been growing and growing. New players have come into the team constantly and now they have the right guys.

“Rayan Cherki is one of them alongside Ousmane Dembele, Kylian Mbappe is still there and on top of his game.

“There is a real dynamic. William Saliba is in defence with Ibrahima Konate, Bayern have Dayot Upamecano.

“There is a squad and a philosophy and Zidane will know how to take that on to rebuild his own team. For another eight years at least France will be at the top level in Europe.”

Zidane made a £4MILLION investment into a new sport project in February, which turned out to be a new padel centre in France.

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Zidane’s managerial career

Zizou spent 18 months in charge of Real Madrid Castilla before being given his shot at the big time following the sacking of Rafael Benitez.

Zidane, 51, took charge of the first team in January 2016 and guided them to a second-place finish in his maiden season at the Bernabeu helm.

But he went one better in the Champions League, sealing Real’s 11th European Cup triumph with a shootout victory over Atletico Madrid.

The former Los Blancos star went one better in the league in the 2016-17 season, in which they also won the Uefa Super Cup and Club World Cup.

A second successive Champions League triumph also followed, with Real beating Italian giants Juventus at the Principality Stadium.

He would create history the following season by becoming the first manager to win the tournament three times on the bounce.

A 3-1 win over Liverpool saw Real become the first team to win Europe’s elite club competition three times in a row.

Zidane announced his resignation five days after the final, insisting the club needed a “change” of direction.

He would return to the Bernabeu in March 2019 following Santiago Solari and Julen Lopetegui’s short reigns.

A return to the summit of Spanish football would follow in the 2019-20 season, in which Real also scooped the Spanish Super Cup.

Zidane would leave the Bernabeu again in June 2021 after overseeing Real’s first trophyless season in 11 years.

Zinedine Zidane’s Honours:

– La Liga: 2016–17, 2019–20
– Supercopa de España: 2017, 2019–20
– UEFA Champions League: 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18
– UEFA Super Cup: 2016, 2017
– FIFA Club World Cup: 2016, 2017

West Brom have appointed Ryan Mason as their head coach.

The Championship side, who dismissed Tony Mowbray on 21 April, opened talks with Mason, 33, last week and he arrives at the Hawthorns on a three-year deal.

It brings a seven-year coaching career at Tottenham to an end for Mason, who progressed through the club’s academy to also play 70 times for his boyhood team.

“This is a huge club with a fantastic infrastructure and an incredible fanbase, and I am excited about what we can achieve together,” said Mason.

“Having spoken at length to the board and those at the club I am convinced that Albion is the perfect place for me to be and I can’t wait to get started.

“I will bring with me a huge amount of enthusiasm, dedication and ambition, and look forward to a positive future together at such a fantastic club.”

When Luis Enrique leads his Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) team out to play Inter Milan in Saturday’s UEFA Champions League final, the coach will be seeking to win the European continent’s top prize for the first time for the French side and reverse years of fan frustration at the Parc des Princes.

This is the club which, until recently, boasted superstar players the caliber of Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi and Neymar Jr, but failed to win any European silverware since the third-tier UEFA Intertoto Cup way back in 2001.

Since his arrival in 2023, Enrique has changed PSG radically, overseeing the high-profile exits of Messi, Neymar and Mbappe, and transitioning from a team of ageing galacticos into one of the most exciting attacking sides in Europe.

Whether Enrique’s method is the best may ultimately be judged by what happens in the Champions League final in Munich.

Enrique the player

Away from events on the pitch, who is the real Luis Enrique who has presided over this radical transformation at PSG?

The 55-year-old began his football career in 1988, playing in the midfield for his local side, Sporting Gijon, a team in the Spanish Segunda Division.

In 1991 he was signed by mega club Real Madrid where he helped Los Blancos win La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Super Cup. On an individual level, Enrique did not perform up to expectations, which was mostly attributed to playing out of position on the wing and in more defensive roles.

Bitter rivals FC Barcelona snapped up an out-of-form Enrique in 1996, where he reverted to his favoured central midfield role.  It paid dividends for the Catalan giants and Enrique went on to win La Liga, the Copa del Rey and Spanish Super Cup trophies with Barca.

After retiring as a player in 2004, he went into management, reportedly at the invitation of current Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola.

Enrique started his coaching career at FC Barcelona “B”,  before moving to AS Roma in Italy’s Serie A for the 2011-2012 season. The Spaniard was sacked at the end of the season, with a year still remaining on his contract, after Roma finished a disappointing seventh in the premier domestic competition.

Managing expectations

His next move was to Spanish La Liga side Celta Vigo – but he also departed from that club after just one year. It was then that Enrique received his career-altering managerial opportunity, returning to Barcelona as manager of the first team.

His four-year reign at the Nou Camp was crowned by Barca’s victory in the Champions League final in 2015 against Juventus, with the “Big-3” of Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar leading the attacking line, completing a rare treble for the club: Spanish League (La Liga), Spanish Cup (Copa del Rey) and European (Champions League) titles.

If PSG win the Champions League final on Saturday, Enrique will make history be becoming the only man to ever achieve a treble on two occasions.

When Enrique was named team coach of Spain in 2018, he entered a new world of international football.

Before the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, Spain was fancied as possible winners. However, after a crushing round of 16 loss to underdogs Morocco, Enrique announced his resignation from the national side.

Incessant media speculation linked Enrique’s next managerial job with a move to England’s Premier League.

He was interviewed by Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea – but it was PSG, to the surprise of many, who secured his signature.

Perhaps it was the unique challenge of winning the Champions League with one of only two European super clubs never to have achieved the milestone – Arsenal being the other – which made him head to Paris.

Or perhaps it was a desire to show off his vision of attacking football by rebuilding a club his way.

Take me to Paris

A recent three-part documentary, produced by Zoom Sport Films, provided an intimate portrait of the coach who allowed the cameras into his private life for the first time, despite Enrique’s well-known animosity towards the media.

No Teneis Ni P*** Idea (You Don’t Have Any F****** Idea) reveals a driven man who is as passionate about football as his family – and keeping fit.

Viewers see Enrique arriving at PSG speaking only a few words of French. Nevertheless, he imposes his character on the club from the start.

Known by his nickname, Lucho, Enrique brings a Spanish-speaking coaching staff with him and addresses the players in his own language, with the aid of a French translator.

As relations with his biggest star – Mbappe – appear to worsen, viewers are treated to Enrique giving the star player what former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson used to call the “hairdryer treatment”, or a huge telling off.

But, as this is France, Enrique calls it “C’est Catastrophique (It’s catastrophic)” on a big presentation screen to the striker. The Spaniard is referring to Mbappe’s apparent refusal to defend at all after PSG were beaten 2-3 at home by Barcelona in the quarterfinal of the Champions League in April last year.

Despite the manager-star player bust-up, PSG would move on to the semifinals, where they were ultimately beaten by Borussia Dortmund. A year on, Enrique’s post-match comments may turn out to be prophetic:

“Now it’s a sad moment but you have to accept sometimes sport is that way. We have to try to create something special next year and win it.”

Behind-the-scenes with Lucho

Curiously for a football manager, he spends much of his day studying his team on a series of computer screens.  This is interspersed with workouts. “You must move every half an hour,” he says.  In the documentary, Enrique is seen, in his plush Parisian house, regularly doing various strenuous exercises or cycling.

At the PSG training camp, he mixes team talks with plunges into his ice pool. It pays off, as the manager is fit. But when he walks around the pitch, it is always barefoot as he believes in “grounding” or getting back in touch with nature.

The documentary mixes moments from Enrique’s illustrious career, from the Real Madrid and Barca days, as well as the Spain role – the good and the bad. Not surprisingly, the lowest point is when Morocco upsets Spain and knocks the bookmaker’s favourite out of the World Cup.

Away from football, we also see a tender side to Lucho when the documentary touches on his close relationship with his youngest daughter, Xana, who died at the age of nine from osteosarcoma, a bone tumour, in 2019.

Enrique set up a foundation in her name with his wife, Elena Cullell, to try to help other families who are stricken by the same condition.

Graham Hunter, a producer on the documentary and a football journalist who is friends with Enrique, described his personality as “demanding and inspirational”.

“As a footballer, he was exceptional. A Spanish Roy Keane. His ability to play everywhere on the pitch slightly cut how good he was because managers used him all over the pitch. He was trophy-laden at Madrid and Barca,” he says.

“He did not want to be a coach originally. [He] Accepted an invitation from Pep [Guardiola] I think to coach Barca B. Although he clashed a little bit with Messi and Luis Suarez but that [2015] Champions League victory, it was unbelievable. They won the treble.”

Hunter believes Enrique changed the playing style of the Spain team during his managerial tenure, introducing young talent like Pedri.

“He built what has become a winning franchise and he carries a huge amount of credit to him,” he said.

Hunter says Enrique did not just go to PSG to win the Champions League.

“He went to PSG to imprint his brand of football and to convince the players, the fans that it was a brilliant, modern way to play football and to do that, you have to win the Champions League. For him, he is as interested in how people see his football as attacking and inspirational as winning trophies.”

In March, Still’s partner Emma Saunders, a presenter on Sky Sports who previously worked for BBC Sport, said she was recovering from encephalitis, which is an infection of the brain.

“For multiple reasons, the main reason behind my decision is that I need to go back home,” admitted Still.

He would be a permanent replacement at Southampton for Ivan Juric, who left in April after the club were relegated from the Premier League with a record seven games left to play.

Born in Belgium to English parents, Still built his football career at Lierse and Beerschot before moving to France, where he became the youngest coach in Europe’s top five leagues when appointed by Reims, aged 30, in October 2022.

He joined Lens in June, 2024, on a three-year deal and led them to an eighth-placed finish in Ligue 1.

Lens have yet to confirm Still’s departure.

Sheffield Wednesday manager Danny Rohl was previously linked with the Saints job, but the compensation package to move to a club within the same division was thought to be too expensive.

Pep Guardiola has said he will quit as manager of Manchester City if he is given a big squad to select from after the summer transfer market.

A number of Man City’s senior players were not included in the squad for Tuesday’s 3-1 win against Bournemouth and Guardiola says he is unhappy at leaving so many players out.

Abdukodir Khusanov, Savinho, James McAtee, Claudio Echeverri and Rico Lewis all missed out on Tuesday’s 20-man matchday squad as City moved to third in the Premier League and within a point of Champions League qualification.

But, despite this showing the depth Guardiola has at his disposal, the Spaniard wants to work with a smaller squad.

He said: “I said to the club I don’t want that [a bigger squad]. I don’t want to leave five or six players in the freezer. I don’t want that. I will quit. Make a shorter squad, I will stay.”

Guardiola says it is “impossible for my soul” to leave players watching from the stands.

“Maybe [for] three, four months we couldn’t select 11 players, we didn’t have defenders, it was so difficult. After people come back but next season it cannot be like that,” the 54-year-old added.

“As a manager I cannot train 24 players and every time I select I have to have four, five, six stay in Manchester at home because they cannot play. This is not going to happen. I said to the club. I don’t want that.”

City spent more than £200m on four players in January after suffering a number of key injuries. Kevin De Bruyne is one of those players who will definitely depart in the summer, while the future of Jack Grealish is in doubt.

When asked if it meant more exits were inevitable, Guardiola – who signed a deal keeping him at the club until 2027 – said: “It is a question for the club. I don’t want to have 24, 25, 26 players when everyone is fit. If I have injuries, unlucky, we have some players for the academy and we do it.

Guardiola said a big squad is unstainable and that it is important for “the soul of the team” that his players “create another connection with each other that this season we lost it a bit”.

All Premier League clubs can have a 25-man squad, but this is not an exhaustive list of all players eligible to play. A team can also include under-21 players who are eligible over and above the 25-man squad limit.

Manchester City’s website lists 28 first-team squad members, plus four players who are on loan elsewhere.

Guardiola has explained in the past, external why he prefers to manage a smaller squad, going into the 2023/24 season with 20 senior players.

In comparison, Chelsea’s official website lists 31 players in their squad list, with 21 other players out on loan, Brighton and Tottenham list 29 players, while Wolves name 30 players on their squad list.

Clubs with smaller squads than Manchester City this season include Arsenal with just 24 players and champions Liverpool , Aston Villa, Everton and Nottingham Forest with 25 squad players.

Dundee have sacked manager Tony Docherty following the end of the Scottish Premiership campaign.

The Dens Park club defeated St Johnstone 2-0 on Sunday to finish the season in 10th place.

A statement released by Dundee said “the results of the team have not met the standards expected by the club”.

I wish I was a fly on the wall in the Arsenal dressing room at half-time on Sunday because I think a lot of the difference between their first and second-half performance was down to the kind of motivation from the manager that I am talking about.

It was the same at Anfield last week, when they were 2-0 down to Liverpool at the break and Arteta told them he was not accepting that level of performance. They were not behind against Newcastle this time but they could have been, and he deserves some credit for how they turned things around again.

Like Wenger, Arteta has got his lieutenants – the players he can rely on – and Declan Rice stepped up again on Sunday. You could tell he was short of full fitness because he was blowing a bit but Arsenal needed him, and he delivered.

There was a bit of a cup final feel about the game because Champions League qualification was riding on it for both teams and of course there was an edge to it, with Newcastle beating Arsenal three times this season already.

They needed to be put to bed, really, and Arsenal did that in the second half – even if the game still had quite a tense ending.

I don’t think Arsenal fans were exactly celebrating second place at the final whistle but it is still quite an achievement for them to get back into the Champions League for a third straight season, after they were away for six years.

When you consider where Arsenal were when Arteta took over in 2019, I think he has done an amazing job.

Injuries have massively impacted them this season, but it still feels like we have got our Arsenal back – they are on the right path, and the trophies he craves will follow.

Martin Keown was speaking to BBC Sport’s Chris Bevan.

FABIO PARATICI’S return to Tottenham is set to be confirmed as the Italian looks to line up Ange Postecoglou’s successor.

Spurs boss Postecoglou is expected to leave the club this summer regardless of whether he wins Wednesday’s Europa League final against Manchester United or not.

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Italian Paratici, 52, was Spurs’ managing director of football between 2021-23.

But he was forced to resign in April 2023 after being hit with a two-and-a-half-year worldwide ban by Fifa due to financial malpractice at previous club Juventus.

That suspension ends at the end of next month, freeing him up to come back to his role at Spurs.

Paratici will have an influence on who Tottenham go for next in the dugout provided there is no emotional U-turn on Postecoglou if he is triumphant in Europe.

That is not expected to happen given the team’s disastrous league campaign.

Spurs have racked up a record 21 defeats and are languishing in 17th place.

Paratici is understood to have close ties to Simone Inzaghi.

But the Inter Milan chief is set to stick with the Champions League finalists next season.

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Paratici is also tight with Massimiliano Allegri, but the former Juve boss does not speak English and is believed NOT to favour a move abroad.

One Italian who is in the frame is Francesco Farioli.

Last weekend Farioli saw his Ajax side miss out on the Eredivisie title on the final day despite beating FC Twente 2-0.

The 36-year-old is a former disciple of ex-Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi.

He is highly-regarded for his work on a shoestring budget at Nice and returning Ajax to the Champions League.

Fulham gaffer Marco Silva, Andoni Iraola of Bournemouth and Crystal Palace’s Oliver Glasner remain on Spurs’ list of candidates.

TOM CLEVERLEY is reportedly in talks with a Premier League club just days after being sacked by Watford.

The former Manchester United star was axed by the Hornets earlier this month after missing out on the Championship playoffs.

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Cleverley, 35, took over at Vicarage Road in March 2024 as he replaced Valerien Ismael.

But he could be set for a quick return to the dugout with Southampton interested.

The Guardian have claimed that he is one of the leading candidates to take over at St Mary’s next season.

It is suggested that he has a “strong chance” of being appointed as the new Saints boss.

Cleverley has taken charge of 59 first-team games, winning 20, drawing 14 and losing 25.

The Southampton team is currently playing under caretaker Simon Rusk, who took charge after the sacking of Ivan Juric.

They are a top-flight club for two more games, which come against Everton and Southampton.

Juric was only in charge for 14 Premier League games after replacing Russell Martin.

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Cleverley does face competition for the job from fellow Englishman Will Still.

Still has left Ligue 1 outfit RC Lens following the end of the season in order to move back to England.

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The manager wants to spend more time with his Sky Sports presenter partner Emma Saunders.

His exit came just one season into a three-year deal.

Reports have claimed that Still is in “advanced talks” with Southampton over the vacant manager role.

In his final game, Lens beat AS Monaco 4-0 at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis.

Neil El Aynaoui netted twice while Adrien Thomasson and Anass Zaroury wrapped up the scoring.

The victory sealed an 8th-placed finish in the Ligue 1 table.

Still has also had interest from Hull City and has previously turned down Rangers.

Sheffield Wednesday‘s Danny Rohl is also believed to be in the running for the job.

Meanwhile, Watford have already replaced Cleverley with former Real Valladolid boss Paulo Pezzolano.

The Uruguayan becomes the 22nd manager to take charge of the Hornets since Gino Pozzo’s takeover in 2012.