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After years of speculation, Jose Mourinho has confirmed that he agreed to replace Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United in 2013, before changing his mind and re-joining Chelsea instead.

“When I left Real Madrid, I signed to go to Manchester United after Sir Alex,” the 63-year-old coach – now back at Real for a second spell – said in a new Netflix documentary series about his career.

“He was offered the job, yes,” confirmed Ferguson, who won 13 Premier League titles over 26 years at Old Trafford before retiring in 2013.

“I sat him down and explained the situation,” he added: “As far as I was concerned, he was accepting. And then, within hours, it changed.”

What changed was that Mourinho felt he could not turn down a return to Chelsea, where he had won consecutive Premier League titles in 2005 and 2006.

“One night, he phoned me and he was crying and he says, ‘Alex, I can’t take it. I’ve given my word to Chelsea and I’m not going to break my word’,” said the former United boss.

“The reason he gave to me, I could understand, but I was disappointed.”

Mourinho said he was “very flattered” to be offered the job of replacing Ferguson “because Manchester United has an incredible appeal”.

“But one thing is love for football, another thing is love for a certain club,” he explained.

“I think this is more powerful than love for football and fundamentally, after Real Madrid, I needed to feel that I’m loved.

“For me to lose the chance to be the coach to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson was dramatic, but I don’t regret (it) because it was a decision that I made with my heart.”

After returning to Stamford Bridge in 2013, Mourinho went on to win his third Premier League title as well as the League Cup.

In May 2016, he got a second chance to take over at United, succeeding Louis van Gaal.

Over a two-and-a-half year spell at Old Trafford, Mourinho won League Cup and Europa League titles before being sacked in December 2018 following a slump in results.

He returned to another of his old clubs, Real Madrid, in May this year. Mourinho’s last spell there ended in acrimony as he fell out with club captain Iker Casillas and other players.

On the eve of his Real reunion, the combative manager and former Spain goalkeeper Casillas spoke candidly about the reasons behind those differences.

Mourinho also spoke about difficulties he has faced with former Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, who hired him twice and sacked him both times.

Sir Alastair Cook believes Joe Root is not the long-term solution to be England’s Test cricket captain, but is confident of his ability to lead the side for the next year and help take England forward with the home Ashes coming up in 2027.

READ MORE: Root in ‘very different place’ over Test captaincy

Sir Garfield Sobers was called the “greatest all-round cricketer the world has ever known” by former team-mate Sir Clive Lloyd at the legendary West Indies player’s state funeral in Barbados.

Lloyd described all-rounder Sobers, who died aged 89 on 17 July, as “a man who lived in the hearts and minds of Caribbean people and who became a source of inspiration to millions throughout the world”.

An entertaining left-handed batter and bowler of seam and spin, Sobers played 93 Tests between 1954 and 1974, scoring 8,032 runs and taking 235 wickets.

The funeral was staged at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, the principle ground in Barbados and home to a pavilion named after Sobers.

Lloyd and fellow West Indies legends Brian Lara and Desmond Haynes were among those who spoke at the state service of thanksgiving, which was also attended by Barbados president Jeffrey Bostic, prime minister Mia Mottley and Barbadian music superstar Rihanna.

West Indies Test captain Roston Chase, who comes from Barbados, vice-captain Jomel Warrican and the current side’s Barbadian players were also in attendance, having completed a Test victory over Pakistan on Monday, winning by 90 runs inside four days in Trinidad.

“Sir Garfield Sobers was not merely the outstanding cricketer of his generation,” Lloyd added. “He brought to the beautiful game a rare combination of brilliance, imagination, courage and joy.”

Sobers’ coffin was draped in the flag of Barbados and set off from the Parliament Buildings in Bridgetown on a gun carriage for a formal procession through the nation’s capital.

On arrival at the stadium, the carriage passed through a guard of honour of raised cricket bats.

“This is not a sad moment,” Lara said of his mentor. “This is a moment for us to celebrate and I hope you feel the same. Today we celebrate the remarkable life of the greatest all-round cricketer.

“We celebrate a man who gave so much to his family, to Barbados, to the West Indies and all of us who had the privilege of knowing him.”

Sobers scored 365 not out against Pakistan in 1958 – an effort which stood as the record Test score for 36 years.

He was also named one of Wisden’s five cricketers of the 20th century.

During his stint at Nottinghamshire in 1968, Sobers became the first player to hit a six off all six balls in an over in a first-class match.

Mottley described Sobers as “a man who if he had not achieved any of those great feats on the cricket field would have been immortalised by his community as a good man and a great man”.

Reverend Canon Guy Hewitt read out a message from King Charles during the service.

“History is distinguished with sporting champions whose records have rightly commanded respect across generations,” the message read. “There have been far fewer however whose name along brings a smile to people’s faces across Barbados, the Caribbean and the Commonwealth.

“Sir Garfield Sobers belongs very firmly in the latter category. I send my deepest sympathies to Sir Garry’s family as they come to terms with this great loss.”

Sobers’ body lay in state at the Barbados parliament on Monday and at the Kensington Oval on Tuesday, with national dignitaries and members of the public able to pay their respects.

He will be laid to rest at Coral Ridge Memorial Gardens in the south of Barbados.

Garfield St Aubrun Sobers was born in Bridgetown on 28 July 1936, but was only five when his merchant seaman father was killed in World War Two, leaving his mother Thelma to raise half-a-dozen children. Young Garry was born with an extra finger on each hand, which were removed during childhood.

Having excelled at several sports as a schoolboy, he was recruited to local club cricket in his early teens and made his first-class debut at the age of 16 against the Indian tourists at his home town’s Kensington Oval – the ground whose pavilion would one day bear his name.

Sobers was selected to bat at number nine and bowl spin for a star-studded Barbados line-up – he was one of eight current or future Test players, of which no fewer than four would be knighted. He took four wickets in the first innings and three in the second.

And with only one other first-class appearance under his belt, his Test debut came 14 months later as a 17-year-old chosen to take on England in the final Test in Jamaica in early 1954 after the Windies’ regular left-arm spinner Alf Valentine fell ill. Again, he captured four wickets on debut.

Although the famous ‘Three W’s’ – Clyde Walcott, Everton Weekes and Frank Worrell – were the established middle order, Sobers was elevated to number six on his next Test appearance when Australia toured in 1955, and soon showed signs of his all-round quality.

Having made 47 in the second Test, he found himself as an emergency opener in the fourth, where he hit the first three balls he received – from legendary Aussie all-rounder Keith Miller – for four.

Sobers toured England for the first time in 1957, and despite only recording one half-century in five Tests, he lit up Trent Bridge – a ground where he would later shine – with an unbeaten 219 against his future county side Nottinghamshire.

The history of all living things is examined through five key species chosen for the way they move, feed and reproduce and also for their size and intelligence

Chris Packham famously hates so-called “T-shirt” animals – preferring beetles and bugs to the more box-office elephants, lions and tigers.

But for his major new BBC series examining the history of every living creature’s existence, the presenter had to block that prejudice as he looked back over 4 billion years. In Evolution, viewers will see how every plant and animal evolved – differently – from a single celled organism called LUCA.

And in order to explain this effectively, the five episodes focus on the elephant (size), ostrich (reproduction), horse (movement), bat (feeding) and dolphin (intelligence) to show what changes have happened over the millennia until they started to look a bit like the creatures we recognise today.

“TV likes an iconic species, something to put on the T-shirt,” Chris laughs, acknowledging that he doesn’t normally go for these “celebrity” animals which tend to draw in viewers, but go against the grain for Chris. “On Springwatch we’re always keen to champion the underdog, we make films about slugs and snails and flies and all those sorts of things, so we’re trying to build up that idea in people’s minds that everything counts – not just the fluffy birds in the nest, or the cute pine-marten kits. Survival of the cutest has always been an issue.”

“But had we picked, I don’t know, some innocuous little bug, it wouldn’t have looked great,” he laughed. “I’m not a great fan of T-shirt animals, but I am a fan of using them constructively.”

He even admits that filming the series, in different locations around the globe, brought him one of the best moments of his life, when he found himself right in the middle of a pod of dolphins during a break in filming. “It was absolutely extraordinary,” he says. “There were times when the cameraman was doing something and I was still in the water and I could just actually just be there with them.

“I dived down about four metres and I looked down and I had a dolphin right underneath me, under my chest. And I had couple on one side, I mean they never touch you, but they’re close, and a couple on the other side – and then I looked up and they were above me. And I was like in the middle of a pod of dolphins. You can hear them the whole time, they’re constantly clicking. So you can here that that’s that communication going on.

“It was just five minutes or something, it wasn’t a lot of time, but long enough to actually just engage, and realise that this was one of the most remarkable moments in my entire life. To be in that environment with these astonishing animals. I thought ‘blimey, I’m Flipper’.”

The five-part science show, which must be Packham’s most ambitious programme to date, has clear similarities in scope to Sir David Attenborough’s 1979 series Life on Earth, which set out to look at the earliest life forms. “I’d say it was more modern in its narrative structure,” he says thoughtfully. “Also, we’re catering for an audience that we know we need to surprise. We want to feed them short snippets, which are basically entry information into a bigger story, if you like. Those twenty-second things that get people to prick up their ears. And we want people to down the pub and say, ‘do you know what? I just watched this programme and, you won’t believe it, we couldn’t have a head before we had an arse’.

“I don’t think Life on Earth is like that. That felt very 1970s, because that’s when it was made, this just feels like a really modern, cutting-edge version.”

To film the series the BBC team were very careful about where they went in order to limit the carbon footprint. “Ten or 15 years ago, we would have gone to multiple locations to make a series like this,” Chris says. “But I’m pleased to say that each of our programmes was essentially made in one location.”

The elephants in the series opener were filmed in Kenya and the ostriches in South Africa. The horses were in the UK, with three days in France which was reached by train. Then the dolphins were in the Bahamas and the bats were in Borneo.

Chris says his role as presenter on the show, from the team who previously brought us Earth, is to keep the audience enthralled, and showing his own excitement is a big part of that, just as he experienced while watching his hero Attenborough. He particularly remembers a programme made by the veteran broadcaster about birds of paradise, filmed in Papua New Guinea.

“They were my dream birds because they’re mental, they look like space aliens,” he explains. “And I was sat there waiting for it to come on, just thinking, ‘you b****rd, I want to go to Papua, I want to see that.’ But in fact my response to the programme, and a testament to his broadcasting, was that I absolutely loved it because I felt the connection to the birds through his joy.”

Chris found himself caught up in some beautiful moments that will also tug at the audience’s heartstrings, such as when a baby ostrich hatched out of its egg right into his hands. “You’re peering into it, it’s not even in the world yet, and it’s like you’ve had a sneak preview into a life which is going to unfold,” he marvels. “It’s just this little thing moving, and that was really very emotional, that formation of new life.”

Learning new stuff is “the greatest joy” of his job. “I get to work with people who know more about a subject than I do. And their job is to tell me and the team everything they know about it in 30 seconds,” he says. “So my joy is that I attend the University of Zoology every single day that I’m working, and this is updated information, so we’ve constantly gone to the latest science.”

While they don’t skirt away from the technical stuff, like explaining how DNA works, Chris feels it is carefully woven into the narrative. “There’s no dumbing down, but we are conscious constantly of building a narrative which will keep our audience engaged.”

– Evolution, BBC2, Monday 13 July, 9pm

Sir Rod Stewart’s Glastonbury 2025 performance was rebroadcast on the BBC on Saturday night

Singer Sir Rod Stewart left BBC viewers distracted just minutes into his performance.

Sir Rod’s Glastonbury performance, originally broadcast in 2025, was reshown on Saturday evening. In a repeat episode of Rod Stewart at Glastonbury, audiences watched the rock legend once more commanding the Pyramid Stage on the festival’s closing day at Worthy Farm in 2025.

Joined by his band and multiple guest vocalists, he captivated festival attendees. Sir Rod, who has been forced to postpone numerous concerts recently due to health issues, left viewers thoroughly impressed by his performance.

One delighted viewer commented on X at the time: “80 years old. Just feel good throughout. What a star,” while another declared, “Rod Stewart still looks great at the age of 80. He’s still got it.”

Another admirer gushed: “All those eyes on Rod. He looks fabulous for his age.”

One supporter commented, “He deserves that crowd after all these years,” as another enthused, “Sir Rod Stewart… phenomenal! 80 years old and had us all in rapture. Best there is,” the Express reports.

Someone else continued, ” Wait – Rod Stewart 80, Ronnie Wood – 76, Lulu 76, thanks and massive respect for you all. Shows age is a number, but talent…. ageless.”

Back in 2025, Rod shared his enthusiasm ahead of Glastonbury and told Radio Times, “I’m really looking forward to it. And it is a different gig, it’s like when you’re playing a cup final, you’re trying to treat it like another game. But, of course, it’s not. It’s special. It’ll be glamorous, it’ll be sexy.

“And we’ve got a little orchestra coming on to play with us. And we may have some bagpipes.”

More recently, Rod has been forced to withdraw from several performances due to health issues. This week, Rod was also spotted with an oxygen tank, prompting worry amongst fans.

His wife, Penny Lancaster, said during an appearance on Loose Women that it “looked a lot scarier than it really was”. She told her co-stars, “He had to cancel a couple of shows prior to that because of a respiratory infection.

“He was recovering and well enough to perform. But he wasn’t aware that Salt Lake City, where he was performing, was way above sea level. So the altitude levels, just for your regular person, is a challenge. If you’re not acclimatised, like sportsmen would arrive before an event, a week before to acclimatise.”

She added, “Rod just flew in on the day of the show, wasn’t aware of this particular altitude. So he was already down on his juice because of recovering from his respiratory infection. And then he was also down another 17% of oxygen because of the altitude. So when he’s on stage, and of course, his two-hour show involves him running around, he doesn’t sit still for a minute, it suddenly hit him.

“But there are oxygen tanks at these particular shows for that reason, because even the young ones, if they’ve had a late night out before a show, they can suffer, and they do.”

Rod Stewart at Glastonbury 2025 is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

Scotland, Liverpool and Celtic great Sir Kenny Dalglish is undergoing treatment for cancer.

The former forward and manager wanted to keep the news private but confirmed the diagnosis after accidentally sharing the news initially in an “inadvertent social media post”.

“I am currently undergoing treatment for cancer,” Dalglish, 75, wrote on social media. “Unlike my mobile phone use, the treatment is going well.

“Ideally, this would have remained private because that’s the way it should be, but my useless technology skills have forced my hand.

“Obviously I did not mean to make this matter public so I would appreciate it if the privacy of my family and myself are respected.

“As ever, thank you to the wonderful medical staff who have shown incredible care and discretion, not just for me but for many, many others. They are a credit to themselves.”

Dalglish scored 167 goals in 320 appearances for Celtic between 1969 and 1977 before going on to make 515 appearances for Liverpool.

The legendary forward scored 30 goals in 102 caps for Scotland.

In a statement, Liverpool said: “The support, best wishes and love of everyone at Liverpool FC are, and will be, with Sir Kenny and his family.

“The club would also like to underscore his request for privacy moving forward.”

HIS love life has been almost as varied as his incredible songwriting catalogue.

Sir Paul McCartney endured the tragedy of losing first wife Linda to cancer and a catastrophic £24million divorce from Heather Mills before finally finding happiness again with American businesswoman Nancy Shevell.

But today The Sun can reveal the identity of the secret childhood crush who became Sir Paul’s “one that got away” — a pretty neighbour whose striking good looks inspired the opening track to his new album, which tells the story of his childhood in Liverpool.

The record was unveiled at a preview event in London this month, where the legendary Beatles songwriter recalled memories of a pretty neighbour called Jasmine, who lived close to his home.

Today, it has emerged she is retired mum-of-three Jasmine Howe, who left the area and resettled in Hertfordshire before retiring to the New Forest in Hampshire.

And the now 83-year-old’s ­family were stunned to learn of the £800million rock legend’s youthful infatuation — revealing she had “absolutely no idea” about his fondness for her.

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They explained: “It’s a cute story, she lived nearby and knew who he was, but she never got close to him — meanwhile, he obviously felt very differently!

“It’s an amazing story — a very long time ago now, but we’ve chatted as a family in the past about how Jasmine grew up close to Paul McCartney.
Goosebumps

“She just knew him as one of the boys in the local area. It’s enough to give you goosebumps!”

The Boys Of Dungeon Lane is Sir Paul’s first solo album in five years, and critics say it is his “most personal to date”.

The title is taken from Days We Left Behind, a wistful acoustic track that references Dungeon Lane, near the River Mersey, where McCartney played as a boy, as well as a “secret code” and mysterious promise made to John Lennon at the time, which he insists “will never be broken”.

At a special event, held at the iconic Abbey Road studios in London where the Fab Four ­produced their biggest hits, Sir Paul played tracks from the new record and explained their ­origins — beginning with opening song As You Lie There.

The lyrics recall: “Do I ever cross your mind as you lie there? As you lie across your bed, am I there inside your head?”

Revealing the inspiration to a small invited audience, Sir Paul explained: “Up in one of the ­windows, there was a girl I ­fancied called Jasmine.

“But I didn’t know how to approach her — I never spoke to her.

“The joke was, she did show up later that year and knocked on the door. I was indisposed — I was on the toilet — so I missed Jasmine!”

Turning to his wife Nancy, who he married in 2011, he grinned and quipped: “Sorry, Nancy.”

Prior to meeting his third wife, Macca famously had quite a ­colourful love life.

His first serious romance was with Dorothy ‘Dot’ Rhone, who he met at the Casbah Coffee Club in Liverpool in 1959.

The pair dated for more than two years and even got engaged, but split just before Beatlemania exploded.

In 1963, Paul met actress and model Jane Asher backstage at one of the band’s concerts.

The relationship would last five years and Paul even moved into the family home on London’s Wimpole Street.

Jane was his muse and introduced him to the avant-garde arts and classical music scene, which would inspire some of his most famous songs.

Despite being charmed by Jane’s cultured family and domestic life, Paul had secret flings with model Maggie McGivern and US writer Francie Schwartz — betrayals that ultimately shattered one of the Sixties’ most iconic romances.

He met his second wife, model and amputee activist Heather Mills, at a charity event in 1999, marrying her three years later.

Their daughter Beatrice was born the following year. However, the pair split acrimoniously three years later with a very publicly played-out divorce — one that cost the star £24million.

However, the singer enjoyed real happiness with his first wife, American photographer Linda.

They married in 1969, raised four children together, and were ­inseparable until her death from breast cancer in 1998.

Growing up, Sir Paul lived with his parents at 20 Forthlin Road in Allerton, Liverpool, while Jasmine lived with her family on the corner of neighbouring Hurstlyn Road, just 20 yards away.

Both properties still stand in the south Liverpool suburb, nestled in a series of brick-built terraces — though Sir Paul’s is now owned and maintained by The National Trust as a museum.

The Trust operates tours around Sir Paul’s home and also John Lennon’s childhood home nearby.

Inside, the three-bed property has been meticulously preserved as a snapshot of 1960s Liverpool, including some of the family’s original decor — and a blue plaque outside commemorates “The Birthplace of The Beatles” as Paul and pal John would meet there to compose their earliest songs.

Jasmine later married her boyfriend Charles, known to the family by his middle name, ­Christopher, and they had three sons — Philip, Matthew and, amusingly, Paul.

A photograph of Jasmine posted online by a family member shows her looking elegant in a navy blazer at a relative’s wedding, with carefully cropped blonde hair beneath a wide-brimmed hat.

The relative explained: “She is 83 now and lives quietly. She wouldn’t want it to become any more of a story than it is — she had no idea that Sir Paul liked her, but she’s happy to leave it as that.

“It’s a good story for our family.”

The album, released on May 29, returns the world’s greatest living songwriter to many of his early memories and experiences, with Sir Paul going on to explain more about his 18th solo collection.

He said: “This was a lot of memories of Liverpool for me, but also any days we’ve left behind.

“Everyone’s got them, school, old mates  . . . It has memories of John in the middle — that’s lovely to go back to. Someone asked: ‘What’s the secret code?’ I’m not telling.

“You make up a lot of stuff when you write songs.”

And that admission may chime with Jasmine’s family, who later jokingly insisted: “She never ­actually knocked on his door.”

On another track, Salesman Saint, Sir Paul turns to his parents. “I was born in 1942, in the war. I was too young to appreciate that, but my parents weren’t.

“My dad was a fireman, putting out fires from the bombs. My mum was a nurse and midwife. But they carried on, because they had to.

“Like people in Ukraine, Gaza and elsewhere now.”

Meanwhile, Down South, one of the album’s most nostalgic tracks, recalls a story of hitchhiking with Lennon and fellow pal and later Beatles bandmate George Harrison.

The lyrics explain: “It was a good way to get to know you before we learned Twist & Shout.”

And reminiscing about the trip, Sir Paul reveals how he and George climbed on to a milk float.

He says: “There was the driver’s seat, a battery and a passenger seat. George got the battery. His jeans had a zip on the back and it connected with the battery. Later, he showed me the big zip burn.”

The new record was unveiled in Liverpool with a series of cryptic posters around the city.

Artwork for the project was designed by Sir Paul’s nephew, Josh.

It features cameos from Ringo Starr, The Pretenders singer Chrissie Hynde and Texas frontwoman Sharlene Spiteri.

And its release coincides with a series of major Beatles retrospectives — including Peter Jackson’s seminal Get Back documentary put together from restored archive footage that details the creation of their final album, Let It Be, and the band’s break-up.

But still to come is a major new dramatisation of the band’s rise to fame directed by Sam Mendes and with Paul Mescal as Macca.

The blockbuster will be released simultaneously as a quadrilogy in 2028, with each movie focused on one of the Fab Four’s formative years, charting their coming together as the world’s greatest musical group.

Filming with Mescal as Paul, Harris Dickinson as John, Barry Keoghan as Ringo and Joseph Quinn as George has already begun.