A spokesman for Hampshire Constabulary said: “We are appealing for witnesses following the theft of 17 vehicles from a cruise parking facility in Southampton.
“The incident occurred between the evening of September 9 and the early hours of September 10.
“Officers were called at approximately 7:40am on Wednesday September 10 to reports of a suspected break-in at Southampton Cruise Parking Services on First Avenue.
“Upon arrival, it was discovered that 17 cars had been stolen.
Chilling moment thieves steal car with wireless device in seconds as new doc reveals how Brit motors end up in Lithuania
“The investigation team is working closely with the company operating the site, as well as local partners, to secure all available evidence.”
Detective Constable Edward Smith, the officer leading the investigation, said: “We don’t underestimate the significant impact this incident has had on the victims, who have returned from their holidays to discover their car stolen.
“We continue to keep those victims updated with the progress with our investigation, which our team is working incredibly hard on to ensure those responsible are arrested.
“We continue to progress several lines of inquiry including a full review of CCTV from the scene and surrounding areas.
“I am pleased to say that this work has already led to the recovery of six of the vehicles and those owners have been updated with the good news.”
Anyone with information, or who may have CCTV footage from the area, is urged to contact police quoting reference number 44250409694.
Alternatively, information can be provided anonymously via Crimestoppers by calling 0800 555 111 or visiting their website.
The Sun has contacted Southampton Cruise Parking Services for comment.
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A total of 17 motors were swiped from the facilityCredit: PA
Since the turn of the century the two sides have only played each other on 10 occasions, and during the entire 1990s they only met once in the FA Cup.
There were only three derbies during the 1980s and in the 1970s they played four times – and in total the two clubs have only met 72 times in 125 years.
“The last derby was in 2019, and that was a long time for the grudge to be held,” added Farmery.
“There’s a lot of build-up over a long period of time and because that boil doesn’t get the chance to be lanced often enough, that contributes to the ferociousness of the rivalry.”
Southampton club historian Duncan Holley believes the fact that Saints have traditionally finished higher in the football pyramid has also fuelled the rivalry.
“In the past 64 seasons, Saints have only been below Portsmouth in finishing terms on seven occasions,” he said.
Holley said that relative success annoyed Portsmouth fans and “by the time the 1960s ended there was a lot of animosity coming from Portsmouth to Southampton”.
He added: “Saints fans then retaliated and decided to match the feeling, and that’s how it all became.
“There is always rivalry between any neighbouring town, and this was initially a friendly competitiveness, but that really petered out. It’s become a bit of a cult and I see it as one of the strongest derbies around.”
West Ham have signed midfielder Mateus Fernandes from Southampton in a deal worth more than £40m.
The 21-year-old Portuguese joins on a five-year contract and becomes West Ham’s third-biggest signing, behind Sebastien Haller (£45m) and Lucas Paqueta (£51m).
Fernandes moved to Southampton from Sporting for £15m in 2024, so the Saints have made a substantial profit after one year.
He made 46 appearances for Southampton, scoring four goals and providing seven assists.
“I’m very excited to play for West Ham,” said Fernandes.
“I think it’s a big step for me. It’s a big club, a massive club. The project, the stadium, the city, everything.”
The move should be a boost for under-pressure Hammers manager Graham Potter, whose side have lost their first three matches of the season in all competitions.
They were beaten 3-0 by newly-promoted Sunderland in their first Premier League outing before being thrashed 5-1 by Chelsea, and lost to Wolves in the second round of the Carabao Cup.
West Ham are also close to completing the signing of Monaco midfielder Soungoutou Magassa, 21, for a fee of about £17.3m.
Carabao Cup holders Newcastle will start the defence of their crown at home to League One Bradford in the third round.
League Two Grimsby Town will travel to Championship Sheffield Wednesday after shocking Manchester United in a spectacular penalty shootout win at Blundell Park.
Manchester City will take on League One Huddersfield Town at the Accu Stadium while Arsenal will travel to Port Vale.
Reigning Premier League champions Liverpool, who were beaten in last season’s final, will host Championship Southampton, while Chelsea have been handed a trip to Lincoln City.
Brentford will host Aston Villa and Wolves will welcome Everton in the two all-Premier League ties.
The eight teams in the Champions League and Europa League – Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Newcastle, Tottenham, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa – were seeded to avoid scheduling clashes.
Crystal Palace were not included in the seeding because the Conference League league phase does not get under way until October.
The third round fixtures will take place across two weeks, beginning on 15 and 22 September with Champions League and Europa League fixtures also scheduled during this period.
Everton have signed Tyler Dibling from Southampton in a deal worth an initial £35m plus £5m in add-ons.
The 19-year-old midfielder has agreed terms on a four-year contract until June 2029.
Dibling becomes Everton manager David Moyes’ eighth signing of the summer transfer window.
“I think it’s the perfect match because of where the club is right now,” the England Under-21 international told Everton’s website., external
“Obviously with the new stadium, the fans here are unreal, and it has a family feel to it. I think it was the perfect fit and was a no-brainer to join.”
England goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale says the prospect of playing under manager Eddie Howe again was an influential factor in his decision to join Newcastle.
The 27-year-old completed a season-long loan move to the Magpies from Southampton on Saturday.
Howe signed Ramsdale from Sheffield United in 2017 for around £800,000 when he was manager at Bournemouth.
“Working with the manager and his coaching staff again was a big draw for me,” said Ramsdale.
“They’ve already had a great influence on my career and the gaffer turned me from a man into a professional footballer at Bournemouth.
“He really showed me the ropes so the manager and his coaching staff were a huge selling point for me to come here.”
Newcastle switched their attention to Ramsdale after Manchester City signed their previous target James Trafford from Burnley.
The goalkeeper is the Magpies’ third signing of the summer, following the acquisitions of Anthony Elanga from Nottingham Forest and Antonio Cordero from Malaga.
The club rejected a bid of around £110m from Liverpool for striker Alexander Isak on Friday.
Newcastle, who are keen to keep the Swede, value the forward at around £150m.
Former England midfielder Adam Lallana has retired from playing at the age of 37.
Lallana, who won 34 caps for his country, returned to Southampton last season after making his name in his first spell there.
He joined Liverpool from Saints for £25m in 2014 and went on to win the Premier League and Champions League.
“As I call time on my playing career, I do so with an overwhelming sense of gratitude and pride,” Lallana said on his social media accounts., external
“Southampton… the place where it all started, and fittingly where it ends. It’s the club I ultimately owe everything to.”
Lallana came through Southampton’s academy before making his debut for the first team as an 18-year-old in 2006.
He went on to feature more than 250 times for Saints and was part of the squad that won back-to-back promotions from League One to the Premier League.
Lallana was captain when he left for Anfield during a summer where he also played for England at the 2014 World Cup.
After winning the Champions League with Liverpool in 2019 and the league title the following campaign, Lallana joined Brighton before returning to St Mary’s in 2024.
He only made five starts as Saints were relegated to the Championship.
“I’m proud of the playing career I’ve had and have no regrets about any of it,” Lallana added.
“I embrace all the highs and all the lows as they’ve shaped me into who I am.
“To everyone who made the journey so special, the staff at each club and organisation, the managers and coaches, my teammates, and of course the supporters — thank you.
“But most of all, to my own team… my family. My wife Emily, our amazing sons, my mum, dad and sister, thank you for putting up with me and being in my corner through it all.
Rangers chief executive Patrick Stewart, who led the head coach search along with Thelwell, said Martin was the “standout candidate”.
The Ibrox club spoke to former Real Madrid assistant manager Davide Ancelotti and former Feyenoord manager Brian Priske, while former manager Gerrard and ex-Ajax head coach Francesco Farioli were among those also linked with the post.
“Our criteria were clear: we wanted a coach who will excel in terms of how we want to play, improve our culture, develop our squad, and ultimately win matches,” Stewart said.
“This appointment is about building a winning team and a strong culture. He is no stranger to our club, we expect success and Russell knows that. We are excited for his leadership.”
Thelwell suggested Martin’s time in the Premier League “has sharpened his approach, both tactically and personally”.
Giving an insight into what a Rangers team under Martin will be like, he added: “His teams play dominant football, they control the ball, dictate the tempo and impose themselves physically. They press aggressively and work relentlessly off the ball.
“These are all characteristics that we believe are required to be successful at home, away and abroad.”
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.
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.
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.
Football teams that controversially changed their badge
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Will Still is in the running for the St Mary’s roleCredit: Getty
Still’s parting message to RC Lens
Here is what Will Still told RC Lens fans about his decision to leave…
He said: “I won’t be the coach of RC Lens next season.
“It was the last season at Bollaert, for multiple reasons.
“The main reason that pushed me to make this decision is the fact that I need to go home.
“Everyone is well aware of what happened in my life. That’s why.
“I had a lot of fun, I think we achieved great things despite everything. I’ve been in France for four years, four years that I’ve experienced intense moments.
“The logical choice is that I get closer to my wife for her well-being too.”
Liverpool, England – “I love it when it gets like this,” exclaimed the man beside me as he rubbed his hands with glee.
It was the Halloween of 2009 and in the gloom of an early winter’s afternoon, Goodison Park was at its best.
Everton were playing Aston Villa in a league match, which was becoming increasingly bad-tempered. Two late red cards, an appalling referee and the floodlights taking full effect. It was the perfect recipe for a big bowl of Goodison fury.
The game finished as an unmemorable 1-1 draw, but the sheer delight of the man in the neighbouring seat long stayed with me. His excitement was a reminder to relish those rare occasions when the entire audience at this glorious theatre of football are united in emotion.
And nowhere does emotion quite like Goodison Park.
Fury, relief, joy and despair – and that’s just a two-nil defeat to Norwich in the League Cup fourth round.
Fans sitting in this footballing relic have felt it all throughout the stadium’s long and illustrious history. If they gave out Ballon d’Ors for booing, Everton would need a separate stadium just to house the trophy cabinet.
But on Sunday, there will be new emotions to add to the list – because everything is about to change.
A 133-year chapter in the story of Everton is about to end, as Goodison Park hosts the men’s team for the final time.
“Goodison has just always been there, there’s not an Evertonian alive that has watched Everton anywhere else,” said Matt Jones, host of the Blue Room podcast.
Like thousands of fellow fans, he will spend the weekend grappling with various emotions.
“I feel a bit like a dad watching his daughter get married at a wedding and everything’s starting to make him cry. As you get closer and closer to the day, you get more and more emotional,” Jones told Al Jazeera Sport.
The view as fans make their way through the residential streets that surround Goodison Park [Courtesy: Gary Lambert]
At its most basic level, Sunday’s fixture against Southampton is game number 2,791 for the Everton men’s senior team at Goodison. But for Evertonians, it represents so much more. A small part of our identity is about to be lost.
I’ve grown from a boy to a man in various seats in every stand of that grand old stadium, learning every swear word there is to know along the way.
The highs and lows of the last 30 years have been intertwined with trips there, with the ground somehow able to block out everyday life for 90 precious minutes. Much like the inability to get a phone signal inside, you leave your troubles at the turnstile.
I’ve taken various partners to Goodison (one said that she had “never seen rage quite like it”), with most of those relationships ending in the same sort of heartbreak as an Everton cup run.
But I’ve always felt privileged to sit inside a real-life museum of football. Surrounded by history, tradition and furious middle-aged men abusing anything that moves.
The next page of the Everton story will see the men’s team relocate to a 53,000-capacity stadium at Bramley Moore Dock. The impressive structure sits on the banks of the river Mersey and, for the sake of sponsorship, will be called the Hill Dickinson Stadium.
A drone view shows Everton’s new stadium at Bramley Moore Dock in Liverpool [Jason Cairnduff/Reuters]
Life in such a shiny, modern arena will be a huge adjustment for one of the oldest teams in English football.
“It’s that feeling of leaving your family home. It’s the only way I can describe it,” said Merseyside-based sports reporter Giulia Bould.
“You know you’re going to a house with a load of mod cons and you know your life’s going to be so much easier in this new house, but you’ve got to leave your family home. It’s weird,” she added.
This season has been filled with finals for Everton, although sadly not the ones that are played at Wembley with a trophy on the line.
Instead, each fixture at Goodison has ticked another final occasion off the list. From the final cup game to the final night match, even the final Saturday 3pm kickoff has had a shoutout.
But on Sunday, it really will be the finale – although only for the men’s team.
Just days before what was due to be the final ever Goodison game, Everton announced that the old stadium would be granted a stay of execution. The bulldozers won’t move in – instead the women’s team will.
“I think it’s perfect,” said Bould as she reflects on the decision from Everton’s American owners to pass Goodison over to the women’s team.
“Under the previous owner, the women’s side has long been ignored and run into the ground really, it’s been pretty much treated as second rate. But now it has been put on a level where it should be, setting the precedent for everyone else,” Bould told Al Jazeera Sport.
Terraced housing surrounds Everton Football Club’s Goodison Park ground in this aerial photo taken in 2006 [David Goddard/Getty Images]
Goodison Park is no stranger to setting a precedent. It was the first purpose-built football stadium in England and the first to install dugouts and undersoil heating.
The Toffees’ long run without relegation means it’s hosted more English top-flight football games than anywhere else.
Goodison was also the venue for an FA Cup Final and a World Cup semifinal, with Pele and Eusebio both also scoring there during the 1966 tournament. Even North Korea has graced the Goodison turf.
The storied history of Everton’s home has caught the imagination of some of the greats of the modern game.
Jose Mourinho called the place “the history of English football”, while Arsene Wenger described it as “one of the noisiest” stadium’s he’s managed in.
Sir Alex Ferguson once spared former Evertonian Wayne Rooney from an afternoon at Goodison with Manchester United, purely because of the abuse he would receive.
Visiting Goodison Park today feels vastly removed from the riches of modern English football. To put it bluntly, the stadium is no longer fit for purpose. But that is what makes it magical.
“It is the closest you can get to travelling through time to watch football,” said photographer and Evertonian Gary Lambert. That time travel begins before you even set foot in the stadium.
“Physically, Goodison is an imposing place. It appears out of nowhere between the rows of terraced houses,” said Lambert.
The view of one of the stands from outside the stadium [Courtesy: Gary Lambert]
Once inside, the stadium’s history unravels through the various sights and sounds. Obstructed views are common, with posts and pillars causing many a strained neck.
And the unique Archibald Leitch criss-cross design runs down the middle of the ancient Bullens Road stand.
“Goodison Park is the bluest place on earth. The brickwork on three-quarters of the ground is painted a vivid shade of royal blue.
“It doesn’t matter what tweaked blue hue the latest kit manufacturer might tone the latest home shirt, it’s that blue outside which is Everton’s blue,” Lambert told Al Jazeera Sport.
But there is one particular quirk that stands out above them all and it happens whenever Everton go on the attack.
“There are still so many old-fashioned wooden seats, so the seats bang and click as everyone moves to stand up,” said Bould.
The chorus of wooden clangs is something she will miss when Everton move away from their historical home.
“That clicking noise, you don’t hear that anywhere. That, for me, is Goodison.”
Like all Everton fans, I’ll miss the matchday routines around Goodison. Parking near the snooker hall, a pre-match pint in Crofts Social Club, the endless queues for the loo. I might even miss the lack of legroom.
It’s troubling to comprehend life after Goodison for Everton’s men. The two are so connected and so well-suited. Everton is Goodison and Goodison is Everton. A divorce after 133 years was always going to hurt.
But change is needed for a club still clinging to former glories. Everton’s new ground could be the chance for a new start. The Hill Dickinson Stadium doesn’t suit us, but it represents the new world of football, where money is power.
In many ways, Sunday’s fixture will be a changing of the guard as the grand old team are hurtled into the modern age.
“We’re at the end of such a long journey now at Goodison. And at just the very start and the very first step of a new one.
“And maybe we’re quite privileged to be at this crossover point and experience both of them,” said Jones.
The view inside Goodison Park as the surface is watered before the arrival of the players and fans [Dave Thompson/AP]
