Novak Djokovic admits 2025 Wimbledon could be his best chance to win unprecedented 25th Grand Slam
Novaj Djokovic wants that 25th Grand Slam. Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner are making it hard for him. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
There is no disputing that Novak Djokovic is approaching the end of his career, but it remains to be seen if one more Grand Slam is in the cards.
With his first match of 2025 Wimbledon scheduled next week, Djokovic spoke to reporters on Saturday and candidly admitted that of all the Grand Slams left in his career, this might be his best chance to capture his increasingly elusive 25th title.
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From the Associated Press:
"I would probably agree that Wimbledon could be the best chance, because of the results I had, because of how I feel, how I play in Wimbledon," said Djokovic, who faces Alexandre Muller in the first round Tuesday. "Just getting that extra push mentally and motivation to perform the best tennis at the highest level."
Djokovic hasn't won a Grand Slam since the 2023 US Open. At six tournaments, it's his longest drought since going two years without a win while dealing with an elbow injury that required surgery in 2017 and 2018. Djokovic has reached only one Grand Slam final since the beginning of 2024, losing last year's Wimbledon championship match against Carlos Alcaraz.
To be sure, Djokovic has won some success in that span, most notably the men's singles gold medal in the Paris Olympics, but the 22-year-old Alcaraz and 23-year-old Jannik Sinner have won ever Grand Slam in that span and now represent a significant roadblock for the 38-year-old Serbian. It won't get easier as the years pass.
The younger pair are co-favorites for the 2025 title at the All England Club, with BetMGM having Alcaraz leading the pack at +115 odds and Sinner behind him at +190. Djokovic is third, but a distance away at +650.
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Wimbledon has been a friendly event for Djokovic over the years, with his seven titles putting him only one behind Roger Federer's eight for the most all-time.
As for when he'll actually retire, Djokovic hasn't been entirely clear. He hinted that he might have already played his final French Open match after losing to Sinner in the semifinals at Roland Garros earlier this month, but has since announced he plans to defend his Olympic title at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
He was similarly hazy on Saturday, via the AP:
'Whether it could be my 'last dance,'' the 24-time major champion began, repeating the phrase used by the reporter who posed the question, 'I'm not sure — as I'm not sure about Roland Garros or any other Slam that I play next.'
'My wish is to play for several more years. I would love to be healthy physically and also mentally motivated to keep on playing at the highest level,' he said. 'That's the goal. But you never know at this stage.'
Federer retired at 41 years old. Rafael Nadal retired at 38 years old. Djokovic is already as old as the latter legend was, and would need to last until he's as old as the former to make it 2028. There's little argument he hasn't slowed down compared to his prime, with only two ATP-sanctioned titles, including the Olympics, since the end of 2023, but the choice to continue will ultimately be up to him.
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New York Times
42 minutes ago
- New York Times
The complete history of Oasis and football
The two most fabled decades in English popular culture are, almost without question, the 1960s and the 1990s. Those periods represented peaks for the nation's two major obsessions: music and football. The 1960s provided the world with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, and England winning the World Cup. The 1990s offered Britpop, the launch of the Premier League, and England twice coming close to major tournament finals. Advertisement But there is a crucial difference. 1960s music and 1960s football were very disparate. Former Liverpool centre-forward Albert Stubbins featured on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club, and there's a wonderful clip of The Kop singing She Loves You, but The Beatles weren't terribly interested in football. Mick Jagger routinely turns up at World Cups, but is not an avid club supporter and has always been more of a cricket man. The Who frontman Roger Daltrey might be a genuine Arsenal fan, but when he performed a song entitled Highbury Highs after the final match at the club's old ground in 2006, it felt incongruous. The 1990s were different. It's almost impossible to think of English football in that decade without a soundtrack of New Order for World Cup 1990 or the Lightning Seeds in 1996. Ahead of Euro 96, The Football Association released an album entitled The Beautiful Game on RCA Records, featuring the likes of Blur, Pulp and Supergrass. 'It's clear that two cultures of music and football have never been so close,' said Rick Blaskey, who had the grand job title of 'executive producer of music for Euro 96'. 'Consequently, as this country has such a rich heritage in both, it seemed only right to use music to celebrate England hosting the European Championship.' This was marketing speak, certainly. But the 1990s were the only time it would have made sense. The poster boys, of course, were Oasis. Liam and Noel Gallagher displayed their Manchester City fandom more visibly than any other rock band had ever considered. It helped that, throughout the 1990s, City's sponsor was a Japanese electronics manufacturer named Brother. The photographer who first pictured them in those shirts, Kevin Cummins of the NME, later had a more obscure footballing link for them. 'I was going to do a shot in an alleyway,' Cummins said a few years ago in an interview with FourFourTwo. 'But because we were up at the Oxford Street end of Soho, I knew Flitcroft Street was nearby, so I said to the band we'd do it there instead. It was a nod to City midfielder Garry Flitcroft, and they loved the idea.' Advertisement By virtue of their two leaders being siblings, Oasis generally avoided the standard question in music journalism: 'How did you guys meet?' But Noel was a latecomer to Oasis, and the story involving the others is of relevance. When Liam conducted an interview alongside bassist Paul 'Guigsy' McGuigan in Los Angeles in 1995, they were asked that usual question, to which Liam had no real answer. 'I can't remember how we met,' he said, as if he'd never really considered it. 'We live in the same area,' McGuigan clarified. 'We've known each other for about 12 years. We used to play football together. Soccer. Proper game.' 'Round ball,' Liam added. And McGuigan had originally met the band's original drummer, Tony McCarroll, because they played in the same football team together. The football came first. The music came after. The most overt use of football in Oasis' lyrics is in Round Are Way, the B-side to Wonderwall, and it's about playing, rather than watching. The game is kicking off in around the park It's 25-a-side and before it's dark There's gonna be a loser And you know the next goal wins Oasis' attitude — or at least their analogies — were often shaped by football. When Noel was explaining the ambition behind his lyrics in a 1995 interview, he turned to housing. 'My songs were not written for bedsits,' he said. 'Think penthouse, not bedsit. Think mansion, not semi-detached.' But Liam interjected with something different: 'Think AC Milan, not Tranmere Rovers'. In a 1996 interview with Select Magazine, a section about their favourite records is interrupted by the sudden mention of Robin Friday, the heavy-drinking, rebellious centre-forward of the 1970s. 'Friday is Oasis' icon,' the interviewer writes. 'Understand him, and you understand them.' The Oasis obsession with Friday was such that, during his time in the band, McGuigan co-wrote a book about the striker, entitled The Greatest Footballer You Never Saw: The Robin Friday Story. It's not a particularly substantive effort, mainly consisting of match reports from the time, and some personal testimonies from his family. You'd struggle to consider it a biography. Still, it's a sideline you wouldn't expect from other rock stars, and McGuigan was a genuine football fanatic — even more so than the Gallaghers. 'I don't really do anything,' McGuigan said in 1994 Rolling Stone magazine interview.' Watching football is my main hobby. Watching football, watching videos about football, reading about football and talking about football. That's pretty much all I care about.' Guigsy, like the Gallaghers, was a City fan. Advertisement But why were they City fans? 'You just get born with it, don't ya?' explained Noel in a Sky interview ahead of the 1999 Second Division play-off final. 'Know what I mean? All my cousins, they're all United fans. For some bizarre psychedelic reason, Dad decided to take us to Maine Road first. Cheers, Dad.' But a year later, in a column for the Guardian, Noel mentioned further details. 'The reason is basically a family one — my dad hated his brothers. They were all Irish people who came over here and decided to support United. My dad chose City instead, just to piss them off. No other reason than that. Liam and I should, by rights, have been United fans.' The NME editor of the time was supposedly reluctant to feature them in City shirts too often, declaring that because City were struggling at the wrong end of the Premier League, it didn't suit a band on the up. But beyond the obvious geographic connection, it's difficult to think of a more suitable footballing fit for Oasis than 1990s City. A band who were revelling in singing about, as on Bring It On Down, being 'the outcasts' and 'the underclass' became the country's most famous supporters of a struggling club, at precisely the moment their main rivals started to dominate. The catalyst for Oasis exploding into Britain's biggest band came when they were spotted by Creation Records boss Alan McGee at a Glasgow venue in May 1993, the same month United won their first Premier League title. Definitely Maybe was released the following summer, by which point United were top of the charts in a different sense. 'The Manchester United Football Squad', backed by Status Quo, recorded Come On You Reds as their 1994 FA Cup final song. It sold 200,000 copies and spent two weeks at No 1, having entered the charts on 24th April 1994 — one week after Oasis' debut single, Supersonic, which merely peaked at No 31. But that was just the start for Oasis. And slowly, the football references crept in. The video for their second single, Shakermaker, features a brief shot of a signed Manchester City football, and then a subsequent kickabout down the park. But, quite rightly, they have clearly sourced a second football before going down the park, leaving the signed City ball unblemished. And then there was the album cover. Definitely Maybe's sleeve featured a prominent picture of City legend Rodney Marsh, and perhaps more surprisingly, a smaller picture of United hero George Best. This was due to guitarist Bonehead's affection for United, and, according to photographer Michael Spencer Jones, 'Noel and Liam allowed it, because Best sort of transcended football.' 'The United fans love him because he was such a great player,' Noel later explained. 'But City fans love him because he lived to have a good time.' Advertisement Bonehead's request was supported by drummer McCarroll, also a United fan. But Bonehead himself, whose dad was a referee in amateur levels of the game, actually came from a City-supporting family. The first match he attempted was at Maine Road, and he admits he initially followed United as an act of rebellion. He later described being in a predominantly City-supporting band in the 1990s as 'Not too difficult — obviously they couldn't shout about much on a Saturday because they hardly ever won.' In recent years, incidentally, one of Bonehead's neighbours on the outskirts of Manchester has been United midfielder Casemiro. But a funny thing about Oasis — perhaps the most famous Mancunians of recent decades, and with songs based around ordinary life — is that their lyrics were entirely neutral geographically. Other Britpop bands mentioned, for example, that their protagonists studied at St Martin's College (Pulp, Common People) or got the train to Walton (Blur, Tracy Jacks), giving some kind of reference to proceedings. The Beatles sang about locations in Liverpool (Penny Lane being the most obvious) and the Arctic Monkeys' debut album mentioned various places around Sheffield: High Green, Hillsborough, Rotherham, Hunter's Bar. But there's barely a trace of any geography in Oasis' lyrics. Noel acknowledged this in a 1995 interview. 'We don't sing about London. We don't sing about Manchester. We don't sing about Sheffield. We don't sing about England. We're just singing about life.' Indeed, Noel actually turned down the offer of writing a club song for Manchester City in the mid-1990s. 'They wanted me to write their new theme tune, but even though I'm a fan, I'm not going to sweat blood over a song unless it's for myself,' he said. 'I'm a selfish bugger and, anyway, what I am going to get to rhyme with 'City'?' On the basis of their performances at the time, that one was an open goal. But refusing to actively sing about their team, combined with the fact their team were constantly struggling, made their fandom relatable. It helped, too, that Noel was always an insightful speaker about the game. Perhaps the peak was when City signed Georgi Kinkladze, a wonderfully talented Georgian playmaker who scored some wonderful goals in the Premier League but struggled to fit into Alan Ball's system. Noel described him as 'Either the most frightening thing I've ever seen or the best thing I've ever seen,' and said he would 'Either win us the European Cup or get us relegated to the fourth division.' That sounded extreme, yet it wasn't a million miles off: City were relegated to the third tier within two years, by which point the Georgian had been signed by Ajax, who had been European champions a couple of years earlier. Incidentally, City supporters' chant for Kinkladze was to the tune of Wonderwall, featuring, 'And all the runs that Kinky makes are blinding,' then 'And after all…we've got Alan Ball.' Advertisement These days, the Britpop era is boiled down to a battle between Oasis and Blur, which is essentially the 'Steven Gerrard v Frank Lampard' debate of the 1990s (Pulp would be Paul Scholes). And while there have always been rivalries between bands — the Beatles versus the Rolling Stones — there was something about Oasis vs Blur that felt particularly football-y. There was genuine needle. Digs in interviews felt like 'mind games'. The battle naturally played out in the charts: Blur's Country House famously beat Oasis' Roll With It to No 1 on the opening weekend of the 1995-96 season. Oasis would have loved it if they beat them. Loved it. But the battle also played out on the football pitch. At Mile End Stadium in 1996, a celebrity six-a-side tournament also featuring the likes of Jarvis Cocker and Robbie Williams pitched together the lead singers: Blur's Damon Albarn playing in a blue Chelsea beanie hat, and Liam inevitably in a light blue bucket hat. And therefore the defining photo of Britpop took place on a football pitch, with a goal in the background to confirm the surroundings. For the record, Albarn's side won 2-0. Noel didn't play, despite rating himself a good centre-back, because 'I don't like anyone in showbusiness'. But on the small evidence available, Liam seems a better player: there's footage of him scoring a good goal and then celebrating with Noel in a mid-1990s Goldie documentary. Around the same time, there had been a rumour in NME Magazine that Blur and Oasis were set to collaborate on the official England song for Euro 96. 'Over my f***ing dead body,' Gallagher said in an interview with Hot Press magazine, before referencing the FA chairman of the time. 'Sir Bert Millichip probably asked the office junior at the FA who the 'happening bands' were at the moment and thought, 'Right, that's another few quid in the coffers''. He also turned down the chance to sing the national anthem before England's semi-final with Germany at Euro 96. Oasis were clearly unlikely to take up the offer to sing God Save The Queen at Wembley, perhaps unless it was the Sex Pistols track. In terms of international football, Noel has generally expressed more affection for Ireland than England, because of his Irish heritage. When asked to choose between the two in an Irish Times interview in 2015, he replied instantly. 'Oh, Republic of Ireland; I don't consider myself to be English at all.' Accordingly, he has more than a soft spot for Celtic, describing the moment the PA system played Roll With It before an Old Firm match he attended in 2000 as 'the greatest thing I've ever seen in my life.' It helped that Celtic won 6-2. Noel's annoyance with England supporters was particularly pronounced when he condemned the supporters who had rioted at Lansdowne Road in 1995. 'Ireland could have gone 6-0 down at Wembley and their fans' reaction would've been, 'Ah, f*** it, we'll have a drink', but our lot had to riot because they have this ludicrously misplaced sense of patriotism,' he said. 'There's also the small matter of the England team being shite at the moment. They only beat Japan 2-1 and afterwards you had Jimmy Hill saying, 'You have to realise they're not the soft touch they used to be.' Bollocks. We were crap and the thing that pisses me off is that we won't, as a nation, admit our faults.' The violent aspect of football fandom always irritated him. When Liam was arrested after getting into a brawl on a ferry en route to Amsterdam for Oasis' debut European tour, Noel was furious. 'If you're proud of getting thrown off ferries, then why don't you go and support West Ham and get the f*** out of my band and go and be a football hooligan?', Noel said to him in a feisty 1994 NME interview that was actually released on CD. 'Because we're musicians, right? We're not football hooligans… getting thrown off a ferry isn't rock and roll. That's football hooliganism.' Noel was generally a far-sighted fan in the 1990s, expressing frustration that the English game remained behind the times. 'It's no wonder that all these kids go round smashing up town centres when all the England players go on about is getting stuck in, standing your ground, working hard and being aggressive,' he said once said. 'The French players like ballet, man! Their supporters cause no trouble because the idols they look up to are artists. Not f***ing 'Get stuck in lads, they don't like it up 'em, foreigners.' F*** off. They're playing a different sport.' Advertisement Noel has always had a particular appreciation for foreign playmakers with flair and craft. He backed Argentina to win World Cup 1998 because he was once mesmerised by Ariel Ortega. He became friends with Alessandro Del Piero, sitting next to the Italian's wife in Dortmund when he rounded off a glorious semi-final goal against Germany at World Cup 2006. He generally names his favourite City player as David Silva. 'For me, he personified the word 'sublime',' he said in 2024. 'He was just brilliant, he made us tick, he changed the game… Kevin De Bruyne is more breathtaking because his passes are just incredible. But Dave was a beautiful, beautiful footballer — we'd never seen the likes of him.' Clearly, City have had plenty of 'his' type of footballer in recent years, a far cry from the 1990s when he said the only City player he rated was right-back Ian Brightwell. Notably, both paid tribute to Diego Maradona when he died in 2020. 'A proper rock-and-roll footballer, no f***er will ever come near,' Liam wrote on Twitter along with a photo of them together. 'Met Maradona not once but twice and he was the real f***ing deal, scary but beautiful.' Noel's tweet was more straightforward. 'Buenos Aires '97. What a life. What a legend. He was under house arrest at the time.' Maradona shakes the hand of God ! — Liam Gallagher (@liamgallagher) April 30, 2012 Oasis' second album, (What's the Story) Morning Glory, was released only a year after the debut, in October 1995. The recording sessions, in a house-cum-studio in Wales, can be accurately dated to May of that year, by the fact Oasis were heavily distracted by that season's title race. 'Football, man. United are f***ing losing the league, mad for it,' Liam is shown shouting into the microphone before a take for Champagne Supernova on the Supersonic documentary. He was more interested in watching Manchester United failing to defeat West Ham on the final day, therefore losing out to Kenny Dalglish's Blackburn. At full time, Liam stands in front of the television chanting Dalglish's name, before the other band members throw United fan Bonehead out of the house. The next clip is Liam having a kickabout in the garden. The peak of Oasis' touring days is often considered to be the legendary Knebworth shows in 1996. But a more personal highlight came earlier in the year, when Oasis played two dates at City's then-home, Maine Road. 'I loved standing on the terraces; it was like a gig when all the swaying started up,' Liam had previously said of his early visits. Noel had also seen the likes of Pink Floyd and Guns N' Roses at the ground. Advertisement The strange aspect about these gigs is that they happened on the penultimate weekend of the football season, in late April. Outdoor concerts in Britain at that time of year are extremely rare, because of the risk of adverse weather conditions, and the band were warned the gigs could be ruined by rain, although Noel pointed out that in Manchester, it rains all summer anyway. Committed United fan Bonehead refused to pose for the picture used on tickets for the event, while Liam wore a City player's sweatshirt on stage. 'I went backstage and there was some player's Umbro gear just sitting there and I thought, 'I'm having a bit of that', tried it on, f***ing freebie innit and, and I f***ing pinched it and f***ing wore it'. As simple as that. But this created a trend. Umbro launched an updated version earlier this year, to much acclaim from the football fashionistas. 'There are few moments and items in history that lay claim to being pivotal in the evolution of modern football culture,' read the Soccerbible website. 'But the Umbro drill top worn by Liam Gallagher on that April night at Maine Road would be one of them.' Oasis were always unashamed in their ambition and bold about conquering the world, but they were staggered by the experience of playing at their club's home stadium. 'To play at the ground of the football club you've supported all your life is, without doubt, the icing on the cake,' said Liam in 2017. 'It's downhill after that. Even Knebworth doesn't come close.' Noel said something similar a couple of years later. 'I remember sitting behind the stage at the Platt Lane end in a box and watching them dismantling the whole thing, ending up with just an empty stadium,' he said. 'I was taking the moment in, do you know what I mean? They were amazing gigs and it will never be repeated.' The following weekend at the ground, City hosted Liverpool on the final day of the season and drew 2-2, a result which confirmed their relegation. City had actually wasted time in the closing stages of the contest, wrongly believing a draw was enough to keep them up, which summed up their haplessness in this period. But, away from City, Oasis understood the importance of football to their fans. In September 1997, when they played in Newcastle, the gig clashed with Newcastle's famous 3-2 Champions League win over Barcelona. Liam wore a Newcastle shirt on stage — it probably helped that they were Manchester United's regular title challengers at this stage — and relayed the score to the crowd between songs. Oasis in the 21st century were a shadow of their 1990s peak — only a small handful of songs will feature on this summer's setlists. A rare highlight came with 2002's Stop Crying Your Heart Out, which soundtracked the BBC's montage of England's World Cup quarter-final defeat to Brazil. The single had only been released four days earlier; the Heathen Chemistry album the song was taken from was a fortnight away. In a game played on a weekday morning UK time, and watched in schools and offices around the country, England's tearful exit was the best possible promotion for the track. The montage ended with a shot of England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson; his death was announced the day before Oasis announced their reformation in late August last year. 22 years after this video, Oasis and Eriksson were on the front pages together. That World Cup montage stuck in people's minds and probably contributed to the song's surprise emergence in 2019 as a terrace chant, initially by Leeds fans repurposing the song as 'Stop crying Frank Lampard' before being sarcastically adopted by Lampard and his Derby side after they defeated Leeds in the playoffs. Advertisement Oasis' breakup in Paris in 2009 was both a long time coming, and also very sudden. Liam has repeatedly referenced a former City manager when ridiculing Noel's decision to walk away. 'He'd had enough of this 'lad' thing, and he wants to try something new — and it's not having a dig at him, but I just think he's sort of turned himself into a f***ing fake,' he said. 'I think he's done a Keegan.' In another interview, for the Supersonic documentary, Liam repeats the joke. 'I thought it was our kid just having his Kevin Keegan moment,' he says. It is particularly good analogy as it could conceivably refer to Keegan's departure from Newcastle, England, or indeed City. The Gallaghers' fandom of City has probably become more pronounced during the band's hiatus. Noel conducted the draw for the 2010-11 alongside Kasabian's Serge Pizzorno, a Leicester City supporter. Having joked beforehand that they'd like to draw out their own clubs against one another, they promptly did: Pizzorno drew Leicester as the home side, Gallagher drew City as the away side. There was a less than one per cent chance of them pulling that off. And while celebrity fans thankfully have a minor role to play in British television coverage of football, Noel has been the clearest exception. He played the role of Football Focus interviewer with Mario Balotelli in 2011 (at a time when no one in the media got an interview with the Italian) appeared on Match of the Day 2 as a pundit in 2015, then on Sky Sports as a pundit for a Manchester derby in 2017. Perhaps the highlight of that arrangement actually came, when, by way of promoting Gallagher's appearance, Paul Merson was given a charity challenge to slip in as many Oasis song titles into his Soccer Saturday punditry as possible, which he carried out remarkably smoothly. Noel was also given the honour of conducting Pep Guardiola's first interview as City manager. His prominence reached new heights last year when he was used as a co-commentator for TNT Sports' coverage of City's defeat in Lisbon to Sporting — which did feel a bit much — and he also had the ultimate honour of being interviewed in The Athletic. Meanwhile, there was a surprise starring role from Eric Cantona in Liam's video for his single Once, released in 2019. The video consists of little more than Cantona sitting around in a countryside mansion, drinking wine and lip-syncing to Liam's vocals. Cantona, according to Liam, refused any offer of payment, or assistance in travel or accommodation. Given the United-City connection, it took some time to get your head around; but then, just like George Best on the Definitely Maybe album cover, Cantona transcended both United and football. Throughout the period where they never spoke, the nearest thing to bringing Liam and Noel together was football. In 2016, both were insisting they hadn't been in touch since the breakup in 2009, with one near-miss. 'I think it was a football match in 2013 or 2014,' Liam said in a Radio X interview, when asked the last time they'd been together. 'It was a a City match. He was in one box and I was in another box, and I went into see him and I pinched his nipple and kissed him on the ear. I don't think we spoke.' Advertisement Whereas Liam used to watch City in a box rented by former midfielder Stephen Ireland, his fandom has waned slightly in recent years. 'I don't go and watch them anymore. I don't really like the Etihad,' he said to the NME in 2020. 'I don't dig it, it's like going and watching the f***ing opera.' But you can't escape Noel. He popped up in the City dressing room to sing Wonderwall with the players after the Premier League title victory in 2019. Four years later, City's players sang the same song in the dressing room after their European Cup final win over Inter (sadly without the lines about Kinkladze or Ball). City's next game against Inter also featured Oasis — their specially-designed Puma kit was a curious cream-blue number that was inspired by the cover art for Definitely Maybe. You'd probably have struggled to spot the resemblance had you not been told. But it completed a neat cycle: the album cover featured a player in a City shirt, and now a City shirt was inspired by the album cover. Noel also apparently had a role in designing the font for the back of City's shirts last season. He's still on good terms with Guardiola, and his refusal to join in the 'Poznan' a couple of years ago away at Fulham proved very popular and led to, it must be acknowledged, some excellent puns. 'He sees things they'll never see' worked particularly well. Oasis' initial demise coincided almost perfectly with City's rise. The band's last gig was on August 22nd 2009, the same day as City's first home match that season — the first full season of the current ownership, when they ultimately ended in fifth, at the time their best finish in the Premier League era. On that final tour, Oasis played three dates at Wembley Stadium. The previous time City had played at Wembley was a decade earlier, for the memorable win over Gillingham. That was in the third tier, and at the old stadium. (Even accounting for the seven-year rebuilding period, City wouldn't have been at Wembley in that time — they never played at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.) Noel Gallagher speaking ahead of Manchester City's play-off final against Gillingham. — Sky Sports Retro (@SkySportsRetro) May 21, 2022 And now, between Oasis gigs — summer 2009 to summer 2025 — City have played at Wembley 31 times: 10 FA Cup semi-finals, six FA Cup finals, six League Cup finals, seven Community Shield finals and two Premier League matches (when Tottenham were between grounds). It's a far cry from 1995, when Gallagher said of City, 'Hopefully they'll win something while I'm alive. But I wouldn't put money on it.' This summer, Oasis will play seven dates at Wembley. They'll also play the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, where City will hope to win the Club World Cup final this summer, and where the World Cup final will be played next year. The one disappointment is they won't be playing the Etihad, where they played in 2005, and where Liam played a solo gig in 2022, because it is undergoing renovations. But the tour will finish in South America, where Oasis will play at the legendary home grounds of River Plate and Sao Paulo. Advertisement Rock music is sometimes an awkward fit in a football ground, and Oasis haven't always excelled at these big stadium gigs. But over the last three decades, Oasis and football, perhaps more than any other band and any other sport, has always felt like a natural combination. (Illustration: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic; James Gill – Danehouse; Avalon; Neil Mockford; Getty Images)
New York Times
42 minutes ago
- New York Times
Every Premier League club's record sale: From Ronaldo, Rice and Caicedo to… Oxlade-Chamberlain
Being successful in the transfer market isn't all about putting your money where your mouth is — you also need to be a dab hand at selling a player or two. Perhaps more crucial than ever before in the Premier League's profitability and sustainability rules (PSR) era, generating funds from player trading can go a long way to helping a club stay competitive in future seasons, especially if they buy well. Advertisement Already this summer, Wolves have made a new record sale in the £62.5million deal taking Matheus Cunha to Manchester United but not every club have broken their old record so recently. Here, The Athletic's Premier League writers take a trip down memory lane to run through every side's record departure. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain became Arsenal's record sale eight years ago. Over time, that has seen more scrutiny put on their ability to sell players for fees that other clubs seem to receive with ease. An emphasis was placed on that last summer, with the sales of Emile Smith Rowe to Fulham (£28m potentially rising to £34m) and Eddie Nketiah to Crystal Palace (£25m potentially rising to £30m). Those sales were consistent with Arsenal's best since Oxlade-Chamberlain's departure, as they were academy players reaching an age where they needed regular football. Alex Iwobi to Everton in 2019 (£28m potentially rising to £34m), Joe Willock to Newcastle United in 2021 (£25m) and Folarin Balogun to Monaco in 2023 (£25m potentially rising to £34.4m) are the standouts. Arsenal still need to improve when it comes to selling players they had previously signed for the first team, although that could be easier said than done. Most players they have signed over the years tend to spend their best years at the club and are on a downward trajectory when it is time for them to leave, which makes commanding a high fee difficult. Even so, the record sales across the league's top teams show they can still improve as a selling club. Art de Roché The sale of Jack Grealish to Manchester City in 2021 was a landmark moment in Aston Villa's history. At first, it was a sore subject — many Villa supporters are still not over their homegrown hero leaving — but the record fee enabled the club to regenerate and, later down the line, provide Unai Emery with the initial tools to lay down his foundation. Advertisement Essentially, receiving £100million in pure bookable profit allowed Villa to spend more than any other club in the 2021-22 season while staving off the threat of PSR for the next few years, as losses did not breach the threshold. Although it hurt at first, Villa could accelerate its ambitions to improve the squad due to the funds received. Jacob Tanswell Bournemouth were once ridiculed for spending £20million on Solanke from Liverpool, owing to going his first 39 league games without scoring and clearly toiling for confidence and a settled role in Eddie Howe's side, which was relegated in Solanke's first full year. The striker, however, gradually flourished. The next four seasons saw continued progress, rewiring his game in the Championship before, especially in Bournemouth's second campaign after winning promotion, fulfilling his long-promised potential under Andoni Iraola. The England international scored 19 league goals, securing Bournemouth a club record fee, even if 20 per cent of that went to his former club, Liverpool. Bournemouth quickly reinvested, spending the money on their own club-record signing and Solanke's replacement, Porto's Evanilson, for £40million. Jacob Tanswell Ivan Toney is one of the most important players in Brentford's modern history. He broke the Championship goalscoring record in the 2020-21 season as Brentford earned promotion via the play-offs. The striker then scored 12 goals in Brentford's first season in the Premier League, including all of them in crucial victories over Norwich and Burnley. The following year, he scored 20 goals in 33 appearances as Brentford finished ninth and he was capped by England. Toney could have been sold for a lot of money that summer but an eight-month ban from the Football Association for breaching betting rules damaged his career. Advertisement Toney joined Saudi Pro League side Al Ahli in August 2024 after he had entered the final 12 months of his contract. It felt cheap for a player who had produced some important moments for England on their way to the European Championship final that summer after returning from his suspension. The 29-year-old scored 23 goals in the Saudi Pro League last season, which was more than Karim Benzema. Only Cristiano Ronaldo had a better record. He helped Al Ahli to win the Asian Champions League, too. Brentford received a decent amount of money for Toney but his true value was a lot more. Jay Harris Not just a record sale for Brighton, but a Premier League record as well. The price kept on rising for Moises Caicedo until Chelsea signed the Ecuador international defensive midfielder in the August 2023 transfer window. They had pursued Caicedo in the January 2023 window, along with Arsenal, but Brighton were not interested in losing their rising force during that season. Bids by Chelsea of £55m and an opening offer from Arsenal of £60m, which increased to £70m, were all rejected. Seven months later, Caicedo became one of the country's most expensive transfers of all time. A significant sell-on could provide a further boost to the profit on a player bought two and a half years earlier for £4m from Independiente del Valle in his homeland. The deal is the biggest success story of the global recruitment policy that has been such an effective tool in Brighton's development as a club. Andy Naylor Odobert's spell at Burnley only lasted one season but he was one of the few players who enhanced their reputations during the 2023-24 campaign when they were relegated to the Championship. Advertisement The 20-year-old arrived at Turf Moor from Troyes as part of Vincent Kompany's recruitment drive focused on signing young, exciting attacking talent following promotion from the Championship. The winger made 34 appearances, scoring five goals, and, despite the team's struggles, offered a number of glimpses of his talent with his speed, quick feet and dynamic ball carrying. It was not surprising that he secured a move back to the Premier League and Burnley agreed a deal which saw them make a substantial profit — he'd signed for a deal worth around £10million — on the France Under-21 international. His first season at Tottenham was derailed by injury but he has the potential to be an elite attacker. Andy Jones No one of a Chelsea persuasion were happy to see Hazard leave for Real Madrid in 2019, but it has to go down as one of their best-ever negotiations and not just because it was for such a large sum. Hazard had just one year left on his contract when Chelsea conceded they could not stop the Belgian from fulfilling his dream of playing for his idol (Real Madrid coach) Zinedine Zidane at the Bernabeu any more. Despite this, Chelsea director Marina Granovskaia remained strong during discussions and managed to secure an extraordinary deal worth £89m plus add-ons that could take the final bill up to £150m. Now, unfortunately, Hazard's well-documented injury problems meant that he not only failed to live up to expectations at Real Madrid but Chelsea did not have all the add-ons triggered. But while the final total has not been made public, it went into triple figures due to the trophies the La Liga side won during Hazard's time there. This includes winning the 2024 Champions League final, even though he had retired earlier in the season. Advertisement Given Hazard played just 76 times for Real Madrid, Chelsea certainly came out of this transfer much the better of the two clubs. Simon Johnson The departure of Wan-Bissaka to Manchester United was excellent business for Palace, despite how impressive the right-back had been over the course of a whirlwind few years after his sudden emergence into the first team. That money helped to fund a £30million academy redevelopment and Palace replaced him by reinstating Joel Ward to take the first-choice right-back spot before also bringing back Nathaniel Clyne as a free. Wan-Bissaka, now at West Ham United, has not achieved as much as might have been hoped and that makes the fee stand up well, but he has still enjoyed a successful career and won the player of the year award in his debut season in east London. Meanwhile, Bayern Munich triggered Michael Olise's release clause last July in a deal which should also see Palace receive £50m. After three incredibly successful seasons in south London, where he emerged as one of the most coveted talents in the world, Olise has continued to thrive. Palace have adapted well to life without him but now he has senior France caps to his name, and is thriving in both the Bundesliga and in the Champions League. Olise was always destined for greatness and his performances since leaving only make it tougher to take that his fee was so low relative to his talent. Matt Woosnam 'If you took away all of Romelu Lukaku's goals last season, we still would have finished seventh.' That was Everton's then director of football Steve Walsh's attempt to rationalise the £75million sale of the club's top Premier League scorer to Manchester United in the summer of 2017. Advertisement Walsh's view of the Belgian attacker was far from favourable. In a 2022 interview with The Athletic, he revealed he had warned Jose Mourinho off the 'big baby' striker. But Everton missed Lukaku dearly. His replacement, Sandro Ramirez, was a flop, while the purchase of three No 10s — Wayne Rooney, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Davy Klaassen — left the squad lacking balance. A bid for Olivier Giroud was thwarted, the Frenchman later revealed, when one of his mother's friends claimed to have had premonitions that a switch to Goodison would end badly. Everton limped to eighth the following season, with manager Ronald Koeman sacked that October. Maybe they could have done with Lukaku's goals after all, Steve. Patrick Boyland It was the summer that the Saudi Pro League's financial might was felt emphatically across Europe. Karim Benzema, N'Golo Kante and Roberto Firmino all left big clubs in Spain and England for lucrative moves to the Middle East, and in west London, Fulham were unable to prevent the departure of their own star man. Perhaps softening the blow of Aleksandar Mitrovic's exit to Al Hilal in August 2023 was the £45million fee they received for the Serbian striker, who had scored 15 goals in all competitions the previous season. Mitrovic jetted off to join Brazil star Neymar up front for Al Hilal while the West London club more than doubled their money on the £22m they initially paid Newcastle for the forward in 2018. It is testament to Fulham's recruitment that the following summer they recouped a similar fee, only marginally less at £42.3m, plus £4.2m in add-ons, from Bayern Munich for midfielder Joao Palhinha, who they signed from Sporting CP for a reported £17m. Mitrovic, who made a total of 205 appearances for Fulham and scored 111 goals after signing from Newcastle United in 2018, had three years remaining on his contract when he left. Advertisement He did not play any matches during Fulham's pre-season and boss Silva said the situation was affecting the team's preparations for the new campaign. He has provided a good goal return in Saudi Arabia, scoring 47 goals in 51 league games during his spell so far. Greg O'Keeffe There was never any doubt Raphinha would leave Elland Road in the summer of 2022. After two seasons, he had surpassed all expectations to become one of the Premier League's best players and was too good for battling relegation with Leeds. Raphinha's impact on the pitch was enough to win hearts and minds in West Yorkshire, but his parting gift was a wonderful final flourish. His penalty at Brentford not only saved Leeds from the drop but also ensured Barcelona and his other suitors would not be able to take advantage of his relegation release clause. Chelsea had money on the table first but Barcelona was always the Brazilian's preference. He remains arguably the best player many Leeds have ever seen play for the club and has become a Ballon d'Or contender at the Camp Nou. Beren Cross This is the most important transfer in Liverpool's modern history and shaped the success of the Jurgen Klopp era. A fan favourite because of his slick skills, incisive passes and long-range strikes, Coutinho's exit in January 2018 felt like an inevitability. Barcelona's relentless pursuit of the attacking midfielder the previous summer had led to the Brazil international handing in a transfer request, but Liverpool chose to stand firm. While Coutinho found out that the grass is not always greener, Liverpool were able to reinvest the money banked from his sale to sign goalkeeper Alisson and centre-back Virgil van Dijk, which helped transform Klopp's side into a European force. Advertisement Over the next two seasons, Liverpool won the Champions League and Premier League, with both additions playing a pivotal role. Whatever damage Coutinho did to his reputation during the saga has largely been forgotten because of the outcome. Andy Jones Manchester City have been able to overhaul their squad — bringing in eight first-team players for a combined outlay of around £290m since the start of the year — largely by making huge amounts from sales in the past few years. Assorted academy talents have accounted for much of that but the departure of Julian Alvarez to Atletico Madrid provided them with a major injection of cash (which they decided not to reinvest at the time, anyway). Alvarez's time in Manchester was a bit of a whirlwind — he arrived for just £14m from River Plate in the summer of 2022, at the same time as Erling Haaland, and won the treble with City and the World Cup with Argentina in his first season. He then helped cover for injuries to Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne in his second season, but sensed that he was only ever going to be a back-up behind those kinds of big names. Besides, there always seemed to be a desire among the family, who all moved with him to Manchester, to move to a warmer climate. His attributes made him a perfect signing for Diego Simeone and City were able to command a top fee. Sam Lee Few clubs have strong-armed Manchester United into selling a player they want to keep, but then few clubs are Real Madrid. It still took a full year for the Madrid industrial complex to prise Cristiano Ronaldo out of Sir Alex Ferguson's hands through a public campaign that began in weeks leading up to United's 2008 Champions League win. Advertisement United reported Madrid to FIFA but president Sepp Blatter's only intervention was to bemoan 'too much modern slavery' in football while urging United to sell. Ronaldo agreed with Blatter's characterisation and even though he resolved to stay at United that summer, he still wanted the move desperately, and the saga rolled on into the following season. That December, after a loose-lipped Madrid director suggested a deal for Ronaldo was all but done, Ferguson memorably retorted: 'You don't think we'd get into a contract with that mob, do you? Jesus Christ. I wouldn't sell them a virus.' But he had entered a contract with Ronaldo: a verbal one, brokered at assistant Carlos Queiroz's house in Lisbon the previous summer. There, Ferguson promised Ronaldo that if Madrid returned with a world-record fee at the end of the season, he would be allowed to leave. And deep down, he suspected they would. Ferguson and Quieroz had long wondered how long they would be able to keep Ronaldo in Manchester, thinking five years maximum. That extra year made it six. 'In that period, we won a European Cup and three league titles with him,' Ferguson later wrote in Alex Ferguson: My Autobiography. 'I consider that a pretty good return.' Mark Critchley When Alan Pardew insisted that Carroll was not for sale during the January 2011 window, he did not anticipate Liverpool making a then-record £35m deadline-day offer for a British player. Carroll had shown himself to be a force-of-nature striker but was still inexperienced, yet he found himself being whisked across to Merseyside in a helicopter as Liverpool rushed to find a replacement for Chelsea-bound Fernando Torres. If Carroll's departure typified the willingness of Newcastle to sell their prized assets under Mike Ashley's ownership, Anderson's transfer to Nottingham Forest in June 2024 was the very definition of a 'PSR deal'. Advertisement Eddie Howe did not want to lose the academy graduate and Newcastle also felt forced to spend £20m on acquiring Odysseas Vlachodimos — a goalkeeper who had not featured on their wanted list — to ensure the sale of Anderson would take place before the June 30 deadline. It was an act of desperation to ensure PSR compliance, and the effects are still being felt now. Chris Waugh It was disappointing to hear a smattering of boos when Brennan Johnson came back to the City Ground as a Spurs player. Most of the crowd, however, stood to acclaim a player who had come through Forest's academy and been serenaded with chants of 'he's one of our own'. To put it in context, Forest's previous record was Britt Assombalonga's £15m transfer to Middlesbrough in 2017. Plus, the sale of Johnson was absolutely necessary at a time when Forest were breaching the Premier League's spending rules, eventually incurring a four-point penalty. Atletico Madrid had also bid for the Wales international whereas Brentford made numerous offers over the course of two seasons. Even on the night Johnson moved to Tottenham, the then-Brentford manager, Thomas Frank, was trying to persuade him to change his mind (ironic given where Frank now works). Johnson could not be dissuaded and his winning goal for Spurs in the Europa League final last season fully justified that decision. Daniel Taylor Jordan Pickford was a diamond found in the mud of Sunderland's disastrous 2016-17 season. Relegated from the Premier League with barely a whimper under David Moyes, the emergence of the gifted local boy in goal was as good as it got in a tailspin to the Championship. That breakthrough campaign in the top flight had followed multiple loans in the EFL and convinced Everton that Pickford, then just 23 and yet to play for England, was worth a fee of up to £30million. All these years later, he remains the most expensive British goalkeeper of all time and a keen Sunderland fan. Advertisement The footnote to this is that the honour might not be Pickford's for much longer. This summer's sale of Jobe Bellingham to Borussia Dortmund might eventually turn out to be worth as much as £32m if add-ons are hit. Philip Buckingham Lots of people thought that Harry Kane would spend the rest of his career at Spurs. The centre-forward started out in their academy and eventually became a first-team star after spells on loan at Norwich City and Millwall. Kane became a talisman for club and country with his ridiculous goalscoring exploits but he never won a trophy. The closest he came was the 2019 Champions League final. which Spurs lost to Liverpool. Tottenham chopped and changed managers but despite all the upheaval, Kane continued to perform at a high level. Yet in the summer of 2023, he decided enough was enough. Spurs had just sacked Antonio Conte and finished eighth, which meant that they would not be competing in Europe the following season. At the end of the transfer window, Kane joined Bayern Munich in a deal worth €100m. Spurs fans were devastated but could not begrudge him the opportunity to win silverware with Bayern, which he did when they lifted the Bundesliga title last month. Jay Harris Former West Ham United manager David Moyes believes Rice's £105million ($134.6m) departure to Arsenal in July 2023 was underpriced. 'When I see Arsenal supporters, I tell them they owe me £50m because we only got £100m for him,' said the Everton manager. The 26-year-old scored two superb free kicks past Thibaut Courtois in Arsenal's first leg quarter-final Champions League victory over Real Madrid, prompting the Emirates Stadium faithful to chorus: 'Declan Rice, we got him half-price.' Advertisement Moyes always proclaimed it would take the 'Bank of England' money for Rice to leave. The England international was in the last year of his contract, which prevented West Ham from recouping an even larger sum. Roshane Thomas The ink is barely dry on Cunha's contract at Manchester United, so it is impossible to say yet whether his move will be a success in football terms. And even though we know the figures involved, the jury is still somewhat out on how good a deal it was for Wolves. On one hand, inserting the release clause in the new contract Cunha signed in January ensured a profit of £18.5million on the fee they paid Atletico Madrid to sign the forward in 2023. On the other hand, it is possible that selling Cunha on the open market might have brought in even more money, and if Cunha goes on to be a hit for United, then the fee paid could end up looking cheap. Nevertheless, Wolves were content to resolve his future early in the window, providing both clarity and some guaranteed income. Steve Madeley (Top photos: Matheus Cunha, left, and Declan Rice; Getty Images)
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Aitana Bonmati's illness is a cruel blow for Spain, who have been here before on the eve of a Euros
'Aitana (Bonmati) has viral meningitis,' Montse Tome announced after Spain's final pre-European Championship friendly, against Japan. 'She is a very important player and we will wait for her until the end.' This is how Tome announced Bonmati's hospitalisation just a few days before the start of the Euros in Switzerland. While her team-mates were in action on Friday, Bonmati shared a photo on Instagram showing herself lying in a hospital bed. Advertisement Neither the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) nor the player's entourage have given a timeline for her return, and the priority right now is for her to recover well, understanding that her health must come first. But what does this mean for her and for Spain? The reality is there is now a significant question mark over what role — if any — she will be able to play at these Euros. According to the British National Health Service, viral meningitis typically takes seven to 10 days to fully recover from. Her progress will determine her return, and Tome is prepared to wait for her. Pending developments in the coming days, it should be noted that Article 57.04 of the UEFA competition regulations would allow Spain to replace the player up to 24 hours before the tournament begins on Wednesday. Spain's first match is against Portugal on Thursday. Tome will now have to consider what happens if she loses one of her most important players, the Ballon d'Or winner. Vicky Lopez is the most natural direct replacement in the starting XI, or Tome might consider using Mariona Caldentey in a more withdrawn role. In a way, this is a kind of deja vu from 2022. Back then, one day before the start of the Euros in England, then Ballon d'Or holder Alexia Putellas injured her anterior cruciate ligament and had to withdraw from the squad. Now, while it is true that Bonmati has not been injured and could recover in time to be available for the group stage, her presence is still unknown. It is inevitable that parallels will be drawn with what happened at that time, given the importance of both players and the fact it is the same competition, the only major football tournament Spain have yet to win. Missing out on the Euros would be a huge blow for Bonmati, as she would lose the opportunity — for now at least — to add the only major title she has not won. With Barcelona, she has won everything at club level and also individually, including the past two Ballons d'Or. Advertisement For Spain, the loss would be huge. Bonmati is a player who rises to the occasion. She thrives in big games and, even in a season that was not her best in Liga F, she was named the best player in the Champions League. Bonmati has great vision, is capable of seeing spaces where no one else can and is one of the most ambitious minds on the team. She is a player with the ability to unbalance opponents and break through defensive lines with passes and dribbling. Given the style of play of Tome's team, this would be a particularly significant loss due to the position Bonmati plays. Midfield is the hallmark of both Barca and Spain and their three midfielders set the tempo, create the play and provide the balance between attack and defence. All their play goes through them. There is, at least, some consolation for Tome. Patri Guijarro is back in the national team — she missed the World Cup due to the 'Las 15' controversy, in which 15 players asked not to be called up until there were changes in the RFEF — and Putellas has regained her form and put her injury and the physical problems that came with it firmly behind her, so Bonmati's absence would be less noticeable now than it would have been at the World Cup. Back then, there was no Guijarro and Putellas was a bit-part player as she worked her way back from injury. Even so, Bonmati is a decisive player and her absence would be a significant problem for Spain. While it might boost other teams' prospects, losing the world's best player would also be a significant blow for the tournament as a whole. Now, we all wait to see how quickly she recovers.
