Jamie Carragher believes players should stop accepting moves to Chelsea and back themselves to excel at a "proper club", as the Blues close in on the signing of Joao Felix.

Chelsea have spent over £1billion in the transfer market in just over two years under the Todd Boehly regime, but could only manage a sixth-place Premier League finish in 2023-24 after finishing 12th in 2022-23.

Enzo Maresca has become the fifth boss to take charge of the Blues in that time, and his first pre-season at the helm saw another significant outlay sanctioned by the Boehly regime.

Pedro Neto, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Filip Jorgensen, Omari Kellyman, Aaron Anselmino, Renato Veiga, Caleb Wiley, Marc Guiu and Tosin Adarabioyo have all arrived with Chelsea's spending totalling £160million.

That figure is set to increase in the coming days with a deal in place to bring Atletico Madrid's Joao Felix – who enjoyed a loan spell at Stamford Bridge in 2023 – back to the club, while Brentford's Ivan Toney has also been suggested as a potential target.

Carragher believes young players should reject the long-term contracts being handed out by the Blues, with the sheer size of Maresca's squad sure to hamper their development.

"Chelsea have just got to stop buying players. Players have got to stop signing for Chelsea," the former Liverpool defender told Sky Sports on Monday.

"If I was a player, I would look at that squad and think, 'why would I sign for Chelsea?' The only reason is if your agent says it's a seven-year deal on big money.

"I'd say, back yourself as a player. Sign a four-year deal at a proper club and back yourself to do well. When you're up for renewal your money goes up anyway.

"It's not a young and exciting team. They're buying Joao Felix... tell me where he's going to play.

"They've signed Pedro Neto... where's he going to play when they've already got Cole Palmer?

"Where would you play Enzo Fernandez, a £100million player? Where would you play [Christopher] Nkunku? Great football teams need competition, but in every team I played in, you had seven or eight players who knew they were playing. That is a healthy squad.

"With Chelsea, where are they even getting changed on the training ground? If you've got 40 players, how do they fit in one dressing room? How do you put a training session on as a manager?"

Maresca's first competitive game at the helm ended in a 2-0 defeat to Manchester City on Sunday, with the representatives of winger Raheem Sterling publishing a statement demanding "clarity" on his future after being left out by the Blues boss.

Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini joined an exclusive club on Monday as La Dea's 4-0 win at Lecce saw him pass the landmark of 550 Serie A points with a single club.

Marco Brescianini and Mateo Retegui both scored twice as the Europa League holders got their Serie A campaign off to a flying start at the Stadio Comunale Via del Mare.

The victory saw Gasperini – who joined Atalanta in 2016 – reach 552 points in charge of the Bergamo club, who he led to a fourth-place finish in Serie A last term.

Only four coaches had previously collected 550 or more points with a single club in Serie A: Helenio Herrera with Inter, Carlo Ancelotti with Milan (both 557), Massimiliano Allegri at Juventus (663) and Giovanni Trapattoni, who collected 770 also with the Bianconeri.

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner is expecting a "flat-out" fight for supremacy in Formula One over the next 18 months.

Austrian constructor Red Bull have been the dominant force in F1 over the past few years, with Max Verstappen winning three straight drivers' titles and the team taking the constructors' trophy in 2022 and 2023.

The early stages of the 2024 season followed a similar pattern with flying Dutchman Verstappen winning four of the opening five races but there have now been seven different victors through 14 rounds.

Verstappen still holds a healthy 78-point lead from second-place Lando Norris in the driver standings but McLaren are only 42 points adrift of Red Bull in the constructor table, with Ferrari 63 back and improving Mercedes 142 behind.

Horner, in quotes reported by F1's official website, thinks there is going to be a battle between all four of those F1 heavyweights in the near future.

"I think it’s great for the sport, and it was almost inevitable when you get consistency of regulations, you always get convergence," he said.

"I remember when I first came into Formula 1, Ron Dennis banging that drum back in 2005. Convergence has always brought the teams together. 

"Of course we have a big regulations change in 2026 that will cause divergence but, between now and then, the next 18 months I think it will be flat-out between the four teams."

F1 returns after a near month-long break with the Dutch Grand Prix this weekend, Verstappen's home race.

Lionel Messi has been omitted from Argentina's upcoming World Cup qualifiers as he continues to recover from an ankle injury sustained in the Copa America final.

The superstar forward limped off a little over an hour into La Albiceleste's 1-0 victory over Colombia in Miami on July 14 and has not featured since.

Messi, 37, did not play in the MLS All-Star game, with his club side Inter Miami confirming he had sustained ligament damage to his right ankle and no timeline has been put on his return.

Lionel Scaloni has the likes of Julian Alvarez, Lautaro Martinez and Nicolas Gonzales to call upon, while Lazio forward Valentin Castellanos earns a first call-up.

Argentina face Chile in Buenos Aires on September 5 before travelling to Bogota for a rematch with Colombia five days later.

Scaloni's side, who are hoping to defend their World Cup title in 2026 by qualifying for the tournament in the United States, Mexico and Canada, are top of CONMEBOL qualifying with five wins from six matches.

The top six nations from CONMEBOL qualify for the tournament, while seventh place goes into a play-off for an additional berth.

Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa has hit out at the "terrible" style of former coach Brian Flores, hailing Mike McDaniel for showing greater belief in him.

Last month, the Dolphins handed Tagovailoa a franchise-record four-year, $212.4million extension off the back of an impressive fourth season with the team.

Tagovailoa posted career-best figures for passes attempted (560), completed (388), passing yards (4,624) and touchdown passes (29) in 2023, though Miami fell at the first hurdle in the playoffs, losing 26-7 to the eventual Super Bowl LVIII champions, the Kansas City Chiefs. 

Tagovailoa has improved season-on-season since being drafted fifth overall by Miami in 2020, with his two best campaigns coming since McDaniel replaced Flores as head coach in 2021.

The quarterback has now hit out at the way Flores – who is entering his second year as defensive coordinator with the Minnesota Vikings – drained his confidence.

He said in an interview with The Dan LeBatard Show: "To put it in the simplest terms, if you woke up every morning and I told you that you suck at what you did, that you don't belong, that you shouldn't be here, that you haven't earned this right... 

"Then you have somebody else come in and tell you, 'dude, you are the best fit for this'... How would it make you feel, listening to one or the other?

"You hear it, no matter what it is, the good or the bad, you hear it more and more, you start to believe that. I don't care who you are. 

"You could be the president of the United States, you have a terrible person telling you things that you don't want to hear or probably shouldn't be hearing, you're going to start believing that about yourself. 

"That's what ended up happening. It was basically two years of training that out of not just me but a couple of other guys as well."

The Dolphins open their 2024 campaign at home to the Jacksonville Jaguars on September 8 before facing the Buffalo Bills, their AFC East rivals, four days later.  

The Premier League is back, and it was complete with plenty of thrills and spills on the opening weekend.

Champions Manchester City began their title defence with a relatively routine 2-0 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, while Liverpool kick-started the Arne Slot era by beating promoted Ipswich Town by the same scoreline.

Manchester United left it late against Fulham, new Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler enjoyed a fantastic start to his tenure, though that was not the case for Julen Lopetegui at West Ham, and Arsenal were comfortable victors over Wolves. 

However, who were the lucky winners and unlucky losers based on the underlying metrics from this weekend's matches?

With the use of Opta data, let's find out.

Lucky winners: Aston Villa

Jhon Duran's cool finish got Villa over the line against West Ham, with Unai Emery's team clinching a 2-1 win at the London Stadium. The Hammers, who handed debuts to six players during the match, had cancelled out Amadou Onana's early opener when Lucas Paqueta converted a penalty.

And even though Villa got the job done, they were not exactly defensively solid, with only Ipswich (2.65) registering a higher expected goals against (xGA) than Emery's team (2.46) this weekend, albeit a large chunk (.78) of that was down to the Hammers' penalty.

That being said, Villa did face 14 shots, with Tomas Soucek squandering some big chances late on, while having 15 going the other way and accumulating 2.03 xG themselves, so a draw would have perhaps been a fair result.

Lucky winners: Newcastle United

There was plenty of drama at St James' Park, with Newcastle overcoming Fabian Schar's dismissal to beat Southampton 1-0.

Southampton created 1.77 xG, with Villa the only team to have won at the weekend while registering a higher xGA than Newcastle.

The Magpies had only three shots - the lowest figure of any team this weekend - and produced just 0.25 xG, but it is the scoreline that matters, with Joelinton's goal clinching three points.

Unlucky losers: Southampton

Naturally, with Newcastle coming in as a lucky winner, then Southampton classify as an unlucky loser.

Russell Martin's team love to have the ball, and they capitalised on their numerical advantage by having 77.8% of the possession, registering 649 passes to Newcastle's 118.

It was certainly not a case of keeping the ball for the sake of it, though. Southampton had 48 touches in Newcastle's box (going the other way, the hosts had only 14) and made 67 final-third entries, mustering 19 shots. Getting only four of those attempts on target is obviously an issue, but Martin can consider his team unfortunate.

Unlucky losers: Chelsea

Manchester City were comfortable winners at Stamford Bridge, but is there cause for some positivity for Enzo Maresca after his first competitive match in charge?

Chelsea limited City to 0.77 xG from 11 shots (0.07 per attempt), while accumulating 1.01 going the other way from 10 efforts.

Indeed, had Nicolas Jackson not needlessly strayed offside before capitalising on Ederson's first-half parry to slot home, it might have been a different story for the Blues, so there is some reason to be cheerful.

Real Sociedad president Jokin Aperribay has revealed the club will talk to Arsenal over a potential transfer for Mikel Merino, admitting the midfielder has a price.

Merino was left out of La Real's squad for their opening match of the season in LaLiga on Sunday, a 2-1 defeat at home to Rayo Vallecano.

The 28-year-old, who was part of the Spain team that won Euro 2024 last month, has made 242 appearances for La Real since joining from Newcastle United in 2018.

Reports have suggested Arsenal are working to bring him back to the Premier League in the closing days of the transfer window, with a fee of around £29.8million mooted after Merino entered the final 12 months of his contract in San Sebastian.

Aperribay has now revealed La Real are open to a sale for the right price after Merino indicated he was unwilling to renew his deal with the club.

"Merino was clear that he didn't want to say he was renewing and then leave. It wasn't a surprise to us," Aperribay told Basque Country radio station Onda Vasca.

"Unfortunately, one of the teams we didn't want to show up showed up. We will talk to Arsenal and defend the interests of La Real.

"When we consider that the offer is good, we will say yes. We know what Merino's wishes are, so we decided that he should not be called up [on Sunday]."

The sporting director of the German national team, Rudi Voller, believes “it probably makes sense” for Leon Goretzka to leave Bayern Munich in the transfer window. 

Goretzka, who has made 221 appearances for Bayern since his move from Schalke in 2018, has played a bit-part role ahead of the new Bundesliga season. 

The 29-year-old was not included in Vincent Kompany's side for their 4-0 win over German second division side Ulm in the DFB Pokal last Friday. 

He was also left out of Julian Nagelsmann's Germany squad for Euro 2024 despite featuring in four of their 10 international fixtures leading up to the tournament. 

Goretzka started in 25 of his 30 Bundesliga appearances last season, winning 23 of his 41 tackles, only ranking the sixth highest in the Bayern squad. 

And with qualifying for the 2026 World Cup on the horizon, Voller believes it is best for the midfielder to end his time with the 33-time Bundesliga champions. 

“He logically still has the quality to be part of the 2026 World Cup. It probably makes sense for him to move if he still has these aspirations," Voller

“It makes sense to play somewhere else again. But in the end he has to decide for himself.”

Stefan Effenberg, who most recently acted as sporting director for KFC Uerdingen 05, echoed Voller's comments surrounding Goretzka's future at the club. 

"The players Bayern have brought in will take Bayern to a new level," said Effenberg on the current state of the Bayern squad. 

"It's also a fact that you still have a lot of players with whom you don't want to go into the new season. There is still a need to let go of one or the other.

"There are still many question marks at Bayern, they wanted to finish planning early. They didn't succeed. 

"You won't be nominated for the European Championship, you don't play a role in pre-season and you're not even in the squad against Ulm.

"You have to be sensible enough to say, 'Wait a minute, I don't want to go to the training ground every day and know that I'm not in the squad.' That wears you down."

Harry Maguire believes he is in a "good place" and is ready to play a key role in what could be a big season for Manchester United.

Maguire started alongside Lisandro Martinez as United started their Premier League campaign with a 1-0 victory over Fulham on Friday, Joshua Zirkzee coming on to net a late winner on his Red Devils debut.

Maguire was expected to leave Old Trafford this time last year but chose to stay and fight for his place, ultimately making 22 Premier League appearances as fellow centre-backs Martinez, Raphael Varane and Victor Lindelof were plagued by injuries.

The England international started 18 league games last campaign, having only recorded eight starts throughout Erik ten Hag's first season at the helm in 2022-23.

A calf injury prevented Maguire from featuring for England as they finished as runners-up to Spain at Euro 2024, but he feels physically and mentally ready for his sixth season with United. 

"I feel good, I feel fit. Physically and mentally, I'm in a good place and I'm looking forward to a big season," Maguire told the club's media channels.

"There are so many games this season. I'm sure there's going to be a lot of changes to come, game to game, in the starting eleven. 

"When your turn is upon you, you need to take your chance. It's one that we'll need a big squad for. I feel fit and ready to go and I'm looking forward to the season."

United's eighth-place finish in 2023-24 was their lowest in the Premier League era, while they also conceded more league goals (58) than in any campaign since 1978-79 (63).

However, the Red Devils did finish the campaign with a 2-1 victory over Manchester City in the FA Cup final – a result that likely saved Ten Hag's job as the Dutchman was handed a new contract.

Maguire wants to deliver further silverware in 2024-25 but is also aware of the need for an improved league showing, adding: "Obviously, we want to be in the Champions League spots.

"We missed out for this season as we weren't good enough in the league. I think we don't really want to set any targets but I think this club demands trophies. 

"We want to win another trophy, of course, and in the Premier League we know there's large improvements that we need to make from what we did last season. 

"For sure, we've got to improve on last season and let's see where it takes us."

Matthew Potts has been called back into action for England after a year-long absence from the squad for this week's first Test against Sri Lanka.

The Durham seamer had not featured for England since June 2023 but returns in the absence of skipper Ben Stokes, who remains out through injury.

Surrey batter Dan Lawrence, who has not featured for England since March 2022, will replace another absentee, Zak Crawley, at the top of the order.

Stokes’ injury has also caused a captaincy conundrum. Ollie Pope has been announced as captain in his absence, while Yorkshire batter Harry Brooks will become vice-captain.

The Test will start at Old Trafford on August 21, with the series then heading to Lord's for the second Test and The Oval for a third match.

England XI to face Sri Lanka: Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Ollie Pope (c), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith, Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Matthew Potts, Mark Wood, Shoaib Bashir.

Ange Postecoglou has declared his desire to “win things” during his second season as Tottenham manager.

The 58-year-old joined Spurs last summer after two seasons as Celtic boss, during which time he lifted five trophies, including the Scottish Premiership twice.

During his first season in North London, Postecoglou guided Spurs to a fifth-place finish, just two points away from Champions League qualification but 25 points adrift of champions Manchester City.

While the attention on the Australian might have lessened since his headline-grabbing start to last season, his hopes have certainly not diminished.

 "I guess I'm not the shiny new thing anymore, so there's other new managers. People can go off and discover them and their childhood and not have to speak about mine anymore,” he told Sky Sports.

"Usually in my second season I win things. That's the whole idea. First year is about establishing principles and creating a foundation. Hopefully the second year is going on to win things.

“That's always the way I've looked at it, is that the second year you should be in a position where you can push on, depending on how the first year has gone.”

Postecoglou is realistic about the challenges of achieving his goals, however. After a blistering start to last season saw Spurs top the table in late October, injuries saw them struggle.

As momentum dropped, they suffered heavy defeats to Newcastle United and Fulham later in the season.

Should Postecoglou want a chance of silverware this season, they will need to sustain their early-season form far longer.

“Of course, it's easier said than done, particularly in the Premier League and the competition we're in,” he added.

"Last year we had some really good moments, obviously we had some tough moments.

“We learnt as much from the tough moments as we did from the good stuff and hopefully that means we're in a good place. We're definitely a better-prepared team than we were last year."

Tottenham face newly-promoted Leicester City in their Premier League opener on Monday.

Thierry Henry has stepped down from his role as France's Under-23 head coach after guiding his side to a silver medal at the Paris Olympics. 

Henry, who was appointed last year on a contract until June 2025, said he was moving away from the position due to reasons personal to him. 

The former Arsenal striker led Les Bleus to a first final at the Games since 1984 in Paris, but fell agonisngly short in the showpiece match against Spain. 

Two goals in extra-time from Sergio Camello secured La Roja a second gold medal after France had come from 3-1 down to force extra-time at the Parc des Princes. 

During his time in charge of the Olympic squad, Henry won eight of his 11 games in charge (two draws and one loss) while also scoring 31 goals in that time. 

His side conceded 12 times during his tenure, with five of those coming in their gold medal match to Spain at the Games. 

"I would like to thank the FFF and the president Philippe Diallo who offered me this incredible opportunity," Henry said in a statement.

"Winning the silver medal at the Olympic Games for my country will remain one of the proudest things I have ever had.

"I am incredibly grateful to the Federation, the players, the staff and the fans who have given me a magical experience."