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“Leave the football before the football leaves you.” That was the sentence Jamie Carragher reserved for a certain Manchester United player by the name of Casemiro back in May 2024.

It’s safe to say that the Brazilian, once a football legend, a serial winner at Real Madrid, had seen his powers wane.

He was making countless mistakes, looked like he was running through treacle and was the shadow of a player who had featured on 336 occasions for Madrid.

18 months on and Casemiro looks like a legandary player again. He may not be capable of featuring for a period of 90 minutes but the 2025/26 campaign has arguably been his best since moving to Old Trafford.

The 33-year-old is making a huge impact, notably scoring on three occasions and registering an assist. He’s finally come good in United colours.

However, the fact that he can’t last 90 minutes is the problem. His backup in the shape of Manuel Ugarte continues to struggle.

Why it's time for Ugarte to leave Man Utd

In the summer of 2024, INEOS spent a great deal on bringing the bullish Uruguayan to Old Trafford, as much as £42m.

He was seen as the heir to Casemiro, someone who could fix their lack of energy and tenacity in the middle of the park.

The big Brazilian was floundering and the more minute Ugarte was here to fix the problem. Yet, he has been more of a hindrance, particularly as Casemiro has returned to form.

So far this term, the midfield veteran has only completed one 90 minutes in the Premier League and in a bid to see out the game, Ruben Amorim has usually tried to rely on Ugarte. However, the South American has been anything but reliable.

Arsenal

65

Fulham

53

Burnley

72

Man City

Did not start

Chelsea

45

Brentford

Suspended

Sunderland

85

Liverpool

58

Brighton

70

Nott’m Forest

Was not subbed

Spurs

72

With the 24-year-old out of the team, the Red Devils have scored 15 goals at a rate of twice per 90 and have conceded eight times, once per 90 minutes.

However, with Ugarte in the team, Amorim’s side have scored just four times, 1.3 per 90 minutes and have shipped ten goals, a whopping 3.2 per 90.

The data is clear; United are a poorer side when the big-money midfielder is in the team. While he has come on and helped his teammates to victories over Chelsea, Sunderland, Liverpool and Brighton, he has also come on and been a hindrance.

When he entered the action at the weekend in the 2-2 draw with Spurs, it was 1-0 to United at the time. In the 3-1 defeat to Brentford, he came on at 2-1. During the 1-1 draw with Fulham, Amorim’s charges were leading 1-0 when Ugarte was brought off the bench. To make matters worse, he also started the 3-0 loss to rivals Manchester City.

So, why do things go so wrong when he’s on the field? Well, his inability to break up the play and anticipate what happens on the field is a huge issue. That was seen during the draw with Spurs on Saturday when Ugarte simply let Wilson Odobert breeze past him in the build-up to Mathys Tel’s equaliser.

With Kobbie Mainoo on the bench, it does beg the question, why Ugarte? While the Uruguay international is the more traditional holding midfielder, they need more energy and legs when Casemiro heads to the bench. Mainoo would bring that in abundance.

Saying that, the academy graduate isn’t the only Ugarte solution up Amorim’s sleeve. Another future superstar at Carrington is getting ready to make an impact.

Man United's surprise Ugarte replacement

Cutting their losses on the former PSG player would be disastrous from a business point of view but it really does feel as though United need a refresh in midfield.

Chalkboard

Football FanCast’s Chalkboard series presents a tactical discussion from around the global game.

Casemiro has made great improvements this term but he is not getting any younger and if INEOS are planning to spend big in the future then it must be in a central area.

Players like Brighton superstar Carlos Baleba and Nottingham Forest’s Geordie midfielder, Elliot Anderson, have both been linked with a move. They would be fabulous signings too.

Yet, a ready-made solution could present itself at Carrington. In the form of 19-year-old Sekou Kone, United may well have already signed their dream replacement for Ugarte.

Kone arrived at Man United in the summer of 2024. He was not a marquee arrival, far from it. There was very little fanfare for a teenager who had signed in a £1m deal from Malian side Guidars FC.

An exciting midfield player, the youngster had attracted the attention of United scouts during Mali’s run to the semi-finals of the U17 World Cup in 2023. Since then, he has failed to earn any senior game time under Amorim but he looks like a mighty fine prospect.

Kone featured on 14 occasions for the U21s last season but his prospects of football in 2025/26 have so far been dampened by a fractured eye socket. He has played just one match in the opening exchanges of the ongoing campaign but he is now back in training and first-team training at that. Amorim has already shelved plans of a loan spell, such is the potential in this young midfield player.

So, what’s he all about? Well, a defensive midfielder by trade, he is “uber composed on the ball and so press resistant” in the words of Como scout, Ben Mattinson.

Mattinson continued: “He’s got a tight turn radius and rides challenges well when carrying the ball.” On that evidence, he certainly sounds more promising than Ugarte.

He possesses an exciting ball-winning prowess and has an enormous physical ceiling that Mattinson suggests “is something Manchester United need more of in order for Amorim’s man-to-man press to work effectively.”

On that evidence, it’s hardly a surprise that fellow scout, Antonio Mango, has explained that Kone has “the skillset to be a beast under Amorim.”

This is a player who doesn’t just look capable of ending Ugarte’s career at Old Trafford, but potentially also Casemiro’s.

The spinning pitch in Pune seems like a reaction to the seaming pitch in Bengaluru and its come back to bite them

Deivarayan Muthu25-Oct-20241:37

Manjrekar: Kohli’s perception of length seems to be an issue

Skittled for 46 by fast bowlers in seaming conditions under cloudy skies in Bengaluru.Skittled for 156 by spin on a dry, turning pitch under cloudless skies in Pune.After two collapses in contrasting conditions, India are on the verge of losing their first Test series at home since December 2012, when Alastair Cook’s England toppled them. It feels like a storied era might be coming to an end.Mitchell Santner and Glenn Phillips, who aren’t specialist spinners in Test cricket, outshone R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar. New Zealand also outbatted India in Pune.Related

'Flatline' Mitchell Santner peaks with Kohli's wicket

Santner, Latham give NZ a shot at maiden series win in India

While Ryan ten Doeschate, the assistant coach, dismissed notions that it was a “desperate measure” to prepare a pitch that would help spinners create uncertainty simply by landing the ball on a good length – and bring in the extra offie from outside the squad to exploit it better – it seems like an overreaction to their collapse in Bengaluru. India were looking to take New Zealand’s quicks out of the game and then trust their batters to deal with the spinners but again when one ball turns and another doesn’t – even though they pitched in the exact same spot – batting becomes a lottery. Shubman Gill was lbw to a straight ball soon after seeing one rip past his outside edge. Rishabh Pant was bowled by a short ball that shot low.Perhaps India might look back and wonder if they could have done more to throw Santner and Phillips off their lines and lengths. A lot of batters, especially those visiting the subcontinent, turn to the sweep shot to accomplish this. New Zealand were no different. On the opening day, even though there was a short third, and a square point led to dissuade Devon Conway from playing that shot, he went for it anyway and prospered. Overall, New Zealand scored 87 runs off 67 balls using various varieties of the sweep across both innings. It has cost them just the two wickets.3:12

Why have India’s batters struggled in home Tests?

India had even more reason to try and upset the bowlers because by the time they batted it was difficult to be sure what the ball would do. Would it spin? Would it go straight on? Would it stay low? They tried to answer these questions with a vertical bat. That’s how they’ve had success playing spin. They went to the sweep only 17 times and got 24 runs for the loss of Virat Kohli. Increasingly, they just ended up stuck in the crease, allowing Santner and co. to keep hitting the drier, good-length spots.Morne Morkel, India’s bowling coach, admitted that New Zealand’s attacking approach disrupted their plans. New Zealand had similarly disrupted Sri Lanka’s plans in Galle with their sweeps.”Yeah, I think I must give credit to New Zealand, I think the way they’ve adapted to conditions, the way they’ve blocked out what is in front of them and just played the game has been incredible so far in this series,” Morkel said. “I think definitely in Bangalore and here, playing those sessions, playing those important moments, they’ve done it better than us at the moment, and that’s one of the reasons why they’re on top of this game at the moment as well.”They’re creating pressure with the ball, they’re putting our batters under pressure by sweeping well, reverse-sweeping well, so they’re a team that always plan well and they go into tours and really leave no stone unturned, so I’m not surprised with the way they’re playing at the moment.”Santner, who was rolling out some sweeps during New Zealand’s training session on the eve of the Test, said that they had made a concerted effort to take some calculated risks and attack India’s spinners.”We know how challenging it can be in these conditions,” Santner said. “We’ve seen India squeeze a lot of teams for a long time and I guess it was pleasing with the bat was guys trying to fire some shots and play some sweeps and take on the bowlers because we know on the flip side, as a bowler, if guys are using their feet or going back or sweeping it kind of can upset your length a little bit. You know, in the past we’ve come here and just tried to block it out and, you know, eventually one’s got your name on it.”The collapse on Friday will sting, especially with New Zealand finding ways to score and push their lead up to 301, and there will be serious introspection – both in terms of the options they chose with the bat and the problems they had with the ball. But these events are part of a team’s life cycle.”Every few years there comes a time when key players are not in their prime,” Sanjay Manjrekar said on . “And you can clearly say Rohit Sharma is not in his prime right now so is Virat Kohli. That happened in 2011, when India suffered defeats in England 4-0 and Australia 4-0. There you had many senior players who were on the wane, and they didn’t quite deliver and India suffered. But here there’s been a nice transition. There’s Gill, there’s [Yashasvi] Jaiswal, there’s Sarfaraz [Khan], there’s Rishabh Pant. It’s been a nice transition.”But I guess somewhere in a situation like this, when New Zealand were throwing some really difficult questions at India, experienced players have to be at the forefront and they haven’t quite contributed. Hardly any contributions from Rohit Sharma in the first innings. From Virat Kohli as well and that is somewhere coming into play.”From 2012 to 2024, India were invincible at home. With every series, they kept finding ways to outlast their opponents, seemingly immune to the way good things are supposed to work. Crowds all over the country had gotten used to this. The 20,000 or so in Pune were screaming their heads off as the second wicket fell. Because it wasn’t so much a success for the opposition. It was the intro to their hero. The DJ played Oscar winner AR Rahman’s as Kohli walked out to the middle. But this script wasn’t like the others, and now there is every chance that in the next two days – or maybe even less – a proud and unmatched streak will finally come to an end.

Despite breaking records and leading MLB in both home runs and RBIs during the 2025 season, Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh fell short of winning the American League MVP award on Thursday night.

Raleigh finished second in the AL MVP voting to Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge, who had a tremendous season himself. Judge finished with 17 first-place votes and 13 second-place votes from the BBWAA as Raleigh garnered 13 first-place votes and 17 second-place votes.

While Judge’s season in itself was MVP-worthy, there’s an argument to be made that Raleigh was more deserving of the award for his campaign in 2025.

Since Judge was announced the winner, let’s break down two key reasons Raleigh was snubbed.

Cal Raleigh had a historic season at catcher

It’s not just that Cal Raleigh led the league in both home runs and RBIs, it’s that he put up historic offensive production for a catcher. Sure, Raleigh’s batting average was lower than Judge or any other catcher that’s won MVP, but he hit significantly more home runs than any catcher in league history.

With his 60 home runs this season, Raleigh shattered the previous record of 48 home runs by a catcher in a season. He also hit more than double the home runs than the two catchers that won MVP this century, Buster Posey and Joe Mauer. To top it all off, he broke Mickey Mantle’s record for the most home runs in a season by a switch-hitter as well.

Additionally, Raleigh’s 125 RBIs would have tied the third-most by an MVP-winning catcher, and both his OPS and WAR were in the upper-half of catchers that won MVP. 

The MVP award was a battle and comparison between Raleigh and Judge, but more weight should have been placed on the historic accomplishments Raleigh achieved in comparison to other catchers. 

Cal Raleigh’s defense made him the more valuable player

The MVP award is not the award for the best hitter—that’s the Hank Aaron Award. Though Judge’s hitting production dwarfs Raleigh’s, he did not have the all-around impact that Raleigh did. 

While the MVP voting rules for the BBWAA state that there is no clear-cut definition for what an MVP is, the rules from 1931 do say, “Actual value of a player to his team, that is, strength of offense and defense.”

So sure, Judge has the edge based on pure offense, but Raleigh’s work offensively and as a catcher make him the better MVP candidate. Due to an elbow injury, Judge was a designated hitter for the Yankees in 56 games this season. In comparison, Raleigh was a DH in 38 games.

As a catcher, Raleigh has significantly more responsibility on every single pitch than Judge does in the outfield—and he handled that exceptionally through the year. He finished sixth in defensive runs saved above average and recorded all his offensive production while simultaneously catching more innings than anyone else in MLB, all without a passed ball.

To combine the physical toll of playing catcher at a high level while also achieving unprecedented production at his position should have been more than enough to make Raleigh the MVP.

MLB announced on Tuesday that Cardinals first baseman Willson Contreras will be suspended for six games, and he will be fined an undisclosed amount for his actions against an umpire on Monday.

Contreras has elected to appeal the suspension and will play until the appeal is resolved.

The incident between Contreras and plate umpire Derek Thomas occurred in the seventh inning of Monday night's 7-6 St. Louis win over the Pirates. The first baseman didn't agree with a called third strike during an at-bat, prompting him to look at Thomas. The umpire then ejected Contreras from the game, which sparked a heated reaction from the Cardinals player. As he was pushed back by the Cardinals staff toward the dugout, Contreras tossed his bat toward the field as he continued to yell at Thomas, and the lumber hit one of his own coaches.

The scene didn't end there. Once Contreras returned to the dugout, an entire bucket of Hi-Chew was thrown onto the field, but i's unclear whether Contreras tossed the bucket of candy or not.

As of now, Contreras will compete in Tuesday night's game vs. the Pirates as he's appealing his suspension. Hopefully he can keep his temper under control during this game.

Sheffield Wednesday have reportedly responded to the chance to merge with Sheffield United by their most unexpected takeover candidates yet.

Kris Wigfield sends fresh Sheffield Wednesday warning

The Owls have set a soft deadline of December 5 and have received proof of funds from several candidates as they look to narrow their list down to those ready to launch worthwhile bids.

The gravity of their situation was slammed home by their defeat in the Steel City derby last weekend, with Sheffield United brushing them to one side in dominant fashion. Destined for League One after their points deduction, Sheffield Wednesday desperately need their takeover to go to plan.

Co-administrator Kris Wigfield admitted after that defeat that there may be more difficult news on the way, too. He told the club’s social media accounts: “It will not be like this forever.

“At the same time, I have to be honest: there may be more difficult news coming, including the possibility of a further points deduction. I want to be upfront about that because our supporters deserve transparency. But I also want to be clear: the period between now and January should be as tough as it gets.”

Reports have already mentioned a number of names among the takeover candidates, including former Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley. The former Magpies chief is seemingly looking to get back into English football and could restore his reputation at Hillsborough. But he’s not the only candidate.

John McEvoy has also been mentioned since Sheffield Wednesday entered administration and it will be interesting to see if he’s among the final names. What is for sure is that he’s unlikely to be joined on the final list of names by those at Bramall Lane who reportedly offered a shock merger.

Owls respond to Sheffield United offer

As reported by the Telegraph, Sheffield United’s American owners were among the Sheffield Wednesday takeover candidates and were planning to merge the two clubs if their approach was successful. To no surprise, the Owls quickly shut that down and have been fortunate enough to have plenty of interest from elsewhere.

Not many at Hillsborough believed it could get worse than Dejphon Chansiri, but a merger with Sheffield United would be their nightmare scenario.

It would take their club from administration to the very end. It would end a historic rivalry and change the landscape of football in Sheffield. The Owls, thankfully, saw sense and shut down any idea of a merger or takeover by the Blades’ American owners.

Sheffield Wednesday now braced for imminent "concrete" takeover bid

Things are looking up for the Owls.

ByTom Cunningham Nov 14, 2025

Instead of seeing Barry Bannan in Sheffield United colours, Wednesday fans will be looking ahead to December 5 when they’re likely to find out much-needed information on their next owners.

Manchester United legend Dwight Yorke doesn't expect Arsenal to win the Premier League this season. The Gunners hold a four-point lead over Manchester City at the top of the table following their 2-2 draw with Sunderland prior to the international break, while Mikel Arteta's men currently sit eight points clear of defending champions Liverpool after the opening 11 games of the season.

Getty Images SportArsenal emerge as early season favourites

The Gunners missed a great chance to open up a sizeable lead at the top of the table as they conceded a late Brian Brobbey equaliser at the Stadium of Light last time out. Manchester City then eased past defending champions Liverpool in the final game before the international break as goals from Erling Haaland, Nico Gonzalez and Jeremy Doku wrapped up a 3-0 win over Arne Slot's side.

Even so, Arsenal are the favourites to go the distance for the first time in over 20 years, having finished runners-up in each of the last three seasons. Having invested heavily in the squad over the summer to bring in the likes of Viktor Gyokeres, Martin Zubimendi and Eberechi Eze, the pressure is on head coach Mikel Arteta to deliver a first major piece of silverware since their 2020 FA Cup triumph.

Arsenal's impressive backline has provided the foundation for their title charge, the Gunners having conceded just five goals in the opening 11 games. However, former Manchester United striker Yorke doesn't think the north London side have what it takes to get over the line.

AdvertisementGetty Images Sport'Arsenal will do what Arsenal do again'

Speaking to , Yorke, who won the Premier League title three times with United, said: "I just think Arsenal will do what Arsenal do again. I have a funny feeling that somehow they won’t get it over the line.

"It depends on the competitions they are in too. I’m sure Mikel Arteta is going to prioritise everything. He’s trying to win it all but you’ve got to win your domestic league."

And with defending champions Liverpool struggling, Yorke believes City will pip Arsenal to the title once more this season, adding: "It could get pretty chaotic. I think Man City just have that know-how."

Liverpool's title triumph last season ended City's domestic dominance. The Cityzens had won four Premier League titles on the spin before the Reds' success in Slot's first season at the Anfield helm.

Getty Images SportCity boss has talked up Arsenal's title chances

City head coach Pep Guardiola had previously talked up Arsenal's title chances, saying prior to the Gunners' 2-2 draw with Sunderland: "If they continue this way – they play games, they don’t concede goals, not even clear chances, and they win and win – oh my God, it will be almost impossible [to catch Arsenal], but always you expect you will be better and they can drop points. All we can do is win our games and be there close.

"They have to come here, and there are many things in the season that we will experience. It’s exceptional what they have been doing for two or three seasons. It looks like every time it’s closer. But we are in early November, and early November nobody wins the title. You can lose it, but nobody wins the title."

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Arsenal's make-or-break run of fixtures

Arsenal have a tough run of games following the international break as they look to return to winning ways this weekend. The Gunners host rivals Tottenham on Sunday afternoon and follow up the north London Derby with a home game against German giants Bayern Munich as both sides look to maintain perfect starts to their respective Champions League campaigns.

Arteta's side then make the short trip across the capital to take on Chelsea before the end of the month in what could prove a make-or-break week for Arsenal in their bid to secure domestic and continental silverware.

City, meanwhile, travel to Newcastle on Saturday evening as they look to close the gap at the top of the table to a single point. The Manchester giants then face German side Bayer Leverkusen at the Etihad Stadium and round off November with the welcome of relegation-threatened Leeds.