Key events
Football Weekly podcast: Max Rushden was in the chair as myself, Jonathan Wilson and national treasure Robyn Cowan got up at the crack of dawn to pick over the bones of Sunderland’s Championship playoff win, the final day of the Premier League season, the wisdom of ordering curry for lunch before heading to Wembley. You can listen here and if you’re not already a subscriber, please sign up in all the usual podcast places.
This just in: Having helped Sunderland to win promtion to the Premier League at Wembley on Saturday afternoon, Jobe Bellingham is reported to be in Germany for talks with Eintracht Frankfurt, one of three German clubs believed to be interested in signing the 19-year-old this summer. Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig are the others who are interested insecuring his scrawl. Well, it certainly didn’t take long for that particular Mackem promotion parade to drenched with rain!
Crystal Palace parade: The players and staff of Crystal Palace are currently wending their way through the streets of south-west London on a couple of open-top buses, showing off the FA Cup to fans. They’re making their way to Selhurst Park for a trophy-lift and Party on the Pitch and Sky Sports News have roped in none other than the Guardian’s Ed Aarons to tell viewers what’s what. I’ll tell you what, he isn’t having milking his team’s triumph.
“We’ve been waiting for the whole club’s existence for this to happen and the fans have turned out despite the dodgy weather,” he says. “They’ve turned out in their thousands to watch the bus parade through south London. Beating Manchester City at Wembley last weekend was a magnificent occasion for all Crystal Palace fans. Oliver Glasner deserves enormous credit for taking this team to heights it’s never been to before with a lot of the same players who were already at the club when he arrived. He’s a real asset for Palace and I’m hoping they can keep him for the long term.”
Liverpool’s parade: It’s not due to start until 2.30pm, but will probably set off later because anyone who has ever tried to get hungover passengers on a bus on time knows it’s like trying to herd cats or mind mice at a crossroads. Nevertheless, the route is already thronged. Neil Atkinson, a top man from the Anfield Wrap who I’ve had the pleasure of meeting a few times, has just been talking to Sky Sports News.
“There is a feeling of carnival around the city because we’ve just had the Big Weekend [music festival] as well,” he says. “This is sort of what I was expecting but it’s a bit overwhelming when you see it and begin to take it all in. There’s so many people around the country who have this in mind for a destination for the bank holiday weekend. All the way around the city of Liverpool there’s people who want to acclaim the champions.”
An email: “Don’t forget the 100-odd thousand who were on the streets of Aberdeen yesterday after our vaguely miraculous win over Celtic on Saturday,” writes Jim Douglas. I’m afraid to say I have not seen a kick of Aberdeen’s vaguely miraculous Scottish Cup final win over Celtic because I was attending Sunderland’s vaguely miraculous win over Sheffield United in the Championship playoff final at Wembley while it was being played. I was genuinely taken back upon discovering that Aberdeen had beaten Celtic. I was even more shocked to discover it was their first Cup win for 35 years. I’d always presumed they were good for one or two a decade.
Victory parades: The only open-top bus parade I have ever attended in any capacity was to welcome Stephen Roche home to Dublin after he won the Tour de France in 1987. I was 14 and travelled up to Dublin from the sticks on my own because none of my pals were bike-racing fans, O’Connell Street was thronged and I can’t remember much else, if I’m honest.
I’ve also attended a few homecomings for triumphant and staggeringly drunk Birr and Offaly hurling teams over the years but they tend to eschew the open-top bus option in favour of clambering aboard the stationary trailer of a flatbed truck in Emmet Square, Birr.
An email: A club with a wide reach, it won’t just be natives of Liverpool who’ll be lining the streets to pay homage to Arne Slot and his players this afternoon. Colin Todd has been in touch: “I‘m travelling south after being at Anfield yesterday,” he says. “It was brilliant there. Birmingham New Street station is currently thronged as people try to get on trains to Liverpool. There’s already hundreds inside the barriers queuing to get on them.”
Flops of the season: It’s that time of the year when assorted Guardian writers are tasked with compiling their lists of the good, the bad and downright Southampton in our annual end-of season lists in order to prompt discussion below the line. Michael Butler sifts through the duds …
Liverpool hold talks over record Wirtz deal
Liverpool: Before Liverpool’s 15-kilometre slow roll through the city, the club’s chairman Tom Werner has said Fenway Sports Group owe it to fans to build on their Premier League title win by strengthening Arne Slot’s squad. A deal has effectively been done for Bayer Leverkusen’s Jeremie Frimpong and talks are ongoing with the Bundesliga side over a club-record £125m signing of the attacking midfielder Florian Wirtz.
Liverpool are in the market of a new left-back, with Bournemouth’s Milos Kerkez being heavily linked with a move to the club. A new striker and centre-half are also believed to feature on Slot’s summer shopping list. “It’s already busy,” said Werner upon being asked if Liverpool had a busy summer ahead in the transfer market. “We go again. It never gets old, winning. We owe it to all of our supporters to bring back a team even better next season.”
Werner also paid tribute to the job Slot has done, having been given the unenviable task of taking over from Jurgen Klopp. “It’s extraordinary,” he said. “We obviously had high hopes for this season but he has been an extraordinary coach. I think there have been three coaches who have won the Premier League in their first season and Arne is one of them. He is just an extraordinary leader. He’s authentic, he’s not trying to be anyone else. The team was an extraordinarily good team but he brought the best out of them.”
As the party continues in north London I have the honour of passing on the baton to Barry Glendenning. Please continue to fire in your emails and comments.
Arsenal lift the Champions League trophy
Up it goes, out comes the confetti and now we get the dubious honour of hearing the players sing over the top of Queen’s ‘We are the Champions’.
Katie McCabe takes the opportunity to ask “What do we think of Tottenham?” Which gets a predictable response before she doubles down with “Who do we think are shit?”
Here comes the trophy…
Charles Antaki has emailed in:
The team is in a position very different from where it was in the previous golden age under Vic Akers; the teams around them are better, more skilful, better organised and play a tighter game. To beat Barcelona, at all, let alone in the final, and after having beaten Lyon and Real Madrid, and after a punishing league season, is stretching credulity. It was all tougher than it was when they were beating everything in front of them in the early 2000s, so the achievement is all the more extraordinary.
Renée Slegers speaks! A slightly hoarse Arsenal coach says: “There were so many emotions after the game and I thought when I came home I would be taking it all in but I ordered food and fell asleep.”
On her team, she says: “They are very good footballers. They have enjoyed their football. I think if you’re together and you stay together – whatever happens – and you want to become better everyday you can reach high levels and that’s what we’ve done.
“I knew we had so many months of preparation, we were so prepared. The players invested so much. So when the first whistle blew, I thought ‘let’s go, let’s go for the win’.”
On the fans: “For me we are working everyday, there’s incredible work being done, but when we step on the pitch and see you guys it makes everything real. Thanks so much.”
The Arsenal players are being introduce one-by-one on to the stage, some are wearing shades despite the overcast weather, they can probably be forgiven for being a bit bleary eyed.
The final at Estádio José Alvalade was a Renée Slegers masterpiece and showed how good Arsenal can be on their day. Those days have come in Europe this season but, as Jonathan Liew writes, Slegers needs backing with more strength in depth to compete with Chelsea:
Gunnersaurus is out warming up the crowd but as we wait for the players to come onstage you can get a glimpse into the post-match celebrations with Tom Garry’s piece from Lisbon:
The celebrations are due to start in around five minutes outside the Emirates.
If you’re an Arsenal, Crystal Palace or Liverpool fan do get in touch. Drop a comment below the line or send me an email via the address linked above.
Preamble
Where else would you rather be on a bank holiday Monday? It’s ‘get-your-trophy-out day’ in north London, south London and Liverpool. Tottenham and Newcastle have set a high bar for raucous partying so we will see if Arsenal, Crystal Palace and Liverpool can reach those levels (spoiler alert: I think they will). We start just off the Holloway Road as the Gunners, fresh off the plane and a Jess Glynne concert, celebrate their Women’s Champions League title at Armoury Square. Barry Glendenning and Niall McVeigh will be along a bit later as Crystal Palace show off the FA Cup from 1pm, before Liverpool’s Premier League trophy parade gets underway at 2.30pm.
