Southampton bolster defence with Sugawara signing

Mark Hughes believes Arsene Wenger has done a remarkable job at Arsenal, even if the pair have not always seen eye-to-eye in the past.

Hughes takes struggling Southampton to the Emirates Stadium on Sunday desperate for a positive result as they bid to avoid relegation from the Premier League.

The Welshman has clashed at times with his Arsenal counterpart down the years, including one incident in 2009, when Wenger opted not to shake his fellow manager s hand following a 3-0 defeat to Hughes  Manchester City side.

However, while admitting the rivalry with the Frenchman did get a little bit silly in the past, Hughes is still full of praise for the longest-serving manager currently in England s top flight.

He s done a remarkable job. He s an outstanding m…

Chelsea slumped to a third defeat in four Premier League games as second-half goals from Mario Lemina and Matt Doherty earned Wolves a deserved 2-1 victory at Molineux.

Lemina headed in unmarked from Pablo Sarabia’s corner early in the second period, just reward after Gary O’Neil’s side had weathered early pressure and the hosts had spurned a host of chances, most glaringly from Raheem Sterling.

Chelsea laboured to find a way back, but as so often this season failed to find the key pass in the final third, with Cole Palmer noticeably out of sorts.

Merry Christmas!

— Wolves (@Wolves)

Then in stoppage time and with the visitors committed forward, Wolves broke and Hugo Bueno crossed for Doherty to take advantage of a poor clearance…

Cinch Premiership games at Ibrox and Pittodrie were postponed after extreme weather conditions caused travel problems in the north of Scotland.

Rangers saw their home game against Ross County called off about 1.30pm on Wednesday as snow prevented the visitors travelling down the A9.

Motherwell got to Aberdeen early but many supporters of both clubs were stuck as roads were closed because of flooding in the north east.

A Scottish Professional Football League statement confirmed Rangers’ game was called off “following consultation with Police Scotland regarding today’s weather conditions on the A9”.

All supporters travelling to Ibrox for this evening’s game should be aware of the adverse weather conditions on the A9 currently.

Safe travel…

Jadon Sancho signed for Borussia Dortmund three months after they last won the DFB-Pokal in May 2017.

Back then, it was Ousmane Dembele and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who scored to see off Eintracht Frankfurt 2-1 in Berlin. Major transfers followed for both: Dembele was quickly on his way to Barcelona, a €105million replacement for Neymar, while Aubameyang left for Arsenal for a reported €60m the following January.

This year, Dortmund returned to the Olympiastadion for their first Pokal final since, with envious eyes from across the continent casting longing looks again at their best attacking talent: Sancho and Erling Haaland. Inevitably, it was they who settled the contest with RB Leipzig, and before the half-time whistle had even blown.

At least, it feel…

Interesting news came out of Serbia on Sunday night. According to Kurir, Red Star Belgrade could be interested in signing Mario Balotelli! Brescia striker is expected to leave the club in January transfer window after club president confirmed controversial Italian star will be a free agent once 2020 kicks in.

The second reason why these stories have at least some sense is that the new Red Star head coach is Dejan Stankovic, former Lazio and Inter midfielder, who got his first job as head coach. Stankovic and Balotelli were teammates at Inter between 2007 and 2010 and the report suggests that their relationship could lead to striker s move to Serbia.

However, these rumours remain a bit far fetched. Red Star Belgrade are already in a situation where they are 11 points ahe…

New Cardiff manager Erol Bulut says he and his family are still affected by the huge earthquake that devastated parts of Turkey four months ago.

Bulut was manager of Gaziantep until nine days before the destruction there on February 6, but he was still in the Turkish city – just 23 miles from the epicentre – when the 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit.

“It was four in the morning and we were sleeping, I felt my house shake,” Bulut said of the earthquake which killed over 50,000 in Turkey and left nearly another 10,000 dead in neighbouring Syria.

Welcome to , Erol!

— Cardiff City FC (@CardiffCityFC)

“My kids still have a thing about that, thinking that it’s shaking and shaking.

“The small villages around Antep (Gaziantep) were …

Antoine Griezmann said he can do it. Quique Setien thinks Ousmane Dembele can do it. But is Ansu Fati best placed to fill in for Luis Suarez at Barcelona?

The 17-year-old was one of Ernesto Valverde s final plus points for the club, the former head coach handing a chance to the youngster that has allowed him to go from La Masia hopeful to Lionel Messi strike-partner in a matter of months.

With Suarez not expected to return until the season is pretty much over, Barca were expected to sign a number nine in the transfer window. The fact that they didn t is something the board will have to explain, but another time. Sunday s win over Levante was all about Ansu.

Griezmann might have been deployed as the centre-forward, but Fati was the most threatening player on the p…

According to Sky Italia, Inter Milan are set to look into the possibility of signing Manchester United star Antonio Valencia – if they end up losing Joao Miranda, that is.

The Ecuador international hasn’t really been given much of a chance to shine this season, although Ole Gunnar Solskjaer did bring him into the fold during their game against Newcastle United. The big question is whether or not the next manager to take over from OGS will have any first team plans for the 33 year old.

His contract contains an option to extend until 2020, but that’s still considered to be very much up in the air. Clubs around Europe and China are also believed to be interested in Valencia, but Inter would certainly be leading the way if they decided to take their interest to the ne…

Edouard Mendy has become the third player to leave Chelsea for Saudi Arabia this summer after the club confirmed he has joined Al-Ahli.

A fee of £16million is understood to have been agreed for the goalkeeper, who lost his place in the team to Kepa Arrizabalaga during the second half of last season.

The 31-year-old had risen to become one of the most highly-rated keepers in the world after helping Chelsea to win the Champions League in 2021, but played only once for the club after returning from the World Cup in Qatar, costing his side a goal after a mistake in a 2-2 draw with Nottingham Forest in May.

The PA news agency understands that new manager Mauricio Pochettino decided weeks ago that Arrizabalaga would be his first choice to start next season in goal, re…

According to a recent report from Marca, Dutch giants Ajax are considering a move for Barcelona forward Luis Suarez during the summer transfer window.

The move would see the Uruguay international return to the club that helped put his name on the map, as the former Liverpool star spent four years of his career in Amsterdam between 2007 and 2011. Ajax are contemplating the move as a way to allow for a possible swap deal that would see Donny van de Beek go in the opposite direction, but the logistics of that have yet to be worked out.

At the age of 33, Suarez is still viewed by many as one of the most lethal goalscorers in the game today. He likely only has a few years left at the top of his game, and instead of heading to the US or China for a big money deal, he clearly …