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Haaland Bags Brace As Man City Begin Title Defence In Style

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man-city-burnley Manchester City’s Spanish manager Pep Guardiola (R) speaks to his players during the English Premier League football match between Burnley and Manchester City at Turf Moor in Burnley, north-west England on August 11, 2023. (Photo by Darren Staples / AFP) /

 

Erling Haaland started the Premier League season with a bang as the Norwegian struck twice in defending champions Manchester City’s 3-0 win at promoted Burnley.

 

Rodri completed the scoring after Haaland’s first-half double to give City a perfect start to their quest to become the first side to win four consecutive English top-flight titles.

 

Haaland fired City to a treble of Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup glory last season by scoring 52 times in his first year at the club.

 

The 23-year-old took just over three minutes of the new campaign to open his tally once more when he swept home Rodri’s header across goal.

 

Haaland then crashed in a shot off the underside of the bar nine minutes before half-time as his finishing papered over the cracks of a far from perfect first 45 minutes from the visitors.

 

But the ease with which Pep Guardiola’s men cruised to victory after the break was an ominous sign for the chasing pack aiming to dethrone City.

 

Rodri completed the scoring when the Spaniard smashed home a loose ball from a free-kick 15 minutes from time.

 

City’s night, though, was soured by an injury to captain Kevin De Bruyne.

 

The Belgian had only recently returned from a hamstring tear he suffered in the Champions League final and limped off midway through the first-half.

 

Burnley boss Vincent Kompany has a statue outside City’s Etihad Stadium in honour of his decorated playing career with the English champions.

 

Kompany returned the Clarets back to the Premier League at the first time of asking and transformed Burnley’s playing style in the process during his first season in charge.

 

Despite the scoreline, the home side were far from outclassed but paid for a slow start and the lack of a clinical finisher like Haaland.

 

Burnley’s 2022/23 season finished over a month before City’s European Cup final win in Istanbul.

 

Guardiola has bemoaned his side’s short pre-season compared to their rivals, but they were quick out of the blocks.

 

A well-worked corner between De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden eventually picked out Rodri and his header was fired home by Haaland.

 

Moments later Burnley were denied a penalty when Manuel Akanji’s hold of Zeki Amdouni’s arm was not deemed enough for a spot-kick.

 

Luca Koleosho then fired over and Amdouni shot too close to Ederson as Burnley posed a bigger threat for large spells of the first-half.

 

However, they were hit with a sucker punch when Julian Alvarez laid off Kyle Walker’s cross into the path of Haaland to produce an unstoppable effort high past Burnley debutant goalkeeper James Trafford.

 

With the wind taken from Burnley’s sails, City took a stranglehold of the game after the break without ever having to hit top gear.

 

Rodri was the unlikely hero with the only goal in Istanbul two months ago and he started the new season as he finished the last by smashing home from close range after a goalmouth scramble.

 

Burnley’s miserable night was rounded off in stoppage time when Anass Zaroury was shown a straight red card for a wild challenge on Kyle Walker.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AFP

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Leicester City Put Up For Sale

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General view of a Leicester City sign from the front of King Power StadiumLeicester City are looking to sell the club for more than £200m, with its Thai owners King Power ready to leave after 16 years.

 

The Foxes have had an eight-page sales booklet produced by a leading US investment bank to help offload the one-time Premier League title winners.

Citigroup lists the Foxes, its women’s team, and other major assets – including the 32,000-seat King Power Stadium and its Seagrave training facility which was opened in 2020 and is valued at £121m – as well as OH Leuven, Leicester’s Belgian sister club, as up for sale in a brochure titled ‘Project Lineup’.

The document, seen by BBC Sport, values the club’s physical assets at more than £200m, though no specific sum has been attributed to the sale of its struggling teams.

The brochure speaks of “a rare opportunity to acquire a club with an excellent track record of winning promotions to higher divisions”.

Leicester’s successes, including the 5,000-1 Premier League title win of 2016 and the FA Cup triumph five years later, are well promoted in the brochure, while their place in League One, after back-to-back relegations from the top flight and the Championship, fail to get a mention.

The club’s turnover, which Citigroup forecast to be more than £97m for the 2026 financial year are also part of the pitch, but the years of financial losses and the club’s debts – which, as outlined in its 2025 accounts, include £103.6m in bank loans – are omitted.

In the years that the club yo-yoed between the Premier League and Championship, with two relegations from the top flight in three years between 2023 and 2025, the club lost more than £180m.

King Power, run by the Srivaddhanaprabha family, bought Leicester for £35m from Milan Mandaric in 2010.

Khun Aiyawatt ‘Top’ Srivaddhanaprabha is currently chairman after his father Khun Vichai died in a helicopter crash outside the stadium in 2019.

Efforts to put the third-tier club up for sale were first reported in the Financial Times, external in July, but the product brochure now being circulated to prospective buyers is public confirmation that new investors are being sought.

The sale process comes just eight months on from Khun Top saying he is shouldering the blame for the club’s drastic recent demise.

There have been growing calls from disgruntled fans for the club to be sold, with the most vocal showing coming outside King Power Stadium after relegation from the Championship was confirmed last season.

Leicester’s struggles in recent years have come at a time when the King Power duty-free business in Thailand, which has been intrinsically linked to the club since the Srivaddhanaprabha family bought the Foxes, has also endured financial difficulties.

Despite the club’s issues, Leicester City is being positioned for sale as one of only five clubs to have won all three major English trophies – the Premier League, the FA Cup and the League Cup – since 2000.

The document also outlines the potential of the club’s academy, stating the Foxes have a “strong talent pipeline backed by leading scouting infrastructure, active transfer management and highly developed academy system consistently producing top players”.

Leicester sold academy graduate Jeremy Monga to Manchester City for £10m last month.

Leicester, relegated to League One for just the second time in their history last season, will start their latest campaign in the third tier under head coach Russell Martin at Notts County on Saturday.

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Amorim Wants Tomori, Nkunku 6 Other AC Milan Stars Out Of Club

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AC Milan coach Ruben Amorim has decided Fikayo Tomori and Christopher Nkunku do not figure in his plans this season.

 

David Odogu, Pervis Estupinan, Santiago Gimenez and Philip Terracciano are also expected to leave after Amorim held a crunch meeting with club bosses on Thursday.

The Portuguese, who was dismissed by United in January following a dismal 14 months in charge, accepted the task of transforming Milan’s fortunes – with the Italian giants finishing fifth last season.

He is set for a reunion with his old side this weekend in Poland, where he will search for his first win in charge of his new club having failed to register a victory in pre-season.

A 2-2 draw with Scottish champions Celtic was followed by a 1-1 tie with fierce rivals Inter Milan, before Xabi Alonso’s Chelsea put three goals past the Portuguese’s side in a woeful result in Jakarta.

But Amorim is ready to embrace the challenge, and suggested that his task at the San Siro is even greater than his job at Old Trafford.

‘I’m really very happy to be here, it’s an honour to be the coach of Milan,’ he said.

‘Why did I choose Milan? If you read an old interview of mine you will understand it, for me a special club.

‘It’s a very big challenge that I accepted even if after the last one [at Manchester United] I told myself to accept a smaller one.

‘Perhaps it is a greater challenge than the last. I’m proud to be here, we all are, me and my staff.

‘I’m at Milan to win, if you’re Milan coach you have to have this mentality,’ he added.

‘I’m not naive, I know there’s a lot of work to do, but if you’re the Milan coach you have to play to win.’

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Transfer: Man Utd Name 6 Clubs Rashford Can’t Join

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Manchester United co-owner, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, has blocked Marcus Rashford from joining any direct Premier League rival.

 

According to the UK Mirror, the Red Devils are determined to avoid a scenario where Rashford shines at a domestic competitor.

The 28-year-old is back at Carrington for pre-season training following a loan spell at Barcelona, but his long-term future at Old Trafford remains uncertain.

Ratcliffe wants to remove Rashford from United’s wage bill, but he won’t sanction a move to the likes of Arsenal, Manchester City or Liverpool

The restrictions extend to loan inquiries, as Chelsea, Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur have been rebuffed.

There is fear among United senior officials that Rashford could prove instrumental in helping a rival secure a Champions League spot, a scenario that would be viewed as ’embarrassing’ by the club’s top brass.

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