Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has lavished praise on the two leading candidates to succeed him Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho.

The 70-year-old, who will have a huge influence on the identity of his successor at Old Trafford, highlighted the qualities of the Real Madrid supremo, who he repeatedly faced and was occasionally thwarted by when the Portuguese was in charge of Porto and Chelsea.

Jose is very intelligent, he has charisma, his players play for him, and he is a good looking guy, said Ferguson as he talked to academics at Harvard Business School in Boston.

I think I have most of those things, too, apart from his good looks.

He s got a confidence about himself, saying We ll win this and I m the Special One .

I could never com…

Jamie Vardy and Leicester City provided a thrilling reminder of the form that took them to the Premier League title last season four days too late for dethroned boss Claudio Ranieri, as a limp Liverpool were dispatched 3-1 at the King Power Stadium.

A home crowd peppered with banners paying tribute to the amiable Italian, who was sacked last Thursday following a run of five consecutive top-flight defeats, had no cause to approach mutiny as their side located an intensity and drive sorely lacking over recent weeks.

Vardy followed his strike in the 2-1 Champions League loss to Sevilla last week with Leicester s first in the Premier League in 2017 and Danny Drinkwater displayed impeccable technique to net a sumptuous long-range second.

It got better in the second ha…

Frustrating night for Los Blancos / Image via thegurardian.com

It was a highly entertaining evening at Mestalla and an eventful match between home side Valencia and Real Madrid.

Gary Neville is still in search of his maiden La Liga win as Valencia boss, but former Manchester United defender will have every reason to be pleased with his team’s performance against the visitors from Madrid.

Rafa Benitez’s troops have opened the game in dominant fashion getting on the scoresheet after only 16 minutes through a wonderful team goal lead by Gareth Bale, the assist provider Cristiano Ronaldo and the finisher Karim Benzema.

Los Che demonstrated impressive composure to get back in the game, dominate the first-half and earn an equalizer from the penalty spot.

Paul Pogba has warned Manchester United they will continue to fall short of winning the big stuff if they do not improve on details after losing to Manchester City in the EFL Cup semi-final thanks to two set-pieces.

City became only the second side to reach four successive finals in the competition on Wednesday, while it was a third semi-final elimination in four EFL Cup campaigns for United.

On top of that, it was a fourth consecutive semi-final defeat for United and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer across all competitions, having fallen to City in the same competition in 2019-20 as well as losing to Chelsea and Sevilla in the FA Cup and Europa League respectively.

United have made undoubted progress under Solskjaer, as evidenced by the fact a point against Burnley next Tue…

Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo has officially been named the best player in Serie A last season, a few hours after Lionel Messi beat him to a record sixth Ballon d Or crown.

Ronaldo dodged the glitzy Ballon d Or ceremony in Paris on Monday to instead attend the annual Gran Gala del Calcio in Milan, where he was honoured for his successful maiden campaign with Juve.

He scored 21 league goals in 2018-19 to help the Bianconeri to an eighth successive Scudetto and has six goals in 11 starts this term, despite injury issues curtailing his playing time over the past month.

It is a proud moment to win this award, Ronaldo said upon collecting the award, which was won by Mauro Icardi, then of Inter, 12 months ago.

The best player in Serie A!

Congratu…

Matheus Nunes will not be involved in Wolves’ Carabao Cup tie at home to Blackpool on Tuesday after he stopped training with the club in an effort to force through a move to Manchester City.

Premier League champions City stepped up their pursuit of Nunes after cooling their interest in West Ham’s Lucas Paqueta, and had a bid of 55million euros (£47m) rejected last week for the Portuguese attacker.

While Wolves have not received any fresh bids from City, Nunes has now stopped training with Gary O’Neil’s side, the PA news agency understands.

The 25-year-old, who joined from Sporting Lisbon last summer in a deal worth £42m, was absent for Saturday’s 1-0 win away to Everton and will again be missing from the squad for the upcoming second-round cup tie at …

Marcus Rashford and Jude Bellingham have been recalled to Gareth Southgate s England squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers, but Jadon Sancho and his Manchester United team-mate Jesse Lingard miss out.

England require just four points to qualify for Qatar 2022 from the visit of Albania on Friday November 12 and their final qualifier away to San Marino three days later.

It is Rashford s first call-up since his missed penalty in the Euro 2020 final shootout defeat to Italy as he has only recently recovered from shoulder surgery, while Bellingham comes back into the squad after being left out for previous games against Andorra and Hungary.

A lack of game time at club level appears to have cost Sancho and Lingard their places in the squad as the United duo m…

Atletico Madrid s Antoine Griezmann scored a hat-trick in a 3-0 LaLiga win at Getafe on Wednesday as Diego Simeone s side sealed Champions League qualification.

The France star opened the scoring in the 27th minute from Rodrigo De Paul s throughball and had his second shortly before half-time, flicking Samuel Lino s pinpoint pass past Getafe goalkeeper David Soria.

Griezmann completed his hat-trick in the 51st minute with a fine finish under Soria s legs, with Lino claiming his second assist by playing Los Colchoneros all-time leading scorer into the area.

It was Griezmann s second hat-trick of the season, after he also netted three times in a 3-0 win at Celta Vigo last October.

With two games remaining, Simeone s side are now on 73 points in fourth, 11 a…

Lazio defender Stefan Radu has been ruled out for two months with a knee ligament injury.

The Romania international picked up the injury during a training session and could miss his side s next 12 games in Serie A and the UEFA Europa League.

A statement on the club s official website confirmed that Radu sustained the problem on Wednesday, and had been diagnosed with a rupture of his medial knee ligament after medical examinations.

The 26-year-old will have his leg in a brace to stabilise his knee for three weeks, but he is not expected back in training for eight weeks.

Radu joined Lazio from Dinamo Bucharest in 2008 and has made 130 league appearances for the club including both matches in Serie A so far this season.

Striker Sergio Floccari will join Radu o…

Athletic Bilbao defender Aymeric Laporte has revealed that he was on the verge of signing for Marseille as a youngster.

Born in Agen, a city between Bordeaux and Toulouse, the centre-back was hoping to join OM as it was the most famous club in the proximity of Bandol, a coast city where his family used to live.

But, he was eventually forced to sign with Toulouse as regulations banned players under the age of 15 to travel over 50 km in one direction.

“I was hoping to play (for Marseille) because of the proximity of my family living in Bandol, but OM rather recommended us Toulouse, which was closer,” Laporte explained to La Provence.

The youngster has since come a long way as he moved to Athletic Bilbao in 2010 and quickly went on to establish himself …