Football News: Ivan Toney Discovers 'Betting on Self'; Season Finale Approaches | The Guardian

In his first year in charge, Luton manager Rob Edwards has led the club into the Championship play-off final against Coventry. Luton's chief executive, Gary Sweet, is extremely proud of Edwards and has praised his conduct since replacing Nathan Jones. Edwards joined Luton in November 2022 and has taken them to the brink of the Premier League after his side beat Sunderland in the play-off semi-final last week.

Sweet believes that Edwards' image and persona are a reflection of how the club wants to be represented. He has hailed the contributions of players and staff whose joint efforts are the leading factor behind Luton's upwards trajectory. Luton could secure their fourth promotion in 10 seasons if they beat Coventry at Wembley on Saturday. Sweet admitted he is not surprised by Luton's progress in recent years and believes that the staff, the board, fellow managers, and everyone at Luton are the very fabric of the culture that has accelerated the club's success.

Meanwhile, Suzy Wrack, the Guardian’s Women’s Football Correspondent, won the Vikki Orvice award for New Women’s Sports Writing this week for her book A Woman’s Game: The Rise, Fall and Rise Again of Women’s Football. Wrack interviewed Arsenal’s assistant coach Kelly Smith on the subject of this year’s title race, among other things, at Arsenal’s London Colney training ground.

Marc Skinner, the Manchester United women's team manager, wants his players to focus on the task at hand while he keeps an ear on results elsewhere as the Women's Super League title race goes to the final day of the season. Manchester United could still win the title but would have to beat Liverpool by six goals if Chelsea draws with Reading. Skinner's side are already guaranteed their highest-ever league finish five years after reforming. Chelsea's side, on the other hand, are taking on rock-bottom Reading, who need to win to avoid relegation from the top flight.

All eyes will be on the game this Saturday, May 15, 2023, where both Luton and Manchester United will look to secure their respective titles.

Eddie Howe, Newcastle United’s manager, has stated that his team has “massively over-achieved” this season by securing a top-four finish in the Premier League and qualifying for the Champions League for the first time in two decades. Howe admitted that dealing with the newfound expectations will be a challenge and that his team would need to continue over-achieving to match them. Newcastle’s final game of the season is against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

The independent regulatory commission of the FA has published their findings on the investigation into the gambling activity of Brentford striker Ivan Toney, revealing that he bet on himself to score in 15 games before it became public that he would be playing. Toney has been issued with an eight-month ban, which may have been extended to 15 months due to his misconduct. However, mitigating factors, including his youth and gambling addiction, led to a reduced sentence. Toney has since pledged to recover from his addiction.

Mohamed Salah of Liverpool tweeted expressing his devastation at the team’s inability to qualify for the Champions League following Manchester United’s victory over Chelsea. In response to Salah’s tweet, Liverpool’s manager Jurgen Klopp mentioned that he had read it but expressed concern about potential misleading headlines from journalists. Klopp also reflected on the fact that Liverpool’s final game of the season against Southampton would be insignificant for both teams as Southampton is already relegated and Liverpool cannot qualify for the Champions League this season.

“I’m not used to games on the last matchday where everything is sorted before. I can’t remember when that last time was the case. We only play this game to win the game and we have to make sure that I find a lineup with good legs, a lot of desire and we have to see … we will not take any risks with players. That makes no sense. We have a big group, training was really good and the boys were really into it. I have not made any decisions yet because I didn’t see the doc yet but I will have a conversation with him and we will see who is contention.”

Brighton: With qualification for the Europa League secured, Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi has said he will need to add bodies to his squad, especially if in-demand pair Moises Caicedo and Alexis Mac Allister are sold during the summer. He has, however, said he won’t be bringing in too many new players.

“Monday starts the toughest period in my season because without football it is difficult,” he said ahead of his side’s trip to Aston Villa. “I am looking forward to starting the next pre-season. I think we have to work in this holiday because we have to build a new squad to prepare for the new season. I think we don’t need so many players. We have to understand if Caicedo, Mac Allister [are sold] - I don’t know which players can leave - then we have to bring very good players because next season will be tougher than this one.

On the subject of what kind of money he’ll be given to spend by club owner Tony Bloom, De Zerbi displayed a poker-face that would have been the envy of his poker-playing boss. “I can speak only about the characteristics, the quality of players,” he said. “Money is not my job. For sure I can tell you we have to have a stronger squad, a bigger squad because we will play in four competitions. And we have to be ready to compete in our way in these four competitions because we arrived with 14, 15 players in the crucial part of the season.

“The next year will be tougher because in the history of the Premier League it can happen that clubs achieve Europa League and the next year you have to fight to avoid relegation.”

Or it started last night, for the purposes of this rolling conveyor belt of piping hot football news. Playing out the game in hand they had over the Premier League’s 18 other teams, Manchester United heaped more misery on Chelsea as they subjected them to a fairly comprehensive hiding at Old Trafford, securing their place in next season’s Champions League in the process. United hosted Fulham in the Premier League’s final round of fixtures on Sunday, while Chelsea’s last chance to salvage some small sliver of dignity from a disastrous campaign presents itself in a game against high-flying Newcastle at Stamford Bridge.

There’s plenty of more important taking place over the weekend, with the top flight relegation battle to be fought to its conclusion and the denouement of the Women’s Super League taking place, while three EFL playoff finals will also be decided.

One of Luton Town or Coventry City will earn promotion to the Premier League tomorrow evening, an outcome not even the most prescient of sooth-sayers could have foreseen at the start of the season. Elsewhere, the final round of fixtures will be played out in the Scottish Premiership and a win at home to Mainz will see Jude Bellingham’s Borussia Dortmund beat Bayern Munich to the Bundesliga title. There’ll be no shortage of pre-weekend news and chat to stay across so we’ll keep you up to date with all the news as it comes rolling in.