🚨 Ten Hag responds to SACK rumours, Maresca casts doubt over Chelsea star's future, key Barcelona contract update, Madrid Derby disruption, & more

Sep 30, 2024

∙ Paid

Good morning everyone and welcome to another Daily Briefing! Thanks as always for reading, and hope you enjoy :-)

Today’s top stories:

Mikel Arteta: “I’ve admired Pep Guardiola since I was 10 years old. I haven't see a human being work as hard as Pep. My feeling is profound, he knows it, the staff knows it because I still maintain with them today, with the board, with the ownership, with everyone!”
Riccardo Calafiori on scoring vs Man City: “It’s a bit early to say I've won over the fans, but I've made them love me straight away! I’ve settled in very well here, thanks to my team-mates and the club. The goal is a result of the way they helped me from the start.”
Calafiori: “I try to improve every day. I see my arrival at Arsenal as a starting point after my experience with the Italian national team.”

Koke and Diego Simeone had to go to the Atletico Madrid fans to calm them down as yesterday’s game was paused due to things being thrown at Thibaut Courtois! FT Atletico Madrid 1-1 Real Madrid [Pictures from Fabrizio Romano/X]
Simeone: “We all have to help. If we provoke people, they get angry. You can celebrate a goal, but not by looking at the stands, taunting them and making gestures. It is not justified, but neither is what followed.”
Koke added: “It was a tense moment. But, this can’t happen on a football pitch. We are professionals and we have to know where we are and be smart, but the other incidents can’t happen.”
Piero Hincapie was one of a number of defenders Atletico Madrid looked at this summer - more details in Matteo Moretto’s latest exclusive column.

Frenkie de Jong: “Having three injuries to the same ankle caused me a bit of mental trauma. I’m gradually regaining my confidence to kick the ball hard, go strong into tackles. I will be back soon. It’s very frustrating for a player who breathes football to be out.”
De Jong: “They said a lot about me… they said that I don’t want to have surgery and that they pay me a lot of money. They said I get €37m salary and it’s fake! It’s very, very far from that. I’m not close to earning that, I’m very far away.”
De Jong: “People do think I’m earning a lot of money and they say I’ve to have surgery but I don't want to and I'm on vacation, I’m not training… but it's not true. Everyone at the club agreed that not having surgery was the best option.”
What’s going on with De Jong’s Barca contract? Matteo Moretto has the details in today’s exclusive column.
Lamine Yamal contract - all the latest details on his Barcelona situation in Matteo Moretto’s exclusive column.

Subscribe to the Daily Briefing to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.