What club is next for Grealish? | Will Delap cope with the pressure of Chelsea? | Are the Lionesses in crisis?
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Welcome to Back Pages, bringing you everything you need to know about the biggest sports stories making the headlines in the morning's newspapers. I'm Chris Latcham. Joining me are The Times football reporter Charlotte Dunker and The Sun sports reporter Jack Rosser. Welcome to you both.

We're going to start with Jack Grealish and the Telegraph leading with that on their back page. Jack Grealish is looking like his Manchester City career is over. If you look at the last few games, Charlotte, he played one minute in their final five games of the season, was left on the bench in the FA Cup final. It's not really a shock.

No, it's not. And I think you obviously look at the minutes that he's had in the Premier League across the last couple of seasons, the starts that he's had haven't been the same. He was obviously instrumental to that treble winning season that they've had. But I think it was seven Premier League games he started in the campaign just gone and maybe 10 the season before. So his influence has certainly been diminishing over the last couple of seasons. And I think Guardiola has been really honest with his assessment of him. He said, well,

He likes him, he likes what he can bring, but he obviously isn't picking him for a reason. And he said himself he deserves to be playing two, three times a week and that the club will work with him, they'll work with his agents to work out what's best for him going forward. So I think when the manager comes out and says that,

which is what he did after their final game against Fulham. I think the writing's on the wall. So this decision for him seemingly not to go to the Club World Cup, I think is something that would make sense for all parties. It gives Grealish the most time to prepare for what could be at the start a new club to get the new season, kick it, get it all running up in speed.

to get there as quick as possible because if he goes with City and he doesn't get back to the end of July, then he hasn't got much time. So it does seem brutal, but it does seem like it might be the best decision for all of them. Yeah, what's happened here, Jack, do you think? Is he just not good enough for Manchester City? Doesn't fit into Pep's system? Or have they had a coming together?

It is a difficult one, isn't it? Because I think when he first went there from Aston Villa, there were always concerns that you'd lose what everyone loved about Jack Grealish, you know, the Maverick style of play that he has, sort of having the free roll that he had at Aston Villa to roam anywhere and impact games. That's obviously not something that Pep Guardiola likes to give his players, but we saw him bring some incredible football out of him, like Charlotte says, in that treble-winning season. And then since then...

I think he admitted last season, before the season had just gone, that he maybe struggled to get some motivation again after winning the treble. It's the first time he'd been through something like that and having that sort of success and knowing how to react to it was a difficult thing for him. His form certainly hasn't been the same since then. He's struggled to...

to get a consistent run, to turn it around. And it feels like a natural thing to happen. He's the sort of player that we all want to sit and watch and would all pay to just go and watch him when he's at his best.

He's a player that engages fans of all ages and all stripes, really. Anyone who supports any club is happy to go and watch Jack Grealish. So it's a good thing for him. It's a good thing for England as well if he's playing regularly and happy where he's playing. So it's the right decision to leave him out of the Club World Cup. It's probably something that's quite hard to take, being brutally told that you're not wanted in that sort of manner. Although, I think...

I think taking his future away from it, there'll be a lot of players that would quite like to have the Club World Cup off rather than

having to go across to America to play this tournament, but it is the right thing for him. Yeah, it gives him more time to find his next move. Jack, you've written about this story for The Sun. Hit the road, Jack, is the headline in your newspaper. And The Sun and The Telegraph both focusing also on the angle of Grealish and where he fits into Thomas Tuchel's England plans, Charlotte. He's never going to be involved if he stays in the situation at Manchester City, as he needs to be playing.

Yeah, of course. And Thomas Tuchel said that himself. He's actually already left the door open for Jack Grealish to return to the England set-up. But like you said, he needs to be playing and he's a flair player. He's someone who plays off confidence. He doesn't seem to be a player that can play one week, be left out two weeks and come in and put in an unbelievable performance the third week. He's the sort of player who needs to be cared for, who needs to feel like he's got the love, who needs to be playing consistently.

two, three times a week. And when he does that, we know what he's capable of. So Tuchel's already said that he loves Jack Grealish. He really admires him. He knows what he can bring to the England set-up. But like you said, he does need to be playing week in, week out. And obviously with the World Cup coming up,

on the horizon that's going to be something that's on real issues mind and i think city going to do the best to try and get him a move somewhere hopefully where he can get back that form that we saw in that treble winning season i wonder where that move will be jack this is a 100 million pound player on 100 million pound players wages there aren't that many clubs in the era of psr that can afford him where does he go next and how does a transfer be structured

It is such a difficult question, isn't it? I think Matt Law in his piece for The Telegraph raises the prospect of something similar to what we saw with Marcus Rashford this year, where it goes out on loan because that's perhaps the only way that it can be structured. City might have to

to put up some of his wages. If it's a permanent deal, then it's hard to see how, with City making it quite so obvious that they don't see him as part of their plans, that if they recoup their money, then he'll probably have to take a wage cut somewhere as well. Even since he joined Manchester City, PSL has become such a focus for all clubs. It's become more intense. They're checking everything. They're seeing where they can squeeze every penny out of it. So there aren't too many options there.

you know when you look at the top of the premier league can you see him joining liverpool you can't manchester united haven't got the cash to go and do it newcastle are well back but do they do they need him do they need to put that sort of money into it chelsea are looking for wingers but does he fit the profile of what they want no not really so there aren't that many avenues for a permanent deal in the premier league he might look to go abroad and into europe and maybe get away and forge a path on his own

It's going to be a complicated summer for him. There'll no doubt be interest. He's an incredible player when he has that confidence, but it's going to be a tricky thing to negotiate. Yeah, we will have to watch this space. Stay tuned to our transfer shows, of course. The subs at the Sun have been earning their money. Hit the road, Jack, was a good headline, the main headline, and also Chelsea's dilap of honours. We knew this transfer was coming, Charlotte, because they were stumping up the release clause after Ipswich's relegation, but...

How well do you think Liam de Lappe fits in at Chelsea?

On the face of it, obviously, I think it looks like an exciting move for him. You can understand why he's gone there. The prospect of Champions League football, the prospect of playing with someone like Cole Palmer. It's the youngest squad in the Premier League. So he has really got the chance to push on there. He can fight with Nicholas Jackson for that number nine position down the middle. And if you look at the stats when you compare them both, there actually hasn't been that much between them in last season's campaign.

So it seems like a really exciting move for him. I think it's going to be really interesting to see how he develops there because obviously at Ipswich, I'm not saying there was no pressure, but the expectation from everyone is that they're going to go down. You can be the star man there. You can score 12 goals in a season. You can get yourself a really good move, but

the pressure is going to be on at Chelsea. You're playing in the Champions League, the biggest competition in the world. You're playing at the top of the Premier League. It's going to be interesting to see how he adapts to that pressure, how he develops. He's obviously so young. He's played in that young squad. He's worked with Maresca before when they were both at Manchester City in the EDS. So there's

that relationship that they can develop and pick up again. So, yeah, it should, on the face of it, be a good move for him. But you'd hope that he's going to get the minutes to prove how good he can be and also given the time to develop because he is still young and he has only had one season in the top flight. I think that point that you mentioned there, that he's worked with Enzo Maresca before, is key here, Jack, because I think he scored 27 in 22 Manchester City development squad games under the tutelage.

of Enzo Maresca. So you can see why De Lappe would be so keen to go and work under him again. You can, absolutely. And it's not just reuniting with Enzo Maresca. He's played with Cole Palmer in the past. He's played with Romeo Lavia as well, who are really important parts of what Maresca is doing at Chelsea. I think there may have been some concerns around where a striker quite fits into Maresca's system. You know, Jackson has...

had some purple patches early this season and then struggled a bit as well. You know, a lack of space for strikers when Chelsea are dominating the ball. But De Lappe will obviously have that confidence from playing under him in the past. And I think in a market where strikers are so scarce and proven Premier League strikers are so scarce and so expensive, getting a player with the potential that De Lappe has is frankly fantastic business for Chelsea. There have been a lot of question marks over some of the spending that they've made

done under the American owners since they arrived at Chelsea. They've spent the players they've signed. But it's hard to deny that that could really be a fantastic signing because £30 million for a Premier League quality striker that is likely to be your starter is fantastic business. And it also leaves...

some money there to go again for another one if they want another striker, if they definitely want another winger. So it gives them more room with the budget as well. So exciting time for Chelsea. Let's focus on a story concerning Manchester United. It's in a number of the newspapers in the morning. The Times, Brailsford to step back from Manchester United. So he was the Doyen of cycling and brought in at the top of Manchester United, which is not a cycling team. And

This seems like an omission that it hasn't quite worked, Charlotte. It does and it doesn't. We don't know what the long-term strategy was with bringing Brailsford with Sir Jim Ratcliffe. Obviously, they had a really close relationship, but as you said, he was a cycling man and everything he knows is about cycling, so he's not a football man. Everyone knew that from the start, but...

If you read Matt's piece there, he talks about the impact that he has had in terms of the improvements at Carrington, the changes that he's made to performance and that sort of stuff. So he has had an impact, but he's going back to cycling now and we're going to see Berrada, Jason Wilcox, Christopher Vivelle, sorry, they're the three main people that you're going to see over recruitment, which does seem to make more sense. Manchester United have made mistakes in the past in terms of

not having football minds in terms of the footballing operations. So maybe they are learning from those mistakes and having three people who are very involved in football and know about making football decisions, making those decisions should help them. So in terms of the long-term strategy, I'm not sure what that was for Brailsford, whether the intention was for him to always stay there. He obviously came in to oversee the whole of football, which, like we said, he is a cycling man, so...

He is stepping down now from that role to go back to more of a cycling role in INEOS. And it'll be interesting to see. This is a massive window for Manchester United. So, Berardo, Wilcox and Vival have got a huge job ahead of them. And it's going to be interesting to see what they manage to do before the window closes. It might not be as simplistic as this, Jack, but does Dave Brailsford stepping back from United strengthen or weaken Jim Ratcliffe's PR? How are we seeing from the outside?

It's a very difficult one, isn't it? Because you can either dress it up as, you know, it's been very easy to give Jim Ratcliffe and Manchester United quite a hefty kicking over the last couple of years since he came in, well, the last year or so since he came into the club. You can either look at it as Brailsford's come in, done the job that was asked for him and moves on and we'll see the impact of his changes in the coming years. But there's nothing in the pieces that

have been written today that suggests this was part of some grand plan for him to come in, move a few things around and move away. It's probably, as Charlotte says, Brackcliffe moving quickly to correct his mistakes, really. You know, there's been a sense that

Him and Dave Brailsford have gone in, poked around, told everybody what they're doing wrong and upset quite a few people at Manchester United. So he would have known when he took this on, him and Dave Brailsford, that they're going to take an awful lot of bad PR at times. Having their worst Premier League season certainly doesn't help that either. So we're going to have to wait almost to see what it does for Rackless PR. At the moment, it's another block really with Dan Ashworth

alongside that, you know, going big on him and moving him on not too long after that. So for Dave Brailsford, someone that's such a big figure alongside Ratnall-Clifton within INEOS, it's not a great look. Yeah, seems a big story. Good piece from Matt Lawton in The Times on that one. Let's go to The Guardian and focus on England's women.

Ahead of the squad announcement for the Euros, I can't give 100% Millie Bright steps away from the Euros, citing health worry. She says she can't give 100% both on a mental and on a physical standpoint, Jack. I suppose she should be applauded that she feels comfortable enough to make this difficult decision. She should, yeah. It's a very brave thing to come out and do, to make that sort of step before...

a major tournament like this so close to it as well to come out and say not only are you withdrawing but explaining the reasons why and you know opening up about the fact that it's not just a physical thing at the end of a long season but but a mental mental fatigue as well and not being sure whether you can step in it's almost fairly selfless in terms of selfless in terms of taking that away from from england and the manager but i think the wider problem is that

These three withdrawals in isolation are all understandable in their own ways, but coming so quickly all at once, losing 218 caps and all that experience is a really serious problem for England and for somebody that captained them to the World Cup final in the last major tournament to be left in this position where they're not physically and mentally right to take on that challenge again is something that...

England need to look at themselves over. There's been so much focus on both sides. We saw it with Gareth Southgate in the men's game in terms of the culture and support for players that were there. And it's something that's been reflected throughout the FA and throughout all of the England teams across men's, women's, youth football as well. And if they're not able to have...

big players, big personalities in a position where they're able to help the team, then it's a huge concern for them, whether that's down to the FA, whether it's down to Serena Wiegmann. It's something that they need to really work out and it's a very hard time and a short time to work that out as well. Very tough for Serena Wiegmann. The eyes focus is that Millie Bright delivers a damaging blow to Wiegmann amid chaotic Euros build-up. You mentioned the 218 caps. Mary Earps, the goalkeeper, retired last week.

We also had Fran Kirby retiring this week and then Millie Bright making herself unavailable. It's not just the caps, Charlotte. It's players that have been there and done it and won on the biggest stage.

Yeah, of course. So if we take Mary Earps, for example, we understand one of the reasons was she wasn't going to be first choice. And the same with Millie Bright. She might not have started every game for England in this tournament, but the experience that those three players have got is vital. You go back to the last time that England won this competition, obviously defending that crown.

five of those players who started that final are no longer in the squad because they've all retired and then or four of them have retired and then Millie Bright today's withdrawn for mental health reasons so it is the changing of a guard can this new younger new look England side go there and defend the crown that's

pressures on them to do that but i think with these decisions and these announcements coming so close obviously the squad announcements tomorrow it's 28 days until the tournament starts in terms of preparation and getting this group ready for this massive tournament it just doesn't seem the best way to do that there seems to be distractions all the talks about the people who aren't going to be there rather than the people who are going to be there so they've got a really short space

of time to try and turn this around, to get the morale up, to get the confidence up, to get the belief up that even without this experience and the know-how of those who have been there and won this tournament and know exactly how to do it, that they can go there and defend their crown. Yeah, in Switzerland, they've got a beast of a group as well, the Netherlands, France and Wales. The Times focus suggests that the Lionesses are in crisis, Jack. Is that fair?

I think so, yeah. However way they want to present it and defend it is not an ideal way to be going into a tournament. I think if you take this and implant it into the men's game, think how big this would be if it was England going into the World Cup next year, then...

think how huge that story would be and how unsettling it would be for everyone. Luke Edwards has done a fantastic piece in the Telegraph questioning sort of where this team ethos has gone. The FA have been so big on culture and unity across all of their teams. Then this just looks like a big breakdown of that. If, you know, Mary Earps

because she's not going to be first choice. If you're in a position where one player gets told that and doesn't want to be part of what's going to happen over the summer because they're not going to be the number one, then you have to question how you're building a unity and an ethos. And they've got a lot of talented players. Lauren James, as long as she's fit, Alessia Rousseau has had a fantastic season as well. They've got a lot of talent there to take them far. But when it gets to the real crunch points of major tournaments,

People rely on things like unity, togetherness and the spirit within a group to push them over the line when it really gets down to it. And that seems like it's falling apart at the moment. It certainly does. Now, let's focus on Rangers. Scottish Sun, it's a done deal. Boss Russell Martin gets a three-year contract. They say that he'll be paraded inside the next 24 hours.

We've done some interviews with some Rangers fans, and I think cautious is probably the word I would use. Is that right? Do you think they're correct to be cautious after what we saw at Southampton, Charlotte? I think, well, given how it ended at Southampton, yes. I mean, if they choose to look how it started there, maybe they should be cautiously optimistic about what he can bring. I think maybe he can show what he learned at Southampton. I think he showed their determination.

the end that maybe he was a bit too stuck to his ideals and too stuck in his ways in terms of the way he wanted to play. It's going to be a completely different challenge for him at Rangers than the one that faced him at Southampton. So can he adapt? Has he learnt from his mistakes from his last job? And what are we going to see? Are we going to see the same possession-based attacking style football that he brought Southampton up with, but then ultimately was partially to blame for their downfall this season? So it's

Yeah, it's a big job for him. It's a chance for him to get himself back in management. He's obviously been linked with numerous jobs since he was sacked by Southampton. So, yeah, it'll be interesting to see how he gets on next season.

Yeah, it really will. I want to end on this curious story on the Time Sport. Digital pills for England. It's on the right-hand side of the page. Jonathan Northcroft has written this. This is a suggestion that Thomas Tuchel will ask England's players to take biometric pills to swallow, which will measure the internal temperature of their bodies in extreme heat at the World Cup next year. Jack, you're going. If your boss says he asked to swallow this, would you do that without any question? I'd say

As long as it means I'm going to the World Cup, probably, yeah. I love these sort of stories around England. Whenever a tournament comes along or a camp away comes along, you get more faintly ridiculous ways that they're doing something. I think they took three separate scents to the hotel in Germany or something like that to make players feel more comfortable and get a little edge there. I mean, what they've been doing today sounds absolutely brutal, taking these pills and cycling for 45 minutes in heat tents. I don't know if I'd do that

to get a ticket to the World Cup. It sounds absolutely brutal, but it's going to be a big problem next season, so next summer. So it is something that they need to plan for and have a lot of detail on. It does sound brutal what they've been going through, Charlotte. That's not what you need at the end of a long season.

No, I think they said 45 minutes riding a bike in a tent that was 36 degrees. And it's not my cup of tea. I don't fancy that at all. But yeah, it's all about fine margins, isn't it? They're going to look to get any gains they can too. She'll said he wants them to feel comfortable. We obviously know it's going to be really hot over there. So if this is a way to try and get them used to it, obviously the scientists and the data on us can look at the data that these pills give them. And hopefully that will help in giving them the edge that they so desperately are looking to find. Yeah.

Are they in slightly less crisis than the women's team, Jack? England seem in pretty good shape a year out from the World Cup.

Yeah, you know, they've got a lot more time to iron out any problems than Serena Wigman has. That's for certain. I think it's going to be interesting over this camp at the end of a long season. Thomas Tuchel's made it clear that he wants players invested and fully into it and not dropping out for minor reasons. They're sort of all on watch every minute because there's so little time for him to get a grip on this squad, especially with him starting a bit later. But he seems to be taking a good approach to it. Getting them all down to the F1 is something we haven't really seen yet.

from an England manager before, so they look in a fairly good place. A good place indeed. Jack, Charlotte, thank you for being with us.