The season is rapidly approaching its conclusion and the pressure is cranking up.

At the top of the Premier League, Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City and Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal are locked in a gripping title race; at the other end of the table, Rob Edwards is desperate to prolong Luton Town’s top-flight fairytale at the expense of Nuno Espirito Santo and Nottingham Forest. And in the English Football League (EFL), play-off season is in full swing, complete with all its usual emotional ebbs and flows.

These are the days when reputations are forged or shattered and, while it is enthralling for fans, managers would be forgiven for regarding the whole thing with dread.

Jurgen Klopp’s announcement in January that he would be leaving Liverpool at the end of this season was proof of how draining the job can be. “I cannot do it again and again and again and again,” said Klopp, who turns 57 next month.

In February, Roy Hodgson left Crystal Palace shortly after collapsing at their training ground. Although the 76-year-old’s health was not a factor in the club’s decision to end his contract three months early just a few days later, it caused understandable concern among players and staff.

It is not just in the Premier League, either.

Emma Hayes, who is leaving Chelsea Women at the…

Hollywood actor Will Ferrell has joined Leeds United as a minority investor.

Leeds owners, 49ers Enterprises, have a number of high-profile minority stakeholders including actor Russell Crowe, Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps and Major golf champion Jordan Spieth.

Ferrell, 56, has bought a small stake in the Championship club to join this group with the club’s general partners — from 49ers Enterprises itself — still in day-to-day control.

49ers Enterprises, who already owned 44 per cent of the club, completed their full takeover in July.

Ferrell, who is already a part-owner of Major League Soccer side Los Angeles FC, follows a number of celebrities to try their hand at football club ownership in recent years.

Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have enjoyed meteoric success with Wrexham while JJ Watt and his wife Kealia invested in Burnley in May of last year and fellow NFL great Tom Brady joined the ownership group at Birmingham City in August.

Leeds finished third in the Championship and will face Norwich City in the first leg of the play-off semi-finals next weekend in their bid to return to the Premier League.

GO DEEPER

A day with Will Ferrell in Wrexham (yes, you read that correctly)

How does Leeds’ ownership group work?

The Leeds United investment group created by 49ers…

Birmingham City’s plans to build a new stadium have taken a step forward after owners Knighthead completed the purchase of land in the east of the city.

Knighthead has bought a 48-acre site in Bordesley Park from Birmingham City Council and confirmed plans to build a new “world class” stadium and training ground.

The “Sports Quarter” will be home to facilities for the men’s, women’s and academy sides and aims to be a “globally recognisable sporting and entertainment location”.

The land is a former motor racing park and is located less than one mile away from St Andrew’s, which has been Birmingham’s home ground since 1906.

Birmingham’s training ground has been located outside of the city at the Elite Performance and Innovation Centre, the former home of Wasps rugby club following a fire at the Wast Hill training ground in March 2023. They signed a three-year lease for the centre in December.

Knighthead co-chief executive officer and club chairman, Tom Wagner said: “When we invested in Birmingham City, we made it very clear that we had an ambitious vision to transform the experience for our fans and make a positive contribution to the growth and vitality of the city of Birmingham. The acquisition of the former Wheels site is an important next step in making…

It is probably a mistake to start with a British cultural reference that is nearly 29 years old, but this is a story about misgivings and mistakes, so it feels apt.

In 1995, the late, great comedian Caroline Aherne had a spoof talk show in which she played a character called Mrs Merton, an elderly lady from Manchester who would ask celebrities disingenuously blunt questions.

“So, what first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?” was her famous opener to Debbie McGee, the glamorous assistant and wife of the aforementioned TV magician.

A version of that question had been rattling around my head while I tried to find a common thread between the four case studies we have done this week on men who want to buy football clubs.

So, Chris/Dozy/William/Thomas, what first attracted you to the cash business with property assets that would guarantee weeks, if not months, of positive media coverage and a huge dopamine hit from the gratitude of strangers?

Because when you put it like that, it is not hard to see how bidding for football clubs might be addictive/a good smokescreen/useful advertising/worth a go (delete as applicable).

We picked Chris Kirchner, Dozy Mmobuosi, William Storey and Thomas Zilliacus this time, but if there are any streaming giants reading, we could flesh out…

Leicester City are facing charges and a potential points deduction for an alleged breach of the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability regulations (PSR) in the 2022-23 season, which ended in relegation to the Championship.

Had Leicester avoided relegation, the 2016 Premier League champions would now almost certainly be in the same situation as Everton and Nottingham Forest, both of whom have been referred to an independent commission over a PSR breach and are at risk of losing points. Everton have already had a 10-point deduction reduced to six points relating to a PSR breach from the reporting period ending in 2021-22.

On Wednesday, it was confirmed Leicester remain at risk of a PSR breach for this season despite an independent panel ruling the club do not have to submit a business plan to the English Football League (EFL). They could still avoid this second breach if they are able to reduce their losses through player sales in June.

PSR assessments are usually based on a rolling three-year basis, with Premier League clubs allowed to lose a maximum of £105million ($134m) over the period, although that figure is adjusted to exclude expenditure on community projects, infrastructure, the women’s team and youth development. But because of the uneven impact of the…

“He will give us a huge step forward in quality… He could help us for the next eight or nine weeks.”

The quote from Sheffield Wednesday head coach Danny Rohl makes the situation sound simple. In reality, it is anything but.

On Thursday, with his team mired in the Championship’s relegation zone, Rohl announced his intention to sign free-agent left-back Nico Schulz. Schulz had been training at the club.

Why is he a free agent? He was released by Borussia Dortmund last year after being charged with domestic abuse. Schulz denied the allegations.

Legal proceedings came to an end this week when the case against him was dropped. Schulz agreed to pay €150,000 (£128,000) to domestic violence charities — but was not convicted, with the case officially dropped.

Sheffield Wednesday’s plans to sign him are still controversial, with the club criticised by fan groups over the proposed transfer. This is the situation.

Who is Nico Schulz?

Schulz, 30, is an attacking left-back who played for several Bundesliga clubs — Hertha Berlin, Borussia Monchengladbach and Hoffenheim — before sealing a move to Borussia Dortmund in 2019.

He struggled at Dortmund — only making 40 league appearances over four seasons — and was marginalised once Edin Terzic took over at the start of the 2022-23…

Kicked out of the FA Cup and facing a fresh English Football League investigation into allegations of backdated paperwork, Barnsley’s season has been anything but boring.

The South Yorkshire side are pushing for promotion but the overall impression is one of a club distracted and divided by the break-up of the ownership group that took control in 2017 — a situation exacerbated by a dispute between two women at the club last summer.

Co-owner and director Jean Cryne, the 70-year-old widow of former owner Patrick Cryne, allegedly told fellow staff that she thought then-club secretary Eleanor Dobson, 28, flirted with the players and wore inappropriate clothes. Cryne did not deny this when Dobson, who had recently gotten married, later challenged her about them.

This led Dobson, who joined the club in 2022, to make a formal complaint to the then-chief executive Khaled El-Ahmad and their human resources manager, with club chairman Neerav Parekh also informed.

In an attempt to resolve the matter, El-Ahmad arranged a video conference call in early August between the two women during which it is said Dobson accepted an apology from Cryne.

But within weeks of that virtual meeting, the row flared up again when Dobson discovered that her complaint, which was meant to be private, had…

For almost three years, Jonathan Morgan hid a secret from the rest of his football team and almost everybody else in his life.

Today, though, it can be revealed why the manager at the centre of the Football Association’s Maddy Cusack inquiry was sacked on Friday by Sheffield United’s women’s team — and why the announcement was quickly followed by his management agency terminating its contract to represent him.

His club took the decision after The Athletic presented a portfolio of evidence that Morgan, when manager of Leicester City’s women’s side, had embarked on a secret relationship lasting nearly three years with a teenage player from his own team.

The player in question, who spoke to The Athletic on condition of anonymity for her family, says she was 17 when the relationship started and that Morgan, then in his late twenties, took advantage of her immaturity.

Her mother also believes she was 17 at the time and has described Morgan’s behaviour as “inappropriate and immoral”.

“He wouldn’t have wanted to keep the relationship a secret unless he knew he was doing something wrong,” she says. “It was her age, more than anything. He was supposed to be in a position of trust.”

Morgan, now 35, insists they are wrong about the girl’s age and says she was 18….

From the age of six, Willy Caballero realised he liked to be the player giving out the instructions to those around him. It was one of the reasons why he became a goalkeeper.

He had joined a local team in Santa Elena, his home city in northern Argentina, and had initially been an outfield player but when his team-mates decided they did not want to play in goal, Caballero went between the posts. After that, they began to win.

“I started to enjoy giving out orders, commenting on the defenders and correcting people,” Caballero said in a 2013 interview with Nuevo Futbol, a Spanish-language sports website. “ It stuck, so at the age of six I became a keeper.”

On Monday night, the now 42-year-old Caballero will be the man on the touchline, passing out the instructions and encouragement to Leicester City’s players as they take on fellow promotion hopefuls Ipswich Town in the Championship.

With Enzo Maresca serving a one-game suspension up in the King Power Stadium stands for picking up three yellow cards this season, it falls on assistant manager Caballero to step forward into the technical area.

Caballero’s early experiences have provided grounding and perspective and strengthened his leadership skills. He settled down with wife Lucia and started a family aged 21 before moved…

There is an EFL club that keeps a database designed to monitor the progress of its future head coaches. It is succession planning, a means of identifying the next best candidate before the search is even required to begin.

Individuals are marked and categorised; ones to watch and others to forget. A new tab has recently been created beneath those head coaches who are deemed unworthy of consideration, though. It is labelled “Joey Barton”. Do not touch.

The anecdote is relayed after one senior figure at the club was asked last week if Barton, sacked as manager of Bristol Rovers in October, would ever be considered for one of their managerial vacancies. “Not a chance,” they say.

Barton is unlikely to care. Not publicly, at least. After his playing career was held back by acts of violence and self-sabotage, the 41-year-old is now setting fire to his prospects of finding further opportunities as a football manager.

An industry that has provided Barton with no end of second chances – after prison, after an 18-month gambling ban and after multiple arrests – is finally seeing its patience expire thanks to a series of furious social media posts against female pundits and commentators.

They seem to have closed off any possible return to the game he claims to be defending. There…