💬 BARBER: Second Spurs bid rejected Paul Barber has revealed that a second offer from Spurs for Jan Paul van Hecke has been rejected, and other clubs are also interested in the Dutch defender: “There’s always going to be a lot of interest in our best players, and certainly in the case of Jan Paul. “We’ve been very clear that that interest has been ongoing for a while, it’s coming from multiple sources. “Yes, we have rejected a bid from Tottenham over the last week or so, in fact, two bids. “From that point of view, it has to be right for us as well as the player. “We have to be in a position to make the best trades to suit our model and also to make sure that we’re supporting Fabian [Hurzeler], because he’s got another big season ahead of him. “He’s had two seasons in the Premier League, he’s finished eighth on both occasions, this time we’ve been fortunate enough to qualify for a European competition. “We want to go as deep in that competition as we can, while also doing well in the Premier League. “To do that, we need to make sure Fabian’s got the best possible squad and we’ve got the right balance between the young players that typically we like to bring in and develop, and the more experienced players like Pascal Gross and others, who can actually help us progress in all of the competitions that we’re in. “As always, it’s a balancing act, and hopefully this summer we can work hard to pull it off again.”

Was it ever in doubt that Khadija Shaw would grab the headlines? Never. A ruthless Manchester City side won the Women’s FA Cup for a fourth time and completed the Double as they eventually coasted to a 4-0 win over Brighton, with Shaw celebrating signing her new contract with a Wembley goal that exemplified her value to the club.

Shaw, who had been expected to leave the club this summer on a free transfer before performing a dramatic U-turn to sign a lucrative new contract on Monday, nodded her team in front at Wembley, before Alex Greenwood’s fine free-kick, Aoba Fujino’s deflected effort and Vivianne Miedema’s angled header enabled City to lift the cup for the first time since 2020, and for the first time with spectators permitted inside the stadium for seven years, as their most recent FA Cup triumph had been staged behind closed doors.

Added to their first Women’s Super League title in a decade, the victory completed a memorable season for Andrée Jeglertz and his confident team, albeit the scoreline will have confused anybody who watched only the opening half an hour.

“In the first half I said to [Lauren Hemp]: ‘They are poppin’ it!’ We didn’t know what to do in the first 20 minutes, and then we had a break and said, ‘Let them keep it at the back’ and try to go man for man, and that worked,” Shaw said. “It’s been a crazy few weeks, lots of emotions: signing a contract, to be here winning the FA Cup. The last time I was at Wembley, I lost so I wanted to correct that today.”