“Bing-bong. Happy New Year, the winter transfer window is here! Congratulations to all who celebrate. To mark the re-opening of the market, we thought we’d revive an article which generated such an incredibly warm reaction in the comments section last time around; yes, ranking the impact made by all 155 Premier League summer signings! We did it in September, we did it in October, and if you didn’t think we were going to do it in January, well, you really don’t know us that well at all. Basically, it’s the 155 signings made by the 20 Premier League clubs in summer 2025, judged on their impact. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
Daily Archives: January 1, 2026
Liverpool 0 Leeds United 0: Familiar issues for Arne Slot’s side? More signs of progress for Leeds?
“Leeds United have ended Liverpool’s run of three successive Premier League wins with a goalless draw at Anfield that was as frustrating for the home side as it was satisfying for the visitors. Daniel Farke’s team, unbeaten in the league since November, controlled and frustrated Liverpool for much of the game — and went in 0-0 at half-time thanks to some diligent defending. The second half followed the same pattern with Liverpool struggling to carve out clear-cut chances. Leeds momentarily thought they had taken the lead in the last 10 minutes, only for Dominic Calvert-Lewin — who had come on as a substitute — to see his neatly-taken goal disallowed for a narrow offside. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
YouTube: Liverpool v. Leeds United | PREMIER LEAGUE HIGHLIGHTS
Has yet to really capture the imagination in Morocco – on and off the field

Host nation Morocco are expected to win the tournament by home fans but so far there has not been too much joy at AFCON 2025
“From the edge of the Marrakech medina and the marvellously faded rooftop bar of the Grand Hotel Tazi, where the raffish furnishings have barely changed since the place was opened in the 1920s, the sound wafted through the cafes and restaurants that line the street leading to the city’s famously mad trading square, the Jemaa el-Fnaa. I had broken away from the tournament temporarily while Morocco played Zambia in Rabat, around 300km (200 miles) away, on Monday but I knew the host nation of the 2024-25 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) had scored again because of clattering tables and a din in the middle distance. There must have been a tiny delay in the coverage, because the celebrations that marked Morocco’s second goal of a 3-0 win arrived in stages. Eventually, they got to Cafe Roxe, rammed with men smoking cigarettes and drinking mint tea. Cue: pandemonium. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
YouTube: The Hidden People of Morocco- what they don’t show you, Ait-Ben-Haddou, Morocco [Amazing Places 4K], Explore Morocco’s Timeless Symbol of Heritage: Aït Benhaddou

The crowd was sparse at the fan zone for Algeria’s game against Equatorial Guinea on Wednesday
2025 Africa Cup of Nations knockout stage
“The knockout stage of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations will be the second and final stage of the competition, following the group stage. It will begin on 3 January with the round of 16 and ended on 18 January 2026 with the final held at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat. A total of 16 teams (the top two teams from each group, along with the four best third-placed teams) advanced to the knockout stage to compete in a single-elimination style tournament. In the knockout stage, except for the third place play-off, if a match was level at the end of 90 minutes of normal playing time, extra time was played (two periods of 15 minutes each). If still tied after extra time, the match was decided by a penalty shoot-out to determine the winner. In the third place play-off, if the scores remained level after 90 minutes the match would go directly to a penalty shoot-out, without any extra time being played. …”
W – 2025 Africa Cup of Nations knockout stage
