Premier League returns with Arsenal v Coventry; transfer news and more: football – live

Key events

Coventry City have completed the signing of goalkeeper Dan Bentley from Wolves on a free transfer.

The former Bristol City started Wolves’ first game of the Championship season, a 2-2 home draw against Blackburn, but has been allowed to leave for Coventry, where he has signed a two-year deal. Bentley will provide backup for Carl Rushworth, who joined permanently from Brighton earlier this summer after an impressive season in the Championship.

Krishnamoorthy emails: “A digress from Premier League thought but it involves a former player. Rodri said ‘I am fulfilling my dream’ on joining Barcelona. He said virtually the same on joining Atletico and Man City. Why can’t these players come up with something that adds a bit more spice. As a matter of fact, most joining and leaving have a standard text that is rattled off with zero thoughts.”

Wait until you hear about Robbie Keane’s unveilings …

We have previewed all 20 Premier League teams, with Sunderland the latest to fly off the shelf.

Marco Rose is positive ahead of his Bournemouth debut at Manchester City on Sunday. The German head coach was unveiled in May after Andoni Iraola made the decision to leave the south coast club.

Bournemouth are one of nine Premier League teams to make a managerial change this summer and Rose knows what to expect up against new Man City boss Enzo Maresca.

Rose told a press conference: “The things I saw so far with Chelsea and now Manchester City, it’s a clear idea, a clear philosophy. You know what you get, you know what they want to play, you see the processes and the approach they have. It’s quite intense against the ball, high pressing and, with the ball, you know what quality you face and you see a clear idea in established play.

“It’s a tough challenge but we are quite positive. We had a really good pre-season. I settled in very well and everyone supported me and the new coaching staff.”

The Cherries lost forward Junior Kroupi to a foot injury during pre-season, but scored 22 goals across five friendly fixtures this summer. “Everyone put a lot of effort into the preparation and all the things around so we feel well prepared for the upcoming season and for the game against Manchester City,” Rose added ahead of his Premier League bow. PA Media

Marco Rose is primed for a Premier League debut. Photograph: Robin Jones/AFC Bournemouth/Getty Images

Fair play to Troy Parrott for moving to the Netherlands and proving himself. In terms of picking places to live as a footballer, Seville has to be up there. What a lifestyle he is about to buy into.

Real Betis strengthened its attack for a first Champions League campaign in 21 years by signing Ireland forward Troy Parrott, whose five goals in two World Cup qualifying games lifted his country into an unlikely playoffs spot.

Parrott signed a five-year deal after joining from Dutch club AZ Alkmaar, Betis said in a statement late Thursday.

The transfer fee for the 24-year-old former Tottenham player was reportedly 16 million euros ($18.8 million). Parrott scored 31 goals for AZ last season and made headlines with stunning back-to-back games for Ireland in November. AP

Bayern Munich coach Vincent Kompany said a change in Jamal Musiala’s treatment for a neurological dysfunction was ⁠the reason the midfielder collapsed in two consecutive matches and that there is no cause for alarm.

The 23-year-old Germany international ⁠went down six ⁠minutes after ​coming off the bench in Bayern’s 4-2 friendly win at Heidenheim on Tuesday and required medical attention before being assisted ⁠from the pitch. He also collapsed during Bayern’s 3-1 friendly victory over RB Leipzig on Saturday.

Musiala said this week that he had been diagnosed ⁠with the disorder and that the episodes were “currently part of my everyday life”.

Speaking ahead ​of Bayern’s German Supercup match against ‌Borussia Dortmund on Saturday, ‌Kompany moved to ease concerns about the player’s health. “I spoke with Jamal, he said, ’no ‌problem, you can say it’,” he told a press conference. “With his treatment he changed some things and that had some side effects. That is normal, that during treatment you try something else.”

Bayern’s sporting director Max Eberl said the club were fully behind the player, who had wanted his condition to be make public. Musiala ‌will not be in the squad for Saturday’s match, giving him time to adjust to his condition now being public knowledge.

“We’ve known ​about it the entire last season,” Eberl said. “The players also knew about it. For us, it’s become part of everyday life. He changed something in his medication, which is why these situations became clear. We will give him all our support, have already done so, ⁠and will continue to do so. We’re doing this together.” Reuters

Ten things to look out for this weekend? Good to have it at double digits, nine would just be silly.

Nothing like a bit of exclusive news to kick off the shift. Can we keep this momentum going? We shall see!

Uefa and Concacaf discuss joint Nations League in latest challenge to Fifa

Uefa and Concacaf have begun talks about setting up a combined Nations League tournament featuring all 96 European and North and Central American and Caribbean countries, in another direct challenge to Fifa.

The Guardian has learned that having come together to push for Gianni Infantino’s removal in the light of the World Cup sell-off controversy, the two confederations are now working on creating their own biennial tournament, which could launch as early as 2028 after the next European Championship.

But you will always thank the memories, Tom. I have the greater stamina so will be here for four hours of non-stop fun/football journalism.

Short stint for me on the Friday football blog this morning, here to take over is Will Unwin.

Disasi loan to Palace leads Cobham exodus

Outgoings are the main focus for Chelsea at the moment. They’re set to loan Axel Disasi to Crystal Palace. West Ham wanted to bring the French defender back to the London Stadium but that was always a tough one for a Championship club to pull off. Elsewhere Atlético Madrid are interested in Nicolas Jackson. However, sources say Chelsea have no intention of loaning the striker out, so any deal would need to be a permanent one. Can Atléti afford the fee? Chelsea’s valuation for Jackson is £65m.

While football is truly back today, we did also have football last night and there was even a Premier League team involved.

Ryan Naderi’s second-half strike gave an unconvincing Rangers a narrow 1-0 win in the first leg of their Conference League playoff tie against Czech side Jablonec at Ibrox.

Brighton generously repaid the cost of their travelling fans match ticket for the hardy souls who made it to the far north of Norway to watch the Seagulls draw 0-0 with Tromsø in their Conference League playoff. Those watching back home had to shell out £12 for something called SolidSport and did not get refund.

Also in Conference League qualifying action, Hearts managed a 2-2 draw at home with Rapid Vienna and Hibs drew 0-0 away in Gent.

Full roundup here:

One of my favourite things for any new season is the first month when referees try to enforce a new directive, make a couple of harsh decisions on bookings or red cards and then slowly go back to the old ways after the first international break. A couple of years ago it was lengthy extra-time periods, but see also ‘preventing the restart’ or ‘high threshold’ for VAR. This season we have some new ones and Sarah Rendell has been looking at them and some other fresh items here:

Tottenham close on deals for Manchester City’s Savinho and Marmoush

Manchester City are close to agreeing the transfer of Savinho to Tottenham for £85m, with a separate deal of around £75m for the arrival of Omar Marmoush from the FA Cup-winners to the north London club also being worked on.

Full story:

Why not start the day right with some transfer tittle-tattle? There’s some tasty morsels in today’s Rumour Mill, including this little treat:

After Vinícius Júnior signed a shiny new deal at Real Madrid, Arsenal are having to look elsewhere for a new winger. Turkey’s Kenan Yildizm who plies his trade with Juventus, is of interest to Mikel Arteta and the Gunners hierarchy. One potential way of getting the deal done is to send Gabriel Martinelli in the opposite direction.

Will Unwin has the full rumour roundup:

Preamble

Football is back! Well football has been back for a couple of weeks now (we see you, Carabao Cup and EFL), but by football I mean over-financed, TV-entertainment product we call the Premier League. Rejoice!

Have you watched your season recap? Are you up-to-date on the latest character developments? Have you heard of Pierre Sage? Well don’t worry if not, there’s plenty of time today to get ready before Arsenal take on Coventry in the Friday night curtain-raiser at 8pm (BST). Yes, it’s still summer time.

My colleagues and I will be keeping you abrest of all the latest football news and previews on this Fridau buildup blog.