From non-league to Champions League - Raya's fairytale rise

David Raya has won the Premier League with Arsenal and European Championship with Spain after starting out with a loan spell at Southport.

Saturday afternoon. Kick-off approaching. Preparations complete. Crowd filing in. Excitement building.

David Raya fastens his gloves and breathes out.

But this is not the Champions League final. This is Moss Rose, home of National League side Macclesfield Town and a teenage Spanish goalkeeper is embarking on a journey that will lead him to the biggest stage in European football.

In front of fewer than 1,500 spectators, Raya was part of a Southport side beaten 3-0 by Macclesfield in September 2014.

Now aged 30, he is set to become only the third person to make the journey from non-league football to the Champions League final when Arsenal face holders Paris St-Germain on Saturday.

Raya will join Steve Finnan and Chris Smalling in achieving that feat.

Full-back Finnan, who lifted the 2005 title with Liverpool, had earlier played for Welling United in the National League, while centre-back Smalling turned out for Maidstone before going on to be an unused substitute when Manchester United lost the 2011 final to Barcelona.

Even people who have witnessed the journey from a 19-year-old making his first-team breakthrough - after joining Southport on loan from Blackburn Rovers - have struggled to envision Raya’s rise.

Paul Carden, Southport’s former assistant manager, said: “I don’t think anybody could have predicted or scripted it. You wouldn’t be 100% surprised, but you wouldn’t have put a bet on him.”

What makes Raya’s journey so unique is that until he was 16 he was playing in the youth teams of Cornella, a Third Division club based on the outskirts of Barcelona.

But he would swap the small commuter district for Blackburn because the two clubs had a partnership which involved young Spanish footballers travelling to the Lancashire club for trials.

By the time Raya left his home town, he wasn’t a starting goalkeeper for the academy and, when he arrived at Blackburn in 2012 - the season of their relegation from the Premier League - he would face similar struggles because he had Paul Robinson, Jake Kean and Simon Eastwood in front of him.

So after two years in England, Raya made another brave decision in search of first-team football, dropping down a further three leagues to join struggling fifth-tier side Southport, where he experienced the harsh realities of senior football in a temporary four-month spell.

More poor results followed the Macclesfield loss as Martin Foyle was sacked as manager and Gary Brabin took charge along with Carden, who joined from Blackburn’s academy.

“I obviously knew him a little bit as he’d see me about as an academy coach, but quickly you realised he had really good ability,” added Carden.

“You’ve got to give credit to him because he went on a bit of a pathway that not many young lads want to take - and they don’t want to go out and get dirty in non-league.

“They want the niceties of development football and playing at nice grounds on nice pitches or even training grounds. Some lads will be 21 and they won’t have played a real first-team game at any level, but they will have more than 100 appearances in development football.”

Raya used to train three days a week at Southport and then do extra work with Blackburn when his loan club had days off. When he was training with the Merseyside club at Ormskirk’s Edge Hill University, the players used to joke he was good enough to play outfield for them.

That ball-playing ability in a goalkeeper was unheard of at many levels in English football at that time, but Raya was confident enough to showcase his talent in the most stressful situations.

Carden said: “We were really struggling at the time and it was a lot of pressure to win points and win games to stay in the league and we played Kidderminster away, where we won 1-0.

“There was a ball that came back to him, late on in the game, and you’d expect a keeper just to shell it back up the pitch, because he’s getting closed down by one or two forwards, and he’s chopped one of them then just casually passed it out to the full-back.

“We were hearts in mouth in the dugout, but he’s obviously not fazed by it and just got on with it.

“A young Spanish player going into the National League could quite easily have been played on, but whenever teams did, he always came out the other side because of his ability and his confidence.

“It wasn’t arrogance. It was just huge confidence and he had a mindset where he was always determined and very humble.”

During his Southport spell, Carden was aware opposition clubs would try to exploit his 6ft height with high balls and extra physicality, but the Spaniard had traits that “defied” his height.

Raya’s biggest test came in his final game for the club when the Sandgrounders visited Championship side Derby County in the FA Cup third round.

He made multiple fine saves to keep the Rams at bay, and was beaten only by a stoppage-time penalty. At the final whistle, Raya left the pitch in tears after a performance that highlighted his potential.

Carden recalled: “He was bitterly disappointed, but we all were, so that kind of tells you how much he felt at the time for the lads and the club. He was certainly part of the culture in non-league and the dressing room.

“He made some saves in that game where we thought he’s definitely at the level. You could have put him in goal for Derby and he wouldn’t have been out of place.”

Raya returned to Blackburn and made appearances in the Championship, but had to wait until the club’s relegation to League One to become first choice in 2017.

He proved instrumental for Rovers, instantly helping them to return to the second tier.

Jayson Leutwiler was back-up goalkeeper to Raya at Blackburn and saw the match-winning saves that have become so regular during the Spaniard’s time at Arsenal.

“He was able to make saves that would make you think, ‘wow this is a shot that one out of 10 times he would have saved it’,” said the former Canada international.

“But when it happens four, five or six times over the season, that’s just not a coincidence.”

Leutwiler played across England’s lower football leagues and believes playing at that level has great advantages to developing goalkeepers.

“You get exposed to smaller crowds, you get exposed to different pressures, they are difficult leagues, it’s more physical, you have to adapt a bit more,” added the 37-year-old.

“You could go to a great football pitch on a Saturday and the weekend after the conditions aren’t as great, maybe a smaller crowd and it only helps you to be more resilient when it gets to a bigger game at any level.”

Raya was then signed by Brentford for £3m in 2019, before Arsenal completed a £27m deal five years later, after a loan spell.

From that disappointing debut at Macclesfield, he has gone on to shine for club and country - being part of Spain’s victorious 2024 Euros squad and helping Arsenal win the Premier League for the first time in 22 years.

Now the Gunners, and Raya, will cap a dream double if they overcome PSG in Budapest, and leave his old colleagues proud of his achievements.

Carden said: “He had that confidence and that determination, but it didn’t stop him from being a good team-mate.

“Everybody who crossed paths with him at his time at Southport is delighted. It is a real credit to him.

“I don’t think anyone could have written that tale, which is why it’s such a good one.”

Konate set to leave Liverpool on a free transfer

Konate has won a Premier League, an FA Cup, and two League Cups during his time at Anfield

Ibrahima Konate is set to leave Liverpool for free when his current contract expires in June.

The French defender and Liverpool are likely to part ways due to a gap between Liverpool and Konate’s position, in terms of value and wages.

Konate, 27, signed for Liverpool from RB Leipzig in 2021 for £35m on a five-year deal.

Both parties were initially keen to agree a contract renewal, with Konate telling reporters in April after the Merseyside derby that he was “close to an agreement” and there was a “big chance” that he would remain at Anfield next season. Negotiations began in November 2023, though an agreement has proved elusive.

BBC Sport understands that negotiations have stopped and Konate will become the latest player to leave the club on a free this summer after Andy Robertson and Mohamed Salah.

Last year, defender Trent Alexander-Arnold joined Real Madrid a month before his contract expired after the Spanish club paid a fee to release him early to play in the Club World Cup.

Captain Virgil van Dijk’s current deal expires next summer, while the club failed to sign Marc Guehi on deadline day last September, with the England player joining Manchester City in January.

Liverpool are confident they have sufficient depth at centre-half after recruiting Giovanni Leoni last summer and the arrival of £60m Jeremy Jacquet, 20, this summer.

But it does leave Van Dijk, 34, as their only experienced central defender.

Frenchman Jacquet, who turns 21 in July, played 21 games for Rennes last season but missed the last four months with a shoulder injury.

Leoni, 19, was ruled out for a year after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament in September, a month after joining the Reds from Parma for a fee of £26m plus add-ons.

The belief within Liverpool is that other areas - like replacing Mohamed Salah and filling the gap after Hugo Ekitike’s injury - are priorities, rather than agreeing to an expensive renewal for Konate.

Covid era gave Arteta space to revive Arsenal, says Kroenke

Arsenal co-chair Josh Kroenke says behind-closed-doors football during the Covid-19 pandemic allowed manager Mikel Arteta “space” to help revive the “sleeping giant”.

The Kroenke Sports and Entertainment (KSE) group took full control of Arsenal in 2018 but it has not always been easy, with fan protests at how the club was being run taking place during their tenure.

The Kroenkes hired Arteta in 2019, giving the former Arsenal player his first senior managerial role after a period of uncertainty at the club.

It took time for that vision to take hold with two eighth-placed finishes, despite a 2020 FA Cup win, leading to some questioning whether Arteta was the right man for the job.

But now the Spaniard has transformed the club after six-and-a-half years in charge and has led the Gunners to their first Premier League title in 22 years.

Giving a manager their first senior job in football is always a risk, but Kroenke says Arteta’s character made it clear that he was the right candidate to succeed Unai Emery in December 2019.

“Anybody that gets a chance to be around Mikel, you can buy into what he’s selling pretty easily,” Kroenke said.

“So I don’t want to give myself or my father [Stan Kroenke, founder and chairman of KSE and co-chair of Arsenal] any credit. I think Mikel and his staff and our players are the ones that earned those rights to have the patience in those moments by the amount of work and energy they were putting in behind the scenes.”

Arteta won the 2020 FA Cup but finished eighth in a league affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, which meant games were played behind closed doors.

“I don’t know if I would ever acknowledge it, or Mikel or anybody - there was something about Mikel having a little bit of what I would say ‘space’ during Covid when there weren’t fans around,” Kroenke said.

“There were some growing pains that went on during matches, different moments, and obviously we won the FA Cup, but to not have that extra pressure of fans being on top of you at different points in time when we were going through different growth phases was probably something I don’t think any of us would acknowledge in the moment. But, looking back I think we can say ‘maybe that was a little bit of a benefit’.”

It has not always been an easy transition for the Kroenkes, who took full ownership of the club in 2018 after being shareholders since 2007. There was a “We Care, Do You?” movement from supporters who called into question the owners’ commitment to the club.

“There was a lot of heavy lifting going on behind the scenes at the club at that point in time,” Kroenke said. “We went through a big transition from Arsene [Wenger], obviously a legendary person and manager. Transitioning to a new era after 22 years was going to be difficult.”

“One: it was taking the club private that summer. Two: You had a legendary manager moving along, us trying to reinvent ourselves. Third: An underestimated thing for me on the back end was [chief executive] Ivan Gazidis’ departure. For a club of our stature, change is going to be healthy but that was way too much change in way too short of a period of time.”

In the early period of running the club, Arsenal found themselves - in Kroenke’s own words - “straddling strategies” as they chased Champions League qualification and trophies.

Kroenke flew to Baku and saw Arsenal lose 4-0 to Chelsea in the 2019 Europa League final which was the moment when he says he and his father had to “accept” where the club was after watching the “worst 45 minutes of the season”.

“Seeing that happen was the first time where I came back from that trip and I told my dad that I think we need to really embrace where we are,” Kroenke said. “Now that we have 100% of the club, we might need to take a step back to go forward at some point.”

But, in that low moment, one of the bright lights of Arsenal’s next generation emerged in a conversation with soon to be departing academy manager, and former player, Per Mertesacker.

“After the final in Baku, I made a comment about Virgil van Dijk, who had arrived at Liverpool a year or two before,” Kroenke said. “I said ‘how do we get one of these guys into our system’. [Mertesacker replied] ‘Well unless you’ve got 100 million quid, you better not be thinking about him’. I said ‘who’s the best young defender in Europe?’. He turned without hesitation and said ‘William Saliba’.”

Saliba joined Arsenal aged 18 in July 2019 for £27m from Saint-Etienne, going on to become a key member of their title-winning side.

Kroenke spends a lot of time flying to and from the United States, which can mean some early rises to watch the Gunners play. “If there’s any way they could do away with the 12.30, 12.45 kick-off… the 4am wake-up is not fun in the United States,” Kroenke joked.

Another big moment Kroenke experienced in the US was the season-defining video assistant referee (VAR) decision that saw West Ham’s late goal ruled out, three games from the end of the season, as Arsenal moved closer to the title.

“I was on my hands and knees in my living room. It was a moment where I think every Arsenal supporter worldwide held their breath,” said Kroenke.

After Arsenal’s first league title for more than two decades was confirmed, tens of thousands of supporters rushed to Emirates Stadium to celebrate.

“I knew we were a sleeping giant that we needed to awaken in some way,” Kroenke said. “We haven’t had a team, a squad like this in the social media age. Social media evolved and the Twittersphere and everything else around it. The instantaneous information, the ‘Banter Era’ - I’m aware of all this. I turned 46 last week. I’ve grown up around this and I’ve seen it all from my own perspective. I think that’s what I’m so proud to see. There was almost a time when you were a closeted Arsenal fan.”

But this success does not mean the end of the journey for Kroenke and his vision for the club, with the Gunners playing Paris-St Germain in the Champions League final on Saturday.

“I think I can think back and say that our stated goal was winning the Premier League, because if you can put yourself in contention for the Premier League, you’re in contention for everything else,” Kroenke said.

“Should we get a great result on Saturday, it’s not going to change or affect who we are. When you win something, the sun’s still going to come up the next day. You’ve got to get back to work and there are many teams trying to gain on you, including some historically great ones around the Premier League. So, we’re going to look to strengthen because we know that teams around us are going to get better. If you’re not trying to continually evolve and improve, you’re standing still.”

Palace wait on Iraola with Lampard among plan Bs

For Crystal Palace, all eyes are now on Andoni Iraola. Will he, or won’t he?

The glory of Wednesday night’s euphoric Conference League win in Leipzig won’t fade for some time for supporters.

But for those at the heart of the club, the planning for next season will accelerate with almost immediate effect.

The first task at hand is to appoint a new head coach.

As BBC Sport revealed earlier this month, Iraola is the man Palace want to replace the outgoing Oliver Glasner, who insisted after the triumph in Germany he has no plans to reverse his decision.

They have made the Spaniard a proposal and are awaiting his answer, within that are assurances he will be permitted significant influence over the recruitment operation.

It is understood Palace want an answer by the end of the weekend.

The move is ambitious. Iraola has emerged as one of the brightest managers in European football - Bournemouth’s qualification for next season’s Europa League illustrative of his impressive body of work.

“We have got a taste for it now, we want to keep it going,” said owner Steve Parish following the win over Rayo Vallecano.

“We have gone up a level and we have got to try and stay there. We will have a week to celebrate and then work hard in the summer.”

Palace believe they have done all they can to convince Iraola they can provide the platform for him to continue building his reputation.

All that is left is Iraola’s approval.

If the 43-year-old declines then Palace will move on to plan B.

Among the alternatives is understood to be Frank Lampard, who has key admirers in the Palace boardroom.

Releasing Lampard from his contract with Coventry provides an obvious stumbling block should Palace pivot to the former Chelsea midfielder.

But there is some optimism at Palace that Lampard, who is aware of the Eagles’ interest in him, would be open to joining before next season.

Kieran McKenna, Pierre Sage, Sean Dyche and Thomas Frank have also been discussed as options.

Luring Iraola to Selhurst Park would represent a coup, but the fact he has taken so long to decide has led to a degree of scepticism inside Palace over whether the now-departed Bournemouth head coach is prepared to accept.

Much will become clearer in the coming days.

As ever, player retention will emerge as a key narrative in Palace’s summer.

Michael Olise, Eberechi Eze and Marc Guehi have all left the club in the past two years, but Palace are determined to avoid any further significant exits.

That will be easier said than done.

While Wednesday night’s victory over Rayo may help keep players satisfied with Europa League football now secured for next season, their triumph will inevitably attract more admiring glances at their players.

Adam Wharton’s man-of-the-match performance in the final will only serve to heighten the feeling the midfielder is destined to join an elite club.

Liverpool and Manchester United are known to be among his admirers. But Palace are in a strong position to keep the wolves from their door for at least one more season given Wharton’s contract still has three years left to run.

Palace are open to offering Wharton an improved deal, though it is unclear whether the midfielder is keen to engage given the interest from elsewhere.

Elsewhere, goalkeeper Dean Henderson, who has two years on his current contract, is attracting interest from several Premier League sides and can expect an approach over a potential new deal in the coming weeks.

Central defender Jaydee Canvot, who has impressed since Marc Guehi’s exit in January, is understood to be on Paris St-Germain’s radar.

Jean-Philippe Mateta’s future will also need resolving after his protracted move to AC Milan in January broke down because of a failed medical.

Mateta made clear at the time that he saw his long-term future away from Selhurst Park and the club signed Jorgen Strand Larsen from Wolves in a deal worth £48m to countenance his anticipated exit.

There have been reports that Maxence Lacroix is stalling on a new contract, though it is understood Ismaila Sarr is keen to discuss a possible renewal.

There’s plenty to unpack at Selhurst Park this summer.

Spurs closing in on Bournemouth's Senesi

Marcos Senesi got five assists in 37 league appearances for Bournemouth this season

Tottenham are close to signing Bournemouth defender Marcos Senesi on a free transfer.

Personal terms are yet to be finalised but the deal for the 29-year-old is advancing towards completion, as is Spurs’ move for Scotland full-back Andy Robertson, who is out of contract after leaving Liverpool.

Bournemouth abandoned efforts to retain Senesi after he turned down a third new contract offer in December and began talks with major overseas clubs.

However, the three-cap Argentina international now looks set to remain in the Premier League, barring any last-minute change of heart.

Senesi played all but one of Bournemouth’s league games this season as they finished sixth and qualified for Europe for the first time in their history.

In four years on the south coast, Senesi made 128 appearances for Bournemouth having joined from Dutch side Feyenoord in 2022.

Spurs, meanwhile, finished 17th in the Premier League and improved after appointing Roberto de Zerbi as head coach in March, narrowly avoiding relegation to the Championship.

Speaking to BBC Sport this week, Spurs chief executive Vinai Venkatesham said: “The squad needs work and the squad hasn’t got the right balance.

“We need experience and leadership and also that kind of physical robustness to play in the most demanding league that exists.

“We need to strengthen the club over multiple transfer windows but this transfer window, in particular, is going to be critical.”