Arsenal Counts Its Staff After a First Title in 22 Years, Messi Buys a Whole Club in a Town of 55,000, and Vardar Drops Points at the Bottom Side

Arsenal won the title after 22 years, and the staff fear for their jobs

The club waited 22 years for a Premier League title, reached two finals as well - in the Champions League and the League Cup - and lost both. And then the consultancy Boston Consulting Group moved in, spending three months analysing how the club works. Management insists it is about building on the success. Employees, particularly in the commercial department, read it differently: as preparation for redundancies. Chief executive Richard Garlick is the one the consultants report to. In one part of the building a trophy is lifted, in another the headcount is counted - and nobody inside can explain why, after the best season in two decades, it is the commercial department that feels most exposed.

Messi is buying an entire Spanish club, and the town has 55,000 people

Lionel Messi has reached an agreement in principle to buy full ownership of second-division side CD Eldense, the Spanish outlet AS reports. The deal still awaits checks and approval from Spain's National Sports Council. If it goes through, this will be his first professional club - he already owns fourth-tier Cornellà. The numbers tell the story: the club has around 3,500 season tickets in a town of just over 55,000 people, and the Nuevo Pepico Amat stadium holds about 5,800. Messi is going in alone, with no business partner. The question nobody in Elda is asking out loud is what happens to a small club when its name suddenly becomes bigger than its stadium.

A Manchester derby, and United have no left-back

Luke Shaw is a doubt for Sunday's meeting with Manchester City. The 31-year-old Englishman came off injured in the 2:2 draw with Everton and missed the 4:0 win over Sabah in the Champions League. Manager Michael Carrick promises nothing: "We'll see. We've been managing him a bit. He wasn't a hundred percent ready for that game, so we didn't take the risk." The problem is that the alternatives are thin - Patrick Dorgu was lively going forward against Sabah but struggled defensively, Dalot and Mazraoui are not left-footed specialists, and Harris Amass is too young for a game like this. United have four points from three rounds. If anything has been constant at Old Trafford in recent years, it is that the left-side problem always gets solved next summer.

Vardar let it slip again: a 2:0 lead for Bashkimi and a final 3:3 in Kumanovo

In the seventh round of the Macedonian First League the reigning champions travelled to the bottom side and came away without a win. In front of a full stand in Kumanovo, Bashkimi went ahead through Fati Ismaili's header in the 21st minute and Da Silva Sanka in the 33rd, with David Babunski pulling one back before half time. In the second half Vardar really did look like champions - Goran Zakarik scored twice, in the 70th and 72nd minutes, turning 2:2 into 3:2. And then, four minutes from the end, Hebib Saiti levelled for 3:3. The champions with the biggest budget in the league take a point at the bottom club. In a single season that sentence is an incident; repeated a few times, it is a diagnosis.

Mitrovski and Trenchovski lifted Olimpija to 3:1 in the Slovenian derby

The Macedonian line in Ljubljana is working. Olimpija, managed by the Macedonian coach Jugoslav Trenchovski, won 3:1 away at Koper. In the 52nd minute Dimitar Mitrovski assisted the first goal, and just two minutes later scored himself for 0:2. Koper pulled one back, but there was no turnaround. With three more points Olimpija have 14 points and sit third, just two behind leaders Maribor - and that after a dismal start to the season. Mitrovski got on the scoresheet for a second match running. When a Macedonian coach and a Macedonian international together win a derby abroad, it usually passes unnoticed here - until those same names are needed on the squad list for the Nations League.