52+ min ago (625+ words) Deco would have liked to spend more time in London, as a player. He had two years at Chelsea, between 2008 and 2010, winning three trophies and making some fond memories " his daughter was born in the city. But on the field he was here and gone, his talents glimpsed without leaving too much of a footprint. Deco returned to London last week with Barcelona, where he is now sporting director. And while his feet hardly had time to touch the ground once more, amid calls and meetings that clog up a Champions League away trip, he spared a little time to meet The Times, to talk not just about his brief spell at Chelsea but also his role overseeing the transfer strategy of Barcelona, a global giant where spending money, in recent seasons, has resembled a tightrope act. But first to…...

8+ hour, 52+ min ago (845+ words) The Times has learnt that City are among a number of clubs monitoring Semenyo's situation and could buy the exciting Bournemouth winger when the transfer window reopens on New Year's Day. Liverpool have also been linked with the 25-year-old " their sporting director, Richard Hughes signed him for Bournemouth when he worked at the south-coast club " although they had not planned to enter the winter transfer window after spending more than "400million on new signings in the summer. City have not yet fully committed to making a move for Semenyo, but there is a feeling in some quarters that his arrival in January could give them the edge they need to reduce the gap between themselves and the Premier League leaders Arsenal in the second half of the campaign. Semenyo, who joined Bournemouth from Bristol City for "10million in January 2023, has underlined his…...

20+ hour, 51+ min ago (1068+ words) Is it over? I mean, of course, the annual Reevesnalia. The festive time of year when everything skids to a catastrophic stop and we watch a bizarre, overdressed child skipping about congratulating herself, while screaming that it's actually her who's the victim. I don't want to be too harsh on Rachel Reeves " it is true she works very hard. As she keeps telling us, chancellor of the exchequer is a really big job. But I challenge anyone to sit through any of the incredible, atonal interviews she gave before, during and after her second reckless, self-serving Commie budget and not wonder, who is this person? Just who is she? The thin skin, the angry public crying, the petulance, the industrial, ideological lies. Yeah, yeah, don't lawyer me. In one of the interviews she complained about people "mansplaining" her job back…...

20+ hour, 51+ min ago (522+ words) It's perfectly straightforward. Starmer and Reeves and Corbyn and that snaggletoothed vegan from the Green Party believe that if you work hard, all the money you earn is theirs, and that it should be given to someone who won't work at all. Depressingly, a lot of people seem to agree with them. Social media is full of young people with pink hair chanting "tax the rich" and there's a general sense that if the government were to confiscate all of Elton John's money, they'd be able to buy everyone on benefits a Porsche. At first, I found it all very hippyish and annoying but as the days rolled by, I started to wonder what exactly was wrong with this way of life. As the sun began to go down in the afternoon, they'd emerge from the jungle with their boards…...

20+ hour, 51+ min ago (716+ words) David Dimbleby believes it is a "terrible misfortune" to be born into the royal family. The BBC elder statesman, who spent decades guiding the nation through monarchical pomp " weddings, state openings, jubilees and funerals " says he never envied life inside the palaces he described. He doesn't know what the King "thinks his job is", believes the Prince of Wales must haul the institution into the modern age and says Prince George " "poor boy" " faces an even tougher battle for relevance. He thinks the Duke of Sussex was wise to head for the Montecito hills. "Making a clean break instead of being the second son in that position makes absolute sense," he says. "Anyone in their right mind would leave if they could." Speaking over Zoom before the release of his three-part BBC1 series What's the Monarchy For?, Dimbleby, 87, is as effervescent…...

22+ hour, 52+ min ago (725+ words) The vice-chancellor of Cambridge has said her university is trying to build bridges with Reform UK amid fears of a Trump-style backlash against elite institutions if Nigel Farage's party forms the next government. Professor Deborah Prentice revealed that counterparts at Russell Group universities had been "meeting with key people from Reform" and that "we've had people" doing the same, according to leaked comments made last week. Prentice, a psychologist who serves as the principal administrative and academic officer of the university, said it was "very clear" that Farage intended to model his approach to education on President Trump's administration, which has withheld billions of dollars in federal funds from universities after political disagreements over antisemitism, immigration and free speech. In Reform's manifesto-style "contract" at the last election, Farage similarly vowed to "cut funding to universities that undermine free speech". Prentice…...

22+ hour, 52+ min ago (856+ words) When Burberry asked Jennifer Saunders to be the star of its Christmas campaign, she thought the brand had made a mistake " "I was so surprised, I thought they must have had a brain haemorrhage." She told her agent: "Please go back to them and check that they've got the right person." The result is a confection of festive joy in which Saunders arrives home in a London cab to host a star-studded family Christmas party. Her grand house fizzes with canap's and fairy lights, gifts and dogs, as one celebrity guest after another " Naomi Campbell, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Son Heung-min, Ncuti Gatwa " arrives to sing carols and dance. "I don't give a shit what I wear in the country. I have the builders coming at 8 o'clock every morning and when they open the door and go, "Oh, it's Jennifer Saunders', what…...

23+ hour, 41+ min ago (817+ words) The prime minister will intervene in the cost of living crisis this week in an attempt to shore up his chancellor who is engulfed in a damaging row about what she told voters about the state of the economy. No 10 and the Treasury fear that the "retail offer" in last week's budget " cuts to energy bills and the freezing of rail fares and prescriptions " has failed to cut through to the public. The consumer policies have been drowned out by rows over cash for benefit claimants and whether the chancellor misrepresented the spending watchdog. Rachel Reeves had claimed that a downgrade to the UK's predicted economic productivity would make it hard for her to meet her fiscal rules. However, on Friday, the chairman of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) revealed that a forecast of higher wages " which she had…...

1+ day, 1+ hour ago (802+ words) Pep Guardiola is the coach who started out questing after control. He wanted to have a grip on everything: positioning, the opposition, the minds of his players. "You control. All of you. Control your own thoughts!" he barked in a team talk, captured on camera. Zlatan Ibrahimovic complained about being used so painstakingly that "[Guardiola] had bought a Ferrari but was driving it like a Fiat". Well, hello to chaos and hola to white-knuckle rides in patched-up stock cars. In Guardiola's second iteration of Manchester City, control is elusive. He's still winning games but with randomness, risk and " here " a great deal of error involved. City were in complete charge of this match for 45 minutes, then suddenly had no idea what to do after Daniel Farke brought Leeds back with a half-time rejig, leaving Guardiola to throw substitutes on, players…...

1+ day, 2+ hour ago (652+ words) Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is still a vice-admiral in the Royal Navy, despite the government's pledge to strip him of the honour four weeks ago at the King's request. Senior military figures have described the delay in removing the disgraced former Duke of York's last remaining title as "extraordinary" and called on the government to "get on with it". It is up to the government, not the King, to remove Andrew's vice-admiral title. Andrew, 65, who served in the Royal Navy for 22 years until 2001 and fought in the Falklands as a helicopter pilot, was awarded the honorary rank of vice-admiral by the Navy for his 55th birthday in February 2015, a move approved by his mother. He was due to have been promoted to admiral on his 60th birthday in 2020, but the promotion was deferred after he withdrew from public duties in 2019 following the disastrous Newsnight…...