Casemiro has joined Manchester United team-mate Lisandro Martinez in leaving Nike after ending his career-long partnership with the American corporation.
The midfielder had been wearing Nike boots since starting his career with Sao Paolo through to his time at Real Madrid and during the first 18 months at United. Casemiro moved to the Red Devils for £60million in August 2022 and he helped them win the Carabao Cup in his maiden campaign.


According to the Daily Mail, Casemiro is now an ambassador for adidas and was spotted wearing Predator boots in United's 2-1 victory over Aston Villa on Sunday. The Brazil international is the latest high-profile footballer to leave Nike after Martinez, Harry Kane, Manuel Akanji and Jack Grealish all departed.
The exodus comes after Nike pledged to cut their budget by £1.58billion over the next years, which has led them to cut ties with some of the best players on the planet. Meanwhile, Kai Havertz, Alexandre Lacazette and Dani Carvajal were amongst those who swapped Nike for Puma in 2023.
As for Casemiro, United have been much improved since he returned to the starting XI for the trip to Wolves earlier this month. Erik ten Hag's side have won each of the three matches, with Casemiro partnering Kobbie Mainoo in a double pivot and that combination has helped the Red Devils to a couple of impressive victories.

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Speaking ahead of United's trip to Villa, Ten Hag praised Casemiro for the impact he is having on 18-year-old sensation Mainoo. "You can see the impact of a player like Casemiro. He gives you calmness and composure on the ball and sees the critical pass," the Dutchman said.
"Kobbie is very coachable and they have a bond. Casemiro has the experience that can accelerate his development. Casemiro takes that responsibility. He talks to Kobbie. I see it in the dressing room, in training and on the pitch in games. Of course he looking at his own game but he’s trying to help and support Kobbie."
Casemiro in action against Aston Villa on Sunday
© Getty Images
United sit sixth in the Premier League but closed on the gap on the top-four to six points as goals from Rasmus Hojlund and substitute Scott McTominay earned victory at Villa. Ten Hag was delighted with his side's performance and believes sealing the win was "massive".
"It was massive," Ten Hag said. "It's a massive win for us. So, we get closer. And that was the aim for today and was absolutely our target. And we did it. And I think also the way we did it, I think I liked it, and of course, I liked especially the first 20 minutes.


"When we are dictating the game, after I think we are dropping a little bit too much. We had our moments in the counter attacks, but yeah, I think then at 1-1, to fight back, we are really happy for today."
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Tottenham react to Liverpool interest in Postecoglou with manager set to be ‘rewarded’

Tottenham are confident that they will hang onto Ange Postecoglou with rumours of interest from Premier League rivals Liverpool, according to reports.
Jurgen Klopp announced that he will be leaving Anfield at the end of the season last month after spending nine years at the club.


And there have already been rumours about who will replace the German when he leaves, as well as speculation about where Klopp will go after Liverpool.
Former Reds midfielder Xabi Alonso remains the favourite to take over from Klopp after working wonders this season at Bayer Leverkusen, who are now five points clear of Bayern Munich at the top of the Bundesliga.
However, there have been some murmurs that Liverpool could explore a move for Postecoglou after the Australian made a brilliant start to life in the Premier League.
Postecoglou has got Tottenham playing some of the best attacking football in the Premier League, while recent results have seen them move back into the top four.
READ MORE: Premier League winners and losers: Blades and Liverpool’s bench presser shine, but Moyes very much Out
But the Daily Telegraph insist that Tottenham are ‘sure’ that Postecoglou will not leave for Liverpool in the summer as they ‘hold no fears’ over his future.
The newspaper adds:

‘Klopp’s departure, along with Xavi Hernandez leaving Barcelona, is expected to put in progress a summer merry-go-round among some of Europe’s top coaches and clubs.
‘But Tottenham are extremely confident that Postecoglou will not join Liverpool or any other rival club this summer, as he looks to build on the encouraging start he has made in London.’

Postecoglou’s ‘heavily incentivised’ contract at Spurs should see him ‘rewarded for qualification for the Champions League’ if Tottenham can keep up their positive form.
The report continues:

‘Postecoglou has previously revealed that he used to support Liverpool, but that has not raised any concern at Tottenham, who believe the former Celtic manager is completely committed to his current job.
‘In fact, Postecoglou has already hinted that he could be ready to put down roots in London and stay at Tottenham for some time should the club remain happy with his work.’

Postecoglou has not had a fully fit squad to pick from since November due to injuries, suspension and international commitments and Brennan Johnson is excited about Tottenham’s potential with all their players available for selection.
Johnson said: “You don’t play that well or with that togetherness if everyone isn’t on board. Everyone is firmly on board with how the manager plays.

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“At half-time he was so frustrated because we came away from the way we want to play and when we score goals like that, it is stuff we work on day-in, day-out so it’s a nice feeling because it is the rewards paying off.
“It is just excitement (in the squad). Everyone is back and we’ve missed some really key players. As the manager said, now in training we’ll be doing the starters against the sub team and most times you won’t be able to tell who is starting because the quality is so high.
“We have that competition in training, there is never any bad blood, everyone gets on so well in training and we just want to push ourselves.
“It shows like (here) and against Brentford, when people aren’t at it for one reason or another, it’s not down to them, but it shows the squad and the players coming on can make such a good impact.”

Man City, Real Madrid kick off worst last 16 ties ever with inevitable wins

Manchester City and Real Madrid both won as we ask ourselves whether there has ever been a set of last-16 ties so distinctly lacking in jeopardy.
We’ve tried our best to get ourselves up for the Champions League last-16. There are some intriguing ties: largely homegrown Real Sociedad vs state-funded Paris Saint-Germain; high-octane PSV Eindhoven vs Champions League trendsetters in that regard, Borussia Dortmund; wing-backs and dark arts in Inter Milan vs Atletico Madrid; a fallen giant derby between Napoli and Barcelona.

But in kicking off what should (and used to) be a month of drama, tension, and – most importantly – uncertainty with FC Copenhagen vs Manchester City and RB Leipzig vs Real Madrid we can’t help but feel nostalgic about a competition that now feels preordained to the point where neutrals are losing interest, with jeapardy at an all-time low.
The greater the financial gap, the harder it is to postpone reality and preserve doubt, and this set of last-16 ties feel more predictable than ever. Barring a giant-killing of near FA Cup proportions, Manchester City will beat Copenhagen, Arsenal will beat Porto, PSG will beat Real Sociedad, Bayern Munich will beat Lazio and Real Madrid will beat RB Leipzig. That’s five of eight ties that jeapardy-hunters need not bother with.
“This competition is a coin (toss). It was written in the stars. It belongs to us,” Pep Guardiola said at the end of last season, having won the trophy for City at the seventh time of asking. And while we can accept the significance of luck in the final, across two legs the odds are heavily stacked in the favour of teams like his, to the extent where we would ask to inspect the tossed coin for two heads.

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You won’t find anyone in their right mind tipping a team to win this season’s competition other Manchester City, Bayern Munich or Real Madrid, and we would suggest those fancying the latter duo are putting too much weight on the importance of history and past glories.
City being such huge favourites grants great David and Goliath opportunities, as we very briefly enjoyed on Tuesday, when Ederson fluffed a clearance and Magnus Mattson curled his shot beyond the goalkeeper.
But the ten minutes of hope was bookended by 80+ of sheer dominance from Pep Guardiola’s side, with Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden scoring the goals as they managed 27 shots to Copenhagen’s four, completed four times as many passes and had 79 per cent of the ball. 3-1 up ahead of the return leg at the Etihad. It’s done.
There is joy to be had in watching City. They’ve got outstanding footballers, who combine to play some beautiful football, which we saw in fits and starts against Copenhagen, and we’ll see more of as they continue through the rounds and they’re pushed by increasingly improved opposition.


But they’ll need to have at least one off day, two against most teams left in the Champions League, not to get to the final, and while predicting how far others will go isn’t quite so simple, we would back ourselves to get the vast majority right. It feels like that uncertainty ebbs away year on year and if we no longer have the ‘not knowing’ we’re losing the best part of football.
Brahim Diaz
© Provided by Football365
Braham Diaz celebrates goal for Real Madrid against RB Leipzig.
While City were cruising to victory in Copenhagen, Real Madrid won 1-0 away in Leipzig without Jude Bellingham or their three best centre-backs. Both ties are effectively over, and with Lazio vs Bayern Munich and PSG vs Real Sociedad to come on Wednesday, we could easily have four European giants looking ahead to the quarter-finals that may as well have been printed on their calendars at the start of the season, or at least when the last-16 draw was made.

We’ll root for the underdogs, but without hope the spectacle suffers. Man City’s brilliance can only allow us to overlook the inevitability of them winning for so long. We need jeapardy in football, and in the Champions League – supposedly the greatest club competition in the world – there’s as little now as there’s ever been.

Giddy, overcelebrating Arsenal leap back to top spot in the latest F365 mood rankings

Arsenal are top, and Manchester United have clambered out of the basement. Yes, it can only be the latest all-important mood rankings.
It’s only been a single month since we last recorded the mood across the Premier League, but an awful lot has changed. Oh dear, West Ham. Oh dear.
 
20) Everton (19)
Turns out they’re only any good when fuelled by the righteous and powerful energy of a Premier League points deduction. The paradox being that once the penalty has been worked off and the anger subsides, so too does the level of performance. After those four straight rip-roaring wins to wipe out the 10-point penalty and more, and at which point we all declared them safe from relegation, they’ve managed only three further points from seven matches.
To be entirely clear here: in the last seven matches they have taken a net one more point than they managed in a four-game run where they started on -10. You can’t just pick up points when you’re doing it to spite the league, lads. It is quite literally unsustainable.
 
19) West Ham (5)
A dramatic and precipitous fall for a team that now once again needs Europe to ride to the rescue for their season. At the time of the last update – which really was only a month ago – they were in the top six and had both Villa and Spurs in their sights. In four games since then they’ve picked up only draws against Sheffield United and Bournemouth and been slapped silly by Manchester United and especially Arsenal.

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David Moyes’ future is once again in doubt and the Hammers also made a bit of a mess of the last knockings of the transfer window. Kalvin Phillips on loan looked like a no-brainer, but while some degree of rust was inevitable it’s alarming just how far off the pace he has looked.
The overall picture remains fine – eighth and level on points with Newcastle would have been perfectly satisfactory at the start of the season – but the direction of travel has to be a worry. The Hammers have a kind enough upcoming run of games but right now look far more likely to meander back into mid-table behind your Brightons and your Chelseas than to reel in any of the seven sides above them.
READ MORE: Liverpool and Man United favourites head contenders to replace David Moyes at West Ham
 
18) Crystal Palace (15)
Currently locked in a dispiriting spiral where results are in general awful but a win turns up just often enough to stop them sacking Roy Hodgson and finally moving on with their lives. Beat Sheffield United in their final game of January. Have then been thrashed by Brighton and tossed the points away against Chelsea. But they’ve got Burnley at home in a couple of weeks, which they’ll no doubt win to keep the whole thing in grim stasis. We’re also earmarking further home wins against Luton on March 9 and West Ham on April 20 to get them through to the end of a wasted season in 16th with absolute nothing learned or gained from the entire enterprise.


Fans are also hacked off more generally with the club’s direction; it’s all just a bit miserable really as Glad All Over sinks ever further into painful irony.
 
17) Nottingham Forest (18)
“Results have picked up nicely” we said a month ago on the impact of new manager Nuno Espirito Santo. Already looking ominously like a dead cat bounce given that the only win since has been on penalties against Championship side Bristol City after a pair of FA Cup draws.
And the prospect of a points penalty still looms over a club that may very well not need any such help getting itself firmly into a relegation pickle anyway thank you very much. On the face of it, a narrow home defeat to Newcastle doesn’t look too bad but it was quite alarmingly thick and also distinctly avoidable. Much like the wider mess the club finds itself in. May survive this season due to the sheer incompetence of two of the promoted sides, but with the likeliest teams to be promoted currently being Leicester, Leeds and Southampton that may not be something Forest can rely on next term.

 
16) Sheffield United (17)
More points than Derby County in their infamous 2007/08 season, you’ll never sing that. (If you’re Derby County in their infamous 2007/08 season.)
 
15) Burnley (16)
It just really, really, really shouldn’t be as bad as this. They’ve largely abandoned the principles on which they were promoted, it’s hard a negligible impact on results and it’s now extraordinarily hard to see how precisely they’re going to stay up without both Everton and Nottingham Forest getting a(nother) kick in the points.
Now level on points at the bottom with Sheffield United, who are the only team to score fewer goals than Burnley and the only team to concede more. It’s been a naff effort from a team and young manager who looked so impressive in their promotion campaign. Yes, the Premier League was always going to be a different and difficult challenge, but nobody could have foreseen them being quite this ill-equipped for it.

 
14) Manchester United (20)
Have turned a corner and, crucially, not immediately found themselves down another cul-de-sac. Rasmus Hojlund has found his feet nicely, the shape of the team looks far better now, Harry Maguire’s comeback arc is complete and even talk of an unlikely tilt at the Champions League places no longer seems entirely far-fetched.
The risk here, though, is the one espoused in the Mailbox this week that United have simply found themselves back in the familiar Ole Zone and that really that might be just where rival fans want them: results good enough that Ten Hag isn’t going to get sacked and with it the chance for material change in the summer, but not so good that they once again become a genuine threat to the very best. They still do appear to be on even the most optimistic of readings the fifth best team in the league and that’s still not really going to cut it over an extended period of time.
But we can’t simply be stubborn here. A month ago they were dead last in the moods having lost to Nottingham Forest and been wholly unconvincing in a home draw with a Spurs side missing almost all its key attacking players. They’ve won four out of four since then and not even we can pretend they’re still the division’s grumpiest Guses now.
 
13) Bournemouth (6)
There’s been a perhaps inevitable reversion to the mean from Andoni Iraola’s side after that wild run of 19 points in seven games. Nothing is f***ed, but there is a slight danger of early-season errors being repeated, where warning signs that were there in defeats to the likes of Liverpool and Spurs were ignored because it was Liverpool and Spurs. Those defeats this time around either side of the winter break have been followed by taking just two points from three games against West Ham, Forest and Fulham.
Unlikely to find themselves back in any real relegation danger which, coupled with the potential unlocked in that crazy November-December run of results and a home draw against lower-league opposition in the FA Cup fifth round, makes for a rosy overall picture. But it’s reasonable to have some reservations at this stage of the season about a team that has accrued over two-thirds of its points and six of its seven wins during one lightning-bottling seven-game streak.
 
12) Chelsea (12)
Tentative signs of encouragement in the last couple of games and potential remains for Mauricio Pochettino to do something very funny indeed by instantly winning one of the two domestic cups in a doomed Chelsea reign having never really bothered with them at Spurs. The trouble with the promising signs showed against Villa in the FA Cup and the second half at Crystal Palace is that it’s hard to take them too seriously when we’ve been here so often before. The fact the 4-1 at Spurs and 4-4 against City were followed by a 4-1 thrashing at Newcastle is hard to shake, as is the 3-2 win over Brighton being immediately followed by tame defeats at Manchester United and Everton.
And while it’s fair to say things are looking up a bit, it’s also still only 10 days since they lost 4-2 at home to Wolves and only two weeks since they got thrashed at Anfield. And their warm-up for the Carabao final is a nice gentle one at the Etihad.
 
11) Fulham (11)
Currently rivalling Wolves for the coveted title of Most Mid-Table Team In All Of Barclays, which is an absolutely fine place for Fulham to be in both the real table and also this one. Bumped up a couple of places here for being simply more interesting than usual thanks to doing things like chucking in back-to-back 5-0 wins in the space of four days to go with the more typical mid-tabling like coming from behind to beat Arsenal while taking one point from two games against Burnley. You know, that kind of thing.
 
10) Newcastle (13)
Bit more like it, isn’t it? Got bad enough for long enough there that we all just kind of forgot that at the start of the season it was all “Big Seven now! Or probably a new Big Six without Spurs in it!” Haven’t been able to spend all their lovely money in anything like the quantity the fans hoped and expected, which has irritated them, but on the flipside has put them back into a position whereby seven points from games against Villa, Luton and Forest plus an FA Cup win at Fulham constitutes a resounding return to form.
Will have to start thinking bigger at some point, and it does look like only the FA Cup can stop this being a disappointing season no matter how much last season is retrospectively reappraised as overachievement on an unrepeatable scale rather than the first step on an inevitable road to world domination.
 
9) Brentford (14)
The whole tone of the coverage of Ivan Toney’s return was a bit odd, but the importance of it is already clear. They’d won one and lost seven of their last eight league games when he returned, with a proper relegation scrap an unpleasantly real possibility. They’ve won two of four since Toney was welcomed back like a returning hero, with the defeats against Spurs and City both containing encouraging elements. Mainly the confirmed emergence of Neal Maupay as the Premier League’s new unchallenged sh*thouse-in-chief.
That’s enough to lift any fan’s spirits, which might be just as well because the upcoming fixture list looks daunting, with Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal all on the calendar before the international break in March.
 
8) Wolves (7)
They are a very mid-table side with very mid-table results. Eye-catching wins and grating defeats rush together but that’s fine, especially given the chaos engulfing the club at the start of the season. Even by up-and-down mid-table standards, though, winning 4-2 at Chelsea and then immediately losing 2-0 at home to Brentford is a flex. Their next two games are at Tottenham and then at home to Sheffield United, which if nothing else gives them the chance to do something very funny indeed.
 
7) Luton (8)
You’re always going to find plenty of teams occupying the middle of the Venn Diagram for “Would Definitely Have Taken Current Position At Start Of Season” and “Bit P*ssed Off With It Now”. Nobody currently quite encapsulates that like Luton, who let a potential red-letter day slip from their grasp at the weekend. Their major relegation rivals Burnley, Everton and Nottingham Forest all succumbed to predictable defeats against Liverpool, Manchester City and Newcastle while Luton had a home game against doomed Sheffield United that could have seen them really give the relegation picture a shake. Instead, in an error-strewn performance born perhaps of knowing what a big deal this was, they managed to succumb to their first two-goal home defeat of the entire campaign against its weakest team. Careless and annoying, and if Luton do end up falling back into the Championship it’s a day that will stick out as a bad one.
But again, it’s February and we’re talking about “if” Luton get relegated. That’s a massive win.
 
6) Brighton (10)
Up and down league results combined with Newcastle and Manchester United getting their respective acts together leave the cups as Brighton’s likeliest route to more new ground this season. Not going to repeat last season’s sixth-placed finish but they’re still in the FA Cup and counting down the days until they can resume their enormously enjoyable maiden European campaign.
Brighton fans know they’re living through their team’s finest era, and that is something that can easily withstand the occasional 4-0 thrashing at Luton. Which was still a bit weird, mind. You know, don’t make a habit of it.
Another issue looming on the horizon is a summer set to be spent trying to fend off interest from multiple potential angles for Roberto De Zerbi. The good news is that Brighton lore tells us they’ll just bring in someone even better anyway.
 
5) Aston Villa (4)
Have won only once and gone out of the FA Cup since the last update, and have developed a curious and worrying habit of being a little bit ‘Dr Villa’ for any big club in the midst of a crisis. Already this season they’ve lost twice to Newcastle, twice to Manchester United and now been well beaten in the cup by Chelsea. Yet they’ve beaten three of the four teams currently above them in the table.
Urgently need to relocate their league consistency after a run of two wins in seven and a Fulham, Forest, Luton run offers both opportunity and pitfalls ahead of what looks a pretty pivotal meeting with Tottenham. You don’t really want to run the risk of finishing fifth and hoping for the best when it comes to Champions League qualification, but with Villa as with Spurs the very fact that these are the conversations being had is a sign that everything is going pretty decently really. The thing with both their faltering title bids is that they were never really title bids in the first place and if we’re honest we all knew this.
 
4) Tottenham (3)
Our theory on Tottenham is that there was a slightly complacent – on their part and everyone else’s – assumption that when all their players came back from injury/suspension/AFCON/Asia Cup that it would magically be like the autumn again. But it hasn’t quite worked out that like that. They’ve been a little bit worked out as an attacking team, and look far more predictable and defendable than they did in those early weeks of the season.
That said, results are currently outstripping performances for a team that on the face of it looks enormously susceptible to the opposite and, while it’s going to be another year tacked on to the trophy drought, they are so far ahead of any reasonable pre-season expectation after selling their greatest ever player that any quibbles can really only be minor. Need to work out how to defend corners again, though.
 
3) Liverpool (2)
The Jurgen Klopp news really was that rarest of things – a proper, massive Premier League bombshell that came completely out of nowhere. It understandably floored Liverpool fans, who suddenly face a great deal of uncertainty after what is without doubt one of the great managerial reigns the Barclays have ever seen. Grumbles about ‘only one title’ will forever bitterly miss the point given just how boring the Premier League title race would have been over the last half-decade without Klopp and his team. The timing of Klopp’s departure is particularly galling because after last season’s (relative) struggles, all signs this season pointed to him starting to build another great team.
Now there is uncertainty all over the shop with the one managerial appointment that would unite the fanbase is a brilliant but young and inexperienced coach. It could go wrong. Also, and Liverpool were a bit lucky this fact got rather lost in all the far more important talk of post-match celebrations, they were really, really sh*t in a very big game at Arsenal. Weird that they’re top of the league and yet nobody really thinks they can actually win it.
READ MORE: Who will replace Jurgen Klopp as next Liverpool manager? Xabi still odds-on
 
2) Manchester City (1)
Eleven straight wins in all competitions, Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland back in action, one foot in the Champions League quarter-finals and top of the Premier League if they win their game in hand. Arsenal and Liverpool might get all the attention, but it was ever thus. Manchester City remain favourites to retain every individual component of last season’s treble, and they’ve even managed to score a goal at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
They drop a place in the moods only because Arsenal are Arsenal and City will never be capable of matching them at their most jubilantly buoyant, but it’s all going absolutely perfectly to plan right now for Pep and the gang.
 
1) Arsenal (9)
All fanbases exist pretty much exclusively at one end or the other of the We’re F***ed-We’re So Back spectrum, but few are capable of making so many journeys to and fro in so short a space of time as the Gunners. A month ago, their title challenge lay in ruins after defeats to West Ham and Fulham and they’d made an unholy bollocks of an FA Cup tie with Liverpool. Now they’ve dispatched Liverpool, and given West Ham the most fearful spanking for their Emirates impertinence. They. Are. So. Back.