Sheikh Jassim’s fifth and final bid to buy Manchester United will remain on the table beyond Friday but the Qatari’s patience with the takeover process is wearing thin. The Sheikh and his Nine Two Foundation, which is seeking to buy 100 per cent of the club, are understood to feel that by Friday United’s owners, the Glazer family, and the Raine banking group which is conducting the sale process will have had ample time to seek or request clarification and revision of the bid, and will therefore no longer engage with them on it beyond this date. Some observers have interpreted the submission of two additional bids from Sheikh Jassim as an indication that the rival offer from Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Ineos is preferred by the Glazers. However, sources close to the Qatari say he is simply keen to bring the matter to a swift conclusion with a crucial summer transfer window for United coming up. The fifth and final bid was issued earlier this week, and Sheikh Jassim considers it an enormous premium on the current share price of the club, both now and at any stage of the club’s recent share price. Ratcliffe is understood to have made an improved offer on April 28. It has been reported that his offer enables Avram and Joel Glazer to retain a 20 per cent stake in the club, something the Ineos camp has not confirmed. The Glazers are reported to value the club at £6billion. This is a crunch period on and off the field for United, who won the Carabao Cup, finished third in the Premier League and lost Saturday’s FA Cup final in Erik ten Hag’s first season in charge. Co-owner Avram Glazer was at Wembley for Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Manchester City and ignored questions about the takeover as he left through the interview area. Asked about the potential takeover and summer improvements, United boss Ten Hag said: “I think in this moment I don’t want to discuss that. “It’s about finalising the season. We have to be quiet, analyse the season, go into the depth, then set the right conclusions and then take action.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live

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Vincent Kompany admitted Burnley’s 2-1 home defeat to West Ham was the toughest one to take yet in what has been a miserable start to life back in the Premier League. The Hammers, poor by David Moyes’ own admission for most of the afternoon, scored twice in the space of five minutes to snatch victory away, with Tomas Soucek hitting a superb volley to win it in the first minute of stoppage-time. It was a seventh-straight home defeat for Burnley to start the season and leaves them bottom of the table with just four points from 13 games. “You can say that,” Kompany said with a rueful laugh when asked if this was the hardest one yet of Burnley’s 11 defeats. “It’s what makes this game beautiful but also what makes this game hard. “There’s no other way to say it. Today was a tough one to take but I’ve mentioned it before, it’s still a universal recipe, you’ve got to get back up and keep going.” Burnley had led through Jay Rodriguez’s 49th-minute penalty after Luca Koleosho had been tripped by Mohammed Kudus and West Ham, without the injured Jarrod Bowen and Michail Antonio, rarely threatened to get back into the game. But that all changed in a frantic finish as Kudus atoned for conceding the penalty by setting up the equaliser, with his cross deflected in by Dara O’Shea for an own goal and then picking out Soucek to strike the winner. “You have to play until the end but in minute 86, probably what I would have said was how outstanding the performance was, on the ball, off the ball, disciplined, mature,” Kompany said. “But as it is in football, it is shaped fairly by the result and every minute of the game is as important as the first one and in this case it’s tough… “When you go home, if your children fall down what do you tell them? ‘Get back up and go again’. But you also have to really believe in that. I always have. “What happens in the last five minutes is we throw everything away. It’s not good enough but it’s not supposed to be easy to get up to this level.” Moyes recognised his side were lucky to escape Turf Moor with the points. “I certainly didn’t see it (coming) at half-time with the way we started the game,” he said. “To get in at 0-0 was as good as it could get. “We hadn’t played well in the first half at all, we were too slow, we never affected Burnley…The climax was great, it shows a lot of the things we’ve got about the team. “A bit of resilience, we stuck at it, never wilted and had to find a way of getting a goal. “We didn’t play at our best today. A lot of players were nowhere near their levels but ultimately we got three points in the Premier league.” Soucek was the matchwinner in the 3-2 victory over Nottingham Forest before the international break, then scored two in two for the Czech Republic, before his sixth club goal of the season and ninth overall broke Burnley hearts here. “Tomas scored for the Czech Republic in midweek, he’s scored today, he scored against Forest so really he’s in a bit of goalscoring form,” Moyes said. “He took it really well and he took it as someone who’s got a bit more confidence in his finishing. “When he first came in he got 10 goals in his first season, last year not so much but this year, I think he is up to six already so that’s great.” Read More Jonathan Obika’s last-gasp equaliser earns Motherwell point at Celtic Opposing managers happy with a point as Manchester City and Liverpool draw Banner calling for release of activist in UAE flown over Etihad Stadium Man Utd have reached ‘turning point’ ahead of crucial week – Erik ten Hag On This Day in 2020: Gunners welcome their fans back in style Miami Dolphins take down New York Jets in 21-point win

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Scott McTominay may have been summoned more in desperation than inspiration. Erik ten Hag had already tried four other substitutes, with precious little impact. He had taken off Marcus Rashford, for the third game in a row. He had brought off a defender for a striker. He had hauled Casemiro off at half-time. And then, in the 87th minute, in a last throw of the dice, he swapped his remaining defensive midfielders. Exit Sofyan Amrabat, enter McTominay. It may prove the best substitution Ten Hag will ever make as United manager. Because, 10 minutes later, McTominay was charging, his teammates frantically trying to catch him as Old Trafford, perhaps preparing the boos, erupted. Like a one-man Sheringham and Solskjaer, McTominay had scored twice in injury-time, transforming defeat into victory, a potential mutiny into jubilation. When ignominy and misery beckoned, United instead had McTominay, a man on a mission. It may breach the Trades Description Act to brand him a defensive midfielder here. He spent much of his cameo haring into the box, running with purposeful potency. It was under pressure from McTominay that Nathan Collins put the ball in his own net for a goal that was disallowed because Martial was offside. No matter. When Thomas Strakosha, the second-choice goalkeeper who United barely tested for much of his Premier League debut, parried Diogo Dalot’s shot, McTominay was the predator in the box who was on hand to finish. When Bruno Fernandes’ free kick was headed on by Harry Maguire, McTominay anticipated it and planted his header past Strakosha. His goals have been more frequent for Scotland than United of late but Fergie Time became McTominay Time. Just in time for Ten Hag, too. This was shaping up as a week of three consecutive defeats in eminently winnable games. United still have not lost three successive home games since 1962 and Brentford have not won at Old Trafford since 1937, but each run came perilously close to ending. United could scarcely complain if they had, either. Brentford were responsible for arguably the lowest point of Ten Hag’s reign, the 4-0 shellacking in his second game. Yet a loss here, a seventh in 11 games at the start of the season, may have been a new low for a club who find ways to plumb depths. Results can change much, from a mood to a season, but they should not camouflage everything. Defeat was desperately cruel to Brentford. They looked better coached, with more of a gameplan. United scarcely pressed, and when they did it was individually. Ten Hag can talk of togetherness, but United looked a rabble; with a starting 11 who cost around £400m, an expensive rabble who were rescued by a player who cost nothing, in an academy product. Minutes from a landmark result, Brentford instead could reflect on what might have been. In different ways, Brentford have lost arguably their three most important players from last season, in the departed David Raya, the injured Rico Henry and the suspended Ivan Toney. It meant United should not complain about the loss of Raphael Varane, which meant they were without six sidelined defenders. It nevertheless produced a teamsheet with a difference. The Leicester retro centre-back partnership of Harry Maguire and Jonny Evans were reunited; against the rather quicker Brentford strike duo of Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbuemo, the 35-year-old sometimes backed off so far he was in a different postcode. Lindelof switched to left-back and stalked down the tunnel when substituted. He was a culpable when Brentford led, but one of many. If errors have been a common denominator in goals United have conceded this season, there have rarely been more in one goal, as though a lowlights reel had been spliced together: first Casemiro gave the ball away, then he slid in a failed attempt to regain it. Lindelof failed to clear Wissa’s low pass – as did Casemiro – and Andre Onana should have saved Mathias Jensen’s shot, were he a goalkeeper who saves shots. Thereafter, United could at least be grateful that Onana denied Neal Maupay and that Diogo Dalot cleared off the line from Norgaard. For United, Fernandes at least injected urgency. Alejandro Garnacho brought more verve than Rashford. And yet a comeback was not seriously threatened until, with only Donny van de Beek, Facundo Pellestri, Hannibal Mejbri and Altay Bayindir left on the bench and the Brentford fans suggesting he may be sacked in the morning, Ten Hag turned to McTominay. It may be an exaggeration to brand it his Mark Robins moment – he was not on the brink – but once again, a youth-team product came to a beleaguered manager’s aid. And if the performance showed the flaws in this United team, the win brought respite in a torrid time. Read More Man United vs Brentford LIVE: Latest Premier League updates ‘There is only one person in the world I do not answer back to’ Mikel Arteta urges Arsenal to bring City losing streak to an end Erik Ten Hag insists managing Manchester United is not an impossible job Manchester United vs Arsenal LIVE: Latest Women’s Super League updates Roy Hodgson admits Crystal Palace are in midst of a ‘serious injury crisis’

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Gareth Southgate lauded Bukayo Saka after the England star scored a tremendous treble against North Macedonia and enjoyed one of the best nights of his life. Having followed up March’s wins against Italy and Ukraine by beating Malta 4-0 on Friday, the side put on a show on Monday as their Euro 2024 qualification cakewalk continued. Harry Kane’s brace was complemented by Marcus Rashford and Kalvin Phillips efforts at Old Trafford, where Saka was the star of the 7-0 annihilation of North Macedonia. A fierce strike from a tight angle was followed at the start of the second half by a stupendous second, before then quickly wrapping up the first hat-trick of his career. Saka was given a standing ovation after a sparkling performance made all the impressive by the fact Southgate revealed he has been dealing with an Achilles issue. “He’s had it for a few weeks and it’s an injury that just needs managing, but it would have been easy not to appear,” the England boss said. “I think when you then have probably one of the best nights of your life, it’s a reminder to everybody that it’s worth going through those things. “To see the joy on his face, he’s such a popular member of the team and so humble, works incredibly hard and, of course, talented. “He’s been finishing like that all week, so, yeah, it was outstanding performance.” Asked how close Saka is to being at an elite level, Southgate said: “Yeah, I think he’s there. “When he broke into the team at Arsenal, what struck us was that in a team that were having a difficult time he was performing at a really high level. “Then when the team were playing well he was still a key player and performing at a really high level. “So, that says a lot about his mentality, his ability to deal with pressure and that’s the environment that we’re in all the time. He’s exceptional to work with.” Saka’s goals in the final match of this unprecedented season mean it is a matter of when rather than if England wrap up qualification for next summer’s Euros. There were few signs of fatigue at a rocking Old Trafford, where Macedonia suffered their heaviest ever defeat. “The scoreline is outrageous, really,” Southgate said. “That wasn’t really how you were expecting the game to be because there’s no evidence that Macedonia would suffer like that. “There’s no evidence that the game in the end would be as straightforward as it was and certainly in the opening 20 minutes it didn’t look that way, so it’s huge credit to (the group). “I think our senior players have set a brilliant tone all week and Jordan Henderson on the pitch tonight. “He won’t get the headlines but the way he set the tone for winning the ball back and running forward and mixing the game up I think was really important.” I want to apologise to the whole of the Macedonian nation for our performance and what we did tonight Blagoja Milevski Macedonia were blown away at Old Trafford, where they were a far cry from the side that shocked Germany and Italy in recent years. Head coach Blagoja Milevski said: “Before we start the press conference, I want to apologise to the whole of the Macedonian nation for our performance and what we did tonight. “I make decisions for every player who plays and the responsibility is just mine so I have to apologise for the whole of the Macedonian nation. “It happens that these disastrous moments happen and we are all involved in it. I take all the responsibility for today’s game.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Stephen Kenny says ‘nothing is impossible’ ahead of France and Netherlands tests Rob Page insists Wales can still qualify despite Turkey defeat Michael O’Neill feels Northern Ireland did not deserve to lose to Kazakhstan