内容摘要：The Blues have already assembled a squad with a value heading north of £1.4bn and will

The Blues have already assembled a squad with a value heading north of £1.4bn and will

Labour could certainly do with a win here.Having swept to power at Westminster last summer, Sir Keir Starmer's party quickly lost popularity with decisions like cutting winter fuel payments for pensioners.

Even though changes to that policy have been promised, they will come too late for this by-election. The damage to Scottish Labour seems to have been done.The SNP tends to have a double digit lead over Labour in national opinion polls, with support for pro-UK parties heavily fragmented since the rise of Reform.That means that with around a third of the vote, the SNP can still be winners because Reform UK is principally drawing support away from the Conservatives and Labour.

The arithmetic already takes into account a series of SNP controversies over independence strategy, gender self-identification, a police investigation into party finances, leadership changes and the collapse of a power-sharing deal with the Greens.These are challenging conditions for Scottish Labour to regain power at Holyrood after nearly two decades in the wilderness.

That is the national picture suggested by a relatively limited number of opinion polls. This election is for a single constituency for which no formal polling has been published.

In other words, there is plenty of room for surprise, especially if voters stay at home and turnout is low.But the Midlands club has spent more than £900m since returning to the Premier League in 2019, exceeding Uefa's 70% revenue to wages ratio every season.

"Without any outgoings, it appears Villa will be at the bottom end of the £50-100m spending range," added Maguire.Meanwhile, Newcastle look well equipped after reaching the Champions League at Villa's expense.

Eddie Howe's side secured their first domestic trophy for 70 years in March, when beating Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final, and should be able to capitalise from the sales of Elliot Anderson, Yankuba Minteh, Lloyd Kelly and Miguel Almiron over the past 12 months.The manner in which Arne Slot guided Liverpool to the Premier League title last term means they should be even stronger this time around.