West Ham United have been relegated from the Premier League after 14 years in the top flight, their final-day win over Leeds proving meaningless as Tottenham survived by narrowly beating Everton. On the Football Weekly podcast, Jacob Steinberg joined Max Rushden, Barry Glendenning, Barney Ronay and Jonathan Wilson to dissect the failures behind the club’s decline, the future of the London Stadium and what comes next in the Championship. The pod also covered Roberto De Zerbi’s impact at Spurs, Sunderland’s remarkable Europa League qualification, Bournemouth and Brighton making Europe, and Aston Villa finishing fourth after spoiling Pep Guardiola’s farewell at Manchester City. A heated debate erupted about the rise of in-game guards of honour after emotional send-offs for Pep, Bernardo Silva and John Stones. Liverpool said goodbye to Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson, Chelsea prepared for life under Xabi Alonso, Thomas Tuchel named his England squad, and Harry Maguire’s family reacted furiously to his omission. One listener even feared he may have accidentally eaten Jonathan Wilson’s mother.
Just over a month later, Forest Green Rovers announced they have disbanded their women’s team for the 2026-27 season to “concentrate their resources” on returning their men’s side to the English Football League. The Gloucestershire club’s women’s team, managed by Louise Fensom and captained by Hattie Jones, finished second in their regional division of the fifth tier last term, missing promotion by one point behind champions Torquay and losing only one league match all season. In a statement, a club spokesman said: “We had been in discussions with Hartpury University about a partnership, but the uni made a decision that ruled out the possibility of a joint [women’s] team. This means we’ll also be stepping back from our joint involvement with Hartpury’s elite training centre for girls aged nine to 16.” The statement added: “Forest Green Rovers is committed to returning to the EFL as quickly as possible and that means concentrating our resources and efforts on strengthening the Club and achieving that goal. This isn’t goodbye to women’s football at Forest Green. We’d like to return to it in the future, when the time is right and when we can build a programme that is sustainable and successful for the long term.” The men’s team, managed by Robbie Savage, were relegated to the National League in 2024 and finished seventh last term, losing to Boreham Wood in the playoffs. The news comes nearly four weeks after the Football Association confirmed Forest Green’s involvement in women’s football had ended for now.
“West Ham relegated after 14 years; Forest Green scrap women's team to focus on men's return to EFL.”