Colchester United midfielder Cole Skuse has left the League Two club to take over as manager of non-league side Bury Town.

Skuse, 37, has been with the U's for the past two seasons after spending eight years with Ipswich Town.

He made 27 league appearances this season, and scored one goal, with his final game coming in the 2-0 home defeat by Mansfield Town on Monday.

Bury play in the eighth tier of the English football pyramid.

Skuse, who has retired from professional football following the end of his contract at Colchester, said he feels "ready" to start his first management job.

Bury Town finished 11th in the 20-team Isthmian League North Division this season.

League Two side Doncaster Rovers have reappointed Grant McCann as manager.

The 43-year-old returns to the Eco-Power Stadium following the sacking of Danny Schofield on Tuesday.

McCann guided Rovers to the League One play-offs in 2018-19 before leaving to take over at Hull City, who he led to the League One title.

He was removed by the Tigers in January 2022 and spent a year in charge of Peterborough before being sacked earlier this season.

The club have not revealed the length of McCann's contract, but he has been given the title of "manager" after the two previous incumbents were labelled "head coach".

McCann has been out of work since January, when he was sacked by Peterborough despite being eighth in League One, three points off the play-off positions.

"Once I heard of the interest, it was a tremendous opportunity for myself," McCann told the club website.

"After the phone calls came, I had a chat with my wife and the first thing she said was it was one of the happiest times she'd seen me when I was at Doncaster. That really hit home with me.

"I loved my time here, I enjoyed every minute and I'm looking forward to it."

Rovers chairman David Blunt said: "We are delighted to secure the return of Grant to the club.

"His previous season here was one of the most thrilling in recent memory, with a breathless brand of attacking, aggressive football that carried us into the brink of a play-off final.

"In his time away from the club, he has only developed as a manager and we know we are getting an even stronger version of Grant this time around."

eovil Town owner Scott Priestnall says he has agreed a deal to sell the relegated National League club.

Priestnall, who first took over in 2019, has been trying to sell the club for some time and has not revealed who the prospective new owner will be.

He had agreed a deal with the SU Glovers group, who claimed to have taken stewardship of the club in March.

But director Matt Uggla pulled out of the deal earlier this month following their relegation from the fifth tier.

"In advance of the Glovers Trust meeting, I wish to announce that a deal has been agreed for the purchase of the club," Priestnall said in a statement on the club website.

Yeovil Town's fall from Championship to regional football
"This has taken a substantial period of time and a lot of work on all sides.

"I am confident that the buyer has the best interests of the club at heart and will begin a new and exciting time for the club.

"I regret I have not been able to provide more regular updates, but these matters must take their course and are governed by various interim agreements."

Priestnall says more information will be released on Friday in what fans will hope will be an end to a difficult period in the club's history.

Staff saw a delay in the payment of their April wages as the Glovers finished 10 points from safety in 22nd place in the National League.

Their relegation to National League South comes a decade after the club won promotion to the Championship via the play-offs, when they beat now Premier League side Brentford at Wembley.

Queens Park Rangers have released six players, including defender Leon Balogun and midfielder Luke Amos.

Former Tottenham youngster Amos, 26, joined permanently in the summer of 2020 after a season on loan, and made a total of 95 appearances in a time hampered by knee problems.

Nigeria defender Balogun, 34, played 16 times after joining last summer.

Forward Chris Willock is contracted for another season after the club activated an option to extend his contract.

Options to extend the contracts of Joe Gubbins and Charlie Kelman by 12 months have also been taken up.

Meanwhile Taylor Richards' loan from Brighton and Hove Albion has become a permanent deal after the club secured Championship survival.

The R's remain in talks over a new contracts with Jordan Archer, Chris Martin, Elijah Dixon-Bonner, Aaron Drewe and Stephen Duke-McKenna, while Olamide Shodipo, Conor Masterson, Charlie Owens and Ody Alfa will all leave this summer.

Mansfield Town have released two players after Nigel Clough's side missed out on the League Two play-offs.

Strikers Danny Johnson, who spent the first half of the season on loan at Walsall, and Jimmy Knowles have both come to the end of their contracts.

But the side have offered new deals to George Cooper, Jason Law, James Perch, Stephen Quinn and Kieran Wallace.

And contract extension options have been triggered for Taylor Anderson and Scott Flinders.

Loan players Riley Harbottle and Will Swan (Nottingham Forest) and Christy Pym (Peterborough United) have returned to their respective clubs, leaving 16 players signed up for next season.

Mansfield finished eighth in League Two, missing out on the play-offs by just one goal.

Contracted players for 2023-24:

Lucas Akins, Hiram Boateng, Jordan Bowery, Ollie Clarke, James Gale, Anthony Hartigan, Elliott Hewitt, Callum Johnson, Davis Keillor-Dunn, Alfie Kilgour, George Maris, Owen Mason, Stephen McLaughlin, Rhys Oates, John-Joe O'Toole, Louis Reed.

Watford have appointed former Barnsley and West Brom boss Valerien Ismael as their new head coach.

The 47-year-old replaces Chris Wilder, appointed in March on a short-term deal through to the end of the season.

Under Wilder, the Hornets finished 11th in the Championship, six points adrift of the play-off places.

Ismael was most recently with Turkish club Besiktas, having been appointed by them just a month after being sacked by West Brom in February 2022.

"Being able to appoint a new coach so soon in May means we can prepare very well together for next season," said Watford's technical director Ben Manga.

"To be able to welcome someone of Valerien's experience to Watford is good news for our club. We are all looking forward to working with him."

Ismael left The Hawthorns with the club fifth in the Championship, after just eight months in charge.

The Frenchman took over following the club's relegation from the Premier League in 2021, having agreed a four-year contract.

He won four of his first five games in charge, but only eight of the next 24 and some fans were critical of his preferred style of play.

His approach had proved successful at Barnsley, where he was appointed in the autumn of 2020 and led them to the second-tier play-offs before losing on aggregate to Swansea City.

Former defender Ismael played in the Premier League for Crystal Palace in 1997-98 and his coaching career has also included spells at clubs in Germany, Greece and Austria.

He is Watford's 10th head coach since 2018 and seventh since the end of the 2020-21 season.

Since Sean Dyche left Vicarage Road in 2012, Gianfranco Zola, Giuseppe Sannino, Oscar Garcia, Billy McKinlay, Slavisa Jokanovic, Quique Sanchez Flores, Walter Mazzarri, Marco Silva, Javi Gracia, Nigel Pearson, Vladimir Ivic, Xisco Munoz, Claudio Ranieri, Roy Hodgson, Rob Edwards, Slaven Bilic and Wilder have all had spells in charge.

Premier League

As a reminder we entered the final week of the season with 3 players, Derby, Minizin and Zinman chasing the Premiership title, Stairs hoping for a miracle to somehow close the gap at the top and SCO and Snooty needing divine intervention to avoid relegation. Sanjay was looking nailed on for the relegation play off spot but was still nervously looking both up and down the table.

So how did it go? The top 3 all chose different gamball results so would the season come down to just this one game? Could miracles actually happen? Could Zinman keep asking questions rather than get to the point?

OK, drum roll please...here are the final placings with the weeks scores below.

Champion - Derby 309 points.
Congratulations to Derby on retaining his title. It was tight, particularly after losing out on the gamball, but a spot-on bonus and 2 other correct results gave him 8 points which turned out to be just enough.

2nd - Minizin 307 points.
Minizin shared the final week's top spot with 13 points but it wasn't quite enough to close the gap on Derby, falling just 2 points behind. A real shame that. Mini scored on 4 games including the gamball bit in the end his failure to turn any of those into correct scores was his undoing.

3rd - Zinman 303 points
Zinman's 11 point week fell short of what he needed to close the gap on the top 2 as his gamble on a gamball draw failed to pay off. Still, not a bad season after gaining promotion last year.

4th - Stairs 283 points
He needed a miracle and didn't get one. Stairs went for outside bets on most games and paid the price, ending the season with his worst weekly score of minus 4 points. Just one correct prediction ad losses on all his balls.

5th - Blue Baggie 263 points
A steady return of 8 points was enough to avoid any chance of being dragged into the relegation play-off place.

6th - Sanjay 253 points
So the season continues for Sanjay as he enters the relegation play-off lottery, quite a fall from his second place last year. He at least enters the play-offs in decent form finishing joint top of this week's table with 13 points thanks largely to his gamball.

7th - Relegated SCO 232 points
8 points was never going to be enough to avoid the drop.

8th - Relegated Snooty 219 points
Snooty will be relieved that the season's over as his miserable run continued into the final week scoring from just 2 games for a total of 2 points.

The observant amongst you may have noticed that there were no positional changes in the last week of the season. Just 6 points separating the top 3 made for an exciting end and thanks for everyone for taking part and, hopefully, having some fun. Most of us can relax and enjoy the summer while Sanjay (and SCO in real life!) go through the agony or ecstasy of the play offs.

Final Week
Sanjay      13pts 1CS 5CR 5GB -3BB 1SB
Minizin        13pts 0CS 4CR 5GB 3BB 1SB
Zinman      11pts 1CS 5CR -3GB 6BB 0SB
Blue            8pts 1CS 4CR -3GB 3BB 0SB
Derby          8pts 1CS 3CR -3GB 6BB 1SB
SCO            8pts 0CS 4CR 5GB -3BB 0SB
Snooty        2pts 0CS 2CR -3GB 3BB 0SB
Stairs          -4pts 0CS 1CR -3GB -3BB 0SB

Zin


Championship

Well I assumed that there wouldn't be many changes during the final week, but then I didn't think the Championship players would post the lowest points total of the season this week!!!  In the end here is where we finished:

Champion - Dingle 347 points
To be fair he has had this wrapped up for quite a while, the occasional poor week gave others hope where now we know there was none!!  Congratulations Dingle!!

Runner-up - Lady Jane 307 points
She has been solid for most of the season and takes the honor of being the best Ball player in the division!!  Well done on her promotion!!

Joint 3rd - BaggieOne 291 points
Joint 3rd - BBB 291 points
For the first time since I have been scoring the Play Off place has ended in a tie!!  BBB was way behind a couple of weeks ago but two good weeks for him combined with BaggieOne seemingly sat on the beach with a Pina Colada, saw them end level!!

5th - AAA 290 points
I think had AAA not been a no show for the last two weeks we would have seen him take the third spot, but you have to be in it to win it and he wasn't!!

6th - Themaclad 224 points
This has been his spot for virtually the whole season, didn't really trouble those above and was well clear of those below.

7th - Twerton 207 points
Twerton finally gets off the bottom for good, a rare feat by him this season!

8th - Amelia - 200 points
A poorly timed no show this week cost her 5 points but won her the wooden spoon!

Here are the final weeks scores for those who have read this far!!

BBB 13pts 1CS 4CR 5GB -3BB 1SB
Themaclad 11pts 0CS 3CR 5GB 3BB 1SB
Dingle 6pts 1CS 4CR -3GB -3BB 0SB
Lady Jane 3pts 0CS 2CR -3GB 3BB 1SB
Twerton 2pts 0CS 4CR -3GB -3BB 0SB
BaggieOne -4pts 0CS 1CR -3GB -3BB 0SB
Amelia No Predictions
AAA No predictions


Play-Offs

So Sanjay enters the Play Offs as the Premier League representative but who is joining him?? 

We haven't had a tie for this important position so we convened a meeting of the full committee to discuss what we should do.  The meeting took place at a prestigious hotel in the US of course and was attended by all that were invited.  The discussion lasted for hours, what criteria should be used to break the tie, which stat was worth more than the next one etc etc. 

In the end, an exhausted committee decided that the only fair thing to do was to allow both BaggieOne and BBB to both take part in the first ménage à trois Play Off in the WBA Prediction League history!!

So the Play offs taking place over the next two weeks will be between:

Sanjay
BaggieOne
BBB

Get your predictions in!!

Cheers
SCO

Former England centre-back Phil Jagielka is among seven players to be released by Stoke City.

The 40-year-old, who agreed a contract extension last December to the end of the season, played 30 games in 2022-23.

And he marked the 600th league start of his career with a goal in a 3-0 win over Huddersfield in February.

Fellow defenders Morgan Fox, Aden Flint and Demeaco Duhaney, forward Nick Powell and midfielders Sam Clucas and Tashan Oakley-Boothe are also leaving.

Fox made 43 appearances this season and Powell scored four goals in 26 games.

Flint played nine times before spending the second half of the season on loan at Sheffield Wednesday, while Oakley-Boothe and Duhaney had loan spells at Lincoln and Turkish club Istanbulspor.

'We know what we need to fix' - Stoke boss Neil
Meanwhile, midfielder Mario Vrancic has joined Croatian club Rijeka on a permanent basis, having spent this season with them on loan.

"It is well documented that we are looking to execute a significant reset within our squad ahead of the new season," said technical director Ricky Martin.

"The result of players leaving the club is that it provides additional scope for us to recruit in the transfer market, as we look to put building blocks in place that help us progress towards a successful future."

Stoke finished 16th in the table, 16 points short of the play-off places but nine points clear of the bottom three.

They have taken up one-year options in the contracts of Jack Bonham and Blondy Nna Noukeu, and also offered a new deal to fellow goalkeeper Frank Fielding for next season.

Luton Town captain Sonny Bradley is to leave the Championship club at the end of the season.

Bradley, 31, has made 175 appearances since arriving from Plymouth Argyle in 2018, 19 of them in 2022-23.

The club said the decision had been taken following "amicable discussions" with head coach Rob Edwards.

The Hatters finished third in the table and are preparing for the play-offs for the second successive season, having been beaten by Huddersfield a year ago.

"I have so much respect for him as a human being and a player, because he's done such a great job as captain of this club for such a long time," said Edwards.

"We have a huge couple of weeks ahead of us and he will play a big part in that, but I urge every supporter to thank him for what he has done for Luton Town whenever you get the chance."

Bradley scored Luton's first goal in the second tier following promotion from League One in 2019.

He did not play for four months of this season because of a knee injury, but has started the past five games to help Edwards' team stretch their unbeaten run to 14.

The first leg of their play-off semi-final against Sunderland takes place on Wearside on Saturday, with the return at Kenilworth Road next Tuesday.

The winners will play either Middlesbrough or Coventry at Wembley, on 27 May, for a place in the Premier League.

Greg Taylor
Greg Taylor was out of action for a year after breaking an ankle against Plymouth in August 2021
Cambridge United defender Greg Taylor is to leave at the end of his contract after more than 10 years with the club.

The 33-year-old made 15 appearances this season, the most recent in a 5-1 defeat by Shrewsbury in January.

The U's secured their League One status on the final day of the campaign with a 2-0 win over Forest Green Rovers.

"I am sad to be leaving a place that has become my home but I am leaving the club in a better place than when I joined," Taylor told the club website.

He was signed from Luton Town in the summer of 2013 and played every game that season as they regained their place in the English Football League and won the FA Trophy.

Read more: Cambridge boss Bonner plans 'summer of change'
Taylor did the same again in 2020 as he captained them to promotion from League Two and has played 373 games for the U's in total, the 10th highest in the club's history.

"Having worked within the first team set up for many seasons now, he has been relied upon by multiple head coaches and since my appointment, has been an integral part of the team," said boss Mark Bonner.

"I thank him for his contributions, dedication and resilience throughout the past decade and will miss his character around the training ground."