As improving United beat Crystal Palace 3-1, supporters would like to see the minority co-owner at WSL games

As the John Denver song Take Me Home, Country Roads rang around Leigh Sports Village, after a seventh league victory in a row for a team second in the table, the most reliable source of positivity at Manchester United right now is surely their women’s team.

This week marks the first anniversary of the formal completion of Ineos’s acquisition and at the latest home victory for the women’s team the jury was still out among fans regarding Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s impact on the Women’s Super League side. The generally optimistic mood, though, is somewhat at odds with the gloomy feel across much of the rest of the club amid the latest reports of a further 200 job losses.

• Individual pursuit champion sets mark twice in one day
• Morris is first woman to claim title in new 4km format

Britain’s Anna Morris won gold in the individual pursuit at the European track championships in Belgium after breaking the world record twice in one day.

The Welsh cyclist set a new world’s best of 4min 28.306sec in the qualifiers and bettered that in the final in Heusden-Zolder as she beat Italy’s Vittoria Guazzini in 4:25.874.

• Manager admits job losses are ‘affecting the environment’
• Fresh blow as Amad Diallo ruled out for rest of season

Ruben Amorim has acknowledged he and the first team must shoulder the blame for Manchester United’s failings as a football club that have resulted in swathes of employees being made redundant.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the minority owner, is set to remove a further 200 staff roles at Old Trafford as part of cost-cutting exercises to address years of financial mismanagement and put them back on a firmer footing.

Italian received a shorter ban with admission of guilt but others have been treated a lot more harshly in cases of contamination

In the end, then, everyone got something they wanted. For Jannik Sinner, the three-month ban he has accepted from the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) is less than he might have received had he let the appeal go the natural distance. While he will miss almost nothing of note, at least in terms of grand slams, since the world No 1 will be free to return in early May, ready for the French Open and a shot at a third successive major title and fourth in total.

For Wada, Sinner’s partial admission of responsibility holds up a key part of the anti-doping programme: that an individual is responsible for what goes in their body, a responsibility that extends to their entourage. And for the sporting world at large, it’s something of a rebuttal to those who say the superstars get preferential treatment.

• Premiership Women’s Rugby: Saracens 21-12 Exeter
• Chiefs unable to qualify for semi-finals

There are few less pleasant experiences in this sport than playing against Saracens at a wet and windy StoneX Stadium. Exeter Chiefs found out the hard way as they offered plenty of huff and puff but were ultimately shut down by a more ruthless and efficient team. The visitors needed to win this one and their final game against Leicester Tigers to have any hope of qualifying for the semi-finals. Now they will be spectators when the competition narrows to four.

Saracens will be in the mix. They won ugly here, and were mostly on the defensive, but that is the thing with formidable outfits, they simply get the job done. This 21-12 win takes them to second in the table and puts them in the driving seat to secure a home semi-final with a final fixture against basement dwellers Sale Sharks to come. After their shock reverse to Bristol in the playoffs last season, the most successful club in English women’s rugby with three titles will be itching to lift a trophy they have not held since 2022.

• Olympic champion’s event blends music and athletics
• Injured Hodgkinson hopeful of return to track in June

After winning an Olympic 800m gold medal and the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year award, Keely Hodgkinson set herself a bold new challenge: getting a whole new generation of fans into track and field.

Foolish? Brave? Or visionary? The sceptics and gatekeepers certainly had their doubts. But the sight of hundreds of teenage and young girls dancing to Taylor Swift, Rosé and Bruno Mars, and Psy’s Gangnam Style in between races at her brand new event, the Keely Klassic, was quite the riposte.

Enzo Maresca must be sick of the sight of Kaoru Mitoma. A week after he sent them tumbling out of the FA Cup, a breathtaking piece of control from the Japan winger to score the opening goal set up another memorable victory for Brighton and piled more pressure on the Chelsea manager.

It meant a third defeat in their last four matches as Cole Palmer endured another frustrating night labouring as a false 9 before having to be cajoled to greet those travelling supporters who remained at the end. At times Maresca seemed lost on the touchline as he watched his side struggle to respond after Yankuba Minteh had made it 2-0 before half-time.

• ‘Team briefing’ set for Monday 24 February
• Statement says ‘club must explore every option’

Manchester United will hold a meeting on 24 February with staff to discuss “media reports”, with Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s new round of up to 200 redundancies expected to be on the agenda.

On Friday evening, all employees received notice, via email, of the “team briefing”, which will take place at 2.30pm on Monday 24 February. On Tuesday it emerged that Ratcliffe is to cut as many as 200 employees, having previously made 250 redundancies in the summer and autumn.

• Tribunal ruling relates to regulations in 2021-24 period
• Associated party transaction rules ‘unenforceable’

Manchester City have struck a substantial blow in their battle against the Premier League, after a tribunal ruled that the entirety of the original rules related to associated party transactions (APTs) were “void and unenforceable”.

The result creates even greater uncertainty over the functioning of the Premier League’s rulebook, after it postponed the introduction of squad cost control rules on Thursday.

• British driver to debut with Scuderia this year
• ‘It will all depend on how well he can adapt’

Ferrari are in a strong position to enable Lewis Hamilton to fight for his eighth Formula One world championship, according to their former driver Carlos Sainz, who was replaced by the Briton for this season.

Sainz has joined Williams for 2025 after three years with Ferrari, including last season when the team finished with a very competitive car and claimed second place in the constructors’ championship.