Vinicius returned to the club for his first pre-season training session and medical assessment on Monday following his World Cup campaign with Brazil.

The forward is training under Jose Mourinho for the first time this week, with sources close to the Portuguese manager saying he is keen for the winger to commit his future to Real.

Vinicius also wants to remain at the Bernabeu but with his contract expiring next summer, Real risk losing him on a free transfer if no agreement is reached.

That has increased the urgency for the club to resolve his future before the end of the transfer window, with talks set to resume in earnest in the next few days.

There was a similar situation in 2023 when, with his previous contract entering its final year, Vinicius signed a new deal extending his stay until 2027.

Renewal talks have taken place over the past 18 months, but slowed because of disagreements over wages and status within the club.

The 26-year-old is believed to want recognition as Los Blancos’ top star financially, especially after carrying the team for years before the arrival of Kylian Mbappe.

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Real, however, are traditionally strict about maintaining their salary structure under president Florentino Perez, with Mbappe currently top of the club’s high earners.

Despite this tension, Vinicius has described Real as “the club of my dreams” and said he hopes to remain there “for many years”.

The club are hopeful of concluding talks this week. If a new contract can’t be agreed – that’s when Arsenal come in.

If they defeat Polish side Jagiellonia Bialystok in the third round of Europa League qualifying, Rangers will play either Lillestrom of Norway, the winners of the tie between Northern Irish champions Larne and Iberia 1999 of Georgia, or the losers of two Champions League qualifiers – between Levski Sofia (Bulgaria) and Kairat Almaty (Kazakhstan) or Mjallby (Sweden) and Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia).

Having dropped down from Champions League qualifying, Hearts face Benfica and the winners of that also have four possible play-off opponents.

Those are OFI Crete, the winners of Thun (Switzerland) and Vikingur Reykjavik (Iceland), or the losers of two Champions League qualifiers – AGF Aarhus (Denmark) and Sabah (Azerbaijan) and Dinamo (Croatia) and Kauno Zalgiris (Lithuania).

Should Hearts lose to Benfica, they will face either Atalanta (Italy), Freiburg (Germany), or the winners of ties between Panathinaikos (Greece) and CSKA (Bulgaria), Paide Linnameeskond (Estonia) and Rapid Vienna (Austria), or Sheriff Tiraspol (Moldova) and St Gallen (Switzerland) in a Conference League play-off.

Motherwell have the same possible opponents should they defeat HJK Helsinki of Finland.

If Rangers lose to Jagiellonia, they will face the winners of ties between Jablonec (Czech Republic) and RFS (Latvia), Zalgiris (Lithuania) and Hajduk Split (Croatia), Brann (Norway) and Apollon Limassol (Cyprus), Inter Turki (Finland) and Vaduz (Liechtenstein) or Noah (Armenia) and Sion (Switzerland).

Hibs’ reward should they defeat Shkendija of Macedonia is a possible tie against Brighton & Hove Albion, Monaco of France, the winner of the tie between Bohemians (Republic of Ireland) and Midtjylland (Denmark), the winners of IFK Gothenburg (Sweden) and Gent (Belgium), or the losers of Pafos (Cyprus) against Salzburg (Austria).

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It was a fifth successive mid-table finish for the Welsh club, who have not mounted a serious promotion push since Steve Cooper’s team were beaten in the 2021 play-off final by Brentford.

Having been among the Championship’s biggest spenders in the 2025 close season, Swansea’s hierarchy have once again shown ambition this summer.

The club are believe to have spent in the region of £15m on Elijah Just, Joseph Opoku and Moussa Yeo, while Stephen Welsh has signed on a free transfer.

They are also working on deals for a left-back and central midfielder and may look to add another centre-back before the window closes.

“The focus is improving the team, improving the players, put the team in a level that we can compete against everyone,” Matos added.

“There are strong teams [in the Championship] with a lot in terms of budget and a lot of expectations.

“So it doesn’t mean that we need to be the best team, but it means that we need to be able to compete against everyone and be able to win against everyone.

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“That’s the good thing about sports. You don’t need to be the best one, but you need to be able to beat the best one. That’s what we want to be.”