A lack of investment, employment and "appalling" transport links are putting the UK's coastal towns at risk, according to the chair of a new parliamentary group tasked with helping seaside resorts.

Former England captain Wayne Rooney is in advanced talks with Derby County about joining the Championship (second-tier) club as player-coach, Sky Sports News reported on Monday.

The new Premier League season gets underway on Friday and -- for all the changes -- it is hard to imagine the battle for the title being too different from the last campaign.

English champions and runners-up since the league restarted in the 1946-47 season after World War Two:

Aston Villa are back in the Premier League for the first time in four seasons and have far outspent their fellow promoted sides in the transfer market but, as Fulham know well, money does not always buy you success.

List of major transfers in the Premier League ahead of the 2019-20 season (all transfer fees as reported by British media):

Manchester City's target this season will be to match Manchester United's record of three successive Premier League titles but, despite manager Pep Guardiola playing down their Champions League ambitions, Europe could act as a distraction.

Many managers have spent big in their pursuit of glory, but Liverpool coach Juergen Klopp has adopted a different approach ahead of the new season, trusting his current crop to end the club's long wait for a first Premier League crown.

If Frank Lampard is still Chelsea manager in a year's time it will be because he has succeeded in solving the club's most pressing problem -- how to score without Eden Hazard.

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will have the rare luxury of a "second honeymoon" in the coming season, but the Norwegian knows that this time he has to deliver a sustained upturn in fortunes for England's most successful club.

BORIS Johnson has been urged to step up efforts to strengthen the Union after a poll found a majority of Scots now back independence.