When Lionel Messi steps onto the turf at the Estadio Monumental on Tuesday night for his final appearance in an Argentina shirt, the 85,000 in attendance are expecting a fairytale goodbye.

The icon, who delivered his nation from a 36-year drought to lift the World Cup in 2022, is bringing down the curtain on an extraordinary international career. But, beneath the fireworks, emotion, and commemorative kits, there is a cynical reality seemingly at play.

The Argentinian Football Association (AFA) are leaving nothing to chance, carefully manufacturing the circumstances surrounding this international window to guarantee their captain receives an uncomplicated, risk-free send-off that does not deviate from the script.

Argentina are not playing fair with Lionel Messi farewell

The choice of opposition, and the chaos leading up to the fixture, tells its own story.

French investigative journalist Romain Molina has exposed an organisational shambles surrounding Argentina’s scheduled friendly opponents during this international window.

Visiting teams Burkina Faso and Benin have had to overcome less-than-ideal administrative hurdles to fulfil the fixtures. In recent days, travel chaos forced a makeshift Burkina Faso squad filled with unproven youngsters, some lacking senior caps, to step into the line of fire at short notice.

The AFA have invited lower-ranked opposition burdened with travel fatigue and depleted squads, effectively neutralising any possibility of a banana skin-style embarrassment.

Argentine supporters are paying premium ticket prices for what is billed as a competitive international test, but are instead receiving a carefully choreographed exhibition designed to ensure Messi glides through his final 90 minutes without proper resistance.

The disparity between the World Cup finalists and their visitors is plain to see. While Benin goalkeeper Marcel Dandjinou insisted in the buildup that his side are 'not tourists' in Argentina and vowed to try to save a Messi penalty if required, their preparations have been hampered, probably needlessly.

Benin have been booked onto commercial flights by the AFA, which has seen a number of players arrive late into South America after 25-hour journeys, to a hotel with no hot water on one floor, an out-of-service sauna and an under-equipped gym, according to Molina.

Burkina Faso were beaten 7-0 by Argentina over the weekend, but were without some senior players due to the budget flight offering, covered by the AFA, and lack of remuneration for participation in the fixture. A significant portion of the squad, which allegedly arrived in Buenos Aires just hours before kick-off, were uncapped.

The AFA’s objective appears simple: to eliminate every variable that could ruin the script. In handpicking accommodating conditions, Argentina’s governing body has built a protective bubble around their departing talisman.

This will not to diminish Messi’s peerless contributions to Argentine football, though, but there is an argument that he would be better honoured with a fairer contest to mark his farewell.

Michael Carrick must be thankful for Manchester City taking all the attention in the club game during this international break.

The crisis club baton was handed from red to blue on a seismic day in the history of the sport. However, it doesn’t disguise the fact that Manchester United have had their joint-worst ever start to a Premier League season and are out of a domestic cup at the first time of asking yet again.

The longest-ever international break (excluding the 2022 World Cup), though, has surely given the Man United boss and his staff the chance to address multiple issues, and reset both side and season.

Amid Man United’s brutal start, there have been contradictory sets of data that suggest things are not quite as bad as it seems. You would certainly hope so given they have collected just five points from five games, all of which were very much winnable on paper. The only stat that actually matters is the league table, too.

The Groundhog Day feeling for the fanbase in the “post-Fergie Wilderness Years” set in with the harrowing opening day loss by two goals to nil against newly-promoted Hull City. It has only grown stronger since.

Victory was twice thrown away at Everton, a controversial but calamitous defeat came to 10 men in the derby, a heavily deflected goal saved them from the ignominy of defeat to winless Fulham, and Brighton ransacked Old Trafford as always. At least Ed Sheeran’s Ipswich Town were beaten, as well as the famous Sabah in Europe.

There have been myriad issues but nearly all of them appear very basic when assessed one-by-one. Together, they have seen Man United go away from much of what made them the in-form team of last season following Carrick’s arrival.

Of course, there was context with a game a week and the fabled new manager bounce, or interim legend bounce in Man United’s case, but it did come from Carrick knowing how to get the best out of his team and individual players.

The injury to Amad right before the season’s kick off threw a spanner in the works from the off. With Benjamin Sesko not playing in pre-season due to an ongoing shin issue, Bryan Mbeumo was set to start up front as he did for much of last season.

Instead, he played on the right with Matheus Cunha taking the role of the falsest of false 9s. It has been an abject failure with both the Brazilian and every other forward struggling as a result. His goal at Fulham came after he was restored to the left. It was rather symbolic.

Amad is set for a return following the break, leaving Carrick with the easiest of changes to make. The Ivorian will play off the right, where his natural speed and trickery make him an ideal touchline winger, and allow Mbeumo to operate in the inside forward spaces he thrives so well in.

Amad isn’t just an attacking outlet, though. He brings balance both to the team's attack and overall side, which was aided by his re-positioning as a wing-back under Ruben Amorim. The 24-year-old’s individual numbers were very poor last season but his role is so much more than that.

The re-jigging of the attack will undoubtedly help Bruno Fernandes, too. The skipper had been dealing with a “complicated injury” according to Portugal boss Jorge Jesus which may partly explain his iffy start to the season.

However, Fernandes hasn't had runners in behind and with Cunha dropping too deep, the spaces where he is at his absolute best have been somewhat clogged. Taking on the Portugal captaincy following Cristiano Ronaldo’s dramatic exit has surely boosted him, too.

One change to the attack could do so much for Man United and allow them to utilise their relatively strong depth. In saying that, Shea Lacey should have been handed more opportunities off the right.

A welcome injury return has already come in midfield with Carlos Baleba making his first matchday squad at Fulham. Youri Tielemans has not been a real issue but adding a bit more energy and bite in midfield - or at least having the option - is another change Carrick can make. It is likely to only further aid Kobbie Mainoo, who has been Man United’s best player this season.

Where else could changes come? Most fans were crying out for defensive reinforcements over the summer and a back four in 2026 that started the 7-0 loss at Anfield over three years ago only backs that up. With Matthijs de Ligt making a hugely welcomed return from a long-standing back injury in a friendly win over INEOS-owned Lausanne-Sport - alongside Baleba - he should come into the lineup again soon.

Leny Yoro played much of pre-season at right-back and surely deserves a shot given Diogo Dalot’s form. It would be a very modern Premier League move and add further energy and pace to United’s side.

Adding that energy and pace is perhaps the major change Carrick needs to make with a lack of urgency in the team's play evident from the opening day. Control might be the aim and change was guaranteed given his permanent appointment and Casemiro’s departure, but it has all felt too much too soon.

Making simple changes and going somewhat back to basics won’t see Man United make a very unlikely title tilt - although who knows with Man City’s case - but it will surely lead to improvements and keep Carrick’s head above water.

When the doom spiral kicks in at Old Trafford, it almost always leads to the sack. Carrick was there for the one who delayed the inevitable but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had both Fernandes joining and a pandemic to thank for that.

Barring even more extraordinary developments in this league season, internal changes must be immediately made ahead of a meeting with Carrick’s former club Spurs in what can be dubbed the first “El Sackico” clash of the season.

Following the Netherlands football team looks like a pretty fun undertaking, from the outside.

Bright orange shirts, famous names, Van Basten volleys, Cruyff turns, Robben curlers and flying Van Persie headers. Then there's not really having to deal with the pressure of being a tournament favourite. Even the recent viral supporter dance, a sea of colour dotted by giant heads of legends past.

But, scratch beneath that orange facade and there has been a tension at the heart of Dutch football for many years. And it’s not simply that a country famed for producing so many brilliant players still has only one international trophy to its name, something that induces national hysterics every two years in England. The conflict which frequently dominates debate about the Oranje, particularly when they are dumped out of a tournament, is about identity.

A clash of ideas

Apart from Brazil, is there a country that has been associated with a specific style of play as much as the Dutch?

When we think of the Netherlands, we conjure images and nostalgic appraisals of ‘Total Football’, in particular the magical Johan Cruyff team that under Rinus Michels reached the 1974 World Cup Final. Or the side of Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard et al who won Euro 1988 with the same coach. They played in a fluid way that was focused on space, intelligence and individual improvisation, based on the concept that players should be able to have freedom to interchange positions within an existing structure.

So far, so good, right?

Wrong. For many years there’s been an alternative interpretation - stemming from the same school of thought - that the structure should actually enable collective, rather than individual, intelligence, where individual expression is somewhat curtailed at the altar of the greater good. Rather than thinking about where the space is and how to create an extra man for an overload, this philosophy is all about where everyone should be, keeping width, ensuring passing lanes are open and that space is being covered in case the ball is lost. The finest example would be Louis van Gaal’s Ajax side of the 1990s, as opposed to Cruyff’s Barcelona - incidentally the two men who fell out at Ajax in 2011 when they were brought in to overhaul the club and return it to its famed ‘Ajax way’.

At times the latter approach has been effective - see Van Gaal’s run to the World Cup semi-finals in 2014. Yet, after the shock of failing to qualify for Euro 2016 and World Cup 2018, in the last four major tournaments the Dutch have played predominantly defensive formations with back fives and wing-backs.

Rather than excitement, thrilling improvisation and creativity, it’s been more about structure and positioning. Control on steroids. The tipping point came last summer when Ronald Koeman, after finally discovering how to remove the handbrake, reverted to type as soon as a major opponent arrived in Morocco, playing Tottenham Hotspur centre-half Micky van de Ven as a left wing-back. Going back further, even memories of the brilliant 2010 World Cup run have been tainted by the negative Dutch tactics in the final against Spain and Mark van Bommel’s standout submission for the worst tackle never to receive a red card.

It has hardly amounted to an homage to Cruyffian principles.

The Xavi curveball

And it is this context that makes the arrival of Spain and Barcelona great Xavi Hernandez in September on a four-year contract one of the most intriguing international hires in years.

On paper, combining arguably the finest ball-playing midfielder to have played the game in one of the sport’s greatest-ever sides, with a country historically associated with exciting front-foot, possession-based football is an ideal philosophical match.

Yet following the initial surprise, questions about why the KNVB decided now was the time to bring in their first foreign coach since 1978 with no previous international experience quickly followed. Although prominent voices like Rafael van der Vaart were positive about such a big name appointment, others like Pierre van Hooijdonk were highly critical, questioning Xavi’s credentials and why a Dutch coach such as Peter Bosz at PSV Eindhoven or Erik ten Hag were not considered.

It certainly wasn't helped by Technical Director Nigel de Jong admitting that Xavi was 3rd choice for the role, despite also espousing the links between his football education and how the KNVB wanted the national team to play.

Has the KNVB finally seen the light and brought in someone with the understanding and experience to both live up to these stylistic demands and deliver a long-awaited trophy? Or, have they merely let themselves be swept up by a philosophical fealty that has acted as an unnecessary weight on Dutch football for 50 years?

Cruyff, Van Gaal or a mix of the two?

The fascinating feature of the Xavi appointment is that despite being Spanish - and even the winning captain in that 2010 final - he is in a sense a product of the Dutch game. A lot of his greatest football came under Pep Guardiola, who himself was influenced immensely by Cruyff as a player. Before Guardiola it was Frank Rijkaard. And the coach who gave him his Barcelona debut? One Louis van Gaal.

After van Gaal and Koeman were accused of abandoning traditional Dutch footballing values, the expectation in the Netherlands is that Xavi - who won La Liga in his first season managing Barcelona - has been brought in not just to get the Oranje competing again but playing in an attractive style to boot. The comments at his unveiling about being influenced by Cruyff and Michels, and being a ‘son of Dutch football’, have hardly tempered potentially unrealistic expectations.

However, those expecting a Spanish-style Cruyff tribute act will likely be left slightly disappointed. This is not due to Xavi ignoring those football principles but simply because his way of playing in theory connects the two contrasting styles that have been at loggerheads in the Dutch psyche for so long, combining the need to maximise space but also maintain structure.

Quotes from the press conference before his opening match - a deserved draw against Germany - were telling: “You need possession to win the match…but you need the right positions. You need perception to ​see what is happening around you and understand the game.”

Likewise his comments after his first win away to Serbia combined demands for moving the ball faster and attacking spaces better with a need to make the pitch wider and press as an organised unit.

The early evidence

If the proof is meant to be in the pudding, then the early signs are relatively sweet for those hoping to see Xavi’s Netherlands do well - even if there was only one win in the first three matches.

Across the games they averaged 22 shots per match and the larger share of possession in all three, accumulating a total of over 1,500 passes and an average Expected Goals (xG) total of 2.32. That suggests a team that doesn't just keep the ball for the sake of it but does so with real attacking purpose in mind.

Interestingly, not only did they dominate Jurgen Klopp’s Germany in an attacking sense but they were superior defensively too, winning 50 duels to their opponents' 30 and recovering the ball eight more times.

Against Serbia, where they enjoyed two-thirds of possession, the Dutch won more duels, showing how hard Xavi wants his players to win the ball back - and quickly. Remind you of anyone?

Going two goals down to Greece showed the defensive frailties that have been clear this international break, but the way they persisted meant the draw was the least that was deserved.

The ease in which Xavi switched formations across the three fixtures, from playing with an orthodox No. 10 to then an emphasis on wide players in a 4-3-3, aligns with the coach's belief that his players are already comprehending how he wants them to play.

The pool of evidence is a shallow one, but it also points to Xavi looking to give youth a chance. At Barcelona he didn’t hesitate to drop old teammates Gerard Pique and Jordi Alba, whilst giving Lamine Yamal, Pau Cubarsi and Fermin Lopez their debuts. Even if Yamal is a generational talent, it still takes guts throwing a 15 year-old into the fray at one of the world’s biggest clubs. For the Oranje, players such as Memphis Depay and Wout Weghorst have already been cut, with the likes of exciting winger Ruben van Bommel and striker Mexx Meerdink being given a chance to stake their claims. The latter has certainly done that, notably impressing Xavi as much for his hard work and understanding of the system as his two goals against Serbia. The talented Feyenoord midfielder Gjivai Zechiel was also given his debut and is definitely one to watch.

The importance of having midfielders capable of proactive and accurate line-breaking passes was also evident, with Joey Veerman, the now Borussia Dortmund man who wasn't even picked by Koeman for the World Cup, starting against Serbia after coming off the bench in Amsterdam. One would think that sought-after talent Kees Smit - currently in the Under-21s - will soon get his opportunity. The thought of how a fit again Frenkie de Jong might do in this setup is a tantalising one, too. Likewise with Xavi Simons once he returns into the attack.

Meanwhile, it’s clear that if you’re a direct wide forward, you’re going to have a good time under Xavi, with Cody Gakpo and Crysencio Summervile looking like they will be getting a lot more freedom than before.

Finding the balance

There is an incessant debate in football about how much a coach should balance winning matches with implementing a clearly defined style of play. Some coaches would even rather lose their jobs than change (Hello there, Ruben Amorim).

Whether Xavi can find this equilibrium will be one of the intriguing subplots to international football as we gradually creep towards Euro 2028. Not merely winning but reconnecting a famous football nation with a traditional identity is an almighty task.

After so many years of Dutch coaches heading to Barcelona, maybe seeing one go in the other direction will prove the catalyst for success. And after all the talk about two opposing ideals, bringing in Xavi was arguably never designed to be a return to the past. Perhaps it is simply a shrewd and pragmatic fusion of those differing styles to better equip the Netherlands for the future.

Amid the controversy and shame of the first of Ireland’s highly-contentious Nations League double-header with Israel, one man stood above all others.

In a saga the like of which has not been seen in Irish football since Saipan, Gavin Bazunu was and remains the only player to fully stick by his beliefs and refuse to play either game, becoming a hero to many in the process.

To this writer and his family, it was just further proof of the type of person the 24-year-old goalkeeper is.

Destined for the top but also a model student

Bazunu was earmarked for the top from a young age, making his debut for Shamrock Rovers at the age of just 16 in the summer of 2018. He was quickly snapped up by Manchester City, who paid over £400,000 for the teenager - a record fee for a non-professional in Ireland.

At first, it was decided the youngster would stay with Rovers so as to continue his studies at Ashfield College in Dublin alongside several academy teammates and complete his Leaving Certificate, the Irish equivalent of the A Levels.

Like the vast majority of students in the country, Bazunu studied the Irish language. He was taught by my uncle Declan Fitzpatrick, with whom he quickly struck up a bond over their shared love of football, albeit his teacher was the staunchest of Liverpool fans.

Bazunu eventually left for Manchester in the early months of 2019 but still sat his final exams, my uncle forwarding the material for his new teachers across the Irish Sea in England to follow.

In 2021, the same year Bazunu made his senior debut for the Irish national team aged just 19, Declan died following a short battle with cancer. In the days after his funeral, his wife received a mass card and handwritten letter from Ireland’s new No.1 to a house quite literally named Anfield.

In it, Bazunu detailed his strong relationship with Declan and remembered a line his teacher told him during a difficult stage in his time at Ashfield: “The most durable of metals are created in the hottest furnaces.”

Never was a phrase more appropriate this week. One of the most significant in recent Irish sporting history. With the FAI in sadly familiar disarray, the calls for a boycott of the game in Hungary only grew louder as the weekend inched ever closer.

Bazunu informed manager Heimir Hallgrímsson on Saturday morning that his conscience would not allow him to partake in the fixture. It kickstarted a chaotic day of crisis talks and a player vote over whether to play the game or not.

Rumours swirled over how many players did not want to play, with as many as eight not keen on playing, according to reputable sources. There were also reports of a player confronting Bazunu over his decision before later apologising. It was a tense situation the squad should never have been in.

Wednesday’s Oireachtas (Parliament) meeting should have shed more light on the situation but left the nation’s mood darkened by the so-called “leadership” of those at the top of the sport.

It was confirmed that none of Ireland’s goalkeepers were consulted over the Israel games prior to the squad announcement. An utterly bizarre decision that was followed up by an admittance that two player votes took place. Little to no more information was provided.

With the rest of the squad sitting out media duties for obvious reasons, only Bazunu has been heard and he’s the sole representative of Irish football speaking sense right now.

On Saturday, he took to Instagram outlining his reasons for not playing the game, all of which were pure basic humanity and in line with the will of the general population, most notably his “personal belief that the killing of innocent people is wrong.” Hardly controversial.

Bazunu also added: “I am a man of strong faith and try my best to be a person of character and principle” and, importantly, that “there are few times where you get a chance in life to stand up for something bigger and I strongly believe this is one of them.”

It is a stance that more footballers could and should take, with their role in society far more important than some try and make it out to be. It was not one without potential cost. Bazunu has more to lose than plenty of the Irish squad.

His career has plateaued slightly since the heights of a £12m move to Southampton and regular Premier League football. A devastating Achilles injury suffered in April 2024 kept him out for over 250 days, during this time he was firmly supplanted in the Irish goalkeeping ranks by Caoimhin Kelleher.

He understandably struggled for form upon return, also losing his Saints No.1 spot to Israel’s Daniel Peretz of all keepers. Former Chelsea and Bolton defender Tal Ben Haim shamefully claimed that was the reason for Bazunu’s withdrawal from the fixtures in an Instagram post.

Now, coincidentally, at Bolton and still not even in his mid-20s, he has so much of his career ahead, but there has been talk of likely agent lobbying around the fixture. It could impact his future prospects. That may have been a big factor in others’ decision to play, but not Bazunu.

Serious allegations of racism from Israeli supporters towards Adam Idah have only strengthened the demand to have Sunday’s game in Serbia boycotted.

One player has received widespread adulation, chants and love, and deservedly so. My uncle’s wife was not surprised he tracked down her address five years ago, nor that he withdrew five days ago.

Gavin Bazunu possibly may never be Ireland’s No.1 again on the pitch, but his national hero status off the pitch is forever undisputed.

Fallout from the independent commission’s decision to find Manchester City guilty on 114 charges of breaching Premier League financial regulations continues to ripple through English football.

While much of the immediate commentary focuses on potential sporting penalties for Man City, an equally significant narrative could be yet to unfold across town at Old Trafford.

Man United chief executive Omar Berrada was headhunted by Sir Jim Ratcliffe in early 2024, brought in as a shining example of operational leadership. However, Berrada's extensive corporate history at the Etihad Stadium brings him under an awkward spotlight as regulators prepare to examine the wider implications of the commission's findings.

Manchester United's uncomfortable Man City guilty verdict overlap

Berrada joined Manchester City in September 2011 as Head of International Business Development before rising up the club's corporate ladder.

He was appointed Director of Partnership Sales in 2013, Senior Vice President and Group Commercial Director in 2015, and ultimately Chief Operating Officer in 2016 - a position he held until 2020 before moving into football operations.

Berrada's career timeline overlaps with the nine-year period in which Manchester City were found to have broken Premier League rules.

According to figures in the independent commission’s findings, Manchester City’s sponsorship income rose exponentially between 2009 and 2018, rising from £27 million to over £145 million per season. The commission concluded that over £830 million of the £949 million recorded during this era was artificially inflated through direct ownership funding rather than authentic commercial revenue.

Due to the fact Berrada led partnership sales and commercial strategy during these years, the Independent Football Regulator (IFR) could feasibly ask questions of Berrada's role in the mechanics of those deals.

The independent commission’s ruling was delivered strictly against Manchester City Football Club as a corporate entity, and not specific individuals. The findings do not represent a judicial or regulatory finding of personal wrongdoing against individual employees, past or present, and there is no allegation levelled at Berrada as things stand.

Nevertheless, the IFR has made it clear that its remit covers individual governance alongside institutional compliance. Following the announcement of the verdict, IFR Chair David Kogan explicitly confirmed that the statutory body possesses powers to evaluate the 'suitability of owners, directors and executives.'

Kogan noted that the regulator will exercise these powers "where appropriate" to protect the honesty and integrity of English football if evidence implicating individuals comes to light.

For Man United and INEOS, the optics present a delicate management challenge. When the club recruited Berrada in early 2024, the Premier League's charges against Manchester City had already been public knowledge for a year. The Old Trafford hierarchy undoubtedly conducted rigorous due diligence prior to finalising the appointment, relying on his reputation as one of European football's most capable executives.

While Berrada continues managing Manchester United's daily operations, the ongoing legal fallout ensures his past role remains part of the conversation. Whether regulatory authorities choose to examine historical executive oversight in secondary proceedings remains unconfirmed. However, English football's most far-reaching financial verdict has cast an uncomfortable shadow over Old Trafford.

The long-awaited verdict regarding Manchester City’s battle with the Premier League has finally arrived.

An independent commission’s finding that the club broke financial regulations between 2009 and 2018 across 114 separate charges promises to be a watershed moment for English football and governance of the game.

Rivals have reacted with jubilation at what they view as a long-overdue reckoning, and outrage at the scale of City's sustained circumvention of the rules.

How long have Manchester City known about the guilty verdict?

Despite their behind-closed-doors posturing, Man City’s hierarchy and their best-in-class legal representation most likely saw the train hurtling down the tracks.

It is therefore not unreasonable to suggest the club spent the entirety of 2026 constructing a squad that will lessen the impact of whatever penalties are about to follow.

Rather than waiting for punitive measures, which could come in the form of massive points deductions, record financial fines, or multi-window transfer embargoes, Manchester City have busied themselves with recruitment.

Recognising that a player registration ban was a distinct possibility upon a guilty ruling, the Etihad club's decision-makers have built a squad capable of competing at the top of English football for years without needing to touch the transfer market again.

The finishing touches to this future-proofing strategy was laid in the summer of 2026 with a total overhaul of the midfield. City secured the reported £85.6 million signing of 18-year-old Moroccan international Ayyoub Bouaddi from Lille, adding one of world football's most sought-after young central midfielders.

They paired Bouaddi with England star Elliot Anderson, snapped up from Nottingham Forest to add a little bit of everything to the engine-room, as well as Premier League experience. In doing so, Man City established a central midfield partnership capable of anchoring their core for the next decade.

Not content with addressing long-term sustainability, though, City exercised their financial muscle one last time before the window shut with the acquisition of World Cup-winning midfielder Enzo Fernandez from Chelsea.

It was a move few believed City strictly needed from a tactical standpoint but it served as a statement of intent: an elite midfielder firmly in his prime, signed before any potential window closure.

With the benefit of hindsight, this summer spree appears to have been the second act of a plan set in motion months earlier.

During the 2025/26 campaign, City fortified their frontline, adding attacking depth with the arrivals of Antoine Semenyo and playmaker Rayan Cherki. Both players have been integrated seamlessly, now offering Enzo Maresca an embarrassment of riches in attacking rotation.

In stacking more-or-less every position two-or-three deep with top, young talent before the commission rendered its verdict, Manchester City have done their best to numb the sting of whatever sanctions come their way.

If the Premier League imposes a transfer ban, City will not suffer as much as they would have; their entire starting XI and bench are under contract, youthful, being paid handsomely and operating at a very high level.

If they face a steep points deduction, the depth and quality of their squad will give them a far greater chance of absorbing the penalty and maintaining their competitiveness at the top end of the table.

Critics will argue that spending hundreds of millions of pounds to insulate a squad on the eve of a financial guilty verdict mocks the spirit of Financial Fair Play - and they'd be right. From a strategic perspective, though, they've mitigated risk, and given the precision they've operated with under Emirati ownership, there's every chance this was no fluke.

The Premier League have won the legal battle, but to an extent the horse has very much bolted, because City have been able to stockpile talent when it mattered most.

Manchester City have maintained their innocence throughout the legal process and are expected to lodge an appeal to the Premier League's ruling.

As Prime Minister, football remains at the heart of Andy Burnham’s vision for Britain.

The lifelong Everton supporter wants to right decades of wrongs in his role as leader of the nation, and the game he loves is part of those plans for revolution. Unlike David Cameron, who couldn’t distinguish which shade of claret and blue belonged to West Ham and his beloved Aston Villa, Burnham’s true-blue credentials are unquestionable.

He even managed to incorporate a match at Hill Dickinson Stadium into his summit with the Canadian premier and fellow Evertonian, Mark Carney, as the pair watched David Moyes’ side scrape past Wolves in the Carabao Cup’s third round from the stands.

Andy Burnham's alcohol at games bid lacked full backing

Mixing business and pleasure (or torment as most Toffees fans would more accurately describe it) is a perk of the job for Burnham, but he wanted the two to again coalesce, with hints at abolishing football’s longstanding ban on alcohol within view of the field of play. The restriction introduced in 1985 as a countermove to rampant hooliganism remains in effect over four decades later despite marked changes in match-going behaviour.

The PM believes the Sporting Events Control of Alcohol Act is ‘discrimination’ towards football fans, who are still treated as second-class citizens by those in positions of law and order while other sports carry on regardless. Rugby supporters of both denominations – league and union – had no issues lugging pints up to their seats at Hill Dickinson Stadium earlier this summer. Cricket aficionados, similarly, are looked on favourably when they do the same at test matches. It’s considered part and parcel of the conviviality. In contrast, anyone daring to peer in the direction of a stadium vomitory in England and Wales across the men’s top five leagues with a drink in hand finds themselves under scrutiny from stewards and police alike.

No sooner had the proposal been floated, however, that it was kiboshed by the threat of an increase in demand for policing by clubs which would incur additional financial burden. Yet Burnham was not actively pushing for an end to the legislation, rather seeking to start a conversation around the merits of doing so by reaffirming a long-held opinion publicly. He is already fully aware of the political resistance towards it after MPs rejected a motion put forward by the Conservative Party last year that requested a formal consultation on scrapping the rule under the auspices of the Football Governance Bill. Support from within the game is similarly reluctant with polling from YouGov finding that 64% of match-going Brits believe the ban should remain in place compared to 26% who backed Burnham’s sentiment. Support was never likely to be universal on any attempt to change the status quo, even supposedly for the better, yet many have valid reservations for not greeting the potential shift in legislation with unbridled joy.

Scenes at watch-along venues during major international tournaments were an obvious red flag for those unconvinced by the idea of a return to drinking within the stands. Plastic glasses being thrown is not a phenomenon exclusive to Boxpark. Revellers and performers have found themselves pelted with tepid liquids, some not sourced from a beer tap, since time immemorial. But as FourFourTwo columnist Henry Winter recently pointed out, it has now become a national sport. Publicly taking in an England game is on par with sitting in the front two rows at SeaWorld; both come with an obligatory soaking. Footage of mass pint chucking continues to go viral on social media, but getting drenched, especially so early into a potential evening of merriment, isn’t most people’s idea of fun and especially not when most items of clothing become collateral damage.

The lore of the ‘Boxpark spray’ has also become a main event for some rather than a reactionary outpouring. During the Three Lions’ World Cup last-32 encounter with DR Congo in July, one watcher inexplicably chose to launch a cup of dark cider over the crowd just seconds after Marcus Rashford had hit the side-netting and celebrated it with the same level of zeal as seeing Thomas Tuchel’s side crowned world champions. Stadium swillers potentially being identified from CCTV is unlikely to deter those who want to create their own ‘moment’, even to the detriment of hundreds, if not thousands.

Beyond dousing fellow supporters, those on the pitch were also at increased risk of projectile pints. The touchline at Euro 2024’s opening matches were strewn with cups aimed at both players and coaches. At club level, Angel Di Maria famously pretended to swig from a Heineken bottle thrown in his direction by Manchester United fans during Paris Saint-Germain’s 2019 Champions League last-16 first leg tie. A year earlier, Manchester City’s team coach ran a gauntlet of flying glass before their European knockout clash away to Liverpool. High-stake contests invariably draw out visceral reactions, especially at club level, and the potential for an outlet being provided to would-be offenders to channel their inner Scrappy-Doo with sufficient Dutch courage.

There was no guarantee that a return to in-game drinking would have a desired effect for clubs, particularly those lower down the pyramid, hoping to make capital gains from it. Habits around pre-match and half-time refreshment long formed in many supporters’ matchday routines and the prospect of a lukewarm pint at your seat in the peak of winter doesn’t have the same appeal as huddled on a concourse or in the many pubs within walkable reach of most stadiums. The original ban succeeded in forcing existing match goers to adjust to a new normal and ensuring future generations who have known no different would follow the example set. A successful 18-month pilot scheme of drinking in the stands at Women’s Super League and WSL2 games has been cited as another potential supporting point to bypass it after being hailed as ‘overwhelmingly positive’ by the governing body. But the women’s game was already exempt from the restrictions while its matchday culture is in stark contrast to their male counterparts, with opposing fans still free to sit in non-segregated seating areas.

Burnham’s short-lived play for what he believes is a basic right being denied to fans of the game did not have a groundswell of endorsement even before prohibitive costs put it on the back burner. There are so many other routes down which he can still score easy wins with the footballing populous without harking back to trappings from a bygone era which most can take or leave.

His former jurisdiction of Greater Manchester is currently proof of that with the squeeze being put on Old Trafford season ticket holders in a seeming attempt to free up prime real estate for those willing to pay for the experience. So, too, is the extortionate train ticket prices that many fans are forced to shell out just to support their team on the road in matches that are increasingly switched solely for the convenience of armchair viewers.

Doing things differently was how Burnham sold himself upon entering Downing Street, but any policy changes he seeks to make to football must be meaningful, not lazy headline-grabbing acts.

In a landmark moment for English football, an independent commission found Manchester City guilty on 114 of 115 financial charges brought against them by the Premier League.

The historic verdict follows an exhaustive investigation into the club’s financial conduct spanning a nine-year period between 2009 and 2018.

The charges concern severe allegations, including failure to provide accurate financial information, disguising owner funding as commercial sponsorship income, operating off-the-books payment structures for managerial remuneration, and breaching Premier League Profitability and Sustainability Rules.

FourFourTwo decide Manchester City's fate

While Manchester City have maintained their innocence throughout the process and are expected to lodge an appeal, the guilty ruling leaves the club facing unprecedented potential sanctions. These range from astronomical financial fines and multi-window transfer bans to heavy points deductions or even potential expulsion from the top flight.

To answer the question everybody is asking: how would the FourFourTwo team punish Manchester City?

Editor: James Andrew

What should happen: They should be expelled from the Premier League, denied entry into the Football League and made to start again further down the pyramid.

In addition, for every year these breaches were made - nine years in total - they should be banned from signing any external sponsorship deals.

What do you think will happen?: Points deductions staggered over a number of seasons but ultimately not enough to relegate them.

Fined £900m with the money distributed to clubs who successfully claim loss of earnings against them.

Transfer ban for five years. But leave the past in the past, strip Manchester City of their trophies, but they should not be redistributed to other clubs.

Deputy Editor: Matt Ketchell

What should happen: Titles stripped, relegated to the bottom of the English Football League, current squad players to be returned to their origin club for free, Sham ‘69’s ‘If The Kids Are United’ to be played as compulsory goal music for the first nine seasons.

What you think will happen?: One-off points deduction, two-window transfer ban, medium-to-large fine.

If these charges are proven, and appeals are heard and rejected, this is the biggest corruption in club football history and has damaged countless clubs and individuals. At the very least, the club should be expelled from the Premier League and heavily fined. My preference would be for the club to be relegated to the foot of the Football League (League Two) and fined £900m.

The Premier League’s statement has given new meaning to the word ‘sham’. That word is now permanently linked to Manchester City Football Club. English punk band Sham 69’s famous single ‘If The Kids Are United’ features the lyrics: 'How do you feel, They can lie to my face, But not to my heart, If we all stand together, It will just be the start.' The Premier League must stand up to these offences, and no doubt fans of rival clubs will be in agreement that punishment should be strong.

Individuals responsible for these actions should be banned from football for life, as Juventus club executive Luciano Moggi was for his role in the Calciopoli scandal in 2006. Manchester City’s current owners would fail the owners and directors test in light of the charges being upheld; therefore, a compulsory sale of the club should be enforced. Titles should be stripped, but not reallocated.

My gut feeling is that harsh sanctions will land, appeals will be rejected but then the two parties will gather round a table and negotiate something more sensible than playing ‘If The Kids Are United’ as compulsory goal music for the first nine seasons.

Online Editor: Mark White

What should happen: The Enhanced Games is a version of the Olympics in which athletes are allowed to take performance-enhancing substances without being subject to drug tests; I propose a similar thing in football for financially doping clubs.

Let’s get Manchester City, Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain and whichever other owners want to spend a nation’s GDP on Enzo Fernandez into one 'super league' and leave them to themselves, away from The Proper Football. If players want to join that mess, so be it.

What do you think will happen?: Manchester City are hit with a record fine and points deduction. They appeal: the fine is reduced, and the points deduction is lessened.

A few of the players leave – mainly on loan, as some kind of gap year – but others are happy to play a season in the Championship to take City back to the Premier League, where they continue as if nothing happened for the start of the 2028/29 season.

Senior Staff Writer: Joe Donnohue

What should happen: Manchester City shouldn't receive a pithy points deduction - it needs to be more serious than that. Points deductions devalue the competition in which they're enforced. Sporting sanctions for book-keeping offences doesn't sit right either, especially when the list of available penalties is so vast.

City should be made to repay, in instalments or otherwise, the £900 million in cost savings and 'sham' payments that artificially inflated their revenue.

It should be redistributed to the rest of the division and to the wider footballing pyramid, for the betterment of the game.

The club should also be subjected to restricted transfer spending of £50m per season and prohibited from participating in European competition for five seasons.

These are, in my opinion, measures that level the playing field and redress the unfair advantage City have benefited from over the past 17 years, in a meaningful way without cheapening the Premier League brand.

What do you think will happen?: It's been suggested that instead of one huge, relegation-inducing points deduction this season or next, that Man City will be subject to several seasons of 25-point deductions, making it in effect impossible to qualify for the Champions League, but most likely not enough to relegate them.

I also think a multi-year transfer embargo, or conditions on player trading, will be enforced, as well as a substantial fine, although I doubt it will come close to that £900m figure.

Noel Gallagher's Manchester City journey is something most football fans can only dream of. From Barnsley to the Bernabeu, becoming mates with the greatest manager the world has ever seen, gradually witnessing your team tick off milestone after milestone across England, then Europe, then the rest of the world. He's seen things we'll never see.

But somehow, he didn't see this coming. The Oasis singer and Manchester City superfan was described as “bullish” by The Athletic, in the face of the bombshell that his beloved Sky Blues had been found guilty of breaching the Premier League's financial regulations, stating, “If you’re telling me that, because of some sponsorship deal that was signed nearly 15 years ago, the four in a row and Istanbul and all of those things now mean nothing and the club should be burnt to the ground, and its supporters banished to North Korea, then you’re being hysterical.”

Gallagher is no doubt in the majority when it comes to City fans: the first stage of grief is denial, after all. And yes, those titles, those moments, were earned on the pitch. No one can erase the ecstasy of Aguero; no one can rewrite arguably English football's greatest-ever title races, which came against Liverpool. But honestly: do Manchester City still deserve the fans defending them? Do they even deserve their players going out and playing – against Liverpool, funnily enough – in the first game back, post-international break?

It should be noted that the club strenuously deny the accusations even now: they will lodge an appeal against the ruling – which used the word “sham” five times, by the way – and any punishment that they receive for serious breaches and failure to cooperate with the investigation may well be reduced.

But this verdict is proof that Premier League owners do not see football in the same way that we do. You only have to look down the road at Sir Jim Ratcliffe, spouting repugnant comments about immigration while ignoring the fact he's insulting communities who helped build Manchester – all while claiming to be a Manchester United fan.

Football is a business to billionaires – we all know that – but perhaps all too often, we forget that it's not even a sport to them.

It's a tourism gig. People come along, they pay their money, they take pictures of Erling Haaland, and they share them online. Sometimes they win, sometimes they don't. Everyone watches it regardless.

Owners don't want fair play. They don't need working-class fans unless they help generate an atmosphere they can monetise. In the nadir of Arsenal's ‘banter era’, fans launched a campaign entitled #WeCareDoYou directed at ownership, Kroenke Sport Entertainment, after slipping into the Europa League for a third straight season. The question was rhetorical: but beyond the Jack Walkers of the world (of which there are very few left), does anyone who owns a football club truly care about it like a fan does?

No. Of course they don't – and City's ownership has failed to uphold the values that the club was founded on.

City have embarrassed, let down and taken their fans for granted. Not just the ordinary fans in pubs who defended them, nor the ones who made television appearances or spoke in front of big audiences to maintain collective innocence. Not just the ones who released seminal albums in the 1990s, either, or the ones who were there when Stockport and Macclesfield were closer reference points than Old Trafford and Anfield.

They have tarnished the name of Pep Guardiola, arguably the Premier League's greatest-ever manager, who won trophies having started the race halfway down the track. Kevin De Bruyne, David Silva, Vincent Kompany and Sergio Aguero: all some of the greatest footballers to have ever played the game, now with asterisks over their legacies.

And what of the current players? Were Elliott Anderson, Enzo Fernandez, or Ayyoub Bouaddi warned about any of this? Or were they told the same thing that Noel Gallagher was?

Some fans will probably see at least some of the backlash as an attack on them. It may feel personal. And deep down, there will be others who either don't care or don't see this as a big deal, as Gallagher himself suggests.

But Manchester City fans should be disgusted. A community founded by their great-grandfathers nearly 150 years ago sold its soul for a few trophies. They'll either be taken away or never respected again. Every name in every song on the terraces for the past decade has been stained by the scandal. And we can't go back and play those title races again: giving Jurgen Klopp a retrospective medal doesn't make it fine. In years to come, this decade of English football will be remembered with dark clouds over it. This was a golden era for the game in this country – but it was hollow and essentially didn't mean anything. Why do we even get into football if this is what it all comes down to?

The Premier League have ruled that City cheated English football. But no one has won in any of this. Not even those closest to the glory.

When Steven Gerrard was recently named Liverpool’s greatest player of all time, he was the only player in the top 10 not to have a league title to his name.

That his legacy is preserved despite lacking that honour to his name underlines how his performances across 710 appearances for the club, and eight other trophies won, are revered by supporters.

Ask any Liverpool supporter who the one player is who deserved to have won the league; it’s Gerrard, unquestionably. But that shouldn’t be just from a Liverpool perspective, either: Gerrard is simply the best player to have never won the Premier League.

The two chances

There were two occasions when Gerrard did almost get his hands on the Premier League trophy, 2008/09 and 2013/14.

The first was, at the time, Liverpool’s highest league points total, having suffered just two defeats all season as Gerrard combined with Fernando Torres in blistering fashion under Rafa Benitez.

The second was, of course, as Gerrard and Luis Suarez inspired Brendan Rodgers’ Liverpool to a completely unexpected title run, pushing Man City all the way thanks to a run of 11 consecutive victories - something that gets forgotten when revisiting the infamous Gerrard slip against Chelsea.

If a Liverpool supporter could have a magic genie lamp to change the result of any match in their history, the defeat to Chelsea in that April of 2014 would be right among the list, if not the top one.

That was meant to be the year that Gerrard got his deserved title, inspiring his team from a new position deeper in midfield, with the virtuoso duo of Suarez and Daniel Sturridge feeding off his ball-playing from deep.

It was a season when the then-34-year-old delivered his second-highest league goals tally and his highest league assists tally.

“This does not f**king slip now,” Gerrard infamously bellowed, his passion and emotion so clearly on display after a dramatic and emotional 3-2 win over City in April that put the Reds top of the table with four games remaining, but with City having two games in hand.

This was his destiny. The perfect end to his Liverpool career. What he'd earned and what he deserved.

That Gerrard came so close to inspiring a Liverpool side that had Jon Flanagan and Aly Cissokho as regular full-backs tells the story of his career.

Alas, Liverpool’s greatest player was denied the title, and the following season the shock from that title loss enveloped the club. It felt like the fans and players were emotionally shot by how it had ended. People within the club admitted as much, and Gerrard announced his departure in January the following season. It wasn’t how it was meant to end.

No wonder Jurgen Klopp spoke of the need to turn doubters to believers and the weight of history upon his arrival 16 months later.

Even two years later, watching Leicester City win the title, taking nothing away from them, you couldn’t help think how Wes Morgan was a title-winning captain, but Gerrard wasn’t. The hurt lingered.

The 2014 asterisk title

Of course, the 2014 title is one of the asterisk titles now, following City being found guilty of 114 charges relating to the period from 2009 to 2018.

Such findings have led to speculation over what will happen when punishment is finally delivered. Whether City will be stripped of their titles, nobody yet knows. But there is precedent from Italy when Juventus were stripped of their 2004 title following the Calciopoli scandal. Officially, no team is recognised as champions of Serie A consequently.

That would likely be the case if the Premier League were to make a similar verdict, but it doesn’t and won’t stop the supporters, players and all involved in trophy challenges with City from feeling aggrieved.

“I still feel cheated,” was Tony Pulis’ reaction to the news - he was Stoke manager when City beat them in the FA Cup final in 2011. He added: “I am sure people connected with the other clubs affected by City’s successes in the same period, between 2009 and 2018, do too.”

Klopp’s Liverpool legacy

Former Arsenal striker Ian Wright accurately assessed the situation, although highlighting Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool - whose title battles with City currently sit outside of the investigation - with Klopp’s team having finished second in 2019 and 2022.

“When you look at the teams who were trying to chase them and were doing it right, it's not right,” says Wright. "What have we taken from Liverpool's legacy, [Jurgen] Klopp and that team? What could they have experienced?

"They [City] cheated to get it done, and people have missed out on that. Players have missed out on unbelievable opportunities for themselves, so I'm glad that we've finally got there.”

While the two second-place finishes, with 97 points and 92 points, aren’t part of the current investigation, they were clearly indirectly affected also. It is the equivalent of getting rich through illicit means, then going straight but reaping the rewards of the illegally acquired finances.

So yes, Klopp was directly denied two more titles. His legacy would be entirely different. He was fighting against a club that had been put into a superior position via illegal methods.

In an interview in 2019, Klopp was discussing legacy, winning trophies, and how life is judged, astutely surmising that “all the other guys who won with ignoring all the rules, all the laws, I think they have to use another door.”

Thankfully, Liverpool supporters recognise what Klopp achieved and what he was up against, and his legacy is and will always be remembered as much more than delivering just one league title.

Just as Gerrard’s legacy is much more than his honours list shows, too.

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t feel cheated. Every team and supporter involved in the Premier League over the past almost two decades should be sincerely aggrieved.

“It's not so important what people think when you come in, it's much more important what people think when you leave,” said Klopp in his first Liverpool press conference.

His team will be remembered differently, as will City’s era of success.

When Tottenham Hotspur moved into their state-of-the-art billion-pound stadium, it was supposed to become a fortress where visiting teams feared to tread.

In reality, it's proven to be something far more accommodating: an arena where opposition sides, regardless of their own internal difficulties, routinely rock up and depart with all three points.

The early stages of the new season have laid bare Spurs' poor home form in stark fashion. Tottenham have already suffered two home defeats from three, first succumbing 2-0 to Newcastle United before falling 3-2 to Aston Villa.

Tottenham Hotspur have lost 22 league games AT HOME since the beginning of 2024/25

What makes these early setbacks so damning is not just the dropped points, but the state of the teams that inflicted them.

Both Newcastle and Villa arrived in North London in states of flux and transition. Villa endured a summer exodus that saw nearly half their core squad depart, while Newcastle lost key stalwarts, integrated a raft of new arrivals, and replaced long-serving manager Eddie Howe with Matthias Jaissle in the dugout.

Neither side truly knows their definitive identity yet, and both walked away with victory.

Spurs should have had the decisive upper hand because while Tottenham are still undergoing their own tactical evolution under Roberto De Zerbi, their squad remains far more settled than either Villa's or Newcastle's.

De Zerbi benefited from an invaluable stretch at the tail-end of last season to bed in his principles of play, iron out kinks, and establish a clear playing style.

That a De Zerbi side with a full pre-season under their belts, playing in their own backyard, was picked apart by two teams still searching for their footing is a troubling indictment.

There are fears this the continuation of a rot that has set in over recent years, not simply a slow start or isolated blip.

Across both the 2024/25 and 2025/26 campaigns, Tottenham’s home record was among the poorest in the Premier League. Spurs lost 10 of their 19 league games on home turf, winning just three. Only relegated Wolverhampton Wanderers and Burnley presided over poorer records on their own doorstep.

The season prior, Spurs' home form was better but not by much, winning six league matches, but still losing 10. Ange Postecoglou, Thomas Frank, Igor Tudor and perhaps now De Zerbi, have all found playing at the incredible Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to be more of a curse than a blessing.

In truth, it has become a ground where visiting coaches can sit deep and wait for the home crowd's anxiety to boil over. And can you blame them, when they've seen 22 league defeats since August 2024? Could it be that ailing home form becomes a permanent feature of Tottenham's modern identity?

De Zerbi was handed a lucrative long-term contract in the form of a five-year agreement worth a reported £12 million per season, alongside substantial bonus terms. Aside from correcting their course at the end of 2025/26, he hasn't made good on the Spurs hierarchy's investment just yet.

Tottenham's commitment to De Zerbi in effect strips the club of any easy or inexpensive exit strategy should the Italian be unable to remedy their home complex. Severing ties early would carry with it an eye-watering compensation payout, meaning Spurs are all-in on De Zerbi fixing their home field disadvantage that has beaten his predecessors.

The road ahead offers little margin for error. Tottenham's home fixture list in the coming weeks features Premier League clashes against Coventry City, Crystal Palace, Ipswich Town, and Fulham - all winnable on paper. Whatever the outcome, they could be the making of, or the undoing of De Zerbi and this latest attempt at a Spurs rebuild.

When you want to be the best, and have to beat the best, you have to take a risk or two. When you’re chasing a game, you have to gamble. Which is why Thomas Tuchel’s continued refusal to trust in Trent Alexander-Arnold has moved from the baffling to the damaging. England’s head coach recalled one of the country’s finest ever passers to the squad, gave him the No.2 shirt, and then ignored him, leaving him on the bench even when England were crying out for proper delivery from the right against Spain at Wembley on Saturday.

The case against Alexander-Arnold rests primarily on a few high-profile incidents of him being caught out defensively. You know the story. Failing to deal with Vinicius Jr’s run to score in the 2022 Champions League final proved expensive. Liverpool lost to the Brazilian’s goal for Real Madrid.

You know the narrative. Alexander-Arnold’s hunger to attack and whip in those enticing crosses for strikers inevitably sees him pushed high up the pitch, leaving space behind. We all know the concern. Yet Jurgen Klopp wouldn’t have picked Alexander-Arnold for so long if he felt he was a serial weakness.

HENRY WINTER: Thomas Tuchel should give Trent Alexander-Arnold a chance for England

Alexander-Arnold played 354 times for Liverpool, becoming a champion of England twice and Europe once. He can defend. He scored 23 times for Liverpool and assisted in an astonishing 86 goals. He can certainly attack.

It’s become almost tiring to have to highlight what Alexander-Arnold can do, rather than obsess only about what he can’t do. It’s not as if Tuchel has seen England turn into George Graham’s Arsenal without Alexander-Arnold. They’ve conceded 13 in the last six games. It’s not as if Alexander-Arnold hasn’t constantly made himself available, waiting hopefully for the call. He’s desperate to represent England again. And the feeling was always that Tuchel called him up begrudgingly for this camp, following Reece James's injury.

In the continued absence of James, a familiar lament, Tuchel should give Alexander-Arnold a chance. He’s worth more than 26 minutes as a sub against Andorra 15 months ago. That’s how much Tuchel has given him. Since then, Jarell Quansah, James, Ezri Konsa, Djed Spence, Ben White, Tino Livramento and Kyle Walker have been Tuchel’s picks at right-backs. And when he did come on against Andorra in 2025, it was in midfield for Jordan Henderson. Curtis Jones, a midfielder, was at right-back.

In explaining why he chose Quansah over Alexander-Arnold against Spain, and kept him on for 90 minutes despite England being behind, Tuchel argued that, “There was a lot of defending to do as well, one-on-one defending. Marc Guehi followed in midfield, so we ended up in a back-three. We needed Jarell’s speed and Jarell’s quality to think also as a central defender. He was top class at the World Cup, he was top class in training this week, he did excellent in this game.” Apart from being caught out for Spain’s winner.

Quansah is a good centre-back, and has been used at right-back by Bayer Leverkusen, but he lacks the range of attacking delivery Alexander-Arnold can produce. Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who thrives on crosses, was sent on for Harry Kane with seven minutes remaining against Spain, yet there was little width. Anthony Gordon had again experienced the early Tuchel hook. Bukayo Saka had just gone off. Morgan Rogers went wide and Morgan Gibbs-White came into the middle.

Alexander-Arnold might have delivered one ball that Calvert-Lewin could have relished. It might have been a cross, a free-kick or a corner. Alexander-Arnold can produce all of those to a very high standard. Instead, Calvert-Lewin was starved of service.

Alexander-Arnold deserves a chance on Tuesday in Prague, where England will enjoy plenty of possession against Czechia, ranked 49th in the world. It’s a game to restore confidence and get England’s Nations League qualifying back on track.

A good manager would ensure cover for Alexander-Arnold. Konsa is quick to cover across, and the Arsenal centre-back has the pace and awareness. Playing a more defensive full-back on the left would give England more security, and allow one defender, Alexander-Arnold, to attack more. Nico O’Reilly kept stepping into midfield from left-back, a noted strength of his (and created Harry Kane’s goal). Lewis Hall, a more natural full-back than O’Reilly, wasn’t considered for the Spain game as a precaution following a slight “injury scare” in training, according to Tuchel.

If he’s fit, England will certainly have a more orthodox full-back. So let Alexander-Arnold roam and create. A strategy with some risk can bring welcome reward. It just depends how bold Tuchel really is.

Alexander-Arnold will be 28 next month. Let’s at least give a special talent another chance for England.

This year’s Ballon d’Or promises to be the most fiercely contested in almost 50 years.

Kylian Mbappe, Harry Kane, Ousmane Dembele and Lamine Yamal are all vying to be crowned the world’s best player next month with the contest set to make history no matter what happens. The award last saw such a close run-off in 1977, when Allan Simonsen, Kevin Keegan and Michel Platini fought it out for the accolade where just four points separated the final podium. Campaigning has rarely played any part in the process. Even at the height of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo’s seesaw battle that lasted a full decade, on-field form continued to dictate which of the pair finished in the top and runner-up spots.

But Mbappe has changed all that in the build-up to the ceremony taking place outside Paris for the first time since its 2016 return with a relentless PR drive in a desperate attempt to convince those tasked with voting for the winner that he rightfully deserves the Ballon d'Or more than Kane, Yamal or reigning holder Dembele.

Kylian Mbappe’s PR offensive threatens to reshape Ballon d’Or

According to the Real Madrid forward, no one enjoyed a better 2025/26 than him despite finishing empty-handed for club and country. He wouldn’t be the first Ballon d’Or winner in recent history, let alone of all time, to win it from that position. Ronaldo himself claimed the 2013 honour after enduring his own trophyless season at the Bernabeu. But Mbappe’s insistence on pushing the envelope by filling every possible space in the news cycle with various justifications has veered into bizarre territories.

The fact he would vote for himself if he could, in a contest chosen entirely by journalists, is apparently considered a ringing endorsement. So, too, was a latest bout of electioneering that cited an upbringing ‘steeped in African culture’ and a recent visit to Cameroon as further reasons why the continent's eligible correspondents should be backing him. Such is the shambolic nature of Mbappe's press tour that AI-generated screenshots depicting him being interviewed in a bathtub by a French YouTuber recently went viral despite nothing of the sort actually taking place.

Mbappe’s supreme self-confidence in his powers of persuasion is understandable if somewhat misguided.

He finished as the World Cup's Golden Boot winner as well as the tournament’s all-time top scorer, pipping Messi despite reaching a third final in the past four editions, but missed out on a bronze medal to Kane and England in a chaotic third place play-off. His combined goal involvements for France and Madrid clocked in at 57 from 52 appearances – but it still paled in comparison to Kane’s haul of 75 goals and assists in 58 matches for Bayern Munich and the Three Lions. The fastest-ever player to rack up 100 Bundesliga strikes also won a German league and cup double while eliminating Mbappe's Real Madrid from the Champions League knockout stage.

Despite injury issues limiting his impact at the World Cup this summer, Yamal also has taken aim at Kane. The teenager managed to produced 44 goal involvements in 53 games and play a key part in two trophy-winning teams with Barcelona and Spain. He believes the Ballon d'Or should not simply go to trophy winners or 'a player who has scored 80 goals'.

But Mbappe has already made clear that he is not pushing to win for personal gain, rather out of a sense of duty as ‘the award belongs back at the Bernabeu’. Los Blancos and Barca players have won the award 12 times apiece in their own right - more than any other club - but that has not stopped the former from proudly displaying 17 iterations of the trophy, including those won by players prior to their moves, including Kaka and Michael Owen, also showcased in reflected glory.

Already reigning supreme with the most Champions League titles, Madrid now want to become the outright leaders in Ballon d'Or successes. A sense of unfinished business also hangs over Mbappe's never-ending propaganda push. Scars from the 2024 award, when Rodri gazumped Vinicius Jr after driving Spain's European Championship triumph, remain raw over two years on. The Brazil international and his teammates boycotted the ceremony in disgust at the perceived theft despite the final vote confirming he had finished 41 points behind the then Manchester City playmaker.

Vinicius responded to the disappointment by defiantly claiming he would win it “10 times if I have to”, hinting that it represented a greater personal achievement than his man-of-the-match display at the pinnacle of European club football and potentially anything he would achieve on the international stage. It's an obsession which has become so all-consuming that it has become detrimental to his on-field exploits, which has a knock-on effect of dissuading those who previously voted for him.

Kane's reluctance to talk up the prospect of a hometown coronation at the London Palladium, hosting the award's 70th anniversary away from its spiritual home, only strengthens his case alongside the tangible evidence left out on the pitch. Now 33 and still at the peak of his powers, it is difficult to root against the Bayern marksman.

United States head coach Mauricio Pochettino has even gone against his creed by tipping his ex-Tottenham lieutenant over Messi, who retains support from his Argentina teammates and Inter Miami co-owner David Beckham to claim the award for a record-extending ninth time.

The 33-year-old knows how cheap talk can be, having extinguished laughable talk of him being a 'one-season wonder' to become the Premier League's all-time leading scorer prior to his move to Germany, and is not defined by whether or not he wins the Ballon d'Or this year or in any other of his remaining career. Kane is merely another pawn in the latest instalment of what has become football's annual popularity contest.

Whoever is crowned as the game's new crème de la crème in the English capital will still be fiercely disputed by various factions. It has been the case ever since the Messi-Ronaldo duopoly shifted the dynamic of what the award is supposed to represent.

Mbappe prevailing would not confirm anything other than the best way to win a Ballon d'Or moving forward is to just do all your talking away from the pitch.

Sixty-nine days after they lifted the World Cup trophy in New Jersey, Spain faced England last night. It was only one of several mouthwatering fixtures in this fortnight-long international break, which also brings us the Netherlands vs Germany, Belgium vs France and Norway vs Portugal.

The UEFA Nations League is back for a fifth edition, and while there have been the usual grumblings about an untimely disruption to the Premier League season (although not from Tottenham fans, who are glad of the break), you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who would prefer to see meaningless friendlies over the next two weeks.

Anyone in Europe, that is. For while the Nations League has been a success for the old continent, it is not viewed quite so favourably outside it. Brazil and Argentina, for instance, must curse the day it was introduced to the calendar.

"There is a danger that international football is going the way of the club game"

For who are those two giants, with eight World Cups between them, facing in this extended international break?

Such is the paucity of available opponents, Brazil are taking on Australia not once but twice, before a trip to Kolkata to face India, the side ranked 138th in the world, sandwiched between Latvia and the Central African Republic. Argentina have fixed up friendlies with Bolivia, Burkina Faso and Benin, a trio of challengers which might please alliteration aficionados but will do little to set pulses racing in Buenos Aires (aside from Lionel Messi playing his final international fixture for the Albiceleste).

None of this is ideal for the wider international game. By the time the Nations League and tournament qualifiers are taken care of, there are very few opportunities for non-European powers to pit their wits against the nations that have dominated the World Cup over the last two decades.

And dominate they have. Five of the last six world champions have been European. This summer, Argentina and Morocco were the only quarter-finalists from other continents. Since their last triumph in 2002, Brazil have been eliminated from the World Cup by the first European team they have met in the knockout stage. First, that was France, the Netherlands and Germany. Then it was Belgium, Croatia and Norway. There is a danger that international football is going the way of the club game, with Europe pulling further ahead of the rest of the world.

That might seem overblown when you consider the quality of players that Brazil and Argentina continue to produce. Besides, Argentina have not exactly done badly in recent years, reaching three of the last four World Cup finals.

Other nations have benefited from Europe’s development programmes. Morocco’s World Cup squad contained 19 players born overseas, mostly in France, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands. Japanese players, now a common sight in the Premier League, the Bundesliga and LaLiga, are leaving home at an increasingly young age.

Yet all those countries would welcome the chance to butt heads with the likes of Spain, France, Germany and England more often. Unfortunately, few roads lead to Rome. Since the launch of the Nations League in 2018, Brazil have played just five games against European sides outside of tournaments. In the eight years before that, they played 25.

It is a similar situation for Argentina. In the last seven years, the only European sides they have faced in a non-competitive environment are Estonia and Iceland. Some of their friendly slots last season were filled by such gruelling assignments as Puerto Rico, Angola and Mauritania. It is a far cry from 2014, when they played Germany, Croatia and Portugal in the space of a few months.

European nations take for granted the sort of regular, competitive, well-matched games the Nations League affords them. Familiarity breeds not contempt but raised standards.

The problem is, there is no easy solution. Amid the latest FIFA debacle, there was tentative talk of Brazil and Argentina joining the Nations League. A UEFA official claimed back in 2021 that their admission was imminent. Yet FIFA and CONMEBOL would be bitterly opposed to such interconfederation crossover, and Colombia, Ecuador and Uruguay - not to mention Japan, Morocco, Senegal et al. - would surely demand tickets to the party.

In fact, things could get worse before they get better. The ludicrously structured 2030 World Cup will begin in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay before continuing in Spain, Portugal and Morocco, with all six hosts qualifying automatically. The expansion to a 48-team tournament had already made CONMEBOL qualification a doddle for the major powers. With three out of 10 teams already through, the upcoming edition will be even less exacting.

You could argue that none of this is Europe’s problem - and you would have a point. Every confederation is out to look after its own. But for fans of the global game, the Nations League is a double-edged sword.

The London Stadium was just 12 miles down the road as Dagenham & Redbridge netted their third past second-placed Wrexham in May 2022, but for those travelling Red Dragons, it will have felt like a lifetime away.

Phil Parkinson’s side pitched up at The Chigwell Construction Stadium that day with a dream, and a reachable one at that.

They were three points behind Stockport County in the National League – the fifth tier of English football, which holds only one automatic promotion spot to the Football League – but with a superior goal difference. Dagenham were eighth in the league, with the Hatters up against fourth-placed Halifax Town.

Phil Parkinson has already proved he's a mood-turning master

Dave Challinor’s table-topping side were prone to a wobble; in the last game, they’d let the Welsh side right back in, losing 3-0 against Parkinson’s men, in what felt like a potential title decider, just weeks after being dumped out of the FA Trophy at the same venue. Stockport were bruised, and Wrexham were on the up.

Plenty fancied Wrexham’s chances that day, despite not starting in the driving seat. Dagenham had to release a statement leading up to it, offering 300 extra tickets to away fans while pleading with them not to attempt to get in the home end. Excitement was bubbling over. It was certainly going to be a close run-in, wasn’t it?

Er, no.

The Red Dragons were battered off the park, losing 3-0 as Stockport banked a history-making 2-0 win against Halifax. The deflation for Wrexham carried through to the FA Trophy final at Wembley (a 1-0 loss to Bromley) and the play-offs, coming off second-best in a 5-4 game of hot potato with Grimsby Town.

Just like that, their season was over, with nothing to show for the incredible fight they’d shown through the latter part of the season and the hefty investment supplied by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac.

So why are we talking about this over four years after the fact? Partly because we all know what happens next in Wrexham’s story, and it shows just how quickly things can change for the better.

Of the group that travelled down to Dagenham that day, only Max Cleworth and Parkinson himself remain at the club.

The Wrexham boss has found himself in one of the tougher moments of his five-year reign at the beginning of this season. The lowest ebb came as they realised what would have one day been a dream: instead of travelling to the capital for the likes of The Chigwell Construction Stadium, it was the London Stadium for a league game. Well, it was a dream at kick-off, which quickly descended into a nightmare as Jarrod Bowen netted the Hammers’ first, followed by five of his mates also sticking one each past summer signing Anthony Patterson.

“We can do better, and I can do better,” a forlorn Parkinson said in a post-match interview with Sky Sports. “I think the word accountability is important for myself and all individuals as well.”

He cut a figure that you have no doubt seen before: looking down at the floor, blaming himself and admitting his side simply weren’t good enough on the night. A reluctant, withdrawn acceptance that maybe, after such an incredible journey, his spell was running out of steam.

The season prior, they’d been in the play-off places with one game left to play, heading into that final day level on points with Hull City. The Red Dragons drew with Middlesbrough, as the Tigers beat Norwich City, pipping them to the last play-off spot and then going on to win the end-of-season contest. As Wrexham were mulling over this West Ham defeat, a day later, Hull were holding Chelsea to a 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge. Fine margins expand quickly in football.

Looking at it through that lens, there has been an understandable deflation around the Racecourse for much of the beginning of this term, and fans travelling home from West Ham that evening were no doubt feeling it. Faith in Parkinson is high, and perhaps restoring with their most recent win against Southampton, but it’s nights like West Ham when doubts creep in and can take hold.

Those with slightly longer memories will understand the immense rallying power Parkinson possesses, though.

After that crushing miss in the National League in 2022, he picked his squad up, dusted them off and blitzed the competition the following season, racking up a record-smashing 111 points.

That season for Wrexham was the catalyst. Second place in League Two (enough to go up automatically here) followed, and they repeated the trick in League One, famously marking back-to-back-to-back promotions. Yes, Parkinson has been backed financially, but so have others with much less to show for it. It still took some doing, especially from such a dispiriting 2021/22 season.

Thankfully, the two movie stars with their hands on the purse strings appear to be among those with long-term memories, and have not been afraid to double down on their support.

“Phil has shown over and over again that he can win at every level so far,” Rob Mac told The Wrexham Podcast earlier this month, “so I don’t see why he doesn’t have as much room as he can possibly have over the next few years to continue to prove it.

“Phil has earned a lot of wiggle room.

“When I look at how quickly managers are fired, not just in English football, in the sport, all of the world, every league, managers are fired so quickly.”

Firing Parkinson would by far be the biggest and most emotional call the Wrexham hierarchy have had to make since they took over, and Mac confirmed in that same podcast that he wouldn’t be afraid to do it, if the situation called for it.

It may yet come. They may feel they need a bit of Premier League experience in the dugout to take that next step, but Mac noted that situation has not been reached yet. And he’s right.

Following that loss to West Ham, the Red Dragons were just one point off where they found themselves at the same stage last season, getting back to winning ways a week later with that home win against the Saints. Yet more evidence of the manager’s bouncebackability, and a sign that things are not as bad as they’ve felt at certain stages.

Outsiders may ask how you recover a squad’s mood after that huge miss last season, and how you erase the memory of a 6-0 drubbing on what should have been a special night. Anyone who’s followed Parkinson’s career for any length of time will simply point to his record.

International football’s expanded first break of the season has a box office opening.

Jurgen Klopp’s appointment as Germany head coach was almost two decades in the making but took a catastrophic World Cup exit to Paraguay this summer to finally deliver alignment. Since dramatically calling time on a glittering spell with Liverpool in 2024, many unsuccessfully attempted to coax him into returning to elite-level coaching. Supposedly, no job could tempt him back.

Retirement, however, lasted little more than two years as the self-proclaimed ‘Normal One’ answered the call to lead his homeland after Julian Nagelsmann’s resignation. A man who loathed international breaks with a passion in his time at Anfield is now living for them and could not have asked for a greater baptism of fire as Die Mannschaft take on old enemy the Netherlands in Thursday night’s Nations League opener.

Germany’s gamble on Jurgen Klopp may not pay off

The showdown at the Johan Cruyff Arena contains added spice with former lieutenants Virgil van Dijk, Ryan Gravenberch and Cody Gakpo likely to line up for the Oranje.

Meanwhile, Xavi’s bow in the home dugout has the potential to reignite the battle between tiki-taka and heavy-metal football that underpinned Klopp’s meetings with Pep Guardiola as the pair regularly duked it out for some of the game’s top honours in both the Bundesliga and Premier League. Fittingly, Germany’s most anticipated managerial reign since Franz Beckenbauer will also be marked in Amsterdam by the visitors wearing a replica kit synonymous with Der Kaiser's crowning moment at the 1990 World Cup.

Time away from the touchline has done little to dim Klopp’s front-footed nature; he confirmed as much by wading into thorny political discourse in a press conference earlier this month during which he outlined hopes of ‘reclaiming the flag’ from the country’s far right after it made sharp gains in regional elections. The German FA (DFB) knew it would be his way or the highway in their quest to reclaim a once rightful place at the pinnacle of international football. Hiring a unifier – or ‘Doctor Football’, as he was dubbed by Red Bull upon becoming their head of global soccer – is the first step towards that aspirational revival. It's a dance Klopp knows better than most, having transformed similarly fallen giants at club level in Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund.

A dream ticket appointment, on the face of it, but there has still been some early bumps in the road. Klopp was quick to make clear that leading the four-time world champions will be the final chapter in what has been an impressive managerial career. Unlike Beckenbauer, he will not be going back to the well once his time ends, currently after the 2030 World Cup. In the bluntest terms, it is as a moral obligation from which he is prepared to walk away if mutual respect is not afforded. The country's media is already on notice of a zero-tolerance policy towards the same mistreatment Nagelsmann and England's Thomas Tuchel both endured in North America.

The new Bundestrainer is under no illusions of the task ahead, having already used his platform as a TV pundit at the World Cup to outline the ‘need to change things fundamentally’. A different way of working has seen an enlarged sample size of 44 players, 16 of them uncapped, named in a maiden squad that will be split across their four Nations League fixtures. Yet focus is already gravitating towards the second half of that mammoth schedule and whether Klopp can successfully reframe the ongoing debate surrounding Florian Wirtz's luckless start to life at Liverpool.

As a longstanding opponent of eye-watering transfer fees, Klopp did not hide his dismay for the £116m paid to bring the Bayer Leverkusen playmaker by his erstwhile employers last summer; labelling it 'an insane sum' that would be writ large for the player 'if things don't go well for two or three games'. That premonition proved to be scarily accurate as market inflation has made Wirtz an easy target for the critics. He has become a disruptor for Liverpool in the worst possible sense; skewing a tactical dynamic that Klopp set down across nine years to great effect and served as a blueprint for his successor Arne Slot to deliver a record-equalling 20th title.

Ironically, Klopp's uncompromising system is the key to unlocking Wirtz's potential as roles are clearly defined rather than the horses-for-courses approach favoured by Nagelsmann during his time at the helm. He also has form with rejuvenating a fanfare arrival from the Bundesliga who initially struggled to adapt to life in the Premier League. Roberto Firmino’s move to Merseyside just months prior to his own felt like a preordained signing, but there were serious doubts over whether the Brazilian could attain the levels that the club’s talent spotters believed he was capable of.

Opportunities to reinstill enough confidence in Wirtz on the training pitch to make him a potent force once more are far more constrained at international level than the daily interactions he enjoyed with Firmino but it is already seen as being make or break to his continued prospects for country as well as club.

Limitations extend to Klopp’s plans to wrestle with an identity crisis that has hung over Germany at successive tournament exits since their World Cup defence crashed and burned in 2018. Gary Lineker’s adage of football being a simple game of 22 men chasing a ball for 90 minutes which ends in the Germans always winning has not been the case for some time.

As the godfather of Gegenpressing, Klopp already accepts that he will not be able to ‘turn the footballing world upside down’ overnight but translating successful methods from club level to the international stage is by no means a flawless methodology, as predecessors Nagelsmann and Hansi Flick can fully attest.

A two-year countdown until Euro 2028 should afford Klopp the time and freedom to break the current cycle. His entire CV has been gearing up to this moment. But the danger of ideology and reality failing to coalesce is still very real for Germany.

Kylian Mbappe's brash campaign for a Ballon d'Or might just be the most noisy and desperate attempt that we've ever seen to rob a seat at the table of football history.

The case? He's scored a lot of goals. The snag? None of them mattered. We can all see right though it – and the drive for votes actually outs the Real Madrid star's lack of understanding when it comes to his own job role. If scoring goals was enough for a centre-forward, then Cristiano Ronaldo would probably still be at the Bernabeu. Hell, Raul would probably still be there, too.

Being a striker is about more than just putting the ball in the back of the net. It's the glamorous role: the full stop at the end of a move, the headline on the back of a paper. But world-class centre-forwards in this day and age are not defined by their goals. Do we really need to keep saying it?

And thus, Mbappe's one-eyed crusade for someone, anyone, to recognise him in a league with Ousmane Dembele has become the most outrageous heist carried out by a Frenchman since Regis Le Bris signed a forward of Brian Brobbey's quality for a newly-promoted team.

Not that anyone said so at the time. Sunderland's scattergun summer of 2025 very much had the feel of throwing enough at a wall in the hope something would stick. Granit Xhaka was inspired and Robin Roefs a shrewd spot, while the likes of Arthur Masuaku and Bertrand Traore seemed like daft ideas to fill squad quota.

Most of us had Brobbey in the second pile: a once-tipped bull in a china shop who had impressed at Ajax, flopped at RB Leipzig, then flopped once again back at Ajax, with the Amsterdammers relieved to see the back of him for a second time when the Black Cats greenlit a £20 million investment.

We were all varying degrees of wrong.

It's easy to say after a hat-trick against Manchester City: in fact, no one in the Premier League generated a higher amount of Expected Goals (xG) than Brobbey last weekend, apart from Sunderland. But it's been a year's worth of this now. He was a key reason that Le Bris's team could actually get up the pitch. He was the Netherlands' best attacker at the World Cup. And a week prior to battering City, Brobbey absolutely terrorised Ezri Konsa and Gabriel – perhaps the best defensive duo in the league right now – and he's maybe the only man who's given Gabriel that much of trouble in the last two years, is Erling Haaland.

Yet you'll notice that we haven't mentioned his seven goals in the Premier League last term: a respectable number for a No.9 at a newly-promoted outfit, in his first season in English football. Because, frankly, the goals pale in comparison to everything else.

Brobbey is horrible to play against. He's Diego Costa with a conscience; he's Memphis Depay without social media ambitions. He's under 6ft tall, yet built from steel, able to wrap himself around a centre-back and trap the ball. He is unselfish, unflappable, unfoulable, un-push-over-able.

That's the role of a striker: it's not just trademark celebrations and notches on WhoScored. It's bringing team-mates into the game, running channels for an hour before you're found and literally barging into brick walls to get a kick. And perhaps now we can all see that it's not a role for kids.

Brobbey was criticised because he wasn't prolific in front of goal – but then how many lone centre-forwards under 21 are? Haaland. That's about it.

Mbappe played out wide or in a front two in his early years. Harry Kane broke through at 21 with such suspicion that the “one-season wonder” flak became a running joke. Ousmane Dembele and Raphinha have been converted to centre-forward late in life. Julian Alvarez has never been a lone striker; neither was Marcus Rashford.

And every other young centre-forward has faced their own fate: mocked, like Brobbey, or flopping entirely somewhere. Alexander Isak was driven out of Borussia Dortmund with five matches in yellow-and-black. Hugo Ekitike wasn't given enough time at Paris Saint-Germain. Rasmus Hojlund failed in England, as Endrick appears to be struggling at Real Madrid. Vitor Roque was a disappointment at Barcelona. Nicolas Jackson wasn't good enough for Chelsea. Kai Havertz has been much maligned his entire career – and only in the past 18 months has it become clearer that actually, he's all right.

Who will be next? Nick Woltemade has left the Premier League after a single season: was he really that bad, or was he never really ready? Is Manchester United wonderkid Chido Obi deemed to be the next Freddy Adu, or are we just putting too much pressure on him?

Fabio Silva was, at one stage, one of the worst signings that the league had ever seen, with Wolverhampton Wanderers paying £35m for a teenager who returned four goals in over 60 appearances, before successive loan disappointments in Belgium, the Netherlands and Glasgow. He's now 24 and at Dortmund. He doesn't look like the worst striker of all time.

Maybe it's impossible to judge young strikers in the same way that we do other positions. It's perhaps easier to play at full-back when you're 18, or as part of a tight-knit midfield unit than it is to flog yourself up front for an hour-and-a-half, and affect the game with a game or assist.

We were certainly over-harsh on Brobbey. There are plenty of strikers younger than him that can learn from his journey – and several older who perhaps should take note, too.

The international break is here, and for Ireland, few games in recent memory have had as much anticipation as the Nations League double-header with Israel. Of course, for all the wrong reasons.

Ireland play four games over the next two weeks; they include two games against Israel at neutral venues, the first on the 27th September in Hungary, the second in Serbia on the 4th October. The second match is nominally the Republic's home tie, but it is being played behind closed doors over security fears.

There has been pressure in the Republic of Ireland to boycott matches against Israel because of the attack in Gaza. But in July, the FAI voted to proceed with the games amid concerns that a boycott would potentially harm the association.

Major divide

On both a historical and humanitarian level, Irish people have always been among the most vocal and passionate in support of Palestine, as well as countries such as Lebanon and Syria.

Despite this, there is a major divide between the bulk of the general population and the authorities on the issue of boycotting these fixtures.

The Irish government has been “strong” in its condemnation of the atrocities taking place in Gaza, the West Bank and southern Lebanon, but far less so in its actions. It was all smiles when Donald Trump – a key funder of Israel – landed for the Irish Open last week. Why was it held at his golf course? Politics is undoubtedly complicated, but come on.

The fabled political act of speaking out of both sides of your mouth extended to the boycott. Following February’s draw, Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Micheal Martin was adamant the games should go ahead, trying to separate sport from politics. It's a complete folly and even more so in the international sphere. There seems to be no blowback to the national broadcaster, RTÉ, boycotting Eurovision for a second year either. The broadcaster has confirmed it will provide "stripped-back" coverage that will meet its contractual obligations to broadcast Ireland's two UEFA Nations League fixtures against Israel.

The FAI have been morally contradictory and inconsistent. In November, a member vote passed a resolution to put forward a motion to ban Israel from all UEFA competitions. It was a straightforward procedure, with the Israeli FA violating two statutes: failing to implement an anti-racist policy and clubs playing in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

The vote was 97% in favour but slowed down due to Trump’s “peace plan” and the ongoing “ceasefire”. Neither could be considered a success, but we should know better than to expect leadership and conscience from those at the top of the sport. (The less said about Gianni Infantino, the better).

A second vote took place in July, this time regarding the boycott of the games – 70% of FAI members were in favour of the games being played, including legendary goalkeeper Packie Bonner.

The complete contrast in the votes exposed plenty. In the November vote to ban Israel from all UEFA competitions, the FAI knew they had the support of other European nations. In July, they were on their own. Happy to be part of a group but afraid to stand alone.

In a slight defence of the FAI, there are other factors at play, notably the €35m debt still hanging around their necks from the controversial John Delaney era. Among their creditors are the government, FIFA and UEFA, suggesting a more than compromising position.

However, the level of scaremongering ahead of November’s vote was wholly unnecessary. Financial ruin and losing co-hosting rights to EURO 2028 were recklessly bandied around, neither of which were ever confirmed and appear incredibly unlikely.

Current FAI chief executive CEO David Courell did at least have the courage to speak publicly on the matter. It is an undeniably tough position, but suggesting a "unilateral" boycott is pointless and defeats the purpose of protest. Doing the right thing is what matters, and if a fear of consequences stops you, it is nothing more than posturing.

The consistent line of “doing what's best for Irish football” is also tired, vague and inaccurate. What exactly does that mean? Is the soul of Irish football really worth six points and an insignificant sum of money?

Neither manager Heimir Hallgrímsson, nor the players want to be (or should be) in this position. In his press conference following the squad announcement, the Icelandic repeatedly mentioned how “uncomfortable” everyone was.

It feels unfair to criticise any individual player. They are taking a so-called “united front”, but could one not at least stand up for what's right? Celebrities and sports stars should never be viewed as role models, but as Macklemore, who was dropped from Ed Sheeran's tour earlier this month for making pro-Palestinian comments on stage, and several Irish artists have proved their role in driving change cannot be underestimated.

The power of sport and music is like little else in terms of grabbing global attention. There is talk of a “symbolic protest” before or during the game. But will that do for the tens of thousands of Palestinians who have been killed? What will that change? The time for symbolism is over. Action is needed.

Like so often, the real action will come from the people. The #StopTheGame movement has only grown, with support unsurprisingly from James McClean among many others in the local game. Protests are planned for outside government buildings and FAI headquarters during the international break.

But what about everyone else? If the game can't be stopped, it shouldn’t be acknowledged. Don't watch it. Don't read match reports. Don't normalise it. Don’t give it any legitimacy. This isn't sport. This isn't politics. This is humanity.

The sporting repercussions of boycotting may have been avoided, but the moral repercussions of playing will forever stain those involved. One day soon, they will wake up and ask themselves: was it all worth it?

Brentford were Brentford on Friday night: ruthlessly organised, with the physical strength and tactical diligence of their man-to-man pressing wrestling Chelsea into patterns they didn’t want to form. They broke up play, they made it scrappy, and then they capitalised in key moments: set-pieces (goals one and three) and counter-attacks (goal two).

It was textbook, and although sometimes Brentford at their absolute best are simply unstoppable, particularly at home, it does beg the question: had Alonso done his homework?

Put bluntly, this was not the time to trial a brand new midfield partnership featuring two players making their full Premier League debuts, one a youngster who has only played a handful of games in England and one a veteran who never had the agility or dexterity to play through Brentford-style pressure.

Henderson-Barco pivot problems

As I highlighted a fortnight ago, Alonso’s two-man midfield contains tactical flaws that might just be unsolvable. They definitely won’t be solved by a Jordan Henderson and Valentin Barco pivot, not against Brentford’s midfield.

Here’s a typical example of where it went wrong. Brentford hold their ground, forcing Lacroix to keep the ball for 13 seconds before attempting an ambitious long ball out to the left. He has no options because Brentford’s man-to-man press prevents it; because neither Barco nor Henderson can be trusted to get on the ball, resist pressure, and break the lines.

Brentford’s second goal, scored on the break, resulted from the same issue. Henderson gets on the ball here and, with nothing in the pocket to play, fires an ambitious pass that gets intercepted, leading to the goal:

Malo Gusto and Romeo Lavia, both on the bench, would have been far better suited to the challenge, although, more importantly, Alonso should have adapted his 3-4-2-1 formation.

Already, that 3-4-2-1 is too easy to read, too easy for someone like Keith Andrews to prepare for. Chelsea needed Morgan Rogers or Cole Palmer to drop short and wide, or one of the wing-backs to come infield to create an overload, or… anything, really, that would have been unexpected; that might have bamboozled Brentford or at least pulled a man-to-man marker out of position.

Chelsea attempted 28 crosses in this match, each one predictably swatted away. They got done by Brentford like Brentford used to do teams in their first season in the Premier League, which is to say Alonso just didn’t look adequately prepared.

If Chelsea are to challenge for honours, he needs to adapt much faster than this.

The way Johan Manzambi and Nicolas Jackson juggled the ball between each other ahead of the latter’s goal was the high point on an insistent theme, reminiscent of school friends playing at lunchtime, always looking for each other in that nonchalant (ok, smug) way that kids sometimes do.

Poetically for Villa, it was two new signings flourishing precisely because two new Tottenham signings were failing.

More damning still, the Manzambi-Jackson connection resulted from an Unai Emery tactical battle-plan that had targeted Tottenham’s midfield from the outset; the epicentre of Tottenham’s £300 million summer splurge was the very place Emery had identified as their weakness, their soft target.

Villa’s setup was unorthodox for Emery, who did not pick a speedy winger on one side (usually a non-negotiable) and instead had Emiliano Buendia and John McGinn invert from the wings with Manzambi – nominally the ten – dropping deep in what almost looked like a free role.

It caused problems for Tottenham throughout the match, most notably when Manzambi ghosted into the box to score the opener, although the tactic really came off in the second half, when Villa were able to walk through the middle again and again:

But the best example of this phenomenon was Buendia’s winning goal, which ended a nine-pass, 31-second Villa move defined by cutting open Spurs’ midfield no less than three times, the third being Buendia’s finish in open space:

An hour into the Black Country derby at Molineux on Sunday, West Bromwich Albion striker left the pitch with a bandage around his head. He had a minor cut, the last evidence of a long lunchtime in the company of Toti Gomes.

Toti started a Championship match for the first time since Wolverhampton Wanderers played West Ham United at the start of September. One of a handful of players involved who had previous experience of the Black Country derby, the Wolves captain was outstanding in a 1-0 win.

The former Portugal international slotted in alongside Nasser Djiga at centre-back and put in that rare kind of display that gets defenders noticed.

Toti saved his best performance for the biggest day of the season

Toti made more defensive contributions than any other Wolves player, including six interceptions and six headed clearances. He won eight of his ten aerial duels; Heggebo, Albion's striker, ended the game having won none of his six.

That wasn't a coincidence. Toti was imperious. He put his head on the line time and again, almost single-handedly snuffing out the modest threat offered by the visitors.

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The 27-year-old has more than 100 Premier League appearances and a couple of senior internationals under his belt, and every one of them showed at Molineux on Sunday.

He joined Wolves from Portuguese second tier side Estoril in 2020 and played 50 league matches on loan with Grasshoppers in Switzerland, helping them win promotion back to the top flight.

Wolves manager Cesar Peixoto singled Toti out for praise in his post-match interview but later told reporters that his team's ability to stop West Brom playing was the key to a win in his first derby.

Peixoto said that Albion didn't try to do anything that surprised his team, that Wolves were informed and organised and ready to slam the door in the faces of their neighbours.

The away team have started the season in positive form but they were prevented from playing by a combination of themselves and their opponents. With sharper finishing and a lesser goalkeeper, it would have been as emphatic on the scoresheet as Toti's superiority.

For all the chances Wolves crafted, the only goal of the game was a gift. Albion passed themselves into trouble at the back and Nat Phillips misplaced a ball to goalkeeper Max O'Leary.

Fer Lopez nipped in to score, earning Wolves their first home win against their rivals since May 2011. Steven Fletcher scored twice for Mick McCarthy's team in that Premier League derby.

But while Lopez and Peixoto deserve their share of the credit for turning Old Gold to euphoria – Andre ran the midfield too, in the heart of a fine team performance – Toti was the star of the show.

Peixoto was notably cagey when asked about Ladislav Krejci, the player whose spot the skipper took over due to a reported calf complaint that his manager seemed unconvinced will keep him out of international action in the coming weeks.

Krejci has been a danger at attacking set pieces and is a more polished passer, but there aren't many Championship defenders who'll act as a brick wall one minute and run through one the next.

Toti isn't always spotless; this was head and shoulders above every other game he's played this season, and what a time to come up big.

Wolves leapfrogged West Brom thanks to their superior goal difference and ended derby day in fourth place in the Championship. As the international break begins, they're three points behind leaders Swansea City and have a game in hand on everyone above them.

The 2026/27 season is still young but Wolves have put themselves right in the mix as the extended international break begins.

After the turmoil of the last couple of years, Peixoto's Wolves feel more assured than most teams relegated from the Premier League.

A sturdy base, few tactical special moves and the experience of veteran players brought in to anchor the squad and boost the fans – those are the kind of characteristics that can deliver good form over a season.

Individual performances of this standard from the likes of Toti in games where goals are at a premium? They can be the difference between good days and great ones.

Snoop Dogg, Luka Modric and Martha Stewart aren’t used to being upstaged, but Swansea City fans have a new hero whose feats in South Wales are putting even the club’s celebrity co-owners in the shade.

Vitor Matos was appointed head coach of the Championship side last November, when they were 20th in the table and at risk of being dragged into a relegation fight. He guided Swansea to a top-half finish last season and has them among the early pace-setters this term, with supporters dreaming of a return to the Premier League.

The Portuguese, 38, is quietly doing one of the best managerial jobs in the top four divisions. If you weren’t aware of him, remember the name - because it surely won’t be long before he is in the Premier League, with or without Swansea.

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Why Vitor Matos is one of the brightest young coaches in the EFL

Born just outside Porto, Matos is said to have been inspired to go into coaching by Jose Mourinho’s success at the Portuguese giants. He was in his mid-teens when ‘The Special One’ led Porto to the UEFA Cup and Champions League in 2003 and 2004 respectively.

After starting out at local clubs, Matos joined Porto in 2011 and progressed from Under 9s coach to assistant manager of the club’s B team, via a two-year spell in the youth set-up at Chinese Super League outfit Shandon Luneng.

At Porto he met Pep Lijnders, who also rose from the academy to the senior set-up before joining Liverpool in 2014. When the Reds needed a new elite development coach in 2019 - a role Lijnders held before becoming assistant manager - Matos got the call.

Then-manager Jurgen Klopp told Liverpool’s official website at the time: “[He’s] a really great guy, an outstanding coach. Young and experienced, you don't get that a lot. A kind of guy who is used to six or seven sessions a day. He is smart, his English is very good – which is obviously important – and he has worked at different clubs.”

Matos spent five years acting as a bridge between the academy and the first team at Anfield, helping to develop the likes of Curtis Jones, Jarell Quansah, Neco Williams and Harvey Elliott, before becoming Lijnders’ assistant at Austrian side RB Salzburg in summer 2024.

He left when Lijnders was sacked the following December and was appointed head coach of Portuguese second-tier outfit Maritimo in June 2025, only to be poached by Swansea just 12 games into his tenure.

Matos’ backstory is relevant as it helps explain why he is a good coach. He has worked in multiple countries, trained players of all abilities and ages, and learnt from some elite managers. When you consider that Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta and Manchester City counterpart Enzo Maresca both worked under Pep Guardiola and are now managing the two favourites for the Premier League title, it is no surprise that Matos is thriving after spending five years with Klopp.

Maritimo’s metrics under Matos reportedly brought him to Swansea’s attention and he is said to have impressed influential figures at the club, including Modric. Despite all that, the Swans undoubtedly took a risk in appointing a coach with no Championship experience to lead them away from relegation - but that risk has paid off handsomely.

After losing his first two games, Matos won five of the next seven to guide Swansea clear of the drop zone. The club didn’t make a notable signing in the January transfer window but still picked up the 10th-highest points total in the Championship between the manager’s arrival and the end of the season. They finished 11th with largely the same group of players that were floundering earlier in the campaign, which is always a sign of a good coach.

Swansea did spend money this summer, when they announced they had started working with data specialists Jamestown Analytics, co-founded by Brighton & Hove Albion owner Tony Bloom. Jamestown has played a key role in the success of Brighton, Hearts and Italian side Como, among others.

The Swans signed players from Austria, Belgium, Portugal, Scotland and Sweden for more than £20m combined, but continuity has been key to Swansea’s early-season form. In fact, the club’s top five players for both starts and minutes played across the opening seven games of the Championship campaign comprised three who were there last term - Josh Tymon, Lawrence Vigouroux and Marko Stamenic - plus Stephen Welsh, a free signing this summer, and Filip Lissah, a 21-year-old academy graduate who had made one substitute appearance before last month.

Ten of the 16 players who appeared in the 3-1 win over Burnley on September 12 also featured in Matos’ first game in charge. After beating the Clarets, the head coach praised Brazilian forward Ronald, who has had a disappointing two-and-a-half years at the club but provided the assist for Swansea’s third goal. It illustrates again how players who were previously underperforming have thrived in Matos’ favoured 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 system, where the team are encouraged to press high - an approach shaped by his time with Klopp.

He has also had to deal with losing key centre back Cameron Burgess to a season-ending Achilles injury on the eve of the campaign, as well as the summer departure of influential midfielder Ethan Galbraith.

Matos was named Championship Manager of the Month for August, but his success can be measured over his entire tenure. Ahead of last Saturday's trip to Lincoln City, he had averaged 1.65 Points Per Game across his 37 league matches, which translates to 76 points in a 46-game season - enough for a play-off spot. Despite this, Swansea’s form has largely gone under the radar, perhaps because they never troubled the play-offs last term, or because this season is still in its infancy.

In an open Championship promotion race, there is no reason why Matos’ side can’t reach the play-offs, especially with eighth place now enough to qualify. That would be a terrific achievement for a club who had regressed to mid-table mediocrity since losing the play-off final to Brentford in 2020/21.

But even if Swansea’s promotion push falls short, Matos’ personal bid for the Premier League surely won’t end there. Having quietly gone about his business in South Wales, it is only a matter of time until top-flight clubs start to take notice.

The summer transfer window ended with 30 Japanese players now employed in Europe’s top five leagues and many more in European leagues besides.

Takefusa Kubo of Real Sociedad and Bayern Munich’s Hiroki Ito were among those already in place, while 19-year-old Ryunosuke Sato joined Valencia from FC Tokyo after establishing himself as one of Japan’s top prospects on loan with Fagiano Okayama.

Between the Premier League and the Championship, 18 Japanese players are now operating in England’s upper tiers. They include the familiar faces of Kaoru Mitoma and Ao Tanaka, new English arrivals Daizen Maeda and Zion Suzuki, and promoted Coventry City wide midfielder Tatsuhiro Sakamoto.

Japan’s player development vision is paying off

Tomoki Iwata is one of two Japanese midfielders at Birmingham City and is top-notch at Championship level. Ryoya Morishita and Kuryu Matsuki are regular contributors at Blackburn Rovers and Southampton respectively.

In years gone by, that would have been the end of the Japanese players roster and there might not have been anyone as good as those players anywhere on it. In 2026/27, it’s just a handful of examples.

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Player export is a growth industry for Japanese football and there’s more to come, not just to Europe but to England, too. The football authorities in the Land of the Rising Sun have planned for it to be so.

Not content with seeing proof that Japan’s long-standing focus on player development is working – it’s no accident that Samurai Blue and their European arrivals have been spearheaded by highly technical players – the nation’s governing bodies have moved into the next phase.

The J.League and the Japanese Football Association are united in the creation of a belt-and-braces pursuit of a suite of objectives, some of them explicitly outlined in the J.League 100 Year Vision.

If the desired end point is winning the World Cup, the next few steps are designed to better position Japanese football as a structural entity within Asia and the world.

Japan’s aims include making it easier to transfer players into and out of the J.League, to become Asia’s most desired destination league by increasing its appeal to players and improving the standard of the top division as a consequence.

Such goals are not easily met. Together, the league and the federation have gone all in. They’ve committed the very fabric of Japanese football to the cause of connecting the high school and university game to player production at the highest level.

There was also a pressing wish to revisit the availability of teams to play in prestige friendlies against top European opposition, even to route training camps and tours in Europe, without the need for an awkward mid-season break.

Japan’s production line has multiple SKUs

To that end, Japan is currently a month and change into a new football season calendar. From 2026/27, the J.League has reverted to a season that aligns with most of the rest of the world.

The J.League devised the 100 Year Vision League to bridge the gap between seasons proper and put up both an AFC Champions League place and a ton of prize money to entice the clubs to take it seriously in spite of the lack of relegation.

With that admittedly very enjoyable curio in the rear-view mirror, the J.League and JFA are now eagerly watching as the teams get stuck into the new campaign, but keeping one eye on playing opportunities for young Japanese players even if they’re blocked by what everyone hopes will be an improving league.

The governing bodies are aligned here, too, with the national team intended to be the ultimate beneficiary.

New J.League under-18 and under-20 representative teams made up notably of under-used players have been created to play matches against university teams in Japan and to experience the game as a touring team in Europe. Last November, a group of those players were in England and Wales to do exactly that.

This season marks not only a new set of dates for the J.League, but the inauguration of a new Under-21 J.League division. Crucially, all of these tactics point in the same strategic direction. It’s equally important that neither of these safety nets amount to real senior football, but nothing really can.

What matters more than anything else is that the official bodies with every ounce of influence on the matter are doing everything they can, trying everything they believe in, to yank the conveyer belt to a higher setting.

Whether that can achieve the lofty aim of winning a World Cup is anyone’s guess. There are countries who’ve invested more, for longer and from a sturdier base, than Japan.

But the quality of players is a controllable factor outcome and Japan is lighting a fire under that. By reducing transfer market friction and delivering talent into the global pool at scale, 18 Japanese players in the Premier League and Championship is a count that’s only heading in one direction.

On the 30-minute mark during Tottenham Hotspur’s eventual 3-1 EFL Cup defeat at Liverpool, Mathys Tel received the ball on the left flank. In a dangerous position, he sought to work space to whip a cross into the box. Instead, however, he played a disguised pass that trickled aimlessly out of play.

It was a moment that prompted a collective sigh from the travelling Spurs support. They’d witnessed this sort of output time and time, and time, and time again. It was Mathys Tel in a nutshell. All style and no substance.

When Spurs signed Tel in January 2025, beating off competition from Manchester United for the Frenchman, fans were understandably excited. The former Rennes man was viewed as a diamond in the rough. A forward with potential that needed the rough edges smoothed down. Bayern Munich’s decision to loan out Tel was for the 21-year-old to garner regular game time.

Hard to Tel

In truth, Bayern’s willingness to allow Tel to depart should have been a red flag. At the time, though, Spurs were desperate. Mired in another injury crisis, Tel was a welcome and exciting addition to the squad. A forward who could take a marker on and get a shot away – he was exactly what Spurs needed.

Despite an indifferent start to life in the capital, Spurs made the decision to make the move permanent for a reported £30m last summer. It was a low-risk, high-reward transfer, especially as Tel was a forward who was showing plenty of promise. Managerial uncertainty hasn’t aided the former Bayern man, but in time, there’s an argument to be made that he’s proven to be one of the worst signings in the club’s history.

That he was locked up by Jeremie Frimpong, the Dutchman proving to be one of the poorest defensive right-backs in the Premier League, should set alarm bells ringing. Indeed, Tel failed to have a shot. He failed to create a goalscoring chance. He completed just two of five successful dribbles. He’s a player devoid of confidence, and one that doesn’t look as though he’ll regain it anytime soon.

Tuesday’s dire showing comes just days after Tel’s disappointing cameo in Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Everton. As Spurs dominated against the Toffees, they again drew another blank. Tel was called upon for the final half hour, yet again wasted his chance to impress head coach Roberto De Zerbi.

Tel didn’t create a chance. He managed just one shot. He didn’t complete a successful dribble. Even Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford completed one. It prompted an animated discussion with De Zerbi at full time. While the Spurs boss played down the incident, the frustration on De Zerbi’s face mirrored that of every supporter, be it those in the stadium or those watching at home.

Essentially, Tel has become more of a hindrance than a help in the final third for the north London side. What’s concerning still is that he’s a player who has topped key attacking metrics for De Zerbi’s side. No player has completed more dribbles for Spurs than Tel (10) in the Premier League this season, though new teammates Omar Marmoush and Savio will overhaul the former before long, the former Manchester City pair having completed nine apiece.

Additionally, Tel ranks top for touches in the opposition box (24) of all Spurs players. He’s capable of beating a man and getting into the right positions in the penalty area. The issue, however, is that he doesn’t know what to do when he gets into said positions. Tel has created just three chances in four Premier League outings this season. He’s managed just one shot on target. A deer caught in headlights shows more composure.

Mikey Moore has outperformed Tel for the latter stat, and he jetted off to FC Köln on loan last month. It says it all for a player who is evidently struggling, and one whose decision-making is questionable, at best.

It’s a crying shame for a player who has undoubtedly been affected by managerial upheaval over the last 18 months. In his senior career, Tel has played under eight managers. Four of those have been in north London, and the playing styles of each have differed considerably. Admittedly, it’s tough not to feel a pang of sympathy for a young striker who was parachuted into a turbulent mess in January 2025.

Conversely, he’s had his opportunities to stake a claim for a regular spot in the capital. With Marmoush and Savio available for selection, and Mohammed Kudus close to a return to full fitness, fans are hoping Tel’s minutes will be limited, at most. For most, cutting ties with Tel in January would be the best move for all concerned.

I’ll start today by looking back at that brilliant goal from Dominik Szoboszlai in an important 3-1 win for Liverpool against Tottenham.

I was actually covering the game for Sky, and I thought: ‘Wow, what a goal that is!’ But that’s not surprising from Szoboszlai. He's got one of the best techniques I've seen in Europe at the moment, when you consider his ability in shooting from distance. He just caught the ball so sweetly and it just arrowed past Martin Dubravka in the Tottenham goal - it was a fantastic strike. It killed the game off at the end of a nervy period for Liverpool, because Tottenham were pushing on and piling on pressure.

Clinton was speaking courtesy of Free Bets, home of the best betting sites in the UK.

'Dominik Szoboszlai's technique reminds me of Beckham or Rooney'

There are a few players in the past who struck a ball like that. David Beckham had great technique, maybe not so much from that distance on the ground, but more so from free kicks. Wayne Rooney could also score spectacular goals, so they’re the two players that immediately spring to mind.

Meanwhile, the result was obviously disappointing for Roberto De Zerbi, but I think there were positive signs for Tottenham. Mohammed Kudus was a bright spark, and looked like he's getting back to good form after being out for so long.

Today's game against Aston Villa is huge, because they’re yet to score a Premier League goal after four games after all the money that’s been spent in the summer.

But De Zerbi is always going to back his team, and keep belief in the project. The hierarchy will support him and I do think they'll get it right.

Whatever happens, let’s hope there won’t be any further VAR controversy this weekend after Erling Haaland’s goal was allowed to stand in the Manchester derby. It was a ridiculous decision!

People talk about having ex-footballers in VAR, but my friend who doesn't play football would have told you it was offside. It's common sense. I think the referee's assistant probably flagged thinking Haaland was offside. But then when Haaland's onside, you've got to check that Enzo Fernandez has gone for the ball. He's interfering with Lisandro Martinez and he's interfering with Senne Lammens. So he's interfering with two players. If you can't see that on VAR, when you can slow it down and see every angle on a monitor, then it's not good enough. It's nowhere near good enough, because Michael Carrick's under a bit of pressure now.

VAR have got more time than the people on the pitch. The referee and the linesman made a split-second decision. VAR can take their time and it did take their time. And I knew the longer it went, the more I felt they were going to give the goal.

Rugby and cricket do it properly, as you can see how the officials reach their decisions. Whereas in football, you're just looking at an image. Most football fans would have been looking at that image thinking Haaland looked offside. Admittedly he wasn't. But then you look at Enzo and go, ‘Well, he's interfering.’

And then the decision comes, and fans are wondering what’s happening. Then to have these apology statements turns everything into a bit of a farce.

Despite the nature of their win, I've been really impressed with Manchester City and their business in the summer. They brought in Elliot Anderson, Ayyoub Bouaddi and Fernandez for close to £300 million, but they're reaping the rewards. Anderson has been outstanding, while Bouaddi is only 18 and is going to be sensational for years to come. And Fernandez is a top player. They even brought in Allan, a winger who’s a top player. They’ve also still got the likes of Jeremy Doku, Antoine Semenyo, Haaland, Rayan Cherki, and Phil Foden. The list goes on and on with Man City. Even if those players aren't delivering or doing well, they've still got others that can come off the bench.

Their squad depth is fantastic. Just like Arsenal's. You see the young man, Max Dowman, starting and scoring two goals against Ipswich Town. Sometimes he can't even get in the squad! It's ridiculous the amount of quality these teams have at the moment. I think those two teams are the outstanding ones.

Talking about Dowman in particular, I don't think he's going to play as many games as the fans want him to because you've got to realise that Arsenal's squad is fantastic. He's only 16 years of age, and you can't just expect him to be good week in, week out. But Mikel Arteta knows how to handle him, and I feel like it's a similar situation to when Foden was breaking through at Man City and people were saying that it was best for him to go out on loan and play regularly.

He stayed at City, and I think that's what Dowman will do too. He's a super-talented boy, and is going to be a world-class player. But you don't want to throw him into the deep end straight away. You've got to manage his minutes. And that's what Arteta's doing. This is why the Carabao Cup and cup competitions are good for Arsenal, because players like Dowman get the opportunity to go and showcase their abilities.

He's got plenty of time to be starting loads of football matches. Just nurture the young man, let him come through and give him minutes in these kinds of games.

When any team is successful over a sustained period of time, it is natural to start taking it for granted.

For the likes of Liverpool in the 1970s and 1980s, and Manchester United under Sir Alex Ferguson, it reached a point where you simply couldn’t imagine them not winning.

While it is admittedly a stretch to compare these all-conquering sides to a club who have never lifted a major trophy, nor even qualified for the Champions League, there is a similar phenomenon surrounding Brighton & Hove Albion.

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Why Fabian Hurzeler isn't getting the credit he deserves

Mentioning the Seagulls in the same breath as those teams may sound ridiculous - particularly if you support Crystal Palace - but the south coast outfit are an era-defining club in a different way.

For the best part of a decade, Brighton have been the model club of English football. Under the ownership of Tony Bloom, Albion have risen up the pyramid and become an established Premier League side through a mix of data-driven recruitment, exemplary player trading and smart managerial appointments, while boasting a state-of-the-art stadium and top-class training facilities.

It is now expected that every unknown player they buy for next to nothing will be sold for a huge profit, following in the footsteps of Moises Caicedo, Carlos Baleba, Jan Paul van Hecke and many more.

It is now expected that the next manager they appoint will raise the level of the team, in the way that Graham Potter built on the work of Chris Hughton, and Roberto De Zerbi built on the work of Potter.

It is why everyone expected Fabian Hurzeler to be a good fit when he succeeded De Zerbi in summer 2024, despite the German being just 31 years old at the time, making him the youngest permanent head coach in Premier League history.

But De Zerbi was a hard act to follow. The Italian is a tactical innovator, hailed by Pep Guardiola as “one of the most influential managers in the last 20 years”, and led the Seagulls to sixth place in 2022/23, the highest finish in their 125-year existence.

Furthermore, in the era of Squad Cost Ratio and Profit and Sustainability rules, there is something of a glass ceiling for those outside the Premier League elite, as Aston Villa and Newcastle United - clubs with far richer histories than Brighton - have discovered.

As a result, the bare facts suggest Hurzeler has not taken Brighton to another level in the same way as his predecessors. Under the German, the Seagulls have not matched or bettered their sixth-place finish of 2022/23. That saw them qualify for the Europa League, something Hurzeler is yet to achieve. They haven’t reached the semi-finals of a cup competition, as they did under De Zerbi in the 2022/23 FA Cup.

The De Zerbi factor and the way it helped further raise expectations of Brighton means that Hurzeler isn’t getting the credit he deserves, externally at least. But dig a little deeper and it quickly becomes clear that he is doing an excellent job.

The former St Pauli boss has led the Seagulls to successive eighth-place finishes, which last season was enough to secure a place in the Conference League (they would have also qualified in 2024/25 if Palace hadn’t won the FA Cup).

Meanwhile, the Seagulls’ points tally of 61 in Hurzeler’s first campaign was only one shy of the 62 that saw them finish sixth under De Zerbi two years earlier. The 33-year-old also boasts a better win percentage than the Italian over a near identical period: 44.2 per cent across 95 games, compared to 42.7 per cent in 89 matches.

There were other eye-catching statistics doing the rounds after Brighton hammered Coventry City 5-0 last Sunday. In the first four rounds of matches, the Seagulls were the best-performing team in the Premier League for goals scored (13), Expected Goals (10.05), big chances created (19), crosses (107) and shots on target (24, which was the joint-highest tally). They were also equal second for shot conversion rate, at 16.7 per cent.

You could argue that Hurzeler’s side have had a favourable set of fixtures, playing Villa and Coventry at a good time and facing a Chelsea side who have been leaky defensively. Meanwhile, a high shot conversion rate that has them overperforming their xG suggests they have been unsustainably clinical.

But Brighton’s attacking numbers are even more impressive when you consider that Hurzeler has had to completely revamp his forward line in the early weeks of the campaign. The Seagulls sold Danny Welbeck to Chelsea this summer, while Kaoru Mitoma, Yankuba Minteh, Jack Hinshelwood and Georgino Rutter have all missed games due to injury.

As a result, Hurzeler has been fielding a front four of Charalampos Kostoulas, who made just two top-flight starts in 2025/26, Malick Yalcouye, who spent the past two seasons out on loan, Maxim De Cuyper - a full-back by trade - and Diego Gomez. That quartet boasts six goals and three assists between them this term.

It is only seven months since some Brighton fans wanted Hurzeler sacked during a run of one win from 13 league games. Those results would put any manager under pressure, but context is key: when that run began last December, the Seagulls were fifth in the table. When it ended, they were 14th. The club didn’t finish higher than 15th in their first four seasons back in the top flight - another indicator of how expectations have been raised.

Hurzeler turned it around, but the achievement of returning to Europe was overshadowed by Bournemouth and Sunderland ending the campaign in sixth and seventh respectively, which were bigger stories than another top-half finish for the Seagulls.

The season before, Nottingham Forest’s seventh-place finish and Palace’s FA Cup triumph grabbed the headlines. Those were both shocks, whereas eighth was simply par for the course for Brighton.

It feels like Hurzeler needs to lift the Conference League, reach a domestic cup final or qualify for the Champions League for the job he is doing to be fully appreciated.

Achieve any of those and it would rank as one of the greatest seasons in Brighton’s history - maybe then he will step out of De Zerbi’s shadow.

It's fair to say things haven't been terrific for Manchester United so far this season.

Comfortable wins against Ipswich Town and Sabah aside, they've lost to newly promoted Hull City, drawn with Everton's massively depleted squad and lost a Manchester derby against a City side playing with only ten men.

However, Wednesday evening's home collapse against Brighton and Hove Albion might have been the lowest point of the campaign so far, and it was entirely self-inflicted.

Carrick needs to look at his decision making

It was the first time since 1976 that United had lost after taking a two goal lead at Old Trafford, a record that Michael Carrick will now have on his CV for the rest of his career, and the blame has to be put squarely at his feet.

His team selection, chiefly a second-string outfit with a couple of first-teamers thrown in, wasn't anywhere near strong enough, and so it proved.

Granted, the problems at Man United aren't entirely Carrick's fault, there were definitely positions that needed to be bolstered during the summer that were ignored by those in charge of recruitment, but he isn't helping himself with team selections like the one against Brighton.

First of all, the inexperienced centre back duo of Leny Yoro and Ayden Heaven was clearly a huge gamble, with neither particularly experienced or dependable enough to play without the support of a trusted guiding hand alongside them.

The lack of cohesion and understanding between the two was clearly on display for Brighton's equaliser when they were split as easily as Carol Vorderman tackling two divided by two.

Further baffling choices were seen behind the two defenders, with Karl Darlow getting his Red Devils debut. Given that Man United's next game isn't until 4:30pm on Sunday, was Senne Lammens really going to be tired from playing on a Wednesday night?

Darlow was very easily beaten for Brighton's first, which changed the complexion of the game right before half-time, while getting a grip on his inexperienced defenders was a distraction he struggled to cope with. Given the pressure Carrick finds himself under at such an early stage in the season, these choices look like unnecessary risks to be making when it ought to be imperative for him to start building momentum and picking up wins where possible.

Though a club of Manchester United's size should have loftier ambitions than the Carabao Cup, it is a winnable piece of silverware that is now off-limits for this season.

But the Premier League and Champions League are also beyond the realm of possibility for them this season, and likely will be for the foreseeable future, so any trophies should be welcomed.

Instead of taking it seriously, Carrick gambled and lost and has now further limited how much he can achieve in this campaign, while also increasing the amount of scrutiny he will be under from here on in.

His rested players need to perform against a struggling Fulham side this weekend, or things could turn nasty barely half way through September.

Given how much they've struggled so far, it wouldn't be wise to bet on them to succeed.

Tottenham Hotspur are one of two teams without a Premier League goal this season. Four matches in, only Spurs and promoted Coventry City are still goalless.

It's the worst-ever start to a Spurs season in goalscoring terms but they have at least conceded half as many as the Sky Blues. New signing Jan Paul van Hecke is one of the reasons the major problem appears to be at the attacking end of the pitch.

The transfer of Van Hecke from Brighton & Hove Albion was a big investment in a proven Premier League central defender but it came with a catch, and not in hindsight.

Van Hecke and Vuskovic 'swap' will be profitable for Brighton on and off the pitch

Elite football's regulatory environment now incentivises player trading. Selling and buying, in combination, are broadly more compliant than keeping. Clubs twist that might otherwise be motivated to stick.

Players swapping between the same two clubs in the same window is becoming increasingly common but the same regulations make it clear that dealing them independently rather than as swaps is usually the way to go.

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The spreadsheet rules all, and these de facto swap deals are happening more frequently than true swaps ever did. The transfer fees are for accountants. It's the players and the difference between their values that mean something.

Van Hecke's move to Spurs was officially unconnected to 19-year-old Luka Vuskovic going the other way but the deals will always be linked in the minds of Spurs supporters. They might come to view them with regret.

The young Croatian never played a first team game for Spurs before joining Brighton for a reported fee in the region of £46 million. Van Hecke, the older and more expensive of the pair, has been overshadowed by his successor in the early part of the season.

Vuskovic looks like a genuine talent, with all the technical ability, physicality and intelligence to succeed at the highest levels of the game.

He's dominant in the air and a major factor at set pieces in both boxes, and Fabian Hurzeler has been able to lean on him and Lewis Dunk in what's become a very fine start to the season.

Brighton's business model suggests that a player of Vuskovic's prodigious talent will eventually be sold on again for an even greater fee. Van Hecke himself is evidence of that.

For Spurs, the sale of Vuskovic marked the exit of a white-hot prospect who they wanted enough to sign three years ago but only had ownership of for a year before shuffling him off in exchange for a more established player.

Down the road, a cornerstone of Arsenal's 2025/26 Premier League title win was signed all the way back in 2019, and sent on three loans - the same number as Vuskovic - before working his way into the Gunners' starting lineup.

William Saliba may be injured currently but his 184 appearances for Arsenal over the past four seasons are testament to long-term squad planning and a club being able to see the bigger picture.

The worry from a Spurs point of view is that Vuskovic, potentially, could have been a short-term win too. Watching him continue to develop could make for difficult viewing.

Manchester United are set to lose England Under-17 forward JJ Gabriel, who has asked to leave the club months after being named Player of the Season in the Under-18 Premier League.

The Man United teenager's decision has thrust him even further into the spotlight than his playing prospects already had. Gabriel is 15 years old and the truth is nobody should be taking an interest in anything he does.

That's a bigger problem that football as a whole needs to start taking seriously, but as far as Gabriel goes, it's likely to prove a mis-step for Man United to fumble his progress.

Arsenal's Max Dowman is a demonstration of what might have been

Man United have had opportunities to demonstrate their faith in Gabriel and show him that the route to first team football has been laid out.

While it's possible to question the youngster's desire to leave before he's even 16 years of age, the advice he's receiving, and the rights and wrongs of other clubs sniffing around him, there is an example in the Premier League that points to a better outcome.

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Down at Arsenal, 16-year-old Max Dowman has been given chances and taken them. The Premier League champions have a young talent of their own, and he made his league debut at 15.

Dowman is increasingly being tipped for a senior England call-up, a stark contrast with Gabriel even at this absurdly early stage in both of their careers.

Arsenal have managed Dowman through without over-use. He has six Premier League appearances to his name and another eight in the cups. He's played in the Champions League three times but his lone senior appearance this season was in Tuesday's Carabao Cup win at Ipswich Town.

He scored twice, and therein lies the clue that might have served Man United in Gabriel's case. Dowman is an obvious talent but he won't be thrown in for frequent appearances regardless of those goals.

Mikel Arteta is biding his time. Notably, though, Dowman has had sufficient chances to impress.

Dowman and Gabriel are different people with their own minds and their own advisors, but it's hard to ignore the sense that Man United could have thrown him a bone if they'd wanted.

It wouldn't have been to their detriment either; the Red Devils obviously believe he has huge potential. He might have been in line to play against Brighton & Hove Albion in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday but took himself out of contention with his request to leave.

But when Man United were preparing to play their Champions League opener against Azeri champions Sabah, Gabriel was scoring a hat-trick against them in the UEFA Youth League.

Perhaps the young forward is getting ahead of himself for whatever reason – that isn't and shouldn't be any of our business, and Man United have their own reasons to select him or not – but there's a good chance Dowman would have been selected in an equivalent Arsenal match.

If that's the difference between keeping and losing a top prospect, it could be a decision they come to regret.

In May 2001, John Mullaney stood among his fellow Coventry City supporters and thrust aloft a crudely fashioned sign of defiance: “We’ll be back.”

Coventry had been relegated from England’s top division for the first time, 34 years after Jimmy Hill became the first manager to take the Sky Blues out of the second tier in the right direction.

Mullaney was right, after a fashion. It took a quarter of a century and immeasurable despair, but Coventry are back in the Premier League.

‘They were our biggest local rivals when I was growing up’

But as the club capitalised on an updated version of their supporter’s handiwork to mark the occasion, the significance of where his homemade placard was displayed might have been lost to fans outside the West Midlands.

Nobody who filed into the Coventry Building Society Arena for Wednesday’s Carabao Cup third round tie against Aston Villa was in that category. Coventry were relegated at Villa Park and there’s not a football stadium in the world where they wouldn’t have preferred to suffer.

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Coventry and Villa haven’t been drawn together in the FA Cup or League Cup in the intervening years. It was with a cruel flourish that they were paired in the Sky Blues’ first season back in the Premier League.

Despite their proximity, the rivalry between Coventry and Villa – largely an off-the-pitch matter and not inaccurately described as a little one-side – is often overlooked.

FourFourTwo spoke to Steve, a Villa supporter, outside the ground before Unai Emery’s team faced Coventry.

“I remember sending [Coventry] down, but it was so long ago that I don’t really remember how I actually felt about it,” he said.

“It’s good for the region that they’re in the Premier League again but I can’t imagine they’ll stay long. I don’t mind saying that – they were our biggest local rivals when I was growing up even if we sometimes don’t like to admit it.

“It’s just that I didn’t think about them for a moment in the time they were away.”

That’s the thing about one-sided rivalries. The supporters who don’t actively participate in it react badly to being disliked with such intensity, thus it’s seldom truly one-sided when push comes to shove.

Coventry were unable to harness a match with needle to kickstart their season

What’s not in doubt is that the rivalry with Villa, in some shape or form, is real for many Coventry fans.

The teams were together for years without others from Birmingham and the West Midlands crossing their paths all that often, and the Sky Blues’ relegation and a few players moving to Villa Park left a bad feeling.

“We’re a club without a mutual rivalry, I think it’s fair to say,” Dominic Jerams, the Coventry supporter behind Sideways Sammy, tells FourFourTwo.

“When I started going to Coventry games we were in the Premier League and Aston Villa were the main rivals. When we were first in the Championship, Leicester City became the big rivalry.

“Our rivalries have always been contextual. And there was Dion Dublin going to Villa. Moustapha Hadji. George Boateng. It was really galling after a while. As a young fan, they were all of my favourite players, so Villa have lingered as a rival in my mind.”

Rivals or not, Coventry and Villa arrived in the third round of the Carabao Cup in need of a springboard, and it was the visitors who booked their place in the fourth round and will hope to have earned a boost in confidence into the bargain.

Victor Torp scored a beautiful free kick to briefly give the home team hope, but Tammy Abraham scored two goals either side of Ross Barkley’s unmarked header as Villa put three goals past the Sky Blues again, quarter of a century after the last time.

For manager Frank Lampard and Coventry, there was no sweet relief and no respite from a brutally difficult start to the season. Six matches into 2026/27, a 4-2 win over Plymouth Argyle isn’t enough to ease a darkening mood.

By the time this fixture is replayed in the Premier League, both Lampard and Emery will know much more about where their teams stand.

Neither should read too much into their first encounter of the season. The Villa manager told reporters after the match that the Carabao Cup is important, not least as a possible route back into Europe, but sometimes matches pop into the fixture list that are really more for the fans than anything else.

It is standard fare for a recently appointed manager to praise their new club's supporters, but the detail in Pierre Sage’s answer suggested he really meant it.

“First of all, it’s about the league, to be really honest,” the Frenchman said last month when asked why he had chosen to join Crystal Palace. "And after that it is a special club. It is the only club [in the Premier League] with ultras, and as I said, I like to play for the fans.”

Unfortunately for Sage, he never got the chance to experience the atmosphere he signed up for. Palace’s ultras group, the Holmesdale Fanatics, disbanded on the eve of the new season. It has not taken long for their absence to be felt.

"The flat atmosphere was a topic of discussion after both matches"

The Fanatics were founded in 2005 by a group of Palace season-ticket holders in Block B of the Holmesdale Road stand. By the end of that decade they were earning widespread praise for the colour, creativity and vibrancy they brought to the then-Championship club’s support, with flares and flags at the forefront and a drum setting the tempo for their European-style songs.

The Fanatics went from strength to strength following Palace’s promotion to the Premier League in 2013. Their entirely fan-funded tifos graced not only Selhurst Park, but Wembley and Leipzig’s Red Bull Arena, too. In 2019 the group moved from Block B near the corner flag to Block E directly behind the goal in the Holmesdale Road end, establishing itself as a vocal hub at the heart of Palace’s home support.

The hole they have left has been conspicuous in the early weeks of this season. Palace have lost their first two Premier League home games, 4-1 to Manchester City and 3-2 to Ipswich Town. The flat atmosphere was a topic of discussion after both matches.

The group’s decision to cease operations came as a surprise, even though tensions with the club had been building over the previous few years. Long-standing proponents of a grassroots, bottom-up approach to football fandom, the Fanatics have grown frustrated by the club’s increasingly top-down approach, exemplified by pre-match light shows and music blasted at a deafening volume immediately after the final whistle.

That culture clash over how best to generate an atmosphere formed part of their decision to step away.

“We have repeatedly warned the club that likeminded fans cannot congregate at Palace in the numbers required to sustain a growing active supporter culture,” a statement released in August said.

“There needs to be a drastic shift at Palace towards younger fans and a move away from a culture in which people attend the ground expecting to be entertained, towards a culture of supporters turning up to play an active role in influencing the result."

The statement also aired the Fanatics’ grievances with the broader state of the sport in England.

“Increasingly driven out by sky-high ticket prices, needless restrictions that are designed to strip away the dignity of supporters, and relentless harassment and legal action, many young people are choosing to opt out of a game that seems determined to push them away.”

While many Palace fans have mourned their departure from the scene, others have been less sympathetic. The move from Block B to Block E displaced many long-standing season-ticket holders, fuelling resentment. Some supporters were displeased when the Fanatics appeared to have a section of away ends reserved for them in last year’s Conference League campaign amid suspicions they had not accrued enough loyalty points to qualify. Inevitably, their forthright political stances divided the fan base, delighting some and dismaying others.

Yet overall the Holmesdale Fanatics were a force for good at Palace, and you would be hard pressed to find anyone who thinks the atmosphere at Selhurst Park is better for their absence.

Despite Selhurst’s reputation for being a difficult place to go, Palace have had a curiously mediocre record in front of their own fans for much of their current 13-year spell in the top flight. In nine of those seasons, the Eagles have finished higher in the Premier League’s away table than the home equivalent.

The situation is unlikely to improve now Selhurst Park has lost its beating heart. Right now, home is where the hurt is for Crystal Palace.

Football used to be a simple game.

Win the league? Well done, you’ve qualified for the European Cup. Finish among the best of the rest? Into the UEFA Cup you go. Win your domestic cup? Congratulations, you’re off to the Cup Winners’ Cup.

Everyone knew where they stood.

UEFA maths

Today, European football requires a flowchart, a calculator and a working knowledge of UEFA coefficients to understand exactly what is going on.

The Champions League now has 36 teams playing in one enormous league table. The Europa League does likewise.

And sorry Crystal Palace fans, but the Conference League is the continental equivalent of the Papa John’s Trophy (or whatever it’s called this week).

It’s a competition with zero cachet. It’s also the byproduct of the over-complication of European football.

It just shoves in more teams into ever-more-complicated formats, creating yet more games.

What European football could really do with is something wonderfully simple.

Yes, it’s time to bring back the Cup Winners’ Cup.

The clue was always in the name. Win your country's domestic cup, and you qualified for a European competition populated by other teams who had done exactly the same thing.

First held in 1960/61, the Cup Winners’ Cup went on to provide some of European football’s most iconic moments.

Nayim from the halfway line. Ronaldo powering Barcelona to victory under Bobby Robson. Alex Ferguson’s Aberdeen defeating Real Madrid in the final.

But the real beauty of the competition wasn't found only in its finals or its famous winners – it was in the very makeup of the tournament.

There was none of this league-phase nonsense. No finishing 23rd and still having a chance of lifting the trophy. It was straight knockout football from the get-go, with ties played over two legs.

And there was jeopardy at every turn.

Modern European football has become obsessed with guaranteeing its biggest clubs more matches. The Cup Winners’ Cup guaranteed you nothing.

Draw a giant in the first round and your European adventure could be finished by October.

Where else would you see Shamrock Rovers take on Bayern Munich? The two met in 1966/67 and the eventual champions required a late Gerd Müller goal to squeeze through 4-3 on aggregate.

Or how about Merthyr Tydfil against Atalanta? The Welsh minnows stunned their Serie A opponents by winning the first leg before eventually going out in Italy.

Then there was Bangor City against Atlético Madrid, another pairing that looked as though somebody had picked two teams from opposite ends of a European football atlas.

That unpredictability wasn't restricted to individual ties, either.

The Cup Winners’ Cup captured teams at particular moments in their history. Sometimes it provided a glimpse of what was coming next.

Manchester United won it in 1991, shortly before Alex Ferguson's side began their era of domestic dominance.

Sampdoria lifted it in 1990, won Serie A the following year and reached the European Cup final in 1992.

The final edition was won by Lazio in 1999. Twelve months later, they were champions of Italy.

It was often a trophy for teams on the rise. And because qualification depended on winning a cup rather than finishing in roughly the same league positions every season, the cast constantly changed.

Real Madrid never won it, despite reaching two finals. Dinamo Tbilisi won it. So did Slovan Bratislava. And KV Mechelen. Even Spurs won it.

That isn't to suggest it was some sort of European competition for minnows.

Barcelona lifted the trophy four times. Ajax, Arsenal, Milan and Anderlecht all won it. Bayern Munich and Manchester United did too.

That was precisely what made it so appealing.

One season you could have Barcelona and Bayern Munich. The next you might have Carl Zeiss Jena (finalists in 1981), Antwerp (1993 runners-up) or FC Magdeburg (winners in 1974).

Domestic cups provided different qualifiers every year and therefore European football got different stories.

Another consequence was that nobody ever retained the Cup Winners’ Cup. Across almost four decades of competition, not one defending champion came back and won it again the following year.

Eventually, however, the Cup Winners’ Cup became a victim of European football's changing landscape.

The Champions League expanded and qualification became increasingly complicated. Domestic cup winners were often also qualifying for UEFA's premier competition through their league position.

By 1999, the Cup Winners’ Cup was gone, but at least it received a fitting send-off.

A Lazio side containing Alessandro Nesta, Pavel Nedvěd, Christian Vieri and Roberto Mancini defeated Mallorca 2-1 at Villa Park.

It has been consigned to history ever since. But 27 years on from its demise, perhaps European football needs the Cup Winners’ Cup more than ever.

If you've been paying attention to any of this, you'll know the answer to whether it should return.

Yes. Yes, it should.

Bring back a competition for Europe's domestic cup winners. Straight knockout football, home and away, populated entirely by teams who actually won something to get there.

And while we're at it, give the winners of the Carabao Cup a route into it too.

Suddenly, a domestic trophy that now sits only just above the Community Shield in terms of prestige comes with the promise of a proper European adventure.

No endless league phase. No competition that seemingly starts the second the previous season ends. Cup winners playing cup winners in every single tie.

It’s time to restore some semblance of order to the European footballing calendar.

Let’s get the Cup Winners’ Cup back – and then we can have a serious conversation about the Anglo-Italian Cup.

Premier League referees are in the spotlight after a number of high-profile incidents during the weekend fixtures. When are they not?

Refereeing decisions come and go. Mistakes are made because that's what humans do. Whether or not there's sufficient and suitable accountability in those instances is a matter of opinion, but there's probably more than most of us realise.

Football as a highly professionalised industry has developed an addiction to solving problems with problems. Interpretation is part of referees' responsibility in applying the Laws of the Game but technical language is the primary tool used in their defence.

The referee's countdown is final, and not only in Europe

The natural consequence of a sport that's played in grey but craves black and white is a constantly growing rule book that inadvertently ties itself in knots.

That's what football has now. VAR, causes celebre, FIFA interference and persistent misreading of public opinion have all played their part in a version of football that doesn't understand its own Laws.

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They are simple and open to interpretation while the sport thunders towards officiousness in a great global game of busybody Whack-A-Mole. Of course it's causing issues.

Far beyond the purview of the increasingly maligned and caricatured Pro Ref, football's attempt to whack the mole of time-wasting has created the unedifying spectacle of referees counting down various time limits with their fingers while bellowing numbers across the pitch.

Take a moment, step back, and think about that. About how it looks, and what it symbolises. Set aside the use of the whistle for now – that's a level of technical zealotry for another day.

Referees are now being asked to manually provide a count not only for the goalkeeper to release the ball from their hands in-play but for throw-ins and goal kicks too.

It's noble in intent but chaotic in practice, and it's hard to feign surprise at that outcome. Where a referee's interpretation collides with fans, players and managers thinking they're getting precision, it's always going to become just another thing to moan about.

Time-wasting is annoying. That's as close to a consensus view as football really has, and even then it's different when it's our own team doing it. That some of the delays have been baked in by VAR shouldn't go unacknowledged, but delaying tactics are frustrating to watch and detrimental to the game.

The current answer to that isn't just undignified. It's as inexact and just as prone to exactly the same flaws as the time-wasting toolkit referees already had.

It wouldn't be uncharitable to suggest that referees counting variations of five, eight and ten seconds on their fingers was rushed into football as an overreaction to time-wasting and was poorly considered as a result.

What tends to get lost in the furore of Premier League discourse is that football is a vast, deep, global game. These new gestures look a bit silly at the top; in non-league, they're embarrassing.

Lower down the pyramid, Saturday afternoons are now dragged through the same rigmarole time and again.

Fans and managers flap their arms around and tap their wrists, inherently partisan but also oblivious that the countdowns are triggered by the referee's interpretation of necessity.

Players choose not to pick the ball up to take throw-ins and then lose their tempers when a count begins before they have it in their hands. Long throw-ins are exempted to a degree, treated as any other set piece where the taker and some hefty centre-backs need to get into position.

Over. And over. And over.

In FourFourTwo's opinion, these measures do little to address the scourge of time-wasting, creating instead a mess of ignorance and fury and fussiness that solves nothing that couldn't already have been dealt with by clamping down on time-wasting.

Referees are still directed to judge when a countdown begins on that basis. One might argue that a serious sport would simply have embarked upon a crackdown using its existing laws.

Coventry City couldn't have asked for a worse start to their first season back in the Premier League.

The Sky Blues have played four, lost four. New signing Taiwo Awoniyi was sent off against Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday, leaving his teammates to see out a match that took the number of goals they've conceded to 10.

Frank Lampard's team are yet to add a single goal to the other side of the ledger. Only Tottenham Hotspur can say the same, and their defensive record is only half as bad.

Frank Lampard has earned the backing of Coventry owner Doug King

There's no shortage of doom and gloom on Coventry's behalf, and justifiably so. History shows that promoted teams who start with four losses tend to end the season in the Premier League's relegation places.

Lampard is under external scrutiny on the basis of results alone, but a sizeable proportion of Coventry supporters are aware of the harsh reality of Premier League promotion and appreciative of Lampard's work away from the mainstream spotlight.

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Sure, times are tough. The results aren't where they need to be. The Brighton game was a brutal reminder that some afternoons are going to be hard to stomach. Nobody is sugarcoating any of that, least of all Lampard himself.

But the supporters are largely keeping their heads and the same should be true of Sky Blues owner Doug King. Nothing in football is forever, but Lampard can operate freely in the knowledge that his chairman is his biggest advocate in the game.

There was no hiding from the difficult season ahead when King and Coventry committed to a new three-year contract for Lampard.

King has been crystal clear that he'll stand behind his manager, explaining during the summer that he's more concerned about his club doing the right things in the right way than surface-level results.

It's a self-assured outlook and shows a surprisingly enlightened understanding of the sheer size of the challenge for new Premier League clubs.

There are 19 other teams that want to beat Coventry and King appears to be reluctant to risk cutting off his nose to spite his face.

That's the element that's likely to be missing from the wider discussion in the weeks and months ahead. King should be tapping into the beginnings of his patience reserves, not the end, because Lampard has earned that faith.

In FourFourTwo's opinion, now is not the time for flapping. Coventry are in a miserable spot but King and the Sky Blues supporters seem largely aware that avoiding that is no guarantee. Failing to avoid it doesn't undo the positive evolution of Lampard as a manager in the last two years.

When Coventry kick off against Aston Villa in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday, it'll be the bottom two teams in the Premier League on the pitch at the Coventry Building Society Arena.

Emery has a broad base of support at Villa because of his achievements. It shouldn't be any different for Lampard.

Enzo Fernandez sauntered off the pitch with a wry smile, blood trickling from his nose, a job well done. He was, of course, the villain, the catalyst, encapsulating the grit and steel behind Manchester City’s battling victory at Old Trafford.

But that telling of Sunday’s game is flawed, the smirk largely unearned.

In order to beat Manchester United, Enzo Maresca had to plan around Fernandez, not with him. The adaptation to Phil Foden’s red card – flipping the tactical pattern of the match – benefitted Manchester City only because it tamed Fernandez, whose presence was proving more disruptive to City than Foden’s absence.

Release the hound

To play Fernandez is to release the dogs of war. He pulls at the chain until it snaps, which can be extremely useful in a Manchester derby but also, to be frank, a liability. The tactical story of City’s win is one of how Maresca reined him in.

In the first half, before Foden’s red card and after it, Manchester City’s new midfield was a mess. Elliot Anderson (magnificent throughout, but overworked) was stationed alone at the base with Rayan Cherki and Fernandez nominally deployed as eights in front of him, a bold attacking move from Maresca that backfired when Fernandez moved wildly out to the left flank or into the forward line, leaving Anderson isolated.

Fernandez’s strange positioning emptied the middle for City, limited their passing options and, in turn, forcing slow and hesitant sideways possession. Below, he is too far wide (image 1) or too high (image 2), allowing Manchester United to surround Anderson and/or dominate empty space:

Maresca told Sky Sports after the game that his initial plan with Cherki and Fernandez as eights had been to “attack a little bit [more] to create an overload in the middle against the extra midfielder”, ruling out the possibility Fernandez’s positioning – so wide, so high, so weird – was a tactical instruction from the dugout.

It allowed Manchester United to grow into the contest, pinch possession in that vacated middle, and transition quickly, just as Michael Carrick would have hoped. It was the exact tactical battle everyone had predicted (City possession, United counters) and clearly United were on top, harassing and frustrating the visitors until Foden snapped, and the tactics were reversed.

Well, eventually. At first, Fernandez kept making the same bizarre decisions despite being part of a two-man midfield. City remained all at sea:

Here is a typical example of how Fernandez’s positioning left City overly stretched and, therefore, vulnerable to being caught in transition when the ball was lost:

It wasn’t until half-time that Maresca found a way to pull on the leash. He brought on Illiman Ndiaye for Cherki and instructed his players to sit back, therefore compressing space between the lines with a simplified defensive structure in a 4-4-1 formation, conceding the ball to United but, counter-intuitively, regaining the initiative.

Gianluigi Donnarumma started playing long balls up the pitch, punting it into the United half to prevent Manchester City from even attempting to build out from the back. The idea was to cut out midfield, win the second balls that fell around Erling Haaland, and get Ndiaye weaving through the lines.

The passing football – which had lured Fernandez into his ultra-expansive mindset – disappeared, and as a consequence the spaces shrank. City were now compact off the ball (falling back instead of pressing) and on it (pushing up to receive long balls, rather than spreading out in their own half to play through United).

The long balls up for Haaland were played again and again until one of them – Haaland challenging, Ndiaye picking up the pieces – led directly to the controversial winner:

Before kick-off, Maresca said his team needed to “embrace the noise, embrace the chaos,” a call to lean into the atmosphere and ride out the madness of derby day. Nobody embodied that mentality better than Fernandez and, in that respect, his role was important.

But ultimately, what defined this match was a tactical rewrite enforced by Foden’s red card yet designed to tame Fernandez’s excesses.

Fernandez embraced the chaos. Maresca contained it.

Michael Carrick has wanted to be Manchester United head coach ever since he played his 464th and final game for them aged 36 in 2018 and moved into coaching.

Aware of Carrick’s desire to become a coach, Man United’s then-manager Jose Mourinho presented him with a whistle and a role in training. Now, actually being in charge is more than a job to Carrick.

He cares deeply about the responsibility, which is why defeat in the Manchester Derby, the manner of the loss and the result itself will hurt deeply.

HENRY WINTER: 'Michael Carrick is hurting after Manchester Derby defeat'

Carrick is a composed character, a very measured individual, reflecting his thoughtful playing style. But it was easy to detect his hurt in all the interviews he conducted afterwards. It was in his eyes, in his tone and in the words themselves. It was easy to sense his frustration and anger at VAR’s failure to consider that Enzo Fernandez was impacting on Lisandro Martinez and Senne Lammens and therefore offside.

“If that's the interpretation of not interfering in the game now, that's really worrying for me,” Carrick told the BBC. “It's a staggering explanation.” Man United received an apology from Pro Ref that the officials got it wrong. He was let down by VAR.

It’s what Carrick said next that needs scrutiny. “The decision isn't going to change the season, but it's had a major impact on the game,” he said. Two things: firstly, on it “could change the season”. It does. It whips up more doubt around Carrick so early in this season. He deserved the job after steering the club back into the Champions League. Owners will always consider that the first priority in a season because of the £100m attraction.

Carrick also got the job because of the absence of heavyweight alternatives. Potential candidates such as Julian Nagelsmann hardly enhanced their reputations at the World Cup.

Some perspective is required, patience too. Of the new managers at the bigger Premier League clubs: Enzo Maresca was given a vastly superior squad to Carrick, so life was always going to be smoother for the new City leader; Xabi Alonso has a defence to sort out at Chelsea; and Andoni Iraola is taking time to impose his ideas on Liverpool.

Roberto De Zerbi did well to keep Tottenham Hotspur up last season, but they are struggling in 17th despite spending £344m. Unai Emery is having to do a rebuild at 19th-placed Aston Villa, who have one point from four; there is increased scrutiny on Emery as these are, by and large, all his recruits.

All of these are good managers and deserve time. The ever-quickening news agenda and hunger for headline content doesn’t help.

There should be a desire to support a home-grown coach like Carrick (and full transparency, I helped him write his 2018 book). I know how much he genuinely cares about his club, the staff, players and fans. But Carrick does deserve scrutiny. He mentions, secondly, the goal having a “major impact” on the game, but the bigger impact was United’s failure to exploit their numerical advantage when Phil Foden was sent off after 23 minutes.

There has to be sympathy for Carrick over the City goal and the club’s failure to give him the defenders, especially full-backs, that he needs. Diogo Dalot and Patrick Dorgu are simply not good enough. Their flaws, such as failing to clear properly, had a “major impact” on the game. But Carrick’s in-game management wasn’t good enough. He’s not to blame for Bryan Mbeumo wasting an inviting chance late on, but Carrick was outwitted by Maresca, whose changes were far more intelligent and productive. Iliman Ndiaye came on for Rayan Cherki at the break and, along with Antoine Semenyo, stayed high and stretched United. Maresca’s boldness paid off.

Carrick, bafflingly, waited for 45 minutes after Foden’s exit to sharpen his attack with Benjamin Sesko. Until then, Carrick preferred the false 9 approach of Matheus Cunha. Sesko replaced Youri Tielemans, with the No. 10 space becoming crowded with Cunha and Bruno Fernandes (who did drop slightly deeper). Why not keep the balance and withdraw Cunha, not Tielemans?

If Carrick has concerns about Sesko’s match sharpness or his quality, then he could simply have switched Marcus Rashford and Cunha. Set City another challenge. Unleash Rashford’s pace through the middle. Cunha also enjoys that left-sided No. 10 role, albeit tucked in more than Rashford.

The sight of Foden going off so early at Old Trafford should have been the signal to go for the jugular. Seize the moment. Go for victory even more. Attack, attack, attack. Get a psychologically important win, not only vital for local pride but also to disperse some of the clouds gathering during United’s unconvincing start to the season. Only Kobbie Mainoo rose to the challenge. Carrick didn’t do enough. He can reflect and learn. But also, it’s far too early in the season for knee-jerk reactions. As with other managers, Carrick deserves time.

Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder understood what his team were up against when Wolverhampton Wanderers came to town.

Speaking after Wolves beat the Blades with a last-minute goal, whose constituent parts all started the match on the away bench at Bramall Lane, Wilder’s comments to reporters referenced more than once that his opposite number from the Black Country has quality in both depth and abundance.

He’s right on both counts. On this occasion, it was the depth that made the difference.

Wolves manager Peixoto is shaping a creative attacking unit

Wolves let a few opportunities pass them by but the intervention of substitutes Kieran Trippier, Tommy Doyle – inadvertently – and Raul Jimenez gave them that little bit extra when it mattered most.

Having that additional sharp edge is useful but Cesar Peixoto’s set-up before he deployed his substitutes was more indicative of Wolves’ tactical point of difference in the Championship.

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Jimenez’s age is a determining factor in Peixoto’s choice of striker; Wolves are playing between two and three times a week. Adam Armstrong moved off his moonlighting shift on the left flank to play at centre-forward and youngster Mateus Mane started in the Mexican striker’s place.

The rest of the Wolves midfield unit is becoming increasingly familiar in the second tier, both with each other in the aftermath of the sale of Joao Gomes and to observers seeing the connections that make Peixoto’s Wolves tick.

Wolves play with three attacking midfielders off a striker, and a pair of central midfielders behind them.

Mane and Armstrong approach the left-wing role differently than one another but the remaining rhomboid, the Peixoto Parallelogram, is at the heart of Wolves’ play wherever Jimenez, Armstrong or Mane slot in beside it.

22-year-old Fer Lopez operates in the middle of the three, Rodrigo Gomes outside him. Between them, they’ve been stockpiling goal contributions like they’re going out of fashion. Lopez was ticking along at a goal or assist per match prior to Wolves’ visit to South Yorkshire.

Midfielders Andre and Marshall Munetsi played together 25 times in the Premier League. Given their fortunes last season, that’s not automatically a good thing.

Working as a first-choice partnership in a team expected to win is a new test and it generally looks good on them.

Added attacking impetus from the heart of the team

But the secret sauce, the flavour-packed additional topping that keeps central defenders honest, is a result of the way Lopez and Munetsi interact.

Lopez drops into the middle of the pitch, often far enough to take the ball off Wolves’ defenders. Where other teams might use this extra man to boost their midfield numbers, Peixoto has a midfielder who will add sharpness to the shape by making the run of a forward and causing mayhem.

There aren’t many central midfielders in the Championship who’d be described as playing on the shoulder, but Munetsi does exactly that, time and time again, springing upfield thanks to the withdrawal of Lopez.

He’s available for passes in behind and also to play with Mane, Lopez and a striker at close quarters, with left-back Hugo Bueno joining in for good measure.

It meant that Japhet Tanganga and Mark McGuinness had to have their wits about them to prevent the Zimbabwean from causing problems on their side of Wilder’s back three. They managed it on Sunday, and Wolves had to find another way.

Munetsi’s trademark run produced the first Championship goal of the season, albeit Blackburn Rovers left enough space in their half at Molineux that you’d be forgiven for mistaking it for an opportunistic decision more than a planned tactic.

The Wolves boss has more ideas bubbling away as the season stretches out on the other side of the international break. Peixoto spoke after the win against Sheffield United about substitute Jordan James, the former Birmingham City midfielder on loan from Rennes, who he sees as serious competition for Munetsi in the most positive sense.

Peixoto is focused on Wednesday’s Carabao Cup tie against Everton but the Wolves fans behind the goal where Jimenez tucked in the winner at Bramall Lane made it clear at full time that the win meant more than a jump back up the Championship table.

Seven days after the win in Sheffield, Molineux will host the Black Country derby against West Bromwich Albion. Forget one point turning into three. The supporters have already set their sights on a different Sunday entirely.

Last month’s publication of the 2025/26 PFA Team of the Year generated ample debate, but certain positions were beyond doubt. The likes of David Raya, Declan Rice and Bruno Fernandes were shoo-ins in their respective roles, and so too was Jurrien Timber at right-back.

The Dutchman enjoyed a magnificent campaign last time out. He was a key part of the Arsenal rearguard that underpinned the club's first title triumph in 22 years. The good news for the Gunners is that Timber is nearing a return to first-team action following a groin injury. Having returned to full training, he could be in the matchday squad to face Brighton this weekend.

It’s hard to find any major weaknesses in Timber’s game. Quick, strong and athletic, he is also technically sound and positionally smart. Seldom beaten one-on-one by an opposition winger, Timber frequently locked down his flank last term. And although he is not the most buccaneering of full-backs, he contributes plenty in the final third too.

"A big example for the rest of his team-mates.”

“Extraordinary… for me, he’s been phenomenal in every department,” Mikel Arteta said of Timber last year. “I think he’s taken his level and the team’s level to a different dimension, against his opponents, the way he penetrates, the way he wins duels, the way he understands the game, the way he wants to make things happen. A big example for the rest of his team-mates.”

In short, Timber is the best player in the Premier League in his position - but he should not start for Arsenal right now.

Ben White has deputised for Timber in the opening weeks of the season, and he has done it well. There had been nothing wrong with his displays at right-back before Arsenal signed Timber in 2023, but White has had to play second fiddle to the former Ajax man over the last couple of campaigns.

Timber edges a head-to-head comparison between the pair, but football is more complicated than that. White is in form and in a confident mood. Timber is still working his way back up to full fitness having missed the World Cup with the groin issue that also kept him out of much of the run-in last term.

On top of that, Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard have both enjoyed fine starts to the season. White, Saka and Odegaard have long shared a special chemistry on the right, forming passing triangles in an area of the pitch where Arsenal have tended to concentrate their attacks during Arteta’s tenure.

White and Saka in particular seem to have an intuitive understanding. White overlaps more readily than Timber, opening up space inside for Saka to attack. The two England internationals have a canny ability to anticipate each other’s movement, linking up at high speed even when seemingly surrounded. When that wavelength is perfectly tuned, they are very difficult to stop.

Perhaps White’s presence in the XI has had little bearing on Saka and Odegaard’s recent output. Both players already showed signs of getting back to their best at the World Cup. Yet given how well they are playing together, Arteta should think twice before breaking up that trio. After three wins from three in the Premier League, there is no real need to rush Timber back into the team.

None of which is to say White should get the nod indefinitely. There will be a time when Timber’s superior defensive abilities will come in handy, particularly as Arsenal are attempting not only to retain the title but to win the Champions League too. The free-flowing football Arsenal have produced so far has been encouraging, yet it would be more of a surprise if Arteta did not batten down the hatches at some point this season than if he did.

Timber’s time will come. For now, the Arsenal right-back spot is White’s to lose.

I’ll start this week by talking about the Ballon d’Or nominees’ announcement, and I see that Harry Kane is the bookies’ favourite to win. Lamine Yamal is up there too after winning the World Cup with Spain, and I feel Michael Olise would’ve had a great chance if France had won the tournament.

I’d have to say that my pick would be for Kane due to the number of goals he’s scored, and after winning the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich.

Clinton was speaking courtesy of Free Bets, home of the best betting sites in the UK.

'Erling Haaland is one of the best number nines we'll ever see'

There will also be people staking a claim for Erling Haaland too, due to his goalscoring exploits, and I do feel he will win it one day, but this could be Kane’s last chance with all the youngsters coming through now. So with that in mind, I’m definitely Team Harry!

I have to say that Haaland is a joke though, and he scored twice against FC Porto on Tuesday night. His record is phenomenal and he’s just not normal! He scores goals at a ridiculous rate and is one of the best number nines we’ll ever see.

You have players like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo that will go down as two of the greatest players of all time, but Haaland is someone who just wants to score goals and isn’t bothered about anything else.

I also like him for how he deals with social media, because he's a funny guy and has laughs with people. Everyone loves him, he's a down-to-earth footballer, as well as a brilliant striker. What a special talent, and long may it continue.

Meanwhile, Cristiano Ronaldo has missed out on being nominated, but I think that’s a fair call. He’s won this award too many times already and doesn’t need to win it again.

Raphinha was another big-name omission, and he has been brilliant for Barcelona recently. He can feel hard done by not to be nominated, but Brazil had a disappointing World Cup, and that has to be taken into account.

It’s certainly good that the award is more competitive now after Ronaldo and Messi kept sharing it between them for many years.

Staying with the theme of attacking players, and I have to say that Nicolas Jackson looked good against Club Brugge. I’ve always said he’s a talented player, and I thought he was outstanding for Aston Villa in that game.

He led the line well and took his goal very well. The composure he showed after going around the goalkeeper and putting the ball into an empty net was outstanding. If they can keep him fit and firing, then Villa have got a fine player on their hands.

This is also a player who knows Unai Emery and he’ll know what makes Jackson tick to get the best out of him. With all that being said, I think it’s a good signing for Villa.

That’s especially after losing someone like Ollie Watkins, and getting his first goal for the club can only give him confidence.

They’ve got a big game coming up this afternoon against Nottingham Forest, with both teams only managing a point from their first three games. A result for either team will be massive, and I’m expecting an entertaining game.

The stand-out game this weekend will undoubtedly be at Old Trafford for the Manchester derby tomorrow.

I love it when the derby games are hectic and played at a frantic pace. We’ve seen it previously when Manchester City are the favourites, but Manchester United have got a surprise result.

I’m expecting an open game because Man United look good going forward, and I think they can cause Man City problems.

But at the same time, defensively, they've not been looking as good. We saw that last weekend in the 2-2 draw with Everton.

They'll have a game plan to try and stop Man City and Haaland, so I think it’ll be a fascinating contest.

I’ll end this week by talking about Hull City and their fantastic start to the season. To get seven points from their first three games is a huge achievement, and they can afford to have a few games where they don’t pick up any points.

They're hard to play against, and Sergej Jakirovic has done an unbelievable job. That’s after they were many people’s tip to go down from the Championship last season.

Everyone's tipped Hull to go down again this summer, which you expect, but they laid down a real statement of intent after bringing in six players on deadline day.

The chairman's brilliant, he backs his manager, and they’ve given themselves a real fighting chance of staying in the division.

There'll be times during the season where they will suffer, but they've had such a good start that everyone else behind them is playing catch up. And it's difficult when you're playing catch up, because you're thinking, ‘Where's the next win and where are the next points going to come from?’

It has certainly been a very impressive start from the Tigers though, and I’m expecting them to perform well in what is essentially a free hit of a game away at Chelsea this afternoon.

Another post-match interview featuring Bayern Munich winger Michael Olise has gone viral across social media for all the wrong reasons.

Once again, football fans have been treated to the painful spectacle of awkward silences, and a player doing everything he can to make life harder for the person holding the microphone.

What started as a quirky, meme-worthy gimmick as a young player has officially crossed the line into something far more grating. Olise’s nonchalant media routine isn’t clever or cool - it is rude, tiresome, and paints young footballers in a really poor light.

Michael Olise's interview gimmick is a bad look - and it's getting old

For a long time, I was willing to afford the Frenchman the benefit of the doubt. I even defended him.

'Does he suffer from social anxiety? Is he just painfully shy?' It's not easy being a teenager thrust into the limelight, so it was a fair question to ask.

However, recent refcam footage shatters that narrative. On the pitch, Olise is the antithesis of stage-fright, his apparent communication issues deserting him when arguing the toss over a decision with a match official. He is vocal, animated, and - compared to his post-game media debriefs - uninhibited.

This sullen, disengaged persona reserved exclusively for post-match broadcasters is a choice. The cold one-word responses and the air of casual arrogance suggest he knows precisely what he’s doing with his non-answers.

Watch these viral clips closely and you will see broadcast journalists - often asking questions in a second or third language with commendable poise - maintaining total professionalism while receiving complete apathy in return.

This isn’t merely a case of one journalist instinctively standing up for another; it is a matter of fundamental workplace decency. Does Olise offer up the silent treatment to the staff at Bayern's training ground? To those who serve his meals, those on the security desk and reception?

The golden rule ought to apply even in elite football: treat people as you would wish to be treated yourself.

In an era where access to players is restricted to the absolute extreme, reporters are given minutes to glean something meaningful. Questions can admittedly feel repetitive or like lip-service to the interviewee, but that is the reality of heavily sanitised media zones. The least a player can do in return is show basic courtesy.

Most professionals understand the implicit contract between sport and media - they remain cordial, polite, and cooperative, even if their answers are steeped in generic PR drivel and we, the journalists, go back to our editors with the currency: quotes.

Olise, by contrast, treats the microphone like a burden and the person holding it with visible disdain, at least he does in this most recent clip.

It also begs the question: why do Bayern Munich’s press officers keep putting him in front of the cameras?

How it works is, after a match, broadcasters, journalists and rights-holders will request to speak to specific players based on how the 90 minutes have unfolded. Ultimately though, it is the club’s communications department that decides whether to grant those requests or put forward someone else.

Continuing to parade Olise in front of rights-holders when everyone knows he will deliberately stonewall the interviewer benefits nobody. It produces a deeply uncomfortable watch, disrespects broadcast partners, and damages the club's image.

To be clear, the sports media landscape is hardly a saintly entity. Invasive headlines and unfair coverage in the past may well have left Olise feeling distrustful of reporters.

If that is the case, then his cynicism towards the press is entirely understandable - Sir Alex Ferguson refused to engage with the BBC for years after deeming their questioning of fellow manager and son, Darren, not to his liking.

But taking out those grievances on an innocent broadcast journalist who is simply doing their job after a match is misplaced anger. Being a world-class footballer comes with immense privilege, but talent, status and riches don't make you exempt from basic manners.

Rangers needed a stoppage-time goal to break the deadlock in Wednesday’s rearranged Scottish Premiership fixture against St Mirren at Ibrox.

Bojan Miovski’s goal in the first minute of time added on earned Rangers a fourth league win in a row, just as a win by the same scoreline against the same opponents kicked off a four-match winning run to end last season.

It’s been all change in the west of Glasgow since then. Danny Rohl’s management kept the Gers in the title race for longer than they might otherwise have been involved but was tempted away to Red Bull Salzburg and succeeded by Derek McInnes.

Shankland injury will test the ex-Hearts revolution at Ibrox

The new Rangers manager pushed Celtic even further in 2025/26, when he was in charge of Heart of Midlothian and took them to the cusp of a fifth league title to earn his dream job.

McInnes was able to take international striker Lawrence Shankland – his talismanic Hearts captain and another Rangers man at heart – across the central belt to Glasgow. That’s just how Scottish football works; Rangers have won the title 55 times.

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This season is only six matches old and Hearts have a game in hand on their old gaffer, but Celtic are first and Rangers are second. Four wins on the bounce have reinforced McInnes’ credentials at the helm of a team comparatively short of raw quality.

More than a few of their points can be credited to character over straightforward ability. Just as they started to feel a little more convincing, McInnes lost his general.

His team beat St Mirren without Shankland, who was substituted eight minutes of last weekend’s win over Motherwell before a hamstring injury forced him off.

“It's a 2C tear and similar to the one he did previously at Hearts in January,” McInnes told reporters before Rangers played the Buddies.

“He's actually in London now, he's getting an ultrasound scan, a follow-up scan, which is just to determine whether, with the specialist, he has surgery or whether he'll just let it heal naturally like he did the last time.

“My little knowledge I have of it is that if he has the surgery then he might be an extra three or four weeks.

“I think best-case scenario, three months, probably worst-case scenario in terms of time about four months.”

Rangers’ captain was starting to suit the armband before his setback

It’s a brutal blow, not only for the 31-year-old Glaswegian but for a manager who must now hold steady without a player he knows well and had been starting to show his worth in the Rangers shirt he’d wanted for a lifetime. Their four-match winning run started with a 1-0 win against Aberdeen and a 2-1 victory at Falkirk in the space of four days.

Shankland, suddenly puffing out his chest in a shirt that finally seemed to fit, scored all three goals. He’d only scored once in the Europa League qualifiers, Conference League qualifiers, Premier Sports Cup tie and two Premiership matches that preceded them.

Indeed, it’s what came before those wins that points to the extent of the challenge now facing McInnes. If first impressions matter, his did little to reassure Rangers fans that McInnes – by no means an unfamiliar figure to anyone involved in Scottish football – has what it takes to achieve the one thing that really matters in Glasgow.

The Gers were knocked out of Europe before it started. Twice. Their Europa League campaign began and ended against Jagiellonia Bialystok of Poland in the third qualifying round.

They dropped into the play-off round of the Conference League. Shankland, Miovski and Thelo Aasgaard scored their first three penalties, but Czech side Jablonec ended up on the right end of the shoot-out.

All that’s left, on three fronts, is to attempt to better Celtic. They’ll get their chance on Sunday in the first Old Firm derby of the season, a Premier Sports Cup quarter-final tie at Ibrox that Shankland will have to watch from the sidelines.

Rangers’ recent burst was a big step forward in the early part of McInnes’ return as manager, but Shankland was the man putting the ball in the net.

They made a positive start without him, beating Motherwell and St Mirren in 1-0 matches that couldn’t have been much more different in terms of their comfort levels for the Ibrox club.

23-year-old Ryan Naderi, who joined Rangers in February, came off the bench to replace Shankland against the Steelmen and scored through sheer tenacity within four minutes.

His smart flick-on set up Miovski’s looping winner against St Mirren too but they really had to work for it against the determined defence and pointed threat of a team led by August’s Manager of the Month.

But Rangers are already operating with fine margins game-by-game and Shankland is a born difference-maker. The question for McInnes and Rangers is where they can find that difference on consistent basis over the next 16 weeks and more.

The Championship is often branded as the most competitive and unpredictable league in world football. Except that’s not always the case.

Parachute payments have skewed the odds in favour of the clubs relegated from the Premier League - in each of the past six seasons, at least one of the automatic promotion places have been filled by a team who spent the previous campaign in the top flight.

That trend could continue this term but it doesn’t feel like a foregone conclusion, while the play-off and relegation pictures are equally exciting. Ladies and gentlemen, this could be the most on-brand Championship season for some time.

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Goals, shocks and wild scorelines: This could be a Championship season for the ages

Last season’s Championship was a tough act to follow. Coventry City lifted the title to return to the Premier League after 25 years away, Hull City won the play-offs despite starting the campaign as one of the favourites to go down, and Leicester City suffered a shock second relegation in a row.

Furthermore, the teams who came down from the Premier League were not as dominant as in previous years. Ipswich Town were the only member of that trio to gain promotion, finishing second behind Coventry, and their total of 84 points ended a run of five seasons where one of the three relegated clubs reached 90 points or more in their first campaign back in the Championship.

Meanwhile, the three teams promoted from League One - Birmingham City, Wrexham and Charlton Athletic - all stayed up, the third year in a row in which that has happened. Despite all of that, this season is shaping up to be even better.

If it’s goals you want, there have already been lots of them. The league average of 2.89 goals per game ahead of Wednesday night’s fixtures is higher than the average across a 46-match campaign in any of the past 20 years, on account of there being several teams who are great at scoring goals but not so good at keeping them out. More on that later.

Meanwhile, the old adage that anyone can beat anyone in the Championship appears truer than ever. Some teams’ results have fluctuated wildly, including Charlton winning at West Ham United but losing 4-0 at Stoke City, Blackburn Rovers stunning Middlesbrough only to fall to defeat at previously pointless Preston North End, and Millwall beating Bristol City, Norwich City and Bolton Wanderers by a combined score of 9-0, but losing to Southampton and Wrexham 8-1 on aggregate.

The league is unpredictable wherever you look. Starting from the top, none of the front-runners have stood out above the rest in the first four weeks of the campaign.

That includes the trio who were relegated from the Premier League last season. West Ham and Wolves will surely compete for automatic promotion, but they don’t yet look like they will run away with the title in the way that Coventry did last term.

The Hammers failed to win any of their first three games before scoring 10 goals in successive victories over Wolves, Derby County and Bolton, but they had to fight back from 2-1 down to beat one of the supposed weaker sides in the division in the latter fixture. Wolves’ first five matches featured 23 goals, 10 of them going in at the wrong end.

Then there is Burnley. The Clarets reached 100 points in their previous two campaigns at this level but sit second-bottom of the table after failing to win any of their first six matches. They will surely improve, and the signing of Jamie Vardy adds intrigue, but they are currently way off the level required to win promotion.

That has opened the door to other teams. Of the three clubs who lost in the play-offs last term, Middlesbrough look best-placed to challenge. After letting so many points slip through their grasp last season due to poor finishing, they have found a goalscorer in Will Lankshear, while their strong underlying numbers had them top of the Expected Points table (calculated by measuring Expected Goals for and against) after five games. If xG/xPTS isn’t your thing, they were also second in the real table.

Last term’s play-off semi-finalists, Millwall and Southampton, have also made strong starts and should compete for promotion again, despite the Lions’ chaotic set of scorelines.

Several dark horses are also emerging. Swansea City topped the table after five matches, and it was no fluke: since head coach Vitor Matos arrived last November, they have picked up 1.61 points per game - play-off form over a 46-match season.

Queens Park Rangers, Bristol City, West Bromwich Albion and Charlton are among the other early pace-setters and it is the ideal time for an outsider to mount a promotion bid, thanks to one of the most controversial talking points of the Championship in 2026/27.

This season, the play-offs have been expanded from four to six teams, which means the club finishing eighth will qualify for the end-of-term shoot-out. The change has not been universally popular, but it means more teams will have a chance of reaching the play-offs in the final weeks of the campaign, reducing the number of dead rubbers.

With the way the Championship table often concertinas as the season goes on, it is possible that the team in 15th with five games remaining could realistically still go up or down. That brings us to the battle at the bottom.

Lincoln City were widely tipped to go straight back down after their shock League One title triumph but have adapted well to the level, taking five points from their past three games and running Middlesbrough close on the opening day.

There is arguably greater concern about the teams they came up with, Cardiff City and Bolton, but while all three are likely to be in a relegation battle, they have shown enough so far to suggest they won’t be cut adrift.

Of course, everything can change, but if the season continues in this vein we’ll be treated to a proper title race, surprise promotion candidates, a congested play-off battle and a nail-biting survival fight.

If that all comes to pass, it really will be one of the greatest Championship seasons of all time.

Dreaming a Premier League dream is a noble aim for players succeeding in the academies of its clubs, but simply carving out a career in the game is difficult enough in its own right.

In that context, taking a step back to line up a step forward is standard procedure in the actuality of a good football career.

Developing players capable of standing out in the Championship and pushing towards the top division is just another way for Premier League-level academies to prove their mettle. Whether or not there’s any prospect of players reaching the first team, managing their progress is part of the academy job.

Six goal contributions in six Championship appearances

In June, West Bromwich Albion signed 20-year-old attacking midfielder Jimmy-Jay Morgan from Chelsea.

Born in the ‘P’ part of the sprawling BCP conurbation that comprises Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, Morgan joined Chelsea at the age of eight but spent six years in the middle of his junior football back on the south coast at Southampton before returning to Surrey.

As Chelsea plotted his future away from Stamford Bridge, he was loaned to Gillingham in League Two in January 2025 and again to League One side Peterborough United for the majority of last season.

He scored at a rate better than once every three matches in the third tier. He’s been even more dangerous in his first month or so in the second, where he is in the early weeks of a four-year contract with the West Midlands club.

Morgan was fortunate to be on the pitch on the night Albion went top of the Championship with a remarkable 1-0 win at Derby County. The young forward kicked out at Watford’s Albert Eames in the previous match but was on hand do a different side of his job after his team went down to 10 men in the first half at Pride Park.

He’s out-scoring his xG and making chances for his teammates, and Morgan’s early-season numbers make for encouraging reading. After six second-tier games, he has three goals and three assists. He’s Albion’s leader on both measures.

It’s easy to see where the productivity comes from. Morgan focuses on doing the right things and being in the right places when he can’t be directly involved. If he sees a run, he runs it. He’s not shy about demanding the ball either.

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Albion’s goal at Pride Park came out of nowhere. Callum Styles carried the ball outside the left flank of the Derby box and was fouled.

It was in the back of the net in the blink of an eye, and it was Morgan who took up the baton to fire a pass in for Aune Heggebo to prod home.

But with Albion a man down and Heggebo withdrawn at the break, Morgan had to show the effects of the toughening up provided by the bottom two tiers over the past 18 months.

The England Under-20 international played up front on his own in the second half, a thankless task at the best of times.

In his first interview with West Brom’s media team, Morgan acknowledged that his time at Gillingham and Peterborough had taught him how to be robust and relentless, characteristics that overtook goals and assists when debutant Brayann Pereira was sent off after 34 minutes.

‘Just keep using your body, be stronger’

Morgan’s performance might have gone unheralded at the front of a rearguard action but the three free kicks he won while protecting the ball earned him the adulation of the travelling Baggies in the corner.

While the former Chelsea player’s ability to lead the line in difficult circumstances is surely a product of his practised robustness, Morgan’s manager is keen that his more recent work is recognised too.

“I think it’s the work he’s done in pre-season as well, and the confidence he’s getting from his performances,” Albion boss James Morrison tells FourFourTwo.

“We said at half time, he’s going to have to try to buy fouls by really using his body. We said, ‘Just keep using your body. Be stronger.’

“I felt like with [Morgan] up there, with his trickery, we might get ourselves up the pitch.”

The new signing certainly made his presence felt. In the first six games with his new club, Morgan is not only making Albion’s recruitment look good, but Chelsea’s decisions about his development too.

At 20, he has both a strong academy background and progress through the divisions already under his belt. That he’s taken the Championship in stride bodes well.

“He’s the reason”, Tottenham Hotspur fans once sang about Rodrigo Bentancur. In the 2021/22 season, particularly once Antonio Conte took over from Nuno Espirito Santo, the Uruguayan was instrumental in the middle of the park.

He forged a fine partnership with Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, and looked a world beater in north London. There was even an argument to be made that he was their most important player. Spurs wouldn’t have secured a Champions League finish without Bentancur in the side.

Disaster, though, struck in February 2023. Bentancur suffered an ACL injury at Leicester City. In the years since, Bentancur wasn’t the same player. A succession of spells on the sidelines owing to knee, ankle and hamstring issues hardly helped the Uruguay international.

Too safe

Nor did the Thomas Frank Reign of Pain. At one stage last season, the Dane’s favoured midfield pairing was Bentancur and Joao Palhinha at the base in the 4-2-3-1 formation. The axis of evil was resoundingly criticised, particularly at home when the north London side were accused of being too safe.

So, when Spurs spent £185m to bring Sandro Tonali and Mateus Fernandes to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium from Newcastle United and West Ham United, respectively, many felt Bentancur would be deemed surplus to requirements. At that point, the idea was that both Tonali and Fernandes would forge the deep-lying pairing in Roberto De Zerbi’s preferred 4-2-3-1 setup.

Yet, three games into the new Premier League season, Bentancur has started twice. He replaced Lucas Bergvall at the break in last month’s 3-0 defeat at Brentford, the Swede having struggled in the opening 45 minutes. He ranks fifth for total league minutes (225) at Spurs.

Admittedly, results haven’t gone in the club’s favour. They have collected just one point from meetings with the Bees, Newcastle and Nottingham Forest, and are one of three teams yet to score a league goal in England’s top tier this season.

Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Forest, though, was a step in the right direction. Spurs looked more threatening going forward, and could have gone ahead in the first half had Omar Marmoush hit the target when one-on-one with Matz Sels.

What caught the eye, however, was Bentancur’s standout performance. The former Juventus midfielder was arguably Spurs’ best player at the City Ground, putting in the necessary nitty-gritty display that helped Spurs claim a first point of the season. They were far tougher to break down than they were in back-to-back defeats to Brentford and Newcastle.

Indeed, Bentancur made nine clearances, two interceptions and one tackle in the Midlands. He managed five ball recoveries, won six duels and four aerial duels. While Spurs splashed the cash to improve the squad in the off-season following their relegation scrap, it’s the 2022 £18m addition that continues to shine in a key area.

Conte identified Bentancur as a vital player when he took charge back in 2021, and De Zerbi has done similar following his appointment back in April. In time, De Zerbi may plump for a pairing of Tonali and Fernandes to help take Spurs forward. For the foreseeable future, however, Bentancur needs to be a starter at the base of the midfield.

Forget the £185m pairing, it’s Bentancur who De Zerbi should be building his midfield around. There’s a reason, after all, that Spurs were happy to - briefly - entertain bids for Lucas Bergvall and willing to sanction Pape Sarr’s Juventus switch. When it came to Bentancur, however, there was no chance he’d be shown the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium exit.

And with the welcome of a battling Everton side looming, De Zerbi needs to continue with Bentancur in a key position. The Toffees thrive in midfield duels and winning second balls, meaning Spurs have a battle on their hands against David Moyes’ men this weekend.

Saturday’s Forest stalemate proved that Bentancur is more than up for the challenge. It also showed just why De Zerbi will look to the experienced figurehead in the middle of the park in his first full campaign in the capital. Spurs are a far more cohesive unit when Bentancur starts. Despite the shiney new toys, he’ll start in midfield, and deservedly so.

Sadio Mane was a great player. The phrasing here is deliberate — a world in which the Senegalese winger, little more than the Robin to Cristiano Ronaldo’s Batman in the Saudi Pro League, makes it to the Ballon d'Or 30-man shortlist… is not a serious world.

Sure, Mane won the Africa Cup of Nations in January of this year. Well, he did, until Senegal’s trophy was seized and re-distributed to Morocco in a court ruling, months after the fact. Regardless, is that enough?

Does the Ballon d'Or really expect us to believe that an underwhelming World Cup, a 10-goal Saudi Pro League season, and a phantom AFCON victory, is enough for fans to accept his place, in 2026 no less, among the world’s top 30 players?

Ballon d'Or, how is Sadio Mane in your 30-player shortlist?!

Sure, Mane won AFCON's Player of the Tournament — that wasn’t taken from him. Well, he did, with two pea-roller assists in a Round of 16 clash versus Sudan (gifted to him by glorious efforts from Papa Gueye and Ibrahim Mbaye) and one brilliant strike against Egypt in the semi-final.

His claim to making the Ballon d’Or’s 30-man shortlist begins and ends there. The 34-year-old was named Player of the Tournament not because his play was undeniable, but because he is Sadio Mane.

It must be stressed, there are other players present in the Ballon D’or 30-player shortlist whose places are near equally undeserved. For example, Julian Quinones and Dayot Upemecano stand out as two such individuals that should be nowhere near France Football’s award.

But there’s something in Mane’s inclusion that feels particularly egregious: it speaks directly to the nonsensical criteria that is used to determine which players are nominated for, or even win, the award. For starters, what is the Ballon d’Or’s obsession with international trophies?

Why is it that international tournament winners— in this case, Mane with AFCON — are automatically more deserving of a place on the 30-man shortlist, or a higher finish in France Football’s rankings, than players who excelled at club level?

That was made clear in 2018, when Lionel Messi, with 48 goal involvements, and Mohamed Salah, with 60 contributions, finished fifth and sixth in France Football’s list respectively.

That was the year that Luka Modric somehow left with the Ballon d'Or in his clutches… because he’d received the Golden Ball in a World Cup tournament. Oh, and Antoine Griezmann managed to bag third.

‘Trophy logic’ is wildly inconsistent — as some of Messi’s staunchest critics have pointed out, he won the 2019 Ballon d’Or with nothing but a LaLiga title to his name, yet his solitary World Cup trophy, and a Ligue 1 title that PSG nearly always win, was enough to supersede a treble-winning Erling Haaland’s claim in 2023.

The same pattern reared its ugly head when Rodri took home the 2024 award, propelled, very clearly, by Spain’s European Championship victory — denying a treble-winning Vinicius Junior.

A year later? Winning the treble was now enough for PSG’s Ousmane Dembele. He departed with the award, despite Salah and Raphinha clearly having stronger individual seasons, and winning their respective leagues, in tougher conditions.

Salah broke the Premier League record for goal involvements, and won the most-competitive top-flight title in Europe, without a single team-mate of his making France Football’s 30-man shortlist.

Raphinha racked up a staggering 21 Champions League goal contributions in just 14 games, and contributed to three goals versus Inter Milan, while his team shipped seven goals in a 7-6 aggregate defeat.

Elsewhere, Dembele played merely 1,736 Ligue 1 minutes — the equivalent of just 19 games.

For a so-called individual award, it seems that a player’s individual season is actually accounted for last, club-level trophies in second, and international silverware in first. That is farcical.

Mane is the latest beneficiary of such silly criteria. A mediocre club-level season with Al-Nassr, bagging just 10 goals en-route to Saudi Pro League victory, an average World Cup in which Senegal embarrassingly fell to an historic Belgium comeback, all superseded by an AFCON trophy... that was later taken away from him.

And hey, at least he stood on the pitch against Morocco and begged his Senegalese team-mates to return after they stormed off. That gave him ‘fair play’ points, right, France Football?

A pattern has developed during Michael Carrick's early tenure as permanent Manchester United boss, and he must address it.

Every time Bruno Fernandes shapes to send a curling delivery into the box from the half-space, and every time Bryan Mbeumo cuts inside to send a dangerous ball towards the back post, the pattern becomes impossible to ignore.

Man United are built to attack from wide areas, but lack the aerial profile inside the 18-yard box to capitalise on it.

Manchester United need to make tactical tweak three games into the season

Data gleaned from Gradient Sports paints an interesting picture of Man United’s opening games.

Carrick’s side currently rank first in the Premier League for total inswinging crosses attempted (39) - 10 more than the next-highest team - and second overall in total crosses (84). Individually, Bruno Fernandes leads the division for inswingers attempted, while summer addition Bryan Mbeumo ranks third.

The intent is clear: Man United are overloading the flanks and using their playmakers to deliver high-value, whipped service into the penalty area.

Despite dominating the delivery metrics, Man United rank only fifth for their cross completion rate. The quality of the service from Fernandes and Mbeumo is rarely the issue - rather, it is the lack of a complementary target profile inside the box when the ball arrives.

Matheus Cunha has spent much of the early campaign leading the line, but the Brazilian's natural game does not suit an aerial bombardment. Cunha is fundamentally a 'nine-and-a-half' - a fluid, technician who thrives when dropping deep to link play, driving at defenders from tight pockets, and unleashing shots from distance.

Asking him to engage in physical battles against Premier League centre-halves on whipped inswinging crosses doesn't quite get the best out of his strongest attributes.

When crosses flood the box, Cunha is occasionally out of position or outmatched in aerial duels, leaving the team's creative output feeling unrewarded.

The remedy for Carrick is sitting on the bench: Benjamin Sesko.

Unlike Cunha, Sesko provides the exact physical profile needed to transform Man United's crossing volume into goals. The Slovenian international offers physicality and height and box presence.

At 6ft 5in, Sesko gives Man United a genuine aerial presence capable of winning contested headers against deep defensive blocks. He is a player who will instinctively attack the landing zones of inswinging deliveries, too.

If Fernandes and Mbeumo continue to cross with such frequency, adding Sesko to the starting XI is a requirement.

The Den is a magnificent place to watch football. I imagine it’s a great venue to play at, too.

It’s a Guy Ritchie-directed, late ‘90s, flat-roof pub football club, soundtracked by Ocean Colour Scene’s ‘The Riverboat Song’.

Nowhere else in English football are you likely to hear, “Lino, you’re a c***” sung in unison during the first half…from the ‘Family Stand’.

Millwall is one of the last truly great places to watch proper football

At very few grounds in English football do you walk through the crowds before kick-off and wonder, “Is everyone here in the same WhatsApp group called ‘What we’re wearing to the game’?”

The chant of ‘MILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL’, if you can call it a chant or better still, a rebel yell, is an assault on the eardrums, despite there being less than 20,000 in the building.

There’s an old-style, decommissioned London bus painted royal blue that stands outside. It serves Spitfire ale. They have a centre-half of six feet six who plays exactly as you’d imagine. Even the commercial partners are proper working man’s sponsors: Selhurst Timber and Builder’s Merchants, Masons Scaffolding - corrr, I've got splinters just thinking about them. Canary Wharf is visible above the Dockers Stand, and they f***ing love a tackle.

I’m not at The Den every week, but I’ll bet the bloke who sits adjacent to the press box and shouts, “They are f***ing pony”, with the same frequency as the London Bridge to South Bermondsey service, is a regular, and local.

Plenty of teams - Leeds, Everton and Newcastle among them - might claim they run Millwall close in their Millwall-ness, but it’s exactly what the Premier League is missing, to its detriment.

I know what you’re thinking, 'Surely the EFL Family Club of the Year 2017 is a touch more welcoming than it was back in the old days?' Of course, that would be the correct assumption. Nothing is like the old days, but unlike other grounds, and some of Millwall’s closest rivals, ahem, they at least retain some of the horribleness.

In an age where football has become increasingly polished and corporate-ified, it’s redeeming to visit a stadium where it all feels authentic. Going in a box at The Den would feel wrong, and a waste of money. Paying more to miss out on the full experience? No, thanks.

Even the press room, with its low ceiling, a discarded mannequin torso and worn Wetherspoons-like carpet, stippled with 'MFC' worked into the fabric, is like something out of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s ‘The Office’.

The Lions came close to promotion last season, defeated in the Championship play-offs by eventual winners Hull City. They’ve lost star man Femi Azeez and were soundly beaten 5-1 by Southampton earlier this season, so this term might not go as well as last.

However, with six teams now making up the play-offs, and Millwall giving a near full-strength Newcastle side a good go in the Carabao Cup, there’s every chance.

The furore over FIFA's attempt to sell off the World Cup had only just died down when VAR controversies reared their ugly head in the opening weeks of the Premier League season. The demise of PSR appeared to offer temporary relief, yet those minded to celebrate its sudden obsolescence should be wary, EPL executives included. Its replacement abbreviation, SCR, threatens to gravely damage what made England's top tier so successful in the first place.

Some explanations are in order. Last November, Premier League clubs voted to change the financial rules that govern their transfer dealings. Out went Profit and Sustainability, which allowed adjusted losses of a maximum of £105m over a three-year period. In came Squad Cost Ratio, which permits clubs to spend up to 85% of their football-related revenue on squad costs, namely transfers, wages and agent fees.

There is something faintly depressing about the extent to which modern-day football fans have to be clued up on accountancy terms to make sense of their club’s ins and outs, but at least we now all know the definition of amortisation. Besides, football cannot be a free-for-all. Competitive sport relies on, if not a level playing field, then at least a semblance of parity. Allowing clubs to spend whatever they like would be a recipe for disaster, especially in the era of state ownership.

'A fudge so considerable it would have delighted Willy Wonka'

PSR was far from perfect. The bigger clubs were already able to splash more cash than the smaller ones because of their larger established revenues. This frustrated many, particularly ambitious outfits striving to break the glass ceiling like Aston Villa and Newcastle.

The regulations incentivised the sale of academy products, whose departures could go down in the books as pure profit. A loophole that allowed clubs to count non-football income in their earnings was cynically and predictably exploited. Most egregious was Chelsea’s sale of two hotels to a sister company controlled by their owners, a fudge so considerable it would have delighted Willy Wonka.

Yet SCR is a step in the wrong direction. That aforementioned loophole has been closed, but the issue of youth-team graduates remains unresolved. More worryingly, middle-ranking sides face a tighter financial squeeze.

PSR’s fixed £105m figure at least acted as a form of equalisation, imposing the same loss ceiling on all established Premier League clubs regardless of revenue. Under SCR, financial headroom is tied only to revenue, giving the elite clubs greater scope to splash the cash. The closed shop has had a padlock bolted on for good measure.

That is not all. SCR operates on a seasonal basis, as opposed to PSR’s three-year assessment period. This means that a Brighton or a Crystal Palace has less scope to keep a team together for a couple of campaigns before selling off assets in the third season to bring its cumulative losses under the £105m limit. Ambition is circumscribed before it has had the chance to bear fruit.

True, the 85% ratio is not a hard-and-fast limit. The Premier League terms it a ‘green threshold’, in contrast to a ‘red threshold’ that comprises the 85% plus a multi-year rolling allowance of 30%. A points penalty is reserved only for those who exceed the red threshold; breaching the green one is punishable by a fine. But that additional allowance is available to the richest teams too, so it only serves to strengthen their relative advantage.

The SCR problem is particularly acute for clubs that have qualified for Europe, who must simultaneously meet UEFA’s stricter ratio of 70%. Bournemouth, Sunderland, Crystal Palace and Brighton, who will soon begin their continental campaigns, face greater constraints than those who missed out on the Europa League or Conference League.

It is telling that three of that quartet voted against SCR, along with Brentford, Fulham and Leeds. These upstarts realised the new regulations would be detrimental to their prospects going forward. The Premier League’s marketing department might soon need to rethink its “anyone can beat anyone” mantra.

Even under PSR, we would not have seen a repeat of Leicester’s 2015/16 title triumph, an achievement that did not merely upset the apple cart but sent it hurtling down the hill. Yet the likes of Brighton, Brentford and Bournemouth have shown in recent years that through smart recruitment, astute management and a long-term vision, it is possible to not only survive but to thrive in the Premier League, sometimes outperforming the established powers in the process.

The advent of SCR makes that harder. For a league that has long prided itself on its competitiveness, it is a dangerous development.

Everton were in turmoil before Ainsley Maitland-Niles' 96th-minute equaliser against Manchester United last weekend. And to some extent, they still are - but all is not lost.

The Toffees are unbeaten in their opening three matches of the new Premier League season, with five points on the board, so the players are holding up their side of the bargain. At board level, though, it has been well-documented over the past couple of weeks that all is not well. Defeat at home to Man United would've seen a return of the phenomenon widely regarded as the 'Goodison boo' upon the final whistle.

A week prior, supporters had protested against the potential sale of academy graduate Harrison Armstrong to Nottingham Forest which prompted a £40 million U-turn by the club's decision-makers. Then, fans could only watch as Everton jettisoned £100m worth of attacking talent on transfer deadline day, replacing them with nothing.

Silver lining to Everton's disastrous deadline day

It's understandable, then, that Evertonians are keen to hang their hats on Armstrong and his potential. And while many may assume he is the young player with the highest ceiling at the Hill Dickinson Stadium this season, FourFourTwo beg to differ.

Everton's signing of Chelsea academy star Tyrique George could prove to be some of the best business the club have done in recent years, because the 20-year-old has hit the ground running this season, despite the external noise surrounding the club's failings off the pitch.

The left-sided winger impressed against Man United, finding the net with a great effort to level the scoreline late in the game. It was his first Premier League goal for the club.

But it is not George's goalscoring that will, in our opinion, make him a dark horse for the PFA Young Player of the Year award.

Courtesy of Gradient Sports data, George is the Premier League's best ball-carrier so far this season. Admittedly, the campaign is merely three weeks old but the signs are promising.

George is performing well above average in various areas, including passing, shooting and winning duels, but it is his ball-carrying which really lights up the database.

So far this season, George has completed seven of his nine attempted dribbles, beating his man with regularity during the early knockings of the campaign. This aspect of his game is especially reminiscent of an Everton teammate's breakthrough at Aston Villa: Jack Grealish.

Grealish was - and to some extent, still is - an elite level ball-carrier. Both are capable of transporting play upfield, tens of yards at a time with the ball at their feet. For clubs who are likely to find themselves in mid-table and below, alleviating opposition pressure by taking the ball far away from their own goal is a useful skill to have, not to mention leveraging it to good effect in an attacking sense in the final third.

George is going to be tasked with doing the former an awful lot this season, not least because Everton's first-team squad only has 18 senior members. Opportunities are going to be forthcoming for the ex-Chelsea youngster and on early season evidence, he's ready to grasp them with both hands.

Everton have left themselves with one recognised striker in David Moyes' group, Thierno Barry, who is the type of striker who requires service from out wide, and runners. As he has shown in recent weeks, George can offer the latter from the left-hand side, and Brennan Johnson is more than capable of doing that on the opposite flank. It relies on all three remaining fit, but gives things a decidedly rosier outlook than when the window slammed shut last week.

Chances for George to break through at Chelsea were always going to be few and far between, despite the cameo role he played at Stamford Bridge before joining the Toffees. The Blues will be looking to challenge for the Premier League title this season, albeit as an outside bet, and the £116m signing of Morgan Rogers guarantees Chelsea a greater likelihood of success than if they were to give George equal importance in the squad.

If George can add tangible end product as well, as he demonstrated against Man United, then there is every chance due to the level of exposure, working alongside Grealish and the style Everton are likely to play, that George will be someone we're all talking about very highly come the end of the season.

Newcastle United found themselves in a hole against Bournemouth when they met in the Premier League last weekend.

Marcus Tavernier's early strike and a bizarre own goal from Malick Thiaw put the Cherries 2-0 up at St James' Park but Newcastle responded immediately with a Harvey Barnes pearler. Eventually, Jacob Ramsey added a second to salvage a point.

Anecdotally, it was one of those days when it feels as if the supporters deserve a slice of the credit. Noise and colour, colour and noise. The twelfth man might not show up in the numbers but every football fan knows its potential.

Will the Lions' roar be diminished this season?

It's a feeling, really. Most of us have to imagine it but it's hard to believe that the ferocious encouragement of thousands wouldn't have an effect. How could it not?

Even in the precise and professional world of Premier League football, atmosphere matters. Players might not be unduly intimidated even by the great cauldrons of the game nowadays, but the sense of uplift for the other side must be intoxicating.

Pick the ultimate 4-4-2 line-up from players in FourFourTwo's definitive Top 100 List

It's difficult to say what might theoretically happen when it's taken away or drastically reduced, but elsewhere in the Premier League there is a practical example about to get underway.

Aston Villa have already played in front of the building site that was the North Stand just weeks ago, but losing 1-0 at home to Arsenal doesn't tell anyone anything about anything.

On Saturday, Villa welcome Nottingham Forest to a three-sided Villa Park. The North Stand is being redeveloped without getting pulled down in its entirety. It will be closed for the duration of 2026/27 as Villa increase the ground's capacity ahead of the European Championship in 2028.

After another poor start, Villa need the backing of their diminished crowd. The visit of Forest will serve as a very unfair comparison with the second leg of last season's Europa League, when eventual winners Villa were swept to a second-leg win on a wave of roars.

The situation is different, certainly, but there was little expectation that Villa would get anything from the visit of Arsenal and that is not the case when Forest return.

Without the North Stand, Villa will need to get to grips with a strange environment that can only truly materialise when a football crowd feel like they're needed.

Villa's fans will get behind Emery's team against Forest and the Holte End will play its part as much as ever.

Not having a stand full of Villa supporters at the other end, bouncing back the noise and exchanging pleasantries with the away supporters who also used to occupy the very same seats before they were shunted around the corner flag into the Witton Lane Stand, will look and sound and feel unusual.

Over the coming months, the fans who make up Villa's limited capacity will have their work cut out for them. Every now and again, teams need the boost Newcastle got from their supporters against Bournemouth.

That one big nudge over the line can count for a lot. It can be worth a point where there were none. It can be worth three points where there was one.

As the songs of the Holte End echo back from the hollow around which the new-look and expanded North Stand shell is being built, overcoming the sheer weirdness of it all might well prove to be to Villa's tangible detriment.