Brighton & Hove Albion’s biggest win of the season was, without question, the 3-0 triumph over defending Premier League champions Arsenal last month. It just so happened they won with the fourth youngest starting XI in the 2026/27 top-flight match.

With an average age of just 25, the youthful Seagulls stifled the Gunners. Pascal Gross put Brighton ahead on the half-hour mark. Fabian Hurzeler’s side went in at the break two goals to the good as Charalampos Kostoulas, provider of the first goal, turned scorer. Chema Andres completed a fine day at the office for Hurzeler and his men. Or should that be boys?

Yes, Hurzeler has forged a functional team, expertly blending both youth and experience. The combination sit third in England’s top tier after the opening seven matches, having claimed five wins. Gross and captain Lewis Dunk are the seasoned heads in key positions. Hurzeler has deployed a number of young stars in support of the mid-30s pair.

And leading the charge is Kostoulas. The Greek teenager joined from Olympiacos last summer, but had to settle for a spot on the bench in his debut campaign at the Amex Stadium. That shouldn’t come as a surprise. A 19-year-old in their first season abroad, they need a chance to adjust to a change in scenery.

Playing second fiddle to Danny Welbeck, it wasn’t a shock that Kostoulas was restricted to just two league starts. Even so, he made a further 19 appearances off the bench. In that time, he struck twice and provided one assist. One of those goals was a stunning 90th-minute overhead kick in a 1-1 draw with Bournemouth back in January. Few would have expected that the hit was a sign of things to come in terms of output.

Admittedly, the teenager is yet to replicate the sensational hit against the Cherries. Yet the confidence to attempt such an effort when the pressure was on perhaps convinced Hurzeler that it was time to shift Welbeck on. Out with the old, in with the new. Welbeck moved to Chelsea, and Kostoulas found one less hurdle to overcome in order to establish himself as first-choice Brighton frontman.

There was a stroke of fortune over his promotion to leading striker, of course. Georginio Rutter played the full 90 in the opening weekend 4-0 win over Aston Villa. The Frenchman suffered an ill-timed foot injury that presented Kostoulas with the chance to nail down a starting spot. It’s one he’s grabbed, and one won’t be relinquishing anytime soon.

Of the 23 league goals Brighton have scored this season, Kostoulas has been directly involved in five, netting three times in the process. Those goals came at crucial moments, too. The opener in an eventual 5-0 win at Coventry. The second in the aforementioned victory over Arsenal on the stroke of half-time to change the complexion of the clash. Four minutes after the restart in the M23 Derby 5-0 triumph over Crystal Palace to extinguish any chances of a fightback.

Elsewhere, he netted shortly before half-time in the 3-2 Carabao Cup comeback win over Manchester United last month and the first in a 4-0 Conference League playoff success over Tromso. Key moments that set, or maintained, Brighton’s path to victory. A player his age shouldn’t be coming in clutch the way Kostoulas does.

There is more beyond the goals and assists that stand out, however. Granted, a striker’s primary objective is to put the ball in the back of the net. Kostoulas, though, offers more than just goals to his energetic Brighton side.

It’s no secret that Hurzeler’s Brighton likes to press high and aggressively. One of their key routes to goal is to force opposition turnovers in dangerous positions. They rank top for possession won in the attacking third (51) in the Premier League this season, and it’s not even close. Bournemouth are their closest competitors. The Cherries have done so 37 times.

And leading the pressing charge is none other than Kostoulas himself, the Greece international having done so 12 times. There’s buying into Hurzeler’s gameplan, and there’s essentially proving the - almost - perfect forward for the system. Standing at 6ft1in, he’s the right size and stature to provide the focal point in a favoured 4-2-3-1 setup.

That’s not to say there are no shortcomings to his game. Kostoulas is guilty of rushing his shot selection. Four big chances missed ranks among the top 10 players in the division. The decision-making has also been pulled up. Of the 23 attempted dribbles, only nine have been successful, resulting in a 39.1 per cent dribble success rate. He’s been dispossessed 10 times and made 15 unsuccessful first touches resulting in a turnover in possession.

At 19 years of age, however, these rough edges are to be expected. They are areas that will be smoothed out over time.

As the Seagulls continue to soar, so too does the youthful Greek frontman, who has taken the rapid progression to first-choice striker for an in-form Premier League team in his stride. There’s an argument to be made that Kostoulas is the division’s best young player. You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who disagrees with that sentiment.

Unai Emery is reportedly a leading target for Manchester United if they dispense with head coach Michael Carrick. Of course he is. Why would he not be? How could he not be? He's one of the finest managers in the game.

Emery has revolutionised Aston Villa once and is in the process of doing it again, leaner and meaner, and jumping ship to fix Man United isn't going to be on his agenda this season.

United, should they show Carrick the door, will need a firefighter. They'll need a rescue job. Even if they're too myopic to understand that in the short-term, Emery is too smart not to.

Unai Emery knows his strengths and the environment he needs to use them

Villa supporters' confidence that any ambitious approach from United would immediately be repelled is rooted not in the chaotic situation at Old Trafford but the relative serenity in which Emery is able to perform at Villa Park.

The Basque boss has found his home in Birmingham. Emery has been gathering power throughout his four years in charge and enjoys a degree of control few clubs in 2026 would countenance. It's worked for Villa because of Emery's ability and suitability, but it's also a big risk on the part of the club.

There's a world in which Man United can persuade a manager to leave Villa; it would be naive to believe otherwise. But Emery is not your common or garden gaffer, and his relationship with Villa is not the norm.

Take the inevitable United interest and betting odds at face value if you must, but Emery has rebuilt Villa in his image and with his people.

Damian Vidagany and Roberto Olabe, the other pillars of Villa's football department, are Emery's men. United could theoretically take them in as a trio along with Emery's coaching staff, but it's the fact that he was empowered to bring them in to begin with that's most significant.

Emery clearly loves a challenge but he has a sharp enough awareness of his qualities that he can appreciate a good challenge and sniff out a bad one at a thousand paces.

Villa's Europa League win was a triumph of structure on and off the pitch. Emery knows that he and Villa are the right coupling at the right time, and has thrived by quietly putting down roots in a way he couldn't at Arsenal or Paris Saint-Germain, and wouldn't be able to at Manchester United.

His control and its consequences are uniquely Villa.

Where else would Emery enjoy such widespread trust to keep new signings out of the team until they're giving him exactly what his strategy demands?

Where else would Emery be able to bring in a project player like Alejandro Garnacho and play him so infrequently at the start of his loan without any serious doubts over his methods?

Emery and V Sports are a match made in heaven

Emery is proven and trusted at Villa. More importantly, he is entrenched even more deeply than his command in B6 and at Bodymoor Heath suggest.

Villa's ownership group consists of Nassef Sawiris, Wes Edens and the Michael Angelakis-fronted investment firm Atairos. They co-own V Sports, which in turn owns Villa.

V Sports also owns most of Aston Villa Women – that's a matter for another day – as well as significant holdings in Portuguese side Vitoria SC, the French club FC Annecy and Real Union from the Basque Country.

Olabe's increasing involvement in Vitoria and Annecy is a clue as to Emery's connection with the Villa ownership, Sawiris in particular.

But the bigger hint can be found in Irun, where the 75% of Real Union not owned by Sawiris, Edens and Atairos belongs to one Unai Emery. His brother, Igor, is the club's president.

All of these are ties that can be undone, but taken in combination they make for one hell of a knot. Add in the progress made by Villa on the pitch, and it's safe to say that the job that eventually tempts Emery to pull at the loose strands will be truly impossible to refuse.

Manchester United in their current guise are not that.

The Old Trafford club might have the name but it's Villa who are united. Emery is reaping the rewards and is far too switched-on to believe those circumstances are easy to come by.

In his 1953 essay, the philosopher Isaiah Berlin distinguished between two types of thinker: foxes and hedgehogs. Berlin was drawing on a line attributed to the Ancient Greek poet Archilochus, who observed in the seventh century BC that “a fox knows many things, but a hedgehog knows one big thing.”

“For there exists a great chasm,” Berlin wrote, “between those [hedgehogs], on one side, who relate everything to a single central vision, one system less or more coherent or articulate, in terms of which they understand, think and feel - a single, universal, organising principle in terms of which alone all that they are and say has significance.

“And, on the other side, those [foxes] who pursue many ends, often unrelated and even contradictory… their thought [seizes] upon the essence of a vast variety of experiences and objects… without, consciously or unconsciously, seeking to fit them into… any one unchanging, all-embracing, sometimes self-contradictory and incomplete, at times fanatical, unitary inner vision.”

"After seven games, Hull, Ipswich and Coventry have amassed a combined 24 points"

And so to the Premier League relegation battle. In recent seasons, several promoted clubs were led by hedgehogs: managers wedded to a particular style, for whom the prickly business of amassing enough points to stay in the top flight was no reason to deviate from their principles.

Now, foxes predominate. Sergej Jakirovic (Hull City), Gary O’Neil (Ipswich Town) and Frank Lampard (Coventry City) have all shown a pragmatic streak this term. It has served their teams well, even after a set of disappointing results at the weekend. After seven games, Hull, Ipswich and Coventry have amassed a combined 24 points, the most for a promoted trio at this stage since 2016/17.

The foxward turn began last season, when Daniel Farke kept Leeds United up and Regis Le Bris took Sunderland into Europe. Both managers adjusted their approach from the Championship, shifting to a more muscular, counter-attacking style. It worked, allowing two promoted teams to avoid the drop after back-to-back campaigns in which all three went down.

The sample size is still small, but the early signs suggest Hull, Ipswich and Coventry intend to follow suit. The three promoted sides have the lowest average possession in the league. Hull and Coventry have the lowest pass-completion rates, while Hull, Ipswich and Coventry's goalkeepers are in the positional top four for long passes.

Not long ago, it was common to hear promoted managers insist they would not forsake their philosophy upon reaching the Premier League. Adaptation was seen as a dirty word, compromise construed as a character flaw, tactical flexibility tantamount to a betrayal of beliefs. Even when trailing 3-0 against an elite pressing side, their teams continued to take goal-kicks short and play square passes along the backline, like a hedgehog who responds to every challenge by curling into a ball.

The clearest recent examples are Vincent Kompany at Burnley and Russell Martin at Southampton, two coaching careers which have since diverged sharply. Even as their teams hurtled towards the Championship, Kompany and Martin insisted there was no other way.

Kompany’s subsequent employment at Bayern Munich, where he has been successful, would appear to vindicate his unwavering faith in his preferred approach, but his ability to speak German and the unavailability of other candidates were more significant factors in him securing that job than his ideological intransigence at Turf Moor.

Foxes are more willing than hedgehogs to accept that the Premier League is a different animal to the Championship. Lampard’s Coventry played some wonderful attacking football on their way to the second-tier title last term, but they have since been willing to sacrifice some style for substance.

“We'd be fools to think that we'd just go and play like we did in the 'Champ' every week when we dominated a lot of games,” Lampard said in August. A few weeks later, he professed that “you have a look at the opposition and you see what you feel is the best opportunity to try to get the best out of our team.”

O’Neil, who replaced Kieran McKenna as Ipswich boss in the summer, is on record as saying he prefers his teams to have the ball, but he acknowledged in July that “come the end of the season, the only thing that most people are going to care about is how many points we put on the board.” Against Manchester City on Saturday, he changed to a 3-4-3 formation for the first time in his current role. Ipswich lost narrowly to the league leaders.

Jakirovic is a slightly different case given Hull were already playing direct football in the Championship. That established model has proved readily transferable to the Premier League, negating the need for wholesale reinvention. Other managers will have taken note. That said, strategic continuity does not preclude tactical flexibility: Jakirovic has switched between a back four and a back five during his Hull tenure, favouring the latter this season.

Why have the hedgehogs lost ground to the foxes? Most obviously, that run of six successive promoted sides going straight back down prompted a rethink. An embrace of more functional methods higher up the division legitimised such an approach for less fancied teams. If defensive solidity and set-pieces are good enough for Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, why not for a club scrapping for survival?

It is not impossible for a promoted manager to keep a team up while playing proactive, attractive football. Brendan Rodgers did it at Swansea City and was rewarded with the Liverpool job. And while Hull, Ipswich and Coventry have begun brightly with a more utilitarian outlook, there is no guarantee their good form will last. All three remain the favourites - Manchester City aside - for relegation.

Still, there is something admirable about managers doing what is best for the club that employs them, even if putting pragmatism before principle risks diluting their personal brand. A “fanatical, unitary inner vision”, as Berlin put it, is no longer in vogue for coaches attempting to keep promoted teams above the dotted line. The foxes are in the ascendancy. Hull, Ipswich and Coventry have their tails up.

Peterborough United manager Robbie Savage was unequivocal after his team’s 4-1 loss at Huddersfield Town that it was the Terriers’ third goal that ‘finished the game’ at Accu Stadium.

Savage was justified in that view. Posh had just pulled a goal back after going 2-0 down in a scruffy League One match that struggled for quality but was punctuated by exactly that. It was, said Savage, a game of moments.

Peterborough went on to halve the deficit but it was Huddersfield’s second goal that switched the valve on the tension in the stadium. Both were scored by Joe Taylor, a striker who’s young yet proven in the third tier and destined to join Savage among the ranks of Wales’ full internationals.

Joe Taylor is Huddersfield’s prodigal signing

The 23-year-old, formerly of Peterborough, joined Huddersfield in January 2025 after a prolific loan spell in League One with Lincoln City. Taylor scored on his debut but injury soon curtailed his progress and the Terriers’ soon started to cycle through managers.

Players left and players arrived; Huddersfield’s squad is unrecognisable from the one Michael Duff inherited in 2024. Taylor is one of a few players who’ve done both and has experienced the upheaval as directly as anyone in the current squad.

Pick the ultimate 4-4-2 line-up from players in FourFourTwo's definitive Top 100 List

At the same time as Lee Grant was dismissed as Duff’s permanent successor in January, Taylor left Huddersfield on loan and spent the second half of 2025/26 scoring goals in their division for Wigan Athletic.

When Huddersfield and Wigan meet on Saturday, Taylor will line up for the Terriers. After a tumultuous spell of goalless runs, misuse and exile, the striker is finally enjoying the platform he needs to be the signing Huddersfield wanted him to be.

On a miserable night in West Yorkshire that was illuminated by four moments of genuinely excellent finishing, Taylor’s two goals won the game. That’s what Taylor does, and it’s what Huddersfield missed out on until Martin Drury reintegrated him and helped to unleash his goal threat at the club that invested in it some time ago.

Their win moved them into the top two and Taylor’s brace put him on eight league goals in 10 matches. Only Kyle Wootton of leaders Stockport County has more, and both Taylor and teammate Derensili Sanches Fernandes match Wootton for overall goal contributions.

Taylor’s shooting numbers and performance against expected goals suggest that he’s capable of outstripping Wootton over the course of the season, but there’s data on paper and there’s data in observation.

The real value of Taylor’s two goals against Peterborough, beyond the three points, is that neither he nor Huddersfield were at anything like their best and he produced a couple of goals anyway.

Spinning wins from scraps is exactly what Huddersfield need

He’s had better all-round matches and been unable to take advantage but these goals were everything Drury could want from his leading hitman. They were pure Joe Taylor.

The first was all his own doing. He pinched a loose ball in midfield and raced clear to slot the ball past Posh goalkeeper Alex Bass. The second was made by his movement and finishing to convert a terrific cross from substitute Marcus Harness.

These were the moments Savage acknowledged and the moments that made the difference. The ability to spin an evidently tired performance in the brutal Saturday-Tuesday rhythm of the EFL into two match-winning goals is not common. There’s a reason Drury hugged Taylor like a returning son when he was substituted to a standing ovation.

Drury said after the match that Huddersfield have given too much attention to outside expectations since they were relegated from the Championship, and that they’ve done so at the expense of holding themselves accountable internally.

It was a damning assessment of what came before him but the need to return to second-tier football is as acute now as it was under Duff two years ago.

Having a striker who can turn draws into wins, who can turn an ugly 1-0 lead into 3-1 in just a few minutes without playing all that well for an hour beforehand, is the kind of strength that might just take them there.

“They're playing with two wingers and Wirtz at 10, so they're relying heavily on the two midfield players to try and cover so much space,” Danny Murphy said on BBC Match of the Day just hours after Wirtz created nine open-play chances, the most by a single player in a Premier League game since January 2021.

“Instead of a No.10, where Wirtz is struggling to impact games, put three midfielders in.”

It speaks to the hysteria that hangs like smog around Florian Wirtz that he cannot escape criticism even when his creativity sets a five-year Premier League record and inspires Liverpool to a gritty win at Brentford.

Does Wirtz hold the key to a post-Klopp utopia?

It isn’t just the price tag that makes Wirtz a lightning rod. Slight and silky – ‘twinkle-toed’, is the word they would spit back in the day – Wirtz can be guilty of an apologetically light touch, playing with all the charisma of a man excuse-me-ing his way through a mosh pit to get to the toilets.

More than that, Wirtz is the grand symbol of the post-Klopp world that Liverpool are struggling to birth. If only they could tap into his talent, if only his hesitancy fell away, then Liverpool’s identity would emerge.

That might turn out to be true, just not quite how anyone had planned.

In the second half on Saturday, when searching for a plan to break down ten-man Brentford, Andoni Iraola stumbled upon a tactical solution to the Wirtz problem – and it’s disarmingly simple.

When Wirtz rose to prominence at Bayer Leverkusen by contributing 22 goals and assists in consecutive Bundesliga seasons, 2023/24 and 2024/25, he was almost exclusively deployed in a 3-4-3 system as one of two number tens. Just as Xabi Alonso now (usually) deploys Morgan Rogers and Cole Palmer together in the middle, it was Alonso who started playing Wirtz with a partner, Jonas Hoffman.

In other words, Wirtz is being played out of position. Perhaps his problems in England have nothing to do with physicality or speed, but formation and positioning. My message to Murphy: they don’t need one less No.10, they need one more.

Liverpool switched to an unusually lopsided 4-2-3-1 after Rio Ngumoha came on, with Rio, nominally on the right, effectively playing as a second number ten alongside Wirtz, a move that overwhelmed Brentford centrally.

It might seem like a minor shift for Wirtz, but the difference between operating alone or as one of two is enormous. That it led directly to both Liverpool goals is all the evidence we need of that.

The equaliser, when Wirtz took a brilliant touch before playing the through-ball to assist Victor Munoz’s goal, was thanks to that more Leverkusen-y shape; Wirtz only had space for the pass because Rio – starting in the middle – was tracked out wide by Mamadou Sangare, pulling the Brentford midfielder out of position:

Liverpool began to create chances at will from within that box-shaped midfield, leading to the winner, too, where space was found to cross into the penalty area only because Brentford had two No.10s to keep track of:

The obvious caveat is that Liverpool were playing against ten men. Other Wirtz critics might point to the fact that he lost possession 19 times, the second-most of any Liverpool player, and won just one of his nine duels.

But we can forget the details. By playing two number tens in the second half, Iraola mimicked the only system in which Wirtz has previously excelled. If unlocking Wirtz really is the key to discovering a new Liverpool, then a formation change is surely worth a try.

Arsenal are champions and favourites to retain the title. They are guided by an exceptional, single-minded manager in Mikel Arteta and armed with a deep squad crammed with talent.

But they are also the club of Ted Drake, John Radford and Charlie George, of Frank Stapleton and Alan Smith, of Ian Wright, Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp, and of Robin van Persie, so the live debate about their continued issue at No.9 carries the weight of history. Viktor Gyokeres scored 14 times as Arsenal won the title but is now second choice to Kai Havertz and has yet to start a Premier League game for the champions this season.

The question at Arsenal about whether the centre-forward role should be filled by Havertz or Gyokeres is met by some fans who say the answer is actually Mikel Merino. It highlights Arsenal’s failure to address the No.9 hole that the debate remains so intense, even with 10 wins and one defeat this season.

The debate intensifies this week when Arsenal run into Harry Kane at the Allianz Arena. The centre-forward has scored 15 goals in 22 games against Arsenal: 14 in the Premier League for Tottenham Hotspur and one in the Champions League for Bayern Munich. Imagine if Arsenal had held on to Kane, and not released him when he was briefly there as an eight-year-old.

Arsenal's struggles to find a suitable No.9 have gone on a while. They seemed to put all their hopes into luring Julian Alvarez from Atletico Madrid when his heart was set on Barcelona.

In fairness to Arsenal, there is a general dearth of viable, elite-level strikers out there. Manchester City do have Erling Haaland, Liverpool have Alexander Isak and Chelsea have Joao Pedro, but otherwise not many No.9s are at work in the Premier League. Leeds United have Dominic Calvert-Lewin, but the general level is almost embodied by Liam Delap, who worked hard against Arsenal’s defence at the City Ground on Sunday without scoring.

Arteta sounded confident of going into the season with goals provided from a range of sources. 10 different players have shared 22 goals this season. Starting with the Community Shield, the sequence of scorers runs: Calafiori, Havertz, Odegaard, Havertz, Saka, Odegaard, Saka, Havertz, Odegaard, Odegaard, Bruno, Saka, Dowman, Madueke, Dowman, Merino, Calafiori, Bruno, Timber, Eze, Saka and Madueke.

Arteta can also take encouragement from the number of goals scored by subs: Madueke’s winner at Nottingham Forest was the 26th coming from subs in the 45 games since the start of last season. That reflects opponents tiring as well as the quality of options Arteta has to call upon.

Life would clearly be easier with a prolific front man. Havertz fits better with what Arteta wants, holding the ball up well, linking play well, but is hardly free-scoring and has a troubling injury record. Havertz’s most productive Premier League season for Arsenal was his first there, 2023/24, when he scored 13 times in 30 starts and seven subs. The following year, the German attacker contributed nine goals and three assists in 21 starts and two sub appearances. His return in the title season was a modest two goals and three assists in seven starts and five subs.

Even with that record, Havertz is Arteta’s first-choice No.9. It seems tough on Gyokeres, a different type of forward, more focused on running behind a defence hoping for a through ball, which rarely comes. Gyokeres has a decent goal return with Sweden (25 in 41), even better than Isak’s 19 in 63.

Part of his problem at Arsenal flows from a lack of service. It would help if Arsenal unleashed counter-attacks quicker, rather than rotate the ball, and occasionally go through the middle rather than their fixation with wide. Forest’s compact block confounded Arsenal for so long. Bruno Guimaraes’ passing ability over range should be utilised more, releasing players through the middle.

It’s hard not to feel some sympathy for Gyokeres. Any understandable frustration he may feel is well-hidden. He came on against Forest and delivered his usual tireless running, pressing and showing for a ball which too rarely came. He needs to shoot more. He also deserves praise for constantly running into promising positions. When Madueke cut in from the left, Gyokeres moved into Forest’s six-yard box, gambling on a loose ball. He lurked close to Matz Sels in case the keeper got to Madueke’s shot, fumbled or parried it. As Madueke’s deflected strike hit the back of the net, and rebounded out, Gyokeres slammed it back in. Instinct, celebration or wishful thinking? At least he was there.

Is Merino the answer? The midfielder and occasional No.9 has 16 goals in 88 games for Arsenal. Arteta is likely to continue with Havertz as his first choice. The conundrum continues, placing pressure on others for goals and on that vaunted defence to keep staying defiant.

It was the low point in a huge summer for Newcastle United and a moment which always felt consequential. Johan Manzambi rejected a move to St James’ Park in favour of Aston Villa, and the Magpies were haunted by that failure on Saturday.

The Swiss midfielder scored the winning goal on another difficult and damaging evening for Matthias Jaissle, but the upshot was much more than that. He completely ran the show, drifting into spaces left very deliberately by tactics becoming increasingly controversial among Newcastle fans, who greeted both the half-time and full-time whistles with a chorus of boos.

In many ways, losing out on Manzambi could be seen as the catalyst for the issues Newcastle are currently facing.

Perhaps that is hyperbole, but he was their top target to reinvent a midfield which would be gutted by the departures of both Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimaraes and, crucially, a player former manager Eddie Howe wanted before resigning at the end of July.

His goal was a first-half header, but it was patently clear throughout with his overall play that his profile would have elevated Newcastle, particularly as Jaissle deploys a No.10 despite not having a specialist in his squad.

Where both Yoane Wissa and Joe Willock have struggled to stake a claim, Manzambi would surely have knitted everything together.

Rebuilding the squad with a more youthful outlook was always the plan for sporting director Ross Wilson. But Manzambi felt like the perfect balance; while only 21, he helped Freiburg to the Europa League final, where they were beaten by Aston Villa and then became the breakout star at the World Cup. He was ready to make an instant impact in the Premier League.

Newcastle spent north of £200m on eight new players, four of whom were on the bench. Amar Dedic has recently been injured, Sean Steur has impressed but, at 18, is not able to play every minute, while Aladji Bamba has barely featured at all. Jaissle does not seem yet convinced by him or Bazoumana Toure, a £50m winger. Only Toure made it onto the pitch in this game.

The balance in the squad is not quite right, and that uncertainty is causing problems.

After the game, Jaissle reinforced that such a big summer of change in the dugout and within the squad was always going to result in teething issues at the start of the season. Having gone unbeaten in their opening three Premier League games, Newcastle have suffered defeat in three of their last four.

“You need a reality check after a couple of months during a transitional phase,” he said in his post-match press conference.

“We have all thought about it. There will be ups and downs, at the moment, this is a down, that is not for discussion. It is clear.

“It was a step in the right direction between the boxes. There is huge potential but we need to learn fast. We need to be more efficient in the final third and be more clinical.

“We were all aware when we arrived. Big names left the club before and after. We knew that with the brave approach to sign young talents, it will be even more challenging. That is not an excuse.”

Jaissle is right, this new Newcastle needs time, and given what happened in the summer, this sort of form is not entirely unexpected. But there are also real concerns about how long it will take and whether the manager is willing to adapt his principles.

He spoke in the summer about ‘intense, front-foot football’ and it has been clear since the start of the season that he encourages risk for the sake of reward. But they have conceded 14 goals in the league this season, the most at the time of writing, while having the second-worst xG only behind Coventry City, who scored four past them last week.

Right now, that is all risk for no reward.

It is up to Jaissle to show that progress because every game feels the same, chaotic and not in a good way. There have been good results, but even they have been caveated by concerning underlying metrics.

He will get time and support, but the Coventry game was supposed to start a run of winnable fixtures before the next international break, with Crystal Palace, Everton twice, in league and cup, and Fulham set to follow.

Arsenal, Brighton, Manchester United and Sunderland await soon after. There is pressure to deliver as soon as possible.

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Season 5, Episode 7. The Gang Wrestles for the Troops. Frank “The Trashman” Reynolds wins by accidentally taking out his opponent, Rickety Cricket, with a sharp-edged trash can. He stands in the middle of the ring, sheepishly raises his arms to the air in celebration as the crowd goes wild.

It was an unintentional success. Danny DeVito’s character looked almost embarrassed by the victory. It was impossible not to draw similarities with Dominic Solanke, who headed in a stoppage-time equaliser at Old Trafford last weekend.

Roberto De Zerbi took his Tottenham Hotspur squad to Manchester United, and they dominated from the outset. Solanke himself should have put the north London side ahead with just two minutes on the clock. He fluffed his lines one-on-one with Senne Lammens. He missed a second guilt-edged chance shortly after the restart. Two ideal opportunities to put Spurs in front in a Premier League match for the first time this season.

Maybe it was a lack of confidence on Solanke’s part. Maybe the pressure from Lisandro Martinez was enough to put the 29-year-old off when Savio played the ball across goal. Not that it mattered when Solanke headed Sandro Tonali’s late cross into the bottom corner to silence the United crowd.

Either way, it was a performance that, again, wasn’t good enough from Solanke. It’s become a running theme this season. That De Zerbi named him captain was also incredibly disrespectful to the supporters who paid their hard-earned money to make the trip to Manchester for a Saturday evening kick-off.

You might say it’s one of the worst decisions that De Zerbi has made during his six months in the capital.

This, after all, is the same Solanke who missed a home North London Derby earlier this year due to a sore throat. One who has scored four league goals across 19 league appearances in 2026. A forward who has been trusted to lead the line while last season’s top scorer has been omitted from Spurs’ Premier League squad.

The issue really is that Solanke hasn’t shown enough to warrant the chance to lead out the team. De Zerbi did reveal that he entrusted the former Bournemouth man with the responsibility that comes with captaining a Premier League side. The duty of skippering one of England’s biggest clubs at one of the country’s most recognisable stadiums.

“After the last game, the criticism, I wanted to put him captain to show my confidence and the confidence of the team,” De Zerbi revealed in the week. Had none of the squad’s leadership group been available, then fair enough.

Archie Gray started at right-back. Micky van de Ven was in the matchday squad. The decision was one that left fans scratching their heads. For a team that needs a striker firing on all cylinders, there isn’t much faith in Solanke to carry out the duty. After all, he’s a forward who has scored in back-to-back games just once since his 2024 arrival from Bournemouth.

And a player of his stature who should offer plenty, doesn’t really offer much of anything on the frontline. Solanke has managed just nine shots in the Premier League this season. Just three have been on target. He’s made as many unsuccessful touches resulting in a turnover of possession. Fire the ball into him and, chances are, it’ll bounce away like a trampoline.

In addition, the former Cherries man has won only two of 12 contested aerial duels. Spurs’ No.19 has created just two chances and completed zero dribbles.

This isn’t what Spurs need right now. They require consistency in the final third. A striker to tuck away the goalscoring opportunities they are creating. A player to hold up the ball if required to bring teammates into play. Not one who is desperately out of form and has shown few signs he is capable of turning his fortunes around.

Maybe the goal against United will – finally – kick Solanke into gear. The late header could be a catalyst for better things to come. Lord knows Spurs could do with a fit and firing frontman to haul them away from danger.

Either way, the decision to name Solanke captain at United was a gamble by De Zerbi. He hasn’t shown the requisite consistency, both in terms of availability and performances, to warrant the armband. If he fails to build upon the late equaliser at United, then it will have been a failed experiment by the Spurs boss.

The pressure is now on for Solanke to justify his manager’s decision. More expect him to crumble under the responsibility rather than shoulder the burden.

This time next week, two sons of Merseyside could be about to go head-to-head in the biggest club fixture in world football.

Trent Alexander-Arnold and Anthony Gordon were born barely a couple of miles apart, in West Derby and Norris Green respectively, and both joined Liverpool’s academy when they were in primary school.

Of course, Gordon was released by the Reds and ended up coming through at Everton, with the pair facing each other in a Merseyside Derby for the first time in June 2020. They are now on opposite sides of another rivalry, but as Alexander-Arnold’s Real Madrid prepare to face Gordon’s Barcelona in El Clasico, their careers are on different trajectories.

Why this is a huge season for Anthony Gordon and Trent Alexander-Arnold - but for different reasons

Next Sunday’s meeting between Barcelona and Real Madrid happens to fall on the 10-year anniversary of Alexander-Arnold’s Liverpool debut, which came against Tottenham Hotspur in the Carabao Cup fourth round in October 2016.

He scored his first Reds goal on his Champions League bow 10 months later, curling home a classy free-kick against Hoffenheim that served notice of his outstanding dead-ball ability.

Alexander-Arnold was picked for England’s 2018 World Cup squad when he was just 19 and became a key figure in Jurgen Klopp’s great Liverpool sides, redefining the right-back role with his vision, passing range and technical ability.

As well as winning six major trophies at Anfield, the defender posted some incredible individual numbers, including claiming double figures for assists across all competitions in all but one season between 2018/19 and 2023/24.

When Alexander-Arnold left his boyhood club for Madrid in summer 2025 - a decision that saw him booed by sections of the Liverpool fanbase during a draw with Arsenal - he was expected to thrive at arguably the biggest club on the planet. But it hasn’t worked out that way.

The England international’s debut season was hampered by injuries, as separate hamstring and thigh issues ruled him out for a total of four months. When he was fit, he struggled to make his mark in an underachieving side that ended the campaign trophyless, not helped by the change of manager from Xabi Alonso to Alvaro Arbeloa in January.

Alexander-Arnold failed to make England’s World Cup 2026 squad and he has been similarly overlooked in two of Madrid’s biggest games this season. He was an unused substitute in last month’s derby defeat by Atletico Madrid in La Liga and Wednesday’s victory over Roma in the Champions League, with head coach Jose Mourinho selecting summer signing Denzel Dumfries instead.

It means there is no guarantee Alexander-Arnold gets on the pitch at the Nou Camp next Sunday, when he could be up against Barcelona left-winger Gordon. In contrast, the former Everton man looks increasingly likely to start after beginning the season in promising form.

Despite starring for Newcastle United in a three-and-a-half year spell after leaving the Toffees in January 2023, eyebrows were raised over the £69.3m fee Barcelona paid for Gordon earlier this summer.

The 25-year-old has responded with an excellent few months individually, starting five of England’s World Cup games and scoring in the semi-final defeat by Argentina. He claimed two assists off the bench on his Barcelona debut, against Elche, and notched his first goals for the club in the wins over Getafe and Galatasaray in the past eight days.

Gordon has become a regular starter for European football’s form team and has risen to the challenge of playing alongside the likes of Lamine Yamal and Rodri every week. Ultimately, he has already kicked on following his move to one of Spain’s superclubs, whereas Alexander-Arnold’s career has stalled.

This is also evident in their international prospects. While Gareth Southgate failed to get the best out of Alexander-Arnold when he was England manager, he did at least continue to select him. Thomas Tuchel has largely ignored the right-back completely.

The defender was recalled for the first time since his Madrid debut for the recent batch of Nations League fixtures, although even that was hardly a ringing endorsement from Tuchel. It is unlikely he would have made the cut if Reece James or Tino Livramento had been fit, while Jarell Quansah started the Three Lions’ biggest game of the international window, against Spain.

Essentially, Alexander-Arnold is further down the pecking order with England now than when he was at Liverpool, which seems crazy for a player of his ability and age, having just turned 28.

The ex-Red did start both matches against Czechia and provided the assist for Gordon’s opener in Prague, one of three goals in as many games scored by the winger in the international window. Gordon appears to have more of a swagger now he is a Barcelona player and looks a certain starter for England when fit.

It is already shaping up to be a hugely important season for both players, but for different reasons. Gordon has made an excellent start to his Barca career and if he maintains that level over a whole campaign, he will establish himself as one of the best wingers in world football.

Meanwhile, Alexander-Arnold is at a crossroads. He certainly has the talent to turn his Madrid career around, but another inconsistent season would amplify the nagging doubts that his move to the Spanish capital may have been a mistake.

His inability to nail down a place with England was arguably a red flag ahead of joining Madrid, who tend to appoint head coaches that take an approach to management often seen in international football. Just look at Carlo Ancelotti and Zinedine Zidane, who would trust the club’s superstars to win them games, rather than leaning on complex tactical plans.

Alexander-Arnold may even have been better suited to Barca, where he could now be linking up with Gordon in the same way that they did for England against Czechia. Instead, they will be El Clasico foes next Sunday - and that night at the Nou Camp will offer a clue as to what is in store for both players, this season and beyond.

A week can be a long time in football.

Just last Friday, Watford chairman and CEO Scott Duxbury claimed on the club’s official podcast that not many Championship clubs could compete with the Hornets’ quality if their starting eleven was fully fit.

Duxbury has a long list of sensational claims that have come back to bite him and one week on, his confidence looks completely misguided.

What's going on at Watford?

Watford are a club with no plan, no strategy and no hope, with heavy defeats to Burnley and Cardiff City leaving the Hornets staring down the barrel of relegation to League One.

Those on the outside may think this is nothing unusual, given Watford have lurched from one crisis to another, sacked countless head coaches and never finished in the Championship’s top 10 since relegation from the Premier League in 2022.

But Watford are a club with a mutiny on their hands. In a rare move, Elton John voiced concerns over the club’s direction on social media last Saturday and since then, former players including Troy Deeney, Tom Ince and Paul Robinson have all criticised how Watford is run by Gino Pozzo.

Fans have had enough, too, after years of false promises from Pozzo and Duxbury, with supporters rallying together to call for ‘Pozzo Out’ online. Roy Moore from the leading supporters group the 1881 Movement has since been invited for a meeting with Pozzo, in a bid to quell fan pressure.

So, how did we get here? In truth, it’s been a long time coming.

Alessio Dionisi is the latest in a series of Watford head coaches who have failed to be backed in the transfer market. The Italian has sounded exasperated at the club’s squad depth since pre-season.

Who can blame him when going into the opening game of the season against Southampton, he was left with just two centre-backs on the club’s books and two fit central midfielders?

A late scramble in the transfer market saw Stephy Mavididi, Soumaila Coulibaly and Branimir Mlacic arrive on loan, while Myron Boadu and Michail Antonio also arrived on free transfers. But by that point, transfer business had already come too late and the Italian has been left with a squad unfit and low on quality.

The Hornets never replaced Imran Louza in midfield - meaning Dionisi has only one natural defensive midfielder in the squad in Hector Kyprianou - and didn’t reinvest a single penny after Nestory Irankunda was sold to Sporting Clube de Portugal.

Injuries also quickly decimated the limited options Dionisi had at his disposal, with the Italian struggling to fill the matchday squad throughout August and September.

However, he’s not the first Watford manager to have been hung out to dry. Javi Gracia quit in January and decided it wasn’t worth leaving his family behind in Spain, having grown frustrated at player’s attitudes and the ownership’s failure to land key targets.

Tom Cleverley, Slaven Bilic, Valerien Ismael and Rob Edwards – who Duxbury famously said Watford would back come hell or high water – also struggled after the squad wasn’t strengthened in key areas.

That continued reluctance to support the head coach and a failure to commit to any sort of plan or strategy has created a toxic environment around Vicarage Road.

The club have tried so many different head coaches, with so many different playing styles that players know that they can down tools after a couple of defeats and it won’t take long for Pozzo to pull the trigger.

Recruitment has been an issue for some time and can be traced back to the summer of 2019, where Watford blew most of their budget on Ismaila Sarr rather than addressing issues in defence or up front.

Duxbury promised this May that the Hornets would look to sign experienced Championship players ahead of the new season; hardly any walked through the door.

The Hornets have prioritised signing young players from abroad in recent years - given they have higher resale value - or players that have lost their way in their careers, but that has left a squad with a number of questionable attitudes and without leaders or character.

The days where Watford would have a solid core of senior pros like Deeney, Heurelho Gomes, Etienne Capoue and Ben Watson to run the dressing room are long gone, meaning they have consistently rolled over against teams when the going has got tough.

Speaking of Deeney, the club have also never found a proven goalscorer since his departure in 2021, with most strikers they’ve signed looking unsuited to Championship football.

The constant churn of head coaches and players has left the club with little in the way of identity, strategy or leadership, both on and off the pitch.

Pozzo and Duxbury rarely make public appearances, but are prone to saying one thing and doing the complete opposite. No one can really work out what Watford are trying to achieve. The owners have also tightened the purse strings, with not much explanation.

Watford didn’t spend a single penny on transfers in the summer, sold off the women’s team and shut down the club’s under-21 side, while the academy was downgraded to Category Three.

Watford’s academy was a source of real pride for fans, with the Hornets having a rich history of bringing through young players. Not anymore.

There now needs to be change at Vicarage Road. The Hornets need fresh ideas at senior management level, fresh impetus, a clear strategy and identity. But most importantly, fans need some hope again. Without serious change, things will only get far worse.

Aston Villa essentially signed a brand new starting XI over the summer - they almost had to.

It was a period of substantial change for the Villans, who lost Amadou Onana to an ACL injury during the World Cup, Youri Tielemans to Manchester United, Ezri Konsa to Arsenal, Ollie Watkins to Al-Hilal, and Morgan Rogers and Emiliano Martinez to Chelsea. The spine of the squad was ripped out.

With a raft of outgoings and incomings, there was always going to be a period of transition. A time where the new players need to get up to speed with new teammates and the demands that come with working under a new manager. This, of course, is reflected in Villa’s league position.

Aston Villa upgraded on Ollie Watkins this summer

After the opening six games, Villa sit 16th with just five points to their name. In truth, it mirrors their start to the 2025/26 campaign, where they earned six points across the same period. That said, this is new ground for Emery and Villa. Such squad upheaval was always going to present teething issues.

And while Taylor Harwood-Bellis isn’t of the same standard of Konsa, and Joao Gomes is a different profile to Tielemans, there’s an argument to be made that Villa upgraded in the final third.

Nicolas Jackson moved to Chelsea in 2023. The Senegal international had enjoyed a fruitful second season in Spain with Villarreal, where he scored 12 and provided four assists despite starting just 16 league matches. A direct goal involvement every 100 or so minutes was a solid return.

It’s fair to say that Jackson’s Stamford Bridge spell didn’t go quite according to plan. Granted, across two Premier League seasons, he bagged 24 goals and provided 10 assists. However, ill-discipline marred his time in west London. A loan stint with Bayern Munich hardly did the 25-year-old many favours. Well, when you’re playing second fiddle to Harry Kane, that’s to be expected.

Even so, eight goals and one assist across 1004 minutes of Bundesliga action is not to be scoffed at. However, Jackson never really looked quite at home in Bavaria. He needed a club where he’d be first choice to rediscover his best form, and while it’s early days yet; the Senegalese hitman looks right at home on the Villa frontline.

Filling Watkins’ boots was always going to be easier said than done. The England star scored at least 15 league goals in each of his last four seasons at Villa Park. The 30-year-old endured a tough start to the 2025/26 campaign, scoring just three league goals before Christmas, but recovered for the second half of the season, ultimately netting 16 times in his final year at the club.

Even so, Jackson has scored more goals after six league outings this season (2) than Watkins managed after his opening 13 Premier League appearances last term (1). He’s scored three times across two Champions League games for good measure, too.

The summer signing is also offering more in the final third than Watkins did in the previous campaign. That’s not to say Watkins underwhelmed last season. On the contrary, his goals and assists were vital as Villa secured a top-four finish and claimed Europa League glory at the expense of Bundesliga side Freiburg.

The difference is that Jackson offers a little more on the ball than Watkins in a key area. Whereas the latter operates as a low-touch finisher, waiting for chances in the opposition box, the former is happy to drift across the frontline, drag markers out of position and, in the process, open up space for teammates to exploit.

This is particularly effective given the signing of Johan Manzambi, the Swiss a dynamic, box crashing midfielder who has scored one and provided two assists in the league.

As such, it’s hardly a surprise that Jackson is averaging more touches per 90 this season (33.7) than Watkins was last (28). Even then, the former is only averaging marginally fewer touches inside the opposition box per 90 (5.4) than the latter in the 2025/26 campaign (5.6). Jackson may pull away to the flanks, but he’s just as active in the penalty area as his predecessor.

He’s also prepared to pull the trigger more frequently than the former Villa man, with Jackson’s shots per 90 higher (2.8) than Watkins (2.2). With more successful dribbles per 90 (2.6 to 0.8), chances created per 90 (0.9 to 0.7), passes per 90 (16.1 to 15) and a better pass success rate (80.9% to 72.7%), Emery has a more rounded forward to call upon in his favoured 4-2-3-1 setup.

Watkins’ departure was a tough one to swallow for Villa fans. He’d become a mainstay for the Midlands side following his 2020 arrival from Brentford, and a nigh-on ever-present given his impressive injury record.

Yet the departures of Tielemans, Rogers and Watkins required a tactical rethink. Emery needed a forward who’d offer the directness of Rogers and the goalscoring capability of Watkins. In Jackson, he has the best of both, affording Emery the relevant attacking flexibility that’ll amplify Villa’s offensive unpredictability, whereas with Watkins, it was a little more one-dimensional.

For that reason alone, Jackson can be viewed as an upgrade on Watkins. Time will tell if the club-record signing truly exceeds the standards set by Villa’s recent leading marksman.

Six Gameweeks in and the data is telling a very clear story.

The managers who are pulling away from their FPL mini leagues are not just owning the template, they are finding the players nobody else has thought about yet.

A differential here means anyone owned by 15% or fewer managers, and right now there are some genuinely compelling options sitting well under that threshold. Here are six worth targeting this week.

Who are the best FPL differentials for GW7?

Dominic Solanke (£5.8m, 1.2% owned) vs Coventry (h)

Under 2% ownership for a player who scored against Manchester United last week and is expected to lead the line as the central striker. Solanke could be a very smart Yoane Wissa replacement for those looking to freshen up their forward options, and with penalty duties likely to come his way and a good run of home fixtures starting against Coventry City this week, the timing feels right to get ahead of the curve on him.

Savio (£6.5m, 0.8% owned) vs Coventry (h)

This picks represents a player under 1% ownership operating on the wing and has played 90 minutes in each of his last three Premier League fixtures. The options in midfield below £7.0m are genuinely thin this season, and Savio is one of the most appealing differentials available in that price bracket right now. Coventry at home is a kind opening fixture and the home run that follows only strengthens the case further.

Gonzalo Garcia (£6.1m, 7.2% owned) vs Hull (h)

Fulham striker Garcia is getting regular minutes, on penalties and facing Hull City at home this week before Coventry follows shortly after. The Spaniard also enables managers to put serious budget to work elsewhere in the squad at his price, which makes him an attractive option if you're looking to free up funds for upgrades in other positions.

Two very winnable fixtures in quick succession is exactly the kind of run you want your forward sitting on.

Nico O’Reilly (£6.3m, 9.4% owned) vs Ipswich at home

With Manchester City coming off an exhausting midweek game in which O’Reilly didn’t feature, he is likely to start at left-back and that role carries genuine upside against Ipswich Town.

We've seen Josko Gvardiol cause all sorts of problems from that position in recent weeks, and there is every reason to expect O’Reilly to operate in a similarly advanced role. City also carry the best clean sheet odds of any side this week, which means he has a realistic shot at points at both ends of the pitch.

Jan Paul van Hecke (£4.9m, 6.4% owned) vs Coventry (h)

Of all the defensive options to consider this week, van Hecke is probably the pick of the bunch. Nailed on to play, solid for defensive contributions and carrying aerial threat from set pieces, meanwhile, Coventry are ranked 19th for Expected Goals (xG) this season which makes the clean sheet potential very real.

The upcoming home fixture run also makes Van Hecke an appealing longer term hold, and at under £5.0m he offers outstanding value for everything he brings.

Luka Vuskovic (£5.1m, 4.7% owned) vs Crystal Palace (h)

Brighton have kept four clean sheets in six games this season, more than any other side in the Premier League, and Vuskovic has been quietly accumulating points throughout without attracting much attention. De Cuyper has taken most of the spotlight from the Brighton backline, but Vuskovic is nailed for starts, decent for defensive contributions and brings aerial threat from dead ball situations. Arguably the most sensible long term defensive pick from the Brighton setup, and Crystal Palace at home this week is a very manageable fixture to begin with.

Gooners are by far the most disliked fanbase in the Premier League. How did they gain this unwanted status?

"Arsenal fans are insufferable": this is a sentiment that in recent years has become a kind of universal truism, a reality so deeply ingrained in the psyche of the modern English football fan that to question it is to risk outing yourself as some sort of deranged secret Gooner.

The gloating celebrations and extreme emotions, the unhinged online activity, the perceived sense of entitlement: these Arsenal-coded behaviours have created an antipathy towards the current Premier League champions' fanbase that seems to outstrip anything experienced by modern supporters of any of the other 'Big Six' clubs.

Are Arsenal fans universally-hated by supporters of other clubs?

But how did Arsenal fans become so hated in the modern football world? What exactly is it that irritates people? And is the hatred of Arsenal fans primarily just an indication of how much time we're all spending online, and how fan media is rotting our brains?

Personally, I have no dog in this fight. As a Norwich City fan, I tend to find that supporters of the so-called 'Big Six' are all roughly as irritating and tunnel-visioned as each other. But it's clear that there are several things going on here. While Arsenal antipathy has certainly ramped up under the reign of Mikel Arteta — an at times obscenely pretentious LinkedIn fanatic whose tactical dark arts, touchline gesticulation, and excessive use of hair gel has understandably rubbed many neutrals the wrong way — this sentiment dates back decades.

After I attempted to gauge public opinion via my football team's WhatsApp group, North London-bred Gooner Billy Howard-Price fleshed out the history of the club's outward perception: "The 'same old Arsenal, always cheating' chants, us using the offside trap [in the '80s and '90s], 'boring boring Arsenal' from the George Graham years: there's a lot of interesting stuff at play there. Legitimate stuff that predates AFTV and perceived 'North London elite' stuff."

Fellow Gooner Shay Olupona adds that "Boring Boring Arsenal applies to last season too. 'Cornered' the league, set piece FC ole ole etc." It's true that the perceived negativity and rigid play of Arteta's title-winning side has worsened the hostility. But the hate was already there, and I'd argue that a huge amount of it stems simply from Arsenal fans being far more visible on social media than any other supporter base. And for that, we have Arsenal Fan TV to thank.

Launched by Robbie Lyle in 2012, AFTV quickly emerged as the UK's most prominent football fan channel, its emotional stadium vox pops and astoundingly irrational studio debates becoming a huge part of English football lore over the last decade. The channel has been hugely influential beyond the capital, inspiring the birth of countless other fan media platforms around the country.

Every club has countless irritating fans; but the existence of AFTV, and the wider Arsenal social media eco-system that the club's enormous London fanbase facilitates, has meant that annoying Gooners are ten a penny. Unrivalled exposure leads to unrivalled resentment.

"It becomes cyclical," says Reading supporter Nick Mandolos. "Arsenal fans whine about being hated on social media = more people get annoyed by them, it goes round and round. A lot of people feel they're looked down on by Arsenal fans, and so mock them mercilessly. AFTV was probably the killer. That and the jolly come lately, bucket hat-wearing middle class North London gooners."

What's interesting is that growing up in the 2000s, I remember the Gunners being largely admired for the attractive, free-flowing football they played under Arsene Wenger, which was perhaps even easier to enjoy because the club was no longer regularly winning titles. This suggests the hostility massively accelerated with the advent of social media, as well as the rise in more casual support prompted by both the Arteta era and the broader embrace of football culture amongst middle-class, urban indie types.

"Anecdotally, 90% of people who have only recently started following football support Arsenal, and they do harm the reputation of “real” supporters," says Liverpool fan Pete McNelis. "I associate a certain type of Arsenal fan with the loud voice at the pub who doesn’t understand passing out from the back."

It's also worth considering whether there's a more sinister element to some of the anti-Arsenal agenda. Specifically: is it a coincidence that the Premier League club with by far the most diverse matchgoing fanbase, the club far more closely associated with Black British culture than any other, is also the one that everyone finds unbearable?

Evidently, there are tons of valid concerns that have handed Arsenal the unwanted but in many ways justified status of having the most irritating fanbase. But given how deeply entrenched unconscious racial biases are in the UK (see: BBC's The Traitors), I don't think it's a massive stretch to suggest that this could factor into some people's outlook.

The idea of the insufferable Gooner has a range of legitimate foundations, and is linked to events that have played out across the stadiums, press conferences, and broadcast studios of English football over many years.

But Arsenal antipathy is also an interesting reflection of changing social dynamics, shifts in who watches football and what cultural cache is attached to the sport. Above all, it's about an ever-growing engagement with football via our unhinged, rage-baiting social media culture, a culture that discourages nuance and rewards idiocy. In this context, the insufferable Arsenal fan has risen above the parapet; but that doesn't mean we should all accept this characterisation as a universal truth.

The seismic impact of Manchester City’s guilty verdict on 114 of their 115 charges will reach as far and wide as arguably anything in football history, including the legacy of Pep Guardiola. 

The former Manchester City boss made his first return to the Etihad Stadium following his summer departure for their 4-2 loss to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League on Tuesday night. The timing of it was not lost on anyone. 

Regardless of whether or not City somehow get off on appeal or a technicality, the Catalan will be forever tainted and surely can’t allow this to be the final act of his managerial career. Amid the infinite questions surrounding the case, sanctions and everything else, one is: what’s next for Guardiola?

Manchester City's charges cloud Pep Guardiola's whole career

First will be the continued full support of City and everyone connected to the case. In the days after the news that rocked the game, he made it crystal clear where he stood on the issue and backed up by sitting behind the embattled and shamed duo of Khaldoon Al Mubarek and Ferran Soriano on Tuesday night. 

While that may seem incredibly hypocritical given he regularly said he would accept any verdict and once claimed, “If you lie to me, the day after I am not here. I will be out, and I will not be your friend any more”, it’s not difficult to see why Guardiola has taken this stance. 

If he were to admit to City’s guilt on committing industrial-level financial cheating from 2009 to 2018, he would be admitting that every single one of the 20 trophies won in his 10 years at the club – including six Premier League titles and a Champions League – were tainted, tarnished and totally irrelevant. 

Given he spent three more years at City than he did at Barcelona and Bayern Munich combined, it would be effectively erasing close to 60 per cent of his time on the touchline regardless of the obvious brilliance of both his coaching and his teams. 

And that’s before we even get started on what might come from the ongoing Negreira case centring on payments from Barça to the former vice president of Spain's Technical Committee of Referees. Safe to say, it’s been an autumn of discontent for Guardiola. 

It’s unlikely to get any better for him in the winter months as the appeal plays out, with City’s chances of a reprieve looking slim at the absolute best. He’s already set for a year out of the game, having turned down the Italy national team job citing rest and personal reasons. 

At 55, he should theoretically have plenty of years left on the touchline, and for a complete football obsessive, what else would he do in the decades to come?

Guardiola has never managed a small club or one with limited resources, which is often held against him when compared to his three greatest career rivals, Sir Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho and Jurgen Klopp. 

All three near-built clubs from the ground up, restored them to their former glories and won the biggest prizes in the game without the biggest budgets. It’s a somewhat harsh appraisal of Guardiola given he started with Barça and quickly became the most in-demand manager on the globe. Los Cules may have won the Champions League just two years prior to his arrival but the transformation was remarkable. 

There’s also the irony that any idea of Guardiola doing that now is near-impossible, more than a little bit in part due to the state ownership of City and PSG and everything that comes with that. The game is completely distorted with a European Super League of finances long in place. 

Serie A’s demise has come alongside that, presenting potential landing spots for Pep. His European playing career did end in Italy – not without its own scandal – so he clearly has an affinity for the peninsula. Entertaining the Azzurri job spoke further to that. 

The great task there is restoring either Juventus or Milan to the top table. Both clubs, fittingly, are full of drama, so would suit Guardiola’s ongoing arc. There’s been no Italian Champions League winner since Mourinho with Inter Milan in 2010 and Juve have lost five finals since last lifting the trophy 30 years ago. Talk about a career mode challenge.

A return to Barcelona can never be ruled out, while making Manchester United great again would be the perfect next bizarre storyline for the ever-developing Premier League soap opera. 

We can rule out the Spanish job on account of their ongoing dominance and possibly his own Catalan ties. Brazil and England are the two biggest jobs and tasks, and Guardiola has been linked to both jobs. It would require either Carlo Ancelotti stepping down or Thomas Tuchel failing to win the Euros in 2028. Neither is too far-fetched. 

Whatever may come for City in the coming weeks, months and years, it will always be attached to Guardiola no matter the level of his greatness. What comes for him may be the sport’s next big plotline. 

Michael Carrick brought a veneer of calm to Old Trafford last season, but that has disintegrated in rapid fashion this season.

His tenure as permanent Manchester United boss is being defined by an unruly, factional dressing room coming apart at the seams.

Tuesday night’s dispiriting Champions League defeat to Atletico Madrid has extended the team's winless run to five matches, and sparked a civil war.

Michael Carrick is unlikely to inspire his Manchester United players to victory

Man United are floundering - what else can be said about a paltry return of two wins from nine matches in all competitions, an early Carabao Cup exit, six points from their opening six Premier League fixtures, and inability to capitalise against ten men in games versus Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur?

They are, for all intents and purposes, a team devoid of competitive edge. And on-pitch disjointedness is only half the problem. The deeper issue is cultural.

Argentine international Lisandro Martinez broke rank in the aftermath of Man United's defeat at the Wanda Metropolitano on Tuesday night, delivering a scathing public broadside against director of football Jason Wilcox and the club’s transfer strategy.

In doing so, he extinguished any lingering hope that squad unity was something Carrick could stand behind as a success during his brief spell. The defender was reportedly confronted by a teammate during the flight back to Manchester.

Navigating such turmoil demands a managerial giant, and it is not Carrick's doing or fault that the club finds itself in its current mess. He is, for all his understated dignity, manifestly not that man.

The former midfielder is neither an inspiring orator capable of galvanising disparate egos with his rhetoric, nor is he a Sir Alex Ferguson-esque autocrat who can lay down the law - he hasn't been there long enough, for starters.

Carrick’s once-praised stillness now appears passive and faced with a fractured dressing room taking pot shots at the boardroom, a gentle word is insufficient. Perhaps it speaks to Carrick's authority that Martinez felt compelled to speak out in such terms in midweek.

Carrick’s brief has completely changed, but his managerial toolkit has not. When he took the reins as caretaker in January following Ruben Amorim’s acrimonious departure, the remit was predominantly pastoral.

These were hugely talented players lacking confidence and drive, who had been tactically micro-managed to the point where many no longer cared. Carrick let them play, recalled certain players and allowed them the time and space to do what they do best.

He soothed bruised egos, simplified the instructions and put an arm around the wounded. Lo and behold, it yielded that most famous of textbook interim bounces, and he steered the club to a third-place finish. The pressure was off, the season had already been mothballed. With the benefit of hindsight, the hierarchy's message to Carrick over the summer should have been a firm handshake and 'thank you for your efforts, but we'll take it from here', before hiring a managerial heavyweight.

Now, though, he's the permanent man, albeit probably not for much longer.

The honeymoon is long over, and the pressure cooker has been turned up to eleven. Managing Manchester United through stormy weather requires ruthlessness, authority, ideological clarity, and the rare ability to inspire footballers to run through brick walls. That hasn't happened.

National reports are already detailing three-man shortlists to replace him, touting Brighton's Fabian Hurzeler alongside Antonio Conte and Julian Nagelsmann. The writing is very much on the wall. Carrick may retain personal affections of the Old Trafford faithful, but goodwill does not heal a fractured culture. The dressing room has reached a point of no return, and Michael Carrick is not the man to glue it back together.

Harry Kane has had the greatest season of his career and deserves to win the 2026 Ballon d’Or. After an exceptional year, the 33-year-old striker has every right to be honoured with the most prestigious individual award in football.

Whether it’s based on numbers, trophies, performances or standout achievements, Kane has reached new levels. He scored a staggering 73 goals for club and country in 2025-26. It’s a number some players can only dream of achieving in their whole career, let alone in a single season.

To do that in just 65 matches makes it even more incredible. The numbers almost sound unbelievable, they’re so outlandish. To put them into context, it is the most goals any player has scored in a single season in the modern era except for one occasion: when Lionel Messi hit 82 goals in 69 matches in 2011-12. The Argentine would pick up the Ballon d’Or that year.

Kane’s goalscoring feats helped Bayern Munich to the domestic treble, the first time the club have lifted three trophies in a campaign since he joined. To finish off an astonishing year, he then captained England to a bronze medal at the World Cup, which is the Three Lions’ best finish ever on foreign soil.

While other players may have won bigger team honours, when it comes to recognising an individual, there has been no player in better form than Kane. That is also outlined by him breaking a 49-year Bundesliga record this year, by reaching the 100-goal mark in just 98 matches – comfortably clear of the 129 games it took Dieter Muller to hit a century.

What Kane achieved in this last year is simply mind-blowing. Many questioned his decision to play in Germany, but it has been a pivotal move for his career. The 2023 switch has taken him to another level, as proven with the records broken and trophies won in Munich.

Kane is a natural finisher and his goalscoring is as good as we’ve ever seen. He’s a player that makes the most of every chance he gets and scores all types of goals from absolutely everywhere. He’s the type of striker that you just expect to score in every game, and the majority of the time he delivers. He’s prolific, but it’s also the quality of the goals that make him special.

On the biggest stage this summer, Kane scored a sensational goal against the Democratic Republic of the Congo – a lethal strike that helped save England’s World Cup. The combination of power, strength, accuracy and technique he showed in that moment are skills you see him applying in the Champions League and Bundesliga regularly. His ability to perform this consistently at the highest level is outstanding.

And it’s not just his ridiculous scoring numbers. His all-round play and ability to bring other players into the game has become even more evident recently, and why England manager Thomas Tuchel describes him as the “full package”.

Time and time again, Kane continues to write his name in the history books for both club and country, yet every single record he breaks, you never expect him to just stop there. You expect him to add to that goal tally and to reach a new height – despite that, he remains humble and driven to keep striving for more.

Kane’s journey is inspirational and embodies what hard work and determination can help you achieve. At the age of 19, he was struggling to make an impact on loan at Norwich and went on to a spell at Leicester, before a return to Spurs saw his career really begin to flourish. He is an example for any young player to aspire to, as he’s now remarkably hit his peak in his 30s.

Kane is a true global superstar of this sport who deserves every bit of praise that comes his way. He’s now adding to his trophy haul with every season, and the biggest individual award in world football should belong to him too.

Michael Owen was the last Englishman to win the Ballon d’Or, 25 years ago, so it’s about time another was honoured. It’s pretty cool that the best number nine on the planet right now is English. With the ceremony being held in London, Kane’s birthplace, on October 26, he couldn’t be a more fitting winner. I believe Harry Kane deserves to win the Ballon d’Or this year – he’s earned it.

Birmingham City were promoted back to the Championship at the first time of asking and were immediately cast in the role of Premier League hopefuls. So forthright was their ambition, so unapologetic their bravado, that it couldn’t be any other way.

They now have their feet under the table and they’re starting to make a noise. Birmingham moved into third place with a 4-0 home win over Preston North End. They’ve picked up just over half of the points available to them. In what will surely be an open play-offs race, that sort of return is an adequate foundation.

Birmingham’s first goal against Preston was swept in from close range by Liam Millar, who joined the club on loan at the very end of the summer transfer window. He’s helping to transform them from maybes into probablies.

Liam Millar is Birmingham’s most accomplished threat

Millar scored for Hull City against Coventry City in the Premier League on the last Saturday or August. Three days later he was announced to Blues supporters at half time in their home fixture against Southampton.

Birmingham manager Chris Davies wasted no time in assimilating the Canadian international into his starting line-up and little wonder; Millar has Premier League academy pedigree and bags of experience including spells with Basel and the Tigers.

Millar gives Birmingham width in the attacking third and tends to stay there, making the pitch big and creating spaces for his teammates. He’s willing to square up a defender and try to beat him, and he makes sure he attacks the six-yard box when Patrick Roberts does the same on the right.

That’s where his goal, Birmingham’s springboard, came from on Tuesday night. Millar has now scored two Championship goals and assisted another three. The only wingers with more goal contributions at the time of writing are Blackburn Rovers’ Oladapo Afolayan and West Ham United captain Jarrod Bowen.

Birmingham have other ways to score goals. Davies leans on defenders Phil Neumann and Christoph Klarer to be a threat as much as striker August Priske, while Jay Stansfied is by now a seasoned Championship forward even if his work ethic doesn’t generate goals as naturally as it might.

Millar adds to these partnerships a more polished and more persistent source of danger for opponents.

The Canadian winger is also forging a promising partnership of his own.

Where a switched-on Bright Osayi-Samuel provides the thrust from right-back behind the cultured creativity of Roberts, Millar offers both impetus and invention on the left in front of Blues’ left-back.

Millar and Alex Cochrane could push Birmingham on to better things

Quietly, Alex Cochrane is sneaking up the rungs of influence among Championship full-backs and helping to supply the basis for Millar’s occasionally eye-popping individual ability. That he outworks Osayi-Samuel is a bonus.

Now 26, Cochrane developed as a local prospect at Brighton & Hove Albion before making a loan to Heart of Midlothian permanent in 2022. He became Birmingham’s fifth signing under Davies in the summer of 2024.

Cochrane is a growing character in a Blues defence full of personality and was the best player on the pitch in their statement win. His all-round performance – Cochrane was a big aerial presence and demonstrated excellent one-on-one defensive capability insofar as it was required – was topped off by what was in the words of his manager an ‘exceptional’ assist for the first of Priske’s two goals.

His pass in behind after the referee dropped the ball at his feet on the left flank was perfect to the millimetre. Priske couldn’t miss.

As a combination, Cochrane and Millar are becoming an efficient spearhead for Davies. They rank well among comparable players for big chances but lower for chances overall, suggesting, perhaps, an uplift in output as the festive fixtures rumble over the horizon.

The burgeoning duo have completed 90 minutes together only once in the Championship. Their partnership will only get better from here on in, and Davies can expect to squeeze even more from them than a total of two goals and five assists up to this point.

Birmingham’s left side is revealing itself as a sleeper power, starting to stir, and could yet be the edge that push them towards a meaningful crack at promotion. Being able to bring Demarai Gray on to score a fabulous fourth against Preston was the icing on the cake.

The Premier League’s fight for its future rests entirely on the Manchester City case.

Prosecuting financial malfeasance on an industrial scale will define the path which governs the top flight for the next few years, if not longer. The 114 charges brought against City’s owners marks an existential juncture for the English game. All options remain on the table as viable punishments for Enzo Mareca’s side. They risk point deductions, seeing titles won voided and even expulsion from the Premier League.

Any expectations of outward contrition on a first return to action since the independent commission delivered its damning verdict, when the message from within Eastlands’ corridors of power is one of maintained innocence, were incredibly naive. Their comprehensive win over Liverpool, at the place Pep Guardiola famously described as ‘a bugger of a ground’, carried an abundant message both on and off the pitch.

Manchester City’s charges fate must end Premier League disparity

Even before rocking up to Anfield last weekend, Man City fans were mirroring their hierarchy’s defiant stance. Their argument was, and remains, that the club is in fact the wronged party; that nine years of financial doping was a necessary evil to ensure they could realistically compete against a ‘red cartel’ of Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal.

Noel Gallagher, who stood among the away allocation on Merseyside, was also quick to make a case that fans should not feel the weight of arbitrational action. The Oasis co-founder insisted the misdeeds carried out in their boardroom were ‘nothing to do with the supporters or the players’, pushing the envelope for clemency to those who witnessed a history which could soon be expunged from the record books but not their memories.

There is credibility to Gallagher’s case for mitigation. After all, City fans did not ask to be festooned with a scintilla of Abu Dhabi’s eye-watering wealth since 2008; they have simply been swept along for the ride after decades in the doldrums. Unfortunately, contempt for the conmen and compassion for the conned, while an admirable sentiment, does not translate to football. Fandom is an entirely one-sided transaction. Whatever happens behind the scenes can, and does, ultimately impact those at the bottom of the food chain most. New signings, managerial changes and price hikes are all passed on to those supposedly still considered to be the game’s lifeblood.

Should the club’s appeal fail, the fallout will invariably hit their supporters hardest. It won’t be Sheikh Mansour that suffers the indignity of potentially retracing the steps from their infamous trip to York City in what is now League One. He is equally well-insulated from repeated taunts of ‘cheats’ which reverberated around Anfield and will soundtrack every visit to grounds in whatever division they ultimately find themselves playing. But while Man City fans will be understandably aggrieved by whatever punishment follows, they have a chance to represent a first step towards fairness in domestic football.

The Premier League’s approach to how it treats those that fall afoul of its stringent financial regulations has hardly been even-handed. Accusations of a halfway house existing which appears to view those in its upper echelons more favourably are difficult to shake given the cases involving Everton, Nottingham Forest and Chelsea. The former, both perennial relegation candidates at that time, were hit with point deductions which were imposed forthwith, complete with an updated table to show their perilous revised positions. The Toffees gained no sporting advantage from their breach of Profit and Sustainability Rules but were hit with a landmark 10-point sanction, reduced to six on appeal. Forest, similarly, were told that ‘rules are rules’ as an £34.5m overspend was hit with a four-point deduction.

Conversely, Stamford Bridge chiefs were given remarkably lenient measures for self-reporting secret payments made under predecessor Roman Abramovich which had helped grease the wheels of signing players between 2011 and 2018. The Londoners won one title fewer than City in their own breach period but saw their punishment restricted to little more than a £10.75m fine and a suspended one-window transfer ban for their historic acts of rule-breaking. A separate 74 charges with the Football Association drew a similarly meagre £10m financial penalty while an initial suspended six-point deduction was downgraded on appeal. Any case against punishing the fans for the oligarch’s illicit tactics have subsequently been undermined by Chelsea’s match-going support continuing to deify him with chants at games since being stripped of power.

That sentiment was also pushed far and wide in the aftermath of the failed European Super League, when the English contingent of the continental ‘dirty dozen’ conspired to launch a breakaway under the cover of darkness. Both UEFA and the Premier League acceded to that request with financial penalties that represented barely a ripple in their respective balance sheets. A shared fine amounting to £3.6m was handed down by Richard Masters’ organisation, who threatened to impose a greater 30-point deduction and £20m fine should they try and pull a similar stunt in future. European football’s governing body, despite being directly impacted by the breakaway plot, were even more forgiving with individual £1.4m sanctions and foregoing 5% of their European competition revenues for a season, two years down the line.

Throwing fans at the mercy of regulators is a convenient shield for owners to escape retribution and City’s overlords are unlikely to think twice of sacrificing those who treat Mansour and chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak as folk heroes were it to allow them to be extricated with dignity from what has become an increasingly complex case.

Man City previously led the way as the first club to withdraw from the Super League plot, earning plaudits from UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin for demonstrating ‘great intelligence’ in doing so. Whatever punishment could come their way from the current saga can act a great equaliser for the supposed ‘greatest league in the world’.

The Manchester City scandal has provoked debate over wider ownership issues in English football. Where once it was common for clubs to be controlled by a boyhood fan, that has become much rarer in an era of nation-states and American private equity. Only four of the Premier League’s 20 teams are led by people known to have grown up supporting them.

Two are Brighton & Hove Albion and Crystal Palace, the arch-rivals who will renew hostilities at the Amex Stadium on Sunday (the others are Manchester United, where Sir Jim Ratcliffe runs football operations despite owning just over a quarter of the club, and Brentford).

Tony Bloom has been the chairman and majority owner of his beloved Brighton since 2009, while Crystal Palace have been run by lifelong supporter Steve Parish since 2010. Parish remains responsible for day-to-day affairs at Selhurst Park despite having seen his stake diluted to around 10 percent in recent years.

"Brighton’s rise feels deliberately engineered, honed by algorithms and dispassionate decision-making"

Under Bloom and Parish, Brighton and Palace have enjoyed the most successful periods in their respective histories. There is no love lost between the two teams, whose unusual rivalry dates back to the 1970s.

Yet for all the hostility, Brighton and Palace have reason to admire what the other has achieved. Catch their fans at a quiet moment and you might even detect a flicker of envy.

Brighton have attracted admirers far and wide. Despite consistently losing some of their most important players, they have finished in the top half of the Premier League in four of the last five seasons.

In recent years Brighton have been forced to sell the likes of Alexis Mac Allister, Marc Cucurella, Moises Caicedo, Joao Pedro and Carlos Baleba, yet they have continued to go from strength to strength. The club’s use of cutting-edge analytics has helped the Seagulls assemble the most eclectic squad in England. In a 5-0 thumping of Coventry City last month, they broke a Premier League record by fielding 15 outfielders of 15 different nationalities.

Brighton have not only replaced players without missing a beat, but managers too. Chelsea poached Graham Potter a few weeks into the 2022/23 season. No matter: in came Roberto De Zerbi, who took the team to sixth place, the club's best-ever finish. He left in 2024, and despite a rocky spell last term, Fabian Hurzeler has proved an able successor. You suspect Brighton already have a shortlist of contenders to replace the German should he leave.

If Brighton’s rise feels deliberately engineered, honed by advanced algorithms and dispassionate decision-making, Crystal Palace’s approach is a little more chaotic. Brighton have not sacked a manager mid-season since 2014; Palace have done so five times since then.

You are more likely to see deadline-day deals at Selhurst Park than at the Amex. While Brighton appeared to know exactly what they wanted when they appointed De Zerbi and Hurzeler, Palace cast a much wider net following Oliver Glasner’s summer exit. Pierre Sage ultimately got the nod, but Palace looked at Andoni Iraola, Frank Lampard and Thomas Frank - three quite different managers - before that.

Like their adversaries, Palace have unearthed some gems in the transfer market. They made profits on Ebere Eze, Michael Olise, Maxence Lacroix and Daniel Munoz, all of whom made significant contributions in south London. Marc Guehi, Jean-Philippe Mateta and Adam Wharton were excellent additions too.

However, all those signings were made when Dougie Freedman was sporting director. Since his move to Saudi Arabia in March 2025, Palace’s recruitment has been much more mixed. Whereas Brighton’s model kept delivering the goods even after Chelsea prised key staff away, Palace have struggled to replace the man who was the most important figure in their backroom operation. The systemic continuity Brighton have cultivated would be welcome at Selhurst Park.

Yet the lessons do not run in only one direction. Brighton have finished above Palace in four of the last five seasons, yet it is the Eagles who have claimed the more tangible rewards. Between May 2025 and May 2026, Palace won three trophies under Glasner: the FA Cup, the Community Shield and the Conference League. That was painful to witness for Brighton, who are yet to win major silverware. The Seagulls have the model, but the Eagles have the medals.

Back when Bloom and Parish were still new in their jobs, Brighton appeared to have more momentum behind them. They moved into the Amex in 2011, a year after Palace almost went out of business. Yet it was Palace who triumphed in the first ever meeting at Brighton’s new ground. In 2013, they won 2-0 at the Amex in the Championship play-offs on their way to promotion, a feat they achieved four years before Brighton. Palace have won three of the last four meetings between the pair, while Brighton have triumphed just twice in the last 14.

Palace have shown that you do not always need the neatest process to thrive. Sometimes, it is about seizing the moment. Brighton should bear that in mind as they target a trophy this season. And if Palace want to ensure the Glasner era was not a glorious one-off, they could do worse than study Brighton’s ability to sustain success over multiple managerial regimes.

With time running out in the January 2024 transfer window, Brentford appeared to have pulled off a significant coup.

The Bees were closing in on the £25m signing of Club Brugge winger Antonio Nusa, a highly-rated 18-year-old who had held talks with Tottenham Hotspur and attracted interest from Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool, among others.

But the deal suddenly collapsed, reportedly over an issue with the teenager’s medical, and Nusa stayed in Belgium. As time goes on, the failed transfer looks more and more of a missed opportunity for the West London club.

Pick the ultimate 4-4-2 line-up from players in FourFourTwo's definitive Top 100 List

Why Antonio Nusa will leave Premier League clubs rueing a missed opportunity

The following August, the Bees signed another 18-year-old winger called Gustavo Nunes. The £10m-plus fee and six-year contract showed what they thought of the former Gremio youngster, but injuries have restricted the Brazilian to just five first-team appearances. In his most recent outing, Nunes was hooked at half-time during Brentford Under 21s' 7-1 defeat at MK Dons in the EFL Trophy earlier this month.

A fortnight before Nunes joined Brentford, RB Leipzig signed Nusa for €21m (£18m) on a five-year deal. The Norwegian was already a full international with Champions League experience and his career has gone from strength to strength. Now 21, he has 34 Norway caps, impressed at this summer’s World Cup and is a key figure for one of the Bundesliga’s top teams - and that is just the start.

Brentford’s decision not to sign Nusa - and ultimately bring in Nunes instead - now seems like a bad call, although that is easy to say in hindsight. There is the cruel irony that they supposedly backed out of one deal due to issues with the medical, only for the player they recruited in that position to be plagued by injuries. It is also ironic that they rejected the ‘Norwegian Neymar’ to sign an actual Brazilian who has barely featured.

Nusa’s comparisons to the former Brazil No.10 aren’t just down to his flair, trickery and dribbling ability. He grew up watching YouTube videos of Neymar and tried to replicate his skills.

“My favourite [player] has to be Neymar,” he told FourFourTwo in March 2025. “I can’t mention a hundred guys I watched, but yeah, maybe he was the guy that I got my most inspiration and joy from.”

The vast majority of players dubbed the next Neymar, Messi, Ronaldo or whoever else fail to reach those heights, but Nusa has the potential to be world class. Despite primarily playing on the left wing he is equally effective on the right, which keeps defenders guessing over whether he will go inside or out, shoot or cross, stand a player up or go past them.

He has the tricks of a showboater, but the numbers to back it up. Nusa has registered 19 goal contributions (nine goals and 10 assists) in 34 appearances for Norway, including a brilliant curling strike against Ivory Coast in the last 32 of the World Cup.

The wide man has four goals and three assists across seven games for Leipzig this season, while he has completed the joint-most successful dribbles (15) in the Bundesliga, level with Michael Olise and almost twice as many as Luis Diaz. As wingers go, he is the full package.

Nusa has thrived since stepping out of Yan Diomande’s shadow at Leipzig, after his fellow winger moved to Real Madrid in August for a deal rising to £120m. If he continues to improve, there is no reason why he can’t command a similar fee in the coming years.

But this begs the question: why did none of those Premier League clubs mentioned earlier sign him when he was relatively cheap?

Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Spurs were linked with Nusa in summer 2023, when he had already scored in the Champions League for Brugge. The winger reportedly even rejected a move to Chelsea as he wanted to stay somewhere where he was guaranteed regular minutes, accelerating his development.

That is fair enough, but the fact that Nusa was set to leave for £25m in January 2024 suggests those clubs missed out on a bargain deal for a future superstar. They could have paid even less that summer, but Leipzig took the plunge.

The German club’s decision has certainly paid off. Any fears over Nusa’s fitness have not been realised, with the winger playing in 61 of a possible 73 Bundesliga games since his arrival.

This summer, Leipzig’s asking price for Nusa was reportedly €60m (£51m) - almost three times what they paid two years ago - amid links with Arsenal, Aston Villa, Crystal Palace, Newcastle United and Spurs. Even that could represent a bargain compared to what the winger may be worth in the future, but he stayed put.

Admittedly, Arsenal, Villa and Newcastle ended up signing young wingers for less money, bringing in Christos Tzolis, Ibrahim Mbaye and Bazoumana Toure respectively. But Spurs paid up to £85m for Savio, who scored two Premier League goals in two seasons at Manchester City. Nusa would have cost less and arguably has a higher ceiling than the Brazilian, potentially giving him a greater sell-on value.

The Scandinavian still has three years left on his Leipzig contract, which reportedly has no release clause - allowing the Bundesliga side to continue raising the asking price as his star rises.

Right now, that star is rising every week: Nusa built on his eye-catching domestic displays by impressing during the international break, sharing the spotlight with Norway’s two top dogs, Erling Haaland and Martin Odegaard.

The duo are among a host of Premier League players in Stale Solbakken’s squad. Nusa’s familiarity with them, and the high-tempo style favoured by Norway, would help him adapt quickly to England’s top flight.

It is surely only a matter of time until Nusa follows the likes of Dominik Szoboszlai, Josko Gvardiol and Dani Olmo in leaving Leipzig for one of Europe’s elite clubs. Whoever signs him will have a potential world-beater on their books - and leave several Premier League teams rueing a missed opportunity.

Everton ended the summer transfer window with Thierno Barry as their only recognised senior striker. It raised eyebrows, to say the least.

Relying on a young, developing forward as the focal point of a Premier League attack seemed like a bit of a high-wire act for a club that had had their fair share of run-ins with the Premier League plughole in recent seasons.

Understandably then, it might be jarring for Toffees fans to see Barry leading the entire division in big chances missed - but that's actually a really good sign.

Thierno Barry is a dark horse in the 2026/27 Golden Boot race

On paper, it's a pretty damning headline metric, all but confirming Barry is a raw centre-forward, not quite at the level of an elite Premier League striker yet.

Beneath the surface of that negative stat, though, is a compelling case for Evertonians to feel optimistic about their frontline.

The gap between Barry and the rest of the league is stark, that much is true. His 10 missed big chances is double that of the trailing pack, with Erling Haaland, Dan Ndoye, Igor Thiago, Gonzalo Garcia, and Bryan Mbeumo all sitting tied on five.

The gulf between elite and developing becomes clear, too. Haaland's shot conversion rate currently stands at 27.3% - exactly double Barry's 13.6%. That disparity highlights the dividing line between a world-class finisher in a dominant side and a young striker still finding his feet in the Premier League.

Context is everything, though, and to understand why Barry’s metric is actually quite encouraging, one only needs to look back at the precedent set by Manchester City’s talisman. Last season, Haaland missed 30 big chances in the Premier League - a full 10 clear of the second-placed player in the division.

Haaland’s numbers illustrated the following things about modern centre-forward play. First, even the most lethal finishers miss good opportunities with regularity. Finishing is a volatile skill, subject to myriad factors such as execution, and opposition goalkeeping. Second, and most importantly: you cannot miss a big chance unless you have the movement, anticipation, and physical presence to get into those positions in the first place.

For Everton, that second point is everything. A true nightmare scenario for a team playing with a solitary senior striker isn't a forward missing chances, it’s a striker who is invisible. Barry is not guilty of that, and being incapable of registering high-quality opportunities is the far greater crime.

Evertonians have backed him with their lungs at the Hill Dickinson Stadium; they're willing to be patient and hope he comes good. Only the aforementioned Haaland has accumulated more Expected Goals (xG) than Barry in the Premier League season, even if his finishing and goal tallies are doubly as good. Barry is making the runs, pulling defenders out of shape, and putting himself in positions to generate high-xG chances consistently. He's doing the hard part.

Eventually, regression to the mean will take over, which means Barry should begin finishing his big chances. Doing so at even an average conversion rate will greatly help Everton - who remain unbeaten after six games and have conceded the joint-fewest goals in the division.

The headline stat might look frustrating on the surface, but for Everton, Barry's high volume of misses is actually the clearest sign that goals are just around the corner.

There are people within football who think Tonda Eckert was dealt with too leniently by the FA independent regulatory commission that ruled on his involvement in Southampton’s ‘Spygate’ scandal.

Eckert received a £28,000 fine and a six-week suspended ban. With Southampton owner Dragan Solak already voicing his unwavering support for his manager, the decision not to hand down an immediate ban effectively ensured that Eckert’s job was safe.

Southampton, says Solak, have been punished enough. It’s in the interest of the EFL, the Championship and football at large to draw a line under it too. Eckert’s position is secure and Southampton spied themselves out of the play-offs. The time has come to move forward.

Flynn Downes leads the way at the heart of Southampton’s renewed normal

The commission was peopled by masters of timing. As the top two divisions emerged from an extended international break, Eckert and Southampton were able to breathe a sigh of relief in the middle of their preparations for Sunday’s Hampshire derby against hated rivals Portsmouth.

Saints and Pompey are on the opposite sides of one of English football’s truly great derbies and certainly one of its most underappreciated. Away from the south coast, it’s easy to overlook the sheer enmity and deep social history between two neighbouring cities.

Pick the ultimate 4-4-2 line-up from players in FourFourTwo's definitive Top 100 List

Eckert’s Saints only needed one goal to send Portsmouth packing. Finn Azaz made it and James Bree finished it.

He became the first Southampton scorer in a home derby in the league since 2012 on the day Billy Sharp, who scored both of their goals in a 2-2 draw that afternoon, announced his retirement from football.

Bree’s goal gave Eckert’s team something to defend after the first-half dismissal of Hampshire-born youngster Cam Bragg. The 21-year-old midfielder left the pitch distraught after an instinctive shirt pull earned him a second yellow card. The performance of Flynn Downes after the break spared his heartbreak.

Downes, now 27, was magnificent in the first match of the new-ish era. He won and protected the ball in midfield, pressed with striker Cyle Larin, and put his body on the line in his own penalty area.

Azaz’s passing and a good stand-in shift on the right helped to win the game. Bree scored the goal after a terrific run in behind. Jack Stephens, Keven Schlotterbeck and Ryan Manning gave everything they had at the back. But Downes led the resistance by example.

Eckert needs to take Southampton back to the Premier League

Eckert’s post-reprieve Southampton will be played with 11 men but needed a player to stand up and be counted in an unexpected moment of adversity at its outset. Bree was the player who finished the game in a head bandage but it was Downes who fulfilled every other aspect of the heroic stereotype when leadership was called for.

Southampton, free of the shadow of Spygate, can parlay this fiery derby victory into their renewed normal. Eckert and Solak have both acknowledged, through gritted teeth or otherwise, that Saints were in the wrong. They’ve been punished, and they have a genuine chance for redemption.

The clubs directly impacted by the scandal might not agree that he should still be in his job, but Eckert is now locked in at St Mary’s and fully backed in the stands and the boardroom. Spygate cast a shadow over Eckert’s improvement of Southampton’s fortunes on the pitch but something that was abundantly clear in both halves in Hampshire on Sunday is that he has a much better team than the one that drew 0-0 in the same fixture last season.

Stephens, Downes, Azaz and Manning were the only players who started both matches. They were arguably Southampton’s four best players this time around but they’re now the core of an Eckert team who must now repay the backing of their supporters.

Eckert in particular must deliver promotion, ideally this season. It’s a ludicrously high bar but it’s one that Southampton set themselves by exploding their own chances when it was within reach in 2025/26.

Beating Portsmouth took Southampton to five wins from their first nine matches. Now unencumbered by uncertainty and on the back of a positive return to action, surefootedness can take over.

This afternoon, two clubs with a fierce rivalry will do battle against the backdrop of one of English football’s most shocking cases of cheating in recent memory.

One set of fans will relish the opportunity to remind their opponents that they are morally corrupt - perhaps in slightly different words - while the other will stand in defiance behind their club, despite their shattered reputation.

But this isn’t about Liverpool’s clash with Manchester City, who play their first game since they were found guilty of breaching Premier League financial rules. This is about Southampton’s derby against Portsmouth and one man in particular: Saints manager Tonda Eckert.

Tonda Eckert's Spygate ruling comes at the perfect time for Southampton

Clearly, the Spygate scandal that saw Southampton expelled from last season’s Championship play-offs is nowhere near the same level of severity as the case involving City, who continue to deny any wrongdoing and have appealed the verdict.

But the strength of feeling between the two sets of fans at St Mary’s today will certainly match - and probably exceed - the hostility at Anfield.

The South Coast derby comes four days after Eckert escaped serious punishment for his role in Spygate, following an FA hearing last month.

An independent commission handed the Saints manager a six-week ban from all football and football-related activity, suspended until the end of the 2027/28 campaign, as well as a £28,000 fine and a reprimand, after he admitted that he ‘directed and/or authorised the observation of training sessions’ of three Championship opponents - Oxford United, Ipswich Town and Middlesbrough - last season.

The Boro incident occurred 48 hours before the sides met in the first leg of their play-off semi-final in May, when Southampton intern Will Salt was caught filming Kim Hellberg’s team and the story quickly became headline news.

Having beaten Middlesbrough over two legs, Saints were then expelled from the play-offs by the EFL and received a four-point deduction that came into effect this season. The club were denied a play-off final against Hull City and the potential £200m windfall that comes with promotion to the Premier League, but the strong punishment sent a clear message: spying on opponents is not worth the risk.

Everyone at Southampton, including players and fans, paid for the actions of a few members of staff. Eckert also suffered considerable reputational damage, but it seems inexplicable that the man who took ultimate responsibility for Spygate will not miss a single game considering that managers receive touchline bans for back-chatting to referees.

The 33-year-old was described as an “exceptionally impressive” witness by the independent commission and expressed “genuine contrition” for his actions. That may be true, but it doesn’t absolve him of blame.

The independent commission initially recommended a four-month ban from football, while the FA requested three months. But after applying various mitigations, including Eckert’s remorse, the impact on his career prospects and the knock-on effect for the club and the fans, it was reduced to this pathetic suspended sentence that he will ultimately never serve, as he will surely not make the same mistake again.

The verdict dilutes the message sent in May by the EFL, opening the door for managers to escape serious punishment in the event of another Spygate if they plead their case well. It also emboldens Southampton in their belief that they were harshly treated when they were kicked out of the play-offs.

That attitude was clear in the club’s statement responding to the verdict, in which owner Dragan Solak said: “The FA process has been a positive experience…the same cannot be said for the EFL process, and the way they have subsequently treated us is not something we will forget.”

Eight minutes after the statement was published, Saints posted a video on social media of Eckert celebrating with fans after a game, captioned “Just don’t think you understand” - lyrics from the terrace chant sung up and down the country. It felt unnecessarily triumphalist on the back of an embarrassing episode for the club.

In many ways, the verdict could not have come at a better time for Southampton. The South Coast derby is the biggest game of the two clubs’ respective seasons and Saints are aiming to end a winless league run against Portsmouth that stretches back to 2004.

The atmosphere will be highly-charged regardless, but it will go up another couple of notches when Eckert walks out of the tunnel and receives a hero’s welcome. Southampton fans would have feared the impact of the German being banned days before facing their arch-rivals, so his presence on the touchline will feel like a victory.

They now know they have one of the brightest young managers in the country leading them for the rest of this season, which not only brings obvious benefits on the pitch but also a psychological boost, as they would have feared months of uncertainty if Eckert was banned.

Similarly, do not be surprised if the siege mentality demonstrated in Solak’s statement lasts beyond this weekend. Southampton clearly believe they were unfairly denied their shot at promotion last season and many - but not all - supporters will feel the same way. It is not hard to imagine Saints framing this season’s bid to reach the Premier League as two fingers up to the EFL.

Southampton do not need any extra help in their promotion push. Eckert is a talented manager and has some of the best players in the league at his disposal, including Daniel Peretz, Leo Scienza and Cyle Larin.

They were strong favourites to win last season’s play-offs before the Spygate saga and would start this weekend fourth in the Championship without the points deduction. Even accounting for those lost points, Saints should finish comfortably inside the top eight and are likely to challenge for the top two.

Now, thanks to the failure to sufficiently punish Eckert, they have another edge in the promotion battle - and that feels wrong.

The international break is as dreary for football fans as it is for clubs. Supporters missed the regularity and unpredictability that comes with watching their team in action. International football, major tournaments aside, doesn’t have the same pizazz as the domestic or continental game.

The major risk to club teams, however, is the possibility of seeing a player sustain a knock while representing their national team. A number of Premier League sides have all seen key men struck down during the domestic hiatus.

While the likes of Nico O’Reilly, Alexander Isak, Cody Gakpo and Micky van de Ven are expected to make swift returns ahead of the upcoming round of league games, Arsenal have been relatively harder hit than others. Indeed, Martin Odegaard, Kai Havertz and Christos Tzolis sustained knocks with Norway, Germany and Greece, respectively.

Odegaard at least returned to the Norway side having made a swift recovery. The same can’t be said of Havertz. The Gunners man was forced off in the first half of Germany’s 1-1 draw with the Netherlands last month, and immediately returned to London for a scan on a suspected hamstring injury.

Reports at the time suggested that Havertz would sit out the next six weeks of competitive action for the north London side, which is a blow for Mikel Arteta. Havertz has been Arteta’s first-choice frontman this season, and has duly delivered, scoring two goals in the opening five matches.

That said, there is more to Havertz’s game than just goalscoring. His all-round style of play is vital for Arsenal, with the German forward willing to work tirelessly out of possession in order to knit the play together and drag markers out of position. Arteta’s use of wingers in his favoured setup means a striker of Havertz’s skill set is vital.

And it’s for that reason the Arsenal boss should turn to Mikel Merino rather than Viktor Gyokeres to lead the line for the coming weeks. Even if it’s only for a month or so, it’s a long time for the latter to operate as the focal point for this Arsenal side.

Gyokeres didn’t exactly endure a tough debut campaign in the capital. The 28-year-old scored 14 league goals, and added an additional five in the Champions League, as Arsenal pipped Manchester City to a first Premier League title in 22 years. However, Arteta has never been truly sold on the idea of Gyokeres leading the charge.

For the run-in last season, Havertz was again the go-to striker. He started the Champions League final, scoring in the eventual defeat to Paris Saint-Germain. The 27-year-old’s selflessness and notable link-up play worked far better with those in the supporting trio. Gyokeres may work tirelessly off the ball, but he’s more effective as an out-and-out striker rather than a forward willing to bring others into play.

By contrast, Merino is willing to drop deeper in order to link the play in the final third. The Spaniard shares the same positional understanding as Havertz, meaning Arteta wouldn’t need to tinker too much with his game plan by bringing Merino into the side during the former Chelsea man’s spell on the sidelines.

Merino is more comfortable on the ball than Gyokeres, meaning he’d be able to drag defenders out of position, thus opening up space for the wide men to exploit. He doesn’t rely so much on making runs off the shoulder of the last man.

What is vital, though, is that Merino still has this knack for cropping up at the right place at the right time in order to get among the goals. Since the start of last season, his return of 0.89 goal contributions per 90 when starting as the lead striker is the best of all Arsenal players.

By comparison, Havertz ranks second at 0.78, while Gyokeres is averaging 0.49 direct goal involvements per 90 in all competitions over the same period. Not only does Merino offer the same off-the-ball movement that makes for a more mobile Arsenal frontline, he is able to time his box-crashing runs well in order to get among the goals.

While Arteta may be tempted to opt for Gyokeres given his previous demands for an out-and-out number nine, combined with the 28-year-old’s good form for Sweden during the international break - Gyokeres scored four goals across four Nations League outings - Merino suits Arsenal’s attack better than the former Sporting man.

Granted, Gyokeres is a handy option for Arteta to call upon, especially if Arsenal look to go more direct.

With Havertz absent, however, the Gunners boss must instead look to Merino to shoulder the striker burden. Against a resolute Leeds backline this weekend, Merino’s desire to link up with his teammates will help break down the Yorkshire side’s low block better than Gyokeres’ directness, particularly with space in the final third expected to be at a premium.

Tottenham Hotspur beat off stiff competition from Manchester United to sign Portuguese midfielder Mateus Fernandes this summer, the north London side parting with £85m to sign the 22-year-old from rivals West Ham United.

And yet, the youngster has started just three of five league games for Spurs so far this season. He was hauled off after just 45 minutes in one of those.

“I have big confidence in Mateus but I didn’t like his performance today,” Spurs boss Roberto De Zerbi said of Fernandes after the 3-2 defeat to Aston Villa. “It’s not an attack on him because I love him. I just want more from him, even in that position.”

Spurs are wasting £85m Mateus Fernandes as things stand

It was an unnecessary criticism of Fernandes, who admittedly hardly covered himself in glory in the recent home loss to Villa, albeit out of position. Then again, few in a Spurs shirt really did.

Even so, De Zerbi was critical of the young midfielder having, again, started him in the number 10 role. If anything, this reflects badly on the Italian manager.

In truth, De Zerbi’s hands are somewhat tied. He’s loyal to a 4-2-3-1 setup, but is without a fully fit and firing No. 10. James Maddison has only recently returned to first-team action following a year on the sidelines with an ACL injury. Xavi Simons is currently absent with the same issue. Dejan Kulusevski is close to a return to action having not played since May 2025. Even then, he’s made a league start more recently than Maddison.

And yet, rather than tinker with his system or delve into the academy to pick a diamond in the rough - cough Luca Williams-Barnett cough - he’s persisting with a No. 8 out of position. Conor Gallagher is the other player to have started in the 10. Neither suit the role.

Indeed, Fernandes made a name for himself with both Southampton and West Ham in a deeper midfield position. Here, he was able to drive the team forward. Spurs desperately lacked a central midfielder who could advance the play from deep. Fernandes, then, was seen as the perfect signing.

Only Jarrod Bowen (45) created more chances than Fernandes (37) of all West Ham players in the Premier League last season. 28 successful dribbles was the third most for the Hammers. The two ahead of Fernandes - Bowen and Crysencio Summerville - are wingers by trade. They will rank higher for this metric. 103 tackles ranked sixth overall in the Premier League.

Fernandes is a player who thrives in the hustle and bustle that comes with operating as both a ball-winner and distributor. So far, he’s not been handed the chance to showcase either under De Zerbi. Rather, the former Brighton and Marseille boss has favoured a double pivot of Sandro Tonali and Rodrigo Bentancur. The former is the £100m summer signing. The latter is the experienced head that offers defensive diligence in a key area.

The issue, though, is that there is then a disconnect between the two banks of midfield. Spurs - in theory anyway - have the pair of defensive shields that allows the full-backs to provide the width when the wingers cut inside. Conversely, there is a lack of thrust through the middle. This was a major problem for Spurs last season. They had an abundance of runners and ball-winners but none who could really link the play.

It means that Spurs have the means to dictate the tempo and control proceedings in the middle of the park. A 60.7% possession haul is the third most in the division. However, an average of 9.6 chances created per game ranks 13th. It’s all sizzle and no steak.

What’s clear is that Spurs need to make a change to the setup as early as this weekend. De Zerbi needs to drop one of Tonali or Bentancur in the double pivot - potentially the former given his teething issues following his summer arrival - and move Fernandes into his best position.

Once De Zerbi realises that Fernandes isn’t a No. 10 in his system, then supporters will see one of their marquee summer signings at their best, increasing the likelihood of Spurs pulling off the foot of the Premier League table.

News that TFG plan to place Everton back on the market and walk away is another reality check for the Toffees' faithful.

To the footballing romantic, Everton are an undeniable giant of the English game - historic nine-time league champions boasting an intensely loyal fanbase and a new stadium on the banks of the Mersey.

But to the modern sports investor, particularly the wave of American private equity groups currently sweeping through English football, Everton isn't the most attractive financial acquisition.

Everton face a lengthy drawn-out sale as The Friedkin Group pull back

At the heart of Everton’s unattractiveness to potential suitors is the club's financial model.

According to Deloitte’s Annual Review of Football Finance, Everton recorded a wage-to-turnover ratio of 79% for the 2024/25 season - the season for which figures are most recently available.

In top level football, spending nearly four-fifths of every pound earned purely on player and staff wages is considered unsustainable. It leaves a thin 21% margin to cover matchday operations, debt servicing, travel, youth development, and administrative costs. For prospective buyers, an inflated wage bill relative to income signals an inefficiently managed asset that requires immediate cost-cutting before any real return on investment can be made.

Furthermore, Everton’s revenue fails to justify the magnitude of the club's profile. In 2024/25, Everton generated £197m. To put that in perspective, that is the same number generated by Crystal Palace, and £3m more than Fulham (£194m).

For US-based investors, who currently hold full or controlling stakes in over half of the Premier League's 20 clubs including Chelsea, Bournemouth and Leeds United, London-based sides like Palace or Fulham are a far more alluring proposition.

A capital city base provides built-in international prestige, corporate hospitality appeal, and global brand visibility. For a club with Everton's heritage to generate the same revenue as mid-table London outfits suggests their commercial reach isn't going the distance it needs to, casting doubt over their long-term growth ceiling to potential investors.

Optimists will point toward Everton's move to the state-of-the-art Hill Dickinson Stadium as something of a financial game-changer. While matchday income and commercial revenues will inevitably rise from the 2025/26 season onwards, the new venue comes with heavy financial baggage.

No club pays for a new stadium upfront, they utilise loans and complex debt structures. Any buyer stepping into the breach will not just be buying a football club but inheriting hundreds of millions of pounds in outstanding stadium financing debts that must be serviced regardless of performance on the pitch. That will be baked into any purchase price, according to The Times, and with a reported net debt figure of £380m, that makes TFG's asking price somewhere in the £800m range.

Complicating matters further is the state of the playing squad itself. Everton currently have the smallest squad in the Premier League. Worse still, the club spent the recent summer window effectively liquidating its most valuable playing asset, selling star man Iliman Ndiaye to Manchester City.

The club has diminished any incoming owner’s ability to generate internal capital through player trading. A buyer would be forced to spend heavily in the transfer market just to keep the team competitive, without the cushion of selling high-value squad members to offset the outlay.

Finally, there is the unavoidable reality of local geography. Everton remain the secondary commercial entity in a two-club city, living in the shadow of Liverpool’s global commercial footprint.

For American sports conglomerates looking to maximise international sponsorships and media dominance, investing in a second-tier brand within its own city is not what premium ownership groups look for. Investors seeking football clubs, particularly in the north of England, are far more likely to target single-club cities, where a lone team captures the region’s commercial ecosystem, civic backing, and fanbase without any of that being diluted.

The Premier League has never seen more American capital, with private equity funds and sports groups viewing English football as the world's premier sporting product.

However, as recent takeovers demonstrate, modern investors demand either global status, low-debt growth potential, or in some cases capital city positioning. Everton offer none of the three, are burdened by almost £400m in debt, run a bloated wage-to-turnover ratio, have a depleted playing squad, and tough regional competition.

The long and short of it is, the Toffees could face a long wait to find anyone willing to take on the challenge and with TFG intent on selling, influxes of cash to buy players and fund operations don't usually follow statements such as the one that's been released.

The managers of Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur are the first two who were appointed in 2026. They’re already right in the middle of the list of Premier League bosses from longest serving to shortest, and they’re already under pressure.

Michael Carrick and Roberto De Zerbi collide on Saturday, six matches into the new Premier League season. According to some markets, they’re the two favourites to be the next manager in the division to be sacked.

It’s difficult to argue against those odds. Man United and Spurs are clubs with pedigree and a certain weight of expectation, but also with differing degrees of underperformance having dogged them in recent seasons.

Man United’s form will improve unless they invite further chaos

Big clubs and bad results make for a treacherous path for managers, to put it mildly, and Man United won one of their first five league matches this season. Spurs, bottom of what may or may not pass as the Premier League table, only have two draws to show for their efforts.

On that basis alone, Carrick and De Zerbi must be among the favourites for the chop. The only other winless managers are Alvaro Arbeloa of Fulham and AFC Bournemouth’s Marco Rose, both drafted in when their predecessors were poached and in their very early days in charge.

Pick the ultimate 4-4-2 line-up from players in FourFourTwo's definitive Top 100 List

Results matter most when there’s a lack of hard evidence that a manager will turn them around.

Aston Villa and Coventry City are both in the bottom five thanks to four-match winless runs out of the gate. Unai Emery has been in his post longer than every other Premier League manager but Mikel Arteta. Frank Lampard, meanwhile, is striding towards two years at Coventry.

Both have earned time and patience. It’s a different tale for Carrick and De Zerbi even before the chasm between expectation and reality at their clubs is taken into account. It makes sense that they’d be the favourites for the sack. That doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be premature if it happened.

Man United and Spurs meet in their sixth Premier League games of 2026/27. It’s nearly the middle of October.

It’s both early in the season and not, and it’s surely obvious to everybody that the transfer window being open until September and an extended international break arriving before the end of the same month makes for a disrupted opening.

Losing to Spurs would leave Man United winless in four and Carrick would be nudged closer to the exit if his current team somehow contrived to lose at home against his old one, but the inevitable noise about him getting the boot should be left at that.

Their squad is better than one win in five. That’s a criticism of Carrick’s start in 2026/27 but it’s a reason to be optimistic, too. There are players in his team, leaders, who are good enough to get things moving.

There was a bounce factor in Man United's climb to third last season, the suggestion being that a simplified brief, a breath of fresh air and round pegs in round holes were all that was needed to unshackle the faltering talent.

It’s too soon to write that off as the limit of Carrick’s abilities. He was there for half a season and sharp enough to turn that theory into practice, for starters, even if the first taste of adversity in his second spell in the dugout is cause for concern.

A club of Man United’s heft is likely to be its own biggest threat almost by definition. When the Red Devils are right on and off the pitch, they take some stopping.

They need stability. They need to keep their cool. Carrick won’t and shouldn’t be backed indefinitely, but five and indeed six matches into a new season is no time to risk a gunshot to the toes.

Doubts over De Zerbi are warranted but must be considered in context

Carrick welcomes Spurs to Old Trafford on Saturday and will face their manager for the second time in his young head coach career. De Zerbi’s Brighton & Hove Albion won 5-1 at Middlesbrough in the FA Cup nearly four years ago but his struggles in the early part of 2026/27 are there for all to see.

He’s hardly the only Spurs manager that can be said about. Consecutive seasons of finishing just outside the relegation zone can’t just be left behind as if they were no big deal and even a big-spending summer is no guarantee of a reset to some forgotten norm.

Spurs have become a tough gig, but while FourFourTwo can’t be sure De Zerbi is the man to turn them around, it’s going to take a lot longer than five or six Premier League matches to be convinced that he’s not.

De Zerbi had a different target to aim at over a shorter period than Carrick when he was parachuted in last season, but he too did what was required of him. Both of them did the job that was asked from a challenging starting point and both of them have had to plan around significant disruption along with 18 other Premier League managers.

Regardless of Saturday’s result, it’s too soon for the losing manager to be dismissed. Both clubs need to hold their nerve, at least for now, because their bosses have both delivered more already than their predecessors.

Too soon doesn’t mean wrong, however. It just means too soon.

The captaincy this week is genuinely the kind of decision that will separate the top managers from the rest, and getting it right could be worth a serious chunk of rank.

Honestly, this is one of those weeks where there is no easy answer. I have gone back and forth on this more times than I would like to admit, which tells you everything about how open this week really is.

Manchester City are at Anfield, which takes away the obvious go-to option that most of us lean on when we are not sure, and what we are left with is a genuinely open captaincy picture with a few interesting cases to make. Let me walk you through each one.

Who is the best FPL captain in GW6?

Erling Haaland (£15.6m) first, because there is always a case for Haaland.

He is top for expected goal involvement in the entire league this season and he is always the safe bet. But I will be honest, this is a week where I am tempted to go against him. The situation at City right now is a mess, and Anfield in that kind of context is going to be absolutely electric. That is not the environment you want your captain walking into if there are decent alternatives on the table, and this week I think there are.

Bukayo Saka (£9.6m) is the one that excites me most. He leads all midfielders for expected goal involvement this season, has a share of the set pieces and is sitting below 15% ownership, which means if he hauls, the rank gains are significant.

Leeds United at the Emirates is a game Arsenal should be winning, and Saka was rested in England's friendly against the Czech Republic during the international break so his legs should be fresh.

The one thing to keep an eye on is whether Havertz is fit, because if he misses out, Viktor Gyokeres could start and take penalties ahead of Saka. That's worth checking before the deadline locks.

Bruno Fernandes (£11.9m) is probably the pick of the week for those who own him, if I am being completely honest. He is second only to Saka for expected goal involvement among midfielders this season, looked sharp for Portugal in the break and Man United have a home game against a Tottenham Hotspur side sitting bottom of the league.

The underlying numbers at Man United are fascinating too; they have scored roughly two goals fewer than their Expected Goals (xG) figure of close to 10 this season, which means they are well overdue a strong performance.

Cole Palmer (£9.7m) pulled out of the England squad for load management reasons, which means he should be fit and raring to go against Bournemouth at home. He has been in good form this season and Chelsea at home to the Cherries is a very manageable fixture. A straightforward and sensible option for his owners if he is fit and back in training.

Joao Pedro (£7.7m) has been brilliant this season, second only to Haaland among forwards for FPL points, and the fixture looks good on paper. But he has not trained in three weeks and there is no real update on his fitness heading into the weekend as yet. Until we hear something concrete, the armband has to go elsewhere regardless of how tempting the matchup looks.

So where does that leave us? If you own Fernandes, he is probably your man this week. If you want the differential angle, Saka is the pick. Palmer, if fit, is also an appealing option. And Haaland, as always, is the comfort blanket if none of the above feel right. A proper captaincy puzzle this week, which is exactly what makes it interesting.

The language left little room for ambiguity. Shocking. Unacceptable. An absolute disgrace. Manchester United had just drawn with Fulham and the sky was falling. In the TV studio, Gary Neville, Louis Saha and Ashley Young took turns to express their hurt. "I don't usually get this angry," Neville said, but he was not alone.

While the three ex-pros were giving their verdicts on Sky, the wider machinery was whirring. X users were invited to describe Marcus Rashford's performance in one word, and compliments were in short supply. A caller to talkSPORT demanded Michael Carrick's head in conversation with Alan Pardew. Over on YouTube, thumbnails were being polished, emojis deployed, titles tightened: 'PATHETIC Man Utd'. 'Carrick deserves ZERO!' 'Man Utd on LIFE SUPPORT [EXPLOSIVE RANT].' Within an hour of full-time at Craven Cottage, the Manchester United misery economy was humming once more.

It is a familiar routine by now. The final whistle is not final at all; in a sense, the game is just the opening act. This phenomenon is not unique to Man United. But as the biggest club in England, and one which has been in steady decline since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement 13 years ago, they are a particularly rich source of material.

"There is an insatiable demand for takes, the hotter the better"

Neville is the lead protagonist, giving his views not only on Sky but also on his Stick to Football podcast. Roy Keane is a co-star on both platforms, always willing to lament a dearth of characters in the dressing room. Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand and Paul Scholes have their own shows, the latter in tandem with Nicky Butt. Patrice Evra has never met a microphone he did not like.

It is not only former players. Mark Goldbridge is better known than many professional footballers. Stephen Howson, Adam McKola, Joe Smith, Andy Tate and Flex UTD are prominent Man United influencers, some more insightful than others. You will find dozens more online, with the less established often tempted to court controversy in pursuit of an audience in a crowded market.

The thing is, this stuff does numbers. The most watched video on the Sky Sports Premier League YouTube channel is a goals montage. Second is Neville arguing with Jamie Redknapp about the Glazers (“the club is rotting”). Third is Neville discussing a defeat by Atletico Madrid in 2022 (“I’ve felt down about Manchester United for some time”). A compilation of a Goldbridge watchalong is more likely to go viral if it contains expletive-laden outbursts than joyous celebrations.

There is an insatiable demand for takes, the hotter the better. Social media algorithms reward sensationalism and punish nuance. ‘Man Utd a work in progress [MEASURED ASSESSMENT]’ does not quite have the same ring to it.

Positivity rarely sets pulses racing either. Ferdinand’s suggestion in 2019 that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer could choose his own salary because United were “BACK” is only so memorable because - and who could have seen this coming - United were not in fact back.

Neville senses which way the wind is blowing. In April, The Overlap (a media company he co-founded) bought Goldbridge's channel, The United Stand, and has since launched a new weekly production which features Goldbridge alongside Rooney.

Neville has criticised “those bloody YouTubers” in the past. He once called ArsenalFanTV “embarrassing” for its treatment of Arsene Wenger. But as well as being an influential pundit, Neville is an astute businessman, and astute businessmen stand ready to give the people what they want - in this case, “direct, personality-led content.”

A brief scroll of social media reveals much of this content to be hysterical and hyperbolic, yet it is also rooted in the simple truth that Man United have underwhelmed for a long time now.

For the generation of JJ Gabriel, the 16-year-old academy player who wants out of Old Trafford, the team's current struggles are not a blip but the norm. Gabriel was two when Man United last won the title. He has grown up watching not Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Ryan Giggs, but Donny van de Beek, Facundo Pellistri and Wout Weghorst.

Since Ferguson stepped down Man United have staggered from crisis to crisis, going back to square one so often they could trace the route blindfolded.

Neville himself is no shock jock, even if his claim that the draw with Fulham contained the “worst 15 minutes” he had ever seen from his team felt a little over the top. He is usually more considered, and prides himself on never having called for a manager to be sacked. As a hugely successful player (and an increasingly underrated one due to his frequent self-deprecation), Neville provides a level of insight that is not easily replicable. The likes of Keane, Rooney, Ferdinand and Scholes have plenty of expertise to impart too.

Equally, the game has changed since their day. No one plays the sort of 4-4-2 with flying wingers on which Man United have built their modern self-image. Nor was it all attack, attack, attack under Ferguson - or “the Boss”, as some of his former charges continue to call him. Just ask Park Ji-sung, regularly deployed as a spoiler in big games, or Nani, Antonio Valencia and the aforementioned Ashley Young, natural wide men who were sacrificed when the team utilised a midfield diamond in 2012. Ferguson was more tactically sophisticated than he is often portrayed today.

It is hard not to wonder whether all the noise around Man United is contributing to the very malaise these interested parties - from Neville to Goldbridge, Rooney to Flex, Scholes to that bloke who refuses to cut his hair until they win five games in a row - are keen to see the club escape.

Yet therein lies the paradox. To flourish, the Manchester United misery economy requires, well, misery. Bad results are by no means bad for business. In fact, they keep the wheels turning. The show must go on.

Is this the end of Cristiano Ronaldo’s love affair with Portugal? It certainly appears so after the latest drama in what has undoubtedly been the most earth-shattering international break ever.

For some, including his millions of worshippers, Ronaldo was right to walk out on his country after alleged provocation and broken promises from Jorge Jesus. For others, there was no excuse for his behaviour, especially given his age, and the 41-year-old’s departure long overdue.

As for the most famous sportsman on the planet, he has now revealed his own truth in a remarkable 1,740 word statement. It leaves us with a lot of questions with one being: how different might things have looked if Ronaldo had not left Real Madrid or retired in 2018?

Cristiano Ronaldo was on top of the world in 2018

Of course, that is not to diminish what he has achieved since. Any mere mortal would be beyond thrilled. But Ronaldo has never viewed himself as that, which has been a key component of his all-time career.

Anyway, let’s roll it back eight years to the summer of 2018. Portugal may have suffered yet another early World Cup exit - losing to Uruguay in the Round of 16 - but their star man was still on top of the world.

While his team struggled, Ronaldo did not, scoring a hat-trick against Spain in the opening game of the tournament, rescuing them with a stunning late free kick.

He had also captained his country to their first-ever major trophy two years earlier, part-coaching them in the final after an untimely injury. It saw him fully surpass the likes of Eusebio and Luis Figo and crowned the undisputed king of Portuguese football.

At club level, he was untouchable. Real Madrid had just won their third consecutive European Cup, the first side to do so since Bayern Munich in the mid-1970s.

While Gareth Bale took over in Kyiv, Ronaldo had already hit four in finals over the years, and was the driving force as per for Los Blancos.

His 15 goals - including that bicycle kick against Juventus - saw him take the top scorer award for a record seventh time, and for a ludicrous sixth consecutive season.

Five European Cups had been lifted, and with arguably the two most famous clubs in the world. He was, and is, Mr. Champions League, which has been sometimes forgotten or ignored in recent times.

The individual honours just kept rolling with Ronaldo then the two-time defending Ballon d’Or winner, having won four of his overall five from 2013 to 2017. It was safe to say he had enjoyed a perfect career outside of lifting the World Cup.

With Qatar over four years away, Ronaldo could have called it quits at this point with his status as possibly the best ever to do it already secured. Given what we know about him and his unparalleled drive, that was never a possibility though.

He could have stayed at the Bernabeu, though. A fall out with Florentino Perez over how the president viewed the No. 7 was the primary reason for his exit according to the man himself. What happened next is perhaps the longest goodbye tour since Elton John.

Nothing ever felt quite the same, which is summed up by the fact Ronaldo has not played in a Champions League semi-final since swapping Madrid for Turin in July 2018. That’s not to say it was all bad.

There were 101 goals for Juve, including the most clutch of hat-tricks to turn around a Round of 16 tie with, you guessed it, Atletico Madrid in his first season. Two Scudettos were won, along with a couple of Player of the Year awards and a golden boot. He is the only player to finish as top scorer in Serie A, La Liga and the Premier League.

However, he was brought to Italy to help the team finally get over the hump in Europe after two final losses, one of which saw Ronaldo put two past them in Cardiff. That did not come near to happening with the Old Lady by now an old team. His fee and wages have contributed to their ongoing decline.

That’s not on Ronaldo himself, nor was Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s sacking less than three months into his iconic return to Old Trafford that broke the internet on deadline day in August 2021.

He sped up an inevitable process but did give a new generation of fans moments to cherish with 24 goals in his one full comeback season. Ronaldo remains the oldest player to score 15 goals or more in a Premier League campaign.

His toxic final few months at the club, which ended with an embarrassing scorched earth interview with Piers Morgan, gave us an insight into a superhuman struggling with slowing down. It’s where the Homelander comparisons began, and partly mirrors his Portugal exit with Jesus playing Erik ten Hag.

He did still have good times with the national team post-2018 - winning two Nations League titles, scoring a boatload more goals and top scoring EURO 2020. Again though, there were no more semi-finals and several low points.

No Ronaldo discussion can be had without a mention of Lionel Messi, his greatest rival aside from father time. The GOAT debate is over for most but in 2018, it was very much up in the air. The Argentine had won nothing at international level while Barcelona were amid a disastrous run of Champions League humiliations.

A World Cup win, along with a pair of Copa Americas, ended the argument alongside three questionable Ballon d’Ors that moved Messi onto a record eight.

While his old foe turned out one last time for an emotional Argentina farewell appearance in Buenos Aires - against the might of Benin - Ronaldo is out in the cold with his famous number already being passed on to Rafael Leao due to UEFA rules.

He will surely be afforded a goodbye or two of his own at some point. It will be demanded. There is also so much to this story given Ronaldo’s undeniable devotion to Portugal and the fact Jesus and he worked together last season at Al Nassr.

But for now, his career will end in the backwaters of the Saudi Pro League as he continues to chase 1000 career goals. It would be the latest in a near-endless list of remarkable records, notably the most international caps (234), most international goals (146) and most Real Madrid goals (450).

His legacy will not be tainted by this final act in years to come - look at Maradona and Zidane - albeit it already is to many given a dismissed but highly-contentious legal case.

Maybe it could have been different. If he’d stayed with Real. If he’d shockingly retired in 2018. If he’d not left Jorge Mendes in 2023. While he has firmly outlined his own truth, the Shakespearean reality is that what made Ronaldo what he was is ultimately why it’s ending like this.

At 19, Josh King is the latest English kid on the block to be blooded at Craven Cottage and has already become the West London club’s talisman in a side that is sparse in quality. While it is early days, there is strong reason to believe King can break the chain.

The teenager became a first-team regular under the stewardship of Marco Silva last season, starting around half of his 32 Premier League appearances and at 18, there was a growing expectation that he could become something special.

That talent has not gone unnoticed under new boss Álvaro Arbeloa, with the academy graduate starting every one of the Cottagers’ league games, while he has been the West London club’s most threatening player with two goals, regularly opening up opposition defences with his intelligent attacking play.

Given that King is English, the hype around him is only going to accelerate, and before you know it, he will be linked with the biggest clubs in the country and possibly Europe. While a move to a Premier League giant will appeal and will ultimately be the ambition, King needs only take a look at the Fulham production line to know a premature move could bring it all crashing down.

Eight years ago, Harvey Elliott, aged 15 years and 174 days, made his senior debut for the Cottagers against Millwall in the third round of the Carabao Cup, becoming the club’s youngest-ever first-team player and the youngest player to ever appear in the competition.

Understandably, there was significant buzz around the attacking midfielder in West London, but after making just three senior appearances for the Whites, Liverpool seized their opportunity by signing the 16-year-old, who had not yet even turned professional.

Elliott’s early career took a different path to King’s as he benefited from a loan spell with Championship side Blackburn Rovers, where he flourished with 18 goal contributions before eventually becoming a squad player for the Reds. Jürgen Klopp was clearly an admirer, but trying to budge Liverpool’s world-class attacking talent was a mountainous task for the midfielder, who largely featured as a rotation player.

After winning the UEFA European Under-21 Championship in 2025, Elliott was named Player of the Tournament, suggesting he just needed the right club to reach his potential, but a nightmare stint with Aston Villa plummeted his reputation. Now on loan with struggling Valencia, the 23-year-old is enduring the worst period of his career, and he is hard-pressed to turn it around.

Indeed, there are other examples. Patrick Roberts dazzled for Fulham in the Championship before securing a dream move to Manchester City in 2015. However, he experienced loan after loan across Europe before reviving his career in League One with Sunderland. Now at Birmingham City in the second tier, it is fair to say he hasn’t lived up to his promise.

Then there is Ryan Sessegnon, who also tore apart the Championship in his teenage years before becoming a Premier League regular for the Cottagers. He was just 19 when he signed for Tottenham in 2019 and was barely given a sniff before eventually returning to the West London club in 2024. The left-back is still only 26 but is playing second fiddle to Antonee Robinson, not how he would have envisaged his career going.

Of course, King is of a different ilk with a different story, and he has arguably made more of a mark on the Fulham first team than any of the aforementioned players in the top flight. After Harry Wilson’s departure in the summer, there was genuine concern about who could be the club’s creative outlet, the player to get fans out of their seats, and King is that man.

If anything, the Cottagers would be wise to build a squad around the England under-21 international and hand him a bumper deal, even though he signed fresh terms in 2025. That would give him the chance to develop into the top attacking midfielder he was born to be and etch his name into Fulham history.

Worryingly for Arbeloa’s side, they already look like prime relegation candidates, and while performances have improved against Liverpool and Manchester United, there is a distinct lack of cutting edge in the final third. Relegation would not only be a dampener for the Cottagers, but it would also likely end King’s affiliation with his boyhood club, as he is far too good for the Championship.

If anyone can keep Fulham up, then it is King. Supporters will hope and pray that he has studied those that came before him, and mount his reign in West London before he inevitably moves on to bigger kingdoms.

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.