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The transfer window might still be closed for another two months, but that hasn’t stopped the rumours circulating Arsenal.

Unless they can beat Real Madrid over two legs in the Champions League next month, Mikel Arteta’s side look likely to end the season empty-handed yet again, and a big reason for that is a lack of firepower up top.

Now, injuries have played their part as well, but when the club’s most productive player – Bukayo Saka – is someone who hasn’t kicked a ball since December, you know there is a problem.

So, it’s unsurprising to see the team being linked with a whole host of extraordinary strikers at the moment, like Victor Gyokeres, but centre-forwards are not the only players being touted for moves this summer.

Arsenal's search for new attackers

So, while Gyokeres, Benjamin Sesko, and Alexander Isak all continue to be linked with Arsenal due to their acute need for a prolific number nine, a whole host of wingers have also had their names connected with the club.

Transfer Focus

Mega money deals, controversial moves and big-name flops. This is the home of transfer news and opinion across Football FanCast.

For example, Bayern Munich’s Leroy Sané, who will be a free agent in the summer, keeps popping up in connection with the Gunners, as is Brentford’s Bryan Mbeumo, who is already Premier League-proven.

However, when there is one winger who the North Londoners seem to be prioritising above all others and he might just be the most exciting of the lot.

According to a recent report from TEAMtalk, Arsenal are determined to add another wide player to their ranks in the summer, and both Arteta and new Sporting Director, Andrea Berta, have a top target: Nico Williams.

The Spanish international has a €58m release clause in his current contract, which is about £48m, and while that isn’t an egregious sum of money, it would need to be paid upfront, which could complicate matters.

Interestingly, though, the report has revealed that the Gunners could offer Bilbao a higher fee to structure payments more favourably.

It looks like it will be a complicated and costly transfer to get over the line this year, but given his immense ability and potential, one well worth fighting for, especially as he could sensational alongside Gyokeres, should Arsenal be able to secure his services as well.

Why Williams would be incredible for Arsenal and Gyokeres

So, let’s say Arsenal are successful in their pursuit of Gyokeres this summer. Why would Williams be an incredible addition to the team, particularly for him?

Well, it comes down to two things, the first of which is his output. For example, in 37 appearances last season, totalling 2729 minutes, the young Spaniard racked up a sensational tally of eight goals and 16 assists, which comes out to an average of a goal involvement every 1.54 games or every 113.70 minutes.

This season, he’s not been quite as devastating but has nonetheless maintained an impressive level of output, scoring nine goals and providing seven assists in 38 appearances, totalling 2689 minutes.

Season

23/24

24/25

Appearances

37

38

Minutes

2729′

2689′

Goals

8

9

Assists

19

7

Goal Involvements per Match

0.72

0.36

Minutes per Goal Involvements

113.70′

168.06′

This comes out to an average of a goal involvement every 2.37 games, or 168.06 minutes.

Now, just imagine what the Bilbao ace’s output would look like playing alongside the Swede, who has racked up a tally of 111 goal involvements in 92 games for Sporting CP.

His already impressive assist record would explode next to a striker that prolific, and in return, the former Coventry City star would almost certainly see his own goal tally continue to impress with such a reliable provider to his left.

The second reason the “world-class” winger, as journalist Zach Lowy has dubbed him, would be such a dream teammate for the 26-year-old is that he occupies defenders so effectively.

Due to being a reliable source of goals and assists, the Pamplona-born star forces opposition defenders to expend time and energy keeping him under wraps, which in turn should free up space for his teammates.

Moreover, with FBref placing him in the top 2% of attacking midfielders and wingers in Europe’s top five leagues for successful take-ons per 90, he’s capable of making things happen regardless of how much an opposition player tries to stop him.

Ultimately, Arsenal need some attacking reinforcements this summer, and while it might be a complicated transfer to get over the line, they should be going all out for Williams, especially if they also sign Gyokeres.

Arsenal's "special" teen was meant to be Ramsey 2.0, then Arteta sold him

The talented midfielder never made it at Arsenal.

ByJack Salveson Holmes Mar 29, 2025

MatériaMais Notícias

da dobrowin： O Nova Iguaçu recebe o Vitória nesta quarta-feira, às 16h30, pela Copa do Brasil, consciente da importância da competição. O lateral-direito Léo Fernandes, um dos destaques do time no Campeonato Carioca, fala das vantagens do torneio nacional.

– É uma competição de enorme visibilidade e retorno financeiro para o clube. O Vitória é uma equipe tradicional e que certamente vai impor bastante dificuldade. Teremos que realizar uma partida próxima da perfeição para passarmos de fase – declarou.

+ Confira a tabela de jogos da Copa do Brasil de 2023

RelacionadasListasFluminense dá chapéu no Vasco por atacante, carrasco do Flamengo acerta com novo clube… O Dia do Mercado!Listas28/02/2023Futebol InternacionalAutor de gol em clássico, brasileiro celebra vitória do Ararat-Armenia e projeta sequênciaFutebol Internacional28/02/2023Futebol InternacionalEm retorno de Pogba, Juventus vence clássico contra o Torino com gols brasileiros no Campeonato ItalianoFutebol Internacional28/02/2023

da betano casino： Mandante, o Nova Iguaçu precisará vencer o jogo para avançar no torneio. Segundo Léo, o regulamento influenciará diretamente na forma de jogar do time da Baixada.

– Nessa etapa da Copa do Brasil uma equipe tem a vantagem do mando de campo e a outra de poder empatar. O Nova Iguaçu entrará em campo ciente de que apenas vencendo atingirá o seu objetivo e procurará jogar com inteligência – concluiu.

It is understood a group of players wrote to CSA wanting to see change following Moreeng’s lengthy tenure

Firdose Moonda11-Aug-2023Hilton Moreeng will stay on as coach of the South African national women’s team, extending his tenure beyond 11 years. Moreeng has been in charge since 2012 and was expected to move on after the home T20 World Cup, in which South Africa reached the final, but will continue for at least the 2023-24 season.ESPNcricinfo understands that a group of players are unhappy with Moreeng’s continuance and some of them took their complaints to Cricket South Africa via email. This move stems from what sources have called a desire to see a change in the coaching style following Moreeng’s lengthy tenure. However, the players have been unable to get CSA to see eye-to-eye with their thinking and Moreeng has been rewarded for a string of good results which includes qualifying for the last two 50-over World Cup semi-finals and becoming the first coach to take a senior South African team to a World Cup final.”It was never going to make sense not to extend (Moreeng’s deal) because of the back-to-back tours we have coming up now,” Pholetsi Moseki, CSA’s CEO told ESPNcricinfo.Related

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Although South Africa have not played since the T20 World Cup in February, they have a full schedule over the next few months, starting with a trip to Pakistan in August. They will then return home to host New Zealand and also have visits from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka already penciled in on the Future Tours Programme (FTP) before an all-format trip to Australia in early 2024. The time between the end of Moreeng’s contract in April and this season’s fixtures was deemed too short to replace him. “It would have not been fair to ask a new person to take over and have only a month or so to prepare the team for the Pakistan series [which begins on September 1],” Moseki said.Instead, CSA has turned its attention to creating a new position in the women’s game: head of women’s cricket. Applications for the post closed on July 14 and ESPNcricinfo understands that the process of finalising the appointment is ongoing. The head of women’s cricket will report to the current Director of Cricket, Enoch Nkwe, who has been in meetings with the women’s team management this week.At the time of writing, Nkwe was unavailable for comment.

da dobrowin： Manchester City are now showing concrete interest in a defender, whose price tag has now dropped by £12.5m, but there may be competition for his signature from Real Madrid, according to a report.

Man City keen to strengthen at full-back

da leao： Kyle Walker joining AC Milan on loan last month could spell the end for the right-back at the Etihad Stadium, and Pep Guardiola has started to work on finding a replacement, with widespread reports linking Newcastle United’s Tino Livramento with a move.

Not only is Pep looking to strengthen at right-back, but the manager is also keen to bolster his options on the opposite side, with Juventus’ Andrea Cambiaso remaining on the list of targets, having been interested in signing the Italian during the January window.

Other left-backs to be considered by City in recent times include Paris Saint Germain’s Nuno Mendes and AC Milan’s Theo Hernandez, with Pep seemingly looking to bring in competition for Josko Gvardiol.

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There has now been a new update on the Sky Blues’ pursuit of Hernandez, with TEAMtalk revealing the left-back is now likely to leave AC Milan this summer, with the Italian club slashing their asking price from £41.5m to £29.5m.

Amid the £12m price drop, Man City are now showing concrete interest in the left-back, who is now climbing higher on their shortlist, with the £29.5m fee considered a fair price.

The only potential issue is the fact Real Madrid have also expressed an interest in the Frenchman, and he would be open to a return to the Bernabeu, having spent two years with the Spanish side earlier in his career.

Hernandez is a top attacking left-back

Throughout his career, the Milan defender has consistently provided an attacking threat, despite almost exclusively featuring at left-back, providing seven goals and six assists in the Serie A during the 2020-21 campaign.

Freelance Ben Mattinson has described the former Madrid man as “electric fast”, while also branding him “the best attacking LB in the world”, so it is promising news he could be available for just £29.5m this summer.

Although the report states the France international’s form has dipped this season, he has remained a key player for Milan, and he has continued to provide a consistent attacking threat over the past year.

Statistic

Average per 90

Non-penalty goals

0.10 (82nd percentile)

Progressive carries

3.51 (93rd percentile)

Successful take-ons

1.14 (85th percentile)

Not only does the defender impress on the front foot, but he has also received praise for his defensive work in the past too, being lauded by CBS’ Marco Messina.

As such, Hernandez could be a fantastic signing for City this summer, and given that his price tag has fallen significantly, they should definitely pursue a move.

India offspinner available for four games, starting with Essex at Chelmsford

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Sep-2023

Jayant Yadav, the India offspinner, has joined Middlesex on a short-term deal for the last four LV= Insurance County Championship matches of the season.Yadav, 33, has taken 16 wickets at 29.06 in six Test matches for his country, the most recent of which came against Sri Lanka in March 2022. His best figures, 4 for 49, were against New Zealand in December 2021, at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.However, his stand-out performance in Test cricket arguably came on England’s Test tour of 2016-17, where he made his highest score of 104, batting at No.9 in the fourth Test at Delhi and adding 241 with the then-captain, Virat Kohli, in an innings victory.”I am honoured and excited to join the prestigious Middlesex County Cricket Club for the upcoming Championship games and be a part of its rich cricketing history,” Yadav said in a club statement.”I enjoyed my experience of playing county cricket last year,” he added, having played two matches for Warwickshire in their Championship run-in in 2022, “and am eagerly looking forward to the new stint with Middlesex and contributing to the club’s success.”Yadav’s first outing is set to be against Championship challengers Essex at Chelmsford next week, prior to contests against Lancashire, Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire. In his first-class career to date he has taken 205 wickets, with best bowling figures of 7 for 58 for Haryana in the Ranji Trophy in 2019-20.Middlesex’s Director of Cricket, Alan Coleman, said: “With Pieter Malan returning home to South Africa, we wanted to bolster the squad with another quality signing ahead of four crucial matches that lay ahead of us in September.”We feel that spin will be an important factor in September and the opportunity to sign an international spinner of Jayant’s quality was too good an opportunity to turn down.”He brings us that extra bit of something you get from an international cricketer, experience, quality, know how – all attributes that will prove hugely valuable to us in the coming games.”We can’t wait to have him with us and wish him every success here over the coming month.”

No team had made 300 against Surrey this season, and that record threatened to stretch into a seventh consecutive innings at Chelmsford. Essex were coasting towards uncharted territory at tea on the first day, 204 for 3 and with Tom Westley, the captain, and Matt Critchley ensconced in an unbroken hundred stand, only for a clatter of wickets to leave the scoreboard reading 245 for 8, and cries of “C’mon the ‘rey” drifting across the county ground.In the end, the home side pocketed their second batting point fairly comfortably, thanks to an enterprising partnership of 62 in 12 overs between Simon Harmer and Sam Cook. Both benefited from misses in the field – Harmer put down by Rory Burns at slip on 5, while Kemar Roach at fine leg completely failed to pick up a top-edged hook when Cook had 8 – and Surrey were left to repent at leisure before Gus Atkinson returned to cap a fine display with his maiden first-class five-wicket haul.By then Essex had carved out a position from which they could hope to remain competitive. Alastair Cook has endured a lean start to the season but produced a first half-century, and his efforts were matched by Westley and Critchley; but after toiling through the afternoon Surrey girded themselves in the manner of champions. Their response, on what looks a dry surface, against Harmer, who had men crowding the bat in his one over before stumps, could determine whether they maintain their position at the top of Division One after the conclusion of this round.These two counties have won four of the last five Championship titles, and this fixture featured 13 players with international experience. There might not have the attendant fanfare of Steven Smith’s debut for Sussex at New Road, but Sean Abbott bowling to Dan Lawrence offered up a proto-Ashes duel (even if both are some way off being selected at this stage) while Ben Foakes produced a reminder of what England would miss were he overlooked behind the stumps – even as Jonny Bairstow was doing his best a few hundred miles to the north to state a convincing case for why the selectors should do just that.Surrey, whose motto might be “never knowingly under-resourced”, were able to leave out their leading wicket-taker, Dan Worrall, and still produce the sort of concerted bowling performance that eventually found a way through the cracks in Essex’s batting. And despite the presence of Abbott and Roach, their most-impressive performer was Atkinson, the 25-year-old playing his first match of the season.His best figures in any format for Surrey included the prize wicket of Cook, that venerable warhorse of Ashes summers past, as well as both Essex tail-end miscreants to finish with fine figures of 6 for 68. There was also an important contribution from the returning Will Jacks, whose flighted offbreak was responsible for ending Essex’s fourth-wicket stand at 114, Critchley’s outside edge snapped up one-handed by a flying Burns in one of the better moments of Surrey fielding. Foakes, immaculate as ever, claimed five catches behind the stumps.The morning began with Essex opting to bat, the home XI bolstered by returns for Lawrence and Sam Cook after injury. Surrey omitted Worrall as part of the planned rotation of their seamers, while Jacks made his first appearance since suffering a hip injury while on England duty that scuppered his chances of playing in a maiden IPL.Essex’s openers negotiated the early exchanges without too many alarms, although Cook did enjoy an early let off – Jamie Smith failing to latch on to a sliced drive off Abbott that looped tantalisingly towards backward point when he had made 13. Cook’s front foot was soon lunging forward, Hungry Hippos-style, to clump the ball through cover as he went past 50 for the 193rd time in this, his 21st season as a first-class cricketer. He was dropped again shortly after, Ollie Pope only able to get a hand on a diving chance at second slip.Atkinson had been the bowler to end a 62-run opening stand, finding lift and movement from back of a length with just his second ball to have Nick Browne taken at third slip, and he produced an even better one-two combination to see off Cook. Having switched to round the wicket, Atkinson jagged one past the outside edge, missing the top of off stump by a whisker, then brought his next ball back to graze the inside edge – Foakes completing the dismissal with an athletic leg-side take.A third wicket went down straight after lunch, Abbott curving one past Lawrence’s outside edge for another Foakes catch – although whether the ball came off bat or thigh pad was less clear. Essex’s fourth-wicket pair then settled into a steady rhythm as the pendulum swung back towards the hosts. There was even the chance for fans of the home side to enjoy the glovework of Foakes, an Essex boy who has gone on to greater things with Surrey, who acrobatically held on to an in-dipping Roach yorker that beat Westley all ends up only to miss leg stump.The grumbles began after Critchley and Westley departed in consecutive overs, and may have increased a notch when Michael Pepper was caught behind attempting to reverse-sweep Jacks, having made 6 off six balls with one scoring shot. A collapse of 5 for 27 undid some of the hard work but few teams will tangle with Surrey this season and emerge completely unscathed.

Jhulan Goswami becomes second-most capped woman in ODIs, and marks the occasion with a Player-of-the-Match performance

Sampath Bandarupalli26-Sep-202126 – Consecutive wins for Australia in ODI cricket before losing to India on Sunday. It is the longest winning streak for any team, men’s or women’s, in ODIs. They went past the record held by the Australia men’s team (21) in the series against New Zealand earlier this year. The last ODI Australia had lost was against England in October 2017.1 – India’s successful chase of 265 was the first time they have pulled off a chase of 250-plus in ODIs. Their previous highest ODI chase was 248 against South Africa in 2019 in Vadodara.265 – It was also the second-highest successful chase for any team against Australia in ODIs. The best remains 276 by New Zealand in 2017, which is also the second-highest chase in women’s ODIs overall.Before this game, no team had chased down a target of 250 or more against Australia in Australia.17 – Consecutive ODIs won by Australia while defending a target before this game. The last team to chase a target successfully against Australia in ODI cricket were New Zealand in February 2017.Only once had any team won more consecutive ODIs while defending a target – the Australia women’s team again! They had 23 consecutive ODI wins while batting first between 1999 and 2004.Shafali Verma and Yastika Bhatia made half-centuries in a solid second-wicket partnership•Getty Images192 – ODIs played by Jhulan Goswami, making her the second-most capped player in women’s ODIs, topping the mark of Charlotte Edwards (191). Mithali Raj is firmly on the top with 220 appearances – she has featured in all the 192 ODIs Goswami has played. Goswami marked the occasion with the Player-of-the-Match award.1 – Woman younger than Shafali Verma to score a fifty in an ODI against Australia. West Indies’ Hayley Matthews, at the age of 16, scored fifties in each of her first three ODIs in her debut series against Australia in 2014.1531 – Runs scored by Australia and India across the three games in this series, the second-most in a three-match women’s ODI series. The highest came in 2017 when New Zealand hosted Australia, with a 1603-run aggregate.3-8 – India’s win-loss record in the ODI format in 2021. All the wins have come chasing, and all the losses while batting first.

da winzada777： Arsenal remain very active behind-the-scenes in terms of their summer recruitment plans, as manager Mikel Arteta and new sporting director Andrea Berta attempt to close the gap on Premier League champions Liverpool next season.

Arsenal set to sign Real Sociedad midfielder Martin Zubimendi

da bet7： The north Londoners, after months of talks, recently sealed a deal for Spain international midfielder Martin Zubimendi, as per numerous reliable reports.

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News of Zubimendi’s potential move to London Colney was first revealed by The Mail back in January, and Berta has been working to finalise a deal for the 26-year-old ever since – coming after his predecessor Edu and ex-interim director Jason Ayto laid most of the groundwork (Ben Jacobs).

The Real Sociedad favourite is now set to become Berta’s first signing as the Gunners’ new transfer chief, but he largely has both Ayto and Edu to thank for this, as they were the “driving forces” behind Zubimendi’s switch (Ben Jacobs).

Arsenal transfer spending under Arteta (via Sky Sports)

Money on new signings

19/20 – winter

£0

20/21 – summer

£81.5m

20/21 – winter

£900k

21/22 – summer

£156.8m

21/22 – winter

£1.8m

22/23 – summer

£121.5m

22/23 – winter

£59m

23/24 – summer

£208m

23/24 – winter

£0

24/25 – summer

£101.5m

24/25 – winter

£0

Despite some concerns about Real Madrid mounting a late hijack, especially after Zubimendi’s cryptic comments regarding his future, Fabrizio Romano is among the credible media sources to share news last week that the player travelled to London and put the finishing touches on his Emirates Stadium move.

Arsenal will also pay around £55 million for Zubimendi, despite his lower release clause, as a gesture of good faith to Sociedad which also allows the club to pay the fee in installments.

With Zubimendi’s done and dusted, attention is swiftly turning to who could follow him, and that man is apparently £150,000-per-week Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga.

Romano has given his ‘here we go’ to Arrizabalaga’s Arsenal move today, with the player also travelling to the club this week as he puts the finishing touches on his N5 transfer.

Kepa Arrizabalaga travelling to London this week after agreeing Arsenal move

The 30-year-old has been poised to join Arsenal for a little while now as he looks to battle David Raya for the number one spot (David Ornstein), with The Athletic’s James McNicholas sharing more on the situation.

Kepa is personally in London “this week” to finalise his move to Arsenal, so the Stamford Bridge outcast appears set to become Berta’s second signing of the summer.

The former Athletic Bilbao ace’s capture has already been widely praised, with his meagre £5 million cost coming as a potential bargain given Kepa’s extensive top-level experience.

“Arsenal do need a replacement for Neto, what a loan spell that was, it didn’t work, that is for sure,” said pundit Adrian Clarke on Inside Gooners earlier this month.

“Kepa Arrizabalaga, he’s available for just £5m, that sounds like the deal of the century, doesn’t it.”

Root’s side look increasingly accomplished, bringing much-needed cheer for supporters locked down at home

George Dobell18-Jan-2021England supporters have never had it so good.Yes, the lockdown is rubbish. And yes, as the pandemic continues to ravage the UK, you can almost imagine plague-ridden Londoners of the 1660s looking on and sighing: ‘those millennials are having it tough’. There’s no disputing that life in general is pretty grim right now.But on the cricket pitch, at least, this England team is achieving things which their predecessors could scarcely imagine.Victory in Galle means England have won four successive away Tests for the first time in more than 60 years. To put that in perspective, when the first of those previous four victories was achieved (against New Zealand, in March 1955), Winston Churchill was Prime Minister. By the time of the last (in January 1957), the country was in the middle of the Suez Crisis.If this sounds like a modest achievement by comparison with some other sides, it should never be forgotten how awful England have been for really quite sustained periods in their cricketing history. Even recently, from October 2016 to November 2018, England went 13 Tests in a row without an away Test victory.Across the 1980s and 90s, they won 16 of the 96 away Tests they played. At least three of those came in dead rubbers, with four more against a post-Hadlee New Zealand side in transition and one against a Sri Lanka team still finding its feet. Between December 1986 and February 1990, they didn’t win away at all.Ahead of one Ashes tour, England said their aim was simply to “compete.” Which is one up from saying the aim was to turn up on time in the right clothes. And even that proved too much to ask at times. You’d need Wes Craven to direct a documentary that really conveys how awful it was following England in the 90s.So yes, Sri Lanka (who have now lost five times in a row to England at home) were remarkably poor in their first innings in Galle. And yes, South Africa are not the side they once were. But these are significant, historic victories from an England perspective. It would be churlish to explain them away entirely.At the centre of all this is Joe Root. With a double-century – his record-equalling second as captain – he went a long way towards defining the course of this game. In the course of doing so, he passed 8,000 Test runs in fewer innings than any England player except Kevin Pietersen and with a higher average than any of those above him on the overall list.Almost as impressively, he marshalled an attack which included two obviously rusty spinners – Dom Bess and Jack Leach – sufficiently well that both claimed five-wicket hauls – the first time a pair of England spinners have done this in the same Test since 1982 – and grew in confidence as the Test wore on.Root was rewarded for his faith in Buttler, Bess and Leach•SLCHe was also rewarded by keeping faith with Jos Buttler, who put in perhaps the most accomplished performance of his Test career with the gloves. This was England’s first away victory when batting second since 2016 and Root’s first as captain without his key allrounder, Ben Stokes. For one reason or another, he was without Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, James Anderson, Rory Burns, Ollie Pope and Chris Woakes, too. Whichever way you look at it, that’s a good effort.Root has now led England to victory in 24 Tests. Only Michael Vaughan, who led the side to 26 wins, has more victories as captain for England, while only Mike Brearley has a higher win percentage out of regular captains than his 53.33%.Of course, there are far fewer draws in Root’s era, meaning his loss percentage is higher too. But Brearley never captained against West Indies, the outstanding side of the age, and his Ashes results were skewed by Australia’s World Series absentees. And crucially, his batting average as captain (22.88) was less than half of Root’s (48.80).Regrettably, England’s Test captains are still judged disproportionately on their success in Ashes series, particularly away from home. As a result, Root’s legacy will be determined by events over the next 12 months, and it would take something approaching a miracle for England to win in both India and Australia.But with his boyish face and soft voice, Root can easily be underestimated. He doesn’t have the obvious authority – or World Cup-winning CV boost – of Eoin Morgan. He doesn’t have the gravitas bestowed on Brearley by his academic background, or the free-to-air platform of Vaughan. And, most of all, he doesn’t have the complete lack of expectation that accompanied previous England captains on tour.Related

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• Arthur laments Sri Lanka's first-innings batting tempo after Galle loss

But he’s a decent man, an indecently talented batsman and hugely respected by a team that see him as their natural leader and unifier. He has not only improved his team’s results, but improved their standing in the eyes of the public. In Galle, he actually raised his bat to the one England spectator on the fort when he reached his 200 and then took the time to phone him afterwards.He’s embraced the requirement to pose for every selfie, accept every interview request and ensure a team which was in a state of something approaching civil war at the start of 2014 has developed into something entertaining, likeable and generally pretty successful. And he’s accepted the sacrifice in his own returns – he averages 44.33 as captain and 52.80 when not – without complaint.Perhaps there is a lesson here. Root could doubtless have done with more preparation time coming into this game, but it is also relevant that he was fresh. Having missed out on selection for England’s T20I squad in South Africa, he came into this Test without playing competitively since September.His work ethic is admirable: at the end of the summer, he played for Yorkshire in the Blast the day after his release from the England bubble. His love for the game is charming: “I love playing cricket” is his typical answer when asked about his T20 future. But as someone already juggling the demands of fatherhood, captaincy and the pressures of being his side’s best batsman, he is a man of whom a huge amount is required.If England want to continue to get the best out of Root, he does need to be treated with the same care as Archer and Stokes seem to be. It may well make sense to officially lay his T20I career to rest and tell him he will not be required for ODI cricket again until at least the other side of the Ashes.Joe Root thrived on the sweep shot during his double-century•SLC”With the time off, the thing that’s really benefited me is having a period of time to work on my game,” he said after the Galle Test. “To have time to think about things and take stock and look where I can improve. That’s where I think I’ve benefited the most.”There will be occasions where I might have to miss out here and there. I’m desperate to play as much as I can. I love playing cricket, love playing for England and feel very privileged to get the opportunity. I suppose getting the balance right is very important. But the way I thought about things in that period of time off, I will look to replicate.”I don’t think you can ever be a finished article as a captain. I certainly don’t feel it’s the case with me. I will always look to improve and get better; I feel I am getting a better handle on things.”Captains of a previous vintage will look at the job now and wish they had central contracts in their day. And it’s true, they are a major asset. But Root has not been dealt a handful of aces by a set-up that renders it difficult to produce red-ball players and demands its best international players adhere to a schedule a Victorian factory owner might feel excessive.Don’t forget that England are likely to play 17 Tests this year, alongside a T20 World Cup and what amounts to a goodwill tour of Pakistan. Like several other sides, they have spent a large part of the last eight months in bio-bubbles that vastly inhibit the freedoms we used to take for granted. In doing so, they’ve ensured the English game – including the counties, women’s cricket and the disability sides – has been able to keep its head above water despite the storm that threatened to wash it away. There has barely been a squeak of complaint from any of them.Whatever happens over the next year, Root’s England side have provided some much-needed cheer for a land going through its bleakest period since World War 2. For that, he deserves rather more respect, rather more appreciation and, crucially, rather more nurturing than he sometimes receives.

Marseille boss Roberto De Zerbi warned an in-demand Mason Greenwood that while leaving the French giants might be simple, finding a club that offers the same platform and passion could prove far harder. The English striker’s electric debut season in Ligue 1 has turned heads across Europe, but De Zerbi is making it clear, Marseille isn’t prepared to let its crown jewel walk out the door without a fight.

De Zerbi remains adamant about Greenwood's futureMarseille reluctant to sell star strikerLigue 1 opener against Rennes loomsFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?

Greenwood’s first year at the Stade Velodrome couldn’t have been scripted better. Bagging 21 league goals, the former Manchester United man not only became a Ligue 1 sensation but also claimed a share of the coveted Golden Boot, along with Paris Saint-Germain striker Ousmane Dembele. 

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Such a form has inevitably stirred up interest, with clubs in Spain and Saudi Arabia monitoring his situation closely. In Spain, memories are still fresh of his standout spell at Getafe, where he showcased the same sharp eye for goal and creativity that has now lit up Marseille’s attack.

WHAT DE ZERBI SAID

Speaking to reporters ahead of the new season, De Zerbi underlined his desire to keep his core squad intact, name-checking Greenwood alongside key names like Leonardo Balerdi, Geronimo Rulli, Adrien Rabiot, and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg. 

"I don't think they'll leave," he said. "Keeping Balerdi, Rulli, Rabiot Hojbjerg, Greenwood is important for OM and for them. It's easy to leave Marseille but difficult to find a similar place."

DID YOU KNOW?

The prospect of losing Greenwood is one that Marseille’s hierarchy clearly dreads. A clause in the agreement that took Greenwood from Old Trafford to the south of France means United are entitled to 50 per cent of any transfer fee the Ligue 1 club might receive for him.