Fabrizio Romano: Five New Recruits To Watch In The Champions League (2023/24)
The Champions League season is ready to start again and as always there will be many stars to make the matches in Europe special at the highest level.
But there are also new talents and players to monitor, keep an eye on these five because they can be surprises for this year in the Champions League.
Johan Bakayoko
PSV Eindhoven managed to keep Johan at the club despite a record offer from Brentford right before Deadline Day.
Their offer was over €40m with a sell-on clause, but Bakayoko surprisingly turned it down as he wanted to play in the Champions League at PSV.
He's a winger of the highest level: quality, speed and super skills that can make him one of the great talents of the next Champions League.
Bradley Barcola
It took €45m plus add-ons at Paris Saint-Germain to sign Bradley from Olympique Lyon.
A negotiation started in June with Leipzig and an English club to compete, but PSG immediately found an agreement with Barcola and this is a very underrated signing in the media but which can be excellent.
Barcola is a modern winger: he attacks space, knows how to cross and score goals. His potential is still at 20%.
Orkun Kocku
An excellent move by Benfica in the summer transfer window.
The club needed a new top midfielder after the departure of Enzo Fernandez and Kocku can help in many things: he knows how to fit in attack, bring energy to the team, and he's high quality.
Kocku can become a surprise in this Champions League after doing excellent things at Feyenoord where he was an idol.
Tijani Rejinders
AC Milan have done a super job on the transfer market this year and Rejinders can be one of the surprises in Europe.
More than just a midfielder, the €20m package to sign him from AZ could be a bargain.
Tijani is extraordinary in handling the ball, his through balls are fantastic and seem perfect for launching the speed of Leao, Pulisic, Chukwueze. Keep an eye on him.
Xavi Simons
Loaned out from PSG to RB Leipzig, Xavi finally has the chance to play in the Champions League as regular starter and star of his team.
One of the best talents in the world for years became a top player at PSV Eindhoven, so PSG wanted to find a way to buy him back in every way. Remember his name di lui, could be finally his year.
Fabrizio Romano is an Italian sports journalist. He was born in 1993, he lives in Milan and has over 30 million followers in total on the major social networks.
He collaborates with 888sport, CBS Sports, Sky Sport, The Guardian and has been a transfer market expert since 2011. He will take care of a column dedicated to some "Behind the Scenes" of transfers.
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Fastest NFL Player - Who Is The Fastest Player In NFL History?
We have compiled a list of the fastest players in NFL history.
Speed is important in most sports – none more so than the NFL.
Who is the fastest NFL player in 2024?
Being the fastest NFL player doesn’t guarantee a successful career.
*Odds subject to change. Max stakes applies. T&C apply.
Plenty of speedsters are cut from NFL rosters every year, and others are limited to special teams or backup duties.
Fastest Players In The NFL (2024)
D.K. Metcalf – 22.2mph
Chase Brown – 22.1mph
Tyreek Hill – 22mph
De’Von Achane – 21.9mph
KaVontae Turpin – 21.9mph
Derrick Henry – 21.7mph
Raheem Mostert – 21.6mph
Kenneth Walker – 21.6mph
George Pickens – 21.5mph
Ja’Marr Chase – 21.5mph
For others, though, pure pace is a huge part of what makes them effective. It can help wide receivers to get separation, and enable running backs to dart away from potential tackles.
On the other side of the ball, safeties, linebackers and corners can all benefit from a bit of pace. Here are the fastest NFL players since the start of the 2022 season, according to Next Gen Stats…
D.K. Metcalf
It wasn’t D.K. Metcalf’s best season amid a disappointing campaign for the Seattle Seahawks. Metcalf was held to just two touchdowns in the first 11 weeks of the season, but he bounced back with four over Weeks 12 and 13.
It was the second of those weeks that saw Metcalf set the fastest time of the 2023 season. Receiving a pass from Geno Smith, Metcalf disappeared downfield for a 73-yard touchdown reception. The Seahawks went on to lose the game to the San Francisco 49ers.
Chase Brown
With no starts and just 335 total yards, it’s fair to say Chase Brown isn’t the biggest name on the Bengals offence. A backup running back selected in the fifth round last season, Brown was no more than a depth piece for Cincy.
Still, he showcased his elite speed with a 22.1mph mark against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 14. He had just one drop on 15 targets – could we see the Bengals incorporate Brown into their passing game more in 2024?
Tyreek Hill
Tyreek Hill is arguably the most impactful non-quarterback when it comes to making NFL predictions. The fortunes of the Miami Dolphins have changed partly because of Hill’s arrival, and his presence certainly helped Tua Tagovailoa’s MVP case last season.
Hill has three of the top nine speeds in 2023, which is hardly unusual. His quickest came on a reception in Week 5. While he’s 0.2mph behind Metcalf, few would argue that Hill is still the fastest player in the league and among the fastest in NFL history.
De’Von Achane
If having Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle wasn’t enough, the Miami Dolphins also possessed electric speed at running back in De’Von Achane. The rookie ended up just three yards shy of a 1,000-yard campaign, and finished with 11 total touchdowns.
Like Hill, Achane hit some high speeds back in Week 5, but it was actually Week 3 when he got to 21.9mph. A 67-yard rushing touchdown was just shy of the 20mph mark, and gives the former Texas A&M running back the highest rushing speed in the NFL.
KaVontae Turpin
Despite having just 11 total rushes in the 2023 regular season, KaVontae Turpin still posted the second-fastest rush. He was only a slither slower than Achane.
Turpin had zero carries in the two weeks prior, but still managed to get 22 yards on his one rush in Week 14 against the Philadelphia Eagles. Topping out at almost 22mph, the return specialist earned his place alongside the NFL’s elite speedsters.
Derrick Henry
He might still be one of the fastest players in the league, but that wasn’t enough to place Derrick Henry among the highest paid NFL players this offseason. Instead, King Henry is teaming up with reigning MVP Lamar Jackson in Baltimore.
We won’t see Henry among the NFL betting favourites for MVP next season. We might, however, see him have his best shot yet at winning a ring. A four-time Pro Bowler coming off his fifth season with 1,000+ rushing yards, all eyes will be on a dynamic backfield tandem in Baltimore.
Raheem Mostert
Earning his first Pro Bowl nod after leading the NFL with 21 total touchdowns, Raheem Mostert joins multiple Dolphins teammates on this list.
It goes to show just how much firepower Miami had at their disposal in 2023 – Mostert had almost 1,200 scrimmage yards, including 67.5 on the ground per game.
It was back in Week 2 that the former Niner recorded a 43-yard rushing touchdown with a 21.6mph top speed. Given his workload, it’s not a surprise that his highest speed came early in the season.
Kenneth Walker
After finishing as runner-up for Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2022, Kenneth Walker’s 2023 was underwhelming. His raw speed is still there, but his yards per rush dropped from 4.6 to 4.1 and he posted fewer total yards despite starting four more games.
It’s the end of an era with Seattle as Pete Carroll’s head coaching stint comes to an end. In a period of transition, there remains hope that Walker can be a foundational piece through the rest of this decade.
George Pickens
Poor quarterback play has placed a firm ceiling on George Pickens thus far. Pickens still had the highest yards per reception mark in the NFL in 2023, though, and the upside remains for the Steelers’ young wideout.
His yards per game, yards per target and total yardage all increased markedly. Keep an eye on Pickens next season – he could quickly become recognised among the league’s best receivers.
Ja’Marr Chase
Even with Joe Burrow missing time, Ja’Marr Chase still posted Pro Bowl-worthy numbers. Chase had 1,216 receiving yards, but a career-low seven touchdowns.
One of those scores came in Week 5 with a 63-yard reception. Chase was a way off his overall numbers from his rookie season, but look out for a big campaign in 2024, particularly if Tee Higgins’ trade request is successful.
Athleticism is always an important sports betting factor.
It is reductive to boil the NFL down to pure speed and strength, but having one of the fastest players in the NFL keeps defences honest in a way that less explosive receivers cannot.
We have put together a list of 10 of the fastest players in NFL history. There’s a mix of past icons, active stars and players who only briefly dabbled in American football.
Bob Hayes
There’s a strong case for Bob Hayes as the fastest NFL player ever.
Just before his NFL career began in 1965, Hayes entered the 1964 summer Olympics in Tokyo. He not only won the men’s 100 metres, he did so with a world record time of just over 10 seconds.
A second gold followed in the relay. Hayes was part of a quartet which, once again, set a world record. The next year, he was on the Dallas Cowboys, who he remained with through to 1974 before spending time with the San Francisco 49ers in 1975.
Hayes’ career on the gridiron was every bit as impressive as his Olympic glory. A three-time Pro Bowler, the Cowboys star was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2009.
Bo Jackson
How many sportspeople can come close to Bo Jackson in sheer athleticism?
He was an impressive NFL player and made it to Major League Baseball. For good measure, Jackson posted a record 40-yard dash time at the NFL combine.
Standing at 6'1" and 227 lbs, Jackson was an unstoppable force on the football field. He played just four NFL seasons, however, scoring 16 touchdowns and averaging 5.4 yards per carry.
Jackson’s physical attributes went far beyond his electric speed, but his acceleration, paired with that size and strength, is what made him such a difficult player to tackle.
Tyreek Hill
One of the stars of Patrick Mahomes’ Chiefs offence, Tyreek Hill is well deserving of his ‘Cheetah’ nickname.
The five-time Pro Bowler is the fastest active NFL player. The Chiefs use Hill in a variety of ways, but some of his greatest highlights are the simplest play in the game: the punt return.
Hill’s combination of acceleration and nimble footwork makes him a nightmare for even the best defensive backs.
Michael Vick
Seventh all-time for rushing touchdowns as a quarterback, Michael Vick was the poster boy for dual-threat quarterbacks. He was every bit as dangerous running the ball as he was passing it.
Until Lamar Jackson, Vick was the only quarterback in history to rush for more than 1,000 yards in a season. He’s the all-time leader in QB rushing yards with over 6,000.
While he became a more accomplished pocket passer later in his career, Vick’s trademark was always his powerful running game.
Lamar Jackson
Lamar Jackson owns the three top seasons for quarterback rushing attempts and two of the top three for rushing yards in a season.
The Baltimore Ravens QB earned MVP honours a couple of years ago and his exhilarating burst of speed was a key factor.
There are questions about Jackson’s all-round performance as a quarterback. His Ravens are yet to prove they deserve to be considered serious Super Bowl challengers in our NFL expert picks, but Jackson’s athleticism is without question.
Randy Moss
Randy Moss is the gold standard for NFL wide receivers. One of the best offensive players ever, Moss’ performances are what so many British NFL players aspire to.
Moss owns an impressive catalogue of NFL records. His blistering speed made him an impossible player to defend at his peak – his 23 receiving touchdowns in a season is the most all-time.
John Capel
Seeing as he never actually made it to an NFL game, this is a bit of a dodgy selection. John Capel was on the books of both the Chicago Bears and Kansas City Chiefs, however.
Capel tested positive for marijuana at the 2001 NFL combine, but was still selected by the Bears in the seventh round of the draft.
While he never broke through in the NFL, Capel’s speed is without doubt – he won gold in the men’s 200 metres at the 2003 World Championships and followed it with a gold in the 4 x 100 metre relay at the same event.
Darrell Green
Raw speed tends to result in a position on offence. Darrell Green is probably the fastest defensive player in NFL history.
Green played for the Washington Redskins (now Washington Football Team) from 1983 until 2002, remaining an effective cornerback into his forties.
He aged like a fine wine with many of his peers recognising his longevity – he’s considered one of the greatest defensive backs of all-time.
Even some of the fastest receivers ever could get away from Green. He reportedly recorded a 4.09 40-yard dash time at Washington training camp in 1986.
Willie Gault
Willie Gault was a Super Bowl champion with the Chicago Bears. He would likely have followed in Bob Hayes’ footsteps and picked up an Olympic gold on the relay team too if the USA team hadn’t boycotted the 1980 Olympics.
Also a hurdler, Gault played 11 NFL seasons for over 6,600 yards. He scored 45 touchdowns throughout his NFL career, including one kickoff return.
Ron Brown
Yet another sprinter turned receiver, Ron Brown’s NFL career was unspectacular, but there’s no question he’s one of the fastest NFL players in history.
Brown won a gold in the 1984 Olympics, running the second leg in the relay. He finished fourth in the 100 metres in the same Olympics – he registered just 1,791 yards across his eight year career with the LA Rams and LA Raiders.
*Credit for the photos in this article belongs to AP Photo*
Sam is a sports tipster, specialising in the Premier League and Champions League.
He covers most sports, including cricket and Formula One. Sam particularly enjoys those on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean – notably MLB and NBA.
Watching, writing and talking about sports betting takes up most of his time, whether that is for a day out at T20 Finals Day or a long night of basketball.
Having been writing for several years, Sam has been working with 888Sport since 2016, contributing multiple articles per week to the blog.
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Snooker World Rankings - Who Are The Top 10 Snooker Players?
The snooker world rankings give us a picture of the best players in the world at a given time.
While these are generally a good judge of how players have performed recently, they do not always tell us who will be the snooker betting favourite for a match or tournament.
World rankings take a given period of time and put players in order based on their results. It is perhaps best to view this as a way of evaluating player form rather than their overall quality.
These rankings are used to determine seeding and qualification for tournaments on the World Snooker Tour. The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association oversee the rankings.
Getting the most snooker prize money might be the aim for some, but the pinnacle (outside of lifting a trophy) is to reach the status of number one player in the world.
World Snooker Rankings History
Snooker world rankings were introduced for the 1976-77 season. Prior to the rankings, seeding for tournaments was much more straight forward.
The winner and runner-up of the World Championship were awarded the one and two seed for the following season’s competition.
This became an insufficient system in the 1970s. More players and more tournaments created further variables and required a more complex means to seed players.
It began as an overly simplistic judgement on a player’s last three World Championship efforts, but this soon evolved through necessity.
By the early 1980s, other tournaments became relevant to a player’s world ranking. This started with the Professional Players Tournament and International Open before the Classic carried ranking points in 1983.
The UK Championship and British Open achieved ranking status ahead of the 1984-85 campaign.
This new system was only revised after the World Championship each year, and only took into account the performances in the last two seasons.
What started being used in the 80s was pretty much maintained until 2009. Updates became more frequent at this point to give a greater indication of form rather than an annual outlook.
How Are The Snooker World Rankings Calculated?
Up until 2014-15, the snooker world rankings were calculated using a points-based system. This evolved over the decades, having initially started as allocating points depending on where a player finished in the tournament.
As snooker grew in popularity and the number of players competing in ranking events grew, they had to devise various tiebreakers using frame and merit points.
Even as new events carried ranking status, the World Championship always had the highest points tariff. The UK Championship had the second-highest points tariff.
When more events became recognised under the ranking system, there was more variation in the number of ranking points on offer.
It all changed in 2014-15. The ranking point system was replaced by a prize money list. Prize money earnings in ranking events contribute to a players ranking – this is how rankings have been worked out since 2014.
Not all prize money counts towards the rankings, however. Prize money won at invitational events like the Champion of Champions is not relevant to the rankings. The same goes for high break and maximum break prizes.
The Coral series events and Shoot Out first round losers’ prize money does not impact the rankings, and seeded losers at major tournaments (including the World Championship) fall into the same category.
Since rolling rankings were introduced for 2010-11, players can fall down the rankings despite a strong performance. Covering a two-year time span, a player could fall in the rankings if they are runner-up at an event that they won two years ago.
World Snooker Rankings TODAY:
Ronnie O’Sullivan might have fallen at the quarterfinals of the 2023 World Championships, but The Rocket is still atop the snooker world rankings.
A perennial online betting favourite for the biggest events, O’Sullivan has been ranked number one at the start of eight separate seasons, but never more than twice in a row.
Since the rolling format was introduced, Mark Selby holds by far the record for the most days at the top of the rankings, and for the most successive days.
Selby, however, is down in fifth in the world rankings today after losing the World Championship final to Brecel, who places second in the world.
Mark Allen is at a career-high number three in the world with £837,500 in earnings to his name. Allen defeated world number four Judd Trump in the final of the 2023 World Grand Prix.
As of 18th September 2023, these are the top 30 players in the snooker world rankings…
Snooker World Rankings:
Ronnie O’Sullivan - £883,000
Luca Brecel - £878,000
Mark Allen - £837,500
Judd Trump - £586,000
Mark Selby - £564,000
Neil Robertson - £542,000
Shaun Murphy - £480,000
Kyren Wilson - £435,000
John Higgins – £409,000
Mark Williams - £316,500
Ali Carter - £296,000
Robert Milkins - £294,500
Barry Hawkins - £284,500
Jack Lisowski - £282,000
Ding Junhui - £243,500
Ryan Day - £238,500
Hossein Vafaei - £237,000
Gary Wilson - £215,000
Anthony McGill - £219,000
Ricky Walden - £188,500
Tom Ford - £188,500
Stuart Bingham - £186,000
Noppon Saengkham - £176,000
Joe Perry - £170,500
David Gilbert - £170,000
Chris Wakelin - £165,000
Zhou Yuelong - £165,000
Jimmy Robertson - £160,500
Matthew Selt - £144,500
Si Jiahui - £143,500
Best Snooker Players
A quick look at Ronnie O’Sullivan net worth will show he’s the wealthiest snooker player around and the Rocket remains among the best players in the world.
O’Sullivan, regardless of form, is usually the favourite to win any major tournament even as he enters the twilight stage of his career.
Mark Selby is always there or thereabouts, though the Jester from Leicester missed out on another world title in 2023. Luca Brecel, one of the sport’s ascendant stars, got the better of Selby at the Crucible, claiming his fourth ranking title.
Former world number one Judd Trump remains among the best snooker players in the world. Trump has the second-most days at world number one since the rolling format was introduced, but he’s lost his last three ranking finals.
With 483 days at world number one to his name since 2010, Neil Robertson is fifth in the world. The Aussie is yet to reach a ranking final in 2023, however.
*Credit for the photos in this article belongs to AP Photo*
Sam is a sports tipster, specialising in the Premier League and Champions League.
He covers most sports, including cricket and Formula One. Sam particularly enjoys those on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean – notably MLB and NBA.
Watching, writing and talking about sports betting takes up most of his time, whether that is for a day out at T20 Finals Day or a long night of basketball.
Having been writing for several years, Sam has been working with 888Sport since 2016, contributing multiple articles per week to the blog.
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England Cricket Captains – Who Is The Greatest England Captain?
England have had 81 Test cricket captains
Ben Stokes is the current England Test captain and he is quickly becoming one of the most successful
Alastair Cook captained England in the most Test matches
Where captaincy is more about the honour than the job role in rugby and football, being named captain in cricket is a much greater responsibility.
The skipper is not only an on-field leader, they are a tactician tasked with making decisions on reviews, bowling changes, field settings and declarations.
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The quality of a captain is a factor to evaluate when it comes to cricket betting. They are able to instil a team-wide identity while pulling the strings in the field.
Of course, the quality of the players still matters if you’re deciding on cricket betting tips, but there’s a reason the most successful England captains are so fondly remembered.
Past England Cricket Captains:
James Lillywhite was the first England Test captain. Lillywhite led England in two Tests against Australia in the 1870s, and a string of others tried their hand at captaincy over the following years.
The first widely recognised name to skipper England was W G Grace, who captained 13 Tests with eight victories at the end of the 19th century.
Andrew Stoddart, Archie MacLaren, Johnny Douglas and C B Fry were among numerous England captains in the early years of the 20th century.
Douglas Jardine, infamous for the Bodyline series, captained England for 15 Tests, winning nine of them. Jardine is one of the most famous names in the history of English cricket, and a pivotal figure in the Ashes rivalry.
A few years after Jardine, one of the greatest England cricketers took the captaincy. Wally Hammond’s success as a run scorer didn’t translate to leadership, unfortunately.
Norman Yardley and Freddie Brown had substantial stints as skipper after Hammond. The next iconic figure to lead the nation, though, was Len Hutton in the 1950s.
Soon after Hutton, Peter May took over. May led England to 20 Test wins during his stint, a record which made him England’s most successful captain until the 21st century.
Colin Cowdrey and Ted Dexter held the responsibility for much of the 1960s. Test wins were rare, however, and England struggled to regularly win matches under the leadership of Ray Illingworth, Mike Denness, and Tony Greig.
It all changed when Mike Brearley was in charge. Brearley was a masterful motivator, leading England to Ashes triumphs and getting the best out of their stars.
Ian Botham had an ill-fated spell, and Bob Willis tried to mix the challenges of fast bowling and captaincy.
David Gower, Mike Gatting and Graham Gooch all endured substantial stints, but England were not a force, and the pressure of captaincy was not rewarded with victories.
Alec Stewart, Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain guided England through the challenging 1990s and early noughties. Hussain set the bedrock for the glory Michael Vaughan enjoyed in the first part of the 21st century.
Controversy and headlines aplenty, Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff found captaincy wasn’t for them. Andrew Strauss had a long and brilliant tenure as England skipper before handing over to his opening batting partner, Alastair Cook.
Cook was succeeded by Joe Root, who endured a challenging time as captain with priorities placed elsewhere.
Root set the record for Tests as England captain, but faced widespread criticism throughout his tenure. In early 2022, he stepped down, and was replaced by his close friend, Ben Stokes.
Appointed as part of an overhaul of the Test setup with Brendon McCullum becoming coach, Stokes oversaw an immediate change in England’s attitude to the five-day game.
Rolling off wins at home before a spectacular series victory in Pakistan, the Bazball revolution reengaged fans with Test cricket, leading to an enthralling 2023 Ashes.
Most Successful England Cricket Captains:
England’s most successful Test captains by wins all played in the 21st century. This is mainly down to the increased number of matches per year.
Joe Root leads the way with 27 wins, just ahead of fellow Yorkshireman Michael Vaughan.
Root, though, needed 13 more Tests for that additional victory, and lost 26 of his 64 matches in charge compared with 11 of 51 for Vaughan. Where Vaughan led the majestic 2005 Ashes win, his team fell apart soon after.
It is Andrew Strauss, with 24 wins in 50 Tests, who will generally be regarded as England’s most successful captain of the 21st century. They won in Australia, they conquered all before them, on their way to the number one spot in the world rankings.
Mike Brearley and Peter May registered the most wins in the 20th century. Brearley is perhaps remembered as England’s best pure captain, a man who could get the best out of Ian Botham and take on the Australians.
It would be unfair to miss Douglas Jardine off this section, too. Jardine’s Bodyline might not have been popular, but it helped England register a 4-1 win down under, a feat not many captains can rival.
Of course, Ben Stokes is already one of England’s most impactful captains. He’s won 13 of his first 19 Tests, matching Mike Atherton’s win total in 35 fewer matches.
Current England Cricket Captains:
Ben Stokes is the current England Test captain, having replaced Joe Root before the 2022 summer. Harry Brook was announced as England's white-ball captain in April 2025.
The duties of England captaincy have been split for almost a decade. Jos Buttler succeeded Eoin Morgan as England’s white-ball skipper in 2022 – during his first year in charge, Buttler led England to T20 World Cup glory in Australia.
After disappointing showings at the 2023 World Cup and 2025 Champions Trophy, Buttler stepped down as England's white-ball captain.
England One Day Cricket Captains:
There have been 36 different England One-Day International captains. 11 different men have led the England T20 side, with two players (James Tredwell, Alastair Cook) skippering the T20 side for one match apiece.
Morgan is by far the most successful in both formats. His 76 wins in 126 ODIs is far clear of everyone else – no other England ODI captain has won more than 36 matches. He won 42 of his 72 matches as T20 skipper, with Paul Collingwood ranking a distant second on 17 wins.
Collingwood did, however, guide England to their maiden T20 World Cup win, a feat which was repeated by Buttler in 2022.
*Credit for the main photo belongs to Tom Hevezi / AP Photo*
Sam is a sports tipster, specialising in the Premier League and Champions League.
He covers most sports, including cricket and Formula One. Sam particularly enjoys those on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean – notably MLB and NBA.
Watching, writing and talking about sports betting takes up most of his time, whether that is for a day out at T20 Finals Day or a long night of basketball.
Having been writing for several years, Sam has been working with 888Sport since 2016, contributing multiple articles per week to the blog.
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Jason Bell NFL Blog: Rodgers' Injury Gives Wilson A Big Chance To Prove Himself
Former cornerback and 888sport ambassador Jason Bell provides his thoughts on the biggest stories and news from the National Football League throughout the 2023 NFL season...
Jets Season Far From Over Despite Rodgers Injury
Aaron Rodgers is a huge loss to the Jets, but I don’t think for one minute it means their season is over. However, I’m not in that locker room and it will be so interesting to see how they react to the news.
This is a team with a great defence and it’s their job to step up and take over. They are coached by a defensive-minded person and so that has been their mantra, but when someone like Rodgers comes in, he takes up all the attention.
He’s out now, so they’ve got to go back to what they were before – a defence-first team – and their season will be dictated by how quickly they can adjust to that.
If they can show they haven’t lost their identity, I think they’ll be fine. This is a good team and they just need to show it.
Wilson Needs To Prove Why He Was Second Overall Pick
Of course Zach Wilson is a downgrade on Aaron Rodgers but that’s only because Rodgers is a hall of famer and there aren’t many of those around.
Let’s not forget Wilson was the number two draft pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, so plenty of people thought this guy was super talented.
Yes, he probably hasn’t fully demonstrated that potential yet, but Rodgers’ injury could easily be a blessing in disguise.
He’s had time to be around him and see how he prepares, so there’s every chance Wilson can use that to realise his full potential. If it does the trick, the Jets have got a serious talent on their hands.
Rodgers Will Be Back
As long as his rehab goes well, I’m sure Aaron Rodgers will be back. He’s not the sort of guy who will let something like this dictate his career and I don’t think he’ll want to let his career finish on an injury.
I’m sure his rehab will go to plan and I fully expect him to be back and raring to go this time next year.
Kelce A Big Loss And One The Chiefs Need To Work Around
The Chiefs are going to miss Travis Kelce, that was never going to be in doubt.
What was open to debate was how that receiving corps was going to do without him and, based on what we saw against the Lions, they are going to struggle.
They have the talent to step up and – let’s not forget – this is an offence led by Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid, so it wasn’t surprising that they got as close as they did, despite the fact they kept dropping the ball.
A loss this early is no reason to push the panic button, but these players need to take ownership and show they can do it without Kelce.
I quite often found that sort of performance was a really good motivator and we often played much better the next week as a result.
Can they win the Super Bowl without Kelce? I’m not sure, to be honest, because there are certain players, like Kelce, which are just irreplicable and you might have a seriously potent offence but, whatever you do, it just doesn’t have the same effect as one with a guy like Kelce on it.
Whatever way you look at it, they need him back and quickly.
Dallas Have A Chance
I know we say it almost every year, but the Cowboys do have a chance this season if they can put it all together. And, based on that dominant win over the Giants, they might just be able to finally do it.
They have enough talent on their roster and their defence is seriously good with the likes of Micah Parsons, so there is a real opportunity there.
We’ll see what Mike McCarthy does, but if the defence is dominating then he’s going to call the plays on offence predicated on making it easier on the defence playing balanced football.
Former NFL star Jason Bell has a wealth of American football experience, playing in 82 regular season games during his time in the league.
Now making regular television appearances at NFL events in the UK, Bell is one of the best pundits on this side of the Atlantic Ocean.
The former Houston Texans cornerback will provide his expert insight into the latest news and upcoming games throughout the 2023 NFL season.
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Football Myths: There Are No Easy Games In The Premier League
It is often said that the Premier League is the most competitive league in the world and what is especially irritating about this fallacy is the certainty in which it is stated.
It’s as if a comprehensive and incredibly complicated study has been conducted at some point in time, one that oddly received no media coverage at all. A study that concluded beyond all reasonable doubt that the Premier League is the most competitive league in the world.
If this silly inaccuracy exasperates however, it is nothing to its cousin, that sometimes is used in its place.
Just looking at it there on the page boils the blood, but at least this axiom stands up, even if it is pithy and annoying.
Any team can beat anybody in the Premier League because - hold the front page- football is a sport.
But back to the misnomer that the English top-flight is without whipping boys, and moreover is a veritable level playing field compared to its European counterparts.
Last season, Barcelona won La Liga at a canter, racking up 88 points all told. But they were still undone at Almeria and Valladolid on route, teams that finished in the bottom four, picking up seven points less than Blaugrana combined.
The season before, it was Real Madrid who stormed to the title, winning it with several games to spare. Yet they were held both home and away by Cadiz, a side that twice upended the football odds despite avoiding relegation on the final day.
The 2023/24 Serie A campaign meanwhile is just a mere couple of weeks old and already newly promoted Genoa and Frosinone have beaten Lazio and Atalanta respectively.
Similar examples exist in France and Germany, just as they do in England and that’s because sport will always throw up the occasional surprise outcome.
To extend on that though, and suggest that the Premier League is a robust, healthy chain of clubs minus any weakest links is little short of ludicrous.
Take last year’s patsies Southampton, who only managed to beat teams in the lower half of the league all term as they plummeted to the Championship.
Champions Manchester City had no trouble dispensing with them twice-over and both times handsomely too, and they weren’t alone either. By the end of a sorrowful season, the Saints conceded 3+ goals on 13 occasions.
Indeed, in the past decade the scorelines read as follows: 4-0, 4-1, 5-0, 4-0, 1-0, 1-0, 4-1, 1-0, 6-1, 3-0, 3-2, 3-0, 1-0, 5-1, 3-2, 1-1, 2-1, 1-0, 2-3, 4-2.
That’s 18 wins, one draw and one loss. To save you from counting, that’s an aggregate scoreline of 58-15.
And now we have Luton Town, another easy game for the big boys to routinely pick up three points from. If you think that’s somewhat unfair incidentally then consider backing the Hatters in the online betting the next time they encounter top six opposition. We double-dare you.
The sad truth is that the division in the division is widening all the time, with the rich and powerful getting more and more rich and powerful, and the rest increasingly making up the numbers and to illustrate this we only need look at the points gap between the top two and the bottom three down the years. It’s nigh-on doubled since 1992.
There are the haves and the have-nots and yes, this inevitably results in easy games.
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to AP Photo*
Stephen Tudor is a freelance football writer and sports enthusiast who only knows slightly less about the beautiful game than you do.
A contributor to FourFourTwo and Forbes, he is a Manchester City fan who was taken to Maine Road as a child because his grandad predicted they would one day be good.
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Fabrizio Romano: Xavi Agrees New Barcelona Deal
Xavi Hernandez and Barcelona, together again. The new contract is ready for the Spanish manager who won the La Liga last season, a verbal pact that will soon become official documents and club statements for Xavi with a new deal valid until June 2025.
The verbal agreement was sealed a few weeks ago, with Xavi showing immense patience and great intelligence waiting for the club to formalize the new deal for Financial Fair Play reasons.
Barça have invested the space left with the Liga for FFP in new signings by supporting Xavi with players like Joao Cancelo strongly wanted by the manager, but now with the transfer window closed it will be time to sign the deal with Xavi for one more season, as current deal expires in June 2024.
The club's decision has been very clear since last March: Joan Laporta wanted Xavi as new manager when Ronald Koeman had already concluded his experience at Barça and protected him for months, even in the most difficult moments after the elimination from last year's Champions League at the group stage.
With the excellent performances in La Liga, the club's decision was to proceed with negotiations with Xavi as early as March and reach an agreement as soon as possible to coordinate the summer transfer market with the manager.
The ideas are in the same direction. Barcelona believe that the team must play with offensive DNA, quality in power, a team capable of attacking and entertaining its fans like in the best times of the first Laporta management.
This is why Xavi has always been approved within the club, despite a major change with Mateu Alemany leaving his position as director and Deco who will have the power to make the most important decisions for Barça's future.
Xavi and Barcelona continue together but always with the club's demands for excellent results: winning is crucial for Barça, maximum support for Xavi but the need for results to proceed with a project that Laporta wants to be successful at all costs.
The signatures will arrive soon, a matter of days and Xavi Hernandez will be officially linked to Barça until June 30, 2025.
Fabrizio Romano is an Italian sports journalist. He was born in 1993, he lives in Milan and has over 30 million followers in total on the major social networks.
He collaborates with 888sport, CBS Sports, Sky Sport, The Guardian and has been a transfer market expert since 2011. He will take care of a column dedicated to some "Behind the Scenes" of transfers.
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Is Football's Spending Getting Out Of All Control?
Nobody really mentions football’s financial bubble anymore, and the apocalyptic possibility of it bursting, and this surprises given how much it used to preoccupy the realists.
As the game’s spending escalated in recent years to ever-more ludicrous heights, articles would appear with increasing regularly, each detailing the worst case scenario that potentially lay in store, and this was especially pertinent around this time of year, just post the summer transfer window.
Only this time out, there has been very little hand-wringing, or at least it requires a comprehensive googling to find it.
There has been a scant number of two-thousand word think-pieces that amount to metaphorical placards declaring that the end is nigh. There have been hardly any experts insisting that if the Premier League carries on over-extending there is a very real danger of a big bang.
All told, the radio silence has been a little odd.
Odd and genuinely disconcerting too, because really there are only two explanations for the complicit acceptance, the first of them being hardly plausible at all, that some of the sharpest, brightest minds around have arrived at a different conclusion to what they previously thought to be true.
On further reflection they now believe that the exorbitantly rewarding TV deals, and the colossal revenues brought in from various profitable streams are sufficient to sustain wild spending and wage-bills that make your eyes water.
More conceivable than this, however, it is because those who repeatedly sought to warn football of the inherent jeopardy in throwing countless fortunes at a wall and hoping some of it stuck, simply got tired of not being listened to.
They have given up and chosen to walk away, to view the inevitable implosion from a safe distance. In that respect, what we’re living through now is the calm before an approaching storm.
This summer, according to Deloitte, Premier League clubs spent a combined total of £2.36 billion on transfer fees, surpassing last year’s figure by £368m.
It is a stupendous figure, one that is hard to make sense of, and that’s the case even when we acknowledge the astonishing numbers coming the other way, from domestic and international broadcasting deals that run until 2025 and add up to £4.96 billion and £5.04 billion respectively.
Factor in also the not inconsiderable caveat of net spend - a bigger consideration than ever this summer due to the greater number of internal transfers that have taken place and the fortunes pouring in from Saudi Arabia, for players past their prime and on huge wages, purchased for over market value - and this summer’s outlay is perhaps not such a harbinger of doom after all.
It’s all going to be okay, right?
Perhaps, but take Chelsea, and their jaw-dropping spending since Todd Boehly took the reins, an expenditure that exceeds £1 billion across three transfer windows.
With each player tied down to atypically long contracts, what is essentially occurring at Stamford Bridge is a high-risk, unprecedented experiment that could have a profoundly devastating impact on a constant fixture among the favourites in the football odds. A five-time Premier League winner, no less.
Here is a revenue-making monster and global behemoth who on transfer deadline day were reduced to scrabbling about, making loan deals for a long-standing target in Sofyan Amrabat and Tottenham’s third-choice full-back.
Hamstrung by FFP and deep in hock, at what point will it be suggested that the Glazers must go so that the club can survive, never mind thrive?
Then there’s Bournemouth, little but ambitious Bournemouth.
Benefiting from new ownership and determined to finance a new direction under incoming boss Andoni Iraola, the Cherries found themselves this summer the victims of an unavoidable trickle-down effect as the top-end of the market unmoored itself from reality once again.
A perfectly ordinary rebuild therefore, bringing in live betting disruptors Hamed Traore and Alex Scott, along with sensible recruits such as Max Aarons, cost the South Coast club £109.9m. That’s very nearly a full third of what La Liga spent in its entirety.
The huge disparity between what the Premier League brings in compared to the rest of Europe mostly explains for that, this summer seeing the English top-flight investing within their means more than the next three biggest spending leagues on the continent combined.
Yet simply put, if the vast fortunes pouring in takes care of expenditure - which in itself is a fallacy, as the TV deals are a set amount, whereas club spending continues to rise out of control on an annual basis - and revenue takes care of the wage-bills - which again, it actually doesn’t, for some clubs equating to well over 100% of its turnover - then even these two delusions don’t take into account rapacious owners making awful decisions.
And it only takes one giant to fall for the rest to suffer terribly. For evidence of that, we only need look at Bournemouth’s worrying net spend in 2023, a direct result of Chelsea and its ilk inflating the market.
It is all too easy, in short, for the house of cards to fall.
Those who have beaten this drum for a good while now have gone awfully quiet of late. As stated, nobody really mentions football’s bubble anymore, nor the risk of it bursting.
That eerie silence should worry us immensely.
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to AP Photo*
Stephen Tudor is a freelance football writer and sports enthusiast who only knows slightly less about the beautiful game than you do.
A contributor to FourFourTwo and Forbes, he is a Manchester City fan who was taken to Maine Road as a child because his grandad predicted they would one day be good.
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Is It Too Early To Call Crisis On Manchester United's Season?
Singling a club out just a few games into a season and deeming them to be in the first flushes of a crisis is an inaccurate science.
Last year it was Chelsea who the vultures circled over, despite the Blues going into September’s international break in fifth, a position that hardly screamed disaster.
Yet on that occasion the journalists with the especially sharpened pens were proven right, as Thomas Tuchel was sacked and all the problems highlighted in print and on programmes such as Monday Night Football only exasperated thereafter.
Twelve months prior to that however, the doom-mongers got it hopelessly wrong with Arsenal enduring a pile-on after losing their opening three matches.
Until a very late collapse, the Gunners were short-priced in the Champions League betting for almost all of 2021/22, a campaign that heralded a renaissance under Mikel Arteta.
And this time out? By rights it should be Chelsea again, as they flail about in search of an identity, or perhaps Newcastle, who have won only one of their first four.
A club with momentous intentions, it already feels like the best the Magpies can hope for is to feature in the Europa League odds next term.
Chelsea though have been spared, largely because the media don’t like to repeat themselves. As for Eddie Howe’s men, maybe expectations of them are not so heightened at this early juncture of their journey.
Which leaves us with a classic of the genre, that it is Manchester United currently in peril and even if you’ve heard this story before a thousand times over, it always sells.
If the narrative makes sense though, with the Reds languishing in 11th and seriously disappointing to date, what of the substance? Are Erik Ten Hag’s side really in trouble, or is this simply an initial blip, like Arsenal’s was in 2021?
As pertinently, are we witnessing a time honoured trick of the press, that of building up a manager and his impact on arrival, only to knock him back down at the first sign of struggle?
Certainly the performances to this point have been flat and uninspiring, that cannot be disputed.
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An opening-day win over Wolves felt like a smash-and-grab, as United somehow negotiated a remarkable 23 shots on their goal, while a second home victory at Nottingham Forest’s expense required the kind of comeback that used to paper over the cracks during Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s reign.
Elsewhere, two moribund losses in North London extends Ten Hag’s terrible away record against the top six, and at the heart of these defeats was a malfunctioning midfield, labouring and out of sorts.
With Martinez and Varane injured, United finished at the Emirates with Jonny Evans and Harry Maguire at the back and absolutely no good can come from that, but most disconcerting of all has been the lack of form shown by their attacking roster.
Garnacho has been all-but-anonymous. Antony continues to make his enormous fee look like an ill-considered over-spend.
Lastly, it wouldn’t be a crisis of any meaning without a player breaking ranks and distancing themselves from it so step forward Jadon Sancho whose social media posts claiming he has been scapegoated served only to reflect badly on him while burdening the club with further complications.
It is all frankly somewhat of a mess and is hardly the start United supporters envisioned after an encouraging first twelve months of what was painted as a new era.
Is it a full-blown crisis though? What transpires after the break will tell us everything.
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to AP Photo*
Stephen Tudor is a freelance football writer and sports enthusiast who only knows slightly less about the beautiful game than you do.
A contributor to FourFourTwo and Forbes, he is a Manchester City fan who was taken to Maine Road as a child because his grandad predicted they would one day be good.
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Fabrizio Romano: Difficult Times Continue For Barcelona
It hasn't been an easy summer for Barcelona. There were many problems with Financial Fair Play, an obstacle that has often blocked the club due to an economic situation that is anything but stable.
Each new signing must be weighed with a calculator, with maximum attention to the budget and no excesses because the situation with La Liga continues to be tense. Summer 2023 for Barça began with the disappointment of Leo Messi's non-return: both parties tried in every way to find a solution but it was not possible to proceed.
But in the end Barça's summer was very good: new high-level signings for very limited costs in terms of transfers, however excluding salaries and commissions which remain high.
This is the only possibility for Barcelona with the current financial situation, to invest more in long-term salaries than in transfer costs because in that case it is very difficult to complete top signings.
Barça started their summer with Inigo Martinez on free transfer from Athletic Bilbao, a deal prepared since February which will allow Xavi Hernandez to have one more experienced center back.
Oriol Romeu cost around €4m, despite Barça having tried to enter the race to sign Marcelo Brozovic it was almost impossible to match Al Nassr bid and the negotiation collapsed.
Romeu has had an excellent impact, the clause in his contract has helped Barcelona and even these types of solutions are smart and key to help the club not to spend big transfer fees.
This was also the case for Ilkay Gundogan who chose Barcelona despite bids from Saudi and Manchester City as they wanted to keep him, a top-level free transfer.
That is a crucial part of the strategy: having players on their side, pushing their clubs to leave as they only want Barça.
After a month and a half of stand-by but with the sale of Ousmane Dembélé to Paris Saint-Germain in the middle which greatly helped the club's financial situation, Barça's masterpiece was the end of the transfer market.
With the departures of Abde, Eric Garcia, Clement Lenglet and Ansu Fati the club managed to free up an important part of wages in order to receive the green light from La Liga to sign their two top targets since June: Joao Felix and Joao Cancelo.
Due to the restrictions on Financial Fair Play, Barcelona were unable to insert an option to buy clause in these two deals otherwise they would be counted as two permanent signings by UEFA.
And then Barcelona approved two straight loan deals: Joao Cancelo was Xavi's first choice as new right back since January, Cancelo never negotiated with other clubs because he only wanted Barça and the deal was completed with Manchester City who no longer wanted Cancelo as part of the squad.
Joao Felix, on the other hand, had even been clear in public since July 18: "I want Barcelona, it's my dream", he told me in an exclusive interview that Barça then used... as an announcement of the deal.
No other possibility has ever been taken into consideration, only Barcelona... on loan from Atlético where by now Joao 100% could no longer stay. Two masterpieces for the new Barça in a slow and difficult market, but ultimately excellent.
Fabrizio Romano is an Italian sports journalist. He was born in 1993, he lives in Milan and has over 30 million followers in total on the major social networks.
He collaborates with 888sport, CBS Sports, Sky Sport, The Guardian and has been a transfer market expert since 2011. He will take care of a column dedicated to some "Behind the Scenes" of transfers.
