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Liverpool need to start again, again.

It may seem somewhat churlish to suggest a club who spent £350m on strikers alone last summer needs an attacking overhaul 12 months later, but the champions have to hold their hands up and admit they got it wrong and go again.

On the face of it, it appeared Liverpool had enjoyed an all-timer of a summer transfer window.

Florian Wirtz was coveted by the continent’s elite. Hugo Ekitike very nearly joined Manchester United. Civil war almost broke out at Newcastle United over Alexander Isak’s departure.

But with the benefit of that oh-so-useful analytic tool – hindsight – the malady that has instead played out is not entirely unsurprising.

With an almighty price tag on his shoulders, playing in a league more physical than it has ever been, Wirtz was always going to take time to adapt.

Ekitike has defied the odds and hit the ground running, but Isak’s injury record always made him an almighty risk.

His goal record is an impressive one, but his arrival is the one where Liverpool crossed the line in being overly indulgent – especially at that price.

The strike revolution would have worked had Salah carried on his flawless ageing process and continued to be Liverpool’s talisman into a ninth season.

In the most simplistic terms, Salah carried Liverpool last term.

Had Manchester City not endured an incongruous off-season and Arsenal’s penchant for the bridesmaid role rolled on, a second Premier League crown would not have been as easy to come by.

Even for the ultimate athlete with more abs than ribs, a drop-off was inevitable.

In a rotating strikeforce that was put in place to alleviate the burden on him, Salah has simply disappeared into obscurity.

While he may have ended his longest Premier League drought at Wolverhampton Wanderers, the rest of his display should signify the final death knell to his Reds career.

The craft has gone, his ability to attest duels now non-existent.

The most worrying lost facet is what separated him from his peers, the drive to keep coming week after week with more fire than before has irretrievably vanished.

There is confidence from Saudi Arabia – should conflict in that part of the world settle down – that a deal can be struck in the summer.

When looking for Salah’s replacement and an upgrade on Cody Gakpo, who supporters are starting to lose their patience with, Liverpool could take a leaf out of Manchester United’s book.

They too conducted a strike overhaul last summer, but with a difference.

While Benjamin Sesko was a risky signing from the Bundesliga, they flanked the big-money Slovenian with two, proven Premier League goalscorers in Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha.

It is what United used to do best in their halcyon days under Sir Alex Ferguson.

Dwight Yorke, Andy Cole, Teddy Sheringham, Louis Saha – all snared from lower ranking rivals, when at the peak of their powers.

Isak had the Premier League pedigree, but his injury record would always come back to bite them at some point.

Ekitike is here to stay, as is Wirtz. But if Liverpool are to delve back into the forward market, at least one option needs some Premier League savoir faire.

Antoine Semenyo would have been perfect, but the Liverpool hierarchy didn’t push enough.

Bayern Munich’s Michael Olise would be an expensive option, but one worth splurging on. Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers has a myriad of attributes to make a real difference, too.

Then they can look to Europe for younger, unproven options. Paris Saint-Germain’s Bradley Barcola is an achievable get, while RB Leipzig’s Yan Diomande remains a top target.

The other imperative position to address is midfield.

Alexis Mac Allister’s decline has been stark. A full season of offering nothing in attack and defence, when he is supposed to be approaching his peak years, is an almighty burden to overcome.

Dominik Szoboszlai has arguably been the club’s player of the season, but he needs a calming influence alongside him.

Nottingham Forest’s Elliot Anderson would be perfect, but he appears destined to go where all Liverpool targets end up – City. Palace’s Adam Wharton is a fine alternative.

Full-back remains a concern, but Milos Kerkez and fit-again Jeremie Frimpong are likely to improve.

Centre-back issues persist – Virgil van Dijk isn’t getting any younger – but Ibrahima Konate’s form has recovered and Giovanni Leoni will be back next term, giving them better strength.

Two wide forwards and a central midfielder, however, should be non-negotiables.

As should an emotional farewell for Salah, who if he stays into a 10th season, could do some serious harm to his legacy.

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Some of the Birmingham City super project is going perfectly to plan. The designs for the new 62,000 stadium are out, an otherworldly concept of red-brick chimneys and blue panelling.

Architects Populous are on board; they worked on the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and Wembley. Governmental meetings have taken place over the level of public funding for the Sports Quarter and necessary transport links. 

This is the Knighthead masterplan. Birmingham City Council have precious little financial leeway and hedge fund money sensed an opportunity. Knighthead Capital owns 49 per cent of the Birmingham Phoenix Hundred cricket franchise and a stake in the netball team. Birmingham sport and culture is effectively a distressed asset; private finance usually fills the void.

But Birmingham City has always been the cornerstone of the project because football clubs are the easiest vehicles for rampant ambition to be celebrated by the masses.

Last season, the most expensively assembled squad in third-tier history achieved the highest points total in third-tier history. This season, they wanted a repeat promotion. That is how the hierarchy spoke and they have never apologised for it.

Rebuilding any football club is expensive, but especially one that you have promised to take the moon in absurdly quick time. Birmingham have signed 41 different players on permanent or loan deals since June 2024 and a good number of those were either expensive, on long contracts or both.

Revenues have increased exponentially under Knighthead, both a reflection of its acumen and the work of previous owners. There is an Amazon documentary. Stadium facilities – notably in hospitality areas – have improved so supporters spend more time and money.

Levers have also been pulled. Last month, a deal was agreed to sell 97 per cent of the women’s team to Shelby Companies Limited, a subsidiary of Knighthead. It is an accounting trick used by others but also one that will soon be banned and with good reason. The point is this: lots of money has been spent.

For a while, this was a pure good news story in the eyes of supporters. You can see why: when you have been burnt so many times by supposed guardians, the proven ambition of their replacement will always go down well. And there was not much to complain about. Before Monday night, Birmingham had lost one home league game since April 2024.

But this season has been harder than Birmingham, or at least those who speak for it, ever considered that it was likely to be. The belief that automatic promotion was a hope and a top-six finish the expectation now looks lost; Birmingham have drawn too many home games and lost too many away for that.

The eight-point gap to the top six is not insurmountable, but there are five clubs between Birmingham and Wrexham and the form does not stack up: 13 teams have more points over their last 15 Championship matches.

That has raised questions of manager Chris Davies’ performance in some quarters, including many of those who traipsed out early on Monday night. There are some accusations that carry some weight: penetration without end product, issues in playing out from the back, too much loyalty to certain players and a lack of rotation.

Instead, look further up the food chain. Birmingham signed 14 players last summer, a recruitment drive led by director of football Craig Gardner. Kyogo Furuhashi, the most expensive arrival, has scored one league goal. Taylor Gardner-Hickman, Alfons Sampsted and Kanya Fujimoto have two league starts between them.

Having understood that mistakes were made, Birmingham went big again in January: five permanent signings and two more loans. And yet this team still looks weak at right-back, goalkeeper, one of the central defensive positions and it still does not score enough goals.

The age profile of players signed – 12 of the 14 permanent arrivals were aged 25 or over – proved the “win now” mentality and yet this still isn’t a team that looks ready to do it. That has to be on the club, not the manager.

None of this should be a problem, nor would it be in normal circumstances. Birmingham are an upper-midtable Championship club who have not finished in the top half of the second tier for a decade. This season has been perfectly acceptable, with the glow of a record-breaking promotion still lighting up St Andrew’s.

But Birmingham made this a problem through their naked ambition. Until now, the faith in Davies remains (and he has done a very good job). But how do you marry that with the “win now, take over soon” policy that runs like an aorta through everything Knighthead has said and done?

What does that attitude do to people? Those in charge have no choice but to double down on spending to chase their tails after mistakes because the alternative is to see how things play out. The level of the outlay and the age of those signed – with financial limitations surely soon to be an issue – disallows that.

New players arrive knowing that they have to perform immediately with little room to breathe because everybody has heard what the club says about their expected goals. The manager is criticised for loyalty to certain players, but there is so much change that such behaviour is necessary to retain some control.

And, most obviously of all, supporters are hardwired into impatience. On Monday night against Middlesbrough, all the hallmarks: targeting individual players for jeers, booing at half-time, empty seats at full-time and a bubbling angst whenever Birmingham are not winning.

At some clubs, you could argue for that as evidence of undue impatience or entitlement. But what do you expect when the club itself openly engineered these attitudes? The danger with publicly talking up a desire to constantly move forwards is that it stops people from taking any moment to enjoy the view.

Birmingham City have monumentally grand designs; those have not changed. Maybe they get it right this summer and avoid questions over annual losses through Premier League revenue. Maybe the revenues will grow again and allow another splurge.

But this season has been a lesson in learning that the proof of the pudding at any football club will only ever be on the pitch and that is largely decided by the decisions you make off it. Talking a good game is infinitely easier than playing one. The super project now feels more fragile and half-formed, the mood just a little too fractious for whatever comes next.

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Ukraine Women 1-6 England (Kalinina 58’ | Russo 47’, 51’, Stanway 64’ pen, 70’, Park 78’, 89’)

Nine hundred miles from home, with a resilient but ultimately emphatic 6-1 defeat to England Women, the long exile of Ukraine’s national team continued.

In a near-empty Turkish stadium, here lay a reminder why Fifa’s recent flirtations with a Russian return to football smack of such moral bankruptcy.

Plunged from one warzone into another region of grave uncertainty, there was some doubt as to whether this World Cup qualifier would go ahead at all. The Lionesses had to seek safety assurances from the Government, with further concerns that Middle Eastern air space could close at any moment as conflict escalates.

Ukraine had battled with such bravery to get there that the scoreline almost felt irrelevant. And that is a mood-reader which ought to shame Fifa president Gianni Infantino, who insists banning Russia following Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in 2022 has only created “frustration and hatred” – and that he would “cheer” if they were welcomed back post-war.

The absurdity of that position should not need to be laid bare. To reach Antalya required a circuitous route by Ukraine’s players, who mostly play in their homeland, of a 15-hour bus to Moldova and then a plane. The venue was chosen by their FA but their hand is forced – they have played in Poland and Croatia but cannot play at home.

The national anthem itself was charged with power. While Iran Women declined to sing their own before playing South Korea, Ukraine draped themselves in blue and yellow flags for a fiery rendition.

With symbolic defiance, they held off a dominant England for 47 minutes until two deft Alessia Russo finishes. Yana Kalinina’s goal from Ukraine’s first attack proved only a brief scare. Georgia Stanway’s brace, one a penalty, the other lashed into the top corner, showed how welcome the Bayern Munich midfielder’s imminent return to the WSL will be. She then set up a fifth for Jess Park, who added a sixth with a looping finish.

The significance of this result on the road to the 2027 World Cup will become clear. What was inescapable was the sense of unease.

Russia was first banned because national teams, particularly Poland, said they would not play them. They may have to do so again to ensure there can be no way back for the sporting representation of Putin’s regime.

Otherwise it is over to the marionettes of a sport which increasingly appears devoid of ethical logic – case in point, the plot to build new stadiums in Gaza, allied with Donald Trump’s Board of Peace. Palestine had perfectly functioning grounds of its own until they were destroyed in US-backed IDF bombardments.

As for whether the Kremlin is to be appeased, Russia’s U17s have already been allowed back into competitive action. While Moscow continues to pulverise cities, Volodymyr Zelensky believes Trump, the political face of the summer’s men’s World Cup, could have ended the war.

That leaves the current football ecosystem woefully out of step with the rest of the world.

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We’re a fickle bunch, aren’t we? Not long ago rage against Pep Guardiola’s tiki-taka was in vogue with passing out the back trickling down to League Two.

Now Arsenal are doing us dirty, flooding the six-yard box for corners, scoring from a joint-record 16 of them, and leaving Tony Pulis wondering if he’d be a Premier League title-winning manager were he born 20 years later.

Arsenal get blamed for games they aren’t even playing – that’s when you know you’ve made it – while the hate only gets louder the closer they edge to a first league title for 22 years.

It’s March, Arsenal are still fighting on four fronts, and yet what has proven contagious across the Premier League has also been deemed boring. Sky Sports ushered in Yaya Toure on Sunday, seemingly from an Emirates hospitality box, and he spat out truths against the product that very broadcaster is trying to sell.

“I feel a bit disappointed… We see three goals by set-pieces, for a derby it’s strange,” he said, looking exasperated, and with his woolly hat on, as if he would rather be heading home. “Winning was important for Arsenal, but as a fan I want to see more.”

"I'm a bit disappointed… three goals from set-pieces, a bit strange for a derby!"

Yaya Toure wanted to 'see more' from Arsenal's performance in their win against Chelsea today pic.twitter.com/6zGawzpIdB

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) March 1, 2026

A Manchester City voice railing against the Arsenal way only deepened the sense among Gunners fans that everyone is against them.

The fact this lends to siege mentality can actually work wonders, with Mikel Arteta already joking about being “very upset” his side did not score a set-piece goal in the win over Sunderland last month, but does this style bother the paying Arsenal fans?

“Many people just do not care but equally many people are finding it very tough to enjoy,” Arsenal fan Moh Haider tells The i Paper.

“It is not an easy on the eye experience watching Arsenal under Arteta this season, but I have constantly reminded myself this season that it’s the title that’s important, not the style.”

Arsenal’s wait for a league title has become more painful with each near miss, and after the Invincibles were dismantled and a softer, leader-less generation followed, they have become ripe for ridicule regardless of whether the football has been nice on the eye or geared around set pieces.

It is a prevalent theme among Arsenal supporters therefore that they would rather win playing ugly than be mocked for playing beautiful football and falling short.

“We’ve played enough good football over the years and not been rewarded for it,” says James Clark. “At the time people used to call us soft and say we didn’t have what it takes to be winners.

“Now we’re doing whatever it takes to win we’re being called boring… I’d rather see beautiful football but winning is the priority right now.”

Arsenal blogger Sash adds: “I’ve seen the team play liquid football from 2007-2018 but it led to nothing. We didn’t come close to competing for a league title and got embarrassed in Europe.

“Part of the reason we play this way in my opinion is pressure… The team is finding ways to get results. It’s 53 games so far this season across all competitions and only three defeats.

“I can understand why that must be frustrating for rivals when they’re used to seeing us get embarrassed for the best part of the last 22 years. So from my side there’s no frustration with the perspective that’s out there.”

The apparent anger against Arsenal’s style is also “disingenuous” according to another fan, Rory Cook.

“We were mocked and criticised for years, for playing pretty football but ultimately having a soft underbelly and not winning when it mattered,” he says. “Now Arsenal are physically dominant and finding ways to win games, it’s a huge problem.”

From the outside, the hate reads like jealousy, and Gooners would be right to feel that way too.

Surely any fan swaps style for substance if it meant ending two decades of being the butt of jokes?

The main risk of course is falling short again, particularly with Manchester City in the mood, but what is proving a winning formula for Arsenal is hardly going to be altered with less than three months to go.

Even if rival fans say they will remember, history soon forgets the manner of how silverware is won.

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Brentford, currently seventh in the Premier League, are still a byword for shrewd management, forward-planning and general business sense.

Keith Andrews has just signed a new contract with the west London outfit until 2032, with the Bees chasing European football. Employing the former set-piece coach at the beginning of 2025-26 to replace Thomas Frank was viewed as speculative, but only from the casual observer.

Andrews knows Brentford intimately. They have essentially built a 4-5-1 system with Igor Thiago as the focal point. Passes, long and short, to the £30m striker, who has delivered 17 goals this season, are bearing fruit. The Brazilian’s response to the Bees’ faith in him after a season-long injury, occurred after his arrival in a 2024 pre-season friendly, is remarkable.

Thiago’s presence has been so potent that memories of heralded ex-stars of recent years, such as Ivan Toney, Yoane Wissa and the famous “BMW” – Said Benrahma, Bryan Mbeumo and Ollie Watkins – are already fading.

Andrews’ major tweak

Thiago, recently linked with Chelsea, has extended his Brentford deal. Any notions of a sudden switch across west London would therefore come at a massive premium.

Unlike Frank, Andrews appears more pragmatic in managing players’ game time and is very aligned with all his backroom staff in this, his first head coach post. As engaging as he was, there were suggestions Frank, after almost seven years at Brentford, was perhaps “bigger” than the club.

Niggly injuries to key players are evaporating within Andrews’ culture. Mikkel Damsgaard, a stellar midfielder last term, is injury prone, so the Danish international is being handled with care. The same applies to Vitaly Janelt, Aaron Hickey, Rico Henry and Kristoffer Ajer.

Christian Norgaard was another who played through a pain barrier before leaving for Arsenal last summer, where he has not featured regularly. Moreover, during Frank’s short spell at Tottenham, injuries on an industrial scale were an issue. While this is perhaps coincidental, few players are likely to experience burnout under Andrews’ watch.

Brentford’s transfer plans

No major splashes are anticipated this summer. Andrews will recall left-back Jayden Meghoma, currently on loan at Rangers, as a potential successor to Henry, whose contract is up at the end of this campaign.

Other likely solutions are already wedded to Brentford. Sources close to the club have high hopes for both attacking midfielders Antoni Milambo and Romelle Donovan.

The recycling may continue with a possible exit for Fabio Carvalho, who has only flattered to deceive. Kevin Schade, Ethan Pinnock, Mathias Jensen and Ajer, linked with Wolfsburg, could join him in the departure lounge.

Conversely, Dango Ouattara should add more threat in support of Thiago, and Sepp van den Berg already seems like a long term Brentford bulwark. A £20m fee to Liverpool last August for the 24-year-old is money expertly invested for years.

Andrews, like any other manager, may not be able to predict an exact future, but the Bees remain at enviable altitude.

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Manchester United’s Man of the Match in the 1968 European Cup final is struggling to pay his medical bills – 12 months on from Sir Jim Ratcliffe cutting funding from an organisation that helps former players in need.

The Association of Former Manchester United Players (AFMUP) was set up in 1985 to raise money for charities and to help out when ex-stars need help. However, it is now facing extinction after Ratcliffe withdrew the club’s annual £40,000 donation.

It was part of Ineos’ wider cost-cutting measures and at the time it was announced, it seemed like just another PR disaster for the United co-owner. One year on, the consequences of Ratcliffe’s cuts are being felt.

John Aston, 78 – who edged George Best to the Man of the Match prize in United’s 1968 triumph – has just had a stroke, remaining in hospital having also contracted sepsis.

“When the old boys found out about John’s illness, they gave £5,000, all they could manage, to help buy a wheelchair,” Aston’s wife Gaynor tells The i Paper.

“United, to their credit, matched it. Otherwise, we are self-funding as we are not eligible for government help. If I want to get him home – better to care for him here – we’re looking at costs of £80 per visit from essential nurses, four times a day. I just don’t know how we’ll manage.”

The AFMUP would ordinarily be able offer more financial support for the Aston family, but the reduced funding has left them in a precarious position.

“We’re determined to bring the AFMUP back from the brink,” filmmaker and committee member John Gubba tells The i Paper.

“We had to cancel two dinners and one golf day last year as a result of the funding being taken away and the future looked bleak. It seems like a small amount but over the years the AFMUP turned £40,000 sponsorship from United into more than £2m – by using it to stage those fundraising dinners and golf days.”

The AFMUP normally hold four events per year, but after losing United’s £40,000 donation, they cancelled two events as they struggled to pay for venues and catering.

The i Paper has been told that despite funding being withdrawn, United’s involvement in the last two AFMUP dinners helped to boost fundraising efforts. Chief executive Omar Berrada attended last April’s event alongside Sir Alex Ferguson, Gary Neville, Andy Cole and Jonny Evans. Director of football Jason Wilcox was at September’s dinner. Raffle prizes were donated for both evenings.  

The AFMUP have also helped to support the family of Tony Dunne, another star of the 1968 final, who passed away in 2020. The Dunne family were struggling to cover funeral costs, so the Association stepped in.

Gordon McQueen, who enjoyed a post-playing broadcast career before his recent passing, required assistance with some operations – the AFMUP also contributed to that.

Former United winger and AFMUP committee member Gordon Hill believes the club has a duty to help ex-players.

“The club has the museum and they charge quite a lot for entry,” he tells The i Paper.

“Yet nothing seems to come back to the people who made that history – us.

“We are that history. Without John Aston, United may not have won the European Cup, and millions of fans worldwide wouldn’t have started following the team.

“People who come to see United, especially from overseas, visit the museum. People who come to the city visit the museum. That’s our memorabilia, photos, history. And they make millions off that. Can’t they spare £40,000 for a good cause?

“I don’t dislike him [Ratcliffe]. I agree with him on some things. But he’s still got to realise it’s a football club and not a chemical company. It’s a community club.”

Former youth player, Aaron Burns, still only in his 30s, has joined the AFMUP to help modernise operations. At the organisation’s next self-funded event in April, they are banking on recently retired former stars like Wayne Rooney attending. Bryan Robson and Steve Bruce will be special guests. There are also plans in place to seek out sponsorships and other revenue streams to help the AFMUP rebuild.

“We refuse to let the association die,” Gubba adds. “If Ratcliffe doesn’t reinstate the funds, we’ll find another way to carry on so we can raise more money to give to charities and to help fund medical treatment and other things for former players.

“Our next dinner at Old Trafford on 16 April definitely goes ahead. We owe it to the former players who started this charity over 40 years ago to carry on. And there are many others like John Aston who will need our help.”

After retiring, Aston – whose father also played for United – did not stay in football and ended up running a pet shop in Derbyshire.

“I’m not going round with the begging bowl, we don’t want that,” Gaynor Aston adds.

“We are just trying to do all we can. John has had his last rites twice, but he is a fighter. I just want him home.”

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Iran’s participation in the World Cup is hardly the first item on the agenda of a country at war. Not that the threatened withdrawal of Iran under protest at the military onslaught by the United States and Israel would unduly discomfit Fifa. There are plenty of replacement teams from Fifa’s Asian Confederation forming a queue.

The power of the Iranian threat lies in its symbolism, highlighting the hypocrisy of President Donald Trump as an emissary of peace and the rank absurdity of the Fifa Peace Prize and its originator, never mind and the inaugural recipient of it.

Of course Fifa president Gianni Infantino does not have a crystal ball and was not to know Trump would unleash hell in the Middle East when he was polishing his trinket in the Oval Office, so to speak.

The removal of the Venezuelan head of state Nicolas Maduro in January was hardly a selling point and now the World Cup of Peace has to contend with an all-out attack on Iran on grounds that appear specious.

There are few outside the complex of the theocratic government and Revolutionary Guard that mourn the passing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But dislike of an abhorrent regime is hardly grounds for taking out the leadership, however popular the move.

The world is braced for the consequences as the Iranian regime fights for its very existence.

In this context the World Cup is of nil significance, yet such is the way of things with global sporting galas being hijacked by the political class, the big Fifa party in the United States, Mexico and Canada, is inevitably dragged into the discourse.

This is especially the case since Trump’s fawning champion Infantino has placed the American president front and centre of his marketing campaign.

This taints the tournament by association, exacerbating the material difficulties already bubbling to the surface.

The stadium in Foxborough, a small town near Boston, is scheduled to stage seven matches, yet unless the £5.5m security bill is met by federal funding it ain’t happening, according to the town’s chairwoman, Stephanie McGowan.

The deadline is 17 March. Foxborough is not a big enough municipality to benefit from the GDP boost promised because fans commute from outside, essentially from Boston.

“This is not a money maker for this town. In fact it’s probably more of a headache than it’s worth,” she said.

Federal funding is also an issue for fan parks.

Congress has allocated more than £400m across 11 host cities but none has yet to receive a penny, prompting organisers in Miami, Kansas City and New Jersey, where the final is to be played, to raise their concerns.

You wonder why fans would risk being out in public spaces anyway, under the influence of Fifa sponsor Budweiser or not, with the ever present threat of ICE agent deployment. You wouldn’t want to be reaching for your autograph pen and have it interpreted as a lethal weapon.

Mercifully, Minnesota is not among the host cities, but should some hosts pull the plug in these uncertain times, who knows which replacement stadium might come forward?

Iran’s national women’s team is currently at the Asian Cup in Australia, and according to reports, understandably feeling the strain of representing a nation under fire, and one complicated by the widespread distrust and hatred of the regime.

Reports of a possible boycott by the men’s team, that is scheduled to play the opening two group games in Los Angeles and the third in Seattle, are sourced to comments made on state television by the president of the national football federation.

“It’s hard to look forward with hope,” Mehdi Taj said, adding that ultimately the decision will be handed down from above. 

Meanwhile we hold our breath whilst Fifa’s peace lord continues to let go the white doves of war across the Middle East.

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