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WEMBLEY — It’s the nicest dilemma to have. One that perhaps acts as a reminder that this England team has so much more to give.

To most, Bukayo Saka is undroppable. A world-class wide forward with a decent goalscoring record for England should ordinarily be one of the first names on the team sheet. There just so happens to be a maverick-like alternative who offers Thomas Tuchel the thrill of the unknown more than the Arsenal firebrand ever could.

Now Morgan Rogers has his big move to Chelsea, we could be about to see his meteoric rise reach stratospheric levels. This is a player who revels in being a £100m player, inviting the pressure it brings.

Sitting down with him at England’s temporary training base in Enfield this week, Rogers insisted his goal is to be seen as one of the best players, not just in the Premier League, but the world. This is Cristiano Ronaldo levels of youthful ambition.

To be able to create goals like his mouthwatering assist for Harry Kane’s first goal in England’s most comfortable 3-0 victory over Czechia takes a certain type of visionary, a nonconformist. One capable of really reaching for the stars.

It was the perfect night for Rogers to try something so out of the ordinary. The Czechs were no match for England, who finished their Nations League mini-marathon on a high, Kane grabbing the headlines once more on a night he matched Peter Shilton’s all-time men’s appearance record for England.

The finish of the night came via a former West Ham boot, as Vladimir Coufal rifled an astonishing own goal into the net to open the scoring early on, a finish Kane could only dream of.

Then came the slickest goal in recent English living memory. Elliot Anderson’s first-time pass over the top landed right in Rogers’ stride. To be then able to slide a volleyed centre into Kane’s path, at that speed, defied logic.

Kane moved sixth in the all-time international goalscoring charts with his 91st England goal from a corner in the second half, as the hosts sauntered over the line to the most relaxing success.

Tuchel now has five weeks to ponder his next selections. Anthony Gordon has absolutely nailed down the left forward spot. He is as automatic a starter as Kane right now.

Having Saka and Rogers to fight for one spot is an embarrassment of riches for Tuchel. What the German has to consider is who has the best chance of helping England overcome that perennial conundrum that has haunted them for 60 years – how do they get over that final hurdle, when it really matters?

Well, the man who created England’s goal on that biggest stage against Argentina.

Rogers does not possess Saka’s experience, his winning mentality, or his goal return for England. What he provides, however, is a greater ability to pluck something out of nowhere. And it is in these moments where semi-finals or finals are decided.

There is also an argument to be made that another Arsenal figurehead, Declan Rice, could also be left out when Tuchel has all his tools available to him. Rice’s energy and leadership make him a pivotal player, but in his absence, the ball has moved much quicker through midfield and made England look much slicker than usual.

Leaving two Premier League winners and Champions League finalists out, on paper, seems somewhat churlish. Yet, when you have enigmatic talent like Rogers waiting in the wings, sometimes that element of surprise could be the difference between Tuchel becoming another nearly-man and an English footballing hero.   

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Liverpool supporters could be forgiven for feeling a slight sense of foreboding when they inspected the team sheet ahead of Andoni Iraola’s first domestic cup match as head coach.

Not only were several key men given the night off against Tottenham Hotspur earlier this month, but amid 10 changes, the Basque boss selected three relatively recent youth-team graduates.

Trey Nyoni, James McConnell and Lewis Koumas had started just nine previous times between them, yet Iraola had no qualms throwing them in against Spurs’ lavishly assembled line-up.

It was a decision that speaks to Liverpool’s general direction under the former Bournemouth manager.

Iraola’s eagerness to embed younger players should not come as a surprise. It was a hallmark of his time at the Vitality Stadium, when Bournemouth signed Rayan, Eli Junior Kroupi, Milos Kerkez, Alex Scott and Dean Huijsen, all of whom were trusted as teenagers to hold down a regular first-team spot.

That, in part, convinced Liverpool of Iraola’s suitability to replace Arne Slot. He aligned with a long-held view that academy graduates can form a staple part of the Reds’ squad and supplement the team’s world-class talent.

Plans to build a state-of-the-art indoor dome pitch at their Kirkby base speak to the importance placed on a youth-team pathway, a strategy synchronized through executive level and the first team.

Jurgen Klopp’s youthful Carabao Cup final-winning roster in 2024 – which included Nyoni, McConnell and Koumas – is testament to that. But under Slot, youth-team graduates were afforded fewer chances, a fact that sat uneasily with many supporters, as did the sales of talented protegees Jarell Quansah, Tyler Morton and Ben Gannon-Doak.

Admittedly, that can be seen as a sign of success for the academy. With Liverpool’s recent penchant for signing £100m+ players, there is only so much headroom for underage progression. Even still, it has not gone unnoticed how Nyoni has already made three Premier League appearances this season, half of his total from last term.

Iraola’s approach differs from his predecessor’s. While Liverpool insiders would reject the notion the 44-year-old represents a radical shift, he actively seeks to incorporate the club’s talented youth-team starlets.

During his first official club interview, Iraola referenced the need to observe the Under-21s personally ahead of the summer tour to the US. He later labelled the performances of the young players as the biggest positive from pre-season.

“I think we will need them during the season,” Iraola said. “They’ve shown me that they have the level, they can give us quality minutes, a good level in training and I’m sure some of them will stay with us.”

Full-club alignment

Relying on a cohort of youngsters – which also includes Luke Chambers and Jayden Danns, who have been named on the bench this season – has another advantage. It allowed Liverpool to funnel their financial resources into signing fewer, higher-quality signings, and gave greater latitude for squad cost ratio calculations.

In a summer where Manchester City recruited three star midfielders, Liverpool allowed Curtis Jones to leave without an obvious replacement, safe in the knowledge Nyoni and McConnell were on hand.

Likewise, as Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur looked to add depth at left-back, Liverpool opted to retain the previously redundant Kostas Tsimikas as back-up, alongside Chambers.

It is a policy that is not universally popular. There has been criticism that Liverpool didn’t sign a direct replacement for Mohamed Salah. Again, the club’s strategy was more convoluted.

Few expected Koumas to play a significant role on the back of a campaign where he was named a Championship substitute 31 times. Yet after just one week of pre-season, Iraola had seen enough to be convinced of the Welshman’s credentials. Any prospect of a summer exit was quashed. It allowed Liverpool to instead prioritise the signing of another elite attacker: Bradley Barcola.

And despite the competition for places, Koumas has featured in five of the Reds’ seven games this season. That the 21-year-old has played over so many senior matches during his fledgling career helped solidify the view that he is now “first-team ready”.

His performances have also vindicated Iraola’s summer assessment, with Koumas earning praise for his “contagious” work rate. Sources speak of a tenacious youngster who is determined to forge a career at Anfield, but also willing to show patience.

Crucially, as for any juvenile talent, the winger grasped the chance at club level when it was presented. The same can be said of Nyoni and McConnell, with all three praised internally at Liverpool for their commitment, versatility and how comfortable they look in the first-team environment.

It is why abundant Championship loan interest in McConnell was never considered, while Nottingham Forest’s advances for Nyoni were rejected. There is a belief the trio are Premier League-ready if an injury crisis were to strike.

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That results at academy level have generally improved over the last year should also not be overlooked, all while the club ambitiously scour the globe for the top young talent.

The ultimate appraisal will always come on the pitch, of course. In that sense, Liverpool’s policy has been justified.

Fans needn’t have worried against Spurs after all – Nyoni and McConnell impressed in midfield, Koumas was man of the match, and the Reds ran out 3-1 winners.

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“I read about me that ‘he was the best player who never made it’. I’m devastated to this day for myself and for Evertonians. It’s taken all these years to build the courage to tell people what I could have been.”

These poignant words, delivered in the strongest Scouse, come from one of the great lost talents of English football, Billy Kenny.

He goes on: “I’ve been bitter, I’ve been angry. For 25 years I didn’t have one good day. I had suicidal thoughts, rehabs, jail. You couldn’t write it … but I did, I wrote it.”

We are in The Slaughterhouse pub in Liverpool city centre. On the wall outside, a poster advertises an upcoming event with the man currently sitting inside, speaking to The i Paper.

Billed as “The Goodison Gazza”, it will promote the memoir of the same name that Kenny has written with The Guardian journalist Jamie Fahey – a moniker inspired by the similarities that Peter Beardsley, then an Everton teammate, once saw between him and Paul Gascoigne, another troubled soul.

The book begins with Kenny’s finest hour in football, 7 December 1992. It was his Merseyside derby debut and the 19-year-old midfielder excelled in a 2-1 win over the Liverpool team he had grown up hating, but who – as the book reveals – wanted to sign him so much that he travelled down with their squad to the 1988 FA Cup final as a guest of manager Kenny Dalglish.

‘My dream was to beat Liverpool’

After that derby victory, he was led to Goodison Park’s boardroom to sign a new contract. Hours later, however, he took his first line of cocaine.

“My dream was to beat Liverpool in the Merseyside derby. When I’d done it, I let my guard down.”

Cue a downward spiral that led to Everton sacking him after just 23 appearances, one England Under-21 cap and two months of rehab in the Priory.

His football career thereafter comprised just six more games – four for Oldham Athletic, two for Barrow. And the descent was just beginning.

“I could never get over what happened, lad,” he reflects. “It led me to addiction for 25 years.”

‘The best player I’ve ever been on a pitch with…’

Kenny had attended the same secondary school, Campion High School, as Steve McManaman, a boyhood blue who did join Liverpool.

A more intriguing juxtaposition is with Ryan Giggs, his main rival in matches between Liverpool and Salford Schoolboys.

“The two of us would get man of the match. Giggs was on the left, I was on the right so we marked each other.

“If you asked Ryan today who’s the toughest lad, he’d say ‘Billy’ because I used to kick f*** out of him and he’d just get himself up and dust himself down.

“He’s the best player I’ve ever been on a pitch with. He was like a gazelle.”

Like father, like son

As with Liverpool, Kenny rejected the overtures of Giggs’ Manchester United, despite a summer training with them. “If I’d gone to Man United, who knows,” he wonders.

Instead, he followed the trail of his father, Billy Kenny Sr, who played briefly for Everton in the early 70s.

How good was he? Fahey, who played against Kenny as a schoolboy, remembers his “peculiarly advanced game sense and desire”.

Kenny himself notes “my vision was better than most midfielders as a young kid”.

As a boy, he had obsessively practised keepy-ups around the tenement block in which he lived.

Everton’s ‘birds and booze’ culture

Yet as his girlfriend, Charlotte, observes during our chat, his addictive personality proved his downfall in an Everton first-team environment marked by its “birds and booze” culture.

Howard Kendall’s alcoholism is an awkward subject on Merseyside, given the reverence in which Evertonians hold their most successful manager.

Yet this was not the glorious mid-80s, but his stuttering second spell in charge.

“Howard liked all his players to have a drink,” Kenny relates.

“On the team coach he’d be sitting there with his legs on the table, in a pair of budgie smugglers, no top on.

“He’d go to me, ‘Billy, come here. Sit down, lad. Get a glass of this Chablis and I’d be arseholed by the time I got off the coach.”

Kenny does not hide his own failings, saying: “It was a mixture of a lot of things, both out of my control and in my control”.

Burying his head in the sand

While he recalls “no help” from his then agent, there were good people whose advice he ignored, including coaches Colin Harvey and Paul Power, who, during Kenny’s stay at the Priory, took turns to visit him for daily training.

By then, though, it was too late. Pat Nevin, a former Everton teammate, has sympathy.

“I feel a wee bit like it was almost inevitable because of his personality and the culture at the time,” he says.

Today, the words pour out of Kenny.

“I’ve been angry but I feel like it’s seeping out of me,” says the 53-year-old, whose cocaine addiction ended on the day of his mother Bella’s funeral 15 years ago.

And with the telling of his story, he hopes to reach a stage where he can offer advice to young footballers.

“I just want to help people now and be the best person I can be,” he adds.

Three pieces of advice for young players

Kenny quotes Michael Branch – another Everton youngster of the 90s who ended up in prison – who told him that at their old club now “there’s 17 people you can go and speak to with your problems”.

The view of a pair of industry insiders, though, is that players can be wary of seeking help from their clubs – and the struggles of those in the modern day show how they can still lose their way.

Kenny’s book ends with three pieces of advice to today’s players, starting with the need to avoid drink and drugs.

He continues: “Have your own agenda. Listen to your parents and immediate family as they’re the only one with your best interests at heart.

“I used to go out with five of my mates but I’d be at the bar with 50 lads. I only knew five of them. I can count my mates now on one hand.

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“My circle is tiny. I stay away from dangerous people, dangerous places and dangerous things. I’ve got a good girl behind me. I’ve got new mates around me now and I’m grateful, lad.

“I should have been dead years ago. I’ve had heart attacks. I’ve overdosed. If I wake up tomorrow happy, I’m winning.”

“The Goodison Gazza” is published by Reach on 8 October

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It was 14 November 2021 when Russia last played a competitive international match, a 1-0 defeat by Croatia in Split in qualifying for the Qatar World Cup.

An apt location, given that Vladimir Putin was only months away from launching an invasion that would reshape the global order.

Within a week of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Fifa suspended the country from international competition.

At the time, Russia were 35th in the Fifa rankings.

Surely that ranking has subsequently sunk like a stone?

Not a bit of it.

In October 2026, war-weary Russia are ranked exactly where they were when Russian forces crossed the Ukrainian border and bombs began falling on Kyiv four and a half years ago.

As the first international window of the 2026-27 season draws to a close, Russia are preparing to play their third match in eight days, with Nigeria the visitors to Nizhny Novgorod on Tuesday evening.

Clearly, the Russian Football Union would rather be competing in the Nations League but, fixture-wise, it is starting to look like business as usual for a country finding it increasingly easy to secure opponents willing to put moral considerations aside.

The same accusation could be levelled at Fifa.

Later this month, Russia will return to an international tournament for the first time since the invasion of Ukraine, with a team entered in the Under-15 World Cup in Azerbaijan.

The tournament will include teams from England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.

Germany, the Netherlands and Iceland have all withdrawn from the competition.

“The international sports community must maintain unity and principled consistency, ruling out any concessions to the aggressor state,” said Matvii Bidnyi, Ukraine’s minister of youth and sports.

“The Fifa football festival in Azerbaijan featuring the Russian Under-15 national team with official national symbols is nothing less than the legitimisation of a terrorist state, even if framed as an unofficial festival format.

“It is a direct attempt to provide Russians with a platform to display state symbols and spread Russian propaganda.”

He has a point.

Russia’s return to international competition, regardless of the level, is the clearest indication yet of a collective weakening of resolve towards a country that hosted the World Cup only eight years ago.

Ukraine’s stance remains as resolute as ever.

Earlier this year, Andriy Shevchenko, president of the Ukrainian Association of Football, responded to Fifa president Gianni Infantino suggesting that Russia could eventually be welcomed back into major competitions by inviting both Fifa and Uefa to visit Ukraine.

“We, Ukraine, must be open to everyone,” he said. “Our policy is to be open. There are certain things, as you know, that we speak out against – that much is clear.

“We have our policy regarding Russia and their admission, and we have never hidden it. My personal position, as it was, remains the same: we do not want Russia to be allowed into football.”

Despite becoming an international pariah following its invasion of Ukraine, an increasing number of national teams are willing to travel to Russia – or host them, as Egypt did in Cairo shortly before this summer’s World Cup.

Qatar have played Russia twice, while Serbia, Peru, Chile and Bolivia have also faced them in Russia since 2022.

And because Russia have lost only two friendlies – against Egypt and Chile, who beat them 2-0 in Sochi in November 2025 – since the start of the war, their Fifa ranking is unlikely to change significantly.

They are able to play these matches because they remain Fifa members. Although friendlies carry a lower coefficient than qualifying or major tournament matches, Russia’s habit of avoiding defeat means a significant fall down the rankings is unlikely.

‘Fifa has an obligation to keep Russia in the football community’

Simon Chadwick, professor of Afro-Eurasian Sport at the University of Leeds, told The i Paper that global events had complicated Fifa’s stance on Russia.

“There are plenty of other countries engaged in war and other concerning practices that might warrant a similar ban,” he said.

“Moreover, Russia’s football authorities might reasonably argue that national team football isn’t the same as a country’s government’s political decision-making.

“Permitting Russia to compete [in these friendlies], therefore, appears to be Fifa’s way of addressing both sides of the argument.

“One must also remember that Russia is a member of Fifa. Hence, the organisation has an obligation to keep it engaged in the international football community, whatever the criticisms or concerns about the country.”

In February, Infantino, largely unprompted, suggested that reinstating Russia was something that should be considered.

“This ban has not achieved anything. It has just created more frustration and hatred,” he said in an interview with Sky Sports.

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A day later, Kirsty Coventry, president of the International Olympic Committee, appeared to echo those sentiments, albeit less explicitly, arguing that sport should be a “neutral ground” where athletes can “compete freely, without being held back by the politics or divisions of their governments”.

In Ukraine, those comments are likely to have been met with bewilderment and anger.

Elsewhere, however, it seems time is not just a healer but an amnesiac.

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Success has not proven entirely straightforward for Bradford City, currently flying high in League One.

After hitting top spot last month, the club fielded the call they had been dreading. Preston North End wanted to speak to manager Graham Alexander, a significant blow to a club that had been prospering under the likeable and very able Scot.

Alexander’s departure has been an emotional one for City. Some staff and the man himself were in tears when he said his goodbyes and it has been quite the journey. Appointed in 2023 with the club at a low ebb and his managerial stock in the doldrums, it took bravery on both sides to take the plunge back then.

A dramatic promotion from League Two in 2025 – secured with a 96th-minute winner against Fleetwood – etched his name in club folklore and Bradford have kicked on from there. Firmly in the promotion mix, they’re also a win away from the last eight of the Carabao Cup.

But a conversation shortly after his appointment tells a story. Alexander’s commitment to the Bantams was rock solid but he listed Preston as one of the jobs he would view as the “pinnacle” of his managerial career during those early “getting-to-know-you” talks.

When North End came knocking last week, it was therefore no surprise that he signalled a desire to leave and despite the deep disappointment in the boardroom there was no bitterness about his decision.

The Championship club more than doubled his wages and triggered a £500,000 compensation clause in his contract to get it done – a figure that, compared to the £25,000 they got when Phil Parkinson left for Bolton, is easily the biggest the club has ever pocketed for a manager.

Continuity seems to be driving the search of his replacement, which will conclude this week. Interim boss Mark Trueman is currently scheduled to take the team for a midweek EFL Trophy game against Rotherham but Michael Duff, the former Cheltenham, Swansea and Huddersfield boss, will be the man charged with maintaining Bradford’s upward momentum.

Why Bradford want Michael Duff

He has impressed in interviews and possesses many of the qualities that Alexander, a former teammate and friend, brought to the role.

Reaction among fans has been mixed – just as it was for Alexander – but there’s sound logic to the decision, as well as practical considerations. Unlike when Alexander took over from Mark Hughes, Bradford will not need to define a new footballing DNA. The squad Duff inherits should be able to play how he wants.

There is mitigation for his difficult spell at Wycombe, where he had little influence over recruitment and ended up with a team that jarred with his preferred style of football. At Valley Parade he will – like his predecessor – have a huge say over comings and goings and there is a budget for January signings if Bradford are in the promotion mix (or things go south and they are battling for survival).

Last year they added £500,000 to the budget to supplement a promotion push that ended with a play-off defeat to Bolton and similar funds would be available this time.

It is not finalised yet but there’s hope it will be done on Tuesday. City had also spoken to Gary Rowett but the field of candidates was shrunk by the withdrawal of Paul Heckingbottom, who Alexander has replaced at Preston, and a few other potential candidates who didn’t fancy following such a successful manager.

Former Stockport boss Dave Challinor was never keen and appears to be waiting for a Championship job, Bradford-born Tom Cleverley is committed to the Plymouth project while Leam Richardson, another suggested, was not in the running.

Experience was viewed as essential so managerial novices, and there was plenty of interest, were quickly discounted. Bradford wanted a manager who felt he had something to prove – Duff is that man.

When will Duff take charge?

Bradford will have the new man in place before back-to-back home games against Leyton Orient and Stevenage and ensuring City continue to over-perform is top of the agenda. It’s understood the Bantams wage bill for this season is around the £7m mark, thought to be around 10th or 11th in a League One that also includes big spenders like Huddersfield and the likes of Leicester and Sheffield Wednesday.

For the third successive season that has been topped up by owner funding, with German Stefan Rupp continuing to back a club that is on much surer footing than their last spell in the third tier.

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Rupp’s investment this season is around £3m and he is much more regular visitor to Valley Parade these days, even if that sum tells its own story about the cost of being an EFL owner these days.

Another year of record commercial revenues (including a tie-up with a US bank) are a testament to investment in staffing and infrastructure over the past few years. The size of the crowds Bradford pull in – they have nearly 16,000 season-ticket holders – suggests they have potential to establish themselves in the Championship in the future.

They haven’t been there for more than two decades but Duff is inheriting a good group of players in a great position. His remit is taking the next step.

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Manchester City face a financial fair play (FFP) “catastrophe” if they are expelled from the Premier League.

With the club, who continue to deny any wrongdoing, awaiting punishment and some rivals calling for relegation, modelling a potential drop to the Championship shows their annual revenue could fall by more than £500m.

Together with football finance expert Kieran Maguire, The i Paper explores the finer details of that projected half-a-billion loss, as well as the implications of their superstars hypothetically staying put to play EFL football.

The £500m-plus drop in revenue explained

City’s broadcasting revenue for the year ending 30 June 2025, the latest accounts available, was £278.6m. That could drop to around £50m, including parachute payments, if they were to play in the Championship next season.

One caveat would be City potentially winning the Champions League, ensuring they qualify for that competition the following campaign and earn TV money in that regard.

However, if City fail to win the Champions League, they can expect an estimated £225m reduction in broadcast revenue.

In terms of matchday revenue, City posted £75.1m for 2024-25, and they could see that fall by £30-40m in the Championship.  

“City fans will still turn up,” Maguire says. “That’s not an issue. We’ve seen that with West Ham. They get relegated, but the hardcore fanbase will remain.

“What Manchester City will struggle to do is to sell the boxes, to sell the experiences, to sell the Tunnel Club offerings at the prices which they’ve been charging this season. Because you can’t do it. You can’t do it at home to Swansea and expect to get the same money coming in as you have when you’ve got Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal and so on.”

Upcoming Tunnel Club tickets cost £870 per person against Ipswich Town on 17 October, and £1,000 for their league meeting with Brighton & Hove Albion on 31 October.

Sponsorship deals in the spotlight

The biggest potential hit comes in the form of commercial revenue but that also remains the greatest unknown – particularly after the commission ruled City recorded sponsorships of £949.94m over the nine-year period (from 2009 to 2018) when the sums paid were only £119.25m.

Their annual commercial revenue has risen since 2018. They made £340.4m in 2024-25, and the burning question would be which sponsors stick with City if their appeal is unsuccessful and they are not playing in the Premier League or Europe.

“Would Etihad Airways, for example, be willing to pay the same amount of money to Manchester City in the Championship? I guess you’d have to ask Etihad Airways that particular question,” Maguire says.

“So that would be the main hit. But I would imagine that other partners would want to move away.

“The average commercial revenue for a club in the Championship is probably around about £10-20m. Manchester City would be a separate case because they are certainly big players, but even when Leeds United were in the Championship, to get around £30m of commercial revenue, you’re doing really well.”

A £300m drop in commercial revenue would take City’s overall fall in revenue closer to £600m. The £500m estimate would still have the club bringing in more than £100m commercially, five to 10 times more than the average Championship club.

“Regardless, put those figures together and it’s going to be a handbrake stop as far as revenues are concerned,” Maguire adds.

Wages could lead to FFP ‘catastrophe’

City already had a transformational summer this year with Rodri, Bernardo Silva and John Stones among the players following head coach Pep Guardiola out the door.

It is highly probable, therefore, that their wage bill of £408.4m from the 2024-25 season – per Maguire’s Valuball calculations – has already come down, although not significantly.

If the Championship awaits, the huge loss in revenue would mean another summer of change is required next year to comply with the EFL’s Squad Cost Rules (SCR).

The SCR limit allows Championship clubs to spend 85 per cent of their allowable income on player and manager-related costs.

“There’s an FFP catastrophe unless there is a huge exodus,” says Maguire, who notes the average Championship wage bill is £37m.

Only three Championship clubs had a wage bill north of £50m in 2024-25 – Leeds, Burnley and Sunderland – with Leeds top of the list on £102.7m.

Erling Haaland alone earns £27m per year, based on his reported £525,000-a-week salary, and you need only add City’s next five highest earners in Enzo Fernandez (£18m), Phil Foden (£16m), Jeremy Doku (£15m), Gianluigi Donnarumma (£14m) and Marc Guehi (£14m) to surpass that Leeds total.

Put simply, if those six players alone stayed on their current wages, City’s income would need to be more than £120m to stay within the 85 per cent SCR limit.

What about relegation clauses?

Relegation clauses would aide City’s cause, but their players do not have them in their contracts according to The Athletic’s David Ornstein, who said that is “because they’ve never been countenancing that day coming, because they’ve always protested their innocence”.

Typically, relegation clauses can reduce player salaries by 50 and upwards to 90 per cent. Were City to begin life in the Championship next season, and their star players wanted to stay, it may require contract renegotiations with reduced salaries.

That may well separate those fighting for the badge and those chasing a paycheque, although for now it remains a hypothetical scenario.

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Talk will rumble on, and just as City duo Haaland and Ruben Dias appeared to discuss the matter when Norway played Portugal last weekend, whispers behind mouths and fevered speculation will only continue until a punishment is handed out.

Oh, and then comes the inevitable appeal.

It may be years before any punishment is final, therefore, but certainly if the last, irrevocable, unappealable decision is at least one season away from the Premier League, City face a whole new battle with their accounts.

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STADION HNK, RIJEKA — Seven goals, a new No 4 and one big problem solved for Thomas Tuchel and a suddenly irresistible England.

We knew an England team spearheaded by Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham were capable of detonating like this if the manager was prepared to light the fuse.

There was always a suspicion that Alex Scott – brilliant on a full debut that came around seven months later than it should have – would give them an extra dimension in midfield.

But what we did not anticipate was Lewis Hall ending England’s left-back debate in five days.

After impressing in Prague in a slightly stodgy midweek win, Hall showed all the qualities Newcastle supporters have been crying out for him to display for England.

Gordon heads in to make it THREE!

England are cruising pic.twitter.com/nqwUxFmkof

— ITV Football (@itvfootball) October 3, 2026

His energy, running and understanding with the devastating Anthony Gordon make him the most natural fit for that position.

Barring injury, Hall should be in possession of the shirt for at least the next four tournament cycles.

That was probably the biggest lesson learned in Rijeka, where – if you dissect the display in isolation – England delivered one of their best away performances.

Perhaps not pound-for-pound in terms of significance, given the Nations League is the Jersey Mike’s Trophy of international football, but certainly in the way they clicked to put a genuinely competitive nation to the sword.

Tuchel has been guilty of overthinking things in 2026. His substitutions, from Atlanta to Wembley last week, have felt overthought, and his World Cup squad now looks painfully complicated.

It is understandable that he would want to find a place for the prodigiously talented Nico O’Reilly, but Hall is a more natural fit at left-back. He wants to play there, for a start, unlike the Manchester City man, who appears to prefer a midfield role.

And as Newcastle fans will attest, Hall is only getting better. Going forward, there are few better in Europe when it comes to his dynamism and determination.

Gordon clearly appreciated it in Croatia, with the pair having formed a decent understanding at St James’ Park that can provide the platform for a left side that will be a productive route of attack leading into a home Euros England should win.

So here is a message to Tuchel: resist the temptation to tone it down in the coming months. Rijeka was a template England have to work towards and, if that means dropping or replacing some weighty talents, then so be it.

Of those sweating at home, Declan Rice might have most to fear. Tuchel still believes he is one of the best midfielders in the world – and loves the double pivot with Elliot Anderson – but Scott got England moving.

His contribution to the first of seven unanswered goals, a touch and turn so swift it unpicked an ageing Croatia, summed up his influence on a night when he transferred his Bournemouth form to the international stage.

In a summer of £100m midfielders, Chelsea trying to sign him for £70m is frankly absurd. It is also their loss. He will have the pick of Europe’s clubs when Bournemouth are prepared to listen to offers at the end of the season.

It all got a bit surreal from there. Stadion HNK Rijeka was selected as a venue because Croatia were being punished for abhorrent racism during a previous Nations League campaign, but Uefa’s behind-closed-doors sanction was nothing of the sort.

Instead, 6,000 noisy schoolchildren were bussed in from around the country, clearly delighted to be there, but perhaps unfairly dwarfing the presence of a 100-strong England contingent permitted to travel.

They unfurled a banner saying “It’s not coming home”, rather amusingly, but the joke backfired. England have had some memorable tussles with Croatia in recent years, but the gap between them has become a chasm.

Comprehensively beaten at the World Cup, this was a massacre.

At the centre of it all was Bellingham, an absolute pleasure to watch. Is it really just a few months ago that we were debating whether he should start at the World Cup? Was an argument really mounted 12 months ago that he should not even go?

Now the debate has shifted to whether he can become one of the best of all time. Roy Keane was the man who put that forward and it was not met with peals of laughter. Bellingham is 23 and on an upward trajectory. It is a seriously exciting prospect.

His goal summed up the many sides to his game. His strength and desire won the ball despite being fouled, his precise pass teed up Anderson and then his exquisite timing saw him arrive in the penalty area to dispatch past Dominik Livakovic.

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Gordon scored again, with his head again, while Bukayo Saka got two, indicating that the wide-forward debate is also settled. Kane scored again and then Morgan Rogers added a late goal as a substitute.

England were every bit as good as the scoreline suggested and the only negative was that there is not a World Cup just around the corner.

Three months on from the last one, they have emerged as the pre-eminent pretenders to Spain’s crown. 

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