HOT WHAT’S NOT WHAT’S

HOT

COLIN MONTGOMERIE

THE 53-year-old Scot came through qualifying this week to secure a place in The Open at Royal Troon and few will anticipate the experience with more relish. To this day, it’s a mystery that one of the finest ball-strikers the European Tour ever has never managed to win it.

VICENTE DEL BOSQUE

THE pressure of meeting his own exacting standards eventually got to the great Spain coach and he probably should have stood down after his team’s disappointing World Cup in Brazil. But the 65-year-old brought the world a team of rare majesty in 2010 and 2012 and it is not just in Spain that people should be grateful for that.

XHERDAN SHAQIRI

NOW on holiday after Switzerland’s exit from Euro 2016, he can reflect on having scored the most exquisite goal of the tournament. The 24-year-old Stoke midfielder was moving backwards as he executed his scissor-kick to equalise against Poland. How he found the power to score from 18 yards perhaps even he doesn’t know.

NANI

HE has only himself to blame for his exit from Manchester United because he wasn’t consistently productive enough. But the Portugal forward is having an impressive Euro 16 and there may yet be a final at the end of it.

NOT EURO 16 FORMAT

UEFA’s new 24-team system, introduced by their disgraced former president Michel Platini (right), will be shown up for the travesty it is if Portugal reach the final. They finished third in their group with three draws and any claim to be one of the tournament’s top teams has to be viewed through that distorted prism.

HARRY KANE

OF all the miserable sights in Nice on Monday, Kane hoofing free-kicks wildly out of play against Iceland was perhaps the most sobering. The manner in which the strain and drudgery of representing England has sucked the life out of one of our brightest young stars has been quite shocking.

THE TV SNITCHES

THE BBC’s Andrew Castle is the latest to fall victim to the section of the British viewing public who simply can’t wait to be offended. Passing comment on Marcus Willis’s attractive girlfriend doesn’t make him sexist. It just shows that he has eyes that work and a heart that beats.

MARTIN SKRTEL

THE Liverpool defender (right) has apologised for appearing to endorse criticism of his manager Jurgen Klopp on social media, but perhaps he shouldn’t worry. His wretched form for Slovakia in France will only have reinforced Klopp’s belief that Skrtel has no future at Anfield anyway.