WHAT’S HOT WHAT’S NOT

HOT ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC

OVERHEARD from a loud, middle-aged man in a gym changing room in Cheshire: ‘I am just recovering from a knee injury. It was an ACL — just like Ibra.’ Ibrahimovic is so achingly cool that he has even made knee injuries fashionable.

ALISON MITCHELL

BT’s approach to their Ashes coverage seems to revolve around one core principle. If in doubt, talk, talk… and then keep talking. In the middle of all this sits the elegant, restrained tones of Mitchell. We will give BT time to find their stride and in Ponting and Vaughan, in particular, there is definite potential. Only Mitchell has an Ashes debut to be proud of, though. For now, she is BT’s James Vince.

MO SALAH

LOST in the wreckage of Liverpool latest defensive collapse in Spain was another stellar week from their Egyptian forward. Salah has now scored 14 times in his debut Liverpool season and, given that it was his two goals that sent Egypt into their first World Cup finals since 1990 last month, it seems both his club and his country will need him in equal measure going forward.

NOT EVERTON

AGENTS trying to place players at Everton never knew who to talk to during Ronald Koeman’s time. The manager, chief scout Steve Walsh or majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri (right). All had different target lists and that probably tells us why this failing Everton squad is such a mishmash. It also indicates, in part, why the club’s search for a new manager has been so disastrously disjointed.

DANNY ROSE

THE Tottenham full back broke ranks to criticise the club two days before the start of the season and now finds that he is not always in the first team. How strange.

MIKE ASHLEY

THE Newcastle United owner has every right to want the asking price for selling his club but as another transfer window looms he must wrestle with a separate dilemma. For all the skills of manager Rafa Benitez and for all the commitment of his squad, Newcastle are a team who look short on quality where they need it most. That is largely down to Ashley’s intransigence over transfers last summer and if he tries to play hardball with Benitez once again in January, he may find himself trying to sell off a club deprived of its prime asset.