WHAT’S HOT WHAT’S NOT

HOT AARON RAMSEY

THE Welshman has not kicked a competitive ball for Juventus yet, but he has already made a good start by speaking Italian at his introductory press conference. ‘Excuse my Italian, it’s not very good,’ said the former Arsenal midfielder. As it happens, it was more than good enough and fair play to him for trying. These things matter.

DAVID DUVAL

CAN a guy who took so many strokes at the Open that he literally lost count really sit in the top half of this column? Yes, he can. The way Duval fronted up after his horror show at Portrush took real sporting courage. The 2001 Open champion looked shellshocked but said: ‘Worse things happen to people every day.’ He was right, of course.

WEST HAM

THE London club have broken their transfer record three times in little more than a year, with French striker Sebastien Haller arriving for £42.5million this week. Manchester United will tell you that spending lots of money doesn’t guarantee a thing, but West Ham manager Manuel Pellegrini cannot say he hasn’t been backed since he arrived last summer.

NOT LAURA DAVIES

TALKING about the Royal Portrush course during a stint on Sky Sports at the Open, Davies, who won 65 times on the American and European Tours, admitted she had never played it. That’s a prerequisite for this week of all weeks, one would have thought.

MAURICIO POCHETTINO

IF the Tottenham boss was really going to quit if his team had won the Champions League, then maybe he should have just gone anyway, as it hints at a lack of long-term commitment to the club. If the Argentine didn’t really mean it and is playing some kind of game with Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy, then it’s a bad look. Not all football managers are as good at politics as they like to think.

THE ICC

ENGLAND were the best team at a good Cricket World Cup and worthy winners of the tournament. But they didn’t win the final. At best they drew it. At worst they actually lost it. Counting fours and sixes is no way to determine the outcome of a tied cricket game. Counting the number of wickets lost on the other hand…