Wirtz’s £116m Liverpool arrival | Jackson sent off in Chelsea's six minutes of madness | Farrell's side given reality check
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Welcome to Back Pages, bringing you everything you need to know about the biggest sports stories making the headlines in the morning's newspapers. I'm Jamie Weir and joining me, the Scottish Sun's sports editor, Roger Hannah, and the Daily Mail's football editor, Ian Ladyman. Welcome to you both.

But we have to start with Florian Wurz and his move to Liverpool. And Ian, I'll come to you first. Sir Alex Ferguson always said that when you're in a position of strength, that's when you strengthen. And it looks like that's exactly what the champions are doing.

No, that's exactly right. What is it they say about fixing the roof before it starts raining? And that's very much what Liverpool are doing at the moment. It's interesting because despite Liverpool winning the league this last season, there's occasionally been murmurs of, as strange as it sounds, discontent from some supporters who wanted...

Liverpool's American owners to spend a bit more because of course they didn't really spend anything last summer apart from Chiesa of course who hardly played well those supporters who had a bit more patience have now been rewarded because

This would appear to be the summer when Arnus Locke really puts his stamp on this Liverpool team. Already bought Fimpong, of course, now Wurz. We think they'll sign Kerkes from Bournemouth as well. Talk of Mark Gay, even talk of Alexander Izak. This really is a show of huge intent from Liverpool. And what I think is fascinating, particularly about Wurz, is where he will play. Liverpool haven't really...

played or succeeded with an out-and-out centre forward for a while, and Nuno's didn't work out, I wonder if this is another sign that the way that they will go is to play false nine, even play with two tens, for example, of which Wurz would be one. It would be fascinating to see how he fits in going forward.

Roger, there'll be plenty of our viewers watching now who don't necessarily follow the Bundesliga that closely. Look, there will always be a question mark over how you adapt to Premier League football, but Florian Wirtz seems to have ticked all the boxes that he is going to be able to hit the ground running when he does come into the Premier League. Yeah, very much so. He was on the slots

preferred guy from the very start. He made his debut at 17 in the Bundesliga. He was the youngest ever scorer in the Bundesliga. And if you're a Liverpool fan tonight, Jamie, you're going to be unusually confident about next season because you are watching Liverpool

Manchester City and Chelsea sweated out in the United States this summer while you've got your feet up and you are watching Arsenal struggle to get a centre forward over the line while, as Ian says, Liverpool had Warts to Frimpong, Kierkegaard next and possibly Mark Gaitie.

Roger Listing off the players they brought in there, Ian, it is quite extraordinary and I think everyone still has to pinch themselves at what Arne Slott did in his first season as well. How often, or how rarely, I should say, do you see a manager come in after a dynasty, which is what Jurgen Klopp had, and he makes the side even better?

Yeah, well, he looks as though he's going to make the side even better. You can never be sure, of course. You know, you can't really give a transfer a stamp of approval until you start to see players appear on the football pitch. But from the outside, it looks like...

a summer when Liverpool have decided to say, right, we've got to where we wanted to be, maybe a little bit more quickly than we expected. Nobody expected Arnott Slott to win the league in his first season. Nobody expected Manchester City to fall away so dramatically. Uh,

as they did. Nobody expected Arsenal to underperform like they did to a degree. So Liverpool have obviously thought, right, here we are, time to put our foot on the throats of the opposition and attempt to keep it there. And that's what they've done. People will talk about...

money, money, money, but that's the way it works in football these days and it's the way it's always worked in football. Great Liverpool sides, even back to the days when I was a kid in the 70s and 80s, always spent and always spent and usually spent well, strengthened when they were already strong and that is what they are appearing to try to do now. And I tell you what, if Liverpool

If these players perform to 70% of what you would expect them to do, then Liverpool are going to be a heck of a team to catch again when the season starts in August.

Roger, as Ian says, money, money, money. Manchester City and Chelsea have already spent over £100 million this summer as well. Arsenal, you talk about that sort of search for that elusive striker. But, of course, any other club around Europe or any around the world knows that these clubs are now desperate to get players in and, therefore, the price goes up. You know, any club with a striker that Arsenal are looking to sign, they know that Arsenal are desperate.

And that's one of the reasons, Arne Slott, he'll be so happy that he's got so much of the business done early. If you're a manager, you want to get the players in as quickly as you can so you can have a pre-season with them. Pep's done it at City, I think £275 million spent between January and that mini window before the Club World Cup started. He's got his business done early.

slot looks as if he's almost finished his business and that'll put a lot more pressure on Mikel Arteta Arsenal fans for a long time have demanded a number nine they've still to get a number nine and they're now watching as their two biggest rivals for next season's title sign player after player after player slot's done really well with his signings this summer I think Jens let's move on and when you get to our stage of life you may be

I don't want to remember your birthdays in particular. Nicholas Jackson is still a very young man, but he won't want to remember this birthday, Ian. I mean, talk about a disastrous four minutes he was on the pitch for before he saw red.

Yeah, sent off yet again. More cards than goals, I think, this season or last season, 24-25 season. He's a liability, I'm afraid. He's been at the club for two seasons now and there is a pattern with Nicholas Jackson. He did have a spell recently

in the season just finished when he scored goals, when he looked as though he was finding his feet. But I'm afraid it didn't last that long. And this streak of impetuosity, which we saw in his first season, is still with him. And the thing with Jackson is that when you look

back of his red cards and his yellow cards that have that have pockmarked his Chelsea career a lot of them have just been for silly things a lot of them have been for immature things and that is really never a good sign he's worked

under Pochettino, who's now had a season under Mureska. And not only is he not massively improved as a player, he has improved to a degree, but not hugely and not enough to prevent the club signing de Lappe.

in the last few weeks. But it's certainly his levels of concentration, which is often what it comes down to with late challenges and things like that, as much as it does malice. Things like that just haven't improved. This is a chance for him, again, to show that he's worthy of starting next season as Chelsea's number nine. And he's now suspended for the next game. Roger, the finger will be pointed at Nicholas Jackson, and perhaps understandably so,

But that perhaps doesn't excuse the rest of the Chelsea side just collapsing as they did in the space of six minutes.

Yeah, I watched the game tonight, Jamie. They were second best almost from the first whistle. Even Pedro Neto's goal was in the breakaway and a couple of fortuitous bounces. The collapse in that five or six minute spell, they lost two goals, two routine balls into the box, I have to say. I thought they would have defended much better than that. And Jackson just coming on, you're not going to get away with that. It's not really a stamp, but it's that sort of downward force with a foot. Any referee is going to send you off immediately.

is not covering himself in glory at a time when he needs to rise to the challenge of Liam Dillap and it looks as if he's not going to manage that. I would think Chelsea would start the season, he's got the number nine jersey, I think Liam Dillap will start as the centre-forward in the Premier League. Ian, where are we with the Club World Cup now? It's hard to know just how much sleep Chelsea fans will lose over this defeat today.

Yeah, look, I was talking to an Arsenal fan a couple of days ago and asking if they were in it, would they be invested in it as a supporter? And this guy was saying, yes, he'd be watching the games. That's the way that football supporters are. If their team plays, then they watch and they want them to win. And things start to assume a level of significance that maybe people didn't expect. From a wider point of view, I've

I've seen and heard and read a lot about the attendances. That doesn't massively surprise me or alarm me. I think those attendances will grow throughout the tournament. You'd expect that. But more widely, my issue with the Club World Cup right from its inception in terms of... When I say its inception, I mean the new version of it, the expanded summer version of it, right from its inception...

I've been against it and I've been against it for a very simple reason. It's about player welfare. It's about a player like Phil Foden being dragged over there by Manchester City, even though he said at the end of the season that he's desperate for a rest. He now scores a goal and declares himself fit and rested. I don't believe it for a minute. I think City will rue that decision to take him when next season starts. Look at Chelsea slogging away in the heat.

toiling away in the heat when they've just spent nine months desperately scrapping to get in the Champions League positions domestically. It's difficult for the players, difficult for supporters. In terms of the tournament, it will become more watchable as it progresses. I still won't be a fan of it.

Fair play. Right, listen, let's move on. Roger, Lions Tour getting underway this evening in Dublin. Not the ideal start for Andy Farrell. I can't imagine he's going to be too concerned over this. They look pretty good at times, the Lions. Obviously, they're still sort of finding...

They need to click and sort of gel as a unit. But there were lots of positives to take from it. Lions tamed, is what it says in the back of the Telegraph. What will Andy Farrell's assessment be after that opening 80 minutes of the tour? Well, they certainly won't panic at all. Argentina are a top-quality side. They put 67 points past the Wallabies just last September in Buenos Aires. The Lions weren't playing the Barbarians in a wee knockabout game tonight. This is a proper elite team they played today.

They did it with a shadow side, shadow line side. Andy Farrell used a lot of guys who probably won't make the test team down under. You think of that Irish front row, Stoutigan back. The likes of the probably test halfback pairing of Gibson, Parker and Russell of Stoutigan back. So they pushed Argentina hard. They played well at stages, especially at the start of the second half. But Andy Farrell will take out it. It's a good run out for the guys who played. And most importantly, before they go away, there are no more injuries.

Absolutely. And Roger, I'll tell you one thing as well. Everyone will be unanimous in agreement on this. Wasn't it wonderful to see a sea of red supporters watching the Lions tonight in Dublin? Because four years ago, we were denied a proper Lions tour in those empty stadiums in South Africa. This is the first proper Lions tour, if you like, for eight years. And that sea of red out in Australia is going to be something else.

Yeah, it's going to be a great spectacle. There's nothing quite like, in Rugby Union terms, there's nothing quite like a Lions tour. It wasn't the same four years ago. It doesn't matter what anyone says. It's been a long time since there's been a proper tour

with a proper line support. They have been waiting patiently to go and get this opportunity and they will light up Australia this summer. Let's go to the Times and focus on the cricket because they go with tossed away. India pile on 359 for three after Ben Stokes wins the toss and elects to bowl in the first test at Headingley. Inside the Telegraph, this is what they say. Rusty England regret the decision to bowl first.

Stokes forced to go back on promise of shorter spells after a mammoth effort from the England captain with the ball. And Vaughan staggered by captain's gut feeling.

Now, afterwards, Shuman Gill, at the end of the day, did admit that he would probably have had a ball first had he won the toss. But, Ian, Ben Stokes, look, he would have looked a genius if India were six wickets down at lunchtime. They weren't. It backfired. And I suppose knowing Ben Stokes and Brendan McCullum and the way that they've run this England side so far, they will shrug their shoulders and get on with it tomorrow.

Yeah, they will. I mean, there's one thing that this England side is very good at, and that's talking a good game, but also backing themselves, and Ben Stokes would back himself to make that call. I would imagine if he had the similar gut feeling ahead of the second test, he'd probably do it again. That's what being a good captain is all about. It's about having the courage of your own convictions...

those things can go for you, they can go against you. So I don't think we should massively dwell on that. Firstly, what did please me as a cricket tradition was to see a proper day of test cricket being played at Heddenley today. Decent weather and some proper test batting. I didn't see an awful lot of it, but I did happen to be in the living room and

when young Shubman Gill dropped that ball into the leg side to bring up his own century and it was wonderful to see how much it meant to him. This looks to be a promising young Indian batting line-up

From an English point of view, it's very difficult to watch anything at the moment and to watch this series without placing everything against the background and in the context of the Ashes series in Australia that comes up this winter. This is more than a warm-up for that.

But, of course, a lot of what we will see in the next five or six weeks will give us some indication as to what kind of shape England will be in when Ben Stokes takes them to Australia. You mentioned there about him bowling a longer spell. I mean, two things about Ben Stokes. He has to stay fit.

for next winter and he has to be fit enough to bowl and bowl well in Australia next winter because without him I'm really not sure how this England team bowls an Australian team out so let's pray that he stays fit let's pray that he stays keeps some form and let's hope that what seemed to be quite an absorbing day's cricket today ahead of me proves to be potentious for what lies ahead for the rest of the summer. I

And Roger, I have to say, that was the real positive for England today. Just watching it, Ben Stokes looked back to his best. I mean, some of those deliveries were coming down 88 miles per hour. He looks fit. He looks as if he's firing on all cylinders. That's a massive positive.

Absolutely. He was the pick of the English bowlers today, a couple of wickets. If we're going to talk about the Lions and say that Andy Farrell won't panic after a defeat, I don't think Brendan McCollum and Ben Stokes will panic after day one of the first test. The takeaway for me, not many Indian supporters talking about Coley or Rohit Sharma now. They have got new heroes. Jaswal, I think now he's got a century in his first innings in a test in three different countries and

and the new captain, Shubhman Gill, are fantastic innings, and he will try and pile it on tomorrow morning, along with Pant. I noticed the six in the penultimate over of Chris Wokes bowling. I think that's maybe an indication about how he will try and take it to the England bowlers again tomorrow and put India in a position where they can't lose the test.

I think you're absolutely spot on to say that Brendan McCullum and Ben Stokes won't be panicking. They don't strike me as panickers at the best of times. But Ian, that bowling attack did look a bit blunt. Ben Stokes was the pick of the bunch, absolutely. But Chris Wokes didn't look like the bowler we know he can be. Josh Tongue was getting slapped about all overheadingly as well. That will be a concern, won't it? That bowling attack with the likes of now Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson obviously long gone. Who are England's future heroes with the ball?

Yeah, and that is a problem. I was talking to somebody about this the other day. As much as we love Broad and Anderson, the reason that they went on so long was actually about more than their incredible longevity and ability. It was because we needed them, because we didn't have somebody coming up behind. Joffrey Arch, of course, was a huge hope for us. He's had those injury problems. Mark Wood, similarly. We've got to hope that at least one of those, if not both, come to fitness before next winter.

We're going to move on to Scottish football now, Roger. You'll be delighted to hear. There's fixtures released this morning. I suppose the first fixture that everybody looks for is when the first old firm of the season is. And we don't have to wait too long. August the 31st.

Yeah, and it's got a special edge again. A new Rangers manager, Russell Martin, in for his first time for his first outfarm game very early in the season. The season starts quite early, Jamie, 3rd of August, ahead of the EFL and certainly a couple of weeks ahead of the Premier League. So I think of the six top flight games, four live on Sky Sports across three days, a great way to start the season. And it'll be an intriguing season again, whether Russell Martin can drag Rangers closer to Brendan Rodgers Celtic.

Ian, some of Russell Martin's football with Southampton, in particular winning the Championship, was fantastic to watch and we know that he's wedded to this principle of wanting to play attacking football. But he's going to be up against it with that Celtic side, coming up against that Celtic side in Scotland, isn't he?

Yeah, it's a fascinating appointment, that one. I was really surprised by it, I have to say. I was surprised by the choice and I was also slightly surprised that he's taking it because it's such a huge task. Roger will probably know better than I do, but it almost looks an impossible task to reel in Celtic. They've had another season of Champions League money to put them further ahead financially.

Look, he'll take his principles there. Martin, I described his football in the English Premier League this season with Southampton's suicide football. I was alarmed by the fact that he didn't adjust. I was alarmed by the fact that he didn't adapt well.

and I was alarmed by the fact he continued to preach the same thing, even though it absolutely wasn't working. I really wish him well up there. I know people who know him. He's a really good fella. He's a bright bloke. He's got sound principles, but I hope that he starts the season well. I hope his team can adapt.

I hope he can learn from what happened at Southampton. And I also hope that he doesn't talk himself into trouble. When I say talk himself into trouble, I mean with the range of supporters in terms of some of the things that he can say, the way that he can stick so fast to something, even at times when it's not working. I just hope that he doesn't walk into a few traps

up in Glasgow that's all very very negative he's a bright coach he'll want to play entertaining football he'll want to take it to Celtic I'm just not sure not sure if he can I'm not sure if he's got a squad that can

Well, you mentioned the squad and you feel that recruitment will be key, Roger, for Russell Martin this summer. Let's have a look at the back page of your own paper in the Scottish Sun. Gers are set to deal in Belgian ace Nico Rask and reward. So tell us a bit about that one.

Well, Nigo Rasca, now a Belgian international, I think he played against Wales in that great 4-3 game alongside likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Leandro Trossard. He came to Rangers a couple of seasons ago with his best season last year, got the captain's armband on a few occasions, shortlisted for Player of the Year honours.

and he's only got a couple of years left in his deal. And I think one of the first things Russell Martin wants to do is tie down guys like Nico Raskin, Mohamed Diamandi, Hamza Egemen, guys not only who can...

help close the gap with the old firm, but also guys who will have a sale on value. Rangers are desperate to promote a player trading model that hasn't been successful so far. They want to bring in young guys like Raskin from the continent, even from the Scottish league, develop them and sell them for bigger money. And just very quickly, finally, Roger, on Celtic, I suppose the glass ceiling remains Europe for them. You know, they've done it all domestically. It's how far they can progress in the Champions League next year.

Very much so. Brendan Rodgers took him through the New Look group stage. He got to the round before the last 16, if you like, and he gave Bayern Munich a bit of a scare. So, Brendan, he's brought Kieran Tierney back from Arsenal this summer. He will want at least two or three more because it's his last season of his contract. There'll be

stories and speculation about Brendan's future through the course of this season, he will want to go and make an impact in Europe again. Absolutely. Roger, Ian, thank you as always for your time.