Ange Postecoglou is excited about the role “leader” James Maddison will play in helping implement his style of football at Tottenham. Maddison completed a transfer worth £40million plus add-ons to Spurs last month after five years with Leicester where he won the FA Cup and scored 55 goals in 203 appearances. England midfielder Maddison had been tracked by Tottenham since he was a teenager at Coventry and officially begins work with the club on Wednesday when the next group of international players, including Harry Kane, return. His new boss feels the playmaker will be key to the sizable task of getting a squad accustomed to pragmatic, counter-attacking football now in sync with the aggressive, possession-based style set to be used by the Australian. Postecoglou said: “Really excited to get James as part of the group. “Any manager will tell you that part of the key to being a dominant team is having multiple attacking threats and having a midfielder who can score and create goals. “They’re not easy to come by. He’s proven himself at that level in the last few years as somebody who can do that. “When you look at Tottenham the last few years, they’ve been really reliant on the front three to get their goals. “I thought it was a really good fit for us to look for a player like James – even better if we could get James, so we ended up getting James. “I was really pleased and the fact we did it early was great because it allows him to have a break. He’s had the birth of twins so I don’t know what shape he’ll be in when he gets here! “But once we get him in, it means he can come on the tour with us and I know he’s really excited about joining the group. “He obviously knows a few of the lads and I think he’s in a stage of his career where it feels like he can be a leader, which is great as well because we need players who want to embrace that responsibility within this group. “Whether it’s their first year in or they’ve been here for ages, we’re going to need leadership on the field and he feels like he can be a player who does that.” Postecoglou held his first press conference since switching Celtic for Spurs on Monday and struck the right chord between confidence alongside realism. Tottenham finished eighth in the Premier League last season – using three different head coaches – but more significantly have spent the last four years playing counter-attacking football. Gradually it wore down a disgruntled fanbase impatient for success with no trophy since 2008 and while a return to an aggressive, front-foot style will be welcomed, Postecoglou is aware rebooting a squad used to a certain way will be no mean feat. He added: “Absolutely that will be the biggest challenge and that’s what I’m concentrating on at the moment. “We don’t have the whole group here but the guys we have, it’s about changing that mindset and changing the way the players see the game and maybe their roles within in. “Because even with the positions they play, there’s going to be adjustments in how I want them to do things. Again, I love that. That’s why I’m here. “If it was just me rolling up and they’re going out there, doing their thing, it wouldn’t excite me. That’s part of the challenge – it will be a shift from the way the club has played for three or four years. “In terms of how quickly the players embrace that, the new players coming in will help. That’s the part I have control over, whether that’s James Maddison or Guglielmo (Vicario) in goal. “They’re players who fit in the direction I want to go in, which helps. Then it’s about seeing with the existing group how many of them are able to adjust and embrace the way we’re going to play.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Lotte Wubben-Moy excited about England’s potential ahead of World Cup England retain Jonny Bairstow in unchanged squad for fourth Ashes Test Royal Birkdale to host Open Championship in 2026

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Alex Albon has a habit of leaving no stone unturned. Another victim of Red Bull’s brutal driver merry-go-round in 2021, dropped as Max Verstappen’s team-mate for Sergio Perez, the British-Thai driver was desperate for a race seat for 2022. Aware of George Russell’s impending move to Mercedes, Albon approached then-Williams CEO Jost Capito with a list of resources: a CV and an Excel spreadsheet, comparing his superior lap times to his rivals. Suitably impressed by both his determination and statistics, a deal was agreed. “Albono” was back on the grid. So to now, and the rebirth of the 27-year-old at a team rejuvenated. Albon has carved out 21 points in the first 14 races of this season at a team who managed only 39 points from 2018-2022. A five-year period where they were bottom of the pile, the wooden spoon holders, in four of those five years. Sunday’s seventh-place finish at the Italian Grand Prix was Albon’s best performance yet for Williams, more impressive than an identical result in Montreal in June. A display of crisp driving to qualify sixth on Saturday was coupled with dogged defensive work lap after lap on Sunday, even with his tyres dropping off in the final stages in Monza. Though the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull of Sergio Perez had too much pace, Albon had the McLarens on his gearbox for most of the afternoon. But using exquisite car placement and intimate driver nous, that’s exactly where Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri stayed. First to acknowledge Albon’s display was Williams team principal James Vowles, whose influence on this team in his first six months cannot be overstated. Arriving after years of success and experience as Mercedes’ chief strategist, the highly astute 44-year-old was ready to step out of Toto Wolff’s shadow. Tasked with rebuilding a team whose level and morale was rock bottom – the years of title triumphs under Sir Frank Williams in the 1990s a very distant memory now – Vowles was under no illusions to the scale of the challenge. “The main thing is this: what I want to see is positive progress and it won’t be weeks or months, it will be more than that – it’s on a years [long] timescale,” Vowles said, back in March. “There are no short-term solutions, everything is long-term.” Yet if this is what short-term progress looks like, how far can Vowles take this sleeping giant of the sport in the long-term? Williams are currently seventh in the constructors’ standings and a clear seventh at that, leapfrogging Alfa Romeo, Haas and AlphaTauri this season. In Albon, they have a driver who is flourishing as a clear No 1 in the garage. And in Vowles they have an experienced head whose obsession with F1 means, much like his driver, every ounce of effort and second of lap-time will be eked out to the maximum. For example, he was attuned to McLaren’s “dummy” pit-stop late in the day at Monza, with the papaya even shuffling out their mechanics in an attempt to trigger Williams to pit Albon instead. Vowles, who has seen such moves numerous times in his 12 years at Mercedes, could not help but laugh about it afterwards. He also stole a march on Alpine – next up the road, sixth in the standings – by poaching Pat Fry in July to be Williams’ new Chief Technical Officer. The straight-line speed of the FW45 has contributed to top-10 finishes in Bahrain, Silverstone and Zandvoort this year. Even Lewis Hamilton was bemoaning Williams’ pace in qualifying on Saturday – who could have predicted that a few years back? There are still issues to solve, the most prescient their second seat currently occupied by Logan Sargeant. Albon’s sturdy points-tally is in stark contrast to the American rookie, languishing at the bottom of the standings. Point-less after 14 races, another glimpse of a top-10 finish went astray for Sargeant on Sunday. Speculation is rife that Mercedes reserve Mick Schumacher could be thrust into the seat for 2024. Sargeant has eight races left, including two in the US, to prove his worth to Vowles and keep a seat which will be highly sought after if Williams continue in the same direction. Race wins and championships are still some way off. The tally of nine constructors’ crowns and seven drivers’ titles will not change anytime soon. But the gradual renaissance of one of Formula 1’s staple teams – who celebrated their 800th grand prix earlier this year – is one of 2023’s feel-good sub-plots in a season dominated by Red Bull and Max Verstappen. Albon has committed until at least the end of 2024 and is likely to extend further should the top-dogs not come calling. Vowles is, quite clearly, in it for the long-haul. How quick the ascension can arrive remains unclear in the unrelenting arms race that is F1, but both driver and team principal have reinvigorated all personnel in the famed dark blue kit both in the pit-lane and back at base in Oxfordshire. What’s more, neither want to seal the sole limelight. There is no room for overinflated ego. Is this an Alex Albon story? Is it a James Vowles story? What is abundantly clear is that it is a bit of both. Read More The moment McLaren failed with a ‘dummy’ pit-stop over shrewd Williams Max Verstappen breaks new ground with record victory at Italian Grand Prix ‘It was totally my fault’: Lewis Hamilton admits mistake in Italian Grand Prix Carlos Sainz chases down thieves and recovers £500,000 watch in scary Milan incident ‘Box to overtake’: The moment McLaren failed with a ‘dummy’ pit-stop over Williams ‘It was totally my fault’: Lewis Hamilton admits mistake in Italian Grand Prix

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After a night when Internazionale could excitedly imagine a stage that recently seemed unattainable, it is worth considering an alternative future. This could easily have been a Super League game, since both Milan clubs signed up to the ill-fated project. If it was, would it have been anything like the stirring sensory overload that this was? That is something that is simply impossible to imagine. The fans would have of course tried to enliven a relatively sterile round-robin match with the same choreography, but it just couldn’t have had the same emotion, the same force. That is because this precious occasion was so much more than a Milan derby, even as that was what made it unique. It was a consequence of seven decades of history and mystique, much of that when these two clubs have been regular European champions, all of that feeling more acute since neither looked like rising to that level for such a long time. There was almost a contradiction, since it was their very scarcity that made this such a spectacle. It is also cause for consideration. The story of the last 15 years of European football, but one that really stretches back further, is that of Western capitalism and wider political interests looking at occasions like this and deciding they wanted it for their own ends. That story has led to the profound distortion of the game, in a manner that is without precedent in that long history. The two Milan clubs have been victims of this and examples of it. They have not been able to keep financial pace with grander projects elsewhere, which directly resulted in their old industrialist moguls selling up. This has then seen them picked up and picked off by newer models. There remain so many questions about Inter Milan’s ownership. AC Milan’s have meanwhile been extreme modern examples of that very Western capitalism. All of this was supposed to put them outside the game’s new and increasingly calcified elite. And yet the two clubs and their wider communities came together to offer an occasion that so many of these interests are desperate to recreate and capitalise from, but that actually can’t be bought. It is something that will always be separate from such interests, because it can only come organically, and from a shared history and identity. On a more basic level, it’s one reason the Super League plan is flawed. The idea was to recreate these fixtures every week but they can only rise to such levels as a season builds to something, with the inherent peril of elimination infusing it all with something greater. That also raises another point. For all that more and more money is flowing into the game, which the Champions League has done the primary job of generating, the sport doesn’t need these external interests. It is capable of producing this all on its own, as the self-contained cultural pursuit that it should be. Even more pointedly, would football be any lesser if it was 10 percent financially smaller? The players may not be paid the same level but that alone would mean financial gaps are shorter, and allow more clubs to compete. A Milan derby in a Champions League semi-final would be just as precious but for the opposite reason, which should bring more optimism. It wouldn’t be because the same handful of clubs always reach the semi-final. It would be because, like most of European history, a far wider field of clubs would be able to get this far. That is far better for football. If all of this seems complex discussion from such a compelling occasion, it is only because that occasion itself had a purity that is increasingly rare. It was to be savoured. It was also a throwback in another sense. In a modern game of tactical models where system trumps all - of which Milan are another clear example - Inter are like a side from 20 years ago. They are a canny group of individuals, fashioned to whatever force is required for any specific game. That was the winning of this first leg. Inter’s individuals rose to it in an approach cut for the game. It should be stressed this is one reason they have become a cup team and Simone Inzaghi has become known as a cup manager, where they have not really been able to recreate their 2020-21 title victory. This is why clubs like Milan go for that system model, after all. It is more productive over the longer term, representing something of an “algorithmisation” of football. The model was validated last year as the Rossoneri succeeded their bitter rivals to claim the Scudetto under Stefano Piolo. It was just that Inter’s approach played into what a stirring occasion this was. So many of their team - from Lauturo Martinez to Edin Dzeko to the brilliant Federico Dimarco - played to the occasion in the best way possible. If they do complete the job, and get to the final, there is probably more of a danger for Real Madrid and Manchester City than most anticipate. That is for more than just being able to rise to such an occasion, which Inzaghi has been so good at firing. It is also that they have a serious team, that of course came together under Antonio Conte in that title win two seasons ago. There is probably more higher quality than Milan, from Milan Skriniar and Alessandro Bastoni at the back through Dimarco and Nicola Barella in midfield, with Dzeko and Romelu Lukaku up front. The Belgian, on loan from Chelsea, was actually back to looking a level above when he came on. Many will fairly point to the presence of such Premier League veterans as one key reason why they are a level below the elite, especially when the rest of the team is made up of more makeshift options like former Manchester United defender Matteo Darmian. But the point is the inherent quality that can come together on any given occasion, and particularly an occasion like a Champions League final. That’s if they get there, of course. It remains possible that Milan’s process will produce over the longer-term course of two games. They probably should have at least had a goal in a dominant second half. They just lacked that greater quality up front. They lacked the brilliance of Rafael Leao. His return could yet bring a roaring comeback. We could well have an occasion that matches this. That is something all too easy to imagine, and gloriously exciting. Read More Milan derby creates thrilling sensory overload that shows how football should be False 9? 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