In 2011, PSG were a paradox: a major European capital with a vast talent pool, yet a club lacking structure, prestige and stability.

They had no stars, no sustainable model and no clear footballing philosophy.

Despite having had big names like Ronaldinho, Pauleta, Ludovic Giuly and Claude Makelele in the first decade of the 21st Century, PSG needed to be seen in the eyes of the football world as relevant and credible before they could even dream of competing with Europe’s elite.

The ultras were banned after violence ended in the death of a fan, leaving the Parc des Princes without its most passionate supporters for the first five years of the new era. They only came back in 2016 when Al-Khelaifi decided the majority could not be held responsible for the actions of a few.

The early years of QSI were defined by aggressive spending. Critics labelled it the ‘bling‑bling era’ but internally it was seen as the quickest way to get to the top.

As is the case with Newcastle and Manchester City, PSG have had to answer questions about the source of their funding and their owners have been accused of ‘sportswashing’, which is when nations invest in sports to help clean up their tarnished reputations.

Signing global superstars – Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Neymar, Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi – helped force PSG into the global conversation.

This phase brought domestic dominance and deep Champions League runs. But it also created internal tensions. Stars dictated dressing‑room dynamics, influenced tactical decisions and sometimes overshadowed the collective with inane disputes over things like training schedules or even who should take penalties.

The 18-year-old Mbappe and his family told club representatives he would join PSG instead of Real Madrid only if he was guaranteed to play every game – and Neymar had it written into his contract that he had the power to decide not to travel to some games.

When basketball legend Kobe Bryant visited the old training ground, Neymar and Mbappe wanted to break with the schedule prepared by then head coach Unai Emery.

He had them resting. They wanted to train with a sometimes-missing enthusiasm to impress Kobe. That battle was won by Emery – but those clashes left scars.

This era built PSG’s global brand but it also exposed the limitations of a star‑centric model.

It would be negligent to write about Arsenal beating a direct opponent without mentioning their most effective tool this season.

PSG have only conceded 29 goals in the league this season but six of them have come from non-penalty set-pieces. The size of their squad makes this an obvious area of weakness.

Thomas Frank’s Spurs lost to PSG in the Champions League earlier this season but managed to score three goals, one coming from a corner. They also lost on penalties against them in the Uefa Super Cup in August, scoring both goals in a 2-2 draw from crossed free kicks.

Under Frank, Spurs adopted various Arteta-isms including making set-plays one of their main methods of breaking teams down.

For all three set-piece goals, Spurs targeted the back post before heading the ball back across goal, either for a teammate or directly to goal.

PSG appear uncomfortable dealing with crosses that float over their heads as they track back and the header back in the other direction goes against the direction they are moving in, giving the attacking side, who know where the ball will go, an advantage.

Arsenal are even better placed for that, so if they are able to get up the pitch in the first place, forcing corner kicks or winning free-kicks will produce good looks at goal.

While there is little that can be done about potential moments of brilliance, there are at least signs of hope that Arsenal can hurt the defending champions.

That’s the message from Peter Darrant, CEO of OUT North East, following Sunderland City Council’s decision to stop flying the Pride flag at City Hall.

The move was confirmed in a social media post from Reform UK Sunderland, which announced that the St George’s flag will now be flown outside City Hall 365 days a year.

(Image: Reform UK Sunderland)

Cllr Ciera Hudspith, portfolio holder for culture, tourism and heritage, said: “Any flag flown outside a governing body should represent our nation and our country as a whole, not a sectional interest.

“Time and time again on the doorstep, residents told us they were confused as to why England’s flag was not flying outside City Hall all year round.”

She added that only national and civic flags will be flown at City Hall, meaning the exclusion of the Pride flag.

Mr Darrant said: “We are very disappointed to have seen posts on social media from a Reform UK-run council in the North East that they are banning the Pride flag from council buildings.

“We believe this is the wrong decision.

Peter Darrant, CEO of OUT North East (Image: OUT North East)

“While Pride was born from protest and the fight for the right to exist openly and equally, the Pride flag today is also a symbol of community, inclusion and belonging.

“For many LGBTQ+ people, seeing it displayed publicly is a sign that they are welcome, valued and supported.

“Removing the Pride flag from public buildings risks sending the opposite message at a time when visibility and solidarity still matter deeply to many people.”

He also warned that the decision could harm the city’s reputation with external stakeholders.

He said: “Decisions like this also risk sending the wrong message to investors, partners, organisations and visitors who increasingly expect places to demonstrate that they are modern, inclusive and welcoming communities.”

Mr Darrant added: “It will leave potential investors wondering, ‘is this actually a modern city we want to invest in?’.

“We’ll still argue the case that it is.”

A panel of the three Wetherby Leeds City Councillors, the Mayor and a North Yorkshire councillor spoke at the meeting hosted by the community group Better Wetherby.

The meeting at Wetherby Methodist Church was attended by around 200 people, who heard that whilst Wetherby has confirmed housing needs met until 2042, the North Yorkshire side of town is vulnerable to massive development.

This is because the sections to the north of Wetherby are affected by North Yorkshire’s target of 4,300 homes a year and that county is not set to adopt a new Local Plan until 2029.

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Green Party Councillor Penny Stables, one of three councillors who spoke at the event, said:“We are in a situation where Westminster is imposing huge housing targets, while at the same time there are already large numbers of approved developments being held as land banks by developers seeking to maximise profit.

A roundtable discussion on the issue (Image: Pic supplied)

“It was a really positive meeting convened by Better Wetherby, and encouraging to see different political parties working together on such an important issue for our area. Greens, Conservatives and Labour are all in agreement on this. We now need the support  of the Mayors of both the West and North Yorkshire Combined Authorities.”

Cllr Allan Lamb (Conservative), who organised the meeting, presented a developer map which he said suggested that up to 5,000 homes could potentially be built through a patchwork of smaller developments around the area in what they’re calling the “Wetherby Urban Expansion”. 

Cllr Lamb told the Press afterwards that the housing proposals stem from central government trebling North Yorkshire’s housing targets.

The Wetherby Urban Expansion (Image: Pic supplied)

North Yorkshire also hasn’t been given enough time by central government to develop and adopt its Local Plan.

Cllr Lamb continued: “They (developers) are using this as a way to get housing sites in places they would not otherwise get them. It won’t mean homes being built faster, they will just be built on more sites.

“Democracy is also being taken away as sites over 150 homes that are going to be refused will go to the Secretary of State for determination.”

Cllr Lamb added he was encouraging people to write to the Mayors of West and North Yorkshire and the leader of Leeds City Council on the issue.

He added: “Wetherby is doing it’s bit already.”

Thursday’s meeting also saw Wetherby Mayor Connor Mulhall highlight concerns that, if all proposed developments were approved, the area could face an additional 30,000–40,000 car journeys per day.

He warned that Wetherby’s historic infrastructure and narrow road network were not designed to cope with that level of traffic.

Better Wetherby also announced that it is commissioning a highways report to examine the transport infrastructure improvements needed to support both current and future demand in the area.

How do you feel about this and other housing plans in the area? Do we need this number of homes. Have your say and continue the conversation in the comments below.

Early dabbawalas transported lunchboxes on bicycles and marked them with coloured threads so they could be sorted and returned accurately. Over time, those markings were replaced with a unique alphanumeric code system, while deliveries came to rely on bicycles, motorbikes and Mumbai’s suburban train network.

Robert Tollast, land warfare expert at the Royal United Service Institute, told BBC Verify that some brigades were estimated to need up to 1,000 tonnes of fuel, food, ammunition and other key supplies every day. He said Ukraine had previously used a long-range strike campaign against Russian air defence units, but the new drone strike ranges “are something else”.

EXCLUSIVE: A former SNP strategist has shed new light on the close working relationship between the couple that ran the party for more than a decade.

Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell were “tight” and made decisions “around the breakfast table instead of the boardroom”, a former senior SNP adviser has said.

Kirk Torrance, who worked at the Nationalists’ HQ in Edinburgh for seven years, told the Record he did not find credible the former first minister’s repeated claims that she was unaware of her estranged husband’s 10-year spending spree.

“I mean, she takes every opportunity to wax lyrical about how much of a micro-manager she is,” he said.

The ex-SNP leader has faced ridicule after she used an appearance at a book festival in Ireland on Thursday to claim she wasn’t aware of the multiple expensive items of kitchenware Murrell had purchased with party cash “I didn’t spend any time in my kitchen”.

Murrell, 61, served as chief executive of the SNP for two decades and married Sturgeon in 2010. They shared a suburban home on the eastern edge of Glasgow before separating last year.

Murrell pled guilty at the High Court in Edinburgh this week to embezzling more than £400,000 from his employers during a decade-long spending spree.

Torrance worked for the SNP as a digital and political strategist from 2009-2016, an era which saw the party win a majority of MSPs at Holyrood in 2011 and secure a referendum on independence in 2014.

He told the Record: “Nicola’s not been charged with any offence, and that must be respected of course, but people are going to find it very difficult to believe, given how centralised the SNP was, that it could operate like that for so many years.”

Asked if he thought the ex-FM’s denials were credible, Torrance said: “No, absolutely not. I mean, she takes every opportunity to wax lyrical about how much of a micro-manager she is.

“Things had become so centralised, with decisions made around the breakfast table instead of the boardroom table. Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell were tight.

“Alex would come into the HQ and say hello to everybody, ask after family members. Nicola would come into the HQ and not say hello to anybody.

“She would walk right up to Peter’s desk, she would tap him on the shoulder, he would look up, she would walk into the library and he would follow. They would spend a few hours in there. Then they would both come out, she would leave, and Peter would call a meeting to tell us what we were doing.”

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Torrance quit his job with the SNP in 2016, two years after Sturgeon succeeded Alex Salmond as leader, and claimed by then “things were becoming politically and culturally unhealthy in the party”.

He added: “I thought power was becoming concentrated too much. Alex himself said that, that a leader shouldn’t have been married to the chief executive. And I think it’s one of the reasons why Nicola fell out with Alex.

“Meetings became tenser. It was noticeable that Peter became short-tempered and angry. I don’t know why, but you can only imagine.

“Nicola became increasingly controlling. It was a bad atmosphere. And I had other projects in mind so I took the opportunity to head off.

“Once organisations stop tolerating internal disagreement, they start making bad decisions.”

Torrance said he had no inkling that Murrell was embezzling party funds during their time working together.

“Peter Murrell gave me opportunities professionally during the SNP’s most succesfull years and I’ll always acknowledge that,” he added.

“But what’s happened here is deeply sad to me and deeply disappointing. It’s a terrible situation. We’re not dealing with online rumour anymore, he’s admitted to the fact.”

Sturgeon said on Thursday she had not questioned how her former husband was able to purchase some items as they were both on “high salaries”.

She said she had never seen some of the “stuff” reported this week, but added: “Things that I did recognise, none of it would have made me question.”

“We were two people on high salaries, no kids. I was doing a job – and this is another factor – I was doing a job that had me working around the clock, away from home a lot of the time.”

She added: “Maybe this doesn’t reflect well on me: I didn’t spend a lot of time in my kitchen – spend any time in my kitchen – but I would never question that some of these things he was buying that I was aware of he couldn’t have afforded, because on the basis of our incomes he could have afforded it.”

Speaking at Listowel Writers’ Week in Co Kerry, Sturgeon said: “This has been probably the worst week of my life and you know the last few years have had some tough ones for me, but this one, I think, surpasses all of them.

“You’re coming to terms with the fact that you spent many years – I spent many years – married to somebody that, as it turns out, I obviously didn’t know at all.

“It’s a really painful truth to process, and I think I’m only in the very early stages of processing it. And then to be in a position of such public turmoil myself makes that even harder.”

Sturgeon told the audience said she was “completely exonerated” following the Operation Branchform investigation and “totally cleared” after a “lengthy” and “very forensic” police investigation.

What’s a kola nut, and what other flavours are involved?

Anything else?

My hack to reduce holiday stress is a no-brainer to reduce travel anxiety

As a travel writer, I often find it surprises people to learn how disenchanted I am with airports. You may well think of Gatwick as the gateway to an adventure to sunnier climes, but when you travel as much as I do, it’s another stressful dash to make your flight by the seat of your pants.

Admittedly, my discontent stems from leading a disorganised life and always imagining I had more time than the Gregorian calendar allows.

This delightful personality quirk has previously led to booking buses that arrive as the gate is about to close, prompting a frantic dash through the airport, with so much adrenaline coursing through my veins that I thought my heart might burst through my chest, like a scene from Alien (seven coffees probably didn’t help).

As I age disgracefully, I have come to realise that I can no longer tolerate this level of stress (and frankly, neither can my long-suffering husband), so I decided to spend a little extra to make my trips a lot less stressful and reduce my chances of having to live alone as a spinster above a chip shop.

My hack in recent years to reduce holiday stress is simply to book an airport hotel for the night before my morning or early-afternoon flight.

I appreciate that it sounds like a no-brainer solution, but after years of backpacking and budget travel, I always try to cut costs and find the cheapest way to travel.

However, as I am now old and tired, I’ve found the additional cost of booking an airport hotel the night before an early flight is the ultimate stress-free travel hack.

You eliminate morning traffic anxiety, get extra sleep, and, in some cases, gain access to ‘twilight bag drop’ services, where you check your bags the evening before so you can breeze through security the next morning.

I cannot tell you how much travel stress has been reduced by simply booking an affordable hotel close to the airport so that I can wake up and be at the terminal in a flash, without worrying about traffic jams, train strikes, or my car breaking down on the M5 again.

With more early-morning departures than ever and airlines continuing to push ultra-early take-off times, getting organised and planning ahead is the key to travelling like a pro.

If you’re savvy, you also don’t have to spend a fortune; you can get some great deals on airport hotels on sites like Booking.com or Hotels.com.

If you book your airport hotels via a cashback site like Quidco, you can even get money back on your purchase to put towards another trip. Read more about my favourite Cashback hack here and make sure to follow me on TikTok for more travel tips and destination advice.

Data shows that UK airport hotels are becoming even more affordable due to off-peak pricing, increased budget-chain competition, and bundled “park-and-stay” packages, which are helping to offset general inflation.

A quick search on the Booking.com app shows that for next week, you can bag decent hotels near Heathrow Airport for as little as £62 per night for two adults. You can go even cheaper, but obviously, the quality might be dubious.

Now, I concede that for a family of five, my hotel hack might not be as cheap, but I did spot a Holiday Inn family deal with a free kid’s stay for just £143.

One of my favourite stays near Heathrow is the ibis London Heathrow Airport, which is super close to Terminals 2 & 3 and is on the Hotel Hopper route and on local bus routes to the airport.

It’s a wallet-friendly stay, typically costing around £70 for a double room, decor is fresh and contemporary with nods towards music, and there is air-con (a scarce commodity at most budget Heathrow hotels).

It’s got all the amenities you might expect from a three-star hotel, including free wifi, toiletries, a hairdryer, TV and fan. Connecting rooms are available if you are travelling with your whole family or as part of a group.

Downstairs, there is a restaurant and bar, so you can have dinner in the airport if you wish and a buffet breakfast in the morning, which I particularly enjoyed. Why yes, I will have a full English, fruit, yoghurt and some pastry chasers, I’m not paying airport prices for food.

The main sell (other than the bar) is that for me, it’s actually cheaper to get the bus from Cardiff the night before and book a night here (or equivalent – the Best Western is also around £70) rather than pay for petrol and parking at the airport. Leaving more money for treats, which is the kind of girl math I can fully get behind. For money-saving tips, sign up to our Money newsletter here

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Of course, I don’t always fly from Heathrow; many of my trips start from Gatwick, and my preferred stay there is BLOC Hotel Gatwick.

These sleek, soundproof rooms are ideally situated for both terminals, just a few short steps from the South Terminal departure lounge, so you can hop out of bed and be in the security line in mere minutes, allowing for a longer lie-in.

A welcome bonus: you’ll also bag a complimentary Fast Track Security pass if you book your stay directly on the Bloc Hotel website, letting you beat the queues.

At Bristol Airport, I have yet to find a good deal on their only on-site hotel, Hampton by Hilton, but there are several reasonably priced off-site B&Bs and hotels. If you are travelling without a car, I would try to find accommodation along the A1 Bristol Flyer route that takes you to the airport.

Alternatively, book a stay in Bristol city centre and get the A1 bus in the morning. My personal favourite is the Moxy Hotel, which has a 24/7 lobby bar where guests check in and receive a complimentary welcome drink, a game zone, a fitness space, and modern rooms equipped with Chromecast TVs.

With a trip looming where I’ll be departing from Birmingham this time, I’ll be scouting for hotel deals to once again avoid the same-day departure stress and instead have a lovely kip, knowing I’ll be waking up near the airport all nice and smug.

Unless I forget to set the alarm, that is. If anyone knows any alarm hacks, please send them my way. I would be most grateful.

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