Perhaps, at the last, there was a touch of vindication. In Richard Hughes’ final match as Liverpool’s sporting director, the game was decided after just nine minutes. A devastating burst of two goals in three minutes from Alexander Isak, was probably what Hughes had envisaged rather when he committed a British transfer record of £125m to the striker.

When Isak went off and Bradley Barcola came on at Portman Road, Liverpool became the first club to field three £100m signings in the same game, if not at the same time. Hughes’ reign can be framed in high numbers: more than £650m going on new signings in little over a year with Barcola, Isak and Florian Wirtz each accounting for at least £100m of it. It was initially a time of high achievement, too: Liverpool have only won two Premier League titles and the second came after Hughes headhunted Arne Slot from Feyenoord as Jurgen Klopp’s replacement. That, it seemed, was the Liverpool way: intelligent recruitment, sometimes eschewing the obvious candidates for the leftfield coups.

And yet by the end of Hughes’ reign, Liverpool’s reputation was transformed; perhaps his own, too. Last season’s expensive underachievement mean that Hughes’ departure, while there has long been an expectation he will join Al Hilal, mean it may be celebrated by many a Liverpool fan, and not merely because he spent too much time on the south coast and communicated too little.

Last summer’s spending spree, recently dubbed the worst in history by Jamie Carragher, forms part of Hughes’ legacy. Isak’s brace at Ipswich means he has already equalled his total of Premier League goals from last season; but that was just three. He was the face of a strategy and a spending spree that went wrong, but Hughes was the architect of it.

As Liverpool went from taking 84 points to just 60, from finishing first to trailing in fifth, from losing one of Slot’s first 28 games to 20 matches in his second season, the formula the club had developed flaws. The power structure showed cracks. Michael Edwards, who had hired Hughes, informed the club of his intention to stand down as Fenway Sports Group’s director of football. The Scot told the club he wanted to stand down; it may be an indication of the support he retained in the upper echelons that he was asked to stay in charge for the transfer window and, indeed, is credited with completing the signing of Barcola, given the considerable preparatory work he had done on the £106m deal.

It is notable, too, that Hughes had ultimate authority for the managerial change. He backed Slot until, suddenly and perhaps sensing the dissent from stands, he did not, which came as a surprise to the Dutchman. He appointed Andoni Iraola, for the second time, having first taken him to Bournemouth. The Basque may wonder what he has walked into, given the exodus of executives.

The definitive verdict on Hughes’ vast outlay can only come with time. For now, it looks as though the risk is that Liverpool spent two-thirds of a billion to get worse.

Only one of the Hughes buys counts as an unqualified success so far; Hugo Ekitike, now sadly injured. It is, of course, too soon to judge this summer’s four acquisitions, though Jeremy Jacquet looks hugely promising. But the decision to go all-in on the injury-prone Isak backfired last season; it is far from proven that Wirtz suits the Premier League. In seemingly paying over the odds, Hughes’ Liverpool were culpable for raising fees, which in turn cost them when Paris Saint-Germain quoted them £145m for Barcola.

Posterity may look more kindly on Hughes’ dealings. There have been attempts at long-termism. The ages of buys such as Giovanni Leoni, Jacquet, Barcola, Wirtz, Ekitike and Victor Munoz mean he may have shaped Liverpool’s next decade.

Yet it is undeniable that he leaves with a rebuilding job unfinished and the work to do compounded by the continuing failure of Jeremie Frimpong. It is no exaggeration to say Liverpool could be looking for five or six first-team signings next summer.

They still have not replaced Mohamed Salah with a specialist right winger. They have key players, Virgil van Dijk and Alisson included, out of contract and Liverpool spent too much time under Hughes risking losing players on free transfers. Hughes seemed to bank a fine fee for one such, Luis Diaz, and yet his sale to Bayern Munich came to look a mistake.

There will be no soft landing for Hughes’ successor, with a host of priorities in the in-tray. As he goes, it is possible to argue that, like Slot, he was first the right man at right time and then suddenly the wrong one at the wrong time. His reign can be presented as a success or a disappointment. He can say that, for only the second time in three-and-a-half decades, Liverpool won the English title when he was in situ. But it is also true that the silverware came before nearly all of his spending.

Alexandra Eala, of the Philippines, celebrates after a point against Iva Jovic, of the United States, during the third round of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

MANILA, Philippines–Alex Eala kept her head high after a gut-wrenching loss to her friend and budding rival Iva Jovic in the third round of the US Open on Sunday (Manila time).

Eala appeared on her way to the last 16 in Flushing Meadows, leading 4-2 at break point, 40-30, in the deciding set before Jovic mounted a ferocious fightback to steal the game and ultimately the match.

The Filipino star admitted she felt disappointed losing a winnable match but also found solace in how their much-awaited showdown lived up to its billing as a marquee match on the world’s biggest tennis stadium.

READ: Alex Eala mania heads to Singapore Tennis Open next

“I do think I’ve grown as a player since the last time we played each other. I definitely think that in this match, I had my chances and I was able to kind of set myself up with opportunities, which was great and I’m happy with the match in general,” she said in the post-match press conference.

“Of course, there’s disappointment with losing, but [I’m] trying to see the positive side. I think it was a really good match. I think the level was really high. Congrats to Iva for pushing through.”

Eala fell to Jovic for the third time in as many meetings this season after getting swept by the American teen sensation in the first round at Roland Garros last May and the round of 16 at Queen’s Club just 15 days later.

Even though the result was the same, Eala closed the gap and pushed Jovic to her limit this time before absorbing a 5-7, 6-3, 5-7 defeat in their three-hour slugfest.

“What I learned tonight, I have yet to process, but what I know for sure is that I left everything out there. I fought through the ups and downs, moments where I wasn’t playing so good, [and] moments where I was playing really good. What I know for a fact is that I fought, so I’m happy with that,” the 21-year-old Eala said.

Conor Benn has poured cold water on a potential unification match, which could have become realistic if he manages to dethrone Ryan Garcia.

The pair will collide at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena on September 12, with Garcia making a first defence of his WBC world welterweight title.

He claimed the belt with arguably a career-best performance against Mario Barrios, who he dropped and unanimously outpointed in February.

It is never easy to predict what version of Garcia will turn up, however, as his previous outing resulted in a convincing points defeat to Rolando Romero in May 2025.

This followed a year-long doping ban, though, and with the 28-year-old coming off a vastly improved display, he is heavily favoured to retain his title against Benn.

Not only does Garcia boast speed advantage but it is worth considering, too, that Benn has not made 147lbs since 2022, back when he tested positive for banned substance clomifene.

More recently, the 29-year-old has insisted that Garcia will be his last welterweight opponent, while telling Ring Magazine that he could subsequently campaign as high as super-middleweight.

“There’s no excuses – it’s just my last fight at 147[lbs] to dominate, get the belt and move on. Then [I’ll move up to] 168[lbs].”

By outlining his desire to abandon any opportunities at 147lbs, Benn has effectively ruled himself out of a clash with Teofimo Lopez, who claimed his WBA welterweight strap by dethroning Romero last month.

This is in spite of the fact that his manager, Keith Connolly, who also represents Lopez, is attempting to bypass a mandatory obligation against Jack Catterall so that ‘The Takeover’ can face the winner of Garcia-Benn, or perhaps fellow champions Devin Haney or Liam Paro, in his next outing.

If Benn sticks to his word, the WBC welterweight world title will be made vacant and the sanctioning body will then name the two top contenders who will compete for it, with Souleymane Cissokho, Raul Curiel, Brian Norman Jr and Richardson Hitchins behind Benn in the top five.

The beds are a little over six feet long, the walls are close, and there is little room for anything beyond the essentials.

For some of India’s athletes, however, spending a night inside a shipping container at the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports (NSNIS) here is less about discomfort and more about preparation for an unusual living arrangement awaiting them in Japan at the Asian Games.

With the Aichi-Nagoya Games beginning September 19 and no conventional athletes’ village this time, Sports Authority of India (SAI) has set up makeshift container rooms at its centres in Patiala and Bengaluru to give its athletes a taste of what they can expect in Japan.

The idea is to make the unfamiliar familiar.

Athletes are taking turns to spend a night inside the container, waking up the next morning and following their usual routine before heading to training.

By the time they reach Japan, the hope is that their accommodation will no longer be a distraction.

“Two years ago, when it was established that the accommodation at the Asian Games will be in a unique style — containers, cruise etc. — and not a village, at that time the Sports Minister’s vision was that the players must be acclimatised in a similar way, like a simulator,” Deputy Director General, SAI, Vineet Kumar told a select group of journalists at NSNIS, Patiala.

“And they don’t feel claustrophobic or feel what sort of accommodation we have come in. So they don’t feel shocked or get a setback and they go and play the Games without any pressure,” Kumar, who is also the Senior Executive Director, NSNIS, Patiala, added.

For athletes, accustomed to sprawling rooms and dedicated spaces for their equipment, the compact surroundings can take some getting used to.

But two-time Asian Games champion shot putter Tajinderpal Singh Toor believes the advance preparation could make a difference.

“It looks small from outside but it’s quite nice on the inside. All the facilities are here. This will be the first time that we stay in such a congested set-up but having stayed here it’s good we are acclimatised,” Toor told PTI.

“If we had directly gone to Japan, it would have stayed in our mind for one or two days,” added the the six feet four inches tall two-time Asian Games gold medallist.

That is precisely what SAI and the Ministry wanted to avoid.

“The psychology of the athlete is such that if a logistical issue like this is there, it affects him. So the Minister’s vision was that such a thing doesn’t happen and the players can focus on their game,” Kumar said.

A Ministry-SAI team visited Japan on a recce trip before the two simulation rooms in Patiala — one for men and one for women — were prepared based on what Indian athletes are expected to encounter.

“We have made a roster and the athletes stay here turn by turn. They have to stay the night so that in the morning they know how to go about things,” Kumar said.

The exercise began on August 28 and around eight athletes have so far spent time in the container.

For Commonwealth Games bronze medallist discus thrower Seema Kaliramna, the experience took some adjustment.

“I stayed here for two nights. It was a bit difficult to adjust because throwers take a little more space and this is quite small. The second day was good, I was able to sleep properly. The life of an athlete has a lot of adjustment, then only they win something,” she said.

The simulation has removed an element of uncertainty, according to her.

“Staying here will help as we won’t feel claustrophobia. I am thankful to SAI for doing this. Now the fear of not knowing how the accommodation will be in Japan is gone. I feel better as we won’t be thinking how it will be there and how we will feel,” she said.

SAI has nevertheless tried to make the limited space as functional as possible.

The roughly 13-metre-long and three-metre-wide unit has two twin-sharing bedroom quarters at either end, linked by a narrow central passage.

There are two split air-conditioners, a small laundry area with a washing machine and a compact kitchenette with a refrigerator and sink. The bathroom is divided into separate spaces for the wash basin, toilet and shower.

Four cabinets provide storage, while the space underneath the beds can accommodate heavy kit bags — an important consideration for athletes travelling with bulky equipment.

“The athletes have given a positive feedback. They feel like ‘yeh jungle mei mangal kaise ho gaya’,” Kumar said.

There is also a sustainability element to the experiment.

The two containers were already available at the NSNIS, having been used during the COVID-19 pandemic to store equipment for weightlifting and athletics.

Their sporting purpose will end after the Asian Games simulation, but the containers themselves will remain in use. They are planned to be converted into guest houses, with two beds removed to create twin-sharing rooms.

Prince Naseem Hamed is struggling to wrap his head around the value of a stateside showdown between British heavyweights Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.

The pair agreed separate deals for a 2026 contest earlier this year, before entering respective warm-up matches against Mariusz Wach and Kristian Prenga in July.

It then emerged that November 20 is the targeted date, with Fury having stopped Wach in seven rounds and Joshua surviving two knockdowns to score a second-round finish.

Since then, though, the location of their long-awaited clash has become a major talking point, with Matchroom boss Eddie Hearn claiming that ‘AJ’ has agreed to collide on British soil.

The particulars of Fury’s contract remain a little more hazy, meanwhile, yet the 38-year-old has expressed no issue with facing Joshua at the proposed venue of Madison Square Garden, New York.

For the past month or so, this has seemed the most likely destination, with Netflix and Turki Alalshikh preferring to take advantage of a wider audience in America.

While speaking with IFL TV, however, Hall of Famer Hamed argued that the appetite for a Fury-Joshua encounter is far greater in the UK.

“That fight should be at Wembley [Stadium, London], and that fight should be enjoyed by the whole of the UK first.

“Firstly, that fight is literally six or seven years too late. Secondly, that’s a British fight. For them to go to America and fight at Madison Square Garden, or wherever … in my eyes, it doesn’t make no sense.”

While an announcement is yet to emerge, Hearn has most recently confirmed that talks have reopened for Fury and Joshua to lock horns at Wembley.

The transfer window is shut and it ended with some frustration for Manchester United, who couldn’t add a left-back to their squad in the final hours of deadline day.

The club also blocked a loan move for Joshua Zirkzee to Everton and United ended the window without making a new addition on deadline day for the first time since 2019.

On the pitch, fortunes at least improved from the opening weekend as Ipswich Town were swept aside 5-2, with Bruno Fernandes the star of the show once again.

The college football rankings have a slightly different release schedule in Week 1, allowing voters in the AP Top 25 poll to take in all of the action across a five-day game week before resorting their ballots. So while most of the action from the first full weekend of the 2026 season has completed, we still have four more games before the full post-Week 1 picture is complete. 

And since the action remaining includes multiple ranked teams, we don’t have a full top 25 projection just yet on Saturday night. Usually, here in the Tomorrow’s Top 25 Today space, we can give a full rundown of what we think the new top 25 will look like on Sunday. With the unique schedule, we’re left to wait until Monday night for the full top 25 projection and stick with some rankings-focused takeaways here on Saturday night.

Week 1 included some lopsided results on the top 25 scoreboard that will keep many voters stuck in their preseason opinions about top teams, but we’ve identified a few performances that could have voters rethinking their stance and shaking up the rankings heading into Week 2. The ranking adjustments in these situations may be just a few spots in the top 25, but it would signal a change in how teams have or have not lived up to expectations in their first game of the season. 

With no concern about Ohio State’s No. 1 status following a 53-point win against Ball State, the conversation begins at No. 2 with some potential fallout from the Ducks surviving an upset scare.  

No. 2 Oregon — Down

The margins are simply too thin at the top to think that AP voters won’t reshuffle the top of their ballots in a way that results in the Ducks giving up at least a spot or two following the 34-27 win against Boise State. Oregon was one of five teams that received first-place votes in the preseason balloting, and that group doesn’t include No. 3 Georgia, which is not too far off the pace in voting points. The Ducks had a strong argument for No. 1 and didn’t play their best on a big stage in their first game of the season. Dan Lanning will take a win and a strong performance from star quarterback Dante Moore as positives, but there’s a lot of room for improvement in terms of Oregon meeting the expectations that they have for themselves, much less the expectations of the AP voters. Before Week 1, there was a solid argument for Oregon being the best of those national title contenders in the top seven of the rankings. But given the quality of Saturday’s performance, some voters will be changing their position on the Ducks.   

No. 11 LSU — Up

The primary question is how high LSU will climb after an absolute throttling of a Clemson team ranked No. 23 in the Coaches Poll and finishing 26th in the AP poll voting in the preseason. Lane Kiffin’s Tigers looked faster at every turn and simply in a different weight class from the visitors from the ACC, and it’s sensible to predict that any voters doubting LSU’s standing as a potential College Football Playoff contender had some of their concerns alleviated with the blowout win. Now there is still probably a ceiling for how high LSU can climb with that top seven group still holding strong in their own tier, a fact that’s backed up by the first-place votes and the voting points, but an AP poll move into the top 10 should be expected and depending on Ole Miss‘ result on Sunday night the Tigers could find themselves as high as No. 8 when the new college football rankings reset on Tuesday.

No. 13 Alabama — Up

AP voters were relatively cautious with Alabama on their preseason ballots, resulting in the first set of preseason rankings since 2007 that the Crimson Tide were not ranked inside the top 10. There were fair reasons for caution, or even concern, as Kalen DeBoer’s squad was turning over its quarterback position and looking to bounce back from a sub-standard season running the football. Alabama seemed to answer both the quarterback and ground game questions in a 48-10 win against ECU, with Keelon Russell flashing his dual-threat ability (team-high 86 rushing yards) and three combined rushing touchdowns between Daniel Hill and five-star freshman E.J. Crowell. Beating a Group of Six opponent at home as a four-score favorite is not going to draw enough attention for a major move up in the rankings. But given the tight voting margins between Oklahoma at No. 10 and Alabama at No. 13, it’s likely that the Crimson Tide will have a chance to move up closer to that top-10 cut-off.   

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No. 14 USC — Up

This Trojans team has done about everything you would want through 120 minutes of action, holding a +55 combined scoring margin with one bad garbage time showing in Week 0 as the only complaint. USC kept its boot on Fresno State’s back in a 39-0 win on Friday night, giving new defensive coordinator Gary Patterson his first shutout as a Trojan. Like Alabama, USC is not as far from the top 10 in voting points as its ranking may seem. So while a lot hinges on No. 9 Ole Miss’ performance on Sunday night, it’s likely the Trojans’ two wins have done enough to change the mind of some of those lower-end opinions of Lincoln Riley’s 2026 squad. Most voters are fairly locked in on having USC between Nos. 12 and 15, but 17 different voters have USC ranked No. 16 or lower, including four voters who have the Trojans slotted in the 20’s. If those tail-end voters even move USC up to No. 15, it could cause the kind of changes that have USC moving up a couple spots. 

No. 16 Michigan — Down

While Oregon might have lost some stock in the debate to be the No. 1 team in the country, it’s fair to review Michigan’s status as a top 25 team after Saturday night’s showing against Western Michigan. The Wolverines may have survived an upset scare in epic last-second fashion, but that doesn’t change the nearly three-and-a-half quarters of disappointing play from a team that was projected to be a College Football Playoff contender. The offense could not get out of its own way early, and the defense couldn’t get off the field in key moments late. Bryce Underwood underwhelmed after an offseason that provided narratives about his improvement, but he gets credit for stepping up to deliver with the final throw in the 13-12 win. In terms of voting points, Michigan was closer to USC and BYU (both tied for 14th) in the preseason balloting than it was to No. 17 Washington. But after this close call, it’s fair to wonder if the Wolverines could slip closer to Penn State at No. 18 … or lower. 

No. 23 Houston — Down

A double-digit home win that included powering through a weather delay should not, in theory, be penalized in the rankings. But if there’s a team that needs to get bumped from the top 25 to make room for a new arrival, the Cougars’ closer-than-expected victory against Oregon State could put them on the chopping block. Houston played well in a 33-20 win and largely controlled the game, but Oregon State was able to hang around enough to cut the lead to six points midway through the fourth quarter. Perhaps the Beavers are better than the betting markets perceive, but the fact that Houston was favored by nearly three touchdowns and found itself in a dogfight late could impact the team’s perception just enough to cut through those small margins on the edge of a top 25 ballot. Houston might not fall out of the top 25 entirely, but dropping a spot or two as voters shuffle teams in the 20s would not be a surprise.    

No. 26 Clemson — Down 

The Tigers were ranked No. 23 in the Coaches Poll in the preseason and checked in as the first team in “Others receiving votes” for the AP Top 25 poll, falling just five voting points behind No. 25 Missouri. Clemson appeared on 35 of 69 ballots as a top 25 team in the preseason, checking in as high as No. 15 on one ballot. However, after their woeful performance in Baton Rouge, it’s fair to project that any voter will have a tough time arguing for Clemson as one of the 25 best teams in the country heading into Week 2.

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No. 28 Boise State — Up

The AP Top 25 preseason poll was released on Aug. 17, and at the time, I don’t think there was too much thought about Boise State as a contender on the national stage. Fifty-four voters left Boise State off their ballot, and while the Broncos were slotted as high as No. 18 (on two ballots), there was nothing close to majority support from the AP Top 25 poll electorate. We project that while moving up in the rankings with a loss is counterintuitive, Boise State exceeding expectations against Oregon will embolden voters who already ranked the team and may draw attention from others who didn’t consider them a top-25 team in early August. The Broncos will enter Week 2 as a favorite to win the newly expanded Pac-12 and seem to have a team good enough to contend for a return to the College Football Playoff. They’re probably not going to be ranked quite yet after the seven-point loss at Oregon, but that performance against a top-two team on that stage will be favorably remembered by AP voters the rest of the season. Look for Boise State to remain in the “Others receiving votes” category, but with a few more votes.