MANCHESTER, England: Wayne Rooney endured a tough final year at Manchester United while his status at the club was slowly eroded, and his first return to Old Trafford since his offseason departure might be just as uncomfortable.
Everton, Rooney’s new club, heads there for an English Premier League match on Sunday in dreadful form, puncturing the optimism generated over the summer by Rooney’s homecoming after 13 years away and a slew of other expensive signings.
Back-to-back 3-0 losses — to Tottenham in the league and Atalanta in the Europa League — over the past week followed Everton’s lackluster 2-0 defeat at Chelsea before the two-week break for internationals.
Hardly ideal preparation for a trip to United, the Premier League leader and highest-scoring team in the division.
Already, the preseason talk of Everton, whose last trophy was the 1995 FA Cup, finally being in a position to close the gap to England’s established heavyweight has evaporated.
Everton manager Ronald Koeman acknowledged on Friday there was “enough reason to be worried” and called for his “experienced players to stand up.” Koeman said he has set up a meeting with the senior members of his squad to address his concerns.
“I saw a team with a lot of doubts,” Koeman said of the chastening loss to Atalanta on Thursday.
The biggest problem for Everton is the lack of pace and presence up front. The club spent 140 million pounds ($190 million) in the transfer window — bringing in attacking midfielders Gylfi Sigurdsson, Davy Klaassen and Nikola Vlasic, goalkeeper Jordan Pickford and defender Michael Keane — but didn’t successfully replace Romelu Lukaku, who was sold to United for at least 75 million pounds (then $97 million).
Sandro Ramirez and Rooney were forward signed by Koeman in the offseason but neither player is in the mold of Lukaku, a powerful target man who stretches defenses with his pace.
Sigurdsson, Klaassen and Rooney all like playing the No. 10 role, behind the striker, and their attributes appear too similar to fit in the same team. Koeman tried to do so against Atalanta, and it didn’t work out.
Put simply, Everton is too easy to defend against. In four Premier League games, the team has scored two goals — both coming from Rooney, who has been one of the few players to escape criticism.
So far, anyway.
Rooney is expected to get a warm reception from United’s fans at Old Trafford. He spent 13 years at United, and was its most recent captain and all-time record scorer with 253.
“He will get the welcome he deserves,” United manager Jose Mourinho said on Friday. “In this country, the word ‘legend’ comes too easy. That’s not his case. He is a real legend at this club.
“The stadium will show him the respect that he deserves, I hope before the match and after the match but not during the match.”
After being marginalized last season in Mourinho’s first year in charge, Rooney — a player who always takes the field feeling he has a point to prove — will be determined to show he can still cut it on the highest stage.
Current form suggests, however, that Everton and Rooney are in for a difficult afternoon. It also remains to be seen if Rooney is in the right frame of mind to play, considering he is due to appear in court on Monday to answer a charge of drunk-driving.
Asked whether his own job might be under pressure, Koeman said he knew modern-day soccer was “all about winning and results.
“I’m too long in the job to think any different,” he said.
What will help Everton is the absence of United midfielder Paul Pogba, who picked up a hamstring injury in the Champions League in midweek.
But in Lukaku, United has a player who can remind Everton of exactly what they are missing.
With Everton wobbling, Rooney set for tough return to United
With Everton wobbling, Rooney set for tough return to United
T20 cricket set to dominate game’s landscape in 2026
- Inexorable rise of one of sport’s controlling forces
Following the end of the Ashes series in Australia, it has not taken long for cricket’s longest format — Test cricket — to be overwhelmed by the T20 format.
Apart from the 50-over Under-19s World Cup taking place in Namibia, it seems that, wherever one turns, there are only T20 tournaments.
Two explanations for this situation are the looming ICC Men’s and Women’s World Cups. The men’s event, to be jointly hosted by India and Sri Lanka, starts on Feb. 7, while the women’s tournament starts on June 12 in England.
The women’s event will comprise 12 teams, the largest number ever, of which eight have qualified already. The other four will emerge from 10 teams competing in a qualifying tournament in Nepal. This began on Jan. 18 and will end on Feb. 1. The teams have been divided into two groups of five and will play each other once. Group A comprises Bangladesh, Ireland, Namibia, Papua New Guinea and the US, with the Netherlands, Nepal, Scotland, Thailand and Zimbabwe in Group B. The top three teams will qualify for the Super Six stage in which the three teams from Group A will play the three teams from Group B. Points earned against the other two qualifying teams from each group are carried forward. The top four teams at the end of the Super Six will qualify for the World Cup in June.
The four highest-ranked teams in the competition are Ireland, Bangladesh, Scotland and Thailand. They are expected to progress to the Super Sixes but it remains to be seen if each of them will reach the main event in June. Thailand will probably face tough challenges against Ireland and Bangladesh in the Super Six stage. The Thai team are in good form, having triumphed in the ICC Women’s Emerging Nations Trophy and won double gold medals in the women’s cricket competitions in the SE Asia Games at the end of 2025. This form has continued into the tournament with victories over Nepal and Zimbabwe, but sterner tests lie ahead.
Players who are squad members of teams who have qualified for the World Cup are warming up in different ways. A number are currently involved in India’s Women’s Premier League, which is halfway into its schedule and will conclude on Feb. 5. In New Zealand, the Women’s Super Smash concludes on Jan. 31, while in South Africa the CSA Women’s Pro20 will resume on Feb. 8. There are upcoming bilateral tours by India to Australia in late February, Pakistan to South Africa in February, Zimbabwe to New Zealand in March, followed by South Africa. No doubt other matches will be arranged once the identity of the final four qualifying teams is known. Immediately prior to the World Cup, formal warm-up matches will take place at three venues in England and Wales.
The need for preparation is even more pressing for those involved in the men’s T20 World Cup, which comprises 20 teams. The Big Bash League in Australia allows four overseas players in each 18-man squad. In 2025/26, English players represent the bulk of non-Australian players, followed by players from Pakistan and New Zealand. The South African World Cup players are fully engaged in SA20, in which 19-man squads are allowed to contain seven overseas players, four of whom can be selected for a playing 11. English players are well represented. The Bangladesh Premier League will conclude on Jan. 23. Indian players with central contracts are not allowed to participate in franchise leagues outside India. Their World Cup players will feature in a T20 series against New Zealand that started on Jan. 21 in Nagpur. It followed an ODI series which was won by New Zealand. England start a three-match T20 series against Sri Lanka on Jan. 30, following three ODIs.
Outside of the leading countries, it can be difficult for players and teams to gain enough game-time preparation. Some of the UAE players participated in the DP World ILT20. Their next international action is a two-match series on Jan. 29 and 31 against Ireland in Dubai, where Afghanistan currently have a three-match T20 series against the West Indies, who then play a series against South Africa. Ireland will remain in Dubai where they will play three T20 matches against Italy, who are making their first appearance in a World Cup.
Australia will visit Pakistan and play three T20 matches. Teams such as the US, Canada, Oman, Nepal, Namibia and the Netherlands appear to have limited match preparation opportunities.
At least they do not face the uncertainties of Bangladesh. In early January, in a further example of the use of cricket as a political weapon, the Indian authorities excluded the Bangladeshi cricketer Mustafizur Rahman from the 2026 Indian Premier League, amid rising tensions between the two countries. Rahman had been bought at auction by the Kolkata Knight Riders franchise, which is owned by Shah Rukh Khan, the Indian actor and film producer, who was born into a Muslim family. Following this decision, the Bangladesh Cricket Board requested that the International Cricket Council move matches involving Bangladesh in the T20 World Cup out of India, citing the “safety and well-being of the players.”
Discussions ensued between the parties. Independent security assessments were commissioned by the ICC, along with comprehensive venue-level security plans and formal assurances from the host authorities. These were shared with the BCB. All assessments consistently concluded that “there is no credible or verifiable threat to the safety or security of the Bangladesh team in India.” On Jan. 17, the BCB suggested a swap of their matches with those of Ireland, whose group matches are to be played in Sri Lanka. The suggestion was rejected. At an emergency meeting of the ICC’s board on Jan. 21, 14 out of the 16 members voted against Bangladesh’s request. It is assumed that, apart from Bangladesh, the other vote in favour was from Pakistan.
It appears that the BCB’s attempt at a hardline stance has backfired. It must now either accept to play in India or withdraw from the competition, with significant loss of face either way. If it withdraws, a replacement team need to be introduced. The next-best-ranked T20I team are Scotland, who will have even less time to prepare than the other 19 teams.
Once again, a major international tournament has been disrupted by geopolitics. It is also the case that, once again, almost everyone has fallen in behind the combined power of the ICC and the Indian board. This stranglehold and the inexorable rise of T20 cricket are now undoubtedly the controlling forces shaping cricket’s future landscape.
