Brittni Donaldson was almost literally born into basketball in Iowa, but even she could never have imagined her improbable path to becoming the league's 10th current female assistant coach, and the youngest at just 26 years old.

Donaldson spent the last two seasons as a data analyst -- i.e., advanced stats guru -- in the Raptors' front office before Masai Ujiri, Toronto's president and alternate governor, and Nick Nurse, the head coach, picked her in mid-July to fill an opening on Toronto's bench.

"Losing someone so smart [from the front office] is tough," Ujiri says. "But she has coaching in her DNA."

Ujiri expects the NBA's first female head coach or general manager to emerge before anyone might have predicted even a few years ago. "One hundred percent, the time is coming," he says. "That is going to happen."

Donaldson had thought about moving to the bench before. She does not fit the caricature of a stats nerd. She was an all-state high school player at North High School in Sioux City -- the same school at which her dad, Jeff, was a star, in the early 1980s. Jeff Donaldson went on to play at what was then Briar Cliff College in the NAIA, and scored over 1,000 career points. In 2014, he was inducted into the Iowa High School Athletic Association Basketball Hall of Fame.

Father and daughter bonded over the game. "Sometimes it seemed like 90 percent of our conversations were about basketball," Brittni says. Jeff Donaldson put a ball in Brittni's hands when she was 2 or 3 years old. "It became an addiction," she says, "something I couldn't live without."

Iowa has no NBA team. Lots of Iowans root for the nearby Bulls and Timberwolves. Jeff Donaldson grew up on the 1980s Celtics and raised his daughter a Boston fan. They watched the Celtics together on League Pass, delighting in Tommy Heinsohn's throaty homerism.

"Not many young girls in Iowa love the NBA, but she did," Jeff Donaldson says. She gravitated toward Rajon Rondo. "She would rather see a nice pass than a dunk," her father says.

She played four seasons at the University of Northern Iowa, where Nurse played in the late 1980s and then began his coaching career. She had aspirations of playing professionally before suffering knee injuries.

Donaldson graduated in 2015 with a degree in statistics and actuarial sciences, and started a job the next day at CBE Companies, a provider of call center solutions based in Cedar Falls. She analyzed the company's internal data.

"This was not what I saw myself doing at age 22," Donaldson says. In her downtime, she applied the skills she was using at work to tackle questions about what she really loved -- basketball. She didn't publish her findings, or really try to. She was experimenting.

She liked it. Donaldson started applying to every basketball and basketball-adjacent job she could find. She even kept a database tracking what happened to each application -- whether she heard back, the rejections, all of it.

Finally, Chicago-based STATS LLC hired Donaldson to work the graveyard shift monitoring data pouring in from motion-tracking cameras installed at NBA arenas. A supervisor soon pulled Donaldson into a more strategy-focused role. She began analyzing the data and producing specific reports for NBA teams. She made such a good impression on the Raptors that they hired her.

Donaldson excelled in the front office, but made sure to touch and feel the game up close. She played pickup with the team's staff, outplaying most of them. (Her Toronto player comp: Fred VanVleet.) She rebounded for players at practice. Her passes still snapped.

"Every rep I do, even if it's just passing and rebounding, I try to be really precise and show that I'm there to make them better," Donaldson says. "I don't mess around."

The players noticed. "They trust her," Ujiri says.

One highlight: The Raptors were on the road when they acquired Marc Gasol at the trade deadline, but Gasol had to visit Toronto to undergo a physical. He asked whether someone might run him through a workout. The team thought about calling one coach back in. Higher-ups decided Donaldson could handle it herself.

"That was special for me -- to be basically the first person he interacted with on the basketball side," she says.

Ujiri watched from his office and was impressed when Donaldson sat with Gasol after the workout, opened a laptop, and took him through some of Toronto's plays.

"We were confident Brittni could do it," Ujiri says. "But when you see her do it, it's different."

(Donaldson also traveled to Tanzania and South Sudan this summer as an instructor with Ujiri's Giants of Africa developmental program. "I watched her energy, and her skill development," Ujiri says. "She's going to be very good at that.")

Nurse made it clear Donaldson will not be "the analytics person" on the coaching staff, though she will take the lead translating such data for players and coaches. She will do everything the other coaches do: scout opponents, debate rotations and X's and O's, and pitch strategic ideas.

"The conversation with Nick was, 'I'm going to treat you like an assistant coach because that's what you are,'" Donaldson says. "That was great for me to hear."

(The Raptors had Eric Khoury in a similar role the past two seasons after Khoury jumped from a front-office analytics position onto the coaching staff; Khoury will be with the Raptors 905 in the G-League this season. "I must be doing something wrong because something about the front office is making them run," Ujiri says, laughing.)

The NBA -- overall, and in Toronto specifically -- has evolved to the point where Donaldson's hiring is not surprising. The Raptors under Ujiri have been at the forefront for elevating women into positions of influence: Teresa Resch is among the team's most important day-to-day managers as vice president of basketball operations and player development; Jennifer Quinn heads up public relations; Shelby Weaver interacts with almost every part of the organization as manager of player development.

Donaldson is the fifth woman hired as an assistant coach just this summer, joining Lindsey Harding (Sacramento Kings), Lindsay Gottlieb (Cleveland Cavaliers), Kara Lawson (Boston Celtics) and Niele Ivey (Memphis Grizzlies). The other current female assistants are Natalie Nakase (LA Clippers), Becky Hammon (San Antonio Spurs), Jenny Boucek (Dallas Mavericks), Kristi Toliver (Washington Wizards), and Karen Stack-Umlauf (Chicago Bulls).

Donaldson's path is different. She is younger. She was not a star in college, or in the WNBA. She has no significant coaching experience. She arrives through the side door of analytics. It is perhaps a sign that some of the unconventional paths to NBA power that have long been open to men are opening to women, too.

Donaldson is just excited to get to work.

"The strategy and the X's and O's -- that is where it's at for me," she says.

SAN DIEGO -- Desperate times call for desperate measures, so the Chicago Cubs are calling up 2018 first-round pick Nico Hoerner from Double-A Tennessee to play shortstop while Javier Baez and Addison Russell are on the mend.

Hoerner, 22, compiled a .743 OPS in 70 games at Double-A and is slated to play in the Arizona Fall League, but the Cubs need him now. Baez is seeing a hand specialist on Monday after he was diagnosed with a hairline fracture in his left thumb, while Russell is in the concussion protocol after leaving Sunday's game against the Milwaukee Brewers after getting hit in the face by a pitch.

Hoerner will be the first player from the 2018 draft class to make it to the majors, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

Hoerner grew up in northern California and went to Stanford before the Cubs drafted him No. 24 overall last summer. He's hit for a high average at just about every level of baseball, but the Cubs are hoping he plays some solid defense in place of Baez and Russell. The team is thin at that position, hence the need for the Double-A call-up.

The Cubs are 4.5 games out of first place as they begin a series with the Padres, though they currently are the second wild-card team in the National League.

The New York Yankees have been dogged by injuries all season, with 29 players landing on the injured list, surpassing the previous major league record of 28, set by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2016. While there is no pride in setting such a record, the Yankees not only have managed to run away and hide in the AL East, pretty much locking up their first division title since 2012, but also are on pace to win 105 games.

Some of those injured Yankees stars are on the mend and are in a race against the clock in hopes of being fully recovered in time to contribute this season. Things will get more interesting as the Yankees face a roster crunch heading into October.

Here's a look at the status of some of the Bombers' biggest names on the IL and what they might be able to contribute going forward.

Luis Severino

Position: SP

Injury: On the 60-day IL with right-shoulder rotator cuff inflammation (since March 25); was sidelined with a Grade 2 lat strain that set him back in his rehab

2019 stats: Has not pitched

Expected return date: Thursday

What the Yankees are saying: Severino will have a third rehab start in Double-A Trenton on Wednesday. If everything goes well, he's expected to rejoin the Yankees on their current 10-game road trip. The team anticipates that Severino will throw 60-plus pitches and then make his first start in the bigs this year when the team returns to the Bronx for its final homestand of the regular season.

What Severino is saying: "If I feel good, I think I'm ready to pitch in games [in the majors]. I just want to help my team. If they need me in the bullpen, if they need me to start, I'm here. I just want to help."

What you can expect: Former major leaguer Carlos Beltran, who is now a special assistant to Yankees general manager Brian Cashman and was at Severino's last rehab start in Triple-A, told ESPN that Severino was healthy and looked great, with good speed on his fastball, which scouts present at the game said sat between 95 mph and 97 mph. With a big lead atop the AL East, the Yankees hope to use the last two weeks of the season to build Severino's arm strength, which should allow him to be part of the postseason roster. Manager Aaron Boone has said that Severino is currently undergoing the equivalent of spring training, and as such, he should have enough innings under his belt to be a solid postseason contributor, barring any setbacks. Severino's most recent major league start was in Game 3 of the 2018 American League Division Series, when he gave up six runs in three innings of a 16-1 loss to the Red Sox.

CC Sabathia

Position: SP

Injury: On the 10-day IL with right-knee inflammation (since Aug. 31)

2019 stats: 5-8, 4.93 ERA, 0.3 WAR in 20 starts

Expected return date: Wednesday

What the Yankees are saying: Boone announced Sunday that Sabathia will be activated Wednesday to start the second game of a three-game set against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park. The Yankees will use Sabathia in a sort of "opener" role, with Domingo German coming in as a reliever. The Yankees are being careful with German and managing his total innings, given that he has 140⅔ innings pitched this season after logging 94 last year. Sabathia has not pitched more than 4⅓ innings in an outing since July 16.

What Sabathia is saying: After throwing a bullpen session Friday, Sabathia said everything went well, and he declared he was ready for the next step. "Hopefully I can just get enough rest where [my knee will] calm down and I'm able to get back out there and throw 90 to 100 pitches," he said.

What you can expect: Sabathia has a chronic condition in his surgically repaired knee, and he said he will likely get a knee replacement after he retires at the end of this season. The 39-year-old left-hander continues to get his knee drained and receive treatment and cortisone shots in order to remain a viable starter option for the Yankees as they continue their bid for the best record in the American League. Sabathia will certainly be a question in terms of the playoffs. If he's healthy, it would be tough for the Yankees to leave him off the postseason roster, given that he's one of the most vocal leaders, and Boone has repeatedly stressed how his presence impacts the Yankees clubhouse -- in addition to this being Sabathia's final season. But putting aside the intangibles, given Sabathia's below-average performance on the mound this season, the Yankees might be better served by carrying a healthy, younger arm.

Giancarlo Stanton

Position: DH/OF

Injury: On the 60-day IL with a right-knee sprain (since June 26); had strained left biceps (March 31), strained shoulder and strained calf during his rehabilitation before coming off the IL on June 18

2019 stats: 1 HR, 7 RBIs, .290 AVG, 0.3 WAR in nine games

Expected return date: Unknown

What the Yankees are saying: Stanton has been doing baseball activities such as outfield agility drills and running the bases, in addition to having at-bats in simulated games last week at Yankee Stadium and most recently at the Yankees' minor league complex in Tampa. The team expects Stanton to ramp up his rehab this week and hopes he can be activated before the season ends. "It's just building up and getting to a point where he can play in a game as far as passing everything from all of his running protocols," Boone said. General manager Brian Cashman, who originally targeted August for Stanton's return, expressed a clear level of uncertainty regarding his status: "We do expect him at some point, but he's also coming back from a pretty serious injury that takes time to heal. We'll just keep waiting on it and hope that at some point he becomes a legitimate option for us."

What Stanton is saying: Stanton has said he wanted to take "a few weeks" of at-bats before the month of October: "Once I start moving around, [I'll] just see how it bounces back. But I do want to have a few weeks of at-bats before October, for sure. I want to be out there for a couple weeks, just the game routine and having whatever amount of at-bats I can."

What you can expect: Stanton might be activated off the IL for the last two weeks of the season, which would give him enough at-bats to be considered for a postseason roster spot. But that is only if he doesn't suffer any more setbacks, which seems to be a big "if" with him. The Yankees have not missed Stanton's bat this season, but he was the National League MVP two years ago and is still regarded as one of the best power hitters in baseball. If he is healthy, he will be a playoff weapon for the Yankees. The decision will depend on whether he gets enough at-bats before the playoffs, and that remains to be seen.

Dellin Betances

Position: RP

Injury: On the 60-day IL with right-shoulder impingement (since March 25); was sidelined with a lat strain during his rehab

2019 stats: Has not pitched

Expected return date: Unknown

What the Yankees are saying: Betances, like Severino, pitched a rehab outing Friday with the Yankees' Double-A affiliate in Trenton. Betances threw 19 pitches (11 strikes), and even though his fastball was around 93-94 mph, a low figure for him, the Yankees saw this as a sign that he's on track to return this season. "Another positive step for him overall," Boone said. "I thought he threw some good breaking balls, threw some good fastballs in there. Was a little erratic with a couple of things ... and then even talking to him, I think he felt good about it, and now you're just dealing with a little bit of rust, kind of the early outings of spring training."

What Betances is saying: After throwing to hitters in a simulated game Wednesday at Yankee Stadium, Betances said he believed he could get major league hitters out with his stuff, and he was encouraged with the way he was throwing and pounding the strike zone. "Felt the best I've thrown so far," he said. "Definitely encouraged with the way I threw today. The breaking ball was good -- that's the most I've thrown it for strikes -- and my fastball's good. I threw a lot of strikes, so that's all I care about."

What you can expect: A scout at Betances' Trenton rehab outing said the right-hander looked healthy but "erratic," which means he will need to iron out the kinks before the Yankees decide on a return date. Betances continues to say he's fully healthy, and the Yankees would prefer to give him at least two more rehab outings in the minors, but with the minor league season winding down, his opportunities will be limited. The Trenton Thunder are getting ready to face the Bowie Baysox in the best-of-five Eastern League championship series, which starts Wednesday, and both Severino and Betances are slated to pitch. After that game, Betances should have one more rehab outing in the minors. Then he'll likely be called up for his first major league action of the season. He most recently pitched in the majors in Game 4 of the 2018 ALDS, when he went 1⅓ innings in relief, giving up one hit and striking out three in the Yankees' 4-3 loss to the Red Sox.

Aaron Hicks

Position: OF

Injury: On the 10-day IL with a right flexor strain (since Aug. 4)

2019 stats: 12 HRs, 36 RBIs, .235 average, 1.3 WAR in 59 games

Expected return date: Unknown

What the Yankees are saying: Hicks had yet another setback in his rehab from a flexor strain, near his right elbow, which has not allowed him to ramp up his throwing. "He's slowed down," Boone said. "He's not feeling quite right. We'll see how the next several days unfold. But as of right now, he hasn't been able to advance." Hicks had an MRI that showed no ligament damage, but Boone admitted it's possible Hicks' season is over.

What Hicks is saying: When Hicks was cleared to start throwing on Aug. 30, he said he "felt really good," even though his arm felt "weird."

What you can expect: With 18 games remaining this season, it is unlikely Hicks will have enough time to mount a comeback. The 29-year-old has been injury-prone throughout his career, including missing the start of this season with a back injury that kept him sidelined until May 15. Plus, even when Hicks has been in the lineup this season, he hasn't been productive. The Yankees are down to three healthy outfielders -- Brett Gardner, Aaron Judge and Clint Frazier -- with Mike Tauchman being sent to New York for evaluation after he suffered tightness in his right calf on Sunday. Cameron Maybin continues to deal with a left wrist injury that has kept him out of the lineup since Aug. 31, though he did come in for Tauchman on Sunday.

‘I have a lot of experience and knowledge to pass on and I’m looking forward to it’
By DONNA HALMER – Squash Mad Correspondent

England Squash has finalised a long-term mentoring agreement with Laura Massaro that will see the former World No.1 develop and nurture England’s younger generation of female players.

Massaro, 35, called time on her storied playing career in the summer and is regarded as the most successful female English player of the modern era with 23 titles to her name including one World title, two British Open crowns, three silver Commonwealth Games medals and four British National titles.

The Lancastrian also earned 116 England caps and was part of the England team who won the 2014 Women’s World Team Championships and the European Team Championships seven times.

Massaro will work closely with the national coaching team and impart her world-class knowledge, experience and professionalism through one-to-one mentoring and match-play with England’s young female players, as well as assisting at tournaments and squads.

Massaro said: “I’m really excited to be joining England Squash in a slightly different capacity than I did while competing on tour. I feel I have a lot of experiences and knowledge I can pass on and I’m looking forward to working with some great young potential.”

David Campion, National Coach at England Squash said: “Laura is a fantastic addition to our team at England Squash. She has a huge amount to offer in terms of what it takes to make that very difficult transition from a promising young player into world-class.

“Quite simply, she has done it herself, and it’s those attributes and insights that we would like her to share with the younger generation of players. It’s a perfect fit as we currently have a number of young female players who are embarking on a professional career.” 

Article by DONNA HELMER (England Squash). Edited by ALAN THATCHER. 

Pictures courtesy of  England Squash and Steve Cubbins

Danny Drinkwater is set to return to Burnley on Monday after suffering injuries when he was attacked on a night out.

Drinkwater, who is still battling for fitness after joining Sean Dyche's side on loan from Chelsea this summer, will reportedly meet the Burnley manager to discuss the attack and could be out of action for several weeks.

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The incident took place outside of a nightclub in Manchester last weekend and reportedly left Drinkwater with a black eye, swollen forehead, bruised shoulders and arms, cut cheek and torn ankle ligaments.

Following Burnley's 3-0 defeat to Liverpool in the Premier League on Aug. 31, Dyche permitted his players a short break to coincide with international fixtures.

Earlier this year, Drinkwater was charged with drink-driving after crashing his car in Greater Manchester while under contract at Chelsea.

The midfielder, 29, won the Premier League with Leicester in 2016 before joining Chelsea the following summer on a five-year contract for a fee of around £35 million. He failed to break into Maurizio Sarri's team last season before being sent on loan by Frank Lampard, who took over from the Italian this summer.

Manchester United defender Eric Bailly is targeting an early return from knee surgery, sources have told ESPN FC.

Bailly had an operation in July after damaging ligaments in his right knee during a preseason friendly with Tottenham in Shanghai.

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Manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer initially said Bailly would be ruled out for around five months and was not expected back until the end of December.

However, early treatment has gone well and there is hope his recovery may not take as long as first thought.

The 25-year-old, who has not played a competitive fixture since suffering an injury to his left knee in April, is hopeful he could return to training in around two months and make his first team comeback after the November international break.

It is a welcome boost for Solskjaer, who is dealing with mounting injury problems just four games into the new season.

Luke Shaw has been ruled out for a month with a hamstring injury, while Anthony Martial missed the draw at Southampton with a thigh strain.

Aaron Wan-Bissaka withdrew from the England squad with a back injury before Jesse Lingard also returned to Carrington because of illness.

Meanwhile, Paul Pogba pulled out of the France squad after picking up an ankle problem against Southampton, and full-back Diogo Dalot travelled to China for treatment on a hip injury, spending 10 days with Shanghai SIPG injury specialist Eduardo Santos.

Dalot made 23 appearances in all competitions last season, but the 20-year-old is yet to feature this term after the arrival of Wan-Bissaka from Crystal Palace in the summer.

Twice the sound of Kernkraft 400's electro-hit "Zombie Nation" rang out of the speakers at Hamburg's Volksparkstadion on Friday night. Thanks to Serge Gnabry and Toni Kroos, Germany's new goal music had arrived but beyond the beats lay a spluttering, twitchy Germany performance.

"This is not the way we want to play," Joachim Low said afterward. That much was obvious, but how Germany do want to play is not so clear.

Low's latest rebuild -- one that some observers feel should be happening without him -- has seen him change assistant coach, enforce retirement on Mats Hummels, Thomas Muller and Jerome Boateng, and move away from the possession-based style of play that won them the World Cup in Brazil. And yet, their display in Friday's 4-2 defeat to Netherlands was confusing.

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In the first half, Germany had less of the ball, sat a little deeper and looked to be explosive in transition. For the most part, it worked. One of Low's key changes in his latest rebuild is to make Germany faster, something a front three of Marco Reus, Timo Werner and Gnabry proved they could execute. Gnabry, the man Low says will always play, still looks the most dangerous player in a Germany shirt and in the first half, he made the difference.

But the reactive nature of Germany's first-half performance didn't appear to be the plan. Low suggested afterwards that a bit more access to the ball and a little less running would have been desirable. Both Joshua Kimmich and Nico Schulz talked about not having enough control, while Reus was keen to stress how much of what happened had been avoidable. In any case, the respect Germany showed the Dutch at home in the first 45 minutes was telling; even Virgil van Dijk admitted he was a bit surprised.

Indeed, a host of errors and general passivity hid whatever Germany's plan in the second half might have been. Germany continually gave the ball away, notably while trying to move forward.

So what is this Germany side supposed to look like?

Victory against Netherlands earlier in the year prompted much belief that Germany had turned a corner. Kroos even said before this game in Hamburg that for a team with a new faces, a new system and a new style, Germany had pushed on quite a bit. On this evidence, they don't know even where they're going yet let alone where to turn. This Germany team isn't as far along as the hype suggested, and the Dutch looked further down the track to becoming a force.

The attack is supposed to be the strong point of this team, but Low's inability to get the best out of an in-form Werner or Reus, currently loving his club football, is concerning. The eventual return from injury of Leroy Sane will obviously be welcomed but this defeat was not about Manchester City star's absence. It was about the lack of impact from the front three and, in the midst of this confusion, Low threw on Kai Havertz in the hope he would make something happen. Havertz is the playmaker that can add more balance to this side and he must not be forgotten in Low's pursuit of pace.

Playing Kimmich in midfield might allow for moments of genius, such as the assist for the opening goal, but it does leave Germany weaker at right-back. With holding midfield hardly a position short of options (see Emre Can or Ilkay Gundogan), placing Kimmich in that role is even more confusing.

Then there's the defensive unit. Jonathan Tah had an unfortunate night (scoring an own goal) and is clearly still a work in progress. Schulz has all of the positives of an attacking wing-back, but sadly also most of the negatives. Niklas Sule must be disappointed that the two strongest aspects of his game, his strength and his relative speed, were not strengths at all against a Dutch team that's further ahead in their own rebuild.

Low will rightfully take the blame for this. The move to transitional football has not yet clicked and the in-game adjustment back to a possession-based style of play wasn't promising either. Germany are not a team in balance yet, which is perhaps understandable given all that has happened in the wake of the World Cup debacle. Nevertheless, there are good enough players in this team to perform better than they did against Netherlands.

As for whether or not Low is the right man to get this team there is no longer a question. The DFB failed to plan for his successor five years ago or, at the latest, after the Euros in France in 2016, which has allowed this sense of stasis to take root.

Maybe that has now changed, and those who make such crucial decisions are putting a road map in place for the national team. In the meantime, the embattled manager must make sure he gets this team back in some kind of shape. They appear unlikely to challenge for the Euro 2020 title this time, and that's ok, but Low must find a way to turn the ship around soon.

Just six months ago, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was handed a three-year contract as Manchester United manager. Three months later, Mauricio Pochettino was leading Tottenham out in Madrid for the club's first-ever appearance in a Champions League final.

Yet as the dust settled on a weekend which saw Javi Gracia become the first managerial casualty of the season in Premier League, with the Spaniard sacked by Watford after one draw and three defeats in their opening four league games, Solskjaer and Pochettino found themselves as joint-favourites with the bookmakers to become the next manager to leave their job this season.

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Solskjaer and Pochettino share the dubious distinction with Steve Bruce, who has endured a difficult start to his reign in charge of Newcastle, but it has been longer than anyone cares to remember since any Newcastle manager was able to work without some kind of uncertainty hovering over his job security. Bruce walked into the job at St James' Park knowing exactly what to expect, especially having previously managed bitter north-east rivals Sunderland, so the 58-year-old was always going to have to start well to silence his critics. His team didn't start well, but four points from Newcastle's last two games suggests that the bookmakers might soon start to lengthen the odds on Bruce joining Gracia on the managerial scrapheap.

Pochettino and Solskjaer now need a similarly positive reaction from their players after the international break in order to banish the storm clouds that are beginning to loom large over them. Results will ultimately dictate the fate of both men, as is the case with any manager, but while the circumstances surrounding Pochettino and Solskjaer's situations are different, they each have to shoulder a decent portion of the blame for the pressure they are now beginning to feel.

The doubts over Pochettino's future at Spurs are largely of his own making, with the Argentine speaking on numerous occasions over recent months about how even he doesn't know how long he will stay at the club or if, indeed, he wants to. In Singapore, during the club's preseason tour, Pochettino even went so far as to admit that he would have considered leaving his job had Spurs beaten Liverpool in the Champions League final last season.

Pochettino has helped Spurs navigate themselves up football's version of Everest during his five years in charge, transforming the club from perennial underachievers to Champions League regulars and North London's top club. Winning the Champions League would have been like reaching the summit, so perhaps he was, or is, ready for a new challenge. But by speaking so openly about potentially coming to the end of the road at Spurs, Pochettino has created uncertainty and given the likes of Christian Eriksen justification for rejecting a new contract at the club in order to pursue a new challenge of his own somewhere else. There are similar doubts over the futures of Jan Vertonghen, Danny Rose and Toby Alderweireld and, all of a sudden, Spurs look like a team on the verge of being broken up and the sense of everyone looking out for themselves is inescapable.

They sit in ninth position, with just one win from four so far in the league, and they went into the international break having thrown away a 2-0 lead at Arsenal to draw 2-2 against their biggest rivals. Pochettino went into that game denying rumours that he was preparing to quit, so the air of uncertainty is understandable and it is reaching the stage where it would be no surprise if the 47-year-old called time on his spell at Tottenham.

It is a different scenario with Solskjaer, who retains the backing of the United supporters and has yet to be subjected to suggestions that the club's owners, the Glazer family, are growing restless with recent results. But those results are why the bookmakers are being less than generous with their odds on Solskjaer losing his job.

United have made their worst start to a season since 1992-93, winning just once in four games, and they have offloaded several experienced players since the closure of the Premier League transfer window without replacing them. The optimism which flowed following the Norwegian's appointment as caretaker manager last December in the wake of Jose Mourinho's sacking has long since evaporated, largely because results have been so bad. United have not won away from Old Trafford in any competition since the remarkable 3-1 Champions League victory at Paris Saint-Germain on March 6 and they have kept just one clean sheet since the 0-0 draw with Liverpool in mid-February. Under Solskjaer, United have won just three of their last 16 games in all competitions, losing nine of them.

Solskjaer has embarked on a squad rebuilding process that has left United with just three forwards -- one of them the 17-year-old Mason Greenwood -- and no new midfielders, so he must now somehow find a way to keep his wafer-thin squad in contention in all competitions until the chance arrives to sign reinforcements in January. But the big question is whether the former United striker will survive long enough.

Solskjaer and Pochettino were seemingly untouchable in their current positions just six months ago, but football can change quickly. Just ask Javi Gracia. In May, he was being shortlisted as a potential new manager by Chelsea having guided Watford to their first FA Cup final since 1984. Now, he is out of work. That's the nature of the game for football managers, so it would be foolish to think there is no cause for concern for Pochettino and Solskjaer.