In his regular BBC Sport column, Andy Murray talks about his new mixed doubles partner Serena Williams, what he admires most about the American great and their chat about the Wimbledon creche.

Playing mixed doubles with Serena is something that hadn't been on my mind until this opportunity came up.

I don't know her that well and we've haven't played together before or spent much time hanging out - so let's see what happens!

But I think we do a lot of things quite similar on court that should bode well for us as a partnership.

Both of us play predominantly from the baseline and we are both good movers and athletes. And she serves unbelievably well.

I don't think we have ever hit together over the years, but hopefully we are going to do that today before this evening's match.

Serena's coach Patrick Mouratoglou has been keen for us to have at least one practice together before we go out so we can have a chat about things together on court.

We did chat briefly here at Wimbledon the other day and we spoke a little bit about the tennis - what side of the court we are going to play on. We also spoke about our injuries because she has had some issues with her knee recently and I've had the problems with my hip.

Aside from that, we were chatting about parenting because we've both got kids that are similar ages and that led to discussing how handy the crèche is here onsite, which a lot of the players use.

But the conversation hasn't extended to exchanging any parenting tips just yet.

'One-off partnerships make off-court bonding difficult'

Although I've never really hung out with Serena off court, we have spent a little bit of time together at tournaments over the years.

I remember we did the draw ceremony and media around the US Open in 2013, because we had both won the tournament the previous year.

And then in 2016 we both won Wimbledon so we had to sit at the same table at the Champions' Dinner. Thankfully we didn't dance together after, which has been a tradition in the past. No one needs to see my dancing!

Here at Wimbledon it is difficult to build a relationship with a new doubles partner by doing things away from the court, like going out together with our families and teams for dinner.

After my doubles match last night with Pierre-Hugues Herbert, we stretched, cooled down and did ice baths together after finishing our match at almost 9:30pm.

And then we are playing again today, so dinner is difficult because it is so late!

When it is a one-off partnership, finding the time to socialise together is hard.

But when you commit to playing with a new partner for a longer period of time, like my brother Jamie does, then you start to spend more time with each other at events and you can do things such as eating together because you're on the same schedule.

But here Serena is playing singles - so she will play mixed doubles with me late today and then she is playing singles again tomorrow. I'll be back playing doubles with Pierre too, so we're on different schedules.

'The rest of the tour has a lot to thank Serena for'

Serena is one of the world's greatest athletes so there are lots of things that are impressive about her as a player and as a person.

What I admire about her most is her longevity.

That's the one thing where she and Roger Federer differ from many players before them - and possibly many after them.

The length of time they have been at the top of the game is incredible and, after about 20 years on the tour, they seem to still enjoy competing and pushing for the biggest titles.

People sometimes take for granted how difficult that is to do, how hard it is to keep your motivation and drive for so long, especially when there are so many ups and downs - tough losses, injuries, families - to cope with.

That love for the game, and the amount that these players put into it, is maybe something which is not easy to see all the time and not always appreciated enough.

She's also been a huge ambassador for women's sport for a number of years and I think that there is a lot of responsibility, pressure and stress which comes with that.

Serena, and her sister Venus, have been advocates for a lot of things which have benefited the women's game, including equal prize money, and these positive changes have come down to them, the pull they have and the new fans they have attracted to tennis.

The rest of the tour - especially the women's side - have a lot to thank her for.

'A brilliant feeling to be back playing at Wimbledon'

On Thursday night, I made my Wimbledon return in the doubles with Pierre and we won in four sets after making quite a nervy start.

It was a brilliant feeling to be back after missing last year's singles with my hip problem.

At the beginning we were both a bit nervous, maybe because we don't know each other that well, and in doubles that can show because the communication between each other is so important.

But as the match went on we started to relax, fed off each other and began to read each other's game better.

At first, Pierre was probably doing more of the organising in terms of where to serve and where we were going to move but as the match went on it felt as if we were communicating more as a team.

Ultimately that is the best way to go about it, rather than having a leader who calls the shots.

With two people, I don't feel as if you need a leader; you just need two guys to communicate well and feed off each other.

Hopefully we can continue building that understanding - by winning more matches!

Andy Murray was speaking to BBC Sport's Jonathan Jurejko at Wimbledon.

England coach Eddie Jones says he knows around 28 of his final 31-man World Cup group, and insists he will pick a squad with the "skill, desire and experience" to win the tournament in Japan.

Jones has already made some bold selection calls, bringing Joe Marler out of retirement and axing the experience of Mike Brown, Chris Robshaw and Danny Care.

"Selection is harsh," Jones said.

"It is always about picking the best player at that particular time."

Jones told BBC Sport that big names left out "are not out of the picture", but that the latest 38-man training squad picked itself.

"Of course it is tough. They have been good competitors for England and they still have more to give," he said.

"Players generally select themselves. I was taught that by [former Australia coach] Bob Dwyer. I feel for the other guys but I know if we call on them they will be ready."

Former skipper Dylan Hartley is currently not available for selection because of a lingering knee issue, with Jones unable to confirm whether the Northampton man would come into the picture if he proved his fitness.

"We don't deal with hypotheticals, but if that situation does occur we will have a good think about it," Jones said.

Although the make-up of the final 31 has now become much clearer, Jones says the door remains open for World Cup 'bolters' such as Northampton flanker Lewis Ludlam and Bath's former Sevens winger Ruaridh McConnochie, who are both uncapped and have come from nowhere to make the training squad.

"You are always looking for a couple of 'X-factor' players that come through later and are in form and excite the squad and the fans," Jones said.

"Lewis and Ruaridh have done that with outstanding performances for their club. They both have great desire and good character."

Jones will name his final World Cup squad on 12 August, shortly after the first of England's four warm-up matches.

"It's a moveable feast, but we have a pretty good idea of at least probably 28 of the players [for the final squad]," he said.

"Out of the squad of 38 we will get 31 players with the necessary experience, skill and desire to win the Word Cup for England."

Zlatan Ibrahimovic has called on LA Galaxy to give more game time to Efrain Alvarez after the 17-year-old impressed on his first MLS start.

Alvarez set up the first of Ibrahimovic's two goals in the 2-0 win against Toronto as Galaxy snapped a three-match losing streak and the former Manchester United, Barcelona and Juventus forward said his teenage teammate is ready to play regularly.

"I said he is the biggest talent in this league and he's ready to play," Ibrahimovic said postmatch.

"He's only 17 and I believe that in this league, if you're 16 or 17, you can be ready to play, because the level is not like Europe.

"If you're 16 or 17 and not playing in this league, then it will be difficult in Europe."

Ibrahimovic's brace took him to 13 for the season, four behind LAFC's Carlos Vela in the scoring charts, but the 37-year-old played down talk of personal targets.

"I don't even know what the situation is," he said. "As long as they don't suspend me, maybe I can break some records. I'm not in control of that."

It wouldn't be a transfer window without fans scratching their heads wondering why their team wasn't in for the guy Juventus just picked up for free.

The latest arrived Sunday morning, when photos circulated on social media of France and Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Adrien Rabiot exiting a private jet at Caselle. A fleet of Jeeps then taxied him and his entourage to Turin ahead of his fitness tests at J-Medical, the bespoke private health clinic adjoining the Allianz Stadium, the following day.

The 24-year-old's contract with PSG expired on Sunday, and on Monday, he was free to sign for the Italian champions.

The backdrop of the Alps and the number of French words that pop up in Piedmontese have helped make Turin feel like home away from home to Rabiot and his fellow countrymen for more than a century. Given how strong Juve's track record has been when it comes to recruiting over the nearby mountain range, it's often joked that the club's second language is French. Rabiot follows in the footsteps of Michel Platini, Zinedine Zidane, Lilian Thuram, Didier Deschamps and a host of others -- 25 in total -- in wearing black and white.

The most appropriate parallel of all, though, at least as it relates to the current front office at Juventus, is with Paul Pogba. Beyond the shared position and nationality, one tradition neatly intersects with another. Rabiot is not only French, he's the 15th Bosman free transfer completed by Juventus in the past nine years. No one has worked this angle of the transfer market better.

It's true that Juventus have become richer and more successful in the meantime. They have smashed the Serie A transfer record twice in the past three years, paying €90 million for Gonzalo Higuain and €117m for Cristiano Ronaldo. But the attention given to opportunities in free agency is as strong as ever. After all, the foundation myth of this dynasty starts with Andrea Pirlo's move from Milan to Juventus for "nothing" in 2011.

Pirlo's move shifted the balance of power in Italy back to Turin. People are quick to forget that at the time, he was considered over the hill. Marginalised in Milan's most recent title-winning season, they were willing to offer him only a one-year rolling contract. Juventus, by contrast, felt he still had a lot to give and presented Pirlo, who'd just turned 32, with a three-year deal instead.

Go back and look at the position Juventus were in at the time. They'd just finished seventh for a second consecutive season. They were out of the Champions League again. They hadn't won the league officially since 2003. After the costly errors of the Cobolli Gigli, Blanc and Secco management team -- €27m wasted on Diego Ribas, for example -- Juventus had to get smarter in recruitment.

The impact of the Pirlo free cannot be understated. It changed everything, ushering in a fresh cycle of dominance for Juventus. A year later, Pogba arrived and proved as transformative, albeit in other ways. Not only did he help Juventus consolidate and dominate, but he generated a hype and interest that made them feel relevant to a new generation of players. The proceeds from his sale to Manchester United for a world record €105m in 2016 were reinvested in Higuain and Miralem Pjanic, the best players on rival teams as Juventus cannibalised the league, killing it in some people's eyes.

It would be reductive to argue that these two moves alone explain eight league titles in a row, four Italian cups, two Champions League finals and a series of new records. There's a lot more to it, from the vision of chairman Andrea Agnelli and the opening of the new stadium, to the mentality and culture imposed by managers Antonio Conte and Massimiliano Allegri, several other aspects of the club's transfer strategy as defined by Beppe Marotta and Fabio Paratici, to say nothing of Juventus' daring and ambitious rebrand, which aims to appeal to and win over new supporters. Yet it's still fair to say both of those deals were major contributing factors in Juventus ascending to, and reclaiming, a position in world football which culminated in Cristiano Ronaldo, of all people, thinking to himself: I'd like to play for them.

It's also fair to say that Juventus have completed the transition from stepping-stone club to final destination. Sources have told ESPN FC that Pogba wants to come back, while Ronaldo's presence serves to only enhance Juve's appeal to emerging superstars like Matthijs de Ligt. More than just a five-time Ballon d'Or winner, he acts as an endorsement, validating the club's project and signalling its ambition.

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Of course, this isn't an exclusive strategy, and some of Juventus' competitors are beginning to wake up to this approach. Inter are placing a renewed emphasis on free agency as a reaction to Juventus' success at it, and Marotta's appointment as CEO of the football side of the business at Inter has only sharpened the focus further.

At the same time as Rabiot underwent his medical in Turin, Inter announced the signing of Diego Godin on a free. Last year, Kwadwo Asamoah and, most notably of all, Stefan de Vrij joined in the same circumstances. Inter have rebuilt and strengthened their defence with Bosman deals in much the same way Juventus have their midfield with Rabiot, Aaron Ramsey and Emre Can.

It makes you wonder why more clubs aren't concentrating on this niche of the market. The "free" transfer was once considered a way of filling the gaps, but Juventus have made their team better with frees, acquiring established winners (Pirlo, Dani Alves, Sami Khedira) and potential superstars with high upside and great resale value (Pogba to Kingsley Coman) alike. Consider how much it would have cost to sign Rabiot and Can, both lured away from their respective clubs at age 24, from the likes of PSG and Liverpool had they been locked into long contracts. Can, for instance, was valued at €45.1m by CIES in January.

Doing business this way is a no-brainer if you can do it, and Juventus are masters at it. Talking to people familiar with how they operate, it's very much a case of obtaining good information, acting decisively and being super-aggressive. Where that manifests itself is in big salary packages and hefty agency commissions. Check the press release for the Can transfer and what stands out is the line: "Juventus will incur additional costs of €16m to be paid over two years." Can's representatives did very well for themselves.

As you'd expect, "free" transfers certainly don't come cheap when fees and salaries are factored in, but they're still much cheaper than signing a top player with years left on an existing deal. As such, Juventus will (within reason) go the extra mile to reach an agreement for a player they like. They are unfazed when it comes to negotiating with agents who, rightly or wrongly, have a reputation for being difficult and for driving a hard bargain, too. Above all else, a characteristic of all their transfers, something Maurizio Sarri enunciated well in his first news conference as coach of Juventus, is the impression they make when they come to talk to you.

"They made a strong impression," Sarri said. "It's not so much about when [they make their move], more about how. They're a very determined club. When it comes to appointing a coach, I have never seen a club so determined in my 30-year career. This is what convinced me. Seeing a group of directors so unanimous on what coach they were after. Determined and unanimous, that and the name behind them."

A source familiar with Juventus' methods confirms as much to ESPN: "That's Juve." Other elite clubs like to keep targets guessing, a negotiation tactic of sorts. They give the idea there's always somebody else, but as an approach, it can leave a coach or player feeling like the interest is lukewarm. When it comes to Juve, "they are the exact opposite." They come in hot. A transfer target is left in no uncertain terms that Juventus want them. They are made to feel that there is nobody else the club desires. Couple that with the imagination capturing history and tradition of the club and it's hard to resist.

Illusion or not, it works. As Iker Casillas tweeted last week: "Houdini makes Juventus signings. Pure magic."

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AW editor celebrates the 40th anniversary of one of the most famous feats in the history of middle-distance running

Forty years ago, in the summer of 1979, a 22-year-old middle-distance runner from Sheffield embarked on a world record-breaking spree that would change his life forever. During a memorable spell of 41 days, Sebastian Coe set new marks for 800m, 1500m and the mile as he became the most talked about athlete on the planet.

Coe’s main goal that year was mainly to finish his degree at Loughborough University. He had also trained through what British historians have dubbed ‘the winter of discontent’ due to the endlessly bleak weather and trade union strikes.

Yet on July 5, 1979, he took more than a second off Alberto Juantorena’s world 800m record with 1:42.33 in Oslo. Then just 12 days later he smashed John Walker’s mile record with 3:48.95, again in Oslo, followed by breaking Filbert Bayi’s 1500m mark in Zurich with 3:32.03.

As a young boy it was nothing short of inspirational. In May 1979 I watched my football team, Manchester United, lose to a last-gasp winner from Arsenal in the FA Cup final. But soon after my imagination was fired by the exploits of Coe – and subsequently Steve Ovett, Steve Cram and Peter Elliott – and I kicked football into touch and began a lifelong obsession with athletics instead.

To crack these records, Coe managed to combine rugged stamina with blistering pace. His endurance was shown when he won the UK indoor 3000m title at Cosford in 7:59.8 at the start of 1979. When it came to speed, he spent the spring and early summer racing a series of 400m and 4x400m races with a 46.3 relay split. Long before the Diamond League was invented, he raced himself into form at events like the Yorkshire and Northern Counties championships, plus the Europa Cup semi-final and final.

“During a memorable spell of 41 days, Sebastian Coe set new marks for 800m, 1500m and the mile as he became the most talked about athlete on the planet”

Coe’s first world record came at the Bislett Games. He already had a fine reputation as an 800m runner after winning the European indoor title in 1977 and then taking the field through an unprecedented sub-50 first lap at the 1978 European Championships before fading to third behind Olaf Beyer of East Germany and Ovett. But his exploits on July 5, 1979, set shock waves through the sport as he followed pacemaker Lennie Smith of Jamaica through 200m in 24.6 and 400m in 50.6 before letting rip through the final circuit in 51.8. “My world would never be the same again,” he later reflected.

After breaking Juantorena’s record he headed to Norway to honour a promise to run in a meeting in Meisingset, where he won the 800m in a modest 1:54.8. The following weekend he dropped down to 400m again to run a 46.87 PB for silver at the AAA Championships at Crystal Palace behind Kasheef Hassan of the Sudan. Then he travelled to Oslo again for the Golden Mile on July 17.

Coe was the slowest man in the race with a 3:57.67 PB. The line-up included Americans Steve Scott and Craig Masback, Ireland’s formidable Eamonn Coghlan, Commonwealth champion Dave Moorcroft, European record-holder Thomas Wessinghage, Scottish talents Graham Williamson and John Robson and Kiwi runners Dixon and Walker – the latter being the Olympic 1500m champion and world mile record-holder with 3:49.4. In fact the only major name missing was Ovett.

As Steve Lacy set the pace through 440 yards in 57.8 and halfway in 1:55.3, Coe floated around the track behind Scott. As Lacy dropped out, Scott and Coe drew away from the rest of the field and then, just before the bell, Coe drifted effortlessly to the front before coasting clear over the final lap to clock a sensational 3:48.95 with runner-up Scott narrowly missing Jim Ryun’s US record with 3:51.11.

“The early pace did not disturb me,” Coe recalled in his autobiography Running Free. “All day I’d been worrying about how I’d feel on the third lap. I was prepared for it to hurt but it did not happen.”

“My world would never be the same again” – Coe after his 800m record in Oslo

After taking the 800m and mile records in Oslo, the media began to put him under pressure to take the 1500m at his next big race in Zurich on August 15. Organisers of the Weltklasse meeting in the Swiss capital were also billing it as a world record attempt and even kept Ovett out of the field to increase the chances of a fast time.

Unlike Coe’s mile record, this 1500m was painful. Kip Koskei of Kenya set a crazily fast early pace of 54.2 through 400m with Coe a metre or two behind. Coe then passed 800m in 1:53.2, gritted his teeth through a solo third lap in 57.6 and went through the bell in 2:35.2 and 1200m in 2:50.8 before hanging on to clock 3:32.03, breaking Bayi’s record by 13 hundredths of a second.

It brought to a close an amazing season for Coe. He was named world athlete of the year and BBC sports personality of 1979 and during the end-of-season period he received so much fan mail they blocked his door from opening.

Still, as Olympic year loomed, his feet were kept on the ground when he was being paced by a friend in a car while training in Richmond Park in London and police stopped him for going too slow.

He opened the batting, and scored an 18-ball 7. He bowled six overs and picked up a wicket. He strutted around the Headingley turf, mostly with a big smile on his face, and threw in as much drama as possible into pouching a sitter on the field and, if that wasn't enough, proceeded to do six push-ups. And after West Indies had beaten Afghanistan to finish their World Cup 2019 campaign, Chris Gayle confirmed - again - that as far as World Cups were concerned, he was done.

"It's a brilliant privilege and honour to represent West Indies in five World Cups (2003 to 2019)," he then told Brett Lee and Dean Jones, among others, while speaking to the host broadcaster. "Disappointed to end the World Cup without making it to the final four, but at the same time, I'm grateful to actually be here. A lot has happened behind the scenes, (and) to actually be here is fantastic. To finish off with a win is fantastic for me.

"We have a great bunch, some great youngsters as well and it's up to them to lift West Indies cricket from here on. I will still be around, and give my input to West Indies cricket. I still have a few more games left as well, so we'll see what happens. The World Cup (form and results wise) wasn't the one I wanted from a personal point of view, but at the same time, you can't complain too much. It's one of those things."

In February this year, Gayle had declared that he would be done with ODIs after the World Cup, but during the tournament he offered the possibility of playing on for a bit longer. When asked if that reconsideration would stretch to playing another World Cup, Gayle played along.

"Should I give it some thought," he said with a big laugh. "Yes, it is my last World Cup. Unless they can give me two years to rest and I can come back in two years' time again. It's definitely my last World Cup. Like I said, life goes on. The game has done a lot for me and I'm privileged to be part of another World Cup.

"It is possible [to play the 2023 edition] if I put in the work, but I don't intend to put my body on the line. As you can see, I'm struggling a bit. Four years is a long way off, and I'm not considering another World Cup, to be honest with you."

Gayle, who picked up one of the match balls - "a prized possession" - did express regret at not winning the trophy, but acknowledged the support of his team-mates, who let him do things his way. "All the guys rallied around me, and the support from the youngsters was fantastic," Gayle said. "I can't really fault anyone, but I must commend the staff as well for the work ethic they've actually put in for the youngsters and myself.

"Life goes on, it's one of those things. Words can't explain what I feel right now."

There were moments in the World Cup when some of the West Indian youngsters gave enough indications to suggest cricket in the Caribbean has a bright future. Nicholas Pooran, Shai Hope and Shimron Hetmyer with the bat, and Sheldon Cottrell and Oshane Thomas created a splash.

"The future definitely looks bright," Gayle agreed. "Hetmyer, Shai Hope, Pooran as well - those guys will carry the flag and make sure West Indies cricket is back where it belongs. It's just for them to actually take ownership and take responsibility out there in the middle.

"We have a young captain as well, Jason Holder, he's been around five years now. These guys will need to rally around West Indies cricket as long as possible, and I'm looking forward to (watching them in) the next World Cup as well.

"I'll be telling the youngsters to demolish bowlers."

Gayle, meanwhile, will continue to play franchise cricket, and expects to be in the mix for the tour of India later in the year, and "then hopefully we'll see what happens later on in the year."

Gayle has finished with 1186 runs from 35 World Cup matches, sixth in the list of most prolific run-getters in the marquee event and second among West Indians behind Brian Lara's mark of 1225. The 2019 edition had Gayle in patchy form, with 242 runs in eight innings and two half-centuries, scored at a strike rate of 88.32.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored twice after halftime, and the LA Galaxy snapped a three-match home losing streak with a 2-0 victory over Toronto FC on Thursday night in Carson, Calif.

Ibrahimovic remains second in MLS in goals with 13 behind the 17 of Los Angeles FC's Carlos Vela. He had scored only two in his previous six league matches, a relative cold spell for someone who has 35 in his 42 MLS appearances overall.

Efrain Alvarez's cross set up Ibrahimovic's first header, which gave the Galaxy their fourth win out of six games overall, with the previous three victories coming on the road.

Substitute Emile Cuello contributed his first professional assist on Ibrahimovic's second goal. David Bingham made five saves to preserve his seventh shutout of the season.

The Galaxy (11-7-1, 34 points) remain second in the Western Conference, six points back of LAFC after earning their first home win since April 28.

Toronto (6-8-5, 23 points) lost despite welcoming Jonathan Osorio back from duty with Canada at the CONCACAF Gold Cup. The Reds are still without Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore, who remain with the U.S. national team.

Los Angeles outshot Toronto 12-10 and held 58.6 percent of the possession.

Ibrahimovic's first goal came in the 75th minute, immediately following Toronto's most consistent spell of pressure on the other end.

Alvarez had the ball wide on the right and drove in an in-swinging, left-footed cross toward the back post. Ibrahimovic held his run to remain onside, backpedaled, and then sent an arcing header across goal, beyond goalkeeper Quentin Westberg's reach, and inside the right post.

He added his second 14 minutes later with his feet, this time collecting Cuello's cross from the left with a first touch that also took him around Westberg before easily slotting the ball home.

That capped his first multi-goal game since April 13, his ninth overall since joining the Galaxy early in the 2018 season.

One assumes there was some logic to Arsenal making a £40 million bid for Wilfried Zaha this week. It could be the start of negotiations with Crystal Palace. It could be an effort to unsettle the player. It could be a show of ambition to their disgruntled fan base. But offering roughly half the market value for a player who signed a five-year contract in August -- to a club who have just received £50m for Aaron Wan-Bissaka -- only seems likely to annoy Palace, place false hope among their supporters and suggest to the player that they're not especially serious about signing him.

At the same time, it all feels about right for Arsenal these days. Bidding for Zaha has the air of a desperate move by a club at a low ebb, making a bid they know will almost certainly fail because they feel they need to do something. It's like a man striding into a jewellers with £500 and trying to buy a £5,000 ring in a last-ditch attempt to save a marriage.

Arsenal have backed themselves into a corner. Their limp performance against Chelsea in the Europa League final was more than just a 4-1 defeat to a hated rival -- it was a reflection of how Arsenal have been run for years: passive, bloodless, uncertain and devoid of leadership. Some blame must be attributed to Unai Emery and some to the players, but this is a far bigger malaise than just those responsible for what happens on the pitch.

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After that match, Emery emerged to face the media with a note of optimism. He insisted a lack of Champions League football wouldn't make it much more difficult to recruit players this summer. He claimed their youngsters have gained experience and was adamant that while the end result of the season might have been disappointing, Arsenal are definitely, absolutely, entirely heading in the right direction. But not even the most suggestible fan believes that is true, surely? And will things be any different in 2019-20?

To put things mildly, Arsenal are a team without balance. They're a squad with two brilliant strikers in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette, but who lost Aaron Ramsey on a free to Juventus, are lumbered with Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Mesut Ozil -- a pair of two No. 10s who are as inconsistent as their wages are large -- and a collection of expensive defenders who can't defend, Shkodran Mustafi being the most obvious example.

Things look grim on the pitch, but the really bad news is it's nothing compared to the situation off it. Arsenal started to prepare for life after Arsene Wenger before the great man left, but those plans look nothing like the reality of things at the Emirates now. Gone is the man supposed to oversee it all, Ivan Gazidis, who shuffled off to Milan having singularly failed to turn Arsenal into a financial powerhouse. They're not even a financial powerstudio, as detailed by the football finance expert Swiss Ramble on Twitter this week. (The quick summary: Their transfer funds are low and dwindling.)

The man recruited to do the recruiting, Sven Mislintat, departed after a little over a year, reportedly due to being unable to do his job as he wanted. Now the show is run by two men, Vinai Venkatesham and Raul Sanllehi, the former a long-term club man who will look after the business side and the latter an ex-Barcelona sporting director who will handle the football side. It's sensible enough in theory, but with two people, there's a sense that nobody's really sure who's in charge.

None of this might be such a problem if there was some sort of leader above them, but instead, it's Stan Kroenke. If there was someone dynamic, engaged or even interested in making Arsenal a better football team, there might be a little more hope, but it might as well just be an empty chair at the top of the club. "Silent Stan" occasionally drops by when he has a little free time -- he sent his son to the Europa League final in Baku, Azerbaijan, instead of attending personally -- but the club has slowly been rotting ever since he arrived. Through a lack of investment and even less interest, Kroenke is a landlord who has let a house degrade to the point of uninhabitability. A recent report in the Daily Mail that suggested there's a mice infestation at the Emirates almost felt too "on the nose."

All of which means the road back to competitiveness is long and all options from this point are flawed. You might not be convinced by Emery's managerial nous, but sacking him when everything else is up in the air would be a bigger gamble. You could spend a lot of money on a big name or two, like Zaha, but just dropping them in this team would mean they're treading water in a sea of mediocrity. You could try to be "smart" with some bargain signings, but it would be a risk and would take an awful lot of variables to go their way to work.

An appealing route might involve building a team around promising youngsters returning from loans, such as Reiss Nelson and Emile Smith Rowe, and hope they might learn from the small clutch of senior players worth persevering with, such as Aubameyang, Lacazette, Lucas Torreira and Hector Bellerin. But there's no guarantee those players are good enough, and even if they are, you risk placing undue pressure on young shoulders. It's an indication of how serious things are that placing faith in untried youth is the most preferable option.

A high-risk but creative route might be to "tank," which is to say they sell anything and anyone other clubs will pay money for, start again and accept that things will be terrible (well, more terrible) for a few years. But that could just lead to Arsenal falling even further behind the rest, perhaps irretrievably so.

Prospects are bleak. The most optimistic thing you could probably say about them is that all of their direct competitors are either a mess, too, or face a similar summer of flux. This is a team and a club that has been drifting for years, and it's important to note that this is all a trickle-down effect from the chronic lack of investment in the later Wenger years.

With a detached owner, changing plans and a manager who might not be the right fit, you get the sense the drift will continue for some time to come. Still, you never know. Maybe Crystal Palace will take pity on them and take 50 cents on the dollar for Zaha.

Stranger things have happened.

"They are not professionals...they were invited to play and if they don't like the conditions there are 500,000 other cricketers in Australia who would love to take their places." These infamous words, by the Australian Cricket Board secretary Alan Barnes, were for decades associated with the curmudgeonly attitudes of the board in the years before the World Series Cricket split.

More than 40 years on, however, the barrier to the professional game is long gone and instead the current battlefield for cricket has far more to do with the latter part of the statement. The assumption about the number of cricketers potentially available to replace the likes of the Chappells, Lillee, Marsh, Walker and Thomson can now be far more closely monitored. And according to Cricket Australia's own numbers, that 500,000 figure may need adjustment.

This week saw the release of the annual Australian Cricket Census, trumpeting a headline participation figure of 1,650,030 men and women, boys and girls from a vast array of geographical and cultural backgrounds. Since breaking the million mark in 2014, this overall tally has grown every year, representing impressive work in terms of rolling out ever vaster and wider school and introductory programs to add more numbers to the total.

The telling numbers

But the more problematic area of the census does not often make its way into the top of the annual press releases or fact sheets. That's the annual check-up on how many junior and senior, male and female cricketers are formally registered to play with clubs - a far more robust indicator of their relationship to the game, whether it be playing, watching or organising. Over recent years, that area of the census reporting has grown increasingly opaque, as previously reported on ESPNcricinfo, with changing and broadening definitions not always adequately explained.

That has not necessarily reflected internal attitudes, and certainly since the appointment of Belinda Clark as the executive in charge of community cricket and by extension participation, CA has been a lot more frank with itself about how headline participation growth does not reflect a slowly creeping drain away from clubs. For the first time, the governing body has revealed its formal club cricket figures over the past six years since 2014, painting a far more challenging picture for cricket than has been previously publicised.

Over that time, club cricket totals rose from 356,681 in 2014 to 392,812 off the back of the 2015 World Cup and that year's Ashes tour in 2016. From that peak, however, the fall has been unrelenting, slipping to 388,242 then 375,915 and, as of this year, 365,076. Of course the time for club registrations last year also happened to be around the same time that the scathing review of CA's culture was released off the back of the Newlands ball-tampering scandal. That meant the most indelible images of cricket in the national mind in pre-season were those of the then chairman David Peever being walloped on television, a few days before he was forced into resigning.

CA knew at the time that those passages could not be good for the game's image, and earlier this year the head of participation Stuart Whiley forecast that a drop-off was expected.

Role models

Having now digested the census results in full, the acting head of community cricket, Kieran McMillan, said that the key point for growing CA's club cricket catchment ahead of this summer will be a far louder and better presence for the game on television screens between June and October. With the World Cup followed by an Ashes series and then the inaugural standalone WBBL running more or less one after the other, the landscape will be rather different to 2018.

"Last season we were slow out of the blocks in terms of registrations and in October we usually get a bulk of registrations, particularly in entry level programs," McMillan said. "That was a tough month for cricket last year. We've got more cricket on TV, high profile, in that period this summer. Our job now, with the benefit of a long lead-in to our planning is to really make the most of that from how we piggyback our marketing campaigns on top of all that."

History indicates that yes, these factors will encourage growth in the game's heartland this summer - food for thought for others in the game, not least the ECB in a summer where its home World Cup is being seen by a small subscription television audience in keeping with the deals done ever since the 2005 Ashes. McMillan said there was plenty of research indicating that any sport will slowly wither in the absence of strong role models.

"I think Sport Australia made it pretty clear in some of the research they've done of the importance of role models," he said. "I think the growth in girls' cricket is a good example of that where you've got a national women's team who've got some fantastic role models, and they're successful - they perform well on the field but they're fantastic off the field.

"You've got the WBBL as a world leading domestic product, it's high quality cricket TV. So you've got the stuff at the elite level and it's able to inspire. Then the work we've been able to do at that grassroots level, we've now got 100 associations offering girls-only competitions. So no matter where you are in Australia there should be somewhere where your young daughter can find a place to play cricket. Marrying that top down and bottom up is where the secret sauce is."

Keeping the kids

For the moment, at least, it is far from the happiest marriage. The problem of retaining club players, and also of bringing interested juniors across from school programs to a broader and deeper relationship with the game, is something occupying plenty of minds at CA, from the community cricket office to the executive and the board itself, now chaired by a former club president in Earl Eddings (North Melbourne). McMillan pointed to recent moves to modify junior formats to be more inclusive of all ages, sizes and skills as a pivotal step in creating more love for the game.

"You've now got almost 80% of all junior associations over the country running formats which are appropriate for those kids whether smaller teams, smaller boundaries, more fours, more sixes, more action, shorter timeframes," he said. "So the actual formats kids are playing from under 10s onwards, the results we've got from those are hugely encouraging in terms of the ability to then retain kids that are coming into the game."

One of the knock-on effects of the Newlands scandal and its aftermath was a slow start for CA's new entry level program, Woolworths Cricket Blast. As discouraging as that was, McMillan said the signs were there that in a more favourable environment, the concept had plenty of chance to grow. "Parents provide a score on whether they'd recommend the activity to other parents for their kids and it's on a scale of -100 to +100, so +100 is amazing, but above zero is a positive, and we're at +39. So parents are saying they're likely to recommend this activity to other parents.

"The other thing we've changed is the packs - they get a shirt with their name on it, aligned to their BBL team of choice. That linkage of what they can see on TV at a BBL game and being able to bring that kind of colour, excitement, personalisation to their local community club, I'm personally really excited about us really nailing the second year of Cricket Blast and I see if we get this right then we can get a lot more kids then we've got quality junior formats to retain them through to teenagers."

Alongside the census results sits the Sport Australia AusPlay sample data, based on detailed surveying of 20,000 Australians. Among its most salient findings was that the peak participation age for cricket is among children 11 years old, with a steady decline following every year thereafter. Australian Rules Football, by comparison, retains far more participants into the late teens. McMillan acknowledged that CA needed to become more "creative" in building better bridges between the schools where their programs introduce the game to children, and the clubs where their interest will grow into something deeper.

"I think one of the things that we have found out is that where there's successful recruitment from schools into clubs, there's a strong role the local club has to play in that school," McMillan said. "That might be because there's individual relationships where there's a parent from the club on the board of trustees or a teacher who plays for the seniors, but regardless there's a strong presence that club has with its local schools that enables that frictionless kind of transition to playing more regularly outside of school hours."

So while the landscape of the game has changed irrevocably from the time of Alan Barnes, the ACB and the cricket war with Kerry Packer and the players, there is plenty to be done to make that statement about "500,000 other cricketers" ring true once more.