Opinion

June 26th 2015 saw Premier League heavyweights Chelsea announced that Lewis Baker, a promising youngster from their dominant youth development squad, would be joining feeder club Vitesse Arnhem on loan.

New York City FC’s disastrous 7-0 aggregate defeat to Toronto FC marked the end of the line for 38-year-old midfielder Frank Lampard, who soon after announced that he would be departing the emerging club once his contract expires at the end of the year.

Brazil’s impressive recent run of form continued against Colombia on Tuesday night, as the Selecao won 2-0 in Peru. The victory was inspired by soon-to-be Manchester City striker Gabriel Jesus, who scored once and also collected an assist.

England and Spain drew 2-2 at Wembley on Tuesday night in an entertaining friendly match. Until the 89th minute, the home side were two goals up through efforts from Adam Lallana and Jamie Vardy.

In the last few days, Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard have confirmed that their MLS adventures are set to come to an end. Both former England internationals have endured mixed fortunes in the American top-tier.

Much of the spotlight has been on Karamoko Dembele this season, after the 13-year-old wonderkid played his first game with Celtic’s Under-20s side. The youngster’s achievements are phenomenal, yet he isn’t the only Dembele achieving big things with the Scottish club.

On Sunday night, Manchester United outcast Memphis Depay scored a brace in the Netherlands 3-1 win against Luxembourg.

Wales drew 1-1 Serbia at the Millennium Stadium in World Cup qualifying on Saturday. The Dragons performance was met with whistles and boos at the end of the game.

Group D of European World Cup qualifying is the most open of any of the qualification sections. On paper, there is no traditional giant of the European game. However, there are four teams that will be expected to challenge for qualification.

England recorded a 3-0 victory over Scotland in a World Cup qualifier on Friday night. The win at Wembley was not as comfortable as the scoreline suggests.

Belgium and Vincent Kompany experienced a blow in the fact that the defender will not be fit for the Red Devils World Cup qualifier against Estonia on Sunday.

The player who scores the most goals or pulls off the best skills is usually branded the ‘star’ of a team. Lionel Messi at Barcelona, Eden Hazard at Chelsea, Cristiano Ronaldo at Real Madrid spring to mind.

The last round of MLS Cup action saw both Eastern and Western Conference table-toppers and favourites to lift the trophy, New York Red Bulls and FC Dallas, dumped out of the competition.

According to reports from Spain, Spanish champions Barcelona are looking at nabbing Phillippe Coutinho from Liverpool in the near future. The 24-year-old has matured greatly in the past year or so and scored a fantastic goal in Brazil’s 3-0 win over Argentina on Thursday night.

In-form Chelsea have been handed an injury blow in their bid for the Premier League title with the news that star forward Diego Costa has withdrawn from the Spain squad through injury.

It is plain to see that Celtic are still some way off of Europe's elite, having failed to record a win in the Champions League so far. Despite an impressive 3-3 draw with Premier League side Manchester City, a heavy 7-0 defeat to Barcelona followed by a 2-0 defeat to Borussia Monchengladbach makes it extremely difficult for the Scottish club to progress to the next round.

When Manchester United signed Henrikh Mkhitaryan from German giants Dortmund for a fee of around £26million in the summer it seemed they had a made a fantastic signing.

Last season West Ham enjoyed a very entertaining first campaign under Slaven Bilic. Arguably the highlight of the season was the form of French international playmaker Dimitri Payet.

Cristiano Ronaldo has signed an extension to his contract at Real Madrid, keeping him at the club for another five years.  However, this wasn’t the biggest revelation of the day, as the former Manchester United forward stated his hopes of playing for another decade.

Liverpool moved to the top of the Premier League table on Sunday after the Reds hammered Watford 6-1 at Anfield. The victory was the Reds fourth consecutive Premier League win and was another display of Jurgen Klopp’s side's attacking prowess.