England winger Bukayo Saka has said that the team are still carrying the “scar” of their heartbreaking World Cup semi-final exit to Argentina.

Thomas Tuchel’s team were on the verge of becoming the first England side to reach a men’s World Cup final since 1966, but were stunned by two late Argentina goals as they fell to a 2-1 loss.

A thrilling 6-4 victory over France in the bronze medal match gave the Three Lions their best World Cup finish in six decades, but the wait for their second trophy goes on.

“Obviously, there is still a scar on us when you believed and everyone was so united and so confident we could do it,” Saka said.

“Not just us, but the whole country we felt.

“You try to move on as soon as possible, but you know a scar is a scar, it decides to heal when it heals itself.”

England get an immediate reminder of what might have been as they host world champions Spain at Wembley tomorrow in the first of four Nations League matches over the next two weeks.

“We are trying to draw a line under [the World Cup] now and focus on the new international season that we have coming up,” Saka added.

“We have got four massive, difficult group games to try and qualify us for the Nations League [knockouts] that we are really focused on.”

Meanwhile, Saka believes it is only a matter of time before his Arsenal team-mate Max Dowman, 16, earns a senior England call-up.

“I think so,” Saka said. “His talent is insane. It’s up to him how far he is going to go in football. His talent is crazy.”

England Under-21 manager Lee Carsley concurred with Saka on Dowman’s amazing talent but thinks the youngster staying with the under-19s during this international window is the best option.

“He is more than capable of playing in the under-21s,” Carsley said.

“What I do think will happen with the age group he goes to is that he can play the minutes.

“He can also have that time to consolidate where he is in his career and play with his friends again and take that little bit of pressure off him.

“I have no doubt that Max is going to be with the under-21s.

“That is something I am keen to have a conversation with him and his parents, on the way we see his pathway going, because he is an amazing talent and someone we are very lucky to have.”

Manchester United’s overall debt remains over £1bn despite Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s extensive cost-cutting measures, with the club also confirming it has spent £63.5m buying land for the team’s new stadium.

Amid a backdrop of fan protests and a disappointing start to the season that has left United 12th in the Premier League and already out of the EFL Cup, the club have announced record revenues of £677.6m and a £22.6m operating profit despite not playing in Europe for the first time in a decade.

This represents a huge shift from the £113.2m loss in 2023-24.

However, while United have saved £8.5m of a projected £16.5m pay-off to axed boss Ruben Amorim after he accepted a job at AC Milan, other costs have increased.

Net finance costs for the year were £69.6m, an increase of 228.3%. United put most of this down to a foreign exchange loss. According to football finance expert Kieran Maguire, net finance costs alone have now exceeded £1bn since the leveraged Glazer family buyout in 2005.

In addition, United also confirmed they spent £63.5m of an additional $125m (£94.14m) added to their historic debt during a summer refinancing move on land for their new stadium. The club have not explained what they have done with the remainder. The stadium itself is likely to cost in excess of £2bn.

It means the club’s overall debt, while reducing from £1.3bn at the end of December, is still over £1bn, made up of the historic debt, which now stands at £577.6m, the £111.4m outstanding on its revolving credit facility, and outstanding transfer fees, which club sources say represents approximately 75% of the £473m listed and being owed as ‘trade and other payables’.

This comes at a time when supporters are furious about what they believe to be chronic under investment in Michael Carrick’s first-team squad this summer.

United spent £148m on three new signings – Carlos Baleba, Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans. It was less than a third of the £458m Manchester City invested in their squad and lower even than promoted Ipswich.

However, fans are angry there was no additional left-back purchased to provide competition for Luke Shaw, who has missed three matches because of injury already, or striking support for Benjamin Sesko, who missed pre-season as he recovered from a shin complaint that has already resurfaced.

While United argue the additional funds were earmarked for their stadium, to be built 350 yards away from where Old Trafford stands, the loan itself is lodged within club accounts.

“We are pleased to have secured record revenues,” said chief executive Omar Berrada.

“This demonstrates the underlying strength of our business, and shows the direct impact of the work we have been doing over the past two years.

“While these results confirm that we are on the right trajectory, we will continue to take a disciplined approach to ensure our finances remain sustainable.

“With that financial sustainability in mind, we have strengthened both our men’s and women’s teams during the summer window and our men’s team has seen the return of Champions League football to Old Trafford.”

United have also been criticised for a lack of investment in the Women’s Super League squad, who currently sit second bottom of the table with one point from three games.

Ratcliffe previously argued the club had to take strong action to slash losses. Two lots of redundancies led to 450 people losing their jobs, while United have confirmed their latest set of salary costs have reduced by £11.3m to £302m.

“This is primarily due to changes in the make-up of the men’s first-team squad, combined with savings associated with headcount reduction programs implemented over the previous two fiscal years,” said the club.

The president of the Life Youth Sports Development Initiative (LYSDI) in Nigeria,

Odikibo Solomon Odikibo has called on the Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminialayi Fubara, through the Ministry of Sports to reconstruct the Alfred Diete Spiff Sports Complex (Civic Center) with the view to providing track and field facilities.

He stated the state has abundant talents in track and field events but limited facilities to train with to improve themselves.

Odikibo, who won several medals in long jump and high jump for the state, made this call in an exclusive interview with Tidesports shortly after conducting a training session with young athletes under his tutelage, at the weekend in Port Harcourt.

According to him, with what is going on with track and field events in the state, the disciplines could soon go extinct, especially,as track and field athletes are currently growing old without adequate replacement in sight to replace themand it appears that relevant authorities do not care to discover and groom athletes.

” I am passionately appealing to the state government to reconstruct the Civic Center to accommodate track and field facilities as it was before.

“Young athletes are eager to do sports but have no facilities to train with. We all know that without training facilities, no athlete will improve, so there’s a need to bring the Civic Center back to her original state, Odikibo said.

He explained that the organization is a grassroots sports initiative designed to discover young athletes from secondary schools, and that it was established out of passion to discover hidden talents from secondary schools. “It is self-sponsored with the intention to catch them young.

“In my days of active sports, there were  lots of secondary school sports competitions and tournaments; it was there they used to discover athletes. It was from school sports that I was also discovered. I did high jump, long jump, and hurdle” he stated.

Tonye Orabere