The winner of the Ballon d’Or used to be informed of their prestigious victory via a private, dignified telephone call. It was not televised. In 2026, the award has expanded like a sewer fatberg to a gluttonous multitude of 13 different categories which demand a lavish, expensive ceremony. Like every football award show in history, it’s massively overlong and contains stunted, whiffy banter by the bucketload. But if the expanded Ballon d’Or really is the Oscars of football, then does the ceremony and coverage stand up to that billing? @TimSpiers reviews the ceremony. 🔗 nyti.ms/4zZJlkI

Welcome to week eight of The Athletic’s Premier League performance table, where all that matters is your most recent display. With 20th place proving very easy to judge this week, the major deliberation was whose performance, in context, was the most impressive... From Aston Villa ending Manchester City's unbeaten record, Bournemouth's regular 3-0 win at Old Trafford, Tottenham Hotspur's irregular win at Chelsea and Liverpool's victory over the in-form Brighton. @TimSpiers decides who won and who lost the weekend... 🔗 nyti.ms/47HmWwq

Michael Carrick's five-and-a-half-minute press conference monologue on Friday was admirable, heartfelt and will deeply resonate with Manchester United's core fanbase. It also showed exactly why he is almost certainly not the right person for the job and why he is unlikely to be in charge much longer. 📝 @TimSpiers 🔗 nyti.ms/4dWlV76

Plenty of managers are known for a possession-based style of football and take pride in their appearance. A plethora of them have a ginormous ego. Well, pretty much all of them. But none of the above seem to be castigated as much as the head coach of Leicester City, Russell Martin. So why is he the subject of a walking culture war? 📝 @TimSpiers 🔗 nyti.ms/4BjVmms

CBS has plenty of pundits capable of doing forensic interviews. On Tuesday’s evidence, Peter Schmeichel is not one of them. While Amazon’s Gabriel Clarke expertly handled Lisandro Martinez’s outburst in Madrid, Schmeichel’s interview felt like United’s in-house PR. It dealt CBS a harsh lesson in the art of the post-match interrogation. 📝 @TimSpiers nyti.ms/4dxQwI4

Sky Sports is in a bind over the Manchester City judgment. If its commentators and pundits say the club’s Premier League matches are meaningless then it devalues its own product, an unfortunate situation given it coughed up a significant chunk of 2023's £6.7billion record TV rights deal. Go soft on the seriousness of the situation, however, and it will be accused of being a corporate stooge. No wonder Super Sunday made for awkward viewing. 📝 @TimSpiers 🔗 nyti.ms/47fAgIc

Portugal won again on Sunday night but the narrative was all about a man who wasn't playing: Cristiano Ronaldo. Will they ever be able to move on from him or are they stuck in a Ronaldo doom loop? @TimSpiers reports from Porto ⬇️ 🔗 nyti.ms/4zi0CVV

Declan Rice and Cole Palmer have both withdrawn from the England squad due to 'load management' reasons — a phrase that has drawn curiosity from some quarters. @TimSpiers explains exactly what load management is and how clubs go about controlling it during intense periods for players. 🔗 nyti.ms/4iDsLl8

Saturday at Tottenham Hotspur's £1bn stadium and it’s unnervingly quiet. There is a buzz around the ground as thousands of people rush to make kick-off, but no chanting, no shouting, no singing, no anticipation. A lone man in his thirties with bloodshot eyes yells, “Come on you Spurs”. He is drunk and an anomaly. The boos are what generate the headlines but what hits you harder is the silence. What has happened to Spurs? @TimSpiers heads to Tottenham for the latest instalment of Our League. 🔗 nyti.ms/3SSCHNi

Just when you think the Premier League could not get any madder... the 20 clubs go and spend around £3.44bn between them on 154 players. So, of course, we have ranked every single one of them. Here's @TimSpiers' list, from worst to best... nyti.ms/463yusT

■ Which new Premier League signings have impressed? ■ Which clubs still need reinforcements? ■ And should the transfer window shut before the season starts? In the Premier League Forum, @Conor0Neill_, @TimSpiers and @TansleyEduardo discuss the weekend’s action as the transfer deadline approaches. Read their views and have your say. 🔗 nyti.ms/3SykCUv