Charlie Kirk shooting suspect to be charged with murder as Trump pushes for death penalty

The 22-year-old man suspected of fatally shooting Charlie Kirk reportedly confessed to the killing in a group chat on Discord shortly before being arrested.

Tyler Robinson, who is expected to be criminally charged Tuesday, allegedly wrote in a small group chat, “Hey guys, I have bad news for you all. It was me at UVU yesterday,” two people familiar with the chat told The Washington Post.

The revelation comes as officials have said Robinson refused to cooperate with law enforcement in the investigation.

Although Robinson surrendered to the police on the evening of September 11, authorities have not yet determined a full motive for the shooting. Officials say Robinson was radicalized online and subscribed to a “leftist” ideology.

Trump administration have claimed without presenting public evidence that the shooting was part of an organized left-wing terror plot, and vowed on Monday to go after the groups behind it.

Kirk, a Republican activist and co-founder of the conservative youth movement Turning Point USA, was fatally shot while hosting an event at a Utah college on September 10.

His death has prompted widespread mourning and outrage, especially on the right, and Vice President JD Vance stepped in Monday to host an episode of the late activist’s podcast.

Another former Tory minister defects to Reform in fresh blow for Badenoch

Former health minister Maria Caulfield has become the latest Conservative politician to defect to Reform in another blow for Kemi Badenoch.

Ms Caulfield, who was a Conservative MP for nearly a decade, said “the future is Reform” as she announced her decision to switch to Nigel Farage’s party.

It comes less than a day after the shock defection of sitting Conservative MP and shadow minister Danny Kruger to Nigel Farage’s party.

She becomes the thirteenth former Tory MP to join Reform and her defection comes just 24 hours after sitting Conservative MP and shadow minister revealed he had switched allegiance.

Ms Caulfield told GB News: “If you are Conservative right-minded, then the future is Reform. The country is going to change a lot.

“The same people who thought that Brexit would not happen think that Reform will not happen. They are in for a shock.”

She added: “I have joined. My husband joined a few months ago and I joined a month ago.”

She is the latest in a series of high-profile former ministers to join the party – a move which will put pressure on Ms Badenoch, in a week in which her MPs want her to capitalise on Keir Starmer’s woes, not have to deal with her own.

On Monday Mr Kruger said there was a “crisis in the economy, crisis at the border, crisis in our streets and a crisis in our military”.

He said Britain “is not broken, but it is badly damaged” and that “something has got to give”.

Asked about the defection of Kruger, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said the party “is not going to get blown off course by these sorts of incidents”.

The defections are the latest in a long line of departures from the Tories. Nadine Dorries also recently joined Reform, declaring that the Conservative Party is “dead”.

Former Tory MPs, including Dame Andrea Jenkyns and Marco Longhi, and former Tory chair Sir Jake Berry, are also among the most high-profile defectors.

As he left Mr Kruger urged other Tory MPs to join him in Mr Farage’s party, saying: “I would hope that colleagues who share my view about the crisis the country is in and the opportunity that Reform offers to save our country.”

Shadow chancellor Mel Stride insisted Mr Kruger was “profoundly wrong” to say the Conservative Party was “over” when he defected to Reform UK.

Asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme about the comments, Mr Stride said: “Well, he’s profoundly wrong. I’m sorry to see Danny go, but his analysis is wrong. We don’t have an election now for another four years.

“It is certainly the case that we had a devastating defeat about a year ago, that we lost that connection with the electorate, that trust with the electorate, and it is also true that it will take us time to rebuild that.”

Mr Stride said the Conservatives were now holding the government “ruthlessly” to account, which would help rebuild trust between the party and the public.

Last year Ms Caulfield, then the vaccines minister, spoke of the “overwhelming” number of death threats she received.

She told MPs that threats on her life rose every time the House of Commons discussed jabs.

Duchess of Kent’s funeral sees Prince Andrew make rare appearance

The King, the Prince and Princess of Wales, and other members of the royal family came together for a funeral service in London for the Duchess of Kent.

Mourners filled Westminster Cathedral for the requiem mass, a Catholic funeral, the first to be held for a member of the royal family in modern British history.

The disgraced Duke of York made a rare appearance with his ex-wife Sarah, Duchess of York.

Andrew’s public career was effectively ended by his friendship with the late American financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as was that of Britain’s former ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson.

The 89-year-old Duke of Kent, using a walking stick, led other mourners into the cathedral.

Pope Leo XIV paid tribute to the Duchess of Kent, praising her “legacy of Christian goodness” and her “dedication to official duties” in a message delivered during the funeral mass.

William had a white handkerchief tucked into his top pocket, while Kate wore a black hat with a large bow at the back and netting detail at the front, and pearl earrings, with her hair down at the back.

The King arrived without the Queen, who pulled out of the event on Tuesday morning as she was suffering from acute sinusitis.

A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said: “With great regret, Her Majesty the Queen has withdrawn from attendance at this afternoon’s requiem mass for the Duchess of Kent as she is recovering from acute sinusitis.

“Her thoughts and prayers will be with the Duke of Kent and all the family.”

The announcement raises questions over the role Camilla will be able to take in US president Donald Trump’s high-stakes state visit, which begins in full at Windsor on Wednesday and is being hosted by the King.

The Palace said the Queen hoped she would have recovered sufficiently to be able to attend all royal elements of the trip as planned, with highlights including a lavish state banquet.

Moments before the requiem mass began, the duchess’s immediate family arrived, led by her daughter Lady Helen Taylor, walking arm-in-arm along the nave with her father, the Duke of Kent.

Other mourners included the Princess Royal and Sir Tim Laurence, the Duchess of Edinburgh, and the close family of the Duke and Duchess of Kent.

Former Formula One world champion Sir Jackie Stewart and actors Rula Lenska and Dame Maureen Lipman were also among the mourners at the funeral, which was conducted by Cardinal Vincent Nichols, leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales.

Andrew and Sarah sat at the end of a row. Kate sat across the aisle, wearing a four-strand pearl-and-diamond choker necklace that belonged to the late Queen Elizabeth II.

Katharine, the wife of the late Queen’s cousin the Duke of Kent, died peacefully at home, surrounded by her family, on the evening of 4 September, aged 92.

A devout follower of the Roman Catholic faith, in 1994 the duchess became the first member of the royal family to convert to Catholicism for more than 300 years, and it was her wish to have her funeral at Westminster Cathedral.

The Pope said: “I was saddened to learn of the death of Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, and I send heartfelt condolences, together with the assurance of my prayerful closeness, to Your Majesty, the members of the royal family, and especially to her husband, the Duke of Kent, and their children and grandchildren at this time of sorrow.

“Entrusting her noble soul to the mercy of our Heavenly Father, I readily associate myself with all those offering thanksgiving to Almighty God for the duchess’s legacy of Christian goodness, seen in her many years of dedication to official duties, patronage of charities, and devoted care for vulnerable people in society.

Starmer’s migrant plan in jeopardy as deportations held up

Sir Keir Starmer’s new “one in, one out” deal with France was in jeopardy last night after a second deportation flight left the country without any migrants on board.

It is the second day in a row that the Home Office has failed to deport migrants on passenger flights intended to get the returns deal underway.

Several migrants due to be among the first removed to France under the swap deal have had their removal delayed after legal challenges, and the first legal case reached the High Court on Tuesday afternoon, with a detained asylum seeker arguing against his planned deportation set for Wednesday.

The Home Office has booked seats for migrants on several flights this week, with asylum seekers given directions for deportation on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, with multiple flights planned on Wednesday,The Independent understands.

Downing Street denied that the government’s return deal with France was a shambles, or that its plans had been hampered by legal action. A spokesperson for No 10 also denied that the latest postponement showed ministers were powerless in the face of the courts, adding: “As I said, we have never provided an operational running commentary on the details of the scheme.”

Multiple asylum seekers are believed to have issued letters before legal action to the Home Office, detailing why they should not be removed to France, and officials have cancelled their plane tickets and deportation notices.

The issue is a massive blow to Sir Keir, who is trying to turn around a 10-point deficit behind Nigel Farage’s Reform UK in the polls, with the worsening migrant crisis being a key issue.

There are high hopes that the one-in, one-out deal will break the business model of the gangs behind the small boat crossings, but the latest legal delays look set to scupper hopes of an early success.

The issue has brought back memories of the notorious Rwanda scheme with the Tories, which failed after it was tied up in legal knots.

Some of the asylum seekers detained at Brook House detention centre, at Gatwick, under the scheme with France, are believed to be survivors of torture and trafficking. Others have received Home Office decisions saying that there are reasonable grounds to believe that they may be a victim of modern slavery, it is understood.

The Independent previously reported that children were detained for removal to France, but have since been released into the care of the local council. At least 12 children whose ages are disputed by officials, meaning they were treated as adults, have been detained under the scheme, with four still in detention, support workers said.

Earlier on Monday, skills minister Jacqui Smith refused to say how many people would be returned to France this week under the deal. The French are reported to have said they will only be accepting a small initial contingent of deportations.

Ministers have previously said the scheme will ramp up the number of deportations over time. But justice minister Alex Davies-Jones on Tuesday refused to say when deportations would actually be carried out.

Ms Davies Jones declined to give a “running commentary” on when deportations would happen, claiming this would give people smugglers “exactly what they want”.

Asked when migrants would be returned, she said: “These deportations will be happening as soon as possible.”

But she declined to say when, or whether asylum seekers from France would still fly to the UK later this week under the swap element of the scheme.

The Conservatives said Labour is “too weak to control our borders” and called for the complete repeal of the Human Rights Act for immigration matters.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: “Two flights, zero deportations. Labour’s France returns deal failed to remove a single migrant, yet thousands more continue to arrive. The government must come clean on whether even one person has been sent to us from France in return.”

The charity Detention Action warned that some migrants are having their screening interviews held after midnight, with some conducted by phone and video conference. This is resulting in poor quality assessments, they said.

The legal advice service is also fraught with delays, and migrants only have seven days to challenge their removal to France.

Lochlinn Parker, acting director of the charity, said: “Adults and children are arriving from Afghanistan, Palestine, Syria and elsewhere, seeking our protection, only to be locked in small cells and denied the support they urgently need. The new home secretary must change course and stop putting people in even more danger.”

Migrants detained for deportation to France include those from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iran, Palestine, Somalia, Sudan and Syria, and Kurdish people from a number of countries.

Emma Ginn from Medical Justice said: “Our independent clinicians have medically assessed people in detention under this scheme who are survivors of torture and trafficking, with experiences of sexual abuse and slavery. It is a scheme that ignores the fundamental issue that they are seeking safety and as such, it’s hard to see how it will be successful in its own terms”.

Griff Ferris, at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, said the scheme was “just another grim attempt by a government flailing to appease the racist far right. People are not tokens to be exchanged in this dehumanising and immoral way.”

The number of migrants arriving in the UK after crossing the English Channel has topped 30,000 for the year so far – the earliest point in a calendar year at which the mark has been passed since data on crossings was first reported in 2018.

A Home Office spokesperson said the department would “not comment on operational details” of the flights.

The spokesperson said: “Under the new UK-France Treaty, people crossing in small boats can now be detained and removed to France. We expect the first returns to take place imminently.

“Protecting the UK border is our top priority. We will do whatever it takes to restore order to secure our borders.”

Cryptocoins, merch and Musk: How Tommy Robinson pulled off huge march

When far-right activist Tommy Robinson was released from HMP Woodhill in May this year, he already had big plans for what he would do with his freedom. Addressing a camera outside the prison, his hair overgrown from seven months inside for contempt of court, he revealed that plans for a “free speech festival” in London were already in full swing.

The Unite the Kingdom rally would take place on 13 September, with people coming from every corner of the globe, Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, promised. Speakers were already lined up from Australia, Canada, America, Denmark, Poland and Germany, he said, adding: “Book your travel, book your hotel, bring your families”.

Over the weekend, up to 150,000 people did just that in what is thought to be the largest nationalist event in decades.

The number of marchers seemed to surprise both the organisers and the police, with the huge turnout meaning protesters couldn’t be contained. As the crowd spilled out of the area in Whitehall where the march ended, police tried – and failed – to stop them from encircling anti-racism counterprotesters, prompting “unacceptable violence” from Robinson supporters and clashes that left dozens of officers injured.

While Robinson is no stranger to organising political marches, the scale of Saturday’s demonstration was new – as was the public support from American tech billionaire Elon Musk, who appeared via live stream to address the crowds.

Musk, who has addressed or posted about Robinson on his social media platform X (Twitter) 34 times in little over a year, told the Unite the Kingdom march that “violence is coming to you” and “you either fight back or you die”.

He was joined in the speaking line-up by Reform UK’s former deputy chair, Ben Habib, and other far-right activists, including French politician Eric Zemmour, Belgian politician Filip Dewinter, actor turned right-wing commentator Laurence Fox, media personality Katie Hopkins, and former SAS soldier and TV presenter Ant Middleton, among others.

Downing Street hit back at Musk’s comments on Monday, with a spokesperson saying: “The last thing the British people want is dangerous and inflammatory language which threatens violence and intimidation on our streets.”

And home secretary Shabana Mahmood continued the condemnation, telling MPs that “violent thugs will face the full force of the law”.

She added: “When a foreign billionaire calls upon our citizens to fight against our ancient democracy, I know that this is met by the vast majority with a shake of the head. That is because we are in truth a tolerant country, and yes, a diverse one too.” Mahmood added: “The St George’s cross and the union jack belong to us all … They must never be used to divide us.”

She said Musk was a “hostile billionaire” whose words were “abhorrent”.

Musk has now publicly supported Advance UK, a political movement to the right of Reform UK, fronted by Habib. His unofficial support for Robinson started when the right-wing agitator was allowed back on X in November 2023.

Since then, Robinson has benefited substantially from his exposure on the social media platform, with his followers growing from around 600,000 in June last year to 1.6 million just over a year later.

Musk started promoting Robinson personally on his own account in August last year, ahead of the anti-immigration riots in Southport that gripped the country and saw over 1,000 people charged. He then renewed his support in January, amid political pressure following the grooming gangs scandal in which he offered to “help fund legal actions against corrupt officials who aided and abetted the rape of Britain, per the official government inquiry”, and again this summer during the asylum hotel protests.

A summer of anti-migration rhetoric propagated by politicians is what has fuelled the high turnout, Sabby Dhalu from anti-racism activist group Stand Up to Racism said.

“What shifted it was the whole political narrative over the summer; it wasn’t really an organisational shift,” she said. “Politicians of different colours, from Reform UK to Conservatives and indeed the Labour government, were all feeding the same narrative of stopping the boats, asylum seekers and foreign nationals being a problem in society.

“There were at least 20 demonstrations every week for the last seven weeks, culminating in this big demonstration at the weekend in London. That sort of thing is inevitably going to build a massive far-right demonstration.”

Though Stand Up to Racism has also been organising counterprotests to challenge anti-migrant hotel activists, she added that there are not enough politicians speaking up. “You haven’t got politicians in the same number feeding an anti-racist narrative, who are speaking out, saying refugees are not to blame for the crisis and that we need a more humane response. They also don’t get the airtime or the coverage that anti-asylum seeker rhetoric gets.

“It’s the politics of it that built the Tommy Robinson demonstration. You need a Labour government to challenge this, and they are not challenging it.”

Ahead of Saturday’s march, the Unite the Kingdom website was asking supporters to help raise £180,000 to organise the rally. Funds would cover professional staging, lighting and sound systems, travel and accommodation for speakers and security and medics, the website said.

An account on X, called Unite the Kingdom $UTK and labelled as a fan account, has claimed to be the “sponsors” of Saturday’s event. The logo and website name, UTK coin, were tagged to Robinson’s videos posted ahead of the march, and he thanked them for supporting the protest.

The UTK crypto coin can be bought by Robinson supporters, and then royalties are earned when the coin is traded, according to the trading platform Bag.fm.

The website for the coin says it is a “patriotic coin fighting for Britain’s future” that is “supported by Tommy Robinson”.

The X account had claimed to have raised nearly $70,000 through the crypto trades on Saturday, with a target of $500,000 for the next Unite the Kingdom event.

There is also UTK merchandise for sale, including a bucket hat for £19.99.

With more marches apparently planned, chief constable Mark Hobrough, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for public order, said that there were well-established “national mobilisation plans in place” to provide the right resources across the UK.

“Policing is not anti-protest, we are anti-crime and we will continue to work with local communities to ensure that they are safe and any serious disruption is dealt with robustly,” he added.

I wish my mum had contacted Macmillan Cancer Support

I wasn’t at my mum’s side when she learned she had breast cancer, but that made me determined to be there the day she was getting the all-clear 18-months later. However, things didn’t go to plan that day.

Mum’s cancer journey started over a decade ago, a few months after a routine mammogram – when she developed “a pain”. She told herself it was probably nothing, because the scan she’d just had was fine. When she mentioned it to her GP – a small lump that didn’t feel quite right – she convinced herself that she was just being silly. The biopsy begged to differ.

In the list you keep in your head of the cancers you worry your mum might get, breast wasn’t that high on mine. Yes, it’s long been the number one cancer affecting women, with Macmillan Cancer Support reporting that about 55,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK each year  – the risk factor only increasing with age. But my mum had other health concerns to contend with.

As a schoolgirl in swinging London, she’d been a back-of-the-bikeshed smoker, which had graduated into a lifelong habit. Lung cancer seemed like a possibility.

Mum’s also the biggest sun worshipper I know. Long before any of us had heard of SPF, she would think nothing of spending an afternoon in the garden, stretched out on a blanket, slathered in baby oil. So, given what we know now about UV radiation, I wondered about skin cancer too.

Mum went on to have a series of lumpectomies to get rid of three spots of malignant tissue. She would also have lymph nodes removed as a precaution, as well as undergo extensive chemotherapy.

For me, her diagnosis was as though a stopwatch had been started. How long might she have left? She did her best to be stoic. Which was just as well, given what government austerity measures at the time were doing to the NHS: budget cuts, hapless reorganisations, and an end to the “gold-standard” two-week referral from detection to the start of treatment.

All mum could do was wait for the brown envelopes to drop on the doormat detailing appointments at unfamiliar hospitals many miles away, sometimes after the appointment had been and gone.

If she felt let down by the bureaucracy of our health service, the same could not be said for the army of individuals involved in her care. On a human level, she found her nurses and doctors to be uniquely composed and compassionate throughout her treatment.

When the day finally came for her oncologist to tell her that all the signs of her cancer had gone, I was invited along to hold her hand. “The scans are back,” he began. “And I need to discuss your options for the next course of action.” It seemed the cancer hadn’t quite gone after all. She had fought so hard to get to this point, she was expecting good news, and was unprepared for the knockback.

But she did go on to beat cancer – and has been in remission for more than five years, which we couldn’t be more grateful for. However, should it ever come back, there’s one thing we’d do differently from the off: make a call to Macmillan Cancer Support.

Only with hindsight, did we realise how much help Macmillan would have been. Someone to provide her with a calming companion for the journey, someone to help with the cancer admin – the appointments, the prescriptions, the test results – and someone to explain what all the scans and tests were for, what the results might mean, and what to expect next.

I couldn’t always be around while mum was living with cancer, and that’s where Macmillan steps in. Now, enjoying a slice of cake at a Coffee Morning, which is raising money to fund the work they do, seems like the least I can do.

Find out how you can help raise vital funds by hosting a Macmillan Coffee Morning. Sign up now on the Macmillan website

Macmillan Cancer Support, registered charity in England and Wales (261017), Scotland (SC039907) and the Isle of Man (604). Also operating in Northern Ireland.

Prince Harry’s conscience is clear… but it really shouldn’t be

We can all agree that it’s nice that Prince Harry is talking to his dad again. The King and his youngest son enjoyed tea together last Wednesday at Clarence House, a thawing of relations that led a happy Harry to tell the BBC that there is “no point fighting any more – life is precious”.

Whatever the optics of finding yourself estranged from your father for 19 months as he undergoes weekly cancer treatments, this, at the very least, is a heartwarming story of a lad and his dad making up at a time when nobody in this country seems particularly interested in getting along.

So why go and spoil it? Clearly in a good mood, Harry went and gave an interview to The Guardian in which he absolved himself of any wrongdoing in the family fall-out. “I don’t believe that I aired my dirty laundry in public … My conscience is clear,” he said of Spare, the tell-all memoir that most sensible people agree drove a pretty sizeable wedge between father and son.

Your conscience is clear? It shouldn’t be. Having had a daughter myself a year ago, I couldn’t help but think of all the moments the King must have missed with his grandchildren: tottering first steps, first words, food being flung laughingly across a California kitchen, storytime with grandad. Lilibet, Harry’s youngest, is now four. You don’t get those moments back.

I find it so desperately sad that Harry appears to have lost sight of what passes for a fresh start in the first place. Perhaps he feels that all that has transpired was for the best. You wouldn’t bet against it.

“I know that [speaking out] annoys some people and it goes against the narrative,” Harry said this week. “The book? It was a series of corrections to stories already out there. One point of view had been put out and it needed to be corrected.”

To which you say, well, up to a very narrow point. If we reduce family life to a series of competing views, what room is there for anything other than discord? In the bunfight to be right, it’s the little acts of love that go missing.

The irony, as ever, is that Harry is, like his mother, prodigiously gifted at doing good.

In the last week, he has been charming wounded troops in Ukraine on a surprise visit, cheering sick children at a London hospital, and laying a wreath on the tombstone of his beloved grandmother, Elizabeth II.

Perhaps he has had time recently to reflect. The late Queen’s unofficial motto was “never complain, never explain”.

If life gives you castles and power and unimaginable wealth, it is perhaps best to focus on deeds, not words.

Harry has tried to explain himself at length, in podcasts, in print. It so often sounds an awful lot like complaining to me.

Life is precious. It’s also short. As the Prince himself says, over the coming year, “the focus really has to be on my dad”. Saying it is a first step. The next, frankly, is showing it.

Why three English players reflect growing crises at Spain’s biggest clubs

When Thomas Tuchel called Trent Alexander-Arnold to tell him he was out of September’s England squad, the German said he was conscious of the right-back having to adapt to a new life in Madrid, but still stressed another point. This was also a football decision.

Alexander-Arnold isn’t as settled as some of his right-back rivals, and Tuchel wants to see how Xabi Alonso uses him. The England manager knows he’s going to spend a lot of time watching Spanish football this season, and may well witness an interesting dynamic in the Champions League this week.

Atletico Madrid’s trip to Liverpool – before Real Madrid follow in November – will showcase it through Conor Gallagher. For the first time in history, all three of the big Spanish clubs feature an English player at the same time.

Madrid even have two, given that Alexander-Arnold has joined his close friend, Jude Bellingham.

Marcus Rashford has meanwhile gone to Barcelona after first discussing a move there as far back as 2019. This is a dream long achieved, even if reality is going to be a bit more challenging.

In a different era, maybe even at that time in 2019, such signings would have been a show of strength all-round.

It would be rightly said that England is now producing so much elite talent that they’re good enough for the Clasico two, for so long, the great white sharks at the top of the football food chain.

Madrid and Barcelona would meanwhile have proved they still have the clout to take the best of the Premier League, regardless of the competition’s power. Even the newly assertive champions, Liverpool, lost another star to Spain through Alexander-Arnold.

His return to Anfield in November could bring quite a reception, given the residual noise about that departure.

Except that this sub-plot is a lot more complicated than that.

These are actually signs of weakness, to a certain degree. Or, as some insiders put it, the situations of the English players in Spain actually reflect different types of difficulties – even crises – at their clubs and even LaLiga as a whole.

You only have to look at Alexander-Arnold, on the occasions he actually plays. He is described by sources as having started “very timidly”, with the warning that he’ll have to improve a lot to oust Dani Carvajal from the team.

There have already been quips over whether he was signed merely to keep Bellingham company. Such jibes are undercut by the fact that Alonso likes Alexander-Arnold. The manager knows his class.

Bellingham is one of the most valued players at Madrid, mind, both for his brilliant first season and since he is only behind Kylian Mbappe in terms of commercial appeal. Many of the club’s biggest deals involve Bellingham.

Such advertisements are the only place you can see him right now due to his summer operation, however, and that after a more muted second season. People are waiting for the great star to properly take the stage again.

That more muted second act is partly down to the evolution of Bellingham’s position, and that has involved a certain irony. The 22-year-old was initially signed to be Luka Modric’s long-term successor, but instead excelled in his first season as Karim Benzema’s successor… only for Madrid to now need a Modric again. They badly need that midfield controller.

Alonso insisted on such a player in the summer, but top target Martin Zubimendi had already long agreed a deal with Arsenal. This has been viewed with particular frustration at the top levels of the Bernabeu, because Zubimendi was considered such an obvious Madrid signing.

It was even anticipated that he could offer the extra satisfaction of usurping Rodri from the national team. There is instead intense aggravation that they missed out, especially with so few comparable players around.

If it’s obviously a stretch to describe this as a “crisis” for a club that won the Champions League in 2024 and was being lauded for its long-term recruitment, Madrid are at something of a crossroads.

The very appointment of Alonso represents a bold new direction, where the club is willing to invest in becoming an “ideology team” for the first time in their modern history. Alonso’s approach, put bluntly, is more associated with Barcelona.

Bellingham may now be expected to carry a different responsibility when he returns. That’s nevertheless tempered by the possibility that Alonso actually figures out a working system without him.

There was already a suggestion of that with England last week, as Tuchel’s side excelled with Morgan Rogers. The manager even spoke conspicuously about squad “behaviour” expectations amid growing murmurs regarding Bellingham’s “ego”.

If it’s all true, Bellingham is arguably at exactly the right club – in a good way. Madrid value that type of personality.

Gallagher has never been talked about in such terms, and Diego Simeone especially loves him for his humility. The midfielder, in the words of one source, “runs his b******s off” – exactly what the manager appreciates more than anything.

And yet that is exactly why Gallagher almost articulates a certain philosophical anguish at the club. Some within Atletico feel other midfielders are technically superior, and by some distance.

That has run parallel to the hierarchy’s long desire to move to a more modern approach, but they have found they can’t bring themselves to move against Simeone. Almost more than any individual in any comparable situation, the Argentine has restored Atletico as a force.

And yet that very strength may now be weighing them down, as questions again arise over his effect. It is described as a potential football crisis and a political one, too.

Rashford has meanwhile been adapting to a strangely dysfunctional club that goes beyond all that. Barcelona continue to experience almost every problem conceivable, from ongoing financial challenges to the Negreira case.

The leadership’s response to all of this has repeatedly been questioned, given the arguments they have potentially made these issues worse. Rashford’s signing illustrates some of this.

Barcelona wanted Nico Williams – and might have been in for Alexander Isak in a different era – but their financial pressures ensured they couldn’t do a suitable deal. They instead had to go for a cut-price option in Rashford, and that for a player who has obviously faced a few questions of his own.

Hansi Flick’s football even reflects this, as it constantly seems to teeter between chaos and brilliance in the biggest games.

They still have Lamine Yamal, after all. He is the best illustration of how LaLiga still has so many stars, including some of those from England.

Spain itself continues to produce exceptional players… except most of those now go to the Premier League.

Strengths and weaknesses, both of which may be illustrated by this Champions League season, and more acutely than usual.