Oscar and other winners.

Football’s back, the sun’s out, so here’s a topical, tropical 10 things from the weekend….

1, Olympic lessons for football. Chase the glory first and foremost. Build a sporting body of work and legacy. So, the message from Paris to Wembley to Manchester City’s Kalvin Phillips and Manchester United’s Jadon Sancho is just leave the clubs. Go elsewhere and start, re-start your careers. If you want to rekindle your England careers, take the drop in money, you’ll still be multi-millionaires, just get the games in. Lee Carsley, England’s interim head coach, was at Wembley watching. You’re too good to spend the season kicking your heels on the bench.

Oscar Bobb at Wembley. Photo: Stu Forster, Getty Images.

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2, Oscar winner. Oscar Bobb’s stellar performance against Lisandro Martinez at Wembley continued the 21-year-old’s fine pre-season. The Norwegian dribbled past Martinez, then went again when the Argentine fouled him, then glided past him to set up Bernardo Silva’s equaliser. Only his eighth start for Manchester City but looked totally at home: 51 touches, six dribbles, three chances created, one assist. Faces competition from newcomer Savinho but surely this will be Bobb’s breakthrough season.

3, Padel power. One of the areas used in recent years at Wembley for a fan zone has had padel courts built on it. Padel, a cross between squash and tennis and wildly popular in Latin America (Gabriel Batistuta is brilliant at it, I watched him play in Qatar and he prowled around, nailing shots as if back at Fiorentina), continues to spread across the English sporting landscape. It’s understandable why the LTA is embracing it rather than resisting it. Football also now acknowledges its popularity.

4, The Hand of Gold. What a loss Emma Hayes is to English football. The former Chelsea coach is supremely competitive, a born winner. To the surprise of nobody in England, Hayes shows that with the US Women’s National Team, guiding them to victory over Brazil at Parc des Princes on Saturday. Not a bad start: 10 games, nine wins, one draw, one Olympic Gold. She’s a sporting success in every sense, going around the defeated Brazilians, consoling them and congratulating Marta on such a fine career. What next? Hayes’ contract runs to 2027, and the Women’s World Cup in Brazil. Don’t bet against her winning that. She loves America, having spent time coaching in New York and Chicago, and now America loves her. And we miss her.

5, The Golden One. It’s always uplifting to see the number of fans at Wembley having their picture taken in front of the Bobby Moore statue. It’s an amazing work of art anyway and captures the great man’s immense role in the history of English football. The years of hurt for the men’ side, now numbering 58, simply add to the lustre of what Moore and the revered Boys of Summer 66 achieved. It’s also a reminder of how poorly Moore was treated by the FA after he retired. Moore should have been named FA president, and the governing body drawing on his experience, expertise and inspirational qualities.

6, Chelsea building society. Building a team and a team spirit is different from buying a squad. Enzo Maresca has a tough job organising the team, instilling tactics and the right attitude, with so many players coming and going. If Maresca fails, it will be as much down to the board. First game? City.

7 Finessing the finishing. As always with Marcus Rashford, the attacker needs to feel the belief of those he works for and alongside. He needs lessons as well as love. Rashford needs Ruud van Nistelrooy to take him for additional training at Carrington. Van Nistelrooy, a master finisher who understands the pressures of life at United, can get Rashford to make his runs more effective and his finishing more confident. Rashford just needs a few tweaks to mindset and movement.

8, Talking of United strikers past and present, Wayne Rooney says he relishes pressure and he’s certainly under it already. Plymouth may be out of the way but Rooney will never be off the media map. Argyle were hit into the middle of next week by Wednesday, whose fans insist they weren’t even up to top speed yet. Rooney was schooled by Danny Rohl. There’s a good manager in there somewhere with Rooney, he thinks deeply about the game and has the requisite people skills, but he surely got this job because of his name as a player. Rooney cannot afford another failure after what happened at Birmingham City (15 games, 2 wins), DC United (76 games, 18 wins), and Derby County after a promising start (85 games, 24 wins). So good luck to Rooney at Argyle but he must know the jury is not just out, but at risk of being permanently dismissed.

9, Gate expectations. The EFL is doubtless relieved that most Championship attendances were up on last year (like Wednesday up 1,000), despite the wealth of TV options and none of the games at the traditional 3pm Saturday kick-off.

10, Keeping it fun. Football’s about entertainment as well as winning and Ederson does both. Deserves still to be City’s No 1. He’s under threat from Stefan Ortega, who would be most teams’ starter. He appeared to upset Pep Guardiola at Wembley by kicking the ball out of play shortly before half-time but usually rarely wastes the ball. Ederson’s still a top keeper (and a year younger than Ortega). Emerson showed that with his shootout save against Sancho. He’s nerveless and nailed his penalty. He’s great to watch. Good news he’s staying.