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Celtic's last-day Scottish Premiership title could put "more fear" into opposition clubs, believes former striker Cillian Sheridan.

The defending champions, who lost eight league games and had three different managers this season, trailed Hearts for a long period before finally pipping them to the post with victory in Saturday's dramatic decider at Celtic Park.

"I feel like it's going to put a little bit, maybe more fear into other clubs as well, going forward where they've went and lost eight games, they've had all that turbulence going on, and yet they still managed to come through and win," said Sheridan, who scored four goals in 19 Celtic appearances.

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"And the Hearts players who went through it for the first time, might look at that and be like, OK, there is other parts to it. It's not just going out and playing well. There's a lot more to actually winning. That's something that's not a tangible thing that you can see. It's just kind of, I guess, something that's just there and you can build it up over time."

However, Sheridan added of runners-up Hearts: "It's probably going to benefit in the long run once the dust settles and they get over the disappointment of it.

"They'll probably have a little bit more belief that maybe it was there for us, like we could have done it. And then you'd hope from their point of view that it gives them that motivation to go again next season."

More from Sheridan on the BBC's Scottish Football Podcast

Girls basketball has long been among Delaware’s most popular high school sports, warming up the winter with top-tier players often involved in simmering rivalries.

For that, we can thank a steady run of talented players who starred on local courts before having continued success at the collegiate and professional levels.

With the United States nearing its 250th anniversary of gaining independence, USA TODAY Sports will celebrate the 250 greatest American sports figures of all time.

At the root of that are the high school athletes who became familiar names in their schools, communities and the state of Delaware while making headlines with their athletic exploits. The USA TODAY Network hopes to first spotlight those individuals.

Here in Delaware, we’re compiling lists of the best players in several sports. We recently published a collection of top Delaware football, field hockey and boys basketball players.

Now it’s the girls’ turn, but it’s a tough list to crack because of the prevalence of so many talented players.

These are our choices for Delaware’s 10 best basketball standouts, listed alphabetically:

Elena Delle Donne

Delle Donne was national high school player of the year as an Ursuline Academy senior in 2008, closing a career in which she was first-team All-State five times, won four state titles and scored a Delaware scholastic basketball record 2,818 points. She briefly attended UConn but returned home and, after a year off from basketball, played for Delaware. The 6-foot-5 guard/forward was a three-time All-American, sparked the Blue Hens to two CAA titles, the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 in 2013 and scored 3,039 career points, fifth in NCAA Division I history at the time. Delle Donne was the second pick of the 2013 WNBA Draft by the Chicago Sky and was league rookie of the year. Delle Donne was league MVP in 2015 with the Sky and again in 2019 before leading the Washington Mystics to the WNBA title. She also won a gold medal with the U.S. in the 2016 Summer Olympics. Delle Donne is being inducted intothe Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame this summer.

Adrianna Hahn

The 5-foot-6 guard was a 5-year starter and 3-time state Player of the Year at Ursuline, where she won state titles her freshman and senior seasons. Hahn averaged 19.1 points per game as a senior. She then starred at Villanova from 2015-19, scoring 1,503 points while averaging 11.6 per game. She set school records for free-throw percentage in a season (90.0) and career (84.3) and for making 315 career 3-pointers.

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Monick Foote

Foote put Sanford on the map in girls basketball, making first-team All-State three times (1992-94), earning national high school player of the year and All-American honors as a senior and sparking Sanford to its first state championship in 1994. Foote scored 1,609 high school points. She then went to the University of Virginia, tying an NCAA Tournament record her freshman year with seven 3-pointers in a game. The 6-foot Foote was an All-ACC third-team pick as a senior, scored 1,315 career points and later played professionally in Israel.

Betnijah Laney-Hamilton

The 6-foot guard is in the 10thseason of a late-blooming but very productive WNBA career, back after missing 2025 with an injury. Laney-Hamilton was named the WNBA’s Most Improved Player in 2020 with the Atlanta Dream, made her first All-Star team in 2021 for the New York Liberty and played for the champion United States in the 2022 World Cup. Laney was a second-round pick, 17thoverall, in the 2015 WNBA Draft by the Chicago Sky out of Rutgers, where she is among the all-time leading scorers and rebounders and was a senior All-American. She started just three games her first three WNBA seasons and also missed one with a torn ACL. Still with the Liberty, she has been a full-time starter since 2020 and has averaged 9.5 points and 3.3 rebounds for her career.

Tiara Malcom

Malcomwas a two-time first-team All-State pick at Caravel and co-state player of the year as a senior. She then starred for Delaware, earning second-team All-CAA honors in 2003 and 2004 and first-team All-CAA and league Player of the Year as a senior. She the league in scoring with 15.5 points per game and also snared 6.8 rebounds per game. Malcom led Delaware to the CAA regular-season title, ending Old Dominion’s long dominance. Malcom also set a school record for career free throws made (535). She scored 1,545 career points and had 794 rebounds. Malcom played professionally in Portugal before beginning her coaching career.

Khadijah Rushdan

Rushdan was first-team All-State five times from 2003 through 2007 while starring at St. Elizabeth and earned several state Player of the Year honors. As a senior, she sparked St. Elizabeth to the state championship.  Rushdan was a Parade All-American in 2007 and finished with a then-state record 2,464 career points. She played on the U.S. under-18 team that won the 2006 FIBA Americas gold medal. The 5-9 Rushdan then played in a school record 135 career games at Rutgers, was first-team All-Big East as a senior and scored 1,288 career points. She played professionally in Israel and isnow Delaware State’s coach.

Tyresa Smith

The 5-9 Smith was state girls basketball Player of the Year when she led Polytech to the 2003 state title. She then went to Delaware, the only school that offered her a scholarship, and was two-time first-team All-CAA and league Defensive Player of the Year. Smith scored 1,635 career points, No. 2 on the all-time UD list at the time, and sparked Delaware to the 2005 CAA regular-season title and a 2007 NCAA at-large tourney bid. As a senior in 2006-07, she led the CAA in scoring (19.8 ppg) while also averaging 7.5 rebounds and 2.6 steals per game.  Smith was a second-round WNBA draft pick but mainly played professionally overseas.

Penny Welsh

Welsh was state high school Player of the Year for St. Elizabeth in 1978 and 1979. She led the state with 432 points and averaged 22.7 ppg for the Viking’s state-title team her senior year. The 5-10 Welsh then starred collegiately with two years each at Pitt and UNLV. She scored 1,824 career points and grabbed 960 rebounds those four seasons. Welsh was an All-American at Pitt her sophomore year and averaged 19.9 points per game and had 85 steals as a UNLV senior.

Val Whiting

Whiting was three-time state basketball Player of the Year at Ursuline Academy while sparking the Raiders to three state championships from 1987-89. Whiting then moved on to Stanford, where she was Pac-10 Freshman of the Year, an All-American and two-time Pac-10 Player of the Year while winning two NCAA titles. Whiting graduated as Stanford's all-time leading scorer and rebounder. Whiting then played on United States teams and professionally overseas, in the American Basketball League when it was created in 1996 and later in 63 WNBA games from 1999-2002.

Leni Wilson

The 5-foot-11 Wilson was first-team All-State for St. Elizabeth in 1988 and 1989 and averaged 18 points and 18 rebounds per game as a senior. She then starred at Georgetown, getting a school record 948 career rebounds and scoring 1,285 points. She was second-team All-Big East in 1992 and 1993.  Her 313 rebounds as a senior were a school single-season Hoyas record. Wilson then played professionally in France before returning to Delaware to coach.

ContactKevin Tresoliniat ktresolini@delawareonline.com and follow on Twitter @kevintresolini. Support local journalism bysubscribing to delawareonline.comandour DE Game Day newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal:Who is Delaware's all-time best girls basketball player? VOTE now

On the Monday, May 18, 2026, episode of The Excerpt podcast:Late‑night TV has long served as a shared end‑of‑day ritual, shaping political and cultural conversation. With “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” coming to an end, questions remain about the viability of traditional late-night TV. USA TODAY TV Critic Kelly Lawler joins The Excerpt to discuss what the show’s finale says about the future of late‑night television.

Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it.This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

Podcasts:True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here

Dana Taylor:

For decades, late night television has provided us with a shared end of the day ritual made up of monologues and jokes that shape our political conversations. Well, Stephen Colbert didn't invent late night TV, he sharpened it. Last July, when Colbert announced the end of the Late Show franchise on CBS, many wondered what happens when shows that function as cultural town squares begin to disappear?

Hello and welcome to USA TODAY's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Monday, May 18th, 2026. Joining me to discuss rising production costs, shifts in viewing preferences, and the demise of one of the pillars of late night television is USA TODAY TV Critic Kelly Lawler. It's good to have you here, Kelly.

Kelly Lawler:

Thank you so much for having me.

Dana Taylor:

Kelly, this might seem like a strange question following his more than a decade as host of the Late Show, but who is Stephen Colbert?

Kelly Lawler:

Yeah, I mean, Stephen Colbert is one of the biggest names in American comedy. He got his start in improv along with a lot of other comedians in Gen X who are household names like Amy Poehler and a lot of people from SNL. And he first came to real national attention as a correspondent on The Daily Show when Jon Stewart was the host full-time in the early 2000's. And he had a character and that character was very influenced by the politics of the time by the George W. Bush era Republican Party. And that character was named Stephen Colbert, but it wasn't the man himself. And he was so popular satirizing the conservative right at the time that he was eventually given his own show on Comedy Central, The Colbert Report, not Report. And that was followed Jon Stewart. The two kind of marched together in this heyday of Comedy Central late night television.

When David Letterman decided in 2015 that he was going to retire from the Late Show, CBS picked Colbert, who was already in the CBS family, Comedy Central and CBS have been owned by the same parent company for a long time. And he's been reinvented on the Late Show as Stephen Colbert the person instead of Stephen Colbert, the character.

Dana Taylor:

As I mentioned, this is about more than the end of Stephen Colbert's run as host of the show. Can you briefly touch on the highlights of the iconic Late Night Show, moments that help define it like David Letterman's top 10 list, for example, and then how Colbert also helped shape that legacy.

Kelly Lawler:

Yeah. The Late Show was created for David Letterman. In the early 1990's, Johnny Carson, who had hosted The Tonight Show on NBC, really the foundational program for this kind of genre of television and he was retiring. And David Letterman had been at NBC for a long time hosting Late Night, which aired after the Tonight Show and had made a name for himself doing this kind of wacky experimental comedy that worked really well at that hour of the night. And when Carson retired, NBC picked Jay Leno to host The Tonight Show, which massively offended David Letterman. There was a very well publicized fight. There has been books written about it. There was an HBO TV movie about it.

But what ended up happening is that Letterman went to CBS. They created the Late Show for him and he competed with Leno at the time slot and he won for a while, but over the course of their competing years in late night, the Tonight Show still kind of won out. But Letterman's Late Show was a lot different than Late Night. It was much more mainstream. His most famous bits were the top 10 list, as you mentioned, which he did pretty much every night of top 10 something that was relevant to the news or something happening in pop culture at the time. Stupid pet tricks was one of his biggest sketches, which is exactly what it sounds like and he made it work in a way that was not so stupid.

Some of the biggest moments in his career, people think of Drew Barrymore jumping up on his desk when she was in the early part of her adult career. They think of Joaquin Phoenix doing that very strange interview with the beard and the sunglasses when he was doing the publicity stunt for his movie, I'm Still Here. And you think of how that influenced Letterman's career, otherwise he hosted the Oscars because of the success of that show and he handed it off to Colbert and Letterman was a very Hollywood guy. He came up through that LA style of comedy and he was really concerned with actors, actresses and the way that show business was going.

Colbert's comedy was political. He came from Comedy Central's The Colbert Report and The Daily Show. And even though he was no longer pretending to be a right-wing conservative pundit, he was political and that's the brand that CBS hired when they hired him. And so he took the Late Show and he made it more political. His monologues were more of the monologue was taken up by politics than in Letterman's era. More of the bits are about politics. And Colbert, the direction of his show was really shaped by where politics were going.

Donald Trumpwas elected in 2016 for the first time and all of late night comedy was shifted into commenting on him every single night, but it didn't really stop during the intervening Biden administration. So Colbert gets called out as political all the time, but it is what CBS bought and paid for when they hired him.

Dana Taylor:

Kelly, we'll get to the money in a moment, but first political commentary has long been a part of late night television. The timing of the cancellation came shortly after Colbert criticized Paramount for settling a lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump. How clear is it what role, if any, that criticism played in the decision to cancel a legacy show?

Kelly Lawler:

Paramount in their official statements has denied that there was any consideration for politics as to the reason they canceled the program. None of us can know who weren't in the room. I will say that the context around his cancellation wasn't just the fact that he had criticized Paramount's settlement with Donald Trump at the time. Paramount was in the middle of trying to get a merger approved by the Trump administration with Skydance Entertainment. That merger has since gone through and not only were they trying to get the merger approved, Skydance is headed by David Ellison, who is the son of Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle and a major Trump donor.

So when you're talking about the politics, there's much more than any one thing Colbert could have said about his parent company or about Donald Trump. People involved in making the decisions for the future of CBS have their own political affiliations. And again, we're not in the room. I can't tell you exactly why, but I can tell you that all of this is swirling around as the show is nearing its end.

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Dana Taylor:

You've written about our deep and meaningful history when it comes to political comedy, satire and commentary. Can you speak to the role of political comedy in American society?

Kelly Lawler:

I think political comedy is foundational to American society. We think of Benjamin Franklin's join or die political cartoon as something serious, but political cartoons are a comedic part of American tradition. And there's Mark Twain. There's Johnny Carson himself in the mid-20th century and Bob Hope, who we think of as gentle, warm entertainers, but who had a lot of sharp things to say about the politics of the time. They're just not our politics. So we forget those joke of the days when the days are so many decades in the past.

I think political comedy isn't going anywhere. Colbert may leave CBS at 11:35, but he has a big career ahead of him. His peers have found new and old life. Jon Stewart is back hosting The Daily Show once a week. John Oliver has a show on HBO has a very different business model and a very different model for the show.

I think we're at definitely an inflection and evolution point. I think what happens over the next year or so will kind of determine the overall direction of this important pillar of entertainment and politics.

Dana Taylor:

Now to the economics of late night talk shows. Paramount was losing reported $40 million a year. They said the reason for the cancellation was quote purely financials. Anyone seriously arguing now that money wasn't a major or even the decisive factor here?

Kelly Lawler:

I mean, lots of television shows lose money all the time is really the big deal. Yes, it's probably been losing money. The longer a TV show of any kind, late night, episodic, or prime time, daytime. The longer they go on, the more expensive they get because the talent is able to negotiate higher salaries in their contracts. Everyone quotes the famous statistic that in the final season of Friends, the cast of six was making a million dollars per episode and that was in '90s money. And so yes, Colbert's salary goes up. Everyone who works with him, their salary goes up, the writers, the producers. Everything gets more expensive the longer it goes on.

The Tonight Show has been going on with Jimmy Fallon for a little more than Colbert's tenure. Late night with Seth Meyers has been going on for that long. There are other cost-cutting measures that can be made. One thing is dropping Friday nights, one thing is dropping a band. So I would argue that it cannot possibly be a purely economic decision because economics is more complicated than green lighting or canceling a show in our current media landscape. Late night ratings are going down. YouTube, TikTok are all peeling away viewers who want that kind of news of the day commentary, but I don't think we can argue that the genre is completely unviable in our current day and age because they aren't all falling like dominoes. Jimmy Kimmel has survived a major scandal and his show is still on the air.

Dana Taylor:

Well, you mentioned Kimmel. You also mentioned Fallon, both still on the air hosting late night comedy shows. But if a top rated show like the Late Show can't sustain itself financially, are we seeing clear evidence of a broader structural collapse of the traditional late night model?

Kelly Lawler:

I mean, it's totally possible. It's easier to cancel a second show after our first show's been canceled. Hollywood is very influenced by peer pressure. And also if NBC has been wanting to cancel The Tonight Show, for instance, it's easier to say, "Well, look, they canceled Late Show over at CBS. It's just not a viable genre anymore." I don't think that's what's happening. We haven't seen signs from the executives talking to the press. We haven't heard rumors or inklings of more cancellations on the way right now. In the next five years, I wouldn't be surprised if late night was replaced with something else, but I also wouldn't be surprised if it was still going and I wouldn't be surprised if CBS changed its mind and hired someone else to do something similar but not the same as Late Show.

Dana Taylor:

Kelly, has Colbert publicly discussed what comes next for him?

Kelly Lawler:

No, and I think that's the number one question he's going to get from friends, family, any reporters he ever talks to until he does announce something. I think he has a lot of options. If I were a Hollywood executive anywhere that wasn't Paramount, I would be talking to him. I would be offering him loads and loads of cash to come where I am because he's only going to get more popular after he leaves. CBS is a platform, but personalities are what builds brands in Hollywood right now. And there's social media, yes, which is eating into late night audience, but it allows Colbert's fans to follow him wherever he goes and that will be valuable to someone.

Dana Taylor:

Kelly Lawler is a TV critic for USA TODAY. Thank you so much for sharing your insights here, Kelly.

Kelly Lawler:

Thank you for having me.

Dana Taylor:

Thanks for listening. I'm Dana Taylor. What story would you like to hear next? You can tell us at podcasts@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Stephen Colbert’s final week marks the end of The Late Show | The Excerpt

Andy Grammer and wife Aijia announced their third pregnancy with funny music video featuring Aijia rapping about her struggles with pregnancy nausea and sickness

NEED TO KNOW

• The couple, married since 2012, are already parents to daughters Louie, 8, and Izzy, 6

• Aijia previously experienced hyperemesis gravidarum during pregnancy and used a Zofran pump to manage severe nausea and sickness

Andy Grammerand his wife Aijia are expecting baby number three — and it’s another girl!

The couple, who tied the knot in July 2012, announced the news onInstagramon Sunday, May 17, via a hilarious music video.

The video, shot byDr. Clips, begins with Aijia, 39, showing off her bare bump as she sits on a bed holding aZofran pump(used to treat severe nausea and vomiting in pregnancy) as it makes a repetitive sound.

“Did I just break this Zofran pump?” Aijia asks. “Wait … Andy!” she continues as the tune begins playing again.

“What?” musician Grammer, 42, says as he appears in shot.

‘We should sample this!” adds singer Aijia.

“Let’s do it,” Andy continues as he holds a mic up to the pump to record the sound.

“Everything smells like rotten chicken, got a lot of clothes but nothing fittin’ / Got a lot to do but I just stay sittin’,” Aijia raps.

Aijia then details her pregnancy sickness as she pretends to vomit into a toilet and photos of her in the hospital during her previous pregnancies flash up on the screen.

“Miss Barfy Barf, yeah you know me / Sick again, yeah three for three," Aijia raps, before sharing that she was adamant she would be done at two children.

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“I swore I wasn’t gon’ do it, last time would be the last time,” Aijia sings while lying on the couple’s piano as her husband plays. “I didn’t wanna go through it, knocked up is not a fun vibe / I’m sat sick here on the couch now, yeah I think I hate all men, but for a little girl, here we go again!”

As the camera zoomed in on Aijia’s bare bump, the camera then switched to the couple being joined by their two children, who were wearing animal masks, as the family jumped up and down on a couch while Grammer held a series of sonograms.

“Here we go again!” the family chanted together.

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE's free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

“We were trying to make music and accidentally made another girl! 😁💗,” the couple captioned the joint Instagram post. “🎥@drclips#BabyAnnouncement#BabyGirlGrammer#comingsoon.”

“Omg!!! This is incredible ! Congrats 🎉🎊🍾,” wrote Derek Hough in the comments section, while his wife Hayley Erbert Hough added, “This is the best announcement ever!! So excited for you guys!! 💛💛.”

Grammar and Aijia are already parents to daughtersLouisiana “Louie” K, 8, andIsrael “Izzy” Blue, 6.

Aijiawelcomed Izzy via a home birthin 2020, while Louie was born via cesarean section in 2017.

During her second pregnancy, Grammar revealed to PEOPLE that she was suffering from hyperemesis gravidarum — a pregnancy complication that causes severe nausea — and shared that she was once again using a Zofran pump.

Read the original article onPeople

By Timour Azhari

RIYADH, May 18 (Reuters) - Syria will take part in a closed-door session with G7 finance ministers and ‌central bank governors in Paris on Monday, a person familiar ‌with the matter said, in a sign of its growing status less than ​two years after the ousting of Bashar al-Assad.

Syrian Finance Minister Yisr Barnieh is expected to attend the meeting, the person said, adding that the discussions will focus on Syria's sustainable recovery and reintegration into ‌the global financial system.

The two-day ⁠G7 finance chiefs' meeting is dominated by global economic imbalances, trade tensions and the fallout from conflicts ⁠in the Middle East and Ukraine.

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Syria's economy remains deeply damaged by years of war and isolation. While most sanctions have been eased or ​lifted since ​former president Assad's removal, recovery ​has been slow, with investors ‌and banks still wary of compliance risks and the practical difficulty of reconnecting Syria to the global financial system.

Syria and Ukraine are expected to be present in parts of the discussions, underscoring the G7's emphasis on stabilising countries seen as central to regional and ‌global security.

The person familiar with the matter ​said Syria's participation was part of ​preparations for the G7 ​leaders' summit in June and reflected a push to ‌bring the administration of President Ahmed ​al-Sharaa closer to ​leading economies.

For Damascus, participation in the G7 finance track marks another step in efforts to return to the international system, ​attract support for ‌reconstruction and show that it has become a pivotal state ​in the changes reshaping the region.

(Reporting by Timour Azhari ​in Riyadh; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)

TAIPEI, May 18 (Reuters) - Taiwan would welcome a direct call between President Donald Trump and President Lai Ching-te, ‌a senior Taiwanese diplomat said on Monday, as Taipei ‌sought to ease concerns over Trump's remarks following his summit with Chinese leader ​Xi Jinping.

Trump and Xi discussed Chinese-claimed Taiwan at their Beijing summit last week, with Xi warning of conflict if the issue was not properly handled.

Trump made a range of different pronouncements about ‌Taiwan, including that he ⁠was undecided on new arms sales, suggesting he might speak to Lai, and that the U.S. was "not ⁠looking to have somebody say, 'Let's go independent'".

A direct conversation between a sitting U.S. president and Taiwan's leader has not occurred since ​Washington shifted ​diplomatic recognition to Beijing from ​Taipei in 1979.

Taiwan Deputy Foreign ‌Minister Chen Ming-chi told reporters that Trump's remarks had "caused some unnecessary concern" in Taiwan even if the government believed that "nothing has changed."

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Chen said that if Trump wants to speak with Lai then Taiwan would welcome it, if that is indeed what he ‌meant.

"Of course, we would also ask: ​based on what you have said, ​does that mean you ​want to speak with our president? If he ‌says yes, then should we ​make the relevant ​arrangements? We very much hope to have such an opportunity," Chen added.

Washington is traditionally Taiwan's most important international backer ​and arms supplier.

Taiwan's government ‌rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims, saying only the island's people ​can decide their future.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by ​Christian Schmollinger and Edwina Gibbs)

It has been far too easy for players to find excuses at Chelsea. The coach is not good enough, he’s too inexperienced, he hasn’t won anything, he’s too nice. Theappointment of Xabi Alonsohas stripped all of those away.

The Chelsea owners have stopped experimenting and have killed the culture of excuses that has strangled the club during the BlueCo era by turning to a man ofAlonso’s pedigreeand giving him the title of manager.

Each of Alonso’s predecessors during the BlueCo ownership was called “head coach”. Making the Spaniard their first manager is recognition of his seniority within the set-up and a clear message to the players that he is in charge.

Sure, the owners will remain a target for a section of fans, following a turbulent season that could end without European football. But they have given the players the calibre of manager they craved and now it is on them to perform.

Enzo Fernandez has won a World Cup? So what, Alonso won one with Spain, along with the European Championships. That Club World Cup winners’ badgeon the front of the players’ shirts? Alonso will raise you two Champions Leagues. Think you’re good enough to play for Real Madrid? The Spaniard knows a fair bit about that after spending five years at the Bernabeu as a player.

Thingsmight not have gone to planfor Alonso as a coach at Madrid, but look at their ongoing descent since his departure. The 44-year-old’s time in charge of Bayer Leverkusen, where he won the Bundesliga title, commands the greatest respect.

Teenage winger Estevao Willian joked that he could not believe former head coach Liam Rosenior had ever been a professional footballer after watching him fail to control the ball on the touchline at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium. If the Brazilian does not already know that Alonso was a supremely gifted player, then he will soon find out at the training ground.

Those who apparently referred to Graham Potter as “Harry Potter” or called Rosenior “the supply teacher” should spend more time worrying about what Alonso thinks of them than dreaming up not-so-clever nicknames.

Alonso’s brief is not only to produce performances and results, but also to raise daily standards by creating a culture of accountability, competitive mentality and collective responsibility. In layman’s terms, no more tossing it off.

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The ridiculous yellow and red cards that Chelsea have collected over the past two seasons must stop. Enzo Maresca got booked and sent off almost as often as his players, while Rosenior could never get to grips with the issue. Alonso has been hired to set the right example on the touchline and demand the same standards of his players, regardless of age or experience.

Chelsea referenced Alonso’s “character and integrity” in their statement to announce his appointment and the former Liverpool midfielder said: “There is great talent in the squad and huge potential at this football club and it will be my great honour to lead it. Now the focus is on hard work, building the right culture and winning trophies.

“From my conversations with the ownership group and sporting leadership, it is clear we share the same ambition. We want to build a team capable of competing consistently at the highest level and fighting for trophies.

“Chelsea is one of the biggest clubs in world football and it fills me with immense pride to become manager of this great club.”

Alonso’s official start date is July 1, but Chelsea players can rest assured that he will be watching their final two games of the season – against Tottenham Hotspur and Sunderland – and will be gathering information on them all.

He will have been impressed by the spirit and effort they showed inthe FA Cup final defeat by Manchester City. But what about now they return to Stamford Bridge, where they haven’t won in the League since January? Or when they travel up to Sunderland, when minds could already be turning to the World Cup or the summer holidays? The next seven days will be instructive for Alonso.

Chelsea have completed their period of “self reflection” and concluded that they need a manager not only with coaching and trophy-winning pedigree, but also a strong character, a leader and somebody who can instil discipline.

But the owners must let him manage. Alonso does not need a pat on the head after the wins or a debrief after the defeats. He does not need to be told what he should or should not say. And he definitely does not needa “cultural architect” to tell the players to huddle around the referee.

That is not to say Alonso should not be collaborative or that Chelsea are wrong not to give him complete control of the club’s football department. Of course, he will need support, he will lean on the different areas of expertise of the football leadership team and he will want a strong bond with the owners. But he must be given the time, patience and – most importantly – trust to do the job his way.