The Warm-Up: Cazorla, goals, Markovic - pre-season is fun!

There isn’t much by way of ‘hard news’ around this morning, the post-World Cup, pre-season lull thoroughly kicking in. So if you’ll indulge us, here’s some nice news to make even the most cold-hearted Tottenham fan smile. Probably.

This week Santi Cazorla played first-team football for the first time in nearly two years, coming on as a substitute in Villarreal’s pre-season friendly against Hercules. The midfielder is at the Spanish club on a trial basis for the moment, 21 months after last playing for Arsenal, the intervening time spent trying to recover from what looked like a career-ending ankle injury. He had eight operations and had to have skin grafted from his arm onto his leg, and was told he’d be lucky to walk again, never mind play football.

“To feel like a footballer again is something very special,” Cazorla said. “The warmth of everyone during this period is something that will stay with me forever. The fans have given me strength and been there through all the bad times.”

“Sometimes I can ask too much of myself and I don’t enjoy things. I’ve returned to training with my teammates and played a game at a good level. For me, this was unthinkable 20 months ago. I’m just focused on getting 100 percent fit and doing what I love to do: playing football.”

Who says we can’t have fun with football before the season really starts? Not Hibs and NSI Runavik, that’s for sure, who kept everyone very firmly entertained with their Europa League qualifier last night. The final score on the night: 6-4 to Hibs. The final score on aggregate: 12-5. Twelve-five. Lovely stuff.

Hibs went 2-0 down on the night and might have started to get a little nervous, despite holding a 6-1 lead from the first leg. If one was being cruel, one might point to the presence of Adam Bogdan in goal as a possible explanation for all this. But they eventually righted things and finished up with that absurd scoreline.

Of course, we are taking their word for it that’s what happened. As you can see, there were some…visibility issues in the Faroe Islands…

We won’t make too much of a habit of bringing you news from pre-season friendlies, because that way absolute madness lies. But we should let you know about this one, because…well…it’s like an old friend coming home. Not an old friend you were particularly close to, or miss, or really noticed was gone for most of the time. But an old friend nonetheless.

Yessir, that there is Lazar Markovic finding the net after a neat through-ball from Daniel Sturridge. Just to reassure you…it is 2018.

Meanwhile, Liverpool completed the signing of goalkeeper Alisson for about a gazillion pounds…but you already knew that.

As we know, Jose Mourinho is always keen to claim whatever trophies he can, so don’t be surprised if he’s declaring defender Axel Tuanzebe’s latest achievement among his own, come the end of the season.

For youngster Tuanzebe has a place in the Guiness Book of Records…for Hungry Hippos. He managed the extremely impressive feat of clearing the game in 17.36 seconds, achieved during some downtime on Manchester United’s pre-season tour of America. Hats off Axel, but be prepared to have the credit taken away sharpish…

Every day’s a hustle, got to make your money when you can.

Now, some people might say that Neymar gains a few points for getting in on the joke about his fondness for gravity. Self-awareness you might not expect from a superstar like him, that sort of thing.

But you wonder whether Neymar might simply think this sort of thing is enough, that this will absolve him from any blame for his broadly embarrassing on-field conduct. A bit like those people who say “Oh, I know I’m a nightmare…” but then continue to be a nightmare. Social media japes are grand Neysers, but maybe back it up by not falling over quite so much, eh?

On F365, Daniel Storey nails the problem with Newcastle and Mike Ashley.

On this day in 1966, England beat France in their final group game at the World Cup, with a pair of goals from Roger Hunt. Apologies if this triggers anyone’s grief from the World Cup just gone.

Watching football at this time of year isn’t generally advisable, but if you insist the pick of today’s action is England Under-19s vs Ukraine Under-19s. Or just don’t watch football at this time of year.