BRUNO FERNANDES told new minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe he wants to stay to lead the new era at Manchester United.

But the Red Devils captain made it clear that he expects to compete for top honors again.

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The Portugal international, 29, is under contract until the summer of 2026, with the option to extend for another year.

Fernandes said: “I have already met with the new owners. They want to meet the players and have already done so individually.

“And that is exactly the message I passed on. I want to stay here, I want to be part of a project with feet, legs, torso and head.

“Everything we need to compete with Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool, the clubs that have been in the best form.

“I want to participate, I want to win.”

Fernandes knows that he cannot be guaranteed a Premier League title in the short term.

He added: “I don’t want to be promised that we will become champions.

“Whatever club I go to, I don’t expect them to be promised something from the start that they can’t deliver.

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“What I have always asked for and what I want from the club is that we are competitive.

“We haven’t been there this year and we don’t have to hide that.

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“The season has been below our expectations, at least below mine.

“And I also think it is below the club’s expectations because they are not used to being in these positions.”

Despite a turbulent season in the Premier League, with United 17 points behind leaders Arsenal, there is still hope for some success this season.

Man Utd booked their place in the FA Cup semi-finals after a dramatic 4-3 win over Liverpool in the quarter-finals last weekend.

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PHOENIX — Flags only fly forever if you raise them.

At Dodgertown, the ancestral home of the Los Angeles Dodgers in Vero Beach, Fla., a mural celebrating six World Series winners greeted visitors. No such signage exists at Camelback Ranch. The team has won the National League West 11 times since shifting its spring training base to Arizona in 2009, but the franchise does not memorialize mere postseason berths. The Dodgers intended to build a monument to the 2020 World Series championship team but pandemic-related construction delays sidelined the project, and the organization moved on. There are no murals and no banners, no portraits of protocol-following perseverance. If you rely upon commemorative decorations as your guide, the triumph in a 60-game season may as well not exist.

When Mark Walter, the owner of the Dodgers and the chief executive officer of Guggenheim Partners, met with two-way star Shohei Ohtani this past winter, he attempted to sell a vision based on these conflicting truths, the immense pride and deep frustration within his franchise. The Dodgers had become a colossus since Walter’s group took over in 2012 — a perennial contender, playing before crowds that lead the sport in attendance, driving a money machine now valued at nearly $5 billion. Yet the success could not offset the sting of October defeats. A series of early postseason exits since 2020 had disappointed Walter and those within his baseball operations department. As he outlined the dichotomy, Walter wanted to stress something to Ohtani: The owner considered his tenure running the Dodgers to be an on-field failure.

“We’ve only done it once,” said team president Stan Kasten, who was present when Walter spoke to Ohtani. “And we need to do it more often than that.”

In Ohtani — who will debut as a Dodger this week during a two-game series in Seoul, South Korea — Walter and the rest of the organization found a $700 million symbol of a new era. His arrival has vaulted the club into a new financial stratosphere, with a deferral-laden contract serving as the backbone for a $1.2 billion offseason bonanza. His presence has heightened expectations for a team that has not missed the postseason since Barack Obama’s first term in office. Ohtani chose the Dodgers because the franchise offered a pathway to October that had been foreclosed to him during six seasons with the Los Angeles Angels. The Dodgers pursued Ohtani because they had grown tired of watching other franchises conduct parades in November.

And because a union between the two parties made far too much business sense to pass up.

When Kasten first heard about how Ohtani wanted to structure his contract, he assumed he was missing something. Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman called Kasten after a discussion with Ohtani’s agent, Nez Balelo. “Can you repeat that?” Kasten said. Over the course of a 10-year pact, Ohtani intended to receive only $20 million, with $680 million deferred through 2043 so he would not handcuff his new team.

In recent years, the Dodgers have made deferrals a habit. The contracts for both perennial MVP candidates Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman feature deferred millions. When the team offered $300 million to Gerrit Cole after the 2019 season, the bid included deferrals. Yet the contract Ohtani sought provided so much financial flexibility to the team that Friedman later admitted he would not have had the courage to suggest it himself. Kasten described Walter as “very supportive” of the contract structure. “I would tell you to ask Mark about it,” Kasten said. “But we know that’s not going to happen.” (Through a different team official, Walter, who rarely addresses the public, declined an interview request.)

With Ohtani’s contract functioning effectively as a credit card, Friedman rebuilt the starting rotation and bolstered the offense of a team that won 100 games in 2023 despite myriad shortcomings. The Dodgers bested the sport’s other financial behemoths to land Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto with a 12-year, $325 million deal. After acquiring Tampa Bay Rays starter Tyler Glasnow, the team hammered out a $110 million extension. The signing of former All-Star outfielder Teoscar Hernández for $23.5 million felt like an afterthought. Ohtani, of course, was the biggest prize. He will not pitch this season as he recovers from Tommy John surgery. But he can still inspire hyperbole. Freeman suggested that when his career was over he would tell his grandchildren about playing with Ohtani, “just like we talk about Babe Ruth.”

The first step on the road to the purported promised land took place at Camelback Ranch three days after the Super Bowl. Crowds lined both sides of a path connecting the Dodgers clubhouse to a practice field for the team’s first workout. The speaker system blared a playlist that sounded as if it had not been updated since 2016. Reporters stood atop step-ladders. Fans lofted selfie sticks. A man hoisted a child onto his shoulders. The throngs pressed against the chain-link fence, desperate for a glimpse of Los Angeles’ newest lodestar. When Ohtani jogged to the field, the roar was loud enough to drown out the bridge of “I Knew You Were Trouble.” The soundtrack was fitting, at least to the team’s president.

“I don’t want to compare it to Taylor Swift, but I think it’s our equivalent, in terms of conversation,” Kasten said. “It’s just everywhere you look, people are talking about him.” Kasten framed the alliance as mutually beneficial. “He had been this outsized talent for the last six years. But I think pairing him with the size of the Dodger brand makes his impact and his visibility even larger than it has been, until now.”

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Dave Roberts rounded a corner and spotted a mass of media in the shade of the grapefruit trees planted outside Camelback Ranch. There was the usual group of American and Japanese reporters. But the media relations staff had installed a riser so seven different camera crews could film the manager’s daily briefing without turning the crowd into a rugby scrum. Roberts has chosen to greet the amplified attention this year with the amplification of his own enthusiasm.

“Oh, wow!” Roberts said. “Look at this setup, huh?”

When Ohtani was introduced at Dodger Stadium on Dec. 15, he expressed confusion to Dodgers broadcaster Joe Davis as he gazed out at rows and rows of attendees. Ohtani had been told only media would be there. Davis had to break it to Ohtani that the massive crowd was, in fact, just the media. A similar crush will greet Ohtani during the season, especially at these games in Seoul. The Dodgers are already covered by one of the larger domestic press contingents. The group now includes around a dozen Japanese reporters, tracking Ohtani’s exploits in granular detail, from the number of home runs he hits in batting practice to the larger meaning of a fist bump with Hernández. When Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register asked Ohtani in passing about his dog, Dekopin, Plunkett’s picture was plastered across Japanese newspapers.

Ohtani conducts group interviews once or twice a week. He rarely reveals much about himself. He values his privacy. Reporters have been discouraged from approaching Ohtani or Yamamoto for one-on-one conversations. The team preferred to hold the group sessions in front of a backdrop featuring advertising for Guggenheim. (The team’s uniforms also now include a Guggenheim patch.) For the players, the parade of reporters has wrought some genial irritation. The clubhouse is often barren when reporters are permitted inside.

“It’s just a lot of people,” pitcher Walker Buehler said. “They’ll ask you two questions about you, and then six about Ohtani. And you’ll be like, ‘You just baited me! You baited me into this. You guys got me.’”

The primary person who will deal with the scrutiny is Roberts. The courtship of Ohtani created unease for him. When Roberts decided at the Winter Meetings to reveal a Dodger Stadium sit-down with Ohtani — which no other official from any team involved in the sweepstakes had done previously — Friedman and general manager Brandon Gomes declined to offer him much cover. The group patched things up later that week, but when the Dodgers introduced Ohtani, Roberts was not on the stage.

As Roberts spoke to the group beside the grapefruit trees, an intrepid eighth cameraman scaled a staircase leading toward the complex’s executive offices.

“Excuse me,” a security guard told the cameraman, “you have to come down from there.”

The cameraman pointed to a Dodgers official.

“Excuse me,” the guard repeated.

The cameraman pointed again. A team official walked over. “He’s with us,” the staffer explained. SportsNet LA, the team’s television network, has produced 10 seasons of “Backstage: Dodgers,” which offers lighthearted looks at the inner workings of the franchise. The guard was adamant. Regulations trumped content; eventually the cameraman left his perch and rejoined the scrum. Soon after, Friedman and members of his baseball operations department, clad in three-quarter-zip pullovers, descended the steps.

To some, Roberts occupies the hottest seat in the sport. Friedman has impregnable job security. The Ohtani deal features a provision called a “key man” clause. He can opt out of his contract if Friedman or Walter leaves the organization. The same protection does not apply to Roberts, whose contract runs through 2025. “If the highest preseason expectations in club history crash,” esteemed Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke wrote recently, “the Dodgers will need an easy target to take the blame, and that will be him.”

In eight seasons at the helm, Roberts has never won fewer than 91 games — except for the shortened 2020 season, when the club played at a 116-win pace. His .618 winning percentage is the best in Major League Baseball history. He would likely find a bevy of suitors for his services, especially in the wake of new Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell’s market-setting five-year, $40 million contract. Unlike Counsell, Roberts has actually won a World Series — even if his postseason resume contains its share of strategic misfires.

Roberts has described anything short of a championship in 2024 as a bust. Of course, he has spoken with that confidence before. He guaranteed the Dodgers would win the 2022 World Series. That team set a franchise record with 111 victories, but crashed out of the postseason in four games. The disappointment increased the motivation to add Ohtani. Before the season, Roberts suggested his players should worry less about external noise and concentrate on individual progress. Ignoring the noise, he acknowledged, will be tougher than ever.

“This year feels different because you’ve got, essentially, the best player on the planet,” Roberts said. He added, “People love beating the Yankees. And people love beating the Dodgers. When you put on this uniform, that’s what you sign up for. But this year, it’s a little bit more extreme.”

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The most expensive pitcher in the history of Major League Baseball has never thrown a pitch in Major League Baseball. Whenever Yoshinobu Yamamoto took the mound this spring, the occasion merited monitoring. As he unveiled his arsenal in a bullpen session during the team’s first workout, a gaggle of reporters watched from a distance. Roberts, Friedman and various members of the coaching staff and front office stood behind the row of mounds. Standing behind the catcher, peering through a mesh-covered fence were Buehler, reliever Daniel Hudson and starter James Paxton. Each took a peek as Yamamoto spun curveballs and splitters along with his 95-mph fastball. “Everything just explodes out of his hand,” Paxton said a day later.

Yamamoto has been an object of fascination among big-league teams for years. The list of executives who traveled to Japan to watch him in 2023 included Friedman, New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman and San Francisco Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi. After the season, New York Mets owner Steve Cohen and president of baseball operations David Stearns made similar jaunts to court Yamamoto. The Yankees presented Yamamoto with his own No. 18 jersey in pinstripes.

His free agency sparked even greater zeal than expected. When the offseason began, some executives pegged Yamamoto in line for a contract worth about $200 million. As the price escalated, the Giants bowed out. The Yankees offered $300 million. So did the Philadelphia Phillies. The Dodgers won the bidding by matching Cohen’s offer after Yamamoto met with Betts, Freeman and, of course, Ohtani.

Yamamoto represents the promise and the peril inherent in the Dodgers pitching staff. His stature is unremarkable; he stands 5-foot-10 and weighs about 175 pounds. He became elite through a focus on flexibility and unconventional activities like chucking a javelin. The transition from Japan to the major leagues can be challenging. During the winter, Yamamoto familiarized himself with the baseball used in the major leagues, which is smaller and slicker than its equivalent in Japan. During his spring debut, a center-field camera for SportsNet LA could capture the different grips of Yamamoto’s pitches.

The tipping discussion that followed did not prompt alterations to Yamamoto’s delivery. The organization expects him to lead its rotation, which will likely function as something resembling a six-man unit to provide breaks for the starters. The regulars may need the rest. Yamamoto has never pitched on the big-league schedule. Glasnow logged a career-high 120 innings last season. Paxton has thrown 117 2/3 innings since 2019. Buehler will not begin the season with the club as he attempts to return from his second Tommy John surgery. Clayton Kershaw hopes to rejoin the team by July or August as he recovers from the first surgery of his career, a corrective procedure on his left shoulder. The list of rehabbing pitchers at Camelback Ranch will include Dustin May, Emmet Sheehan and Tony Gonsolin.

Despite the uncertainty, the team expects its pitching to be excellent. The same cannot be said for its infield defense. A series of wayward throws by infielder Gavin Lux, who is returning from knee surgery, convinced the organization to play Betts at shortstop, a position Betts had handled in only 14 games in the first 10 years of his big-league career. Lux did not look much better after swapping places with Betts to play second base.

The overwhelming strength of the Dodgers, the propulsive force expected to vault the club past 100 victories yet again, will be the first three hitters in the lineup. Betts posted a .987 OPS last season with 39 homers and 40 doubles. Freeman put forth his usual output, with a .976 OPS, 29 homers and 59 doubles. Ohtani surpassed them both while pulling double duty as a pitcher: 44 home runs and a 1.066 OPS in an offense that provided scant protection. When executives around the sport grumble about the Dodgers, they are grumbling about the prospect of trying to shut down this trio, during a season in which Ohtani can concentrate on his hitting.

At one point this spring, Roberts compared Ohtani to the most talented teammate he had ever had. Near the end of his playing career, Roberts shared a clubhouse with Barry Bonds, the sport’s all-time home run leader, a slugger tarnished by his involvement with performance-enhancing drugs but revered by his peers for his talent. Ohtani, Roberts thought, might one day surpass Bonds — in ability, if not homers.

“Shohei,” Roberts said, “has a chance to be the best player ever.”

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The people ringed the practice field, clicking cameras and lifting selfie sticks once more, as Ohtani settled into the batter’s box to face live pitching for the first time since his elbow surgery. One fan clutched a painted portrait of the world’s most famous designated hitter. This was several days after the first workout. The attention on Ohtani and the Dodgers had not slackened. If anything, it had intensified, and would only continue to do so.

For a decade, Kershaw acted as the gravitational force within the Dodgers clubhouse. The duo of Betts and Freeman supplied that presence in recent years. Given the magnitude of Ohtani’s fame, the ramifications of his contract and the extent of his ability, Ohtani must serve that role now. He has bonded with Hernández, a former American League West rival. Freeman pronounced himself amazed that Ohtani remembered the name of Freeman’s son, Charlie, after meeting the boy at last year’s All-Star Game.

“He seems to be holding onto his balance, to the extent he can,” Kasten said. “But it’s almost like, in America, he can escape. Because in Japan, he can’t. I’ve been there recently. He’s everywhere.”

When Ohtani announced his marriage, Japanese television stations interrupted their programming. The Dodgers intend to capitalize on that devotion. “One of our goals is to have baseball fans in Japan convert to Dodger blue,” Friedman said at Ohtani’s introductory press conference. That effort is unlikely to end with Ohtani and Yamamoto. The team is expected to make a full-pocketed pursuit of Rōki Sasaki, the 22-year-old right-handed phenom, whenever the Chiba Lotte Marines make him available. Visitors to Dodger Stadium can expect a bevy of new sponsorships decorating the ballpark. The prices of tickets to enter the ballpark are rising on the secondary market.

As Ohtani prepared to face his new teammates in batting practice, fans and reporters catalogued his movements. When he connected with a fastball from pitcher J.P. Feyereisen, the sound reverberated across the facility. The crowd gasped as the ball took flight. Ohtani watched it clear the center-field fence as he left the batter’s box. He peeled a pad off his surgically-repaired right arm, which remained sheathed in a compression sleeve. He jogged back toward the clubhouse, past the crowd screaming his name, one step closer to Opening Day.

The judgment on this first season of the 10-year union will not come until October. Ohtani has never experienced the MLB playoffs. The Dodgers never miss an invitation. The franchise embarked on this era hoping to accumulate flags to raise and banners to proclaim championships.

Anything less would be a failure.

(Top illustration by Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Photos by George Rose / Getty Images; Gene Wang / Getty Images; David Durochik/Diamond Images)

Zendaya embraces her inner tennis player.

The 27-year-old actress attended the Paribas Open on Sunday, March 17, wearing a high-waisted white pleated tennis skirt, which she paired with a matching white tank top, zip-up hoodie and white sneakers.

She wore her hair straightened and parted to the side, and wore black eyeliner, bronzed cheeks and matte lipstick.

The open, which took place in Indian Wells, California, was also attended by Zendaya’s boyfriend of three years, Tom Holland. The pair sat next to each other during the latest match between the Polish player Iga Swaatek and Greek player Maria Sakkari. Holland, 27, wore a brown button-up cardigan and matching brown-tinted sunglasses to the event.

Swiatek, 22, defeated Sakkari, 28, in two straight sets.

After the match, Zendaya met with Swiatek to congratulate her on her win. The two smiled and chatted as they held up Swiatek’s trophy and posed for photographers. For her part, Swiatek wore a white and pink two-piece tennis set, accessorized with a bright pink hat.

Later that same day, Swiatek posted one of the photos to her Instagram Story. “What just happened?” she wrote. “Thank you @zendaya for being kind, funny and thoughtful.”

Zendaya reposted the story on her Instagram, writing, “It was an absolute pleasure meeting you and watching you play, many congratulations!”

Considering that Zendaya plays a professional tennis player in her upcoming film, Challengersher performance on the open Sunday was fitting.

Challengersout April 26, it follows Tashi, a former tennis player turned coach, as she navigates the complicated love triangle between her husband (Mike Faist) and her former lover (Josh O’Connor) as they compete against each other in a tournament.

In a Interview August 2023 of ElleZendaya revealed that this is her “first time actually being a leading lady.”

“I felt like it was a good step into a more, you could say, ‘mature’ role and into the next phase,” Zendaya told the publication. “It was a little scary getting started, which I think is a good feeling. To say, ‘Ooh, can I do this?’ You can run from that feeling and stay safe and comfortable, or you can say, “You know what, f–k it.”

IT is the royal biography that made headlines around the world – ‘Charles III: New King, New Court. The Inside Story’, by the author and  Daily Mail journalist Robert Hardman.

Featured over several days in the Mail and The Mail on Sunday, the book offered a compelling series of revelations about an extraordinary moment in Monarchy: the end of the Queen’s life after 70 years on the throne and the beginning of the  Carolean era.

Here, then, are some of the key points that have forever changed our understanding of how Elizabeth’s record-breaking reign finally drew to a close – and the challenges facing her son and heir King Charles III as he navigates a new and very different landscape.

The Queen remained dutiful right until the end

When Sir Edward Young, the Queen’s private secretary, opened the last red box that had gone to her, he found the long-list of candidates for the Order of Merit, with her choices ticked.

On September 7, the day before she died, she spent the day in bed at Balmoral yet still made plans to participate remotely in the scheduled Privy Council meeting – plans which had to be cancelled at the last moment. 

She had completed the task just two days prior to her death, with Hardman writing: ‘Even on her deathbed, there had been work to do. And she had done it.’

She knew her health was failing 

The Queen suffered ‘multiple’ health conditions in her final year and was well aware she wouldn’t reach the age of 100 as her mother had.

Plans were drawn up for a Regency

Aides prepared for the Queen suffering a slow deterioration or a ‘sudden public collapse’ in her final years with secret plans for Prince Charles to become regent. Options varied from a ‘regency light’, with minimal involvement by Charles, or a ‘reversible regency’ in which he would discharge her duties during a period of her incapacity.

Charles and Camilla spent an hour with her privately 

After flying by helicopter to Birkhall, their home on the Balmoral estate, Prince Charles drove the couple to Balmoral castle in a borrowed Land Rover.

They were greeted by Princess Anne, who had happened to be staying, who led them immediately to the Queen’s bedside to spend time with her.

Charles told both his sons to travel to Balmoral urgently to say their goodbyes

The Royal Air Force arranged for Prince William to fly with his uncles from RAF Northolt to Aberdeen at 2.30pm.

Prince Harry, who happened to be in London with Meghan for a few days of charity engagements, chartered his own plane to Aberdeen. 

Catherine, Princess of Wales decided not to attend 

In his memoir Spare, Harry writes of feeling deeply offended when his father asked him not to bring Meghan with him to Balmoral. Learning that Kate would not be there either assuaged his anger – but Hardman writes that he did not realise she hadn’t been asked to stay away. 

In fact, she had decided she should remain at home for the sake of her children, who were starting a new school, Lambrook.

William was still angry at Harry’s ‘reckless betrayal’ 

Harry claimed in Spare that he had texted his brother to ask about his travel arrangements, but not received a reply. 

Hardman writes: ‘Clearly, Prince William did not regard this as the appropriate moment for the intensely difficult conversation he needed to have with his brother’, alluding to William’s anger over the Sussexes’ ‘reckless betrayal’ during their Oprah Winfrey interview.

This was the broadcast in which they claimed Kate had made Meghan cry during a row over a bridesmaid’s dress, and that two members of the royal family had expressed concern over the colour of then-unborn Prince Archie’s skin.

There was also wariness about Spare, which had not yet been published. ‘Some of the family were probably ready to give him a piece of their mind,’ Hardman quotes a source saying.

The Queen ‘slipped away’ in her sleep 

According to a memo written by Sir Edward Young to record the momentous events for posterity, which now resides in the Royal Archives, the Queen ‘slipped away’ peacefully in her sleep, without any pain.

Charles learned the news of the Queen’s death when he was addressed as ‘Your Majesty’ 

Not expecting his mother to die quite so soon, Charles had been out gathering mushrooms in the grounds at Birkhall when he received a call from his sister, the Princess Royal, telling him to come immediately.

He and Camilla jumped back into the Land Rover, but hadn’t yet arrived when Sir Edward called to tell him that the Queen had passed away. ‘He had just turned off the B976 onto the back drive of the estate when, at the age of 73, he was addressed as ‘Your Majesty’ for the first time,’ writes Hardman. ‘No further explanation was needed.’

Harry did not eat with Charles, William that night 

Prince Harry did not make it to Balmoral in time to see his grandmother before her death.

He said in Spare that he was informed that she had died via an alert from BBC News on his phone – although Hardman suggests that several attempts had been made by King Charles to call him with the news, which were unsuccessful because he was airborne at the time.

Harry dined alone that night, while the King had dinner with William and Camilla.

‘The King needed to have vital but discreet discussions with his elder son,’ writes Hardman. ‘In years gone by, such a moment would automatically have included his younger son. But not any more.’

The funeral procession risked disaster

The late Queen’s funeral rehearsal was a ‘comedy of errors’ as organisers found that ‘everything that could go wrong did go wrong’. 

The carefully calculated parade times had failed to take into account the different length and speed of steps required by a Guardsman and a Royal Navy recruit carrying a two-ton gun carriage, meaning the front of the parade ‘ended up parting company with the coffin.’

The whole parade was ‘out of step from the start’ after the bagpipes pre-empted the first command. One band had been led to the wrong start point. And one Gentlemen at Arms was nearly crushed between the gun carriage and Wellington Arch after going the wrong way.

Prince William was furious over Harry’s ‘blatant attack’ against Kate in his Netflix documentary 

The Duke of Sussex claimed that for male members of the royal family, ‘there can be a temptation or an urge to marry someone who would fit the mould – as opposed to somebody who you perhaps are destined to be with.’

William saw the comments as clearly about his wife Kate and regarded them as ‘the lowest of the low’. 

Queen Camilla’s family call her Lorraine 

Once, there seemed to be no chance of Camilla ever becoming Queen, due to public antipathy towards her for her role in the breakdown of Charles’ marriage to Diana. 

It was during that period that her family gave her the humorous nickname ‘Lorraine’ – as in the French la reine, meaning Queen. ‘She always saw the funny side of that – even if Prince Charles did not,’ says a friend. 

The temperature has dropped even further at the royal palaces 

Not only does the King not switch on the heating during the winter to avoid contributing to climate change, but he is also a ‘compulsive window-opener,’ according to Hardman. 

‘There’s a constant battle about it,’ says Camilla’s sister Annabel Elliot. ‘He will have opened it. She will creep in behind and shut it. So there’s a lot of “Oh darling, you shut the window.” 

“Yes, I have, because we’re all freezing.”’

Prince William might not head the Anglican Church

While the Prince of Wales admires and respects the Church, and enjoys attending services at significant times of the year, such as Christmas and Easter.

He feels he is no different to the average Briton in that he is not a regular worshipper. 

And that has led to speculation as to whether he may consider not taking on the formal role as head of the Church of England –  that British monarchs have held since the time of Henry VIII. 

Kate enjoys MailOnline 

The Princess of Wales is said to be among the tens of millions who get their updates from the Mail’s award-winning news service. 

Hardman says that, in common with the new Queen, she keeps abreast of what is written in the newspapers – unlike their respective husbands who do not.

As Jonah Heim squeezed the final strike of the 2023 postseason and Josh Sborz spiked his mitt on the mound to celebrate the Texas Rangers’ first World Series title, a thought crossed my mind: How will this change the franchise rankings?

See, the Wild-Card Era (1995 to present) franchise rankings are not a creation of my fallible mind. They are borne from a tested, trusted, completely objective, never-been-questioned, all-math, no-bias formula borrowed from football writer Bob Sturm and tweaked to fit baseball’s postseason structure.

Winning the World Series (WS): 9 points
Losing in the World Series (WSL): 6 points
Losing in the Championship Series (CS): 3 points
Losing in Division Series (DS): 2 points
Losing in Wild Card (WC): 1 point

As of last year, the scoring system also incentivizes division titles (+1 point) and penalizes prolonged losing cycles, docking teams (-1 point) each time they lose at least 90 games in consecutive seasons.

Tally the point totals for the past 29 seasons, from 1995 to 2023, and the result is the franchise rankings as listed below — along with each team’s point totals from the past decade, and average points per season. Tiebreakers are World Series wins, then World Series losses, then Championship Series appearances, then Division Series appearances, then division titles.

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(Top illustration by Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Photos by Justin Berl / Getty Images; Rob Tringali / Sportschrome; Matt Dirksen / Getty Images; Brian Blanco / Getty Images)