It's been less than five months since the Clippers traded for Eric Gordon and the deal already looks like an epic disaster for Los Angeles.At the trade deadline, the Clippers traded John Wall, Luke Kennard, and a pick swap to that ended up sending Cam Whitmore to the Rockets in exchange for...

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In the hours after Tottenham Hotspur finally agreed they would sell Harry Kane to Bayern Munich, there was actually some doubt, and a lot to consider. The player’s camp now had to actually go through with a decision that had been a long time coming, which only made it all the heavier in the moment. There was still some thinking that Real Madrid or Manchester United - Kane’s first choice - might come in now they knew Levy’s price. Even he wanted that higher going into the final hours. Those other bids didn’t happen, though, and it is now happening that Kane is leaving Spurs. Some within White Hart Lane couldn’t make sense of it, even though it had long been anticipated. A player who hailed as one of their own is no longer that. He’s gone. There is actually a sadness to that, in how the modern economy of football essentially forces players towards a narrow band of clubs. Spurs have once again been shown the reality of the game, although this is admittedly one where you can sympathise with some of the confusion. None of this is to disparage Bayern, one of the game’s great clubs, of the status that it is a genuine privilege to play for them. It is an honour to be their number-nine, following in the line of Gerd Muller, Jurgen Klinsmann and the player he most directly replaces in Robert Lewandowski. That will stand to Kane, especially as a rare high-profile English player to go abroad. In some ways, though, Bayern have been victims of the modern game as much as Spurs. Its distorted economics have given them a longer run of titles than they could have ever imagined, but with a cost. The more leagues they win, the less it means. Borussia Dortmund’s challenge last season should almost have been welcomed as it offered tension and significance. There’s then the manner that even Bayern have had to adapt to football’s new world, which is almost completely made up of the Premier League. This is where the real intrigue of the entire Kane situation lies. England’s captain and greatest star has left England when it has become almost the only place to be in football. That’s an irony only deepened by how a player commonly seen as the next great star, and a future captain in Jude Bellingham, is also employed outside. That point shouldn’t be taken as an old-fashioned parochial view, since it has generally been a positive thing for players to go and sample other football cultures and countries. Kane himself will doubtless benefit from that. It is healthy, even on a human level. The issue is how much the game has changed even in a decade. That world has become smaller, centred around England. Broadcasting figures illustrate how the Premier League has become the biggest show in town, “a football NBA”, in the words of one major club chief executive. “If you’re not there, you’re nowhere.” It’s not like Kane is going to Spain or Italy, either, the two most historically glamorous leagues that remain enriched by the nostalgia around them. Germany has always been the most unfashionable of the “big five”, although another consequence of the modern game is that term no longer really applies. It is the Premier League and some satellite clubs, one of them being Bayern. They will almost certainly allow Kane to claim that first medal of his career, but does it have the same value? For Kane’s part, that won’t matter if he’s looking at that medal. There’s also the fact that some of the more confusing aspects of this transfer are a logical consequence of how the game has gone. Levy is determined to gradually push Spurs into the elite bracket of super-clubs, even if so many supporters would fairly question the manner he goes about that. To the Tottenham chairman, though, it makes no sense to allow one of the clubs they see as direct rivals to strengthen at their expense. A club is always falling behind in that way. It is where there is even more intrigue to this transfer, though. While the public perception has been that Levy did not want to sell, some in the industry believe it has been more driven from within Spurs than would be expected. This allows the club a degree of control over the transfer, as well as - crucially - income. The great question from Kane’s part is why he has ceded that control. His leverage will never be greater. A contract with a year to go is the point of maximum opportunity for a player. His first choice was clearly Manchester United. The entire England squad were talking about it in the June camp. He has instead given that power up. That, admittedly, is partly about something greater. This isn’t about just getting Bundesligas, after all. Bayern have sold Kane a vision of winning the Champions League with him. They have quietly gone about building one of the most vibrant squads in Europe, but were just lacking experience last season as well as a finisher after Robert Lewandowski. They now have both in Kane. Him bringing them to a moment of completion such as Champions League glory would be worth it all. There is even the possibility that he could do two seasons at Bayern then go back to the Premier League club of his choosing, given how he looks after his body. This is another facet of Kane’s career. He sees Tom Brady as an idol, and is one of those who will do absolutely everything physically possible to maximise his talent. Except, many have long said, what is really necessary: go to a winning club. That is now happening. There is an undeniable poignancy to it, that should be felt beyond Spurs. More clubs should be able to compete. It shouldn’t always be so inevitable that such players leave. That is the nature of football’s economy now, as this transfer sums up, even if some of it seems to go against the modern game. Read More Harry Kane sends message to Tottenham fans as Bayern move confirmed Harry Kane saga leaves Tottenham paying the price for Daniel Levy’s ‘ego’ — again Premier League record scorers: How many goals do Alan Shearer and Harry Kane have? Harry Kane’s highs and lows at Tottenham as he signs with Bayern Munich Where Harry Kane’s big-money move stands in British football history 5 English success stories Harry Kane will look to emulate in Germany

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A notorious Italian mafia boss has died while receiving medical treatment after being arrested early this year, according to media reports. Matteo Messina Denaro was known as the last “godfather” of the Cosa Nostra or the Sicilian mafia. He was arrested in January after being on the run since 1993 and was suffering from colon cancer at the time of his arrest. He is believed to have ordered dozens of Mafia-related murders for the Cosa Nostra. Messina Denaro’s condition worsened in recent weeks and he was transferred to the San Salvatore hospital in L’Aquila from a maximum-security prison in central Italy. He had requested no aggressive medical treatment, Italian news agency ANSA reported on Monday. The medics had stopped feeding him after he was declared to be in an irreversible coma. A fugitive for the past 30 years, Messina Denaro was arrested at a private hospital in the Sicilian capital of Palermo, where he had been receiving treatment for cancer under a false name. He was sentenced in absentia to a life term for his role in the 1992 murders of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. He also faced a life sentence for his role in bomb attacks in Florence, Rome and Milan which killed 10 people the following year. Messina Denaro was accused of helping organise the kidnapping of a 12-year-old, Giuseppe Di Matteo, to try to dissuade the boy’s father from giving evidence against the mafia as well. The boy was held for two years, then murdered. Nicknamed “Diabolik”, he was once considered a candidate to be the Sicilian mafia’s “boss of bosses”, after the deaths of Bernardo Provenzano in 2016 and Salvatore “Toto” Riina in 2017. According to medical records leaked to the Italian media, he underwent surgery for colon cancer in 2020 and 2022 under the false name “Andrea Buonafede”. A doctor at the Palermo clinic told the La Repubblica newspaper that Messina Denaro’s health had worsened significantly in the months leading up to his capture. Messina Denaro, who had a power base in the Sicilian port city of Trapani, in western Sicily, was considered Sicily’s Cosa Nostra top boss even while he was a fugitive. Police said in September 2022 that he was still able to issue commands relating to the way the mafia was run in the area around Trapani, his regional stronghold, despite his long disappearance. The son of a mafioso, Messina Denaro was born in the southwestern Sicilian town of Castelvetrano in 1962. He followed his father into the mob and was already carrying a gun at 15 years of age. Police said he carried out his first killing when he was 18. The Castelvetrano clan was allied to the Corleonesi, led by Salvatore “The Beast” Riina, who became the undisputed “boss of bosses” of the Sicilian mob, thanks to his ruthless pursuit of power. Nicknamed “U Siccu” (The Skinny One), Messina Denaro became his protege and showed he could be just as pitiless as his master, picking up 20 life prison terms in trials held in absentia for his role in an array of mob murders. He himself once claimed to have murdered enough people to fill a cemetery. He went into hiding in 1993 as a growing number of turncoats started providing details of his role in the mob, but investigators believe he rarely wandered far from Sicily. Police said he spent much of 2022 hiding in Campobello di Mazara, a town of about 11,000, a short drive from his mother’s house in western Sicily. He communicated with other mafiosi via “pizzini”, small pieces of paper, sometimes written in code and distributed by messengers, some of which were intercepted by police. He never married, but was known to have had a number of lovers. He wrote he had a daughter, but had never met her. Despite his notoriety, prosecutors have always doubted Messina Denaro became the Mafia “boss of bosses”, saying it was more likely that he was simply the head of Cosa Nostra in western Sicily. Additional reporting by agencies Read More Matteo Messina Denaro: The last ‘godfather’ of the Cosa Nostra arrested after 30 years on the run Watch moment Italy’s most infamous mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro is arrested Italian police announce arrest of most-wanted mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro Pope blames weapons industry for Russia-Ukraine war and 'martyrdom' of Ukrainian people Giorgio Napolitano, former Italian president, 1st ex-Communist in that post, has died, at 98 Sabato De Sarno makes much anticipated debut at Gucci under the gaze of stars like Julia Roberts

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