Robin van Persie promised that he and his Heerenveen players would “keep playing our own game” and would not be “traumatised” after suffering a record 9-1 defeat at AZ Alkmaar in the Dutch league.

It was only the former Netherlands, Arsenal and Manchester United striker’s fourth match as a manager after being appointed head coach of Heerenveen in May.

“This is tough,” said the 41-year-old, who scored 50 goals in 102 international appearances.

“You’ll encounter a number of bumps in your career. This was a very big bump. We learned a few more lessons from this match than we normally would.”

Sven Mijnans opened the scoring for AZ after just four minutes but Luuk Brouwers equalised for Heerenveen midway through the first half.

Former Tottenham striker Troy Parrott, 22, soon put the home side back in front with his first goal for AZ since a £6.7m summer move from north London.

Things quickly turned sour for the visitors at the start of the second half as Republic of Ireland front man Parrott added a further three goals in just eight minutes.

Van Persie then watched his side concede a further four goals in the final 20 minutes to give AZ Alkmaar their record win in the Eredivisie, moving them up to second place in the table.

It was also the first time Heerenveen had conceded nine goals in the league and leaves them 12th in the table, with four points from Van Persie’s first four games in charge.

“This is part of football. I have not been traumatised by this and neither have my players,” said Van Persie.

“Even when things aren’t going your way, with three goals in quick succession in the second half, it’s important to keep doing the things you agreed on.

“We’ll keep playing our own game. That’s what I believe in and what we believe in.”

Frank was heavily linked with Manchester United before and after last season’s FA Cup final as the Old Trafford club delayed making a decision around the future of Erik ten Hag.

Told of Guardiola’s post-match comments when he arrived to conduct his own media conference a few minutes later, Frank thanked the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach for the praise, but skirted round the issue of moving clubs.

“First, thank you for that, Pep – it is always nice,” he said. “There are a lot of reasons why I admire Pep. He always shows class and did it when we beat them here last time, almost 50 games ago.

“I am very happy at Brentford but maybe one day I will try something new.”

Frank was proud of his side’s performance but agreed they had failed to capitalise on their dominance immediately after Wissa’s goal, although he felt Kevin de Bruyne’s decision to waste time by taking the ball to the corner in stoppage time was a tribute to the way his side had played.

“If they do that at the Etihad against Brentford, we have probably done something well,” he said.

“If Manchester City are the best team in the world, for 25 minutes we were world class. I am 50/50 between being frustrated at not getting anything out of the game after such a good performance, and being really proud of the way we played.”

But not even Birmingham’s buccaneer approach to spending can come without having a plan. In an address to supporters in April, Wagner set out his.

On the back of the stadium plan announcement, the American financier spoke of making Birmingham a globally-recognised brand, with being a named-club in England’s second city part of it.

He even suggested the sponsorship deal with streetwear firm Undefeated was with this in mind, saying: “You go to New York City, you go to LA (Los Angeles), you will see people wearing Birmingham City kit on the street.

“I don’t really think they know what they’re wearing but they will. We don’t want to draw too much attention to it yet but they’ll figure it out.”

The problem for Birmingham is that North American fans already know they are wearing Wrexham, the documentary darlings of the world game.

Exact replica sales are difficult to pin down, but Wrexham’s merchandise and retail was their biggest driver, accounting for a third of their income in 2022-23, while their revenue from outside of Europe was almost a quarter of turnover.

All that before sell-out summer tours to the US and Canada where officials from Chelsea were said to be casting envious eyes at the fan base being established and genuinely competing with Premier League names.

Perhaps that is why it was reportedly floated in the summer to stage Monday’s fixture in the US, a notion shot down by Reynolds.

“I often look back over the trends and the metrics, and some weekends Wrexham are just as popular as Premier League matches and certainly there’s more publicity than the big MLS (Major League Soccer) teams,” says Chris Harris, editor of US-based WorldSoccerTalk, who says only Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami can similarly compete.

“Do not underestimate it – you can see through social media there are a lot of people who are Wrexham fans, and not just passing, but on top of the new signings, what’s going on at the club.

“They are following a club like Wrexham just as easily and as much as they would follow Manchester City or Chelsea.”

It is a support that could be super-charged further with the EFL’s US TV deal with CBS, with an increase in the number and the ease in which games outside the Premier League can be viewed.

So far this season, Wrexham have been a featured game nine times – more than any of the recent Premier League clubs or giants in the divisions below the top flight such as Leeds United. Only one Wrexham fixture, league or cup, has not been available through either cable network or streaming.

No surprise considering the press release to announce the deal mentions Wrexham in its headline, and the promotional poster for the coverage comes with Wrexham striker Paul Mullin as the central image.

“The CBS deal is the Wrexham effect,” says Harris. “Their popularity, through the documentary, would have been a major reason why they came in hard to get the rights.”

Saudi Arabia international Fahad Al-Muwallad is in intensive care after falling from a balcony at his apartment in Dubai.

The player’s club, Al-Shabab, said an accident occurred on Thursday at a home owned by the 30-year-old.

Local police confirmed that Al-Muwallad, who has represented his country 78 times, “fell from the balcony of his second-floor home”.

The statement added that “investigations are ongoing, and the competent authorities will be informed of the results of these investigations once they are completed”.

After starting his career with Al-Ittihad, Al-Muwallad left in 2022 to join Al-Shabab, where former Wolves forward Daniel Podence and Belgium’s Yannick Carrasco are among his current team-mates.

The winger played two games for Levante while on loan with the Spanish club in 2018, and featured twice at the World Cup that summer.

Lionel Messi marked his return from injury with two goals and an assist to help Inter Miami to a 3-1 win against Philadelphia Union.

The World Cup-winning Argentina captain had not played since injuring his ankle in his country’s Copa America final victory over Colombia in July.

That saw him miss this month’s World Cup qualifiers, while he also sat out eight games for his Major League Soccer side – though they lead the MLS Eastern Conference standings.

But the 37-year-old former Barcelona star played the full 90 minutes in his first start for three months and ran the show.

Philadelphia took the lead after 58 seconds through Mikael Uhre but Miami equalised in the 26th minute, Messi beating a defender and lashing home after collecting a pass from Luis Suarez following good work from another ex-Barca team-mate in Jordi Alba.

Messi fired his team ahead four minutes later after being teed up by Alba and went on to set up Suarez for Miami’s third deep in second-half injury time.

After the match Messi, who now has 14 goals in 13 games this season, acknowledged he was “a little tired”.

“I really wanted to come back, I had been off of the field for a long time,” he added.

“Little by little I was training with the group, feeling good and that’s why we decided that I would start, and I’m very happy.”

Elsewhere, LA Galaxy fought back from two goals down to beat Los Angeles rivals LAFC 4-2 as the top two teams in the Western Conference met.

Only striker Giovane Elber has scored a faster goal in the Bundesliga for Bayern than Musiala, the Brazilian netting after 11 seconds against Hamburg in 1998.

Musiala made no mistake after two defenders collided before former Tottenham and Fulham man Lewis Holtby gave the ball away and Musiala teed up Kane for the second.

Kane has now scored against all 18 teams he has faced in the Bundesliga, and after Remberg turned into his own goal the England captain curled in a fine second from 20 yards.

Olise swept in a rebound after Alphonso Davies had a shot saved to put Bayern 5-0 up, but Armin Gigovic gave the home fans something to cheer when he headed in a late consolation, their first goal at home in the league.

There was still time for Kane to win – and convert – a spot-kick in added time.