Chelsea have stabilized their form under new manager Thomas Tuchel, who replaced Frank Lampard on Jan. 26. The reworked Blues have been unbeaten since, winning six games and drawing three in all competitions, but much of the positivity has been lacking one person in particular: Christian Pulisic.

The USMNT international, who has battled injuries and form all season long, has only played 192 minutes under Tuchel, despite them having a prior working relationship together at Borussia Dortmund. Pulisic, whose contract runs until 2024, is not thinking of leaving, but on Feb. 19, Tuchel made the bizarre proclamation that "no decisions" have yet been made over the club's summer business or Pulisic's status at Stamford Bridge. "He proved in many weeks that he has the level to be a Chelsea regular player, to have a big impact in this club," Tuchel said. "It's a challenge now to hold this level, to improve and to maintain the level and keep improving."

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Is it just a symptom of squad rotation and coaching experimentation, or is there something more to Pulisic's apparent sidelining?

Jump to: What's changed | Long-term future | Best fits? | Predictions

What's changed for Pulisic since the summer of 2020, when he was one of the best players after Project Restart?

James Olley: There have been two significant factors. Firstly, the hamstring injury suffered in August's FA Cup final proved difficult one to shake. There were concerns within Chelsea's medical department over the volume of games Pulisic could handle without risking his body breaking down, which led to a great degree of caution in bringing him back into regular action. Then coach Frank Lampard admitted to ESPN in September that the club were looking at a more specific individual training programme to help ensure more regular availability.

The second factor is Lampard's departure. A change of manager inevitably leads to a re-examination of the whole squad, and although Tuchel gave Pulisic his debut at Borussia Dortmund, his sparing use of the 22-year-old in his opening nine matches suggests the winger has work to do if he's to become a key player in the months ahead.

Jeff Carlisle: In a word, health. Granted, the injuries he has suffered tend to be muscle-related (hamstring or calf) but they've come with enough frequency over the course of this season to make it difficult for him to enjoy another extended run in the side. There is a knock-on effect to the ailments as well in that his absences have allowed one of his teammates to stake their claim to more consistent playing time.

All that said, Tuchel's recent choice of formation, whether a 3-4-3 or 3-5-2, doesn't help Pulisic's cause either in that the use of wingbacks means the American is competing with the likes of Mason Mount, Timo Werner, Tammy Abraham, Olivier Giroud, Kai Havertz and Callum Hudson-Odoi for three attacking spots. The fact that Pulisic has spent time as a false nine recently shows the difficulty his managers have faced in finding a spot for him when playing with three center-backs this season.

This is nothing new, of course. In the moments last season when Lampard opted for three in the back, Pulisic usually ended up on the bench.

Bill Connelly: In one way, not all that much. His shots are of approximately the same quality (0.14 xG per shot this season, 0.15 last season), and his passes are just about as dangerous (0.034 chances per pass this season, 0.045 last). He's basically just one particularly good performance away from matching last year's rate stats. That said, he's not taking as many shots and, obviously, he's not seeing the minutes. Just as Chelsea added three very expensive attackers, he suffered a series of maladies that kept him out of action. It was already going to be difficult for him to maintain the minutes he was generating post-restart, and then he went and got hurt again.

In that sense, it's extremely easy to explain how he got here. The question is, what might change moving forward?

Tor-Kristian Karlsen: With Lampard's exit and Tuchel's arrival, Chelsea have reintroduced wing-backs and what used to be two pretty wide, generally inverted, wingers are now operating more tucked in towards the middle. This tactical tweak isn't necessarily a huge problem for Pulisic, as he can master both systems, but it gives Tuchel the option of sticking central attacking midfielders behind the centre-forward rather than the pacey, winger types that were usually favoured by Lampard. Moreover, Hudson-Odoi has found more stability to his game, which makes him more likely for selection and Ziyech is one of the few experienced attacking midfielders in the Chelsea squad and that's always an argument for being further up in the pecking order of a newly arrived manager, at least during the early stages.

Does Pulisic have a long-term future at Chelsea? Is it worth staying there?

Olley: The high turnover of managers at Chelsea suggests if Pulisic really does fall out of favour under Tuchel, the U.S. international would probably not have to wait longer than a couple of years for a change of boss to reignite his career. After all, he is contracted at Stamford Bridge until 2024. However, the situation is nowhere near that fractious at this formative stage of Tuchel's tenure.

One thing Pulisic will need to do is find a place in Tuchel's preferred 3-4-2-1 system, given that he doesn't project to be a candidate for an adapted wing-back role, as Hudson-Odoi has done, and is not a No.10 in the conventional sense. Tuchel likes two players operating as No. 10s behind a central striker, although it was intriguing that during Sunday's 0-0 draw against Manchester United, Pulisic was introduced as a split-striker alongside Hakim Ziyech and later fellow substitute Timo Werner.

If Pulisic has ambitions to win Europe's biggest prizes, Chelsea look well-placed almost regardless of who the manager is. They spent £220 million last summer and are not put off a huge price tag for Dortmund's Erling Haaland, indicating another spending spree may be on the way.

Carlisle: Pulisic might not have a say in the matter. If he can't shake the injury bug -- and this has been a problem a lot longer than just this season -- then at some point, the Chelsea leadership are going to cut their losses and send him somewhere else. The fact that Tuchel knows Pulisic well from their time at Borussia Dortmund is a net positive in that the American isn't starting from scratch, but that familiarity only goes so far, and there is no chance that that alone will cause Tuchel to cut Pulisic any slack.

On the plus side, in looking at the totality of Pulisic's time at Stamford Bridge, it's clear he has the talent to compete in the Premier League when he can stay on the field. That might allow for a bit more patience for a player than there otherwise might be.

Connelly: Someone doesn't have a long-term future there. There are too many guys who need minutes in too few positions, and some will leave (especially when Roman Abramovich inevitably gives the green light to go get more expensive attackers). It's tricky for players in that situation -- you need status, but you also need minutes, and someone at Chelsea isn't going to get enough. Situations change as Pulisic well knows, but right now, Captain America falls into that category.

Karlsen: Of course he does! OK, the trend might not be particularly positive for the American, but though he's been around for ages, he's still only 22. Young players tend to oscillate more between the highs and lows: it's part of the normal development curve. Tuchel's only just arrived at Cobham; he's still in the phase of testing things out and learning about his players. As he's coached Pulisic before, he's clearly aware of his qualities and might give others the nod first to see what they're capable of before settling on a more fixed system once he's got the full overview.

Let's not forget that due to fixture congestion, we're in a period of heavy rotation. For that reason, it can be especially hard to gauge a manager's real preferences or strongest 11 against what is a mere product of rotation and fitness considerations.

If Chelsea isn't the place for Pulisic, which clubs and/or managers could make sense in terms of best-fit options?

Olley: This isn't an area worthy of too much speculation at this stage. Pulisic wants to make a success of himself in England and is a long way from being ready to give up on his Chelsea career. Should Lampard emerge at another top club -- although it's difficult to see that straight away in England, not least because of his strong affiliation to Chelsea -- then Pulisic could become a target given he was arguably the Blues' best player during Project Restart. Any side that utilises conventional wingers would benefit from a fully-fit and firing Pulisic. His task now is to prove himself an adaptable footballer capable of thriving in a different tactical framework, assuming Tuchel perseveres with his current approach.

Carlisle: I'm basing on need and style of the manager, which in my view pretty much eliminates the likes of Manchester City or Bayern Munich. Liverpool would seem to be a good fit given Pulisic's previous relationship with Jurgen Klopp at Dortmund. The likes of Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mo Salah are either 30 or rapidly approaching that age, a reality that could give Pulisic a way in.

If you're looking for an upwardly mobile side, there's Leicester City, who have a manager in Brendan Rodgers who has always aimed to play expansive football and loves to have his teams create via the wings. Whether Leicester could afford Pulisic or not would be an issue, but at this stage it's unlikely that Chelsea would get all of its $73m back on a transfer. If the American can be had at a bit of a discount, it might work.

Connelly: We already know that Pulisic has got the quality and aggression to thrive for any number of top German teams (Bayern aside, since they've already got about 114 quality wingers and attacking midfielders). If Borussia Dortmund fail to make the Champions League and end up having to sell either Erling Haaland, Jadon Sancho or both, he'd be a worthy replacement and no-brainer pick to thrive in Marco Rose's gorgeous attacking system. Installing him into the Red Bull engine at Leipzig would be fun, too, whether Julian Nagelsmann is still coaching there or not. He'd be super interesting with Adi Hütter and Eintracht Frankfurt, too, if they reach the Champions League and want to shell out some money.

If we're talking only about the more financially high-upside clubs, however, his passing and energy levels could add a much-needed dynamic at Juventus, where the bulk of their creation has come from either the fullbacks or Alvaro Morata (and they're still using Aaron Ramsey a lot on the left). And if Nagelsmann were to land a job like Tottenham Hotspur, he could assist pretty well in the identity shift that such a move would bring about. (That's doubly true if Spurs lose either Son or Kane in the process.)

Karlsen: He could theoretically play for any of the top sides in the Premier League -- and I'm sure Klopp or Guardiola would welcome him with open arms, though he'd be subjected to the same rotation regime there, too -- but I don't see any reason why he should be in a hurry to move.

PREDICTION TIME: What should Pulisic do? Stick it out or look for a new club?

Olley: Stay put and see what the rest of this season and the summer holds. Time is on his side and he has proven, albeit only for a few months, that he can be a highly effective player in this division. Chelsea are one of the few clubs insulated from the worst financial effects of COVID-19 and therefore they look the most likely team -- along with Manchester United -- to bridge the gap to Manchester City and Liverpool in the coming seasons. He would not be short of European suitors should he decide to leave the Premier League but there is undoubtedly a sense he has plenty of unfinished business in west London.

Carlisle: My view is that Pulisic should stick it out. The American can clearly play at this level, and while he's been short on end product this year, he's shown he is capable. His contract also has another three-plus years to run, so there's time to turn things around. But his future with the Blues has to start with him re-establishing his fitness. If he can do that, then he can build his way into getting more consistent playing time, and then use that as a platform to once again becoming the indispensable player he was at the end of the previous season. If not, then Pulisic may be forced to look for another club.

Connelly: Not that it's totally up to him, but in the short term, sticking it out isn't exactly the worst option. He should still see bench minutes at the least, and he's witnessed very clearly in the past eight months just how quickly your status can shift. He's one injury or one breakout performance away from getting back into heavy rotation, and at 22 he doesn't have to be in a rush to find his forever home just yet. Of course, if we're still asking these same questions of him late in August, or when next January's transfer window opens up, the urge to find a rhythm before the World Cup could be overpowering.

Karlsen: If his situation hasn't improved by the end of this year, which I'm sure it will have, it'd be time to worry. With the World Cup coming up at the end of next year, the USMNT would obviously want their star player in prime condition. But if we zoom out for a minute, Pulisic is fast approaching his 50th Premier League game for Chelsea with double figures in the goals bank -- and that's in a mere year-and-a-half, amid a very disruptive period. That's not too bad, is it? I'm quite confident that Pulisic will fast become one of the first names on Tuchel's team sheet once he's got a clearer idea of the pros and cons of his squad.

The Detroit Lions are switching quarterbacks for 2021, going from Matthew Stafford to Jared Goff, but it won't preclude them from taking a signal-caller early in this year's NFL draft.

General manager Brad Holmes, who is not yet allowed to discuss the Stafford-Goff trade until it can become official when the new league year begins on March 17, said Tuesday he likes what he sees from this quarterback draft class.

"The quarterback position in general, what's cool about this year is that they're in all different flavors," Holmes said. "You have a guy that can actually do it all, do it from the pocket, do it with his legs. You have another guy that probably a little bit more does it with his legs, a little bit more of being creative. There's another guy probably does it more from the pocket.

"So all the different flavors makes it very, very intriguing in terms of when you're looking across the whole scope of the class of these quarterbacks."

Holmes mentioned multiple times during his Tuesday news conference that he liked this draft class of quarterbacks, which is headlined by Clemson's Trevor Lawrence, Ohio State's Justin Fields and BYU's Zach Wilson.

And when you're picking in the top 10, he said, you can't overlook any position. That includes a spot undergoing major change for Detroit. Goff will have a salary-cap hit of $28.15 million in 2021 and $26.15 million for 2022, according to OverTheCap.com. Of course, the Lions can create more space if they restructure Goff's contract, which has a little over $25 million in base salary, once he officially becomes part of the franchise. But it's unknown whether they will do that.

Plus, Stafford will count as $19 million in dead money on this year's cap for Detroit.

What does that have to do with drafting a quarterback at No. 7? It might depend on how the team views Goff in the long term -- something it hasn't been allowed to publicly address yet -- and what it thinks of the quarterbacks in this class.

"When you're picking in the top 10, I don't think you can ignore, and I think it's smart drafting business anyways, when you're picking in the top 10, that you make sure you know that quarterback class very thoroughly," Holmes said.

Holmes added that when picking in the top 10, you must know the top prospects at every position because of the potential level of talent. He said he knows the team needs starters and depth at multiple positions, some of which could be addressed at No. 7.

"There are some pieces that we definitely need to add," Holmes said. "We can start with the defensive side of the ball. We definitely need some more depth. We will need starters at certain places, so those are things that we are going through."

On offense, Holmes said he likes what the Lions have on the offensive line. but they need depth. The receiver room -- whether they use a franchise tag on Kenny Golladay or not -- needs to be overhauled. All of this does tie in to a quarterback, leading to a multitude of decisions for Holmes and head coach Dan Campbell to make as they evaluate what they need to do in free agency and the draft, starting with the No. 7 pick.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- An attorney for the family of a 5-year-old girl critically injured in a crash involving former Kansas City Chiefs assistant coach Britt Reid says the girl suffered a devastating brain injury that has left her unable to speak or walk.

Ariel Young likely has permanent brain damage "that she will endure for the rest of her life," attorney Tom Porto said in an interview broadcast Tuesday with ABC's "Good Morning America."

"We're going to be advocating for the most serious charges and the most serious sentence that Britt could ever receive," Porto said.

The girl has been hospitalized since the Feb. 4 crash, when police say Reid's truck slammed into two vehicles on the side of a highway entrance ramp near Kansas City's NFL training complex next to Arrowhead Stadium, injuring Ariel and another child inside one of the cars.

Reid is the son of Chiefs head coach Andy Reid and had been the team's outside linebackers coach at the time of the crash. He was initially placed on administrative leave immediately following the crash, but is no longer employed by the team after his contract was not renewed in the days after the crash. He did not travel with the team to Tampa, Florida, for the Feb. 7 Super Bowl, which Kansas City lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Police have said Britt Reid admitted to investigators to having had "two or three drinks" along with prescribed Adderall before the crash.

Authorities have said they are still awaiting toxicology reports in the case, and no charges have been filed.

ON THAT MONUMENTAL day, the only thing Kobe Bryant carried with him was a basketball. It was early June 1996, on the morning of his now-legendary pre-draft workout in Los Angeles, when a skinny, smiley Bryant, then 17, stepped out of the swanky Shutters on the Beach resort in Santa Monica, California, with his favorite basketball tucked under his arm.

Waiting for him there in a Chevy Blazer was his driver for the day, Ryan West, the teenage son of NBA legend and longtime Lakers exec Jerry West. "It was the funniest thing, but it showed the two sides of Kobe," says Ryan, now a scout with the Detroit Pistons. "It showed the laser focus and dedication of Kobe but also the child-like nature of Kobe, bringing his favorite toy with him wherever he went."

Having someone Kobe's own age show him around L.A. was agent Arn Tellem's idea. This workout was potentially the seminal moment of Kobe's young career, and Tellem wanted his prodigy from Lower Merion High School outside Philadelphia as comfortable and relaxed as possible. The year before, the 6-foot-11 Kevin Garnett had joined fellow bigs Darryl Dawkins and Moses Malone in making the leap from prep to pro. But Kobe was the first guard to dare make the jump. "He's kidding himself," NBA scouting director Marty Blake told reporters at the time. "Sure, he'd like to come out. I'd like to be a movie star, too. He's not ready."

After working out for several NBA teams, though, Kobe, the son of former pro player Joe "Jellybean" Bryant, had been quickly climbing draft charts most of the summer. The Nets and their new coach, John Calipari, picking at No. 8, had already worked him out several times and were especially smitten.

From a marketing and basketball standpoint, though, Tellem knew there was only one place for his client: Showtime. All Kobe had to do was convince the team's architect and guardian, Jerry West, who had agreed to the workout only as a special favor to Tellem and had planned quite the comeuppance for the kid: Once he and Ryan dealt with the 405 Freeway, Kobe's on-court opponent would be Michael Cooper, one of the greatest defenders in NBA history.

What unfolded over the next 45 minutes inside the Inglewood YMCA still leaves most NBA insiders grasping for words 25 years later. Just not Ryan West. "It's very simple to sum up," he says. "Greatest workout I've ever seen."

Witnessed by just a handful of people (the videotape recordings have vanished) Kobe's Lakers workout would ignite a nonstop frenzy of pre-draft machinations, subterfuge and intrigue before ultimately launching a legend, revitalizing a dynasty, revolutionizing a sport and inspiring one epic oral history.

Mark Heisler, L.A. Times NBA writer, 1979-2011: Kobe was truly a prodigy. The word prodigy would have been invented for him as far as basketball goes. He told me once he thought he had a destiny in the NBA. I asked him: "When did you first start thinking that?" And he said: "When I was 5." Kobe didn't have "overwhelmed" in him. It was just the opposite. In Philly in high school, he had already been working out with the 76ers, and he didn't think any of these NBA guys could keep up with him, and to a large extent, it was true.

Bobby Marks, current ESPN analyst, Nets front office, 1995-2015: Back then you were allowed to have NBA players with three years or less of experience work out with draft prospects. So I ask Ed O'Bannon and Khalid Reeves to come in. Ed had just come off his rookie year, and he was the national player of the year before at UCLA -- and Kobe just dominated. These guys didn't take Kobe all that serious until he started lighting them up, and you could tell they had no idea what they had gotten themselves into until probably halfway through the workout.

Heisler: His dad was an easy-going guy, a sweet guy, always laughing. He wasn't a hard-nosed competitor. But Kobe was. And that part, that passion for the work, that came from his mom, Pam -- she was the boss of that family.

Joe Carbone, Bryant's strength coach, 1995-2004: I was with him for one of his Nets workouts, and the look on Calipari's face the whole time was like, "holy s---." Calipari says, "Let me see you shoot the 3," and Kobe just starts stroking it effortlessly. So Cal says, "Take a few steps back." Boom. Swish. "Take a few more steps back." Boom. Swish. Cal says, "That's it, I'm done," and then, kinda to himself, he goes, "This guy's the next Jordan, I gotta get him."

Marks: We should have made him a guarantee right then and there, shut him down and put him in the witness protection program until the draft. After workouts each team is responsible for the player's travel. We had a rule that guys who were 6-foot-8 or above would fly first class, and Kobe was not 6-foot-8. I pled with the gate agent about the middle seat, but there was nothing available. I remember thinking at the time, oh who the hell cares, he's a 17-year-old kid, too bad. Well, I remember getting my ass chewed out by Arn Tellem. You laugh about it now, but back then, trust me, it wasn't funny.

Heisler: I was in Chicago for the draft combine that year and I walked into the Chicago Marriott and I looked up and saw Kobe on the mezzanine level, standing by himself looking down into the hotel lobby. I introduced myself, told him I knew his dad, and he said he was eventually headed to Los Angeles to work out for the Lakers. He looked like a teenage boy a long way from home. Shy wouldn't be the right word, but a little bit withdrawn. Soft spoken. He looked lonely. The first thing you think when you see him standing there was: Can he hack it at this level?

Mitch Kupchak, Lakers GM, 1994-2017: We knew who he was. He played in the McDonald's game, but we did not get a glowing report from that game. It was a very pedestrian performance.

Heisler: Even Arn didn't know what he had. He was originally from Philly and he had taken Kobe on as a client, but he was good friends with Jerry, and Jerry had a really good eye. If he saw a good player, he wouldn't need to talk to 12 people to confirm it. He'd know right then.

John Black, Lakers VP of public relations, 1989-2017: Jerry was clearly a genius at talent evaluation. At the draft that year I was the Lakers' designated in-person team representative, the guy in the arena, on the phone with our draft room back in L.A. We had the 24th pick that year, and it was between Derek Fisher and Jerome Williams, a 6-foot-9 power forward from Georgetown. We were on the clock with three minutes to make our pick and I was on speaker phone with Jerry, who started going around the room asking everyone who they liked. Time is ticking down -- two minutes left, one minute left, 30 seconds -- and every person said Jerome Williams. So now the NBA rep is standing right next to me and there's 10 seconds left and he wants to know who our pick is -- and in my other ear I can still hear all the people around Jerry saying Jerome Williams, Jerome Williams, Jerome Williams. And I say, "Jerry, time's up, who is our pick?" And he says, "John, we take Derek Fisher."

Jerry West, Hall of Famer, Lakers front office, 1982-2000: I didn't set it up. Kobe's agent, Arn Tellem, did. We had been friends for years, and he said Kobe was in town shooting a commercial. I had watched film on him but had never gone to see him in a high school game. I was aware of his father and I was very aware of Kobe's story, but [drafting guards out of high school] just wasn't in vogue at the time.

Black: One day I was sitting in my office at the Forum, and Jerry just pops his head into my office and says, "Hey, come on, let's go, we got a workout, you gotta see this kid!" In the summers the court inside the Forum would not be down because there would be concerts, hockey, the rodeo or whatever. So we worked out guys at Inglewood High and the Inglewood YMCA -- they were both like a minute car ride from the Forum. To me it was just Jerry being social, wanting to include other people in something he was excited about. I knew the names being bandied about that we were looking at, and Kobe wasn't one of them. It was just a chance to get out of the office.

Ryan West, son of Jerry West, Lakers front office, 2009-2019: The Inglewood YMCA was not the nicest gym in the world. It was probably 30 years out of date. It was small, not a full-sized court even, and it had a real homey feel to it. I've read a lot about the workouts and there has been a lot of misinformation about it. As time has gone by people have gotten the details mixed up about the order and the location of the workouts. But I'm blessed with a great memory and I drove him to the workouts and I remember it like it was yesterday. The first place where the story gets misconstrued is with Michael Cooper. He was the first workout. The other error is about Inglewood High. I specifically remember walking through the door with Kobe that day at the Inglewood YMCA.

Kupchak: Today you walk into a workout and there's trainers, strength and conditioning coaches, sports scientists, measurements, charting, all kinds of stuff. Back then, it was all pretty informal. I'm not even sure we had someone there to rebound the ball for him.

Ryan West: At the beginning they were running him through drills, and Kobe would just go to the rim and dunk every ball. My dad stopped the workout and said, "Kobe, we know you can dunk. Let's see what else you can do." He wanted to see him do other things rather than just tear the rim down every time. My dad wanted to see players put in situations they would find themselves in during NBA games. That's when you saw the pull-up game, the jump hooks, the floaters. Kobe had every shot in his repertoire.

Black: Michael Cooper was 40 at the time, and he had been retired a few years but he was still a freak. Still wiry. Still in great shape. Cooper at 40 was like a normal person at 25. Larry Bird is on record saying Cooper was the most difficult guy he ever played against in his career, the toughest guy to ever defend him. And there's Jerry saying to him, "Don't take it easy on this kid. Make him work as hard as you can."

Michael Cooper, Lakers guard, 1978-1990: I thought I was going to go out there and whip his ass, to tell you the truth. That was my thought. I was like, OK, look, I don't give a f--- how old I am, I'm not gonna let some f---ing guy do anything.

And boy was I brought back to reality quick. In a hurry I found out that 40 and 17 don't go together on the court. At the very beginning, I got right in there and got my hands right up in his face. Guys hate that, especially young guys. He just rose up over my hand like I wasn't even there. I was planning on him not being that strong and that he'd be intimidated. This is an unfair comparison to this young man because I really like him, this LaMelo Ball kid in Charlotte, 19 years old he comes out to the NBA and you see his little, frail body -- Kobe didn't have that frail body at that age.

Carbone: The knock on Kobe in high school was even if he had the skills he was too skinny. I met him the summer of 1995, and Kobe trained that whole year and put on 10-15 pounds of muscle. His first visit to the Nets, the GM at the time, Willis Reed -- his hands are huge -- well he grabs Kobe around the upper arm and he's shaking him and he says, "OK, you ain't so skinny."

Black: Kobe never backed down from anyone, even at age 17. Kobe did not know how to be deferential. Michael was playing his best and Kobe just had his way with him. Kobe was just destroying him.

Raymond Ridder, current senior VP of communications, Golden State Warriors, Lakers PR staff, 1990-1998: I just saw Michael Jordan out there. Kobe had all the Jordan mannerisms: the fadeaway jumper, dribbling between his legs, tongue hanging out -- he had perfected every Jordan move at the age of 17.

"I thought I was going to go out there and whip his ass, to tell you the truth. That was my thought. I was like, OK, look, I don't give a f--- how old I am, I'm not gonna let some f---ing guy do anything." Former Lakers guard and DPOY Michael Cooper, who guarded the 17-year-old Kobe

Cooper: There were certain things Jerry wanted to see. The big one was: Could he get to a spot? Great players can always get to their spot. Spots, and the angles you take to get there, are so important in basketball. You might not always hit the shot, but if you can get there, that's when you feel like you'll hit 8 out of 10, or 9 out of 10. Jerry requested that he get to an exact spot, say, at the elbow, every time. Not a foot away, not two feet away, not an inch away. Even the very best offensive players cannot get to that spot by just going from Point A to Point B. Sometimes you're gonna have to take me to A to C to F and then come back to B. So that was the first thing I admired about Kobe. I had done this, taken this away against Larry Bird, Dr. J, and a young Michael Jordan, and here's a young man fresh out of high school and I'm trying to deny him certain places on the court, and Kobe was able to get to his spot, I'd say, nine times out of 10.

Ryan West: They had him doing a particular play off a pick and roll where Kobe was the ball handler and he threw me a great pass, and I went up for the layup and completely bricked the layup. I was so embarrassed.

Cooper: One time Kobe comes off the screen and he got me pretty low so I ended up going under the screen. Now, a decent offensive player in the NBA would think, OK the defense is under the screen -- let me take one dribble past the pick and hit a jump shot. Sure, you could hit that shot, but that's the shot the defense wants to give you. He came off the screen, gave me a little pump fake, which rose me off my feet and gave him some room and then he drove -- one-two, bounce, dribble -- got to the elbow, rose up and hit the shot. Then he went to the left side and did the same thing.

Ridder: He wanted to do everything he could to destroy Michael Cooper. That mentality was something he had from day one, and you saw it in this workout. He had the mamba mentality at 17.

About halfway through the workout, legend has it that things began to heat up, with Kobe and Cooper talking trash and throwing elbows. Kobe was, after all, notorious for ruthlessly humiliating all challengers -- teammates, coaches, friends even -- in games of one-on-one. But the truth is Kobe was so dominant and relentless (at one point he hit 12 shots in a row from the baseline) the workout never even got competitive enough to become contentious.

That week in Los Angeles, Kobe was already shooting his first commercial. Even as a teenager he was a genius at building a brand and spinning his own mythology. Growing up a Lakers fan, he knew exactly who Michael Cooper was and, more importantly, what people around the NBA would say if he strolled into L.A. and destroyed one of the game's greatest defenders. So Kobe never said a word. He knew the workout would speak volumes on its own. In fact, the only chatter heard that day came from former Laker Norm Nixon, who tried to encourage Cooper by yelling, "Bang on him, Coop! Bang on him!" from the bleachers. It didn't help. Afterward, Nixon walked up to his old friend and whispered, "The kid just kicked your ass."

Cooper: He did kick me in the nuts one time with his leg, and I was mad about that. But that was it. I was banging on him. I was hitting him with my forearm and he was banging me right back. I hit him hard one time, in the kidney and it was a cheap shot, on purpose. It was just that he was backing me down, backing me down and so I hit him. He felt it, you could tell. I said, "Hey man, sorry about that," but Kobe was so focused on the workout he was like, "No, no, no problem, Coach, let's go." When he'd hit me with an elbow he would say, "Oh, oh, I'm sorry," and I said, "Quit treating me like an old man." But no, Kobe didn't talk. And it was a good thing. Jerry hated that. He always said, why are you fraternizing with the enemy out there? Why are you talking to the enemy when you should be trying to kick their ass? No, Kobe had one thing on his mind: He wanted to play in Los Angeles.

Jerry West: He just had that "It" factor. LeBron James, Magic Johnson, people like that, they just have it. Kobe had it. You could see it. You could feel it.

Cooper: When we moved to the low post, Jerry took off the restraints. Kobe didn't have to hit a certain spot or go a specific way anymore. So I didn't know what he was going to do. I was at his mercy. Left-hand hooks. One-bounce turnarounds. And he had that little shake shot, that little MJ shake with his back to the basket and that fall-away shot. And he was able to get up and get his shot off and sink it time after time after time.

Ridder: When I think back to that day, that's what I continuously see over and over in my mind: Kobe backing Coop down for those turnaround fadeaway 16-foot jumpers, tongue out, from the baseline, the free throw line, the elbow, all around. Kobe hitting those from everywhere.

Carbone: Kobe was about the 10,000-hour rule even as a teenager. In high school, on Saturdays he'd lift at St. Joseph's and then I'd rebound for him when he'd shoot. He had just started when the lady who ran the gym yelled, "We're closing!" and then, boom, with no warning she shut off all the lights. I'm holding the ball in the dark, thinking, OK, I guess we're done, and Kobe yells, "Give me the ball!" I was actually afraid for a little bit because he yelled it so loud. But I gave him the ball and he kept shooting in the dark for another half-hour. Swish. Swish. Swish.

Black: I don't remember if it was 10 shots in a row that he made or more. I knew Michael Cooper pretty well and he was very proud, and he definitely took that request from Jerry as a challenge. He wanted to shut Kobe down. I don't want to put words in his mouth, but I think Michael was embarrassed by what Kobe did to him that day.

Kupchak: The ease with which at 17 he was able to compete with one of the all-time great defenders in the game, that's what really stood out.

Cooper: When I did force him to take a bad shot, he'd just smile and shoot me that eye of the tiger.

Ridder: I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Then Jerry stands up after what felt like only 20 minutes and, I'll never forget this, he says: "Let's get out of here. I've seen enough. This kid's better than anybody we have on our team right now."

Jerry West: He was incredibly gifted in terms of skill at that point. It was a very impressive workout and, frankly, a lot more than expected. And all of a sudden your antenna goes up and you think, Oh my gosh, this kid's really good. With our position in the draft, at No. 24, I was just thinking: There's no way, we have no chance of getting this guy.

Ryan West: Larry Drew was a Lakers assistant at the time. Someone asked him what he thought that day and his line always stuck with me. He said, "That man is the truth."

"This guy's the next Jordan. I gotta get him." New Jersey Nets coach John Calipari, after Kobe worked out for the team in the spring on 1996

As they were leaving the gym, Jerry West turned to an exhausted Cooper and joked: "I thought you were going to guard him?"

Jerry West: Coop was a good one. I gave him a hard time about it. It was just Father Time. I told him, "You're just too damn old and this guy, he's just too damn good." Regardless of who Kobe worked out against, he was going to be the best player on the floor.

Kupchak: He was just obsessed with competition to a level you don't see in young players very often. You don't get that maniacal competitiveness very often, and here we were seeing it with someone who was 17.

Cooper: When I finished that workout, and my part in it was probably only 20-30 minutes, it felt like I had played a seven-game series with the Celtics again. Like I had just finished facing Larry Bird and Dennis Johnson. My body was aching something bad.

Coincidentally, a few weeks earlier, when Kobe worked out for Boston, he was matched up against Johnson, Cooper's nemesis, who was then an assistant coach with the Celtics. The results were very similar, and timeless: Age yields to youth. In his Boston workout and especially in his interview with team execs, Kobe wowed the entire Celtics organization, all the way up to team president Red Auerbach himself. The hardest part of the entire ordeal for Kobe, who had grown up a die-hard Lakers fan, was having to put on the Celtic Green workout gear. Kobe and West were kindred spirits in that regard: After losing to the Celtics six times in the NBA Finals as a player, West had forbidden that particular shade of green in his house.

Cooper: Afterward, I'm sweating like a b---- over there and Jerry leans in and asks me, "Coop, what do you think?" And I was like, "Jerry, he's f---ing good, man." Right after that, Jerry says: "This is our guy." I'll never forget that: "This is the kid." And then everyone said it: This is our pick, this is our guy. And you know what? Thank God.

Jerry West: You watch a workout like that -- there isn't much of a choice to think of anything else. I remember saying to Jerry Buss, our owner, I said, "Jerry, he's the best player in the draft." I meant it. I would have taken Kobe as the first player in the draft. It was a no-brainer. He had this -- forget desire -- he just didn't want to stop playing. Ever.

Ryan West: After the workout, it was so funny, driving back to Santa Monica he wanted to go find an empty gym to go play in and he was trying, the whole time, to convince me to take him somewhere to find a pickup game. I finally said, "Kobe, you're in the pre-draft process for the NBA. I don't know if you want to risk getting injured." Knowing him, when I dropped him off at the hotel he probably found a way to go somewhere and play or at least work on his game.

Ridder: We all hopped back into Jerry's car and sat there in sheer amazement at what we had just seen.

Black: I think Jerry was a Mercedes guy, and in his car he was raving the whole time: "That's the best workout I've ever seen."

More stories from David Fleming

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• 'I'm gonna beat up Brutus:' An epic mascot melee years in the making

• The six words of trash talk that made "The Last Dance" possible

But not for long. A few days later, with Kobe still in town shooting his commercial, the Lakers brought him back for one more workout, this time with Dontae' Jones, the 6-8 220-pound senior power forward who had just carried Mississippi State to the Final Four and was a projected first-rounder.

Heisler: This was a big, strong guy. He was a load. Before that workout started, the Lakers probably thought there was a very good chance that Dontae' Jones was gonna kick Kobe's ass.

Ryan West: They were so impressed by what Kobe had done to Cooper, the idea with the second workout was, let's validate, let's see if he can do this against somebody who is ready to play in the NBA right now. Dontae' Jones was a physical specimen and Kobe just had his way with him. The first thing Dontae' did was try to use his strength and bully him by taking him down into the post and shooting a jump hook. Kobe blocked it. The second workout was even much more impressive than the first and, with my dad, it started a borderline obsession with Kobe.

Kupchak: Afterward we went to a Subway and sat down and had lunch with Arn. Kobe and Ryan West were at another table. They were either talking about, or playing, video games. This Subway had an outdoor seating area that was a little more private because Jerry couldn't really go many places in L.A. Kobe was fine. Nobody knew who he was.

Ridder: Jerry's a notoriously fast eater. He's the fastest eater in the world. A sandwich or a burrito, he'd scarf that thing down in four minutes and we'd be back in the car. Knowing Jerry he scarfed his lunch down even faster that day because he was in a hurry to get back to the Forum and start figuring out a way to swing a trade to get this kid.

Ryan West: Taking Kobe back to his hotel the second time it all just seemed like the perfect marriage. Everyone at the Lakers was so enamored with him. And him being in Los Angeles and being a Laker, it all made too much sense. They were going to find a way to get him no matter what. The draft was only a couple weeks away. When I dropped him off, he said, "I don't know when I'll see you again." And I kinda winked at him and said, "I have a feeling I'm gonna see you again pretty soon."

Heisler: Kobe was pretty OK going to the Nets, until he came out west for his Lakers workouts. Now Kobe's hanging out with Ryan West and eating dinner at the Wests' house and he's part of the family. This was the most important part of this whole thing: Every team that brought in Kobe -- the Clippers, the Suns and others -- they all said it was the greatest workout they had ever seen and immediately started trying to make moves to get him. But at that point Kobe decided he wanted to be a Laker, and he didn't want to be anything else. The big thing they had to do was shake New Jersey.

After wolfing down his footlong sub, Jerry West hatched a plan. Because the Lakers weren't picking until 24th in the draft, his priority to that point had been trying to lure free agent Shaquille O'Neal from Orlando to Los Angeles. First, though, West had to move Lakers center Vlade Divac and his $4.7 million salary to clear roster and cap space for Shaq's seven-year, $120 million offer. Now, also needing to move up in order to grab Kobe, the deal took on even more significance -- almost too much. West later wrote that the stress sent him "spiraling downward and into the hospital for exhaustion for a few days."

Starting with Toronto, which had the No. 2 pick, West approached every team ahead of the Lakers with an offer to trade Divac for their selection. Finally, the Hornets bit at 13. They agreed to draft and trade Kobe for Divac, provided he was still on the board. Tellem and the Bryants then went to work to make sure that he would be.

Marks: This is where the Lakers and Arn and Kobe's parents all joined forces to make it as difficult as possible for us to make a decision on Kobe. Arn had the leverage. New Jersey was hosting the draft and the threat was Kobe would not put on that cap when his name was picked. Is that how you want to start off your coaching career in the NBA? The night before the draft, we met with Arn and Kobe's parents at the Radisson in Secaucus, on Route 3. Cal had a suite on the top level. Going into that meeting, Kobe was still the No. 1 guy on our draft board. After that meeting, everything changed.

The draft was being held at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, and John Calipari, the Nets' new coach, was leaning toward Kobe at No. 8, but he was naïve in the ways of pre-draft subterfuge. Tellem called and warned Calipari that Kobe was headed to L.A. and he'd hold out, or go play in Italy, if the Nets called his name. Don't mess this up, he told Calipari, or you'll pay. Kobe also called to reiterate the message. The best he could come up with, though, was he didn't want to play near home. Part of Calipari's new $3 million a year contract was final say on all basketball decisions. The Nets' front office begged him to call Kobe's bluff. And all the while, another powerhouse agent, David Falk, was pressuring Calipari to take his client, Kerry Kittles.

By the day of the 1996 draft, Kobe had Calipari more off-balance than Cooper.

Kupchak: A factor with a lot of GMs and especially coaches is that, wait a minute, we have to wait three years on a prospect to develop? So it bodes to Jerry's -- not sure courage is the right word -- but his acumen to identify talent like Kobe's and to roll the dice when we didn't really have a bar to measure him against. You just had to use your eye, but that wasn't easy. Your eye tells you one thing and reality pushes back: Don't trust your eyes. This kid is only 17. So it would have been easy to write him off as a young, athletic kid and think we just don't know what he's going to turn into. That would have been the easy route.

His voice echoing throughout a raucous Continental Airlines Arena, after welcoming everyone, NBA commissioner David Stern stepped back to the podium and announced: "With the first pick in the 1996 NBA draft, the Philadelphia 76ers select ... Allen Iverson from Georgetown University."

Ryan West: There was a lot of tension in our draft war room that year. They felt confident that Kobe would fall to 13, but only if he made it past New Jersey at 8.

As Lakers scouts held their breath in L.A., one by one, the giant blue IBM game-show-style tote board on the stage flipped over to reveal each subsequent pick. Marcus Camby went next to Toronto then Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Stephon Marbury and Ray Allen. The Celtics and Clippers had the sixth and seventh picks. Knowing both teams were high on Bryant, there was a slight exhale when Boston took Antoine Walker and the Clips selected Lorenzen Wright. That left just the Nets. Would Cal blink?

Ryan West: There were five minutes between picks, but it felt more like 30.

Stern returned to his podium in front of two larger-than-life NBA logos -- the silhouettes of Jerry West himself -- and announced: "With the eighth pick in the 1996 NBA draft, the New Jersey Nets select ... Kerry Kittles from Villanova University." (Less than three years later, after starting the 1998-99 season 3-17, Calipari was fired by the Nets.)

Ryan West: When Stern announced that the Nets were drafting Kerry Kittles, there was a lot of joy in that room.

And just as West had planned, five picks later, the Hornets took Bryant, who made sure to stick out his tongue -- a la Jordan -- as soon as he was on camera. "Jerry West told me today that greatness lies ahead for this young man," TNT commentator Rick Pitino said as Kobe made his way to the stage. Bryant's trade to L.A. was announced later that day.

Jerry West: The first thing I said to Jerry Buss was, "We just got the best player in the draft."

Heisler: The Suns were sitting at 15, ready. Danny Ainge was the Suns' [assistant] coach at the time. He tried to make a deal with Golden State at 11 to move up to take Kobe. Years later he was still incredulous that they turned him down to draft some white guy [Todd Fuller] from the ACC. After the Hornets took Kobe at 13 and the deal with the Lakers was announced, Ainge was the first one to put it all together. He turned to everyone inside the Suns' war room and said, "Oh my God, they've got Kobe and Shaq."

Kupchak: There was so much excitement after the draft that we got the guy. And then it was, all of a sudden, maybe we're not going to get him. At that point Charlotte did have second thoughts. It leaked out that Vlade didn't want to leave L.A., but the bigger threat was Charlotte changing their minds. Jerry and I both spent time on the phone with Hornets GM Bob Bass. We had a deal in place and Jerry had a longstanding relationship with the Hornets. But you can't go nuts because then you just create an environment where there's anger and it becomes easy for someone to say, "Well, you're acting like an idiot now, so the deal's off." You gotta talk it through, and we had to say to Bob, "Hey, a deal's a deal." You had to be careful, though, because at the end of the day, it's not in writing. So it was a very up-and-down emotional period that lasted for several days.

Fifteen to be exact. Divac had initially threatened to retire, but after visiting Charlotte (and without a no-trade clause), he relented. Meanwhile, the Hornets cooled on the idea of staking their future on a teenager. The trade went through on July 11. Because he was still 17, Kobe had to co-sign his first Lakers contract with his parents. A week later, Shaq signed with the Lakers.

Jerry West: After we got Shaq, one of the first things I told him was, "We have one of the best young players in the league already and he's going to be a huge star."

Kobe and Shaq played together for eight seasons and won three NBA titles from 2000 to 2002. Kobe collected two more rings in 2009 and 2010 before retiring in 2016. On Jan. 26, 2020, Bryant died in a helicopter crash along with his daughter Gianna and seven others. He was posthumously elected to the Hall of Fame in August and will be inducted in May.

Jerry West: That first workout, it was like watching Pavarotti. He was a basketball genius. We were fortunate to get him and fans in L.A. were lucky enough to see one of the most iconic players of all time. Kobe was going to be something even more successful off the court than he was on the court. When he left this earth, I've never seen such an outpouring of grief, not just here but worldwide. There are days that will live forever in the sports world, and this was one.

Ryan West: In Kobe's last year, after he had announced he was retiring, I was with the Lakers and we were still at our old practice facility where we had copies of all our pre-draft workouts. I wanted a copy of his workout as a keepsake just for a moment in time, a piece of NBA history, something that I participated in that I would love to share with my own family one day. We had every workout on tape, but the only one we couldn't find was Kobe's. I don't know where they are. I wonder if our video guy has them in a vault somewhere. Somebody has it somewhere.

Ridder: That workout was an unbelievable day, one that I'll never forget the rest of my life. The impression it left on me, about how to work and how to prepare and wanting to be the best is still with me to this day. Jerry, John, Mitch and I, we can't go more than a few conversations without that workout coming up because it's such a powerful, lingering memory for all of us. Years later, after I moved from L.A. to Golden State, every time we'd play the Lakers and Kobe, I'd go into the locker to say hi and I'd always say, "Don't forget Kobe, I was there from day one." And we'd both smile about it.

Marks: The Nets played the Lakers in the Finals in 2002, and after they swept us I was walking through the hallways inside the arena. Kobe walks past me and he turns around and says, "Hey, you know I would have come here." And I believe he would have. We should have never let him get on that plane.

Heisler: His audacity on the court was just jaw-dropping. You just could not believe that he would even dare to do such things. In retrospect he was one of the guys who changed the game in 1996, and it revolved around him for the next 15 years.

Cooper: The last time I saw him, the Mavs were in town and he came to the game with his daughter Gigi. He had that orange hoodie on. I saw him before the game, he said, "Coop, how you doing?" Instead of watching the game I found myself watching him enjoying the game of basketball with his daughter. He got up and left and the fans went crazy. That was the last time I saw him. He's gone now, but the one thing I have is that workout. Everything about him, and his whole game, was in that workout.

Heisler: That might be the most amazing part of this whole story: It was purely an accident. And once they saw Kobe in that workout, it changed the NBA for years to come, it changed everything.

Ryan West: People ask me all the time what is the greatest sporting event you've ever been to and I always say Kobe's last game when he scored 60. The way he went out was unbelievable. Nothing will top his last game.

Before the game I went into the locker room and gave him a hug, and I was really emotional. I was on the verge of tears. I didn't know what to say to him. I couldn't speak. And he says, "I'll never forget that the first time I was on the 405 freeway was with you."

In the last five minutes of that game, there was a moment when he hit that shot to put the Lakers up and it was like something out of a movie. It was the culmination of being there from day one, seeing him in that gym by himself at 17 taking those same kinda shots to, here we are, 20 years later, he's doing the same thing, only now he's the biggest superstar in the NBA and a five-time champion, closing out his career. I'm standing at my seat watching all this and, for a moment, I swear, I flashed back to his workout in Inglewood. It was poetic.

"This team is finished now. There will be a new team made."

Jones repeated that mantra a few months later after signing a new contract to take the team through to the World Cup in France in 2023.

"I don't think this group can have another World Cup in them," he told the BBC after putting pen to paper in April 2020.

So, 16 months on from the World Cup, how much has actually changed?

New players have come through, of course, with Jones capping a whopping 11 rookies since the tournament in Japan.

But the starting XV that lost to Wales last weekend included 12 of the 15 that started the World Cup final; if Sam Underhill, Courtney Lawes and Manu Tuilagi had been fit, Jones could have picked the exact same side.

While fresh faces have come into the squad and onto the bench, breaking into Jones' inner sanctum - especially in positions such as number eight, scrum-half, fly-half, centre and full-back - has never appeared so difficult.

Now with the Six Nations lost, and two tricky games to come at home to France and in Ireland, where do England go from here?

Discipline, discipline, discipline

"Whenever you lose a game - or lose a couple in an English shirt - questions are going to be asked. And there are a few they need to answer," 84-cap England scrum-half Danny Care said on the Rugby Union Weekly podcast.

A big issue is discipline, with England whistled off the park in the defeats by Scotland and Wales. Kingpin lock Maro Itoje was most at fault, shipping five penalties on his own in Cardiff.

"I want to know who in that England team, when Maro is giving away five penalties, who is telling him he's got to relax? Who is questioning him and telling him he's got to wind his neck in?" asked co-host Ugo Monye, echoing the view of World Cup winner Matt Dawson.

"Maro Itoje has a target on him for referees, 100%. Owen Farrell has a target on him, 100%," Care added.

"England have to be smarter, and they have to be accountable."

The 'undroppables'?

In certain positions, Jones has struggled to build depth.

At the World Cup, his reliance on scrum-half Ben Youngs was costly, but come March 2021 other nines are still struggling to get a look in.

Harry Randall was selected in the squad to much fanfare, but didn't get a game before picking up an injury. Dan Robson is still waiting for his first Test start, while Ben Spencer is continually overlooked.

Meanwhile, in Jones' whole tenure, only one man has started a Test match at fly-half that wasn't Owen Farrell or George Ford. That was Danny Cipriani in Cape Town in 2018 and he never played for England again.

When it comes to the centres, there is no coincidence every single one of England's dominant performances in recent years have come with Manu Tuilagi at 12 or 13. Ollie Lawrence was picked to play a similar role, but was dropped after hardly touching the ball in his four caps.

At number eight, Billy Vunipola wears the shirt whether in form or not. Nathan Hughes, Sam Simmonds and Zach Mercer have all come and gone. Alex Dombrandt has trained with the squad without getting near a cap.

At full-back, Mike Brown was Jones' man, then Elliot Daly. But while Daly struggles for his best form, Max Malins is reduced to short cameos from the bench, despite chat that the Bristol man is pulling up trees in training. George Furbank came and went.

Clearly there is a reason Jones puts such faith in these players; they are world-class and no-one is calling for them to be jettisoned forever.

In fact, a lot of the 'undroppables' played well in Cardiff. But using Test matches for players to play their way back into form is a risky strategy, as this Six Nations has proved.

A summer of change?

Jones' plan - as with the last World Cup cycle - may have been to make his move in a Lions summer.

In an ideal world, his favoured crop would bag one more Six Nations title and then, with these key men unavailable, a low-profile July tour would provide a perfect chance to develop new players away from the pressure-cooker of the championship.

In Argentina four years ago, Tom Curry and Sam Underhill both came through - two players who were outstanding in Japan 2019 and should still be heartbeats of the England team in France 2023.

But everyone has a plan until you're punched in the face, or more accurately, until you're mugged at Twickenham by an inspired Scotland.

Now the calls for change will only grow louder, although the options Jones has in terms of movement in and out of his 28-man squad are hindered by coronavirus regulations.

"I thought if England lost at the weekend and Eddie was able to, then you have a free hit with two games to try new players and combinations," Care said.

"I don't know if Covid and the bubble will allow that, but [if possible] I would like to see players who are in form, playing well for their clubs, get an opportunity in an English shirt.

"The best fly-half playing in the Premiership at the moment is Marcus Smith and I would like to see Marcus Smith given a chance in the 10 shirt, with Owen Farrell at 12 and Ben Youngs at scrum-half.

"I would also like to see Sam Simmonds and Alex Dombrandt given an opportunity, because they are two guys that can hurt opposition through their attack.

"I don't see wholesale changes, and I know Eddie won't do it, but even if he could I don't think you need to change 10 players.

"I just think it's two or three to give a fresh impetus and fresh ideas - maybe [Wasps back] Paolo Odogwu gets an opportunity.

"But if you do throw [Harlequins fly-half] Marcus Smith in there, you have to let him play the way he wants to play."

While the inclusion of the likes of Smith and Simmonds are unlikely given they are neither part of the Six Nations squad nor the shadow squad, the options are there in camp, such as the Bristol pair of Ben Earl and the aforementioned Malins.

"Max Malins is someone who can connect the dots for England," added Monye. "They have not been as efficient as what you would expect. There are options and opportunities. And for all the doom and gloom it's important to lift the fog.

"The potential of some of the guys out there is really exciting. But it's only exciting if you see them in a jersey. You have to give them a go."

BRACKLEY, England – Officials from the defending Formula one champions, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, have revealed the team’s challenger for upcoming season.

The Mercedes-AMG F1 W12 E Performance was revealed Tuesday in the new race bays at the organization’s Brackley technical center, officially opening the facility in the process.

“Every year we reset our focus and define the right objectives,” said Team Principal and CEO Toto Wolff. “That may sound simple but it’s damn hard and is probably why there are no sports teams out there with seven consecutive titles. So many things can happen and it’s very natural to get used to success, and therefore not fight as hard for it.

“But this team has not shown any of that. I see the same fire, hunger and passion now as I did the first time I walked through the doors in 2013. Every season presents a new challenge and therefore, a new goal for us to achieve. 2021 brings changes to the regulations, which could impact our competitiveness, plus the cost cap and working on the major rule changes of 2022. These challenges excite us.”

The team’s newest challenger is named Mercedes-AMG F1 W12 E Performance and is the team’s first car to use the E Performance designation, signifying its closer alignment to the Mercedes-AMG performance division in the future. E Performance is the new technology label that will be used in product names and badges on all forthcoming Mercedes-AMG performance hybrid cars – which feature direct cascade technology from F-1 and, in particular, the work of Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains in Brixworth.

The team’s closer cooperation with AMG is also reflected in the new livery, with AMG branding replacing the star pattern on the engine cover, which now fades to Mercedes’ traditional racing silver from the black base livery introduced last year.

The most prominent color remains the green of title partner Petronas on the front and rear wings, nose, mirrors and halo, with the parallel green and silver stripes on the flanks of the car symbolizing more than a decade of partnership between Mercedes and Petronas. The visual identity is completed by the burgundy of team shareholder and Principal Partner Ineos, which features on the airbox and the inside of the front wing endplates.

This season also marks the beginning of a new chapter for the team following the announcement late last year that Wolff, Daimler and Ineos will be one-third, equal shareholders.

“The fact that we were able to attract INEOS as an investor shows that we have a strong business case and that F-1 continues to be a highly attractive platform for big brands and companies,” said Wolff. “We’re also seeing a slight shift in the way that F1 teams operate as the cost cap and the new structure move us towards a business model that is more familiar in American sports franchises.

“At the same time, having three strong shareholders in the team gives us even more stability for the future. On a personal level, I’m very happy to commit to the team for the long term and increase my share slightly. I’ve always said that this team is like a family to me, and I’m incredibly proud of what we have achieved together.”

The team has introduced several significant changes to key performance areas on the car.

“If you’re looking to slow a car down, which is effectively what the regulation changes were intended to do, modifying the floor is by far the easiest and cheapest way of achieving your objective,” said Technical Director James Allison. “The floor is such an important aerodynamic component that small geometrical changes bring large reductions in performance. Once the rules had been established, our task was to figure out how to recover the losses brought by the changes.”

The four key modifications to the floor are:

• A triangular cut-out on the edge of the floor, in front of the rear wheels.
• Reducing the span of the rear brake duct winglets, by a few centimeters.
• Reducing the height of the two inboard strakes nearest the car centerline in the diffuser.
• Sealing up the slots in the floor around the bargeboards.

The aerodynamic changes have been a key focus in the development of the W12, but some of the parts on the new car are identical to the W11 due to the new carryover rules.

“What’s carried over will look different from team to team, because the rules didn’t require you to carry over the same things,” said Allison. “The rules freeze a large chunk of the car, but then give each team two tokens to spend on changing their car. Along with the tokens comes a shopping list showing how many tokens are required for each change. How teams decided what to use their tokens on was entirely up to them.

“In addition, there are some parts of the car that you can change token-free, for example the Power Unit, the cooling systems, the suspension and of course all of the aerodynamic surfaces. We have spent our tokens, but we won’t reveal how we used them just yet. That’ll become clear in good time. Once the racing gets underway, pretty much everything under the skin of the car must then be frozen for the entire year. With the specific permission of the FIA, you can make changes for reliability or cost saving, but if part of your car isn’t performing well, then you are stuck with it for the whole season.”

In terms of the power unit, team officials say they’ve been chasing every possible improvement to deliver a step forward in performance.

“We are going into the eighth season of pretty stable regulations, so we have a good understanding of the current hybrid engines,” said Hywel Thomas, who oversees engine development for the team. “Our new product is a characteristic Mercedes-AMG Power Unit, but we’ve worked hard to take the next development step. Stable regulations mean that it’s getting increasingly challenging to unlock additional performance, so you need a focused approach.

“We identified three main areas to work on: first, we’ve continued the development of the technology in the Power Unit. That’s a continuous process, and we feel like we’ve been able to take a step forward on that front again this year. The second area is reliability. We discovered some design issues last year, so we’ve been looking at those and introduced some changes to address them. And we’ve also got some completely new innovations that will be in the racing PU for the first time. That was particularly challenging because last season finished late, so the winter period has been shorter than normal and has given us less time to prepare, which put extra strain on the business.”

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – After making a dramatic change to its program in the off-season, TR3 Racing is set to go racing again as the Florida-based team prepares for its return to the Fanatec GT World Challenge America Powered by AWS.

The team will now field a Lamborghini Huracan GT3 for its assault on the World Challenge America championship. The team has engaged a dynamic Pro-Am class driving line up as Ziad Ghandour returns to the team to pair with young up and coming Lamborghini specialist Giacomo Altoe.

A six-year veteran of Ferrari Challenge competition, Ghandour first made the move to GT World Challenge America with TR3 Racing in 2020, contesting a partial schedule of events.

Ghandour made progress with every outing, scoring fifth in the opening race of the year at Circuit of The Americas before moving up to a podium result in the second race. The move to World Challenge followed Ghandour’s best season in Ferrari Challenge, taking three poles as well as winning four of eight race wins in 2019 on his way to scoring second in the North American championship.

The native of Lebanon is currently based in California, and has eight career triumphs in international Ferrari Challenge competition.

“I am looking forward to my first full season in World Challenge America and to continue to develop my racing career with TR3 Racing,” said said Ghandour. “The Lamborghini is really exciting to drive, and we have a lot of potential working with this new car. It will be a lot of good teams and drivers this year. I am eager to go racing with this package along with Giacomo (Altoe) as my co-driver.”

Altoe is a 20-year-old Italian who captured the 2019 International GT Open GT3 Pro championship, after winning the 2018 title in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo World Final Pro division. He has 23 victories and 50 podium finishes in 137 races during his five-year career.

“I’m really motivated to be racing for the first time a full championship in the USA this year with TR3 Racing and my mate Ziad,” said Altoe. “It will be my first season in America and we will try to fight for the PRO-AM title with our Lamborghini GT3 Evo.

It will be a challenging season, competing in the most popular category and I’m really looking forward to it. Can’t wait for the first race weekend in Sonoma!”

Altoe raced in the 2019 Rolex 24 At Daytona in the Ebimotors Lamborghini, finishing 17th.

In 2020, TR3 Racing also finished second in the Amateur Teams championship in 2020 GT World Challenge America. The team entered two races, winning both rounds at VIR, with John Megrue and Bill Sweedler leading the class in the No. 31 Ferrari 488 GT3.

The move to the Lamborghini platform is being bolstered by a partnership with Lamborghini Miami, one of the oldest Lamborghini dealer in the United States. Lamborghini Miami has a new state of the art showroom and service center in North Miami Beach that has attracted customers from all over the world. The dealership offers customers a buying experience that is different than the traditional dealership, with a focus on building and maintaining relationships with every one of our customers.

“I believe that Lamborghini is the most dynamic luxury brand on the market today, with innovative technology and a cutting edge esthetic,” said Brett David, the CEO of Prestige Imports and Lamborghini Miami. “Joining the TR3 Racing, challenges the senses and excites the heart and with my personal relationship with family behind TR3, I have the full confidence that this is the winning team to take us to the finish line and to the checkered flag, we are ready.”

“We are very exited to start this new venture with Lamborghini, Giorgio Sanna and Chris Ward really have made it a flawless transition from what we were running last year,” said TR3 Racing CEO Gregory Romanelli. “We worked hard in the off-season to put together this program. The car is in is built with such a high standard and the support behind it is like nothing else. We look forward to Sonoma and to a great season together with Ziad and Giacomo, being Giacomo‘s first year Racing in United States and Ziad’s first full season in World Challenge.”

In our monthly canvassing of NHL awards voters, one thing has become increasingly clear: We need a little FOMO, right this very minute.

As we mentioned in the last NHL Awards Watch, the NHL's temporary realignment -- in which teams play only opponents within their divisions and no one else -- has put blinders on a lot of the media members who cast ballots. Like, even more than usual.

Or as one Professional Hockey Writers Association (PHWA) voter put it: "I'm dreading the awards voting this year. Only really been watching one division."

So we need that FOMO to kick in. We know voters are watching Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews, or at least catching up with the incredible highlights of their latest exploits. As the season progresses, we need them to fear missing out on watching Patrick Kane and Kevin Lankinen power the Chicago Blackhawks, or Charlie McAvoy steadying the Boston Bruins' blue line, or any rookie skater not named Kirill Kaprizov.

We're confident this will happen. But if it doesn't? I guess we'll offer our early congratulations to everyone in the All-Canadian Division on their awards wins ...

Here's the NHL Awards Watch for March. This is informed speculation, taken from conversations around hockey and with voters, regarding the current contenders for each award. Keep in mind that the PHWA votes for the Hart, Norris, Calder, Selke and Lady Byng; broadcasters vote for the Jack Adams; and general managers handle the Vezina. Also keep in mind the "You gotta be in it to win it" protocol for the Hart and the Jack Adams, although it's still a little early for that standard to be applied.

Edinson Cavani looks set to return to the Manchester United squad for their trip to Crystal Palace.

United travel to Selhurst Park on Wednesday and after Cavani came through training on Tuesday unscathed, manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is hopeful to have the striker available again after missing the last four games.

"We've had a training session this morning, of course it was a light one and we're looking OK," Solskjaer told a news conference on Tuesday.

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"There are a couple of doubts and we have to give them as much time as possible. Edinson has trained, that's good. Let's hope there's no reaction and he will travel to the squad."

However, Solskjaer is still without Paul Pogba while he continues his recovery from a thigh injury. He has missed nearly a month but is yet to return to training with the rest of the squad.

"Paul is still not ready for us," Solskjaer said.

"He's feeling better. He's not been training with the team yet so he's definitely not travelling down to London."

United could kick off against Palace 15 points behind leaders Manchester City if Pep Guardiola's side beat Wolves at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday. Solskjaer's team managed just two league wins in February but he has rejected the suggestion the pressure of being in the title race has affected his players.

"The pressure has not been there at all," he said. "We enjoy being as close to the top as possible. It's the quality of opposition, quality of tactics, demands of the season, playing don't how many games in Premier League, FA Cup; it's the strangest year of all for everyone. Pressure? No. It's just the Premier League."

Former Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu and ex-adviser Jaume Masferrer were released pending charges on Tuesday after spending Monday night in custody, sources have confirmed to ESPN.

Bartomeu and Masferrer were two of four people connected to Barca who were arrested on Monday following raids at five locations around the Catalan city, including the offices at Camp Nou, as part of police investigation into the Barcagate scandal. The duo appeared in court on Tuesday, where they referred to their right to not declare before being freed for now. Barca CEO Oscar Grau and the club's head of legal services, Roman Gomez Ponti, were the other two men detained. They were released pending charges on Monday.

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As a club, Barca are not facing any charges, with the judge in the case ruling that they are an affected party.

A police source confirmed to ESPN on Monday that the yearlong operation into Barcagate has been carried out in collaboration with the financial crimes unit. Its focus is the value of the contracts between Barca and third-party companies who were contracted to monitor social networks for the club.

One of those companies, I3 Ventures, was subsequently found to have ran smear campaigns against current and former players, including Lionel Messi and Gerard Pique, and presidential candidates such as Joan Laporta and Victor Font.

However, it's the movement of money around the contracts that is the source of the investigation, rather than the attacks.

The details of the case are under a secrecy order, but that is due to be lifted later on Tuesday.

The Barcagate case was first uncovered last February by radio station Cadena Ser. Bartomeu denied all knowledge of the social media smear campaigns and rescinded the contract with I3 Ventures.

Masferrer was briefly suspended from his role after being held responsible for the club's relationship with I3 Ventures but later returned to his role working alongside Bartomeu.

An external audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers later cleared the club of any wrongdoing and also found that Barca did not pay an inflated price for a number of services with I3, absolving the club of any corruption on a financial level, but the police investigation has remained ongoing.

Meanwhile, Barca coach Ronald Koeman said he was upset when he learned of Bartomeu's arrest. Bartomeu appointed Koeman last August, and the Barca coach called on the club to focus on Wednesday's Copa del Rey semifinal return leg against Sevilla.

"It's not good for the club's image," Koeman said regarding Monday's raids. "We will have to wait and see what's happened. I wasn't here at the time, I don't know. We can't do anything about it, we just have to focus on football.

"When the news came out, I was devastated [for Bartomeu] because I know him well -- and for Oscar Grau, who was among the four people detained. I felt bad for them because I had some big moments with them, even if our time together was brief. For me, Bartomeu has always been an exceptional person."

Barca are 2-0 down going into the Sevilla game this week, but Koeman said the club are confident of turning things around to reach the cup final after beating Sevilla 2-0 in the league on Saturday.

Midfielder Pedri is set to be available for the game, despite being ruled out for two weeks on Sunday with a calf injury, after making a quick recovery.