Richarlison has the ambition and potential to be a Brazil regular – Everton might actually have got a bargain

"I was anxious ahead of the squad announcement," he said this week. "I watched it with high hopes, but unfortunately it wasn't to be on this occasion.

"But I'm hopeful that an opportunity will come, and I'll be prepared when it does. I'm going to continue working hard to make sure I'm on the list next time. I want to be the league's top scorer, take Everton back to the Champions League and make the Brazil squad."

You could not accuse Richarlison of lacking ambition. And while some scoffed when Everton forked out £40million plus for the Brazilian this summer, even his critics would accept that there's a ridiculous amount of potential there, too.

In my latest for Unibet, I tentatively suggest that the Toffees might have actually got a decent price for a player who is likely to make his mark for his country in the years ahead. Have a read here.

Felipe Melo: 'Unai Emery is like a father to his players. I would have done anything for him'

11 years ago, Unai Emery was a relative unknown. But all that changed when he took modest Almería to the Spanish top flight for the first time in their history.

The minnows would finish eighth in La Liga, beating Real Madrid on the way. It would be the making of their Basque coach, as well as a breakout season for a number of his key players.

Brazilian midfielder Felipe Melo was one: his career was stuttering when he joined Almería, but he thrived under Emery and would go on to play for Fiorentina and Juventus, becoming a regular for his country in the process.

Melo's shared his memories of Emery's management – from the endless video sessions to the heart-to-heart chats and one remarkable story involving a dice – with me for a profile in The Independent. You can read it here.

World Cup 2018 post-mortem: Five key questions for Brazil after their quarter-final exit in Russia

The dust has settled on Brazil's World Cup exit, and there has been pleasingly little blood-letting in the days since.

Tite looks set to remain in charge until 2022 – an eminently sensible decision given the team's progress over the last couple of years – and while Neymar and Fernandinho have come in for criticism, the recriminations have been fairly tame.

Not that there are not questions that still need answering. Did Tite's stubbornness cost the Seleção against Belgium? Was the midfield up to scratch? And, looking ahead, which players can come in to refresh the side before Qatar?

I offer some answers to those queries in my latest for Unibet.

Fred the Red: Meet the 'diamond of a kid' whose dynamism can renew Manchester United's midfield

Profile of Manchester United new boy Fred in the new issue of Inside United. All good newsagents etc pic.twitter.com/WLYN77u28U

— Jack Lang (@jacklang) July 13, 2018

Four more years: Why Brazil are right to break with tradition and stick with Tite despite World Cup exit

Because Brazil has won the World Cup five times, every defeat is a disaster and every elimination begets an inquest. Usually, the manager is sacrificed to sate the bloodlust, an old face appointed to get critics onside, and the cycle begins again. This is the curse of short-term thinking.

“Our error,” wrote O Globo‘s Carlos Eduardo Mansur last week, “is to always be starting again.”

Or at least that is what usually happens. But in a development every bit as surprising as it is encouraging, the CBF has opted for a different approach this year. Tite, whose charges fell at the quarterfinal stage in Russia, has been offered a new contract that would take him to the next World Cup.

Read this piece on The Athletic website here. And remember, you can get 40% off a subscription until the end of the World Cup.

Roberto Carlos: Neymar is not a diver and deserves respect, not criticism

"Much of the attention after Brazil's World Cup elimination will be on Neymar – whether he was fit, whether he was below his best, whether he is a diver.

"That kind of scrutiny is natural when you are Brazil’s best player. But I think some of the criticism of him this summer has been completely unfair.

"The people who slam ­Neymar would love to be in his place. There’s a lot of ­jealousy in football, which makes people exaggerate and say things they shouldn’t."

That's the latest Roberto Carlos column, which you can read on the Mirror website.

'Another disappointment' – how Brazil's press reacted to the Seleção's World Cup quarter-final defeat to Belgium

"After the victory over Mexico, the cheerleading crowd was euphoric," wrote former Seleção forward Tostão.

"The arrogance had returned: Brazil was the country of football again, all the best players were ours and Tite was the best coach in the world. What we got was another disappointment."

Elsewhere in the Brazilian press this morning, there was opprobrium for Fernandinho after a "disastrous" performance, but also plenty of level-headedness and even the odd note of optimism.

Read my paper review over at The Independent.