The only manager to win two World Cups, this book extract relays how Pozzo’s character was shaped by his experiences in an Italian Alpine regiment during the first world war

Vittorio Pozzo, the only manager to win two World Cups, in 1934 and 1938, is often celebrated as the competition’s greatest manager. But long before he masterminded the Azzurri ’ s twin triumphs, Pozzo was a young officer enduring the brutal realities of the first world war. Pozzo’s experiences in the trenches from 1915 to 1918, by his own admission, forged the discipline, resilience and leadership that defined his coaching philosophy.

Born in Turin in 1886, Pozzo fell in love with football while watching Manchester United in his youth. By 1911 he was back in Italy, helping found Torino FC and managing the club’s early teams. When Italy entered the war in May 1915, the 29-year-old volunteered immediately as a lieutenant in the 1st Alpini Regiment, elite mountain troops specialised in high-altitude combat.

Arsenal feel effects of defensive injuries, Liverpool rue Konaté’s mistakes and Brentford struggle on the road

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When the team sheets landed at Villa Park, Arsenal’s matchday squad again appeared imperious. Their bench included a £64m striker in Viktor Gyökeres, a trio of tricky wingers in Leandro Trossard, Noni Madueke and Gabriel Martinelli and arguably England’s most exciting teenagers in Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri. But Arsenal arrived top-heavy, the only centre-back among the substitutes the 16-year-old Marli Salmon. By the time Emiliano Buendía clinched victory for Aston Villa with almost the final kick, it was clear Arsenal lacked the defensive solidity behind their pace-setting start; this defeat was only the fourth time since the start of 2022-23 that Mikel Arteta’s side began a league game without Gabriel Magalhães or William Saliba – and it showed. Cristhian Mosquera, potentially sidelined until the new year, was also absent. The good news for all parties – which probably extends to second-placed Manchester City – is that Arsenal and Villa will duke it out again on 30 December in the reverse fixture. Ben Fisher

Concerns over recording of meetings at coordination centre excluding Palestinians that was set up to provide support for Trump’s Gaza plan

Israeli operatives are conducting widespread surveillance of US forces and allies stationed at a new US base in the country’s south, according to sources briefed on disputes about open and covert recordings of meetings and discussions.

The scale of intelligence gathering at the Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) prompted the US commander of the base, Lt Gen Patrick Frank, to summon an Israeli counterpart for a meeting to tell him that “recording has to stop here”.

The vitamin has many benefits, but research shows that people who take it are just as likely to get the sniffles as those who don’t

‘Vitamin C is important for your health in lots of ways,” says Daniel M Davis, the head of life sciences at Imperial College London. It is a strong antioxidant, helping protect cells from harmful unstable compounds that arise from toxins and pollution. It helps the body absorb iron, and is also used in the production of collagen. “But the idea that taking high doses of vitamin C – or drinking lots of orange juice – will stop you catching a cold, or help you recover faster, is a myth.”

Davis, the author of Self Defence: A Myth-Busting Guide to Immune Health, explains that the popular belief in vitamin C’s cold-fighting powers has persisted for more than 50 years, “pretty much solely because of the evangelical view of one man: Linus Pauling”.

While those who defend the status quo and those who say ‘simply rejoin’ the EU are both wrong, there is a new mood and a clear opportunity

Being right that Brexit was a bad idea is no substitute for knowing what to do next. Our chance of salvaging something from the mess it created is being undermined by those selling false hope – either that Brexit can work, or that it can be easily undone. For the 16,000 businesses that have now given up trading with Europe because of paperwork, prospects remain bleak unless the government stops offering a sticking plaster and starts major surgery on our future with Europe.

Forgive pro-Europeans for thinking the momentum is now with us. Labour has been slow to say what it wants from the EU reset, and slower still to acknowledge the inevitable tradeoffs required. Until the summer, ministers promised to “ make Brexit work ” and endlessly repeated “red lines”. Yet in recent weeks, a major study has found that leaving the EU cost the UK 6-8% of GDP per capita ; now the chancellor calls the damage of Brexit “severe and long lasting”; the prime minister condemns the “ wild promises ” of the Leave campaign. Belatedly, a window of opportunity to change course may be opening.

Stella Creasy is the chair of the Labour Movement for Europe and MP for Walthamstow

Citizens theatre, Glasgow
Lewis Hetherington’s reworking of the 18th-century fable is creepy and creative, serious and scary

It is a rare for a family show to be both funny and spine-tinglingly creepy, but an achievement playwright Lewis Hetherington pulls off in his imaginative reworking of the 18th-century fable . You would expect one to cancel out the other, but here the narrative cracks forward with such certainty, you can afford the odd moment to laugh.

It is funny that Baron Aaron (Tyler Collins) is deep in denial about his failed shipping business; that Beauty (Israela Efomi) carries with her a copy of an etiquette manual called How to Be a Lovely Young Lady; that her sister, Bright (Holly Howden Gilchrist), cares more for inventions than everyday expressions of affection; that the cat and dog (Michael Guest and Martin Donaghy) are falling ever so sweetly in love; and that the housekeeper Mrs Flobberlyboo (Elicia Daly) has a taste for modernist singing that makes the rest of Nikola Kodjabashia’s angular score seem conventional.

As bombs fell on the capital, a Bengal tiger was left all alone – until a US marine shot it. Rajiv Joseph explains why he brought the beast back from the dead for his Pulitzer-nominated drama

A play that dramatises the thoughts of a tiger on the bombed-out streets of Baghdad sounds outlandish. But Rajiv Joseph’s drama is rooted in a real incident during the invasion of Iraq. “I read the story,” he says, “that detailed how US bombs had blown open part of the zoo. The Bengal tiger had remained in its pen. All the zookeepers had fled, so this poor tiger was sitting there starving. One of the soldiers, who tried to feed it out of compassion, got his hand mauled. Another soldier shot and killed it.”

It was 2003. The war was under way and Joseph, in his late 20s, was on a master’s programme at New York University. He took the tiger’s death as the starting point for a play with an absurdist kind of magical realism. After it is killed, the big cat returns as an anthropomorphic Dantean figure to interrogate the nature of God and the point of existence, all while padding around this hell on earth.

Brilliant biopics, daring documentaries and a host of chillers and thrillers – our critics pick the best from another sensational year of cinema

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Home Office has reportedly ordered threat assessment amid long-running row into Duke of Sussex’s safety

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Prince Harry’s security arrangements while in the UK are being reviewed by the government, according to reports.

Harry wrote to the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, shortly after her appointment and submitted a formal request for a risk assessment to the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec), which is overseen by the Home Office, a source close to the prince said in October.