Gabriel’s admission to Willian and David Luiz after fairytale Arsenal transfer

Arsenal defender Gabriel has already made himself at home in English football with a lovely football fairytale.

Gabriel, 22, told fellow Brazilians David Luiz and Willian that he used to play as them on the FIFA video game just two years ago – and is now training and playing alongside them.

Brazilian centre half Gabriel joined Arsenal for £27m after moving to the Emirates despite interest from Everton, Manchester United and Napoli.

But clearly playing with Brazil internationals Luiz and Willian means a lot to him as does working stars as big as Mesut Ozil and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

He will wear the No.6 shirt which was worn by Arsenal legend Tony Adams and it is a great story as he only moved to Lille in 2017 having started out at Avai, one of the less fashionable clubs in Brazil.

But now Gabriel is playing with his heroes – and clearly enjoying every moment.

From Private Jets to Ryanair

Here is a sign of the times for football.

Players used to fly home from international duty on private jets.

Tottenham new boy Pierre-Emile Højbjerg was on a Ryanair flight from Copenhagen to Stansted after playing for Denmark in midweek.

Midfielder Højbjerg, 25, was with his family and got the budget airline to take him home ready for the return to training with Tottenham this week.

Denmark keeper Kasper Schmeichel also got a “normal” commercial flight back to Heathrow after playing for his country against England in midweek.

Meanwhile, the FA left behind one of their background boards for press conferences and rather than expensive shipping costs have asked the Danes to bring it next month when they play at Wembley.

Pulled Chinese TV deal leading to further concerns

Clubs are already tightening their belts because the return of crowds to Premier League games could be on hold.

But there is genuine concern about the TV deal in China after they pulled the plug on a lucrative £564m contract with streaming service PPTV.

One executive at a top club fears they will struggle to find a similar deal elsewhere, there is not another big player in that market and, against political tensions in China, there might not be the same appetite. His club have revised this season’s budget as a result.

Despite the Premier League’s confidence the deal will be quickly replaced, there is scepticism among the clubs and that is a huge blow bearing in mind China represents the biggest single overseas deal. For context, the overall domestic deal is £5billion so £564m is huge.

Time for anti-semitism to be put on the agenda

Anti-discriminatory group Kick It Out got a lot of publicity last week about their important work and a worrying trend of rising figures in racist abuse ahead of the new season.

But it should be noted that there is always so little talk about antisemitism which remains a burning issue, particularly in London football.

Jonathan Metliss, of Action Against Discrimination, said: “There’s a big new drive, a lot of publicity and yet anti-semitism isn’t involved in the discussion. It’s almost as if it doesn’t exist.”

Chelsea have tried to be proactive, Tottenham are entering a second phase of public consultation on the Y word and Kick It Out have made it clear to this column they are determined to push this debate forward this coming season. Especially on making the Y word socially unacceptable.

It is about time anti-semitism is put on the agenda along with other forms of abuse otherwise campaign bodies cannot genuinely say they look after all forms of discrimination which must be wrong.

Transfer tidbits

Jadon Sancho will not push for a move to Manchester United even if he is keen to move to Old Trafford.

If it does not work out then he will be happy to stay at Borussia Dortmund for another year.

Meanwhile, Ollie Watkins went to Aston Villa this week despite interest from Tottenham, West Ham and Leeds which just shows that questioning of the 28m-plus fee overlooks just how highly he is rated.

Everton light up Bogota

Everton’s signing of Colombian superstar James Rodriguez has caught the imagination in South America.

The tallest sky scraper in Bogota, the Torre Colpatria, was lit up with a spectacular blue light show displaying James’s No19 shirt after his arrival at Goodison Park.

Everton marketing director Richard Kenyon said: “James’ popularity in these territories represents a brilliant opportunity for us – and fits perfectly with our international strategy and the associated marketing and engagement activity which had already begun in these areas.”

Sign up to the Mirror Football email here for the latest news and transfer gossip.