Successful Olympics, Murray retires and Tuchel takes over – 2024 talking points

After England had to settle for the runners-up spot at Euro 2024, the Paris Olympics brought another bumper medal haul for Great Britain yet also the fewest number of golds in 20 years.

In a year that saw long-time greats Sir Andy Murray and Sir Mark Cavendish retire, Britain must look to new faces to achieve future greatness.

Here the PA news agency looks at 10 things we learned in 2024.

Gareth Southgate’s resignation after England’s 2-1 defeat to Spain in the final of Euro 2024 left England seeking a new direction, one that led them to name former Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel as only the third non-British manager to hold the role on a permanent basis.

There was a mixed reaction given some of the English candidates hoping for the job, but the Football Assoction wanted a proven winner. Tuchel’s record includes the Champions League with Chelsea, two Ligue 1 titles in charge of Paris St Germain and the German Cup at Borussia Dortmund.

Can he be the man to end England’s 60-year wait for success at a major tournament?

Team GB came home from the Paris Olympics with 65 medals, the third-highest tally for any nation. But only 14 were gold, the lowest number since Athens in 2004, as they dropped to seventh in the medal table.

That left chef de mission Mark England back-pedalling on his previous statement that “the wheels would have to come off” for GB not to finish in the top five.

Bright spots included cyclist Emma Finucane, the first British woman to win three medals at a single Games since Mary Rand in Tokyo in 1964, but too many others got away.

The challenge of following Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool looked a huge one after the German decided to step down at Anfield, but Arne Slot could hardly have had a better start as his side won 19 of their first 21 games.

Slot has brought his own character to the team, who are more controlled and more solid defensively, but also kept much of the attacking verve which made Klopp’s side so exciting.

With a commanding lead in the Premier League, hopes are high on the red half of Merseyside that the Dutchman can bring instant success.

When Sir Jim Ratcliffe completed his buy-in at Manchester United in February, fans hoped handing his Ineos organisation control of footballing operations would herald a new dawn. FA Cup success over rivals City was a good start, but Ratcliffe has quickly come to learn the size of the challenge.

The decision to hand Erik ten Hag a contract extension – after publicly flirting with alternatives – backfired when he was expensively sacked in October, replaced by Ruben Amorim.

Ratcliffe spent five months pursuing Dan Ashworth as his sporting director, only for him to leave after the same period of time in the role. With redundancies and ticket prices unpopular with fans, it has been far from plain sailing.

A late-season charge was not enough to deny Max Verstappen a fourth consecutive Formula One title, but 2024 saw Lando Norris emerge as a serious candidate to become world champion.

McLaren were the most improved team over the course of the season, while Red Bull had a torrid year off the track, with team principal Christian Horner eventually cleared of allegations of inappropriate behaviour and revered designer Adrian Newey announcing his departure ahead of a move to Aston Martin next season.

If McLaren can continue their upward trajectory, Red Bull’s recent dominance will surely end in 2025.

It’s been quite a year for Emma Hayes.

Her Chelsea side gave her the perfect send-off, pipping Manchester City to claim a fifth consecutive WSL title, and she began her new role as head coach of Team USA by winning Olympic gold in Paris.

Things have barely slowed down – after 13 games in charge Hayes has a record of 11 wins and two draws with the Americans, and things got even better in October as she won the Ballon d’Or for the women’s coach of the year.

Three years after matching Eddy Merckx on 34, and 12 months after ending what was supposed to be his final Tour de France in the back of an ambulance, Cavendish took his record-breaking 35th career Tour stage win in July.

At the peak of his career, when the Manxman won Tour stages in bunches, the record looked inevitable. In more recent years, as illness and depression threatened to curtail his career early, it looked impossible, and it was that which made his win in Saint-Vulbas all the more special.

The former world champion confirmed his retirement in November, ending a career the likes of which may never be seen again.

Another great career came to an end this summer when Murray bowed out after defeat alongside Dan Evans in the doubles at the Paris Olympics – but only after some dramatic comebacks.

It was a fitting finale for the Scot, who ended Britain’s 77-year wait for a British men’s champion at Wimbledon in 2013, a year after winning both the US Open and Olympic gold.

Injuries hampered him in more recent years, but Murray spent 41 weeks as the world number one, and took 46 titles on the ATP tour.

We can debate the merits of the opening ceremony down the Seine, but Paris did an excellent job of using existing venues and spreading events across the city in hosting the Olympics.

Old facilities were updated, temporary venues constructed in spectacular settings and imagination put to good use in a more sustainable model for this sporting extravaganza.

Los Angeles will try to do something similar in four years’ time, although the concern in California will be that the city lacks the public transport network and the connectivity to hold it together in the same way.

Lawyers’ fees piled up through the final few months of the year as the hearing into Manchester City’s 115 charges was finally heard, although no verdict is expected until well into the new year.

It was just the latest expensive legal case for the Premier League and its members after Everton and Nottingham Forest both suffered points deductions last season for breaching spending rules.

But with the Football Governance Bill moving forward, the league is still facing huge questions. City were successful in challenging sponsorship rules in another legal case, and Leicester successfully challenged their own PSR case in a black eye for the league.