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Arsenal hold a concrete interest in an “unbelievable” Cristhian Mosquera alternative, and they have now made an approach over a potential deal, according to reporter Sami Mokbel.

Gunners identify Mosquera as main centre-back target

Mikel Arteta is blessed with having a top-quality centre-back duo at his disposal, with Jamie Carragher heaping praise upon William Saliba and Gabriel last season, suggesting the defenders complement each other.

Speaking about Saliba, the Sky Sports pundit said: “I think he is one of the top centre-backs in European football. As a partnership, him and Gabriel is as good as anything in the Premier League.

“I think Saliba is the better player but Gabriel is the better leader, and Saliba needs to bring that to his game if he wants to get to the levels we talk about with Virgil van Dijk.”

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However, with Gabriel absent through injury during the back end of the campaign, Arteta was left a little short on options, with Jakub Kiwior filling in, suggesting it could be savvy to bring in additional strength in depth at centre-back this summer.

Mosquera has emerged as Arteta’s main target to come in as a back-up option for Gabriel and Saliba, with the Gunners expected to make a bid for the 21-year-old, however, they have now made a move for an alternative option.

That is according to Mokbel, in a report for BBC Sport, with the reporter stating Arsenal have now made an approach to sign Crystal Palace defender Marc Guehi, who is expected to be available for a fee in the region of £40m this summer.

The north Londoners hold a concrete interest in Guehi, having made an initial enquiry, but their interest may have cooled, having now turned their attentions to Mosquera.

Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United also retain an interest in the Palace captain, so it could be difficult to get a deal over the line, should the Gunners decide to launch a move.

Guehi could be better-suited to Arsenal than Mosquera

It remains to be seen whether the England international would be keen on a move to the Emirates Stadium, given that it would be difficult to force his way into the starting XI, but there are signs he could be a more suitable addition to the squad than Mosquera.

Crucially, the Palace star already has experience in the Premier League, having been a key player for the Eagles for a number of years, while he has also outperformed the Valencia defender across some key defensive metrics over the past year.

Average per 90

Cristhian Mosquera

Marc Guehi

Tackles

1.52

1.79

Blocks

1.0

1.62

Clearances

3.47

4.80

Aerials won

1.11

2.0

Lauded as “unbelievable” by members of the media, Guehi could be a fantastic signing for Arsenal, but a move for an established centre-back could cause unrest if it means Gabriel or Saliba receive less game time.

Despite the loss, Namibia captain Gerhard Erasmus looked on the positive side, saying “these big games are always gold dust”

Andrew McGlashan12-Jun-20245:54

Finch: Zampa owns the stumps and it’s hard to play square against him

They overcame a small wobble to win convincingly, completely outplayed their higher-seeded group opponent and now dispatched a lower-ranked team with clinical ease. Australia can lay claim to having had the most serene path so far in T20 World Cup 2024, a marked contrast to living on the edge as they have done in recent global events.Things could change, of course, come the Super Eight but Australia are a well-drilled side with, seemingly, all bases covered. Pat Cummins was able to have the first game off; there was no need to push a sore Mitchell Starc into this one. Others could now get a rest against Scotland ahead of the next stage, which sees three games in six days for all the teams who make it.Namibia were not expected to be a roadblock, but this tournament has thrown up the unexpected quite frequently. This, however, was not going to be a night for anything to be added to that list. Australia’s powerplay bowling was relentless; Adam Zampa helped himself to the middle and lower order; the fielding was outstanding and the chase brutal.Zampa, becoming Australia’s first male player to 100 T20I wickets, took the plaudits with the Player-of-the-Match award – his second in two games – and from his captain. Like in the ODI World Cup, he has so far operated as the lone frontline spinner, supported by Glenn Maxwell’s offspin.”If you look at his career, especially over the last five years, he’s probably our most important player,” Australian captain Mitchell Marsh said at the post-match presentation. “He loves the big moment, loves the pressure, and that comes with experience. He’s bowling beautifully at the moment, so we’re lucky to have him.”Gerhard Erasmus finished with 36 off 43•Getty ImagesIt took 24 minutes and less than six overs to knock off the target. Run rate was of no concern, or benefit, for Australia (whether they take note of England’s in a few days’ time is another thing entirely) but they were in no mood to hang around. Perhaps they can squeeze in another of Antigua’s 365 beaches before hopping over to St Lucia.”I think in the back of your head turning up today, that’s how the day should go for us,” Josh Hazlewood said. “And it’s one thing thinking that, it’s another thing actually going out and doing it. So, it was up to us to set the tone as the bowling group and to have them 3 for 16 [15], 5 for 20-odd really sort of set that tone. Then obviously we’ve got the freedom with the bat to chase a lowish score as quickly as possible… but yeah, it’s good to get a win like that.”Gerhard Erasmus, the Namibia captain who was made to sweat 17 balls to get off the mark, did not shy away from the result and conceded his team had not played their best throughout the competition, which started with a Super Over win against Namibia and then a loss to Scotland. However, he hoped his players would still take gains from the experience.”I think these big games are always gold dust in the sense that you get a physical run out with the best in the world,” he said. “You tend to face different ball speeds, different skills at a very high quality, a very high consistency and whether that’s a game that runs very close or one that you even lose quite far, it’s still gold dust that you need to try your best to take in every moment of that and every sort of experience that you can because they don’t come around often. So hopefully, some of the boys could do that tonight again, even though it was a bit of a runaway.”

A 46-ball 90 against India restored his touch and confidence, as he reignited interest ahead of the IPL auction

Firdose Moonda11-Dec-2025Timing, as we say in cricket, is everything, and Quinton de Kock’s best T20I score in 19 innings could not have come at a more opportune moment.De Kock made his comeback for South Africa exactly two months ago but his returns in this format: 1, 23, 7, 0 and 0, were cause for concern. The question hung in the air: did he still have it to contribute at the highest level in this format? There is also the not-so-small matter of next week’s IPL auction, and he was added to the shortlist earlier this week after initially being left off, which suggests one or more franchises are interested in him. Another question: had he done anything recently enough to suggest he’d be an obvious choice?Throw in a 46-ball 90 against an attack that includes Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Axar Patel and Hardik Pandya into the mix and both of those have been answered with the same yes. De Kock is back, and back properly.His first big shot signalled it. Arshdeep went slightly short, got his line a little wrong as the delivery was directed down leg stump and de Kock barely had to move towards offstump to pick up and flick it over backward square for the game’s first six. He would hit five more in that area and two in the ‘V,’ for a total of seven sixes in an innings also punctuated by five fours.Related

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What stood out was the clean ball-striking, his ability to pick up the short or slower ball early and decide where he wanted to hit it and the nonchalance with which he went about the innings. Too much, maybe, as he was run out on 90 and the chance for a second century in this format was squandered, but to see de Kock show the shades of old will be reassuring, to both South Africa and the IPL franchises.So far, his trip to India has been all or nothing with a duck and 8 in the first two ODIs before a 106 in the third, which was his seventh against India. Then, he got a duck in the first T20I, to a wonderful Arshdeep ball that swung away from him as he edged behind. He grinned and bore it but inside had the same thoughts we all did. “I didn’t know what’s going on, it was all just happening,” de Kock told the host broadcasters afterwards. “I guess it’s just when I do get going, I have to just try and make it count.”Arshdeep was the first bowler he faced again in this match and with much less swing on offer in New Chandigarh than Cuttack, he was able to get his own back. As Arshdeep struggled for consistency – he bowled nine wides all told – de Kock took 27 runs off the 14 balls he faced against him, and three of those were big sixes. Was he claiming any bragging rights? Doesn’t sound like it. “The guy’s got me out plenty of times, that I know for sure,” he said.

“I just let the instincts take over and kept making sure I was in good positions. That was all it was.”Quinton de Kock

In T20Is, de Kock is the batter Arshdeep has dismissed the joint-most number of times so de Kock’s memory serves him well. It’s also against a bowler like Arshdeep that he measures himself. “I judge myself and how good my technique is under moving balls because that’s how I think I get the best out of myself,” de Kock said at the post-match press conference. “Against guys like Arshdeep and Booms (Jasprit Bumrah), you have to be strong in your positions. Otherwise, they are going to find you out. You can’t be loose.”De Kock’s footwork, use of the crease and the way he accesses the legside were all on display in this innings and it came because he didn’t think too hard about it. “I just let the instincts take over and kept making sure I was in good positions. That was all it was.”It was also about who he was up against. India is the country de Kock has enjoyed most of his white-ball success. While he puts that down to the frequency with which South Africa play them, it’s also about the desire to step up against the best. “Before my retirement, it would be hard to wake up and go play for the team again, especially when you play a series over and over where you’ve played India multiple times, home and away. Over time, I was getting sick of it. I was looking for a new challenge and I wasn’t getting it,” he said. ‘Coming back, I feel like this is actually what I missed. As everyone knows, you never know what you have until you’ve lost it. That’s kind of now coming back. I feel I can play much longer than what I thought previously.”Against India and in India, which also bodes well for next week’s auction. De Kock may well have caught the eye of the franchise that let him go, Kolkata Knight Riders, as they have retained neither him nor their other wicket-keeper opening batter Rahmanullah Gurbaz but they wouldn’t be the only ones looking. Mumbai Indians, whose South African wicketkeeper-opener Ryan Rickelton is not even in this South African squad and Delhi Capitals, where Faf du Plessis has opted out, may also consider de Kock for next season.

There are around eight spots to fill in India’s squad for the T20 World Cup, and the IPL is the best place to identify the right men

Sidharth Monga15-Mar-2024Whatever you say about prioritising domestic cricket (or not), the IPL will be far more important for international selection than the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. And arguably even T20Is, given how little international T20 cricket India have played since this team management was hurriedly given an extension following the ODI World Cup. So this IPL is huge for contenders for places because there isn’t even a week between the IPL and the T20 World Cup in the USA and the West Indies.Let’s firstly look at the players that can be considered reasonable certainties. Any such list should always start with Jasprit Bumrah. Then comes the captain, Rohit Sharma. His opening partner is more or less locked in: Yashasvi Jaiswal. And once you bring back Rohit, there is no way you don’t bring back Virat Kohli. There is the added selectorial merit of experience and Kohli’s efficiency against high pace. The only other batter who can confidently start putting together his paperwork for visas is Suryakumar Yadav.Kuldeep Yadav has more or less booked his place as the wristspinner, and Ravindra Jadeja is more or less a given as the fingerspinning allrounder. That’s seven spots out of 15.Related

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Keeping that in mind, here is what the selectors will be looking at keenly during the IPL.Spin disrupters
If, for whatever reason, the selectors and the team management have decided to stick with the core of Rohit and Kohli, opposition spinners will fancy them. Even Suryakumar, a much more effective T20 batter, goes considerably slower against spin than against pace. Left-arm spin, especially, becomes an effective defensive tool against India.To counter exactly this, India have been backing Shivam Dube, who played the exact same role for Chennai Super Kings in last year’s IPL. However, there is one big difference: CSK could do it because of the Impact Player rule, which allowed them to use Dube in that super specialist role.Shubman Gill and Ruturaj Gaikwad have good numbers against spin, but that’s because they start against the new ball and are in by the time they face spin in the middle overs.Seam-bowling allrounder
If fully fit and in form, new Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya is a definite starter. That seems a formality now, but the selectors will want to see what kind of role he plays for his IPL team. The other question for the selectors will be: is the selection of Dube, whom the team management has been trying to give some bowling, independent of Hardik’s availability?Wicketkeeper
Not a specialist position anymore. He is a hitter who can keep wicket. Jitesh Sharma is the closest to sealing that spot, but the decision-makers would ideally have liked to see him a little more against international attacks. If there is a slight doubt around him, it is probably because the BCCI had no coach or captain for the T20 World Cup when the recent set of T20Is began, and the interim team management kept playing Ishan Kishan, which not only deprived a more suitable candidate game time but also gave false hope to Kishan.One of the great stories of this IPL is going to be the return of Rishabh Pant from the life-threatening accident a year and a quarter ago, but the national selectors might exercise some caution when it comes to rushing him back and that too at a World Cup.If KL Rahul chooses to bat in the middle order in the IPL and can recreate the effectiveness he displayed for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the middle order in 2016, he can be an interesting option to look at. Especially because he is versatile and can be one back-up batter for more than one role.Death-overs pace-hitter
Not exactly a separate head count but when they pick players for the aforementioned roles, they will have to consider at least two who can hit high pace in overs 17 to 20. Rinku Singh has been doing that role; there is no pressing reason to keep him out of the 15, but the final XI will be a challenge once everyone is back.Two more fast bowlers
Bumrah is there for sure, but India need at least two more quicks for the starting XI. At the moment, no one is closer to sealing the place than the other. Ideally, they should be able to hit a six or two, but the selectors are not exactly spoilt for choices. The last squad had Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan and Mukesh Kumar. Mohammed Siraj, who was key in the Tests against England, will definitely be back in the mix. If Mohsin Khan, who has had his fitness issues, is bowling for Lucknow Super Giants, he is someone the selectors will want to look at.Back-ups
You can have four of them. The selectors will have to choose among a fourth fast bowler, another wristspinner in Ravi Bishnoi, a spin-bowling allrounder in Axar Patel, an extra wicketkeeper-hitter who can possibly be batting back-up, a top-order back-up in the mode of Gill, and a pure middle-order hitter.

The broadcaster describes the sequence of events of stepping in to wield the hammer at the IPL auction after auctioneer Hugh Edmeades fell ill

Saurabh Somani15-Feb-2022Charu Sharma was wrapping up lunch – he hadn’t gotten to dessert yet – between 2pm and 3pm on February 12, Saturday when he got a call from Brijesh Patel, the IPL governing council chairman. The conversation went somewhat like this:

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Sharma had to make a hasty apology to his extended family – his wife’s sister and her family were visiting from Mumbai – at the lunch table, and an even hastier journey to the Gardenia, the hotel where the IPL 2022 mega auction had been dramatically paused two hours into the first day after Hugh Edmeades took ill, collapsing on the rostrum because of “postural hypotension”, which happens if the blood pressure drops when one goes from lying down to sitting up, or from sitting to standing.Familiar to cricket viewers as a television presenter and commentator, Sharma has also been an auctioneer. He was the right man, with the right skill sets, and importantly, at the right place. In Bengaluru, the right place is essential, as anyone who has watched seasons change while waiting at the Silk Board traffic signal can attest to. Sharma lives roughly a ten-minute distance from the hotel.On that Saturday, not being associated with the IPL in any professional capacity, Sharma wasn’t following the auction on television. He knew it was taking place, but that was about it. Ordinarily, he might not even have been home on a Saturday afternoon. He usually plays golf then.

****

The story of how the IPL 2022 auction didn’t get derailed when Edmeades collapsed, begins four months ago in October 2021, during the Everest Premier League played in Kathmandu, Nepal. A tournament that didn’t feature a single player who would go on to get picked up at the IPL 2022 auction ended up being the saviour.”I’ve been doing big-time television since donkey’s years, so I was wondering ‘What’s different here?'”•BCCI”I was there about four months ago in early October, and I was going with some friends late at night and I took a toss and hurt my shoulder really badly. It’s torn in a couple of places,” Sharma tells ESPNcricinfo. “I’m getting it looked at, it’s still not ready yet. But if it ready, I would have been on the golf course on a Saturday afternoon, playing a round of golf with my phone tucked away not to be looked at! But I wasn’t. I was home.”The injury is serious enough that Sharma has taken to playing tennis left-handed. It’s much more difficult to play golf left-handed.Sharma had no accreditation. He was an outsider to the bubble that the hotel had established, where everyone connected with the auction had routes and zones mapped out for where they could go.The accreditation issue was the least of his worries. “I rang up Brijesh when I was a minute away and he said he’s sending someone down to come fetch me up,” Sharma recounts. “I met two or three key people, one was of course Hemang Amin, the CEO of the BCCI and also the IPL COO. Brijesh of course was there.”But while working against a ticking clock, he had forgotten an important piece of equipment back home. It was when meeting the television producer, “an old friend”, that Sharma remembered he had left behind his earpiece – through which producers speak to anchors on live TV to direct the broadcast.”I had forgotten my earpiece at home, because I just ran. Of course they could give me an earpiece but one of the small tools of the trade is to have your own moulded earpiece,” Sharma says. “I’ve had mine ever since I started out in Prime Sports in 1994-95, so it’s like a 27-year-old relic. But it’s my moulded earpiece. It’s made to your ear, custom-built. So I quickly rang up my wife, and she said, ‘As usual you have forgotten something, haven’t you?’ I said I had, and I told her where the earpiece was and she sent it over. It got there in time, just before the telecast, took about ten minutes to come. I had about 20 minutes from the time I entered Gardenia to going into the auction room.”

“The auctioneer is just a (story-teller), just channelling all this together. The auctioneer… I don’t know how people will take this, but there’s a very minimal level of skill involved. You just have to be careful about how much of your personality you infuse in that system”Charu Sharma

Sharma’s entry was an inevitable bubble breach, but as breaches go, it was probably the safest one the organisers could have asked for. Not only was he triple vaccinated – he had taken his booster shot “some time back” – but he had also got a negative RT-PCR test that very week.”Well… they had to take a risk,” Sharma smiles. “But I’d just come back from Pune, where I was doing the ATP Tour’s Tata Open, the only major tennis event that happens in India on the ATP tour [from January 30 to February 6]. And I had to get an RT-PCR to come back to Karnataka. So I was pretty recently tested.”But they (the IPL organisers) also did an RT-PCR test. A lady came in a hazmat suit and said, ‘RT-PCR’. I said, ‘Okay, fair enough’. So they did take precautions. The results would be coming later, but I wasn’t hobnobbing with too many people, who were sitting on the tables. And I didn’t have symptoms, plus I was recently tested… and I am triple vaccinated.”Once Sharma had his earpiece and had been provided with an auctioneer’s booklet, which had details of who was up next, the groups, who would be picking the players’ names and more “basic pieces of information”, he was all set. The IPL organisers were willing to give him more time if he wanted. He didn’t.”I don’t mean to overemphasise this, but the focus really is on the players. Which team are they going to, at what price. The drama of the auction is ,” Sharma says. “The auctioneer is just a (narrator), just channelling all this together. The auctioneer… I don’t know how people will take this, but there’s a very minimal level of skill involved. It’s a system-led thing. You just have to be careful about how much of your personality you infuse in that system. You can’t be too strict, too wild, too funny… too anything. That middle line is important.”Because of his work in cricket and other sports, Sharma was familiar with several people in the auction room at the bidding tables, but greetings were brief, though cordial, and he entered the room focussing more on the job at hand. When the bidding for the first day ended, Sharma still didn’t know whether he would be needed on Sunday, February 13, or whether Edmeades would be well enough to resume.”It wasn’t my call at all. I wasn’t asking any leading questions of what about tomorrow,” Sharma says. “But they were kind enough to say that, ‘frankly, we don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow; we believe he’s much better now’. Hemang did tell me that at this point of time he couldn’t tell me for sure, but he would call me by 9am the next morning. And both Brijesh and Hemang did call. They asked me to reach by 11, we could have a session to plan for the second day, which was more complicated because there were more categories. Day 1 was all the big names.”So I went there and they told me, ‘this is the situation, we feel that you begin and take it forward as much as you can – if he [Edmeades] feels up to it and we are happy with the situation, we’ll bring him right at the end, and you can hand it over and let him finish’.”Hugh Edmeades did return, right at the end, to finish the proceedings off•BCCIEdmeades eventually did make it back at the end of Day 2 for the last lot. Both men received a standing ovation from everyone in the hall – Edmeades for coming back fully recovered from a fall that looked scary, and Sharma for having taken up the baton of IPL auctioneer so seamlessly. The only minor sour note was facing some irritation from a franchise representative or two, who suggested Sharma could have closed some bids quicker instead of giving the room the chance to continue bidding.”Frankly, there’s no timer,” Sharma says. “You have to use your judgment. And your judgment is based on the interest you’re seeing. I did prod, more gently than otherwise, because you have to move along. But the essential part is, can you be just and fair to all? And I hope I was that. Nobody was given more than anybody else in terms of time.”They [the franchises] all want the hammer down. But I can’t be biased. One of the criteria for an auctioneer is extreme neutrality. But I’m human, so if there is excess irritation coming from one table, I do feel, ‘I don’t deserve this, and you guys should know better’. Let’s not bully people who are taking the whole project forward. So there’s a certain reciprocal irritation, but I can’t let it show. That would be unprofessional.”You kind of try and laugh it off internally. If someone is being immature, or in some way unprofessional, or not going with the flow appropriately, I can’t respond. I really shouldn’t, and I never have. So why do that now?”Was any residual irritation left by the end of it? “I don’t know about them, but not me. Some of them were very, very nice. They came up and expressed their happiness and gratitude. The one or two people who didn’t come up, didn’t come up.”What Sharma took from the two-day experience, though, was some wonderment and a feeling of appreciation.”I’ve been doing big-time television since donkey’s years, so I was wondering ‘what’s different here?’ Most of the comments were very congratulatory and positive, which was very nice of people. Must have done something right! But for me, it was just about what I do. I am just glad I was at hand and thankful. I’d like to thank everybody who I haven’t been able to, through your medium. I was a little overwhelmed. Never got this kind of outpouring. Maybe the times have changed. I’m grateful for that outpouring.”When asked what happened after Day 1 ended, Sharma laughed and said, “Extreme fatigue!”But he did get a sense that the manner in which he had stepped in and conducted the auctions had been received very positively.”I hadn’t touched my phone, I had left it with one of the staff. I go back home and there is a fair deluge of messages. I said, ‘Oh my god, what happened here!’ And the family said, ‘Okay, now we know what you ran off for, and we forgive you’.”So the television at home did get tuned in to the IPL auction finally?Sharma smiles. “Yes, it did.”

MatériaMais Notícias

A mulher do atacante colombiano Rafael Borré, jornalista Ana Caicedo, surpreendeu, em entrevista ao canal “Vozes do Gigante”, ao lembrar o gol marcado pelo marido, novo reforço do Internacional, na vitória do River Plate sobre o Grêmio nas semifinais da Libertadores de 2018.

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– Essa noite nunca vamos esquecer. Passou de estarmos perdendo e depois ganharmos com um gol do Rafa. Foi uma noite que nunca vamos esquecer e é claro que recordamos deste momento. A torcida do Inter nos fez lembrar rapidamente também. Fizeram até uma montagem e colocaram na imagem a camisa do Inter – disse.

➡️Siga o Lance! Fora de Campo no WhatsApp e saiba o que rola fora das 4 linhas

Borré, adquirido pelo Inter junto ao Eintracht Frankfurt, da Alemanha, chegou ao Beira-Rio nesta semana. Ele deu entrevista coletiva na quarta-feira (6) e já treinou com o restante do elenco. Mas como jogador chegou após o fim do período de inscrições no Gauchão, Borré só terá oportunidade de enfrentar o Grêmio agora no Campeonato Brasileiro.

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Tudo sobre

borréGrêmioInternacional

West Ham United are keen on a January swoop for an “unbelievable” striker, who now wants a move to the Premier League.

West Ham looking to provide Jarrod Bowen with support in attack

West Ham have become more difficult to beat since the arrival of Nuno, having lost just one of their last six Premier League games, but they will be disappointed they were unable to hold on against Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday.

The Hammers were in the lead until stoppage time, before Georginio Rutter netted a controversial late equaliser, which Nuno believes should’ve been ruled out, saying: “It was a handball, wasn’t it, and a high foot. No need to speak with the referee. I think it was the main factor.”

Picking up three points against an in-form Brighton side would’ve been an impressive result, but it wasn’t to be, despite Jarrod Bowen putting in an impressive performance, netting his fourth Premier League goal of the season after starting in a central role.

Callum Wilson came off the bench to assist Bowen’s goal, with the former Newcastle United man now up to five goal contributions this season, but with his contract due to expire in the summer, the Irons are looking to provide their captain with some additional support in attack.

That is according to a report from Hammers News, which has provided a new update on West Ham’s Ivan Toney pursuit, stating Nuno’s side are keen on signing the striker in the January transfer window.

The Hammers have already explored a deal for Toney, having been impressed by his performances in England for Brentford, and the centre-forward now wants to make a return to the Premier League ahead of the 2026 World Cup.

However, it is unlikely the east Londoners will be able to get a deal over the line, given the Al-Ahli star’s huge wage demands, which could be a major obstacle.

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The Hammers are looking to sign a “leader” in the upcoming transfer window.

ByDominic Lund Dec 7, 2025 "Unbelievable" Toney could help fire West Ham to safety

Despite West Ham being difficult to beat in recent weeks, they are still in real trouble, currently sitting two points from safety and inside the relegation zone.

The former Brentford striker has proven he has what it takes to help fire the Hammers to safety, maintaining a fantastic attacking record across his three seasons in the Premier League with the Bees.

Season

Premier League appearances

Goal contributions

2021-22

33

17

2022-23

33

24

2023-24

17

6

Former manager Thomas Frank also waxed lyrical about the Englishman upon his departure, saying: “It’s been a pleasure to work with Ivan over the last four years. He has averaged more than one goal every two games, which is an unbelievable number.”

With West Ham at real risk of relegation, they definitely need to make some new additions in the January window, and Toney is exactly the calibre of signing they should be looking to make.

Arsenal might be flying in the Premier League and Champions League this season, but things have not always looked so rosy for Mikel Arteta.

In fact, in his second season, just half a year after winning the FA Cup, there was a real sense that he could be fired.

After all, the North Londoners were bottom of the table by the first international break, and from the 8th of November to Boxing Day, the team didn’t win a league game.

Aston Vila (H)

3-0 (Loss)

Leeds United (A)

0-0 (Draw)

Wolves (A)

2-1 (Loss)

Tottenham (A)

2-0 (Loss)

Burnely (H)

1-0 (Loss)

Southampton (H)

1-1 (Draw)

Everton (A)

2-1 (Loss)

Amazingly, one of the reasons things turned around for the Spaniard was his decision to unleash academy gem Emile Smith Rowe, who, alongside Bukayo Saka, helped steer the club out of trouble.

Since then, it has felt like Hale End has produced talents in pairs for the club, and it looks like they’ve done so again with a duo who could become the new Smith Rowe and Saka, and no, it’s not Max Dowman and Ethan Nwaneri.

Saka & Smith Rowe's partnership

Smith Rowe made his debut for Arsenal and started a few Europa League games in the 18/19 season, and made a few more appearances the following year.

However, his first Premier League start for the club came on Boxing Day 2020, and alongside Saka, he helped put the club back on track.

He provided the assist for his Hale End teammate, and that started a partnership that finally gave the fans something to be excited about when it came to their team.

Appearances

33

46

Minutes

2220′

3606′

Goals

4

7

Assists

7

7

Goal Involvements per Match

0.33

0.30

Minutes per Goal Involvement

201.81′

257.57′

In fact, the pair made such an impact as a dynamic duo that the fans created and constantly sang a song about them playing together.

Unfortunately, injuries soon began to take their toll on the Croydon-born gem, and while he was on the sidelines, his Saka started to grow in importance on his own.

Moreover, the overall team began rapidly improving, both from a personnel and performance perspective, so when the dynamic midfielder was fit again in the 23/24 season, he barely featured at all.

This led to the club accepting a £34m offer from Fulham in the summer of 2024.

It might not have ended well, but for a time, Saka and Smith Rowe were an incredible partnership, making 81 appearances together and combining for six goals.

Now it looks like Hale End might be about to produce another dynamic pairing for Arsenal, and it’s not Dowman and Nwaneri.

Arsenal's new Saka and Smith Rowe

Now, there is an argument to be made that the duo of Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly are the closest Arsenal have come to recreating the Saka and Smith Rowe pairing.

In The Pipeline

Football FanCast’s In the Pipeline series aims to uncover the very best youth players in world football.

However, with the latter primarily playing at left-back, that comparison doesn’t really work.

It’s a different story, however, when it comes to Hale End gems Alex Marciniak and Louis Zecevic-John.

The pair have demonstrated an ability to play in several different positions, but the former, who is just 17, is primarily an attacking midfielder, and the latter, also 17, is primarily a right winger.

In other words, they could burst into the first team and, as one content creator put it, become “the new Saka and Emile Smith Rowe.”

Now, that is certainly a lot of pressure to put on youngsters that most fans will not have heard of yet, but based on their form in the youth sides and what those in the know are saying about them, it’s a pressure they might be able to handle.

For example, the “insane” Marciniak, as dubbed by academy expert Will Balsam, has already racked up a tally of one goal and three assists in eight appearances for the U18s this season.

Zecevic-John, whom Balsam has described as “a game-changing attacker” who is “electric with the ball at his feet” and blessed with “blistering pace,” also put up incredible numbers last year.

In 22 appearances, totalling 1539 minutes, he scored seven goals and provided seven assists, which comes out to an average of a goal involvement every 1.57 games, or every 109.92 minutes.

Ultimately, there is still a long way to go for both youngsters, but given their positions and undeniable ability, they could one day be Arsenal’s new Saka and Smith Rowe.

Arsenal lost 'one of the world's best', now he's outperforming Saka & Eze

The incredible international is now playing better than Arsenal’s Eze and Saka.

ByJack Salveson Holmes Nov 14, 2025

Is Wilfried Nancy going to become the new Celtic manager?

Well, it was reported last week that Martin O’Neill and Shaun Maloney will remain in interim charge for Saturday night’s short trip to St Mirren, but for how much longer will that remain the case?

Other reports suggest that the Hoops are close to agreeing a £2m compensation package with Nancy’s current club Columbus Crew, with the aim for the Frenchman to take charge for the first time when the Celts visit Easter Road to take on Hibernian at Easter Road on Sunday 30 November.

Should Nancy swap Ohio for Glasgow, he would have plenty of work to do and numerous issues to solve, but ensuring Daizen Maeda stays in Scotland will no doubt be of great importance.

The latest on Daizen Maeda's future

Back in September, after the transfer window had closed, Maeda revealed that he had requested to leave Celtic this summer.

However, with the club struggling to replace Nicolas Kühn and Adam Idah, who were both sold, the Japan international was informed that he would not be allowed to depart.

Well, potentially as a result of this uncertainty, Maeda has not been at his blistering best so far this season, bagging just four goals to date, having netted 33 times across all competitions last season, four of which came in the Champions League.

After adding to his goal tally against Kilmarnock last time out, the 28-year-old started at left-wing-back as Japan beat Bolivia 3-0 in an international friendly on Tuesday, so could he push for a January move to help increase his chances of being included in Hajime Moriyasu’s World Cup squad?

Well, according to Fabrizio Romano, it is a “possibility” that the forward will be on the move in January, with Brentford, Everton, Leeds and two other Premier League clubs purportedly interested.

Considering that, since netting four minutes into his debut against Hibs in January 2022, Maeda has scored 66 goals in 175 appearances in hoops, he would be a massive loss, but could the incoming boss, Nancy, fill this void by bringing with him a star he knows rather well?

Celtic's potential Maeda replacement

When Ange Postecoglou arrived from Yokohama F. Marinos, he utilised his knowledge of the J League, an undervalued market, to sign gems for a cut-price, bringing in Kyōgo Furuhashi, Reo Hatate and Maeda himself.

Well, with Major League Soccer in a similar position, could Nancy follow this blueprint?

According to a report by the Daily Record, should Nancy arrive, his number one transfer target would be Columbus Crew star Diego Rossi, who has previously hinted that he would like to return to European football.

After beginning his career at Peñarol, Rossi really burst onto the scene at LAFC, scoring 59 goals in 121 appearances for the Black and Gold, picking up the 2020 MLS Golden Boot, form that earned him a £4.5m move to Fenerbahçe.

However, after a pretty underwhelming stint in İstanbul, he returned to Major League Soccer in the summer of 2023, and has taken his game to a whole new level under Nancy in Columbus.

To date, the Uruguayan international has scored 45 goals in 101 appearances for the Crew, bagging 16 MLS goals in 2025, comparing favourably to other players across the league.

Goals

16

13th

Shots

91

13th

Shots on target

40

10th

Goals – xG

+2.6

8th*

Big chances missed

13

23rd

Shot creating actions

94

37th

Progressive carries

106

11th

Touches in box

165

5th

Average rating

7.38

7th**

*minimum 15 goals. **forwards only.

Worth reiterating that MLS is a gigantic league with 30 teams, while 882 players made an appearance in the competition this year, so to be in the top ten or even top 20 for the attacking metrics included is impressive.

His tally of 16 goals is noteworthy, albeit it could’ve been even better had he not missed 13 Opta-defined big chances, something that has also been a tendency of Maeda’s game, so perhaps he would be a ready-made replacement.

According to Football Transfers, Rossi’s estimated market value is around £7m, having increased again in recent months after it plateaued in 2024, following his exploits in, according to Global Football Rankings, the tenth-strongest league in the world, a humongous 23 places above the Scottish Premiership.

Speaking ahead of MLS Cup Final in 2023, Carlos Vela, who was Rossi’s teammate in California, labelled the Uruguayan a “really good finisher”, adding that he’s “fast” and “technically good”, while Bob Bradley, his coach at LAFC, adds that the forward is “deceptive” and “such a good player to have” as part of your attack.

Now 27, in a similar way to Maeda, now may well be the time for Rossi to take the next step in his career, aiming to get into Uruguay’s World Cup squad, having not featured for los Charrúas since June 2023.

Unlike in European leagues, MLS’ primary transfer window is in the winter, something that will change in 2027, meaning January moves are a lot more common.

Thus, with Rossi into the final year of his contract in Columbus, he appears to be the perfect fit for a Celtic side lacking attacking firepower, irrespective of whether Maeda departs or not.

Palma 2.0: Celtic's £5m star is going to be on borrowed time under Nancy

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Nov 17, 2025

Juan Soto will be paid a tremendous, unprecedented amount of money to play baseball for the New York Mets through 2039.

A topsy-turvy free agency period ended—wouldn't you know it—with the prized player going with the team that offered the money. Soto is an incredible player with a winning pedigree, and his ability to get on base is something that has a good chance of remaining a razor-sharp tool until Soto is 40 years old and beyond. Most people in baseball who don't have an allegiance to one of Soto's unsuccessful suitors seems to be generally happy for him while also pointing out that such a groundbreaking deal, in both size and scope, could become an albatross down the road.

There's also a different argument in regards to Soto's actual value to the Mets. Sure, he should help them win baseball games. But how much is he actually going to move the needle and pad the pocketbooks to offset such an investment? Soto is one of the best players in baseball but he is not Shohei Ohtani or Aaron Judge or Elly De La Cruz or anyone else who has a slightly more dynamic skill set.

A.J. Pierzynski gave voice to this on , speaking about his own lack of experience tuning into anything just to see Soto and probably speaking for a fair amount of baseball casuals and diehards.

"I've never turned on a game to watch Juan Soto," Pierzynski said. "I've turned on a game to watch Shohei, I've turned on a game where Aaron Judge is coming up in a big situation."

When pressed on who else he might tune into watch, Pierzynski rattled off some of the following names: Bryce Harper, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. The former White Sox catcher made it abundantly clear that he thinks Soto is a spectacular player and his is a matter of personal preference. He closed with some shots about all the walking and how that's celebrated in today's baseball which wasn't particularly germane.

Reasonable minds can disagree, but this doesn't really seem like an indictment or a knock or anything too negative. For all the great things Soto is, being a top-3 or even top-5 player in the collective baseball consciousness is not one of them. Many big thinkers will tell you that a 1.5 decades in New York will change all that.

Soto will be judged on how much he wins, not how many people stop what they're doing to watch one of his at-bats in May. The Mets and the networks and Major League Baseball will all be focused on what happens next October and the 14 Octobers after that. They all want him to be someone that doesn't have to be tuned into. They all want him to be someone who cannot be ignored.