Category Uncategorized

Journalist Jacque Talbot has claimed that Jadon Sancho is likely to leave Manchester United this summer in a shock summer departure.

What is the latest on Jadon Sancho and Man Utd?

It was only as recently as July 2021 when the Englishman joined the Red Devils in a £73m transfer from German outfit Borussia Dortmund.

At the time of the deal, it was reported that the winger had signed a five-year deal at United, with an option of a further year.

However, things have not gone too well for Sancho since then and it now sounds as though he could be on his way out of the club his summer.

Indeed, while talking on his YouTube channel, Talbot said (36:48): “It will be interesting to see about Sancho. His time is probably up now, isn't it?

Will Sancho leave Man Utd this summer?

After joining for such a high transfer fee, it's not as if Sancho has lived up to expectations since arriving in the Premier League.

Indeed, he has only eight goals and five assists in 51 league games in his first two seasons at Old Trafford – with only six goals and two assists to his name in all competitions this term.

He's come in for some heavy criticism for his performances at times too over the past few months. For instance, United legend Paul Scholes slammed Sancho after he failed to impress in the Europa League defeat to Sevilla.

The BT Pundit said (via Mirror): "During the warm-ups we were eulogising about the crowd and saying how aggressive and hostile it was.

"When the United players see and hear that they need to go into the dressing room and think, 'I need to be ready for this and my first touch has got to be ready'.

"You see Jadon Sancho in the first five minutes tonight, the ball bounced off him three times, terrible weight of pass too. I’m a big fan of the lad but you’ve got to liven up and be ready."

Worryingly, his last three performances in the Premier League have been underwhelming too, delivering 6.6, 6.5 and 6.6 SofaScore ratings against Aston Villa, Brighton and then West Ham most recently.

With all that in mind, it's hard to see where a sudden shift in form is going to come from and Man United may well be best to cut their losses and sell the £350k-p/w flop this summer while they can still make back some money on that £73m originally spent.

Glamorgan would have been in deep trouble had Australian born Nick Selman not scored 101, almost half the team’s total, in an attacking innings

ECB Reporters Network06-Sep-2016
ScorecardMichael Hogan stood in as Glamorgan captain•Cricket Australia/Getty Images

Glamorgan would have been in deep trouble had Australian born Nick Selman not scored 101, almost half the team’s total, in an attacking innings.Selman, who last month carried his bat for an undefeated hundred against Northants, looked as if would emulate that performance until he was bowled the delivery after reaching his century. He will hope that this innings will not start a run of poor form- following his first century he suffered a run of four ducks.After an uncontested toss, Mark Wallace – in the absence of Jacques Rudolph, who had a sore neck – opened the innings with Selman, but Wallace was out in the seventh over, leg before to David Payne, which prompted a spectator to shout behind the arm” that was a poor decision umpire”.Selman had started with a flurry of boundaries, and although Will Bragg and David Lloyd were both out cheaply, Glamorgan had reached 130 for 3 at lunch, with Selman and Aneurin Donald in full flow.The fourth wicket pair had put on 65, before Donald, who was only four runs short of his 1,000 first-class runs for the season, top-edged an intended pull to mid-on. Kieran Carlson, playing his second championship game, was out with scoring, and after Selman was dismissed, Craig Meschede was also dismissed by Matt Taylor.Graham Wagg, meanwhile, played a watchful innings on a pitch that was seamer friendly, and had to contend with some accurate bowling from the Gloucestershire seam quartet. Wagg and Timm Van Der Gugten added a useful 38 for the ninth wicket, enabling Glamorgan to gain a batting point, before they were both dismissed by Craig Miles who, with Taylor, took four wickets.Gloucestershire had to face 31 overs after tea, but soon lost Gareth Roderick who edged Van Der Gugten’s fifth ball to second slip. The Glamorgan seamers also bowled a tight line, but it was a short delivery that undid Chris Dent, who tamely guided the ball to square leg.Will Tavare, who had laboured 67 balls for his 18, was the next to go when he was lbw to Michael Hogan, who was leading Glamorgan in Rudolph’s absence. Hamish Marshall and George Hankin, who was the Player of the Tournament in the recent Under-19 series against Sri Lanka, guided Gloucestershire to the close at 62 for3, a deficit of 158.

Offspinner Nathan Lyon has been preparing himself for a more attacking role with the Australian side. Though his three wickets to dismantle West Indies for 116 came during the middle overs, Lyon’s captain Steven Smith has been eying a greater role for him during the Powerplay and slog overs.”Smithy and I spoke a couple of times at a few different net sessions about playing a different role potentially with the new ball, potentially at the death,” Lyon said after the game. “So I’ve just got to be able to work with what Smithy wants.”With a robust assembly line of fast bowlers and seam-bowling allrounders coming through, the role of a spinner in an Australian one-day outfit has often been limited. Lyon himself hinted that his primary objective had often been keeping the runs down and, if as a byproduct he ended up with a rich haul, all the better.Against West Indies, the 28-year old came on as first change in the seventh over, maintained an economy rate of 3.90 and dismissed Marlon Samuels and Kieron Pollard off successive deliveries in the 17th to establish Australia’s dominance.”Always good to be on a hat-trick,” Lyon said, “but at the end of the day I was more worried about trying to stop the runs and if a wicket came around, [then good]. It’s just about trying to create some chances.”The slow pitches in Guyana enabled the spinners to dictate terms. Legspinner Adam Zampa picked up 3 for 16 in 5.3 overs, part-time offspinner Glenn Maxwell chipped in with 1 for 3 off two overs and Lyon was quite pleased to have the support.”About time, I reckon,” he joked. “No, it’s good. I get along with Zamps and Maxi really well. We work really well together and we seem to bowl really well in tandem. So it was exciting to, firstly play the first game with Zamps, and hopefully there’s a big future for both of us.”Lyon, Zampa and Maxwell bowled nine overs between the 17th and the 25th, took four wickets and gave away only 20 runs. That left West Indies at 90 for 7, with nowhere to go.”Our communication is one of our biggest weapons,” Lyon said. “As I said, we’re all really good mates, we all want to see each other do well. So if we can have that open communication with each other and try and help each other to better the team and get the right result for Australia, then we’re heading the right way.”There was one area of concern, though. Australia were playing their first ODI since February, and their first international since March, and Lyon admitted there was “a bit of rust floating around.””But it was a good workout. All over, we’re pretty happy with the win, but we know there’s a lot more work to do in this tri-series.”

As Tottenham Hotspur sporting director Fabio Paratici's plots potential replacements for compatriot Antonio Conte at N17, one name that has cropped up in recent times is Sporting CP boss, Ruben Amorim.

Reports in Portugal earlier this month suggested that the Lilywhites are 'at the head' of the list of suitors in the race to secure the 38-year-old's signature, with Ligue 1 giants Paris Saint-Germain also believed to be in the running.

The up-and-coming coach – who has been in charge of the Primeira Liga side since 2020 – is said to now be "ready" to make the move to English football, according to Football Insider, despite having a contract in his current post that runs until 2026.

The former Braga boss has been hailed as a "special manager" by writer Zach Lowy as a result of the early success he has enjoyed in his managerial career to date, notably winning the league and cup double during the 2020/21 campaign with Sporting.

With the Lisbon native likely to have decades ahead of him in the dugout, it is no surprise that Paratici and co are seemingly looking closely at him as a potential successor to Conte, as the highly-coveted coach only recently laid bare his credentials after knocking out Arsenal in the Europa League.

That recent triumph has already put Amorim in the good books of Tottenham supporters, with that positive feeling only set to be enhanced if he can also aid the club in bringing current Sporting starlet Marcus Edwards back to north London.

Will Spurs sign Edwards?

The diminutive forward – who left the Premier League side back in 2019 after rising up through the youth ranks – has been touted for a Spurs homecoming in recent times, with the Daily Mail previously suggesting that Paratici was eyeing a double January swoop involving the Englishman and Pedro Porro.

Despite the latter man eventually making his way to London, in the case of Edwards – who is said to have a £52m release clause in his contract – the 24-year-old stayed put at the Jose Alvalade Stadium, having been in sparkling form of late in Portugal.

Once likened to Lionel Messi by former Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino, the 5 foot 6 dynamo has left his previous employers ruing their decision to allow him to depart, having scored 13 goals and registered 14 assists in just 55 games for his current side.

The former Vitoria Guimaraes ace has proven himself a truly "dangerous" attacking presence, as per Statman Dave, with it no surprise that there is such a clamour to see him return to his former home, as even the player himself would "give serious consideration" to the move – according to journalist Pete O'Rourke.

The hope will be that Edwards' connection to Amorim can help to spark that long-awaited switch, provided the exciting coach does himself agree to a move, with the Portuguese visionary having hailed the former England youth gem as a "very talented player", while also tipping him for senior international recognition from the Three Lions in the future.

Although at the moment that double move does appear someway off, it would represent a notable coup as far as Spurs are concerned if the top-four hopefuls can pull it off.

Southampton defender Armel Bella-Kotchap needs to see a specialist to learn the extent of the shoulder injury he suffered against Tottenham Hotspur, according to a report from The Daily Echo.

The Lowdown: Injury blow

Bella-Kotchap had to be withdrawn after just seven minutes against Tottenham at the weekend, leading to concern about a fresh injury blow for the centre-back, who has already missed 14 games this season due to shoulder and knee problems.

To make matters worse for Ruben Selles, that was not the only injury suffered by one of his players, with Jan Bednarek also hobbling off in the first half, being replaced by Ainsley Maitland-Niles, who was forced to play in a makeshift role.

As such, the last thing the Southampton boss needs is for the German defender to be ruled out on a long-term basis, however the latest injury news does not appear to be good news…

The Latest: Waiting on a specialist

According to a report from The Daily Echo, the 21-year-old is waiting on a specialist to determine the extent of the shoulder injury, and he has been forced to withdraw from the Germany national squad as a result.

It is not the first time the youngster has encountered issues with his shoulder, opting against surgery after suffering a dislocation last year, in order to be selected for his national side’s World Cup squad.

People close to the Germany international are said to be gutted with the latest injury blow, as they believe he was just getting back to maximum sharpness.

The Verdict: Potential blow for Selles

It is, as yet, unclear how long the 6 foot 3 colossus could be ruled out for, however it cannot be a good sign that a specialist is required to assess the extent of the injury, and it will now be an anxious wait for Saints fans.

Football scout Jacek Kulig has hailed the former Bochum man as having ‘absolutely fantastic defensive skills’, and he has been a vital player for Southampton whenever fully fit, featuring for the full 90 minutes in the five Premier League games prior to Tottenham.

That said, the silver lining for Selles is that the back-up options impressed when called upon at the weekend, with both Mohammed Salisu being hailed as ‘excellent’ by journalist Jacob Tanswell.

Not only that, but as we are now entering an international break, Bella-Kotchap will have an extended amount of time to recover from the issue.

Arsenal are currently flying high in the Premier League, and despite the recent home defeat to title rivals Manchester City knocking the Gunners off top spot, avoiding victory in their game in hand would re-establish their lead.

Having failed to qualify for Champions League football in each of the past six campaigns, Mikel Arteta must be praised for the manner in which he has maintained an upward trajectory since his arrival at the helm, having previously starred for the club during his playing career.

After winning the FA Cup in 2019/20, his debut managerial campaign, the 40-year-old has made steady improvements at the Emirates Stadium, with the current campaign leaving the club firmly on course for a return to Europe’s premier club competition, 11 points above fifth-placed Tottenham Hotspur and with a game in hand.

Arteta can indeed take pride in the job he is doing at Arsenal, but he might have never had the foundation to build upon had the club succeeded in a past bid for Thomas Lemar…

Were Arsenal right to reject Thomas Lemar?

In 2017, AS Monaco seismically triumphed in Ligue 1, defeating overwhelming favourites Paris-Saint Germain to the crown and enjoying a memorable Champions League run to the semi-finals.

Winger Lemar, who was then 21, was integral in these endeavours with £92m bid for the pacy Frenchman, which the player rejected following concerns over the club’s failure to clinch Champions League football that year.

Last year, L’Equipe reported that the Gunners turned down the opportunity to dive back in for the now 27-year-old, who has succumbed to a significant plummet from the prominence of his early feats in his homeland.

In hindsight, Arsenal can be glad with that decision, with his fall from grace laid bare since moving to Atletico Madrid for £53m in 2018, one year after Arsenal’s exorbitant attempt to land him from Monaco.

As evidenced by the graphic displayed above, Lemar’s decline has been stark, and those close to the 27-cap dud must be somewhat incredulous as to quite how it happened.

At Diego Simeone’s Atletico, he has only scored nine goals and provided 19 assists from 163 appearances, and his current market value of just £11m (via Football Transfers) is indeed an illustration of the player’s bitter woes.

Once heralded as “lethal” by compatriot Hugo Lloris, Lemar now offers little more than a toothless bite, having failed to score from 20 appearances this season, setting up a mere two goals.

While his transitional play remains impressive – the 27-year-old ranks among the top 8% of positional peers over the past year for progressive carries and successful take-ons – his lack of dynamism would not knock Arsenal’s established wingers Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka off their respective perches.

The club did sign Nicolas Pepe in a £72m deal two years after their failed Lemar bud, a transfer which was widely acknowledged as a failure, with former Gunners boss Unai Emery saying of the Ivorian: “He didn’t give me the performances.”

Arsenal dodged a bullet, and despite the club being grazed by the expensive and lacklustre deal for Pepe in 2019, Arteta will count his lucky stars that both deals were not completed.

It’s hard to imagine that the club’s meteoric rise of late would have been quite so fluid had they blundered on Lemar too.

Arsenal winger Bukayo Saka has been spotted posing for photos with rapper Central Cee and actor Barry Keoghan at London Fashion Week.

• London Fashion Week in full swing
• Arsenal's Bukayo Saka in attendance
• Martin Odegaard joins his team-mate

• WHAT HAPPENED?

  Saka has been enjoying some rare time away from the football pitch at London Fashion Week in Victoria Park. The Arsenal star was been hanging out with rapper Central Cee and actor Barry Keoghan, who has shot to fame with roles in 'The Banshees of Inisherin' and 'Saltburn'. Saka swapped his usual red and white Arsenal shirt for a chunky sheepskin coat to deal with the London chill.

  Central Cee Instagram

Advertisement

• THE GOSSIP

  Saka wasn't the only footballer to be spotted at the event. Team-mate Martin Odegaard was also in attendance along with Tottenham's Hueng-min Son, Dele Alli, Ben Chilwell and former Real Madrid ace Gareth Bale. The players mixed with a host of celebrities including supermodel Naomi Campbell, actor Olivia Coleman and rap star Dizzee Rascal.

• DID YOU KNOW?

  Saka is a brand ambassador for Burberry but told GQ several of his team-mates would also be keen on the job. He said: "There are a lot of fashionable players. I don't want to say too many and end up missing people out. At Arsenal, Reiss Nelson for sure, and Julien Timber. Me and Martin are coming tonight, but there are a lot more players that have an interest and good style."

ENJOYED THIS STORY?

Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting

• Getty
  

  WHAT NEXT FOR SAKA

  Saka will be back in his Arsenal kit on Wednesday in the Champions League. The Gunners take on Porto in the first leg of their last 16 tie.

Do you find those dull middle overs of T20 too much? Well, turn your attention to the UAE this week for the inaugural Ten10 league. Eoin Morgan, England’s limited-overs captain, sees the tournament as potentially ‘ground-breaking’ and a possible route for a further push to take cricket into the Olympics.Morgan is among the marquee players signed for the competition which will take place from December 14 in Sharjah, the ground which holds the record for hosting the most one-day internationals. The 10-over-a-side matches will last 90 minutes and include two-over Powerplays.The debate around cricket and the Olympics has rumbled on for a long time. The case for advancing the game to larger audiences in new markets has been tempered by the reluctance of some of the major cricket boards to relinquish any control, while the conditions attached by the IOC have been prohibitive, even before practical issues have been addressed, such as a lack of infrastructure in countries where the game is less extensively played.T20 had at least provided a format that, time-wise, could be more feasible than one-day cricket – and even beach cricket has been throw around as an idea – but Morgan believes T10 could be an even better vehicle.”I think T10 could be something you could potentially propose to an Olympic committee,” Morgan told ESPNcricinfo. “When you look at T20 game, it goes for a little bit longer, so if you are talking about playing a role in the Olympics then you’d probably have ten teams or more and that would probably last five or six weeks, but a 10-over league could be done in about eight days which could be right.”Cricket has seen shorter formats – for example the Hong Kong Sixes – but in terms of retaining the eleven-per-side element of the game, this is as brief as the game has ever gone without the intervention of the weather.”I think we have reached a limit, I think T10 is as short as the game can go but certainly there is huge potential for a T10 game,” Morgan said. “It’s 90 minutes, very exciting entertainment and exposing the game to different people around the world who would not come and watch one-day or T20 cricket.’In the first tournament there will be multiple matches played in the course of a single day, so for fans who choose to see more than one match, it will remain more than a 90-minute commitment at the ground. The Sharjah ground is often the best attended of the UAE venues when Pakistan play their international matches in the region.”It will be interesting to see how well we sell the game,” Morgan said. “We still have to create a good product and also put on a good show around it for those that buy tickets. Everyone has a part to play but it’s potentially ground-breaking if it goes well.”With just 60 legal deliveries available in a T10 innings, can we expect any player to score a century in the course of the tournament? “Well, Shahid Afridi is playing and he had one off [37] balls so if you hog the strike, maybe,” Morgan said.

Australia’s performance chief said the forthcoming Sheffield Shield rounds would be key to finding out which players had the mental wherewithal to fit into the No. 6 slot in Australia’s Test side

Daniel Brettig22-Oct-2017Team performance chief Pat Howard has put batsmen around Australia on notice that the No. 6 spot in the Ashes batting order will be decided by their performances in Sheffield Shield rounds over the next month.Howard drew parallels between the race to seal one of the few uncertain spots in Steven Smith’s Test XI and the selection flurry that followed last year’s innings hiding by South Africa in Hobart – a fifth Test loss in a row that led to the resignation of the selection chairman Rod Marsh. He said that a host of players now had the chance to do what Pete Handscomb and Matt Renshaw had done then, earning their way into the national team through timely run-making.The search for a more stable middle order is key to Australia’s chances this summer, after a debilitating build-up of collapses over the past two years that has placed undue pressure on Smith, David Warner and Usman Khawaja to make runs at every opportunity or risk the rest falling away. Howard said the Shield rounds would be key to finding out who had the mental wherewithal to take up that spot, whether it would be an allrounder like Marcus Stoinis or any number of batsmen currently on the fringes.”The No.6 one I’m really positive about. It’s a really open race, much like it was between Hobart and Adelaide [last year] and there’s pressure on the domestic competition to perform,” Howard said. “We want the players to know there is pressure and if you can turn up here at the start of the Sheffield Shield season there is an opportunity and [you can] put yourself in the frame. It’s a batting role first and your skills after that are more than welcome. Looking for that and then that multi-faceted ability obviously won’t hurt.”We’re doing work in that [mental] space and it doesn’t happen in six seconds. No correlation between this statement and anything in Tests, but in limited overs, Marcus Stoinis averaging 85 or 90 batting at six and he hasn’t played a game in Australia yet. There are players who are trying to put their hand up and step forward.”Often, what you see in domestic cricket is they’ll be batting up the order and then the opportunity to play in the Test match will be further down. All of them are very good players. We’ve all seen them and score runs, we know they’re capable so that mental conversation is absolutely right and that’s where we’re putting that focus.”Howard revealed he had spoken with Usman Khawaja following the batsman’s complaints about selection policy on the recent tours of India and Bangladesh, where he was omitted for all but one of six Tests after an outstanding home summer. “I’ve spoken to Uzzie this week, so absolutely understand and I think … one of the things, if you want to be a good player at Test level, you’re going to have to be good against spin,” he said.Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

“Five of the nine Test-playing nations are very spin-friendly, so if you want to be playing all the Tests all the time, obviously [spin has] got to be part of your mix. The Ashes is at home, it’s a place Uzzie has had an outstanding record and so have the others and as he said, it’s reasonably stable, the side we’ll be putting out there, and I agree with that, there are a couple of opportunities.”Looking further ahead, Howard conceded Australia had let slip a long standing as the world’s pre-eminent ODI country, two and a half years on from lifting the World Cup on home soil. “I really think that’s fair and we want to make sure we address that,” he said. “In the Test format I’m really positive whilst we’ve had some mixed results, I couldn’t be prouder of some of the growth and some of the players.”Nathan Lyon, his efforts in Bangladesh were absolutely outstanding and I think the selectors and Nathan in particular, should be really praised for his efforts there. But ODIs we have some gaps there at the moment we need to address and we’re aware of that. We’re very good at home, and that’s great and nice, but the next World Cup is not at home.”It’s on small grounds … so we’re actually happy to address that and deal with that and actually have to chase down big scores because we expect there will be big scores in the World Cup in 2019, thinking a couple of years ahead. We need to evolve. It’s not crisis time, but we have to make sure. We’ve won four out of five last World Cups, Australia have a huge legacy here and we have to make sure we’re very focused on making sure we turn up for these.”Howard had little to say about the recent pay dispute between Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers’ Association, stating only that all organisations needed to review the way they conducted business at key times. The players were left out of contract for more than a month during the dispute, but Howard said he had been comfortable re-entering the Australian dressing room on recent tours following the signing of a fresh MoU.

Gabriel Moscardo's transfer to Paris Saint-Germain has been delayed following the results of the Corinthians midfielder's medical.

Article continues below

Article continues below

Article continues below

• Moscardo wanted by Chelsea and Barca
• Move to PSG from Corinthians lined up
• But medical reveals foot injury

• WHAT HAPPENED?

  The 18-year-old's move to the French capital appeared imminent, after the capital club triggered his €20 million (£17m/£22m) release clause and beat the likes of Chelsea and Barcelona to his signature. According to , Moscardo travelled to Paris for a medical on Friday but tests detected a foot fracture that will now require surgery. As a result, PSG's plans to sign the young midfielder have been put on hold as they await the outcome of that procedure.

Advertisement

• Getty
  

  THE BIGGER PICTURE

  Despite an agreement being reached in the winter window, the expectation was that Moscardo would join PSG in July. These plans now depend on the outcome of said surgery, which reports will take place in Doha, Qatar, under the agreement of current employers Corinthians. If successful, the capital club could pay an excess of €2 million (£1.7m/$2.2m) in appearance-based add-ons.

• WHAT AUGUSTO MELO SAID

  Despite those financial extras, Corinthians president Augusto Melo has slammed the sale of one of his star players for a cut-price, as he told a press conference on Tuesday (via ): "From the outset, we were against the sale. It's a reality, and I mentioned it at certain meetings. I was not in favour of selling. The players trained at the club will always be a third income. First it will be a shirt, then lace: we want our players to be trained, to give us titles before being valued. He's selling at an incredible price. I had to take part in this negotiation, even though it wasn't something we wanted, but, to give you an idea, if we didn't accept, they would have paid the clause that was cheaper. Why didn't they increase Moscardo's clause? Why didn't they increase it when he was extended?"

ENJOYED THIS STORY?

Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting

• Getty Images
  

  WHAT NEXT FOR PSG?

  The French giants will await the results of said foot surgery, before seeing if other procedures are necessary for the youngster. If all goes through, it will be a remarkable turnaround for Moscardo, who only made his senior debut back in June. He has represented Brazil's Under-23 side but is yet to make a senior international appearance.