Eberechi Eze’s future at Crystal Palace is once again in the spotlight, with Tottenham Hotspur keen on a move for the England international. However, the transfer could face delays after manager Oliver Glasner revealed the midfielder’s release clause has expired, meaning Palace now have full control over whether their star man leaves before the end of the window.

Eze’s Crystal Palace release clause has officially expiredGlasner insists the midfielder remains committed to PalaceSpurs must negotiate directly with Palace for transferFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?

Tottenham have been strongly linked with a move for Eze this summer, but Crystal Palace are standing firm after his release clause expired. The midfielder impressed in Palace’s 0-0 Premier League opener against Chelsea, though his goal was ruled out in accordance with a rarely-enforced law. For now, the Eagles still see Eze as central to their plans, with two weeks left in the transfer window.

AdvertisementAFPWHAT GLASNER SAID

Glasner moved to play down speculation and stressed Eze’s commitment to Palace. He told reporters, “I expect him to be back playing for us against Fredrikstad.

“I’m sorry, it's nothing personal with all of you, but I said it's good advice to the kids, don't always believe what you read, especially on the internet and here's the same. Who knows that this is the truth, what is written? There are rumours and so many rumours and everybody tells somebody something for his own advantage, maybe.”

Glasner continued: “And again, if everything or most of the things that are written about them is true, they couldn't perform like this. The team couldn't be together like this. The team couldn't be committed to each other like they are. It's just not possible. So again, I'm quite calm. But I also know we have two weeks to go [of the transfer window] and I know Eb’s [release] clause is gone, so it's the club's decision, and we will see what happens.”

THE BIGGER PICTURE

Eze’s release clause, previously set at around £60 million, has now expired, giving Crystal Palace full control over his future. Tottenham remain keen, but Palace are under no obligation to sell unless they receive an offer that they see as worthy. With the transfer window closing in two weeks, his situation could drag on until deadline day.

Getty Images SportWHAT NEXT FOR EZE?

The England international is expected to play for Crystal Palace on Thursday in their Europa Conference League qualifier against Fredrikstad. Spurs are likely to continue pushing for a deal, but will need to test Palace’s resolve without the advantage of a release clause. For now, the midfielder remains firmly in Glasner’s plans at Selhurst Park.

There is an opportunity for both teams to use this series as a kind of laboratory ahead of the Champions Trophy

Alagappan Muthu08-Feb-2025

Big picture: Kohli fit again

Cricketers. They’re just like us, from having for lunch to cueing up Netflix with dinner. This deeply normal kind of life may be beckoning a first-choice Indian team member as they continue on their Champions Trophy fact-finding mission.Shreyas Iyer usually plays entertainer, and he did this on Thursday night, his strokeplay containing everything but a backwards step even against extreme pace. He’s got his IPL coach, Ricky Ponting, sitting bolt upright in his seat saying things like “If Shreyas is out in the middle, then he’s as good as anyone” on the ICC review. India can’t keep him on and bring Virat Kohli in and explore the possibilities that Yashasvi Jaiswal presents them as a left-handed, top-order basher. Someone will have to switch to being the one that gets entertained.Related

• Virat Kohli fit to play second ODI against England

• India's left-arm orthodox spin twins give them a good headache to have

Despite their loss in Nagpur, England will be pleased with the work of Jacob Bethell, the 21-year-old displaying the kind of level-headedness that could prove invaluable over the coming weeks. Another ICC trophy comes up for grabs starting February 19 and although the pressure there will be significantly higher, this bilateral series, with the quality of players involved, should be able to replicate some of it.Performances like Bethell’s, or Shubman Gill’s in the No. 3 role, or Axar Patel’s as a disruptor at No. 5, are important beyond the context of winning and losing, because they offer exactly what all teams want going into a world event – options, a way to stand out, a way to surprise.

Form guide

India WLLTW (last five completed ODIs, most recent first)
England LLWLL

In the spotlight: Harry Brook and Virat Kohli

Ninety-one runs in six innings on tour is not the performance England wanted from a player in whom they have made a serious investment. Harry Brook plays all formats for them. He’s captained them. And when on song, he absolutely smashes it for them, but once again he has been unable to find a repeatable and consistent method of handling high-quality spin on pitches that are slower than he is used to. Fifty-over cricket offers batters a little more time and Brook could leverage that to get himself back in form.Harry Brook has struggled against spin on this tour•BCCI

The last time Kohli batted for India, he left the field in a fury, mistaking his thigh for a punching bag. It is unlikely that he thinks he is in decline. At least not to the extent that things can’t be turned around. His fans know things absolutely can turn around, and the switch in format could be just the break he needs to get the good times rolling again. India are weighing upsides. Iyer is already in form, and they know what he can do. If his making way means they get to arm an all-time great with game time and simultaneously find out if Jaiswal can be an asset in ODIs too, that’s probably a win.

Team news: A chance to experiment

This trophy doesn’t matter as much as the next one these two teams will be playing for so there is an opportunity to see this series as a kind of laboratory to know what works and what doesn’t. India picked Arshdeep Singh over Mohammed Siraj in their Champions Trophy squad and maybe they’re thinking of bringing him into the XI too. Wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to give Rishabh Pant some match practice either.India (probable): 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 3 Shubman Gill, 4 Virat Kohli, 5 KL Rahul/Rishabh Pant (wk), 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Harshit Rana/Arshdeep Singh, 11 Mohammed Shami.England rested Mark Wood from the first ODI. His pace has always been a point of difference and so there is always a temptation to stick him into a starting XI.England: 1 Ben Duckett, 2 Phil Salt (wk), 3 Joe Root, 4 Harry Brook, 5 Jos Buttler (capt), 6 Liam Livingstone, 7 Jacob Bethell, 8 Brydon Carse, 9 Jofra Archer, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Mark Wood/Saqib Mahmood.

Pitch and conditions: A reprise of the 2017 thriller?

Cuttack hasn’t hosted any ODIs in half a decade but when it last did, it presented itself as a batting paradise. India and England have already experienced these highs when they put up totals of 381 and 366 in 2017. The game is unlikely to come under any threat from the weather with clear skies expected; there might be dew though, given the temperature drops from 30C at 5pm to 23C at 9pm.

Stats and trivia:

• In the last 20 years, England have beaten India in India only five times in 31 ODIs.
• Cuttack offers more or less equal help to pace (137 wickets at an average of 40.86 and economy rate of 5) and spin (88 wickets at an average of 36 and economy rate of 4.74).
• Gill has found incredible consistency in ODI cricket. He’s been good enough to score a fifty roughly once every 2.4 innings.
• Jos Butter is such a regular, and rapid, run-scorer in this format that he’s part of a pretty exclusive club: 5000 runs and a strike rate of 100-plus.

Liverpool exceeded expectations when they won the Premier League last season, but Darwin Nunez struggled to perform at the expected level throughout.

The 26-year-old striker is a maverick, for sure, but he’s also erratic and chaotic and often incapable of harnessing and channelling his skills into something coherent.

With Luis Diaz’s future looking more certain to exist outside of Liverpool, Barcelona and Bayern Munich both vying for his signature and receiving plenty of encouragement, Liverpool might not want to cash in on Nunez.

However, the Uruguay international is in talks to join Napoli, and selling him may well be for the best.

Why Liverpool should sell Darwin Nunez

When Liverpool signed Nunez, they purchased a young and exciting striker who had just come off the back of a 34-goal campaign with Portuguese giants Benfica, scoring twice against Liverpool on Europe’s elite stage.

Klopp, perhaps, had a glint in his eyes when watching the Uruguayan run rampant over many of Europe’s finest; maybe the savvy tactician saw the reincarnation of Luis Suarez in Benfica’s man.

Unfortunately, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Nunez has flattered to deceive for much of his time on Merseyside, even if he’s shown flashes of the quality that convinced the German manager to fork out an initial £64m fee from FSG’s coffers.

He is expected to depart this summer, and while a popular figure, Nunez hasn’t succeeded in emulating his iconic countryman.

What Liverpool need is a striker who embodies some of Suarez’s qualities but also has experience competing consistently at the very highest level.

Liverpool eyeing Darwin Nunez upgrade

As per TEAMtalk, Slot’s dream signing for the rest of the summer is Newcastle United’s Alexander Isak, even if a deal would be extremely difficult to complete.

After the Magpies sealed their place in next season’s Champions League, The Athletic’s David Ornstein claimed there was “no chance” he would leave St. James’ Park. This has since been corroborated by the news that he has been valued at an eye-watering £200m.

Recent events will rightly halt any immediate developments, but Liverpool may well make a concerted effort to challenge the Magpies for their star man later in the transfer window.

Why Alexander Isak can be the new Luis Suarez

Isak has played for Newcastle across three seasons, and he’s improved incrementally.

A shoddy fitness record has been left in the past, with the Sweden star’s athleticism and strength having come on leaps and bounds. His application even led Sky Sports’ Jamie Carragher to hail him as “the best striker in the Premier League” last season.

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In the Premier League, Isak played a monumental part in guiding Eddie Howe’s side back into the Champions League, sealing their place on the final day of the 2024/25 campaign.

His goals counted for plenty, with the 23 strikes put away in the Premier League bettered only by Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah.

However, Isak also ranked among the top 16% of positional peers competing across Europe’s top five leagues last term for shot-creating actions, the top 13% for progressive passes, the top 7% for progressive carries and the top 8% for successful take-ons per 90, as per FBref.

His all-encompassing attacking game even suggests that he could become Slot’s own version of former Redmen superstar Suarez, who, incredibly, posted 82 goals and 32 assists across only 133 appearances.

Suarez might have reached his career zenith at Barcelona, but who can argue against him being in a different stratosphere to the rest of the Premier League when he plied his trade on Merseyside?

Suarez was a devastating finisher, to be sure, but he was so much more than a simple goalscorer. Steven Gerrard once said the marksman “had everything”, and named him the best forward he had ever played with.

The iconic Anfield skipper went into further detail about exactly what set Suarez apart from his positional peers: “He could embarrass you, even with stuff that I don’t think that he knew he was doing. He was a ricochet merchant, he would run over you, he’d dominate you and bully you.”

Given the stage-by-stage progress that Isak, still only 25, has enjoyed in England, there’s certainly a good chance that he could reach the level of Liverpool’s one-time South American talisman, bringing a “world-class” striking ability, as has been praised by pundit and Premier League record goalscorer Alan Shearer, to Slot’s squad.

But then, as the aforementioned FBref data suggests, Isak might also thrive in link-up situations, bouncing off the creativity of stars such as Salah and Florian Wirtz, who joined Liverpool in a deal rising to a British-record £116m.

After all, the £120k-per-week number nine created 11 big chances in the Premier League last season, as per Sofascore, emphasising just how creative and intelligent he is in his attacking play.

Suarez perhaps reached the highest level of any forward to have ever played in the Premier League when he was at his apex. Many would contest such conjecture but it’s an argument that would hold at any table.

In Isak, Liverpool might just find the perfect, belated successor, and Slot might secure his perfect new centre-forward.

The next Van Dijk: Liverpool plot talks for "immense" £40m Guehi upgrade

Liverpool are stepping up their search for a new centre-back…

ByRobbie Walls Jul 2, 2025

The selectors are again planning for the possibility of needing to call on fast bowling depth against India

Tristan Lavalette15-Oct-2024Australia fielding an unchanged frontline pace attack last summer might have been an “outlier” as selectors strategise over their seam options in the wake of losing allrounder Cameron Green.Emphasising their remarkable durability, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood have played in Australia’s last nine Tests stretching back to the Ashes tour.Related

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Last summer they were aided by bowler-friendly conditions at home and in New Zealand where none of the seven matches went into a fifth day. In only three of the innings did Australia need to bowl more than 78 overs which helped them keep fresh.But India’s imposing batting line-up represents a different challenge with the expectation that Australia will be made to toil in the upcoming five-match series played over seven weeks. There are doubts over whether Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood can replicate what they did last season and play the entirety of what should be a gruelling series.Australia’s pace depth has been tested with several fringe bowlers working their way back from injuries. Quick Lance Morris, uncapped at Test level but a regular squad member over the last couple of years, suffered an injury setback having picked up a quad strain in training recently but should return before the end of the month.Scott Boland and Michael Neser, who had a five-wicket haul for Queensland against Western Australia to start the Sheffield Shield season, have overcome off-season niggles and will be part of Australia A’s upcoming red-ball series against India A.”If you look at the quicks last year we were certainly prepared that they might not be able to play all the Tests and they did,” George Bailey, Australia chair of selectors, said on Monday.”Potentially that might have been an outlier and again this summer we’ll be prepared that if we do need to make some adjustments throughout the summer that we are ready to go.”The triumvirate’s workload could increase with Green sidelined for the entire summer due to a stress fracture of his back. Green’s bowling has been cautiously utilised in his Test career, but he was set to play a bigger role with the ball against India.”Someone like Cam basically started in Shield cricket as a bowler but hasn’t had to bowl heaps in Test matches. Now he is a few years older, I think we will be leaning on him a bit more,” Cummins said in August.1:08

Can India risk taking Shami to Aus if he misses the NZ Tests?

Mitchell Marsh might be required to help cover Green’s absence, but has bowled just four overs – all of which were in the fourth ODI against England at Lord’s – since tearing his hamstring during the IPL. He blasted 94 at No. 4 for WA in their second innings against Queensland, but did not bowl in the match as he mostly fielded in the slips and occasionally helped carry the drinks.If selectors decide on a like-for-like replacement then Aaron Hardie and Beau Webster will be in the frame. Hardie did not play in the opening Shield round due to a quad injury he picked up at the end of the England tour, but he is set to return for WA’s next match against Tasmania at the WACA starting on October 20.Bailey believed having an allrounder was a “luxury” rather than a necessity. “Even looking at the three quicks that we generally play in Test cricket, they’ve played a lot of Test cricket together where they haven’t had an allrounder as well”, he said.”Think it certainly depends on the personnel that are available. Guess the role that Cam and Mitch have played is that they’ve been able to hold down a spot purely on the back of their batting and think that’s still fundamentally what’s most important in that top six.”Will continue preparing for Mitch Marsh to bowl some overs as well, that’s been part of his management for the last couple of months.”Australia’s hierarchy have carefully managed workloads of the quicks ahead of the India series, with Cummins missing the entire white-ball England tour to give him a break from bowling.Cummins is unlikely to play a Shield game before the India series and will instead prepare by leading Australia in their ODI series against Pakistan. But Hazlewood and Starc are set to play in at least one Shield match before the Pakistan series.”Pat’s obviously had an individual prep, but if you go through the Test team from the end of last year and their build up to the first Test this year, everyone’s slightly nuanced,” Bailey said.”There’s always an eye to the individual as to what their best preparation is for any Test summer. I think the proliferation of franchise cricket means that there are plenty of opportunities and temptations for players to fill gaps.”Pat, Mitch and Josh have been pretty amazing over how they’ve been able to select which franchise tournaments they play. And they always give themselves good breaks when it’s appropriate as well.”

The quick was spotted with some protection on his knee but nearly hit full tilt towards the end of his training session

Rajan Raj19-Jan-20251:34

Shami will have to be ‘up and kicking from ball one’ – Manjrekar

Mohammed Shami’s bowling was the focus of India’s first training session in Kolkata ahead of their T20I series against England that gets underway on January 22.Shami, who has not played international cricket since the 2023 ODI World Cup final, bowled for over an hour with his knee strapped, with bowling coach Morne Morkel keeping a close eye on his progress. Shami had not been considered for any part of the Border-Gavaskar Test series, despite having fully recovered from his ankle surgery, because of swelling on his knee.On Sunday, Shami began by marking a spot on a good-length area on the practice pitches, and then warmed up by bowling with a half run-up for more than 20 minutes. Later, he bowled with his full run-up to openers Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma in the nets. In between, he practiced short- and long-range catching with fielding coach T Dilip and head coach Gautam Gambhir. After the net sessions ended, Shami closed the evening out with a ten-minute spell of bowling on the practice pitches. By the time his session wound down, Shami was bowling at nearly full tilt.