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⚽ Updates from the 8pm GMT Premier League kick-off⚽ Things to look out for | Table | Mail TimBoth teams go into a huddle. No ref in the middle of either.The players walk out into the fog of a firework display. United seem to be in their off-white strip. Sky reckons Rayan will be on the right for Bournemouth with Tavernier as the 10. Continue reading...

Team says ‘timing just didn’t work out’ for visitNo NBA team has visited during a Trump presidencyThe reigning NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder will not visit the White House during their trip to the nation’s capital this weekend.A Thunder spokesperson confirmed Friday that a “timing issue” will prevent the team from making the traditional appearance. Oklahoma City face the Wizards in Washington on Saturday. Continue reading...

Diggins, 34, clinches fourth World Cup overall titleAmerican seals rare feat in Lake Placid season finaleMinnesota-born star to retire after dominant seasonNo woman from outside Europe had ever captured the cross-country skiing World Cup overall title until Jessie Diggins in 2021. Now she’s won it four times.The Minnesota-born star clinched yet another crystal globe in the twilight of her glittering career on Friday, securing the season crown with a fifth-place finish in the 10km classic at the World Cup finals in Lake Placid, New York. Diggins made it a mathematical certainty with two races remaining in the season-ending weekend, giving her a third consecutive overall title and fourth in total. Continue reading...

Jonathan Wheatley set to make switch to troubled teamArrival would allow Adrian Newey to change focusJonathan Wheatley has left his role as Audi team principal, the Formula One team have confirmed, paving the way for his anticipated switch to the same role at Aston Martin.Wheatley’s arrival would allow the current Aston Martin principal, Adrian Newey, to return his focus to the technical and design areas in which he excels after the team endured a disastrous start to the new season. Continue reading...

Manager believes league has left itself open to criticismAnger at Everton over perceived double standardsDavid Moyes has called on the Premier League to provide a fuller explanation of why Chelsea were not deducted points for breaking its financial rules under the ownership of Roman Abramovich. Everton were deducted 10 points in November 2023, reduced to six on appeal, plus a further two points later that season for breaches of the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules (PSR). Nottingham Forest were deducted four points that season for a PSR breach. The Premier League had argued for a 12-point deduction for Everton over the first offence – a breach of £19.5m over a three-year period – and an eight-point deduction for Forest. The Premier League announced on Monday that Chelsea had received a record fine of £10.75m, a suspended transfer embargo and a nine-month academy transfer ban for engaging in “deception and concealment” when making illicit payments totalling £47.5m to sign players during a seven-year period under Abramovich. In the written reasons for the “sanction agreement”, the Premier League stressed that Chelsea would not have breached PSR rules and frequently commends the club’s new owners, Clearlake Capital, for self-reporting the breaches. A points deduction in this case “was not appropriate”, according to the agreement signed by the Premier League chief executive Richard Masters. Everton are angry over the perceived double standards at play in the Premier League’s disciplinary system. Moyes, who was West Ham manager when Everton broke financial rules and received the points deductions, believes the league has left itself open to criticism with the explanation given for Chelsea’s fine. “I would actually like to hear a bit more about it,” the Everton manager said. “I’m expecting more of the details and why – and this isn’t against Chelsea as I wasn’t at Everton at the time we were deducted a huge points number. I don’t think they have explained it well enough in the reasoning what the fine was and why it was. I think it would be good if we heard a little bit more how they got to that decision of fine with Chelsea rather than a points deduction, for example.” Continue reading...

Benjy Taylor is suing Morehouse, two campus officersIncident came after dispute over taunts, handshake lineTuskegee men’s basketball coach Benjy Taylor filed a lawsuit against Morehouse College and two campus police officers on Friday, claiming he suffered emotional and physical harm when he was handcuffed and escorted off the court on 31 January.“He has suffered financial harm, reputational harm, emotional harm as well as physical damages,” Harry Daniels, one of Taylor’s attorneys, told the Associated Press. Continue reading...

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The head coach will not necessarily pick the better player, or the one in form, but the one who best fits a specific roleAmid the intrigue of the final weeks of the domestic season comes a reminder that the World Cup is fast approaching, that England have just four more warm-up games before they face Croatia in their first group game in Arlington in June. Thomas Tuchel’s plans are coming in to focus: these friendlies against Uruguay and Japan are the last chance for experiments or tests before the final honing in the USA.Tuchel has been refreshingly consistent in prioritising balance over individuals. Even Gareth Southgate fell into the celebrity trap near the end, his Euro 2024 squad a shapeless gaggle of stars who scrambled to the final despite an old-fashioned incoherence. For Tuchel, the stars-versus-system question crystallises around the central attacking midfield role, where, in recent games, Morgan Rogers has been preferred to Jude Bellingham. Although Cole Palmer has showed some signs of returning to form, that still feels like the highest-profile selection decision for Tuchel, particularly given his apparent disquiet around Bellingham’s robust self‑confidence and the impact that may have on the rest of the squad. Continue reading...

Utility man has become a key cog for Guardiola’s title chasers and wants more glory in Sunday’s Carabao Cup finalCity Football Academy, Friday 10 January 2025: Nico O’Reilly’s career is about to rocket into orbit because, during Manchester City’s final training session before their FA Cup third-round tie with Salford, Pep Guardiola has unexpected news.“He said: ‘Right, you’re playing at left-back tomorrow,’” says O’Reilly, who had never been used in the position. It was only his fourth first-team appearance but just over a year later he has played twice at left-back for England and is preparing for Sunday’s Carabao Cup final against Arsenal. Continue reading...

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!There has long been a notion that the League Cup, in its many sponsorship guises, can be a “springboard” for future success. No other trophy has ever achieved springboard status, not even the Emirates Cup. It seems the idea was born around the time José Mourinho’s Chelsea were on the rise, fuelled by Roman Abramovich’s totally legitimate takeover, winning the Carling Cup in 2005 and then rocketing to back-to-back Premier League titles. Many of that Blues squad have since spoken about the three-handled Georgian silver cup as if it were some gateway drug to glory. And that Chelsea team went on some trips. You wouldn’t understand, man. We saw five trophies in two years, man.Am I alone or are there 1,056 others who see the irony in Xavi Simons declaring that, for Spurs, ‘every game is a cup final for us’ having just exited their third and final cup competition of the season?” – Glyn Berrington.The way Barry deadpanned ‘Of the six teams that advanced to this season’s Round of Arsenal, only two (including Arsenal) made it into the quarter-finals’ puts me in mind of the old joke about 2010-11 Manchester City having ‘all the best players in the league (and Craig Bellamy)’. Fabulous stuff” – Rowan Sweeney.This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions. Continue reading...