Before their historic Europa League win, this season was shaping up to be Tottenham Hotspur’s worst in a generation.
The North Londoners finished 17th in the Premier League, and it would be fair to say that, bar a few players, the squad were massively disappointing.
One of the few who stood out for the right reasons was Lucas Bergvall, who only joined up with the squad last summer but ended up winning every end-of-season award, including the club’s Player of the Season Award.
In short, the Swedish gem has been an incredible addition to the team, and now it looks like the club might be looking to repeat the move with another exciting youngster who might be able to replicate his form for whoever comes in to replace the recently sacked Ange Postecoglou.
Tottenham transfer news
They might not have signed anyone yet, but that has not stopped a seemingly endless stream of talented players being linked to Spurs in recent weeks, such as Adam Wharton and Quinten Timber.
Transfer Focus
Mega money deals, controversial moves and big-name flops. This is the home of transfer news and opinion across Football FanCast.
The former would reportedly cost around £60m and has been nothing short of brilliant for Crystal Palace since joining the South London club.
Interestingly, the latter, who is the captain of Feyenoord and the brother of Arsenal star Jurrien Timber, could be available for just £25m, but there would be some risk in signing him due to him being out injured.
Quinten Timber in action for Feyenoord.
Moreover, it would be hard to draw any comparisons between the two aforementioned stars and Bergvall, which isn’t the case for Victor Froholdt.
According to Sky Sports Germany’s Florian Plettenberg, Spurs have now “entered the race” for the tremendously exciting “top talent.”
Alongside the Lilywhites, Plettenberg claims that Bundesliga sides Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayer Leverkusen are also incredibly keen on the promising youngster.
According to other reports from last month, the teenager is now valued at between £15m to £20m, and while that is a lot of money, he looks like he’d be a worthy investment, just like Bergvall.
Why Froholdt could be another Bergvall
Okay, so there are quite a few reasons why Froholdt could be the club’s next Bergvall, so let’s get through some of the more surface-level ones.
Firstly, it would be another example of Spurs not only going out to sign a promising youngster but also a Scandinavian one from a Scandinavian team in FC Copenhagen.
Furthermore, like the Swede before him, the 19-year-old prospect is now highly sought-after, and it could be another example of the club proving themselves to be an attractive destination for the game’s next superstars.
Now, on to the more substantive comparisons, and while he can play in a variety of positions, the “extraordinary” gem, as dubbed by one Danish analyst, is primarily a central midfielder.
Moreover, the 5 foot 9 dynamo never stops running, covering the second-most amount of ground in the competition this season, which could see him become a perfect midfield partner for Bergvall, as they’d be able to run opposition pairings ragged.
Shots on Target %
75.0%
Top 1%
SCA (Take-On)
0.32
Top 2%
Progressive Carries
2.56
Top 4%
Carries into Penalty Area
0.48
Top 4%
Blocks
1.76
Top 7%
Successful Take-Ons
1.28
Top 7%
Dribblers Tackled
1.44
Top 10%
Tackles
3.04
Top 11%
Carries into the Final Third
1.76
Top 11%
Finally, while there is not an abundance of data on him this season, the underlying numbers we can look at are more than encouraging.
According to FBref, he sits in the top 1% of midfielders in the next best 14 competitions for shots on target percentage, the top 2% for shot-creating actions from take-ons, the top 4% for progressive carries and carries into the penalty area, the top 7% for blocks and successful take-ons, the top 10% for dribblers tackled and more, all per 90.
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Ultimately, while it is early to say definitively if he will be a success or not, the early signs around Froholdt are more than encouraging, and Spurs could have another Bergvall on their hands if they sign him.
With Steven Gerrard potentially on his way back to the club, Rangers could now reportedly bring an experienced star to Ibrox this summer in a surprising new role at the club.
Rangers' manager update
With the season now over, the Gers have instantly turned their attention towards finding their next permanent manager. It’s a decision that those at Ibrox must get right as the 49ers look to make an instant statement in Scotland. Just who will take to the hot seat next is the unanswered question. So far, a range of names have been linked with the role with Davide Ancelotti and Gerrard particularly standing out.
According to recent reports, Gerrard could return to Ibrox for the first time since leaving them for the chance to take charge of Aston Villa in 2021 in what may receive a mixed reaction. The Liverpool legend would certainly need to get off to a strong start back in Scotland in an attempt to get any frustrated fans back onside four years on from his departure.
StevenGerrard
Meanwhile, Ancelotti is also an interesting candidate. The assistant manager to his father, the legendary Carlo Ancelotti, for much of his career, he could now choose to break away and commence his own managerial spell.
Igniting reports, his father has chosen not to take Ancelotti to the Brazil national team with him, claiming that his son is in talks with a European club. The former Real Madrid manager told reporters: “Davide is currently in negotiations with a European team. I don’t think it’s right for him to come with me. If he goes to a club, I wish him the best. And if not, he can come back to us at any time.”
Whether that European club is Rangers remains to be seen, but Ancelotti is certainly one to watch alongside Gerrard.
Gerrard could bring Henderson with him to Rangers
If it is to be Gerrard, then he could bring a Premier League-winning captain with him to Ibrox. According to reports from the Netherlands, as relayed by The Daily Record, Rangers and Gerrard are now interested in signing Jordan Henderson from Ajax this summer in an unexpected coaching role, with the former Liverpool midfielder reportedly open to a new adventure.
It’s been a tough few years for Henderson on the pitch. His decision to leave Liverpool to join Gerrard’s Al Ettifaq side in 2023 was ultimately one that he came to regret. Meanwhile, his time at Ajax has since been mixed and he could be on his way out of the Dutch giants just 18 months after arriving. From being a Premier League-winning captain at Anfield, Henderson is at a major career crossroads.
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If anyone knows about the midfielder’s quality too, it is Gerrard. The Anfield hero played together with Henderson, currently on a base salary of £75,000-a-week, at the heart of Liverpool’s midfield for a number of years and shared high praise for his former teammate back in 2019 – telling reporters: “Some people don’t see the stuff behind the scenes, the gym work, the way he eats, but he is an incredible role model.
“He is selfless. He puts himself at the back of the queue because he looks after everyone else first. He puts Jordan Henderson last.”
Based on what we’ve seen since Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital acquired the club three years ago, we’re expecting yet another busy summer of transfer activity at Chelsea.
So far, under Boehly’s ownership, the Blues have spent in excess of £1bn on over 40 new first-team players, numbers that are likely to rise this summer, regardless of whether or not Enzo Maresca’s side secure Champions League qualification next Sunday.
A new striker is likely to be at the top of their list of priorities, so could they return to one of their favourite shopping destinations?
The latest on Christopher Nkunku's Chelsea future
Earlier this month, Florian Plettenberg of Sky Sports Deutschland reported that Christopher Nkunku ‘has decided’ he will leave Chelsea this summer.
Christopher Nkunku scores for Chelsea
The French international arrived from RB Leipzig for a reported fee of £52m two summers ago, but has made very little impact at Stamford Bridge, as the table below outlines.
Total appearances
56
Total starts
24
PL appearances
38
PL starts
11
Matches an unused substitute
7
Matches missed due to injury
43
Total goals
17
Total assists
5
PL goals
6
UECL goals
7
As highlighted in the table, Nkunku has spent almost half of his Chelsea career in the treatment room, while 41% of his goals have come in the Conference League, which isn’t the competition they spent big money hoping he would star in.
Aurélien Léger-Moëc of Foot Mercato claims that Bayern Munich and Newcastle are amongst those ‘interested’ in signing Nkunku this summer, and now is certainly the time for Chelsea to cash in and attempt to recoup a decent fee, so do they have their eyes on a replacement?
Chelsea could sign dream replacement for Nkunku
As reported by Sam Dean of the Telegraph, Chelsea are ‘interested’ in signing Brighton forward João Pedro, with Arsenal and Liverpool also considering making a move.
This week, the Brazilian was nominated for the Premier League’s Young Player of the Season award, with manager Fabian Hürzeler praising his forward as an “important player” for the Seagulls.
Meantime, Jacek Kulig of Football Talent Scout labels him “simply fantastic”, Oliver Haines from Breaking the Lines is impressed by his high-quality finishing, while Chris Wilder, who was his manager at Watford, believes he is a “super-talented player”.
Pedro joined Brighton for a reported £30m two years ago, and his outstanding form means the Albion now value him at £100m, according to James Holland of Team Talk.
Well, Chelsea are not usually shy when it comes to signing Brighton players, as the table below underlines.
Moisés Caicedo
£115m
Robert Sánchez
£25m
Marc Cucurella
£62m
Shumaira Mheuka
£4.25m
Zak Sturge
£1m
Total
£207.25m
With that in mind, could João Pedro be next?
Well, let’s compare his statistics this season to those of Nkunku to see if he would, indeed, be the dream replacement for the wantaway Frenchman.
Appearances
27
27
Minutes
910
1,953
Goals
3
10
Assists
2
6
Shots
25
42
Shots on target %
44%
35.7%
Big chances created
1
11
Big chances missed
6
7
Shot-creating actions
34
72
Goal-creating actions
4
9
Touches per 90
44
44
Average Sofascore Rating
6.82
7.15
As the table outlines, Pedro boasts almost universally better statistics than Nkunku this season, when it comes to goals, assists, shooting, and chances created.
Thus, the Brazilian would surely be an excellent signing for the Blues, and that is why the club should ruthlessly ditch Nkunku from the squad in order to make room for this new addition.
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Leeds United are now eyeing a shock move to appoint an attacking 4-3-3 manager who has been called “successful”, according to a recent report.
Daniel Farke’s Leeds future cast into doubt following promotion
After being one of the strongest teams in the Championship, the Whites confirmed their place in next season’s Premier League by winning promotion last week. Leeds bounced back from play-off disappointment last season and now have not only sealed promotion but could also win the Championship title.
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However, that might not be enough for Daniel Farke to keep his job, as it’s been claimed by the Daily Mail that the 49ers could be ready to sack Farke and bring in a replacement. It is reported that the hierarchy could be tempted to move on from Farke, and while a decision hasn’t been made yet, they have a list of names who could replace the German.
The 49ers believe that Farke may not be the man who can lead Leeds in the Premier League, given his record in that division when he was at Norwich City. José Mourinho has been talked about making a return to England and taking over at Elland Road, but that may be considered very ambitious by the newly promoted side.
Leeds eyeing shock move for Russell Martin
There is now a new name that is in the frame who could possibly replace Farke at Elland Road. According to Give Me Sport, Leeds are showing an interest in appointing Russell Martin as their new manager.
The report states that the Whites are considering a move to appoint the Scotsman as their next boss. The Championship side have sounded Martin out about returning to the dugout and what his vision is for the future which is part of the club’s plan to look at who they could appoint as their manager if they decide to move on from Farke.
However, Leeds are not the only team chasing Martin, as surprisingly, Southampton are contemplating bringing Martin back to St Mary’s. The Saints sacked the 39-year-old earlier this season, but he still has admirers at the club, and discussions have been had about trying to bring him back as they prepare for life back in the second tier.
A positive for Leeds, it’s claimed that Martin is unlikely to head back to Southampton after his recent sacking.
Martin
Farke
Games
16
49
Won
1
6
Drawn
2
8
Lost
13
35
Points
5
26
Points per game
0.31
0.53
A move for Martin, who likes to play an attacking 4-3-3 formation, by Leeds may come as a considerable shock to their supporters, especially when you consider that Martin has a worse Premier League record than Farke and both have been managers who have struggled in the top flight.
Despite Martin’s struggles in the Premier League and lack of wins, he is a manager who has been lauded as a “successful” coach, whose teams are a “joy to watch”, according to Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta.
Martin may well be open to the idea of taking over at Leeds, given the size of the club and the fact they are a Premier League team, so it could be one to watch.
Here’s a not particularly original statement: Arsenal should probably sign a striker!
The Gunners’ Premier League title hopes have been over for a while now, and it’s their lack of attacking firepower that supporters want to see addressed in the summer.
Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Brentford was the 22nd time in all competitions Mikel Arteta’s team have scored either zero or one goal in a match, doing so in a whopping 50% of their Premier League fixtures.
Thus, do the Gunners lead the race for one of Europe’s most sought-after centre-forwards?
Which striker are Arsenal seeking to sign?
According to a report by Fabrizio Romano, Arsenal are hoping to complete the signing of Sporting Clube de Portugal striker Viktor Gyökeres, who he believes will be available for as little as £55m this summer.
Transfer Focus
Mega money deals, controversial moves and big-name flops. This is the home of transfer news and opinion across Football FanCast.
David Ornstein and James McNicholas of the Athletic previously reported that the Gunners have ‘developed a strong interest’ in the Swedish international striker, with recently appointed new sporting director Andrea Berta described as a long-term admirer.
They add that Arteta’s preference would actually be to sign Gyökeres’ international teammate Alexander Isak, but Newcastle United ‘have no intention’ of selling their most-prized asset, let alone to a direct rival.
So, could Gyökeres be the final piece in the jigsaw?
How Gyokeres would improve Arsenal's attack
Both Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz are currently sidelined long-term; the Brazilian ruptured his ACL against Manchester United in the FA Cup in January, while the German required hamstring surgery after suffering this injury during the warm-weather training camp in Dubai.
However, despite scoring 29 goals for the club, Havertz was never supposed to be Arsenal’s striker, initially signed as a midfielder.
Jesus, meantime, simply has not been the same since suffering a knee injury against Cameroon at the last World Cup, as the table below outlines.
Appearances
22
74
Minutes
1,453
4,008
Goals
5
21
Minutes per goal
291
190
Assists
6
14
Minutes per assist
242
286
Matches missed due to injury
0
48
% of matches missed
0
37.8%
As the table outlines, Jesus simply cannot be counted upon due to fitness reasons and is unlikely to feature again until Christmas, so he cannot be in Arteta’s immediate plans.
As a result, for now, Mikel Merino is spearheading Arsenal’s attack, his stunning strike against Real Madrid last Tuesday actually his eighth for the club, six of which have come since becoming the emergency striker at Leicester in February.
Nevertheless, Gyökeres would be a clear upgrade on the Spaniard, as his remarkable statistics at Sporting prove.
Appearances
95
Minutes
7,779
Goals
87
Minutes per goal
89
Assists
26
Statistics
Gyökeres in UCL
UCL rank
Goals
6
13th
Goals per 90
0.89
7th
Shots per 90
3.26
24th
Goals – xG (min 4 goals)
+1.5
15th
Gyökeres’ statistics at Sporting are obviously frightening, hence why Romano has labeled him a “goal machine”, adding that he is “wanted by several clubs for the summer”.
Meanwhile, Ben Mattinson of Breaking the Lines believes the Swede is a ‘clinical finisher with great movement’, also impressed by his ‘link-up play, physicality…. [and] top-quality ball-striking’.
Speaking on the Arsecast Extra, Andrew Mangan claims Gyökeres would represent a ‘win now’ signing, which is exactly what Arsenal are attempting to do, hence why they should push the boat out to make this move happen. He’s be a phenomenal upgrade on their current options.
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Unsatisfactory series demonstrates so much that is wrong with international game
Cameron Ponsonby23-Oct-2025I’m gonna be honest. You’ve read this one before.The hyperinflation of the modern game, where cricket is on all the time in a desperate attempt to stay relevant, while diluting its product with every caveated fixture.It has been a constant question to Black Caps players this series.”What’s it like playing cricket in October?”It is not cricket season here. The domestic season hasn’t started yet – it begins in full this weekend. The opening match of New Zealand’s series against Australia earlier this month was played on October 1, the earliest that the Kiwis had ever played a home international.Six matches and three washouts later, the result was entirely predictable. It rained. A lot. The weather here has, admittedly, been extreme. Warnings were announced for much of the country as high winds left 90,000 homes on the South Island without power. Kiwi head coach Rob Walter made the point that, across both the Australia and England series, they had been unlucky with sunny training days sandwiching rainy matchdays. That is true – and in his position it is a point he is almost contractually obliged to make – but some sunny days and some rainy days sounds an awful lot like the middle of spring to me.The result was an uncomfortable theme that ran throughout, of Kiwi players talking about the importance of taking the opportunity to play the likes of Australia or England whenever you can. A team that won the World Test Championship in 2021, and has reached numerous ICC finals in recent years, is still thankful for the chance to take the pitch against their equals.”You’ve got to take every chance to play them,” Kiwi wicketkeeper Tim Seifert said ahead of the match at Auckland. “You’d rather play them at this time of the year than not.”For the second year in a row, New Zealand have no home international cricket scheduled for January or February. The height of their summer. The rest of their season consists of West Indies arriving for a multi-format tour in November and South Africa arriving for a white-ball tour in March, which will clash directly with the IPL and be without several high-profile players for either side.England are a key drawcard for the nations that rely on the income they generate•AFP/Getty Images”There’s no point trying to compete against some of the top franchise leagues,” explained Walter after the Auckland washout. “But rather coexist with them.”And are they co-existing?”It depends on who you ask, I guess.”New Zealand have been up against this for years. Shane Bond missed 18 months of international cricket in 2007 after signing up for the Indian Cricket League. Trent Boult was the first Kiwi to move to a “casual” contract in 2022 and now there are five players – Finn Allen, Devon Conway, Lockie Ferguson, Tim Seifert and Kane Williamson – in the New Zealand squad who operate on such a deal. The cold hard cash facts are that top Black Caps players believe they can earn up to US$1 million more a year by pursuing a life solely on the franchise circuit.”We are really privileged that the guys really do enjoy playing for their country and want to come back and play for the Black Caps,” said Walter. “We want to maintain that but part of the job is understanding that you can’t have guys playing all formats and in every game.”The “casual” contracts symbolise a commitment from the player to be available for a certain number of matches a year. They operate on an annual basis and the number jumped from two to five this year due to the upcoming T20 World Cup, as the T20 specialists had to commit themselves to x number of games to be eligible for selection.Related
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But it is wishful thinking to consider that any “casual” relationship can end well. Just ask any 20-year-old across the globe.England, Australia and India are now committed to touring each other once a year. These arrangements take up space, meaning that other series end up being shortened, played with weakened sides, and pushed to the margins. And so the un-valuable series become even less valuable. And the invaluable tours become even more so. It is a vicious cycle. And one that administrators show no signs of breaking. South Africa, the current World Test Champions, are currently poised beautifully at one-all in their series against Pakistan – with zero games to play. An unsexy series, deprived of the chance to make itself more attractive to broadcasters next time round.It would be funny if it wasn’t so relentless. A year ago, England played a white-ball series in the West Indies with a second string squad because the matches had been sandwiched in between their Test tours of Pakistan and New Zealand. The games were scheduled, for broadcast reasons, at 4pm which had the double-jeopardy effect of meaning fewer fans could attend the game in person and dew had a decisive impact on each match as it arrived at the halfway stage in each fixture. Of the seven completed matches on that tour, all were won by the team who won the toss.”When we looked at the schedule we knew that would be a problem,” Windies captain at the time Rovman Powell said.Cricket relies on broadcast rights to keep it, barely, afloat. The problem is that with every series that is designed for TV at the cost of quality, the product becomes less valuable the next time around. Ultimately, broadcasters are creating a product that, eventually, it won’t want to buy itself.You know this. You’ve read it before. And one day, hopefully, it will change. England won this three match T20I series one-nil. 61.4 overs were bowled.
Head coach Jon Lewis talks about Sophie Ecclestone, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Charlie Dean, Sophia Dunkley and more
Sruthi Ravindranath16-Dec-2023Some of the best bowlers in the world – specifically spinners – not only stick to their strengths but are also constantly upgrading their skillsets to stay relevant. Left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone, the top-ranked bowler in ODIs and T20Is is no different. As someone who bowls a lot quicker than most spinners, she has been working on dropping her pace, England Women’s head coach Jon Lewis has revealed.Since her debut in 2016, Ecclestone has been on top of the wicket-takers list in T20Is and is the second-best spinner in the list in ODIs. She capped off an incredible year in T20Is as the top wicket-taker among players from Full Member teams in 2023.She’s also worked on bowling against left-handers, her much-improved average of 10.80 since 2022 as compared to 31.50 until 2021 in T20Is a testament to it. In the one-off Test against India, she got the opposition’s two left-handers out in back-to-back overs, first having Smriti Mandhana caught at short leg with a short ball turning in from outside off and then getting a length ball to turn in sharply to make Yastika Bhatia chip it to short leg again.Related
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“I know that over the last couple of years she’s worked incredibly hard at bowling at left-handers,” Lewis told ESPNcricinfo. “She can bowl faster than most girls and spin the ball at a higher pace than most girls. So that’s one of the unique things she does better than other people.”We’ve talked a lot to her about how to use her drop-down in pace rather than change up in pace. So those are probably the two things that we’ve worked on with Sophie. She’s worked out some really good stuff about bowling to left-handers. She understands what makes her a good bowler to left-handers and I thought during the summer in the [Women’s] Ashes series she bowled very well to Beth Mooney and also to Jess Jonassen.”While match figures of five wickets for 167 runs in a thumping 347-run defeat at the hands of India might suggest that the work is still in progress, her seven wickets at an average of 10.14 and economy rate of 6.26 made her the leading wicket-taker in the three-match T20I series preceding the Test and included 3 for 15 in her first match back after a three-month injury layoff.Her accuracy, pace, subtle changes of trajectory and seam positions have troubled batters for years, but she keeps working.Sophie Ecclestone picked up wickets of three Indian left-handed batters in the one-off Test•BCCI”Sophie doesn’t really enjoy training much – she loves playing games. She loves going out on the pitch and competing, so we have to try and find ways to stimulate her in training. She’s worked for a long time with Gareth Breese, her spin bowling coach. They have a really strong relationship.”England have also been boosted by the presence of offspinner Charlie Dean, who has risen quickly through the ranks since her debut in 2022 to become one of their go-to wicket-taking options.England captain Heather Knight also trusts her with the new ball. A consistent performer, Dean reaps the benefits of bowling classic offspin and also relies on drift and attacking lines. She was instrumental in bowling India out for 80 in the second T20I and provided a much-needed highlight for England during India’s second innings of the Test in Mumbai, claiming four crucial wickets as the hosts built a mammoth lead, her accuracy on display as she had Deepti Sharma lbw and Sneh Rana bowled off consecutive deliveries.Lewis praised Dean for her consistency, calling her the best “on the planet”, and wants her to continue sticking to her strengths.”We keep challenging her around the consistency of her best ball and bowling her best ball as often as possible,” Lewis said. “Her best ball is the best. There’s no offspinner that matches her on the planet. No one gets the drift she gets, no one gets the turn she gets. Her best ball is absolutely fantastic. She’s a young spinner and there are lots of young spinners that don’t bowl consistently.”One thing I would say is during the T20 series, in terms of her output and her numbers and where she was landing the ball, it’s gone through the roof in comparison to what she was through the summer and previously. We’ve got an excellent spin bowling coach in Gareth Breese, who works closely with those girls and helps them hone their skills. She’s going to be an excellent bowler.”Among one of the most prolific performers for England for a long period has been Nat Sciver-Brunt, who played an important role with the bat in helping England seal the T20I series in India and was their only batter to pass 21 in the Test with a first-innings 59.She’s England’s top run-getter in T20Is and ODIs this year, her best coming in the Ashes ODI series where she scored 271 runs at an average of 135.50 to go to No. 1 on the batting charts in the format.Jon Lewis on Charlie Dean: “No one gets the drift she gets, no one gets the turn she gets”•BCCIIn T20s this year, she has scored 1315 runs in 40 games at an average of 45.34, making the most runs for champions Mumbai Indians in the inaugural WPL. Lewis is “very fortunate” to have her in the England side, revealing how she plays a key role in the leadership group.”When she was playing for Mumbai [Indians, in WPL] I was a bit jealous,” said Lewis, who coaches UP Warriorz in the competition. “She’s a great cricketer. She’s incredibly calm and clear about what she wants to do and how she goes about her game.”She’s still learning and she still wants growth in her game. She wants to improve but the understanding she has of what she does when she plays well is the thing that stands out to me. And the other thing that she brings to our side is the way that she’s able to communicate with all our players on the field. She’s a real asset. She helps Heather [Knight, captain] a tremendous amount. She’s incredibly calm and communicates clearly, especially with our young players. They work as a team.”[Knight] and Nat and Amy Jones and Sophie Ecclestone work as a senior player group that takes responsibility to make sure the team is running well on the field and off the field. But Nat in particular is a good person who cares a lot about English cricket and playing cricket for England. She cares a lot about the team-mates around her and is a great support for all of them.”Team-mate Sophia Dunkley, however, has been going through a lean patch. She’s made just one half-century across formats since the beginning of the year for England, averaging just 17.00 in 11 T20Is. She took a break for the latter part of the home international summer and found some late form in the WBBL in November, but she couldn’t keep the momentum going in India. After scores of 1, 9 and 11 in the three T20Is respectively, she departed for 11 and 15 in the Test.But one of Lewis’s key takeaways from his time working in the England Men’s Test set-up early in the Brendon McCullum-Ben Stokes era was removing fear of failure and backing players.This was clear when England picked Dunkley to open alongside Tammy Beaumont in the Test after Emma Lamb, who opened in the Ashes Test in June, returned home from India with a back injury.Sophia Dunkley has had a tough run with the bat in 2023•BCCI”She is frustrated that she’s not getting the runs that she would like,” Lewis said of Dunkley. “She’s made some little technical changes to how she approaches her batting, which has given her access to different parts of the ground. If you saw her wagon wheel for a couple of games in the Big Bash, she accessed areas of the ground that she hasn’t previously been able to do.”The difficulty for these girls is they’re trying to bring all these changes into their games whilst playing international cricket and being the player that everyone looks to in their franchise to score the runs. It’s very different to men’s cricket where other people are brought in to give [regular] players a break.”I’ve got a real strong belief around Sophia’s talent, she’s got an amazing ability to strike a cricket ball. She’s talismanic in the way she approaches the start of the game. It wasn’t long ago that she had a pretty good World Cup and was really good against West Indies [in 2022].”You mustn’t get lost in the fact that she hasn’t scored runs for a short period of time. If you compared her to some of our older players at the same age, I think she’d be well ahead of the curve. We’re building a team for the future, and we’re building a team that has a style of play we’re confident can help us win games. Right now, Sophia is a big part of that.”England suffered a shock 2-1 loss to Sri Lanka at home which exposed their weaknesses against slower bowlers. With the T20 World Cup set to be played in Bangladesh next year and the ODI World Cup in 2025 in India to follow, Lewis organised a camp with select players in Mumbai following the series to help them improve their game against spin.”[It was] just to expose them to different conditions, what shots they can play and how they need to adapt their game in different conditions,” he said. “We’ve got two subcontinental World Cups coming up in the next two years. It’s important to understand the conditions and how to play them smartly.”What does aggression or high strike-rate look like in India compared to what it would look like in the UK? Or what would that look like in Bangladesh? We are a developing side and all we were try and develop some skills.”The girls took lots of takeaways from it. Do I expect those things to become straight into their game after a five-day camp? Absolutely not. But do I expect them to think about how to improve, one hundred percent I do.”
His statement, and the testimony of others at the social justice hearings, has shed light on historic systemic failures in South African cricket
Osman Samiuddin28-Aug-2021Personally it was never easy to warm to Mark Boucher, in some small part because he didn’t seem to care whether he was liked or not. To like, or not, was not the point. It became a little easier to look past his bristling presence as South Africa grew into the side they became in the late 2000s, a champion team under the maturing leadership of Graeme Smith, and also more likable because of men such as Hashim Amla and Dale Steyn; in their reflected light, Boucher also found reprieve. The sad and unfortunate end to his playing career brought a little more grace.But for a long time there was undeniably something of the bully about him, captured note perfect in this sledging of Tatenda Taibu in a hopelessly mismatched Test against Zimbabwe in March 2005.”That’s a big shot, Tatenda,” he chirped as Taibu gently drove one to a short cover.”You wanna get out now because I think you might be averaging single figures on this tour,” before a pause, and some mocking magnanimity: “I’ll walk you to the changing room as well.”He then asked Taibu whether his average was 9 or 10 before deciding “maybe 9.5 so we’ll give you 10”.The substance itself was not offensive, but the idea that sledging that Zimbabwe side served any useful purpose was very . Taibu was leading a desperately weakened Zimbabwe, about to slide to a second three-day innings defeat. Moreover, Boucher was part of a South Africa side that, at that point, was not nearly as good as it thought it was. It was no contest, was never going to be, and here was Boucher sticking it into men defeated long before they stepped on to the field. Say what you want about karma, but Taibu and Boucher retired from Tests on the same day and Taibu ended with a batting average 0.01 higher than Boucher’s (30.31 to 30.30).People change, some not as much as we’d like, others not as little as we’d assume, but it is this old Boucher – or at least the whiff of him – that has been felt through Cricket South Africa’s Social Justice and Nation-Building (SJN) hearings in recent weeks.How united were they really? South Africa after a Test win in March 2004.•William West/AFP/Getty ImagesThose hearings have primarily been a cleanse, a release of a lot that has felt pent up in South African cricket. Inadvertently and in some instances, they may become a kind of reckoning. It is entirely fitting not only that Dumisa Ntsebeza, the ombudsman presiding over it, began by quoting James Baldwin – “Not everything that is faced can be changed but nothing can be changed until it is faced” – but that he was one of those who presided over South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission after the fall of apartheid.Testimonies have been equal parts harrowing, compelling and revealing. First came Omar Henry, South Africa’s first player of colour, and as wise as his years. His treatment at the 1992 World Cup can be seen as a foreshadowing of South Africa’s pained grappling with the selection of non-white players since. And his testimony set the tone for those that have followed.Player after player, black or of colour, has told stories of exclusion, of racist behaviour (imagine, as a black player, having your face painted white by a coach because you had dirty boots), of feeling unwelcome in predominantly white sides, of entire careers ruined. Perhaps in some cases valid cricketing reasons meant players who happened to be black missed out. But the weight of these testimonies cannot be borne by these exceptions. These accounts, angry and heartbreaking and essential, speak of a systemic failure.They are also reminders of the vexed challenges of transformation, often forgotten because South Africa have been, for much of the modern age, a winning side. There’s bound to be debris from juggling to ensure selection be merit-based and ticks transformation boxes. The debris is Ashwell Prince being called “quota player” by team-mates. The debris is Khaya Zondo’s stalled career. The debris is the regret the former selector Hussein Manack will have to live with, for not standing his ground on Zondo’s selection. If CSA has stumbled in handling these and other cases, it’s worth remembering that there aren’t precedents it can easily replicate. South African rugby perhaps, but – at the risk of stating the obvious – it is not a like-for-like comparison.Boucher’s name has come up repeatedly, in relation to him being part of the infamous white clique that ran the side, but also in incidents and tales that speak of the culture of exclusion of black and coloured players. One of the most appalling stories was of Paul Adams, nicknamed “brown s**t”, who in team meetings after wins, would be the subject of the team song: “Brown s**t in the ring, tra la la la la la.”Times change. Conversations about racism now are of a different nature – and necessarily so – than as recently as a decade ago. More enlightened for one. More divisive for another, though in being staunchly, proactively anti-racist it’s always worth remembering racists are not here as part of some debating society. But for all the change, for all the retrospective reassessments of racist behaviour, there could never have been a time when it was okay for a team to sing that song. Least of all a team representing South Africa, in the post-apartheid era.Ashwell Prince revealed at the social justice hearings that he was called a quota player by his team-mates around the time of his debut. “A person knows when they are welcome, and you know when you are unwelcome,” he said•Getty ImagesThink of the skewed dynamic here: power as a function of a society with a racist past and racism as a function of power. Adams is in this team of predominantly white players and naturally he wants to fit in because it is a team and he so badly wants to feel a part of it that it wasn’t until his wife (then his girlfriend) pointed out to him that it was not right that he twigged it.Boucher admitted he sang along. He apologised for it and has offered to meet players who felt excluded to mend those relationships. There is something to Boucher’s claim that the players were naïve and ill-equipped to deal with the environment they were in post-apartheid; today, nearly two decades on, it seems a gross dereliction of duty that CSA didn’t, as Boucher claims, conduct any awareness training, or culture workshops for players coming into the environment. Post-apartheid wasn’t just going to by itself. But at the time, sensitivity training, diversity and inclusion were not part of widespread public conversations.The fatalist counter to this is that if players need training workshops to learn to sing those songs, or to not use offensive terminology about South Africans of Indian heritage in front of Prince (whose wife is of Indian origin) or Goolam Rajah, the team’s long-time, much respected manager, then no amount of training will ever really be enough.Boucher acknowledging his role in that era’s culture does not absolve him. It is the first step: of how many and towards what is not clear in specific detail, but in broad outline, towards a better, more equal and transparent space.Those songs weren’t sung alone, and neither was Boucher the only one because of whom players felt discriminated against. Other names have cropped up during the hearings, many of them integral contributors to that great South Africa side. The legacy of that team is undergoing a revision as we speak, although maybe the optimistic way to see it is as a necessary correction. These hearings are the alternative history of that side, the alternative history of South African cricket as a whole, post-apartheid.Or, in the far more eloquent words of Zondo, from his testimony: “Privilege often makes equality seem like oppression. For equality to come into place, people need to strip themselves of privilege so they can see other people’s experiences.”
O RB Bragantino recebe a Inter de Lmiera, neste domingo (17), pelas quartas de final do Paulistão. A bola rola a partir das 16h (de Brasília), no estádio do Nabizão, com transmissão da Cazé TV (Youtube) e Paulistão Play (streaming).
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O Bragantino terminou a fase de grupos do Paulistão com 21 pontos, na liderança do Grupo C. Já a Inter de Limeira Leão encerrou a primeira fase do estadual com 17 pontos.
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✅FICHA TÉCNICA RB Bragantino x Inter de Limeira Quartas de final do Paulistão
Data e horário: domingo, 17 de março de 2024, às 16h (de Brasília) Local: Nabizão, em Bragança Paulista (SP) Onde assistir: Cazé TV (Youtube) e Paulistão Play (streaming)
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⚽ PROVÁVEIS ESCALAÇÕES
RB BRAGANTINO Cleiton; Nathan Mendes, Lucas Cunha, Luan Cândido e Juninho Capixaba; Jadsom, Lincoln e Eric Ramires; Thiago Borbas, Helinho e Eduardo Sasha. Técnico: Pedro Caixinha
INTER DE LIMEIRA Max Walef; Diego Jussani, Emerson Santos, Matheus Mancini e César Morais; JP Galvão, Albano e Gustavo Bochecha; Lima, João Felipe e Quirino. Técnico: Júnior Rocha