Newcastle United legend Alan Shearer believes that last season’s Tyne/Wear derby was the pivotal moment in two managers’ careers, as he told the Sun.
Shearer felt that despite already being up against it, Steve Bruce’s fate was on the wall after their home defeat to arch rivals Newcastle last season, and todays clash could well end with the same fate.
“Last season Newcastle went to the Stadium of Light in the second match of the season,”
“Newcastle won 1-0 and the Sunderland fans never forgave Brucey.
“I genuinely believe he was already up against it at Sunderland purely because he was a Geordie.
“But after losing that derby he won only another two games up until his sacking in December.
“Conversely, the result provided a massive boost for Alan Pardew as Newcastle went on a 10-game unbeaten run laying the foundations for a fifth-placed finish in the league.
“That is what a result in this game can do for either club.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
“Let’s not forget this fixture also proved the final act for Ruud Gullit at Newcastle in 1999 when he decided to leave me on the bench until late on and we got beat 2-1 at home.”
As reported by The Daily Record, new Rangers boss Steven Gerrard is set to decide on the future of club captain Lee Wallace this week after the player’s high profile falling out with the hierarchy at Ibrox.
What’s the story?
Wallace was suspended and fined for his part in a dressing room bust-up with manager Graeme Murty after a Scottish Cup semi-final defeat to Celtic, something which he has subsequently appealed with the SPFL.
Now his playing future at Ibrox is set to be resolved this week, say The Daily Record, with manager Steven Gerrard expected to come to a decision after meeting with Rangers officials this Wednesday.
Will the 30-year-old have opportunities at the Light Blues next season, or is he on his way out?
[brid autoplay=”true” video=”252976″ player=”12034″ title=”Watch 21 things that will definitely happen at the World Cup”]
Would Rangers miss him?
Wallace has been a devoted servant to Rangers up to this point, staying with the club even as they made their way up through the lower leagues after financial calamity in 2012.
With over 250 appearances for the club, there are some who may say he deserves a second chance at Ibrox after his ill-discipline.
However, even if his relationship with decision makers at the club was 100% healthy, his place in the Ranegrs starting eleven is questionable after the emergence of Declan John last season.
The signing from Cardiff City impressed consistently throughout 2017/18 and is well placed to retain his starting spot in the team next term.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Gerrard won’t want members of the dressing room undermining his authority either, meaning Wallace’s future is in serious doubt at Rangers.
Injuries have been a major problem for West Ham United in recent weeks.
The East London outfit have Andy Carroll, Manuel Lanzini and Marko Arnautovic currently on the treatment table.
Carroll has been in and out of the team all season due to injury problems, and the striker is now facing a further three months out after undergoing surgery.
Lanzini is expected to be on the sidelines for a month with a hamstring problem, while Arnautovic is also suffering with a similar injury.
On Saturday, the Hammers were damaged further when Pedro Obiang was stretchered off just after the half-hour mark after being on the receiving end of a challenge.
At the time, the Hammers were trailing 1-0 to Wigan Athletic in the fourth round of the FA Cup at the DW Stadium.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
After Obiang was taken off the field, West Ham fans tweeted their dismay at the latest injury setback.
Liverpool and Arsenal are ready to fight to sign Lazio winger Antonio Candreva, reports the Express.
Manchester United are also monitoring the winger’s complicated contract talks along with the two Reds. Candreva is partly owned by Udinese, who have spoken to Lazio about buying out the Rome club’s part of the contract. But talks have not gone well, with disagreements over if the money should transfer over in payments or a lump sum.
Candreva will enter his final contracted year at Lazio in the summer, and the three English clubs are interested in making a move for the Italian in the next few months. They hope to tempt Lazio selling now, instead of risking losing the winger for free next season.
Udinese and Lazio wil have to rush their ownership talks however, with both clubs wanting the matter to be solved before the World Cup, which starts in June. With Liverpool and Arsenal both currently inside the top 4 and looking to play Champions League football, the pair are hoping to tempt Candreva away from Rome ahead of the next season. Lazio are currently 8th and outside the Champions League places.
And whilst United don’t look likely to be able to offer European football, David Moyes believes the addition of Candreva will help stop the Red Devil’s decline down the Premier League table.
For your chance to WIN two tickets to Everton vs Manchester United on Sunday April 20 AND a copy of FIFA14, simply comment below with your score prediction for the game…
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
[ffccomp link=”https://www.footballfancast.com/football-blogs/win-tickets-to-everton-vs-manchester-united-a-copy-of-fifa-14″oneliner=”For your chance to WIN two tickets to Everton vs Manchester United on Sunday April 20 AND a copy of FIFA14, simply comment below with your score prediction for the game…” step=”PREDICT THE SCORE
BELOW” terms=”http://everton-manchester-united-tickets.pen.io” topics=”premier league, manchester united, everton, football, soccer”]
Arsenal have started the season fairly well in the league but talk of a title challenge has reared its ugly head again and some perspective needs to be attached to how they’ve begun the new campaign, with expectations already been laughably raised to a ridiculous level.
Arsene Wenger’s side currently sit in eighth in the league table after six games having picked up nine points. They’ve not had the easiest of starts to the new season but they’ve picked up a point away at Stoke and Manchester City and all three at Liverpool, while destroying newly-promoted Southampton 6-1 on home turf, which appears to have been the result which has sparked all of the premature title contender talk.
Much like Joe Hart is proclaimed as being world-class simply because he’s better than David James and Paul Robinson and Paul Lambert has been eased in at Aston Villa after a tricky start as Alex McLeish’s predecessor, this Arsenal side appears to be benefiting in the main from the fact that they’ve started the season better than last year.
In their opening six games last season, Arsenal picked up seven points from their opening six league games, which is only two less than this season. The club’s fans are well-known from ranging between ‘the sky is falling down’ to ‘in Wenger we trust’ brigade and while every set of supporters has its extremes, Arsenal’s just appear to be more vocal than most.
The pressure was well and truly on last season after the side’s 8-2 humiliation away at Old Trafford against Manchester United, while they also lost 2-0 at the Emirates to Liverpool and inconceivably 4-3 to Blackburn. They scored nine goals while letting in an alarming 14 which compared to this season’s tally of 10 scored and four conceded is certainly a step in the right direction.
While the result at Old Trafford proved the nadir of last season, it’s worth remembering just how poor defensively the hosts were on that day too and Arsenal, with better finishing in front of goal, could have easily have finished the game with five or six goals to their name too. It was an absolutely crazy, somewhat bizarre match during which Wenger was forced to field a hugely inexperienced back four which struggled to cope with United’s pace and movement.
Of course, Newcastle and Manchester United away, Liverpool at home is far from the easiest of runs to begin your season with, but it was made even worse by the fact that both Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri both decided to leave the club late on in the transfer window. Wenger’s big mistake was simply not planning for either of them leaving, so he was left with a mad supermarket sweep trolley-dash on deadline day to pad out his squad and Jack Wilshere’s injury absence didn’t help matters either.
This summer he appears to have learned from that gross error of judgement which deeply effected the side’s shape, confidence and rhythm earlier on in the campaign by compensating for the inevitable loss of Robin van Persie with the acquisitions of both Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud, even if the latter hasn’t quite found his scoring boots yet.
The result has seen them become a much more rounded side, no longer relying solely on van Persie to carry them through big games but there’s been a temptation to get carried away with their results so far, more out of surprise that they haven’t started the season as badly as last year and that they seem to be coping a lot better post-van Persie than they eve did Fabregas and Nasri.
We shouldn’t forget that Arsenal have still only won two league games so far this season, less than Fulham, West Brom and West Ham and the same as Swansea and Newcasle and their start simply hasn’t been as exceptional as first assumed.
While the performance away at champions Manchester City and the maturity of their display at Anfield against a Liverpool side in transition will have enjoyed greatly by the club’s supporters, they were still out-played for prolonged spells by rivals Chelsea at the weekend and they’ve failed to break down both Sunderland and Stoke on home soil.
Indeed, the nature of the club’s defence has been praised to such an extent that Steve Bould is now no longer just a former player with a sound knowledge of how to organise a back four, he’s the messiah. Keeping clean sheets against Sunderland and Stoke, two sides who showed little to no ambition to attack is nothing to write home about, while keeping another against a toothless Liverpool side is hardly surprising either.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
It’s become something of a concerted PR effort on behalf of the club to praise Bould of late. Do they look more organised this season than last? They sure do. Are they still defensively sound? The goals that they leaked against Chelsea show they most definitely are not. Just as the praise sent Bould’s way at the start of the season was hugely over the top, equally, he isn’t now rubbish at his job just after one poor defensive performance.
Arsenal still look far from the finished package; while Cazorla and Podolski have adjusted well and Oxlade-Chamberlain, Arteta and Meresacker have all impressed at times, they still look a way off the two Manchester clubs and Chelsea in terms of a title challenge this season. A top four place should still be their ambition and Wenger has shown in the past that he’s fantastic at achieving that level of consistency, but the fawning praise of what is still quite an inconsistent start, simply because it’s better than last year’s, lacks any sort of context and talk of a title tilt is still a long way away in the future.
Jinnah Government Degree College, Karachi dominated the Red Bull Campus Cricket National final to beat University of Central Punjab, Lahore by 17 runs to make the World Finals being played in Dehradun on October 19
ESPNcricinfo staff19-Oct-2015Jinnah Government Degree College from Karachi dominated the Red Bull Campus Cricket National final and beat Lahore-based University of Central Punjab by 17 runs on June 7, to make the World Finals of the event being held in Dehradun on October 19.Ali Tipu, UCP’s captain, won the toss and opted to field on a spin-friendly track. Their opponents were off to a strong start and openers Hamza Ghanchi and Shahzar Khan added 36 runs for the first wicket.Ghanchi’s dismissal in the sixth over produced a top-order collapse, as they lost three wickets for just 15 runs.Shahzar then found able support from Qadir Khan and the duo rebuilt the innings with intelligent rotation of the strike. They added 33 runs for the fourth wicket.Shahzar was dismissed after completing his fifty. The lower-order failed to provide much resistance and fell cheaply. JGDC managed just 119 in their innings.In reply, UCP were off to a shaky start with the bat and lost opener Junaid Ali, for just four, in the first over.His opening-partner Tamour Sultan looked composed and refused to hand over the initiative. He smashed four fours and two sixes in his quickfire 48-ball 54.However, the other batsmen failed and managed just 27 runs between them. Sultan’s dismissal in the 16th over ended any chances of a UCP recovery. They fell 17-runs short of the target.JGDC celebrations lasted long after the final wicket fell. Ghanchi collected the glittering winner’s trophy from Faisal Khan, Red Bull’s Country Head.Ghanchi’s team will look to maintain their winning ways in Dehradun when they compete against some of the best campus-cricket teams from around the world.
The BCCI’s working committee meeting was adjourned minutes after it started on Friday evening over the presence of N Srinivasan
Amol Karhadkar28-Aug-20153:59
Bal: Srinivasan attendance issue should have been addressed beforehand
The BCCI’s working committee meeting was adjourned sine die minutes after it started on Friday evening over the presence of former president N Srinivasan, who was there in his capacity as Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) head. A board statement said it would seek the Supreme Court’s opinion on whether he could attend its meetings as the TNCA representative, and it is believed that it will move the court on Saturday.Once the Supreme Court gives its directive, the BCCI will reconvene the working committee at the earliest to get all the sub-committee reports ratified before the AGM, likely to be held in Kolkata on September 27.According to a BCCI insider Srinivasan, despite being requested to stay away from the meeting due to his complicated legal status, decided to attend at his “own risk”. The BCCI hierarchy consulted legal advisor Ushanath Banerjee, who was not sure of the legal implications of Srinivasan’s presence given the conflict of interest issues and the restrictions imposed by the Supreme Court. Srinivasan had in the past been forced to apologise to the Supreme Court for attending BCCI meetings after being told to stay away.The matter was not taken up at the meeting; instead the announcement of adjournment was made by board president Jagmohan Dalmiya soon after it started.Srinivasan arrived at a five-star hotel in Kolkata, venue for the meeting, early on Friday. Soon after lunch, a message was passed on by the BCCI hierarchy that he should not be attending the meeting considering the Supreme Court is yet to suggest administrative reforms to the BCCI. Srinivasan, who was meeting his group members then, clarified he was well within his rights to represent TNCA.It was soon followed by a meeting between himself, IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla, Banerjee and treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry. It is understood that Srinivasan explained to others that his position as managing director of India Cements Ltd was not going to be a conflict of interest since India Cements is actually a respondent along with the BCCI in the Chennai Super Kings Cricket Ltd’s writ petition against the suspension. He was then told by the BCCI hierarchy that he should attend the meeting “at your own risk” to which he agreed.Srinivasan is also understood to have told the members that he was not going to attend the meeting to “hatch eggs” but in order to contribute to the BCCI administration in whatever way he could. It was eventually agreed that Srinivasan would recuse himself from IPL-related discussion to avoid any more legal tangle.Confusion had prevailed on Thursday night during the IPL governing council meeting as well. PS Raman, a Chennai-based lawyer who is considered to be close to Super Kings, was present in the meeting and tried to defend the Super Kings’ low valuation of Rs five lakh at the time of transfer of shares from India Cements to a trust.The members then objected to his presence and questioned who had invited Raman to the meeting. To which, BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur and IPL chairman Shukla tried to put the blame on each other. Raman was then asked to leave the room.On Friday, Raman told ESPNcricinfo: “The IPL governing council had called me. They wanted some clarifications on the India Cements disinvestment. We had given them the opinion of former Chief Justice of India, confirming that there was no undervaluation. It’s the correct way to do it because it’s from holding company to a subsidiary, and thereafter directly to shareholders. So it didn’t amount to a change in control. I don’t know [if they were satisfied with the explanation].”Asked if he was representing Super Kings, Raman said: “They asked me both as a person associated with India Cements and CSK apart from being a lawyer. Also, I had debated this issue at the last Working Committee meeting of the BCCI. So, you could take it either way.”
Jamaica secured their place at the top of the points table at the end of the round-robin matches, scoring a five-wicket win against Combined Campuses and Colleges in Kingston
ESPNcricinfo staff28-Apr-2013 ScorecardJamaica secured their place at the top of the points table at the end of the round-robin matches, scoring a five-wicket win against Combined Campuses and Colleges in Kingston. Left-arm spinner Nikita Miller played a central role in the victory with a match haul of eight, including six in CCC’s second innings. He was well supported by debutant offspinner Jamie Merchant, who finished with five in the match.The pair, with help from the new-ball partnership of Sheldon Cotterrell and B Buchanan (playing only his second first-class game), helped restrict CCC to 150 after they had chosen to bat. The visitors made a fist of it by keeping Jamaica to an 88-run lead, with one of their two debutants, pace bowler Dawayne Sealy, picking up a five-for. However, the Miller-Merchant combine wreaked havoc in CCC’s second take, reducing them from 68 for no loss to 152 all out.That left Jamaica with a target of 65, and while they made heavy weather of it, they eventually got home in the 23rd over with half their wickets intact. They will now host Trinidad and Tobago in the semi-finals from May 2.
Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli has said that his side erred in their shot selection in a low-scoring chase against Deccan Chargers on Sunday
ESPNcricinfo staff21-May-2012Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli has said his side erred in its shot selection in a low-scoring chase against Deccan Chargers on Sunday. Royal Challengers’ defeat in Hyderabad allowed Chennai Super Kings to hang on to the fourth spot at the end of the league stage and qualify for the playoffs.After dismissing Chargers for 132, Royal Challengers lost wickets at regular intervals, Dale Steyn finishing with figures of 4-0-8-3. Kohli said Steyn’s spell cost his team the match. “He bowled amazingly well,” Kohli said. “He’s one player that you must be cautious against. We needed to target the other bowlers but I don’t think we played the right kind of shots. On that wicket we could have played ourselves in before taking chances at the end.”We have been batting brilliantly through the tournament but today people were getting beaten on straight balls; balls that they would usually smash out of the ground. Things didn’t go right for us as far as batting is concerned but I think we bowled well and fielded well. We played good cricket for 70 percent of the game.”After the dismissal of Chris Gayle and Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kohli and Saurabh Tiwary kept Royal Challengers in the hunt with a brisk stand of 46, which came at 7.45 runs an over. But Kohli’s dismissal in the 16th over led to a lower-order collapse. “My wicket changed the face of the match, we were easily poised and at that stage needed 30 from 25 balls. We made mistakes today and could have played better cricket shots,” Kohli said.”When a team has nothing to lose they play freely and they bowled in good areas today. I don’t think the wicket was that bad to bat on, it was a bit two-paced but if you played yourself in then you could hit some big shots. Apart from me and Saurabh (Tiwary ) we didn’t get any partnerships. We need small partnerships in T20 when you’re chasing a small score and that didn’t happen for us today.”Kohli said despite Gayle falling in the third over, Royal Challengers should have chased the target easily. “He’s been a big, impact player for us but (after his dismissal) the other players should have stepped up today, which didn’t happen. We should have made better decisions while batting.”You can’t smash every over in T20, you must analyse and stretch the game till the end, we needed partnerships and when I got out we needed 30 from 25 which was gettable. It was always up to the batsmen in the middle to analyse what was going on.”Despite failing to make the playoffs, Kohli said the side learnt a lot from the high-quality cricket played in the IPL this year. “Unfortunately we are out because of net run-rate but I don’t think we’ve played bad cricket at all,” he said. “It feels very bad (failing to qualify for playoffs) but as a tournament the IPL has been brilliant this year, I think six-seven teams were on 16-17 points each. It’s been really competitive and it’s good the more competitive it gets, as it brings out more quality from the players.”
England’s No. 3 is still a teenager and has benefited from managing her schedule better
Valkerie Baynes12-Jul-2024The day Alice Capsey turned 18, she walked towards a pod of journalists, delighted that she no longer needed a chaperone during interviews.She’d been doing these – accompanied – for a while and her team, Oval Invincibles, had just pulled off the highest successful run chase in the Women’s Hundred to defeat Northern Superchargers at The Oval after the men’s teams had played the curtain raiser.As eager and comfortable as she was on that night almost two years ago, it’s easy to forget she is still a teenager now and to overlook how the sheer volume of cricket she has played since took a “toll” on her. Since July 2022, Capsey has played a staggering 93 top-level T20 matches. As a result, she hasn’t played regional cricket this season, opting to focus on playing for England and, when she’s not, taking a break from cricket.Related
Capsey the mainstay as England close out 'scrappy' 37-run win
Bouchier, Capsey and Dean see England through in the wet
Ecclestone, Capsey star as England hold off New Zealand for 3-0 lead
Speaking in Canterbury after her career-best 67 not out off 60 balls secured victory for England in a nervy third T20I against New Zealand, Capsey revealed that she felt in a much better place than she had over the past year and just how hard it had been to reach that point.”I’ve been kind of under the spotlight for the last three years and it’s taken its toll a little bit, especially over the last year,” Capsey said. “So I really have taken a step back this year and gone, ‘What’s going to be the best option for me to go onto the pitch and perform?’ Prioritising myself a little bit more… not listening to the outside noise as much and really focusing on what matters to me as a person and as a cricketer and what’s going to make me the best cricketer for this team.”Capsey enjoyed a breakout season during the inaugural Women’s Hundred and was part of the first England A squad to tour Australia during the Women’s Ashes at the start of 2022, earning her senior call-up for the Commonwealth Games later that year. Since then, she has become a fixture at No. 3 in T20Is and played in franchise tournaments around the world while floating round the middle order in 17 ODIs.But her half-century against the White Ferns to help England to a 3-0 lead in their five match T20 series on Thursday was her first fifty in the format since last August. Her highest score in the 11 innings she played in between was 31 – made against Pakistan in May – and sat alongside a string of scores either in the 20s, or in single figures. Her highest score in ODIs is 44, also reached during Pakistan’s recent visit. In her two other ODI innings this English summer, she was unbeaten on 39 and 35 against Pakistan and New Zealand respectively.All of these numbers serve as a reminder that Capsey is still a young player learning her craft, and suggest she is figuring out what works for her at the right time.”For someone of my age, I feel really experienced within T20 cricket and I feel really comfortable with my role at No. 3,” she said. “I know that it’s not going to come off every time and I know that there’s going to be critics about how I go about the game. But on nights like these, it is just about going big and really securing the win.Capsey has played a high volume of T20, including at the WPL•BCCI
“I missed the regional cricket this year. I have played so much cricket and I thought the best way to actually perform for England and get myself in the best positive space to be able to perform was to have a little break. We’ve obviously got huge winter and playing for England and performing for England is my main priority. Playing the amount of games I have, I’ve been exposed to a lot of different situations, which is just going to help me as a batter but as an allrounder. Then, obviously on the flip side, it’s a hell of a lot of cricket.”Taking time off between international series appears to be paying dividends, with a T20 World Cup in October, followed by an away Ashes series, then a 50-over World Cup in India in 2025.”As much as I probably haven’t played the amount of cricket that I have in the past couple of years, I feel the most calm and controlled I’ve felt in a very long time,” Capsey said. “I feel really calm, I know what my options are and yeah, I just feel really confident and it’s amazing that if you’re in a good head space that you then take it onto the pitch and feel a lot better about yourself.”Jon Lewis, England’s head coach, said recently that he’d like Capsey “to be one of our best top-five batters” in ODIs, while recognising that her schedule is currently focused on the shorter format. He has also been keen to deploy her part-time offspin, albeit in a side spoilt with spin-bowling riches in the form of left-armer and world No.1 Sophie Ecclestone, legspinner Sarah Glenn and offspinner Charlie Dean.But, as shown in fielding an experimental line-up missing captain Heather Knight, opening batter Danni Wyatt and seamer Lauren Bell, England are all about exploring their options ahead of the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh.”We’ve been spoken to by the coaching staff before the series, saying that there will be a bit of chaos thrown in front of us, a few different situations about how we adapt to it,” Capsey said. “The performances are showing we are getting the results, but I think as a group we’re really calm with the different changes and we all feel like, especially from my point of view, I feel like it doesn’t matter who’s in the team, we can all just go out in there and play with freedom and play to our strengths.”I’d love to bowl, but I stand no chance with those three,” Capsey added. “They perform day in, day out and when I do get the opportunity, don’t get me wrong, I’m going to make the most of it, but if I’m not having to bowl, then they’re doing their job and we’re probably winning more games than we’re not.”