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Chelsea can officially start to make moves during the summer transfer window after it opened for business on Sunday, and that includes exits as well as incomings.

Towards the end of last month, the Daily Mail reported that Crystal Palace could make a move to bring Trevoh Chalobah back to Selhurst Park, after they qualified for the Europa League by winning the FA Cup.

It remains to be seen whether or not the Blues would be willing to part ways with the academy graduate, whom they recalled in January, but they were willing to send him out on loan to Palace last summer.

Chalobah started the Conference League final against Real Betis, but was also an unused substitute in the last two Premier League games as Chelsea chased a top-five finish.

Chelsea eyeing deal for new centre-back

The 25-year-old defender, whose sale would represent pure profit for the Blues as a homegrown player, could find himself on his way out of Stamford Bridge amid talk that the club are interested in bringing another centre-back to the club.

He is already behind Tosin Adarabioyo, Levi Colwill, and Wesley Fofana, when available, which suggests that the addition of another player in that position could send him too far down the pecking order.

Transfer Focus

Mega money deals, controversial moves and big-name flops. This is the home of transfer news and opinion across Football FanCast.

With a move for Liam Delap all but sewn up, now according to The Guardian, Chelsea are ‘considering’ a swoop to sign England international Marc Guehi from Crystal Palace in the summer transfer window.

The report claims that the Blues are eyeing up a deal for the English centre-back, who is ‘widely expected’ to move on from Selhurst Park ahead of next season.

The Guardian recently reported that Palace value Guehi at a fee of around £65m, although it remains to be seen whether or not Chelsea would be willing to pay that much for their former defender.

Why Chelsea should sign Marc Guehi

The Conference League champions should swoop to sign the £65m-rated England international this summer because he would arrive as a big upgrade on Trevoh Chalobah, due to the defensive qualities that the former Cobham star can bring to the side.

Guehi, who has previously been hailed as “unbelievable” by podcast host Aaron Moniz, is a proven Premier League performer who has been there and done it and could hit the ground running at Stamford Bridge.

As a former academy graduate, he would also not need much time to adapt to life at Cobham and with some of the players with whom he would already be familiar, like the captain Reece James, which could work in his favour.

24/25 Premier League	Marc Guehi	Trevoh Chalobah
Appearances	34	25
Tackles + interceptions per game	2.6	2.4
Clearances per game	4.6	4.2
Blocks per game	0.2	0.1
Duels won per game	4.9	4.2
Duel success rate	59%	59%
Stats via Sofascore

As you can see in the table above, Guehi’s performances in the Premier League this season also suggest that he would be a big upgrade on Chalobah as an out-and-out defender.

Whilst the individual statistics may not show a big difference, with only 0.4 more clearances per game or 0.2 more tackles and interceptions per game, it is the fact that he is ahead of the Chelsea defender in every category that stands out.

This means that Guehi could come in and offer more to Enzo Maresca’s side as a centre-back in every aspect of defending, from winning duels, to making blocks, to being in the right place at the right time to make vital clearances.

He is also less prone to making mistakes. Chalobah made two errors that led to goals in the Premier League, whilst Guehi did not make a single error that led directly to a goal, which suggests that the Palace star would be more reliable at the heart of the defence.

Big Sancho upgrade: Chelsea step up move for 'one of the world's best'

Chelsea could be ready to land an upgrade on Jadon Sancho this summer

1

By
Robbie Walls

Jun 1, 2025

Therefore, Chelsea should press ahead with a deal to sign the £65m-rated English star this summer because he could come in as a big upgrade on Chalobah to improve Maresca’s defence next season.

Glasgow Rangers will have new owners and a new manager at Ibrox by the time pre-season comes along.

The deal for the 49ers Enterprises appears to be close to completion and this could give the Gers a massive boost ahead of the 2025/26 season.

Appointing a new manager is first up on the priority list for the 49ers and this decision could be the most important one Rangers make in their recent history.

Get it right and the Ibrox side could challenge Celtic for all three domestic trophies next season, reasserting their dominance of Scottish football.

Bring in the wrong man, however, and the same vicious cycle that has plagued the club since Gerrard left in 2021 will be repeated.

Whoever arrives in Glasgow as the new manager will have plenty of work to do. The first-team squad needs to be stripped of the deadwood, which will allow the manager to raise funds and clear the wage bill.

The likes of Ben Davies, Kieran Dowell, Rabbi Matondo and Tom Lawrence should all be moved on when the window opens.

On the other hand, several players have massive futures, notably Nico Raskin, Hamza Igamane and Mohamed Diomande.

The former two are attracting interest due to their performances of late, but Diomande also has an extraordinarily high ceiling in the game.

Why Diomande has such a high ceiling

While Raskin and Igamane have been generating plenty of interest of late, Diomande has gone about his business in a quieter manner.

That isn’t to say he isn’t as important, as the midfielder can operate in a few roles within the midfield area.

The 23-year-old has spent time as a number ten on occasions this term, contributing five goal involvements. While he has also played a number of games in a more deep-lying role for the Gers, he has still chipped in with seven goal involvements.

Crucially, the Ivorian starlet helped lead the Light Blues into the quarter-finals of the Europa League this season, and when compared to his peers in the competition, Diomande ranks in the top 6% for passes into the final third (4.11), the top 10% for interceptions (1.26) and in the top 20% for take-ons attempted (2.51) per 90.

These statistics prove that the midfielder can mix it with the best in Europe’s sister competition regarding those performance metrics.

Mohamed Diomande’s stats for Rangers this season
Metric	Premiership	Europa League
Goals	4	1
Assist	7	2
Big chances created	11	3
Key passes per game	1.2	0.9
Total duels won per game	4.3	5.3
Via Sofascore

He was even better in the Scottish top flight. Going forwards, Diomande has created 11 big chances, averages 1.2 key passes, and succeeds with 64% of his dribble attempts.

Defensively, the midfielder wins 55% of his total duels contested, along with making 1.2 tackles, recovering 4.3 balls and making 0.6 interceptions per game for the Gers.

This combination of defensive solidity and attacking dynamism has seen the player shine at Ibrox throughout the current season. There is no doubt that he can continue to get better and better.

With a deal that runs to 2028, Diomande should be at Ibrox for the long haul. He currently earns just £12k-per-week which places him among the lower-earning players at the club.

There are several at the club who are taking more home than the African star, despite failing to impress.

Dowell and Matondo are notable examples, but it is Jose Cifuentes, someone who makes more than Diomande, who should be given the boot.

Why Rangers signed Jose Cifuentes

Michael Beale was in the market for a new midfielder ahead of the 2023/24 campaign and earmarked Cifuentes as someone who could offer plenty to the club’s cause.

His performances for LAFC during his time in America were certainly impressive. Across 121 games, he registered 35 goal contributions – 15 goals and 20 assists – while even helping the club win the MLS Cup during the 2021/22 campaign.

He even played twice at the 2022 World Cup for Ecuador, and it surely wasn’t going to be long before he sealed a move away from North America.

Enter Rangers. Given his contract was due to expire in December 2023, Beale spent only £1.2m to secure his services a few weeks before the transfer window closed.

On the surface, the “dynamic” midfielder – as dubbed by LAFC assistant manager Marc Dos Santos – appeared to be an excellent signing, especially judging by the fee. The reality, however, was rather different.

What went wrong for Jose Cifuentes at Rangers

Despite the hype surrounding his arrival at the club, the Ecuadorian would only go on to play 20 times for Rangers, scoring just one goal.

Chalkboard

He failed to have an influence on the pitch, and it was evident that Philippe Clement didn’t have him in any future plans.

The midfielder was thus sent out on loan to Brazilian side Cruzeiro, but this spell was cut short after six months, before he was shipped out to Aris Thessalonki last summer on another temporary deal.

In Greece, Cifuentes’s performances slowly improved and, at the time of writing, he has registered four goal contributions – one goal and three assists – while helping his club to fifth in the top flight.

It looks as though he could be set to depart Rangers this summer after admitting he wishes to turn his loan move into a permanent one when the campaign comes to an end.

The Light Blues have slapped a £2.2m price tag on his head, a fee which Aris will be looking to bring down should any potential move go through.

The Ecuadorian is currently earning £16k-per-week which is slightly more than what Diomande is taking home.

Hopefully, the new manager will be able to move Cifuentes this summer. Not only will it bring in a couple of million to spend on future transfers, but it will also help free up some of the wage budget.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite meant to be at Ibrox for the former LAFC star, despite a solid reputation upon arriving in Scotland.

Making a profit on him would be an excellent piece of business by the club, that’s for sure.

Their new Morelos: Rangers eyeing "top striker" who'd cost just £8,000

Rangers have their eyes on a talented young striker

By
Ross Kilvington

May 12, 2025

New Zealand allrounder primed for debut having worked his way from small town to big stage

Deivarayan Muthu26-Nov-2024He imagined himself as Tim Southee when he bowled in backyard cricket, and Kane Williamson or Ross Taylor when he batted. He then watched Matt Henry hurl bouncers at Steven Smith from the grass banks as a spectator at the Hagley Oval in 2016. Eight years on, he is set to step into the Hagley Oval as a Black Cap and share the stage with some of his heroes.He can get the new ball to hoop around. He can get the old one to reverse-swing and skid off the pitch. He is also a capable batter down the order. Meet 26-year-old allrounder Nathan Smith.Just two weeks after making his white-ball debut for the Black Caps, in Sri Lanka, Smith will likely feature in his first Test with World Test Championship (WTC) points at stake. He was handed his first NZC central contract in September, even before he had played an international game for New Zealand. Although that owed something to Devon Conway and Finn Allen opting out of contracts, it highlighted the all-format promise that Smith brings and the faith New Zealand’s team management have in his skills.Related

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• Bethell to debut for England in first Test against New Zealand

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The road to the New Zealand Test side, though, has been a long and twisty one for Smith. Hailing from small-town Oamaru, Smith had made his first-class debut in April 2016 as an 18-year-old and spent his formative years under Rob Walter, currently South Africa’s white-ball coach, at Otago before a reshuffle of personnel prompted him to move to Wellington ahead of the 2021-22 domestic season.Smith immediately impressed in his first Plunket Shield season for Wellington, coming away as the joint-highest wicket-taker. A serious back injury, which needed surgery, then left him on the sidelines next season, but he bounced back spectacularly in 2023-24, his chart-topping 33 wickets central to Wellington’s run to the title.A fitter, stronger Smith is now prepared to withstand the load of international cricket.”Yeah, I suppose the last couple of years, barring the last six months, the 18 months before that, they were challenging,” Smith said recently. “A couple of back stress fractures, it’s quite testing times, but I think through that you sort of learn a lot about yourself. It gives you a little bit of perspective as well and it’s a hell of a lot better playing than spending a lot of time sitting on the couch watching.”So, it’s nice to have a sort of a prolonged period of playing consistently and I think that’s probably why the results are so good, you know, just playing all the time.””It felt like it was only going to be a matter of time. Nathan’s had that taste in white-ball cricket and hopefully he gets an opportunity in Test cricket as well. Because it would be nice to think that Worcester were a very, very small part of his journey towards that.”Smith is certainly quicker than Colin de Grandhomme – he can touch 140kph – and though his batting isn’t as explosive as de Grandhomme’s yet, he is being talked up as a compelling package. In first-class cricket, Smith has scored 13 fifties and one hundred, while on his ODI debut, in Dambulla, he pulled off a sensational catch at the deep third boundary to dismiss Pathum Nissanka.”He was batting probably at No. 7 the majority of the games for us and anywhere between No. 7 and No. 9, he did score some really useful runs,” Richardson said. “He knows his game well but [is] probably not as powerful as de Grandhomme. For me, all three skillsets – he ticks those boxes with the field as well. Awesome in the field, ultra-athletic, has the impact and has a real wow factor about him.”Smith had a low-key ODI debut in Sri Lanka and facing Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes’ Bazballers will present a bigger challenge for him, but Richardson has backed him to cope well.”I think I’ve only known Nathan for a small period of time, but he was a very impressive character and very calm,” Richardson said. “Knowing Nathan, I’d like to think he’ll probably try and shift that mindset around to say that it’s going to create opportunities for him and that he’ll back his skills and know that if he does it really well, he’ll have a chance at any given time that can go one way or the other. It will be quite intimidating because England will look to score at a [high] rate and he knows that.”So, I’m sure he’ll have some things in place, but just watching how he goes about it, you know, he’s a very ambitious cricketer. It’s something that he put on his radar and speaking to us very early on, he wanted to play international cricket. I don’t think he will back down from that.”From small-town Oamaru, Smith is certainly ready for the big stage.

Coming in at two different times when the hosts looked down and out, they each found a way to counter the Lyon threat and keep the Test alive

Karthik Krishnaswamy18-Feb-20232:15

Axar: ‘Against spinners, the bowler in me tells me how to bat’

February is perhaps the best time of the year to visit Delhi. The bitter cold and toxic smog of winter have been left behind, and there’s still a while to go before the air-fryer conditions of May and June. There’s a nip in the air in the evenings and early mornings, and a pleasing warmth in between.February’s spring weather has seemed to have an interesting effect on the pitch at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. On days one and two of the second Border-Gavaskar Test match, batting has been at its trickiest in the morning session, a time that has happened to coincide, on both days, with the ball being hard and new. It may have something to do with moisture in the topsoil, from dew settling on the pitch during the chilliest time of day as well as overnight sweating under the covers.On day one, India’s spinners derived extra turn and bounce during the first session. On day two, Australia’s spinners got the newish ball shooting quickly off the surface, while attacking the stumps relentlessly. It amplified the danger of every misjudgment from the batters. And every error from India’s top order, it seemed, was ending up as a Nathan Lyon wicket.Related

• Lyon shreds match-up theory, aces test against India's right-handers

• Lyon, Head give Australia edge in one-innings shootout

• Warner subbed out with concussion, replaced by Renshaw

• India's cheat code: lower-order muscle

Less than a week ago, there were questions over Lyon’s effectiveness on pitches where bowled and lbw dismissals are greater threats than bat-pad catches. In a seeming riposte, Lyon, bowling quick and at the stumps from around the wicket, took out each of India’s top three in the space of ten balls, all three either lbw or bowled. Five overs into his first spell of the match, he had figures of 3 for 8.Not long after, India were 66 for 4, when Peter Handscomb took a freak catch at short leg off the middle of Shreyas Iyer’s bat. They were 66 for 4, trailing Australia’s first-innings total by 197 runs.India turned this situation around, and eventually conceded a first-innings lead of just one run. It happened over two phases, each as crucial as the other.

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Axar Patel is so similar to Ravindra Jadeja in so many ways that it’s possible to treat them as one entity: a two-headed, Gujarati-speaking beast of an allrounder who bats left-handed and bowls fast, accurate left-arm orthodox.There are differences, of course, and one of them may have played a significant role in their batting fates on Saturday.The bulk of India’s batters defend against spin with a long front-foot stride and with bat alongside pad, and while it has been no hindrance to their building highly successful careers, it was a dangerous method on this pitch, and contributed to the lbw dismissals of KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli and Jadeja.Axar is different – he’s younger, and he’s spent a bigger chunk of his formative years in the DRS era. Where Jadeja tends to take a long stride down the line of the stumps while defending spinners off the front foot, Axar tends not to move his front foot across the stumps unless he can get his pad outside the line of off stump. Otherwise he keeps his pad away from the line of the ball, and uses his height and reach to get his head over the ball and play with his bat in front of his pad.This method has its disadvantages, of course: it can leave you a little more vulnerable against the ball turning away and testing the outside edge, and also to bat-pad catches at short leg. But on this day-two Delhi pitch, you were likelier to be lbw or bowled than have an edge carry to slip.On Saturday, Axar had his outside edge beaten numerous times by Lyon, and on a couple of occasions by Todd Murphy and Travis Head. He even edged Lyon towards slip when he was on 28, but the ball died as it reached Steven Smith, ducked below his fingertips and rolled away for four.

“Let’s be clear, they’re not the lower order. They have a very long top order, let’s just say that”Nathan Lyon on the Axar-Ashwin partnership

There was far less drama past the inside edge, the ball comfortably on its way down the leg side on the odd occasion when it hit his front pad.This defensive technique played a significant role in Axar scoring 74, and putting on a century stand with R Ashwin after the two came together with India 139 for 7. It was yet another case of India typing in their lower-order cheat code in a home Test.”They’re not the lower order, let’s get that clear,” Lyon said during his end-of-day press conference. “Axar and Ash could easily bat in the top six in a few teams in Test cricket around the world, in my eyes. Let’s be clear, they’re not the lower order. They have a very long top order, let’s just say that.”A lot of work has gone into making Axar look like a top-order batter. Some of it – in an interesting case of T20 preparation contributing to Test-match success – taken place at Delhi Capitals, his IPL team. Speaking at his press conference after the day’s play, Axar detailed how conversations with his India team-mates and with Ricky Ponting, the Capitals head coach, had helped him take his game to the next level.”I felt that whatever I did, I was doing halfway – if I scored runs, I was getting out for 30s and 40s, and at crucial times, I was not able to finish matches when I needed to,” Axar said. “The main thing was mindset – what’s going through your mind.”As an allrounder, sometimes you can feel you’ve taken wickets, you’ve done your job, and you can become a little casual. I wanted to improve that aspect of my batting – my concentration levels after getting to 30, to tell myself that I should carry on and finish this match. This is how I think when I bat now, and this is the difference that’s come into my batting in the last one-and-a-half years.”Among other things the Capitals coaches worked on with Axar was his alignment, to open up his front shoulder and broaden his range. From being too side-on – which hampered his strokeplay down the ground and through the on side, while also leaving him prone to getting cramped by the short ball – he’s now more neutrally aligned and is able to access nearly all areas of the field.One stroke on Saturday was a clear illustration of this, a perfectly balanced, head-over-the-ball, straight-bat punch off Pat Cummins. It was more push than punch, in truth, but it sped unstoppably down the ground, straight of mid-on, a piece of pure timing.There were other shots, too, that made you gasp: two fierce square-cuts off Cummins; a back-foot drive off Matthew Kuhnemann, bisecting deep point and long-off; and best of all a dancing, effortless, inside-out loft over wide mid-off off Murphy. He didn’t reach the pitch of the ball, but it didn’t matter; he simply extended the arms, made the sweetest of connections, and held his pose, watching the ball soar into the stands.Axar Patel used his height and reach to get his head over the ball and play with his bat in front of his pad•Getty Images

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By that point, Axar was making batting look exceedingly simple, but he had also been fortunate to arrive at the crease when the ball was nearly 50 overs old, when the bowlers had all those overs in their legs, and when the day’s early moisture must have mostly left the pitch.”The new ball is skidding a little and leaving the pitch with pace,” Axar said. “As the ball gets older – even the pitch is getting slower – the ball isn’t coming [quickly off the pitch], so you need to vary your pace more – a little quicker, a little slower – and because of this I think the semi-new ball has been getting more wickets, and then it gets a little easier. We’ve seen on both days that batting has become easier in the last two sessions.”The batter he replaced was in large part responsible for the timing of Axar’s arrival. That batter, Kohli, had been the first member of India’s top order to demonstrate a method of surviving a rampant Lyon and scoring runs against him.This method was to go only get on the front foot when he felt he could get close enough to the pitch of the ball to smother it. Otherwise, he went deep in his crease and across his stumps, starting from an open stance so that his front pad was not in the way of his bat coming down straight to defend, or to work the ball into the leg side. On a handful of occasions, when he sensed that the ball had enough hangtime to allow it, he used his feet to skip out of the crease.He made every effort to play Lyon, and Murphy, with the spin – he didn’t attempt a single cover drive against either, and any invitation to play that shot was met instead with a wristy whip that sent the ball rolling down the ground to long-on or deep midwicket.Australia, with the cushion of a 200-plus total, used in-out fields even in the early part of Kohli’s innings, and each single he took was met by a roar from an adoring crowd that had packed the roof-less stands at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.This sort of reception meets Kohli everywhere, but Saturday’s atmosphere had a heightened electricity. Weekend, India batting, Kohli, local boy – each of these ingredients amplified the effect of the previous one.Having a method is one thing. Kohli was showing the exceptional judgment of line and length needed to make it work. Against the offspinners, he was barely ever on the wrong foot, and his head never tipped over to the off side of the ball on all the occasions when he went back and across to them.Batting in the toughest part of the day, when the bowlers were still fresh, he achieved a control percentage of 91. Axar, batting at an easier time, finished with a control percentage of 86.But Kohli’s exhibition of skill and technique would only last 77 balls. And his dismissal left a feeling that while he had mastered the offspinners on the day, he hadn’t quite done the same against the left-arm orthodox spinner – a style of bowling that has troubled him in recent months. He stretched out to Kuhnemann on 44, but failed to get close to the pitch of the ball, allowing natural variation to do its thing.He played for turn, with bat next to pad, and the ball went on straight, squeezed between bat and pad, and hit both. We will probably never know for sure whether it hit bat first or pad, but Nitin Menon gave Kohli out, and it wasn’t within the DRS’s power to reverse the decision. The same thing has happened to Kohli before, against Ajaz Patel in Mumbai.Virat Kohli defends on the front foot during his crucial 44•BCCI

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74. 72. 44. 79.If you’re a Kohli fan, you don’t need dates and venues to know what those numbers are. Those numbers probably leave you with a bittersweet feeling and a sense of life’s unfairness.Kohli hasn’t scored a Test hundred since November 2019. Since that innings, he has an average in the mid-20s. But he’s also played a number of innings – the above four, above all – where he’s not just looked good, but looked incredibly good, compiling technical masterclasses in challenging conditions. But they’ve all been masterclasses in miniature.On Saturday, Kohli played another innings like that, but there’s a chance it could be different from the others in one significant way. The 74, the 72, the 44 and the 79 were all part of India defeats.Thanks to what came after it, Saturday’s 44 may yet leave his fans with a less bittersweet feeling

His 10th Test ton took him past Tamim Iqbal for most centuries by a Bangladesh batsman

Mohammad Isam06-Feb-2021By reaching his 10th Test century, Mominul Haque now holds a significant record in Bangladesh cricket.Related

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Haque will be tussling with Tamim Iqbal for the top position for most Test tons for a few more years, just like Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim are neck-and-neck for Bangladesh’s most Test runs. Bangladesh’s highest individual Test score has also exchanged hands quite a few times between Rahim, Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan.Iqbal is currently in top position among Bangladesh’s ODI run-makers and centurions, with Shakib and Rahim not too far behind. These three names feature in nearly every Bangladeshi batting chart, but Haque is closing in. He has valuable milestones to his name, and two in particular that were unheard of before Haque got them.With his ton at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, Haque is now tied with Michael Clarke (Adelaide Oval), Mahela Jayawardene (Galle) and Kumar Sangakkara (Galle) for scoring seven centuries a single ground. Among current players, he is best placed to challenge the world record. Haque also got near the top of another record with his eleven fifties in consecutive Tests from 2013 to 2015. In addition, he is Bangladesh’s highest scorer in Tests since his debut, and holds the Bangladesh record for most runs in a two-match Test series. He is Bangladesh’s highest run-getter at No. 4 and second highest at No. 3, also having the most hundreds in both positions.No Bangladesh player has scored more Test runs than Mominul Haque since his debut•BCBFor most Test teams, these are highly valued records. But most teams play far more Tests than Bangladesh where one-day cricket is favoured. Still, Haque’s contribution in red-ball cricket cannot be overstated enough; all of his previous Test hundreds have come in Bangladesh wins or draws .On the third afternoon in Chattogram, Haque walked in with his team having lost two wickets for just one run. They had a handsome first-innings lead but another batting collapse would have handed West Indies the advantage. Going by how both batting line-ups looked to be heading towards a freefall, Haque’s innings was priceless.He saw off the two major threats to his batting: fast short-pitched deliveries and orthodox offspin. He tackled both Shannon Gabriel and Rakheem Cornwall in tandem. Notwithstanding the Shadman Islam dismissal to a peach of a bouncer, Haque’s own survival till stumps on the third evening itself was a huge boost to the team.Bangladesh were actually thinking of a 250-plus lead as West Indies’ fourth-innings target, but by the time Haque added 133 for the fifth wicket with Liton Das, the lead had swelled to more than 375.Mominul Haque acknowledges the applause on getting to a landmark•AFP via Getty ImagesCornwall, who couldn’t dislodge Haque having bowled 90 deliveries to him in a long tussle, said that the left-hander forced him to bowl to his strengths.”I think he played spin well. I think he hangs back a lot, forcing me to bowl a bit fuller and bowl to his strength. We just have to keep working. There’s another Test coming up so we know how to bowl to him,” Cornwall said.Bangladesh coach Russell Domingo said that Haque gave them the sound platform needed to win a Test match.”He has been fantastic. He has back-to-back hundreds. In the last Test in February last year, he got a hundred against Zimbabwe in Dhaka,” he said. “He has backed it up with another good hundred today. He has set the game really well for us, so we are very pleased with the way he is playing at the moment.”Haque’s pragmatic approach, in which he often sacrifices style over substance, is one of the major ways he has distinguished himself from other flashier Bangladesh batsmen of his generation. He has worked out ways to tackle the short ball, as well as a perceived weakness against offspin, and yet has kept his shape as a largely positive batsman. His average strike-rate in Test hundreds is 65.By moving into the higher stratums of Bangladesh’s batting, he has also left daylight between himself and those who, like him, made their Test debuts since 2011. Forget about 10 hundreds, only Shamsur Rahman and Soumya Sarkar have made a Test century each batting in the top six from that list.Among the batsmen other than Iqbal, Rahim and Shakib in the current Bangladesh line-up, Das, who made his debut in 2015 with a huge billing as the next big thing in Bangladesh cricket, has so far made six fifties in his 21 Tests. Najmul Hossain Shanto, who now has supplanted Haque as the Test No. 3 just because he showed promise in domestic cricket, has hit a single half-century in five Tests over four years. Shadman Islam is in the revolving door of Iqbal’s opening partner, having returned to the team in this game with a second half-century.Haque has showed that through sheer will and mindfulness that a young Bangladeshi player can rise through the ranks to not just to be an international cricketer, but to give the seniors in the side a run for their money. This, despite being tagged as a Test-only cricketer who is yet to make a real mark away from home. When he had scored his sixth hundred at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, the running joke was that a stadium should be named after him. Maybe now a serious thought that can be given to the matter.

In the wake of a sports betting scandal currently impacting MLB, the league has announced that some of the most prominent sportsbooks in the United States are implementing changes to their baseball markets.

MLB announced Monday that some of the prominent U.S. sportsbooks will be introducing a maximum wager of $200 on bets focused on individual pitch outcomes. Those bets will also be prohibited from being included in parlay wagers.

This comes on the heels of the federal indictment which charged Guardians pitchers Luis Ortiz and Emmanuel Clase for their involvement in a sports betting scheme. The two pitchers are alleged to have accepted payment related to individual pitch markets, specifically whether individual pitches would result in strikes or balls, as well as the velocity of those pitches.

According to the indictment, bettors won as much as $450,000 by wagering on the outcome of individual pitches in the scheme. But MLB is hoping to curb such manipulation by limiting the amount that can be wagered on those types of markets.

Clase and Ortiz are charged with wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery, and money laundering conspiracy in connection to the scheme to rig individual pitches. Both could face north of 60 years in prison.

Per ESPN, DraftKings and FanDuel, the two largest sportsbooks in the United States, have agreed to abide by MLB’s request in order to ensure fairness.

Since sports betting was legalized in the United States, there have been multiple instances of corruption involving athletes across various leagues, including the NBA, college sports, and MLB, among others.

Tensions flared during the Detroit Tigers game against the San Francisco Giants on Monday, as Javier Baez was ejected from the contest after arguing a called third strike from home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi.

Baez was irate and needed to be restrained by his teammates before he eventually went into the clubhouse.

Baez, who is a utility player in Detroit, is expected to start at third base for Tuesday evening's game, despite having been in center field on Monday. And he'll be seeing plenty of Cuzzi at the hot corner throughout the game, as he'll be serving as the game's third base umpire.

Tigers manager A.J. Hinch discussed the situation with reporters ahead of the game, and he comically compared it to parenting.

"It's like parenting," he said, via Cody Stavenhagen of . "I got to put them two in a corner and tell them they've got to sort it out and play nice."

Hinch seems to think the situation is pretty humorous, and hopefully Baez and Cuzzi can adopt that approach, otherwise they could be in for a pretty awkward run-in over at third base when Baez takes the field in the first inning.

MatériaMais Notícias

Segundo lugar no Brasileirão e confirmado na fase de grupos da Libertadores 2024, o Grêmio projeta uma maior arrecadação na próxima temporada. Para encarar estes desafios, agora de proporções continentais, o Tricolor também irá aumentar o investimento em salários de seu elenco.

➡️ Siga o Lance! no WhatsApp e acompanhe em tempo real as principais notícias do esporte

Na atual temporada, o clube gaúcho gastou aproximadamente R$12 milhões por mês com seu elenco profissional. Em 2024, a folha salarial deve alcançar R$15 milhões. Investimento justificado pela necessidade de montar um time competitivo para brigar por títulos. No próximo ano, o Tricolor terá pela frente o Gauchão, a Libertadores, a Copa do Brasil e o Campeonato Brasileiro, chegar na fase de mata-mata da competição continental, e se classificar para ela em 2025 são as metas mínimas exigidas. 

Para conseguir atingir o que foi proposto, o Grêmio contará com a premiação da Conmebol pela participação na fase de grupos na Libertadores, mais os aditivos por vitória. Em 2023, o pagamento foi de 3 milhões de dólares (R$15,7 milhões), mais 300 mil dólares (R$1,57 milhão) por vitória. Além disso, o clube também prevê uma redução de despesas com dispensas de atletas, como ocorreu no último ano, quando a diretoria apostou em uma reformulação do elenco. 

– Estamos chegando com um grupo que deve ter alterações, mas nem tantas quanto este ano, quando praticamente se montou um time novo. Vamos ter uma folha que, pelo orçamento, é de aproximadamente R$2 milhões acima do que temos hoje. Ainda estamos arcando com atletas que emprestamos e pagamos parte do salário e isso consta na nossa folha se formos olhar os números friamente. Mas, isso vai diminuir bastante para o ano que vem. Com isso, conseguiremos chegar a R$14 milhões na nossa folha real do futebol – explicou Fabio Floriani, vice-presidente do Grêmio, em entrevista à Rádio Gaúcha, em novembro.

➡️ Pedro Geromel vai continuar no Grêmio?

A saída de Luis Suárez representa uma perda técnica no time e também de aspectos extracampo como: arrecadação com sócios, marketing e publicidade. Entretanto, abre um espaço para a aplicação destes valores em outras contratações, como de um centroavante para suprir a saída do “Pistolero”.

A busca por um novo camisa 9 é prioridade, e a diretoria gremista insiste por Rogelio Funes Mori, argentino naturalizado mexicano, que está atuando no Monterrey. Contudo, os Rayados recusaram a última oferta do Tricolor. Um goleiro experiente em competições sul-americanas, como Santos (Flamengo) ou Andrada (também do Monterrey), também é uma das urgências que demandará maior investimento, tanto para tirá-los de seus times como em questões salariais.

➡️ Fim da novela? Renato Gaúcho indica permanência no Grêmio para 2024

O primeiro ano da gestão Alberto Guerra foi encerrado com um déficit de R$65 milhões. Ainda houve uma suplementação (acréscimo no orçamento para um caso emergencial) de R$30 milhões, também aprovada pelo Conselho Deliberativo. Este déficit foi justificado pelo fato de o clube não ter alcançado o que imaginava arrecadar com vendas de jogadores e também por ter pagado mais do que o projetado em premiações para jogadores e comissão técnica, já que o clube alcançou o vice-campeonato brasileiro e foi semifinalista na Copa do Brasil.

MatériaMais Notícias

Thiago Carpini está próximo de ser anunciado como novo treinador do São Paulo. O agente do jogador está no CT do clube, na Barra Funda, para conversar com a diretoria da equipe paulista e acertar os últimos detalhes da negociação. As informações foram divulgadas pelo ge e confirmadas pelo Lance!.

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➡️ Tudo sobre o Tricolor agora no WhatsApp. Siga o nosso novo canal Lance! São Paulo

O Tricolor, que perdeu Dorival Júnior para a Seleção Brasileira, já havia entrevistado virtualmente o treinador, e comunicou que pagará a multa de R$ 1 milhão à equipe gaúcha.

No entanto, vale ressaltar que Carpini não era o plano A do São Paulo. O clube tentou as contratações de Vojvoda e Caixinha, do Fortaleza e Cuiabá, respectivamente, que negaram a investida. Pedro Martins, treinador do Al-Gharafa, também foi procurado, mas recusou a oferta.

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QUEM É THIAGO CARPINI?

Foi o responsável por dois dos trabalhos de maior destaque no futebol brasileiro em 2023: o Água Santa, vice-campeão do Paulistão, e o Juventude, vice-campeão da Série B em uma incrível campanha de recuperação.

Carpini é mais um técnico jovem: iniciou sua carreira em 2020, no comando do Guarani, clube do qual era auxiliar, e construiu sua carreira em equipes do interior paulista: depois do Bugre, comandou Oeste, Inter de Limeira e Ferroviária. Aprincipal característica de suas equipes está na organização defensiva, sempre com duas linhas de quatro jogadores.

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Tottenham co-sporting directors Fabio Paratici and Johan Lange appear to already be working on the club’s recruitment drive in unison, with Thomas Frank and the pair reportedly eyeing a new centre-back.

Spurs transfer plans amid Paratici and Lange appointments

Spurs announced on Wednesday that Paratici has returned to N17 as a sporting director, over two years after he was forced to resign amid his worldwide ban from football.

Paratici’s comeback to the club is a major boost for the Lilywhites, with the Italian’s extensive contact list and reputation as a fearsome negotiator already paying dividends at Tottenham in the past.

1. Cristian Romero

£42.5m

2. Dejan Kulusevski

£25.5m

3. Rodrigo Bentancur

£21.5m

4. Pedro Porro

£40m

5. Djed Spence

£20m

The 53-year-old worked as an advisor to Frank, CEO Vinai Venkatesham, Lange and ex-chairman Daniel Levy over the summer window, but Paratici will now take up an official full-time role once again as he spearheads the club’s transfer strategy.

He will work alongside Lange, who’s been promoted to the same role, though the pair have very different responsibilities.

Paratici is seen as the dealmaker, tasked with securing high-profile signings and using his influence to get transfers over the line, while Lange is described as the talent spotter who’ll work mostly on Tottenham’s date-driven recruitment plans, scouting and the academy (Sky Sports).

Amid reports Tottenham want to sign another centre-half in January to back up star duo Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven, a report from CaughtOffside suggests that Paratici and Lange have identified an intriguing option.

Tottenham expected to move for Lazio defender Mario Gila

As per their information, that man is Lazio defender Mario Gila.

Tottenham are seriously considering a January move for Gila, with the club emerging as a “serious candidate” to land the defender. His contract at Lazio runs until the summer of 2027, and while the Italians are not in a rush to sell, they value Gila at roughly £39-43 million.

It is claimed that Spurs aren’t afraid to meet this price, showing a willingness to pay, with Paratici and Lange expected to make an approach for Gila once the window reopens.

The 25-year-old, who was once a Real Madrid youth player, has attracted serious interest from other Premier League clubs, like Brighton and Bournemouth, who’ve both held talks with the player’s representatives this year.

However, Tottenham’s openness to meeting Lazio’s valuation could give them an edge.

Gila’s knack for ball progression, which Frank seriously desires from his backline, is apparently a key reason why Spurs are keen on the Spaniard.

It is also worth noting that Gila has already suggested he’s open to offers, expressing his commitment to Lazio last year but also refusing to rule out an exit in the near future.