An update has emerged on Everton and their plans to bolster their attacking options in the summer transfer window…
What's the latest on Alfredo Morelos to Everton?
Colombian journalist Pipe Sierra has claimed that the Toffees are one of the clubs showing an interest in signing Colombian centre-forward Alfredo Morelos.
The reporter tweeted:
"Alfredo Morelos (26) and #Rangers did not reach a renewal agreement; everything is given for him to be a free agent from July 1. #Sevilla, #Cádiz, #Everton #Nottingham and #Fenerbahçe the first interested parties. There is also an Italian club that wants it."
Toffees boss Sean Dyche will now have to convince the soon-to-be-former Gers marksman to reject a host of other teams in order to secure his signature for the 2023/24 campaign.
Will Neal Maupay leave Everton this summer?
The Frenchman has been linked with a move to Serie A outfit Salernitana and the Blues head coach bringing Morelos in would surely allow him to sanction such a move, thus ruthlessly ditch the expensive dud.
Signing another striker to occupy one of the forward slots in the team would open the door for Dyche to kick Neal Maupay out of the club, after his dreadful season at Goodison Park.
Everton striker Neal Maupay.
The 26-year-old flop joined from Brighton & Hove Albion for a fee of £15m last summer and endured a rough campaign in front of goal for the Toffees.
He averaged a Sofascore rating of 6.56 across 27 appearances in the Premier League and only contributed with one goal, as the misfiring striker failed to register a single assist or create a 'big chance' for his teammates. Maupay also missed seven 'big chances' and this proves that the service into him was not the reason behind his severe lack of goals in the division.
Morelos is yet to experience football in England and there is certainly no guarantee that he will be able to translate his form at Ibrox over to Goodison Park, but his form in Scotland suggests that the potential is there for him to be a big upgrade on Maupay.
The £33k-per-week international plundered an eye-catching 124 goals and 58 assists across 269 appearances for the Light Blues during his time at Ibrox.
During the 2022/23 campaign, the 26-year-old goal machine averaged a Sofascore rating of 6.98 in the Scottish Premiership and chipped in with 11 goals and five assists in 32 appearances, despite only having started 15 matches.
Morelos, who was anonymously described as a "nightmare for defenders" by one of his SPFL opponents, has been a reliable goalscorer, and provider, throughout his years in Scotland and Dyche could now be handed a perfect reason to ruthlessly axe Maupay by bringing the prolific striker in to take his place in the squad.
Jose Mourinho has used Romelu Lukaku’s goal-scoring exploits to aim a sly dig at his critics, with the Belgian striker continuing to deliver for Roma.
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Belgian striker returned to Italy on loan
Worked with Portuguese at Chelsea & Man Utd
Coach has no concerns regarding future
WHAT HAPPENED?
The former Chelsea and Manchester United frontman – who worked with Mourinho at Stamford Bridge and Old Trafford – made his way to Stadio Olimpico during the summer transfer window on an initial loan agreement.
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THE BIGGER PICTURE
Lukaku has found the target on four occasions through six appearances for Roma – with the former Serie A title winner from his days at Inter proving to be a rare bright spark for the Giallorossi through a testing start to the season that has delivered eight points from seven games.
WHAT THEY SAID
Mourinho believes those exploits prove that he still knows what he is doing, as critics are quick to point at him enduring supposed third-season syndrome once again in a prominent coaching post, with the Portuguese telling after seeing Lukaku score in a 2-0 victory over Frosinone: “I thought that I could be held responsible for Lukaku not scoring! At the very least, nobody can accuse me of that, because Romelu keeps scoring. He scores here, he scores at Manchester United, at Inter. Romelu scores everywhere. Fortunately, I am not a coach who can remove Romelu’s qualities.”
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WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
Questions continue to be asked of how long Mourinho will be sticking around at Roma – with a lucrative offer from the Middle East having already been snubbed – but he claims to have the full support of owners Dan and Ryan Friedkin. He added: “You keep talking about future, that is not something I need to worry about, my future is the promise I made until June 30. A coach must respect the club owners and not comment on anything. I am happy for them that we won today, because obviously the owners want to win. I work for them, I work for the Roma fans and I work for the players. When we do well, I am happy.”
Western Australia batsman William Bosisto will captain the Cricket Australia XI in next month’s Matador Cup, with former Test player Brad Hodge named as the side’s coach. Bosisto is one of five men in the squad who also played for the CA XI in last year’s tournament, along with his vice-captain Matthew Short, James Bazley, Liam Hatcher and Ryan Lees.The teenage New South Wales spinner Arjun Nair, who made his Sheffield Shield debut last summer, is part of the 14-man group, having made his List A debut for the National Performance Squad in this winter’s A series in Queensland. Other NPS players from this year who join Nair in the CA XI squad are Tom O’Donnell, Sam Grimwade, Sam Harper, David Grant and Josh Inglis.Fast bowler Jhye Richardson, who played for Western Australia in last year’s Matador Cup, is in the CA XI this summer. Western Australia’s Jake Carder and New South Wales’ Ryan Gibson are the only members of the group with no List A experience.”This is a great opportunity for these emerging players to test their skills and develop their cricket by competing at domestic level,” CA’s national talent manager Greg Chappell said. “The squad contains a number of players who have already played domestic cricket. Hopefully this opportunity will allow these players to push for further selection within states or at the national level.”It’s been really pleasing to see the development of players from last year’s CA XI. Hilton Cartwright and Mitch Swepson are two examples of players who have taken that opportunity with both hands, and have gone from strength to strength over the past 12 months.”Players in this year’s squad now have the opportunity to follow that same path, and we are confident this side will be competitive throughout the tournament.”Cricket Australia XI squad William Bosisto (capt, WA), Matthew Short (vice-capt, Vic), James Bazley (Qld), Jake Carder (WA), Ryan Gibson (NSW), David Grant (SA), Sam Grimwade (Vic), Sam Harper (Vic), Liam Hatcher (NSW), Josh Inglis (WA), Ryan Lees (Tas), Arjun Nair (NSW), Tom O’Donnell (Vic), Jhye Richardson (WA).
Scotland batsman Calum MacLeod has credited a return to form to technical adjustments made during a winter of off-season training with his county side Durham. MacLeod’s 103 in a win over UAE on Tuesday was his third ODI ton for Scotland and first since 2014.”It’s been a year without a hundred for Scotland so to get a monkey off my back in putting in a winning performance again, I’m really really happy personally,” MacLeod told ESPNcricinfo after the win in Edinburgh.MacLeod had an outstanding 2014 for Scotland, beginning that January by scoring two centuries at the 2014 World Cup Qualifier in New Zealand including a Scotland ODI record 175 against Canada. He ended the year in solid form as well, notching 116 not out in a win over Ireland at Malahide in September.However, 2015 was a nightmare for MacLeod. A pre-World Cup tour to the UAE to play fellow World Cup participants Ireland and Afghanistan in a desert tri-series netted three runs in five innings opening the batting. Things didn’t get much better at the World Cup either. He scored off one ball in his first 12 deliveries of the tournament, registering two ducks along the way to complete a string of four noughts in six innings that began in Dubai.After being Scotland’s second-highest scorer in New Zealand a year earlier at the Qualifier, with 401 runs in eight innings, he ended the World Cup with 50 runs in six innings. He struggled at the World T20 Qualifier back on home soil later in the summer too, finishing fifth in the team in runs with 114 from seven innings and a best of just 29.That form slump carried to Durham as well. In 2014, MacLeod was Durham’s leading scorer in the NatWest T20 Blast with 358 runs at 44.75 including two fifties. On the back of the World Cup drought, he made 210 runs at 21.00 in the T20 Blast while his County Championship form went south too, finishing with 161 runs in 13 innings at 14.63 with a best of 44.”After the World Cup and the season that followed as well, I got myself into some quite bad habits,” MacLeod said. “Last winter I went away and worked quite closely with the coach for quite a lot of the winter, Jon Lewis down at Durham, and we did some really interesting work.”It was amazing how small a change I think I had to make to get back to scoring runs. It felt, and it looked when we did some video, that a lot of the time I just wasn’t set. My trigger [movement] wasn’t in and it was that simple, that I was doing it too late. So I was trying to bat when I wasn’t even ready to bat.”MacLeod started to show signs of turning things around in January during the tour of Hong Kong when he top-scored with 58 in the first ODI. He struggled a bit more in the subsequent T20s and wound up only playing in one of Scotland’s three matches at the World T20 in India.However, MacLeod continued to plug away upon returning to Durham and the results have been showing. Working his way back into the first team he scored an unbeaten 105 on July 18 in the 2nd XI one-day cup against Northamptonshire, his third 50-plus score in four games in the competition. On July 29, he motored to 83 off 50 in the T20 Blast against Derbyshire before scoring Tuesday’s century against UAE.”Changing such a simple thing and just getting it in earlier for me, it gave me the time and the confidence started to flow when I scored more runs in the early part of this season down at Durham and continued it the whole way through. So it’s been a nice reward of some hard work in the winter away from games.”Scotland have two more home ODIs in September against Hong Kong to end the summer. They’re also now just one point behind Netherlands after eight games in the WCL Championship. Scotland’s remaining WCL Championship fixtures through 2017 come against Namibia, Papua New Guinea and Kenya and MacLeod says the series against Hong Kong is a good opportunity to continue building momentum in an effort to overtake Netherlands on the WCL Championship table next year.”We spent a bit of time in Hong Kong during the winter,” MacLeod said. “We didn’t play our best cricket so I think the guys will be really fired up to give Hong Kong a good showing and show them what we can do. If we play as well as we played and field as well as we have then I see no reason why we can’t come away with two wins.”We want to win the tournament and I think it’s going to be based on performances like we’ve done in the last two games. We don’t want to do it based on other teams losing games. There won’t be a game that we won’t go into without this attitude to go and win the game and take it forward. Obviously there’s some big games coming up. It’s just a case of finding a way to win those really.”
The BCCI has authorised its president Anurag Thakur and secretary Ajay Shirke to look into the legal ramifications of the Supreme Court verdict, that approved the Lodha Committee’s recommendations, and guide the board and its member units
Arun Venugopal05-Aug-2016The BCCI has authorised its president Anurag Thakur and secretary Ajay Shirke to look into the legal ramifications of the Supreme Court verdict that approved the Lodha Committee’s recommendations and guide the board and its member units. While there was no official statement from the BCCI, sources that attended the meeting confirmed that Thakur and Shirke will, in conjunction with the newly formed legal panel, engage with the Lodha Committee, and they will represent the concerns of the state associations as well.”This (Lodha Committee verdict) was the single-point agenda, and it was one [short, focused meeting] that lasted about half an hour to 45 minutes,” a state association official from the east zone told ESPNcricinfo. “The BCCI has the legal cell. We as a state association don’t know the legal aspects but somebody has to take care of such things. So, the SGM was called to authorise the secretary and the president to look into it. Concerns of individual state associations were not discussed; it was [a discussion] on the whole as reforms are meant for everybody.”Another official from a southern state said state associations had been instructed to direct their legal queries to the board’s lawyers who will advise them on the future course of action. According to him, however, the board’s first task would be to seek clarifications regarding its own functioning.”On August 9, the president and secretary are supposed to meet the Lodha Committee,” the official said. “The first priority is clarifications regarding the BCCI, only then will state associations come into the picture. Clarifications on all matters – when should the constitution be amended and how, the recommendations, and we also have the AGM coming up in September – will be sought.”While there has been speculation that the BCCI is inclined to file a review petition challenging the Supreme Court’s verdict, the official said it was a decision the president and secretary would make based on the legal advice they get. “There will be greater clarity once they meet the Lodha Committee on the ninth,” he said.The official also said there was no instruction from the board regarding elections of the Karnataka State Cricket Association and the Cricket Association of Bengal. The Lodha Committee had directed the CAB and KSCA to put their polls – scheduled for July 31 and August 7 respectively – on hold. “The BCCI will give its opinion on it. There will be more clarity after they discuss with the Lodha Committee. We are not going to raise anything as far as state associations are concerned, let the BCCI do. The states will fall in place thereafter.”
In a move to grow interest in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, the BCCI is set to act on a proposal to convert India’s domestic T20 championship to an inter-zonal competition
ESPNcricinfo staff10-Jun-2016In a move to grow interest in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, the BCCI is set to act on a proposal to convert India’s domestic T20 championship to an inter-zonal competition.The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy is currently an inter-state tournament wherein the top two teams from four groups progress to to the second round, where sides are divided into two groups. The winners of their respective groups make the final.The revised structure would have the state teams divided zonally, and the best performers from a zone make up the zonal team to contest against other such sides. In addition to the five main zones – North, South, East, West and Central – a sixth team, comprising the best young players from all zones, will be selected to participate.BCCI president Anurag Thakur confirmed the development. “We discussed the issue at length during our fixtures committee Meeting. The endeavour is to make domestic cricket more engaging and viable,” Thakur told PTI. “With 1882 playing days, the BCCI has shown how serious we are about our domestic structure.”We have decided to have Ranji Trophy at neutral venue, Duleep Trophy with pink ball and now we are trying to make Mushtaq Ali more competitive by bringing in a zonal structure. The aim is to improve the quality of domestic cricket. We are trying to finalise details and senior officials will be putting a process in place.”The BCCI tours and fixtures committee had also previously recommended playing day-night games with the pink ball in the Duleep Trophy, the zonal first-class tournament, and playing at neutral venues in the Ranji Trophy, the country’s premier first-class competition.
ScorecardFile photo – Cameron White’s century saved Victoria from an embarrassing collapse•Getty Images
Cameron White’s unbeaten century and Scott Boland’s unbeaten half-century helped stall a Victoria collapse after they had conceded a 401-run lead to Tasmania earlier in the day. But defeat was still imminent for Victoria, as they ended play still trailing by 162 with just three wickets in hand.Right-arm pacer Evan Gulbis starred with the ball for Tasmania, picking up four of the seven wickets that fell. Victoria stumbled to 5 for 92 after openers Aaron Ayre and Travis Dean put on a 51-run partnership. Gulbis then removed Daniel Christian and Chris Tremain quickly as Victoria slid further to 7 for 115. White then combined with Boland to add 124 for Victoria’s eighth wicket; resisting stoutly, the pair was yet to be separated by the end of play. White chose the route of counterattack: his unbeaten 100 off 118 balls included 15 fours and a six.After starting the day at 5 for 506, Sam Rainbird’s 22-ball 24 helped Tasmania quickly reach 8 for 556 declared, a mountainous first-innings lead of 401.
There is no hiding away from the fact that Everton are in real danger of dropping out of the Premier League and their woes in front of goal have played a signifcant role in their struggles this season.
The Toffees are currently 15th in the table and one point above the relegation zone, having played one more game than all the teams below them, and their top scorer in the division is Demarai Gray with four, while Dwight McNeil (three) is the only other player with more than one goal.
Sean Dyche is in desperate need of a reliable goalscorer and Everton have had their fair share of lethal number nines over the years – from Wayne Rooney to Romelu Lukaku.
One centre-forward who had mixed success at the club was Yakubu as manager David Moyes had a howler with the inconsistent finisher.
What happened to Yakubu?
He scored 15 Premier League goals for the side in 2007/08 after joining from Middlesbrough for £11.25m and looked set for an excellent career at Goodison Park.
After his superb start to life on Merseyside, the towering centre-forward struggled to replicate his performances over the next three top-flight campaigns – failing to score more than five league goals in any of them.
Although, the dynamo did produce five goals and four assists in 25 Premier League appearances in 2009/10, which was a solid return from the attacker.
Yakubu celebrating a goal for Blackburn at Old Trafford against Manchester United in the Premier League.
His struggles in 2010/11 – scoring once in 14 league matches – led to a loan move to Championship side Leicester and the marksman found his feet again with 11 goals and five assists in 20 games.
However, then-boss Moyes did not offer the machine a chance to kickstart his Toffees career and, instead, sold him to rivals Blackburn Rovers for a fee of just £1.5m.
Yakubu, who writer Michael Oti Adjei hailed as "clinical", quickly proved that his loan spell with the Foxes was exactly what he needed to get back to his best in the Premier League by racking up a stunning 17 goals in 30 matches in the top division in 2011/12.
His goals were, however, not enough to prevent Blackburn's relegation and their drop down to the Championship activated a clause in his contract that allowed Chinese club Guangzhou to snap him up.
The hulking attacker went on to score 25 goals in 45 games for his new club and this meant that the forward found the back of the net 43 times in 78 appearances in the three seasons following his exit from Goodison Park.
These impressive statistics show that Moyes certainly had a howler with the sale of Yakubu for a meagre £1.5m.
Mauricio Pochettino’s Chelsea tenure hasn’t got off to the most seamless start and the pressure is already building after the sheer amount of money that was spent by the club in the summer.
The former Tottenham Hotspur and Southampton boss will be keen to secure a second Premier League win of the season and it is Aston Villa who will stand in their way this weekend.
Raheem Sterling has been one of the brightest sparks in blue so far this year and the English icon could well be the difference-maker when Unai Emery and Aston Villa come to town.
At Football FanCast, we have delved into the history books of this fixture and also the record that Sterling has against the Villains.
What is Raheem Sterling’s goal record against Aston Villa?
Raheem Sterling has faced off against Aston Villa 15 times in all competitions across his career in English football.
The Chelsea man has scored twice in the Premier League against them and also found the back of the net in an FA Cup clash with Villa during his time as a Manchester City player.
All three of his goals in this fixture came whilst he was at the Etihad – he never scored against Villa as a Liverpool player and is yet to get off the mark wearing the blue of Chelsea.
What is Raheem Sterling’s assist record against Aston Villa?
Sterling is quite a versatile attacking player in that he brings both goals and assists to the table.
Villa know this all too well with the Englishman assisting five goals when playing against them.
Two of these came in the only two FA Cup meetings with one league assist coming in his Liverpool tenure, and the other two being from the Manchester City days.
How many goal contributions does Raheem Sterling have against Aston Villa?
Chelsea forward Raheem Sterling.
Combining the two and Sterling has contributed to eight goals in competitions from his 15 clashes with Aston Villa.
The 28-year-old has three goal contributions in the FA Cup, zero in the EFL Cup and then five from Premier League meetings.
What is Raheem Sterling's head-to-head record against Aston Villa?
Raheem Sterling burst onto the scene with Liverpool, earned a big-money move to Manchester City and now plays in London at Chelsea. These are three of the biggest teams in English football and so he has enjoyed a lot of victories in his esteemed career.
When facing Aston Villa, the England international has a very solid record, winning 10 of the 15 meetings. Meanwhile, two were drawn and the other three went the way of Villa.
As a Liverpool player, Sterling won twice, drew once and actually lost three times whilst the only meeting as a Chelsea man to date saw his side win 2-0 away from home.
What is Raheem Sterling’s home record vs Aston Villa?
Former Liverpool winger Raheem Sterling.
This weekend’s match will take place at Stamford Bridge and so it is fascinating to track how Sterling and co have performed on home soil against Aston Villa.
During his time at Anfield, Villa came and left with seven points from a possible nine, something which Liverpool won’t be keen to look back on.
Success was the motto at the Etihad though and Villa were unable to accrue a single point from their four trips to Manchester. City won all of these games and did so by a whopping aggregate score of 12-2.
Who has Raheem Sterling scored the most goals against?
He may have a solid record against Aston Villa but they are nowhere near the summit of the list of Sterling’s favourite opponents.
When it comes to goals, the four-time Premier League winner has found the back of the net 11 times against both AFC Bournemouth and Watford. Nine is his tally against Newcastle United and Southampton and then Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United, Arsenal and Norwich City come next with eight.
Who does Raheem Sterling have the most goal contributions against?
Having scored 11 times against the aforementioned duo, they are of course near the top of the list for goal contributions but they do not lead the way.
His 11 goals and four assists against Bournemouth, from 15 games, is bettered by Sterling’s record against West Ham. Eight goals and eight assists against the Irons has them on top and interestingly enough, with six, they are the team against who Sterling has accumulated the most yellow cards. It is worth noting too that the only red of his career was against the Cherries.
How many goals does Raheem Sterling have in September?
Raheem Sterling Liverpool
Sterling was on fire against Luton Town, scoring a brace, but that came at the end of August and he is yet to score this month as we head into the Aston Villa clash.
That being said, he has hit the ground running in numerous seasons previously and has a very healthy record for the month of September.
The boy from Brent has 17 goals in all competitions in the month of September since he became a professional footballer.
10 of these came in the Premier League including a brace against Crystal Palace in 2017. Meanwhile, he struck four times in the EFL Cup and also found the back of the net against Celtic, Shakhtar Donetsk and RB Salzburg in the UEFA Champions League.
What is Raheem Sterling's overall Chelsea goal record?
Sterling is of course a recent arrival at Stamford Bridge and so his record as a Blue won’t be blowing anyone away any time soon.
He has netted 11 times for Chelsea, three in the Champions League and then eight in the Premier League.
What is Raheem Sterling’s overall Chelsea assist record?
Raheem Sterling
With his previous clubs, Sterling has had a fairly balanced rate between his goals and assists but that is yet to be the case in the English capital.
For Chelsea, Sterling has four assists, three of which came in the Premier League whilst the other was against AC Milan in a 3-0 UCL group stage victory.
Kobbie Mainoo's class act to inspire Manchester United youngsters, following his exceptional display in Luton Town victory, won hearts at Carrington.
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Mainoo rising rapidly at Man Utd Starred in United's win over Wolves & Luton Town Met the club's U-8s to inspire them for greater glory GettyWHAT HAPPENED?
Amidst the buzz surrounding his breakout season at United and the potential senior England call-up ahead of the Euros, Mainoo remains grounded, showcasing maturity beyond his years. According to thein a heartwarming gesture, the teenage midfielder surprised everyone by visiting an Under-8s training session on Monday after he was done with the recovery session following the victory at Luton.
AdvertisementTHE BIGGER PICTURE
Engaging with the young players for an hour, Mainoo shared his experiences of professional football and offered encouragement, leaving an indelible mark on the budding footballers. The pre-academy group also had the privilege of witnessing the first-team training session. As a token of appreciation, the players posed for photos with the youngsters and graciously signed autographs, fostering a sense of camaraderie and unity within the club.
DID YOU KNOW?
Under the stewardship of manager Erik ten Hag, Mainoo has emerged as a regular starter this season, featuring in 15 appearances and making 13 starts. The stellar performances have caught the attention of England manager Gareth Southgate, who is reportedly contemplating including the 18-year-old sensation in the national squad for the upcoming fixtures against Brazil and Belgium.
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GettyWHAT NEXT?
As Mainoo continues to flourish in his footballing journey, his humility, dedication, and talent serve as a beacon of hope and inspiration for United's next generation of players. He will be next in action against Fulham on Saturday.