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Rangers are among the clubs eyeing teenage prodigy Zak Lovelace, according to The Daily Record’s Scott Burns. 

The lowdown

The youngster, who will turn 16 next week, became the second-youngest player in Millwall’s history when he made an appearance from the bench against Coventry City in December.

According to The Telegraph’s John Percy, the striker had to get ‘permission from his parents and his school’ to join up with the Lions squad for the fixture. Lovelace has been called to train with the club’s first team ‘several’ times.

The latest

Rangers have ‘regularly’ scouted Lovelace this season and are hopeful of signing him, as per The Daily Record. They face competition from the Premier League, with Leicester City and Brighton mentioned as prospective suitors.

Millwall are described as ‘desperate’ to keep hold of Lovelace, for whom they have ‘massive hopes’, and they are trying to persuade him to sign a professional contract at The Den.

The verdict

Millwall manager Gary Rowett has waxed lyrical about Lovelace, saying: “Zak is a really good lad. He has come in with a humility and hunger to want to do well – that exuberance of youth. I’d love to see how that develops over the next two or three years because he could be, from what I’ve seen, a top player.”

However, the 47-year-old admitted that the London club might not have full control over the teenager’s next move, so it could come down to who can offer him the clearest or swiftest path to senior football.

Rangers have clearly been impressed on their trips to watch Lovelace if they are interested in signing him, and they may even think that he’s a superstar in the making. After all, journalist Dan Marsh urged fans to ‘remember the name’ when the 15-year-old came on against Coventry.

In other news, Rangers are in a strong position to land this defender

Scorecard
Jonathan Trott made a timely return to form with an unbeaten century which frustrated Lancashire’s push for victory in their County Championship match against Warwickshire at Edgbaston.Trott’s 102 was his first since he made a century in his Test debut in last August’s Ashes decider at the Oval and came a day before the selectors meet to name their squad for next week’s first Test against Bangladesh at Lord’s.There has been speculation that Trott’s Test place might be under threat after his indifferent form during the winter and an inconsistent start to the domestic season which had seen him make three half centuries but five single figure Championship scores before today.But Trott came good with a determined and unflustered innings, his 21st first-class century, on a pitch of variable bounce and against a strong Lancashire attack which included his England team-mate James Anderson.Thanks to Trott and Rikki Clarke (42), Warwickshire took the game into a fourth day but Lancashire are still well-placed to complete a swift double over them. Warwickshire were set 441, which would be the highest fourth innings total in their history, for victory and they closed on 263 for 6, still 178 short of victory, having slipped to 119 for 4 at one stage.Once again it was Glen Chapple who caused them most problems with Lancashire’s captain following up his five wickets in the first innings with four more including an opening burst of 3 for 12. Chapple had Darren Maddy leg before wicket and then had England batsman Ian Bell caught behind as he tried to leave alone a ball that bounced and followed him.Warwickshire slipped to 30 for 3 when Ian Westwood nibbled another one from Chapple that bounced but Trott began the repair work with Jim Troughton in a fourth wicket stand of 89 in 24 overs. Chapple had to recall himself to break the stand which he did in his second over back when Troughton edged to first slip playing defensively.Anderson bowled two short and economical spells but was more expensive when he was brought back for a third as Trott and Clarke counter-attacked either side of tea. Trott struck seven fours in a 78-ball half century and added eight more in completing a responsible 184-ball century.Clarke, who added 86 in 26 overs for the fifth wicket with Trott, went lbw playing back to slow left-armer Simon Kerrigan and Lancashire scented a three-day win when Tim Ambrose gave a return catch to Tom Smith. But Trott, helped by Neil Carter, continued to blunt Lancashire’s attack and denied them the chance to claim the extra half-hour.

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Erik deve ser anunciado nos próximos dias pelo Atlético-MG. O clube já admite o acerto com o atacante do Palmeiras, mas ainda aguarda os exames médicos para oficializar a contratação nas suas redes sociais. Ele será emprestado por uma temporada – seu contrato com o Verdão é válido até 2020.

O atacante de 23 anos teve números bem tímidos neste ano: foram apenas 16 partidas no Palmeiras, a maioria saindo do banco, e nenhum gol marcado. Em 2016, seu primeiro ano no Alviverde, marcou três gols em 32 jogos, dois deles muito importantes na campanha do título brasileiro: vitórias fora de casa sobre Internacional e Sport – o outro foi em uma derrota para o Botafogo.

O Palmeiras pagou R$ 13 milhões por 60% dos direitos econômicos de Erik no fim de 2015, depois que ele se destacou pelo Goiás. Ele é o segundo jogador do Verdão cedido ao Galo, depois de Arouca, quem o técnico Oswaldo de Oliveira admira bastante.

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Auckland registered their first victory of the competition, and a stunning one at that, after proceedings in the first innings seemed to indicate the match was on its way to a draw. Wellington, who are at the fifth place on the points table, were asked to bat and they responded well, posting 477 courtesy a century from Stewart Rhodes (124). He was helped by half-centuries from Michael Pollard (60), Luke Woodcock (97) and Jeetan Patel (71). However, Auckland were far more dominating in their reply, with centuries from Tim McIntosh (171) and Richard Jones (107) taking them to 480 for the loss of just three wickets.Auckland declared once they went past Wellington with the intention of forcing a win, and that’s what they managed to achieve thanks to a combined bowling effort in the second innings. Led by legspinner Tarun Nethula, who took 4 for 17, Auckland kept gnawing away at the Wellington batsmen. Each of the five bowlers managed to grab at least a wicket, including two from the top order by seamer Gareth Shaw. Wellington folded for 122 in under 50 overs, and the Auckland openers, requiring 120 to win, knocked the runs off quickly on the fourth day to seal a morale-boosting win.Runs flowed in Rangiora as Northern Districts and Canterbury batted out a high-scoring draw. But, importantly, Northern Districts managed to secure a first-innings lead to clinch two points and retain their place at the top of the points table. The match featured five centuries, three in the first innings as Canterbury, after opting to bat, declared on 558 for 4. The opener Rob Nicol made 134 followed by Shanan Stewart (161*) and Dean Brownlie (112*), who added an unbeaten 236 for the fifth wicket to take their team to a mammoth score.Canterbury’s hopes of securing a first-innings lead were thwarted by a collective batting display from ND. Five batsmen out of the top six managed a score of at least 65, and each of the 11 who batted reached double-digits. The Marshall brothers, Hamish and James, struck centuries and added 122 for the fifth wicket. James Marshall then received excellent support from the lower order, as the total stretched to 726, a lead of 168; the last three wickets yielded 180 runs. Openers BJ Watling and Michael Parlane began the tough reply with a stand of 126, and Kane Williamson contributed 93 to set the platform for the Marshalls and the lower order to build on. Canterbury, as a result of the draw, were left at second place at the end of the round.Rain played spoilsport on the fourth and final day in Invercargill as the contest between Central Districts and Otago, which promised much, ended in a draw. Both teams were left tied on 18 points at the end of the game – CD won two points due to a first-innings lead – but Otago are ranked third due to a better quotient (0.972 as opposed to 0.958).CD were asked to bat, and Matthew Sinclair, backed by a solid top and middle-order performance, helped himself to 122. However, Otago hit back as their seamers Neil Wagner and Warren McSkimming grabbed seven wickets between them to restrict CD to 355 after they had threatened to get much more; the last six wickets fell for 26 runs.Aaron Redmond replied strongly in Otago’s innings, scoring 136, and while Sam Wells reached a half-century, CD held the upper hand at the end of their innings after Ewen Thompson picked up 5 for 64. Michael Mason supported him with three wickets to help bowl out Otago for 330 and secure a 25-run lead. But in a see-saw fixture, CD slipped to 95 for 5 in their second innings before rain erased any hopes of a thrilling finish on the fourth day.

West Ham United have opened negotiations with Angelo Ogbonna, Ben Johnson and Lukasz Fabianski in order to extend their stays at the London Stadium.

What’s the talk?

That’s according to a claim made by ExWHUemployee, who revealed in a recent The West Ham Way podcast that David Moyes’ side have opened contract talks with all three players, each of whom are currently on deals that expire at the end of the current campaign. An announcement regarding their respective extensions is expected to be made by the club in the near future.

In his post, the West Ham insider said: “Contract news should come soon. Negotiations have been ongoing for Fabianski, Ogbonna and Johnson.”

Fans will be buzzing

Considering just how impressive Fabianski, Ogbonna and Johnson have been for West Ham so far this season, the news that the club are working towards extending all three of their contracts beyond the end of the season is sure to have left the London Stadium faithful buzzing.

Indeed, over Johnson’s 11 Premier League appearances this term, the £2.7m-rated full-back has helped his side to keep two clean sheets and scored one goal, as well as making 1.3 interceptions, 2.2 tackles and 2.6 clearances per game and winning 54% of his duels.

These returns have seen the 21-year-old defender average an impressive SofaScore match rating of 7.00, ranking him as the Hammers’ fifth-best performer in the league.

Meanwhile, over Fabianski’s 20 league outings in the current campaign, the £900k-rated goalkeeper has kept four clean sheets and made 3.3 saves per match, with these metrics seeing the 36-year-old shot-stopper average a SofaScore match rating of 6.88.

Finally, over Ogbonna’s 11 Premier League outings prior to suffering a cruciate ligament injury back in November, the £1.8m-rated centre-back had helped the Irons to keep three clean sheets and scored one goal. These returns saw the 33-year-old average a SofaScore match rating of 6.71.

As such, considering just how important they are to the West Ham cause, the news that all three players look set to extend their respective stays in east London beyond the end of the current campaign is undoubtedly fantastic for everyone involved with the club.

In other news: Moyes can finally axe £10m dud as West Ham plot January bid for “determined” £21m colossus

Chris Gayle has added to Nathan Hauritz’s worries before the Perth Test by saying the offspinner doesn’t turn the ball much

Cricinfo staff14-Dec-2009

Chris Gayle has added to Nathan Hauritz’s worries before the Perth Test by saying the offspinner doesn’t turn the ball much and is “like I’m facing up to myself”. Hauritz will line up in just his third first-class game at the WACA in Wednesday’s series-deciding encounter.Gayle, the West Indies captain, wasn’t concerned about the inclusion of Hauritz on a wicket that has taken more turn since it lost its pace over the past few years. “I hear the Aussies look like they are going to play Nathan Hauritz here in Perth,” Gayle said in the Herald Sun. “At the moment when Hauritz is bowling to me, it’s like I’m bowling to myself. He really doesn’t turn the ball too much that is for sure. Occasionally he might get the odd one to spin.”Hauritz knows how hard it can be in Perth and hopes to gain some drift from the afternoon sea breeze. “It can be pretty tough, it can be pretty brutal out there at times,” he said in the Australian.He will speak to Marcus North, the Western Australia captain, about bowling at the WACA and has also chatted to Greg Matthews, the former Test spinner, about various strategies. In two games at the ground for Queensland he managed 2 for 216 but felt he had fared better in one-day matches.”Four-day cricket hasn’t been real good, I think I have hardly taken a wicket here when I have played,” he said. “I haven’t played here much. I played two games here for Queensland and haven’t played a game here for New South Wales. One-day cricket is always really good, the bounce, the drift and that sort of thing has been really good.”

West Brom have now gone three games without a win, which will be extremely frustrating for manager, Valerien Ismael, who has been tasked with the job to get the side promoted this season back into the Premier League.

The Baggies went to the Seasiders with the need for three points to try to close the gap on both Fulham and Bournemouth who are out ahead by a stretch in the automatic promotion places, with Fulham now eight points ahead at the top of the table and a game in hand to play.

Ismael’s side have now not won away from home for two months, and there will need to be questions raised as to what issues need ironing out, or where quality needs to be added to give the Baggies the confidence they clearly need to inject to start winning on away days.

Despite dominating in the early stages of the game, where it looked like West Brom could pressure enough to put a goal past Blackpool, after a string of chances over the course of the game, the side couldn’t break down Blackpool enough to finish them.

The Tangerines had an outstanding defensive performance as they struggled to find a lot of attacking opportunities, which held West Brom to a 0-0 draw in the end.

Speaking after the game Ismael reflected on the performance;

“We need to take what we can get at the minute and getting a clean sheet is a positive. We created a lot of chances, but compared to last Saturday, this time there were more real chances to score. At the minute it’s the final ball, and we need to work on that.”

One player who struggled to offer the presence and confidence needed to get a three-pointer over the line away from home for Ismael’s side, was Cedric Kipre, with the defender having fewer touches (39) than Baggies goalkeeper, Sam Johnstone (40).

The 6 foot 3 defender lacked positional discipline on many occasions, losing the ball a whopping 13 times which led to an awful pass success rate of 59%. The centre-back also gave away a number of fouls (3) throughout the game, which really disrupted the rhythm and flow of the game to get West Brom in a position to build attacking play. This is reflected in a dismal SofaScore rating of just 6.5.

This clear lack of discipline could’ve cost the side goals against a team offering more clinical finishing than Blackpool did last night. Thus, Ismael has work to do to make sure that these kinds of sloppy mistakes don’t cost them later in the week.

West Brom have another challenging game on Friday at home against Nottingham Forest and will be hoping to pick up maximum points by finishing their chances to climb their way back into a title challenge.

In other news: Lawrence could replace struggling Jordan Hugill

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It was the victory of south over north but in the end it was a Yorkshireman who won the 2009 Village Cup for Glynde and Beddingham. Under attack from two Streethouse batsmen who were evidently in the zone, Mark Beddis, the one Glynde player not heralding from Sussex, took both wickets in the penultimate over of the match and with them the Village Cup.That the match would be tight at all seemed unlikely after Glynde had passed 200 in their 40 overs. Streethouse – from west Yorkshire – started well with the priceless wicket of Dominic Shepheard but his tall partner Joe Adams refused to budge. Callum Smith came and went quickly but managed to score a succesion of boundaries through a ring of close fielders. Adams, omniously quiet in the early overs, started striking the ball cleanly and breezed past a fifty off 68 balls.The 100 was up in the 22nd over and Glynde were looking at a healthy total well above 200. But Streethouse captain Richard Vigars came on to take two wickets, the second of which was Adams, bowled when swishing to leg. A run-rate which was threatening to creep above five an over began to descend.Then came a curious little innings by Glynde’s Dominic Harris, a man whose diminutive size is as striking as Adam’s towering stature. He needed two escapes, the first in the 32nd over when he was dropped at deep mid-on; then when Harris was given out stumped on 15 only for the square-leg umpire to reverse his decision after consultation with his colleague. Due to the crowd noise, the square-leg official had not heard the other umpire’s call of ‘no-ball’.It proved critical. Harris went on to a quickfire 41 which brought the total above 200. Of note was an outstanding single spell of spin from Jonathan Hughes, who finished with 3-33. The Glynde innings played out to much amusement – the birthday boy Dale Tranter was happy-birthdayed all the way to the crease by the Glynde fans only to be happy-birthdayed all the way back to the pavilion by the Streethouse supporters after a first-ball duck.The Streethouse innings seemed always on the verge of collapse despite Callum Geldart’s fluent 34. Tumbling wickets, helped by Shepheard’s excellent spell of medium pace, meant a long period of rebuilding. Only opener Paul Langley stood firm.At 98-5 after 22.1 overs out walked Vigars, the man who had steered his side to the final with five wickets and a tail-guiding 30 as the Yorkshire team won by a single wicket. Vigars was needed to perform a similar role again at Lord’s today.For a while it seemed a lost cause: boundaries were scarce and quick-run singles were as much as Streethouse could manage. Then came over number 31. Langley hit a six and everything changed. Ollie Bailey, who until then had bowled a very tidy spell of offspin, was hit for three more sixes in the next over as Vigars freed his harms. He was at it again in the next over, and Langley reached his fifty off 81 balls, a foundation if ever there was one. But, decided Beddis, a foundation to nothing.

Antonio Conte is said to be a huge admirer of struggling Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Dele Alli, who could be in line for a career revival in north London…

What’s been said?

That’s according to Italian journalist and transfer expert Fabrizio Romano, who dropped the intriguing claim on Rio Ferdinand’s ‘FIVE’ podcast this week.

“Talking about managers [and] the impact at Antonio Conte at Tottenham. I am told from sources close to the club that he wants to give big chances to Dele Alli, this is the idea of Antonio,” he revealed.

“We know Alli didn’t have his best time last year but Conte is convinced that Alli is a player for a top club, and he wants Dele to show his skills with a different attitude and a different attitude in the club.”

Only last month, The Athletic reported that the Lilywhites’ hierarchy was finally prepared to give up on the 25-year-old heading into the January transfer window, although that was under the stewardship of former Spurs manager Nuno Santo, who froze him out after the north London derby defeat.

On the chalkboard

This is certainly an interesting claim from Romano, and many supporters around N17 will undoubtedly be left excited by it given the Englishman’s history at the club. However, where Alli fits in Conte’s system right now is anyone’s guess.

The Italian tactician has so far deployed a 3-4-3 formation in both of his opening two games in charge, with Heung-min Son and Lucas Moura occupying the half-spaces and Sergio Reguilon and Emerson Royal bombing down the wings out wide.

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Alli is not a winger and he certainly isn’t a wing-back, nor is he a deep central midfielder, so he currently has no place in the side.

A switch to a 3-4-1-2, which is expected according to some reports, could accommodate him as a no.10, but you’d imagine that Tanguy Ndombele would be preferred right now.

Of Alli’s 263 appearances in a Lilywhites shirt, 200 have come in attacking midfield, which only goes to show where previous managers think his best position lies.

Therefore, if Conte truly wants to give the 25-year-old a ‘big chance’, then he may well need to tailor a system to fit him in, and having only provided three goals and five assists since the start of the 2020/21 season, that may not be a risk worth taking.

Once dubbed a “freak of a talent” by Spurs legend Darren Anderton following an 18-goal and seven-assist Premier League campaign in 2016/17, it will certainly be intriguing to see how the 52-year-old utilises the much-maligned sensation this season – only time will tell.

AND in other news, Conte could recall “perfect” £18m-rated Spurs star who was frozen out by Nuno and Jose…