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We are now 11 games into the Premier League season, and it would be fair to say that Arsenal have not been having the best of times.

Mikel Arteta’s side and their supporters were hoping that this would be the season that they finally beat Manchester City to the title, and while Pep Guardiola’s side have stumbled as well, Liverpool have taken their place atop the table, nine points ahead of the North Londoners.

Now, the Gunners have faced injury problems and a few harsh refereeing decisions, but at the end of the day, the team just haven’t performed well enough on the pitch.

That said, there have been a few standout players, notably Bukayo Saka, who continues to be a shining light in an otherwise bleak campaign, although even he is being outscored by a former Arsenal youngster who was sold in the summer and has since seen his valuation explode thanks to his form, which has seen him outscore Victor Osimhen as well.

Saka's form this season

Yes, while his teammates around him have struggled to reach the levels they did towards the backend of last season, Saka has continued to demonstrate just why he’s one of the best players in Europe, let alone England.

For example, in just 15 appearances across all competitions, the North Londoner’s irrepressible poster boy has racked up a staggering haul of four goals and eight assists, equating to an average of a goal involvement every 1.36 games.

Moreover, according to FBref, which has compared players in similar positions across Europe’s top five leagues, the Champions League and Europa League over the last 365 days, the 23-year-old dynamo ranks incredibly high for some important statistics.

In short, the 42-capped Englishman has been a tour de force for the Gunners in recent seasons as well as this one, and so long as he’s in the team, there is every chance they can get back to their best of the last two years.

Yet, the Ealing-born icon is still being outscored by a former youngster who Arteta sold over the summer. A promising centre-forward who is now worth significantly more than he was just a few months ago.

The promising striker outscoring Saka and Osimhen

Arsenal got rid of a number of talented players over the summer, some for hefty sums of money, like Emile Smith Rowe and Eddie Nketiah, and some just on loan, like Reiss Nelson and Fabio Vieira, but the player we are talking about was sold from the club’s academy, Mika Biereth.

Yes, the up-and-coming Danish striker, who impressed on loan with Motherwell and Sturm Graz last season, producing 24 goals and assists across 37 appearances between the sides, was sold to the latter for just £4m in early July.

Unsurprisingly, the “fantastic” young forward, as dubbed by Motherwell manager Stuart Kettlewell, who openly compared parts of his game to both Erling Haaland and Harry Kane, of all people, started this season like a house on fire and currently has a tally of nine goals and two assists to his name in just 20 appearances.

This means that not only is the former Gunner outscoring Saka at present, but also Nigerian superstar Osimhen, who has been consistently linked with a move to the Emirates over the last year or so and has a tally of eight goals and four assists in nine games so far.

Such an incredible start to life with his new permanent club has also seen the London-born poacher’s valuation explode.

In 2024, CIES Football Observatory now currently value him at up to €18m, which is about £15m, or a 170% increase on the fee he cost the Austrian side just a few months ago.

Ultimately, Arsenal probably did the right thing in letting Biereth go out and make a name for himself without having to worry about where he’ll go on loan the following year, but given his start to the season and soaring valuation, we’re sure Arteta wishes he kept him around for a little while longer.

Arsenal must finally sell £110k-p/w flop who was their "obvious captain"

The experienced international has been painfully unlucky at Arsenal.

1

By
Jack Salveson Holmes

Nov 14, 2024

Carlo Ancelotti opened up on Endrick's lack of game time while drawing comparisons with Vinicius Jr and Rodrygo.

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• Ancelotti addressed Endrick and Guler's lack of game time
• Drew comparisons with Vini Jr and Rodrygo
• Madrid face Real Sociedad on Wednesday

• WHAT HAPPENED?

  Endrick and Arda Guler have seen limited game time in the 'new Galactico' era at the Santiago Bernabeu. With stars like Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior, Rodrygo and Jude Bellingham in the ranks, Ancelotti has been reluctant to hand out starts to the teenage attackers. The young Brazilian recently discussed the challenges he is facing at Real Madrid since moving to the club last summer.

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• WHAT CARLO ANCELOTTI SAID

  Los Blancos boss Ancelotti has addressed the youngster's situation at the club as he told reporters: "Endrick is not going to be Rodrygo or Vinicius Junior but he is going to be a great striker. There is no Endrick issue at the moment, let’s see what happens."

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  THE BIGGER PICTURE

  Further speaking on Guler and Endrick's limited appearances, the Italian added: "Any player who has doubts can speak to me directly. I speak every day with young players, with Endrick and with Guler. I have read that there is a problem (with Guler) but this is not something I am aware of. The competition for places is very high.

  "I am with these young players every day, sometimes they are happy and sometimes they are not. This is absolutely normal. I want players who are angry if they don’t play."

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  WHAT NEXT FOR REAL MADRID?

  The defending champions will be back in action on Wednesday as they take on Real Sociedad away from home in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final fixture.

GOAL sat down with Lagerway to discuss how Atlanta could move from edge playoff contenders to among the best teams in the Eastern Conference.

Atlanta United president Garth Lagerway took exception to a question asked of him in early February. Asked about the "miracle" upset that was Atlanta's knockout of favored Inter Miami in the first round of the 2024 MLS playoffs, Lagerway made it clear that the club's next playoff win – and he's sure that there will be one – won't be considered so seismic.

"I was like, 'OK, what would it take for it not to be a miracle that we win in the playoffs?' " Lagerway told GOAL. "Maybe, we get to the point where we're expected to win in the playoffs and we're favored to win."

That's exactly what Atlanta have done. It has been a chaotic 12 months for the club. They sold their three best players last summer, letting Caleb Wiley, Thiago Almada and Giorgos Giakoumakis go for a combined $43 million – the most lucrative trio of outgoings in MLS history. Instead of plummeting to the depths of MLS, they stayed afloat, beat Lionel Messi and Miami in the first round of playoffs, and showed that there is enough to work with here to make something special.

The logical next move, though, was to reinvest – and push back towards the top. The good news was the plan was already in place. Atlanta needed a striker, and, ideally, two other attacking players. Aleksey Miranchuk was taken care of in August. The two other newcomers were sorted within a month of the offseason.

"We were actually able to deploy the capital then more quickly that even than I thought we would be able to," Lagerway says.

The other two – former Middlesborough striker Emmanuel Latte Lath and returning hero Miguel Almiron – would seem to take Atlanta from fringe playoff contenders to among the best teams in the Eastern Conference. Throw in a new sporting director, Chris Henderson, formely of Inter Miami. Add a head coach who has won MLS before, Ronny Deila, coming off two separate stints in the Belgian top flight. And suddenly, this is a team that has a legitimate shot to win it all.

But what seems a hurried process has actually been a calculated. Some of these names have been on Atlanta's radar for a year.

"What I would say is we track players, usually for six to 12 months," he said. "The thing for MLS teams is what we want ideally, is players that are running down toward the end of their contract, because then you get a more favorable economic deal."

So much for that. Almiron and Latte Lath were bank-breaking moves. Add them together and the club spent over $30 million – Latte Lath is a new MLS transfer record signing. But he turned down Premier League offers to come. Atlanta have a proper player on their hands. So yes, it does break precedent. But Atlanta had money to spend, an owner who encouraged reinvestment, and a top-down model to make this all work. That playoff "miracle" should the same result occur might not be such a surprise.

Ahead of the MLS season, Lagerway talked about Atlanta's busy offseason, how they signed Almiron, and why this could be their year in the latest GOAL Convo.

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  ON SELLING AT THE RIGHT TIME

  GOAL: Why did you sell when you did? Because you guys made $50 million from three sales?

  LAGERWAY: It was reported that way. The reality is, it was probably from five sales that we made $53M. We had sell-ons on a player named Esequiel Barco as an example, to Russia from Argentina. Now, obviously the three, Almada, Giakoumakis and Wiley, those three together were around $43M… To answer "Hey, why sell?" then the answer is, you have to sell to the people with the money, and you have to sell when they want the player. That's maximizing your market value. And the decision we made, on a basic level, was we didn't think we were going to win the championship with the team that we had last year.

  And so then we became like, "OK, we're going to liquidate the portfolio." Basically, we're going to sell off all our assets. OK, so how can we do that to maximize value? Because if we maximize the value, then we get to make all the other decisions. If you don't have the value, then you don't get to the next step of making the other decisions. And so we were able to be pretty successful in terms of offloading the assets and maximizing market value. But that came at a significant cost in that it was in the middle of our season. And because the MLS season doesn't align with the European season, at least not so far, we had to then go literally months. We made some of the deals, I think, in April and May, ahead of the Euros and Copa America, and then couldn't replace them until our window opened in July. So we literally had months where we were playing without the replacements for those players.

  GOAL: How did you manage that?

  LAGERWAY: Well, sure enough, we were able to get in Pedro Amador for Caleb Wiley, and were able to get in Aleksei Miranchuk for Thiago Almada. We wound up getting 18 goals from our strikers that played in lieu of Giakoumakis. So although we didn't replace him, we actually got decent output from the strikers. That was credit to Rob Valentino would become our interim coach. That's why we went on the run at the end, because we finally replaced the players.

  Then we went on that little run and beat Miami. So, it all started to come together, but we really didn't feel like we had enough experience from a staffing perspective long term. And so then we brought in Ronny Deila. We brought in Chris Henderson. We brought in David Tenney, who, for me, is the best sports scientist in North America. We wanted to make sure we managed all these new assets we were acquiring. And we did.

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  ON A BUSY OFFSEASON

  GOAL: So how did you go about making those signings?

  LAGERWAY: We said, "OK, now we're aligned, now we can start pushing the capital out." We didn't want to spend a bunch of money on players and profiles that maybe didn't match the long term management of the club. And so once we got into December, got the management aligned, and hired Chris Henderson a couple days before Ronny, to make sure those two were lined up as well, we were actually able to deploy the capital then more quickly that even than I thought we would be able to.

  We got Miguel Almiron, which is a no brainer on and off the field for us in terms of the returning hero, coming back to Atlanta United. And we get Emmanuel Latte Lath. But the other thing we switched on a really basic level, because we were buy, develop, sell. And we had some really good additional success with that. If you come to Atlanta and you stay for a year or two, that you can be sold on, and you can go other places, which is great for the players and great for the club too. What we've tweaked is to say, "Hey, we really would like players that want to be in Atlanta." And we believe Atlanta is a big enough club now.

  MLS is rising, the World Cup is coming, in our building, Mercedes Benz Stadium. We had the Copa America. Now we have the Club World Cup this summer. We have the World Cup next summer. U.S. Soccer relocated to Atlanta last year. We are becoming an international soccer city. I understand that sounds silly to say on some level, when you have 120 years of soccer all over the world. And I'm not claiming we're the greatest or anything like that. But the city itself investing in soccer. We have the biggest fan base in America. These are all objective facts that maybe lead up to, "Hey, our fan base deserves players that want to play for Atlanta."

  Miguel Almiron, coming home as the returning hero, so to speak – we think that really matches. We have a highly motivated player to make Atlanta do well. Latte Lath is the same. We were competing with Premier League teams for his signature, and he chose to come to Atlanta. So that's hopefully a good sign that this is a place where he wants to make his future. A year ago, we had signed a player like Bartosz Slisz, who had offers in Italy, had some offers in Germany. And so we really thought that that was important to our core and to our locker room, to have players that wanted to be in Atlanta, win for Atlanta, and we thought that that was a good match for our fan base who expects us to win – as they should – as giving us the most support in North America.

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  ON PREPARING FOR SUMMER MOVES

  GOAL: I was wondering how far in advance, from a scouting perspective, do you have these names in mind? How far in advance are you thinking, "We're going to have this much money, here's who we're spending it on?"

  LAGERWAY: So in MLS there's the discover rule, which means you can only have one team at a time talk to the players. Charlotte had the discovery rights and so, like last summer, we couldn't talk to Almiron. Charlotte had the right to do that. They were trying to sign him. So it didn't matter. It wasn't on the radar. It was other targets. And then, in the winter, Charlotte eventually came around and said, "Hey, we're not sure we want to spend this much on Almiron. We have another target." So they gave us a call and said, "Hey, would you guys be interested in [Almiron]?" And then that started the conversation. We said, "Hey, we have to talk to the owners to try to figure out what's possible and what's not." Eventually we did that. And then it kind of snowballed from there. And so that one is very much a specific case, though, right there is literally one player with that level of influence in Atlanta, and that would be known to all MLS teams.

  What I would say is we track players, usually for six to 12 months. The thing for MLS teams is what we want ideally, is players that are running down toward the end of their contract, because then you get a more favorable economic deal. So if you can hopefully build your team and be successful, and then once you get to that base level success, you're kind of changing one or two players every transfer window, and you're able to kind of line up when players run out of contract, and then you acquire them. Now, obviously, when we set the league record for a transfer fee on Emmanuel Latte Lath you'll say, "Hey, that doesn't really sound like a free transfer strategy." You're right, but we really felt like we needed this impact player as a striker. We had the resources available, and so we reinvested them.

  And that's one of the things about having the ownership that we do, you know, with Arthur Blank, we have his full support. Any money we have goes back into the team. So we're very, very lucky in that sense. And we're lucky to be part of this bigger organization where, you know, this is an NFL-level organization serving us from a financial perspective. Our building is a $2 billion building. Even when players like Messi walk into Mercedes Benz stadium, they're like, "OK, this is a proper stadium." So we have some of these advantages, and we're able to sign some players on those timelines, and hopefully they'll make an impact.

  GOAL: On the Latte Lath signing, one thing that struck me is, obviously, that there's the price attached to it. But even if that deal didn't go through, you were looking into other names. Was there a sense that you to make an impact signing? Or bring in a big name?

  LAGERWAY: I think big name, I want to be careful with – just because I don't think any of these guys are household names, if we're being honest about it. But we had sold Giakoumakis in April of the year before. It was one of those where I don't know that we to sign, but it was definitely a goal of ours to sign. So yes, we had offers out on multiple players, and we had that alignment from December, so we knew if we had the sporting director and head coach in agreement on the type of player, there's more than one of those players.

  So you go do that, and then hopefully that maximizes the chances. But we signed three designated players in this window. That's more than I've ever done in my career. So, like, I can't sit here and be like, "Oh yeah, that was the plan all along." We were fortuitous in terms of, in particular, the Klich acquisition – D.C. United holds on to the designated player tag, but we get the player at a reduced price, in addition to the other two that we paid, obviously bigger money for.

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  ON BEATING MIAMI

  GOAL: That Miami win in the playoffs made headlines, not just in America, but around the world right by virtue of who you beat. On the back of that, did you feel a bit more pressure this offseason to get it right? As if to say, you know, we can build on that?

  LAGERWAY: It's funny. I would actually say I felt a little bit of relief. I had been here going on two years at that point, and we hadn't won anything. I had won and had some success in Salt Lake and had some success in Seattle. And so I was like "Man, I hope we can recreate this in the third place in Atlanta." And we really hadn't had a ton of success. And so we got the players right at the end of the season with Rob Valentino's influence, we were able to put together that run. So it honestly was like a little bit of like stress relief. Some of the same things, the same concepts can work. It set up that offseason of change in the management change, into the head coach and now signing more players. It gave me a little confidence that maybe we are starting to trend the right direction.

  GOAL: Almost a sense of "this is working?"

  LAGERWAY: Exactly. My job is to build the organization. But the way you see the progress is through the success on the field. And so it felt like you laid all this foundation. And so it was, in that sense, really gratifying to see Rob's success, as well as the team's success. Importantly, it gave us something to build on going into 2025, where now the group the players believe, "Hey, we can do this. We just knocked off, you know, the No. 1 seed, the team that set the points record in the regular season last year. We can be a good team." And so I think that was an important psychological boost for us heading into the season.

Net run rate could play a part with Australia and South Africa best placed

S Rajesh01-Nov-2021

England
With only one match to go, four points is the maximum Sri Lanka can achieve. For that to suffice, they will have to hope that South Africa and Australia lose their two remaining matches, which will mean five teams finishing on four points each. A big win against West Indies will then lift their NRR – if they score 160 and win by 50 runs, it will improve to 0.047. If South Africa lose their last two, their NRR – currently 0.210 – can easily slip below Sri Lanka’s. It might then be possible that Sri Lanka’s NRR is the best among the five teams. However, if any one of those results don’t go as Sri Lanka would want it to, they will be out.Related

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Fantastic Buttler ton makes it four out of four for England

England show adaptability to all but seal semi-finals berth

South Africa
South Africa have won two and lost one, and one of their remaining games is against the form team of their group. If they beat Bangladesh and lose to England, they will be at the mercy of other results as Australia can finish on eight points if they win their last two. Their NRR of 0.210 is significantly better than Australia’s -0.627 and West Indies’ -1.598, though, and that will help their cause should either or both of those teams finish on six points along with South Africa.Australia
Australia’s poor NRR could hurt them if it comes down to that factor against South Africa. Their best-case scenario is to win both their remaining games, and then hope that South Africa lose at least one. If Australia lose one, they would want South Africa to lose both and stay on four points.West Indies
West Indies’ NRR is the worst among the six teams in Group 1, so they will not want any scenarios where run rates come into play (unless they achieve huge wins in their last two games). Their best-case scenario would be if Australia and South Africa lost their two remaining matches and stayed on four points. Then, West Indies can qualify with six points if they win their two remaining matches.Bangladesh
As mentioned earlier, it is possible for five teams to finish on four points each. Bangladesh’s problem, though, is also their poor NRR, which they will have to lift to have any chance of fighting for the second spot in the group.

Manchester United continued their lacklustre form with a 1-1 draw away to Turkish outfit Fenerbahce. Erik ten Hag’s side could only stumble to a point away from home against a well-drilled home side led by their former boss, the legendary Jose Mourinho.

It was United who took the lead despite reams of early pressure from the home side. A well-worked move, started by summer signing Manuel Ugarte who won the ball in midfield, saw Christian Eriksen fire home from just inside the penalty box.

Mourinho’s team continued to pile on the pressure, and United goalkeeper Andre Onana pulled off a fantastic double save to deny Youssef En-Nesyri.

However, the Morocco international managed to get on the scoresheet just moments into the second half.

He met a cross from former Newcastle United man Allan Saint-Maximin, rising higher than Victor Lindelof to head home and equalise. Neither side was able to find the decisive action which won the game, and it ultimately petered out into a draw.

It was another frustrating night for United and Ten Hag’s side have now failed to win in Europe for exactly one year. There were some interesting selections from the Dutchman on Thursday night, in particular with Noussair Mazraoui’s role against the Turkish side.

Mazraoui’s stats vs. Fenerbahce

In Bruno Fernandes’ absence following his suspension after two yellow cards against Porto, it was interesting to see who the Dutchman would turn to as his replacement. His selection of Mazraoui at number 10 certainly caused a few surprises.

All things considered, it was not a bad performance by someone who is, by trade, a full-back. The Moroccan is an incredibly technical player which showed in some of his actions against Fenerbahce. He had some bright moments and played a part in Eriksen’s goal.

Indeed, his performance in Turkey was enough to receive a 6/10 rating from The Manchester Evening News’ chief Manchester United writer Samuel Luckhurst. He praised the United number three for being “positionally disciplined”, although ultimately said the experiment was unsuccessful.

The former Ajax defender certainly worked hard in an unfamiliar role, and his Sofascore stats reflect that. The 26-year-old had 64 touches of the ball, completing 83% of his passes and three from four long balls. Out of possession, he won two duels and two tackles.

Given the circumstances, Mazraoui put in a solid performance, and there were certainly more disappointing players on the pitch in a United shirt, including striker Joshua Zirkzee.

Zirkzee’s stats vs. Fenerbahce

It has been an underwhelming start to life at Old Trafford for Netherlands international Zirkzee. After a debut goal against Fulham, the 23-year-old has not found the back of the net, although he did get his first assist in a United shirt against Fenerbahce.

The former Bologna striker teed the classy Danish midfielder up nicely, setting the ball perfectly for the United number 14 to rifle home and give his side the lead. Outside of that, however, the Red Devils striker struggled, and his usual fluid link-up play was not on display.

Indeed, his stats also suggest it was a tough night at the office. The United number 11 had just 21 touches, far fewer than Onana managed, with 49 to his name. Zirkzee managed to complete just 67% of his passes, lost the ball seven times and won two from eight duels.

Touches

21

Pass accuracy

67%

Passes completed

8/12

Ground duels won

1/4

Aerial duels won

1/4

Number of times possession lost

7

Assists

1

His performance earned him a 4/10 rating from the aforementioned Luckhurst following the game. The journalist gave the United striker a scathing review and explained that it was an ‘anaemic performance’ from the 23-year-old.

Ten Hag will no doubt be hoping Zirkzee can find his shooting boots soon. The games are coming thick and fast, and United need to pick up wins to get themselves out of this run of poor form.

Next Man Utd manager: Who could replace Erik ten Hag?

Erik ten Hag has been sacked by Manchester United – so who could take over the reins at Old Trafford?

2 ByStephan Georgiou Oct 28, 2024

Despite that chaotic 3-2 defeat to Brighton, Tottenham supporters must be feeling pretty happy at how the Ange Postecoglou era is going.

The style of football can be a bit disorganised but you’re always guaranteed one thing with Spurs; entertainment. They play high press, with a high line and want to attack. It’s a shame Gareth Southgate didn’t have that motto over the summer with England.

Alas, Spurs look good and finally appear like a team who are no longer missing Harry Kane. Dominic Solanke arrived for a £65m fee over the summer and has three goals to his name already despite an injury-hit first few weeks in London.

However, it’s Welshman Brennan Johnson who looks like the real Kane replacement right now, scoring six goals in his last half-a-dozen outings for the Lilywhites. It’s quite the revival for a man who received horrific abuse for his performance against Arsenal a month ago.

At long, long last, Spurs are no longer reliant on what their all-time record goalscorer brought to the club. They’ve been searching for someone since the days of Mauricio Pochettino.

Pochettino's best and worst signings at Spurs

A year prior to the Argentine’s arrival in the English capital, it was a big old summer for Spurs. Gareth Bale was sold for a mega £85m fee to Real Madrid and in walked the likes of Roberto Soldado, Erik Lamela and Christian Eriksen to name a few.

While Eriksen went on to become a Spurs icon, registering 88 assists and 69 goals across 305 outings, Soldado was sold just two years into Pochettino’s tenure, leaving for Villarreal after scoring just 16 goals in 76 matches. How the current USA manager replaced him was a strange one to say the least.

While club icons Heung-min Son and Toby Alderweireld both joined in 2015 – Poch’s second summer at the helm – it also saw Kevin Wimmer and Clinton N’Jie arrive.

In 2016 it was the turn of another club flop Vincent Janssen to arrive in the capital and he was joined by another notable dud Georges-Kevin N’Koudou. It’s safe to say that for every Son and Dele Alli that Pochettino acquired, there was a N’Jie or Serge Aurier.

So, where are some of those big-money duds now? Well, Janssen is actually having a happy time of it out in Belgium where the Dutch striker has scored 41 goals in 104 matches for Royal Antwerp after a spell in Mexico. But what about N’Jie? Things are far less successful for the Cameroon ace.

Where Are They Now

Your star player or biggest flop has left the club but what are they doing in the present day? This article is part of Football FanCast's Where Are They Now series.

What happened to Clinton N'Jie after leaving Spurs

In 2015, Soldado had just left and Emmanuel Adebayor wasn’t handed a squad number. Bleak times indeed which left Pochettino with a sole senior striker; Kane.

He tried to solve the lack of depth by bringing N’Jie to the club in a £12m transfer from Lyon. Upon his arrival, which also happened to be his birthday, the forward stated that he was “very happy to join Tottenham”, hailing them as “such a big club in England.”

Sadly, it never really worked out for the 44-cap Cameroon international who departed after just 14 goalless games for the club.

In that time, he played alongside the likes of Kane, Dele and Eriksen but even for three marvellous players, they could not get a tune out of N’Jie.

Marseille

83

16

10

Sivasspor

72

5

5

Dynamo Moscow

66

6

4

Lyon

43

8

9

Spurs

14

0

1

So, what’s he doing in the year 2024? Well, he’s struggling…again. After spells with Marseille, Dynamo Moscow and Sivasspor in Turkey, the 31-year-old is now playing in Romania for Rapid Bucuresti having signed for them a month ago.

Since arriving in the Romanian capital, his club side have played four games but N’Jie hasn’t appeared in a single one of them. French outlet Foot Mercato recently remarked that things have started ‘very badly’ for him.

Why hasn’t he played? Administrative reasons. The former Tottenham man has a work permit and is currently in training but all of the paperwork is yet to be accepted.

Even without taking to the field, the Cameroon international has been the subject of criticism. Writing for Gazeta Sporturilor, journalist Narcis Drejan stated: “Rapid is making a big mistake! N’Jie and Boupendza are two vagabonds, the kind of players who miss training. When they see what Bucharest has to offer… […] They know they have value, but they have no pressure, they come for the money, to have fun, they no longer come for football.” Harsh words indeed.

This is a player who has clearly had a successful career – you don’t earn 44 caps for your country without it being so – just he has failed to ever live up to the mass potential that Spurs hoped they had invested in nine years ago.

Imagine him & Van de Ven: Spurs could soon unleash their very own Gabriel

Tottenham have recruited excellently in recent times and are set to unleash their answer to Arsenal’s Gabriel.

ByEthan Lamb Oct 13, 2024

Eintracht Frankfurt have slapped a huge price tag on Manchester City target and in-demand striker Omar Marmoush.

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• Marmoush an in-demand striker
• Man City linked with forward
• Eintracht Frankfurt name their price

• WHAT HAPPENED?

  According to Sky Germany reporter Patrick Berger, the 25-year-old wants to move to City and there is a 'complete' verbal agreement between him and the Premier League side. The report adds, however, that the Bundesliga team want €80 million (£67m/$82m) for his services in January.

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  THE BIGGER PICTURE

  City are having their worst season in many years and even with the prolific Erling Haaland up front, Pep Guardiola's team looks a shell of their former selves. Allowing Julian Alvarez to join Atletico Madrid may have been a mistake but reported Arsenal and Liverpool target Marmoush could be a good replacement. The report adds City are planning to lodge a bid this weekend but Eintracht would demand a lot less this summer.

• DID YOU KNOW?

  The Egypt international, whose contract at Eintracht runs until 2027, has scored 18 goals and bagged 12 assists in 24 games in all competitions this season.

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  WHAT NEXT?

  All eyes will be on whether or not City make an offer for Marmoush and if Eintracht will be willing to negotiate to get a deal done. A transfer, however, may be more likely in the summer.

Nottinghamshire 328 (Patterson-White 73, Slater 60, Clarke 48, Rushworth 4-75, Raine 3-63) and 125 for 5 (Hameed 58) lead Durham 165 (Evison 5-21, Broad 3-36) by 288 runsNottinghamshire brushed aside Durham’s attempt to manufacture a place in Division One of the Championship with artificially short boundaries as they took a stranglehold on the match at Emirates Riverside and, in the process, assured themselves of their own qualification for the September culmination to the season.It is quite a transformation for a county that had to wait until early May before ending a 1,043-day run without a victory.Those short boundaries were intended to propel Durham to maximum batting points, only for them to be dismissed for 165, not manage a single batting point, and concede a first-innings lead of 163. Notts extended that to a lead of 288 with five wickets remaining by the close as every ball resisted by Haseeb Hameed , before Scott Borthwick spun one past his defence, for 58, shortly before the close, communicated that he was in no mood to relax even though promotion was assured.Nottinghamshire now join Yorkshire, Lancashire and Somerset as claimants to Division One places in the end-of-season climax. Warwickshire are now strong favourites to join them, with Durham having to hope for an extraordinary victory plus a Warwickshire defeat on Wednesday to pull off a miracle.That leaves Gloucestershire desperately trying to stave off defeat against Hampshire at Cheltenham. A forecast of unbroken sunshine suggests only an overnight Covid alert, and immediate cancellation, can save them. Not that deliberately getting your phone to ‘ping’ would be a particularly moral way to pass the evening.Joey Evison, a 19-year-old medium pacer, England U-19 via Stamford School, destroyed Durham’s first innings with a post-lunch spell of 5 for 21 in eight overs. If Durham could fiddle the boundaries, they could do nothing about the weather and leaden skies hung over Emirates Riverside, as if in meteorological denunciation, until minutes before their innings was complete.Evison, who swings the ball, predominantly away from the right-hander, accepted his opportunity with growing excitement. It was a decent spell of swing bowling, a career-best that he can take pride in, but he will not find many batting line-ups as accommodating in the future.At close of play, he excitedly announced Notts’ qualification before the country’s cricket websites had worked out what was happening. And people fear that we are about to surrender to an automated society.”We’re going into that top conference of the County Championship,” he said. “That’s where we wanted to be looking at our targets for the season. We’re looking to push for that win tomorrow. Getting the five-wicket haul is one of those things I can tick off early in my career. I didn’t know what was going on. Getting four wickets in four overs has not happened to me before. It’s one of those moments that you have to embrace.”Two of his wickets, David Bedingham and Borthwick, required decent deliveries to remove batsmen of proven ability; Bedingham remains on course to be first to 1,000 runs, even if we did once imagine he might pull it off by the end of May, and it’s now July 13. Borthwick’s batting form has been much patchier but he carried a captain’s desire for success in his first season in the role. The other three wickets were gifts, inadequate responses to a high-pressure day.Durham’s openers fell to Stuart Broad – the presence of an England player, limbering up for the India Test series, being quite a bonus in mid-July. Both Cameron Bancroft and Rob Jones fell to big breakbacks. Notts’ loyalists would have watched the replays and judged them stone dead. Durham supporters would have been aghast. Both were probably umpire’s call.Related