After a topsy-turvy Premier League campaign that saw them ultimately qualify for the Europa League, Tottenham Hotspur must get their recruitment right this summer to help Ange Postecoglou realise his ambitions in North London.

The Australian had the Lilywhites playing some scintillating football at points last year.

Still, a cavalcade of injuries and loss of form towards the end turned what could have been a frankly unbelievable season into a promising one.

Fortunately, reports suggest Daniel Levy and Co have been hard at work in recent weeks looking for the right players to come in and help the club take the next step, and the latest name touted for a move to N17 could do precisely that – oh, and he'd been compared to Bukayo Saka.

Tottenham Hotspur transfer news

According to a recent report from SportMediaset via Calcio Napoli 24, Tottenham target Federico Chiesa will join the club this summer.

The report has claimed that while there was plenty of interest in the talented winger in his homeland this summer, he has opted to move to England and is now "close to Tottenham for 30-35 million euros."

This fee converts to between £25m and £29m, which seems like value for money for a player of Chiesa's quality.

Moreover, while the Spurs' faithful might not be his biggest fans for rivalry reasons, the fact that he has been compared to Saka in the past is certainly not a bad thing.

Why Chiesa would be a great signing and his comparison to Saka

So, before we look at the main reasons why Chiesa would be an excellent signing for Spurs, let's look at his comparison to the talisman of their North London rivals, Saka.

While there are obviously some positional similarities between the two internationals, this comparison stems from FBref, which compared players in similar positions at Euro 2024, created a list of the ten most comparable players for each one, and concluded that the Englishman was the ninth most similar attacking midfielder or winger to the Italian at the tournament.

This was not based on the eye test but more so on how closely the pair ranked for several underlying numbers, such as non-penalty expected goals plus assists, progressive carries, live passes, completed long passes, touches and touches in the attacking third, and ball recoveries, all per 90.

Non-Penalty Expected Goals + Assists

0.15

0.12

Progressive Carries

4.83

4.43

Live Passes

34.5

36.0

Completed Long Passes

1.72

1.43

Touches

47.6

47.6

Touches in the Attacking Third

26.9

25.1

Ball Recoveries

3.10

3.14

However, this comparison to the England international isn't the only impressive thing about the "unstoppable" wideman, as dubbed by Giorgio Chiellini.

For example, in just 37 appearances last season, the 26-year-old dynamo scored ten goals and provided three assists, which equates to an average of a goal involvement every 2.8 games and would've made him the fourth most productive Spurs player last season.

Ultimately, for the money being reported, this deal for Chiesa seems like a total no-brainer for Levy and Co, and the comparisons to the Arsenal ace reaffirm that fact.

Spurs hit gold on "masterclass signing" who's worth way more than Eze

The Lilywhites already have a left-sided player worth a king’s ransom.

ByJack Salveson Holmes Jul 25, 2024

Ruud van Nistelrooy performed a wild celebration after Bruno Fernandes' penalty goal against Chelsea on Sunday.

Article continues below

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• Van Nistelrooy celebrated wildly after Fernandes' goal
• United held to a 1-1 draw
• Van Nistelrooy explained his celebration

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• WHAT HAPPENED?

  The United skipper broke the deadlock from the penalty spot in the 70th minute after Rasmus Hojlund was brought down by Chelsea custodian Robert Sanchez inside the box. As Fernandes netted the opening goal, Old Trafford erupted in joy. Interim coach Van Nistelrooy performed a wild celebration as he first ran down the touchline and then jumped and fisted the air.

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  THE BIGGER PICTURE

  The Red Devils' celebrations, however, were shortlived as Moises Caicedo scored the equaliser four minutes later to make sure his team left Old Trafford with at least a point. The Dutch coach took charge of the team on an interim basis after Erik ten Hag left last week. United have appointed Ruben Amorim as their permanent coach who will take charge from next week.

• WHAT RUUD VAN NISTELROOY SAID

  Explaining his celebration after the game, the 48-year-old told "It was a great moment, the goal, when Old Trafford explodes. Bruno Fernandes did well taking it and the emotion came out. This week has been special, I have enjoyed every second of it.

  "I am here to help and will get behind the new manager and make sure the club grows. "We are behind the new manager, everyone at the new club is focusing on the two games that are coming which are very important but then we will work hard to make this club better every day."

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  WHAT NEXT FOR MANCHESTER UNITED?

  The English giants will face PAOK and Leicester City in the Europa League and Premier League, respectively in their next two games before Amorim formally takes charge of the club.

da leao： Southampton have a number of young gems at their disposal next season that could star in the Premier League, based off pre-season showings so far from the Saints.

da bwin： New centre-back recruit Ronnie Edwards from Peterborough United shone when Russell Martin's men took on tough Ligue 1 opponents Montpellier recently, as the highly regarded defender picked out Tyler Dibling with a superb long-range pass to fire home on the day.

Martin might not be done there when it comes to bedding in some more top talents for the future into his new-look squad for the Premier League though, with this dangerous attacker – who has also been tipped for great things – rumoured to be relocating to St. Mary's on loan.

Southampton interested in deal for young Premier League ace

A report by the Daily Mail suggests that Liverpool will allow young hotshot Ben Doak to move to a loan club this summer, with Southampton's ears reportedly perking up at the prospect of a deal.

It will be up to the raw Scotsman whether he fancies a switch to the South Coast or whoever shows a keen interest in his services, however, as he weighs up his first-team chances at Anfield this coming campaign under new boss Arne Slot.

Minutes have come his way this pre-season, but it would be unrealistic for the promising 18-year-old to expect first-team action week in week out for the Reds, especially in the competitive nature of the Premier League near the very top.

Therefore, this move could suit all parties, but Leicester City are also interested as a fellow newly promoted club.

Seriously impressing those on Merseyside at youth level, Doak's moment to shine in the men's game could come this season at St. Mary's, with the potential for him to explode into life like Theo Walcott managed for the Saints once upon a time.

How Doak could become Southampton's next Walcott

Just watching the clip above again, Doak's electric burst of pace is very reminiscent of when Walcott used to rampage forward during the early stages of his fledging career, before losing steam as his career went on.

Still, before he became a household name for the likes of Arsenal, Walcott was a wide-eyed youngster trying to make the cut on the South Coast and was gifted his debut when he was just 16 years of age by then Southampton boss Harry Redknapp in 2005.

Doak's youth numbers at Liverpool

Age bracket

Games played

Goals scored

Assists

U21s

16

5

2

U18s

5

2

2

UEFA U19s

8

4

4

Sourced by Transfermarkt

Walcott would never look back after being given his big break, netting four goals from 21 league games during his first season in the senior mix, and Doak will look to take the first-team by storm in a similar manner if he joins Martin's group, based off his promising numbers above in and around the youth structure at the Reds.

Doak has been gifted ten first-team chances already at Anfield, with Jurgen Klopp taking a particular shine to the "explosive" gem, as he has been described by football talent scout Jacek Kulig.

One showing against Toulouse last season during Liverpool's Europa League journey saw Doak show spurts of his raw quality, completing three successful dribbles despite only being on the pitch for one half, alongside winning five duels as a tenacious and energetic presence.

With the Saints also lacking down the right wing in terms of squad depth currently, the addition of the Liverpool youngster on loan would be a smart bit of business.

Southampton could even look back on this buy as the South Coast club having a key part to play in Doak's early footballing education, like Walcott before him, before he was then catapulted into stardom down the line.

Related Sky Sports claim Southampton have now sealed double transfer swoop

Saints have “agreed personal terms” with the pair.

Posts ByHenry Jackson Jul 27, 2024

Is subbing for Confectionery Stall and answering some questions that needed answers

Andy Zaltzman25-Feb-2013Dear Dr Stumps
I am a long-standing cricket fan, and, although the Test game is my first cricketing love, I do not mind Twenty20 as a format. However, I have found it impossible to find any excitement at all in the Champions League T20. I have watched some of the games, and seen at times what ostensibly looks like “good cricket”, but it has left me unmoved. Am I normal, or just a hollow shell of a human being?
Yours sincerely, Vice-Cardinal Ethel Herzchelowitz, Vatican City, aged 92Ethel,Do not worry, your feelings are perfectly normal. Cricket has chosen to force its followers to pick and choose which shards of the game they follow, so choices must be made. If you do not have an umbilical tie to one of the various teams who have qualified for the tournament through the various random procedures available, or are not a blood relative of one of the players, owners, mascots or scantily-clad interpretative dancers, it is biologically natural to find franchise-based T20 as emotionally engaging as reading a telephone directory in a darkened shed.Furthermore, even if you are a parent, spouse or child of one of the star competitors, you may struggle to remember which of his various teams your loved one happens to be representing this tournament. The footballing model from which cricket’s Champions League takes its name and inspiration is itself a flawed, if highly lucrative, competition, geared largely towards the ongoing dominance of a cabal of hyper-wealthy megaclubs. Teams seem able to depart from or ascend to this elite only through spectacular financial mismanagement, or the acquisition of a publicity-hungry billionaire owner. However, at least the players are attached to only one club at a time. And the matches are not, due to logistical necessity, played out largely on neutral grounds thousands of miles from the supporters of both teams.Twenty20 has proved to be predictably popular, but also more strategically interesting than might have been expected. But it is psychologically and spiritually advisable for 21st-century cricket spectators to be selective in which tournaments they allow themselves to care about.Dear Dr Stumps
My friend and I cannot agree on whom we think Azhar Mahmood is playing for at the moment. Can you help us?
Regards, Miley Cyrus, Skegness, aged 19.Miley,I will set my research team onto this complex task and report back next week. Some have suggested Azhar is representing the Auckland Aces, but the evidence is inconclusive and requires considerable scientific interpretation.The rumour is that when Azhar’s T20 captains run over to him at the end of his run-up, they are not encouraging him, boosting his confidence, or advising him on field placings, but reminding him for which team he is playing.Azhar’s all-round skills, which have flowered late in his career in the T20 arena after failing to find consistency and fulfilment in the international game, have sparked rumours that he is currently in talks with, amongst others, Real Madrid, the New York Yankees, the Swedish national handball team, Harlequins rugby club, the Bolshoi Ballet, the International Monetary Fund, and the Rolling Stones over short-term contracts for 2013. Cristiano Ronaldo is also said to be mulling over “a very tempting offer” from the Barisal Burners.Dear Dr Stumps
I was chatting with my wife the other day when she pointed out that there have now been four different winners in the four World T20 tournaments, and that six different nations have appeared in the four finals. She added that, in the last two tournaments, neither finalist from the previous tournament has reached the final, whereas in the 50-over World Cup, this has only happened twice in nine tournaments (in 1987, when neither West Indies nor India progressed to the final, and 1996, when England and Pakistan both packed their bags after the quarter-final stage). Perhaps, she suggested, this is because the birth of the T20 World Cup coincided with an era in which no team has dominated any format, whereas the 60-/50-over World Cup has spanned the eras of the great West Indies team (winners in 1975 and 1979, finalists in 1983), and the all-conquering Australians who won four of six tournaments from 1987, including three in a row from 1999, and were losing finalists in another. Or perhaps, she self-counter-argued, the shorter format will always be unpredictable and slightly random, with form counting for little in one-off matches, with any team vulnerable to a one-off Marlonsamuelsian explosion of strokeplay from a single opposition player that can be more ultimately decisive in T20 than in the longer formats, and with little time for chasing teams to consolidate and rebuild after losing wickets. She concluded by suggesting that, in T20, Panic is always padded up and ready to stride to the crease, adding further to its unpredictability. What do you think?
Lots of love, Barack H. Obama, Washington, aged 51.Barack,It sounds like you have found yourself a top-quality wife.Dear Dr Stumps
I am Felix Baumgartner. I have just jumped out of a hot air balloon from 24 miles above the earth’s surface. Being so high above this famous planet of ours made me feel almost supernaturally humble, and gave me a perspective on human life that few have been privileged to experience. Do you think the ECB should consider sending Kevin Pietersen and the rest of the England squad to the edge of space? Writing as someone who knows what it is like to plummet earthwards at the speed of sound ‒ much as England’s Test form has this year ‒ I believe a jaunt to the stratosphere will help them ensure there is no repeat of their recent self-inflicted Twitter-aggravated hyperspat. They will realise that we are all but specks in the universe, so we might as well put our petty differences aside and work for the common good.
Regards,
Felix Baumgartner, on the ground again, somewhere in the middle of New Mexico.Felix,Congratulations on (a) deciding to jump out of a balloon from a ridiculous height, (b) jumping out of a balloon from a ridiculous height, and (c) returning safely to a sensible height. The only things preventing the ECB, and other cricket boards, from sending their players into space are the hectic global cricketing schedule, which makes fitting a meteorologically propitious launch date into the unending stampede of cricket a logistical impossibility, and, currently, financial cost.Recent years have seen more and more cricket teams go on team-bonding expeditions, and a space trip would in all likelihood render a side all but unbeatable. (Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, for example, never once lost a top-level doubles match on the professional tennis or badminton circuits after their 1969 moon jaunt.)Mercifully, the Kevin Pietersen Reintegration ProjectTM has borne fruit, and various members of the England squad have pledged to welcome the much-discussed batsman back into the dressing room with open arms. (It should be borne in mind, however, that Roman senators once welcomed Julius Caesar with open arms, and he ended up with some career-ending injuries.) (And it should also be borne in mind that not all fruit is sweet and juicy. Even fruit that looks sweet and juicy.)New captain Alastair Cook has long been marked out as a potential skipper, and, as a little boy dreaming of one day captaining England, must surely have imagined spending his first six weeks in the job answering questions about a playground-level squabble whilst playing no cricket at all. He, more than anyone, must be relieved that he has helped to hold a pillow over this tiresome issue until the twitching stops.Dear Dr Stumps,
Whom am I playing for today?
Kindest regards, Azhar Mahmood, 37.Dear Azhar,
I have no idea.

Bowler has suffered a fractured left thumb in the Indians’ warm-up match against County Select XI

Nikhil Sharma21-Jul-2021Avesh Khan’s tour of England is likely to have come to an end as ESPNcricinfo has learned that the Madhya Pradesh fast bowler has suffered a fracture in his left thumb, which he hurt on the first day of the warm-up match between the Indians and the County Select XI at Chester-le-Street on Tuesday. It is understood that Khan will undergo a couple of scans and tests this week, after which he will return to India to recover in time for the IPL where he represents the Delhi Capitals. Khan was a key part of the Capitals in the first half of IPL 2021, picking up 14 wickets, the joint second-highest in the competition so far.Related

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Avesh Khan is ready for the next level

Injury concerns for India: Kohli has stiff back, Rahane swollen hamstring

Khan was representing the County Select XI, and immediately after lunch on Tuesday, he successfully intercepted a punched drive from Hanuma Vihari, but winced in pain. Minutes later he walked off, alongside the Indian physiotherapist, with a strapped left thumb.The Indians ended the first day’s play on 306 for 9, with KL Rahul having cracked a century (101), and Ravindra Jadeja making 75.On Wednesday, the BCCI’s media team sent an update on Khan, saying he would “not be taking any further part” in the warm-up match and that he “remains under observation”. Khan and Washington Sundar had both been permitted by the Indian team management to turn up for the County Select XI, which had two vacant slots since the pair of James Bracey and Zak Chappell were not available. Bracey had been identified as contact of a Covid-19 positive case and had to be pulled out of the squad, while Chappell suffered an injury on Tuesday morning.Khan had been named as one of the five reserves by the Indian selectors in the 25-man squad which was announced in May. He becomes the second player, after Shubman Gill, to be ruled out of the series. The details of Gill’s injury have not yet been put out by the BCCI, but it is learned that the opening batter had been hampered by a niggle in the lower half of his left leg, which surfaced post the World Test Championship final in June.Virat Kohli bats in the netsA day after the BCCI said that Virat Kohli was being rested for the three-day warm-up match due to a stiff back, the Indian captain turned up to bat in the nets. At lunch on Day 2 in Durham, Kohli took throwdowns from Indian batting coach Vikram Rathour, with India head coach Ravi Shastri observing from a distance. The development is a welcome one for the Indians, who also are concerned by the fitness of vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane, who has a swollen hamstring. Also part of the nets was India’s seniormost fast bowler Ishant Sharma, who has bounced back from the hand injury he picked on the final day of the World Test Championshp final. Sharma had received stitches on his bowling hand.

Manchester United supporters are no doubt riding high at present – and rightly so – having snapped up Serie A's Young Player of the Year, Joshua Zirkzee, from Bologna, while also prising Lille's Leny Yoro from out of Real Madrid's clutches.

Of course, the Red Devils have been here before, with a 'successful' summer not often translating to a successful season, yet who's to say that things can't be different this time around, with manager Erik ten Hag now boosted by the support of the INEOS regime.

As was shown in the £52m deal for Yoro – which was seemingly something of an obsession for new CEO, Omar Berrada – United don't appear afraid to step on a few toes to get what they want, with that likely to be true again amid reports of another potential statement move.

Man Utd ready to raid Premier League rivals

According to The Athletic's David Ornstein, the Old Trafford outfit are "exploring a deal" for Arsenal's teenage sensation, Chido Obi-Martin, with initial talks having already been held regarding the 16-year-old's potential move to Manchester.

As per the respected insider, the Denmark youth international has seen his schoolboy terms expire in north London after turning down a contract offer from the Gunners, with a departure from the club now on the cards.

The highly-rated striker has already visited Carrington amid United's pursuit of a deal, albeit with there also likely to be significant rival interest in his services from clubs across Europe.

Why Man Utd are interested in Chido Obi-Martin

At a time when the club are still seeking a prolific number nine to bolster the first-team squad – with new man Zirkzee having netted just 12 times last season in Italy – the prospect of signing a figure for the future rather than the present may not be cause for much excitement among the United faithful.

That said, all the evidence points to the capture of Obi-Martin being something of a masterstroke, with the in-demand talent having notably hit the headlines last season after scoring ten – yes ten – times in a 14-3 win over Liverpool's U16s last season.

In total, the emerging superstar ended 2023/24 with 32 goals in just 21 outings for Arsenal's U18 side, with his towering frame at that age group making him a real "monster on the pitch", in the words of data analyst Ben Mattinson.

Tipped to "battle it out" with Rasmus Hojlund at international level in the years to come – as per Mattinson – it is clear just why there is such clamour over the teenager's signature, with INEOS needing to do all they can to get a deal over the line.

Of course, the club have only recently shown their muscle in the market by forking out for Yoro, yet there is an argument to be made that a move for Obi-Martin could represent an even more bold and exciting deal.

32 games (30 starts)

2 goals

0 assists

92% pass accuracy rate

13 clean sheets

1.1 tackles per game

1.1 interceptions per game

3.9 balls recovered per game

65% aerial duels won

63% total duels won

Like with any youngster, there must be a note of caution over getting too carried away, yet it would, no doubt, be extremely satisfying to poach the player from a direct rival in Arsenal, with such a deal likely to evoke memories of a certain Robin van Persie back in 2012 – the Dutch goal machine going on to fire United to a 20th league title with 26 Premier League goals in his debut season.

While such heroics may take time to come for Obi-Martin, his goalscoring exploits at youth level do point to future stardom, thus ensuring he could potentially make an even bigger impact than any defender – like Yoro – could at the Theatre of Dreams.

With the Red Devils arguably still waiting to find a suitable, long-term successor to Van Persie after a decade of short-term and costly centre-forward signings, where better to finally end that search than by plucking another 'superstar' from under the noses of the Gunners.

Hopefully, like 'RVP', the little boy inside of him is also "screaming for United"…

Man Utd lining up move for PL talent who'd be a "beast" next to Yoro

INEOS aren’t pulling any punches on the transfer front this summer.

ByAngus Sinclair Jul 20, 2024

Australia’s white-ball captain is expected to take 8-10 weeks to recover

Andrew McGlashan13-Aug-2021Australia’s limited-overs captain Aaron Finch has undergone knee surgery with the recovery expected to take eight to 10 weeks as he aims to be fit for the T20 World Cup.Finch missed the recent Bangladesh tour having suffered cartilage damage ahead of the series in West Indies. He managed to play the five T20Is in the Caribbean but aggravated the injury in the final game.Related

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Alex Carey to captain Australia after Aaron Finch ruled out

Aaron Finch faces knee surgery as uncertainty over T20 World Cup captaincy looms

Having completed his mandatory two-week quarantine upon returning to Melbourne, Finch had the operation on Thursday with a Cricket Australia statement saying it was successful.”His recovery is expected to take 8-10 weeks meaning he should be available for the opening games of the World Cup in mid-October,” the statement added.The longer end of that timescale will push things tight for Finch with Australia’s involvement in the tournament due to begin in the final week of October. It is expected that tentative plans for warm-up matches against Afghanistan and West Indies will be cancelled due to logistical challenges with some players returning from the IPL which will be also be staged in the UAE ahead of the World Cup.Finch was one of eight potential first-choice players Australia were missing in Bangladesh where they were beaten 4-1 (the same margin they suffered in West Indies) including being bowled out for their lowest T20I total of 62 in the last match. If fit, Finch will be expected to open alongside David Warner at the World Cup.In Finch’s absence, Matthew Wade captained the side in Bangladesh where, like many of the batters, he had a lean time. Pat Cummins, the official Australia vice-captain, will be part of the World Cup squad.Australia have lost their last five T20I series, against England, India, New Zealand, West Indies and Bangladesh, having previously climbed to No. 1 in the rankings.Their planning has been disrupted by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on player availability but the results have also raised questions about the depth available especially in the batting.They have never won the T20 World Cup with their best performance being a runners-up finish in 2010 when they lost the final against England in Barbados.

Nottinghamshire 448 (Patterson-White 101, Clarke 59, Fletcher 51) beat Somerset 107 (Fletcher 4-21) and 181 (Paterson 4-46) by an innings and 160 runsNot enough character, not enough discipline. Tom Abell was distraught over Somerset’s first-innings collapse. If he was that blunt to the media, what did he say in the dressing room? The message was abundantly clear: it was time to regain some respect, to show some discipline, to dig in.The temptation to imagine Somerset’s young thrusters looking in bewilderment at Abell’s instructions was irresistible.”Well, I’ve got this shot where I swivel yards outside off stump and slam it behind square leg for six,” Tom Lammonby might have ventured.”That’s nothing,” Tom Banton might have answered in turn. “I can slog-sweep the quicks over midwicket as well as anyone, if you like.””That’s just too high risk,” says Abell. “I want percentage shots.””Maybe I could swivel, but not so far?” offers Lammonby.”I never really understood percentages,” mutters Banton.More seasoned professionals, who have seen it all before, nod in acquiescence at such moments and privately tell themselves they will bat with serious intent. But while the older players will merely recalibrate slightly for the matches to follow, or just accept it as one of those things, Somerset’s younger pros have a greater challenge to find a workable Championship tempo.Banton and Lammonby have two half-centuries in 28 Championship starts. Banton averages around 21, Lammonby around 15. Banton’s Championship approach looks a bit shot; in fact, even in the shorter formats, the daring with which he burst on to the scene is now tinged with doubt. Lammonby just looks strokeless. Lewis Goldsworthy, too – a third talented young buck, although as yet not so highly feted – has a similar return.Banton and Lammonby are quite rightly regarded as two of the most thrilling white-ball batters to come out of Somerset for many a year. But you could feel their growing pains. Take chances, push the boundaries and make mistakes is the creed that has carried them so far, but bowlers are learning more about their games and, anyway, in the Championship there are deeper truths and they have yet to find them. Certainly, both need more get-out shots, workaday solutions that keep risk to a minimum. But when four-day cricket is not their first love – and no matter how much they keep up appearances it probably isn’t – finding solutions is psychologically even harder. They literally have run before they can walk.It was shortly after 5 o’clock when Somerset were beaten by an innings and 160 runs, dismissed second time around for 181 to follow up their 107 in the first innings. Everybody tried to dig in, nobody succeeded. They lasted 28 overs longer, but the irony was inescapable that their two highest-scoring batters, Jack Leach and Marchant de Lange, got there by accepting the inevitability of defeat and having a bit of a swing after tea.”We could have done that,” one could fancy that Banton and Lammonby mused in unison.For Nottinghamshire, the first phase in this four-game Division One climax could not have been more fruitful. Their first win at Taunton since 1985 was also their biggest victory margin in history against Somerset. Luke Fletcher and Dane Paterson bowled splendidly throughout, both taking seven wickets in the match as they outdid their Somerset counterparts. They began the season without a Championship win for nearly three years and are now very much in the title shake-up.For Somerset, the manner of defeat questioned their Championship credentials in the absence of two key seam-bowling allrounders, Craig Overton and Lewis Gregory. Leach needs a pitch offering some turn, but he is unlikely to get that against Yorkshire at Scarborough next week and when Lancashire come to Taunton the week after they will carry the legspin threat of Matt Parkinson in return.Somerset’s first three wickets fell to excellent deliveries – Steve Davies, edging one from Fletcher that seamed away; Abell, after 11 in 56 balls, edging one from Paterson that this time did not swing in but held its line; James Hildreth leaving Fletcher’s inswinger, his off stump rattled.For a long period on either side of lunch, Paterson to Lammonby was on repeat. Paterson, sensing that Lammonby had eschewed all temptation, repeatedly offered up deliveries wide outside off stump and Lammonby, a tall man crouching forward, let them pass. When Paterson took a breather, he had figures of 9-6-4-1 and Lammonby had failed to score off 23 balls from him, or the same ball, 23 times.Lammonby found some release when Notts skipper, Steven Mullaney, filled in with a few overs of medium pace – he swung it, too – and he also hooked Brett Hutton down to long leg. But on 34, from 95 balls, he pushed at a good ball from Hutton and was caught at first slip.Banton’s demise came when Paterson squared him up to be lbw. It put him out of his misery and that misery must not be allowed to fester. By the end of the over, only a single from Leach had prevented Paterson taking a triple-wicket maiden. Roelof van der Merwe clipped his first ball to square leg and Goldsworthy, another figure of undying responsibility, lost his off stump.Somerset were 86 for 7 after 48.5 overs, a penitent innings that had achieved nothing.Andy Hurry, Somerset’s director of cricket, was left to reflect upon it all. “We were in game on the first day, but Liam Patterson-White’s century took it away from us and since then we have been totally outplayed,” he said. “We came into the game with high expectations, but respect to Notts for how they went about things and we can certainly learn a few lessons from that. There were no redeeming features in our performance. We expect better individually and collectively from Somerset players.”

Board confirms they don’t have enough players who can pass covid tests required for international travel

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Nov-2021Papua New Guinea have been “forced to withdraw” from the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe this month after a slew of Covid-19 infections in the camp.PNG were forced into quarantine on October 30 for their planned departure on November 6, but when multiple PCR tests on squad members failed to return a negative, they were left with no option but to withdraw because of “not having enough players for the tour who can pass the covid tests required for flying.””We have also over the weekend worked with the ICC on later flight options to give the team more time to still be able to tour. Unfortunately, all the extra efforts to get the team to travel have been unsuccessful,” read a Cricket PNG media release.”We do not have enough players for the tour who can pass the Covid test required for flying internationally leaving the Cricket PNG Board no option other than to withdraw the team from the tour today.”PNG were set to travel early to acclimatise to Zimbabwean conditions after nearly two years of no cricket due to the pandemic. PNG were going to compete with West Indies, Netherlands, Ireland, and Sri Lanka in the group phase of the World Cup Qualifiers. In all, two teams from this tournament will enter the tournament proper.”Unfortunately, despite everyone in Cricket PNG being fully vaccinated, Covid has robbed us of the opportunity to play international cricket once again,” the release went on to say. “The board, management, staff and players are all devastated at this turn of events.”Months of hard work have gone into this tour, and to be robbed by Covid before we could leave is hard to accept. Covid is in the community in PNG and despite putting in best practices, including vaccinations and quarantining players seven days early, it wasn’t enough on this occasion.Our only comfort is that all the players and support staff who have tested positive, due to being vaccinated, have had only mild or no symptoms.”

Vinicius Junior heaped praise on Real Madrid team-mate Jude Bellingham after the England star scored in his side's 2-0 win over Getafe.

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Real Madrid beat Getafe 2-0Bellingham scores in victoryVinicius Jr praises midfielderFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?

Bellingham and Madrid bounced back from their 2-0 Champions League loss to Liverpool in midweek with a win by the same scoreline over Getafe in La Liga on Sunday. And after the 21-year-old took to social media to toast the three points and his goal, his injured team-mate Vinicius congratulated the Englishman, too.

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Alongside a host of pictures from Madrid's win, Bellingham wrote on Instagram: "¡Victoria muy importante! (A very important WIN!)".

And Vincius Jr commented on the post: "Q[ue] JUGADOR (What a player)".

THE BIGGER PICTURE

After winning a La Liga and Champions League double in 2023/24, Madrid have not been at their best this season. Bellingham has not been as effective or scored nearly as many goals but despite that, Los Blancos are just one point behind league leaders Barcelona and they have a game in hand. So another successful campaign is very much a possibility.

Getty Images SportWHAT NEXT?

Bellingham's second-placed Madrid side are away to fourth-placed Athletic Club on Wednesday in their next La Liga outing.