Southampton have had a dismal season full of change and uncertainty.Mauricio Pellegrino was sacked as manager in March and replaced with Mark Hughes, who had a shaky start to his new role in the Premier League.The team failed to win five league games on the trot under the former Stoke City boss and today’s clash against coastal rivals Bournemouth had huge importance.The club headed into the encounter at St Mary’s four points adrift of safety, but they managed to cut the gap to one thanks to a 2-1 victory over the Cherries.Nerves rang around the stadium when Joshua King cancelled out Dusan Tadic’s opener, but the Southampton star responded in the second half with another goal to help the team take much-needed three points.The Saints will head into their remaining matches against Everton, Swansea City and Manchester City with confidence, but it seems that midfielder Oriol Romeu was already optimistic, judging by the message posted to social media by teammate Maya Yoshida.
With Sam Allardyce’s exit now a distant and happy memory – the fans were calling for his head for months – West Ham appear to be planning for what they hope will be a bright future.
Premier League safety has been established, money is coming into the club under stable off-field management and a move to the Olympic Stadium is looming, so all looks rosy for the Irons.
However, the right successor for ‘Big Sam’ will be needed, and it appears that Sevilla’s Unai Emery is a candidate.
Reports have revealed that ‘talks’ with the Europa League winning coach are scheduled for this week, and here are FIVE reasons why West Ham must persuade him to head to West London…
[interaction id=“none”]
Proven top level boss
Aside from a relatively poor adventure to Russia with Spartak Moscow, Emery has enjoyed a fine managerial career so far, working well under the crippling financial constraints at Valencia between 2008–2012 and winning two Europa League trophies at Sevilla along with claiming Champions League qualification.
Although the questionable spell in Moscow may be a worry regarding his ability outside of his native Spain, such a good record with some top clubs in La Liga suggests that he knows a thing or two when it comes to coaching, while an early retirement from paying the game, he bowed out at the age of 32, is perhaps a big factor in his obvious tactical nous.
Plays attractive football
Anyone who watched Sevilla romp to Europa League success will vouch for the quality of football deployed by Emery.
With the energetic Carlos Bacca leading the line, the 43-year-old built a high tempo side with a genuine focus on recycling the ball and operating well in transition.
Pretty much any change will be seen as an upgrade on Sam Allardyce’s direct philosophy, which could once again bring a feel-good factor to East London.
Proven in the Europa League
With an excellent fair play record having opened a back door to the Europa League, West Ham are set for a continental adventure.
A long campaign awaits and with seeding set to leave the Hammers with a difficult group if they can make it through three tricky rounds of qualifying, strong management and experience will be needed, especially with very few Irons players possessing the know-how.
As far as knowledge of the competition goes, very few can compete with Emery, who has lifted the trophy twice in the last two seasons with the tournament’s most successful ever club.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Could tempt La Liga stars to Upton Park
Emery’s reputation in Spanish football is a good one, and with the financial clout managing a secure Premier League football club brings, there’s no reason he couldn’t return to his homeland to lure top quality additions across to Upton Park.
With a more ‘easy on the eye’ approach being called for, perhaps some La Liga imports could be an option, with, on the whole, the level of technical prowess higher in Spain’s top tier than in the Premier League.
The fans are on board
Although Napoli are lurking with intent, the feeling of positivity surrounding the potential luring of Emery to West Ham is high. Fans of the Irons are, to a degree understandably, fed up with the football they’ve been watching, so the promise of a top-quality manager with a different approach is enticing.
I find it amusing that Emmanuel Adebayor seems so committed to the cause now that it involves one of his former clubs. Does this mean the striker will look to follow his own words and put Manchester City under pressure this weekend when they travel to Tottenham? I’m not so sure.
Adebayor looked to offer Tottenham some words of confidence ahead of this Sunday, stating that the City players could end up in a brawl amongst themselves if Tottenham make them uneasy and unsure of the final result. Whatever may happen on the pitch or in the dressing room, why is it Adebayor’s place to speak so openly about the mind-set of the Manchester City players? It’s one thing to talk up your own credentials ahead of an important fixture, but to so casually talk down a club who offered you a way out of Arsenal when no one else would just speaks volumes for Adebayor’s character.
[cat_link cat=”tottenham” type=”list”]
It smacks a little of a player who wants to work his way back into the good books of the Tottenham faithful following their exit from the Europa League. There are, however, smarter ways to go about earning your place – namely by consistently putting in good performances. Nothing much has changed with Adebayor since 2008, with a scoring record that has evidently gone to his head and filled him with a sense of value that goes unnoticed by everyone else.
Forget for a moment the implications of this tie for both teams: there will be plenty of eyes fixated on Adebayor, waiting for that slip, wasted effort or general attitude of devil may care. He’s done nothing but back himself into a corner with remarks about his former club, and I doubt there will be anyone who takes to heart his perceived words of advice.
We know the situation Manchester City are in. Roberto Mancini has not always chosen his words carefully this season, in particular targeting Joe Hart following the loss against Real Madrid. Certain sections of the club are feeling the pressure, as well as the greater sense of disappointment, I’m sure. Much more was expected of the current Premier League champions, but opposition players and managers have far more subtle ways of hinting at potential weaknesses without overexposing certain issues.
You continue to wonder if Adebayor is at all concerned about finding a club for a sustained period of his remaining years at the top. He should feel hugely grateful to Daniel Levy for rolling the dice on him for a second season, while most, for good reason, would have questioned the permanent signing of a player who has a reputation of unsettling and performing poorly. For whatever may be said about his recent interview, everything that has been handed to him at White Hart Lane has been thrown back in the faces of those at the top. I assume no consultation was made with Andre Villas-Boas, who I’m sure would have advised against those words, while burning bridges with former teammates is just a regular part of his game. He spoke highly of his relationship with Yaya and Kolo Toure, as well as the City captain Vincent Kompany. Once again, there are better ways to talk up your superiority over a rival than exposing internal problems.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
This season should be the last dance for Adebayor at the very top of English football – or indeed at the top of any of the elite leagues in Europe. He’s proven himself to be nothing more than an overpaid nuisance, and one who has no desire to better himself or his team once he has assurances of a long-term contract. He’s the very image of the modern footballer. A reckless mercenary without much thought for his team or former clubs.
Shai Hope and Tagenarine Chanderpaul scored fifties, but no other batter made a big contribution as West Indies fell 64 behind in the first-innings exchanges
Hemant Brar03-Dec-2025Jacob Duffy’s maiden five-wicket haul in Test cricket gave New Zealand the upper hand on the second day of the first Test against West Indies in Christchurch. Matt Henry also chipped in with a three-for as West Indies folded for 167 in response to New Zealand’s first-innings total of 231. This despite New Zealand dropping four catches, three of those off Henry, and giving away 28 extras. For West Indies, Shai Hope and Tagenarine Chanderpaul scored half-centuries but only two others reached double-digits. At stumps, New Zealand were 32 for no loss in their second innings, extending their lead to 96.In the morning, West Indies needed only three balls to take the last New Zealand wicket, Zak Foulkes edging Jayden Seales down the leg side. But they themselves lost an early wicket as Foulkes struck with the first ball of the second over. Bowling around the wicket, he induced an outside edge from John Campbell, and Will Young took the catch diving to his left at third slip.However, a few overs later, Young dropped a much easier chance when Henry got Alick Athanaze to edge one. Henry wasn’t to be denied for long, though. In his next over, he got the ball to jag back in from around the wicket to make a mess of Athanaze’s stumps. All this while, the scoreboard moved at a snail’s pace. After 12 overs, West Indies were 10 for 2.Shai Hope batted in sunglasses because of an eye infection, and scored a half-century•AFP/Getty Images
Hope and Chanderpaul, though, hung around without worrying about the scoring rate. The first boundary of West Indies’ innings came in the 23rd over when Hope, batting in sunglasses because of an eye infection, drove Duffy through the covers. In the next over, he drove Nathan Smith through mid-on for another boundary.Chanderpaul, meanwhile, enjoyed his luck. He was dropped twice, on 5 and 24, both times by Devon Conway at leg slip, first off the bowling of Smith and then Henry.Hope brought up his fifty after lunch. With Chanderpaul also looking comfortable, New Zealand were forced to change their plan. Duffy went short against Hope and had him hopping around. Once a short leg was deployed, Hope’s problems increased. Eventually, he ended up gloving a short ball from around the wicket to Tom Latham, who was keeping in place of Tom Blundell. Blundell had hurt his hamstring while batting on the first day and didn’t take the field in the morning.New Zealand dropped four catches – here, Devon Conway reacts after giving Tagenarine Chanderpaul a reprieve•Getty Images
Once Duffy broke the 90-run stand, Henry returned to pick up two in one over. Bowling awayswingers just around off stump, he had Roston Chase and Justin Greaves caught behind for ducks, leaving West Indies on 106 for 5.It didn’t affect Chanderpaul, though. He carried on in his unhurried manner and brought up his half-century. He and Tevin Imlach added 34 for the sixth wicket, a stand that was broken when Conway finally held on to a catch. Chanderpaul pulled Foulkes aerially towards square leg, where Conway flung himself to his left, went with both hands, and landed with the ball in his left.Henry forced Kemar Roach’s outside edge soon after. The ball was going straight to first slip but Michael Bracewell dived across from second and spilled it.Soon, it became dark enough that only spinners were allowed to bowl. But after a short rain break, the sky brightened up again. When play resumed, Duffy did not take long to mop up the remaining four wickets. With the first ball after resumption, he had Imlach caught down the leg side. The batter reviewed the on-field decision only for replays to show he had gloved the bouncer. Johann Layne was caught and bowled in the same over. Duffy then went full and bowled Seales and Ojay Shields to complete his five-for.
Hampshire are staring at an innings defeat despite facing just 32 overs on day three
ECB Reporters Network28-Apr-2024Hampshire 151 and 116 for 5 (Vince 26, Worrall 2-30, Roach 2-31) trail Surrey 359 (Burns 113, Clark 106*) by 92 runsHampshire lived to fight another day against champions Surrey at the Kia Oval, but are still facing heavy defeat after losing three top-order wickets in the 32 overs eventually bowled in south London following overnight and early morning rain.Resuming 177 runs behind at 31 for 2 in their second innings, Hampshire slid further to 116 for 5 on the shortened third day of their Vitality County Championship fixture – still a deficit of 92.James Vince and Tom Prest were dismissed within four balls of each other after resisting for 20 overs in a gritty 46-run stand following the early loss of Nick Gubbins, caught in the cordon off Dan Worrall.Prest, dropped head-high by Ollie Pope at second slip off Gus Atkinson on 22, had added only a single when he fell for 23 – this time caught in front of his face by Pope as he pushed hard at a ball from Atkinson that shaped away from its original line just outside off stump.And then former England Test batsman Vince, who reached 26 after resuming on four not out, was beaten by an in-swinger from Kemar Roach and departed leg-before to leave Hampshire’s second innings in real trouble at 87 for 5.Surrey’s reaction to his dismissal underlined just how important they felt getting the Hampshire captain out was after Vince had punctuated some assiduous defence with a number of quality strokes, including an early clipped four off his pads off Jordan Clark and a lovely back foot force to the square cover boundary off Atkinson.Vince had also showed grit following some on-field attention from the Hampshire physio after being struck a glancing blow on the shoulder by a vicious Atkinson lifter when on 21.Ironically, given the early gloom of the day, most of the single session had been played in bright sunshine but the Oval floodlights were on by the time Liam Dawson, on 18 not out, and Ben Brown, unbeaten on seven, saw out the final overs with Surrey’s seamers still very much on top.Play had finally begun at 4.30pm after heavy overnight rain had ruled out any prospect of cricket before lunch and then further light showers in early afternoon had delayed further mopping up operations.But it took Worrall only ten balls to add to his overnight scalp of Ali Orr, with Gubbins edging one angled across him to second slip, where Pope fell to his right to scoop up a fine low catch.Gubbins, out for 10, had added only four runs and Prest was beaten first up by a brute of a delivery from Worrall, which lifted and left him, when he came in on a king pair.To his credit, though, Prest knuckled down and was soon into double figures with driven fours off Clark and Worrall as he and Vince did their best, for over an hour, to defy Surrey’s four-pronged pace attack.
Vidarbha defend the lowest score in a first-class match in India to rise up Group D table
ESPNcricinfo staff19-Jan-2023Left-arm spinner Aditya Sarwate picked up 6 for 17 to help Vidarbha bowl out Gujarat for 54 and defend 73 on a dramatic third morning of their Ranji Trophy game in Jamtha. It was the lowest target defended successfully in first-class cricket in India; the previous lowest was 78, defended by Bihar against Delhi in Jamshedpur in 1948-49.Jamtha is also the venue for the first India-Australia Test, starting February 9. That game, though, will be played on one of the centre pitches, while this match was played on a side pitch.On Wednesday, Siddharth Desai, another left-arm spinner, had taken 6 for 74 to limit Vidarbha to 254. At that time, a Gujarat win looked like a mere formality, even though they went to stumps at 6 for 1.Sarwate, however, had other ideas. Having taken a five-for in the first innings, he ran through Gujarat’s line-up once again on Thursday. He was supported by Harsh Dubey, also a left-arm spinner, who took 3 for 11. Siddharth, run out for 18, was the only Gujarat batter to reach the double digits.Sarwate was named Player of the Match for his career-best haul of 11 for 81.Vidarbha are now third in Group D. Vidarbha’s final game of the round is against second-placed Punjab, which could decide who make it to the knockouts.
“One of my mantras is you can’t control the scoring if you don’t control the length”
Mohammad Isam09-Jan-2022Bangladesh head coach Ottis Gibson wants his bowlers to bowl better lengths to control New Zealand’s scoring in the ongoing second Test, at Christchurch. New Zealand bounced back from defeat in the first Test, with Tom Latham, Will Young and Devon Conway guiding them to 349 for 1 at stumps on the opening day.Though Bangladesh bowled out New Zealand twice in the previous game, and eventually beat the home side for the first time in New Zealand, their bowlers produced an average bowling performance on Sunday.”We have to learn from today,” Gibson said. “We bowled too many four-balls today. Too many balls wide outside the offstump. When we missed our lengths, we got cut or got too full to be driven. You can’t allow the batters to score down the ground and both sides of the wicket. One of my mantras is you can’t control the scoring if you don’t control the length. We didn’t control the length today to build pressure on them.”Gibson, however, conceded that such performances are bound to happen at the highest level. “We saw the highs and lows of international sport today. Last week, we were on a high. We are, perhaps, still feeling the effects of last week’s emotional and physical investment. We didn’t hit our straps.”New Zealand would have been hurting from last week. They showed why they are one of the best teams in the world. They applied themselves. They left a lot better. They showed us why they are holding the [WTC] mace at the moment,” he said.Gibson said that Latham’s approach of leaving as many balls as possible in the first session paid off as Bangladesh were then forced to bowl at him. But, he also said the green pitch at the Hagley Oval didn’t quite play up to its high reputation of helping the fast bowlers.”I thought Latham played really well. He left a lot of good balls early this morning. He made us bowl to him. Unfortunately, we didn’t bowl enough good balls to create the sort of pressure we created last week. Conway is in unbelievable form.”The pitch didn’t do as much as we expected. But we didn’t bowl as well as we could have done either. When we bowled full, there wasn’t a lot of seam movement.”Gibson felt that winning the first Test on the back of a good bowling performance and conceding a lot of runs on Sunday were both part of the learning curve for his still-green bowling attack.”The guys have been going forward. Ebadot [Hossain] is our most experienced seamer with 12 games. Taskin [Ahmed] is playing his ninth, Shoriful [Islam] is playing his third. Look at the inexperience of the bowling attack and see where they got to last week in terms of growth and learning, but again, today is a lesson for them,” he said.
The pace bowler will provide experience and cutting edge to the attack
ESPNcricinfo staff13-Aug-2020Shabnim Ismail, the South Africa pace bowler who is one of the quickest in the world, will return for a second season with the Sydney Thunder in the Women’s Big Bash.Ismail, who can push the speed gun past 125kph, took 10 wickets in 13 games last season for the Thunder but it was her economy rate of 5.88 which was particularly impressive. She was then South Africa’s leading wicket-taker in the T20 World Cup with five wickets in four matches.”In the WBBL, you’re playing with a lot of experienced players and against some of the best in the world, so it’s a great challenge,” Ismail said. “I’m a senior player for my country and in the Thunder squad as well so I try to lead by example. Having played for my country for 12 years, I enjoy passing on some of my experience and knowledge to the youngsters.”The Thunder coach Trevor Griffin said: “Shabnim was outstanding for us last season. She was our most economical bowler and her pace caused a lot of trouble for opposition batters. She was a real competitor in the field too – some of the fielding that she did was just at another level.”She’s the world’s third-ranked T20 bowler but one thing that I noticed about Shabnim last year is that she still wants to learn and she’s constantly looking at ways to get better.”The Thunder will be captained by Australia better Rachael Haynes and Ismail is their first confirmed overseas player for the new season.The WBBL is due to begin on October 17 and run until November 29 although there are expected to be changes to the schedule due to the impact of Covid-19 around the country.
Sunrisers Hyderabad are still waiting on Kane Williamson’s fitness, but the regular captain is likely to be good to go
The Preview by Ankur Dhawan28-Mar-20193:59
Hodge: Jos Buttler’s form will be key to Royals’ chances
Big Picture
A year after picking up bans for the infamous ball-tampering episode, Steven Smith and David Warner come face to face. Too much time has passed for the Newlands scandal to remain relevant in the IPL context, of course, but Jos Buttler’s mankading incident has – albeit unwittingly – kept the spirit of controversy alive.If Rajasthan Royals – Smith and Buttler’s team – had hoped for the seeming injustice of it to have inspired them, the signs weren’t encouraging. Instead of a steely resolve to get home, on view were panic and self destruction. Those are precise feelings that Sunrisers Hyderabad have traditionally sparked in their opponents. Although Sunrisers’ well laid-out plans came a cropper against a rampaging Andre Russell, it was only the third time they lost after posting a total in excess of 180 – that says something about the abnormality of their display in Kolkata on Sunday.David Warner has a hard kick at the football•PTI
Now, they are back home, where they have won 15 of their last 21 matches since 2016 – the best win percentage for any team at home during the period. Plus, they should have regular captain Kane Williamson – who missed their first game with injury – back, although the final decision on him will only be taken on match day. Williamson hit the nets in Hyderabad on the eve of the match and even the day before that. If he’s back, whom do they leave out? Warner batted like he was never away for a 53-ball 85, and his partner, Jonny Bairstow aided him nicely on debut, contributing a 35-ball 39 in a 118-run opening stand. They might feel slightly bittersweet about separating them so soon, but it seems like the only viable move.For Royals, who made a late surge for the playoffs last year through Buttler’s exploits at the top, the problem of a misfiring middle-order appears chronic. They need a little more consistency from their batting support cast – the likes of Rahul Tripathi, K Gowtham and Shreyas Gopal. Given the spin-friendly nature of the Hyderabad surface, there could be a case for Ish Sodhi’s inclusion. But for that they’ll have to leave out the highly-rated Jofra Archer.
Likely XIs
Sunrisers Hyderabad (probable): 1 David Warner, 2 Kane Williamson/Jonny Bairstow, 3 Vijay Shankar, 4 Yusuf Pathan, 5 Manish Pandey, 6 Deepak Hooda, 7 Shakib Al Hasan, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Sandeep Sharma, 11 Siddarth KaulRajasthan Royals (probable): 1 Ajinkya Rahane (capt), 2 Jos Buttler, 3 Sanju Samson, 4 Steven Smith, 5 Ben Stokes, 6 Rahul Tripathi, 7 K Gowtham, 8 Shreyas Gopal, 9 Jofra Archer/Ish Sodhi, 10 Jaydev Unadkat, 11 Dhawal Kulkarni
Strategy punt
In 13 IPL innings, Ajinkya Rahane has fallen to Bhuvneshwar Kumar six times, managing just 71 runs from 78 balls. Against Sunrisers Hyderabad, when Bhuvneshwar plays, Rahane has just two fifties in nine appearances, falling to the seamer on four occasions, and thrice for a duck. Given that the two are bound to come up against each other by virtue of opening the batting and bowling for their respective sides, seeing Bhuvneshwar off might be Rahane’s best bet to come good against Sunrisers.
Since last season, both Sunrisers and Royals have been heavily dependent on a contribution from the top three batsmen. Royals marginally more so, with the top three accounting for 61.6% of their total team runs as opposed to 60.8% for the Sunrisers.
Stats that matter
Sunrisers and Royals were the worst in terms of scoring rate in the death overs last season.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar is four wickets away from becoming the first Sunrisers bowler to 100
Ajinkya Rahane is 56 short of aggregating 2500 runs for Royals in the IPL
While Australia’s pace attack has not been as effective in the ODIs as it was in the Ashes, Mark Wood and Liam Plunkett have played an important role in England winning the series
Daniel Brettig25-Jan-2018Moeen Ali believes England has benefited enormously from having two vastly different bowling attacks for Tests and limited-overs matches, with the freshness of Mark Wood and Liam Plunkett contributing greatly to an ODI series win in Australia with two matches to spare.While Plunkett was injured in the third game in Sydney and is set to be replaced by one of Tom Curran or David Willey for the Australia Day match in Adelaide, Moeen said he and Wood had been key parts of the contrasting results on this tour. Neither of England’s leading long-form bowlers, James Anderson and Stuart Broad, are chosen for ODI matches anymore, and Wood and Plunkett were able to provide an instant impact against Australia’s batsmen.By contrast, the Australian pace attack that prospered during the Tests – Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins – has looked somewhat below their best across the opening three matches, as the home side’s coaching and support staff try to manage their energy levels and workloads between now and next month’s Test tour of South Africa.”We did that a couple of years ago where Jimmy and Broady stopped playing white-ball cricket, we’ve got bowlers who are fresh when they come into the teams,” Moeen said in Adelaide. “After the Ashes series we had Mark Wood and Liam Plunkett, who are guys that bowl fast. When you’ve played the Ashes and lost and fresh faces come in to lift the dressing room, the environment is completely different.”Our 50-over team has been very strong, it’s a team a lot of countries want to emulate as much as they can. We’re very proud of it and we see it as a big thing actually. To be 3-0 up here for the first time ever is fantastic and we really are determined to win 5-0. We’ve got some brilliant players who can’t get into the team and you don’t want to give your spot up. You want to be part of this team.Aaron Finch the leading runscorer in series from either side, is out of the Adelaide match with a hamstring strain, but Moeen said that even with two centuries and a 50 in three innings, England were happy with how they had handled him.”He’s played really well but even with him scoring big runs we’ve managed to bowl quite well at him,” Moeen said. “He’s not destroyed us or taken the game away from us. We’re very pleased against a player like him, who has scored a lot of runs but we’ve still managed to win the games quite convincingly.”As one of the members of the squad to experience both Test and limited-overs series, Moeen said the contrast had been marked. “It’s obviously been tough,” he said. “A series win is going to be fantastic, 5-0 would be an amazing feeling. The Ashes was gone pretty early in the series, which was disappointing, and from a personal point of view it’s been a long tour. It started with a disappointing half but hopefully in the second half we can enjoy it.”With the Test matches I struggled throughout, the harder I tried the worse I got. The one-day stuff the intensity is there but the pressure is not as much. We have a stable team, the guys have been together a long time now and we know what we’re doing. It’s a lot different to the Tests in terms of the way we play.”It’s not as easy [to play with freedom]. When you’re playing well as an individual in Test cricket you do that anyway. With the one-dayers it’s almost a given, go out and play the way you play. We bat all the way down. You can’t do that in Test cricket as much but our one-day stuff is great to be part of.”