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An update has emerged regarding the availability of three key Rangers players prior to heading away with their country for the African Cup of Nations (AFCON).

What’s the talk?

According to The Scotsman, the Gers are set to hold talks with the Nigerian FA to discuss whether or not Joe Aribo, Calvin Bassey and Leon Balogun will be able to play in the Old Firm derby at the start of January.

The report claims that the trio are all due to jet away with Nigeria ahead of AFCON on December 27 and would miss the derby clash on January 2, with Rangers now set for discussions over a deal to keep them around for that match before releasing them for international duty.

GVB would love it

Ross Wilson could pull off a Rangers masterclass by convincing the Nigerian FA to hold off on calling up the trio before the match against Celtic. Giovanni van Bronckhorst would surely love it if he could have all of them available for the game, as they are all valuable members of the squad.

SofaScore have Aribo (5th), Balogun (9th) and Bassey (10th) all within the club’s top 10 performers in terms of average ratings in the Premiership this season. They have all averaged a score of 7.03 or higher in the league, showing that they have been performing consistently to an impressive standard so far this term.

This highlights their importance to the side and why it would be a masterclass from Wilson if he is able to successfully negotiate their availability against Celtic. Van Bronckhorst will want all of his best players at his disposal for that game and the statistics suggest that all three fall into that category.

Bassey, in particular, has shot to prominence under the Dutchman since the 43-year-old replaced Steven Gerrard at the helm. The left-back has played in the centre of defence over the last five competitive matches and the Gers have only conceded two goals in that time.

Hopefully, Wilson will be able to convince the Nigerian FA to allow the trio to play against Celtic in these crunch talks and Rangers will have a full squad available. Whilst the three will still miss an as yet undetermined period of time during AFCON, having them in the team against the Hoops could be a major boost as they are the Gers’ closest title rivals as it stands.

AND in other news, Forget Kent: “Exemplary” Rangers beast who won 88% duels finally took chance under GvB…

Manchester United dropped to seventh in the Premier League table after suffering another humiliating defeat at the hands of Watford on Saturday afternoon.

Goals from Josh King, Ismaila Sarr, Emmanuel Dennis and Joao Pedro made Donny van de Beek’s first strike of the season a mere consolation, and Harry Maguire’s 69th-minute red card summed up a hugely disappointing outing for the Old Trafford outfit.

But arguably the most underwhelming display from a Red Devils player came from Marcus Rashford.

The 24-year-old had scored three goals in just six games prior after returning from injury prior to his trip to Vicarage Road, providing hope that he could inspire his boyhood club to a much-need victory.

However, Rashford look way below his best when coming up against the Hornets and was substituted by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at half-time following his shocking showing in the opening period.

As per SofaScore, the England international was awarded a match rating of just 6.2 out of 10, the second-lowest total out of any player on the pitch. And when taking a look at his underlying numbers, it’s easy to understand why.

Rashford touched the ball just 32 times against Watford, only one more than goalkeeper David de Gea, lost possession a whopping 16 times and achieved a passing accuracy of just 50% as he completed fewer passes (11) than his teammate between the posts. That highlighted what was an extremely ineffective display.

The youngster was also only able to pick out a teammate with one of his three attempted crosses, missed one big chance and won just 50% of his duels.

With tough fixtures against Villarreal, Chelsea and Arsenal coming up for United, the Red Devils will need Rashford to return to form as soon as possible in order to address their alarming slump in results and performances.

Fortunately, however, it would appear that Rashford has let down Solskjaer for the final time with the Norwegian reportedly on the verge of being sacked.

India were declared winners of the Tri-Nation Under-19s Tournament in South Africa after the final against South Africa was rained out in Johannesburg

Cricinfo staff05-Jan-2010India were declared winners of the Tri-Nation Under-19s Tournament in South Africa after the final against South Africa was washed out in Johannesburg. This was the second match between the two teams that was abandoned due to rain after the last league match met a watery grave on Sunday.India dominated the tournament from the outset having gone undefeated in the league phase. The hosts got off to a winning start against Sri Lanka but lost the momentum, crashing to defeats against them and India.Paceman Saurabh Netravalkar was adjudged Player of the Series for his excellent returns. Netravalkar picked eight wickets including a five-wicket haul against Sri Lanka, making him one of the players to watch out for in the upcoming Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand. Sri Lanka’s Rumesh Buddika from Sri Lanka and Colin Ackermann for the hosts gave good accounts of themselves with the bat and will take confidence into the tournament.

Tim McIntosh continued his pre-series form with an unbeaten century against the touring Pakistanis in Queenstown

Cricinfo staff20-Nov-2009
ScorecardTim McIntosh, on the day New Zealand’s Test side was announced, continued his pre-series form with an unbeaten century against the touring Pakistanis in Queenstown. Resuming the final day on 7, with a draw the most likely result, McIntosh batted his way to 131 from 196 deliveries in 291 minutes as the New Zealand Invitational XI drew the practice match ahead of the bigger picture.Daniel Flynn, also included in the Test side, followed up his first-innings 49 with 56. He and McIntosh put on 137 for the second wicket. The captain for this match, Grant Elliott, picked up some batting practice with an unbeaten 22.As many as nine bowlers were used by Mohammad Yousuf but none could dislodge McIntosh.The first Test begins on November 24 in Dunedin.

A fresh claim has emerged about Harry Kane’s future under Antonio Conte at Tottenham Hotspur this week…

What’s the word?

In the summer, the 28-year-old was linked with a move to Premier League champions Manchester City, though it failed to materialise despite Pep Guardiola’s very public interest in the Spurs talisman.

ESPN have since failed to rule out the Citizens returning in the future but according to transfer insider Dean Jones of Eurosport, there is no chance of the England international leaving in January.

“I’m told he’s staying now at this point,” he revealed to ‘The Done Deal Show’.

“He’s obviously found it difficult to get over the fact he didn’t get his transfer in the summer.

“If the Nuno [Espirito Santo] situation would have continued, then we might have had a problem. There was never actually any issue between Kane and Nuno, it’s not like there was any friction between them; Kane just got on with his job and tried to fit into what Nuno was trying to do.

“Ultimately, he wasn’t getting the ball enough, though, and Tottenham’s style of play didn’t suit him, so they’ve had to change that.

“I’m told that he’s much more optimistic about Conte turning this team around. He feels it’s as good a chance as any of Tottenham getting a reboot and trying to win stuff under Conte, because he’s got such a reputation of doing so.

“So right now, I think that Harry Kane, there’s no chance of him leaving in January, as far as I can tell.”

Conte boost

Kane has been out of sorts for the Lilywhites all campaign, scoring just once in eight league appearances, but there will be some hope of a return to form following back-to-back hat-tricks for England in midweek.

There’s no denying that the long-serving Hotspur Way graduate is imperative to the club, having contributed towards 54.4% of all their top-flight goals last season and regularly hit 24 or more goals in every season since 2014/15.

He will continue to be a crucial member of the squad and it is no secret that Conte hugely admires Kane, too. He reportedly didn’t want to take the job in the summer without the 6 foot 2 frontman remaining at the club.

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Whilst in charge of arch-rivals Chelsea back in 2017, the 52-year-old made quite the revelation. “For me, Kane, now is one of the best strikers in the world,” he said (via Sky Sports).

“If I had to buy one striker I would go to Kane. He is a complete striker. He is strong physically, with the ball, without the ball, he fights and he’s strong in the air and acrobatic on the right and the left.

“He’s a complete player. He’s one of the top strikers in the world.”

Under Nuno, the Premier League marksman looked like a dejected and frustrated figure, so it’s certainly encouraging to see that he’s a lot more optimistic about the club under the Italian instead.

That should hand Conte a massive boost as his star striker is going to look a lot more committed to Spurs and that could help him return to the prolific goalscoring form we’ve seen over the years.

The stern Italian must be delighted by such claims that there is “no chance” of a Kane exit in the near future heading into the final few months of the year.

AND in other news, Conte suffers major Spurs injury blow ahead of Leeds clash…

Following on from their 1-0 win over Hull City in midweek thanks to a second half strike from Karlan Grant, West Brom face into a home clash against Middlesbrough today as the next assignment in their promotion-chasing campaign.

Speaking ahead of the match against Neil Warnock’s side, who are currently 14th in the table after losing 3-1 against Luton Town in midweek, Baggies manager Valerien Ismael revealed that defender Kean Bryan isn’t likely to feature this afternoon after being forced off with an injury in the first half of the Hull game.

With this in mind, here’s how we feel West Brom could line up against Middlesbrough this afternoon, with two changes anticipated from Wednesday night’s starting XI.

Given how he’s played in all but one of West Brom’s Championship games so far this season, we see no reason why Ismael wouldn’t stick with Sam Johnstone in goal.

In a back three, considering that Bryan will be unavailable, we think Ismael will bring Semi Ajayi back into the team alongside Cedric Kipre and Matt Clarke, who both played the full 90 minutes in midweek and helped the Baggies to a clean sheet.

For the wing-back positions, we think the Baggies boss will stick with Conor Townsend on the left and youngster Taylor Gardner-Hickman on the right to see if the latter can replicate the type of performance he put in against Hull, which earned him an overall match rating of 8/10 from Birmingham Live.

In midfield, we feel that Ismael will stick with the central duo of Robert Snodgrass and Jake Livermore, with midweek goalscorer Grant and Callum Robinson keeping their places up front. One change sees Matt Phillips, who is currently earning a weekly wage of £20k-per-week according to Spotrac, drop out after a poor performance against Hull, being replaced by Grady Diangana to freshen up the attack slightly.

In other news: Steve Madeley drops fresh West Brom transfer claim that’ll leave Baggies fans fuming

Some Wolves fans have been left raging over some news that has emerged on Francisco Trincao.

As per Record, newly-appointed manager at FC Barcelona Xavi has asked his club to try and negotiate a deal with the Molineux faithful to see if Trincao could return from his loan spell in the January transfer window.

The winger has not exactly set the world alight in the Midlands, with just one goal in nine games in total over all competitions so far this season, and none in the Premier League (Transfermarkt).

However, Bruno Lage does not have the biggest squad at his disposal, aiming a subtle dig at the board at the start of the campaign by claiming that only ’15 professional players’ were training.

Pedro Neto is still out injured as well, meaning that they only have Trincao, Adama Traore and Daniel Podence as natural options on the wings at the moment (Transfermarkt), and so letting him go midway through the term would not really represent clever business.

Wolves fans on Trincao transfer news

These WWFC supporters raged as the transfer news was shared on Twitter:

“What no?!”

Credit: @wwfcglover

“Them clowns on the board will probably let this happen, sell Adama and then justify it by saying we signed Hwang permanently.”

Credit: @cal_wolvesfc

“Please no”

Credit: @PedroBackOfNeto

“Don’t you dare”

Credit: @Lem_WWFC

“Yeah this squad isn’t deep enough for us to be giving players away.”

Credit: @dbutleranalysis

“This must not happen.”

Credit: @Sidaway_

In other news, find out what Academy update has Wanderers fuming here!

Rangers travel to face Motherwell on Sunday as they look to retain their lead at the top of the Premiership table.

They are two points ahead of their nearest rivals heading into the gameweek and play a Motherwell side sitting sixth in the league after 11 games. The Steelmen have won four, drawn three and lost four of their matches, but have only won one of their last six.

Steven Gerrard’s side come into the game off the back of a 2-2 draw with Aberdeen on Wednesday night. They fought back from a 2-0 deficit to pick up a point, with Alfredo Morelos and James Tavernier netting the goals.

One player who let the 41-year-old down against the Dons was wide midfielder Ianis Hagi. The Romania international struggled throughout the match and it could be time for Gerrard to ruthlessly axe him from the starting XI.

With games coming thick and fast in the Premiership and Europa League, players are not going to be at the very best of their abilities every single time, and that was highlighted in Hagi’s display against Aberdeen.

As per SofaScore, he lost possession of the ball a whopping 23 times and failed to create a single chance for his teammates or register a shot on goal. He also completed just one of his 13 crossing attempts and had a 0% dribble success rate. The winger failed to impose himself on the match and lost the ball far too often, allowing Aberdeen to create more chances for themselves.

This display was not reflective of his overall performances in the Premiership this season. The £5.85m-rated midfielder has averaged a SofaScore rating of 7.10, creating 1.1 chances per game and completing 50% of his attempted dribbles, and losing the ball 13.9 times per match. This suggests that he is capable of much better than what he showed on Wednesday, which is why a rest could be beneficial for him.

Hagi’s off-colour showing against Aberdeen should lead to Gerrard axing him from the team as he was not sharp enough to be at his best. The Romanian needs a rest to focus on getting himself 100% ready in training ahead of the European clash with Brondby on Thursday, as his manager will surely not want to overplay him and end up getting another poor performance out of him against Motherwell.

AND in other news, Gerrard could unearth Charlie Adam 2.0 in Rangers gem with “great future in the game”…

The Indian offspinner has suggested that the best pill to keep Test cricket healthy is to play more Test matches

Nagraj Gollapudi in Mumbai25-Aug-2009Indian offspinner Harbhajan Singh has suggested that the best way of keeping Test cricket healthy is to play more Test matches. Citing the example of England’s exciting victory to regain the Ashes, Harbhajan said the longer form of the game is alive and kicking and there’s no need for any radical moves like playing night Tests.”If you look at the Ashes, every day had such large crowds in the stadiums, [as much] as you would see for a Twenty20 game,” Harbhajan said. “I think you should keep all the three formats, but increase the number of Test matches.” He added that he would like to play 12-15 Tests per year.Unlike the Ashes, which was a sellout at all five venues, the response to Tests on the subcontinent, including India, has been lukewarm. One recent and prominent example was Sourav Ganguly’s farewell Test in Nagpur during the 2008 home series against Australia, which was witnessed by only a few thousand despite the huge popularity of the former India captain. Harbhajan, who was the second-highest wicket-taker in Tests last year, said the administrators need to market Test cricket creatively to enliven the fans’ enthusiasm.”The spectators may not like Test cricket that much but as a cricketer I want to play more Test matches. It is just you need to bring a lot of people into the stadium by creating that kind of buzz in the market,” Harbhajan said. As a solution, suggested recently by Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan said it would be good to offer free entry to students on weekends.”If Sachin Tendulkar plays a Ranji Trophy match a 25,000-strong crowd turns up. So if you plan properly then certainly we will draw people back to the stadium to watch Test cricket,” Harbhajan said. “I have seen whenever we play in Chennai or Bangalore we get the same crowd as we would get for a one-day match.”

Paddy Kenny has offered his thoughts on Rangers goalkeeper Jon McLaughlin’s contract situation…

What’s the talk?

Kenny has suggested that McLaughlin should be handed a new deal before the January transfer window in order to secure his future at the club.

The ‘keeper’s current deal ends next summer and the pundit believes that his campaign so far could tempt Rangers to pin him down to fresh terms.

He told Football Insider:

“He could absolutely be in for a new deal. He’s had an unbelievable start to the year. The more involved he is, the more likely they are to give him a new contract.

“Him and McGregor have played a similar amount of games. If that continues, I’m sure they’ll be looking to tie that area up and give him a bit of stability. He doesn’t want to be playing regularly but not knowing where he stands. Who does that benefit?

“So it would be better for everyone if they got that one sorted out soon, maybe even before January.”

Save millions

Rangers chief Ross Wilson now has a key decision to make on McLaughlin. At the age of 34, he has almost six years on Allan McGregor and could be the club’s number one for the next few years if the latter decides to retire at the end of his current deal in 2022.

The Gers could opt to bring in a younger goalkeeper to compete for the number one spot if McGregor retires, but McLaughlin still has plenty to give and could be a useful player to keep around in the coming years. Thus, by handing him a new deal, they could save millions on having to recruit a new stopper.

The £6.1k-per-week earner could sign fresh terms and thus, stay on to become the club’s definitive number one option between the posts.

McLaughlin has averaged an excellent SofaScore rating of 7.02 in four Scottish Premiership appearances this season, keeping two clean sheets in those games. Last season, he averaged a score of 7.12 and kept nine clean sheets in 11 matches, showing that he has the quality to be a reliable shot-stopper between the sticks. Consequently, he certainly deserves a new deal at Ibrox.

Wilson must sanction a fresh contract for the 34-year-old and keep him at the club for the foreseeable future to maintain the strength of the goalkeeping department.

It remains to be seen what will happen with McGregor’s future, given he is turning 40 in January, but McLaughlin putting pen to paper should be a relatively easy decision going by his form on the pitch.

AND in other news, Wilson masterclass: Rangers dynamo sees value soar by 85.7% in one year, he’s exciting…