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Journalist Pete O’Rourke has suggested that West Ham United should make a move for Ollie Watkins, amid recent reports linking the Aston Villa striker to the club.

What’s the word?

Speaking to GIVEMESPORT, O’Rourke insisted that the England international could be the answer to the Hammers’ centre-forward problem, having failed to secure an adequate understudy or upgrade to current leading man, Michail Antonio.

The respected journalist said of a move for the 26-year-old that: “We all know that West Ham need a striker, they’ve needed one for the last three of four transfer windows and have not brought one in, so landing someone like Ollie Watkins would be a great signing for them.”

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Reports last month suggested that the former Brentford man had emerged as David Moyes’ top striking target ahead of this summer, having previously failed to bring in a new addition in January.

Moyes will love him

Amid all the fanfare surrounding the club’s continued rise – both domestically and in Europe – there is still a nagging feeling that the London Stadium outfit have left themselves short in attack, with the over-reliance on the aforementioned Antonio potentially set to come back to bite them.

The versatile speedster has continued to impress in a loan striking berth – and is the club’s top scorer in the Premier League era – although the goals have dried up after an initial flurry at the start of the campaign, with his last top-flight strike having come back on New Year’s Day against Crystal Palace.

Watkins himself may not be a prolific presence either, with just nine league goals so far this season, although he would offer some much-needed competition in the forward ranks, as well as similar attributes to Moyes’ current option.

The Villa man – who has been dubbed “unbelievable” by pundit Dan Bardell – is a constant pest for opposition defenders, ranking in the top 23% for pressures made among those in his position across Europe’s top five leagues, as well as ranking in the top 9% for successful blocks.

The Torquay-born ace is often seen charging full pelt at both defenders and goalkeepers alike, with his relentless work ethic and willingness to get in behind having been evident as he got himself on the scoresheet against Norwich City at the weekend, latching onto a lofted pass over the top and dispatching a fierce effort past Tim Krul.

With Moyes’ men often so lethal on the break, having that willing runner in attack could prove vital, while his signing may not have to break the bank either, with Transfermarkt currently valuing him at just £31.5m.

There’s no suggestion that the club has to cast off Antonio just yet, but Moyes and GSB can secure a perfect competitor should he opt to swoop for Watkins in the upcoming window.

IN other news, Moyes can unearth West Ham’s new Antonio in “impressive” 20 y/o who’s “on fire”…

Eddie Howe will be thrilled that his team rotation paid off this afternoon at Carrow Road, with Newcastle United taking all three points from the game in an impressive performance that has put his side ninth in the Premier League table.

The Magpies took a comfortable 3-0 win from their visit to Norwich, with Bruno Guimaraes and Joelinton finding the back of the net to secure their fourth win on the bounce to put them 15 points clear of the relegation zone.

Howe’s men completely dominated in possession, with 55% of the ball over the 90 minutes, taking seven shots on target and completing over 500 passes in what was a masterclass in both an offensive and defensive regard from the North East outfit.

Despite the spotlight being firmly on the goal-scoring moments of the game, Dan Burn yet again provided a solid performance as the unsung hero worked hard to keep the clean sheet this afternoon.

The £19k-per-week titan said in an interview that he wanted to bring his “passion off the pitch, on to it” at his boyhood club, and he certainly delivered in today’s performance with a defensive showing he should be proud of.

The 6ft4 centre-back won 71% of his duels, made six clearances, four interceptions and one tackle, as well as completed 33 of his 40 passes in the clash, really getting stuck into the game and leading his line with a huge presence.

Burn was one of the signings acquired in January to improve the side and boost the chances of survival in the top flight this season, and to say he has been successful in being a part of that is an understatement with Newcastle winning eight, drawing one and losing just three games the defender has been involved in.

Newcastle have now climbed into the top half of the table and are surely safe from the relegation nightmare they had found themselves in earlier in the season, and with players like Burn joining the side the future is looking bright for the club.

AND in other news: NUFC plot £33m bid for “phenomenal” ace with “magical powers”, he’d get SJP rocking

Everton have had an awful 2021/22 campaign thus far – with the Toffees embroiled in a tough relegation battle, and Frank Lampard trying everything he can to keep the club from dropping into the Championship next season.

Many players have already been linked with moves away from Goodison Park following their disappointing campaign in the Premier League, with Richarlison, in particular, heavily speculated to leave the club this summer.

With that being said, the Toffees boss must exercise some damage control when it comes to keeping the team together – no matter the outcome at the end of the season – and now another player is reportedly being lined up for a move away from the club.

The Daily Mail reported this week that Manchester United are targeting the Everton centre-back for a move to Old Trafford, with the youngster catching the eye of the 20-time Premier League title winners.

The 19-year-old has made just six appearances for the senior team across all competitions this term, with his most notable performance coming in his first Premier League outing of 2021/22 – scoring in the 1-1 draw with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge under Rafa Benitez.

Branthwaite was hailed “fabulous” by Glen Hoddle following this display, and Benitez was also full of praise for the young defender, stating: “He showed character and he’s a player who has potential. Always with the young players, you have to be careful but you have to give them a chance if it is possible.”

Since Frank Lampard has taken over from the Spaniard, Branthwaite has been given three opportunities to prove he has what it takes to compete for a spot in the Everton backline, and his defensive statistics speak for themselves.

The 6ft5 tank has understandably used his height to impose himself on opponents, winning 67% of his aerial duels, as well as making an average of 3.3 clearances and 0.8 tackles per game.

He has also averaged an 81% pass accuracy inside his half, proving he can be a threat and offer presence for the Toffees.

Ultimately, Lampard must avoid a disaster in losing the £5.1k-per-week defender this summer, as sanctioning the sale of one of the club’s most promising up and coming talents may well be a decision that the Goodison Parkfaith never forgive the 43-year-old for.

AND in other news: Huge blow: Everton dealt fresh injury setback ahead of Liverpool, Lamps will be gutted

ScorecardDavid Masters dragged Essex back into the game before Warwickshire’s bowlers demolished the Essex top order•Getty Images

Essex and Warwickshire found themselves locked in a tense struggle at Southendon a day which saw a total of 17 wickets fell for 234 runs. After Essex had lost their final wicket in the morning to be bowled out for 150, Warwickshire responded with 155 before reducing the home side to 78 for 6 in their second innings.Bryce McGain, in only his second and probably last County Championship gamefor the county, was the key figure in Warwickshire’s demise. The 38-year-old Australian legspinner took 4 for 33 in 10 overs to add to his five-wicket haul in the previous match against Kent.McGain joined Essex a fortnight ago as a replacement for Danish Kaneria. Butnow that Kaneria has been axed from Pakistan’s touring squad, Essex are seekingto re-register him for the remainder of the summer, a move that will signal theend of McGain’s spell. His last outing for the county is expected to be in theClydesdale Bank 40 duel against Northamptonshire on Sunday.McGain’s arrival heralded the first sight of a spinner in the match in the 85thover and he struck with his first delivery to have Tim Ambrose caught behindby James Foster. He also needed Foster’s help to remove Neil Carter and Imran Tahir, before which he also trapped Keith Barker lbw for 22.Darren Maddy and Rikki Clarke grafted away for nearly half of Warwickshire’stotal. Maddy’s innings of 39 spanned 88 deliveries while Clarke’s 36 came from 80balls. Both eventually became lbw victims of paceman David Masters who went onto finish with 3 for 51 from 19.4 overs.Jaik Mickleburgh and Mark Pettini began encouragingly enough when Essexembarked upon their second innings, taking the total to 33 before the WestMidlands county hit back strongly.Pettini was caught behind off Boyd Rankin and Tom Westley edged Clarke to secondslip before Carter struck twice in consecutive overs to leave Essex on 56 for4. First he had Ravi Bopara caught behind and then ended Mickleburgh’sresistance by trapping him leg before after the opener had reached 30.Essex were then to suffer a double blow just before the close. Foster was superbly caught low down at first slip by Maddy to provide Chris Woakes with success and with the day’s final delivery Tony Palladino was stumped when moving forward against spinner Tahir.It all left Essex going into the third day with an advantage of just 73 and with Warwickshire nursing high hopes of claiming only their third Championship victory of the summer.

Azhar Ali, the Pakistan batsman who played a crucial role in the Headingley Test victory, is pleased to be a part of the team that broke a 15-year losing streak against Australia. Azhar told Cricistan.com how the experience of watching Pakistan’s losses to Australia over the years steeled him into action during his 51 in the second innings.”Before I became a cricketer, I was a fan. As both a fan and a cricketer there was always a desire to see Pakistan beat the best team in the world,” Azhar said. “There is a certain sense of frustration when you see Pakistan repeatedly lose from a winning position and when you stood outside looking in as a fan then there’s a feeling of helplessness too. That’s why I was determined that I would make the Aussies work for my wicket, they would have to take it from me.Azhar came into the starting line-up for the series following the retirement of Mohammad Yousuf and the exclusion of Younis Khan, which left the middle order extremely thin on experience. While the batsmen did enough to go past the line in Headingley, Azhar admitted it was Pakistan’s talented bowling attack that set up the victory.”We won this game because the bowlers put us into such a great position on day one, after that it was our game to lose. I’m really proud of my second innings partnership with [Imran] Farhat and of my first Test 50 but I was absolutely gutted to get out. When my wicket fell we only needed 34 more runs and I had wanted to stay till the end and win the game for Pakistan,” he said.Pakistan were on the brink of victory at the start of day four, needing 40 runs with seven wickets standing. Australia came back into the game, picking four more wickets including Azhar’s before Pakistan squeaked past the line. Azhar admitted the clutch of wickets made the dressing room nervous, but they were always confident of finishing it off.”Of course when wickets fall together, there will be some trepidation in any dressing room. But on the final morning, there were so few runs needed that we still felt that we would win the match.”Australia did their best to stop us, their fielding was brilliant. If they hadn’t blocked a couple of early shots, which were on their way to the fence, then the game would’ve been over a lot quicker. They are experts at applying pressure and making even the smallest of totals look like they’ll be hard to get. It worked for them against us in the past but today was our day and hopefully we’ve now broken that jinx.” Azhar said.Azhar was looking forward to the next challenge, the four-Test series against England which should be a rigorous test of his mettle at the one-drop position. “I agree that the No.3 position is a very important one. I want to be the best player that I can and I see batting at number three as a great challenge. It’s an opportunity for me to show what I’m capable of and it helps my confidence to know that the team management has trusted me to bat at such a pivotal number.”I look forward to the challenge of the upcoming Test series against England. They’re a very good team and we’re going to have to be at the top of our game to compete with them but I’m confident that this Pakistani team will give as good as it gets,” he said. The first Test of the England series begins at Trent Bridge on July 29.

Many Wolves fans were critical of Leander Dendoncker during their clash with Southampton on Saturday afternoon. 

Wolves, who started the day ninth in the Premier League, were looking to make it three straight wins in all competitions. They followed up their first Old Trafford victory since 1980 with a 3-0 FA Cup win over Championship Sheffield United.

Southampton were also carrying momentum into the game however, having thrashed Brentford 4-1 in midweek. Ralph Hassenhuttl’s Saints had lost only one of their last seven PL matches.

Bruno Lage made three changes from the side that won at United, with Romain Saiss (AFCON), Ruben Neves (Covid-19) and Marcal dropping out. In came 22-year-old Toti Gomes for his debut, Dendoncker and Rayan Ait-Nouri.

Dendoncker’s struggle vs Saints

The Belgian’s SofaScore rating of 6.3/10 was the lowest in the Wolves side.

He won just one of his ten duels, a success rate of 10%, and was dribbled past four times in total (the most of any player on the field).

Dendoncker tried his luck from the distance in the first half, but The Athletic’s Tim Spiers remarked that it nearly hit the top tier of the stand behind the goal.

And another journalist, Joe Prince-Wright, said he was fortunate to avoid giving away a penalty after a challenge on Oriol Romeu around an hour into the game.

Many WWFC fans slam Dendoncker

“Dendoncker has been atrocious again. Complete ghost in the middle. Moutinho having to do it all himself.”

Credit: @parker_bradley

“That was a rough attempt by Dendoncker”

Credit: @OldGoldAmerica

“Neves and Moutinho work but Dendoncker can’t control the game”

Credit: @WolvesNumber37

“Yeah, let’s never tell Dendoncker to shoot again lol”

Credit: @kcb92

“As much as I was fan of Dendoncker in previous seasons, he’s not the same player anymore. I think it’s time to sell him this window and user the funds towards a decent centre midfielder, as Moutinho’s legs won’t last forever! Get your finger out”

Credit: @spena2k10

“Get him off the pitch he’s been useless again.”

Credit: @Jim96925627

In other news, fans weren’t happy with this transfer news.

Kumar Sangakkara, the Sri Lankan captain, is confident his team will pull off a hat-trick of Asia Cup titles ahead of Thursday’s final against India in Dambulla

Sa'adi Thawfeeq in Dambulla23-Jun-2010Kumar Sangakkara, the Sri Lankan captain, is confident his team will pull off a hat-trick of Asia Cup titles ahead of Thursday’s final against India in Dambulla. Sri Lanka enter the final having won all three league games, which included a convincing seven-wicket victory against India on Tuesday. They won the previous two Asia Cup tournaments in 2008 and 2004 and are aiming for their fifth title.”A final is a final and we are going to hit the ground running and really try and win it,” Sangakkara said. “That’s all up to us and how we perform. Winning a final, and especially the Asia Cup at home, is a special thing. It’s going to really inspire us.”Sri Lanka tested their bench strength in the dead rubber against India, and the performance of Farveez Maharoof in his second game of the series gave the selectors a problem of plenty before the final. “It’s a good situation to be in,” Sangakkara said. “We will be thrashing a few issues out with the selectors to see what the best eleven is going to be. We have got to take that match in isolation. We are not going to look too far behind us but just got to focus on picking the best squad for that one game.”Sri Lanka beat India by 100 runs to win the Asia Cup in 2008. Sanath Jayasuriya and Ajantha Mendis were the stars in that game but they are not part of the present squad. Sangakkara, however, was confident Sri Lanka have the personnel to pull off a victory. “In the last one Jayasuriya and Mendis were fantastic in the final. We don’t have them here today [but] we’ve got other players we hope will do similar things for us.”We play as a unit and we stick together. Whether we win or lose we are going to come out very confident from this tournament. But if we keep performing like the way we have, we have a good chance of winning it.”The floodlights at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium were criticised during the league stage and Sri Lanka, who batted first against Pakistan and Bangladesh, decided to test themselves under lights by chasing against India. “It was another step towards challenging ourselves to get a bit better and a bit tougher,” Sangakkara said.”The ball probably does a bit more under lights; you can’t exactly get into a rhythm as a batsman and keep hitting the ball the same way. You have to really watch the ball very closely and, with the lights, that’s not an easy task. The colour goes off the ball but I thought there was good value for shots on this ground. The outfield is pretty fast day or night. You just play a tighter game and bat for longer periods but still have a really positive outlook.”Sri Lanka enjoy an enviable record in ODIs at home, having won 61 of their last 90 games. “Our guys have shown a lot of character and really fought it out since Arjuna Ranatunga took us through the 1995-96 season in Australia,” Sangakkara said. “He has made sure that there is a lot of toughening up in Sri Lanka cricket mentally and character-wise. That’s paying dividends throughout the years and we can see a bit of it even now.”

South Africa A were favourites to win going into the final day of the second unofficial Test against Bangladesh A in Mirpur, and their bowlers duly completed a 185-run victory with a clinical performance

Cricinfo staff02-May-2010
ScorecardSouth Africa A were favourites to win going into the final day of the second unofficial Test against Bangladesh A in Mirpur, and their bowlers duly completed a 185-run victory with a clinical performance. They had only the last six Bangladesh wickets to take and they claimed them while conceding only 100 runs.The hosts began the day on 125 for 4, needing 286 more for victory, and survival being a more realistic goal. However, Bangladesh A lost Mahbubul Alam immediately, run out for a duck by Thami Tsolekile, and slipped to 128 for 5. Faisal Hossain offered some resistance, scoring 43 in the middle order, but it was futile. Wickets fell at regular intervals, with the bowlers sharing the spoils, and Bangladesh A folded for 225. Paul Harris took 3 for 85 in the second innings to finish with nine wickets in the match.

West Ham United have been dealt a potentially huge blow in their bid to bring Jesse Lingard to the London Stadium in the January transfer window.

What’s the talk?

That’s according to a claim made by ExWHUemployee, who revealed in a recent post on The West Ham Way that, despite having featured sparingly for Manchester United so far this season, the 29-year-old attacking midfielder – who has been heavily linked with a move to East London – would like to remain at Old Trafford until the end of the season, when his current contract expires.

In his post, the insider unveiled a big twist:

Moyes will be furious

Considering just how impressive Lingard was after joining West Ham on a four-month loan deal last season, in addition to the fact that the Hammers attempted to sign the forward in the summer transfer window, the news that the England international looks increasingly unlikely to leave Manchester United this winter is sure to have left David Moyes furious.

Indeed, over his 16 Premier League appearances for West Ham last time out, the £19.8m-rated man scored nine goals, registered five assists and created three big chances for his teammates, as well as taking an average of 2.6 shots and making 1.1 key passes per game.

These returns saw the £75k-per-week attacking midfielder earn a seasonal SofaScore match rating of 7.19, ranking him as the Hammers’ best performer in the top flight of English football last time out.

However, despite his remarkable form at the London Stadium, Lingard has once again found his game time limited at Manchester United, featuring in just eight Premier League fixtures so far this season.

As such, the 29-year-old’s apparent decision to wait until the end of the season before making a decision on his future is a rather baffling one, as continuing to sit on the bench at Old Trafford will do nothing towards helping the forward secure a spot in Gareth Southgate World Cup squad for Qatar 2022.

However, with it appearing as if a move for Lingard is now off the table this January, Moyes has been left with no other option than to turn his focus in the transfer market elsewhere, an outcome that will undoubtedly be incredibly frustrating for the 58-year-old manager.

In other news: West Ham handed huge injury boost ahead of Tottenham clash that’ll have Moyes buzzing

The appeal by the BCCI challenging the 12-month ban imposed by the ICC on the Feroz Shah Kotla, has been dismissed by an independent appeals commissioner. Michael Beloff QC conducted the hearing via teleconference and issued his written judgment today.The Indian board was understood to have disputed the ICC’s classification of the pitch used for the India-Sri Lanka ODI on December 27 last year as “dangerous” and “unfit”. The match had been called off after 23.3 overs during which Sri Lankan players received several blows due to severely varying bounce.”In his judgment, Beloff states that following the due consideration of all the evidence and submissions from both the ICC and BCCI, the correct decision was taken by Dave Richardson, the ICC’s general manager of cricket, and Ranjan Madugalle, the match referee,” said a release from the ICC. “Mr Beloff added the imposed suspension until the end of 2010 was proportionate in this case.”Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, said the focus now was to get the venue ready in time for 2011 World Cup. “The ICC’s pitch consultant will travel shortly to Feroz Shah Kotla, a ground with a long and proud history, to begin the process of remedial work that will ensure the pitch is restored to its former glory,” he said.