Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola says Erling Haaland will control his emotions as the striker prepares to face defender Gabriel again following last September’s heated clash.
Spurs beat Wolves to signing with £20.9m buy obligation
Ange Postecoglou still hoping to add an attacking player
Tottenham have completed the signing of the Lens centre-back, Kevin Danso, on an initial loan with an obligation to buy for €25m (£20.9m) in the summer.
The Spurs manager, Ange Postecoglou, had said on Friday that the club might need to strengthen in central defence as they waited for an update on Radu Dragusin. The Romanian centre-back suffered what looked a worrying knee injury against Elfsborg in the Europa League on Thursday night.
It’s time to hand out final grades as the dust settles on one of the busiest free-agency windows in WNBA history
One of the most dynamic periods of the WNBA offseason is coming to an end as free agents are signing contrasts with their teams at the start of February. This year was particularly exciting as a huge crop of the league’s stars – including Breanna Stewart, Kelsey Plum, Jewell Loyd, Brittney Griner and more – were able to test the waters of free agency, some for the first time.
As with any period of growth and upheaval, women’s basketball is in the middle of a truly critical moment. TV ratings are up, attendance is way up; Unrivaled is pulling in impressive viewership each week in Miami, and AU Pro Basketball kicks off its newest season in Nashville this month.
Champions show their enduring class in the second half after making a sloppy start to Six Nations defence
In a tournament with no room for a warm-up, where you just hop into the blocks and hope to explode out of them, home games are a mixed blessing. If the getaway isn’t clean then the boost to the away side can be turbo stuff. Which poses a dilemma: how do you catch up without playing catch up?
Ireland’s one word answer might be perseverance. If pushed to expand they might add that when you can sense your opponents losing the plot you have to help them along with that one. Patience is actually better than going bald-headed for the big prize. Nudge the ball in behind them and squeeze some more.
The isolated Pacific nation is trying to build its first football team amid a battle for survival against rising sea levels
The Marshall Islands, an isolated sprawl of atolls covering 750,000 square miles of the Pacific Ocean but home to barely 42,000 people, may be the final frontier for the world’s most popular sport. It claims to be the last country on Earth without a football team, and to this day, the islands have never hosted an 11-a-side game.
Until recently, football was an alien concept in a nation occupied by the US since the second world war, with baseball and basketball the traditional sports. As interest has grown in recent years, another barrier has emerged. Land has always been at a premium on these fragile shores, but never more than now with rising sea levels bringing fears of permanent flooding.
A win against Fulham and draw at Villa are early signs of a better fit at West Ham on manager’s return to his old club
Graham Potter’s return to Chelsea coming on deadline day feels symbolic. West Ham’s head coach does not look back fondly at the extravaganza of player trading when he was in charge at Stamford Bridge in January 2023. It was a time of chaos and unreasonable pressure. The new owners were spending like there was no tomorrow and by the time the window closed it was left to Potter to make sense of a squad so bloated there was not enough space for everyone in the first-team dressing room.
Good luck with that. Chelsea had crowed after beating Arsenal to Mykhaylo Mudryk. Negotiations with Benfica led to a British transfer record for Enzo Fernández. Noni Madueke, David Datro Fofana and Benoît Badiashile joined. A deal for Malo Gusto was confirmed for the summer. João Félix arrived on loan. Jorginho took his experience and nous to Arsenal. Hakim Ziyech’s loan to Paris Saint-Germain collapsed because of technical issues. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had to be cut from the squad for the Champions League knockout stages. Potter, who takes West Ham to Stamford Bridge on Monday night, watched it all unfold and knew that expectations were about to go through the roof.
The Egyptian adds another gear to Manchester City’s shift to more direct play with a short-passing game as backup
Everything is new. Everything is different. Omar Marmoush steps off the plane at Manchester Airport and what greets him is a kind of sensory overload. He peers through blacked-out windows of his chauffeured car at the city he now calls home. “What are the names of the supermarkets?” he asks. “Tesco,” comes the reply. “Asda. Sainsbury’s. Aldi.”
On the pitch, it’s a similar story. “He has something special,” Erling Haaland confirms after a dynamic debut against Chelsea last Saturday night. “He’s going to be a fantastic player for us. It’s about getting to know him as soon as possible, because there are so many important games coming.”
‘Mexican Monster’ beats Morrell by unanimous decision
Benavidez improves to 30-0 with one-sided victory
Stephen Fulton wins WBC featherweight belt in co-main
David Benavidez unified the light heavyweight championship by earning a unanimous decision over challenger David Morrell on Saturday night to keep his interim WBC belt and win the WBA title.
Judges Patricia Morse Jarman and Steve Weisfeld both scored the fight 115-111 while Tim Cheatham scored it 118-108.
Rachel Reeves’ bold infrastructure plans for Heathrow, transport, housing and more rely on training a new generation of construction professionals before the shovels go in the ground
Even a nonexistent Heathrow third runway or HS2 northern leg have arguably done their bit for the economy: keeping a small army of planners, lawyers and lobbyists busy over years of tussle between the “builders and the blockers”, as Rachel Reeves has styled them.
Now the blockers are, as the chancellor made clear in laying out her vision for turbocharged infrastructure growth, as welcome as rare bats or newts at a construction site. But are the builders ready to take their turn?
The chancellor’s apparent volte-face in backing a third runway has left many in her party disillusioned and led them to label it as an act of desperation
In 2020, Rachel Reeves, the MP for Leeds West and Pudsey, was clear why she opposed expansion of nearby Leeds Bradford airport. It would, she said, “significantly increase air and noise pollution”, so on environmental grounds, it should not happen.
By the autumn of 2021, as shadow chancellor, Reeves was the senior Labour figure chosen to lead her party’s hugely ambitious plans for a green industrial revolution.
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The Independent
