Kasun Rajitha, a 22-year-old seamer from Badureliya Sports Club, has been picked in both the four-day and one-day squads for Sri Lanka A’s tour of New Zealand in October. Rajitha has played only seven first-class matches, and has taken just six wickets at an average of 81.83 in the Premier League Tournament. However, match figures of 7 for 106 in the recent tour match against the Indians have helped earn him a place in both squads.Legspinner Jeffrey Vandersay and opening batsman Dhananjaya de Silva, who debuted in the recent T20 series against Pakistan, also find places in both squads. Seamer Lahiru Gamage, wicketkeeper-batsman Niroshan Dickwella, and middle-order batsman Kithuruwan Vithanage, who have all played for Sri Lanka in the past, also feature in both squads. Batsman Ashan Priyanjan has been named captain of both teams.Vishwa Fernando, the 23-year-old left-arm seamer who is in the Sri Lanka squad for the ongoing Test series against India, has been named in the four-day squad only. Chamara Kapugedara, meanwhile, is in the squad for the one-dayers.Left-arm chinaman bowler Lakshan Sandakan, who has been among the top five wicket-takers in to successive domestic seasons, and had also been in a Sri Lanka ODI squad last year, does not find a place in either squad.Sri Lanka A play four unofficial ODIs and two unofficial Tests against New Zealand A. Their tour begins in Lincoln on October 1, with two warm-up encounters against New Zealand Cricket’s winter training squad.Sri Lanka A unofficial Test squad: Ashan Priyanjan (capt.), Dananjaya De Silva, Udara Jayasundara, Minod Bhanuka, Niroshan Dickwella, Roshen Silva, Asela Gunaratne, Angelo Jayasinghe, Vishwa Fernando, Kasun Rajitha, Nisala Tharaka, Lahiru Gamage, Jeffrey Vandersay, Amila Aponso, Kithuruwan VithanageSri Lanka A unofficial ODI squad: Ashan Priyanjan (capt.), Dananjaya De Silva, Dhanushka Gunathilaka, Shehan Jayasuriya, Kithuruwan Vithanage, Niroshan Dickwella, Dasun Shanaka, Chamara Kapugedara, Lahiru Madushanka, Chaturanga De Silva, Jeffrey Vandersay, Lahiru Gamage, Kasun Rajitha, Binura Fernando, Nisala Tharaka
Everton have made a name for themselves when it comes to disastrous transfers ever since Farhad Moshiri took over as the owner at the club, with over £500m spent on players and absolutely no return on investment when you consider that the Toffees find themselves in a relegation battle this season.
Although Moshiri will definitely have regrets on some of the players he has already spent millions on, there are opportunities missed to sign players who have gone on to have a fantastic career elsewhere, and one of the biggest howlers was not securing the signature of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Sam Allardyce told the talkSPORT Breakfast Show that he wanted to sign the former Arsenal goal machine back in 2018 when he was the manager at Goodison Park;
“Aubameyang was desperate to come to the Premier League and we didn’t really know if it was definitely a yes [to Everton] or not – but it was probably not.
“Whether that could have happened or not, we never got that far.
“It was always going to be too much money for January, because of what the club spent previous to me arriving.”
The striker, who scored 68 Premier League goals has been hailed a “genius” by Jose Mourinho, and eventually signed for the Gunners in a deal worth £56m from Borussia Dortmund. The rest was history as he became a Premier League golden boot and FA Cup winner during his time at the London club.
When you compare the Gabon born striker’s Premier League attacking statistics (via Premier League website) with current Toffees striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Aubameyang would have clearly been the better striking option for Everton, out-achieving the 26-year-old attacker’s Premier League career so far with two seasons less in the league.
Aubameyang’s superior attacking output could have potentially saved the Toffees from several campaigns of struggles, especially this season when you consider the situation the club has found themselves in.
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It’s something that can definitely be partially blamed on the lack of goals and chances created in the attacking line so far with the side only scoring 29 times compared to the 47 strikes they have conceded already.
With reports of Calvert-Lewin potentially on the move this summer it could be an opportunity for Moshiri and Lampard to find their next Aubameyang who can offer a consistent output of goal involvements, and ultimately improve their chances of thriving in the top half of the table once again should they survive their relegation challenge in the remaining months of the season.
In other news: Forget DCL: Everton must keep “terrible” £110k-p/w “huge liability”, Lamps needs him
The art of diving is an all too familiar occurrence in the Premier League, with players, at times, selecting the root to floor over an opportunity to score.
It’s a wide held belief that the phenomenon of simulation is restricted to foreign players, with the English spirit of fair play and sportsmanship making such acts preposterous. While to an extent the import of such acts coincided with the arrival of global talent, more and more home-grown stars are turning to the dark arts, in a bid to aid their team.
With the sheer pace of modern day football, referees face the impossible task of deciding, in a split second, whether said player is the victim or just a crook.
This list looks at 20 players who have frequently opted to bend the rules, exaggerating, and mostly, fabricating contact to aid their teams:
Click on Andrew Johnson to unveil the list
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What do you think? Find me on Twitter @Alex_Hams to have your say
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Fresh from the club making their latest summer purchase, Liverpool chairman Tom Werner has promised to keep investing in the club, in order to bring ‘the lustre’ back.
Liverpool today completed the £6 million capture of leftback Jose Enrique from Newcastle United, taking their summer spending to £54 million – adding to the £57.8 million spent in January on capturing Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez, marking the biggest spending spree in the club’s history – and there are no plans to cut back.
Speaking on an interview with LFC TV, Werner also stopped short of defining any targets for the coming season: ‘I don’t want to promise so much. I know John [Henry] has said we’re going to be top four and Kenny [Dalglish] says well why can’t we win. But we just want to move forward – we want to be better this year than last year and just keep going on the right track.
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He added: ‘I think the most important thing, and it may seem obvious, is put on a quality product for your fans. These are people who spend their hard earned pounds to come to see the club, and we’ve got supporters all around the world, who expect a quality product, and so it’s been our goal to try to improve our position on the pitch and to try and create an environment for players to say they want to play in Liverpool, and to bring some of the lustre that all the fans know back to the club.’
Claudio Ranieri once said to the assembled media at a press conference; “Football managers are like a parachutist. At times it doesn’t open.” At the time, Ranieri was having to fend off rumours that his job was under threat from then England boss, Sven Goran Eriksson, and under much scrutiny, the likable Italian appeared to be cracking under the pressure. Sure enough, during the Champions League semi-final against Monaco days later, the Chelsea parachute failed to open for the last time and Ranieri’s tenure was as good as over.
Nearly seven years later, as Roberto Mancini reflects on his first year in charge at the City of Manchester Stadium, he may do well to remember the fable of Ranieri. Very few men in football have been trusted with spending the vast quantities of money that both Italians have been allocated. Yet, while the financial freedom liberated Ranieri’s successor at Chelsea, Jose Mourinho, Ranieri was a man constantly ill at ease with the rags to riches nature of his term at Stamford Bridge.
You may suggest that there is a far clearer parallel between Mancini’s predecessor, Mark Hughes, and the eccentric former Chelsea manager. Both men were unwanted baggage for their club’s new owners, and were written off from an early stage as being short-term appointments.
However, when it comes to being judged as a manager in these unique situations, both Ranieri and Mancini have much in common. It is the nature of the vast sums of cash available to the current Manchester City boss that success at any level will be intrinsically linked with the financial backing supplied by Sheikh Mansour, a feeling that Ranieri knew all too well during his time in the Premier League.
Mourinho was not constrained by such an asterisk. His success as a Champions League winning manager negated the financial advantage his management was given. Until Mancini gains this sort of success, his record at City will be forever be doused in scorn. But is this fair?
Results so far this term have been solid without being spectacular. Whilst City are certainly in the title race, they must appreciate that in any other season, their current points tally would put them out of contention. They have failed to chase big games, electing to park the bus against Arsenal and city rivals United, whilst they did just enough to see off an uninspired Chelsea.
The signings made under Mancini are equally difficult to judge. His acquisition of Patrick Vieira was always very much a hiding to nothing, and whilst the former French skipper has had little impact on City’s success, he can hardly be considered a failure. The purchases of James Milner and Adam Johnson have, in general, been positive additions to the City squad and Mario Balotelli has shown glimpses of the talent that attracted the Italian but the attitude which convinced Inter Milan to let him go.
Mancini has coped reasonably with his expensively assembled squad, staving off a crisis when Carlos Tevez looked set to walk out of the club, controlling the egos of several of the more highly strung members of the side, and making the most difficult decision of his tenure so far; bringing in Joe Hart to replace the more than capable Shay Given.
Nevertheless, such are the fluctuating fortunes of the league’s top clubs, Mancini could find himself under severe pressure should the clubs around City win all of their games in hand. It was not so long ago that the manager’s decision to replace Carlos Tevez was accompanied by widespread booing and chants of; “You don’t know what you’re doing!” Results, as always will absolutely have to keep coming.
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But is Mancini not doing a good job? It is incredibly difficult to judge City’s season on the strength of their achievements to date – cynics would suggest that everything they have accomplished thus far is simply to be expected considering their level of spending. Any real judgement will have to be made at the end of the season, Champions League qualification must be accomplished at the bare minimum. However it would look at this point that Roberto Mancini’s expensively woven parachute might just open to save him, he only need to look down at Claudio Ranieri to see what happens if it fails.
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England manager Roy Hodgson has called Wayne Rooney the side’s ace in the hole, stating that the Manchester United man is raring to go.
The talented forward was sent off against Montenegro in the Three Lions’ final qualifying fixture, and as such is serving a ban and will miss the first two games of Euro 2012.
With England drawing their first match against France 1-1 and with Sweden next to play on Friday, Rooney will return for the crunch clash with Ukraine next week.
Hodgson has admitted that he wants to see improvement in the final third, and that Rooney will be the man to give them it.
“Our real ace in the hole should be Wayne Rooney because he is very fit and raring to go,” said Hodgson according to The Telegraph.
“He really can’t wait to get on the field and if he can play like Wayne Rooney, then we’re going to be a bit more difficult to beat for some of these teams because you can only benefit from having someone of his quality in your team.
“It’s in the final third where we need improvement. Once or twice, especially in the first half against France, there were some very promising counter-attacks and they broke down because we tried a one-touch pass to finish it off rather than taking that extra touch.
“The French were just the opposite. They don’t play a lot of one-touch football around the penalty box. They play a lot of two, three touches, holding on to the ball and asking another question. Sometimes we want to try and finish it off too quickly. That’s because of the intensity of the Premier League.
“You must remember we had Ashley Young, who hasn’t always played that position, and Danny Welbeck, who is 21 and did really well. You’ve got to make allowances for the fact that they had Karim Benzema, who is much older and playing for Real Madrid, and Samir Nasri. You can expect a bit more from them when they get in the final third than I can expect from our players at the moment.
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“Glen Johnson made some good raiding runs down the right. The pass and the movement for James Milner’s chance was the type of thing we are looking for. That was a really good attack. A few other attacks foundered on the fact that we didn’t quite get the last pass right. We must make allowance for the fact that everyone was quite nervous going into the game,” he concluded.
Newly appointed Feyenoord boss Ronald Koeman believes he has a team capable of taking the Eredivisie by surprise this season.The former Dutch international signed a one-year deal to replace Mario Been at the Rotterdam club and end his two year absence from coaching.
Koeman, 48, said he had the players to cause a surprise in the league after Feyenoord finished 10th last campaign, their worst result since 1989-90.
“Feyenoord is a great club for me to resume my career as a coach,” he told the club’s official website.
“With Jean-Paul van Gastel and Giovanni van Bronckhorst I have two great assistants next to me who I also already know well.”
“I am strongly convinced that we could be very surprising this season. There is indeed plenty of quality and talent in this young squad.”
“Just like the players and the entire club, I share a burning ambition to show that we are much more able than the recent past has shown.”
Koeman managed AZ Alkmaar in 2009 after stints at Ajax, Benfica, PSV and Valencia and is returning to the club where he ended his days as a professional player.
As a midfielder and defender, Koeman won two European Cups, five Dutch titles, three Dutch Cups, four Spanish titles, the Spanish Cup and was part of the Netherlands squad that won the 1988 European Championships.
After moving into management, he led Ajax to two Eredivisie titles and PSV to the Dutch league crown in 2006-07.
Tottenham are reportedly set to test Everton's resolve over midfielder Steven Pienaar and use Niko Kranjcar as bait in a part-exchange deal.
The future of South Africa international Pienaar remains up in the air as he is out of contract at the end of the season, and is widely expected to leave in the new year with a host of clubs keen on the South African international.
Harry Redknapp is a known admirer and Spurs are thought to be heading the race for his signature with former Portsmouth man Kranjcar reportedly a potential player to be used in a part-exchange deal.
Kranjcar has only managed to start one Premier League game this season and has struggled to win a regular first-team place at White Hart Lane this season.
When asked about his future, Pienaar said: "I am still focused on staying at Everton. The season is not over yet, anything can happen."
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New England manager Roy Hodgson is believed to be considering leaving former captain John Terry at home for Euro 2012, according to The Daily Mail.
The Chelsea skipper is due to stand trail in July for allegedly racially abusing Anton Ferdinand, and Hodgson has to consider whether Terry and the victim’s brother Rio Ferdinand can both be in the same squad.
The newspaper indicate that the West Brom boss is thinking about opting for Ferdinand and not Terry, but will hold talks with both players before making his final decision.
The England squad for Euro 2012 is due to be released after the end of the Premier League season, with next Monday believed to be the date that Hodgson will reveal the contingent that will travel to Ukraine and Poland.
Other central defenders in the mix are Joleon Lescott, Gary Cahill, Chris Smalling and Phil Jones.
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The transfer window is well and truly open with a flurry of bids and rumours taking place. Liverpool have seen a bid of for Stewart Downing rejected; Wenger is looking at Motta, while Modric heads for Spurs talks with both Manchester United and Chelsea waiting in the wings.
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Man City tell Tevez they must get £50m or he is not leaving – Guardian
Clichy: I’m over the Blue Moon – Sun
Gerrard set to miss the start of the season – Mirror
Fábregas frustrated over haggling – Guardian
AVB to show ‘watch and yearn’ video to Chelsea stars – Mirror
Newcastle defend use of £35m Carroll fee – Daily Telegraph
Villa reject Liverpool bid for Downing – Guardian
Sneijder to snub Chelsea and United as Inter boss backs his star to stay – Daily Mail
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Wenger: We’ve gotta get Motta – Sun
Modric heads for Spurs talks as Chelsea and United prepare to pounce – Daily Mail