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BBC News
11 minutes ago
- BBC News
Hibs in 'advanced talks' to sign Scotland's Hanley
Hibernian are in "advanced talks" to sign Scotland defender Grant Hanley, head coach David Gray has 33-year-old was released by Birmingham City earlier this summer after his short-term deal with the English League One winners centre-back was at Easter Road to watch Hibs' Europa League qualifying defeat by Midtjylland last week and Gray has confirmed he is pushing to sign him."We are in advanced talks with that one," said Gray prior to Hibs' Conference League qualifying first leg with Partizan Belgrade."We're hoping to see what that one can look like. He's someone that has played at a very high level. "I speak about that all the time, trying to find the right type of people into the football club. We're working hard to see what we can do on that."The Dumfries-born centre-back has made 62 Scotland appearances since his debut against Wales in 2011, scoring twice in that Hibs are set to be Hanley's first Scottish club following spells with Blackburn Rovers, Newcastle United and Norwich City.
The Guardian
11 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Will Hearts' army of data nerds back up Tony Bloom's title talk?
Despite the Scottish Premiership title race being more predictable than Football Daily at a bottomless brunch, fitba has never been short of drama. Who can forget Ross County deleting their own website, Kirk Broadfoot suffering facial burns after microwaving an egg and former Hearts manager Robbie Neilson trying to give journalists the slip as he left the club's training ground by sending out a decoy (sports scientist John Hill) to the car park in a Robbie Neilson mask. Edinburgh, very much the second city in Scotland when it comes to football, still has one of the game's finest rivalries between two grand old clubs, Hearts and Hibernian. Each have had their moments in recent derbies: last year Hearts' Lawrence Shankland celebrated scoring a penalty by catching and eating a pie thrown by a Hibs supporter. In March, Jack Iredale scored a screamer to win the derby for Hibs. The post-match celebrations at Easter Road featured one of the finest ever renditions of Sunshine on Leith, a song sung with so much feeling that it left some Hibs players in tears. And who can blame them? If you get goosebumps watching that song, imagine what it must be like to come from that corner of Scotland, stand on that terrace and sing those lyrics in front of your victorious team. Magic. The point is, fitba is far greater than just Rangers and Celtic. And this is very much the opinion of Tony Bloom, the owner of Brighton who bought a 29% stake in Hearts this summer for £9.86m. Following the club's opening win over Aberdeen – a 2-0 victory that leaves the Jambos top of the Premiership table – Bloom was in a bullish mood as he faced the media, explaining that he thinks Hearts can challenge for glory. 'If we have not won the league title in the next 10 years, I will be very disappointed,' Bloom stated. 'I want to make sure that we are in the talk to win the title at the start of each season.' We have heard this sort of patter before, a new owner coming in and telling a club's supporters what they want to hear. The difference is, Bloom has a track record of using his army of data nerds and analytics gurus to drastically improve clubs with savvy recruitment. Brighton are now one of the best run clubs in England, while Union Saint-Gilloise, who were bottom of Belgium's second tier when the Englishman took over in 2018, won the Belgian top flight a few months ago for the first time in 90 years and are in Bigger Cup. The last time a club that wasn't called Celtic or Rangers won the Scottish Premiership was 1985 and the last time Hearts won it was 65 years ago, but Bloom seems untroubled. 'I understand there will be a lot of Celtic and Rangers fans, maybe Hibs and Aberdeen fans, who will be laughing and saying 'we've heard it all before',' he blathered. 'I just thought there was an opportunity here to shake things up in Scotland. I think we've got a very good chance of at least being second this season. I've just got a lot more confidence of what Hearts can do compared to when I did my first press conference at Union seven years ago.' Bloom has wasted no time in bringing in a new striker, Cláudio Braga, who (very much in the Brighton ilk) was signed from Norwegian second-division side FK Aalesunds for around £400,000. The Portuguese bagged four goals in five pre-season matches – including one in a 3-0 win over Premier League Sunderland – and already has a chant among the Tynecastle faithful: 'All we need is … Cláudio Braga,' set to the tune of the Queen classic. Sunshine on Leith it is not, but Hearts fans will be getting goosebumps regardless. A couple of friends had come over to see me, we were chatting, and suddenly they said they couldn't understand what I was saying. My speech was slurring. I had gone for a walk that morning and felt wobbly, just very lethargic. I was sapped of any energy and a couple of times I felt as though I might stumble but I didn't' – in an extract from a new book, the former Portsmouth, Leeds and Exeter defender Noel Blake talks about the emotional and physical battle of recovering from a stroke. Celta Vigo signing Athletic Bilbao youngster Luis Bilbao and signing Bryan Zaragoza are yet more disappointing nails in coffin of nominative determinism. Now, it's just me and a lad I knew at school called Gareth Thickett who failed all his exams that are keeping up the good fight …' – Noble Francis. I rarely agree with Dr Tottenham, but he's right … it will be greatly appreciated when he leaves' – Chris Brown. If you have any, please send letters to Today's winner of our letter o' the day is … Chris Brown, who lands some Football Weekly merch. Terms and conditions for our competitions are here. Our man David Squires veers away from football this week to tell the story of his boxing forebear who died on the Titanic. It's well worth your time. On Thursday 11 September, join Max Rushden, Barry Glendenning and a host of your other Football Weekly favourites live on stage for an evening of unfiltered football punditry at Troxy in London and livestreamed globally. Book now. Football stardom is a young person's game these days. As in: very young. The stars of the future have social media disgrace presences way before they can apply for a provisional driving licence – all part of the career plan. And these young ballers recognise ball, to use a phrase we're decades too old to carry off. Judging by Monday night's showing against Athletic Bilbao, Rio Ngumoha is a kid for Liverpool fans to get VERY excited about, capping it with a beautiful goal. He's only 16, and his performance was hailed by Max Dowman, Arsenal's heir apparent, still just 15 but of whom huge things are expected. Dowman described Ngumoha as 'the coldest' on InstaChat, using ye olde vernacular of time-served veteran Cole Palmer, 23. Gunners fans are hoping to see their future king in the first team soon, alongside such oldsters as Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri. Former Arsenal midfielder Thomas Partey has appeared in court charged with six sexual offences. The 32-year-old was bailed to appear at the Old Bailey for trial later this year over allegations of rape and sexual assault, which he denies. Sheffield Wednesday captain Barry Bannan expects the crisis club to play their opening game of the Championship season against Leicester on Sunday. 'It's easier to pull out of a pre-season friendly game than it is a Championship fixture,' he sighed. 'We've come into training and just got on with it.' Manchester United and Newcastle United are involved in a tug of war for Leipzig's Benjamin Sesko, having both tabled bids worth more than £70m. And in other Old Trafford news, the 1958 fans' group will protest against the club's ownership in the opening game of the Premier League season against Arsenal by displaying a banner that could have done with a taste test. It reads: 'Jim Can't Fix This'. Rangers have completed the signing of Go Ahead Eagles winger Oliver Antman on a four-year deal. Celtic have completed the signing of Steven Kangtheconqueror on a four-year deal. Meanwhile, yogi guru Russell Martin insists his scathing assessment of Rangers' players after the draw at Motherwell came from a place of love, man. 'I think if they know us by now as a group of coaching staff, that it all comes from [that] place … really, and [we] care for them,' he ommed. 'They're good people, but the default is to try and protect yourself when it gets tough.' And expect some Hollywood-style long-range passing at Wrexham next season, after Kieffer Moore checked in on a three-year deal from Sheffield United for around £2m. 'I'm over the moon,' yelped the Wales striker. The latest edition of our sister email is here on the Big Cup winner, Marco Simone, and his grand ambitions for a new women's club in Monaco. Jonathan Wilson declares the utter pointlessness of deriving any conclusions from pre-season while, er, deriving some conclusions from pre-season. As Xabi Alonso enters his first Liga season as Real Madrid coach, Coralie Salle hears from those who worked with him when he was dishing out the cones as coach of Real Sociedad's B team. A local affair but an international one too, will take place when Malmö meet FC Copenhagen in Tuesday's all-Scandi Bigger Cup clash. Billy Munday bridges the great divide. Big Website's Premier League pre-season preview series continues with Bournemouth and Brentford, two clubs shorn of key personnel by the bigger boys. And come and get your latest transfer rumours, right here! 4 July 1995: Liverpool moving for the hottest striker in English football is a familiar story. Back in 1995, they got their man in Nottingham Forest's Stan Collymore, seen here with manager Roy Evans after a whopping £8.5m transfer. Stan the Man got off to a decent start with a cracking goal against Sheffield Wednesday on the opening day of the 1995-96 season, before forming a deadly partnership with Robbie Fowler, sharing 55 goals. It was a Collymore goal that decided the following April's all-time 4-3 classic with Newcastle but that Liverpool team never achieved its potential. Wearing white suits as losing FA Cup finalists and some tabloid-splashed big nights out led to their Spice Boys tag. Meanwhile, Collymore's form began drifting. The rapid rise of Michael Owen meant he was sold to Aston Villa, his boyhood idols, for £7m, Liverpool never quite enjoying the best of his huge potential.
Daily Mail
11 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
The 2025 Community Shield will NOT be shown on free-to-air TV as FA confirm new broadcaster for season curtain raiser after ITV lose rights
The 2025 Community Shield will not be shown on free-to-air TV after the FA confirmed that TNT Sports will be taking over broadcasting duties for the season curtain raiser. It will be the first time four years the clash between the winners of the Premier League and FA Cup will not be shown on terrestrial TV. ITV held the rights during that time, having returned the traditional showcase to free-to-air TV for the first time in nine years when they broadcast Leicester City 's 1-0 win over Manchester City at Wembley in 2021. A statement from the FA on Tuesday confirmed that fans will will need to tune into TNT Sport's exclusive coverage on Sunday when Liverpool take on Crystal Palace. 'The 2025 FA Community Shield match will be contested by the 2024-25 Emirates FA Cup winners, Crystal Palace, and 2024-25 Premier League champions, Liverpool,' the statement read. 'The game will take place at Wembley Stadium connected by EE on Sunday 10 August. It will be broadcast live and exclusively on TNT Sports 1, with kick-off at 3pm BST.' Liverpool head into the clash looking to clinch their 17th victory in the exhibition match, while Palace are seeking their maiden triumph, having won their first major honour in May. Arne Slot's men have invested heavily this summer and will field a squad vastly different to the one that cruised to the league title last term. The likes of Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike, Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez are all expected to feature as they bid to defend their top-flight crown this season. Palace, meanwhile, have been forced to wage an unwanted battle against UEFA to secure qualification for the Europa League their FA Cup win guaranteed. The Eagles have taken UEFA to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after being bumped down to the Conference League due to multi-club ownership rules. The club were removed from the Europa League because American businessman John Textor — through his Eagle Football Holdings group — held a 43.9 per cent stake in Palace while also owning 77 per cent of French side Lyon. Both clubs had qualified for the Europa League, and UEFA rules prohibit two teams under the same ownership or influence from competing in the same European competition. With that in mind, UEFA chose to keep Lyon in the tournament and demoted Palace to the Conference League. Lyon were deemed the 'priority club' due to Textor's majority control, and because UEFA's MCO rules state that the club with the higher domestic league finish retains its place. Lyon had finished sixth in Ligue 1, while Palace were 12th in the Premier League — even though Palace qualified via the FA Cup. Palace argue that UEFA's application of the MCO regulations contradicts its own competition rules, and have taken their case to CAS, where a hearing will take place on Friday, with a verdict expected next Monday. As they wait to learn their fate, Palace have distanced themselves from the Conference League just hours after being drawn in the competition's play-off round. On Monday afternoon, Palace's official website briefly published an article detailing their potential opponents in Europe. Monday's draw paired the Eagles with either Norwegian side Fredrikstad or Danish club Midtjylland, with the first leg scheduled for August 21 at Selhurst Park and the return fixture a week later on August 28.
