Port Vale sign keeper Marosi after Cambridge exit
Port Vale have signed goalkeeper Marko Marosi on a two-year deal after he was released by Cambridge United following their relegation from League One.The 31-year-old signed a shot-term deal with the U's in January following his exit from Plymouth Argyle, but managed only two appearances before a hamstring injury ended his season.Port Vale will be the fifth club that the Slovakian has spent time with in five years, having left Coventry City in 2021 for Shrewsbury Town, before going on to feature for Plymouth and the U's."Marko arrives at Vale Park with plenty of quality and experience, both at this level and above," Port Vale manager Darren Moore told the club website., external
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
19 minutes ago
- The Independent
India provide Jasprit Bumrah fitness update for second Test against England
India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate has revealed that star bowler Jasprit Bumrah is fit to face England in the second Test at Edgbaston this week, though coaches have not decided whether he will feature in Birmingham. Bumrah, who took five wickets across two innings in the first Test as India fell to defeat at Headingley, will likely only feature in three matches during the five-Test series, having suffered a back injury during the final match of India's 3-1 series defeat in Australia in January. The 31-year-old previously said he needs to 'take care of my body', telling Sky Sports before the series opener that he can likely only manage three matches at the moment, with India's coaching staff now evaluating how to get the best use out of their main bowling threat. And speaking to Sky, ten Doeschate said that Bumrah is 'available for the game' at Edgbaston, but that coaching staff have not yet 'made a call' as to whether he'll feature. 'Obviously we know from the start he's only going to play three out of the five [Tests], he's obviously had eight days to recover from the last Test,' said the Dutchman. 'Given conditions and workload, and how we think we can best manage the next four games, we haven't made a call on that. We're going to see where the other guys are with their workload as well. 'So technically, yes, he is available, but we haven't made a decision on whether he's going to play or not yet,' he added. When quizzed again regarding Bumrah, ten Doeschate reiterated that 'if we feel like there's value in playing him in this Test, we'll make that call at the very last minute'. 'But, you know, I'm talking about weather, how the pitch is going to play,' he said. 'Are we better of holding him back for Lord's and maybe Manchester or the Oval? It's all those factors, but, you know, you've seen him train yesterday, train a little bit today. It's not like he's not fit to play. 'It's just trying to fit those puzzle pieces to get the most out of him, out of what we know we do have from him,' he added. India have never won a Test at Edgbaston, and their latest attempt at victory in Birmingham will begin on Wednesday, 2 July at around 11am BST.
The Guardian
30 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Farewell tradition, hello robots: Wimbledon adjusts to life without line judges
Sometimes progress registers simply as absence, and so it was on the opening day of Wimbledon this year when the pursuit of greater accuracy led to the disappearance of the tournament's famous line judges. Electronic line calls are now in operation in SW19, bringing the championships into line with the grand slam tournaments in Melbourne and New York and also the ATP Tour. The French Open still uses line judges. But the shift to camera‑based, AI‑enhanced decision-making cuts deeper at Wimbledon, where up to 300 line judges have been a colourful part of the tournament's ensemble cast for the past 147 years. With protests outside the gates (albeit with tongue in cheek) and ambivalence among fans, there were also unexpected reactions from players to the changes. In the men's draw, Carlos Alcaraz and his first‑round opponent Fabio Fognini were to be seen questioning the decision of the new system, apparently unaware that the ability to challenge a call is another tradition now consigned to the past. In the women's draw, meanwhile, the Chinese player Yuan Yue complained the new system was too quiet for her to hear its decision. 'The voice, I cannot really hear it, it is a bit too low,' she said. 'So I asked the referee can you [turn] it up a little bit. He said he cannot. He said he will try to let us know [the call] because he has a machine that can look it up. I don't really mind, I just want to hear it clearly. [The umpire's] voice is a lot more loud than the automatic one so we can hear that clear. Other tournaments don't really have this problem.' The electronic line-call system was developed by Hawk-Eye and uses AI to analyse footage from up to 18 cameras tracking the progress of the ball across the court. If a serve is wide, or a forehand too long, manufacturers say the software will issue a notification within a tenth of a second. In a unique Wimbledon twist, those calls are then vocalised using recordings of the voices of staff from the All England Club. That can lead to an unusual experience in watching the play, or even competing in it. On court 18 during Cameron Norrie's first-round match against Roberto Bautista Agut, any declaration of 'fault' used the voice of a (forceful) ballboy, whereas 'out' calls were announced in the voices of adults, both male and female. In the lower courts there was also the sense of disembodied calls floating between matches. Britain's Sonay Kartal lost a point at the Australian Open in January after she reacted to a call from a different court. Following her three-set victory against Jelena Ostapenko, however, she declared the conditions 'perfectly fine', though she echoed Yuan's concerns. 'I hit a few shots that were at a pretty big moment and the crowd kind of went nuts, so maybe I lost it a bit in that,' she said. Sally Bolton, the chief executive of the All England Club, said the new system attempts to strike a typical balance between modernity and tradition. 'For us, it was time to make that change,' she said. 'It's not a money‑saving exercise, the technology investment we've had to make to deliver electronic line calling is not insignificant. It's about evolving the tournament and making sure that we're providing the most effective possible line calling. 'The line judges have been such an important part of the championships for so many years, and we obviously hugely appreciate the service that they've provided. Quite a few of them, around 80, are still with us as match assistants in a new role, supporting the chair umpire.' Sign up to The Recap The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend's action after newsletter promotion Verdicts from the spectators were largely sceptical. Though some had missed the changes altogether, many were grateful for the continued use of animated graphics on tight line calls, now known as 'close calls', despite the end of the challenge system. Others, however, missed the simple pleasure of watching someone standing stock still at the back of a court, their eyes focused determinedly on a single point. 'You're essentially removing the history and replacing it with a slightly robotic animated voice. It's all a bit numbing,' said James from Ipswich, taking advantage of the shade underneath Centre Court mid-afternoon. 'Everything is getting more accurate, but we're losing the human drama. I miss the theatre of seeing someone staring down the line like that.' Less nuanced views were also available. The deputy leader of Reform, Richard Tice, was up posting about electronic line calls at 6.30am on Monday and he was not happy. 'We want our country back. We want Wimbledon line judges back. Enough is enough,' he wrote on X.
Times
32 minutes ago
- Times
Brentford sure Keith Andrews is right man (despite what Roy Keane thinks)
Has there been a bolder appointment in the Premier League era? Every new head coach comes with an element of risk, of course. Yet even for Brentford, English football's great innovators over the past decade, the decision to replace Thomas Frank with their set-piece coach, Keith Andrews, is a move that, on the face of it, appears remarkably brave. After all, in the decade since the 44-year-old called time on his playing career, Andrews's coaching CV amounts to spells on the coaching staff of MK Dons, Ireland's under-21s and senior team, and half a season as Sheffield United's set-piece coach before joining Brentford in the same role last summer. Yet Andrews, who was presented to the media at Brentford's Gtech Community Stadium on Monday, says he has been preparing for this role for some time. 'Two or three years ago I knew I was ready to be a head coach,' Andrews said. 'Would I have foreseen it being this role at this level? Probably not, realistically. But the path I've taken has been very deliberate to get to this stage.' Brentford's preference for hiring internally is equally deliberate, of course, and doing so is nothing new. Mark Warburton had been both coach and sporting director at Brentford before he was handed his first managerial role in 2013-14, a season that ended with promotion to the Championship. Frank had been Dean Smith's assistant for almost two years when he was promoted to head coach in October 2018, and seven years on Brentford are an established Premier League club. 'Thomas has a phrase, which is, 'If you take no risk, you also take a risk,' which is completely right,' Phil Giles, the club's longstanding director of football, said. 'It's more risky to go and get a coach we don't know from a club where the environment might be different. This is actually quite a low-risk appointment, because I know how good Keith is.' The difference on this occasion, perhaps, is the impending summer of yet more upheaval. As well as losing their head coach, Brentford appear likely to lose their captain, Christian Norgaard, to Arsenal. Their best player, Bryan Mbeumo, is being hotly pursued by Manchester United. Frank has taken the assistant coaches Justin Cochrane and Chris Haslam with him to Tottenham Hotspur, while another, Claus Norgaard, also left. Yet Andrews is sanguine about the situation he is inheriting. 'The way this football club has worked, players come and players go, that's just the nature of it,' he said. 'Ultimately, I want the best possible players in the building. And we've got phenomenal players in the building that we will continue to improve and develop. And what will be, will be on that front.' Former colleagues and team-mates describe Andrews as a leader. He captained Wolverhampton Wanderers aged 20 and gained Premier League experience during his time with Blackburn Rovers and West Bromwich Albion, after Paul Ince had brought the Dubliner with him to Ewood Park from MK Dons in 2008. He also represented Ireland 35 times, playing at Euro 2012 under Giovanni Trapattoni. Shortly after hanging up his boots, Andrews joined Sky Sports' EFL coverage as a pundit and will have no issues stepping into Frank's shoes as the amiable, insightful public face of Brentford. Andrews should be prepared for the scrutiny that awaits too. His coverage of Ireland drew the wrath of Roy Keane in 2020 and, more recently, the manager Keane assisted between 2013 and 2018, Martin O'Neill. 'I've heard a lot of bullshitters over the last ten years, and Keith Andrews is up there with the best of them,' Keane told the Irish Independent. Last week, during an appearance on talkSPORT, O'Neill called Andrews a 'vitriolic critic' who will soon 'realise what management is all about'. 'That's the gig,' Andrews said. 'People are well and truly entitled to their opinion. And ultimately, the type of person I am, I will give an honest opinion. I'll be me. I'll be authentic. 'I'll be who I am on a daily basis. That won't change.'
