Wafer and Hogan among world's best
Ireland's Erin King believes she is playing alongside some of the best back rows in the world during the Women's Six Nations. King, 21, started her side's 27-15 defeat by France to kick off their campaign last weekend alongside Aoife Wafer and Brittany Hogan.Wafer scored twice in another superb display, while Hogan was instrumental in some stout defensive stands."I'm so lucky to be among some of the best back rowers in the world. I think they're dragging me along," said King, who was named women's breakthrough player of the year at the World Rugby awards in November."There's so much competition in our back row and our squad, I think we just keep pushing each other and helping each other improve."I'm learning so much off them and I'd say they're learning things off me."Such has been the form of that trio, the squad's co-captain Edel McMahon was named on the bench for the France loss."She's helped me so much," said King of the flanker."I'm so lucky to be around such a great person on the pitch and off the pitch."She helps me with anything I need and it's great to have her in the camp."Ireland will travel to Italy for round two of the Women's Six Nations on Sunday, a game that will be be live on BBC Two NI, BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website from 14:45 BST.King said Ireland need to be "a little bit more accurate" than they were against France."I think we'll go in with loads of confidence and see what we can do," she added. "I think we can go out there and put in a performance, tweak the things that weren't as good as we know they can be, and just be a little bit more accurate around the park."
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BBC News
44 minutes ago
- BBC News
Clement 'had bad feeling after League Cup final'
"I had a feeling, a bad feeling, after the League Cup final."The passing of four months has afforded Philippe Clement time to reflect on his turbulent 16-month reign as Rangers from Glasgow, and the febrile environment in which he became engulfed, has allowed him to pinpoint one particular game that he believes marked the beginning of the end of his time in charge at 2024. Pressure is building. Rangers are nine points behind Celtic. Only a series of good Europa League results are keeping the dogs at three days before the season's first domestic silverware is awarded, Clement's side earn another of those in a creditable 1-1 draw with Tottenham to Hampden, with Celtic heavy favourites to wrest back the League however, go toe-to-toe with them and are denied a spot-kick before losing on penalties following a 3-3 draw. "I think it was a vital game," Clement tells BBC Sport Scotland. "If we had won, there would have been more patience with the fans also and the board could have stayed much calmer."But Rangers did not and Clement endured a winter of highs and lows before being relieved of his duties following an abject defeat by St Mirren at Ibrox in the week that Russell Martin was appointed his full-time successor, the Belgian talks to BBC Sport Scotland about cutting costs, recruitment, mentality and the players he left behind. 'It's pity board didn't have patience' Every manager wants patience - and few get it. But Clement arguably got more than predecessors Michael Beale and Giovanni van Bronckhorst. After all, neither of them suffered the ignominy of a Scottish Cup home defeat by second-tier Queen's that his squad needed time to develop and grow became a regular refrain of Clement's and the passing of time has not changed his view on that. "It's a pity that the story stopped, that the board didn't have the patience, or maybe listened too much to some fans," he says."There are other clubs where there is a difficult moment and everybody sticks together because everybody knows the story, how the work is done inside the building, and they continue and they are successful afterwards."In three or four windows, we could have closed the gap [to Celtic] with a good development of players, but the decision is made and you need to accept it."As Rangers tried to assuage swingeing losses, Clement's task was to usurp Celtic but with a diminishing budget. Was he initially misled about what funds might be available to him?"No, not misled, but I understand now why," he says. "Because some people were already thinking about selling the club and selling their stocks."I think you need to go back to one year ago. The story was that the club was not financially sustainable anymore, so that was the story of the transfer window."Clement says he and the recruitment team were told they could spend whatever money the club were able to recoup in player sales and from cutting salary spend. But, despite taking "more than 35%" from the wage bill, an ageing squad, contracts expiring, and a lack of attractive young talent, meant the yield proved meagre. "You gain money by bringing young players in, making them better and selling them," Clement says. "That was the idea. There was not another road to take. "In the end, it's about deciding if the idea we had was working. You need patience to build it or you need to spend money. It's one of the two. "Without one of the two, it's an impossible job." 'Squad was not ready to be consistent' It had all started so well. Rangers were seven points behind Celtic when Michael Beale lost his job at the end of September 2023. But from Clement taking over until the end of February, their only league loss came at Celtic Park. That run ended with the Ibrox side two clear at the began to go awry soon after, though. A home defeat by Motherwell. A first-ever loss to Ross County. Then a draw at Dundee. Celtic never looked back after that as Rangers' mentality and inability to break teams down began to be questioned."I don't agree with that," Clement says of the latter criticism. "In moments, it was really good, but in moments not."It's more a story about consistency, about having the demand - physically and mentally - to be ready for that every three days."In the end, the squad was not ready. There were too many players who had never done this before."Clement also bridles at suggestion mentality was an issue. Mentioning the slip-ups against County and Dundee, he points out that "two players who were not good in those games" left at the end of the season and were perhaps distracted by discussions with other clubs at the time."It was never about not wanting to win, not wanting to work," he adds. "For sure, they wanted to become champions and they wanted to give everything." 'Four or five players could be sold' Rangers were unable to mount a similar challenge this season, with Clement leaving them 13 points adrift in the Premiership and out of the Scottish head coach Barry Ferguson did take the Ibrox side a round further in the Europa League, but they ended the season without a Clement believes Rangers are now better placed to succeed because of the signings made during his tenure and the development of those players."Nicolas Raskin made a really good evolution," he says. "A lot of clubs are interested in him. But you also have Jefte, Hamza Igamane, Clinton Nsiala, who will have a better value. Mohamed Diomande is also one of those guys. "The club has worked well the past year in that way. There are now four or five players with the value to sell and several teams would pay good amounts of money."The club needs to build with that, or the new owners have to say 'we don't do it that way now because we have enough money'." Rangers fans - have your say What do you make of Clement's comments, Rangers fans?Was the League Cup final decisive? Should the board have shown more patience? Do the club have four or five sellable assets?Let us know here
Scotsman
a day ago
- Scotsman
Rangers' new owners warned over manager appointment they must 'be wary of' as risk factor explained
Former Rangers chairman has say on search for new boss Sign up to our Football newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Rangers' new owners must be wary of appointing a foreign manager who is unfamiliar with Scottish football. That is according to former chairman Dave King who has stressed that the demands of managing the Ibrox club can be a challenge for an outsider to come to terms with. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Rangers are entering a new era under the ownership of a US-consortium headed up by private healthcare tycoon Andrew Cavenagh and 49ers Enterprises, the investment arm of the San Francisco 49ers, after King and other major Rangers shareholders agreed to sell their stake in the club. Sporting director Kevin Thelwell has confirmed that a new manager will be appointed in the 'coming days' with Davide Ancelotti and Russell Martin understood to be the two leading candidates, while Francesco Farioli, the recently departed Ajax head coach, is also believed to be in the running. Rangers managerial candidate Davide Ancelotti on the Real Madrid touchline with his father, Carlo Ancelotti. | Getty Images Ancelotti is seeking his first head coach position after serving as assistant to his father, Carlo Ancelotti, most recently at Real Madrid, and previously at Everton, Napoli and Bayern Munich. Martin, meanwhile, is looking to get back into management after being sacked by Southampton last season, having won promotion to the Premier League the previous year. The former Scotland defender spent six months on loan at Rangers in 2018. King previously threw his weight behind a return for Steven Gerrard, saying he was the "obvious" choice, before the man who brought title number 55 to Ibrox was ruled out of the running due to family commitments. After the failed Philippe Clement tenure, King feels that another foreign appointment would be a risk for the Ibrox club, although he backed the new owners to "manage" the risk should they decide to go down that route. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Former Rangers chairman Dave King believes a foreign manager would be a risky appointment. | SNS Group Speaking to Sky Sports, he said: "If I look at who is available for the club, I think it's quite a challenge for them because when you're bringing in a new manager I refer to the Glasgow environment. "Some people think that's a little bit unfair but certainly in my experience, Mark Warburton and others all thought they got the Glasgow thing. But until you get to Glasgow you don't get the Glasgow thing. Even someone like Steven (Gerrard) who came from Liverpool where you think is closer to the Glasgow thing. "Once you come in and you're managing one of the two big clubs in Glasgow, you can try and think you understand it and you can speak to people who have been there before, but until you actually get in there you don't really get it. "So I think that's the factor that I would be wary of and I think the 49ers will consider about bringing in a European manager that's got no experience of Scottish football at all. That's going to go from Champions League qualifiers to going off to the north of Scotland on a drab, wet, windy, horrible Wednesday evening and try to motivate your players and get results out of them.
Daily Mirror
a day ago
- Daily Mirror
Tottenham draw up five-man shortlist after brutal Ange Postecoglou sack
Tottenham are searching for their fifth permanent manager in six years after sacking Ange Postecoglou, with chairman Daniel Levy looking to the Premier League for a replacement Thomas Frank leads a five-man shortlist Tottenham chiefs have drawn up as they search for a replacement for Ange Postecoglou. Spurs sacked the Australian on Friday, despite him leading them to winning the Europa League. That was the club's first major trophy for 17 years and their first piece of European silverware since 1984. But Postecoglou paid the price for an awful Premier League campaign. Spurs won just 11 top-flight games and ended up 17th in the table, their lowest finish since being relegated in 1977. While the Europa League win ensured the season was not a failure, chairman Daniel Levy opted to make a change. It means that Spurs will be looking for their fifth permanent manager of the last six years. In that time, Ryan Mason has also had two periods as caretaker boss, while Cristian Stellini also had a spell in interim charge. While the first summer transfer window remains open for the next three days, Levy's attention will turn to who he could bring in to replace Postecoglou. It appears that this time, Spurs will look for an appointment from inside the Premier League. According to BBC Sport, Brentford boss Frank is at the top of the shortlist. Frank has emerged as one of the top-flight's best coaches during his time in charge of the Bees, since taking over in 2018. He led them to promotion to the Premier League in 2021 and has since transformed them into a solid top-flight outfit. They finished 10th in the table this season and reached the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup. Also in contention is Bournemouth's Andoni Iraola, who built his reputation with La Liga's Rayo Vallecano. The Spaniard led the Cherries to a record Premier League points haul this season as they finished ninth. The third man on the list is Marco Silva, who has solidified Fulham's place in the Premier League. Silva had the reputation for being somewhat of a mercenary during his first years in English football. He took charge of Hull, Watford and Everton in the space on two years. But since taking over the Cottagers in 2021 he has restored himself, leading them to the Championship title in 2022. Having won the FA Cup with Crystal Palace, Oliver Glasner is also in contention. The Austrian has only been at Selhurst Park for 18 months and suffered a difficult start to this season, but came through it to lead Palace to their first-ever major trophy. Finally, a familiar name to crop up whenever the Spurs job becomes available is once again on the list. Mauricio Pochettino turned Spurs into title-challengers during his five years at the club from 2014 and is now in charge of the United States national team. It is unknown how serious Tottenham's interest in Pochettino is, and given he spent a year with Chelsea it may be an unpopular move. The Argentine may even be likely to turn down an approach as he focuses on leading the USA in a home World Cup next summer.
