'Cifuentes will need a magic wand'
Jonathan: Even Harry Potter would struggle to get things sorted at the KP in the time left before the season starts! All catastrophically slow this summer. Who's staying? Who's coming in? Who's the best player in each position? What's our best starting eleven? And many more questions to be asked and answered. Is anyone at the top (pardon the pun) going to take responsibility for the glacial pace of change this summer?Steve: After the worst performing season in my club's history, mismanagement and indecision from the board, and no explanation why it's taken so long, I'm expecting nothing from Cifuentes. Little success as a manager, working now for peanuts, and zero evidence of past loyalty. He'll be gone before the end of 2025. Hope he's got a magic wand!Martyn: Most Foxes fans seem to be moaning about it. I'm actually quite optimistic. He did well at QPR under difficult circumstances, trying to play attractive football. A year to rebuild and I think he could do well for us.Steve: The last time we belatedly appointed a new manager was Claudio Ranieri... we all know what happened then.Simon: I'm actually fairly optimistic about this appointment. He offers the flexibility to deal with any of the situations we might face - from promotion races to points deductions and relegation fights! My only gripe, like for many fans, is why it took so long and why no change at the top of the club.Ross: Cifuentes got Leicester promoted without being our manager back in 2024 when QPR beat Leeds to secure Leicester's promotion, and now he will do the same again but this time as our gaffer. That's not a prediction, that's a spoiler.Maddie: I would say that he looks a good manger, but also I want him to bring some new players into the team to strengthen at the back.Kevin: Time for a dose of realism for us City fans, the club's in a mess. A few seasons back the job attracted the best, now it's become a bit of a poisoned chalice, financial and points deduction uncertainty etc. At least he wants the job, need to get behind him and hope for a good start.John: One word. Uninspiring.David: The last time City appointed an ex-QPR manager, we ended up in League One. History does have a habit of repeating itself!Lindsay: Promotion, no. Stability, yes. He needs to turn this team around and prepare them for a challenging season ahead. Bring through the youth and give them the game time, and build the confidence and experience to maintain their position in the Championship at a high level. Then push for promotion in future seasons.Tim: I'm OK with this. I wasn't excited about the other names floating around and he does like to play attacking football and has some experience in the Championship. May as well get behind him. Why not?Carl: A fan since 1969 through thick and thin but no longer. Lack of communication and respect with fans. This is not Leicester City as I remember it. Get the owners out. My respect for them has gone!James: Let's not get carried away. Let him have a chance before everyone shoots him down. Hopefully, he'll get the basics right, keep us up and build from there. Anyone thinking we're bouncing straight back up needs to wake up. Let's take whatever points deduction comes our way, use our youth and build again. Stay up, that is the goal.Lyn: I'm just so glad we didn't appoint Chris Wilder. The club now needs to back the manager with some funds to buy key players. I'd be happy with a season of consolidation - let's not put too much pressure on the team!
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South Wales Argus
22 minutes ago
- South Wales Argus
Chris Woakes ‘all in' and will bat with dislocated shoulder if needed
For the fifth Test in a row, the game is going all the way to the final day after a nerve-wracking fourth evening left all results possible. Brilliant centuries from Root (105) and Harry Brook (111) had England cruising towards a remarkable chase, set fair on 301 for three hunting 374, but they lost three late wickets to leave things in the balance. Bad light and rain halted a thrilling conclusion in its tracks, with England needing 35 runs and India seeking four more wickets. Look who's in his whites in the dressing room 👀 — England Cricket (@englandcricket) August 3, 2025 One of those belongs to Woakes, who has not featured since badly damaging his left shoulder while fielding on Friday. He was ruled out of the game the next morning but has remained with the team and is willing to bat at number 11 with his arm in a sling if required. 'You probably saw him in his whites in the dressing room. He's all in, like the rest of us,' said Root. 'Clearly, he's in a huge amount of pain. But it means a huge amount to him and it just shows the character and the person that he is, that he's willing to put his body on the line like that for England. 'If it does come to that, hopefully he can get us across the line and win an incredible series.' Root was not surprised to see a dramatic end unfold after almost seven weeks of full-blooded battle but, having done a huge amount of the heavy lifting alongside Brook, still fancies England to triumph. Harry Brook, left, and Root made centuries (Ben Whitley/PA) 'It was always going to happen like this wasn't it? Just look at the first four games,' he said. 'It's been amazing to play in and quite fitting that we're going to get that kind of finish. It's been one hell of a series, one hell of a journey, and there's clearly confidence in our dressing room. I'd like to think we've got what we need to get across the line.' Root had earlier marked his 39th Test hundred, and third this summer, with a touching tribute to the late Graham Thorpe. The former Test batter, who took his own life last year, enjoyed a close relationship with Root during his time as England's assistant coach. When he reached three figures, Root produced one of the Thorpe-inspired white headbands Surrey have been selling to raise funds for the MIND mental health charity and wore it as he looked to the skies. 'That was on behalf of our team. It was just a thank you for everything that he's given the game of cricket, and given English cricket, on and off the field,' he said. 'It's been amazing to recognise everything that he's done as a player, as a coach, as a mentor, as a friend to the dressing room and to the game. Joe Root salutes Graham Thorpe after reaching his century (Ben Whitley/PA) 'It was really great to see the amount of love that there is for him and for his family.' India's quicks had found wonderful rhythm before the weather intervened and would probably have liked to try and finish the job while the mood was with them. A night's break and an extra use of the heavy roller could play into England's hands but a saturated outfield meant the tourists were not complaining about the umpires' decision. 'We can see it's pretty wet out there,' said bowling coach Morne Morkel. 'In a way that's out of our control so all we can focus on is doing a good warm-up in the morning, get the boys ready to get the ball in the right area and create a little bit of excitement again.'
The Guardian
23 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Brook's hoodlum hundred deserves to sit in its own brilliant square of light
OK. Who angered the gods? Cricket gods. Weather gods. Sport gods. All the gods. Because quite clearly, the gods, well, the gods are clearly deeply annoyed. As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods of fifth-day stewarding costs. They lead us on, whiz us into a frenzy, and drag us back the next day for their sport. It felt fitting in the end that England and India will get to face one another on the 25th of 25 days in this brain-manglingly fine Test series, played out now by two teams operating on fumes, caffeine, ship's biscuits and blood‑sodden socks. Everyone was winning this game and simultaneously losing it by the time England and India were called from the field at 5.29pm, first by bad light and then a squall of rain. England need 35 runs, India four wickets, one of those the single swishing arm of the injured Chris Woakes. Runs had ebbed away like smoke wafting up into the vast flat open sky above the Oval stands as Harry Brook and Joe Root played like princes in the afternoon session. By the end those same runs had become the most grudgingly hoarded substance on earth as India fought back with great heart, took wickets, and jammed a pick handle in the revolving door. How in the history of all cricket, has anyone managed to score 35 runs, you wondered, as Jamie Smith and Jamie Overton prodded and flinched, feet encased in an invisible mobster's tub of industrial concrete. Something will happen on Monday morning. Narratives will be set, themes that we always knew to be true nailed into place by hindsight in that final push to the line. For now there is a bonus element: time to digest a wonderful, thrilling fourth day, one of the great days of the Bazball project. And above all to talk about Harry Brook. Brook's 111 here deserves to sit alone in its own brilliant square of light, innocent of all outcomes. Victory would probably nudge it up as the greatest on this ground in the modern age, or at least up there with Kevin Pietersen's 153 20 years ago against an all-time Australian attack. For now the best way to look at Brook's innings is to start with the key moment. Not the hundred itself, celebrated with a huge warm wave of noise from an utterly rapt Oval crowd. Instead the moment to remember on a deeply hallucinogenic fourth day arrived half an hour before lunch, in a game that history, gravity and the scorecard suggested England were losing. At which point Brook walked out of his crease and hit Akash Deep over cover for six. This wasn't just an impossible shot, but an act of pure gangsterism. Brook was on eight off 18 balls at the start of the over. England were 126 for three and paddling. Johan Cruyff said that when he was playing badly he used to just smash into someone, start a row, upset the day. This is not far from what Brook does when the adrenaline jab is required. Here it came with a moment of space age skill and precision, all hands, eyes, easy grace, and somehow a kind of carelessness too, like a man swatting an apple over a tennis court with a walking stick. It is hard to overstate the brilliance of being able to do this, but also choosing to do it at that moment. This is hoodlum cricket. It's turning up to the Brits with a fake Uzi in your pocket. It's Cherringtony Soprano. It is talent from another place. And it is entirely logical, too. If you can play that shot, you have a duty to do so. The moment will exist now, a collage of intent, shapes, lines, discarded conventions. It's timing was cold-eyed too. At that moment England were losing. Ben Duckett had battled hard, prodding and swishing and looking, as ever like Paddington bravely facing down the new ball. Ollie Pope had come and gone, trying to hit everything through square leg, an elite player with an obviously flawed technique. Sign up to The Spin Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week's action after newsletter promotion And so, with the day closing in, Brook happened. A little later he hooked Deep into the hands of Mohammed Siraj just over the rope in front of the groundsman's shed. There were pulls and glides and wallops, Brook seeing the ball like a single still point of light. He walked off at lunch to a huge, dizzy roar, 38 off 30, and the game broken open. This is shock and awe batting. England plan for this, choose the moment to shift the energy. It seems fitting that Brook, the Sedberg scholarship boy, but also a man from a different pathway, should be the spirit animal of this style. His entire game is contained in that easy swing, the perfect hands, the clarity of his eye. The best players are always orthodox, but with shapes that are their own, that express some note of their own character and physicality. Brook has this, is graceful, but also splay‑footed, with a slouch but also a silk-hatted elegnace. Has anyone ever had a better time playing Test cricket for England? Brook has played 29 Tests and won 19 of them, averages just under 57, has more sixes per game than anyone ever, is just told to go out be Harry Brook, stretching out into the far reaches of his own startling talent in real time. Brook and Root gorged on the chase with both hands after lunch. Brook's 50 came up off 39 balls. India started bowling short, tired men banging it into a placid pitch. Brook sent one Ravindra Jadeja long‑hop to the midwicket fence with the freewheeling disdain of a man hurling a discarded television set into a skip. There will be a temptation for some to dwell on his absurd and very funny dismissal. Brook was lofting the bowling to every corner when he tried a swipe too far and literally threw his bat to square leg, only to be caught at cover. Why, why, why not knuckle down and take it home? Which is of course to miss the point. That clip over cover was the impossible thing that made the very difficult thing look do-able. You either want this or you don't, with all its edges. And, frankly, whatever the outcome, who could seriously wish to have it any other way?
The Sun
23 minutes ago
- The Sun
Horse racing tips: Three outsiders who can bash the bookies on Monday
Scroll down for the selections FIVER FLUTTER Horse racing tips: Three outsiders who can bash the bookies on Monday SUN Racing's Monday picks are below. Back a horse by clicking their odds. Longshot GRANT WOOD (3.40 Ripon) Can be forgiven his last start. He won on his last visit here and the ground is fine. EACH-WAY THIEF PLATINUM BABE (7.20 Windsor) Is lightly-raced and has more to offer. RADICAL DESIGN (8.28 Windsor) Who is in good nick and poised to win again. Commercial content notice: Taking one of the offers featured in this article may result in a payment to The Sun. You should be aware brands pay fees to appear in the highest placements on the page. 18+. T&Cs apply. Remember to gamble responsibly A responsible gambler is someone who: Establishes time and monetary limits before playing Only gambles with money they can afford to lose Never chases their losses Doesn't gamble if they're upset, angry or depressed Gamcare – Gamble Aware – Find our detailed guide on responsible gambling practices here.
