'United's defence was the jewel in their crown last season now it's a mess'
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Reuters
43 minutes ago
- Reuters
Robert MacIntyre, Tyrrell Hatton nab Team Europe Ryder Cup spots
August 18 - Scotland's Robert MacIntyre and England's Tyrrell Hatton clinched spots on Team Europe's Ryder Cup squad with their weekend performances. MacIntyre jumped from fourth to second on the European Ryder Cup points list -- trailing only Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy -- after claiming second place at the PGA Tour's BMW Championship. Hatton maintained his fifth-place position after sharing 32nd at LIV's event in Indianapolis. McIlroy, MacIntyre, Hatton, England's Tommy Fleetwood and England's Justin Rose are assured of playing for Team Europe captain Luke Donald when the squad defends its Ryder Cup title Sept. 26-28 at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, N.Y. Donald's squad has one more automatic spot available, which is down to either Ireland's Shane Lowry or Denmark's Rasmus Hojgaard. Hojgaard plays this week at the British Masters in his final chance to earn Ryder Cup points. If he ties for 29th or better, he will move past Lowry for the final automatic qualification spot. Lowry does not have any points opportunities remaining. Team USA already has all six of its automatic qualifiers lined up. Scottie Scheffler, J.J. Spaun and Xander Schauffele already owned spots before last weekend's play. Russell Henley, Harris English and Bryson DeChambeau clinched their places on Sunday. Donald and Team USA captain Keegan Bradley each are expected to announce an additional six captain's picks next week. --Field Level Media
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
'I keep telling my mum not to worry about me'... Martin insists he's loving life at Rangers despite rocky start
AFTER waiting over a decade to return to the top table of European football, Rangers ' last taste of Champions League football proved to be a bruising and damaging experience. Pitched into a group featuring Liverpool, Napoli and Ajax back in 2022, Giovanni van Bronckhorst's side were ripped apart in brutal fashion. Losing all six games, and with a goal difference of -20, Rangers would go on to be ranked as officially the worst ever team in the history of the Champions League group stage. That was an ignominious tag for a team who, only a few months earlier, had reached a Europa League Final in Seville. Moving up the levels did them no favours and it undoubtedly hastened the departure of Van Bronckhorst as manager as the European hangovers seeped into their domestic form. As Russell Martin prepares for a crack at taking his new-look team into the Champions League, he does so as a manager still seeking to win over the doubters. In fact, that is probably putting it lightly. An unpopular appointment amongst fans right from the outset, he is swimming against a growing tide of opinion that he probably won't last long in Glasgow. A scrappy victory over Alloa in the Premier Sports Cup on Saturday offered little evidence of progress, as did the nervy display away against Viktoria Plzen last week. With Club Brugge likely to represent a significant step up in quality from anything Rangers have faced so far this season, the concern is that Rangers could take a serious beating against the Belgians. If that were to transpire, the criticism of Martin on radio phone-ins and on social media, which is already widespread given we are still only in mid-August, would only intensify. But the under-fire manager is determined to ride out the storm, insisting that all the pelters from punters are water off a duck's back. 'We're excited about the opportunity we have,' he said. 'We've been here just under two months now and I'm more excited than ever, really. That hasn't diminished one bit. 'I think you have to roll with the punches here for sure, and I think early on, we understand we were going to have a bit of pain to go through. 'We have to win while we're going through some pain. So we're into this round which is a huge opportunity to qualify for one of the best competitions in world football. 'That's incredibly exciting, and we have to attack it with everything we've got as a group, as a team, and I really believe we can do it. 'I have a lot of people message me who read message boards and stuff who are concerned about me - and they just don't have to be. So I keep telling my mum: 'Don't worry about it, it's all good. I'm enjoying it'. 'I appreciate the honour of managing this club every day and the gratitude I feel for that. So let's have that in the building. 'I said to the staff as well, so many of them support the club but I think they've lost a bit of joy of being here and working here. So let's get back to that. 'Let's understand how big this is and how brilliant it could be, and focus on what we can control and that is playing with so much energy tomorrow and really feeding off it. 'I really hope that we give the lads enough belief that we can do it. I know that tomorrow night the supporters will definitely do their bit for the team. 'It could be a really brilliant night. It would be a massive achievement for all of us, but it's not about me. It's not about any individual player. It's genuinely about what's best for the club and how exciting that would be.' Brugge are a quality outfit who were at Ibrox only a few weeks ago at the start of pre-season. The slick Belgians raced into a 2-0 lead after just 15 minutes. They took their foot off the gas as Rangers fought back in the second half to claim a 2-2 draw, but few expect the visitors to be so sloppy tonight. Having dispatched Red Bull Salzburg in the previous round, Nicky Hayen's side arrive in Glasgow in good form having started the new season with six wins from seven matches in all competitions. It is clear that Rangers will have to deliver their two best performances under Martin so far if they are to have any chance of progressing and securing the £40million windfall that comes with Champions League qualification. Asked if these games are the biggest of his managerial career thus far, Martin replied: 'They're huge games, yeah. 'I think the play-off final win with Southampton, and knowing the ramifications and what would happen if we didn't get promoted, was a very heavy responsibility. 'Maybe jobs were going to be lost. The club would look very different the next season. So that was very, very big for us as a group. 'But yeah, this is huge. We're at this club and we have an opportunity to really go and achieve something tomorrow. They'll put us in a really good place. 'So, yeah, it's a massive, massive game. It's really difficult, even when I look back at my playing career, to define which one was the most important as a manager. This is huge. 'It's massive for us as a group of staff. Massive for the team. Massive for the club.' The two big calls facing Martin in terms of team selection will be who gets the nod to start up front, and who slots in at left-back. Danilo looks favourite to start up top as Cyriel Dessers is struggling to shake off the knee injury he suffered in Plzen last week. Rangers are hopeful of pushing through the paperwork in order for new signing Jayden Meghoma to start at left-back, with Max Aarons also an option as Jefte nears a £6m exit to Palmeiras. Come what may, Martin wants to deliver a performance on the pitch that energises supporters and uses the power of home advantage at Ibrox. 'The energy is reciprocal,' he said. 'The team needs to play with so much energy that the fans feed off that, and so that will be the message to the players. 'I spoke to the players this week about the fact they have to enjoy it. They have to play with a bit more joy here at Ibrox because it can be so special and so brilliant, and there's still a bit of tension at times and all that stuff.
BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
Hickey ends 659 days of hurt as Brentford & Scotland watch on
Rarely can an eight-minute cameo as a late substitute ever have felt so sweet. After nearly two years out of the game, however, Aaron Hickey's return to action is a welcome shot in the arm for Brentford, Scotland and, of course, the player himself. His appearance in the 88th minute at the City Ground, with the game long since won by Nottingham Forest, was the first time the former Hearts and Bologna star had featured competitively for the Bees since October 2023. A serious injury meant he did not just miss out on last summer's European Championships for Scotland, but indeed the entirety of the 2024-25 Premier League season. With Scotland's World Cup qualifiers about to start, and a new domestic season just kicking off, his return couldn't have come at a better time. What happened to Hickey? It all happened in 2023 against Chelsea. The young Scot, who had joined the year before from Bologna after rising through the ranks at Hearts, suffered a hamstring issue during the Bees' Premier League game against the Stamford Bridge then endured a further setback in his recovery during a training session in August 2024 before undergoing surgery for a second time.A worrying and uncertain time for any player, but his potential was underlined in January this year when he signed a new deal keeping him at Brentford until at least the summer of forward to Sunday, and his eight touches all the way down the right flank will be celebrated by all connected with the club."He's a player that without doubt, the feeling is in Brentford, can make another step," said Dundee manager Steven Pressley, who was Brentford's head of individual player development."We believed at Brentford that if Hickey was to get rhythm and games behind him and develop that he could definitely play for one of the top six sides in England. "He's a top boy who's been through a really challenging time from a mental perspective. He'd worked extremely hard initially to come back from the first hamstring injury and then he got a setback which resulted in further surgery. "That in itself kept him out for the best part of 14 months which as a player is exceptionally challenging especially when it's at a pivotal juncture in your career. " Getting through such a spell out takes great mental strength, attitude, and Craig Levein, who worked with Hickey at Hearts, has pleaded for the latter. He has absolutely no doubt, however, that the lad he had at Tynecastle as a teenager has the resilience to come back better than ever. One story from the Scottish Cup final defeat to Celtic in 2019 gives a good insight into how unfazed Hickey, just 16 at the time, was by the size of the challenge. "We were on the bus through to Glasgow," Levein recalled, "and somebody brought it to my attention that I should take a look at the back of the bus. So I walked up and there was Aaron lying sleeping. Which I thought summed it all up. He's got the biggest thing in his life. "That just demonstrated that he wasn't fazed by what was about to happen. And he played really well in the match, to be fair, he was excellent. It was great to see him move on to Bologna and do extremely well there. He was the torch-bearer for Scots in Italian football really."Then came the move to Brentford, where he was an instant success until injury stopped him in his tracks. Up until then, he had made the right-back position his own in his debut season in England's top flight when he played 26 times for the Bees in the 2022-23 campaign. The past couple of years have tested him mentally and physically, but Pressley believes he'll come back an even better player. "He's incredibly gifted in terms of being able to play off both feet," he said. "At times you wouldn't even know which was his stronger foot. He's a really good athlete and a modern-day fullback in the sense that he has the ability to go from the fullback position and invert into the 'six' position and play comfortably in the middle of the pitch. "He has so many attributes. He just needs games and time and rhythm to regain that form." Why Scotland need a strong Hickey It's not just football fans in Brentford who will be following Hickey's return. There will be plenty north of the border, left-back has long been a source of debate for Scotland with both Kieran Tierney and Andy Robertson, on the opposite side, it's been a source of discontent for the Tartan get their World Cup qualifying bid under way on 5 September in Copenhagen, and Steve Clarke is due to name his squad imminently."I'm very confident he'll get back to the level that he was," said former national team boss Levein. "I'm looking forward to seeing him playing. I think the Scottish supporters will be looking forward to seeing him playing. Steve Clarke will be delighted to get him back in the fold. "With that ability to play right-back and left-back equally well, for me he's the first guy in the squad, you know, because he's almost like two players."It would appear Hickey doesn't lose sleep over much. He's taken success and setbacks in his stride and is now setting out to convince new manager Keith Andrews - and old national boss Clarke - that he should once again be the first name on the team-sheet.
