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New York Times
2 minutes ago
- New York Times
Connections: Sports Edition hints for July 28, 2025, puzzle No. 308
Need help with today's Connections: Sports Edition puzzle? You've come to the right place. Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores. A quick public service announcement before we continue: The bottom of this article includes one answer in each of the four categories. So if you want to solve the board hint-free, we recommend you play before continuing. Advertisement You can access Sunday's game here. Game No. 308's difficulty: 3 out of 5 Scroll below for one answer in each of the four categories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yellow: SAFETY Green: CHANGEOVER Blue: TRUTH Purple: EARNED The next puzzle will be available at midnight in your time zone. Thanks for playing — and share your scores in the comments! (Illustration: John Bradford / The Athletic)
New York Times
2 minutes ago
- New York Times
Morgan Gibbs-White's decision is the kind of ‘win' Nottingham Forest deserve to revel in
If you want to know why Morgan Gibbs-White's decision to remain at Nottingham Forest matters so greatly to the club's supporters, you need to understand what has happened in the past and some of their experiences before Evangelos Marinakis felt emboldened to sum up the modern-day operation with the killer line: 'At the end of the day, we always win.' Advertisement It has not always been that way, as many Forest fans can testify. The lesson of history, in fact, is that the club have almost always ended up selling the players with whom the fans had the strongest emotional attachment, causing much heartache in the process. There was the time a young Roy Keane stood in the Old Market Square, posing for a front-page photograph in the Nottingham Evening Post, and declared his love for the city when, in reality, the process was already under way to move him to Manchester United. Younger fans have lived through an era when, season by season, one by one, the most valuable player to come out of the academy had to be flogged to stop the club from being financially shipwrecked. But the long-established pattern of Forest selling their most-prized assets has been shaped over many decades, from Brennan Johnson to Brice Samba, Stan Collymore to Neil Webb, Peter Davenport to Garry Birtles and many more besides. Nor is this the first time we have been disrupted by the kind of hidden release clause that emboldened Tottenham Hotspur to think their proposed acquisition of Gibbs-White was a mere formality. In October 1995, Forest had another brilliantly creative midfielder by the name of Lars Bohinen who, unbeknown to the fanbase, had a clause in his contract that he could leave if another club bid £750,000 for him. Blackburn Rovers, then Premier League champions, triggered the clause. Bohinen made a fortune from the deal and when a reporter asked Frank Clark, then Forest's manager, what had gone wrong, his response was brisk and to the point. Clark dug his hand into his trouser pocket, pulled out a handful of coins and tossed them across his desk. You will have to understand, therefore, why many Forest fans were overcome by an unhappy sense of deja vu when The Athletic broke the news on July 10 of Tottenham's move for Gibbs-White — and why, now the story has changed so dramatically, the mood has shifted for the better. This summer has already seen the departure of Anthony Elanga in a £52million transfer to Newcastle United that felt like punishment for Nuno Espirito Santo's team not holding on to a Champions League place last season. Yet the news that Tottenham had a medical booked in for Gibbs-White and that he, too, was seemingly on his way out of the City Ground was an even more unsettling development at a time when Forest's fans desperately want to believe their best season for 30 years was not merely a one-off. Advertisement To quote Marinakis, we are talking here about 'a special player — not just in terms of talent but character and mentality'. Gibbs-White, in the words of Forest's owner, 'represents what we want this football club to be: a winner, talented, ambitious, fearless and proud'. It's all true. Many supporters will make a case, indeed, that Gibbs-White has legitimate claims to be recognised as the best footballer they have seen at the City Ground since the turn of the century. 'Get it to Robbo,' used to be Brian Clough's instructions to John Robertson's team-mates during Forest's glory years. And, in a modern context, there is a bit of that here, too. Get it to Morgan: trust him, watch what he can do. Yes, it doesn't always come off. His touch is not always there and, if we are being picky, an argument could be made that a player with his gifts should weigh in with more goals. Overall, though, it is a lot of fun watching Gibbs-White trying to perfect his art. And those players are a rarity. Tottenham had offered to trigger Gibbs-White's £60million release clause and, in today's market, that would have meant getting him on the cheap. But what could Forest do to stop it from happening, given that it was a contractual agreement when the 25-year-old signed from Wolves three years earlier? Well, not much, it seemed initially. Even when Forest were putting out their 'not for sale' messages, there was an air of resignation. Nobody, to begin with, seemed to think there was anything they could do — nobody bar the owner, anyway. Mentality. Gibbs-White had also been on Manchester City's radar until they signed Rayan Cherki and Tijjani Reijnders. Arsenal were monitoring his potential availability. And, no matter how many times people point out Tottenham finished 17th last season, it was easy to understand the attractions for Gibbs-White. Advertisement Footballers are not bonded to their clubs in the way that you or I might be. Their careers are relatively short and Gibbs-White, as you can imagine, has aspirations to play in Europe's premier club competition. Earlier this year, when Angel Gomes was available on a free transfer from Lille, Forest thought long and hard about bringing in the former Manchester United midfielder. Gibbs-White was on the phone to Gomes, his close friend, trying to persuade him. 'Come join us,' was the message. 'We will play in the Champions League together.' So don't make the mistake of thinking that a move to Tottenham would have been a backward step for him. Yes, they finished 10 places behind Forest last season, but have you seen their squad? Have you seen their stadium? Or their training ground? Ignoring football loyalties, how many people in ordinary life would pass up the opportunity to work for a bigger organisation, in plusher surroundings, with more lucrative prizes to chase, and with a whopping pay rise on offer? Against that background, it is an exceptional triumph for Forest — and Marinakis, in particular — that they could persuade Gibbs-White he would be better off staying where he is. It also feels like the club have sent a wider message to the rest of the Premier League: that Forest, on Marinakis' watch, should be treated seriously, that they mean business and, just in case anyone was not aware, that their owner is not a man to blink in any staring contest. Daniel Levy, Tottenham's chairman, has found that out the hard way. And Levy is supposed to be one of the hardest guys to budge in the industry. 'He became a legend already,' Marinakis said of Gibbs-White. 'And we need to give a message to our supporters, and the supporters of other teams in England and Europe, that with legends, you need to treat them in an appropriate manner. Advertisement 'As long as I'm in charge of Nottingham Forest, all these actions and approaches (from other clubs) should take place in – I repeat – an appropriate manner. I would never let anyone from another team try to get a player from us, or make something (happen) that we don't agree with.' More than anything, the victory here is because it feels like Forest might finally be moving away from the days when the club would give up in these situations, accepting their position in the food chain, and the fans had to watch another talented player heading off for new adventures elsewhere. It happened with Britt Assombalonga and Michail Antonio. It happened with Teddy Sheringham, Andy Reid, and Michael Dawson, if we are talking about previous Forest-Tottenham business. And it happened with Kevin Campbell and Colin Cooper in one particularly grievous summer, culminating in the club's top scorer, Pierre van Hooijdonk, going on strike because he was appalled by the lack of ambition. It has happened, in short, too many times. It will happen again, too, because that is the nature of the business, and, unless you are Real Madrid, which football club can legitimately say they never sell their star players? It happened with Elanga and nobody can be sure what the outcome will be next summer, or maybe the year after that, if an elite club wants to take Gibbs-White away and can find a way of making a deal without rubbing up Marinakis like sandpaper. That was the problem for Tottenham: Forest's owner saw it as an affront that the London club had allegedly been tipped off about a release clause that was supposed to be entirely confidential. So the lawyers got involved, Marinakis dug in his heels, and once the initial anger had subsided, the charm offensive began to persuade Gibbs-White to stay. Club executives reminded him he was loved by the Forest crowd and part of something special. They knew he relished being the main man. Would he really get that at Spurs? They spoke to his father, Kirk, and they broke their pay ceiling for him. A new three-year contract was eventually sealed in a 30-minute chat with Marinakis at the team's pre-season training camp in Portugal. No other player in Forest's history has earned more. Advertisement Who remembers the last time Forest had such a victory off the pitch against one of the 'Big Six'? The answer probably goes back to Clough's time as manager when Manchester United wanted to sign Stuart Pearce, Forest's England international left-back. Alex Ferguson, United's manager, turned up on a whim in the City Ground car park. So Clough, being Clough, pulled the curtains in his office and refused to go out. 'Tell Mr Ferguson I'm busy watching the cricket,' was the instruction to his secretary. Clough could never be pinned down by a rival manager. For the most part, however, Forest have tended to come off second-best in these matters and, 35 years since a bruised and highly aggrieved Ferguson drove away from Nottingham, many fans still seem to be preparing for bad news. On social media, the assumption is that a new release clause must have been put in place, somewhere around the £85million mark, for Gibbs-White's admirers to return next year. But that is all it is: an assumption. There is no such clause, meaning Forest will not be vulnerable this way again. Marinakis wore the look of a contented man. His biggest battle, he has always said, was to change the club's mentality. So he smiled into the camera. 'At the end of the day, we always win' — it was a hell of a quote from Forest's owner.
New York Times
2 minutes ago
- New York Times
David Moyes interview: Everton ambitions, transfer troubles and pre-season differences
The Everton manager David Moyes is on a trip down memory lane, briefly transported to the late 1970s as his team's pre-season visit to New Jersey returns the Glaswegian to his teenage years. As an apprentice at Celtic, Moyes and his team-mates would travel to Kearny, New Jersey, a town deeply rooted in Irish and Scottish immigration, which has even been nicknamed 'Soccertown, USA'. On Friday, he was at the local Washington Elementary School for a Premier League community event, just a five-minute walk away from the Scots American Club that served as the base for those Celtic trips in the 1970s. Advertisement 'We played on the pitch just up the road,' Moyes smiles, in an interview with The Athletic. 'It was a big Celtic area, they used to invite us and we stayed with the families here. They were so good to us. It was a great time. You represented Celtic, so you had to play well. I was captain of the team and I had to give a speech at one of the big evening dinners. It is the kind of thing you don't realise until you're a bit older why you're doing it. It was the making of me a little bit, one of those things where you look back in life and see things within yourself which were starting to develop.' After participating in a coaching clinic for schoolchildren, Moyes sought out two policeman who directed him to the nearby Scots club four decades on from his visits. He took his players Dwight McNeil, Jake O'Brien and Tim Iroegbunam along. One local at the Scots Club delighted Moyes by recalling the Celtic boys visits in the '70s. Among those in work, Moyes is the Premier League manager to have coached the highest number of English top-flight games — the 62-year-old's 716 games places him third only to Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger. This summer, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Prince William in recognition of his services to football. During this interview, Moyes details how pre-seasons have changed during his career — from players running laps wearing 'bin bags' to 'everything now being done with the ball' — while spelling out the need for many more signings if Everton are to build on his encouraging return to the club last season. After inheriting a team in a relegation scrap in January, Moyes led Everton to 13th place and lost only four Premier League matches out of 19. Everton have lost several first-team players this summer, as Abdoulaye Doucoure, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Ashley Young were among the departures at the end of their contracts. Jack Harrison returned to Leeds United after a loan spell. It leaves Everton, under the new American ownership of the Friedkin family and heading into a new 52,000-seater stadium, on the cusp of an exciting new era, but in need of urgent incomings to boost their squad before their Premier League season opener against Leeds United on August 18. Everton have made three signings: turning a loan move for Carlos Alcaraz into a £12.6million ($13.8m) permanent deal from Flamengo, as well as signing the 22-year-old forward Thierno Barry from Villarreal for £27m. The Frenchman scored 11 goals for Villarreal in La Liga last season. Everton have signed goalkeeper Mark Travers from Bournemouth for £4m to back up Jordan Pickford. Saturday's 3-0 defeat by Bournemouth in the Premier League Summer Series underlines Everton's challenge. While the first half was even, Everton's players flagged in the second half as Bournemouth's depth from the bench paid dividends. Moyes' challenge was not helped by the absence of James Tarkowski, Jarrad Branthwaite and Michael Keane, leaving him with only one fit centre-back in O'Brien. 'We were nearly struggling to field the team in some ways today,' Moyes said. 'We had five players playing out of position really.' Advertisement Speaking on Friday, Moyes told The Athletic: 'We're a long way away just now. I would have hoped it would have been much further down the line than we are. I would hope by the time we get to the end of the window, we'd be closer to 10 (new players). So you can imagine the amount of work we've got to do. 'The club are trying really hard to get the players I want and I've found it really difficult because in my last few years (in his previous job at West Ham United), I've been involved in European competition. It's a bit easier when you're a club in Europe. You get a better chance of attracting a lot of players. We've been in for a lot of really good players. Unfortunately, a lot them have said no at the moment.' Everton's challenge is heightened because there are nine Premier League teams in European competition this coming season. 'We're up against it,' Moyes says. 'If we're going for players, we're not going for bad players. Our attraction is maybe to some younger ones who are up and coming, or also those from lower leagues. In those cases, it is not a problem. But if you're trying to take players who have had European experience or playing at the top end, they're the ones where the ones we will find it harder to attract. 'We need them to want to come. They have to come and buy in a wee bit to what Everton have got, the culture here. There's a strong, hard-working ethic and we want to build on it and bring in more quality.' Everton did make progress over the weekend. Moyes confirmed an offer has been made for Bayern Munich's 19-year-old defender Adam Aznou, who he says is a player with 'good future potential', while Everton have firm interest in 20-year-old Lyon winger Malick Fofana. Despite the age profile of those players, Moyes says the club also want to recruit players with Premier League experience, ideally over the age of 25. He and the club's recruitment staff are studying the market globally and locally. He was present at several Club World Cup matches in the U.S. identifying potential signings. Advertisement 'The South American teams were very good and quite surprising,' he says, before adding he does believe their talents could be transferred from the Brazilian or Argentine leagues into the Premier League. He does, however, retain interest in the English market. Moyes has a long-standing record of taking talent from the Championship. In his first spell at the club, he signed Tim Cahill and Joleon Lescott from the second tier, while recruiting Jarrod Bowen more recently for West Ham. 'There are hundreds who are playing who are trying to get to the top level and a lot them can,' he says. 'Look at Morgan Rogers (who signed for Aston Villa from Middlesbrough), or Adam Wharton, who went from Blackburn to Crystal Palace. For them to be plucked out, both of them going on to be England internationals, it would be unbelievably naive to think it is not possible, because part of our job is to try to look to see what's on your doorstep if we can.' Moyes has a job on his hands to prepare the players he does have at his disposal for the new season. During a 20-year career as a player and 27 years as a manager, Moyes has seen pre-season methods and practices radically evolve. 'As a young professional at Celtic, we were running every day. We were coming home, lying on the couch and just not looking forward to the next morning because you knew you had to do it again. It was a completely different era. 'Players could come back overweight; they were running with bin bags on. Pre-seasons were much more based on 'you've had your holiday, you've not done any work during the close season, we start you now and we really run you hard'.' He says the biggest difference in the modern era is the emphasis coaches and sport science staff place on 'doing everything with the ball'. He says players barely have time these days to lose their shape or fitness, such are the demands of the calendar. 'Some players will have had three weeks off. That is equivalent to a small injury absence when you think about it.' He says players actively request a programme to stay conditioned. 'There's a different mindset. It's trying to make players more engaged by working with the ball rather than just running around a track or running up a hill. People at different stages in the football history came in and said, 'We shouldn't be doing that, you should be doing more of this'. So instead of running around the pitch, you should be jogging with the ball.' Moyes says that for much of his first decade as a manager, he would plan pre-seasons with former Everton physio Mick Rathbone by going through every single exercise he would expect of his players. 'I did them all before the players came back, so that we'd got all the times exactly right: the distances, the recovery times, we had all the preparation done, because we'd run it ourselves. It meant I could say to players, 'Well, I can do it, but are you saying that you can't?' There was a world at that time of making the players suffer a little bit with it. Advertisement 'We were involved in that and we made sure the players suffered — but at the right times. It was about making them uncomfortable, pushing them beyond their limits in some ways. The important thing is that nothing we asked should be unattainable. If I'm asking them to do 100 yards in 10 seconds, that is impossible. You only give them work which is attainable. Otherwise, the players quickly recognise it's not doable.' Moyes held double or triple sessions earlier on in pre-season during a trip to Scotland, but not in the searing heat of the United States at the peak of summer. 'I have mellowed over time but it's still our job to get players in a condition where they can run with the opposition and ensure physically they're not going to be outdone,' he says. 'It plays a big part in modern football. The boys at Everton were already well-versed in being fit and healthy because they needed to be. With respect, we probably didn't have the quality, but we tried to meet most of it with other elements, and that's part of football as well.' Even with more refined methods, there is still a need for players to be pushed physically to ensure they can cope with the psychological and physical strain of competition at the highest level. 'We're trying to do it now more with intense training in small-sided games and small possession games which give intensity. Sometimes (with stoppage time), instead playing a 90-minute game, you're playing 100 minutes, so are you equipped to do that? We've all been there as players and thinking, 'My goodness, how long's this clock going?' That's why some of pre-season is a wee bit of over-training. You're nearly trying to over-train them so that when it gets to the game time it actually becomes a little bit easier.' Another challenge for Moyes this season will be adapting his players to their new home and replicating the intensity and atmosphere generated at Goodison Park. The team beat Port Vale last week in a behind-closed-doors game at the venue and will host a friendly match against Italian team Roma, also owned by The Friedkin Group, on August 9. Moyes says the pitch was a little slow during that game and the grass too dense, which makes it challenging to know how 'quickly the ball goes through the grass', but it is an issue the club are aiming to resolve for the start of the season. 'It is an amazing venue,' he said. The challenge now is to put together a team befitting his ambitions for the new season.
