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Daily Mail
20 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Man United back Ruben Amorim by leaving 'bomb squad' at home for pre-season tour, with club ready to take massive hit on stars valued close to £350m at their peak
Manchester United will leave their 'bomb squad' behind when they go on tour to the US in another show of support for head coach Ruben Amorim. Alejandro Garnacho, Jadon Sancho, Antony and Tyrell Malacia will continue to work at the club's Carrington training complex when Amorim and his squad fly to Chicago on Tuesday. The fifth outcast, Marcus Rashford, has already left camp and travelled to Barcelona to complete his loan move to the Nou Camp for the rest of the season. All five unwanted stars have been made to train away from the rest of the squad since pre-season began a fortnight ago, with United hoping to offload them before the transfer window closes at the start of September. In the past, United have taken players on tour who were unlikely to stay at the club much longer – not least when Jadon Sancho played in the US last summer despite a fall-out with Erik ten Hag before joining Chelsea on loan on deadline day. But Amorim has decided they are not part of his plans and United have backed the Portuguese boss by deciding to leave them in Manchester, while pushing through nearly £135million-worth of business to sign Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo before going on tour. However, by making it so clear that they are surplus to requirements, United are set to take a substantial hit on a group of players who were valued at close to £350m at their peak. Rashford's price rocketed to beyond £100m but he will be allowed to join Barcelona on a permanent basis for between £30-40m next summer if his loan at the Nou Camp is a success. The 27-year-old is understood to have taken a 15 per cent wage-cut to help the deal go through with Barca agreeing to pay all of his wages. Garnacho was valued at around £70m when Napoli made an approach for him in January, but United would consider offers of around £40m for the Argentina winger after Amorim told him to find a new club this summer. Garnacho wants to stay in the Premier League and there is interest from Chelsea, Tottenham and Aston Villa. Antony is the second most expensive player in United's history following his £86m move from Ajax three years ago, but would fetch less than half that now with the Old Trafford hierarchy likely to consider offers under £40m. The Brazil winger impressed on loan at Real Betis last season but the Spaniards are reluctant to pay above £25m or £50,000-a-week towards his wages so another loan spell in Seville is a possibility. Sancho cost £73m from Borussia Dortmund in 2021, but now United are struggling to offload him for a fraction of that price after Chelsea paid a £5m penalty rather than turn his loan into a permanent £25m transfer. With the player now in the final 11 months of his contract, and his £275,000-a-week wages a significant stumbling block, United may struggle to sell Sancho and would consider another loan amid interest from Juventus. There has been interest from Serie A in Rasmus Hojlund but nothing has advanced at this stage Malacia, who cost £14.7m from Feyenoord when he became the first signing of the Erik ten Hag era, is also available after returning from a loan spell at PSV Eindhoven. After signing Cunha and Mbeumo, United hope to bring in a striker next but face a separate problem with Rasmus Hojlund. The Dane cost £72m from Atalanta two years ago but is worth roughly half that now. Although Inter Milan and Napoli have expressed an interest in taking Hojlund back to Serie A on loan this season, nothing has advanced at this stage. United will be based in Chicago for much of their stay in the US and play Bournemouth there, sandwiched in between games against West Ham in New Jersey and Everton in Atalanta.
The Guardian
20 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Racing's response to tax ‘harmonisation' bombshell risks disturbing endgame
The 12-week consultation on a Treasury proposal to 'harmonise' the rate of duty levied on online betting – on racing and other sports – and casino gaming – for example, roulette and online slot machines – closes today, and the British Horseracing Authority submitted 'the sport's formal response' to the process, with 'the backing of British racing's key stakeholder groups' on Friday. Whether or not the government takes any notice is, in the BHA's view, a potential £100m question for the country's second-biggest spectator sport. That is roughly the mid-point of the Authority's best- and worst-case scenarios if the proposal for a unified online gambling tax – Remote Betting & Gaming Duty, or RBGD – becomes a reality in October's Budget. The current rate of duty on betting is 15% of gross profits while online gaming is taxed at 21% of gross profits, and BHA-commissioned modelling suggests that an RBGD rate of 21% would cost the sport £66m per year in lost income from betting. A unified rate of 40%, meanwhile, could see the annual cost rise to £160m. Given the scale of this potential hole in the sport's annual balance sheet, racing's official response to the consultation feels, to this fan and punter at least, distinctly underwhelming. According to the BHA press release which announced its formal response, it 'outlines racing's opposition to harmonisation', and 'calls for British horseracing to be taxed at a different and lower rate to all other forms of betting'. In summary: we think this is a bad idea but if you plough on regardless, we want you to give us a get-out clause. For me, there are several problems with this approach. The first is that it is unlikely to fly, because from the government's point of view, handing a tax break to the sport of kings is not a great look in the current climate. And why 'harmonise' in the first place if you are immediately going to start making exceptions? But even in the unlikely event that the chancellor accepts racing's plea for special treatment, the overall harmonisation of betting and gaming for tax purposes will remain. The big conglomerates that now dominate the gambling landscape will have even more reason to prioritise the no-risk gaming side of their business – and the billions being extracted from punters via online slots above all – over betting. The fundamental differences between betting and gaming, in terms of their mechanics and the risks for their consumers, have been recognised in both legislation and the tax regime since off-course gambling was legalised in Britain in the early 1960s. Similarly, while alcohol and nicotine are both legal and regulated drugs, cigarettes are taxed at a higher rate (and there are several different bands of duty for alcoholic drinks according to strength). No one believes that a one-size fits-all duty rate for tobacco and alcohol, or a unified rate for beer and spirits for that matter, is a smart idea. And yet, while the Gambling Commission's first Gambling Survey for Great Britain stated plainly that 'those who had gambled on online slots were more than six times more likely than average to have a PGSCI [Problem Gambling Severity Index] score of 8 or more', indicating an experience of problem gambling, the Treasury seems minded to tax all the many forms of gambling, from relatively low-risk betting to the most dangerous and potentially addictive gaming products, as if they are one and the same. Alternative ideas are out there. The Social Market Foundation think tank, for instance, proposed a doubling of the duty rate on gaming products, from 21% to 42%, in a report published last year, while also pointing out that in some jurisdictions around the world, the tax rate for online gaming is above 50%. A hike to 42% on online slots and casino products would, the authors suggested, raise around £900m annually for the Exchequer. But rather than go on the offensive and argue for a big hike in gaming duty, the implication of racing's response to the consultation is that the sport will accept harmonisation plan – which will further incentivise gambling operators to steer punters towards (more dangerous) gaming products at every opportunity – so long as it gets a tax break. It is almost a year to the day since this column suggested that a unified tax rate for betting and gaming was potentially a far more significant long-term calamity for the sport's funding model than the 'affordability checks' for punters which dominated the narrative at the time. Lingfield 2.15 Nanny Park 2.45 Gran Descans 3.15 Redditizio 3.45 Speed Of Majid (nap) 4.15 Fai Fai 4.50 Fiorella Princess 5.22 Roman Emperor Musselburgh 2.30 Gillali Lass 3.00 Proud Nation 3.30 Made All 4.00 Brazilian Belle 4.30 Ravenscraig Castle 5.00 Keep Me Stable 5.30 Balmerino Wolverhampton 6.30 Irv 7.00 Calafiori 7.30 Lyra Lea 8.00 Dandy G Boy 8.30 Ignition 9.00 Hidden Verse (nb) There was some hope 12 months ago that an idea which initially emerged in the final, dismal days of the last Tory government would quietly die a death. With the consultation process now complete, however, the clock is ticking towards the budget in three months' time. An effective end to the decades-old distinction between betting and gaming – an outcome that 'Big Gambling' would celebrate long into the night – now feels increasingly, and disturbingly, imminent.
BBC News
20 minutes ago
- BBC News
Hearts 'getting into good habits' insists McEntee
Summer signing Oisin McEntee is enjoying settling into life at Hearts and is happy to serve head coach Derek McInnes wherever he sees who joined from Walsall has been deployed at right-back in Hearts' unbeaten start to their Premier Sports group stage, despite it not being his "most natural" impressed in Saturday's 4-0 win against Stirling Albion as the Tynecastle side attempt to create "good habits"."It was always going to be a difficult game," McEntee said of their meeting with the Binos. "We came into it prepared right and we showed them a lot of respect coming in with our preparation and it's just good to get a 4-0 win."But we're a little bit frustrated. We need to improve on a lot of things, but still, you can't complain about winning 4-0."We're trying to get into good habits and keeping clean sheets is a really good habit, as is winning games. So we just need to keep switched on and keep preparing properly for these games."I'll play wherever the gaffer puts me."It's enjoyable and it's been a good introduction into the side. I'm just trying my best to get a place in the team and wherever it may be."It's not my most natural position, but wherever the gaffer wants me to play, I just need to improve on it - I'm trying my best."
