Manchester City star Raheem Sterling has been linked with a move to Liverpool in recent days.Last month, the flying winger admitted that Liverpool are “always in my heart”, and those comments appear to have prompted speculation linking him with a stunning return to Anfield.

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Indeed, French media outlet L’Equipe have claimed that a move for Sterling cannot be ruled out amid Real Madrid’s rising interest in Sadio Mane.

It seems incredibly unlikely that a move would ever materialise, but there are bound to be some supporters, journalists and pundits out there who want to see the mooted switch go through.

And Ian Doyle, who is the chief Liverpool FC writer for the Liverpool Echo, has offered his verdict amid the rising speculation.

Here’s what he had to say on Twitter.

In response to a fan who suggested that Sterling is not suited to Klopp’s style, Doyle suggested that the £144m-valued star, per Transfermarkt, is the definition of a Klopp player.

Given Sterling is capable of slotting in anywhere across Liverpool’s forward line, is a relentlessly hard worker, and, above all, an incredibly talented footballer, there’s no doubt that Klopp would relish the opportunity to work with the England international.

Whether that will ever emerge as a genuine possibility, however, remains to be seen.

In other Liverpool news, James Pearce has been hugely impressed by a youngster who is making “rapid progress” at Anfield…

Having only arrived in mid-season, Carlo Ancelotti will no doubt be looking to this upcoming summer transfer window as his first major opportunity to strengthen his Everton squad at Goodison Park.

The Italian oversaw a largely low-key window in January, but the summer should open up a lot more doors for the Toffees to go after some of their priority targets.

And one man who has been linked with a move to the blue half of Merseyside in recent weeks and months has been Borussia Dortmund play-maker Mario Gotze.

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But according to Italian publication Corriere dello Sport (via The Daily Mail), AS Roma have joined the list of clubs who are targeting a move for the German as he looks set to leave the Bundesliga when his contract expires this summer.

The report claims that Gotze’s agent has already held discussions with Roma director Gianluca Petrachi, and that the 27-year-old remains keen on staying in Europe.

Whilst Gotze may not be the same player that was a key part of the successful Jurgen Klopp-led Dortmund side – injuries have been a key reason behind that – he still represents the calibre of performer that could be a huge step-up on what Ancelotti currently has at his disposal.

Last season showed that there is still something there to work with and potentially revive, with seven goals and seven assists in just 26 games in the Bundesliga.

It says a lot about the lack of real quality in that number ten role, that Everton’s top-scoring midfielder this year is Tom Davies with just two – Gylfi Sigurdsson, the man who Gotze would surely replace in the first-team, has also managed just two, whilst only providing two assists.

Gotze could provide a bit of creativity and magic to Ancelotti’s side, and really allow Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison the chance to thrive up front. His career average of 1.6 key passes per game shows he has the ability to unlock defences, and it’s exactly why the Toffees and Marcel Brands can’t afford to miss out on his signature to Roma.

Sigurdsson’s woeful record of just 14 assists in 103 games for the Merseyside outfit has really hampered the Toffees going forward. Gotze could help address that immediately.

Meanwhile, Everton fans have reacted to this Richarlison tweet.

The hearings into the spot-fixing scandal involving three players from Pakistan will begin from Thursday in the unlikely setting of Doha, Qatar. At stake during the hearings is the playing future of Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir as well as the reputation of the ICC as a governing body able to deal with a problem that strikes at the very heart of the game.Michael Beloff QC, the head of the independent tribunal and chairman of the ICC’s code of conduct commission, addressed the media at the Qatar Financial Centre Civil and Commercial Court, where the hearing will also take place. The briefing was a formal one, merely outlining the procedure the hearing will follow.Beloff outlined the history of the charges against the trio, stemming from a News of the World investigation into the Lord’s Test between Pakistan and England in August last year, as well giving brief profiles of the other members of the tribunal, Justice Albie Sachs from South Africa and Sharad Rao from Kenya.The hearing will be held behind closed doors, with only the tribunal, the ICC’s lawyers Jonathon Taylor and Ian Higgins, the players and their lawyers and witnesses present. The process, Beloff said, will begin with an opening statement from the ICC presenting its case against each of the three players. The players will each then be entitled to respond.”Thereafter, the ICC will present all of the evidence that it has prepared in support of the charges it has brought,” Beloff said. “That will take various forms and will include hearing from witnesses ‘in person’ and over the telephone.”Witnesses from the ICC are set to include representatives from as well as teleconferences with Shahid Afridi, the Pakistan limited overs captain, and Waqar Younis, the team coach.The players will then be expected to present their defence, and will be open to cross-examination by the ICC’s lawyers and the tribunal, before closing statements are made. Though January 11 is the last working date of the hearing, a decision could conceivably be arrived at before that. Alternatively the judgment could also be reserved till after the final date.The players arrived in Doha on Tuesday and as they have done all along, again protested their innocence. Butt, who was captain at the time of the Test and will be represented by London-based barrister Yasin Patel, told AFP, “I have always played the game for the love of it and have never been involved in any wrongdoing.”I am confident that I will soon be playing for my country. I have been practising all through this difficult phase of my life so that whenever I am cleared I am able to play.”Amir, who along with Asif is alleged to have bowled the deliberate, pre-planned no-balls, said, “This is the toughest phase of my life. My elders tell me that such phases come in the life of a professional, so I am bravely facing this situation and will hopefully come out of it to play for Pakistan.”Shahid Karim, Amir’s lawyer, said the incident had affected Amir emotionally. “One of the mitigating factors is age and the other mitigating factor is Amir’s previously unblemished record,” he told AFP.”Emotionally he is drained, he’s been affected badly by it, but he’s coping as best he can and above all he is very confident that he will come out of this clean.”The hearing is taking place in Doha because the third player, Asif, is not allowed to enter the UAE after he was deported from Dubai in 2008 because of a drug-related offence.The three were provisionally suspended by the ICC soon after the scandal emerged and though Butt and Amir contested that decision, their appeals were rejected. If found guilty, they could be banned for anywhere from five years to life.This is the first time such a case is taking place with the ICC effectively the prosecutors. Past offenders, such as Salim Malik and Hansie Cronje, were punished by their own boards.

Former Leeds United and Coventry City forward Noel Whelan has said that Newcastle United’s prospective new owners must keep current manager Steve Bruce until at least the summer, in an interview with Football Insider.

What did he say?

Bruce took over at St. James’ Park over the summer and has guided his side to 13th in the Premier League table with just nine matches to play.

Amanda Staveley is currently brokering a £300m deal to buy the club from Mike Ashley and this has led to speculation that Bruce could lose his job.

However, Whelan has argued that the club need to leave him in charge and give him time to build the side over a full season.

“You’ve got to at the minute, he’s only just started, he’s got to be given the chance,” he told Football Insider.

“He’s been a manager for a number of years now, been in some very, very big clubs, you’ve got to give him that chance to finish and give him that chance to have full season at Newcastle where he can build his team.

“If he’s got the money as well, he could build a better team than what he’s done with Mike Ashley, that’s for sure. You’ve got to give him the opportunity, I think it would be wrong to get rid of him but we also know football’s cutthroat.

“New owners come in, they’ve got new ideas, they might want a new manager. It’s a strange time for Steve, he’ll be wondering about his future but you’ve got to give him the opportunity to finish the season, minimum.

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“If they do let him go, he’s actually done a good job at Newcastle in a short time and he could go and get a new job somewhere else off the back off that.

“I think that’s important, do it the fair way, let him crack on for the rest of the season and Newcastle, it could be some really exciting times ahead for them.”

Transition

If the sale of Newcastle goes through, there is likely to be plenty of upheaval in the short term and given the current circumstances, it is easy to see why keeping Bruce would be the right decision.

He has done a good job with limited resources this season and with just nine matches to play, he deserves to be given until the end of the season at the very least before any decision is taken.

Speaking to Football Insider, Kevin Phillips has backed Danny Rose to make a return to Leeds this summer.

What did he say?

The Tottenham defender was born in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, and was a part of the Leeds academy when making his first steps into professional football.

Spurs signed him in the summer of 2007, and he has since made 214 appearances for the north London side, although he has spent the second-half of this current campaign on loan at Newcastle.

Now, Phillips has backed the left-back to return back home this summer, and insisted that he still has the quality to be a key performer for Leeds if they manage to secure promotion back to the top-flight.

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He said: “It would not surprise me. You see it quite often that players from that area end up back at the club. Danny Rose has got the Premier League experience and can still do it. He is still a class left-back.

“I am sure the new owners at Newcastle would like to keep Rose but the player could be tempted by a move to Yorkshire and be a part of what Leeds are building there. That experience would help the squad. It would not surprise me if he pitched up at Leeds whenever the transfer window open – assuming Leeds going up.”

Reunion

More than the sentimental value of Rose returning back to where it all started for him, he could still provide some much-needed quality on the pitch too.

This is a Premier League-proven player who up until very recently was still playing at the highest level of the Champions League, and could add some real competition for the left-back slot at Elland Road.

Having players like Rose and Kalvin Phillips in the team’s ranks just ensures Leeds stays true to its roots, and bolsters that connection between the fans and the players. Depending on the price involved, this could well be a smart addition for plenty of reasons.

Mahela Jayawardene has led Sri Lanka into the fourth major limited-overs final of his career – now all he has to do is win one. He calls himself “blessed,” and he is, but he knows that only victory in Colombo on Sunday will silence complaints that Sri Lanka always fail at the final hurdle.Sri Lanka had to battle for their 16-run win against Pakistan after setting them a target of 140, which was distinctly vulnerable even on a slow, turning pitch at the Premadasa Stadium. The manner in which they did it deepened Jayawardene’s faith that this time their experience in the final will be different.Kumar Sangakkara, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Lasith Malinga have all joined their captain in suffering defeat in three previous finals, the worst of them coming last year when Sri Lanka were routed by India in the 2011 World Cup final in Mumbai, following defeats against Australia in Barbados in the 2007 World Cup, and a World Twenty20 loss against Pakistan at Lord’s in 2009.There was no time for Jayawardene to savour victory against Pakistan before he had to make light of talk of rising tension. “We are all really happy to be part of a very successful group over a period of time,” he said. “We have been blessed with four now – although I know we haven’t won anything. But four finals, it’s amazing. In one’s career you are lucky enough to play in one final.”They have all had to be approached in different ways. One final was in Barbados, one in England, one was in Mumbai. Now we are playing in Premadasa, so we will approach it differently.”I think experience-wise we are much better: Angelo Mathews, Ajantha Mendis were all pretty new when we lost against Pakistan and we have played a lot of Twenty20 since then. We play with a very positive mindset. We spoke at the start of the tournament that we would have to play on three different surfaces in Hambantota, Pallakele and now Colombo. We had to adapt. It is about handling tough situations better.”Jayawardene tonight was a captain who actually captained. There were none of the high jinks that entailed in the final Super Eights game against England in Pallakele he officially handed the captaincy to Sangakkara, so as to protect himself from a potential suspension for a second transgression for slow overrates, but then ran the show unofficially much as he always would.The likelihood is that the authorities – Sri Lanka Cricket, the ICC or most probably a bit of both – let it be known that further mischief would be frowned upon. That is the thing about a good trick – it is best not repeated.Mohammad Hafeez, Pakistan’s captain, felt around 150 was par on this pitch and repeatedly blamed his team’s defeat on a middle-order collapse. Jayawardene, by contrast, felt 140 was around par – “a score where we could challenge.” “The way we started, we probably fell short by about 15 or 20 runs, but Umar Gul bowled well and pulled us back.”Pakistan brought in an extra bowler so we had to adjust ourselves up front. Sohail Tanvir usually picks up wickets for them so we changed our game plan and tried to hold out for six overs and then we knew we could attack their spinners. Today it worked for us. Sometimes you may lose calls and it doesn’t work, but I think our situation has been pretty good in this tournament.”Chasing down runs is always going to be a tough call in a semi-final. Hafeez batted really well and guided them through the first 10 or so overs, but we knew they were a batter short today and we kept pressure on them.”

As per the club’s official website, Premier League side West Ham let young defender Reece Oxford leave the London Stadium on loan on Deadline Day. The 20-year-old has come up through the ranks at the East London outfit but has only gone on to make 17 senior appearances for the Hammers over the years, with struggles for regular game time this term under Manuel Pellegrini calling his future at the club into doubt.

And it was Bundesliga outfit Augsburg who sealed a temporary deal for the versatile sensation on the final day of the January transfer window, and while Oxford hadn’t actually featured in the West Ham first team in the first half of the season, the late decision to let him leave in January could very much come back to bite the Hammers.

The Breakdown

Ultimately, things haven’t quite worked out for the England Under-20 international since bursting onto the scene as a 16-year-old against Arsenal back in August 2015, with the youngster failing to nail down a spot in the Hammers first team with only 17 appearances to his name, none of which have come this term and only two of which came last time round.

And for someone tipped by many to be the next big-thing coming out of the West Ham academy many years ago, things certainly haven’t panned out as many would have expected, with loan spells at Borussia Monchengladbach and Reading also proving difficult for the 20-year-old in his pursuit of first team football.

On the surface then, another opportunity to play his trade and attempt to get regular minutes under his belt makes complete sense, but not given the current injury situation Pellegrini’s side have at centre back.

Ultimately, Issa Diop and Angelo Ogbonna are the only senior centre backs fit for selection given the long-term injury to Winston Reid alongside Fabian Balbuena’s recent setback – the Hammers look set to be without the duo until at least the middle of February.

And even when Balbuena returns, as expected, later on this month, that still leaves Pellegrini’s side somewhat short of options in that area of the field – it only takes another injury or suspension to plunge West Ham into a defensive crisis.

Yes, Declan Rice could fill in at centre back if needed given his talents in that position, but doing so would see him vacate a midfield spot that he has made his own this season – what the Hammers would gain with him at the back they would lose greatly from him not being in midfield.

As such, while Oxford didn’t get a look-in under Pellegrini in the first half of the season, he at least provided the Chilean with an option at centre back were things to go wrong in that department – but that option is no longer there.

And with the Hammers stretched enough defensively given injuries to Reid and Balbuena, the club’s decision to let him leave late in the January window could very much come back to bite the East London outfit as the season progresses.

West Ham fans… what do you think? Let us know!

نجح الفريق الأول لكرة القدم بنادي إنبي في خطف ثلاثة نقاط ثمينة من الإسماعيلي في المباراة التي إنتهت منذ قليل على ملعب بترو سبورت ضمن منافسات الجولة 29 من بطولة الدوري الممتاز.

وشهدت المباراة سجال بين الفريقين، واستطاع إنبي تسجيل هدف في الدقيقة 70 ولكن عاد حكم اللقاء إلى تقنية الفيديو وتم إلغاءه بداعي التسلل.

وعاد شريف من جديد وأحرز هدف فوز إنبي في الدقيقة 87 من عمر اللقاء عن طريق بينية من محمود غالي سددها شريف في مرمى الدراويش.

بهذه الفوز يرتفع رصيد إنبي للنقطة 38 ويقفز للمركز السادس، فيما يتوقف رصيد الإسماعيلي عند النقطة 31 بالمركز الحادي عشر في جدول ترتيب الدوري المصري. هدف فوز إنبي على الإسماعيلي في الدوري المصري

[ad_pod ]Newcastle fans have taken to Twitter in annoyance after it was revealed by The Chronicle that Atletico Madrid winger and January target Gelson Martins snubbed an offer to talk to the Magpies about a move to Tyneside.The struggling Premier League club submitted a loan offer to the Spanish club for the Portuguese international’s services, which was accepted by Atletico.However, after Ligue 1 side Monaco made an offer of their own, Martins decided to join them and help their battle against relegation to Ligue 2 – they are currently languishing in 19th place in the French top-flight.Newcastle are still in talks with the French club over a deal for Italian left-back Antonio Barecca, but will be disappointed by their failure to lure the former Sporting Lisbon attacker to St James’ Park, especially after having an offer accepted.Be sure to check out the incredible story of the man who rose from a Tanzanian refugee camp to become one of Australia’s biggest football stars in the video below…Martins’ decision to not hold talks means that the Magpies are still yet to see a new signing arrive this month, with a report from the Telegraph suggesting that Rafa Benitez will walk away from the club in the summer if he does not get bodies through the door.They will be used to this kind of disappointment by now, but let’s see how Newcastle fans reacted to missing out on Martins on Twitter…

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Manchester United will be desperate to put a dent in Liverpool’s Premier League title challenge when the two teams meet at Old Trafford on Sunday afternoon.

And United will need a big performance from left-back Luke Shaw if they are to overcome a team that has only lost once in the league during the 2018-19 campaign.

The Chalkboard

Shaw has been around for so long that it is easy to forget he is still so young.

Indeed, the full-back will not turn 24 until July, but saw the early stages of his United career harmed by a number of injuries.

Shaw is comfortably enjoying his most productive campaign for the Red Devils, already making 28 appearances in all competitions, which is nine more than he managed in the entirety of last season.

The defender scored his first ever Premier League goal earlier this season, but has contributed just one assist in all competitions, whilst it would be fair to say that he still needs to offer more in an attacking sense.

The eight-time England international is certain to start at left-back against Liverpool and will need to put in a strong performance if United are to triumph.

What is required from Shaw on Sunday?

Well, the number one priority is to be solid defensively, but there is no getting away from the fact that is an area of weakness for the Red Devils.

Shaw will be directly up against Mohamed Salah, who has 20 goals to his name in all competitions this season.

Quite how the defender deals with the Egyptian could have a huge say on the outcome, but Shaw also needs to contribute down the other end.

Roberto Firmino has thrown a party themed around the colour of his teeth! Watch the video below to find out what we’re talking about…

The full-back has not been afraid to break forward this season, but too often his crossing has been wayward.

Anthony Martial could well return from injury to start and the fact that the Frenchman loves to come inside will leave so much space for Shaw when United are on the attack.

And the former Southampton youngster must put in a strong performance at both ends of the field if his team are to collect a huge three points.