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West Ham United are gearing up for the 2024/25 Premier League campaign under new manager Julen Lopetegui, with the aim of bettering their ninth-place finish last season and returning to the European qualification spots.

They have already been busy in the market, acquiring Wolves defender Max Kilman, and highly rated Brazilian, Luis Guilherme, but the transfer activity doesn't look set to conclude there.

The Hammers continue to be linked with a host of players, in a host of different positions, including recent links to Borussia Dortmund striker Niclas Füllkrug, who scored two goals at Euro 2024 for Germany.

West Ham's search for a striker

According to reports from Bolavip Brasil, West Ham are ready to make their first official offer to Corinthians for talented striker, Yuri Alberto. The report suggests the Hammers have made recent inquiries about the player, and are expected to make that interest official.

The report also indicates Everton were interested in the 23-year-old forward. However, no official offer was made by the Toffees, and other names have been prioritised by Sean Dyche and co.

Alberto made 36 appearances in all competitions last season for Corinthians, scoring 17 goals, providing three assists, and totalling 2,679 minutes of football.

Why Alberto can be West Ham's new Carlos Tevez

Alberto has been dubbed as a "complete forward" by Jacek Kulig, praising his powerful, athletic qualities and killer instinct. His ability to be a nuisance up top, using that athleticism, speed and tenacity, brings the comparison of a certain Carlos Tevez.

Tevez made 29 appearances in all competitions for West Ham in the 2006/07 season, scoring seven goals and providing four assists to help steer the club clear of relegation, with his overall work rate and effort – which saw him described as "like a terrier" by Sir Alex Ferguson – subsequently earning him a move to Manchester United.

West Ham could be looking for lightning to strike twice, acquiring another striker from Corinthians (same as Tevez), who can provide a wide set of skills to the Hammers forward line.

Stat (per 90 mins)

Alberto

Fullkrug

Non-Penalty Goals

0.26

0.32

Shots Total

3.04

2.36

Shots on Target

1.05

0.92

Progressive Carries

1.44

0.76

Aerials Won

1.96

3.49

While a lesser-known target, that comparison to Tevez should make Alberto a worthy option to consider for the Hammers and a perfect alternative to the aforementioned Fullkrug as the club's new number nine.

Fullkrug made 46 appearances for Dortmund in all competitions last season, scoring 16 goals, providing ten assists, and totalling 3,605 minutes, proving to be an important player in their Champions League run, finishing runners-up.

Both strikers bring different assets. Fullkrug is more of a hold-up play centre-forward, bringing others into play, using his 6 foot 2 frame, winning aerial duels as seen by his 3.49 aerials won per 90 metric, and being a threat in the box.

Alberto is smaller at 5 foot 10, but is a more complete archetype of striker, running the channels and being a counter-attacking threat, linking up play, while proving very instinctive and clinical around the box, but also good in the air for his height.

The 23-year-old Corinthians striker offers the extra shot volume in attack for the Hammers, averaging 3.04 per 90, whilst bringing that complete centre-forward play to the club, allowing him to link up with the wide men, who offer such a huge goal threat of their own.

As stated above, Alberto may be something of a left-field choice, but as the Irons found with the signing of Tevez, looking to the South American market can prove fruitful.

West Ham could forget all about Fofana by signing an “extraordinary player”

He’s interested in a move to the Premier League.

ByAngus Sinclair Jul 29, 2024

Sri Lanka don’t have a great record in tri-series finals in Australia, but the form of their top order could make a vital difference this time

S Rajesh03-Mar-2012In the end, the two teams that deserved to the most made it to the CB Series finals. For a long time during the last league match between Australia and Sri Lanka, India would have harboured chances of sneaking through, but it would have been just that – sneaking through, at the expense of a team that had been more consistent through the tournament.In the first half of the competition, Sri Lanka lost tight matches to Australia and India, and tied one against India, but in the second half they turned it around with convincing victories against both teams. The shock defeat against India in Hobart was a bolt from the blue, but they were good enough to bounce back from that result despite being a couple of bowlers short against Australia at the MCG.The overall stats for the three teams indicate how the tournament has gone for them. Sri Lanka have easily been the best batting side, thanks to the consistency of their top order. Dinesh Chandimal has been a revelation, slotting in at second* on the tournment’s run charts after the league stage with 383 runs at an average of almost 64, while Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Angelo Mathews have all played their part. Overall, their top five have a combined average of 42.25 in the CB Series so far, which is their third-highest ever in a series of five or more matches outside Asia. The corresponding averages for the top five are 30.26 for India and 29.27 for Australia.Overall, Sri Lanka have five batsmen averaging more than 35 in the tournament, compared to three each for Australia and India. For a team that has generally relied on Sangakkara and Jayawardene for most of their runs, this is a huge plus. In fact, India’s numbers went up significantly because of that stunning chase in their last match of the tournament in Hobart. Exclude that, and India’s runs per wicket falls to 24.13, at a run rate of 4.83 per over.As a bowling unit, Australia were the best, while India were the poorest in that aspect as well. The Australians took 65 wickets at 25.58 each, and they were also the only side to concede less than five runs per over. Sri Lanka took 64 wickets, but their average touched 30. Both teams have bowlers who have taken more than ten wickets – Lasith Malinga leads the tally with 14, while Daniel Christian has 13 and Clint McKay 10. For India, though, the highest wicket-taker was Vinay Kumar with nine; in all the Indians took only 54 wickets in their eight games, at an average touching 39 and a run rate of 5.50.

India had a better start to the tournament compared to Sri Lanka, but as the competition progressed Sri Lanka upped their game and were the more consistent side. The records of these two sides against Australia indicate how much better Sri Lanka played against the hosts. They won three of four matches against Australia, who averaged less than 25 runs per wicket against Sri Lanka with the bat, and conceded 31 per wicket with the ball. Australia also managed to score at just 4.74 runs per over, and conceded almost 5.20.Against India, Australia were dominant. They scored almost 38 runs per wicket at 5.63 runs per over, and allowed the hapless Indian batsmen only 21 runs per wicket. Given a choice, it’s clear whom the Australians would have preferred to face in the finals.

Now that they are in the finals, Sri Lanka will have to banish memories from the two previous seasons when they reached this stage of the tri-series in Australia. The most recent instance was in 2005-06, when South Africa were the third side. Sri Lanka won the first of three finals that time, beating Australia by 22 runs in Adelaide. In the second final in Sydney, they had Australia reeling at 10 for 3. From there, though, Ricky Ponting and Andrew Symonds launched an astonishing counterattack, adding 237 for the fourth wicket at better than a run a ball. Sri Lanka were shell-shocked and capitulated meekly, and in the next match ran into a genius called Adam Gilchrist, who made a target of 267 look anything but challenging.Sri Lanka don’t have a great win-loss record against Australia at the two venues that will host the finals: it’s 0-3 in Brisbane and 1-6 at the Adelaide Oval. Along with Perth, they’re the worst venues for Sri Lanka in Australia. On the other hand, at the MCG and in Sydney, they have a much better 10-15 win-loss record against Australia. However, they can take much comfort from their recent record against Australia in Australia: since February 29, 2008, they’ve won six and lost only two of eight matches. No other team has won more ODIs against Australia in Australia during this period. That should give them confidence before the best-of-three finals.*13:42 GMT, March 3: The article had stated that Dinesh Chandimal was the tournament’s leading run-scorer so far. This has been corrected.

Wicketkeeper Neil Rock and offspinner Andy McBrine are also part of the 18-member group

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Sep-2021

Uncapped left-arm spin-bowling allrounder Graham Kennedy has been picked in the Andy Balbirnie-led Ireland squad for the forthcoming T20 World Cup. Kennedy had collected seven wickets in five innings at an economy rate of 7.66 in the Inter-provincial T20 trophy and most recently, he was also selected in Ireland’s ODI squad to face the touring Zimbabwe side although the 22-year-old is yet to make his international debut.Legspin-bowling allrounder Gareth Delany, who was left out for the Zimbabwe series, and offspinner Andy McBrine are also in the side. However, there was no room for William McClintock who made his T20I debut against Zimbabwe earlier this month.Delany, the younger brother of Ireland Women allrounder Laura, hasn’t played a T20I since March 2020 but brings with him the experience of playing in the T20 Blast, for Leicestershire.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Ireland’s coach Graham Ford explained that the returning McBrine will act as cover for the first-choice Simi Singh.”He [McBrine] comes as a back-up,” Ford said. “The way it’s been is that Simi has nailed down a spot. You are going in this World Cup campaign and you have to have cover for Covid or injuries. It’s a no-brainer, he is an automatic pick into the 18.”Ireland also have options on the wicketkeeping front, with both Lorcan Tucker and Neil Rock being picked. Ford said that the team management will closely track the second leg of the IPL to gauge the conditions that could influence selection in the UAE.”We are not going to tell you who is the first-choice wicketkeeper,” Ford said. “There’s a competition between the players. There’s a lot of work that goes in prior to games: match-ups, left hand vs right hand. What might be a pick for one game might be different to the next game. We need to do quite a bit of studying of opposition squads and once we get an understanding of who is in those squads, the match-ups we look at and it’s not always on stats and things, we will have to factor in conditions – we will watch the IPL very closely, particularly towards the end of the IPL to see how the wickets are playing – that will all go into selection. It’s an 18-man squad with cover and options.”Ireland, currently 12th on the ICC’s T20I rankings, will first have to qualify to make the tournament proper. Ireland are placed alongside Sri Lanka, Netherlands and Namibia in Group A in the qualifier round.”Netherlands are very competitive,” Ford said. “They beat us not long ago in the 50-over series, they had six players who were involved in the Hundred. There’s guys like Roelof [van der Merwe] that have been around for ages and ages and ignite the energy in the group, so we are well aware that’s going to be a huge game and makes things tougher for us.”And Namibia – I’ve watched a lot and seen the improvements there. I know they are working damn hard there. They’ve got Albie Morkel helping out. They are in good shape and they are loading up a few South Africans as well. David Wiese is a serious match-winner. We are aware that every game is a major event for us and we are going to have to be at our best and hopefully the lads are up for all of that.”From the 18 players that have been named, three will be chosen as reserves before the final deadline on October 10. In the lead-up to the tournament, Ireland will play two official warm-ups against Papua New Guinea (October 12) and Bangladesh (October 14).

أعرب تامر مصطفى، المدير الفني لفريق الكرة الأول بالنادي الإسماعيلي الجديد، عن سعادته بتولي تلك المهمة، مشيراً إلى أن النادي الإسماعيلي كبير بجماهيره.

وأعلن نادي الإسماعيلي عن تعيين تامر مصطفى مديراً فنياً للدراويش خلال الفترة المتبقية من الموسم الحالي، وذلك بعد رحيل عماد سليمان.

وقاد تامر مصطفى مران الفريق أمس الجمعة ضمن برنامج الاستعداد للقاء طلائع الجيش يوم الخميس المقبل في بداية الدور الثاني من مسابقة الدوري الممتاز.

طالع أيضاً.. رسمياً | مودرن سبورن يصدر بياناً ضد حكم مباراة الفريق أمام الزمالك في كأس مصر

وقال تامر مصطفى في تصريحات للمركز الإعلامي: “تولي تدريب النادي الإسماعيلي شرف كبير يتمناه أي مدرب”.

وأفاد: “سنقاتل من أجل إعادة مسيرة النتائج الإيجابية، جماهير الإسماعيلي هي الشيء الأهم، سنبذل قصارى الجهد بغرض إسعادهم”.

Pakistan hardly put on a clinic against Bangladesh, but the universe, it seems, can’t prevent the contest this competition has been destined for

Danyal Rasool26-Sep-20252:24

Aaron: Pakistan found right ‘mixture of calm and emotion’

Shaheen Shah Afridi is apparently a low-value wicket. So low-value, in fact, that Pakistan didn’t even use him with the bat against India last Sunday, which is objectively a high-value match. So low-value that even Bangladesh – impeccable in the field until then – appeared to momentarily forget it was still a wicket worth taking, and put down two fairly straightforward chances Afridi offered up. He had said on Tuesday after Pakistan’s victory over Sri Lanka he was willing to “give his life” for Pakistan, but no one seemed to take him seriously.But there hadn’t been much value from the batters Pakistan do set store by either. Within the first ten balls of the innings, Sahibzada Farhan had sliced Taskin to the backward-point fielder, and Saim Ayub had got his fourth Asia Cup duck after a heady two-game streak of getting off the mark.At this point, Hasan Ali had sprinted up to the middle – not, mercifully, to bat, though with Pakistan sticking and twisting with their order all tournament, you never could be too certain. He gave Fakhar Zaman a drink, and a message, as if Pakistan’s Plan B specifically covered being 5 for 2 inside ten deliveries.Related

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Afridi, Rauf and Ayub set up a Pakistan vs India Asia Cup final

It’s unclear what Hasan said, though it didn’t seem to have helped Fakhar’s game much. He would spent his brief, tortured stay at the crease trying to charge Bangladesh’s quicks, his wild hacks connecting only with the desert air. By the time Rishad Hossain came to bowl after the powerplay, the 35-year-old was like the old family faithful that had fought to the very end, and had earned the right to give up. A weary slog off his 20th ball found long-off; his 100th T20I innings would also be his slowest in games where he had faced at least that many balls. The end of the powerplay had seen 24 dot balls, by that stage the highest for any side all tournament.When the innings’ halfway stage arrived, a bedraggled Pakistan had limped to 46 for 4, half of what they managed against India in their last game at this venue, and for the loss of three further wickets. Four days on from the perfect start to the one game Pakistan want to win most, the worst of Pakistan reared its head in the game they had viewed as a stepping stone to one last crack at beating India.

****

It is said in football that the most dangerous situation is a two-goal lead, even though every side wants to get themselves in that position. That is perhaps because momentum, or the perception of it, feels like it plays an outsized role in a sporting contest, like a tug of war contest where the exact position of each line doesn’t matter so much as the direction of travel.With Pakistan 51 for 5 after 11 overs, Bangladesh are ascendant; that wouldn’t have changed even if Nurul Hasan’s little goose-step to the left had been timed well enough to allow the ball to stick in his hand. But it doesn’t. Three balls later, another primitive smear from Afridi flies up into the Ring of Fire lights. Mahedi Hasan puts it down again. Within a couple of overs, Afridi has connected with two balls that are sent sailing out of Dubai. That two-goal lead doesn’t seem quite as secure anymore.1:49

Wahab: Additional pressure on India in the final

“We’ve won a lot of games in the last few months where we were far from owning the whole 40 overs,” coach Mike Hesson said after the game. “We had to fight back. But what I can say about this team is they are incredibly proud to represent Pakistan. Every single one had belief we could fight our way out of it. That’s what you want in a team representing your country. We’re incredibly proud of the way we fought. We don’t want to be 4 for 33 all the time, I assure you that. But the fact we can win games from that position shows the character in the group.”That belief may also have to do with Pakistan’s addiction to these situations. Hesson would say after the game that Bangladesh had prevented Pakistan from playing the perfect match, but Pakistan’s ultimate yearning has always been for chaotic glory, not structured success. High on their own supply of fateful triumphs past, Pakistan strut their way around the remainder of the innings in a manner that belies the position they are in, or the circuitous route they took to get here. This is merely the latest turn for Pakistan in a tournament that has taken on a sense of inevitable destiny for them.That is a force much too powerful for Bangladesh to resist, who will wistfully look back at the last three quarters of the game, and how they allowed themselves to be background characters in Pakistan’s madcap adventure. Hesson’s tactic of eschewing specialist fast bowling to squeeze every last bit of batting into Pakistan’s side always felt like a tactic in search of a situation, but as Pakistan closed out their innings, you imagined this was the kind of game he kept envisioning: nos. 6-9 score a combined 89 in 60 balls, the final nine overs producing 84, the second-highest in the Super Fours so far.Bangladesh supporters outnumber Pakistan’s by at least three to one, so the noise in the stands is a verdict of Bangladesh’s position in the game. As the scorching heat of Dubai relents, more seats are gobbled up. But the voices seem to go even quieter.3:15

Why do Bangladesh struggle in pressure situations?

The four sixes Bangladesh hit in the powerplay belie the leaden timidity they display for much of it. When the fielding restrictions are lifted, they have already outdone Pakistan’s tournament-high dot-ball count; they have played 25. The required rate is soon climbing, and the moment has overtaken them. While Pakistan can grow into these situations, Bangladesh have historically shrunk from them. It is the perfect cocktail to turn them into fodder for Pakistan’s juggernaut.There is no sense, even in that passage of dominance, that Pakistan are putting on any kind of clinic. Even with victory virtually guaranteed, there are moments of comic Pakistan frenzy. Haris Rauf over-exerts himself in the 18th over, falling to his knees in the delivery stride. He will not get up for six minutes as he receives extended treatment. But when he does, he’ll send the bails flying twice in the next three balls.With Bangladesh down to their last pair, Pakistan let them get uncomfortably close, dropping a catch before conceding 21 in ten balls. It leaves the chase a mathematical possibility right down to the last two deliveries. But the universe, it seems, simply cannot hold back the contest this competition was probably created to deliver as frequently as possible.An India vs Pakistan final may have been divinely ordained, but it needed Pakistan at its flawed, human best to take the tournament to that point. There may have been plenty lost in Pakistan cricket over the years, but as the small pocket of supporters who stayed back to dance to “Dil Dil Pakistan” on a muggy Dubai night reminded you, it is still anything but low-value.

The numbers that describe the highs and lows from the second day of the Adelaide Test

Sampath Bandarupalli07-Dec-20241:10

Manjrekar on Head: The only batter in both teams with a clear mind

111 Balls needed by Travis Head to reach his century against India. He surpassed his previous record of 112 balls against England in Hobart in 2022. Head also holds the third fastest century in day-night Tests, scoring off 125 balls against the West Indies in 2022, also at the Adelaide Oval.3 Centuries scored by Head in day-night Tests across 13 innings. Only Marnus Labuschagne has more centuries in day-night Tests than Head, with 4 tons in 15 innings.