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Sunderland are among the clubs interested in signing a Championship winner, according to a new report.

It has been an excellent start to the Championship campaign for the Black Cats, as they have so far gained maximum points out of their opening two league games.

Regis Le Bris got his time in charge of Sunderland off to a great start with a win away at Cardiff City, and since then, also secured another win in the league, thrashing Sheffield Wednesday 4-0 at the Stadium of Light.

Cost £0: Sunderland struck gold on star who's worth way more than Ekwah

Sunderland fans adore this player when he’s at the top of his game.

By
Kelan Sarson

Aug 20, 2024

Sunderland's summer signings

Given that Le Bris is in charge of Sunderland, it has been a rather quiet transfer window for the Championship club. The Black Cats disappointed last season, as they finished well below expectations, with them in the end just finishing a handful of points above the dreaded dotted line.

So, there was an expectation that Sunderland would look to put things right this summer and make some necessary changes to the squad.

The club has brought in new players, and they have also let players leave, but it probably hasn’t been as busy as fans would have hoped for or expected. So far, with over a week remaining of the transfer window left, the club has signed four players, and they have seen eight players depart.

Those four arrivals have all been on free transfers, showing that Sunderland are looking to operate in a smart way and not spend money for the sake of it. The Black Cats have added goalkeepers Simon Moore and Blondy Nna Noukeu from Coventry City and Stoke City, respectively.

While they have also brought in midfielder Alan Browne after he left Preston North End and winger Ian Poveda from Leeds United, who enjoyed a successful spell with Sheffield Wednesday last season.

It has been a quiet transfer window so far for the club, but that could be about to change as Sunderland enters a race to sign a Championship winner.

Sunderland "on it" over Manuel Benson move

According to journalist Sacha Tavolieri, Manuel Benson is set to leave Burnley in this transfer window, and Sunderland are among the clubs interested.

It is claimed that talks are taking place with Leeds United in regards to a permanent transfer to Elland Road. But as well as the Yorkshire side being keen on the winger, Sunderland are also “on it," as well as Norwich City, if they lose winger Jonathan Rowe in this transfer window.

Tavolieri goes on to add that personal terms will not be a problem for the 27-year-old, who scored 11 goals and recorded three assists in 33 Championship games in his first season at the club as he helped the Clarets to the title.

It was an excellent start for the winger at Turf Moor, but he was unable to replicate the same form in the Premier League last season. Benson featured just nine times for the Lancashire side during the whole of the 2023/24 campaign, eight of which came in the top flight, and he was unable to register a goal or an assist.

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has provided an update on one of his big money signings, stating he may not be in the squad for weeks or even months.

The Red Devils are going into the international break in poor form, as they have just endured their second defeat in the first three games of the Premier League season. It hasn’t been the start that ten Hag would have dreamt of at the beginning of the campaign, as pressure is already starting to mount on the manager after poor individual mistakes cost his side a 3-0 defeat to Liverpool.

Alongside Casemiro: Man Utd must axe 3/10 ace who's fighting for his career

Casemiro didn’t cover himself in glory against Liverpool.

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By
Matt Dawson

Sep 2, 2024

Calls for Casemiro to be dropped after Liverpool horror show

United were very much brushed aside by the better team on Sunday, as the team and the tactics chosen were not good enough to match their arch rivals. However, it's fair to say the game could have looked very different without some costly individual errors. There weren’t many, if any, United players who could walk off that pitch and feel they played well enough to have their heads held high, but Brazil midfielder Casemiro was particularly poor.

The Real Madrid legend, who won everything there is to win in Spain, looked unfit and looked lost at sea during his 45 minutes before he was hooked at half time for young midfielder Toby Collyer.

The midfielder had a pass accuracy of 70% in the 45 minutes he played, with two of his possession losses leading directly to goals scored by Liverpool. Furthermore, the Brazilian won just two of his five ground duels, but it is the possession lost statistic that is alarming, as he lost the ball 14 times in the first half, was dribbled past twice, and obviously, made two errors that led to goals. He finished the game with a Sofascore rating of 5.1.

Former Man United captain Gary Neville gave his response during Sky Sports' coverage: “I don’t think he would have brought him off for the two mistakes. I think it was what happened after that and the reaction of the crowd. I feel for him.”

After the game, ten Hag revealed that a Manchester United player might not be in the squad for a few months, but surprisingly it wasn’t about Casemiro.

Man United signing may not be fit for months

After the game against Liverpool, ten Hag revealed that new summer signing Manuel Ugarte may not be in the squad for months, as he hasn’t played this season and needs to build up his fitness after his initial £42m transfer from PSG.

Ten Hag said, via Man United Zone: “It’s not like I’m Harry Potter. If you see Ugarte, he hasn’t played in the season so far. He needs to build his fitness. It will take weeks, maybe months.”

This news will come as another blow to Man United fans, as after the display against Liverpool, they will be keen to see Casemiro replaced and their new signing in Ugarte brought into the team straight away.

The one positive that United may have is that the midfielder will join up with his national team in Uruguay, and if he features for them, he could return to Manchester in better shape for the next phase of the season.

There are plenty of things to dislike about the IPL, but the cricket certainly isn’t one of them

Peter Miller, United Kingdom03-Apr-2013When Conrad wrote those immortal words in , his masterpiece deriding cultural imperialism and all its ills, he was without doubt predicting the arrival of T20 cricket, and more specifically the Indian Premier League. The IPL is like a crazy ex-girlfriend. You never want to see her again, but you still check her Facebook status when no one is looking.I don’t want to know the shirt sponsor of the Chennai Super Kings, but I do. I wish I had no idea how much Glenn Maxwell is earning, but it appears in my mind anyway. Like Alcatraz, there is no escape. You want to be able to tell people, “Oh, I never watch it, it isn’t proper cricket.” But to do so would be lying.As time goes by, I find myself more in tune with the cadence of Twenty20 cricket. While it doesn’t have the ebb and flow of Test cricket, it has moments of the most intense drama. That these periods of high tension are hidden amongst games between two teams where someone finishes third makes them all the more exciting when they do happen. While a Hashim Amla Test innings is finesse and beauty, a Chris Gayle innings is power and bravado. Both have their place, they are two sides of the same ceremonial IPL coin, which is also available to purchase via auction on the IPL site.So why am I embarrassed about watching the IPL? Why do I hide behind snobbish mockery? For the same reason I would not like to be seen reading a Dan Brown novel on the train – it does not fit in with the picture I have of myself. I like to think of myself as a cricket connoisseur. If you asked me about my favourite innings of all time, I would tell you it was Michael Atherton’s marathon 185 not out at Johannesburg in 1995 – a full 645 minutes and 492 balls of gritty determination.Where the IPL never fails to annoy is the way that those who promote and commentate on the event talk of it as the most important thing to happen in the field of sport. It is a hit and giggle tournament that is there to entertain. It is not an Ashes test, the Wimbledon final or the 100 metres at the Olympics. To give it the same hype as something that a sportsman has worked his entire life for is to patronise the viewer and demean the player.The thing about the IPL that I find hardest to stomach is the relentless commercialism of the event. If you stand still long enough at an IPL stadium you will have 14 different sponsors bedecking your shirt. There are sponsored sixes, sponsored catches, sponsored “moments of success”. The only thing that gets more screen time that Sachin Tendulkar is the car on the boundary that the players are competing for. If the sponsors believe that a newly made millionaire in his twenties is looking for a reliable family car they may be sadly mistaken.I long to live in a world where sport takes place in a vacuum, where commercial realities are a grubby necessity confined to other fields. This is a dream about as likely to come true as the one I regularly have involving Angelina Jolie, Emma Stone and a hot tub.So I will watch the IPL. I will make jokes about MS Dhoni and N Srinivasan’s relationship and about Tendulkar getting bowled. I will be made nauseous by the commercialism and the faux sincerity. But more than that, I will enjoy the all-too-rare moments of pure drama and try not to feel too superior. I might fail at the last bit.If you have a submission for Inbox, send it to us here, with “Inbox” in the subject line

New Zealand’s task: pull off highest successful chase in Tests or bat 133 overs to draw

Firdose Moonda28-Feb-2022Stumps New Zealand 293 & 94 for 4 (Conway 60*, Blundell 1*) trail South Africa 364 & 354 for 9 decl. (Verreynne 136*, Rabada 47) by 332 runsSouth Africa are six wickets away from victory in the second Test, and denying New Zealand the opportunity to get a first Test series win over them. New Zealand may still be eyeing a historic win. They need 332 more runs to pull off the highest successful chase in Test cricket or bat out the final day and draw the second Test. With a minimum of 90 overs left, New Zealand need to score at a rate of and 3.7 and with signs of uneven bounce and turn, that appears unlikely.Kagiso Rabada headlined the fourth day with a career-best 47 off 34 balls with the bat and then became the first South African bowler to dismiss both openers in both innings in a Test since Morne Morkel in 2010. South Africa would have had thoughts of wrapping up the match early when Rabada had Will Young caught at gully off the third ball and Tom Latham caught at short leg in his second over. Keshav Maharaj bowled Henry Nicholls in the 12th over, but a 56-run fourth-wicket partnership between Daryl Mitchell and Devon Conway took the match into the fifth day.Despite the magnitude of their task, New Zealand may have taken heart from the way South Africa batted on the fourth day. After their run rate hovered under three for most of the match, they scored 214 runs in 47 overs, at a rate of 4.55. Kyle Verreynne, playing in his sixth Test, scored his first century, and first score over 30 in the format. Verreynne’s century is the fourth-highest for a South African wicketkeeper in an away Test.He shared in 78-run sixth and eighth wicket stands with Wiaan Mulder and Rabada respectively and a 32-run last-wicket partnership with Lutho Sipamla to extend South Africa’s lead to 425.Verreynne started the day slowly, scoring two runs off 10 balls in the first seven overs before a neat clip off his pads got him going. He went on to score 24 runs off the next 25 balls he faced, bringing out the pull against Tim Southee and Matt Henry, to get close to a half-century.That’s when he lost Mulder as Kyle Jamieson nicked him off with Tom Blundell taking a one-handed blinder to his right after changing direction at the last second. The catch of the day, though, was still to come.Kagiso Rabada and Keshav Maharaj formed an excellent partnership for South Africa•AFP/Getty Images

Two overs before the second new ball was due, Marco Jansen whipped Colin de Grandhomme to deep midwicket. Young ran to his left, reached out an arm and the ball stuck as he rolled over to avoid crashing into the boundary. There was no crowd in that section of the ground but Young saluted a superb catch anyway. Jansen faced 41 deliveries in all.Rabada joined Verreynne in the afternoon sessions and showed intent early on when he drove Southee through mid-on for four. Then he plundered back-to-back sixes off the same bowler and had a first Test half-century in sight, but did not get hold of a Henry short ball properly and was caught by de Grandhomme at long-on for a 34-ball 47.Verreynne had been mostly a spectator during this stand, but worked his way into the nineties and brought up his century with a four through fine leg off Henry. South Africa’s lead was over 370 at that point and there was some licence to lash out. Verreynne soon took a hat-trick of boundaries off Jamieson, but Maharaj top-edged a pull in the same over. Verreynne ended it with six over deep point.South Africa’s lead got up over 400 and New Zealand’s agitation to end the innings grew. They peppered No.11, Sipamla with short balls and Southee struck him on the helmet to hasten Dean Elgar’s decision to declare. South Africa closed their innings after 100 overs, leaving themselves four sessions to try and win the game.That seemed like plenty of time after Rabada’s new-ball burst and he could have had a third to his name when Conway pulled a short ball to Sarel Erwee at backward square leg but he could not hold on. Conway, who was on 5 at the time, is unbeaten on 60, so the missed chance proved slightly costly.South Africa did get a third early wicket but then had to wait until late in the day before they got a fourth. Maharaj bowled Mitchell with a delivery that pitched around off and middle stump, turned away, beat the outside edge and took out off stump. That delivery only confirmed that Maharaj’s inclusion, as the only specialist spinner across both XIs, could prove to be as much of a masterstroke as Elgar’s decision to bat first, thus leaving New Zealand to bat last.New Zealand’s highest successful chase is 324 for 5 against Pakistan in Christchurch (Jade Stadium), but it came nearly 30 years ago. The biggest total chased down at the Hagley Oval is Australia’s 201 for 3.

Real Madrid have set a maximum limit on the amount they are willing to spend on Liverpool full-back Trent Alexander-Arnold in the January window.

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• Real want to sign Trent in January
• Ready to pay a transfer fee for the full-back
• Liverpool rejected initial approach from Real

• WHAT HAPPENED?

  Per , Los Blancos are ready to pay a transfer fee to secure Alexander-Arnold's signature in the January transfer window. However, they have set a spending limit for the English full-back. Alexander-Arnold has made it clear that he will exit Anfield in 2025 after he rejected yet another contract renewal offer from the Reds.

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  THE BIGGER PICTURE

  The Spanish champions have been plagued with multiple injury woes in the 2024-25 campaign, with their backline suffering the most. As a result, they are looking to add a new defender in the January window. The club are reportedly willing to pay up to €25 million (£20m/$26m) for Alexander-Arnold this month. However, if Liverpool do not agree to the sale, Real will wait until the summer to sign the England international on a free transfer.

• DID YOU KNOW?

  According to journalist , Real have already launched their first approach to buy Alexander-Arnold in the winter window, but that was emphatically rejected by the Premier League leaders.

• Getty Images
  

  WHAT NEXT FOR LIVERPOOL?

  Liverpool will be back in action this Sunday as they host rivals Manchester United in a crucial Premier League encounter, with Alexander-Arnold likely to retain his place in Arne Slot's starting XI despite the ongoing speculation over his future.

Manchester United winger Marcus Rashford has attracted interest from AC Milan but the Rossonerri have one demand of the Red Devils.

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• Marcus Rashford wanted by AC Milan on loan
• AC Milan want Man Utd to foot major part of wages
• United yet to decide whether they are willing to agree

• WHAT HAPPENED?

  Rashford is highly unlikely to continue at Manchester United past this season as the England international claimed publicly that he is looking for a new challenge after being dropped from five of the last six matchday squads by new boss Ruben Amorim. The Red Devils are now looking for avenues to offload the 27-year-old this January.

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  AC Milan have been one of the clubs interested in the situation of Rashford at United. The Guardian have now claimed that the Rossonerri are keen on signing the England international on loan this January for new boss Sergio Conceicao but have demanded that United foot a major part of Rashford’s salary if the Red Devils want them to take the 27-year-old off their hands.

• DID YOU KNOW?

  Rashford is reportedly the top earner in Manchester United's first-team this season paid more than the likes of Bruno Fernandes and Casemiro. The 27-year-old earns reported wages of £365,000 per week ($457k) and AC Milan are unwilling to pay the majority of those wages.

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  WHAT NEXT FOR RASHFORD?

  It remains to be seen if Rashford will play another match for Manchester United this season if the Red Devils are keen on parting ways with the England international to avoid another Jadon Sancho-esque situation.

Aakash Chopra analyses play from the run-fest in Mumbai, where Kings XI prevailed over the hosts

Aakash Chopra11-May-2017Kings XI’s batting gamble
In the first half of IPL 2017, Kings XI afforded so much importance to their batting that they opted fill all their overseas slots with batsmen. In their last two games, though, they decided to play with only five batting options, including wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha. Allrounder Axar Patel slotted in at No. 6, and then it was only the bowlers. With Glenn Maxwell doing better with ball of late, they could’ve easily fielded an extra batsman in Gurkeerat Singh, but they took a more risky route in two must-win games.Mumbai bait Kings XI
Kings XI were 126 for 1 in 10 overs. Rohit Sharma went to Lasith Malinga and Jasprit Bumrah in successive overs in search of a wicket. The four fielders inside the circle were stationed close enough to stop the easy singles; it was a proper attempt to build pressure and break Kings XI’s momentum. But Kings XI did not try even one risky shot till the last ball of Bumrah’s over. Just when it seemed that they’d avoided the trap, Maxwell fell to Bumrah’s last delivery, looking to slice the ball square on the off side. If he had not fallen, Rohit would have been hard-pressed with his bowling options. Maxwell’s departure allowed him to bowl Harbhajan Singh and Karn Sharma at that stage.Malinga loses his sting
Malinga has lost a little pace and accuracy. He is no longer the go-to bowler for the death overs; both Bumrah and McClenaghan are preferred over him for the tougher overs. So, what has gone wrong apart from getting a little slower? Malinga’s previous successes were based on his unorthodox action creating deception, and a radically different flight path for the ball backed by pinpoint accuracy with regards to yorkers and slower ones. Even when he wasn’t really accurate, the extra pace made it difficult for the batsmen to get under the ball.If you look at his stats from IPL 2015 – he missed the 2016 edition with injury – and this year, the difference is telling. The numbers suggest that whenever the yorker has found its target, he has been equally economical (5.20 runs per over) in both seasons. While the frequency of the full balls (attempted yorkers) has remained the same (33%) in both seasons, the lack of pace has taken the batsmen’s strike-rate off these deliveries through the roof this season – 175.80 this year to 138.05 in 2015. The same holds true for attempted bouncers; the lack of pace has allowed the batsmen to strike at 380 off these deliveries (181.82 in 2015).The West Indians’ old-school big hitting
T20 might be cricket’s newest format, but it seems West Indies batsmen have cracked its batting code by revisiting the age-old formula for big hitting. In years gone by, all big hitters would hold the bat handle right at the top, have a high back-lift, and an uninhibited swing of the bat. Lendl Simmons does this, so does Pollard. Hands at the top of the handle increases reach, and the long levers provide more power.Three times the fielding innovation
Innovative field placements are one of the striking features of T20 cricket. One such field includes three fielders inside the circle on the off side, behind square for spinners. This field is put out when a batsman is on the offensive but doesn’t have the game to play the switch-hit or reverse-sweep, which is the case with most Indian batsmen. Pollard is also from the same school of batting, and so Rahul Tewatia and Axar had such a field for both Hardik Pandya and Pollard.

Almost 80% of the league stage games will be in and around their home city, but the Mumbai Indians have last played there in 2019

Hemant Brar23-Mar-20221:34

Jayawardene: ‘Ishan was bought with a lot of factors in mind, but I don’t think he feels the pressure from his price tag’

Mumbai Indians are scheduled to play 11 of their 14 league matches in IPL 2022 across three venues in Mumbai, but both Rohit Sharma and Mahela Jayawardene, the captain and coach, believe there will be no home advantage for the five-time IPL champions.”It’s a relatively new team, a lot of new guys have come in,” Rohit told the media on Wednesday. “Seventy to 80% of the squad hasn’t played in Bombay before. Only myself, Surya [Suryakumar Yadav], [Kieron] Pollard, Ishan [Kishan] and [Jasprit] Bumrah have played in Bombay, others have not played [that much]. So there is no such thing as an added advantage. We all are playing in Bombay after two years. In fact, the other franchises played in Bombay last year. We didn’t get to play.”Jayawardene echoed that sentiment and pointed out that it was, in fact, the opposition teams who had more experience of playing in Mumbai especially the first half of the last season when Mumbai Indians played their first seven matches at away venues.”I don’t even remember when last we played in Mumbai,” Jayawardene said. “That was about two-and-half or three years ago. I think a lot of the other teams played here in the last season. And some of the guys who played for Mumbai over the last few years are now with other franchises. So they have that advantage if you look at it.”Related

• Can Rohit Sharma the India T20I batter turn up for Mumbai Indians please?

• Mumbai Indians tick most boxes, but where's the top-quality spinner?

• IPL 2022 FAQs: Seven-day isolation for positive tests, 25% stadium attendance, two reviews per team

• Injured Suryakumar may miss Mumbai's first game

• Zaheer: To see Bumrah, Archer bowling in tandem 'will be worth the wait'

It is the pitches, Jayawardene said, that would make it a level-playing field and it was for the teams to ensure their players executed their skills efficiently. While all three venues in and around Mumbai – the Wankhede Stadium, the Brabourne Stadium, and the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy – are red-soil surfaces, the MCA Stadium in Pune is made up of black soil. “We need to approach this as a neutral tournament, play the best cricket possible and be there at the business end of the tournament, which is playoffs and try to achieve what we all want to achieve,” Jayawardene said.1:29

Rohit on new rule changes: ‘I think this a good move. The teams will have some flexibility to use their reviews’

Both Rohit and Jayawardene would be the first to agree that Mumbai’s task for the new season is cut out with their new squad. According to Rohit, the biggest challenge would be to give them clarity about their roles in the side.”[Tymal] Mills, [Jaydev] Unadkat, and all those guys, yes, they’re new to this franchise, but they’re not new to this game,” Rohit said. “They have played this game for a number of years now, and they know exactly what needs to be done. Our role here will be critical as to how we give them the understanding of what they need to do for us in this team. They have played for different franchises, different countries, and their role was different to what we want them to do here. So I think, for us, that will be a challenge. And that is something that we’re working on with these guys. We’re trying to give them the role clarity as to what we are expecting from them, what sort of role they need to play here.”I think every time you build a new team, this is the challenge that you always face of having a new group of guys, and taking them forward and getting into your system and your style of play. These guys have played the game for so many years, they do understand that aspect of playing for different franchises. This is very much work in progress, we are trying to understand what their strengths are, what they want to execute on the field, and we’re trying to work with them on those aspects.”Jayawardene compared this scenario to the one they faced after the 2018 mega auction. “We had Bumrah and a completely new bowling attack and we had to rebuild,” Jayawardene said. “But I think our planning and the way we approach the opposition is not going to change. What will change is, because of the new bowlers, their strengths are different to the bowlers we had in the last three years. We always work with the strength of the bowlers and see how we can adjust to that, given the opposition and the conditions. So nothing changes for guys like Rohit, Polly, Bumrah and now with Ishan and Surya. So I think they will do most of the work, of getting these guys to that level of playing and making them calmer out there, making them much more comfortable and creating that environment on and off the field.”Mumbai’s auction strategy this time around was very intriguing, considering they went full throttle to buy back Kishan for a record sum of INR 15.25 crore on the first day and then signed Jofra Archer for INR 8 crore on the second day despite knowing that the injured England quick will not be available this IPL. Rohit said that the auction was one of the toughest for the franchise, which also had to release brothers Hardik and Krunal Pandya, a duo integral to their success.Rohit said that the loss of Hardik, who is the new Gujarat Titans captain, was big but the retention rules had put franchises in a tight spot. “Hardik was a very key member for us without a doubt,” Rohit said. “But again, the rules don’t allow us to keep all the players. His contribution to this franchise will never be ignored, or never be unseen. I think he had a huge impact, played a huge role for us to get the success we had while he was here. He played his role to perfection; not many people can play that role.”

Leicester City are in "advanced talks" to complete the signing of an "amazing" player who has been rated highly for many years, according to journalist Fabrizio Romano.

Leicester transfer news

The Foxes are about to start their return to the Premier League, opening their account with a home clash against Tottenham next Monday evening, and they have enjoyed a productive summer transfer window. Steve Cooper has come in as Enzo Maresca's replacement as manager, while the likes of Issahaku Fatawu and Caleb Okoli have arrived, among others.

It is still a tumultuous period at the King Power Stadium, however, with the threat of a points deduction hanging over them, and Cooper will hope that some more new faces will arrive before the end of the month, aiding his squad if they do have a deficit to recover from.

One player who has been linked with a move to Leicester this summer is Wilfried Zaha, with the Foxes looking to hijack Crystal Palace's efforts to bring him back to Selhurst Park, where he enjoyed so many good years before joining Galatasaray.

Tottenham winger Manor Solomon has also emerged as a reported target for the Premier League newcomers, with the 25-year-old told that he can leave north London before the transfer window reaches its conclusion. He made just two league starts in the whole of last season for Spurs, highlighting his squad status.

Leicester in "advanced talks" with "amazing" player

Taking to X on Monday, Romano claimed that Leicester are in "advanced talks" to sign Bayer Leverkusen striker Adam Hlozek this summer, just working on personal terms having agreed a loan-to-buy deal with his club.

Hlozek is a player who has been highly-rated for some time, having been such an exciting talent during his Sparta Prague days, bursting onto the scene as a prodigious teenager. The attacking ace scored 40 goals in 132 appearances for the Czech side, not to mention also registering 36 assists, and 25 more goal contributions (14 goals and 11 assists) have come his way in 80 outings for Leverkusen.

Football talent scout Jacek Kulig has hailed him as "amazing" in the past, pointing out that he was the "youngest player ever to score a hat-trick in the Czech League". With Jamie Vardy not the force he once was, which is understandable considering he is now 37, and Kelechi Iheanacho moving on to pastures new, another striker feels essential for Leicester this summer.

Leicester working to hijack Crystal Palace move to sign "excellent" ace

He was once a Premier League star…

By
Tom Cunningham

Aug 10, 2024

Hlozek fits the bill perfectly, coming in as a young player who has already achieved so much in the game, and who should only improve further in the coming years. In fact, if the 34-cap Czech Republic international reaches his potential, he could be a magnificent addition to Cooper's squad.

Once among the country’s top players, Venugopal Rao’s fortunes plummeted so much that he was thinking of stepping away from the game, at least temporarily, though he’s only 31

Devashish Fuloria in Surat07-Nov-2013During the Greg Chappell years, Venugopal Rao was among the most promising young cricketers in the country, and had been selected for India’s ODI squad for Sri Lanka in July 2005 along with Suresh Raina.Now 31, Rao’s fortunes have nosedived so much that he was contemplating stepping away from the game, at least temporarily. A migrant on the Ranji circuit, without a first-class hundred since 2007, Rao had a woeful time last year in his first season with Gujarat. This season began no better, as he made 16 in the opening match against Vidarbha.”After first match again, I was literally down. I went back home, sat with my family,” Rao says. “I thought I had worked hard for the last two-three months, I was getting runs in the local Chennai leagues, but I am still not getting it. I made up my mind that if I don’t score, I need a break, a big break, just to get away. I knew I could play, but I wasn’t getting it.”Between 2005 and 2013, Rao’s first-class average plummeted to 29.03 – at least 20 runs below what is expected from a top player. He managed just two scores of over hundred in that spell, after accumulating 11 before 2005. Switching teams in search of form and opportunities had not helped. So his 107 on the first day of Gujarat’s match against Delhi brought palpable relief to Rao.”I have been waiting for this for the last two years,” Rao says. “Twenty20 made my batting a bit more complicated. I was more of a Test player when I started. It’s not just about IPL. The IPL gave me the ability to play a lot of shots.”Maybe it was that I was trying too many shots. But today, Manpreet [Juneja] told me ‘Venu , you are leaving the balls well. First game, you were playing at those and today you are leaving them’. I have to listen because he is in good form and you have to understand what they are thinking.”After Andhra, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, Gujarat is Rao’s fourth Ranji team. He featured in five matches for them last season but the bottom line only read 110 runs.”It’s been hard. I have been playing a lot of cricket back home in Chennai but the last two seasons in Ranji Trophy haven’t been great. Last season, I played five games for Gujarat but couldn’t do anything and it had a very bad impact on me. I went back home, took rest, thought about my game … what’s my strength, my weaknesses, and that I needed to leave the balls a little more, stay longer at the wicket. So yes, this innings helped me.”Playing for teams other than your home state comes with the added pressure of being an inspirational professional for the local boys, which Rao thought was a double-edged sword. “We learn from different atmospheres and as professionals when you go in, you have to set an example for the local players. It’s challenging. Sometimes it puts additional load on you. It depends on how you take it. I saw both sides of it. It’s tough, but you learn a lot.”Vijay Patel, the Gujarat coach, highlighted the challenge Rao faced in a young team trying to establish itself and his role as a mentor. “His reputation was also at stake this year, because last season he didn’t get many runs,” Patel said. “This year he was more committed and his involvement was total with the team.”Rao hadn’t disappeared into anonymity during these last few years. He was one of the top-rung domestic recruits for the Deccan Chargers in the first three seasons of the IPL and later moved to Delhi Daredevils, playing in the shadow of bigger names, but still managing to stay visible, still being in the company of India’s elite cricketers.When asked if anyone helped him out, he said, “I have been playing for almost 15 years. It is easier to say for them ‘you know everything’ and ‘you don’t need to be told’, but at the end of day, no one comes and says it to you.”Rao has been overtaken by a new generation of cricketers in the race for national selection, but he is not competing with them. He just wants to focus – something that he said he has lacked in the past – on the Ranji Trophy and do well for Gujarat.”At the end of the day, it’s a hundred in the four-day game that satisfies you,” he says. “You don’t get the same feeling from other formats.”