O'Leary out for 'three to four' months
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
8 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Revealed: England international among group of SIX players put up for sale by Man City as Pep Guardiola eyes summer clearout
Manchester City are willing to part ways defender John Stones after adding the England international to a list of potential sales. According to The Athletic, Stones is one of six players who could be on the way out of the Etihad Stadium, either on loan or permanent deals. Ilkay Gundogan, Nico O'Reilly, Mateo Kovacic, Claudio Echeverri and Oscar Bobb complete the list, although the latter is believed to be unlikely to leave having missed the entirety of last season through injury. Should a sale materialise, Stones' possible departure would mark the end of a nine-year stint at the club. He has made 277 appearances so far for Pep Guardiola 's side, scoring 19 goals. However, injuries limited him last season to just 11 Premier League games, with foot and hamstring issues flaring up. In January, City signed another defender in Abdukodir Khusanov from Lens, providing competition for Stones. Gundogan, another long-term City player up for sale, has previously said that he is happy to stay in Manchester. During the Club World Cup, the German international said: 'I have one more year left on my contract and I'm very happy here – I think everybody knows that. 'I am enjoying my football. I still believe I have several years in me at the highest level by taking good care of myself.'
BBC News
13 minutes ago
- BBC News
'Huge gap' between Hundred hosts & other counties
A report into the financial health of county cricket has revealed a yawning gap between those clubs who host a Hundred franchise and those who do Leonard Curtis Cricket Finance Report, external shows Surrey, Lancashire and Warwickshire generated 44% of the total revenue of all 18 first-class counties in also found a number of counties are reliant on central funding from the England and Wales Cricket Board for the majority of their income with 71% of Northamptonshire's revenue coming from the ECB, while for Leicestershire it is 67% and Derbyshire 56%."Cricket in England and Wales remains overly reliant on central distributions, TV rights, and international fixtures at a handful of Test grounds," said the report's co-author, Professor Rob Wilson."While significant profits have been posted in isolated cases over the past 10 years, they are exceptions to the rule. "Without ECB support and income from The Hundred, it is questionable whether some counties could survive even for a single season."A new Financial Performance Index ranks clubs based on their results on and off the field for the 10 years between 2014 and 2023 with Surrey, who host the Oval Invincibles in The Hundred, leading the way, while Leicestershire are bottom of the table. Counties hosting Hundred teams Yorkshire - Northern SuperchargersLancashire - Manchester OriginalsNottinghamshire - Trent RocketsWarwickshire - Birmingham PhoenixGlamorgan - Welsh FireHampshire - Southern BraveSurrey - Oval InvinciblesMiddlesex - London Spirit 'They must work together' The sale of equity in the eight Hundred franchises is expected raise in the region of £520m which will be shared within the county England captain Michael Vaughan, who has written the foreword to the report, is calling on the first-class counties to work together to create a sustainable model."The Hundred money allows the 18 first-class counties to look to the future rather than simply survive from one summer to the next," he said."I would like to see counties being transparent with each other and sharing knowledge about what works for them. "Sometimes petty rivalries prevent that from happening and divisions between the Test host counties and the others develop."While revenue from The Hundred will offer many counties a lifeline, Professor Wilson believes the future of the domestic game is far from secure."This report raises questions about the long-term viability of the county model," he said."Investment in The Hundred may provide some medium-term relief, but only if invested strategically and to build infrastructure." Key time to develop disability cricket The report also calls for The Hundred to be used to develop disability cricket by giving counties the funding to provide more opportunities to play the game."Key to disability cricket's development will be linking it into The Hundred as it continues to develop and attract players, fans and volunteers to the game," said former England Physical Disability cricket captain Iain Nairn MBE."The ECB needs to ensure that, all counties can provide opportunity for disabled cricketers to participate on both a grassroots and elite level - The Hundred appears to be a great format to drive fresh engagement."
BBC News
18 minutes ago
- BBC News
'Relentless Sweden deserve more recognition'
England captain Leah Williamson says Euro 2025 quarter-final opponents Sweden are "relentless" at major tournaments and "deserve a little bit more recognition".Sarina Wiegman's side finished runners-up in Group D, while Sweden won all three group matches to finish top of Group C and set up Thursday's match (20:00 BST).4-1 with an impressive performance in their last match and conceded just one goal in the group England and France, they are the only nations to have reached the quarter-finals in all five major tournaments since aside from their 4-0 loss to England in the Euro 2022 semi-finals, Sweden have won six of their past seven games in the competition."Sweden's previous results at tournaments are incredible. They are relentless when it comes to tournament football," said Williamson. "Maybe disrespectful is too strong a word, but I do think they deserve a little bit more recognition. "When you have a team who work for each other like Sweden, then you don't need to necessarily have a crazy standout threat because everyone plays their roles."They are hard to prepare for in that sense. The discipline for them all to complete their jobs on the pitch makes them a dangerous side." 'Stina is an incredibly powerful footballer' While Williamson believes there are no standout players in a strong Sweden side, she is very familiar with the threat Arsenal team-mate Stina Blackstenius opened the scoring with a composed finish in the win over Germany, and netted in their 3-0 victory against 29-year-old also came off the bench to score the only goal as Arsenal beat Barcelona in the Women's Champions League final in May."Stina is an incredibly powerful footballer. She's very intelligent with her runs. She's a hard player to play against in that respect," said Williamson. "We were celebrating her success at Arsenal - but not so much now! She's a great player and she has been for many years now. Her experience speaks for itself."It's different [to] playing each other in training with restrictions. It's rare that I get to play against Stina in this setting. I enjoy it, and I like Stina. "It's tough to remove all of that. You don't want to focus on it too much and there's lots of things that come into play when you play against a team-mate, but I think I've known Stina long enough that I know who she is and it's time to focus on us."
