Following reports from last week claiming Tottenham centre-half Toby Alderweireld is not a top transfer target for Manchester United, you have to wonder where Jose Mourinho will look to do his defensive shopping this summer.

It’s clear the Red Devils need a new dynamic to their backline, preferably someone who can offer them greater quality in possession than Phil Jones, Chris Smalling and Eric Bailly and help bring them a little closer to the scintillating football seen on the other side of Manchester.

Amid that backdrop, the physically imposing figure of Harry Maguire during his first World Cup appearance for England is difficult to ignore. It was by no means a perfect performance from the Leicester City defender, who was culpable for some dangerously sloppy passing out of the back in the first half, but nonetheless one that illustrated the qualities he offers the Red Devils and his commitment to that way of playing.

Even after early errors, Maguire still had the most touches of the ball of any England player, completed 88% of his passes and created three scoring chances. He may have been nervous, but that didn’t stop him from being brave with the ball – a key element of Gareth Southgate’s team compared to previous England incarnations.

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Of course, Mourinho wants something more than simply a defensive playmaker – he wants a real leader and someone who can make an impact at both ends of the pitch, in a similar manner to John Terry. But Maguire showed against Tunisia how valuable he can be in that sense too, winning seven aerial duels including one inside the opposition penalty area that proved to be the assist for Kane’s stoppage time winner.

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So, United fans, with a swoop for Alderweireld seeming far less likely than it once did, would you back a swoop for the £22.5million-rated Foxes centre-half instead? Let us know by voting below…

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Aleksandar Mitrovic put in a classic number nine’s performance in Serbia’s defeat on Friday, so are Newcastle making a mistake by selling him this summer?

According to a report in the Chronicle, Mitrovic’s impressive showing so far at the World Cup will not convince Rafael Benitez to keep the striker.

The beastly 23 year-old put in quite a shift in Serbia’s first match against Costa Rica, but couldn’t find the goal to cap off his performance.

Although his side fell to a 2-1 defeat against Switzerland on Friday, Mitrovic got the goal his performance deserved, powering in a header to give Serbia an early lead.

The report from the Chronicle says the Magpies are still going to cash in on the striker though, hoping the World Cup will help extract “maximum value” for any potential deal.

The striker has been linked with a return to Fulham, and Crystal Palace and Wolves are also eyeing a move.

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The report also claims Newcastle had slapped a £20m price tag on his head before the World Cup, and the young Serbian’s sale is key to funding other transfers.

While upwards of £20m would go a long way to helping Benitez secure other targets like Kenedy, is it a mistake to dump the striker?

He may have a bit of a temper, but his performances for Serbia have shown all the traits Benitez wants from a new striker signing this summer, so he should cut the middleman and just keep Mitrovic.

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Affectionately referred to as “Mitro” on Tyneside, the young striker scored 12 Championship goals during his loan spell with Fulham, and his form at the World Cup shows he isn’t planning on slowing down any time soon.

So, Newcastle fans, what would you do with Mitrovic this summer? Is it a mistake to cash in? Let us know your thoughts by voting in the poll below…

Everton have been linked with a move for Kieran Tierney, and the young Scotsman could be the absolute perfect replacement for the ageing Leighton Baines.

What’s the story?

According to The Mirror, the Toffees are “weighing up a move” for Celtic’s Tierney as they continue to search for a replacement for Baines.

Baines, 33, could yet stick around at Goodison this summer, but the flying full back has lost his pace, and plenty of fans want to see a fresh face flying down the left flank this season.

The 21 year-old Tierney has reportedly been “identified” as Baines’ successor, despite attracting interest from both Manchester United and Tottenham.

The young left back signed a new deal with Scottish champions in October so he won’t come cheap, but the report claims Everton are ready to test the waters with an opening bid.

[brid autoplay=”true” video=”255857″ player=”12034″ title=”Watch Everton’s opening fixtures for the 201819 Premier League season”]

A left-sided Seamus Coleman?

Marco Silva and new director of football Marcel Brands have a lot of work to do at Goodison this summer. The first order of business is to trim the wage bill, which has already started with Wayne Rooney confirming his move to the MLS yesterday.

The next item on the list is to improve the starting eleven, and buffing up the defensive ranks is definitely the right starting point. The Toffees have got an ageing backline, and some of the defensive performances away from home last season were truly shambolic.

Silva is known for being a very attack-minded manager, so he needs reliable full backs who have the pace to switch from defence to attack in an instant, and of course the ability to recover in the opposite direction. Basically, he needs a left-sided Seamus Coleman.

Tierney fits this bill perfectly, and the fact that he has already made over 100 first team appearances for Celtic despite only turning 21 this month shows exactly how much Brendan Rodgers trusts him.

While the Premier League is undoubtedly a step up for the youngster, he is only going to get better, and if Baines sticks around to offer a few tips it could be the perfect balance.

Tierney grabbed four goals and an incredible 11 assists last season, and his athleticism and intelligence makes him versatile enough to fill in further up the pitch or even at centre back if needed.

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The 9-cap Celtic star loves bombing down the wing, and made his mark in the Champions League last season as well, averaging over one key pass and one dribble per game in Europe’s top competition.

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At 21, he’s certainly still got some learning to do, but you only need to look at what Celtic fans say about him to realise just how good this lad can be. Much like the bargain signing of Coleman did, securing Tierney this summer could solve one of the Toffees’ problem areas of years to come.

So, Everton fans, would you like to see a move for Tierney this summer? Is he good enough to make the step up and replace Baines? Let us know your thoughts by voting in the poll below…

Imran Khan, the former Pakistan captain, has undergone emergency surgery for an intestinal blockage

Cricinfo staff11-Nov-2009Imran Khan, the former Pakistan captain, has undergone emergency surgery for an intestinal blockage. He was operated on at Lahore’s Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital (which he built in memory of his mother) on Monday afternoon after complaining of severe abdominal pain.Imran, 56, captained Pakistan to glory in the 1992 World Cup and formed a political party -Tehreek-e-Insaaf – after his retirement. “He suffered cramps in his small intestine while exercising and was taken to hospital for diagnosis where doctors decided on surgery,” a spokesman for his party said. “Imran is out of danger and his condition is stable now.”Imran is in intensive care and has been advised to remain in the hospital for at least three days.

Pakistan’s players have been cleared to participate in the 2010 season of the IPL after receiving clearance from their country’s interior ministry

Cricinfo staff02-Dec-2009Pakistan’s players have been cleared to participate in the 2010 season of the IPL after receiving the final government clearance they needed, from their country’s interior ministry.Earlier on Wednesday, Pakistan’s foreign ministry cleared the players’ involvement in the Indian league and the interior ministry’s clearance means the PCB can now issue the no-objection certificates (NOCS) that would allow them to play in the tournament.”The sports and foreign ministries had already given their clearance … we were awaiting security clearance from the interior ministry, which we have got now,” PCB media manager Nadeem Sarwar told . “We have been told we can issue NOCs to the players now.”The deadline for the submission of the NOCs to the IPL was extended to December 7.Eleven Pakistani players – including Shahid Afridi and Umar Gul, the stars of Pakistan’s 2009 World Twenty20 campaign – were recruited by the Kolkata, Rajasthan, Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore franchises before the inaugural IPL.However, Pakistan’s players were absent from the second IPL, held earlier this year in South Africa, after their government did not allow them to travel to India – where the tournament was originally to be held – for security reasons. The franchises then opted to retain the contracts of only four of them – Kamran Akmal and Sohail Tanvir (Rajasthan), Misbah-ul-Haq (Bangalore) and Gul (Kolkata) .Most franchises will, however, seek their return in the league’s 2010 edition after Pakistan’s success in the ICC World Twenty20 in June.The third season of the IPL will be held in India and it begins on March 12, 2010.

Australia’s cricketers have expressed reservations over the ICC’s recently introduced Umpire Decision Review System

Alex Brown22-Dec-2009Australia’s cricketers have expressed reservations over the ICC’s recently introduced Umpire Decision Review System and proposed day-night Tests. Although 87% of state and international players surveyed by the Australian Cricketers’ Association said they were in favour of the UDRS, 92% said they wanted to see better technology used to assist umpires in the decision making process.The UDRS proved a major talking point throughout the recently completed Frank Worrell Trophy series in Australia – right up until the final dismissal of Kemar Roach in Perth – and it has polarised opinion within the Australian playing ranks. Precisely half of the surveyed Cricket Australia contracted players described the system as either successful or very successful, with 43 % unsure and seven % labelling it unsuccessful.”Players would like to see the technology have the ability to definitively determine whether or not a batsman is out,” Paul Marsh, the ACA chief executive, told Cricinfo. “Whilst players are supportive of the concept of using technology, they are yet to be convinced of the effectiveness of the current technology being used.”It’s human nature to expect technological tools to be foolproof and there’s no doubt the new system is experiencing some teething problems. Now that the game has gone so far down the path of allowing technology to assist in on field decision making, the players would like to see the game invest in the technology being used so it’s as good as it can be.”A week after David Morgan, the ICC chairman, suggested twilight Tests would be staged within the next two years, the ACA survey found 57% of state and international players were opposed to the concept, up substantially from the previous year. Almost 30% of CA contracted players said they would be amenable to day-night Tests if an appropriate ball was developed, with another 21% willing to consent only for matches against minor Test playing nations. But with the majority against the concept, the ICC and CA could be facing a tough sell.”The game does need to find an appropriate balance between the commercial and cricketing considerations,” Marsh said. “Many players don’t want to entertain day-night Test cricket because of the traditions of the game and the fundamental changes required. Others are more open-minded to it, however this is only on the proviso that the game isn’t compromised by doing so.”The most significant issue is whether or not a ball can be developed that can be used at night time. If an appropriate solution can be found I’m confident players and the ACA will be supportive of introducing day-night Test cricket. However, it does concern us that in some quarters there is talk of compromising the quality of the ball in order to introduce day-night Test cricket.”Meanwhile, the majority of surveyed Australian state and international players said they harboured some degree of concern over the World Anti-Doping Agency’s controversial “whereabouts” clause, which was rejected by the Board of Control for Cricket in India earlier this year. Fifty percent of players said they were worried about the divulging of personal information to the drug testers, with another 13% unsure.”Australian players wholeheartedly support the fight against drugs in sport and accept the need for an anti-doping policy,” Marsh said. “The whereabouts requirements under the new WADA code are, however, onerous and have created concerns for players around the world.”Having to advise the drug testing authorities as to your whereabouts for an hour a day, three months in advance isn’t an easy task and we have contended that international cricketers are accessible enough for nearly all of the year given their current playing and training commitments. The ACA and players have, however, taken a pragmatic approach to this issue and will comply with the code in the interests of the overall fight against drugs in sport.”

Plays of the day from the first day of the third Test between Australia and Pakistan in Hobart

Cricinfo staff14-Jan-2010The truth, at last
For 10 years Justin Langer has denied he edged Wasim Akram during his
amazing escape with Adam Gilchrist in Hobart in 1999-2000. Needing 369, Australia
were 5 for 126 when the pair came together and orchestrated a stand of
238 that was brave, unbelievable and controversial. Until now Langer has
sworn, even to his father (his Dad, not the Almighty), that his bat handle
broke when he aimed a drive at Akram and survived a caught-behind appeal.
But a decade on he has changed his plea. “I absolutely smashed it,” Langer
told Nine at tea on the first day.That was also the match of the
“can’t bowl, can’t throw” jibe at Scott Muller, which was eventually
claimed by “Joe the Cameraman”. The finger was also pointed at Shane
Warne, but Nine’s Joe didn’t do a Langer, and still maintains it was
him.To pull or not to pull?

The debate over Ricky Ponting’s favourite shot has run through much of the summer. He has
insisted all along he would continue pulling, despite questions over
whether he is as good at it as he once was. After a first-ball dismissal
to the stroke in Sydney, he went for it again here, off his fourth ball, only to
pop it straight up in the air to Mohammad Aamer at deep fine leg. It
looked more difficult to drop than it did to catch it and yet somehow it
was spilled. Ponting went on to his first hundred of the summer and a few less questions about the pull.A genuine headache
Ponting also copped a blow to the helmet when he misjudged a hook and it required some paracetemol to deal with “a pretty bad headache”. There have been few times when Ponting has been hit in the head, and he thinks the last time was in the 2005 Ashes series when Steve Harmison struck him. “I was talking to Mohammad Yousuf out there today just after it happened and he said ‘that’s the first time I’ve ever seen you get hit’,” Ponting said. “Mohammad Sami actually hit me on the cheek in Sharjah without a helmet on years ago, I actually ducked into one without a helmet on. I’ve been hit a few times but luckily no real bad ones.”On the crest of something new
Ponting has scored 39 Test centuries but today he did something new: kissed the crest of his helmet in celebration. “I haven’t done it before,” he said. “It’s the first time today, because it meant a lot to me today, to battle away the way that I did and then get through and make a hundred in front of my home crowd. My parents and my sister and everyone is down here as well, watching the game, so they would’ve had some anxious and nervous moments early on through my innings today.”He’s caught it!

It was only a thin edge from Michael Hussey’s bat and a straightforward
take, but given the events of Sydney, relief would have descended over
all of Pakistan when Sarfraz Ahmed, the man who replaced Kamran Akmal, held on to his
first Test catch behind the stumps.Missing man of the moment

Aamer was Pakistan’s stand-out bowler in Melbourne and though he
wasn’t missed so much in Sydney, he was eagerly welcomed back for this
Test. Pakistan were on top in the first session and Aamer had just
started getting his lines right. More pressure was expected to be applied
straight after lunch, but Mohammad Yousuf chose to open with Danish
Kaneria instead. Michael Clarke, a champion against spin, settled in
easily and Aamer, Pakistan’s rising star and their quickest bowler, wasn’t
seen at all between lunch and tea as Australia took the game away.
He wasn’t injured and the Pakistan camp, at one stage, mumbled something
feeble about over-rates. It was most likely just another sign of the lack
of intent that has cost them the series.Ponting knows the score
The Australian players have had such trouble getting from the nineties to
triple-figures this summer that Ponting’s path to a century seemed somehow
appropriate. On 94, he launched Danish Kaneria over long-off and the
umpire Asoka de Silva signalled six. But Ponting, ever astute, wasn’t
convinced and instead of celebrating, stood there waiting for confirmation
from the third umpire. His judgment was correct: the ball bounced inside
the boundary and his 100 became 98. Three balls later, he swept and made
the extra two.

Australian trainer will once again join the team on a temporary basis to help them prepare their defense of the World Twenty20 title in the Caribbean

Cricinfo staff18-Feb-2010David Dwyer, the Australian trainer who recently resigned from his post with the Pakistan side, will once again join the team on a temporary basis to help them prepare their defense of the World Twenty20 title in the Caribbean later this year.Dwyer came in with Geoff Lawson during his coaching stint in 2007 on a two-year contract and stayed on even after Lawson was removed from the post in October 2008. His fitness work with the national team has been widely acknowledged by the board and players themselves and he became an immensely popular figure within the side, in particular with senior hands such as Younis Khan and Shoaib Malik. Younis was one of the voices who urged him to stay on after Lawson’s departure.But personal reasons, in wanting to settle back in Sydney, prompted him to hand in his papers at the end of the recent tour to Australia. The board, however, was keen to keep him on further and it is believed that Dwyer has reached an agreement to be with the side through the World Twenty20, which is scheduled for April-May this year.Dwyer, it is understood, will join the side in Lahore from early April to begin work again. The agreement is only for the duration of the tournament and Dwyer will likely return to Australia at the end of it.

The 313 Brigade, Al-Qaeda’s operational arm in Pakistan, issued a warning to “the international community” to not send its representatives to major sports events being staged in India, including the IPL

Cricinfo staff16-Feb-2010Security fears regarding the IPL have intensified after a string of statements over the past 24 hours. The 313 Brigade, Al-Qaeda’s operational arm in Pakistan, issued a warning to “the international community” not to send its representatives to major sports events being staged in India, including the IPL. Following this, the firm in charge of the league’s security said organisers would have to reconsider hosting the IPL should the threat supercede safety strategies.There was good news for the IPL, though, in a retraction by the Shiv Sena of its stand barring Australian cricketers in Mumbai in response to the attacks on Indians in Australia, yet it appeared scant consolation in the face of the terror threat.In its message, delivered to , the 313 Brigade said: “We warn the international community not to send their people to the 2010 Hockey World Cup, IPL and Commonwealth Games. If they do, they will be responsible for the consequences.”The Hockey World Cup will be held in New Delhi from February 28 and the Commonwealth games are scheduled in the same city in October. Both are single-city events and will be relatively easier to secure than the multi-city IPL – it currently has 12 venues, with Cuttack being added on Tuesday.The 313 Brigade is believed to have links with other terrorist outfits and its commander is believed to have played a role in the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai.That statement drew a gloomy response from Bob Nicholls, the head of Nicholls Steyn and Associates, which is running the security operation for the IPL. He told the it may force the organisers into a re-think.”It gets to a point where you cannot go further than that which is being provided,” Nicholls said. ”We only have control over certain aspects of it. If we get to a certain stage beyond which you can’t go … our role and commitment is that we will put in the best measures there can be. What we cannot control is circumstances beyond that. There would need to be serious considerations at that point.”Paul Marsh, the chief executive of the Australian Cricketers Association, said security consultant Reg Dickason would factor the warning into his report to the Australian players involved in the IPL.”We were told over the years that cricketers and other sportspeople would not be targeted, that the risk was collateral damage, being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Marsh said. ”That changed with [the ambush of the Sri Lankan team in] Lahore last year, and news of a threat from a very well-known terrorist group is concerning. This is another issue to be concerned about. Not a lot has changed with regard to our process and it’s important to note that the situation is fluid after what happened in Pune (a bomb blast) at the weekend and this development.”Reg will give us a point-in-time report and then he will continue to keep us informed. Everyone is going to have to weigh up their own circumstances, but we have relied on Reg for a long time and the players have a high level of trust in his advice.”

Eoin Morgan, who hit a magnificent unbeaten 110 to guide England to victory in the second ODI against Bangladesh, has been awarded an ECB incremental contract

Cricinfo staff03-Mar-2010Eoin Morgan, who hit a magnificent unbeaten 110 to guide England to victory in the second ODI against Bangladesh, has been awarded an ECB incremental contract for 2009-10 having reached the required number of appearances.Non-contracted players can earn incremental deals on a points system based on five points for a Test appearance and two for either ODIs or Twenty20s. Morgan has reached the required 20-point mark having played six ODIs and four Twenty20s during the current contract period.”Eoin has made excellent progress since making his ODI debut against West Indies last summer and is now an established member of our one-day and T20 sides,” Hugh Morris, the managing director of England cricket, said. “He has fully justified the faith the selectors have shown in him and has the potential to develop his game still further.”Morgan’s match-winning century in Dhaka made him the first player to score hundreds for two different countries after he began his career with Ireland as he qualified for England. He has made an instant impact on the team with a series of impressive limited-overs innings including an unbeaten 51-ball 67 in the first Twenty20 against Pakistan in Dubai after previously hitting 85 off 45 deliveries against South Africa at the Wanderers.Morgan also enjoyed a productive Champions Trophy tournament in South Africa where he marshalled the run chase against Sri Lanka with 62 not out then clubbed 67 against South Africa as England reached the semi-finals. Morgan is one of eight English players due to take part in the IPL and will join the tournament following the conclusion of the one-day series in Bangladesh.