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Real Madrid have reportedly launched a shock £100m+ offer to sign a Liverpool star that Arne Slot loves.

Real Madrid launch £100m+ offer to sign Liverpool star

It’s Liverpool’s most important January transfer window since the departure of Jurgen Klopp. The Reds have been well below-par this season, forcing Slot into quite the tactical retreat despite having such a star-studded attack to choose from.

The Dutchman has at least stopped the defensive rot in recent weeks, but it has come at a cost. From goals galore, the Premier League champions have looked a shadow of the team that were crowned just one season ago.

It’s not on the pitch that they’ve had problems, either. Mohamed Salah’s outburst in December caused plenty of controversy before he was restored to the squad and now Alexis Mac Allister has dropped some concerning hints.

The midfielder spoke about Liverpool’s recent form ahead of their clash against Fulham, telling reporters that too many things have changed at Anfield.

It’s the last thing that Slot needs to hear, especially from an underperforming player. That is, however, the reality that the Reds find themselves in. After so much change, they are yet to rediscover their best form.

Unfortunately for Mac Allister though, there could be more change on the way. It’s no secret that Liverpool need another central defender and Marc Guehi remains a target.

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Meanwhile, there could yet be some outgoings. According to reports in Spain, Real Madrid have now launched an offer to sign Ryan Gravenberch worth as much as €120m (£105m), leaving those at Anfield shellshocked.

Liverpool must keep hold of Gravenberch

The Spanish giants are reportedly ready to torment Liverpool once again, having already signed Trent Alexander-Arnold last summer. This time around, however, the Reds are ready to fend off any interest from the Bernabeu and have already reportedly opened talks to extend Gravenberch’s contract.

It’s easy to see why Liverpool are so keen to keep hold of their midfielder too. He has become a crucial player in Slot’s best side and the manager hasn’t been shy with his praise – telling reporters last season: “Impressed, like everyone who was in the stadium or saw the game.

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“Ryan did outstanding again today. Without the ball, he was mostly in our last line, had to play sometimes against a nine, against wingers who are really fast.”

The player, himself, also seems keen to stay and could put pen to paper on a new deal to end any speculation about a Real Madrid move, much to the relief of those at Anfield.

Celtic have entered the January transfer window in a position that they may not have expected to be in when the season kicked off in August.

The Hoops are three points behind Hearts in the Scottish Premiership title race, they lost the final of the League Cup to St Mirren, and they have lost five of their last seven matches in all competitions.

Motherwell beat them 2-0 in the Premiership on Tuesday night in what was another dismal showing from Celtic under Wilfried Nancy, whose future has already been called into question.

Why Celtic should sack Wilfried Nancy

Journalist Stephen McGowan described Celtic as “dysfunctional” and stated that the French head coach is in “can’t survive this territory”, such was the disappointing nature of the performance against Motherwell.

Fan account Everything Celtic on X, meanwhile, stated that the former MLS boss “has to go”. Reporter Barry Anderson also claimed that the manager is making a “mess” of his time at Parkhead so far.

It feels harsh to be calling for a manager to go after just seven games in the dugout, but something is clearly not working out for Nancy in Glasgow, as has been pointed out by several journalists and supporters after that loss to Motherwell.

First 7 games of recent Celtic managers

Manager

Losses

Goals conceded

Wilfried Nancy

5

15

Brendan Rodgers

2

6

Ange Postecoglou

2

8

Neil Lennon

0

2

Brendan Rodgers

1

6

Ronny Deila

1

6

Stats via Transfermarkt

As you can see in the table above, his start to life at the club has been a disaster in comparison to all of his peers at Parkhead in the last decade or so.

He became the first manager in Celtic’s history to lose his first four matches in charge of the club, but then looked to have turned a bit of a corner with successive wins, only to lose again on Tuesday.

The best course of action, therefore, may be for the board to ruthlessly part ways with the former Columbus Crew manager, and to bring in a new head coach.

The manager Celtic should replace Wilfried Nancy with

After Brendan Rodgers resigned and Martin O’Neill took the job as an interim, plenty of names were linked as possible options for the club to bring in.

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One of those names was Cardiff City boss Brian Barry-Murphy. It was even reported that the board had held internal discussions about a move for the League One gaffer, only to end up going for Nancy instead.

The work that he has done with the Bluebirds in England, however, suggests that he may have been a better option than the Frenchman, which is why they should ruthlessly sack Nancy to reignite their interest in the Irish coach.

Appointing a manager from the third tier in England may not be an incredibly attractive proposition, but it is worth remembering that it is the league from which a talent like Matt O’Riley was directly signed from, so there is quality that can come from that level.

Barry-Murphy may not be a promising young player like O’Riley was, but he is a promising young head coach who has done an impressive job with Cardiff this season.

25/26 League One

Cardiff

Club rank

Wins

15

1st

Points

47

1st

Goals

40

2nd

Goals conceded

23

5th

Goal difference

+17

1st

Stats via FBref

As you can see in the table above, the 47-year-old tactician’s team sit at the top of League One this season, after they were relegated in last place in the Championship under the previous management group.

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EFL expert and writer Gab Sutton claimed that he “transformed the style” at Cardiff, and Barry-Murphy has made it clear that his aggressive and front-footed style will not change because of the opposition.

Cardiff went on to beat Burnley, a Premier League side, away from home and had 53% of the ball in that match after those quotes, which shows that he can implement a successful, dominant, and attractive style of play even against teams that are significantly better on paper.

Therefore, Barry-Murphy could be the dream replacement for Nancy because he has shown that he has a philosophy and a style of play, but it is one that is built on aggression and tangible success, rather than good performances and losses.

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That is why Celtic should seriously consider parting ways with Nancy already to make a move for the 4-3-3 Cardiff boss, who is currently on course to win a title with the English side.

Clare Connor has been taken on a new role alongside being the ECB’s chief executive – she has been appointed as the European representative to the ICC Women’s Committee. It’s the same role that her predecessor Gill McConway held.The committee, formed in 2005, has three main objectives: to govern and manage women’s cricket in conjunction with the ICC; provide leadership to the Regional Development Managers to assist them in developing women’s cricket in their region; and to make recommendations to the ICC Development Committee for future women’s cricket initiatives.Connor will join representatives from four other regions on the committee, which meets twice a year, including Carol Whilby-Maxwell (Americas), Catherine Campbell (East-Asia-Pacific), Kerri Laing (Africa) and Shubhangi Kulkarni (Asia). The Netherlands’ Betty Timmer is the committee’s chairwoman.Connor captained England for six years from 2000 until retiring. She was awarded the MBE in 2004 and the OBE in 2006. She said she was honoured by the appointment. “With so much international cricket on the horizon, and participation levels at an all-time high, it is an exciting time to be in a position to make an impact on the women’s game through association with ICC.”In particular, the women’s World Cup and the Twenty 20 World Championships, both in 2009, will be impressive showcase events to show how dynamic the women’s game has become in recent years.”

Andre Adams conceded his actions deserved a suspension © Getty Images

New Zealand Cricket has appealed against the one-match ban imposed on Andre Adams, the Auckland allrounder, for an incident during a domestic game last week. Adams was suspended after he grabbed the helmet of Bevan Griggs, the Central Districts batsman, and shook the grill, cutting Griggs’ lip.NZC appealed the ruling on the grounds that the penalty set a national precedent and should therefore be referred to the National Code of Conduct Commissioner, Nick Davidson. A final decision is expected within seven days.Adams last week said his actions were “a moment of madness” that warranted a suspension. “It was a moment of real frustration,” Adams told . “He [Griggs] was obviously shocked by it.”I apologised to him after the game. He was pretty good to me in the hearing as well. In the whole scheme of things it has been made out to be a whole assault on the batsman. I put my hand on his helmet and pushed it but it was nothing more than that.”

Muttiah Muralitharan: 600 up, and many more to go © Getty Images

The two-Test series against Bangladesh has been time for Muttiah Muralitharan to pile up one milestone after another. The first Test was his 100th, during which he also became the first bowler to take 1000 international wickets; then, on the third day of the second Test at Bogra, he became only the second bowler – after Shane Warne – to go past the 600-wicket barrier in Tests. While Warne needed 126 matches to get to the landmark, this is only Murali’s 101st Test, an indication of just how prolific he has been.As the table below indicates, Murali has been improving his stats incessantly since starting out more than 13 years ago. His first 100 wickets took him 27 matches; since then, none of the other 100-wicket milestones have required more than 16 matches. His last 100 wickets took him just 14 Tests, during which period he took eight five-fors.

Murali’s progression to 600

Wickets	Matches	Average	5/ 10-for
100	27	31.49	6/ 0
200	42	26.90	16/ 2
300	58	25.17	24/ 5
400	72	23.53	33/ 10
500	87	22.89	42/ 13
600	101	22.35	50/ 14

Murali arrived on the scene as a big-spinning offbreak bowler, but since his early days he has added plenty of bows to his armoury, which have made him a far more potent bowler. In his first 50 matches, he got his wickets at less than five per Test; in his next 51, that has gone up to more than seven.

Two halves to Murali’s career

	Wickets	Average	5/ 10-fors
First 50 Tests	245	26.36	18/ 3
Last 51 Tests	355	19.58	32/ 11

As his career summary shows, Murali has performed well against most sides. The only teams against whom he averages more than 30 are Australia and India, against whom he played most of the matches early in his career. He has also been at the forefront of most Sri Lankan wins, with 297 wickets at an incredible average of 15.48. If Sri Lanka win at Bogra – as they seem likely to do – then Murali will become only the third bowler, after Warne and Glenn McGrath – to take 300 wickets in victories. Currently Warne leads the way with 461 such wickets, while McGrath has 393.

Murali the matchwinner

	Tests/ Wkts	Average	5/ 10-for
In wins	37/ 297	15.48	27/ 11
In draws	30/ 129	26.84	10/ 2
In defeats	33/ 167	31.19	12/ 1

Among bowlers with at least 150 wickets in wins, only Richard Hadlee and Imran Khan have a better average.

Best averages in wins

Bowler	Wins/ Wkts	Average	5/ 10-for
Richard Hadlee	22/ 173	13.07	17/ 8
Imran Khan	26/ 155	14.50	11/ 6
Muttiah Muralitharan	37/ 297*	15.48	27/ 11
Malcolm Marshall	43/ 254	16.79	17/ 4
Allan Donald	33/ 187	16.80	14/ 3
Curtly Ambrose	44/ 229	16.87	13/ 3

Points Table

Scorecard
East Zone salvaged some pride at the end of a disappointing Deodhar Trophy campaign with a high-voltage batting performance and hunted down a mammoth target of 347 at Rajkot. Mahendra Singh Dhoni got them off to a fantastic start with a fiery 87 off 67 balls before Rohan Gavaskar and Sanjib Sanyal carried on the momentum and took them closer to victory. Gavaskar’s unbeaten 89 piloted them towards the target and East stunningly got home with an over to spare. Earlier, Suresh Raina and Syed Abbas Ali had propelled Central Zone to the massive total with both notching up splendid centuries. They added an exact 200 for the fourth-wicket stand as Central gave themselves a great chance of staying in contention for the trophy. The defeat, though, meant thatthey had no chance of winning the title.
Scorecard
A fine allround batting effort saw North Zone register their second win of the tournament, with a bonus point to boot, and head the points table at the end of the penultimate round of matches. Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir and Ajay Jadeja produced half-centuries and a surge towards the end boosted North to a healthy 288 at the end of their innings. West Zone, who could have sealed the championship with a victory, began solidly as Parthiv Patel anchored the chase with a cheeky 56. But a middle-order collapse, when they slumped from 160 for 3 to 201 all out, thwarted their hopes and North snapped up the bonus point and sneaked to the top of the table.North now take on South Zone in the final league match on February 4 and a victory there will ensure them the title. West will need to beat Central on the same day at Rajkot and hope that North slip up in their encounter at Valsad. If West fail, though, South Zone could beat North and sneak the title through the back door.

Brett Lee has enlisted the help of Dennis Lillee as he attempts to overcome a “tough little period” in his career.In the absence of Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne, Lee had been expected to spearhead Australia’s bowling in the recent Test series against India. But he managed just eight wickets in two matches, and suffered the humiliation of being hit for 201 runs in a single innings at Sydney.He was subsequently overlooked for the VB Series, and watched from the sidelines as his replacement Brad Williams bowled Australia to victory over Zimbabwe on Sunday.”People are asking questions about my pace, about no-balls and the fact that I’ve been hit for a lot of runs in these past two Tests,” said Lee, who bowled 37 no-balls in Melbourne and Sydney. “Bowling 18 no-balls in an innings is unacceptable, there is no excuse. I hope Dennis can help me solve the problem.”Lillee, whose fast-bowling academy in Chennai has helped to transform India’s fortunes, believes Lee’s problems may stem from the fact Australia does not have a bowling coach, unlike both its rivals in the current one-day series. Australia’s former left-arm seamer Bruce Reid is working with both India and Zimbabwe.Lee flew Lillee from Perth to Sydney after last week’s fourth Test to work with him at a training session. Apart from injuries and the occasional spell on the sidelines, Lee has been a regular in the Australia side since his debut against India four years ago. He has since developed into an intimidating, if unreliable, back-up to McGrath and Jason Gillespie, but is finding the next step up a hard one to take.

Positivism was the message England captain Nasser Hussain was throwing out after his side’s record one-day loss to New Zealand at WestpacTrust Stadium in Wellington.Despite the 155-run margin Hussain said he firmly believes he has the players to beat New Zealand.”Otherwise I wouldn’t be here,” he said.But he did acknowledge that the performance yesterday had not been good enough.”Today was a poor performance, there is no excuse for it all the way through. It was not a 90 all out wicket and it is not a 240 wicket, it is somewhere between those two.”Maybe if we kept them down to 180, and fielded a little better, and put in the energy that New Zealand put in we might have batted a bit more sensibly. But all departments were not good enough today,” he said.While the pitch had done a bit all day, New Zealand’s bowlers had put the ball in the right areas more often than the England attack, their fielders took better catches than England. And if things had been done better, New Zealand could have been 30/4.Hussain did not think some marginal umpiring decisions had impacted on the side.”We could have had 15 decisions go for us today and we’d have lost,” he said.

Hussain- we’ll pick ourselves up Photo Reuters

The formula was obvious, after all, as Hussain told the press conference, two games ago the English media had been saying England were a good side.The team did not go from being a good side to a bad one in two games, he said.”One thing that we have done in the last few years is we have picked ourselves up, we will have a chat and try to pick ourselves up.”It is part and parcel of being an England cricketer. You do have days like this and you have to pick yourself up. I firmly we have the ability in that room to beat New Zealand otherwise I wouldn’t be here and we showed that for large parts of the game the other day.”We were a better side the other day, today we weren’t and therefore I have to remind them of that and therefore ask them to be honest with me and ask them why we were all so flat and to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”You have to focus in and do our job and not enough of us did that today,” he said.Hussain also explained the replacement of wicket-keeper James Foster by Marcus Trescothick. It had been to give Foster a break.”James Foster has been tired the last two or three days and he has talked to a couple of coaches about it.”He’s a young lad who’s come out of University where he played 15 games in a year and now he’s playing 50 games in a year so he was feeling it a little bit so we rested him today in the hope he’ll have fresh legs later on in the series, whether it be in the one-dayers or test matches or whatever,” he said.”Owais Shah came in because he’s a good young prospect and we’ll readdress the side when we look at conditions in Napier.”

Inspite of a seven wicket haul by Bengal’s S Pearuddin, a fighting centuryby S Banik helped Tripura salvage a draw on the third andfinal day of their East Zone Under-14 match againstBihar at the East Calcutta District Sports Council Ground inCalcutta on Thursday.Needing 249 for a win, Tripura made a disastrous start when they lostopener SD Burma (0) caught by by Himadri Pal off Pearuddin in the secondover. His partner D Dutta (5) departed soon after when he fell leg beforeto Pearuddin. Then S Banik (114) and Subhrajit Roy (12) took the score on to48 when the latter fell leg before to Sarnendu Pal. With the score boardreading 48 for 3, D Choudury (14) joined Banik to forge a 44 run fourthwicket stand in 12.2 overs. Then two quick wickets fell.But the partnership that saved the match for Tripura was the 63 run seventhwicket stand between Banik and BD Burma (8) which came in 26.2 overs. Banikfell after a 258 minute stay at the crease, faced 200 balls and hit19 boundaries.Thereafter BD Burma held the fort for Tripura. Burma was the ninth wicketto fall. But by that time he had stayed at the centre for 112 minutes andfaced 100 balls to score 8 runs. Tripura then trudged along to 194 for ninewhen the day’s play ended.Earlier on the second day, the Tripura first innings folded up at 159,giving Bengal a lead of 122 runs. In reply Bengal scored 126 runs in theirsecond innings, when the skipper Himadri Pal declared the innings. OpenersA Bhowmick (21) and Arindam Ghosh (21) added 29 runs in 7.3 overs. Then SMukherjee (28), S Gond (12) and S Pearuddin (12) chipped in with usefulcontributions with the bat.

West Ham could be without three key men for tonight’s crunch-match with Sevilla in the UEFA Europa League Round of 16 second leg, with the Hammers currently one-goal down on aggregate.

You’d expect them to have an advantage of their home crowd tonight, but with star winger Jarrod Bowen missing, the job will just be even more difficult than it was before – and it could become even harder should two key players also join the English winger on the sidelines.

Michail Antonio and Aaron Cresswell are both awaiting late fitness tests to see whether they will be able to take part in the game tonight, after suffering injuries at the weekend against Aston Villa.

“I couldn’t tell you exactly if they’re fit,” West Ham manager David Moyes said yesterday. “They’ve done a little bit of light training. We’re trying to find out if they are fit, that’s really what it is – we’re trying to give them every opportunity to be fit.

“They didn’t train with the team today (Wednesday), but they have done a little bit with the fitness coaches. We’ll wait and assess them tomorrow to see how they are.

“I’ve not named the team and I’ll probably not do that until late tomorrow [Thursday] to see how they are.”

This news will undoubtedly leave the Irons boss nervous, especially as Antonio is currently the Hammers’ only natural option at striker, and after having another solid season for the East London club with him scoring eight Premier League goals in 28 games, Moyes will find it very difficult to replace him if he isn’t able to play tonight.

It’s not just his goals output that the Hammers will miss though, as he has also created seven more in the league this season, making on average 1.5 key passes per game – showing how important his creativity is for the club too.

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Meanwhile, 32-year-old Cresswell has started 22 games in the top flight, scoring once and setting up three, proving he is also still a key asset to the team, and his leadership will surely be missed in such an important game like this one.

In other news: Moyes must unleash “beautiful” £17.5m West Ham gem today, he creates “magical” moments