Tag Futebol

Cesc Fabregas learned his trade at Arsenal before becoming a regular member of the first team across an eight-year spell.

In 2011, the Spaniard returned to Barcelona, where he won six trophies including the La Liga title during a three-year spell.

Controversially in 2014, the midfielder joined Arsenal’s London rivals Chelsea and has gone on to win two Premier League crowns and the League Cup.

Fabregas scooped just one trophy – the FA Cup – during his time with the Gunners, but he was an influential figure and captained the side at the age of 21.

Understandably, plenty of Arsenal fans were hurt by the midfielder’s decision to join Chelsea, and some have still not come to terms with it.

Under Blues boss Antonio Conte last year, questions arose over Fabregas’s future as he was not a regular member of the first team.

This season, though, the 31-year-old – valued at £31.5m by Transfermarkt – has made 44 appearances in all competitions, scoring three goals and creating five assists.

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On Reddit, an Arsenal fan opened a discussion about Fabregas’s captaincy at the North London club, and others expressed their sadness that he was no longer part of the fold.

Comment from discussion Does it still shock anyone that Fabregas was Arsenal captain at only 21 years of age?.Comment from discussion Does it still shock anyone that Fabregas was Arsenal captain at only 21 years of age?.Comment from discussion Does it still shock anyone that Fabregas was Arsenal captain at only 21 years of age?.Comment from discussion Does it still shock anyone that Fabregas was Arsenal captain at only 21 years of age?.Comment from discussion Does it still shock anyone that Fabregas was Arsenal captain at only 21 years of age?.Comment from discussion Does it still shock anyone that Fabregas was Arsenal captain at only 21 years of age?.Comment from discussion Does it still shock anyone that Fabregas was Arsenal captain at only 21 years of age?.

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It is widely know that the results of pre-season games mean very little. Cliché after cliché is rolled out about it being about the performance, or ‘gelling’ a new side and various other such cringe-worthy comments that roll off the tongues of football managers like lies from a politician. Pre-season results don’t really mean all that much, but the fitness of players needs to be maintained in the weeks preceding the campaign. Maybe it’s that players don’t work hard enough without the idea of a real fixture, but these pseudo-competitive tournaments are becoming increasingly tiresome as we see celebrities pose with endless Premier League footballers as if they have supported the club for decades.

Several managers have had their say on what they would like to do in pre-season, but crucially, making sure their men get enough rest is absolutely vital to the success of the first few weeks. With each season appearing to end later and later (and the detestable post-season friendlies) the time for rest over summer is decreasing year on year and each pre-season tournament halfway around the world closes down the window for summer relaxation.

The Copa America this summer has left several players missing much of their pre-season excitement, but would this be a problem if they didn’t insist on travelling to another corner of the world?

The Barclays Asia Trophy has recently come to an end and, with three Premier League clubs competing, one of which faced a near walk-through game against a local ‘all-star’ team which just reflected the intensity of the whole ‘tournament’ as a whole. Maybe the training in heat and humidity is beneficial to pre-season preparations, but the whole façade always seems based on building the profile of the club from a business perspective rather than increasing chances of victory on the pitch.

The business benefits of these tournaments are obvious and clubs are being demanded to be run more and more like businesses with the effects of FFP. However, managers have voiced concerns at the planning of pre-season tours that they feel are not helpful to their preparation. If Chelsea or Manchester City want to play Roma or Real Madrid in a pre-season friendly, the additional travel to Melbourne of Los Angeles seems hard to justify to fitness coaches and physios.

By all means, looking to build the club from a business point of view makes sense, but the impact on the team’s conditioning should not be overlooked. The travel times might not have a particularly negative effect on players, but if managers are unable to run pre-season as they want to it cannot be good for the squad.

Managers rely heavily only the start to a season and often do not recover if they have a particularly bad first month or two. Slightly competitive football may be a necessity for some managers, but there are undoubtedly occasions where the commercial obligations of trips to Australasia or North America have had a negative effect on the players.

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Ultimately, very minor pre-season tournaments, like the Barclays Asia Trophy or Emirates Cup, have little to no effect on helping players to hit the ground running. It may well help to sell grounds out around the world, but the false competitive image should be no justification for the money making ventures to the Far-East or LA.

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers is pondering the future of midfielder Jonjo Shelvey as Norwich City became the first team to make an enquiry, according to the Daily Mail.

Shelvey is with the England under-21’s in Isreal at present and is to be allowed an extended holiday once he returns.

The 21-year-old has been a bit part player for Rodgers this season although his passion and creativity have shone when he got his chance.

Norwich are looking to spend big this summer in order to continue their stability in the top flight and having already tied down Ricky Van Wolfswinkel they have moved on to Shelvey.

West Ham have also been linked with a move for the former Charlton lad who may need to leave Merseyside in order to further his career and gain regular first team football.

Liverpool are expected to want more than the £5million Norwich are offering and so a bidding war and negotiations are set to unfold.

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Chelsea have beaten Reading 4-2 on Wednesday night to make it two wins from two games and move to the top of the Premier League table.

Frank Lampard opened the scoring with his second penalty in two matches after 18 minutes, but to their credit the Royals stormed back to take the lead at the break through Pavel Pogrebnyak and Danny Guthrie strikes.

However, the Blues managed to get back into contention with a Gary Cahill effort on 69 minutes, before Fernando Torres and Branislav Ivanovic sealed victory for the Stamford Bridge side.

Roberto Di Matteo was pleased with the efforts of his team and glad to get three more points.

“It was a very entertaining game for the supporters. I was very pleased with how we started but then we lost a bit of our composure,” he told Sky Sports.

“In the second half we wanted to keep them under pressure and we did so. We had to take a bit of a risk but we managed to get the goals and win the game.”

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By Gareth McKnight

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Three-member panel also laid partial blame on Ihsanullah himself for “non-compliance with the prescribed rehabilitation plan”

Danyal Rasool02-May-2024The PCB’s chief medical officer Dr Sohail Saleem has quit after a damning independent report criticised “delays in the diagnosis of [fast bowler] Ihsanullah’s injury and inappropriate prescription of treatment”.Ihsanullah, who was injured last April and remains out with what was initially an elbow injury, did not have his right elbow pain treated, addressed and operated on appropriately, and never received the formal rehabilitation process required by his condition. These were the conclusions reached by the committee in a judgment that lays bare the extent of medical failure at the PCB over an extended period of time, particularly with respect to its treatment of injured fast bowlers.The report, comprised by an independent three-member panel, also laid partial blame on Ihsanullah himself for “non-compliance with the prescribed rehabilitation plan” even as it concluded that the plan itself was inadequate. Crucially, the panel concluded that Ihsanullah’s return to cricket remains a prospect of the distant future, recommending “aggressive physiotherapy of the right shoulder and elbow” and possible surgery if he does not recover in the 12 months.Related

• Ihsanullah's injury treatment puts PCB's medical department under scanner yet again

The report, however, reserves its most trenchant criticism for Dr Saleem, and the treatment plan Ihsanullah was eventually put under. It stated that Ihsanullah’s surgery was “planned hurriedly”, lacking specialist review and preoperative assessment. It also stated that the surgeon Dr Saleem recommended for the procedure “lacked academics and experience in the field”, calling the choice “inappropriate”.”Postoperatively, Mr Ihsanullah was not fully compliant to the rehabilitation protocols as alleged by the PCB officials,” the report said. “He continues to have medial elbow pain along with shoulder dyskinesia. He has significant elbow stiffness for which surgery is not advised currently as per advice of national and international appropriate experts in the specialty shoulder and elbow.”However, we strongly believe that in view of the talent possessed by Ihsanullah, he be physically assessed on his arrival to Pakistan whereby an appropriate rehabilitation plan be developed in a multidisciplinary fashion, including consideration of hydrodilation and the same be implemented to provide the best chance to the player to live up to his potential again.”Dr Saleem’s resignation was announced as part of the official statement the PCB issued after the conclusion of the report into the injuries of Ihsanullah was made public. It brings an ignominious end to Dr Saleem’s second stint as the PCB’s chief medical officer; he quit in 2021 after an unsuccessful attempt by the PCB at holding a PSL season in a Covid-19 bubble in 2021, before being brought back to the cricket board under Najam Sethi’s chairmanship in early 2023.There was little by way of information regarding Ihsanullah’s injury for nearly a full year after it happened last April. The issue was brought back into the spotlight after Multan Sultans owner Ali Tareen took to Twitter last month to reveal it was Sultans and not the PCB who bore the brunt of his living expenses while he recovered, saying they would also arrange for Ihsanullah to travel to England later this month “to be assessed by a world-renowned surgeon”.He told ESPNcricinfo at the time the PCB’s medical department failed to pick up an elbow fracture in the scans they conducted, and subsequently put him on a training regimen that included regular bowling and gym work before a serious injury had been conclusively ruled out.The comments put the PCB’s medical department under the scanner once more, with the PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi promising an independent inquiry. At the time, Dr Saleem spoke to ESPNcricinfo, admitting a “delay” in Ihsanullah’s diagnosis, but maintaining there was “no mishandling”.That version has been decisively rejected by the committee’s conclusions. Dr Saleem did say Ihsanullah was not compliant with the rehabilitation process, a rare point of agreement between the outgoing chief medical officer and the committee’s report, though a number of players, and coaching and management staff, have privately expressed to ESPNcricinfo that there existed a trust deficit between several players and Dr Saleem.In the last two years, multiple Pakistan fast bowlers have suffered lengthy injury layoffs. In July 2022, when Shaheen Shah Afridi suffered a knee ligament injury, it was also initially undiagnosed. He attended camps and travelled with the team for a month, before flying to the UK while paying for himself and staying in a two-star hotel as he sought independent treatment. It was only after Shahid Afridi complained publicly that the PCB said they would cover all of Shaheen’s expenses.Naseem Shah was known to be managing a back and shoulder complaint that caused him discomfort in the build-up to his right shoulder injury, which happened two months after Afridi was injured, and caused a six-month lay-off. That led to Naseem missing the World Cup and the Australia tour that followed.The report was commissioned by Naqvi, who was elected PCB chairman in February. It was also tasked with investigating the injury-related absences of fast bowlers Arshad Iqbal and Zeeshan Zameer, as well as women’s batter Shawal Zulfiqar. The committee recommended a two-month rehabilitation programme for Iqbal, examination by a foot and ankle specialist for Zameer, and a CT scan of the right shoulder for Zulfiqar.

The bilateral tour will be Ireland’s first to Bangladesh since 2008

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Jan-2023Ireland will play their first Test match against Bangladesh during their tour of the country in March and April, a visit that also includes three ODIs and three T20Is. It is Ireland’s first bilateral tour of Bangladesh since 2008.Ireland are scheduled to arrive on March 12 and, after a practice match, they will play three ODIs in Sylhet on March 18, 20 and 23. The teams then move to Chattogram for three T20Is on March 27, 29 and 31. These series follows six white-ball matches against England at home, making March quite a busy month for Bangladesh. The one-off Test against Ireland will be played in Dhaka between April 4 and 8.Ireland have played only three Test matches, the last of which was in 2019, and Cricket Ireland chief executive Warren Deutrom said they were keen to make a comeback in the format.”We are delighted to confirm Ireland men’s seven-match, multi-format tour of Bangladesh – and thank the BCB for their cooperation and support in agreeing this month-long tour,” Deutrom said. “Since the two sides first met in 1997, there has been a great on-field rivalry formed and we look forward to what looks set to be another competitive series.”Of particular interest to players and fans alike will no doubt be the last fixture on the schedule – the match marks Ireland’s return to playing Test cricket. It will undoubtedly be a challenging experience in Asian conditions for our squad, but it will be invaluable to our players’ development knowing that we will be playing a great deal of cricket in Asia over coming years.”BCB chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury said the series was a reaffirmation of Bangladesh’s “commitment to the ICC FTP”.”Ireland’s visit to Bangladesh is another exciting event in our home season after the series against India and England,” Chowdhury said. “The BCB and Cricket Ireland have a cordial and strong relationship and the two boards have worked very closely to arrange this bilateral tour despite the challenges of a busy international calendar. This is also a statement of the BCB’s commitment to the ICC FTP.”Bangladesh are also scheduled to tour Ireland in May.

The 30-year-old batter hasn’t been a regular in the longest format, having played the last of his eight Tests in December 2018

Madushka Balasuriya08-Jan-2022Danushka Gunathilaka has retired from Test cricket at the age of 30, Sri Lanka Cricket has made public, confirming that the batter “will now be focusing on the shorter formats”. The update comes close on the heels of another 30-year-old batter, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, announcing his decision to quit all international cricket.Gunathilaka’s call to quit the longest format is unsurprising. He hasn’t played a Test since 2018, with his eight appearances bringing him 299 runs. He hit two half-centuries, with a best of 61. His limited-overs career, however, has been more fruitful. In 44 ODIs, he has scored 1520 runs at an average of 36.19, while in T20Is, he has 568 runs in 30 matches at a strike rate of 121.62.Those numbers might have been a bit higher had it not been for Gunathilaka’s frequent run-ins with the SLC over disciplinary issues. Since his international debut towards the end of 2015, Gunathilaka has served three separate suspensions, the latest of which came last year for breaching biobubble protocols – along with Kusal Mendis and Niroshan Dickwella – while on tour in England. That earned the three of them one-year bans, which, though, were lifted yesterday, six months early. He had previously been suspended for breaking a team curfew and showing an indifferent attitude to training.The fact that he remained in the national frame despite these infractions speaks of the left-hander’s potential. He most recently scored a blistering half-century in the Lanka Premier League final, and he had top-scored in the tournament’s inaugural edition in 2020 too.As for Rajapaksa, he had cited “familial obligations” for his decision to end his career after just a bit over two years at the international level, in which he played five ODIs and 18 T20Is.

Club confirm departure of Jared Warner to Gloucestershire on damp second day

ECB Reporters Network07-Sep-2020The second day of Yorkshire’s final-round Bob Willis Trophy clash between against Leicestershire was washed out without a ball bowled at Headingley, damaging their hopes of reaching the competition’s five-day Lord’s final.Second in the North Group and five points behind Derbyshire prior to this fixture, Yorkshire need to finish top of the group and then as one of the best two group winners to advance to the showpiece final on September 23.Heavy morning rain forced an early lunch at 12.15pm before another burst meant the postponement of a planned 2pm start. Umpires Peter Hartley and James Middlebrook later inspected in dry but gloomy conditions shortly after 4pm and deemed the outfield unplayable.Only 60.3 overs have been bowled across the two days, with Yorkshire 36 for 2 in reply to Leicestershire’s first-innings 124.That means that so far across the White Rose county’s three home games in the North Group, they have lost a little over 450 overs combined.”It’s been frustrating for the last three games if we’re being honest,” Richard Pyrah, Yorkshire’s bowling coach, said. “We won the first two games away with the next three at home, where we play well. But we’ve not played more than two days in either of the last two games added to the rain this week.”We’ve had a good start in this game and wanted to drive it home. We’ve still got time, fingers crossed, so we’ll see what happens. With the way the league tables are, we’ll have to bat well tomorrow to give ourselves a chance. If we do bat well, we’ll still be in a really good position to win the game on day four.”There’s a little bit in the pitch, and it’s been under cover all day today, so we’ll have to work hard tomorrow morning to set it up.”Meanwhile, Yorkshire have confirmed the departure of young seamer Jared Warner, who has joined Gloucestershire, following the switch made by Josh Shaw last year.”It feels amazing to have signed for Gloucestershire and I can’t wait to get started,” Warner said. “As a bowler my main strength is my pace, and I’d like to think this can complement the current Gloucestershire bowling attack nicely.”It wasn’t an easy decision to leave Yorkshire, but I feel the opportunity to go to Gloucestershire and hopefully play regular first-team cricket there is the best decision for myself and the development of my career going forward.”

Both teams are coming off losses in their most recent match, and both have six points from five games so far

The Preview by Varun Shetty07-Apr-20196:47

Can hosts Kings XI tame Sunrisers?

Big picture

Sunrisers Hyderabad have the reputation of being a model franchise. They also possess a middle order that has long had the reputation of being their weakest link. Heading into their next fixture against Kings XI Punjab at Mohali, these two dimensions will be in focus: will the franchise’s ethos, built on balance and positivity, help them come back from a humiliating 40-run defeat chasing 137, like it has in the past? Or will we see a more deadpan reaction, a reshuffle and fortification of the batting beyond their blockbuster opening pair? They’re close to the halfway point of seven matches in the season, the fixtures around which the tone for the final stages is set – that frenzied, volatile period during which certain teams specialise in sneaking in and rattling the favourites.Kings XI have often been that team in the IPL, but have begun this season looking much better than a late-doors spoilsport. They have six points from five games, but have only really been below-par on one occasion, when they doled out schoolboy errors to lose by 28 runs to Kolkata Knight Riders.

Form guide

Kings XI: Lost to Super Kings by 22 runs, beat Capitals by 14 runs, beat Mumbai by eight wickets
Sunrisers: Lost to Mumbai by 40 runs, beat Capitals by five wickets, beat Royal Challengers by 118 runs

Both teams have the same number of points in the same number of games, and are both coming in after losses. Are Kings XI overachieving? Are Sunrisers underachieving? That assessment will have to wait till after this game, which will divide the table into an eight-point chunk and a six-point chunk.Siddarth Kaul looks on in awe as Rashid Khan spins a different kind of ball•BCCI

Previous meeting

When they last met, Sunrisers’ top order failed and a Manish Pandey fifty took them to 132 for 6. Ankit Rajpoot took 5 for 14, and was Man of the Match, but his individual effort was overshadowed by Sunrisers collective bowling effort as Kings XI lost by 13 runs.

Likely XIs

Kings XI Punjab 1 KL Rahul (wk), 2 Chris Gayle, 3 Mayank Agarwal, 4 Sarfaraz Khan, 5 David Miller, 6 Mandeep Singh, 7 Sam Curran, 8 R Ashwin (capt), 9 M Ashwin, 10 Mohammed Shami, 11 Mujeeb Ur Rahman/Hardus Viljoen/Andrew TyeSunrisers Hyderabad 1 David Warner, 2 Jonny Bairstow (wk), 3 Vijay Shankar, 4 Manish Pandey/Ricky Bhui, 5 Yusuf Pathan, 6 Deepak Hooda, 7 Mohammad Nabi, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar (capt), 10 Sandeep Sharma, 11 Siddarth KaulSarfaraz Khan plays through the off-side•BCCI

Strategy punt

• R Ashwin likes bowling in the Powerplay, especially to left-handers. This is unlikely to change despite David Warner’s excellent record in Powerplays against spin – only one dismissal since 2016. However, if he’s paired with Sam Curran with the new ball, they could cause trouble to both openers. Warner averages 30 – his lowest – and has been out five times to left-arm seamers in the phase, while Bairstow has only 39 runs off 36 balls against spin.
• Manish Pandey is among the highest-paid players at Sunrisers and has been given a long rope by the management, as one of their elite domestic players. But his form has been on the decline since the start of 2018 and they could be well-served by giving him some time off.
• Rashid Khan has taken four wickets in five games, a below-par strike-rate for him. Sunrisers could get more wickets from him by leaving some of his overs for the slog overs where batsmen don’t have the luxury of playing him out. All his wickets this season have come in the 16-20 overs phase.

Stats that matter

• Chris Gayle has fallen four times in eight innings to Sandeep Sharma and has only managed a strike rate of 107.4 against the swing bowler.
• Sunrisers’ middle order (4-6) has contributed less than half the runs as the top order (1-3) since the start of IPL 2018; that’s 26.4% in comparison to 60.52%.
• Kings XI have been the quickest-scoring team in the middle overs this season – they strike at 9.1 per over between overs 7 and 15, whereas Sunrisers score at 8.2. Both of them have scored at 9.4 in the slog overs, but Sunrisers have been far ahead of Kings XI’s 7.4 in the Powerplay with 9.4.
• For batsmen facing at least 250 balls, Manish Pandey has the worst average – 22.78 – and boundary rate – 10.3 balls per boundary – since IPL 2018.

Nick Winter, who showed an ability to swing the Dukes ball, impressed for South Australia with three wickets as Victoria ended the second day still 131 runs behind

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Feb-2018
Getty Images

Cameron White led Victoria’s reply but the young left-arm paceman Nick Winter impressed for South Australia on day two of the Sheffield Shield match at Adelaide Oval. Peter Handscomb, in Australia’s squad for the tour to South Africa, was dismissed for a duck.Victoria made a strong start against the South Australia bowlers as Marcus Harris and Travis Dean added 114 for the first wicket in response to SA’s total of 379 either side of the lunch interval.However Winter, who showed an ability to swing the Dukes ball, persisted and was rewarded with the first three wickets of the innings. These included Handscomb, dragging a full delivery onto his stumps after it swung back just enough to beat the middle of the bat.Eamonn Vines helped White steady the innings before he was pinned lbw by Tom Cooper’s part-time offspin, and Matthew Short fell to Joe Mennie before stumps were taken, with Victoria still 131 runs in deficit.