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Former Granada manager Diego Martinez could potentially replace Marcelo Bielsa as Leeds United boss, according to journalist Adam Leventhal.

The Lowdown: Bielsa’s contract expiration

Bielsa has been a wonderful manager for the Whites since 2018, but it remains to be seen how long he will be in the Elland Road hot-seat.

The 66-year-old’s current Leeds deal expires at the end of this season and it could be that he feels next summer is the time to move on, having hopefully cemented the club as a permanent fixture back in the top flight.

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The Latest: Martinez linked with Leeds

Should Bielsa bring an end to his time at Leeds, Martinez is somebody who could come in as his replacement.

That’s according to The Athletic‘s Leventhal, who states that he “has links with Leeds director of football Victor Orta” and that working in England is “on his radar.”

Martinez is currently without a club, having left Granada earlier this year.

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The Verdict: Bielsa hopefully stays

Martinez is a talented young manager known for operating on a tight budget and making his teams tough and compact with electrifying counter-attacks, but the hope is that there is no need to find a Bielsa replacement for a number of years.

The Argentine is arguably the most important figure at Elland Road, transforming the club in the last three years and bringing great quality and success on the pitch.

Bielsa is known for only signing one-year deals, so hopefully, that happens again when his current contract runs out. If it doesn’t, Martinez, with a 1.62 points-per-game average at Granada, is certainly a name to keep an eye on.

In other news, Leeds have been boosted ahead of their Premier League clash with Southampton. Read more here.

The Indian board has named a 14-member squad for the Asia Cup that contains no surprises

Wisden Cricinfo staff22-Jul-2009

Ajit Agarkar: he may not get much cricket this season, but the Olympics are coming …© Getty Images
The Indian board has named a 14-member squad for the Asia Cup that contains no surprises. The only decision that was remotely arguable was the inclusion of Parthiv Patel as a specialist wicketkeeper, at the expense of a back-up batsman. The team management has recently emphasised that Rahul Dravid will keep wicket in one-dayers, which means that if any of the seven batsmen get injured, there will be no replacement, and either Patel or an extra bowler will play. Hemang Badani, Rohan Gavaskar and Ramesh Powar, the contenders for that slot, have all been omitted.Badani, Gavaskar and Powar do have the consolation of having been named in the India A squad set to tour Zimbabwe later this month. But Ajit Agarkar and Murali Kartik have not even got that, being left out of both the senior and A squads. Explaining this decision, SK Nair, the board’s secretary, said: “They [Agarkar and Kartik] have got enough opportunities, and are part of the national set-up. We wanted to give newer players a chance in the India A side.” Kartik, who is hardly any more established than the likes of Badani, Sairaj Bahutule and Aakash Chopra, may not be too impressed by this explanation.The India A squad will be captained by Bahutule and coached by Sandeep Patil and includes, among a host of promising players, the Tamil Nadu wicketkeeper, Dinesh Karthik, Delhi’s prolific opener Gautam Gambhir, and Mumbai’s tearaway fast bowler Munaf Patel.Indian squad for Asia Cup
Sourav Ganguly (capt), Rahul Dravid (wk), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Parthiv Patel (wk), Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Irfan Pathan, Ashish Nehra.India A team for tour of Zimbabwe
Hemang Badani, Aakash Chopra, Gautam Gambhir, Sridharan Sriram, Rohan Gavaskar, Sairaj Bahutule (capt), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Amit Bhandari, Munaf Patel, Aavishkar Salvi, MS Dhoni, Ramesh Powar, Dheeraj Jadhav, Shib Shankar Paul, Yogesh Golwalkar. Coach: Sandeep Patil.

The mediator in the dispute between WICB and the WIPA welcomed the appointment of a facilitator by the board to settle the dispute amicably

Cricinfo staff30-Jul-2009Shridath Ramphal, the mediator in the bitter dispute between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the West Indies Players Association (WIPA), welcomed the appointment of a facilitator by the board to settle the issue amicably. Gerard Pinard, an industrial practitioner, is representing the board and Shridath was pleased with the early meetings.”This I think is a very positive step forward,” Shridath told . “Using a facilitator is a technique of mediation that you use to try to draw back from the more hostile exchanges. It helps develop the processes towards reconciliation through facilitators chosen by the parties, being persons in whom they have confidence, to speak for them and to agree for them, to do adeal for them if you like, to make the compromises.”Shridath was hopeful of settling the dispute by the end of August. The next meeting is scheduled for the forthcoming week.Ramphal, a former commonwealth secretary-general, was appointed to mediate after the first-choice West Indies players refused to play in the ongoing home series against Bangladesh, citing pay and contract issues as their main grievances. West Indies lost both the Test and the ODI series and the same weakened squad was named for the Champions Trophy. The players ended the strike but their availability for international cricket will depend on how soon the dispute is resolved.

A journalist has revealed a move from Newcastle United ‘behind the scenes’ for Nabil Fekir.

The Lowdown: Creative midfielder wanted

With the St. James’ Park faithful being linked with the likes of Aaron Ramsey and Philippe Coutinho since the takeover was completed by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) consortium, it is clear that the new owners are after a creative midfield player.

It would enable Joe Willock to sit a little deeper and make those trademark late runs into the box, while also giving more supply to the likes of Callum Wilson and Allan Saint-Maximin.

The Latest: Fekir contact

As per Sebastien Denis, the North East club have made contact ‘behind the scenes’ over a potential deal for Fekir, adding that the ‘interest is real’.

However, the French journalist also notes that there is a ‘real possibility’ of an extension to his current contract at Real Betis.

The Verdict: Sign him up

At 28 years of age, Fekir is in his prime, and so would be a ready-made option to fit straight into the team.

Having won the FIFA World Cup with France back in 2018, he certainly knows how to win and perform in big games, and would be a character as much needed off of the pitch as on it.

With no fewer than 83 goals and a further 61 assists combined in his club career for Lyon and Betis so far (Transfermarkt), Fekir certainly knows where the net is, and so would be a shrewd addition from the Magpies.

In other news, find out which ‘wizard’ is ‘interested’ in a NUFC role here!

Reliable European journalist Jan Aage Fjortoft has named former Borussia Dortmund boss Lucien Favre as the “favourite” to replace Steve Bruce at Newcastle United.

What’s the story?

The Magpies confirmed earlier on Wednesday morning that Bruce had left the club via mutual consent, and that has naturally prompted the inevitable merry-go-round of manager names being linked with the job at St James’ Park.

And, according to Fjortoft, there is already a leading contender to replace Bruce.

Writing on Twitter, he said: “I understand Lucien Favre is the favorite to get the Newcastle job.”

Attacking football at St James’ Park

In his time at Dortmund, Favre enhanced his reputation as a manager who could get his side’s attacking pieces firing on all cylinders.

A passage that perfectly summarises his brand of football can be found on the Bundesliga’s official website, which said: “If Jürgen Klopp’s BVB played ‘heavy metal football’, Favre’s Dortmund are modern jazz: there’s a lot of room for improvisation and individual expression, but it’s within a well-defined framework that ensures all the pieces fit harmoniously.”

The Swiss coach took the club forward with an energetic, free-flowing style of football, with Favre’s side scoring 84 times throughout the 2019/20 campaign, a tally that was only second to Bayern Munich.

Given the fact he’s had experience managing one of German football’s biggest teams, taking on the prospect of managing Newcastle in this new era shouldn’t be as daunting as it would be for someone far less experienced.

Favre will know all about the pressure and expectation that comes with taking on a job at such a prestigious club, and his history of getting his teams to play attacking football bodes well for Magpies fans, who will surely be buzzing.

Meanwhile, George Caulkin has dropped some behind-the-scenes insight on PIF…

Matthew Hayden has suggested scrapping the Champions Trophy and creating a two-month window for the IPL in order to revive spectator interest in the game

Cricinfo staff22-Aug-2009Matthew Hayden, the former Australia opener, has suggested scrapping the Champions Trophy and creating a two-month window for the IPL in order to revive spectator interest in the game.”Playing the World Twenty20 every other year is too much,” Hayden wrote in his column in the . “And why have the Champions Trophy when you’ve already got a 50-over World Cup?”The Champions Trophy was postponed to September 2009 and shifted to South Africa after teams expressed security concerns about playing in Pakistan last year. The ICC has been trying to rebrand the tournament as a short two-week elite tournament played at just two venues – Wanderers and Supersport Park.Hayden, who was appointed a board director by Cricket Australia earlier this month, listed down his suggestions after being challenged on air during by cricket writer Christopher Martin-Jenkins to come up with solutions to re-jig a jam-packed international calendar full of “meaningless matches”.England will be playing seven ODIs against Australia at the end of the Ashes and Hayden said five matches were enough for any bi-lateral series. He also said the 50- and 20-over World Cups should be played in the same cycle.Hayden, a key member of the Chennai Super Kings franchise, said no international cricket should be played during the proposed two-month window of the IPL, which according to him had brought the game to a “tipping point”. “The IPL has the ability to generate international fan bases in the same way as achieved by the English football’s Premier League. I believe some IPL matches should go on the road each year and be played in other countries, to make it a global competition. The sooner the world of cricket embraces the IPL, the sooner everyone can find ways to benefit from its massive potential.”Hayden also lent his support to the concept of a Test Championship that the MCC’s World Cricket Committee put forth last month. Hayden rejected the ICC’s Future Tours Programme and instead proposed a world series of the top eight teams on a rolling calendar with finals every two years. He said Zimbabwe and Bangladesh’s dismal Test records disqualified them from the Test championship. Bangladesh’s only three Test wins have come against Zimbabwe and a second-string West Indies side, missing senior players who were on strike. “When a team like Australia play a team like Bangladesh in a Test series, you’ve got problems. It can’t be fun for the underdogs and it’s no challenge for the favourites. Just as importantly, it’s not a good spectacle.”Hayden said the core of the Test championship would be the iconic series – the Ashes and India v Pakistan. “They should stay as five-match series. Aside from those ties, teams are pooled in two groups, with everyone playing each other and scoring points for wins, draws and series wins, and picking up bonus points for stand-out batting and bowling performances. The leading two in each group would progress to semi-finals and a final, the other would enter a rankings play-off system.”This way, every game means something – even the dead rubber at the end of a series between two lesser sides. Every Test fits into a bigger picture that adds up to a championship. It gives players something to aim for, fans a format they can follow, and commercial stakeholders with something that’s compact and exciting. By changing Test cricket into something more relevant and therefore more marketable, additional revenue is generated. More revenue in the sport is good for everyone, including players and the ability of the game to develop.”Hayden was also in favour of playing matches indoor to avoid losing days to rain or poor pitches like in Antigua. He said it was important to have a fixed global calendar for cricket that fans could identify with. “Football fans instinctively know if they’re in a World Cup year, or Euro Champs year. They know when seasons start when trophies are decided, give or take. Not so in cricket. A universal calendar is fundamental to all the above solutions. Once this is in place, competitions for each of the different formats of the game can be settled upon. Fans, broadcasters, sponsors, players – everyone will know where they stand.”

Led by Murali and Thushara, Sri Lanka made light work of New Zealand’s resistance, romping to a 202-run win

The Bulletin by Dileep Premachandran22-Aug-2009
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
Muttiah Muralitharan hurried New Zealand to their demise•AFPWith the rain clouds staying away and the Galle sky clear, Sri Lankaromped to victory in the first Test, finishing off proceedingsmid-afternoon. The New Zealand tail offered far more resistance than thetop order – Daniel Vettori led the way with a brave 67 – but with thespinners coming into their own after early breakthroughs from ThilanThushara, Sri Lanka eased to a 202-run win. Fittingly MuttiahMuralitharan, who had taken his 100th wicket in Galle earlier in thematch, had the final say, running out Brendon McCullum with a superb throwfrom mid-off to finish off proceedings.Any realistic hopes that New Zealand had of survival had disappeared soonafter lunch, when Jesse Ryder edged Murali behind. McCullum and Vettoristaved off the inevitable for a while, and there was polite applause forVettori when he reached his half-century. Two neat pulls for four offThushara followed, but by then both Murali and Ajantha Mendis were turningthe ball at wicked angles.And it was Mendis who delivered, coming round the wicket and turning onesharply away to take the edge of Vettori’s bat. Once again PrasannaJayawardene’s glovework was smooth, and as Vettori walked back,it was only a matter of when Sri Lanka would wrap things up. McCullumswung Murali for a six, and then swept him for four to rage against dyinglight, and there were a couple of lovely drives too from Jeetan Patel. Butafter Mendis had seen him dropped by Malinda Warnapura, substituting forAngelo Mathews, at short leg, Murali struck, with the doosra luring himforward and Prasanna doing the rest.Iain O’Brien went caught at silly point off the inside edge, and McCullumthen made the mistake of taking on Murali’s throwing arm to end thecontest. The damage, though, had been done much earlier, as Sri Lankastarted the morning with some exceptionally tidy overs. The pressureeventually told once Thushara switched the angle of attack to round thewicket. Martin Guptill was clueless against one that came in with the armand then darted away to clip the top of off stump. Soon after, TimMcIntosh, perhaps still suffering the after-effects of illness, wassquared up, and Thilan Samaraweera took a fine low catch at third slip.McIntosh waited for the third umpire’s decision, but had to walk offeventually.An even heftier blow came soon after. Kumar Sangakkara threw the ball tohis predecessor as captain, and when Mahela Jayawardene got Ross Taylor totickle on into Prasanna’s hands down the leg side, the Lankan celebrationswere raucous. Up in the dressing room, Trevor Bayliss, the coach, held hishead in his hands in disbelief.With the fields more attacking, both Vettori and Jacob Oram had theopportunity to play some strokes. Vettori played a couple of lovelydrives, and the sweep and pull were also employed by both as thescoreboard ticked along. But just when it seemed that they might get tolunch without further damage, Oram tried to sweep a straighter one fromMendis, and missed.Both Vettori and Ryder saw edges off Murali evade wicketkeeper and slipand go for four, but there was to be no great escape for New Zealand. SriLanka, whose home form is the envy of so many, chipped away relentlesslyand with Thushara adding a cutting edge to the wiles of Murali and Mendis,victory was as inevitable as it was emphatic.

Journalist Craig Hope has dropped a fresh Newcastle managerial update regarding Belgium coach Roberto Martinez.

What’s the talk?

According to the Daily Mail reporter, the Magpies are looking at the Spaniard as a potential option, with talks set to take place with candidates throughout the coming week.

On Martinez, Hope tweeted: “Understand Belgium boss is on shortlist & would cost less than £2m in compo.”

Frustration for Newcastle fans

Newcastle fans may well be left frustrated by this latest update from Hope as Martinez would be an uninspiring appointment when considering some of the other names linked with the vacancy. The likes of Erik ten Hag and Antonio Conte have been touted with the role and supporters could be gutted if it ends up being the Belgium head coach instead.

In nearly 15 years as a manager, his FA Cup success with Wigan remains the only trophy he has won in his coaching career. He has had 66 games in charge of Belgium and is yet to win an international tournament, whilst he was also unable to lift silverware in a three-year spell with Everton.

Martinez led to the Toffees to two bottom-half finishes in the Premier League in his three seasons, having finished between 15th and 18th in all four of his campaigns in charge of Wigan, leading them to relegation and an FA Cup victory in his final year at the club. This suggests that he does not have the talent required to lead the Magpies into the top half of the table.

Ten Hag, on the other hand, has won five trophies in nine years as a manager at senior level. He has earned 2.34 points per game in 181 matches in charge of Ajax, winning two league titles along the way. Conte has also enjoyed success throughout his career, winning nine trophies in 15 years as a manager, including a Premier League title with Chelsea and four Serie A crowns.

This suggests that they would both be better appointments for Newcastle than Martinez if PIF want a head coach who can lead them to glory in the coming years. Supporters would surely love to see the club win a trophy after many barren decades and that is why they could be frustrated to hear that the former Everton boss is on the shortlist to replace Steve Bruce.

AND in other news, Jones must unleash £15.75m-rated Newcastle beast against Chelsea, he’s a “manager’s dream”…

In the last ten or so overs at Centurion was found the very essence ofPakistan and Australia as cricket nations, and their beauty

Osman Samiuddin in Centurion01-Oct-2009In the last ten or so overs in Centurion was found the very essence ofPakistan and Australia as cricket nations, and their beauty. It is whypeople love one country and so respect and fear the other. That anothernation could have benefitted from this almighty slugfest adds to the valueof this ICC Champions Trophy.There is not a country in the world that can pull off, even precipitate,the kind of crazy that Pakistan did here, let alone with the regularitythat Pakistan does it. It is unique and it is theirs to unveil when theysee fit. They have done it across the ages, in most countries, in allconditions, against all opposition and it is a thrill unlike others.Usually it happens at least likely moments when the game is drifting.Today, Australia was toughing it out, chasing a small total, but there wasa sense, even if a fleeting one, that a wicket might just do something. Itwas there today and it has been there on many such occasions, in Multan in2005 against England, through the 1992 series against the same opponent, very often against New Zealand, also in South Africa in the early-to-mid 90s. Even when Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey were grinding along, so well were Pakistan bowling and so sluggish was the track that one wicket was going to make it, just one.So Ponting then fell to an outstanding catch in the deep, which is oftenhow these things emerge, to take on a life of their own. It happenedduring the 1992-93 Hamilton Test where an Asif Mujtaba reflex-stunner at short leg lit up the mother of all disintegrations. It happened against the same opponents just a few months back, on neutral territory, where Shahid Afridi’s catch turned the match on its head, as well as the tournament itself. Sometimes it is a run-out.And then everything changes. Fielders become panthers, more alert; bowlerssharpen their eyes and hone in on the length, and batsmen panic, as ifthey have suddenly discovered that the person lying down next to them foryears is in fact someone else entirely. Rana Naved-ul-Hasan bowled twomaidens in a row during the death overs (and gave just one the overbefore), having already beaten Hussey with a yorker so good, even hedidn’t see it hit the stumps. Mohammad Asif, just back from hell, snuckout a two-wicket over; Umar Gul came back to bowl the last over of thegame cold, having not bowled since the 15th over of the chase, yetpromptly produced yorkers as if he had been in the nets practising themnon-stop in the interim.Fielders were diving around, the captain was trying to keep a lid onthings and Australia lost six wickets for 47 runs in just over 14 overs:magic. Waqar Younis wasn’t around and Wasim Akram was only in thecommentary box, having just been inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame, butthey lurked over this period.That Pakistan fell just short is precisely what makes Australia,Australia. Immediately after the game, Ian Chappell explained it: Australia never beat themselves. He has said it before, but it does notdiminish any on repetition. They just do not implode as other teams mightunder this kind of tension. You have to beat them, for they will give younothing and there is almost always someone who will not lie down andsuccumb to the madness around them.Brett Lee and Nathan Hauritz did it here, Lee somehow squirting a driveoff an outside edge through cover for a boundary, when Pakistan werefavourites with 18 needed off 18 balls, off a ball he didn’t pick.Countless others have done it before him. Any team other than Australia,Younis said later, would have bottled it, in a blaze of poor shots.”I didn’t think it was going to go this close with 20 overs left to behonest,” Ponting said. “We sneaked over the line and we’re through to thesemis, the stage we wanted to be at.”Of course they did and of course they are, because they always are,irrespective of what any rankings might say. Fortunately for everyone, ittook the tightest match of the tournament for them to do it.

Leeds scored a last-gasp equaliser against Wolves on Saturday as they rescued a point in the Premier League at Elland Road against Bruno Lage’s team.

Hee-Chan Hwang’s goal appeared destined to win the three points for the travelling side, only for a last-minute penalty from Rodrigo to ensure that the points were shared between the two teams.

The result means that Leeds remain 17th in the table and they are now three points ahead of the drop zone, with Burnley and Newcastle on four points and Norwich, in 20th, on two points.

Whilst Rodrigo may take the applause for scoring the spot-kick late on to seal a point, another player was Marcelo Bielsa’s real hero during the match – Brazil international Raphinha.

Despite being withdrawn early in the second-half with an injury concern, Raphinha was Leeds’ most impressive performer as he produced a sublime display on the pitch. The Brazilian was a constant threat down the right wing for the Whites and was unfortunate not to come off with an assist for his troubles.

On the ball, the wing wizard was spell-binding. Per SofaScore, he had three shots on goal, created two chances and completed an incredible nine dribbles, with a 100% success rate, as he helped Leeds up the pitch in transition.

His dribbling ability opened up space in the final third and allowed him to drive down the flank, which ultimately led to him creating two opportunities. This piled on the pressure for Leeds and began to wear Wolves down, playing a part in the eventual equaliser after he left the field.

Defensively, he was just as good. Per SofaScore, he won a whopping 12 duels, losing four, and made three interceptions and two tackles. He also managed to avoid being dribbled past in the game, with these statistics showing that he was able to put in a sturdy defensive display to go along with his exceptional attacking talents – making it the perfect all-around showing from the ex-Rennes flyer.

Therefore, he was the real star of the show for the Yorkshire side. Rodrigo may have scored the all-important goal, but Raphinha’s stunning display laid the groundwork for Leeds to go on and fight hard for the equaliser as he led by example until his injury forced him out of the game. Hopefully, he will be back fit and raring to go with a similar performance against Norwich next weekend.

AND in other news, Phil Hay makes big Leeds transfer claim that’ll surely leave fans buzzing…