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Manchester United are allegedly preparing an €80m offer to sign Real Madrid midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni.

Are Man United signing another midfielder?

The Red Devils and Erik ten Hag have been productive so far this summer in the transfer market, securing the services of Mason Mount and Andre Onana from Chelsea and Inter Milan in separate big-money deals.

The club also look set to splash the cash again on Atalanta forward Rasmus Hojlund, with a transfer worth a total of £72m being finalised and potentially announced on Saturday.

Read The Latest Man United Transfer News HERE…

Fabrizio Romano recently claimed that United’s focus will be on signing another new midfielder after Hojlund, and one player who has been heavily linked is Fiorentina’s Sofyan Amrabat.

The Morocco international, who worked under Ten Hag at FC Utrecht, has remained coy when asked about his future recently, saying:

“I don’t know if I’m leaving… maybe I can stay here at Fiorentina. I don’t know, I could remain.”

However, reports this week have claimed that a move to Man United is advancing, with the player’s representatives in Manchester to discuss a deal. Fiorentina want around £30m for the 26-year-old, but it appears as if the club also have their eyes on Tchouameni.

The Faithful MUFC relayed an update from Spanish outlet Sport in the last 48 hours regarding Tchouameni and a potential move to Old Trafford.

It is claimed that Ten Hag has personally asked United officials to sign the midfielder over the coming weeks, with those in Manchester now preparing an offer ‘very similar’ to the one Real Madrid paid one year ago – a guaranteed fee of €80m (£69m).

Who is Aurelien Tchouameni?

Tchouameni is primarily a defensive midfielder who can also play slightly further forward in a central midfield role if needed. The 23-year-old, sponsored by Nike, came through the academy at Bordeaux before joining AS Monaco in 2020.

He spent two years and made 95 appearances for Monaco before signing for Real Madrid, where he has gone on to turn out on 50 occasions. The France international is valued at €85m by Transfermarkt and is under contract until 2028.

He has caught the eye at the Bernabeu since making the move, with United legend Rio Ferdinand saying Tchouameni is a “superb talent” who can produce “moments out of nowhere”.

“Listen, Tchouameni is a young kid, he’s going to make mistakes but he’s a superb talent, he produces moments out of nowhere, incredible player.

“Replacing Pogba in a France XI is not an easy task, but so far, Tchouameni has been superb. Tchouameni showed why he plays for Real Madrid. He has the patience, talent, control, he has everything you need.”

He is on a deal worth €240,000-a-week in Spain, though, so alongside a big fee, you’d expect United would need to offer the player a huge salary if they are to stand a chance of securing his services.

It could well be one to keep an eye on, but with the finances involved, you could argue that a move for Amrabat is more realistic, as the club’s spending will go over £150m after Hojlund signs on the dotted line.

Jason Holder has said that while he has heard Chris Gayle’s talk of a Test return he does not believe many of the absent West Indies’ players are interested in the longest format

George Dobell09-Sep-2017Jason Holder has played down the prospect of “big name” West Indies players re-joining the Test team, stating “we have the best of the lot right now.”With Cricket West Indies having recently relaxed their selection criteria and offered an amnesty to those players who have chosen to play in T20 leagues, it had been presumed the likes of Sunil Narine, Darren Bravo, Chris Gayle and Kieron Pollard (who has never played Test cricket) might come into consideration ahead of series against Zimbabwe and New Zealand.But Holder, West Indies’ captain, suggested that, apart from Bravo and perhaps Gayle, he “didn’t think there’s anybody interested in playing Test cricket that we can call upon.””Darren Bravo is a guy who has done well for us in the recent past,” Holder said. “But apart from Darren I don’t think there’s anybody else who’s interested in playing Test cricket that we can really call upon or the so-called big names people are looking for.”Chris has probably hinted that he would like to play if he’s fit enough. He’s always said he would like to play. I spoke to him a while back. We would love to have a guy like Chris in our side. He brings a lot.”But apart from those two players I don’t think there’s anybody else we can really look to.”While Bravo’s return would appear close to automatic – Kyle Hope failed to take his chance in England, averaging just 6.83 batting at No. 3 in the series – Holder described himself as “extremely proud” of the performance of his young team and hinted that he would be reluctant to see too many of them replaced. Shane Dowrich, who averaged 4.80 and struggled with the gloves, might also come under pressure from the likes of Denesh Ramdin.”I think we’ve got the best of the lot [playing] right now,” he said. “I’m really, really happy with this squad to be honest. I enjoy playing cricket with this squad and I enjoy leading this squad. I wouldn’t trade this squad for the world.”Speaking after being beaten in the deciding Test against England at Lord’s, Holder was encouraged with the way his side had pushed for what would have been a shock series victory.”I’m extremely proud, can’t really fault the guys for effort,” he said. “We’ve still got a lot of room for improvement, still got a long way to go before we can get consistent performances. That said, not a bad tour of England, could have been better, obviously, but I’m still very proud.”The credit must go to the bowlers. After the Headingley Test match we asked for another big effort. The way we came out here first innings and bowled, I think at the start of the match if you said we’d have got England for 190, we’d have taken that.”While the bowling was consistently challenging after the aberration of Edgbaston, West Indies’ win at Headingley in the second Test – their first in England for 17 years – was built on the batting performances of Shai Hope, who scored hundreds in each innings, and Kraigg Brathwaite.Holder said he wanted the team to build on what they had started in their next two tours, in Zimbabwe next month and then New Zealand.”For a first tour here for many of us, I still think it’s a hell of an achievement and fight we put up,” Holder said. “Hopefully we can learn from this, we have New Zealand at the end of the year which could be similar conditions and similar type of bowlers, so it should be good chance to take what we’ve learned here into that series. But first we’ve got Zimbabwe, in a few weeks time, so hopefully we can really kick on from there.”Obviously Shai was outstanding in this entire series and we must not forget Kraigg’s contribution as well, he really did a hell of a job, especially at Headingley. Unfortunately we didn’t get more batsmen to carry on, lots of us got starts but didn’t carry on, and we let ourselves down with our fielding, probably this entire series. We dropped quite a few chances and gave good players two opportunities to bat, and in international cricket they’ll make you pay for it.”I think we’ve shown improvement. When we sit down and critique each series, we just try to look for improvement. We’ve definitely shown that, especially in our bowling, improving our consistency there … But hopefully guys can gain a lot of confidence form this series against a world-class side and top-class bowling unit. To be able to achieve something in this series speaks a lot.”

Manchester United are still active in the transfer market with only a few weeks left to secure new signings and now a fresh update has emerged from a reliable source on a potential target.

Who are Man United trying to sign?

According to Italian journalist and transfer insider Fabrizio Romano, Man United have "contacted" Bayern Munich regarding their interest in singing one of their players.

Romano revealed on Twitter this weekend:

"Understand Manchester United have contacted Bayern for Benjamin Pavard deal.

"There’s still no green light from Bayern. But Pavard intention is clear: he wants to leave and try new chapter.

"Pavard won’t sign new deal at Bayern and current one expires in June 2024."

Read the latest Man United transfer news HERE…

The journalist then followed up his tweet on Sunday morning revealing:

"Bayern rejected United's first approach for Benjamin Pavard…but Man United remain there as Benji Pavard wants the move. He won’t sign new deal at Bayern and insists to leave."

How good is Benjamin Pavard?

Erik ten Hag is clearly still keen to bolster his defensive presence after securing a deal for new goalkeeper Andre Onana already and with £80m Harry Maguire's future hanging in the balance it could become a necessity to add depth in the remaining weeks of the window.

West Ham United are keen to sign the former Red Devils captain this summer and have already agreed a £30m deal, however, the Hammers are still working on convincing Maguire to make the move to East London.

As a result, the signing of Pavard – who has a reported £30m price tag himself – would be a great piece of business for Ten Hag as the Bayern defender has the quality to provide strong competition and rotation in Man United's back-line, as well as being the perfect profile of player to become the Dutch coach's next Jurrien Timber.

The talented Frenchman is one of the most highly-rated ball-playing defenders across the top five European leagues – ranking in the top 8% of his positional peers for non-penalty goals, shots in total, shot-creating actions, progressive passes, progressive carries, touches and tackles per 90 minutes played, as per FBref.

When comparing Pavard's output to Timber's last season, the Bundesliga titan came close to Ten Hag's former Ajax talisman in a number of key attributes, including pass completion (88.3% v 91.6%), shot-creating actions per 90 (1.67 v 1.72), percentage of dribblers tackled (75% v 74.1%) and comfortably outperformed him in aerial duels won (66% v 47.4%).

It's not just their qualities in possession that stand out, with both possessing the luxury of versatility. Indeed, while Pavard can play at right-back and centre-back, Timber was and still is a player who possesses the tools to occupy the same positions on the pitch.

Bayern Munich manager Thomas Tuchel has waxed lyrical about Pavard's defensive strengths and that famed versatility in the past, with the France international capable of adapting his positioning to many roles on the pitch:

"He is an underrated player. He can adapt to the highest level and he defends rigorously. He is a top team player, he immediately had my confidence and proved to me that I had been right."

Not only that, the 27-year-old possesses a strong winning mentality that would be a major asset to Man United in their pursuit to reignite their previous dominance and trophy success, with Pavard collecting a World Cup with France, four Bundesliga titles, one Champions League trophy and two German Super Cups over his career so far.

With that being said, it would be a no-brainer for Man United to secure the services of Timber this summer as he fits the exact profile of defender that Ten Hag desires and would suit the style of play at Old Trafford perfectly. Timber 2.0 anyone?

Stephen Murdoch waltzed to his 13th first-class ton while Hamish Bennett bagged a match haul of seven wickets as Wellington prevailed by an innings and 43 runs

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Nov-2017A century from Stephen Murdoch, coupled with Hamish Bennett’s seven-wicket match haul, propelled Wellington to an innings-and-43-run win over Otago inside three days of the Plunket Shield game at Basin Reserve. Wellington’s win amounted to Otago’s second consecutive loss this year, having finished at the bottom of the table last season.Wellington’s offensive with the ball helped them snipe out 15 wickets on the second day, bowling the opposition out for 184. A formidable lead of 185 meant Wellington could enforce follow-on and have an early shot at bringing up their second victory in as many games. The Otago line-up’s first-innings struggle – in which six of their batsman got starts but none could notch up a half-century – aggravated further in the second as only two players – captain Rob Nicol and Jimmy Neesham – went past the 30-run mark. Having been reduced to 107 for 6 at stumps on day two, it was only a matter of time before the remaining four batsmen were undone for only 142 runs inside the 20.3 overs bowled on the third day.Leading the charge for the Wellington attack in both innings was right-arm pacer Bennett who bettered his first-innings three-for with figures of 4 for 30 in the second. Bennett, who took his Shield tally to 12 scalps from two games, found ample support in fellow seamers Ian McPeake and Logan van Beek, who finished with a five-wicket match haul of his own.Wellington’s dominance in the match was, however, established early via Murdoch who waltzed to his 13thfirst-class century after his side lost the toss. The No. 3 batsman countered the loss of the two openers which had Wellington tottering at 33 for 2 in the 11th over. Murdoch put on 113 runs for the third wicket with captain Michael Bracewell, who struck an 83-ball 43. After Bracewell’s dismissal, Murdoch added another 66 runs with wicketkeeper Tom Blundell, before holing out to Jacob Duffy off Anaru Kitchen in the 66th over. Two fifty-plus partnerships – anchored by Jeetan Patel’s 64 – for the seventh and the eighth wickets subsequently took Wellington to 369, before being bowled by Neil Wagner, allowing him to complete his four-for. Kitchen and Michael Rae finished with three wickets each.

Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker nearly cost his team a goal just moments after Trent Alexander-Arnold's mistake saw the Reds go 1-0 down.

What's the latest on Liverpool and Bournemouth?

Playing in their first home game of the Premier League season, Jurgen Klopp's men hosted Bournemouth at Anfield on Saturday afternoon.

Having drawn 1-1 away at Chelsea in their opening match, Liverpool would have been hoping for a fast start agains the Cherries but quite the opposite happened.

Indeed, just moments into the match Jaidon Anthony had the ball in the back of the net after a mix-up between Alisson and Alexander-Arnold, only for the offiside flag to fortunately rule the goal out.

Not learning from that mistake, however, still just three minutes into the game, the English right-back was robbed of the ball on the edge of his own box – in what was a bit of a howler from the player when popping up in the a slight less familiar central position.

Dominic Solanke carried it forward and although he lost the ball, it fell nicely for Antoine Semenyo who slammed in home to make it 1-0.

It was a terrible start and it nearly got worse. Indeed, only five minutes later, goalkeeper Alisson received the ball inside his own box, took a terrible touch and was lucky not to be sent off as he lost the ball, lunged out and made a foul – resulting only in a yellow card.

Unsurprisingly, the goalkeeper was slammed online. Here are some damning reactions from fans as well as those in the media…

While BBC pundit Chris Sutton commented on the situation, noting: "It's been a very shaky start from Alisson."

Renowned journalist James Pearce didn't seem to understand what was going on either, as he took to Twitter to write: "What is going on here?? So sloppy from Alisson, who chops down Anthony on edge of the box after a dreadful touch. GK escapes with a yellow card."

Fortunately for the Reds, they'd turned the game back in their favour by half time after Luiz Diaz levelled the scores in the 28th minute and then Mohamed Salah scored the rebound after initially missing his penalty just eight minutes later.

And while Alexis Mac Allister picked up a controversial red card in the second half, a thrid goal from Diogo Jota put the game out of reach as home team came away with a 3-1 win.

What is Alisson Becker's salary?

The Brazilian keeper currently earns a reported £150k-p/w, making him one of the best paid players at the club.

And while he has shown that he is probably worth that sort of money in the past, his display in the early stages of this game against Bournemouth didn't really justify such a wage.

Still, it was only last season that teammate Andy Robertson hailed him as the best goalkeeper in the world, so Alisson certainly won't want to let his high standards slip this term.

In full, the left-back told the press (via Goal): "I think Ali's the best in the world for sure in what he does. We've all probably let him down this season in that he's faced too many shots, he's had to be making too many saves and I think he'll be a lot happier tonight."

Junaid Khan’s economic last spell helped Khulna Titans defend 158 in the face of a 100-run partnership between Ravi Bopara and Nahidul Islam

The Report by Mohammad Isam24-Nov-2017
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Mahmudullah brings out the pull shot•Raton GomesKhulna Titans went to the top of the BPL’s points table with a tight nine-run win over Rangpur Riders. Khulna over-rode a 100-run fifth-wicket stand between Ravi Bopara and Nahidul Islam that couldn’t quite crack the whip in the last five overs of the chase.Fifteen runs were needed off the final over, bowled by Junaid Khan. Bopara squeezed out a single off the first ball before Nahidul was run out off the next, having made 58 off 43 balls. Bopara took three runs off the next two balls. Junaid allowed a single off the fifth ball, which was the fifth yorker. Bopara was caught off the last ball with Afif Hossain taking a fine catch at long-on. Bopara made 59 off 44 balls with four boundaries and a six.Put into bat earlier, Khulna reached 158 for 8 in 20 overs with Mahmudullah reaching his second successive fifty. He made 59 off 36 balls with six fours and two sixes. Rubel Hossain took three wickets while there were two for Lasith Malinga and one each for Mashrafe Mortaza and Thisara Perera.Khulna falter in early attackRilee Rossouw, Afif Hossain and Nazmul Hossain Shanto fell in the first 6.3 overs as they tried to slog everything in their half. Rossouw, who finished the first over with a straight six, was bowled when he missed the slog-sweep against Sohag Gazi two balls into the second over.Rubel got the wicket of Afif, who struck two early fours before being pinned back with a good bouncer that was followed by a yorker which he couldn’t keep out. Shanto fell to a Mashrafe slower ball in the seventh over, having tried plenty of scoops, reverse-scoops and sweeps in his run-a-ball 20.Mahmudullah settles downNicholas Pooran, playing his first match this season, added 43 runs with Mahmudullah for the fourth wicket to lead Khulna’s recovery. Pooran struck just one four in his 16 off 20 balls, but Mahmudullah found boundaries regularly during their partnership.Mahmudullah struck straight sixes off Gazi and Thisara on either side of the Pooran wicket, and went on to add 38 runs for the fifth wicket with Ariful Haque. He reached his fifty in the 16th over, and looked set to take Khulna to a big total.Tag-team effort brings back RangpurWhen Mahmudullah lofted Rubel in the next over, Brendan McCullum ran hard to his right at long-on, caught the ball and parried it to Nahidul who completed the catch. Rubel picked up his third wicket one ball later when he nailed Ariful leg-before for 16.He finished with figures of 3 for 35 from his four overs. More crucially, Perera got rid of Carlos Brathwaite in the penultimate over when he was starting to look dangerous. Lasith Malinga finished well too by giving away just seven runs in the last over as Rangpur conceded 42 runs in the last five overs.Gayle-McCullum influence lasts 2.5 oversMahmudullah handed the new ball to Afif who removed Brendan McCullum off his second ball, as he toe-ended a full ball to long-on. Gayle got two streaky fours off Abu Jayed in the next over before launching him over long-off for his first six. But Jayed got him next ball, caught-behind for 16.Mohammad Mithun fell run-out to a direct hit from Brathwaite soon after and then Afif bowled Fazle Mahmud in the eighth over to reduce Rangpur to 45 for 4.Nahidul gets his first 50Bopara and Nahidul – another first-timer in this season – then took stock of a dicey situation. They didn’t rely on hitting sixes or fours primarily, but banked on picking a lot of singles and twos, as they had very few batsmen coming after them.The first boundary of their partnership came after 15 deliveries, with Nahidul getting two consecutive fours off Jayed in the 11th over. With 58 required off the last five overs, Nahidul and Bopara creamed three fours off Brathwaite. Nahidul reached his maiden T20 fifty in the 17th over, having faced 34 balls.Bopara leaves it too lateAfter Junaid bowled a superb 18th over in which he conceded just six runs, Bopara launched Jofra Archer over wide long-on to bring down the pressure. But there were no more boundaries in the penultimate over which went for 14 runs. Junaid bowled the superb last over, to finish with 1 for 20 from his four overs.

After a satisfactory batting performance on the first day in Lincoln, the West Indians produced a solid bowling effort to dismiss New Zealand A for 237 on the second

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Nov-2017West Indians 451 for 9 dec (Ambris 153, S Hope 110, Ferguson 5-67) and 53 for 2 lead New Zealand A 237 (Astle 68) by 267 runs
ScorecardAfter a satisfactory batting performance on the first day in Lincoln, the West Indians produced a solid bowling effort to dismiss New Zealand A for 237 on the second. They used eight bowlers and all of them picked up at least one wicket, to earn a first-innings lead of 214.The visitors declared their first innings overnight on 451 for 9, and made good use of the early morning bowling conditions. Kemar Roach dismissed Test opener Jeet Raval for 1, and Jason Holder accounted for the other New Zealand Test opener, Tom Latham, for 24.New Zealand A slumped to 114 for 6, before Tom Blundell and Todd Astle put on 64 for the seventh wicket. Shannon Gabriel broke that stand with his only wicket of the innings. Astle top scored for the home side with 68 and they were eventually dismissed in 61.4 overs. Raymon Reifer took 2 for 27, while Roston Chase picked up 2 for 7.The West Indians lost two early wickets in their second innings, but Kraigg Brathwaite was unbeaten on 33 and had steered his side to 53 for 2 at stumps.