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Crystal Palace are closing in on a deal for Tottenham winger Brennan Johnson in January, but he might not be their only signing from Spurs.

Crystal Palace closing in on January deal for Brennan Johnson

As per numerous reports, the Wales international is on Oliver Glasner’s January target list as Palace desperately seek attacking cover next month.

Johnson, who ended 2024/2025 as Tottenham’s top scorer in all competitions and bagged their Europa League final-winning goal in May, has found himself far more on the fringes under Thomas Frank.

The signing of Mohammed Kudus has reduced him to just six Premier League starts all season, with Johnson making the vast majority of his 16 league appearances off the bench.

He actually made an electric start to the campaign with two goals in his opening two top flight matches against Burnley and Man City, starting both games, but chances have been few and far between since then.

Now, reliable media sources report that Spurs are ready to let Johnson leave next month, and Palace are right at the front of the queue for his signature.

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Indeed, David Ornstein and others now claim that the south Londoners have reached an agreement with Tottenham to sign the 24-year-old for around £35 million.

This is pending Johnson agrees to the switch, but if all goes to plan, then he will be a Palace player once the January window opens.

Interestingly, Johnson may not even be the only Spurs player who ends up at Selhurst Park in light of this.

Crystal Palace make approach for Radu Dragusin

According to Italian reporter Mirko Di Natale, via X, Palace have also spoken to Tottenham about defender Radu Dragusin and his availability.

The Romania international made his first appearance for 11 months on Sunday when Glasner’s side lost 1-0 to the Lilywhites, replacing match-winner Archie Gray in the dying minutes.

Dragusin was sidelined with an ACL injury which took him nearly a year to recover from, and he now finds himself behind the likes of Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven and Kevin Danso in the pecking order.

Highly-rated young centre-back Luka Vuskovic is also due back from his loan at Hamburg at the end of the season, potentially limiting Dragusin’s chances even more.

The 23-year-old is attracting Serie A interest and Italian media sources claim that Dragusin is set for crunch sit-down talks with Spurs over his future as January looms.

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Now, Di Natale reports that Palace have asked for information about Dragusin as they potentially look to raid Frank’s team once again.

Di Natale’s suggestion they could strike a loan deal will no doubt appeal to Palace, with the club handed a chance to audition Dragusin before signing him permanently for £26 million.

However, they’ll also be wary of his injury history, and Palace need to be very mindful when potentially searching for Marc Guehi’s long-term heir.

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Robin Uthappa dazzled in the Ranji Trophy last season, and is back to representing Karnataka now © Getty Images

With the India-Pakistan ODI series over, a lot of exciting players will come back to represent their Ranji sides in the matches starting tomorrow: Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir for Delhi, Rohit Sharma for Mumbai, Irfan Pathan for Baroda, Robin Uthappa for Karnataka, and Praveen Kumar for Uttar Pradesh. The flip side: Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble (Karnataka), Dinesh Karthik (Tamil Nadu), VVS Laxman (Hyderabad), Wasim Jaffer (Mumbai), and Munaf Patel (Maharashtra) have joined the Test squad. Here’s how the Super League matches stack up:Mumbai v Delhi at MumbaiThe joint leaders in Group A meet at the Wankhede Stadium. Delhi will be bolstered by the return of Sehwag and Gambhir, Mumbai by Rohit Sharma. Read Nagraj Gollapudi’s preview here.Hyderabad v Baroda in Hyderabad Baroda are on a high after having beaten Bengal by an innings, while a depleted Hyderabad side have held their own in their first two games too. Read Sriram Veera’s preview here.Himachal Pradesh v Maharashtra at Dharamsala Maharashtra have had a good start to the season, with an outright win against Rajasthan in the second match. Himachal, though, are looking to find their feet in the Super League, coming off an innings defeat to Karnataka.Rajasthan v Saurashtra at Jaipur Rajasthan are at the bottom of Group A without any points while Saurashtra have fought out two draws to get themselves four points. Rajasthan will want to open their account here, otherwise they will be prime candidates for relegation.Tamil Nadu v Karnataka in Chennai They are both traditional powerhouses in Indian cricket, but Tamil Nadu field a young, depleted side this year. Accordingly, they have had a fairly ordinary start to the season with only one point after two matches. Karnataka, riding high on the innings win against Himachal, have seven points from two matches and will look for the maximum points here.Orissa v Andhra at Cuttack Orissa are coming off a break after they were walloped by Uttar Pradesh in the first match, while Andhra have played out two draws to reach four points. Orissa will want to do better than Himachal, the other team to have been promoted to the Super League.Punjab v Uttar Pradesh at MohaliPunjab have been struggling with injuries to their strike bowlers – Gagandeep Singh and VRV Singh. Yet had they avoided a lower-order collapse against Hyderabad, they would have had six points from two games. UP, after a blazing start against Orissa, played a tame draw with Andhra. They currently leading the Group B, but they have played one game more than the second-place Baroda.

Scorecard
Scotland suffered an inauspicious start to their tour of Bangladesh, going down by 33 runs to a Bangladesh Cricket Board Academy XI in a warm-up match at Chittagong. Scotland’s lack of firepower with the ball cost them dear, with young opener Tamim Iqbal striking a century in the hosts’ formidable total of 252 for 6.Navdeep Poonia of Warwickshire scored 63 in Scotland’s reply, with Dougie Brown and Neil McCallum also contributing, but it was not enough and they fell well short of their target. Mosharraf Hossain took 4 for 32, and although McCallum’s late hitting had given Scotland hope, with his dismissal went their chances of victory.Iqbal had earlier reached his century off 133 balls before being dismissed for 105. He received valuable support from the captain Nadhif Chowdhury, who scored a rapid 76-ball 68 to help rebuild the innings after Scotland captain Craig Wright had struck twice in quick succession early on.Scotland used eight bowlers in a match where they used 13 players and the hosts 12, and while things did not go to plan they will see it as valuable acclimatisation to the conditions ahead of the first one-day international against Bangladesh tomorrow. However, the comments made by Chowdhury after the game are bound to be of some concern: “They [Scotland] lacked real strike bowlers and as a result failed to pose any threat for us”.

Bob Woolmer gets credit for transforming Pakistan © Getty Images

Greg Chappell, the Indian coach, believes that his Pakistani counterpart Bob Woolmer has helped turn the Pakistan team into an organised unit.Talking to reporters on Sunday at the Bagh-e-Jinnah here, Chappell also made it clear that the coming series between Pakistan and India was not a contest between him and Woolmer.He said, “It is all about the captain and the team. The captains are the ones who extract the best performances from their players. Our job is to guide them as best as we can and ensure every player plays to his potential.”Pakistan would be confident after their series win over England and their recent performances. And they have some very good bowlers but we also have the players to play them well. The series will be a very close and good contest and if all the players play to their potential we are in for some wonderful cricket.”Chappell said on a personal level he was excited to be directly involved in such a high-profile series and see up close how the players reacted to the pressures.He stated, “The way I see it this series is all about performing under pressure and expectations of the people.”Woolmer, talking to reporters at the Gaddafi Stadium where the Pakistani players trained, said he was upbeat about the coming series but refused to name any one player who he believed could play a vital role in the series.Asked about Shoaib Akhtar, Woolmer said that while Shoaib had performed extremely well against England and was bowling well he would still not single him out as the main performer. “All our bowlers have to perform with discipline if we are to do well against India, it is not about any individual it is about a team performance.”Woolmer said that Inzamam-ul-Haq, the Pakistan captain, would have a lot on his hands in the series but expressed confidence that he had the experience and skills now to lead the side well.

The Pakistan Cricket Board anxiously awaits the resolution of the TV rights issue in India’s courts. Recent news reports which suggested that the series might be postponed if the BCCI was not allowed to decide on rights left the PCB perturbed and considering their options.A news release stated that cricket fans on both sides of the border were eagerly awaiting the series and that another postponement would be highly disappointing for the public. It would also lead to severe loss of revenue for both boards and dislocation in logistics for a postponed tour.A further postponement would also be difficult, given that Pakistan would be touring the West Indies in early May.

Bruce Reid – can he bring the Indian bowlers up to speed? © Getty Images

Bruce Reid, the former Australian fast bowler, has been appointed as the bowling coach of the Indian cricket team for the current tour of Australia. The BCCI decided to appoint Reid after a Working Committee meeting in New Delhi on Sunday.The team management had sought the services of Reid for the two-and-half-month series after the tour match against Victoria. It was felt that Reid could be of considerable help to the inexperienced Indian attack, which comprises Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Ajit Agarkar and first-timers Lakshmipathy Balaji and Irfan Pathan.Reid, who’s now 40, was a tall left-armer known for his nagging accuracy and the ability to generate sharp bounce, took 113 wickets in 27 Tests at an average of 24.63. He was tipped by many to be an alltime great, but his career was cut short by injury and his potential was never fully realised. He recently coached Zimbabwe’s bowlers on their recent tour of Australia.

Mathew Sinclair drummed out a reminder to the national selectors that he still wants to be considered for the Test series with an unbeaten century for Central Districts against Otago at Alexandra in their State Championship match today.CD had built themselves into a powerful position by the end of the day when ending at 234/3, a lead of 296 with seven wickets remaining.Otago did not help their cause by being dismissed for 123 early this morning.The day began with Otago reasonably confident of securing a first innings lead. At 48/2 chasing 185 they had every reason to be so but in the event they batted poorly to be all out 62 runs short of CD.Brent Hefford made the first breakthrough of the day when getting the overnight batsmen Simon Beare (17) and Chris Gaffaney (25). Andrew Hore added 20 and Nathan Morland was 18 not out.It was one of their most miserable batting performances in recent times. Too often they played at deliveries outside the off stump and they seemed to lack application to play in a manner which would have seen them through to the promised sunshine and much better batting conditions. Only Morland played with any discipline which was what was needed from all the other Otago batsmen. The Otago innings lasted only 47.3 overs.Andrew Schwass headed the assault and continued his excellent summer with four wickets for 29 runs from 12 overs, while Michael Mason’s economic approach was well rewarded as he took three for 30 from 15 overs and he made the Otago batsmen play at most deliveries. Lance Hamilton and Hefford bowled economically and could have easily captured more wickets than their combined total of three.Central Districts began their second innings much the same way as their first by losing early wickets and at 32/2 Otago perhaps had a glimmer of hope in rolling them cheaply.But both Sinclair and Ben Smith decided enough was enough and put on 129 for the third wicket with Smith finally going for an attractive 57, his 50 coming off 99 balls.Sinclair went on to get a good century, off 154 balls, and by stumps was 118 not out. CD captain Glen Sulzberger provided a fine anchor with 28 not out. The overall lead of 296 would seem to be far too many for Otago to chase even although two days play remain and, of course, with CD having only lost three wickets the prospect of a much bigger run chase.None of the Otago bowlers was been really caned but improved batting conditions and two classy batsmen in Sinclair and Smith had given CD quite an advantage.

June 7th has been the date on the lips of every politician in this country.In the years to come, Darren Thomas will have other reasons forremembering June 7th, 2001.In the morning session of the Championship match at Chelmsford, Darren Thomascreated a piece of cricketing history for himself by making the highest everscore by a Glamorgan number eight.Yesterday, Thomas scored his maiden first-class century, hitting 119*and shared in a 7th wicket stand of 163 with fellow centurion AdrianDale. This morning, he subsequently extended his overnight score to 138,and past the previous best by a Glamorgan number eight – Malcolm Nash`s 130,scored in the opening match of the 1976 season against Surrey at The Oval.There were certain parallels between both of these innings. Thomas came tothe crease yesterday with Glamorgan lurching at 128-6, whilst Nash started hisinnings in 1976 with The Oval scoreboard reading 65-6. Nash then shared ina stand of 171 for the 7th wicket with Mike Llewellyn, with Nash mauling theSurrey attack by hitting two sixes and seventeen fours.Thomas was equally aggressive, with nineteen fours and a six in his career best score. But there the comparisons end, as the 1976 match finished in a draw,with Glamorgan`s last pair stoutly defending the last 21 balls on the finalafternoon to draw the game.Thomas` career best 138 may prove to be a match winning innings, asGlamorgan made 370 in their first innings. By tea on the second day,Essex were already following on after being dismissed for 193 withDarren Thomas taking four wickets.This is the third year running that a Glamorgan player has established a recordscore for a batting position, and as the table below shows, in the past two years it has been Steve James who has rewritten the record books, with the highest scores at number one and two in the order:

HIGHEST SCORES FOR EACH POSITION IN THE BATTING ORDER BY GLAMORGAN1 259 S.P.James v Nottinghamshire Colwyn Bay, 19992 309* S.P.James v Sussex Colwyn Bay, 20003 223 A.R.Lewis v Kent Gravesend, 19664 243 M.P.Maynard v Hampshire Southampton, 19915 280* R.G.Duckfield v Surrey The Oval, 19366 165* D.Davies v Sussex Eastbourne, 19287 151* C.C.Smart v Sussex Hastings, 19358 138 S.D.Thomas v Essex Chelmsford, 20019 124* M.A.Nash v Leicestershire Swansea, 197810 101* J.C.Clay v Worcestershire Swansea, 192911 73 S.A.B.Daniels v Gloucestershire Swansea, 1982

A major update has emerged on Sunderland striker Ross Stewart and his future at the Stadium of Light…

What’s the talk?

According to the Daily Record, the Black Cats are preparing to pin him down to an extended contract with the club to avoid losing him in the summer.

The report claims that they are aware of growing interest in his services after his call-up to the Scotland national team and Kristjaan Speakman is now eyeing up an imminent offer in an attempt to keep him on Wearside.

Buzzing

This update will surely leave the Stadium of Light faithful buzzing as they will be keen to see Stewart commit his future to the club.

He has been phenomenal in League One and allowing him to leave in the summer would be a major blow to the squad. His average SofaScore rating of 7.29 is unrivalled within the Sunderland squad and this suggests that he has been the club’s most consistent performer throughout the campaign as he has maintained a high standard all throughout 2021/22.

The Scot’s goalscoring numbers reflect his performances as he has found the back of the net a whopping 22 times in 39 outings for the Black Cats. He has been able to consistently bang in the goals in the third tier, whilst he has also shown off his link-up play with six ‘big chances’ created and 1.4 key passes per game.

This shows that he has been a major force at the top end of the pitch for Lee Johnson and Alex Neil this season. He can score and create goals as the number nine and his contributions have been key to the club’s promotion challenge as they sit in the top-six as it stands.

Therefore, his exit would leave Neil with a huge gap to fill in his starting XI. This would be particularly painful should the club achieve promotion to the Championship as it would, naturally, be harder to find a replacement whilst playing at a higher level in the football pyramid.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

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This is why fans will be delighted to read that Speakman is set to offer Stewart a new contract. They will surely want to see him scoring goals for Sunderland for as long as possible and it would be intriguing to see how he would fare in the second tier if the Black Cats end up being promoted.

AND in other news, Left for £0, now worth £6.3m: SAFC had huge howler over “Champions League” quality gem…

Match facts

Sunday, May 18, 2008
Start time 20.00 (local), 14.30 (GMT)

	Will Shahid Afridi prevail in the opening dash? (file photo) © AFP

The Big Picture

The last time these teams met Adam Gilchrist blasted a century off 42 balls to hand Mumbai a crushing defeat, their fourth in a row. It was Deccan’s first win in the IPL; they have won just one more game since and must win on Sunday to keep alive their faint hopes of a semi-final spot. Mumbai went on from that match to string together five consecutive wins, the last two in spectacular and emphatic fashion, and will fancy their chances of becoming the first team in the IPL to win six in a row.Mumbai’s streak has been based on the explosive batting of Sanath Jayasuriya, the bowling led by Shaun Pollock and the morale-boosting return to the side of captain and icon Sachin Tendulkar. Their annihilation of Kolkata Knight Riders on Friday and the ease with which they dismantled Chennai Super Kings in the match before that are ominous signs of a well-oiled machine hitting full throttle.Deccan are yet to win a game at home and, languishing one spot above the bottom of the table, have seen the wheels come off their campaign. None of their bowlers has been able to provide early breakthroughs and the batting has been over-reliant on Gilchrist and Rohit Sharma. The big names – especially Herschelle Gibbs and Shahid Afridi – have flattered to deceive.

Tournament position

Deccan Chargers: P10, W2, L8, NRR -0.380
Mumbai Indians: P9, W5, L4, NRR +0.658

Form (last five matches, most recent first)

Deccan Chargers: LLLWL
Mumbai Indians: WWWWW

Watch out for …

The equivalent of an Olympic 100 metres final with Sanath Jayasuriya, Adam Gilchrist, Shahid Afridi, Herschelle Gibbs and Sachin Tendulkar getting ready to dash off the blocks.

Shaun Pollock will be the biggest hurdle for Hyderabad’s top order to clear before aspiring for a podium finish.

Rohit Sharma. Why Mumbai never picked him remains a point of debate and it will interesting to see if he feels he has a point to prove.

This is Dwayne Bravo’s last game for Mumbai before he joins the West Indies squad for the Australia Tests and he’d surely like to leave on a winning note.

	How will Deccan Chargers cope against Shaun Pollock? (file photo) © Getty Images

Team news

Gilchrist indicated there won’t be any changes from the team that played against the Delhi Daredevils two days back.Deccan Chargers (probable): 1 Adam Gilchrist (capt & wk), 2 Shahid Afridi, 3 Herschelle Gibbs, 4 Rohit Sharma, 5 Venugopal Rao, 6 Ravi Teja, 7 Scott Styris, 8 PM Sarvesh Kumar, 9 Pragyan Ojha, 10 RP Singh, 11 P Vijaykumar.Why change a winning combination, Mumbai might think. Considering three big games coming up they might like to rest the young medium-pacer Dhawal Kulkarni, who is recovering from an ankle injury picked during the match against the Chennai Super Kings earlier in the week.Mumbai Indians (probable): 1 Sachin Tendulkar (capt), 2 Sanath Jayasuriya, 3 Robin Uthappa, 4 Dominic Thornely, 5 Dwayne Bravo, 6 Shaun Pollock, 7 Abhishek Nayar, 8 Yogesh Takawale (wk), 9 Rajesh Pawar, 10 Rohan Raje, 11 Ashish Nehra.

Stats and trivia

With 18 sixes, Sanath Jayasuriya currently has hit the most number of maximums, one more than David Hussey’s 17.

Scott Styris has only managed 91 runs in six innings for Deccan, but more perplexing is that the runs have come at a woeful strike-rate of 90.09.

Deccan are the only team yet to win at home.

Quotes

“Rohit Sharma is a genuinely talented batsman. He is a very confident player and has his own style of play. The time I spent in Australia, batting with him [in the first CB Series final], was one of the longest innings I’ve played and I could see he was very calm, which is very important for a batsman.”
Sachin Tendulkar praises a fellow Mumbaikar who happens to be Deccan’s leading run-scorer.”We are already thinking about next year.”
Adam Gilchrist sums up the feelings in the Deccan camp.