Pep Guardiola said the desire Manchester City displayed when beating Liverpool and Leeds was evidence of why he signed a new contract to stay at the Etihad.
The wins in the Carabao Cup and Premier League came in City’s first two matches since the Qatar World Cup. Guardiola agreed his fresh one-year deal – with the option of another 12 months until the summer of 2025 – during the tournament and urged his side to continue performing as they did against Liverpool and Leeds when they face Everton on New Year’s Eve.
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Erik ten Hag is targeting Bayern Munich’s Noussair Mazraoui with the Manchester United manager believing the right back can aid Antony’s form, though Aaron Wan-Bissaka would have to be sold to finance a transfer that would cost in the region of £21m.
Mazraoui is one of several right-back options being considered by Ten Hag who coached the 26-year-old Moroccan at Ajax from 2018 up until his departure to Old Trafford four years later. Mazraoui supported Antony on Ajax’s right flank during their title-winning seasons of 2020-21 and 2021-2022 and they impressed as a pairing.
Mazraoui joined Bayern in May 2022 while Antony moved to United in the August of that year for £82m, reuniting with Ten Hag but largely fai…
One week into the MLB season, the rule changes are by and large a huge success. It seems that fans and players alike overwhelmingly like the changes. Even pitchers, who tend to be crybabies and sticklers for routine, are seeing the change as an opportunity. Max Scherzer spent spring training using the pitch clock to his advantage, both holding the ball in the set position as long as he can and quick pitching. Although most are on board, there are some extreme baseball traditionalists who still aren’t fans. And I’m not just talking about Manny Machado picking up the sword to go on a children’s crusade against the pitch clock. For example, here’s an excerpt from Battery Power of SB Nation: “I won’t rant and rave too much here, but the combination of expanded playoffs and t…
There will be plenty on the line when longtime rivals Real Salt Lake and Houston Dynamo FC square off Saturday in a late-season Western Conference match in Texas. RSL hold a 14-13-11 edge over Houston in the all-time regular season series. The sides have met twice this year, with RSL winning 3-2 at home on July 3 in MLS play and Houston victorious 3-0 in the Group stage of the Leagues Cup on Aug. 4. RSL haven't won a match in Houston since August 2018. The Dynamo (11-8-8, 41 points) begin the weekend in seventh place in the West, one point ahead of the Portland Timbers and a point behind the Vancouver Whitecaps in the crowded bottom middle of the conference table with seven matches to play. Four points separate fourth place from eighth in the West. Houston has earned points in tw…
By now you've probably heard about the "apology balls" story, in which Pete Rose is supposed to have signed 300 baseballs with the words "I'm sorry I bet on baseball — Pete Rose", and is set to sell them at $1,000 a pop. That's what the New York Daily News said on Monday, anyway, in a rather glaring cover story that cast Rose as at most the devil, and at the least, a greedy schmuck. And here's a surprise: Rose says he's innocent. And to clear his name, he of course went to the one news source we can all trust: ESPN's Quite Frankly with Stephen A. Smith. We watched the video of Rose's Monday night appearance — twice — and still have no freakin' idea what happened; no one in the studio made a lick of sense. So we remain k…
Kevin Durant is under contract for one more year with the Brooklyn Nets, but based on the bevy of reports and leaks on the extremely fluid Kyrie melodrama and its potential fallout, his employment is volatile. That uncertainty has spawned a multitude of options for Durant, but only the Portland Trailblazers have taken their sales pitch to Mad Men levels. It started with Jusuf Nurkić quote-tweeting the image of a Durant-Lillard photoshop, and adding an emoji that implied Durant was the missing piece. Damian Lillard shared the same image on his Instagram page. Lillard desperately shooting his shot at KD isn’t as efficient as the Golden State Warriors getting the whole gang together for their Hamptons pitch to Durant in 2016, but this may have been the opening salvo. Kevin Durant’s o…
Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan, who voted for Donald Trump, is speaking out against Trump’s ban on refugees and on all entry from seven majority-Muslim countries. While NBA representatives have been vocal in expressing their disapproval of the ban, the NFL has been mostly silent—making Khan’s voice a prominent one. Khan, who voted for Donald Trump, is himself Muslim. He told the New York Times he had expected Trump to be more moderate upon entering office and praised the court system for blocking the ban. Khan, who voted for Donald Trump, is himself an immigrant. He told the paper that the ban is “not good” and that he believes immigration is the “bedrock of our country.” The Jaguars owner was born in Pakistan and arrived in the U.S. in 1967. Khan, a registered Re…
data-mm-id=”_1tuzbxxzs”>Exactly 100 years ago today, on December 26, 1919, Boston Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold his team's biggest star, pitcher and occasional outfielder Babe Ruth to Colonel Jake Ruppert's rival New York Yankees for $100,000, plus a mortgage on Fenway Park.You all know the story. From that moment on, the fortunes of the two clubs headed in opposite directions. The Yankees, who hadn't won much of anything to that point, would become sports' greatest dynasty. The Red Sox, with their roster gutted by this and other trades, wouldn't win another World Series until 2004. It was almost as if a curse hovered over the team…1. No, "No, No Nanette!"Let's clear this up first. Contrary to what Ken Burns' Baseball documentary told us…
data-mm-id=”_vql3mua5g”>Markelle Fultz has been everything he needs to be in Orlando. Serviceable. With the Magic, he is not the No. 1 overall pick of the 2017 NBA Draft. Instead, he is a player who they acquired in a trade for minimal compensation. His role is to be a productive young point guard, and anything else is a bonus. As of right now, the third-year guard is averaging 12.0 points and 4.1 assists per game and shooting 47.9% from the field. Those numbers are not earth shattering, but he is doing this as the starting point guard on a team who would find themselves in the playoffs if the season ended today.With the Magic, not only are the expectations lower, but they're a team that is still growing. The 76ers are currently in NBA-Finals-or-bust mode. The Magic are a young ex…
data-mm-id=”_15gmn2l0q”>The will-he, won't-he return rumors can stop. Rob Gronkowski's days playing football appear to be officially over after it was announced he is close to signing a deal with the WWE. Of course, this was the expected outcome by many. Gronk retired from the NFL after the 2018 season. He was beat up (bad back, dislocated elbow, torn ACL/MCL, concussions, etc.) and the reality was at that point he was better suited for life as a caricature of himself than a football player. Yet, un-retirement rumors followed him throughout last season. He perpetuated some by not dismissing the idea of possibly returning if Tom Brady called and posting cryptic messages on social media about a "big announcement" right before the NFL deadline for players to announce i…