John Souttar believes he will benefit from the rigours of Rangers’ pre-season training as he prepares to battle for his place in Michael Beale’s side next season.

The revamped Light Blues squad are being put through their paces in Germany with a view to a flying start to next season.

Beale has signed six new players, with the promise of more to come, and the Gers defender told RangersTV that he is in a good place.

Souttar, whose  2022/23 season was hampered by injury before he was involved in Scotland’s Euro 2024 qualifying campaign wins over Norway and Georgia, said: “For me it is the first time in a couple of years I will have had a proper pre-season where I am feeling fit and feeling 100 percent.

“It gives you a base for the rest of the season, you are not catching up with the lads or feeling like you are behind, you are right on it.

“This next week or two will give me a great base to hopefully have an injury-free season, so I am looking forward to it.

“Everyone is really hungry and when there are that number of new boys that come in everyone automatically has got to fight for their shirt.

“It is always the case at Rangers, but even more so now with the amount of quality that has been brought in and I think everyone is aware of that.

“There are only 11 jerseys for the first game of the season so everyone is going to be fighting for it and that can only be a good thing going forward.

“It has got a slightly different feel to it with the new players coming in and I am looking forward to seeing them all in training.

“These few weeks are massive, especially when there are new boys coming in, they are getting a feel for the club and how everyone gets on – off the pitch is as important as on it.

“Especially in pre-season, getting to know everyone’s characters, what they are like and what pushes them, so it is good, and everyone is going to enjoy getting away and enjoy creating bonds.

“I think that is what pre-season is about, when you are at home you don’t really get that 24/7 with the lads and hopefully it is the foundation for a successful season for us.”

[irishnews]

Al-Hilal are desperate to lure Man City’s Bernardo Silva to the Saudi Arabian league and have told the Premier League champions that they are willing to pay €70m for the Portuguese midfielder. 

That is according to CBS’ James Benge, who reports that the Saudi club have also offered Silva a massive salary worth €50m-a-year. However, the Man City star is yet to decide on his future and is not sure where he will play next season.

The 28-year-old is also wanted by Ligue 1 champions PSG, but City will only sell to the French club if they can convince them to part-exchange with talented teenager Warren Zaire-Emery, reports RMC Sport.

Silva has a contract at the Etihad until 2025 and Man City will not stand in his way if the Portugal international wants to challenge himself elsewhere; however, the European champions want their asking price to be matched and that is something Al Hilal are willing to do.

It remains unclear if Man City would accept a bid if it arrives and it is also uncertain if Silva wants to move to Saudi Arabia during the prime of his career.

[caughtoffside]

Arsenal have a surprise next signing from LaLiga in their sights and Barcelona’s ‘slowness’ could prove decisive for the Gunners, per a report.

Arsenal are spending big this summer, with Kai Havertz already banked to the tune of £65m. Deals for Jurrien Timber and Declan Rice have been agreed. The Ajax defender and West Ham captain will cost £38.5m and £105m respectively.

Timber’s move will be a blow to Man Utd who tried in vain to sign the Dutch international last year. The versatile 22-year-old is equally adept at playing at right-back or centre-half and is known for his elite passing range.

Arsenal expert Charles Watts exclusively told TEAMtalk it’s Ben White who is most at risk once Timber arrives. White spent last season deputising at right-back, though may be relegated to the bench if Arteta puts his faith in Timber from day one.

However, according to Spanish outlet Mundo Deportivo, another right-back is in Arsenal’s sights.

Indeed, MD state Arsenal’s interest in Real Valladolid’s Ivan Fresneda – which dates back to the January window – has been reignited.

Fresneda, 18, was heavily linked with Newcastle, Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund in the winter window. The Spaniard ultimately remained with Valladolid, though couldn’t prevent their relegation to the Segunda Division.

Per Mundo Deportivo, Valladolid’s exit from LaLiga has triggered a reduction in Fresneda’s release clause. It’s claimed he can now be signed for just €20m (approx. £17.2m).

The discount is understood to have revitalised Arsenal’s interest who have reportedly initiated contacts with Valladolid. Another club keeping a close eye on developments is AC Milan.

Fresneda is also admired over at Barcelona, though their well-documented financial strife is preventing them from acting quickly and decisively.

As such, their ‘slowness’ is opening the door for Arsenal who are moving ‘faster’ than their Spanish counterparts.

Fresneda is a player Mikel Arteta is reportedly a big admirer of. Aged 18, he could be viewed as an option to help secure the club’s future rather than a player who’ll make an instant impact.

Timber (22) and White (25) have the best years of their careers still to come. As such, spending around £17.2m on a third-string right-back would be a surprise.

But given Fresneda is a player tipped to be a future Spain international and his release clause means his value is artificially lowered, if Arsenal don’t strike, someone else will.

[teamtalk]

Nigerian striker, Victor Osimhen is the top transfer target of PSG should in case the club’s talisman, Kylian Mbappe leaves the club this summer.

Mbappe has openly stated his desire to leave Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer when his contract ends in June 2024, but the Ligue 1 giants are hoping to sell him this summer if he chooses not to sign a new contract.

The printed edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport from Sunday states that if Mbappe is sold this summer, Osimhen will be PSG’s top priority.

According to reports, Napoli has raised their asking price for Victor Osimhen to €180 million after turning down PSG’s bid of €100 million.

Mbappe’s summer sale will help PSG’s finances even more, which might enable them to accede to Napoli’s asking price.

The Serie A champions still intend to extend their contract with Osimhen beyond the summer of 2025 in which his current contract is expected to expire.

Naija News has reported that Napoli and Osimhen’s agent, Roberto Calenda have been negotiating for a contract extension but the wage demands of the 24-year-old striker have been delaying the process.

La Gazzetta dello Sport claimed that Lille forward Jonathan David will be Napoli’s primary priority if Osimhen leaves this summer.

While PSG has continued to consider a move for Victor Osimhen, top Premier League clubs, Manchester United, Chelsea, and Liverpool, have begun negotiations with Napoli to sign the Nigeria international. Hence, if Napoli finally decides to sell Osimhen, there could be a fierce bidding war among the player’s suitors in the coming days.

It is a sad day and a sadder period for sports in Nigeria.

A few days ago, Jeremiah Okorodudu, a famous Nigerian boxer, probably the most flamboyant and loquacious boxer in the country’s boxing history, died in a private hospital in the outskirts of Lagos, Nigeria.

He was only 64 years of age.

His death attracts special attention. It followed a mostly-silent, 2-year battle with poor health described by some media reports as the product of Stroke and Diabetes. In the past two weeks, the public was drawn to Jerry’s plight through the social media. Pictures of him lying on a bed in a local hospital in Ikorodu, Lagos, with headlines screaming for help for the celebrated former athlete, were very pitiable, a sad commentary on the general life-after-sport of many national sports heroes. There was also a video of Jeremiah gasping, struggling to speak through obvious pain, inaudible mumbling through laboured breath. He was shown crying and appealing to the government and to Nigerians not to let him die, like that.

All that he needed at the time were about the equivalent of $2000:00 to pay for an essential life-saving surgery – amputation of his foot.  This meagre amount was‘change-money’, even for any one of those in the corridors of sports at different levels of government, particularly. Obviously, the era of sports administrators that spent their personal funds to support sports and athletes is a long way back in the dungeons of history. These days, sport is a sector to be milked of any sweet harvests.  That’s why there is a fight-to-the-finish in the scramble for positions of leadership in sports by those with the least stakes in sport.

Jeremiah Okorodudu, needed that paltry sum to save his life. His family could not raise it till he died despite appeals to the public. His painful death reminds me that there is a whole legion in Jerry’s shoes languishing around the country waiting for help that may not come quickly. 

There are: Ngozika Ekwelum, African boxing champion, in his lonely bed in Anambra, suffering for over a decade with a case of urinary incontinence and other depression-related issues that have made his life miserable; Kenneth Abana, mercurial goal-poacher for Rangers International and the Green Eagles, with one foot already amputated, lying critically ill in a hospital in Enugu; Christopher Friday, ex- Shooting Stars and Super Eagles, completely blind and living in perpetual darkness; Dahiru Sadi, former national team football Captain, downed by Stroke  and now confined to the four corners of his room; Siji Lagunju, former Shooting Stars, national football assistant coach and player, downed in the past two years by Stroke; Christian Chukwu, Emmanuel Okala and Charles Bassey who can no longer work or walk unaided for the rest of their lives; an innumerable number of other athletes all around us in 40 other sports, neglected, forgotten, living poorly and in pain, with nothing in place within the Nigerian sports architecture to take care of their welfare when their careers in sport end. 

Jeremiah’s situation is not an isolated one. The Nigerian sports landscape is littered with similar stories of the abject poverty of former athletes, with most ending up victims of neglect and societal amnesia, forced to accept a life in abject poverty and of dying young.

This last aspect struck me when I checked Jeremiah’s age at death again – 64! He is of a common tribe in sport. One that deserves scientific interrogation and study – Do Nigerian athletes die young?

I am in the process of compiling a list of Nigerian athletes that went to represent the country some 47 years ago at the 1976 Olympics. The NIIA and Airpeace Airline are planning an uncommon re-union and celebration for the athletes outside sport. I was a young member of that contingent, a freshly minted graduate at the time.

Even as I look back now, it seems like yesterday. Most of the surviving athletes now in their late 60s and early 70s.

I am looking at the list of the 45 athletes whose action (or inaction) created a diplomatic tsunami that changed the course of history in the world, and I ask: where are they now?

There were 3 registered boxers in that contingent. All three are dead.

All must have died before they turned 60! They all died in Nigeria.

There were 20 football players in that contingent. 9 of them are dead. All died in their 30s, 40s, and 50s. One died in his 60s. Most died in Nigeria.

There were 20 Track and Field athletes. 5 of them died in their 40s and 50s. 3 of the 5 died in Nigeria. Now the observations and questions:

Most of the athletes in track and field that are still alive have lived in the USA.

Do high-performance athletes die so young? Is that really the case? If so, why? Is it the United States general (or sports) welfare system that has kept the Nigerian athletes alive? These should be a subject for intellectual interrogation.

Of those that stayed back in Nigeria, their stories have been pathetic, gory tales of neglect, poverty and early death, afar departure from the promise in the national Anthem that fires up their spirit before and after competitions:‘the labour of our heroes past, shall never be in vain’ -a promise hardly ever delivered!

It is hard to understand why establishing a simple welfare scheme for athletes should become rocket science.

Several welfare schemes that could serve as models exist everywhere on the planet, and, indeed, have been created in Nigeria in the past. They were misused, abused or unused for the purpose. One or two of the Welfare schemes still exist but as private estates of those in the original committees set up to manage them. They may still keep the huge financial contributions made by Nigerians in their vaults, never accounting to anybody for anything, remaining in ‘office’ in perpetuity, their silence like that of the graveyard, their ‘reward’ or ‘punishment reserved for the gates of heaven, or of hell, depending on what use they put the funds contributed by Nigerians for the amelioration of the painful conditions of suffering athletes in need of help. Through the decades, the shallowness of the instruments that set them up did not protect their sustainability and supervision. So, they went into convenient hibernation, resurrecting only occasionally to service personal, narrow interests and purposes. 

Jeremiah fought many battles of neglect and injustice against the sports establishment in the past, always drawing attention to his suffering. He was punished several times for his effrontery to be his own one-man army when fighting his causes.

Those leading the sector, mostly drawn from the political class, with all their good intentions to do well for sports, do not understand enough about what needs to be done to arrest this ugly scourge.

Otherwise, there is no reason on earth why a Jeremiah Okorodudu should spend two whole years in pain and suffering and neglect, and now die needlessly. His corpse, it has been reported, is still held up in a morgue and will not be released to his family because they could not pay outstanding hospital bills of less than $1000 Dollars.

Jeremiah Okorodudu’s death could have been avoided with a little more care and concern.  The sports sector failed him. His colleagues failed him. Government failed him. Those who could have helped but did not, failed him.

As Jeremiah takes his place amongst the saints, amongst resting heroes of Nigerian sports, I pray that the great pugilist who won a Bronze medal for Nigeria at the Commonwealth Games, who narrowly failed to win a medal for Nigeria at the 1984 Olympic games, who graced several rings around Nigeria during his prime, who trained and took several Nigerian boxers to international competitions, who served boxing passionately throughout his life, who died in misery, pain and penury, will find the divine peace of the Creator of us all, to forgive Nigeria.

Chelsea forward Romelu Lukaku has been tipped to leave Stamford Bridge for a cut price, despite the club placing a €45m asking price on his head.

The Belgian forward is expected to leave this summer, although clubs from around Europe are reluctant to meet Chelsea’s asking price.

According to Ben Jacobs, Chelsea will demand a fee of around €45m to sell the 30-year-old this summer.

Inter Milan had toyed with the idea of signing Lukaku on loan again but with the obligation to buy included in the deal.

Chelsea rejected this bid and now the two clubs are back to the drawing board. Along with Inter, Juventus and Al-Hilal are also interested.

While Lukaku wasn’t keen on the idea of a move to Saudi to begin with, he is now said to be considering the move.

Gabby Agbonlahor has had his say on the situation and he believes that Chelsea and Inter will eventually come to an agreement.

“Negotiations could be tricky between Chelsea and Inter for Lukaku,” the pundit told Football Insider.

“Inter Milan knows they want to offload Lukaku, so they will not need to offer what the Blues are demanding.

“Both parties will offer their best deal and Inter could say either take or leave it, with Chelsea not wanting to be stuck with a player who won’t be used.

“When it gets closer to August and a deal still hasn’t been accepted, they are going to have to eventually accept Inter’s offer.”

The Belgian forward had his fair share of injury problems last season, but he still managed to score 14 goals across all competitions.

Chelsea aren’t likely to receive anywhere near the £97.5m they spent on Lukaku back in 2021, but they are keen to recoup some of their original investment.

With Juventus and Al-Hilal now in the race to sign Lukaku, time will tell if Chelsea do receive the €45m they are looking for.

He is contracted with the club until 2026, although Mauricio Pochettino will be keen to iron out his situation as soon as possible.

Along with Lukaku, Chelsea also hope to sell the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Hakim Ziyech and Christian Pulisic in the next few weeks.

The summer rebuild is already well underway at Stamford Bridge, but there is still plenty of work to be done.

[football365]

Morocco made history on Saturday night as they clinched their first TotalEnergies U-23 Africa Cup of Nations title with a thrilling 2-1 win against ten-man Egypt at the Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat, requiring extra time to settle the match.

Egypt took an early lead when Mahmoud Saber unleashed a brilliant curler into the top corner, giving his team an advantage after just nine minutes of play.

However, Saber's night quickly turned sour as he received a red card eight minutes later for a reckless challenge on Abdessamad Ezzalzouli.

Despite being reduced to ten men, Egypt managed to hold their ground for the remaining minutes of regular time. However, their defence faltered in the 37th minute, allowing Yanis Begraoui to score the equalizer for the host nation.

The first and second halves concluded without any additional goals, leading the match into extra time. It was during the first half of extra time that Morocco seized the lead, putting Egypt behind for the first time in the competition.

Substitute Oussamna Targhalline capitalized on a free kick from Ezzalzouli, delivering a powerful strike that eluded the Egyptian goalkeeper, making it 2-1 in favor of Morocco.

Efforts from Egypt to secure a late equalizer proved fruitless, as Morocco held on to claim victory and secure their first TotalEnergies U-23 AFCON trophy.

Both Morocco and Egypt have earned their spots in next year's Olympic Games, set to take place in Paris, alongside Mali, who secured their qualification after defeating Guinea in the third-place playoff game on Saturday.

Guinea can stil secure a place as the fourth African side at the Olympic Games in Paris but they have to win a playoff against a yet-to-be-decided Asian opponent.

New Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino underlined the challenges that engulfed Enzo Fernandez, Mykhailo Mudryk and Raheem Sterling in the last season but said he will help the trio reach their full potential with the help of a customised training regime.

Chelsea hired the 51-year-old former Tottenham Hotspur and Paris St Germain boss in May after finishing 12th in the Premier League following a tumultuous campaign, which saw Thomas Tuchel, Graham Potter and Frank Lampard take charge at Stamford Bridge.

"Different players arrived in different circumstances but of course now is an opportunity," Pochettino told Chelsea's website, outlining his plans for the team ahead of the pre-season.

Chelsea begin their preparations for the new campaign in the United States with a game against National League champions Wrexham on July 19th.

"I hope we can help them to achieve their best level, a higher level, and try to perform for Chelsea in the way that people expect," he said.

"Now is a new start, a fresh start, and I think they need to show their real quality. But we need to create this platform for them to feel comfortable and breathing space for them to perform and improve."

Pochettino said former Benfica midfielder Fernandez, who was named the best youngster at last year's World Cup after helping Argentina clinch the title, needed rest after a gruelling schedule.

"The Premier League is a really tough competition and he changes everything – culture, language, everything – and it is always difficult to adapt," Pochettino said.

Pochettino added that Mudryk's "mindset and everything is different" than Fernandez's, which is why he intends to spend more time with the 22-year-old Ukrainian winger.

The 28-year-old Sterling is one of the more experienced players in the squad but is yet to replicate the performances that made him a crucial part of Manchester City, with whom he won 10 major trophies, having scored just nine goals in 38 appearances for Chelsea.

"It's not always to blame the player... We need to see us and see what is going on and why they are not performing in the way that we expect and then, of course, when all is clear, we cannot give excuses to them to not perform." Pochettino added.

[reuters]