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      in Soccer

      Man Utd outcast Marcos Rojo wanted by Sheffield United in loan transfer this January as Wilder eyes defender

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      SHEFFIELD UNITED will ask Manchester United for Marcos Rojo on loan.
      Blades boss Chris Wilder is looking for a new defender.

      NINTCHDBPICT000577380845-1Credit: PA:Press Association

      The Argentinian centre-half is on the fringes at Old Trafford.
      And he could be available in January.
      Rojo, 30, was the subject of inquiries from several clubs during the last transfer window.
      But United kept him and put him in their squad for the Champions League.

      The fiery defender returned from a disappointing loan back home with Estudiantes in Argentina last term.
      However, he could be sent out again to the Premier League to help him and United.
      Rojo is a free agent at the  end of the season and needs a long-term move.

      Half a season with the Blades may appeal.
      Wilder lost influential defender Jack O’Connell to a  knee injury and still has a loan space.
      And he is hopeful he can agree a deal with United.  More

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      in Soccer

      Man Utd missed out on Dayot Upamecano transfer after row over just £200,000 for RB Leipzig defender

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      MANCHESTER UNITED missed out on signing RB Leipzig star Dayot Upamecano — because of a row over just £200,000.
      Germans Leipzig signed him for £9million in 2017.

      Dayot Upamecano could have been playing for Man Utd but for a row over moneyCredit: EPA

      And he is now worth around £55m and rated one of Europe’s best centre-halves.
      But the French defender could have been playing FOR United in the Champions League this week, instead of facing them, if a fee had been agreed five years ago.
      Upamecano was at Old Trafford with his mum and agent as a deal was lined up with then club Valenciennes — only to fall apart over a small sum of money.
      The defender, 21, was just 16  when he arrived at United in the hope of sealing his dream deal to one of Europe’s giant clubs.

      But instead, Upamecano and his party went away upset as United chiefs only offered £500,000 while the French club demanded  £700,000.
      It was considered too much to pay for a player who was already in the France under-16 and U-17 teams and tipped for the top.
      An insider in the deal said: “Dayot wanted to join United and the fee really was nothing.
      “At first he got the red-carpet treatment but then they would not go that bit further with their offer and he was gone.”

      Instead, RB Salzburg snapped him up just  two weeks late4.
      They paid the asking price and pledging extras.
      Liverpool are strongly linked and, ironically, United have been looking again — only this time he will cost a lot more than £700,000. 

      Edinson Cavani joins Man Utd in training for the first time More

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      in Soccer

      Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta blasts back at Mesut Ozil’s agent and insists he HAS been honest with outcast star

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      MIKEL ARTETA says he HAS been honest with Mesut Ozil and his Arsenal revolution is a matter of trust.
      Ozil’s agent Dr Erkut Sogut accused boss Arteta of not telling the truth about why he has frozen  the German playmaker out at the Emirates.  But Arteta claims honesty is at the heart of his leadership, saying: “If you have to lead,  they have to trust you.

      Mikel Arteta says he has been honest with Mesut OzilCredit: Reuters

      “In order for them to trust you, you have to be honest. You have to be clear and you have to be able to tell people, face to face, the good and  bad news.
      “Then you have to be consistent in what you say, the demands  you put in and what you apply.
      “When things happen, you applaud them and then when they don’t, there are consequences. Then you create a  culture and within that culture  people have to be accountable.

      “People have to step up and they have to demand the standards  we need of each other from this football club in order to be successful.”
      After the Gunners left Ozil, 32, out of their Premier League and Europa League squads, the World Cup winner  complained on social media: “Loyalty is hard to come by nowadays.”
      Sogut went further in  an interview with ESPN and said: “Arsenal fans deserve an honest explanation, not Arteta saying, ‘I failed Ozil’.
      “You didn’t fail Ozil. You failed to be fair, honest and transparent and treat someone with respect who has a  contract and was loyal all the time.

      “Every single person outside knows he hasn’t treated him fairly.
      “If you talk, you should tell the truth  the Arsenal supporters deserve, otherwise don’t talk at all.”

      Ozil  has  been at loggerheads with the club on a number of issues, including his refusal to take a pay cut in April and in publicly voicing  his support for Uighur Muslims in China last December.
      He also offered to pay the salary of axed mascot  Gunnersaurus, who was made redundant by the club in a cost-saving exercise.
      Arteta says he has worked hard to get to know his players and assess where they fit into his plans to try to revive Arsenal’s  fortunes.
      And the verdict on Ozil is clearly not  at all.

      Ahead of this evening’s Premier League visit of Leicester, Arteta added: “I’ve spent a lot of time trying to understand the players.
      “How they are feeling, their background, their culture, how they take certain reactions and certain comments.
      “It’s not about what you say, it’s about the perception and how they understand your messages.
      “They all have  different backgrounds and problems with the language as well, so they might not  understand exactly what you’re saying.
      “It’s tricky and the best thing to do is ask the questions and get their opinions   and then move from there.”

      Carlton Cole says Mesut Ozil hasn’t helped himself to fit in the Arsenal team More

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      in Soccer

      Steven Gerrard reveals slip against Chelsea which cost Liverpool Premier League title still haunts him six years on

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      STEVEN GERRARD admits his horror slip against Chelsea still haunts him six years on.
      Despite his trophy-laden success in a red shirt, the former Liverpool and England captain remains plagued by that infamous moment he lost his footing during a key title match against the Blues at Anfield.

      Steven Gerrard admitted he is still not over the slip which allowed Demba Ba to score six years agoCredit: Sky Sports

      Chelsea striker Demba Ba profited from his mistake to score the opener for the Londoners in a 2-0 win.
      Fernando Torres set up Willian in stoppage time to rub salt into the wound and finish Liverpool’s 11-game winning streak.
      And the Reds ended up finishing two points behind Premier League champions Manchester City.
      It was after beating City a fortnight earlier that Gerrard gave his memorable “We do not let this slip” speech — but unfortunately he went on to do just that.

      Gerrard, now manager of Rangers, describes the Chelsea episode as a “brutal, cruel low in my life”.
      He told the High Performance Podcast: “I park it up but it comes back, all the time. What triggers it? I don’t know. TV. Images. Just me reflecting. I am someone who thinks a lot. I always try to tap into experiences.
      “This is not a thing that happens every single day, but it was such a big moment.
      “I’ve had lots and lots of moments, some incredible moments, which I never dreamed of.

      The Rangers boss continues to be haunted by the events at Anfield which sparked a collapse in Liverpool’s title chargeCredit: EPA

      “But your career takes you to some lows as well. It would be easy if you lifted the carpet, pushed them under and you never thought about them again. But I don’t think that’s ever going to be the case.”
      Gerrard, 40, is adamant he felt no jealousy when Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool finally won the Premier League this summer, ending 30 years of hurt.
      He said: “I felt like part of me healed more, than any of those feelings.”
      Gerrard spent his entire playing career at Liverpool apart from a final season with LA Galaxy.
      He added: “I know not only did it hurt me (in 2014), it hurt a lot of people who had followed this club for many, many years.
      “Liverpool fans commit themselves to that club.

      “They love the club, it’s in the heart. I’ve lived with it for 20 years and more.
      “I knew what that meant, that Premier League (title), to an awful lot of people. My own family, to me. I mean, the way the club were with me, during that time, which will remain private.
      “During that run-in, to win the Premier League, it was special how that club were with me.
      “You’ve still got the relationships with all those people and stuff. I think a lot of people were probably wondering whether I was jealous, but no.”

      Rangers boss Steven Gerrard and Arsenal star Kieran Tierney send messages of support to young Celtic fan with brain cancer More

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      in Motorsport

      Lewis Hamilton admits he ‘drove the nuts off’ his Mercedes to seal historic Portuguese GP pole as team dominate again

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      LEWIS HAMILTON “drove the nuts off” his Mercedes and will start his attempt to become F1’s most successful driver from pole position.
      The world champion is going in search of his 92nd win in Sunday’s Portuguese GP to move clear of the joint-record he holds with Michael Schumacher.

      Lewis Hamilton will start from the front of the grid for the 97th timeCredit: Getty Images – Getty

      The reigning world champion in action during qualifying for the Portugal GPCredit: Getty Images – Getty

      Hamilton left it late, as he gazumped Valtteri Bottas once again – leaving the Finn feeling sick of the sight of his teammate.
      Hamilton decided to string together three late flying laps and was 0.102seconds quicker than Bottas, who had until then topped every single session in Portimao.
      Hamilton said: “I can’t tell you how hard that was. Yes, we’ve got a great car but you have to drive the nuts off of it to pull out a lap.
      “Valtteri’s been so quick this weekend, he’s topped every session but at the end, I chose to do three laps to give me a chance at beating his time.

      “That last lap, it got better and better as I went through it. I don’t have anything to hide. I was not holding anything back.
      “It is like building a wall. You take one brick and then it is the next one and the next one. It is a lot of hard work and fine tuning to get the perfect setting.
      “It doesn’t come easy and I have been pushing all weekend and Valtteri had always been at the top, so I just had to continue to did and I knew that eventually I would get there.”
      As for Bottas, who took pole last out in Germany only to see Hamilton win the race, he says he is fed up with losing out to the six-time world champion.

      Yes, we’ve got a great car but you have to drive the nuts off of it to pull out a lap
      Lewis Hamilton

      He added: “It is annoying, it’s very annoying.
      “But practice sessions, being at the top, it doesn’t matter anyway. Always I try to reset from each session and focus on the coming one.
      “Especially after the final practice, you need to reset and take all the learnings you can from the practice to do things even better.
      “But knowing that you have the pace, yeah it’s annoying but that’s how it is and I need to quickly forget that.”
      The qualifying session was delayed 30 minutes after a drain cover worked loose during final practice, striking Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari.
      Marshals and FIA officials needed to inspect the other drain covers to ensure there would not be a repeat of the danger.
      The German qualified a lowly 15th while his teammate, Charles Leclerc, will start in P4 behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

      The ten greatest F1 drivers of all-time – according to SunSport’s motorsport correspondent Ben Hunt

      And Vettel, who is leaving the team at the end of the season, says Leclerc is “in a different class” to him at the moment.
      In an honest assessment, the four-time world champ said: “It’s not just a beating, it’s like a different class.
      “I try everything I can. I think the laps I hit, and I’m satisfied with them, are still too slow. At the moment there is nothing more I can do than to get what I have inside me.”

      Michael Schumacher’s son Mick hands Lewis Hamilton one of his dad’s old helmets as Brit equals legend’s GP win record More

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      in Soccer

      Troy Deeney reveals he bumps into Arsenal stars in Sainsbury’s as says there are no hard feelings over ‘cojones’ dig

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      TROY DEENEY says he happily bumps into Arsenal stars in Sainsbury’s and claims there are no hard feelings over his ‘cojones’ jibe.
      The Watford hero famously accused the Gunners of lacking ‘cojones’ after inflicting a 2-1 defeat in 2017.

      SunSport columnist Troy Deeney says there are no hard feelings with Arsenal players over his infamous ‘cojones’ jibeCredit: Reuters

      That came during Arsene Wenger’s final season, when the North London club were screaming out for a change of leadership.

      But despite questioning the Gunners’ stars bravery and bravado, he insists there is no bad blood.
      He said: “I see their players in Sainsbury’s or the petrol station and say hello, it’s nothing personal. I went up to them in the NBA game in London that year to make sure they knew that.

      “People say it was revenge Arsenal relegated us but it was a really bad season and we just happened to get relegated there.
      “I had a few memes from Arsenal fans and you take it on the chin.”
      What’s more, Deeney reckons Mikel Arteta is curing the side’s soft centre after signings such as midfielder Thomas Partey and centre-back Gabriel.
      Such was evident in the brilliant 2-1 comeback win over Rapid Vienna in the Europa League on Thursday night.

      SunSport’s brilliant new columnist, who also accused social media giants of profiting from racism, said: “Arsenal look really good because they are actually recruiting properly. For years everyone said ‘they need a centre-half, they need a holding midfielder.’

      Deeney believes Arsenal look much stronger now with their new signingsCredit: Reuters

      “With Arsenal it was always forwards — flair players. Against Watford or Burnley, they came unstuck.
      “They never had a dominant holding midfielder or a dominant centre-half so you always thought you could get at them. They had unbelievable players. But you need more.
      “There is a mentality there that Arteta is changing. Before it was all about the show. Can you score four or five beautiful goals?

      “Now I think Arteta is happy with one-nil to the Arsenal. You have to work for your place.
      “Look at Nicolas Pepe, they paid over £70million for him and he’s not had many starts.
      “You can see what they’re building. I don’t think they will break the top four this year. They are one or two short, but the starting XI is very good.
      “But Arsenal — and Man United — went through two or three years of not bringing in the right players. Now Arsenal have got back in the mix.”

      Arteta says Thomas Partey needs time to adapt to our system More

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      in Boxing

      Boxing’s new super-cruiserweight division a ‘sensible’ move that will allow mouthwatering fights like Usyk vs Wilder

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      BECAUSE Tyson Fury and the rest of today’s leading heavyweights are built the size of articulated trucks, boxing is about to create a new weight class.
      The idea is that it’s going to be above the cruiserweight 14st 4lb limit and the fighters who will be involved won’t be allowed to be heavier than 16st.

      Wilder could be one of the superstars set to compete in this new divisionCredit: Getty Images – Getty

      With 17 weight divisions already, you would think the Noble Art needs another as about as much as Manchester needs a goodwill visit from Boris Johnson.
      But talks between WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman and British Boxing Board of Control chairman Charlie Giles are at an advanced stage.
      It is a sensible move and will protect men like Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk — who clashes with Derek Chisora tomorrow week in London — from being at an unacceptable weight disadvantage.
      Usyk, the unbeaten former undisputed world cruiserweight champion ran out of opposition, which forced him to move up among the big boys.

      Yet when he had his first heavyweight fight a year ago he was 15st 5lb, which means he will probably be at least three stone lighter than Chisora next week.
      Tony Bellew, the former world cruiserweight champ knocked out by Usyk in his last fight, has been asked by the WBC to be an ambassador for the plan.
      Bellew said: “I’m very enthusiastic about this because it will allow the small heavyweights and big cruiserweights to have a level playing field.
      “Speaking from experience Usyk is technically the best in the heavyweight division. He’s a genius.

      “But the one thing that will hold him back is sheer size. He will not be able to beat the real big boys for that reason.
      “Heavyweights are getting bigger and bigger. Look at Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte. They are huge. The new division is inevitable and the need for it is going to get more apparent.”
      Glenn McCrory, Britain’s first world cruiserweight champion, is 100 per cent behind Bellew. He said: “When I lost my cruiserweight title I moved up to heavyweight and fought Lennox Lewis.
      “He was only a couple of stone heavier but he was throwing me around like I was a rag doll. Imagine what it would be like facing someone three or four stone heavier.”

      Fans may be surprised to learn last century’s legendary world champions would never be considered heavyweights in this era of Goliaths.
      This what they weighed when they won the title. Jack Johnson (13st 4lb), Jack Dempsey (13st 5lb), Joe Louis (14st 1lb) and Rocky Marciano a mere 13st 2lb.
      Can you imagine matching Marciano — 11 inches shorter and six stone lighter — with Fury? He’d be arrested under the Trades Description Act.
      The only negative argument I’ve heard is a new super-cruiserweight division will be unfashionable and therefore unattractive to the TV companies’ networks.
      But if it was launched with a Usyk-Deontay Wilder — an under 16st man — world championship battle, I doubt if that would be too difficult to sell.

      Watch Tyson Fury star in short film on addiction called You’re Not My Best Friend to mark World Mental Health Day More

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      in Soccer

      Jordan Pickford tried to apologise to Van Dijk for season-ending tackle on Liverpool star after speaking to Henderson

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      JORDAN PICKFORD has tried to apologise to Virgil van Dijk for the tackle that wrecked his season.
      Liverpool centre-back Van Dijk is now awaiting surgery on the knee injury he received when the Everton goalkeeper clattered into him early in last week’s Merseyside derby.

      Liverpool’s star defender Virgil van Dijk faces missing at least the rest of the season after this challenge from Jordan PickfordCredit: Reuters

      The Toffees’ England No1 Jordan Pickford tried to contact Virgil van Dijk to say sorry for his clumsy challengeCredit: Getty Images – Getty

      Pickford has been so pilloried over the challenge that Carlo Ancelotti came out strongly to tell his critics to stop picking on his player.
      He has also revealed that the England No1 did make an effort to say sorry.
      The Toffees boss, still annoyed over the stick his team have taken since last week’s 2-2 draw said: “I know that Jordan spoke to  Jordan Henderson after the game.
      “And I know that he tried to make contact with Van Dijk.

      “But I don’t know if he managed to do so.”
      Pickford was not the only Toffees player to be highlighted after the bruising draw with Liverpool.
      Richarlison received a late red card for a nasty challenge on Thiago Alcantara that means the Brazilian will almost certainly miss the Reds’ clash with Sheffield United tonight.
      On Tuesday Kop midfielder Gini Wijnaldum waded into the debate complaining that Everton’s tackles in derby matches were “too much”.

      Everton boss Carlo Ancelotti has defended Jordan Pickford and urged the keeper’s critics to lay off himCredit: Getty – Pool

      The tackle by Pickford was mis-timed. He did not go out to hurt him. Van Dijk is a fantastic player and everyone here wants him to recover as soon as possible.
      Carlo Ancelotti

      But Italian Ancelotti bit back, with Pickford’s action still at the forefront of his mind.
      He snapped: “I have to repeat what I said. Were you not listening?
      “In my opinion the tackle by Pickford on Van Dijk was mis-timed. He did not go out to hurt him.
      “Van Dijk is a fantastic player and everyone here wants him to recover as soon as possible.”
      Ironically Ancelotti suggested that James Rodriguez would miss the visit to Southampton — thanks to a challenge by Van Dijk.
      But he now believes the Colombian superstar is on the mend after suffering bruising.
      He added:  “Fortunately his recovery has been really good.
      “He has trained and will train again before Southampton. I am confident now that he will play.”

      Meanwhile, Everton will bid for a fifth straight away win when they meet Saints tomorrow — something the club has not achieved since 1970.
      Ancelotti, 61, stressed: “We have made this start because we are more ambitious and more motivated.
      “Also, because there are no crowds at the moment, I think it has become easier to win away from home.”

      Sam Allardyce feels Jordan Pickford should’ve been sent off in Everton v Liverpool match More