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Celtic ended the 2024/25 Scottish Premiership campaign with a 1-1 draw against St Mirren at Parkhead, having already clinched the title at the end of last month.

Jonah Ayunga’s goal gave the away side a shock lead at the start of the second half, but James Forrest stepped up in stoppage time to score a league goal for the Hoops for the 16th consecutive season – an extraordinary achievement.

As you can see in the clip above, central defender Liam Scales failed to get good distance on his headed clearance, which teed up Ayunga to rifle the ball into the back of the net.

Liam Scales' performance against St Mirren in numbers

The left-footed defender came into the side to replace Auston Trusty next to Cameron Carter-Vickers, with a chance to catch the eye ahead of the cup final.

Whilst he may not be happy with the goal that Celtic conceded and his part in it, Scales did a lot of good work in the match to keep the away side at bay.

The central defender ended the 90 minutes with eight clearances, four interceptions, and eight duels won, including seven out of 11 aerial battles won, which shows that he made a number of key defensive interventions.

Chalkboard

Football FanCast’s Chalkboard series presents a tactical discussion from around the global game.

Meanwhile, central midfielder Paulo Bernardo was even worse than Scales and should be dropped by Brendan Rodgers for the SFA Cup final clash with Aberdeen next weekend.

Why Paulo Bernardo should be dropped

The Portuguese midfielder was given another chance to impress in the middle of the park ahead of the cup final, as Reo Hatate has been ruled out through injury.

There is a vacancy in the midfield next to Callum McGregor and Arne Engels, due to the Japanese star’s absence, and it should be Luke McCowan who is given the nod, not Bernardo.

In the clash with St Mirren, the former Benfica starlet lost 67% (4/6) of his duels and failed to create a single chance for his teammates in 54 minutes on the pitch.

This shows that he struggled in and out of possession for the Hoops and was even worse than Scales, who at least made numerous defensive interventions and completed 94% of his attempted passes.

As you can see in the table above, in the two matches since Hatate suffered his knee injury, McCowan has provided far more quality in possession from a midfield position in comparison to Bernardo.

These statistics suggest that the former Dundee man is more likely to make a big impact from the start at Hampden Park against Aberdeen next weekend, given his recent form in front of goal.

Therefore, Rodgers must take Bernardo out of the starting XI to bring the Scottish dynamo back into the side when the team takes to the field with the ambition of winning the treble.

Rodgers can sign Jota 2.0 in Celtic move for star who could be worth £30m

Celtic could find their next version of Jota by swooping to sign this star this summer.

1

By
Dan Emery

May 17, 2025

Derby County secured their Championship status in dramatic fashion and could now strike in the market to land a talented defender, according to reports.

Derby County look forward after great Championship escape

John Eustace pulled off something of a minor miracle after arriving at Pride Park, taking Derby from seven points behind at one point to eventual safety on the final day of the Championship season.

Plenty of controversy came to light when the 45-year-old swapped Blackburn Rovers for a side in a dogfight to avoid being relegated to the third-tier of English football, but it all seems to have worked out in the end.

There has been plenty of speculation over what may come next as Eustace bids to provide an element of stability at the Rams, and he has now taken a major step in shaping the future of his squad following the release of Derby’s retained list for 2025/26.

Jeff Hendrick, Kemar Roofe and Conor Washington are among senior members of his group who won’t be offered new deals, paving the way for potential transfer activity over the coming weeks.

Derby County’s retained list – who still has a future at Pride Park?

Players released (not offered new deals upon expiry)

Tom Barkhuizen, Sonny Bradley, Tyrese Fornah, Jeff Hendrick, Rohan Luthra, Erik Pieters, Kemar Roofe, Conor Washington.

Players out of contract with discussions ongoing over futures

Craig Forsyth, Liam Thompson.

Loanees returning to parent clubs

Harrison Armstrong, Marcus Harness, David Ozoh, Nat Phillips, Jerry Yates.

Lincoln City midfielder Ethan Erhahon has emerged as a target for Eustace amid competition from Blackburn for his signature. Make no mistake, there will be mass changes at Derby and plenty of movement is set to take place.

Speaking of which, Derby have made an offer to bring a talented star to Pride Park this summer and have now received a reply.

O'Rourke: Derby receive reply to Cody Drameh offer

Taking to social media platform X, journalist Pete O’Rourke has confirmed that Derby have been knocked back in their attempts to land Hull City full-back Cody Drameh on loan after making an initial offer for the 23-year-old.

Eustace previously worked with the former Leeds United man at Birmingham City, calling the defender “top” in 2023 and is keen to be reunited with a familiar face, though he is also being targeted by Stade de Reims and Toulouse.

Labelled “fantastic” by Rob Edwards, Drameh registered a goal and an assist in 29 appearances this campaign as Hull narrowly staved off relegation in similar fashion to Derby.

Winning 49 tackles on league duty, the London-born man is a sought-after talent that still has room for development, though it remains to be seen whether the Tigers will be willing to let him go during the off-season.

They might still be in with a chance of winning the Europa League, but this season has been a disaster for Tottenham Hotspur.

The North Londoners would have started their campaign hopeful of improving on their fifth-place finish last year and qualifying for the Champions League.

However, with less than two months of the season remaining, Ange Postecoglou’s side find themselves down in 14th place in the Premier League and with more losses than wins.

With that said, there has been one big positive from the campaign, which is how well their youngsters have fared, and based on recent reports, Daniel Levy and Co now seem intent on adding another up-and-coming talent to their squad in the £50m Dean Huijsen. However, they may already have their own version of the Spaniard out on loan.

Why Spurs want to sign Huijsen

With what has to be an enormous summer of transfer activity ahead of them, why would Spurs want to spend a significant amount of money on Huijsen?

Well, there are a few reasons, and the first is their fragilities at the back, as with Micky van de Ven incredibly injury-prone and Cristian Romero increasingly so, the club need another centre-back who’d not only be capable of filling in when needed but also challenge both for a place in the starting lineup, which he could do.

For example, despite still being just 19 years old, the Spaniard has made 29 appearances for Bournemouth this season, 24 of which have been starts, and considering the Cherries have conceded five fewer goals than the North Londoners in the league this year, that’s an encouraging sign.

Moreover, he won his first senior cap for Spain last month and looks to be on a trajectory to the very top of the game.

Finally, he also has some genuinely impressive underlying numbers to his name, with FBref placing him in the top 1% of centre-backs across Europe’s top five leagues for interceptions, the top 2% for non-penalty expected goals plus assists, the top 4% for clearances, the top 5% for shot-creating actions and more, all per 90.

Interceptions

2.10

Top 1%

Non-Penalty Expected G+As

0.17

Top 2%

Clearances

6.78

Top 4%

Shot-Creating Actions

1.64

Top 5%

Progressive Carries

1.45

Top 8%

Non-Penalty Goals

0.09

Top 10%

Touches in the Attacking Box

1.36

Top 12%

In short, Huijsen would be a great signing for the present and future, but it might be unnecessary, as one of Tottenham’s loanees looks like he could be their version of the teenager.

Spurs' own Huijsen

While Spurs have several exciting youngsters out on loan this season, from Ashley Phillips to Yang Min-hyeok, it’ll likely come as no surprise to those of you who follow him that the player we are talking about is Luka Vušković.The Croatian wonderkid joined Tottenham back in September 2023, but as he was just 16, post-Brexit rules mean he can’t officially move to North London until this summer.

In The Pipeline

Football FanCast’s In the Pipeline series aims to uncover the very best youth players in world football.

While not ideal, this allowed the youngster to go out on loan, and he’s spent this season in Belgium with KVC Waterloo, where he has been sensational.

So what makes him like Huijsen, then?

Well, the first and most obvious point of similarity is that both players are enormous for their age, with the Spaniard coming in at 6 foot 6 and the Croat just over 6 foot 4.

On top of that, a similar level of expectation is placed upon the Lilywhites gem.

For example, respected talent scout Jacek Kulig has described him as a “truly amazing CB” and proclaimed that he’s “destined for great things.”

At the same time, football analyst Ben Mattinson has described the teenager as a “freak athlete” and a “freak talent” who has a “scary ceiling.”

Finally, while the Bournemouth man has shown himself to be someone who can chip in with a goal or two, the Split-born prospect is on another level.

Appearances

29

Clean Sheets

5

Goals

7

Assists

2

Goal Involvements per Match

0.31

For example, in just 29 first-team appearances this term, he’s scored seven goals and provided two assists, which comes out to an average of a goal involvement every 0.31 games, which is just incredible for a centre-back.

Ultimately, signing Huijsen wouldn’t be a bad idea, but Tottenham shouldn’t feel like they need to, as in Vušković, they already have their own version of the Spaniard.

Spurs can forget Dibling by unleashing "high potential" 18-year-old star

Spurs have been linked with a move for Tyler Dibling.

ByJack Salveson Holmes Apr 9, 2025

Australia threw two legspinners at Virat Kohli and he scored off both with ease to control India’s chase

Andrew Fidel Fernando04-Mar-20251:55

Kumble: Kohli always in control during chases

When you have lived the kind of made-for-television existence that Virat Kohli has for the past 15 years, how much mystique, and how much freshness, does the spotlight leave for you? Kohli has invited much of the attention. There is arguably no cricketer in history that has revelled in this glow so much as Kohli, the broadcaster’s Kohlicam a self-perpetuating highlights package waiting to be cut to quicken the pulse of hundreds of millions.But human beings are complex. And though it feels like there are few dark corners waiting to be revealed about Kohli the person, and certainly no mysteries to Kohli the batter, there are some moments that he wants to keep to himself.On the eve of the Pakistan vs India match of this Champions Trophy, for instance, Kohli showed up to the nets of the ICC’s academy hours before he was scheduled to be there, and had a big throwdowns session, with one or two net bowlers in attendance. This was long before the media believed he would arrive, so it is difficult to figure what exactly he worked on. But when word spread that Kohli had landed, fans showed up and were kept outside the gates, from where they could catch only the barest of glimpses.Related

• Agar: An in-form Kohli can leave bowlers massively frustrated

• Kumble: There is always undue pressure on Rahul

• Kohli's 84 sends India into Champions Trophy final

• Rahul: I'm quite used to going up and down the order

• 'Grow up' – Gambhir takes aim at 'perpetual cribbers'

This is Kohli’s life. Many would show up just to watch him sneeze, and then replay the video of the sneeze with friends, then discuss at length what could possibly have caused it, and whether he looked like he was suppressing any more sneezes, and at what velocity exactly the air was coming out of his nose. Were there any hints of snot? No, surely. The vegan diet. The punishing exercise regimen. In this body? No way. There is no excess mucus there.Kohli, the batter, has had recent trials against legspin. With other players you might not even notice. Wristspin anyway rocks the world on South Asian tracks right now. Also the ODI sample size is tiny.And because it is Kohli, and this career is under the electron microscope, facts that you would not discover about others, you do discover about Kohli. Since the start of 2024, Kohli had been out five times to legspin in the six ODI innings he had faced legspin in. His batting strike rate against legspinners was 48.64.This is a very specific kind of bowling, in a currently unfavoured format, so the data can only reveal so much. But how you have tended to get out in your last few innings is the thing that opposition bowlers tend to prey on. This is the blood in the water that the great white sharks – which Australia tend to embody in big tournaments – are drawn to.

“When you play 300 games, you will end up getting out to some of the spinners – so that’s okay. He’s got a hundred in this competition [against Pakistan], he’s got a [84] in this competition, and when you’ve got runs in this competition, you will eventually get out to some kind of a bowler”Gautam Gambhir

But although great whites generally rule the oceans, they are not the apex predator in this particular food chain. Kohli is an orca. On Tuesday, he stunned the sharks, and ate them up. Australia bowled 96 balls of legspin in this game, bringing in Tanveer Sangha to complement Adam Zampa. Only 14 of those 96 balls came when Kohli was not in the middle.Against Zampa, one of the best white-ball bowlers going, Kohli made 23 off 24 balls. Against Sangha, he hit 12 off 9. All up, that’s 35 off 33 balls against a type of bowling he is supposed to be struggling against. He even deployed the sweep against Sangha’s bowling – not one of his favoured shots. He got him away through fine leg for four.Kohli would eventually get out to Zampa, holing out to long-on on 84. Zampa bowled a googly that Kohli picked, but he wanted to crash it high over that long-on boundary anyway. Maybe in the very back of Kohli’s brain, right near the section neuroscience professors might label “impulse centre”, there was a thought that if he sent this ball high and long into the night, there would be no more doubts about him and legspin. Whether this is Kohli being intensely attuned to what people might be saying about him, or Kohli being intensely attuned to his own cricketing reality, it is hard to tell.Virat Kohli might have a problem against legspin, but there was little evidence of it on Tuesday night•ICC/Getty ImagesBut it is worth noting that this shot came only when India’s victory was all but assured. They needed 40 off 45 when he played that shot, with KL Rahul already batting well, and Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja to come. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that winning matches for India is not important to Kohli.”When you play 300 games, you will end up getting out to some of the spinners – so that’s okay,” coach Gautam Gambhir said after the match when asked about Kohli’s recent brushes with legspin. “He’s got a hundred in this competition [against Pakistan], he’s got a [84] in this competition, and when you’ve got runs in this competition, you will eventually get out to some kind of a bowler. So rather than dissecting and bisecting that he’s got out to legspin and then… when you’ve played 300 ODIs you will eventually get out to certain kind of bowlers.”The end of Kohli’s innings in this particular match revealed something brand new about a player it was thought there was no more to be known. He could have cruised his way to a 52nd ODI hundred, extending his lead at the top of a leaderboard that he will likely rule forever. But there was some part of him that also needed to crash a top-quality legspinner over long-on. And who could possibly deny the fun, the freshness, and the mystique in that?

ESPNcricinfo presents its team of the US Masters T10 tournament

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Aug-2023Aaron Finch (California Knights)Finch has only just quit the game internationally, so he is not quite in the turning-the-clock-back category yet, and is still pretty huge in the Big Bash League. That showed, never more than early on in the tournament, when he smashed 75 not out in 31 balls and 63 not out in 30 balls against New Jersey Triton’s and Morrisville Unity respectively. California lost both matches, though, but not for want of trying on Finch’s part, who ended as the highest scorer in the competition, with 236 runs from eight innings at a strike rate of 203.44.Mohammad Hafeez (Texas Chargers)He was the Player of the Tournament, and totally deserving of the honour, after scoring 210 runs in eight innings at a strike rate of 253.01 – the best among the batters – and picking up seven wickets at an economy rate of 8.85. In the final, he didn’t need to bowl, but was the best batter, scoring 46 in 17 balls in Texas’ chase. A collapse meant it wasn’t enough to win the game for them, who had to get to the title after a Super Over, but Hafeez showcased his all-round ability in spades.Jacques Kallis (California Knights)He’s close to 48, but he is arguably the greatest all-round cricketer since Garry Sobers. And there were plenty of signs of the old class-is-permanent cliché, particularly against Texas, where he smashed 64 not out in 31 balls and put up a stand of 158 with Milind Kumar to make it a one-sided contest. There were all the old trademark shots on display, and that inside-out drive over the covers looked good enough to eat. If that was a high-scoring game, he played a measured knock in a low-scoring game against Atlanta Riders, where he scored 38 not out in 27 balls in a five-run win.

We've traveled back in time to witness @jacqueskallis75 deliver batting performance for today's match 1!

Tune-in to #USMastersT10OnStar
Tomorrow | 6:30 PM onwards | Star Sports 1 & Star Sports 1 Hindi#Cricket pic.twitter.com/JLdxcH3idf

— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) August 19, 2023