Newcastle monitoring "strong" £50k-p/w target who scored at St James’ Park

Swiftly turning their attention towards 2025 after an underwhelming summer transfer window, Newcastle United and Paul Mitchell are now reportedly keeping tabs on one target who has already found the back of the net at St James’ Park.

Newcastle transfer news

There’s no doubt that the Magpies could do with a successful January transfer window following such a disastrous summer – what Eddie Howe needs is a transfer window to match the quality that his side has shown so far this season. The former Bournemouth boss has guided his side to within two points of the top four after just seven games in a run that has seen them suffer just the one defeat despite not playing their best stuff.

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Of course, that run won’t stand in the way of Newcastle’s frustration after their 0-0 draw against Everton last time out, in which Anthony Gordon saw his penalty saved by former teammate Jordan Pickford, much to the delight of the Toffees support.

With the international break handing those at St James’ Park a couple of weeks to ponder such frustration, sporting director Mitchell has seemingly turned his attention towards the transfer window.

According to GiveMeSport, Mitchell is now monitoring Antoine Semenyo ahead of a potential move for Newcastle in the winter window or next summer. The Bournemouth winger has enjoyed an excellent start to the season for the Cherries, picking up where he left off last time out to become the star of the show once again.

Newcastle are well aware of his quality too, given that he scored in a 2-2 draw against the Magpies last season, as Bournemouth escaped St James’ Park with a well-earned point thanks to their winger. With Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur also reportedly interested in Semenyo, however, Newcastle and Mitchell will have to act fast in pursuit of his signature.

"Strong" Semenyo is a player on the rise

Much like Dominic Solanke did before leaving for Spurs in the summer, Semenyo is quickly making a name for himself on the South Coast and may well earn a big move as a result. So far this season, he’s arguably stolen more headlines than ever, having scored three goals and assisted another in just seven Premier League games as a player who only looks likely to get more and more clinical.

Wheeling away in celebration at St James’ Park last season, if Newcastle fans aren’t aware of Semenyo’s quality just yet, then a winter move should certainly give them a better look.

Full of praise for his £50,000-a-week winger, Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola told reporters, via the Bournemouth Echo, earlier this season: “Past season, I remember that normally he started from the bench or he played 60, 65 minutes and you could see that he was starting to decline, it’s normal a little bit.

“Now he’s staying there, he’s finishing strong, the games. I think he’s one of the ones also who has played a lot of minutes with the national team and I hope he can keep this level.”

Bad news for Bayern Munich! Harry Kane sees key team-mate Alphonso Davies ruled out with hamstring injury as full-back nears contract extension

Bayern Munich star Alphonso Davies has been ruled out with a hamstring injury as he edges closer to signing a contract extension.

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Davies picked up an injury against FeyenoordHas a strain on his left hamstring Expected to be out for a couple of weeksFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?

According to Davies has been ruled out for four to six weeks following a hamstring injury sustained during the team’s 3-0 loss to Feyenoord in the Champions League. The Canadian international limped off in first-half added time after receiving on-field treatment, with Raphael Guerreiro stepping in to replace him. Bayern confirmed the severity of Davies’ injury in a press release on Thursday and further updated his recovery timeline on Friday.

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Bayern put out a statement on Davies' injury which read: "Alphonso Davies sustained a muscle strain in his left hamstring in the Champions League match at Feyenoord (0-3) on Wednesday night. This was confirmed by a scan carried out by the FC Bayern medical staff. The 24-year-old will be absent for the German record champions for the time being."

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This isn’t the first time Davies has dealt with muscle issues this season. In December, he missed two matches due to a torn muscle fibre. Despite these setbacks, the 23-year-old has been a vital player under manager Vincent Kompany, starting 23 matches and appearing as a substitute twice, contributing one goal and three assists.

Amid his injury concerns, Davies is also in the middle of contract extension talks with Bayern. The left-back’s current deal is set to expire in June, but reports suggest both parties are nearing an agreement. This would be a significant boost for Bayern, as Real Madrid are waiting on the wings to lure the defender to the Santiago Bernabeu as a free agent.

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While his absence is a blow for Bayern, it comes at a time when the club is also managing injuries to other key players, including Joao Palhinha and reserve goalkeeper Daniel Peretz. Additionally, right-back Konrad Laimer will miss the upcoming match against Freiburg due to suspension.

Provincial T20 Cup: Boland and Warriors make the cut, Limpopo finish without a win

Breetzke and Fortuin bring out the big runs in a not-very-competitive round of Pool D games

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Oct-2021Fortuin finds a new home, and some form
Clyde Fortuin was part of the 2014 South Africa Under-19 side that won the World Cup, but unlike Kagiso Rabada and Aiden Markram, he has not found his way into the senior side just yet. In fact, Fortuin had not even found a domestic team to call his own and bounced around between Western Province and Northern Cape before settling in the Boland for the coming summer.Related

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In his first match for the Rocks, Fortuin reeled out what will end up being one of the innings of the tournament, the second century after Zubayr Hamza’s, and a knock that ensured Boland posted a match-winning total against the Warriors. After losing the Malan brothers with the score on 40 in the fifth over, Fortuin built a 118-run stand with Christiaan Jonker to take Boland to 183 for 5. He recorded a duck in his second match but finished with 151 from three hits to lie third on the batting charts.Warriors lose, and then hit up 243!
After a 17-run defeat in their tournament opener, the Warriors line-up was merciless against second division side Limpopo and piled on the competition’s highest-score to date: 243. Wihan Lubbe and Matthew Breetzke scored half-centuries each, and for Breetzke, it was his second successive half-century of the tournament, and he shared in a 129-run opening stand before JJ Smuts’ 26-ball 52 and Diego Rosier’s 15-ball 31 propelled them over 200. Limpopo used eight bowlers and only Malcolm Nofal conceded at less than ten runs an over.No win for Limpopo
If that 120-run reversal wasn’t bad enough, Limpopo ended with a winless season as they went down to Boland by 32 runs in their next game.After two losses from two games, they were up against high-fliers Boland. Pieter Malan won the toss, scored just 13 – the Malans, together, totalled 14 – but with Fortuin hitting a quick 47, they had 141 for 8 on the board. It was a bowling effort to be fairly proud of for Limpopo. Don Radebe, the 24-year-old medium-pacer, and the pacy Sithembile Langa picked up five wickets between them and, really, 142 was as good a target as they could have hoped for.But it’s a team that hasn’t managed to put up big runs often enough – the 96-run stand between Morne Venter and Juandre Scheepers in their first outing was a bit of an outlier – and it was more of the same as a platform of 54 (in eight-and-a-half overs) for the opening wicket was frittered away by the rest of the batters and Limpopo limped to 109 for 8. Shaun von Berg, the veteran legspinner, ended with 3 for 17 and a Player-of-the-Match award.Hit-and-miss Border
They won their first fixture, against Limpopo, and then went down to Boland – the table-toppers despite a fair fight in their second game, but then put up quite a show, even though it was in a losing cause, against Warriors in the last game of the round.Warriors have the batting, and they opted to bat first, and Breetzke hit an imperious 46-ball 80, and Tristan Stubbs chipped in with 46 off 22 balls from No. 5 to give them an imposing 228 for 5.That’s usually enough to win big, and when Border went from 73 for 2 at the halfway mark of the chase to 82 for 5 just another over-and-a-half in, the chase looked dead in the water. But Border have been impressive in patches, and the last eight-and-a-half overs of their innings was one of those patches, this one courtesy captain Jerry Nqolo and Clayton Bosch, who hit 58* and 64* respectively in double-quick time to, well, not quite give Border a chance, but enough to take them past 200. Not bad, all considered.That was true of Thomas Kaber in the first half too when, in the face of quite an onslaught, the left-arm spinner returned 2 for 30. In a match worth 435 runs, his effort was deemed the best of the lot.

Australia expect 'trial by spin' against Bangladesh as semi-final hopes hangs in balance

Assistant coach McDonald says 4-1 loss in Bangladesh is fresh in the mind but hopes experience will put them in good stead

Alex Malcolm02-Nov-2021Australia are expecting a trial by spin against Bangladesh despite their top-order collapse to England’s seamers on Saturday night in Dubai.Australia’s semi-final hopes hang in the balance after their net run-rate took a hammering courtesy of the England loss, and the irony of their tournament hinging on defeating Bangladesh and West Indies was not lost on assistant coach Andrew McDonald.The recent 4-1 series defeat to Bangladesh remains fresh in the mind of the Australians although they are confident some more experienced personnel will hold them in good stead on Thursday, given five of Australia’s seven specialist batters at the World Cup did not tour Bangladesh recently.Related

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“We’re going to get a little bit of a trial by spin, which has been a great challenge over the last sort of 12-18 months,” McDonald said. “But, we feel as though with Steve Smith and Glenn Maxwell coming back into that [team], along with Aaron Finch, David Warner, we’ve probably got some more capable players in terms of the ability to play spin than what we had on the last tour. It’s not to say that those guys on the last tour weren’t going to develop into great players of spin, but they were early on in their journey. And that was the first time that they’ve been exposed to such conditions. And it’s not uncommon for people to fail on their first tour to the subcontinent. That’s what happened to us, but we feel as though we’ve got better capabilities within this team. But it’s literally going to be a similar trial by spin in my opinion.”Nasum Ahmed and Shakib Al Hasan took 15 wickets between them in the recent series, but Bangladesh have lost Shakib for the remainder of the tournament due to a hamstring injury. The conditions in Dubai are also not going to be anything like the sticky spinning tracks Australia faced in Bangladesh.Australia learned plenty of lessons from the England loss, not least of which was how to navigate batting first in Dubai given the success of teams that have won the toss and sent the opposition in. But McDonald believes the toss will not have as big an impact on Australia’s next two matches as both are day games.”At the moment, we are seeing some difficulties with teams batting first, and that is an ongoing discussion internally, how we would approach that given another opportunity with it with a night game at Dubai,” McDonald said. “But at the moment, our focus is clearly on Bangladesh, 2 pm start. And then once we get through that one, it’s another 2 pm start down at Abu Dhabi against the West Indies. So the relevance of that conversation at the moment is probably just parked, but it’s going on in the background.”The major debate in the Australia camp is around team selection and structure. Australia opted for seven batters and four bowlers in their first two matches against South Africa and Sri Lanka and secured two wins. They opted for six batters and five bowlers against England, citing Ashton Agar’s ability to match-up to England’s top order as the reason to drop allrounder Mitch Marsh after Glenn Maxwell was taken for 16 in his solitary powerplay over against Sri Lanka. Marcus Stoinis also bowled three overs for 35, but Australia still won the game easily with Aaron Finch able to deploy Mitchell Starc’s overs with more flexibility due to the use of the allrounders.Australia lost wickets in the powerplay against England and were exposed, with Maxwell forced to bat against the new ball. The game was all but over when Australia slumped to 4 for 21. How Australia structures their side against Bangladesh remains a work in progress, but Marsh’s recent good form against them in Bangladesh will no doubt bring him back into calculations.”We’ve got a lot to work through,” McDonald said. “We’ll be picking the best team based on conditions and the opposition.”Two spinners have served us well in the past. Clearly, seven batters were chosen in the first couple of games and Ashton was unlucky not to be a part of those teams. We went in favour of the three quicks and the one spinner with Glenn Maxwell to do the second spinning duty.”So all those things we take into consideration, whoever misses out is always going to be unlucky, and it’s always going to create discussions and debates as to what our best team is. And that’s probably a reflection on the depth that we have, and hopefully, we can navigate our way through the next couple of games, pick the right teams, and only hindsight will tell us whether they’re right or wrong.”

Jenni Hermoso was 'pressured into downplaying' Luis Rubiales kiss at 2023 World Cup, Spain star's brother tells court

Jenni Hermoso's brother has told a court the Spain star was "pressured into downplaying" a kiss from Luis Rubiales at the 2023 World Cup.

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Rubiales standing trial in Spain for World Cup kissAccused of sexual assault and coercionCould be jailed if found guiltyFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?

Former RFEF president Rubiales is standing trial in Spain after being accused of sexual assault and coercion after grabbing and kissing Hermoso after Spain beat England in the final of the Women's World Cup in 2023. Hermoso said afterwards the kiss was not consensual and added she was then pressured to downplay Rubiales' actions. The World Cup winner's brother Rafael has now testified at the trial and told the court what Hermoso said to him after the incident.

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As reported by , he told the court: "She came to us half-crying and told us that they were pressuring her to take a stance downplaying the kiss."

Rafael added that then-national team manager Jorge Vilda, who is also on trial for coercion, spoke to him on the flight home. He said: "We were talking about soccer and the achievement of the team and suddenly he mentioned the kiss. He said that the president wanted me to talk to Jenni to ask her to record the video together downplaying the kiss, because that would be the best thing for everyone."

He also said that he felt Vilda had threatened his sister about not helping and that he had told the Spain boss: "I was not going to try to convince her to do something that I also don't agree with."

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Hermoso has already appeared as a witness at the trial, revealing the death threats she received after the kiss and how the saga "stained one of the happiest days of her life". Rubiales denies all the charges against him and is still yet to testify.

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The trial is set to continue and is expected to last 10 days in total. The prosecutors are seeking a two-and-a half-year jail term for Rubiales as well as a €50,000 (£41,000) fine for damages and a ban from working as a sports official.

Wolves star who left in 2023 is now earning £217k-p/w more than Cunha

When it rains it pours is definitely the sombre expression to sum up the sorry state of affairs at Wolverhampton Wanderers currently, as Gary O’Neil’s men battled with Manchester City well last time out, only to end the tight contest with nothing to show for their determined efforts.

A late John Stones goal for Pep Guardiola’s visitors would swing the Premier League contest in City’s favour by two goals to one, with the winner initially ruled out for offside before being controversially overturned to the dismay of the home masses packed into Molineux.

O’Neil will have bought himself more time with this promising display you imagine, with the Wolves boss under increasing pressure to turn around the fortunes of the basement club, as the likes of Matheus Cunha try to continue to shine for the former AFC Bournemouth boss during bleak times in the West Midlands.

Cunha's form this season

The Brazilian has been a source of positivity for Wolves fans to latch onto long before this campaign, with the entertaining 25-year-old enjoying his best time as an Old Gold player last season.

Cunha would help himself to a mightily impressive 14 goals and eight assists across the course of 36 games, cementing his reputation as a firm fan’s favourite in the process, which has only increased this season as Wolves find themselves rock bottom of the Premier League pile.

He has three goals from eight Premier League games so far, with the Old Gold even more reliant on the firepower of their South American ace, knowing the likes of Pedro Neto are no longer present.

Regardless of Cunha reaffirming his importance to the cause, his wage isn’t the heftiest in O’Neil’s camp by any means, with the former Atletico Madrid man earning a reasonable £60k-per-week pay packet currently, according to reports.

Cunha

In contrast, this ex-Wolves ace is absolutely swimming in cash in his new location, after lining up alongside the Brazilian during the start of his playing days in England.

The player now earning way more than Cunha

When on the books of Wolves still in the top division, midfield star Ruben Neves would only pocket £50k-per-week, with that salary actually coming in as being less than Cunha’s.

Now, however, the Portuguese midfielder has won himself a gigantic pay increase playing for Al-Hilal out in Saudi Arabia, with the former Wolves number eight now on an outrageous £277k-per-week salary.

Player

Wage per week

Wage per year

1. Neymar

£1.6m

£83.3m

2. Kalidou Koulibaly

£555k

£28m

3. Sergej Milinkovic-Savic

£400k

£20m

4. Aleksandar Mitrovic

£400k

£20m

5. Malcom

£288k

£14.9m

Amazingly, that steep wage doesn’t see Neves even enter into the top five highest earners bracket at the Middle East outfit, with Neymar taking home a mind-boggling £83.3m per year when scanning the table above.

Still, Neves’ extortionate pay packet for Al-Hilal means he takes home £217k more per week than Cunha does battling it out for the Old Gold, but nobody back at Molineux would accuse their former midfield star of throwing in the towel prematurely to chase down these riches.

Long before a lavish move to Riyadh was even on the cards, the midfielder would score screamers like this one against Derby County on a regular basis for his ex-employers, with Neves even playing for Wolves in the Championship before their triumphant return to Premier League in 2018.

It wasn’t quite the same bumper £277k-per-week wage for him back then – with Neves pocketing a far more modest £30k-per-week – but his former club won’t bother themselves too much thinking about his lavish salary for Al-Hilal, as more pressing relegation concerns are surely on their mind.

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Afghanistan allrounder Mirwais Ashraf set to become new ACB chairman

The ACB CEO said Azizullah Fazli’s term was always intended to be temporary

Umar Farooq11-Nov-2021Afghanistan allrounder Mirwais Ashraf has been appointed as acting chairman of the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB). The order was issued earlier this week by Hasan Akhund, patron-in-chief of the ACB and the acting prime minister of the country, and awaits a ratification by the ACB board, which is expected to be just a formality.The change at the top is the second in four months after Azizullah Fazli was earlier named new ACB chairman replacing Farhan Yusufzai, who left the country after the Taliban took over. No proper reason has been given by the ACB about the latest change, but it has been learnt that Fazli’s appointment was always intended to be a temporary one.ESPNcricinfo understands that the country’s government intends to revamp the working structure of the board. “The government is trying to bring in more competent people with expertise in technical aspects of the game – commercial, business and marketing,” a former director of the ACB told ESPNcricinfo. “If Afghanistan can produce world-class players with this broken system back home, then imagine what they can do with a competent board.”Mirwais, a 33-year-old right-arm medium-fast bowler who played representative cricket as recently as in October 2020, was among the initial lot of players who helped cricket in Afghanistan rise to the top table. He made his international debut in 2009 and last played in 2016, featuring in 46 ODIs and 25 T20Is.Fazli had served a ten-month term as ACB chairman following the resignation of Atif Mashal – replaced by Yusufzai after Afghanistan’s bottom-place finish at the 2019 ODI World Cup in England. He was among the early group of players who established the game in the country. He had also served as the ACB’s vice-chairman and advisor in the past, and has been involved in running the country’s domestic and regional set-ups. “But when it comes to the ICC, he was a quiet person who kept his head down,” said the former director.Afghanistan, one of the teams that qualified directly for the Super 12 stage of the ongoing T20 World Cup, were eliminated at the group stage after losing to Pakistan, India, and New Zealand, while winning against Scotland and Namibia.

Signed in 2023, now worth 120% more: Ipswich hit gold with "unique" star

It’s been a frankly extraordinary few seasons for Ipswich Town.

The club appointed an inexperienced manager in Kieran McKenna, who has led them to back-to-back promotions, making it back into the Premier League for the first time in 22 years.

However, while much of the club’s recent success is down to the man management and tactical nous of the Northern Irishman, the players and brilliant transfers conducted in recent windows can’t be forgotten.

For example, in the summer of 2023, the Blues signed several exciting talents who have since become essential players for the club, including one star whose value has skyrocketed 120%.

Ipswich's brilliant 2023 signings

So, before we get to the player whose value has more than doubled since joining the club, let’s take a look at a couple of other brilliant signings made in 2023, starting with a loan acquisition: Omari Hutchinson.

Yes, a year before he made a permanent £20m switch to Portman Road, the former Chelsea prospect joined McKenna’s revolution on a season-long loan and made quite the impression as his subsequent transfer would suggest.

In all, the Redhill-born talent made 50 appearances across all competitions, scoring 11 goals, providing six assists, and winning the club’s Young Player of the Year Award to boot.

However, the 20-year-old was not the only savvy pickup in 2023, as another player who arrived for nothing was former Manchester United defender Axel Tuanzebe, who joined on a free transfer in September.

The once-capped Congolese international was limited to just a handful of appearances for the first half of the season due to injury and fitness concerns, but once he was given a run of starts in February, his ability was impossible to deny.

By the end of the campaign, he was the club’s starting right-back, and while a thumb injury has seen him sidelined since October 4th, the Bunia-born gem started the first six league games of this season, showing that he can and likely will have a large part to play this year.

However, there was another exciting player the club signed and paid for last season that has just grabbed the headlines and has seen his valuation more than double.

George Hirst's valuation in 2024

Yes, the player in question is English striker George Hirst, who joined Ipswich from Leicester City for about £1.5m in July 2023.

The Sheffield-born poacher impressed on loan with Portsmouth in the 2021/22 season, but with just two appearances for the Foxes, there were some question marks over how he would fare in the Championship, but to say he has exceeded expectations at Portman Road so far would be an understatement.

For example, while injuries limited the “unique” marksman, as dubbed by McKenna, to just 29 appearances for the club last season, he still managed to rack up a seriously impressive haul of seven goals and seven assists, meaning he maintained an average of a goal involvement once every 2.07 games.

Appearances

58

Minutes

3216′

Goals

15

Assists

10

Goal Involvements per Match

0.43

Minutes per Goal Involvement

128.64′

Moreover, while knee surgery in the summer has limited his game time this season, the “powerful” 25-year-old, as dubbed by journalist Alan Biggs, looked brilliant on his first start against Brentford over the weekend, scoring and assisting a goal in the first half.

Unsurprisingly, these impressive performances for the Tractor Boys have seen the poacher’s valuation soar, with Transfermarkt now pricing him at €4m, which converts to around £3.3m, or 120% more than he cost the club just over a year ago.

Ultimately, Ipswich made several clever signings last summer, and while he might not be a household name at the moment, Hirst looks more than ready to make an impact in the Premier League this season.

8/10 Ipswich star was really let down by Clarke’s horror show

Ipswich’s star performer’s display ultimately amounted to nothing against Brentford.

ByJack Salveson Holmes Oct 27, 2024

Al-Hilal launch scathing attack on Saudi Pro League referees after frustrating draw with Al-Riyadh

Al-Hilal have made their feelings known about perceived 'suspicious' refereeing, urging the Saudi Pro League to consider importing match officials.

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Al-Hilal slate refereeing standardsUpset by two penalties not awarded in drawCalling on Saudi Pro League to import officialsFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?

In the wake of Friday's 1-1 draw with Al-Riyadh, leaving the champions a point behind leaders Al-Ittihad having played a game more, Al -Hilal issued a strongly-worded statement criticising the officiating. Al-Hilal expressed a strong desire to see "foreign refereeing crews" that are "known in major global leagues" imported into Saudi Arabian football.

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Although the statement was prompted by two potential penalies that were not awarded, even after VAR reviews, Al-Hilal insist those are only the "latest incidents" in a "series of refereeing cases", accusing officials of a reluctance when it comes to overturning on-field decisions.

WHAT Al-HILAL SAID

Al Hilal said: "Al-Hilal Club wishes to express its astonishment at the suspicious refereering decisions witnessed in the first-team's match in the Roshn Saudi Pro League, despite the presence of the latest technologies to assist in making fair decisions. The latest incidents occurred in the team's recent match against Al-Riyadh Club, where two penalty kicks, clearly validated by VAR footage from multiple angles, were ignored. This is part of a series of refereeing cases characterized by their obstinacy, with a reluctance to revert to VAR technology or two award penalties, despite the clarity of the situation.

"The club clarifies that its stance remains firm on the importance of bringing in foreign refereeing crews to officiate its matches, provided they are top-tier referees known in major global leagues. The club hopes that it will not penalized by the recruitment of obscure referees as a result of its rejection of the demands by Manuel Navarro, Chairman of the Referees Committee of the Saudi Football Federation, who has repeatedly asked the club's officials to revert to Saudi referees."

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Al-Hilal have a midweek AFC Champions League game against Emirati club Al-Wasl coming up, before a huge top-of-the-table Saudi Pro League clash with Al-Ittihad, who could go four points clear if they beat Al-Wehda on Saturday evening. With the last two Saudi champions going head to head, it has the potential to be a major moment in the title race.

Arne Slot makes clear statement on Virgil van Dijk future as Liverpool boss looks forward to long partnership with 'outstanding' defender

Arne Slot addressed Virgil van Dijk's future at Liverpool and insisted that he looks forward to a long partnership with the "outstanding" defender.

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Van Dijk's contract ends in less than six monthsDefender recently refused to commit his future at AnfieldHowever, Slot hinted that the Dutchman could pen an extensionFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?

Van Dijk, alongside fellow key players Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold, is currently in the final months of his contract at Anfield. However, there is still a strong belief within Liverpool that the Dutch international will extend his stay, especially given that his performances continue to be at an elite level.

AdvertisementGetty ImagesWHAT SLOT SAID

Speaking in a pre-match press conference on Friday ahead of an FA Cup tie, Slot did not hold back in his praise for Van Dijk’s influence at the club.

"Virgil deserves every compliment he gets," Slot told reporters.

"He's been outstanding for this club for so many years and, since I've been here, he's been outstanding for me as well. Yesterday [in the 4-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur] was an example of that. He was, in a good way, aggressive, led the team with and without the ball, he was sharp and ready. It was no coincidence it took 80 mins for Tottenham's first shot on target. Virgil, just like many others, has had a good season but he wants to make it a great season."

When asked about Van Dijk’s future at Anfield, Slot belted out an optimistic response and said: "Good health is the first thing I wish him, and I hope to continue working with him for a long time, although I don't think that will surprise you."

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Despite the positive outlook from Slot, Van Dijk himself has been more reserved when discussing his future. Following Liverpool’s recent Carabao Cup semi-final win, the Dutch international was questioned about his next move but offered little clarity.

Speaking to Sky Sports, he stated: "I am feeling good, what the future brings I have no idea. Anyone who says they know, they are absolutely wrong."

This lack of certainty has left some Liverpool fans anxious, especially given his previous hints about wanting to continue competing at the highest level for several more years.

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AFPWHAT NEXT FOR LIVERPOOL?

After a commanding performance against Tottenham to secure a place in the Carabao Cup final, Liverpool will now shift their focus to the FA Cup. Their next challenge comes in the form of a fourth-round clash against Championship side Plymouth Argyle this weekend, as they continue their pursuit of silverware under Slot’s leadership.

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