Sheffield Wednesday fans have been discussing the exit of youngster George Hirst, and they’re not impressed by the 19 year-old’s behaviour.
Wednesday’s wonderkid has left the club to join OH Leuven, and the Owls will receive “no more than” £159,000, according to the Star.
The Belgian side are a sister club of Leicester City, who Hirst was also linked with, and are managed by the one and only Nigel Pearson.
Despite making just two senior appearances for the Owls, Hirst has shown his huge potential playing for England’s youth sides, scoring at U17, U18, U19 and U20 level for his country.
[brid autoplay=”true” video=”257647″ player=”12034″ title=”Three reasons we love to hate… Brazil and Argentina”]
The 19 year-old forward’s contract expires this summer though, meaning Wednesday will not receive a direct transfer fee for the youngster.
They are however entitled to compensation as Hirst is under 24, so the Belgian side will have to pay a small fee for every year the youngster has spent developing at Hillsborough.
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This fee is expected to be around €180,000 (£159,000), and fans are not happy with the youngster, who reportedly rejected a contract that would have made him the best-paid youngster in Wednesday’s history.
You can find some of the best Twitter reactions down below…
Of late Sheffield Wednesday players have been taking a bit of a beating on social sites such as Twitter, being criticised for their lack of talent, their hairstyle, the way that they breathe, and every other aspect of their lives that some people think deserves to be scrutinised.
Look, we all know that this season hasn’t quite panned out like many an optimistic Wednesdayite had hoped that it would. I know we’re not challenging for the title or repeating heroic comebacks week after week, but something the guys do seem to be doing is showing a bit of battle.
In the game against Middlesborough we were beaten by the better team, there’s no debating that. They looked extremely confident on the ball, had players like Josh McEachran who really looked a cut above the rest, and took their goals well. Yet at times we didn’t look too out of our depths. That was pleasing.
I, like most Wednesday fans, was pleasantly buoyed by the brilliant start that we had to this season. Despite the fact that we were recently promoted, had a relatively small side, who were under a lot of pressure, we were doing well. Then, however, the inevitable happened…
We hit a bad patch. We hit a bad patch that hasn’t really come to a proper end yet, and as it stands we’re still sat 20th in the league, mere points above the relegation zone. However, as I’ve said before, we are a club in transition, now is not the time to panic and start hurling abuse at the men who can get us out of this predicament.
Before the recent transfer window closed I felt as though Dave Jones had assembled a good squad. We’d attracted a higher calibre of player than we’d had from the season previous and kept hold of many of the men that worked their arses off to get us to the Championship, creating what I thought was a nice mix.
Did I expect another straight promotion? No. Of course the 13-year-old Owl inside me thought, “You know what? Maybe we can do this…” but the rational journalist in me realised our real situation. We were a team in transition, a team that needs to gel, and a team that needs to focus, this season at least, purely on staying in the division.
Dave Jones took a floundering Gary Megson-managed side and completed an unimaginable league turn around that saw us leapfrog our fiercest rivals and claim promotion, he has earned himself the chance to have a fair crack of the whip at Hillsborough.
I recently read a piece by Dale Johnson, an avid Wednesdayite like ourselves, who seemed to put it best.
Dale said, “This is a new side, with a relatively new manager trying to find an effective way of moulding his team. Why is the default position for so many fans the trigger button? I’ve been there myself, as there are occasions when the much-used ‘give him time’ argument is nothing more than an exercise in time wasting. But Dave Jones is not a Yorath, nor a Turner, nor a Jewell, nor a Megson. He is a proper football manager who will build something at this club, not a five minute grope behind the bike shed.”
I understand that, as Wednesday fans, we think we deserve more glory than your Huddersfield Towns and your Brighton and Hove Albions, but the fact of the matter is, other than last season, we’ve earned about as much right to think that in recent years as my five-a-side team here in Cape Town.
More to the point, how much of an impetus is it to the players pulling on the famous blue and white shirt when a small group of fickle buggers are laying into them because of a prior performance. Would it spur you on? It’d p*ss me off.
Don’t get me wrong. These guys are not beyond criticism, to no extent are they bigger than Sheffield Wednesday, none of them. However, what they do deserve is to be able to log onto their Twitter accounts and see words of encouragement and not a barrage of abuse.
I would LOVE to see Wednesday in the Premier League. I’m currently on a one-man mission to convert as many South Africans into honourary Wednesdayites as I can (something I’m having a reasonable amount of success in) and I wear my shirt every match day.
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I’m an optimist, like most of you, and I think that we can rectify this season and finish happily mid-table. However, in order to do that then we need to back our players, give them the support that they need and stop treating Jones and Co. with the respect that you’d offer to something that came out of your dog’s backside.
Now is not the time to panic, we’ve spent too many years doing that. Now is the time to enjoy being back in the Championship and spur our boys on to winning as many points as possible up until Christmas. If we’re sat in the relegation zone come the start of the year then I give you permission to come after me with pitchforks and scream, ‘I told you so!’ But until then… we’re all Wednesday, arent we?
According to reports in the Yorkshire Evening Post, Leeds United are waiting to see if left-back Tom Pearce will accept the new contract he has been offered, and Whites fans have been quick to have their say on the situation.
The 6ft 1in tall left-back’s current deal is due to run out next month, and the Yorkshire Evening Post says that the club are set to confirm on Friday that he has been offered new terms to stay at Elland Road having become a regular in the XI towards the end of the campaign.
The 20-year-old made five Championship appearances in total, and scored his first senior goal for the club in the 2-1 win against Barnsley last month.
Leeds supporters, who have been fearfing the worst about the discussions between the two parties on Twitter, took to social media to give their thoughts on the story, and they were clearly unhappy.
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While one said they “really would not be too bothered if he went”, another said “who does he think he is?”
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Dark, ominous clouds have become a permanent fixture at Villa Park in recent times, as evident from the club’s recent kit launch. The aftermath of Martin O’Neill’s resignation coupled with huge financial losses and the departure of key players has seen the club plummet towards the foot of the table. Even the appointment of promising manager Paul Lambert has failed to lift the spirits of fans still reeling from the soul-destroying reign of Alex McLeish.
The recent activity from the summer transfer window offered more questions than answers, as the club steered clear of experienced Premier League professionals and instead decided to supplement their already significant number of promising youngsters. However, the return of striker Gabriel Agbonlahor – without wanting to endorse an overused cliché – will feel like a new signing.
Agbonlahor can no longer hide behind his tag as ‘a star in the making’, instead the onus will be on the 25-year-old to act as a talisman as Lambert begins his rejuvenation process. Incredibly, this will be his eighth season as a member of the Villans first-team but few could argue that he has reached his full potential. His lightning speed is his best and sometimes only positive attribute, with many supporters acknowledging that a vast improvement is needed if he is to torment the league’s best defenders.
In recent weeks, the former England international has voiced his desire to play a central role in the heart of Villa’s attack. In order to fashion these claims into a reality he must first match or perhaps better the strike-rate of team-mate Darren Bent, a tall order for a player who struggles to nudge his goal tally into double figures. Furthermore he will have to fend off the challenge of Andreas Weimann and new signing Jordan Bowery, who have replaced Agbonlahor as the talented youngsters trying to infiltrate the starting XI.
The fortunes of Aston Villa will rely heavily on Lambert’s ability to coax the very best out of his players, especially as the squad is littered with individuals desperately clinging onto former glories or struggling to fulfil their much-publicised promise. The former Norwich manager is also renowned for his love of big, burly target men as evident from his affection towards Grant Holt and Steve Morison. This may also highlight why he decided to spend £7m on Genk’s 6 foot 6 inch behemoth Christian Benteke on transfer deadline day.
Whereas Darren Bent harbours the capability to be deployed as a lone striker, I can’t see Agbonlahor effectively shielding the ball away from the physically more dominant defenders. Despite his reluctance to do so, he may have to give up the limelight and begin reinventing himself as winger who can also operate as an inside forward. He may currently lack the creative flair to conjure up an inch perfect cross but his pace and trickery is far more likely to be effective up against a lone full-back. It’s no secret that Villa have failed to replace the attacking wide players of Ashley Young or Stewart Downing and even with the emergence of Marc Albrighton, there is still a vacant role on the flanks waiting to be filled.
If Agbonlahor is gifted his chance to operate as Villa’s fixed point of attack, he must reproduce the sort of displays that previously raised fans to their feet. If his shooting boots desert him then he must continue to hound the opposition with tenacious displays, even if it means letting someone else hog all the goal-scoring headlines. In the absence of Stilian Petrov, the club has lost its influential leader and who better to take up the mantle than a local lad and lifelong fan of the club.
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I still believe there’s a world-class footballer desperate to break free from within Gabriel Agbonlahor; I just hope this is the season we finally get to see him.
Somerset have agreed terms with Indian legspinner Piyush Chawla with a view to him joining the club for the rest of the season.
George Dobell15-Aug-2013
Piyush Chawla could be on his way to the Westcountry•BCCI
Somerset have agreed terms with Indian legspinner Piyush Chawla with a view to him joining the club for the rest of the season.The BCCI have provided the requisite No Objection Certificate but Chawla has yet to gain the necessary visa. Somerset are understood to have contingency plans should the visa issue further delay Chawla’s arrival.They were hoping to have him available for the next County Championship game which starts on August 20 at Edgbaston.Somerset, who were second in the Championship in 2012, are currently up to their necks in relegation trouble. With five games left, they currently sit seventh in the Division One table, eight points ahead of Surrey, in eighth, but having played a game more.Surrey have just strengthened their squad for the rest of the season with the signing of prolific South African batsman Hashim Amla.Somerset had originally signed Pakistan left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman, who played for them with success in 2012, but he was obliged to pull out of the deal when he was named in the Pakistan squad to play Zimbabwe.24-year-old Chawla played the last of his three Tests, against England in Nagpur, in December. He has previously represented Sussex in county cricket in 2009, where he took 36 wickets at 27.25.
Allrounder Sean Williams has reached an agreement with Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) and agreed to sign a contract with the board
ESPNcricinfo staff05-Sep-2013
Sean Williams could make himself available for selection for the second Test against Pakistan•Associated Press
Allrounder Sean Williams has reached an understanding with Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) and agreed to sign a contract with the board. ESPNcricinfo has learned that Williams, who had made himself unavailable to play the first Test against Pakistan because of the ongoing payments issue, was satisfied with an offer made to him on Thursday and will commit to the country in future.Williams told sources close to the team he never planned on turning his back on Zimbabwe and that people had misunderstood his reasons for not playing the first Test. Williams was not on a central contract but a lower-grade one and reportedly had an issue with the exact amount, rather than the non-payment. He is also believed to have secured an offer in the BPL, where many of his team-mates including Brendan Taylor, Hamilton Masakadza and Elton Chigumbura already play.The rest of the Zimbabwe players are expected to receive some money before the second Test against Pakistan, as ZC seeks to prevent the threatened boycott. The newly-formed players’ union, of which Williams is a member, remained adamant it would strike if they were not paid their outstanding dues, which include July and August salaries.Though the players had said before the first Test that if, “even one of us doesn’t want to play, we will all not play,” they allowed Williams to act unilaterally because the rest of the group agreed to take ZC’s word they would be paid. The board has introduced drastic cost-cutting measures, including moving the second Test from Bulawayo to Harare, to be able to foot the bill.Williams’ availability will not guarantee him a place in the starting XI, though he was likely to have played the first match. He is a regular fixture in Zimbabwe’s limited-overs side but has only played one Test and the performance of the team in this match may make it difficult to make room for him.With all the batsmen getting starts in Harare, and Brendan Taylor likely to replace Richmond Mutambami after returning from paternity leave, Williams would have been considered in the place of one of Malcolm Waller, Sikandar Raza or Prosper Utseya. The first two batted well while Utseya had a decent return with the ball. It could give Zimbabwe a welcome selection conundrum for the second Test.
Offspinner Malolan Rangarajan and Abhinav Mukund picked up five wickets between them to put South Zone firmly on top in their Duleep Trophy quarter-final clash against West Zone in Chennai
ESPNcricinfo staff05-Oct-2013 ScorecardMalolan Rangarajan struck 58, before picking up three wickets for 50 runs•ESPNcricinfo Ltd
Offspinner Malolan Rangarajan and Abhinav Mukund picked up five wickets between them to put South Zone firmly on top in their Duleep Trophy quarter-final clash against West Zone in Chennai.Double centuries from B Aparajith and Manish Pandey on Friday had propelled South Zone to a mammoth 553 for 7 at stumps, and Malolan added to the flurry of runs on day three with a 132-ball 58 that included four fours, as the hosts eventually declared on 600 for 9.West Zone began their innings slowly, as the openers Wasim Jaffer and Aditya Waghmode added just 32 in the first 18 overs, before Malolan made the breakthrough, dismissing Jaffer for 11. West Zone stabilised with an 82-run second-wicket stand between Waghmode and Ankit Bawne, but three wickets in seven balls helped South Zone seize the advantage.First, Abhinav dismissed Waghmode for a patient 57 of the second ball of the 55th over, and in his next delivery, he bowled Manpreet Juneja for a golden duck. Yusuf Pathan went in at No.5 to salvage a recovery, but was caught by Rohan Prem off left-arm spinner Aushik Srinivas in the next over, leaving West Zone precariously placed at 115 for 4.Bawne carried on, making an unbeaten 62 with six fours, but West Zone were dealt two more late blows, as Malolan trapped both Hiken Shah and Rohit Motwani for lbw in the 74th over to finish the day with 3 for 50, and give South Zone the edge heading into the final day.
أكد وائل رياض مدرب عام منتخب مصر الأولمبي، أن إمام عاشور لاعب الأهلي الجديد، هو إضافة كبيرة للقلعة الحمراء.
وأعلن الأهلي عن ضم إمام عاشور لمدة 5 سنوات، قادمًا من ميتلاند الدنماركي في أولي صفقات المارد الأحمر.
وقال رياض خلال تصريحات عبر برنامج كورة كل يوم المذاع قناة الحياة: “إمام عاشور لم يكن لاعب في نادي الزمالك، هو لاعب ميتلاند الدنماركي وتم التعاقد معه من خلال ناديه”.
طالع | الأهلي يعلن حالة إمام عاشور بعد إصابته بالتمزق العضلي
وأضاف: “إمام عاشور صفقة مهمة جدًا للأهلي، عندما كان لاعباً في الزمالك وأقول عليه هو أفضل لاعب في مصر، حدث له تغيير في مركزه”
أعلن الاتحاد الإفريقي لكرة القدم “كاف”، موعد إجراء قرعة تصفيات إفريقيا المؤهلة إلى كأس العالم 2026.
ومن المقرر أن تنطلق بطولة كأس العالم 2026، يوم الخميس الموافق 11 يونيو، وحتى 19 يوليو، بتنظيم مشترك من 3 بلدان هي الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية وكندا والمكسيك.
وسيتم تقسيم المنتخبات إلى 9 مجموعات، يتأهل أصحاب الصدارة عن كل مجموعة مباشرة إلى كأس العالم 2026، بعد زيادة عدد المنتخبات في نظام البطولة الجديد، والتي ستضم 48 فريقًا بدلا من 32 في النسخ السابقة.
طالع.. مباشر | قرعة تصفيات إفريقيا لكأس العالم 2026.. وتحديد منافسي مصر
ويتأهل 4 منتخبات أصحاب أفضل مركز ثاني في كل مجموعة إلى الملحق، حيث سيتواجه فريقان في نصف النهائي ثم النهائي ليتأهل منتخب إضافي لخوض الملحق العالمي، بخلاف الـ9 منتخبات المتأهلة مباشرة. موعد قرعة تصفيات إفريقيا المؤهلة لكأس العالم 2026
ستجرى القرعة الرسمية لتصفيات التصفيات الأفريقية المؤهلة لكأس العالم 2026، يوم الخميس المُقبل، الموافق 13 يوليو، في مدينة أبيدجان، بدولة كوت ديفوار، في تمام السادسة بتوقيت مصر والسعودية. القنوات الناقلة لقرعة تصفيات إفريقيا المؤهلة لكأس العالم 2026
وسيكون السحب مباشرًا على منصات الاتحاد الإفريقي الرقمية والموقع الرسمي؛ وذلك بعد ساعات قليلة من اجتماع “كاف” العادي، في نسخته الخامسة والأربعين الذي سيعقد أيضًا في أبيدجان.