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Leeds United midfielder Owen Bray is set to depart Elland Road at the end of the season, according to journalist Pete O’Rourke.

The Lowdown: Bray profiled

Bray is 19 years of age and is primarily a central midfielder who has made eight appearances in the club’s academy.

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He is out of contract at the end of June after having had his scholarship extended last summer alongside Taylor Ragan. Bray has made just one appearance for the U23s, and it looks as if he’ll now move on over the coming months.

The Latest: O’Rourke’s post

O’Rourke took to Twitter on Tuesday morning to provide an update on Bray, revealing that the teenager is set to depart the Whites soon.

“Leeds midfielder Owen Bray is set to leave Elland Road at the end of the season when his contract expires.”

Reports have suggested that League One side Wigan Athletic are looking at Bray ahead of a possible move, with the Whites youngster set to turn out for Wigan’s U23s against Hull City.

The Verdict: Makes sense?

Leeds have a number of promising midfielders coming through at Thorp Arch, including Lewis Bate, Sean McGurk and Jack Jenkins, so allowing Bray to depart could suit all parties.

He’s struggled to become a regular in the U23s squad, with his only appearance coming in a 7-0 EFL Trophy defeat to Accrington Stanley back in 2020.

On that basis, moving to the lower leagues in search of first-team football could be a wise call by Bray, after limited opportunities at Elland Road.

In other news: Leeds and Orta want ‘extraordinary’ ace in Bosman move; same agent as Bamford. 

Manchester United picked up another three points in their challenge to secure a top-four place in the Premier League this season, and are now four points ahead of their competitors in fourth, after going unbeaten in their last five league games.

Harry Maguire, Bruno Fernandes, Fred and Anthony Elanga all found the back of the net during the fiery clash with Leeds United at Elland Road on Sunday afternoon, with two of the goal-scorers, Fred and Elanga, substituted on to save Manchester United from dropping points when the game was 2-2 in the 67th minute, making a huge impact to steal the three points for their side away from home.

The double substitution really paid off for Ralf Rangnick, and only further proved that 19 year old, Elanga, has a huge part to play in the future successes of the side, with his impact this season the youngster has given the German coach a new attacking threat that he can rely on.

The Swedish national joined Manchester United’s youth academy when he had just turned 14 years old in July 2015, and has since risen through the ranks with impressive performances and consistency in both the U18’s and U23’s, scoring a combined 25 goals and bagging 15 assists for the youth teams in just 66 appearances, which clearly caught the eye of the first-team coaches.

Elanga was given his Premier League debut by former Red Devils manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, in May last year in the defeat against Leicester City, and this season has been given more chances to prove his worth, with a change of management only furthering his progression in the team if his performances are anything to go by under Rangnick.

All of his nine appearances in the Premier League this season have been under the interim Manchester United boss, with the youngster scoring two goals for the first team in just 371 minutes of game time, and Rangnick will be over the moon to see Elanga capitalising on his opportunities given, especially after he scored against Leeds at the weekend.

The £3.6m-rated star has been hailed a “nightmare” by Gary Neville who also likened the diverse forward to Thierry Henry after saying his finish against Salford City back in 2020 was “Thierry Henry-esque” and clearly he is now being favoured for selection over another youth academy star.

Marcus Rashford was also on the bench for the Leeds United game, but Rangnick leaned on his 19-year-old competitor to get the job done in the game on Sunday afternoon instead.

That may set a precedent moving forward for Rashford’s future in the Manchester United team, and it will be interesting to see how Rangnick selects his attacking line in the remaining months of the season, with the side still in with the chance of competing for the Champions League and FA Cup trophies this season.

In other news: Jesse Lingard may have started his last game for the club

Warriors chief Dave Emslie has said Jacques Kallis’ contractual obligations with Royal Challengers Bangalore did not give his home team much of a chance to retain his services for the Champions League T20

Cricinfo staff15-Aug-2010Warriors chief Dave Emslie has said Jacques Kallis’ contractual obligations with Royal Challengers Bangalore did not give his home team much of a chance to retain his services for the Champions League T20. Contrary to Bangalore’s statements, in which they hoped their overseas signings would pick their IPL team over their home team, Emslie said Kallis’ IPL contract gave Bangalore the first rights over him should his domestic first-class team – Warriors from South Africa – and his IPL team both qualify for the tournament.”Kallis’ contract (with Bangalore) says if his IPL team gets into the CLT20 histeam has the first option,” Emslie said during a media interaction withIndian journalists. “For that we got $200,000. We would have wantedKallis but the decision did not lay in our hands. We never had a choice.”Warriors coach Russell Domingo said “we always knew that Kallis will notbe there…I am under correction. But I think Kallis’ contract (with Bangalore)says that should Bangalore qualify for the CLT20 they have the first call onhim. We might think it is crazy, he is a South African and his clubWarriors is in the CLT20 but still he is playing for Bangalore but that’s it.”Emslie added: “One can argue the merits of the case but that is the rule. They (CLT20) may be thinking of changing the rule in future.”Along with Kallis, Victoria’s Cameron White – who was disappointed to miss out for his home team – and New Zealand CentralDistricts’ Ross Taylor are the other two players who will play for Bangaloreeven though their home teams have made it through to the tournament.Domingo said, “We don’t pay big money, we can’t compete with IPL teams.IPL dollars are going to get the first call. Money talks.” The compensation, according to Domingo, was not a bad deal and Kallis’ absence meant some of the younger players had a chance to shine. “It is a big attraction to get that money. It is not a bad deal as it was out of our control to get Kallis in our side… It gives a chance to youngsters like Colin Ingram. Kallis also did not play in some big matches last season but we still won domestic titles. We won the MTN domestic championship and Standard Bank Pro20 title without him.”

Graham Napier will miss the remainder of the 2010 domestic season after suffering a stress fracture to his back and Ryan ten Doeschate is out for six to eight weeks

Cricinfo staff25-Jun-2010Essex have been struck by two major injury blows, with Graham Napier to miss the remainder of the 2010 domestic season after suffering a stress fracture to his back and Ryan ten Doeschate out for six to eight weeks after tearing a calf muscle during Essex’s win over Somerset on June 16.The injuries are likely to have a detrimental effect on Essex’s Friends Provident t20 campaign, with the county currently third in the South Group points table. Napier is the highest English Twenty20 wicket-taker with 90 scalps in 67 matches, and in 2008 he hit an astonishing 152 against Sussex in the Twenty20 Cup which included a world record 16 sixes. He had taken part in just one game in this year’s competition, making 12 and taking two wickets in the early loss to Kent.”Having missed out on nearly the whole of the Friends Provident t20 campaign this comes as a real blow,” Napier told essexcricket.org.uk. “It will have to be a long and patient recovery, I now need to allow the back to settle and heal over the next twelve weeks.”If the healing process goes well I would look to be able to start playing cricket again in December, otherwise it will be at the beginning of the 2011 domestic season. All I can do now is support the team from the sidelines in our quest to become Twenty20 champions”.ten Doeschate, who turns 30 next week, had been in phenomenal form, averaging 73.75 with the bat, including a century, as well as picking up three wickets in this year’s Friends Provident t20. He has had a good season across all formats, with good returns in the County Championship and CB40 League, and topped the MVP rankings.”Both injuries are obviously a setback to our campaign,” added Paul Grayson, the Essex first XI head coach. “Ryan was having the season of his life and was really enjoying his cricket. Graham never really got a consistent spell in the side this season after being hampered by injury. However, when fit, Napier is as good as anyone with bat and ball.”Injuries are of course part of professional sport, and since these injuries the team have found that extra desire to win. These two injuries, whilst a blow to the side, give opportunities to other squad players to show their worth in front of huge crowds at Chelmsford.”This is now the business end of the season, we now have to deal with the situation and we remain confident that we can continue to compete and entertain in all formats of the game for the remainder of the season”.Grayson also outlined the difficulties in bringing in additional overseas players: “Under the current circumstances with visa applications it is becoming increasingly more difficult to bring in overseas players. Myself and the Essex Cricket Committee are continuing to work hard in the search for viable alternatives. We will do all that we can to further strengthen the team in the coming weeks.”

أعلن البرتغالي جوسفالدو فيريرا المدير الفني لفريق الزمالك، عن تشكيل اللاعبين المقرر لهم خوض المواجهة المرتقبة اليوم أمام الأهلي في كأس السوبر المصري.

وتنطلق مباراة الزمالك والأهلي في تمام السابعة مساءً بتوقيت القاهرة، على ملعب هزاع بن زايد، بمدينة العين في الإمارات.

ويمتلك قطبا الكرة المصرية سجلًا كبيرًا في بطولة السوبر المصري إذ يعد الأهلي الأكثر تتويجًا بها في 11 مرة، بينما يأتي الزمالك بعده محققا اللقب 4 مرات.

طالع أيضًا.. مباشر بالفيديو | مباراة الأهلي والزمالك في السوبر المصري تشكيل الزمالك اليوم أمام الأهلي

 في حراسة المرمى: محمد عواد.

خط الدفاع: حمزة المثلوثي – حسام عبد المجيد – محمد عبد الغني – أحمد فتوح.

خط الوسط: زكريا الوردي – محمد أشرف “روقا” – إمام عاشور – عمر جابر – أحمد مصطفى “زيزو”.

خط الهجوم: سيف الجزيري.

Daniel Vettori has experienced a strong sense of déjà vu over the past five days

Brydon Coverdale at the Basin Reserve23-Mar-2010

Daniel Vettori has experienced a strong sense of déjà vu over the past five days. A first-innings team failure, an admirable but futile second-innings fight and a heavy reliance on the lower-order batting have been recurring features of New Zealand’s Test play over the past few years. But despite being bundled out for 157 and being made to follow-on, Vettori is not convinced bolstering the batting for the second Test in Hamilton would make any difference.”I think it needs a run-scoring extra batsman,” Vettori said when asked if the team needed another specialist. “It’s all well and good to pick someone. Most of our runs came from Brendon [McCullum] and myself, so if we brought another batsman in it would just push us down. Whether that is the right answer or not, I’m not sure.”He has a point. Apart from the 83 from Tim McIntosh in the second innings, there weren’t many contributions of note from the top five in the ten-wicket defeat. Peter Ingram will be under pressure to hold his place after making 5 and 1, BJ Watling’s second-day golden duck was followed by an unconvincing 33, and Ross Taylor and Martin Guptill made middling contributions without really having an impact.New Zealand will choose their squad for the second Test on Wednesday and it is unclear if the balance of the side will be altered. Batting at No. 6, Vettori made 46 and 77 while McCullum scored 24 and 104, but it is first-innings runs that New Zealand need to find.However, a strong bowling line-up is just as important for a team that took only five wickets for the match. “We obviously need to lift a lot, particularly our first-innings efforts,” Vettori said. “We fought hard in that second innings but we need to show more penetration with the ball in that first innings and then stand up a bit more with the bat.”It’s been a trait of ours, particularly at the Basin, to get bowled out cheaply in the first innings and then fight pretty hard in the second. We can’t afford to do that. We can’t afford to be on the back foot at any stage against Australia in Hamilton.”The challenge is replicating the effort that New Zealand displayed on the weather-affected fourth day, when they lost only one wicket and pushed themselves into a strong position to save the match. The same fight could not be repeated on the fifth morning and they lost their last four wickets for 19 runs, allowing Australia a comfortable chase of 106.”The fourth day was obviously our best day of the Test match,” Vettori said. “It’s something that we need to replicate over the whole five days to give ourselves a chance against Australia. Unfortunately we weren’t able to build that pressure for long enough. After what we did yesterday it was a little bit disappointing to front up today and lose quick wickets. We wanted to bat for a long period of time but that’s the nature of the game.”The key wicket was that of McCullum, who began the day on 94 and required only three balls to bring up his fifth Test century. In the fourth over McCullum edged to slip and was disappointed not to go on and bat New Zealand into a better position.”I was pleased with how I was able to adjust my game from the way I played in the first innings and to try and give us an opportunity to put a partnership on with Dan and then Daryl [Tuffey] as well,” McCullum said. “Against a very good team it rates as my best Test century. But when you lose a game it doesn’t quite have the same feeling.”

Irfan Pathan, who is suffering from a back injury, has been omitted from India’s long-list of 30 probables for the ICC World Twenty20 to be held in West Indies from April 30.R Ashwin, who was picked for the Twenty20 matches against Sri Lanka, features in the preliminary squad, that also includes R Vinay Kumar, Naman Ojha and Wriddhiman Saha.Irfan led both the runs and wickets tally for Baroda in the Ranji Trophy, with 22 wickets at an average of 18.54 and 397 runs at 49.62 in five matches. But he missed Baroda’s matches in the Ranji Trophy one-dayers.Naman Ojha gets the selectors’ nod on the back of his performances in the IPL as Rajasthan Royals’ wicketkeeper. In 16 domestic Twenty20 matches, he averages 23.50, at a strike-rate of 125.09. More recently, he struck a strokeful 167 in a Ranji one-dayer against the Railways. Saha, who made his Test debut against South Africa in Nagpur as a batsman, is the fourth keeper in the preliminary squad that also includes MS Dhoni and Dinesh Karthik.Manish Pandey, who became the first Indian to score a century in the IPL, also figures in the list. Pandey followed his IPL heroics with a string of consistent scores in the Ranji, Duleep and Vijay Hazare Trophies to force his way into the national reckoning.The preliminary squad includes eight batsmen, four wicketkeepers, four allrounders, 10 fast bowlers and four spinners.Probables: Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik, M S Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, S Sreesanth, Sudeep Tyagi, Rohit Sharma, Ashish Nehra, Ishant Sharma, Abhishek Nayar, Wriddhiman Saha, Naman Ojha, Piyush Chawla, Abhimanyu Mithun, Manish Pandey, R P Singh, Munaf Patel, M Vijay, Vinay Kumar, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Virat Kohli, R Ashwin

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) will not award annual central contracts to its players until the inquiry report into the team’s dismal performance on their tour of Australia is released. A six-man evaluation committee was set up by the board after Pakistan were thrashed 3-0 in the Test series, 5-0 in the ODIs and beaten in the only Twenty20 match; the report is expected later this month.”We will announce the central contracts only after the submission of the inquiry report so that there is no conflict between the two,” Wasim Bari, PCB’s chief operating officer, told .Incidentally, Bari heads both the evaluation and the three-man central contract committees. The evaluation committee met twice last week and discussed reports from team manager Abdul Raqeeb and coach Intikhab Alam.Mohammad Yousuf, Younus Khan, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal, Umar Akmal and Salman Butt were among the players who were given an audience. Reports were also heard from assistant coach Aaqib Javed and team physio Faisal Hayat.Bari informed the committee would meet again after the team returns from Dubai, where Pakistan will play two Twenty20 matches against England on February 19 and 20. “Our next meeting will be held after the team returns next week and we are due to submit a final report before February 28,” he said.Last year, annual contracts were awarded to 27 players – nine in the top category A, four in category B and 14 in category C. However, fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar is likely to be overlooked this time around. He holds an A category contract and last featured in a Twenty20 international in May 2009 against Australia in Dubai.Shoaib had been demoted to a special retainership category for players whose form and fitness were in doubt. He refused to take it and instead responded angrily, sparking a sequence which eventually led him to be banned and fined by the board. He missed the bulk of Pakistan’s international commitments through injury or the ban.Fellow paceman Mohammad Asif, who was ignored last year due to a ban imposed for a failed drug test in the IPL, is expected to get a central contract.

England suffered an injury scare shortly before the start of the fourth day’s play in Durban when Paul Collingwood dislocated his left index finger during fielding practice.He was seen leaving the field with the team doctor and was taken to hospital for an x-ray which showed there was no fracture. Collingwood made 91 on the second day of the match before falling to JP Duminy shortly before the close, and has been one of England’s in-form batsmen throughout the tour.Having been named Man of the Series in the ODIs, Collingwood made 50 in the first innings of the first Test at Centurion, before a vital unbeaten 26 off 99 deliveries on the final day helped England secure a draw with nine wickets down.Now that the injury has been shown to be purely a dislocation it appears to be less of a potential headache for the management. There is no specialist reserve batsman in the squad with all six in the starting line up. Luke Wright is currently the spare batting option, but his inclusion would alter the balance of the side.In the last couple of weeks England have overcome a run of injuries that occurred during the one-day series and in the lead-up to the Tests. Jimmy Anderson (knee), Graeme Swann (side), Ryan Sidebottom (side), Stuart Broad (shoulder), Graham Onions (back) and Alastair Cook (back) have all spent time on the sidelines at various points.

Wolves will be looking to sign a new centre-back once the January transfer window rolls around, according to journalist Luke Hatfield.

The Lowdown: Wolves prepare for Liverpool visit

Bruno Lage’s men could only draw 0-0 at home to Burnley in the Premier League on Wednesday, in what was far from a classic contest.

On Saturday afternoon, Wolves welcome Liverpool to Molineux, with the Reds thrashing Merseyside rivals Everton 4-1 at Goodison Park in midweek.

It is a huge test of Wanderers’ credentials and the likely back three of Max Kilman, Conor Coady and Romain Saiss will need to be at their best.

The Latest: New centre-back in January?

Speaking of defenders, it appears as though a new centre-back could be heading to Molineux next month.

That’s according to Hatfield, who told GIVEMESPORT that he expects a new face to arrive in that area in the January transfer window:

“I think it’s certainly a position they’re looking to strengthen.

“You only need to look at the business they attempted in the summer and the noises coming out of the club now and the reports, it’s clearly a position they need addressing.”

[freshpress-quiz id=“375704”]

The Verdict: Makes perfect sense

Another defender is required in order to provide more competition for places, also allowing Lage to shuffle his pack more as the season progresses.

Someone like Wolves-linked Sven Botman would be an ideal candidate, with the Lille centre-back already a regular starter in Ligue 1 and Europe, but also only 21 years of age and therefore would be a long-term acquisition.

He is superior to any Molineux defender in terms of aerial duels won this season, averaging 2.5 in the league, which could help to make Lage’s team more dominant defensively.

It would give Wolves a mid-season boost as they potentially look to secure European football next term, adding quality to a crucial area of the pitch.

In other news, some Wolves fans have flocked to a transfer claim. Read more here.