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As per reliable reporter Scott Burns, writing for the Scottish Daily Express, some news has come to light on Southampton’s transfer plans for January involving Rangers star Joe Aribo.

The Lowdown: Semmens eyeing winter moves?

As the winter window looms, Southampton chief Martin Semmens, who oversees the club’s transfer activity, has already hinted that the Saints could be active business-wise as he aims to bolster manager Ralph Hasenhuttl’s chances of Premier League survival.

Sitting just six points above the drop zone, Hasenhuttl’s men will potentially be looking to strengthen if the right opportunity arises, with links emerging to a few names like Angers wonderkid Mohamed-Ali Cho.

Now, as per an update from north of the border, another claim has emerged on the Saints’ transfer plans.

The Latest: Semmens eyeing Aribo bid…

According to Burns, Southampton, and by extension Semmens, are ‘weighing up a move’ for Gers star Aribo and they even had a representative sent to watch him in action at the weekend.

Standing out for the Teddy Bears this season, Southampton already have a number of reports on the midfielder as they keep tabs on his situation ahead of January.

The Verdict: Time to move?

The 25-year-old has been one of Rangers’ players of the season so far, making more SPFL appearances than anyone in their squad so far whilst averaging the second-highest rate of dribbles completed per 90 and scoring the second-most goals (WhoScored).

His contract is also expiring in 18 months, putting some pressure on the Ibrox side to contemplate a sale while they still can.

The Nigeria international, lauded as ‘red hot’ by pundit Gabriel Agbonlahor for his form this season, could well be an astute purchase for Southampton if they can negotiate a realistic price.

In other news: ‘Worst player we have’…Southampton fans blast ‘terrible’ player after recent ‘stinker’, find out more here.

Aston Villa striker Keinan Davis is set to join Championship club Nottingham Forest on loan with the January transfer window now open.

What’s the story?

According to Birmingham Live, Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard has confirmed that the 23-year-old is on his way for a medical at the City Ground ahead of a loan move to Steve Cooper’s side.

Davis has only managed one Premier League appearance for the Villans this term, coming off of the bench for 11 minutes against Southampton in what proved to be Dean Smith’s final game in charge of the West Midlands side.

The Englishman is yet to feature under new boss Gerrard, having been an unused substitute in four of the seven games the former Rangers boss has taken charge of, who stated that the loan is what Davis ‘needs.’

Moreover, the former-Villa youth player has been demoted to the U-23s on occasion this term, making three appearances, in which he scored three goals.

Last month, the 23-year-old spoke to The Beautiful Game Podcast about a loan move, saying: “Obviously, it depends what the club wants to do but I’d want to play a more consistent run of games.

“For a player like me, still quite young and finding ways to play… Going back down to the Championship, I don’t see that as a backwards step at all.

“Me and my agent will go around to the different clubs to meet them and I will choose. It’s not like you’re getting pushed anywhere or something like that. You do have a say.”

It appears that the club Davis has chosen is Nottingham Forest who sit ninth in the Championship after a revival under manager Steve Cooper, who replaced Chris Hughton in September.

Villa fans will be buzzing

Aston Villa fans will be glad to see the striker get a loan move to the Championship which will hopefully see him get a run of games and pick up some form to restore confidence.

The move makes sense for both parties. Davis isn’t getting a look in and still needs to develop by playing games as he is still just 23-years-old, he’ll get games at Forest.

Moreover, if the loan is a success, Villa will either get a better striker back in the summer that they can use or they’ll be able to cash in and receive an increased transfer fee should Gerrard decide to move Davis on permanently.

Steffan Jones made the highest score by a Derbyshire number 11 batsman as Worcestershire lost some momentum at New Road in their drive for a third victory of the season in the County Championship

Cricinfo staff19-May-2010
Scorecard
Steffan Jones made the highest score by a Derbyshire number 11 batsman as Worcestershire lost some momentum at New Road in their drive for a third victory of the season in the County Championship.The 36-year-old Welshman smashed 86 from 70 balls – surpassing Nick Walker’s record of 80 against Somerset at Derby in 2004 – and partnered Tim Groenewald in the second highest last-wicket stand in the county’s 139-year history.Their big-hitting interlude yielded 123, only nine short of the all-time mark set by Alan Hill and Martin Jean-Jacques against Yorkshire in 1986, but it was not enough to alter the shape of the game.With Derbyshire made to follow on 264 behind, Worcestershire looked for another big effort from the four main seamers who shared the workload in wrapping up the visitors’ first innings for 295.An opening stand of 51 by Chris Rogers (32) and Wayne Madsen (34) suggested it would be tougher for the bowlers second time round but Worcestershire edged towards their prize when taking three wickets for 183 by the close.Derbyshire were still 81 short of avoiding an innings defeat in a match that had been dominated by the home side up to the 21.2 overs in which Jones and Groenewald were together.For Worcestershire it was an unexpected hold-up after further progress, spearheaded by Alan Richardson who took 4 for 72. Seventh-wicket pair Robin Peterson (46) and Tom Poynton put on 50 before joining a procession of batsmen caught in the slips and Tom Lungley was ninth out with the score at 172, snapped up behind the wicket off Gareth Andrew.Jones, however, is no ordinary number 11. He made two first-class centuries for Somerset and no bowler can feel safe when he swings the bat. Namesake Richard Jones was first to suffer, conceding 16 in an over, and replacement Jack Shantry was soon hit for six and two fours.Groenewald (35 not out) tethered his attacking instinct until clearing the rails alongside the pavilion. Jones, having hit 15 fours and a six, was last out, caught on the cover boundary off Andrew.When Derbyshire batted again, they showed some resilience but failed to carry it through as Shantry and Andrew forced errors by the top three. It was only when Greg Smith, unbeaten on 54, got together with Garry Park (34 not out) in the final session that Worcestershire’s seamers began to feel the strain of bowling 94 overs in their long day in the field.

The Falkland Islands blew Costa Rica away on the second day of the Americas Division Four competition at the Reforma Athletic ground in Mexico City on Tuesday

Tony Munro16-Jun-2010
ScorecardThe Falkland Islands blew Costa Rica away on the second day of the Americas Division Four competition at the Reforma Athletic ground in Mexico City on Tuesday. A devastating spell of medium-pace bowling from Falkland Islands’ David Taylforth caused all the damage, as he picked up 6 for 14 and wrapped up the game with a four-wicket maiden which included a hat-trick.The day started with the Costa Ricans winning the toss and electing to field in cloudy conditions. In the third over, Sam Arthur bowled Falkland Islands’ opening batsman Mike Summers for just 2. Martin Collins then came to the crease and he faired a little better before he too was bowled the same bowler and Falkland Islands were up against it.The Falkland’s batsmen came to the wicket and left with great regularity and only Charles Hewitt, with a painstaking 21 from 50 balls, and David Pickup, with 24 runs from 53 balls, made any effort to occupy the crease.The Falkland’s innings folded for 131 runs with 11.3 overs remaining and the game looked all but lost at this stage. Ben Smith returned 4 for 32 from 10 overs to go with his century the day before. He was supported by Tim Baker who took 3 for 29 and Sam Arthur with 2 for 15.Playing in their first tournament of any kind, Falkland Islands never gave up hope, and the spirit in the team was further lifted in the first over when Taylforth had Tim Baker caught by Collins without a run on the board. Smith threatened to take the game away from Falkland Islands but he went, brilliantly caught at mid-off, to leave the Costa Ricans on 44 for 2.The Falkland players went to lunch believing they could conjure up an upset and set up a decider with the hosts in Wednesday’s game. After lunch the game swayed back and forth until the 29th over. With Costa Rica poised at 92 for 6 and still in need of 39 runs for victory, Falkland Islands needed a hero, and he duly stepped up.In what one spectator described as the most exhilarating finish to a cricket game, captain and Man-of-the-Match Taylforth came back into the attack from the northern end of the ground, and with his first ball of the over he had Richard Illingworth caught at gully by Ian Betts.This encouraged Falkland Islands to go on the offensive with two slips, two men in the gully and the rest of the fielders inside the circle. The second ball of the over brought Garth Tweedale forward only to be snapped up by Richard Marlor at one of the two gullies.This brought in Gary Sheriff with Taylforth on a hat-trick and a perfect, swinging delivery saw Sheriff groping forward and again Marlor in the gully did the honours. The Falkland Islanders jumped and screamed with delight for captain Taylforth but also at the sight of a well-deserved victory.The fourth ball was a dot ball to last man, Armando Foster, but the fifth was just short of a length and Foster went back but could not keep his hand down. The ball took the glove and looped to Marlor waiting in the same position as the previous two catches. Costa Rica’s innings ended with the score at 92 to give Falkland Islands victory by 39 runs.

Aston Villa could well sign their new Jack Grealish in Bayer Leverkusen starlet Florian Wirtz amid a recent transfer report…

What’s the story?

According to a report from The Daily Mail, the 18-year-old has been touted as someone Steven Gerrard’s side like as they look to make a potential splash in the January transfer window.

Shades of Grealish

While Grealish’s summer exit would no doubt have caused some pain among Villa supporters, signing a talent like Wirtz would go a long way to banishing those memories.

This season alone has seen him net eight goals and provide another 11 assists in just 21 games in all competitions, including bagging three in the Europa League and striking against Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga.

It’s no surprise then that plenty of people have delivered some rave reviews, with former teammate Aleksandar Dragovic even comparing him to a current Premier League star.

He said: “The lad has a lot of potential and if he keeps his feet on the ground, he could be another Kai Havertz.”

And, one of his current teammates, Julian Baumgartlinger, added: “He’s really emerged quickly. During the lockdown, he came to first-team training, and you could see he’s a special player even though he’s young.”

With his age and goal-scoring record already – he is the youngest scorer in German top-flight history – Wirtz seems to be the kind of precocious young talent who had people sitting up and take notice, just like Grealish did when he was making his way into the Villa first-team.

The starlet valued at a mammoth £127m by CIES would be a statement signing, but one crucially that could help Villa unearth another star they can build an entire team around for both the here and now, and the future too.

Meanwhile, Villa could make a move for this Serie A starlet…

Everton have made two great signings already with Rafa Benitez attracting the likes of Nathan Patterson and Vitaliy Mykolenko to the Toffees during this transfer window, but he could be heading for a disaster if he was to sign a certain player who has recently been linked with a move to Goodison Park.

What’s the word?

According to the Daily Mail, Inter Milan have offered Everton the opportunity to sign Alexis Sanchez on a free transfer during this winter window.

The 33-year-old has fallen out of favour since Antonio Conte left Inter Milan after winning the Serie A last season, and is no longer a consistent starter under new coach Simone Inzaghi.

The situation was then discussed on GIVEMESPORT by transfer insider Dean Jones who spoke of Farhad Moshiri’s desires for the squad when asked about Sanchez this week: “We’ve seen that at various times over Moshiri’s time there that he really does like having that superstar feel to his team if he can get it.”

Rodriguez disasterclass 2.0

Alexis has been in the headlines this week for scoring in extra time for Inter as they won Supercoppa, describing himself as a “monster” post-match, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’d be a good acquisition.

Everton have become well known for their reckless spending since the arrival of owner Farhad Moshiri, who has signed over 40 players and spent north of £500m during his half-decade at the club, with no progress or trophies since, in fact, the side are just six points away from the relegation zone currently, after enduring a struggle in the first half of the season.

Although Sanchez, who was once dubbed “inconsistent” by Joey Barton, has been a phenomenal player in the past and made a great impact on the club he has played for – helping Conte secure a league title in the Serie A last season with seven goals and seven assists in the league – he is currently on £350k-per-week and in the last years of his career at 33-years-old.

The signing of the outspoken Chilean forward could head in the same direction as the disasterclass that became of the James Rodriguez signing.

He started spectacularly for the Toffees, seeing himself involved in six goals in his first five outings, but soon became injured, inconsistent and as a result, unable to deliver at the level he was expected to. Thus, he became an expensive headache on £140k-per-week which eventually led to his departure on a free transfer in September last year.

If the rumours are true that Everton are interested in signing Sanchez, it will be disappointing to fans who would be hoping that Moshiri has learned some lessons over the last half a decade owning the Merseyside club.

Wasting money has got them nowhere in terms of being successful on the pitch and Benitez should work hard to make sure that the club spends money on wages more wisely rather than splashing them on a player who is out of his prime and unlikely able to start every week.

In other news: “Everton are interested” – Journo drops big transfer update that’ll leave Rafa gutted…

The aim of expanding the use of the Umpire Decision Review System (DRS) has hit another stumbling block after it was ditched from the forthcoming England-Bangladesh series due to cost two days before the opening Test at Lord’s

Cricinfo staff25-May-2010The aim of expanding the use of the Umpire Decision Review System (DRS) has hit another stumbling block after it was ditched from the forthcoming England-Bangladesh series due to cost two days before the opening Test at Lord’s.ICC and Sky, the host broadcaster for the series, failed to reach an agreement over who would foot the bill so the enhanced third-umpire technology won’t be available on Thursday or for the second Test at Old Trafford next week. This isn’t the first time that cost has been an issue in trying to use the system, with the previous series between these two teams, in Bangladesh, also played without technology.However, this latest occasion comes just days after the ICC’s Cricket Committee pushed for the DRS to be used in all Tests after a revamped version was introduced over the last 12 months around the world.”Despite constructive negotiations with the host broadcaster we have been unable to reach agreement on the allocation of costs for DRS,” an ICC spokesman said. “The whole question of DRS costs will be raised at the next ICC board meeting in Singapore in June and, depending on the outcome of the board meeting, we may revisit the question of DRS for the rest of the English summer.”England’s most recent experience with the DRS sparked controversy during the final Test against South Africa, at Johannesburg, in January when Daryl Harper didn’t overturn a not-out decision against Graeme Smith despite an edge being audible on replays. An investigation into the incident is ongoing, but despite the frustrations at the Wanderers, Andy Flower, the England coach, ended the series broadly in favour of using the extra technology.ICC have said that the level of correct decision-making when using the system has risen from 92% to around 97%. In the short-term the absence of the DRS over the next two weeks has meant that Aleem Dar, the Pakistan umpire who was due to be the TV official, is no longer needed at Lord’s as only traditional line decisions will be referred and he has been replaced by England’s Richard Illingworth.

Many Glasgow Rangers fans have been flocking to some comments which have emerged from Jermain Defoe.

Speaking on Sky Sports, the striker was talking about how he left club earlier this week and suggested that he wanted to stay and continue playing for them. He confessed: “Even at the age of 39 I still wanted to be involved. Towards the end it was affecting me, I was taking it home and I was a little bit down…”

Defoe was a wonderful servant to Rangers during his time at Ibrox, scoring 32 goals and supplying a further 10 assists in 76 games over all competitions across the last four seasons (title last term.

However, he has now left the Light Blues, and if he wants to continue playing football, he will have to find another club as a free agent. Nonetheless, many Gers supporters seemed moved by his admission.

Rangers fans on Defoe comments

These Rangers fans flocked to the striker’s comments as they were shared on Twitter, with one going as far as to claim that Defoe is a ‘phenomenal’ person:

“Phenomenal guy with a phenomenal attitude. @IAmJermainDefoe is always welcome back to Ibrox as a fan.”

Credit: @norrie9791

“Tears man… Absolute gem of a guy and fantastic player, wish we had him years ago, always welcome back JD”

Credit: @Rangers4life_

“Okay I wasn’t ready for this”

Credit: @RaviSood10

“Crying now! What a man”

Credit: @ClaireMackay19

“He gets it.”

Credit: @nrpsimpson

“Someone cutting onions somewhere”

Credit: @youngdavid85

In other news, find out what transfer update has had these Gers fans buzzing

Ireland have been rewarded for their successful WCL Division One defence by having four of their players named in the team of the tournament

Cricinfo staff11-Jul-2010Ireland have been rewarded for their successful WCL Division 1 defence by having four of their players named in the team of the tournament.Ireland defeated Scotland by six wickets to seal the title on Saturday and their leader, Trent Johnston, was chosen as captain of the combined squad. Paul Stirling, Kevin O’Brien, and George Dockrell, the 17-year-old left-arm spinner, were the other members of Ireland’s team chosen. Mark Jonkman, the Netherlands paceman, was also included despite being reported for a suspect bowling bowling action.The side was chosen by a panel of experts that included Adrian Griffith, the former West Indies batsman, and Kumar Dharmasena, the Sri Lankan off-spinner who featured in the 1996 World Cup winning side.Team of the tournament 1 Paul Stirling (Ireland), 2 Ashish Bagai (Canada) (wicketkeeper), 3 Tom Cooper (Netherlands), 4 Nawroz Mangal (Afghanistan), 5 Kevin O’Brien (Ireland), 6 Neil McCallum (Scotland),7 Thomas Odoyo (Kenya), 8 Samiullah Shenwari (Afghanistan), 9 Trent Johnston (Ireland) (captain), 10 George Dockrell (Ireland), 11 Mark Jonkman (Netherlands), 12th man Gordon Drummond (Scotland).

Trinidad and Tobago may have narrowly missed out making the finals of the Caribbean T20, but they put in a thoroughly disciplined performance against a listless Jamaica to settle for third place

Cricinfo staff01-Aug-2010
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsCarlton Baugh’s 40 was not enough for Jamaica to stretch Trinidad and Tobago•Anthony Harris/West Indies Cricket BoardTrinidad and Tobago may have narrowly missed making the finals of the Caribbean T20, but they put in a thoroughly disciplined performance against a listless Jamaica to settle for third place. The seamers, led by Kevon Cooper, restricted Jamaica to an inadequate 94 in a match initially reduced to 14 overs, before the openers strolled to the revised target of 89 in just 10.1 overs.T&T had the incentive to give their home fans something to cheer about, but Jamaica failed to derive any kind of inspiration. With the exception of Carlton Baugh, none of the batsmen batted with motivation, and it was a continuation of their performance in the semi-final yesterday.Jamaica captain Tamar Lambert won the toss and chose to bat under bright skies, but a sudden downpour forced the players indoors for more than 90 minutes. The Trinidad seamers hit the deck hard and got good carry off a moist surface, getting rid of the attacking opening pair of Chris Gayle and Xavier Marshall early. Gayle, who had a disappointing tournament, holed out to the trap at deep midwicket, before Marshall had his middle stump flattened by a Cooper yorker.Marlon Samuels failed to assume the role of senior pro and was dismissed in embarrassing circumstances. He squeezed the ball to cover and set off for a single but his partner Danza Hyatt was rooted to his end watching the ball. Samuels was stranded at Hyatt’s end giving T&T an easy run-out. Hyatt himself failed to make amends as he lost his off stump to Dave Mohammed trying to pull a ball which wasn’t short enough.Baugh gave the innings some impetus sweeping and cutting Sherwin Ganga for consecutive boundaries. He swept Mohammed over deep square-leg to bring up the first six of the game, and then picked up two crisp boundaries past point off the seamers. But the pressure increased on him as he lost a couple of partners and when Lendl Simmons served up a short delivery, he failed to clear Bravo at deep midwicket. Bravo bowled a fine final over, delivering three dot balls to Lambert as Jamaica limped to 94.Adrian Barath and Simmons made easy work of the target, which was reduced to 89 off 13 overs following a brief shower after 3.2 overs. The pair also ensured they kept with the Duckworth-Lewis par score and didn’t lose any wickets by the end of five overs, the minimum required to constitute a match. The persistent drizzle didn’t help the Jamaican bowlers as they struggled to grip the ball. Simmons used the opportunity to recover some form by going on the attack, often making room and clearing his back leg to muscle the ball away. Barath was powerful off the front foot, lofting and driving square on the off side to pick up five fours in his 39.The match was nowhere close to the intensity of the first semi-final yesterday, but the home fans weren’t complaining as T&T delivered the knockout blow.