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A “terrific” Premier League player is “open to leaving” his current club to potentially join Newcastle United during the summer transfer window, according to former scout Mick Brown.

Newcastle targeting potential Isak replacements

The Alexander Isak saga continues to rumble on this summer, with Eddie Howe claiming that no club has come in and made an offer for him so far.

“He is still our player. He’s contracted to us. We, to a degree, control what is next for him. I would love to believe all possibilities are still available to us. My wish is that he stays, but that’s not in my full control. We have not received a formal offer for Alex, from any club.”

Newcastle continue to be linked with possible replacements, with former Fulham striker Aleksandar Mitrovic mentioned as a surprise option who could return to Tyneside following a string of rejections from their top targets this summer.

RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko and Brentford’s Yoane Wissa are also leading options to move to the Magpies, but the former may be left to choose between St James’ Park and Old Trafford amid interest from Manchester United.

Watkins "open to leaving" Aston Villa

Speaking to Football Insider, Brown, a long-time scout for Villa before retiring for punditry, claimed that Newcastle target striker Ollie Watkins is “open to leaving” Aston Villa this summer, possibly paving the way for a move to St James’ Park.

“Man United have been looking at him as well, and now Newcastle are interested. I’m told it’s something Villa are going to be open to, and I think Watkins is open to leaving too. If clubs come in for him, he’s going to want to explore his options. Newcastle are preparing to lose Isak, so they’ve been looking at a lot of different players who could potentially come in and plug the gap he’s going to leave.

“Watkins is certainly on that list because he’s a top player and would be great for Newcastle. I was really pushing for Villa to sign him when I was there because he was the best option available to us, and eventually they went and got it done. Now he’s got Premier League and international experience, which make him ideal for Newcastle. It’s difficult to say what they’re going to do because they’ve missed out on so many players, but he is certainly one of the ones they’ve looked at.”

At 29, the £130,000-a-week Watkins isn’t getting any younger, but if Newcastle could sign both him and a younger option like Sesko, it could be great replacement business for Isak.

The Villa ace has now proven himself at the top level for a long time, scoring 75 goals in 184 Premier League appearances, as well as being lauded by Danny Murphy.

Aston Villa

223

87

42

Brentford

143

49

15

Exeter City

78

26

17

The fact that Watkins is happy to leave Villa is a big boost for Newcastle, and there should be no issues with him coming straight in and hitting the ground running at St James’.

New Zealand were bowled out for 88 in a chase of 149, leaving their progress in doubt

Madushka Balasuriya08-Oct-20243:16

Clinical Australia complicate NRR matters for others

Australia put one foot in the semi-finals with a dominant 60-run victory over neighbours New Zealand in Sharjah, and in the process recorded their 13th straight win in T20I World Cups. The result means Australia have two wins from two with a healthy net run-rate of 2.524 – they are also the only unbeaten side in the group. For New Zealand, the margin of defeat has had a hefty impact on their net run-rate, now going below Pakistan’s as they fell to third place.The win was a result of a supreme all-round effort from Australia, and a solid execution of plans. Their top order of Alyssa Healy, Beth Mooney and Ellyse Perry contributed heavily, and while Amelia Kerr – who ended with excellent figures of 4 for 26 – did her best to reel New Zealand back into the game, Australia’s total of 148 for 8 on a sluggish surface always felt like too tall a chase.And so it proved as New Zealand’s batters struggled to get going. Suzie Bates hung around for a scratchy 20 off 27, while Kerr’s 29 off 31 was the only other innings of substance. While Megan Schutt, Sophie Molineux and Annabel Sutherland shared eight wickets among them, it was Schutt’s outstanding spell of 3 for 3 that pinned New Zealand down. Schutt took home the Player-of-the-Match award for her efforts.Healy takes chargeOn a surface with a nice layering of grass, Australia might have suspected they had won a good toss when they elected to bat. After Healy’s 26 off 20, that decision was looking more sound than ever, as Australia struck 43 inside the powerplay.It might not have been so though, had Healy not been convinced by partner Mooney to review an lbw call in the third over. That overturned decision seemed to bring clarity, as the very next delivery from Fran Jonas was smoked over mid-off. Two balls later, another one over extra cover. She’d repeat the trick in the next over as well, before carving one over point in the final over of the powerplay.While Healy fell looking for a fifth loft over the offside, Australia had set the ideal platform for their innings.Mooney and Perry shift through the gearsOnce the fielding restrictions were lifted, Perry in particular struggled to turn over the strike. The pressure that was built eventually told when she struck one straight to long-on, only for Maddy Green to spill the chance. New Zealand unsurprisingly came to the rue that missed opportunity as Perry and Mooney stitched together the match’s highest stand of 45 off 38.Amelia Kerr picked up 4 for 26•ICC via Getty ImagesWhat both batters did well from there on was not get bogged down. While boundaries were hard to come by, they were still eager to use their feet and keep ticking over singles. It meant the momentum set up by Healy’s early salvo was never lost. This was highlighted by Mooney’s 40 off 32, which included just the two boundaries.Once Mooney fell, caught trying – and failing – to clear mid-off, Perry took over as aggressor carting Eden Carson for six over long-off, before pummeling her through square leg. Bookending those strikes was a pair of boundaries off two Kerr overs, as Perry threatened to take the game away from New Zealand.Kerr keeps New Zealand in itBut just as Australia were looking to truly unleash, Kerr struck in consecutive deliveries in the 14th over to take out Perry and Grace Harris, having already removed Mooney earlier. Kerr grabbed one more before signing off, making it three wickets in a five-ball period for the legspinner.These wickets had the effect of snuffing out Australia’s momentum, though their propensity for picking up singles mixed in with the odd boundary meant they still managed 32 runs off the final five overs. Not as much as they would have liked, but enough to push them to a fairly imposing total.Australia execute to perfectionKnowing that they had a good total on the board, Australia’s goal was to simply make life as difficult as possible for New Zealand’s batters – and that they did. Schutt set the tone with her impeccable lines and lengths, never allowing the batters to swing their arms, while she was ably supported by her team-mates.This meant that while New Zealand lost just one wicket inside the powerplay, they were only able to muster 29 runs. By the 10th over, it was still one wicket down but the scoreboard had just about ticked over to 54.The final 10 overs then brought about the conclusion they’d been planning for throughout as batter after batter got out trying to hit out. In the end, at no point in the chase we New Zealand ever in the game.

Andrea Berta has been making all the Arsenal headlines this week following his official appointment, with Edu Gaspar’s replacement already very busy ahead of a vitally important summer transfer window.

Andrea Berta set for "big" summer at Arsenal

The 53-year-old is being tipped for a “big” summer of spending and recruitment, even by Mikel Arteta, who expressed his excitement over Berta’s arrival in north London.

Arteta now "determined" to sign £200k-per-week Man United player at Arsenal

The Spaniard personally thinks he’s perfect.

ByEmilio Galantini Apr 4, 2025

“I think it’s a big addition to the club, a big addition to the team,” said Arteta on what Berta will bring to Arsenal.

“A team that is already formed with a lot of great people. Richard [Garlick] leading it, obviously. But as well with James [King], with Jason [Ayto], with a lot of people at the club that have been doing such good work.

Everton (away)

April 5th

Brentford (home)

April 12th

Ipswich Town (away)

April 20th

Crystal Palace (home)

TBD

Bournemouth (home)

May 3rd

“So it’s about building out that chemistry. And I believe Josh [Kroenke] has been fully involved in the process as well. So we are all very excited to have him. You just met him, and straight away the words that come out are always winning, improving and demanding. And he’s a person who is very honest, very straightforward, with a very clear vision of what he wants to do.”

While Arsenal prepare for another Premier League clash away to Everton on Saturday, Berta has already got to work on potential transfers in the background.

Bukayo Saka’s recent injury lay-off, not to mention Leandro Trossard’s uncertain long-term future, has highlighted the need for reinforcement out wide – leading Berta to start laying groundwork on a potential deal for Athletic Bilbao starlet Nico Williams.

The Spain international’s reputation as one of Europe’s most exciting young forwards is well known by those within Arsenal, who’ve been repeatedly linked since last summer.

His contract also includes a £48 million release clause, and despite his reportedly sky-high wages at Bilbao, the Gunners are set to try and lure him to England.

Berta is reliably reported to have held talks with Williams’ agents this week, and journalist Graeme Bailey has shared his own update on the situation in a piece for The Boot Room.

Andrea Berta convinced Nico Williams wants to join Arsenal

According to his information, Berta is convinced that Williams is “hugely attracted” to the Arsenal project, following this meeting with the 22-year-old and his representatives in the last few days.

Bailey adds that the £200,000-per-week winger is currently on a long list of winger targets, which includes Mohamed Kudus (West Ham), Matheus Cunha (Wolves), Bryan Mbeumo (Brentford), Leroy Sané (Bayern Munich), Jacob Ramsey (Aston Villa), Alex Baena (Villarreal), Yeremy Pino (Villarreal) and Arda Güler (Real Madrid).

This also follows “constant communication” between Arsenal and the player’s camp over the last 12 months, with Berta outlining during the most recent round of talks with Williams’ agents that he’d be a key player in Arteta’s side.

Berta ended these discussions with the feeling that they’re favourites to sign Williams, if he does opt to finally leave Bilbao this year, so this could come as a very encouraging bit of news for supporters who want to see him at the Emirates.

Two intrepid correspondents team up to run the rule over the teams that sailed and scraped through the group stage of the World Cup

Andrew Fidel Fernando and Alan Gardner18-Jun-2024USAFirst-round report card: Smashed Canada to open the tournament, played like the more experienced international team against relative giants Pakistan in the Super Over of their next match. Didn’t completely fall apart against powerhouse India.Hard to think of how USA could have done any better, particularly after an extreme-weather event helped them avoid playing a potential banana-skin game against Ireland. (winks at fossil fuel companies)Highlight: After completing the biggest win in their cricket history, their captain came out and said they should have never let it get so close and go to a Super Over. Ice cold.Explaining team USA to new American cricket fans: Part of the inscription on the plaque of the Statue of Liberty reads: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” This team is more like: “Give me your cricketers who didn’t quite make it professionally in their home countries, and also tend to work regular jobs in the US.”Growing-the-game rating: A+
Saurabh Netravalkar, the left-arm-bowling, ukelele-playing, tech-company engineering dreamboat has arguably been the story of the World Cup so far. New York-born Aaron Jones has rocked it too. There was even some coverage in major US publications after their big win over Pakistan. Now give us more. ()AustraliaFirst-round report card: It’s not a proper World Cup until Australia have turned up to it. They provided glimpses of their woke, do-gooder alter egos when giving both Oman and Scotland a sniff, while mostly playing to classic Aussie mongrel type to record a crushing four wins from four.Highlight: Josh Hazlewood openly pondering whether Australia might try to give Scotland a leg up with their net run rate, thereby rigging an early exit for England – which caused several spirit-of-cricket fairies to die on the spot.Explaining team Australia to new American cricket fans: Like a Humvee parachuting out of a helicopter to land in the middle of a freeway and roar off into the distance, Springsteen blaring out of the speakers.Growing-the-game rating: C-
Australia has good cross-cultural links with the US. Think Nicole Kidman, Chris Hemsworth, or Mel Gibson. (Maybe not the latter, if you can avoid it.) So it wouldn’t hurt for brand recognition. Particularly when all their fading greats sign up to play MLC.South AfricaFirst-round report card: First rounds are generally not a problem for South Africa, and so it proved again. They crushed Sri Lanka, breezed past Netherlands, and won close matches against Bangladesh and Nepal.Highlight: Heinrich Klaasen picking up a deflection off the back of Nepal’s Gulsan Jha’s pads (wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock’s throw towards the non-striker’s end had hit the batter as he was attempting a match-tying bye off the last ball) and then running him out, to avoid going into a Super Over against Nepal.There are two ways to view this. Either this is simply a more experienced team being calm and clinical in a crucial match situation. Or by having that deflection come their way, South Africa have exhausted 100% of their luck for this World Cup. Eeek.Explaining team South Africa to new American cricket fans: Bang like Kanye’s music at the start of global tournaments. Trash like Kanye’s personality in the high-pressure games.It’s been that kind of World Cup for England (and now that we’ve said it, they’ll win the title of course)•Getty ImagesGrowing-the-game rating: C
They’ve played another African nation just once in T20Is in the last five years, and that was Zimbabwe at the last World Cup. This kind of behaviour is not completely out of character for a major cricketing nation, but it’s also not amazing.IndiaFirst-round report card: India’s first rounds are all about whether they beat Pakistan again. Despite looking like they were in trouble for parts of that match, they just let Pakistan run themselves into the ground eventually. They casually dominated their other two games. And the India cricket economy has been delivered safely into the lap of the Super Eight. Phew.Highlight: Tournament after tournament, Jasprit Bumrah bowls some spectacularly unplayable deliveries. His ball to get rid of Babar Azam was a new addition to the canon.Explaining team India to new American cricket fans: They are like the USA of cricket, in the sense that they see themselves as the centre of the world. Or maybe even the galaxy. In fact, what is the point of a universe in which India is not the supermassive black hole into which the entirety of existence collapses? IN-DI-A, IN-DI-A, IN-DI-A!Growing-the-game rating: A
All the money cricket makes from India’s World Cup appearances will trickle down to the rest of the cricket world, right?… it’ll definitely trickle down, right?Guys?West IndiesFirst-round report card: The co-hosts avoided triggering 1000 comment pieces lamenting the continued decline of West Indies cricket by squeaking past PNG in their opening match, took things up a notch when obliterating Uganda, and then played rope-a-dope to end New Zealand’s run of reaching the business end of ICC tournaments. Eerily smooth sailing, given they also avoided being ambushed by Afghanistan.Highlight: The last-wicket partnership of 37 from 13 deliveries against New Zealand, during which Sherfane Rutherford faced every ball but one and scored all the runs. New Zealand’s nice-guys-finish-in-the-final-four act never recovered.Explaining team West Indies to new American fans: The smashiest of all the teams, West Indian cricket is one of the region’s prime means of taking a colonial pastime by the blazer and shaking it loose.Growing-the-game rating: B+
Becoming the first team to lift the ICC’s T20 title on home soil would be a powerful boost, and surely help prevent all those cricket-loving Caribbean kids leaving to take up basketball in the US ().EnglandFirst-round report card: A bewildering mix of front-foot posturing, meek capitulation, anxiety-ridden self-analysis and clinical get-the-job-done smarts. Not for the first time, England had rings runs around them by peoples they had formerly oppressed. Scotland arguably had the better of a rain-ruined encounter, before England were left on their knees by Australia. They then stayed in that position in order to ask for a favour in the group’s final game, having done the needful against Oman and Namibia.Traitorous Sri Lankan turncoat Chandika Hathurusingha was unbecomingly happy about Bangladesh’s victory over the team of his country of origin•ICC/Getty ImagesHighlight: Not seeing their all-conquering generation of white-ball titans suffer another long, slow, embarrassing shambles of a World Cup defence (like they did in 2023). At least not yet, anyway.Explaining team England to new American cricket fans: Imagine your snooty rich friend forcing their way onto your property to try to teach you all about their favourite parlour game and then you decide to get really, really good at it and whup the snooty rich friend’s ass instead.Growing-the-game rating: D+
English attempts to expand cricket’s horizons were feeble even when they had a monopoly, and they certainly couldn’t get Americans interested. Might briefly salve the nation’s wounds when England’s football team crashes out of the Euros, though.AfghanistanFirst-round report: Crushed Uganda, blew past Papua New Guinea, and vitally, didn’t even give New Zealand a chance in that crucial match. It’s increasingly feeling like Afghanistan in a World Cup is the real upset.Highlight: Rashid Khan and Fazalhaq Farooqi twinning with figures of 4 for 17 in the match against New Zealand. Many of those wicket balls were dream deliveries.Explaining team Afghanistan to new American cricket fans: Remember the war in Afghanistan? Well, that indirectly spurred a cricket revolution, when many Afghans fleeing the violence picked up the game in neighbouring Pakistan. Remember when the USA withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021, and the Taliban almost immediately took over? Yeah… so…. this is why they don’t have a women’s team.Growing-the-game rating: D
Well, they would have to grow the game beyond a single gender in their own country first. Let’s keep the bar low on this one.BangladeshFirst-round report card: Made it out of a tough group by overcoming chief playground rivals Sri Lanka in a low-scoring scrap behind the bike sheds. Should have beaten South Africa, too, but tripped up against Keshav Maharaj’s crafty full tosses with the finishing line in sight. They also showed familiar signs of fallibility against Netherlands and Nepal.But none of that matters because they beat Sri Lanka. Hey did you hear, Sri Lanka didn’t even make the Super Eights hahahahahaHighlight: Explaining team Bangladesh to new American cricket fans: Lovable, if slightly baffling, regular character, who always seems to end up being dispatched in a horrifyingly gory manner. Kenny from , basically.Growing-the-game rating: A-
Bangladeshis could hardly be more into their cricket, and every step forward is to be welcomed. Going all the way here would probably draw comparisons to Sri Lanka’s World Cup win in 1996, without being anywhere near as good, obviously.**This column is co-written by a Sri Lankan

From Mithali Raj to Yuvraj Singh, everyone took part in the celebrations after India’s CWG 2022 semi-final win over England

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Aug-2022

What a nail-biting finish! That was a special final over from @SnehRana15. The fiery knock from @mandhana_smriti set the tone and @Deepti_Sharma06 chipped in with crucial all-round contribution. Top stuff #TeamIndia, all the best for the final. Let's go for the . #CWG2022 pic.twitter.com/HqUZIg47JV

— Mithali Raj (@M_Raj03) August 6, 2022