According to reports in the Daily Mail, Everton are one of the Premier League clubs considering making a summer move for Aston Villa midfielder Jack Grealish, who is valued at £40m by the Championship outfit according to Sky Sports.

The Daily Mail says that Villa need to sell players this summer in order to stay in line with FFP regulations having been beaten by Fulham in the play-off final at Wembley last weekend, and the 22-year-old is one of their most valuable assets.

The report says that the Toffees, along with Leicester City and West Ham United, are all keen on the England U21 international, who scored three goals and provided a further five assists in 27 league games to help Villa secure a top-six finish.

The arrival of Grealish, who usually played in the centre and provided runs from deep but can also play wide on the left, at Goodison Park would certainly have plenty of consequences in terms of new manager Marco Silva, the formation, their current players and the fans, who don’t believe the club need to sign a Euro 2016 winner this summer.

Here are three things that will definitely happen if Everton seal the huge £40m deal…

The new Toffees boss proved with the likes of Richarlison, Nathaniel Chalobah and Will Hughes during his time with Watford that he can get the best out of young and promising individuals, and there is no reason why the same won’t happen in Grealish arrives at Goodison Park.

The 22-year-old has a similar playing style to Hughes as he is cultured on the ball and capable of making those strong forward runs from a deep-lying position in the middle of the park, and Silva will know exactly how to make sure he thrives for the Merseyside outfit.

While Everton will hope to get Grealish for less than £40m if they do push ahead with a move to sign him, it seems certain that he will be in starting XI at the beginning of next season if he does arrive on Merseyside in a big-money deal.

The England U21 international would obviously need to prove himself in pre-season and would have plenty of competition from the likes of Gylfi Sigurdsson, Tom Davies and Yannick Bolasie, but the fact that he can play in a range of different positions should ensure he is named on the team-sheet when the new campaign gets underway on the weekend of August 9-12.

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The 2017 summer signing from Ajax may well have been hoping for a second chance to impress under Silva next season following a disastrous debut campaign at Goodison Park where he found himself largely excluded from proceedings by Ronald Koeman, David Unsworth and Sam Allardyce.

However, the arrival of Grealish, who primarily plays in a similar position to the Dutchman, would surely seal his fate once and for all, and bring an end to what has been a nightmare spell on Merseyside for the 25-year-old who arrived with such promise and potential.

Do you agree, Everton fans? Let us know below.

Following a largely inconsistent loan spell with Leeds United, parent club Everton handed a contract extension to young defender Matthew Pennington, securing his services until 2021.

That suggested the Toffees had high hopes for the 23-year-old, but recent reports hint that the appointments of Director of Football Marcel Brands and new manager Marco Silva have seen the situation drastically change.

Indeed, Mirror Football claim Brands is aiming to offload around twelve players, and Pennington is one of those whose future hangs in the balance despite signing a new deal.

With that in mind, we recently asked Leeds fans whether the club should move to re-sign the former defender during a transfer window which could well see the much-revered Marcelo Bielsa take the managerial reigns at Elland Road.

But according to our poll, the vast majority of Leeds fans are happy to see the back of Pennington, with a whopping 83% voting against the notion of a summer transfer swoop. Which defenders should the Whites target instead? Let us know by commenting below…

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According to Bleacher Report, Fulham are continuing to monitor Jack Grealish’s situation at Aston Villa as the Cottagers eye a summer move.

Grealish scored three times and registered five assists in 27 Championship appearances last season as Villa reached the final of the playoffs before losing to Fulham.

The 22-year-old is widely expected to leave Villa Park this summer due to his team’s financial problems, and a number of clubs have been linked with a move.

Villa are believed to value Grealish in the region of £40m, but the club are in a difficult position due to their financial restraints.

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Fulham are said to be monitoring the situation as the London club prepare for the 2018-19 Premier League campaign.

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The Villa fans have been reacting to the transfer speculation, and they are finding it hard to believe that Grealish would leave the club to move to Fulham.

A selection of the Twitter reaction from the Villa supporters can be seen below:

It was confirmed last week that West Ham United midfielder Manuel Lanzini had suffered a serious anterior cruciate ligament while on international duty with Argentina that will keep him out of the 2018 World Cup, and perhaps for the whole of the 2018/19 campaign.

Given he is one of the Irons’ most important players – especially from an attacking point of view seeing as he seemed to have a telepathic understanding with Marko Arnautovic at times last season – the news will have come to a huge blow to the London Stadium faithful and new manager Manuel Pellegrini.

The Chilean boss surely would have identified the talented 25-year-old as one of the players he was looking forward to working with and wanted to build his team around having taken charge of the east London outfit, but he may not get the opportunity to work with him on the training ground until the start of 2019 – at the very earliest.

West Ham have been heavily linked with moves for former loanee Joao Mario from Inter Milan and Javier Pastore from Paris Saint-Germain this summer, who were presumably seen as partnering Lanzini behind a striker if Pellegrini is going to stick with one up top.

If that was to be the case, then the injury the diminutive Argentine may have actually solved one of his biggest headaches – how to incorporate Javier Hernandez into his starting line-up.

Hopes were high that the east London outfit, whose 5ft 9in transfer target would have a bigger impact for them than Dimitri Payet and Carlos Tevez, had finally found the goalscorer they had been looking for when they brought the Mexico international to the London Stadium from Bayer Leverkusen last summer, but it hasn’t worked out so far.

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While the 30-year-old was something of a regular in the starting XI under Slaven Bilic, he struggled to make the side when David Moyes succeeded the Croatian, often finding himself on the substitutes’ bench with Arnautovic preferred in the centre-forward role despite it not being his natural position.

The Austian attacker quickly impressed in terms of his strength, pace and the goal threat that he brought for his club, and it was completely fair enough that Hernandez was left out when Moyes preferred a formation with one striker.

His lack of regular minutes meant that he looked likely to leave the east London club this summer if the Scot had remained in charge, but that situation may have changed now Pellegrini has taken the helm.

The former Manchester City manager will likely want to keep the experienced and proven 30-year-old at the London Stadium – although he may need to persuade the player – but with Arnautovic, Lanzini and potential new wide addition Felipe Anderson, it would have been hard to guarantee him the starts that he will want to be guaranteed.

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The loss of Lanzini may have solved Pellegrini’s big headache, as he could now choose to go with a 4-2-2-2 system with the Mexican up top alongside Arnautovic, or he could move the Austrian back to a slightly deeper role with Hernandez the focal point of the attack if he sticks with a lone striker formation.

Lanzini will be a huge miss for West Ham next season, but his absence could open the door for Hernandez to finally make his mark at the London Stadium, and it will make the Chilean boss’ life slightly easier in terms of keeping all of his players satisfied.

Newcastle fans are quite literally split on a move for Daniel Sturridge, as exactly 50 per cent of fans voted to sign the injury prone striker.

Liverpool are expected to offload Sturridge this summer, and a report from The Chronicle claimed they could offer him to Newcastle.

The Magpies missed out on the chance to sign the England international on loan in January, after he opted for a temporary move to West Brom instead.

The Birmingham born 28 year-old chose the Baggies to be closer to his family, but plenty of Newcastle fans haven’t forgiven him for snubbing the chance to move to Tyneside.

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The Magpies were of course in desperate need of a striker, and although they ended up staving off relegation in fine style, they still need a marquee number nine this summer.

Sturridge has incredible talent, racking up 48 Premier League goals in 98 appearance for Liverpool, but his constant injury woes are a major concern.

Fans are completely split on a £15m move, as exactly half of the fans polled voted in favour of signing the 26-cap striker.

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You can find the full poll results down below…

Virender Sehwag’s unbeaten 284 off 239 balls left India with a superb chance to build a huge lead and push for an innings win

The Bulletin by Sidharth Monga03-Dec-2009
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

How they were outSurrender to Virender•Associated Press

Even a bad back couldn’t slow him down. Virender Sehwag batted like the nearby Arabian Sea in high tide – and when Sri Lanka tried to plug one hole, he rushed in through the other. He ended the day 16 short of becoming the first man to score three triple-centuries in the history of Test cricket but he’d already broken a string of records – the most double-centuries by an Indian, the second-highest scorer of 250-plus scores, the most runs by an Indian in a day (breaking his own record) – and given India enough time to push for a huge lead and then an innings win. All this despite starting the innings more than half an hour into the day.Sehwag’s was no monotonous power hitting but a delightful and clever exercise in finding gaps through defensive fields for most of the innings. Think Twenty20 highlights, but with the batsman playing lovely inside-out chips, straight lofts, reverse-sweeps to beat leg-side fields, flicks to beat off-side fields.Part of Sehwag would have felt for Sri Lanka (he says he feels sorry for the bowlers when he bats this well); more helpless bowling units would be hard to find. Sri Lanka could manage only four maidens between them out of 79 painful overs. M Vijay, playing his second Test because of Gautam Gambhir’s absence, and Rahul Dravid scored 149 runs between them in 242 balls, but they were distant second fiddles.Nothing, though, told the story like Muttiah Muralitharan’s plight. He was the last of the specialist bowlers tried, in the last over before lunch. By that time Sehwag had already reached his fifty and India had scored 85 in 17 overs. He bowled the first ball with a long-on in place and never looked like creating any opportunity in 19 succeeding overs.When Murali started his ninth over, Sehwag had reached 110 off 107 deliveries, Vijay 83 off 111, and India 198 in 36 overs. Murali bowled a doosra, Sehwag took his front foot out of the line, and lofted it over extra cover. The next ball Murali shortened the length, Sehwag read the doosra again, went back into the crease and presented the deadest of defences. Murali dropped his wrists in exasperation and went back to brood over figures of 9-0-56-0, which would only become worse. He has now bowled 69 consecutive overs without a maiden.And as the innings progressed, and the field spread, Sehwag’s scoring kept getting faster and faster. Hard as it is to believe, Sehwag had scored just 15 runs off the first 31 balls he faced. And then he opened up, cutting Chanaka Welegedara for a four, and lofting Rangana Herath for six in his first over. Since then, the longest he went without a boundary was 12 balls – moving from 166 to 172 – and showing Welegedara, the pick of Sri Lankan bowlers, a semblance of respect.By then Sehwag had seemed to recover from the back trouble that threatened to pull him down just before tea. He was seen leaning on the bat, falling over, and holding onto his back while taking singles. By tea he had reached 151 off 131 deliveries – the last 50 in 30 balls.If Sri Lanka were hoping for relief because of the back, they had another hope coming. To the first ball after tea, bowled by Herath from over the wicket with a leg-side field, and pitching well outside leg stump, Sehwag stepped out, made room and chipped over extra cover. Not one single did he turn down, not one double was compromised because of tiredness.If anybody was tired, it was the fielders. Angelo Mathews, one of the more athletic fielders, couldn’t bend down in time and gave away a boundary in the 57th over. The ball had already been beaten out of shape by then. It was the second back-to-back boundary of that over. Sehwag leg-glanced the next delivery for another four, flicked the next and scampered through for two, and lobbed the next one to midwicket boundary to move from 184 to 202 in five deliveries.With both Vijay and Dravid batting solidly around Sehwag, Sri Lanka had forgotten what an edge looked like. In the 71st over, with Sehwag on 264, they finally saw one. Mathews bowled a slower one, and if you had seen how Sehwag had batted the whole day before that, like a religious believer you would say he hung his bat out and let the ball hit the edge so that it could go fine of third man for four. In the next over, Murali drew an edge that landed safe. In the next, Tillakaratne Dilshan got one that Mahela Jayawardene couldn’t hang onto. It could be argued that no sane man would have been expecting an edge by then.Sehwag did slow down after that edge and as stumps approached but as a parting shot he crashed Dilshan through covers for his 40th four, to go with seven sixes. That’s when Dravid came in, and took the majority of the strike till close of play. A fair time, then, to acknowledge Vijay, who at some other time would have been the story of the day. But when Sehwag bats like he did, you feel sorry for the bowlers, put the other batsmen in the footnote, and move on.

India will be without the services of opening batsman Gautam Gambhir, who will be attending his sister’s wedding, for the third Test against Sri Lanka in Mumbai

Cricinfo staff27-Nov-2009India will be without the services of opening batsman Gautam Gambhir, who will be attending his sister’s wedding, for the third Test against Sri Lanka in Mumbai. Gambhir has been in prime form in this series with centuries in each of the two Tests.Gambhir’s spot is likely to be taken by M Vijay, the Tamil Nadu opener. Vijay made his debut against Australia in Nagpur last year, when Gambhir was banned for a Test for an altercation with Shane Watson. The rest of the squad, which was initially picked for the first two Tests, has been retained with no additional replacements. The final Test of the series begins at the Brabourne Stadium on December 2.India squad for third Test: MS Dhoni (capt), Rahul Dravid, Harbhajan Singh, VVS Laxman, Sachin Tendulkar, Pragyan Ojha, Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth, Virender Sehwag, Amit Mishra, Yuvraj Singh, Ishant Sharma, M Vijay, S Badrinath.

England batsman Claire Taylor will be awarded an MBE next year, after she was named in the New Year Honours List

Cricinfo staff31-Dec-2009England batsman Claire Taylor will be awarded an MBE next year, after she was named in the New Year Honours List. The honour rounds off a successful year for Taylor, who was part of the England side that won both the Women’s World Cup and the Women’s World Twenty20. She was Player of the Tournament at both events and was named Women’s Player of the Year at the ICC Awards in Johannesburg.”Getting cricket-specific awards is great because it’s recognition within cricket,” Taylor, 34, was quoted as saying by the BBC. “But this is recognition in the wider community so this is special but in a completely different way.”Taylor’s international career has spanned ten years and she is currently the fifth-highest run-getter in ODIs and is among only ten batsmen to score over 1000 runs in Tests. She is also the joint record-holder for the most centuries in ODIs, and, in April, became the first woman to be named one of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Year.Taylor will be unable to represent England in their upcoming tour of India due to work commitments but expects to return to action in May for the World Twenty20, which will be held in the Caribbean. Taylor said she hoped the profile of the women’s game in England would grow further and wanted the sport “to be an accepted sporting path for a girl, and for younger and older women as well”.She added: “The elite players need to keep pushing forward and keep pushing the boundary of the quality of the game that we play and to keep building that respect that there is for the game.”Other countries will get better and it’s not just a matter of throwing money at it, I don’t think that’s the answer at all.”It’s making sure that we play the right competitions and we have the right opportunities to play against international opposition.”Taylor read maths at Oxford, where, in addition to playing cricket, she captained the hockey team. She also represented England’s hockey team at U-17 and U-19 levels.

Pakistan players have reacted with anger and disappointment to being cold-shouldered at the IPL auction in Mumbai

Cricinfo staff19-Jan-2010The third IPL auction, held in Mumbai on Tuesday, has been overshadowed by a controversy arising from the fact that not a single Pakistani player of the 11 on the auction list – including several of the World Cup-winning team – was picked up. Pakistan’s players have reacted with anger and attributed the blackout to politics; the IPL has said it was the franchises’ decision and the franchises have explained it on grounds of cricketing strategy or availability during the tournament.Though the players – including proven Twenty20 performers Shahid Afridi, Sohail Tanvir and Umar Gul and emerging talent Mohammed Aamer and Umar Akmal – had been given the go-ahead from the Pakistan government, franchises were said to be wary over whether the strained relations with India would affect their ability to get visas.However, the inclusion of Pakistani players in the IPL’s final auction list, released on January 6, was on the basis of specific requests received from the franchises – every player on that list had to be officially sought by at least one franchise. It is not clear what changed in the franchises’ thinking within two weeks.The development has drawn sharp criticism in Pakistan. Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani, the federal sports minister, said he had complained to his Indian counterpart over the incident. “I have phoned the sports minister of India and recorded a protest over the unjust and discriminatory treatment meted out to the Pakistani cricketers,” Jakhrani told . “The Pakistani ministries of sports, interior and foreign affairs had given political and security clearance to Pakistani players in time to play. It is indeed a matter of disrespect to…the champions of Twenty20 World Cup.”However, Ijaz Butt, the PCB chairman, was relatively unfazed. “It really does not bother us; what difference does it make to us if our players don’t play in the IPL this season? They didn’t play in the last season as well,” he said.Afridi, Pakistan’s Twenty20 captain, was the first player up for sale on Tuesday but fetched no bids. He called it a snub to his country. “The way I see it, the IPL and India have made fun of us and our country,” he said. “We are the Twenty20 world champions and for me the attitude of the franchises was disappointing. I feel bad for the Indian people who, I am sure, wanted to see us play in the IPL this year.”Abdul Razzaq, the allrounder, said politics and sports should be kept separate. “They have basically tried to hurt our cricket and image and this is most disappointing because I believe there should be no politics in sports,” Razzaq was quoted as saying by PTI. “In the end it is the IPL which has lost out because the fact is our players have star value and are the best in T20 cricket.”The Pakistan government had not permitted its players to participate in last year’s tournament due to security fears after the Mumbai attacks. The wrangling continued in the run-up to this year’s auction; when the Pakistan players failed to procure the requisite NOCs, the IPL shut its doors on them for missing out on the December 7 deadline but relented when Pakistan’s interior ministry cleared the players for participation in the IPL.Tanvir, the best bowler in the inaugural IPL and an instrumental part of the Rajasthan Royals’ title win, wondered why so much effort was put into getting the clearance from his country’s board and government if none of the franchises wanted to buy Pakistan players.”They mean to say none of our players are good enough to be in the IPL,” Tanvir said. “I am sorry to say the franchises have taken a decision not based on cricketing sense but on political grounds which is a shame and has hurt the image of the sport.”Lalit Modi, the IPL commissioner, said the apprehension over the availability of Pakistan players was the main reason for them being unsold. “Franchises are no more ready to spend $7-8 million on someone who won’t be available for the tournament,” he said. “It not only exhausted their purse but also wasted slots. They want only those players who would be available for the tournament. They are spending money and they want to get the results.”Shilpa Shetty, the co-owner of Rajasthan, echoed Modi’s words. “We were not convinced about their availability and that’s why we did not want to take any risk,” she said. “If someone is not going to be available, why bid for him.” She also said that though they had watched Tanvir over the past year, they were looking for a batsman.The co-owner of Kings XI Punjab, Ness Wadia, had a different take, pinning the non-sale of Pakistan players to the lack of open slots for the franchises – 67 players were auctioned for only 13 vacancies. “I do not think that the Pakistan players were ignored purposely,” he said. “Many Australian players were too not auctioned. In fact, last year we suffered because of Australia.”Since the terrorist attacks on Mumbai in November 2008, political relations between India and Pakistan have been strained, and bilateral cricketing ties have been suspended.

South Africa captain Graeme Smith feels India’s “conservative approach” in Nagpur cost them dearly and has said that playing an extra bowler in place of the untested Wriddhiman Saha would have been a more favourable option

N Hunter09-Feb-2010South Africa captain Graeme Smith feels India’s “conservative approach” in Nagpur cost them dearly and has said that playing an extra bowler in place of the untested Wriddhiman Saha would have been a more favourable option.”I guess there are two ways to look at it: you [could] take the more confident approach and play the extra bowler,” Smith said, reasoning that both Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan had decent records as tailenders. “They went for a more conservative approach and picked Saha at No 7. Maybe they are regretting that now.”Smith was pleased with the way that the team had maintained its focus despite the rumblings before the series, when long-time coach Mickey Arthur stepped down and Cricket South Africa sacked the entire selection panel.”There were a lot of shifts and changes and everyone was just trying to find their feet,” Smith said. “It helped that there was a lot of honesty around the group and the credit must go to their maturity. Corrie [van Zyl] has created a good working environment for the players and as the weeks have gone on, we have settled down and focussed more and more on our cricket.””We have been really clinical. It is important to come here, adapt but play our style of cricket. I think we did that every well throughout the game and used our bowlers in short spells.”Not just the bowlers, he also credited Hashim Amla for his fantastic double-century which took them to a commanding position earlier in the Test match. “Amla’s double century was great to watch,” Smith said. “At No.3 he is becoming the glue. It’s terrific to have him there. Hashim is one of the hardest working guys and knows his strength is his mental strength.”He has got great hands and he scores very quickly. He sticks to his game plans and most of the times he had to battle through some periods in this innings but at other times he is a difficult guy to control. He has provided us a lot of stability. More than his 250, he has been involved in some key partnerships along the way.”Smith has maintained that winning a series in India was a box that remained to be ticked. In 2008, South Africa came close after another Dale Steyn burst had given them a 1-0 lead in Ahmedabad. However, they were welcomed with a rank turner in the final Test in Kanpur, where a combination of a dubious pitch, and dogged half-centuries from Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman secured India a series-levelling win.Smith had not forgotten the incident, and when asked if he was ready for a similar fate, he quipped, “So are you telling me there’s a guy with a rake at the Eden Gardens? India have more control over the conditions. We need to focus on the specifics…prepare and execute our gameplans.”