Where would the Braves be without Ozzie Albies and Ronald Acuña Jr.? Where would the Padres be without Fernando Tatís Jr.? What about the Astros with Carlos Correa, José Altuve, Yuli Gurriel, and Yordan Álvarez? Obviously, the Braves and Astros are competing in the World Series this year, and while the Padres did not even reach a .500 record in 2021, Tatís’ bat was one of the lone bright spots in San Diego. All three of these teams were in rebuilding phases before grabbing these cornerstone players, but are set to compete for years down the line (the Padres may not have done well this season, but they’re in a win-now situation). The Braves had suffered four straight losing seasons before adding Acuña to the Major League club and before Albies became an everyday player. The Pa…
Leicester are in advanced talks to sign Odsonne Édouard from Celtic and are pushing to close a deal amid rival interest in the striker.
The Leicester manager, Brendan Rodgers, signed Édouard at Celtic, initially on loan from Toulouse in 2017 before the club made him their record purchase a year later. Rodgers wants to add the 23-year-old to forward options that include Jamie Vardy, Kelechi Iheanacho and Ayoze Pérez.
Men’s transfer window summer 2021 – all deals from Europe’s top five leaguesRead more
The Leicester board are confident of securing the transfer and have done a deal to bring in the midfielder Boubakary Soumaré from the French champions, Lille, for €23m (£19.8m).
The…
Chelsea are hopeful of beating Arsenal to the signing of Mykhailo Mudryk after positive talks with Shakhtar Donetsk over a deal for the Ukraine winger.
Arsenal remain favourites to sign Mudryk, whose preference is to join Mikel Arteta’s side, but their first two offers have been rejected. The delay has presented Chelsea with an opening and, having met Shakhtar officials in London this week, they are ready to push on with a move for the 22-year-old.
Chelsea, who have been accused by Benfica of acting disrespectfully during their pursuit of the Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernández, have been left with the impression that £60m plus £20m in add-ons would land Mudryk. Arsenal’s latest offer was £44.2m plus add-ons…
The pattern is familiar. The promising young manager gets his chance with a Championship club. He leads them to promotion. He talks a good game of pressing and position, shape and transition, passing and control. And then the financial reality of the Premier League strikes. The manager is reluctant to adapt his philosophy, perhaps doesn’t know how to; that is his style, the way he will make it to the top.
They perhaps achieve a couple of notable results. Maybe, people think, this young manager is the real deal. But they play against an elite side and lose. The cumulative effect of playing against high-class opponents every week takes its toll. The players who swaggered through the Championship become error-prone and, in the Premier League,…
Entering the playoffs, Milwauke was seen as head and shoulders above the rest of the Eastern Conference despite dealing with injuries to key players all season. Someone forgot to pass that memo to the Miami Heat, who have come out the gates smoking hot and now have a 3-1 lead over the Bucks. A team that prides itself on its defense allowed Jimmy Butler to drop 56 points on them and do it in a late-game comeback. Game 4 of this first-round series wasn’t a matchup where Giannis Antetokounmpo was ineffective due to his back injury — he posted a triple-double with 26 points, 13 assists, and 10 rebounds. Jimmy Buckets just wasn’t going to lose on Monday night. While Giannis’ back shouldn’t be used as an excuse for losing, it’s absolutely a concern with his team facing a 3-1 def…
Once again, here is another photo of indeterminate origin of ESPN/LA Times Pimpmaster General J.A. Adande in bedtime attire within five feet of scantily clad women. Adande famously popped up in that odd, LA late night shenanigans post when Wilbon's jaw hit the floor at the site of The Future Mrs. Hank Baskett. And we're not begrudging the man a good time; a girl's gotta eat. But I'd say 65% of the guess-who-I-saw-at-a-club last night in the past year have all centered around Adande. God bless you, sir. Go Lakers? ****** Thank you for your continued support of what the kids today are calling The Deadspin. She's the cheese and I'm the macaroni. …
According to sources at HBO, at a production meeting last week, staffers were informed that former Sec. Of State Condoleezza Rice's agent had inquired about her joining Bryant Gumbel's "Real Sports" reporting team. One of the executive producers (either Rick Bernstein or Ross Greenburg — GreenbernsteinBurg?/ Voltron'd) told producer Kirby Bradley about Rice's inquiry and he told some of the other staffers during a meeting last week so, naturally, many of them went home to quickly tell their friends about it. So here we are. Rice is a huge sports fan, is comfortable in front of the camera, and has probably faced stiffer questions than the ones lobbed by Gumbel when he scribbles imaginary notes during the post-report wrap-up. But! The general notion is tha…
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are targeting Kentucky's Liam Coen as their new offensive coordinator, NFL Network reported Friday. Coen, 38, has alternated between the Wildcats (2021, 2023) and the Los Angeles Rams (2018-20, 2022) over the past six seasons. He was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach during both stints at Kentucky. With the Rams, he was coach Sean McVay's assistant wide receivers coach (2018-19), assistant QBs coach (2020) and offensive coordinator (2022). Coen would replace Dave Canales, who departed Tampa to become head coach of the Carolina Panthers. Coen's starting quarterback during part of the 2022 NFL season in Los Angeles was Baker Mayfield, a pending free agent who is coming off a resurgent season with the Buccaneers in 2023. His 2022…
Have you seen Ricky Rubio lately? This isn’t the jovial, dime-dropping Spaniard from way back when. This is a man who’s seen things, who’s learned things the hard way, who’s decided to take matters into his own hands. This is the gritty reboot of Ricky Rubio. Grim Rick on Wednesday dropped the emphatically un-Rubio line of 30 points and one assist—the second-highest scoring sum of his career—and poured in 10 points in the fourth quarter, then 11 more in OT, including the dagger three that put the Blazers to rest. After trying to raise a pack of young Wolves, Rubio has found himself a Jazz team that’s a slaughterhouse on D (third in defensive rating, with Rudy Gobert as its imposing centerpiece) but lacking in pure scoring options beyond Rodney Hood (though perhaps not f…
data-mm-id=”_y916sfv6q”>The NFL is in the midst of releasing their final players for their 100 All-Time Team. On Friday night, they revealed the 10 quarterbacks who would be a part of the team. There were the usual suspects; Joe Montana, Tom Brady, and Peyton Manning jump to mind as obvious choices. As has been the case with these lists, there was much controversy over the selections. But this position grouping, in particular, left out one big name, and thus the question is posed: Was Drew Brees snubbed in the making of this list?Other than the three mentioned above, the quarterbacks chosen were: Otto Graham, Johnny Unitas, Sammy Baugh, John Elway, Roger Staubach, Brett Favre, and Dan Marino. Graham, Unitas, and Baugh all played before 1970, and the argument to include (or not to inclu…