DREAM TEAM managers have some extra time to decide upon their transfers for Gameweek 11 as the deadline isn’t until 1:30pm on Saturday.

The upcoming Gameweek simply consists of a full round of Premier League fixtures to take place over Saturday and Sunday before the international break takes centre stage.

As usual, we’ve assembled some transfer recommendations for your perusal…

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Tottenham players

Spurs v Ipswich leaps out of the schedule as a mismatch to target.

Ange Postecoglou’s side are the Premier League’s top scorers this season while only Wolves have conceded more goals than the Tractor Boys.

Dominic Solanke (£4m) is the most popular recruit ahead of Gameweek 11 following his 21-point mega haul against Aston Villa last Sunday.

But truth be told, gaffers are spoiled for choice.

Son Heung-min (£5.3m) boasts the highest points-per-game average among his team-mates but Brennan Johnson (£3.8m) is the club’s top goalscorer in 2024/25.

James Maddison (£4.6m) has flourished (he’s a bonus point magnet) but his minutes are becoming harder to predict.

Last but not least, assist specialist Dejan Kulusevski (£3.1m) offers excellent value for money and has been at the heart of Spurs’ best attacking moves in recent weeks.

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Bruno Fernandes (£5.9m)

Manchester United’s captain is the most in-form player in Dream Team at the time of writing having taken 37 points from his last three outings.

That may change later when the Red Devils take on PAOK but the point is that Fernandes is a very strong option right now.

Ruud van Nistelrooy’s final game as interim head coach comes in the form of a home game against Leicester, which is handy for the Dutchman as he oversaw a 5-2 win against the Foxes in the Carabao Cup in Gameweek 9.

Fernandes banked 18 points that night and while Steve Cooper is likely to name a stronger side this time around, the Portuguese playmaker will fancy his chances of another successful outing.

See also: Alejando Garnacho (£4.2m)

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Kostas Tsimikas (£2.9m)

Liverpool are flying right now.

You don’t need us to explain the benefits of selecting the likes of Mohamed Salah (£7.3m) and Trent Alexander-Arnold (£6m) but the Reds’ Greek left-back is worth flagging.

Tsimikas currently features in just 0.9% of teams but he’s seemingly leapfrogged Andy Robertson (£4.1m) in the pecking order.

He started against both Brighton and Bayer Leverkusen in Gameweek 10 and returned 19 for his efforts.

Recruiting Tsimikas ahead of Gameweek 11 comes with risk as Aston Villa are relatively difficult opponents on paper and it wouldn’t be a total surprise if Robertson was given the nod by Arne Slot.

However, the prospect of an in-form defender starting for the league leaders at just £2.9m is hugely appealing.

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Rayan Ait-Nouri (£3.6m) and/or Matheus Cunha (£4.4m)

A couple of one-week punts to finish.

Wolves are yet to win a league game this season but their most talented players have the ability to bank plenty of points against Southampton at Molineux on Saturday.

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Ait-Nouri leads the way for goal involvements (three goals, two assists) among Dream Team defenders this season.

The Algeria international is a left-back in the loosest possible sense; he takes up some extremely advanced positions.

Cunha is a class act and a man in form having taken 24 points from his last three games.

The Brazilian forward ranks highly in his position for bonus points and big chances created.

Gaffers who like to seek out differential options for short-terms gains should look to Wolves this weekend.

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It’s been a week since welterweight champion Belal Muhammad revealed news of a foot infection forced him out of UFC 310, and there’s been a lot of talk about what will happen with his opponent, Shavkhat Rakhmonov, but still nothing has been set.

One possibility being talked about is for Rakhmonov to meet former 170-pound champ Kamaru Usman for an interim belt at the Dec. 7 pay-per-view event from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. While Rakhmonov has lobbied for that matchup to take place, things are still up in the air.

On Thursday’s episode of his “Pound 4 Pound” podcast with Henry Cejudo, Usman expressed a willingness to step in on short notice but wasn’t clear about being contacted by UFC matchmakers as he commented on the situation for the first time.

“The UFC is gonna call who they think is gonna be legit tough enough and man enough to step in there, is crazy enough to step in there on short notice, and go out there and possibly shock the world,” Usman said. “Definitely the UFC knows who to call when that situation happens. And if they do give me a call, I’m gonna answer the call, get a couple things straight, and if we’ve got to do it, we’ve got to do it. I don’t shy away from any of that.”

Usman has been called upon for two major short-notice fights in recent years. While he was champion, he accepted a fight with Jorge Masvidal on six days’ notice in July 2020 at UFC 251. Usman last year stepped in on less than two weeks’ notice to fight Khamzat Chimaev in a middleweight bout at UFC 294. Usman beat Masvidal by unanimous decision but lost a majority decision to Chimaev.

Usman, 37, is on a three-fight losing, having not competed since the loss to Chimaev in October 2023. Prior to that, Usman dropped back-to-back title fights against Leon Edwards – first losing his title by fifth-round knockout at UFC 278 then coming up short in the rematch (trilogy) by majority decision at UFC 286.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 310.

Bob Pockrass

FOX NASCAR Insider

Research many of the stats on William Byron’s season, and they will tell the reader absolutely nothing about the likelihood of Byron winning the NASCAR Cup Series title on Sunday at Phoenix Raceway.

His three wins this season match those of each of his three competitors for the title — Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney and Tyler Reddick. But Byron rides a 27-race winless streak into Phoenix, while the other three drivers have combined to win the last three races.

Byron’s average running position in the nine playoff races is 7.48 and his average finish is 9.33. None of the other three has an average running position better than 11th and an average finish of better than 15th. And, yet, Byron still enters with arguably the least momentum thanks to that winless streak.

So which Byron gets in the car on Sunday? The one who runs and finishes well on average or the one who hasn’t won a race since April?

“I feel like the driver that is capable of winning this championship,” Byron said. “And the reason I say that is because, yes, we haven’t won yet [in the playoffs], but it’s coming, and we’ve been working towards it nonstop.

“We’ve been incredibly consistent, incredibly fast, and it’s just a matter of time for our team.”

The Hendrick Motorsports driver opened the year with a victory in the Daytona 500 and then added wins at Circuit of the Americas and Martinsville. Winning at three different style of tracks — a superspeedway, a road course and a short track — buoyed talk of him potentially dominating the season.

It never happened.

“I should have enjoyed it a little more,” Byron said with a laugh about the quick start. “But it’s just the nature of the sport. It’s challenging, man. We got a little bit off through the summer, just in terms of what we were looking for in the car and some of our communication.

“We formed that bond again through these last seven, eight weeks, and I feel like our team is just on the cusp of winning another race.”

The team never expected the dominance to last, and it had nothing to do with the competition’s improved performance.

“To be honest with you, early in the year, we were outkicking our coverage in some of those races,” Byron crew chief Rudy Fugle said. “We were finishing better than our cars were performing, and we were confident and got the wins.

“And since then, I think we’ve had four second-place finishes — those are one thing here or there that gets you another win. …. We think we found our stride at the right time.”

Byron agreed with the Fugle assessment, that he had a little bit of angst in winning so many races so early.

Kevin Harvick reacts to William Byron’s Daytona 500 win

“We were not where we wanted to be, and we had conversations about that, and it was tough because we were still winning races even though we weren’t where we wanted to be,” Byron said.

“We’ve worked really hard. It’s been, in some ways, a trying year, but the team that we have has really stayed together and the bond has grown really strong. And now we’re ready to go out there and win.”

Fugle indicated that he felt they had 10th-place cars at best during the summer, but the playoffs have shown that they have top-five speed at the right time.

Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon, a four-time Cup champion, indicated that in the playoffs, a driver sometimes can’t take risks if the driver doesn’t have a dominant car, because the driver needs to maximize points.

“This weekend. It’s just all or nothing,” Gordon said. “It’s throw it all out there, make the aggressive calls, aggressive setups, and be aggressive on the racetrack as well if you’re going to win the championship.

“And they’re ready to do that.”

Kevin Harvick pitches a NEW playoff format the NASCAR Cup Series

Byron and Fugle also have experience of competing for the Cup title, having come up short last year in their first attempt as they won the pole for the championship race but faded over the second half of the event, finishing fourth in the race and third among the title contenders.

“[Byron] has learned a lot,” Gordon said. “And he’s matured a lot, and the team has as well to be able to handle the pressure that comes along with this week — and walk through the paces, and know what to expect, and be able to still stay focused on what they need to do to go out and execute.”

Byron knows exactly what he learned last year after that first trip as a championship contender.

“I hate to lose, and I hate that feeling after the fact of that we didn’t have enough,” Byron said. “This year is going to feel different in that way. I know it will. I just learned a lot of lessons about what we need to do on the car side and throughout the race to be good by the end.

“I just want to get back to that opportunity. That’s what we’ve been chasing all year.”

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.

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Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis’ appeal against a five-game stadium ban was dismissed to “send a clear message” after he “undermined respect for the game of football,” says the Football Association (FA).

The 57-year-old was found guilty of improper conduct for spitting on the floor as the match officials walked past following Forest’s 1-0 Premier League defeat by Fulham at the City Ground on 28 September.

Marinakis denied the charge and appealed against the Regulatory Commission’s outcome, before it was later dismissed by an Appeal Board.

In a statement adding clarity to the appeal rejection, the FA said: “Showing such contempt for match officials in a place where that can be seen by other individuals, significantly undermines respect for the game of football.

“Such behaviour is only more serious when it comes from an individual who himself has a position of both power and responsibility within the game.

“It is therefore vital that a clear message is sent that this behaviour will not be tolerated in any part of football.”

Gainsborough Trinity’s tie at Harrogate Town and Kettering Town’s home match with Doncaster Rovers in the FA Cup second round will be broadcast live on BBC Two.

Seventh-tier Trinity are the lowest-ranked side left in the competition after they beat fellow Northern Premier League team Hednesford Town on penalties in the first round.

Kettering – leaders of the Southern League Premier Division Central – produced the biggest shock of the previous round by defeating League One Northampton Town.

Harrogate host Gainsborough on Friday, 29 November at 19:45 GMT, before Kettering and Doncaster meet on Sunday, 1 December at 12:00.

Colby Covington sees plenty of big fights ahead when he returns to action.

December will mark a year since Covington’s most recent fight, a loss to then-welterweight champion Leon Edwards in the main event of UFC 296. Since then, Covington has been relatively quiet, though he has spent much of 2024 campaigning for President Donald Trump. With Trump once again having been elected to office, Covington is free to focus on his own career.

And he already has a few names in mind, including top welterweight contender Jack Della Maddalena.

“We’ve been talking about this fight with Jack Della Maddalena,” Covington told Submission Radio (transcription via Denis Shkuratov). “I think it makes a lot of sense. He got a big win in my hometown in Miami last time he was out here so he has a little bit of a name out here. He’s undefeated. He’s hungry. He’s fearless. He’s an exciting fighter.

“I think that’s a fight that the fans would be intrigued with. I think it’s a high-level fight. It’s a top contender fight that establishes who’s the next contender for the belt.”

Della Maddalena is one of the hottest names at 170 pounds, with seven straight wins to kick off his UFC career. Overall, he has won 17 straight fights after beginning his pro career 0-2. This past March, the Australian slugger defeated one-time UFC title challenger defeated one-time UFC title challenger Gilbert Burns by third-round knockout and he currently stands at No. 4 in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings.

While Covington is eager to climb back up the charts, he’s also entertaining grudge matches. One fighter who Covington has gone back and forth with in the media is lightweight contender Paddy Pimblett. If Pimblett wants to jump up in weight, Covington is eager to slap him back down.

“He’d never fight again,” Covington said. “It’d be the last fight that he’d ever have in the Octagon. I would beat him silly from pillar to post. I’d beat him so bad it’d be one of the worst beatings in UFC history. I don’t think the athletic commission would be able to sanction a fight for him ever again after the damage I would do to Paddy f*cking Pimblett. The guy’s an absolute joke and it’s just hilarious because last time I saw him on Fight Week, he’s walking down, literally walked by me, like, three times. Every time he puts his head straight down, doesn’t make any eye contact, but now he wants to talk a big game. So Paddy, if you’re really about that life, come see me. Come see the ‘King of Miami.’

“Call [UFC executive] Hunter [Campbell]. You know what? You probably don’t even have the boss’s number. You probably have to go through, like, the matchmakers or something. Don’t worry, I’ll put in a call to the boss. We can get this fight going if you’re really about that. And you know what? More importantly, you don’t got to cut weight. I know you’re a big guy. You’re bigger than me anyways. So come up to welterweight, eat as much food as you want, and bring your A-game and pack a lunch because it’s going to be the last time you ever fight again.”

Long term, Covington still believes he can fight for UFC gold. Though Covington’s performance against Edwards was forgettable, he was previously part of two entertaining title fights with Kamaru Usman, and the urge to prove himself against the best remains.

He’s eager to fight undefeated welterweight Shavkat Rakhmonov, who is looking for a dance partner now after UFC champion Belal Muhammad was forced to withdraw from their UFC 310 main event meeting due to a toe infection. If Rakhmonov finds a new opponent for the Dec. 7 card, regardless of the result, Covington wants a piece of him.

“I think I can walk him down and pressure him and he’s not going to like my pressure,” Covington said of the Rakhmonov matchup. “He doesn’t do very well with southpaws. We saw how he did with the busboy, Geoff Neal, that was a very competitive fight. He hasn’t really fought a top, top contender yet. He’s fought some gatekeepers in the division, some some guys right on the cusp of the top 10, but he’s never fought a champion like me and a guy who’s just going to come at him for for five straight rounds and just walk him down.

“So I think I match up well with him. He stands very tall. I don’t know, I don’t see anything special with him. You know, he has some good submissions, he’s slick, but that’s when he can control the wrestling. He’s not going to control the wrestling on me. I think I can beat him pretty easily and I think it’s a favorable fight. It’s a fight that I want in the future whether he wins or loses in December.”

Watch Covington’s interview with Submission Radio below.