Yes, I would hold this week.

The 2-0 loss at Hull was unexpected, and plenty of managers are sitting on two or three United players. That does not mean you have to move this week.

Ipswich at home is still a good fixture and a good chance for Bruno Fernandes and Bryan Mbeumo to respond.

If they blank again, the exits are clean: Bruno (£12m) into Cole Palmer (£9.5m) or Antoine Semenyo (£8.5m); Mbeumo (£8m) into Morgan Rogers (£7.5m) or Phil Foden (£7m).

However, I would give them this game against Ipswich first before making any decision.

Major League Baseball has proposed limiting free-agent signings to several weeks in December and then from early February in each offseason, along with a ban on trades during the gap in between. The plan aims to create more of an offseason transaction flurry similar to those in the NFL and NBA.

The plan offered to the players’ association Thursday is contingent on adoption of the salary cap system MLB proposed in May, which the union has vowed never to accept.

MLB also proposed lowering the maximum in-season options to the minor leagues from five to four and adopting a system of weekly rosters.

Teams would be allowed 14 pitchers, up from 13, when the 26-man roster limit is in effect from the season’s start through Aug. 31.

The union did not immediately respond publicly to the new proposal.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

Enzo Maresca watched his Manchester City side scrape past Bournemouth on the opening day of the season and he knows it could take time to see the best version of his squad.

Enzo Maresca accepts the best version of his Manchester City side is yet to come as he battles the early weeks of the Premier League season and a significant squad rebuild.

The Blues boss has seen a host of players depart this summer and while City broke their transfer record to sign Elliot Anderson for £116m and this week confirmed the arrival of Ayyoub Bouaddi, there is still work to be done in the transfer window.

Maresca wants to add to his squad before Tuesday’s deadline and the squad turnover coupled with players returning later than normal for pre-season due to the World Cup mean it’s difficult for the new boss to get his ideas across quickly and hit the ground running.

“It has been complicated because we start new concept, new things, new manager, even if there are similarities with the previous one (manager),” Maresca said ahead of the Premier League trip to Crystal Palace.

“But in the end the manager is different, the players are different, it has been a little bit complicated because players are late (back from the World Cup), that’s why we have the Marc Guehi solution or probably for tomorrow another different solution. It is my duty, my job, to try to find solutions for the players to try and win games.

“Since I joined the club, I knew that 10 years with the same manager, also the idea was to change players for different reasons. Some are not playing many minutes and decide to leave, players in many circumstances and reasons why, they decide to leave, so I knew that there was a big change to the squad but it is not something I am worried about.”

Asked if we might not see the best of Maresca’s City until later in the season, the Blues boss added: “The only thing I can say is the same thing I say after the Arsenal game and the same thing is now after the Bournemouth game. There are things that we did well in the previous game, there are things we did quite well against Bournemouth, but there are many things that for sure we are going to do better.”

Much of the focus in the Browns‘ training camp and preseason was on the Deshaun Watson vs. Shedeur Sanders quarterback battle, which Watson officially won on Monday.

On Thursday, though, another quarterback with a noteworthy background finally took the stage. Sixth-round rookie Taylen Green made his preseason debut in the second half of the Browns’ preseason finale against the Patriots, taking over after second-year quarterback Dillon Gabriel gave way.

(Gabriel, for what it’s worth, lit it up in the first half, going 12-for-15 for 186 yards and three touchdowns. That’s a good sign for both Cleveland, which selected him in the third round last year, and for Gabriel, who hadn’t exactly impressed this preseason.)

Pinned deep in his own territory on his first drive, Green nearly scrambled for a first down on third-and-9 but came up a yard short.

Then came the fun. Again in the shadow of his own end zone and behind the sticks, Green nearly pulled a Dan Orlovsky and ran out the back of his end zone, but instead turned a broken play into this …

He was accurate on a pair of short passes before showing off his legs again, first scrambling for 9 yards on third and 5 and later 5 more yards on third and 4. He also converted a quarterback sneak before Davon Booth capped the drive with a 12-yard rushing touchdown.

On his third drive, he added 12 more rushing yards on two carries, but the drive petered out when Green misfired badly on third and 9. The Browns’ defense got a late interception to set up Green for a chance at his first NFL touchdown, but Cleveland’s offense had to settle for a field goal to put a bow on a 37-13 win.

Overall, Green finished 5-for-7 for 27 yards throwing and had a game-high 66 rushing yards on just eight carries.

Why Taylen Green has our attention

Green is an absurd athlete, and not just in an “athletic for a quarterback” way. At the NFL combine back in February, the Arkansas product posted …

• a 43.5-inch vertical jump,
• an 11-foot, 2-inch broad jump and …
• a 4.36-second 40-yard dash.

The vertical jump and the broad jump were both best ever for a quarterback at the combine, and his 40-yard dash was the second-fastest for the position, only behind Michael Vick. All of that athleticism is packed into a 6-foot-6, 230-pound frame that is on par (or better than) the prototype quarterback numbers.

For some non-quarterback context, how about … DK Metcalf?

Green threw for 2,714 yards, 19 touchdowns and 11 interceptions (on an SEC-best 13.7 yards per completion) last year while also picking up 777 yards rushing and eight scores on the ground. But his falling to the sixth round wasn’t exactly an accident. For all the fun highlights and outrageous testing numbers, he completed only 60% of his career passes. He is the definition of a raw prospect, and there’s a long way to go in terms of accuracy and processing in an NFL offense.

In essence, he is the perfect preseason player at this stage of his career: a ton of fun and physical promise on display in a game full of backups.

What’s next for Taylen Green, Dillon Gabriel and Browns?

There have been outstanding athletes at the quarterback position who haven’t panned out. Anthony Richardson Sr. is the most recent notable example; he’s currently battling to be the Colts‘ backup after being the No. 4 overall pick in 2023.

Green doesn’t come with those gigantic expectations, though. As a sixth-round pick, he’s likely looking at a spot as a third or fourth-stringer or on the practice squad. Still, with roster cutdown day on Sunday, the Browns have an interesting decision to make. Will they keep three quarterbacks — generally the most any team keeps — or a basically unheard-of four?

The Browns, it should be noted, have had basically unheard-of quarterback misfortune. They started three different quarterbacks last year, four the year before, and five the year before that. Watson has started just 19 of 68 possible games since arriving in Cleveland and has had season-ending injuries in 2023 and 2024. With that perspective, keeping four doesn’t sound so unreasonable.

Coach Todd Monken said Green “played pretty well in the limited reps he had against the Bills” in joint practice last week, per The Athletic’s Zac Jackson, but also acknowledged there have been so few reps to go around to either Green or Gabriel, given the quarterback competition.

Cutting Gabriel would be a hard pill to swallow. He wasn’t a pick of the current coaching staff like Green was, but the same front office, headed by GM Andrew Berry, is still in place. And while Gabriel hasn’t had the smoothest training camp and preseason, he certainly played well Thursday. Green, on the other hand, is such a rare athlete that the Browns might not be able to sneak him onto the practice squad should the Browns cut him; other teams might be circling.

Cleveland made a big decision about their starting quarterback to start the week. They’ll make a big decision about their backup quarterback(s) to end it.

Sulaiman Khan and Kasim Khan, the sons of former Pakistan captain and Prime Minister Imran Khan, have expressed serious concern over their father’s health and the conditions in which he is being held in prison.Speaking to former England captain and Sky Sports commentator Michael Atherton, the brothers alleged that Imran has been kept in prolonged isolation and has not received adequate medical care. They said they fear for his safety as he approaches three years in prison.Kasim claimed that Imran has suffered a major loss of vision in one eye, estimating that he has lost around 80 per cent of his sight in it. He also said Imran was recently seen wearing an eye patch.According to the brothers, Imran spends more than 23 hours a day alone inside a small cell, with restricted access to books and basic comforts. They also alleged that the cell does not have air conditioning despite the summer heat.“They are not even acting with any kind of strategy any more. It is not very clear what they are doing, just blatantly trying to kill him in there. Keep him in as long as possible, and silence him. The last time he was able to speak to our aunties and anyone else, he said the conditions have severely worsened recently. He has been relating it to other political prisoners who have been killed or who have died in prison. Right now, it is worse than ever, completely isolating him more than 23 hours a day in a cell,” Kasim said.

Sons fear for Imran’s health

Kasim said the priority for the family was now ensuring that Imran receives appropriate medical treatment. He described seeing his father with an eye patch and said the former Pakistan captain appeared visibly stressed.“Right now, it’s really crucial for us that he gets proper treatment. He had an eye patch on for the eye situation, seemed visibly stressed, and that is something that is very hard for us to imagine because he embodies a very calm, assured presence, every time I have ever seen him, including being at gunpoint. A car we were in was robbed, and he was the calmest person there, including the robbers,” he added.The brothers also discussed their attempts to travel to Pakistan and visit their father. They claimed their visas had been blocked on technical grounds and said they were willing to accept the possibility of arrest if it gave them an opportunity to see Imran.Sulaiman recalled the family’s reaction after Imran was taken for a medical examination following a court order.“We were cautiously optimistic. Our fears were confirmed when, instead of being taken to the private hospital, where he was meant to be taken, he was just taken to a government medical facility for a few hours, and then taken straight back to jail,” said Sulaiman.He claimed the examination at the government facility lasted only about an hour and that doctors waiting at Shifa Hospital were not given the opportunity to treat Imran.“In reality, it was an hour check-up by government officials who said, ‘Great, he’s OK’, and then said we will now send him to the independent hospital, Shifa. Instead, they left all the doctors waiting, our auntie waiting, who is a doctor, and sent him straight back to jail,” he added.

Interview sparks PCB controversy

The interview, which was aired during the lunch break of the second Test between England and Pakistan at Lord’s on Thursday, also created an unexpected controversy involving the PCB.The board lodged a formal complaint with Sky Sports over the broadcast. Reports further suggested that the PCB considered asking Pakistan’s players not to return to the field after lunch if the interview was shown.The players eventually returned to the field and the Test continued as scheduled.The interview came shortly after renewed international concern over Imran’s medical treatment. He had been taken to a government hospital for a medical examination following a court order relating to his treatment.

Former captains back call for medical care

The concerns surrounding Imran have also drawn an appeal from a group of former international captains, including Indian cricket greats Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev.The former captains wrote to Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, urging his government to ensure that Imran receives proper medical treatment and humane conditions while in prison.The appeal was framed as a humanitarian intervention rather than a political statement.Imran remains one of the most prominent figures in Pakistan cricket history. He led the country to its first men’s ODI World Cup title in 1992 before entering politics and eventually becoming Pakistan’s prime minister.

They were separated by 264 days. December brought the outburst that ought to have accelerated Liverpool’s search for a winger. Almost nine months later came the news they had reached an agreement in principle to buy Bradley Barcola from Paris Saint-Germain.

Perhaps replacing Mohamed Salah was always going to be hard. Liverpool’s summer in the transfer market has certainly made it look so; the advance warning they had from the moment at Leeds when the Egyptian said he had been “thrown under the bus” and accused the club of breaking their promises to him should have given them a headstart. The subsequent rapprochement only had a temporary feel; it gave Liverpool months to find a successor.

And perhaps they still have not, and not merely because Barcola has yet to complete a medical. He is more of a left winger. But at an initial cost of just over £100m, potentially rising to £120m, he will be the flagship recruit on the flanks. Liverpool have already recruited a winger this summer, the rather cheaper Victor Munoz, whose debut as a substitute at Newcastle came in Salah’s old spot on the right. They also appointed a manager whose gameplan requires wingers, in Andoni Iraola.

The Basque has had to be patient. He hopes Barcola will prove worth the wait. “I definitely would have preferred to have the wingers ready on the first day,” Iraola said. “The same for every position. But I understand that it’s not easy in the market and the wingers that we are trying to sign, they are of a high level. They are wanted by a lot of clubs, and I think it’s very difficult also for the club to close those situations. But as long as we arrive at the right place at the end and we sign the right players, I think it would be worth it even if they haven’t been with us in pre-season.”

Liverpool could not close the situation, to use Iraola’s phrase, with Yan Diomande, who seemed to be their first choice. They submitted an offer worth up to £86m. The Ivorian instead left RB Leipzig for Real Madrid for £115m.

That was an indication of the inflation in prices on the wings; Salah came for just £36.5m, a sum that soon seemed a bargain. Yet the £100m winger is a far more recent development and Chelsea’s decision to pay £117m for Morgan Rogers may not have helped Liverpool’s cause. PSG had quoted them £145m for Barcola, leading to an impasse before they made a breakthrough in negotiations.

Liverpool have been saving their budget for wingers. The challenge was to find the right one. They have also submitted two bids for Brighton’s Yankuba Minteh and shown an interest in Crystal Palace’s Ismaila Sarr, both of whom, unlike Barcola, tend to play on the right.

Common denominators between the various targets would seem to include pace and an ability to run at defenders. Iraola outlined his requirements. He explained: “We need wingers who can make the difference, who can be the man who can make the difference in isolation, who can attack the spaces, who can also do the defensive work that we are going to demand from them in terms of pressing or sometimes following the full-backs. And also if they can provide numbers then it’s perfect.”

Maybe no one could match Salah’s numbers, given that he scored 257 goals for Liverpool, but they need someone to chalk up some sizeable figures. Barcola got 11 in Ligue 1 last season, at an average of one every 159 minutes. In all competitions in Paris Saint-Germain’s marathon season of 2024-25, he recorded 21 goals and a further 21 assists. He finished the recent World Cup with three goals.

The model may be a winger Liverpool liked, but did not bid for in January when he moved to Manchester City. Then Antoine Semenyo’s £62.5m cost seemed a lot, but he had scored two goals against them at Anfield last August. He got 11 goals and five assists in the Premier League in 2024-25, 10 goals and a further three assists in the first half of last season. They were for a Bournemouth team managed by Iraola.

That Semenyo has largely operated on the right for City may make Iraola wish Liverpool had been the January buyers. Barcola has, however, been on his new club’s radar for years; he impressed against Liverpool in Dubai in a friendly with Lyon during the 2022 World Cup.

He was displaced from the PSG front three by Desire Doue, but Liverpool can look back a decade, to the arrivals of Sadio Mane and Salah, to find wingers who reached a different level at Anfield. They left a legacy, but also the question of who can live up to the standards they set. Or, indeed, do everything Iraola wants. “It is difficult to find someone who can tick all the boxes, but it is what we are trying to do,” he said. And he must hope Barcola can be Liverpool’s new box ticker.

Rohit Sharma in action.© NDTV Library

Ryan Garcia and Conor Benn will lock horns in two weeks in a battle for Garcia’s WBC welterweight world title, and two-division world champion Jermall Charlo has shared his verdict on the contest.

Garcia won his first world title when he claimed a dominant decision win over Mario Barrios back in February and the Californian is set for an intriguing first defence against mandatory challenger Benn, who returns to fight at 147lbs for the first time since April 2022.

Even if able to pull off the upset, Benn has already revealed that he will be vacating the title and returning to a more natural weight division afterwards, with his two middleweight outings against Chris Eubank Jr seeming to have impacted his ability to comfortably make the welterweight limit.

In a clip captured by Fight Hub TV, Jermall Charlo was asked for his thoughts on the fight and confirmed that he will be in attendance, after insinuating that he believes ‘King Ry’ will retain his belt.

“I am a Ryan fan, I am not with Conor Benn but that is going to be a good fight, it’s going to be a crazy fight. I will be there for that too.”  

Garcia-Benn takes place on Saturday, September 12, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, where Jai Opetaia will face reigning WBC cruiserweight world champion, Noel Mikaelian, in the co-main event.

As for Charlo, ‘Hit Man’ was expected to return to action in Australia last month until visa issues intervened. Instead, the American is targeting a shot at Jaime Munguia’s WBA super-middleweight title for next year, but mentioned October 17 as his potential next fight date.