The NFL draft is now one week away, and according to SI.com, the Minnesota Vikings have a very specific dream scenario, which includes drafting Jordyn Tyson (WR), Dillon Thieneman (S), and Jake Slaughter (C).

The proposed Minnesota outcome would give the front office help at receiver, safety, and the interior offensive line.

Most teams had a simpler scenario, but Gilbert Manzano wants those three guys in Minnesota.

A Three-Player Haul Would Cover Major Ground

The trio would certainly cross off roster needs.

Manzano’s Dream Scenario for MIN

Every team received a “dream outcome” from Manzano, with the Vikings looking like this: “Dream Scenario: Stars align with Tyson, Dillon Thieneman, Jake Slaughter. The Vikings don’t necessarily need a wide receiver, but they shouldn’t reach to fill a roster need with their No. 18 pick. Tyson is a versatile playmaker who can make plays on the inside and outside.”

“Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison need a wideout who can get open in a hurry to set up more downfield shots. There’s a chance that Thienemen slips to the second round because teams tend to avoid drafting safeties early. And Slaughter is the best true center in the draft, and he could be available in the middle rounds. That’s three starters right there for Minnesota.”

If that exact selection combination plays out, no Vikings fan would be too upset.

Jordyn Tyson (WR)

Tyson, listed at 6’2″ and 205 pounds, wins with finesse. He consistently creates separation with sharp route-running and reliably finishes catches through contact, even in tight coverage. Quarterbacks can trust his timing and placement, knowing he’ll be where he needs to be, and his hands are reliable.

However, concerns exist regarding his availability and potential. Recurring injuries are a problem, his speed isn’t a significant threat to defenses, and his decision to skip both the Combine and Arizona State’s Pro Day raised questions.

He accrued 711 yards and 8 touchdowns last year. The Ringer‘s Todd McShay on Tyson: “Tyson is a slightly taller version of Stefon Diggs. That’s what I see on tape — a smooth yet ultra-sudden route runner with an insatiable approach to hunting down the football.”

“Like Diggs, he’s not nearly as dangerous after the catch as he is a skilled downfield route runner. But also like Diggs, he’s a WR1 with inside-out versatility.”

The Vikings must decide a) do they want a wide receiver when they already have Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison headlining the enterprise b) are the injuries fears worth it?

Dillon Thieneman (S)

Thieneman is a mainstay in Round 1 of mock drafts — basically everybody’s — and that’s just been the way of it since his fantabulous Combine showing. It’s quite wild for Manzano to assume that Thieneman slips into Round 2 — and all the way to the Vikings’ pick at No. 49. That’s probably not happnening.

If Thieneman turns into a Viking next week, it will be because the club picked him with the 18th pick, not the 49th.

Still, fans would enjoy the Thieneman pick; his 4.35 forty, the 41-inch vertical are to die for. At 6’0″ and 200 pounds, he immediately impresses with his range and versatility. He capably plays single-high safety, drops into the box, and offers a defensive coordinator flexibility in both coverage and run support.

Across 39 games at Purdue and Oregon, he tabulated 306 tackles, 8 interceptions, and 10 tackles for loss. His time in the Big Ten established him, and his transfer to Oregon further elevated his profile heading into 2025.

On film, Thieneman covers ground quickly and reads developing plays with uncommon confidence for a young safety. Though occasional hesitation is present, it’s typical for a player still gaining experience. Overall, his processing speed and closing burst suggest a player with Round 1 draft stock, not Round 2.

Jake Slaughter (C)

Slaughter possesses ideal size at 6’4,” 300 pounds, and a strong resume, having started for three years at Florida. If the Vikings prioritize college production in this year’s draft — there are reports of that as their preference — Slaughter fits the bill and could be on their radar next week.

Turning 24 as a rookie, he will likely see playing time early, especially given his strength in run blocking, where he excels at moving defenders and creating lanes. However, teams will want to see improvement in his pass protection.

If Manzano has it wrong, the draft will also feature three other promising centers: Sam Hecht (Kansas State), Logan Jones (Iowa), and Connor Lew (Auburn).

Last year’s center, Ryan Kelly, retired last month, and if the season started tomorrow, veteran lineman Blake Brandel would reportedly hold down the center position.

Gary Lineker has opened up on Cristiano Ronaldo unfollowing him on Instagram, with the former England striker giving his opinion

Gary Lineker believes Cristiano Ronaldo unfollowed him on social media due to his assertion that Lionel Messi is the superior footballer. The Messi versus Ronaldo debate remains one of football’s most enduring rivalries.

The two icons have amassed 13 Ballon d’Or titles between them, with Messi claiming eight and former Manchester United star Ronaldo collecting five throughout their illustrious careers.

Lineker, who spent considerable time at Barcelona, has consistently maintained his view that Messi is above Ronaldo as the greater of the two.

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Ronaldo has repeatedly insisted that his accomplishments surpass those of Messi. It is this conviction that Lineker believes prompted the Al-Nassr star to unfollow him on social media.

Speaking on the Rest is Football Podcast, Lineker said: “He doesn’t like me very much, Cristiano Ronaldo. I didn’t upset him by anything I said about him.

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“Other than the fact I’m honest and think overall Messi’s a better football. He unfollowed me on Instagram. I’ll get over it.”

After the remark drew laughter from co-hosts Alan Shearer and Micah Richards, Lineker joked: “I will always like him. I’ve met him a lot of times. I know he’s got the hump with me. But that’s OK. And on that note… Please Cristiano… give me a call. Let’s be friends again.”

For Ronaldo, however, the question of who betters Messi is no laughing matter. During a Spanish television interview in February last year, he elaborated at length on why he considers himself the superior player.

Ronaldo told LaSexta TV: “I’m the best player in football history. I haven’t seen anyone better than me in football history, and I’m saying truth from my heart.

“I’m talking about numbers. I think I’m the most complete player to have existed. In my opinion, I think it’s me. I do everything well in football: with my head, free kicks, left foot. I’m fast. I’m strong.

“One thing is taste. If you like Messi, Pele, Maradona, I understand that and I respect that, but saying Ronaldo isn’t complete … I’m the most complete. I haven’t seen anybody better than me, and I say it from the heart.”

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Following his achievement of becoming the highest goalscorer in history after netting twice in Al-Nassr’s 4-0 win over Al Wasl in the AFC Champions League last year, he further remarked: “Who’s the best goal scorer in history? It’s about numbers. Full stop.

“Who’s the player in history who’s scored the most goals with their head, their left foot, penalties, free kicks?

“I was looking the other day, and not being left-footed, I’m in the top 10 goal scorers with their left foot in history – and with my head and with my right foot and penalties. All of them.”

Over recent weeks, the England cricket hierarchy has been at pains to show it has learned lessons from a dismal Ashes in Australia. Chief executive Richard Gould, director Rob Key and captain Ben Stokes have led a charm offensive aimed at showing they really do care about county cricket, that they will not be giving failing England players any more leeway, and that preparing for a Test series might actually be a good thing.

Stokes grabbed more attention this week with another interview on the ECB website, in which he insisted his relationship with head coach Brendon McCullum is not strained by a difference of opinion on England’s approach, and that they are “95 per cent aligned”.

All of which has left former England captain Michael Vaughan perplexed. “I have no idea why that interview was released,” Vaughan says. “I don’t think there’d have been one person waking up that morning thinking, ‘Oh, Ben and Baz have got an issue’. Two hours later, that interview gets released, and it’s clear that they’ve had a bit of a problem in the winter.”

Vaughan was not convinced by Key and Gould’s PowerPoint presentation to the media at Lord’s that attempted to lay out England’s next steps and was dismissed as “management speak” in some quarters. “The corporate messaging was just corporate messaging,” says Vaughan. “Slideshows for slideshows’ sake, just to try and prove that they’re becoming more of an attention-to-detail organisation.

“If they really wanted to put on a front, then Ben Stokes, Rob Key and Baz McCullum should have been presenting those slides in front of the media. I have no idea why Richard Gould was talking about cricket. He’s the CEO. He’s what I call the bean counter of the game, and looks after the finances.”

The question now is whether England will really change. Can the bridge between the County Championship and the England Test team be rebuilt after it was left to decay for four years?

There are certainly places up for grabs when England take on New Zealand at Lord’s in June, in the first of three Tests. Zak Crawley’s position as an opener is in serious doubt. The bowling unit is not set in stone. Vaughan, who is speaking to promote the Barclays Knight-Stokes Cup, a new national hardball competition for state schools, believes there must be changes at both ends of the line-up if England are to start afresh.

“They need tone-setters with bat and ball, so they need someone who opens the batting with Ben Duckett. You can’t expect to be the No 1 team in the world with someone who averages 31 from 64 games [Crawley]. We need to get away from just selecting players because they play in the vibe this era has created. Your opening batters have got to average over 40.

“And then I’d be looking at someone like Ollie Robinson. With the new ball in Australia, they were poor, and they need someone that’s going to set the tone. England needs to sit with Ollie and if it’s a mental thing, if it’s a fitness thing, if it’s an attitude problem that Ollie Robinson has, England have to iron it out. They’re not a good enough team to just put someone like Ollie Robinson on the scrapheap. You look at his numbers in Test match cricket, they’re up there.”

There is plenty of time for County Championship players to catch the eye, with four more rounds of games before McCullum and Stokes pick their side. But there is already a familiar name at the top of the run scoring charts: Jamie Smith had an Ashes to forget with the bat and the gloves, but he has made a brilliant start to the season at Surrey, scoring two centuries in two matches batting at three.

The concern with Smith is that his teammate Ben Foakes is Surrey’s preferred wicketkeeper. Smith is likely to retain his place in the England Test team, even after some brainless shots down under, but his glovework needs attention. Vaughan says it is time for him to knuckle down and learn the art of the keeper, even if that means taking matters into his own hands.

“He’s obviously not keeping for Surrey, which is a problem for me. Like Shoaib Bashir, he wasn’t getting in his county team, but he’s [an] England spinner, that can’t be right. But [Smith] should play because he’s too good … His batting’s going to be fine at seven – I’m sure he’ll end up maybe at six in time.

“But I just look at Matthew Prior, when he first started for England as a wicketkeeper-batter, and his keeping was a little bit flawed, and suddenly he went and worked away with [former England wicketkeeper] Bruce French, worked his nuts off every morning and drilled and caught loads of balls and became a brilliant wicketkeeper-batter. I look at Jamie Smith and think, ‘Go on, take a leaf out of Prior’s book’.”

England were criticised for their lack of specialist coaches at the Ashes, with only a temporary bowling coach and no fielding coach on the tour, during which they dropped 18 catches. There was also no keeping coach to work with Smith directly on his struggles behind the stumps.

“The coaching has to get better, it’s as simple as that,” adds Vaughan. “Baz McCullum has got to coach the team, and he needs to bring in expertise. And if Jamie Smith is working with Alec Stewart or Bruce French, whoever, Jack Russell, that wicketkeeper coach should be around the England team for the preparation days. And if I was the coach of England, which I’m not, I’d be fine with players bringing in their own coaches to make sure that they’re ready for the Thursday start.

“I’ve never, ever seen a keeper improve by not catching balls. You have to do all the drills. You have to catch loads of balls, and that’s on the Tuesday morning, the Wednesday morning, the Thursday morning, the Friday morning. Every single keeper that I see that gets to the top in their profession are catching balls all the time. I just need to see a bit more of that.”

Over a thousand teams have signed up for the chance to play at Lord’s as stars encourage greater access to cricket in state schools. Find out more here.

Arriving at his training session, Cole was all business, talking mostly in English while throwing in Italian phrases.

One local staff member was impressed by his willingness to tidy up the equipment, which he said was uncommon for a player who had enjoyed such a successful playing career.

To Cole, a former schoolboy from east London, that behaviour is normal. Even his new title – ‘Mister’, bestowed on all managers in Italy – is something he is still getting used to.

“I don’t see myself above anyone at this club,” he said. “Of course I have to be the leader of the group, but I’ll pick up a cone.”

Cole had some awareness of what he was arriving into in Emilia‑Romagna – nicknamed Italy’s ‘food valley’ and famous for parmigiano reggiano, balsamic vinegar from Modena and prosciutto di parma – with his wife Sharon Canu an important sounding board.

“I certainly didn’t go looking for an Italian wife [when he joined Roma in 2014], but I came back with one,” he joked.

“Sharon has been great for me. She’s from Rome, but she understands that people in smaller cities really love the club where they live. I have to embrace that.”

One example is Cole’s routine of buying a five euro ‘piadina’ – an Italian flatbread sandwich – from a stall outside Cesena’s stadium before his media conferences. The food stand also regularly feeds the squad after home matches.

In this working‑class town of fewer than 100,000 people, Cole’s side are underdogs in Serie B – something he identifies with.

“I liked that the owners have a similar background to me – hard work, graft, underdogs nobody believed in – but they created a really successful business,” he said.

“They also wanted someone to believe in them and give them a chance.”

Cesena, like most Italian clubs, rent their stadium and training facilities from the local authority, but Cole has innovated where he can.

He created a video analysis room and uses a high-angle tactical camera to film his sessions, which he watches back in full every day.

“I came here thinking something had to change,” Cole said. “We hadn’t won away from home for a long time, so that had to change – it wasn’t working.

“We’d gone a number of games without a win, so that had to change too. We needed higher intensity in training and matches. The style of football had to change.

“We had to be more adaptable to the different styles we come up against, and we needed more control in games through possession.”

In his first media conference, Cole also called out Italy’s failure to qualify for three consecutive World Cups as a sign they needed to be open to new styles of football, which he is implementing before a trip to face Palermo on Saturday.

Suryakumar Yadav (AP Photo)

NEW DELHI: Suryakumar Yadav found himself at the centre of heavy social media backlash after another disappointing outing in IPL 2026, with fans questioning his form and intent following his first-ball dismissal against Punjab Kings.Mumbai Indians were already in early trouble when Surya walked in, with the team reeling at 15/2. But instead of stabilising the innings, the T20I skipper edged his very first delivery off Arshdeep Singh straight to short third man, walking back for a golden duck.