Aston Villa are interested in signing Aymeric Laporte from Manchester City in the summer transfer window, according to . The report has claimed that Villa manager Unai Emery wants to strengthen his backline, and that Spain international central defender Laporte is on his radar.
Laporte has been on the books of City since 2018 when he joined from Athletic Bilbao. The Spain international central defender has done well for the Premier League champions over the years, but he has not been a regular in manager Pep Guardiola’s side in recent times and has lost his place in the team.
The 29-year-old central defender has made 11 starts and one substitute appearance in the Premier League for City this season. Laporte has also made three starts and one substitute appearance in t…
Best Odds: 19/20
Bookmaker:
Two sides who find themselves battling it out at opposite ends of the Irish Premier Division table, Derry will welcome Cork to the Brandywell Stadium on Friday night.
Derry City
Starting with the hosts, while Derry might have come flying out of the traps when opening the 2023 campaign, the Candystripes mark their return from the international break seeking a boost. Last seen on June 9th when having to settle for a 0-0 stalemate at home against Bohemians, Ruaidhri Higgins’ side are now without a win from any of their last four Premier Division appearances. With their recent rut highlighted by a shock 4-1 drumming away at St. Patrick’s earlier in the month, fans around the Brandywell Stadium will have a growing headache over their …
Market: West Ham win
Odds: 4/5 @
Facing what is a season-defining showdown on Saturday afternoon, West Ham will welcome Luton to the London Stadium.
Starting with the hosts, with it officially confirmed earlier in the week that David Moyes will be leaving the London Stadium at the end of the season, West Ham are desperate to find a much-welcomed boost on Saturday afternoon. Although the Hammers might have signed off 2023 in the midst of a real purple patch, the one-time Manchester United boss has seen his squad come crashing back down to earth in a worrying fashion. Last seen putting in a nightmare performance away at historic rivals Chelsea as they slumped to a 5-0 drumming, West Ham have remarkably recorded just four wins across all competitions since opening …
Inter moved within a point of Serie A leaders Milan with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Hellas Verona.
Aiming to win back-to-back league games for the first time this year following their Derby d Italia defeat of Juventus, Inter were relentless in pressuring Verona in the first half.
Their superiority yielded the desired rewards as goals from Nicolo Barella and Edin Dzeko put them 2-0 up inside 30 minutes.
Simone Inzaghi s defending champions were never at risk of surrendering that advantage and could go top next week if Milan failed to respond in kind to his impressive performance.
Lorenzo Montipo was busy from the off, the Verona goalkeeper producing a strong save to deny Ivan Perisic, and his goal was soon breached by an excellent opener …
Pep Guardiola compared Ferran Torres to Jamie Vardy after his two-goal display in Manchester City s 5-0 dismantling of Arsenal on Saturday.
Just this week City saw long-term target Harry Kane confirm he will not be leaving Tottenham this year despite apparently trying to force a move away and then they missed out on the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo to Manchester United.
The central striker position is an area of the team City have been particularly keen to strengthen given no one scored more than 17 goals for them across all competitions in 2020-21, and Sergio Aguero – who missed much of the season through injury – left for Barcelona.
But Guardiola reiterated that he is perfectly happy with the options he currently has in attack after blowing 10-man Arsenal a…
Jamie Carragher has backed Erik ten Hag to improve Manchester United despite suffering defeat in his first Premier League game at the helm, claiming the Red Devils cannot perform any worse than last season.
Ten Hag cut a frustrated figure as his new side slumped to a 2-1 defeat to Brighton and Hove Albion on Sunday, with Pascal Gross first-half brace handing the Seagulls their first win at Old Trafford.
That made Ten Hag the first United boss to lose his maiden Premier League game in charge since Louis van Gaal in 2014 (against Swansea City), and came off the back of a frustrating off-season for the side.
United have thus far failed to attract top transfer target Frenkie de Jong from Barcelona, while they deployed Christian Eriksen as a false nine against Brig…
Raphael Varane s move to Manchester United has finally gone through.
United confirmed at the end of July that they had reached an agreement with Real Madrid to purchase the France centre-back for a fee believed to be in the region of £42.7million (€50m).
Varane had one year left on his contract with Madrid, who have been looking to trim their squad due to the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Having moved to the Santiago Bernabeu in 2011, Varane has won three LaLiga titles and the Champions League on four occasions.
He racked up over 350 appearances for Los Blancos and arrives at Old Trafford as one of the world s finest defenders. Indeed, Varane has played 79 times for France, winning the World Cup in 2018 before featuring in all four o…
Riyad Mahrez and co. failed to spark as reigning Africa Cup of Nations champions Algeria were held to a 0-0 draw by Sierra Leone in their opening Group E fixture.
Heading into the delayed 2021 edition of the tournament aiming to become the first team to win consecutive AFCON titles since Egypt won three in a row between 2006 and 2010, Algeria dominated on Tuesday but could not find a way through Sierra Leone s stubborn rearguard.
Appearing at only their third AFCON finals and their first since 1996, Sierra Leone went close themselves midway through the first half through Alhaji Kamara and Umaru Bangura, though they only managed one attempt on target throughout.
The second half was all Algeria, yet Mohamed Kamara pulled off some excellent saves to deny Yac…
Competition: Euro 2016 qualifier
Market: Spain to score 3+ goals against Luxembourg
Odds:
Spain will still be reeling from their surprising defeat against Slovakia recently, but are hoping to make amends when they face Luxembourg this afternoon. La Roja thrashed Macedonia 5-1 in their opening Euro 2016 qualifier, but went down to a defeat in the following clash, and are now need to catch up to the pacesetters.
Luxembourg aren’t expected to be a match for the European champions this afternoon, and as a result Betfair are giving odds of 3/10 for Spain to score 3+ goals today, with manager Vicente De Bosque desperate to prove he can lead Spain to glory again.
With four defeats suffered in their last nine games, the Euro 2016 hopefuls aren’t in the b…
Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal believes his team will challenge for the Premier League title next season
Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal has revealed that he believes that his team will challenge for the Premier League title next season.
The veteran Dutchman has also revealed that he has a three-year remit to claim the English top-flight title.
Title
Asked about the Premier League title Van Gaal told : “The board have given three years for that objective. This year we have not challenged but we are very close to the second position,”
“We started badly this year but if you cut the start of it we should equalise Chelsea. So we have to start next season better.
“Next year definitely we will challenge. We will have anothe…