On Friday, the Nationals hired Justin Horowitz as an assistant general manager. Horowitz most recently served as director of amateur scouting for the Pirates beginning in 2023. But Horowitz becomes the second high-profile AGM who previously worked under Paul Toboni in Boston. This hire follows Devin Pearson's, who also served on Toboni's staff in his Red Sox days. Both new AGMs are viewed as sharp, modern voices in scouting and player development.
Before Wimbledon in 2019, I remember skimming over the list of men's favorites at a number of sites. Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal ... Felix Auger-Aliassime? He was 18 years old at the time and ranked 21st in the world, but no worse than the sixth-favorite anywhere I looked. Auger-Aliassime had famously owned Stefanos Tsitsipas, who beat each member of the Big Three before age 21 and enjoyed plenty of hype at the time, in juniors.
Arteta on Max Dowman Arteta said during the pre-match presser ahead of the Brighton clash: We look at his passport every day. We watch in training, and you have to play him; otherwise, I'm blind. He's coped really well. It's what we want (Dowman's long-term future at the club) and what he wants. The feeling I have is that he loves it here. Huge Arsenal supporter and his family are happy.
Scottie Barnes' development has not been linear. After winning Rookie of the Year, he didn't improve much in year two. Then, in year three, he made a leap, earning his first All-Star nod. Then, last year was another step back. His efficiency was down, the team was not good, and there wasn't much consistency. He didn't look like someone coming off the best season of their career.
I see the Rossoneri looking very good, solid and compact again. Of course, the absences of Rabiot and Pulisic are weighing heavily. I hope they can give Leao even more responsibility: he's a champion, he can decide the match on his own.
Delap always knew he would be making a big decision to join Chelsea because they are ruthless in terms of squad competition and will not carry passengers for long before looking to replace them. Part of joining Chelsea was to push the limits of what he is capable, even at a young age. The problem with criticising him for his red card is that these competitive traits he has are part of the reason Chelsea signed him.
For me, it's always important that I'm very transparent with the players. I have a very good relationship with Carlos, Hurzeler told Sky Sports. We speak regularly, we are in touch. I always share my thoughts about his development and my thoughts about his performance. It's important to be very clear about what you expect from players on the pitch, off the pitch. And it's important to build relationships where you can criticise or give personal feedback they might not be happy about, but they understand the intention behind it.
When any basketball coach is raving about an opposing player, that sets off an alarm bell for sportswriters to pay attention and investigate. It turns out all the good things coaches are beginning to say about 6-foot-4 junior guard Donovan Webb of Golden Valley High are true. Canyon Country Canyon coach Ali Monfared said Webb might be the best player in the Foothill League, which held its media day at Canyon on Saturday.
Cole Palmer's emergence as one of Europe's best young players is the result of desire, drive and confidence, according to former Manchester City and England goalkeeper David James. Palmer's first taste of senior football came as an 18-year-old when he played in a fourth-round League Cup clash in September 2020, as he looked to make the transition from promising youngster at the Etihad to a regular first-teamer in one of the planet's most star-packed sides.
A thrilling start to the NBA season came to a screeching halt on Thursday, when Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and former player and coach Damon Jones were arrested as part of FBI investigations into illegal sports betting and rigged poker games. Questions remain on the status of those investigations. And while those indictments overshadowed the opening days of the NBA's 80th season, its first handful of games showed us plenty about what could be next on the court.
Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has admitted to recently confronting striker Marc Guiu during training to tell him to improve. The Italian tactician, speaking at his press conference today, as quoted by journalist Fabrizio Romano, says he didn't like the way Guiu was training. It seems Maresca made it very clear to Guiu that he wasn't happy with any aspect of his performances in training sessions, but since then the Spaniard has taken that on board and improved.
"We have a lot of quality between the lines, Mamadou also brings solutions at the back in terms of creativity and infiltration. I try to use tactical discipline to provoke this creativity and not the other way around. I think Maghnes had a lot of fun, while still performing well defensively. He was smiling at the end, even though he was inevitably disappointed," he told reporters.
This is a brutal October for the Angels, and not just because they are defendants before a jury that must determine whether the team is guilty of negligence or ignorance that contributed to the death of one of its players. On the field, baseball's longest postseason drought extended to 11 years. They just hired their fourth manager in five years and gave him a one-year contract, which makes him a lame duck before he ever manages a game.
On what was only his fifth Chelsea start after a summer move from Palmeiras worth an initial £29 million, Estêvão was impressive throughout and almost capped an all-round action display late on with a fabulous overhead kick which drifted just wide.
"He's unlocked his next level by himself," Kompany said (as captured by @iMiaSanMia). "He's always done that, even when I was playing against him and the years in between. That's the mentality that he's created every year. Maybe it helped that he didn't win a title for a long time, meaning he kept up that hunger. He's felt what his role in our team can be, also among his teammates."
I remember assistant coach Pat Delany mentioning during his session the importance of making defense messy. He stressed that players should keep their arms moving, working on hand activity, staying focused and getting their chin on the ball. While this might sound like a chaotic, spazzy style of defense, Delany offered a key analogy: players need to have a " cobra mentality" instead of a " woodpecker mentality," waiting patiently for the right moment to strike.
Denver Nuggets guard Christian Braun has agreed to a five-year, $125 million rookie contract extension with the franchise, agent Bill Duffy of WME Basketball told ESPN on Monday. Braun, the No. 21 pick in the 2022 NBA draft, has been a developmental find and success for the Nuggets brass. The Nuggets' top executives, Ben Tenzer and Jon Wallace, made it a priority to negotiate a new long-term deal to lock in Braun as part of the franchise's core moving forward.
It was impossible to miss Caluori's aerial ability and eye for the try line at the weekend with the former Lions captain Sam Warburton describing the 6ft 5in tall youngster as almost undefendable and an absolute diamond. England have been aware of his potential for a while and it seems that some game time against Fiji a fortnight on Saturday is not impossible.
For Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra, it appears JJJ is going to be utilized as a Swiss Army knife, filling any gaps at positions 1-4 that the team may need at the start of the regular season. And now that the Heat have cut Precious Achiuwa, there is at least some sense that the team is fairly confident in JJJ heading into the start of the season.
Dave Roberts deserves his flowers. Prior to the Los Angeles Dodgers breaking through last year, he often was criticized by the media and the fan base for his managerial choices. The disgruntlement and criticism has fortunately died down over the last calendar year given the fact he's established himself as one of the most decorated, well-liked, and well-respected skippers in the history of the sport.
That was a good pick just from the standpoint that he has a very defined path in the NBA, and it's going to be his combination of his shooting and size," the scout told Robbins.
I look at it like this: When I'm a parent, I got three kids. They all go at a different rate in terms of - I have an expectation of what I think they should do and how I think they should mature. They don't do it at my rate, though. They do it at their own. Players have that same type of mode of operation. It's consistency, it's the standard of work that we approach it with.
A committee working on behalf of U.S. Soccer has recommended that men's college soccer switch to a season that stretches across the full academic year beginning fall 2026. The recommendation comes after U.S. Soccer tasked the 17-person "NexGen College Soccer Committee" with finding solutions to evolve college soccer to, among other things, better prepare players to turn professional and compete at the international level.
Last season, Tsyplakov looked like he was on an upward trajectory, clocking in 35 points and 10 goals across 77 contests along with a plus-4 rating. He was a physical force, with 140 hits, and Tsyplakov also logged middle-six minutes, with an average time on ice of 14:58. Not bad for a first-year player.
