Jose Mourinho is not planning on wholesale changes as he tries to turn Tottenham’s season around and believes he is humble enough to have learned lessons from his failed spell in charge of Manchester United.
Mourinho replaced Mauricio Pochettino as Spurs boss on Wednesday after the Argentine’s five-and-a-year spell ended in the sack with Tottenham 14th in the Premier League.
The Portuguese has won 25 trophies in a storied managerial career at Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Real Madrid and United.
However, his time in charge at Old Trafford ended in the sack 11 months ago having failed to win the …
Arsenal boss Unai Emery said Thursday that Granit Xhaka’s “mindset is better” after he missed four matches following his public run-in with the club’s fans.
The Switzerland international was stripped of the club captaincy after swearing and throwing the captain’s armband to the ground in reaction to Gunners fans booing him as he was substituted against Crystal Palace late last month.
Xhaka, 27, blamed death threats to his family for his furious response, saying he had reached “boiling point”, but Emery said he was training well after playing in both of his country’s Euro 2020 qualifiers in the past week.
The draw for the Euro 2020 playoffs takes place in Nyon on Friday amid widespread confusion over the format and make up of the group stage for next year’s finals.
The last four berths in the tournament, which is being hosted in 12 cities, will be decided by March’s playoffs, with its 16-team make-up based on performances in the recent inaugural UEFA Nations League.
That gives teams that failed in the main qualifying campaign a second chance to bag a spot, such as Northern Ireland and their neighbours the Republic of Ireland.
The Northern Irish will visit Bosnia and Herzegovina …
French Top 14 club Montpellier have had their 400,000 euro ($442,511) fine for salary cap infringements removed by the French Rugby Federation’s appeals commission, according to documents seen by AFP on Thursday.
However the commission increased a previous 50,000 euro fine handed down by the National Rugby League (LNR) to 100,000 euros for “breaches of transparency obligations”.
Montpellier were originally fined for exceeding the cap, at 11.3 million euros, by paying players an additional 428,000 euros during the 2017-18 season when they finished second.
The salaries that had attracted suspicion included those of South African brothers Bismarck and Jannie du …
The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) on Thursday charged the Russian athletics federation (RUSAF) with “serious breaches” of anti-doping rules, including obstructing an investigation.
The charges relate to the conduct of senior RUSAF officials during an investigation into “whereabouts” violations committed by Russian high-jumper Danil Lysenko.
RUSAF president Dmitry Shlyakhtin and executive director Alexander Parkin, the athlete and his coach have been provisionally suspended.
British newspaper The Sunday Times ran a story in September alleging that RUSAF officials had fabricated documents to show that Lysenko, the 2017 world silver medallist, was too ill to provide his whereabouts after failing to make …
Great Britain rested Andy Murray and squeezed into the Davis Cup quarter-finals on Thursday after clinching an all-or-nothing doubles rubber to beat Kazakhstan.
Britain will face Germany in Madrid on Friday night in the last eight, which begins later on Thursday with Australia up against Canada. On Friday, Serbia will face Russia and Spain take on Argentina.
The British team knew defeat would ensure an early exit just as France, the tournament’s top seeds, had already crashed out a few hours before at the hands of Serbia and Novak Djokovic.
It made the gamble to leave Murray out of the …
Italian club Verona’s partial one-match stadium closure for racist chants directed at Brescia striker Mario Balotelli in a Serie A game earlier this month was suspended on appeal Thursday.
The Italian Football Federation’s (FIGC) disciplinary commission had ordered Verona to host Fiorentina on Sunday with the “Poltrone Est” section of their Bentegodi Stadium closed.
It followed racist chanting directed towards Italian international Balotelli during his team’s 2-1 defeat on November 3 in Verona.
Despite denials of abuse from Verona, a video published on Twitter by a fan showed a number of supporters abusing Balotelli before the forward kicked the ball …
Real Madrid winger Lucas Vazquez has broken his toe, the club announced on Thursday.
Vazquez sustained the injury after dropping a dumbbell on his foot in the gym, according to reports in the Spanish press.
“After tests done today on our player Lucas Vazquez, the medical services of Real Madrid have diagnosed him with a fracture in the big toe of his left foot,” read a club statement.
Madrid have not specified how long Vazquez will need to recover.
The Spaniard had just returned
Portuguese duo Joao Sacramento and Nuno Santos are to leave their jobs as coaches at Lille in order to become part of compatriot Jose Mourinho’s staff at Tottenham Hotspur, the French club said on Wednesday.
Sacramento, 30, was the assistant coach to Christophe Galtier in northern France. He initially joined Lille in January 2017 and worked under former coach Marcelo Bielsa, who was sacked later that year.
Santos has worked as goalkeeping coach at Lille since the summer of 2018.
Now 46, he was a goalkeeper on …
Borussia Dortmund will be without injured midfielder Thomas Delaney until at least January as they look to bounce back from their Bayern Munich drubbing at home to Bundesliga strugglers Paderborn on Friday.
The burly Danish midfielder is out for the rest of 2019 after tearing ankle ligaments early in Monday’s 1-1 draw against the Republic of Ireland which put Denmark through to the Euro 2020 finals.
Dortmund expect Delaney to return after the January winter break.
There is also a question mark as to whether club captain Marco Reus will recover in time from an ankle injury.
Dortmund crashed 4-0 …
Brooks Koepka announced Wednesday he is withdrawing from the Presidents Cup with a knee injury, with US captain Tiger Woods promptly selecting Rickie Fowler for the vacant spot.
“Today, I am announcing my withdrawal from the US Presidents Cup Team because of my knee injury,” Koepka said in a statement that was posted on the US PGA Tour website.
“I notified Captain Tiger Woods that despite constant medical care and rehab, I am not able to play golf at this time. I consider it to be a high honor to be part of the 2019 team and I regret not …
Joey Antipas said on Wednesday he was quitting as caretaker coach of Zimbabwe, one day after achieving the best result of his four months in charge.
Zimbabwe scored a rare victory in neighbouring Zambia on Tuesday with the 2-1 win placing them second behind defending champions Algeria in a 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying group.
In other matches under Antipas, Zimbabwe drew with Botswana in the Cup of Nations and recovered from a shock loss in Somalia to beat them on aggregate in a 2022 World Cup eliminator.
He replaced fellow former international defender Sunday Chidzambwa, who quit after
