Archive August 1, 2025

The words of the great philosopher Homer J. Simpson immediately come to mind when I consider who will win the Championship this year.

“I never make predictions,” and I never will.

When it comes to contemplating the strange and splendid chaos that is Scotland’s second tier, this self-defeating maxim seems like a particularly appropriate code to follow.

And it all begins on Friday night when Arbroath hosts Ayr United in front of Sportscene cameras.

Enjoy the madness and hope the Gayfield wind machine is activated for even more flavor, instead of predictions and sane football chat.

Dick Campbell’s days are long gone, but the embers of that fiery, titanic title feud against Kilmarnock from season 2021 to season 2022 still sparkle admirably on the Angus coast.

Colin Hamilton and David Gold, two of his dependable lieutenants from those days, are now effectively combining for player-management. Before the game against Ayr, the club will display the League One flag in honor of a winning side.

A clearly sceptical Scott Brown left the play-offs at the end of last season, casting doubt on his own future.

However, Brown led his team to four wins out of four in the Premier Sports Cup group stage, including a 4-0 victory over Arbroath at Somerset Park, with the dark clouds scurrying off into the distance.

Add in the addition of new signings like Dom Thomas, Kevin Holt, and Shaun Want, who all recently returned from overseas and were Larne team players who competed in Europe.

Off the field, the club is also making good progress. Could their year come to an end?

St Johnstone will host them for their final game of the season. After a 16-year absence from the top flight, the Perth side are among the favorites to win the division.

They have remained loyal to Simo Valakari, who is firmly committed to his attack-minded approach. It was a success for Falkirk last season and has clearly been for the Saints in the League Cup so far, with four victories coming together and Elgin City being wiped out 8-0.

There appears to be promise here when you add in a fascinating mashup of decent performers from the previous season, including Sam Stanton, Reece McAlear, and Adama Sidebeh, who have since proven themselves in the Championship, and a proven pairing of Adama Sidebeh. Stevie Mallan’s signing also appeals to observers.

Some bookmakers predict that Ross County, the other relegated Premiership side, will win.

Owner Roy McGregor has taken John Robertson off of Sportsound on the weekends to give his experience to manager Don Cowie, and it seems rigueur to appoint BBC Scotland pundits.

With Gary Mackay-Steven, Ross Docherty, Nicky Clark, and Declan Gallagher, the Staggies have also added experience and quality. They should immediately stamp some identity into the side because they are all familiar with this area from the beginning.

Some claim to be the Pars’ Championship dark horses, three victories in the League Cup, and a defeat at Hearts, where they won praise and showed positive signs.

They travel to Greenock Morton, another club that has hired a veteran manager, to kick off their season. Billy Davies, a former Motherwell, Derby, and Nottingham Forest boss, has joined Dougie Imrie as their technical head coach.

Three wins in the League Cup’s group and a win over Aberdeen in the second round are positive.

The summer’s best piece of business for Raith Rovers was keeping star winger Dylan Easton. Before he can become one of the stars in this division, he has already demonstrated that if he can keep back spasm problems at bay.

In a League Cup campaign that Kirkcaldy won, he already has five goals in four games.

And who should Airdrieonians be, exactly? The Diamonds had a chance to win the play-offs due to Hamilton Academical’s points deduction, which saw them fall into League One.

Given that Rhys McCabe’s side won numerous awards in their first second-tier campaign, there is still room for improvement this time. Nothing will have improved since the League Cup victory over Premiership Dundee, which ended in 1-0.

And lastly Queen’s Park… This season seems to be all about transition, with Willie Haughey, a wealthy philanthropist, ending his financial support of the club next summer. It’s difficult to see them attempting to emulate the 2023 promotion push given the current circumstances.

Of course, football is only a small portion of the Championship’s story, with the allure of those rickety stands that evokes memories of a bygone era, and the passion and color that pour from those stands in frequently wondrous and wacky ways onto our television screens on Friday nights.

UK Championships in Athletics

Dates: 2 – 3 August at Alexander Stadium in Birmingham

Max Burgin will ensure that he visits Tokyo this year, whatever happens next.

The record-breaking 23-year-old has already booked a trip to Japan, a nation he has always wanted to visit, for the end of the season.

However, he should be able to do so with a World Championship medal in his possession.

Given his issues over recent years, Burgin is not taking anything for granted before this weekend’s crucial UK Championships in Athletics in Birmingham.

He only wants to acknowledge that this is “definitely the best first half of a season I’ve had in a long time,” making a careful effort to avoid jinxing his momentum in a BBC Sport interview.

Indeed, the indicators are very promising.

After lowering his personal best of one minute 42.36 seconds when following the reigning Olympic and world champions over the line at the London Diamond League, only four men around the world have run faster than Burgin this year.

David Rudisha set the British record for the third-fastest man in history with that time, which is 1.5 seconds shy of David Rudisha’s 2012 world record.

The Halifax athlete’s recent success as a junior saw him finally realize his true potential, having broken world, European, and British records as a result.

I’ve overcome a lot of the challenges of the past five or six years because I’ve had many obstacles and not necessarily made the same progress as those who had hoped for me in those circumstances, says Burgin.

As Burgin broke through while competing in the 800m with Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson, comparisons were made to British middle-distance greats Sebastian Coe and Steve Cram.

Their careers have a distinctly different trajectory, with Burgin worried that his early promise would “want” due to injuries and bad luck.

He continues, “Our development had many similarities,” adding that. “Evidemment, her career has absolutely blossomed, and perhaps mine has slowed a little bit.”

“But knowing that I have that same kind of ceiling and what she’s accomplished definitely gives me confidence. Knowing that I’ll be able to ascend there in a future.

Due to groin and hamstring injuries, Burgin missed the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and missed 12 months. The fastest man in 2022 was denied the chance to compete for a world medal after suffering a calf issue that was later identified as deep vein thrombosis.

His coach, his father Ian, and Burgin have both grown accustomed to setting short-term goals.

However, he claims to be “definitely gunning for a medal” should he reach the final in Tokyo given his big ambitions for this World Championship year amid a period of relative consistency.

Even with expectations that the current generation will soon surpass Kenyan Rudisha’s 1:40.91, which was once viewed as untouchable, is a feat of no small feat.

Ben Pattison, 23, the second-fastest Briton in history, and world bronze medalist Ben Pattison, who is also 23 and the second-fastest Briton ever, must first place in the top two in the Sunday final of the British trials to have that chance.

The pair are also quickly edging closer to Lord Coe’s 44-year national record of 1: 41.73.

And now that Burgin is focused on achieving the global medals his talent has long promised, he has already cut off more than a second from his personal best this year.

He acknowledges that it feels doable at the moment because 0.6 seconds is a lot at these faster times.

There are still some quick races left this year, so I’ll definitely want to try them.

Yu Zidi, a student from China, won the medal at the World Aquatics Championships, becoming the youngest swimmer ever to do so.

The 12-year-old, who was unable to compete in the final on Thursday, swam earlier this week in the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay heats, earning a medal.

China came in third place in the Singaporean final, trailing only Australia and the United States.

Less than a month after her 12th birthday, Inge Sorensen of Denmark won a bronze medal in the 200-meter breaststroke at the 1936 Olympics. She is the youngest medalist at a major international competition.

It’s a nice feeling, Yu said, “but it’s quite emotional.”

The 13-year-old girl narrowly missed out on a medal in fourth place in the women’s 200-meter butterfly final on Thursday, even though she came close to achieving individual glory.

Yu finished fourth in the individual medley final on Monday, falling behind by 0.06 seconds.

Regards were divided over Yu’s participation in the World Championships.

Yu was allowed entry because her times met the “A” standard, but competitors in the championships must be at least 14 years old.

However, not everyone is convinced Yu should be allowed to compete on a global scale as of yet, despite the fact that her ability is unquestionable.

Four-time world champion swimmer Karen Pickering and Olympic bronze medalist Steve Parry, both of whom had opposing viewpoints, spoke on BBC Radio 5 Live about the subject.

“To see a youngster enter the events she is participating in is on the one hand astonishing, but it does raise the question of how long she has been training hard”? Pickering remarked.

What kind of instruction is she receiving? What physically harm does that cause to her?

I’m concerned about how physically a child who is receiving that much training at that age will feel. We’ve seen it with gymnasts who are pushed too early and how their bodies long-term are affected.

Parry, however, praised Yu’s efforts, saying they were “positive” and had echoes of Sharron Davies, who, aged 13, represented Great Britain at the 1976 Olympics.

I was spanked by a 15-year-old Michael Phelps in Sydney, who later became the greatest swimmer we’ve ever seen, said Parry, and she is a 12-year-old girl who is appropriate for our questioning.

We must take good care of their mental health and make sure they aren’t being pushed too much, Sharron Davies, Yu, or Katie Ledecky, but we can’t have them.

Arsenal initially felt desperate for a goalscoring striker last season, and they will now feel that Viktor Gyokeres has done just that.

In the Premier League title race, Arne Slot’s side scored 17 more goals than Liverpool did in 2024-25, which is arguably the biggest difference.

Gyokeres has obviously been asked to address that issue, though it may be a little more challenging.

The statistics for penalties are misleading because Liverpool (13.3%) last season had a higher shot conversion rate than Arsenal (12.6%), but that’s because of one key factor.

Arsenal won and scored a paltry two penalties, while Liverpool won and recorded a league-high nine.

Every spot-kick won in the Premier League significantly altered the team’s shot conversion rate as a function of their finishing ability, with penalties being scored at 83% and non-penalty shots only being scored at 11% in 2024-2025.

Although it was a lot, only 14 other teams have received more penalties in a season over the past ten, including Manchester United, who received 14 penalties in 38 games in 2019-20.

However, it is unusual for a team that had only two penalties to finish as high in the table as Arsenal. A side that received a point total in the 1970s has won an average of five penalties, while champions have won an average of eight in the previous ten campaigns.

The title race was also affected by those seven extra penalties last year, which included Liverpool’s nine spot-kicks, which added an additional 11 points over the course of the campaign.

Liverpool made exactly 2.5 more non-penalty shots every game than the Gunners did over the course of 38 games.

What that means is that Arsenal’s chances have been converted at a rate of 11% while Liverpool’s have historically been scored in the Premier League 12% of the time last season.

Eagle-eyed observers will have noticed that Arsenal “didn’t score” 24 goals despite conceding 17 goals less than Liverpool did so in reality.

When you factor in shot quality, Arsenal overperformed their non-penalty xG by seven goals to Liverpool’s measly 0:1.

In fact, only Nottingham Forest and Wolves were more ruthless in front of goal than the Gunners, despite the myth that Arsenal finished last season.

Gyokeres should help Arsenal improve their chances, which is obviously the better case for them. However, he should also contribute to solving the Gunners’ main issue of having enough chances in the first place.

He averaged 4.5 shots per 90 minutes last season for Arsenal, which is significantly higher than Gabriel Jesus’ (3.10) and Kai Havertz’ (2.6) averages in the Premier League.

Although it’s obvious that a striker’s success is partly attributable to the service he receives from his team-mates, it’s also a result of the choices he gives his team-mates with his movement and anticipation in and around the box.

Arsenal initially felt desperate for a goalscoring striker last season, and they will now feel that Viktor Gyokeres has done just that.

In the Premier League title race, Arne Slot’s side scored 17 more goals than Liverpool did in 2024-25, which is arguably the biggest difference.

Gyokeres has obviously been asked to address that issue, though it may be a little more challenging.

The statistics for penalties are misleading because Liverpool (13.3%) last season had a higher shot conversion rate than Arsenal (12.6%), but that’s because of one key factor.

Arsenal won and scored a paltry two penalties, while Liverpool won and recorded a league-high nine.

Every spot-kick won in the Premier League significantly altered the team’s shot conversion rate as a function of their finishing ability, with penalties being scored at 83% and non-penalty shots only being scored at 11% in 2024-2025.

Although it was a lot, only 14 other teams have received more penalties in a season over the past ten, including Manchester United, who received 14 penalties in 38 games in 2019-20.

However, it is unusual for a team that had only two penalties to finish as high in the table as Arsenal. A side that received a point total in the 1970s has won an average of five penalties, while champions have won an average of eight in the previous ten campaigns.

The title race was also affected by those seven extra penalties last year, which included Liverpool’s nine spot-kicks, which added an additional 11 points over the course of the campaign.

Liverpool made exactly 2.5 more non-penalty shots every game than the Gunners did over the course of 38 games.

What that means is that Arsenal’s chances have been converted at a rate of 11% while Liverpool’s have historically been scored in the Premier League 12% of the time last season.

Eagle-eyed observers will have noticed that Arsenal “didn’t score” 24 goals despite conceding 17 goals less than Liverpool did so in reality.

When you factor in shot quality, Arsenal overperformed their non-penalty xG by seven goals to Liverpool’s measly 0:1.

In fact, only Nottingham Forest and Wolves were more ruthless in front of goal than the Gunners, despite the myth that Arsenal finished last season.

Gyokeres should help Arsenal improve their chances, which is obviously the better case for them. However, he should also contribute to solving the Gunners’ main issue of having enough chances in the first place.

He averaged 4.5 shots per 90 minutes last season for Arsenal, which is significantly higher than Gabriel Jesus’ (3.10) and Kai Havertz’ (2.6) averages in the Premier League.

Although it’s obvious that a striker’s success is partly attributable to the service he receives from his team-mates, it’s also a result of the choices he gives his team-mates with his movement and anticipation in and around the box.