Category Sports News

Thomas Frank, the manager of Tottenham, claims that Djed Spence and Micky van de Ven apologized to him after the pair snubbed him after Chelsea beat them.

After allowing his players to run around the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in a 1-0 loss on Saturday, Frank offered an encouraging gesture of appreciation.

However, as fans booed the players off the field, cameras caught Van de Ven and Spence disregarding their manager and instead plunged straight into the darkness.

In a Monday press conference, Frank stated, “Micky and Djed came into my office yesterday and just said they wanted to apologize for the situation.”

“They didn’t want it to look bad,” they said, noting any false information that exists in today’s media.

Therefore, neither I nor the team were disrespected at all. They simply resent our performance and the booing that occurred during the game.

Some fans and pundits have criticized Van de Ven and Spence’s behavior, while others have suggested that it was exaggerated.

Frank, 52, added that he is pleased that his players have reached out to him to stop the conflict from getting worse.

Of course, I would have had to inquire about the circumstances in which they are employed. What are their feelings, and why do they do it? Because everyone has a perception, he said.

“Whether it was because their mother wasn’t well, they disliked the head coach, or they were irritated by the result, or whatever.

When Frank was asked about the incident following the game, he responded that he understood the “frustration” of his players and that it was a “small issue.”

However, the issue has also led to a change in fan sentiment and a run of doubts.

Spurs are understood to be satisfied that Frank was not hurt, but rather a result of frustration with the way things had changed and the amount of negativity that had been generated by fans at their home stadium over the past few weeks.

Since winning 3-0 over Burnley on the opening day of the season, Frank’s side have not won at home in the Premier League.

Between former manager Ange Postecoglou and current owner Frank, they have only three victories in their last 19 games at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (four draws and 12 losses).

Only Southampton and Spurs have won fewer home games than Spurs during this time in England’s top four divisions.

Spurs currently sit fifth in the Premier League and, despite having five victories to date, are generally having a good season.

Fans are concerned about a similar turn from last season, which they also did well last year, winning five of their ten matches, the same as this campaign, before coming up 17th under Postecoglou.

Since beginning the season with victories against Burnley and Manchester City, Spurs have only won one of their last five games in all competitions since the October international break. They have not won back-to-back league games.

Fans have booed their frustration, and Frank claimed that the criticism of subpar performances during the match is unhelpful.

“The first 30 minutes were fantastic, in my opinion. He said, “It’s more than fair enough to boo us if we perform poorly and then lose a game after the game,” he said.

“But we need a little assistance when things aren’t going our way,” he continued. They might turn things around.

” We were down 1-0. The final 15 minutes allow them to cross the line. What a feeling if we could have gotten it back to 1-1! At the conclusion of a long season, that could be the difference.

Guglielmo Vicario, the manager, concurred, saying, “We cannot control it, but it could be better if we had more assistance from the stands.”

Everyone was obviously extremely disappointed because we had lost a London derby at the end.

Before Shaun Murphy, the reigning Masters champion, teen-year-old Chinese amateur Wang Xinzhong won the decisive match of their second-round contest at the International Championship, almost causing a major upset.

The 2005 world champion, Murphy, put up a third-round matchup with fellow Englishman Elliot Slessor in the frame-breaking 72 and 89 victory in the final two frames.

Murphy, the ninth-ranked player, led by a 3-0 lead before Wang equalized with breaks of 81, 100, and 58.

The teenager had a chance to win the game in the tenth frame but was unable to capitalize on a black spot early on as he knocked in another century on his way to establishing a lead for the first time.

Murphy capitalized on Murphy’s two frame-winning contributions to win.

In Nanjing, China, Wang defeated world number 53 Robbie Williams and women’s world champion Bai Yulu on Sunday to advance to round two.

Ronnie O’Sullivan also lost the first two frames to 63-year-old Sanderson Lam in the second round before coming back with six straight sets to secure a respectable 6-2 victory.

Jack Lisowski, who broke four hundred records in a 6-4 victory over Louis Heathcote, will be his opponent in the last 32. He is the seven-time world champion.

Ding Junhui, from China, won the second consecutive title with a 6-1 victory over Michael Holt, following Sunday’s 6-0 first-round victory over David Grace.

In the 13 matches he has entered thus far, Ding has broken six hundred records.

In the second of this month’s crucial World Cup qualifiers, manager Steve Clarke wants to stage a “cup final” against Denmark. The manager has played down Scotland’s goalkeeping problem.

Due to injury, Falkirk’s Scott Bain, 33, who won his final three San Marino caps in 2019, will start the games against Greece and Denmark. Angus Gunn, who has started all four qualifiers, is out.

Bain, Liam Kelly, who has made one League Cup appearance for Rangers this term, and Craig Gordon, who turns 43 next month and hasn’t played any of his previous games, will make up Clarke’s starting lineup.

Scotland are currently second in Group C with three victories and a draw, and they have already clinched at least one spot in the March World Cup play-offs.

Given that the group leaders have a better goal difference and will face bottom side Belarus on November 15, they will likely need at least a point in Greece to prepare for a winner-takes-all showdown at Hampden against Denmark three days later.

“We’re in a good position,” he declared. What we need to do is ensure that the Greece game turns out to be the cup final, Clarke said.

“When someone misses out with an injury, it’s always a blow,” said Angus, who has played four games so far.

In September, Angus hadn’t played either of us, so we were in the same position. It’s a different position when you have goalkeepers.

They frequently have their clubs in the top two or third place. Goalkeepers can stay out of the team for a while if they’re given the opportunity to when they’re asked to join, so long as they’ve got boys who train well.

Former Heart of Midlothian striker Lawrence Shankland has also been called back, and Clarke states, “Lorraint is your man if you need goals.”

Josh Doig (Sassuolo), Grant Hanley (Hibernian), Jack Hendry (Al-Etiffaq), Aaron Hickey (Brentford), Ross McCrorie (Bristol City), Scott McKenna (Dinamo Zagreb), Andy Robertson (Liverpool), John Souttar (Rangers), and Kieran Tierney (Celtic) are the defenders.

Ryan Christie (Bournemouth), Lewis Ferguson (Bologna), Ben Gannon-Doak (Bournemouth), Billy Gilmour (Aston Villa), Kenny McLean (Norwich City), Scott McTominay (Napoli), Lennon Miller (Udinese),

With Che Adams of Torino, Birmingham City’s Lyndon Dykes, and George Hirst of Ipswich Town as the other strikers in the squad, Kieron Bowie of Hibernian misses out to make room for Shankland’s return.

Claudio Braga and Shankland have a good working relationship going forward for Hearts, with their goal in Saturday’s 4-0 win over Dundee setting him at the top of the domestic scoring charts.

Aaron Hickey is only just recovering from the injury he sustained during the previous international window, so Bristol City’s McCrorie, who made his only appearance against Gibraltar last year, makes a second-round return.

Max Johnston of Derby County, who has a hamstring injury, will miss up to eight weeks while Nathan Patterson of Everton will need a hernia operation.

One of the six Serie A players named in the 25-man pool for Sassuolo’s Doig, who was a member of the group in September, will compete for the left-back spot with captains Kieran Tierney and Andy Robertson.

Clarke’s eight midfielders are the same as the players who contributed to the team’s tireless victories over Belarus and Greece in October.

Shankland has a stunning season off, scoring 10 goals overall, thanks to Clarke.

“Lawrence has been good,” he said. This year, Clarke said, “His team is flying at the top of the league,” and he hit the ground running once more.

“Lawrence is getting his goals,” he says. Lawrence is your man if you need a goalkeeper for your team.

“We’re going to need experienced players, and Lawrence has that experience to help us,” Lawrence says.

“Most of my players and I have a good relationship. We always have open communication with one another. He thrives on and lives on goals.

Sunday of week nine had just about everything, and with so much to get through it has been tough to pick out the big talking points.

Obviously, we have to look at how the Bills beat the Chiefs for the fifth consecutive time in the regular season, but did their performance suggest they can finally beat them in the play-offs?

After largely being overlooked it is time to study the Seattle Seahawks, especially their surgical quarterback, while there is only one option for our game of the week when there is an 89-point thriller going down in Cincinnati.

The Patrick Mahomes v Josh Allen head-to-head now stands at 5-5, but the Kansas City star has won all four play-off meetings and has three Super Bowl rings.

So make no mistake, this version of the Bills has been built to beat the Chiefs and they produced an almost flawless display.

Buffalo dominated both lines of scrimmage and the time of possession, holding the ball for almost 10 minutes more than the Chiefs. The best way to beat Mahomes of course is to keep him off the field.

When he was on it, the Bills defence both swarmed him and covered his receivers – resulting in being hit a career-high 15 times and recording a career-low 44.1% completion.

Mahomes had never completed less than 50% of his passes in his nine-year career.

Those two ‘tush push’ touchdowns were a big difference, as the Chiefs largely stopped them in last season’s AFC Championship but could not on Sunday – while Mahomes ran three plays from the Bills’ one-yard line and failed to find the endzone.

Buffalo also cracked the Chiefs defence with Dalton Kincaid having the first 100-yard receiving game against them in 12 matches.

And with 114 yards James Cook was the first 100-yard rusher the Chiefs had allowed since Lamar Jackson on the opening day of the 2024 season – and first running back since Zamir White on 25 December 2023.

“Sam’s execution right now – he’s just ridiculous,” said Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald after another dazzling Sam Darnold display.

Yes, Josh Allen, Jackson and Mahomes have all shown glimpses, but the ‘other guys’ of the quarterback fraternity are showing up this season.

Second-year triggermen Drake Maye and Bo Nix are both 7-2 after leading the New England Patriots and Denver Broncos to wins on Sunday, while in Los Angeles Matthew Stafford is lighting it up for the Rams and Justin Herbert likewise for the Chargers.

But it was Darnold’s time to shine in Washington on Sunday with a surgical first half in which he completed all 16 passes and threw four touchdowns as the Seahawks dismantled the Commanders.

ESPN’s Total Quarterback Rating (QBR) system is an in-depth metric that takes into account opposing defensive strength and game state as well as yardage and scoring stats – and is a 0-100 system where 75 and above is regarded as excellent.

Darnold’s 97.8 mark on Sunday was the best of his career and his third over 97 this season – Jackson is the only other player to get over that mark so far.

In short, the 2018 third overall draft pick has been excellent this season, proving that his renaissance in Minnesota last year was no one-hit wonder.

Seattle are 6-2 but locked in a titanic NFC West struggle with the Rams and San Francisco 49ers also having six wins, but their impressive away form of 4-0 this season and 11-1 since the start of 2024 means they will not fear hitting the road in the play-offs.

Plus, general manager John Schneider has said “we’re in and we’ll see what’s shaking out there” regards the upcoming trade deadline, so obviously feel they are in the ‘Super Bowl window’ now with Darnold at the helm.

It started with a Bengals touchdown from the opening kick-off and ended with a Bears touchdown 17 seconds from the end – with everything in between being pure drama.

More than 1,000 yards of offence, 89 points and 11 touchdowns – four of them inside the final five minutes of a breathless 47-42 victory for Chicago in a stunned Cincinnati.

From Caleb Williams catching a touchdown pass to 40-year-old Joe Flacco having a career-best 470 yards and leading a 14-point comeback inside the final two minutes, this game had it all.

Yet the drama was still not over, as after getting the ball back with 54 seconds left, Williams hit rookie tight end Colston Loveland to gallop away for a 58-yard winning score.

“It’s like taking years off my life,” said Bears safety Kevin Byard. “It’s super special. This is the greatest game, greatest sport in the world – just the emotions up and down.”

Tom Dempsey – who was born without any toes on his kicking foot – held a field goal record of 63 yards that stood for 43 years before Matt Prater finally broke it in 2013.

But kicks are getting longer – in the past 14 months Prater’s 64-yard mark has been equalled or bettered four times, the latest being the ironically named Cam Little’s huge 68-yard effort on Sunday.

That beat Justin Tucker’s previous best by two yards, and cleared the crossbar with some room to spare as well.

There has now been seven 60-plus yard field goals already this season, with five being the previous best in a campaign, so three points are seemingly available from anywhere these days.

The Indianapolis Colts proved how crucial turnovers are in the NFL, with six of them in one game stifling the league’s top offence in the defeat by the Steelers. Was it just a blip for Daniel Jones, who committed five of them, or a worrying sign of things to come?

Christian McCaffrey is on his way to legend status with another huge 173-yard outing for the 49ers, in his 16th game with a rushing and receiving touchdown – putting him above the great Marshall Faulk for the most in the NFL.

There could be big trouble for the Washington Commanders who lost second-year quarterback Jayden Daniels to what is believed to be a dislocated left elbow.

In leading the Vikings to beat the Lions, JJ McCarthy became the first player ever to have two passing touchdowns and a rushing touchdown in two of his first three career games.