Category Sports News

Tottenham have sacked head coach Robert Vilahamn after two years in charge.

The Swede led Spurs to their first Women’s FA Cup final in May 2024 but his side finished second-bottom in this season’s Women’s Super League.

Relegated Crystal Palace were the only side to concede more goals than Tottenham and the club’s points tally of 20 was 11 fewer than they recorded in the 2023-24 campaign.

“There have been some special moments during Robert’s tenure”, said women’s managing director Andy Rogers.

Vilahamn follows senior assistant coach Vicky Jepson, who had already left Spurs to take up a role with the United States women’s youth teams.

In Belfast’s friendly on Tuesday night, Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill wants his side to enjoy more of the game.

They fought ferociously for the entire 2-1 defeat by Denmark on Saturday in Copenhagen, but Christian Eriksen’s 67th-minute winner sealed it for them.

After just five minutes, Denmark had the lead thanks to Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s own goal, but Gustav Isaksen’s fine effort in stoppage time put the visitors on their way to an equaliser.

While O’Neill’s second spell in charge saw Northern Ireland produce some impressive results when the ball was mostly left unattended, the former Stoke manager thinks increasing possession will be the next step for his side.

After Denmark had more than 70% of the possession on Saturday, O’Neill said, “We were never going to be a dominant possession-based team against any of these teams.”

Players who play football in the top five leagues in Europe must compete with those who play football at a League One or Championship level. The level at which the players play their football differs.

Northern Ireland struggled to hit the target throughout the match despite taking an early lead.

O’Neill continued, “We need to be able to retain the ball a little better when we win it back, maybe find a little more in terms of our level of possession as well,” which will help us carry a bigger threat.

O’Neill has consciously faced a higher level of opposition than his team did when they were promoted from the third tier of the Nations League because they will face Germany in World Cup qualifying in September.

In their previous 14 games, they only won four of their matches on Saturday, which came off a 2-0 win over Denmark in Belfast in November 2023.

Northern Ireland scored five goals in their previous defeats to Spain and Sweden in March, but the game against Iceland will present a different set of challenges.

However, Belfast is boosted by their victory over Scotland on Friday night.

We must play ball more effectively. Therefore, how we approach our work as a team will be slightly different, O’Neill said.

Although they had a very positive result against Scotland at Hampden Park and played very well, the teams are more of a similar level, let’s be honest.

O’Neill claimed he had made other substitutions to “protect” those who had suffered knocks after a long club season, but that the only Northern Ireland change forced at half-time was Conor Hazard.

These issues will be taken into account when selecting the Icelandic team, but the manager stated that there won’t be major adjustments for their final game before the start of the 2026 World Cup qualifying period away from Luxembourg in September.

“We’ll need to make one or two adjustments, but it’s crucial that we also use the game wisely.”

Alfie Hewett says he is “extremely disappointed” with French Open organisers after his wheelchair singles final was moved to a different court less than an hour before the start “without really consulting the players”.

The Norfolk player’s match against Tokito Oda on Saturday, which he lost 6-4 7-6 (8-6), was switched from Court 14 to being straight after the women’s wheelchair final on Suzanne Lenglen.

They were only given about 35 minutes to prepare after being informed of the change at just past midday.

“I understand the reasoning behind it because of the changeable weather this week but I think they could have communicated that the night before – like given us a heads-up and said ‘if this quads match goes on longer than the women’s final then you boys will be on Lenglen, if it doesn’t happen then you will stay on Court 14’,” he said.

“None of that communication was had the night before, or even in the morning.”

As the wheelchair draw progressed there was a lot of discussion around the scheduling and last-minute changes, with different courts offering varied conditions for the players.

“It’s a completely different environment,” said Hewett, who won his sixth consecutive Roland Garros doubles title with partner and fellow Brit Gordon Reid, and who – by also finishing with runners-up honours in the singles – improved on his 2024 performance at Roland Garros.

“Gordy [Gordon Reid] was saying it when we were playing doubles. The ball was slower, the balls pick up more clay because there is more clay on those courts.

“On the outdoor courts it’s slightly livelier, it’s slightly bouncier, there’s shorter back runs. It completely changes the tactical game of the match and usually you know that you’re going to be playing on a show court, so you practice on that court beforehand.”

As elite-level athletes who are competing for the top prizes in tennis, a lot of thought goes into pre-match preparations for the wheelchair players – not just at the Grand Slams but every week they compete on tour.

“I’m not one to come out here and criticise tournaments often because I know we are as players, and I am, incredibly grateful to be at events like this, to be celebrating wheelchair tennis and showcasing it on a big stage but what happened today was unacceptable,” said Hewett.

“There are standards I believe that have got to be set and you know as players we weren’t listened to, we weren’t heard.

“We tried to ask for the court to be pushed back, but unfortunately the priority was for fans to watch the women’s final on a screen rather than giving the wheelchair players more time to warm-up and prepare for a Grand Slam singles final.

“This isn’t me making excuses for my performance, Tokito was in exactly the same boat as me. I’m very happy with the way I performed actually.

“This is more about the players and our welfare, and actually treating us like professionals, because I can guarantee there’s no way Jannik Sinner or [Novak] Djokovic would get told ‘sorry you can’t have a proper practice, you’ve got to go on court in 30 minutes’.”

He added: “You put everything on the line for these matches. It’s not the reason why I lost the singles final – Tokito was the better player in the bigger moments – but these are the things that people higher up have got to take into consideration – and which I know they are taking into consideration with the other players.

Queen’s will host a women’s tennis tournament for the first time in over 50 years – and you can watch live on the BBC.

Olga Morozova was the champion when the iconic venue last hosted a women’s tournament in 1973.

Now a WTA 500 event, the tournament takes place at Queen’s Club from 9-15 June, with the men’s draw following the week after.

There will be coverage across BBC platforms as Britain’s Katie Boulter and Emma Raducanu begin their Wimbledon preparations.

British number one Boulter and 2021 US Open champion Raducanu will feature in the main draw.

Compatriots Sonay Kartal, Jodie Burrage and Francesca Jones have also accepted wildcards into the tournament.

Olympic champion and world number seven Zheng Qinwen is the highest-ranked player to appear in the singles draw.

Fellow top-10 players Emma Navarro and reigning Australian Open champion Madison Keys are also set to appear.

Barbora Krejcikova will begin her preparations for her Wimbledon title defence at Queen’s Club alongside fellow former SW19 champions Elena Rybakina and Petra Kvitova.

There will be live coverage on BBC iPlayer, the BBC Sport website and app and the Red Button every day from 12:00 BST until play finishes.

BBC tennis correspondent Russell Fuller will provide regular updates, with live radio commentary of the women’s final on 15 June on BBC 5 Live.

There is also coverage on BBC One and BBC Two, alongside select live text commentaries on the website and app.

Scotland have called up free agent Ross Doohan and Bournemouth’s 18-year-old Callan McKenna for Monday’s friendly in Liechtenstein in an attempt to address their goalkeeping crisis.

Angus Gunn and Robby McCrorie have left the squad following Friday’s defeat by Iceland.

Cieran Slicker suffered a torrid debut at Hampden after replacing the injured Gunn, McCrorie having picked up a strain in the warm-up.

Scotland head coach Steve Clarke – who had previously warned that his lack of options in the position was a concern – admitted after the game he would be looking for “another goalkeeper in Scotland who’s not on holiday”.

With first-choice Craig Gordon, plus regular squad members Zander Clark and Liam Kelly, missing from the original squad through injury, the nation have been forced to turn to Doohan and McKenna.

When Gunn went down injured six minutes into the Iceland game, Clarke had to summon 22-year-old Slicker, who was effectively his sixth-choice goalkeeper.

Only 64 seconds into his debut, the former Scotland Under-21 regular’s attempt to clear a Kieran Tierney passback was picked up by Andri Gudjohnsen, who curled his drive over the stranded goalkeeper.

Former Manchester City youngster Slicker, who has never played a senior league game and only has 10 minutes of FA Cup football for Ipswich Town to his name in the season past, was visibly shaken.

Slicker was not the only culprit as Lewis Ferguson deflected the ball past him after the Scotland defence made a mess of clearing a corner to hand Iceland a 2-1 lead after John Souttar’s equaliser.

However, the young goalkeeper looked badly at fault as Victor Palsson’s header bypassed his flailing arms for the third.

Doohan is a product of Celtic’s youth set-up and had loan spells with Cumbernauld Colts, Greenock Morton, Ayr United, Ross County, Dundee United and Tranmere Rovers before joining the League Two club permanently in 2022.

After a only half a season there, the Scotland Under-21 cap moved up to League One with Forest Green Rovers, but following their relegation, he joined Aberdeen the following summer.

Doohan has been the back up at Pittodrie, playing only twice in his first season and 18 times in the latest campaign while Bulgaria’s Mitov was injured.

McKenna came through the youth ranks with Hibernian, then Queen’s Park, making his professional debut for the latter as a 16-year-old in a Scottish League Cup tie against East Fife in July 2023.

Following reports of interest from Premier League and Championship clubs, he was sold to Bournemouth in February 2024 having made just nine senior appearances – mainly in the Scottish second tier.

United States head coach Mauricio Pochettino has ruled himself out the running to replace Ange Postecoglou, saying a return to Tottenham at this point is “not realistic”.

Postecoglou, 59, was sacked on Friday, despite leading the club to their first piece of silverware in 17 years with victory in the Europa League.

Pochettino, whose five-year stay at the club came to an end in November 2019, has been linked with a return to Tottenham.

But the Argentine, who was appointed US manager in October 2024, says he is happy in his new role.

” I think, since I left in 2019, my name has always been on the list]of rumours].

“I’ve seen the rumours, we are 100 coaches on the list. Don’t be worried about that.

” If something happens]in the future], you for sure will see, but I am so happy in this moment and we cannot talk about this type of thing. “

Pochettino was speaking after the United States were beaten 2-1 by Turkey in Connecticut.

It was the side’s third straight defeat, leaving Pochettino with five wins and four losses from nine matches in charge.

The United States are hosting the 2026 World Cup alongside Canada and Mexico.

During his time in north London, Pochettino helped Spurs reach the final of the Champions League in 2019, as well as to a second-place finish in the Premier League in 2017.

There is interest in Fulham coach Marco Silva, and Brentford manager Thomas Frank is a leading contender to replace Postecoglou.

Ben Davies, a Wales defender, has continued to work until the summer of 2026 on his contract.