Category Sports News

Freddie Woodman has joined Liverpool from Preston North End in a free transfer, according to Premier League champions Liverpool.

The 28-year-old is about to end his contract, having made 22 appearances for the Championship side last season.

Woodman will start pre-season training with Arne Slot’s squad next month, according to Liverpool’s announcement on Friday.

Alisson Becker and Giorgi Mamardashvili need experienced cover as Vitezslav Jaros and Harvey Davies are both on loan from Valencia until the end of the current season.

Caoimhin Kelleher was sold to Brentford earlier this year for a potential £18 million fee.

Woodman has represented Preston, Kilmarnock, Swansea City, and Newcastle United. He won the World Cup with England Under-20s in 2017.

Woodman does not need to play one of Liverpool’s 17 non-homegrown slots on the Uefa squad because he meets the requirements for an “association trained” player.

British tennis player Heather Watson says she has received social media abuse “daily” during her career and had her first death threat aged 18.

Watson was speaking after compatriot Katie Boulter told BBC Sport about the scale of unsavoury and hurtful comments she has received online, including death threats.

And Sir Andy Murray has said he is trying to keep his children away from social media and backed calls for more action to prevent abuse of sport stars.

“My first death threat was at 18”, Watson told BBC Sport at a Wimbledon media event on Friday. “I told my friend]American tennis player] Sloane Stephens at the time.

” The thing that shocked me the most, but also kind of made me feel better – because I told her I was scared as this person told me he was watching me and was going to kill me – was that she said ‘ girl, don’t worry, I get these all the time’.

“I’m smiling now after so many years and such a long career. I receive abuse daily, but it is all in perspective.

” It is all just sad people who have nothing better going in their lives than to sit behind their computer or phone and write that.

“I don’t think anyone in their right mind would abuse someone online they have never met. It just goes over my head, it is just madness”.

Watson is preparing for Wimbledon and will face Danish 23rd seed Clara Tauson in the first round of the singles draw, having been handed a wildcard.

Speaking to BBC Sport earlier this month Boulter said that receiving abusive content and death threats has become “the norm” for athletes and that “it becomes more apparent every single time you go on your phone”.

Murray, who retired from professional tennis in August 2024, said the prevalence of social media abuse “hasn’t really changed”, despite athletes speaking out on the subject for many years.

Other tennis players pressed for more action in response to Boulter’s comments, including calls for social media to implement identity verification.

For their upcoming European Championship defense in Switzerland, several members of the England women’s football team intend to abandon social media.

British tennis player Heather Watson says she has received social media abuse “daily” during her career and had her first death threat aged 18.

Watson was speaking after compatriot Katie Boulter told BBC Sport about the scale of unsavoury and hurtful comments she has received online, including death threats.

And Sir Andy Murray has said he is trying to keep his children away from social media and backed calls for more action to prevent abuse of sport stars.

“My first death threat was at 18,” Watson told BBC Sport at a Wimbledon media event on Friday. “I told my friend [American tennis player] Sloane Stephens at the time.

“The thing that shocked me the most, but also kind of made me feel better – because I told her I was scared as this person told me he was watching me and was going to kill me – was that she said ‘girl, don’t worry, I get these all the time’.

“I’m smiling now after so many years and such a long career. I receive abuse daily, but it is all in perspective.

“It is all just sad people who have nothing better going in their lives than to sit behind their computer or phone and write that.

“I don’t think anyone in their right mind would abuse someone online they have never met. It just goes over my head, it is just madness.”

Watson is preparing for Wimbledon and will face Danish 23rd seed Clara Tauson in the first round of the singles draw, having been handed a wildcard.

Speaking to BBC Sport earlier this month Boulter said that receiving abusive content and death threats has become “the norm” for athletes and that “it becomes more apparent every single time you go on your phone”.

Murray, who retired from professional tennis in August 2024, said the prevalence of social media abuse “hasn’t really changed”, despite athletes speaking out on the subject for many years.

Following Boulter’s comments, fellow tennis players demanded more action, including calls for the introduction of identity verification on social media.

Several of the England women’s football team also plan to give up social media for their forthcoming European Championship defence in Switzerland.

For their pre-season training camp in Spain, Lawrence Shankland was missing from Heart of Midlothian’s 28-man squad.

The Scottish Premiership club’s 29-year-old striker has been in discussions about a new deal even though he is out of contract.

Derek McInnes, the new head coach, stated earlier this week that he wanted to speak with Shankland again on Tuesday and get some “clarity” about Shankland’s future “in the coming days.”

McInnes indicated that Hearts was hopeful of keeping the striker’s services, especially since he had not stated his intention to leave Tynecastle.

This week, Hearts signed a $ 9.86 million deal with Tony Bloom to acquire a 29% stake in the Edinburgh club.

The Tynecastle club already worked with Jamestown Analytics, Bloom’s business, for recruitment.

Less than 24 hours after George Russell broke Mercedes’ contract talks with Max Verstappen out into the open at the Austrian Grand Prix, his team boss Toto Wolff made an attempt to calm the situation down.

Briton Russell is out of contract at the end of this season. He said, in the context of his own discussions with Mercedes about a new deal, that it was “only normal that conversations with the likes of Verstappen are ongoing”.

Wolff spent an entire news conference on Friday afternoon at the Red Bull Ring very much not denying that he was talking to Verstappen.

He said it was “territory that I don’t want to discuss”, but added that “people talk” and that Mercedes were “transparent” within their organisation. “I’m always supportive of the driver,” Wolff said. “There’s no such thing as saying things I wouldn’t want him to say.”

Speaking to television cameras straight after the news conference, though, Wolff said that Russell was likelier to be in the Mercedes than Verstappen next year, and that signing Verstappen was “not realistic at this stage”.

On paper, Verstappen is a Red Bull driver next year and beyond. A Red Bull spokesperson said: “Max has a contract to 2028.”

At the same time, Verstappen and his management have talked with Mercedes about the possibility of moving there next year. And it’s likely Verstappen could find a way out of his Red Bull contract if he really wanted to.

Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko said in April that he had “great concern” about Verstappen’s future in the team given their performance at the time. And in March he told BBC Sport: “We know that if we don’t deliver for Max, all the top drivers have performance clauses in their contract.”

For Verstappen, there are obvious reasons why a move away from Red Bull to Mercedes might seem attractive.

He has won four consecutive drivers’ titles with his current team, but in the past 18 months Red Bull have slipped from their competitive pedestal.

Verstappen built up such a large lead in the first half of last season that he was able to hold off a late challenge from McLaren and Lando Norris with relative comfort.

But McLaren started this season off strongly, and Red Bull have not been able to mount a consistent challenge.

Verstappen has taken two wins, but they have come on similar types of circuit – those with predominantly quick corners. On balance, the McLaren is the faster car.

This has come in the context of Red Bull losing their design legend Adrian Newey to Aston Martin, and long-time sporting director Jonathan Wheatley to Sauber.

Former Red Bull driver Sergio Perez, sacked at the end of last season but able to negotiate a deal that forced the team to pay him for the two years of his contract they are not fulfilling, said in a podcast this week that Red Bull’s decline dated directly from Newey’s departure.

It would be no surprise if, in those circumstances, Verstappen’s confidence in Red Bull’s ability to design a fully competitive car had taken a knock.

Then there are the new rules coming into force in F1 next year, which represent a major change to both cars and engines. The engine change is especially large. It increases the proportion of total performance of the engine provided by the electrical components to 50%.

Red Bull have set up a new company to develop and build its own engine. That was always going to be a tough task, and at the moment the widespread belief within F1 is that Mercedes are leading the way on performance with the new engines, and that Red Bull are struggling.

Russell has been driving an excellent season, and comes into the weekend in Austria after a dominant victory in Canada last time out.

But his comments on Thursday laid bare the problem as far as the Briton is concerned.

“Toto has made it clear to me that how I’m performing is as good as anybody,” Russell said.

“There is only one driver that you can debate in terms of performance. And these are his words and not my words, and that is why I have no concern about my future.

“But there are two seats to every team and I guess he needs to think who are those two drivers going to be for those two seats and I guess that’s what the delay is.”

That “one driver” is obviously Verstappen. The Dutchman is regarded throughout F1 as the outstanding driver on the grid at the moment, someone who produces a consistent level of excellence that none of his colleagues can match.

How appealing a Mercedes drive might be to Verstappen will depend on the package they can put together for him.

Verstappen does not come without baggage. For one thing, he is very expensive. His current Red Bull salary is said to be about $75m (£55m). And that’s before endorsements and other add-ons.

Red Bull don’t have to justify that spend to anyone. They are a private company. But it might not be so easy for Mercedes, as a corporate entity, to justify that sort of outlay on a racing driver, even if he is the best in the world.

And if they can’t, would Verstappen be prepared to take a pay cut to drive a potentially more competitive car?

Then there is the question of image. Verstappen is a controversial character who takes things to the edge of acceptability on track and sometimes beyond.

From time to time, he does things that Mercedes might not feel comfortable being associated with their brand – think back two races to his collision with Russell in Spain, or to Mexico last year, when his driving against Lando Norris earned him two 10-second penalties.

Verstappen is also very much his own man, who says and does what he wants. He’s smart and usually toes the company line. But just as with his on-track behaviour, every now and again he decides he wants to say his piece in a way that a more corporate environment might not find so acceptable.

He also demands that the team operates for him. It’s hard to imagine Verstappen, for example, agreeing to accept the sort of team-first philosophy operated by McLaren with Norris and Oscar Piastri.

Williams team principal James Vowles, who was a central part of Mercedes’ F1 management structure before taking on his new role in 2023, touched on this when he was asked about the prospect of Verstappen moving to Mercedes earlier this year.

“Can you add a tiny bit more performance? Yes through Max,” Vowles said. “I think there is more performance to be added through Max.

“I don’t think anyone in the room would deny that he is extraordinary in what he can do. But he comes with a lot of downsides as well that we have to acknowledge.

“And I think what Mercedes does have is a great culture with two drivers that are delivering near to the peak of the car and with one that’s on the way up. So I personally don’t think there’s a place for him.”

Wolff has another factor to consider while he is in this exploratory phase with Verstappen and his management.

Both Russell and his current team-mate Kimi Antonelli are long-time Mercedes proteges. Wolff would have to drop one of them to make way for Verstappen.

On paper, Russell has been comfortably the stronger performer this year. But Antonelli is a rookie and only 18.

Russell and Verstappen have had a difficult relationship over the past few years.

This started with a row over an incident at the 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and blew up massively over an incident in Qatar last year, in which Russell accused Verstappen of being a “bully”, and Verstappen said Russell was a “loser” and a “backstabber”. It was revived two races ago when Verstappen collided with Russell in the closing stages of the Spanish Grand Prix.

Wolff diminished the importance of this on Friday, pointing to the fact that he managed to have Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg as team-mates for three years from 2014-16, adding: “So everything else afterwards is easy. There’s pros and cons of having two drivers fighting each other hard. We’ve seen examples where that functioned and other examples where it didn’t.”

What he did not say is that after the Hamilton-Rosberg experience, Wolff deliberately chose Valtteri Bottas as Hamilton’s next team-mate, specifically to avoid having to deal with that level of tension again.

He also knew that he could handle Hamilton and Russell together because of their personalities and being at different stages of their career; likewise with Russell and Antonelli.

Verstappen and Russell would be a whole different prospect. Even if Mercedes felt they could handle that combination, it’s hard to see Verstappen even accepting Russell as a team-mate in the context of their relationship.

Should Verstappen be able to reach an agreement with Mercedes, Russell would most likely be looking for a drive. And his only realistic option would be the seat vacated by Verstappen.

That’s not only because Red Bull would need a top-line driver and Russell would be the best available, but also because there are no other competitive options for Russell – the line-ups at McLaren and Ferrari are confirmed for next year.

Aston Martin might be appealing, with Newey and Honda engines, but they also have two drivers under contract for 2026.

All of which makes this an especially uncomfortable time for Russell, who has been one of the most impressive drivers of the season, has comprehensively outpaced his team-mate, but has no option but to sit and watch his boss explore his options.

Less than 24 hours after George Russell broke Mercedes ‘ contract talks with Max Verstappen out into the open at the Austrian Grand Prix, his team boss Toto Wolff made an attempt to calm the situation down.

At the end of the current season, Briton Russell is owed money. It was “only normal that conversations with the likes of Verstappen are ongoing,” he claimed in the context of his own discussions with Mercedes about a new deal.

Wolff spent an entire news conference on Friday afternoon at the Red Bull Ring very much not denying that he was talking to Verstappen.

He claimed that Mercedes was “transparent” and that it was “territory that I don’t want to discuss.” Wolff remarked, “I always back the driver.” “There’s no such thing as saying things I wouldn’t want him to say”.

However, Wolff stated directly to television cameras that Verstappen’s signing as a Mercedes was “not realistic at this stage” and that Russell was more likely than Verstappen to be in the Mercedes next year.

Verstappen appears to be a Red Bull driver for the foreseeable future and beyond. “Max has a contract until 2028,” according to a Red Bull spokesman.

At the same time, Verstappen and his management have talked with Mercedes about the possibility of moving there next year. Verstappen is likely to be able to leave his Red Bull contract if necessary.

In April, Helmut Marko, a Red Bull motorsport expert, expressed “great concern” about Verstappen’s future in the team given their performance. And in March he told BBC Sport: “We know that if we don’t deliver for Max, all the top drivers have performance clauses in their contract”.

Verstappen believes there are compelling arguments for switching from Red Bull to Mercedes.

With his current team, he has won four consecutive drivers’ titles, but Red Bull has fallen off a pedestal in recent years.

Verstappen built up such a large lead in the first half of last season that he was able to hold off a late challenge from McLaren and Lando Norris with relative comfort.

However, Red Bull haven’t been able to mount a consistent challenge this season despite McLaren’s strong start.

Verstappen has won two victories, but both have come on circuits with primarily quick corners. On balance, the McLaren is the faster car.

Adrian Newey, a design legend at Red Bull, and Jonathan Wheatley, a long-time sports director, were given the opportunity to leave them.

Sergio Perez, a former Red Bull driver who was fired at the end of last year but able to negotiate a deal that required the team to pay him for the two years of his contract, claimed in a podcast this week that Newey’s departure was the direct cause of Red Bull’s decline.

It would be no surprise if, in those circumstances, Verstappen’s confidence in Red Bull’s ability to design a fully competitive car had taken a knock.

Then there are the new regulations that will apply to F1 starting in 2015, which will significantly alter both cars and engines. Particularly significant is the engine change. It increases the proportion of total performance of the engine provided by the electrical components to 50%.

Red Bull has established a new business to create and manufacture its own engine. That was always going to be a challenging task, and Red Bull is struggling while Mercedes are leading the charge in terms of performance with the new engines.

Russell has been driving an excellent season, and comes into the weekend in Austria after a dominant victory in Canada last time out.

However, his comments on Thursday exposed the issue for the Briton.

Russell claimed that Tomo has made it abundantly clear that I am the best of everyone.

“There is only one driver that you can debate in terms of performance. And because of this, I have no concern for my future, he has said these things, not my words.

However, there are two seats in each team, so I suppose he needs to consider who those two drivers will be for those two seats, and I suppose that’s what the delay is.

That” one driver “is obviously Verstappen. The Dutchman is regarded as the best driver in Formula One right now, a driver who consistently delivers excellence above that of his competitors.

Verstappen’s perception of a Mercedes-powered vehicle will depend on how well-balanced a package they can make for him.

Verstappen includes all of its baggage. For one thing, he is very expensive. His current Red Bull salary is said to be in the range of $75 million (£55 million). Before endorsements and other add-ons, that’s what.

Red Bull don’t have to justify that spend to anyone. A private company, they are. Even though he is the best in the world, it might not be so simple for Mercedes to justify that kind of expenditure on a racing driver.

And if they can’t, would Verstappen be prepared to take a pay cut to drive a potentially more competitive car?

Then comes the image-related problem. Verstappen, a controversial character, occasionally drags things past the point of acceptance.

From time to time, he does things that Mercedes might not feel comfortable being associated with their brand – think back two races to his collision with Russell in Spain, or to Mexico last year, when his driving against Lando Norris earned him two 10-second penalties.

Verstappen also has his own voice and dictates everything he wants. He is intelligent and frequently crosses the company line. But just as with his on-track behaviour, every now and again he decides he wants to say his piece in a way that a more corporate environment might not find so acceptable.

He also demands that the team provide for him. For instance, it’s difficult to imagine Verstappen agreeing to the McLaren, Norris, and Oscar Piastri’s approach to team-first.

Williams team principal James Vowles, who was a central part of Mercedes ‘ F1 management structure before taking on his new role in 2023, touched on this when he was asked about the prospect of Verstappen moving to Mercedes earlier this year.

Can you give it a little bit more performance? Yes, “Vowles said,” through Max. I think there is more performance to be added through Max.

Nobody in the room would dispute his extraordinary abilities, “I don’t think anyone would believe that.” However, we must also bear in mind that he also has some drawbacks.

” And I think what Mercedes does have is a great culture with two drivers that are delivering near to the peak of the car and with one that’s on the way up. Therefore, I personally don’t believe he has a home.

Wolff has another factor to consider while he is in this exploratory phase with Verstappen and his management.

Both Russell and his current teammate Kimi Antonelli have long-standing Mercedes ties. One of them would have to be replaced by Verstappen for Wolff.

On paper, Russell has been comfortably the stronger performer this year. However, Antonelli is only 18 years old and a rookie.

Over the past few years, Russell and Verstappen have engaged in difficult relationships.

This started with a row over an incident at the 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and blew up massively over an incident in Qatar last year, in which Russell accused Verstappen of being a” bully”, and Verstappen said Russell was a” loser “and a” backstabber”. Verstappen and Russell collided in the final stages of the Spanish Grand Prix, which gave it a second chance two races ago.

Wolff emphasized the importance of this on Friday, citing Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg’s three-year partnership as team-mates. “So everything else is simple afterwards. There’s pros and cons of having two drivers fighting each other hard. That has been used in some instances, but there have also been others that haven’t.

What he did not say was that Wolff had to specifically avoid having to deal with that level of tension once more after the Hamilton-Rosberg incident.

He also knew that he could handle Hamilton and Russell together because of their personalities and being at different stages of their career, likewise with Russell and Antonelli.

Verstappen and Russell would be completely different people. Verstappen may not even consider Russell to be a team-mate in the context of their relationship, even if Mercedes thought they could handle it.

Russell is most likely looking for a car if Verstappen and Mercedes can agree on a deal. And his only realistic option would be the seat vacated by Verstappen.

Red Bull would need a top-tier driver, and Russell would have the best driver available, in addition to the fact that Russell’s line-ups at McLaren and Ferrari are both confirmed for the following year.

With Newey and Honda engines, Aston Martin might be appealing, but they also have two 2026 contract drivers.

All of which makes this an especially uncomfortable time for Russell, who has been one of the most impressive drivers of the season, has comprehensively outpaced his team-mate, but has no option but to sit and watch his boss explore his options.