List of All Articles with Tag 'ba'

Jimmy Butler's talents have been lauded this postseason. From his toughness to his elite shot-making, there is a reason he has earned the nickname 'Himmy Buckets.'

England Women’s Women’s World Cup 2023 squad for Australian and New Zealand will be confirmed this afternoon by Sarina Wiegman. The Lionesses will hope to win the World Cup for the first time, adding to their European crown from last summer. Injuries have hit the Lionesses hard already though, with Leah Williamson and Fran Kirby out, while Beth Mead, the winner of the Golden Boot at last summer’s Euros, is also a major doubt. Millie Bright and Lucy Bronze are also facing fitness battles and Wiegman will be speaking to the media from Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham to explain her decisions and thoughts ahead of this summer. Follow live build-up to the squad announcement, reaction and analysis: Read More Predicting England’s Women’s World Cup squad: Who’s on the plane and who could miss out? England World Cup squad announcement: Five key decisions Sarina Wiegman must make England can win World Cup despite injury problems – Jill Scott

Xavi has revealed the final factor which Barcelona are waiting on in their bid to re-sign Lionel Messi from PSG.

After topping global currency rankings this year, analysts are predicting tough times ahead for the Sri Lankan rupee

French inflation eased more than anticipated, reaching its lowest level in a year in a boost to those

Yogi Berra famously said "It ain't over 'til it's over," but one of the greatest careers in baseball history might have been over before it had even begun.

Golden State Warriors general manager Bob Myers will step down after playing a key role in constructing one of NBA's most successful teams, the team announced on Tuesday.

By Helen Reid LONDON U.S. retailer Target's decision to remove some LGBTQ-themed merchandise after customer backlash in its

When Asia’s biggest computing and electronics show kicked off this week, one name was conspicuously absent: Intel Corp.

Thailand’s central bank raised its benchmark interest rate to the highest level in eight years to anchor inflation

For an illustration of the sort of double-think that has pervaded football this campaign, consider the actions of one prominent figure. They have effusively praised Manchester City in public, but constantly asked when the Premier League investigation is going to be concluded in private. This could actually refer to a few people, and might well be necessary realpolitik. It’s also the reality of the game in the 2022-23 season, one that has gone on so long that two contrasting perspectives on the same subject could both be entirely fair at different times. This was a campaign that was deeply predictable at one end and wondrously open below that. City may make history by winning a treble but also made history in becoming the first champions to have been charged with breaches that could yet see them expelled from the Premier League. Manchester United were often a shambles in some record defeats but also sensibly getting things together under the astute Erik ten Hag. On it goes, just like the season itself. There’s still almost a month left. Much of this comes from an event that remains more influential than even that seismic day in February when the Premier League quietly announced that City had been charged. That was of course a Qatar World Cup that is still having a considerable effect on the campaign. Summing this up is that it’s hard to get your head around the idea that a tournament actually happened this season. No, seriously. Qatar was more recent than Thomas Tuchel and Antonio Conte clashing over a handshake. It might even be more recent than Darwin Nunez being charitably described as “an agent of chaos” but, like one of his touches, that's lost in the mire. Yet it is all of a line, as are some of the other facts of the campaign. It is symbolic that the season of the Qatar World Cup also saw Abu Dhabi’s City come to the brink of a treble and Saudi Arabia’s Newcastle United get to the Champions League. There is actually a direct cause-and-effect here, since every major football decision these states have taken has seen their Gulf blockade rivals respond. The move to host the 2022 World Cup is still seen as setting off much of this. One senior figure privately quipped that this is “the year that sportswashing won”. It is certainly one where a number of different strands defining the modern game came together. There may yet be more. If the Sheikh Jassim bid does win the Manchester United sale, to conclude another of the season’s major themes, it would mean three of England’s Champions League clubs for next season are respectively owned by Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. And yet there is another contrast there, even if you have to go a little deeper. For all that the top end of the sport has become the preserve of Western billionaires and – increasingly – autocratic states, there has been a joyous unpredictability below that. The Europa League and Europa Conference League have been alive with opportunity and more captivating than ever, just as the Champions League top end – and its group of potential winners – has become so small. There is an enriching vitality in the two lesser competitions that are no longer seen at the elite level. One has the same teams and stories. The other two have revitalising runs at rare glory. The wildness of the Premier League’s bottom two-thirds meanwhile showed what the entire division could and should be like. The EFL play-offs were captivating, and featured two uplifting stories in Sheffield Wednesday’s historic comeback against Peterborough United and Luton Town’s rise. Rob Edwards’s side will join Brighton and Brentford in the Premier League now, both of whom have continued to defy the wider realities of the game. Leicester City’s relegation at the same time showed how difficult and fleeting that can be, how it can evaporate. Any success from outside the elite is therefore to be relished, in the manner that Napoli did in Serie A and Feyenoord in Eredivisie. Such feats stand as uplifting sporting stories in contrast to what the Qatar World Cup represented. Some were ironically influenced by that tournament, since an unprecedented disruption to the regular club season inevitably had a profound effect. It played havoc with physical conditioning programmes. All had to adapt, some did better than others. It was undeniably a factor in Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea having such poor seasons, if obviously not the main reason. The issue is more that, if things go as normal, the wealthiest tend to succeed. This season was anything but normal as it continues to stretch on for so long. None of that is to excuse many flaws of course, not least in Chelsea’s excessive spending. There is a moral lesson there that money can only bring so much, at least in the short term. There was also classic pantomime underneath the most serious discussions. Todd Boehly made himself one of the game’s modern characters, reminiscent of some of the larger-than-life figures of the 1970s. Frank Lampard’s return was an almost comical cameo, that only left bemusement. Conte put on a theatrical performance before ultimately leaving Spurs. Pep Guardiola had a display of his own in dismissing his players as “happy flowers”. The coaches demand focus in another way. There's a fair argument that every Premier League manager who wasn’t sacked has a claim to be the best of the season. All of Roberto De Zerbi, Gary O’Neill, Thomas Frank, Mikel Arteta, Guardiola and Eddie Howe overperformed to varying degrees. David Moyes has got West Ham United to a European final, and the brink of a first trophy in 44 years. The only exception to this is arguably Jurgen Klopp, but his excellence is beyond question. The uncertainty is just about whether he can rebuild Liverpool to the same degree. There was much more causing their Champions League failure than the mid-season disruption. The effects of that break only went so far, too. The most lavish football project was naturally best equipped to adapt. Guardiola primed his City team to come good in the same way he did during that Covid season. The Catalan is clearly a genius but fitting a goalscorer like Erling Haaland to a team like City is one of the less challenging problems. A young Arsenal actually did remarkably to set the pace for so long. If you stand back, it was really an inevitability they were going to be overtaken, regardless of how it ended up happening. Qatar disrupted things but only to a certain degree. City, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain and a hugely criticised Barcelona still won domestic titles. It all points to how the game is actually at a strange point in its historic evolution, split in a few ways. The most questionable interests are seeking to purchase this glorious unpredictability and pantomime, a dynamic at once eroding such theatricality but also ensuring the defiant displays are all the more joyous. There will come a point, however, where the game reaches a line it can’t go past. We’re not there yet but there are signposts. In 2021-22, Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine forced football to confront realities it wouldn’t otherwise have faced, and take decisions it would otherwise have ignored. It was arguably the season the mask slipped. The 2022-23 campaign was one where football had two faces. Read More Premier League 2022/23 season awards: Best player, manager, transfer flop and breakthrough act Man City’s quest for legitimacy is a battle they may never win Easy in the end for Manchester City – same again next season? Football rumours: Tottenham and Newcastle after James Maddison and Harvey Barnes Pep Guardiola takes top honours at LMA Awards Manchester United’s Anthony Martial ruled out of FA Cup final through injury

They usually come out of nowhere, but reduce everyone to sniggering laughter – even if some of it can be a bit guilty. Jose Mourinho still stays in contact with other managers as well as former colleagues and there are often moments where he feels the need to comment on someone else in the game, and sends out a message featuring the most cutting descriptions. Some of it can be unprintable. All of it is really sent to amuse the recipient. It shows the old mischief is there. It shows the old charm is there. It’s also working on people anew. As Mourinho prepares for his sixth European final, and a return to the fixture that launched his career, there has been a general goodwill across the game for the old master to win again. Part of it is that the halo has fallen from some of the rivals that were supposed to have consigned his ways to the past. As Jurgen Klopp gets into arguments with journalists and Pep Guardiola publicly criticises players as well as his own supporters, there’s a growing argument that “everyone just becomes Jose in the end”. All great managers have that bright early rise where they can do no wrong, that peak when their legend is preserved but also their ways are set, followed by an inevitable pride that sees them get highly prickly about any criticism or drop-off. Part of it, however, is that Mourinho himself has moved into a new career stage. He’s no longer a threat, at least to the elite. In England, he’s largely out of sight, which makes his sudden returns to attention remind us of the legend that used to be there. Everyone forgets the old battles. The twist, of course, is that there are many who feel that Mourinho is using this to launch himself back into the big time in a similar manner to Carlo Ancelotti. Paris Saint-Germain are circling. It’s also why it’s so fitting that so much around this Europa League final has brought Mourinho’s career full circle, while also bringing a tour around recent major moments. It was after all the Portuguese’s last match against Sevilla, notably in Europe’s premier competition of the Champions League, where he made that notorious appeal to “football heritage”. The phrase could well describe this fixture in Budapest, given that Mourinho has never lost a European final, and Sevilla have the greatest record in the Europa League. It was instead a typically lashed-out defence where he attempted to argue Manchester United should not be so critical of an elimination to such a club, since they’ve suffered so many defeats in Europe, one of them to his Porto. The comments had the added intention of reminding everyone of his great career, but they really showed how he had little choice but to point to the past. It wasn't happening in the present. That defeat didn’t get Mourinho sacked but it was seen as a key moment when he eventually departed Old Trafford later that year. There was a feeling within the game that also marked his exit from the very highest level of clubs, as showcased by the jobs he has taken since. Both Tottenham Hotspur and Roma have seen the Champions League as a great ambition rather than their natural home, while Serie A itself is no longer anything close to the main show that the Premier League is. It’s been that gradual decline, where a manager suddenly finds himself away from where it’s really at. Except, at Roma, there have been gradual steps back. Mourinho won the Europa Conference League last year, to deliver the club’s first continental trophy, and now has them on the brink of a second, superior trophy in Budapest. Some of the reasons for this, however, are also the reasons why Roma have again failed to finish in the top four and why he has fallen from that elite. While top clubs now expect an ideology that proactively imposes a pressing-possession game and adheres to process, Mourinho is still mostly focused on reacting to individual opposition. Sources with knowledge of his work with Roma say that “he is still a manager more afraid of losing than excited by winning”. That has been reflected in a well-drilled but constrained 3-5-2. The approach has seen Roma look stale in many league games, especially as there is little development in terms of attacking construction. It's why his team are so dependent on individual moments of inspiration, like from Paolo Dybala against Feyenoord. That’s been heard before. Some of the other effects, however, have also been seen before. The difference comes in the rarefied air of Europe. It is as if that unique atmosphere of a night under the lights brings the incredible concentration necessary for Mourinho’s gameplan. That is why Roma have been so difficult to break down in the Europa League, in contrast to Serie A. That’s what he did in virtually all of his most famous wins, from that famous Champions League semi-final against Barcelona with Internazionale, to last year’s Europa Conference against Feyenoord, and his last Europa League trophy with Manchester United against a young Ajax. This is how he has such a good record in finals, and a flawless record in European finals going back to that first Uefa Cup against Celtic 20 years ago. There were fair questions as regards Mourinho’s overall outlook for a club like United when he got the team to adapt to the movements of a teenage centre-half such as Davinson Sanchez in 2017, but the point was it represented an obvious route to victory on the day. There remain few better at picking out the gaps in an opposition side and forensically acting upon them. This may not be productive over a season. It can be inspired in any given game. This has struck some at Roma, especially since one belief was that Mourinho would gradually start to play a more expansive game if he was assured the time and space he didn’t have at previous clubs. It just hasn't really worked that way. There is an argument being made that a Europa League may represent a fitting ending, especially as coaches like Antonio Conte and Roberto De Zerbi are all interested in the job. If anyone at Roma was even considering a change, though, it would be rendered completely irrelevant by the supporters. They adore him. There would be uproar if he left. There will be adulation if he lifts the Europa League. Mourinho is currently finalising his plans for Sevilla, but a problem is the Spanish side have a force of their own in this competition. That especially manifested itself against Erik ten Hag's United. Mourinho will require something extra, some of that old motivation. That is what has really elevated his tactics in the past, the emotional intensity in every moment. That is something he can still draw out. It may yet see PSG bring him back to that elite strand of club. The charm is still there. Read More Jose Mourinho takes snide dig at Tottenham and Daniel Levy Ryan Mason ‘trusts the people making decisions’ at Tottenham ahead of key summer Jose Mourinho takes snide dig at Tottenham and Daniel Levy Jose Mourinho into another European final as Roma set up Sevilla showdown