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Ipswich Town are now plotting a move for an “exceptional” striker, who has 74 career goals to his name in the Championship.

Ipswich looking to boost promotion push by signing striker

Ipswich have made up considerable ground on both Middlesbrough and Coventry City over the past few weeks, having taken ten points from their past four games, which means they have moved up to third place.

Indeed, the Tractor Boys are just two points behind Boro with a game in hand, meaning they are in a very strong position to return to the Premier League at the first attempt, but Kieran McKenna remains keen on bringing in some reinforcements this month.

The manager said: “For sure, we’re going to look to add to the squad and improve the squad in the second half of the season. But, of course, the other teams will as well.”

The 39-year-old also bemoaned the fact his side haven’t scored enough goals, compared to the number of opportunities they’ve created, saying: “We need to keep working with the players individually, we need to recruit well in the window to be more clinical with the chances we get and we need to keep working on our play as a team to create more chances.”

As such, it is no surprise Ipswich are now looking to bring in a new striker, according to journalist Alan Nixon (via Football League World), who states they are plotting a move for Sheffield United star Patrick Bamford.

Interestingly, Bamford would be open to leaving the Blades, should the right offer come his way, and a move to Portman Road could be exciting, given that McKenna’s side are pushing for promotion, while Sheffield United are in 16th place.

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At the moment, the Tractor Boys are closely monitoring developments involving the centre-forward, with no formal moves made, but they could make an approach if he becomes available.

"Exceptional" Bamford is experienced in the Championship

Lauded as “exceptional” by ex-Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, the 32-year-old is proven at Premier League level, having amassed a whopping 26 goal involvements for Leeds United during the 2020-21 campaign, while he also has plenty of Championship experience.

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Indeed, the Englishman has a stellar record in the second tier, having contributed 74 goals and 15 assists in 227 outings, and he has five goals to his name for Sheffield United in ten matches this season.

The ex-Leeds man may not be the long-term solution for Ipswich in attack, given his age and injury issues, missing large parts of the Whites’ promotion-winning 2024-25 campaign due to a muscle issue.

However, with Chuba Akpom failing to deliver, scoring two goals in 20 Championship games, McKenna could do with bringing in a new striker for the promotion run-in, and Bamford could be ideal.

Crystal Palace are now lining up a move for an “incredible” striker, amid a new update on Jean-Philippe Mateta’s future at Selhurst Park.

Mateta attracting interest from rival Premier League clubs

Mateta bagged his eighth Premier League goal of the campaign in the 1-1 draw against Fulham on New Year’s Day, but Palace are at risk of losing their star striker, amid interest from a whole host of rival English clubs.

Manchester United have been named among the potential suitors for the centre-forward, alongside the likes of Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal, with the Frenchman’s future uncertain, as his contract is set to expire at the end of next season.

Given that the Eagles are set to lose Marc Guehi on a free transfer, should they decide not to cash-in on their captain this month, they may be hesitant to let another key player’s deal run down, and there has now been a new update on Mateta’s future.

According to reporter Alan Nixon (via GiveMeSport), Crystal Palace would now be prepared to sanction the striker’s departure for a fee of around £50m, given that he has thus far refused to put pen to paper on a new contract.

As such, Palace have now started searching the market for potential replacements, and they are lining up a move for Strasbourg striker Joaquin Panichelli, who has been identified as their top target at centre-forward, having impressed scouts.

The Eagles are now seriously considering replacements for Mateta, and the Strasbourg star’s goal output, physical attributes and development have caught the eye.

"Incredible" Panichelli could be exciting Mateta replacement

Of course, Palace will be hoping their current striker opts to extend his stay at Selhurst Park, given how instrumental the three-time France international has been to their recent success, slotting away 17 goals in all competitions as Oliver Glasner’s side won the FA Cup last season.

However, should the 28-year-old move on, there are indications Panichelli could be an exciting replacement, having already chipped in with 11 goals in all competitions this term.

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The Argentinian only arrived in France last summer, and scout Jacek Kulig has waxed lyrical about the way in which he has adapted to life in Ligue 1.

Crucially, Panichelli is still young at just 23-years-old, and Palace should continue to monitor his performances between now and the end of the season, at which point they may have a big decision to make about Mateta, whose contract will have just one year remaining.

Eddie Howe will enter 2026 happy that his Newcastle United troops won away at Burnley to end the year on a somewhat positive note, but will also be hoping for more as his hot-and-cold team tackles the New Year head-on.

On another night, Burnley would have taken their chances at Turf Moor and come away with a draw or even a victory, with some much-needed heroics in defence from the Toon saving their skin.

In attack, it also wasn’t the most convincing display, minus a mini flurry of goals within the first seven minutes in Lancashire, as Anthony Gordon fears he will be dropped for the next Premier League clash to come against Crystal Palace, after failing to put in a consistent display again across the full 90 minutes versus the Clarets.

Why Gordon needs to be dropped

It’s clear, when Gordon is at his very best for Newcastle, that he is one of the first names on Howe’s team sheet.

After all, the Liverpool-born forward hasn’t just fluked his Toon tally of 29 goals and 26 assists, with Gordon looking to have turned a corner this season when bagging two league goals early in December.

Before that, he was consistently drawing blanks to the frustration of the Tyneside faithful, but off the back of bagging this penalty in the reverse fixture against Scott Parker’s men, Howe would declare the former Everton man his “best player”, which has now looked to be a premature judgment.

He did pick up an assist at Turf Moor when combining with Joelinton in the very early exchanges, but the 16-time England international would cut a largely disinterested figure throughout, leading to him failing to test Martin Dubravka with a single on-target effort, as he also came up short on seven of his 14 ground duels.

Also noted as having “offered even less” than the heavily scapegoated Anthony Elanga in the Tyne-Wear Derby by one content creator, it will be interesting to see if Howe does persist with his hit-and-miss number ten for the visit of the Eagles, as he endures yet another sticky patch in the attacking areas.

It’s a sad decline, whatever does occur, when you consider Gordon was once being talked up to be on Liverpool’s shopping list for £100m, as another Newcastle stalwart unfortunately starts to fall victim to the same regression taking place with the EFL Cup-winning forward.

Howe must axe star who "doesn't look interested"

Thankfully, it’s not all just doom and gloom at St James’ Park at the moment, with Joelinton’s early effort going down as his first Premier League strike in a year, while Yoane Wissa finally got up and running for the Toon with the second goal of the night.

But, away from both players carrying Newcastle over the line with their instinctive finishing, Sandro Tonali put in another shaky display from the middle of the park, to continue his own ongoing decline.

The hope will be that the Italian is just suffering from a minor blip in form and he can change his fortunes around in the New Year, having turned himself into a “world-class” performer on English shores, as journalist Carlo Garganese once stated, after once finding himself permanently on the sidelines owing to a betting ban.

Indeed, at the start of 2025, it would have been ludicrous to suggest that Tonali should be dropped, with the 25-year-old hailed as one the Toon’s “standout” talents by podcast host Andrew Musgrove, even when Alexander Isak was still on the books,

Indeed, he collected four goals and two assists in league action all across last season, alongside averaging four duels won per Premier League contest.

Tonali’s drop in performance

Stat

vs Man United

vs Burnley

Minutes played

77

90

Goals scored

0

0

Assists

0

0

Touches

74

71

Shots

2

0

Accurate passes

48/55

49/60

Possession lost

13x

17x

Tackles won

1

0

Total duels won

5/9

2/7

Stats by Sofascore

However, Howe will soon have to face up to the fact that Tonali is regressing just like Gordon, with the former AC Milan battler winning just seven of his 15 duels across his last two outings in December.

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Moreover, he has been uncharacteristically sloppy with the ball at his feet, with possession given away a costly 17 times at Turf Moor, which is coincidentally the same number of passes the ex-Everton winger would miscalculate.

Journalist Luke Edwards, at the close of the topsy-turvy 3-1 win, would dish out some unwelcome home truths to Tonali, with Edwards stating that below-par number eight was both “dreadful” and at points “doesn’t look interested”.

There could be some weight behind that second comment, with Tonali no doubt unimpressed with his team’s drop in form, having once been touted to be an £85m-calibre performer at his St James’ Park peak.

Still, with no such big move in sight anymore, Tonali needs to buck his ideas up quickly, as the dwindling number eight could be surprisingly axed for Newcastle’s first game of the New Year versus Oliver Glasner’s men, alongside Gordon.

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James Hopes is in line to play his first state Twenty20 match for the summer © Getty Images

Queensland have regained James Hopes for their Twenty20 match against South Australia on Friday after he missed the opening game due to illness. The Bulls lost their encounter against Victoria and are hoping to inflict the Redbacks’ second defeat of the competition.While Hopes is back, Queensland are still without Chris Simpson, who will miss not only Friday’s Gabba outing but also the Bulls’ trip to the WACA on Sunday with a finger injury. They have named the same squad of 13 for both matches.After the Perth match Queensland travel to New South Wales on Tuesday before finishing their Twenty20 campaign at home against Tasmania next Thursday. The Bulls ended up second-last in the 2006-07 competition.Queensland squad Jimmy Maher, James Hopes, Shane Watson, Nathan Reardon, Clinton Perren, Craig Philipson, Aaron Nye, Lee Carseldine, Michael Buchanan, Ashley Noffke, Chris Hartley (wk), Michael Kasprowicz, Grant Sullivan.

England seamer Katherine Brunt has been ruled out of the the quadrangular series with Australia, India and New Zealand after failing to recover from a back injury.Brunt remained in England for intensive treatment at the English Institute of Sport (EIS) at Loughborough as her team-mates flew out to India to Tuesday, but a decision was made on Friday that she wouldn’t be fit for the tournament, which starts on February 21. Lynsey Askew, who was on standby, will join the squad in India.Head coach Richard Bates said: “It’s definitely disappointing news for us because Katherine is a key player for England. However, we do have quality cover in Lynsey, who is a very capable bowler and was a member of last summer’s squad.”

Attempts are on to ensure that Trinidad and Tobago is a well-secured cricket-playing nation by the time the World Cup starts © Getty Images

The Warner Group of Companies, chaired by Jack Warner, has funded the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) for the 2006 season to the sum of $1 million.Warner made the announcement yesterday after he came to an agreement with Deryck Murray, the TTCB president, following recent discussions.The financial assistance, according to Warner, is being provided with the aim of ensuring that the game is properly run throughout the five zones, including Tobago, and the TTCB is fully functional.Warner, for the second year, will also sponsor Central-based Joe Public Munroe Road Cricket Club for the 2006 National Division League One season in excess of $250,000, inclusive of administrative duties, team management and preparations, match fees and other incentivesWarner said his contribution was an attempt to develop the sport of cricket and to ensure that T&T is a well-secured cricket-playing nation for the future, especially by the time the 2007 Cricket World Cup comes around.”Today we have with us the greatest batsman to ever live and he is a Trinidadian. I don’t need to tell you his name but I can tell you that we are today searching very deep for another individual as our next great one and this doesn’t come overnight,” said Warner yesterday. “The game of cricket must be alive in all corners of the country and it must be developed and well managed. While you may have the hands capable of doing it in the offices and on the playing fields, you also need the right resources to achieve it and this is merely my contribution towards reaching there.”

Scorecard

Shaun Tait broke through with the wickets of Clinton Perren and Shane Watson© Getty Images

Dan Cullen, the 20-year-old offspinner, captured his first five-wicket haul as he kept South Australia in the match against Queensland at the Gabba. On a pitch made for fast bowling, Cullen elbowed his way in and was responsible for a collapse of five wickets for 32 runs as the Bulls stuttered while trying to set a large victory target.Leading by 56 on first innings, Queensland were travelling comfortably at 2 for 129, but Shaun Tait dismissed Shane Watson and Cullen took the next four wickets, including Martin Love, who reached double figures for the first time this season. Cullen finished with 5 for 78 but the Bulls have earned a 313-run lead thanks to Craig Philipson’s unbeaten 64.Ashley Noffke wrapped up three wickets as Queensland collected two valuable first-innings points before lunch. Resuming at 5 for 68, South Australia added 13 before Andy Bichel bowled Greg Blewett and then Noffke hit Graham Manou, Cullen and Ryan Harris in his best spell of a tough season. Queensland’s two points moves them ahead of New South Wales into second position behind Western Australia.

Herschelle Gibbs: a rumbustious knock

Herschelle Gibbs is a rare gem among international openers. His rumbustious batting style may have been honed in one-day cricket, but it has translated perfectly into Test matches as well. Of his contemporaries, only Australia’s Matthew Hayden is anything like as effective in both forms of the game. Others, such as Sanath Jayasuriya and Marcus Trescothick, are markedly less assured when faced with Test-match conditions.Today, Gibbs clattered 20 fours and a six in his first 102 runs, which adds up to 86 in boundaries alone. At the time, only one Test centurion had made a higher percentage of their total runs in boundaries – Australia’s Gary Gilmour, who lamped exactly the same number of fours and sixes in his solitary Test century, against New Zealand at Christchurch in February 1977. But Gilmour was out immediately afterwards for 101, so he shaded that record by a fraction of a percent.With a century under his belt, however, Gibbs clearly had murder on his mind as he shifted up yet another gear. But, after one particularly chancy assault on James Anderson, that old curmudgeon Gary Kirsten felt compelled to intervene. Still, it didn’t dent Gibbs’s exuberance too much. Of his remaining 81 runs, 74% of them came in 15 crashing fours.

Player Team versus Season Fours Sixes Runs %GJ Gilmour AUS NZ 1976-77 20 1 101 85.15HH Gibbs RSA ZIM 2001-02 28 2 147 84.35HH Dippenaar RSA NZ 2000-01 21 0 100 84.00RB Richardson WI ENG 1985-86 19 1 102 80.39A Flintoff ENG NZ 2001-02 23 3 137 80.29NJ Astle NZ ENG 2001-02 28 11 222 80.18NJ Astle NZ WI 1995-96 22 2 125 80.00HH Gibbs RSA ENG 2003 35 1 183 79.78MA Butcher ENG RSA 2003 21 0 106 79.25CD McMillan NZ BDESH 2001-02 18 2 106 79.25IVA Richards WI ENG 1980-81 21 1 114 78.95RS Kaluwitharana SL AUS 1992 26 0 132 78.79CL Cairns NZ ZIM 1995-96 10 9 120 78.33CG Greenidge WI PAK 1976-77 15 3 100 78.00BC Lara WI AUS 1998-99 15 3 100 78.00CH Gayle WI ZIM 2001 34 0 175 77.71V Sehwag IND WI 2002-03 24 3 147 77.55AJ Lamb ENG AUS 1989 24 0 125 76.80JH Edrich ENG NZ 1965 52 5 310 76.77Shahid Afridi PAK WI 2001-02 16 3 107 76.64IT Botham ENG AUS 1981 27 1 149 76.51

By the time the last ball was bowled in this Third Test between Australia and New Zealand, the scoreboard at the WACA Ground in Perth wasindicating a draw. But it revealed only an infinitesimal part of the story.After four days of pulsating cricket, this was a fifth and final day to rate with some of the more unthinkable and incredible in Test history.There was undeviating defiance from Mark Waugh (86), Steve Waugh (67) and Matthew Hayden (57) as New Zealand initially struggled to adaptto the task of snaring eight Australian wickets from a total of 93 gripping overs.And an extraordinary late blitzkrieg from Adam Gilchrist (83*) as he clouted 32 runs from nine deliveries at one stage to improbably accept the challenge of carrying Australia toward a victory target of 440. An Australian win which would, no less, have rendered the innings the most productive among all successful fourth innings Test run chases.Only a pair of run outs at the other end, one of them involving a freakish Daniel Vettori deflection of a straight drive into the stumps of the hometeam’s captain, foiled the brilliant wicketkeeper-batsman’s plans.Yet a plucky Black Caps outfit was never far from snatching the Trans-Tasman Trophy from Australia’s clutches either, bravely keeping itsambitions of victory burning until the very last over of the match by continuing to collect wickets at crucial times and limiting the score to 7/381.In the end, the effect of two controversial rulings from Zimbabwean umpire Ian Robinson on caught behind decisions against Steve Waugh andJason Gillespie (1*) was inestimable. Waugh was on just 13, and the total at 4/203, when he moved back, tried to drive forcefully at Vettori(2/142), and appeared to top edge a catch to wicketkeeper Adam Parore.The Black Caps also seemed justifiably convinced of the merits of their shout against Gillespie. The number nine batsman hadn’t scored, and thematch was still six overs from its conclusion, when he was adjudged not to have brushed a Chris Cairns (1/72) delivery with his gloves down the legside.The ever-threatening Vettori had already made two crucial inroads by that time, luring Hayden to guide a catch to slip shortly before lunch andbeating a drive from Damien Martyn (30) in the shadows of tea. There had been an important contribution from part-time medium pacer CraigMcMillan (1/15) too when just his fourth delivery of the match seamed sharply back in to Mark Waugh, mowing down his stumps as he backedaway to cut.As each of those wickets tumbled, acquisition of the Trans-Tasman Trophy and the ending of Australia’s reign as the official world Test championstill seemed far from impossible. In practice, though, the difficulty of the task was always about akin to the prospect of snowboarding with safetydown the length of Mount Cook.Accordingly, joy probably would have known few bounds for the New Zealand players if a first victory on Australian soil in 16 years had beensnared.And it still remained a fascinating end to a series that continued to defy almost all expectations in any case.Even around the near-serial interference of poor weather – there were two brief showers again today – both teams continued to play theircricket with flair and an imaginative and attacking ethos that reflected great credit on the combatants.Today’s finish itself – particularly when set within the context of a series that somehow ended at 0-0 – must also rate somewhere among the veryfinest in Test cricket. As a former Prime Minister of the home country was once prone to say, this is about as good as it gets.

Taking to Twitter, Liverpool correspondent James Pearce has revealed what Reds star Mohamed Salah did in the tunnel immediately after suffering an injury against Brighton this afternoon.

The Lowdown: Reds secure win…

The Reds secured a vital three points away to Brighton at the Amex with Jurgen Klopp’s side keeping chase on Premier League title rivals Manchester City.

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Goals from Salah and new signing Luis Diaz in either half guided Liverpool to victory, but in potentially concerning news, their Egyptian talisman was taken off through injury.

Klopp elected to remove his star winger in the 65th minute after Salah went down needing treatment, with Pearce of The Athletic sharing something interesting he did in the tunnel immediately after coming off.

The Latest: Pearce shares Salah gesture…

As per the journalist, via Twitter, Salah threw his shirt to a Brighton supporter in what was a kind gesture and perhaps an indicator of his mood after the injury.

Pearce explained: “As Mohamed Salah went down the tunnel a Brighton fan asked for his shirt, Salah smiled, took it off and threw it to him.”

The Verdict: Good sign?

The 29-year-old’s good spirits to honour the Seagulls supporter’s request could be an indicator that his knock might not be as serious as some supporters may fear.

ESPN journalist James Olley reiterates that Salah walked unaided off the pitch when substituted by Klopp, further backing that there may be some positivity.

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As we await a more definitive update, Salah’s kind gesture to a home fan may well be a good sign ahead of this week’s trip to Arsenal.

In other news: Contact made: Liverpool make pre-summer move to sign ‘top level’ marquee record-breaker! Find out more here.