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Leeds United are evaluating several options to replace Marcelo Bielsa as pressure starts to mount at Elland Road.

What’s the word?

The Yorkshire outfit were thrashed 6-0 by Liverpool in midweek, which was yet another humiliating and heavy defeat to one of the Premier League’s top teams.

Those six goals takes the Whites’ worrying record to 38 goals conceded across their last 12 outings in all competitions, in which they were beaten 7-0 by Manchester City and 4-1 by Arsenal, meaning they are leaking 3.2 goals per game at the moment.

According to verified Italian journalist Gianluigi Longari, Bielsa’s situation at Leeds is “complicated” and the club’s hierarchy have turned their attention to a new name in Paulo Fonseca.

Premier League rejection

Whilst it remains to be seen whether any managerial move would occur immediately or at the end of the season, all of the signals are suggesting that it could be Bielsa’s final few months in charge of the Yorkshire giants.

Back in December, ever-reliable reporter Phil Hay of The Athletic claimed that he had a “hunch is that this might be his last season”.

And evidently, recent results and the prospect of being dragged into a relegation dogfight have mounted the pressure on the 66-year-old, who has been at the helm since June 2018.

What he has done for the club will always be remembered and after all, he is something of a cult hero around west Yorkshire but these past few matches have been unacceptable, so it’s easy to see why Victor Orta may be planning for a different future.

But it’s unlikely that Fonseca is the answer. He has already been rejected by three other Premier League teams in the past year.

The 48-year-old came closest to Spurs, this weekend’s opponents, before the appointment of Nuno Santo in the summer but talks stalled despite sporting director Fabio Paratici naming him as his first-choice.

Newcastle United also were also close to appointing him following their Saudi-backed takeover. After three interviews, they turned their attentions elsewhere before settling on Eddie Howe, as per local news reports.

And then Aston Villa had him on their shortlist alongside Steven Gerrard, who they opted for instead.

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The Portuguese, who was once slammed for having an “abysmal” record against the big teams by Serie A expert Conor Clancy to Football FanCast, would clearly be no improvement on Bielsa as the pair have the same deficiencies.

If he wasn’t wanted by three other teams, including one below them in the standings, then that is rather damning, so Orta ought to stay clear of the former AS Roma and Shakhtar Donetsk boss.

AND in other news, £20.2m wasted: Leeds’ “forgotten man” has been robbing Radz blind for over 113 weeks…

Mahela Jayawardene: “It’s going to be good fun” © AFP

The English season may still be another six months away but Mahela Jayawardene is already looking forward to making his county debut. Jayawardene, the Sri Lanka captain, signed for Derbyshire yesterday as the county ring the changes with a new-look squad which includes Wavell Hinds.”It’s good,” he told Cricinfo in Adelaide, as he warmed up for Sri Lanka’s tour match here this weekend. “I haven’t played before. It’s a great opportunity.”I don’t think I will be there for long because of my international commitment. But they’re trying to start all over again, Derby, and they’ve got a few good players coming in. It’s going to be good fun and hopefully I can learn something at a different level of cricket.”And he promised to lend new captain Rikki Clarke, who will be joined by former Surrey team-mate Nayan Doshi, the benefit of his experience. “I’ve played against him a few times and I think he’s a very good cricketer.”Give him the responsibility, he’s a young guy and I think he’s looking forward to it. It’s a good challenge for him as well, so if I can help him in any way it would be great and try to start anew at Derby. A good challenge for me, as well.”Jayawardene will arrive towards the end of April and stay until the middle of July after which he can be replaced by another overseas player.

The bitter infighting inside Zimbabwe took yet another twist this week as the ten provincial chairmen disassociated themselves with claims by Themba Mliswa, the political extremist who held a media conference during which he said he was speaking on their behalf.Mliswa called on Peter Chingoka, the board chairman, to account for recent events and repeated accusations of financial impropriety against board members as well as making threats that he had friends in high places who were behind him.But the Zimbabwe Cricket website has said that last weekend the chairmen met and voted unanimously to disassociate themselves from Mliswa’s remarks. A statement issued by them said: “While we do not wish to go into detail with regards to Mliswa’s statements, and whilst we prefer to reserve our comments on his statements against certain individual members of the ZC interim board, our conscience is clear as we make this brief statement.”Mliswa was slung off the board in July, and the chairmen reiterated that he “does not represent any of the ten provinces”.While the removal of Mliswa from the scene – if that is what the upshot of this is – can be no bad thing, the chairmen’s stance is hardly surprising given that by and large they are in effect appointees of the ZC hierarchy.This is not the end of the unrest as Crispen Tsvarai, the senior executive who left the board a fortnight ago, has raised a number of issues which will need to be addressed.

Bennett King believes Glenn McGrath and Co. will be quite a handful for even the likes of Brian Lara and Chris Gayle © Getty Images

Bennett King, the West Indies coach, reposes more faith in his unproven bowling attack than in the team’s batting. King believes it will be the Australian bowlers who will turn on the pressure on the West Indies in the three-Test series that begins in Brisbane on November 3.”We have the bowling that can unsettle the Australian batsmen,” King was reported as saying in the . “History shows they have two of the best bowlers in the world, so batting is in for a tough time, I guess.”King regards Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne as the prime threats to a star-studded batting lineup that includes Brian Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Chris Gayle, all of whom have played over 50 Tests. Lara averages 53.75 with the bat, Chanderpaul 47.41, Sarwan 40.87 and Gayle 39.38, but King feels that they have their task cut out for them.The West Indies squad to Australia includes six fast bowlers, none of whom has played more than 17 Tests. Jermaine Lawson, whose action has been scrutinised in the past, is the only fast bowler who averages less than 30 with the ball. King believes all six have the necesssary pace and fire to succeed, and cited their good showing in Sri Lanka in July. “We didn’t get enough runs in Sri Lanka on very good batting decks but we certainly got very good players out,” King said. “We know we can get good players out. We have to make sure we get runs as well.”King’s claims come a day after his bowlers, led by Daren Powell (4 for 58), bowled out Queensland for 323 in a warm-up game ahead of the Test series. Lawson, Fidel Edwards and Corey Collymore were all rested but are expected to come into contention for the first Test.

South African cricket is going through a period of transition, and Gerald Majola, the chief executive of the United Cricket Board, is at the helm of the transformation process. He spoke to the media during the first Test at Kanpur.

Gerald Majola: facing the press in Kanpur© Getty Images

On the reasoning behind such an inexperienced squad
As far as we are concerned, this is the best team for South Africa, as selected by our standards. We outlined those standards at the beginning of the season, and every player here has been selected on form. If you look at their statistics, they stand out.On the policy of including five or six black players in the squad, and whether that puts pressure on his selectors
I was asked this question in Parliament. A day earlier, at the selectors’ meeting, they had all agreed to pick the team based on form and not by any other qualification. But the selectors know about our transformation policy and they understand it.On the importance of the policy, given the controversies with the rugby team last year
Transformation in South Africa is very important, not only for cricket but for the entire country. We have to transform and know where we are coming from. South Africa suffered under apartheid for decades and transformation is something that doesn’t happen overnight, it’s a process. In 1998, the United Cricket Board started its own transformation chapter without any external pressure, because we understand that we have to transform the sport.Cricket is part of South Africa and we have set ourselves targets that we must achieve, which is why you now see black players being picked on merit. We have recently reduced our provincial teams from 11 to six, and the number of black players playing there is almost 50 percent. They are all coming through on merit and many of those performing well are also black. They are being selected on form and not because they are black. Thami Tsolekile, Alfonso Thomas and Charl Langeveldt, who is not here, are some of those players doing well.Is the emphasis on long-term planning or short-term goals?
It’s a long-term process and not a matter of numbers.Will you be distracted from this path if you lose a couple of series?
No, definitely not.How about the white players who feel they are being ignored?
No one is being ignored because everyone is selected on merit. So, any white player who performs will be selected.On including former players like Barry Richards in the development programme
You can’t force someone to do something they don’t want do. Barry Richards has chosen to be a commentator and that’s his field. You have others like [Ray] Jennings who are still involved in the system and therefore being used by it.Any special plans for the development programme?
Everyone has to have access to the sport. Previously some of us did not have access to the same facilities that our white colleagues did.On Mark Boucher being dropped
He was out of form.

Duncan Fletcher will continue to combine his role of head coach with that of tour manager in all of England’s overseas series.Following a report from the ECB on the 2002/03 Ashes series, the proposal for a separate tour manager was rejected.Dennis Amiss, the International Teams Management Group (ITMG) chairman, produced the report which also recommended measures to be taken to improve day-to-day communications on tour. As a result, Fletcher will report directly to John Carr, the ECB’s director of cricket operations, rather than to the chief executive.Carr is to receive a daily bulletin from Phil Neale, the team operations manager, and new protocols are to be put in place to ensure the management, ECB personnel and the Professional Cricketers Association are appropriately updated on administration and injury news.

Gaining respect from other states is at the top of the South Australian cricket team’s “to do” list as it attempts to erase the memory of a lacklustre last season.State cricket manager Greg Chappell laid down the law to his squad after it took the Pura Cup four day tournament’s wooden spoon and narrowly missed the final of the one-day competition in 2000-01.”At the moment South Australian cricket has very little respect,” Chappell told AAP.”We’ve had little blips on the radar where we’ve produced a group of players who have been good enough and desperate enough to win the competition.”But by and large, if you took a straw poll within the competition, we don’t have much respect and we never have.”The former Australian captain said his players needed to display the desire to be successful as well as good form.”If they meet that, they’ll be chosen, if they don’t, then they better start thinking about another career,” he said.”I don’t have any set ideas on who our first side is going to be.”Form is obviously going to count but commitment is also going to count.”As part of its mental preparation for the coming season, the Redbacks squad will take part in a training camp in Victoria on Wednesday and Thursday.The camp, conducted in the Hattah-Kulkyne National Park near Mildura, will focus on goal setting and team building.It will be the second year in a row the squad has taken part in the camp.The Redbacks have also called in a sports psychologist, who will be available to work with players throughout their season, which starts with a day-night limited overs match against Western Australia in Perth on October 12.Chappell said he had also spoken to players about publicity surrounding his contract negotiations earlier this year.”Within our group, it’s never been a huge issue,” Chappell said.After negotiations were resolved in May, SA Cricket Association chief executive Michael Deare said this summer would more than likely be Chappell’s last in charge of the Redbacks.Deare said due to other business interests, Chappell wanted to live in the eastern states this summer and commute to Adelaide to coach the Redbacks but the SACA found the proposal “totally unacceptable”.Chappell’s current contract expires at the end of March next year.

Newcastle striker Demba Ba has stated that rumours over a potential move to Manchester United are false, and made by someone not on his management team.

Armand Doorn, who claimed to be the Senegalese frontman’s representative, stated that the Premier League champions were ready to make a transfer bid for the in-form attacker before the end of January.

Ba however has clarified the matter, and admits that he has nothing to do with Doorn.

“Really, I don’t know how desperate this “armand doorn” can be to talk like he’s my agent!!” Ba stated on Twitter.

“He’s nothing for me. Stop lying and show respect.”

Ba’s management have also released a statement rubbishing Doorn’s claims, and despite admitting that the African forward had a buyout clause in his contract, said that the player is happy on Tyneside.

“Armand Doorn is not Demba’s agent. Alex Gontran is the only person who can speak on his behalf and Newcastle have not had an offer for him,” a spokesman told talkSPORT.

“Demba feels good at Newcastle. He has just started something there. There is a release clause in his contract but the figure will remain confidential.

“If a club wants to speak to Demba, then they must go to Newcastle first. We respect the process,” he finished.

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By Gareth McKnight

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UEFA has opened disciplinary cases against both Real Madrid and Barcelona following Wednesday’s fiery Champions League tie at the Bernabeu.Barca triumphed 2-0 in the semi-final first leg, though a brace by Argentine superstar Lionel Messi was largely overshadowed by theatrics on and off the pitch.

Referee Wolfgang Stark had his hands full as both sides played up challenges, argued vigorously and niggled at each other through the match, culminating in a red card to Real defender Pepe for a challenge on Davi Alves.

Real boss Jose Mourinho vented his fury at the dismissal to the fourth official and was subsequently banished to the stands, and later unleashed a torrent of accusations at Barcelona, UEFA and the officials in his post-match press conference.

Unsurprisingly, Mourinho attracted the attention of UEFA, who have announced they will investigate the Portuguese manager’s comments in one of five disciplinary charges levelled against Real.

The Spanish club have also be charged in relation to Pepe and Mourinho’s dismissals, a pitch invasion following the final whistle and the throwing of missiles onto the pitch by Real supporters.

Barca face just one charge after substitute goalkeeper Jose Pinto was shown a red card for his part in a half-time brawl as both sides headed to the dressing rooms.

Both cases will be heard by UEFA’s disciplinary board next Friday.

West Ham United co-owner David Sullivan has dismissed recent rumours suggesting that manager Avram Grant's position is already under pressure.

The Hammers have lost their opening three games of the new Premier League season, but Sullivan is confident that Grant will soon turn things around at Upton Park.

He told the News of the World:"I haven't relayed any messages to Avram at all. I just expect a gradual improvement in form. It's not all doom and gloom.

"You can't judge a team after three games, it's very premature. When you're building something it takes time and there have been changes at all levels.

"The next three games are very, very tough. Chelsea at home, Stoke who are particularly good on their own ground and Tottenham at home.

"Three tough games and then the season really starts with the Fulham game on October 2, but I hope to surprise a few people against Chelsea, Stoke or Tottenham.

"The Bolton game was a major disappointment but it's early days. There was a stage last season where we lost six games in a row, these things happen.

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"He inherited a very imbalanced squad. Over the next year he'll turn things round. Results will gradually come. Avram is very, very confident about the future.

"He'd love to have £30-£40million to spend but what manager wouldn't? I've got every confidence in the manager and every confidence in the team."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email