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Ottis Gibson is the one West Indian who has been on the receiving end of some Dutch (mischief) before

Firdose Moonda in Delhi26-Feb-2011Ottis Gibson is the one West Indian who has been on the receiving end of some Dutch (mischief) before. He was England’s bowling coach at the World Twenty20 when they lost the opening match at Lord’s by four wickets. It was the upset of the year and it hasn’t been easy to erase from memory.”I remember the feeling was like in our dressing room and jubilation in their dressing room,” Gibson said. “Those guys, when they come into an event like this, they bring in lots of energy and an expectation of upsetting a big team.”To the Dutch, West Indies would fit comfortably into that category – they are a Full Member, albeit one in decline – and they still hold the aura of being one of the traditionally great nations in the cricketing world. For the critics, West Indies present Netherlands with an even challenge, which is why the men from the Caribbean have to find a way of showing that they still belong in the elite league. “The results in the last two years don’t suggest that West Indies are a big team, but what we know and what believe in is that we are a still a big team and we have to prove that,” Gibson said.Their opening defeat against South Africa has by no means ruled them out of the competition with the format allowing teams more than one slip up and still make into the quarter-finals. It means that West Indies can’t allow any clouds of gloom to crowd out their sunshine and that they still have plenty to play for.”Our players have got a lot belief that they can come here and do well and prove to the world that we are still a more than capable nation.” Gibson said and added his team are taking inspiration from tournament past. “India weren’t expected to win the World Cup [in 1983] but they won. Pakistan had to win a game to qualify for the semi-finals, they won the game and went on to win the World Cup,” he added. “We’ve got history in this competition. We have to look forward, we have to positive.”Something that will aid that sort of thinking is the fact that they have played on this wicket before and take more information into the match which they did not have on Thursday. “The wicket didn’t exactly play according to how we thought. [Kemar] Roach plays here for the IPL team, [Dwayne] Bravo and [Kieron] Pollard have played a lot here and they said in the second innings it was going to go a lot slower and lower which it didn’t. It remained a pretty good wicket throughout the game.”What will make the task of staying upbeat more difficult is the absence of Dwayne Bravo, one of West Indies’ key players even though his pitch information was a little off target, who has been ruled out for four weeks with a knee injury after he slipped in his follow through against South Africa. “Bravo has been key part of our team for a long time,” Gibson said. “He is a sort of energiser in the team, with his fielding, bowling, batting and also with his presence in dressing room.”Bravo also formed an essential cog of the team’s overall game plan. “Our strategy was built around three allrounders – captain Darren Sammy, Bravo and Pollard,” Gibson explained. “With him [Bravo] missing it give us an opportunity to perhaps think whether we a need a batsman at number six and perhaps an extra bowler.”In one way, though, the need to play an extra bowler could help West Indies because they didn’t look like taking a wicket for long periods against South Africa, after they got a couple of early breakthroughs. Ravi Rampaul and Andre Russell may come into contention, as will left-arm spinner Nikita Miller.What they need most of all is a fresh perspective, a mentality that says they are going to compete, no matter who they are playing against and the will to prove what Gibson said with such confidence. “Cricket is still very much alive in the Caribbean,” he said. Now show us.

The Warriors and the Lions, the two South African franchises who competed in last year’s Champions League Twenty20, have confirmed they have not received their prize money from the tournament

Firdose Moonda31-Jan-2011The Warriors and the Lions, the two South African franchises who competed in last year’s Champions League Twenty20, have confirmed they have not received their prize money from the tournament. The amount, totalling US$ 1.5 million for both franchises, was due to be paid out on the last day of January.”We have not received any notification of the money yet,” Cassim Docrat, chief executive of the Lions told ESPNcricinfo. “We understand that it takes a while to reconcile everything although we were told that the money would be paid at the end of the month.”Signs of a delay in the processing became evident last Tuesday at the launch of the Standard Bank Pro20, the competition which produces South African’s two CLT20 candidates. Alviro Petersen was asked if he was enjoying his CLT20 money, to which he replied, ‘I’m still waiting for my wallet to fill up.”At the time, both Docrat and Dave Emslie, chief executive of the Warriors franchise, were not concerned about the non-payment, because they expected the money to arrive by the end of the month. “The tournament ended in September and we think it’s a very acceptable time period for payment to be made,” Emslie said.The Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations’ (FICA), however, disagrees. “It’s simply unacceptable that three of the most financially affluent cricket boards in the world can seemingly sit on their hands for four months with no apparent sense of obligation to pay this prize money in a timely manner,” Tim May, FICA’s chief executive, said. The CLT20 is jointly owned by the BCCI, CSA and CA and the total prize money owed by them totals US $6 million.May said that FICA has been told that payment “may be made in late January or early February.” He added that participation fees, which were due to be paid no more than 20 days after completion of the event on September 26, 2010, had also not been paid. “We will be assessing our various options regarding recovery of these outstanding amounts for the 2010 event should the monies not be received within the next couple of weeks.”The two South African franchises will receive notification from CSA when the money is successfully transferred from India. On receipt, it will be divided among all six local franchises. The Warriors, who reached the final of the CLT20, will be awarded the biggest share. Despite their imminent riches, Warriors captain Davy Jacobs is in no hurry to receive his cheque. “We will get it at some stage. The later, the better,” he said. “By then we would have forgotten all the silly things we want to do with it and will spend it properly.”

A scrap is what England have secretly been yearning for all series, and a scrap is what they are in right now, after a wasteful first-day performance at The Oval allowed Pakistan to claim the upper hand

Andrew Miller at The Oval18-Aug-2010A scrap is what England have secretly been yearning for all series, and a scrap is what they are in right now, after a wasteful first-day performance at The Oval allowed Pakistan to claim the upper hand in a manner not dissimilar to their incredible heist against Australia at Headingley last month.That England pulled themselves out of a nosedive at 94 for 7, where the Aussies had continued to plummet to 88 all out, owed everything to a restorative stand between Matt Prior and Stuart Broad, two feisty cricketers with the sort of mongrel streak that will be invaluable Down Under later this year. But the fact that England allowed themselves to get into such a mess in the first place will be of far greater concern to the team strategists.”Any time you win the toss on what looks like a good batting deck, it’s not the ideal position you’d want to be in,” admitted Prior at the close. “It wasn’t expected, and we’re obviously below par, but to see the side to a semi-reasonable score was a real good feeling. Everything depends on how we come in in the morning. We have huge amount of belief in our bowlers, that they can come back, fight hard, and get us back in the game by sticking to our plans.”For all Prior’s confidence, it’s not as if the collapse came as a complete surprise, because Pakistan’s seam bowlers have been exemplary all summer long. Mohammad Asif churns through his overs in a manner that somehow comes across as both menacing and long-suffering all at the same time, while Mohammad Amir and now the debutant Wahab Riaz zip and sling their offerings with sharp hostility from an unfamiliar left-arm line. Backed up at last by catching that, with the honourable exception of Mohammad Yousuf, was befitting of a Test match, they caught England cold under the same sort of cloud cover that had scuppered their own ambitions at Trent Bridge and Edgbaston.”By the end of the day it looked a good wicket,” added Prior, “but we’ve seen all series that the minute the clouds come over it seems a different proposition altogether – seaming around, and nipping a bit quicker. But this unit is all about the team. It’s been Colly [Collingwood] in the past, Morgs [Morgan] in the past, KP plenty of times. We now have a team that, in any situation, someone will put their hand up and perform.”Impressively though Prior and Broad fought, however, the current scenario is somewhat different to the one that England had envisaged when talking up the likelihood of a stronger Pakistan challenge in this match. The Oval is renowned as the best batting track in the country – “It is a batting paradise and I have heard a lot about it,” said an enthusiastic Wahab at the close – and if this game was to be a challenge, then it was surely going to be a high-scoring battle of wits between two attacks unused to the conditions conspiring against them.Instead, England’s innings was a continuation of the same old frailties that have been largely masked by the ineptitude of Pakistan’s top-order. They have passed 300 only once in the series so far, and that total of 354 at Trent Bridge owed everything to the only truly substantial partnership posted by either side – Morgan and Collingwood’s 219-run stand for the fifth wicket. The rest have dealt largely in scraps, not least Alastair Cook, whose much-vaunted temperament looked as ropey as his technique in an agonising seven-ball stay this morning. In fretting about what might happen to their excellent bowlers when the sun shines in Brisbane, the focus has been deflected from an uncomfortably unproductive top six.Aside from Cook, everyone has had their moments in this series – Morgan made his century in Nottingham, Pietersen made a chancy 80 in Birmingham, Jonathan Trott chipped in with a brace of fifties in the same game while Strauss has shown fluent form without kicking on – but partnerships have been a rarity. It says something about the state of an apparently one-sided series that a debutant such as Wahab could bound into his end-of-play press conference with the same sort of confidence that he showed in his run-up, and offer next to no deference to a side that has put his team-mates on the canvas with more than a day to spare in consecutive games.”The way we have been bowling throughout this summer, we have bowled to the Australians and to England, and none of the top order has scored,” said Wahab. “England is a good team but today was our day. My confidence level was high always, we bowled well and we got them. Today I just wrapped them up.”The calculated aggression with which Yasir Hameed relaunched his Test career ensured that Pakistan did not finish the day as they had started too many of their previous innings this series, grinding through the overs with close catchers lurking in every corner, even though James Anderson’s late breakthrough did reawaken the possibility of further batting jitters on the second morning. Nevertheless, that ought not to be England’s most pressing concern right now, because – aside from one blip on that third day at Edgbaston – they know they can trust their attack to fulfil their duties. Right at this moment, the same cannot be said of the batting.

Sri Lanka’s series-winning hangover allowed Australia to end their seven-match losing streak as Clint McKay and Mitchell Starc set up the eight-wicket victory

The Bulletin by Peter English at the Gabba07-Nov-2010
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsClint McKay’s 5 for 33 floored Sri Lanka and ensured an easy victory for the hosts•Getty ImagesSri Lanka’s series-winning hangover allowed Australia to end their seven-match losing streak as Clint McKay and Mitchell Starc set up the eight-wicket victory. The result meant Australia avoided their worst sequence of defeats and gave them a much-needed boost with the Ashes starting on November 25.Despite the strength of their performance, Australia’s opponents were not fully focused after achieving their first series win Down Under on Friday. McKay gained his maiden five-wicket haul and Starc picked up his first four international wickets as Sri Lanka fell to 115 on a bouncy surface with only a hint of green.Kumar Sangakkara won the toss, batted and was soon regretting the decision. Only two batsmen reached double figures and 25 extras, including 14 wides, boosted the total in front of only 9,037 spectators. The total was the worst crowd for an ODI involving Australia at the Gabba.The local batsmen had no real problems in their reply and Shane Watson (15) and Brad Haddin (31) were the only casualties, both going to Dilhara Fernando (2 for 47). Michael Clarke, who was in charge during Sri Lanka’s stunning win in Melbourne, made sure of the win in the 22nd over, with his glide for four taking him to 50 off 51 balls.Clarke peaked with back-to-back boundaries off Thisara Perara and lofted a straight six off Suraj Randiv shortly before the finish. The innings ended a difficult week for Clarke and gave him something to smile about.McKay’s three early strikes floored the tourists and Starc, the 20-year-old left-armer in his second ODI, did not let them get up as the batsmen lasted only 32 overs. McKay’s damaging burst left the visitors at 3 for 14 in the fifth over and he returned to mop up Randiv and Perera to grab 5 for 33 off nine. Starc stepped in during his second spell to prevent a recovery on the way to a highly encouraging 4 for 27 off nine.McKay produced a double-wicket maiden in the third over of the match and followed up with another breakthrough in his next effort. Aided by the extra lift, McKay forced Tillakaratne Dilshan (1) to pop a simple catch to Michael Hussey at square leg and then watched Sangakkara (0) aim a big drive and edge behind.Mahela Jayawardene was also keen to attack but his thicker nick was taken by Cameron White at second slip. Upul Tharanga (28) resisted for a while before being lbw to Watson and then it was Starc’s turn to collect his first victim, with Angelo Mathews playing on for 9.Starc didn’t have to wait long for his second breakthrough, which came when Jeevan Mendis (5) nicked a shorter ball to Haddin. Chamara Silva had been in charge of Sri Lanka’s fightback but he inside-edged Starc and was bowled for 33, ending Sri Lanka’s hopes of a decent total.The tail didn’t last long and the innings was over when Lasith Malinga swung Starc to deep midwicket. Sri Lanka, who were without Nuwan Kulasekara and Muttiah Muralitharan, came to Australia aiming for a first series win here and deserved their overall success, but they will be disappointed with the way the drought-breaking trip ended.

South Africa won the first trophy available to them in their home summer with victory in the three-match Twenty20 series

The Report by Firdose Moonda26-Dec-2012 Scorecard and ball-by-ball details Aaron Phangiso picked up the big wickets of Martin Guptill and Brendon McCullum•AFPSouth Africa won the first trophy available to them in their home summer with victory in the three-match Twenty20 series. After piling on the fifth highest score posted in the shortest format (at both international and domestic level) at St George’s Park, thanks largely to an 89-run third wicket stand between Henry Davids and Justin Ontong, Aaron Phangiso and Ryan McLaren ensured South Africa defended it comfortably.All of New Zealand’s bowlers save for Mitchell McClenaghan and Ronnie Hira failed to read the pace of the Port Elizabeth pitch. Against the aggression of Davids and Ontong they gave away too many runs which allowed the pair to lay the launch-pad for take-off.New Zealand did not have the batsmen to do the same. With Martin Guptill and Brendon McCullum at the crease, there was some hope. Once the dominoes began to fall, there was no stopping the slide. Still, New Zealand competed with the hosts with more heart than was expected of them to set the tone ahead for the Test matches.As an example of their ability to ruffle feathers, New Zealand had the hosts in early trouble, even in the absence of Richard Levi. South Africa’s opening partnership stuttered again when Faf du Plessis, who was promoted to bat in his preferred top-two spot, was bowled by Ronnie Hira as he attempted to hit through mid-wicket.Levi’s omission also meant Quinton de Kock was given more responsibility at No. 3 but his inexperience showed. Instead of rotating strike while Davids kept going, de Kock tried to loft McClenaghan over long-on and got a leading edge. Corey Anderson ran from mid-off to take the catch at mid-on and de Kock’s series with the bat ended without him living up to the hype.Davids had none of the same expectation but exceeded all hopes. He displayed a range of classical shots, tinged only with some extra intent. The drive off the back foot and the pull shot were his hallmarks but more notable than that was that he scored off almost every ball he faced. Both he and Ontong pushed each other between the wickets and put pressure on the New Zealand fielders.The only chance they offered was when Davids went aerial against Doug Bracewell and lobbed the ball to Martin Guptill at short extra cover. Guptill seemed to lose the ball in the background and although he got fingers to it, spilt the chance. Davids was on 32 and went on to more than double his score.As Davids grew in confidence, so did Ontong, whose assurance swelled against James Franklin. Ontong hit him for back to back sixes: down the ground and then to deep mid-wicket but Franklin won the mini-battle when Ontong was caught trying to send another slower ball over the leg-side boundary. Still, he had taken 16 runs off the five balls he faced in that over and South Africa had 116 runs and seven wickets in hand as they approached the last five overs.Those turned out to the most profitable, even though Davids departed mid-way through. South Africa added 63 runs in the final quarter of their innings, thanks to their big-hitters. Farhaan Behardien and David Miller both struck the ball cleanly against New Zealand’s clueless death bowlers.Contrastingly, South Africa’s attack had a firm grip on what was required. Ryan McClaren had Rob Nicol lbw in the first over when he was struck in line of middle and offstump. Guptill showed glimpses of the form he displayed three days ago when his 101 took New Zealand to victory. He drove with power and was assisted by McCullum, who seemed to finally find his placement.Just as the two settled, Guptill tried to paddle Phangiso over short fine-leg but was caught by Robin Peterson. Phangiso claimed another big scalp in his next over when McCullum thought he had got him over long-off but was caught on the boundary.New Zealand remained in the hunt and after 11 overs had the same score South Africa had posted – 71 – but had lost two more wickets. Colin Munro edged a McLaren short ball and James Franklin swung to long-on to give Phangiso his third. The point of no return was reached when Morne Morkel leapt to his left at short third man to send Jimmy Neesham on his way.The required run rate climbed to over 14 to an over with six to go and only last rites were left to be performed. Rory Kleinveldt took the ninth wicket but Morne Morkel finished without reward as a new South African era made itself known. For New Zealand, there remains much to work on. They were suspected to have bled 20 runs too many but in the end, were almost double that short.

Ashes tickets go on sale to England supporters from Tuesday after more than 160,000 were sold to Australian fans last week

Peter English18-Jul-2010Ashes tickets go on sale to England supporters from Tuesday after more than 160,000 were sold to Australian fans last week. Members of the Australian Cricket Family received a head start for the series beginning on November 25, but there are still spots available for the public release.Four years ago approximately 42,000 English supporters, including 20,000 from the Barmy Army, attended the contests, which ended in a 5-0 victory for Australia. There is no chance of a repeat of the record-breaking crowds at the end of the year.”We’re not expecting the same extraordinary numbers,” Cricket Australia’s public affairs general manager Peter Young said. England held the Ashes after a 16-year drought when they arrived last time and there was huge excitement from their supporters at the prospect of retaining the urn.”That series was one out of the box, probably an all-time record,” Young said. “The UK-Australia exchange rate is also very different this time, making it more expensive for UK visitors.”The Barmy Army has been allocated a block of seats at each venue and one of their supporters will be the trumpeter Bill Cooper, who was banned from playing his instrument on the previous tour. “He is coming into venues on an agreed basis to work within our guidelines,” Young said.He said Cooper would provide entertainment but fans nearby would not be subjected to all-day tunes. Cooper, who does like to watch cricket, will be the only one blowing any sort of trumpet as vuvuzelas are not allowed.General sales are available for the Tests at the Gabba and Adelaide Oval on Tuesday, the SCG on Wednesday and the MCG and the WACA on Thursday. Cricket Australia has warned that scalpers are already offering seats at inflated prices and that those tickets can be cancelled at the admission gates.

Fresh from the saga that was the ill-fated and closed shop idea of a European Super League, UEFA made considerable changes to the Champions League and Europa League set up in the hopes of placating the bigger European sides and ensuring that such an idea was never floated again.

It now seems they are going one step further in their panicked efforts to ‘improve’ the beautiful game and could effectively be introducing a form of the European Super League via the back door after discussions were held at last weeks Executive Committee meeting about bringing in wildcards for historically successful clubs, and making the first ever step away from qualifying for European competition being based solely on the finishing position of last season’s exploits.

A vote to ratify this monumental change away from sporting integrity is expected to be held at the UEFA Congress in Vienna on May 10 – and unsurprisingly there are many clubs unhappy with this proposed suggestion.

If the vote goes UEFA’s way which would be like betting on the house to win at onlinecasino-southafrica.co.za, it would mean that from 2024 there would be two extra places reserved in the Champions League for European clubs who did not qualify via their domestic league, but have historically fared well in the European Cup/Champions League competition.

To put this into practice, hypothetically speaking, it would mean reigning European Champions Chelsea could finish fifth in the Premier League this season, but they would still have a very good chance of qualifying for the Champions League in 2022/23 as they rank fourth in UEFA’s 10-year club coefficient table. Whereas, if say West Ham United were to finish in fifth place, they would miss out on a Champions League spot because of their historical coefficient rating – there are 89 clubs rated higher than David Moyes’ side at this moment in time and that’s almost as many options that are available to you on Online casino games india.

To put it bluntly, UEFA would be introducing a two tier system of qualification that would for the first time in the history of the game, deliberately and by design, favour and protect the biggest European teams of the last decade, whilst also making it harder for them to be challenged by the rest of football as the growth that can be gained by a club through the riches of European competition would now effectively be out of reach and ring fenced around those clubs who have already gained and grown on the back of European success.

As was rightly pointed out by one Premier League executive, what is also then stopping UEFA from further tweaking this two tier system to be even more favourable in future years.

“It’s almost like this is ‘European Super League Lite’, and the fear is that two might become four, might become eight – with the Champions League becoming more and more of a closed shop.”

Such a move could also see the bizarre situation where a club finishing in fifth place would automatically go into the Europa League, but a team finishing below them in sixth spot would get bumped into the more profitable Champions League.

Given the reaction by fans to the ESL idea, UEFA would be wise to ensure that whatever changes they do plan to make, don’t give rise to a similar reaction from fans again but in their direction this time. With social media, sites like FootballFanCast.com and similar all available for fans to vociferously make their feelings known in this day and age, UEFA might find that pandering too far to the wishes of the big boys, could see the presumed smaller boys in the game take their proverbial ball back home and work out a system that would be far fairer to them and far fairer to fans given the switch to the game only being about money now.

Photo by Unsplash

Ijaz Butt, the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, has refused to apologise for suggestions he made that England fixed a match in the recent one-day series

Osman Samiuddin27-Sep-2010Ijaz Butt, the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, has refused to apologise for suggestions he made that England fixed a match in the recent one-day series. Speaking on his arrival at Heathrow Airport on Tuesday, he said he thought the matter would be settled in days.Butt and the PCB’s legal advisor are expected to hold meetings with the lawyers of the three players at the centre of the spot-fixing scandal. Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, is also headed to London, but ESPNcricinfo understands his is a pre-planned visit.Butt and Taffazul Rizvi are expected to be in the UK for four to five days on a trip that was finalised only last week. The meetings with Elizabeth Robertson, the Addleshaw Goddard lawyer representing Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir in the spot-fixing case, were confirmed to ESPNcricinfo by a PCB official.The board expects there to be some movement from the Crown Prosecution Service on the fate of the case against the trio within the next week or so. Scotland Yard passed on their file of evidence on claims that Pakistan cricketers were involved in spot-fixing to the CPS on September 17.It is not known whether there will be meetings between Butt and the ECB while the PCB chairman is in London. The English board have demanded a full, public apology from Butt for claiming England players took “enormous amounts” of money to lose the third one-day international at The Oval earlier this month.That claim came in the wake of another spot-fixing story, this time in , which had sparked an investigation by the ICC over scoring rates during the match at The Oval. Following Butt’s outburst England came close to withdrawing from the fourth game at Lord’s but late-night meetings between Andrew Strauss and the ECB ended with the decision to continue with the series.However, both Strauss and the board came out with strongly-worded statements and have said they will pursue legal action if Butt doesn’t apologise. “We would like to express our surprise, dismay and outrage at the comments made by Mr Butt,” Strauss said at the time. “We are deeply concerned and disappointed that our integrity as cricketers has been brought into question. We refute these allegations completely and will be working closely with the ECB to explore all legal options open to us.”

Transfer insider Dean Jones believes there could be a shock twist on the future of Liverpool striker Divock Origi. 

The lowdown: Italy bound?

The 27-year-old, who once again endeared himself to the Anfield faithful with another Merseyside derby goal on Sunday, is widely expected to leave the club in the summer when his contract expires.

Recently, reputable journalist James Pearce admitted that an amicable departure was imminent with Serie A giants AC Milan the favourites to sign the popular Belgian frontman, with some reports even claiming an agreement will be found in Milan this week.

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However, a fresh update has emerged claiming it’s not too late for all parties to perform a major U-turn…

The latest: Jones makes claim

Speaking to GiveMeSport, Jones suggested there remains a possibility that Origi will still be plying his trade on Merseyside next season due to the ‘massive moments’ he produces.

“There’s loads of clubs that are a good potential fit for Origi, but I think it’s also going to depend on what he wants at this stage of his career.

“Whatever you say or think of him and whether he’s good enough to be in that Liverpool team, he has had some massive moments in a Liverpool shirt and he continues to have them.

“Jurgen Klopp absolutely loves him. If Klopp tells him he still has a role for him in that squad, I’d be surprised to see him leave.”

The verdict: Time has come

Seemingly on the brink of an exit for a number of transfer windows now, the prospect of keeping Origi and in turn offering the 32-cap Belgium ace a new deal is surely out of the question.

Albeit a man of multiple memorable moments, not least against the seven goals scored against cross-park rivals Everton, the striker who was hailed as ‘very unique’ by Jermaine Jenas has missed out on five Premier League match-day squads entirely in 2022 alone, suggesting he is not even a major option off the bench.

Despite a noteworthy return of nine direct goal contributions in 16 fleeting outings this season and well-established cult hero status on the Kop, the best option now for all parties would be a move away this summer.

In other news, a key Liverpool update has emerged regarding a superstar player. Read more here.

Wolves are interested in signing Mexico and Napoli winger Hirving Lozano in the summer transfer window, according to a latest report.

The Lowdown: Lozano in-and-out at Napoli

The 26-year-old has found himself in and out of Napoli’s team this season, with injuries and illness holding him back at times but the wide man still managing to contribute.

Lozano has chipped in with four goals and assists apiece in Serie A, in just 16 starts, and he has helped them compete in a tense title race with AC Milan and Inter Milan.

The Mexican’s current deal doesn’t expire until the summer of 2024, but according to a fresh update, a move to Molineux could be on the cards.

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The Latest: Wolves keen on move

According to Napoli Today [via Sport Witness], Wolves have been ‘following’ Lozano ‘for some time’, as they weigh up a potential summer move.

The idea of him staying pout at Napoli is ‘not entirely a foregone conclusion’, which further gives Wanderers hope of sealing an exciting signing.

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The Verdict: Audacious swoop by Wanderers

Lozano has proven himself on the biggest stage of all, catching the eye for Mexico at the 2018 World Cup, registering one goal and assist each and standing out with his pace and directness.

For that reason, it is hugely exciting to see Wolves being linked with a move for him and he could be someone who takes their attacking game to the next level in the Premier League.

With Adama Traore likely to leave permanently this summer and Francisco Trincao expected to leave, too, Lozano could fill the void out wide, and much more, becoming the latest attacking hero at Molineux.

In other news, a journalist has dropped an exciting Wolves transfer claim. Read more here.