Tottenham number one Guglielmo Vicario faces an uncertain long-term future amid reports of Inter Milan’s interest, with his personal stance on an exit now also coming to light.

Guglielmo Vicario criticised after recent Tottenham outings

Vicario’s tenure at Tottenham appears increasingly uncertain following his costly error against Fulham, which added to the concerns surrounding his capability as their first-choice goalkeeper.

The 29-year-old endured a nightmare moment during Spurs’ 2-1 home defeat to Fulham last Saturday, rushing needlessly off his line before playing a weak clearance straight to Josh King.

Harry Wilson capitalised spectacularly, curling home from near the touchline to double the visitors’ advantage inside six minutes.

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The blunder sparked an immediate negative reaction from frustrated Tottenham supporters, who booed Vicario throughout the remainder of the first half.

Thomas Frank defended his goalkeeper afterward, questioning whether those jeering could be considered true Spurs fans, with damage to the relationship between keeper and supporters appearing pretty significant.

Much was already made of the Italy international’s weak command of his area, with pundits suggesting that opposition teams should target Vicario as a weak link in Spurs’ side.

Frank has also been urged to drop the ex-Empoli star by former Liverpool midfielder Danny Murphy, who called Vicario ‘nervous as a kitten’ with his distribution.

Despite his torrid time lately, Fabrizio Romano has confirmed that Inter hold a serious interest in Vicario, and the prospect of a 2026 transfer back to Italy isn’t ruled out.

Now, Italian newspaper La Gazetta dello Sport have shared their own update on the matter.

Guglielmo Vicario yearns for Tottenham exit and sends message to his agents

Indeed, Vicario has apparently communicated his growing frustration with life at Tottenham to his representatives, revealing his weariness and how he’s ‘yearning’ for a Serie A return.

La Gazzetta claim the shot-stopper has grown tired of difficult seasons at Spurs and has informed his agents that the current term could mark his final year in English football.

The newspaper suggests a powerful emotional pull toward his homeland is driving his thinking, with a permanent return to Italy now firmly on his mind.

Inter have emerged as the frontrunners for his signature, with reports in Italy indicating the Nerazzurri have already opened discussions with Vicario’s representatives.

The Serie A champions are said to view him as an ideal long-term replacement for veteran Yann Sommer, whose contract expires at the end of the season.

Meanwhile, Tottenham are reportedly already scouring the market for potential replacements.

Brighton’s Bart Verbruggen has been identified as a potential option, with TEAMtalk reporting earlier this week that Spurs have made contact over the keeper who Bayern are also looking at as an heir to Manuel Neuer.

Arsenal got back to winning ways on Wednesday night, with a 3-0 demolition of Club Brugge in the Champions League.

It was a much-needed result following their 2-1 loss away to Aston Villa in their last Premier League match, and the fifth time this season the Gunners have won after dropping points.

There is something different about Mikel Arteta’s side this season, a sense that this is finally the year in which they’ll get over the finishing line.

Perhaps in a bid to ensure that happens, reports now suggest Arsenal are making a move to sign a seriously exciting attacker next year, someone who could be an upgrade on Martin Odegaard.

Arsenal target Odegaard upgrade

Arsenal did go unusually big in the summer transfer window, but with a potential league title and more on the line this season, they’re being linked with a plethora of potential game-changing talents ahead of the January window.

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RB Leipzig’s £87m Yan Diomande, for example, has been touted for a move to the Emirates, as has Real Madrid’s Rodrygo.

However, as brilliantly talented as those two players are, their positions mean that neither would represent an upgrade on Odegaard, unlike Arda Güler.

Yes, according to a recent report from Spain, Arsenal have reignited their interest in the Turkish wonderkid.

In fact, alongside the likes of Liverpool and Manchester United, the report claims that the Gunners have already made their move to sign the Madrid star.

However, the Spanish giants are reportedly still unsure whether they want to keep the 20-year-old, and if not, another report from earlier this month stated that a fee of £88m might be required to get them to sell.

In all, this could be a complicated and costly transfer to get over the line, but given Güler’s ability and potential, it’s one Arsenal should fight for, even if it’s bad news for Odegaard.

How Güler compares to Oedegaard

Now, one of Güler’s best traits is the fact that he can be moved around a bit and, if the manager needs him to, do a job out wide.

However, while he can do this, it would be foolish to sign him to play him in wide areas, as he is now spending most of his time in attacking midfield and playing very well there.

In other words, were Arsenal to sign the Madrid star, one of his main rivals for game time would be Odegaard, but who’d come out on top?

Well, starting with their raw output, it’s the Turkish superstar who comes out on top, and quite comfortably at that.

For example, in 21 appearances this season, totalling 1365 minutes, the “generational talent”, as described by journalist Dean Jones, has scored three goals and provided seven assists, averaging a goal involvement every 2.1 games, or every 136.5 minutes.

In contrast, the Gunners’ captain has provided just two assists in 12 appearances this season, totalling 587 minutes, which is a goal involvement every six games, or every 293.5 minutes.

Okay, what about their underlying numbers, then? Who comes out on top when you take a look under the hood?

Unfortunately for the Norwegian maestro, it is once again his potential rival who comes out looking better, although it is a little closer this time.

For example, the former Fenerbahçe gem comes out on top in most relevant metrics, including shot-creating actions, key passes, non-penalty expected goals plus assists, tackles won and more, all per 90.

Güler vs Odegaard

Statistics per 90

Güler

Odegaard

Non-Penalty Expected G+As

0.74

0.28

Progressive Passes

7.64

11.7

Shots

2.64

1.73

Shots on Target

1.00

0.86

Passing Accuracy

85.2%

81.1%

Key Passes

3.27

2.39

Shot-Creating Actions

6.18

5.61

Goal-Creating Actions

0.64

1.08

Tackles Won

1.36

0.65

Successful Take-On %

52.2%

50.0%

Aerial Duels Won

0.36

0.22

Ball Recoveries

4.27

5.00

All Stats via FBref for the 25/26 League Season

What’s even more impressive about all of this is that the Ankara-born gem is doing all this and outperforming the North Londoners number eight despite being six years younger than him.

Ultimately, Odegaard is a brilliant player and could play a huge role in Arsenal’s success this season, but Güler looks to be the better player, and therefore, Andrea Berta should do what he can to sign him for the club.

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Posts ByJack Salveson Holmes 1 day ago

Squads, purses, players in the fray… eveything you need to know about the first ILT20 auction

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Sep-2025There have been capped Indian cricketers at the UAE’s ILT20 league in the past – like Robin Uthappa, Ambati Rayudu and Yusuf Pathan – but not many and not any as high-profile or as recently retired as R Ashwin. On Wednesday, Ashwin will be in the fray at the ILT20’s inaugural player auction where he has listed the maximum base price of US$120,000. Ashwin, though, isn’t the only talking point ahead of the auction.Ashwin first – how come, what’s the deal?He retired from international cricket during the 2024-25 tour of Australia, and then from the IPL in August this year. At the time, he said, “My time as an explorer of the game around various leagues begins today”. He has been doing some of that, and last week became the first capped India cricketer to earn a BBL deal, with Sydney Thunder.Now, Ashwin is in the ILT20 auction, and he has entered it with the highest base price – the only player at the auction with a base price in six figures. At a tournament where teams have names like (Dubai) Capitals, (Abu Dhabi) Knight Riders and MI (Emirates), he should be in demand. Especially because he has committed to the entire ILT20, and will go to the BBL only after it’s over.Is he the only Indian in the mix at the auction?No. There were 24 Indians in the longlist, and in the shortlist, there are five.Apart from Ashwin, another prominent capped player who has officially retired quite recently, though he had been out of the frame for a while, is Piyush Chawla. Chawla, with 192 wickets, is still the fourth-highest wicket-taker in IPL history. Ashwin is actually fifth on that list, with 187. And like Ashwin, Chawla should find a team too, especially at a base price of US$40,000.The others are Priyank Panchal, Ankit Rajpoot and Siddarth Kaul, all at a base price of US$10,000.ESPNcricinfo LtdI don’t recall ESPNcricinfo talking about the ILT20 auction before. Why now?Oh, there hasn’t been one in the past. Only drafts in the first three seasons. This time, there will be an IPL-like auction. Therefore, this. What’s also new is that the ILT20 in 2025-26 will happen in the December-January window, unlike the usual January-February window to avoid the crammed period at the start of the year. In fact, in 2026, the men’s T20 World Cup is also expected to start in early February, so it’s more cluttered than usual.What about auction purse?The franchises had announced their retentions and direct signings in July. Each team could spend up to US$1.2 million on those, with the balance amount to be added to the auction purse of US$800,000. While a franchise can exhaust its entire US$2 million purse, it will need to spend a minimum of US$1.5 million. The ILT20 rules also permit franchises to spend an additional US$250,000 to buy up to two wildcard players outside the auction.Here’s how much each franchise has left:Abu Dhabi Knight Riders: US$825,000
Desert Vipers: US$802,500
Dubai Capitals: US$10,35,000
Gulf Giants: US$10,35,000
MI Emirates: US$800,000
Sharjah Warriorz: US$800,000
Apart from Ashwin, who are the others at the auction with high base prices?After Ashwin’s base price, the highest slab is US$80,000, and there are 20 players at that price: Evin Lewis, Tymal Mills, Jason Roy, Karim Janat, Naveen-ul-Haq, Obed McCoy, Taskin Ahmed, Andre Fletcher, Liam Dawson, Mohammad Nabi, Jayden Seales, Shamar Joseph, Craig Overton, and seven Pakistan players – Fakhar, Saim Ayub, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Abdul Samad and Faheem Ashraf.The lower slabs are of US$40,000 and US$10,000, which is the lowest base price.That should be fun. So there are the usual player retentions and everything else?Of course. And pre-auction signings. Here’s the full list:Retained players
Abu Dhabi Knight Riders: Alishan Sharafu, Andre Russell, Charith Asalanka, Phil Salt and Sunil Narine
Desert Vipers: Dan Lawrence, David Payne, Khuzaima Bin Tanveer, Lockie Ferguson, Max Holden, Sam Curran and Wanindu Hasaranga
Dubai Capitals: Dasun Shanaka, Dushmantha Chameera, Gulbadin Naib, Rovman Powell and Shai Hope
Gulf Giants: Aayan Afzal Khan, Blessing Muzarabani, Gerhard Erasmus, James Vince and Mark Adair
MI Emirates: AM Ghazanfar, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Kusal Perera, Romario Shepherd, Tom Banton and Muhammad Waseem
Sharjah Warriorz: Johnson Charles, Tim Southee and Tom Kohler-CadmoreNew signings
Abu Dhabi Knight Riders: Alex Hales, Liam Livingstone, Sherfane Rutherford
Desert Vipers: Andries Gous
Dubai Capitals: Luke Wood, Waqar Salamkheil and Muhammad Jawadullah
Gulf Giants: Azmatullah Omarzai, Moeen Ali, Rahmanullah Gurbaz
MI Emirates: Chris Woakes, Kamindu Mendis
Sharjah Warriorz: Maheesh Theekshana, Sikandar Raza, Saurabh Netravalkar, Tim David* On Tuesday, the day before the auction, Dinesh Karthik was picked as Kusal Mendis’ replacement at Sharjah Warriorz.ESPNcricinfo LtdRemember, each franchise needs a minimum of 19 players and a maximum of 21, excluding the two wildcards they are allowed to buy outside the auction. The franchises will also have one right-to-match card but they can use it only to buy back a UAE player. That player must have been part of the franchise’s development squad or the 2025 squad.All that being said, the line-ups as they are could go through some tweaks, because despite the change in the playing dates, there will be a clash with the Lanka Premier League and the Bangladesh Premier League.Wildcards?!Yeah, all teams are allowed two wildcards. And all teams bar MI Emirates have signed their wildcards. By the way, a franchise can sign a player as wildcard anytime. Following is the list of players who’ve already been picked as wildcards:Abu Dhabi Knight Riders: Jason Holder and Usman Tariq
Desert Vipers: Shimron Hetmyer
Dubai Capitals: David Willey and Leus de Plooy
Gulf Giants: Kyle Mayers and Matthew Forde
Sharjah Warriorz: Tom Abell and Adil RashidSo Vipers can get one more if they want, and MI Emirates can get their two at a later stage.But I don’t see any Pakistanis anywhere. What’s up with that?Well, the first thing you need to do is read this by Osman Samiuddin. And no, there is no official ban on them, in case you were wondering.Also, there are 16 players from Pakistan, including many from the squad at the Asia Cup recently, who are in the auction shortlist: apart from Fakhar, Ayub, Mohammad Haris, Imad, Naseem, Samad and Faheem mentioned above, there are Mohammad Nawaz, Hasan Nawaz, Hussain Talat, Mohammad Wasim, Mohammad Hasnain, Salman Irshad, Sufiyan Muqeem, Usama Mir and Zaman Khan. You’d expect many of them to be in demand, unless there are non-cricketing factors at play.And how will the auction play out? When do the big names come up for bidding?The shortlist has 196 players who will fill the remaining slots. A minimum of 11 players will have to be bought by each team, so that’s at least 66 players who will find new teams on Wednesday. It will start with the players in Set 1, 2 and 3, who are all local UAE players, including familiar names like Rohan Mustafa, Ethan D’Souza, Vriitya Aravind and Junaid Siddique, among others.This will be followed by nine sets of players from Full-Member countries, and this includes the big stars: Ashwin, of course, as well as all the players in the US$80,000 base price category, and some even in the US$40,000 and US$10,000 slabs.Next come three sets of players from the Associate countries, numbering 23. Some familiar names are there too, like Namibia’s David Wiese, Netherlands’ Roelof van der Merwe, USA’s Aaron Jones and Unmukt Chand, and Nepal’s Dipendra Singh Airee.After that are the uncapped players from UAE, and players from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and finally the accelerated round, which is by no means a selection of unfamiliar names. You will find the likes of Ravi Bopara, Lorcan Tucker, Benny Howell, Curtis Campher, Blair Tickner, Gudakesh Motie, Keacy Carty, Bas de Leede and many others there.That’s a lot to look forward to. What else? When does it start, what are the other details to make a note of?The tournament starts on December 2 this year, and runs till January 4, 2026. So far, it has been an all-teams-play-each-other-twice in the first round, followed by four playoffs, totalling 34 games, and there’s no indication that will change.

Allrounders Deepti Sharma and Amelia Kerr have also been released by their respective franchises

Nagraj Gollapudi05-Nov-2025

Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur, RCB and MI captains, have been retained by their respective teams•BCCI

India’s World Cup winners Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues and Shafali Verma are some of the high-profile players retained by the WPL franchises ahead of the 2026 mega auction.Australia’s Alyssa Healy and Meg Lanning, along with New Zealand allrounder Amelia Kerr, are set to enter the auction pool after being released by their respective teams. Among other big releases is Deepti Sharma, the Player of the Tournament in the World Cup. Deepti led Warriorz in Healy’s absence in 2025ESPNcricinfo has learned two teams – defending champions Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals – have retained five players, the maximum allowed by WPL; Royals Challengers Bengaluru have retained four players, Gujarat Giants have retained two and UP Warriorz have retained one. While the individual amounts for players could not be confirmed, the following are likely retentions:Delhi Capitals: Annabel Sutherland, Marizanne Kapp, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Niki Prasad
Mumbai Indians: Harmanpreet Kaur, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Amanjot Kaur, G Kamalini and Hayley Matthews
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Smriti Mandhana, Ellyse Perry, Richa Ghosh, Shreyanka Patil
Gujarat Giants: Ashleigh Gardner, Beth Mooney
UP Warriorz: Shweta Sehrawat.Related

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As per WPL retention rules, franchises can retain a maximum of three capped Indian players, a maximum of two overseas players, and a maximum of two uncapped Indian players. In a case where the franchise wanted to retain five players, the rules state that at least one should be an uncapped Indian player. The WPL has also, for the first time, decided to allow franchises the use of right-to-match (RTM) option at the auction to buy back a player who was part of their squad in 2025.Franchises have been allotted INR 15 crore each for the auction, which is understood to take place in Delhi on November 27. While announcing the retention rules, the WPL also listed the guideline prices for the retention slabs: INR 3.5 crore (Player 1), INR 2.5 crore (Player 2), INR 1.75 crore (Player 3), INR 1 crore (Player 4) and INR 50 lakh (Player 5). If a franchise opts to retain five players, INR 9.25 crore would be deducted from its 15 crore purse, while for four, the deduction would be INR 8.75 crore; for three, it would be INR 7.75 crore; for two INR 6 crore; and for one INR 3.5 crore.Therefore DC and MI will have INR 5.75 crore to build their squad, which should have between 16 and 18 players. They will not have any RTMs available.Warriorz, who have retained an uncapped player in Shweta Sehrawat, will have the maximum purse of INR 14.5 crore along with four RTMs. Giants will have three RTMs restricted to only Indian players and a purse of INR 9 crore while RCB will have one RTM and INR 6.25 crore.

More grass on the surfaces, and changes to the Kookaburra ball, have made Test batting in the country difficult over the past half-decade

Andrew McGlashan14-Nov-20251:45

Will Australian pitches affect England’s Ashes chances?

One of the many areas of interest leading into the Ashes is what type of pitches the series will be played on. Questions abound about whether it’s better to take on England on flatter surfaces or on more lively pitches that may narrow any gap between the two attacks but also make it harder for the Bazball batters to flourish. Steven Smith recently endorsed the latter approach.There is no doubt that batting has become tougher in Australia in recent years. Anyone with a top-order spot is usually happy to mention that, and the numbers back it up. In some cases, especially at the MCG, more grass is being left on the pitches – the 2017-18 Ashes Test, which included Alastair Cook’s double-century, finally persuaded those in charge that change was needed. The tweaks to the Kookaburra ball around 2021 have also had a significant impact.The way England’s ODI top order – consisting of at least four Test players – floundered against the moving ball in New Zealand won’t have gone unnoticed, either.Related

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“England play pretty well on the flatter wickets, the way they play,” Smith said last month. “So, if there’s a bit in it like there has been the last three or four years, with our bowling attack, it certainly makes things a lot more difficult for their batters.”

The ten-year trend

In the last five seasons, since 2020-21, when Australia faced India in the Covid summer, the collective Test batting average in the country has been 26.75. Globally for the same period – excluding the handful of Tests staged in the UAE and Ireland – that places Australia seventh between Bangladesh and India.Although conditions had already started to change, in the five summers previous, the average was 34.46, which, for countries that had hosted at least ten Tests, gave Australia the highest collective average. Last summer’s series against India had a collective average of 24.43, which was the lowest for an Australian home season since 1978-79.