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Ange Postecoglou admitted last week that he felt he’d walked under a ladder after the start of his Celtic tenure.

Indeed, after the Hoops suffered more dropped points and yet another injury on Sunday, he’d have been wondering how many ladders had been placed in his way.

On the chalkboard

This is Celtic’s worst start to a campaign for 23-years and after an injury problem to Josip Juranovic, the issues are only mounting for Postecoglou.

The Bhoys only have ten points from their opening seven matches and barring a miracle, it would take a lot of work in order to regain the Premiership title.

Juranovic has now joined a plethora of other bodies on the treatment table with fellow defender Greg Taylor out alongside the likes of Callum McGregor, Giorgos Giakoumakis and Kyogo Furuhashi.

Now is the time for Celtic’s most experienced players to step up. You’re asking for Joe Hart to lead by example and for Tom Rogic to really grab the bull by the horns.

Sadly, the Australian’s performances have waned in recent weeks. He started the campaign in excellent form and looked a rejuvenated figure under Postecoglou following a goal against Dundee FC.

However, he’s now struggling to add impetus to the final third and he’s also losing the ball on a regular basis.

As Celtic laboured to a 1-1 draw with Dundee United this weekend, he was particularly poor. Rogic missed a golden opportunity that struck the woodwork, gave away possession 20 times and completed just 71% of his passes.

The solution

One simple remedy would be to withdraw Rogic from the starting XI for a period of games.

However, with Celtic’s injury list mounting, that’s easier said than done.

A way they could solve that issue is by looking into the B team and unleashing some of the young players who are set to star in the future.

Postecoglou hasn’t been shy to grant opportunities to young players with Dane Murray featuring in the Champions League a few weeks ago and Adam Montgomery now becoming a key part of the manager’s plans.

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Another teenager they should turn to is Owen Moffat.

The 19-year-old was on the bench against Dundee United last weekend and has been a rampant threat all season long for the B team.

Capable of playing out wide but also through the middle, Moffat is a mightily talented individual, someone who’d be prepared to offer more in the final third than his Australian colleague.

He has been among the goals already this season, finding the net five times in a 10-0 win over Vale of Leithen.

The youngster started that game on the flanks but moved centrally before catching the eye again.

At his age, versatility will be extremely important when it comes to breaking into the senior set-up.

He’s never made a first-team appearance but one can’t be far off after the acclaim he’s received in 2021/22.

Speaking during pre-season, skipper Callum McGregor commented: “A mention for young Moffat – his attitude has been first class. I remember watching him at the end of last season, training on the astro himself. Every day they would do finishing and I remember thinking: ‘He’s got a finish on him’.”

With Celtic stuttering, they will be lusting after the return of their injured stars. Though, for the time being, it’s surely worth exploring Moffat’s qualities in the first-team.

AND in other news, 93% pass success: 26 y/o now shining after leaving Celtic, he was a “laughing stock”…

Kristjaan Speakman has shed further light on his transfer strategy at Sunderland this summer.

What’s been said?

In a recent interview with the SAFC Unfiltered podcast (cited by the Sunderland Echo), the Sunderland sporting director suggested that a major part of his plan for the recently closed transfer window was to reduce the average age of Lee Johnson’s first-team squad, as well as signing quality over quality.

In his comments, Speakman said: “We did let a group of players go which was potentially risky but we felt that to change the philosophy, the dynamic of the squad and average age that would have to be done.

“The average age this year is 24.8. I think last year it was just over 28. We had some games where we were just short of 29. If you look at that it’s a huge difference [in] what the squad dynamic looks like.”

The sporting director continued: “We had a really clear idea about who we wanted to go for and we wanted to go for a smaller streamline squad of quality over quantity. When you do that you have to be really precise with those signings because you have less room for error.”

Music to the ears of fans

Considering the fact that Sunderland’s decline from the Premier League to the third tier of English football was largely down to disastrous recruitment, horrible mismanagement and chaos in the boardroom – all of which contributed to poor results achieved on the pitch – Speakman’s latest remarks are sure to come as music to the ears of the Stadium of Light faithful.

Finally, it would seem as if there is a clear transfer plan and philosophy at Sunderland – something that would already appear to be bearing fruit, with the Mackems currently topping the League One table after five games played.

As such, it very much seems as if, under the guidance of Speakman in the transfer market and Lee Johnson on the pitch, things are finally looking up on Wearside, something that has been an incredibly long time coming.

And, if the Black Cats can go on to achieve promotion come next May, Sunderland fans will undoubtedly be forever grateful to Speakman for being the man who finally helped get their club back on track.

In other news: Sunderland handed potential injury boost ahead of Accy clash, Johnson will be buzzing

An update has emerged on Manchester United winger Dan James, regarding Leeds’ interest in signing him before the deadline.

What’s the talk?

According to Italian journalist Fabrizio Romano, the Whites are in advanced talks over the signing of the United winger on a permanent deal.

Marcelo Bielsa’s side are now discussing personal terms with the forward ahead of officially completing the move before Tuesday’s transfer deadline.

Delight

United fans will surely be delighted with this news as it means that the club are set to receive a transfer fee for James that could go a long way to paying for Cristiano Ronaldo’s move to the club. The Red Devils have agreed a €23m (£19.7m) deal to sign the Portuguese international.

Dan James joined United for a reported fee of £15m from Swansea and is currently rated at £16.2m by Transfermarkt. Romano does not mention how much Leeds are set to pay for the forward, but if it is within the region of £15-16m then that could pay for the bulk of Ronaldo’s transfer fee – which could delight United fans as it is exceptional business on paper.

You only have to look at their respective league stats to see the difference in quality between the pair. James managed three goals and one assist in 15 Premier League matches, averaging a WhoScored rating of 6.61 for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side.

Ronaldo, meanwhile, scored 29 goals and provided three assists in 33 Serie A appearances for Juventus, averaging a WhoScored rating of 7.61. Despite being 36, the ex-Real Madrid attacker still enjoyed a sensational season with the Italian side, scoring goals at a superb rate, whereas James struggled to find consistency for United.

The club are now on the verge of potentially selling James for almost as much, or more depending on the final figures that are yet to be reported, as they have agreed to pay for Ronaldo. Of course, this does not take wages into account, but it is still great reading for United fans all the same and represents a shrewd piece of business by the club on and off the pitch.

In a year where their owners have been protested against in such stern fashion, they should be pleased that they’re finally beginning to get things right.

Now, they can now look forward to Ronaldo potentially making his second debut for the club knowing that James’ prospective sale may well help pay for the signing.

Rangers’ Ianis Hagi produced a superb display for Romania in their World Cup qualifying game at the weekend, which will surely delight Steven Gerrard ahead of his return to Ibrox.

The 22-year-old started on the left wing for his country as they faced Liechtenstein in a Group J fixture and he provided the assist for Romania’s second goal as they ran out 2-0 winners.

As per SofaScore, the former KRC Genk man would earn an impressive 7.9/10 rating for his performance, with only Razvan Marin (8.0) rated higher of all the players from both sides to feature in the game.

Hagi was regularly involved during his 80 minutes on the pitch, completing three dribbles and 31/40 of his passes, resulting in a solid 78% pass accuracy.

[freshpress-quiz id=“593776”]

For comparison, Romania’s right-winger Andrei Cordea would complete none of his three attempted dribbles and played one fewer pass than Hagi, despite playing the full 90 minutes.

The Rangers man also impressively played three key passes and created one big chance during the game, with his quality and creativity with the ball clear to see as Mirel Rădoi’s side earned an important three points in their World Cup qualification hopes.

Hagi won the young player of the season award at Rangers last season and has two goals for the Teddy Bears so far this campaign, so Gerrard and the Rangers supporters should definitely be excited by his potential.

The 41-year-old manager was full of praise for the young winger in 2020 after he inspired a comeback in the Europa League, saying:

“Ianis is an outstanding talent and that stage was made for him.”

Therefore, Gerrard will no doubt be delighted to see him impressing for his country during the international break and he will be hoping that he can continue his fine recent form when Rangers face St Johnstone this weekend.

And, in other news… Manager drops worrying transfer claim on “fantastic” Rangers ace

S Abbas Ali scored the first half-century for the Delhi Giants in a six-wicket win over the Lahore Badshahs at Gurgaon

Cricinfo staff26-Oct-2008
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Ali Murtaza’s 4 for 7 stifled Lahore before Azhar Mahmood’s pyrotechnics © ICL
S Abbas Ali scored the first half-century for the Delhi Giants this ICL season in a six-wicket win over the Lahore Badshahs at Gurgaon. Chasing 148, thanks largely to Azhar Mahmood’s belligerent 69 after Ali Murtaza had Lahore reeling at 63 for 5, Delhi were taken across the finishing line with nine deliveries left. Ali scored a composed 52 and added a match-winning 80 in 11.1 overs with Abhinav Bali to make short change of a competitive total.Having opted to bat, Lahore’s trigger-happy top order fired blanks. Two flashy boundaries and Imran Nazir was on his way, smartly stumped by Phil Nixon off TP Sudhindra’s medium-pace. Imran Farhat was dropped by Murtaza on 13, cutting Shane Bond straight to point, but the bowler had his revenge with his first ball. Imran charged down and swung the ball to long-on, where Bond, running backward, showed Murtaza how it was done.An exceptional stumping from Nixon sent back Humayun Farhat for 7, and in the same over from Murtaza Shahid Yousuf failed to pick an arm ball. A trademark elegant six over deep midwicket hinted that Inzamam-ul-Haq, Lahore’s captain, may be onto something finally but he became Murtaza’s fourth victim. Struck dead in front of the stumps, Inzamam was a goner. Murtaza’s miserly spell of 4-0-7-4 earned him the Man-of-the-Match award.From 63 for 5, it took a special innings from Mahmood to lift Lahore to a competitive total. Aggressive from the start, Mahmood tonked Sudhindra for 14 in three balls during the 15th over before training his sights on JP Yadav. Clearing his front leg and hammering the ball sweetly, Mahmood plundered five sixes to finish on 67 from just 39 balls. Seventy-three runs came in the last six overs.In reply Marvan Atapattu went early, hitting two orthodox drives through extra cover and then edging Naved-ul-Hasan to slip. Mahmood then dismissed Mohnish Mishra with his seventh delivery and when Shahid Nazir bowled Dhruv Mahajan with his second, Delhi were wobbling. Their run rate at this stage, however, was a very healthy 8.83.Going into this match none of Delhi’s batsmen had managed a fifty in the tournament. Tonight, chasing 148, Ali rectified that with a good innings. His average before today had been 13.50 and big score was due; thankfully for Delhi, he delivered.Ali didn’t blaze away, but instead nudged the ball into the gaps and ran hard with Bali. Only when Tahir Mughal erred in line did he free his arms, twice pinging the boundaries in an over. Inzamam turned his arm over for the first time in eons and Ali smashed the ball over extra cover for a six to reach his half-century off 43 balls. This prompted Bali to do the same to Saqlain Mushtaq before Humayun stumped Ali for 52 to give Inzamam a wicket. Bali hit consecutive boundaries through the off side to wrap up the win in 18.3 overs. He was not out on 47.Lahore had picked up steam in their last two games, but despite this loss they remain at fourth in the points table. Lahore will need to keep winning to stay clear of Hyderabad and Chandigarh, both of whom have played lesser matches.

Umesh Kumar, the former Punjab captain and offspinner, died of a heart attack in Patiala on Sunday evening. He was 56 and was serving as a selector for the Punjab state side.Kumar played 67 first-class games for Punjab between 1969 and 1986 and took 191 wickets at 20.69. He played three matches for North Zone, including one against the touring Australians in 1979-80.His four wickets in the match included those of Allan Border and Dav Whatmore. Kirti Azad, the former Indian allrounder, who also played in the match, said Kumar had come to the match on the back of a lot of hard work. He had taken 6 for 79 against Haryana in Punjab’s previous game. “Kumar was a good competitor, down to earth, overall a very nice gentleman,” Azad told Cricinfo.After retirement he took up umpiring, starting off with matches in Pakistan in 1987, and was the third umpire in an India-Sri Lanka Test in Mohali in 1997.

Mohammad Yousuf, who is involved in arbitration proceedings with the ICL, faces a life ban if he joins the unofficial league, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has said

Cricinfo staff19-Sep-2008
Mohammad Yousuf: “I just want to ask them [the selectors] ‘how many Jonty Rhodes are there in the Pakistan team?” © AFP
Mohammad Yousuf, who is involved in arbitration proceedings with the ICL, faces a life ban if he joins the unofficial league, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has said.The , a Pakistan daily, quoted an unnamed PCB official as saying, “We have banned all our cricketers who joined the ICL and if Yousuf also plays for the unauthorised league then he will have to face the same punishment. Yousuf is still our best Test batsman and has a future with the Pakistan team, but not if he joins the ICL. It will be game over for him if he joined the rebel league.”Yousuf signed a contract with the ICL in the wake of his omission from Pakistan’s squad for the ICC World Twenty20 last year, but the PCB later convinced him to cancel his ICL contract and instead sign up for the IPL, a league approved by the national boards, as well as turn up for national duty.Subsequently the ICL had warned the various IPL franchises that they could face legal complications if they bought Yousuf in the player auctions. Yousuf was not bought by any of the IPL teams, but he was compensated by the league’s organisers, who gave him US$350,000 – his starting bid price.Pakistan’s selectors have continued to ignore Yousuf while picking Twenty20 teams, and he was left out of the provisional squad for the Canada Cup Four Nation 20/20 next month. “I just want to know what the selection procedure is,” Yousuf told the Urdu newspaper . “You go and ask great players like Wasim Akram and Inzamam-ul-Haq if I don’t deserve to play Twenty20 cricket. If they say I should be dropped then I will quit all cricket.”Yousuf felt his lack of agility on the field wasn’t enough reason for the selectors keep him out. “I just want to ask them ‘how many Jonty Rhodes are there in the Pakistan team?'” Yousuf will lead the Lahore Lions in Pakistan’s domestic Twenty20 tournament but said he has nothing to prove. “It’s not a test case for me,” he said. “After representing Pakistan for 11 years, I just want to make it clear that I am not playing to prove my abilities to anyone.”

Jamie Siddons, the Bangladesh coach, has targetted 240 as the total his team should try and score every time they bat during the Asia Cup. “If we can regularly score 240, which we rarely do, we can be competitive and hopefully win a few games,” Siddons told the Dhaka-based .Looking at the positives within his team, Siddons said it was good to see Bangladesh were no longer relying only on Mohammad Ashraful to get big scores. “Now we have Raqibul [Hasan] , we have Shakib [Al Hasan], we have Tamim [Iqbal] – they are all capable of making 90 or 100 at international level against the better teams. I know it will come together at some point and when they all perform at the same time, we will be a good team. What we are trying to tell people is that it’s not just about Ashraful, it’s about the rest of the players around him performing. Once that starts to happen, Ashraful will be a bonus.”Siddons was also pleased that the team was scoring more than 200 and batting out 50 overs more often than they used to. “We used to score over 200 runs only about 25% of the time, but since I have been here it has gone up to 50%. That is a start. Things are not going to turn around overnight with this team. We have changed the team a fair bit; lots of younger players have come into the side. At the moment, we have the young guys learning the game at the international level and I see some really good performances.”Siddons defended the ‘Team Rules’ that he drew up for each player and denied they were having an adverse effect on the players’ natural game. “When I first came here, everyone was saying to me – you have got to stop Ashraful from playing rash shots all the time. Now that he has stopped playing rash shots, you are telling me to let him play them. So I am not sure what everyone wants. But with Ash batting at three, I think it’s perfect. He can play his natural game until we lose two wickets. After that, he has to play a little bit more sensibly.”Siddons said it was a reality that other teams were better than Bangladesh and his players knew that. “Out there it is a tough game for them with the skill level they have got. Our batsmen average 20; batsmen in other teams average 35. So it’s 350 for them versus 200 for us. That is the reality of the situation.”Siddons was also critical of the infrastructure available to the domestic players, and said there was a need to get better coaches to Bangladesh. “Even the Premier League clubs have terrible training facilities.” He also said the first-class structure was not producing players good enough for the international circuit. “In our domestic cricket, we don’t have bowlers who bowl at over 130 kph. Yet, at the international level, every side has got bowlers who bowl at 140-145 kph. That is a massive difference.”Also, bowlers in international cricket tend to be a lot taller than the ones our batsmen face in domestic cricket, which again makes a massive difference. You can’t learn it until you face it. You can’t try it in the nets, can’t try it with the bowling machine. That is why our players fail when they first get into international cricket. So improving the quality of domestic cricket, making the wickets bounce a lot more would make a big difference.”Bangladesh open their Asia Cup campaign with a match against UAE on June 24.

Newcastle United now face a battle with another club in the Premier League to sign Jens Cajuste before the summer transfer window ends.

The Lowdown: Cajuste interest

The St James’ Park outfit have reportedly shown a concrete interest in signing the 21-year-old and are prepared to make an offer to try and sign the Sweden international.

However, Ligue 1 side Rennes have already made a bid, and Wolves, Leeds United and Crystal Palace are also thought to be interested in his signature.

The Latest: Fee agreed

As per Sportbladet, Brentford have now agreed a fee to sign Cajuste, so the Magpies will now have to act fast if they are serious about signing him.

The defensive midfielder is reportedly ‘about to leave’ FC Midtjylland, but personal terms have not yet been agreed with the Bees.

The Verdict: Sign now!

If the Tyneside club wait any longer, Cajuste is likely to end up at one of their top-flight rivals.

Described as the ‘future of Swedish football’ and an ‘exciting’ prospect by football talent scout Jacek Kulig, the 21-year-old was hailed as ‘excellent’ following an impressive display against Brondby in a Danish Superliga clash back in April.

Steve Bruce needs to bolster his Newcastle squad ahead of the new 2021/22 season, and signing Cajuste would help to do just that, but only if the Magpies make some late shapes to hijack Brentford’s efforts.

In other news, find out which Champions League winner NUFC have been offered

Newcastle United’s progress on incomings has ‘slowed further’, according to The Athletic’s Chris Waugh.

The lowdown

Newcastle, who managed to finish 12th in last season’s Premier League after previously flirting with relegation, want to bring in ‘four or five players’ this summer.

Bringing Joe Willock back to St James’ Park following his successful loan spell is said to be their priority, and another midfielder could also be on the list, along with a centre-back and a back-up for Callum Wilson (The Athletic).

However, Steve Bruce is working within an ‘extremely limited’ budget and will be forced to take a ‘box-clever approach’.

With less than a month to go until the new season starts, Newcastle have yet to sign a senior player. They reportedly considered a move for West Bromwich Albion’s Kyle Bartley, who was valued at £3m, before pulling the plug.

The latest

Waugh noted on Twitter that there’s ‘no (incoming) transfer progress’ to report at St James’ Park.

While Newcastle’s business is normally conducted at a ‘glacial pace’, communication from the club has grown ‘ever more conspicuous by its absence’ with the club struggling to make headway. (The Athletic)

The verdict

It should be stressed that, while the start of the season is creeping closer, the transfer window runs until 31 August. Newcastle still have time to get their transfer affairs in order and you’d like to think they’ll pick up the pace at some point.

However, in the circumstances, the additions are unlikely to be transformative. The realistic goal for 2021/22 will be not to drop further down the table, this time keeping a healthy distance between themselves and relegation trouble.

Still, you’d imagine that another loan agreement for Willock – which they’re ‘confident’ of reaching – would significantly improve the mood on Tyneside in the short term, especially amid continuing uncertainty regarding the proposed takeover.

In other news, could this defender be a realistic option for Newcastle?