Manchester United have now opened talks to sign an “unbelievable” midfielder, who Ruben Amorim has been pushing INEOS to sign.

Man Utd eyeing new midfielder amid Mainoo controversy

Kobbie Mainoo’s brother, Jordan Mainoo-Hames, has sparked controversy after wearing a ‘Free Kobbie Mainoo’ to Man United’s 4-4 draw against AFC Bournemouth, with talkSPORT’s Adrian Durham slamming the former Love Island contestant.

Durham said: “Can you imagine his brother doing that when Fergie was in charge? Fergie would have had Kobbie Mainoo out of the club by the next morning.

“It was an utterly insane thing for him to do, it’s selfish for him to do that, the brother. It’s totally about him getting attention, it doesn’t help Kobbie Mainoo, it doesn’t help Manchester United.”

The midfielder has already been struggling for game time this season, with his only start coming in the EFL Cup defeat against Grimsby Town, and it remains to be seen what effect his brother’s stunt has on his future.

With Mainoo’s future in doubt heading into the January transfer window, amid interest from Everton, Chelsea and Bayern Munich, the Red Devils have now stepped up their pursuit of a new midfielder.

That is according to a report from TEAMtalk, which reveals Man United have opened talks over a deal for Al-Hilal’s Ruben Neves, with the Saudi Pro League side now ready to sell the midfielder in the January transfer window.

Al-Hilal have been unable to agree terms on a new contract with the Portuguese maestro, and given that his current deal is set to expire at the end of the season, a return to Europe is on the cards next month.

Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United have also held talks over a deal for the central midfielder, so there could be competition for his signature, but Amorim will be hoping United can win the race, having personally been pushing to sign him.

"Unbelievable" Neves impressing in Saudi Arabia

It is no wonder Al-Hilal were keen to extend the 63-time Portugal international’s contract, given that he has impressed from an attacking point of view this season, recording five goals and one assist in five matches in all competitions.

Subscribe for sharper Man United transfer analysis Gain insider context: subscribe to the newsletter for expert breakdowns, market context and deal analysis focused on Man United midfield moves, helping you understand potential signings like Ruben Neves and squad shifts around Mainoo. Subscribe Subscribe for sharper Man United transfer analysis Gain insider context: subscribe to the newsletter for expert breakdowns, market context and deal analysis focused on Man United midfield moves, helping you understand potential signings like Ruben Neves and squad shifts around Mainoo.

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Journalist Raj Chohan also waxed lyrical about the former Wolverhampton Wanderers man during his previous stint in the Premier League, suggesting he has the ability to play for a top club.

It is unclear what sort of fee Al-Hilal are looking to receive for the 28-year-old, but with his contract due to expire in the summer, they aren’t exactly in a strong negotiating position.

As such, Man United should try their luck in the January transfer window, particularly if Mainoo leaves, amid widespread interest in the 19-year-old.

Real Madrid talisman Sergio Ramos has given his verdict on the comparisons between Mo Salah and Cristiano Ronaldo, and Liverpool fans are bashing the 32 year-old.

It seems to happen every year at the moment. Someone has a fantastic season, and they immediately get compared to Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

With all due respect to the likes of Neymar and Eden Hazard, who have both drawn such comparisons after great seasons in recent years, those comparisons are usually a bit far-fetched.

In the case of Mohamed Salah though, it’s sort of hard to argue against the Egyptian, who has grabbed a remarkable 44 goals in his first season at Anfield.

The “Egyptian King” could make himself the favourite for the Ballon d’Or with a winning goal in Saturday’s Champions League final, but Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos clearly thinks the comparisons are undeserved.

“Compare players with Cristiano and Messi? They are in another orbit,” the Madrid skipper said in his pre-match conference.

“Some are in fashion, some are not. Some are there briefly and then disappear. Others stay and become great players.”

While Ramos does have a point about the sheer consistency of Ronaldo and Messi, his comments are certainly making some noise in the red half of Kiev.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

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While a few Liverpool fans are finding it hard to disagree, others are bashing the Real Madrid man, who is well known as a master of football’s dark arts.

Either way, some of the best Twitter reactions can be found below…

Billy Stelling’s 3-35 helped Leicestershire to deserved victory Photo © AllSport UK

Somerset needed to score at 5 runs per over to win this game but throughsome disciplined and aggressive bowling from the Leicestershire attack theywere always behind the asking rate.Jimmy Ormond once again was the pick of the bowlers and picked up his firstwicket in only the second over of the innings. Bowler edged a ball to secondslip to give Darren Maddy an easy catch. The ball previous saw Maddy drop achance given by Lathwell also at second slip.It wasn’t too long before Lathwell became Ormonds second victim when hefollowed a wide delivery which found the edge through to the wicket keeper.At this point Somerset were only scoring at 2 runs per over and the pressurewas beginning to show. Burns unable to pierce the in field then set off for a risky single which resulted in a run out.You felt that as long as Jamie Cox was at the crease there was always achance for Somerset but when Scott Boswell picked up his prize wicket inonly his second over, Somerset’s chances of victory were diminishing. He wasbrilliantly caught by the diving wicket keeper Neil Burns.Parsons tried to continue the fight and looked in good form. He struck themedium pace of Billy Stelling for a huge six over mid off giving impetous tothe innings. However, Stelling fought back by clean bowling Parsons in the29th over. By this time Somerset’s chances were almost gone and continued tolose their wickets consistantly.Leicestershire thoroughly deserved this win and they now can look forward toplaying once again in the top division.

New Zealand will play the Prime Minister’s XI match with a pink ball in October this year as part of their preparations for the first day-night Test in Adelaide.Michael Hussey will captain the Prime Minister’s XI in the one-day game at Manuka Oval on October 23. Although Australia’s Test squad will be in Bangladesh at the time, there is a possibility that some Test aspirants will be part of the team to play in Canberra, and Hussey said it would be a good chance to see how the pink ball performed.”I know there are some guys in the Australian team who have never played with a pink ball,” Hussey said. “So it is a good opportunity to have a game with it.”The Test series against New Zealand begins at the Gabba on November 5, with the second Test due to be played at the WACA from November 13. The inaugural day-night Test will be played with a pink ball at Adelaide Oval from November 27.

Pakistan allrounder Shoaib Malik has been given a category A contract by the PCB for the period between July 2015 and June 2016, while offspinner Saeed Ajmal and fast bowler Junaid Khan were demoted to category B.

PCB’s monthly retainer

The monthly Retainer had already been increased by 10% for all categories in the January-June central contract.

Performance incentives have been further rationalised and increased after feedback from the Pakistan players

Bonuses for wins against Full Members have been restored.

All bonuses (match win, series win, and performance incentives) have been expanded and will be paid even if a Test or ODI series is drawn for the number of won matches except in the case of a drawn T20I series.
MATCH FEE (three-year agreement between players and PCB)
The Test, ODI, and T20I fees were agreed with increases for the next three years (July 1, 2015-June 30, 2018) as follows:

2015-16: Increase in central contract monthly retainer for C and D Categories by 10%.

2016-17: Increase in central contract monthly retainer of all categories by 10%. Increase in Test match fee by 10 % and ODI match fee by 5% for all categories.

2017-18: Increase in central contract monthly retainer for all categories by 10%

The significant hike in the list is for ODI captain Azhar Ali, who has been promoted to category A from category C. Fast bowler Umar Gul is a notable omission from the 27-man list issued by the PCB on Saturday.Malik, who had been denied a contact for many years, made a comeback to the national side in May after a gap of two years, scoring a hundred against Zimbabwe in Lahore.Ajmal, on the other hand, has been struggling to cement his place in the side after remodeling his bowling action. He was included in category B alongside Sarfraz Ahmed, Wahab Riaz, Yasir Shah, Rahat Ali, Junaid Khan and Asad Shafiq. Mohammad Irfan and Haris Sohail were upgraded from category D to C.Middle-order batsman Umar Akmal, who has lately been restricted to playing T20s, was demoted from category B to category C by the three-man committee. Some of the notable players to completely miss out on a contract include Khurram Manzoor, Nasir Jamshed, Abdur Rehman, Adnan Akmal, Sohail Khan, Mohammad Talha, Bilawal Bhatti, Sharjeel Khan, Ehsan Adil and Raza Hasan.The central contracts selection panel comprises of national chief selector Haroon Rasheed, head coach Waqar Younis and Zakir Khan, the director of international cricket operations.”This bunch is a blend of seasoned players with proven credentials and emerging talent with potential to represent Pakistan across three formats,” the PCB said in a statement. “The remunerations – both the monthly retainer as well as match fees – have been increased across the board along with restoring the win bonuses and performance incentives.”The players and the PCB had been negotiating a rise in the monthly retainer with many options, such as ending the performance based contract. The players, however, objected to this. Instead, they agreed to a contract which besides the monthly retainer, gave the players an opportunity to make extra money by scoring a hundred, taking four or more wickets, or having an exceptional series. The players also agreed to continue with the 10% raise offered earlier this year by the PCB.Category A: Azhar Ali, Mohammad Hafeez, Misbah-ul-Haq, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Younis KhanCategory B: Ahmed Shehzad, Asad Shafiq, Junaid Khan, Rahat Ali, Saeed Ajmal, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Wahab Riaz, Yasir ShahCategory C: Anwar Ali, Fawad Alam, Haris Sohail, Imran Khan, Mohammad Irfan, Mohammad Rizwan, Shaan Masood, Umar AkmalCategory D: Babar Azam, Sami Aslam, Sohaib Maqsood, Umar Amin, Zulfiqar Babar, Imad Wasim

Marlon Samuels, the West Indies allrounder, has been reported for a suspect bowling action during the first Test against Sri Lanka. He will be required to undergo a testing process within 14 days, but he can continue to bowl in international cricket until the results are known.Samuels bowled 27 overs in Sri Lanka’s only innings in Galle and picked up the wicket of Dimuth Karunaratne.This is the third time that Samuels’ action has been reported, the first being back in 2008 when he was called for a suspect faster ball after the third Test against South Africa in Durban. He was later suspended from bowling in international cricket but after remedial work on his action, was permitted to bowl in September 2011.He was once again reported at the end of the second day of the second Test against India in Mumbai in November 2013. He was subsequently allowed to bowl the offbreak delivery but not his quicker ball.

Post his Test retirement MS Dhoni wanted a little comfort. He wanted to enjoy his game, so he wanted more time to play his game and therefore believed he should bat at No.4. But as a senior player, for the juniors to develop better and for the team’s sake, he decided instead to return to batting in the lower middle-order and be the finisher for India.”I would say more about my side of the story,” Dhoni said. “If you see once I left Test cricket, I thought ‘Now I am going to enjoy my ODI cricket, I want to bat up the order’. But when I come over here, I see my team, I see the playing XI and I find it very difficult to promote myself because we have that pressure of who is going to bat at No.6, who is going to bat at No.7?”And if you see stretches of cricket where teams have done well, the lower order has contributed a lot irrespective of the format. Your lower order needs to perform. So that was the reason I came back over here and I am still batting at No.5 or 6 because I find it really difficult; I can’t really put too much pressure on some of the other youngsters in the side. After playing so many ODIs, if I can’t do it, there are not many who will be able to do it. It’s something that I have to do.”And he provided a fine example of his skills – if perhaps a modified version where he starts slowly and dabs the ball for singles and twos before flexing his shoulders – in Indore, scoring 92 off 86 balls and remaining unbeaten as he guided India past a top-order collapse.”I felt we needed partnerships at that point of time,” he said. “Once we lost Rahane and a few other wickets fell, I was thinking, ‘Maybe I should play the big shot. I am not sure how long the lower order batsmen will survive with me.’ But that was the period I said, ‘No. Let’s look to play a few more deliveries. Let’s look to play 50 overs and if a few more wickets fall, maybe [if it had been] the last couple of wickets [that were left] I will look to hit, but it was important that we got some kind of partnership going at that point of time.”But the 247 for 9 that he helped India get to still wasn’t anywhere close to his expectations. “I thought it was a score we can look to defend. But it was not a safe score where you say, ‘okay let’s go in and if we bowl well we will win the game.’ What was important for us was getting the early breakthroughs and that was provided by the spinners.”This is the kind of victory in which the contribution of the bowlers was more than the batsmen, if you compare them, because some bowlers also contributed in terms of runs. In a score of 247, if the bowlers are contributing a score of around 40, that means a lot. I feel very happy about the fact that the bowlers won us the match.”But when asked to rate his own innings, which was vital to giving the bowlers a chance and lifting their morale up as well, Dhoni simply chose to explain the impact of a first victory in this series so far.”It’s a very good victory for us, the reason being, if you see the first game we played at Dharamsala, apart from that one over, you can say those four or five minutes we were really into the game but we were not able to win the game,” Dhoni said. “The same thing happened in the last game we played as well, Kanpur, where we were in the game but we lost a few wickets and we lost it at the wrong time because of which we were not able to win the game.”So a lot of times you play good cricket for maybe 80-90% of the game but it depends whether that 10% bad phase, how bad it was and what was the timing of that particular error that happened, that can had a big impact on the game. I feel this win was very important for us and at the same time its good to see our bowlers defend 250-odd runs on a wicket that was good to bat on.”The Indore crowd played their part as well. Sensing the turning of the tides after Faf du Plessis fell for a well-made fifty and David Miller got a first-ball duck, they produced an enchanting sight. The Holkar Stadium was packed. Well over 25,000 people. And as one, a very large majority brandished their cell phones with the flash on. It was a scene out of a Bruce Springsteen concert. One that made Dhoni and the team take a lap of honour in thanks for their support.”The people of Indore have supported us a lot, specially when there was a dull phase in the middle when South Africa had a partnership going and we weren’t getting wickets. When we got 1-2 wickets, the crowd got vocal. It helps when you are playing at home and have the support of your home crowd. Along with us, they have also supported AB de Villiers – we (fans) share our love freely. If we like somebody, we really get behind them.”But that doesn’t mean India are home free. The five-match series is tied 1-1 and Dhoni saw plenty of room for improvement. For example, finding an allrounder who can connect the top-order and the tail.”No.7 is very crucial,” he said. “Even in this game if you see, Mishra was our best bowler in the last game. But we had to drop him, the reason being we want that No.7 to bat. Axar gives us slightly more than Mishra because in the modern game you can’t play with six batters and five bowlers. That day is gone, you can’t really compete when it comes to that.”But you need somebody who can bat at No.7. And you know, the few people who are there for us – Stuart Binny is one, Jadeja and Axar. These are the three people who can bowl and bat. Other than that there are not many. There are few others in the domestic circuit who are doing well so we will definitely will like to have a look. Because ideally in this game we would have liked to play Mishra, but it just makes it impossible to think about Mishra batting at No.7 and then Harbhajan or Harbhajan at No.7 followed by Mishra.”It just puts too much pressure on the batsmen who are on top because in situations like these when you lose early wickets or you lose a few wickets in quick succession in the middle overs, it just puts tremendous pressure on the two batsmen who are batting. Imagine, you are supposed to hit a six, you want to play the big shot, but you have to be 110% sure once you are hitting, it has to go over the boundary.”So these are the kinds of pressure that you tend to take and there is no easy way out. It’s very easy to say on paper that this is the combination we should go with, but excuse me, cricket is not played that way. You need to have people who contribute.”

ScorecardMichael Klinger scored the fifth double-century of his first-class career and Ashton Agar registered his maiden hundred as Western Australia dominated the second day against Tasmania in Hobart. By the end of the day, Mitchell Johnson had also chipped in with two wickets to leave Tasmania struggling at 5 for 102 in reply to Western Australia’s 8 for 432 declared.At stumps George Bailey was on 20 and Tim Paine was on 2, and the Tigers still faced a hefty deficit of 330 runs after Klinger and Agar frustrated them earlier in the day. They put on 214 runs for the seventh wicket to alter the balance of power in a match that could have gone either way after day one, when the Warriors had gone to stumps at 6 for 259.But Klinger is in the form of his life, and could not be budged from his path towards a double-century, ably accompanied by Agar. It was the first century of Agar’s first-class career and continued his development as an all-round prospect; he was eventually bowled by James Faulkner for 105, and Klinger finished unbeaten on 202 from 401 balls when the declaration came.Johnson removed both of the Tasmania openers caught behind, Ben Dunk for 7 and Dominic Michael for 43, and he had solid support from Jason Behrendorff and Simon Mackin. Mackin bowled Alex Doolan for 13 and Behrendorff trapped debutant Jake Doran lbw for 5 and then had Faulkner caught for 1 late in the day to leave Western Australia firmly in control.