data-mm-id=”_w82nuwkiw”>The Los Angeles Lakers won their 30th game of the season last night, poetically beating an aggressively dirty New York Knicks squad by 30. KCP was nearly decapitated and Anthony Davis fell on his butt. With the Lakers refusing to be interesting by way of dysfunction, people are throwing stuff at the walls hoping anything will stick. The latest comes from Stephen A. Smith who said today that Kawhi Leonard said, "Someone tell LeBron to stop being scared to guard me." A source told @stephenasmith that Kawhi said "someone tell LeBron stop being scared to guard me!" pic.twitter.com/Aa1EELqZ8W— First Take (@FirstTake) January 8, 2020This is the first (alleged) recorded instance of Kawhi talking trash. Or just talking in general, really. Why would Kawhi feel the need to say this after the Clippers beat the Lakers in both head-to-head matchups so far this season? It's unclear, but if Kawhi actually said this it would seem to be that LeBron is actually the one living inside Kawhi's head, as opposed to the other way around, as we've been told all season. If Kawhi did say this, he'll be disappointed to learn that the teams' next meeting isn't until January 28th and LeBron definitely won't guard him before then. He should also note it's a nationally televised game in the middle of a stretch where the Clippers play every other night for about two straight weeks so Kawhi will likely sit due to load management. The Clippers are only a half-game out of 2nd place in the Western Conference, so even if they don't catch the Lakers they can still get home court for the first two rounds and play the entirety of the Western Conference Finals in their home building. If they get that far, LeBron will probably end up guarding him a little.
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Ajax have agreed a fee with Tottenham Hotspur over the signing of Steven Bergwijn in the summer transfer window, according to . The report has claimed that the Dutch giants will pay Spurs a fee in the region of £20 million to secure the services of the Netherlands international winger.
Bergwijn made four starts and 21 substitute appearances in the Premier League for Tottenham last season, scoring three goals and providing one assist in the process. The 24-year-old also made two substitute appearances in the FA Cup, played twice in the Conference League and featured in two Carabao Cup ties for Spurs last season.
Tottenham will play in the UEFA Champions League next season after finishing fourth in the Premier League, while Ajax won the Eredivisie in 2021-22.
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Nemanja Matic says Manchester United supporters deserve much, much better from their side following Saturday s bruising 4-2 loss against Leicester City.
United conceded four times in a Premier League match for the first time since April 2019 as their English record of 29 successive away league games unbeaten came to an end at the King Power Stadium.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer s side have collected only one point from the last nine on offer and are fifth in the table after eight matches, five points adrift of leaders Chelsea, with Liverpool, Tottenham and Manchester City up next.
Matic played 80 minutes of the defeat to Leicester and remains confident United can still challenge for the title, but the former Serbia international accepts a vast improvement is needed headi…
Romelu Lukaku has found his happiness again at Inter and will have no regrets over leaving Manchester United.
That is the view of former United star Robin van Persie, who believes Lukaku is thriving in Italy after losing his way at Old Trafford.
The Belgium international may get the chance to show the Premier League club what they are missing if Inter and United win their respective Europa League semi-finals.
The Serie A side face Shakhtar Donetsk while United take on Sevilla, with Van Persie impressed by Antonio Conte s well-drilled Inter, led by a reinvigorated Lukaku.
9 Romelu is the 1st player to score in 9 games in a row in the history of /. Uncontainable.
— OptaPaolo (@OptaPaolo)
He [Lukaku] looks happy, Conte works his play…
Manchester City defender Pablo Zabaleta is hoping to put an injury-ravaged first half of the season behind him in 2016.
The Argentina full-back missed the first two months of the season after sustaining knee ligament damage during training and suffered a recurrence of the problem during October s 5-1 League Cup win over Crystal Palace.
Zabaleta was an unused substitute for Tuesday s goalless draw at high-flying Leicester City and feels he is back up to speed physically ahead of Saturday s trip to Watford.
The knee feels really good and I ve felt great in training over the past few days, he told City s official website.
I started full training again a few days before the Sunderland game [on December 26] so it was too soon to return because I neede…
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The qualifications for next season s Champions League have reached their second round, and the teams that successfully passed through the first are hoping to hear their names drawn for the group stage. But there is a long way to go yet and most of them won t be there.
Over in Bulgaria, Ludogorets are preparing to take on Shamrock Rovers at the Huvepharma Arena in Razgrad, in what will be the first leg of a double feature as they battle on to reach the next phase.
Ludogorets Razgrad
Ludogorets won the title in the Bulgarian First League in 2021/22 ahead of CSKA Sofia by a margin of 21 points, obviously in vast comfort. The 2022/23 has already begun there, with two rounds played, and Ante Simundza s men lead the way again with a …
Oleksandr Zinchenko has completed his transfer from Manchester City to Arsenal, with the Ukraine international signing a long-term deal at Emirates Stadium.
The versatile 25-year-old follows former City team-mate Gabriel Jesus in making the move from Pep Guardiola s Premier League champions to join former City assistant boss Mikel Arteta in north London.
Zinchenko s arrival is the latest major piece of business for Arsenal, as the club look to find the missing pieces of the puzzle following a resurgent 2021-22 campaign. He is thought to have signed up until the end of the 2025-26 season, with Arsenal reportedly paying an initial £30million, and £2million in potential add-ons.
The Gunners fell painfully short of a top-four finish and Champions League footba…
Hugo Broos takes on his first assignment with the Cameroon national team with an Africa Cup of Nations qualifying double header against floundering South Africa.
Former Club Brugge and Anderlecht boss Broos was the surprise choice to replace the sacked Volker Finke last month and inherits a team sitting top of qualifying Group M after two matches.
Victories over Mauritania and Gambia in their opening games have put Cameroon in the box seat to reach the 2017 tournament in Gabon and Broos is encouraged by his early impressions of the squad.
My first contact with the team has been good, he told a news conference.
The difficulty now will be remembering the names and faces of the players! I met with the group and there are no additional injuries.
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Debutants Sadio Mane and Matthijs de Ligt both scored in their first friendly appearance for their new club as Bayern Munich defeated DC United 6-2 on Wednesday.
Mane, fresh off his move away from Liverpool, did not have to wait long to open his account, stepping up to the penalty spot after Lucas Copado was brought down less than five minutes into the action.
He made no mistake from the spot, hammering his penalty into the left side of the goal to give Bayern a 1-0 lead in the fifth minute.
Marcel Sabitzer doubled the advantage in the 12th minute with a strike from the top of the box that wrong-footed the DC goalkeeper, and Serge Gnabry made it 3-0 at the break when he got on the end of a Mane assist in the 44th minute.
Bayern subbed on an entirely diffe…
Verdict: Half-Time/Full-Time Home Win
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It’s the second meeting of the London rivals in a week’s time with Arsenal and West Ham locking horns in the quarter-final of the Carabao Cup at the Emirates Stadium.
Gunners are hoping to land their first semi-final of the competition since 2011 but rejuvenated West Ham will definitely prove a tough test for Arsene Wenger’s men.
Arsenal
Having suffered a morale-blowing defeat to Manchester United, the north London giants got back up to their feet with a four-match win without a defeat. Despite the positive run, though, things have not been that great for the Gunners who were forced to settle for back-to-back away stalemates against Southampton and their next rivals, West Ham.
Senegal failed to take advantage of their apparent superiority against Guinea as they were held to a 0-0 draw at the Africa Cup of Nations.
The Lions of Teranga reached the final of the 2019 tournament but are still awaiting their first AFCON title and better attacking play will be required for them to do so on the evidence of this Group B encounter.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was left to rue the absence of Senegal s Sadio Mane and Guinea s Naby Keita, as well as Mohamed Salah of Egypt, in their 0-0 EFL Cup draw with Arsenal on Thursday. But neither Mane nor Keita could provide the moment of magic to break the deadlock in Bafoussam, though it was not for lack of trying.
Guinea, for whom Keita played a game-high 18 passes in the opposition half, should have ta…