Move to Europe would suit Miller, says Naismith

A move to Europe would suit midfielder Lennon Miller if he is to depart Motherwell this summer, says former Scotland striker Steven Naismith.The 18-year-old, who has just one year remaining on his Fir Park deal, is reportedly attracting interest from a number of clubs after a stellar campaign.The youngster ended a memorable season with a first Scotland start, impressing in midfield and providing an assist in the 4-0 win in Liechtenstein.Ex-Hearts boss Naismith says he has "loved" seeing Scottish players, such as Lewis Ferguson, Josh Doig and Aaron Hickey, go abroad at a young age and feels Miller could be next to benefit from a move to the continent."My generation, players going abroad was something that rarely happened," the former Rangers forward said on BBC Sportsound on Sunday. "European football would suit Miller better, because his big attributes are he's good technically and his awareness is very good. "Other parts he can learn, Ferguson is the prime example of that. Ferguson's turned into a brilliant all-round midfielder. "Motherwell will get rewarded for their hard work [with a good fee]."

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Scotsman

18 minutes ago

• Scotsman

5-cap Scotland international and ex-Celtic target hailed for 'crucial' role in £116m Florian Wirtz transfer

The ex-Scotland international was targeted for a role at Celtic in 2021. Sign up to our Football newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... A former Scotland international has been praised for his 'crucial' role in Florian Wirtz's record breaking move to Liverpool this summer - just three years after a move to Celtic collapsed at the final hurdle. The 22-year-old had his £116million transfer from Bayer Leverkusen rubber stamped yesterday, with Wirtz now becoming the English Premier League's record signing, surpassing the previous record transfer of £115million, which Chelsea paid Brighton for Moises Caicedo in 2023. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad According to European sports outlet Bild, the German international is in line to earn a weekly salary of at least £325,000 at Anfield, and joins ex-Celtic full-back - and former Leverkusen teammate - Jeremie Frimpong as the Merseyside giants second major transfer of the summer window. Jeremie Frimpong and Florian Wirtz will hope to win further trophies at Liverpool after departing Bayer Leverkusen this summer. | Getty Images During his official unveiling by the English champions, Wirtz explained why head coach Arne Slot had played a big role in convincing him to move to Liverpool, but also reserved high praise for ex-Scotland international Richard Hughes, who has been hugely successful in his role as the club's sporting director since his appointment almost exactly a year ago. 'The talks with the coach and Richard [Hughes] and everybody were, from the start or from the very first time, so good,' Wirtz told Liverpool's official media channel. 'It just kept going like this. Every time I spoke to one of the [people from] the club I felt like, 'this is the place I want to be' and so in the end I was really 100 per cent convinced I want to join Liverpool and it was the best choice.' Transfer guru Fabrizio Romano also heaped praise on Hughes, writing on his official X account: 'The Liverpool director has been crucial to make the deal happen. Three months of hard work behind the scenes to get Florian's green light in May and close the deal with Leverkusen on Tuesday last week.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Glasgow-born Hughes, who won five caps for Scotland in the mid-noughties, has enjoyed a meteoric rise in the game after landing the Liverpool the role last summer. Poached from a similar role at AFC Bournemouth, the 45-year-old has been lauded for his work in replacing popular former manager Jurgen Klopp with Dutch head coach Slot last summer. Richard Hughes battles for the ball as Scotland Under-21s take on Belgium Under-21s at Dunfermline FC's East End Park. | SNS Group 0141 221 3602 Beginning his career with Atalanta's youth team, Hughes enjoyed a moderately successful playing career, making over 200 senior appearances for the likes of Portsmouth, AFC Bournemouth and Grimsby Town. However, it has been his work as a sporting director that has garnered the most attention. First joining the Cherries recruitment team following his retirement in 2014, he was appointed the club's technical director just two years later. Hughes found himself lined up for a similar role at Celtic in 2021, with the Hoops former managerial target Eddie Howe said to have been desperate to bring him to Glasgow if he was appointed manager at Celtic Park.

Times

42 minutes ago

• Times

Tommy Freeman tried — but Lions tactics will not work with bad kicking

The British & Irish Lions didn't lose to Argentina for lack of effort. They didn't lose because of any overriding tactical aberration. Through the course of the 80 minutes, their discipline was outstanding. Much as supporters like nothing more than to blame a referee, James Doleman, if anything, was instinctively on the side of the Lions. He needed the help of the TMO despite being in the ideal position to see Luke Cowan-Dickie clearly fail to ground the ball for a 'try'. There were other examples. The sea of red supported them all the way. As for the opposition, Argentina have, if anything, had a poorer preparation than the Lions. There are no excuses. Tommy Freeman, the Lions wing, summed up an evening that — far from wishing to forget — Andy Farrell's men will do well to remember. This is what happens when effort is eclipsed by inaccuracy and sub-standard execution. Freeman is a superb player but nothing went his way in Dublin on Friday night. Nothing went his way and yet he did exactly what his coaches would have wanted in terms of what he set out to do: Chase those box-kicks, sprint after every restart, get hands on the ball as often as possible. Hunt the ball infield. That's the essence of Freeman. He gives, and gave, everything. From the first to last minute of his performance, he was taking his typical run-up, behind the box-kicker, to compete in, and usually win, those aerial contests. In Dublin, he must have sprinted a 1,000 metres without one clean catch. Argentina's wings are less physically imposing than Freeman and Scotland's Duhan van der Merwe but they were far more effective chasers. That is not just about the respective abilities of those wide players, though, more a profound reflection of the difference in quality of the tactical kicking. Freeman can time his chases from Northampton Saints and England team-mate Alex Mitchell in his sleep but Mitchell's kicking was too often a metre too long. These were not bad kicks but they weren't good either. At the highest levels these fine margins are critical. Whereas Mitchell was OK, his opposite number, Gonzalo García, was outstanding. In the opening ten minutes, the tone was set as the Lions chased in vain and Argentina made frequent gains and turnovers. Mitchell must be disappointed with his performance. He failed to kick-start the Lions. As for Freeman, he produced a fabulous example of how to work off his wing. Sweeping from right to left, he persistently carried hard into the midfield of Argentina. Unfortunately, the passes he received were usually a fraction off target, as Scotland's Sione Tuipulotu failed to find the English wing's wavelength. Little combined errors resulted in collective failure. Tuipulotu, the Glasgow Warriors centre, hasn't played much rugby this season; his rustiness was part of Freeman's frustrations in midfield, just as his scrum half's slightly long kicks helped to explain the ineffective chase game. Tuipulotu needs game time. His lack of sharpness is understandable. Mitchell at No9 wasn't bad but nor was he good enough to press for a Test place. Nothing quite fitted for Freeman. It wasn't a memorable night for Fin Smith, either . A poor cross-kick could, maybe should, have conceded a first-half try while penalty kicks to the corner lacked the vicious precision expected. His all-round game was tentative. If anyone questioned Finn Russell's status as Test No10, this game should have ended any such delusions. Nor did things fall the way of Van der Merwe. He showed the reason for his selection, rampaging into midfield once to shatter the defensive plans of opposition analysts, as James Lowe does for Ireland. However he looked positionally weak beneath the high kick. Whereas Freeman was invariably in the right position, the beefy wing on the opposite side was worryingly ten metres out of position beneath one cross-kick, which left Smith isolated and knocking on. There's no doubt that Van der Merwe is a brilliant broken-field operator but with Australia head coach Joe Schmidt hoping to unleash the unique athleticism of Joseph Suaalii in the wider parts of the pitch, the Scot appears vulnerable. It was noticeable that when Mack Hansen emerged from the bench, he offered more industry and variety than the prolific finishing of Van der Merwe. There is no such thing as a good defeat but Farrell's men have only lost a sporting battle (to write 'skirmish' would be to insult Felipe Contepomi's Argentina). There is no shortage of effort or intensity and the serious stuff is yet to come. By the time the Lions play Western Force in Perth next Saturday, their execution will need to be better than it was on a Friday when it was Argentina, despite missing a host of their Top 14 stars, who shone. The 1971 Lions lost to Queensland en route to their one and only series win in New Zealand. Far better in the immediate aftermath of defeat to praise the Pumas rather than panic about the Lions. Friday night's fix can be a relatively quick one, even though this vintage lacks Edwards, John, Davies and JPR. Optus Stadium, PerthSaturday, 11amTV Sky Sports Main Event

BBC News

44 minutes ago

• BBC News

Why associate cricket is some of the best cricket

Three super overs in one match, five more final-over finishes, and a pitch Netherlands and Nepal's trip to Scotland has been action packed and record breaking. Six ODIs in Dundee and six T20s in Glasgow have delivered some of the most captivating cricket on offer anywhere in the is not the glitz and glamour of the IPL, nor does it have the history and prestige of Test cricket, but it is further evidence of the high-level cricket played by associate members of the International Cricket Council, despite the financial restraints they face. Nepal bring noise & drama A major factor in the series' compelling nature has been Nepal's their remarkable defeat by the Netherlands following three super overs, Scotland spinner Mark Watt asked on social media, "do Nepal ever have a normal game of cricket?"The 'Cardiac Kids' have certainly lived up to their nickname during their three-week stint in Scotland, with match after match going to the set out their stall with a dramatic one-wicket win over the hosts and have played with the same intensity and spirit throughout, winning five of their eight matches in foreign supporters have been present in both Dundee and Glasgow, with tens of thousands more watching along from home. That enthusiasm was no more evident than in a joyous pitch invasion after starting with that one-wicket win over Scotland. Nepal have made no secret of their ambition to receive full ICC membership and play Test cricket one seem to only play absorbing matches. They are superb in the field, have a varied bowling attack and do not seem to know when they are beaten."I guess it's the way we have played our cricket for the past 10 years or so," Nepal skipper Rohit Paudel told BBC Sport."Every game seems to go down to the wire,""So I think the name 'cardiac kids' comes because you never know how we can come back from a bad position to win a game. We are always fighting right until the end of a match even when the chance of winning might be small." What does the future hold? With the sport increasingly dominated by franchises, teams are often deprived of talents they have developed and at Test level, the likes of New Zealand and world Test champions South Africa do not have access to some of their best players due to more lucrative franchise series are now the domain of England, Australia and India. Opportunities are few and far between for teams outside the big three, though part of the ICC's strategy is to "give more nations a global platform".Cricket Scotland receives approximately £1.3m per year as part of the ICC's revenue share to fund all their programmes, men's and women's, approximately 10% of what a full member such as Ireland World Cup League 2 is far from the highest profile ODI cricket in the world, but to these sides it is everything - a potential route to the World Cup and a chance to prove themselves against the big hitters. Players give their all for their country, not always knowing when the next match will O'Dowd's magnificent 158 not out in Dundee helped the Dutch chase down Scotland's total of 369, the highest chase in associate history. The celebrations from O'Dowd and his teammates were joyous as they ended a four-match losing yet, they don't have another ODI scheduled in nations need more fixtures, but with that comes extra cost. Whether it comes from the ICC, governments, or commercial sponsorships, associate members argue they need more funding to build on the impressive foundations that already exist.