Liverpool will welcome 'new signing' before end of this month

Liverpool are in the process of overhauling the centre of their defence.

We could see Ibrahima Konate move on at the end of the season. He is into the final few months of his Liverpool contract amid reports he could be heading to Real Madrid.

In a further 12 months both Joe Gomez and captain Virgil van Dijk will see their contracts expire. As things stand it would be a surprise to see either of them in a red shirt beyond summer 2027.

January saw deals put in place for both Ifeanyi Ndukwe and Jeremy Jacquet to join in summer. Another promising youngster in Mor Talla Ndiaye was also recruited for the under-21 set-up.

Leoni approaching comeback

But the man who kicked off the reshuffle was Giovanni Leoni.

The Italian was signed last summer from Parma for a fee of £26m - but disaster struck on debut. The 19-year-old tore his ACL in an EFL Cup game against Southampton - ending his maiden campaign in tragic circumstances.

It’s not expected that Leoni will play again this season but there is a plan in place over his return. According to a report in Mondo Primavera Leoni is on course to return to first-team training by the end of April - meaning he is just weeks away from a comeback.

“The current plan calls for a return to training with the squad by the end of April 2026,” the report reads.

“This "new signing" represents a fundamental piece of Liverpool's defensive plan, with the club investing heavily in the youngster, seeing him as a cornerstone for the years to come.”

TEMPE—The Arizona GymCats landed in the opening round play-in meet against Arizona State largely because of disastrous bars rotation at the Big 12 Championships. They had a chance to rectify that right from the start of the dual meet against the Sun Devils, but they weren’t able to carry that redemption through to the end. This time, the last rotation of the day did them in.

Arizona head coach John Court said earlier in the week that he just didn’t want the team to beat itself, but that’s ultimately what it came down to.

“We 1000 percent beat ourselves,” Court said.

Arizona went into the final rotation with a 0.375 lead over ASU, but had two falls in a row off the balance beam and two major balance checks. First, it was Aubrey Krohnfeldt falling on one of her tumbling passes. Next, Jessa Janicke fell. They were followed by Sophie Derr, who didn’t fall but had a big balance check at the end of her routine. Then came a major balance check by Tirzah Wise.

“We only needed 9.7s,” Court said.

They couldn’t get them because they were forced to count a fall yet again. Court noted that they had counted a fall in every single meet away from McKale Center this year.

“I take responsibility for that,” he said.

There was good news for Arizona fans before that opening bar rotation, though. Lineups posted on social media had senior Emma Strom set to go on floor, an event she could conceivably perform at nationals. Strom tore two ligaments in her ankle on senior night three weeks ago. She has been hurriedly rehabbing it, trying to get back for the final few meets of the year.

“Emma willed it,” Court said. “We needed her to play, and she did.”

There were other things to take care of before Strom and her team could take the floor. First was getting that redemption on bars.

Scores on bars were tight for both teams. Only three scores of 9.800 were handed out between both teams. Two of them—the highest two, in fact—went to Arizona.

The GymCats looked like they were performing solid bars routines, but scores of 9.675 and 9.700 popped up for Hillary Puleo and Sadie Smith to start the opening rotation. Two 9.775s followed, then the big scores came. Derr and Krohnfeldt scored matching 9.875s to round out the rotation. The GymCats hit 49.000 on the nose after scoring 47.400 on the event last week.

Still, ASU was getting big scores on vault. That’s an event that Arizona has to maximize because it has no 10.000 start values in the lineup. When it was the GymCats’ turn, those start values didn’t matter.

While the tight scores on bars affected ASU, the looser scoring on vault and some stuck landings helped Arizona. The team scored 48.950 on vault, giving away just 0.100 on that event. The GymCats had already made that up by outscoring ASU on bars 49.000 to 48.550. The visitors had the lead halfway through the meet.

That brought them to floor and Strom’s return.

Two weeks ago, ASU’s director of home meets said that they brought in new floors to make the regional more in line with the other sites. Whether that had any effect on the GymCats or it was just the occasion, they often appeared to be moving just a bit more slowly than usual and some of the scores seemed to reflect that lack of flow.

Arizona opened with a string of scores in the 9.7s before Abigayle Martin came through with a 9.825. Strom took her turn. It wasn’t the 9.9+ that she’s accustomed to, but her 9.850 tied for the highest score on the event with ASU’s Halle Gregoire.

The GymCats didn’t need anything close to their best score on beam. That was even more true when ASU scored just 48.900 on floor exercise. But the huge let down in the final event allowed the Sun Devils to run past the Arizona and win by 0.525, a comeback of 0.900 in just one rotation.

“My phone is blowing up with people telling me that we were the better team, but we weren’t the better team or we would have closed it out,” Court said.

That brings to an end the careers of seniors Gianna Lenczner, Elizabeth LaRusso, and Sophia Stephens. Strom (floor exercise), Martin (all-around), Wise (balance beam), and Jessa Janicke (vault) all qualified to compete as individuals and try to get to nationals.

• Sam Kerr and Caitlin Foord named as Mary Fowler rests after Asian Cup

• Australia to play 153rd-ranked Malawi followed by India or Kenya

The Matildas have opted for consistency in building towards the 2027 Women’s World Cup, as Joe Montemurro named a 22-player squad for a pair of international friendlies in Kenya later this month.

But the head coach wants Australia to play against more “high quality, top-ranked” opposition in preparation for the global showpiece, given the side faces world No 153 Malawi in their first match, followed by India (No 67) or hosts Kenya (No 134) in the second.

Iliman Ndiaye reportedly views Manchester United as a ‘dream’ move ahead of a potential summer approach from INEOS.

One Red Devils insider claims the Everton starlet would be ‘open’ to making the switch if an opportunity presented itself.

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United set sights on Ndiaye coup

It comes amid numerous reports confirming that United are indeed among Ndiaye’s admirers heading into the transfer window.

The 26-year-old, hailed as ‘one of the best players in the Premier League’ by Jamie O’Hara this season, will have spent two years with Everton by the time the summer rolls around, and may decide that now, while his stocks are high and the interest is there, is the right time to explore a new venture.

Back in July 2023, the Toffees shelled out £15 million to add the Senegal international to their ranks from Olympique Marseille.

He has since proven to be a tremendous addition, particularly this campaign, when he has hugely benefited from the additions of Jack Grealish and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.

How Ndiaye has fared in recent years

Ndiaye has returned six goals and three assists in the 26 league matches he’s played in thus far, having missed a chunk of the term through his African Cup of Nations participation.

(Ndiaye’s complete Premier League record)

His most eye-catching and prolific form came when he was plying his trade for Sheffield United, where he scored 22 goals and contributed a further 14 assists in the 88 appearances he made across all competitions.

By the time the Blades were cornered into facilitating his departure, the Bramall Lane faithful were heartbroken to have to bid farewell to their talisman.

It remains to be seen what kind of fee Everton would demand for Ndiaye, as it’s safe to say they’ll be doing their utmost to convince him to stay put on Merseyside.

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There’s always a worry that a team will come out flat the day after an emotional victory like last night’s come-from-behind win. That’s why it’s important to have a strong performance from your starting pitcher – particularly with this team’s bullpen – and Zac Gallen delivered exactly what the team needed. Unfortunately, he was lined up against the two-time Cy Young winner in Tarik Skubal who continues to show why he’s one of the best starters in the game right now. It’s rare that Opening Day starters square off outside of what should be a national holiday, but that was the case today across the league. And we were treated to a taut, well-played, defensive and pitching masterclass that the D-Backs narrowly took.

Thankfully though, Skubal wasn’t perfect. One of the few mistakes he made all afternoon opened – and closed – the scoring when Corbin Carroll launched a fastball above the zone that just snuck over the centerfield fence to give the D-Backs a 1-0 lead in the very first inning. The D-Backs created plenty of traffic throughout the game – there were only two innings where they didn’t have at least one baserunner – but they failed to capitalize on any of them. Instead, Skubal did what any starting pitcher would like to do: he induced weak contact and allowed his defense to work behind him by dialing up three separate double plays that extinguished rallies before they even started.

For his part, Gallen was up to the pitching duel, matching Skubal’s scoreless innings step for step. He leaned a little more heavily on his knuckle curve over his slider to great effect, collecting a pair of whiffs on the pitch. But even better, Gallen also leaned on his defense – far from a team strength the last two years – as he had just two strikeouts across his six innings. In fact, there were only eight strikeouts total from each team, landing in the lower-third of strikeout totals for games so far this season. Instead, there were defensive gems on both sides that kept the offense off the board. Crucially, Gallen ended his outing with an incredible show of athleticism and quick thinking. With the tying run at third after a one out triple from Kevin McGonigle, Gleyber Torres smacked a ball ticketed for right field that Jose Fernandez snagged out of the air and immediately threw to third to double up McGonigle and end the inning. It was a heads up play that you can’t always expect from a player who’s in his second career big league game, but Fernandez has already shown a level head for big moments and demonstrated it again today.

In classic baseball fashion, after a deflating sweep at the hand of the hated Dodgers to open the season, the D-Backs returned home to sweep the AL Central favorites with a dynamic offense, excellent defense, and just enough pitching to make it all hold up. It’s easy to live and die with the results of each game and I’m certainly prone to that kind of vacillating feeling throughout the season, but it’s always worth remembering to take a deep breath and remind yourself that it’s a long season and your confidence can change drastically on a day-to-day basis.