Nottingham Forest’s Liam Delap: ‘I play at my best on the edge of bei…

After a difficult year at Chelsea the striker hopes to get his career back on track at the City Ground

‘You can imagine it: he’s a centre-back, I’m a striker,” says Liam Delap, Nottingham Forest’s £45m club-record signing, smiling as he sets the scene. He is reliving taking on his younger brother, Finn, in the garden. These days, they are each other’s biggest supporters – Liam attended Finn’s victory for third-tier Burton on Wednesday – but as kids there was a friendly rivalry. “There were probably a lot of tears, a lot of fights … whether it was playing Monopoly or football, it always ended in either the table being flipped or kicking the shit out of each other.”

It is a competitive streak that has stuck and Delap is determined to make his presence felt at Forest, for whom he could make his full debut against Tottenham on Saturday. It has been a testing 16 months; he left Chelsea a season into a six-year contract and after one goal in 28 top-flight appearances, a dozen of those starts. “It is never a linear path straight to the top,” Delap says, his right hand taking flight in the City Ground boardroom, the 1979 and 1980 European Cups shimmering behind him. “I just want to get my head down, focus and keep improving because I’m still so young and I have so much to learn. I even at times probably think I’ve been in football a lot longer than I have. I’ve still, hopefully, got a long career ahead. afsport.lat

Jeering and heckling are increasingly commonplace, even at grand slams, as spectators try to influence matches

Midway through the first week of the US Open a couple of years ago, Jiri Lehecka’s attempts to find his form were disrupted by incessant taunting from a spectator close by. “There was a guy who sat just behind my bench on a smaller court, court 4, and he was talking to me basically for the first three sets, like nonstop,” Lehecka says. “He was talking to me like: ‘You can’t do it. You are tired. He’s better than you are.’”

BlogSoccer goal width explained: exact size and its impact on gameplayThe goal in soccer is 8 yards (7.32 m) wide between the inside edges of the posts The clear opening between the goalposts is exactly 8 yards wide, measured along the ground from...Open →

Lehecka maintained his composure and closed out the match, but even as he focused on navigating the intense stress of competition, he believed he understood this spectator’s motivations. The spectator, he thinks, was not there just to cheer for his favourite player: he was a bettor who had put money on Lehecka to lose. He had entered court 4 solely to influence the outcome of the match.

Den franske spissen Djylian N'Guessan har signert for Liverpool. Det bekrefter den engelske storklubben gjennom sosiale medier.
18-åringen kommer fra Saint-Étienne, der han fikk sin førstelagsdebut av nåværende Brann-trener Eirik Horneland tilbake i 2025.
Siden den gang har angriperen fått 13 kamper for Saint-Étiennes førstelag.
Liverpool opplyser at N'Guessan vil tilbringe resten av sesongen på lån hos den franske Ligue 1-klubben Stade Brestois. 18-åringen blir offisielt Liverpool-spiller i januar.