Pakistan's head coach and captain merry-go-round: Are the players scapegoats in a systemic issue? originally appeared on Cricket News. Add Cricket News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Pakistan's Test squad and coaching staff faced a wholesale overhaul mid-series in England.
Five years since Ehsan Mani's exit, Pakistan cricket has cycled through constant captaincy, coaching, and administrative instability.
Pakistan's overall records across formats show declining Test performance despite reasonable success in white-ball ICC tournaments.
There's an easy target sitting right in front of us every time Pakistan's cricketers walk out to bat or bowl, and when the team fails miserably, they become sitting ducks waiting for **** fire to be showered on them from all directions.

#test #england

President Donald Trump has never taken kindly to losing elections. He's often tried to explain it away by citing bogus claims of mass voter fraud.
But ahead of the 2026 midterm election, he appears to be lining up another culprit and scapegoat: his fellow Republicans.
Repeatedly in recent weeks, Trump has suggested that if congressional Republicans lose big in November, they will have themselves to blame — and certainly not him.
This is ridiculous, of course. Trump is historically unpopular and appears to have alienated many voters even in his own party in ways that clearly harm the GOP's midterm hopes. Congressional Republicans could certainly have insulated themselves better from Trump's problems and stood up more to his excesses, but he would clearly shoulder the lion's share of the blame.
Regardless, though, Trump blaming the GOP for its own losses — if they do indeed lose control of either chamber — would set up a very interesting intraparty clash at a particularly sensitive time. It would come as it's licking its wounds from a bad election and perhaps considering a new path forward from the Trump era.

#lose

It already feels like quite some time ago, and yet it also still feels like it was only just a few weeks ago that Germany yet again floundered out of the World Cup far earlier than they should have. In Foxborough, Massachusetts, they fell to Paraguay in a penalty shootout after failing to get the job done in 90 minutes, but the writing was on the wall as they collectively failed to hit their heights throughout the entire tournament — starting off the group stages with a 7-1 trouncing of Curaçao in Houston, Texas probably didn't do wonders for keeping them on their toes.
Too many players underperformed, mid-match management calls and tactical changes might not have been right, but what's done is done and Germany can now ride a wave of anticipation and excitement into Jürgen Klopp's reign as Die Mannschaft manager, as the former Liverpool, Borussia Dortmund and Mainz man took over for Julian Nagelsmann. The DFB more or less strongly urged Nagelsmann to resign after the World Cup, but was he really to blame for everything that went wrong for Germany, or was he just the easiest scapegoat to point at? For former/honorary Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeneß, the problems with the team extended well beyond Nagelsmann.
"I think our team's performance was an absolute disaster. It was a disgrace for our country. But there are various reasons for that. Enough has already been said about Julian Nagelsmann. I don't think he is solely to blame. We don't have a team of outstanding quality, but you can still have a good World Cup. Argentina proved that. They don't have a good team, but they threw everything into it like crazy. That's what I felt was missing from our team," Hoeneß recently stressed to RTL / Sky Germany (via iMiaSanMia).
Of course, Argentina made it to the final in East Rutherford, New Jersey where they lost to Spain, but a great portion of their campaign was a massive topic of discussions for the way in which they were given a plethora of favorable calls in different matches and getting away with blatant, persistent fouling.
That's not to say that the Argentine squad doesn't possess the grit, fight, and tenacity within the laws of the game that routinely gets them to the latter stages of World Cups, but there certainly questions raised; why didn't Lionel Messi get a red vs. Saudi Arabia, why was Egypt's 3rd goal disallowed, why didn't anyone get booked early on vs. England? All legitimate questions asked, but for Hoeneß, he doesn't see that type of fight from Germany that Argentina almost always displays.

#germany #hoene

Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk has challenged his side to make amends for their "unacceptable" performances last season.
The Reds finished a disappointing fifth in the Premier League and failed to win a trophy in a dismal campaign that ended in Arne Slot's sacking.
Just 12 months after winning the English **** le, Liverpool were beaten in 19 of their 56 matches in all competitions and 12 of their 38 league games -- only one fewer than they had lost in the previous three seasons combined.
They failed to get past the Champions League and FA Cup quarter-finals and bowed out of the League Cup in the fourth round.
As if that wasn't bad enough, Slot's relationship with Mohamed Salah disintegrated, with the Egypt forward claiming he had been made a scapegoat for Liverpool's troubles.

#failed #dijk

Pep Guardiola's explosive confrontation with Kyle Walker left the Manchester City boss struggling to hold back tears, as shown in a newly released documentary. The two engaged in a heated altercation in the Anfield dressing room that ultimately contributed to Walker's departure from the club.
Following a 2-0 defeat to Liverpool in December 2024, Walker turned on his manager, furious at being made a scapegoat. The clash occurred just days after Guardiola had penned a contract extension.
"You keep saying my name, every meeting," new footage shows Walker venting angrily, via The Mirror. "Every f***ing meeting it's my name."
-Credit:JONATHAN NACKSTRAND, AFP via Getty Images
When Guardiola responded that Walker's name frequently arose due to his captaincy role, the England international fired back, claiming: "You didn't want me to be a captain." The right-back pressed on: "I've reacted to someone else, I've lost the ball, you somehow bring my name into it."

#city

The tax man is coming for ETFs… eventually. This week's ETF Zoo digs into the recent action from the Treasury looking into newer ETF structures that include box spreads and 351 exchanges, what Goldman Sach's acquisition of NEOS says about the broader options income category, and why the struggling consumer matters less and less to markets. ETF.com hosts Dave Nadig, President and Director of Research, and Sumit Roy, Senior ETF ***** yst, are joined this week by Brent Sullivan, Editor of Tax Alpha Insider and Todd Sohn, Chief ETF Strategist at Baird Strategas.
You can also find this episode on our YouTube channel, as well as Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Goldman Sachs just dropped $2.3 billion on NEOS, its second major ETF acquisition after Innovator, vaulting the bank into the top ten issuers with roughly $130 billion on platform. The Zoo crew believes it's a straight-up bet on retiring boomers hungry for income and downside protection. But the real intrigue is under the hood, where NEOS's covered-call funds lean heavily on return-of-capital distributions (untaxed, tax-efficient income) via 1256 contracts, a structure that's genuinely different from rivals like JEPI/JEPQ. While they're great products, tune in to find out what concerns the crew had.
From there the conversation zooms out to the bigger income-obsession story eating the market. Options income ETFs are going parabolic even as the S&P grinds higher and 30-year Treasury yields sit near multi-decade highs. Todd Sohn's theory: these products are quietly stealing market share from boring old dividend ETFs, especially with younger investors looking to add something more dynamic to their portfolios. Meanwhile, there's something strange happening in the market. Consumer stocks have practically vanished from index influence, with tech (and AI subscriptions) soaking up the wallet share that used to go to staples and discretionary names. Equal-weight and small-/mid-cap stocks are having a surprise moment, potentially riding the AI wave's downstream productivity gains rather than getting crushed by it.
The back half got spicier on taxes: Brent Sullivan previewed a coming reckoning as Treasury scrutinizes aggressive structures, including 351 exchanges, box spreads, dividend-avoidance ETFs. When the cards are on the table, we'll find out who's been bluffing. He expects enforcement to start with the most public, most obviously aggressive cases, though a timeline is anyone's guess. The group also piled on a Bloomberg feature that used Cliff Asness as the poster child for tax-aware long/short strategies, finding a strange scapegoat in Asness and the criticism unnecessarily pointed. Things then close on a cautionary tale of a Market Wizards-famous manager's ETF that's down a brutal 96-97% year-to-date after leaning into short-dated QQQ options. Investors would do well to remember that in this corner of the ETF world, someone's always selling you something.

#etfs #market #neos #brent

Chelsea's second string played out an interesting friendly with Johor Darul Ta'zim this afternoon, and there was one big winner and one big loser.
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Chelsea's second team have just drawn 3-3 in Malaysia against Johor Darul Ta'zim, and a result like that is bound to generate some criticism for individuals, even with a much changed team on the pitch.
The scapegoat for the Blues was Tosin, who had another shocker. He was so poor he may have played his way out of Xabi Alonso's consideration for the season ahead. Certainly he's at the bottom of the long list of central defenders we have on our books right now.
JAKARTA, INDONESIA – AUGUST 08: Valeri Vladimirov of AC Milan competes for the ball against Nicolas Jackson of Chelsea FC during the pre-season friendly between Chelsea FC and AC Milan at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium on August 08, 2026 in Jakarta, Indonesia. (Photo by Peksi Cahyo/Getty Images)

#johor #darul #Milan #played

NEW DELHI: With India's growing injury list putting the spotlight on the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE), its head VVS Laxman has pushed back against the scrutiny surrounding the Bengaluru-based facility, insisting that injuries are an unavoidable part of a cricketer's career and that the focus should be on monitoring players rather than finding scapegoats.

The CoE has come under increasing scrutiny in recent weeks amid concerns over rehabilitation timelines, fitness ******* sments and communication between its sports science team and the national selection committee. Several key players are currently dealing with injuries, with Jasprit ******* rah, Sai Sudharsan, Harshit Rana, Nitish ******* ar Reddy and Washington Sundar among those facing fitness concerns.

Laxman, however, defended the institution's broader role, stressing that it should not be reduced to a rehabilitation centre.

"CoE is not merely a rehab centre. There are bigger roles to play for it in helping cricketers achieve excellence," Laxman said at a press conference in Bengaluru on Sunday.

His comments come at a time when the CoE's injury-management programme is under renewed examination, particularly with India set to begin a crucial Test series against Sri Lanka on August 15.
Laxman also refused to attribute India's injury problems to any individual or department, arguing that injuries are an inherent part of professional sport.

"Injuries are part and parcel of any player's career. That's why monitoring system is very critical. And we don't use the term blame then we will be trying to find scapegoats," he said.

The CoE chief pointed towards the facility's monitoring systems and the measures being used to ******* s players continuously, rather than relying solely on conventional fitness tests.

"Yo Yo test cannot be done when a player is part of the series, so we have introduced Bronco test by Adrian, so that the fitness can be monitored continously," Laxman said.

He cited ******* rah and Sudharsan as examples of players whose fitness was ******* sed through multiple parameters before decisions were made on their availability.

"Jasprit ******* rah and B Sai Sudharsan were picked as subject to fitness. We move them from one parameter to other before giving the clearance to play. The communication between CoE and team management is quite seamless," he added.

The comments are significant given the uncertainty that has surrounded the availability of both ******* rah and Sudharsan for the Sri Lanka Tests.

Both players were initially included in India's squad subject to fitness, but the CoE's medical and sports science experts ultimately opted for caution after ******* sing their respective conditions.

Bumrah's absence is particularly significant, with the fast bowler's knee continuing to cause problems after an impact injury. Fluid retention has required additional recovery time, forcing India to prepare for the series without one of their most impo

Galatasaray coach Okan Buruk has defended his player Leroy Sané who he feels was blamed for Germany's early 2026 World Cup exit.
"Leroy is one of the last players you could possibly single out as a scapegoat," Buruk said, speaking to Sky Germany.
"In every game [Germany played at the World Cup], he gave everything he had and worked incredibly hard for the team.
"Unfortunately, it has almost become fashionable to blame him. He didn't have a bad World Cup at all.
"To be honest, I actually find it a bit amusing that people are now making Leroy Sané the scapegoat," Buruk concluded.

#germany #scapegoat

When the Buffalo Bills open up training camp at the end of July, there are going to be a handful of battles at position groups, but the most important might be at wide receiver.
The Bills did a solid job updating their receiving core this offseason with the big move of trading for Chicago Bears wide receiver DJ Moore, but there are still a handful of other roster spots that need upgrades at the position.
One of the key areas to watch during training camp is who will be named the two outside starting receivers. Fansided's NFL insider, Jason La Canfora, identified the Bills' receiving competition as one of the eight biggest training camp battles.
"In most of these instances we are drilling down at a particular spot on the depth chart, and we certainly figure DJ Moore is the top guy here given what it took to get him, but this is kind of jumped. Keon Coleman has been a bit of a scapegoat for the Bills coming up short as an organization and Joshua Palmer is a nice depth signing with upside and Khalil Shakir has probably been overexposed and asked to do too much; maybe he settles into a slot-exclusive role now," La Canfora wrote on Thursday. "This group needs to step up its overall production, and they need Moore to be a legit go-to guy. I believe he will."
Moore is going to win one of the jobs if everything goes according to plan, which means not suffering any injury. However, the No. 2 outside receiver spot is going to be a test.

#bills

Scapegoating Christian Pulisic for USMNT World Cup defeat is neither fair nor accurate originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Perhaps it is a sign of this country’s growth as a soccer nation that the United States men’s national team’s best player is being harangued by the public and media for the offense of playing terribly in an essential World Cup game.
And then getting injured.
It’s hard to imagine, though, Christian Pulisic thinking of this as progress.
“I’d be perfectly fine if we never see Christian Pulisic in a USMNT uniform again,” wrote the Mr.InvisibleTexan account on X/Twitter.

Kyllian Mbappe is being scapegoated for Real Madrid's failings according to Sweden and Parma legend Tomas Brolin, who stated this to Hajper.
Kylian Mbappe is being scapegoated for Real Madrid's failings according to Sweden and Parma legend Tomas Brolin, who stated this to Hajper.
Mbappe once again reminded us of his quality on Tuesday. During France’s Group I World Cup 2026 debut, he fired a double past Senegal to secure a 3-1 win at the MetLife stadium.
The impressive brace came at a difficult time for Mbappe, who has faced widespread criticism for his club form.
That comes despite 86 goals in 103 appearances since joining Real Madrid on a free transfer from Paris Saint-Germain in the summer of 2024.

A high-profile lawsuit between two well-known entities is never just tried in a courthouse; it's also tried in the court of public opinion. And that's exactly what's happening with the Pattie Gonia vs. Patagonia copyright infringement case. The apparel company sued the drag queen in January after she applied for a trademark to sell merchandise and promote her activism and online marketing. This, the company alleges in a statement posted on its website, violated a previously held agreement between the two parties — though the drag queen claims there was no agreement.
Patagonia maintained it did not want to sue Pattie Gonia, but needed to do so to protect its trademark and itself from bad actors. Initially, when the lawsuit was filed, the drag queen remained silent. However, that silence was broken last week, when she uploaded a video to Instagram and a written statement, claiming that the brand is trying to "erase an activist." At first, Pattie had the court of public opinion on her side, especially in this fraught political landscape where queer and nonbinary people's rights are at risk, and drag queens are used as scapegoats.
The two parties have shared their stipulations for dropping the lawsuit on social media: Pattie says that she would drop her pursuit of a trademark if the brand agrees to drop the lawsuit. Meanwhile, the brand says it will drop the lawsuit if she drops all trademark applications, ceases using its logos, and stops selling and promoting apparel and other products under the name Pattie Gonia.
As the two parties reach a stalemate, Out spoke with three lawyers who specialize in trademark and intellectual property law about what is going on in this case, who has greater legal standing, and what the path forward is for both Pattie Gonia and Patagonia.
Alexandra J. Roberts is a professor of law and media at Northeastern University and a leading voice in intellectual property and social media, with expertise in trademark law. She largely sides with Pattie because she feels the brand has a much higher bar to clear, given the claims in the lawsuit.