Captain James Ward-Prowse has “full confidence” Southampton can make a swift return to the Premier League following the pain of relegation. Saints’ fate was sealed by Saturday’s listless 2-0 defeat to Fulham – a club-record 24th league loss in a single season. England midfielder Ward-Prowse has been with Southampton since the age of eight but is already being linked with a summer move away from St Mary’s. The 28-year-old, who insists he is “not thinking too far ahead” regarding his own future, is optimistic Saints will bounce back from surrendering the top-flight status they have held since 2012. “(I’ve) full confidence, I think the club’s been there and done it,” he told Southampton’s website. “The squad that we’ve got now is incredibly young and they’ve got a lot to learn. “They will have learnt a lot from this year and next year I’m sure the club will be doing everything they can to be back in the Premier League.” Southampton were precariously placed for much of a miserable campaign, having continually occupied the bottom three since early November. Second-half goals from Fulham pair Carlos Vinicius and Aleksandar Mitrovic condemned Ruben Selles’ side to the drop with two games to spare. Spaniard Selles was the team’s third manager this term following the sackings of Ralph Hasenhuttl and Nathan Jones. Ward-Prowse concedes warning signs were present for a long time and admits Saints ultimately went down to the Sky Bet Championship with a whimper. “It’s something, in all honesty, we’ve been fearing for a little while,” he said. “Over the last couple of years we’ve not been performing at the level I believe we should be and I think this season’s caught up with us. “There’s a way to lose games, there’s a way to maybe fail in sport and I think the way we’ve done it this year, that’s the disappointing way. “I don’t feel we’ve really gone down with a fight and given everything we can. “I feel for the fans because they don’t deserve to see what we’ve produced this season and that’s the sad thing.” Victory for Fulham was a club-record 15th in a Premier League season to tighten their grip on a top-half spot. Winger Harry Wilson, who was involved in each of the Cottagers’ goals on the south coast, hopes to increase the impressive points haul of 51 going into a home game against Crystal Palace and a trip to Manchester United. “It’s not something I was aware of but it’s something we’ve earned throughout the season,” he said of the record. “We’ve shown that we can win different ways, so to get 15 wins and the record is great. “We’ll definitely enjoy them (the final two games) but we also know there’s a lot to play for and we want to make sure we get two wins.” Substitute Mitrovic returned from his eight-match ban with a bang by heading home seven minutes after replacing fellow goalscorer Vinicius. The Serbia striker was punished for grabbing referee Chris Kavanagh during his side’s 3-1 FA Cup loss at Old Trafford in March. Wilson is already eyeing revenge against United on the final weekend following the heated cup exit in which Mitrovic, Willian and manager Marco Silva were sent off. “We were really good for 70 minutes and we all know what happened,” he said of that game. “We feel like we kind of owe them one in a way because we felt on that day we maybe should have left with something.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Jurgen Klopp ready to revive Liverpool title rivalry with Man City next season On This Day in 2016: Max Verstappen makes Formula One history On this day in 2016: Saracens beat Racing 92 to win European Champions Cup

Sunday's football transfer rumours, with updates on Kylian Mbappe, Mason Mount, Alexis Mac Allister, Tammy Abraham & more.

YouTube star KSI beat Joe Fournier with a controversial knockout on Saturday, finishing the former professional boxer with an accidental elbow. KSI, 29, landed the bigger punches throughout the first round of the exhibition bout at London’s Wembley Arena, and he tagged Fournier, 40, with a huge overhand right in Round 2. That was followed by an attempted right hook, with KSI (real name Olajide Olatunji) instead making contact with his elbow. The strike sent Fournier tumbling to the canvas and left him staring up at the ceiling, unable to beat the referee’s count. In a post-fight interview, KSI denied that he had stopped his fellow Briton with his elbow, before calling Tommy Fury into the ring for a face-off, which ended with the pair being separated. KSI’s controversial win was his fourth straight KO victory in as many exhibition bouts. The YouTube star, who rose to fame as a gamer but also raps, previously fought Logan Paul twice, drawing with his fellow YouTuber in an amateur bout and beating him on points in a professional rematch. Meanwhile, Fury – half-brother of world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury – is best known for his time as a contestant on Love Island, but he is also unbeaten as a pro boxer. The 24-year-old outpointed Logan Paul’s brother Jake in February. No fight between KSI and Fury has been scheduled, and for some time KSI has been exchanging words with Jake Paul in hopes of arranging a bout. Jake Paul has gone 6-1 as a pro after stopping KSI’s brother Deji in his amateur debut in 2018. Last time out, in February, 26-year-old Paul suffered his first loss, a points defeat by Fury. The YouTube star is now set to box ex-UFC fighter Nate Diaz in August. Click here to subscribe to The Independent’s Sport YouTube channel for all the latest sports videos. Read More KSI vs Fournier LIVE: Latest Misfits boxing match ends in chaos as KSI wins with controversial knockout KSI knocks out Joe Fournier with controversial elbow Tommy Fury brawls with fellow Love Island contestant in KSI vs Fournier crowd

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is confident his side can close the gap to Manchester City next season. Wild inconsistencies in results – beating Manchester United 7-0 and Bournemouth 9-0 but losing to struggling Leeds, their only home defeat of the season – had left the Reds 20 points adrift of the Premier League leaders going into the weekend. It has been more common for the two to push each other all the way to the final day of the season, Liverpool twice coming second by just a point, and despite their most recent troubles Klopp expects normal service to be resumed when the new campaign kicks off in August. “There are two games a season, maybe with cups three, four or five, when you play City, Arsenal and the others,” he said ahead of the trip to struggling Leicester. “There are five million ways to win a football game, you only have to find one. A successful season is you are ready for all the games, that you can win 25-odd games. “If City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Newcastle, Tottenham, Man United are all involved in that 25 then it is even better. “But it is about can we create a team who can win the majority of the games? Yes, we can. It was never about what the other teams do. “We didn’t become champions by a point twice and there will be some people who say it was because we didn’t have this player in that moment. “Getting 90-odd points is absolutely insane, pretty special, and no one should take these things for granted. “The top seven get even closer together, it will be more difficult and more competitive. “It doesn’t make it easier but everyone with a good idea has a chance to be part of it. If you are part of the battle up there then you can win it as well.” Liverpool’s current six-match winning run, their best sequence for more than a year, has given a glimpse of the level the side used to – and Klopp believes will again – play at. The Reds boss has spoken regularly in recent weeks about using the end to the campaign as a platform for next season and has been pleased with the way his squad have responded. “We show it in six weeks. I’m happy that this question has come and you don’t ask me, ‘how is it you can play such rubbish football for so long?’,” he added. “I never questioned these boys. Never. Mentality-wise these boys are exceptional but we still couldn’t deliver for long periods of the season consistently good, successful football. “Is that normal for human beings? The period was a bit too long, but yes. “For everyone it is a relief to go again, to be winning again in a convincing way and not (having to) scrap three points. “We have a clear idea of what we want to do and I saw so many good things we could build on. “Nothing for Match of the Day, it won’t show up there, but I saw so many things in these games. “I’m absolutely fine with the reaction now but we all think it was a bit too long until we showed it. “All we can do is go for the last three games and make the best of what we have so far.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live On This Day in 2016: Max Verstappen makes Formula One history On this day in 2016: Saracens beat Racing 92 to win European Champions Cup Rookie Austin Eckroat grabs share of lead as Scottie Scheffler falters

A Sherpa guide has scaled Mount Everest for the 26th time, matching the record set by a fellow Nepalese guide for the most ascents of the world's highest peak

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Fresh from losing the small matter of 1,063 councillors, Rishi Sunak turned up to see his club lose their Premier League status. With supporters like him, Southampton may not need enemies. Then again, perhaps they were their own worst enemies as their 11-year stay in the top flight ended with a wretched relegation. They are the club owned by Sport Republic, supposedly the experts in studying the data, but the numbers were unflattering: the worst ones used to be the 9-0 scorelines Ralph Hasenhuttl occasionally suffered. But then Southampton went down with one point from their last eight games. They are guaranteed to get their lowest points total in the era of three per win. They could end their campaign with exactly 50 per cent of their points coming against Chelsea and Leicester and a grand total of 12 against everyone else. They have taken just 14 points against the bottom nine teams. And all that in a season when they spent around £140m. James Ward-Prowse argued after last week’s defeat to Nottingham Forest that they had learned nothing all season; more accurately, they forgot lessons of previous years, when Hasenhuttl had run the club on a budget, when they had a better mentality and a more united dressing room. Southampton initially lost their identity and intensity amid a sad end to the Austrian’s tenure. Yet demotion can be traced more to others, to Sport Republic and Nathan Jones, to a series of decisions. The most flattering assessment is that Southampton were overly optimistic and idealistic; more probably, they were misguided, naïve and at times just plain wrong. Sacking Hasenhuttl when 18th and spending the majority of the rest of the season in 20th is an illustration of how choices at boardroom level made things worse; finishing the campaign under the caretaker Ruben Selles after failing in an odd attempt to get Jesse Marsch an example of how plans went awry. The Spaniard should at least finish second in Southampton’s manager-of-the-year contest; he had some decidedly mixed results, but by then Saints needed an escapologist. Selles’ interim reign highlighted some of the paradoxes of Southampton. Six of his nine points came against Chelsea, Manchester United, Tottenham and Arsenal. Four of Hasenhuttl’s came at the expense of Chelsea and Arsenal too; if it suggested Southampton were more suited to the European Super League than the Premier League, they kept on procuring bonus points. But compile a league table without the supposed big six and they are miles adrift. The apparently winnable games weren’t winnable. That was especially apparent at St Mary’s. Nottingham Forest have got one away win this season: at Southampton. Everton and Wolves have two apiece: in each case, one was in Hampshire. For good measure, Saints lost at home to Crystal Palace, Brentford and Bournemouth under Selles. Jones had a clean sweep: his four home fixtures were against Brighton, Forest, Aston Villa and ten-man Wolves. They were four of the kind Southampton needed to target. They lost all four. Jones’ reign was more of a cameo, with eight league matches barely more than a fifth of the season. Yet the fixture list afforded him fixtures where Southampton probably required ten points. They took just three. They were playing catch-up ever since, drained of momentum, sucked to the foot of the table, only escaping it briefly in March. Those eight games capsized their chances. Fault can be found with Jones, with his strange selections and multiple formations and style of play that prompted the crowd to chorus “your football is sh*t”. More lies with those who appointed and anointed him, Southampton compiling a one-man shortlist at a time when Villa and Wolves were targeting the Europa League winners Unai Emery and Julen Lopetegui, who both went on to have transformative effects. Southampton went for Jones, a great overachiever at Luton but – and it does not require hindsight to say this – lacking the temperament, persona or credibility needed to survive in the Premier League spotlight. The Jones interlude proved a bizarre 94 days starring a man who declared himself one of the best coaches in Europe, containing an unnecessary and public argument with the manager of Havant and Waterlooville and involving a sliding-doors scenario where he settled down with a Welsh girl and became a PE teacher. Only Southampton supporters were disappointed when Jones was dismissed, because he had offered neutrals too much unwitting entertainment. It meant that even the subsequent home FA Cup defeat to Grimsby was not the most ignominious part of the season. Jones was not Sport Republic’s only mistake. CEO Rasmus Ankersen’s excellent record in the transfer market as Brentford’s director of football suggested he would be a fine fit for Southampton who, especially in the first few years after promotion in 2012, excelled at finding players, polishing them up and selling them for sizeable profits. Indeed, in Romeo Lavia, Armel Bella-Kotchap and Carlos Alcaraz, they unearthed three who are destined for better things, though relegation reduces the price Southampton can demand. Yet a policy was taken too far. Too many other signings scarcely seemed ready. Southampton seemed to overlook or underestimate the pragmatic realities of staying in the league. Crucially, they left themselves too weak in both penalty boxes. Hiring head of recruitment Joe Shields from Manchester City and allowing him to send the best part of £50m back to City came at a cost, for all Lavia’s promise. Juan Larios and Samuel Edozie were not ready for the Premier League. Gavin Bazunu, a £16m gamble of a goalkeeper, had never previously played above League One. His save percentage is a miserable 54. Go by charts for post-shot expected goals and he was the worst keeper in the Premier League. Go by the naked eye and there were too many damaging errors. Selles eventually dropped him, but too late. Meanwhile, Southampton’s focus on the future seemed to blind them to the pragmatic need for a striker for now. Danny Ings was never really replaced, though his exit was camouflaged by Armando Broja last season. The one forward Southampton did buy last summer, Sekou Mara, got a lone league goal: only Che Adams, Ward-Prowse and Alcaraz have more than two. And in the season Southampton started to spend, they did it in scattergun style. After Hasenhuttl’s years of austerity, their expenditure approached £150m . Factor in Duje Caleta-Car and Joe Aribo and six of last summer’s eight main arrivals failed. January seemed to consist of throwing good money after bad. Alcaraz is a huge talent but Jones’ Luton crony James Bree wasn’t good enough. Kamaldeen Sulemana was the quickest player at the World Cup but rarely uses his pace to accomplish anything. Southampton sought another kind of physicality from Paul Onuachu, the 6ft 7in centre-forward who was prolific in Belgium. ‘Tall Paul’ dropped out of the team after three games, out of the squad a couple of months later. Most damningly, Mislav Orsic, a scorer in the World Cup’s third-placed play-off, was given six minutes of Premier League action and soon banished from the squad. This, it is fair to say, was no masterplan. Jones had his favourites, Selles his, but there was no continuity, no cohesion, no chemistry. Along with Arsenal, Southampton had the youngest team in the Premier League. Along with Chelsea, they used the most players. Each statistic tells a tale. Saints were too callow at times. Whereas Hasenhuttl used to prefer to work with small groups, they ended up with too many players after incoherent splurges in successive windows. Amid the ever growing cast list, there should have been the basis of a fine Premier League team – Kyle Walker-Peters, Romain Perraud, Mohammed Salisu, Bella-Kotchap and, when fit again, Tino Livramento in defence, Lavia, Ward-Prowse, Alcaraz and Stuart Armstrong in midfield – but glaring weaknesses in goal and attack would have always rendered theirs a tough task. But that was a consequence of awful judgements, in the transfer market and in a managerial hunt that consisted of arrowing in on the wrong man. In their own way, Sport Republic made Southampton the Chelsea of the south coast, thinking they were cleverer than everyone else, spending too much and getting far worse. Read More Standards have not been good enough – Ruben Selles on Southampton’s relegation Southampton relegated by defeat to Fulham as Aleksansdar Mitrovic returns with a goal Coventry City aiming to come full circle after journey to hell and back Dean Smith counting on character and decision-making in Leicester survival fight Arsenal won’t stop digging for Premier League prize, Mikel Arteta vows Roy Hodgson: I won’t be telling Southgate to pick Eberechi Eze for England

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Jake Paul said rival KSI should be stripped of victory after knocking out Joe Fournier with an accidental elbow. YouTube star KSI knocked out former boxing professional Fournier in the second round of the exhibition bout at London’s Wembley Arena after catching him with his elbow as he attempted a right hook. KSI, who landed the bigger punches throughout the opening round, denied he had stopped Fournier with his elbow in the post-fight interview but replays showed contact had been made. Reacting to a clip of the knockout on social media, Paul said he did not “respect” the way the fight had ended and called for KSI to be disqualified, or that the controversial result should be declared a no contest. “I respect boxing too much to respect what that was,” Paul tweeted. “If that was indeed a real boxing match it will be ruled a no contest or disqualification.” KSI fought Paul’s brother, Logan Paul, twice in the early stages of his boxing career in 2018 and 2019, drawing with his fellow YouTuber in an amateur bout and beating him on points in a professional rematch. Jake Paul has also moved from YouTube into boxing but was defeated by former Love Island star Tommy Fury in Saudi Arabia in February in his first career loss. Following his victory over Fournier on Saturday night, KSI called Fury into the ring for a face-off, which ended with the pair being separated. Earlier, Fury, half-brother of world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, was seen brawling with Idris Virgo, a fellow ex-Love Island contestant, in the crowd at KSI vs Fournier. YouTube star KSI, who rose to fame as a gamer but also raps, now has four straight KO victories in as many exhibition bouts. Read More Who will KSI fight next? KSI and Tommy Fury separated after heated face-off at Misfits boxing event Who is KSI? From ‘endearing’ class clown to YouTuber who has changed the face of boxing

A place in next season’s Premier League is on the line as four teams begin their play-off campaigns at the end of the Championship season. Two clubs have already earned automatic promotion, with Burnley cruising to the title and Sheffield United also already elevated in relative comfort as the second-placed finisher. Battling to join them in the top flight are Luton Town, Middlesbrough, Coventry City and Sunderland, with the latter two clubs securing their spots on a dramatic final day after a tight race for the final play-off places. To book a prestigious Wembley date and a shot at the Premier League they will first have to survive two-legged home and away semi-finals. Here’s everything you need to know: When are the Championship play-offs? The play-offs begin on 13 May with the first leg of the semi-final between Sunderland and Luton, and conclude with the second tier’s final at Wembley on Saturday 27 May. Who has qualified for the play-offs? In the Championship, the teams who finished third, fourth, fifth and sixth will compete for the final promotion place to the Premiership. They are: Luton, Middlesbrough, Coventry and Sunderland. How can I watch it? All of the play-off action will be live for viewers in the United Kingdom on Sky Sports. Subscribers can stream every game via the Sky Go app. Championship play-off schedule: Semi-final first legs: Saturday 13 May, 5.30pm BST: Sunderland 2-1 Luton (Stadium of Light, Sunderland) Sunday 14 May, 12pm BST: Coventry vs Middlesbrough (Coventry Building Society Arena) Second legs: Tuesday 16 May, 8pm BST: Luton vs Sunderland (Kenilworth Road, Luton) Wednesday 17 May 8pm BST: Middlesbrough vs Coventry (Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough) Final: Saturday 27 May, 4.45pm BST Who has qualified for the play-offs in League One and League Two? In League One, it is the finishers in that same spread from third to sixth: Sheffield Wednesday, Barnsley, Bolton, Peterborough. League Two, meanwhile, awards an extra automatic promotion place, meaning the fourth to seventh placed clubs progress to the play-offs: Stockport County, Carlisle United, Bradford City, Salford City. League One play-off schedule Semi-final first legs: Friday 12 May, 8pm BST: Peterborough 4-0 Sheffield Wednesday (London Road, Peterborough) Saturday 13 May, 3pm BST: Bolton 1-1 Barnsley (University of Bolton Stadium) Second legs: Thursday 18 May, 8pm BST: Sheffield Wednesday vs Peterborough (Hillsborough, Sheffield) Friday 19 May, 8pm BST: Barnsley vs Bolton (Oakwell, Barnsley) Final: Monday 29 May, 3pm BST League Two play-off schedule Semi-final first legs: Saturday 13 May, 7.45pm BST: Salford City 1-0 Stockport County (Moor Lane, Salford) Sunday 14 May, 7pm BST: Bradford vs Carlisle (Valley Parade, Bradford) Second legs: Saturday 20 May, 12.30pm BST: Stockport County vs Salford City (Edgeley Park, Stockport) Saturday 20 May, 3pm BST: Carlisle United vs Bradford City (Brunton Park, Carlisle) Final: Sunday 28 May, 1.30pm BST Read More EFL clubs agree record £935million broadcast deal with Sky Sports Milan derby creates thrilling sensory overload that shows how football should be Vincent Kompany planning ‘smart’ recruitment for promoted Burnley When are the play-offs? On this day in 2013: Wigan celebrate FA Cup win with shock victory over Man City A closer look at this season’s play-off contenders as promotion battle resumes

Max Scherzer has struggled to say the least to start off his 2023 campaign, sporting a 5.56 ER through his first five starts.He'll have an opportunity to get back on track on Sunday after when he and the Mets take on the Washington Nationals in an NL East battle.Let's dive into the...

American Rolando Romero defeated Venezuela's Ismael Barroso on a controversial ninth-round stoppage to win the vacant World Boxing Association super...