Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek are seeded No. 1 for Wimbledon

Week 7 of the NFL season is upon us and bye weeks are beginning to come into play in the fantasy football realm. With six teams on bye, be sure to be active on the waiver wire if you are a manager who rosters players on any of these teams.

The Seattle Mariners were enjoying a healthy five-run lead over the Houston Astros in a game they absolutely needed last night when someone decided to launch a

The Tampa Bay Rays had to wrap up their weekend series with the Boston Red Sox yesterday and now they don’t have a day off before getting right into this three-game series with the AL Central leading Minnesota Twins. While both teams are division leaders the Rays are in a class of their own wi...

Marcus Thuram made sure that Inter Milan got revenge on Romelu Lukaku with the decisive goal in Sunday's 1-0 win over Roma, which maintained his team's...

TL;DR: As of June 26, you can get the Stamina Deluxe Conversion II Recumbent Bike/Rower

The Minnesota Vikings have already endured the frustration of opening the season by losing three straight one-score games

Chelsea changed the landscape of the Premier League and European football as a whole exactly 20 years ago, when Roman Abramovich completed his takeover of the club on 1 July and immediately started spending money on a scale never before seen in the league. While the Russian billionaire eventually was forced to offload the club last year, Todd Boehly and his Clearlake group purchasing the Blues, Abramovich’s spell at the helm was trophy-laden and filled with unrivalled investment in transfers. In that first summer back in 2003, the Stamford Bridge side immediately signed a massive haul of players: Hernan Crespo, Damien Duff, Juan Sebastian Veron, Claude Makelele, Adrian Mutu, Wayne Bridge, Joe Cole, Geremi, Glen Johnson and Aleksey Smertin, along with a clutch of reserve players to boost squad numbers. But the haul could have been even higher, both by volume and very much by reputation, it has been revealed, by those who were at the club at the time - including moves explored for two of Italy’s greatest players at the time. Then-manager Claudio Ranieri has detailed how early meetings after Abramovich bought the club could have seen him lose his own post, had Sven-Goran Eriksson been persuaded to leave the England job - as well as the players who might have been lured to the Premier League had a takeover been concluded earlier. “When I came back for preseason, [chief executive] Trevor Birch told me the club had been sold. I asked who the new owner [weas], he said a Russian person, very rich, he wants to build a big team...that was it,” Ranieri told The Blueprint podcast, in a forthcoming episode heard exclusively by the Independent. “I didn’t know what could happen but of course I thought ‘maybe he wants to change the manager’. Roman wanted to sign Sven-Goran Eriksson, who was the England national team manager. But in the end he told me ‘OK, you worked well last season, try to do your best in this season.’ “He told me, ‘tell me what you want’ [for transfers], but it was difficult to sign [players like Francesco] Totti, [or Alessandro] Nesta when big teams are in preseason. Roman wanted to buy big champions but to bring them you had to work a year, six months. Not when other teams are ready to start the season! “The first meeting he was so happy - he told me he wanted to buy great players and make Chelsea the greatest team in the world. But it was impossible to sign those kind of players he was asking me if I wanted. It was the only time in my life [I was asked about them]!” Meanwhile, the players already at the club were also dealing with the fallout in different ways. Winger Jesper Gronkjaer, who had joined in 2000/01, noted that the squad at the time knew about the club’s financial difficulties and the likelihood of a change in ownership - especially since there were media reports about not getting paid on time. And when the signings started to happen, a natural response for many meant cause over their own futures. “I think we were all aware that the club had financial issues. In springtime there were rumours about not getting salaries, about Ken Bates wanting to sell the club. We did not buy any players the summer before because of the financial situation,” Gronkjaer said. “Nobody could imagine Roman coming in and we have never seen a guy coming in like that, using that much money in such a short time, changing the training facilities. We have never really seen that around in Europe before, so I think we were all a bit sceptical afterwards. All the players were thinking, ‘Are we gonna stay here? How many players is he gonna buy?’ It was quite chaotic. “From day one if you opened all the papers there were rumours about five players for each position. And not just five players, it was five top players from Real Madrid, from Bayern Munich, from Manchester United. “It was the top scorers in Serie A, you know, it was from the top shelf. Then you have got thoughts about, ‘Is there going to be space for me here? Are they trying to get rid of me?’” Gronkjaer’s own departure was sealed 12 months later with a transfer to Birmingham, as the Blues continued to splash the cash and bring in the likes of Arjen Robben and Didier Drogba. The Abramovich era was well and truly under way and Chelsea certainly became a dominant force under his ownership, which very much enforced a new era in the English game. But the revelations of who could have arrived in the earliest days maybe highlight how much faster other clubs would have had to move to keep up, and how determined Abramovich was to see his plans come to fruition quickly. ::‘The Blueprint: How Chelsea FC Changed Football’ podcast is streaming now - listen to every episiode here Read More Harry Kane builds new family home near Chelsea training ground Havertz transfer leaves Chelsea fans conflicted: ‘You won’t be missed’ Arsenal transfer news: Record Rice bid, Timber and Xhaka latest Havertz completes transfer to Arsenal as Chelsea continue clearout Mateo Kovacic completes move from Chelsea to Manchester City Why Jackson possesses tools to make Chelsea a free-scoring Pochettino team

TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan and the United States will issue a joint statement on technology cooperation on Friday that will commit

Even with Sonny Gray no longer available, the Atlanta Braves can still make a splash in free agency.

Gary O’Neil admitted Wolves’ 3-2 defeat at Fulham may have ‘finally turned him against VAR’ following a number of controversial calls. Willian scored two penalties – including a stoppage-time winner – at Craven Cottage, while Alex Iwobi’s early strike was cancelled out by Matheus Cunha and Wolves’ Hwang Hee-chan also scored from the spot. The Cottagers won their first penalty after Tom Cairney beat Nelson Semedo to the ball and was brought down in the box, and a VAR check ruled the incident to have happened inside the area, with Willian stuttering in his run-up and sending Jose Sa the wrong way After reviewing the decision with referee Michael Salisbury after the match, O’Neil told Sky Sports: “Nelson plays the ball, doesn’t touch Tom Cairney. I watched it back with the referee, and to be fair to him he says he thinks they’ve got that wrong and he should have been sent to the monitor. “Doesn’t help me. It doesn’t help all the fans that have travelled all this way to watch the team. Doesn’t help the players who are feeling frustrated again. The Nelson one has pretty much been admitted by the referee that (there was) a mistake.” Willian’s winner sparked more debate, O’Neil maintaining the second penalty, issued after Joao Gomes was deemed to have brought down Harry Wilson in the box, was “soft”, but Salisbury in that case stood by his decision to ultimately award the penalty – the result of VAR Stuart Attwell encouraging him to check the pitchside monitor. O’Neil, who has seen his side emerge on the wrong end of decisions before, said: “It’s bad luck that it keeps going against us, but there are bad refereeing decisions in there. “I’ve had a real grown-up conversation in there with him, I’m trying to remain calm. I’m not angry with anybody. I’m not in there abusing people. It’s literally a conversation around, ‘come on, guys, it’s six, seven points now that have gone against us, I’m managing a big football club here, and the difference that you’re making to my reputation, to the club’s progression up the league, to people’s livelihoods is huge’. “It can’t be that with all the technology and all the time and the biggest league in the world that we’re getting so many wrong. It can’t be OK. “I’ve always been for VAR but I think it’s causing a big problem at the moment. Maybe tonight has finally turned me against VAR when I thought it would probably help, but it doesn’t seem to be.” Fulham boss Marco Silva, meanwhile, was relieved to have secured a first victory in five matches. He told Sky Sports: “It’s a really important win for us. We wanted a reaction from the last, back-to-back defeats. Of course it is always tough for us. It is something that we are not used to. “I really wanted to see that quality, that intensity, the pace, the will to go. The team showed very good spirit. Overall it was a balanced game but we were always trying to do more to win than Wolves, I believe.” Read More Carolina Panthers sack head coach Frank Reich after one win in 11 games Mike Phelan warns Man Utd not to get distracted by fierce Galatasaray atmosphere Late Willian penalty earns Fulham victory in five-goal thriller against Wolves RB Leipzig hoping to restore some pride at Man City after 7-0 loss – Marco Rose Forest investigating allegations of homophobic abuse by fans at Brighton game Former England rugby captain Sarah Hunter enjoying ‘not feeling beaten up’

It’s now June and the San Diego Padres still have a losing record. Last night, they dropped Game 2 of their three-game series with the Miami Marlins 2-1 to fall to 25-30.The loss was on a walk-off and another blown save from Josh Hader, his third this season. This is no longer an early sea...