Wayne Rooney is close to an agreement with Birmingham to become their new manager. Talks are progressing well and there is no expectation of any hold-ups, the PA news agency understands. The former England skipper will replace John Eustace at St Andrew’s after leaving DC United last week. Rooney, who was Derby boss between November 2020 and June 2022, is expected to be joined by Ashley Cole and John O’Shea as part of his backroom staff. US-based Shelby Companies Limited completed a takeover of Birmingham in July and owner Tom Wagner has been reportedly seeking to make a change of management, with Rooney’s name linked with the club in September. In August seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady became a minority owner in the club. Eustace was sacked despite guiding Birmingham to sixth place in the Championship this season. He replaced Lee Bowyer in July 2022 and helped Birmingham finish nine points above the drop zone in the second tier amid off-field issues surrounding the ownership of the club. The former Coventry and Watford midfielder was axed on Monday and chief executive Garry Cook vowed to take Blues to the next level. He said: “The owners and board members are ambitious. They are driven to help make Birmingham City a football powerhouse. It will not happen overnight. It is a step-by-step approach. “We are well aware of what has happened at Blues over the past decade. We believe we have moved on from those dark days giving hope and aspiration to existing and new fans. “Our intent is to be judged over what we do in the years to come and be ambitious with the new story that we are writing.” Read More James Maddison admits timing of international break is ‘annoying’ for Tottenham Danny Sapsford keen to keep growing his bright idea and put smiles on more faces Howard Webb disappointed by VAR failure to correct ‘clear error’ on offside goal

Read more Andrew Robertson's recovery from a shoulder injury and when he might return to Liverpool action.

Jalen Hurts threw for 319 yards and two touchdowns, and Jake Elliott kicked a 54-yard field goal in overtime to lift the Philadelphia Eagles to a 34-31 win over the Washington Commanders

Full-back Thomas Ramos kicked 17 points to help France to a thrilling 27-13 victory over New Zealand in Friday's opening game...

An Arsenal fan got an unexpected boost ahead of a job interview after receiving a message from player Vivianne Miedema. Dutch forward Miedema had a few words of encouragement for a nervous supporter after they shared their worries about the upcoming interview as it was on Zoom. A Twitter user by the name of Beth, who makes clear she’s a big fan of Arsenal Women’s FC, was looking for support – but she never would have expected one of her favourite footballers. “I got an interview for my dream job but i dont know if i can do the interview… its via zoom and the only people i can call are my girlfriend, mum and sister,” Beth wrote, without tagging anyone. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter To her amazement, Miedema replied out of the blue to Beth and had some inspiring words. “I’m pretty sure you will be just fine. Relax and just show them your qualities, good luck,” the 26-year-old. Not quite believing her luck, Beth replied: “thank you so much… oh my god I love you.” It’s not every day you get one of your favourite footballers encouraging you, and social media users were full of goodwill messages for her. “The way I checked to see if it's THE Vivianne Miedema,” one said, to which Beth replied: “pls so did i. i was so confused.” Another added: “If the GOAT has faith in you, you can smash it! Goodluck.” Meanwhile, Arsenal Women side narrowly missed out on the Women’s Super League title last season, finishing a point behind Chelsea despite losing just once all season and beating West Ham on the final day. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Damon Stoudamire is hoping to succeed where three others failed before him

A judge voided the Phoenix Suns’ recently announced deal to change its local television broadcaster, ruling the agreement

Newcastle boss Eddie Howe will not allow Newcastle to get ahead of themselves despite seeing them dismantle Champions League giants Paris St Germain. The 4-1 victory over the 2020 runners-up at St James’ Park took the Magpies – playing in the competition for the first time in 20 years – to the top of Group F after two games. However, head coach Howe was refusing to be carried away by a performance and a result which brought back memories of the club’s 3-2 Champions League win over Barcelona 26 years ago. Howe, who inherited a Newcastle side seemingly heading for the Sky Bet Championship less than two years ago, said: “Going from the difficult moment we were in to now, it’s a great lesson for us not to get ahead of ourselves. “We’ve come a long way in a short period of time, but we want to keep going and we take nothing for granted. Amazing night, but we’ve got to continue to work hard from here. “It goes without saying we hope that gives us that belief that we need to be successful in this competition. Against Milan in our first game, there was an element of us not quite hitting the levels that we expected of ourselves. “But I think it’s only by doing that you can truly prove to yourself that you can do it consistently, and I think today will go a long way towards proving that. It's a small step forward, but there's still a long, long way to go Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe “But as I said, there are so many difficult games to come in this competition. It’s a small step forward, but there’s still a long, long way to go. “The next game in this competition will be hugely important, but that goes to the back of our minds now as we focus back on to the Premier League and West Ham.” The Magpies got off to a dream start when Bruno Guimaraes picked off Marquinhos’ ill-judged ball out of defence and although Gianluigi Donnarumma saved Alexander Isak’s initial shot, Miguel Almiron followed up to score. Dan Burn made it 2-0 with a towering header six minutes before the break, after a lengthy VAR check, and Sean Longstaff put the Magpies in dreamland five minutes after the restart. Lucas Hernandez’s 56th-minute header sparked something of a fightback, but ultimately it amounted to little and Fabian Schar smashed home a fourth in stoppage time to cement a remarkable win. Howe was particularly pleased for Geordies Burn and Longstaff, lifelong supporters of the club they now represent with such distinction. He said: “I really do respect the Geordies who have had life-long associations with the club and understand what it means to play for Newcastle and have a unique experience, really, so for Sean to score and play how he did and for Dan, they’re amazing moments in their careers.” A crowd of 52,009 witnessed a remarkable night on Tyneside, although the visiting fans, some of whom briefly caused troubled as they were escorted to the stadium by police, left less than impressed by what superstar Kylian Mbappe and his team-mates produced on the pitch. Asked if he took responsibility for the performance, PSG boss Luis Enrique said: “Yes absolutely, there’s no doubt about that, I’m the first person to be responsible for what happened this evening. Of course I’m responsible for it. “I think the outcome of the game was fair, although the scoreline was perhaps a little bit too much in their favour, not really a fair reflection. “But of course we made such careless mistakes which led to their goals and when you play at this level, you can’t afford to do that.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Rico Lewis is one of best players I have ever coached – Pep Guardiola Newcastle stun PSG as Manchester City, Lazio, Barcelona and Atletico all win Simone Biles wins 20th World Gymnastics gold by leading USA to team title

Arsenal began their Premier League title challenge by beating Nottingham Forest 2-1 on Saturday as Brighton shrugged off the absence of Moises Caicedo...

The Atlanta Braves roster should look much, much different by July 1, if only because of some simply turnover and players returning from injury.As the trade deadline creeps closer, expect Alex Anthopoulos to exhaust all of his options prior to making a deal, which would require him to part ways ...

Josef Newgarden completed the weekend sweep he wanted at a track where he's had plenty of success, winning Sunday’s IndyCar Series race at Iowa Speedway

Darcy Graham marked his return from injury with two tries as an experimental Scotland side beat Italy 25-13 on Saturday in a Rugby World...