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Gareth Southgate is set to name his England squad as his side prepare to conclude their Euro 2024 qualifying efforts. England take on Malta and North Macedonia in their final two Group C fixtures. Southgate’s team are yet to lose in their qualifying campaign and secured their place at next summer’s tournament with a 3-1 win against Italy in October. The manager has stressed, though, that he his intent on victory in these final two games to secure as high a seeding as possible ahead of the Euros draw at the start of December. Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the squad announcement. When is England’s squad announced? Gareth Southgate will name his England squad at 2pm GMT on Thursday 9 November. When are England’s matches? Friday 17 November 2023, 7.45pm GMT, Wembley Stadium, London England vs Malta (Euro 2024 qualifier) Monday 20 November 2023, 7.45pm GMT, Tose Proeski Arena, Skopje North Macedonia vs England (Euro 2024 qualifier) How can I watch them? Both matches will be shown live in the United Kingdom on Channel 4, and will be available to stream via the Channel 4 website. Who could be included in the squad? Ollie Watkins was recalled to Southgate’s squad for the last set of international fixtures, and will hope for inclusion again having scored against Australia. Raheem Sterling has now missed out on four successive selections to illustrate the competition for places in forward areas, while there will be focus again on Harry Maguire and Jordan Henderson given their club situations. Manager Southgate has backed both, though, and two trusted individuals could well make the cut. Bukayo Saka and Reece James are back from injury, as is Eberechi Eze, while James Maddison is an injury doubt. Read More England reveal March friendlies against two top-five opponents Sarina Wiegman’s sister told her to ‘seize this prize’ at Euros before her death Jonas Eidevall hits back at Gareth Taylor over ‘bullying’ claim: ‘It’s slander’ Jonas Eidevall hits back at Gareth Taylor over ‘bullying’ claim: ‘It’s slander’ Michael O’Neill expecting a tough international window for Northern Ireland Olivier Giroud teaches Jamie Carragher how to pronounce his name in amusing exchange

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Chelsea and Arsenal were the leading producers of Premier League players in the 2022-23 season, research by the PA news agency has found. The two clubs’ academy products each racked up just over 21,000 minutes of playing time but remarkably were separated by just 37 seconds, with Chelsea edging top spot. Here, the PA news agency looks at the main stories to come out of the data. Small margins On August 6, 2022, Chelsea sent on Conor Gallagher to replace Jorginho in the ninth added minute of their season-opening 1-0 win over Everton. It may have been a mere game management move by then-manager Thomas Tuchel but Gallagher’s two-and-a-half-minute appearance – Chelsea’s shortest all season – ended up deciding top spot in the academy study. PA’s data includes minutes and seconds played by each player in every match, including stoppage time, and the total of 21,031 minutes and 44 seconds for Chelsea graduates put them fractionally ahead of their Arsenal counterparts’ 21,031 minutes, seven seconds. The other headline news is that Manchester United – leaders in every previous edition of the academy study, most recently after the 2018-19 season – drop to fourth place and have been overtaken by rivals Manchester City, whose total of almost 19,458 minutes is over 1,500 behind the leading pair. United graduates managed just under 18,533 minutes and they gave playing time to five products of their own academy – Marcus Rashford, Scott McTominay, Alejandro Garnacho, Anthony Elanga and Kobbie Mainoo. Relegated Southampton completed the top five with almost 16,570 minutes. What they said Former AFC Wimbledon manager Mark Robinson is now Chelsea’s development squad head coach. He recently told The Athletic: “If the (youth-team) trophies come, that’s great. But it’s more about ‘who is the next one we can produce for the first team?’. “It’s also given the other lads an incentive — the ones who have trained with the first team but haven’t played yet, plus the ones who haven’t had the opportunity. It drives them on, thinking ‘am I going to be next?’.” Arsenal’s habit of handing key roles to their recent players, with manager Mikel Arteta working alongside technical director Edu, extends to the youth set-up with Per Mertesacker and Jack Wilshere as academy manager and under-18 coach respectively. Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith Rowe and Eddie Nketiah lead the homegrown contingent in the first team and Mertesacker told the club’s website: “It feels really positive. It sends a message that we need to be developing strong, young individuals who can cope with pressure. I like that, setting standards at the highest level. “We have always been at the forefront of giving young players a chance. This is something that has been part of Arsenal DNA forever. “You have to look at a 10-year cycle in the academy. I’m looking at the next three years thinking ‘this is when the real work starts’.” Global giants It is not just Premier League clubs represented in the study, with many players’ English Football League beginnings and the top flight’s global reach also captured. In fact Dutch club Ajax rank sixth, just ahead of domestic heavyweights Liverpool and Tottenham. Sven Botman, Kenny Tete, Pascal Struijk, Joel Veltman and Christian Eriksen each played over 2,000 minutes as Donny van de Beek and Jairo Riedewald rounded out a group of seven Ajax graduates. Benfica were 10th behind Nottingham Forest and produced as many players in Manchester City’s treble-winning squad – four – as City’s own academy. Fellow Portuguese side Sporting Lisbon are 11th with Anderlecht, Genk, Nice and St Etienne also in the top 20. Sheffield United were the top EFL side in 17th as they secured their return to the Premier League, while League One Charlton were 20th. Far and wide There were 277 academies represented in the study, with playing time ranging from Chelsea and Arsenal’s totals all the way down to Lagans AIK’s three minutes and 22 seconds in a solitary appearance for Newcastle full-back Emil Krafth. Lagan were one of 190 academies represented by just a single player each, Blackburn ranking highest among them thanks to David Raya’s 3,765 minutes for Brentford. The Bees themselves produced only Bournemouth defender Chris Mepham, whose 2,408 minutes placed them 132nd in the rankings and last among the 20 top-flight clubs. Only seven clubs hit double figures for players – Chelsea in front again with 16, one more than Manchester United. City produced 14, Arsenal and Southampton 13 apiece, Liverpool 11 and Tottenham 10. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live West Ham ‘confident’ over Conor Gallagher despite rejected bid On this day in 2021: Adam Peaty makes history with defence of Olympic title Wrexham striker Paul Mullin injured in win over young Manchester United team

The heavyweight division is a bad pantomime now with Tyson Fury, Oleksandr Usyk, a chorus of fighters, a few promoters and some hefty backers all trying to work out what part of the dancing horse they are. Moving away from the ugly sisters, there is every chance that the gap between the last championship fight and the next will be the longest in over 50 years. This break is not common, ignore people telling you that. Fury defended his WBC title last December against his old, old friend, Dereck Chisora, and Usyk beat Anthony Joshua for the second time last August in Saudi Arabia to retain his IBF, WBA and WBO titles. Fury has no date, just social media plans, and Usyk is due to defend in Poland in late August against Daniel Dubois. It is hard to find a solitary reason for the break and even more difficult to put the blame on just one single person. There are a lot of people on the stage, and they all have a role to play. And to be honest, during the last six months they have all said too much. Sure, greed, rivalries, stupidity, lies and ego are at the very core of the problem, but boxing at the highest level has always had the same flaws, the same fluid obstacles. The standard excuses are there to overcome - that is how boxing works. Fury and Usyk for all the tarnished marbles was meant to have been signed and sealed last September. It was scheduled for April and is now a plan for December. Both boxers have insulted the other, and the theme of their mutual abuse is simple: greed. Obviously, both deny they are the greedy, money-grabbing party in the sad affair. Actually, the righteous outrage from both sides is comedy gold at times. Fury’s father, the unstoppable “Gypsy John” Fury, has demanded that Usyk apologise for his criticism. He has warned that if there is no apology, there might be a straightener in a field somewhere, man-to-man. There is honour at stake. It is endless mirth, it really is. c. Some of boxing’s wisest, richest and smartest brains have been involved in this ongoing lunacy. The men and women in the Fury camp blame Usyk, and the men and women in the Usyk camp blame Fury. The two main players in the Fury business, Bob Arum and Frank Warren, have a combined total of 98 years of promotion; they are both battling this madness. There is, according to some insiders, a one-off offer on the table from the government of Saudi Arabia for Fury and Usyk to fight there at the end of the year. Usyk has signed his deal. This offer is non-negotiable, and we know this because the media flown out to Saudi by the Saudi government have reported it as fact. As a guide to the way boxing works, there are seldom any facts involved when deals are being made, broken and made again. The real insiders are furious that Usyk and Fury, the biggest fight in boxing, is not yet across the line. The sanctioning bodies, who get paid a fee for fights, have promised to get tough with their heavyweight champions, but have not said a word or done a thing; everyone is holding out for a slice of the Saudi cash pie. ‘Hey, it’s a business,’ they will say, but that little claim is wearing very thin. Fury, meanwhile, has mentioned 10 possible opponents in his social media rants in the last few weeks, including a plan to fight two UFC icons in one night. Usyk and Dubois went to purse bids, which is one of boxing’s ancient rituals, and Usyk’s team won. The fight is scheduled for August. Looking in from the side of the crowded stage is Joshua. His fight with Fury was announced by Fury on 10 June, 2020; it would have been a fight for the ages, for all the belts and all the bragging rights. It never happened and it has come close a couple of times since then. Joshua, meanwhile, will fight in August and it might be Dillian Whyte. There is a rumour that Whyte wants too much for the fight; the flip side of that rumour is that Whyte was offered too little. In America, Deontay Wilder, twice beaten in classics by Fury, has not fought since last October. There is a plan, under the Saudi deal, for Wilder to fight Joshua in Saudi Arabia on the same night as Usyk and Fury fight. There is, so the paid publicists insist, a total purse of $400million on the table for the four boxers to split. It must be a strong table. There are bold plans right now for the deadlock to be broken soon and some concrete dates and fights to finally be announced. The traffic, as they say in the world of espionage, is heavy. Let’s hope for some fights – the old game needs the best heavyweights back in action and out of the back end of that horse suit. Click here to subscribe to The Independent’s Sport YouTube channel for all the latest sports videos. Read More Tyson Fury claims UFC has offered him ‘hybrid fight’ with Jon Jones Joe Rogan is right: Tyson Fury has ‘no chance in hell’ against Jon Jones Why has Saudi Arabia become big player in world sport and what does future hold? Tyson Fury claims UFC has offered him ‘hybrid fight’ with Jon Jones Tyson Fury promises ‘imminent’ announcement of ‘big fight’ Joe Joyce on knockouts, oil painting, and teaching 60-year-olds to swim

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England boss Sarina Wiegman is awed by her World Cup hopefuls’ advocacy away from competition but readily recognises their performance on the pitch is what ultimately provides the platform. Just days after winning their first major tournament at last summer’s home Euros, the Lionesses collectively released a letter to then-Conservative leadership candidates Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss with a host of demands including a school football provision for girls identical to that offered to boys. Their campaign paid off in March when the government responded with a new package of measures designed to grant equal access to all school sport, backed by over £600million in funding over the next two academic years. “I’m incredibly proud of their social consciousness,” said Wiegman, speaking from England’s team hotel in Queensland as the Lionesses prepare for their World Cup opener in Brisbane on July 22nd. “It’s so powerful, so strong and they articulate themselves so well. And they were ready the day after the final to put that letter in…. wow! “There’s so much leadership in this team. They really want to have a positive impact on society and a positive change and I think they’ve done really, really well because things have changed. “Now what we try to do is keep performing, keep being visible and keep using our voices to also sustain and make positive changes.” With the continent conquered, both England and Wiegman, who also led the Netherlands to their first European glory in 2017, have set their sights on the world. The Lionesses drew 0-0 with Canada in a behind-closed-doors friendly on the Sunshine Coast on Friday – in their final warm-up match before the finals get under way – with 21 members of the 23-woman squad featuring. Next up is an opening encounter with tournament debutants Haiti followed by meetings with group D rivals Denmark and China. To date, England’s best finish at the World Cup was in 2015 when they finished third, while Wiegman and her Dutch side were runners-up to defending champions the United States at the 2019 tournament in France. When you go to the grocery store and people tell you, 'my daughter was wearing that shirt, but also my son is wearing that shirt now too'. We've changed society Sarina Wiegman Last summer’s victory at Wembley launched the Lionesses into World Cup favourite territory and quickly made household names of the winning squad and their boss, who has tried to turn the spotlight towards causes she believes in, like paving better pathways for female coaches or working as an ambassador for the charity Plan International to advance equality for girls and women around the world. When compared to the “serious”, almost myopically win-focused player she once was, Wiegman said: “I think about the bigger picture a little more – absolutely. “But my main focus stays on my job. And with that job, doing well in that job, then you get those opportunities. I’m aware of that too. “You can’t change that because this is how you are. But I would not, like, do that first and then think of performance. That’s because that performance is my job and that gives me the most joy. “Yes, of course, I really love the medals, but what I’m proud of most, absolutely most, is now, young girls have perspective, and young girls can play football, and young girls can wear shirts to show whichever (player’s) achievement, and that makes me the most proud. “When you go to the grocery store and people tell you, ‘my daughter was wearing that shirt, but also my son is wearing that shirt now too’. We’ve changed society.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Michal Kwiatkowski storms to Tour de France stage win on Grand Colombier Sarina Wiegman ‘grateful’ for Women’s World Cup growth 35 years after experiment Benjamin Mendy weeps as he is cleared of sex charges

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