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Browsing: manager
Fulham manager Marco Silva has revealed his concern for defender Joachim Andersen following the Dane picking up an injury against Arsenal.
Andersen limped out of the 1-0 defeat alongside captain Tom Cairney, who went down a couple of times for the Whites – with injuries starting to pile up for Silva.
Speaking after the game, Silva was asked about the status of his two stars and revealed what exactly happened to force both out of the game.
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Marco Silva explains Fulham injuries
Marco Silva was concerned for two of his stars (Image credit: BEN STANSALL/AFP via Getty Images)
“We have some injuries now,” Silva said after the game. “Joachim [Andersen] is out, Tom Cairney is out.
“Joachim has a hamstring injury. He felt something. Now it’s just for us a matter of time to know if it’s something more serious or a minor injury.
Joachim Andersen leaves the game having picked up an injury (Image credit: BEN STANSALL/AFP via Getty Images)
“That is really what will come in the next few hours/days after the exams, because with a muscle injury, it’s just to realise how serious it can be.
“Tom Cairney was something in his back. He felt it when he jumped for one ball. Doesn’t look so serious.
“That’s a different one; it was a knock there. He was not feeling good. I fear that next week he’s going to be another absence for us.“
Silva also added that he wanted more from his players in the second half, but that he was pleased with the application, given the injuries that the Cottagers currently face.
Tom Cairney was forced off, too (Image credit: Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
“We had a lot of absences right now, but the attitude from the players, the work ethic, our organisation most of the time was there. Arsenal is in a great moment; it’s a tough side to play against.
“Better first half from us. I would like to see us in the second half to do more or less what we did in the first 30 minutes, but Arsenal in a moment obligate us to do things that we don’t like.”
The San Francisco Giants “closing in” on hiring Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello as their next manager, according to The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly, Brittany Ghiroli and Ken Rosenthal.
If a deal is completed, Vitello would replace Bob Melvin in the manager’s chair.
It’s unclear what the terms of a deal would be, though Baggarly, Ghiroli and Rosenthal noted Vitello is currently the second-highest-paid coach in Division I, as he has an annual salary that exceeds $3 million.
Vitello is getting his first crack as a professional coach at any level after spending the last 23 seasons working in the college ranks. He had stints as an assistant at Missouri (2003 to ’10), TCU (2011 to ’13) and Arkansas (2014 to ’17) prior to being hired as Tennessee’s head coach in June 2017.
In eight seasons with the Volunteers, Vitello led the program to a 341-131 record with two SEC regular-season and tournament titles. He also led them to the first national championship during the 2024 season.
After the Giants finished a disappointing 81-81 in 2025, president of baseball operations Buster Posey announced on Sept. 29 the firing of Bob Melvin.
Melvin went 161-163 in two seasons with San Francisco. The Giants are looking to find a manager who can get them back to the playoffs for the first time since 2021.
Posey, entering his second season running baseball operations in San Francisco, will hope that Vitello can be the answer they have sought out.
The Giants have been one of the most aggressive teams in terms of pursuing free agents in recent years, but they haven’t had a lot of hits. Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani and Carlos Correa were among the notable players they attempted to bring in.
Correa had an agreement in place with the Giants that fell apart before it became official due to concerns over his physical.
Rather than try to wait out free agency again, Posey was able to strike during the 2025 regular season with the deal that seemingly came out of nowhere to acquire Rafael Devers from the Boston Red Sox.
Devers gave the Giants exactly what they wanted with a .236/.347/.460 slash line and a 130 OPS+ in 90 games after the trade. Willy Adames, who was their big free-agent signing last offseason, overcame a slow start to become the first Giants playerto hit 30 homers since Barry Bonds in 2004.
There’s a good nucleus of talent in place for the Giants to be a playoff contender in 2026. They still have Matt Chapman, Jung Hoo Lee and Logan Webb to build around.
If the Giants can make a couple of decent roster additions this offseason, along with the potential hiring of Vitello as manager, they have a good chance to end their four-year playoff drought next season.
The San Francisco Giants are reportedly going outside the box and then some for their manager hire. The franchise is reportedly closing in on Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello as their next skipper, according to The Athletic.
The 47-year-old head coach has spent seven seasons with the Volunteers, leading the team to a College World Series championship in 2024. Vitello has never appeared in the major leagues or even minor leagues in any capacity, but has been one of the top coaches in college baseball.
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Vitello did not comment directly on The Athletic’s report, with the outlet saying that he said “There is nothing to confirm” when reached via text message.
After a series of assistant coaching stints at Missouri, TCU and Arkansas, Vitello took over the Volunteers’ baseball program in 2018 and completely turned it around. Within a year, he led Tennessee back to the playoffs for the first time in 14 years, and has made the College World Series three times since (2021, 2023 and 2024).
The team had two highly-decorated seasons in 2022 and 2024, winning both the SEC regular-season title and the SEC tournament in both of those years. The Volunteers’ 2024 championship was the first in school history, and the team’s first World Series final appearance since 1951.
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With that said, Vitello would be an unexpected hire for the Giants given his lack of experience in the pros. Vitello has never held any coaching role in MLB, and (unlike many managers) didn’t even play in the majors, going straight from college baseball into coaching.
While it’s not unheard of for MLB teams to hire former college coaches as managers, those coaches typically have some major-league experience before getting tapped. Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy, for example, spent years as a head coach at Notre Dame and Arizona, but spent more than a decade as a coach in the San Diego Padres and Brewers organizations before being promoted to manager.
If the Giants do hire Vitello, the coach will be reunited with a couple of his former Tennessee players: San Francisco’s first-round draft pick in 2025 was second baseman Gavin Kilen, while former Volunteers and 2022 draft picks Drew Gilbert and Blade Tidwell were both acquired by the Giants ahead of the July trade deadline.
Football Manager 26 launches next month, graphics greatly improved from the last release two years ago.
But while most games will use motion capture to get the most realistic gameplay, the team behind Football Manager have gone leftfield when it comes to replicating the real world.
And it’s all with the help of VAR…
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Sports Interactive’s Miles Jacobson (R) (Image credit: Getty Images)
“We’re getting closer: we’re not there yet with the way we’re doing animations now, both with men’s and women’s football.” studio director of Sports Interactive, Miles Jacobson, tells FourFourTwo.
While Video Assistant Referees may be loathed by the average fan though, Jacobson and the team leant on the data captured by VAR to produce something realer to life for FM.
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“It’s all well and good going into a motion capture studio with ex-footballers, kicking a ball around and getting that motion capture but that doesn’t really reflect the pace of the game.
“It doesn’t reflect the natural actions on the ball – the feints, the looks up and that sort of thing.
“So this year, we’ve been able to work with Hawkeye Technology who are a name that aren’t known by many people but they’re the people behind VAR. They have loads of cameras in stadiums to be able to do VAR and they work by looking at the skeletal structure of players rather than the person, like a camera would do.
“Our partnership with them means that we can take matches from competitions and take all of their motion data capture – even though that’s not what it’s there for – and put it into the game. That’s why in this game, you see players looking up before they look to cross, which is something that’s certainly never been in FM before but it makes a fundamental difference to how things look.
Manchester City, as seen in FM26 (Image credit: Sports Interactive/SEGA)
“There’s still a lot to do graphically before we get to the point where it looks like a real match. But some of the passing movement within the game is beautiful, it adds that extra element of realism.”
Football Manager 26 is out on November 4, 2025.
The Giants appear to have found their next manager.
San Francisco is “closing in” on hiring Tennessee coach Tony Vitello to lead the team for the 2026 MLB season, The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly, Brittany Ghiroli and Ken Rosenthal reported in a shared column published Saturday, citing industry sources.
The Athletic reached out to the Giants, who had not yet responded to a request for comment at the time this article was written. Vitello told The Athletic via text message, “There is nothing to confirm.”
Vitello has been on Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey’s radar for a while, per NBC Sports Bay Area’s Alex Pavlovic. Meanwhile, Texas Rangers special assistant Nick Hundley, who was another frontrunner for the job, recently pulled himself out of the running.
Tony Vitello has been on Buster Poseyâ€s radar for a while, and sources have said Posey kept circling back to him during the search this month. Nick Hundley was the other early frontrunner but I heard he pulled out of the running recently. Update here from The Athletic: https://t.co/tGAeyGUvGd
— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) October 18, 2025
Vitello has not yet coached at the professional level after spending more than the last two decades working in the college ranks. He had stints as an assistant at Missouri (2003-10), TCU (2011-13) and Arkansas (2014-17) before being hired as Tennessee’s coach in June 2017.
If hired by the Giants, Vitello would become the first manager in MLB history hired directly from the college ranks with no professional baseball experience.
The decision on whether or not San Francisco will hire Vitello will come in the next 24 to 72 hours, ESPN’s Jeff Passan and Pete Thamel reported Saturday, citing sources, as the two sides attempt to reach a deal. Passan also reported, citing sources, the buyout on Vitelloâ€s contract at Tennessee is $3 million
The decision on whether Tennessee coach Tony Vitello will be the next manager of the San Francisco Giants is expected to come in the next 24 to 72 hours, sources tell me and @PeteThamel. Vitello has emerged as the top target of the Giants, but the sides have yet to reach a deal.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) October 18, 2025
In eight seasons with the Volunteers, Vitello led the program to a 341-131 record with two SEC regular-season and tournament titles. He also led them to their first national championship during the 2024 season.
After another disappointing campaign, the Giants parted ways with Bob Melvin last month.
It now appears Buster Posey, entering his second season running baseball operations in San Francisco, isn’t wasting any time filling the void as he hopes Vitello can help turn things around.
Football Manager 26 launches next month, with women’s football available on the game.
The integration was announced four whole years ago – in part because it would have been impossible to keep such a huge project quiet – but now, we’re on the cusp of seeing women’s players in the game for the very first time.
In truth though, getting women’s football into the game has taken much longer than even that…
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Sports Interactive’s Miles Jacobson (R) (Image credit: Getty Images)
“We’re late to the party on this. I was looking at this from a commercial perspective,” studio director of Sports Interactive, Miles Jacobson, tells FourFourTwo.
“I was on a panel where we were talking about it and I was asked why we hadn’t done women’s football – and I said it wasn’t commercially viable.
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“Three Lionesses grabbed me afterwards and sat me down, and said, ‘Unless we get the support from other games companies and media companies, it’s never going to be commercially viable. You need to help us break through the glass ceiling.’
“This was at a time when it wasn’t at a level that it is now. The discussion kind of annoys me – but I was part of the problem and I’m part of the reason that these discussions are still happening.”
“Let’s hope that us, Sky, the BBC, FourFourTwo, EA Sports FC and everyone else – let’s hope that we can get to a point where we don’t have to have this discussion anymore. And to be frank, to have the discussion, ‘Why the f*** didn’t you do this before?’
Real-world football clubs now use Football Manageras a scouting tool – and now, Jacobson says that he hopes that FMcan help as a source that will improve data in the women’s game.
Bunny Shaw, as seen in FM26 (Image credit: Sports Interactive/SEGA)
“We were late to it but we’re trying to fix that now,” he says. “I think data will be invaluable to football clubs and will hopefully open doors to more people to do data on this side of things as well.
“Because you look at the importance that women’s football is having on kids around the world: everyone across society needs role models. Let’s hope that we help, even if it’s a tiny bit. Women’s football is football. It’s football.”
Football Manager 26 is out on November 4, 2025.
Former MLB outfielder Torii Hunter and ex-MLB catcher Kurt Suzuki are expected to interview for the Los Angeles Angels’ managerial opening, per Sam Blum of The Athletic.
The Angels have been heavily rumored to target Albert Pujols for their managerial opening, but Blum reported that team owner Arte Moreno is looking to cast a wider net.
“Albert Pujols is no longer the only contender for the Angels’ managerial opening. The team plans to interview more candidates for the position, a team source told The Athletic,Âchanging course from their initial line of thinking. Pujols remains the favorite for the job, the source said, though owner Arte Moreno has decided he wants a more thorough process.”
In addition, the Angels would like to interview Texas Rangers special assistant Nick Hundley, Chicago Cubs bench coach Ryan Flaherty and ex-Baltimore Orioles manager Brandon Hyde. They’d also potentially like to talk to ex-Minnesota Twins manager Rocco Baldelli.
Blum clarified, however, that “it’s unclear if any of those conversations have taken place, or if there’d be mutual interest.”
This article will be updated soon to provide more information and analysis.
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Football Manager super fan Ousmane Dembele must be excited for the new game to drop.
During the 2018 World Cup, Dembele went viral for his quest to take the fictional Winchester FC into the Premier League in the game – and as life imitates art, the 2025 Ballon d’Or winner has reached the pinnacle of the sport himself.
Given the kind of football IQ that it takes to play under Luis Enrique though, FourFourTwo were keen to know the answer to our burning question: does Dembele owe a little of his incredible rise and his exceptional football IQ to Football Manager?
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Sports Interactive’s Miles Jacobson (R) (Image credit: Getty Images)
Miles Jacobson – the studio director at Sports Interactive, who makes FM – says no: he wasn’t expecting a mention in the forward’s acceptance speed.
“I’m not going to take any credit from Ousmane! He’s a phenomenally talented footballer who’s worked incredibly hard to get where he is,” Jacobson smiles.
“Whether it was his idea or the manager’s at Paris Saint-Germain to switch him from playing wide to playing in the middle, but the way he’s adapted to that, he’s thoroughly deserving of the Ballon d’Or and hopefully he’ll still have time to play Football Manager!
“We can take a little bit of credit for telling the whole world about him when he was a 16-year-old that no one knew anything about – but I can’t take anything away from him at all. I wouldn’t like to play against him in an online game of FM!”
Surely though, FourFourTwo pushes, his seamless transition into a false nine role must be because he’s used to the player roles in Football Manager? His tactical insight might be informed purely by his journey with Winchester…
“Anyone who works hard and thinks outside the box is going to take information from any and every source – if we are one of the sources, what an honour that would be,” Jacobson says. “I have no idea if he’s taken anything from the game or not, though.
Ousmane Dembele was crowned the 2025 Ballon d’Or winner (Image credit: Kristy Sparow – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)
“I’ve spoken publicly about how I send the game out to 4,500 footballers and obviously a lot of them will go into coaching: it’s been quite weird to see people playing the game as footballers, then go on to become coaches.”
Football Manager 26 is out on November 4, 2025.
A popular SmackDown superstar expressed interest in being managed by WWE Hall of Famer, Paul Heyman.
The 60-year old legend has led some of the top names in the industry to the promise land in World Wrestling Entertainment. His notable clients in the Stamford-based promotion are Brock Lesnar, Big Show, Kurt Angle, Rob Van Dam, CM Punk, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins.
Today, Heyman is guiding Bronson Reed and Bron Breakker to be main event players. Last Monday on RAW, they collectively kicked out Rollins in The Vision and declared that “the future is now.”
However, it seems that some WWE superstars wants a piece of The Oracle’s wisdom and one of them is none other than Damian Priest from Friday Night SmackDown. Speaking with the Kairouz Bros,The Archer of Infamy noted Heyman’s history of betraying people but still welcomed the idea of being managed by the Hall of Famer.
The former World Heavyweight Champion added that he was also guilty of stabbing people in the back for career advancement.
“Yes, he has his ways about him, but Iâ€m a Paul Heyman guy. I have no problem with him advocating for me. Thatâ€s part of this business (backstabbing), everybody does that. Iâ€ve been guilty of that too. You canâ€t deny what he can do for your career,” Priest disclosed. (H/T Sportskeeda.)
Damian Priest as a future Paul Heyman guy??? Iâ€m not mad at it tbh ðŸ¤pic.twitter.com/AkmfsZPN9Q
— Public Enemies Podcast (@PublicEnemiesHQ) April 18, 2023
Last week on SmackDown in Perth, Western Australia, Priest lost to Aleister Black in a last man standing match after the latter threw a fireball in his face, thanks to Zelina Vega’s interference.
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In the same interview, Sami Zayn and The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) also admitted they want Paul Heyman to be their “advocate” as well.
Ford emphasized Heyman’s ability to lead wrestlers to championship victories. He added that being a main event player is a WWE superstar’s ultimate dream and only Heyman can provide it.
Meanwhile, Zayn stated that he’s not ruling out a prospect of being managed by the “Oracle.” The current United States Champion pointed out that the latter’s relationships are transactional.
It can be remembered that The Underdog from the Underground was once affiliated by Heyman in The Bloodline. However, the former “Wiseman” expressed his disgust on the then-Master Strategist being around Roman Reigns and The Usos (Jimmy and Jey).
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Alden Gonzalez
Alden Gonzalez
ESPN Staff Writer
- ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the L.A. Rams for ESPN from 2016 to 2018 and the L.A. Angels for MLB.com from 2012 to 2016.
Oct 15, 2025, 06:05 PM ET
The Baltimore Orioles, seeking a new manager to guide their young, emerging core, have expressed interest in future Hall of Fame first baseman Albert Pujols, sources told ESPN.
The Orioles have yet to formally interview Pujols but are expected to as they seek a replacement for Brandon Hyde, who was fired in the early portion of what became a disappointing 87-loss season in 2025. Tony Mansolino, who took over as interim manager after Hyde was let go in May, is among the candidates for the full-time position, but the Orioles are also conducting an external search.
Orioles president of baseball operations Mike Elias was a scout for the St. Louis Cardinals while Pujols starred for the organization in the latter half of the 2000s. Pujols, 45, still shares a close relationship with former teammate Matt Holliday, father of Jackson Holliday, the 21-year-old infielder who is now one of the Orioles’ foundational players.
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The Los Angeles Angels still appear to be the most likely destination for Pujols and remain the only team he has formally interviewed with, industry sources said. Pujols met with Angels general manager Perry Minasian in St. Louis last Thursday and is still highly considered for the job, though former All-Star outfielder Torii Hunter is also a serious candidate. The Angels’ hiring process, however, might be slowed by owner Arte Moreno and president John Carpino’s involvement in the civil trial over the death of pitcher Tyler Skaggs.
It was only a couple of years ago that the Orioles looked like a team on the rise, emerging from an aggressive rebuild to win 101 games and capture the American League East title in 2023. They returned to the playoffs with a 91-win season in 2024 but got swept out of the wild-card round and were not aggressive in their pursuit of starting pitching during the ensuing offseason. A 15-28 start led to Hyde’s firing on May 17.
The next 4½ months weren’t much better, but the Orioles are nonetheless an attractive destination due to a young, promising position-player core featuring Holliday, Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman, Coby Mayo and Samuel Basallo. At the moment, they are among eight teams with manager openings, along with the Angels, Atlanta Braves, San Francisco Giants, Washington Nationals, San Diego Padres, Colorado Rockies and Minnesota Twins.
Pujols has expressed strong interest in managing at the big league level for years and led a Dominican winter ball team, the Leones del Escogido, to a championship in January. Pujols was previously named manager for his native Dominican Republic in next year’s World Baseball Classic, though he would likely rescind that role if he lands a big league job this offseason.