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Arsenal boss targets Premier League title after signing deal

31/5/2017

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By David Ornstein

BBC Sport

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is targeting next season's Premier League title after signing a new two-year deal at the club.


The agreement does not include a break clause and, should it be completed, will extend his reign to 23 years.


Neither Arsenal nor Wenger, 67, see this as definitely being his final contract.

"I love this club and I am looking forward to the future with optimism and excitement," said Wenger.

Arsenal are expected to spend at least £100m on new players in the upcoming transfer window - which opens on 1 July - having also spent around that figure last summer.

"This is a strong group of players and with some additions we can be even more successful," Wenger told the club website.

"We're committed to mounting a sustained league challenge and that will be our focus this summer and next season."

The Gunners finished fifth in the Premier League this season, the first time they have finished outside the top four since the Frenchman joined in 1996.

They finished 18 points behind champions Chelsea, but beat the Blues 2-1 to win the FA Cup at Wembley on Saturday.

Wenger met club owner Stan Kroenke on Monday to determine his future, with the decision relayed to directors at a Tuesday board meeting.

Following Wednesday's official announcement, chief executive Ivan Gazidis said:

"There is no complacency anywhere at this club.

"Our goal is to compete for and win trophies here and in Europe. Everything we do is designed to make that happen and we will be working hard on and off the pitch this summer to improve and make a strong challenge next season."

American majority owner Kroenke said the Gunners' ambition was to win the Premier League and "other major trophies in Europe" under Frenchman Wenger.

"It's what the fans, players, staff, manager and board expect and we won't rest until that is achieved - Arsene is the best person to help us make that happen," he added.

Although Arsenal may have £100m to spend, the issue is that they already have a high wage bill and their revenues are not as large as Europe's very biggest clubs. And that's before you factor in dropping down from the Champions League to the Europa League.

They need to be careful when it comes to Financial Fair Play, meaning they will inevitably have to sell some players to free up funds for wages rather than transfer fees.

It will be a busy few months at the Emirates.

Wenger on Decision to stay: "I identify myself so much with the club. When you can be where you love to be, that's easy. It's difficult because you want to respond to the demands of all the people who love this club."

The fans: "Let's be together to support our players, to support the club and all give our absolute best to be at the level that we want to be. We can move up to the next level, I'm convinced of that, by having faith in the way we want to play football and by supporting the players we have already."

Kroenke: "Our ambitions are unlimited. We live in a very competitive world where you need the support of the owner. He's highly ambitious and supportive as well so, on that front, we are all united with exactly the same targets."

New signings: "We have a very heavy squad at the moment so maybe we might lose some players. We will work very hard to find the additions of top, top quality. I believe that our squad is very strong and we will only look for top-class people who can strengthen our team now."

Wenger led the Gunners to three Premier League titles and four FA Cups in his first nine seasons in charge.

In 2003-04, he became the first manager since 1888-89 to lead a team through an entire top-flight season unbeaten.

But after winning the 2005 FA Cup, they had to wait another nine years - or 3,283 days - for their next silverware. It came as they beat Hull City to win the 2014 FA Cup, before winning the trophy again the following year.

Arsenal are have not won the Premier League in 13 years and in 11 of those seasons have finished 10 or more points adrift of the champions.



Culled From www.bbc.co.uk



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Basketball: Musa Kidda to realise Nigeria's 3x3 potential

31/5/2017

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PictureMusa Kidda
​The Presidential candidate for the Nigeria Basketball Federation, Engineer Musa Kida has assured that that under his watch, the NBBF will put machinery in motion to ensure that the country realises its full potential in 3x3 basketball if elected.


Kida believes the country has the potential to become a serious contender and champion at the world stage if the enabling platform is provided for talents at the grassroots.


“We do have the potential and the capacity to do it and all that remains really for us is to set the enabling environment for our players to be able to excel and that will be one of our fundamental objectives when elected,” Kidda said.


The Pillar of basketball in Rivers State who has demonstrated his consistency and passion for the new format of basketball which was recently introduced by Federation of International Basketball Association (FIBA) revealed that the ultimate target is to compete favourably internationally with home grown players.


Kida, through the Ahmadu Musa Kida Foundation in 2013 funded the Uyo 3x3 Tour before funding the South – South 3x3 Tour (U18 Boys & Girls and Senior Men and Women) from 2014 to 2016.


He said his firm belief that Nigerian talents can compete favourably, win and bring back honors as proud Nigerians has spurred his foundation to fund the FIBA Africa Zone 3’s 3x3 Tour (U18 Boys and Girls, Men & Women) in 2015, FIBA Africa Zone 3 Champions Cup, Benin (Men & Women) 2015 & 2016, FIBA Africa Zone 3 Champions Cup, Togo (Men & Women) in 2016 and of recent the 2017 NUGA 3x3 Tour.


“Recently, a 3x3 team from Abuja emerged as the national champion in the women category of the AMK Foundation sponsored championship. They went on to conquer Africa and book a ticket to Malaysia for the world championship. This has strengthened our resolve that we can be the best.”


He concluded that the NBBF under his watch will exploit the full potentials of home grown talents for this particular format of the basketball game through a sustainable development plan.


“Equal opportunities will be given to home grown talents alongside their foreign based counterparts. We are going to encourage Nigerian based players first of all, so that we will become proficient in basketball again and qualify for the Zonals of the African cup before we get to the world.

​Meaning that every step we take must be the one in the right direction which will not be reversible.” Kida assured.

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Kwese PBL: Hoopers suffer biggest loss

25/5/2017

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Rivers Hoopers fell to a 93-57 road loss to Kwara Falcons on Thursday at the Indoor Sports Hall of the Kwara Stadium, Ilorin.



Somto Managor scored 11 points and 2 rebounds, the lone bright spot with double digits for the Port Harcourt side as Hoopers lost just their second game of the 2016/2017 Kwese Premier Basketball League Season.


The KingsMen started the game in a lackadaisical manner, lacking patience on the ball from the onset, missing point blank layups with multiple careless passes equating to 31 turnovers committed by the team.


Falcons exploited defensive errors by the away side and the only time there were lead changes was early in the first quarter.


The first quarter however ended with Hoopers trailing with as much as 13 points (25-12). A 49-22 second half score saw a 22-point half time deficit.


It got worse from there with Falcons adding 37 points in the third while Hoopers could only score 16 points thereby trailing by 48 points going into the final quarter in what eventually became a 36-point rout.


The damage had already been done by the new conference leaders despite Hoopers winning the last quarter (11-19).


The Port Harcourt side was able to limit the Falcons to a 0-6 run with less than two minutes left to play. And the only three point shot by the team came in the last few minutes of the last quarter by Victor Atisele. The only 3 point shot in 12 attempts.


Kwara Falcons head coach Adewunmi admitted after the emphatic victory that his side exploited the lapses seen in Rivers Hoopers.


"We came to Port Harcourt and we lost by 6 points that means they are a good team. Then how will this same good team lose by 25 points today," Aderemi questioned.


"The Port Harcourt team lost to fatigue there is no way you will play such a game and you go on a 12 hour trip and play a very good team its going to be very difficult. Towards the fourth quarter, they played very well but because they were fatigued they couldn't do much. I capitalised on the first to third quarter of the game," he opined.


In his response, Hoopers coach dismissed the notion that his team lost due to fatigue.


"I don't think so. Kwara Falcons came to Port Harcourt, they traveled in a worse condition than us and they still put up a good performance. I won't attribute it to fatigue. I think we just played terribly. We could not string two or three passes together, we could not run two offences back to back perfectly.


"You can not win basketball with that amount of mistakes. We will go back to our drawing board because our focus now is on our next game against Oluyole Warriors in Ibadan," said a furious Odaudu.


Hoopers will now look to banish the effect of the debilitating loss, like they did after their Match week one loss in Lagos, when they travel to Ibadan tomorrow to engage Oluyole Warriors on Saturday.


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Kwese PBL: Hoopers Overcome Slow Start To Beat Baton

21/5/2017

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Solomon Ajegbeyi recorded his third double-double of the season as Atlantic Conference leaders, Rivers Hoopers rallied to thrash Police Baton 80-60 on Saturday in Port Harcourt.

Ajegbeyi finished with 21 points, 10 rebounds and 2 assists while Ronald Alalibo got off the bench to score 14 points, 2 rebounds and 3 assists. Fellow back court mates, Friday Haruna knocked in 10 points and 8 rebounds while Victor James contributed 10 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists.

It took a while for the hosts' starters to get into their groove. The visitors shot out to a 12-16 lead at the end of first quarter but the KingsMen answered with a 20-12 run in the second to build a 32-28 lead. Alalibo's 3 point shot with 4 seconds left on the clock increased the gap to 35-28 by half time.

Baton's guard, Okafor Frank led three other players scoring 17 points, 2 rebounds and 3 assists. Police Baton managed to score just 8 points in the third quarter.

Ajegbeyi who overcame a scoreless first quarter knocked in 13 points in the final quarter with a 6-0 run and capped by a dunk getting Hoopers to a 20 point lead with 1:20 seconds left to play.

Police Baton coach Emeka Oputa attributed the loss to fatigue.

"We are supposed to come on time yesterday but we came in a little late," he bemoaned.

"We are supposed to practice yesterday evening and not this morning. We came into Port Harcourt before we could sort out a lot of things from the authorities.

"You could see we started well but we were supposed to rest throughout the day for this game but we couldn't," he added.

Hoopers boast of a seven-game winning run at home and when asked if he had it on his mind, Emeka admitted he did.

"Of course we came to beat Hoopers in Port Harcourt. We are not here to joke if you had looked at the game. We came with just one of our big men, others were not around because some are sick. But when next we will be here, they will all be with us," Emeka promised.

Hoopers coach, Ogoh Odaudu admitted that his boys underrated the Police Baton.

"It's only natural that you underrate a team that you have beaten away from home and that was the problem we had in the first quarter.

"That's why I spent a lot of time yelling at them because they needed to pick up and not let them get enough confidence to assume that they were going to come and beat us here.

"That was what I was working on throughout the first and second quarter but thankfully in the third quarter they came out prepared and we did well," said Odaudu.

Up next for Hoopers is a two-game road trip to Kwara Falcons in Ilorin and Oluyole Warriors in Ibadan next Thursday and Saturday respectively.


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