Manchester United well equipped to win Champions League, says Ashley Young

 

Ashley Young says United are capable of winning the Champions League 

 

Manchester United's solid defence and attacking options make Ashley Young believe Champions League glory is realistic this season.

For the first time since 2013-14, the three-time European champions are back in the knockout phase of the continent's top competition.

 Wednesday sees Jose Mourinho's side take on Sevilla in the first leg of the last-16 clash, yet there is already half an eye on the Kiev finale this May.

Having lifted the Europa League last year, Young sees no reason why United cannot challenge for the Champions League this time.
"Of course (we can win the Champions League)," he said.

Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has dismissed speculation his relationship with Paul Pogba has broken down, saying the reports are 'lies'.

"You don't enter a competition not to win it. That's what we will be looking to do and take each game as it comes.
"The next one is against Sevilla. That's a tough away game like Huddersfield, like Newcastle away. That's what the stadium is like. We just have to concentrate on ourselves."
Saturday's 2-0 FA Cup fifth-round victory at Huddersfield was a welcome boost for United following the surprise Premier League defeat at Newcastle the previous week.

Jonjo Shelvey and Juan Mata clash in Newcastle's surprise win at St James' Park

Young, who played at right-back on Saturday, felt United's latest clean sheet was particularly sweet after the defence came in for criticism after the 1-0 loss at St James' Park.
"I think a lot has been said about defenders and what not - a lot was said last week - and it's one of those things. Everyone's entitled to their opinion," Young said.
"Keep getting clean sheets and hopefully we can chip in with goals as well as the front boys."


Romelu Lukaku scored twice in the win against Huddersfield and Young believes the Belgian's partnership with January signing Alexis Sanchez will blossom.
"You can see the combinations between them," he said.
"Alexis comes inside, and Rom's seen him and picked him up as well and they're picking each other out and they have worked well together so far."

Early United team news for Sevilla clash

Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has revealed he is dealing with a number of injury issues ahead of the Champions League tie at Sevilla.
The manager made changes to his squad for the Emirates FA Cup win at Huddersfield Town on Saturday but says it was not down to resting players.
"I didn’t rest anyone other than [David] De Gea," he stressed. "Can we recover some of them for Wednesday? I think [Marcus] Rashford, [Ander] Herrera, [Antonio] Valencia have a chance.
"Paul Pogba? I don’t know. [Marcos] Rojo, [Phil] Jones, [Marouane] Fellaini, Zlatan [Ibrahimovic], I don’t think they have any chance."
The news that Rojo and Jones are injured means Eric Bailly's return to fitness – he came on as a substitute in the dying embers of the clash at the John Smith's Stadium at the weekend – has been a timely one.
Rashford and Herrera have missed the last couple of games but Valencia featured in the last Premier League outing, at Newcastle United.
Jose is likely to provide further team news in Seville on Tuesday when previewing the round-of-16 tie.

Jose Mourinho to let Manchester United legend Ryan Giggs shadow training sessions

Jose Mourinho has offered to help former Manchester United winger Ryan Giggs in the early days of his foray into management with Wales, according to reports.
The 44-year-old took his first job since leaving Old Trafford, where he was assistant to Mourinho’s predecessor Louis van Gaal, when he accepted the Wales job back in January.
And now, despite a somewhat fraught relationship with Mourinho due to comments made about United last season, The Sun claim he will be allowed to visit United’s Carrington training base.

Mourinho has not only invited Giggs to observe training, but will also have a one-on-one chat with the Welshman over becoming a manager and tactics in general.
There is still a lot of respect and admiration for Giggs at United, and the club are happy to help him in any way possible as he looks to make his mark in management.

Giggs has previously criticised United’s play under Mourinho, which the Portuguese reacted angrily to, but he has buried the hatchet and is looking forward to watching Giggs’ career unfold.
Speaking after he left United in 2016 along with Van Gaal, Giggs said: ‘There was no offer from Jose Mourinho. No offer. It was my choice to go.

‘As soon as Louis was going I had made my decision to go. I had done two years and I wanted to do three years under Louis. It didn’t happen.
‘That was my plan to do my three years and see what happened after that. Unfortunately, that was cut short. It happens. That’s football. But I didn’t really feel I could go on at the club in any other capacity apart from manager.’

Reds to reward Mane

Liverpool are ready to put improved terms to Sadio Mane, according to the Liverpool Echo.
His current deal is already set to run until 2021, but the Reds are prepared to discuss a new deal after seeing the Senegalese star become a key figure alongside Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino.

Transfer news & rumours LIVE: Man Utd make Kroos top target

 

Man Utd make Kroos top target

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Manchester United have identified Real Madrid's Toni Kroos as their top target for the summer transfer window, reports The Independent .
Jose Mourinho has admitted that he will be in the market for a new midfielder, as Michael Carrick prepares to head into retirement.
Kroos is considered to be the ideal candidate to fill that role, with the World Cup winner having been a long-standing target for those at Old Trafford.

Google may remove View Image button on Google Images

Getty Images announced today that it has come to an agreement with Google that includes a global licensing partnership between the two companies and accompanying changes to Google Images.
If you search for images on Google Images right now, you may click on the "view image" button on the results page to load (an often) larger version of the linked image directly.
Getty Images lodged anti-competitive complaints against Google in the European Union and the United States for including functionality on Google Images to download high-resolution stock photography on the site.
Users can view and download images on Google Images without ever visiting the site the photo was posted on in first place.
The official announcement on Getty Images press site reveals little about the agreement but an email sent to companies and photographers who cooperate with Getty Images provides details on the agreement.

Getty Images notes in the email, seen by Peta Pixel, that the company withdrew its complaint because Google recognized the company's concerns. Google agreed to make changes to its image search engine to address Getty Images' concerns according to the email, and that it would benefit all image owners globally".
Google will remove the "view image" button and make copyright notices on Google Images more prominent on top of that.
While it is unclear right now whether the change will affect only Getty Images images on Google Images or all images, it is quite possible that Google will remove the functionality completely from its image search engine.
This is all speculation right now, however, as Google has not landed the changes yet that it promised to make as part of the agreement that it entered with Getty Images.
Here is a short list of Google Images alternatives that you may want to use if Google pulls the functionality from its image search engine completely.

• Bing Images is Google Images biggest rival in the United States. Click on a result to view a larger version of the image which you can save by right-clicking on it and selecting the "save image" option from the context menu.
• Startpage comes with image search functionality. Simply type a search term and switch to images to use it. It features a "view image" link that opens the image anonymously.
• Yahoo Images is another big image search engine. It features a "view image" button to display the linked image directly in the web browser.

Now You: What's your take on the upcoming changes to Google Images?

RAMPAGE (MOVIE) 2018 DWAYNE JOHNSON AKA THE ROCK

Primatologist Davis Okoye shares an unshakable bond with George, an extraordinarily intelligent, silverback gorilla that's been in his care since birth. When a rogue genetic experiment goes wrong, it causes George, a wolf and a reptile to grow to a monstrous size. As the mutated beasts embark on a path of destruction, Okoye teams up with a discredited genetic engineer and the military to secure an antidote and prevent a global catastrophe.

Initial release: April 20, 2018 (USA)

Based on: Rampage; by Midway Games

Manchester united vs tottenham match yesterday

A bitter pill to swallow - that's my best description of this game for Manchester United.

I was confident going into this game but Spurs outplayed us. We were poor on the ball and made countless misplaced passes.

1-0 down after 10 or 11 seconds is the worst nightmare for any manager, team or fan and it happened today.
Our best period of the game was, in my opinion, the 5 minutes after their opening goal. We created chances and could have got a quick equaliser but we didn't.... instead Spurs got their second goal from a Phil Jones OG.

It was one of those days where nothing worked for us and everyone had an off day - apart from De Gea and maybe one or two others.

We are still second in the league and I feel confident that will be our position after 38 games.

Let's forget this game and this poor performance and keep putting trust and support into the players and the manager.

-MS
Kim Jacobs ug

Bran = Night King is the wildest 'Game of Thrones' theory yet

Warning: Contains many, many spoilers for

Game of Thrones. Proceed at your own risk.  Despite his limited time in the show, Bran has always been at the centre of much speculation and wild theories, including one which sees him warging into icy Viserion.

But — rest assured — the latest theory to make the rounds on social media is the most mind-blowing to date.
What if Brandon Stark is actually the Night King? What if everything that has ever happened in Westeros is Bran's fault?
Even if you hate Ned Stark's son, this theory — which has actually been popular for a while — is pretty wild, isn't it? Let's begin by piecing together all the evidence.

In Season 6, if you recall, the Three-Eyed Raven taught Bran how to finesse his Greenseer abilities to drift freely through time — past, present and feature — at will.
Bran has also the ability to warg into people's consciousness, just like he did with Hodor.
According to some fans, those two abilities — greensight and ability to warg — make Bran even more powerful to the Three-Eyed Raven.
However, the Three-Eyed Raven — that omniscient killjoy — promptly warned Bran that "the past is already written" and "the ink is dry". Also, he warned Bran that the more time you spend inside someone else's body, the more difficult it is to leave.

"It is beautiful beneath the sea; stay too long and you drown," he says.

Now, if you remember the Tower of Joy flashback in Season 6, episode 3, it seems pretty clear that Bran has the power to influence the past as well as watch it.
As explained by Mashable's very own Sam Haysom, just look at the confusion on Young Ned Stark's face after Bran calls out to him:
The Three-Eyed Raven certainly looked nervous in the flashback when Bran yelled "father;" it was as if he knew what the consequences of the boy's actions could be.

Other evidence, in both the books and show, point to the fact that the Mad King, Aerys Targaryen, became mad after Bran attempted to warn him about the White Walkers.
"Burn them all," was the Mad King's final order, which might be Bran warning him about the White Walkers.

Other theories about Bran and time travel

suggested he may in fact be one of the legendary Brandons he hears about in Old Nan's stories (Brandon the Builder — who built both the Wall and Winterfell to shield off the White Walkers, Brandon the Shipwright, etc.). In a nutshell, according to these theories, Bran keeps travelling back and forth in time in a bid to fix things, and destroy the White Walkers once for all.
But the most important piece in the puzzle is when Bran has the vision of when the Night King was Born, as explained by YouTuber Game of Theories a few months ago.
Thousands of years before the events of Game of Thrones take place, the Children of the Forest were at war with the First Men, who almost wiped them out of their sacred weirwoods.

In desperation, they captured one of the First Men and inserted dragonglass into his chest with a ritual on a weirwood tree. That's how the first White Walker, the Night King, was created.

As noticed by many commentators, Bran's real body in the Three-Eyed Raven's cave winces and clenches his fists. As if he's experiencing the pain. As if HE is in the Night King's body.
Bran warged into that man in an attempt to persuade them not to go through the process that would create the White Walkers. But since "the ink is dry" that means he cannot change the past  through time travel, only fulfil it:

Image: reddit/screengrab/turm0il26

From that moment, Bran got stuck in the past and became the Night King, while the future Bran keeps moving in time in a desperate attempt to warn people about the Long Night.
The theory would explain how the Night King is always at the right place and the right time:

Image: REDDIT/SCREENGRAB/TURM0IL26

All the events happening in Game of Thrones, then, just originate from Bran, and will lead to Daenerys and Jon Snow fighting together to defeat him stuck inside the Night King.
This is how the show will end, according to the Redditor:

This theory also parts with Jon snow being the prince that was promised, who eventually has to kill his little brother Bran (Night king cannot kill Jon Snow at Hardhome then, can he?), giving us a bittersweet ending.

Still not convinced? Well, this guy wrote a Medium post on "Why Bran Stark Is not the Night King". Good luck with that.

Game of Thrones season 7 finale title revealed – but what does it mean?

The title of this year's Game of Thrones season finale has been revealed, sending fans into a flurry of excitement: The Dragon and the Wolf.
Fans have been quick to suggest that it could refer to Jon "the White Wolf" Snow (Kit Harington) and Daenerys "Mother of Dragons" Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), with more than one guessing that it could mark the blossoming of a fully-fledged romance between the characters following the build-up of their relationship through the series. The fact that Jon is Daenerys's nephew isn't necessarily an obstacle – Game of Thrones has certainly never shied away from incest in the past.

 However others have pointed out that it could just as easily refer to Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark, Jon Snow's parents.  The finale could see another flashback, revealing more of the events surrounding Jon's birth.

There would be a precedent for this: the finale of season six featured a flashback to the Tower of Joy, in which the truth about his parentage was revealed.
On the other hand, it's possible – though unlikely – that the title has a more literal meaning. This week's episode saw the death of Daenerys's dragon Viserion, which has since been brought back to life by the Night's King. If ice-dragon Viserion (or one of its siblings, Rhaegal and Drogon) is the dragon of the title, could the wolf be an actual wolf? After all, the whereabouts of Jon's direwolf Ghost are currently unknown.
 One thing's for certain: this season finale will give viewers plenty to get their teeth into. HBO have announced that the episode will clock in at a weighty 79 minutes, making it the longest finale in the show's history