News about Ben Doak

Shortly after Kylian Mbappe had departed the scene to join Real Madrid earlier this summer, Paris Saint-Germain head coach Luis Enrique was asked to assess the strength of those who remained under his command in the French capital. With a squad that would be the envy of managers across Europe, Enrique wasn't short of top talents to discuss. But one name immediately sprung to mind. Vitinha. A little twinkle-toed magician in central midfield whom Enrique declared had been PSG's best player last season, even with Mbappe in the team.

In any household populated by teenagers these days, a disruption to the main water is normally met with a shrug of the shoulders. An intermittent Wi-Fi signal, however, tends to invoke a more animated response. Without access to social media, you could be forgiven for thinking Western civilisation is under threat. A child of the new millennium, Ben Doak's formative years were no different to any other. The habit of hopping between online platforms felt as natural as breathing or, in his case, leaving defenders for dead.

John Carver has warned Scotland fans that they might need to endure more Nations League pain in the pursuit of World Cup gain. Bottom of their group after back-to-back defeats last month, a squad decimated by call-offs will face Croatia in Zagreb on Saturday on the back of one win in 14 games.

You are the chairman of a Scottish Premiership football club. Presented with a loan proposal from a part-time lower league team for the raw, untried 18-year-old striker banging on the first team door, your choices are as follows. You can: (a) encourage your manager to pursue the player-trading strategy by bleeding young prospects into the team.

That Scotland didn't deserve to lose this game offered no real consolation in the end. The statistics now show that the national team have won just one of their last 13 games and find themselves in the midst of their longest winless run at home since 2008. The last victory of any description came in a friendly clash against Gibraltar.

Barcelona are interested in signing a Liverpool midfielder on loan. The Spaniard had appeared set to join RB Salzburg on loan but could now head to Barcelona instead. Salzburg are managed by former Liverpool assistant boss Pep Lijnders, who rates the player highly.  Barcelona boss Hansi Flick is eager to add to his midfield options before the closure of the transfer window .

LEWIS STEELE: Red Bull Salzburg are trying to sign a second Liverpool midfielder of the summer as they have emerged as the frontrunners to complete a loan deal for Spanish youngster Stefan Bajcetic this week. The Austrian side have already signed teenager Bobby Clark from Anfield this summer in a £10million permanent deal and are now pushing to add Bajcetic to their ranks. They are managed by former Reds assistant manager Pepijn Lijnders. Jurgen Klopp's former right-hand man, alongside fellow ex-Liverpool coach Vitor Matos, believe they can give Bajcetic the minutes he requires to kickstart his career after missing most of last season through injury. He played just three times for the first team last term.

The World Wildlife Fund blame climate change for placing one in nine Scottish species in danger of extinction. It's not just hedgehogs and squirrels heading the way of the dodo and Third Lanark. The most endangered creatures of all are Scottish footballers in the SPFL Premiership.

LEWIS STEELE IN PITTSBURGH: Leicester and Southampton are among several clubs keen on signing Liverpool starlet Ben Doak this summer - with the talented Scottish winger set to sit down with Arne Slot after the Reds' pre-season tour to decide whether to leave or not. Mail Sport understands the 18-year-old, who joined Liverpool from Celtic for around £600,000 two years ago and is one of the brightest up-and-coming stars at Anfield, is weighing up whether to go out on loan as his first-team opportunities might become limited. Doak played in the second half of their first official friendly of the Slot era on Friday night, a 1-0 win over Real Betis in Pittsburgh, and also started a behind-closed-doors match against Preston a week earlier.

Liverpool fans have been left fawning over a training clip from their pre-season tour of the US. The Reds headed across the pond earlier this week as they continue preparations ahead of Arne Slot's first season in charge. Liverpool will face Real Betis in Pittsburgh on Friday, before taking on Arsenal in Philadelphia and Man United in South Carolina next week.

LEWIS STEELE: Liverpool are in talks to poach one of English football's most highly-rated young talents from Chelsea, with 15-year-old Rio Ngumoha weighing up joining the Merseyside club. Chelsea, who under Todd Boehly's ownership have consistently spent big money on youngsters, are said to be furious at the prospect of losing Ngumoha. If a deal was struck, Ngumoha will join on a scholar's contract and he is said to be motivated by the pathway and opportunities on offer at Liverpool - most notably a second-string team of youngsters winning the Carabao Cup final against Chelsea last season.

LEWIS STEELE: Liverpool are set for a relatively quiet summer of incomings as Arne Slot inherits a squad in pleasing health, with only minor surgery required to fulfil his stated ambitions of bettering last season's third-place finish in the Premier League. Unlike last summer, when major changes were needed to overhaul an aging and lacklustre midfield, the new head coach knows he has a quality group of players to work with. The Dutchman will want to assess all of his options before making drastic alterations. But that doesn't mean there won't be a few outgoings this summer. New Fenway Sports Group CEO of Football Michael Edwards is keen to trade wisely and there could be a number of permanent exits to raise cash, plus some loan moves. Here, Mail Sport looks at those fringe players who could leave permanently or on loan this summer.

What are we to make of this Scotland team? The nearly men? All talk and no trousers? Certainly, for the second time in three years, this group of players have merely made up the numbers at a major tournament despite promising so much more. All the chat about trying to create history and reach the knockout stages for the first time felt cheap and hollow come full-time against Hungary on Sunday night, almost like a pipe dream. It was all so different barely a fortnight ago. Even a couple of laboured performances against Gibraltar and Finland in the warm-up games couldn't dilute the excitement and optimism surging through the country.

KENNY McLEAN insists Scotland plan to secure a place in the last 16 of Euro 2024 for devastated team-mate Kieran Tierney. The Arsenal defender became the latest addition to Steve Clarke's lengthy list of casualties when he was stretchered off during last night's 1-1 draw with Switzerland with what appeared to be a serious hamstring injury. Lewis Ferguson, Aaron Hickey, Nathan Patterson, Lyndon Dykes, Ben Doak and Jacob Brown were ruled out of Steve Clarke's squad before the flight to Germany.

SCOTLAND assistant manager John Carver says they are now being 'extra cautious' after injury scares for Andrew Robertson and Lawrence Shankland ahead of Friday's Euro 2024 opener against Germany. Manager Steve Clarke has already lost Lyndon Dykes, Ben Doak, Lewis Ferguson, Aaron Hickey, Nathan Patterson and Jacob Brown from his squad for the finals. And Carver said the removal of Robertson and Shankland from yesterday's first day of training in Garmisch-Partenkirchen was a precautionary measure after so many injuries.

Steve Clarke admits he is braced for some 'horrible' conversations as he prepares to cut two players from his Scotland squad for Euro 2024. It's believed that Craig Gordon and John Souttar could be the unlucky pair to miss out as Clarke trims his final squad from 28 players to 26. That comes as New York Red Bulls forward Lewis Morgan was also handed a last-minute call-up, with Clarke forced into a late rethink due to injuries to Lyndon Dykes and Ben Doak.

SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell has emerged as the latest Scotland injury doubt for Euro 2024. Manager Steve Clarke has already lost key players Lyndon Dykes, Lewis Ferguson, Nathan Patterson, Aaron Hickey, Jacob Brown and Ben Doak for the opening game of the finals against hosts Germany next Friday. And Mail Sport can reveal that Maxwell is now scrambling to find a way to make it to the Allianz Arena in Munich after undergoing emergency surgery on a detached retina.

STEVE CLARKE last night called Scotland Under-21s striker Tommy Conway into his squad for Euro 2024 after Liverpool's Ben Doak became the latest addition to a lengthy list of casualties. Lyndon Dykes was ruled out of a trip to Germany by a training ground injury last week, with 18-year-old Doak forced to withdraw after sitting out the uninspiring 2-0 win over minnows Gibraltar in the Algarve on Monday. Shorn of options in attack, Clarke moved quickly to call in Bristol City's uncapped striker Conway after he scored in Scotland Under-21's 2-1 defeat to Turkey in Istanbul.

THE last time John Bennett said anything significant outside of the stage-managed snoozefest of the Rangers AGM, it was part of a ludicrous move to try to play down the significance of monies being brought in from the Champions League. September 2022 that was. On the in-house TV channel. He was still the vice-chairman. The manager, Giovanni van Bronckhorst, had got the club into the group stage of Europe's premier competition by beating PSV Eindhoven in a play-off and, despite seeking to strengthen the squad, received nothing for any new players in the six days between securing progress in the Netherlands and the transfer window shutting. When it all went pear-shaped that season, managing director and all-round grey man Stewart Robertson started droning on about how people had been talking about money having 'fallen out of the sky' and how this Champions League dough the club had been chasing for years was, as it turns out, nothing to get in a flap over.

Steve Clarke has backed Liverpool teenager Ben Doak to become a Scotland game changer. The uncapped 18-year-old was named as part of a provisional 28-man squad for next month's Euro 2024 finals, despite being sidelined by knee surgery last December. The former Celtic player has managed just seven appearances and 345 minutes of action this season. Now back in full training, Clarke believes the Anfield attacker adds something different to the pool.

Liverpool winger Ben Doak has been handed a first call-up to Scotland squad as Steve Clarke named a provisional 28-man selection for Euro 2024. Doak is one of two uncapped players in the squad, with Bristol City right back Ross McCrorie also earning a call-up. The 18-year-old winger has been included despite not playing a match since December.

TWENTY-SIX days to go until the absolute deadline for Steve Clarke to name his Scotland squad for Euro 2024. And just 33 until he leads his side out in the Allianz Arena in Munich for the opening game of the tournament against hosts Germany. Not a lot of time, then, for Ben Doak to prove he is capable of making some kind of contribution after recovering from the knee surgery that stopped a promising season dead in its tracks at Liverpool in December. However, if the 18-year-old can convince Clarke he is in a condition to make an impact at the finals - at some stage in Scotland's campaign, if not that high-octane curtain-raiser - there should be no hesitation at all in putting his name down for a plane ticket.

The £272 million, up £25 million from off-field earnings, was Liverpool's highest income stream in 2022-23, but a year after winning the final, the television money decreased by £19 million to £242 million. Matchday's earnings dropped by £7 million due to fewer games being played during the 2013 season, the club's first campaign saw them win both domestic and tournament finals.

Images of Liverpool's stars walking up the famous Wembley steps after the Carabao Cup final resemble more of a line of children waiting for their school lunch than a group of young heroes about to receive a medal after etching their name into folklore. Five members of Chelsea's XI were aged 21 or under, while only match-winning Virgil van Dijk was guaranteed a place in Liverpool's best team if all Jurgen Klopp had the rare luxury of a fully fit squad. So, let's get to know the members of the Kindergarten Kop, from those who featured at the national stadium to the next on the production line set to play in Wednesday's FA Cup clash with Southampton…