Forward Steven Naismith is disappointed to have been left out of Everton’s starting lineup in their opening two English Premier League games, but the Scotland international is ready to wait for his opportunity.
Naismith scored seven goals in 31 league games last season and felt he had done enough to break into the first team, but was only used as a late substitute by manager Roberto Martinez.
“I was disappointed not to start in the game against Watford, but then you look at the boys who scored and done well and accept that and bide your time,” he was quoted as saying by the Liverpool Echo.
Photo: AFP
“Last season, I felt I contributed a lot to the squad. The first year with a new manager you do need to prove yourself, but I think I have done that and shown my worth to the team,” he added.
Naismith is well aware of the fact that he faces tough competition for a place up front with teammate Romelu Lukaku in fine form and scoring a brace in the club’s 3-0 win over Southampton on Saturday.
“The boys who have been playing up front have been doing well,” Naismith said. “It is down to me to work hard and wait for the opportunity to come.”
“If I feel I have not been treated right then I will speak up, but it is down to boys doing well and scoring goals, so you are not going to take those boys out of the side,” he added.
Naismith hopes teammate John Stones, who has been heavily linked with a move to champions Chelsea, stays at the club.
“We definitely want him to stay — he is a fantastic guy and footballer, and a mainstay in our team,” Naismith told Sky Sports. “You want your best players to be here to hopefully continue bringing success to Everton.”
The former Rangers player has also been working on his coaching qualifications to see if he could take a crack at management after retirement.
“I am doing my B-Licence at the moment. but I would not say I have a massive draw that I want to be a coach or a manager,” Naismith said. “I am doing it more to get the experience to see if I do like it and if it is something I would like to do.”
New Taipei Kings guard Jeremy Lin on Friday was named the Taiwan Professional Basketball League’s (TPBL) Player of the Month, the first domestic player to win the award, while the Hsinchu Toplus Lioneers are to welcome their third head coach in less than a year. Lin averaged 22 points, 5.4 rebounds and 6.6 assists over five games in October and last month, helping the Kings to second in the standings with a 4-2 record as of Friday. The Kings last night defeated the Lioneers 96-78 to move level with the top-of-the-table Formosa Dreamers (5-2), while in the night game, the New Taipei
TO NO AVAIL: The Denver Nuggets’ Serbian center Nikola Jokic surpassed his 53-point performance in the 2023 Western Conference semi-finals against Phoenix The Washington Wizards withstood a 56-point explosion from Denver star Nikola Jokic to beat the Nuggets 122-113 on Saturday and snap their 16-game NBA losing streak. Jokic, who won his third NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) award last season, posted a career scoring high — surpassing a 53-point performance in game four of the 2023 Western Conference semi-finals against Phoenix and a 50-point regular-season best against Sacramento in 2021. The Serbian big man added 16 rebounds and eight assists, but it was all to no avail as Washington, buoyed by 39 points from Jordan Poole, won for the first time
Taiwan on Wednesday finished with 15 medals at the World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships in Hong Kong, taking home four gold, five silver and six bronze medals across the age group divisions. Taiwan ranked third on the medal table after South Korea with 17 golds and the US with eight golds at the five-day competition. “Your athletes have proven themselves as the best in the world,” World Taekwondo president Choue Chung-won said at the closing ceremony of the martial art contest that was attended by a record 1,727 athletes from around the world. On the first day of the competition at the Hong Kong
Taiwan’s Lin Cheng-jing won a bronze medal in the clean and jerk in the women’s under-49 kg division at the 2024 IWF World Weightlifting Championships in Bahrain on Saturday. Lin won her first medal at a World Weightlifting Championships for lifting 107kg in the clean and jerk in her weight class, 2kg more than Rosegie Ramos of the Philippines. However, Ramos won bronze for the combined lift after topping Lin by 5kg in the snatch. Ri Song-gum of North Korea won gold in the division’s combined lift with a total of 213kg, while Xiang Linxiang of China took silver with
RSS