Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino insists his only priority is improving results on the pitch, starting at Sunderland on Saturday, rather than getting involved in the club’s off-field issues.
The north London outfit issued a statement this week denying any takeover talks had been held following reports that owner Joe Lewis was keen to sell the club, who are in the midst of finalising plans to build a new stadium next to their existing White Hart Lane home.
An appeal against a compulsory purchase order by a neighbouring business has forced Tottenham to reschedule their original plans and they have now been forced to look for a temporary home for the 2017/18 season.
A number of potential venues have been mooted, including Wembley and Milton Keynes, a new town almost 50 miles to the north of the capital.
But Pochettino, who saw his side heavily beaten at home by Liverpool before the international break, won’t be distracted as he prefers to focus on the more pressing goal of getting his side into the top four.
“My pressure is to try to win every game, not any pressure from the owner or outside,” he said. “It is the beginning of the season and we need to improve.
“We need to work hard and win a lot of games. You always need time and you need passion. You also need results and I think we are heading in the right way.”
Tottenham striker Roberto Soldado will miss the clash with Gus Poyet’s Sunderland side as the Spain international has a neck problem.
Defender Kyle Walker is a long-term casualty and midfielder Nabil Bentaleb may be left out as he made a late return from international duty with Algeria.
New signings Federico Fazio, the former Sevilla defender, and Benjamin Stambouli, the midfielder recruited from Montpellier, could make their debuts.
Sunderland manager Poyet admitted he was left unsatisfied by the club’s work in the transfer window as they try to avoid a repeat of last season’s battle for Premier League survival.
The Wearsiders failed to land top target Fabio Borini after a long-running saga, but added defender Sebastian Coates and winger Ricardo Alvarez to the squad before the deadline.
The arrival of Borini’s Liverpool teammate Coates and Inter Milan’s Alvarez saw Sunderland end the window with eight new players, and the two later additions could be involved against Tottenham.
Reporting a fully fit squad, Poyet said: “It’s easy to say I’m happy because then everyone would be delighted. I’m all right, but I wouldn’t say I’m happy.
“We expected to have a certain number of players, we were close to doing a couple of important things, but we tried.
“We tried our best. What we got was the best we could do. I don’t want to reflect on how it went because it is not fair.”
Alvarez has arrived on a season-long loan and should provide an exciting option down the left-hand side, although he can play on both flanks.
“People will think that Ricky is the substitute for Borini, but he is not,” Poyet said.
“It’s different opinions. Ricky is a player who is exciting on the ball, he will create things on his own but he is not a proper scorer.
“We can’t say he is a replacement for the other one. He is going to play in a position where Fabio played last year, but I don’t know if he will play on the left all the time.”
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Abdul Jabar Qahraman was meeting supporters in his campaign office in the southern Afghan province of Helmand when a bomb hidden under a sofa exploded on Wednesday.
The blast in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah killed the Afghan election candidate and at least another three people, Interior Minister Wais Ahmad Barmak told reporters. Another three were wounded, while three suspects were detained, he said.
The Taliban – which controls much of Helmand and has vowed to disrupt the October 20 parliamentary elections – claimed responsibility for the attack.
Mr Qahraman was at least the 10th candidate killed so far during the campaign season, and the second from Lashkar Gah this month. Another candidate, Saleh Mohammad Asikzai, was among eight people killed in a suicide attack last week. Most of the slain candidates were murdered in targeted assassinations, including Avtar Singh Khalsa, the first Afghan Sikh to run for the lower house of the parliament.
The same week the Taliban warned candidates to withdraw from the elections. On Wednesday the group issued fresh warnings, calling on educational workers to stop schools from being used as polling centres.
Cricket World Cup League Two
Oman, UAE, Namibia
Al Amerat, Muscat
Results
Oman beat UAE by five wickets
UAE beat Namibia by eight runs
Fixtures
Wednesday January 8 –Oman v Namibia
Thursday January 9 – Oman v UAE
Saturday January 11 – UAE v Namibia
Sunday January 12 – Oman v Namibia
How to avoid crypto fraud
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The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
On sale: Now
PSG's line up
GK: Alphonse Areola (youth academy)
Defence - RB: Dani Alves (free transfer); CB: Marquinhos (€31.4 million); CB: Thiago Silva (€42m); LB: Layvin Kurzawa (€23m)
Midfield - Angel di Maria (€47m); Adrien Rabiot (youth academy); Marco Verratti (€12m)
Forwards - Neymar (€222m); Edinson Cavani (€63m); Kylian Mbappe (initial: loan; to buy: €180m)
Total cost: €440.4m (€620.4m if Mbappe makes permanent move)
Usain Bolt's time for the 100m at major championships
2008 Beijing Olympics 9.69 seconds
2009 Berlin World Championships 9.58
2011 Daegu World Championships Disqualified
2012 London Olympics 9.63
2013 Moscow World Championships 9.77
2015 Beijing World Championships 9.79
2016 Rio Olympics 9.81
2017 London World Championships 9.95
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Gulf Men's League final
Dubai Hurricanes 24-12 Abu Dhabi Harlequins
'Avengers: Infinity War'
Dir: The Russo Brothers
Starring: Chris Evans, Chris Pratt, Tom Holland, Robert Downey Junior, Scarlett Johansson, Elizabeth Olsen
Four stars
