Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has stated that he was wrong to insinuate that there was a campaign against the west London club earlier this season.

The Blues boss was infuriated over refereeing decision midway through the 2014-15 season and stated that the footballing fraternity were out to get the Stamford Bridge club.

The Portuguese trainer debated a number of refereeing decision throughout the course of the season and felt that Chelsea were not given a fair crack of the whip.

Mourinho has addressed his comments now that the Blues have claimed the Premier League title and has admitted that his remarks were perhaps a bit over the top.

“I’m not the kind of person to regret,” The Guardian report Mourinho as saying.

“What you did you did. What happened happened. You cannot change things. Time does not go back. We had lots of mistakes against us. That’s the reality but that’s football.

“Maybe ‘campaign’ is not a nice word. Maybe I would take that word out from my explanation and my comments, but that’s the reality. We had very bad decisions over a big period of time. But I also made bad decisions, so no problem.

“The word ‘campaign’ was even the subject of punishment because the word was strong. My feeling was that we had lots of mistakes against us, that punished us in crucial matches in a crucial period – November, December, January.

“I would take the word ‘campaign’ [out] if the same happened next season. It would be out of my vocabulary. But that feeling is clear. We had lots of decisions against us.”

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Chelsea claimed a domestic double by finishing on top of the Premier League table and also defeating Tottenham in the Capital One Cup final.

The Blues were eliminated from the Champions League this season by Paris Saint-Germain and will hope for an improved European showing next term.

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Under Unai Emery, Arsenal are going through a massive rebuild and the fans in the Transfer Tavern are excited to see what changes will be made ahead of the new season. 

Arsenal’s new boss has already sealed deals for Stephan Lichtsteiner, Bernd Leno and most recently, former Dortmund man, Sokratis Papastathopoulos. However, it’s not just the first-team the club are looking to reshape but also it’s youth academy and are now linked with a move for Sunderland’s Sam Greenwood.

The Breakdown

According to ESPN, Arsenal are set to beat Manchester United and Stuttgart to the signing of the under-16 star.

Greenwood is regarded as one of the best young talents in his age group and has represented England at under-16 level. The young striker scored 21 goals in 26 appearances for Sunderland’s under-16s and 18s last season, which led to a host of Europe’s top clubs showing an interest.

Greenwood also turned down a new deal to remain at the club which opened the door for Manchester United and Arsenal to attempt to sign the youngster.

Sunderland’s academy has had a successful few years with the likes of Jordan Henderson, Duncan, Duncan Watmore and Jordan Pickford all progressing into the first-team.

With Sunderland now in League One, youth players have more chance of getting first-team football but with the club coming off back-to-back relegations, it seems it may be quite hard to keep some of their top talents who want to play at a higher level.

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Signing Greenwood could be an excellent steal for a new look Arsenal.

Happy with this Arsenal fans?

Otago’s success in taking the first innings points proved invaluable. With the abandonment of play, it secured the four points from the game and took an 8-4 points lead in the Southern Zone competition, which has two games to be played, in Ashburton on Friday, and Westport on Sunday.Otago did well to pass a solid Canterbury total, especially when without Chris Gaffaney, the star of the game the day before in Gore. Andrew Hore’s good form in club cricket was reflected in the early part of the innings while Lee Germon showed he was well on the way to making a significant impact for the side in the latter part of this series and in future commitments for the side.Craig Cumming’s form was welcome after some disappointment in Gore and the sight of Karl O’Dowda guiding the side to victory with a controlled innings was a hint of the role he might have in the Shell Cup later in the summer.Canterbury enjoyed a profitable assault when Warren Wisneski was at the crease and there’s no doubt when he gets cracking from the outset the impetus is well and truly applied to the innings. With some hard-hitting players further down the order like Darren Reekers, Cleighten Cornelius and Stephen Cunis there is a hint that a huge score is not far away for Canterbury, but it needs to produce the goods soon.It’s not really fair being a bowler in these games, but for the bowler’s who get their length right the rewards are to be had and Otago’s Kerry Walmsley, who conceded only one run in the ninth over of the Canterbury innings, and Canterbury’s left-arm spinner Danny Bulman, who was sitting on a hat-trick, showed rewards could be had.The pressure goes on Otago in the last two games, as it will be without Walmsley, who is off to South Africa.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details3:29

‘Bowlers bounced back in the last five overs’ – Mendis

Cinderella crashed the World Twenty20 Qualifier in style in Malahide on Thursday as Oman continued their improbable journey by storming away with a five-wicket win over Namibia. The win sealed Oman’s first ever spot in a major ICC event with a trip to India now booked for next year’s ICC World Twenty20 and victory for Oman also secured T20 international status for the next four years. Zeeshan Siddiqui’s sixth four over long-off capped the chase with an over to spare and brought up his half-century off 32 balls.Oman’s chase was aggressive from the start after being set a modest target of 149. They powered to 41 in five overs thanks to confident hitting from Khawar Ali and Zeeshan Maqsood. Khawar fell off the first ball of the sixth for 18 after being done in by a Sarel Burger slower ball while Maqsood fell for 28 after trying to sneak a second run off a misfield. Aamir Kaleem was Bernard Scholtz’s 14th wicket of the tournament, caught behind after gloving an attempted sweep for 8 to make it 67 for 3 in nine overs.However, Oman did not let Bernard tie them down as he had done successfully against other teams, using their feet to shuffle around the crease and create room for scoring options, mainly with deft glides for singles and twos in the gaps in front of square. After the game, Siddiqui indicated that Oman’s daily net sessions against their own arsenal of left-arm spinners – Ajay Lalcheta, Aamer Kaleem and Maqsood – had prepared them well for the challenge posed by Bernard. His figures of 1 for 29 were Bernard’s second-worst of the tournament as Siddiqui and Jatinder Singh manufactured a 62-run stand to put Oman in total control.When Jatinder was run out for 33 attempting a tight single, Oman were left needing 20 off 19 balls with six wickets in hand. Gerrie Snyman prized out another wicket in the following over, getting Mehran Khan inside-edge an attempted slog onto his stumps. But Siddiqui washed away any nervous energy by bashing Gerrie for six over long-off which prompted his new batting partner Aamer Ali to race down the wicket and give him a bear hug.Another four by Siddiqui to end the over through cover spurred another embrace from Aamer. Six balls later, Siddiqui sealed the match to spark emotional celebrations on the pitch. Namibia have now lost four consecutive opportunities to clinch a spot in the World T20, after two playoff losses in 2012 and now a couple in 2014.Oman opted to field first, and found immediate success, as Gerrie Snyman was trapped lbw for a second-ball duck. However, for the rest of the first 10 overs, Oman showed their nerves as Namibia capitalised on four missed chances to race to 80 for 2. The biggest misses came off Stephan Baard, who survived on 26 and 33 to make a 52-ball 62 – after a skier at midwicket and a thick edge to short third man went to ground.However, Oman found renewed focus towards the death overs, as Namibia slipped from 134 for 4 to 148 for 9. The spirit came in the form of the slingy Munis Ansari. Just as he did in the win over Netherlands, Ansari struck multiple times at the death to rein in any chances of a big finish from Namibia. The major blows came on consecutive balls in the 18th over, when Nicolaas Scholtz was caught at square leg for 6 and Baard was pinned walking across his stumps as the Oman bench erupted.Aamir Kaleem had Gerhard Erasmus stumped in the 19th over for 2 before Ansari came back in the 20th to have JP Kotze caught at backward point by Mehran Khan. A run-out off the final ball prevented a second run and Ansari’s final figures of 3 for 23 were a big bounce back after a rocky start. In the end, it helped put Oman into their first World Cup in any format.

The Melbourne Stars have named David Hussey their new captain and James Faulkner the vice-captain for the upcoming fifth season of the Big Bash League. The Stars had to pick a new captain after recently retired Michael Clarke, who was supposed to lead them, pulled out of the tournament, and Cameron White, who led them last season, switched to Melbourne Renegades.Hussey was upbeat about captaining the side with Faulkner as deputy and described his appointment as “interesting”.”It’s an interesting decision by the Melbourne Stars,” Hussey told . “James Faulkner’s going to be the vice-captain and he’s going to be a great person to bounce ideas off. I’ve also learnt from two great captains before me in Shane Warne and Cameron White. In terms of me being captain, it’s a tough one.”The Stars have made the semi-finals in all four seasons so far, but have not reached the final even once. Addressing that was Hussey’s main concern. “I’m really focused on helping the Melbourne Stars. I want to win some silverware,” he said. “It is frustrating. We’ve been semi-finalists every year since the inception of the competition.”Hussey, 38, was not sure of his appointment as a long-term plan and said Faulkner could be the future captain of the Stars in the coming years. Hussey had played only four matches last season with an unimpressive tally of 37 runs at an average of 12.33 and strike rate of 97.36.”I’m always for never standing in the way of a younger player coming through,” he said. “James Faulkner, hopefully we can work together and maybe he’s going to be a future captain of the Melbourne Stars, maybe next year or the year after.”The Stars will also have a new coach for this season – former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming who has coached IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings. Fleming was banking on the familiarity he shares with Hussey and was eager to have their international star Kevin Pietersen in the camp. Their other international recruit is an England batsman as well – Luke Wright.”It’s nice to have a strong Victorian presence as captain,” Fleming said. “To be working with him is quite a key component because I know him so well.”There’s been a lot written about Kevin, and whether or not he should be playing international cricket. I’m pretty pleased he’s playing with the Stars,” Fleming had said after his appointment earlier this year.The Stars will start their tournament on December 18 against the Adelaide Strikers at the Adelaide Oval.

After much deliberation, Sri Lanka Cricket’s interim committee is likely to retain Galle as a venue for the two-Test series against West Indies in October but has decided to drastically reduce the costs it will incur in hosting the match there, as well as at other venues for the tour.”We hope to cut costs down to about Rs 3 million (approx. $22,200) to try and offset the losses we will incur hosting West Indies,” Kushil Gunasekera, the interim committee vice-president, said.”We didn’t want to deprive the outstation spectators from watching an international match but at the same time we had to also curtail the losses that we will incur playing at Galle.”Galle traditionally has been an extravagant venue and we will try and keep down costs to a minimum.”Gunasekera said that SLC will not be making use of the Galle Municipal building and the Galle Cricket Club. It will also discard having marquees for spectators as well as feeding 500 school children breakfast, lunch and tea, which alone cost SLC Rs 1.2 million.Galle has been a Test venue for all tours since 1998. The two Tests played against Pakistan and India in Galle brought in revenue of Rs 14 million, Gunasekara said, but with SLC receiving only Rs 45 million for TV broadcasting rights for the West Indies series, it stands to lose overall Rs 105 million on the tour comprising two Tests, three ODIs and two T20s.SLC made a record profit of Rs 87 million from the Pakistan tour against a target of Rs 50 million, and stands to gain Rs 300 million from the recently concluded India tour.The first Test against West Indies starts October 14 with the second beginning at P Sara Oval on October 22. R Premadasa Stadium and Pallekele will host the ODIs and T20s.

Nepal will play at Lord’s for the first time in 2016 after securing a fixture against the MCC. It has also been confirmed that the MCC’s tour of Nepal will go ahead in November after the trip had been left in doubt following the earthquake earlier this year.The date for Nepal’s match at Lord’s will be announced in the fixture lists towards the end of the year, but it will take place at some point in July. The fixture will help mark 200 years of relations between the UK and Nepal.The MCC’s tour of the country will take place between November 12-24 following an inspection trip by John Stephenson, the MCC’s head of cricket, which determined that the tour could take place.There have been significant links between MCC and Nepal over the years, which have included investment in helping develop the country’s cricket while Paras Khadka, the Nepal captain, was part of the MCC’s side for the Emirates T20 event in Dubai earlier this year.Rajesh Magar and Naresh Budhayer also previously spent time with the MCC’s Young Cricketers programme in 2013 and there are plans to extend this to be a more regular exchange of young players to aid Nepal’s development.

Joe Burns and Usman Khawaja have been preferred to the younger Cameron Bancroft in Australia’s 12-man squad for the first two Tests against New Zealand. Burns is set to be the new opening partner for David Warner following the retirement of Chris Rogers at the end of the Ashes, while Khawaja’s most likely position is at No.3 if Steven Smith moves down to No.4 as expected.There was no room for either Bancroft or Shaun Marsh, both of whom were part of the squad for the abandoned tour of Bangladesh. Not surprisingly, four fast men have been named – Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Peter Siddle – with one of them likely to be made 12th man for the first Test at the Gabba starting on Thursday.It will be Australia’s first Test since the post-Ashes retirements of Rogers, Michael Clarke, Brad Haddin and Shane Watson, but the inclusion of Burns and Khawaja means that no new baggy greens will be handed out. Khawaja played the most recent of his nine Tests on the 2013 Ashes tour, while Burns scored twin half-centuries in the second of his two Tests against India last summer.National selector Rod Marsh said Burns had earned his place through weight of runs over the course of his first-class career, and that he had been unlucky to be dropped after the Indian series last season.”He’s got more runs than the other contenders,” Marsh told reporters in Adelaide. “He averages more than the other contenders. He got two fifties in his last Test match, extremely unlucky not to be going to the West Indies and England, he was chosen to go to Bangladesh, would have opened the batting there. Any other explanation?”Bancroft, 22, is expected to feature in future Test squads and impressed last summer with 896 runs in the Sheffield Shield, making him third on the competition tally. However, the selectors hope Bancroft might benefit from some more time in the Shield before he wins a baggy green.”He’s a good young player, he’s as tough as nails, and we all think he has got what it takes to play Test cricket,” Marsh said. “But we think he’s a few runs shy at the moment; he’s a few hundreds shy. And we’d like to pick him when he’s in sparkling form and getting first-class hundreds, that is when we’d really like to pick a young player.”What we tried to do was pick the best side. We know New Zealand are going to be very, very worthy opponents. In fact they’re a damn good side. And it’s very important for Steve Smith and David Warner, the two leaders of our group, it’s very important they get off to a good start.”And I don’t personally think it was time for just wild experimentation. I think we had to be very measured in what we did with this team to allow the new captain the best chance of getting off [to a good start]. It’s all very well saying `pick youth and go with youth all the time’ but you have got to pick the best side.”Khawaja, 28, and Burns, 26, now have the chance to make long-term positions in Australia’s top order their own, while the older Adam Voges, 36, is viewed as an important leader with plenty of first-class experience during this period of changeover. Voges has retained his spot at No.5, while the allrounder Mitchell Marsh is set to stay at No.6 as what Rod Marsh called a batting allrounder.”Harking back to England, the thing we were most worried about was his bowling, but now because he hasn’t made many runs recently I think everyone is worried about his batting,” he said. “I’ve got faith in him. He’s a good young bloke, with a good technique and a desire to play well for Australia.”He played beautifully [on debut last year] and he backed it up in the second innings in conditions that were difficult and conditions he wasn’t used to. The Gabba and Perth pitches should suit his batting. That’s where he was brought up in Perth with a bit of bounce, and he should be well suited to those two pitches.”Peter Nevill will play a Test match at home for the first time after he replaced Haddin during the Ashes series, and the make-up of the attack remains the main question leading into the Gabba Test. Hazlewood was dropped for the final Ashes Test at The Oval, where Siddle performed well as his replacement, and it is likely that one of them will be the bowler to miss out.”We are pleased with how our bowling unit is going at the moment,” Marsh said. “Both Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood had fantastic performances in the Matador Cup and Mitchell Johnson looks ready to fire after a decent break. Off the back of a great bowling performance in the last Test Peter Siddle earns his selection with Nathan Lyon, a proven performer in the side rounding out our attack.”Australia squad David Warner, Joe Burns, Usman Khawaja, Steven Smith (capt), Adam Voges, Mitchell Marsh, Peter Nevill (wk), Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, Peter Siddle, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood

Jalaj Saxena and Harpreet Singh Bhatia hit half-centuries as Madhya Pradesh beat Goa by seven wickets to register their first win of the tournament.Chasing 215, MP lost Rajat Patidar in the first over. But Saxena and Naman Ojha added 73 for the second wicket to put the chase back on track. Ojha, hit seven fours and a six in his 47 before falling to Shadab Jakati, the left-arm spinner. The chase was then piloted for most parts by Harpreet Singh, who finished unbeaten on 74 as MP won with 46 balls to spare.That Goa managed to push past 200 was courtesy half-centuries from Swapnil Asnodkar and Saurabh Bandekar. Both batsmen made 68 on either side of Goa’s middle order implosion. Both batsmen were also involved in a 49-run stand for the sixth wicket that helped them recover from 95 for 5. Three other batsmen got into double digits, with the highest being 18.MP’s spinners – Saxena and Ankit Sharma – dismantled the tail, but the bulk of the damage upfront was done by the pacers. Puneet Datey and Chadrakant Sakure, the debutant, picked up two wickets apiece.Mohammad Javed, the medium pacer playing in only his second List-A game, starred with returns of 4 for 40 as Uttar Pradesh beat Bengal by four wickets to register their second win in as many matches in the 2015-16 Vijay Hazare Trophy.While Javed broke the backbone of Bengal’s batting line-up to restrict them to a modest 221, Umang Sharma, the opener, drove home the advantage by stroking a 94-ball 73 to help lay the foundation of UP’s chase. He was well backed up by Prashant Gupta (47) and Eklavya Dwivedi (45), but UP more wickets than they would have liked; ultimately finishing off the chase with 20 balls to spare.Mohammed Shami, returning to cricket after an eight-month layoff because of an ankle injury, picked up two wickets. The finishing touches for UP was lent by Rinku Singh, who finished with 30 not out.Opting to bat, Bengal managed 221 mainly due to Sudip Chatterjee’s 97, that included nine fours. No other Bengal batsman managed more than 35, as UP’s bowlers kept chipping at Bengal’s wickets, dismissing them in 48.3 overs.

This was the first of the two one-day matches between the teams paled at the Clontarf ground in Dublin where the venerable Clive Lloyd and his team suffered from exposure during the 1999 World Cup. Despite the usual evil weather forecast, the morning of the match began dry, with occasional flashes of sunshine; the weather became increasingly bleak as the day progressed, but at least the match went the distance.Zimbabwe won the toss and decided to bat, while the weather conditions were relatively stable, on a slow pitch allowing considerable seam movement. Irish opening bowler Owen Butler took 12 balls to complete the first over of the match, beginning with four successive wides, Neil Johnson (0) was bowled shouldering arms to a ball that moved sharply, but Craig Wishart (35) and Murray Goodwin (13) stabilised the innings. Wishart has joined the team after sporting his talents notably for Zimbabwe `A’ in Sri Lanka, after being unlucky to miss selection for the main England tour party.The greatest encouragement for Zimbabwe was probably the return to form of Alistair Campbell (52) and Grant Flower (64*) batting down the order. Campbell took quite a while to hit the ball off the square, but once that was achieved he scarcely looked back, Flower got off the mark with a six over midwicket, and it to be hoped that both batsmen have now turned the corner, Dirk Viljoen batted briskly for his unbeaten 30 before the innings closed.228 was quite a stiff target in the circumstances, but with Australian Mark Waugh in the opposition nothing could be taken for granted. However Zimbabwe took an early grip on the innings and never relinquished it. The early Irish batsmen struggled to get the score moving, and even Waugh found it heavy going. At the halfway stage the score was only 67 for three, with the required rate almost 61 per over.Waugh finally began to open up against Paul Strang, who has also joined the touring team in preparation for the on-day series and otherwise bowled economically. He formed a useful partnership with the aggressive Irish captain Angus Dunlop, who got off the mark by hitting Viljoen for a huge six over long on. But, when Grant Flower bowled Waugh for 38, the required rate had risen to more than eight an over, when Dunlop holed out at deep square leg for 35, making Ireland 146 for six, it was as good as over. Paul Mooney reduced the margin of victory with an enterprising 25 not out.