Tottenham Hotspur star’s agent confirms stance on summer exit

Spurs Focus Clear as Dragusin Dismisses Transfer Noise

Tottenham’s season has become a test of resolve, and amid the noise of speculation, Radu Dragusin remains anchored to a single objective, keeping Spurs in the top flight. Reports of a return to Italy have gathered pace in recent weeks, yet those closest to the defender insist his attention has not wavered. newsindata.com

Dragusin Commitment Amid Spurs Struggles

It has been a fragmented campaign for Dragusin. The 24-year-old has made only ten appearances, his progress interrupted by a serious ACL injury that ruled him out for much of the season. For a player still adapting to the pace and physicality of English football, the timing could hardly have been more disruptive.

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Yet, in the midst of uncertainty, his focus appears uncomplicated. Spurs’ precarious position has sharpened priorities within the squad, and Dragusin’s situation reflects that broader urgency. Survival, rather than speculation, dominates the agenda.

Agent Responds to Serie A Links

Transfer rumours have pointed towards a possible return to Serie A, where Dragusin built much of his early career with clubs including Juventus and Genoa. Interest from familiar surroundings is hardly surprising, particularly given his limited role this season.

However, his agent Florin Manea has moved to shut down those conversations, offering a clear message about Dragusin’s mindset.

“I said we won’t talk until the end of the championship; he’s focused on saving Tottenham,” Manea told Romanian outlet Digi Sport.

His words carry a sense of timing as much as intent. Discussions about the future, he suggests, will come later, once Spurs’ immediate concerns have been resolved.

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Summer Talks Planned in London

There is, though, an acknowledgement that decisions will eventually need to be made. Manea confirmed plans to travel to London, where he will meet Dragusin to assess what comes next.

“I also talked to him last night. We have time, no one is rushing us for now. If someone calls me, you’ll realise I’m talking, but I haven’t been contacted, I’m telling you the truth.

“His priority now is saving Tottenham. I haven’t talked to Fiorentina, Juventus or even Tottenham. I’ll arrive in England next week, I’ll meet with Radu and we’ll see.”

That measured approach mirrors the broader uncertainty surrounding Spurs. Much depends on how the season concludes, and whether the club can steer clear of relegation danger.

Career Path Shapes Current Moment

Dragusin’s journey has been shaped by Italy, from Sampdoria to Genoa, before his move to north London. That background explains the persistent links, yet it also highlights the significance of his current challenge.

For Spurs, every performance carries weight. For Dragusin, this is not a moment for looking back. It is about establishing himself, contributing when called upon, and helping guide the club through a turbulent campaign.

The future may bring decisions, negotiations, perhaps even a return to familiar territory. For now, though, the message is straightforward. Spurs need stability, and Dragusin’s role, however limited it has been, remains part of that effort.

Only days after the first sub-2 hour marathon , an Australian university professor who has devoted much of his career to studying times over the 42.195-kilometer (26.2-mile) event says the mark could improve by more than five minutes.

On Sunday, Sabastian Sawe of Kenya won the London Marathon in 1 hour, 59 minutes and 30 seconds, bettering the previous men’s world record by 65 seconds. He held off Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha, who was running his first official marathon and finished in 1:59.41 — the first two men to complete a marathon in under 2 hours.

Sawe, who arrived home to a hero’s welcome in Kenya on Wednesday, broke the previous mark held by his countryman, Kelvin Kiptum, who died in a car accident in February 2024.

Simon Angus of Melbourne's Monash University, who describes himself as a data scientist and economist, analyzes the historical progression of the men’s and women’s world marathon records. He first predicted in a 2019 research paper that the first sub 2-hour men's time wouldn't be achieved until 2032.

In 2023, he revised that prediction to March 2027. With the weekend times in London, Angus says with further modeling, a new benchmark could be 1 hour, 54 minutes – five minutes, 30 seconds faster than Sawe ran in London.

That kind of time would set a whole new benchmark.

“I think that should stand a very long test of time, I wouldn't expect this in my children's lifetime,” Angus told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday. "We could be running a different kind of marathon, at the hypothecial, theoretical limit.

“There could be rule changes . . . what kinds of material in the shoes or singlets, feedback technology. It's a tussle between technology advances and doping control."

Angus added that often the most-talented runners are able to take advantage of improving technologies.

“In trying to achieve a marathon world record, there are so many different areas of innovation,” Angus said. “There is a huge amount of money being spent on nutrition, training, shoe technology. What it means is that when someone puts their face a little bit in front, they get the benefit of those technological improvements."

Angus wrote in an analysis published in The Conversation Australia this week that his " statistical framework " uses an assumption that, over time, performance gains become harder to achieve.

“Any of us who have aimed to improve on our local park run time will know all too well how hard it becomes to eke out more performance gains after the initial euphoria of the first week or two’s improvements is over,” he wrote.

A record also was established in the women’s race in London on Sunday, with Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa winnnig in 2:15:41 to efend her title in the fastest-ever time in a women’s-only marathon.

Angus said that because there have been fewer women's-only marathons, it has been more difficult to publish data on them.

“Women’s times are in a gray space,” Angus said, but still predicted a time of 2 hours, 10 minutes — about five minutes faster than Assefa's time on Sunday — as one that eventually could be established.

The 47-year-old Angus is a married father of three who has run training marathons most recently in just under three hours.

He said he received word about the sub-2 hour London result — the time he predicted wouldn't happen initially for another six years — about 9 p.m. Sunday local time in Melbourne, just after the race finished.

“A friend texted and the first thing he said is ‘you are going to have a lot of work to do,’” Angus said. "I thought they'll break the world record but there's no way they'll do sub-2.

“Then I checked and thought, ‘now I probably need to get on to it.’”

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Ashley Sanchez scored in the 76th minute and the North Carolina Courage rallied in the second half for a 2-2 tie with the Boston Legacy on Wednesday, preventing the National Women’s Soccer League expansion team from winning its first match.

Elsewhere, the San Diego Wave lost 2-0 at the Portland Thorns; Gotham FC beat the Chicago Stars 2-0; and Racing Louisville fell to the Washington Spirit 1-0.

The Legacy did earn the first point in club history, but they remain at the bottom of the standings.

Alba Caño scored in the fifth minute off a pass from Nichelle Prince on the right wing to give Boston a quick 1-0 lead at Gillette Stadium. Eight minutes later, Prince cut back on the edge of the six-yard box and found Massachusetts native Sammy Smith, who fired a shot into the top right of the net.

North Carolina's Dani Weatherholt scored in the 53rd minute off a corner kick to make it 2-1. Uno Shiragaki had the initial shot and Casey Murphy’s knockdown block fell right at Weatherholt’s feet as she punched it to the left side of the net.

Portland rises to the top

In a match between the league's top two teams at Providence Park in Portland, the Thorns snapped San Diego's five-game winning streak to climb to the top of the standings.

Marie Muller scored her first career NWSL goal in the 10th minute to put the Thorns on the board. Sophia Wilson extended the lead in the 64th, scoring her second goal of the season.

It was the second time these two teams met this season. San Diego won the first battle last month 3-1.

Scoring woes over for Gotham

Despite just scoring two goals before the international break earlier this month, Gotham FC’s scoring woes appear to be over.

In their first two games back, they scored five goals defeating Bay FC 3-0 at home and then got two more goals in the shut out of the Stars on the road.

Jordynn Dudley scored in the first minute of the match after Jaedyn Shaw’s cross ran through the back line of the Stars' defense. It was the second-fastest goal in club history.

In the 10th minute, Rose Lavelle was left wide open and volleyed a shot past Alyssa Naeher.

Katie Atkinson, who played in the Stars’ previous two matches, was inactive with a thigh injury.

Rodman scores, Andi Sullivan returns to the pitch

Trinity Rodman scored her 30th career goal in the 15th minute with a cross-body volley strike from the middle of the penalty box at Audi Field in Washington.

Andi Sullivan came on in the 63rd minute after a long absence. She tore her ACL at the end of the 2024 season and was on maternity leave in 2025.

The Spirit have shut out four straight opponents, winning three and drawing against Denver 0-0.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

The red carpet was out again for Wrexham in Los Angeles.

Celebrity co-chairmen Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac were in the spotlight at the launch of the latest series of the documentary that has put the north Wales club on a global stage.

Of course, with Saturday's decisive day to come, the final episodes are yet to have their ending.

A win over Middlesbrough will secure a place in the play-offs. Anything else leaves it up to fate.

This is something Paul Rutherford knows all too well; his tears in a Dagenham dressing room are a reminder that not even a Hollywood-owned club gets to write their own scripts.

It was five years ago that the wide midfielder was sent off as Wrexham failed to win on the final day of the season and saw rivals winning elsewhere take their play-off spot by a solitary point.

"It felt like my world was imploding, that I'd let a lot of good people down," Rutherford says of the images of him alone in the changing room, first angry and then in anguish, after a straight red for a rash challenge.

The heartbreaking emotion was all captured by the cameras. Wrexham drew 1-1 and would remain exiled from the EFL for another year, this time with the world watching.

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One of the club's longest-serving players at the time, Rutherford knew it was more than just the ambition of getting out of non-league that had been on the line.

Manager Dean Keates was sacked the next day. Rutherford was released the day after, along with 10 others.

"And the rest is history," Rutherford chuckles with some hindsight humour. Now 38, his last of nearly 200 appearances in a Wrexham shirt was that day in 2021 having spent five years at the club.

He had been in the maternity ward awaiting the arrival of his third son when he found out he wouldn't be going back, missing out on what would turn out to be a rapid ascent through the divisions under A-lister ownership.

"We actually thought it was going to be Russell Crowe," he laughs of the time the rumours of a film star takeover began in September 2020, with games still behind Covid's closed doors.

"I can remember the talk before a friendly with Cefn Druids at the Racecourse and someone had mentioned that he'd had a grandfather from Wrexham - so we were getting bought by Gladiator."

The squad were told a few weeks later of the closely guarded identities as the process to take control from the supporters' trust began, with all aware of what it could mean.

"We'd been on a bit of a rollercoaster," Rutherford says. "As a squad, we'd been close to promotions a couple of times, then close to going to the Conference North before Dean came in and got us organised.

"There was Covid so all those fears about what it could mean for the club with the finances, and then the takeover happened.

"There was a narrative that as players we knew it was good for the town and the club but not for the players, but it wasn't quite like that. We weren't resigned to our fate.

"As a group, it actually galvanised us; we wanted to be part of the story, we wanted even more to be successful and get that first promotion, but unfortunately it wasn't meant to be."

Rutherford said that he had been "realistic" about his own future, knowing deep down he was losing sharpness and had started to encounter hip problems - ones that now mean he needs a replacement.

"I was good value for money, but as soon as they could raise the wage ceiling, they could find better players," he says. "That's football."

Cue the likes of Paul Mullin and - after a play-off defeat in Phil Parkinson's first year - promotion after promotion after promotion, leading to the chance of a fourth and final one from the Championship.

For Rutherford a spell in the Welsh leagues followed, but time is now spent split between some coaching, taxiing two of his boys to football training and working in a showroom of a hardware store.

All a world away from the millions on the line for the internationals in Parkinson's squad aiming for the Premier League, one that has been rebuilt season on season with £30m-plus spent last summer alone.

"But even though it's very different, it's also the same club," he says, his middle son part of the club's academy.

"I've been fortunate enough to go back now and then and you see some of the same faces, good people, people who gave up their time for free to keep the club afloat.

"It's a global brand, but the football club is still at the heart of it. It's kept its soul."

Rutherford is well qualified to judge. Although the co-owners never reached out after his release, he was invited to sample the US adulation for his old club as part of an invitational Wrexham side in a tournament in North Carolina alongside the likes of Mark Howard, Lee Trundle and Andy Morrell.

"Honestly, it's hard to put it into words how big it's become unless you see it," he says of Wrexham's new fanbase. "It was just after the club got into League Two, and I actually said when I was out there that they would be in the Premier League in 11 years.

"I don't know why I didn't say 10, but I thought they would land in League One for a few years and then take five or six years to get out of the Championship.

"To think they could do it in four is just phenomenal. I don't want to say it would be a Hollywood story, it'll be more like something out of Football Manager."

Either way, there is a final day to script, with Rutherford a reminder that not every ending is a happy one.

"It's bittersweet that we couldn't get that promotion to the league and what happened, but I can look back now and say I was one of those who played a small part in the story and be proud of that," he says.

"It was difficult at the time but hindsight gives you that context and I hope people keep that context if it doesn't happen this time.

"It would only be a tiny applying of the brakes on an unbelievable journey – they're still on their way."

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