England and Lancashire County legend Jimmy Anderson has officially called time on his international career after retiring from Test cricket on Friday afternoon, and there was barely a dry eye in sight as he bid goodbye at Lord’s.
Anderson announced his retirement from England back in May and has now played his farewell game for his country, as well as claiming his final wicket with a win over the West Indies on the last day of the first Test. An era really has come to an end.
Helping thrash the Windies by innings and 114 runs, the 41-year-old Burnley-born bowler finished on 704 Test wickets in 188 matches over the course of 21 years – and it could have even been a nice round 705 had he not spilt a very simple catch.
Regardless, it was a humorous way to put a bow out following one of the most revered careers in English cricket, and today was only ever about saying goodbye as the heartwarming guard of honour he received before the game.
Admitting that he had already “come to peace” with retirement and that now is the right time to step aside and play his part as England ushers in the next generation, Jimmy has already joked that he’s looking forward to playing some more golf.
However, thankfully, it isn’t ta-ra forever as the national team and LCCC veteran has already confirmed he will soon join the backroom staff to help develop future fast bowlers.
Anderson is also yet to confirm whether he will retire full stop and end his time at Lancashire, with head coach Dale Benkenstein stating that currently “it’s not a no” and they will simply do their best not to pressure him into making the decision either way.
The embrace between him and long-time teammate, not to mention, best mate Stuart Broad was also one that had people in the ground and watching at home welling up.
As did this moving montage.
Congratulations on an unbelievable career and thank you for the memories. 🥹👏
With fans looking back on his truly remarkable tenure, one particular statistic we loved was shared by BBC’s Henry Moeran, who broke down that “supposing Jimmy Anderson’s run-up is about 19 yards, and he’s bowled 40,002 deliveries in Tests… that’s 760,038 yards or 430 miles”.
As he added, by chance, this just so happens to be “the distance on foot to walk from the Utilita Bowl [in Southampton] to Chester-le-Street [Durham] via every Test venue in England.”
Fair to say he’s put in the hard yards of the best two decades.
Anderson was ultimately met with a standing ovation not only from everyone in the dressing at Lord’s but the entire cricket ground itself as he savoured his final moments in England whites.
We’re not crying, you are…
Jimmy's family and the whole of Lord's rise to applaud a true legend of the game 🥰
As the man himself has already reiterated, he feels as good bowling as he has ever done, so we’re still holding on to the hope that this isn’t the last dance altogether, and even if a dream return to England one day is off the table at this point, he can still shine for Lancs with the likes of 2024 T20 Blast ongoing.
But for now, we bid Jimmy Anderson a heartfelt farewell and congratulate him on all of his incredible achievements playing for England – we hope he enjoys a little more downtime from here on out.
Naturally, he signed off in the best way he knew how…
See you later, legend, and we’ll cheers one to you at the pub later on.
Featured Images — England Cricket (via Instagram)/Sky Sports (via screenshot)
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Pep Guardiola hints at when Manchester City fans can expect to see their latest arrival
Danny Jones
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has given supporters a rough timeline as to when they can expect to see their new signing, or at least their latest arrival, make his first appearance.
The Blues wrapped up the January transfer window with four major signings: their new attacking number seven, Omar Marmoush (who has already bagged a hattrick on his home debut) promising defensive duo, Abdukodir Khusanov and Brazilian Vitor Reis, as well as their ‘mini-Rodri’, Nico Gonzalez.
However, the club has had another late arrival who was technically signed back at the start of last year but who has spent for the last 12 months or so loaned back to his previous parent club, River Plate in Argentina, waiting to make the move over to the Etihad Stadium – and now he’s here in Manchester.
Speaking on his touchdown in 0161, Pep said Claudio Echeverri won’t be thrown into first-team action straight away but did give a rough estimate as to when City fans could expect him to get involved. You can see him discussing the integration plan in his post-match press conference following the Spurs win.
The mention was only brief but there’s still plenty of reason for Man City fans to be excited by the late January signing.
“Yeah, he [Claudio Echeverri] is going to start to train and mainly will be for the end of the season, maybe the [Club] World Cup and as soon as possible [that] he arrives he can adapt quick for the future.”
As mentioned, the 19-year-old Argentinian attacking midfielder from Resistencia officially put pen to paper with CFG back in January 2024 and was quickly dubbed ‘the next Messi’.
Now, although the football world is often quick to jump the gun with these things and he isn’t the first and certainly won’t be last to be slapped with this premature title, he’s done more to back up these claims since then than he has rubbish them.
Starring at the 2025 Under-20 South American Championships, netting six goals in nine games to finish the tournament as the second highest scorer thanks to notable braces against Brazil and Uruguay as the young Argentine’s finished as runners up.
He also notched 48 senior appearances for River Plate thus far, netting four goals and grabbing eight assists in that time, not to mention having already captained his national team at the 2023 Under 17s World Cup, where he scored another five.
Safe to say there’s plenty of talent to be tapped in this lad.
Once again, Echeverri won’t go straight into the senior set-up for a little while yet, barring a major injury crisis, but he’ll be a more than exciting addition to the City Football Academy and for future first-team lineups for years to come.
Who knows, maybe he’ll be included in an FA Cup matchday squad? Nevertheless, you can expect him to not just come of the bench but hopefully show what he can do at the Club World Cup this summer.
City‘s first fixture as reigning champions of the competition will be against Moroccan side Wydad AC on 18 June 2025.
You can watch Echeverri’s first full interview as a Man City player down below:
The new Man City signing is excited to be finally be part of the club 13 months on from agreeing his contract.
‘Nothing is eternal’: Is Pep Guardiola hinting at the end of Manchester City’s supremacy?
Danny Jones
Pep Guardiola looks to have suggested that more than a decade of Manchester City’s supremacy and Premier League dominance at the very least might be coming to an end.
Speaking in his post-match press interviews after City were knocked out of the Champions League by serial European Cup winners Real Madrid, Guardiola cut a somewhat more deflated figure than usual following the 3-1 defeat.
A Kylian Mbappe hattrick which was closed out within an hour of play was enough to stretch the aggregate score to 6-3 over the two legs and Madrid doubling their lead across the tie proved yet again why, not unlike City domestically over the last decade, they’re the kings of the continental competition.
In contrast, however, Pep seemed to accept the loss much more easily than perhaps we’ve seen in the past and rather than appearing familiarly frustrated or defiant in the press conference; instead, he seemed rather reflective, responding to one reporter: “Nothing is eternal”.
🗣️ "Nothing is eternal" – Pep Guardiola.
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Insisting that they have to decide whether a significant rebuild is needed to keep competing at the very top level consistently as they have done since the 54-year-old arrived back in 2016, he argued that it is only with that they’ll be able to determine what comes next.
As for the result itself, he made no bones about Carlo Ancelotti’s side having “deserved it”, stating simply that “the best team won” and that fans and players alike have to “accept the reality: they were better.”
Having been a familiar foe for Pep long before he arrived in Manchester, both at Barcelona and Bayern Munich – not to mention City having faced Los Blancos a dozen times before Tuesday night since 2012 – there have been less surprising outcomes for supporters to come to terms with.
“With time, the club and everyone is going to accept what it is but for now we have 30/40 games for the Premier League next season to try and be here [in the Champions League] and to improve. Nothing is eternal”, said the Catalan coaching genius.
On the other hand, he also went on to add that it was merely a reflection on the night itself and not what his team have achieved in recent years.
He went on to remark that “when we were playing outstanding it hurt more” to be knocked out of the UCL when he felt they deserved to stay in it, but still insisted: “We have been unbelievable and we have to try step by step to get better from today.” Tonight just wasn’t the night.
Who knows? Perhaps it was just some more melodrama from a manager with an undeniable flare for pageantry and playing into/in the face of narratives when he doesn’t come out on top – which hasn’t happened all that often until their dip in form this season.
Plus, there’s certainly still plenty for him and the fans to be positive about; not only has the arrival of their ‘Egyptian Prince’ and the media’s Mo Salah successor, Omar Marmoush, got plenty of people excited – especially after that first-half hattrick against Newcastle – but so too have the other January signings.
In fact, for all of his downplaying in this particular presser (which you can hear in full HERE), it felt like there were only upsides after their victory over Newcastle, even going so far as to dub new signing Nico Gonzalez a ‘mini-Rodri‘.
You can watch the highlights from the game down below:
Pep is right, nothing is eternal – but sometimes you just come up against talents like Mbappe and there’s very little anyone can do about it.
Danny Jones -
12th July 2024 
