Image source, Reuters

West Ham manager Sam Allardyce was asked at his news conference about how he copes with speculation over his future at the club.

"The same way I deal with most things in the game, I don't listen to it," he said.

"It's not my desire to listen to praise or criticism. I like to be professional and work with the people within the football club to try and get the best out of them. I hear things but I don't take any notice of it.

"There was speculation last season same as this season, I think there always will be. It seems to me it occurs if and when you get a bad result."

Stoke City manager Mark Hughes has been giving his views on Ex-Portugal international Luis Figo, who is aiming to become the next Fifa president and who announced his election 'manifesto' at Wembley earlier this week.

"It certainly got people talking and I'm sure that's why he has said his ideas," says Hughes. "Some of his ideas were interesting, some were not.

"He has a lot of support from celebrities backing him and some high-profile footballers have aligned themselves with him. His standing as a footballer is without question."

Image source, @Nico Rosberg

Nico Rosberg has posted a message on twitter, external to announce that wife Vivian is expecting their first child later this year.

He wrote: "Exciting time for our little family. Vivian is pregnant and if all goes well we will get a little baby girl in August." The 29-year-old Mercedes driver married his childhood sweetheart in a lavish ceremony in Monaco last July.

Ipswich Town have signed Blackburn Rovers striker Luke Varney on loan until the end of the season.

The 32-year-old has not made a Championship start since joining Rovers permanently in the summer, but has played 11 times from the bench.

He comes in as potential cover for Noel Hunt, also 32, who could miss the rest of the season with a medial ligament injury.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has said the racist incident on the Paris Metro involving Chelsea fans was "pathetic and dreadful."

Three Chelsea supporters could face life bans from football after a black commuter was blocked from entering a train by what appeared to be a group of fans travelling to the Parc des Princes for the Champions League match against Paris St-ermain.

"You have to be extremely severe with any incident of that calibre," said Wenger. "It looked pathetic and dreadful. Unfortunately we always have a recurrence of that."

Asked where the problem lies, the Arsenal manager replied: "(It is) society's problem. More intelligent people than myself think about that and nobody has found a miraculous solution, it certainly starts from childhood education and an open-minded attitude."

Image source, Getty Images

Commonwealth Games gold medal winner gymnast and two-time Olympic gymnast Hannah Whelan has announced her retirement from the sport.

The 22-year-old helped guide the GB team to European silver and Commonwealth gold in 2014 as well as sixth place at the World Championships.

"I know I'm now ready to stop competing," she said. "To achieve what we did as a team last year made that decision worthwhile. I'm definitely leaving the sport on a high and I'm so proud to have been a part of helping get the British team to where we are today."

Image source, Daily Record

Celtic striker John Guidetti scored a stunning last-gasp volley to give the Scottish champions a 3-3 draw against Inter Milan in the Europa League at Celtic Park.

In the Daily Record he dedicated his leveller to goalkeeper Craig Gordon, who was at fault for two of the Italian side's goals, but has generally had an outstanding season. Guidetti claimed: "He's an amazing, amazing, amazing keeper".

Speaking of that Mario Balotelli penalty incident, Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel says the identity of their penalty taker against Besiktas mattered less than the fact it was scored to secure a Europa League victory.

Balotelli scored from the spot in the 85th minute for a 1-0 win but only after he took the ball from the designated penalty taker Jordan Henderson.

"The main thing is we scored," said Skrtel. "It doesn't matter who scored the penalty, we scored it and won the game. It was key that we won and it's a good thing that we didn't concede."

Image source, BBC Sport

Here's a few video clips to enjoy.

Cycling: Russia's Anastasia Voynova wins the 500m time trial in 33.149 seconds at the World Track Championships in Paris - and then crashes into a photographer.

Football: Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard says Mario Balotelli showed vice-captain Jordan Henderson "disrespect" in the Reds' Europa league tie with Besiktas.

Football: Portuguese great Luis Figo plans to expand the World Cup format and return money to individual football associations as he launches his Fifa presidency manifesto at Wembley.

Cricket: BBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew describes England's humiliating defeat by New Zealand at the Cricket World Cup was "one of the most one-sided international matches" he has ever seen.

Boxing: Amir Khan says he believes the proposed 'super-fight' between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao will happen, meaning he will face an all-British bout with Kell Brook later in the year.

Image source, AFP

And so it goes on. More comments from you on England's capitulation against New Zealand in the World Cup.

laughingdevil: "Moores needs to take a leaf from Swann's book - and retire from cricket mid-series."

Image source, Getty Images

1963Tiger: "Peace in the locker room. Rubbish on the pitch. Bring back Kevin Pietersen."

Analyst: "I am an Indian but still wish to have a player like KP in our national team. It was a treat for the eyes the way he bats. He still continues to be one of the expensive IPL players. Only England can afford to keep him out of the team. I wish to see that switch hit again."

Image source, Daily Mirror back page

In today's Daily Mirror Romelu Lukaku is pictured being embraced by Everton team-mate Steven Naismith after the £28m summer signing from Chelsea scored a hat-trick in a 4-1 Europa League win against Swiss side Young Boys in Berne last night. It was all smiles just days after he appeared to cast doubt on his Everton future after saying he wanted to play for "a top club."

Image source, Daily Mirror

Elsewhere, the Mirror reports that the net is closing in on the so-called Chelsea fans who allegedly shouted racist abuse on the Paris Metro on Wednesday and inside Liverpool's Mario Balotelli saved the day with a late penalty to beat Turkish side Besiktas 1-0 in the Europa League at Anfield.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport chief F1 writer

"Last night, there was doubt about whether Nico Rosberg would take part in today's testing in Barcelona because he had an inflamed nerve in his neck, which prevented him taking over from the ill Lewis Hamilton on Thursday.

Image source, Getty Images

"But it can't be troubling Rosberg too much. Two-and-a-half hours into the session and he had already done 36 laps in the Mercedes, and set fastest time in a 1:25.556."

There's another one of those 'arty' pictures we warned you about.

Image source, Guardian

Liverpool's Mario Balotelli grabs the headlines in the Guardian, but under-fire Sunderland boss Gus Poyet also features having taken the unusual step of writing an open letter to Wearsiders fans in the wake of their FA Cup exit to League One giant-killers Bradford City. Poyet is pleading for their support in the Premier League game against West Brom at the Stadium of Light on Saturday.

He said he could go on (see 10:26) and Geoffrey Boycott did just that.

Image source, AFP

"We've had an interminably eventful few months with things going on," he adds. "What have New Zealand been doing? They've had a settled side, good leadership and winning Test and ODIs, while we don't know our best batting line-up.

"England are not out of the World Cup. They have to beat Scotland, Bangladesh and Afghanistan and then they're through to quarter-finals. It's a good job they've got minnows to play because they are not playing good enough to beat any decent team. I will be a bit nervous on Monday for the Scotland game.

"Coach Peter Moores is under pressure. I thought him an unusual choice because he had no real international experience. I think it helps to have played the game at international level. They are all under pressure, the captain and the coach. You have got to get wins under your belt."

As you could probably guess, Geoffrey Boycott was not too impressed by England's performance in their eight-wicket defeat by New Zealand.

Image source, AFP

The former England opener tells BBC Radio 5 live: "This was not an uncovered or grassy pitch seaming all over the place. This was a flat 270-pitch minimum and they made a right mess of it.

"Perhaps they are not as good as they think they are. I said that about the captain Morgan and everybody went mad, but maybe England aren't either.

"They have got a lot of hard work to do. They were supposed to be planning for the World Cup for a year, but lost Jonathan Trott, a solid number three, sacked Kevin Pietersen and went on too long with Alastair Cook as captain. I could go on."

Unsurprisingly, West Ham manager Sam Allardyce is relishing the prospect of Sunday's London derby against Spurs.

"Everyone knows about the importance of West Ham v Tottenham games," he said.

"The 3-0 win away last year was the one of the best results in my time here.

"It's a massive game for us, we all know that. We have to convert more draws into wins. That's the reality if we want to get into Europe, which I think we are capable of."

Image source, The Sun

The Sun claims that stewards had to use umbrellas to shelter Everton's John Stones after he was pelted by missiles following his sending-off against Young Boys in the 4-1 Europa League win in Berne last night.

Inside, striker Mario Balotelli might have courted controversy by wrestling the ball off stand-in skipper Jordan Henderson, but the paper claims his late penalty to beat Besiktas might have kick-started his Liverpool career.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport chief F1 writer

"Despite running a Honda engine being limited by a part the team know might break, and despite apparently doing set-up work, McLaren's Fernando Alonso was, as of 10:10 GMT, second quickest overall on a time of one minute 26.741 seconds.

Image source, AFP

"Only Sergio Perez's 2014 Force India was faster. Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull and Nico Rosberg's Mercedes were next up."

Image source, Getty Images

Stoke manager Mark Hughes is refusing to use injuries as an reason for their FA Cup exit at the hands of Blackburn Rovers.

"We have been hampered and we have had to change things around. At the end of the day the team that performed so well against Manchester City for 60 minutes was the same team that started against Blackburn," he said ahead of their Premier League trip to Aston Villa.

"We don't want to use injuries as an excuse. We know we should have done better and hopefully this weekend the lads will be back to the levels they know they are capable of.

"We are not a million miles away from where we wanted to be in the league. We want to better last season's total and have a strong finish. We can beat last season's tally - there is no doubt about that, but we know we have to improve if we are to do that."

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport chief F1 writer

"It's always important to delve behind the headline times in testing, to try to spot the real story of who is where in terms of competitiveness.

"On Thursday, on the final times, Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen was 0.156 seconds behind Lotus's Pastor Maldonado and 0.38secs quicker than Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo while running a tyre that was 1.2secs slower.

"That suggests the Ferrari is 1.5secs quicker than a Red Bull. Which surely can't be true. Fuel loads must be playing a part in those figures. But, average out the times over the day - which is a crude way of ironing out some of the anomalies - and Raikkonen was actually 0.331secs slower than Ricciardo. This is hardly an exact science, though."