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• Lawrence Shankland earns Scotland call ahead of June double-header

  Hearts striker Lawrence Shankland and his Hibernian counterpart Kevin Nisbet have both been included in the Scotland squad for the next month’s Euro 2024 qualifiers against Norway and Georgia.

  The Edinburgh-based pair take the places of Stoke’s Jacob Brown, who missed the end of the Championship season with a hamstring issue, and Southampton forward Che Adams, who recently suffered a recurrence of the ankle injury he sustained in Scotland’s win over Cyprus.

  Shankland, who previously made four appearances in 2019 and 2020, was called back into the fold for the Spain game in March and he has kept his place at the end of a season in which he has scored 28 goals for Hearts.

  Nisbet, who won all of his 10 caps in 2021, is recalled for the first time since damaging his anterior cruciate ligament in February 2022. The 26-year-old has scored 12 goals for Hibs since returning to action in December.

  Rangers defender John Souttar is recalled after missing much of the season through injury. The 26-year-old, who has not played for the national team since last summer’s Nations League defeat in Ireland, takes the place of Norwich City centre-back Grant Hanley, who has been sidelined with an Achilles problem since early April.

  Blackburn centre-back Dom Hyam has retained his place after earning a late call-up for the last camp in March, while Steve Clarke has opted for consistency in the goalkeeping department with Angus Gunn, Zander Clark and Liam Kelly again called up in the absence of Craig Gordon, who remains sidelined as he tries to fight back from a double leg-break sustained on Christmas Eve.

  Scotland, who are top of Group A with two wins from their two games so far, face Norway in Oslo on Saturday, June 17 before welcoming Georgia to Hampden three days later.

• Leeds squad not good enough to stay in Premier League – Sam Allardyce

  Leeds manager Sam Allardyce said the club’s players had not been good enough after Sunday’s 4-1 home defeat to Tottenham sealed Premier League relegation.

  Allardyce had been Leeds’ last throw of the dice with four games remaining, but after three defeats and a draw the 68-year-old was unable to mask the club’s systemic failings and save them.

  He said: “Most of it comes down to how good are your players? These players have tried very hard while I’ve been here and I can’t fault their effort.

  “But as a squad, they haven’t been good enough by the fact that they’re in the bottom three in the Premier League.

  “I would have hoped I could have got a little bit more out of them, so I take responsibility for that.

  “But it’s a tough old world when things start failing and when they start failing and confidence starts going then it’s very difficult to claw it back and we’ve been unable to do that.”

  Leeds’ three-year stay in the top flight is over and Allardyce made it clear poor player recruitment had been the biggest factor in their demise.

  “General recruitment is the number one factor for any manager or any coach or any head coach or any club to be successful,” he said.

  “Without top-level recruitment, a manager and a coach and the staff are only as good as the players they have available and their ability.

  “Actual quality is all about recruitment because better players and more intelligent players make you a better coach, make everybody at the club better, make it a happy club going forward.”

  Leeds’ ultra-slim hopes of avoiding the drop on the final day appeared dashed in the only the second minute against Tottenham when Harry Kane fired the visitors into an early lead.

  The Elland Road faithful responded with raucous defiance and that quickly turned to anger as they vented their fury at the Leeds board.

  Leeds wasted several first-half chances and were duly punished – as they have been all season – when Pedro Porro put Tottenham 2-0 up with a brilliant angled finish two minutes into the second half.

  Jack Harrison reduced the deficit, only for Kane to curl home his 30th league goal of the season two minutes later.

  Tottenham substitute Lucas Moura then compounded Leeds’ misery when he waltzed through to add a fourth in stoppage time.

  Leeds fans chanted ‘sack the board’ and called on chairman Andrea Radrizzani to sell his majority stake in the club to American co-owners 49ers Enterprises.

  The financial arm of NFL franchise the San Francisco 49ers holds a 44 per cent stake with a deal in place to buy the remaining shares before January 2024.

  But that was contingent on Leeds being in the top flight and relegation has muddied the waters.

  Allardyce urged the club to quickly resolve their ownership issue, but it remains to be seen who will be in control as they bid to bounce straight back from the Sky Bet Championship.

  “I haven’t said I’m staying yet so there’s a lot of discussion that needs (to be had) both ways on what’s going to happen,” Allardyce added.

  “Whether that’s me or whoever that might be if it’s not me. I’m not committing myself to say I am or not staying just yet.”

• Alan Stubbs demands change ‘from boardroom down’ despite Everton escape

  Former Everton captain Alan Stubbs says he was left feeling both relief and anger after the club secured Premier League survival on Sunday and has called for “major changes from boardroom level down.”

  The final day of the season saw the Toffees claim the victory they needed for safety as Abdoulaye Doucoure’s stunning 57th-minute strike sealed a 1-0 win over Bournemouth and Leicester and Leeds were relegated.

  Stubbs told BBC Radio 5 Live: “There are two (feelings) – one is relief and the other is anger.

  “It was a horrible 90 minutes as an Everton fan, watching that and the emotions you were going through. The players did really well – to play under that pressure, it’s not easy and the manager (Sean Dyche) deserves a lot of credit as well.

  “But now…Everton need to make some major, major changes from boardroom level down. It’s got to happen.”

  Regarding Everton owner Farhad Moshiri, Stubbs added: “I have to applaud him in terms of he’s invested in the club, but he’s been really poorly advised by people on the board and probably people he’s trusted in as well, and he has to take a step aside because he’s not a football person so he shouldn’t be getting involved in any football decisions.

  “That’s got to be left to people and trust them to do the job, and if he doesn’t trust them they shouldn’t be there in the first place.

  “(Chairman) Bill Kenwright, (chief executive) Denise Barrett-Baxendale, thanks very much but it’s time to go because you’ve failed this football club, on and off the pitch, and the owner has to make those decisions, because if he doesn’t, the animosity among the fanbase… they’ve had enough.

  “This is where everyone’s waiting with bated breath, to see what the next steps are. I’d be surprised if there’s nothing coming from Everton today in terms of resignations. Everton is broken, and it can be fixed but there has to be major changes for that to happen.”

  Leicester went down despite concluding their campaign with a 2-1 home win over West Ham.

  Former Foxes skipper Steve Walsh told Sky Sports it had been a “sad day”, adding: “It really hurts, it does.

  “The alarm bells were ringing after 10 games, we were in a bit of trouble, so you sensed something could happen, but you never believed it would because of the quality that was in the squad.

  “These owners have won so much. Hopefully we can bounce straight back, but there’s a lot of hard work behind the scenes that has to be done and the club know that.”