Football News: Review Of The Day 15th May 2019

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Review of the Day

Contracts

Fortuna Dusseldorf have given veteran German goalkeeper Michael Rensing a one year contract extension.

Dunfermline Athletic duo Ryan Scully and Lewis Martin have signed new one year deals with the Scottish club. Goalkeeper Scully also has an option for a further year.

Cumbrian side Carlisle United have handed goalkeeper Louis Gray a new one year deal.

Transfers

QPR are to release a number of players in the summer. Defenders Alex Baptiste, Jake Bidwell and Joel Lynch and midfielders Jordan Cousins and Pawel Wszolek will all be searching for new clubs.

Blackpool forward Chris Long has been released.

Celta de Vigo have released Serbian midfielder Nemanja Radoja.

Alex Remiro is being released by Athletic Bilbao.

Another player who is to be released is Spanish right winger Jason who is leaving Levante.

Fulham loan flop Luciano Vietto is joining Sporting Clube de Portugal for just under £7m from Atletico Madrid.

PSV Eindhoven are releasing German defender Daniel Schwaab.

One-time Manchester United transfer target Adem Ljajic is joining Besiktas from Torino for less than £6m.

Millwall have signed centre-back Alex Pearce, who is joining from Derby County. Pearce had been on loan with Millwall since January.

Partick Thistle full-back Christie Elliott has signed for Carlisle United on a one-year deal with a further one-year option.

Striker Jason Cowley has made the step up from non-league football with Bromsgrove Sporting to sign for Stevenage.

Oxford United defender Charlie Raglan has made his loan move to Cheltenham Town permanent.

Antoine Griezmann has once more done a video to announce his decision over his future. The Atleti striker has this time announced he is leaving Madrid despite signing a 5 year contract last June.

Trotters Set Up Food Bank For Their Staff

Bolton Wanderers have set up an emergency food bank with donations from local businesses to help out their staff who have not been paid. The club have entered administration with staff unpaid for April. Club chaplain Phil Mason said: "We're grateful for the support. Often there is this perception that within football, people are paid a king's ransom, but of course the reality is that a lot of staff behind the scenes are on significantly low wages. They've got mortgages or rent to pay, they may have something coming up within their family and they've got food to put on the table as well as get to and from work." Mason also revealed that a Championship club had helped out: "It's tremendous that we've had support from a Championship club. They have donated a significant amount in terms of Asda and Sainsbury's vouchers so we can use those in order to get additional provisions for the food supplies that we're offering to staff."

Flanagan Charged

Rangers defender Jon Flanagan has been charged with elbowing Celtic captain Scott Brown in the Old Firm derby on Sunday. The former Liverpool man was booked for the offence at the time but it was cited by the compliance officer after being highlighted in the media and a 3-man panel decided that it should have been a red-card offence instead. Rangers have said they will "vigorously defend" their player and a spokesperson for the club told the Press Association that they felt their players were being treated differently to others after Celtic player Jozo Simunovic escaped punishment for a similar incident involving Rangers forward Jermain Defoe: "We cannot understand how these two incidents could be studied yet only one be considered worthy of punishment. It seems as if Rangers' players are being held to a different code of conduct from players at other clubs."

Stags Change Manager

After failing to win promotion through the League Two play-offs Mansfield Town have sacked manager David Flitcroft and replaced him with academy boss John Dempster. Mansfield dropped out of the automatic promotion places on the final day of the season and chairman John Radford said: "The decision has been made with the best interests of Mansfield Town Football Club in mind. Despite a season of progress, we were unable to fulfil our primary objective of earning promotion to League One, despite having a number of games to achieve this ambition. We thank David and his staff for their tireless endeavours and part ways amicably. David and his staff have been highly professional throughout their tenures and we wish them genuine success in the future." Bizarre decision to sack a manager who is making progress!

Swans Reject Approach For Potter

Swansea City have rejected an approach from Brighton & Hove Albion for their manager Graham Potter. The Seagulls are searching for a new man to take charge after they sacked Chris Hughton following a poor run of results in the Premier League. Potter only joined Swans from Ostersunds Fk in June and signed a 3 year deal at the Welsh club.

Kokorin To Get Medal

Despite being jailed, Russian international Aleksandr Kokorin is to receive a league winners' medal from Zenit St Petersburg. Kokorin was jailed for 18 months for assaulting a government official and has been in custody since October and only played 3 times for Zenit in the league campaign. Zenit club president Aleksandr Medvedev said: "I think we will wait so that he can receive it personally. I think that the medal should find its way to the player after he is out." You would think that they won the league despite him, rather than because of him, so it does seem an odd decision.

Bilic Throws Hat In The Ring

Slaven Bilic has expressed an interest in the Celtic job. The Croatian has been out of work since leaving Saudi Premier League side Al-Ittihad in February and was recently linked with the Scotland job but has made it plain he favours a more hands-on role.

Serie A Fails To Act On Racism

Once again Serie A has shown what a mess it is after they called Cagliari fans' racist abuse of Juventus forward Moise Kean "reprehensible" but have decided not to sanction Cagliari in any way at all. Serie A said: "It emerged the chants in question, although certainly reprehensible, had an objectively limited relevance to race." Cagliari fans have a history of racist abuse, with another Juventus player Blaise Matuidi suffering at their hands the previous season. I suppose at least Serie A at least handled the situation better than Juve manager Massimiliano Allegri and defender Leonardo Bonucci who said Keane should take some of the blame for being racially abused for celebrating his goal!

Wilder Gets Award Double

Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder has picked up an awards double after winning LMA manager of the year and Championship manager of the year thanks to leading Sheffield United to automatic promotion. Wilder beat Premier League winning Manchester City's Pep Guardiola, runners-up Liverpool's Jurgen Klopp and Championship winner Norwich City's Daniel Farke to the LMA prize. Guardiola did pick up Premier League manager of the year, beating Klopp once more to it. Luton Town manager Mick Harford won the League One award and Lincoln City's Daniel Cowley the League Two award.

Written by Tris Burke May 15 2019 06:31:27