Football News: Review Of The Day 26th November 2022

Review of the Day

Contracts

Manchester City's head coach Pep Guardiola has extended his contract with the English champions by a further 2 years to run until 2025. Guardiola has won 11 trophies during his 6 years with Man City, only needing to spend £1.2bn to do so.

Liverpool have given Curtis Jones a new contract which will expire in 2027.

Veteran Birmingham City goalkeeper John Ruddy has signed a contract extension which runs until 2024.

Trevoh Chalobah has signed a new deal with Chelsea which runs until 2028.

VfL Bochum midfielder Patrick Osterhage has extended his deal until 2026.

Lazio full-back Manuel Lazzari is now tied to the Rome club until 2027.

Transfers

Cristiano Ronaldo has left Manchester United by mutual consent. The 37-year-old left after giving an interview where he hit out at Old Trafford head coach Erik ten Hag and his predecessor Ralf Rangnick.

Celtic have agreed to sign Japanese defender Yuki Kobayashi from Vissel Kobe. The 22-year-old will join the squad on 1st December but cannot be registered to play competitive football until January.

Shamrock Rovers full-back Andy Lyons will sign for Blackpool in January.

Free agent former Aberdeen midfielder Dylan McGeouch has signed for Forest Green Rovers on a deal that runs until the end of the season.

Gillingham have signed free agent winger Callum Harriott.

Hartlepool United have added free agent Christopher Missilou to their ranks on a short-term deal.

Houston Dynamo have paid £290,000 to fellow Major League Soccer side Columbus Crew for Brazilian midfielder Artur.

San Jose Earthquakes have drafted Michael Baldisimo from Vancouver Whitecaps.

Also in the MLS DC United have signed veteran winger Pedro Santos on a free transfer from Columbus Crew.

Former Leeds United striker Lee Erwin has signed for Lebanese Premier League side Al-Ahed on a free transfer from FC Haka in Finland's Veikkausliga.

Austin FC have drafted Sofiane Djeffal from DC United.

Toronto FC winger Jacob Shaffelburg has signed for Nashville SC for a fee of £300,000.

Eintracht Frankfurt have signed teenage midfielder Paxten Aaronson from Philadelphia Union for around £4m.

Anton Tinnerholm has returned to Malmo FF on a free transfer from New York City FC, the club he left to join NYCFC in 2018.

Injury Round Up

France's Bayern Munich left-back Lucas Hernandez has been ruled out of the rest of the World Cup due to the knee injury he sustained against Australia.

Swansea City midfielder Joe Allen is back in full training for Wales.

Bayern Munich's former Liverpool winger Sadio Mane has undergone surgery on the knee injury that has ruled him out of the Senegal World Cup squad. The 30 year old needed to attach a tendon to the head of his right fibula.

Borussia Dortmund forward Sebastien Haller is to have further surgery as part of his continued treatment for testicular cancer.

The injury which ruled Australia winger Martin Boyle out of the World Cup has led to the 29-year-old missing the rest of the season. Hibernian have stated that scans on the injury discovered "a pre-existing ruptured anterior cruciate ligament" and he has had surgery to fix it.

A heavy challenge by Serbia's Nikola Milenkovic has caused ligament damage in Brazil's Paris Saint-Germain forward Neymar's right ankle. The 30 year old will miss two games due to the knock. Brazil right-back Danilo has also been ruled out for the next two games with a similar injury.

Job Changes

Rangers have sacked their head coach and former player Giovanni van Bronckhorst after a year in charge. Rangers are currently 9 points behind Celtic in the SPFL after recording the worst ever group stage campaign results in the Champions League.

Luton Town have appointed Rob Edwards as the replacement for Nathan Jones, who took over at Southampton. Edwards had a short spell of 11 games in charge at Watford before being sacked in September.

Paul Winstanley has left Brighton & Hove Albion to take up the position of Director of Global Talent and Transfers at Chelsea. Winstanley had been with Brighton for 8 years, ending his time there as Head of Recruitment.

Wolverhampton Wanderers have sacked Sporting Director Scott Sellars and replaced him by promoting their Chief Scout and Head of Recruitment Matt Hobbs to take his place.

There will be a number of changes at Liverpool in the summer with Michael Gordon, described by Jurgen Klopp as "the brain behind all the things" at the club, Director of Research Ian Graham and Sporting Director Julian Ward all set to leave the club. Graham actually handed in his notice back in June but it was only revealed alongside the news of Ward going.

Chelsea's Head Physio Thierry Laurent and Medical Director Paco Biosca have both left the club. Steve Hughes is filling in as Head Physio, while Dimitrios is interim Head of Medical. Neil Bath has been promoted to Director of Football Development and Operations. Bath will continue to run the club's academy, as he has done for the last 18 years, where they have risen up to become one of the best academy set-ups in European football.

Disciplinary Charges

After FIFA threatened players with a booking if they wore 'One Love' armbands in support of LGBTQ+ rights at the World Cup, the German team covered their mouths during the team photograph. Germany's head coach Hansi Flick said: "It was a sign, a message that we wanted to send out. We wanted to convey the message that Fifa is silencing us." Germany's FA, the DFB, wrote on social media: "It wasn't about making a political statement. Human rights are non-negotiable. That should be taken for granted, but it still isn't the case. That's why this message is so important to us. Denying us the armband is the same as denying us a voice. We stand by our position." The DFB are now investigating whether FIFA's threat of sanctions to players for wearing the armband is legal: "Fifa has forbidden us from using a symbol of diversity and human rights. They combined this with massive threats of sporting sanctions without specifying them. The DFB is checking whether this action by Fifa was legal."

Free agent Portugese forward Cristiano Ronaldo has been handed a 2-game ban for domestic matches for knocking the phone out of an Everton fan's hand while he was still playing for Manchester United. He will also pay a fine of £50,000.

Manchester United forward Mason Greenwood will stand trial in November 2023 on charges of attempted rape, assault and controlling and coercive behaviour.

Brentford striker Ivan Toney has been charged by the FA with 232 breaches of betting rules between 25 February 2017 and 23 January 2021.

Robert Lewandowski has been banned for three Barcelona matches following his red card against Osasuna. Barca defender Gerard Pique has also got a four game ban for the same match, despite retiring.

Plymouth Argyle boss Steven Schumacher has been handed a 1-game touchline ban after he admitted verbally abusing a match official. He was also fined £1,000 for the incident following a League One game against Burton Albion.

Shrewsbury Town and Barnsley have been fined £6,000 each by the FA after a fracas between the two sets of players near the end of their League One match.

Another fracas between League One teams has seen Forest Green Rovers and Wycombe Wanderers both pick up a £4,500 fine.

Charlton Athletic's Jayden Stockley has received a 3-game ban for violent conduct during the League One game at Port Vale. The match officials missed the incident in the 22nd minute but video footage captured the moment.

Pointless List Of The Day

Clubs Up For Sale

It seems to be a time for English clubs to come up for sale as both Manchester United and Liverpool have been put up for sale, sort of. Both the Glazer family and FSG, who own the two clubs, have put out statements saying that they are exploring a potential sale of the club. The Glazers stated that they are looking at all options in order to fund the stadium and infrastructure redevelopment that they have failed to invest in throughout their leadership. That "will include an assessment of several initiatives to strengthen the club, including stadium and infrastructure redevelopment, and expansion of the club's commercial operations on a global scale" which also refers to getting investors in. FSG stated similar earlier in the week as both set so of owners seemingly feel that the clubs will offer diminishing returns on investment without a European Super League in prospect.

While those two giants are up for grabs, Doug King has stepped in to buy a majority stake in Coventry City. The local businessman has bought an 85% stake in the club but failed in a late bid to buy the stadium as well from administrators. Instead former Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley's Frasers Group stepped in to buy the CBS Arena, leaving Coventry in a similarly difficult position as the one that has seen them spend a number of seasons playing home games at Northampton in 2013 and then using Birmingham City's stadium for two seasons more recently, only returning to Coventry in 2021.

United In Profit But City Report Losses

Dundee United have revealed a £300,000 profit for the 2021/22 season. The previous season the Tannadice club lost £2.5m, with wages-to-turnover ratio reaching 132%. This season their turnover had doubled and, despite an 18% rise in wages to £5.9m, the ratio dropped to a more manageable 71%. The turnover did also benefit from a £600,000 Covid insurance payout and a £100,000 Scottish government grant, but it was the sales of Lawrence Shankland to Germinal Beerschot and Kerr Smith to Aston Villa that were key to the profit.

English Championship club Bristol City have reported a pre-tax loss of £28.5m, an improvement of nearly £10m on the previous season. The club's owner Steve Lansdown put in £15.3m last year to keep the club going, despite the Robins making a £1.3m profit on players sales and reducing wages by £5m. The club has lost nearly £200m since Lansdown bought it over 20 years ago, becoming heavily reliant on the billionaire's money to stay solvent.

Written by Tris Burke November 26 2022 10:19:56