Football News: Review Of The Day 9th September 2020

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Review of the Day

Contracts

Conor Masterson has signed a new deal with Queens Park Rangers. The 22 year old, who they signed from Liverpool, is now contracted until 2023.

Slovenian forward Nik Prelec has extended his deal with Sampdoria until 2022.

Transfers

Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder Terry Taylor has joined Grimsby Town on loan for the season. Also going out on loan from Wolves is Portugese midfielder Bruno Jordao, who is joining Portugese Liga NOS side Famalicao.

Cheltenham Town have signed Matty Blair after his release from Doncaster Rovers following a trial period.

Teenage midfielder Dylan Levitt has signed for Charlton Athletic on loan from Manchester United.

Veteran striker Danny Graham has re-signed for Sunderland after being released by Blackburn Rovers.

Manchester City defender Yeboah Amankwah has signed for Rochdale of League One on loan for the season.

Peterborough United have spent an undisclosed amount to sign Sammie Szmodics from Bristol City.

Free agent goalkeeper Jack Ruddy has signed for Plymouth Argyle after being released by Leganes.

Arsenal striker Tyreece John-Jules has signed for Doncaster Rovers on a season-long loan.

Fulham full-back Steven Sessegnon, the brother of Ryan, has joined Bristol City on loan for the season.

Spanish youngster Pipa has signed for Huddersfield Town from Espanyol for an undisclosed fee.

Queens Park Rangers goalkeeper Dillon Barnes has joined Hibernian on a season long loan deal.

Ross County have revealed that they have had more bids for 24 year old striker Ross Stewart but that they have yet to reach their valuation. Stewart has scored twice already this season and County manager Stuart Kettlewell revealed: "There's been another couple of bids for Ross. We've been pretty transparent about how we value our players and I speak to Ross's representatives on a regular basis. We are very comfortable with it and the player is comfortable with it. He's been so valuable for us and I see that continuing unless somebody meets our valuation."

Everton have completed the signing of French midfielder Abdoulaye Doucoure from Watford for a fee of around £20m.

Istanbul Basaksehir have signed former Manchester United full-back Rafael from Olympique Lyonnais on a free transfer.

Northern Ireland international left-back Jamal Lewis has signed for Newcastle United from Norwich City for just under £15m.

Former Manchester City defender Aleksandar Kolarov has signed for Inter Milan from AS Roma.

Current Manchester City left-back Angelino has returned to RB Leipzig on loan for the season. The 23 year old Spaniard spent the second half of last season there on loan.

Chelsea's Brazilian Kenedy is to stay another season on loan with Getafe.

Belgian winger Yannick Carrasco has returned to Atletico Madrid on a permanent deal from Dalian Professional. The 27 year old joined Dalian from Atleti but returned on a six-month loan for the second half of last season.

Czech striker Patrik Schick has joined Bayer Leverkusen from AS Roma after a move to RB Leipzig fell through. The 24 year old had previously been on loan with RBL and had been expected to join them permanently until they failed to reach an agreement with Roma over the transfer fee. Leverkusen have also agreed to pay the Roman club 10% of any future transfer fee received for him, as well as the nearly £24m transfer fee.

Major League Soccer team New England Revolution have traded a fourth-round draft pick in the 2021 MLS SuperDraft and a $50,000 bonus payment in General Allocation Money (whatever that is!) to bring Lee Nguyen back from Inter Miami.

VfB Stuttgart have sent Spanish right-back Pablo Maffeo on loan to SD Huesca.

Crotone have taken experienced Italian full-back Andrea Rispoli on loan from Lecce.

Teenage midfielder Alessio Riccardi has joined Pescara on loan from AS Roma.

Leaving Genoa on loan is Italian forward Nicola Dalmonte, who is joining Serie B side LR Vicenza.

Serie A side Spezia Calcio have paid just over £1m for Dutch goalkeeper Jeroen Zoet from PSV Eindhoven. Leaving Spezia is Nigerian midfielder Theophilus Awua to join Cittadella of Serie B on loan.

Udinese have signed Fernando Forestieri on a free transfer from Sheffield Wednesday.

Cagliari have taken young Italian right-back Gabriele Zappa on loan from Pescara. Leaving Cagliari on a free transfer is veteran midfielder Luca Cigarini who has joined Crotone.

Levante midfielder Pepelu has joined Vitoria Guimaraes on loan.

Real Madrid's teenage midfielder Fernando Guerrero has signed for Barakaldo on loan.

Maccabi Haifa have signed Spanish midfielder Jose Rodriguez on a free transfer from Malaga.

Hertha Berlin teenager Lazar Samardzic has signed for RB Leipzig.

Turkish Super Lig side BB Erzurumspor have signed Armando Sadiku on a free transfer from Levante.

Injury Round-Up

Roma's midfield starlet Nicolo Zaniolo has suffered a second serious knee injury. The 21 year old was playing for Italy when he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. He suffered the same injury in his right knee in January, ruling him out of action for 6 months.

Managerial Changes

Reading have added two new coaches to their backroom staff in the shape of Portugese coach Nuno Gomes and former Manchester United midfielder Quinton Fortune.

Disciplinary Charges

The English Football League has appealed against an independent disciplinary tribunal's decision to clear Derby County over breaching spending rules with its sale of Pride Park.

Two Games Given Test Green Light

Two matches in Saturday's Scottish Premiership will be played in front of fans after the Scottish government gave the go ahead for them to be test events. Aberdeen's game with Kilmarnock and Ross County's against Celtic will now be seen by up to 300 spectators each. The clubs have been tasked with ensuring the supporters are from the local area and they will have to provide a post-match report. Aberdeen's commercial director Rob Wicks said: "The message that we're getting is that it's going to be a slower build up than perhaps we've seen elsewhere. As frustrating as that might be, we'll continue to learn from the experiences. If it all goes to plan then hopefully we can scale quicker than is currently in the planning."

Vegan Footballer Buys Into Vegan Football Club

Arsenal's Spanish right-back Hector Bellerin has put his money where his mouth is and bought in to vegan football Forest Green Rovers of League Two. FGR are well known for their attempts to be as green as their name, as well as being the world's first carbon-neutral sports club they are fully vegan and the UN has recognised them as the world's most environmentally friendly team. Bellerin is well known for his green view, being a vegan himself and raising money for causes such as a plan to plant thousands of trees in the Amazon rainforest. The full-back has bought less than the threshold to be deemed a conflict of interest but has still become the club's second biggest shareholder.

PFA Awards Announced

Manchester City's midfield playmaker Kevin de Bruyne has been chosen as the Professional Footballers' Associations' Player of the Year. De Bruyne is the first player from the blue half of Manchester to win the trophy. Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold picked up the Young Player of the Year award while Manchester United's Marcus Rashford won a PFA merit award for his work during lockdown and since combating child food poverty in the UK. They also chose their teams of the year:

Premier League team of the year: Nick Pope (Burnley), Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk (both Liverpool), Caglar Soyuncu (Leicester), Andrew Robertson (Liverpool), David Silva (Manchester City), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Kevin de Bruyne (Manchester City), Jamie Vardy (Leicester), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Arsenal), Sadio Mane (Liverpool).

Championship team of the year: Brice Samba (Nottingham Forest), Luke Ayling, Ben White, Liam Cooper (all Leeds), Joe Bryan (Fulham), Eberechi Eze (QPR), Kalvin Phillips (Leeds), Romaine Sawyers (West Brom), Aleksandar Mitrovic (Fulham), Ollie Watkins, Said Benrahma (both Brentford).

League One team of the year: Marko Marosi, Fankaty Dabo (both Coventry), Michael Ihiekwe (Rotherham), Robert Dickie (Oxford), Joe Jacobsen (Wycombe), Cameron Brannagan (Oxford), Liam Walsh (Coventry), Matt Crooks (Rotherham), Armand Gnanduillet (Blackpool), Ivan Toney (Peterborough), Matt Godden (Coventry).

League Two team of the year: Alex Palmer (Plymouth), Perry Ng (Crewe), Ben Tozer (Cheltenham), Charlie Goode (Northampton), Randell Williams (Exeter), Antoni Sarcevic, Danny Mayor (both Plymouth), Nicky Adams (Northampton), Charlie Kirk (Crewe), Eoin Doyle, Jerry Yates (both Swindon).

Ronaldo Reaches Century

Portugal's legendary forward Cristiano Ronaldo has become the first European man to score 100 international goals with a free kick against Sweden. The Juventus striker is now just 8 shy of the 109 goal world record held by Iran's Ali Daei after he also added a second in the second half of the UEFA Nations League Group A3 game.

Agnelli Claims Clubs Owe Rebate

The chairman of the European Club Association Andrea Agnelli, who is also chairman of Juventus, has claimed that European clubs face having to pay a rebate of 575m euros to broadcasters of the Champions League and Europa League. Agnelli told the ECA's general assembly: "We have seen very important rebates to the principal broadcasters both at domestic level and at international level. We have seen a £330 million rebate in the Premier League, we have seen a downturn in the Bundesliga domestic rights of about €200 million and we are in the process of finalising the account with UEFA with a reduction of around €575 million for the international club competitions, and that is all money that is not going to be distributed. We (European clubs) are looking at a revenue decrease of approximately €4 billion in the next two years."

Pointless List Of The Day Number 1

As usual Transfermarkt always have a list or two to fill their pages, and why not when they have that data to make use of! So the first for today is a list of clubs with the highest transfer income since 2000 in euros:
1. Juventus 1.4bn
2. Chelsea 1.28bn
3. AS Monaco 1.18bn
4. Real Madrid 1.18bn
5. Benfica 1.17bn
6. Porto 1.17bn
7. Barcelona 1.16bn
8. Atletico Madrid 1.13bn
9. Inter Milan 1.12bn
10. AS Roma 1.04bn
11. Liverpool 1bn
12. Borussia Dortmund 855.55m
13. Tottenham Hotspur 854.58m
14. Olympique Lyonnais 839.47m
15. Sevilla 828.47m
16. Valencia 812.26m
17. Ajax 807.32m
18. AC Milan 748.95m
19. Manchester United 708.33m
20. Genoa 694.19m
21. Arsenal 678.89m
22. Lille 676.51m
23. Manchester City 651.3m
24. Parma 644.24m
25. Udinese 634.62m
26. Napoli 628.54m
27. Fiorentina 626.13m
28. Paris Saint-Germain 603.14m
29. Sporting CP 579.47m
30. Everton 569.87m
31. Lazio 568.7m
32. Southampton 568.13m
33. Villareal 557.54m
34. Bayer Leverkusen 545.94m
35. Newcastle United 533.74m
36. Atalanta 521.64m
37. West Ham United 512.39m
38. Marseille 505.43m
39. Sampdoria 490.83m
40. Bayern Munich 453.95m

CONCACAF Postpone Matches

The COnfederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football has announced that the October and November World Cup qualifiers are to be postponed until March 2021. A statement explained: "Many parts of the region continue to have very challenging public health situations, and that has been a key factor in this decision. Additionally, several countries across the confederation have travel restrictions and quarantine requirements, which would make international football involving 30 national teams extremely difficult."

Pointless List Number 2

Transfermarkt's lists go on, this time it is of the most expensive transfers each season since 2000/2001, prices in euros:
2000/01 - Luis Figo from Barcelona to Real Madrid 60m
2001/02 - Zinedine Zidane from Juventus to Real Madrid 77.5m
2002/03 - Rio Ferdinand from Leeds United to Manchester United 46m
2003/04 - David Beckham from Manchester United to Real Madrid 37.5m
2004/05 - Didier Drogba from Olympique Marseille to Chelsea 38.5m
2005/06 - Michael Essien from Olympique Lyonnais to Chelsea 38m
2006/07 - Andriy Shevchenko from AC Milan to Chelsea 43.88m
2007/08 - Fernando Torres from Atletico Madrid to Liverpool 38m
2008/09 - Robinho from Real Madrid to Manchester City 43m
2009/10 - Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United to Real Madrid 94m
2010/11 - Fernando Torres from Liverpool to Chelsea 58.5m
2011/12 - Javier Pastore from Palermo to Paris Saint-Germain 42m
2012/13 - Thiago Silva from AC Milan to Paris Saint-Germain 42m
2013/14 - Gareth Bale from Tottenham Hotspur to Real Madrid 101m
2014/15 - Luis Suarez from Liverpool to Barcelona 81.72m
2015/16 - Kevin de Bruyne from VfL Wolfsburg to Manchester City 76m
2016/17 - Paul Pogba from Juventus to Manchester United 105m
2017/18 - Neymar from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain 222m
2018/19 - Kylian Mbappe from AS Monaco to Paris Saint-Germain 145m
2019/20 - Joao Felix from SL Benfica to Atletico Madrid 126m

Written by Tris Burke September 08 2020 22:53:51