Football News: Review Of The Day 6th July 2022

Image from: freelargeimages.com

Review of the Day

Become a Patron!

Contracts

Junior Hoilett has signed a new one-year contract with Reading.

Huseyin Biler and Elliott Bolton have signed new deals with AFC Wimbledon.

Lazio's Spanish defender Patric has signed a 5-year contract.

Brentford's young midfielder Mads Bistrup has agreed a 1-year deal.

Bologna have given Francesco Bardi a 1-year contract with an option for a further year.

Sampdoria's teenage Spanish midfielder Gerard Yepes has been tied to the club until 2025.

Indian Super League side ATK Mohun Bagan have given Irish midfielder Carl McHugh a 2-year contract.

Hertha Berlin's teenage full-back Julian Eitschberger has agreed a deal which will expire in 2026.

AS Monaco have given young duo Antonin Cartillier and Enzo Couto their first professional contracts.

Transfers

Following Ghana's qualification for the 2022 World Cup, 6 players have suddenly decided they are Ghanaian. Athletic Bilbao forward Inaki Williams, Southampton defender Mohammed Salisu, Tariq Lamptey of Brighton & Hove Albion (who has switched from England) are all now available to Ghana, as well as Germany youth trio Stephan Ambrosius, Ransford-Yeboah Konigsdorffer and Patric Pfeiffer.

Manchester United have completed the signing of Dutch international left-back Tyrell Malacia from Feyenoord for £13.5m. On the way out from the Red Devils looks to be Andreas Pereira after Fulham agreed a £10m fee for the Brazilian midfielder.

Nottingham Forest goalkeeper Brice Samba has moved to Lens for a fee of £4.5m.

Divock Origi has completed his free transfer move to AC Milan from Liverpool.

Liam Donnelly has signed for Kilmarnock on a free transfer from Motherwell.

Former Rangers winger Jamie Murphy has joined St Johnstone on a free from Hibernian.

Burnley have paid an undisclosed fee of £720,000 to sign Samuel Bastien from Standard Liege. Leaving the Clarets is striker Wout Weghorst, who has moved to Besiktas on a season-long loan deal after only joining Burnley in January.

Wolverhampton Wanderers defender Dion Sanderson has returned to Birmingham City for a second loan spell, having spent the first half of last season on loan there. Leaving Brum is Ivan Sunjic, who has joined Hertha Berlin on loan for the season.

Bristol City have signed young goalkeeper Stefan Bajic on a free transfer from Pau. The 20-year-old is the youngest player ever to start a match for Saint-Etienne.

Blackpool defender Oliver Casey has signed for Forest Green Rovers on loan for the season.

Jacob Wakeling has moved to Swindon Town on a free transfer from Leicester City.

Northampton Town have paid Bournemouth a compensation fee to sign young centre-back Sam Sherring.

AFC Wimbledon have released Anthony Hartigan and Nesta Guiness-Walker.

Crawley Town have signed Corey Addai on a free transfer from Esbjerg.

New Paris Saint-Germain head coach Christophe Galtier has told his first press conference that he would like to keep Neymar at the club.

Ascoli have signed Juventus forward Christopher Lungoyi on loan.

Inter Milan have paid a £2.7m loan fee for Cagliari right-back Raoul Bellanova.

Elvis has left the building and been released by Goias EC in Brazil.

Leganes have signed Valencia defender Jorge Saenz on loan.

Fulham have sent Steven Sessegnon to Charlton Athletic on loan.

Bayern Munich full-back Remy Vita has joined Fortuna Sittard.

Despite being linked with a move to the English Premier League David Carmo has joined Porto for £18m from Braga.

Sporting Clube de Portugal have paid £585,000 to sign Franco Israel from Juventus.

Former Tottenham Hotspur winger Clinton N'Jie has left Dynamo Moscow.

Empoli are paying a £900,000 loan fee to borrow Razvan Marin from Cagliari.

Former Southampton defender Maya Yoshida has moved to Schalke 04 on a free transfer from Sampdoria. Leaving Schalke is Levent Mercan, who has moved to Karagumruk in the Turkish Super Lig and Hamza Mendyl, who has signed for OH Leuven in the Belgian Jupiler Pro League.

Experienced Italian forward Diego Falcinelli has signed for Modena on a free transfer from Bologna.

1.FC Koln have paid £1.35m for Sargis Adamyan from TSG 1899 Hoffenheim.

Getafe have loaned Dario Poveda to Ibiza.

Empoli have signed Tyrone Ebuehi on a free transfer from Benfica.

New England Revolution have signed a new Designated Player in the shape of Albanian international striker Giacomo Vrioni from Juventus for a fee of $3.8m.

Watford have left a quartet out of their squad for a pre-season trip to Austria as they are in negotiations with other clubs. The four are Emmanuel Dennis, Ismaila Sarr, Adam Masina and Danny Rose. Hard to believe anyone would actually want to sign Rose though, unless the Dog & Duck need a left-back in the changing rooms?

Fiorentina's president Daniele Prade has denied the club are interested in Barcelona midfielder Riqui Puig: "Riqui Puig does not interest us, never has been in our list. We wanted to sign Florian Grillitsch but then we had some problems." He did reveal a more for Luka Jovic from Real Madrid was close: "Jović is a player we like but past experience in football tells me a deal needs to be completely sealed first. The same goes for Dodô.. we won't close [the deals] in the next two days." Prade also claimed that the signing of Lucas Torreira from Arsenal on a permanent basis fell through when his agent rejected their offer out of hand. Prade also revealed the Viola had rejected "a big offer from a Premier League side" for Nikola Milenkovic, but they would not stand in his way if he wants to move on.

Despite announcing the double free signing of Franck Kessie and Andreas Christensen, Barcelona are currently unable to register them as they lack financial space to comply with La Liga regulations. They are looking to offload a number of players but face trouble getting players on big salaries to move when they know they will earn less elsewhere. Though they are hopeful of persuading Martin Braithwaite (who is a billionaire through his numerous business interests) to move on so that he can stand a chance of getting in Denmark's World Cup squad.

Injury Round Up

Gerard Pique's left adductor injury has re-surfaced in pre-season work. The veteran defender had begun pre-season training early in an attempt to be ready for the new season but has now missed the early sessions of pre-season team training due to the problem.

Experienced German international Marco Reus has returned to the training pitches as the Borussia Dortmund star recovers from the muscle fibre tear he suffered on international duty last month. The 33-year-old is expected to be fit for the start of the season.



Job Changes

Unsurprisingly Christophe Galtier has been confirmed as the new head coach of Paris Saint-Germain to replace the outgoing Mauricio Pochettino. Galtier was at OGC Nice last season and took them to 5th in Ligue 1 and the French Cup final, having taken Lille to the Ligue 1 title in 2021. He is one of just two head coaches to beat PSG to the Ligue 1 title in the last decade, along with Leonardo Jardim at AS Monaco. Galtier is coach number 7 since the Qataris took over in 2011.

Birmingham City's new head coach John Eustace has brought in his new coaching staff, with Keith Downing, the former England U-19 coach and Matt Gardiner named as his new assistants. The club's former goalkeeper Maik Taylor has moved there from Walsall to work as the goalkeeping coach.

Rangers have appointed former Celtic scout John Park to a senior scouting role.

AC Milan have promoted their U16 boss, Ignazio Abate, to take charge of their Primavera (U19) side.

Borussia Moenchengladbach have appointed four new members to their coaching staff. Christopher John and Edmund Reimer are long-term assistant coaches to Daniel Farke who have now joined him there. Fitness coach Chris Domogalla is also someone who has worked with Farke in previous jobs. Another fitness coach, Roman Steinweg, has joined from Viktoria Berlin to replace Markus Muller, who has moved on to Bayer Leverkusen. The post of head of medicine and prevention has been scrapped and Martin Meichelbeck, who held the post has left. Sporting director Roland Virkus outlines a difference of opinion between himself and Meichelbeck: "Martin has done an amazing job for us over the last two years, even in Corona times. However, we had differing views regarding the department and the staffing issue, so we agreed to terminate our collaboration." Alexander Moucine has now become head of fitness and prevention, while Dr Ralf Doyscher has been appointed as head of medicine.

Disciplinary Charges

The 29-year-old Premier League and international footballer that was arrested in Barnet on Monday on suspicion of rape has since been accused of two further incidents of rape in 2021 against another woman and he has been bailed until August. A Met Police statement read: "On 4 July, an allegation of rape of a woman in her 20s was reported to police. It was reported the alleged rape happened in June 2022. On 4 July, a 29-year-old man was arrested at an address in Barnet on suspicion of rape and taken into custody. While in custody, he was further arrested on suspicion of two incidents of rape that were alleged to have been committed in April and June of 2021 against a different woman in her 20s. He has subsequently been released on bail to a date in August. Enquiries into the circumstances are ongoing."

The Sierra Leone Football Association are investigating two matches that produced a total of 187 goals in the second tier of the African nation. The 95-0 win by Kahunla over Lumbebu United in a game that was just 2-0 at half-time is the biggest victory ever recorded in the history of Sierra Leonean football. The second biggest was the other match under investigation, which saw Gulf FC smash Koquima Lebanon 91-1 after leading 7-1 at half-time. The results have been annulled due to suspicion of match manipulation. Lumbebu's general manager Mohamed Jas Saeid Jalloh has been quoted as saying that he was "not aware of any match manipulation". This is despite him standing in for the usual coach on the day. Tellingly, the referee in the Gulf game refused to referee the second half and had to be replaced. Kahunla and Gulf were level on points going into the games, which were played simultaneously, and fighting for a chance to gain the last place in the national Super 10 League, which serves as a final qualifier for the country's Premier League. The team with the better goal difference would be the one to go through if both teams won. Bizarrely the chairman of Koquima Lebanon, Mohamed Lanfia Tunkara, has since claimed that the league match was never played and that they were only playing a friendly.

Mainz 05 have told their fans that they will not be able to withdraw from their friendly with Newcastle United for contractual reasons. Mainz fans had written an open letter asking for the team to withdraw from the match due to Newcastle being owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, because the nation's "policies are diametrically opposed to the values ​​and mission statement of Mainz 05."

Premier League clubs are to vote on whether to voluntarily ban gambling sponsors on shirts in an attempt to stave off government action. The Premier League is looking for a voluntary move to phase out the gambling sponsors over 3 years but 14 clubs of the 20 need to vote in favour of the measure for it to come into force. Everton and Bournemouth have recently signed new deals to have their shirts sponsored by betting firms, though Crystal Palace's deal has come to an end. Half of the team's had betting sponsors on their shirts last season. Campaigners are looking for a blanket ban which would remove betting sponsorship from the league altogether, including social media, the league itself and perimeter advertising hoardings.

Reading Make Away Ticket Offer

Championship club Reading have offered to make away match tickets £20 if other clubs reciprocate. They have championed the 'Twenty's Plenty' scheme since 2016, but found most other teams are failing to return the favour to their own away fans. A club statement on the matter read: "Since 2016, we have championed Twenty's Plenty. However, despite our best efforts very few other clubs in the Championship have followed suit. That has resulted in our travelling fans routinely paying well in excess of £20 to watch the Royals on the road. Every single Championship club will be given the opportunity to offer their fans £20 tickets when their team visits Reading, but only if they commit in advance to a reciprocal arrangement for our loyal away fans in the reverse fixture." So far they said just Blackburn Rovers, Cardiff City and Huddersfield Town have signed up. The Premier League has a £30 cap on away tickets for the next 3 seasons.

Atleti To Build Sports City

La Liga's Atletico Madrid are to build a sports city around their Wanda Metropolitano stadium. The Mayor of Madrid, Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida has announced that the city council have given the project the green light, which will involve 5 plots of land being transferred to the club for a 75-year period. Three of those plots will be used to house the sports city. The two other slots will be used to build public sports facilities near the stadium. The plans include a new training base with six football pitches and a 6,000 seat stadium for the reserve team, 25 padel courts, a climbing wall, a surfing area and a skateboard park. There will also be commercial and hotel space in the area. It has been reported that Atleti will invest over £170m into the project, with LaLiga Impulso (the scheme paid for by the sell off of LaLiga TV revenue to CVC investment house) partially funding the works. By then the stadium will have a new name as Wanda's deal for naming rights ran out this summer and the club are currently talking to Civitas Pacensis over a deal to replace them.

Become a Patron!

Written by Tris Burke July 06 2022 15:18:41