Football News: Review Of The Day 19th July 2018

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Review of the Day

Transfers

Free agent left-back Zoumana Bakayogo has returned to Tranmere Rovers on a 1-year contract. The 31 year old had been with Crewe Alexandra prior to his release in the summer.

Toumani Diagouraga has signed for Swindon Town on a free transfer after leaving Fleetwood Town.

French forward Armand Gnanduillet has returned to Blackpool just two months after leaving to sign for South African side Baroka FC. The 26 year old was never registered as a player by Baroka as they had exceeded the foreign player quota and had been unable to offload others to make space for him.

Fabio, the former Manchester United player and identical twin to Rafael, has left Middlesbrough and joined Nantes for an undisclosed fee of £1.8m.

Rotherham United defender Dominic Ball has returned to Aberdeen on loan for the season. He spent last season on loan with the Dons as well.

A trial spell has been successful enough to persuade Hearts to make goalkeeper Kevin Silva their 13th signing of the summer. The 20 year old American has been playing for his university side, Rutgers Scarlet Knights, before chancing his arm in Scotland.

21 year old defender Anton Walkes has signed for Portsmouth for an undisclosed fee from Tottenham Hotspur. Walkes had spent the second half of last season on loan with Pompey from Spurs. Alex's younger brother Christian Oxlade-Chamberlain has left Pompey to join Notts County on a free transfer.

Free agent defender Ben Nugent has signed for Stevenage. The 25 year old had left Gillingham in the summer after rejecting their contract offer.

George Long has left Sheffield United to sign for Hull City. The 24 year old has joined for an undisclosed fee.

Free agent forward Jamie Mackie has signed for Oxford United on a two-year deal after his release from QPR.

Ghanaian winger Yaw Yeboah has left Manchester City to join Spanish second tier side CD Numancia. Also leaving Man City is American international midfielder Mix Diskerud, who has joined Ulsan Hyundai of the South Korean K League on loan.

Scottish mifielder Liam Henderson has been released by Italian side Bari.

VAR A 'Fair Way Away' From Football League Usage

English Football League chief executive Shaun Harvey has admitted VAR is not close to being implemented in league matches due to the lack of TV cameras and officials to operate the system. Harvey said: "It has its attractions. But we don't have the TV cameras in place that are standard fare now at Premier League clubs. One of our bigger concerns, ultimately, is around match officials and the staffing of it. We need the best officials we have got out live on a Saturday afternoon with a whistle or a flag. We need to keep as many of them active in those roles for as long as possible. The primary focus has got to be getting them out into the middle."

Juventus Launch Eco-Friendly Third Kit

Reigning Serie A champions Juventus have revealed a dark grey third kit that is entirely green. The new design manufactured by Adidas is made entirely from recycled ocean plastic. The kit was created in conjunction with 'Parley for the Oceans' and is the third major club to wear kits made from the recycled plastic after Real Madrid and Manchester United.

Sarri Wants To Keep Hazard

New Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri has confirmed he wants to keep Belgium star Eden Hazard and improve him, despite the forward hinting that he was interested in moving away and reiterating that his preferred destination is Real Madrid. Sarri said Hazard is "one of the top two or three European players. Hazard is a very high-level player. I hope that I will manage to improve him." It has also been confirmed that legendary former Chelsea forward Gianfranco Zola has been appointed as assistant manager to Sarri.

Liverpool Set To Do Without The Ox Next Season

After Liverpool midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain suffered a major knee injury during the Champions League semi-final against Roma there has been a lot of speculation over just how bad the injury was. Now the 24 year old has been confirmed as likely to miss most, if not all, of the 2018/19 season by manager Jurgen Klopp. Klopps said: "It feels like now is an appropriate time to tell people that for Ox, this season will be about focusing on recovery and rehab. We have known this from pretty much the day after he got the injury. There has been no change, no setback - it's exactly on the schedule we expected and planned for. The new information is that we're now giving more detail publicly. Typical of Ox, he didn't want the news to overshadow the end of the season and, to be quite honest, we thought we could wait and tell people at an appropriate time. His surgery - which he had on the day of our second leg in Roma - has been completely successful and his recovery has started superbly well. But the truth of the matter is that we are preparing this season knowing he will not be with us on the pitch for competitive matches for the majority of it. If we do see him back this season it will be a bonus."

Arsenal Accept Candy Crush Friend

Arsenal have appointed a new data scientist to their backroom staff. Mikhail Zhilkin previously worked with King looking after their Candy Crush franchise. Zhilkin holds a Master of Science in Applied Physics and Mathematics from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Arsenal acquired stats company StatDNA to help them in their quest to regain the top 4 trophy.

Written by Tris Burke July 19 2018 07:24:49