Football News: Review Of The Day 21st August 2018

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Review of the Day

Transfers

Southampton winger Josh Sims has signed for Reading on a season-long loan deal.

Fleetwood Town have signed left-back James Husband on loan until January from Norwich City.

Rangers have allowed full-back Lee Hodson to move to fellow SPFL side St Mirren on loan for the season.

Luke McCullogh has joined Tranmere Rovers on loan from Doncaster Rovers until January.

Mexican defender Oswaldo Alanis has been released by Getafe.

Serbian winger Filip Kostic has moved to Eintracht Frankfurt on loan from Hamburg. Frankfurt paid just over £1m in loan fees.

Sevilla have taken French midfielder Maxime Gonalons on loan from AS Roma.

Livingston Sack Miller

Livingston sacked new player-manager Kenny Miller as the 38 year old refused to give up his playing career to concentrate on management. A Livi statement read: "Livingston Football Club has been in discussions over the weekend with Kenny Miller and his representatives. The club felt that the Player-Manager role wasn't working and had requested that Kenny reverted to the a full time Manager's role. Kenny however feels that he isn't ready to give up his football career at this time. As a result the club and Kenny have amicably agreed to part company. Livingston Football Club would like to thank Kenny for his honesty and openness, and wish him well for the future."

Nigeria Avoid FIFA Ban

With a FIFA ban hanging over its head, Nigeria's FA (NFF) have backed down in the row over leadership of the federation. There has been an argument over whether the legitimate head was Amaju Pinnick, who won an election in 2014, and Chris Giwa, who had appealed against the result and won a court ruling in June. FIFA backed Pinnick and now the Nigerian federal government have also given their backing to Pinnick to avoid a suspension to their football teams.

Burnley Mourn Death Of Their Greatest Ever Player

Former Northern Ireland forward Jimmy McIlroy has passed away at the age of 86. The striker began his career with Glentoran before joining Burnley in 1949 and spending the best part of his career as their key player before joining Stoke City in 1962 and then on to Oldham Athletic before his retirement. How different things were during his career are highlighted by his wife's response to the possibility of higher wages at River Plate and Sampdoria, who also offered him a villa overlooking the Mediterranean, when she just asked him: "What would we want to leave Burnley for?"

Compensation Agreed For Ferguson

Teenage midfielder Lewis Ferguson joined Aberdeen after his Hamilton Academical contract expired in the summer, but his age meant compensation was due to Accies. A tribunal has now set a confidential fee for the 18 year old. Why are the details being kept confidential though? Surely this should be all public to ensure that things are fair and balanced? The award should be public so that other clubs know the kind of amounts that will be paid and then less of these will have to go to a tribunal and also clubs with academies will know whether it is worth their while to continue.

Norwich Paint Away Dressing Rooms Pink

In an attempt to adversely affect the performance of away teams at Carrow Road, Norwich City have painted the away dressing room pink as some research has shown it lowers testosterone levels. However, if they had bothered to look into it properly before wasting their time and money doing so, they would have found that it has been shown to be nonsense, as tests in sporting locker rooms and prisons have shown.

Kenedy Escapes Ban

Newcastle United winger Kenedy will not face retrospective punishment for his kick out at Cardiff City midfielder Victor Camarasa, probably the only good thing that he will hear about his game on Saturday. The referee awarded a free kick for the incident, so the Football Association dinosaurs see the matter as dealt with.

Karius Close To Besiktas Move

Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius was left out of Liverpool's squad for last night's victory over Crystal Palace as he is close to a two year loan move with a view to a permanent deal to Besiktas in Turkey. The German was replaced by Alisson Becker in a big money move in the summer.

Balotelli To Stay Put

After two successful years with OGC Nice, Italian forward Mario Balotelli has agreed to stay for a third season. The striker had been looking to move on, even skipping the first day of pre-season training in an attempt to push through a move, but has now agreed to stay. A Nice statement read: "There will be a season three to the hit series. The agreement was endorsed by all parties on Monday night. Suspended for the first three Ligue 1 games, the forward, who has scored 43 goals since arriving at the club, will be available for selection next week, ready for the trip to Lyon. Made slightly complicated at the start of the summer by another club from the South of France, the situation is now back to normal. Simple, clear. Like one of Super Mario's strikes."

Bravo Ruptures Achilles Tendon

Having sold their other two senior back up goalkeepers in the summer, Manchester City will be using 20 year old Daniel Grimshaw as their bench keeper following an Achilles tendon injury to Chile international Claudio Bravo. Angus Gunn and Joe Hart were both sold in the summer, leaving Bravo as the only senior cover for Ederson.

Oblak Claims Luis Is Set For PSG

Paris Saint-Germain are about to sign Brazilian left-back Filipe Luis from Atletico Madrid according to team-mate Jan Oblak. Oblak told BeIN Sport: "It's a little sad, but that's the way it is. He has a good opportunity and we have to respect the decision of each player. Let's see what happens." However head coach Diego Simeone had a different slant on the matter saying that he thought Luis would be staying.

UEFA Men's Player Of The Year Shortlist Announced

The shortlist for the 2017/18 UEFA Men's Player of the Year award has been announced:
Luke Modric (Real Madrid and Croatia)
Cristiano Ronaldo (was Real Madrid, now Juventus and Portugal)
Mohamed Salah (Liverpool and Egypt).

Worry For Madrid After Half Empty Stadium At The Weekend

Following the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo and the lack of incomings at Real Madrid, the club has a new worry. Their opening game in La Liga is their worst crowd for a league match since 2009. Just (just!) 48,446 were in the 81,044 capacity stadium for a win over Getafe. While Madrid are keen to put it down to it being a favourite holiday time in Spain and that it was a ridiculously late 10:15pm kick off, it is notable that their last two season openers, both also in August, saw gates of over 70,000 people.

Written by Tris Burke August 21 2018 05:39:02