Football News: Review Of The Day 25th February 2019

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Review of the Day

Agreement In Principle Reached By Bolton Owner

It seems that English football will soon be rid of 2 of its 3 most hated owners, with Blackpool in receivership to take it away from the Oystons and now Bolton Wanderers' 'No Ken Do' Anderson revealing a deal has been agreed 'in principle' to sell the club. A Bolton statement read: "A period of due diligence has now begun. Once this process has been completed and the requirements of the EFL have been satisfied a further announcement will be made to supporters." Just Mike Ashley left to go now....

Gerrard Asks Rangers Fans To Stop With Clarke Chant

Rangers manager Steven Gerrard has joined with chairman Dave King to ask their fans to stop singing a sectarian chant about Kilmarnock manager Steve Clarke. Clarke complained about the abuse from the 'dark ages' (which actually shows a genuine ignorance of what the Dark Ages were about, but I will avoid putting my pedant head on and ranting about how it was called such by the church because it was a secular age with the highest literacy rate in Europe until the Victorian-era) during Wednesday's Scottish Cup tie between Killie and Rangers. However the chant was heard once again during Rangers 5-0 win over Hamilton Academicals and Gerrard said: "I was quite clear in my press conference last week. There's no place for it. We want it to stop." Chairman Dave King has also called for the abuse to stop and apologised to Clarke after the match on Wednesday.

Motherwell Do An Arsenal

After Celtic put the ball out of play so one of their players, Ryan Christie, could receive treatment, Motherwell scored from the restart after not doing the usual thing and giving the ball back to their opponent. Instead teenage debutant striker James Scott shot at goal, which was saved by Scott Bain in the Celtic goal, but Gboly Ariyi slotted home the rebound. While the goal was perfectly legal, it has become accepted football etiquette to give the ball back to the opponent under such circumstances. When Arsenal did it, the match was actually replayed at Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger's request. Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers believes the Motherwell players should have redeemed the situation by allowing Celtic to go up the other end and score. Rodgers said: "It was a really disappointing act on a football pitch. My players, they've had a tough game on Thursday [losing 1-0 to Valencia], playing virtually an hour with 10 men, coming into a tough game today, against a team that's doing very well, go 2-0 up, good goals, good quality - so to have that control in the game, then to have that goal against you. Sometimes the referees up here have criticism but today the criticism goes to players because it wasn't a good act at all. And Motherwell have the chance to redeem themselves and maybe let us score but it isn't the case, they want to play on and push for an equaliser." Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson admitted he had no idea what to do about the goal: "In truth, I didn't know what to do. You've got a young boy, starting his first game, 18 years of age, on a couple of hundred quid a week, great prospect, super, super boy that we have real high hopes for. He got caught up in the occasion. It shouldn't have happened but it did and he'll recover from that. He's going to be a top, top footballer. It'll deflect from how good a performance we put in. There's so many good things in that game. Did we deserve to lose 4-1? No, we didn't."

Health Certificate Mess Rumbles On In Cyprus

Goalkeeper Francis Uzoho has won his appeal against a one-match ban for playing with an invalid health certificate when loaned out to Cypriot side Anorthosis Famagusta. However Anorthosis' appeal against their 9 point deduction has failed. Uzoho has already missed 3 games while the mess was sorted out.

Puel Sacked

With 5 losses in their last 6 matches, Leicester City have decided to sack manager Claude Puel, who had once more failed to get the fans on side in England. Puel had taken Southampton to 8th and a League Cup final before being sacked, with fans unhappy with him and his style of play. Puel then took charge of a Leicester side in the relegation places and led them to a 9th place finish last season. However he struggled to get the fans' backing and, with the Foxes in 12th, he has once more been sacked. It seems Puel's lack of charisma leaves fans always looking to pick holes in his team selections and tactics.

Keeper Kepa Snubs Sub

Chocolate wristed Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga refused to be substituted for back up keeper Willy Caballero ahead of the penalty shoot out with Manchester City in yesterday's League Cup final. The Spaniard point-blank refused to even move, furiously wagging his finger and even screaming "no" to emphasise his point, Arrizabalaga was not going to allow himself to be subbed. Arrizabalaga had gone down with what looked to be cramp towards the end of extra time and received treatment, Caballero had readied himself on the sidelines, the 4th official had held up the board and Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri was furiously shouting at Arrizabalaga to get off, but he was totally unmoved. Everybody was left totally bemused, from the officials to the other players, none of whom seemed to know what to do. Just to compound matters, Arrizabalaga's weak wrists let in a soft penalty that most watching could have saved without spilling their pint, let alone Caballero, as City won the following penalty shoot out 4-3. It seems to leave Chelsea with little option other than to get rid of one of Sarri or Arrizabalaga. Do they choose to back the player and allow player power to continue to fester at the club or do they back a manager who is struggling to get the best out of those players? Kepa's attitude to me looked like a symptom of a longstanding problem at Chelsea (and many other clubs), players playing for themselves and having more say than managers. It is what happens eventually if you continually chop and change managers, while players stay for longer periods. They begin to think there is little point listening to the new manager, when things go wrong, as he will not be there long enough for it to matter.

Del Piero Reveals Stake In LA Football Club

Juventus and Italy legend Alessandro has revealed that he is the owner of LA10 FC, a small Los Angeles-based football club which has gone undefeated during the United Premier Soccer League season to rise up to the top tier of that particular US league system. The club are named in honour of his old shirt number and wear black and white shirts similar to Juve's.

Brozovic Subjected To Racist Abuse

Inter Milan midfielder was the target of racial abuse from an elderly Fiorentina fan while attempting to take a corner in Saturday night's 3-3 draw between the two sides. Video footage has emerged of Brozovic being the subject of a number of derogotary chants from the Fiorentina fan. The account which posted the video has since been suspended due to the nature of the video.

Bale Isolates Himself From Team-Mates

After coming off the bench to score the winner from the penalty spot for Real Madrid, Welsh forward Gareth Bale refused to celebrate with teammate Lucas Vazquez, pushing him away as he tried to celebrate with him and scowling like a small boy who had just had his sweeties taken off him.

Written by Tris Burke February 25 2019 05:02:12