Football News: Review Of The Day 25th March 2019

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Review of the Day

Oldham Find Scholes Replacement

Oldham Athletic have decided to give former caretaker boss Pete Wild the rest of the season, after he won 4 out of 8 games as a caretaker following Frankie Bunn quitting in December. The 34 year old was overlooked at the time in favour of Paul Scholes, but he has now been brought back to replace the Manchester United legend.

Schaer Needs Emergency Treatment But Plays On

In scenes reminiscent of the days prior to substitutions, when a player's health was irrelevant, a qualifier for UEFA's Euro 2020 tournament saw Newcastle United's Switzerland international Fabian Schaer knocking unconscious in a clash of heads, requiring emergency treatment from an opposing player, Georgia's Jano Ananidze, before being put back in to play and getting involved in setting up both the Swiss goals. Schaer told Swiss newspaper Blick that: "It looks awful. I can't remember anything. I was out for a few seconds. My skull is still humming. And I've got neck ache and a bruise on my forehead. But it was worth it." The other player involved in the clash of heads, Georgia's Jemal Tabidze, was also knocked out and yet continued to play on. I fully understand it from the player's perspective, you just want to play and most of us (certainly I have) will have done the same at some point. However this is not non-league football, this is supposed to be the pinnacle of the game and should have medical staff on hand that understand how dangerous it is for a player to continue to play on after an injury like that. Football is still underestimating the value of a human's future quality of life compared to getting a result in what is just a game at the end of the day.

Giggs Backs Dropped Williams

Wales' manager Ryan Giggs dropped captain Ashley Williams, who is struggling to get into the Stoke City side as well, but is insistent that he remains national captain. Giggs said after the 1-0 win over Slovakia, where Williams came on for the final 17 minutes: "No, Ash is still the captain. You're never going to take it well. He didn't sulk. You don't want players to take it well. You've seen what he brought when he came on - the leadership qualities." I find it bizarre that a player who really was never that good at his peak, and is now so far past his best he should be nowhere near a Sunday League team, yet alone an international side, has got as many caps as a truly quality player in Gary Speed.

MLS Side Finds Bizarre Way To Get Exposure

Real Salt Lake must be the Kardashians of the football world, in that they will do any old shi.. er thing to get their picture in the paper. Their social media team must be really bored as they decided to put out the latest team according to pizza topping preference, height and star sign. Former Manchester City defender Nedum Onuoha must be wondering what he has let himself in for.

Zimbabwe Fan Dies In Stampede

A stampede outside Zimbabwe's national stadium in Harare, before their final qualifying match for this summer's AFCON against Congo-Brazaville, has left one fan dead. The tragedy overshadowed the match as Zimbabwe clinched qualification.

McLeish Booed By Scotland Fans

Scotland fans made their feelings clear during an unconvincing 2-0 victory over the lowest ranked team in international football, San Marino. The Tartan Army soundly booed Alex McLeish and chanted "sack the board" and, in McLeish's direction, "you're getting sacked in the morning".

Report Claims Nike Helping Barca With Signing

ESPN are claiming that Ajax player Frenkie de Jong chose to sign for Barcelona over Paris Saint-Germain due to Nike subsidising his wages. According to the report Nike, due to being kit manufacturer for Barca, were not contributing to the transfer fee, but were paying a "very important amount of money" in wages to the player to make the choice to sign for Barca rather than PSG. Seems odd that they would do so, when Nike also have close links with PSG, being a kit manufacturer for both clubs, but also choosing to work with PSG on launching extra Champions League kits featuring their stand alone Jordan brand. I have no doubt that Nike would happily pay money for marketing purposes to the player, after all they have asked him to use his first name for the shirts rather than surname, but I doubt it would be in any way contingent on which of those two clubs he chose. After all, PSG are more of a fashion brand than they are a football club these days, so you would think shirt-selling would be more their forte than Barcelona.

PSG Win Trophy Awarded By Themselves

After hitting 20m followers on Instatwit, Paris Saint-Germain have awarded themselves a new title. They are officially celebrating, and I do mean officially, being 'Instagram Champions'. Who even knew there was such a thing? Apparently no one as they just made it up to award it to themselves. Do they even know they used to be a football club at one time before they became a joke?

Just a quick reminder that the charity match between my (Ed001) team and Ed002's team for the Matt Hawker Cup at Oxford City's football ground is coming up soon. The referee is a Premier League official, Stuart Burt, and the charities being supported are MacMillan Nurses and SEVA. For those who are taking part, we still need to collect all the fees please, and we are also looking to raise more through donations HERE. Last year's game was a big success and we hope to repeat it this year, so thank you in advance to all who will attend and to those who travelled from all over Europe to take part last time.

Written by Tris Burke March 25 2019 05:43:39