Football News: Review Of The Day 12th November 2020

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Review of the Day

Contracts

Major League Soccer side Montreal Impact have given teenage British defender Luis Binks a 1 year deal.

Borussia Dortmund have extended the contract of their youth coordinator Lars Ricken until 2025. He has also been given more responsibility with the role of youth performance centre director.

Transfers

Left-back Sam Hart has rejoined Southend United on a deal until the end of the season. The 24 year old spent time there on loan from previous club Blackburn Rovers, who released him in the summer.

Free agent former Watford defender Adrian Mariappa has signed for Bristol City on a short-term deal which expires in January.

Former Real Madrid player Fernando Gago has hung up his boots at the age of 34. The Argentine midfielder began his career at Boca Juniors and suffered badly with injuries throughout his career, culminating in a second ACL rupture in January, which forced his retirement.

Also forced to retire by an ACL injury is another former Argentinian international, Nicolas Pareja. The 36 year old centre-back is probably best remembered for his time with Sevilla, who he captained to three Europa League titles between 2014 and 2016.

Olympique Lyonnais president Jean-Michel Aulas has told RMC that Memphis Depay will not be leaving in January despite Barcelona's interest. Aulas said: "Depay will stay at Lyon until the end of the season. We were knocked out of the CL semi-finals last year, but this year we want to go further, which is why Memphis will stay."

Injury Round-Up

Burton Albion's League One game against Hull City is under threat after the Brewers revealed that "several" players and staff tested positive for CV.

Two Livingston players have gone into self-isolation after also testing positive.

West Bromwich Albion's Republic of Ireland international Callum Robinson has tested positive while on international duty and will miss the three matches during this international break. Also out of the Ireland squad is Brighton & Hove Albion's Aaron Connolly, who picked up an injury in training. Preston North End's Sean Maguire and Swansea City's Ryan Manning have been called up as replacements.

Legendary former Argentina captain Diego Maradona is to go into a recovery clinic for treatment for alcohol dependency after his release from hospital. Maradona was initially taken into hospital for treatment on a possible brain bleed, but it was withdrawal symptoms from alcohol that have kept him in hospital until now.

Liverpool will be anxiously awaiting news on Joe Gomez, after the centre-back suffered an injury while on England duty ahead of a pointless friendly against Ireland.

TSG Hoffenheim have put their entire team into isolation after 3 more people at the club tested positive. International players, such as Germany's Oliver Baumann and England U-21's Ryan Sessegnon, have all withdrawn from their squads.

Valencia goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen is to have surgery on a quadriceps injury. The Dutch international is expected to be ruled out for 3 to 4 months by the injury, which he suffered in a training session on Friday.

Managerial Changes

John Sheridan is set to leave his role at Wigan Athletic to take over at Swindon Town. Sheridan is currently working on a month-to-month contract at the Latics as the club are in administration at the moment.

Disciplinary Charges

Paris Saint-Germain's sporting director Leonardo has revealed that the club's head coach Thomas Tuchel is to face disciplinary action by the club after the German went public with demands for more players. Leonardo said: "I did not like the statement of the coach Tuchel. I don't understand it and I did not like it. The club did not like it. We will see internally [about a punishment]. If someone is not happy, we can talk, there is no problem. But if he decides to stay, he must decide to respect the choices of the sports management. We're not here to go to trial... But we have to have the spirit of suffering for the club, the spirit of sacrifice. The important thing is the club. We didn't like the way [that Tuchel spoke]."

Real Madrid striker Luka Jovic has accepted a 30,000 euro fine in order to avoid a jail term after breaking Serbia's quarantine rules in March. When the 22 year old should have been isolating for 14 days, he was instead seen partying in Belgrade and was immediately handed the fine. Jovic refused to pay until the government threatened to open criminal proceedings against him, with a potential 6-month jail sentence being the key to him backing down.

Fans Lock Shrimpers Out Of Ground

After yet another defeat, this time 6-1 at the hands of Colchester United in the Stupidly-Named Tropy, making it 16 games without a win, Southend United returned home to find their fans had locked them out of their Roots Hall stadium. The Shrimpers are propping up League Two with just 2 points from 11 games and are under a transfer embargo, despite finally settling their tax debts last month. Manager Mark Molesley wrote an open letter to the fans: "I understand and share your hurt and frustrations at the moment. I can assure you we are working tirelessly to turn our fortunes. Now more than ever we must remain united in these times of hardship and use these struggles to develop our strength."

Morocco Squad

The Morocco squad for its two AFCON qualifiers this month has been named:
Goalkeepers: Yassine Bounou (Sevilla FC, Spain), Munir Mohamedi El Kajoui (Hatayspor, Turkey), Hicham El Mejhed (Ittihad Tangier)
Defenders: Romain Saiss (Wolverhampton Wanderers, England), Issam Chebake (Yeni Malatyaspor, Turkey), Noussair Mazraoui (Ajax, Netherlands), Hamza Mendyl (Schalke 04, Germany), Nayef Aguerd (Stade Rennais, France), Zouhair Feddal (Sporting, Portugal), Samy Mmaee (Sint-Truidense VV, Belgium), Jawad El Yamiq (Real Valladolid, Spain)
Midfielders: Adel Taarabt (SL Benfica, Portugal), Selim Amallah (Standard Liege, Belgium), Hakim Ziyech (Chelsea, England), Faycal Fajr (Sivasspor, Turkey), Aymen Barkok (Eintracht Frankfurt, Germany), Nassim Boujellab (Schalke 04, Germany), Sofyan Amrabat (Fiorentina, Italy)
Forwards: Achraf Hakimi (Inter Milan, Italy), Youssef El Arabi (Olympiacos, Greece), Youssef En-Nesyri (Sevilla, Spain), Zakaria Aboukhlal (AZ Alkmaar, Netherlands), Soufiane Rahimi (Raja Casablanca), Achraf Bencharki (Zamalek, Egypt), Amine Harit (Schalke 04, Germany)

Kroos Hits Out At UEFA And FIFA

Real Madrid's Germany international midfielder Toni Kroos has hit out at the new and expanded competitions UEFA and FIFA keep adding to the schedule. Kroos is unhappy with the new UEFA Nations League and the forthcoming expansion of the FIFA Club World Cup and said: "With the invention of all these new things we seem to be just the puppets of FIFA and UEFA. These competitions are created to suck everything out of every single player physically and to suck out as much money as possible." He then went on to denigrate the European Super League concept, saying that the domestic competitions and Champions League are "top products" and that "when certain things work well it is a good idea to leave them that way".

Barca Sue Neymar

Barcelona are suing Neymar for around 10m euros, as they believe they overpaid him by that amount while he was with the club. It is being reported by Associated Press that the money was paid to Neymar while authorities investigated his transfer from Santos, in order to avoid potential tax irregularities. After tax authorities recently concluded that the club did not need to pay the money to Neymar, they have taken action for its return.

Written by Tris Burke November 11 2020 20:21:04