Football News: Review Of The Day 8th February 2021

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Review of the Day

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Contracts

Mansfield Town duo Kellan Gordon and Harry Charsley have signed new deals.

Transfers

Free agent winger Julian Lamy has signed for Grimsby Town.

Barnsley's Austrian striker Patrick Schmidt has joined SV Ried on loan.

Tokushima Vortis of the Japanese J-League have signed Cristian Battochio from Stade Brest 29.

Former Chelsea midfielder Marko Marin has joined Al-Raed on loan from fellow Saudi Professional League side Al-Ahli. Joining Ahli is former Watford forward M'Baye Niang on loan from Stade Rennais for a loan fee of £1.35m.

Injury Round-Up

After three Newcastle United players picked up injuries in the win over Southampton, Toon boss Steve Bruce has claimed Premier League clubs "are falling to pieces". Central defender Fabian Schar has been ruled out for a "few months" with a torn knee ligament. Bruce fears that right-back Javier Manquillo has "done his ankle ligaments". The other injured player was striker Callum Wilson, though Bruce admitted they have no idea how bad his injury was.

Former Arsenal youngster Jeff Reine-Adelaide has picked up a second ACL injury in just over a year. The 23 year old midfielder ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in December 2019 playing for Olympique Lyonnais against Rennes. On his return to fitness, he was loaned out to Nice, where he ruptured the ACL in his left knee against Monaco on Wednesday evening.

Managerial Changes

Disciplinary Charges

West Ham United are appealing against Tomas Soucek's controversial red card he was shown against Fulham. The Czech midfielder was shown a red card, despite the referee looking at the incident on the VAR screen for what felt like 20 minutes, for the most innocuous challenge you will probably ever see. Even the player deemed to have been on the receiving end, Aleksandar Mitrovic told the referee, Mike Dean, that it was just an accident and Soucek should not get a card. Hammers' manager David Moyes said he was "embarrassed" for the officials.

Messi Happy

Lionel Messi is happy again at Barcelona, their head coach Ronald Koeman has claimed. Koeman said: "There is only one person who can decide his future and it is him. I would like him to stay for many more years and I try to make sure he is happy, like he is at the moment. Leo gives the team a lot of quality and we need him. He improves the morale and the energy of the team but his future is in his hands." The big question is whether they can afford to keep him and his insane salary on the books in their current financial predicament.

Loanee Lifts Player Of The Month Award

Despite Arsenal's struggles defensively, Mikel Arteta could find no space in his squad for young French defender William Saliba in the first half of the season. To get some first team football under his belt he joined OGC Nice for the rest of the season, where he has already lifted the player of the month award on his first month at the club. It does seem strange that Arteta never gave him a chance, especially when you consider he was judged by most as the better player in his partnership with Wesley Fofana at Saint-Etienne last season. In fact, Arsenal even tried to bring Saliba over 6 months early due to his fine form there.

Coutinho Wins Barca Vote

In a poll of Barcelona fans, Philippe Coutinho was voted as the player they would most want to leave of their 100m+ signings. It is a limited poll, as Barca have just 3 players who cost over 100m euros, but all have disappointed for various reasons. However the fans overwhelmingly, 82.4% in fact, would rather Coutinho left than either Antoine Griezmann or the oft-injured Ousmane Dembele.

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Written by Tris Burke February 08 2021 05:54:05