Football News: Review Of The Day 10th January 2023

Review of the Day

Contracts

Despite being probably the main reason France failed to win the World Cup in Qatar, Didier Deschamps contract has been extended until 2026. The announcement by French Football Federation president Noel Le Graet has casued a storm of controversy in France after he was asked on radio if Zinedine Zidane had been in the running to replace Deschamps. Le Graet retorted: "Zinedine Zidane, I wouldn't even have taken his call on the phone." Le Graet also continued: Did Zidane try to contact me? Of course not, I wouldn't even have picked up the phone. To tell him to look for another club? Make a special program so that you can find a club or a national team. I don't care, he can go where he wants. He can go where he wants, in a club or a national team, I hardly believe it as far as he is concerned. Zidane was always under the radar. He had a lot of followers; some were waiting for Deschamps to leave. But who can seriously criticise Deschamps? No one can. I have never seen Zidane, we've never thought of separating ourselves from Didier Deschamps. That stirred up a hornet's nest as first France's starman Kylian Mbappe hit out at Le Graet, telling him on social media, "Zidane is France, we don't disrespect the legend like that..." Zidane's former club Real Madrid, that he managed to 4 Champions Leagues titles reacted even more forcefully with an official club statement: "Real Madrid CF regrets the unfortunate statements made by the president of the French Football Federation, Noel Le Graet, about Zinedine Zidane, one of the greatest legends of world sport. These words imply a lack of respect towards one of the figures most admired by football fans around the world and our club expects an immediate rectification. Zinedine Zidane, world champion and European champion defending his country's jersey, among many other titles, represents the values ​​of sport and has demonstrated this throughout his professional career as a player and as a coach. The statements by the president of the French Football Federation are inappropriate for someone who holds that representation and disqualify themselves, like the ones he also makes about our captain Karim Benzema, current Ballon d'Or, champion of the League of Nations with France in 2021 and winner of 5 Champions League, among many other titles." Le Graet, who is well known for his controversial (and often moronic) comments, such as claiming that racism did not exist in football, has since apologised.

Algeria have given their head coach Djamel Belmadi a contract extension to take him to 2026.

Rotherham United goalkeeper Viktor Johansson has signed a new deal which keeps him at the club until 2025.

Sunderland midfielder Jay Matete has signed for Plymouth Argyle on loan. Plymouth have also signed Ben Waine from New Zealand's Australian A-League side Wellington Phoenix.

Middlesbrough have released Australian international Massimo Luongo and he has returned to Ipswich Town for a second stint.

Oxford United have brought in Hull City full-back Brandon Fleming on loan.

Stevenage have extended the contract of their manager Steve Evans to run until June 2025.

Harrogate Town midfielder George Thomson has agreed a new two and a half year deal with the League Two side.

Calum McDonald has extended his contract with Stockport County to run for the rest of the season.

Jose Mari has signed a new deal with Cadiz ending in 2025.

Former Celtic midfielder Victor Wanyama has signed a new 2-year deal with Montreal Impact.

Veteran Brazilian forward Vagner Love has signed a 1-year contract with Sport Recife.

Real Madrid youngster Alvaro Carrillo has signed a deal running until 2025.

Tottenham Hotspur's French goalkeeper Hugo Lloris has retired from international football.

Rafael Leao has denied claims that he is demanding wages of £8.8m a year to stay at AC Milan, terming it "fake news as always".

Union Berlin's longest serving player Christopher Trimmel has extended his current contract.

Transfers

Chelsea have completed the signings of David Datro Fofana from Molde and Brazilian midfielder Andrey Santos from Vasco da Gama for over £10m.

Croatian winger Mislav Orsic has joined Southampton from Dinamo Zagreb for £6m.

Brentford have signed David Beckham's son Romeo on loan for their B team from Inter Miami's feeder club Inter Miami II.

Motherwell have cancelled the loan deal for Louis Moult, sending the striker back to parent club Burton Albion, due to an ankle injury.

Major League Soccer's Charlotte FC have signed former Aston Villa midfielder Ashley Westwood on a free transfer from Burnley.

Irish international forward Aaron Connolly has joined Hull City on loan from Brighton & Hove Albion.

Middlesbrough have taken young Aston Villa striker Cameron Archer on loan.

Arsenal have sent Brooke Norton-Cuffy to Coventry City on loan.

Stockport County have paid an undisclosed fee for the signature of Jack Stretton from Derby County. They have also added Irish defender Neill Byrne from Tranmere Rovers to their squad for another undisclosed fee.

Sheffield United goalkeeper Jordan Amissah will spend the rest of the season on loan with Burton Albion.

Bristol City have received an undisclosed fee from Portsmouth for defender Ryley Towler.

Lincoln City have signed Harry Boyes on loan from Sheffield United.

Free agent former Wolverhampton Wanderers defender Ryan Bennett has joined Cambridge United.

Shamrock Rovers have signed Trevor Clarke on loan from Bristol Rovers with a view to a permanent deal.

Newcastle United midfielder Joe White will spend the rest of the season on loan with Exeter City.

Fleetwood Town have signed Callum Dolan from Warrington Rylands for an undisclosed fee.

Returning Peterborough United boss Darren Ferguson has already been busy, signing goalkeeper Will Norris on loan from Burnley and extending the loan deal of Newcastle United defender Kell Watts until the end of the season.

Sam Pearson has signed for AFC Wimbledon on loan from Bristol City.

Harrogate Town have signed Toby Sims on a 6-month deal.

Ipswich Town have signed George Hirst on loan from Leicester City.

Lillestrom have signed Norwegien defender Ruben Gabrielsen from MLS team Austin FC.

Bodo/Glimt have signed Fredrik Bjorkan on a free transfer from Hertha Berlin.

Malmo FF have paid a fee of over £400,000 for Derek Cornelius from Vancouver Whitecaps. Also leaving Major League Soccer for Malmo is Anton Tinnerholm who is moving on a free transfer from New York City FC.

Napoli full-back Alessandro Zanoli has joined Sampdoria on loan.

VfL Bochum have loaned Jannes Horn to 1.FC Nuremberg. Joining Bochum is Pierre Kunde on loan from Olympiacos.

Polish full-back Bartosz Bereszynski has joined Napoli on loan from Sampdoria.

Stade Brestois have sent Jere Uronen on loan to FC Schalke 04.

Orlando City winger Benji Michel has mae a free transfer move to Arouca.

Elche have released veteran Argentine Javier Pastore and he has signed for Qatari Stars League side Qatar SC.

Ajax have paid over £7m for Villareal goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli.

Spezia have taken Salvatore Esposito on loan from SPAL.

Saint-Etienne have paid around £1.5m for Stade Brestois goalkeeper Gautier Larsonneur.

Stade Lavallois have signed Antonin Bobichon from Angers SCO.

Former Liverpool youngster Brad Smith has signed for Houston Dynamo on a free transfer from DC United.

Arvin Appiah has been loaned to Malaga by UD Almeria.

Welsh golfer Gareth Bale has retired from playing football at the age of 33. Though it is arguable he retired from playing years ago when he got his move to Real Madrid.

Bournemouth defender James Hill has signed for Heart of Midlothian on loan.

Bolton Wanderers have taken Dan N'Lundulu on loan from Southampton.

Young Racing Club midfielder Carlos Alcarez has joined Southampton for a fee of around £13m.

Olympique Marseille have signed Ruslan Malinovskyi on loan from Atalanta.

Jhegson Mendez has joined Sao Paulo on a free transfer from Los Angeles FC.

Ipswich Town have signed Nathan Broadhead from Everton for an undisclosed fee.

Aston Villa have recalled Tyreik Wright from his loan spell with Bradford City to sell him to Plymouth Argyle for an undisclosed fee.

Houston Dynamo midfielder Matias Vera has signed for Argentinos Juniors on loan for a season.

Atalanta's Sporting Director Tony D'Amico has denied that goalkeeper Marco Sportiello is set to join AC Milan early. Sportiello is out of contract in the summer and agreed a deal to join Milan then, but reports claimed he would move in January but D'Amico told Sky Italia: "It's been talked about in the newspapers, we've never had any contact with Milan so Sportiello is an Atalanta player and will remain an Atalanta player."

Chicago Fire have signed Arnaud Aouquet on a free transfer from Montpellier HSC.

Injury Round Up

Everton's former Arsenal midfielder Alex Iwobi has been ruled out for around 3 weeks with ankle ligament damage.

Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy has had surgery on a finger he fractured in training during last week. The Senegal international had been out of the team with a shoulder injury he picked up in the World Cup.

Leyton Orient expect to be without defender Dan Happe for the rest of the season due to injury.

After surgery and chemotherapy to treat testicular cancer, Borussia Dortmund's former West Ham United striker Sebastien Haller is back in training and hoping to be fit to play this month.

Real Madrid duo David Alaba and Aurelien Tchouameni are both expected to miss three weeks with similar injuries. Alaba has a right soleus injury, while Tchouameni has a left soleus injury.

Stuttgart's French defender Dan-Axel Zagadou has suffered another serious injury. The centre-back has suffered a double ligament tear in his ankle and is likely to miss the rest of the season.

Job Changes

Norwich City have turned to former Huddersfield Town manager David Wagner as their new head coach after the sacking of Dean Smith recently. Christophe Buhler has also been brought in as his assistant, while loan player manager Andrew Hughes has been promoted to first team coach. Wagner, who took Huddersfield into the Premier League, has been Schalke 04 and Young Boys head coach, but has not had the same success as he did with the Terriers. Norwich's Sporting Director Stuart Webber is the man who first brought Wagner to English football with Huddersfield in 2015.

Exeter City have added to their backroom staff with the addition of two experienced former managers. Graham Barrow, who has previously managed Wigan Athletic, Rochdale and Chester City, has been appointed as tactical insights coach and former Sunderland manager Malcolm Crosby is the club's new Chief Scout. The Grecians have also brought in Jon Pitts as Head of Performance and Wellbeing.

Southampton have brought back Natasha Patel as Assistant Academy Director. Patel, who was previously Head of Performance Analysis with the Saints, has spent the last 3 years with New York Red Bulls in the same role.

Bizarrely Portugal have chosen to appoint failed former Belgium and Everton boss Roberto Martinez as their new national head coach.

Pablo Cabello has left Real Betis to take up a role as Commercial and Sponsorship Director of the Spanish Basketball Clubs Association (ACB).

OGC Nice have sacked head coach Lucien Favre, after only appointing him in the summer to replace Christophe Galtier. Nice are sat in 11th place in Ligue 1 and were knocked out of the Coupe de France by third-division Le Puy at the weekend. Former Middlesbrough and PSG defender Didier Digard will take charge of the team "until further notice".

Racing Club de Strasbourg have sacked their head coach Julien Stephan making it 9 head coaches to be sacked in Ligue 1 this season. The most head coach changes in a Ligue 1 season ever is 11 in the 2004/05 season.

Disciplinary Charges

Once again fans are being investigated over homophobic chants being directed at Chelsea, just days after their Premier League game with Nottingham Forest was marred by the tasteless calls. It was followed up by similar shouts from Manchester United fans and now Manchester City's fans have also done the same.

The Football Association is also looking into claims made by Newcastle United fans of a crush, due to a lack of stewarding, at the Leppings Lane End at Hillsborough as the Toon faced Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup.

Arsenal have been charged with failing to control their players by the FA. Two late penalty appeals were rejected in their draw with Newcastle United and the players' reaction has led to the charge.

Fleetwood Town's Shaun Rooney has been handed a 4 match ban and £1,500 fine for "improper and threatening" behaviour following his sending off against Sheffield Wednesday. Rooney was shown a second yellow card and reacted by confronting both Wednesday boss Darren Moore and the fourth official.

Former Crawley Town boss John Yems has been banned from football for 18 months for 12 counts of racially abusing his team's players while in charge between 2019 and 2022.

SSC Napoli have hit out at their "so-called supporters" who caused havoc on an Italian motorway as ultras clashed with AS Roma ultras on the A1 motorway. A Napoli statement read: "Napoli strongly condemns the behaviour by so-called supporters, who unfortunately still attend football matches in Italy, which involved creating disruption and danger for true fans. They also struck fear into people who had nothing to do with football on the A1 motorway." Italian broadcaster RAI posted footage on social media of dozens of supporters fighting with flares, belts and bats, blocking the motorway for 50 minutes and creating queues up to 15km long. Police have identified 180 people as involved in the violent clashes. One Roma fan has been arrested so far.

Italian referee Juan Luca Sacchi has been suspended from Serie A duty until the end of the month following a mistake in the match between Inter Milan and Monza. Sacchi admitted his error in whistling for a foul as Inter scored what would have been a winning goal, as he mistakenly believed two Monza players getting in each others' way was a foul by Inter in the build up.

VfL Bochum have begun to look into terminating the contract of former Sheffield United and Bournemouth striker Lys Mousset. The 26-year-old has been suspended after repeatedly turning up late to training and showing a poor attitude, with the final straw coming as he turned up late to training at the club's training camp in Andalusia.

Pointless List Of The Day

Today's pointless list is that of the biggest winning margins in the Premier League, in terms of points gap at the end of the season:
1. Manchester City - 2017/18 - 19 points ahead of second
2. Manchester United - 1999/2000 - 18 points ahead of second
3. Chelsea - 2004/05 - 12 points ahead of second
4. Arsenal - 2003/04 - 11 points ahead of second
5. Manchester United - 2012/13 - 11 points ahead of second

FA Cup Draw

Preston North End v Tottenham Hotspur
Southampton v Blackpool
Wrexham v Sheffield United
Ipswich Town v Burnley
Manchester United v Reading
Luton Town/Wigan Athletic v Grimsby Town
Derby County v West Ham United
Stoke City v Stevenage
Blackburn Rovers v Forest Green Rovers/Birmingham City
Walsall v Leicester City
Sheffield Wednesday v Fleetwood Town
Manchester City v Oxford United/Arsenal
Bristol City/Swansea City v Chesterfield/West Bromwich Albion
Brighton & Hove Albion v Liverpool/Wolverhampton Wanderers
Fulham v Sunderland
Boreham Wood/Accrington Stanley v Cardiff City/Leeds United

Fans To Vote On Stadium Buy

Swindon Town Supporters' Trust is asking its members to vote on whether to buy the club's County Ground stadium in conjunction with the club itself. The deal, which would cost £2.3m, would see the ownership of the ground split 50:50 between the supporters' trust and the club. The pair plan to invest millions into upgrading the stadium courtesy of a trust fund left behind by lifelong fan Nigel Eady, who bequeathed money to benefit the club. The plan is to begin with a £1m redevelopment of the Stratton Bank stand once the purchase is complete and to spend £20m on a new Town End stand, conference centre and hotel. They also plan to spend another £1.5m on adding corporate boxes to the Don Rogers stand.

Barca Set To Rebuild Stadium

Barcelona have confirmed that work will begin this summer on the 900m euro remodelling of their Camp Nou home stadium. Barca spokesperson Elena Fort told Diario Sport: "Today we have reached a very important fact: the company that must carry out the reform of the Camp Nou, which will be the Turkish company Limak Construction. Limak Construction gives us full guarantees in the construction process of the Camp Nou. In June 2023 the work will begin. A new stage begins. The price is adjusted to what was announced, about €900 million. The contract establishes penalties but this is confidential information. The contract protects the interests of FC Barcelona. The objective that Barça has is to defend its interests and, to defend them, we emphasize that it be done as quickly as possible and at the lowest cost. We have a stadium with very high expenses due to its age and this affects our competitiveness. We will return to the Camp Nou before November 29, 2024 (125th anniversary). The delivery of the finished work must be a reality before June 2026." Fort also revealed that this project was first proposed back in 2005, but it has taken until now to become reality.

Written by Tris Burke January 09 2023 22:41:22