Football News: Review Of The Day 30th January 2023

Review of the Day

Contracts

It is being reported in Spain that Marcos Alonso's new Barcelona deal is the latest new contract that La Liga have refused to register due to Barca's financial difficulties. They have already had Ronald Araujo's new deal rejected and an attempt to register Gavi as a first team squad player instead of an academy player was turned down. Barcelona have offloaded Memphis Depay and Gerard Pique in recent weeks but it is still not enough to bring them within La Liga's strict FFP regulations. It is believed Barca need to lose around 150-200m off their wage bill in order to register new contracts or players. Inaki Pena and Alejandro Balde's new deals are also in limbo.

Transfers

Newcastle United have signed Anthony Gordon from Everton for a fee which could eventually reach £45m.

Brighton & Hove Albion have said they want to keep Moises Caicedo, despite his plea to leave. Head coach Roberto de Zerbi told the media that they need him in their battle to qualify for Europe.

Chelsea have signed teenage French right-back Malo Gusto from Olympique Lyonnais for around £30m, with the youngster joining up with the Blues in the summer.

Leicester City have signed Brazilian winger Tete from Shakhtar Donetsk on loan.

Watford defender Mattie Pollock has joined Aberdeen on loan.

Michael Obafemi has signed for Burnley on loan with a view to a permanent move from Swansea City.

Middlesbrough have paid an undisclosed fee to Rotherham United for Dan Barlaser.

Curtis Nelson has been released by Cardiff City and signed for Blackpool.

Cheltenham Town have paid an undisclosed fee to Sligo Rovers for Aiden Keena.

Major League Soccer's New York Red Bulls have signed Elias Manoel from Gremio.

Pau FC have taken Yanis Begraoui on loan from Toulouse.

Sassuolo have sent Janis Antiste to Amiens on loan a day after signing him from Spezia.

Olympique Marseille have paid £6m for Azzedine Ounahi from Angers SCO.

Hellas Verona have taken Ondrej Dud on loan from 1.FC Koln.

The son of Celtic legend Henrik Larsson, Jordan Larsson has joined FC Copenhagen on loan from Schalke 04.

RWD Molenbeek in Belgium's Challenger Pro League have taken Camilo on loan from Lyon. Also leaving Olympique Lyonnais on loan is Romain Faivre for a loan fee of £800,000 to spend the rest of the season with Lorient.

VfL Wolfsburg winger Josip Brekalo has joined Fiorentina.

Troyes have spent £2m on teenage winger Alexis Tibidi from VfB Stuttgart.

Bayern Munich are in talks with Manchester City in an attempt to sign Portugese full-back Joao Cancelo.

Wolverhampton Wanderers have completed the signing of Joao Gomes from Flamengo for a fee of around £15m.

Brighton & Hove Albion have signed teenage midfielder Yasin Ayari from AIK Stockholm for under £5m. They have also rejected another bid for Moises Caicedo from Arsenal.

Weston McKennie is close to a loan move to Leeds United from Juventus, with a view to making a permanent move.

Naouirou Ahamada is having a medical ahead of a move to Crystal Palace from VfB Stuttgart.

Newcastle United are set to sign Harrison Ashby from West Ham United.

Hibernian have taken CJ Egan-Riley on loan from Burnley.

Watford have signed Britt Assombalonga from Adana Demirspor.

Fleetwood Town have paid "substantial" undisclosed fees for Jack Marriott from Peterborough United and Jayden Stockley from Charlton Athletic.

Forest Green Rovers goalkeeper Luke McGee has joined Derby County on loan.

Teenage winger Louie Barry has been loaned to League Two Salford City from Aston Villa.

Galatasaray have paid a £300,000 loan fee to take Kaan Ayhan on loan from Sassuolo.

Moustapha Cisse has joined Sudtirol on loan from Atalanta.

Michael Cuisance have moved to Sampdoria on loan from Venezia.

Werder Bremen have sent Oliver Burke to Millwall on loan.

Perugia have signed Leonardo Capezzi from Salernitana.

VfB Stuttgart have paid around £700,000 for Japanese midfielder Genki Haraguchi from Union Berlin. They have also signed Gil Dias from Benfica.

Nantes have taken Andy Delort on loan from OGC Nice.

Hellas Verona have loaned Ivan Ilic to Torino.

Maximilian Philipp has moved to Werder Bremen on loan from VfL Wolfsburg.

AS Roma have received a £1m loan fee in return for loaning Eldor Shomurodov to Spezia.

Major League Soccer's New York Red Bulls forward Patryk Klimala has signed for Hapoel Beer Sheva. Joining the MLS team is Elias Manoel from Gremio.

Salomon Rondon has joined River Plate. The forward was a free agent after being released by Everton.

Radja Nainggolan has joined SPAL on a free transfer from Royal Antwerp.

Former Tottenham Hotspur forward Tomas Pekhart has joined Legia Warsaw. He was released by Gaziantep in November.

Parma have signed Luca Zanimacchia on loan from Cremonese.

Darlington have signed Theo Williams from Sheffield United, Nathan Newall from Sunderland and Niall Brookwell from Newcastle United, all on loan.

Former Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder David Davis has moved to Solihull Moors on loan from Forest Green Rovers.

Leaving Wolves on loan is Chem Campbell who has joined fellow Wanderers, Wycombe.

Southampton forward Luke Pearce has moved to Eastbourne Borough on loan.

Nicolo Zaniolo has removed the mention of AS Roma from his social media biography as he looks to find a move away, though he has rejected an offer from Bournemouth despite the two clubs agreeing a fee. Zaniolo was followed by a group of Roma fans on Sunday night and insulted and threatened near his home. The situation got to the point that Jose Mourinho called the police in to intervene. Zaniolo has handed in a transfer request after falling out of favour under Mourinho. A banner was also hung outside Roma's training complex looking for "cowards, profiteers and men of little account" to be sent from the club.

Augsburg have completed the signing of Nathanael Mbuku from Stade Rennais.

Thomas Delaney has moved to TSG 1899 Hoffenheim on loan from Sevilla.

Rot-Weiss Essen have signed Torben Musel from Borussia Moenchengladbach.

Olympique Lyonnais president Jean-Michel Aulas has hit out at PSG for what he termed as an "insulting" bid for teenage midfielder Rayan Cherki. Lyon have completed the signing of Amin Sarr from Heerenveen for a fee of 11m euros.

Brest hve signed Alberth Elis on loan from Girondins Bordeaux with an option to make the deal permanent.

Injury Round Up

Queens Park Rangers are "closely monitoring" Scottish striker Lyndon Dykes after he was admitted to hospital last week. QPR have not given any further details, other than wishing him a quick and safe recovery.

Sunderland fear Ross Stewart has "a bad injury" after the Scotland international was stretchered off on Saturday with an Achilles injury.

Northampton Town forward Kieron Bowie will be sidelined for the next 2 months after picking up an injury in training.

Juventus striker Arkadiusz Milik has suffered a serious thigh injury. He is expected to miss two months.

Job Changes

Aberdeen have put their former midfielder Barry Robson in temporary control of team affairs while they look for a long-term replacement for Jim Goodwin.

Wigan Athletic have once again turned to a rookie manager as they look to avoid the drop from the Championship. Following the recent sacking of Kolo Toure, after just 9 games in charge, this time it is the turn of their former winger Shaun Maloney to try and drag the Latics off the bottom of the table. Maloney's only previous foray into management was with Hibernian, where he lasted just 19 games before being sacked in April. Graham Barrow has returned to Wigan as assistant to Maloney.

Everton have finally confirmed the appointment of Sean Dyche as new manager and he will be assisted by Ian Woan and Steve Stone, to make it a trio of former Nottingham Forest players at the helm.

Disciplinary Charges

A former vice-president of Valencia has accused the club and Barcelona of false acccounting, the same charge which has seen Juventus docked 15 points in Serie A. Miguel Zorio has made an official complaint to the anti-corruption department in Spain, alleging that Valencia and Barcelona were involved in a shady deal when Neto Murara moved to Barcelona from Valencia and Jasper Cillesen went the other way in 2019, both deals adding up to 35m euros. Zorio has accused Valencia owner Peter Lim, former presidents Amadeo Salvo, Anil Murthy and current club president Layhoon Chan of false accounting, misappropriation, disloyal administration and corruption between individuals. Barcelona are also accused of benefitting from the same process, which happened under the watch of former Barca president Josep Maria Bartomeu. 'Super' agent Jorge Mendes and investment funds Benfica Stars Fund and Quality Sports Investment have also been implicated. Zorio has claimed that the deal was intended to avoid Lim having to face 30m euros of losses for the financial year and that La Liga turned a blind eye. Zorio is currently attempting to buy Valencia, looking to force Lim out of his controlling interest in Los Che and has a proposal to buy shares in the club on the table.

The FIGC court has confirmed the reasoning behind the 15 point deduction that Juventus were hit with. The court rulled that Juve were found to "have committed a sporting disciplinary offence, taking into account the seriousness and the repeated and prolonged nature of the violation. As far as the sanction is concerned, the Court has taken into account the particular gravity and the repeated and prolonged nature of the violation and the intensity and diffusion of awareness of the situation in the conversations between the managers of FC Juventus S.p.A. In the face of a picture of the facts radically different due to the impressive amount of documents received from the Turin Public Prosecutor's Office that highlighted the intentionality underlying the alteration of the transfer operations and the relative values." Juve are still facing investigation by the Turin Public Prosecutor's Office over alleged secret salary agreements with their players. Juventus have responded with the following statement: "Juventus Football Club and its legal team have carefully read and will analyse in depth the justifications, recently published, pertaining to the decision of the United Sections of the Federal Court of Appeal. It is a document, predictable in terms of content, in light of the heavy decision, but vitiated by obvious illogicalities, motivational deficiencies and unfounded in terms of law, which the Company and individuals will oppose with an appeal to the Guarantee Board at CONI within the set deadlines. The validity of Juventus' reasons will be asserted firmly, albeit with the respect due to the institutions that issued it."

According to reports in Italy, Italian Police have seized an envelope containing a bullet and threatening letter aimed at Sampdoria's majority owner Massimo Ferrero and the man who sold him the stake, Edoardo Garrone. Samp are currently in a mess and up for sale, but are struggling to find a buyer that will give Ferrero the renumeration he wants for his controlling interest.

The wife of Sassuolo winger Domenico Berardi has reported a number of threatening messages to police following Berardi's starring role in a 5-2 win over AC Milan. Francesca Fantuzzi said that she was sent a number of intimidating and insulting messages on Instagram, including threats to kill her husband, who scored one and assisted three in the rout.

It has been revealed that Stade Reims are fined 25,000 euros each match that Will Still, the youngest manager in Ligue 1 at the age of 30, takes charge of. Still is currently studying for his UEFA Pro-License, which is a requirement to be a head coach in the French top flight. Until he gets it Reims will continue to be fined every game. With Reims on a 12-match unbeaten run, including holding Paris Saint-Germain to a draw on Sunday, I am sure the club are happy to continue to pay the fine!

Pointless List Of The Day

Barca V La Liga?

The battle between Barcelona and La Liga seems set to step up as La Liga president Javier Tebas has been accused of trying to leak information to smear Barca president Joan Laporta. Tebas and Laporta do have a tetchy relationship, with Tebas having been on very friendly terms with Laporta's predecessor Josep Maria Bartomeu. Now a Spanish news agency called La Portera de Nunez, who were the first Spanish agency to report that Kylian Mbappe would stay at Paris Saint-Germain and reject a move to Real Madrid, have claimed on social media that Tebas is looking for someone in journalistic circles to being the smear campaign: "It is said, it is commented, it is rumoured that La Liga (well, what the hell, Tebas) is looking for half a "friend" to give the scoop on a supposed scandal involving Mr. Laporta. A smear campaign is what you get when you don't agree to sign Very Clear Blackmail. In the same way, today Tebas has been seen praising articles against the current management of the club, tiptoeing over the fact that the collapse and economic drift of this club for a decade had been approved. And now, suddenly, the vigilance is redoubled?" The articles referred to are by Marcal Llorente in Mundo Deportivo, who has defended La Liga from criticism over its handling of Barca in recent months. Llorente in the past was paid hundreds of thousands of euros by Barcelona under Bartomeu to put spin on stories to suit Bartomeu's wishes. Usually involving a negative or positive representation of people around the club. Llorente has been a regular writer of attacks on Laporta, who has been a long-term rival of Bartomeu's.

Written by Tris Burke January 30 2023 19:18:13