Football News: Review Of The Day 6th February 2023

Review of the Day

Contracts

Arsenal forward Gabriel Martinelli has signed a new long-term deal which runs until 2027 with an option for a further year.

Experienced German goalkeeper Kevin Trapp has signed a similar contract with Eintracht Frankfurt but just for one less year initially than Martinelli's. Eintracht have also given veteran keeper Jens Grahl a deal until 2026, but without an option for a further year.

Norwich City's Irish international striker Adam Idah has a new contract with the Canaries which will not expire until 2028.

Harvey Macadam has signed a 2 and a half year deal with Fleetwood Town.

Montpellier teenager Khalil Fayad has signed up until 2027.

Everton goalkeeper Zan Luk Leban has extended his deal until 2025.

Racing Lens defender Jonathan Gradit has been tied down until 2026.

Veteran former Manchester United full-back Matteo Darmian is contracted until 2024 with an option for a further year with Inter Milan.

The son of Obafemi Martins, Kevin Maussi Martins, has signed his first professional contract with Monza.

Former Manchester United defender Chris Smalling is eligible to trigger an automatic contract extension in his AS Roma contract. Roma's Sporting Director Tiago Pinto revealed the news amid rumours that Inter Milan are interested in signing the 33-year-old.

Experienced Union Berlin striker Kevin Behren has signed up until 2024 with an option for a further year.

PSG Sporting Director Luis Campos has revealed that they are in talks with Lionel Messi over a contract extension.

Transfers

Nottingham Forest have signed free agent forward Andre Ayew.

Blackburn Rovers have appealed against the English Football League's decision to refuse to register their two deadline day signings due to late submission of paperwork. Blackburn missed out on Lewis O'Brien on loan from Nottingham Forest and Rochdale midfielder Ethan Brierley on a permanent deal due to the EFL decision.

Former Middlesbrough striker Viktor Fischer has moved to AIK Stockholm on loan from Royal Antwerp.

A move for Julian Araujo to join Barcelona from Major League Soccer franchise Los Angeles Galaxy fell through after the Catalans failed to register the right-back on time.

Former Manchester United winger Adnan Januzaj has joined Basaksehir on loan from Sevilla.

Young Wolverhampton Wanderers defender Yerson Mosquera has joined MLS side FC Cincinnati on loan.

Nottingham Forest have sent Ui-jo Hwang to FC Seoul on loan.

Bayern Munich's Sporting Director Hasan Salihamidzic has admitted that they will struggle to afford to pay the money to make Joao Cancelo's loan move from Manchester City into a permanent deal, despite having the option to do so. A fee of just over £60m has been agreed between the two clubs for the Portugese international full-back, who is equally at home on either flank.

Injury Round Up

Paris Saint-Germain striker Kylian Mbappe has picked up a thigh injury which will sideline him for 3 weeks.

St Mirren forward Jonah Ayunga has been ruled out for the rest of the season after coming on as a substitute on Saturday against Motherwell and suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury. The 25 year old will have surgery and is expected to be missing for at least 6 months.

Sunderland's Scotland striker Ross Stewart will not play again this season due to an Achilles injury that will require an operation.

Sean Morrison has a "severe tear of his quad" which will require surgery and mean he misses the rest of the season.

A groin injury has put Derby County midfielder Max Bird out of action for up to 5 weeks.

Newport County's Declan Drysdale has been sidelined for around 10 weeks due to a knee injury. The 23-year-old has undergone surgery to fix the problem and will now be fighting to get fit in time for the final stages of the season.

Unsurprisingly former Chelsea winger Eden Hazard is injured again, at least the 18th injury the Belgian flop has suffered at Real Madrid. This time the £150m signing has a knee injury.

Sergio Busquets is facing a spell on the sidelines after hurting his ankle and needing to be taken off just 3 minutes into the win over Sevilla at the weekend. He is expected to be out for at least 2 weeks.

Job Changes

Crystal Palace first-team coach Shaun Derry has left the club. Derry was promoted to first-team coach by Patrick Vieira in August 2021 from a position as Under-23s Head Coach.

Chelsea have changed the role of two of their new employees to become Sporting Directors. Laurence Stewart was initially hired as a Technical Director from AS Monaco in October, but is only set to take up the job next week after serving his notice period with the Ligue 1 side. Paul Winstanley was appointed a month later, after being recruited from Brighton & Hove Albion as Head of Recruitment. The duo will be responsible for overseeing "the entire sporting team, comprising talent, scouting, recruitment and data".

Disciplinary Charges

Manchester United forward Mason Greenwood has had charges of attempted and assault made against dropped. A Crown Prosecution Service spokesperson said: "We have a duty to keep cases under continuous review. In this case a combination of the withdrawal of key witnesses and new material that came to light meant there was no longer a realistic prospect of conviction. In these circumstances, we are under a duty to stop the case. We have explained our decision to all parties. We would always encourage any potential victims to come forward and report to police and we will prosecute wherever our legal test is met." Greenwood is curently suspended by the Red Devils, who have said they will now conduct their own "process" before deciding what will happen with the 21-year-old.

Exeter City have stated that their top scorer Jevani Brown has been dropped due to a "club disciplinary matter". The 28-year-old had been the subject of a deadline day transfer bid from Portsmouth which was rejected and did not train with the team on Friday.

Sevilla have made an official complaint to La Liga after Barcelona refused to sell tickets to their fans for the La Liga clash between the two: "Sevilla FC has filed a formal complaint with FC Barcelona against the Barca club's measure to prevent the sale of tickets to Sevilla fans, as well as to prevent them from accessing them with team colours, while sending this same complaint to LaLiga for its knowledge. Sevilla FC wants to show its surprise and disagreement at the warning that is transferred to the fans interested in acquiring a ticket in the official channels of Football Club Barcelona for the match that will be played this Sunday at the Nou Camp at 21:00pm. This warning literally states: 'Purchase for fans of Sevilla Football Club is prohibited. Fans wearing Sevilla Football Club clothing or emblems will be denied access to the stadium.' The club does not understand that the message is provided or adjusted to the regulations, even if the match has been declared high risk, that a Sevilla Football Club fan cannot access the stadium wearing or wearing a shirt or scarf of his team."

Real Madrid's Brazilian forward Vinicius Jr has once again been the victim of racist abuse as his team lost at Real Mallorca to fall 8 points behind La Liga leaders Barcelona. Streaming company DAZN published footage of Mallorca fans calling the 22-year-old a monkey, a common theme in recent months as Spanish football and authorities do nothing to punish those responsible. In fact prosecutors in Madrid decided not to press charges after one incident in September as it has "lasted a few seconds" and did not constitute a crime, according to them. Vinicius has hit out at La Liga for doing nothing about the abuse he has taken, which has included objects thrown at him and even a panellist on a Spanish TV football show comparing him to a monkey while celebrating goals.

Pointless List Of The Day

Speedsdb.com lists the fastest speed of things, including footballers, so today's list is courtesy of them and is the list of the fastest Liverpool players since they started recording the speed of players. This is the outright top speed they have reached in a Liverpool shirt:
1. Darwin Nunez - 38km/h
2. Ibrahima Konate - 34.1km/h
3. Mohamed Salah - 33.9km/h
4. Kostas Tsimikas - 33.5km/h
5. Virgil van Dijk - 33.3km/h
6. Luis Diaz - 33.1km/h
7. Joel Matip - 32.9km/h
8. Joe Gomez - 32.9km/h
9. Ozan Kabak - 32.8km/h
10. Andrew Robertson - 32.1km/h
11. Tyler Morton - 31.9km/h
12. Fabio Carvalho - 31.7km/h
13. Fabinho - 31.5km/h
14. Trent Alexander-Arnold - 31.3km/h
15. Diogo Jota - 31km/h
16. Neco Williams - 31km/h
17. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain - 30.8km/h
18. Max Woltman - 30.5km/h
19. Harvey Elliott - 30.5km/h
20. Nathaniel Phillips - 30.4km/h
21. Naby Keita - 30.4km/h
22. Curtis Jones - 30.2km/h
23. James Milner - 30km/h
24. Jordan Henderson - 29.8km/h
25. Roberto Firmino - 29.6km/h
26. Rhian Brewster - 29.5km/h
27. Thiago Alcantara - 29.1km/h
28. Rhys Williams - 29km/h
29. Billy Koumetio - 29km/h
30. Jake Cain - 28.85km/h
31. Conor Bradley - 28.8km/h
32. Adam Lallana - 27.25km/h
33. Xherdan Shaqiri - 27km/h
34. Stefan Bajcetic - 26.9km/h
35. Leighton Clarkson - 26.6km/h
36. Arthur Melo - 25.1km/h
37. Alisson Becker - 25.1km/h
38. Andy Lonergan - 22.4km/h
39. Caoimhin Kelleher - 20.11km/h
40. Vitezslav Jaro - 20km/h
41. Harvey Davies - 19.35km/h
42. Adrian - 18.9km/h
To give these speeds some kind of context, Karim Adeyemi set an outright Bundesliga speed record at the weekend as the Borussia Dortmund forward was clocked at 36.65km/h.

Written by Tris Burke February 06 2023 06:08:08