Football News: Liverpool Set To Lose Striker, AC Milan Take Former Player To Court Over False Age Claims And More

1. Ozil set to wear laceless boots
Arsenal and Germany playmaker Mesut Ozil is set to wear revolutionary laceless boots when the Gunners face off against Chelsea next weekend. Adidas responded to his complaints about laces interfering with control by developing the boots. "My whole career I have tried to minimise the impact of laces on my strike and ball control," Ozil said. "I revealed to adidas in 2014 that in the changing room I knot the laces over and over again and then tuck in the ends, that way they do not interfere with my touch. When they came to me last year with the laceless boots, it was like they have created my dream product. I cannot wait to wear them on the pitch." Now he has no excuse for not setting a massive new Premier League assists record!

2. Transfer round up
Renatinho Palmeira to Ponte Preta on loan
Ivan Marcone Arsenal de Sarandi to CA Lanus on loan
Juan Sanchez Sotelo Defensa y Justicia to Arsenal de Sarandi free
Stefano Pettinari Vicenza to AS Roma loan return
Patrick Ekeng Ekeng unattached to Dinamo Bucharest
Diego Lugano Cerro Porteno to Sao Paulo free
Jerry Akaminko released by Eskisehirspor
Henri Saivet Girondins Bordeaux to Newcastle United £4.2m
Martin Campana Defensor to Independiente on loan (fee £97,000)
Joseph Marie Minala Lazio to Bari on loan
Federico Moretti Latina Calcio to Vicenza on loan
Luca Crecco Lazio to Modena on loan
Henrique Napoli to Fluminese £1.4m
Ignacio Fideleff Napoli to Nacional undisclosed fee
Oswaldo Henriquez Millionarios to Sport Club do Recife undisclosed fee
Thiago Cionek Modena to Palermo £245,000
Paulinho Luverdense to Novorizontino on loan
Ariel Borysiuk Lechia Gdansk to Legia Warsaw £350,000
Lewis Grabban Norwich City to Bournemouth £6.55m
Srdjan Luchin Poli Timisoara to Levski Sofia free
George Tucudean Charlton Athletic to ASA Tirgu Mures on loan
Felipe Santana Schalke 04 to Kuban Krasnodar free
Jungo Fujimoto Yokohama F-Marinos to Gamba Osaka undisclosed fee
Maxi Rodriguez Gremio to Penarol on loan
Marcelo Mattos Vitoria to Vasco de Gama free
Josip Kvesic Antalyaspor to Karsiyaka on loan
Ezequiel Cirigliano River Plate to CA Tigre on loan
Ignacio Fernandez Gimnasia to River Plate £1.4m

 

3. Mutu finds new club
Former Chelsea forward Adrian Mutu, he of the positive cocaine test and subsequent court battle with the London club, has found himself a new club after leaving the Indian Super League. With Euro 2016 coming up in the summer, the 37 year old has headed to his homeland to sign for ASA Tirgu Mures in the hopes of forcing his way into the Romania squad. Mutu had been at Pune City, but with their season over until after the Euros had finished, he has had to find a new club to give him hope of adding to his 77 caps during Euro 2016.

4. Liverpool set to lose young striker
Liverpool are struggling to score goals at the moment, but the answer to their problem is clearly not Jerome Sinclair, as the 19 year old refuses to sign a new contract with the Merseyside giants. Sinclair, whose contract expires in the summer, has recently become a client of the controversial Aidy Ward, who used his success in engineering a move for Raheem Sterling, from Liverpool to Manchester City, as a lure to add Sinclair to his client list. Sinclair was signed from West Bromwich Albion's youth academy as a 14 year old and became Liverpool's youngest ever player when he made his debut against his former club back in 2012 at the age of 16. He has only made four senior appearances for the Reds since then, one being against Exeter City in the recent FA Cup 3rd Round draw, where he also added his first goal for the club. Now the youngster is set to move on, just at a time when the club are desperate for a goalgetter.

 

5. Scunny sack Fergie's saviour
Scunthorpe United have sacked their manager Mark Robins, along with his assistant David Kelly, after their 5-0 thrashing at the hands of Blackpool. Robins, though most famous for the FA Cup goal which saved Alex Ferguson's career at Manchester United, has managed Huddersfield Town, Barnsley, Rotherham United and Coventry City, as well as Scunny. Now the 46 year old will leave the Iron in 16th place in League One. A club statement read: 'Scunthorpe United Football Club have terminated the contracts of manager Mark Robins and assistant manager Ned Kelly with immediate effect.' Scunthorpe chairman Peter Swann said: "We are sad to part company with Mark and Ned, but we have to think about the best interests of Scunthorpe United Football Club. We wish Mark and Ned all the best for the future."

6. Stoke chairman hits out at Ramsey chants
Stoke City chairman Peter Coates has joined in the chorus of disapproval towards his own team's fans after yesterday's clash with Arsenal, where the Stoke fans were booing Aaron Ramsey for getting his leg broken by the Potters' defender Ryan Shawcross in 2010. While he agreed the chants of 'Aaron Ramsey, he walks with a limp' were distasteful, Coates also admitted he intends to do nothing about stopping them happening again in the future. "You're telling me something that I'm completely unaware of. I've no idea that chant had taken place, but we wouldn't approve of it at all," Coates told the Guardian. "I don't think it's a minority of fans; I know it's a minority. People chant all sorts of awful things at all sorts of grounds, which I dislike. But do I approve of that sort of chanting? Of course I don't. You go around football grounds and hear some chanting I don't like. I wish they didn't do it but how do you control these things? You can't. The best thing is to shut your ears in a way, like he [Wenger] said: switch off and ignore it as best you can. I think the sooner we forget about these things the better, [otherwise] I think all you do is almost keep it going. But this is not something we would want our supporters to be doing."

 

7. Milan take former player to court over age claims
AC Milan are taking a former player to court over allegations he was actually nine years older than he said he was. Yusupha Yaffa, who currently plays for MSC Duisburg in Germany, arrived in Italy in 2009 from the Gambia and claimed asylum. Yaffa had said he was, depending on which report you read, 12 or 13 on arrival, when he was actually 21 or 22. Milan gave him a youth trial in which he impressed, unsurprisingly if he was in his 20s!

Yusupha Yaffa es acusado en Italia por estafar al Milan por mentir en su edad. Tendría 28 y no 19. pic.twitter.com/yC6JYsYcEY

— Jaime F. Macias (@Jaimefmacias) January 17, 2016

Yaffa told the club on a number of occasions that he had lost his identity documents during the move abroad. However his Facebook profile had remarks about his education which did not fit with a child of the age he claimed to be and then several former schoolmates saw the profile and disputed it. His lawyer is now trying to have the case moved to a juvenile court, claiming Yaffa was underage when the alleged offence took place. If found guilty of defrauding Milan, Yaffa could faces charges from his current club as well.

8. Dundee United warn fans over smoke bombs
Scottish football is currently facing a wave of incidents involving pyrotechnics, with fireworks and flares becoming an increasingly common sight at their grounds. A clash between Dundee United and Celtic was marred by United supporters letting off smoke bombs at Tannadice on Friday and the club has warned fans that they will not tolerate the use of pyrotechnics. A club statement read: "Dundee United would like to remind supporters about a zero tolerance policy with regard to the use and carrying of pyrotechnics. The use of pyrotechnics, including smoke bombs and flares, within football stadiums is extremely dangerous and a serious offence. Any supporter identified to have committed such an act will be banned by the club and also subject to the possibility of criminal prosecution. Dundee United Football Club will work closely with the police, security and football authorities to eradicate this, and other, types of spectator misconduct. We would also like to remind supporters that if there are incidents of this nature in the future the football authorities have the power to impose serious sanctions including financial penalty and order matches to be played behind closed doors. The club urges all supporters to assist us in this matter and help end this unacceptable behaviour." Celtic recently banned three supporters from attending matches after flares were let off during a Scottish Cup tie at Stranraer.

 

9. A breathtaking piece of control by Neymar Jr
Normally when a ball is hit right across the pitch, the control is dodgy and the player receiving it will end up having to chase after it. Not so when the cross field pass is played during a Barcelona game to Neymar, who controlled it beautifully:

10. Midfielder rubbishes talk of Bilic reunion
Besiktas midfielder Veli Kavlak has ruled out a move to West Ham United, despite media reports in Turkey that he was keen to link up with Slaven Bilic again. The Austrian international insists he is happy where he is, at least for now, after signing a new contract recently. "Currently I am not interested in a move to West Ham United," Kavlak told Radikal. "I recently signed a four-year contract extension with Besiktas."

Written by Tris Burke January 18 2016 17:08:00