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Football News: Review Of The Day 31st January 2018

Review Of The Day 31st January 2018
Image from: knowyourmeme.com

Review of the Day

 

Mahrez Hands In Transfer Request Again

Leicester City winger Riyad Mahrez has handed in another transfer request to his club amid interest from Man City, who are looking for cover while Leroy Sane is out injured. Following the arrival of Aymeric Laporte yesterday, Pep Guardiola said: "I have interest in a lot of players, good players, there are many, the window is open until the 31st," said Guardiola. "We spoke many times with the club to see what is the best with the players we have. Right now we have just three strikers with Raheem (Sterling), for the next month or month and a half. Gabriel is coming maybe in the next five or six weeks, we don't have too much and we play every three days. We have to find solutions." That despite Guardiola saying he could not afford to buy players. This is the second time Mahrez has handed in a transfer request, as he did the same in the summer when Roma showed interest.

 

First Cryptocurrency Transfer Completed

Amateur Turkish side Harunustaspor have become the first side to pay for a transfer in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. They paid Omer Faruk Kiroglu 0.0524 Bitcoin, as well as 2500 Turkish lira, to join.

 


Transfers

Manchester City have brought in another player from a sister club only to send him straight off on loan. This time it is New York City FC of the MLS who have lost their star man Jack Harrison to their sister club. Harrison immediately went out on loan to Middlesbrough to become new manager Tony Pulis' first signing at the club.

Another to come in to Man City was French defender Aymeric Laporte from Athletic Bilbao for a club record fee of £57m. Laporte has not yet managed to break into the France team but his arrival has cost more than the previous club record fee paid to sign Kevin de Bruyne in 2015. "I am looking forward to working under manager Pep Guardiola and trying to help the club to achieve success," Laporte told the City website. "It means a lot that the club have shown faith in me and I am excited to get started."

Watford have signed Belgium U21 winger Dodi Lukebakio from Anderlecht. The 20 year old has made one appearance for DR Congo's international side in a friendly but has been playing for Belgium's U21s this season. He comes in from Charleroi, where he had been on loan.

Chelsea have picked up a signing that might finally put a smile back on Antonio Conte's face. Emerson Palmieri has joined from AS Roma. The 23 year old has been missing for the first part of the season with a knee injury.

Summer Everton signing Sandro Ramirez has already returned to Spain as he joins Sevilla on loan for the rest of the season. Sandro has been out of favour under new Toffees boss Sam Allardyce, after just one goal in his 15 appearances for the club.

Crawley Town have completed the loan signing of Charlton Athletic forward Karlan Ahearne-Grant until the end of the season. Ahearne-Grant has become Crawley boss Harry Kewell's first signing of the January window.

Preston North End defender Andy Boyle has joined Doncaster Rovers on loan. Boyle has only made 12 appearances for Preston since joining the club last January from League of Ireland side Dundalk.

Tobias Figueiredo has swapped Sporting Club of Portugal for Nottingham Forest on loan until the end of the season. Figueiredo came through Sporting's academy.

Wolverhampton Wanderers have completed the permanent signing of Portugese forward Diogo Jota. The 21 year old will sign in the summer at the end of his current loan to Wolves. The Atletico Madrid forward was already on a season-long loan move from Atletico to Wolves and had scored 11 goals in 29 Championship appearances.

 

Joe Rodon has completed a loan move from Swansea City to Cheltenham Town. The 20 year old defender will spend the rest of the season with the League Two team.

Irish forward Chiedozie Ogbene has completed a permanent deal to join Brentford following a successful trial spell. Ogbene has joined the Bees for an undisclosed fee from Limerick.

League Two's Port Vale have taken defender Charlie Raglan of Oxford United on loan.

Striker Alex Revell has left Northampton Town to sign for Stevenage on a free transfer. The 34 year old agreed an 18 month deal with League Two side Stevenage. Revell's replacement was Kevin van Veen on an undisclosed fee from League One rivals Scunthorpe United.

MK Dons have moved to bolster their defence with a couple of loan signings. Centre back Elliot Ward has arrived from League One rivals Blackburn Rovers, while youngster Josh Tymon has come in from Stoke City.

Scottish midfielder Gregg Wylde has joined Morecambe on loan from Plymouth Argyle.

Barcelona have signed a youngster from Arsenal, in a reverse of the trend that has seen Spanish youngsters move to England in the past. 18 year old midfielder Marcus McGuane has signed for an undisclosed fee to join Barca's B Team. His buy out clause has been set at 25m Euros.

Panionios have taken 23 year old Krystian Nowak from Hearts. The Pole was out of favour under Craig Levein.

CSKA Moscow have sealed the return of forward Ahmed Musa from Leicester City on loan until the end of the season. The Nigerian international has struggled to adapt to English football since arriving in July 2016.

Swansea City's Spanish midfielder Roque Mesa has joined Sevilla on loan until the end of the season. Sevilla have also signed Miguel Layun on loan from Porto for the rest of the season.

Danny Wilson has completed a move from Rangers in the SPFL to MLS side Colorado Rapids for an undisclosed fee. The defender would have been out of contract in the summer.

 

SFA Rule Out Ibrox And Celtic Park

The future home of Scottish football has now come down to a straight shootout between Hampden Park and Murrayfield after the home stadiums of Celtic and Rangers were ruled out. The SFA's current lease deal with Queen's Park, the owners of Hampden, runs out in 2020 and they are keen to explore other options and invited the Scottish Rugby Union to pitch for their stadium Murrayfield. Murrayfield, in Edinburgh, has a capacity that surpasses current home Hampden by 15,000 seats. A statement from the FA said: "Having considered all submissions and supporting documentation, the board has decided at this time to further develop two positive options: remaining at Hampden Park beyond 2020 and moving to BT Murrayfield. This decision was taken after considering the financial implications of all proposals submitted. Given the complexity of the discussion - as well as the social, economic and emotional impact of any final decision - the board was unanimous that more work requires to be undertaken to bring further clarity and certainty to any final decision."

 

Wenger Admits Aubameyang Deal Is Complicated

Arsenal's move to sign Gabonese forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has dragged on throughout the window as manager Arsene Wenger admits the deal is 'complicated'. With France forward Olivier Giroud seeming to wave goodbye after he came off the bench during the Gunner's defeat to Swansea City last night, it seems the deal must be close for Giroud to be replaced. However Wenger has intimated that the moves are in the balance: "Every detail can make deals and the deals nowadays are so complicated that, so long as you have not finished it, you cannot be too confident - it doesn't help too much," Wenger said.

 

Chelsea Launch Antisemitism Campaign

Chelsea football club have got together with organisations such as Holocaust Educational Trust, Jewish Museum London, World Jewish Congress, Anne Frank House and Kick It Out to begin an initiative to tackle antisemitism in football. Antonio Conte said: "Tonight the club is launching a new campaign to raise awareness of antisemitism in football. This is a very serious issue, not only in the sport, but also in society, and it is important that we all reject discrimination of any kind. Football is loved by people from every different background, and we are very proud to welcome everybody to Chelsea." Jeff Mostyn, chairman of opponents for tonight Bournemouth, has pledged his club's support for the campaign.

 

Dyche Considering Possibilities To End Injury Crisis

Burnley have been hit by an injury crisis this season, something they have not had to worry about in past seasons under Sean Dyche. The Clarets boss is now looking into possible causes in an attempt to find a solution to the problems. Dyche was already making do without Tom Heaton, Robbie Brady, Stephen Ward, Jon Walters and Chris Wood before being hit by injuries to James Tarkowski, Steven Defour and Dean Marney this week. Defour may yet need to undergo surgery on his knee problem. "It's a tough one, you question things," Dyche said. "Then a player will go for an op and the specialist will say he's in unbelievable shape, so therefore we're not far away from what we think is correct. There's a lot of good things, but you don't want to put it (the growing injury list) off as an 'oh well'. That's not how we work here. Everything is done for a reason, so there's a thought about what can we do? It's unlikely we can do that much but we still consider our side of it. Are they refuelling right? Are they hydrating right? Is their training and strength and conditioning right? Are they getting enough rest, emotional rest, how is their private life and their wellbeing? They're important things. When I talk about injuries, it's about trying to control the things that are controllable, such as soft tissue problems," he added. "The big ones, such as Robbie and Tom, you can't do anything about them. We've had knee (ligaments) here in the past. You can't do anything about them. If someone twists funny in the middle of a game, or lands funny, or someone lands on them, there's nothing you can do about that. We always look at how the training is and how the feel is. In the Championship, for example, there are lots of games, but it's more or less regular games, Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday. The Premier League is all over the place, different games, different training formats. We've looked at that. Changes in pitch surfaces, we've looked at it. Our own regime and how we run it, we've looked at that. Days off, rest, we've looked at that. Sometimes it's just all of those things coming together, out of your hands, rather than the controllables. We try to look at what we're doing, to try to minimise those moments and make the body strong enough to cope with those moments."

 

Luiz Praised By Christensen

Despite Brazilian defender David Luiz being Andreas Christensen's main opposition for a place in the Chelsea line up, Christensen has heaped praise on the 30 year old. "David makes it easy for everyone, that's just the way he is," he told ESPN FC. "He's a little bit like JT [John Terry]. I remember one of my first visits [to Chelsea] and David was here. I wanted to take a picture with him and he did this weird face to the camera. He's just the same now. Coming into the team [as a young player] he's a little bit like JT, you just feel his vibe and he wants to succeed as well. He's made it a lot easier to come back from the loan spell and come into the team. Having met him and been in the squad with him before, and then come back, he wants the best for the club, for everyone in it, and you can feel that every day."

Written by Tris Burke January 31 2018 06:34:50