Football News: Review Of The Day 3rd September 2018

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Review of the Day

Transfers

Yaya Toure has returned to Olympiakos on a free transfer after being released by Manchester City this summer. The 35 year old had previously spent a season there, winning a domestic double before heading off to join Monaco.

Birmingham City's Italian forward Diego Fabbrini has left the club for Romanian league side FC Botosani on a free transfer.

Another free agent has found a new club as French attacker Hatem Ben Arfa signs for Stade Rennais. The former Newcastle United and Hull City winger was released by Paris Saint-Germain in the summer.

Former Liverpool youngster Samed Yesil once more finds himself a free agent after Greek Super League side Panionios have released the German striker.

Scotland Squad Suffers From Premature Withdrawals

Things have got so bad for the Scotland team that West Ham United's hapless (or should it be hopeless?) Robert Snodgrass has got a recall, after they lost West Bromwich Albion's Matt Phillips, Fulham midfielder Tom Cairney and Celtic defender Jack Hendry. Rangers midfielder Ryan Jack was also drafted in to cover the gaps in the squad. I know they say desperation makes for strange bed fellows but surely Scotland must have someone who offers more than Snodgrass to call upon. This is the nation that produced great players like Law and Dalglish, now reliant on a player that you watch and makes you wonder if he is a bloke from the crowd who won a competition to play the game. He even has the rotund figure of a pub league player!

Pointless Banners Are Still In Vogue

Once more a group of fans have got together to waste their money on having a banner towed across the sky behind a plane over a football match. I have absolutely no idea what the point is in doing this but they obviously felt a banner reading 'Ed Woodward A Specialist In Failure' is going to change something within Manchester United. Bizarrely. It seems like the only real objective was to get the group paying for it some publicity, which it has achieved, though it has also achieved the objective of making them look like idiots with too much money. It just seems such a ridiculous thing to do, we all know it is false anyway, there is no way Ed Woodward specialises in anything other than being a scapegoat.

Hodgson Makes Confusing Benteke Comment

With Christian Benteke once again flopping for Crystal Palace at the weekend questions were asked of Palace manager Roy Hodgson about him. Hodgson replied: "Of course the moment may well come when we think, 'Better do something about this'. And, as we get players back fit like Wilf Zaha and (James) Tomkins, the options will become greater. It depends what your options are, doesn't it? We still consider [Benteke] to be our best option in that position. Had we had other options, maybe we might have considered those too. All the time he is working as hard as he is and trying as hard, it might not be the right moment (to make a change). We encourage him as best we can. We encourage him to concentrate hard on the things he can do. We encourage him to realise that it is not just about scoring goals. There are other things he needs to do to make us a successful team and get us points. We do all the things any sensible manager and coaching staff would do. If he goes away with Belgium [during the international football break], maybe gets a chance to play in one of the games, scores a couple of goals, that would be great for us." I am not sure he understood the question, unless he is suggesting that Tomkins could replace Benteke up front? Let's face it he could hardly be any worse. More worryingly he was suggesting Benteke could get a call up for Belgium. Surely they have a better option that Benteke available for these internationals? Jean Claude Van-Damme is Belgian for starters and he has a hell of a kick on him. He might be getting on a bit now, but Benteke doesn't do movement anyway, so he is not competing with much. The guy who invented the saxophone is Belgian too, he could distract opponents by playing it. My grandad once went to Belgium, just after D-Day his was the first Allied tank into the country, and that would make him eligible under the Jack Charlton Irish call-up ruling, as he drank a local beer while there. Ok he may have passed away 20 years ago now, but I would still back him to score more than Benteke....(does it show there is not much news about today and I am having to fill up the page a bit?!?)

Danish Players In Rights Dispute

The Denmark national side are desperately scrabbling about trying to put together a side for the UEFA Nations League match against Wales on the 9th of September after a rights dispute with players such as Christian Eriksen has left them unlikely to be available. The Danish FA (DBU) have been trying to negotiate a new commercial deal with players, as they look to raise more funds for community projects. The players' union is refusing to sign the deal on offer due to personal sponsorship deals they already have in place. The players had asked for the previous deal to be renewed until after this next friendly break, to give the two sides time to end the impasse, but the DBU refuse to wait. DBU communications manager Jakob Hoyer said: "The parties disagree strongly about how it should be interpreted. We cannot continue with an agreement where there are such big ambiguities and where we lose so much money. We do not want to negotiate so close to international matches. That was what happened in 2015 and led to a historically poor national team agreement that has created so many problems." This does seem to be a particular problem in Denmark, where the women's team actually boycotted a World Cup qualifier in October 2017 over an employment conditions dispute. That led to a warning from UEFA that any more games cancelled by a Danish national team would see them banned from European competition for 4 years. So, if your Danish neighbour suddenly vanishes over the next couple of days, they probably haven't been kidnapped, they have just been called up to the national team.

Welcome To Madrid Vinicius!

Brazilian teenager Vinicius Jr., who joined Real Madrid in June, a year after signing from Flamengo for over £35m, has got his first taste of a Madrid welcome in a B game derby match with Atletico Madrid. The youngster netted both of his side's goals in a 2-2 draw but he will probably remember the game more because of Atleti's captain Tachi, who bit the youngster on the head. Somehow Tachi only got booked for the bite, while Vinicius was also booked for dissent. They do often say Madrid derbies are tasty affairs. (Apologies for the bad gags in today's review.)

Written by Tris Burke September 03 2018 06:26:17