Football News: Review Of The Day 20th April 2019

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Review of the Day

Trotters Relegated

Troubled Championship side Bolton Wanderers have been relegated to League One following a defeat at home by Aston Villa. Villa beat them 2-0 to equal their club record of 9 wins in a row, putting Bolton 11 points behind Millwall with three games to go.

Addo Joins Dortmund Staff

Borussia Dortmund have appointed their former forward Otto Addo as "talent coach". The ex-Ghana international is taking up a newly created role to be a link between the youth and senior teams. A Dortmund statement said: "He will be responsible for helping to promote Borussia Dortmund's most talented youngsters to the senior squad and is in charge of their supervision and additional training." Addo fulfilled a similar role at the other famous Borussia, Monchengladbach.

Moroccan Sets Saudi Record

Morrocan international Abderrazak Hamdallah has set a record for league goals in a season in Saudi Arabia (though it only created a professional league in 2007 so not that big a deal). The Al Nassr striker scored twice in a 5-0 win over Al Fateh to raise his total for the season to 29, beating the previous mark of 27 set in the 2015-16 season. The all-time record is 33 by Hamzah Idris in 1999-2000, before the league went professional. Hamdallah has two more league games to break the all-time record.

Dutch FA Play Their Part In Ajax Run

One whole round of the Eredivisie has been postponed in order to help Ajax in their Champions League run. Rather than just give Ajax a weekend off, the whole round of games had to be put off in order to ensure the final game of the season is played at the same time. The league was due to end on the 12th May, with a final round of fixtures, but no date could be found to slot in the Ajax v De Graafschap ahead of that date because the only free date clashed with Amsterdam's King's Day celebrations. Instead the final round of games will be played on Wednesday 15th May. The Dutch FA's professional football director Eric Gudde said: "We are aware that it is impossible to satisfy everyone, but a knot must be made. There can be no question of full satisfaction because this is ultimately not pleasant for any of the people involved. What is really nice is the reason why this was necessary: ​​the semi-final place of Ajax in the Champions League. Clubs and fans deserve a fair and as exciting as possible end to the competition, hence the starting point of playing simultaneously on the last two match days. Ajax plays for the championship and De Graafschap is in the danger zone for relegation. Not only would the denouement remain in one game that is played later, this also gives De Graafschap more time to prepare for this perhaps decisive game than the other relegation candidates."

Solskjaer Hits Out At Players

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solksjaer has publicly criticised his players, something which worked well for the previous three managers. Solksjaer said: "Most of the players have really impressed me with their attitude. But of course there are some that need to get a reality check on where they're at. I've spoken to individuals - and Anthony is one I've spoken to - and they know what we expect. He has a massive talent, he signed a new deal and he knows we believe in him, so he needs to keep on working. Anyone that plays for Manchester United has to deliver to stay in the squad and Anthony is not different to the other forwards like Marcus Rashford, Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez we have to choose from. There will be signings but the players have got to come back knowing what's expected of them as well on the first day of pre-season. It's not like the 90s where you can arrive overweight and start working from there. It will be great to see who is coming back ready. When you're playing in big stadiums, you've got to step up, because there is absolutely no hiding place. We're working in training to create a culture - we want players to take ownership over what is happening here. But of course it's the performances on the pitch that will determine where they are at in their careers."

Agent Advises Trossard Against Gunners Move

The agent of Leandro Trossard, Josy Combair, has advised his client against joining Arsenal at this point in his career. Trossard is a 24 year old winger currently playing for Genk in Belgium and has 20 goals this season but his agent believes that he would struggle to get regular game time if he joined the London club. Combair said: "Arsenal are a possibility. But for his career, it is probably better for him to join Wolfsburg. If he plays two years there, he can still join Arsenal. If he goes straight to Arsenal and doesn't play regularly it would become mentally very difficult. Leandro is almost as comfortable with both feet, he can play left, right and centre. We don't often see these kinds of players. I don't see him leaving for anything less than €20m."

Palace Continue To Pretend We Were All Born Yesterday

I have no idea who Crystal Palace think they are fooling, but they are continuing to push the ludicrous notion that Wayne Hennessey had no idea what a Nazi salute was and are now working together with Kick It out, who have enough on their plate without wasting their time on this nonsense, to educate Hennessey about Nazism. Worse, now manager Roy Hodgson is trying to suggest this might be a major problem in football and that all footballers might know nothing about something every small child in the UK grows up hearing about. Hodgson said: "There's so many things you can do. The club is very committed to it and Kick It Out is very committed to it. We and Kick It Out work very closely together and between us I think we will be looking for a solution in the case of this one individual, but I would guess that this might be a subject which goes beyond one individual, we might be highlighting with Wayne that it's actually rife throughout football. I've no idea about the level of knowledge in relation to the Holocaust, the Second World War, in other clubs or even in our club. It's now something we know may well exist and will have to be dealt with. Together, the club and Kick It Out, we will sort it out, certainly where Wayne's concerned because he is actually very desperate now to learn as much as he can." Why can they not just give it up and stop the bull? We all know it is laughable to suggest he had no idea what he was doing. Even more laughable than pretending he was just waving and shouting and not actually doing a Nazi salute on a photograph for a German team-mate. You are just extracting the urine now with this!

More Racial Abuse Shame For Football

While Palace are still busy trying to cover up for the stupidity of their keeper, there is still a very real problem with racist abuse in football. The latest victim of abuse is USA youth international Chris Gloster playing in Germany for Hannover 96, who was subjected to monkey chants by VfB Lubeck supporters this week. 18 year old Gloster was subjected to the abuse throughout the game by Lubeck's travelling support of around 200 people. Hannover's academy head Michael Tarnat said: "Chris sat in the dressing room with tears in his eyes and he couldn't believe it. He was insulted severely and continually during the match. Of course, a young lad like him can't just swallow it like that. It exceeded tolerable limits and that's why we decided to report the incident to the FA." Gloster told a US-based soccer podcast: "I didn't know how to react, because it was my first experience. My teammates really helped me through it. The team we were playing against, even their players were comforting me and helping me through it."

Written by Tris Burke April 20 2019 06:51:44