Football News: Review Of The Day 18th September 2019

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Review of the Day

Contracts

Veteran Crawley Town keeper Glenn Morris has signed a new 2 year contract with a further year option.

David de Gea has signed a new 4 year deal with Manchester united, ending months of speculation over his future.

SPAL have given Gabriel Strefezza a 3 year contract.

Transfers

Free agent left-back Callum Booth has signed for St Johnstone until January. The 28 year old was meant to be signing for Bury but their expulsion from the Football League left him available.

Another of the players left free due to Bury's demise, teenage defender Saul Shotton, has joined West Bromwich Albion.

Injury Round-Up

Celtic defender Jozo Simunovic is to miss further time after a specialist recommended an operation on his knee. Celtic manager Neil Lennon said: "Jozo's in for surgery. He's going to have a clean out in the knee, an arthroscopy it's called."

Striker Conor Washington is set to miss 3 months with a torn hamstring. The Hearts striker came on as a second half substitute on Saturday but only lasted 19 minutes before pulling up.

John Stones will be missing for a month after suffering a muscle injury in training in Ukraine, where Manchester City are preparing for a Champions League group game with Shakhtar Donetsk.

Taylor Rejects Approach

Exeter City have revealed that their manager Matt Taylor has rejected an approach from another club. The Grecians are currently top of League Two under Taylor who won the League Two Manager of the Month award for August. An Exeter statement read: "He believes that the playing and working staff at our club are still in a building phase with huge potential to achieve success over the next few seasons. He is an ambitious manager, but his primary ambition is to be successful at Exeter City. He has brought a lot of new players and staff to the club who have joined with a vision and expectation that he will be their manager. We are hugely supportive of Matt and his vision for our club. He has made a fantastic start to his career as manager and continues to build and strengthen both his playing staff and his backroom team."

Barnsley-Leeds Clash Marred By Crowd Trouble

Following Leeds United taking a late lead at Barnsley's Oakwell Stadium in Sunday's Championship match, there was an outbreak of crowd trouble with four people arrested as Leeds' fans clashed with stewards. Fighting also broke out in the East Stand too, with a steward reportedly assaulted. The two clubs released a joint statement which read: "Barnsley Football Club and Leeds United Football Club are greatly disappointed by reports of violence at yesterday's game and will be working together to assess the matter." The 2-0 victory took Leeds top of the table once more.

Swans Playing Legend Returns

Swansea City boss Steve Cooper has brought former player Alan Tate into his first-team coaching staff. The 37 year old former defender was promoted from the academy and played for the club in all four divisions in the English League before leaving in 2015. Tate returned to work with Swansea's academy in 2016 and has been working on his Pro License.

Jefferies Suffers Heart Attack

Former Heart of Midlothian player and manager Jim Jefferies has suffered a heart attack while playing golf on Monday morning. 68 year old Jefferies captained the club as a player and led them to a Scottish Cup triumph in 1998 as manager. He is currently working as sporting director of Edinburgh City who released a statement reading: "Chairman Jim Brown has spoken to Jim on the phone this evening and are pleased to say that he is in good spirits and looking forward to making a full recovery."

Zahoui Quits

Niger coach Francis Zahoui has quit after 4 years in charge of the team. The Ivorian announced at a press conference: "I decided to leave for personal reasons. I thank the President of the Nigerien Football Federation, Colonel Pele, who has been very kind to me throughout my stay in the country. I will always be grateful to him."

Blades Ownership Decided

The High Court battle to rule on the future owner of Sheffield United has ended in favour of Saudi Prince Abdullah Bin Mosaad Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. Prince Abdullah and Kevin McCabe own 50% of the club each and had been arguing over sole ownership, with McCabe expressing misgivings about the Prince's suitability to own the club. However the judge decided that McCabe must sell his 50% holding in the club, as well as the club's property assets, to Prince Abdullah.

Crooks Quits Kick It Out

Former footballer Garth Crooks has quit his role of trustee with Kick It Out after they appointed Sanjay Bhandari as the new chairman, over his favoured choice of former West Bromwich Albion striker Brendan Batson. Crooks believes that the charity should be led by players at a time of racial abuse on the pitch.

Italian Pundit Removed Over Racist Remark

Italian football pundit Luciano Passirani has lost his role with an Italian TV station after commenting about Inter Milan player Romelu Lukaku: "If you go one-on-one with him he will murder you. The only way to come up against him is maybe give him 10 bananas to eat..." Lukaku has already been subjected to monkey chants from Cagliari fans in the short time he has been in Serie A following a summer move from Manchester United. He was then told by Inter fans that it was a "compliment" to be racially abused! It is no wonder Lukaku said that the game was "going backwards".

Neymar Ban Reduced

Paris Saint-Germain forward Neymar Jr's 3 match European ban for insulting match officials has been reduced to just 2 games by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. UEFA had rejected PSG's appeal so they took their case to CAS, who made the decision to know one game off his ban.

Brum Fined For Attack On Grealish

Last season Birmingham City fan Paul Mitchell ran onto the pitch and hit Aston Villa midfielder Jack Grealish from behind during the derby match between the two sides in March. An independent regulatory commission ordered the Blues to pay a fine of £42,500 plus the commission's costs.

Nigerian Football Rocked By Fresh Corruption Probe

Top officials of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) have had properties seized as a fresh corruption probe looks into disappearing funds. Half of the properties seized belong to NFF president Amaju Pinnick. General secretary Muhamed Sanusi and second vice-president Shehu Dikko have also had properties seized.

Cagliari Cleared Of Racist Chanting

Unbelievably, clearly audible monkey chants aimed at Romelu Lukaku as the Inter Milan striker was about to take a penalty at Cagliari's Sardegna Arena were deemed to be not enough to sanction the club. But they were fined 5,000 euros for throwing plastic bottles on the pitch in an away game at Parma at the weekend. The report admitted that there were chants, shouts and whistles aimed at Lukaku but decided there were not enough in "size and perception" to deserve punishment. This is the 3rd time in 2 years that Cagliari have escaped punishment for racist abuse which was clearly heard.

Written by Tris Burke September 17 2019 22:59:51