Football News: Review Of The Day 10th December 2019

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Review of the Day

Contracts

Former Liverpool youngster Villyan Bijev has signed a 1 year contract with Sacramento FC.

Germany's Under-21s coach Stefan Kuntz has signed a contract extension which will see him through to 2023.

Transfers

Sporting Kansas City have signed forward Khiry Shelton for a second spell with them. He spent 2019 with Paderborn 07 in Germany.

Also in Major League Soccer, Orlando City have signed Colombian midfielder Andres Perea on a 1 year loan deal with an option to buy from Atletico Nacional.

Injury Round-Up

OGC Nice's Algerian international defender Youcef Atal is to have surgery to repair a meniscus injury in his knee. A Nice statement explained: "Bad news for Youcef Atal and the Eagles. The diagnosis revealed a meniscal lesion in the right knee. He will be operated on soon and will unfortunately be out of action for a long time."

Fikayo Tomori is ruled out injured with a slight hip strain and will be unavailable to face Lille in the Champions League, but Chelsea will be boosted by the return to fitness of Antonio Rudiger.

Borussia Dortmund's Belgium international midfielder Axel Witzel has been ruled out until the New Year. The 30 year old fell at home and needed hospital treatment on a facial injury.

Inter Milan defender Kwadwo Asamoah looks set to miss their final Champions League group stage match against Barcelona through injury.

Kovac Dismisses Arsenal Speculation

Recently sacked Bayern Munich manager Niko Kovac has been linked with the vacant Arsenal job by the media but German press agency DPA have put out a quote from his people which denies the story. The quote said: "What utter nonsense, Niko is not interested at the moment, he wants to take a step back."

Pizarro Sets New Record

Peruvian legend Claudio Pizarro has set another record in the Bundesliga at the age of 41. The former Chelsea and Bayern Munich striker, now with Werder Bremen has faced his 38th different Bundesliga side of his career. Pizarro already holds records for the foreign player with most Bundesliga appearances, record goal scorer for Werder Bremen and also oldest goal scorer in the Bundesliga. He was previously the highest scoring foreigner in the Bundesliga, but has since been outstripped by Robert Lewandowski.

Barnsley Claim Stendel Was Sacked After Rival Talks

Barnsley have claimed that they sacked popular German manager Daniel Stendel, who is now manager of SPFL side Heart of Midlothian, after they found out he was negotiating to take over at a rival Championship club. A club statement read: "Early in the season Daniel Stendel entered into negotiations with a rival Championship club, to take over their managerial post. Never once did Mr Stendel seek approval or alert members of the club's board to these discussions. Only when approached, by the board, was there any sign of acknowledgement. This was a clear violation of Mr Stendel's contract and created additional unnecessary ‎distractions for our club which was recently promoted to the Championship. This event, coupled with numerous other issues, led to removal of Mr Stendel as head coach. After two months of unproductive discussions (and the subsequent public announcement by Heart of Midlothian that he has joined them as their new manager), the club cannot wait any longer in speaking to its fans. More recently we have attempted negotiations of a settlement with Heart of Midlothian Football Club for the services of Mr Stendel, Chris Stern, and Dale Tonge to no avail. The club will continue to vigorously defend its rights against all parties involved in tampering of club staff so the club recovers all damages incurred. All recovered damages will be reinvested in our squad."

Australia's Skipper Quits Internationals

Mark Milligan, currently on the books of League One side Southend United, has quit international football at the age of 34, with 80 caps under his belt. Milligan said: "It has been a privilege to be involved with the Socceroos over the last 14-odd years. To be able to represent my country over that time is above and beyond anything I could have dreamed of. I was lucky to work under some wonderful coaches in my international career. Thank you to Guus Hiddink for first bringing me into the Socceroos' set-up, and the late Pim Verbeek for keeping my dream alive. Thank you to Holger Osieck for handing me the captain's armband for the first time. A special thank you to Ange Postecoglou who showed great faith in me and gave me my first start at a World Cup, and a chance to play in the Asian Cup Final. Ange taught me so much both in club and international football."

Toffees Investigate Homophobic Chants

Everton are working with Merseyside Police and Kick It Out after chants of "Chelsea Rent Boys" was clearly heard during their 3-1 win over the Londoners on Saturday. Everton said: "Homophobia has no place within our stadium, our club, our community or our game. The club strongly condemns such behaviour and is carrying out a thorough investigation which will include liaison with Merseyside Police." It is only a week after the same issue occurred against West Ham United.

41 Cleared Of Sporting Corruption

A case against 36 players and 5 other people was dismissed due to a lack of evidence. The 41 who were cleared, including former Manchester United midfielder Ander Herrera, had been accused of fixing a game between Levante and Real Zaragoza back in 2011. Zaragoza won, but were accused of paying Levante players nearly 1m euros to lose, so they could avoid relegation in the 2010-11 season. Two former Zaragoza officials were convicted of fraud, former president Agapito Iglesias and former financial director Javier Porquera.

Teenage Ejected For Racial Abuse

A 13 year old Burnley fan was thrown out of Tottenham Hotspur's stadium and is being investigated by police for making a gesture towards Spurs' forward Son Heung-Min which is alleged to be racist.

Rubie Banned

The Football Association have banned agent Saif Rubie for 6 weeks for comments he made on social media. Rubie accused Liverpool of "mentally bullying and destroying the life" of his client Bobby Duncan. Duncan, the cousin of Steven Gerrard, joined Liverpool from Manchester City in 2018 and then, after a season with the under-18s, forced a move to Italian side Fiorentina.

Joaquin Sets Record

It is not just Pizarro setting records, Real Betis' captain Joaquin has set a La Liga record at the weekend. Joaquin scored his first hat-trick to become the oldest player to score a hat-trick in La Liga at the age of 38 years and 140 days old. The previous mark was set by Alfredo di Stefano 55 years ago.

Murphy Admits Drug Ban

Republic of Ireland international Daryl Murphy has admitted that he was banned for 6 weeks last after being caught with cocaine in his system. Nottingham Forest striker Murphy revealed: "Firstly, I would like to stress that the taking of recreational drugs is something that I don't condone whatsoever. I served a suspension at the beginning of last season for making a bad decision while on a night out. This was an isolated incident which happened out of competition when we had no game. I immediately regretted it. I am not proud of what I did, but it's something I have put behind me as I want to concentrate on my football career."

Montpellier Boss Hits Out At Neymar

Montpellier manager Michel Der Zakarian has criticised Neymar following his side's 3-1 defeat at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain. The Brazilian's showboating led to Montpellier forward Andy Delort confronting him on the way down the tunnel after the game. Der Zakarian said: "He [Neymar] has a game who always provoke the opponents with his skills and his dribbles. When he takes a kick he is always crying." Delort explained the confrontation: "He's a great player and it's just a pity at the end of the game that he wound everyone up. I said to him that his team was 3-1 up. He played 63 one-twos and didn't need to do that. He told me he was just playing passes. That's not being respectful but then we mustn't have the same education. He's a bit on the edge and haughty with everybody. I told him that he needed to respect people. When you're idolised you need to show the right values. His attitude since he's been in France is there for everybody to see. He's over the top, winds people up and speaks badly, as usual."

Bakayoko Gets His Shirt Number Wrong

Chelsea midfielder Tiemoue Bakayoko is back at previous club Monaco on loan, the club Chelsea bought him from. When the substitute board went up in the second half with the number 14 on it, Bakayoko headed to the sidelines to leave, only for Monaco's head coach Leonardo Jardim to point out he now wears the number 6, unlike in his previous spell with the club.

Stadium Announcer Mixes Up Players

It is not just Bakayoko that got mixed up, as Arsenal's 3-1 win at West Ham United's London Stadium saw the stadium announcer make a fairly understandable mix up. As the game petered out, the Gunners prepared a substitution in the 86th minute and the announcer declared it was David Luiz coming on for Granit Xhaka. Unfortunately for the announcer, it was actually Arsenal's other player with a Sideshow Bob haircut, Matteo Guendouzi, who was coming on!

Newcastle Giving Away Free Tickets

With fans protesting against the reign of Mike Ashley and the decision to allow Rafa Benitez to leave in the summer, attendances at St James' Park have dropped to their lowest, for a Premier League match, since November 2010. Just 42,303 saw the Magpies triumph over Southampton on Sunday, despite the club's run of decent form under new boss Steve Bruce. To try and boost attendances, Newcastle will give away a free half-season ticket to anyone nominated by a current season ticket holder. The free ticket will cover 10 home Premier League fixtures and be available on a first-come-first-served basis.

Written by Tris Burke December 09 2019 23:32:10