Football News: Review Of The Day 8th May 2022
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Review of the Day
Contracts
Cambridge United have given experienced full-back Harrison Dunk a new 1-year deal.
Ryan Law has signed a new contract with Plymouth Argyle keeping the academy graduate at the club for another year.
Hartlepool United's David Ferguson has agreed a 2-year deal.
Veteran Bayern Munich goalkeeper Sven Ulreich has been given a 1-year contract.
Despite being 39-years-old, Phil Jagielka has been signed up by Stoke City for the first half of next season.
Rangers have given veteran Canadian international midfielder Scott Arfield another year long deal.
Transfers
Former Celtic and Scotland captain Scott Brown has hung up his boots at the age of 36.
Oxford United have released Sam Winnall, Jamie Hanson, Leon Chambers-Parillon and Michael Elechi.
Joris Gnagnon has been released by Saint-Etienne.
Free agent former West Ham United youngster Blair Turgott has signed for Hacken in the Swedish Allsvenskan.
Injury Round Up
Bristol City midfielder Ayman Benarous has been ruled out for several months after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament rupture in training. The 18-year-old was in his first season as a member of the first team, but will now face a long road to get back to fitness and form.
Managerial Changes
Crawley Town manager John Yems has been sacked following the "credible" allegations of racism and discriminatory conduct. Black and Asian players at the club complained to the PFA about Yems' use of discriminatory language towards them and it is also alleged that the training ground was segregated. Despite that, Yems' assistant Lewis Young was given charge and saw out the season as interim manager, even though he must have been there during the period in question.
Disciplinary Charges
A video has emerged of West Ham United midfielder Declan Rice accusing the referee of corruption following their Europa League semi-final defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt. The footage appears to show the Hammers' star shouting expletives at referee Jesus Gil Manzano and saying: "Ref, ref, it's so poor, all night, it's so bad. How can you be that bad, honestly? You've probably been paid." He later said in a live TV interview that the referee was against West Ham. West Ham have confirmed they are aware of the video but the club's manager David Moyes has said he will not be punishing Rice for his actions, though UEFA might do so.
Foster Hits Out At Hornets
After Watford's relegation was confirmed, their veteran goalkeeper Ben Foster has hit out at the lack of effort from some of his team-mates. Despite his errors and rank amateur goalkeeping being to blame for a number of the dropped points, Foster chose to blame everyone but himself for the club's struggles this season. Foster said: "You just don't really know what you're going to get from us, to be perfectly honest. We've got too many players who are happy to put it in for an hour, 70 minutes, but then probably fall off and happily let it go in the last 20 minutes. You can't have that. When you're a team like us, the minimum is giving it everything you've got. The ability you can forego a little bit and accept that you might not have the quality of some players, but you've got to put the effort in. We know that we can be competitive when we're doing it properly, but in some games we've had some stupid mistakes and then heads drop. Confidence is a massive thing in sport and within our team it's a huge problem. It's been a really tough season for us all. Hopefully in the Championship next season we can do what we did last season and give the fans something to smile about, and hopefully bounce back at the first time of asking."
Ralph Hides Behind Language
After Southampton supporters finally turned on their hapless manager Ralph Hasenhuttl with chants of "you're getting sacked in the morning" and "you don't know what you're doing" ringing round Saints' St Mary's Stadium, Hasenhuttl claimed he did not hear them due to his normally excellent English being "not so good". Soton have slumped in recent months, with Hasenhuttl's team selection and tactics becoming increasingly bizarre and unfathomable, but Saturday's 3-0 beating at the hands of Brentford has seen the fans decide enough is enough. Hasenhuttl told the BBC afterwards: "I haven't heard them, my English is not so good. But I can take it. It is no problem for me because I am responsible for the results. I am the manager here. This is not a new situation for me. I have had this pressure my whole life since I have been a manager, and you can be sure for as long as I am here I will do everything to make us more successful. We had discussions in the last few weeks about a top 10 [finish]. We had opponents there around us and we were not able to win against them, so we are not a top-10 team. We are far away from being a top-10 team at the moment. It's a tough time. We have two games left against two strong opponents and we have to show a reaction, that's for sure." Having survived two 9-0 maulings since becoming Saints' manager in December 2018, it does seem that his time is now up on the south coast.
Chelsea Sale Agreed
Chelsea are set to be sold to the 'Boehly consortium' after terms were agreed on a £4.25bn deal. The new owners will pay £2.5bn for the club shares and have committed to providing a further £1.75bn to invest in the club, to be split between their Stamford Bridge stadium, the academy, the women's team, Kingsmeadow and the Chelsea Foundation. Chelsea expect the sale to be completed towards the end of the month. The group have also expressed a commitment to owning the club for at least 10 years, after concerns were expressed over the role of a private equity firm within it.
Klopp Questions UEFA
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has hit out at UEFA after just over a quarter of the tickets for the Champions League final were made available to the two clubs that will be contesting the match. Both Liverpool and Real Madrid, clubs that rank amongst the largest fanbases in the world, will receive just 26.1% of the tickets each. The Stade de France has a capacity of 75,000 but the clubs will be getting only 19,618 tickets for their fans while leaving over 35,000 for UEFA to pass out to corporate sponsors etc. UEFA did put 12,000 of those tickets up for sale on the open market, but closed the window for buying them before the finalists had been decided. Klopp said: "Is it right that we only get 20,000, they get 20,000 and there's 75,000 in? That makes 35,000 left over. Where are these tickets?"
Written by Tris Burke May 08 2022 06:12:54
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