Football News: Review Of The Day 22nd June 2022
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Review of the Day
Contracts
Jamie Paterson has signed a 2-year deal with Swansea City.
Veteran midfielder Jonny Howson has extended his deal with Middlesbrough for one more season.
Shaun McWilliams has signed a 2-year contract with Northampton Town.
Port Vale have given Aidan Stone and Jamie Proctor new contracts.
Ashley Nadesan has agreed a 2-year contract extension with Crawley Town.
Swindon Town have given veteran defender Mathieu Baudry a 1-year deal.
Mansfield Town defender James Perch has signed a 1-year contract.
1.FSV Mainz 05 midfielder Niklas Tauer has agreed a deal which will run until 2025.
Ajaccio winger Cyrille Bayala has signed a 2-year contract, as has their veteran winger Riad Nouri.
Real Madrid winger Vinicius Junior has put pen to paper on a new deal, despite interest from elsewhere in signing him. The Brazilian was one of the lowest-paid players in the squad as he was still on the same contract that he signed when he arrived at the club as a 16-year-old.
Jonas Kerken has had his contract extended to run until 2025.
Transfers
Inter Milan have agreed a deal to take back Chelsea's record signing Romelu Lukaku on loan for a fee of around £6.9m. Despite selling Lukaku to Chelsea last summer for almost £100m, the Italian team are financially hamstrung and were unable to afford a permanent move, nor could they match the wages of the Belgian flop with the first touch like he has trampolines in his boots.
Liverpool have agreed to sell Takumi Minamino to AS Monaco for a fee that could reach around double that paid for him in 2020 when they signed him from Red Bull Salzburg.
Southampton have signed 20-year-old defender Armel Bella-Kotchap from VfL Bochum for £9m as the Saints continue to back Ralph Hasenhuttl.
Swiss goalkeeper Benjamin Siegrist has signed for Celtic on a free transfer from Dundee United.
Crystal Palace have agreed to sign Sam Johnstone from West Bromwich Albion on a free transfer.
Aberdeen have signed Anthony Stewart on a free transfer from Wycombe Wanderers and Liam Scales has joined on a season-long loan deal from Celtic.
Tom Ince has joined Reading on a free transfer from Stoke City. Unsurprisingly his dad is Reading manager.
Going the opposite way to Ince junior is Josh Laurent who has moved to the Potters on a free from Reading.
Coventry City have paid an undisclosed fee to get Kasey Palmer from Bristol City.
Luton Town have paid an undisclosed fee for Barnsley striker Cauley Woodrow.
Will Vaulks has signed for Sheffield Wednesday on a free transfer from Cardiff City.
Major League Soccer's Columbus Crew have broken their transfer record to sign Cucho Hernandez from Watford for $10.5m (around £8.6m). Hernandez will take a DP (Designated Player) spot in the squad, allowing them to pay him higher wages.
Middlesbrough have added Liam Robert to their squad on a free from Northampton Town.
Fortuna Dusseldorf have paid an undisclosed fee for Queens Park Rangers for centre-back Jordy de Wijs.
Northampton Town have picked up Danny Hylton on a free transfer from Luton Town. Leaving the Cobblers is Nicke Kabamba, whose contract was cancelled so he could sign for Barnet.
York City have paid an undisclosed fee to Port Vale for Alex Hurst.
Liverpool youngster Conor Bradley has joined Bolton Wanderers on a season-long loan deal.
Mandela Egbo has moved to Charlton Athletic on a free transfer from Swindon Town, once again moving to be with manager Ben Garner. Garner left Swindon earlier this month to take over at the Addicks and also worked with Egbo when he was a youngster in Crystal Palace's academy. Another player to sign for Charlton is Eoghan O'Connell on a free transfer from Rochdale.
An undisclosed fee has been paid to take Brendan Wiredu to Fleetwood Town from Colchester United.
Another undisclosed fee was paid to Norwich City to pry young midfielder Dan Adshead from them and take him to Cheltenham Town.
Former Rangers and Liverpool midfielder Jordan Rossiter has moved to Bristol Rovers for an undisclosed fee from Fleetwood Town.
Matt Butcher has moved to Plymouth Argyle on a free transfer from Accrington Stanley.
Following his release from Rotherham United, Joe Mattock has signed for Harrogate Town.
Hartlepool United have signed Reghan Tumilty from Raith Rovers. Leaving Pools is Luke Molyneux, who has joined Doncaster Rovers.
Romoney Crichlow has joined Bradford City on loan from Huddersfield Town.
Offrande Zanzala has signed for Newport County on a free transfer from Barrow.
Walsall have made a double swoop for goalkeepers, paying an undisclosed fee for Owen Evans from Cheltenham Town and Adam Przybek on a free from Wycombe Wanderers.
Barrow have signed Sam Foley on a free transfer from Tranmere Rovers.
Kevin Betsy has made his first signing as Crawley Town manager, picking up young defender Travis Johnson after his release from Crewe Alexandra.
Eintracht Frankfurt have signed Mario Goetze from PSV Eindhoven for £3.6m due to an exit clause in his PSV contract. Leaving Frankfurt is former Huddersfield Town right-back Erik Durm, who has joined 1.FC Kaiserslautern.
Former Stoke City midfielder Badou Ndiaye has been released by Aris Salonika. Replacing him is Pape Cheikh coming in to Salonika from Olympique Lyonnais.
Borussia Moenchengladbach have sold Laszlo Benes to Hamburg for £1.35m.
Preston North End have signed Freddie Woodman from Newcastle United.
Dinamo Zagreb have paid £2.7m for Croatian defender Bosko Sutalo from Atalanta.
Another to leave the Ukrainian war zone behind is Taraz Zaviyskyi, who has joined Termalica on a free transfer from Desna Chernigiv.
American right-back Bryan Reynolds has joined KVC Westerlo of the Belgian Jupiler Pro League on loan from AS Roma.
Real Sociedad have sent Portu to Getafe on loan.
FC Arges of the Romanian Liga 1 have signed Tony Njike from AC Ajaccio on a free transfer.
Experienced Austrian midfielder Reinhold Ranftl has joined Austria Vienna on loan from Schalke 04.
Pachuca have paid £45,000 to sign Paulino de la Fuente from Malaga.
Racing Strasbourg have loaned Mehdi Chahiri to Paris FC.
Veteran Italian defender Andrea Ranocchia has signed for Monza on a free from Inter Milan.
36-year-old Turkish striker Buruk Yilmaz has left LOSC Lille on a free transfer to sign for Fortuna Sittard.
Ibiza have signed Daniel Fuzato on a free transfer from AS Roma.
Montpellier have taken Faitout Maouassa on loan from Club Brugge.
PSV Eindhoven have signed Walter Benitez from OGC Nice on a free transfer.
PSG chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi has hinted that Neymar may leave after he was asked if the Brazilian was part of the club's plans: "We cannot talk about these issues in the media, some will come and others will go, but they are private negotiations."
Bayern Munich's sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic has insisted he expects Polish striker Robert Lewandowski to stay, telling SportBILD: "I don't care about that. I'm expecting to see Robert in training at Säbener Straße on July 12... Our position is clear: Robert has a contract until the summer of 2023."
Espanyol have signed Brian Olivan on a free from Real Mallorca.
The agent for Emerson Royal has confirmed that he has held talks with Atletico Madrid but refused to confirm whether they were, as reported, regarding the Tottenham Hotspur full-back.
Sadio Mane has completed his transfer to Bayern Munich from Liverpool.
Borussia Dortmund have loaned young keeper Jonas Kerken out to SV Meppen.
Injury Round Up
Managerial Changes
FA Chairwoman Debbie Hewitt has given England manager Gareth Southgate the dreaded vote of confidence, though it does feel like genuine backing for him. Hewitt said: "Based on any facts on the pitch, he is the most successful England manager we've had for 55 years. But the bit people don't see is the culture he's created. Prior to Gareth being the manager there was not the pride of wearing the England shirt. There was a club rivalry we would read about, players not getting on. He's changed that beyond recognition and I've seen that for myself. I've worked in business and Gareth's skills, his high IQ, would make him a chief executive in any sphere. That resilience and accountability. There's no sloped shoulders, and that's what you want in an England manager." I do feel I have to point out that she is not technically correct as on win ratio he is not the most successful England boss, as that is of 8. n course Sam Allardyce with his 100% record of played one, won one. Still it is good to see that the new chairwoman is continuing in the tradition of FA chairpeople without a clue.
Chelsea have announced their new board which will be headed up by Todd Boehly, who has been named chairman. The rest of the board is made up of the new onwership consortium: Behdad Eghbali and Jose E. Feliciano of Clearlake Capital, Mark Walter, who also owns LA Dodgers, LA Lakers and LA Sparks (I am getting a theme here), Hansjorg Wyss, Jonathan Goldstein, Babara Charone, Daniel Finkenstein and James Pade. Boehly has also been installed as interim sporting director while a new one is found. Marina Granovskaia will also be leaving the club.
Paris Saint-Germain chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi has confirmed that Zinedine Zidane will not be the club's manager next season.
Disciplinary Charges
UEFA have dismissed claims by the French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin that fake tickets were the cause of the chaos at last month's Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid. The General Director of UEFA Events, Martin Kallen, told the French Senate hearing that there was no truth in Darmanin's claims of 30,000 to 40,000 fake tickets in circulation and that only 2,600 fake tickets were taken at the turnstiles.
Not About The Money
Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaifi has hit back at his opposite number at Real Madrid, Florentino Perez, claiming that star forward Kylian Mbappe never really wanted to go there anyway and that Madrid offered him more money. The PSG chair told Marca: "I have great respect for Real Madrid as a club, it's a great club, but Kylian has never decided to renew for the money, that's the first thing. Madrid's offer was better than ours. He is our player and he had other clubs in England as well as Madrid, but he chose PSG and we didn't even speak with him or his family about money until the last minute. Kylian was mainly interested in the project, football and sports. He is Parisian, he is French, and he wanted to stay here to represent his city and his country, his club, and what has been said about him is not fair. For him, money is not the most important thing. He wants to win and he wants a good sports project. I have known for 18 months that Mbappe wanted to stay and he said that whenever we spoke. He heard that in Madrid they said he wanted to play in Madrid, but that wasn't true. We're now talking about Madrid's latest offer, but in the summer they made offers of €170m and €180m, which means that Madrid's offer, plus salary, was already better than ours. I turned down €180m and they told me I was crazy, people I trusted, because he could go for free, but I did it because I was sure that Kylian was going to stay, because I know him and his family well. I know what he wants. Kylian is very serious, professional, and what he wants is to win and play. He doesn't care about money. I understand that Madrid are disappointed, but it's not fair to say that about Mbappe." It is interesting to think that there might actually be a lot of truth in Al-Khelaifi's claim that Madrid offered more as Perez talked about political pressure being behind Mbappe's decision rather than money.
Al-Khelaifi also had some interesting things to say about La Liga head Javier Tebas and La Liga in general, which he referred to as a "dead" league: "Tebas? I don't know him. Let him worry about his championship, because it's a bit dead and he should stop lecturing [people]. Who is Tebas? I don't know him. Our style is to not to get into the affairs of other clubs, other leagues or federations, it's not our style. But I'm not going to accept other people giving us lectures. I don't care what is said, truthfully, people have been speaking about this for years now. We have a footballing project to construct and we are going to forge ahead."
Barca In Stadium Move
Barcelona are set to play in the city's Olympic Stadium (Montjuic) during the 2023-24 season while the Camp Nou is renovated. The Nou Camp will be expanded from its current 99,000 capacity to hold 110,000 fans. Barca estimate they will need to spend between 15 and 20m euros to make Montjuic usable for major football matches, on top of the amount they are paying to use it and to increase the Nou Camp's capacity. All a lot for a club which is struggling against a debt which was over 1bn euros last summer. They will also have to factor in a loss of revenue from gate receipts, as Montjuic holds 55,000, well below the average 75,000 crowds Barcelona were getting pre-Covid. While they do have a major new sponsorship deal to rename their stadium as Spotify Nou Camp, the club are paying for the remodelling through a separate mortgage of up to 1.5bn euros. The club is also set to sell off portions of its licensing, merchandising and TV revenues to provide a short-term cash boost. Barca president Joan Laporta said: "We have committed ourselves to adapting the Olympic Stadium's facilities, which are already in very good condition, and modernising several areas, such as the press stand, the changing rooms and parking."
Written by Tris Burke June 22 2022 12:41:08
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