Football News: Review Of The Day 20th July 2022

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Review of the Day

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Contracts

Joe Powell has signed a new 2-year deal with Burton Albion.

Cheltenham Town mifielder Elliot Bonds has signed on until 2025.

Transfers

Bayern Munich have completed the signing of former Ajax defender Mathijs de Ligt from Juventus for a fee of £60.3m.

Australia international midfielder Aaron Mooy has signed for Celtic on a free transfer after leaving Shanghai Port. Moritz Jenz has also joined the Scottish champions on a season-long loan deal from Lorient.

Leeds United have signed teenage forward Sonny Perkins from West Ham United. The Hammers had hinted that the 18-year-old had refused a new contract due to being influenced by another team (ie he had been tapped up). I think it was more likely he knew there was more chance of West Ham winning the Premier League than there was of him getting a run of games under David Moyes that made him look to move on.

Central Coast Mariners have sold Australian goalkeeper Mark Birighitti to Dundee United for an undisclosed fee.

Young Liverpool defender Rhys Williams has signed for Blackpool on a season-long loan deal.

Jamie Shackleton has signed for Millwall on loan from Leeds United, where he will join Leeds teammate Charlie Cresswell for the season.

After a trial spell, Forest Green Rovers have signed Jacob Jones on a free transfer from Swansea City.

Following his release from Tottenham Hotspur, Josh Oluwayemi has signed for Portsmouth.

Rochdale have signed Tyrese Sinclair on a free transfer from Mansfield Town.

In Major League Soccer Jhegson Mendez has moved to Los Angeles FC from Orlando City for a fee of £245,000.

Deportivo La Coruna have signed Mario Soriano on a free transfer from Atletico Madrid.

SC Braga have paid £4.5m for Simon Banza from Racing Lens.

Teenage Brazilian defender Kaiky has signed for Almeria for a fee of £6.3m from Santos.

Toulouse have signed Oliver Zanden from Elsborg.

Fabio Maistro has signed for SPAL from Lazio.

MLS side Nashville SC have paid £1.64m for Shaq Moore from Tenerife.

Albacete have signed Jonathan Dubasin from Girona.

Union Berlin have sent Japanese winger Keita Endo to Eintracht Braunschweig on loan.

Salernitana have signed Junior Sambia on a free transfer from Montpellier.

KAA Gent have paid £3.15m for Hertha Berlin defender Jordan Torunarigha.

Monza have sent Davide Diaw to Modena on loan.

SPAL have signed Andrea La Mantia on loan from Empoli.

Real Sociedad have paid £5.85m to sign Japanese winger Takefusa Kubo from Real Madrid.

Torino defender Bremer had to fly back to Turin to take a medical ahead of his move to Juventus as Torino had been in Austria for a pre-season training camp. The move is expect to be confirmed any day now as Juve gazump Inter Milan, who had agreed terms on a deal months ago but were unable to sell players to fund the move.

Lazio's veteran Romanian defender Stefan Radu, the club's record appearance holder, has told Lazio Style Channel that he intends to hang up his boots next year: "There's a 99% chance I'll stop playing next year. I wanted to thank everyone who gave me the chance to end my career here. I don't think there will be a chance to play again next year, I have made my decision. I want to empty the tank, and win something important this year." Radu has made 423 appearances for Lazio.

Juventus's flop signing from Arsenal, Aaron Ramsey, has not joined the squad for the pre-season tour of the USA as he stays behind to continue talks over terminating his lucrative contract. Juve massively overpaid for the constantly injured, unless Wales are playing, 31-year-old when they signed him on a free transfer.

Daniele Rugani's agent Davide Torchia has said that he expects his client to remain with Juve this season.

Despite interest from the newly minted Saudi-owned Newcastle United, Moussa Diaby has revealed his intention to stay with Bayer Leverkusen for the season: "I have taken my decision and I will play again for Bayer Leverkusen next season. It is up to me to keep performing well and to make it [to the World Cup]. I will do all that I can to be able to continue to be part of the squad. We have a really impressive team, uniquely with players at the highest level. I also need to be patient to find my place one day in the team."

Pep Guardiola has denied that there is any truth in reports that Manchester City have been offered the chance to sign Neymar from Paris Saint-Germain.

Jorge Mas, the president of Inter Miami, has confirmed that he and franchise co-owner David Beckham want to bring Lionel Messi to the MLS team.

Injury Round Up

West Ham United manager David Moyes has given some good news about the injury to new signing Nayef Aguerd. The central defender picked up an injury when the Hammers faced Rangers in a pre-season match, with fears that the damage to his ankle could be serious but Moyes said: "We've already had Nayef x-rayed and there's no break in his ankle, which is good news. It might be some ligaments, or he's twisted his ankle - it blew up immediately so we have to hope it's not a problem."

Borja Mayoral had to be left behind as Real Madrid jetted off to the USA for their pre-season tour because the forward had received his covid vaccination too recently to get through immigration. He is expected to join up with the squad later.

It has been reported that Juventus left Adrien Rabiot behind when they jetted off to the US for their pre-season tour due to "personal reasons".

Bodo/Glimt forward Ola Solbakken has undertaken tests in Rome on a dislocated shoulder. The 23-year-old Norwegian was at Villa Stuart to be examined by doctors and physiotherapists, the clinic often used by Roma and Napoli for pre-transfer medicals. Both Roma and Napoli have shown interest in signing Solbakken, whose contract expires in December at the end of the Norwegian season, enabling him to agree a pre-contract with a new club this summer. Napoli have recently missed out on Paulo Dybala who has elected to join Roma over the Neapolitans.



Job Changes

Disciplinary Charges

Frenkie de Jong was left out of the Barcelona starting line-up for the match against Inter Miami after the Dutch midfielder liked a social media post criticising the club. The post was from a Barca fan and read: "I dislike the way we have handled Frenkie's situation."

Barcelona manager Xavi Hernandez was unable to fly out with the Barcelona squad to the US for their pre-season tour due to having travelled to Iran a number of times in his time playing and managing Qatari club Al-Sadd. The 42-year-old required extra documentation to get a visa, which he failed to provide in time to fly with the team. His brother, and assistant manager, Oscar Hernandez took charge of the stroll over the Phil Neville-coached Inter Miami. It is expected he will join up with the team later when the documentation arrives.

Yonghong Li, the former owner of AC Milan, has gone to court in Luxembourg in an attempt to seize assets worth over £300m from the current owners Elliott Management.

To make things worse for Elliott, minority Milan investors Blue Skye Financial Partners have managed to block the sale of Milan to RedBird Capital Partners. Blue Skye own 4.3% of Milan and have claimed that Elliot "operated with malice or deceit" as they negotiated a deal with RedBird "behind closed doors". Elliot in turn has called Blue Skye's claims "frivolous and vexatious".

The dispute between BBC Scotland and Rangers has now ended after the BBC publicly apologised for their coverage: "A disagreement between BBC Scotland and Rangers FC has limited the BBC's ability to report from Ibrox Stadium over a long period of time. The BBC and Rangers FC have now agreed that it is in the best interests of the BBC's audiences and Rangers supporters everywhere for the BBC and the club to resolve the dispute and to provide the fullest possible coverage of all Rangers matches. The BBC is committed to reporting the Scottish Premiership fully and fairly across all clubs however it recognises that the club has genuine concerns about the accuracy and balance of some coverage. The BBC acknowledges that there have been occasions when part of the coverage of Rangers FC have not met its editorial standards. It has apologised for these instances and is happy to repeat those apologies now. We look forward to a positive ongoing relationship with the club."

The DFB have fined Bayern Munich 10,000 euros for fan misconduct, due to the fans igniting at least 10 flares before and during the defeat to Mainz 05.

VfL Bochum have also been fined by the DFB for "numerous pyrotechnic objects" during their match against Union Berlin. They were hit with a 20,000 euro fine.

Maguire Reaction Not So Friendly

Manchester United captain Harry Maguire faced booing as his team took on Crystal Palace in a pre-season friendly in Melbourne. A section of the 76,499 crowd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground audibly booed his every touch as United ran out 3-1 winners. Teammate Donny van de Beek said of it: "I didn't know really what happened. But if I saw the game today I think Harry was playing really well. He was aggressive, he got so many balls, so that means he has a big personality. He has a lot of experience, so I think that's positive what he [showed], his performance today."

Brum In Takeover Talks

Following the failed attempt of Laurence Bassini to buy Birmingham City from Birmingham Sports Holdings Ltd (formerly Trillion Trophy Asia), there is a new consortium who are interested in acquiring the troubled Championship club. This time it is led by local businessman Paul Richardson and former Barcelona and AC Milan striker Maxi Lopez, who say they have paid a deposit and exchanged contracts on a deal to buy the club in increments over the next 3 years.

Barca Have Supply Issues

While Barcelona's debts show no signs of being reduced anytime soon, in fact they are set to take out another 1.5bn mortgage to pay for their stadium upgrades next season, they are still continuing to buy everyone and anyone they want. In fact their spending spree has drawn this comment from Bayern Munich's head coach Julian Nagelsmann: "Barcelona, the only club that has no money but then... buys every player they want. I do not know how [they do it]. It's kind of weird, kind of crazy." Clearly the money is not being spent in other areas such as the club shop, where the arrival of Robert Lewandowski will not be followed by the usual run of fans buying shirts with his name on the back. Not because the fans are not excited by the goal machine's arrival but simply because the club shop has no W's in stock! Considering the only player in the squad with a W in his name before the arrival of Lewandowski was Braithwaite, and the fans are not exactly enamoured of him, it does show exactly why a club with such a large fanbase has ended up in a financial mess - they are run shambolically, with no planning or foresight involved. I just hope they have enough for his match shirts or someone will have to get busy with a marker pen to fill in the gaps on the back of his shirt.

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Written by Tris Burke July 20 2022 13:18:12