Football News: Review Of The Day 15th September 2022

Review of the Day

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Contracts

Barcelona's teenage Spanish international midfielder Gavi has signed a new 4 year deal with a 1bn euro buyout clause.

Reading have given academy graduate Abraham Kanu his first professional contract.

Barrow have given manager Pete Wild and his assistant Adam Temple new contracts. Wild only took charge in May after moving from National League side Halifax Town to replace Phil Brown.

Southampton winger Moussa Djenepo has signed a 3 year deal.

Real Zaragoza winger Sergio Bermejo has signed a deal which will expire in 2025.

Transfers

West Bromwich Albion have signed free agent former Burnley left-back Erik Pieters on a 1-year deal.

After leaving Metz in the summer, Amadou Salif Mbengue has signed a deal with Reading until January.

Following a trial spell with Lincoln City, free agent former Manchester City youngster Jacob Davenport has signed for the Imps until the end of the season. The 23-year-old was released in the summer by Blackburn Rovers, but worked with Lincoln head coach Mark Kennedy at Man City's academy.

Raul de Tomas has had his £7.2m move to Rayo Vallecano to Espanyol finalised.

Injury Round Up

Senegal will be without Bayern Munich defender Bouna Sarr for the forthcoming World Cup after undergoing surgery on his left knee. The 30-year-old has suffered with patella problems for the last two years, but was still able to play every game as the Teranga Lions won the Africa Cup of Nations earlier this year.

Job Changes

Danny Schofield has been sacked as head coach of Huddersfield Town after just one win in his 9 games in charge. Schofield was promoted from the coaching staff after Carlos Corberan resigned in July. The Terriers lost 7 of the matches Schofield was in charge for and sit 23rd in the Championship table, 5 points away from safety.

After buying a minority stake in Norwich City, the owner of Major League Baseball team Milwaukee Brewers Mark Attanasio has been appointed to the board. Attanasio has bought shares from a number of different sources including long-serving director Michael Foulger's 15.9% shareholding.

Everton have appointed Carl Darlington as their new Head of Academy Coaching. Darlington has left a role as Head of Coach Education at the Football Association of Wales to take over from John Ebbrell at the Toffees. Ebbrell has moved to a new job with Everton as Player Development Senior Coach.

Disciplinary Charges

After more violent scenes in the stands in France, both Olympique Marseille and Eintracht Frankfurt are facing charges. Marseille are charged with 5 different offences including throwing of objects and use of laser pointers. Frankfurt were charged with racist behaviour, lighting of fireworks, throwing of objects and acts of damage. Frankfurt have condemned one of their own fans who was see performing a Nazi salute. 17 police officers and 2 German fans were injured. One suffered a serious neck injury after being hit by a flare. 17 people were arrested. It followed on from the previous week's violence at the game between OGC Nice and FC Koln, where 32 people were injured.

Manchester City left-back Benjamin Mendy has been cleared of one count of rape but still faces 7 more counts of rape, one of attempted rape and one charge of sexual assault against 6 women.

Paul Pogba's older brother Mathias has been arrested on suspicion of participating in a blackmail plot against the Juventus midfielder. Mathias, and four other men, have been detained by police in Paris for questioning over the allegations of extortion against the former Manchester United player. Paul Pogba has alleged that he was ordered to pay 1m euros in protection money a year, backdated to the age of 16 when he first turned professional as a footballer. A statement from French prosecutors read: "Based on the findings of the preliminary investigation, the Paris prosecutor's office launched a judicial investigation today relating to allegations against persons unknown, including blackmail by an armed gang, kidnapping or kidnapping with a release before the seventh day to prepare or facilitate the commission of a crime or an offence, and membership of a criminal conspiracy." Mathias has accused his brother of lying to discredit him: "All of Paul's statements, from the hearing at the start of August - before my videos - to the response from his lawyers and the responses, from his supporters, are only intended to drag my name through the mud. So I'm asking myself - why rush to affirm that what I had to say concerned just witchcraft? Because it would be difficult to talk about the so-called blackmail in this case? So wouldn't it be better to hammer home that the big brother is just a jealous, money-grabbing person, ready to do anything to discredit before he speaks? Isn't that what all false accounts in my name are all about? No, we don't accept conspiracies here."

Rangers face UEFA action after a group of fans were filmed confronting Napoli's Mathis Olivera after the 3-0 Champions League defeat at Ibrox. An object is seen hurled from those fans in the direction of Olivera as he tries to do a warm-down post-game. There were also clashes with police and stewards in the same incident.

Marseille are likely to face further charges after footage emerged from their match against Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League. Riot police were needed to stop the Marseille fans from getting at the Spurs fans at White Hart Lane. Both sets of fans were throwing missiles and bottles with one police officer reported to have suffered a broken arm.

Pointless List Of The Day

Today we have the list of the top-selling shirts in MLS football for the 2022 season. Gareth Bale comes top despite only arriving from Real Madrid two months ago. Valentin Castellanos also get into the top 25 despite heading off to Girona in the summer transfer window:
1. Gareth Bale - Los Angeles FC
2. Christian Fuchs - Charlotte FC
3. Carlos Vela - Los Angeles FC
4. Chicharito - LA Galaxy
5. Josef Martinez - Atlanta United
6. Raul Ruidiaz - Seattle Sounders
7. Karol Swiderski - Charlotte FC
8. Xherdan Shaqiri - Chicago Fire
9. Jordan Morris - Seattle Sounders
10. Walker Zimmerman - Nashville SC
11. Valentin Castellanos - New York City FC (now with Girona)
12. Sebastian Driussi - Atlanta United
13. Lucas Zelarayan - Columbus Crew
14. Cristian Roldan - Seattle Sounders
15. Diego Fagundez - Austin FC
16. Nicolas Lodeiro - Seattle Sounders
17. Hany Mukhtar - Nashville SC
18. Diego Chara - Portland Timbers
19. Carles Gil - New England Revolution
20. Miles Robinson - Atlanta United
21. Luiz Araujo - Atlanta United
22. Johnny Russell - Sporting Kansas City
23. Lorenzo Insigne - Toronto FC
24. Douglas Costa - LA Galaxy
25. Gyasi Zardes - Colorado Rapids

Higuain Scores On Two Different Days In One Game

Gonzalo Higuain has completed an unusual feat by managing to score a brace for Inter Miami against Columbus Crew but the goals came on two different days. This was because of a lightning storm that saw the game delayed for over two hours, restarting at 11:35pm. Higuain scored his first in the 25th minute, after an 8 pm kick-off. After the restart, Higuain scored the winner in a 2-1 win in the 82nd minute.

Cherries For Sale

Bloomberg are reporting that Maxim Denim is set to sell AFC Bournemouth and has hired Montminy & Co., a California-based advisory firm, to help him sell the club. Denim owns 100% of the Cherries, originally starting out with a 50% stake in 2011. He then bought the rest in 2019. Bloomberg also claim that Denim was looking to sell the club in July 2021, going so far as to reach out to investors then. The Cherries are currently without a permanent head coach after they sacked Scott Parker at the end of last month following a 9-0 hammering at the hands of Liverpool.

New Muller Award

France Football have moved to give their 'Striker of the Year' award some legitimacy by naming it in honour of one of the greatest strikers of all time, Gerd Muller. The award was created last year after the lunacy of giving the Ballon d'Or to Lionel Messi, once again, despite Robert Lewandowski being the clearly deserved winner. To cover their embarrassment they gave then-Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski a newly created Striker of the Year award. Muller, who won the Ballon d'Or himself in 1970, died in August 2021. The Muller award will be presented to the forward with the most goals for club and country in one season.

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Written by Tris Burke September 15 2022 09:13:43