Football News: Review Of The Day 4th October 2022

Review of the Day

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Contracts

Valencia midfielder Hugo Guillamon has extended his contract until 2026.

Hans Nicolussi Caviglia has signed a 1-year deal with Juventus. While Argentine youngster Enzo Barrenechea has been given a 4-year deal.

Transfers

Inter Miami's former Real Madrid striker Gonzalo Higuain is set to retire at the end of the year when the Major League Soccer season ends. The 34-year-old has played for Napoli, Chelsea, Juventus and AC Milan before moving to MLS football in 2020.

Burton Albion have signed free agent forward Bobby Kamwa on a short-term deal until January. The 22-year-old was released by Leeds United in the summer.

Injury Round Up

Crewe Alexandra will be without top scorer Courtney Baker-Richardson for a spell after he injured his hip muscle playing on his Xbox.

Swindon Town captain Angus MacDonald has dislocated his collarbone during the defeat to Northampton Town on Saturday. The Robins have put no time frame on his return to action but termed it a "significant injury", which suggests months rather than weeks out. MacDonald has previously beaten bowel cancer and suffered a dislocated shoulder and deep vein thrombosis while playing for Hull City.

Real Madrid have not given any timeframe on Thibaut Courtois's return from injury. The Belgian international has been hit by a sciatica attack which could keep him out for days or weeks according to the club.

Sevilla are to be without defender Karim Rekik as they battle to move clear of the relegation battle. He is likely to be out until after the World Cup with a muscle strain.

Juventus have been boosted by the news that Federico Chiesa is closing in on a return to playing from his anterior cruciate ligament injury. The Italy international has returned to team training, but is still some way away from first team football, with a post-World Cup return to action pencilled in.

Schalke 04 defender Sepp van den Berg, on loan from Liverpool, will miss months with serious ligament damage suffered against Augsburg. Van den Berg will not be back until next year. They will also have to make do without Rodrigo Zalazar, who fractured a metatarsal in the same game.

Bayern Munich's French international forward Kingsley Coman has returned to training after a month out.

Job Changes

With Middlesbrough sat in 22nd in the Championship, manager Chris Wilder has been sacked. Wilder had only been in charge for 11 months but a 1-0 defeat to bottom club Coventry saw the end of his short reign. Goalkeeping coach Leo Percovich has been placed in temporary charge and will be assisted by Craig Liddle, Lee Cattermole and Mark Tinkler.

Also sacked over the weekend, though after a slightly longer spell as head coach, was Wolverhampton Wanderers' boss Bruno Lage, who had managed to last 16 months. Dropping into the bottom three following a defeat to fellow early season strugglers West Ham United was the final straw. Wolves form had been terrible for a while under Lage with just one win and 9 defeats in their last 15 Premier League matches. Wolves have scored just 3 goals this season, with big money forward signing Fabio Silva being sent out on loan and their summer striker signing Sasa Kalajdzic out for the forseeable future with an ACL injury. Added to that, the bizarre decision to allow club captain Connor Coady to leave on loan while selling off many centre-backs this summer, led to Lage choosing to field midfielder Neves in the centre of defence. It is far to say his erratic decision making was only going to end in this decision.

After being linked to the vacant job of Cardiff City manager, Craig Bellamy has attempted to rule himself out of the running by saying: "The more I've looked at it - and not just Cardiff - I'm not interested in being a manager." Bellamy is currently a coach under Vincent Kompany at Burnley but is constantly linked with a return to his hometown club Cardiff.

Exeter City have tweeted, and then deleted the tweet, thanking their head coach Matt Taylor for his service at the club and stating that he has left to take over at Rotherham United. Taylor had confirmed he was offered the Rotherham job earlier in the week.

Former Rangers manager Graeme Murty has been appointed to the role of Under-21s boss at Sunderland.

Watford have appointed Dean Racinica and Danilo Butorovic to asssist new head coach Slaven Bilic. The pair have been working alongside Bilic for a while now. In other changes, the Hornets have reversed their decision to relieve Sporting Director Cristiano Giaretta of his job, after the sacking of Rob Edwards owner Gino Pozzo brought back Giaretta. Also appointed by Watford is former Newcastle United and Everton coach Cristian Fernandez as a rehab fitness coach.

The first managerial casualty in La Liga has arrived with Elche CF sacking Francisco following their 6th defeat of the season. Their one other league match resulted in a draw and they have scored just 3 goals while conceding 18. They will now be looking for their 5th manager in just over 2 years.

Disciplinary Charges

The Australia Cup final was disrupted by supporters of Sydney United 58 who displayed Nazi symbols and performed Nazi salutes. They attempted to drown out the Indigenous welcoming ceremony prior to the game at Western Sydney Stadium, with chants and boos. Sydney United 58 are the first team from outside of the A-League to reach the final and lost 2-0 to Macarthur United. Football Australia have opened an investigation into the incident with the club itself stating that it had "zero tolerance towards any form of disrespect, racism or discrimination".

Both Djibouti and Sudan have been expelled from the Under-17 Africa Cup of Nations after being found guilty of using overage players. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of players' wrists found a number of players were ineligible and both teams were kicked out. No new teams will be brought in to replace them and the tournament will instead take place with just 6 teams involved.

Birmingham City have condemned racist abuse their midfielder Juninho Bacuna has received on social media following international duty for Curacao. Bacuna played in two friendlies against Indonesia in Indonesia, scoring in the first and being sent off in the second, both defeats, but has been seemingly targeted by Indonesian fans for racist abuse after the matches.

Scandal has rocked Hertha Berlin after the Financial Times unearthed information that shows their club backer Lars Windhorst, who has pumped around £350m into the club since 2019, hired an Israeli intelligence agency called Schibumi to try and force former Hertha president Werner Gegenbauer out. Documents from a district court in Tel Aviv showed that Windhorst had hired the firm to harrass Gegenbauer, who was due to remain club president until 2024. Gegenbauer had been president of the club for 14 years and involved in a public battle with Windhorst over control of the club. Ironically, Windhorst accused Gegenbauer of using tricks to stay in power in March. Gegenbauer eventually stepped down on 24th May. The matter came to light after Schibumi took Windhorst to court seeking outstanding payments they claim to be owed. The club itself has said it is taking legal advice and called upon Windhorst to make a "detailed statement" on the case. The case has since been withdrawn.

Paris Saint-Germain star Lionel Messi is facing criticism in France after it was revealed his private jet made 52 trips in 3 months, producing the same amount of greenhouse gas as the average French individual produces in 150 years. While it is not just him that uses the airplane, the revelation came at a time when the use of private plane's is facing public scrutiny, with PSG itself facing a storm of criticism for flying to Nantes recently when a train would have taken just 2 hours. The spotlight was thrown onto the matter when the club's head coach, Christopher Galtier, joked that they were exploring the option of travelling by "sand yacht" in future. Galtier was forced to apologise and also said "these days you can't have a laugh".

Pointless List Of The Day

Today's list is the highest cumulative transfer fees according to Transfermarkt, amounts in euros:
1. Romelu Lukaku - 7 transfers - 333.6m
2. Neymar - 2 transfers - 310m
3. Cristiano Ronaldo - 4 transfers - 245m
4. Alvaro Morata - 6 transfers - 189m
5. Philippe Coutinho - 5 transfers - 180.3m
6. Kylian Mbappe - 1 transfer - 180m
7. Angel Di Maria - 4 transfers - 179m
8. Ousmane Dembele - 2 transfers - 175m
9. Zlatan Ibrahimovic - 7 transfers - 169.1m
10. Antoine Griezmann - 3 transfer - 160m
11. Gonzalo Higuain - 5 transfers - 159m
12. Matthijs De Ligt - 2 transfers - 152.5m
13. Eden Hazard - 2 transfers - 150m
14. James Rodriguez - 6 transfers - 148.6m
15. Joao Felix - 1 transfer - 127.2m
16. Hernan Crespo - 4 transfers - 126.9m
17. Paulinho - 7 transfers - 126.9m
18. Luis Suarez - 5 transfers - 125.5m
19. Darwin Nunez - 3 transfers - 124.3m

Swindon Clear Historic Debt

Swindon Town owner Clem Morfuni has cleared off the club's historic debt by paying a £2.95m debenture that has been on the club since 2012 during a takeover. Morfuni took over the club in the summer and has cleared off a large amount of debt, bringing the club's total debt down from £7.5m to £1m. There is external debt of £2.5m, down from the £4.5m Morfuni inherited, owed to HMRC, the local council and the English Football League. The Robins are working on a deal to buy their County Ground stadium in a joint deal with the supporters trust, which would see both hold a 50% stake in the stadium. There are also plans in hand for the redevelopment of the ground and surrounding area which are currently estimated to cost £22.5m.

Roma To Build New Stadium

AS Roma have formally began the process to build their new stadium with the plan of having it ready for their centenary year in 2027. A feasibility study has been submitted to the city with plans for 3,000 trees to be planted in the area to shelter the surrounding area from the noise. Previous ideas have been shelved in favour of a stadium in the Pietralata area of Rome fully paid for by the Friedkin family, who will own the stadium. It is aimed to seat over 60,000 to enable it to be eligible to host finals of major competitions, such as the 2032 European Championships.

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Written by Tris Burke October 04 2022 13:30:18