Football News: Review Of The Day 8th October 2022

Review of the Day

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Contracts

Nottingham Forest have given head coach Steve Cooper a new contract until 2025. Just about long enough to learn the names of all the new players they signed in the summer transfer window.

Hellas Verona defender Koray Gunter has signed a new deal which expires in 2025. Davide Faraoni has also agreed to stay until 2025.

Veteran attacker Oscar Trejo has signed a 2-year contract with Rayo Vallecano.

Aaron Long has extended his deal with New York Red Bulls until 2026, with the option for another year. John Tolkin has also extended with a further year, but his deal now runs until 2027.

Napoli goalkeeper Alex Meret has signed with the club until 2024, with an option for a further year. Winger Alessio Zerbin has agreed to extend his contract until 2027.

Gaston Gimenez has signed a new deal with Chicago Fire after receiving his US Green Card, meaning he frees up an international roster space. The contract will expire in 2025.

Transfers

Former Ghana and Juventus midfielder Kwadwo Asamoah has hung up his boots and chosen to become an agent.

League One side Burton Albion have signed Adrian Mariappa on a short-term deal. The 36-year-old former Watford player is a free agent after leaving Australian A-League side MacArthur.

Racing Lens former Chelsea player Gael Kakuta has signed for Amiens SC on a free transfer.

Peterhead have signed free agent former Brighton & Hove Albion, Brentford and Angers midfielder Julien Carre.

Injury Round Up

Wolverhampton Wanderers forward Pedro Neto has been ruled out of the Portugal squad for the forthcoming World Cup. The 22 year old needs an ankle operation.

There was better news for Chelsea's summer signing Wesley Fofana, with his knee injury not as bad as initially feared and he may possibly be back to play for France at the World Cup. France and Chelsea are also buoyed by news that N'Golo Kante is close to a return to fitness.

Celtic captain Callum McGregor is out for a "significant period" with a knee injury.

Doncaster Rovers forward Lee Tomlin has hung up his boots due to injury. The 33-year-old only joined Rovers in the summer but has decided to retired due to the amount of painkillers he has needed to take so that he could play.

Leicester City's Nigerian international midfielder Wilfred Ndidi has been ruled out "for a little bit" with a hamstring strain he picked up on international duty. He had recovered enough to face Nottingham Forest but had to come off with a recurrence at half-time during that match.

Real Betis key man Nabil Fekir has been ruled out for a few weeks, meaning the forward will probably not play again until after the World Cup.

AS Roma full-back Zeki Celik has a medial collateral ligament injury to his right knee, meaning he is unlikely to play again in 2022.

Job Changes

Hull City have given up on their attempt to bring in Olympiakos boss Pedro Martins as their new head coach saying they have been "unable to reach a mutually agreeable position".

Sevilla have appointed Jorge Sampaoli as their new head coach to replace Julen Lopetegui, who they sacked on Wednesday night. Sampaoli previously coached Sevilla during the 2016/17 season and was available after leaving Olympique Marseille in the summer.

Bayer Leverkusen sacked Gerardo Seoane after defeat in the Champions League to Porto and appointed former Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso as their new head coach. Leverkusen have been struggling badly this season and sit in 17th place in the Bundesliga.

Nottingham Forest have appointed Filippo Giraldi as their new Sporting Director. Forest already have Kiriakos Dourekas as a Director of Football. Giraldi has previously worked at Watford, after leaving he complained of daily interference from the owners at Hornets saying: "We (Watford) are not a club that leaves the coach alone and lets him get on with the job. I'm there every day, the owner is there every day - he doesn't watch every training session but he's there, so you can see him and speak with him."

Brighton & Hove Albion have appointed former Barcelona coach Ricard Segarra as their new goalkeeping coach. Former AC Milan coach Andrea Maldera is De Zerbi's assistant. Also arriving is Enrico Venturelli and conditioning coaches Vincenzo Teresa, Marcattilio Marcattilii and Agustin Tibaudi.

Disciplinary Charges

Manchester City have been fined £260,000 by the Football Association because of the pitch invasion at Etihad Stadium at the end of last season. The fans ran onto the pitch in celebration of their final day title win against Aston Villa, assaulting Villa keeper Robin Olsen and breaking a crossbar during the incident. The FA found City guilty of failing to ensure their supporters "conducted themselves in an orderly fashion and refrained from using threatening and violent behaviour while encroaching on to the pitch".

At least one person has died in Argentina after police used tear gas and rubber bullets on fans outside Gimnasia's stadium during their game against Boca Juniors. The game was called off after just 9 minutes as fans forced their way into an already packed stadium. Fans inside were spilling onto the pitch to escape the turmoil behind them. It is estimated that there were 10,000 fans trying to force their way into the stadium.

Liberia have become the latest country to be ejected from an African tournament for age cheating. Liberia were thrown out of the Under-17 Africa Cup of Nations at the qualifying stage. Djibouti and Sudan have also been disqualified. Liberia FA president Mustapha Raji said it had relied on parents to confirm the ages of their children: "The MRI scan at Jahmale [hospital in Paynesville] can only read up to 0.33 Tesla. The standard requirement of Caf is 1.5 Tesla. So the due diligence conducted by the LFA was based on the confirmation from the parents of each and every player, who formed part of the delegation to Mauritania. We had explicit trust and confidence in the parents because we aren't the ones that gave birth to them but we believed in the parents based on the information provided after a series of meetings. Unfortunately, science and technology proved that two of the players weren't eligible to participate in the competition, thus resulting into the disqualification of Liberia." Liberia's sports minister Zeogar Wilson put the blame at the feet of the LFA saying they could have sought MRI scans elsewhere.

Aberdeen are appealing against manager Jim Goodwin's six-game ban for accusing Hibernian defender Ryan Porteous of "conning" referees.

Pointless List Of The Day

Today's pointless list is Forbes' list of highest earning footballers, with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi finally knocked off the top, for the first time in 9 years. The player to finish ahead of those two was David Beckham back in 2013.
1. Kylian Mbappe - Paris Saint-Germain - France - £115.2m
2. Lionel Messi - Paris Saint-Germain - Argentina - £108m
3. Cristiano Ronaldo - Manchester United - Portugal - £90m
4. Neymar - Paris Saint-Germain - Brazil - £78.4m
5. Mohamed Salah - Liverpool - Egypt - £47.7m
6. Erling Haaland - Manchester City - Norway - £35.1m
7. Robert Lewandowski - Barcelona - Poland - £31.5m
8. Eden Hazard - Real Madrid - Belgium - £27.9m
9. Andres Iniesta - Vissel Kobe - Spain - £27m
10. Kevin de Bruyne - Manchester City - Belgium - £26.1m

Addicks Made Losses

The parent company of League One's Charlton Athletic has announced a pre-tax loss of £6.8m for the 10 months up until June 2021. It was an unsettled period with a battle for ownership that ended up in the High Court before Thomas Sandgaard was able to buy the club in September 2020. Accounts also showed an interest-free loan of over £10m was given by the captain.

Pjanic Criticises Koeman

Sharjah FC's recent signing from Barcelona, Miralem Pjanic, has heavily criticised his former head coach Ronald Koeman. Pjanic claimed that training sessions under Koeman lacked ideas and did not include any tactical work. Pjanic told Cadena Sur: "I was very surprised in training with Koeman. There was no intensity, no tactics, no ideas. We did not prepare for the games." Pjanic previously told Marca: "Koeman disrespected me. He never talked to me. I am a player who can take anything, but I want to be told to my face and not [treated] as if I am a 15-year-old." Pjanic was also surprised that Koeman never even watched training sessions the day after a game, when those who had not played would train and, under normal circumstances, have their chance to play their way into the team. The veteran midfielder did say that things had improved under Xavi, with the training having much higher intensity than before.

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Written by Tris Burke October 08 2022 10:45:38