Football News: Chelsea And Everton Suffer Injury Blows And More News
Image from: thehindu.com
1. Chelsea keeper heads off on loan
English League Two side, Wales' Newport County, have completed the loan signing of Chelsea's U21 goalkeeper Mitchell Beeney. Beeney was a key part of Chelsea's U21 side as they won the U21 Premier League and the FA Youth Cup and it saw him become an England U20 international as well as being on the bench at the end of last season for the Chelsea first team. Beeney originally joined Chelsea back in 2007 from Gillingham's Centre of Excellence. His contract runs until the end of the 2017-18 season.
Delighted to have joined @NewportCounty on loan, looking forward to the challenge ⚽️⚽️
— mitchell beeney (@mitch_beeney1) January 15, 2016
2. Liverpool legend joins the A-League
Luis Garcia did enough to impress A-League team Central Coast Mariners during a recent Liverpool Legends match against the Socceroos Legends. The Spanish winger has played for Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Panathinaikos in a well travelled career, that last saw him turn out for Atletico de Kolkata of the Indian Super League in 2014. Injuries had kept him on the sidelines for a year, but now he is relishing the chance to get back to playing. "I am really looking forward to being on the coast, meeting my fellow players, meeting the fans and to entertain them with my style of play," Garcia said. "One of the things that attracted me to the club was the opportunity to share my experience with a young playing group. I am also looking forward to playing football in one of the most beautiful places in the world."
3. Forest in striker search
Nottingham Forest manager Dougie Freedman has admitted the club is searching for a new striker in their quest to return to the top flight of English football. Freedman told Notts TV yesterday: "I think I owe it to the fans to bring in the sort of player that excites them. It probably will have to be abroad because that's where the market is. I believe I am quite strong in that market. Yes there are (deals bubbling away) we have got a lot of contacts. We use my scouts that I have got abroad to make sure I identify a player. There is no point me signing a player because he has a loan option. There's a type of striker I believe will fit in my system. Therefore we are looking, there are one or two out there, but other clubs are looking and we will wait until the very death."
4. Transfer round up
Charlie Austin QPR to Southampton undisclosed fee
Jota Brentford to Eibar on loan
Randall Williams Tower Hamlets to Crystal Palace undisclosed fee
Matty Foulds Bury to Everton undisclosed fee
Shay Facey Manchester City to Rotherham United on loan
Will Buckley Sunderland to Birmingham City on loan
Shilow Tracey Ebbsfleet to Tottenham Hotspur undisclosed fee
Alessandro Diamanti Watford to Guangzhou Evergrande loan cancelled
Gary Hooper Sheffield Wednesday to Norwich City end of loan
Claudio Beauvue Olympique Lyonnais to Celta de Vigo £3.15m
Nestor Camacho Avai to Guarani free
Gonzalo Jara 1. FSV Mainz 05 released
Paul Keita AEL Kalloni released
Thomas Pledl FC Ingolstadt to SV Sandhausen on loan
Hugo Almeida Anzhi Makhachkala to Hannover 96 free transfer
Collins Fai Dinamo Bucharest to Standard Liege £105,000
Sean Murray Wigan Athletic to Watford end of loan
Diogo Figueiras Genoa to Sevilla end of loan
Hicham Belkaroui Club Africain released
Daisuke Suzuki Kashiwa Reysol released
Gilberto Macena Buriram United to Al Qadisiyah free
Vitor Junior Siam Navy to Al Qadisiyah free
Stephen Hendrie West Ham United to Southend United on loan
Federico Dimarco Inter Milan to Ascoli on loan
Bard Finne 1.FC Koln to 1.FC Heidenheim £490,000
Guilherme Santos unattached to Sampaio Correa
Cristian Ituano released
Clayson Ituano released
Apodi Chapeconse to Kuban Krasnodar undisclosed fee
Yura Movsisyan Spartak Moscow to Real Salt Lake City on loan
5. Costa taken to hospital
Chelsea's struggles increased yesterday, despite fighting back with a last ditch goal to equalise deep into injury time of added on time, they have been hit by another injury blow. The 3-3 draw with Everton showed the best and worst of Chelsea, as they looked at times dead and buried but recovered from 2-0 down to snatch a point with an offside goal after showing that they do actually have some spirit in the squad. Sadly for them, the result, which felt more like a win for Chelsea and a defeat for Everton, was tempered by an injury to Diego Costa, just as he was starting to show good form. The Brazilian/Spaniard was taken to hospital for a scan, leaving the club with just Loic Remy fit to start up front. Manager Guus Hiddink is not fully ruling out entering the transfer market if the injury is serious. "[Costa] was in a lot of pain," Hiddink told Sky Sports after the Everton game. "He will have a scan. We don't know the result. I hope it's not bad. For the moment we are doing nothing [in the market]," Hiddink said. "We hope Diego comes out the hospital in good health and we go on as we are doing."
6. Lovely goal in Mexican football
With the arrival of Andre Gignac, Mexican league football has made a big splash, but he is not the only one who can play a bit:
7. OptaJoe gives Arsenal fans an interesting stat
The internet is abuzz with the question: is OptaJoe an Arsenal fan? Personally I just thought it was an interesting but meaningless stat:
33 - Leicester City will now be top of the PL for 33 days in 2015-16, the same number that Spurs have been top in total since 1992. Serious.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) January 16, 2016
8. Good news for Everton fans
Popular Costa Rican fullback/winger Bryan Oviedo has suffered badly with injuries in recent years, usually they are suffered just as soon as he gets back into the Everton team. It was understandable that the Toffees feared a repeat when Oviedo went down with an injury in the 71st minute and had lengthy treatment on the pitch, before being stretchered off and replaced by Ramiro Funes Mori. While Funes Mori went on and scored Everton's 3rd, Oviedo was being assessed, but Everton had good news for the fans about him. "Bryan's injury is not serious and he should be ok," he said. "We will assess him over the next 24 hours. It was more a knock rather than anything else. We expect that Bryan will be ok." Oviedo took to Twitter to reassure his fans, tweeting: "Great game today, it hurts not have gotten the win. Do not worry, I'm fine it was just for caution."
9. Wenger claims Stoke fans hate him
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger believes that Stoke City fans hate him even more than Tottenham Hotspur fans. Despite Spurs being Arsenal's local and historic rivals, and Stoke having no historic or geographical rivalry with the Gunners, Arsene Wenger believes that recent clashes between Arsenal and Stoke have led to the Potters' fans hating him most of all opposition fans. Wenger believes that matches between the two sides are the most aggressive his team face in the season, in a rivalry which really began in 2010, when midfield lynchpin Aaron Ramsey suffered a double fracture in his leg after a tackle from Ryan Shawcross that was simply horrible. Since then the complaints from Wenger (and the Arsenal fans) have continued about Tony Pulis' tackles, while he was in charge, and those current manager Mark Hughes chooses to utilise against the Londoners. Wenger has been vindicated in his complaints about the tactics of Pulis, who has since turned West Bromwich Albion into a similar style of rugby team playing the roundball game, but he feels the antipathy from the Stoke fans continues. "Yes - I don't know why [there is more antipathy from Stoke fans]. You should ask them. I don't bully them," he said. "It is maybe more aggressive than Tottenham. I think the major incident was Ramsey. That is where it started." It is strange how the wronged party is the one that is now being abused for complaining about how they were wronged!
10. Crosses still lead to goals
It often seems people believe crosses have no place in modern football, but they still seem to be the main route to a goalscoring opportunity:
Written by Tris Burke January 17 2016 04:58:26