Football News: Barcelona Defender Dismisses Social Media Investigation As Henderson Backs Klopp's Training Methods At Liverpool + More

1. Henderson defends Klopp's training methods
Media pundits were quick to lay the blame for an injury crisis at the door of new manager Jurgen Klopp's door, but Jordan Henderson has dismissed the idea, despite Liverpool having to make do without all four first team centre backs at one point. "I don't buy it at all, to be honest," Henderson told the Daily Mail. "The amount of games that we have had, you cannot train that much. We play and recover, play and recover, so it is hard to get any kind of training in. All we do is tactical stuff. It is intense but I wouldn't say it is intense on the body. It's more mentally that [Klopp] tests you. He wants you to take on board what he wants from you tactically. He wants you to know exactly what he wants from you when he sends you on to the pitch. But I honestly don't see how you could [say] it is because of training that all those injuries have come about. We haven't trained enough for them to happen."

2. Buffon announces his retirement date
Juventus and Italy's legendary goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon has decided to retire in 2018. Buffon, who is about to turn 38 this week, has decided that his current contract is his final one, but that he would hold off his retirement to be available for his country in the 2018 World Cup, if they qualify. Buffon won the World Cup with Italy in 2006 and has lifted 6 scudettos with Juve, who are currently on an 11 match winning run. The veteran is Italy's most capped player ever, with 154 appearances so far and is currently Italy's Sportsman of the Year. "Am I going to sign a new contract?" Buffon said. "If we manage to reach the World Cup in 2018 then I'll press on. But after that, I'll bring down the shutters." He will be sadly missed, his performances this season have shown there is still life in him.

 

3. Byram admits initiation is scarier than Prem debut
West Ham United's new signing Sam Byram has had a whirlwind few days, one moment he is a Leeds United player, the next he is in talks with Everton, then the Hammers and then he is coming off the bench to make his Premier League debut for West Ham at the weekend. Byram admits he is more worried about his initiation at the club, which involves singing a song for all the players, which scares him more than facing Manchester City's attack did. "I wasn't excited, I wasn't nervous I just tried to keep a cool head and approach it like a normal game," Byram said. "I've not had my initiation yet. It's normally on the away trip you've got to get up and sing. I'm trying not to think about it! Can I sing? No, I'm horrific. We were in the hotel before the game and I was thinking someone was going to be tinging the glass to get me to do it. I will be more nervous doing that than playing. One of the young lads when I was at Leeds sung Uncle Kracker, Follow Me. That went down well. I might stick with that one."

4. Pick that out!
Henrique scores a cracker for Vitoria Guimaraes against Belenenses:

 

5. Yet another Chelsea youngster heads out on loan
Chelsea have a huge list of players out on loan, enough to have a couple of affiliate clubs staffed, if they went down the same route as the Pozzos (with Udinese, Granada and Watford) or Abu Dhabi United Group (with Manchester City, New York City FC, Melbourne City and more). Yesterday another one headed out on loan, this time to join Malaga in the Spanish Primera Liga. Christian Atsu, a 24 year old Ghana international winger, was on loan with Bournemouth in the first half of the season, and has yet to feature for Chelsea's senior side since joining from Porto in 2013. Atsu had previous loan spells with Vitesse Arnhem and, unsuccessfully, with Everton.

6. Pique dismisses social media investigation
Fresh from being named Catalan sportsman of the year for 2015, Barcelona defender Gerard Pique has dismissed the news of an investigation into his activity on social media, even mockingly admitting if he has something to say, regarding Espanyol fans producing a banner with derogatory remarks aimed at his wife: "If I had anything to say, I'd say it on Twitter." The 28 year old has a history of inflammatory remarks on social media, even starting a war of words with fellow Spanish international Alvaro Arbeloa after his remarks regarding Real Madrid's expulsion from the Copa del Rey. The banners at Espanyol were a response to mocking comments he made about them prior to the game, though that in no way justifies them targeting his wife Shakira. Now he faces an investigation from the Spanish anti-violence commission, which is reportedly compiled his tweets and sent them to a disciplinary committee. "They can study the tweets," he said. "They're there for them to study what they have to study. What difference does it make whether I think it's fair or not when they're just going to do whatever they feel like anyway?"

 

7. Brentford keeper produces an excellent save
David Button shows great reactions here to stop this:

8. Welbeck returns to training
Arsenal's injury situation is showing real signs of getting better, even if their on-field performance suffered a dip at the weekend against Chelsea. Not only is Sanchez back in the side, but now Welbeck, who was supposedly due back at the start of the season, is finally due back in training, after the usual Arsenal setbacks. It is expected he will be ready to return to first team action next month.

 

9. Football Leaks release Abdenour transfer contract
As part of their ongoing release of football transfer documents, the Football Leaks website has released the contract between AS Monaco and Valencia for the transfer of Tunisian international Aymen Abdennour. A quick overview is:
Clause 2.3 sets out the price as the rather odd amount of total fee as 21,842,106 Euros to be paid in full by the 31st December 2016.
Clause 2.4 requires that Valencia need to pay Monaco a further 6,842,106 Euros, in the event they sell him to a third party for a fee equal to or higher than Valencia have paid for him. It also requires a copy of any contract for his future transfer to be provided to Monaco to prove the price paid.

10. Mario not so super
Liverpool's on loan AC Milan forward Mario Balotelli beaten by professional freestyler Soufiane Touzani in a nutmegs battle:

Written by Tris Burke January 26 2016 11:09:36