Picture from: freelargeimages.com
Review of the day
contract
Young Ajax duo Dani de Witt and Noah Long have been given new contracts valid until 2021.
Tom Hartley (son of Mark and grandson of Tony) has signed a new contract with Polish Ekstaklasa side Piast Gliwice. The midfielder’s contract was originally due to expire this summer, but is not due to expire until 2020.
Experienced winger Chris Burke has signed a one-year extension to his contract with Kilmarnock to see him spend next season at the Scottish club.
Zizou wants to keep Varane
Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane wants to keep hold of France centre-back Raphael Varane despite rumors linking him with a move away from the Spanish capital club. Zidane told a press conference: “I don’t want Madrid without Varane. He is a young player (25 years old), has been here for eight years and he is doing well. He has not said anything to me. He is at the best club in the world, he knows it, he has won a lot. We will talk about changing a lot of things next year, but you have to respect all the players here.
Leeds lose Douglas
Left-back Barry Douglas is out for the remainder of the season after picking up an injury against Millwall at the weekend. The Scottish full-back will miss Leeds’ last seven games as they battle for promotion to the Premier League due to a ruptured knee ligament.
Derby exploits subterfuge to profit
Derby County sold its ground to a company owned by owner Mel Morris for £80m (the stand-alone value of the ground was £41m) to ensure the club met FFP regulations by making a profit of £14.6m, despite wage bills being higher than club turnover. According to the BBC, every £100 increase in turnover costs £137 in salary alone! The scary thing is that what they are doing is perfectly acceptable under Financial Fair Play regulations. They have to sell the land (for a hefty fee) and then lease it back, along with an unpalatable wage-to-turnover ratio. While there is no suggestion Morris has done anything other than help the club, in the past asset strippers have often started by selling off the club’s land.
Trotters’ schedule in doubt
Bolton Wanderers’ troubles have added another wrinkle, with the club facing an increasingly precarious future. Players are on strike as staff salaries remain unpaid this month. The club will take action to the High Court tomorrow over unpaid taxes and face potential administration. Now, their schedule is being thrown into doubt after the region’s Safety Advisory Group (SAG) gave them an order banning fans from the stadium. Bolton told the Screen Actors Guild that they would not be able to fulfill their obligations under the security certificate before appearing in court tomorrow. It is likely that games will have to be played behind closed doors to allow the club to complete its Championship schedule.
Popescu wants Saints to stay permanently
On-loan Romanian defender Mihai Popescu is hoping to make his loan move from Dinamo Bucharest to St Mirren permanent. Popescu said: “I want to stay here longer, but they will decide if I perform well here. I have spoken to the coach. [Oran Kearney] I told him I liked it here. I love the atmosphere, the football, I love everything about it, so I want to stay at St. Mirren. “
Dean finally reaches 100 points
After three months of speculation as to who would be Mike Dean’s 100th red card victim, the answer was finally revealed last night when Manchester United winger Ashley Young – who for some strange reason was playing at centre-back with a centre-back on the bench – was sent off after picking up his second yellow card against Wolves. Dean has shown 100 yellow cards and 10 red cards this season, for a total of 100 red cards. Sadly, he didn’t even celebrate the moment, although I’m sure he wanted to yell “Get in!!” as he waved the card. No one in the Premier League has had so many red cards, Phil Dowd is second with just 67 in total, Mike Riley (who is now busy choosing the worst referees for every game) has 66 and Graham Poll has 63. Next on the list remains a Premier League referee, Martin Atkinson with 58 red cards. camera.
Bond gets Shrimpman role
The name is Bond, Kevin Bond, at Southend United, where he was in charge until the end of the season as Harry Redknapp’s former assistant. Southend, who recently sacked former England defender Chris Powell, sit above the relegation zone in League One on goal difference.
Kent faces ban
Rangers’ on-loan Liverpool winger Ryan Kent faces a two-match ban for lashing out at Celtic midfielder Scott Brown during a heated Old Firm derby at the weekend. Rangers will have to decide whether to challenge the ban, which seems unlikely as it was clear Kent extended his arm to Brown and the youngster was lucky the referee didn’t spot it at the time.
Gifts lead to president’s resignation
Reinhard Grindel, the deeply unpopular president of the German Football Association, resigned after it was revealed he accepted an expensive watch from Ukrainian businessman and UEFA vice-president Grigory Surkis. “The price of the watch was €6,000 (£5,152),” said Grindel, who is running for the UEFA executive committee as he no longer belongs to it. Earnings of €78,000 have not been made public.
VAR will be displayed on the big screen
If a decision during the FA Cup semi-final is overturned, VAR replays will be shown on the big screen at Wembley. This decision was made to let fans in the stadium understand why the referee’s decision was overturned.
Keane suffers more racist abuse
Juventus striker Moise Kean found “the best way to respond to racism” after being racially abused by Cagliari fans while scoring in Juve’s win over Cagliari. Bizarrely, his manager Massimiliano Allegri and teammate Leonardo Bonucci criticized Kean for the way he celebrated after his goal, when he made no provocative move and simply raised his arms. Allegri said: “He should not have celebrated in this way. He is a young man and he has to learn, but certain things in the crowd should not be heard either.” Bonucci also said: “You celebrate a goal with your teammates. He could have done it differently. I think the blame is 50-50. Moise should not have done this and Curva [fans] “Allegri and Bonucci seem to think that the increase in racial slurs is the fault of Keane celebrating his goal after receiving racial slurs!” After Kean’s goal, play was stopped in the 85th minute and a three-minute warning was given to the crowd, but as usual, Cagliari president Tommaso Giulini said nothing more, shamelessly blaming Kean’s celebration for causing abuse, saying: “Most of what I heard were boos, and if they start making animal noises, then we are in the wrong. What happened in the end was because the way of celebrating was wrong, it would have happened to any other player. “This is not the first time that players have experienced racial abuse at Cagliari’s stadium, just last year Matuidi complained about this in the same match that season.
Written by Tris Burke April 3, 2019 06:04:46