Lille ‘project’ stumbles as star coach Bielsa suspended
November 24 – Lille have suspended their star coach Marcelo Bielsa after the club’s poor form left the outfit second bottom of Ligue 1.
Performance
Israel declare ‘crisis’ as it falls behind Palestine in FIFA rankings
November 23 – Talk about adding insult to injury. As if Israel’s off-the-field dispute with the Palestinians in the occupied territories wasn’t divisive enough, the Israelis now have to stomach the fact they are behind their “neighbours” in the latest FIFA world rankings.
Niasse’s big dive turns into a bellyflop as PL bans him for ‘deception’
November 23 – Oumar Niasse of Everton has become the first Premier League player to be banned retrospectively for diving since new rules came into effect in May.
UEFA could see red over Carvajal’s ‘deliberate’ yellow
November 23 – The phrase “cheats never prosper” doesn’t always apply to footballers but Real Madrid defender Dani Carvajal is facing an additional two-match Champions League ban after appearing to deliberately get himself booked in Wednesday’s 6-0 win at Apoel Nicosia.
Postecoglou quits Aussies before Russia 2018 campaign. Hiddink rumoured for return
By Ian Griffiths
November 22 – A week after guiding Australia to next year’s World Cup finals in Russia, Ange Postecoglou ended weeks of speculation on Wednesday by resigning as Socceroos head coach.
Rashford, Abraham, Davies, Calvert-Lewin and Gomez fly flag for England’s forgotten youth
November 21 – England may have had double World Cup success at FIFA U17 and U20 levels but the fears that few of these winning players would be given limited first team opportunity in the Premier League has very quickly become a reality.
Italy fire Ventura after failure to qualify for Russia 2018
November 17 – Italy have sacked coach Giampiero Ventura after the four-time champions failed to reach the World Cup for the first time since 1958.
Sick Notes: Man Utd spent £52m on lost work days, Newcastle lost 5,172 days in total
November 15 – With the international fixture window coming to a close, clubs will be counting the cost of returning injured players. New research, titled Sick Notes, from Bigfreebet.com, finds that Manchester United spent £52,514,709 on wages to injured players over the past three seasons.
Man City top Euro defensive ranking, Liverpool above Real but lag PSG, Bayern and Juve
November 14 – Manchester City, praised for their creative attacking, appear to have now solved their defensive leaks according to a new set of stats that ranks them top of clubs in the Big 5 European leagues in terms of least shots on their goal from inside the box.
Northern Ireland to push for VAR after 2018 play-off carve up against Swiss
November 14 – Northern Ireland are to push for the implementation of video assistant referees in the wake of the country’s failure to reach the World Cup courtesy of a highly controversial first-leg penalty that left players, officials and fans fuming.
Handy game-changing decisions for Swiss that VAR would have caught
November 10 – Amidst growing debate over whether the formal introduction of video technology would prove counter-productive after of a string of poor judgements, Northern Ireland are ironically crying foul having seen their World Cup hopes take a dive because of two crucial decisions that almost certainly would have been overturned by the system.
Peru lament loss of striker Guerrero for Russia 2018 play offs against NZ
November 6 – Peru’s team doctor says strict controls on what they gave their players means that there was no way they could have administered the stimulant that led FIFA banning their captain Paolo Guerrero from two crucial upcoming World Cup play-off matches against New Zealand.
No crisis at mis-firing Real Madrid says Ronaldo after Spurs stamp their mark on Europe
November 2 – Cristiano Ronaldo insists there is no crisis at European champions Real Madrid after they were humbled 3-1 by Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions league having suffered a shock defeat by Girona in La Liga last weekend.
Player development: Club trained players hit a new low across Europe
By Mark Baber
November 1 – Across the top Europe leagues, club trained players have hit a new low, with only 18.5% of players trained by the club they are currently with, expatriate players are at a new high of 39.7% and the percentage of new signings in each squad has hit a new high of 44.8%.
Size matters – Pulis likes his players big, Guardiola prefers small
October 31 – Big is beautiful if you are West Brom, but small is more perfectly formed if you are Man City, Barcelona, Real Madrid or Olympique Lyonnais.