Javier Mascherano has joined the queue to the Camp Nou treatment room with champions Barcelona hit by a spate of injuries before they begin the new season in La Liga against Betis on Saturday. Luis Enrique’s side paid a high price for winning the Spanish Super Cup against Sevilla, with captain Andres Iniesta and defenders Jeremy Mathieu and Mascherano sustaining injuries over the two legs that will keep them out of Saturday’s game. “I’m very happy and satisfied with what I saw on the pitch and the performances of the players who are joining the team. I’m very happy about…
Author: David Folami
Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino says the Premier League season should have started later, claiming the summer internationals have left it “very difficult” to prepare his players. On Thursday, Pochettino said coaches had been put in an “impossible,” no-win situation by football’s decision-makers, telling a news conference: “You cannot play the Euros and start [the Premier League season] on Aug. 13. How can you give rest to the players, after the whole season?” Spurs goalkeeper Hugo Lloris will miss the next month after picking up a hamstring injury in the opening minutes of Spurs’ Premier League curtain-raiser at Everton, having…
Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone has said Chelsea striker Diego Costa was the club’s main transfer target this summer. Costa was heavily linked with a return to the Vicente Calderon, which he left to move to London for €38 million two years ago, but the Blues declined to sell. And Simeone eventually turned his attention to Kevin Gameiro, who arrived from Sevilla earlier this month. He told Movistar Plus show Espacio Reservado, in quotes reported by AS that he had spoken to Gameiro, who rebuffed interest from Barcelona, to tell him to wait because Atletico were trying to seal a…
Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho believes Paul Pogba may already be the world’s best midfielder, yet he thinks his goal return ensures he will struggle to challenge Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo for the top individual accolades. The returning Pogba, who has only trained with United for 11 days, has been declared fit for selection against Southampton when the Frenchman could make his first Old Trafford appearance since 2012. A world-leading sum of £89 million was required to bring him back after a four-year stint with Juventus and Mourinho believes his club have acquired a player who has evolved into…
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has told Sky Sports that he is at “the top” of his career and has the best years ahead of him, which could keep him going until he is 70. Mourinho has taken on the United job after a difficult spell at Chelsea, having been sacked in December with the team in 16th position in the Premier League. But after winning titles in major leagues such as Spain, England and Italy, the 53-year-old feels he still has plenty to offer. The United manager said: “I have been in some of the biggest clubs in the…
Paul Pogba says he “cannot wait” to make his second Manchester United debut, telling Sky Sports: “This comeback shows I left United but a part of my heart was still here.” Pogba, 23, is due to make his first appearance since his world-record £89.3 million move from Juventus when United play Southampton at Old Trafford on Friday night. The France international had spent time in the United youth academy but headed Juve in 2012 after failing to make a first-team start under Sir Alex Ferguson. Explaining his return, he told Thierry Henry in an interview for Sky Sports: “First of…
Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna state has condemned attacks by suspected Fulani herdsmen on Godogodo village in the Jema’ah Local Government Area. The Governor also called on indigenes of the affected community not to take laws into their hands. He said “We came here for practical assessment of the situation, and to condole with the victims. Members of the State Security Council have met here, in a determined bid to stop the attacks and killings. “Actions to apprehend the perpetrators will continue, along with other peace-building moves that government have been engaged in. “These cycles of killings are unjustifiable and…
The Governor of Osun state, Governor Rauf Aregbesola has called on Nigerians to be patient with President Buhari’s administration. He said this while receiving an award from Nigerian Association of Technologists in Engineering (NATE). Speaking on the current situation in the country, Aregbesola said change is a gradual process. The Governor also called on Nigerians to support the present administration as it looks for solutions to the present economic crisis. Adding that “Change does not come easily; change comes generally with pain and it is this pain that will turn out for good. “There is no doubt that we are…
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has re-arrested an ex-Governor of Imo state, Achike Udenwa. Udenwa, who was earlier granted an administrative bail by the anti-graft agency, was picked up again, in connection with the funds allegedly used to bribe staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). According to Leadership, an EFCC source revealed that “Udenwa, as a state coordinator for the Presidential Campaign Organisation in Imo state, allegedly collected the sum of N350m from Nenadi Usman, a former senator representing Kaduna south and director of finance for the PDP presidential campaign organisation. “The suspect, in his statement…
The Presidency has denied allegations that President Buhari has been receiving entitlements as a former Head of State and ex-military officer. According to presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, “President Buhari stopped collecting this from last year.” A statement which Shehu released on Twitter reads: “The President has never received pension from the army or car as had gone to former Commanders-in-Chief. “After his overthrow, they didn’t remember him even in the annual distribution of diaries or calendars. “If anyone is laying his/her hand on any such payment, they should face criminal investigation. “PMB stopped collecting allowances paid to former Heads of…
A group, the Global Excellence Foundation has commended President Muhammadu Buhari for giving the assurance that he would give the appropriate response to the report of the Kaduna State Judicial Commission of Inquiry which investigated the Army/Shiites clashes of December 2015. President Buhari had in a statement signed by his spokesman, Garba Shehu said that he was studying the details of the report before announcing appropriate response in due course. The foundation’s country director, Professor Yemi Ola, stated that the prospects are clearer now that Nigerians will get closure to the clashes which became the subject of a long drawn…
According to former aviation minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, President Muhammadu Buhari has destroyed Nigeria. Fani-Kayode also said that the Buhari administration has ‘stripped away the glory of our nation, ruined the economy, created ethnic and religious divisions, and impoverished the people’. The former minister made the comment in an article titled “The PDP and the futility of compromise”. Read the article below: When I warned the Nigerian people about what the APC represented and that, if given power, they would be the most reactionary, repressive, vindictive, insensitive, vicious, thin-skinned, paranoid, divisive and, worse of all, incompetent government in the history of…
The Rivers state commissioner of information, Dr. Austin Tam-George, in an interview, revealed that Governor Nyesom Wike has transformed the state in many ways. Tam-George said Wike is implementing an urban masterplan that includes construction of roads that were abandoned by previous governments, bridges, and traffic lights. The commissioner said “There is an impressive momentum of development everywhere you turn. The government is revitalising the State through the provision of critical infrastructure. Roads that were abandoned for decades and were impassable in many places have been completely re-constructed. Over 180 km of roads across the State have been completed in…
Nigerian oil minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu said on Thursday that while a cut in OPEC production is unlikely, there is hope a meeting of producers in Algeria next month could help shore up crude prices. Kachikwu also said in a speech in Lagos that his country’s oil output had fallen to 1.56 million barrels per day (bpd) as persistent militant attacks took out some 700,000 bpd. But he cast doubt on any plans by members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to voluntarily reduce their output at the meeting in Algeria. “Are we cutting volumes? I don’t see…
Nigeria will need to combine monetary policies with fiscal and structural policies in order to overcome its worst economic crisis in decades and return to growth, President Muhammadu Buhari said on Thursday. Nigeria is in the middle of its worst crisis in decades as a slump in oil revenues hammers public finances and the naira. Gross domestic product shrank in the first quarter and the central bank governor has said a recession is likely. “We fully understand that monetary policy alone is not sufficient to bring about desired economic growth,” Buhari told a meeting of African central bank governors in…
The federal government has reacted to an alleged discreet investigation on former president Goodluck Jonathan and his wife, Dame Patience over links with militant group, Niger Delta Avengers (NDA). Premium Times had reported that a top government source while quoting intelligence reports said some of the oil installations bombed in the Niger Delta had actually been mined before the 2015 general elections, when Jonathan was still in power, by some militants close to him. “The mining was meant to be a “Plan B should they be removed from Aso Rock. The plan then was to cause confusion if the 2015…
President Muhammadu Buhari, today, August 18, 2016, held a secret meeting with former Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar. The meeting held inside the president’s office at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. “I came to discuss issues of national interest and international affairs with the President,” Abubakar told journalists after the meeting. “Both of them are interwoven. I have discussed with the person I came to see and I don’t think I need to discuss it in the news media,” he added. President Buhari also held a closed door meeting with Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka on Thursday, August 11 at…
Eminem and fellow rapper, Drake, have played down any rumours of beef between them following a recent performance at the latter’s concert in Detroit. The pair came together to give a stage performance of their 2009 collaboration song ‘Forever’, which led to loud cheers from the crowd. According to Us Magazine, Drake gracefully welcomed the ‘8 Miles’ rapper onto the stage, describing him as the greatest rapper. “Detroit, make some noise for the greatest rapper to ever get on the motherf–king microphone. He goes by the name of Eminem,” “Legendary s–t tonight”, he added. Humbled by the welcoming address, Eminem…
Yesterday, August 17, 2016, Kaffy shared a semi nude photo of herself shot by Kelechi Amadi-Obi and she was immediately called out for posting such ‘nudity’. “My body is my art. My canvas. My paintbrush. My instrument of expression. #Beinspired #fitmom #dancemom #dancetrepenuer Be Happy In You!!! @kelechiamadiobi thanks for this! I celebrate this body as its a testimony of God’s ingenuity . A production factory . An abode for passion. A chamber for motherhood . A masterpiece,” she captioned it. Immediately she was berated by angry Nigerians some of who called her a ‘prostitute and immoral mother of two’.…
Television personality, Khloe Kardashian, has shared her concerns about the basketball career of Lamar Odom, who has been going through some rough patch lately. She revealed this on an August 21, 2016, episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, stating that she feels that the NBA player has not been showing enough commitment in his career. Speaking to the camera on the episode, Kardashian said, “Basketball is obviously Lamar’s passion and love, and anything that’s positive and uplifting, I’m all for,” “But Lamar hasn’t followed through recently with so many things.” “Like, I need to see some consistency and a…