A leading Arsenal supporters’ group has called on Arsene Wenger to step down after publishing a survey that showed nearly 80 percent of fans polled don’t want the Frenchman to sign a new contract. The Arsenal Supporters’ Trust conducted a survey last week of its membership, with 78 percent saying they don’t want Wenger to remain as manager after this season. In addition, 86 percent said they don’t think the club board has handled the issue of Wenger’s contract in a manner that is “in the best interests of Arsenal Football Club.” The AST has close to 1,000 members, about…
Author: David Folami
Antonio Conte has said that Real Madrid’s public pursuit of Eden Hazard is a compliment rather than a distraction to Chelsea, but reiterated that he wants the Premier League title to be just the start of their success. Speculation that Hazard is set to join Madrid this summer gathered pace over the international break but Conte refused to be drawn into a definitive statement on the Belgium international’s future in his Friday news conference. Asked if Chelsea are willing to consider any offers for Hazard this summer, Conte said: “I don’t know, I know. I repeat always the same thing:…
Liverpool will be without captain Jordan Henderson, Adam Lallana and Daniel Sturridge for Saturday’s Merseyside derby, manager Jurgen Klopp has said. The Liverpool boss faces a selection headache ahead of Everton’s visit to Anfield on the weekend for the 228th encounter between the Liverpool-based sides. Lallana is expected to be on the sidelines for up to a month after sustaining a thigh injury on international duty with England. Klopp has been critical of the scheduling of England’s fixtures, with a friendly against Germany occurring just days after Liverpool’s draw with Manchester City. Speaking at a news conference on Friday afternoon,…
Manchester United defenders Chris Smalling and Phil Jones suffered “long-term injuries” while on duty with England, Jose Mourinho has said. Smalling, 27, withdrew from the England squad with an undisclosed injury and was later photographed wearing a leg brace. Jones also pulled out of the England squad after damaging his toe in a training ground challenge with Smalling, meaning Eric Bailly and Marcos Rojo are likely to start in central defence against West Brom on Saturday. United will also be without Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Ander Herrera and Paul Pogba for the Premier League clash but captain Wayne Rooney is available. Ibrahimovic…
Under-pressure Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger reckons there’s only one team in London — and it’s not Chelsea. Wenger was responding to suggestions Alexis Sanchez could quit the Gunners to move to Stamford Bridge in the summer. So, who’s the only team in London? Andrew Mangan: Wenger’s comment came across like a man playing to the crowd. He knows he’s under pressure, so why not try and alleviate that with a populist slogan that will go over well with fans who, for all the troubles at the moment, remain partisan? The Arsenal manager is someone who has always highlighted the difficulties…
Jose Mourinho has said he allowed Bastian Schweinsteiger to join Chicago Fire because he did not treat him “right” at Manchester United. Schweinsteiger, 32, has joined MLS club Chicago Fire after a difficult season under Mourinho in which he was initially exiled from first-team training. The former Germany international told the New York Times this week that he viewed that time as a “character test” and that his “dream came true” when he was able to battle his way back into contention and play again at Old Trafford. Speaking about the midfielder’s departure at his news conference on Friday, Mourinho…
President Muhammadu Buhari has said that Nigeria’s economy is on its way out of recession. Buhari made the comment on Thursday, March 30, during a meeting with the outgoing Ambassador of Saudi Arabia, Fahad Bin Abdullah Sefyan in Abuja. According to a statement by his media aide, Femi Adesina, Buhari said that the two countries would have more areas to collaborate in future. The president also said that the relationship between Nigeria and Saudi Arabia is a mutually beneficial one, which should grow stronger in the years to come. “I quite appreciate the relationship between the two countries,” Buhari said.…
Tonto Dikeh’s husband, Oladunni Churchill, has shared another one. The businessman who keeps dropping the bomb one at a time says it’s against his tradition to beat women. Churchill in a post shared on Instagram yesterday replied a followers question asking him if he indeed beat his wife. On the post which reads, “Don’t compare your real life to someone else’s controlled online content,” a follower asked, “Do you beat women yes or no.” He, however, replied, “against my tradition.” This comes closely after Tonto Dikeh apologised to fans for lying about being in a comfortable marriage. The actress threw…
They are stylistically similar, defiantly un-English players, unsuited to the straitjacket of 4-4-2. They are twin World Cup winners, slight figures imported from Spain to add class and creativity, but who are more prolific for their countries than their clubs. And yet if Mesut Ozil and David Silva seem kindred spirits, they are separated in perception. They meet on Sunday with an acute focus on the Arsenal playmaker, but rather less on the Manchester City midfielder. The German is castigated, the Spaniard celebrated but Ozil makes far more headlines while Silva can blend into the background. As Ozil noted this…
So Brazil have made it to Russia 2018 in style, mathematically securing a place with four games to spare in one of the fiercest qualifying tournaments in living memory. They got the job done with a 3-0 home win over Paraguay, their first triumph against their South American neighbours since 2009, combined with Peru’s surprising 2-1 victory over Uruguay. After a rocky start to the qualifying campaign, in which the Selecao’s perfect attendance record looked under threat and resulted in the dismissal of manager and World Cup-winning capitain Dunga, Brazil have cruised into next year’s edition of the tournament under…
Have a guess who is top of the Premier League form table over the past 10 games. Chelsea? Close, but no. Tottenham? Try again. Manchester United, even? See where you’re going with that, but wrong. The right answer is Everton. Like Spurs and Chelsea, they’ve taken 23 points from the last available 30, but have collected them by scoring more goals and conceding fewer than the top two in the table. They remain seventh, but quietly Ronald Koeman’s side have crept up to the edge of the Champions League places. They’re currently six points away from Liverpool in fourth. And…
Offiong Anthony, popularly known as ThinTallTony, (TTT) who was recently evicted from the on-going Big Brother Naija reality TV show, on Thursday arrived Calabar to a festive welcome by fans and admirers. TTT, who is a professional dancer, was welcomed by members of Passion 4 Calabar Carnival Band group who dressed in their all black attire, friends and scores of fans. Speaking to Journalists at the Margaret Ekpo International Airport, Tony described his BBNaija experience as interesting as well as amazing. “It was a worthwhile experience. Big brother Africa is the only show which I really don’t know what they…
Cynthia Morgan has taken to her Instagram page to call out Hollywood actress, Charlize Theron. Why? For dressing her five-year-old adopted son like a girl. The singer is angry at Theron’s approach labelling her a racist for what is been done to the boy. According to her, “This is a Total outrage.I am not a human right activist. I don’t even know what it certs to be that but, I am human and it is my right to state things when I think they are wrong and this one is. @charlizeafrica you really need to take that kid back to…
On March 30, 2017, a Federal High Court in Ikoyi lifted the injunction that restricted the nationwide release of “Okafor’s Law” in Nigeria. Oluwatomi Adeoye, who represented Dioni Visions and Omoni Oboli at the ruling, had a brief chat with us, discussing the court’s verdict. “We are still in court obviously. The only thing that happened today was pretty much the injunction to stop showing the movie was lifted,” she said. “We are being very careful to not release a statement that may cause bias, even though the other party has released their own statement to the media.” “But, from…
Gov. David Umahi of Ebonyi has ordered the immediate suspension of the state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Augustine Nwankwagu, for non-commitment to duty. The governor also indefinitely suspended the state Solicitor-General and Permanent Secretary of the ministry of Justice, Mr Jonathan Okoronkwo for the same reason. The governor announced the suspensions in Abakaliki after the duo failed to turn-up for the swearing-in of the new auditor-general of the state and members of the state judicial service commission. The officers also failed to witness the swearing-in ceremony of newly-appointed caretaker chairmen of some local government areas and development…
Suspended House of Reps member, Abdulmumin Jibrin has wondered why President Buhari is silent in the dispute between the Senate and the executive. Jibrin also said Buhari is not acting like the no nonsense Army General Nigerians used to know. The embattled lawmaker also wondered if the President is aware of the situation in the country. In a series of Tweets on Thursday, March 30, 2017, Jibrin said “Could it be some powerful people are aware of this situation PMB may be in and are taking advantage of it and/or taking things for granted?” Abdulmumin Jibrin, former chairman of the…
The Kogi Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr Kehinde Oloruntoba, says the state has concluded plans to engage over 20,000 youths in agriculture. Oloruntoba made this known on Thursday in Lokoja when members of the agriculture Core Delivery Teams (CDT) from Kaduna and Benue states visited him. The team is on a three-day learning visit to Kogi under the State Partnership for Agriculture (SPA) programme. According to the commissioner, engaging youths in agriculture is part of measures to arrest youth unemployment in the state. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the visit was organised by Synergos Nigeria, with support from…
Roman Abramovich will almost certainly know by now that Inter Milan are growing increasingly confident in their chances of luring Chelsea manager Antonio Conte to the San Siro this summer. Abramovich, Chelsea’s billionaire owner, is nothing if not well-connected, and the determination of the Suning Holdings Group, Inter’s Chinese owners, to deliver a statement of intent by appointing Conte is unlikely to have gone unnoticed by the Stamford Bridge hierarchy. Sources have told ESPN FC that Inter are serious in their pursuit of Conte and believe they can take advantage of the perfect storm which is developing at Chelsea in…
Rarely has a narrative been so well-defined so long before kickoff. We’ve known for a fortnight what this weekend will bring. Whether it transpires or not, this is going to be labelled as “Arsene Wenger’s Last Chance.” Victory against Manchester City on Sunday will buy the Arsenal manager much-needed time. Defeat, however — well, defeat would surely be the breaking point. If Arsenal lose, it would be their fifth league defeat in six games. Arsenal once went from May 2003 to August 2006 without incurring more league defeats than that. It’s all very gloomy, but is it distracting us from…
The latest international break has seen many top countries trying out their next generation of talent on the road to the 2018 World Cup. The need for regeneration is constant given injuries, loss of form and, simply, the passage of time. So how do the top five nations in Europe look for quality in this World Cup cycle and beyond? Gareth Southgate’s move up to managing the senior side lends a sense of continuity to the national team given his role as U-21 manager from 2013 to 2016. His knowledge of England’s depth, including the likes of Demarai Gray, Nathan…