Liverpool are not interested in signing Alexandre Pato, boss Jurgen Klopp has confirmed. Corinthians forward Pato has confirmed he would like to move to the Premier League and had been strongly linked with a move to Anfield. However, Klopp said at a news conference on Monday that Liverpool would not be signing the former AC Milan forward. Asked whether he was interested, he said: “I could say the truth and say ‘no.’ “We don’t talk about things like this until we sign a contract, but you don’t have to follow the Pato path any longer. That’s my only private advice.”
Author: David F.
Carles Puyol believes it would be a “huge injustice” if Lionel Messi did not win an unprecedented fifth Ballon d’Or on Monday. Messi, his Barcelona teammate Neymar and Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo are on the shortlist for the biggest individual accolade in world football, which will be handed out at a lavish awards ceremony in Zurich. Messi is the bookmakers’ favourite to take the award from his great rival Ronaldo, who won his third Ballon d’Or gong last season. The Argentine was the star performer in Barca’s five-trophy haul in 2015, scoring 48 goals in the calendar year. And…
Premier League Swansea City fell victims to the first major giant-killing of the FA Cup third round on Sunday when they lost 3-2 away to League Two (fourth tier) side Oxford United. Chelsea, fielding a near full-strength team, came through their home tie with League One Scunthorpe by two goals to nil and Tottenham Hotspur needed a controversial late penalty by Harry Kane to draw 2-2 at home to Leicester City. There were more than 50 league positions between the clubs at the Kassam Stadium, where Oxford came from behind to lead 3-1 after Ecuador international Jefferson Montero had put…
Claudio Ranieri believes he can confidently rotate his thin squad following Sunday’s 2-2 FA Cup draw with Tottenham Hotspur despite eight changes to their starting line-up. Leicester are now winless in four games in all competitions but the Foxes, despite being without Premier League’s joint top scorer Jamie Vardy and midfielder Riyad Mahrez, held their own against a strong Spurs side. Ranieri hailed the strength in depth of his side and felt they were unlucky not to win after Harry Kane buried an 89th minute penalty, given for a handball by Nathan Dyer. “They worked so well – very, very…
Valencia slipped 16 points off the top four in 11th after defeat to a rejuvenated Real Sociedad since David Moyes’s sacking in November. Neville’s men had shown promising signs in holding Real Madrid 2-2 last weekend and a 4-0 thrashing of Granada in the Copa del Rey in midweek, but have now gone two months without a league win to almost certainly end their hopes of reaching the Champions League next season. “It’s a blow, we needed momentum, but we played well below the expectations we have set ourselves,” said Neville. “We have to snap out of it and start…
Zinedine Zidane has urged Gareth Bale to maintain his sensational form after the Welshman got the Frenchman’s reign as Real Madrid boss off to a flying start with a hat-trick in a 5-0 demolition of Deportivo la Coruna on Saturday. Madrid moved to within two points of La Liga leaders Barcelona on Zidane’s bow in senior management at the Santiago Bernabeu as Bale registered his second hat-trick in four games in between Karim Benzema’s double. Bale now has 10 goals to his name in his last seven outings for Madrid and his display dismissed suggestions that he had been disappointed…
Manchester United right back Matteo Darmian has dismissed reports he is unsettled at Old Trafford and considering a loan move to Italian champions Juventus in January. Darmian joined from Torino during the close season and got off to an impressive start but has struggled to maintain his early season form with British media reporting he was considering a move back to Italy. “I am happy here with the team, the staff and the city. I am happy here so I just try to ignore the rumours. I want to continue on my way and that’s it,” the 26-year-old was quoted…
Southampton have to “change some disciplinary things” and improve their focus if they are to avoid a Premier League relegation fight this season, manager Ronald Koeman said. The Saints slipped to 13th following a 1-0 defeat by Norwich on Saturday after Victor Wanyama was sent off for a dangerous tackle in the second half, while Senegalese midfielder Sadio Mane was dropped from the starting line-up for missing a pre-match meeting. Koeman’s side have lost six of their last eight league games to sit seven points off the relegation places and the Dutchman is conscious they are now in a “difficult…
Ronald Koeman said finding a solution to Southampton’s slumping form in the January transfer window will be tricky and called on his current squad to turn the club’s fortunes around. The Saints have lost eight of their last 10 games in all competitions, exited both domestic cup competitions and dropped down to 13th in the Premier League after 20 games with scoring goals a problem. They are likely to welcome back top scorer Graziano Pelle, who has missed the last four games with a knee injury, against ninth-placed Watford in the league on Wednesday as they bid to improve a…
Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp has warned Bayern Munich coach Pep Guardiola about the Premier League’s packed fixture list, and the weather, if he goes ahead with his plan to join an English club. Guardiola has been strongly linked with a move to Manchester City since the former Barcelona manager confirmed that he was leaving Bayern at the end of the season and was keen to work in England. The German team are enjoying the Bundesliga winter break and have not played a competitive game since December 19. Liverpool will have played nine games during that period by the time the…
Manager Arsene Wenger believes Arsenal’s heavy schedule has helped the side maintain a rich vein of form that continued with a 3-1 victory over Sunderland in an FA Cup third round tie on Saturday. The packed fixture list in England over the Christmas and New Year period has come under fire from several Premier League managers, including Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp and Sunderland’s Sam Allardyce, but Wenger holds a different view. After winning seven of their last eight games in all competitions, the Frenchman said the hectic schedule had given the league leaders a perfect platform to build on in the…
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that it has been humbled by the President Goodluck Jonathan’s defeat in the March 28 presidential elections. Jonathan lost to All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Muhammadu Buhari by over two million votes. The PDP also stated that it had learnt valuable lessons from its defeat at the polls. This was contained in a series of tweets posted by PDP National Chairman, Ahmadu Mu’azu. “We are humbled by the 28th of March decision of many Nigerians and promise #NeverAgain to let you down. We will reform our party,” he tweeted. “We have learnt some…
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has urged the All Progressives Congress (APC) to give Nigerians the change it promised and stop making excuses. The PDP also told the APC to stop taking citizens for granted and begin the process of providing leadership. The comments were made by PDP Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Abdullahi Jalo while speaking to Punch on Wednesday, July 15, 2015. “Nigerians are still expecting the change the APC promised. It is not a time to make excuses, Nigerians want results,” Jalo said. Jalo also urged the APC to hurriedly fulfill its promise to pay unemployed graduates and…
he Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration lacks economic direction. The PDP further urged Buhari to pay attention to Nigeria’s economy which it said is in decline due to neglect from the government. This was contained in a statement released by PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh on Monday, September 14, 2015.
The Executive Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, has sympathized with doctors and management of the Braithwaite Memorial Hospital, Port Harcourt over the fire incident which gutted the Doctor’s quarters of the hospital at about 3 pm on Sunday, December 27 2015. The genesis of it all was when the fire which started from the topmost floor of a two-storey building, which housed medical staff of the Braithwaite Memorial Hospital in Port Harcourt, Rivers state capital, razed and damaged that floor and property worth millions of naira. Governor Nyesom Wike, who was accompanied to the Hospital by the State…
Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, has said that James Faleke will be replaced as deputy governor-elect should the need arise. He said this in Abuja on Wednesday in an interaction with newsmen. Faleke, who was running mate to late Abubakar Audu in the Nov. 21 gubernatorial elections in Kogi, rejected the same position after the party replaced Audu with Alhaji Yayaha Bello, who was runner-up in the party’s primaries. Faleke demanded that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should declare him governor-elect, and chose Audu’s son, Mohammed, as his running mate. He threatened to court of INEC failed…
Upon assumption of office as the Executive Governor of Rivers State, it would be recalled that Governor Nyesom Wike sacked about three hundred and forty four (344) members of staff of the Ken Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic, Bori in Rivers State, southern Nigeria. The affected officers have proceeded to file a suit against the Rivers state government and others for illegal termination of appointment. The suit against the Rivers State Government was filed at the National Industrial Court (NIC) sitting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa by lawyers from the Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, a team led by Anyankwe Nsirimovu. As defendants,…
Former governor of Oyo State, Adebayo Alao-Akala, recently revealed why he decamped from to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC). He denounced his former party, the PDP, as a dying party. Months ago, Alao-Akala left the PDP after he was denied the party gubernatorial ticket for the 2015 April election. In an interview, Alao-Akala claimed that the PDP was at the brink of natural death. “I already said goodbye to the PDP; I would not have gone back to the PDP. What would I have gone back to do in PDP? Those people that had…
The Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose has slammed the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Muhammed for claiming that the Boko Haram sect has be defeated. Fayose said that if the claim was true, Lai Muhammed should relocate to Sambisa without security operatives attached to him. Ayo Fayose commented the Nigerians would only believe the claim if the minster relocate his residence to one of the troubled states. “Nigerians will only take the minister serious if he relocates to either Sambisa in Borno State or Yobe State and stay there till the end of March, next year without heavy military…
An explosion An explosion has occurred in the home of Bayelsa State House of Assembly Speaker, Hon Konbowei Friday Benson. The blast went off on Thursday, January 7, 2016, at Bensons home in Korokorosei Community in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, Daily Trust reports. The incident has been confirmed by the state police spokesperson, Asinim Butswat. “On the 7/1/2016, at about 0405hrs, unknown persons detonated an object suspected to be a dynamite in the compound of Hon Kombowei Benson, at Korokorosei Community,” Butswat said. “The impact resulted to damage to the doors, windows and glasses in his residence. The scene…