French club Nantes are looking to bolster their defences during the January transfer window.
Ligue 1 side have been struggling to gain firm footing during the first part of the 2016-2017 season in the top tier and are desperate to add quality to their back line which conceded no less than 26 goals in 18 rounds thus far.
Portugal media outlet can reveal that Les Canaris have made Sporting defender Paulo Oliveira their top transfer target and that an offer worth €4.5 million has already been lodged in.
Sporting are demanding at least €6 million for the 25-year-old central midfielder, who failed to establish himself as the first option for the manager Jorge Jesus this season.
Paulo Oliveira managed only five minutes of action this season and is widely e…
Shakhtar Donetsk coach Mircea Lucescu admits he is finding it difficult to motivate his team due to the political situation in Ukraine.
Lucescu s team left Donetsk, held by pro-Russian rebels, in July last year and have trained and played in Lviv since.
Shakhtar visit Bayern Munich on Wednesday after playing out a 0-0 draw in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League last-16 first leg.
Lucescu said the political situation in Ukraine was extremely hard on his players.
This is a very difficult situation for us. It s hard to motivate the players, he said.
We have lost much, even the sympathy of our fans. Few people come to our games, but that s also because we don t play in our home.
People there [in Lviv] see us as a team from the East…
Everton star Wayne Rooney is back to his best.
His improving run of form could not have come at a better time for the Toffees, who have – pretty much in the same light as their captain – endured some difficult times since the beginning of the season.
There is a huge parallel to be drawn with Wayne Rooney’s declining career and Everton’s start to the 2017/18 season which, in many details, underlines great symbolism in how things are panning out for the Toffees’ captain and his side at the moment.
Highs and Lows
Wayne Rooney’s 15-year-long professional football career has been decorated with some memorable moments.
The Manchester United and England’s all-time top scorer – with 253 goals for the Red Devils and 53 for the national team – has won …
Liverpool have now won just one of their last eight games in all competitions
Much has been said about Liverpool and boss Jurgen Klopp this season. Most of the positives have been about their vibrant attacking play and their ability to score goals.
The negatives mostly about their inability to form any sort of organised defensive unit.
Suddenly the Reds form has slipped and Klopp’s side are out of two competitions, having recorded just one win from their last eight outings.
There is talk of crisis and ridiculously some fans claiming Klopp should be sacked.
Liverpool’s fortunes have changed of late
Jurgen Klopp arrived at Liverpool in October 2016 as one of the most highly rated bosses in world football. His high-intensity and pressing…
According to , Inter are set to appoint former Chelsea boss Antonio Conte as their new head coach. The Nerazzurri head into their last game of the Serie A campaign this weekend fourth place and knowing a win would clinch Champions League football for next season.
First reports linking Conte with the Inter job started two weeks ago. It seems likely now that the former Juventus boss will replace Luciano Spalletti as Inter manager. With . Media reports suggest that Conte will sign three or four-year deal with the Milan club.
The team have not progressed this season
Luciano Spalletti is a highly-respected head coach in the Italian game. His appointment was supposed to be the start bringing back the glory days to the Nerazzurri.
The former Roma boss helped Inter bac…
Arsene Wenger has seen indications Danny Welbeck can rediscover his best form for Arsenal and England.
Welbeck has suffered an injury nightmare over recent seasons having been struck down by two serious knee injuries – one to each leg – in 2015 and 2016.
The arrival of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette at Arsenal this term means the former Manchester United man s opportunities to play at centre-forward look likely to be limited, but he will have another chance in his favoured position in the Europa League against Ostersunds on Thursday.
I want to keep him because I believe he has gone through a torrid time, Wenger told reporters, with Welbeck out of contract at the end of next season.
He has come out well. I see signs in training now…
Harry Kane described Poland s late equaliser as a kick in the teeth after England s winning run in World Cup qualifying was ended on Wednesday.
Gareth Southgate s side took the lead through Kane s stunner in Warsaw, but were pegged back by Damian Szymanski s header from Robert Lewandowski s cross.
The Three Lions still sit top in Group J, five points clear of Albania and six clear of Poland in the hunt for a spot at Qatar 2022.
A kick in the teeth at the end there, it s never easy conceding in the last minute, Kane told BBC Radio 5 Live.
It was a good performance from the boys though, we controlled the game well.
Of course [there was an edgy atmosphere], we re playing for the opportunity to play in the World Cup. Poland clearly saw this as thei…
Odion Ighalo has said an emotional goodbye to Manchester United after his lifelong dream of playing for the Red Devils came to an end.
The striker was signed last February on loan from Shanghai Greenland Shenhua, initially on a deal until the end of the 2019-20 season.
The 31-year-old enjoyed a productive first few months at Old Trafford as an alternative striker option to Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial, providing five goals and two assists in 19 appearances in all competitions.
United won 13, drew four and lost just twice in games in which Ighalo featured last term as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer s side enjoyed a strong second half of the season, finishing third in the Premier League and reaching the semi-finals of the FA Cup and Europa League.
Due to the …
Serge Gnabry scored a hat-trick and laid on a double for Robert Lewandowski as Bayern Munich moved nine points clear at the top of the Bundesliga with a 5-0 thrashing of Stuttgart.
Gnabry, making his first start for almost a month, opened the scoring in the first half and clinically doubled the champions lead after the break behind closed doors at Mercedes-Benz Arena on Tuesday.
The outstanding Gnabry then set Lewandowski up twice and completed his treble as the leaders ran riot in Julian Nagelsmann s 200th Bundesliga match as coach, scoring three times in the space of five second-half minutes.
Bayern lost Kingsley Coman to an apparent hamstring injury, but cruised to a sixth consecutive victory in all competitions.
Just the five goal involvements for
…
Tournament organisers and the Cameroon government on Thursday stated the Africa Cup of Nations must take place as they revealed only fans who are fully vaccinated can enter stadiums.
There have been increasing concerns the competition may be called off due to the emergence of the Omicron strain of COVID-19.
The tournament was due to be staged in January and February this year but was postponed due to the pandemic.
Just over three weeks before the opening ceremony at the Complexe Sportif d Olembe, the government, Confederation of African Football (CAF) and Cameroonian Football Association (FECAFOOT) released a statement vowing that the rearranged AFCON 2021 will go ahead.
The statement said: In Cameroon, as has been the case elsewhere, effecti…