Key events
The 100 Best Female Footballers in the World 2023
The countdown to No1 is complete and to the surprise of absolutely nobody, Barcelona and Spain’s Ballon D’Or-winning midfielder Aitana Bonmati is Top of the Pops. Of the 112-strong voting panel, 102 voted Bonmati their No1 while the other 10 are being hauled before the beak to explain themselves.
Chelsea: Borussia Dortmund signed Ian Maatsen on loan from Chelsea. “I promise I will give everything for the team’s success and I’m really looking forward to the Yellow Wall,” said the 21-year-old Dutch defender, who has made 12 appearances for Chelsea and also had loan spells at Charlton Athletic and Coventry City.
The Rumour Mill
Chelsea are eyeing up yet another Brighton starlet in the form of teenage striker Evan Ferguson, but will have to pay top dollar to lure the Irishman away from the Amex Stadium. John Brewin has the latest …
More from Eddie Howe: “We’re really stretched in attacking and midfield areas and that’s inhibited our players from resting and bringing new players on to help with rotation,” he says.
“In an ideal world given the freedom to act, we’d have brought players in already but we’re not in that situation because financial fair play is a problem for us. So, we’re having to navigate around that. It’s already a problem we’ve been dealing with but we’re trying to manage through it.”
With his injury-ravaged squad ninth in the table, bottom of the form table and preparing for extremely challenging fixtures against Manchester City and Aston Villa, Howe was asked if he is frustrated by the manner in which Newcastle are being hamstrung by FFP.
“It’s a frustration for everyone connected with us, as the owners are ambitious and they’d like to help us through this patch and improve the squad,” he says. “But there are rules and it’s the same for everyone. It is how it is and we’re acting in the best way that we can.”
Joelinton out for at least six weeks
Newcastle United: Always keen to keep the local press on their toes by getting his media duties out of the way early, Howe is conducting his press conference ahead of Newcastle’s match against Manchester City tomorrow and has revealed that Joelinton will be sidelined for at least six weeks, further adding to the club’s well documented injury woes.
“He’s got a problem with a tendon in his quad, without getting too detailed,” said Howe. “It’s a very difficult place to get an injury, hence the timescale that he’s going to be out. He’s very disappointed; he wants to play and he wants to do well so we’ve had to do a job of trying to pick Joe up, really.”
Newcastle United: While a few questions remain concerning Eddie Howe’s future at Newcastle United, assuming he is still in charge of the club come season’s end he may be forced to offload one of his star players if Newcastle are remain compliant with the Premier League’s profit and sustainability regulations.
The club’s chief executive, Darren Eales, has also suggested that the club could leave their iconic St James’ Park stadium for new, bigger digs in order to get more Geordie backsides on seats and generate more revenue accordingly. Louise Taylor reports …
Preamble
With several Premier League squads looking forward to a weekend off as they recharge their batteries at warm weather training camps (or a cold weather boot camp in the case of Sheffield United, who haven’t gone anywhere), there are just five top flight matches scheduled for this weekend.
It being January, much of the talk at today’s pre-match press conferences will be on the subject of transfers, as various managers are quizzed about potential incomings and outgoings as they try to reshuffle their decks before the window closes on 1 February.
Keeping tabs on these briefings so that you don’t have to, we’ll bring you all the news that’s fit to print ahead of a weekend that kicks off with Burnley’s six-pointer against Luton at Turf Moor tonight and concludes when the final whistle is blown at the end of Manchester United’s set-to with Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford on Sunday.
