Consideration is being given to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang returning from the Africa Cup of Nations following reports he was suffering from “heart lesions” after recovering from COVID-19.
News of the issue surfaced on Friday when the Arsenal striker missed Gabon’s match with Ghana.
Aubameyang will remain in the tournament’s host nation Cameroon to undergo further testing and as things stand there is not a plan in place for him to fly back to the UK. However, that is among the options being pondered while reviews continue over his condition and the prognosis going forward.
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Monday is set to be key in deciding the next steps for Aubameyang, with clarity due on whether he is able to feature in his country’s final group game against Morocco on Tuesday or stay with Gabon if they progress.
Arsenal’s doctor has been in contact with the 32-year-old and, while the north London side believe there is no major cause for concern, they want to ensure Aubameyang is receiving the best possible care.
Before leaving for AFCON, the forward’s future at the Emirates Stadium looked uncertain having been stripped of the captaincy and made to work away from the senior squad for a breach of discipline.
Fernandes looking for parity with leading earners at Manchester United
Bruno Fernandes reminded fans of his quality in Manchester United’s 2-2 draw at Aston Villa, scoring twice and producing an all-action display before Steven Gerrard’s side rallied late on, write Laurie Whitwell and Dan Sheldon.
It was the kind of performance that Fernandes regularly delivered during his first year in England and prompted Manchester United to raise the prospect of a new contract with him in November 2020. United felt Fernandes deserved an upgrade on his salary to reflect his contribution to the team after signing 10 months earlier.
The Athletic can reveal that those talks have been temporarily shelved after Fernandes and his representatives turned down an offer in late autumn. Sources say negotiations are expected to resume in May, when Fernandes and United are clearer about the team’s situation next season.
When Fernandes moved to Old Trafford he signed on a modest salary for a club with United’s resources because his Sporting Lisbon wage was around £50,000 per week. Fernandes doubled his money by joining United, before factoring in Champions League bonuses, but several players are earning more than him.
Cristiano Ronaldo has United’s highest salary, worth more than £400,000 per week, with David de Gea on £375,000 per week. Paul Pogba, Raphael Varane, Anthony Martial, Jadon Sancho, Edinson Cavani and Marcus Rashford are all believed to receive £200,000 per week or more, with Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw close to that figure.
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United have offered Fernandes improved terms but he is looking for parity with the squad’s leading salaries given his importance to the team. His form has been scrutinised this season but only Mohamed Salah (45) and Harry Kane (34) have scored more Premier League goals since he arrived. He has scored 33 times and registered 22 assists from 70 games in England’s top flight.
United are relaxed about the situation. The club are under no pressure to re-sign Fernandes, who is contracted to June 2025 with the option for a further year.
England set for March friendlies, with Switzerland and Ivory Coast possible opponents
England’s next men’s football fixture is not scheduled to be until the summer, with Gareth Southgate’s side travelling to Hungary on June 4 and then Germany three days later.
Having already qualified for November’s World Cup in Qatar, the Football Association was considering arranging a friendly against Germany or Holland in the last week of March, but the UEFA Nations League draw has scuppered that.
With the World Cup play-offs taking place between March 24-29, however, the FA is still hoping to finalise one — or ideally two — matches, with Switzerland and Ivory Coast among the possible opponents.
Newcastle wavering over Saudi Arabia visit…
Newcastle United are still discussing the merits of travelling to Saudi Arabia for a warm-weather training camp this month.
Human rights organisation Amnesty International has expressed fears it could turn into “another PR opportunity for the Saudi authorities who are trying to sportswash their appalling human rights record”, and figures at St James’ Park are concerned it will serve as a distraction to the team’s quest of avoiding relegation.
Eddie Howe, the head coach, is understood to be keen to take his players away for training and bonding purposes following Saturday’s away match at Leeds United, with the team not then playing again until the home fixture against Everton on Tuesday, February 8.
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Newcastle are 80 per cent owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and the weather is almost certain to be conducive to warm-weather training, while their ties to the country would ensure there would be no issue finding hotels or facilities at short notice.
The Athletic understands Newcastle have not been summoned to Saudi and that this was an internal proposal initially raised on Tyneside.
Club officials have discussed the matter with Howe and his players. They have been drafting itineraries and checking visa requirements. Another complicating factor may be the need for non-vaccinated players to isolate when Newcastle return to the UK. “Plans are afoot,” one source says, although nothing has been confirmed at this stage. “Nobody knows,” another dressing-room source tells us.
At some point, Newcastle’s staff and players are certain to visit Saudi, but not everybody at the club is convinced that now is the appropriate time.
On his appointment as Steve Bruce’s successor, Howe refused to discuss Saudi’s dreadful human rights record, saying that his brief was only connected to football. This would be a harder line to stick to if Newcastle travelled there for footballing reasons.
Sacha Deshmukh, CEO of Amnesty International UK, said: “Newcastle players, the manager and all backroom staff ought to be prepared to speak out about human rights while in Saudi Arabia. Doing so would be a powerful sign of support for Saudi Arabia’s beleaguered human rights community.
“If the Newcastle training camp becomes a glorified PR exercise for (Saudi crown prince) Mohammed bin Salman’s government it will prove once again that sportswashing human rights crimes is the name of the game here — not football.”
…while Man City decide against Abu Dhabi trip
Manchester City have cancelled a warm-weather training trip to Abu Dhabi later this month.
Pep Guardiola’s side are usually in League Cup semi-final action around this time, having won the competition for four years in a row. But after being knocked out by West Ham in October, City have a two-week break after Saturday’s Premier League match against Southampton before their FA Cup tie at home to Fulham on February 5.
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They have trained in Abu Dhabi before since being taken over by the Abu Dhabi United Group in 2008 but decided the risks outweighed the benefits on this occasion.
City suffered a recent COVID-19 outbreak and were also concerned about potential travel restrictions, testing and local isolation rules.
It has not yet been confirmed what the squad will do instead — whether training closer to home or be given some time off — and that will be Guardiola’s decision.
Chelsea’s Colwill set to stay at Huddersfield this season despite Premier League interest
One of the stand-out performers in the English second tier this season is the Huddersfield Town centre-back Levi Colwill, who joined on loan from Chelsea last summer.
The 18-year-old defender has made 20 appearances in helping Huddersfield to within a point of the play-off spots, albeit having played at least one fixture more than those above them.
Colwill’s form has led to speculation that he may be recalled and teams including Leicester City are understood to have considered trying to sign him on loan for the second half of the campaign.
But The Athletic has learned that — as part of the deal which took the England youth international to Huddersfield — a clause was inserted stipulating that Chelsea could only bring him back to Stamford Bridge this month if a specific threshold relating to game time had not been reached.
Should the mark have been surpassed then Colwill would stay at Huddersfield until the summer and it is believed he has accumulated more than enough minutes for this to happen.
While it is still being explored if the situation can be changed, the expectation is that he will stay.
That would be a major boost for Huddersfield as they push for promotion, safe in the knowledge that — fitness permitting — they can continue to count on a key squad member for the coming months, but it may disappoint potential suitors who were eyeing him to strengthen their defence.
Colwill came through the Chelsea academy and is regarded among the most promising talents emerging from the west London club.
Derby administrators bid to scrap Middlesbrough and Wycombe’s legal claims
Amid all the updates at Derby County about new bids, players and embargoes, the truth is there was only one new development last week: the offer of an independent ruling on an obscure rule with enormous implications, writes Matt Slater.
Derby owe preferential and secured creditors about £60 million and, ordinarily, they would be paid in full. That, however, is more than Derby are worth to anyone who does not really, really love them, particularly as unsecured creditors would typically get 25 per cent of what they are owed and the new owner still would not own the stadium or training ground. Former owner Mel Morris has held onto those.
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Throw in the two years’ worth of future funding the English Football League needs to see to approve the deal and you are not getting much change from £100 million. And that is for a club that still seems likely to be in League One next season, despite the team’s admirable performances under Wayne Rooney.
Middlesbrough and Wycombe Wanderers are also suing Derby for loss of earnings related to the club’s breaches of EFL financial fair play rules. The combined total of these claims is about £50 million and if Middlesbrough and Wycombe were successful, they would usually be considered football creditors, who must be paid in full.
But Quantuma, Derby’s administrator, has spotted a provision in the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 that appears to enable them to knock a huge chunk off Derby’s debts and render the claims from Middlesbrough and Wycombe effectively irrelevant.
The plan to offer the taxman the same 25p in the pound as the unsecured creditors and to give the two clubs chasing damages nothing was put to the EFL board last week, along with assurances Derby could fulfil their fixtures this season without having to accept what Quantuma considers low-ball offers for the club’s best players.
The board, however, told them external counsel had advised that Middlesbrough and Wycombe — regardless of the merits of their cases — were still potential football creditors. But, as the law has just changed and the EFL’s rulebook has not been updated to reflect this change, the EFL has offered to send the matter to arbitration.
Neither Middlesbrough nor Wycombe have heard, meanwhile, from Derby’s administrators since before Christmas. It is a cause of some consternation, with Wycombe owner Rob Couhig telling The Athletic: “We are small potatoes in the bigger scheme of things… but I don’t think it can drag on much longer.
“But who knows? I question how long Derby can run without some outside additional funding.
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“Until a human being or group is saying they have the money to buy Derby County and it’s here, everybody is just talking. I don’t know that anybody wants to burn any bridges until there is something to burn them for.”
Additional reporting: Michael Walker
Villa pushing to sign centre-half this month as they sweat on Konsa’s injury
Aston Villa want to sign a new centre-half this month, reports Gregg Evans, and are down to just two senior central defenders as they wait for an update on Ezri Konsa’s hip injury.
The 24-year-old was taken off in Villa’s 2-2 draw with Manchester United on Saturday after a challenge from Anthony Elanga left him in considerable pain.
Villa’s medical team assessed Konsa closely as he tried to run it off during the half-time break but quickly concluded that he was too uncomfortable to continue.
“He had a really severe whack on his hip, right on the bone,” said boss Steven Gerrard. “He tried his best to carry on and fair play to him. He is a real warrior. We gave him some medicine at half-time to help the pain but it was too much to carry on.”
Konsa will be looked at this week but, following the signings of Philippe Coutinho on loan from Barcelona and left-back Lucas Digne from Everton, centre-back is now a priority position during the transfer window.
Axel Tuanzebe cut short his loan from United earlier this month and only Tyrone Mings and Kortney Hause are available for Villa, despite Gerrard making it clear that he wants four senior centre-halves at the club.
Villa are still deciding whether to sign a short-term replacement to act as cover and then re-assess in the summer. They like Liverpool’s Joe Gomez but know he will not be leaving Anfield this month.
Meanwhile, under-23 defenders Sil Swinkels, Josh Feeney and Lamare Bogarde will be considered alongside Kerr Smith, the new signing from Dundee United, as back-ups if Konsa does not make the squad for Saturday’s trip to Everton. Feeney, 16, made the bench for the 2-1 defeat by Brentford earlier this month when Mings was suspended.
Another loan spell at Southampton unlikely for Broja beyond the summer
Armando Broja has established himself as one of Southampton’s most important players since he joined on a season-long loan from Chelsea in the summer, writes Dan Sheldon.
The striker has scored five Premier League goals in 17 appearances, of which only nine have been starts, making him Ralph Hasenhuttl’s second top league scorer behind James Ward-Prowse (six goals).
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Hasenhuttl said on Thursday that talks are taking place between Martin Semmens, Southampton’s club’s chief executive, and Marina Granovskaia at Chelsea over Broja’s future.
Although Southampton’s supporters are desperate for the 20-year-old to stay beyond the end of this season, The Athletic is led to believe that another loan move is unlikely. As it stands, the most probable outcome is Broja leaves on a permanent transfer in the summer or fights for a starting spot at Chelsea.
Broja is thought to be enjoying his time at Southampton and has developed a good relationship with Hasenhuttl, which puts them in a good position if they are willing to jump over the required hurdles and push hard to prise him away from Chelsea.
Marseille to appeal FIFA sanctions over Watford’s deal with Gueye
Marseille have told The Athletic they intend to fight FIFA punishments brought against them and midfielder Pape Gueye owing to a long-running dispute with Watford, reports Adam Leventhal.
The French club is understood to have been banned for two transfer windows and ordered to pay Watford €2.5 million (£2.1 million) after signing Gueye in July 2020 — even though he had agreed to join Watford from Le Havre in April of that year. Gueye said there were what he called “irregularities” in the Watford agreement and highlighted disagreements with his former agent.
Neither of these sanctions has been officially confirmed by world football’s governing body but FIFA has conceded that Gueye has been prevented from playing. He was withdrawn at the last minute from Senegal’s 0-0 draw against Guinea on Friday at the Africa Cup of Nations.
“FIFA can confirm that, among other measures, its dispute resolution chamber has decided to suspend player Pape Gueye in the framework of a contractual dispute,” a FIFA spokesperson told The Athletic.
A senior source at Marseille confirmed they will fight all sanctions.
(Top photos: Getty Images)
