Salomon Rondon struck twice as yer actual Keith Telly Topping's beloved (though still tragically unsellable) Magpies recorded consecutive Premier League wins for the first time since April with victory over Bournemouth at St James' Park. Rondon put the home side ahead after just seven minutes following great work by DeAndre Yedlin, who darted in behind the Bournemouth defence to pick out the waiting Venezuelan. The twenty nine-year-old striker then doubled his side's advantage as half-time approached, dropping deep to collect the ball before charging into the penalty area to meet Kenedy's cross with a powerful header. There was a long first-half delay as Adam Smith received treatment for an injury sustained while preparing to take a free-kick and it was deep into stoppage-time that Bournemouth found a route back into the contest as record signing Jefferson Lerma nodded in Ryan Fraser's cross. Cherries goalkeeper Asmir Begovic produced a string of fine saves to keep his side in the contest, while Jordon Ibe missed a good opportunity to equalise for the visitors who fell to back-to back league defeats. After their worst top-flight start for one hundred and twenty years, Newcastle recorded their first Premier League win of the season last weekend with a one-nil triumph over Watford - and it appeared as though a significant weight had been lifted as The Magpies produced an energetic performance against The Cherries. Rafael Benitez's side, who had lost six of their last eight at home, were set up to deny Bournemouth space at St James' and worked tirelessly to press The Cherries and disrupt the rhythm of their visitors. Rondon bullied the Bournemouth defence at times, registering eight shots but also dropping in to create opportunities as Newcastle stormed to victory and climbed to fourteenth in the league table. The Magpies had previously scored more than once in a game on a solitary occasion this season - their three-two defeat at The Scum in October - but would have added to their tally had it not been for the efforts of the alert Begovic. Benitez was without injured trio Jamaal Lascelles, Jonjo Shelvey and Yoshinori Muto, but his side - bottom of the league two weeks ago - dug in to see out another important victory in the battle to avoid relegation. With momentum hopefully building, they will now face Burnley in a key game following the international break in a fortnight's time. So, it's nice to see a smile back of Rafa The Gaffer's boat after a jolly frustrating couple of months. How long that will last, of course, is another matter entirely.
Players involved in any proposed European Super League would be banned from playing international football, including the World Cup, says FIFA president Gianni Infantino. German publication Der Spiegel has claimed that several 'top' European clubs held 'secret talks' with a view to creating a such a set-up by 2021. So that they can all make loads of wonga and get their greed right on. So, no change there, then. The magazine claimed that 'leaked documents' had revealed clubs' plans to leave their own national leagues and associations. Infantino said that it was FIFA's 'duty' to 'protect football.' Which it is, although normally in the past FIFA's duty has, also, been to get their greed right on and make as much wonga as they can. He also claimed that FIFA's own plans for a Club World Cup was 'the answer to any attempt to break away from the leagues' because it would 'generate much more revenues for the clubs but also much more revenues for solidarity. We have seen for many years these attempts to break away outside of the structures, going back to the 1990s,' he added. 'You are either in or you are out. If there are players who don't play organised football then that encompasses everything - national leagues, confederation competitions, the Euros and the World Cup. It is up to us to protect football and come up with solutions that benefit clubs and also the world football community.' Der Spiegel also claimed that the documents it obtained showed Sheikh Yer Man City and Paris St-Germain overvalued sponsorship deals to help meet UEFA's Financial Fair Play rules. It alleged that in 2014 the clubs negotiated with Infantino, who was then General Secretary of UEFA, to 'agree reduced punishments.' Der Spiegel also reports that City owner, Sheikh Mansour, 'provided monetary supplements' to 'existing deals with sponsors' in Abu Dhabi, where he is part of the royal family, to invest more money into the club. La Liga president Javier Tebas made a similar claim last year, with UEFA responding by saying it was 'not investigating' City, who have won the Premier League three times since Sheikh Mansour took over in 2008. UEFA found City had breached FFP rules in 2014 and the two parties reached a settlement, with City paying a forty nine million knicker fine - thirty two million quid of which was suspended - while their Champions League squad was reduced for 2014-15. Der Spiegel calls the settlements 'weak' and claims UEFA 'wasn't even entirely aware of the degree to which it had been deceived.' City have said they will not be commenting on the claims. Addressing the claims, Infantino said: 'We were doing our job and saved the system and we saved European club football. We worked with the information we had at the time. If new information has come out, I'm sure UEFA will look at it.' Meanwhile, Infantino said that the chances of expanding the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to forty eight teams is 'certainly small' but 'discussions' to do so will continue. 'I was positive about it from the beginning because I think if we can increase the number of teams it is good for football,' he claimed. 'That is why we are going to do it for the 2026 World Cup. Can we do it for 2022? It is a difficult challenge.' A final decision on the issue will be made at the next FIFA council meeting in Miami in March and Infantino suggested Qatar could share the tournament with its neighbouring countries. However, that could be difficult considering Qatar is currently involved in a reet stroppy tiff with Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. 'We are in discussions with Qatar,' said Infantino. 'It will be a very, very difficult challenge to do it only in Qatar. So personally, as president of FIFA, I would be very happy if some matches could be shared with some countries in the region.' He added: 'In the light of current circumstances in the region I would be even happier if it could happen. Football unites, builds bridges, that could be a concrete result. What are the chances? Certainly small but what is wrong in discussing it?'
Imagine scoring your first professional goal in the biggest club fixture in your homeland. Now imagine doing it aged fourteen. For Fernando Ovelar, that unlikely dream became a reality on a Sunday. Ovelar, who is two months short of his fifteenth birthday, scored the opening goal for Paraguayan top-flight team Cerro Porteno in their Superclasico against arch-rivals Olimpia. It came a week after he made his senior debut. Nestor Camacho, who scored Olimpia's equaliser in the two-two draw, is thirty one - more than double Ovelar's age. The game ended in dramatic fashion - Marcos Acosta putting Cerro in the lead with a ninety fifth-minute penalty and Jorge Ortega equalising with a penalty of his own in the one hundred and third minute after both teams had a player sent-off. Ovelar is the youngest player to have featured in Paraguay's top division - but not the first fourteen-year-old to score in professional football. American Freddy Adu - once described as 'the next Pele' - was also fourteen when he scored his first goal for Major League Soccer side DC United. Mauricio Baldivieso, who played in Bolivia's top division shortly before his thirteenth birthday, is thought to be the youngest player to ever play professional football.
Thierry Henry claimed that it was fate. It certainly sounded like a fairytale - the forty one-year-old was heading back to where he started out as a player, to rescue a club in crisis. Monaco announced his return on social media by posting an archive picture of their former teenage striker, his trademark grin beaming out beneath a long since discarded fluffy moustache. A quarter of a century had passed and the years had been kind to him. A mercurial player, an eloquent pundit, the smart money was on Henry enjoying more success from the dugout. Albeit, he still frequently has that look on his face which suggests that he's just smelled shit nearby. No-one expected it to be easy, of course. When replacing Leonardo Jardim on 13 October he inherited a team that had won just once in ten games. But, surely almost nobody would have thought things would turn quite this sour, quite so quickly. Speaking on Radio 5Live's Football Daily, French journalist Julien Laurens and BBC Sport columnist Guillem Balague discussed the crisis facing former Arsenal striker Henry in his first job in management. 'It's just a mess, chaos. I do feel for Thierry because I don't think he realised how bad everything was already,' Laurens said. 'And, I'm not sure he has the tools to rescue a team that has won just one game all season, back on 11 August. I think he could be a good manager but right now, in a situation of crisis, I am struggling to see how he can do better, because the team is destroyed. It looked like a fairytale but it's turning in to an absolute nightmare.' Under Henry, Monaco have lost two and drawn three in all competitions. They are second bottom in Ligue 1 and next up are champions Paris St-Germain, who have won twelve from twelve. For PSG, Kylian Mbappe has scored eleven in his eight games and is building an irresistible partnership with the world's most expensive player, Neymar. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, his former club Monaco were beaten four-nil at home by Club Brugge as they crashed out of the Champions League with their heaviest defeat in the competition. Two years ago Mbappe had fired them to the semi-finals. 'Henry has said maybe it's even better to be out of all European competition so they can focus on the essential, which is staying up,' Laurens added. 'Because right now they look like one of the worst teams in the French league. Tactically Henry seems lost, he keeps tweaking the formation and the players, putting more and more young players on the pitch, who are not suited for this situation. And if they need new players in January, who would want to go to a club that is second bottom in the table? One of the question marks we had was how will he deal with problems with adversity, and right now it looks like he is struggling. You wonder if he is still in the mode of being a player and not a manager.' Speaking after Tuesday's defeat, Henry himself said: 'Right now I'm telling myself the worst is possible.' He may well have been right to do so. Defeat by Brugge was a result that left his team without a win in fifteen games, defender Kamil Glik's injury had added to an already long list of absent senior players, but still there was worse to come. Because the crisis at Monaco looks to be running even deeper off the pitch. On Monday, the club moved to deny allegations they had cheated Financial Fair Play rules, following claims made in Der Spiegel's reporting of leaked documents it says that it 'acquired from whistleblowers.' On Wednesday, the German news magazine also alleged Monaco's owner Dmitry Rybolovlev, a Russian billionaire, personally profited one hundred and twenty four million Euros from the one hundred and eighty million Euro sale of Mbappe to PSG - which the club also denied. Later that day, Rybolovlev was placed under investigation by Monaco police on separate allegations, relating to a major fraud case. 'You need different types of coaches in these situations,' Balague said. 'Someone who perhaps has lived through a crisis at a different club and knows how to hold on to what is important here. But also a really important point is that the board should be helping too. The first thing they have to do is change the targets for Henry, change the expectations for the season ahead. Someone should come out and say: "Okay let's just try to save the season, and then let's rebuild." If they do go down this season - and let's not forget they were relegated as recently as 2011 - it will be very hard for Henry to overcome that damage to his reputation as a winner.'
Former Stottingtot Hotshots striker Roberto Soldado was one of five players suspended following the brawl in last week's Galatasaray versus Fenerbahce match. Members of both teams exchanged blows with kids gettin' sparked and aal sorts after Friday's two-two Super League draw. Soldado, who joined Fenerbahce from Villarreal in 2017, was one of three players sent-off and the Spaniard was banned for six matches. Fenerbahce's Jailson Siqueira received an eight-match ban and Galatasaray's Badou Ndiaye, five matches. Galatasaray boss Faith Terim was given a seven-match ban for insulting the referee and for comments he made in the post-match news conference. Assistant Hasan Sas was banned for eight matches for attacking members of the opposition. Galatasaray midfielders Garry Mendes Rodrigues and Ryan Donk were banned for three and six games respectively for 'unsportsmanlike conduct.' Both teams were also fined.
Yer actual Keith Telly Topping's beloved (though unsellable) Newcastle winger Matt Ritchie has become the latest Scotland player to ask to be excluded from international duty 'for the forseeable future.' Ritchie, who has started Newcastle's last seven games, turned down a request to be in the squad for Nations League games against Albania and Israel. 'I wanted Matt to come in, but he has asked to be left out at the moment,' said head coach Alex McLeish. He added Ritchie's reasons were 'private' but 'he has not retired. It is not something for me to discuss,' McLeish said. 'He had injury issues as well and, again, there is management of his injuries. You don't know everyone's private life so you have to respect that.' McLeish is already without Crystal Palace midfielder James McArthur, who recently retired from Scotland duty to focus on his club career, while Robert Snodgrass, who has been involved in all West Hamsters United's games this season, is also missing from the latest squad. 'He's managing a kind of ankle knock that is ongoing,' McLeish explained. 'It made him miss the last games [against Israel and Portugal] too. So again, it's just something out of our control.' McLeish also has to contend with a growing injury list, with strikers Steven Naismith and Leigh Griffiths and Hearts centre-back John Souttar, all sidelined, while Blackburn Vindaloos defender Charlie Mulgrew was named in the squad despite struggling with a rib injury.
