Southampton have confirmed the arrival of midfielder Victor Wanyama from Celtic on a four-year deal.
The Kenya international has reportedly cost the Premier League club £12 million, and becomes Mauricio Pochettino s second signing of the close-season following the acquisition of Dejan Lovren.
Wanyama has spent the last two campaigns in the Scottish Premier League after joining Neil Lennon s side from Belgian club Beerschot AC in 2011.
Diego Simeone expects a brave Salzburg to take Atletico Madrid out of their comfort zone in Wednesday s crunch Champions League clash.
Atleti, two-time finalists under Simeone, have drawn each of their past three group matches, including being pegged back to 1-1 by a late Thomas Muller penalty for Bayern Munich last time out.
A fourth consecutive stalemate in Salzburg will seal qualification for the knockout stages at their Austrian opponents expense, but Simeone knows Jesse Marsch s expansive side needing victory makes them particularly dangerous.
This game is a bit like when you play in a knockout game and you re away from home in the second leg, said Simeone, with Atleti having won a thriller between the sides 3-2 at the Wanda Metropolitano in October.
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Santi Cazorla is reluctant to discuss his future until after the FIFA World Cup amid speculation about a move to Atletico Madrid.
The midfielder joined Arsenal from Malaga in August 2012 and has become an integral part of Arsene Wenger s side.
Cazorla is currently on international duty with Spain in Brazil and the 29-year-old will not be distracted by talk about a move back to his homeland.
He told AS: When the World Cup is over, I’ll start thinking about my situation.
“I don’t want to be thinking about it right now and I’ve told my agents not to tell me anything if an offer comes in.
The playmaker, however, did go on to drop a hint that a move to Spanish champions could appeal.
He added I know a few of the Atletico players – (Diego) Godin,…
Sabri Lamouchi has resigned as coach of Ivory Coast following the country s heartbreaking exit at the FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
Ivory Coast were on track to qualify from Group C and join Colombia in the round of 16 before Georgios Samaras scored a controversial 93rd-minute penalty to hand Greece a 2-1 win in Fortaleza on Tuesday.
While Greece advanced ahead of Ivory Coast by one point, it condemned the African nation to their third consecutive group-stage exit at a World Cup.
And Ivory Coast s failure has claimed the casualty of Lamouchi, who was a controversial appointment back in 2012 having had no previous managerial experience.
My contract ended at this World Cup. It won t be renewed and you can understand why, the 42-year-old said post-game.
I didn’t do too badly with my predictions really. OK, I was wildly out in the big Chelsea and Manchester United game but five correct results out of ten is pretty amazing for me!
Let’s look at the heroes and villains from this weekend’s Premier League games;
Hot team
Not much doubt about this award this week. Manchester City are a club that now have the potential to challenge the very best in Europe. They need to build a team that can do likewise. Judging by the way that they dismantled a reasonable Portsmouth side yesterday, Mark Hughes might not be too far away from building that side.
When they were going forward the sight of Jo, Robinho, Wright-Phillips, Elano and others was pretty spectacular. Whether they…
Christian Eriksen is set to return from a long-term ankle injury next month, according to Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag.
Eriksen sustained the injury after being on the wrong end of a hefty Andy Carroll tackle during United s 3-1 EFL Cup win over Reading on January 28.
The Denmark international had been expected to miss the bulk of the majority of the season, with initial hopes for an April or May return.
Ten Hag offered a positive update on the former Tottenham and Inter playmaker, who had been a central figure in their revival in the first half of the season.
Yes, some point in April, he will be back, Ten Hag said. He is doing really well, really good in his rehab.
The progress is very good and we have to see how that develops in the …
Crewe Alexandra will not hold an internal investigation after reiterating no-one at the club was aware of former coach Barry Bennell s sexual abuse crimes against children.
Bennell was convicted of 43 offences against 11 boys aged eight to 15 between 1979 and 1990 by a jury at Liverpool Crown Court last month, with the 64-year-old described as the devil incarnate and sheer evil by judge Clement Goldstone.
But the League Two side say a police probe has cleared club officials of any cover-up.
A Crewe statement read: In November 2016, the club stated that it would undertake an independent review into allegations involving Barry Bennell whilst he was employed by the club.
This review was to investigate the allegations which had been made involving Mr Ben…
Former Chapecoense goalkeeper Jackson Follmann has rejoined the Brazilian club in an ambassadorial role.
The 25-year-old was one of three players to survive the November 2016 plane crash as the team travelled to Medellin to play in the Copa Sudamericana final against Atletico Nacional.
While team-mates Neto and Alan Ruschel recovered to return to action, Follmann was forced to retire after losing part of his right leg in the accident that claimed a total of 71 lives.
However, he is now back on the books at Chape, signing a deal to work in their public relations department.
Follmann attended the Laureus Awards last month, picking up the honour of Best Sporting Moment after Chapecoense qualified for the 2018 Copa Libertadores.
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Germany coach Joachim Loew says he will continue his project of building a winning team despite a disappointing finish to Euro 2012.
Pre-tournament favourites Germany were surprise losers in the semi-finals of the European Championships, going down 2-1 to Italy in the semi-finals.
After also bowing out of the 2010 FIFA World Cup at the same stage, Loew is determined to banish those memories with success on the biggest stage.
We wanted to go to the World Cup in 2010 in South Africa and begin forming a team that could then win this title (Euro 2012), so the loss in the semi-final against Italy was particularly painful, he said ahead of Germany s international friendly against Argentina on Wednesday.
We now have the task of working on the errors we made a…
Melbourne Heart has signed Socceroo and former Hull City midfielder Richard Garcia.
Garcia was not offered a new contract with the Championship club in May and joins new signings Josip Tadic, Patrick Gerhardt, Dylan Macallister, Golgol Mebrahtu, Andrew Redmayne, Steven Gray and David Vrankovic for the new A-League season.
The Perth-born utility spent more than a decade in England, making over 250 first team appearances for West Ham, Leyton Orient, Colchester United and Hull, while he has earned 14 caps for the Socceroos, including as a squad member for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
And Heart head coach John Aloisi believes the 30-year-old s experience at both club and international level will be a priceless asset for the Melbourne outfit.
Richard …
Flamengo produced a second-half turnaround to reach the Club World Cup final with a 3-1 win over Al Hilal, keeping hopes of a meeting with Liverpool alive.
The Copa Libertadores champions went into Tuesday s clash in Doha as heavy favourites but were well below par in the first half, Salem Al Dawsari putting the Saudi Arabian side on possible course for a shock victory.
However, the AFC Champions League winners faded after the interval as an instrumental performance from Bruno Henrique inspired a Flamengo comeback.
He teed up Giorgian de Arrascaeta for the equaliser soon after the restart and put Flamengo in front with a thumping header 12 minutes from time, before his cross made sure of success when Ali Hadi Albulayhi put through his own net.
Al Hila…