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West Ham: What now for Benrahma and Fornals?
Jacob Steinberg
All fun and games in West Ham’s admin department last night. Pablo Fornals and Said Benrahma were both waiting to complete deadline day moves – the former to Real Betis for £7m, the latter on an initial loan – but as of now both are still West Ham players. Blame IT issues. What a situation.
Unsurprisingly Lyon have reacted furiously with West Ham and are heading with Betis to see if Fifa will push the transfers through. It’s unclear if they’ll be successful. I’m told Fifa are quite strict on these issues, so it will be interesting to see how they react with this one. It’s similar to Hakim ziyech not joining PSG on loan last year after Chelsea messed up the paperwork.
In this case Benrahma had travelled to France, undergone a medical and was due to be announced as Lyon player. Fornals was at the London Stadium, watching from the tunnel as West Ham drew with Bournemouth. They probably could have done with both players given that West Ham’s first choice on the left, Lucas Paqueta, was out, and David Moyes decided to pick four central midfielders. Poor Maxwel Cornet – the left sided forward wanted to go to Crystal Palace, wasn’t allowed to because Benrahma and Fornals were going, and still only got on for a minute against Bournemouth.
Good old West Ham. Insiders are blaming Benrahama’s representatives by delaying the deal with repeated demands and add that they had trouble connecting to Fifa’s transfer matching system because of WiFi issues at the London Stadium, leaving them unable to enter all the details of the deal before the 11pm deadline. Not easy on a matchday.
As for Fornals, West Ham think he still might join Betis and say that everything was submitted on TMS on time, but an administrative error stopped the deal going through. Spanish media state West Ham forgot to include the agent working on the deal on the form.
Asian Cup: Tajikistan are currently taking on Jordan in the first quarter-final of the Asian Cup at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium in Qatar, where the deadlock remains unbroken after 35 minutes. Niche footabll enthusiast Paul Watson was a guest on the Football Weekly podcast yesterday and gave us the lowdown on the tournament minnows from Central Asia.
Wolves: Speaking directly after his side’s narrow defeat at the hands of Manchester United last night, Gary O’Neil discovered the club had been unsuccessful in their attempt to get Armando Broja, or any other striker, in on loan.
“We were speaking to Chelsea a lot about Broja during the day and I haven’t checked but I presume he’s gone to Fulham because we couldn’t afford to do it financially, the way it ended up. There were a few No9s that I really liked and we couldn’t afford any. That’s where we are as a football club but at least we haven’t been deducted 10 points.”
Klopp: Mac Allister is ‘like a football doctor’
Liverpool: Jurgen Klopp has been singing the praises of his Argentinian midfielder Alexis Mac Allister and his father, Carlos, who used to analyse games with his sons when they were kids. Alexis’s brothers Francis and Kevin are also footballers, while their uncle, Patricio, is also a retired footballer.
“Macca is the same in midfield as [Diogo Jota further up the field],” said Klopp. “Like a football doctor. It is a wonderful story with his father, brothers and uncles, analysing games as a kid. I could not thank his father enough for that knowledge and education. Playing the position he plays the way he does is very, very special. Super smart. And his contribution for all our play in possession is extremely important.
“We have had it in a few years during a time I was here when going well that everyone wants to write a book about an individual player They are all good, really good. That’s why we are top of the table in the best league in the world at this moment in time.”
Newcastle United: In the Big Chair for Eddie Howe today, Jason Tindall is asked if he has any aspirations to be a manager. “I have always made it clear, I’m happy in my role and what I do,” says Howe’s No2. “I work well with Ed, we have worked together for so long, I hope it continues.”
On Newcastle’s run of two consecutive wins, the most recent in midweek against Aston Villa, after a month-long wobble, he had this to say: “It was really important. We knew we needed to get back on track. We had a good result at Fulham in the FA Cup. To go there and perform the way we did was great for us and it gives us confidence going into the game this weekend.”
Liverpool: Should Liverpool beat Arsenal on Sunday, they will open an eight-point gap on Manchester City, who don’t play until Monday night when they travel to Brentford. While most pundits will expect Pep Guardiola’s side to swat the Bees aside with a minimum of fuss, it’s worth remembering that Brentford played quite well in defeat against Tottenham during the week and were the only team to beat City at home and away in the Premier League last season.
“If we win Arsenal it will be eight points but everyone knows that,” said Jurgen Klopp. “All that is outside talk. Inside we just focus on the game, on the things we have to do. We have to learn from the games we have played against them and try to win. Against Arsenal it’s more difficult anyway. We are in a good moment. We should pack in the things we did well. Improve. We have to be much more dominant.”
Deadline Day debrief: Did you know that Kieffer Moore went on loan from Bournemouth to Championship high-fliers Ipswich Town yesterday? I must confess that’s a Deadline Day move that went under my radar and it will be the Welsh striker’s second spell at Portman Road.
“We are delighted to have signed a striker with strong Championship pedigree, as well as experience in the Premier League and at international level,” said Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna.
“Kieffer will bring some very important technical and physical attributes to the squad. We feel his professionalism and mentality will be an addition to the culture we already have within the group.”
Klopp: ‘We have a luxury problem’
Liverpool: Following the demolition job they performed on Chelsea at Anfield on Wednesday night, Liverpool travel to the Emirates to take on Arsenal in this weekend’s most high profile game. Jurgen Klopp has told reporters that Darwin Nunez may not be available after picking up a foot injury against Chelsea, but says he will be unconcerned if the Uruguayan is forced to sit this game out.
“It’s not a challenge,” he says. “For the first time this season we have a kind of a luxury problem. We have more players available for different positions than we can start. It’s absolutely no problem.
“It’s the only week where we only have one midweek game. After that we go again every three days. So we need all of them in a good shape. We had a lot of injuries throughout the season but we were lucky because the others could deal with it. We had players who were still available, or came back from injury, at the right time.”
Newcastle United: With Eddie Howe feeling poorly today, Jason Tindall has been given a moment in the spotlight he will surely relish by fielding questions at the pre-match presser ahead of Newcastle’s match against Luton Town tomorrow. So fabled for his reluctance to shun the limelight that he has become an internet meme, Howe’s assistant manager has told reporters he expects his boss to have recovered from whatever it is that ails him in time to take his place in the technical area for tomorrow’s game at St James’ Park. We’ll have more from Jason later.
West Ham: Real Betis’s attempt to sign Pablo Fornals for £6.8m yesterday appears to have collapsed because a computer at the at the London Club’s end said “no”. The Spanish club’s chief excutive, Ramon Alarcon, has blamed the Hammers for an IT glitch that prevented the transfer of the 27-year-old winger, who has spent the past five seasons at West Ham, being finalised but remains hopeful that the deal can still be finalised in the coming days.
‘There was a last minute problem with Fornals, we think it was a computer problem,” he said. “Betis sent all the documents correctly and on time and it seems West Ham had a computer problem. It wasn’t just with Betis it was with other [West Ham] deals. We hope that it gets resolved in the next few days.”
In news that may or may not be related, Said Benrehma’s move to Lyon also collapsed, prompting David Moyes to say “we need to see what happened”. Basement-dwelling staff with Monster Munch-stained T-shirts at the London Stadium are currently turning everything off and then turning it on again.
Sheffield United v Aston Villa: Having taken grave and inexplicable exception to a referee’s assistant eating a sandwich in his precence during a post-match visit to the match official’s dressing-room at Selhurst Park on Tuesday night (hear more on the matter in yesterday’s Guardian Football Weekly), Chris Wilder has calmed for long enough to look ahead to his relegation-threatened side’s match against Aston Villa at Bramall Lane tomorrow.
“If you’re playing well it will come to you,” he said. “I believe we are playing well and I believe it will come to us. It has to happen sooner or later, we understand that, and that’s the pressure we play under.
“That pressure we should thrive upon and look to enjoy as well and why shouldn’t we enjoy the game on Saturday night? It’s going to be a fabulous game. We’ve had some cracking games against Villa in the past, home and away. Full house, Bramall Lane under the lights, half-five. It’s something we’re really looking forward to.”
This weekend’s Premier League fixtures
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Everton v Tottenham Hotspur (Sat 12.30pm GMT)
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Brighton v Crystal Palace (3pm)
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Burnley v Fulham (3pm)
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Newcastle v Luton (3pm)
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Sheffield United v Aston Villa (5.30pm)
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Bournemouth v Nottingham Forest (Sun 2pm)
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Chelsea v Wolves (2pm)
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Manchester United v West Ham (2pm)
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Arsenal v Liverpool (4.30pm)
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View the Premier League table
Interview: Harry Kane
Rob Draper went to Kirchweidach, a village of 2,000 people in deepest Bavaria, to watch Harry Kane meet and greet his adoring public, sing along to local chants, season some soup slide beer steins down a shuffleboard. Amid all this chaos, the England captain made time to sit down for a chat …
Friday football news
Hallelujah. The quietest transfer window in recent memory has finally closed, your club almost certainly didn’t strengthen in an as many areas as you’d have liked and no sooner has one midweek cycle of Premier League games concluded with some late, late Wolves heartbreak at Molineux than the latestr round of weekend fixtures is upon us. Football never stops, so fasten your seatbelts and let’s get on with the fun.