Month: April 2020

LIVERPOOL BACK OFF WERNER
Thursday’s whispers brought word that Bayern Munich had decided to prioritise the signing of Timo Werner over Leroy Sane this summer. Friday’s chatter suggests their pursuit of the RB Leipzig forward has received its biggest boost yet.

The Daily Mail reckons Liverpool have shied away from moving for Werner. It was thought the Reds were leading the race for the Germany striker, who has a release clause worth £51million. But since that must be triggered this month, it seems Liverpool are backing off.

Indeed, the Premier League leaders are said to have shelved all recruitment plans as well as any contract renewal talks amid the ongoing uncertainty over the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

 

REDS TO MOVE FOR RASHICA
Bild is having none of such talk. The German publication says Liverpool will go full steam ahead to land Milot Rashica.

To answer your question, he’s a 23-year-old forward who plays for Werder Bremen, primarily on the left wing but the Kosovo international can play through the middle too.

Rashica would cost around £33million, apparently, though Liverpool might get a discount on that asking price should second-from-bottom Bremen be relegated.

 

REAL BOOSTED BY PSG STANCE OVER MBAPPE
Real Madrid had big plans this summer prior to the coronavirus outbreak. Among them was the intention to finally bring Kylian Mbappe to the Bernabeu.

AS reckons there is good and bad news on that front. The good news is that PSG have reportedly halted contract talks with the France star after they were custard pied following two renewal offers. The Ligue 1 leaders, like everyone else, is waiting to see how the land lies once football is able to to restart.

The bad news is that Real too will be affected by the financial uncertainty and they will also struggle to meet Mbappe’s demands, just as they did when they missed out on signing the forward in 2017. Then they refused to match PSG’s offer of 15million euros a year. Reports earlier this year suggested PSG might treble that salary, which Real simply cannot compete with. They are hoping that the lure of a bigger spotlight and a greater chance of becoming of Ballon d’Or winner in Spain could help their cause.

That won’t cut it with PSG, though. Real have failed to follow up their interest in Paul Pogba in recent windows with the cash necessary to make a deal happen and coronavirus won’t make Florentino Perez any more carefree with the cash. Mbappe seems almost certain to stay where he is for now.

AND THE REST
Marc-Andre ter Stegen is nowhere near an agreement with Barcelona over a contract renewal… Dani Ceballos is among the players deemed surplus to requirements at Real Madrid… Aston Villa are eyeing Marseille midfielder Maxime Lopez… Everton are keen on Real Madrid star James Rodriguez.

The F365 Show is on hiatus until the football returns. Subscribe now ready for its glorious comeback. In the meantime, listen to the latest episode of Planet Football’s 2000s podcast, The Broken Metatarsal.

 

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The Professional Footballers’ Association accepts players must “share the financial burden” during the coronavirus pandemic after Health Secretary Matt Hancock called on Premier League stars to take a pay cut.

Clubs from the Premier League to League Two have already placed non-playing staff on furlough leave under the Government’s coronavirus job retention scheme but pressure is mounting on players to accept wage cuts or deferrals.

After Hancock weighed into the debate during Thursday’s daily government briefing to urge top-flight professionals to “make a contribution, take a pay cut and play their part” while the season is suspended, the PFA accepted players must be accommodating in order to mitigate the financial impact of the Covid-19 outbreak.

The players’ union said in a statement: “We fully accept that players will have to be flexible and share the financial burden of the Covid-19 outbreak in order to secure the long-term future of their own club and indeed the wider game.

“Our advice going out to players at this point reflects that expectation.”

Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe and his Brighton counterpart Graham Potter have agreed to wage cuts in the last two days, along with other senior staff at those clubs, while players and management staff at Championship leaders Leeds have agreed to defer wages.

But some Premier League clubs have made use of the furloughing scheme – including Tottenham in a move criticised by their former player Gary Lineker – and the PFA added that clubs should only be doing so if it is absolutely necessary.

The statement added: “We are aware of the public sentiment that the players should pay non-playing staff’s salaries. However, our current position is that – as businesses – if clubs can afford to pay their players and staff, they should.

“The players we have spoken to recognise that the non-playing staff are a vital part of their club and they do not want to see club staff furloughed unfairly.

“Any use of the government’s support schemes without genuine financial need is detrimental to the wider society.”

Former Manchester United and England defender Gary Neville scolded Hancock for his remarks, writing on Twitter…

Hancock’s comments came on the same day chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee Julian Knight wrote to Premier League chief executive Richard Masters calling for action on player wages.

Knight said that clubs which furlough non-playing staff but do not impose cuts on player wages should be subjected to a windfall tax if they do not change approach by next Tuesday, April 7.

“The purpose of the coronavirus job retention scheme is not to support the economics of Premier League clubs,” Knight wrote.

“Your organisation should be role modelling a responsible approach rather than tolerating divisive practices.

“European clubs, including Bayern Munich, Juventus and Barcelona, have shown that it is possible to reach an agreement with players whereby they agree to take pay reductions for a set period. I would like to request that the PL seek to broker an agreement between member clubs to change their approach.”

Premier League clubs are due to gather via conference call for a shareholders’ meeting on Friday morning, where it is expected they will be briefed on discussions between the league, the English Football League and the PFA.

Consideration will be given to an indefinite suspension of the professional game in England rather than a fixed date, with the landscape having shifted significantly since March 19 when the decision was taken to suspend action until at least April 30.

The FA is due to announce steps it is preparing to take in due course. In a statement released on Thursday afternoon, the national governing body said: “We want to ensure that we take the appropriate course of action to support the wider organisation and our employees.”

As well as cuts and deferrals, the issue of extending player contracts beyond June 30 is also being discussed, with the intention still being to complete the 2019-20 season in the summer months, behind closed doors if necessary.

FIFA and UEFA have set up working groups to look at this issue, with the general secretary of world players’ union FIFPRO Jonas Baer-Hoffmann saying earlier this week that a “harmonisation” was being sought whereby contracts are extended until the point the season actually ends.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has called on football to take ownership of its own planned response to the crisis.

“Football is not the most important thing, health comes first and should remain our priority until this sickness has been defeated,” he said in a video address from Switzerland.

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Our fours program at preschool started off great. My child woke up happy and ready to head off to school, and he was excited to see friends and play games all day. I would drop him off and head to yoga without a worry.

Then, something changed mid-October. He started waking up crying and saying that he didn’t like school anymore and refused to go. He kicked and screamed so badly that we had to drag him out of the house and get him dressed in the car. Good thing the neighbors don’t mind a quick toddler flashing!

I’m starting to wonder if maybe this preschool isn’t the right place for our boy. But it’s possible that he would not want to go to any preschool we sent him to. This is worrisome because if he doesn’t like playing at preschool, what will happen when he’s sitting at a desk learning Algebra?

Mom Natalie commiserates and says, “This is happening now with our 3-year-old and I don’t really know what to do. We talk about it the night before and I ask for input on what she wants in her lunch, what she wants to wear the next day. I write notes in her lunch box, too, trying to remind her that we love her and how much fun she’s having when she’s there.”

When I shared what was going on with another mom friend, she forwarded me a newsletter from her preschool, The Well Centered Child, that explained how this situation is all too common among preschoolers today.

It read, “In September, Andy loved school so much that he even campaigned to go on the weekends. Now it’s mid-way through October and quite suddenly he’s refusing to go at all. There’s no question that his class and teachers are warm and welcoming. The school is everything his family could hope for. Clearly Andy’s got those weary, dreary, ‘I Wanna Stay Home Today Blues.'”

This newsletter also shared a few possibilities why your kid might be anti-preschool these days:

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The Newness Is Gone — The newness of the whole school adventure has worn off and some children are astonished to discover that you actually expect them to keep going to school week after week.

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Fear Of Missing Out — They begin to wonder what their parents or grandparents might be up to without them. Maybe it’s something fun. Other children simply miss the comforting toast and jelly routines of a morning at home.

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Class Gets Challenging — Children usually shed their “company manners” after a few weeks in school. Once boys and girls begin to feel at home, they begin playing like real children. By October, there are sure to be more grabbing of toys, more busy noise and more squabbles as they get to know each other.

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Fatigue Sets In — Your child might be just plain tired. Adjusting to school takes lots of energy and the effort can catch up with even the most energetic of children. The time change at the beginning of November can disrupt sleep patterns.

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Other moms I’ve chatted with also agree that after the six-week mark, the novelty has worn off and kids start putting up a fuss. Their fuss probably doesn’t involve being dragged out of the house naked, but I digress.

Let’s remember this is how some adults feel too with their own office jobs, especially after the summer. So maybe our little ones are onto something — or maybe we need to find preschools that mix things up a lot more.

But psychologist Emily W. King, Ph.D. takes this issue more seriously. “School refusal is rooted in anxiety,” she says. “This can range from a brief developmental phase of adjusting to preschool without mom or dad all the way to a sustained high level of anxiety about something in the learning environment causing a child to go into fight, flight or freeze mode about the going-to-school transition.”

So what should parents do when this situation presents itself? King advises parents sit down for a conference with their child’s teacher. “Parents should ask, ‘Once my child is at school, does the day go just fine?’ If so, then this is likely a developmental phase of separation anxiety and it is important to keep going to establish a routine of consistency and trust that the teacher is the child’s safe person at school,” King says.

When we pick up my boy from preschool, he seems happy and says he had a good day, so maybe this situation isn’t too serious for us. We have a teacher conference on Monday, and you can bet that I will bring this up with her and get some more clues. Hopefully, we get past this phase so my husband doesn’t throw his back out carrying our boy out the door like he did last week. Wish us luck!

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Other Parenting News:

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — Michael Schloss, who died Tuesday when his plane crashed into a Colonia home, was such an experienced pilot that something must have gone catastrophically wrong inside the plane, or Schloss himself suffered some sort of medical episode, the manager of the Linden Airport said.

“Something happened to overwhelm him,” said airport manager Paul Dudley, who said he knew Schloss well and counted him as a friend. “We got no distress calls, nothing from the cockpit to indicate there was a problem. It would have been a routine landing for him. Perhaps he had a health issue.”

Like Dudley, members of the surrounding community and investigators alike were dealing with the recovery and searching for answers as to why such an experienced pilot and respected doctor plummeted from the sky Tuesday morning.

A mother, father and an elementary-age child lived in the home at 84 Berkley Avenue that was hit by the plane, and they were reportedly crying when they saw the charred remains of their home Tuesday, according to nj.com. At the time of the crash, the parents were both at work and the child was at school, neighbors said.

Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac announced a fundraising effort has been established to assist the families impacted by the plane crash and the subsequent fire that spread to two other homes.
This GoFundMe has also been set up for the family that lived at 84 Berkley Avenue.

Schloss was the sole person in the plane. He took off from Leesburg Executive Airport in Virginia some time Tuesday morning and was scheduled to land at Linden Airport at 11 a.m., the same time that it crashed, an FAA spokesman said.

At two minutes before 11, less than five miles from the Linden Airport, the plane instead took a sharp nosedive and crashed into the home. The plane exploded, and Schloss’ body remained trapped in the wreckage for hours Tuesday.

The plane’s fuselage, or main body of the aircraft, remained completely inside the home until Wednesday afternoon, when parts of the plane started being pulled out, according to a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, which is on the scene and leading the investigation. The team hopes to get all the wreckage recovered over the next two or three days, he said.

But it still remains unclear what caused the crash.

Schloss, a 74-year-old retired cardiologist who used to practice in New York City and live in the area, took off and landed from the Linden Airport countless times over his career, Dudley said. “He was an exponentially qualified pilot. He also was a licensed aircraft mechanic, truly a Renaissance man. So he knew what he was doing.”

Schloss even docked his plane at Linden Airport for many years when he lived in the area, Dudley said, so he was very familiar with the airport. While Wednesday’s conditions were not good, with low visibility and misty rain, Schloss was very experienced flying by instruments only.

“I’ve known this guy for 30 years. He was very, very experienced,” Dudley said.

Dudley said he was sad over the loss of “a wonderful man.”

“He was not only an accomplished physician, but an accomplished pilot,” he said. “He married a very lovely lady down in Virginia and moved down there, but flew back here often for work. He also would fly his plane often for charity purposes, at his own personal expense.”

Schloss sounded relaxed and calm on radio transmissions from the doomed plane uploaded to LiveATC.net, discussing weather conditions and preparing for landing at Linden.

“November959MikeJuliet New York approach. Are you familiar with the cancellation procedures when you do break out?” the control tower said. (The plane’s registration number, or number on the tail of the aircraft, was N959MJ.)

According to an amateur pilot, this is terminology for flying using only instruments in bad visibility. “Cancellation procedures” means letting the control tower know the plane has safely landed or is very close to landing. “Break out” means the pilot broke out of the cloud cover and can see the ground.

“No problem,” replied the pilot. “I’ll cancel with you as soon as I have the airport in site.”

“Sounds good,” the tower replied. “Proceed direct Linden.”

Later the tower said: “November959MikeJuliet, you’re gonna maintain 2,000. Commence the approach. And uh, as always let me know when you’re able to cancel.” (Inform the tower he landed.)

“November959MikeJuliet, almost home,” the pilot replied.

Community pitches in for family

Woodbridge Township staff will be at the Evergreen Senior Center, 400 Inman Avenue in Colonia, from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday to accept donations for the family in the home destroyed by the crash.

Donations in the form of checks payable to the Woodbridge Community Charity Fund and gift cards from established wholesale/retail outlets will be accepted.

Related: Pilot Dies After Plane Crashes Into Woodbridge Home (UPDATE)

Woodbridge Raises Money For Colonia Plane Crash Victims

LOXAHATCHEE, FL — The man bitten by a “large” alligator over the weekend was participating in a hog hunt at the time, according to Florida wildlife officials.

Carol Lyn Parrish of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission identified the victim as 46-year-old James G. Boyce. She said Boyce was bitten on his right leg.

The man was bitten around 10 a.m. Saturday at the J.W. Corbett Wildlife Management Area in Loxahatchee, which is about 36 miles from West Palm Beach.

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Related: Man Bitten By Large Alligator In Florida

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The Martin County Sheriff’s Aviation Unit airlifted Boyce to St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach after helping to spot him in a marshy area, according to the sheriff’s office.

Parrish told Patch serious injuries from alligator attacks in Florida are rare.

“Alligators are a conservation success story in Florida,” she said. “Florida has a healthy and stable alligator population, which is estimated at 1.3 million alligators of every size.”

Parrish said alligators can be found in all 67 counties of Florida.

“They prefer freshwater lakes and slow-moving rivers and their associated wetlands, but they also can be found in brackish water habitats,” Parrish said. “Anywhere there is standing water, an alligator might be found.”

The sheriff’s office released video of Boyce being airlifted to the hospital in Palm Beach County. Parrish described Boyce’s injuries as non life-threatening.

Watch the video below courtesy of the Martin County Sheriff’s Office:

The sheriff’s office said Boyce suffered a “substantial” leg injury from the approximately 10-foot gator, which officials described as “large.”

Parrish said people should keep a safe distance from alligators and avoid feeding them.

To report concerns about an alligator, call FWC’s toll-free Nuisance Alligator Hotline at 866-FWC-GATOR (866-392-4286). The agency also provides advice about Living with Alligators.

A new interpretation of the offside rule in high school soccer is among the rules changes approved for the 2016-17 season.

The new language regarding offside in Rule 11-1-4 is one of two major changes recommended by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Soccer Rules Committee at its January 25-27 meeting in Indianapolis. All rules changes were subsequently approved by the NFHS Board of Directors.

“The rules are in fairly decent shape,” said Theresia Wynns, NFHS director of sports and officials and liaison to the Soccer Rules Committee. “The committee wasn’t looking to make wholesale changes. They were looking at existing rules and making sure they reflected today’s trends in the playing of the game.

“Offside is one call in soccer that was identified in the annual NFHS survey as being incorrectly administered,” Wynns said. “This change makes offside more understandable and should result in better administration of the offside rule.”

Previously, an attacking player who was in an offside position at the time that the ball was played by a teammate, could be penalized and ruled offside when the ball was deflected by or rebounded from a defender to the attacking player even though the defender tried to play the ball.

The new rule changes this situation as the attacking player in an offside position when the ball was kicked by a teammate who gets a rebounded or deflected ball after it was deliberately played by the opponent (except from a deliberate save), is no longer offside and  is not considered to have gained an advantage.

“An example of this new rule would be if attacking player A1 kicks the ball to teammate A2 who is in the offside position behind defender B, and defender B jumps to play the ball but is unable to control the ball as it touches the top of his/her head and deflects to Player A. In this situation, since B played the ball, A2, although in an offside position, is not offside,” Wynns said. “One important point to remember about offside is that being in an offside position does not mean that a player is offside. To be offside, a player must be involved in active play, interfering with play or an opponent, or seeking an advantage.”

A change in Rule 14-1-4 now mandates a penalty for a violation by the kicker prior to taking a penalty kick to be the same as a violation by any other member of the attacking team. Previously, a violation by the kicker prior to taking the penalty kick resulted in the kick being retaken. The rules committee felt that all attacking team violations during a penalty kick should be treated equally.

“An example of a violation by the kicker in a penalty kick situation is an interruption of movement in the approach to the ball,” Wynns said. “Previously, this violation would result in a verbal warning and a rekick. Under the new rule, the ball can be kicked and the result is the same as any other attacker violation. One result might be that the goalkeeper saved and held the ball. In this case, play will now continue, where previously a rekick would occur. The committee wanted to be a little more consistent with penalty kicks.”

A complete listing of all rules changes will be available soon on the NFHS website at . Click on “Activities & Sports” at the top of the home page, and select “Soccer.”

According to the 2014-15 NFHS High School Athletics Participation Survey, soccer is the fifth-most popular sport for boys with 432,569 participants and the fourth-most popular sport for girls with 375,681 participants. A total of 11,838 schools offered boys soccer in 2014-15 and 11,502 schools offered girls soccer.