Hasan Salihamidzic is doing a great job as Bayern Munich sporting director and does not deserve to be criticised, according to his former team-mate Sammy Kuffour.

Salihamidzic has held the role since July 2017 and was recently handed a new contract to remain as part of the Bayern boardroom staff for the next four years.

Bayern have won five successive Bundesliga titles during the Bosnian s tenure, as well as the Champions League, Club World Cup and the DFB-Pokal on two occasions.

Despite Bayern s success, Salihamidzic has often had to defend himself when it comes to the club s transfer business, not least after Robert Lewandowski s recent departure.

— FC Bayern München (@FCBayern)

But Kuffour, who played alongside Salihamidzic for t…

Bernardo Silva will likely seek a new project in the next few years, but he will wait until the end of the season before discussing his Manchester City future.

Since signing for City from Monaco in 2017, Silva has won four Premier League titles as well as five domestic cups, playing a vital role in Pep Guardiola s team.

Barcelona were reportedly interested in luring the Portugal international to Camp Nou in the last transfer window, though City s reluctance to sell ensured a move never materialised.

While Silva is focused on winning more silverware with City before the end of the season, he has refused to rule out a move prior to next campaign.

I m very focused on this season and it doesn t make sense to talk about leaving because we re in the middle of …

James Rodriguez is set to join Olympiacos on loan from Qatar Stars League Al-Rayyan, according to Fabrizio Romano. The two clubs are apparently in full agreement over the proposed temporary transfer of the Colombian playmaker, who has flown to Greece today (Wednesday) to undergo a medical. If that goes as planned, the signing of his contract with Olympiacos should become imminent.

The Colombian has had a colourful career so far. He attracted much attention during his spells with FC Porto and AS Monaco, and after he played a fantastic tournament at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Real Madrid swooped in for his signature. Things, however, soon started going downhill for him there, when Zinedine Zidane came in and changed the preferred formation from 4-2-3-1 to 4-3-3, restoring defe…

Everton gave their late chairman Bill Kenwright the send-off he would have wanted as ex-Burnley duo James Tarkowski and Dwight McNeil played a major part in the 3-0 Carabao Cup victory over their former club.

On a night when the fanbase, which has often been divided over the role of Kenwright spanning almost two decades, rose as one to mark his death last week at the age of 78, the team ensured the occasion was marked in fitting fashion.

Tarkowski’s header opened the scoring in the 13th minute and the centre-back’s aerial prowess came to the fore early in the second half when he nodded McNeil’s header back into the danger area for Amadou Onana to poke home from close range.

Ashley Young’s first Everton goal in added time came courtesy of substitute Beto�…

De Bruyne prefers MLS over Saudi

Although Kevin De Bruyne might have his sights firmly set on making more history with this season, it has been suggested that the 32-year-old is already planning for his future away from the Etihad.

Continuing to shine since returning from a long-term hamstring injury at the start of the year, the one-time starlet sees his current deal with the defending Premier League champions expire in the summer of 2025.

Watching the likes of Ilkay Gundogan leave at the end of last season, it has been heavily speculated that the Sky Blues are cautious about giving long-term deals to players above the age of 30.

Although it might have been reported over the past few months that several clubs are monitoring De Bruyne’s situation at the Et…

Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder has defended Sheffield United, acknowledging it has been a bad season, but dismissing that the Blades do not have a positive future.

A midweek defeat to Manchester United means the Blades can be relegated back to the Championship should they lose to Newcastle United on Saturday.

The Blades are 10 points from safety with four games left, but even a point would not realistically be enough given they have a goal difference of -59, 41 worse than Nottingham Forest’s -18.

To make matters worse, the Blades will start their next season in the Championship with a two-point deduction for financial discrepancies.

We re not saying everything is great, said Wilder.

What we are saying is there is a load of optimism abou…

With all eyes falling on Wembley this weekend, Manchester City got their hands on a first piece of silverware of the season as they collected a thrilling 7-6 penalties victory against local rivals Manchester United.

While large spells of Saturday’s Community Shield showdown might have failed to live up to its pre-match billing, the Red Devils thought that they had sprung another heavyweight upset in the English capital as Alejandro Garnacho opened the scoring with just eight minutes left on the clock.

However, although United might have caused the defending Premier League champions a host of issues at Wembley, Bernardo Silva headed home from close range just seconds before the final whistle.

While Silva might have proved to have been City’s hero on Saturday …

Portugal full-back Fabio Coentrao will miss Euro 2016 after it was confirmed he would require surgery on a thigh injury.

Coentrao picked up the problem in training with Monaco last week and will now travel to Finland for surgery, with an estimated recovery time of three to six months.

Coentrao has won 51 caps for his country and featured at the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, as well as at Euro 2012.

The 28-year-old has not played internationally since a 1-0 victory over Denmark in October.

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Market: Italy win to nil

Odds: 

Enjoying quite the resurge, a high-flying Italy outfit will welcome Bosnia and Herzegovina to Torino s Allianz Stadium on Tuesday night.

Starting with the hosts, putting in yet another very eye-catching display in their empathic 3-0 win away at Greece over the weekend, few across Europe would have expected Italy s recent revival. Winning each of their opening three matches in Group J and yet to taste defeat since the start of September, it will undoubtedly be the Blues newfound defensive resolve most impressing former Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini. Yet to concede a single goal in their EURO 2020 qualifying campaign, Tuesday s hosts have now remarkably recorded six clean sheets on the bounce and have not picked the ball out…

The audio recording of the discussion between the match officials that led to Luis Diaz’s goal being wrongly disallowed has been made public, with VAR Darren England swearing twice upon being told of his mistake.

Diaz was incorrectly adjudged to have been offside on the field after netting in the first half of Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat at Tottenham on Saturday, a decision which was not over-ruled by England and his assistant Daniel Cook.

Liverpool asked for a recording of what happened and Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) has taken the step to publicly release the communication into how the bungled verdict was reached.

PGMOL said England “lost sight of the on-field decision” due to “a lapse of concentration and loss of focus”.

PG…