Author: Chief Editor

Manchester United have been so impressed with Odion Ighalo they think he’d be worth a huge £70million if he was five years younger, reports express.co.uk. The 30-year-old has been a big hit at Old Trafford ever since his arrival from Shanghai Shenhua on transfer deadline day. Express Sport takes a look at the qualities of the Nigerian and how they may influence United’s thinking. Successful actions Ighalo has mostly been a substitute throughout his time at the Theatre of Dreams so far. But, despite that, the Nigeria international has still attempted 197 actions across all competitions for the Red Devils.…

Manchester City say they will not be furloughing employees at the taxpayer’s expense after a number of Premier League clubs took advantage of the British government’s scheme to fund non-playing staff during the coronavirus epidemic. On Saturday, table-topping Liverpool became the fifth Premier League club to announce a furlough, accessing the government’s job retention scheme, which means the public purse will cover 80 percent of wages. There has been considerable criticism from former players, who believe the safety net is not being used as intended. Liverpool announced a £42 million ($51 million) pre-tax profit in February. Liverpool’s opponents in last…

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States has topped 300,000 and there have been more than 8,100 deaths, Johns Hopkins University reported on Saturday. The Baltimore-based university, which has been keeping a running tally of global coronavirus numbers, said there are at least 300,915 confirmed virus cases in the US and there have been 8,162 deaths [Punch]

Wayne Rooney has criticised the government and the Premier League for placing footballers in a “no-win situation” over proposed pay cuts after players were urged to make sacrifices during the coronavirus crisis. The former England captain, now playing with Championship side Derby, penned an impassioned column in the Sunday Times saying his fellow professionals were “easy targets” in the wider response to the pandemic. It came after the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) said a proposed 30 percent pay cut could hurt the National Health Service because it would hit tax receipts. Rooney said he had both the means and the…

Liverpool on Saturday became the latest Premier League club to put some of their non-playing staff on furlough during the coronavirus shutdown. The Premier League said on Friday that the 2019/20 season would only return when it was “safe and appropriate to do so”. Newcastle, Tottenham, Bournemouth and Norwich have also said they would furlough non-playing staff. A statement from the Premier League leaders said staff would be paid 100 percent of their salaries to ensure nobody was financially disadvantaged. The Liverpool statement added: “Even prior to the decision on staff furloughing, there was a collective commitment at senior levels…

Former Barcelona and Spain star Xavi Hernandez and his wife have donated one million euros ($1.08 million) to the city’s Hospital Clinic to help the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. “Xavi Hernandez and Nuria Cunillera have made a donation of one million euros to the clinic to face up to COVID-19. Thanks a lot for your help and support… All together, we will get there,” the hospital tweeted on Saturday. “Nuria and I, we support the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona’s fight against the coronavirus. Thanks to the donations they are receiving, the hospital has acquired equipment for patients and healthcare…

In Europe, officials, doctors and engineers are looking at how smartphones could be enlisted in the war against the spread of the new coronavirus. One obvious attraction for health officials is the possibility of using smartphones to find out with whom someone diagnosed with COVID-19 has been in contact. But can this be done without intrusive surveillance and access to our devices that store a wealth of private information? – Anonymised and aggregated – Firms can “anonymise” location data received from your smartphone by stripping out personal identifiers. It can then be presented in an “aggregate” form where individual and…

The missing COVID-19 patient in Osun state, has been apprehended by the police and returned to the Isolation facility in Ejigbo, area of the State on Saturday. The Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Ismail Omipidan confirmed this to the Nation. He said the patient, a woman, was apprehended by the police in Ejigbo town and returned to the facility this afternoon. [The Nation]

Battling to cope with the stay-at-home order of the Kwara State Government, residents of Ilorin, state capital yesterday trooped out enmasse in search of means of survival. However, as at the time of filling this report, the state is yet to record the COVID-19 incident in the state. The development according to THISDAY checks might not be unconnected with the sufferings being experiencing seven days after the state had been partially locked down. A visit of our correspondent to some of the economic areas of Ilorin yesterday revealed that, shops, opened at the popular, Taiwo, Unity roads, Ipata Market, Muritala…

Manchester United players yesterday became the first Premier League stars to slash their pay and they will now donate millions to the NHS, MailOnline can reveal. Old Trafford stars earning up to £375,000-a-week have agreed to forgo 30 per cent of their wages for one month on the proviso that the money is used to benefit hospitals and health centres throughout Manchester in the fight against the coronavirus. Captain Harry Maguire was approached by chairman Ed Woodward about the idea, and the England defender opened up the initiate to the rest of the senior squad, who are believed to have…