Alba: Luis Enrique appointment was a necessary change

Chinese Super League champions Guangzhou Evergrande have completed the signing of midfielder Paulinho from Tottenham. 

The Brazilian moves on a four-year deal after Evergrande paid €14million for his services.

The 26-year-old arrived at White Hart Lane from Corinthians in 2013 and initially was a regular under Andre Villas-Boas, but fell out of favour with Tim Sherwood and later Mauricio Pochettino.

Paulinho made just 14 starts in all competitions last term half of those coming in the UEFA Europa League with the Brazil international linking up with Luiz Felipe Scolari in Guangzhou.

The pair worked together for the national side in Scolari s most recent spell in charge, with Paulinho joining a host of fellow Brazilians at Tianhe Stadium, including …

Kick It Out trustee Leroy Rosenior has called on the Football Association to hand out a minimum 10-game suspension for racist abuse.

In recent seasons, John Terry and Luis Suarez have both been involved in high-profile cases of racial abuse but received different punishments.

The FA handed Liverpool striker Suarez an eight-game ban for comments directed at Manchester United s Patrice Evra in October 2011, while Chelsea captain Terry served a four-game suspension for language aimed towards Queens Park Rangers Anton Ferdinand weeks later.

Rosenior believes these punishments did not send the right message and has urged the governing body to establish a set ban for players found guilty of racist abuse to act as a real deterrent.

If someone is found guilty of racist …

Alan Pardew has vowed to send resurgent Newcastle United out to attack Liverpool in Saturday s Premier League clash at St James Park.

The Tyneside club have put a dismal start to the season behind them by winning their last three matches in all competitions to ease the pressure on manager Pardew.

Newcastle s latest success came at the expense of Premier League champions Manchester City, who were consigned to a shock 2-0 League Cup defeat at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday.

Few would have given Newcastle any hope of progressing to the last eight when Pardew name a much-changed side that included the likes of Rob Elliot, Rolando Aarons, Adam Armstrong and Ryan Taylor making his first start since August 2012.

Out-of-sorts City were stunned as goals from Aaro…

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said the thought of retirement makes him panic .

Wenger is gearing up for his 20th year at the helm in London, following his arrival from Nagoya Grampus, and the 65-year-old Frenchman has showed no signs of slowing down.

Long-time rival Alex Ferguson walked away from Manchester United in 2013, after 27 successful years at Old Trafford.

However, Wenger does not plan to retire as he bids to lead Arsenal to their first Premier League title since 2003-04.

Retirement? Yes, it crosses my mind sometimes but for no longer than five seconds because I panic a little bit, said Wenger, who signed a three-year extension in May last year.

When we played at Man United, he [Ferguson] came to meet me after the game. I said: Come on,…

Having suffered a ruptured cruciate ligament from Jordan Pickford s reckless tackle in the Merseyside Derby in mid-October, Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk is showing promising signs in terms of his recovery.

He s started working outside with the ball again, with minimal strapping on his knee. His chances of playing again this season still don t look great, but it hasn t been ruled out yet. Soon the official squads for the remainder of the season will be made, and then we ll know if we re going to see the big Dutchman on the pitch in 2020-21 again.

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Bayern Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge says the club are keeping an eye on Dayot Upamecano, even if it is too early to expect the RB Leipzig defender to join them.

Upamecano, 22, has developed into one of the most highly prized centre-backs in Europe in recent seasons and has been tipped for a major move at the end of the season.

Bayern have been heavily linked with the France international, particularly with David Alaba expected to leave on a free transfer, most likely to Real Madrid.

Rummenigge confirmed transfer plans are being drawn up but was not prepared to state that any agreement had already been reached.

He told Bild that Upamecano was at least at Leipzig until the end of the season , adding it was a bit too early to assume he would join th…

Thirty-two clubs remain in this season’s FA Cup and fifteen of them are Premier League sides. The remainder of the clubs consist of thirteen from the Championship, two from league one and two from the Blue Square Premier League (Conference).

For this week’s predictions we’ll have a look at the FA Cup fourth round games that involve Premier League teams:

Saturday 24th January 2009

Chelsea v Ipswich

Chelsea came relatively close to going out of this competition in the third round against Southend. They are unlikely to make similar mistakes again. Despite the gloom and doom surrounding their recent defeat at Old Trafford, that was there only defeat in ten games.

Ipswich are eleventh in the Championship and…

At least one unauthorised website is touting tickets to next year s football World Cup in South Africa, Australia s consumer watchdog said as it warned of potential fraud in online ticketing.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said an international review of thousands of websites, including some 1,400 ostensibly based in Australia, underscored the need for consumer vigilance.

Results indicate that online ticketing has emerged as an area of concern, commission deputy chairman Peter Kell said.

In this year s sweep, the ACCC identified an unauthorised site offering tickets for the FIFA World Cup in South Africa at www.worldcupticketing.com.

The website, written in poorly worded English, offers to deliver at your door step tickets t…

Paris Saint-Germain missed the chance to move level on points with Marseille as they were beaten 4-2 by Bastia in Ligue 1 on Saturday.

Julian Palmieri s sensational volley from the edge of the penalty area – his first goal since November 2012 – put Bastia in front for the first time in the second half, before he added a second in the final minute as they climbed out of the bottom three. 

Lucas Moura opened the scoring for PSG in the 10th minute, before Adrien Rabiot added a second 10 minutes later, with both taking advantage of slack Bastia defending to go two goals ahead.

Any hopes of a routine victory were dashed by two defensive lapses as Ryad Boudebouz converted a penalty after Gregory van der Wiel had handled, and Francois Modesto headed home fr…

Blackburn striker Jordan Rhodes is being linked with a move to Premier League Swansea City

According to and other various British tabloids, Swansea are interested in signing Blackburn striker Jordan Rhodes in January.

It seems like any deal would be a complicated one with many factors coming into it.

Fee

One of those factors would be the fee for the 24-year-old, who joined Rovers in 2012 from Huddersfield for around £8million.

It seems many clubs have been interested in signing the Scotland international in recent seasons, but Rovers are unlikely to sell one of their star players on the cheap.

A fee of around £11million has been mooted, but it seems that Blackburn would probably hold out for more money considering they would have to re…