The complete list of January transfers

Who has your club signed so far as the deadline hour approaches. Check all the completed deals below:

ARSENAL

INS: Mohamed Elneny (£5m, FC Basle).

OUTS: Glen Kamara (loan, Southend).

ASTON VILLA

INS:

OUTS: Joe Cole (free, Coventry City), Philippe Senderos (free, Grasshoppers Zurich), Jose Angel Crespo (loan, Rayo Vallecano), Callum Robinson (loan, Preston), Joe Bennett (loan, Sheffield Wednesday), Jed Steer (loan, Huddersfield Town), Gary Gardner (loan, Nottingham Forest).

BOURNEMOUTH

INS: Benik Afobe (£10m, Wolves), Lewis Grabban (£7m, Norwich), Juan Iturbe (loan for £840k, Roma), Marius Adamonis (loan, Atlantas).

OUTS: Yann Kermogant (£500,000, Reading), Elliott Ward (free, Blackburn), Lee Tomlin (loan, Bristol City), Jayden Stockley (loan, Exeter City).

CHELSEA

INS: Matt Miazga (£3.5m, New York Red Bulls), Alex Pato (loan, Corinthians).

OUTS: Ramires (£20m, Jiangsu Suning), Papy Djilobodji (loan, Werder Bremen), Alex Kiwomya (loan, Fleetwood) Town), Charly Musonda (loan, Real Betis), Christian Atsu (loan, Malaga), Patrick Bamford (loan, Norwich), Wallace (loan, Gremio).

CRYSTAL PALACE

INS: Emmanuel Adebayor (free agent)

OUTS: Jack Hunt (undisclosed, Sheffield Wednesday), Jonathan Williams (loan, MK Dons).

EVERTON

INS: Shani Tarashaj (£3m, Grasshoppers Zurich), Matty Foulds (undisclosed, Bury).

OUTS: Steven Naismith (£8m, Norwich City), Shani Tarashaj (loan, Grasshoppers Zurich), Liam Walsh (loan, Yeovil Town), Jonjoe Kenny (loan, Oxford United), Aiden McGeady (loan, Sheffield Wednesday).

LEICESTER CITY

INS: Daniel Amartey (£5m, FC Copenhagen), Demarai Gray (£3.75m, Birmingham), Daniel Iversen (undisclosed, Esbjerg).

OUTS: Andrej Kramaric (loan, Hoffenheim), Alie Sesay (free, Barnet), Simonas Stankevicius (undisclosed, Zalgiris), Jak McCourt (undisclosed, Barnsley), Joe Davis (undisclosed, Fleetwood), Tom Lawrence (loan, Cardiff).

LIVERPOOL

INS: Marko Grujic (£5m, Red Star Belgrade), Steven Caulker (loan, QPR).

OUTS: Marko Grujic (loan for 700k, Red Star Belgrade), Ryan Fulton (loan, Portsmouth), Allan (loan, Sint-Truiden).

MANCHESTER CITY

INS: Anthony Caceres (£250k, Central Coast Mariners).

OUTS: Anthony Caceres (loan,  Central Coast Mariners), Ian Lawlor (loan, Bury), Patrick Roberts (loan, Celtic), Enes Unal (loan, NAC Breda), George Evans (free, Reading), Pablo Maffeo (loan, Girona), Shay Facey (loan, Rotherham).

MANCHESTER UNITED

INS:

OUTS: Ben Pearson (100k, Preston), Liam Grimshaw (undisclosed, Preston), Kieran O’Hara (loan, Morecambe), Sam Johnstone (loan, Preston), Ashley Fletcher (loan, Barnsley), Victor Valdes (loan, Standard Liege).

NEWCASTLE UNITED

INS: Jonjo Shelvey (£12m, Swansea City), Andros Townsend (£12m, Tottenham), Henri Saivet (£5m, Bordeaux).

OUTS: Mike Williamson (£250k, Wolves), Shane Ferguson (undisclosed, Millwall), Florian Thauvin (loan, Marseille).

NORWICH CITY

INS: Timm Klose (£8.5m, Wolfsburg), Steven Naismith (£8m, Everton), Ivo Pinto (£3m, Dinamo Zagreb), Matt Jarvis (£2.5m, West Ham), Patrick Bamford (loan, Chelsea).

OUTS: Lewis Grabban (£7m, Bournemouth), Gary Hooper (£3m, Sheffield Wednesday), Elliott Bennett (undisclosed, Blackburn), Harry Toffolo (loan, Peterborough), Jake Kean (loan, Colchester), Conor McGrandles (loan, Falkirk), Jamar Loza (loan, Southend).

SOUTHAMPTON

INS: Charlie Austin (£4m, QPR)

OUTS: Gaston Ramirez (loan, Middlesbrough), Ryan Seager (loan, Crewe), Sam McQueen (loan, Southend).

STOKE CITY

INS: 

OUTS: Steve Sidwell (loan, Brighton), Eddy Lecygne (loan, Doncaster Rovers).

SWANSEA CITY

INS: Alberto Paloschi (£8m, Chievo)

OUTS: Jonjo Shelvey (£12m, Newcastle United), Gerhard Tremmel (loan for £70k, Werder Bremen), Franck Tabanou (loan, Saint-Etienne).

SUNDERLAND

INS: Wahbi Khazri (£9m, Bordeaux), Lamine Kone (£5m, FC Lorient), Jan Kirchhoff (£750k, Bayern Munich), Dame N’Doye (loan for £1m, Trabzonspor).

OUTS: Costel Pantilimon (£500k, Watford), Ricky Alvarez (free, Sampdoria), Lynden Gooch (loan, Doncaster Rovers), Will Buckley (loan, Birmingham), Danny Graham (loan, Blackburn), Sebastian Coates (loan, Sporting Lisbon), Charalampos Mavrias (loan, Dusseldorf).

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR

INS:

OUTS: Andros Townsend (£12m, Newcastle United), Kenny McEvoy (free, York City), Shaq Coulthirst (undisclosed, Peterborough), Milos Veljkovic (free, Werder Bremen), Federico Fazio (loan, Sevilla).

WATFORD

INS: Nordin Amrabat (£6m, Malaga), Mario Suarez (£4m, Fiorentina), Costel Pantilimon (£500k, Sunderland).

OUTS: Diego Fabbrini (£1.5m, Birmingham), Connor Smith (free, AFC Wimbledon), Uche Ikpeazu (loan, Blackpool), Giedrius Arlauskis (loan, Espanyol), Victor Ibarbo (loan, Nacional).

WEST BROMWICH ALBION

INS: Sandro (loan, QPR),

OUTS: Anders Lindegard (loan, Preston), Tahvon Campbell (loan, Yeovil Town), Adil Nabi (undisclosed, Peterborough).

WEST HAM UNITED

INS: Sam Byram (£3.75m, Leeds United), Emmanuel Emenike (loan, Fenerbahce).

OUTS: Matt Jarvis (£2.5m, Norwich City), Mauro Zarate (£1.6m, Fiorentina), Elliot Lee (loan, Colchester), Stephen Hendrie (loan, Southend), Kyle Knoyle (loan, Dundee United), Diego Poyet (loan, Charlton).

Meet Man to be Executed by Lethal Injection for Murdering Mother, Father and 2 Children (Photos)

Is California preparing to execute an innocent man? Inmate who was convicted of murdering a mother, father and two children, 10, is set to face lethal injection even though five judges say he didn't do it.

Kevin Cooper who has been on California's death row for 30 years is set to be the next prisoner executed

 

A 57-year-old man, Kevin Cooper, who was sentenced to death in 1985 and has been on California's death row for 30 years, is set to be the next prisoner executed by the state, even though five judges say he is innocent.

 

In 1985, the convict brutally murdered Douglas and Peggy Ryen, their 10-year-old daughter Jessica, and 10-year-old Chris Hughes, who was staying at their house in the Los Angeles suburb of Chino Hills.

 

Their 8-year-old son Josh was the only survivor, even though he had his throat slit, and his account of that night would be the key to the prosecution's case. 

 

It was learnt in November that a moratorium on executions in The Golden State was lifted, paving the way for Cooper's date with the gurney at San Quentin prison.

 

He was sentenced to death (pictured) in 1985

 

However he says he is planning to file a last-ditch motion to Gov. Jerry Brown to keep an 'open mind' about evidence in the case. He has run out of other options so, if Brown doesn't intervene, he will be given the lethal injection.  

 

In an interview with NBC from behind bars, he said: 

 

'I am the only person in the history of the state to have five federal circuit judges say that 'the state of California may be about to execute an innocent man.

I'm not asking America as a whole, or any one person in particular, to believe me. Forget what I say. I'm asking people to believe those [judges]. When I was convicted of burglary, I pled guilty to those,because I did them.' 

The only people who are on death row are poor people. No matter what their culture, or their skin color, or their religion, we're all poor. I am innocent. And it's not my execution, it's my murder.' 

 

Cooper (pictured after his arrest in 1983) is out of options and will file a last-ditch appeal. If he is not successful, he will be given a lethal injection

 

The young Ryen who survived the attack initially said that three white or Latino men murdered his parents. That account, combined with physical evidence suggested multiple killers and prompted police to release a criminal bulletin seeking three suspects who were 'white or Mexican males.' 

 

On November 30, 2009, the United States Supreme Court upheld the Ninth Circuit Court's denial of his appeal but the judges were bitterly divided. In an unprecedented 103-page dissent signed by five of judges, they warned: 'The State of California may be about to execute an innocent man.'

 

His case was also highlighted in July 2015 during an episode of CNN's Death Row Stories, which suggested that there was evidence which could exonerate Cooper. 

 

On October 28, 2015, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights found Cooper's basic rights had been violated throughout the trial. They also concluded that he had been given ineffective council at trial. 

World's Best Chef Shot Himself Dead in His Swiss Home

How the renowned and award winning chef who won the World Best Chef award in December died in his Swiss home has been revealed in this tragic story.

World's Best Chef, Benoit Violier

 

A top chef has been found dead at his home in an apparent suicide just months after his restaurant was named the best in the world. Benoit Violier, 44, who ran the three Michelin Star Restaurant de l'Hotel de Ville in Switzerland, is thought to have shot himself with a shotgun, police said.

'Late in the afternoon [on Sunday], police... went to Crissier where they discovered at his home the body of Mr Benoit Violier,' the force said in a statement, adding that it appeared he had shot himself.

 

Police said an investigation had been opened into his death and said Violier's family had asked for privacy 'to be allowed to mourn in peace'. According to Swiss news site 24 heures, the chef was due to attend the launch of the new Michelin Guide in Paris on Monday.  A minute's silence was observed before the start of the Michelin Guide ceremony on Monday. The Swiss version of the guide had already been published and showed Violier had retained his stars. 

 

News of his death sparked a wave of sadness as contemporaries extolled the French-Swiss chef's talents. Restaurant de l'Hotel de Ville, in Crissier, near the southwestern Swiss city of Lausanne, was in December named the best of 1,000 top eateries across 48 countries ranked by France's 'La Liste'.

 

The gastronomic guide is the French foreign ministry's answer to the Britain-based World's 50 Best Restaurants. Celebrating the win, Violier said at the time: 'It's wonderful, it's exceptional for us. This ranking will only motivate our team more.'  Violier took over the reins at the restaurant with his wife Brigitte in 2012, following the retirement of his mentor Philippe Rochat, another towering figure in French cuisine. Rochat died after falling ill while cycling last year. 

 

Opened nearly 40 years ago, the restaurant offers menus ranging from 195 Swiss francs (£135) to 380 Swiss francs (£260). Born in the French coastal city of La Rochelle into a family of winemakers, Violier's career went from strength to strength over the years. He was named Chef of the Year in 2013 by the influential Gault & Millau guide, second only to the Michelin guide.

 

He was known to be a very jovial fellow

 

Known as a keen hunter, game was a mainstay in Violier's signature dishes and he was known for using local, seasonal products. He obtained Swiss nationality two years ago, according to Swiss daily Blick. Michelin-starred French chef Pierre Gagnaire was one of many of Violier's peers who expressed shock at his death late Sunday.

 

'My thoughts go out to Benoit Violier's family. Very sad news about an extremely talented chef,' he wrote on Twitter. Swiss chef Fredy Girardet, a friend of Violier and his wife who once ran the restaurant in Crissier, said he could 'see no motive for such an act'.

 

He told Tribune de Genève: 'He was a brilliant young man, with enormous talent and an impressive work potential. He gave the impression of being perfect. This news is so sad.' 

 

Paul Bocuse - dubbed the 'pope' of French cuisine - described Violier on Twitter as a 'great chef, great man, huge talent'. Star chef Jean Francois Piege, also of France, tweeted: 'An immense chef, an immense sadness, thoughts go out to his family and his team.'

 

Violier's death was not, however, the first suicide of a renowned French chef in recent years. In the darkest such episode, Bernard Loiseau apparently committed suicide in 2003 after the Gault & Millau guide lowered his restaurant's rating. Four Michelin three-star chefs, meanwhile, closed down their restaurants from 1996 to 2008. 

Mass Wedding in Kaduna State as Over 20 Men Marry Second Wives (Photos)

According to a Twitter user who shared photos online, a village in Kaduna State named Zuntu, has reportedly adopted the alleged Eritrean law of ordering men to take at least two wives.

A social media user, Bashir S. Zuntu, has sent Twitter abuzz after revealing that there was a mass wedding which took place over the weekend at Zuntu village in Kaduna State. 

He shared photos from the mass wedding and captioned it; "Earlier today in my home town Zuntu, over 20+ young men got themselves a second wife...Sunnah😻MashaAllah 🙏"

It seems the residents who are largely Muslims have decided to adopt the alleged law by Eritrea which orders men to take at least two women as wives with immediate effect.

We wish every one of them a joyous and fruitful marriage.

Boy Whose Eyes were Removed, Gets Support from El-Rufai, Shehu Sani

A young boy who lost his eyes to a gruesome attack by yet to be arrested ritualists has earned the financial support of top government officials in the state.

The victim, Abubakar Usman

 

The Senator representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani, has promised to foot any foreign medical bill of the four-year-old boy, Abubakar Usman whose two eyes were gouged out by yet to be identified persons in Zaria, Kaduna state, according to Premium Times.

Mr. Sani stated this during his visit to the boy at Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, on Sunday. While sympathizing with the boy and his family, Mr. Sani said: “I will foot the innocent boys medical bill in any country recommended by the hospital.”

The governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, had also given the boy’s parents some money and promised that the boy’s education up to the university will be taken care of by the Kaduna State Government.

 

There had been rumours about the amount given by the governor. But the boy’s father clarified how much he got.

“What Bashir Ibrahim Dabo, Special Assistant to Governor El-Rufai, who came on behalf of the governor to the hospital gave me in addition to the N150,000 cash, was $100 cash, which I changed to N29,500. So I am surprised to hear that we received $30,000; which is not true.

“My son has been operated upon, even though he has lost his vision completely, many sympathizers still troop in to offer help for treatment anywhere in the world which is very good and encouraging.

“My family and I are most grateful to government and everybody who supported us in the trying time and we are still soliciting for God’s miracle to restore my son’s vision and to expose the perpetrators,” the father said.

Mr. Dabo also confirmed the amount in a text message sent to a correspondent. An official at the hospital confirmed to a reporter that Abubakar Usman underwent two surgeries on his eyes but may not regain his vision.

 

The boy who is currently unware of his plight has expressed his desire to have the bandage on his face removed so that he could see his mother and grandmother's faces.

I can't stop crying for this innocent boy. We keep talking about insanity and inhumanity. This is a pure example. We pray the perpetrators of this evil are apprehended and punished forever.  

See Why The Naira May Fall To The Dollar At N1000 Per Dollar

It is either I do not understand economics and how exchange rates work or a vast majority of us Nigerians still don’t get how we have wrecked our country with our own curious choices.

Just this morning I was listening to the radio and the lady on air went on and on about how she thought CBN governor Godwin Emefiele was incompetent and should be sacked because the naira was now exchanging at 309 or so to the USD.

That view pretty much echoes the sentiments expressed by many people I know and it amazes me that there are Nigerians who actually think there is some magic POLICY that can make the Naira strong in the near term.

If my economics and my understanding of the way the world works are right, then that is as far from the truth as Jesus Christ is black.

The simple fact of the matter is that apart from oil that accounts for over 90% of our revenues, we really don’t have much of an economy. We hardly produce anything, we import even toothpicks, so exactly what policy is going to be implemented that will turn Nigeria into a top exporting economy in the near term? Where are our Apples, IBMs, Disneys, GMs, General Electrics, Coca Colas, Empire State buildings, Statues of Liberties, Lockheeds, Citibanks, JP Morgans, ExxonMobils, NBAs, Super Bowls etc? Let me bring that closer home.

There was a time long ago when Nigeria had a truly strong economy and the naira was one to the dollar – even exchanged for higher than the USD, but that Nigeria is not this Nigeria.

Sadly that Nigeria was laid by the British, and this Nigeria (if you don’t believe in the nonsensical imperialist conspiracies like me) – fueled by the DAMAGING Indigenisation Decree, has been the creation of us Nigerians.Back then we had a booming economy.

We were either the top, or among the top exporters, of timbre, cocoa, groundnuts, rubber, palm oil, etc, in the world. Nigerians not only holidayed at home in their villages, at Yankari Games Reserve, at Obudu Cattle Ranch, at Oguta Lake, at Ikogosi springs, at Gurara Falls, at Mambilla Platueau, etc, we attracted international tourists who brought in loads of foreign exchange.

Even Nigerian schools were foreign exchange earners because they attracted foreign students.

We had different car assembly plants – Peugeot, Volkswagen, Anamco etc. Nigerian government officials only bought vehicles assembled in Nigeria for official cars. We had a thriving sports industry.

We were not Man United or Chelsea fans, we were Rangers or IICC fans. We had the Nduka Odizors, people made money from sports. We also had companies like Lennards and Bata producing school shoes in their thousands, we had the thriving Nigerian Airways and the Aviation School in the north that produced some of the best pilots in the world. In those days if you were brilliant you were respected much more than the crass money-miss-road contractors of today.

Most of the Aje Butters I knew had fathers who were university dons. Back then it meant something to ‘know book’. Our textile industry was alive and well.

Just recently I watched a news report on the textile industry in Nigeria on CCTV News. Though the main focus was on the comatose status of the industry, I was stunned by the gigantic Kaduna Textile Mill built in 1957. I could go on and on.

Today however, no thanks to our parents (and we must call them out the way Wole Soyinka did his generation) and many of us (and we should be remembered for failing our children if we continue like this), we have destroyed everything.

Today for instance Nigerian football (which comes easy to me obviously) doesn’t appeal to us, we have to fly across thousands of miles to watch ‘our’ clubs play.

Every year we collectively burn billions of Naira being fans of clubs that give us nothing back, but some ‘entertainment value’ – simple pleasures for which we are ready to destroy the future of our children.

Well people, payback time is here. Even with our ta-she-re money we all want to wear designer clothes and carry designer bags, Armani, Givenchy, Louis Vuitton etc.

We all want to drive jeeps with American specs, our children must now school overseas and acquire the necessary accents to come back home and bamboozle their ‘bush and crass’ contemporaries that they left behind. Who holidays in Nigeria anymore, is there Disneyland here? No one buys made-in-Nigeria school bags for their children, after all no Superman or Incredible Hulk or Cinderella on them.

We are no longer top exporters of anything and the demise of oil means we have zilch… zero. A country of 170m fashion-conscious people has no textile industry.

We take delight in showing how our made-in-Switzerland Aso Ebi is different class to everyone else’s. When we help our musicians grow and pay them millions, they repay us by immediately shipping the monies overseas to produce their “i-don-dey-different-level”music videos. It makes no difference that distinctly Zulu dancers are dancing to a Nigerian highlife song.

As stars concerned they also wed and holiday overseas to impress us all. All the musicians who acknowledge their Ajegunle roots now speak in a cocktail of strange accents to symbolise how much they have blown their monies overseas.

Were we a more serious people, the highly popular Kingsway Stores of the past would probably have a thousand outlets pan Nigeria today supporting a massive agriculture industry among others, but today we have the likes of SPAR, Shoprite, dominating the retail industry while Kingsway is dead.

And we Nigerians make it a special point to shop from the Oyinbos who have ‘cleaner shops’, ‘better this and better that’. For our personal pleasure we don’t mind them dominating us in our own backyard and shipping proceeds overseas.

I could go on and on, but I don tire. Even as you are reading this, stop for a moment and look around you. What you see will probably explain why we are lucky it is not N1000 to the USD yet.

And don’t think for a moment that it cannot get there. Just continue to wear your Armani gear and Swiss-made lace, continue to spend your money on Man United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Barca and encourage your children to do same. (My article tomorrow in my Saturday column in This Day is on the Nigerian champions Enyimba FC – Nigeria’s most successful club – not having a sponsor, yet Nigerian brands pay over N600m to Man United and Arsenal for sponsorship to impress us.) Ehhh, no problem, continue to tell me the NPFL is rubbish or the clubs should clean up their act if they want sponsorship, mo gbo .

Don’t curtail your interest in choice wines ( we were the number one champagne consumers in the world in 2015), continue to love your American specs, cheer the education ministry for letting schools sink to pitiable levels, don’t fight them to improve our schools, don’t chide them for letting schools drop Nigerian history and embrace British, America and whatever else curricula.

Carry on with your love of French wines and Chinese silk, don’t bother about Jamiu Alli when there is Roger Federer. Stock up on your Italian, American, British products which you cannot live without, including the ‘baby soft’ toilet rolls produced only in that small unique village in England – the days are long gone since you were a broke student who used wet newspapers to wipe your butt.

Don’t even consider holidaying in Nigeria, it’s too dangerous – you have to fulfill your dream of being Nigeria’s Henry Ford. Don’t listen to people like me who have a wardrobe full of only cheap adire that is actually cheaper than just one of your Tom Ford blazers. Please keep dressing in fine silk made in some exotic place so you can be addressed accordingly.

Finally keep letting corrupt leaders who have looted your commonwealth and shipped all the monies overseas get away because to attack them does not fit your political narrative. Let us continue with the fine life, let us all continue to work for Oyinbo.

But don’t forget that there is payback time and Emefiele is not your problem. Time for us all to look in the mirror and take responsibility. 

President Buhari Arrives Nigeria Following His Official Trip To Ethiopia

President Muhammadu Buhari pictured with Members of Nigerian Community in Ethiopia. The president has also departed Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and arrived in Abuja, Nigeria

President Muhammadu Buhari pictured with Members of Nigerian Community in Ethiopia. The president has also departed Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and arrived in Abuja, Nigeria.

See more photos below:-