AS Monaco, who won the league title just two seasons ago, have made the decision to sack manager Leonardo Jardim with the club mired in the relegation zone and will replace him with former player Thierry Henry, according to ESPN’s Julien Laurens.
Henry, currently Roberto Martinez’s assistant with Belgium, has also recently been linked to the vacant role at English Championship side Aston Villa. However, he could be set to take up his first managerial post at the club where he began his professional playing career in the 1990s.
Monaco have just six points from their first nine games this term and have not won in 10 matches across all competitions since the campaign’s opening day.
Regional French outlet Nice-Matin claimed Jardim could get the boot before next weekend with European domestic football currently on an international break. Monaco’s sporting director, Michael Emenalo, could also be on the chopping block:
Former Chelsea and current Monaco Sporting Director Michael Emenalo is likely to be in danger of losing his job from AS Monaco too, after the french club have now gone 10 games without winning a single game.
— Mootaz Chehade (@MHChehade) October 9, 2018
Henry, a legend of both the France national team and the English Premier League, has been involved in coaching since joining the Belgium setup in August 2016. With his help, the Red Devils finished third at this past summer’s World Cup.
The 41-year-old was reportedly offered the chance to take over at Monaco’s Ligue 1 rival Bordeaux earlier this season after the dismissal of Gus Poyet, but turned down the chance. Last week, he was considered many bookmakers’ favorite to take over the vacant post at Villa, but Laurens reported that Henry snubbed the opportunity after holding talks with the English club.
It now appears there are just a few details to be agreed upon before Henry signs on at Stade Louis II. The World Cup winner watched the 2-1 Champions League defeat to Atletico Madrid in September and is thought to have taken advice from France coach Didier Deschamps before deciding Monaco is the right move to make.
According to Laurens, Monaco’s staff had also considered Henry’s former Arsenal teammate Robert Pires, River Plate boss Marcelo Gallardo, and ex-France defender Laurent Blanc as candidates for the manager position.
An MRI backed up running back Adrian Peterson’s confidence that he wouldn’t miss any time for the Washington Redskins with a shoulder injury, a source said Tuesday night.
A Monday Night Football feud between Michael Thomas and Josh Norman went from the field to the locker room to Twitter, where the Saints receiver ripped the Redskins cornerback in a back-and-forth that carried well into Tuesday morning.
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Peterson was injured late in the first half of Monday night’s 43-19 loss at the New Orleans Saints, leaving him on the bench for all but two offensive snaps in the second half. But the MRI showed no further damage.
He is expected to play when the Redskins host the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.
Peterson twice said after Monday’s contest that he had dislocated his shoulder at the end of a catch-and-run, telling reporters he had popped it back into place. Washington coach Jay Gruden had called it a strained shoulder.
Peterson carried four times for six yards and caught two passes for 36 yards in Monday’s defeat. For the season, he has 242 yards rushing on 60 carries.
All has not been rosy for Arturo Vidal since his summer move to Barcelona.
The Chile midfielder, 31, signed a three-year deal with the Spanish giants to complete a move from German behemoth Bayern Munich during the transfer window. However, his time in Catalonia has been frustrating thus far, with the former Juventus man having made just two starts.
In fact, though he has amassed nine appearances in all competitions over the last two months, Vidal has just 176 minutes of football to his name for La Blaugrana, and he’s not happy about it.
“How can I be happy if I don’t play – and me, of all people?” Vidal said to reporters while on duty for Chile, as reported by Reuters.
“I am somebody who has always fought, been at the best teams in the world, won everything, and who wants to continue winning at Barcelona.”
The midfielder also made sure to confirm his availability is not being limited by any fitness issues.
“I am fine physically and happy. In the past few games, I have been a bit annoyed but that is how it is, we will keep battling. There are a lot of important games ahead and we will see,” he added.
Vidal is a serial champion – across his time in Turin and Bavaria, he has won a domestic league title in each of his last seven seasons as a player. However, competition for a midfield spot at Camp Nou is as intense as ever, with Vidal vying with the likes of Sergio Busquets, Ivan Rakitic, Sergi Roberto, Rafinha, and fellow summer signing Arthur for a central position.
He was not selected at all for the 1-1 La Liga draw against Valencia on Sunday after surfacing for just three minutes against Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League. After the tie with Los Che, he posted (and, subsequently, deleted) an Instagram post which read: “Don’t fight with those who are like Judas, they will hang themselves,” according to ESPN.
After erasing the message, he said: “I think people took (that post) in the wrong way. It had nothing to do with anything sport-related, and I deleted it to stop people from speculating. There are personal things and jokes which you can put on social media and people take the wrong way. I changed it but it had nothing to do with Barcelona or with anyone in particular. When I have to say something, I say it to someone’s face.”
NEW ORLEANS — Drew Brees is now the leading passer in NFL history.
The New Orleans Saints’ 39-year-old quarterback broke Peyton Manning’s record of 71,940 career passing yards Monday night — moving ahead of both Manning and Brett Favre in the process.
And he passed Manning in spectacular fashion, with a 62-yard touchdown toss to rookie Tre’Quan Smith to give the Saints a 26-6 lead in the second quarter of Monday’s game against the Washington Redskins. He did it in front of both a prime-time national audience and the home crowd in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
QB Drew Brees is now the NFL’s all-time passing leader after topping 71,940 yards during Monday’s Redskins-Saints game.
“There’s so many people that are responsible and had a hand in that,” Brees told ESPN’s Lisa Salters after the game when asked what the record means to him. “The two people that are most responsible for my football career, early on, my mom and my grandpa, are up in heaven.
“There were a lot of people I wanted to prove right tonight, but none moreso than them. I know they are watching down on me.”
Brees and the Saints were so impressive in their 43-19 rout of the Redskins that he was able to leave the game to another ovation after the two-minute warning. Brees finished his historic night with 363 yards and three touchdown passes. He completed 26 of 29 passes. Brees now has 499 career touchdowns — fourth all-time and one behind Tom Brady.
“I am just so grateful, so grateful, for the opportunity to play this game, and to play it for so long, to have the teammates that I have and the New Orleans Saints organization and this great city and this great fan base,” Brees said. “It’s really been a dream come true.
“Just really proud and really grateful.”
As planned, the NFL stopped the game to recognize the achievement, and Brees looked emotional as he waved and blew kisses to the crowd. He then personally delivered the ball to Pro Football Hall of Fame president David Baker on the sideline. Brees also shared an embrace with coach Sean Payton on the sideline.
“He deserves it. It’s been an unbelievable run,” Payton said. “It doesn’t feel like it’s been 13 years.”
Drew Brees on becoming the NFL’s all-time leader in yards passing: “It’s really been a dream come true.” Chris Graythen/Getty Images
Brees’ wife, Brittany, and his kids were also on the sideline for hugs and kisses.
“Hey boys, how about Dad?! I love you guys so much,” he told his kids. “You can accomplish anything in life you’re willing to work for, right?”
Manning congratulated Brees with a video message that was both hilarious and heartfelt. He joked that he held the record for 1,000 days and they were the best 1,000 days of his life — and said Brees ruined it. Manning also held up a picture he and Brees took together in 2000 and said they’ve come a long way.
Brees is the unlikeliest of all-time great quarterbacks — just 6 feet tall, barely recruited out of high school, he fell to the San Diego Chargers in the second round of the NFL draft out of Purdue in 2001 and was doubted by most of the league when he became a free agent after a career-threatening shoulder injury in 2005.
But that’s when he came to New Orleans and his career took off. Brees and Payton have formed one of the most prolific offensive duos in NFL history over the past 13 years — including a Super Bowl victory after the 2009 season.
Brees also holds the NFL records for most career completions and highest completion percentage. He set the single-season passing yardage record in 2011 with 5,476 (before Manning passed him by one yard in 2013). And he has thrown for more than 5,000 yards five times over the past decade — something no other quarterback has ever done more than once.
“It’s crazy. I never would’ve dreamed,” Brees admitted last week, while insisting that this isn’t the time to reflect and that he wanted to try and keep his weekly routine as normal as possible. “It just speaks to the longevity. And it says a lot about the teams I’ve been on, the coaches, the teammates, the players. Everyone has a hand in this, and I hope they know that.”
“So to be sitting here 18 years later in striking distance … it’s just kind of mind-boggling,” Brees said.
Brees was also asked about how much Payton has meant to his career after Payton hand-picked Brees to be his quarterback when he became a first-time head coach in New Orleans in 2006.
“I wouldn’t be here without Sean Payton,” Brees said. “He chose me, why he chose me I don’t know. I’m coming off the shoulder injury. Many said I might not play again. I even doubted myself at times, even as confident a person as I am. And yet, his belief in me gave me all the confidence in the world and also the sense of responsibility that I owe it to him as much as anybody to come back and prove him right.
“And then obviously the evolution of what we’ve been able to accomplish over the last 13 years together — and hopefully more. It’s a dream come true.”
“[But] it’s special, just to know that no one in the game has done what you’ve done. And it just says a lot [about] him, about his work ethic,” Ingram said. “He works every day to be the best, and he deserves it. So we’re all behind him and we all want to see him get every single passing record there is known to man, because he deserves it.”
