By CALEB SONNELAND
American defender Frank Simek has dislocated his elbow after falling awkwardly in his club's home loss to Yeovil Town on Saturday.
The Carlisle United defender has been a rock at the back for the League One side. The injury has yet to be fully assessed, however, Simek was just an hour away from completing every minute of United's season. Fortunately, Simek will have the summer to recover and return to form so that he may prepare himself for another solid season at the back for Carlisle.
Here are some other stories to get your Monday going:
MADRID SWOOPS FOR SAHIN
La Liga giants Real Madrid have confirmed the signing of Borussia Dortmund midfielder Nuri Sahin for a reported $14.3 million (€10 million).
Sahin is wrapping up a season with the German club that are mathematically locked in to be crowned Bundesliga champions after this weekend. Despite the domestic success, the Turkish midfielder has decided to test his skills in La Liga with one of the largest clubs in the world under Jose Mourinho.
Set for a six-year contract, Sahin has been instrumental for Dortmund in the Bundesliga this year with six goals and eight assists and is set to be the third Madrid player to come from the German league in the past year (Ozil and Khedira being the others).
LICHAJ RETURNS TO VILLA
Eric Lichaj returns to his parent club Aston Villa after joining Leeds United in early February on loan, intially on a one-month deal. However, Lichaj impressed manager Simon Grayson to the point where the deal was extended to the end of the season.
Though a right back by trade, Lichaj was deployed on the left side of defense for the last few games of his loan spell when Leeds' starting left back was hit with injury. For USMNT fans, the 22 year old's new position could finally help to solve the national team's woes at left back.
Lichaj totaled 12 appearances for Leeds and played his final match in a 2-1 win over newly-promoted Queens Park Rangers, who will join the Premier League next season.
BALE OUT FOR SEASON WITH FRESH INJURY
Tottenham winger Gareth Bale has been hit with yet another injury, this time to his left ankle following a hard challenge from Blackpool captain Charlie Adam.
An MRI has confirmed that Bale suffered a ruptured ankle ligament in the 1-1 draw. The Welshman will miss the remaining fixtures for Tottenham's close to the season, which includes major games against Manchester City and Liverpool, both away from home.
Tottenham currently sits in fifth place in the Premier League, just a point in front of European hopefuls Liverpool. Its fixture against the Merseyside club on the 15th of May could well decide who takes a place in European competition next season.
——————
What do you make of Simek's injury? Does Sahin's arrival mean the departure of a different Real Madrid midfielder? Was Lichaj's loan spell at Leeds a success? Could he become a factor in Villa's starting XI next season? What does Bale's injury mean for Tottenham? Should it be worried about Liverpool?
Share your thoughts below.
I want to know where that commenter is who a few weeks ago told me that all the BVB players were under contract and that I was absolutely crazy to think any of these young players would leave at all. I think her name was Anne. Ahhhh… feelin’ righteous right now, and GL to Sahin. Nobody said Ozil could make it at Real, either. I see him replaces Khedira. RM has no need for a “ball-winner” anyway.
(SBI-I’m going to try to make this clear for you. You’ve beaten a dead horse repeatedly, been asked politely to refrain from the troll-like practice of hijacking threads and constantly repeating the same things. You ignored that, and THEN took it a step further by hurling insults and calling into question the integrity of this site. Now tell me, exactly how would we be wrong from banning you at this point? Commenting on a privately-owned website is NOT, I repeat, NOT a right. It’s a privilege. The sooner you accept that, perhaps the sooner you’ll start treating that privilege with the respect you USED to treat it with.)
The Spanish 2nd division also has reserve teams in it. That`s not necessarily bad for the quality of the competition. On the contrary,Thomas Mueller was in it, one year before he went to South Africa.
(SBI-I told you to let it go, didn’t I? You had to keep pushing AND you chose to cross the line. So be it.)
You crack me up bud. Taylor played very well at TuS Koblenz of the 2.BL – was second on the team in scoring. Lothar Matteus couldn’t crack it in the MLS either. Speaking of which, Gomez is a washout too. On the other hand, Luke Rodgers of 4th Division England fame is lighting up the nets in the MLS.
Neither BCC. Just saw the dude play 3 or 4 times while he was at TuS Koblenz and FSV Frankfurt, both of the 2.BL. My 5th Division club (in die Bierliga) almost got to play him in the DFB Pokal, but we got beat the first round. Taylor plays better, much better than Gomez-better touch, goal-scoring instinct-and distribution. Ives just doesn’t want to hear it b/c he loves Gomez for reasons I can only imagine. Agenda?
Roger that Frank, and many of those players are eligible to play for the first team in the BL.
ANM – Start thinking back to 1950 when we beat England. How’s that for deep thinking?
There is a serious difference between league 1 and the 3rd bundesliga. One of the main ones being that the 3rd bundesliga has RESERVE teams playing in it
I’m willing to start an entire supporters group for Matt Taylor.. or a fan club at least. I’m making T-shirts and banners. Who else wants in? I think we need a new John O’brien on this site!
All this Matt Taylor stuff has got me wondering: who was the last person to be capped at senior National Team level playing third division soccer? I’m casting my mind back but I can’t think of anyone.
I am the OFFICIAL Matt Taylor. This other man is an imposter! Off with his head!
Have you seen what Justin Mapp or Fred make. I’m sure a MLS team would give Simek $125-$200k
Are you his mother or his agent? Have to be one of the two.
Not sure where Sahin fits into the Madrid midfield. I saw one pundit suggest this is the end of Canales, but I would ship Kaka long before I would get rid of the young Spaniard. Two completely different career trajectories.
Gago and Pedro Leon will be sold. Too bad about the latter — he is not a bad player. Mourinho is not a fan, however.
yep but are we even sure that’s the same dude who was posting weeks or months ago? It just seems he went overboard over Taylor. Maybe it’s his agent or an obsessed fan but quite odd.
(SBI-It’s the same guy. He’s actually a long-time regular on SBI, and generally a very sharp guy, so he’s not just some random person who never commented before. Still don’t get the overboard fascination with Taylor.)
Walk softly and carry a troll sized beating stick.
Mourinho is going to take some significant backlash from this move.
He should have gone after Silva.
Ives keeps his pimp hand strong
I would guess that he’s probably making decent money. Probably something in the low six figure range. I don’t think he’d get that in MLS.
Two reasons.
A. They didn’t know he would progress to that.
B. The player has to agree to having that in his contract. No young player who isn’t over-hyped is going to want a huge sum in his contract because no one could buy it out. He was always a good player, but this season he has really broken out in unexpected ways.
Also, Taylor couldn’t crack it in MLS. Simek at least played well in the Championship.
I think his contract had a buyout clause in it which RM met and he agreed to. He won’t move until the window opens up.
I was pretty disappointed when I heard he didn’t get a contract at least in the Championship after the end of last season. He was the best player on his Championship team. I honestly thought MLS would be a better move than going down to League One.
LOL!
It’s in bad taste to speak in the third person, Matthew Taylor.
Also, Simek has played for the Nats so he’s someone of interest albeit marginally at this point.
I am still confused as to why Borussia would allow such a low buyout clause to be in the contract of a player they have groomed since the age of 12. Seems like they could have at least made it 20 mil, and even that would still be considered a deal.
That’s another possibility too. I haven’t seen or ever heard of Dolo playing left back before, but I’m sure he could do at least do a serviceable job there.
I’ve been saying this for a while, Lichaj should get a shot at left back. He definitely can’t be worse than Bornstein and Pearce and he’s a whole lot quicker than Bocanegra.
Then we can move Bocanegra back to CB and pair him with whatever CB is in form, which seems to be Goodson (or Ream) at the moment since Onyewu hasn’t played in a while and DeMerit hasn’t played any football since the Argentina game.
This also allows us to free up a roster spot for the Gold Cup since Bob won’t have to take Bornstein or Pearce along as an emergency LB for Bocanegra.
Ives – Only 72 hours ago, you said that you don’t/can’t cover Yanks playing 3rd Division soccer. So, putting this into context; while Simick, who plays in the 3rd Division of England falls victim to injury, Mattew Taylor, who tore up the 3.BL in scoring can’t get a thread..hmmm?
(SBI-Listen man, if you can’t see the difference between Simek and Taylor, and why we’d report on one and not the other, I don’t know what to tell you. Simek is a former national team defender who has been sidelined by injuries and has worked his way back onto the radar. Taylor is the definition of a journeyman, enjoying a nice season but still a journeyman. Just because you happen to love the guy doesn’t mean he suddenly someone we MUST cover. When he makes an official move up to a higher division we’ll go back to covering him. It’s pretty simple.
And for your information, we’ve listed Simek on Americans Abroad consistently. Listing English third division but not German third division is our choice. Live with it and move on.
I would suggest you drop the repeated harping about Taylor in the comments section because you’ve officially reached troll status with the constant harping and thread-jacking.)
I’d rather put Cherundolo on the left and have Chandler on the right, personally. We need Cherundolo’s calmness on the ball. We need Chandler’s speed.
With Boca on the left, we don’t get crossing from that spot anyway.
I feel like he should at least be playing in the Championship. Baby steps I guess. Injuries kinda derailed his career for a bit.
Pretty sure clubs can reach agreements at any time, players just don’t move until the transfer window opens.
It won’t go through until the transfer window is open, but I imagine all the paperwork is done and whatnot. The clubs have agreed on a price, the player has negotiated his terms… They’re just waiting for the window to open to finalize it.
Ives, any chance of Simek getting a transfer to a better club? Before his bad ankle injury a few years ago he was looking at a possible transfer to the PL. League One seems below his talent level.
How do you sign someone when the transfer window isn’t open?
Apparently, you are cool with players making reckless challenges and only being slapped on the hand for it….its bad enough we are dealing with the challenges of growing the sport in this country, last thing we need is to be regarded as a hack league. And this is a different scenario to what happened to Morales this weekend…the defender tackled him after Morales already had passed the ball…so what exactly was he defending?
It was the sentiment of a small subset of one teams fans who happened to have their best player get injured for the year. Get over it.
Charlie Adam should not be allowed to play until Bale is healthy! That’s the required sentiment now, right? Or is that only for MLS fans?
Apparently Altintop is next for RM…