Daily Mail - 29.08.2019

85

Daily Mail, Thursday, August 29, 2019

Football

Liverpool are holding

Gerrard’s cousin against

his will, claims agent

You’re destroying him

WHO IS BOBBY

DUNCAN?

AGE: 18

POSITION: Striker

SIGNED: August 2018

from Man City

academy

n Duncan is the

cousin of Liverpool

legend Steven

Gerrard.

5

appearances in

pre-season for

Liverpool, including

scoring his first senior

goal for the club

against Tranmere.

32

Duncan

was top

scorer for the

club’s under 18s

last season with

32 goals in all

competitions.

66

The striker

plundered an

incredible 66 goals in

2015/16 at Man City.

PS

Duncan scored

a crucial late

equaliser in last

season’s FA Youth Cup

final as Liverpool

beat his former club

Man City on penalties.

L

IVERPOOL have

been accused of

holding academy

prospect Bobby

Duncan against his

will and damaging the

teenager’s mental health.

In an explosive statement from

the 18-year-old’s agent, which was

first reported by MailOnline yes-

terday, it is claimed Duncan has

not left his house for four days

because of the stress of not being

allowed to leave Anfield on loan.

The statement also accuses

Liverpool of ‘mentally bullying’

Duncan, who is Anfield legend

Steven Gerrard’s cousin, and is

particularly critical of sporting

director Michael Edwards.

Duncan, according to the state-

ment, will refuse to return to club

duty. Liverpool strenuously denied

the accusations, branding the alle-

gations as ‘unfounded’ in a strongly

worded statement of their own.

Fiorentina and FC Nordsjaelland

have made season-long loan offers

for Duncan, with a view to signing

the youngster on a permanent deal

next summer. But Liverpool have

rejected all offers.

Duncan wants to leave Anfield

and favours a move to Fiorentina,

who made a fresh offer yesterday of

a season-long loan with an obliga-

tion to buy for a fixed price if he

makes five or more first-team

appearances.

When Liverpool dismissed that

offer, the player’s representative,

Saif Rubie, posted his grievances.

Rubie said: ‘The real reason

Bobby missed the Under-23 game

(against Southampton) on Monday

is because he has suffered some

deep mental-health issues with

all the stress the club has put

him under.

‘Stress of being told he can leave

but then going out of their way to

force him to stay against his will.

‘Not only is he on a very small

salary but he also has one season

left on his contract after this one

and Liverpool have flatly said he

will not get a new one.

‘Bobby has not left his room for

four days because of this and will

never go back to Liverpool again

and my only concern now is his

mental health and wellbeing.

‘The Liverpool hierarchy have

shown zero consideration to that

and have even gone as far as saying

in writing that they will punish him

and make him stay at the club until

January and beyond to teach him a

lesson. This is not really dignified

behaviour from a club with the rich

history of Liverpool.

‘It’s a sad state of affairs that a

club such as a Liverpool can be

allowed to get away with mentally

bullying and destroying the life of a

young man such as Bobby.

‘In this situation all that matters

is the player’s health and in this

case Michael Edwards has totally

ignored that because of his own

stubbornness and I really pray that

his experience doesn’t happen to

any young players again.’

In response, a club spokesperson

said: ‘Liverpool Football Club is

aware of and disappointed by the

unattributed comments and

unfounded allegations that have

been made in the media regarding

one of our players.

‘As the interests of the player in

question are not best served by

either inaccurate speculation,

inflammatory statements or public

discourse, we will be making no

further comment.

‘We will, however, continue our

efforts to work privately with the

player to find resolution in the best

interests of all involved.’

Duncan initially retweeted the

statement but has since removed

it. He has also, however, removed

the picture of himself in a Liver-

pool shirt from his Twitter bio.

Duncan, who scored for the senior

side in pre-season, remains highly

thought of at the club’s academy

and training ground.

ENGLAND goalkeeper
Carly Telford has held her
hands up to admit the 2019
FIFA World Cup campaign
in France was a ‘failure’ as
the squad prepare for
their first test since
leaving the competition
empty-handed.
The Lionesses became the
first England senior side to
reach the semi-finals of
three consecutive major
tournaments but fell

short of their target to
reach the final.
Even their hopes to match
their bronze-medal finish
in Canada four years ago
were shattered in a 2-1

defeat by Sweden in the

third-place play-off.

Almost two months on,

England go again with two

international friendlies.

They face Belgium tonight

in Leuven before playing

Norway in Bergen on

Tuesday.

Chelsea keeper Telford,

who featured in three

World Cup games in Phil

Neville’s excessively

rotated system, admits

England must work

harder for their fairytale

ending. Telford said: ‘As a

collective, we felt we

were a failure and Phil

was quite open about that.

‘We went to win a gold

medal and we didn’t —

anything else wasn’t

going to be good enough.

‘We know how close we

are. It’s fine margins. Once

upon a time it was big

margins. But it’s just a

matter of time.’

Telford: We failed at World Cup

By CLAIRE

BLOOMFIELD

NUNO ESPIRITO SANTO

has warned Wolves to forget

about the Europa League

group stage.

They host Torino in their

play-off second leg tonight

with the winners qualifying

for the group stage.

Wolves hold a 3-2 lead after

victory in Turin last week

and with the Europa League

group-stage draw to be

made on Friday, manager

Nuno is eager for his men to

focus. He said yesterday:

‘They look at the game of

tomorrow, not further

ahead, just think about

tomorrow.

‘It’s a new game, the result

(in Torino) doesn’t mean

anything. It starts from zero

again and that’s how we

approach it. We are really

embracing all the games, we

want to compete. They want

to raise their game, improve

and play. This is what foot-

ball is all about — to play.

‘They have quality players.

We need to take care, know

there will be weaknesses or

advantages for them. It’s a

new game, play it.’

Nuno is expected to make

some changes from Sun-

day’s last-gasp 1-1 Premier

League draw with Burnley

which maintained Wolves’

unbeaten start to the

season. Jesus Vallejo may

return in defence while

Ruben Vinagre, Leander

Dendoncker and Adama

Traore are options.

He said: ‘This is what we

believe, the players know

it’s a small squad and every-

one has to prepare for their

chance and their moment.

‘All the players have been

involved in all the games so

far but the season is only

just starting and we have a

lot of things to improve on.’

Nuno keeps Wolves hungry

By DAVID KENT

EXCLUSIVE

by SAMI

MOKBEL

Football News

Correspondent

BELGIUM

v ENGLAND

Kick-off: 6.30pm at the

Den Dreef Stadium, Leuven.

TV: LIVE on BBC Two, 6.15pm.

WOLVES

v TORINO

Kick-off: 7.45pm at Molineux.

Ref: Jesus Gil Manzano (Sp).

TV: LIVE on Premier Sports 2.

LIVERPOOL legend Jamie

Carragher criticised Bobby

Duncan’s agent Saif Rubie on

Twitter yesterday, calling on

Duncan to leave the agent

(above) as part of a series of

messages.

‘You have made a big

mistake & are hurting

yourself but more

importantly a young lad’s

career,’ added Carragher.

CARRA WEIGHS IN

LIVERPOOLlegendJamie

@CARRA23

Jamie Carragher

I think @bobbyduncan999

should leave this guy

before he gets sacked by

the club