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Grealish finds the £100 million price tag debate ‘annoying,’ as the Manchester City star insists he’s never scored a goal.

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Jack Grealish admits that constant debate regarding his £100 million ($113m) price tag has become “annoying” as too much is expected of him.

  • Most expensive player in British football
  • Every move dissected in minute detail
  • Admits that he can offer more to Blues

WHAT HAPPENED? The England international forward became the most expensive player in British football when moving to the Etihad Stadium from Aston Villa in the summer of 2021. His debut campaign with the Blues did deliver a Premier League title, but only six goals and four assists as questions were asked of his value to the collective cause – with critics still taking aim at him in 2022-23 amid fierce competition for places in Pep Guardiola’s squad.

WHAT THEY SAID: Grealish has told BT Sport of operating under the brightest of spotlights: “Do you know what? I’m not really bothered about the price-tag, at the end of the day, that was my release clause, that’s what Villa thought I was worth. Man City paid that for me, I’ve noticed in the past six months, especially, it’s constantly [a talking point], if I was worth £20m, I think I could play games, not have a good game and people wouldn’t say a thing. But because it’s £100m, everyone talks about it, that side of it it’s a bit annoying.”

THE BIGGER PICTURE: Grealish went on to point out that he has never been a prolific goal scorer, saying of those lumping unreasonable expectations on his shoulders: “I think in the future, it’s something to look back on, being the first British £100m player but I need to start upping my game, performing and scoring goals, getting assists. But it’s weird, people talk about me scoring goals, there’s no better feeling in football but what’s crazy is, I’ve never actually been – you know you have them types of wingers that constantly score – I’ve never actually been a type of winger that scores.”

IN THREE PHOTOS:

Erling Haaland Jack Grealish Manchester City 2022-23Getty Images

 

Jack Grealish Manchester City Wolves 2022-23Getty Images

 

Jack Grealish Manchester CityGetty

WHAT NEXT FOR GREALISH? The 27-year-old playmaker has only found the target on one occasion this season, but he has been seeing more game time of late and will hope to figure prominently again when City take in a home date with Southampton on Saturday.

 

Partey: Arteta suggests Ghana’s star play in the Europa League despite Liverpool’s game this weekend.

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Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has hinted Thomas Partey will not be rested against Bodo/Glimt ahead of the Liverpool fixture this weekend.

  • Arsenal play Bodo/Glimt on Thursday
  • Arteta hints Partey might play
  • Partey needs regular football, according to Arteta

WHAT HAPPENED: The Ghana international recovered on time to play last weekend’s North London Derby against Tottenham Hotspur. He opened the scoring at the Emirates as the Gunners claimed a convincing 3-1 win over their bitter rivals.

With his injury record not favourable, some supporters may have liked to see the 29-year-old rested on Thursday night in the Europa League assignment against Bodo/Glimt ahead of Liverpool’s visit on Sunday in Premier League duty.

Thomas Partey Arsenal 2022.Getty Images.

However, Arteta has hinted it might not be the case as he wants the bulky Black Star to have regular game time.

WHAT WAS SAID: “[Partey] hasn’t had the consistency over the past few months, obviously with the injuries he’s been through,” Arteta said as quoted by the Arsenal website. “He’s been in and out and he did it – a big performance like that [against Tottenham].

Arteta - Arsenal 2022-23Getty Images

“He contributed to the team in an exceptional way and we are really happy with his performance. He’s looking fine. He needs to play regularly and find consistency at that level.”

THE BIGGER PICTURE: The Gunners are enjoying a solid start in the ongoing 2022/23 campaign and have won seven of their eight games. Sunday’s visit of Liverpool will be a massive test for Arteta and his charges and the Spanish tactician hopes Partey – and his best players, are fully fit to push for maximum points at home.

Arsenal midfielder and Ghana Thomas Partey.Getty.

DID YOU KNOW: Partey has played five Premier League matches this term and his strike against Spurs was his first this season.

WHAT NEXT FOR PARTEY: The former Atletico Madrid midfielder might get minutes on Thursday night in preparation for the top-tier assignment against the Reds.

 

Koulibaly explains Chelsea’s struggles following a £34 million transfer and defends himself to silence critics

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Kalidou Koulibaly has sought to explain why he has struggled to make the desired impact at Chelsea on the back of a £34 million ($38m) transfer.

  • Captain of Senegal national team
  • Made big-money move from Napoli
  • Yet to produce his best in England

WHAT HAPPENED? The Senegal international defender completed a move to Stamford Bridge from Serie A giants Napoli during the summer window and was expected to add more defensive steel to the Blues’ ranks in west London. The 31-year-old has, however, collected as many Premier League red cards – having been dismissed in a 3-0 defeat at Leeds – as he has clean sheets and is still searching for the kind of form that made him one of the most sought-after centre-halves in world football.

WHAT THEY SAID: Assessing his start to life in English football, Koulibaly has told Sky Sport Italia: “I am a player who needs to play regularly, everyone knows that. It is also true that I needed a period of adaptation, I am doing it well, I’m not perfect yet or what I want to be, but I’m getting there.”

THE BIGGER PICTURE: Koulibaly did help to secure a shut-out in his last appearance, a 3-0 Champions League win over AC Milan, but former Rossoneri and England boss Fabio Capello has said of his performances this season: “At Chelsea he has no personality. When he has the ball at his feet he hesitates. He is not playing quickly, he does not do what he did at Napoli. At Napoli he commanded, he came forward, he made long passes, now he has the ball between his feet, he does not know who to pass it to and he always plays passes to someone only a few metres away. I thought he had a great personality, and for Chelsea he would be really important and explode straight away. And yet, at this moment, this is not him.”

IN THREE PHOTOS:

Kalidou Koulibaly Chelsea Leeds 2022-23Getty Images

 

Kalidou Koulibaly Chelsea 2022-23Getty

 

K Koulibaly Chelsea 2022-23Getty Images

WHAT NEXT FOR KOULIBALY? Chelsea will be back in Premier League action on Saturday when playing host to Wolves.

 

QoreID is now available in Ghana.

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QoreID, a company dedicated to digital identity and consumer analytics solutions for medium and large businesses, has launched in Ghana.

QoreID provides a secure API infrastructure that connects companies to trusted identities and critical customer data.

Real-time identity verifications, business verification, financial profiling, fraud prevention, automated last-mile for fintech, digital addressing, and AI-powered authentication are just a few of the solutions available.

Other services are: Alternative Credit Analytics, Income and Statement Verification, Marketplace Data, Real-time Vehicle verification, Asset verification, and Identity Authentication services such as Liveness check, Face matching, and Identity document verification.

Speaking on the launch, Esigie Aguele, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of VerifyMe, stated that QoreID is positioned to transform businesses across Africa and drive growth within key markets by making customer acquisition faster, more affordable, and more efficient. It will be supported by local and global best practices for security and compliance, making transactions less vulnerable to fraud, errors, and other risks.

According to Aguele: “QoreID is simply data infrastructure you can trust to build your business or products on. Many medium to large-scale companies spend valuable time and resources verifying customer information for KYC or approving them for credit or other services. This slows down their business development efforts and may result in several lost opportunities. It also increases the risk of insider abuses.

“With QoreID, businesses seeking to drive growth within key markets and enhance their overall customer experience can simply use our secure API hub or Software Development Kits (SDKs) to meet their business or regulatory requirements.”

Nana Amoako-Anin, a member on the board, said: “QoreID’s entry into the Ghana market is about offering a consistent portfolio of services that will work to empower the financial sector and contribute to the tech ecosystem. I look forward seeing QoreID’s many dimensions take flight.”

Driven by a mission to grow Africa’s trust economy, QoreID is focused on supporting growth within the continent’s emerging digital and consumer credit economies, including open banking, FinTech, digital and e-Commerce companies, banks, insurance, and other legacy financial services.

 

Global warnings about cough syrup following child deaths

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The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a global alert regarding four cough syrups after warning that they could be linked to the deaths of 66 children in The Gambia.

The syrups have been “potentially linked to acute kidney injuries and 66 deaths among children,” according to the report.

The products were made by an Indian company, Maiden Pharmaceuticals, which failed to provide guarantees about their safety, according to the WHO.

The company has yet to respond.

Maiden Pharmaceuticals has been contacted by the BBC for comment.

The medicines were identified as Promethazine Oral Solution, Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, Makoff Baby Cough Syrup, and Magrip N Cold Syrup by the WHO.

The four products had been identified in The Gambia, but “may have been distributed, through informal markets, to other countries or regions”, the WHO added, in the alert published on its website.

It warned that their use may result in serious injury or death, especially among children.

The WHO’s intervention came after medical authorities in The Gambia – a popular tourist destination – detected an increase in cases of acute kidney injury among children under the age of five in late July.

The Gambia’s government has since suspended the use of all paracetamol syrups and has urged people to use tablets instead.

The WHO said that laboratory analysis of samples of the products “confirms that they contain unacceptable amounts of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol as contaminants”.

The substances were toxic, and their effects “can include abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, inability to pass urine, headache, altered mental state and acute kidney injury which may lead to death,” it added.

The Gambia’s health officials said last month that dozens of children had died, without giving an exact number.

Speaking in Geneva on Wednesday, WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus said: “The loss of these young lives is beyond heart-breaking for their families.”

The WHO said that India’s Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation indicated that the manufacturer may have only supplied the contaminated medications to The Gambia, AFP news agency reports, quoting an email from the UN health agency.

But the WHO said that “global exposure” was possible as the “manufacturer may have used the same contaminated material in other products and distributed them locally or exported” them, the agency reports.

Source: BBC

 

Burkina Faso’s coup leader takes office.

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Following last week’s seizure of power by military officers, Burkina Faso’s coup leader Ibrahim Traoré has assumed the presidency.

Mr Traoré, an army captain, was also named Supreme Head of the Armed Forces, according to a statement read on national television.

The power grab, the second this year, was prompted by apparent dissatisfaction with the previous military government’s failures to contain a spreading Islamist insurgency.

On Tuesday, a West African regional body, Ecowas, sent a delegation to Burkina Faso, hoping to persuade the new leader to stick to earlier proposals to hold elections by mid-2024.

 

 

Increasing the price of cocoa by 21% is an insult, according to COCOBOD.

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A cocoa farmer has described as “insulting and disrespectful” the new price for a sack of cocoa beans as announced on Wednesday, October 5.

According to Mark Ewusi Arkoh, who is also the National Youth Organiser of the People’s National Convention (PNC), per the current economic conditions and high cost of living, a minimum of GH¢925 should have been settled for the price.

The Ministry of Agriculture on Wednesday, October 5 announced a 21 percent increase in cocoa price per sack and this translates to GH¢800.

“We are not happy about this increase and we expect COCOBOD to as a matter of urgency review the price upward,” Mr Arkoh said in a statement on Thursday, October 6.

“This increase is insignificant in comparison to the hard work of Ghanaian cocoa farmers this season.”

It warned that if COCOBOD did not review the price, farmers would be forced to sell their farms to illegal miners.

“Farmers are having difficulty managing the proceeds from this price.” If cocoa farmers are dissatisfied, productivity in this sector suffers.

“Every day, many farmers are dissatisfied. That being said, the government should intervene quickly to review this price increase in order to save not only our third-best export commodity, but also our water bodies.”

 

You can’t smear ‘clean and decorous.’ Bawumia – Opare Ansah

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Former Suhum Constituency Member of Parliament Frederick Opare Ansah has called an attempt by some faceless people to misrepresent Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s engagements during his working tour of some parts of the north this week “desperate propaganda.”

During his tour, which lasted from Sunday, October 2 to Wednesday, October 5, the Vice President paid courtesy calls to traditional rulers and inspected a number of ongoing government projects, including Agenda 111 District hospitals.

The Vice President also met with party faithfuls, whom he thanked for their ongoing support to government, urging them to be proud of the NPP government’s achievements in various sectors, which he listed to them.

However, some people, whom Hon Opare Ansah describes as internal party saboteurs, are spreading false information about the Vice President’s tour through social media propaganda.

It is these claims Hon Opare Ansah, who was a member the Vice President’s delegation for the tour, has completely rubbished as “desperate propaganda” by people he adds, desire to lead the party in 2024 and see the Vice President as a threat.

Speaking to Omanhene Kwabena Asante on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme from the north on Wednesday after, Mr Opare Ansah said even those behind the propaganda know very well how decent and decorous a politician Dr. Bawumia is.

“Everybody knows Dr. Bawumia is a decent and a decorous politician who speaks to issues and doesn’t insult,” said Opare Hammond.

“From 2007 when he emerged on the national scale, 2012, 2016 and 2020, Dr. Bawumia has been meeting people, and he has also been campaigning with the President. Have you ever heard he has said something indecent before?”

“I sat in all the meetings throughout the tour and nothing like that happened. All what these desperate people are putting through propaganda, artworks and articles on social media are coming from our own NPP brothers, who support some other people who intend to lead the party.”

Opare Ansah described the Vice President’s tour of the north as very successful, as it gave him the opportunity to “inspect on-going projects, re-assure Chiefs and people of the north of government’s commitment to completing these projects, as well as provided opportunities for our party to interact with the Vice President on government’s development efforts, as he also thanked the party for their support to him over the years to partner President Akufo-Addo both as a running mate and as Vice President”.

The former Suhum MP had some words of advice to internal NPP members who specialise in deliberately smearing their opponents with dirt to desist from that, as it is detrimental to the overall interest of the NPP party.

“Let us stop such dirty politics because it is not healthy,” he said.

“We will finish the internal contest and face the NDC. In the past, some of these people said many things against Nana Akufo-Addo in 2007 and after our internal contest, the NDC used these lies against our candidate.

“My advice to my NPP brothers is that we should have a healthy contest devoid of insults, lies and fabrications so that when you meet your brother in the future you can comfortably look him in the face and say this is my brother.

“There is no iota of truth in their desperate propaganda. You can’t deliberately throw dirt on your brother and turn around and accuse him of being dirty.”

Dr. Bawumia’s delegation to the North included: Minister of Interior Hon. Ambrose Dery, Sports Minister Hon. Mustapha Ussif, a number of Deputy Ministers, CEOs of State Agencies including immediate past National Organiser of NPP Sammy Awuku, Presidential Advisor on Health Dr. Nsia Asare, a number MPs from various regions, party executives and stalwarts of the NPP, including Chairman Odeneho COKA.

 

Accra: A fire destroys a building in Makola; no casualties have been reported.

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Fire has destroyed a building at Makola near the White Chapel in Accra

The incident occurred on Wednesday October 5.

Six (6) fire engines including a TL and Water Tanker were sent to the scene to contain the fire situation, the Ghana National Fire Service said.

Accessibility to the affected shops was a challenge due to hardcore burglar proofing, teh service indicated.

Fire has been checked from further spread and now confined to the affected shops.

Electricity power supply in the area were isolated to enhance rigorous firefighting and prevent possible risk of electrocution of Firefighters.

Items on fire include highly combustible cosmetic products. No casualty recorded ye

 

EOCO will go after businesses that operate without a permit.

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According to the Executive Director, COP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, many businesses are operating without Business Operating Permits in the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) area.

She stated that EOCO will work with the AMA to resolve this situation.

Madam Tiwaa Addo Danquah made these remarks while leading a delegation to the Mayor of Accra, Elizabeth Sackey.

The purpose of the visit was to inform the Assembly of its mission and how it could assist it in fulfilling its mandate to develop Accra.

She revealed that her organization decided to establish an Accra region to focus on the activities of various Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies and assist them in increasing revenue.

“There are a lot of things we bring to the table when it comes to the activities you do, there are a lot of fees and rates people don’t want to pay and we are here as a state organization to help you collect them, also our presence here is to let you know what we bring to the table and how we can support you to achieve your mandate to develop the Accra we want,” she said.

”We were in the Upper East and the MCE told us that those who were supposed to pay their rates and fees to the Assembly had done so by an invitation from EOCO… Together they have improved on their revenue collection and we want to extend that same collaboration to the AMA… There are a lot of businesses operating within your area of jurisdiction who have no Business Operating Permit from the Assembly and these are things that we will work on together,” she added.

The AMA boss who received the entourage to her office expressed concerns over the inability to generate enough revenue due to leakages adding that the Assembly was in the process of digitalising its revenue collection system to check revenue leakages and increase its Internally Generated Funds (IGF).

She said the Assembly was ready to work with EOCO to help address issues such as the issuance of fake tickets among other financial malpractices to increase revenue.

“We are ready to work together,  we need your support in many areas and we are happy to have you, Our revenue is not flowing the way it should,” she said.

She assured the EOCO team of her offices’ resolve to work together to increase the Assembly’s revenue base.

 

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