Stoke City striker Bojan Krkic has moved to Mainz on loan until the end of the season.
The 26-year-old, who joined Stoke from Barcelona in 2014, leaves in search of regular first-team football after featuring in nine of Stoke’s 22 Premier League games this season.
“Today sees a very special chapter in my life come to a close as another really exciting one opens,” Bojan said on Twitter.
“For the time being, this isn’t a goodbye to Stoke City, it’s just a ‘see you soon’.”
Cup win surreal says Lincoln boss
Guiding Lincoln City to the fifth round of the FA Cup for the first time in 130 years was beyond the wildest dreams of manager Danny Cowley.
Cowley described beating Ipswich in the previous round as “climbing a mountain”. Now, it might take the 38-year-old a while to come back down to earth after the 3-1 win over Brighton.
Cowley said: “It’s surreal, and it’s been surreal for quite a period of time – probably post-Ipswich, to be honest. I can’t believe the scenes and the emotion and the support.”
The Imps are the Conference leaders and 72 places lower than Brighton in the football pyramid.
Wannabes’ dance
David Beckham has revealed young players were forced to perform “a funny dance” in front of senior professionals at Manchester United as a punishment for stepping out of line.
The former England captain was asked about the current child sex abuse scandal in football during his appearance on BBC’s Desert Island Discs.
“There was never anything at United and it is disgraceful what has gone on,” he said.
“The closest part would have been certain professionals that if we had gone out of line they would have made us do a funny dance in the middle of the changing room, in front of our heroes at the time.”
Beckham said it was humiliating, adding: “That was all it was, but enough to teach us a lesson.”
Araujo leaves after drink drive offences
Argentine striker Sergio Araujo has left Las Palmas to join AEK Athens on loan until the end of the season after committing two drink driving offences in the last four months.
The former Barcelona B player scored 25 goals while on loan with Las Palmas to help fire them to promotion to La Liga in 2015.
He has struggled to repeat that success, however and was given a suspended nine-month prison sentence last November for refusing to take a breathalyser test after being suspected of drink driving.
Earlier this month, he was found to be over the legal limit while driving to training.
Coach Pioli reckons Inter can do more
Inter continued their stunning revival under coach Stefano Pioli as they beat basement club Pescara 3-0 to record their seventh successive Serie A victory on Saturday.
Pioli succeeded Frank De Boer as Inter coach on November 8 and he has had a remarkable impact at the fallen giants of Italian football, earning 25 points from 10 league outings.
However, Pioli thinks Inter can do even better.
“We’re doing some good things but I’m sure we can do better,” Pioli said.
“A lot of our players could give more. We’re working well but we’re not at our best yet. This is a very strong group, we have a lot of quality and we can’t impose limits on ourselves.
“We have a solid foundation to build something for the future.”
Maracana to light up again
The legendary Maracana stadium is expected to get its electricity switched back on after managers Odebrecht agreed to pay much of the outstanding bill.
The stadium was plunged into darkness last week after Light, the Rio electricity company, cut power due to unpaid bills.
Odebrecht, which holds a 95 per cent stake in the consortium that owns the rights to run the arena, owes $412,000 and has agreed to pay most of that debt.
Wenger heaps praise on Welbeck
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger praised Danny Welbeck after the striker scored his first goals since injuring his knee last May to help his side hammer Southampton 5-0 in the FA Cup on Saturday.
Welbeck struck twice and set up England team-mate Theo Walcott for the first of his three goals as Arsenal killed off the tie before half-time.
Wenger, who was forced to watch from the stands because of a four-match touchline ban, said: “Welbeck has been out for such a long time, I didn’t expect him to score straight away and it shows the desire is there.
“He has gone through tough moments but his resilience was absolutely marvellous and he was rewarded, so we are happy.”
Arsenal are in the last 16 of the FA Cup for the seventh consecutive year.