Football

Arsenal battles Mourinho over Leipzig defender

Published

7 years ago

on

December 30, 2019

By

Feyijimi Emmanuel

Arsenal and Tottenham are set for a bidding war over RB Leipzig defender, Dayot Upamecano.

New Gunners boss, Mikel Arteta, is looking to sign a centre-back and the club are willing to meet the £50million price tag for Upamecano.

“We need players back from injuries, first of all, to be more solid, more compact.

“And then we might need to do one or two things if the right players become available, to help us.

“But at the moment I am more concerned with getting the maximum out of the players available to us,” Arteta said last week.

However, the Spaniard would have to go up against Tottenham Hotspur for the French defender, as Jose Mourinho is also a big fan.

Mourinho who took over Mauricio Pochettino this month, is not happy with his options at the back and will be in the market when the transfer window opens.

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Greenlight: Barca sail smoothly to claim their dream target

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Vote-buying remains a major concern One of the strongest warnings from Osun was the continued presence of vote-buying and voter inducement. Yiaga Africa said the results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were consistent with its independent statistical projections, but cautioned that this did not remove concerns about the integrity of voters' choices amid reports of vote-buying and inducement. The concern is particularly significant ahead of 2027, when political competition will take place nationwide and involve presidential, National Assembly and state-level contests. The International Republican Institute (IRI), following a pre-election assessment mission conducted in August, identified monetised political competition, election-related violence, insecurity and declining public confidence in INEC among the structural challenges facing the 2027 elections. IRI recommended stronger investigation and prosecution of vote-buying and voter inducement, urging INEC, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and security agencies to act on credible allegations. Technology improves transparency — but has limits The Osun election also demonstrated how electoral technology can improve transparency. INEC's electronic transmission of polling-unit results through the IReV platform provided observers and members of the public with a mechanism to monitor uploaded results. Yiaga Africa subsequently said the official results were consistent with its independent statistical estimates, describing the outcome as evidence that the announced results reflected the ballots counted at polling units. However, technical problems with BVAS were reported during voting. CDD said difficulties involving biometric verification and slow processing occurred in several LGAs, including Irepodun, Ejigbo, Obokun, Osogbo, Olorunda, Ola Oluwa, Ede North and Ede South. 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The institute urged security agencies to identify high-risk areas early and develop location-specific plans to prevent intimidation, disruption and attacks on electoral participants. Osun offers lessons ahead of 2027 Despite the challenges, observers say the Osun election also provides evidence that improvements in election administration can produce positive results. Yiaga Africa's assessment found that INEC and security agencies largely passed the test of conducting the election, while its independent verification indicated that the official results accurately reflected the ballots counted at polling units. The challenge ahead is to build on those gains while addressing the weaknesses exposed during the election. For INEC, that means improving BVAS reliability, strengthening result-transmission and collation procedures and maintaining clear communication with voters and political parties. 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