Gennaro Gattuso has said it is “easy” to coach AC Milan after they extended their unbeaten run to seven games with a win over Sampdoria on Sunday. “The only merit I have is that I’ve brought something new, with new concepts,” he said. “We just needed to play more as a team, and now you can see we’re doing that. It’s easy to coach these lads and we’re going to enjoy the moment, but we’ve not done anything yet. “What pleases me most is that this is a young squad and these lads have got a lot to look forward…
Author: David Folami
Michael Carrick admits the knockout stage of the Champions League is the minimum standard for the club. “It’s what we should expect of ourselves — to be at this stage of the Champions League,” he told MUTV. “That’s not being biase, it’s just that should be our standard. We should be in this competition and fighting in the later stages most years. “This is where we belong and, however this year pans out, this has to be the standard year in, year out. A few years ago, it was relentless. Every season we had some massive games and we tended…
Zinedine Zidane praised his team’s “character” after they came from behind to win a “crazy game” in Sunday evening’s 5-3 La Liga victory at Real Betis. Zidane told the postgame news conference that his team had worked together to make sure they turned the game around for what was just their second win in their last six Liga away trips. “This shows that we have character,” Zidane said. “With the quality we have, and when we are all together like that, it is difficult for any opponent. That is what happened in the second half. “This is football, it was…
Eden Hazard has said he is happy at Chelsea but he would be willing to move on if he ever had to. “I still have two-and-a-half years on my Chelsea contract. I’m very good here,” he said. “People have been talking about Real. When it’s not Real, it’s Paris. If ever I have to change, I’ll change.” Hazard, who has scored 11 goals in 23 league appearances this season, said he believed new signing Olivier Giroud, who joined from Arsenal last month, would soon get used to Chelsea’s style. “Little by little he’s going to settle into the squad, understand…
Pep Guardiola’s quest to win an unprecedented quadruple with Manchester City came to a stunning and controversial end when they fell to a 1-0 defeat at third-tier Wigan in the fifth round of the FA Cup on Monday. In an uncanny repeat of the 2013 FA Cup final, in which City had a player sent off before losing to a late Wigan winner, Guardiola’s side had Fabian Delph dismissed amid stormy scenes before Will Grigg’s 79th-minute goal decided the game. A famous night was marred, however, by a post-match pitch invasion by Wigan supporters which saw a number of them…
Juan Mata remains a supporter of the video assistant referee system despite it costing him a goal at the weekend. “A lot has been said about the goal that I scored and was disallowed by the VAR. It was my first time, a new experience for me (and for almost all of us, actually),” he wrote in his blog. “The truth is, once you have celebrated the goal you are surprised and disappointed (as you could see on my face), but this time, luckily, that goal was not needed to win. “As I said in a few interviews after the…
Pedro is looking forward to the challenge of facing former teammate Lionel Messi in the Champions League on Tuesday, but has cautioned that, while Messi might be the world’s best player, he is not invincible. “It’s difficult… he [Messi] is the best player in the world,” Pedro told the Independent. “But he’s not invincible. It’s probably a hard game for us, a massive game, but if the team are really focused on fighting together, you never know in football. “We’ll have possibilities to get through. But, obviously, it’s Barcelona. It’s Leo Messi. It’s very difficult to stop this guy because…
Jupp Heynckes will not waste time in making sweeping changes in the Champions League round-of-16 against Besiktas, but insisted “there is no A or B team, there is only FC Bayern.” Asked about the prospect of heavy rotation for the visit of the Turkish champions, Heynckes said: “It’s not easy to moderate as we have 21 top players. “I wouldn’t have found it funny either as a player if I wasn’t in the starting XI, but there is no A or B team — there is only FC Bayern. “However, there are far more benefits, everyone feels important and gets…
Eden Hazard has said he’s flattered to earn comparisons to Lionel Messi but insisted he’s a “completely different” player ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League clash with Barcelona at Stamford Bridge. “It’s good to be compared with the greatest ever, Messi or [Cristiano] Ronaldo,” he said. “But I’m completely different. We play in a different league. “I try to do my job and try to reach their level, because they are the best in the world. Every season I try and do my best. “When we play this kind of games, we need to perform. If you want to be one…
Ivan Rakitic has said the thought of Andres Iniesta leaving Barcelona scares him as the Catalan club’s captain returns to the scene of his most famous goal on Tuesday. Iniesta has always maintained that he won’t outstay his welcome and that he would walk away if he felt he was no longer contributing to the team, but he remains an important part of Ernesto Valverde’s side. “Am I scared of Iniesta going? Very,” Rakitic said in a news conference on the eve of Barca’s Champions League round of 16 first-leg clash with Chelsea. “I don’t want him to leave because…
Orji Kalu has declared that the victory of an Igbo candidate in the 2023 presidential election will mark a definite end to Nigeria’s civil war that ended 50 years ago. He said, “It is the right thing to do, Nigeria is built on a tripod. When you allow the South East to have the Presidency by 2023, that will be the end of the civil war. “The South East has had the Chief of Army Staff, the Inspector General of Police. So it is only natural for the South East to have the Presidency. “No man has the capacity to…
Abdullahi Adamu has alleged that ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo bribed lawmakers with N50million each to back his third term agenda. Adamu said: “He (Obasanjo) knows, as well as I and other leading members of the PDP, that he badly wanted it and initiated the process of constitutional amendment. He bribed each member of the national assembly who signed to support the amendment, with the whopping sum of N50million. “The fresh mint money was taken in its original boxes presumably from the vaults of the Central Bank of Nigeria and distributed among the legislators. “The money was not his, and it was…
The Niger State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state of “recycling defectors to deceive members of the public”. “The APC keeps presenting the same set of people at its rallies; last Saturday, they presented the same people they presented in 2015 and claimed that they were fresh defectors. I find that attitude amusing,” he said. But Beji, while reacting to the claims, told newsmen on Monday in Minna that a vast majority of those presented were not new to the APC. “Among those presented were Alhaji Muazu Bawa, a…
A faction of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kaduna state has suspended Governor Nasir El-Rufai for six months. The Governor was suspended for refusing to answer the query issued to him last week. The faction, while unveiling its secretariat, asked El-Rufai to respond to the query within 48 hours. Speaking to newsmen, the factional chairman, Alhaji Danladi Wada said “This briefing is sequel to 48 hours ultimatum/query and warning issued to the state governor to explain and defend himself against the allegations leveled against him which he failed to respond. “The State Working Committee on Saturday 17, February 2018,…
Prof. Lai Olurode has said the issue of underage voting has been a problem faced by the commission during elections. He said, “If the people can be enlightened, underage voting will reduce. There are certain areas of this country where even if they know the person is a kid, they will insist that the child must vote. “I had to run for my life at one of the election centres in a part of the country because these people said children must vote or there would be no election at all. It is that bad. The APC government has a…
Wole Soyinka said he would need to be checked by a psychiatrist if he joins forces with the Coalition for Nigeria which was founded by former president, Olusegun Obasanjo. “Me? Obasanjo would establish a group and I will become a member of such group? That means they should get a psychiatrist to examine me,” he said. He said, “When these soldiers begin to speak, we are supposed to get suspicious and ask what exactly do they have in mind? It is possible that what they have in mind is different from what we have in mind. “You can look at…
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) on Monday called on the Federal Government to adopt a dual price regime for marketers. Alhaji Debo Ahmed, the Chairman of IPMAN Western Zone, who made the call in Lagos, said that the regime required that NNPC retail outlets sell at N145, while other marketers sell at their own price. “During a recent Senate committee meeting held with stakeholders in the oil industry, one of the suggestions from the Minster of State for Petroleum, Dr Ibe Kwachikwu, was the introduction of dual price regime. “If this regime can be adopted, it may…
Muhammadu Buhari has said all unclaimed looted assets including landed properties recovered by the Federal Government would be sold and the proceeds deposited into government treasury. He stated that he was not surprised by the increasing number of those denying ownership or disclaiming the properties traced to them by the various anti-corruption agencies. “Some years back one of my schoolmates in the primary school who worked at a cottage company before his demise predicted that we will come to a situation when looters will deny their loots in Nigeria. “So as a civil servant, you have 10 houses in Abuja…
Samuel Ortom has alleged that the leadership of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) in the state is plotting to take his life. He said, “There are threats on my life and I have reported that to the security agencies that one Gaurus Gololo and his team who are members of MACBAN was planning to attack me. “But I always said life belongs to God, it is God that gives and takes away life so my life is not in the hands of any Fulani man who is not happy with the promulgation of the anti-open grazing…
It was Osita Iheme’s birthday yesterday, February 20, and his ‘twinnie,’ Aki, has sent him a birthday shoutout on social media. Chinedu Ikedieze took to Instagram to write a touching birthday note to his friend and partner in crime, both on and off screen. He said “Happy birthday to my #emo#4oCY##twinnie #emo#4oCY## #osita May God bless ur new age brotherly #emo#8J+Nvg==###emo#8J+Nvg==###emo#8J+Nvg==###emo#8J+lgg==##” This sweet shoutout comes months after the duo were rumoured to be embroiled in a beef. Although Paw Paw has addressed the rumoured beef, saying that there is no hostility between himself and Aki, this shoutout will go a…