England’s top teams will pay particular attention to a certain Spaniard in Bavaria this festive season with Bayern Munich coach Pep Guardiola due to announce his future plans before Christmas. Guardiola, 44, is halfway through the third and final year of his current contract and says he will announce his decision to stay or go before December 25. Chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge is ready to make Guardiola a generous offer to extend his stay by laying out “many positive reasons to stay at Bayern”. Club captain Philipp Lahm has told the coach the squad want him to stay. “The team’s position…
Author: David F.
Manchester City’s Elite Development Squad (EDS) coach, Simon Davies has moved to explain the reason behind the inclusion of Kelechi Iheanacho in the Under-21 side that defeated Southampton 3-1 at the Academy Stadium on Monday night. Iheanacho was impressive, a force of nature, as his involvement in all three of City’s three goals condemned the Saints to a heavy defeat. Davies says the inclusion of Iheanacho in the side he last played for in May (eight months ago) should not be seen as a surprise move. “I think it is important that they’re in the first-team squad. “They’re training really…
Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez says he left Manchester United because Louis van Gaal told him he only had a “one percent” chance of getting into the team. Mexico international Hernandez joined Bayer Leverkusen on the penultimate day of the summer transfer window and has scored 15 goals in his last 12 games for the Bundesliga club, while United have found goals hard to come by. Van Gaal only granted Hernandez three substitute appearances at the start of the current campaign, preferring to use captain Wayne Rooney as his main striker and then signing Anthony Martial for a fee that could rise…
Bayern are expected to announce Guardiola’s decision on his future within the next week, with the Catalan having yet to commit himself to the club despite his contract due to expire next summer. “My reading is that Pep will leave Bayern because Manchester City will loosen the purse strings even more,” Hitzfeld said. “There is no reason to wait until December to make a decision because no titles can be won right now.” Guardiola — who won a hatful of trophies during his time in charge of Barcelona, including three La Liga titles and two Champions League crowns — has…
Portugal great and former FIFA world player of the year Luis Figo said that in all likelihood a player from Barcelona will be the 2015 Ballon d’Or winner, although he didn’t rule out his compatriot Cristiano Ronaldo. Real Madrid forward Ronaldo has won the award for the past two years, with Barcelona star Lionel Messi winning it for each of the four years previous to that. And with Ronaldo named in 2008 too, one of the pair has been voted the best player in the world on the last seven occasions. Messi’s Barcelona teammate, Neymar, completes the three-man shortlist for…
Jose Mourinho admits he cannot guarantee he will still be Chelsea manager when Sunderland visit Stamford Bridge on Saturday, but hopes that owner Roman Abramovich will give him more time to turn the club’s nightmare season around. Leicester City handed the Premier League champions their ninth defeat in 16 league matches on Monday, with goals from Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez securing a 2-1 win that moves Claudio Ranieri’s men back to the top of the table and leaves Chelsea just a point above the relegation zone. After the match, Mourinho accused his players of betraying his work by not…
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho watched his team suffer a 2-1 loss at table-topping Leicester City on Monday and then said he felt ashamed at their lowly Premier League position and betrayed by his players. The champions have now lost nine of their 16 league games and stand one point above the relegation zone in 16th place after goals from Leicester’s Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez condemned the visitors to another painful defeat. Vardy volleyed home Mahrez’s precise right-wing cross after 34 minutes and Algeria forward Mahrez teased Cesar Azpilicueta on the right side of the area before curling a sublime…
Paris Saint-Germain coach Laurent Blanc refuses to see his side as favourites to beat Chelsea in their Champions League last 16 tie despite the contrasting form of the two teams. PSG beat Chelsea on away goals at the same stage of last season’s Champions League and their only defeats in their last 39 games have come against Barcelona and Real Madrid. They sit a huge 17 points clear at the top of Ligue 1, while Chelsea are a lowly 16th in the Premier League, only one point above the relegation zone after Monday’s defeat at Leicester City. “This time it…
Lecister City’s dynamic duo Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez are not for sale at any price, manager Claudio Ranieri insisted after the pair combined again to get their team back to the top of the Premier League. Genuine title challengers? Ranieri, with a wry smile, still takes such talk with a pinch of salt but after a 2-1 victory on Monday over floundering champions Chelsea the Italian will find it hard to keep a lid on the clamour for much longer. With Vardy and Mahrez in such outstanding form – at this rate who will be able to split them…
If Atletico Madrid’s 2013 King’s Cup triumph was a shock and their 2013-14 La Liga title a surprise, few would raise an eyebrow if Diego Simeone’s ruthlessly efficient side were to win another major trophy. Atletico have quietly been going about their business while Spain’s big two, Real Madrid and Barcelona, have dropped form in recent weeks. Simeone’s team are level on points with champions Barcelona at the top of La Liga after 15 matches. Real are five points adrift in third. Atletico, characterised by a mean defence, talented midfielders such as Koke and Yannick Carrasco and skilful forwards like…
Barcelona star Lionel Messi has avoided another embarrassing court case for tax fraud after he and his foundation were cleared of allegations relating to charitable friendlies played in 2012 and 2013 on Monday. Messi is already facing a separate tax fraud charge along with his father for allegedly failing to declare €4.16 million in taxes related to his image rights between 2007 and 2009. The four-time World Player of the Year was being investigated to see if Messi had failed to declare to the tax man any revenue made from taking part in a series of friendlies in Mexico, Colombia,…
Olivier Giroud is proving the critics wrong and lifting Arsenal, who face holders Barcelona in the last 16 of the Champions League, towards what may be their best season of modern times, according to club manager Arsene Wenger. The French international joined a magnificent seven of Gunners’ strikers by scoring his 50th Premier League goal in their 2-0 win at Aston Villa on Sunday. His composed strike from a penalty helped to steer them to victory and the top of the league after a week in which they also secured their Champions League passage in dramatic fashion, with Giroud scoring…
Bayern Munich midfielder Arturo Vidal is expecting the Champions League last 16 clash against his former club Juventus, but says he would have prefered to meet them in the final. Bayern play Juventus in Turin in the first leg on February 23, then host last season’s finalists at Munich’s Allianz Arena on March 16 for a place in the quarterfinals. It will be Vidal’s first return to Turin since signing for Bayern in July and the Chile international is wary of resurgent Juve, who have climbed to fourth in Serie A on the back of six straight victories. “They are…
To fully appreciate the awesomeness of Leicester City’s astonishing rise to the top of the Premier League, take the clock back 12 months. A year ago, Leicester were at the foot of the table, five points from safety with 10 points from 16 matches and looking dead certs for an immediate return to the Championship. Now they are top, with 35 points from 16 games, and making a mockery of pre-season odds of 2 000-1 by mounting the most unlikely title challenge in the recent history of the English game. “It’s a magical time,” said manager Claudio Ranieri after Monday’s…
Spanish striker Diego Costa is glad at Chelsea and will see out the remaining three years on his contract, manager Jose Mourinho has said. Costa, who scored 20 times for the Premier League Champions last term, has struggled for goals this campaign, scoring four in 19 games in all competitions for the club. He recently apologised for throwing a training bib in the direction of his manager after being left on the bench as an unused substitute against Tottenham Hotspur on November 29. Speaking to a Spanish radio station last week, Costa left the door open on a possible return…
Frank Lampard believes his now poor former club Chelsea need an urgent shake-up to rescue their season, but does not think that should mean manager Jose Mourinho is sacked. Lampard, the club’s record goalscorer who captained Chelsea to their Champions League triumph in 2012, said he did not know if the fustrated Portuguese coach Mourinho had lost the dressing room, but said the champions’ players were under-performing. Speaking after watching Chelsea in Monday’s 2-1 defeat at Leicester City, who now top the Premier League, Lampard said their current plight was, for him, “impossible.” “They are good players, but far too…
Nigeria’s Dream Team VI assistant coach, Fatai Amoo has said it is not impossible for the side to recapture the 96’ Atlanta performance at the upcoming 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Nigerians were crowned winners and earned an instant ticket to the Olympics together with runners-up, Algeria and South Africa at the just concluded 2015 Africa U-23 Cup of Nations in Senegal. However, Amoo said for the present squad to inch closer to the golden performance of 96’Atlanta the Dream Team VI must be overhauled 100% in its entirety. “Impossible is nothing, it’s quite possible the present…
Spain midfielder Cesc Fabregas has criticised the attitude and behaviour of he and his team mates after the champions Chelsea’s terrible slide down the Premier League table. The Londoners plunged to their ninth league defeat of the season on Monday, losing 2-1 at leaders Leicester City to slip to fifth from bottom. “We will all have to take our responsibility. If you are a big player, and paid like a big player, you must play like a big player and behave like a big player,” Fabregas told a Facebook question and answer session on Tuesday. “I am not saying you…
Valencia coach Gary Neville is using modern technology to get his tactics across to the players and his assistant Miguel Angel Angulo says he is managing with the language barrier better than he expected. Neville was known for his dexterity with touch screen analysis as a television pundit and he is now using computers at Valencia to compensate for his knowledge of little Spanish. “He has given an iPad to each player to help them follow training and different actions during games,” Angulo told a news conference. “He is doing better than I expected. I thought the language barrier would…
Jose Mourinho has accepted Chelsea have no chance of finishing in the Premier League’s top four after Monday’s 2-1 defeat at Leicester left them languishing just outside the relegation zone. Mourinho’s side are 14 points behind fourth placed Manchester United with 22 matches remaining and even the Blues boss has given up on the crisis-torn champions’ hopes of making up that gap. Goals from Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez condemned Chelsea to their ninth defeat in 16 league games and they are now just one point above the bottom three. “The top four is gone, clearly,” Mourinho told Sky Sports.…