Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini has stated that Carlos Tevez and Edin Dzeko are part of his plans and will not leave the Etihad Stadium this summer.
The Premier League champions were expected to restrengthen in the transfer market during this window after their domestic success last term, but as yet have not bolstered their squad.
With City wary of Uefa’s Financial Fair Paly rulings, Mancini has been told by the club’s board that he will have to sell before he can buy.
Tevez cuts a controversial figure at the Etihad Stadium, firstly going AWOL and then returning to help the team win the division.
However AC Milan have been consistently linked with a move for the Argentine.
Dzeko meanwhile has slipped down to fourth-choice striker and is also being speculated with a move away from the club to find regular first-team football.
Despite this, the Italian trainer has revealed that he has no plans to sell either attacker this summer.
“Both will stay at City,” Mancini is quoted as saying in The Sun.
“We are a great team and we try to keep our great players. It won’t be easy but they will stay here.
“We still lack a couple of players to reach the level of Real Madrid and Barcelona.
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“Also our mentality has to grow season by season,” he concluded.
Wigan only survived by the skin of their teeth last season much in part to the goals of Charles N’Zogbia who left for Aston Villa this summer. Roberto Martinez will have to work miracles at the DW Stadium this season with David Jones the only new face. The loss of N’Zogbia is a hammer blow with all the pace, creativity and goals coming from the Frenchman last season. Hugo Rodallega is their only real attacking threat but the rest of the team is sadly lacking in Premier League quality. James McCarthy doesn’t fall into that bracket but he is only one player and the emphasis will be on him to perform more consistently next season. The lack of signings will come back to haunt Martinez who is facing up to a difficult season at the DW.
Norwich on the other hand have been buying players left, right and centre after their promotion back to the Premier League. Manager Paul Lambert has taken his side from League One to the top flight in only two years at the helm. He’s boosted his squad’s chances of surviving with some decent signings. Steve Morison, James Vaughan, Kyle Naughton and Bradley Johnson are just some of the more notable players brought in to aid the survival push. Captain Grant Holt will be the key man though if they are to stay up. He is the heartbeat of the Canaries and their main goal scoring threat over the last few seasons. Win, lose or draw the Canaries will be chirping at every game and enjoying the ride they never thought they’d see again.
I can’t see Wigan getting anything from this and Norwich will be riding the crest of a wave that has been going since Lambert reinvigorated the club. I can see a repeat of last season’s opening game when Blackpool came, saw and conquered.
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Verdict: 1-3
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Newcastle boss Alan Pardew is looking to make some major moves this January and has the likes of Robbie Keane, David Bentley and Wayne Bridge on his wish list.
The Magpies are thought to have made an enquiry about the possibility of taking Manchester City left-back Wayne Bridge on loan until the end of the season. Bridge has so far only made three Premier League appearances and has fallen behind the likes of Aleksander Kolarov and Joleon Lescott in City’s back-four pecking order.
Pardew is also said to be keen on a mini raid of Tottenham’s squad players and has Keane and Bentley in his sights. Newcastle are preparing a £4 million move for Keane, but could be priced out of a move for Bentley as Spurs are hoping to recoup a large proportion of the £15 million that they paid for him in 2008. Spurs manager Harry Redknapp has said that he would only consider permanent deals for his squad players in order to increase the funds in his transfrer kitty.
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Since his controversial move, Alan Pardew has led Newcastle two wins and two defeats but knows that he will need to find some consistency to keep his doubters quiet.
Home is where the heart is. This saying rings never truer than at Anfield where a period of transition for Liverpool is in full swing. With Brendan Rodgers now in control, the club who were in danger of steering off course have now revitalised its backroom staff and by the end of the summer a fresh looking organisation will be raring to get back on track. With the new owners seeking to improve the clubs stature in various departments, a plan to scrap ideas for the long awaited new Stadium at Stanley Park is in discussion, with the club opting to stay where the fans feel most at home, Anfield.
With varying plans on the table to expand the stadiums current capacity having been announced, it seems that the Kop will still be thriving for a while yet. However, with so many clubs of Liverpool’s stature plying their trade in far more capacious stadiums, and with plans afoot for the likes of Tottenham and West Ham to move to pastures new, is staying at Anfield financially the right move in terms of generating revenue? Can the stadium modernise itself aptly in order to compete with the homes of their Premier League rivals?
The proposed move to Stanley Park has been hanging over Liverpool for almost 10 years. With constant delays and alterations to the designs, no progress has been made. The futuristic looking plans of the new stadium that circulated certainly excited fans. However, with new owners come new rules and the FSG have stepped away from the uncertainty that is Stanley Park and have proposed to increase the clubs current home, just as they did with the Boston Red Sox. Although an increase in capacity will not reach the quoted 72,000 that was expected from the Stanley Park project, building extra tiers in the Main and Anfield Road stands will certainly provide an imposing arena for opposing teams to play in. The stands will also undoubtedly become modernised, providing the most updated of facilities for fans while still remaining true to the history of the stadium.
Ultimately, staying at Anfield will be the economically wise option for the club. With a new stadium costing around £400 million, the club can now spend a portion of this in renovating Anfield whilst freeing up the rest of the funds to be used in the transfer market. Lessons can be learned from Arsenal’s financially draining move to the Emirates and their inability to spend lavishly in the subsequent transfer windows. With the club set to have an increased spending budget as well as a stadium where the fans and players feel at home, the plans to stay at their current base may be the most successful idea for the Reds.
Anfield and Liverpool Football Club have become so entwined; it seems ridiculous that the team could play anywhere else. The ground is a symbol of the club; it is the beating heart of the entire organisation. To move anywhere else may remove the club from its origins and philosophies. With so much alteration occurring at the club, FSG may have made the most impeccably timed decision to halt any stadium move. If the changes that have been made by the owners do not pay off, criticism is bound to be endless. If at the same time, Henry and Co have removed the club from their spiritual home, the fans will have lost all connection with the history and traditions that Liverpool are so coveted for.
It is rare that you will find a football stadium in the world that has a more impressive atmosphere then Anfield, despite its relatively small capacity in relation to the clubs stature internationally. The stadium has the unintentional ability to drive the team to success. With fans close to the action, the world famous Kop which rises high above the Anfield pitch and noise levels that could break decibel records there is no immediate reason as to why Liverpool would want to move homes. In light of proposed expansion and freed up funds in the pipeline, it is hard to see where FSG have faltered in their future planning for a club, who for the considerable future will be playing at their first and only home, Anfield.
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John Terry says Luka Modric would be a valuable addition to the Chelsea squad if he were to move to Stamford Bridge.The 25-year-old Modric told Spurs of his desire to leave the English Premier League club and has handed in a transfer request after a public spat with chairman Daniel Levy.
Chelsea have already seen two bids for the Croatia midfielder turned down, but England captain Terry has made it clear that Modric would be welcomed with open arms should he complete the transfer.
“He’s a world-class player who is very difficult to play against,” Terry told Sky Sports News.
“He’s very agile, very quick and a great finisher like we’ve seen over many years.”
“We’ve got a good squad of players. If he comes he could certainly add to that.”
Terry also believes that Fernando Torres will be back to his best in the coming season after enduring a season blighted by injury and poor form.
“He backs himself,” Terry said. “He realises from the World Cup he had a slight injury and carried that towards the end of last season.”
“He feels fresh, he’s happy. He’s fully settled. I’m certainly looking for him to get double figures, goals-wise.”
“He was still good at times last year. He’s a world-class player and the price tag is a big weight to carry on your shoulders.”
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“He’s got all the ability in the world. He’s very quick and a great finisher.”
“We’re delighted to have him and if he can bring goals along with what we already have then fantastic.”
David Moyes will have been the more disappointed of the two managers as Everton notched up their 10th draw of the season.
The Merseyside club were on top for most of the game but failed to break down the host’s resolute defence. You do sense that the Toffees problem stems from a lack of quality in the final third; something David Moyes I am sure will be keen to resolve in the January window.
So how do Everton fans feel about tonight’s point, and what are the five things we have learnt from the Toffees tonight?
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The FA have hit out at The Sun for their headline following the appointment of Roy Hodgson as England manager.
The daily newspaper ran the heading “Bwing on the Euwos!” after the West Brom supremo was announced as the new Three Lions boss on Tuesday, making fun of the head coach’s slight speech impediment.
The governing body have released a statement branding the headline as unacceptable, but will not take the case any further in this instance.
“The FA and the Press Complaints Commission have today received a large number of objections relating to the front page headline in The Sun newspaper, regarding Roy Hodgson’s manner of speech,” a statement reads.
“On this occasion, we will not be making an official complaint to the PCC but we have raised it with the newspaper and made it clear that their front page is unacceptable to us.
“We are delighted at the media response to Roy’s appointment but are disappointed with the headline in The Sun, which we consider is in poor taste and disrespectful,” it concluded.
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Disgraced Argentine club River Plate could return to the top flight sooner than expected, with plans revealed to revamp Argentina’s first division.The Argentine Football Association (AFA) has announced it wants to unite the teams from the country’s top two divisions into one next year – combining all 20 from the top flight and most clubs from the second tier.
The teams are likely to be divided into regional groups, but the merger would mean the relegated giants River Plate would be back in the first division, after they dropped into Nacional B for the first time in their 110-year existence last month.
A decision on the new championship format needs to be agreed by the AFA’s executive committee, with that expected in October.
“The Argentine committee of the Argentine Football Association has decided with a majority vote – 22 in favour versus four abstentions and one absence – to look into a new tournament format project which would become valid starting in August of next year if the assembly so decides,” AFA spokesman Ernesto Cherquis Bialo said.
“It is basically the fusion of the Nacional B and the first division with relegation and the possibility that teams in the interior A could intervene with the first division.”
River will spend next season in the Nacional B division, and should they avoid finishing in the bottom two, a return to the top flight will be on the cards should the new format be voted in.
There is no denying Gareth Bale is a quality attacking outlet for Tottenham at the moment. But is his fine form making Tottenham over reliant on him? Certainly attacks tend to come far more from the left than they have done in recent years, and players can be seen to be looking to Bale first to ping the ball out to the left flank. Yet it is obvious such over reliance is detrimental to the team. If Bale has a bad game, or the opposition are able to limit his contribution on the game, like Everton did so successfully a few weeks back with Phil Neville at right back, then a lot of Tottenham’s attacking momentum is taken away. Also such reliance on one player will erode the confidence and attacking threat of other creative players. And Spurs do have others so they do not need to be overly reliant on Bale; Luka Modric, Rafael Van der Vaart and Aaron Lennon are all capable of doing the opposition real damage.
It is the form of the first, Modric, which has really stood out recently. Especially against Chelsea in the first half he was the focus of everything that the team created and covered a lot ground, popping up deep in his own half as well as theirs. Yet there is a trend occurring that Spurs players try too hard to get the ball out to Bale to let him run at the opposition’s right back. And because this route of attack has become so popular, it is now sometimes tried when this option really isn’t available.
By limiting their attacking options in such a way it makes it easier for the opposition by giving them less to worry about, i.e. their only concern would be how to control Bale? But by spreading the point of attack more, varying the play leaves them with more problems to solve. For instance, if they tend to crowd to the Tottenham left flank to deny the option to Bale then ping the ball out to Lennon on the right to exploit the space left there, rather than try and force the ball to a surrounded Bale. It is a position Tottenham should be exploiting by allowing opponents to concentrate too much on Bale and then hit them from another area. And in recent games Lennon’s form has suggested he is returning to his best, particularly against Werder Bremen the other week. With two flying wingers on the flanks and on top of their game Spurs would be really difficult to contain.
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Also if teams would then have to get tight on the wingers on both flanks, this would leave tremendous holes in the middle of the pitch where Tottenham have players with pace to exploit these gaps between the centre back and full back, such as Defoe. And Van der Vaart could drop deep into the created space to cause problems, while Modric would be allowed more time on the ball as defenders are constantly concerned with Bale. Spurs do have the quality across the team to turn the added attention shown to Bale into a real advantage. In much the same way that Barcelona compensate if teams overly focus on trying to limit Lionel Messi’s contribution, Xavi, Iniesta and Villa are able to take advantage. Not that Tottenham have the quality of Barcelona but they still have quality players who should be taking advantage of Bale’s extra attention as opposed to forcing the play through him.
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Chelsea captain John Terry has been handed an extra two-match suspension by Uefa following his sending off against Barcelona in the Champions League semi-finals.
The England international was dismissed before half-time in the second leg of the west London side’s clash with the Catalan giants at Camp Nou for kneeing Chilean attacker Alexis Sanchez.
Terry served the obligatory one-match suspension by missing the final of the tournament against Bayern Munich, but Uefa have revealed that the central defender has been charged with violent conduct, and will have to sit out two more games.
Although the Blues can appeal against the ban, if upheld Terry will miss the Super Cup against Europa League winners Atletico Madrid in August, and Chelsea’s first game of next term’s Champions League.
As yet there has been no comment from the club to reveal whether they intend to fight the ban, with Terry away on international duty with England ahead of Euro 2012.
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