Baggies fans have the small matter of a Black Country derby against Wolves to be dealt with at the Hawthorns this weekend. West Bromwich Albion’s lack of clean sheets hasn’t been rectified by changing Scott Carson for Boaz Myhill and the capitulation against West Ham on Saturday wasn’t a total surprise to many Baggies fans I’m sure – incidentally Albion were 1/125 with bet365 to win the game after the third goal went in!
Albion are odds-on to win the game and in my opinion they shouldn’t be. Mick McCarthy has a team willing to roll their sleeves up and I can see Wolves leaving with at least a point.
It’s FA Cup weekend and it looks to be all about Man Utd v Crawley. Fergie’s lot are 1/16 with bet365 to see off Steve Evans’ side and it will be interesting to see what team Sir Alex puts out. Crawley will of course be bang up for the game and I’d imagine a number of fans will be having a play at bet365’s 25/1 about the visitors and 7/4 that Man Utd fail to keep a clean sheet.
The Chelsea v Everton clash is fascinating, Messrs Carlo Ancelotti and David Moyes look completely out of love with the game at the moment and I’ve already chalked up 1/3 that the Italian departs from Stamford Bridge before 2011/12. Chelsea are 8/15 to win, but that looks on the short side. Talking of short things, punters will no doubt be grouping together Man City at 1/6, Arsenal at 2/7, Birmingham at 8/13 and possibly Stoke at 4/6. There are a few people up here that think this could be the Potters year.
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Paris Saint-Germain manager Antoine Kombouare said selection for upcoming matches is critical given their hectic schedule of fixtures.The Parisians are fifth in Ligue 1 but have a last-32 second leg match against their Belarusian opponents BATE Borisov in the Europa League on Thursday as their focus.A victory, a scoreless draw or a 1-1 stalemate would see Kombouare’s side advance to the final 16 inside 90 minutes, but the 47-year-old boss was worried about their packed line-up of fixtures that begins with BATE.Kombouare’s side face the prospect of four matches in the next nine days, including two league games as they attempt to cut the four-point gap between them and leaders Lille.”We have a lot of games to play and it’s true that we have also important matches coming up. On Sunday we played Toulouse, on Wednesday we have the quarter-final against Le Mans and on Saturday we have a trip to Auxerre, so I must make some decisions (on selection),” Kombouare said.”I am forced to make choices because these players cannot play every game, it’s impossible. It is useless if on the ground the players are tired and today we have a quality group.”Kombouare said his side are prepared for an attacking contest, with BATE requiring victory or a high-scoring draw at the Parc des Princes to move into the next phase.”It’s going to be a tough game because on the first game we saw a great team of BATE Borisov. For them, the calculation is simple: they must win the game or a draw 3-3 to qualify,” he said. “So tomorrow, we expect an open game with a team that will play to score goals. So it is going to be a fun game and hopefully we will win it.”
After another performance in which Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres failed to click, there is an increasing possibility that Drogba is going to leave Chelsea this summer. As unlikely as it may be, as a Spurs fan, I can’t help but imagine the prospect of the big Ivorian playing for Tottenham at White Hart Lane.
In the last few weeks Didier Drogba has been a bit odd. He has incurred a few phantom injuries, missed pre-match training and generally looked sulky. I don’t think he can’t handle not being the ‘main man’. For these reasons, many people, not just Chelsea fans, will think he has let himself down. But I sympathise with him.
He has not had a great season, but nor have Chelsea. Regardless of his performances this year, for the last three seasons he has been one of the best strikers than the Premiership. He has been piled out the back door, so to speak, from their talisman to part of a rotation policy. And at the moment he is a better player than Torres.
He deserved better treatment. I understand that you cannot buy a player for £50m and then not play him. I also understand that Chelsea have a system that incorporates three front men, not two. But Drogba, not Torres, changed the game against Manchester United and he should have started more games since January.
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I like Drogba for the same reasons that many dislike him. I think he is a genuinely funny player. He is so deluded a lot of the time. In his mind every moment on a football field revolves around him. Yet I know this and I like him in spite of it. I think it is because he is so good. I can’t help but admire his greatness.
Sadly for Chelsea, they might have to let him go. His influence will surely become more destructive before too long. Unless he returns to the centre fold he will get grumpier and grumpier. But with Torres at Stamford Bridge this is unlikely to happen. Torres is a long term investment and replacement for Drogba.
When he came to the Premiership, Drogba was not brilliant but he thought he was. For that reason he got underneath many people’s skin. But while some players have an over inflated opinion of themselves and never produce anything particularly special, Drogba has lived up to how good he thought he was.
He might have had, by his standards, a poor season but I am confident he will bounce back and I think he has a lot of football left in him. He still looks strong and has never relied on out and out pace for his effectiveness. He might be 33 in 3 days, but i can see him playing until he is 35.
If he leaves Chelsea he could walk into any team in the world, apart from maybe Barcelona. I am sure Jose Mourinho who has been searching for a striker would relish the prospect of teaming up with former colleague Drogba.
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It is highly unlikely that he would move to another Premier League club, Chelsea just would not allow it. But, for speculation alone, I would love him to move to move to Spurs. If that did happen, you would not find a happier man than me. I love Tottenham and I love Drogba. What’s more he would be the perfect answer to Tottenham’s needs.
This is pure hearsay and I honestly don’t think that he join Spurs in a million years. But any club should welcome him with open arms. My point is that few players are good enough that they could play for any team in the world, regardless of their attitude. For the next two years he will score goals wherever he plays. He might be coming to the end of his career, but I think Chelsea have not tried hard enough to keep him happy and I think they will miss him when he is gone.
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Real Madrid midfielder Sergio Canales says he is desperate to be part of Spain’s squad for the UEFA Under-21 European Championships.The 20-year-old moved to the Bernabeu from Racing Santander last year and has made seven appearances for the La Liga giants thus far.
Canales believes his game is progressing well under the tutelage of Jose Mourinho, and said he would love to be involved with the Spanish squad for the Under-21 European Championships, which take place in Denmark in June.
“I think that it isn’t just Mourinho – my team-mates, the staff and all of Madrid are helping me,” Canales said.
“It hasn’t been an easy year, but I am learning a lot and playing, even though for not much time.”
“I would love to go (to Denmark).”
“It is a great chance to go with my friends and play in an Under-21’s Euro Championship.”
“I know that if you don’t start then it is hard to get into the squad, but those who are there will do a great job. I hope to try and get in, but if I can’t then I send my support.”
Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini took responsibility for his team’s inept performance in their 3-0 defeat away to Liverpool.City were undone by Andy Carroll’s first goals for Liverpool and a Dirk Kuyt strike, all in the first 35 minutes of Monday’s match at Anfield.
The result leaves City fourth in the English Premier League table, just three points clear of Tottenham Hotspur and in danger of slipping out of the all-important Champions League qualification places.
“Tonight I made a mistake, it was my fault,” Mancini said. “I’m very sorry for the fans and I’m very sorry for this game.”
“I think Liverpool played fantastic in the first 20 minutes. We left a lot of space for them and they were very aggressive while we played very soft.”
“I made three changes to bring in three fresh players but our focus was not good. After 20 minutes we started to play but it was too late.”
“We probably thought that if we played this game less than 100 percent we could still get a win. But football is not like that.”
“I have learned something about myself. I have a lot of experience so it was my mistake not the players.”
Despite the reverse, Mancini insists that City will finish fourth or higher and also believes his team will overcome cross-city rivals Manchester United in Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final.
“I am sure we will get in the Champions League and we will get to the final (of the FA Cup),” he said.
“If we won this game then for the fourth position, third position, (we would have been) ok.”
“Now I think we should fight until the end.”
“For us it was very important to win this game. But now it’s finished it’s important we forget this.”
Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish was delighted to see striker Andy Carroll get off the mark following his transfer from Newcastle in January.
“The first goal was a great strike and the second goal, great ball in and a flick on and it ends up in the back of the net,” Dalglish said.
“So that won’t do him any harm to get his first two goals at Anfield. Still waiting for one at the Kop off him, so maybe we’ll get that at the next home game.”
“I think it is a gratifying performance for everybody.”
“I thought they (the Liverpool players) thoroughly deserved their victory, I don’t think it flattered them in anyway.”
Roma coach Vincenzo Montella is refusing to be distracted by off-field matters ahead of his side’s Coppa Italia semi-final with Inter Milan.Roma became the first Italian club to be owned by foreigners on Saturday, when a consortium led American businessman Thomas Di Benedetto acquired a 67 percent share of the club for 70.3 million euros.
After losing 2-1 to Palermo on Saturday – the side’s second successive loss at home – Roma are hanging on to a Europa League spot by just a single point from Juventus, and Montella believes the furore surrounding the takeover had weighed on his players’ minds.
Having all but conceded the team’s chances of qualifying for the Champions League, Montella is targeting a strong showing in Tuesday’s Coppa Italia semi-final first-leg with Inter.
“The Coppa Italia, both for Roma and Inter, is almost the last realisable objective available to us this season,” Montella said.
“Tomorrow evening two wounded teams will face each other and for this season they will need big motivation. The team that has the greater personality and temperament will win.”
“The difference will be made by personality, not by individual acts.”
Montella, in charge in an interim capacity since replacing Claudio Ranieri in February, said he was looking forward to locking horns with Inter coach Leonardo on Tuesday in Roma’s last chance for silverware this season.
“I hold him in great esteem, he is a really smart guy and he’s doing a great job at Inter Milan, if we consider what he did at AC Milan last season too, so I’m happy to meet him tomorrow,” Montella said.
Montella said he was unfazed by criticism of Roma’s recent poor results and said he would stick by his coaching philosophies.
“Mine is a simple and clear idea and I think I’ve already explained that before: I’m doing and I’ll do everything I believe is right to improve the players’ performances,” he said.
“If I act like this it’s because I believe it right. I hear what the people and the supporters say too, so if I wanted the people and media on my side it would be very easy for me.”
“My main task here, since I’ve arrived and up to the end of the season, is to make them give their best, considering their characteristics and how they behave.”
Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini is desperate to have Carlos Tevez back for the Premier League run home.Argentina forward Tevez sustained a hamstring problem in the recent 3-0 defeat to Liverpool and will not be available when City host West Ham on Sunday.
Mancini said there is also a doubt whether his captain will be back for the FA Cup Final against Stoke on May 14.
“On Tuesday Carlos started to run and of course we will do everything possible to help him recover,” Mancini said.
“It is difficult to say now if it is possible or not but it will be possible only if Carlos can play in our game against Tottenham the week before.”
Edin Dzeko finally broke his Premier League duck last weekend after having gone 10 league games without scoring.
The 27 million pound Bosnia forward scored the winner at Blackburn on Monday and Mancini backed him to star next season.
“I am very happy for Edin to score because he has not played many games and I know that is difficult for any striker,” Mancini said. “I am happy because I think he is a fantastic striker.”
“Next season he can do everything because he can score more goals. After pre-season he will be better.”
City could still finish in third place and have an FA Cup Final to look forward too – a stark contrast to the fortunes of Sunday’s opponents.
West Ham have spent the whole season drifting around the relegation plughole and have just four games left to make sure they do not fall down the drain and out of the Premier League.
“Our season will finish step by step and now we have West Ham to play,” Mancini said.
“We had a hard game against Blackburn last week and we played brilliantly in the first half. In the second half it was different because they started to play long ball and it was difficult for us.”
“Sunday will be a tough game. We are at home but it will be difficult because I saw West Ham play Chelsea and they were on top for an hour. That shows how well we will have to play on Sunday.
Manchester City will be without defenders Jerome Boateng (knee) and Micah Richards (hamstring).
When Manchester City are linked with yet another player I have never heard of for £26 million then it has to surely be another overpriced move for a player who is merely in good form. But then Manchester United entered the race for winger Alexis Sanchez, and I began to take note of this Chilean star who has been turning even Alex Ferguson’s head.
I’ve always wanted a cool nickname but the best my friends could come up with was ‘Dan’, hardly on the same level as Niño Maravilla, so called due to his stylish play, a nickname he earned when breaking the Copa Libertadores record for the youngest player to debut in the South American Club Championship, at the age of just 16. Obviously a cool nickname and an age-related record doesn’t earn you a $3 million move to Udinese, so I’m assuming it was the six goals in twelve games in the Chilean league in only his second season.
Sanchez was signed by the Italian outfit for the future, and was instantly loaned out to Chilean side Colo-Colo and then to Argentinian team River Plate; after successful season-long loans with both clubs, Sanchez finally made his break at Udinese in 2008 and after a few promising performances over the seasons, it was this year that the versatile attacker put himself on the footballing map. A regular fixture in the exciting Chilean side in the 2010 World Cup, Sanchez used the world’s biggest stage to showcase his talents and carried this on into the current Serie A campaign, forming a formidable partnership with Antonio Di Natalie, scoring 35 goals between them, just five shy of the Del Piero and Trezeguet record in the 2007-08 season, and with a few games still to play.
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So that’s the story of this young Chilean’s rise to stardom, but what would he offer either of Manchester’s Premier League clubs? Would he slot in straight away or would he be another Stephane Guivarc’h? Manchester City have flair players in abundance and leaving out one of David Silva, Carlos Tevez, Mario Balotelli and Edin Dzeko wouldn’t be easy, although with uncertainty surrounding Tevez’ future, perhaps accommodating the Chilean wouldn’t be so hard. With his ability to work as an out-and-out forward or an attacking winger, this would give Manchester City a lot of fluidity up front and I get the feeling Silva and Sanchez could be a match made in heaven. So what would happen instead if the winger decides to ply his trade at Old Trafford? It is hard to see him ousting either Wayne Rooney or new fan favourite Javier Hernandez, but you could see him perhaps playing as a winger ahead of Antonio Valencia; together with Nani on the wings, they would surely be a full back’s ultimate nightmare.
Sanchez’ proposed arrival to the Motherland, whoever it may be with, is no doubt be an exciting proposition for the Premier League.
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Germany defeated fellow World Cup semi-finalists Uruguay 2-1 in an international friendly on Sunday, while Honduras drew with El Salvador.An inexperienced Germany team lost 2-1 to Australia in their last friendly outing on March 29, but coach Joachim Loew kept faith with his young side and was duly rewarded.
In a rematch of the third-place playoff at the 2010 World Cup, which Germany won 3-2, Bayern Munich centre-forward Mario Gomez put the hosts ahead after 26 minutes of the match at Hoffenheim’s Rhein-Neckar Arena.
Gomez dispossessed Diego Lugano just inside the Uruguay half before beating two men and shooting past Lazio goalkeeper Fernando Muslera for an accomplished solo opener.
Mainz forward Andre Schuerrle made it 2-0 on 36 minutes, receiving Mesut Oezil’s pass to smash an unstoppable strike beyond Muslera and into the Uruguay net.
It was Schuerrle’s first international goal in just his third appearance for Germany.
Napoli midfielder Walter Gargano pulled one back for Uruguay four minutes into the second half.
Germany’s attacking threat diminished with the withdrawal of Real Madrid playmaker Oezil, but Uruguay obliged the hosts by failing to create a genuine chance to equalise in the second half.
Livewire Borussia Dortmund teenager Mario Goetze missed Germany’s best opportunity to extend their lead late on, but the 19-year-old failed to beat Muslera with an attempted chip.
Also on Sunday, Honduras gave up a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 against fierce rivals El Salvador in Houston.
Carlos Costly put Honduras ahead on 45 minutes at Robertson Stadium and Jerry Bengtson doubled the lead from the penalty spot five minutes into the second half.
But two goals in the space of three minutes from Rodolfo Zelaya and Rudis Corrales helped El Salvador emerge with a draw.
Michel Platini’s plans for financial “fair play” in European football has garnered great debate over the past year or two, and I won’t say much more on that. But it has struck me that there might be an unwelcome consequence of these plans that wasn’t part of his remit.
Regarding ticket prices, Manchester City’s owners could have done something wonderful. They could have provided cheap tickets to all, filled the ground every week and brought back those that have been priced out of the modern game. I’m not saying they would have done, but they could have done, and having already put in place many positive changes to the match day experience, they may have done. And why? Well, they own the club not for profit, but to expand their “profile”. Ideally a club pays for itself, but I doubt City’s owners would have lost much sleep if City had continued to run at a loss.
Either way, we’ll never know. Because now, thanks to Platini, City, like every club will be looking at maximising income, in every possible way. Most clubs do anyway of course, but a wealthy owner, for all the criticism they receive, removed the need to generate every penny they spend. You might think this is how it should be morally, but in the end it will be the fans that pay the biggest price, as always. Because while City would always have looked to expand globally anyway, and sought out the biggest commercial deals they could possibly get, it is only natural that they now look to the fans as well for even more income. While income from tickets is but a small slice of how clubs generate money, it is an important slice nevertheless.
Not that all Premiership teams are definitely going to put up their prices. Last week, Everton announced a freeze on ticket prices for next season, a surprising move for a club in a perilous financial position. My season ticket has only gone up £40 over the past five years, following City’s own recent price freeze. The changes are creeping in at City though – the owners are pushing their marketing towards children and executives. So while the children still get in cheap and the whole of the north stand has been adapted to suit their needs, around the middle tier the fancy executive areas are beginning to spread outwards towards the corner flags, and as the seats get plumper and the facilities plusher, the prices have already started their march upwards. As we all know, corporate fans bring in far more money than your typical working class man who wants a pie and a pint and a seat anywhere. Thus we see the situation where City have sold out their limited allocation for the Chelsea away match this month, but you can still buy tickets if you want to spend quadruple the amount and go corporate.
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City’s decision makers know of course that there is a tipping point, that prices cannot rise too much as people will simply stop going to matches, hence why Cup tickets have remained cheap as chips (even cheaper if it’s the chips sold inside the ground), and then there’s the special offers for group purchases and the sale last summer of £250 lucky-dip season tickets. Even this hasn’t filled the ground up, but with the City of Manchester stadium hosting a minimum of 28 games this season, it is an expensive passion following a top-level team, however cheap the tickets are. In a survey sent out to City fans recently by the club, there was a rather ominous question that asked how much we were prepared to pay for a season ticket. This doesn’t sound like a club that plans to freeze season ticket prices. I know many City fans though that won’t pay over £500.
What’s more, it’s something of a false economy for a club to only look at how much they have made on ticket sales. It’s better for a club to sell 40,000 tickets for £10 pounds than 20,000 tickets at £25, as a large percentage of those 40,000 fans will eat burgers, drink beer and potter round the club-store.
I write with a premiership bias of course, as I usually do. Cheap tickets will still exist, further down the football pyramid. The question remains that if tickets continue to rise in the top leagues, will fans abandon their teams and stop watching football, or perhaps go and watch lower-league football instead? Plenty already do, but attendances in the top divisions don’t show any signs just yet of tailing off.
Many, many clubs have often spent beyond their means, because the general rule is you have to spend to be successful. And once you become successful at the highest levels, the financial rewards mean you tend to stay successful. This is why so called well-run clubs like Everton and Aston Villa are absolutely riddled with debt, Aston Villa’s announced at a cool £70m just this week.
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My fear is that rather than stop spending, clubs in the Premiership who are not duking it out with the elite of Europe will keep looking to spend to ward off the financial nightmare that is relegation. So they’ll look to make more money, and the only way they can do that is through the likes of you and me. Even Arsenal, the epitome of a well-run club (so everyone tells me), generate a large slice of their income through a huge match-day income. I think I am right in saying they generate more on a match-day than any other club on the planet, and recently introduced for their match against City the first ever non-corporate £100 match ticket.
There is one other scenario – one that some tabloid journalists have mentioned, so its veracity is unclear. And that is that clubs will take a gamble in dismissing the idea that UEFA would go as far as excluding clubs from European competition, and thus have no intention of meeting the criteria. It’s also worth noting that the sanctions UEFA can impose only apply to exclusion from European competitions. So if a team is not in Europe and it isn’t looking likely that they will be in the short-term, then they won’t be overly worried about meeting UEFA’s criteria.
But if a club running at a loss is to meet the criteria set out by UEFA, then they have three options. Spend less, or generate more money. Or both. I don’t agree with UEFA’s new rules, but it will be interesting to see how clubs react.