ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE GOSSIP
Reports suggested Falcao, who has struggled for playing time with the Premier League champions, was hoping to cut short his loan from parent club Monaco, with Zenit a possible destination.
Former Chelsea manager Villas-Boas has not spoken to Jose Mourinho about the possibility and says the move will not happen.
“No I haven’t had a conversation with Jose,” Villas-Boas told fc-zenit.ru.
“The player belongs to Chelsea, on loan from Monaco.
“It’s difficult to bring such a player to Russia with the rules and regulations we have.
“We tried to bring him here in the summer at the start of the season, but then the rules changed a week before the season started.
“We can’t bring him here because of the rules and we don’t have space.
“We have (Artem) Dzyuba, his form is great for the club and the national team and he deserves respect.
“Due to the limitations we can’t bring Falcao here, his salary is immense too and the financial rules in place prevent this, this is the rule chosen by (Zenit president) Mr Mutko and so this is impossible.”
EDRO FEELING THE BLUES
It hasn’t gone well for Pedro, has it? From making 50 appearances in Barcelona’s treble-winning campaign last season, the Spaniard now finds himself at a side 15th in the Premier League and seemingly on the verge of imploding. Poor dear.
Well, according to reports in his native Spain, the winger is feeling rather aggrieved. We say reports in Spain, we mean Fichajes (obviously). They claim the 28-year-old has privately informed Cesc Fabregas of his unhappiness at the club under Jose Mourinho (private but a Spanish website and no-one else has found out), and that he wishes to return to Barcelona.
They claim a lack of game time could be the reason for the Spain international’s disappointment upon his £21million move. Pedro has played 533 minutes in the Premier League so far this season, fewer than 11 team-mates, but of course he signed after two games had been played.
The Metro and the Daily Express have picked up on Fichajes’ reports, so the next in the food chain appears to be the Daily Telegraph. We give it two hours.
ARSENAL AND MAN UNITED BACK IN FOR HAKAN
Sticking with the Daily Express, whose delightfully named Charlie Phillippe brings us news of Hakan Calhanoglu, a previous reported subject of interest of both Arsenal and Manchester United.
According to the Express, Bayer Leverkusen’s chief executive Michael Schade has said the set-piece specialist ‘will not be leaving for any less than £29million’ (although the headline reads Bayer Leverkusen reveal star may leave for £29m – which one is it?)
Asked by German newspaper Bild on the interest in the ‘next Ozil’ – presumably dubbed as such because he’s a bit Turkish – what Schade actually said was: “I see that. We want to keep Hakan, but with us there is a pain threshold. I am calm and relaxed.”
Strangely, he doesn’t mention a valuation. Yet he has both ‘revealed he may leave for £29million,’ as well as saying he ‘won’t be leaving for any less than £29million’.
CITY AFTER HAPPY EVER
They may already boast Yaya Toure, Fernandinho, Fernando and Fabian Delph (can you boast Fabian Delph?) among their central midfield ranks, but Manchester City are after another, if The Sun is to be believed.
Their man Tom Gardiner claims that Manuel Pellegrini is keen on Ever Banega after the Argentinean midfielder impressed against City in the Champions League for Sevilla. Banega has been in fine form this season after initially struggling to break through in La Liga with Valencia, but the 27-year-old has shone for Sevilla.
AND THE REST
Chelsea believe they need a major signing to get back on track next summer and remain determined to make Atletico Madrid forward Antoine Griezmann that man…West Ham are planning a £5million January bid for AC Milan playmaker Keisuke Honda…Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been linked with David Beckham’s new MLS franchise.
New Ronaldo? Memphis the new Nani
Date published: Thursday 29th October 2015 10:29
Given that we’re using one-off games in a cup (that is the lowest priority for most involved) to judge teams’ ability to compete in the league, I suppose we can also write Man Utd off now then
David, Gooner
Writing this mail during the frustratingly horrible united vs middlesborough game trying my best not to punch through the screen.
Contrary to most of the other united games this season where we have been sterile in possession and slower than sloth with a football. This game was even more frustrating due extreme wastefulness you will have ever seen in a game of football. So many good positions and half chances wasted due to some horrendous decision making in final third. The chief culprit in that would have to be Memphis. Given his age and stage at he is in, there are two possible ways he can go, either step up his game and be atleast as half decent as ronaldo or become nani. Based on what we have seen from him so far, especially in this game against middlesborough, it is mostly likely going to be Nani. I called it first. Memphis the new Nani!
Happy to eat humble pie if he becomes atleast one fourth of what ronaldo was.
On the whole, middlesborough defended well. But one can’t really say, since this attacking “force” of united is not a standard to measure standard of defence. Secondly, by second half, Lee Mason got so bored i guess he forgot to referee and didnt really care much (he was bad for both teams).
Regards
Santa Klaus ( the NEW “insert name” trend should also be used for sh*tty players), Stuttgart
Memphis the ‘new Di Maria’
I must admit a growing concern over the performances of Memphis Depay. This is not just from last night, I had these concerns when he was signed. From the highlight reels I saw of him, the player I thought he most resembled, was Di Maria. He liked to run with the ball, liked to shoot from distance and try play the odd killer pass. He generally took a lot of risks with the ball (that did pay off quite a few times), and certainly gave it away a fair amount. This is completely at odds with van Gaal’s low risk, possession at all costs approach. These types of players are at their best when they are un shackled, allowed to run with the ball and take on risky passes/shots. Not when they are constantly cutting inside to try play simple passes because they are afraid of giving the ball away.
Van Gaal tried to temper Di Maria’s natural instincts and it seemed to drain his confidence. I’m worried that Memphis is under such huge pressure to adapt his natural game to what van Gaal wants, that the same could happen to him. I know they worked together at Holland and Memphis was close to him, that relationship probably brought him to Utd but could also be putting him under further pressure to adapt to his mentor’s demands. I’m concerned that Memphis could lose his natural game, the game that prompted bids from several large European clubs.
He definitely needs to improve his decision making (most players at 21 do) and needs to improve his work rate, but these should be added to what he already has. I really hope he doesn’t get coached into playing like Antonio Valencia. Van Gaal is a good coach and has done very well at Utd to improve the midfield, tighten up the defence and bring in some good young players. However I do fear, the attacking side of the game won’t get any better under him.
Dan, Ireland MUFC
Enough is enough, Louis
I’m now absolutely convinced that Rooney’s got a clause in his contract stipulating he has to play when fit. That’s the only way to explain how LVG could drop Rivaldo at Barca and Luca Toni at Bayern, and not do the same with Rooney now. Rooney coming on for James Wilson must have shattered the young man’s confidence, yet was it any surprise that we continued to look slow and ponderous upfront with Rooney leading the line? Only with Martial’s appearance did we start to look threatening. The most conspicuous aspect of all of United’s best moments was that Rooney was absent in all of them, save for the header he totally fluffed before Lingard hit the post. And let’s not even talk about the penalty miss. At this point, it’s tempting to point the finger at Davy Moyes for putting that clause in his contract, but surely even he couldn’t have envisaged Wayne Rooney sinking to such levels of sh*teness.
It also baffles me as to why United fans criticizing Rooney seems to be out-of-line to supporters like Harry The Manc. Let’s get this straight, when he wears the red shirt and steps on the pitch, I’m sure we as United fans all wish him well, hope he scores a goal or two or three and gets out of this looooong slump. I don’t doubt that he gives it his all when on the pitch. But off-the-pitch is a different matter. Our loyalty is to the club, not to one player. And if we fans think it’s in the club’s interests for him to be dropped, then why shouldn’t we voice that out? Isn’t this similar to when Rooney asked for a transfer in 2010? Gave it his all on the pitch. But off it, when he felt that the club wasn’t doing enough to sign the top players (i.e. acting in its best interests), he voiced it out. Harry The Manc says us United fans should consider what a great servant Rooney’s been for the club before voicing out our misgivings about his presence in the current first team. But did Rooney stop and think “But wait, these United fans have been supporting me for years, singing my name every week and buying the kit with my name on it every season…” before changing his mind on the transfer request? Did he f**k!
Now’s the time for LVG to show what he’s made of and drop Rooney for the good of the team. Here’s hoping his marbles didn’t come off together with his pants in the Bayern dressing room.
Andrew C (UTID)
But the boy is irreplaceable
Wayne Rooney is now taking the heat for being too good to replace for more than a decade
I´ll start by admitting two things:
1. I am a Wayne Rooney fan.
2. I think he looks shot now, and might not even break the Bobby Charlton goal record at Man United.
But the unprecedented amount of criticism Wayne Rooney might have another twist than his world class salary and, up until now, Louis van Gaal´s persistent blind faith.
Might it has got something to do with the fact that Wayne Rooney has been as good as irreplaceable for more than a decade at Manchester United?
Man United moved on, eventually, after Eric Cantona, after David Beckham and, almost unaffected, after Cristiano Ronaldo. It seems they won´t cope as easily with the demise of Rooney.
The first to realize that, was probably Sir Alex Ferguson.
After famously axing Wayne Rooney for the deciding game vs. Real Madrid in the 2013 Champions League (this at a stage of the PL season where Rooney, with one goal or assist every 75 minutes, more effective than Bale and Suarez at that stage of the 2012/13 Premier League season) – causing an irreparable rift between the two.
Having the league title basically wrapped up already by then, United went on to one of their worst spells under Ferguson, losing four home games to big rivals in Real Madrid, Man City and Chelsea (two times, second through a replay after Old Trafford home draw in FA Cup).
Ferguson then resigned.
After the 2012/13 season, Daily Mail showed the simply staggering statistic that over Rooney´s nine year spell at the club, the win ratio was 10% (!) better with Rooney playing (72%) compared to him not playing (62%). I´d like to see something similar for other world class players at world class clubs.
He´s matched the leagues greatest players in terms of goal contribution for more than a decade.
Here is another stat: When Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney played together, Rooney matched Ronaldo´s goal contributions per game in PL (both at 0.7 goals/assists per game). He did the same with Luis Suarez for the years those two played together. And then he matched Sergio Aguero for the Argentinians first three years in England, until Rooney´s statistical decline speeded up rapidly upon the arrival of Louis van Gaal.
That´s probably not Louis van Gaal´s fault. But even though he can now be considered overpaid, like a few other footballers on the slide, it´s not Wayne Rooney´s fault that his club simply cannot deal with his decline.
Every football player has his day. But very few, if any, were as irreplaceable as Wayne Rooney for Manchester United.
Lars Eidissen
Peak United
I checked my phone about twenty-five minutes into the United game last night to see how they were doing. According to the BBC website they had 73% possession, 0 shots on target, 0 shots of any description and 0 corners.
I don’t think I could imagine a set of figures defining Louis Van Gaal’s Manchester United more accurately.
He brought on Rooney at half time you know.
Stephen O’S, MUFC
Peak Arse
I keep seeing “Peak Arsenal” plastered all over the place, everywhere.
We all know that when we start the season well that “Peak Arsenal” doesn’t arrive until early February at least.
James (and I was like “duhhhh”) AFC
Nacho man
Nice piece by Sarah this morning on Nacho Monreal but I feel that she has missed a key reason for Monreal’s improvement.
Early last year Arsenal being Arsenal had injuries in defence which meant that our Nacho had a stint at centre-back. Initially he looked pretty uncomfortable there and his performances showed that but he eventually grew into the role and I genuinely feel this has helped him become the player he has become today.
Tackling, positioning, aggression. All the basics for a centre-back Nacho has now added to his game. He already had some composure and the ability to pass the ball so all these attributes seem to have helped him cement his place in Arsenal’s back four, and deservedly so.
Next step for Nacho would be to break his way back into the Spain squad but with Gaya, Bernat, Azpilicueta, Alba and Jonny all being called up recently this may be easier said than done. To be honest I couldn’t care less if he’s never picked for them again.
He is ours.
Go away.
Ginge, London
Lamela is sh*t
I’ve always thought Spurs fans have historically had a bit of a problem with letting go of players who they want to be good but just can’t cut it. I remember back in the day, must have been the late 90s, when Ruel Fox seemed to be on the way to Leicester City after a couple of underwhelming seasons in what was a truly dreadful Spurs side. I remember hoping he would stay at the Lane, he’s bound to come good, he played in that swashbuckling Newcastle side, he cost over £4 million, he will prove everyone wrong! Of course, he did stay for another season or two in the end, continued being sh*t and eventually sodded off to West Brom.
Fast forward a decade and a half and we have Pamela, masquerading as a quality forward, always on the verge of breaking free of whatever shackles are holding him back. He did a few nice things against City, his stats are ok. He scored a rabona don’t you know. But please, just accept the fact that he is sh*t. He’ll be remembered as a mediocre squad player who, inexplicably, was our record signing. His average game can be summed up in one continuously repeated cycle until he is substituted in the 66th minute: collect ball, run in general direction of full back, stop, obligingly wait for further opposition defenders to retreat behind ball, attempt to run through defenders, lose ball, fall over, repeat.
And no, £30 million is not “the going rate for this sort of player”. Dusan Tadic, Dimitri Payet, Georginio Wijnaldum, Sadio Mane, Bojan Krkic, Xherdan Shaquiri, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Christian Eriksen, Nacer Chadli. There’s a handful off the top of my head who are far better for less than half the price.
For the love of god, put the man out of his misery and let’s move on.
GM, Spurs
Justice for Skrtel
I’ll keep this quick. I’m a United fan and maybe Liverpool fans can shed a bit of light on this for me, but what the hell does Martin Skrtel have to do to be named captain? He’s been there years, seems to put his heart and soul into every game(he does tug a lot of shirts too) and then Klopp names Toure as captain! Her highness Brenda wouldn’t give him the armband either? How many more slices in the head does he have to take before he gets it?
Paddy(tasty front four for United) Ireland
‘Manchester United have been boosted in their bid to land Neymar,’ reads the opening paragraph of Vic Holly’s article for The Sun. Sounds interesting…
The piece contains quotes from former Barcelona president Joan Laporta, who says: “To balance the club financially the president has to sell players or assets. The easy solution is to sell a player.”
What Laporta truly knows about Manchester United’s interest in Neymar is negligible, considering he hasn’t worked for the Catalans since 2010. But wait, Mediawatch has more.
‘United blow as Neymar set for double-yer-money deal,’ reads the headline on a piece by Antony Kastrinakis on The Sun’s website. ‘BARCELONA are set to DOUBLE Neymar’s wages to £500,000 a week and derail Manchester United’s hopes of signing him,’ it reads. ‘The Brazil striker will become the world’s third-highest paid player behind team-mate Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
‘Barca president Josep Maria Bartomeu said: “This is the season we will sort out a new deal with Neymar. But we will try not to talk about the negotiations and to work discreetly until we can announce it.”
From United being ‘boosted in their bid to land Neymar’ to suffering a ‘blow’ in their chase within the space of a few hours. At least they’ll be right one way or another.
Dreams can come true
It’s safe to say The Sun‘s Phil Thomas was impressed with Liverpool’s three debutants against Bournemouth on Wednesday. Connor Randall, Cameron Brannagan and Joao Carlos Teixeira were all handed their first starts for the Reds, and all performed admirably. As Thomas wrote in his match report:
‘Brannagan and Teixeira certainly showed enough composure, savvy and style in midfield to suggest we will be seeing plenty more of them under the German. And at full-back local boy Randall’s performance suggested Joe Gomez’s absence with a smashed cruciate suddenly does not look the massive headache of a month or so ago.’Said match report is handily accompanied by The Sun’s dream team ratings. Among them, Brannagan was given a five out of 10, with Randall and Teixeira receiving sixes; the only other starter to score worse was Kolo Toure, who was handed a six out of 10 after being subsituted on the half-hour mark.
What are the odds?
When Mediawatch saw the headline ‘Brendan Rodgers in line to replace Jose Mourinho at Chelsea – report’ on the Metro website, we simply couldn’t resist offering them another delicious click.
‘Brendan Rodgers is in the frame to become the next Chelsea manager as pressure grows on Jose Mourinho,’ reads the opening paragraph from our old friend Jamie Sanderson. It attributes a piece on the Belfast Telegraph‘s website, with both claiming that Rodgers has emerged as a ‘shock’ candidate to replace under-fire Mourinho after his odds were slashed from 20/1 to 7/1 to become Chelsea’s next permanent manager.
A quick check shows the shortest odds you can find for such a ridiculous scenario are 14/1, while it remains as long as a 33/1 shot with most.
Still, what a lovely thought.
Every day’s a school day
Ross Gregory was a busy boy for The Sun last night at Anfield, leaning lessons and all sorts. He learned, for one, that ‘Liverpool do not have a fit striker’.
1) They do. His name is Divock Origi. He literally started the game.
2) At what stage did you learn Christian Benteke (injured on Sunday against Southampton), Daniel Sturridge (has missed four games through injury) and Danny Ings (out for most of the season) were not fit?
But Gregory is not done there. His apparent ignorance of Origi’s strikerness is, at least in part, explained in lessons 2 and 3:
‘Origi could prove the man capable of filling Raheem Sterling’s boots. Left Sylvain Distin for dead in the build-up to Nathaniel Clyne’s goal and has pace to burn. But needs to improve defensively.’
‘If Origi does not come good for Klopp, Jordon Ibe could be the man,’ begins the next point. So Origi (no longer a striker) will either a) replace a £44million player or he’ll be rubbish. Cover all bases and all that.
Tony award
While Ross Gregory believes Ibe will (or won’t) be the man to replace Sterling, Tony Cascarino in The Times has other ideas.
‘There are plenty of players at Liverpool who are not quite reaching their full potential but Jordan (sic) Ibe is the one who could become integral at the club…His passing needs to improve but he reminds me of the way Daniel Sturridge performed at Manchester City and Chelsea. Perhaps, like Sturridge, he will become a central striker.’
Sturridge didn’t ‘become’ a central striker, Tony, he always was one. That the majority of his games for Chelsea and some for Manchester City saw him play on the wing doesn’t change that.
And Ibe is either set to replace Sterling or Sturridge. Ibe of zero goals in 28 Liverpool games fame. The 19-year-old is good – he may even turn out to be excellent – but let’s slow down, eh?
Do the maths
‘UNITED LEAVE ALMOST £200M ON THE BENCH!’ cries a piece accompanying the Daily Mail‘s match report on Manchester United’s defeat to Middlesbrough. They tally up the costs of David de Gea (£18.9m), Juan Mata (£37.1m), Anthony Martial (£58m), Wayne Rooney (£27m), Ashley Young (£12.6m), Ander Herrera (£28.4m) and Bastian Schweinsteiger (£6.3m) to conclude that United’s substitutes comprised a talent pool of £196.5m.
A couple of things:
- Those valuations tally up to £188.3m, not £196.5m.
- The Mail themselves claimed Young joined United for £16m in 2011, not £12.6m
- Anthony Martial cost £36.7m, not £58m
- The actual valuations of those seven players adds up to around £170.4m, not £196.5m
Dirty Harry
‘Writes’ Harry Redknapp in his column for the London Evening Standard:
‘There is a trait in this country that a lot of people love to see others fail. When you are on the floor, they like to put the boot in. That is the way of life here. Jose Mourinho was at the top of his profession a few months ago but now he is suddenly having a bad time. Everybody wants to kick him when he’s down. Negative stories are appearing about him every day and he is obviously worried that the “rats”, as he called them, in the camp are leaking things in an effort to destabilise him.’Said Redknapp on October 7: “Maybe some players don’t like him. It’s quite possible. I think everybody loved him the first time he came. Maybe now, some of the new players aren’t happy with the way they’re being treated or don’t like the way he talks to them.
“There’s something not right within the club at the moment, that’s for sure. Suddenly he’s getting beaten and beaten. He’s never had to cope with that before. It must be very strange for him.
“It’s not easy, I’m sure he’s finding it very difficult. But they are not good, they’re not playing well.”
‘Wrote’ Harry Redknapp in his column for the London Evening Standard on October 8:
‘He can’t complain about his team. They are nearly all world-class players. He has to get on with it. But, then again, he’s not used to losing. Now he knows how the rest of us feel. Even Arsene Wenger has times when he has been under pressure and getting grief.’Sounds an awful lot like someone ‘putting the boot in’, both just three weeks ago. Would Redknapp describe those as ‘negative stories’?
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