Manchester City and Chelsea target Neymar is set to decide on his own future according to Santos vice-president Odilio Rodrigues.
Sky Sports have reported that Rodrigues will allow his star man to decide when he wants to leave the Brazilian club and where he will go next.
Barcelona are the front runners for the 21 year old’s signature and some reports have suggested that a deal has already been negotiated for 12 months’ time.
Manchester City and Chelsea have both been long term admirers of the talented Brazilian international but many feel his style will be more suited to La Liga rather than the Premier League with inevitable comparisons to Lionel Messi being bounded around.
If Barcelona are on the verge of signing the Santos forward it could be a club record fee for the Spanish giants after Pele branded Neymar as the best player in the world.
“Barcelona are a great club with excellent players and they would be good for Neymar,” Rodrigues told La Xarxa Radio
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“We are aware of the interest in the player. But there are other clubs interested. It will be Neymar’s decision.”
goalkeeper Ben Foster can push Joe Hart all the way for the England number one jersey, according to Liam Ridgewell.
The Albion defender has spoken out on the battle for the Three Lions’ goalkeeper spot after Foster agreed to end his self-imposed retirement from international football to return to former Baggies boss Roy Hodgson’s squad.
Manchester City’s Hart maintained his place between the sticks for the 8-0 thrashing of San Marino in Friday’s World Cup qualifier, while he looks favourite to stay there for Tuesday’s tougher test against Group H leaders Montenegro in Podgorica.
However Ridgewell feels Foster deserves to be playing for England and he does not envy Hodgson having to select between the two.
He told the Daily Mirror: “I know them both very well and they’re both very good keepers.
“The two of them are brilliant shot-stoppers, good at kicking, good at talking and when you need them most they make that vital save.
“I’d hate to be Roy in having to try to pick one of them! I am sure it will be a very good competition between them. It is phenomenal to think there is someone ahead of Ben, we have two such good goalkeepers who both deserve to play in every game.”
On whether Foster should be described as a ‘world class’ custodian, Ridgewell added: “I don’t see why Ben shouldn’t belong in that bracket, he has been playing so well for a long period of time. He is easily an international class goalkeeper and I think he would get in most international teams in Europe.
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“It’s brilliant for England to have someone like that. It’s just been unfortunate for him that England has two goalies at top-drawer level in Joe and him.”
Chairman John Berylson was at ‘Walls 2-1 defeat to Blackburn Rovers and how this game summed up the season, and will carry on next season unless big changes are made.
Leading 1-0 at half time, so what do we do? Go to 4-5-1 and try and hold on to a single goal lead. Not for the first time this season, mid-game changes have resulted in Millwall losing points.
I love KJ, don’t get me wrong, the bloke has done wonders for my club, but this season is likely to have been the worst league season under KJ for the Lions, lets take the FA Cup semi final out of the equation and just focus on the league.
This season was looking to turn into a good one, with Chris Wood banging in the goals and pushed us as high as 4th. He was never going to sign for us, he used us to get a big move elsewhere and eventually went to Leicester. Then we let Darius Henderson, the bloke who kept us up last season, go to Forest on a free. I can see why though, on 16K a week, pick and chose when he turned up to training and wasn’t “in the right state’ when he did.
It was all about replacing them, KJ called this a “regeneration” of our strikeforce.
Well, one striker brought in was Nathan Tyson from Derby on loan. A bloke who doesn’t score and is injury prone, but KJ thought he could make a decent player there, he has not started one game. No wonder his nickname is “Tampax Tyson” one week in, three weeks out.
Next one was Rob Hulse coming in on loan from QPR. Hulse had a decent record playing at Charlton earlier in the season, so worth a go. How wrong was I. He has scored one goal (against Luton). He’s a target man who cannot head the ball or jump up and frankly he looks like he just doesn’t care and his happy to just get his money, and to storm down the tunnel after coming off against Blackburn.
Hope he drove straight back to QPR…
Another striker brought in Jermaine Easter from Palace on loan. Most couldn’t see why he was brought in, but he has done the best out the lot, the best of an abysmal lot. He seems to bring calmness into play and is a good passer of the ball, but KJ seems to insist on him playing on the wing or on his own, he wins a few share of headers but is not a target man, he needs support.
The striker signings have been a failure and will be the main reason for us going down if we finish in the bottom three.
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Berylson must see that money will need to be spent. I’m hoping to see somehow the money from the cup exploits being spent, but I won’t be holding my breath.
Lets just hope whatever division we are in next seaman, their are big changes within the squad in the summer…
By the time I came to actually writing this article, in comparison to when I thought up the title, I had fully expected Gonzalo Higuain to be an Arsenal player by now. Gunners fans are undoubtedly concerned that the Argentine international is yet to arrive in North London, with reports from Madrid insisting Real President Florentino Perez is yet to actually receive a formal bid for the 25 year old.
But in some ways, it makes this article easier to write, as it centres around Arsene Wenger’s transfer policy. Earlier in the season it was announced that the Gunners gaffer would be handed £70million to invest in new players and propel the club back towards the Premier League title race, whilst the potential sales of Gervinho, Bacary Sagna, Marouane Chamakh and Andre Santos would add further revenues to spend on reinvigorating a stagnating squad, and the departures of Denilson, Andre Arshavin and Sebastien Squillaci would free up a troubling wage bill.
It’s all good news in theory for Arsenal, with this summer for many reasons marking arguably the most important transfer window at the club throughout the last decade. A Gunners fan will tell you that Wenger is on the cusp of turning it all around – he’s accepted that you can’t win the Premier League title, or even auxiliary silverware, by spending £10million here on Mikel Arteta and £10million there on Olivier Giroud based on one season of noteworthy success in the French top flight, whilst at the same time, he’s understood that spending an overzealous fee can have subliminal and psychological effect in a positive sense, even if some number-crunching analyst points out it’s not cost-effective.
[cat_link cat=”arsenal” type=”tower”]
But are we yet to actually see Wenger take on board any of this season’s criticisms? It may be early in the transfer window, but Tottenham, Chelsea and Manchester United have all made substantial ground, whilst the Arsenal boss has made just one acquisition from his favourite recruitment pool – Yaya Sanogo, from Ligue 2, for free.
If there’s one player who sums up Wenger’s transfer policy since their last title win, The Invincibles’ unbeaten domestic campaign in 2004, its Sanogo. I’m not suggesting the France U21 international doesn’t have the potential to be a good player, whose transfer is undoubtedly a sensible piece of business, but is another unproven teenager what the squad needs this summer?
I’m sure at some point Arsene Wenger will break the club’s record transfer fee amid the current off-season, which currently stands at just £16million for Santi Cazorla. If it won’t be Higuain, and his proposed £23million deal, it will be another striker with a similar price tag. Wayne Rooney remains the obvious candidate, whilst the Gunners’ apparent pursuit of Luis Suarez I personally find rather difficult to believe.
My hunch is however, that the purchase of a new, proven centre-forward will be where the Gunners gaffer decides to draw the line. If we look at his previous history in terms of signings, the last purchase to exceed the marketing norm was Sylvain Wiltord at a fee of £13million, which wouldn’t be eclipsed at the Emirates for the next eight and a half years.
Arsenal fans will point out that the situation is different now – spending as a means to succeed has become compulsory over the last decade at the Premier League’s summit, whilst Arsene Wenger’s plan of making his club almost entirely autarkic and self-sufficient on their youth products has failed, and the apparently impossible-to-overcome burden of a new stadium has now been fully paid off, despite the fact the Gunners’ pre-tax profit continually grew in this period, from 2002 to 2010, freeing up the club’s finances to invest in a cast of continental talents.
But old habits die hard, and Arsene Wenger is hardly known as a man who is always keen to change his ways for the better. Wenger’s monolithic approach to management appears to be centred around determinedly sticking to his own philosophies and principles, compromising only when he has to. His rumoured spat with Steve Bould over the first team’s defence is a prime example, whilst the board must also take a share of the blame for failing to challenge Wenger’s methods and ethos, despite the club’s continual decline. At one point it seemed the Frenchman would be forced to spend this summer, with his job on the line after a lukewarm at best campaign, yet the board have now offered him a new contract, amid their perpetual fear of change.
Similarly, it wouldn’t be the first time the Gunners boss has sugar-coated a message for the Emirates faithful. In January, he promised a striker and turned up with occasional Spain left-back Nacho Monreal, and the summer previous he promised a viable replacement for Robin Van Persie, and turned up with Olivier Giroud.
Would it be that inconceivable if Wenger spent around £25million on one player, and then reverted back to making £10million acquisitions to address other departments of the Arsenal roster that require improvements? The North Londoners have already been linked with the likes of Sebastien Corchia and Etienne Capoue, and although both are decent footballers who can claim impressive 2012/2013 campaigns, they won’t be pushing the club back towards the Premier League title race any time soon. The same can be said for Swansea’s Ashley Williams, who is regularly rumoured to be on his way to the Emirates, but would bring no substantial improvement to the Arsenal backline.
The fan base has dreams of Marouane Fellaini, Stevan Jovetic or even Christian Benteke arriving at the Emirates this summer, but I firmly believe Arsene Wenger will come up short, and once again maintain the damaging ideology that he knows best when it comes to all things Arsenal.
Even if I am wrong about the Gunners manager’s intentions, he is still yet to overcome the most important hurdle. The transfer of Gonzalo Higuain must go ahead, or failing that Wayne Rooney’s, or else, even if Wenger plans on bringing in players of the calibre the fans are desperate for, they will be repelled by the club’s inability to make star signings, and opt for domestic or European rivals who are moving in a promising direction.
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My advice to the Arsenal faithful is quite simply not to get your hopes up. Once again from Arsenal and Arsene Wenger, we’ve heard a lot of talk, but are yet to see any action.
Will Arsene Wenger fully commit in the transfer market this summer?
We’ve heard of the Oscars, we’ve heard of the Grammys but now Rio Ferdinand wants to add his own football equivalent of these into the mix- the Footies.
Ferdinand is known for his media savvy ways- having an intensely popular Twitter account, having his own restaurant as well as his own brand of clothing. The switched on South Londoner felt there was a gap in the market for this idea even we have the PFA Awards, the Ballon D’Or, the LMA awards, the Club Football Awards to name but a few.
According to the press release the Footies will ‘bring together football and music at a star studded event’. Now ask yourself this, do footballers need to adopt celebrity culture anymore than they already have done? Many of them already think they are movie stars but it looks like Ferdinand wants to turn them into bigger prima-donnas than they already are!
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Just 180 minutes of football separate England from a place at the Brazil 2014 World Cup but if Roy Hodgson’s side are to stand a chance of qualifying they have to get past Montenegro tonight.
As it stands England are just one point ahead of Ukraine and Montenegro in Group H but will be buoyed by their 4-0 win over Moldova last month, in which Steven Gerrard, Rickie Lambert and Danny Welbeck all made it onto the score sheet. Montenegro drew with Poland 1-1 in early September but if the broadsheets are to be believed, Branko Brnovic’s side are viewing Friday’s game as a potential giant killing.
First time round England could only muster a 1-1 draw with Montenegro away in Podgorica after a late goal from Dejan Damjanovic, and Hodgson is well aware of the dangers posed by the opposition.
“They’re well organised and a tough team to play, they’re dangerous from set-plays and a big and strong team,” Hodgson told the FA.
“They’re a team that knows how to defend and a team that will ask questions of us too.
“They will expect us to take the game to them and take the initiative and they’ll be trying to use the counter-attacking opportunities. So we can’t throw players forward to try and score goals and leave ourselves exposed. We know the task ahead and we can’t criticise Montenegro for that.”
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Liverpool have taken the first steps towards offering Luis Suarez a new contract that would see him become the club’s highest paid player of all time, according to the Daily Mail.
Reds managing director Ian Ayre flew to Barcelona yesterday to meet Suarez’s agent, Pere Guardiola – the brother of Bayern Munich boss Pep – to open discussions on a new deal that would see Suarez improve his current wages of £100,000 a week.
Suarez extended his current deal in the summer of 2012, and is set to see it expire in 2016.
The Uruguayan international has proved his worth to the club once again this season, scoring a staggering 17 goals in just 11 league games.
Suarez’s goals have helped fire the Reds to second place in the Premier League table, just two points behind current leaders Arsenal.
The Reds are anxious to reward him with a contract that would see the striker surpass Steven Gerrard in Liverpool’s earning list, and complete a remarkable turnaround.
Suarez spent the summer attempting to engineer a move to Premier League rivals Arsenal, claiming manager Brendan Rodgers had ‘broken promises’ by not allowing him to leave.
Suarez, 26, was made to train on his own by Rodgers while he continued to serve his 10-game ban for biting Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic last April.
But since returning to the starting line up against Sunderland on September 29, Suarez has not put a foot wrong.
He was named Football Supporters’ Federation Player of the Year on Monday, 24 hours after captaining Liverpool to a 5-0 win at Tottenham, and said: “It’s important that we stay together, we keep going. It’s important for me, but more important for the club.”
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It should already be accepted that Arsenal don’t have the squad to challenge on three fronts until the end of the season. Arsene Wenger has been down this path on more than one occasion in the recent past, stretching a thin squad to its limits and subsequently facing ultimate defeat.
On the face of it, with Arsenal still in contention for the Premier League title, a loss to Bayern Munich wouldn’t be the worst thing to happen to Wenger’s side. Look to the consistency Liverpool showed during the first half of the season when they weren’t burdened with midweek excursions across the continent.
Brendan Rodgers’ side is also short on quality throughout, but they’ve been able to get where they are now because they’ve been able to properly recuperate between weekend games.
But it isn’t as clear cut as that for Arsenal. The club should be in a position to offer maximum effort in all three competitions they’re still in. Wenger had a month to strengthen the squad properly and chose to stand still, thus increasing the likelihood of burnout.
It also doesn’t set a good mood around the club if supporters are being asked to fork out even more cash in line with the club’s three per cent increase in tickets. What are fans paying for if Arsenal are unable to field strong enough squads throughout the campaign?
A loss to Bayern could be terrible for morale, and that’s what the manager is currently gambling on. Taking away the emotional aspect of it, however, Arsenal would be better suited knowing that the rest of the season is confined to just domestic games; that’s how far this Arsenal squad can exert themselves without falling into that now infamous ‘red zone.’
The key here is mentality and how much a loss to Bayern can take out of the players. It’s nothing new that some supporters may feel liberated from the burden of Champions League football; when the prize is so high domestically, why wouldn’t the focus be on what can be achieved in the Premier League?
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But it’s precisely that knock-on effect that could damage the club’s chances of winning a trophy this season. The gamble is whether defeat in Europe will have a lasting effect on what the team do for the remainder of the campaign.
With such a thin squad, one already weakened by injury, it’s a difficult call for Wenger to make.
Following Premier League referee Andre Marriner’s inexplicable confusion between Arsenal’s Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Kieran Gibbs during the Chelsea vs Arsenal, we felt it was worth a look at some other memorable refereeing cock-ups.
Most people are appreciative of the pressure referees are put under during the heat of the game, but some of these are just inexcusable.
Graham Poll’s triple yellow
Where better to begin than Graham Poll’s moment of stardom in the 2006 World Cup. England’s number one referee (or so according to FIFA) took charge of the Group F tie between Croatia and Australia. An hour in and Poll chose to book Croatian Josep Simunic, following that up in the 90th minute with a second yellow card.
However, Poll failed to implement the rules by forgetting to send the Croatian off for his second bookable offence. Poll did go on to dismiss Simunic, but not until he issued him with a third sanction. Sepp Blatter later confirmed that had Croatia gone on to claim victory, Australia would have had grounds for appeal. Luckily for Poll, the game finished 2-2. The Englishman was sent home from the tournament in shame, and became a laughing stock worldwide.
[youtube d-NRQz0P6vg]
“I don’t find you funny, Gazza”
Anyone who says that referees have no sense of humour need only cite this to make their point. Referee Dougie Smith was officiating Rangers’ final home game of the 1994-95 season, and he didn’t take kindly to Paul Gascoigne’s antics. 7-0 up and the England star handed the referee back his cards after dropping them by brandishing the yellow card in the fashion of the official.
As opposed to laughing it off as any self-deprecating person would do, Smith stopped Gazza in his tracks and showed him a yellow card in return. Congrats to Smith for taking the pressure of the Hibs players though.
[youtube 7iYeifVvAV0]
Watford vs Reading – ‘Ghost goal’
This Championship tie in 2008 saw one of the most bizarre incidents in the history of English football. 13 minutes into the match and Reading were awarded a goal, courtesy of Watford defender John Eustace. A brief goal-mouth scramble following a Reading corner was eventually cleared out of the box only for referee Stuart Attwell to blow for a goal.
After a consultation with linesman Neil Bannister, the goal was given, seemingly after the first touch from the Watford defender. Despite a lack of acknowledgement from any player on the field, the referee allowed the goal to stand.
[youtube O0YiuSbBdaQ]
Australia vs Equitorial Guinea – Women’s World Cup
This particular incident is the kind of thing you may see down the park with seven-year-olds when the manager screams ‘pick the ball up’ at his kids. Australia, already 1-0 up, hit the post after a cross.
Instead of taking possession of the ball, or simply clearing it, Equitorial Guinea defender Bruna catches the ball and turns towards the referee before dropping it and running off. You can only assume the ref was as confused as everyone observing the game was and somehow allowed play to resume.
[youtube wuteWxc7B78]
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Crystal Palace vs Bristol City – Freddy Sears disallowed goal
The introduction of goal-line technology means that this type of controversy will likely never occur again in at top-level football. Frank Lampard vs England was bad. Pedro Mendes vs Manchester United was worse.
But Freddy Sears vs Bristol City is quite literally unbelievable. Neil Warnock has never been one to shy away from public criticism of anyone, but he was fully justified in his outrage after his on-loan striker had the ball practically hit the back of the net. In bundling the ball over the line Sears managed to hit the stanchion resulting in the ball rebounding straight back out of the goal.
Crystal Palace players wheeled away in jubilation while Bristol’s defenders trudged away in disappointment, only to find out that the referee, on advice from his linesman, disallowed the goal.
With all of the talk leading up to yesterday’s match focused upon whether Roy Hodgson should persevere with Wayne Rooney, the pressure was on for the 28 year old to deliver. After spurning a glorious opportunity in the first half, the Manchester United forward delivered the perfect riposte to his critics by grabbing the equaliser, his FIRST ever goal at a World Cup.
However, Rooney’s strike was not enough to prevent the Three Lions slipping to a second consecutive defeat. The brace from Luis Suarez leaves England’s hopes of qualifying hanging by a thread as Hodgson’s men now have to rely upon Italy to emerge victorious in both of their remaining fixtures.
Moved to his preferred central role, many fans commended Rooney for delivering an improved performance to his showing in Manaus.
But in a team display characterised by nervousness and defensive weakness, some supporters still argued that the 28 year old had failed to deliver once again.
Despite having a goal and an assist from two matches, there are clearly those that feel we should expect more from Rooney. But is the forward just a convenient scapegoat for England’s current woes?