Harry Redknapp will be missing influential duo Gareth Bale and William Gallas when Tottenham travel to play Wigan on Saturday.But the Spurs boss has stressed the importance of keeping alive their chances of finishing in the top four.
Tottenham have struggled to find their best form in their past three league games and have picked up only two points against relegation strugglers Blackpool, Wolves and West Ham.
The north London club have slipped out of the top four and have now fallen four points behind fourth-placed Manchester City.
But despite the importance of facing Real Madrid in the quarter-finals of the Champions League on Tuesday night, Redknapp believes his side cannot afford to drop any more points if they are to stand any chance of playing in the prestigious European competition again next season.
“They are all focused, they know how important it is for us to make that top four again,” he said.
“We have worked hard all year at it and have been fighting on both fronts. We have always been in the top five all season and it has not been through a lack of effort in trying to stay up there.”
“The game is all important for us. We have to look to get Champions League football for sure next year, so we have to keep picking up points. Wigan is a vital game for us.”
Although Bale is expected to have recovered from a hamstring injury to play against Real Madrid, Gallas is now facing a race against time to prove his fitness as he is suffering with a knee injury.
Gallas has already been for two scans this week to assess the damage and broke down once again when he attempted to kick a ball on Friday morning.
I couldn’t be sure (if he will be fit for Madrid). At the moment, he can’t kick a ball,” Redknapp said.
“His knee is sore. He has had two scans this week. The first scan he had didn’t look too bad and he went out training but didn’t feel good.”
“He had another scan and went out this morning and did some running but when he went to strike the ball he had problems.”
“I’ve got two central defenders left, Sebastien Bassong and Michael Dawson and hope they don’t get injured.”
Everton boss David Moyes believes the squad he has assembled for the new season is the strongest since he arrived at Goodison Park from Preston North End more than eight years ago.
The 47-year-old has signed Jermaine Beckford, Magaye Gueye, Jan Mucha and Joao Silva this summer while keeping all his big-name stars and is pleased with his dealings since the end of last season.
After watching his team beat Melbourne Heart 2-0 in a pre-season friendly thanks to goals by Jack Rodwell and Louis Saha, Moyes said:"I think in my time at Everton we've now got as strong a squad as we've ever had so I'm looking forward to the new season and seeing how it goes.
"I'm not a great goal-setter. I think you take the next game and you get on with it and you see where you end up.
"But we're ambitious and we want to do well and we've got a great desire to do better than what we've done in the past so we'll just try to keep it going and hopefully see where we end up
"I thought that we needed a little bit more firepower up front and that's why we've brought Jermaine Beckford in.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
"Jermaine's just struggling a bit with his groin just now. He's not quite comfortable yet at training so we weren't going to use him but I felt we could get 20 minutes so I think he felt fine.
"His first touch and his first movement nearly showed you why he's scored so many goals through the lower leagues. We're giving him a great opportunity to see if he can do it at the highest level."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
According to reports in Italy, Juventus striker Amauri is set for a move to Tottenham Hotspur in January. (Controcampo)
The Brazilian born Italian moved to Juventus for £20 million in 2008 and had in impressive first season in Turin. However, the striker’s form has since deteriorated and this season he has not been involved as Juventus have reached the summit of Serie A.
It now looks as if Harry Redknapp has won the battle for the forward’s signature, with a wage packet of 35,000 a week rumoured to be enough to tempt Amauri to North London.
With Roman Pavlyuchenko’s future up in arms, the striker is apparently looked upon as a good back up to Emmanuel Adebayor and Jermaine Defoe.
Despite Juventus splashing out £20 million just over 3 years ago, the club are prepared to cut their losses on the striker with a solitary international cap for Italy with the transfer fee set to be small.
The player’s agent Enersto Bronzetti confirmed the rumours at the weekend, stating that Amauri ‘is close to signing for an English club.’
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Although the deal may not be set in stone yet, with Bronzetti not ruling out Amauri staying in Italy, ‘Of course, if a top Italian club were to make an offer, then it would be difficult to say no, and Napoli are one of them.’
Whether it’s a club in the Premier League or the SPL, no club is anything without its fans. They are dependent on you for your support and no matter who owns, manages or plays for your club, as long as the fans continue to support their team they’ll keep going.
It is often argued who are the best football supporters in Britain. You have Newcastle fans, who always fill up their away allocation while 50,000 of them cram into St James’ Park every week, then there’s thousands of Arsenal and Tottenham fans who can’t get hold of a season ticket for love nor money.
However, in the Football Fans Survey 2011 carried out here on FootballFanCast.com, it was Liverpool fans who were given the nod. The Anfield faithful secured 27% of the vote, beating off competition from Newcastle and Manchester United to win the tag of being the best away supporters in Britain.
I’m sure Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish knows just how great the Reds fans are, having pulled on the Liverpool shirt in the past, and the American owners must be getting an idea too! So, the fans have spoken, Liverpool are the best away supporters in Britain. The question is, do you agree?
To see the rest of the results from the Football Fans Survey 2011, brought to you by ZOO Magazine and FootballFanCast.com, click here
A plethora of column inches have been consumed by journalists offering their post mortems of England’s World Cup exit. Each one dressed as the prophet of doom, pointing the finger of blame at everything from the ball, to the timing of the announcement of the starting XI. But is this really a time of mourning? Well, yes, according to the press. But let’s take a deep breath, have a sit down, and look for reasons to be cheerful about the England football team.
One thing that has been a sticking point for many is our apparent decline in World Cup performance, from two consecutive quarter finals to being eliminated one round earlier has the nation up in arms. What could have happened?! I would like to propose that during this World Cup we’ve only been short of two things: Luck and a penalty shootout. We didn’t play well at this World Cup – I won’t try and sugar-coat that. But have we played well in the previous two (now deemed successful) World Cups? Not really, no. Cast your mind back to 2006. In the opening minutes against Paraguay, Beckham floats in a free-kick from the left, it comes off Paraguayan defender Carlos Gamarra and we’re one up. The remaining 87 minutes were drab and uninspiring, but we won, so who remembers? The next game we take 83 minutes to break down Trinidad and Tobago, then lose a lead against Sweden, then sneak past Ecuador 1-0. Finally, we lose to Portugal after another bore 120 minutes, but everything that has gone before is forgotten – the reason being that we went out on penalties. A penalty-shoot out elimination is an elimination that distributes rose-tinted glasses to everyone in England. If we’ve gone out on penalties, regardless of how we’ve played, we must have been robbed, it’s unjust, it’s a crime – a hangover from Italia 90. The reason why so much has been made of this tournament is the larger than normal amount of expectation and pressure that was put upon the team prior to the whole thing kicking off. We had the best striker in the world and all that was left to be decided was how many goals we’d win by in the final.
The old idiom says that you don’t turn into a bad team overnight, and it’s absolutely true. We went through the World Cup with more or less the same side that breezed through qualifiers, not only winning but winning comfortably, scoring goals and keeping clean sheets. The Capello regime was being applauded by players and the press alike, instilling order and discipline to the modern day footballers was surely a good thing – although perhaps it was taken a little too far come World Cup time. But players live and learn, and so do managers. So the calls for wide spread culling of coaches and players are a little hasty. Yes young players are due into the squad, but not at the rate being suggested. Some are ready, Dawson, Walcott, Milner, Lennon and Johnson to name a few, but some aren’t and let’s not forget we do have world class players already filling many positions. We have the chance to gradually blood youngsters in a relatively weak Euro 2012 qualifying group and get them ready for a major knock out tournament. The likes of Wilshire, Gibbs and Wickham can learn simply by being around the squad, these guys are not Premier League regulars and can’t be thrust into international limelight, not yet, we mustn’t forget the counter-productive nature of Walcott’s only World Cup call-up. The kids must be handled with care and their talents nurtured, not exposed before an over expectant world.
Losing on penalties is noble, losing to Brazil is acceptable, but losing to Germany is not. But credit where credit’s due, Germany are a very good team – ask Lionel or Diego. But giving Capello the chance to right his wrongs is a good move, he doesn’t become a bad manager over the space of 3 weeks and I trust him not to panic like the rest of us, make the necessary changes and get England to the Euros. So wash those England shirts and crack open a beer, because we’re guaranteed an exciting two years…
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Following the Merseyside Derby on Saturday someLiverpool fans and many fans from opposing clubs were calling Luis Suarez a diver after Jack Rodwell tackled him.
At first look, the tackle looked bad but then replays show that it was not that bad a tackle and Suarez may have milked it.
The FA on Tuesday announced that Jack Rodwell’s red card will be rescinded as Everton appealed that sending off, suggesting now that Suarez overreacted for that challenge. Two ex-Liverpool players spoke out after that game and both believe that Suarez should not have reacted the way he did after that challenge.
Graeme Souness said:
“I’ve played in Latin countries and I’ve worked in Latin countries and I think they, at times, can exaggerate that situation. I think he [Suarez] is a fabulous football player, but I think he’s also a very cute player. He’ll be a great asset for Liverpool, but I think yesterday he overplayed that”
Whilst Ray Houghton went on to comment:
“He did catch Suarez but does that mean that he should have screamed at the top of his voice before he hit the ground? Probably not but that is the way football has gone unfortunately.
If you want to stop challenges like that then we may as well go and play a different game. I don’t think it was a red card. I don’t think it was a yellow card, it was just a very good challenge.”
Now being a Liverpool fan, I have to try stick up for our players as best as I can and I defended Suarez when the debate began that he dives and goes to the ground too easily. But now that the red card has been rescinded, we have very little leverage now in our defence for Suarez.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
The likes of Ronaldo, Drogba and Torres, when they first came to the Premier League, they went to the ground too easily but over a couple of seasons they learnt that they have to stay on their feet as much as possible and hopefully the same will happen to Suarez. In my opinion he does not go down as easily as those three I have mentioned. What is your take on all of this?
Yet another product of the esteemed Ajax academy, foraging full-back Gregory van der Wiel could be the latest de Godenzonen graduate to depart the Amsterdam Arena for pastures new this summer.
van der Wiel has attracted admiring glances from across the continent for the last couple of years, with Barcelona, Manchester City and Arsenal all rumoured to have kept tabs on the 23-year-old. Chelsea are the latest Premier League team to be linked with the Ajax man. With Jose Bosingwa out of contract in the summer and Branislav Ivanovic preferring to play at centre-back, van der Wiel could be an ideal signing for Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti.
After coming through Ajax’s academy system (initially as a centre-back before being switched to right-back by then-manager Marco van Basten), van der Wiel made his senior debut for the club in March 2007, featuring in a 4-1 win over FC Twente. He has since gone on to appear 97 times for the Netherlands’ most successful club, scoring nine times in the process.
[ad_pod id=’fox-mpu’ align=’right’]
Amassing 14 appearances over the course of his first two seasons at the club, van der Wiel established himself as a key member of Ajax’s starting line-up during the 2008/09 season. Indeed his performances during that season lead to him being named as the club’s “Talent of the Year”. He continued his impressive progress last season, and was deservedly awarded the Johan Cruijff “Young Player of the Year” accolade for 2009/10.
The right-back has also established himself as part of the national team set-up. Capped 20 times, van der Wiel made his debut for The Netherlands in a friendly match against Tunisia in February 2009. He also featured in the side’s ultimately unsuccessful bid to win the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, starting twice for the Oranje in their group stage wins over Denmark and Japan.
As an attacking right-back, van der Wiel has unsurprisingly drawn comparisons with Barcelona’s Daniel Alves. Much like the Brazilian, van der Wiel is equipped with pace and stamina. He is also a good crosser of the ball.
With van der Wiel’s stock continuing to rise, suitors such as Chelsea should look to move quickly if they are to secure his services. AC Milan are reported to have opened negotiations to take the 23-year-old to the San Siro, in a move which would see him reunited with compatriot Urby Emanuelson. A failure to agree a fee prevented the defender from joining German giants Bayern Munich after the 2010 World Cup finals, but it seems likely that this season will prove to be van der Wiel’s last in Amsterdam.
The following video highlights Van der Wiel’s talents:
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
[youtube aNCsLEW1cgc]
Follow me on twitter at www.twitter.com/zarifrasul
With the arrival of David Villa at the Camp Nou many have speculated that Ibrahimovic’s days in Spain are over. Couple this with the unexpected attack the player’s agent launched on Pep Guardiola this weekend and the speculation may be true. Though the Swede hasn’t blistered through his debut season in the fashion of Cristiano Ronaldo, his output and performances have actually been far from the disappointment that many – especially in England for example – believe them to be.
“If you don’t play a footballer after spending €65m then you should be sent to a mental hospital”.
These were the words of Mino Raiola, Ibrahimovic’s agent, on Sunday. To an extent he has a point but he is also skewing the truth somewhat; breaking the bank for a star signing and then not affording that player with first team football is one thing but Ibra was only consistently dropped when he lost form in the final three months of the league season. So how has his first year at Barcelona been? Not as bad as a large portion of the media make out.
In 23 starts (and 6 substitute appearances) the Swede netted 16 goals in the league and overall, scored 23 goals in 42 starts for Barcelona. Slightly better than a one-in-two record is hardly terrible but, given the stellar standards and goals return of Ronaldo and Messi in recent seasons, it is far from blistering. If we consider the motive behind Guardiola purchasing the Swede we can see that he has undoubtedly provided Barcelona with a more direct method of attack – his crucial goal against Stuttgart in the Champions League highlights this. His relationship with Messi has also been encouraging with the latter assisting many of the big man’s goals in the first half of the season.
In terms of important goals Ibrahimovic has delivered, as mentioned, in Stuttgart, two at the Emirates where his record against English clubs was under scrutiny, and also in the first el clasico of the year. The variety of his goals (headed, lobbed, chipped, poached, powered, deftly finished and from set piece) is more than encouraging and the quality of his assists (a fine layoff for Messi against Getafe, and a lovely dragged back heel for Pedro against Mallorca) highlight his vision and technique. The problem with Ibrahimovic however is a desire for the spectacular that can frustrate and in the latter part of the season we saw his confidence low and his output suffering. The very best in the world never allow a dip in form to affect their self belief yet this appears to be the case with Ibrahimovic.
// <![CDATA[
document.write('’);
// ]]>
Despite important goals and variety to his play the world was most interested when Barcelona and Inter clashed in the semi-finals and Ibra was ineffective. I have spoken in a previous article (see here) that the choice to deploy Ibrahimovic was a tactical mistake by Guardiola considering Samuel and Lucio’s strength and aerial ability; they marked Drogba splendidly and subdued Ibra to anonymity in both legs – but instead of questioning Guardiola’s tactics it was Ibrahimovic who shouldered much of the blame.
Another difficulty which makes the Swede a victim of circumstance more than an inability to adapt is the impossible expectation placed on Barcelona on the back of the previous year’s treble. Anything less than that success is a mini failure and everyone has been fast to blame the difference Ibrahimovic induces in the team’s style of play. But this isn’t completely fair: the swift decline of Thierry Henry and the poor form mixed with repeated injuries of Andres Iniesta (just one goal and five assists since scoring his thrilling last minute strike against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in 2009) has all hampered the team’s style and consistency making Guardiola move toward a more functional and less spectacular team.
Whilst purchasing David Villa adds another world class striker to the mix the inevitable loss of Thierry Henry means, in terms of forwards, Barcelona would be wise to hold on to Ibrahimovic for one more season. Given his astronomical transfer fee it would make sense to stick with him and in a tweaked line up his penchant for the audacious may yield more fruit – also, the idea of an attacking trio of Villa-Ibra-Messi is not inconceivable. Though Pedro has been brilliant and Bojan has shown his quality, keeping Ibrahimovic affords them an alternative with definite value. Despite the polarised opinions of the Swede, his success cannot be argued: seven league titles in the past seven years with four different clubs (calciopoli notwithstanding) mean he is accustomed to winning, and I maintain his impact on Barcelona can still be special.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Saturday’s performance against Blackburn was an embodiment of just how disappointing Arsenal’s start to the season has been with losses to Liverpool, Manchester United and now a 4-3 defeat to the bottom club in the Premier League. The match demonstrated the worrying defensive problems that Arsenal have with poor teamwork at the back especially during set pieces and throughout the game the Gunners struggled to cope with Blackburn effective counter-attacking football.
There were moments in the game which appeared to show how ittle it meant to the players, when conceding goals they walked back to the centre circle and just shrugged their shoulders. During a pivotal moment in the game, as Walcott was brought down by Robinson, there were surprisingly little sign of protest or complaint from any of the Arsenal players.
Only five members of the team who played in the horrendous defeat at Old Trafford started on Saturday but little had changed, the team still lacked leadership and again failed to defend simple set pieces. The shaky foundations are built in attack and not in defence where the team is as vulnerable as before leaving themselves far too open for Blackburn to take advantage.
There was no leader, Van Persie is probably the side’s best player and I have no doubt he is a capable captain who leads by example off the pitch but you can question whether he is the leader in personality who the side desperately need?
There has not been a real leadership figure in the ranks at Arsenal for many years and it showed last year with the collapse of their season after the Carling Cup Final defeat. Would a team with a true leader have thrown away a 4-0 lead at Newcastle or conceded a penalty in the last minute against Liverpool when the game was won? These were crucial points that mean the title went to Old Trafford and while Fabregas was a fantastic player, he was not a natural leader and he was often found wanting.
Upon his arrival in England, Wenger inherited a tremendous captain in Tony Adams, whose passion and determination inspired the Gunners to domestic Doubles in 1998 and 2002. His successor, Patrick Vieira, was also a great man to lead the side and since he left in 2005 Arsenal have won nothing.
[ad_pod id=’qs-2′ align=’left’]
You often find that the best leaders work from the back or from midfield where they have a good view of everything going on in front of them; it is therefore difficult for Van Persie to work out where it is going wrong in defence from the other end of the pitch. The club need players who are going to step up and take responsibility which is essential particularly when they are going through a bad patch. A captain on the pitch is different to leader and that is what Arsenal lack, someone who is going to take a game by the scuff of the neck and take his team to victory. There was hope among Arsenal fans that deadline day signing Per Mertesacker would be the answer to their leadership concerns but his first few games have shown little to demonstrate this.
Many have cited a lack of leadership as the primary factor behind the north London club’s failure to secure silverware over the last five seasons, and the last season’s events only added more credibility to that theory. Wenger’s side looked rudderless while going out of the three cup competitions in quick succession. Former club captain Cesc Fabregas appeared in just one of those defeats, the 3-1 loss in Barcelona, with Robin van Persie taking the armband in the Carling Cup final against Birmingham and again at Old Trafford in the FA Cup.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Wenger has recently argued that the responsibility of leading a team can be shared by several players just as effectively which is true but not if the team actually lacks any real leaders on the pitch. This problem has been exacerbated for this new season as the side appear to lack any character. Last season Arsenal went from the verge of greatness to one who emerged with nothing because they had no-one who could galvanise the team and drag the rest of them out of the mire. Wenger may have brought a new-look team over the summer but he has once again failed to address this fundamental issue.
Let me know your thoughts and follow me on twitter for more discussion about the biggest issues about the beautiful game.
Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp says the club desperately need a new stadium if they are to compete at the top of the Premier League.
The north London club were dealt a huge blow on Friday when West Ham were chosen as the preferred bidders by the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) for the use of the Olympic Stadium after the 2012 Games.
The decision still has to be ratified by two government departments and the mayor of London, but it appears certain that Tottenham will have to look elsewhere as they seek to move into a new 60,000-seat stadium that would allow them to compete financially with the matchday revenue of the likes of Manchester United and Arsenal.
And Redknapp admits that is a blow as the club looks to maintain their push for a Champions League place against Sunderland on Saturday.
“Tottenham need a new stadium,” said Redknapp. “We need a new 60,000-seater stadium because we haven’t got room to accommodate all the people that want to come and watch us every week.”
“Am I disappointed West Ham have been chosen as the preferred bidder? Yes, because the club wanted it.”
“I work for them so it would’ve been nice for us if we had got it if they thought it was the best way forward. The chairman couldn’t have tried any harder but that’s it. That’s life. You have to move on.”
Redknapp’s main focus is on Saturday’s tricky tie at the Stadium of Light. With Chelsea not playing until Monday night, Spurs will move into the top four if they win in the north-east.
But with Luka Modric, Rafael van der Vaart, Gareth Bale and Ledley King all out injured, Redknapp is expecting a tough test as his side battle to keep their Champions League spot.
And with an away game against AC Milan in the last 16 to come on Tuesday, the former West Ham and Portsmouth boss is not happy about the timing of Saturday evening’s kick-off.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
“The timing isn’t ideal is it for us, it’s not perfect for sure,” said Redknapp. “But we have to focus on getting into the top four now, that’s the key.”
“AC Milan shouldn’t be a distraction. We have a difficult game tomorrow and Steve Bruce has done a great job there.”
“He has taken a good couple of players. Steve rang me about Sulley Muntari and I said I would take him all day long, having had him at Portsmouth, and (Stephane) Sessegnon is a good player. They have some quality and it will be a difficult game.”