AZ Alkmaar came from a goal down to beat Vitesse Arnhem 3-1 in the Eredivisie, furthering their quest for European football next season.An upset looked in the offering in Friday’s sole league encounter after Japan defender Michihiro Yasuda fed striker Marco van Ginkel shortly before half-time for the 18-year-old’s fourth league goal of the season.But – much to their home fans’ delight – the second half belonged to AZ, with Sweden midfielder Pontus Wernbloom kick-starting the recovery with his 63rd-minute strike.Danish winger Simon Poulsen put his AZ in front in the 81st minute, before his darting run down the left flank ended with Belgian midfielder Maarten Martens stabbing home in a crowded penalty area to ice the game for Gertjan Verbeek’s men.The win moves AZ Alkmaar to fourth ahead on 46 points, while Vitesse remain just one place above the relegation zone but still with a seven-point buffer on 16th-placed Excelsior.
And the fallout from France’s ignominious World Cup debacle continues. Embarrassed by the conduct of French skipper Patrice Evra, former France captain Marcel Desailly has chimed in with his two cents on the whole affair.
”The Federation president and the coach have already paid the price,” Desailly said. ”And I think that Evra, who is the origin of the strike, should pay too.
”The captain made a mistake and he has to assume the consequences of his actions. He decided not to train, before realising his mistake and apologising. But he deserves at least a temporary suspension.
”He is an excellent player, our best left-back, but he should be suspended for two months, because the captain is the first one to be an example. His behaviour affected the image of France throughout the world.”
Desailly’s comments mirrored those of France’s most-capped player, Lilian Thuram.Speaking after an FFF council meeting, the former Juventus defender said: “I demanded that the players be harshly punished and that Evra never returns to the France squad. When you are captain of the France team, you must have a responsibility to the jersey and the people.”
The shambles that accompanied France’s World Cup campaign has made them the laughing stock of the football world. Whilst one can point to the (often baffling) decisions made by recently departed coach Raymond Domenech, the conduct of the squad, particularly those orchestrating the camp rebellion, was reprehensible.
Although the acts and decisions made by the non-playing stuff may have contributed to the side’s failure to win in South Africa, the majority of the blame must be apportioned to the players for their dismal performances. As captain, Patrice Evra was the figurehead of France’s playing staff, and subsequently responsible for his and their actions. In leading the mutiny, Evra undermined the coach and his authority, an act which breached the fundamental trust and relationship existing between player and coach.
New France coach Laurent Blanc has acknowledged the challenges that face him in rebuilding a damaged side. Having expressed his own disgust at the players’ decision to strike, Blanc has admitted that no player is safe from the axe, stating: “‘I can’t act like nothing happened in South Africa. It wouldn’t go down well. I followed the events, as you all did, with a lot of sadness. I was outraged by certain behaviour. It’s a delicate situation. There are meetings to be had.”
Whether or not Blanc decides to heed the words of World Cup-winning pair Desailly and Thuram remains to be seen. However, Patrice Evra can have no complaints should he find himself succumb to the national team guillotine.
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Click on image below to see the PORTUGAL babes at the World Cup
Daniel Sturridge and Frazier Campbell are the latest players to be victim of racial abuse and both matters are being investigated by the FA. Campbell received an offensive tweet, while Sturridge faced abuse from supporters in Chelsea’s recent game against Genk. It is spiralling out of all control and is a massive blow to the Kick It Out campaign who have worked tirelessly to stamp racism out of the game.
Elsewhere in the news Arsene Wenger feels Arsenal can improve; Michael Owen faces a six week layoff, while Carlos Tevez remains AWOL in Argentina.
NEWS
Wenger feels Arsenal can improve
Sturridge the latest victim as Racism rears its head again
Venky’s dismiss talk that Blackburn are to be sold
Owen faces six week layoff
Terry focussed on England
Arsenal star on Real Madrid’s hit-list
Ancelotti urges Milan to raid Chelsea
Tevez still AWOL
[divider]
TRANSFER TALK
Barca coy on Bale interest – Sky Sports
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Liverpool join United and Real in hunt for Brazil’s latest wonder-kid Rodrigues – Daily Mail
Ancelotti urges Milan to grab Chelsea star – Mirror
Newcastle ready to make £2m swoop for in-form Scotland striker Rhodes – Daily Mail
This season Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp has made contradicting comments regarding what his team can achieve this year. Earlier on in the season he said that the title race is open and that his Spurs side can challenge, now into the business side of the season he’s said that finishing in the top four of the Premier League would be a ‘miracle’. Surely such comments effect the morale of his squad who are all mostly new to Champions League football and competing at the top of the Premier League?
Firstly I want to say that I am a fan of Harry Redknapp, no I don’t support Spurs or support any of the clubs he has managed in the past, but I believe he is one of the best English managers in the game today, if not the best, and would love him to take over the England job in the future. When speaking to a few Spurs supporting friends of mine, they speak less favourably of Redknapp than myself despite being the first manager to take them into the Champions League and bringing the likes of Rafael van der Vaart to the Lane. Although they can appreciate the relative success, they see him as a bit of a ‘media darling’ and question his tactical nous (except the latter point seems to have gone quiet with them since their victory at the San Siro.)
Although Redknapp is one of the more honest and outspoken managers in the game, he is of course starting to play the “mind games” that the top level managers like Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger are famous for. But since the defeat away to Blackpool last Tuesday, maybe he regrets his pre-game comments that it would be another miracle for his side to qualify for the Champions League again. Whether or not it was a ploy to take the pressure off his players, it did not work, so should Harry Redknapp just get on with the job in hand rather than playing politics with the media?
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Of course the Spurs boss wants to take the pressure off his players and heap the pressure on the likes of Manchester City and Chelsea. “It would be a miracle if we did qualified,” Redknapp said. “I think people get carried away thinking Tottenham should be in the Champions League. Why should we be in the Champions League? We’d never been in the Champions League before, suddenly we do it and it’s ‘oh well we should do it again’.Look at Man City and Chelsea’s wage bill. Have a look at the money they pay out. Why should we finish above them?”
Well, despite the loss at Blackpool, Spurs still sit 4th place and even though a Chelsea victory over Manchester United tonight would see them go a point above their London rivals – Tottenham still have a great chance of getting back their Champions League spot. With their next three league games against the current bottom 3 teams, they will be looking to gain maximum points; meanwhile Chelsea have to play Manchester City during this time.
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Forget wage bills and transfer fees, Tottenham have shown they are good enough by qualifying for the Champions League last season and making an impressive debut in the European competition this season. For Spurs’ sake, hopefully Harry is reminding his squad about all of these positives in the dressing room regardless of what he says to the media, otherwise finishing 5th will be a big probability.
Former Wigan Athletic defender Paul Scharner is hoping to join Roy Hodgson at Liverpool.
The 30-year-old Austrian is available on a free transfer after leaving the DW Stadium at the end of the last campaign and is hoping Hodgson’s previous interest can lead to a move to Anfield.
The new Reds boss tried to sign Scharner during his time as Fulham manager.
“Roy Hodgson and Paul Scharner – this is a special relationship,” said the player’s agent, Valentin Hobel.
“Hodgson thinks that Paul’s strengths in midfield are better than his attributes in central defence.
“Liverpool would be a dream, of course, but we are in contact with several clubs. Because he is a free transfer, he can choose.”
Meanwhile, striker Nabil El Zhar is looking to leave Anfield this summer after struggling to make an impact at first-team level.
“I want to leave Liverpool. I do not play often enough,” said the 23-year-old striker.
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“There are several European clubs interested and I will not close any doors.”
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Junior Hoilett’s days at Blackburn Rovers may be numbered as negotiations have reportedly ‘broken down’ or ‘stalled’.
The main sticking point seems to be a release clause that Blackburn want written into the new contract, similar to the £16.5m figure in Phil Jones’ that was activated by Manchester United in the summer.
The club claim that the player is close to signing a new deal at Ewood Park and deny he has turned any offers down.
But Hoilett and his advisers say they are not prepared to accept this new amendment. And that is the real crux of the issue; the player is out of contract in the summer and does not want to tie himself on a long term deal to a team that could well face a relegation struggle if he can just walk away at the end of this season.
As always, Tottenham are ‘monitoring the situation’. He is a versatile player with pace and power who can play on either wing, but given Spurs attacking options, the 21-year-old could face considerable bench time. If he did make the switch to White Hart Lane it is likely that the Canadian-born midfielder would be used as an impact player, and if he was picked up on a free he could well be worth a gamble.
But should a player who has only had one impressive season start looking for a move away? Blackburn especially will be hoping for some loyalty from a player they nurtured through their ranks into the Premier League.
Newcastle were linked with Hoilett in the summer, but Keane was able to persuade him to stay, unsurprisingly their name has resurfaced again.
Blackburn Rovers say they remain ‘calm’ over contract talks and that they are unaware of any firm interest from elsewhere.
The fortunes of both player and club are intertwined; If he can commit to the club and show he has the stomach for a relegation fight then Blackburn have a chance of staying in the Premier League, if their star player drags his heels fearing relegation then they may well be doomed already.
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Read more of Christopher Dyer’s articles at the excellent Transfer Tavern
It’s ten years since Sunderland last finished in the top ten of the Premier League but, even though they have lost their last four games, this season the Wearsiders look to be on course to end that decade-long spell away from the upper half of the table. It was little surprise, then, when Steve Bruce was handed a new contract as a result of the positive influence he has had upon the club’s league position and style of play since taking over as manager in May 2009.
Bruce’s side are currently in eighth place and, while Darren Bent might have opted out of the manager’s project, he left behind him players like Asamoah Gyan, Jordan Henderson, and impressive new signing Stéphane Sessègnon to carry on the good work. As well as being in with a chance of matching or bettering the back-to-back seventh-place finishes the Black Cats achieved in 2000 and 2001, this current squad is the most talented since the days of the side featuring Kevin Phillips and current chairman Niall Quinn too.
The success story on the pitch, however, is not matched by the tale off it. Attendances are marginally down on last season, prompting the harsh words Quinn had recently for the fans he suspects to be staying away from the Stadium of Light on Saturday afternoons in order to watch Sunderland’s matches in pubs with illegal satellite hook-ups instead. The former striker said he “despised” such fans, and the reasons for the strength of his anger become apparent once the club’s finances are considered.
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Sunderland are bankrolled by Ellis Short, the Texan billionaire who since becoming owner in May 2009 has put just over £95m into the Mackems’ coffers on top of the money he spent to acquire the club in the first place. The American’s continued generosity is of paramount importance to Sunderland because two years of transfer activity – funded in the most part by Short – and the increased wage bill associated with it have both contributed to Sunderland’s announcement of pre-tax losses of £27m and £28m respectively in the last two years. In total, the Black Cats are £66m in debt.
Sunderland’s poor financial showing has certainly been exacerbated by their inability to sell the few thousand extra tickets Quinn would like the club to in order to meet his average gate target of 44,000, while the revenue generated from other means such as shirt sponsorship and television coverage is less than that which other clubs benefit from. However, as at so many top flight clubs, buying expensive new players (and then paying their salaries) is the root cause of the balance sheet problems on Wearside even if that strategy is deemed to be the only way to maintain Premier League status.
A net spend of £65m on players since promotion in 2007 has left Sunderland with a wage bill standing at 82% of their turnover. Given that UEFA’s Financial Fair Play scheme – which will see clubs’ books scrutinised from next season with a view to the regulations’ implementation in 2013/14 – recommends no more than 70% of a club’s income be spent on their players’ pay, Sunderland’s business model looks to be as in need of change as the more high-profile examples at Manchester City and Chelsea.
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It’s not the first time Sunderland have been big spenders either. Their £125m outlay on transfers in the last four years is reminiscent of the period during the 1950s when similar cash-splashing behaviour – by the standards of the age, at least – resulted in the Black Cats being dubbed “the Bank of England club.” Fans will be hoping for a less traumatic outcome on this occasion, though, as will become apparent.
Sunderland earned their Bank of England comparisons during a period of spending that began in 1948 when they prised Len Shackleton from neighbours Newcastle United for £20,500. Don’t be underwhelmed by the size of the fee; it was a world record at the time. Just two years later, however, Sunderland made that figure appear insignificant when they paid £30,000 for another centre forward, as Trevor Ford arrived from Aston Villa. The 50% increase between the two record fees proves how transfer fee inflation is not just a modern phenomenon.
Don Revie (£22,000) and Billy Bingham (£8,000) were two other notable Sunderland signings during the fifties but the club’s massive investment did not bring them any silverware. They did finish one point off the top in 1950 but, for a club that had won the First Division six times by 1936, that achievement hardly met expectations.
Matters really started to unravel in 1957. Sunderland received a heavy fine and saw players such as Ford suspended by the Football League after an investigation found the club guilty of making illegal payments to its squad members. A scam involving overpayments to contractors had allowed Sunderland to pay their players in excess of the maximum wage, which was then £15 per week. The scandal resulted in the break-up of the club’s expensively-assembled squad and the following season they were relegated.
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Sunderland languished in the Second Division for six years, finally being promoted back to the top flight in 1964 three years after the maximum wage had been abolished. Several other clubs were believed to have committed similar offences to those that Sunderland were found guilty of in order to circumvent the draconian law but went undetected, only compounding the suspicion on Wearside that the Black Cats had been made an example of.
There is obviously no implication here of impropriety at Sunderland under their current regime. Nonetheless, the desire to better their league position that motivates their present day spending in the transfer market and on wages must surely only be sustainable for as long as the club retains Ellis Short’s financial backing. Were he to back out then those same players would probably have to be sold and relegation, as in 1958, might be the result.
Financial data in this article courtesy of the Swiss Ramble. Follow William Abbs on Twitter.
Liverpool have no chance of enticing Didier Deschamps away from Marseille, according to the French side's president Jean-Claude Dassier.
The former France international midfielder guided Marseille to the Ligue 1 title last term, impressing the Anfield hierarchy in the process.
The Reds are without a manager following Rafael Benitez's departure earlier in the summer, with current Fulham boss Roy Hodgson believed to be the favourite to take on the role.
However, Dassier claims Deschamps is the man Liverpool want, telling L'Equipe:"It's true, Liverpool's executive director, Christian Purslow, called me on Thursday morning. He speaks French very well and is very polite.
"I was expecting his call because I had heard of Liverpool's interest in Didier. He asked me if I would allow him to meet Didier and (agent) Jean-Pierre Bernes. I replied that I would never forbid anyone from meeting whoever.
"I also kindly indicated to him that there wasn't the slightest chance for him to pinch our coach. Even in his dreams.
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"With Didier, we have a trusting relationship. I hope he will commit himself to us for another year. I'm not worried. It's true also that Didier is flattered to see a great European club interested in him."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
After 6 months of wondering since a trip to Southend on February 18th, Crewe fans finally experienced once more that empty, helpless frustration that floods through the system after a defeat.
20 matches without loss and Notts County, in the opening game of the two clubs’ respective League One journeys, devoured such a stat with clinical ruthlessness that this inexperienced side will have to adapt themselves to with haste if they are to compete in the third tier.
The learning process now becomes steadfast for Steve Davis and his young side, they were exposed here to the unforgiving side of the league through Keith Curle’s street-wise unit which displayed physicality and measured football in equal measure. Crewe provided the vaguest of answers, one that nearly earned them a point towards the end of a scrappy affair, but upon the final whistle there was an over-riding feeling that a point would have been harsh on the visitors who were not forced to work overly-hard to edge the Railwaymen out.
There will be the inevitable faith in Davis that the failings on show here will be sorted immediately and put into action for the trip to Scunthorpe on Tuesday, for his other record of not losing consecutive matches during his nine month spell in charge still remains intact for now. Perhaps he was the victim of his own success here in that such a convincing thrashing of Hartlepool in the League Cup last weekend resulted in no option but to persist with the same team. Yet that win was not without concern and to lay the same weaknesses at the mercy of a side with the nous and experience of Notts County, it had to be argued, was rather reckless.
For Curle had done his homework and was evidently familiar with the Crewe penchant for attempting to play quick, incisive passing football through the middle. The Magpies’ midfield pressed hard, cut off the short passing streams Crewe usually indulge themselves in, and aside from a few half chances such as Max Clayton’s speculative lob over Bartosz Bialkowski, there was nothing to really report from the home side in a first half that was noted by Francois Zoko’s back-post finish after a right-wing cross. Too many free headers was a negative from the Hartlepool match, yet it was in effect here, Zoko drifted behind the centre-halves and diverted the ball past Alan Martin when completely free. The timing, just before the interval, took any impetus out of what had been a brave first half display from Crewe in the face of some tough tackling that threatened to deviate the game from out of the referee’s control, but it was in microcosm, the difference between the two sides; County seized on the opportunities they grafted out, Crewe did not.
Crewe’s man of the match Mathias Pogba had Crewe’s other notable first half chance, drifting in from the left to take a long ball down in a central area and his turn and shot was well parried by Bialkowski, yet this should have been the plan B that Crewe were forced into by County’s intense pressing that allowed neither Ashley Westwood or Abdul Osman sufficient time on the ball to supply the forwards with cutting through balls. Too often they were going long to a duo of short forwards in Ajay Leitch-Smith and Clayton who were being suffocated by County’s physical centre-halves. Meanwhile, Pogba’s brute force was stuck out on the periphery for too long and when he was positioned centrally with Clayton spared the physical bruising by moving to the left, it was far too late, despite a neatly taken header from a corner that ultimately proved to be a consolation.
It was Yohann Arquin who netted Notts County’s second goal, originating again from Crewe’s left side as a result of Gregor Robertson failing to cut the crossing opportunity off, confusion reigned and Arquin was allowed to stroke the ball home after the ball had broken loose. That, compounded with Arquin’s moment of madness in which he kicked out at Ashley Westwood to earn a red-card, drew a stirring response from Crewe, but it came with the introduction of Luke Murphy for the otherwise flat Abdul Osman and Pogba’s move into the centre, two logical decisions that worryingly came when the deficit was unlikely to be overturned. Westwood had a late shot cleared off the line as Gresty Road collectively held its breath, but an equaliser would have been fortunate from a home side point of view, and harsh on County who had worked hard enough to warrant the three points to be filed under the drawer entitled “deserved”.
Keith Curle punched the air and left to begin a campaign that will probably see them challenge the upper echelons of the division, whilst for Steve Davis it is back to the chalkboard for Tuesday night’s trip to Scunthorpe. The problems were evident and it shall be nothing for the reactionary nature of Davis to fix, but as with all opening day defeats, the next game cannot come quick enough to present the chance to blow it out of the system. If some were still in disbelief over last season’s wonderful climax that ensured League One status, nobody will be in any confusion now of where the club reside. This is League One and Crewe found that out on Saturday; now it is time to take the lessons and improve, on to Glanford Park.
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Bacary Sagna will be on the sidelines for around three months, as Arsenal have confirmed the full-back broke his leg against Tottenham on Sunday.
The full-back fell heavily in the 68th minute of The Gunners’ 2-1 defeat at White Hart Lane and had to be stretchered from the pitch.
With Sagna due to represent France in the upcoming international fixtures against Albania and Bosnia, the French Football Federation have confirmed the seriousness of the injury.
“The doctor of the France team, Fabrice Bryand, was informed by his Arsenal equivalent of a fracture to the right fibula of Bacary Sagna,” the statement reads.
“The player was hurt during his club’s 2-1 loss against Tottenham on Sunday. The defender will be operated on and is not expected to be available for three months.”
The news will be another blow to Arsene Wenger’s already struggling side, who are currently without Thomas Vermaelen, Jack Wilshere, Johan Djourou and Abou Diaby due to injury.
Youngster Carl Jenkinson replaced Sagna at the weekend, and now looks set to fill in at right back until the more senior man returns.
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