Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta has hit out at the Premier League and TV companies for scheduling their game with Manchester City just 60 hours after their Champions League clash with Napoli, according to the Telegraph.
Arsene Wenger’s team only returned from their draining Champions League fixture in Naples in the early hours of Thursday morning, and are set to travel to Manchester today ahead of a 12.45pm kick off with Manuel Pellegrini’s side tomorrow, due to the match being screened live on BT Sport.
Manchester City hold the advantage of being able to play on Tuesday night, as Pellegrini rotated seven of his first team regulars for the trip to Bayern Munich with City already having qualified.
The likes of Vincent Kompany, Yaya Toure, Sergio Aguero, Samir Nasri and Alvaro Negredo are set to head into the top of the table clash with a full weeks rest behind them, whilst Wenger’s sides preparation will revolve around being able to recover physically.
“The mood is fine, the recovery time is very tight,” said Arteta. “I don’t understand why we play Sunday afternoon [against Everton], Wednesday evening [against Napoli], get back at 4am and then play again on Saturday morning in Manchester.”It will just be about recovery. It’s not ideal. We will have a late warm down, try to get our legs back for Friday, travel on Friday and be as well prepared as we can. They will be ready for us because they rested seven or eight players in Munich.”Arsene Wenger has bemoaned the fixture schedule frequently in the past, and whilst Arteta acknowledges is it hardly ideal, he insists the team cannot use it as an excuse.”We have to be ready, no excuses,” he said. “We want to win there and we have to be prepared. We know it can be a big statement if we get a good result there.”
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A host of Premier League clubs are interested in signing Yoan Gouffran from Bordeaux, The Metro reports.
Gouffran has endured a difficult time at the Stade Chaban Delmas, scoring just 24 goals in 150 appearances since arriving from Caen in 2008.
The 26-year-old is in the last year of his contract at the club and has already made it clear that he will not sign a new deal, meaning he could be available for just £3million in the January transfer window.
Everton were reportedly interested in signing the player back in August, but it is understood they were put off by the French side’s £5million asking price- although news of a lower price-tag is likely to attract the attention of David Moyes.
Liverpool are also keen on the former France Under-21 international, with both clubs seemingly happy to sign him on a free transfer next summer when Gouffran’s contract expires.
Brendan Rodgers in particular will see the player’s versatility as a real asset, as Gouffran can play on either wing or at wing-back.
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The likelihood of a move to Anfield is increased by the Frenchman’s long-term admiration for the red half of Merseyside.
Newcastle could express interest in Gouffran if Demba Ba decides to leave Tyneside, with his agent not ruling out a move away in the near future.
In the early stages of the season, it was difficult to see anyone other than Tottenham Hotspur star Harry Kane taking home the Premier League Golden Boot.
The England international has been scintillating in front of goal, and was on course to claim his third consecutive individual award.
However, Liverpool star Mohamed Salah found shooting boots of his own and ended up securing the gong with a two-goal advantage.
The race for the award was taken to the final day of the season, and Kane managed to add two strikes to his tally in a dramatic 5-4 victory over Leicester City.
The 24-year-old ended the campaign with 30 goals in the top flight, which is an improvement on his previous two seasons.
However, Salah recorded 32 by netting in Liverpool’s 4-0 romp over Brighton at Anfield on Sunday.
In the end, Tottenham closed the 2017-18 season without a trophy, but they did grab third place and qualification for the Champions League.
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Unsurprisingly, Liverpool fans have been quick to poke fun at Kane, who has scored 41 goals and registered four assists in all competitions, but he received plenty of support from Spurs fans on Twitter.
Bournemouth and West Ham’s 3-3 draw was amongst Boxing Day’s more slapstick affairs. Simon Francis could have easily seen red for putting his boot through Chiekhou Kouyate’s face in the first half, Asmir Begovic gifted Marko Arnautovic the simplest brace of his career with two uncharacteristic errors and after the Austrian took the lead in the 89th minute, it was cancelled out in stoppage time as an offside Callum Wilson handled the ball on its way into the net.
Nonetheless, in a game that could have a huge say on their season due to West Ham’s close proximity in the table with yesterday’s opponents, there was a real grittiness and desire about the Irons, who appear to have truly rediscovered the character of the east London club under David Moyes. While the quality of the goals was certainly questionable, the Hammers kept going until the very end and almost claimed three points as a justified reward.
That’s a far cry from the West Ham we saw under Slaven Bilic at the start of the season, when a disappointing twenty-minute spell could lead to a capitulation, and no player highlighted that improvement in heart and professionalism better than captain James Collins – who was left ushering his angered team-mates away from referee Bobby Madley at the full-time whistle.
In addition to netting the opening goal by latching onto an Aaron Cresswell corner at the near post, the Welshman completed two tackles, two interceptions, won four aerial duels and made a whopping 13 clearances. But if there’s one thing that arguably let the centre-back down though, considering his veteran status in the team, it’s a failure to organise his team-mates properly at set pieces – Bournemouth netted from two dead ball scenarios as the Irons failed to clear.
Moyes’ side are clearly heading in the right direction and Collins has the character to play a huge part. But having now conceded the fourth-most set piece goals of any Premier League side, tightening up in those defensive situations is the crucial next step for Moyes on the training ground.
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David Moyes may be thankful to a degree that an international break has arrived. He’ll have time to reassess, to figure out the tweaks in the system that need to be made, and ask what has caused two utterly lifeless performances from Manchester United.
There was confidence that after six goals over two games at the start of the campaign, the Moyes era at Manchester United would be smooth sailing, or at least smoother than it has been. However, following the two major tests thus far against Chelsea and Liverpool, United’s on-pitch performances have mirrored the ineffectual activity in the transfer market. The football wasn’t always great under Alex Ferguson, but it got results. This season’s team, and admittedly it’s only following three league games, looks to be a step away from what we’ve seen in the past.
For the past two Premier League games Robin van Persie has been isolated up front. The service from midfield has been non-existent, with Ryan Giggs, Antonio Valencia and Ashley Young combining for very little attacking ingenuity from the flanks. Shinji Kagawa, who on paper would be the perfect supply line for van Persie, remains on the bench and frustrated by a lack of minutes. Yes, it’s still early days, but the problems are very much out in the open.
What seems to be the case is that Moyes wants to avoid improving United’s traditional and successful means of attack by upgrading the team’s wingers. Giggs is no longer what he used to be, though that goes without saying. Nani is inconsistent and for much of the last year looked to be heading for the exit. As for Antonio Valencia and Ashley Young, you’d have to seriously ask what they bring to the team as regulars, or possible regulars in the starting XI.
The problem is there’s no adventure to United’s play. It’s as if Moyes hasn’t totally realised that he’s made the jump from underdogs to a team who are normally considered the top dog. At Everton, the football improved somewhat last season, but there was often a lot of talk about the valiant efforts of those in the backline, as if they were holding on to a result. At United, it doesn’t work like that and it never should. As was seen against Chelsea, Wayne Rooney was brought in, but how much instruction was there overall to go for the win at home to a title rival?
The integration of Kagawa should be key. Moyes spent all summer chasing a creative midfielder to no success. What if Ander Herrera had completed a move from Athletic Bilbao? Would he have been used sparingly from the bench because he’s too creative and forward thinking? It may be a ridiculous question to ask, but we’re seeing that in the lack of involvement of Kagawa, comfortably the team’s most creative midfielder.
Losing isn’t a disaster. Bayern Munich, the best team in Europe at the moment, have lost games over the past year. A good run of form will always come to an end, but generally you have an understanding of what to expect from the biggest teams around Europe; sometimes their best efforts aren’t good enough to counter the best from the other side. But this United side seem to be lacking a direction, or at least an attacking one. Losing at Anfield to a Liverpool side who are clearly in form is no great shame, it happens. Losing in the manner United did and off the back of a throwaway performance against Chelsea is certainly cause for concern.
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Is there cause for concern following United’s lifeless performances in the league?
Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez believes that his falling out with manager Roberto Mancini last season has turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
Tevez was left out of the Manchester City squad for almost six months after he refused to warm-up in a Champions League defeat at Bayern Munich last September. However, after making up with Mancini and the adoring Manchester City faithful, Tevez has made an impressive beginning to the new campaign scoring in all three games thus far.
The Argentinian striker now wants to make winning trophies at Manchester City his main priority. Tevez told The Guardian: “I am focused on my club and on the Premier League and the Champions League.
“This is what I wanted to do – to have this hunger for success back again. The disagreement with Roberto has ended up being good for me because it has helped give me back this hunger.”
Despite Tevez’s recent patch of form, he has been overlooked by Argentina coach Alejandro Sabella for their World Cup Qualifiers against Paraguay and Peru. Tevez’s team-mate for club and country Sergio Aguero is a surprise inclusion in the Argentinean squad after recovering from his knee injury – sustained in the opening day victory at home to Southampton – quicker than expected.
Tevez’s 24-year-old strike partner believes that if he continues to show a good run of form, he will soon earn his national call-up, “he is playing very well, looking quick and strong. If he keeps playing that way, Sabella will be looking at him,” Aguero said.
Tevez also offered his opinion on Manchester City’s tough Champions League Group which consists of the champions of Spain, Germany and Holland – Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and Ajax, admitting that he is looking forward to one particular fixture in the group.
“Real will be very difficult rivals but they are great games to play in and even more so because of the group we are in. Cristiano [Ronaldo] is a former team-mate and he is playing as well as ever.”
Meanwhile, it is thought that Aguero may have landed himself in hot water Roberto Mancini after the Manchester City manager insisted that his star striker would not be travelling back to his homeland to play the second of Argentina’s World Cup Qualifiers.
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Aguero, however, insists that he consulted Mancini on playing for his country, “I explained to the manager that I would see the national team medical staff and he was satisfied with that. I am going to be well looked after. Three days ago I started running and now I am going to consult the doctor here. I still have some pain but we will see how it develops.”
If Aguero remains unscathed then he and Tevez should resume their flourishing partnership at the Britannia Stadium to face Stoke City on 15th September.
Massimiliano Allegri has not ruled out the prospect of remaining at Juventus past the summer, according to Yahoo Sport and he would only move to the Premier League if his new club can provide him with the conditions to compete.
That could represent a major blow for Arsenal because the Independent reported this week that Allegri is their top target to replace the departing Arsene Wenger.
What’s the story, then?
The crux of the report is that Allegri is keeping his options open. It states that he would stay at Juventus if the Italian giants backed him with a spending spree to overhaul a squad that fell short in the Champions League this season after making the final last time around.
However, it also says that he is considering a move to the Premier League. The idea of living in London reportedly appeals to him and he would be prepared to move to Arsenal, or indeed London rivals Chelsea, should they ditch Allegri’s countryman Antonio Conte.
But, Allegri apparently wants to ensure that his new club give him the opportunity to win things in England and it remains to be seen whether he thinks Arsenal fit that bill.
It’s a blow for Arsenal
It’s never an ideal situation when the manager you have reportedly installed as your top choice lays out his transfer demands to his current club, who look set to win their seventh straight league title.
Further, a man keeping his options open is hardly screaming out commitment to take over the project at Arsenal and that may not impress the club’s fans greatly either.
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Considering the alternative would reportedly be Mikel Arteta, who has never been a manager, the Gunners hierarchy will be hoping to convice Allegri they could be competitive with him in charge next season.
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge is an influential man in German football. He won 95 West Germany caps and scored over 200 goals for Bayern Munich. He even played in Italy for Inter Milan. These days, though, he’s the CEO of Bayern Munich. It doesn’t get more influential than that.
So when he speaks, people listen. And this week he’s been speaking about the Premier League’s bumper £5bn TV rights deal.
Clearly he’s feeling the pinch. Manchester United’s swoop for Bastian Schweinsteiger was one thing – although he’s a legend on the same plane as Kalle himself, he’s the wrong side of 30 and it was time for him to leave. But the potential transfer of Thomas Muller to Manchester United is possibly worrying for him, and to the world he thinks. If United want their man, Rummenigge knows they can get him. United have more money than anyone else this summer, it seems. Even Philipp Lahm isn’t convinced that Muller will stay.
The Bayern CEO is worried that the Bundesliga will fall behind the Premier League unless it acts now to bring more money into the league. Right now the German TV rights deal is just over £400m which looks like loose change to Scudamore and his suits.
It certainly feels that way to me, too. The money in the Premier League was staggering anyway, but the latest deal doesn’t just take the biscuit, it brazenly enters your kitchen cupboard and snatches the whole pack.
The money in the Premier League dwarfs the money in the Championship. This article from 2011 puts the Premier League average wage at five times higher than in the Championship. But really, £20,000 a week is loose change to the top Premier League stars, too. There are more recent figure in this article, which doubles the £20,000 figure and puts the Premier League well ahead of the other European leagues.
Wages are one thing, but they’re not even the height of the problem facing Rummenigge and his fellow head honchos around Europe.
The Premier League’s middling teams are seemingly punching above their weight. Or at least, they’re punching at a class above the rest of Europe’s middling teams. Perhaps even grand old European teams, the kinds you’ll find in the Champions League now and then. The kind you’ll see on ITV4 on thursday nights in the quarter-finals of the Europa League when the English teams are rueing their early exits.
Bournemouth, Crystal Palace, Manchester City and Watford have all broken their record transfer fees already this summer. Manchester United would break theirs too if they sign Muller for anywhere near what the reported fee is. Leicester City broke theirs twice last season, signing Leonardo Ulloa and Andrej Kramaric, whereas West Ham and Liverpool both share a record signing, Andy Carroll. The solace for the long-locked Geordie should be that only one or two record signings have actually done well for their clubs. Fernando Torres at Chelsea, Brown Ideye, Ricky Van Wolfswinkel, Michael Owen at Newcastle and Darren Bent at Aston Villa… the list could go on. They’ve all been flops. Certainly they were flops for the price paid.
The vast majority of the Premier League clubs’ record signings – 14 out of 20 – have been made since 2013 when the last TV rights deal went up from just over £1bn to just over £3bn. Now that it’s over £5bn the record signings are set to take off again.
So Rummenigge is right to be worried. When relegation-threatened Premier League teams can be in the top 20 of football’s rich list there is clearly a gap between England and the rest. It was reported last season, when the TV deal news broke, that Burnley were richer than Ajax.
Disparity is bad for competition. It’s a good thing that smaller English clubs have a fair cut of the TV money, but of all the stats, the one that hits him is that relegated Cardiff earned more money from TV rights than Atletico Madrid, Bayern Munich and Paris St Germain who were all league winners in their respective countries. And this is even before the new deal.
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The Premier League is paving the way for football in terms of revenue generation. But is that a good thing? Should we be happy that football is becoming more money driven? Or does it just make competition better as Crystal Palace can buy players like Yohan Cabaye, Swansea can sign Andre Ayew and West Ham can sign Dimitri Payet?
The one thing we can say for certain now, with all of this new TV money in the Premier League, is that another season where every English club is knocked out of Europe by early March is totally unacceptable. Surely England should be dominating.
The French domestic league has become a hotbed for potential Premier League talent over the past few years, with Ligue 1’s athletic style providing physical players in the mould of the English top-flight, available at much cheaper prices in comparison to those already plying their trade in the Premiership.
While Arsene Wenger’s love of French players has always been well known, and indeed Arsenal’s successes have been forged out of a crucial element of members of the France national team in their starting XI, Newcastle have more recently undergone a French revolution in the transfer market, bringing in the likes of Demba Ba, Yohan Cabaye, Hatem Ben Arfa and Moussa Sissoko to bolster the ranks at St. James’ Park.
No doubt, in the summer, the Premier League will once again look across the Channel in a bid to find some cheap talent that can improve their teams. We’ve compiled a Top Ten of Ligue 1 stars who would be a success should they arrive on English shores, with full details of any potential future transfer.
Click on Mamadou Sakho to reveal the Top Ten Ligue 1 stars who would be a hit in the Premier League
The date was the 15th August 1992. The match was Manchester United vs. Sheffield United. And after 15 minutes, the first goal in Premier League history was scored by a Mr Brian Deane, a commonly known fact for fans of English football trivia, earning Deane a spot in the history of the game. He actually scored the Blades’ winner that day as well, notching from the penalty spot to give them a 2-1 victory over the eventual Champions.
Deane was actually an experienced striker before he bagged that first goal, indeed his goal scoring record initially for Doncaster Rovers and then Sheffield United was pretty decent. He earned three caps for England under Graham Taylor, making his debut against New Zealand in 1991 before his final appearance in the Three Lions shirt came against Spain just weeks after his goal against Manchester United.
That first Premier League season proved to be his last at Bramall Lane and he became Leeds United’s record signing when he joined in the summer of 1993 for £2.9 million. His 83 goals in 198 games for the Blades was by far and away the best goal to appearance ratio he ever achieved at any club and he remains something of a cult hero at the club after returning in 1997 to score another 11 goals in that season.
Deano spent four years at Leeds United between 1993 and 1997 as Howard Wilkinson’s side struggled to live up to their title victory of 1991/92 and began to slip slowly down the league. Deane always worked hard up front, putting in a shift as a target man, but he found goals more difficult to come by at Elland Road, managing just 32 in his 138 games at the club. He formed effective partnerships up front for the Whites though, playing with Rod Wallace and Tony Yeboah during his time in West Yorkshire, but having been signed as a replacement for Lee Chapman, he struggled to replace the man whose goals had fired Leeds to the First Division title.
Once George Graham had taken over at Elland Road, Deane moved back to Sheffield United briefly, before securing a surprise switch to Benfica where Graeme Souness was the manager. Seven goals in 18 in Portugal proved that Deane still had the ability to find the back of the net at the highest level, prompting Middlesbrough to fork out to bring him back to England after less than a season. He actually managed three years with Boro, notching 18 goals in 87 appearances there, but that lack of goal scoring prowess saw him moved on to Leicester in 2001 with Middlesbrough struggling in the Premiership.
He bagged himself another piece of ‘first goal’ history with the Foxes as well, scoring the first competitive goal at the new Walkers Stadium by recording a double against Watford. 19 goals in 52 games followed in Leicester colours, a decent return that helped the side back into the Premier League following their disappointing relegation the year before. However, Deane had seemingly found his level in the First Division and joined recently relegated West Ham, now aged 35. He continued his nomadic existence as a footballer, lasting just one season at Upton Park before heading for the exit.
He rejoined Leeds United, who had just been relegated after a long stay in the Premier League, but the club was in financial turmoil and were struggling to put together a competitive squad. Deane did a job up front for a while amidst all the chaos, and the Elland Road crowd recognised his efforts, but by now, age appeared to have caught up with the striker. He managed six goals during the 2004/05 season with the Whites, but four of those came astonishingly during a 6-1 win over QPR, a game never forgotten by those who saw it. With Leeds starting to strengthen their squad under Kevin Blackwell, Deane moved onto to Sunderland, before ending his career with a brief spell at Perth Glory and a final two appearances back with Sheffield United in the 2005/06 season, making him the only player to turn out for the club in three different spells.
Deano enjoyed a fine career at the highest level for many years, though he never quite hit the top of the Premier League game. As a target man, he will always be remembered for his hard work up front, even if finishing was never his strong point. He now works as a Sports Consultant for a solicitor’s firm in Leeds, but after a long career of 654 league appearances and 195 goals, Brian Deane will always be remembered for that goal he scored on the 15th August 1992.
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