Arsenal have made inquiries into the availability of Holland and Hamburg winger Eljero Elia as Arsene Wenger attempts to replenish his midfield with creative talent. The midfielder is under contract with the Bundesliga club until 2014 and will cost between £8 and £10m.
Hamburg turned down an offer earlier this summer from Juventus. The fee was reportedly in the region of £6m – £1m less than Hamburg paid FC Twente just a year before. At the time, Elia told the Hamburger Morgenpost: “Hamburg told me they won’t let me join Juventus, but that’s not a problem – Juventus are no better than Hamburg in my opinion”.
“I’ve agreed with the club that we’d open talks if a big club like Arsenal or Chelsea comes knocking”.
Surely this opens the door for Arsene Wenger to make a bid. Having just sold Samir Nasri to Manchester City, a highly-rated international left winger would be just the tonic for Arsenal fans. Despite being only 24 and competing in the national side with such supreme talents as Arjen Robben and Ibrahim Afellay, Elia has 22 caps to his name.
Even at £10m, Elia is a snip compared to some of the reports linking Arsenal to a £26m bid for Lille’s Eden Hazard and a £17m bid for Kaka. There is also the promising potential to link Elia up with Dutch international team mate and new Arsenal captain, Robin Van Persie.
Article courtesy of Chris Smith from the excellent Transfer Tavern
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.
Cesc Fabregas has hit back at reports that he left Arsenal due to believing they could not challenge for the Premier League, and has stated his love for the North London club.
The Spain international departed the Emirates in the summer to return to boyhood team Barcelona, and reports from Spanish daily ‘Sport‘ indicated that the midfielder had written off The Gunners’ title hopes.
Despite this, Fabregas has retorted by claiming that the published interview never happened.
“I’d never speak one bad word about AFC. That’s not why I left, it was never in my mind. AFC made me who I am today. I never gave any interview away since my press conference at my presentation,” he commented on his Twitter account.
“People can hate me for leaving or remember that I gave my all for the club. But me talking one bad word or saying something against AFC will not [be] seen,” the statement reads.
Arsenal have had a shaky start to the season, losing against Liverpool 2-0 at home and to Manchester United spectacularly 8-2 at Old Trafford, but seem to have regained confidence with a 1-1 draw against Borussia Dortmund in midweek.
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.
Arsene Wenger’s men take on Blackburn at Ewood Park on Saturday, as the North London club look to close the gap on the Manchester clubs and Chelsea at the top of the standings.
Whilst many of us would dream of being paid to play football week-in week out for our clubs, for a number of the world’s top footballers this is not the only passion or, for some, the only career path that they have shown an interest in. We are not taling about things like playing golf, or partaking in other common sports, but genuine hobbies or interests outside of the world of sport that these footballers find the time to pursue seriously. I have compiled a selection of 10 footballers with ‘another life’, most of whom I am confident are relatively unknown to the general public, though one or two are certainly familiar.
Click on Daniel Agger to see the 10 players and their secret second lives
[divider]
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.
Every fan loves to see their players kissing the badge. Every fan wants to feel as though the players feel the same way about the club that they do, that they’ll give everything they can and that they genuinely want success for the club as much as they want personal success. Obviously there will always be movement between clubs; some players want to move abroad, move to a bigger club to achieve success or move to the club they supported as a boy. But it seems that in the last fifteen years player loyalty is on the decline, almost as though it’s going out of fashion. Sol Campbell’s “Spurs is the only club for me” was swiftly followed by a move to their bitter rivals, Wayne Rooney’s “once a blue always a blue” was hastily followed by the image of him in a red shirt and Ashley Cole’s abandonement of the club that he had supported as a boy are just some of vast swathes of examples that exist within the Premier League.
I think that you can definitely find a correlation between the injection of cash from super rich owners and the decline of loyalty too, funny how that works. However I think the problem runs deeper than that. I think the culture of football has changed and everyone: ther media, the fans and the players have all been caught up in it.
Money
It would be unfair on players to suggest that the only reason why some of them wish to jump ship is for money. But then again it would be foolish to deny the obvious pulling power of a double-your-wages offer from some non-specific oligarch. People may now be joining Man City to win trophies as well as the money but originally you can be pretty sure it was just for the money. Did Robinho join the Manchester club because he thought he had a better chance of winning titles their than in Madrid? Probably not. The same applies to Carlos Tevez, Ashley Cole and every other mercenary at those clubs.
The fact is that whilst the players may begin their careers with good intentions the money that certain clubs are able to offer would turn even the noblest head. Who, realistically, could turn their nose up and the £200,000+ per week that some of the City players are on? No, money is doing its bit to destroy player loyalty within our league and others. Players should be able to earn what they can, but within reason. Football is about more than just winning, it is also about having a connection with your club and the fact that the players are feeling less and less sentimental towards their employers will certainly have an effect on the relationship between clubs, players and fans.
[ad_pod id=’unruly-2′ align=’left’]
Patience
Money however is, as I said, not the only reason for a decrease in loyalty. The culture of wanting everything instantly has taken over football as it has the rest of society. Consumerism has lead be to abandon patience in favour of debt in society in the never ending pursuit of things that we want. The same has happened in football. Instead of being happy to wait and work for success at their current clubs players look to move as soon as things aren’t going exactly as they wish.
Obviously there are exceptions where truly exceptional players need to leave their clubs to grow as footballers but even within the top clubs there is no loyalty. How can we go from having legends like Matt Le Tisser slogging it out at Southampton for all those years and then have players like Samir Nasri who isn’t prepared to wait a more than three years.
Steven Gerrard is testament to the fact that if you stay and work hard at your club you can win the biggest trophies. Gerrard could have left on numerous occasions during his Liverpool career but he didn’t and he has lifted the Champions League, The Uefa Cup and the FA Cup and the League Cup in his time. Had he left it is arguable whether Liverpool would have won nearly as much. They definitley wouldn’t have won the FA Cup against West Ham.
Bosman
The Bosman ruling is another problem in that it highlights the way in which power has shifted from the clubs to the players. In the past the players, knowing they were at the whim of the club, would not have been able to even consider forcing a move away. Now examples such as Rio Ferdinand’s to Man Utd or Nasri’s to Arsenal are demonstrative of the power that players have. And with more power they seem less responsible, less considerate and less loyal.
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.
I know that many people will argue that these players have the right to look after themselves, after all it is their career we are talking about, but you cannot ignore the reasons for their disloyalty. Many of these players are abandoning the clubs and managers that made them what they are today, and the gratitude shown is minimal. Player loyalty is on decline, there can be no doubt, but how far will UEFA let it go before they introduce stronger financial rules to curb the temptations that billionaire owners can offer?
Follow Hamish on Twitter @H_Mackay
[divider] FREE football app that pays you to view ads [ad_pod id=’qs-2′ align=’left’]
Two teams who have never met in a Premier League fixture go head-to-head at the Britannia Stadium on Saturday with Stoke desperate to halt a run of three successive defeats against mid-table QPR.
It’s been a testing month and a half for Tony Pulis and his men who have seen their Europa League campaign catch up on them with detrimental results. Despite results in Europe appearing positive their domestic campaign is faltering with the Potters managing to win only one of their last eight since beating West Brom at the Hawthorns at the end of August. Since then it’s been a mixture of disappointing defeats and mundane draws with their exploits on the continent taking the sting out of their performances on home soil. Consistency has been a problem with Pulis’ policy of rotating his squad to keep his players fresh not working as well as he’d hoped with members failing to get a long enough run in the side to strike up a chord with the rest of the side. Summer signing Peter Crouch has failed to have the desired impact with the England striker playing up front with several different partners including Cameron Jerome, Jon Walters and Kenywyne Jones during the course of this season. Stoke’s game is built on pressurising their opponents and using their supreme physical advantages to intimidate, terrorise and bully teams into submission. But their European exploits have left them looking jaded and unable to put their game plan into action. Their 3-1 defeat at home to Newcastle and 5-0 hammering away at Bolton saw the Potters out battled in every area and Pulis must be wondering if the Europa League is worth bothering with if it continues to harm his teams league performance.
QPR on the other hand are enjoying a superb first season back in the Premier League following their relegation back in 1996. The R’s are sitting a place above Saturday’s opponents, albeit on goal difference, and will be confident of moving clear of them when they travel to the Potteries. Neil Warnock’s side have picked up half of their 12 points on the road and another three will move them firmly into the top half of the table. The club have benefitted substantially from the investment of new owner Tony Fernandes with new recruits Joey Barton, Luke Young and Shaun Wright-Phillips giving them an extra dash of Premier League experience which is something they were severely lacking in the opening weeks of the campaign. That knowledge of how to win games and overcome adversity will be key against Stoke’s bruising tactics with Barton likely to relish mixing it up in the centre of midfield. His performances since signing from Newcastle have been nothing short of superb with his fiery temper being tamed by Warnock with the odd-couple proving there is enough room in the Loftus Road dressing room for the both of them. Despite losing the last two games one positive that has emerged form the defeats to high-flying Manchester City and Tottenham and that has been the goalscoring displays of Jay Bothroyd. The England striker has struggled since his summer move from Cardiff but finally broke his duck at White Hart Lane before hitting another against the league leaders a week later. The international break killed that momentum but Warnock will need him to get back on the goal trail if they are to come away from Stoke with points under their belts.
Stoke – 12th
Last Five
Lost 5-0 v Bolton (A), W 2-1 v Tel Aviv (A), Lost 3-1 v Newcastle (H), Lost 2-1 v Liverpool (H), Lost 3-1 v Arsenal (A)
Potential Starting X11
1. A. Begovic 28. A. Wilkinson 17. R. Shawcross [C] 39. J. Woodgate 12. M. Wilson 16. J. Pennant 40. W. Palacios 24. R. Delap 26. M. Etherington 19. J. Walters* 25. P. Crouch
Injury News
Tony Pulis has no new injuries to worry about with Mamady Sidibie out long-term with a knee tendon problem.
Key Player
Jon Walters – It’s been a solid year or so in Stoke colours for Walters who has become an integral part of Pulis’ side and has forged himself a reputation as a consistent Premier League performer. His work ethic and willingness to run himself into the ground for his teammates has endeared him to the Britannia faithful and the physical aspects of his game will be key to unsettling a timid QPR defence.
Match Fact
This fixture will be Stoke’s 22nd of the season and first against QPR in the Premier League. That last time these two met was in the Championship in March 2008 just a few weeks before the Potters were promoted to the top flight.
QPR – 11th
Last Five
Lost 3-2 v Man City (H), Lost 3-1 v Tottenham (A), Won 1-0 v Chelsea (H), Drew 1-1 v Blackburn (H), Lost 6-0 v Fulham (A)
Potential Starting X11
1. P. Kenny 18. L. Young 35. A. Ferdinand 6. D. Gabbidon 13. A. Traore 11. A. Faurlin 17. J. Barton [C] 4. S. Derry 10. J. Mackie 32. S. Wright-Phillips* 10. J. Bothroyd
Injury News
Neil Warnock has no fresh injury concerns with Kieron Dyer, Rob Hulse, DJ Campbell and Matt Connolly all out expected to be in the treatment room for long periods.
Key Player
Shaun Wright-Phillips – The former Man City winger has seen new life breathed into his career since moving to the R’s and is benefiting from a regular run of first team football. With Stoke’s back four not renewed for being the quickest over long stretches his combination of pace and skill will be a vital component to unlocking one of the toughest defences the Premier League has to offer.
Match Fact
Rangers comfortably beat promotion hopefuls Stoke the last time these two sides met in 2008 with a Mikele Leigertwood double and a second half Akos Buzasky goal giving them a 3-0 victory at Loftus Road.
Last Time at the Britannia Stadium
Championship, 27th November 2007
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.
Stoke 3-1 QPR
Cresswell, 5 Lawrence, 19, Cort 77
Vine 63, Blackstock S/O, 47
Attendance: 11,147
Referee: Uriah Rennie
PREDICTION
Stoke have been poor of late and it seems that their Europa League campaign is catching up with them. Their last two league games has seen them concede eight goals which will have set alarm bells ringing in Pulis’ mind. The way they were brushed aside so easily by Newcastle in their last home game was extremely surprising and he’ll be demanding a much improved performance this time around. QPR have been decent on the road and will go into the game with confidence after narrowly losing against leaders Manchester City before the international break. However if the Potters are at their bruising best then Warnock’s side better batten down the hatches and prepare for an aerial assault.
The rant you’re about to read is usually the classic sign of a paranoid football fan. After all, we all think that the world is against our team, the newspapers are biased, referees have got it in for us, we never get any credit. And as for opposing fans….
But still, despite all that, the ridiculous red card for Mario Balotelli last weekend against Liverpool suggests to me, that just sometimes, that paranoia is justified.
Referees will of course claim that they enter the pitch with no agendas, and make impartial decisions on each particular incident alone. This is clearly poppycock, because they are human beings, and human nature means they have pre-conceived ideas about certain players, and treat them differently as a consequence.
To suggest Wayne Rooney gets away with metaphorical murder on the football pitch is the same as suggesting that night follows day – you could offer many theories as to why some players are allowed to say what they want to a referee with impunity or get the benefit of the doubt over some hairy challenges, but they tend to be English, which is not to suggest a wave of xenophobia from referees in how they deal with players, but a certain leniency to many “stalwarts” of the game, a blind eye to many established Premier League players. Balotelli doesn’t fit this description, he is the crazy youngster from far away who fires darts at youth players, almost burns down his house with fireworks, walks around with bundles of cash in his pocket, gets his friends to chat up women for him, receives 2000 parking tickets in a year and hangs around with the mafia. Well I read all this in the tabloids, so consider it to be 100% true.
When Graham Poll is appearing on Talksport decrying his hairstyle, it gives you a good insight into how match officials enter the field with agendas and preconceived ideas. Maybe Balotelli deserves it then. Hey, he doesn’t smile enough for my liking, throw the book at him.
It’s the reverse of commentators mentioning that Player X is “not that type of player” when he is sent off for a knee-high challenge. That player could throw kittens off bridges every night, he could have been sent off 40 times in his career, or he could have never fouled before in an illustrious 20-year career. It’s all irrelevant – it was either a red card or it wasn’t.
Balotelli’s first yellow card was perfectly justified – an innocuous pull-back on an opposing player, but a text-book yellow card in the modern game. The second card was brandished on reputation alone, by a referee who has a knack of sending off opposition players at Anfield (Balotelli completing the hat-trick). Maybe I am being blinkered – after all I have read a few City fans and journalists write online that he led with his elbow, and thus it was a stupid challenge and he was asking for trouble.
But no, that simply isn’t true. There was no elbow sticking out, only an extended arm which I presume he was using to try and protect the ball from the opposing player, as part of his whole body. Clumsy perhaps, but nothing more. His fate was sealed when the Liverpool player went down as if shot, clutching a head that hadn’t come into contact with anything, whilst five or six of his team-mates crowded round the referee demanding a red card. Has football really become so averse to contact of any sort that Balotelli’s attempt at a tackle for his second yellow card is now considered as fair game for punishment?
[divider]
[gigya_reactions]
[divider]
I’m not blinkered to Balotelli’s discretions. His demeanour makes him a target on the field, though a professional referee should be capable of looking beyond this. I can see when he has done wrong – the red card at home to Dynamo Kiev last season was utterly justified and put paid to City’s Europa League chances. A dismissal at West Brom though last season was even more ridiculous than the one at Anfield – we’ve been here before.
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.
He’s not the only one to be pre-judged on the field either, due to off-field controversies. Joey Barton is one that springs to mind (not that he is always innocent, as seen against Arsenal this season), a man whose reputation on the field is probably confused with what he has done off it. The truth is that there are plenty of Premiership players who have sinned on a football field far more than Barton, but attracted much less attention for it. Likewise, those footballers portrayed as professional wind-up merchants like Robbie Savage also carry a stigma onto the field with them. In 2008, the Daily Mail labelled Savage as the dirtiest player in Premier League history, based on numbers of yellow cards received (87), though apparently he has since been surpassed as the player with the most Premier League yellow cards by Lee Bowyer. And throughout his career, Savage was only sent off for his club side once. Was Savage really ome of the Premiership’s worst ever miscreants on a football field?
Players are the victims of soft red cards all the time – it doesn’t take much to get dismissed nowadays. If you agree Balotelli was hard done by, you’ll also agree that he isn’t the first, and he won’t be the last. But lets hope that in the future, referees have the ability to see through his reputation, and judge him on the foul alone. Otherwise, discussing the disciplinary record of Mr Balotelli could become a depressingly common occurrence in the future.
Steve McClaren has returned to former club FC Twente, signing a two-and-a-half year deal with the Dutch side.
The former England manager led the Enschede-based side to the first Eredivisie title in their history back in 2009-10, before leaving to join Wolfsburg.
Twente parted company with coach Co Adriaanse on Tuesday, and despite reports linking Avram Grant with the vacant post, McClaren has returned to his old stomping ground.
The 50-year-old feels that it is an excellent opportunity for him, and he is looking forward to continuing the progress he made in his first stint with the club.
“I left, obviously, on a high with the title. I said at that time that I would be back. I didn’t know when, but I would be back,” he admitted to Sky Sports.
“The club is still developing, still growing and I think this is an ideal opportunity for me to go back and finish what we were starting.”
“I know the club very well. I know the people at the top. I can work with the people at the top.
“I think that is the most important thing. I had a good relationship with them the last time. I know where the club is coming from.
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.
“I know what their vision is. I know what their ambitions are. It is still there. That was the key thing for me,” he concluded.
Tottenham winger Gareth Bale is the only player from the Premier League to make the Uefa.com users team of the year.
38,000 site visitors were polled and asked to vote for their team of 2011, with the Welsh man in high-quality company.
Bale is pleased to given the accolade, but has accredited the success of the Spurs team to his individual recognition.
“It’s great to be recognised in such illustrious company, and the fact that it’s voted for by fans across Europe makes it a special honour,” he told the club’s official site.
“But as I’ve said all along, I’m part of a team here at Spurs and any recognition I receive is down to my team-mates as much as anything that I do individually.
“The team has been playing really well and we’ve all played a part in that,” he concluded.
Meanwhile, Barcelona and Real Madrid dominated the rest of the votes, claiming eight of the 11 places.
The Catalan giants had Dani Alves, Gerard Pique, Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi included after Champions League and La Liga glory.
Jose Mourinho’s men had Cristinao Ronaldo, Iker Casillas and Marcelo selected in the dream team.
The rest of the contingent was made up by Bayern Munich winger Arjen Robben and AC Milan defender Thiago Silva; Pep Guardiola was selected at coach of the year also.
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.
Liverpool director of football Damien Comolli has stated that the club’s plans are impressing players in Europe, and that a number of big-name signings can be expected in the summer.
The Anfield outfit are fresh from winning the Carling Cup on Sunday, and are just off the pace in the battle for a top four finish.
Comolli feels the club’s reputation is starting to get back to its former days, and that the side can attract the top players from the continent.
“There’s a very positive vibe around the club across Europe,” he told Mirror Football.
“A lot players I know are very interested about joining the project because it’s a very interesting project.
“We already know that there are big players who want to join us next summer because they believe in the project.
“Everybody in Europe knows what Liverpool football club are trying to do,” he concluded.
Mirror Football indicate that Kenny Dalglish’s summer transfer targets included much-praised Lille playmaker Eden Hazard, Athletico Bilbao’s Spain international Javi Martinez and Barcelona veteran midfielder Seydou Keita.
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.
Wales have crashed to a 1-0 defeat in their international friendly against Costa Rica, in a night that the nation remembered former manager Gary Speed.
Before the game several Welsh artists performed, Speed’s sons Ed and Tom led the team out onto the pitch, and a minute’s applause was undertaken before the match.
Joel Campbell, on loan at Lorient from Arsenal, scored the only goal of the game to spoil affairs, and manager Chris Coleman has admitted that it was an emotional night for all concerned.
“It was always going to be difficult under the circumstances, it was not our normal preparation,” Coleman told Sky Sports.
“This was about one guy and it was important we were there to show our support and celebrate his life.
“His two boys have come into the dressing room and onto the pitch and you could see why he was so proud of them.
“It was a strange atmosphere because we were still grieving, but at the same time we had a game to win. At the start we weren’t really at the races. We had a couple of chances after that but the main reason for tonight was for Speeds.
“I commend the players, they did their best, but I knew we were going to start slow.
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.
“They’ve been a terrific bunch but they all miss Speeds. We lost on the night but we gave it what we had,” he concluded.