Arsenal and Newcastle are on watch after it was revealed that Saint Etienne turned down an offer from Fiorentina for their ace Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, reports talkSPORT.
The Gabon striker has become one of the rising stars of the French League this season, having tallied 16 goals and reportedly earning a £10million rating.
Both Arsene Wenger and Alan Pardew have shown interest in the 23-year-old, and following the news that the French club turned down Fiorentina, both Premier League teams are ready to make a move.
The striker, however, is not actively looking for a move, even though he understands his club may consider it.
The forward said: “If people are talking about me then I am not aware of it. But if someone offers £10million to the club, I don’t know if I’ll go or not.
“I am calm because I still have two years on my contract to go.”
With Fiorentina out of the picture, the battle to bring Aubameyang to the Premier League will begin.
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Arsenal hope to strengthen their forward line after Olivier Giroud failed to impress, and since Demba Ba’s departure for Chelsea, Newcastle have been in desperate need of a boost in the forward position, as well.
Southampton fans have experienced a miserable season so far, and it does not look as though it is going to get any easier.
On Sunday, Mark Hughes’s side took on Arsenal at the Emirates with the hope of boosting their chances of survival.
It started off well as Shane Long got on the scoresheet inside the first 17 minutes, but the Gunners managed to get themselves back into the game thanks to a goal from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Danny Welbeck put Arsenal ahead before Charlie Austin nabbed an equaliser in the 73rd minute, and earned plenty of praise from Southampton fans for doing so.
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In the end, though, it was not to be as Welbeck scored again to give the Gunners all three points, which left the Saints three points from safety with six games left to play.
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James Ward-Prowse has become a pivotal figure in the team this season, and he delivered his thoughts on the game after the final whistle.
The supporters were left impressed by the 23-year-old’s comments, and some want him to become the new captain.
The English Premier League often receives high praise and references as the best league in the world. There’s no doubting it’s entertainment value and high quality thanks to the vast array of talented players on show, but in terms of excitement and unpredictability, it’s understudy, the Football League Championship, is giving it a run for its money.
36 games into the season, and the race for promotion into the promised land of the top tier is proving quite astonishing. Well known as a division in which any side can beat any team on their given day, the Championship is well and truly living up to its billing.
With 10 games of the season remaining, there are as many as nine sides who can still harbour genuine hope of promotion, with two automatic positions, and four play-off places up for grabs. And just who will make the top six come May? It’s anyone’s guess.
The two automatic sports at the top of the table continue to change occupancy each week. Unlike previous years, there is no runaway leader of the division as Bournemouth, Derby, Watford and Middlesbrough remarkably find themselves level on 66 points a piece. And more remarkable still, Norwich who sit in fifth position, are just a point off top spot, something you won’t see too often in any league around the world so far into the season.
Just like us, the bookies are struggling to call it, with Bournemouth tentative favourites to win the division following an impressive 5-1 victory away at Fulham last week. With a home fixture against basement club Blackpool to come this weekend, they look a banker for another three points in order to maintain their position at the top. But with the crazy results this division can provide, nothing is a given.
Norwich have put together a fine run of form since the arrival of new boss Alex Neil, and with their strikers beginning to fire on all cylinders, are just behind Bournemouth in the betting to take an automatic spot. Looking for an instant return to England’s top division, they will be keen to build on their 4-1 over Millwall last weekend as they welcome fellow title chasers Derby County to Carrow Road on Saturday.
Steve McClaren’s side suffered play-off heartache last season, with a final defeat to QPR, and are well in the mix go one step better this season. Injuries to leading strikers Darren Bent and Chris Martin have seen them stutter in recent weeks, however, and they will have been left ruing their inability to close out a two-goal lead last week against Birmingham – they conceded two injury time goals in a 2-2 draw.
Another side right in the mix is Watford, who with the likes of Troy Deeney, Matej Vydra and Odion Ighalo, possess one of the division’s most lethal strike forces. After a hard-fought 2-2 at Wolves last weekend, they welcome Reading to Vicarage Road, and with the Royals potentially eyeing their upcoming FA Cup replay with Bradford, could take full advantage with another three points.
FA Cup giant killers Middlesbrough have been lurking around the top two for the majority of the season, but a few slip ups in recent weeks, have seen those sides around them close the gap. Also a team with plenty of talent in their squad, many fancy them to win the division, and they go back to the top by avoiding defeat to Ipswich in tomorrow’s early kick off.
Ipswich, currently sitting just a point and one place off the playoff spots themselves, will be hoping for a positive result from their trip up north. One of four sides who appear to battling it for the final play-off place; along with Wolves, Brentford and Nottingham Forest, they too still have plenty to play for, and the race for sixth spot looks to be heading down to the wire.
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With all of the above sides still in with a realistic shot at promotion, this season’s Championship is proving to be one of the best we have ever seen. There’s still a long way to go as we reach the business end of the season and those involved will know a solid winning run in the next few games could be vital in their bid to achieve the ultimate goal. Some will be left celebrating, while others will be left disappointed after a tough campaign. But just who that may be, will take some guessing. It really is too close to call.
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has been dealt a blow after transfer target Adam Maher revealed he would prefer to stay in Holland rather than join the Gunners.
The AZ Alkmaar midfielder is expected to leave the Eredivise outfit during the summer and AZ manager Gertjan Verbeek who valued the 19-year-old at £8.5m last month expected Maher to join Arsenal, according to talkSPORT.
However that doesn’t seem to be the case with the young prodigy wanting to stay in Holland with both PSV Eindhoven and Ajax seemingly interested in Maher, who has said he is not interested in a move to England.
Speaking to NUSport he said: “I have already said that I do not want to go. I want a good stay in the Netherlands, at least another two or three years- I am only 19.
“PSV is a nice club, but on the other hand I live in Amsterdam. last summer and last winter I indicated I want to go to PSV, but PSV was the only club that wanted to sign me. But I can also play for Ajax (too).
“In the summer i expected there will be a realistic bid. It is certain that I will be leaving.”
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Maher has been capped twice by the Netherlands and scored 18 goals in 77 appearences for AZ Alkmaar, since breaking onto the scene as a 17-year-old.
Rangers ended their run of three games without a win with a dominant 4-0 victory against Dundee at Ibrox on Saturday.
The result puts them second in the Scottish Premiership on goal difference with just five games remaining before the end of the season, all of which will be against the other top six sides.
Four different goalscorers – Kenny Miller, Alfredo Morelos, Jamie Murphy and Daniel Candeias – combined to delight supporters, who have had to endure under par performances of late.
With Dundee securing a 0-0 result mid-week against Celtic, they threatened going to be a tough nut to crack.
Jamie Murphy drew most of the plaudits from fans for his performance, setting up Miller before scoring the third goal of the afternoon himself.
It was his fifth goal and seventh assist since joining the club on loan in January and many supporters now believe he is one of, if not the best, player in the entire division.
Can the Light Blues bring him to the club permanently this summer?
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Fans took to Twitter to share their thoughts on his Dundee display…
Daniel Sturridge’s imminent return to the Liverpool starting eleven could not come at a better time for the club.
The England striker has been out injured with a thigh problem since August and he could be in line to feature against West Ham at Anfield on Saturday.
The 25-year-old has suffered a number of setbacks that have prevented him from recovering in quicker time this season. Now he is fit, though, Rodgers will be desperate to get him back into a side that has struggled to score goals without him. The strike- force of Mario Balotelli, Rickie Lambert and Fabio Borini have been below par so far this term, with Rodgers often opting to play Raheem Sterling in a centre-forward position instead.
Sturridge will need time to get back to his goalscoring best, but his presence in the team is a timely addition for the club. His return sees the potential for Sterling and Sturridge to revive a partnership that was very impressive last season. They share an excellent understanding with each other and can be a nightmare for opposition defences due to their pace and movement, stretching the opposition regularly.
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Liverpool have looked very bare up front in Sturridge’s absence, but Rodgers has done well to grind out results in the league. Liverpool haven’t lost in six Premier League games and they have kept a clean sheet in their last two. There seems to be an assured solidarity about Liverpool at the moment, something that wasn’t particularly existent last year, despite their push for the title. If the club can keep a stern defensive approach while still accommodating the attacking talent of Sturridge, Liverpool will feel there’s an opportunity for the club to really challenge for the top four.
Rodgers stated that a top four finish would be the aim at the start of the season and, although that particular target looked bleak a couple of months ago, Sturridge’s return will inject some regained hope into the side.
As Liverpool face a congested run of fixtures in the League Cup, FA Cup, the Premier League and Europa League, they are going to need as many squad options as possible. Sturridge won’t be able to play every game but he is a key player that will add extra attacking quality to a squad that really needs his goals at the moment. His partnership with Raheem Sterling is dangerous, and Sturridge impressed in a lone role up front last season when Luis Suarez didn’t play. Although, despite Sturridge’s ability to play up front on his own, Rodgers will be looking to see whether a potential new partnership between his strikers could result in a similar threat as last season.
Sturridge and Balotelli played together in arguably Liverpool’s most impressive performance this season, beating Tottenham 3-0 at White Hart Lane. But it is not even slightly guaranteed, Sturridge’s presence up front could get the best out of a faltering Balotelli by creating more space for the Italian.
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One thing is for sure, Sturridge’s return will mean that Liverpool will pose a greater threat in attack, something that Brendan Rodgers has desperately needed so far this season.
Tottenham forward Emmanuel Adebayor’s decision to represent Togo at this month’s African Cup of Nations in South Africa, reversing his previous position in the process, would appear on the face of it to have dealt a hammer blow to manager Andre Villas-Boas at what represents a pivotal part of their campaign. With that in mind, does the squad have the necessary attacking depth to survive the month-long competition as they are, or should they dip their toes into the January transfer market for a replacement?
The move from the 28-year-old was a surprising one considering his near-death experience while representing his country in the past, which saw three team officials shot dead during the 2010 tournament in Angola. Having retired after the shocking attack, he returned to the national team set-up after guarantees were made about security in November 2011, but seemed reluctant to go to the ACN this month to try and force his way into the Tottenham starting XI after a disrupted few months at club level.
The club currently sit in the top four, three points ahead of Everton in fifth place, with the tournament starting over in Africa on the 19th January, ending with the final on the 10th February. Togo are in Group D which on paper looks the most difficult, including the Ivory Coast, Tunisia and Algeria, with the final group game taking place on January 30th.
Should Togo exit at the group stages, which they are broadly expected to do by many observers with a greater appreciation of African football than myself, then Tottenham will have played just three games, against Manchester United and Norwich in the league and an FA Cup fourth round tie against either Leeds or Birmingham. The travel commitments and lack of planning would also likely see him miss the next league game at home to West Brom on the 3rd February. Should Togo progress further than the quarter-finals to the semi-finals, which take place on the 6th February, he will then likely miss the home league game against Newcastle.
It’s worth taking a closer look at the fixtures themselves before letting panic set in. Adebayor is likely to miss three league games and one cup game, two of which are at home and three of which they are expected to win, regardless of his presence. The only game they may miss him for is the first one at home to United.
The argument put forth that this leaves the squad with just a solitary striker in the form of Jermain Defoe is a sound one, but Adebayor’s decision to go to the ACN has not particularly hastened the need for recruitment in the attacking department; they would be wise to add someone to their squad over the course of the next month, but not solely because Adebayor will at a push, miss five games.
Villas-Boas appeared to rule out bringing in a fresh face last week, telling reporters: “I don’t think so. We have been pretty happy with the team and what we have, with the options that we have. We understand that we can put ourselves in a difficult position if we do not add one more striker, if one of the striker gets injured between Jermain Defoe and Clint Dempsey.
“But we’ve been in this situation before when Ade was injured and we managed to go through it. It’s difficult but it is not that great an amount of time that we lose Ade for. Of course we lose him for a couple of important games, but I think we are able to cope with it.”
Names such as Seydou Doumbia, Leandro Damiao, Alvaro Negredo and Roberto Soldado have been bandied about, all of which are feasible options and well within the club’s price range and wage bracket, but Daniel Levy’s reticence to spend any sort of sizeable chunk of change in January is well known and the likelihood is that the Portuguese will have to make do with what he has.
Adebayor’s return to the starting line-up in recent weeks alongside Defoe has paid dividends and the club took ten points out of a possible 12 over the hectic festive period, with the Togolese forward bringing a greater degree of balance to the team, with Aaron Lennon and Gareth Bale both in lively form on the flanks.
Nevertheless, that Villas-Boas chose to highlight Dempsey as proof that the club had the necessary depth up top to weather this frustrating period was a telling one. Adebayor’s move to overturn his own decision so close to the eve of the tournament shows a lack of professionalism on his part, but the club, and Levy in particular should have been wary of such a situation arising when they set about purchasing the striker from Manchester City in the summer, with the chairman guilty of a lack of foresight and awareness in this instance
Dempsey is by no means a striker, rather charitably bracketed under the term ‘forward’ due to his lack of positional discipline in midfield and consistency in front of goal. Relations between Villas-Boas and Adebayor have appeared tense for months, amid reports of the player’s unrest at a lack of playing time, completely ignoring the fact that he returned to the club halfway through pre-season overweight and clearly unfit after trying to secure himself the transfer fee that Tottenham were going to pay City.
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The one-eyed pursuit of Adebayor has left them short up top for practically the whole season; he has been part of the squad but only in the last six games has he played any sort of role or made any sort of lasting impression, during which Defoe has notably only scored once. A return to the 4-2-3-1 formation could once again bring the best out in the England international, but the wider picture dictates that all will not be well upon his strike partner’s return from South Africa.
The squad has lacked balance at the top end of the pitch since the start of the summer, but Levy, presumably still solely in charge of the club’s transfer policy, will not sanction a move for a new player simply because he plans to miss a month of the season. However, should he pick up an injury while away, the club could come to regret not strengthening from a position of strength in the top four by the end of the campaign. Has too much been made of Adebayor’s departure? Perhaps, but it has helped to shed further light on a notable weakness in this Tottenham squad.
The need for another genuine, out-and-out striker to be added to the club has been required ever since the summer and in the grand scheme of things will not be hastened by the minor inconvenience that is the ACN, but it does present an opportunity to reinvest and the club would be mad to miss it.
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho is planning a summer clearout, which will likely include the departures of utility men Matteo Darmian and Daley Blind, according to the Manchester Evening News.
What’s the word?
According to the report, Mourinho had already decided to have a summer cull, even before the Champions League aberration at the hands of Sevilla, which drew so much ire from the club’s fans.
That has led some supporters to demand that the former Real Madrid boss is dismissed but the Portuguese’s summer plans show no sign that he might soon be on the move.
Darmian – valued at £10.8m by Transfermarkt – and Blind have hardly featured this season. Other names who could join the pair in leaving the club this summer are Luke Shaw, Andreas Pereira and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
A clearout is just what United need
Under Louis van Gaal, there was a churn of players in and out at Old Trafford and it is fair to say that it didn’t work.
Some of the players brought in – Morgan Schneiderlin, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Memphis Depay – have already left the club while the signs look bleak for Darmian and Blind.
The issue is that the players themselves were not good enough for United and, despite the vast swathes of money spent in recent years, the long and the short of the matter is that Mourinho still doesn’t have a squad that is fit for purpose.
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There are also others who could be at risk. Chris Smalling and Phil Jones just haven’t progressed as expected. Antonio Valencia and Ashley Young have performed well at full-back this season but both are the wrong side of 30.
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Marouane Fellaini’s contract expires in the summer while question marks remain about how Alexis Sanchez, Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial all fit into the same squad.
Some United fans might want to see Mourinho leave the club, but if he is to stay on, then he needs to be able to mould to his will.
The squad is still not good enough and given the demand for instant success at Old Trafford, a summer of ins and outs is the only way Mourinho can go about changing that.
Like it or loathe it, diving has become a major factor in the modern game. Nowadays some of the very best players on the planet are known for their acts of simulation, and although such antics cannot be condoned, they have produced some truly memorable moments.
Inspired by the Ballon d’Or award, here’s the Fallon d’Floor trophy (funny, right?), which ‘celebrates’ the dark arts. The six nominees are…
The Assassination of Giancarlo Gonzalez by the coward Chris Wondolowski
We kick off with a little bit of MLS action here as American striker Wondolowski brutally assaults Gonzalez…
A Fish out of Water
A late contender from Leeds’ Brazilian star, Adryan…
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No Era Penal
One of the more memorable moments of an excellent World Cup over the summer was this from Arjen Robben.
Breakfast at Chiellini’s
One of the defining moments of 2014… Did his shoulder hurt your incisors, Luis?
Fred-dy got fingered
Another World Cup instalment from Fred, who was more prolific at winning penalties than scoring goals…
Gravity
The list just wouldn’t be complete without a Cristiano Ronaldo effort!
Sir Alex Ferguson has dismissed talks of retirement following his 71st birthday, insisting he hopes to be at Manchester United for “a bit of time” yet, the Telegraph reports.
Ferguson celebrated 26 years in charge at Old Trafford in November, but speculation has continued to mount that this could be his last season, with the likes of former Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola, Real Madrid’s Jose Mourinho and Everton’s David Moyes being touted as possible replacements.
However the United chief, who changed his mind on an initial decision to retire in 2002, is adament this won’t be his last season.
“I’m hoping to stay on for a bit of time,” he said. “In terms of football management, I have achieved everything I always wished for.“It’s been a great journey for me but being manager of Manchester United, you have to kick on. You can’t look back. The drive is always on to do better.”Speaking of potential successors to him at United, the Scotsman described the nature of today’s football management as “precarious”, and that many names are linked with the job but you can never be sure that those names are still going to be about when he does finally decided to call it a day and vacate the Old Trafford hot seat.Ferguson’s side currently sit seven points clear at the top of the Premier League following their 4-0 victory at Wigan on New Years Day.