Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has stated that he has serious doubts over whether Paul Scholes would consider a return to playing for England.
Potential new Three Lions boss Harry Redknapp stated that the Red Devils veteran should be included in the nation’s Euro 2012 squad after impressive performances this season, but Ferguson is not so sure.
“Do you really honestly believe that?” Ferguson asked reporters at a press conference, published in The Telegraph.
“I don’t think there’s any chance of that. To go back again to play for England, eight years after his last game, is a big, big step.
“I think Paul will be concentrating [on United], if he decides to go on. Whether he decides to stay is a part that hasn’t been settled yet, but with the form he has shown, there is no reason why he can’t play on next season. I just think it is too big a step to go back to England,” the Scottish coach admitted.
Scholes has been a critic of the England set-up in the past, and is famed for his achievements for club rather than country.
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The Premier League has been built on a foundation of physicality, strength and competitiveness. It’s all well and good for the entertainment aspect of the game when you see end-to-end action and goals a plenty. It only strengthens the debate that the English league is one of, if not, the very best for entertainment and action.
But then comes that controversial, ugly side of football; like a late, late substitution by the opposition you hoped wouldn’t make an appearance, but diving is all too common and certainly takes away from the integrity of the game. In fact, the very mention of integrity in the modern game has become laughable, but that is the situation we’ve come to accept.
Far too many regular divers and conmen line-up for Premer League clubs each week. And it’s not necessarily the fact that you want to get rid of them as players, but rather highlight and eradicate the persistent diving to win one over on the other team. Common, ugly, and with no rightful place in the game.
Click on Didier Drogba to unveil the top 10
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As the season draws to an uneventful close you’d struggle to blame the fans for being a little pessimistic about the future at Elland Road.
It’s a well known and well discussed fact that the team needs investment, so with Neil Warnock publicly stating that Ken Bates plans to give him the financial backing needed to build a promotion winning side, is it finally time to lay down the weapons, get behind the club and trust them to do the right thing?
With Warnocks first summer signing due to arrive in the first week of May, rumoured to be Jason Pearce from Portsmouth, it could be that we are witnessing the start of a new era at Elland Road. Promotion to the Premier League would see Leeds come full circle and battling against the countries elite once again, though the Leeds United that would return wouldn’t be anything like the same Leeds United that fell apart all those years ago.
These days, the fans have their usual high expectations and hopes but hold a bigger sense of realism than ever before, nobody would expect us to be challenging for Europe in our first season, the majority would settle for simply surviving. From there, we’d have the chance to rebuild ‘brick by brick’ to become a force once again. This, of course, is all dependant on achieving promotion, which will be no easy task in a league that is already shaping up to be a seriously competitive division.
This is why, in my opinion, it’s time to drop the anti-Bates mindset and focus instead on rallying around Warnock and the team he creates over the next few months. Ken Bates is our owner until he sees fit, that much is abundantly clear, so if he does indeed invest in the team as promised it may be better to forgive and move on, even if forgetting might be a step too far.
On the playing front the team have been as unpredictable as ever, though the weekends draw with Cardiff helped appease the growing frustrations of an end of season with nothing to play for.
Warnock has gone on record to say that they are playing for their futures and he’s backed this up with the departures of Mika Varynen, the injury plagued pair Ben Parker and Darren O’Dea, whom many believed would be signed up as a squad player upon expiration of his contract at Celtic.
There are also rumours that only 6 of the current squad have been asked to stay with the rest seemingly told that their futures are not with Leeds United. Whether such a mass clear out actually takes place is anyone’s guess, but it’s quite clear that we’re in for an eventful summer regardless.
It’s easy to understand the fans frustrations over the last few years, but looking back and focusing on the past wont result in progress. Neil Warnock is undoubtedly the man to get Leeds back to the promised land but he has repeatedly stated how he only has one year left, meaning that next season really could be our best chance of success. I for one could never defend Ken Bates, too much has happened for me to be able to find any positives in his seemingly never ending tenure as Chairman, but if he allows Warnock to build a team that has the potential to achieve the great things that we as fans have craved for years then i’d be more than happy to call it quits.
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It is fair to say that at least a small amount of Ipswich fans are unhappy with Paul Jewell’s management of the team this season. A lot of this criticism comes from Jewell’s decision to often leave out Luke Hyam and Josh Carson in favour of using more experienced players like Lee Bowyer.
The other source of this criticism comes from Jewell’s overall win ratio whilst he has been the Ipswich boss which sits at roughly 40%, only just a few bad results away from being as low as Roy Keane’s or Jim Magilton’s record. Obviously the critics have reduced in numbers since the team pulled away from the relegation zone but the fans are clearly split when it comes to the former Wigan manager.
It would be unfair to just talk about the negatives in Jewell’s management since taking over 15 months ago. He took over an underperforming side when he came in and had a huge task ahead of him to turn the team into promotion hopefuls.
Whilst there have been some less impressive signings over the last 15 months, I would argue there have been more good than bad considering he brought in Cresswell, Drury, Emmanuel-Thomas and Chopra. Although it may not be saying much, I would say that the current Town management has dealt a lot better in the transfer market in comparison to how Roy Keane did. On top of that Jewell has started to get the most out of Lee Martin, who has now revealed that Keane never gave him a chance in his preferred position. Overall, the whole team does seem to have a better attitude and togetherness since the change in management, which has been great to see. Without a doubt the team has moved forward since the Roy Keane era but like I say, that doesn’t mean much considering what a train wreck his management was.
In terms of the results this season it is hard to argue that Jewell has done a good job. However, he is a man who has admitted he made mistakes in the summer which caused a huge string of losses this season. Since realising these mistakes the team has improved and if you look at results since the dramatic away game against Barnsley in December, they have been fairly impressive.
The reason a lot of Championship or even Premier League teams never get anywhere is because they are always too keen to sack their managers. You really do have to give a lot of credit to Marcus Evans for being patient and not cracking under pressure from the fans, because without that patience the whole club would crumble. Once you start sacking managers all the time, the players and coaching staff never have any job security because whilst one manager might like them, the next might not.
On the issue of Luke Hyam and Josh Carson it is a tough one to judge because both youngsters have been promising. Hyam has been singled out as one of the main players who battled and played out of his skin to get the team away from the relegation zone. Personally, I like to see younger players being used as a lot of the time they show the hunger and drive you need to get out of the Championship. The major argument for Jewell current team selection is based on the fact that he shouldn’t be playing youngsters just for the sake of it. In reality Hyam and Carson have already shown that they can add something to the team though, so I find myself thinking what is the point in playing a declining Lee Bowyer over youngsters?
That would be the one criticism of Jewell I would certainly agree with. For the most part though, a lot of the criticism has been over the top nonsense where certain fans are calling for his head just because they want something to moan about. You could argue that Jewell’s stats aren’t far off what Keane produced but if you are looking solely at win percentages then he isn’t far off Bobby Robson’s stat of 44.6%.
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Personally I don’t always agree with the team selection or even the transfer policy but I am reasonable enough to realise that sacking Jewell this season would have only caused more problems. Generally the fans are behind the team and there is an element of excitement about next season at Portman Road. It is good to see that although a lot of fans may be critical of the team’s management behind closed doors, they get behind the team on the match days. My message to the Jewell haters would be to wait until November and then make an assessment based on how close to the play-offs we are.
The transfer window may have opened today, but its managerial moves that are making all of the headlines at present, with bigger clubs poaching improving managers from the smaller Premier League sides.
Norwich City manager Paul Lambert looks set for a move to Aston Villa after he offered his resignation to the Canaries board on Thursday. Delia Smith and co. may have rejected Lambert’s offer, but he is now in discussions over a move to the midlands to replace the unpopular Alex McLeish at Villa Park.
From day one the McLeish reign was doomed to failure after his move from rivals Birmingham City and the fans’ clear disliking of the man, paired with underperforming players and unconvincing new signings.
However, I feel that Aston Villa have the squad and infrastructure to become a consistent top half Premier League side and possibly challenge the likes of Everton, Newcastle, Fulham and Stoke for a top eight position on a regular basis, perhaps returning to the Martin O’Neill days of European football in the next few years.
No other club in the country has a group of players aged 18-23 who are seemingly ready for first team football; with the likes of Marc Albrighton, Ciaran Clark and Barry Bannan already first team regulars, soon to be followed by the promising Gary Gardner, Chris Herd, Andreas Weimann, Samir Carruthers and others.
Villa have also taken part in the hugely successful NexGen Series that is a sort of Champions League style competition for under-18 sides, where they beat runners up Ajax on their way to winning their group and impressing the top clubs in Europe. The before mentioned youngsters along with the likes of rejects such as Emile Heskey had a huge role to play in winning their reserve league too, a league that included both Arsenal and Chelsea.
Injuries to the likes of Darren Bent and horrific news for Stililyan Petrov added to the woes of the club last season, narrowly avoiding relegation after a terrible slump in form in the final few months of the campaign. Big money signings such as Charles N’Zogbia offered very little to squad as a replacement of Stewart Downing and money could be available for Lambert after the big money sales of Downing, Ashley Young and James Milner in recent times.
The core defence is in place with the hugely experienced Richard Dunne, James Collins and Shay Given the main backbone with progressive full backs Alan Hutton and Stephen Warnock in place. One time Leeds United prodigy Fabien Delph seems to be over his worst injury problems and the likes of Stephen Ireland and Gabriel Agbonlahor are decent enough Premier League players that can cause opposition problems. Add the set of impressive youngsters to the current squad and ask Mr Lerner to fork out on two or three marquee signings; with the likes of Grant Holt possibly following his current manager from East Anglia; and I see no reason why Villa wont only improve on last season but also challenge the top eight and have a decent cup run.
Without disrespecting Norwich, you have to feel that Lambert has taken them as far he can, similarly to Brendan Rodgers at Swansea, and so the prospect of joining a big club, with a good squad that have very little expectations after a woeful season would excite me and I’m sure the man who was managing Colchester United just three years ago will be a huge success at Villa Park. Don’t be surprised to see Aston Villa massively improving next season and battling in the top half of the Premier League.
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What do you think? Let me know on Twitter: @Brad_Pinard
Michel Platini has sensationally stated that players at Euro 2012 may be booked for reacting or protesting to racist abuse.
With the tournament set to kick off on Friday in Ukraine and Poland, there are fears that the eastern European countries may not be the ideal venue for the competition and that racist incidents may occur from a section of supporters.
A number of England’s coloured players’ families have decided not to travel to support the team due to the fear, and Mario Balotelli has stated that he would walk off the pitch if he is subject to abuse.
Despite this, the Uefa president has stated that players risk discipline should they ark up over potentially controversial incidents.
“It’s a yellow card,” Platini is quoted as saying by The Guardian.
“We’d certainly support the referee if he decided to stop the game. It’s not a player, Mr Balotelli, who’s in charge of refereeing. It’s the referee who takes these decisions.
So, the referee has been given advice and he can stop the game if there are problems. We will stop the game if there are problems because I think racism is the worst of this,” he concluded.
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Newcastle United are this morning said to be improving their bid for Lilleand France right back Mathieu Debuchy according The Mirror.
The Magpies last week put a £4 million bid on the table for Debuchy, who had an impressive campaign for his country at Euro 2012. As Lille categorically denied the offer, Alan Pardew is now set to up the bid to £6 million in an attempt to strengthen last seasons surprise package even further.
The team from St James Park have endured a frustrating summer transfer window so far, as they also frantically chase FC Twente striker Luuk De-Jong, tipped by many to be the next Robin Van Persie.
By adding the signings of De-Jong and Debuchy, the hope is that Alan Pardew’s men will send out a strong message of intent which will enable them to keep hold of Demba Ba, Yohan Cabaye and Cheick Tiote as well.
Lille boss Rudy Garcia claims; ‘He (Debuchy) is torn between staying with us to play in the Champions League in our new stadium or going elsewhere.’
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Should Lille accept the latest bid from Newcastle for the 26 year old right back, he may find himself with a tough decision to make.
Pre Ryan Shawcross, Aaron Ramsey was an incredibly exciting prospect for Arsenal fans. Stolen from under the noses of Manchester United for a very reasonable £5m, Ramsey went from strength to strength in Arsenal’s team. He displayed a pleasing level of ability in almost every aspect of the central midfielder’s role – a quite remarkable feat for such a young player.
Then, one game against Stoke changed that. The Welsh captain was left with such an horrific broken leg that his attacker was left in tears and the Arsenal team was left in shock. Arsenal fans had seen this sort of incident before with both Eduardo and Abou Diaby but there was something quite sickening about such a young, promising player coming so close to ending his career before it had even begun.
Ramsey did eventually return to football, with mixed success. He made his comeback with a month to go in the 2010/11 season. Some reasonable performances were capped of with some pleasing link-up play with Jack Wilshere and the winning goal in the home game against Manchester United. Since then, however, his fortunes have been somewhat tempestuous.
The added pressure of being the creative midfielder to replace Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri and Jack Wilshere last season was something that a veteran would struggle to deal with, let alone a 21 year old starting his inaugural season as a first team regular.
Nevertheless, his form at the beginning of the 2011/12 season was reasonably impressive with goals against Spurs and Marseille and some decent passing in the 5-3 victory over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
Eventually though, the pressure seemed to take over. Gary Speed’s death and the pressure of being national captain was a considerable burden for a player who was also charged with being the creative spark in an Arsenal midfield that was lacking any real dynamism.
Whether it was a loss of confidence or a remarkable bout of over confidence is unclear but what is obvious is that Ramsey lost his form. Perhaps he was simply exhausted after playing so much football after such a long absence from the season before. Whatever the case, inconsistency and mistakes found their way in to most of his performances.
The crowd got on his back and, on occasion, so did his team mates. His wastefulness in possession became common practice and penchant for elaborate flicks only exasperated the situation.
Ramsey may not have deserved all of the abuse he suffered last season but he will undoubtedly need to improve in the coming campaign. Arsenal fans will hope that Wilshere will return to share the burden, but they cannot count on it.
Whilst Wenger has commented on how well the two young midfielders have linked up in the past it is important to stress that Arsenal need Ramsey to be a valuable player in his own right.
He has the potential to be a brilliant player but Arsenal are not short of central midfielders. He will be competing with Arteta, Song, Wilshere, Coquelin, Rosicky, Diaby, and Frimpong this season. He is at a stage in his career where he needs to be playing regularly. His development has already suffered as a result of his year on the sidelines, he lost his place at the end of last season, and he cannot afford to do so again.
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Gary Speed believed in Ramsey, enough to make him one of the youngest national captains in the world. Wenger believed in Ramsey, enough to spend £5m on him. This season Ramsey needs to start repaying that faith. Arsenal have an oversized squad as it is, there’s no space for players who can’t deliver.
UEFA’s plans to establish a much more attractive secondary competition in Europe looks to be on the right track. And this season’s Europa League tournament is likely to catch the eye in the same way that last season’s knockout phase did.
American sports fans have it good: Four very different sports on offer and only four leagues to keep an eye on – because who really watches the Canadian Football League? And while I’m hardly complaining about the wealth of football on offer in Europe (that would be bordering on blasphemy), the Europa League is doing well to add its name to a growing list of leagues worth watching.
Now, most won’t be too bothered unless their team is competing. Like Serie A, La Liga and all the other leagues, the Europa League will fall into a category of completely dispensable competitions. Maybe it will have to take Barcelona or Manchester United competing in it regularly to draw the widest possible audience.
But like last year, the Champions League’s little brother, who was given an absolutely necessary makeover, will feature a host of teams that are worth watching.
Falcao should be enough to peak the interest of most neutrals, for lack of a better word. And his excellent performance both last year for Atletico and the year prior with Porto is likely to continue. He’s made the competition his own, and his two wonder goals in last season’s final were of a high enough standard to be included and immortalised in the Allianz Arena.
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But it’s the stigma that UEFA will struggle to shake. The Thursday nights joke may never come to an end within football banter, and who really wants to be associated with that competition? Certainly not regulars of the Champions League.
But are football fans concerned about the name on a trophy or the quality of football? Bilbao’s game against Manchester United at Old Trafford last season was one of the better matches in all of European competition, and there is no escaping the talent that will be on display again this season. It’s often that you hear fans bemoaning a lack of football and having to wait until the weekend. Should we apologise for your club not competing in a tournament outside its domestic league? There doesn’t have to be a negative view of a competition that UEFA are desperate to change the fortunes and image of.
Edinson Cavani will lead a determined, albeit noticeably weaker, Napoli into the tournament, and Tottenham should be good viewing with a manager hungry for success for the second time in three years. Inter Milan, Liverpool and Leverkusen will also add to the weight of high-profile names.
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The inclusion of Manchester United and Manchester City last season did a lot to boost the interest in the competition. And even though there are a number of fans who would be keen to follow clubs like Ajax in Europe, UEFA are deeming themselves extremely fortunate to have another round of big names to draw in sizable audiences.
Prior to the change of name, you’d either have to have been keen on the talent at Shakhtar Donetsk, or a Werder Bremen supporter to switch over to the Uefa Cup. It will take a lot more than just half-a-season’s worth of play to change the makeup of the Europa League, but at least things are moving in the right direction for UEFA.
So here we go again, the start of a new season at Bramall Lane.
A new season of high hopes, tremendous pressure and hopefully this time, success. After being so far in front of our city rivals nearing the end of the season then blowing it and finishing in 3rd place, then going to Wembley, and losing again was a sort of reality check.
It made me realise during my 17-years of life is that we always seem to throw it away or cave under pressure at the most vital part of the season. That’s why this season I’m only going to be slightly optimistic about promotion.
Looking at the bookies, many seem to have us favourites for promotion. Although they also seem to have Chris Porter as favourite for top goal-scorer. On that logic I’d save my money for the boozer before the game.
I’d like us to finish on top of the pile as would every other fan but realistically I can’t see it happening and instead I think going for 2nd place is our best shot. Aim for second so people will be overjoyed if we finish 1st but still happy if 2nd. Anything less than that in my eyes is a failure.
So far the transfer window has looked quite promising. Only selling one member of the squad (to date) while bringing in six fresh faces. Of the six arrivals, the main signing for me has been John Cofie, the young Man U striker. He is technically brilliant, big and strong, and as demonstrated against Rotherham, he knows where the net is, confirmed by a cracking free kick.
All other signings (bar one. No need to name him but we’ll welcome back LJF with open arms) also look to be decent. I’m starting to like the looks of a Blackman, Cofie partnership up front. Last Saturday against Burton (more penalty shoot-out agony) Blackman looked calm and collected. He has a good first touch and in my opinion will not only be a great asset up front but also a crowd favourite.
Perhaps the highlight of the off-season was not the impressive pre- season unbeaten run but the news that our star playmaker, Kevin McDonald, had put pen to paper. He signed a new contract keeping him at beautiful down town Bramall Lane until 2014 much to the delight of all the Blades fans who had been waiting anxiously, not helped by the vast amount of rumours surrounding him.
For me there are a few players to watch this season: McAllister back from his loan, Blackman and McMahon. McMahon looked impressive on Saturday with his passing ability. He switched the ball with what seemed like ease and wasn’t afraid get forward in attack.
The new season finally starts on Saturday at home to Shrewsbury and hopefully it’ll start with win. Or even more so an early annihilation, perhaps that is wishful thinking but it would be nice.
Hopefully this season we can get promoted the easy way without all the heartbreak and tears of going to Wembley again. Let’s get behind the team and not on their backs. This maybe a cliche but we can be the 12th man. And together we can do it! So on to a successful season. UTB
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If you would like to discuss my thoughts or just want to have a general chat about the Blades, you can find me on Twitter @nathansere.