Manchester United assistant manager Mike Phelan has admitted that the club are keeping tabs on highly rated Sporting Lisbon striker Ricky van Wolfswinkel.
The 22-year-old moved to the Estadio Jose Alvalade from Utrecht in the last transfer window, but already is being linked with a move to a bigger club, with the Premier League champions one of his potential suitors.
The Dutch striker has made an electric start to his time with the Portuguese club, scoring six goals in his first six games, which has come to the attention of a number of leading European teams.
Despite remaining coy about a move for the forward, Phelan has admitted United are keeping tabs on the Netherlands international.
“We have obviously known Van Wolfswinkel for a long time. He is a young striker, very talented, who has been growing in the last few seasons,” Phelan stated to Portuguese newspaper Record.
“A club like Manchester United carefully follow many players all over the world.”
Sir Alex Ferguson has signed players from the Portuguese Primeria Liga before, with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Nani and Anderson ending up at Old Trafford after impressing in the country.
By Gareth McKnight
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While the next football World Cup in Brazil may still be three years away, right now in New Zealand the Rugby World Cup is taking place. While some of the excitement may have gone out of the tournament now that England have been knocked out by France, there’s still plenty to talk and get enthused about.
One country in the world where the popularity of rugby is growing is Italy. Renowned as a country that loves football, rugby is becoming a bigger sport in Italy all the time and they are not only gradually starting to become more of a force in the Six Nations, but also on the world stage, too.
One Italian footballer who loves his rugby is Gianluca Vialli. The Italian made his name on these shores with Chelsea, and our very own Will Carling got to interview Luca on all things rugby and a bit of other stuff as well.
See who he thinks of when he thinks of rugby, aside from his wife’s brother, how far he thought Italy would make it in the tournament (I’m afraid he was a bit too optimistic on that one) and who he would like to play him in a film of his life; I’ll give you a clue, it’s a bald actor.
Here’s Italian football star Gianluca Vialli giving his Rugby World Cup 2011 prediction in This Is The Game Interviews, presented by Heineken…
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Ahead of the Arsenal v Chelsea in the Premier League at The Emirates Stadium, we spoke to former Arsenal defender and ex-Leeds boss David O’Leary…
Despite having a proven and consistent record of success in management Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has been criticised in some quarters. What are your thoughts?
Arsene Wenger is a fantastic manager. When I left Arsenal we were a big club but Arsene Wenger has moved them onto another level. They’ve even built a bigger stadium because they outgrew the old stadium. He has been amazing in that way. Everybody knows they play great football but they haven’t won anything in recent years which people keep referring to; they will know they need to put that right. They have started to leak more goals but I am sure they will be working to rectify that as well.
Why do you think Arsenal has conceded an uncharacteristically high number of goals this season?
First of all I’m an Arsenal fan so I have to put my loyalty to one side. They can play great football, but consistently they have conceded too many goals and shown frailties in defence. When they are one up, they might be dominating the game but you often feel the other team has got a great chance of equalising. . Bringing Mertesacker in will give them a bit more height which will help when they concede free-kicks and corners. I think other teams know when they play Arsenal that they are vulnerable in that position, and that gives them great heart.
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You were a world class defender; who do you view as Arsenal’s ideal central defensive partnership if everybody is fit; who impresses you?
The main two are Vermaelen and Mertesacker. The others are lads that can fill in, really. Koscielny does ok but I don’t feel that he’s going to get into the best teams that Arsenal are playing against at the moment.
Mertesacker is a good reader of the game, but pace wise I sometimes fear for him a little bit. Once Vermaelen comes back from injury they’ll form a stronger partnership together. They look like probably the strongest pair they have had at Arsenal for a few years.
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Upfront you can see Arsenal’s reliance on Van Persie. He is an amazing player, and if they were to lose him it would be a big blow. You see what he does when he’s on the field, and what he does when he comes off the bench. I hope we’re proved wrong, but his injury record of staying fit over the whole season unfortunately hasn’t been great.
The contract issue with Van Persie is potentially a difficult one. Arsenal are a great club and they’ll be able to offer him a fantastic deal. But he may be thinking to himself: “Are Arsenal going to win anything, can I go to a club that has a chance of winning the Champions League and could maybe offer me an even more amazing contract than the one I’ll be offered at Arsenal?” I hope that he stays at Arsenal for many seasons to come.
For more insight from David O’Leary and other leading managers plus exclusive Barclays Premier League highlights go to www.yahoo.co.uk/sport
Spanish outfit Espanyol could be ready to offer Sebastien Squillaci a way out of Arsenal according to reports on TalkSport. The 31-year-old defender only joined the Gunners just over a year ago but he has failed to make a positive impression on either the manager or the fans.
There were reports recently that Sam Allardyce wanted to take the Frenchman on loan to Upton Park but the Arsenal board blocked the move preferring to sell the defender. Arsenal have put a £4m price tag on the former Sevilla man. Spanish newspaper Sport reports that the Barcelona based club have made an offer for Squillaci but that it is significantly lower than the asking price. Espanyol have had well-documented financial problems recently and their inability to tie their players down to new contracts has forced them to seek replacements. However, even with the lower than expected offer, with Wenger’s patience with the centre back seemingly running thin the club could be keen to cash in on the defender while they can.
Mega rich Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala have also been linked with a move for the defender and whilst the £4m price tag would be no issue they are yet to make a move for the Arsenal man.
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QPR gained a vital point in their battle to beat the drop coming from behind to draw against Swansea who maintained their fine record Liberty Stadium.
Jamie Mackie was the R’s hero pouncing on Leon Britton’s mistake to equalise just before the hour after Danny Graham had put the home side ahead in the first half with a goal tinged with controversy. The draw now gives Neil Warnock’s side a three point advantage over Wigan who occupy the third and final relegation place and a major confidence boost as they head into the second half of the season. Going to the Liberty Stadium and gaining a point is no mean feat with Manchester United the only team to beat the Swans on home turf. Brendan Rodgers will also be delighted with a share of the spoils as it keeps his side five points above the drop zone and still with a chance of making it into the top half.
It was the visitors who began the contest with more purpose though and Swansea were once again grateful to the in-form Michael Vorm for keeping out early headers from Heidar Helguson and Mackie. The hosts struggled to get into their usual passing routine but found themselves ahead just before the quarter hour with Graham appearing to control Wayne Routledges cross with his hand before turning and lashing the ball home for his sixth goal of the campaign. The away bench erupted as Warnock frantically appealed for handball to no avail as referee Lee Probert failed to bat an eyelid towards the protests. Graham was denied a second goal soon after with Clint Hill doing brilliantly to block his effort from Scott Sinclair’s centre. The game was fast developing into an end-to-end affair with Vorm once again called into action to acrobatically tip Joey Barton’s strike away from goal after the hosts failed to deal with Adel Taarabt’s free kick. Helguson then squandered two opportunities in quick succession before Taarabt sliced a volley wide.
The second half saw a minor drop in the tempo as Swansea desperately searched for the killer goal with Routledge toe poking past the post after good work from Joe Allen to create space for the winger. It proved to be crucial as Mackie levelled on 58 minutes latching onto the ball following Britton’s attempted header back to his goalkeeper went horribly wrong allowing the QPR striker to brush off a challenge from Ashley Williams and cooly finish beyond Vorm. The Scotland striker was then denied by Vorm who once again proved to be the Swans’ last line of defence. Graham then thought he’d won a penalty following a could from Armand Traore but referee Probert failed to point to the spot as the away side went close to finding a winner late on. It was Vorm again who came out on top tipping Taarabt’s strike round the post as Warnocks side ended a run of three defeats on the spin ahead of their trip to Arsenal.
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Being stuck in the reserves whilst Michael Carrick continues to get a game in the first team is enough to test anybody’s patience and if rumours emanating from the Paul Pogba camp are to be believed, the talented 18-year-old is set to call time on his Manchester United career when his contract expires next summer.
Despite being lauded as one answer to the Red Devils’ midfield problems, Pogba has found appearances at Old Trafford hard to come by this term. A pair of substitute run-outs in the Carling Cup is all the former Le Havre trainee has been granted so far and with further chances looking sparse a number of suitors are said to be waiting in the wings.
Nostradamus never did try his hand at writing football gossip columns so take what you will from various sources suggesting Arsenal, Juventus, AC and Inter Milan are all keen to add the French under-19 international to their squads.
Given the nominal fee Pogba’s signature would cost and relatively cheap wages he could command, his acquisition would be a low-risk bit of business for anybody so it’s no wonder the midfielder is being courted across the continent.
The conundrum player and club must get right though, is would Pogba be better off remaining at Manchester United?
Even given his limited exposure to first-team football there would be few at Old Trafford prepared to let him go. Pogba was instrumental in helping United’s youth team win the FA youth cup last season and he has long established himself as a key member of the second string.
During the summer Sir Alex Ferguson overtly mentioned Pogba as one of the latest batch of academy graduates he was seeking to integrate into the side, and although that promotion has hardly been forthcoming, all involved recognise Pogba’s natural talent and athleticism mark him out as a potential incumbent into the United side.
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Whilst United are not generally in the habit of stockpiling resource for the sake of it, they have been scorched on a number of occasions in the past when letting players go prematurely.
Giuseppe Rossi and Gerard Pique would both arguably get in the team now but both would cost tenfold the fees they were released for. A Hat-trick with Pogba would not go down well.
Of course, the party line from Carrington would be that a player who does not turn nineteen until next March should bide his time and serve his apprenticeship with an institute who have a long and proven track record of developing from within – and they’d be right.
Pogba’s head may have already been turned by the lure of match minutes and money but if he had the inclination to ask Phil Jones, Chris Smalling Tom Cleverley, Danny Welbeck, Javier Hernandez or Wayne Rooney what to do, he’d still be a red this time next year.
Tales of how Sir Alex Ferguson develops young players is well trodden and one which doesn’t need retelling in the aftermath of his silver jubilee celebrations, but there is a reason the Scot has continually evolved side after side, and that is because he frequently gets the blend right within his squad of youth and experience.
The expectations placed upon the next big things can be overwhelming and often misguided – especially at clubs of the size and stature of United – yet Ferguson has the experience and understanding of how, when and where to involve players for future gains.
Simply playing as much football as you can, as soon as you can is a methodology which has more failure’s than successes and Pogba would be unwise to think that this approach would automatically suit him in the long run.
The number of starlet’s who break into established teams at such tender ages are increasingly rare and more players are now going through and induction progress of lesser cup ties and league games mixed in with loan spells in order to evolve to the the nuances of senior football regardless of any inherent technical skills.
At United, Pogba is cherished within such an environment and personnel around him to inch out his maturity for maximum benefit over a slightly more prolonged period of time.
However, the differences in mentality of player and manager only serves as a metaphor between generation and tradition with Pogba wanting cash and a quick fix whilst Ferguson is religiously well versed in the virtues of patience.
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Pogba can sign a pre-contract agreement from January onwards so time is not on United’s side to convince their starlet to stay, but no convincing should need to be done – with only a handful of exceptions they say the only way is down after leaving Manchester United.
Barcelona attacker Lionel Messi won the Ballon d’Or on Monday night for the third consecutive time.
It was revealed at the ceremony in Zurich that the Argentina international received 48% of the votes, compared to Cristiano Ronaldo’s 22% and Xavi’s 10%.
The victory for the South American means he has won the world player of the year award three times in a row, and equals Michel Platini, Johan Cruyff and Marco van Basten, who also received the accolade on three separate occasions.
Xavi heaped praise on his Barcelona team-mate, stating that he was a worthy winner of the award.
“He’s still young, only 24, and I think he’s going to break all the records that exist in this sport,” the Spain midfielder told reporters.
“He’s going to be one of the best footballers in the history of the sport.”
Meanwhile Pep Guardiola made it a double success for the Catalan side by picking up the Manager of the Year award, beating Jose Mourinho and Sir Alex Ferguson to the prize.
Ferguson did however pick up the Fifa President’s Award for services in the game, and was praised by Sepp Blatter at the event.
Manchester United duo Wayne Rooney and Nemanja Vidic were included in a world XI however, which was selected as follows:
Iker Casillas (Real Madrid), Dani Alves (Barcelona), Gerard Pique (Barcelona), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), Nemanja Vidic (Man Utd), Andres Iniesta (Barcelona), Xabi Alonso (Real Madrid), Xavi (Barcelona), Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid), Wayne Rooney (Man Utd).
Other winners in Switzerland were Japan’s women’s captain Homare Sawa who won the women’s player award; Japan manager Norio Sasaki was given the coach of the year for women’s football accolade; the Japanese FA were awarded the FIFA fair play award and Brazil striker Neymar won the FIFA Puskas award for the best goal of 2011.
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After two long weeks of nothing on the pitch, we were finally treated to not just one but two matches in a row as the frosty weather cleared that had interfered with our recent games.
First up was the home fixture on Valentines Day as Oxford made hard work of Dagenham and Redbridge. The first half in truth was a boring affair with very little to shout about, as the many new signings played competitively together for the first time. However the second half saw a change in mentality. United opened the scoring soon after the break with Oli Johnson netting his first for the club.
The Daggers hit back with just 20 minutes to go but this still gave enough time for James Constable to grab the winner and move into double figures for the season at long last. ‘Beano’ had been on a bit of a goal drought with this being his first of 2012 and hopefully it should do wonders for his confidence.
Confidence is a very important thing that we will need to be building up in the next couple of games before the small matter of facing Swindon Town.
Saturday’s fixture against Bristol Rovers saw a stalemate as the weather tried to be a factor once again. The match was actually in doubt as torrential rain poured in the West Country, but after an inspection it was decided the pitch was playable. It finished 0-0 and is another solid point for the U’s to build on with three home games in a row coming up next.
One player to comment on is Mehdi Kerrouche who came of the bench against the daggers and was handed a full debut against the Pirates, Kerrouche helped set up the winning goal on Tuesday and linked up well with the front line against Rovers.
The next two weeks sees three home games against Barnet, Macclesfield and then Swindon, providing there are no more unexpected postponements of course.
After our last home game there is hope that we can push on and transfer some of the brilliant away form from this season to home matches. This season in all competitions we have won only half of the home games and for a team wanting to push for promotion that just is not good enough.
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Not every team can play consistently well for a whole season and you have to think that the clubs above United are sure to slip up sooner or later. Automatic promotion currently looks a long way off but with a few more wins in the next couple of weeks anything could yet be possible.
Kenny Dalglish’s patience with media has become a little strained this season, and the Scottish manager’s latest run-in has done nothing to patch up the situation. Liverpool’s failings on the field of play, the Luis Suarez ‘handshake’ and now rumours surrounding transfers at the club have pushed the relationship to almost breaking point. But is the Reds chief could well be right in his criticism of growing press intrusion.
The world of football has never been the same since the Rupert Murdoch fuelled SkySports intervention transformed and repackaged the sport for the consumerist market of 1990’s Britain. Their alterations to the game centered around a new media aspect, turning the sport into more of a spectacle to infiltrate the living rooms of the nation, moving it away from the purity of its previous form
Since then this effect has snowballed with the creations of SkySports news, an increasing presence of the tabloid press and the internet, all of which are hungry for a story to fill pages an airtime. As a result almost every aspect of the sport is analysed, and dissected, pulling up stories which may not have been there in the first place.
As somewhat of an old school manager, Kenny Dalglish has found the transformation of the game to be disorientating, with the bulk of his previous management experience coming through the 1980’s and 1990’s. During this period the influence of the press was a little subdued as compared to now, allowing staff to go about the day-to-day running of their clubs without interruption.
Rumours surrounding the future of controversial striker Luis Suarez and a perspective move to Paris Saint-Germain, have once again riled the Scot, who believes that media outlets are unsettling his camp ahead of the season run in:
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“It comes as a surprise to myself, that yourselves [journalists] don’t know how the media work,” Dalglish said to SkySports.
“It was a journalist that mentioned the list of names and it was the chairman that said ‘oh they are interesting’. It was a list of names and Suarez’s name was mentioned, but I don’t know if it was Luis Suarez. I don’t know what Suarez it is.
“Also if the guy who sends the story in, if it is not repeated anywhere else and it has no soul and is not attractive to a newspaper, they don’t get any money.
“So I think it will be interesting to yourselves to disclose to the general public where the story comes from, how they get there, instead of asking us questions every time somebody’s name appears in a paper,” he finished.
It’s a frustrating state of affairs for managers across all leagues, with many transfer rumours being completely unfounded, and churned out purely on speculation. Suarez may well be considering a change of scenery, feeling that there may be too much bad blood between himself and various sectors of English football and as a result this has been seized upon to create a story and fill some time. Newcastle also suffered the misfortune of the press in their attempts to keep hold of Demba Ba, as stories were circulated stating the bargain buy-out clause written into his contract, upping the interest in the Senegalese forward. Individual clubs may well have found this out themselves, but media circulation of the fact alerted them, thus upping the interest levels for one of the Magpies key men.
As the weeks pass, it gets harder and harder to have sympathy with the Liverpool boss, as his talk of a media witch-hunt of his club serves to frustrate fans across the league, but he may well have a point with regards to some aspects of media intrusion. It’s not just Dalglish who has suffered, with the press infiltrating the ranks of clubs across the league system, stirring speculation at each turn. If were not for intervention earlier this campaign the speculation surrounding the demise of Arsenal and Arsene Wenger would have been far less fierce, sparing the Frenchman a fair few sleepless nights over what was ultimately an unfounded story.
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It’s been a tough season for Dalglish and the media, with their relationship pushed to breaking point. However, despite his calls for transparency in and a backing of from many areas of the press, it looks highly unlikely that a change will be made, even if would prove to be to the benefit of those involved in the game.
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It was a bit like when you’re young and you get picked for the school team and spend all week in delirious excitement, only to get subbed after five minutes for that short annoying classmate who goes on to score a hat trick, rubbing it in by celebrating right in your face before he is carried aloft by his adoring team mates.
Not that that kind of thing ever happened to us. No sir.
But I imagine it must feel somewhat similar to Saturday’s result. While there is no such thing as an easy game in league 1, and with 19 stalemates the U’s are draw specialists but Colchester have been on a horrid run recently, lying third bottom of the form table, having not won in 10.
They were there for the taking. Unfortunately, we didn’t take. More unfortunately, one of the few teams on a worse trot than the imaginatively nicknamed U’s is Leyton Orient, so their capitulation at the sty was grimly predictable.
More worrying was the lack of cutting edge that seems to have been creeping in over the last couple of matches, most noticeable in the flying winger Antonio who seems to have had his wings clipped somewhat.
Depression, which seems to be many Owls fans natural state of being, is rearing its ugly head. There is even talk in the office of assuming we are doomed to the play-offs and should start resting key players now. Four points looks like a pretty big gap with a mere nine to play for.
To act as a counterweight to this malaise, here are some reasons to be optimistic.
First, Miguel Llera, the sorcerer of Seville, responded to his receipt of the coveted SWFC Football FanCast player of the week award with typical Latin flair, scoring again this week. Second, Reading’s unstoppable hurtle into the top flight of English football probably increases our chances of keeping hold of Antonio. Third, this is how things are going to pan out.
We beat plucky Carlisle and United suffer a not improbable reverse at MK Dons – one point gap. We get a slightly more improbable away win at Brentford, whilst across the city they only manage a point against Stevenage who, to be fair, are on a bit of a run themselves – we go ahead by a point.
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Then on the last day, we just need to beat Wycombe at home to secure promotion.
In the immortal words of Danny Baker, Nothing can go wrong now.