All posts by h79snht.top

Chelsea’s on-loan goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has claimed that he would like to play for either Tottenham Hotspur or Fulham in the future.

Courtois, who has been identified by Chelsea as the long-term successor to Petr Cech, is currently on a year’s loan with Spanish outfit Atletico Madrid.

The 19-year-old claimed that he is likely to spend a further year with Atletico before hopefully landing a temporary deal with Spurs or Fulham.

“Chelsea told me that I would spend two years in a team like Atletico. At the moment it is only one year, but if they want me for a second Chelsea are fine with that,” Courtois told Onda Cero.

“After that I would then spend one more season with an English club, like Fulham or Tottenham, to allow me to adapt to the English league.”

Courtois has kept five clean sheets in seven La Liga games this season.

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Article courtesy of Matt Wood from the excellent Clean Sheets All Round

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Ian Wright thinks it is time for England to make a stand against FIFA in order to save football. Ian Wright refers to the issues facing FIFA right now, which includes corruption, bribery, backhanders and now a presidential election where Sepp Blatter is the only choice. Wright goes on to compare the situation at FIFA at the moment to the Mafia.

Ian Wright’s suggestion is the FA leading national associations with a boycott of FIFA until this mess is sorted out a drastic step indeed – but a move the former Arsenal and England striker feels is necessary to force FIFA into change. Wright has concerns about the possibility of England pulling out of qualifying for the 2014 World Cup – but feels there are bigger issues at play here and safeguarding the way football is run being the most important thing.

The recent suspensions of Jack Warner and Mohamed Bin Hammam support the theory of corruption at FIFA. Wright feels that even if Blatter wasn’t involved in the corruption himself that doesn’t mean that he is innocent; surely Blatter must be questioned for failing to realise what was going on. As well as all of this is the continued questions on the Qatar World Cup bid and exactly what went on there. Of immediate concern is the fact that Blatter is the lone running for re-election.

We know that the FA had wanted the election to be postponed until someone to challenge Blatter can be found – but despite these calls it appears the election will still go ahead on Wednesday as planned. Wright suggested that Blatter has too much power for one man and treats world football like his own personal play thing. National associations must pull out of FIFA events and take the power of football back from one man and given back to the world.

It appears that Wright may have a point and pulling out of the FA may be the only way for FIFA to sit up and take notice. But surely it is only going to work if other Nations follow from the example in England. However, FIFA will want England at the World Cup and if other top Nations such as Spain, France, Germany…also pulled out then surely FIFA would have to act, wouldn’t they?

FIFA may also have other problems with the news that major sponsors Coca-Cola and Adidas are growing concerns – if either or both were to pull out it would be interesting to see what sort of impact that would have. But I think Ian Wright is right in order to reform FIFA someone needs to take drastic action, I have my doubts if that someone will be the English FA. But I would be reasonably confident that if someone else was to pull out – the FA would also do so.

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Should the FA pull out of FIFA? Follow me on Twitter and debate this issue.

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Kashiwa Reysol are top of the J.League after a last-gasp 1-0 victory over Vegalta Sendai on Saturday.At the Kashiwa Hitachi Stadium, two of the competition’s top four sides clashed in one of the most exciting matches of the round.

But the contest failed to deliver goals, until the very last moment as Masakatsu Sawa hit a 94th minute winner for the leaders.

Yokohama F. Marinos remain a point behind Kashiwa in second after a 2-1 win at Jubilo Iwata.

Daisuke Nasu scored a 17th minute opener for the hosts, but they could not maintain that lead for long as Kazuma Watanabe struck with 10 minutes of the first half remaining to level proceedings.

Shunsuke Nakamura scored the winner six minutes into the second half from the penalty spot as Yokohama F. Marinos recorded their fourth win in a row.

In other matches, Kawasaki Frontale avoided a scare in their 3-2 home win over bottom-side Avispa Fukuoka.

Goals to Junichi Inamoto, Kengo Nakamura and Juninho looked to have given Kawasaki an easy victory but two goals in six minutes from Hideya Okamoto set up a nervous finale.

Genki Omae’s first-half injury time strike proved to be the winner in Shimizu S-Pulse’s 2-1 away win at Ventforet Kofu while Naoshi Nakamura scored with six minutes remaining to give Nagoya Grampus a 1-0 victory at Vissel Kobe.

With player power playing a more significant role in transfers these days it’s not common to hear of a footballer forcing a move for himself for those so called ‘football reasons.’

It’s becoming all too common seeing a player cry on in a newspaper or tweet he’s ‘gone as far as he could’ or ‘wants a bigger challenge’ in an attempt to engineer a transfer to a desired club. In a few rare circumstances these reasons are valid but 99% of the time money is the key motivation for moving.

Players crave the highest wage possible and clubs are struggling to meet their sky high demands. It makes better financial sense to give a player the move he wants rather than having him linger round a stadium he doesn’t want to call home any longer.

The lengths that some players go to in an effort to force through a transfer are at times comical. Scanning twitter to find a player beaming widely into a camera whilst lugging his expensive bag off an airport conveyer belt or spotting them having a secret meeting with the manager trying to sign them then walking out none the wiser when the flashbulbs are glaring are funny.

But 99% of the time their actions could pop the blood vessel that is quickly becoming more and more prominent on the brow of fans. Threats of striking, ridiculous twittering and lacklustre performances are all traits of a player who wants out. Fans crave loyalty in an age where players pledging their allegiances to a side means absolutely zilch. It all boils down to money and players engineer their moves to get the best deal for them even if it means moving to a team lower down the league.

So here you have it the Top TEN rogues who engineered their own transfer!

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List compiled by Jak Penny

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Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny has stated that the club’s fans who booed Arsene Wenger in the club’s 2-1 defeat to Manchester United on Sunday should remember what he has done for the club.

The French manager replaced Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain with out-of-form Andrei Arshavin in the second half of the loss, much to the distain of some of the supporters.

The Poland international is full of respect for Wenger, and has stated that the Emirates Stadium faithful should stand by their coach’s convictions.

“No one will ever forget [what he’s done],” Szczesny told The Telegraph.

“I think he’s still doing a fantastic job and that’s not a question, really, his position at this club. He’s done a magnificent job over the 15 years and he’s still doing it now.

“So I don’t think his position at this club should ever be questioned. Fans have their opinion. They’re entitled to their opinion and they show it in the way they do. That’s fine with me.

“I think this club should be in the Champions League, year in, year out so I understand the manager’s point, absolutely.

“We’ve been there before and we’ve reacted very well. I think we’ll do the same thing again and make sure that this club goes in the right direction and we finish the season where we should.

“There’s a lot of pressure. Obviously, fans expect us to do better than what we’ve been doing. I’m confident we will pick ourselves up, we’ll win games and we’ll get our position in the Champions League.

“I’m not worried. I’m disappointed, obviously, but I’m still confident we can do it. It should be a big confidence boost for us, the likes of Jack Wilshere and Bacary Sagna coming back, Kieran Gibbs as well. They’re very important players for us.

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“Hopefully, we can deal with all the pressure that’s around us at the moment and live up to the expectations because these fans and this club deserve better results than it is has got in the last few weeks,” he concluded.

By Gareth McKnight

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Roberto Mancini hailed the perfect opening to the Premier League season as City ran riot in the second half at the Etihad Stadium. New signing Sergio Aguero capped a super debut with two goals and assist, showing City fans there could be more than a future should Carlos Tevez choose to move on.

Elsewhere in the papers there have been a mixed bag of stories that include; Walcott critical of Capello’s preparation; Joey Barton in the clear, while Obi-Mikel pleads for his kidnapped father’s return.

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Mancini hails ‘perfect night’ as Agüero shines on debut – Guardian

Walcott critical of Capello’s preparation – Guardian

Wenger defiant as heat rises on Arsenal – Guardian

Chelsea’s Mikel appeals over father’s kidnapping – Guardian

Don’t worry! De Gea will shine, claims former United legend Schmeichel – Daily Mail

Enrique says Carroll will terrorise defences after winning fitness battle – Daily Mail

Meireles is Chelsea’s latest target as Blues weigh up new Modric bid – Daily Mail

Spurs’ next signing must be a striker – Mirror

Barton in the clear over row – Sun

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Shay’s Given Villa an injury scare – Sun

Anelka wants to quit Chelsea – Mirror

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In a follow up to the TOP TEN Best moments of the season earlier this week, today I focus on the worst moments of the season, so far. These moments are the worst in the sense that I could not really believe what had happened – for negative reasons. These moments are sensational but are not good for the game. They are more lowlights than highlights that football as a whole could have done without.

I am not going to focus on the worst decisions, I will leave that for later in the year. I am sure everyone will want to have a say on which decisions were the worst and which were most influential. The worst moments for me are ones that have made the Premier League a worse division. I am not intending to criticise the league at all, instead I just want to pick out moments of the season that have been bad for the game.

Of course these will not be every team's worst moments. Arsenal fans will probably think the League Cup final or home defeats to Tottenham and Newcastle were the worst moments of the domestic season. Likewise a Tottenham fan will rue picking up only 1 point from 4 games against the bottom 4 sides in the League. Every side will have their own 'worse moment'.

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Click on Rooney below to see the TEN Worst Moments of the season

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Listen to the first episode of our brand new podcast – The Football FanCast. Featuring Razor Ruddock, Gary O'Reilly and Toploader's Dan Hipgrave makes a special appearance!

Germany midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger believes the gap between Europe’s top nations and its minnows is narrowing.Germany continue their qualifying campaign for the 2012 European Championships when they play host to Group A cellar dwellers Kazakhstan on Saturday.

The 2008 European runners-up are five points clear on the group’s table with straight wins over Belgium, Azerbaijan and Turkey, as well as a 3-0 win at Kazakhstan.

But Schweinsteiger cautioned his team-mates not to expect an easy victory when Kazakhstan visit Kaiserslautern, saying minnow nations no longer feel fear at the thought of taking on top sides like Germany.

“It is not easy to scare those teams out of the stadium anymore,” Schweinsteiger said.

“They improve and they learn more these days. Maybe in the past you could go there and devastate them.”

“Today you have to show a good performance in order to achieve a good result.”

“If you look at the match against Azerbaijan last year, we could have only won 2-0 there (Germany won 6-1).”

A visit from Kazakhstan will also serve as preparation of sorts for Germany’s friendly with Asian Cup finalists Australia on Tuesday, though Schweinsteiger said Joachim Loew’s side are more concerned with clinching their berth in the Euro 2012 finals.

“The next three qualifiers (against Kazakhstan and at Austria and Azerbaijan) are very important for us.”

“If we win we can achieve a lead against Austria, Turkey and Belgium. The others will steal points off each other. Therefore it is even more important to win the game on Saturday.”

Schweinsteiger also took the time to defend national team-mate Mirslav Klose, who has not scored a goal for Germany or at club level in almost two months and has fallen behind Mario Gomez in coach Louis van Gaal’s pecking order at club side Bayern Munich.

“He is a very experienced player, who also shows cleverness and knows how to handle certain situations,” Schweinsteiger said.

“Even if it is not very easy for him at the moment, you can see his engagement in the training sessions in Munich.”

“We should be happy to have a striker like him in the background behind Mario Gomez. Gomez and him, they are both quality players.”

Former England captain David Beckham says he would love to be part of a Great Britain football team at the 2012 Olympics.No official announcement has been made about the inclusion of a British side in next summer’s London Games – but the Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder would be happy to play any part.

“So far I’ve heard I’m going to be managing, coaching, playing, so we’ll see,” Beckham said.

“But I would like to be part of it in some way, I’d love to be a player in it of course, but to be just part of that team would be pretty incredible.”

“You know for a football team to go into the Olympics in England, you know it’s a huge thing, so yeah I would love to be part of it in some way and playing would be a bonus.”

Beckham is back in action for LA Galaxy against New York Red Bulls on Sunday.

West Brom boss Roy Hodgson has handed in his transfer wish list to the club’s hierarchy as he looks to build a competitive squad.The Baggies have made only two signings since the end of last season, bringing in Billy Jones and Gareth McAuley, and Hodgson is keen to make further additions before the start of the new Premier League season.

Hodgson guided West Brom to an 11th place finish after taking over at the Hawthorns in February, and he now wants to build a squad capable of pushing into the top 10.

“There are a couple of major targets that I have identified and would like to see the club sign,” Hodgson told The Express & Star.

“For me, it’s the sooner the better on them. I don’t think we need an awful lot.”

“We’ve got a big squad and decent squad, but there a couple of players I think could be really important for us and make a major difference.”

The loss of Scott Carson to Bursaspor leaves Hodgson without a genuine number one goalkeeper, one area he will surely be looking to address in the transfer market.

But Hodgson says he has made his wishes clear to chairman Jeremy Peace and sporting director Dan Ashworth, and hopes to be given the funds to pursue quality signings.

“The club know who they are – the chairman knows and Dan knows – and hopefully they will be working on that,” Hodgson said.

“I can’t say whether I’m confident because I don’t control the club and I don’t control the purse strings.”

“But I have made it very clear to the chairman and to Dan the ones I think would undoubtedly make us stronger.”

“Now it’s up to them to decide whether that is a possibility for the club or not.”