Steve Bruce has warned his players that English Premier League champions Chelsea come to Sunderland on Tuesday in ‘Big Four’ mood.
The Sunderland manager said: “It’s very unusual to see Chelsea 10 points off the table of the table but the big boys usually come through like trains later in the season.”
“And it’s Chelsea to me who look as though they are most likely to get a real head of steam going and start pushing through.”
“They’ve won three games in a row comfortably and they’ll be looking to come to the Stadium of Light tomorrow to prove a point after we beat them down there.”
Bruce, who is likely to include new signings Stephane Sessegnon and Sulley Muntari in his squad, knows from his own playing days that the turn of the year is usually when the best teams finally start showing their heels to the rest of the pack.
He said: “When I was at Manchester United we would always look to go on a good run in the New Year.”
“It was when the best teams suddenly found their very best form. Things click and you really start producing your best.”
“I can definitely see that happening to Chelsea.”
Bruce’s biggest selection dilemma tomorrow will be where to deploy Kieran Richardson.
The club’s ‘Mr Versatility’ was the star of the show in Sunderland’s last Premier League game, playing just behind main striker Asamoah Gyan at Blackpool and scoring two classy goals in the sparkling 2-1 win on January 22.
The natural inclination would be not to tinker with a winning team.
But Bruce’s masterstroke in Sunderland’s 3-0 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in November was to select Richardson on the right wing to contain the attacking threat of the Blues’ England right-back Ashley Cole.
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Bruce has been absorbed in his pursuit of Inter Milan’s Muntari and Paris St Germain’s Sessegnon and is thrilled to get his two targets of the transfer window.
But he insists he has not taken his eye off the ball when it comes to the Chelsea game
“All people have wanted to talk about is transfers and I can understand that – that’s what you get with the January transfer window, particularly when it starts coming to the end of it,” he said.
“We can’t guarantee a good result, but hopefully we can guarantee a good performance and if we can do that, then I’ll be happy to accept whatever the night brings.”
With Leeds United’s takeover seemingly imminent, it has been refreshing to see the fans with renewed optimism and belief.
Who knows, by the time you read this we might already have new owners, but what does that mean for Leeds?
Financially, will we have the backing to make the club a name in Europe once again?
We have been told to “dare to dream’” by the chairman of the supporters trust, so we shall.
Amongst all the dreaming, we have to make sure we don’t lose focus on what this really means. When the takeover goes through, Ken Bates will be gone. There’ll be no more lies, no more court cases and our name wont be dragged through the mud time and time again. If the group that takes over Leeds has the clubs best interests at heart with the financial clout to make a real difference to our fortunes, the sky really is our limit.
Oddly, amongst some fans it appears that the faith in Neil Warnock has faded a little.
Whilst I can understand that the end to last season wasn’t exactly one to fill us with much hope, you have to question how much motivation any manager could get out of a team with nothing to play for. Even though some of the players were playing for their futures it was quite clear that Warnock was looking for something of an overhaul of his playing squad.
Throw in how the key players, Snodgrass being the most obvious, faced the prospect of another summer of the usual lies/excuses that are reeled out to justify a lack of ambition, it is a little easier to understand how finding motivation may have been a little harder than normal.
However, I’m confident that Warnock is exactly the right man to get Leeds promoted. His record speaks for itself, he’s a promotion specialist who knows the type of player needed to get out of this division.
As fans, we need to make sure that if we do indeed get taken over by a group with money to throw around that we keep faith with the players that Warnock chooses to bring in. By that, I mean that if you’re expecting Buffon and we sign Paddy Kenny, try not to be too underwhelmed.
In all seriousness, we do deserve the good times that seem almost inevitable now, but as the great prophet Ali G once said, we also need to ‘keep it real’.
The last thing we need is to get ideas above our limits, we’d all love to see Leeds back in the Champions League in 2 years, winning trophy after trophy, but before we even get into the Premier League we’ve got a long hard season ahead and promotion is by no means a given. Confidence is key, but making sure we don’t get over confident is too.
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The odds on Leeds getting promoted have steadily fallen since talk of a takeover began, as I write this we are currently second favourite to win the league, despite only signing 3 players. I’d imagine in the next few weeks, that might well change again.
Anyway, I’ll let you get back to dreaming of a return to the glory days!
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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Highly-rated 23-year-old Holland winger Eljero Elia looks set to leave Hamburg this month, but it won’t be on the cheap. The Bundesliga club have told Premier League suitors Liverpool and Wigan that Elia will only move for a hefty sum and have slapped a £12.5 million price tag on him.
Elia is keen to leave Hamburg after falling out with manager Armin Veh earlier in the season, but the German club’s valuation of him could potentially scupper a move. According to the Daily Mail Hamburg have already turned down a loan offer from Wigan and will only let Elia leave on their terms.
Hamburg sporting direct Bastian Reinhardt has said “We do not loan players out, this is a simple conclusion,” and went on to state that “as the current employer of Elia, we require at least 15 million Euros from potential buyers.” It will be interesting to see whether this price tag puts off any potential suitors for the Dutchman who has been capped 15 times by his country.
Wigan manager Roberto Martinez is looking at Elia as a possible replacement for want away midfielder Charles N’Zogbia and has already had a deal until the end of the season turned down. Liverpool were thought to be interested but the departure of Roy Hodgson may have changed things, while Wolfsburg seem to be frontrunners as they look to spend some of the funds recouped on Manchester City’s new £27 million striker Edin Dzeko.
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Theo Walcott was delighted with his contribution from the bench and hopes there is more to come from him in this tournament.
The Arsenal winger came on in the 60th minute to replace James Milner with the brief of injecting life into an England side that had just surrendered their lead at the start of the second half and didn’t disappoint, as he scored the equaliser within a few minutes of coming on before a surging run set up the winner for Danny Welbeck.
Walcott said he has been disappointed that he hasn’t been involved from the start but conceded that this is a squad game and he was determined to take his chance when it was presented to him:
“I wouldn’t say I was the game changer. We felt from the first game we wanted to pick it up a bit more offensively and to score three goals is the main thing – it’s always nice to come off the bench and show what you can do.
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“I’ve obviously been disappointed that I haven’t played, but I’ve been training hard and it’s not about the starting line-up, it’s a whole squad thing, we’re a family – I was sharp warming up and you need to be sharp on the pitch because at this level it’s really, really tough.” (Sky Sports)
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.”
Full participatory involvement in the running and managing of the club by the fans, it sounds like an ideal situation for every football fan. But this level of direct democracy in a football club is not without its drawbacks.
Ebbsfleet United Football Club from the Conference South has formed the prototype for this kind of experiment. In 2008 the website MyFootballClub bought a majority share in the club becoming the first online community to own a sports club. Yet the dream of an egalitarian club being created through fan involvement does not appear to have materialised.
20,000 members of the online community paid £35 each to gain control of the club and as such, by electronic vote, have control over the side selected as opposed to manager Liam Daish. Involvement has dwindled as the novelty of making decisions for a football club has worn off; now down to 4,000 members only 15% vote on team selection.
Having been around fans and being one myself, I think generally we’re a bit too fickle inpatient and sentimental to have the responsibility of taking a club forward so directly. Indeed it is one of the few instances where football is different to politics and mass participation isn’t really desired.
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Football, and in particular deciding of a team and tactics and therefore transfer policy are all interconnected and require a degree of football knowledge and application. This is why decisions made by the masses could not work. Even if say everyone voting on the possible transfer targets and team selection, was reasonably knowledgeable and engaged with football and the club and not susceptible to voting on a whim then the end result would still be chaotic and not work. As it needs to be a sole mind (the manager) who decides how the team plays, and how can he know how to train them or what tactics to employ if he doesn’t know what eleven is taking the field?
All those who vote could have different desires on how the team should play, one person might be visualising a fluid passing team that press the opposition and maintain possession, another a team that sits deep enticing the team forward before breaking away with pace on the counter. One voter might build his team around congesting the midfield, where as another sees tricky wing play as the way forward. But all these systems can’t be employed at the same time and with it not being one man’s decision you’ll end up with a mishmash that falls far short of playing how anyone desired.
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No the best way to keep fans involved is a system similar to Barcelona’s or St Pauli where fans have a say over the general trend of the club and the way it is going, have a voice on ticket prices and club initiatives. And decide on the major aspects like who leads the club, for a fixed term, but leave the team selection, day to day running of the club and transfer policy to an individual or small team whose job it is to train and assess the playing staff.
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When I look back at Chelsea’s Champions League heartbreaks over the last nine years, I have often suggested to anyone who will listen that that last gasp defeat to Barcelona at Stamford Bridge in 2009 was the worst of all the near-misses and gut-wrenching disappointments. That was, of course, until about 10.27pm last night when it hit home that Chelsea were once again on the verge of losing the Champions League- Europe’s richest club prize- on penalty kicks.
Juan Mata had missed a third consecutive spot kick in Chelsea colours and Bayern, in front of their home fans, had established a 3-1 advantage in the penalty contest. Surely, after all the brushes with death in this year’s competition, could be no escape this time. And like a romantic who has had his heart broken one too many times, the memories of 21st May 2008 came flooding back.
Four years ago I sat in my student house on the eve of an ill-fated Land Law exam, having already convinced myself that 2008 was going to work out to be Manchester United’s year. I am not, as you might gather, the most positive of Blues supporters.
Back then my negativity appeared justified. United had toppled us in the league and in Moscow, dominated the early exchanges, scoring early through a Cristiano Ronaldo header before dominating the rest of interminable fist half. Frank Lampard, somehow, was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time to level things up just before the break but you couldn’t feel positive about Chelsea’s chances.
Strangely, the Blues had the best of the rest of the game- hitting the woodwork twice in extra-time- before the bitter taste of penalty kicks and THAT slip from John Terry. In fact when Ronaldo failed to beat Petr Cech from the spot, I managed to break a broom in two in my excitement. Alas, these advantages are fragile and within five minutes Clive Tyldesley cried: “van der Sar saves it, United again!” and the dream was over.
The rest of the night was swallowed up in floods of jubilant Facebook messages from United fans, the most poisonous BLT sandwich I have ever tasted and the sudden realisation that in my football obsessed state I had neglected to study at least 70% of the syllabus for the Law exam only seven hours away. It was not my best night.
Fast forward four years and in a not dissimilar haze I came across the very same grey tracksuit that I had worn that night in Moscow. Well, OK, not that I was in Moscow in 2008 but in any case it felt prophetic. How about wearing the same clothes to help break the hex and see Chelsea over the line? Stuart Pearce I was not but at that moment the decision to dig out those old garments seemed the least I could do.
As in previous years I had been invited to a friend’s house to watch the game but I knew if the match was tight, which it was surely destined to be, I may well not have been palatable company. So, a solo trip to a pub where I knew no one inside was the answer. Anti-social, yes, but in those moments you feel that everything you do needs to be right if your side are to come out on top.
The decision to watch games of this sort on my own have often been my policy, particularly since I had to explain to a then paramour that the Argentine television graphics of Chelsea’s last 16 defeat to Inter Milan in 2010 did not mean that Didier Drogba was going to be playing in goal.
My establishment of choice was pretty quiet. In fact the sterile atmosphere of the game was reflected only in the seeming indifference of the publicans. The only moment of passion seemed to come when I let out a frantic gasp at David Luiz, who had slipped out of position, and one middle-aged gentleman asked, quite threateningly, if I was a Tottenham fan. Obviously not.
When Thomas Muller nodded in Bayern’s opener with little over seven minutes on the clock, I felt much like how Arsenal fans must have felt after Juliano Belletti’s late winner for Barcelona in the 2006 final. Their ‘destined’ triumph was cut off at the death- surely the German forward had just done the same to Chelsea.
Of course, if there was to be a way back, it had to be Didier Drogba to save the day and halt the celebrations of Bayern and Tottenham fans everywhere. His blunderbuss header was, in truth, Chelsea’s only real clear-cut opening of the match but it came in the nick of time.
Even as we entered extra-time, the docile pub dwellers may have written the game off as a Chelsea moment of destiny, but I was climbing the walls. As Drogba gave away his second Champions League penalty in two games, a bearded man from a table of bemused French watchers waved a nonchalant hand at my pained cries and simply said: “Messi, Messi!”
And by the beard of John Spencer he was right. Arjen Robben bottled a penalty kick when at Chelsea during the 2007 semi-final shootout against Liverpool at Anfield, and the Dutchman hadn’t learnt any greater composure in the five years that had since slipped by. Cech fell to his left and made a relatively straightforward stop.
“Everyone stay calm!” I shouted, not realising that I, of course, was the most animated of the swelling crowd. The spectre of penalties, I reminded myself and everyone within earshot, was not one Chelsea were likely to respond well to.
“Remember Charlton!” I bellowed- a reference to a Carling Cup penalty exit in 2005 that I’m not even sure the players involved in remember.
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As an English Chelsea fan the shootout was the first to go the way I’d wanted- two League Cup campaigns aside- since Rafael Nadal’s uncle, Miguel Angel, failed at Wembley for Spain during Euro 96- it has been a long 16 years.
Thankfully I couldn’t hear Gary Neville do his best to jinx Drogba as he made his way to the penalty spot for his moment of truth else I might have flown to Munich and throttled the newest member of the England coaching staff. Still, I was convinced there was to be a sting in the tail. Mercifully, there wasn’t.
Within seconds I was involved in a seven man hug with a set of complete strangers before leaping around like a Jack-in-the-box on hallucinogenic drugs. Football shouldn’t mean this much, but it does.
On my way out I popped into a 24 hour shop to pick up some food. This time, I am pleased to report, I ignored the strategically placed BLT and went for something a bit harder. And the tracksuit? A bit like Drogba, it might have some life it in yet.
Alexis Sanchez says he is at Barcelona to learn from the world’s best players after being unveiled by the Spanish and European champions.The 22-year-old Chile international has penned a five-year deal at Camp Nou after Barca agreed to pay Italian side Udinese a transfer fee that could total 37.5 million euros.
Barcelona have added a 100-million-euro release clause to the player’s contract and the former Udinese forward is eager to help the Catalan outfit win more trophies.
“I am very happy and I came to Barcelona to learn from the best in the world like Xavi and Lionel) Messi,” Sanchez said during a press conference on Monday.
“I want to leave an impression and I hope to help Barcelona win more titles. Barcelona are the best team in the world.”
Sanchez will get a taste of his first Clasico in August when Barcelona take on Real Madrid over two legs in the Spanish Supercopa.
Speaking of Real starlet Cristiano Ronaldo, Sanchez added: “I don’t like being compared with anyone, but Cristiano is a great player and I respect him.”
After an extended transfer saga that dragged out over the European summer, Sanchez claimed Barca manager Pep Guardiola was fundamental in his move to La Liga.
“He (Guardiola) called me and for me this was very important. It gave me confidence that he wanted me,” the player revealed.
Sanchez joins Barcelona after three years with Udinese, where his 12 goals in 31 games in Serie A helped the Italians secure a top-four finish last term.
Many people have been impressed with the way Sunderland have been playing this season. Currently lying in 7th position, 3 points off the European positions, their defensive organisation and attacking creativity has been lauded from all quarters, with a rather embarrassing 5-1 defeat to local rivals Newcastle being one of the only blemishes in an otherwise impressive start to the campaign for the Wearsiders.
But has this season only served to highlight that Sunderland have, in fact, been underachieving given the level of investment in the club?
Since 1997, when Sunderland moved from Roker Park to the now 49,000 seater Stadium of Light, there have been serious levels of investment in the club, which up until 2007 yo-yo’d in and out of the top flight.
When the Niall Quinn lead Drumaville Consortium took over at the Stadium of Light in 2006 after the clubs 3rd relegation in a decade, they brought an element of stability to the club, overseeing Sunderland’s promotion back to the Premier League at the first attempt in 2007. However, since returning to the top flight, the best Sunderland have managed is a 13th place finish with 44 points, and that was last season.
In May 2009 American businessman Ellis Short purchased a majority share in Sunderland and became sole owner, with Niall Quinn remaining as Chairman, and for now it seems this fresh investment, combined with the astute management of Steve Bruce and some scintillating football on the pitch, has done the trick for the Black Cats.
Having already accumulated 23 points, Sunderland are on course to record their highest Premier League finish since both the1999-2000 and 2000-2001 seasons, when they finished 7th, with 58 and 57 points respectively. But unlike those seasons, Sunderland need to make sure that their current form is not another false dawn.
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Through varying investments in their squad in recent years, Sunderland have risen through the football ladder to become an established Premier League side, and if this season’s crop of players can continue to play the way they have been, the Black Cats may well add to their sole European appearance in the 1973-74 European Cup Winners’ Cup.
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