Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has confirmed that Anderson will be out of action for at least another month through injury, and that Dimitar Berbatov may well be sold in the summer due to lack of regular football.
The Brazil international has had a frustrating season due to injuries, and the Old Trafford manager has admitted that the midfielder’s hamstring is still causing him problems.
“Anderson could be out for four or five weeks due to his hamstring,” Ferguson told the club’s official website.
“Some hamstrings are relatively straightforward but we have to wait and see how he is in the next week or so to get a better idea of where we stand with him.”
Ferguson did confirm that Rio Ferdinand and Jonny Evans would start against Athletic Bilbao in San Mames, as the Premier League champions try to overhaul a 3-2 first leg defeat in the Europa League.
“Phil Jones went down with flu yesterday.
“It’s a difficult tie for us. Bilbao have a tremendous advantage after winning at Old Trafford. It’s a challenge but not one that is beyond us.
“Our record away from home helps us – we’ve done very well. We’re going to need a good performance,” he continued.
Finally, Ferguson admitted that fringe forward Berbatov may leave Old Trafford in the summer in search of regular action.
“At 31, he is looking at first-team football. It is difficult for me to guarantee that, so it could lead to him looking elsewhere
“We will be taking up the option on his contract but, having had chats with him, I understand he wants to get first-team football.
“It is something we need to consider at the end of the season. For a player of his age and his ability, it is disappointing for him that he is not getting first-team football.
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“We will look at the end of the season but until then, he remains at United,” the coach confirmed.
Porto manager Andre Villas-Boas does not want the credit should his side make him the youngest coach to win a major European title.Villas-Boas, 33, can create history if Porto wins the all-Portuguese Europa League final against Sporting Braga on Wednesday, which they are strongly favoured to do.
Porto went undefeated on their way to the Liga Sagres title, and can claim a treble if they triumph in the Europa League and the Taca de Portugal final against Vitoria Setubal on Sunday. But speaking on Tuesday, the highly rated manager said the club’s exploits are not about him.
“People focus a lot on the work of the manager and I don’t see it that way,” Villas-Boas said on Tuesday.
“I don’t see myself as a one-man show. Football isn’t won by one person but by collective competence. It is the quality of the players and the structure of the club.”
“I just want to make my players give their most. I give them room to express themselves because that’s how they develop. I promote their talent and let them make their own decisions. There are no dictators.”
“We don’t see the game as a tactical game. If you are a dictator of choices, players won’t be able to explore their possibilities to the full. You have to be able to free them.”
Villas-Boas is a former assistant to Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho, but said the reason he left his role under his countryman at Inter Milan – after also working with him at Porto and Chelsea – was to further his own managerial ambition.
Villas-Boas joined Liga Sagres side Academica and guided them free of relegation trouble, before his appointment as Jesualdo Ferreira’s replacement at Porto in June 2010.
”The position I had with him was a position he needed some help on. I understood my role from the beginning and tried to fulfil it with maximum professionalism,” Villas-Boas said.
“When I left him, he took on another person who I hope gives him the same level. Regarding why I left Inter, it was because I wanted the extra edge to fulfil my ambitions as a professional coach, so I took the risk to find my own job at Academica.”
Fernando Torres is making good progress in his recovery from his latest injury setback ahead of Sunday's Merseyside derby, according to Liverpool's head of medical Peter Brukner.
The Spain striker limped out of the 2-1 defeat by Blackpool ten days ago with an adductor muscle problem.
However, he has provided under-pressure manager Roy Hodgson with a timely boost after making a return to training.
Torres has struggled with a succession of injury problems during the past 12 months.
The Reds travel to Goodison Park for a massive derby encounter with Everton on Sunday.
Both clubs are struggling towards the foot of the Premier League table following disappointing starts to the season.
"Fernando is doing pretty well. He had a slight tear in one of his adductor muscles very early on in the game against Blackpool that prevented him going away with Spain in the internationals," head of sports science and sports medicine Brukner told the club's official website.
"He has had intense treatment over the last ten days and responded very well to that treatment.
"He's ready to resume training today and if we can build up his training and get through the next few days, then we are optimistic but not certain that he will be able to line up against Everton.
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"It's still early days but so far so good. He has responded well to the treatment but we will just have to wait and see whether he is able to build up his training sufficiently.
"He'll join in the full training session on Thursday, then build up Friday and Saturday. If he gets through these sessions and he is able to stretch out fully and has no after effect from the sessions then he will be able to play.
"So we are optimistic he will be ready but it's still too early to say for sure."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
Pep Guardiola is Chelsea’s No.1 choice to replace Andre Villas-Boas if Roman Abramovich loses patience with the Portuguese boss. AVB suggested after the defeat at West Brom that he doesn’t expect the Roman to back him and understands that Chelsea sitting in 5th position isn’t an ideal situation for the football club.
Elsewhere in the news Sir Alex Ferguson is convinced that Harry Redknapp will take the England job; Arsenal are looking to break the bank to secure Van Persie on a permanent deal, while Mario Balotelli looks set to get a heavy fine for breaking the club’s curfew.[divider]
Headlines
Andre Villas-Boas suggested that he isn’t worried if he hasn’t got Roman Abramovich’s support and he doesn’t expect the Russian to back him – Guardian
Arsene Wenger hasn’t ruled out beating Milan in midweek and says it is Arsenal’s job to make the impossible possible – Guardian
Sir Alex Ferguson believes it is inevitable that Harry Redknapp will leave the Tottenham job and take up the England post at the end of the season – Guardian
Mario Balotelli faces up to a £250k fine following his visit to a strip club on Thursday night. Mancini doesn’t like his team going out 48hrs before a match; a boundary that the Italian striker has crossed – Daily Telegraph
Goal-line technology has been given the green-light to be used in 2013, despite opposition by Michel Platini – Independent
Arsenal will break the bank to secure the long-term services of Robin van Persie, who’s contract has less than 18 months to run – Daily Mail
Arjen Robben has put Tottenham and Chelsea on alert by revealing that he is ready to quit the Bundesliga as his situation at Munich isn’t ideal. A bargain fee of £10m has been mooted as the Dutchman has only 18 months left on his contract – Mirror
Pep Guardiola has emerged as Chelsea’s top target to replace Andre Villas-Boas if Roman finally loses patience with the Portuguese boss – Mirror
Kyle Walker and Glen Johnson are on Real Madrid’s summer hitlist as they look to bolster their options at right back at the Bernabeu – Metro
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Dave Whelan will meet Roberto Martinez this week to get an explanation for the unacceptable performance at the DW Stadium yesterday – Sky Sports
Everyone knows the names of Eden Hazard, Romelu Lukaku and Neymar, and no doubt these young stars will next season come of age, perhaps going on to be greats of the beautiful game; yet of course there are numerous lesser-known prodigies out there that the media has yet to catch on about, but who I’m sure behind closed doors have been lauded by chief scouts across all continents. Whether these hidden gems are midfield maestros, dominant defenders or formidable forwards, this is the run down of football’s best kept secrets…for now
Click on John Flanagan to see the top 10 players to watch out for
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Listen to the third episode of our brand new podcast – The Football FanCast. – Featuring Razor Ruddock, Gary O’Reilly and singer/songwriter Alistair Griffin, who performs a live version of his cult tribute to Mark Viduka, with Razor on backing vocals!
In the wake of a dismal World Cup for England, sights were immediately set to the future after the supposed ‘Golden Generation’ had all but eroded and embedded themselves firmly in the footballing annals for England, with many proving to be mere iron pyrite for the national team.
However, the future is blurry to say the least for England, with some promise and good intentions, some discouraging signs and a lot of rudderless talent hoping they don’t slip the net. With the FA and Premier League looking towards the future of the national team with recent changes in squad rules, perhaps it is time they brought someone in to tie all the loose ends together and create an English production line, and in my opinion, they need look no further than Tony Carr.
With nearly 40 years experience in youth coaching at ‘The Academy of Football’ at West Ham, Carr has become one of the most successful and influential youth coaches in the country, not only creating an estimated £80m in transfer revenue for the club, but nurturing these players into international footballers. In Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole, Glen Johnson, Jermain Defoe, Michael Carrick and John Terry, Carr has a ‘Magnificent Seven’ to his name which regularly attain spots in the English national team, and with many more having played at youth levels for their country, it is no wonder so many turned out to honour him in May at a testimonial match held at Upton Park.
The fact that so many did come to show their appreciation reveals the gravity of the man within football and emphasises the respect he commands from all quarters of the game. In Sir Trevor Brooking the FA also have a perfect liaison with Carr with both having been involved at West Ham for most of their lives. Carr would also not necessarily have to be as hands on as he is at West Ham, perhaps advising the FA on youth development in a consultancy role, overseeing and delegating rather than actively coaching.
With the new squad rules taking effect this season, the FA has taken the first tentative steps towards a future which doesn’t include England being cast into the international wilderness. But with some English-based foreign players being counted as ‘Home-Grown’ we can only hope there is more to come from the FA. That said, the performance of the England Under-17s in Liechtenstein, where they lifted the European Championship trophy earlier this year, shows it is not all doom and gloom for the national team and there are promising youngsters in the pipeline.
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But if the likes of Ipswich Town’s Connor Wickham are to grace the future national team and not the pages of ‘Whatever Happened To…’ articles, then there needs to be an experienced man overseeing national youth development, and there is no better candidate than Tony Carr.
Arsenal have failed to close the gap on the top four after a 0-0 draw with Bolton at the Reebok Stadium on Wednesday night.
The Gunners could not break down a dogged Trotters side, with the hosts looking the more likely to snatch a winner in the dying moments.
Arsene Wenger sees his side still five points behind Chelsea in fourth, and now 12 points behind north London rivals Tottenham in third.
The French coach lamented his side’s finishing after the game, as Robin van Persie, Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain all went close without hitting the back of the net.
“We played the game we wanted but we didn’t take our chances and Bolton played defensively very focused,” the trainer told Sky Sports.
“As long as we didn’t take our first chance, they had not to change their tactics.”
Wenger also stated that he had no further news on Jack Wilshere’s injury, amid fears that the midfielder may miss the remainder of The Gunners’ campaign.
“There’s no news. Nothing to add to what I’ve said recently.
“It’s very difficult to say how long he will be out at the moment, I don’t know,” Wenger concluded.
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The Gunners face Blackburn at home on Saturday, and will look for revenge after suffering defeat in the corresponding fixture at Ewood Park earlier in the season.
Charlie Adam’s shocking attempt at a tackle at White Hart Lane on Saturday has left Welsh wing wizard Gareth Bale with ruptured ankle ligaments. The injury will ensure the PFA Player of the Year plays no further part in Tottenham’s Premiership campaign. Bad news for the North Londoners! However, it will come as a crumb of comfort to Spurs fans that Bale’s injury has come when seemingly the fight for fourth place is over. Furthermore, there are only three games to go until the end of the season. After already suffering one injury set back this year the 21 year old will be cursing his luck, on the other hand he was fortunate not to have broken his leg as a consequence of the tackle. Obviously, no Spurs fan would have wanted to see their star player on the end of such a horror tackle, however could Bale’s injury be advantageous to the club in a strange way?
I know what the Spurs fans are thinking, ‘What is this guy talking about, how can having our best player on the treatment table over the summer be an advantage?’ Well here’s my explanation….. Unless Manchester City have a collapse of epic proportions in the next three games, then Tottenham will at best be in the Europa League next season. This is likely to be a signal for Europe’s elite clubs to start dusting off their cheque books and stalking their Welsh prey. Even if Bale has every intention of staying with Spurs this summer, it won’t deter the big boys from lodging multi million pound bids for one of the hottest properties in world football! Now here comes, the probably obvious, but still worth while observation, will they still be interested in an injured Gareth Bale? Who knows, maybe some clubs would, but it may be enough to cause some of Bale’s suitors to look elsewhere!
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It’s not unheard of for injured players to move clubs, Andy Carroll, for example, made his move from Newcastle to Liverpool whilst suffering an injury. So the bids could still come flooding in for the former Southampton starlet. Then there is the argument that Bale will be match fit by the time the season gets underway anyway. Not only that, but the transfer window doesn’t close until 31st of August! However, Bale’s injury may prevent the tabloids from continually splashing rumours all over the back pages…… ‘Bale in Madrid talks’, ‘Inter in pole position for Bale’, ‘Chelsea step up Bale interest’… you get the picture. I’m sure Spurs fans would much rather pick up the morning papers and see Fabregas’ name all over the back pages this summer than Bale’s.
FootballFanCast.com WORLD Exclusive: Robbie Savage’s Face in a Baby Scan…
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The garden is not very rosy in the Adebayor household at the moment. It’s only just over a year into his would-be glittering Manchester City career, and already his sulking demeanour is becoming more and more prominent. Left on the bench, as Roberto Mancini opts for a single striker, and now injured, the BBC’s worst pundit (more of that later) is struggling to feel the love.
There have always been personalities in football who need to be treated with a little more care, and given a little extra leeway in order to get the best out them. This however, only really works when that same player is indispensible to the club, and also can put the club’s interests ahead of their own. Paolo Di Canio at West Ham springs to mind as a good example of this; a man who on his day could single-handedly win a match for his side in conjunction with throwing a diva strop for not getting enough adoration from a referee.
Right now at Manchester City, Roberto Mancini has decided that Emmanuel Adebayor is not as important as the man himself believes. Mario Balotelli has arrived, Fernando Torres was a constant in the rumour mill of the tabloids over the summer, and Carlos Tevez is Mancini’s (rightly in my opinion) preferred choice up front. It has taken a matter of weeks for Adebayor to consider his future; there is no real concern for his employers and their targets, simply his own needs.
Adebayor managed to annoy Arsenal fans during his time in North London, even when he was playing well. Constantly the subject of rumours to the continent, he courted mumblings of moves to AC Milan and Barcelona, while maintaining that he wanted to stay, only to leave for City. If Adebayor was playing at a club where he was by far and away their best player, then a manager would do everything in their power to keep him happy, but why put up with such a childish attitude, when you can play someone else of equal, if not better, ability. Arsene Wenger knew that with the £24m he received from City, he could find a replacement for far less, enter Marouane Chamakh.
While he clearly has some ability, he has never struck me as the most eloquent of fellows (even for footballers) and so I was as startled as every other viewer in the country that the BBC deemed him a viable candidate as a pundit at the World Cup; the incident with his phone was simply embarrassing, and the analysis (if we can call it that) he gave was bordering on the pathetic.
Managers take a punt on Adebayor because they believe they will be able to get a select period of time out of him before his next strop. The turnover of players at City was always going to be vast, and although his return was decent last season (14 PL goals), I don’t think anyone truly imagined he would go onto a glittering City career as a cult legend, more that he would serve a stepping-stone purpose.
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Adebayor is one of football’s mercenaries. Mancini does not have the time, not should he, to have to make special exceptions for a player who frankly isn’t that important to the club’s cause. If Adebayor is prepared to play a subordinate role – behind Tevez and Balotelli – in a professional manner, in the quest for City to make the Champions League, then I will stand corrected. But as I understand it, he is a player no boss really wants to manage.
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In the week of John Terry’s court case, racism is again coming to the forefront of football. In the last couple of years, we have had the rearing of many discriminations in football, leading to the question of if they were actually ever dying down at all, or simply flying under the radar. One of the biggest issues of all yet one that is rarely ever talked about and could be accused of being the last taboo in football was subject of a documentary recently – homosexuality in football.
In most cases I tend to shy away from using statistics to illustrate a point, yet there are a couple in this case that simply have to be recognised and discussed. One in every ten people are gay – and there are 5000 professional footballers in England, yet how many can you name as being openly gay? A rather disturbing and disappointing zero – does this mean there are no gay footballers in England?
Of course not – prominent PR guru Max Clifford stated he knows and has advised at least half a dozen premier league footballers not to ‘come out’ through fear of recrimination and effectively killing their career. It is at this point most people would think back to the only gay footballer in England to come out, and the subject of the BBC 3 documentary last night – Justin Fashanu – who eventually committed suicide after being spurned by even his own family. Why would someone come out, even now, decades later, when such abuse could still be levelled at someone?
Footballers, people often forget are human just like the rest of society, and have the same worries and concerns about being accepted – both by the general public and by their teammates, and of course this will affect their decision to hide their homosexuality and stop the potential of both abuse and rejection.
World cup winning coach Scolari was quoted during the 2002 world cup saying that should a player come out as gay to him, he would throw them out of the team. A disgraceful and not to mention highly discriminatory statement which of course is highly unacceptable to say the very least, but can go a long way to explaining the concerns and hesitation of gay footballers when deciding to effectively live a lie.
The reaction of teammates is also something that is cited as being a huge concern for footballers when choosing not to come out – yet during the BBC 3 programme, both Millwall players and high profile QPR captain Joey Barton stated that it would not be a problem, and yes there would be banter, but there is in every walk of life and it could well make the player feel more included and accepted by the dressing room as oppose to the issue being suspected and skirted around.
The only openly gay footballer can be found in the fourth tier of Swedish football – Anton Hysen – who states that he has found teammates to be accepting and has effectively carried on as normal, yet it is not unfair to say that the lifestyle and attitude in Sweden is much more liberal than in the UK, and it is a sorry yet true state of affairs that players are open to receiving abuse from fellow teammates – or at the very least running the risk of feeling out the loop in the dressing room.
Of course, crowds and players can be blamed until the sun comes down for the hesitance of players when coming out, yet there is far more to it than that – footballers not only make huge amounts of money from their talent but also from their endorsement rights – and as Clifford rightly pointed out this could end up being severely affected by the coming out of a player; another consideration that would weigh heavily on their mind.
Alternatively, this could work the other way, players such as Beckham and Ljungberg who have been questioned over their metro sexuality and in Ljungberg’s case sexuality have become gay icons and have very lucrative contracts due to this – the first player to come out could benefit a huge deal from this possibility.
Aside from this, the fact remains that the governing bodies are simply not doing enough to show that homosexuality should be accepted as a normality in the game – the PFA sending out posters and a DVD to all 92 clubs is simply not good enough by any stretch of the imagination. As the head of the Gay footballers support network ,Chris Basiurski stated; nowhere near enough is being done, and there is little sign governing bodies are willing to change this.
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Big steps need to be taken to raise awareness of this issue in the game – yet what chance do the PFA have when FIFA have allowed the 2022 World Cup the biggest footballing event of all to be held in Qatar (where homosexuality is banned) and Sepp Blatter stated that gay people should ‘refrain from sexual activity’ whilst there for the World Cup.
Joey Barton stated that ‘without a doubt in the next ten years there will be an openly gay footballer’ in the top sections of football, yet I wonder what they will think of the location of the 2022 World Cup, and the fact homosexuality is illegal there? Not to mention what gay fans must think. Yet another huge deterrent for a gay footballer to come out, and with archaic people like Blatter leading the top bodies in football, is it any wonder?