Wigan’s eight-year stay in the Premier League ended with a 2-2 draw against Aston Villa at the DW Stadium.
Roberto Martinez post-match…”I will have a full week to sit down with the chairman to talk about things. Whatever happens I think Wigan has a bright future. It’s a day of mixed feelings but the fans understand the magnitude of winning the FA Cup. The first team to win it and get relegated shows you how difficult it is to win the FA Cup.
Paul Lambert post-match…”It’s been a hard season but I’ve loved it. It’s a huge pressure and we are in transition at the moment. The last four or five months we have been terrific which bodes well for the future. It’s an exciting time and you can see the crowd are right behind us.
Man of the Match…Gabriel Agbonlahor: Created the first goal for Bent and was Villa’s primary attacking threat. Didn’t cap off a fine season with a goal but has firmly established himself as key figure for Villa.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Flop of the Match…Jordi Gomez: Filtered in and out of the game without making much impact. Lasted 69 minutes before he was replaced but should play a big part for Wigan in the Championship next season.
Stoke manager Tony Pulis insists the club’s board are still right behind him despite their recent run of poor form.
The Potters have won just once in 13 games and their defeat at home to fellow strugglers Aston Villa last weekend saw them drop to within four points of the bottom three.
That has led to speculation regarding the future of boss Pulis, despite the great strides the club have made since he took over in 2006 with the Potters in the lower reaches of the Championship.
The 55-year-old admits that his past achievements will count for nothing if the current side continue to tumble down the table.
However, the former Gillingham boss insists he still has the confidence of the club’s chairman, Peter Coates, and is determined to steer the side away from danger.
“You get no grace for what you have achieved, people look at what you are doing now, and what we are doing now isn’t what we have done in recent years,” said Pulis.
“People question things when things aren’t going well. I am fortunate to have a family in charge of the club who are fantastic.
“This week the chairman has been down and had a chat with the lads. He’s a top man, and we are fortunate to have him here.
“The time has come for us to win a couple of games and put this right. Then we will look at what went wrong at the end of the season.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
“Things aren’t going for us at the moment, but when that happens you have to work even harder, and that is what we are doing.”
Inter Milan midfielder Wesley Sneijder must take a wage cut of up to £100,000 a week if he is to join Liverpool, the Daily Mail reports.
The Dutch international has been unsettled at the San Siro after disagreements over a suggested annual pay cut of £1.6million, and is now on the verge of leaving Italy with Liverpool among a host of clubs believed to be interested.
The midfielder is currently earning £200,000 a week with the Italian club, figures which Liverpool would struggle to match. They are only interested in a deal if the player takes a wage cut, however he has denied that money is an issue.
“It’s not a question of money. I have time and won’t be rushed,” The Sun quoted Sneijder as saying.
“My doubts have nothing to do with the offers.
“I don’t want to feel forced into a life decision in a short space of time.”
Turkish giants Galatasaray have had a £6.3million bid accepted for the 28-year-old, however he has been reluctant to commit to the move and is believed to favour coming to the Premier League.
Galatasaray president Unal Aysal is adament that he wants a quick decision from Sneijder otherwise they will revert their attention to other targets, saying: “We’ll wait another three of four days.”
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
The saga looks set to rumble on and while Sneijder looks certain to leave Inter, his destination remains unknown.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has confessed that summer signing Olivier Giroud is under pressure to get his first goal for the club.
The France international joined the Gunners from Montpellier during the off-season, and has been identified as one of the players who must harbour the golascoring burden of replacing Robin van Persie.
Giroud has failed to hit the net so far for the north London outfit and started from the bench against Southampton on Saturday; Wenger has admitted that pressure is starting to build on the new forward.
“I felt that he is under much pressure at the moment and sometimes to get a little breather is good,” the French coach stated in The Daily Mail.
“What I will do on Tuesday [against Montpellier in the Champions League] I honestly don’t know.
“I just felt that the time has come for him to not be under too much pressure,” he stated.
Meanwhile, Santi Cazorla has thoroughly impressed since moving to the Emirates Stadium from Malaga in the summer, and Wenger has been quick to sing the Spanish midfielder’s praises.
“Cazorla is a player who is just a pleasure to watch. You want him to have the ball,” the experienced trainer continued.
“I think he typifies what the midfielders in Spain are today – technically perfect, great vision and a great team attitude.
“We did fight with Malaga at the time [to get him last summer from Villarreal] and they were in Spain, they were quick to do the deal.
“But we remained on the ball, we were quite advanced with him last season already,” he concluded.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
The Gunners face Montpellier in their first Champions League group stage fixture on Tuesday.
West Ham’s final home match of the season may have ended with Sam Allardyce lapping up the applause around Upton Park, but in truth, the Boleyn faithful is anything but behind their manager.
As the Hammers gaffer has often remarked, the Premier League is a results-based industry, and in terms of obtaining the points required to stay in the top flight, throughout spells at Bolton, Blackburn and West Ham, his track record is exemplary.
Yet the price it comes at, the East London fanbase is unprepared to accept. A club that produced some of the greatest English technical talents of a generation, such as Joe Cole, Frank Lampard and Michael Carrick, is now the Premier League’s leading representative of attritional long-ball football.
The Hammers boast one of the strongest defensive records in the Premier League – their 14 clean sheets is only bettered by four other sides, three of which constitute the division’s top four – but averaging just 1.1 goals per match at the more entertaining end of the pitch, it’s understandable that the subdued Boleyn boo-boys are calling for change in the dugout ahead of next season.
Yet, in my opinion, it doesn’t necessarily have to come to that. In British politics, the controlling elite has an endless tradition of compromising with the low classes when it comes to the relinquishing of power. In other words, Allardyce doesn’t need to stage a complete philosophical revolution at Upton Park in order to keep his job; he just has to show the fans that he’s taken their concerns on board.
There’s no better place to do that than in the transfer market. Allardyce was famed for his wheeler-dealing at Bolton Wanderers, but the transfer interactions of his three-term Hammers tenure haven’t been quite so impressive.
He may view the £15million capture of Andy Carroll as one of the deals of the century, but in truth, no other Premier League manager was prepared to pay such a mighty fee for the Liverpool outcast last summer. Likewise, £11million signing Matt Jarvis has never come close to repeating the eight-goal feats of his final campaign at Wolves and summer acquisition Stewart Downing is still yet to shake off the cobwebs of his haunting Anfield stay. Scratch even deeper, Alou Diarra, Razvan Rat and Modibo Maiga only make Allardyce’s transfer record for the Hammers even more troubling.
Compare that with the 59 year-old’s market escapades at Bolton. Yes, when he joined the Wanderers his first task was to make them as mean defensively as possible, but the Bolton side that recorded a 6th-place finish in 2005 and also reached a League Cup final – to date, the highest point of management Allardyce’s career – contained such Champaign-football alumni as Ivan Campo, Jay-Jay Okocha, Stelios Giannakopoulos and Fernando Hierro, all of whom brought international class to the Reebok stadium. That summer, Hidetoshi Nakata, the greatest technical talent Asia had to offer at the time, also joined the Bolton ranks.
To say Allardyce’s Bolton were football purists would be untrue, but to suggest long-ball football was the only weapon in their locker would be an equal fallacy. Rather, the Wanderers’ blend of quality footballers, mean athletes and dogged defenders made them a multi-dimensional side that could play in a variety of ways. It was an amalgamation of contrasting styles that achieved results and kept the fans happy, but perhaps most importantly, it demonstrated Allardyce’s ambition and astuteness in the transfer market.
And in many ways, ‘ambition’ is the key concern of the Upton Park support. As Allardyce has regularly discussed, there is and has never been an official ‘West Ham way’. The East Londoners have fought as ugly and dirtily as the rest of them to maintain their Premier League status in the past – the notion that they’re somehow unique a club with a unique philosophy is a complete myth.
But the absence of any ambition to evolve West Ham’s current style is the core of the fans’ discontent. Rather than making signings that can improve the Hammers going forward, Allardyce’s acquisitions have largely consisted of old cronies from his former stomping grounds, or players that strongly lend themselves to his attritional ideology.
In 2016, West Ham will move to the Olympic stadium. The ground’s 54,000 capacity will give them the fifth-largest crowd in the Premier League, yet it will be home to a style of football that wouldn’t look out of place in League One.
In the coming summer window, Sam Allardyce has a fantastic opportunity to get the fans back onside. Two solid Premier League finishes is a strong platform to build from, but now the Hammers gaffer must show his ability and ambition to evolve the first team to a different level, moving away from its growing one-dimensionalism. He needs to make quality signings that can bring excitement and class to Upton Park. A signing of the Jay-Jay Okocha variety would be the perfect remedy.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
The fans do not want revolution. They do not want change that can debase the club and harm it’s immediate future, purely for the sake of better entertainment on a Saturday afternoon – after all, there’s nothing fun about being relegated. They simply want evidence that there is a master-plan – ideas in place to suggest that they won’t be caught in an eternal purgatory of mid-table finishes and ugly, unexciting football.
Allardyce managed to encompass the best of both worlds at Bolton and a more recent example would be Stoke City’s slow yet sturdy transition under Mark Hughes this season, so it’s by no means an impossible task.
But it will all depend on the West Ham manager’s commitment to the issue. Thus far, criticism from the fan-base has been largely palmed off by Allardyce as unrealistic, uninformed demands. The coming window however, is the ideal occasion to show that has been listening to the voices from the terraces.
Liverpool have identified Galatasaray forward Burak Yilmaz as a replacement for Luis Suarez.
The Metro is reporting that if the Uruguayan gets his wish and departs Anfield, then Reds chiefs will make Yilmaz their number one target.
Liverpool will have to fight rivals Chelsea for his signature though, with the Blues also interested in bringing the striker to the Premier League. Jose Mourinho has made no secret of his admiration for the forward, who scored eight Champions League goals in just nine appearances last season.
Galatasaray are keen to keep hold of Yilmaz, and president Unal Aysal has warned any interested clubs that they will have to meet the Turkish side’s valuation.
“We have set a price for Burak Yilmaz. We will only consider an offer which is in the best interests of the club and player,” warned Aysal.
“If Burak wants to leave and our transfer demands are matched, we could accept a deal.”
Brendan Rodgers has identified Yilmaz, who scored 32 times in 39 appearances for Galatasaray last term, as the ideal man to replace Suarez, should the forward be sold during this transfer window. The Uruguayan has made it clear that he wants to leave Anfield, despite signing a new contract with the Reds last summer.
Would Yilmaz do well at Anfield? Can Liverpool compete with Chelsea in the transfer window?
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Martin O’Neill has demanded that his captain, Lee Cattermole, improves his discipline after a fifth red card as a Sunderland player.
The 24 year old’s moment of madness over-shadowed the Black Cats 2-0 away win over the MK Dons and places the former Wigan Athletic midfielder in danger of losing both his starting position and the armband.
O’Neill told ITV Football: “I have had a wee bit more time to reflect on it, and certainly Lee has as well – he’s got most of the month.
“He is obviously very, very sorry, but ‘sorry’ doesn’t help us now, not only over that particular game itself, which we could have lost, but the games coming up now.
“We will see, but again, there are many qualities to him for one so young as a captain of the team. But you just can’t be stepping over the mark like that. He does so many good things for us, both as a player and a captain as well.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
“But you can’t be that rash, you can occasionally, but you have to learn, and more so than ever before now.”
Daniele De Rossi has stated that he wants to stay at Roma and has no interest in moving to Manchester City.
The Italy international is a long-term target for Citizens boss Roberto Mancini, with the Premier League champions eager to add the midfielder to their squad this summer.
However, despite rumours of a big-money move by City, De Rossi has committed to the Serie A outfit.
“I’m staying for this team, for the affection of the fans, because I am a Roman and because I believe in this project,” he told Italian reporters, translated to English by The Guardian.
“I’m happy here. I feel good here. I haven’t asked anyone to leave. What I promise is that the day I want to leave Roma to win the Champions League or to earn more money, I’ll say so publicly.”
The news will be another blow to City in their blunt transfer period this summer.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Former Liverpool forward John Aldridge wants his old club to move for Radamel Falcao after offloading Luis Suarez.
The Reds agreed to sell their star man to Barcelona recently in a deal worth £75m.
Although Brendan Rodgers has now overseen major additions over the course of the past few weeks, from the £90m spent a direct replacement for Suarez has not yet been secured.
WANT MORE? >> Liverpool transfer news | Latest transfer news
Loic Remy was dubbed as a man to help fill the void left by the Uruguayan, but his £8.5m switch from QPR to Anfield collapsed following issues surrounding his medical.
A number of targets have been linked with moves to Merseyside, and Aldridge hopes that Rodgers opts for Monaco’s Falcao:
“I thought Remy for £8.5m was a very shrewd buy but it’s fallen through for whatever reason, so Liverpool do need another striker in my opinion should something happen,” he is quoted by the Daily Star.
“Who is out there? Falcao, they’re saying he had a horrendous season last year.
“He was a bit part of the player he was last season. If he can get back to where he was the previous season then he would be one wouldn’t he?”
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Falcao only joined Monaco last year from Atletico Madrid in a deal worth around £50m, but he is understood to be open to leaving the Stade Louis II after failing to settle in his new surroundings.
The Colombian missed the back end of last season and the World Cup with injury problems, but is still considered to be one of European football’s most dangerous marksmen.
//www.youtube.com/embed/xCmk96_Pfpg
Fill in our survey below and be in with a chance of winning a pair of £145 Puma Tricks boots as worn by Balotelli and Aguero! Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world’s leading questionnaire tool.
The transfer window is now done and dusted until January and for some teams, it was far more successful than others. Certain sides completed their business early, signed the players they wanted and generally enjoyed a decent summer. For others, it’s been nothing but months of frustration, ending in a frantic rush to change their fortunes in this particular transfer window.
As per usual, Tottenham spent August the 31st lighting up deadline day with their traditional scramble to beat the deadline. This year, they just failed to sign Portuguese midfielder Joao Moutinho, but will certainly feel happier with their lot than Liverpool fans who look rather short in the striking department. One thing though. Why don’t teams just follow Sir Alex Ferguson’s example and finish their dealings before the season begins? His new signing seems to have bedded in fairly well…We take a look at the 15 real losers of the transfer window this time around.
Click on Dimitar Berbatov to unveil the 15
[divider]
[divider]
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.