Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger is not thinking about leaving the Gunners and has instead made a move for his first summer signing in the shape of Torino defender Angelo Ogbonna, according to the Metro.
The Italian international centre back is highly rated and the North London side will have to fight off interest from Juventus, AC Milan and Fiorentina.
Liverpool were also rumoured to have been scouting the 24 year old who is expected to go on and become a top defender.
Champions League football will be key for Arsenal if they are to get their man and so Ogbonna is expected to wait until the end of the season before making a decision on his future.
The Turin club want at least £17million for their main man and so the Italian clubs have quietened their interest leaving Arsenal as the favourites to snap him up.
Wenger has a large budget to spend in the summer to finally get Arsenal back in the title race for next season.
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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.
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“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.”
With Arsenal struggling to secure Champions League football, manager Arsene Wenger will be looking to strengthen his squad in the summer. With Olivier Giroud currently the only real striker at the club, the French manager could be set to bring in another attacking option when the transfer window opens.
The Sun are reporting that Wenger will go in for Fiorentina striker Stevan Jovetic in the summer, despite the forward’s £25million price tag. A big fee for a 23-year-old, who has only managed 12 Serie A goals this season, just one more league goal than Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott have both managed this year. But with Santi Cazorla being the Gunners’ top scorer this campaign, it seems Wenger has relied too heavily on his midfield and wingers, and needs a more prolific scorer.
But is Stevan Jovetic really the man for the job? The Montenegro forward has scored nine goals less than the Serie A top-scorer Edinson Cavani, who has been linked with a move to Arsenal’s rivals, Chelsea. But at the young age of 23, Jovetic has plenty of time to develop and grow. Especially under the guidance of someone like Arsene Wenger, whose famous attacking philosophy could lead to Jovetic becoming a 20 goals-a-season striker.
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Arsenal have always looked to the future with Arsene Wenger, signing young players with fantastic potential. But with eight years without a trophy, it could be time for Wenger to stop taking the risk of signing young, unproven players, and instead bring someone established and experienced into the club. Something they had last season, with Robin van Persie. The 29-year-old was prolific last campaign, scoring 30 goals in the Premier League. And although van Persie’s replacement, Olivier Giroud, has scored 17 goals in all competitions in his debut season, the Gunners need a player capable of scoring more than 20 league goals during the campaign.
Despite Edinson Cavani being priced well out of Wenger’s financial range, the Frenchman still has plenty of options around Europe. Roberto Soldado has scored 17 goals in La Liga this season, helping Valencia to 5th place in the league table, just two points away from a Champions League qualifying spot. Nearing his 28th birthday, Soldado has impressed for Valencia, both in the league and in Europe, scoring four goals in his seven appearances in the Champions League this season. A striker that could bring experience and goals to the Emirates.
Another La Liga striker that possesses the experience Arsenal need is Alvaro Negredo. The Sevilla forward boasts 18 league goals to his name this season, and has been heavily linked with Arsenal’s neighbours Spurs. With Sevilla struggling to finish in the top half, the former Real Madrid star could be happy to move to a club offering Champions League football next season. At just 27-years-old, Negredo’s pace and finishing could push Arsenal closer to a top two spot in the league table.
Germany could also possess the answer to Wenger’s attacking woes. Stefan Kiessling has been in stunning form this season for Bayer Leverkusen, scoring 21 league goals with four games to spare. The 29-year-old has scored more than a third of Leverkusen’s goals this season in the Bundesliga, as they look set to claim a Champions League qualifying spot. Scoring only two goals less than Robert Lewandowski, Kiessling has proved his ability to win the ball in the air and score goals.
Three top strikers, all of which have proved their value and ability over time. With a combined total of 53 league goals this year, there can be no doubting their quality as top class strikers. The only thing not on their side is time. With the general belief that a player starts to decline in their early thirties, none of these players are long-term investments for Arsenal. However, Sir Alex Ferguson signed 29-year-old van Persie this season, who was key to Manchester United winning the league, suggesting perhaps it’s not all about the future.
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So Wenger has a choice to make. Does he stick with his blueprints and sign a young striker full of potential like he’s done in the past? Or does he sign an experienced, proven goal scorer capable of getting over 20 league goals in a season? After all, Jovetic is a big gamble.
Scoring just 12 goals in Serie A doesn’t mean you can score many goals in the Premier League. And with Arsenal falling closer and closer to 5th place every year, now might be the perfect time to bring in some solidity into the side, and sign a player who has scored on average every other game. But when you sign a big risk like Jovetic, sometimes you get a big payout in the future.
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?
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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.
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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.
Manchester United are one of the great footballing institutions for bringing through and nurturing young talent. From the class of ’92, to the signings of Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo, the Premier League champions have a powerful legacy of turning promising starlets into exceptional world-class players.
The management at Old Trafford may have changed this summer, but the club’s emphasis on keeping one eye on the future has not, and David Moyes will continue in the Red Devils’ tradition of sourcing the hottest prospects world football has to offer.
With that in mind, here’s FIVE youngsters bursting with potential that, according to the tabloids at least, could be making their way to Old Trafford in the near future.
Click on Ross Barkley to reveal the FIVE ‘promising starlets’ on Manchester United’s radar
For many the international break is a harmless stopgap between fixtures in the Premier League, but for the clubs seeing their players returning tired and in many cases injured, the fortnightly gap is becoming particularly arduous.
Just this last week we have already seen injury worries for both Jack Wilshere and Christian Eriksen, the latter much to Tottenham’s dismay will be out for around a month with strained ankle ligaments.
Now of course we all understand the value players place in representing their country, to force their omission from the international set-up would be wholly wrong. That said International managers have a duty of care to their players and from my perspective this involves sensible dialogue with respective clubs to ensure that players’ chances of being injured are minimised.
Of course some injuries are freak acts of nature, but in the case of someone like Jack Wilshere, the precarious nature of his fitness is well known. So when Arsenal say that the midfielder should be playing only one friendly, it is in both club and country’s interests that England themselves heed this advice, as it happens the knock to his thigh was pretty minor, but why was Wilshere involved in the Germany game at all?
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It isn’t even like these matches carry much, if any, importance, I can understand the need to play your very best in a competitive match but for an exhibition match it is just reckless. Wilshere realises the need to impress coming into a World Cup year, but most would acknowledge that selection is 90% down to league form and as such staying fit and firing for Arsenal is a much bigger priority.
The club versus country debate is extremely divisive, and regardless of which camp you place yourselves in there is always a need for a degree of common sense. Some may like to see England play their very best for every international, but this is just not a possibility. Clubs pay the players’ wages and international associations have a responsibility to ensure that the club’s assets are well looked after. It is a two-way relationship, there is great importance placed on maintaining a good relationship with clubs, or else risk not having players released for risk of exacerbating injuries.
Injuries can happen at any point, it doesn’t matter if it is an international or domestic game the chances are no doubt pretty equal. However, when you add a busy domestic workload to a full international schedule, you end up pushing so many of the best players close to the edge.
Roberto Martinez is right when he points to the Premier League being much more important for prospective world cup players, he made the following comments to the Daily Mail in relation to Ross Barkley’s involvement:
“It’s a waste of time to think what could happen in the future. The thing is to concentrate on the day-to-day. A week is an eternity so a few months is even more.”
His view being that players should knuckle down and ensure they give there best in the day to day grind for their club, rather than focus on the international set-up as a stand alone phenomenon.
Rather than be the battleground that is so often is, club versus country should be a much more mutually beneficial relationship. Countries should be keen to see their stars prosper at a club level, with clubs themselves keen to ensure their players are in a position to pursue their international ambitions.
As it stands both parties are at complete loggerheads, and to see players returning from international duty with injuries should really come as no surprise.
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Spurs may well be entitled to compensation for Eriksen’s injury, but the loss of the player is of greater value to both club and country than a simple cash sum can provide.
Is it time international managers were a bit more responsible with players?
Ah, the FA Cup. The best domestic Cup competition in the World. It still is right? Despite all the bashing it gets? Well, there’s certainly some eye-catching matches this weekend and Thomas Rooney of Footballtips.com has three essential bets.
Cardiff to beat Wigan
First up, I’m going for a bit of an upset on Saturday afternoon. Wigan are the FA Cup holders and they head to a Cardiff side that will be far too pre-occupied with their battle against relegation.
The Bluebirds (do we still call them that?) have done well to make it this far and picked up impressive FA Cup wins at Newcastle and Bolton. They would have enjoyed the decreased pressure that comes with playing away from home though.
At the Cardiff City Stadium, they will probably have a crowd that isn’t too enthusiastic and in all honesty, is getting a bit impatient after a run of just one win in the last five home games.
Are they REALLY up for the Cup? I don’t think so. Hence why backing Wigan – who have won their last seven on the road in the FA Cup – is the way to go.
Back Wigan to win inside 90 minutes @ 14/5 with Stan James
Man City to get Chelsea revenge
One of the best away performances you will see occurred when Chelsea travelled to the Ethiad Stadium a couple of weeks ago. They won 1-0 and thoroughly deserved the three points.
I have my doubts about whether they can replicate this though. I even doubt how highly Jose Mourinho values the FA Cup. Will the same motivation, preparation and determination go into this latest trip to Manchester? It’s doubtful.
Man City are then a team with a point to prove. They will want to come out all guns blazing and aside from wanting to progress in the FA Cup, there will be a feeling of revenge in the air.
Don’t forget they’ve had more rest too after their midweek game was postponed and I think it’s highly likely they will make less changes / rest less players than Chelsea.
I expect more goals this time too, with less emphasis on the importance of the match than last time.
Back Man City to win @ both teams to score @ 3/1 with William Hill
Luis Suarez to score first
It’s Arsenal v Liverpool on Sunday and I fully expect the Gunners to see their season continue to take a downward spiral. February is a famously bad month for them remember.
With one eye on Bayern Munich next week, Arsene Wenger might struggle to get his team selection correct. He doesn’t want burn out to occur (it has already to be fair) nor does he want to be knocked out of the FA Cup.
I expect a strange Emirates atmosphere and a positive start from the visitors. They are back in the title race, playing excellent football and hammered this weekend’s opponents 5-1 last weekend.
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Brendan Rodgers will play his best team, including former Arsenal target Luis Suarez who I’m backing to break the deadlock for his first goal since January.
Back Suarez to score first at 9/2 with bet365
Thomas Rooney is the editor of Footballtips.com, the best place for all your FA Cup tips.
Long since the days of the emergence of Raul, Guti and Iker Casillas have Real Madrid been longing for some home-grown talent to grace the side.
Javier Portillo came and went. Francisco Pavon hung around a bit too long. Roberto Soldado and Dani Parejo moved on due to lack of first-team chances. But now the La Liga leaders have their wish. And Jese Rodriguez is a definite keeper.
When club president Florentino Perez announced the world-record signing of Tottenham’s Gareth Bale, Jese could probably be forgiven if he felt that maybe he would fall into the same basket as the rest of Madrid’s youth products of recent years. But as the season has progressed Jese has more than proven his worth to the side.
The 21-year-old was snapped up by Madrid at the age of 14 in 2007. The 2010-11 season saw him gain his first taste of professional football, and he hasn’t looked back since. Jose Mourinho briefly acknowledged his existence, handing him his first-team debut in 2011-12 but he was quickly thrown back into the shark tank that is the Real Madrid Castilla side to gain more experience. A record-breaking season later (22 league goals in 38 games) and he is a firm favourite of Madridistas.
Since the turn of the year, Jese has seemingly overtaken both Isco and Alvaro Morata in the Los Blancos pecking order. Ancelotti’s recent preference to play 4-3-3, and the current untenable position of Luka Modric has made fitting in Isco, a preferred ‘no. 10’, quite tough. And Jese’s form has made it even tougher. With a total of eight goals and four assists in 18 games Jese is flourishing in his breakthrough season.
As of 25th February, Jese averaged 0.81 goals per 90 minutes in La Liga whilst Bale was only averaging 0.75 goals. He also averaged 0.65 assists every 90 minutes played, placing him second in such La Liga statistics just behind Bale at 0.68.
Bearing in mind the majority of his appearances have been late cameos from the bench, this makes his statistics appear evermore impressive. Each of the three occasions he has completed a full game, he has scored in.
In a recent interview with el Larguero Jese revealed his lofty ambition to claim the coveted Ballon d’Or prize in just four years. Some may regard this as arrogant. Besides, he has received not wholly inaccurate comparisons in his style of play to Cristiano Ronaldo.
This may seem premature but, the young man from the Canary Isles, relishes the similarities. He plays predominantly from the left side as a right-footed attacker. He has phenomenal acceleration, excels in one-on-one situations and has a penchant for cutting in onto his lethal right foot. He even has a short sharp backswing which partially mirrors that of Ronaldo.
Ancelotti said in a recent interview that, “Jese isn’t a surprise anymore. He is already an important player for us.” Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque admitted that Jese remains in his thoughts prior to the announcement of his World Cup squad.
But Jese remains grounded and is eager to get as much game time for his club and to carry on making it more difficult for the manager. Carry on at his rate and it will be tough for Del Bosque to keep him out.
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The recent return of Gareth Bale to fitness and goal-scoring form has limited Jese’s opportunities to just two substitute appearances in the last three games. Prior to this, and during Cristiano Ronaldo’s three-match suspension, Jese had scored in two of three league starts.
But for now Jese remains very much the next best choice after Madrid’s two multi-million pound stars. Jese’s rapid rise from Madrid B to the first team gives hope to young hopefuls who may have found themselves marginalised in previous regimes. But Jese is no ordinary product of the academy. He has the potential to get to the top, and he knows it.
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.
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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.