Birmingham City will welcome back five key players for their English Premier League relegation battle against Wigan Athletic on Saturday.Birmingham boss Alex McLeish should be able to call upon defenders Roger Johnson, Martin Jiranek and Stephen Carr, midfielder Barry Ferguson and on-loan striker Obafemi Martins.All five have trained in the past week and their return should provide the team with a boost after an FA Cup quarter-final exit at the hands of Bolton Wanderers in their last match. “We had a right few missing last week and I said at the time if they had played there could have been a danger of them incurring muscle injuries and being out for the next month or even longer,” McLeish said.”It was good for them to get a regeneration of the batteries and also to get some much needed treatment.””Johnson, Ferguson, Carr, Jiranek, Martins all trained today and were declared fit by the medical staff.””(Nikola) Zigic, (Keith) Fahey, (Lee) Bowyer, (David) Bentley did some separate work with the physios so they are the doubts. It is good to get the experienced guys back.”McLeish believes the availability of certain players could dictate whether Birmingham survive in the top flight.”You need to persevere right to the very end but the experience could help as well, could be a factor, and we have that as well,” he said.”It would be nice to get the other players back on track as well … It would be good to have everyone available in the run-in.”McLeish does not expect Wigan to spring any surprises in regards to team selection or tactics at the DW Stadium. “We’ve got a pretty good idea of what side we are going to face,” he said.”(Wigan manager) Roberto (Martinez) will try and get his strongest team out.””We know he can change the system a bit but we know by and large how they are going to play and he will know the same about us.””There are no real secrets in the Premier League.”While a victory over their fellow strugglers would be invaluable, McLeish insists the clash with Wigan is not a must-win game.”There are a lot of big games this weekend and as a league we have come to the real business side of the season,” said McLeish.”We know that winning this game would give us fantastic confidence for the run-in.””If we don’t get the result we are looking for, the league is not finished. There will still be plenty of points to be played for.”
Winger Chris Brunt has signed a new three-year contract with West Bromwich Albion.
The 25-year-old Northern Ireland international is the latest player to pledge his future to the Baggies ahead of their return to the Premier League.
Team-mates Graham Dorrans and Youssouf Mulumbu have recently penned new deals at The Hawthorns and Brunt is delighted to have followed suit.
"I'm delighted to sign this new deal because I feel really settled at the club, just like my family does in the area," he told the club's official website.
"The club is heading in the right direction and this is a nice bonus ahead of what I hope will be a big season both for the team and on a personal level.
"I've won promotion with the club twice now and I want to top that by helping to establish Albion in the Premier League.
"That's the challenge facing the coaching staff and players and if we all pull together I believe we can have a successful season.
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"The fans have been great to me during the past three years and I'm sure they'll get right behind us next season when we will need them more than ever."
Brunt joined the Baggies in a £3million deal from Sheffield Wednesday in August 2007.Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
Spain slipped to an unlikely 1-0 defeat at the hands of Fabio Capello’s under-strength England side at Wembley on Saturday. While England’s limited yet encouraging performance has dominated the back pages, and rightly so, little attention has been paid to the quite frankly petulant response of Spain’s players in the aftermath. Tiki-taka has had fans creaming themselves all over the world for the best part of six years now, and while it is certainly a fantastic way to play if you have the requisite players at your disposal, it is not the only way to play. The eulogising over this style of play has now given way to a warped and bizarre state of affairs by which all over styles of football are measured. A hierarchy has been established, with tiki-taka as its sovereign master.
Barcelona are most football fans second team. When they’re at their best, it’s doubtful that we’ll ever see another team quite like it. In full flow, they are the epitome of what most footballers aspire to. Effective, possession-based football is the Holy Grail; it’s the in-vogue style of the decade.
However, what has begun to irritate me is the fact that most people see victories lessened if they are not done in that very same style. To use an extreme example, if England somehow managed to win the Euro’s playing like they did against Spain for the entire tournament, by that very same token, their victory would be somehow less worthy as it flies in the face of the only apparent accepted footballing principles of our times. This all begs the question, when did we begin to trade substance for style? Or more pertinently, perhaps, when did we begin to rank styles of football based on their aesthetic quality?
Spain’s success at international level has been built primarily around Luis Aragones insistence that they replicate Barcelona’s domestic success, style included, on the international stage. It has worked a treat – Spain are unquestionably the best international side of the last 25 years or so and Barcelona are now arguably the best club side ever. There‘s clearly something to this tiki-taka, then.
But what does bother me, is the way that these footballing deities react when it all doesn’t go their way. Simply because they are sticking to their principles despite it becoming abundantly clear during the duration of the match that their style isn’t working, that they attempt to take the moral high ground. It’s a get-out clause to fall back on in defeat that we’ve seen time and time again.
Cesc Fabregas stated after the England game: “We made England defend nearly the whole 90 minutes. You want teams to have a go at you and test you and see what happens.”
“We saw two completely different styles of football. The more defensive one won but we know that the only way they could score was from a free-kick or a corner and we conceded a not very intelligent free-kick. We paid for it but, basically, we are happy because we played very well.”
For anyone that actually watched the match, Fabregas’s version of events is a generous way of spinning it. Spain lacked penetration, width and invention. They were slow on the counter and were by and large predictable. They were the worst kind of tiki-taka – passing for passing’s sake.
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When Fabregas argues that he wants teams to ‘have a go at you and test you and see what happens’, in lamens terms what he is actually saying is ‘we want them to play openly, because we know that we have the better players, it’ll make us look good and we’ll definitely win.’
Whenever Barcelona or Spain lose, the opposition is always derided for having played ‘negative’ or ‘defensive’ football. But when you consider the quality of the opposition, how the hell else are they supposed to play?
Spain and Barcelona are in possession of some of the best players in the world, in a system that they’ve been trained in for the entirety of their footballing education and subsequent careers. England on the other hand were a side missing arguably their three best players (Rooney, Gerrard and Wilshere, not to mention Ashley Young) while in the midst of experimenting with new players in unfamiliar positions.
To play an openly attacking brand of football without the players necessary to carry it off would have been absolutely brainless (just look at Wigan). England were well within their rights to play defensive football if they felt that it was the best way to go about getting the desired result.
Spain have a fierce commitment to passing football, so much so that it has spawned an ideology practiced and imitated all over the world with varying degree of success. While their style of play is easy on the eye, without the necessary spark like Barcelona have with Lionel Messi, it can become somewhat, dare I say it, boring to watch.
Spain manager Vicente Del Bosque said after the game: “England played very deep and did what they had to and are very physical.” while the deplorable Sergio Busquets offered in direct contrast to the all-knowing Fabregas: “We weren’t expecting England to play so defensively, with 10 behind the ball but we also have to respect that style of play.”
The subtlety of their language cannot fail to portray their patronising tone. England may have been the victors on the pitch, but somehow, amidst all the fawning over their abilities, a degree of faux moralising has crept into football – so much so that Spain will probably see themselves as the real victors of the match because they tried to play football ‘the proper way’, therefore completely contradcting the point of football in the first place – to win.
Spain and Barcelona are both fantastic sides. At their best they exemplify all the best qualities that you’d possibly want from a football team. However, their style of play, as admirable as it may be, is not the only way for a successful side to operate.
Somewhere amongst all the hyperbole we’ve lost our perspective. Part of what makes football an inherently absorbing game is the plethora of contrasting of styles; the beauty of it is that it has no formal hierarchy in terms of accepted principles – a scrappy 1-0 can mean just as much as a 5-0 trouncing.
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The over the top praise often attributed to tiki-taka has distorted the playing field. To decry a style as ‘defensive’ or ’negative’ simply because it contradicts with your own smacks as little more than an excuse trotted out when the likes of Fabregas don’t get their way and steamroller the opposition into submission. Spain and Barcelona are the standard-bearers of our times, however amongst all the mythologising and moralising, it’s worth remembering that to be successful, there are other ways to play the game aside from tiki-taka, as blasphemous as that may sound.
Arsenal face their sternest test of the season when they travel to Barcelona’s Camp Nou in the Champions League on Tuesday.Arsene Wenger’s side exited the competition at the hands of Barcelona in the quarter-finals last season, losing 6-3 on aggregate after a 4-1 defeat in the second leg in Catalonia. They were drawn together again in the round of 16 this year, but Arsenal have already gone one better by recording a 2-1 win in the first leg at the Emirates Stadium on February 16.That narrow victory gave the North London side hope of progressing to the last eight, but since then their season has threatened to derail.They suffered a shock defeat in the Carling Cup final against Birmingham City on February 27, failing to end what is now a six-year drought without a trophy.To make matters worse, key striker Robin van Persie suffered a knee injury at Wembley, ruling him out of the second match against Barcelona. Next came a frustrating 0-0 draw at home to Sunderland on Saturday, a missed opportunity to close the gap on English Premier League leaders Manchester United to just one point. Arsenal’s failure to collect maximum points gained added significance on Sunday, when United were beaten 3-1 away to Liverpool.Influential captain Cesc Fabregas is also suffering from a hamstring injury and while he is expected to be fit for the trip to Spain, it remains to be seen if he will be able to perform at his usual level.Midfielder Alex Song is expected to miss the match after failing to recover from a knee injury he suffered in the Carling Cup final 2-1 loss against Birmingham.”At the moment it doesn’t look like Alex Song will be fit. He’s not been on the field at all,” Wenger said.Although scans have shown only bruising, the swelling is considerable. Song has been one of the few automatic selections in Wenger’s best starting XI over the past two years and his tackling qualities just in front of a central defence already depleted by a long-term injury to Thomas Vermaelen will be keenly missed. Barcelona have won all four of their La Liga matches since being beaten in London, but are not without problems of their own. Gerard Pique picked up a yellow card in the first leg that will rule him out of the return through suspension. His centre-back partner and team captain Carlos Puyol is also out injured, meaning Barca will most likely field either Argentine Gabriel Milito or midfielder Sergio Busquets alongside fullback Eric Abidal as a makeshift defensive pairing. If Busquets is picked at the back, one of Javier Mascherano or Seydou Keita will deputise in midfield. Goalkeeper Victor Valdes returned for Barcelona in their 1-0 home win against Real Zaragoza on Saturday, while Andres Iniesta and David Villa were afforded rests on the bench.
Veteran Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes believes he has just one more season left in his top-flight career.
Scholes, 35, has been part of the first-team picture at Old Trafford since 1994 and has made almost 650 appearances for the Red Devils.
However, the former England international has revealed he could hang up his boots at the end of next season.
"I am coming to the end of my playing career and I maybe have one year left," said Scholes, who signed a new 12-month contract in April.
"I have started doing my coaching badges back in England and hopefully one day I will be able to coach kids or coach some kind of team somewhere."
Meanwhile, Scholes does not expect long-serving United boss Sir Alex Ferguson to be retiring any time soon.
"It goes without saying what a top manager he has been," he continued.
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"The amount of players he has brought through the youth team is great and it gives hope to all the kids in the youth team that if they are good enough he will definitely use them.
"It has just been fantastic working with him and I think there is a good few years left in him yet."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
Abel Hernandez will see his contract with Hull City expire at the end of next month, and the centre-forward is widely expected to move on this summer.
The 27-year-old’s 2017-18 campaign was blighted by injury problems, with an Achilles issue keeping the Uruguay international on the sidelines for much of the season.
Hernandez managed eight goals in 10 Championship appearances, however, and it is not a surprise that there is a whole host of interest in his services.
Wolverhampton Wanderers have been linked with a move as they prepare for life in the Premier League, whilst Newcastle United have previously been credited with an interest in the former Premier League striker.
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Rumours on Twitter have claimed that Leeds United are also in the hunt for Hernandez, and it would be fair to say that the club’s supporters would welcome the move.
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Whether Leeds can beat the likes of Wolves to the striker’s signature is another matter entirely, but the club’s fans have called for the deal to go through.
A selection of the Twitter reaction can be seen below:
It has recently been reported by Sky Sports that Newcastle are willing to let Papiss Cisse leave for the right price.
Whatever that right price is we don’t know of course, but the Senegal international moved to St James Park from Freiburg for £9m in 2012, and since then Cisse has scored over 40 goals for the Tynesiders.
Newcastle paid £9m for their man at the time, and with his age having now passed the 30 mark, perhaps £6m is realistic. And for that price Cisse could be a very good signing for a Premier League side, as he has a proven scoring record in the division – over 10 goals in three of his four seasons in the English top flight.
Of course he is thirty, but Cisse’s style of play isn’t heavily reliant on pace and agility, traits players typically lose as the years pass. He instead depends on clever movement, goal scoring instincts and subtle, cute play to find positions and chancs to score his goals.
He has a good turn of speed, enough to get away from most markers and to get in behind defenders, and that along with his best attribute, finishing chances, could make him a very shrewd signing for a newly promoted team, or even an established Premier League side.
He may join a Premier League club, but it does indeed look more likely that Cisse will go to Turkey (specifically Besiktas) to replace his former St James’ Park team-mate, Demba Ba.
That is not to say a Premier League side won’t try and get a deal done for Cisse, however they may be put off by a couple of negative factors surrounding the Senegalese marksman.
His wage demands are reportedly quite high, which would certainly deter some suitors, while his age is another negative. However, if a club is looking for a short-term fix then his age would not be such an issue.
But probably the biggest negative is Cisse’s disciplinary record – he faced two lengthy spells on the sidelines last season. First up was a three-match ban for a deliberate elbow on Seamus Coleman and then another seven matches for spitting at Jonny Evans.
These instances will be a real worry for any club looking to sign him, as how will they be able to trust Cisse if he keeps on getting suspended?
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It would be a risk for any club pinning their hopes on Cisse for their entire Premier League campaign but he could well provide a good back up option or even a first choice option if he can curb his bad disciplinary record and knuckle down to produce the goods he is capable of. However believing he will do that could be somewhat naive.
Nevertheless he could well do a decent job for a Premier League club if one comes in for him, but at the moment it does look likely we could have seen the last of Papiss Cisse in the Premier League.
After failing to secure Champions League football, there has been a lot of speculation about Gareth Bale’s future.
Tottenham missed out on Champions League football by a point. With Arsenal winning away at Newcastle, it was the Gunners who pipped their north London rivals to the final Champions League place.
After winning the PFA young player of the year and players player of the year awards and the football writers association player of the year award, Bale is in high demand and wanted by some of the worlds biggest clubs. Bale is only the second player ever to win all three awards in the same season. The other, Cristiano Ronaldo.
But what should be Gareth Bale’s next move.
Everybody associated with Tottenham Hotspur wants Bale to stay. And why wouldn’t they. Bale has been in breathtaking form all season. He’s been an inspiration and has won games on his own. He’s been the standout player this year in the Premiership. If Spurs are going to break into the top four and progress as a team, they need to keep hold of Bale. Without his goals this season, Spurs wouldn’t have been competing for a Champions League place.
With Bale only signing a new contract last season, there have been talks of a new deal reportedly worth £150,000 a week. Signing a new deal would show that Bale has real intentions to stay. It’s also to be believed that there will be a release clause in his contract. An offer of 50million or more will activate his release clause, but his release clause can not be activated until the end of next season.
Tim Sherwood is ‘one million percent’ sure that Bale will stay at the club. Andre Villas Boas said that it is very, very hard to lure a player of his dimension away from the club. The indications are there that Bale will stay.
But a player of Bale’s ability, has to be playing against the best players in the world. To be considered as one of the best, he has to do it against the best. And the only place for that, is in the Champions League.
Real Madrid are huge admirers of Bale. They have the resources to mount a serious bid. Madrid’s director of football, the great Zinedine Zidane, has lavished praise on Bale. Zidane said that the best player in Europe this season was the Welshman. Zidane was impressed with Bale’s technical ability, his pace and ability to go through the gears in such a short space.
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Sergio Ramos has issued a plea for the Welshman to join him at the Bernabeu. Ramos told The Sun, “Gareth Bale is a Real Madrid-quality signing. He can punish any team in the world and has the footballing qualities we look for in Madrid.”
With a chance to prove himself in Spain and play amongst the worlds best, it must be tempting. Another alternative is Manchester United. United are looking to strengthen their squad and they need a player like Bale. United are lacking in quality when it comes to wingers and Bale is the perfect solution. To play for the best team in England and a chance top compete for the Champions League crown, a move to United could be more appealing.
In my opinion, Bale has to leave Spurs. He needs to be competing in the Champions League. He needs to be competing against the best players in the world regularly. He can stay with Spurs another season, but there is no guarantee that they will qualify for the Champions League and he will get nothing out of playing in the Europa League. A player of his ability has outgrown the Europa League. He’s had a great season, he’s in great form and he needs to be playing in the best competition in the world to be considered as one of the worlds best.
It seems to be an all too familiar story with young players never reaching their expected potential.
Jaime Peters joined Ipswich in 2005 and before he left he was the clubs longest serving player. Many may be surprised to hear that in total he made 99 appearances for Ipswich. A lot of these appearances were from the bench so his appearances don’t really represent how much game time he actually had though.
When he was first linked the Tractor Boys it didn’t seem like we had much chance of signing him as both Chelsea and Manchester United showed an interest in the youngster. However, Peters chose to join Ipswich as he wanted to play as much first team football as he possible could to help him develop as a player.
The young Canadian was an instant fans favourite and has always been a very popular figure amongst the fans. He wasn’t popular just because he was exiting to watch but the fact that he turned down both Manchester United and Chelsea in order to get game time was very respectable.
He was still a teenager when he joined Ipswich and everyone was exited by the prospect of seeing Peters in a Town shirt. Being only 5ft 7in Peters had a distinctive style of play to compensate for his short stature. He used his height as an advantage and by having a low centre of gravity he was able to terrorise opposition defenders with quick tricks and turns. Without a doubt he was an exiting player to watch and although his game was far from complete he offered the team something they didn’t have.
After every season Ipswich hoped that Peters would develop and become a key player in the team. The potential was there but we never really saw much progression from him after each season.
He never commanded a place in the team and was never consistently good enough to become a key player. Both Magilton and Keane would often use Peters as an impact sub and this probably was the most useful role he could play at Championship level.
The real reason why Peters never developed into the player we all dreamed he could be was because he never had a complete game. His dribbling, agility and speed was at times amazing but he never perfected the art of crossing and being so small meant he struggled with the physical aspects of the game.
However, despite his downfalls every fan will have fond memories of Peters.
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He always worked hard, always wanted to be in the first team and most importantly always cared about the club. The highlight of his Ipswich career came in the League Cup semi-final first leg against Arsenal where he performed so well at right back that Andrei Arshavin had to be subbed off as he couldn’t get anything past Peters.
He was a great servant to the club and a player who will always be welcome at Portman Road. In the modern game it is rare to find a player who is both loyal and just wants to play as much football as possible so we were lucky to have Peters at the club. It looks like Peters will drop down to League One but whoever he plays for next will have a great player with a great personality.
For as long as Daniel Levy keeps Tottenham’s wage budget under strict control and Mauricio Pochettino maintains his principled stance when key players step out of line (see Kyle Walker, Danny Rose and Toby Alderweireld), the club will always be on the lookout for ‘the next…’ because there will always be the danger that the current star will leave North London.
The situations surrounding Toby Alderweireld, who started his career at Ajax and Matthijs de Ligt, who currently turns out for the Dutch giants, brings this into sharp focus.
Alderweireld looks set to leave the club this summer after a stand-off over his new contract and Pochettino plans to deal with the blow of losing arguably the Premier League’s most talented centre-half by securing the signature of 18-year-old Dutch international de Ligt, who is valued at £22.5m by Transfermarkt.
It’s a risky policy but when we asked you whether Spurs should make the switch, the answer was pretty unequivocal. 93 per cent of Tottenham fans want Pochettino to make it happen and you can check out the full results of the poll below…
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