- Robin van Persie could make a shock return to Arsenal this summer
- Manchester United boss David Moyes is set to overhaul his squad
- United and City will go head-to-head over Bayern Munich's Toni Kroos
- Adam Johnson and Andy Carroll could be in line for an England return
Robin van Persie could make a shock return to Arsenal in the summer.
As predicted in this column last week, Manchester United manager David Moyes plans a mass makeover of the squad at the end of the season.
Indeed, after unveiling Juan Mata at the start of the week, Moyes made hints of a substantial clearout followed by a spending spree to rejuvenate United in the close season.
+14
Gunning for a move? Robin van Persie celebrates his goal at Stoke, but may not be a United player much longer
+14
Hero's return: Van Persie was one of Arsenal's favourite sons from 2004 until leaving for United in 2012
iBet
And the biggest shock sale could be Van Persie – especially if United succeed in persuading Wayne Rooney to stay rather than move to Chelsea or PSG.
It is understood that while Moyes seems to have made Rooney feel more comfortable at the club, there is an uneasy relationship between the new United boss and Van Persie.
I understand that Van Persie, whose goals fired United to the title last season, has been upset by the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson and coach Rene Meulensteen, like Van Persie a Dutchman, who did much to persuade the player to leave Arsenal to join United for £24million in the summer of 2012.
The departure of that pair was not in the script sold to Van Persie when, after much deliberation, he opted to leave Arsenal.
+14
Making his point: United boss David Moyes apparently has an uneasy relationship with Van Persie
+14
Star man: Much of the focus at Old Trafford this season has been on Wayne Rooney (left)
It is also understood that Van Persie and his family have not settled as well amongst the ‘Cheshire set’ as opposed to where they had previously resided in the London area.
There have also been reports from Holland that Van Persie has not been happy with the new United training regime.
Much about Van Persie’s future will hang on whether Rooney stays or not.
+14
Shout it out loud: But Rio Ferdinand is among the United stars set to be heading for the exit door this summer
If Rooney remains at Old Trafford, then Van Persie could be on his way and it is understood he would love to re-join the Gunners.
As a rule, Arsene Wenger doesn’t tend to sign players over the age of 30 but he may well make an exception in the case of 30-year-old Van Persie – especially if he’s available for a fee in the region of £15m.
A long list of United’s established stars are set for the exit in the summer including Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra, Nani, Ashley Young and Antonio Valencia.
Manchester City could challenge rivals United for Bayern Munich midfielder Toni Kroos in the summer.
Whatever the outcome of City’s quadruple campaign, manager Manuel Pellegrini feels the team will need refreshing in the summer and wants to bolster the midfield and defence.
+14
Wanted: Manchester rivals United and City are set to go head-to-head for Bayern midfield star Toni Kroos
United had hoped to sign Kroos ahead of the January deadline in a £25m deal, but despite the player having fallen out with Bayern manager Pep Guardiola, he stays with the club as they defend their Champions League title.
However, it seems certain Kroos will become available in the summer and Pellegrini may go for the German ahead of Porto’s Fernando.
It seems City will sign another Porto player, centre half Eliaquim Mangala. A deal to take him from to Manchester on Friday fell through at the last minute.
Then again, given his Portuguese connections, don’t rule out Jose Mourinho making a move for both Fernando and Mangala in the summer.
+14
Wrapping it up: City will also renew their interest in Porto defender Eliaquim Mangala this summer
SHHHHH.....
Which Premier League chairman prefers to download goal highlights for free via a foreign website rather than pay a small subscription to access such action from one of two official partners to the Premier League?
A friend of mine was quite surprised when he was in the club’s boardroom recently and asked said chairman and a fellow director what they thought of the goals packages – which bring in added revenue to clubs.
Despite the relatively small subscription, the chairman admitted he spurned that option and preferred to surf on his smartphone to get the goal highlights and not even pay for it.
I am hearing...
While Michael Laudrup has papered over the cracks of a dispute with the Swansea hierarchy, the Dane could be off at the end of the season.
Laudrup disagreed with chairman Huw Jenkins over transfer funds during the January window, warning the club could easily be sucked into the relegation fight given the strains on the squad because of the Europa League campaign, a fact confirmed by Saturday’s tame 2-0 defeat at West Ham.
But in the end, the only cash spent was the £800,000 to sign David N’Gog from Bolton.
I am also hearing...
Ian Holloway has already endeared himself to Millwall fans with his maverick manner.
Before their recent 1-0 home win over Ipswich he took members of their executive club by surprise by joining them shortly before kick-off and making a rousing speech about his intentions for the club.
Last week he popped into a pub not far from the club’s training ground and a downed a couple of pints of cask ale, much to the approval of locals.
Given his south-west roots, the staff of the Jolly Woodman were happy to facilitate Jolly West-Countryman Holloway with Doom Bar ale, which is brewed in Cornwall.
+14
When you're smiling: Ian Holloway has already brought his personality to his new role as Millwall boss
iSay
Mon: Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis insists Arsene Wenger will sign a new contract. But why the rush? As brilliant a job as Wenger has done re-building the team, if they go another season without lifting a trophy since leaving Highbury, there will no doubt be calls for a new boss.
Tues: Despite a little spat with Luis Suarez then manager Brendan Rodgers, Daniel Sturridge was outstanding again as he scored twice in Liverpool’s 4-0 win over Everton. If he puts his mind to it Sturridge has the style to have a great World Cup for England in Brazil.
Weds: Manchester United are in line to secure a £70million-a-year kit deal. That’s about what it will cost to sign Wayne Rooney on a new four-and-a-half-year deal. On that basis, the proposed deal with Nike could make commercial sense, committing so much cash to Rooney.
Thurs: Wenger baulks at going the extra mile to match the £37million Schalke want for young goalscoring sensation Julian Draxler. But sometimes you have to pay a premium, as United did to get Mata. Will Arsenal again end up regretting Wenger’s parsimonious nature in the January transfer window?
Fri: Jose Mourinho moans about Manchester City’s money and questions them fulfilling Financial Fair Play regulations. As the transfer window closes, the money spent on new players reads: Chelsea £44m, City £0.
Adam Johnson is in line for a call up to England’s squad against Denmark at Wembley next month.
Although Roy Hodgson has suggested he has finished with mass experiments he sees this as the last game to test out potential 'wild cards' for the World Cup.
Injury to Theo Walcott and loss of form for Andros Townsend means he still has an open mind on which players could fill the wide berths.
Johnson broke into the England set up under Fabio Capello and has scored two goals in 11 appearances.
But after he lost his place at Manchester City he seemed to lose his way and failed to settle after moving to Sunderland until the arrival of Gus Poyet.
Suddenly Johnson, a left-footed winger who likes to operate from the right, is showing top form again and is one of the reasons the Black Cats are pulling towards safety.
I gather this has been noted and Hodgson will consider the 26-year-old, who he has previously only named him on stand-by for a run-out against the Danes.
*************************************************************
Andy Carroll will be sweating on having his red card from Saturday’s 2-0 win over Swansea overturned by the FA’s review panel, not just to help West Ham’s battle for survival but for his own World Cup hopes.
Even though it was Carroll’s first home start of the season after an injury-blighted season, Roy Hodgson has let it be known to the player he can still force his way into the England squad.
But to be considered Carroll needs to string games together and start scoring goals – not just set them up.
If the red card stands, Carroll will be out of the next three West Ham games and it will be hard for Hodgson to justify picking him for next month’s friendly against Denmark. Time will then start to run out.
+14
Up in the air: Andy Carroll could still battle his way into Roy Hodgson's England World Cup squad
Much depends on English World Cup referee Howard Webb’s report and whether, on reflection, he was duped by the reaction of Swansea’s Chico Flores after being caught in the face by Carroll’s flailing arm following an aerial duel.
West Ham boss Sam Allardyce insisted the Flores' antics got Carroll sent off and is set to use the evidence of Swansea manager Michael Laudrup, who suggested he didn't think the incident warranted a red card.
That said, whatever the outcome, Hodgson, who sees Carroll as an ideal alternative strike option, may also have to consider the risk he brings.
Not only the striker’s injury record could court trouble in South America – so could his style of play.
+14
Flashpoint: Carroll saw red in West Ham's clash with Swansea, potentially sidelining him for another three games
FOTB
The post-match press conference given by managers to TV cameras ought to be sponsored by Saxa salt.
In most cases pretty much every soundbite should be taken with a big lump of it.
It has become a soap box for managers to make excuses if their team has lost. If it’s not the referees, it’s the opposition tactics, or sometimes even the length of the grass.
Or in victory often it’s a time to give themselves back-handed compliments to remind the board how good they are, or send out some positive on message, er, message.
Normally it is only off camera when they have to face the written media do questions from time to time get underneath the skin of a matter.
Rarely though do managers, in defeat, give the opposition too much credit.
In that sense Tim Sherwood was frank enough to admit his Tottenham were simply beaten by a better team when Manchester City thumped Spurs 5-1 last week.
But even then he was in safety-first mode explaining the reason Spurs lost so heavily was that City are now a team from ‘another planet’.
No they are not. City are very, very good at the moment. Stunning at times, even. But the only team around in the last few years who have played football from ‘another planet’ have been Barcelona.
Now of course if they thrash Barcelona home and away in their forthcoming Champions League maybe City’s status in the galaxy will then have to be re-evaluated.
But until then, foot on the ball, Tim.
Libero
It is not so much rich, more ridiculous for Jose Mourinho to condemn West Ham grinding out a goalless draw at Chelsea on Wednesday night.
After all, it was Mourinho who brought the phrase ‘parking the bus’ into the lexicon of English football.
He did so in the early days of his first reign at the club. True, he came out with the quote in the wake of his team being frustrated by Tottenham at Stamford Bridge. But as if Mourinho wasn’t well versed in a tactic which used to be referred to in English football as ‘shutting up shop’.
After all, it’s a ploy he has used successfully from time to time at Porto, then of course with Chelsea, then with Inter Milan, then Madrid and, yes, now Chelsea again.
Look at the games earlier this season at Manchester United and Arsenal when Chelsea set out their stall to play on the back foot and grind out dull draws.
Indeed, after the dire goalless draw at Arsenal, Mourinho said it was the Gunners who were boring because it is the obligation of the home team to turn it into a scoring match.
Mourinho is a very clever coach, but he does not have the monopoly on wisdom nor should he treat others in and around the game like fools.
He was understandably frustrated, and even had a point digging at West Ham’s sombre lack of finesse - when Chelsea dig a trench they still have the ambition and talent to counter attack with some style - but to condemn a team who went in search of a much needed point and who succeeded was hypocrisy in the extreme.
As Mourinho well knows the essence of football is the struggle between defence and attack. The battle between flamboyance and pragmatism.
Law changes over the years have tipped the balance back in favour of attack following an era in the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties when attrition often held the upper hand.
But take away the option of an ultra-defensive game plan and then you could end up with a game like basketball which really is boring.
+14
Accusations: Jose Mourinho said West Ham played '19th Century football' after Wednesday's goalless draw
Deep down Mourinho understands that as much as anyone.
In fact he might start thinking he actually invented the sort of 'parking the bus' smash 'n' grab counter-attacking football that he condemned last week - West Ham almost nicked the game despite only have two chances to Chelsea 39 attempts on goal - and will more than likely use it at Manchester City.
Don’t let anyone fool you on that front.
The system first came to prominence in Italy at Inter Milan under coach Helenio Herrera and was called catenaccio where a spare defender, a libero or sweeper, would play behind three or even four defenders.
+14
To be frank: Sam Allardyce said he 'didn't give a s***' what Mourinho thought of his side
BTW
Sam Allardyce was entitled to dismiss Jose Mourinho’s criticism of West Ham’s defensive tactics in scrapping out a goalless draw at the Bridge last week.
Why should a team battling for survival not slug it out to gain a valuable point?
But there is something surly and snarling about Allardyce’s demeanour of late that does him no favours – especially in the eyes of West Ham fans.
When Allardyce retorted he didn’t give a ‘s***’ about Mourinho criticising his style of play one wonders if that attitude extends to those West Ham fans who are growing weary of spending top-dollar watching shove ha’penny football and making their feelings know about the style of play, or lack of it.
When the dust settles on the disparaging comments made by Mourinho, the one that will really stick is the jibe that West Ham – once known as innovators – play 19th century football.
That’s hardly a label to help sell seats to 21st century fans at the new Olympic Stadium and may yet to come back and haunt Big Sam.
Of course the desire to eke out narrow 1-0 or 2-1 wins or settle for goalless draws becomes a bit of a problem when BOTH teams set out that way. Even to this day, Italian football finds it hard to break away at the bolted chain that is catenaccio.
In the Eighties, one reason that AC Milan were so successful in Serie A and abroad is that they adopted a far more attacking approach with Dutchmen Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard and Marco van Basten.
Yet that Milan team was still built on the rock of four granite defenders Mauro Tassoti, Franco Baresi (the libero), Allessandro Costacurta and Paolo Maldini.
When George Graham took over at Arsenal in the mid-Eighties, he decided that, unlike Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, the way to revive the club’s fortunes quickly was to play a version of catenaccio rather than the free-flowing football favoured by Fergie.
And so a back four was formed in a similar image to AC Milan: Lee Dixon, Steve Bould, Tony Adams, Nigel Winterburn (sometimes with the addition of David O’Leary).
Memorably, Arsenal went into the final game of the 1988-89 season needing to beat Liverpool at Anfield by two clear goals to win the title for the first time since 1971.
So did Graham go gung-ho ?
+14
Rock-solid: George Graham (right) built from the back at Arsenal with Gunners legends like Tony Adams
Did he hell. In modern parlance Arsenal 'parked the bus' with the gritty determination of ending the game with an open top bus ride.
They did of course, frustrating Liverpool with their defensive brick wall then then hitting on the break, Michael Thomas applying the knockout punch right at the end to win the game 2-0 and the title too.
No doubt despite his withering words about West Ham last week Mourinho would see that tactical masterpiece performance by Arsenal back then as his idea of a perfect storm.
Y-FACTOR
A couple of weeks ago it was announced that EA Sports, the gaming company, had the new deal to sponsor referees. Why is it necessary for officials to have a sponsor’s logo on their shirts?
There is plenty of enough money in the PL pot to pay refs’ fees and for development courses.
Refs and their assistants should not have their neutrality impinged upon in any way or be seen to run around as billboards.
When the Seattle Seahawks take on the Denver Broncos in the SuperBowl on Sunday the only logo on the shirts of officials and their caps is that of the NFL. Quite right.
Back Heel
Even though Arsenal have led the table for most of the season, Monday’s clash between Manchester City and Chelsea at the Ethiad Stadium feels like the big title showdown game of the season so far.
City, all goals and cool, seem to have overcome their early season fallibility on the road. There has become an effortless grace about them which stems from the demeanour of manager Manuel Pellegrini
Chelsea have become a Jose Mourinho team again. Steely concentration with the bite of a cobra.
Even if City have an owner even richer than Chelsea’s and consequently a bigger wage bill, Chelsea have spent far more in this transfer window in a clear statement they won’t be blown out of water just yet.
Money can’t buy success, eh ? Oligarch Abramovich and oil monarch Sheikh Mansour have reshaped the landscape with their billions.
It’s far from a two-horse race yet, but these two clubs are now setting down a new power base.
Things can still move in cycles but the sheer sums of money would seem to protect these clubs from spiralling into decay rather like, well, Manchester City and Chelsea did by the end of the Seventies.
At the start of that decade the two clubs seemed poised to dominate for some time.
When Man City visited Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in October 1970, City were holders of the European Cup Winners' Cup and Chelsea had just won the FA Cup, both hugely glamorous trophies back then for two very glamorous teams.
That particular game ended 1-1 and was most notable for a stunning long range volley by Colin Bell that is a reminder that those boys knew a thing or two about technique back then too.
No doubt Chelsea would settle for a similar result on Monday.
+14
Crunch clash: Manuel Pellegrini faces a potential title decider on Monday night against Chelsea
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2550125/THE-FOOTBALL-GRAPEVINE-Van-Persie-make-shock-Arsenal-return.html
No comments:
Post a Comment