Tottenham boss Andre Villas-Boas still hopes he will be able to sign Joao Moutinho from FC Porto. As his top target, Villas-Boas believes Moutino is an ideal replacement for Luka Modric, who is due to complete a move to Real Madrid in the next few days.
Spurs are unwilling to pay the £25m asking price for the midfielder, however despite this, the Tottenham boss still believes a transfer could go ahead because of Moutinho’s desire to move to England. It is understood the 25-year-old is frequently emphasising his wish to play in the Premier League, a factor that could weaken Porto’s resolve.
The diverse midfielder is comfortable in a holding or attacking role, and often plays on each wing. He has been a regular call-up for the Portuguese international squad, with his first appearance at the age of 18, and he has gone on to accumulate 48 caps since 2005. In 2010, then-boss Villas-Boas signed Mountino for Porto from rivals Sporting CF, and went on to guide the Portuguese side to a treble, winning the Primeira Liga, Taca de Portugal and Europa League.
The alternative to Moutinho had been Roma midfielder Miralem Pjanic. Yet this deal will be difficult to complete, as Roma manager Zdenek Zeman is counting strongly on Pjanic for the season ahead, while the player is only one year into a four-year contract and is happy in the Italian capital.
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manager Sam Allardyce is confident of beating Southampton at Upton Park this weekend and continuing his side’s good start to their first season back in the Premier League.
Both the Saints and the Hammers enjoyed promotion back to the top-flight last season but have enjoyed opposite starts to the campaign.
After sevem games Nigel Adkins’ Southampton sit just a point outside the bottom three with just four points while Allardyce’s West Ham are in eighth with 11 points.
And the West Ham manager believes his side have what it takes to continue what has been a solid start to the season.
Speaking to West Ham’s official site he said: “I think we have coped with the Barclays Premier League very well at the start of this season and I also think we had a group of fixtures that were less challenging than Southampton’s.
“From a Premier League point of view our experience is probably better than theirs so hopefully that will be a telling factor on Saturday. Our confidence is also very high because we have been very good at home.
“I am hoping to see the same kind of performance that I saw against Aston Villa, Fulham and Sunderland. If we play like that we will create opportunities and have a very good chance of winning the game.”
Allardyce also feels that Adkins’ Southampton are a team still looking for the right formula that should see them start climbing up the table.
“It is usually more difficult to score goals than it is to concede. Southampton have found it easier to score but in doing so they have left a lot of gaps,” he added.
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“There are two ways of playing the game and that is in possession and out of it. If you do not get both right you do not win. What you do out of possession in the Barclays Premier League is just as important as what you do with it, especially during your first season.
“If you can get both of those on an equal par you will do well.”
Mark Hughes says that defender Anton Ferdinand, who is embroiled in the John Terry controversy, “has got to be big enough to handle” jibes from fans.
The QPR defender received abuse from some of the West Brom fans during the 3-2 victory for the Baggies at the Hawthorns on Saturday, with a selection of supporters chanting ‘There’s only one John Terry’. It comes after Terry was found guilty by the FA of racially abusing Ferdinand, which saw him receive a fine and a ban for four matches.
“You expect to recieve some flak when you go to away games but if he was singled out, there isn’t much we can do about it. If that was the case , then he has got to be big enough to handle it,” Mark Hughes said.
Saturday’s fixture ended with QPR yet again failing to win a game, with the loss to West Brom marking it the seventh match for them without a win in the Premier League this season. This is after it was reported that QPR bosses are worried that they have too many new players.
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The loss also saw owner Tony Fernandes attacked on Twitter by angry fans. However, he has spoken in an interview of being “1000 per cent” behind Mark Hughes. QPR will be hoping to end their time without a win in the league in their next fixture at home to Everton.
Dimitar Berbatov has rejected the chance to join Fiorentina by pulling out of a deal at the last moment.
The Bulgarian striker is surplus to requirements at Old Trafford and as such is on the market for around £5 million.
The Viola were frontrunners to sign the gifted attacker, but they have revealed that Berbatov has turned his back on a switch to Florence.
“ACF Fiorentina announce that the transfer for Dimitar Berbatov definitively collapsed after an agreement with Manchester United had been concluded (with shared exchange of contracts, the first instalment paid and the financial guarantees for the second instalment ratified) and after reaching a verbal agreement with the player over his contract,” read a club statement, translated to English by Sky Sports.
“During today the English club had allowed their player the written permission to come to Florence for a medical and to sign his contract.
“The player got on the flight with his agent and on tickets paid for by Fiorentina. He never arrived in Florence.
“This was down to outlandish and arrogant behaviour of other clubs, who have nothing to do with fair play and sporting ethics that go even beyond the confines of fairness.
“As for the player, apart from his characteristics and his value on the field, at this stage we are happy he didn’t come to Fiorentina. He did not deserve our city, to wear our jersey or the values that represent it,” it concluded.
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Fulham have now emerged as the favourites to sign Berbatov, as the player worked with Martin Jol whilst they were both at Tottenham.
At some point in their lives everyone believes in something ridiculous. A blind, illogical, unwarranted trust that an agent higher than themselves knows what they’re doing. Be it gods, parents, politicians or the Clear Browser History function, the human propensity to follow our faiths off a cliff should never be underestimated.
There’s a perfectly good reason for this of course. People are idiots. The chronicled history of our breakthroughs as a species is a long and exhaustive list of the men and women who knew more than people. People read the Daily Star. People watch reality shows. People vote for Jim Davidson on reality shows. People voted for Hitler, while George Washington was elected without a popular vote. If we lived in a perfect democracy we’d be erecting statues of Joey Essex and ruled by a yawning kitten. People are overrated, and largely awful.
No more so than in football, where every man and his cab has an opinion and every message board is bursting with know-it-alls, transfer muppets and weird tactical bods with heat maps making those confusing screenshots of arbitrary moments doodled with arrows and little coloured circles.
In science and politics we notice when it’s gone wrong, but are mostly pretty sure we wouldn’t have the faintest idea how to fix it. “Ha! Those idiots at the Large Hadron Collider have suffered a magnet quench again. They should never have discharged their electricity to the helium enclosure,” says absolutely nobody.
In sport however, we do know. We could’ve scored that. We would’ve given that penalty. We would’ve picked a better team. Sport is transparent. You show your workings on the pitch. And yet the workings out of sight – the day-to-day management, the ownership, the several confusing levels of director – are still much of a mystery.
So when those in such positions do things that seem contradictory to our accepted wisdom, one reaction is simply to trust that they know what they’re doing. They’ve got this far, why wouldn’t they? When a 15-year-old video of Harry Redknapp chastising a fan for doubting a curtain haired boyband Frank Lampard, this steaming nugget of viral gold seemed to vindicate that wisdom.
And it’s this wisdom that many fans fell back on when Manchester United appointed David Moyes. There had to be something else to his appointment beyond the surface. A huge, submerged iceberg of reason beyond the mere tip we could see. Something hidden, something magic, something blatant yet unbeknownst to us layman mortals because everyone without a vested interest could see the collapse coming a mile off.
Every average Joe, every cab driver, every publican. Every phone-in junkie and keyboard monkey had some kind of inkling this would happen. From the moment he was announced there were jibes about him ‘Evertonizing’ the Champions, finishing mid-table and failing in Europe. As the summer transfer window limped on, the running gag that he’d sign Fellaini gathered more traction. People opined that he was a boring, functional, defensive manager who wouldn’t provide the free flowing attacking style United craved, and asked why a team who’d won everything going but the FA Cup would respect a man who’d won sweet F.A? His dismal away record against big sides was whooshed into graphic form on Sky Sports News so frequently everyone knew the score. Those ‘I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I’M DOING’ memes began on his first day in the job.
And with the eye rolling predictability of a Jamie Redknapp post-match analysis, it all happened. Literally. In glorious, ghastly slow motion. In an almost satirical parody of itself. The subtlety of a BBC Three sitcom starring Frankie Boyle as Moyes and David Walliams as RVP was lost on the Chucklevision reality. And no one was really surprised. It seemed so obvious.
And yet for something so evident to everyone to be unknown, unappreciated and under researched, then accepted, approved and rubber stamped by everyone at Manchester United (MANCHESTER UNITED!) the most consistent and successfully run club in European football (whose record for consecutive Champions League appearances now looks doomed to be broken) seems virtually unconscionable.
The crux of accepting authority’s wisdom is that deep down, we want it to be true. For some it’s easier to accept conspiracy than entertain the idea those with power over our destinies are merely incompetent. Even evil competence is better than benign idiocy, and so predictably some are even questioning whether this was part of the plan. Whether Sir Alex Ferguson has deliberately set Moyes up for a fall, either to preserve his legacy or lower the expectation on his replacement. It seems ridiculous.
But is it any more ridiculous than the idea that Ferguson, Charlton, Gill and everyone at Manchester United are less football savvy than us? Than the man or woman on the street, in the pub, or on the Internet? That a man with more knowledge and success in the English game than any other would appoint a successor simply because he liked him and was a bit Scottish? That everyone at board level would ignore Jose Mourinho because Sir Bobby Charlton – a man retired for 30 years who made a mess of his own managerial career – gets a bit of an off vibe from him? That the Glazer family would accept slipping out of the Champions League just because they’d been told it was some mythical “United way” to stand by a manager?
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That’s ridiculous. Surely? No one in football would hire David Moyes to replace Sir Alex Ferguson unless they absolutely knew what they were doing. No one. The only explanation is that Moyes can turn it around. That he’ll come good. That he’ll suddenly start learning to play good football at 50 after 15 years in management and no previous inclination he knows how. It’s the only sane explanation. He’s the right man. He simply must be. Because he’s so clearly, patently, obviously not.
Chelsea have confirmed that they have sold Raul Meireles to Fenerbahce for an undisclosed fee.
The Portugal international was brought to Stamford Bridge by former boss Andre Villas-Boas and since his countryman was shown the door the playmaker has struggled to hold down a consistent place in the side.
With a number of new midfielders being signed by the Champions League winners this summer, Meireles has been deemed surplus to requirements and has moved to the Turkish giants.
“Raul Meireles has today joined Fenerbahce on a permanent transfer. The move was completed before the close of the Turkish transfer window later this week,” a statement on the west London club’s official website reads.
Meireles had only started one of the Blues’ three Premier League games this season so far, and was an unused substitute for their 4-1 defeat to Atletico Madrid on Friday night in the European Super Cup.
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Swansea goalkeeper Michel Vorm refused to look for excuses for his part in Aston Villa’s opening goal in their win over the Welsh side at Villa Park.
Vorm appeared to dive beyond Matt Lowton’s swerving volley which gave Villa the lead after 16 minutes, with Christian Benteke’s late goal sealing Villa’s first Premier League win of the campaign, and Swansea’s first loss of the season. The Netherlands international admitted the nature of footballs now makes it harder for keepers to judge the flight of the ball, but he also admited there was not much he could do about Lowton’s strike. He told Sky Sports:
“”It swerved a bit and I saw it a bit late. I was already moving to my right as well, and I couldn’t make up so it was a bit unlucky. They make the balls not to please the goalkeeper but to please the players who shoot a lot. It’s something you have to deal with and you see a lot of times it is hard for the goalkeepers to keep the ball in their hands. But in the Premier League we have good goalkeepers and we have to deal with it. It’s not really about the ball, I like the ball. If you look throughout the season you will see some goals that go in that you think are because of the ball – but I am not going to blame the ball.”
Swansea’s next tie sees them face a tough fixture at the Liberty Stadium against Everton.
If your team is caught in a relegation dog fight, this Premier League Losers XI is filled with a fantastic array of players that will make your slump out of the top-flight all but certain. These footballers are the relegation specialists who move from club to club in an aid to win a relegation battle but rarely do.
Some have been described as having a relegation fetish, others are clearly omens of bad luck and misfortune and a few are simply not quite good enough to ever play for a team that could escape the perils of relegation.
This Losers XI is a fantastic mix of players past and present who in trying their hardest will inadvertently get what ever team they play for demoted out of the top-flight, and often in ceremonious style.
Click on Ben Thatcher to witness the unholy footballing alliance that is the Losers XI
If the feeling around Lewis Holtby’s arrival at Tottenham Hotspur back in January was one of anticipation, then nearly two months on, it’s now perhaps one of curiosity amongst the Lilywhites’ support.
The 22-year-old German international came to White Hart Lane amongst a cascade of fanfare eight weeks ago, but where as many might have expected the former-Schalke man to be a prominent presence in Spurs’ push down the Premier League’s home straight, he’s remained more upon the periphery, rather than the forefront.
And as Andre Villas-Boas’ side’s recent hiccup in form threatens to turn into a far more sinister wobble, Holtby’s absence from the side in recent games hasn’t gone unnoticed. The Portuguese has come under fire from some for perceived tactical naivety in the defeats against both Internazionale and Fulham, but for as frustrated as fans were with the way the team was set up, it was Villas-Boas’ reluctance to play Holtby that particularly rankled.
But for as frustrating as it may be to see Holtby’s adaptation to English football progress at more of a walking pace rather than a rate of knots, supporters must be keen to not let the hype surrounding the German cloud their judgements. His integration into both this Spurs side and Premier League football is a marathon, not a sprint.
Following his initial burst of appearances in a white shirt, supporters can perhaps be forgiven for scratching their heads in regard to the lack of game time that Holtby has recently been afforded.
His cameos against both Norwich City and West Bromwich Albion away may not have been ground breaking, but in both occasions on his first two outings for the club, Holtby managed to wield a considerable impact. Certainly, he showed enough to whet the appetites of supporters even further, with his exhibition of crisp one-touch passing and positive furrows forward.
Although while impressing in bursts is all well and good, it’s maintaining an impact from kick-off that’s been a slightly tougher nut to crack for Holtby. During starts against Newcastle United and the away leg against Lyon in the Europa League, despite not playing particularly poor, he naturally looked like a man still trying to find his feet within this Spurs side.
But if supporters were in any need of a reminder of the patience needed within Holtby’s adaptation, the 3-2 win away at West Ham United last month, offered something of a reality check to a hype machine that had perhaps got a little carried away in the preceding weeks.
Holtby suffered a tough time against a steely, powerful and unrelenting Hammers midfield that refused to allow the Spurs midfield a second on the ball. It’s easy to revert to stereotype in this circumstance, but a London derby in the East End is a long way away from the technically infused battles that Holtby had been puppeteering back at the Vetlins Arena in the Bundesliga.
It’s going to take time for Holtby to be able to consistently apply his gifts within this league and just because he’s made his move mid-season, it doesn’t mean that he should be instantly expected to hit the ground running.
The counter-argument is of course that Lewis Holtby isn’t going to adapt to the rigors of English football by sitting on the bench, but it was within the success of his substitution on that night at Upton Park, that you understand how difficult it is for Villas-Boas to afford the German the game time he needs.
Gylfi Sigurdsson has been a player that’s also been in desperate need of game time and a run of starts all season, but up until recent games, that simply hasn’t happened. Yet the Icelandic international couldn’t have done more than what he did coming off the bench against West Ham to gain a start and for as much as Holtby needs game time, Villas-Boas has to remain fair.
Dropping Holtby for Sigurdsson in the North London derby was a tough, but ultimately correct decision and the way in which the former-Swansea loanee has reacted to his run in the side has wholly vindicated Villas-Boas’ selection. Had Sigurdsson not taken his chance against West Ham, maybe Holtby wouldn’t have been sitting on the bench so much in recent games.
But the fact is that he did and the problem for Villas-Boas is that he has the task of trying to carefully ease his new signing’s introduction into English football, while fighting an increasingly bitter battle for success on two fronts. Lewis Holtby is only going to get better by clocking up more time in the league, but Spurs aren’t in a position where they can afford any players an induction process.
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And it’s within the timing of his switch from Schalke, that we understand why the club wasn’t initially in any rush to make bring forward a transfer originally penned in for the summer.
Far from the suggestions of penny-pinching towards the chairman Daniel Levy, the fact is there was a reason the club originally wanted him in June as opposed to January and it had little to do with a £1.5million outlay. As his three starts in two months suggest, he arrived at the club during an incredibly difficult part of the season to bed into.
With eight games remaining and Spurs’ lead over fifth-placed Arsenal now down to four points with one more game played, when Holtby does get his chance to restart his process of acclimatization within this league, he’s going to do so under massive pressure.
And this is something supporters most bear in mind when running the rule over their new German acquisition. Regardless of how he fares up until May, next season will be the one in which Lewis Holtby should be measured up against.
West Ham have denied reports that Ravel Morrison will go on strike in order to force a transfer, reports Sky Sports.
The youngster is reportedly interested in a move to Fulham, with Cottagers boss Rene Meulensteen claiming the Hammers have rejected a bid for Morrison. West Ham have since reported Fulham to the Premier League.
With West Ham boss Sam Allardyce busy with transfer business, assistant manager Neil McDonald told the media that Morrison will not be forcing a move by missing training: “It is all media reports and whatever has been said… I think the club and the Premier League are dealing with that so I’d prefer not to dwell on that any more.
“There seems to be a story about Rav every week. The lad comes in and trains, sometimes he has had a little bit of a groin injury, but we’ve man-managed that. He trained on Wednesday with a huge, big smile on his face with the rest of the squad so (reports he may go on strike) are news to me.
“We look forward to him being in the squad on Saturday, he should be fit, he’s been training with the lads and he’s brought a lot of joy, especially with winning against Cardiff – he cheered everyone up when he came back as well.”
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Morrison has been a bright spark for a struggling West Ham side, with his superb individual goal at Tottenham earlier this season a particular highlight.