AC Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani has admitted that if the Serie A giants do make a move for Carlos Tevez in January it will only be on loan.
The Manchester City striker’s time in England seems to be drawing to a close after repeated indiscretions and disciplinary proceedings, with the South American returning to Argentina recently without permission of the club.
The Etihad Stadium outfit are thought to be looking for a January buyer for the attacker, and the Scudetto holders were earmarked as a potential suitor.
Massimiliano Allegri’s men are thought to be in the market for a forward due to Antonio Cassano’s health problems, and a £25 million move in the new year has been speculated in the British press.
Despite this, the Giuseppe Meazza chief has stated that the Italian side are only interested in a temporary deal.
“Whoever comes to Milan in January will be on loan for free, with an option to make that stay permanent,” he told Gazzetta dello Sport.
“Tevez? We will see, there’s time. Probably if we had not had [Antonio] Cassano’s situation, we would remain as we are.”
The news will come to a blow for City, as potential destinations for Tevez are becoming limited; Juventus recently ruled themselves out of a move for him come the new year.
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Since the start of the season and during the January transfer window there were stories linking the out of favour Manchester City winger, Shaun Wright-Phillips with a move to Liverpool. Although the Reds are enjoying a revival under Kenny Dalglish, there are bound to be transfer targets for the club come the summer – would SWP prove to be value for money?
The career of Wright-Phillips has been an interesting one to date. Since bursting onto the scene with City at the start of the decade, Wright-Phillips quickly shrugged off any comparison to his famous father figure by making a name for himself as a tricky right winger. In the last season of his first spell at City, he scored 10 goals in 34 league games, his best record to date and it earned him a big money move to Chelsea.
Although making a number of appearances, and in addition earning a few winners’ medals, he never established himself as a first team regular for the Blues and eventually returned to City. However, while the big money signings and ambitions at Chelsea may have stifled his first team ambitions, the same thing has happened now at City.
Now at 29 years of age, SWP could do with one last move to finish his career on a flourish rather than warming up the subs bench. Could Liverpool be the right club for him? Possibly, as the Reds would need more creativity in their team, especially on the wing. He would provide decent competition for Dirk Kuyt, or allow the Dutchman to move up front.
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However, if NESV are to use their ‘money ball’ approach used in baseball, then the signing of SWP would not make sense, as he is over the age of 27 and would not have a significant re-sale value. Although football is entirely different from the economics used in baseball and American sport in general, whilst the signings of Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez were long term solutions – it would make sense for the Reds to make some short term solutions for an immediate impact.
It would be value for money as the transfer rumours back in January were linking the player to the Anfield club for around the £4 million mark, which wouldn’t break the bank. Plus Wright-Phillips is now an experienced winger whose dribbling and pace can cause teams problems, as well as being an excellent provider of crosses for the likes of Carroll to attack.
On the other hand, NESV and Liverpool fans may disagree with the signing of SWP if they want to challenge the likes of Chelsea and Manchester City, it certainly wouldn’t match their ambitions. But perhaps Wright-Phillips needs to be given a chance to prove his worth at a top Premier League club and under the guise of Dalglish, he could be the right man to get the best out of the winger.
Alternatively, Liverpool may look elsewhere for a younger winger with more potential and a longer term investment. In that case, SWP should look elsewhere if he’s to finish off his career with an impact, although recent reports indicate that he’s determined to stay at City and break into the first team, but it just sounds like déjà-vu to me.
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Take a look at the Liverpool representative in our Top TEN solo goals of all time…
Reported West Ham transfer target Aaron Mokoena has revealed he has been offered contracts by three unnamed Premier League clubs.
The South Africa defender is out of contract at Portsmouth following a last season which ended in relegation for the south coast club.
The 29-year-old has spent the last two months in South Africa, where he made three World Cup appearances for the tournament hosts.
He is now back in England and keen to resolve his club future.
Mokoena captained Pompey last season when new Hammers boss Avram Grant was in charge at Fratton Park.
"I have to confess my heart is still there at Portsmouth and they are offering me a new contract if I remain with the club," he said.
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"I can confirm that there are a number of offers from several big clubs – three in the English Premiership, two in Qatar and one in Turkey.
"There are a number of things I am still assessing, though, and I will decide sometime next week."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
Chelsea manager Andre Villas Boas has stated that he will not change his tactics despite being beaten 5-3 by Arsenal at home on Saturday, and will continue with his attacking mentality.
The Stamford Bridge club were guilty of some very substandard defending in the defeat, but regardless of this the Portuguese coach has vowed to send people forward in coming games.
“The philosophy is a personal value and a club value,” the ex-Porto trainer told Sky Sports.
“It is something that makes us all proud and we will stick to this philosophy throughout this league. It is our way of playing, we are proud of the way we play and we just have to correct things to get a positive result.”
Chelsea battled back to 3-3 before two late Gunners goals broke the home side’s hearts, but Villas Boas has stood up for his defenders in the wake of the defeat.
“We fought hard to get to 3-3, the emotions were behind us and it could have gone either way. If we can recall, there was a 3-1 result at Old Trafford, Man United thought they could swing it and they lost 6-1. We were punished in that sense.
“You have to take the last two goals out of the situation, because one is a slip from a player [John Terry] to leave the other player [Robin van Persie] one against one so is nothing to do with defensive organisation and the other is when you are trying to do something with three minutes on the clock.
“Before this we were one of the three best defences in the Premier League. We committed mistakes that we will try to evolve and maybe we can improve them for the game against Blackburn,” he concluded.
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Chelsea face Belgian champions Racing Genk in Europe on Tuesday at the Cristal Arena, and will look to get back to winning ways after back-to-back defeats.
Argentine giant Independiente continue to struggle after falling to a 3-1 loss at home to Godoy Cruz in Group 8 of the Copa Libertadores.The loss leaves Independiente in bottom place after the first meetings between all teams in the group.The home side went into the break behind despite striker Facundo Parra opening the scoring in the 16th minute.Midfielder Hernan Fredes turned the ball into his own net inside half an hour before winger Ariel Rojas gave the visitors the lead four minutes later.Forward Ruben Ramirez clinched the the points for his side 11 minutes after half-time when he made it 3-1.It moved Godoy Cruz into top spot in the tightly contested group after starting the day bottom.Cerro Porteno maintained their unbeaten start in Group 5 but had to settle for a 1-1 draw with Deportivo Tachira.Forward Roberto Nanni gave the Paraguayans a 28th-minute lead with his fourth goal of the tournament but they relinquished the advantage on the hour mark.Columbian striker Sergio Herrera gave the Venezuelan outfit their equalizer, though they remain winless and bottom of the group after securing two draws.Union Espanola moved off the bottom of Group 4 thanks to two goals in the opening half an hour in their 2-1 victory over Velez Sarsfield.Martin Liguera opened the scoring for the Chilean outfit in the third minute in fortuitous fashion after a scramble fell for him to volley into the roof of the net from six yards.Midfielder Braulio Leal headed home the second in the 26th minute thanks to his quick reactions after having his initial header saved.The visitors pulled one back with 20 minutes to play courtesy of substitute David Ramirez, who placed his shot underneath goalkeeper Eduardo Lobos.Union Espanola remain just outside the top two on goal difference while Velez Sarsfield are bottom.
The Netherlands might not have played anything resembling Total Football in their run to the World Cup final but, in attempting to negate Spain, Bert van Marwijk’s team employed an unexpectedly physical approach that disappointed millions of football fans across the globe. They had hoped that a side featuring Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder would look to take on Spain’s tiki-taka style in an open contest, but instead the Dutch resorted to spoiling tactics. They lost anyway.
The Dutch’s aggressive tackling saw them amass seven yellow cards, with Johnny Heitinga being dismissed for two further bookings of his own. Many people have lambasted the Netherlands for the negative way in which they contested the final but their harshest critic has been Johan Cruyff, the nation’s finest footballing export. He has railed against the way the Oranje played: “This ugly, vulgar, hard, hermetic, hardly eye-catching, hardly football style, yes it served the Dutch to unsettle Spain. If with this they got satisfaction, fine, but they ended up losing.
“They were playing anti-football.”
That Cruyff held Holland’s methods to be unedifying is his own opinion, but for him to label those methods as being in opposition to the very nature of the sport is especially interesting. “Anti-football” is an increasingly common term. Arsene Wenger used it at Old Trafford last August to criticise Manchester United’s approach against Arsenal. The Frenchman reserved special attention for what he saw as persistent fouling by Darren Fletcher when complaining that Sir Alex Ferguson’s team had been more concerned with stopping Arsenal than playing constructively themselves. On Sunday, the Netherlands attempted to break up possession whenever Spain had the ball. They tackled often and they tackled hard. If free kicks and yellow cards were the result then this was preferable to allowing the Spanish to dictate the game in open play, van Marwijk must have reasoned. Disrupting the rhythm of Vicente del Bosque’s team, Holland’s coach had decided, would offer them their best hope of victory.
Negative, yes. Destructive, yes. But anti-football? I think not. In fact, I disagree with the term fundamentally. If anti-football does exist in a tactical sense, then to define the system in such a reductive, pejorative way is unfair. Van Marwijk had every right to deploy the tactics that he did in order to try to win the game.
Anti-football is, loosely, a style of football in which the aim is to completely counteract the approach of your opponents at the expense of your own attacking endeavours. However, this does not mean that anti-football, or any defensively-minded way of playing for that matter, somehow operates outside the spirit of the game. It is negative but not malevolent. No, anti-football forms an integral part of the game; without it the sport would be lacking something. It remains an effective style of play because no team has ever perfected a way to circumvent it. At the same time, anti-football pushes coaches towards devising ever more creative ways of playing, enhancing the sport. We just need to call it something better than “anti-football”.
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Wolves boss Mick McCarthy has slated the section of the club’s fans who chanted for him to be sacked in the 2-2 draw with Swansea at the weekend, and has stated that their abuse had nothing to do with the Molineux side coming back from 2-0 down.
Disgruntled fans sung “you’re getting sacked in the morning” at the Wolves manager and also singled out specific players for criticism after the second Swansea goal, but McCarthy has hit back at the sceptical supporters.
“Let me clear something up. It (the negative support) doesn’t help. Let’s not give them any credit,” he told Sky Sports.
“Let’s not give any of the dissenting voices, the mindless idiots that do it, any credit whether it’s aimed at me, Karl Henry, Andy Keogh or Stephen Ward.
“Do not give them any credence or any credit for getting us playing well or getting a result. They don’t deserve any of that. There was no credit given to any of them at all for the 2-2 draw.
“I’m taking the credit, getting Jamie O’Hara further up the pitch, the players that went on and the attitude they had.
“We’ve a great spirit amongst us but I always worry in saying that, in giving them (the fans) some sort of back-handed compliment that they have generated a good team spirit and a siege mentality.
“They haven’t. All they do is destroy it. It is destructive and no good to me or anyone else,” he concluded.
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Wolves have been in a poor run of form and have only recorded two victories so far this season; their task will not get any easier at the weekend as they travel to take on Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.
Arsenal will look to capitalise on Manchester United’s midweek slip-up at Chelsea when they welcome Sunderland to the Emirates on Saturday.Arsene Wenger’s men trail leaders United by four points in the Premier League standings, though they have a game in hand on their title rivals after the Red Devils were overrun 2-1 at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday. The Gunners themselves suffered a setback over the weekend when their quest to end a trophy drought stretching back to 2005 was denied by a determined Birmingham in the Carling Cup final. But suggestions that the shock defeat would rock Arsenal’s season were quickly answered on Wednesday when Wenger’s side romped to a 5-0 FA Cup triumph over Leyton Orient, setting up a quarter-final show-down with United in the process. Although Cesc Fabregas is recovering better than expected from a hamstring injury, Wenger says his midfield maestro is unlikely to feature against the Black Cats.”I don’t think he will be involved on Saturday against Sunderland,” Wenger said, ahead of a tough period for his side.”We have an important game against Sunderland on Saturday, Barcelona on Tuesday and Manchester United in the quarter-final of the FA Cup after that.”Wenger confirmed than striker Robin van Persie would miss ‘three to four weeks’ with a tear in the ligament at the back of his knee, while Arsenal will also be without Theo Walcott with an ankle problem and Lukasz Fabianski and Thomas Vermaelen will remain in the sidelines.Sunderland also have their own injury concerns, with Danny Welbeck, Lee Cattermole, Michael Turner, Fraiser Campbell and David Meyler all sidelined.Steve Bruce’s side enter the match in poor form, with just one win from their last seven in all competitions and four consecutive Premier League losses, but Bruce is still confident his side can pull off a surprise on Saturday.”Over the course of a season there is going to be a time when your team doesn’t perform well,” Bruce said.”We couldn’t have picked a more difficult period to try and get a response with games against Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City. But we know we’re capable of getting a result somewhere and we must get our heads down to get ready for the challenges ahead.”Sunderland won the reverse fixture at the Stadium of Light 1-0 thanks to an injury-time strike from Darren Bent and given their good record against some of the Premier League’s heavyweights in recent years, will give themselves a chance but beware a fired-up Arsenal side ready to make amends for their cup loss.
Everton chairman Bill Kenwright has confirmed that he and manager David Moyes have held talks with Mikel Arteta to try and persuade the Spanish playmaker to stay with the Toffees.
The 28-year-old former Rangers and Real Sociedad schemer has been at Goodison Park since January 2005, making well over 150 appearances for Everton in all competitions.
However, rumours of a summer move, possibly back to Spain, continue to do the rounds, with Kenwright confirming that Arteta’s future is in some doubt.
He told the Liverpool Daily Post:“It is true that David and myself have spoken to Mikel on a couple of occasions this summer and tried to persuade him his future lies with us.
“We earnestly believe that is still the case.”
Arsenal and Manchester City are among the clubs who have been mentioned as possible bidders for the talented midfielder.
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Real Madrid are weighing up a stunning bid to bring Carlos Tevez to the Bernabeu in January putting an end to his Manchester nightmare the Mirror reports.
Los Merengues boss Jose Mourinho has earmarked the Argentinian striker as the man to help the club end Barcelona’s La Liga superiority and take the club back to the pinnacle of Spanish football.
The 27-year-old’s career at the Etihad Stadium is effectively over after his refusal to come off the bench in last months Champions League draw with Bayern Munich saw the club suspend him for two weeks.
Roberto Mancini has admitted he won’t consider Tevez for selection even though his suspension ends on Thursday with City ready to announce what action they will take after an internal investigation into his act of mutiny.
Despite the strikers temperament it hasn’t dampened Madrid’s interest and the Spaniards are preparing to test the Premier League big spenders with an offer as soon as the transfer window opens.
There is, however, a few complications that could scupper the deal with City demanding £35 million for their former captain whilst his wage demands could prove to be too excessive.
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Whilst the fee shouldn’t pose too much of a problem Tevez’s wage demands of £250,000-a-week, which surpass that of Madrid’s highest earner Cristiano Ronaldo on £200,000-per-week, could put the brakes on any potential deal.