QPR have completed the signing of Lazio striker Djibril Cisse on transfer deadline day, who joins the Loftus Road club for an undisclosed fee.
The fiery attacker only moved to the Stadio Olimpico back in the summer, but struggled to command a place in Edoardo Reja’s first team.
Rangers manager Mark Hughes is delighted to have Cisse on board, and has revealed that he has been a long-term admirer of the forward.
“I’ve watched him for many years and always been impressed by what he brings to the table,” Sparky told the club’s official website.
“He’s a huge threat to opposition’s defences. He’s got great pace, power and movement and that’s something we will hopefully benefit from.
“His goal record is there for everyone to see. He’s scored goals wherever he’s played. His record speaks for itself.
“He was desperate to come here once we showed our interest in him and we can’t wait to get the best out of him,” the coach admitted.
Cisse also stated his admiration for Hughes, and is looking to recapture his best form at the London club.
“When I talked to the manager, he spoke highly of the club and where he wants to take it over the next few years. He wanted to sign me at Manchester City and now I am finally here with him at QPR.
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“The English league is the best in the world. It is the league that suits me the most. I’m really happy here and I can’t wait to repay the club’s confidence in me, to get back to where I want to be as a player,” the French striker concluded.
Unthinkable as it sounds, the possibility of Real Madrid becoming a plc has been discussed in the past.
To be fair, it has never been taken too serious, but it has been mentioned sporadically over the past ten years.
Obviously the comparison between the Glazers (who own Manchester United) and Florentino Perez is a very short run contest in my wholly honest opinion. It does not take a financial whizz kid to ascertain who’s strategy makes more sense – not least because the Glazers borrowed 80 pct of funds against the football club.
Their idea was to service the ludicrous debt by structuring it annually with high interest whereas Perez just seems to be relying on shirt sales and marketing strategy to pay back his loans.
But would that solve anything? The evidence suggests not. In the early 1990s, a new law obliged every club to become a plc, with four exceptions – Real Madrid, Barcelona, Athletic Bilbao and Osasuna, who were given special exemptions for socio-cultural reasons.
Shares were issued and the slate wiped clean. It was supposed to be a panacea. The theory was simple: presidents would be more careful risking their own money. They were not. Often their fans would not let them…
Look back over the clubs who have competed in the Champions League recently and the situation is alarming: Valencia‘s debt was more than €600m going into this year. Like Real Madrid (who sold the their training ground for €447m to the council in 2001, wiping out their €278m debt), a property deal was supposed to be their salvation. However, the market crashed at just the wrong time.
Now Valencia have two stadiums – one they cannot sell and another that work has only just resumed on after a lengthy delay due to lack of funds.
According to the third largest shareholder at Atlético Madrid, their debt is above €300m.
In the summer Villarreal failed to pay their players for the first time because the ceramics industry from which their owner, Fernando Roig, makes his money has been hit hard by the crisis. Deportivo La Coruña are more than €120m in debt.
Over the past few seasons, Celta Vigo and Real Sociedad have been relegated and, with no parachute payment to break the fall, went into administration.
Real Sociedad’s president at the time was a certain Astiazarán, now the league’s president. This culture needs to stop, it will strangle the longevity of La Liga’s ability to challenge and grow as a worldwide domestic competition
According to the latest Deloitte football finance report, La Liga’s revenues grew by eight per cent to €1.622m in 2009-10, the highest relative and absolute growth of any of the ‘big five’ leagues.
However, much of the growth was driven by Real Madrid and Barcelona whose collective revenues increased by €69m. Which clearly show’s the unjust imbalance of TV rights/revenue proportioning that go on within the La Liga dividends and the facts are that policies in Spanish football are often driven by the two powerhouses of Real Madrid and Barcelona.
According to reliable statistics Madrid have 13.2m fans while Barcelona have 10.4m. Valencia are third with 2.1m. Nearly two-thirds of all football fans in Spain support one of the big two. And supporters of other clubs almost invariably choose Madrid or Barcelona as a “second” team.
The dominance is felt most on TV – and that is the crux of the issue, the precarious foundation upon which Spanish football is built. Unlike elsewhere – and even Italy is going collective – Spanish clubs negotiate individual television deals.
“The lack of a centralised deal is the biggest problem we face,” Tebas says. The reason is clear. Madrid and Barcelona will earn approximately €120m in rights each year until 2013. Last season’s third-placed side, Sevilla earn around €20m; Valencia, currently third, make under €30m – less than Portsmouth.
Right throughout the league, the imbalance is extraordinary. Competing is impossible.
The problem is the league are powerless to impose a collective deal, although they continue trying. There is so many splits of opinions that it is impossible to get unanimous agreement on anything in the way of legislation. Your probably thinking ”isn’t that the main reason blocking SPL reform at the minute?” Yes.
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There is a lot of talk about Premier League debts, but this is a much more serious overall situation, particularly when one considers the state of the Spanish economy. You have to ask yourself, where is La Liga’s long term strategy and policy heading?
The 2009/2010 figures compared to the Barclays Premier League show the revenue deficit compared to what the clubs spend is a terrifyingly obvious precedent that was set that summer, followed in the summer of 2010 with the likes of Hercules spending large amounts of money they simply did not have the capacity to re-emburse throughout the Season.
Article courtesy of from the excellent El Centro Campista
The N17 Give Back Event is an opportunity for Tottenham fans to put something back into the community local to The Lane as well as a chance to meet the Welsh Wizard Mr Cliff Jones, his son Steve and Rob White, son of the Spurs Legend John White. Also taking part is Daniel Wynne – The Voice Of Tottenham!
Cliff Jones will be talking about his life and Steve and Rob will be sharing tales of what it was like having a Legend as a dad! Together with Daniel’s Spurs Quiz and book signings, the event is to be hosted in the Haringey Irish Community Centre.
Tickets are for nothing at £20. The venture benefiting HAVCO and the Tottenham Foundation with all the monies raised on the day going to where those organisations can do the most good locally.
The Give Back Event is seeking volunteers to pitch in with some light odd jobs for small privately owned businesses on the day. All the information you need to find out more is here.
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If you take beauty from some of the smaller and perhaps fleetingly accepted Premier League details much like myself, you will be familiar with the fact that league regulations designate seven substitutes on a match day; a two person advance on the number of players retired after the culmination of the 2007/8 campaign. More spaces on team coaches have been filled in the years since with the aim of giving managers more of a choice to reactively call upon given the matches incidences.
However, the nation’s Football League put the ‘number of substitutes’ debate to a vote in the summer and the majority favoured a reversion back to naming five players on the bench and was the rationale agreed upon for this 2011/12 campaign. With a host of clubs in England’s next respective tiers struggling to fund large squads, and easily naming seven different subs a week, financial fair play reasons were also mooted in the reasons for opting for the reversion. Football League clubs still have to name seven subs for FA Cup and Carling Cup matches but are allowed five as devised by the Football League in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy.
Nevertheless, the more asset-rich Premier League understandably maintains the seven substitute stance. More funds may be available for back-up talent, but you can’t help get the feeling that it is so much easier to get into a squad these days and that the modern-day ‘benchwarmer’ is a role fulfilled by many an unused player.
As we all know, the Premier League adopts the ‘home-grown’ talent ideology nowadays and in a 25-man squad, at the end of each transfer window there has to be at least eight players, foreign or not who have been affiliated to the FA for three seasons prior to their 21st birthday. Understandably, this was brought into operation to safeguard the passage of more youthful products into the first team selections of clubs to help the national team.
However, there are still a number of players who seem to be used simply ‘for show’ and there is not always a place on the bench for the clubs more youthful talent (the idea wasn’t it?). Take the two North London clubs. Tottenham fans are still baffled by the retention of Giovani Dos Santos who has failed to live up to the heights predicted for him since his move from Barcelona in 2008. This season he has made five unused substitutes appearances in the league and in the other five appearances he has entered the field of play, he has only reached a minute combined total of 66 minutes in playing time.
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Similarly employed and fleetingly called upon despite full fitness is Arsenal’s summer signing Park Chu Young. The Korean international captain has even more league unused substitutes appearances totalling ten and has astonishingly just seven minutes playing time; against Manchester United, since his summer move from Monaco. Both players continue to be a firm fixture in their national team set up despite a distinct lack of playing time however.
We must comprehend that Arsenal and Tottenham have bigger and more competitive squads than most but doesn’t it make a mockery of the clubs initial PR speeches when they predict a good future for players whom they rarely go on to deploy?
Back in August last year, Arsene Wenger said of Park’s signature
‘We are delighted to have signed Ju. He will add true quality to our attacking forces and will be a valuable addition to our squad’.
If valuable means keeping the bench warm in the eyes of Wenger, the Korean is certainly doing his job, but in all seriousness highlights the modern pattern that there is a specific breed of ‘cup players’.
Other arguable examples in the league include Rafik Halliche, Romelu Lukaku, James McFadden, Sebastian Coates, Albert Crusat and Rob Hulse and these types do little but wear a high-vis and parade the touchline, whereby the league hoped many younger talents would gain these supposedly vacant extra two slots. Yes, the likes of Raheem Sterling, Paul Pogba, Cameron Lancaster and Sam Hutchinson may have been spotted on Premier League benches this season but it is still at far too infrequent intervals with the selection of more experienced ‘benchwarmers’ still taking precedence.
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If The Premier League followed the Football League’s stance in reverting back to five substitutes, not only would clubs reduce their wage bill as fringe players would be fed up at an even lesser role, but it would be that much more competitive to get into a match day squad and questions of self-motivation and self-desire would be raised for the manager to reward good character, instead of simply selecting those players seemingly just ‘for show’.
What do you think, are seven substitutes a good thing? Who is your benchwarmer at your club? Follow me @ http://twitter.com/Taylor_Will1989
Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure has stated that rumours that he had a bust-up with team-mate Mario Balotelli are completely false.
Reports indicated that the Ivory Coast international and the temperamental forward had clashed in the City dressing room at half-time of their 3-3 draw with Sunderland at the weekend, but Toure denies this.
“They said I fought with Mario at Swansea and against Sunderland,” he told The Daily Mail.
“That shocked me. My lawyers called me about this and it was the first I knew about it.
“It’s just not true. It didn’t happen. I am a footballer, not a boxer. People don’t know my relationship with Mario. He’s not my friend, he’s my brother and I love him.
“To say we had a fight is very sad. It upset me and I feel sorry for Mario. He suffers most from these things.
“At half-time against Sunderland it was very difficult. We are trying to win the league and are losing 2-1. It’s not good. But everybody was quiet. We were just looking at each other, trying to find a way to turn the result.
“But I didn’t even talk to Mario. The next day he sent me a text message saying, “Apparently we had a fight”. I just want to stop people writing and thinking that,” he concluded.
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Wigan attacker Victor Moses has rejected a new contract to keep him at the DW Stadium, and is ready to move to a bigger club in the summer according to Sky Sports.
The Nigeria international has been a standout performer for the Latics this season, and is one of the main reasons for Roberto Martinez’s men avoiding relegation.
The African forward is highly-rated and Wigan are eager to keep him for at least another season, but Moses has his eye on a move to one of the Premier League big boys.
Moses’ agent Tony Finnigan has declared that the player is ready for a step up, and wants to leave Wigan once the transfer window reopens.
“I think what Wigan have done is tremendous and shows it was the right place for him to go after Palace. But now I think Victor is ready for the next step,” the representative stated.
“He still has lots of improving to do in terms of scoring goals more regularly. But I think that would come if he was surrounded by better players. That’s what he wants and is why he won’t be extending his contract. I can’t see Victor changing his mind.”
The news is sure to alert the likes of Tottenham and Liverpool, who are both interested in the £10 million-valued attacker.
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Dnipro wide-man Yevhen Konoplyanka has been attracting the interest of clubs in England with Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal trailing the 22-year-old according to Talk Sport.
Konoplyanka is set to represent co-hosts Ukraine in the forthcoming European Championships and is expected to play a large part in their campaign. A string of solid performances in the tournament could well see his value raised and competition for his signature from elsewhere increase.
The winger possesses terrific pace and has improved rapidly since his league debut at the age of 17. According to the report he aspires to play in one of Europe’s top leagues but the excellent financial position of Dnipro will mean that he will not come cheap.
Historically Ukrainian players have struggled for success in the Premier League with Sergiy Rebrov, Andriy Shevchenko and Anriy Voronin all struggling to make an impact during their spells in England.
Konoplyanka however is of a different mould and his willingness to run at players and whilst also offering versatility will prove an attractive proposition for the trio.
Sir Alex Ferguson will be eager to add depth in the wide areas with Nani performing inconsistently last season and Arsene Wenger will also look to improve the quality of his attacking options. Chelsea could make an offer as they continue the summer overhaul of their squad with the likes of Marko Marin and Eden Hazard already set to make their mark at Stamford Bridge next season.
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It is always a sad time when a fantastic footballer’s career comes to an end. In the modern day there are fortunately a number of destinations where a successful player in the twilight of their career can go to earn a last paycheque before they hang up their boots. The MLS, Qatar and United Arab Emirates have perhaps more traditionally served as a less competitive environment where a career can be extended in recent times. David Beckham and Thierry Henry are to players to opt for America while Fabio Cannavaro and most recently Raul have opted for the Middle East. China has also added its name to the list recently but Brazil is now emerging as a new favourite to house some of the great veterans of the game in previously uncharted territory in South America.
The country is experiencing an economic boom and is now one of the top 10 largest economies in the world. This has filtered through to the clubs in the source of sponsorship money from companies experiencing the vast benefits of growth. Such deals have enabled many of the country’s biggest clubs to hold on to their prize assets, like Santos retaining the in-demand Neymar and Ganso, as well as tempting other players who could still cut it in Europe back to their homeland. Another reason for the latter however involves the desire to gain support to participate in the national team, a motive arguably behind Vagner Love and Luis Fabiano’s recent return to Brazil.
If executed correctly, such big name signings can help improve the revenue flowing into the club further. This was the aim when Flamengo added Ronaldinho to their team, completing a deal that would see sports marketing agency Traffic pay 75% of his wages in return for control over his image rights. Of course, that did not work out quite as well as planned and ultimately left the player well out of pocket.
But it is such a collaboration that could see Clarence Seedorf join Rio de Janeiro club Botafogo. With the saga ongoing, according to sports daily Lance!, the club’s kit suppliers Puma had revealed an interest in paying part of the player’s wages which have proven to be a stumbling block. Puma know it will boost shirt sales and thus their revenue and with multi-national corporations recognising the huge market in Brazil we could start to see some of Europe’s great talents head to South America to end their career.
Alessandro Del Piero is the latest player to be linked such a move by Sky Sports Italia after his contract with Juventus ended. Cruzeiro, Corinthians, Botafogo and Flamengo were the teams touted as the six-time Scudetto winner’s potential suitors in Brazil, but River Plate have also been mentioned as well as a host of club’s from Asia and America. Capturing such a presitigious player would be a coup financially, but even more so if they could still contribute to the team, which Del Piero certainly could.
Hosting the World Cup in 2014 only serves to add to the interest surrounding Brazil. Huge levels of investment into infrastructure and stadiums (if completed in time!) will serve to take the clubs to the next level. Indeed they are already thinking more like businesses than previously. Corinthians recently signed Chen Zhizhao on a long term loan with the Timao board admitting that it was largely a marketing move to help boost merchandise sales in Asia.
For a European to ply their trade in South America remains a rare exploit. World Cup winner David Trezeguet is currently playing for River Plate in Argentina’s second tier. In Brazil perhaps the best known European was Serbian Dejan Petkovic who spent time at no fewer than seven different Brazilian clubs before lifting the national championship with Flamengo in 2009.
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The outlook for the Samba nation looks positive both economically and in footballing terms. They possess a hugely competitive championship that will only continue to grow if managed correctly. And so potential transfers of previously world class players like Seedorf and Del Piero could set a precedent for retiring Europeans to test their mettle in South America.
It could be argued that Liverpool haven’t produced a world-class talent from their academy since current skipper Steven Gerrard over a decade ago; this subsequently led to a transforming of the academy system under former manager Rafa Benitez that is only starting to bear fruit – with this in mind, should Brendan Rodgers focus on blooding more youth into the first-team next season?
On Twitter last week, somewhat bizarrely, there was a buzz among many Liverpool supporters that Daniel Pacheco had returned to the club after a loan spell in Spain with Rayo Vallecano. Pacheco is 21 years of age now, if he was going to break through, he would have done it by now and the concerns about his slight build are obviously still being ignored.
The myth that he is good enough for the first-team and has been cruelly overlooked by a succession of managers comes merely from the fact that Liverpool purchased him from Barcelona and after all, everyone that Barcelona produces must be a world-class talent in the making. As a club, Liverpool’s conveyor belt of young talent has long since dried up, with Pacheco talked up more simply because of the reputation of his former club rather than anything special about the player himself, but there is a definite Catalan influence on the youth-team set-up now and one that needs to be taken advantage of.
In Pep Segura and Rodolfo Borrell, both of which have been tipped to have big parts to play as part of Rodgers’ inner council that consults on everything from transfers to style of play, they have two key figures at the club which have helped train the side’s reserves and academy over the past few years. Kenny Dalglish as Aacademy Director under Benitez helped implement a system which was supposed to see every side at all levels play in a similar style much like La Masia academy at Barcelona, with players able to slot seamlessly into the side the further they progressed up the ladder within the club.
While Pacheco has obviously missed the boat and his time has now passed, the club still have a wealth of talent that has up until this point, been confined to reserve-team football at best. Dalglish upon taking charge during his interim spell, when he knew he had nothing to lose, granted first-team opportunities to the likes of Jack Robinson, Jonjo Shelvey and Jon Flanagan, but they were by and large in short supply last term as he attempted to bed in an array of expensively-assembled talent at their expense in the pursuit of a top four finish.
It’s precisely these sorts of targets which restrict the opportunities granted to youngsters and Rodgers is thought to have been brought in with a long-term project and without any specific targets in mind, which should allow him more time to develop his side and integrate youth-team players more.
Perhaps more than at any other club, Liverpool fans like to see a representation of the future out on the pitch, whether they are local born and bred or not. The fanbase when results are not going well are always fixated on the youth and reserve teams, castigating the current manager in the process for not giving this or that player a chance. Nevertheless, there is sufficient talent currently within the ranks to allow Rodgers some time to experiment.
In Raheem Sterling, Connor Coady, Andre Wisdom and Suso to name but four, they have some real potential that could be gradually blooded into the first-team side. Dalglish’s reluctance to use them last season frustrated many, but with a new manager now at the helm and less of an emphasis on top four football (although the longer the club stay out of the Champions League, the more it will hurt them financially), there is a very real chance of progression.
Rodgers is known to have a preference for a 4-3-3 formation and with little in the way of pace at the club at the moment, this could be a breakthrough season for one of Sterling or Suso, who have both demonstrated some frightening ability at the admittedly limited level of reserve-team football.
Former reserve-team coach John McMahon had this to say about Suso: “He needs to know about the discipline and work that’s required in a team, like tracking back, tackling and staying with runners.” While Suso himself admits he struggled initially with the transition: “The game here requires you to run a lot more. For that reason it is more difficult. “I need to improve my intensity and my defending.”
It would be a shame that if the very creativity that he is being lauded for is then drilled out of him in the pursuit of a more rounded and disciplined player – the first-team already has plenty of those, but it requires more craft rather than graft. Rodgers is known to be a fan of possession-based football and someone like Suso could be what he’s after, in the short-term at least, with the club’s transfer budget unlikely to set pulses racing this summer. Sterling remains an interesting option as an impact substitution and both could have a part to play in the coming campaign.
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Which young player would you like to see given more first-team opportunities at Liverpool next season?
Having topped the group and qualified for the quarter-finals of the Olympics, Team GB can certainly take some pride in their efforts so far at London 2012. The first football team from Great Britain for 40 years may not have set the world alight with some lacklustre performances but they have progressed through the competition and have every chance of claiming a medal.
A place on the podium may be overcrowded in team sports but a top three finish would justify the decision to reform the side after so many years, despite various controversies that surrounded the initial build up. The omission of David Beckham and lack of Irish and Scottish representation aside, Team GB’s results have proven why having a united football team was an inspired idea but given the lack of motivation exhibited by players and the underwhelming football on offer, can a British team really last or is it just a novelty in honour of having the tournament on home shores?
For starters all football fans will have enjoyed having some extra action to get their teeth into but the standard of competition has not been up to scratch. Not only has the British team been cobbled together at the last minute but they have had little preparation and the majority of the squad appear to be tired and unmoved by proceedings. It should be considered criminal for any professional sportsman to fail to be inspired by the Olympics but with football, an under-23 themed International competition doesn’t exactly represent the pinnacle of the beautiful game. As such players do not seem as enthusiastic as they should be and the turgid performances witnessed by fans are testament to a drop in standards from the weekly hustle and bustle of the Premier League.
International football has always provided a different style of play and it’s not only Team GB who have seemed below par but their side is made up almost entirely of players plying their trade in the English top flight and they should therefore be dominating matches against the likes of UAE and Senegal. Instead they seem incapable of raising their game beyond doing only what is required of them and had it not been for Craig Bellamy’s passionate influence then the team could easily have bowed out of the competition with a whimper. A conflict of motivations appear to have affected the team and despite some players being inspired by their Olympic opportunity, there are many who seem far more concerned with the upcoming opening weekend of the Premier League and are happy to simply go through motions. Further, domestic managers seem unwilling to release their top stars so Stuart Pearce will feel his squad could have been far stronger had he been allowed to call up the names he originally wanted. Instead players like Gareth Bale have sidestepped the competition and Pearce has been left with a group of players whose intentions are unclear plus a mix and match of Welsh and English stars but no Scottish or Irish, which is hardly indicative of a Great Britain team. While Pearce’s hands are clean as his squad choices were largely based on the talent available to him, another concern is that fans from the unappreciated nations are unlikely to fully get behind the side and with so many problems already surrounding the viability of Team GB, plus the low key atmospheres and sluggish performances, many are wondering if they will ever see a Great Britain football team again in future Olympics.
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Having been without a Team GB since 1972 and failed to qualify for the main tournament since 1960, it would appear the opportunity to have a home nations style side was a novelty that officials could not refuse, but regardless of various derivative reasons to dismiss the squad, fans have still turned out in their numbers to watch their heroes and ultimately the team have reached the knock-out stages. Given the manner with which the team struggled through their group, a winnable game against Korea Republic should not be smirked at, but they seem to be finding their feet with every match they play together and should be able to reach the semi-finals for a likely showdown with favourites Brazil. There would be little shame in losing to the strongest side in the competition plus they could still claim a bronze medal and become the most successful British football team ever. It may not be UEFA Champions League but such achievements are still finite in the career of professional footballers and Bellamy has already stated his pride in being the first British goal scorer in decades, so why not take satisfaction from being an Olympic medal winner?
The summit of sporting achievement is the Olympics but sports like football always have difficulty persuading partaking members who are not as committed to the cause while fans allegiances are also less devoted, especially when it’s an integrated Great Britain. Before the tournament started few would have batted an eyelid if the team had fallen flat on their face, but the reality is they have performed admirably enough so far and have the potential to improve still further. A bronze medal may not be enough to encourage players and fans that the Olympics is an important tournament but becoming the most successful side in British history should still warrant a concerted effort from the team and an impressive performance this summer could be the catalyst for future generations to fully get behind a unified Great Britain football team.
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Is Team GB a novelty or will they compete at future games? Do fans feel connected to the British side or are they more concerned with domestic action?
Let me know your views and opinions by following me on Twitter – Tweet me @Alex_Churcher