Roberto Di Matteo believes that Pep Guardiola would struggle to export his Barcelona culture on another football club. The Spaniard has been heavily linked with the managerial job at Stamford Bridge and the announcement that he will quit Barcelona at the end of the season has only added to the speculation that Guardiola will be the eventual successor to Andre Villas-Boas this summer. The current Chelsea caretaker boss has suggested that history shows that it is difficult to transfer philosophies from one club to the other.

Elsewhere in the news Harry Redknapp has hit out at criticisms of his selection policy; Roberto Mancini will remain Manchester City boss, while Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed that winning derbies means everything to him.

Headlines

Pep Guardiola has denied that he has held talks with Chelsea, claiming it would have been disrespectful to Barcelona – Guardian

Roberto Mancini will remain as manager of Manchester City despite what might happen in Monday’s game – Guardian

Arsenal and Newcastle are desperate to get third spot in the Premier League to avoid the prospect of missing out on the Champions League by finishing 4th, should Chelsea go on to win the final in Munich – Guardian

Harry Redknapp has hit out at claims that his selection policy is the reason for Tottenham’s slump in form – Guardian

Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed that winning the derbies mean everything to him, ahead of Monday’s title showdown at the Etihad Stadium – Daily Telegraph

The Premier League wanted QPR to give Chelsea a guard of honour ahead of this weekend’s game; something that Mark Hughes steadfastly refused – Daily Telegraph

Jack Wilshere may miss the start of the Premier League season in August – Independent

Arsenal are trying to thrash out an £18m deal for M’Vila as Manchester United have expressed an interest in the Frenchman – Mirror

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

Gaston Ramirez faces up to a tough decision as to whether to quit Bologna as Liverpool lodge £16m bid – Metro

Tottenham and Newcastle on red alert as Marquez snubs new deal at Espanyol – Metro

[ad_pod id=’dfp-mpu’ align=’right’]

Gabriel Agbonlahor has praised the bravery of Aston Villa team-mate Stiliyan Petrov, as the Bulgarian starts his battle against acute leukaemia.

The Midlands club’s captain started rehabilitation at a London hospital this week, with the sprightly attacker taking over as the outfit’s skipper in the mean time.

Agbonlahor has hailed Petrov, but admits that the news is a massive blow for the Villa Park club.

“The news about Stan (Petrov) was a massive shock,” Agbonlahor told Absolute Radio.

“For someone who’s as healthy as Stan, it was very shocking. But he showed bravery to come to the Chelsea game at the weekend.

“He knew he would have been asked a lot of questions and came and showed what a big effect he is to the players and also what a big captain and we’re all ready for him to battle through this.

“It’s hit the players hard. I think they showed great fight on Saturday for Stiliyan and were unfortunate not to get the right result. I think everyone’s close to Stan anyway and everyone’s been in contact with him, and he’s going to keep in contact with everyone on his progress.

“He’s done fantastic for this club, he’s been a great example, and everyone is hoping that he can get through this and then come back and captain us all again,” he concluded.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

By Gareth McKnight

[ad_pod id=’unruly-2′ align=’left’]

There has been some potentially positive news coming out of the club in the past week or so with SISU’s Joy Seppala finally deciding to communicate with the fans.

We as supporters have been calling for communication and the relationship between SISU and the fans and it would potentially be a lot better if they had done this from the very start.

Certain aspects of the interview she gave offered interesting and potentially positive steps that the club are looking to take. The main thing that stood out for me was the suggestion that they would be looking at ways that they could transfer an ownership stake in the club to supporters.

A fans stake in the club is an essential aspect to have at any football club and it helps to make fans feel more involved with the club. It also ensures that people who have the interests of the club at heart are able to have some say in what goes on at the club. Fans are the lifeblood of every club and without them the club would not exist so it seems right that fans should have at least some stake in the club, not just for financial problems, but for our voices to be heard.

There are issues to consider in relation to the transfer of this stake in the club. Obviously there is the fact that relations between fans and SISU are now at an all time low. The circumstances of SISU’s initial takeover of the club is also a factor in that in order for the takeover to happen, fans had to give up their shares in the club for nothing. I’m sure because of this the fans would want SISU to return the favour and give them back for nothing but with the financial situation of the club I cannot see this happening. I hope I am wrong because giving back the fans stake in the club will go some way to repairing a relationship which at times has looked irreparable.

Another issue that has been of concern is that of the Ricoh Arena. SISU have now missed two months worth of payments on the rent which has been seen by some as a protest to the unquestionably high rent of £1.2million and by others as SISU just not having the funds to pay it. The rent is not sustainable for a League One club though and I think every one involved knows that.

Negotiations have and are supposedly continuing between SISU, ACL and the council over multiple issues surrounding the Ricoh Arena. The club itself does need to be able to make some form of income off of the stadium or at the bare minimum break even which we as a club haven’t done since we moved to the Ricoh.

It has to be said that this actually isn’t SISU’s fault, in that the rent on the Ricoh was agreed before they came to the club. However they did promise to buy into the Ricoh when they took over so in that sense they are partly to blame.

Politics has become an issue in the debate. The council have previously stated that they would be unwilling to do any sort of business with SISU over the Ricoh. It has been suggested that they are jumping on the band wagon and publicly criticising SISU in an attempt to win votes in the upcoming elections. There is every possibility that this is true but one thing we can all agree on is that some sort of agreement has to be reached for the sake of the football club.

These negotiations need to come to a conclusion sooner rather than later so the club can begin to look forward to next season. With the transfer embargo still in place the plans for next season in terms of the playing squad remain on hold. The accounts need to be filed to the Football League for this to be removed and this will not be done until the issues surrounding the Ricoh are sorted.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

Whilst I am remaining sceptical over SISU’s running of the club it looks like they are going to be the owners for the foreseeable future. With no takeover bids in the offing following relegation to League One we as a club need to try to pull together. The council needs to consider how detrimental it would be for the city as a whole if it no longer had a football club.

Whilst there is clearly a lot of unresolved issues surrounding the club there has to be a starting point in which the club can move forward from. The reduction in the rent of the Ricoh is this potential starting point and could put the club back on a more solid basis so we can finally start considering a future for our club.

PUSB!!

[ad_pod id=’writer-1′ align=’right’]

Carlos Tevez has claimed that he is very happy in England and has no plans to switch clubs this summer.

The temperamental forward had a rollercoaster 2011-12 season, going AWOL for a large period and then returning to help the Etihad Stadium team win the Premier League.

Tevez has been repeatedly linked with a move away from the English champions, but he has stated that he is happy where he is for the time being.

“My biggest wish is to finish my career in the Boca Juniors shirt,” he told Sky Sports.

“I am still thinking the same as when I left, I want to retire here. I am here for whatever Boca need.

“But the truth is that I finished the season very happy in England.

“I am feeling good, I have no desire to be thinking that I want to leave, my family are happy,” he confessed.

Tevez’s absence from club duty has seen him lose a place in the Argentina national set-up, but this is not a huge concern for the forward currently.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

“I did not miss the Seleccion. I was happier watching from outside.

“I liked the team but for now I do not want to be there. When I am called I will be there, of course,” he confirmed.

By Gareth McKnight

Bologna playmaker Gaston Ramirez is on the radar of Liverpool, but the Reds may have fallen behind in the race for his signature to Italian giants Juventus reports Talk Sport.

The 21 year old Uruguayan lit up Serie A last season, with a fantastic campaign for Bologna, guiding them to a 9th place finish.

Ramirez also finds himself linked to Premier League champions Manchester City, as well as moves elsewhere in Italy in the form of AC Milan and Napoli.

Liverpool are set to be looking for a playmaker as their move for Brendan Rodger’s Hoffenheim favourite Gylfi Sigurdsson has been hijacked by Spurs.

Bologna have slapped a £16 million price tag on their Uruguayan number 10, and are all but resigned to losing him to a bigger club.

Despite the probable move to a bigger club, Ramirez had stated he wouldn’t mind staying another year with the 9th place finishers; ‘The people love me, I love the club, so I’m very happy being in Bologna.’ – however Bologna are willing to sell Ramirez in order to earn some big money.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

Should Liverpool overtake Juventus in the race for Ramirez, it would be Rodgers’ first signing since taking over at Anfield.

Every time a paper is opened these days it seems that there is always a well-known footballer in the headlines due to some type of unsavoury off the field action. It might be a Twitter indiscretion, a driving violation or a temporary case of amnesia where their wedding vows are concerned. Whatever the case, it seems that now more than ever footballers feel that their job and status that comes with it seems to give them the right to do pretty much anything they want.

Now don’t get me wrong, there are obviously some players who lead quiet lives and keep their heads down, and no one is a better example of this than Paul Scholes, who is what can only be described as the consummate professional, and tackling aside, is a total credit to both himself and the club on and off the field.

Sadly however it seems that Scholes is becoming more the exception than the rule, with numerous footballers now hitting the headlines on a weekly basis for things that had they been in a ‘normal’ profession I very much doubt they would do. Parking in disabled spaces or going so far beyond the speeding limit you may as well enter qualifying for Silverstone is something that is all too common for footballers, and something that is quite frankly a disgrace.

As with any article commenting on the off the field antics of professional footballers, you cannot get away without mentioning the women. It may be fame hungry WAG wannabes who will stop at nothing to seduce a footballer or get a flimsy piece of information that constitutes a middle page spread in The Sun, or an injunction that made millions of Harry Potter fans wonder why ‘he who must not be named’ was appearing in their papers next to Imogen Thomas every day.

[ad_pod id=’dfp-mpu’ align=’right’]

All that pales in comparison to the growing number of sexual assaults footballers are linked to, and again, is a very unsavoury side to the game and the heroes we cheer for every single week.

Perhaps the problem is that we forget that footballers too are human, and flawed characters, yet have an excess of pretty much everything which tempts them further into problems than so called ‘normal’ people. It is also an extremely valid defence of a player who appears in tabloids time and time again to say that the papers are somewhat obsessed with printing a story about them, something which is all too true in the case of Mario Balotelli – yes he may bring a certain amount onto himself, but the amount of non-stories the papers print is tantamount to stalking!

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

One arrival that will have given all managers a massive headache is the phenomenon that is Twitter – players who have, shall we say a less than stellar IQ, or ones who are in the heat of the moment tend to tweet less than advisable things, and ones which are guaranteed to keep the tabloid press wheels turning for days.

Again it is something that a ‘normal’ person does not have to contend with – we have a few hundred followers, not a few hundred thousand, yet footballers have to understand that their margin for error is that much smaller because of who they are and what they do – not that much greater, and the sooner they do that, the better for both themselves and the reputation of the game.

Andre Villas-Boas has confirmed that Gareth Bale’s injury after Charlie Adam’s tackle in pre-season is not serious.

The Liverpool midfielder caused the Tottenham man to leave the pitch in a pre-season friendly in the United States with a heavy-handed tackle, causing outrage from the Welsh winger who labelled him a coward.

However, Spurs fans will breathe a sigh of relief that their star player has not been sidelined for long.

“Needless to say, we are extremely relieved Gareth has not been seriously injured,” Villas-Boas told reporters, printed in The Daily Mail.

“There is previous history between the two players on the challenge that was done I think three years ago.

“Adam being called a coward? It’s Gareth speaking and he felt strongly after the match bearing in mind the player didn’t go to him to apologise for what was considered a difficult and nasty challenge.

“The words came out of his mouth and I’m sure he said it in full consciousness. Will we take it any further? We are discussing it within the club but in my opinion, the matter is dealt.

“But it would be extremely human for Charlie to come out with an apology. But you can’t force people to say anything and we will have to wait and see,” he concluded.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

By Gareth McKnight

[ad_pod id=’dfp-mpu’ align=’right’]

Manchester United are ready to drop Nani after his poor performance against Everton on Monday, The Sun state.

The Portugal international failed to impress in the Red Devils’ opening day loss to the Goodison Park club and as such will be replaced in the starting line-up by Ashley Young for the game against Fulham this weekend.

The Portugal international’s future is in doubt after contract negotiations broke down, and a United insider is said to believe that Nani could be looking for a new club in the near future.

“The club did not think his form at the end of last season put him in a very strong bargaining position over a new deal. Monday was hardly his best either,” the United representative stated.

Sir Alex Ferguson has a plethora of wingers to choose from currently, with  Antonio Valencia and Young all available.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

By Gareth McKnight

[ad_pod id=’dfp-mpu’ align=’right’]

French international Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa looks set for a January transfer across the British Channel after rumours of interest from Arsenal and Newcastle for the defender were reported.

The Montpellier captain, who can also play in a defensive midfield role, was the subject of a £4.8million bid from AC Milan over the summer but has remained with the French champions as they look to retain the Ligue 1 title that they surprisingly won last season.

The 23-year old refused to sign a new contract over the summer and will be free to leave the club at the end of the season, and it is likely that his club will look to cash in during the next transfer window and not risk losing one of their main assets for nothing in the summer.

Alan Pardew and Arsene Wenger have both registered their interest in Yanga-Mbiwa and it maybe he himself that has to make a decision on where his future lies.

But who should he sign for?

Newcastle are certainly a team on the up due to the attacking flair and exciting football that former West Ham boss Pardew has brought to St James’ Park, but defence is an area where they could certainly improve.

Captain Fabricio Coloccini has been one of their standout performers since they returned to the Premier League in 2010, but he has yet to find a regular partner at the centre of defence. Stephen Taylor and Mike Williamson have both performed admirably but the man who was born in the Central African Republic would be confident of winning a place in the starting line-up ahead of them.

Arsenal, on the other hand, are not short of central defenders but may see the young Frenchman as someone who could cover in both defence and in midfield, especially after the sale of Alexander Song to Barcelona last month.

The Emirates Stadium outfit should still be in the Champions League by January after being given a favourable group draw (including playing Montpellier) and that could be the thing that turns his head towards the capital, although he may find regular football more forthcoming in the North East.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

Alan Pardew has sang the praises of goalkeeper Rob Elliot following Newcastle’s goalless draw with Maritimo.

The 26 year old made a plethora of impressive saves to keep the Portuguese outfit at bay, in Newcastle’s opening group stage Europa League fixture.

Pardew spoke to The Journal, “We know Rob is an outstanding keeper. There’s no doubts about that from us.

“I knew we could put him in. Rob’s waited a while for his chance. He’s a shot stopper and a great keeper. What he did at the start he does in training every day. I was really pleased with him.

The former Charlton man was particularly busy early on as the Toon Army struggled to settle, with one particularly impressive reflex save in the opening minutes from a corner. Tyneside boss, Pardew, had previously worked with Elliot at Charlton and chose to sell Fraser Forster in favour of keeping the Addicks former number one.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.