Manchester United, Liverpools Joe Cole & Manchester City bound James Milner called out for being gold-diggers
Comment & analysis round-up
Quote of the day: Football fans dont care. The players dont care. Saddam Hussein could own your football club and, if hes putting millions into it, theyll be quite happy. Theyll be singing: Theres only one Saddam. Ive seen it all before. They dont care if youre putting the money in. Manchester City are bringing in top, top players. I said last year they could win the championship and they could win it this year. Eventually theyre going to win it. It makes my job more challenging. Were on another planet. They go and pay 200,000 a week, or three times as much for their top players as we could. But good luck to them. We finished above them last year and weve got to try to do it again this season. We play them in the first game of the season and Im looking forward to it. - Harry Redknapp.
Runner-up: Every footballer wants to play in the Champions League and Tottenham deserve to be there because of how well we did last season. If we lost those two games it would be hard for everyone in the club and the fans and it could ruin our season because everyone expects us to be in the Champions League. We just need to focus on those two games. - Vedran Corluka.
Pimping quote of the day: Fulham are a very attractive club, and not just for Sven, but there has been no contact. Weve known for some weeks Svens one of the managers under consideration. He was outrageously sacked from his position at Manchester City, where he did a first-class job. He should still be there. Of course he has unfinished business in the Premier League Sven is in demand every time a top job comes up, but they dont come up every day. I am just waiting, as I have done for the last three weeks. - Athole Still.
Tapping up Ashley Cole: At Madrid, Coles football will make all the headlines, not! his pr ivate life. I think that will be a big incentive for him. I have spoken with a couple of senior players who the club confide in and they are very confident that we will sign him in the next few weeks. - Gonzola Higuain.
Todays overview: The underlying theme this Saturday revolves around the gravy train that is modern football.
Money, Money, Money: Glenn Moore kicks things off by dissecting Manchester Uniteds pre-season preparations. In 1994 their pre-season routine consisted of two matches in Ireland, one at Wolves, and another in Glasgow, before again concluding at Wembley. Alex Ferguson wrote of that schedule in his diary of the season: It has involved more travelling than we wanted to do. Sixteen years on the Manchester United manager is all smiles as he goes from airport to hotel to press conference to sponsors reception, fitting in matches and training sessions when he can amid the glad-handing. What has changed his view? Nothing has, but he recognises the realities of life at a globally supported football conglomerate such as Manchester United.
The Guardians Andy Hunter interviews the newest member of the Eastlands project and asks So Yaya Toure, what is it about Man Citys billionaires that attracts? Toure: Manchester City want to write a new chapter in their history. When you see the signings they have made [Emmanuel] Adebayor, [Carlos] Tevez they are some players. And they want to sign more big names. For me, it is most important that they are working hard to sign the biggest players. We need to make this club great and I am sure we will. In football, you dont know what is going to happen tomorrow. I saw a lot of things about why I left in the press but for me, I wanted to play with my brother one time. Now I have signed for Manchester City and I am very happy. Now my brother and I want to make great ! things h appen at this club.
From one perceived money-grabber to a couple more, James Lawton vents at Joe Cole and James Milner. Cole and Milner and their agents should do everyone a service. They should not quite so crassly insult all those who still retain a flicker of interest in the prospects of the new season and a league which has fallen back so drastically in its ranking as the powerhouse of the European club game and whose short-sighted policies are now so widely, and so incontrovertibly, linked with the embarrassing failure of English football to even brush the surface of competition at the World Cup. Pile their snouts into the trough, if they like, but do not seek to preserve the facade of shirt-kissing commitment to anything much else but the numbers on next months pay-slip.
Vidic, not fans, stay United: After endless months of tireless hacks gossiping that Manchester United defender Nemanja Vidic was planning to exit Old Trafford, on Friday the Serb penned a new deal with the Red Devils.
Andy Hunter detailed how the as yet unsigned deal is expected to keep the 28-year-old at Old Trafford until 2014 and will be worth around 90,000 a week Uniteds chief executive, David Gill, who claimed the media was responsible for the uncertainty and that the stories didnt come out of Nemanjas camp, is confident the deal will be signed before the start of the new Premier League season.
Switching tracks, contrary to reports earlier in the week that Manchester Uniteds season ticket sales were selling like hotcakes, Chris Wheeler announces that the Glazers were urged to surrender control of Manchester United after it emerged that season tickets were selling badly for the first time in recent history. Despite a price freeze and marketing campaign, 4,000 tickets have been placed on general sale - a previously unthinkable prospect at! Old Tra fford, where fans have waited 10 years for a ticket.
Worry for Woy: Des Lynam lays out his concerns for new Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson. Hodgson is taking on what many see as the poisoned chalice of trying to lift Liverpool back to something approaching former glories. My concerns have not been about Hodgsons ability or ambition, more about what he was letting himself in for. I dont want to see him flounder. Hes too nice, too good a man. I keep thinking what happened to him at Blackburn.
Des Kelly also focuses on Liverpool to criticise their attitude towards the Europa League. The club have around 53 players on the books of their first-team squad. If they cant rustle up a side capable of overcoming Macedonias Rabotnicki from that lot, then Benitez must have made more of a pigs ear of the last 18 months than anyone dared imagine. I sympathise with Hodgsons anxieties and appreciate his realism, but there is no point in treating the Europa League like some ghastly inconvenience. It wasnt so long ago this cup was a part of Gerard Houlliers 2001 trophy treble and not many were turning their noses up at it then.
Banning Vuvuzelas: Reviewing the week that was in England, Simon Burton looks at how vuvuzelas were roundly banned around the country. The clubs did so, to their very great credit, with so much creativity their press releases could have been penned by Pel. Im not a fan of the plastic parpers, without doubt the most irritating yet unaccountably popular outsized hooters to be created since Katie Price last went under the knife, but was very impressed by the number of reasons people could think of for banishing them. So at Spurs they pose unnecessary risks to public safety, Everton have in the past had problems with people throwing objects on to the pitch and Norwich are worried about the possibility they could be used as weapon. Sunderland have a blanket ban on musical instruments thats right, even the flute and West Ham admitted the! y could be considered to be an annoyance to others.
Transfer Gossip: Chief rumour-mongers the Daily Mail retain their crown this Saturday spewing stories of Chelseas latest recruitment drive.
Simon Cass coughs not satisfied with winning the race to sign Benfica midfielder Ramires in a 20million deal, Abramovich has sanctioned a second raid on the Portuguese club for their 27m-rated defender David Luiz. The double swoop signals a return to Chelseas big-spending days that coincided with the Russians arrival at Stamford Bridge. The Star add Chelsea and Manchester City are locked in a two-way battle to sign 25m Benfica defender David Luiz.
David Woods farts Arsenal are ready to launch a 10m bid for Per Mertesacker next week if Everton refuse to budge on Phil Jagielka. On the Gunners outgoings Paul Brown spouts that West Ham are set to do battle with Wigan for free-agent defender Mikael Silvestre.
More sensational rumours surface in the Mirror. Blackburn are said to be chasing Villas Emile Heskey, while Aston Villa could also lose Ashley Young to Tottenham. Spurs are also linked with City duo Craig Bellamy and Shaun Wright-Phillips, while David McDonnell bleated that Robbie Keanes future at Tottenham is in doubt after he walked out on two interviews when the subject was raised.
The Telegraph report Steve Sidwell is understood to have agreed a 2 million switch to Craven Cottage from Aston Villa, while Arsenal are still interested in signing goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer. The broadsheet also detail that Wigan have signed Scotland Under-21 midfielder James McArthur from Hamilton for an undisclosed fee.
According to Graham Chase Manchester City are confident they will see off a late bid from Juventus and sign Lazios Aleksandar Kolarov this weekend as they continue to close on James Milner.
Neil Moxley speculates that Aston Villa want to sell Luke Youn! g, Steph en McGowen links Celtic to a 1.2m move for Maccabi Haifa midfielder Biram Kayal, Andrew Dillion claims Aston Villa and Spurs are circling Hammer Scotty Parker, while both Raul and Guti are linked to Blackburn in The Sun.
Alan Nixon plots Liverpools next transfer moves. Hodgson would still hope to sign a midfielder and another player with whatever fee is agree with Inter and Juventus Christian Poulsen is one option in midfield for 6million. He also needs two left-backs to replace Emiliano Insua and Fabio Aurelio and is said to be interested in Wigans Maynor Figueroa and PSV Eindovens Mexican World Cup defender Carlos Salcido.
Lastly The Star claim Alex McLeish is set to tie himself to Birmingham for the next three years and cash in on the clubs success last season.
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