Category Uncategorized

This season could see Manchester City take home three trophies this season, as a blue cloud looms over Old Trafford and United’s famous treble of the 1998/99 season.

Manuel Pellegrini has sat in a number of high-profile dugouts over his managerial career but has had little success in major tournaments. The Chilean has previously managed Spanish clubs Villarreal, Real Madrid and Malaga, having to face a Barcelona side that were at the peak of their powers. Having missed out on major titles in his La Liga years, Manuel Pellegrini managed to enjoy a 75 per cent win ratio with Real Madrid in 2009 and so far this season, the Chilean has a similar record at ManCity. If he can build on this in the New Year, then he will certainly be looking to win a number of trophies this season.

The Citizens have never looked a threat in Europe, despite their dominance in the league. Each year, fans have been frustrated by the lack of success in the Champions League. Despite a league title and numerous cup victories, the hierarchy at the Etihad club seem to crave this European glory. Finally, this season could see them get their hands on a trophy in Europe, as well as building on this with both the league title and the Capital One Cup.

Having beaten LeicesterCity 3-1 in Round 5 of the Capital One Cup, Pellegrini’s side have been made the bookies’ favourites to win the competition, as they prepare to face West Ham. City have already convincingly beaten West Ham in the league this year and the Chilean boss will be looking to emulate this, come the New Year when these two sides meet in the Semi-Final.

The likely opponents for ManCity in the Final are their fierce Manchester rivals, as they face struggling Sunderland. City have won three of the six League Cup encounters against United, however they lost in the Semi-Finals back in 2010. This won’t worry Manuel Pellegrini too much however, having already put four past David Moyes’ side at the Etihad in the league.

Pellegrini has a lot of firepower to pick from in his midfield and up front, it’s just a question of whether or not he can sort out the inconsistent defence that has been the only blot on what has been an excellent start to the season for City. Sorting out the back four is the priority, but if they manage to do that, City will have a very strong side competing in both the Capital One Cup and the Champions League this season. A few signings in January to bolster their starting XI and give the Chilean boss some cover for the likes of full-backs Pablo Zabaleta and Micah Richards – both of whom are injured at the moment – could see them winning a lot of silverware.

Any other year and their Champions League opponents Barcelona would be the neutral’s favourites to progress, but even the fans at the Nou Camp are nervous about the outcome of this fixture. City’s attempts to do the treble will no doubt be tough, but performances both in the league and in the Capital One Cup this season have been very convincing and you’d have to be a brave person to bet against them.

Sponsored by Capital One. The Credit Card that Supports the Supporters.

For exclusive content, competitions and more visit: Facebook.com/CapitalOneUK

For Capital One Credit Cards visit: www.capitalone.co.uk

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.

Get all your Capital OneCup news here »

Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini has once again had to answer questions surrounding his relationship with temperamental striker Mario Balotelli after the forward was not included in City’s Champions League squad to face Real Madrid on Tuesday night.

Some major news sources were claiming that Mancini dropped Balotelli after he was seen on a night out with British boxer Amir Khan in Manchester on Saturday, but was forced to travel with the squad to the Spanish capital despite knowing he would not be playing.

However, Mancini wanted to make his feelings clear in his weekly press conference that his relationship with the Italian forward was completely fine.

“I want to make this clear; there has been no argument, and no row. Absolutely not,” he told the Daily Mail.

“Mario went in the stand only because we started to play with Carlos Tevez in attack and we couldn’t have three strikers on the bench.”

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.

[ad_pod id=’writer-1′ align=’right’]

West Ham United are among three Premier League clubs chasing the signature of Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish this summer, according to the Daily Mail. 

What’s the story, then?

The Mail report that the Hammers, along with Leicester City and Everton, are in the race for the 22-year-old Grealish as Villa look to make up a £45m shortfall in their finances.

It goes on to say that the Hammers would have to pay more than the £25m they gave Stoke to land current recod signing Marko Arnautovic last summer to secure Grealish’s services as Villa value him significantly more highly than that.

The report also claims that Steve Bruce wants the playmaker to stay but Tony Xia has outlined the perilous state of Villa’s finances.

Grealish has moved onto another level

Perhaps inspired by the professionalism of John Terry, Grealish recovered from an early season injury to play the best football of his career in the second half of last season.

He has also become a deep-lying playmaker, driving forward from midfield and showing the kind of adventure that Manuel Pellegrini has surely been brought to East London to inspire.

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.

7th place in the Premier League is absolutely up for grabs next season with Burnley burdened with the Europa League and Grealish firing the bullets for Arnautovic, Manuel Lanzini and Javier Hernandez is a tantalising prospect.

[ad_pod ]

January can be a busy month for football clubs, particularly those in the Championship as they try to get their squads in shape for the remainder of the season.Leeds United, who are vying for a playoff spot, recruited a new talent in the form of Japan international Yosuke Ideguchi.The 21-year-old passed his medical on Tuesday before penning a four-and-a-half-year contract at Elland Road.Ideguchi has joined from J1 League club Gamba Osaka, but fans will not get the chance to see the midfielder in action any time soon as he has been loaned out to Spanish Segunda Division side Cultural Leonesa.Even though the supporters will have to wait to see what the youngster has on offer, Ideguchi has claimed that he will be a fighter on the pitch.

The move is extra special for Ideguchi as he has made history at the club by becoming the first ever Japanese player signed by Leeds.

The ambition shown at Tottenham is admirable, a club that dreams of one day feasting again at the top table of European football and whose owners seem to have the desire to make this reality. Football these days is as much about what you do on the pitch as you do off it, the teams with greatest financial muscle generally do the best.

In Joe Lewis and ENIC, Spurs have one of the wealthiest football sugar daddies around, who if he wanted could happily match the spending powers of many of the clubs Premier League rivals.

Yet it isn’t that simple, the advent of FFP and Lewis and Levy’s business geared approach means that turning a loss isn’t a possibility. If Spurs want to compete then they need to bring in the kind of revenue that their North London rivals Arsenal do, and the secret to this is the upgrade of a rickety and under-sized White Hart Lane.

Now this isn’t a plan conceived on the back of cigarette packet, Spurs fans know all too well about the trials and tribulations of the NDP since its conception in 2008, indeed thoughts to a new stadium have been on-going for decades now.

However, financial wrangling and red tape have held up the project that in all honesty will be key to Spurs’ long-term future. A standoff over the issue of £16m funding of infrastructure and 50% commitment to affordable housing left Levy keen to explore other options, indeed his overtures to the Olympic Stadium bidding process forced the council’s hand and concessions have since been made to ease the building process.

The Guardian has argued that in doing so the council have effectively neglected their main concerns for the local community of Tottenham. Here is their take on Spurs’ plans for the surrounding area of the ground:

“A council housing tower block and rows of shops with people living above are to be knocked down to create a wide walkway for Spurs fans from a relocated White Hart Lane station straight to the new 56,000-seat stadium, with its shops, bars and food outlets; the council says on non-matchdays the walkway will be a “mini-town centre” public space.”

“Business owners whose shops, workplaces and, for those who live above the shops, their homes have been targeted for demolition under the council’s “masterplan,” have accused Haringey of going too far to please Spurs, in the effort to keep the club in Tottenham and build regeneration around the new stadium.”

Comparable to the issues surrounding the recent construction of the Olympic stadium in Stratford, the council face a huge headache. There are businesses up and down the High Road that have existed for decades, family run ventures that have been the beating heart of the community. That said the regeneration of one of the most deprived wards in London depends solely my opinion on the continued investment of Spurs in the wider community.

On paper Tottenham is an area with potential to prosper and grow, a stones through away from central London with ever improving rail and bus links it represents a potential commuter hot spot. Such a development will be set back decades and decades if Spurs don’t get their plans through, it is for me a question of harming a few to help the majority.

An area tormented by the riots of 2011, you only have to go to Haringey to realise what an under-invested part of London it is. The Guardian may argue that this plaza is totally unnecessary and that Spurs should just build the stadium as a stand-alone structure.

The reality for Spurs is that without the potential to sell-off new-build housing and lease restaurants and café’s the financing for the stadium just isn’t feasible. A £400m investment isn’t as simple as signing over a cheque, why else has it taken the club so long to put their plans into action.

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.

It has become something of a tug of war between the club and council, but both sides know that they need to make concessions to the other to make it work. The very thought of Tottenham playing away from their roots in North London is sickening, and in the same way Haringey without the club there is a much worse off place as well.

With any mass development there will always be winners and losers. Those that lose out here will be granted the necessary compensation and hopefully the opportunity to thrive in the newly developed North London.

With the club now confident about funding it is believed that following consultation with Populous work on the new stadium can begin by the end of next year.

Liverpool offered Fulham the chance to sign Jordan Henderson, Stewart Downing and Jose Enrique as part of an attempted deal to bring Clint Dempsey to Anfield, The Daily Mail claim.

The United States international was a summer-long target for Brendan Rodgers, but in the end the attacker moved to Tottenham after the Reds failed to meet the Craven Cottage club’s asking price.

It is believed that the Merseysiders’ owners Fenway Sports Group would not offer the Northern Irish manager any additional transfer funds, and as such the coach tried to broker a deal using the exchange of players.

A deal to trade Henderson was initially discussed before the England international midfielder rejected the chance to move to Fulham, but it has emerged that Downing and Enrique were also used as pawns in Rodgers’ attempts to sign Dempsey.

The failure to land the American has left the Reds short in attack, with only Fabio Borini and Luis Suarez left for Rodgers to pick from after the loan of Andy Carroll to West Ham.

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.

[ad_pod id=’dfp-mpu’ align=’right’]

West Ham United fans did not exactly need a reminder of Manuel Lanzini’s talent, but they got one last weekend in the clash with Everton at the London Stadium.

Indeed, Lanzini scored twice in West Ham’s 3-1 win over the Toffees on the final weekend of the 2017-18 Premier League campaign.

Lanzini, who is valued at £16.2m by transfermarkt.co.uk, ended the season with five goals and seven assists in 27 league appearances, which is a respectable total for a club that struggled for long spells.

The 25-year-old has also been included in the preliminary Argentina squad for the 2018 World Cup, and has a big chance of travelling to this summer’s competition.

[ad_pod ]

Lanzini is contracted to West Ham until the summer of 2020, but the Hammers are believed to be desperate for the attacker to pen a new deal as soon as possible.

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.

The West Ham fans are becoming slightly concerned as links to Liverpool surface once again, and the supporters want Lanzini’s future to be addressed as soon as possible.

A selection of the Twitter reaction can be seen below:

While a huge point against Tottenham at Wembley on Thursday night has created some much-welcomed breathing space between West Ham and the relegation zone, David Moyes will hope the east London club can bring in some reinforcements this month to push the Hammers well clear of the scrap to avoid the drop.

And one player who appears to be in the Scot’s thoughts is Stoke City midfielder Joe Allen, with The Daily Mail recently claiming the Irons are prepared to pay £15million for the 40-cap Welshman’s services. Accordingly, we asked Hammers supporters whether they’d back a deal for the 27-year-old earlier this week and the response was a resounding yes, with 88% voting in Allen’s favour.

How plausible a deal for the 5 foot 6 midfielder actually is, however, remains to be seen. The Potters will be loathed to lose such an important player, especially one who has already bagged four assists this season, while they’re in the relegation zone.

How much would you pay to land Allen, West Ham fans? Let us know by commenting below…

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.

The whole of England went Rickie Lambert crazy last week after the 31-year-old netted the winner for the Three Lions against Scotland with his first touch on the international stage.

And indeed, the Southampton forward’s rise to prominence is an inspiring and captivating tale. Released by Liverpool aged 15 and subsequently Blackpool two years later, Lambert earned his place in the Premier League and the England squad the hard way – working his way up from the depths of lower league football with spells at Macclesfield, Stockport County, Rochdale and Bristol Rovers, before the Saints acquired his services in 2009 for £1million.

As the south coast outfit achieved back-to-back promotions to the English top flight, Lambert’s efforts in front of goal gained notoriety, netting 78 times in 132 appearances for his League 1 and Championship campaigns combined at St. Mary’s.

But the enigmatic Lambert’s ascension into the England squad is a rarity to say the least for a former fourth tier player, and more than anything, the 31-year-old’s defiance of the footballing norm in England highlights the Premier League’s snobbery regarding lower league players.

[cat_link cat=”premiership” type=”tower”]

The negative cultural stigmatism attached to those donning their trade at any level lower than the top flight couldn’t be summed up better than by Three Lions manager Roy Hodgson himself, who remarked after including Lambert in his squad for the Scotland friendly: “I’d just gone to Fulham and we played [Bristol Rovers] in the FA Cup – and lost on penalties. Lambert played, and did very well.

“Like I am certain many other managers, we looked at it and thought, ‘Division One? Is he going to be able to step up?’ and we didn’t take the chance – but other clubs did.”

The former Cottagers boss decided Lambert wasn’t good enough for the top flight, and rather than taking a punt on a budding Englishman who’d been taking the lower leagues by storm, Hodgson signed former Norway international Erik Nevland, who found the net just nine times in three seasons in West London. But now Lambert has wormed his way into the Premier League, with 15 goals in his inaugural top tier campaign, he’s more than good enough for an England squad that’s disturbingly lacking in prolific centre-forwards.

Fair enough, every manager lets transfer opportunities slip through the net, but this summer alone, we’ve seen Premier League clubs reject Championship and lower league players in favour of signings from the continent on an almost systematic scale. So far in the current transfer window, only 15 of the 61 Premier League signings to date have been promoted from the lower tiers, and with six of that 15 having already played in the top fight, three of which did so last season, the actual number of players from the Championship or beyond is ten, and three of those – West Ham’s Danny Whitehead, Cardiff’s Simon Moore and Stoke’s Alex Grant – are unlikely to feature next season, being still considered as youth prospects.

So that’s just six from 61 players in total without top flight experience who will be playing Premier League football this season that played Championship football last term without acquiring promotion, while the top flight welcomes 46 new foreign arrivals.

It begs the question of what do we actually use the lower tiers for? The Championship is often praised for its high quality and depth of competition from top to bottom, with just 13 points between relegation and play-off places last season, but a Premier League outfit actually investing in a second flight player has become a rarer occurrence.

And it’s very much a glass ceiling, considering that in comparison to the Premier League, 33 players have jumped ship to the Championship from clubs plying their trade in League 1 or lower already this summer, equating to around 30 % of all transfers. But unlike the Premier League, a significant amount of second tier acquisitions have been  sourced from other Championship clubs, whilst only ten Premiership players have secured new tenures at other top flight outfits thus far in the current transfer window.

It seems the prevailing opinion is that a striker who can net 25 times in the Championship will be disturbingly lacking in front of goal in the top flight, or a goalie that can keep a wealth of clean sheets in the second tier will suddenly become a flap-happy calamity ‘keeper in the Premier League. Despite often claiming the Championship is one of the most competitive second tiers in world football, the gulf between itself and the Premier League is still judged as too vast.

Gary Hooper had to move to the SPL with Celtic to get a top flight club to acquire his services, despite scoring 43 goals in 80 appearances for Scunthorpe and being the Championship’s third top scorer during the 2009/2010 campaign, at just 22 years of age. But the £5million Norwich signing is yet another Premier League starlet to have to work his way up from the bottom, having started his playing career with Grays Athletic.

There are signs that things are changing for the better however. Along with Lambert and Hooper, who both began in lower league football, Crystal Palace signed budding youngster Dwight Gayle this summer for £4.5 million from Peterborough after plying his trade with Essex Senior League outfit Stanstead FC two years ago, and had it not been for a failed medical examination, fellow former non-leaguer Charlie Austin would’ve joined Hull. Similarly, ex-Eagles prodigy Wilfried Zaha officially joined Manchester United for an initial £10million fee in January.

But there still remains a negative stigmatism in the Premier League towards players from the lower tiers, especially if they’ve already surpassed the 24 year old benchmark. Top flight managers view foreign imports as less risky, despite the obvious flawed logic; can a Spaniard, an Argentine or an Italian from abroad possess a greater knowledge or better understanding of the English game than a tried and tested Championship performer? It’s almost as if excelling in the second flight pigeon-holes players for their foreseeable future, rather than implying that they’re ready for the next level.

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.

Pundits, managers and players alike often bemoan the poor state of the England national team. But with the Premier League cutting off opportunities for Englishmen in the lower tiers to play football at the highest level, is it that surprising that our top flight is now filled with foreign imports to the extent that only 34% of starting line-ups from the Premiership’s opening weekend were home-grown talents?

We’re suffocating the English game by our reliance on players from abroad, and a significant factor in that process has been the Premier League’s cultural lower league snobbery. Unfortunately for Rickie Lambert, he doesn’t represent the end of the trend, but rather shines brightly as a rare anomaly.

Is there a snobbery regarding the lower leagues in England?

Join the debate below!

[poll ]

Former Manchester United defender and Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville argued an extremely salient point worth noting in the midst of all the madness of transfer deadline day, stating that the clubs that do the majority of their business in the final few hours of the window are more often than not poorly run. But does this theory carry any weight?

Neville tweeted at the height of the final day’s worth of trolley-dashing fun: “What the transfer deadline gives you is a clear indication of which are the badly run football clubs!!!”

It would appear to tie in rather neatly with the universally accepted opinion that if a club gets the majority of their transfer business done early enough in the summer, that they go into pre-season with the aim of integrating the new faces and start the full season with a more settled side. Nevertheless, there are obviously bargains to be had as the final hours of the clock tick down and before the window slams shut.

Of course, current reigning Premier league champions Manchester City made a big splash on the final day, bringing in the likes of Javi Garcia, Scott Sinclair, Maicon, Matija Nastasic and Richard Wright and it has to be said, there was a degree of desperation to the way that they went about their business.

The frustration felt by manager Roberto Mancini all summer was palpable and he had a very public falling out with the club’s football administrator Brian Marwood over their inactivity throughout the window, as they missed out on both Eden Hazard and Robin van Persie to rivals Chelsea and Manchester United.

The school of thought that unless you are constantly looking at improving your squad, you are in danger of not only standing still but going backwards is a sound one, and it appears that even though the club were mindful of the Financial Fair Play rules and the effect a potentially budget-busting signing could have on their financial future, it appears as if their movement was simply to indulge and placate Mancini.

Nobody in their right mind would state that Liverpool did well on the final day either, but for completely different reasons to City’s Arsenal-esque attempts to get bodies into the club. The lack of a CEO at the club appears to have cost them and managing director Ian Ayre has come in for some criticism for failing to secure a deal for either Clint Dempsey or Daniel Sturridge after allowing Andy Carroll to leave on loan to West Ham.

It’s been widely reported that Liverpool offered just £3m for Dempsey, who was in the final year of his contract at Craven Cottage, with the club’s owners FSG unconvinced that paying the £5m plus asking price was sound business considering the 29 year-old forward’s age. Their offer was rejected and Tottenham swooped in during the final hour to clinch his signature, leaving Liverpool woefully short on numbers up front now until January. It was a lesson in how not to conduct your business on deadline day and just drives home the point how risky it all is if it doesn’t end up falling your way.

Tottenham could never be accused of being a poorly run club, and chairman Daniel Levy is as tough a negotiator and astute businessman as there is currently operating in the top flight. He’s often criticised for running his club like a business, but when you take away the sentiment that often blinds your everyday fan, what other way is there to run it?

The club’s slow start to the campaign has once again been attributed to their lack of movement in the market this summer, as they haggled with Real Madrid over the transfer of Luka Modric. In the end, they managed to secure a package worth upwards of £30m, plus a potentially lucrative long-term commercial partnership that could be set to benefit the club in the years to come.

They signed Hugo Lloris and Clint Dempsey on the final day, only just missing out on Joao Moutinho by the narrowest of margins. Considering that prior to this summer, the club required a replacement for Luka Modric, a couple of strikers and a long-term replacement for Brad Friedel in goal, they haven’t done too badly, but they operate solely on the principle that they spend what they’ve got and they weren’t about to part with any cash until the Modric deal was tied up. In that sense, they can be seen as sensible, but they have still paid the cost of doing their business late, in the short-term at least.

It all depends on what sort of budget the club in question is operating with, to be honest – Stoke, for example, clinched deals for both Charlie Adam and Steven N’Zonzi for a combined total of around £7.5m – they clearly got both cheaper than they may have done earlier in the window due to the respective selling clubs willingness to shift them on. They already have a reasonably settled side, so the impact that the new players coming in can have will only enhance the team, whereas at a bigger side in transition, it may disrupt the harmony and balance of the starting eleven.

There is certainly a degree of validity to Neville’s statement, as best highlighted by the fact that Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea all remained inactive on deadline day, despite all having noticeable gaps in their squads that needed plugging. A big club can be held to ransom on deadline day while a smaller one can profit and secure the odd bargain – it simply all depends which side of the coin that you approach it from.

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.

Naming and shaming a club as poorly run is a rather simplistic way of looking at things; QPR for instance look to be without a coherent plan as they invested in practically a whole new spine to their side, while Tottenham were shackled by negotiating a large deal out of the club.

There are many reasons for conducting the majority of your business on deadline day, and it’s a hugely risky strategy to say the least, but to call every club poorly run that does dip their toe into the murky waters of the market in the final few hours would seem to be a somewhat dramatic generalisation, not taking into account the various factors which clubs are run by.

You can follow me on Twitter @JamesMcManus1

[ad_pod id=’dfp-mpu’ align=’right’]