Pre-season tours have gained more importance in recent years. Travelling to foreign countries allows clubs a great opportunity to expand their brand and helps players get ready for the upcoming season. Here are some of the Premier League’s top Asian tour for this upcoming summer:
Arsenal:
13/14 July: Indonesia national team (Jakarta)
22 July: Nagoya Grampus Eight (Japan)
Arsenal’s 2013 Asia tour will take manager Arsene Wenger to familiar territory. The Gunners will square off against Japanese club Nagoya Grampus, who Wenger managed for 18 months in the mid ’90s. Arsenal will play the Indonesian national team in Jakarta before heading to Japan.
Chelsea:
17 July: Singha Thailand All Stars XI (Bangkok)
21 July: Malaysia XI (Kuala Lumpur)
25 July: Indonesia XI (Jakarta)
Chelsea’s “Here to play, Here to stay” tour will aim to spread the value of football to the Far East. The reigning Barclays Asia Trophy winners hope to spread their Blue Pitch in the City programme while training for their upcoming season. The three-game tour culminates with a match in the 88,000-seater Gelora Bung Karno Stadium.
Liverpool:
28 July: (Bangkok)
Liverpool decided to tour Asia this summer, after signing a three-year deal with Asian airline Garuda Indonesia. The Reds’ players are looking at the summer tour as an opportunity to add to their massive global following.
Jordan Henderson told lfctour.com, “There’s massive support worldwide for such a big team like Liverpool. I probably first noticed it when I first came away in pre-season – the support was unbelievable and we had more fans than the home team.”
Manchester United:
13 July: Singha All Star XI (Bangkok)
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23 July: Yokohama F-Marinos (Yokohama)
26 July: Cerezo Osaka (Osaka)
29 July: Kitchee FC (Hong Kong)
Manchester United, one of the Premier League’s most global teams, has planned an extensive Asian tour. United will play four matches in four different cities. The Reds are perhaps the most popular club in the Far East. Footballers look forward to this opportunity to showcase their talents to new fans.
Defender Phil Jones told mfc.com, “It’s important to give something back to those fans and show our support to them.”
Liverpool target Cristian Tello is set to pen a new deal with Spanish giants Barcelona, which will effectively end the Reds pursuit of the player, ESPN reports.
Tello who’s current deal is due to run out in June 2013, has made 16 appearances for Barcelona’s first team scoring three goals, despite still having a youth team contract.
It was believed that Liverpool could attempt to sign the soon to be out of contract forward for a cut-price fee with Milan also reported to be interested, but it now seems the 21-year-old will extend his stay at the Nou Camp.
A statement on Barcelona’s website confirmed that negotiations with Tello’s agent Josep Maria Orobitg, had been resolved.
“FC Barcelona wishes to communicate that an agreement has been reached with the player Cristian Tello to extend his contract until June 30 2016,” the statement said. “His release clause has been fixed at €10 million.
“The contract will be signed by the player on Monday December 17 at the FC Barcelona offices.”
Liverpool will now likely end their pursuit of the player and look at other alternatives as manager Brendan Rodgers aims to add new faces to his squad.
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After suffering a difficult start to the campaign, the Reds have began to turn the corner and young players such as 18-year-old Raheem Sterling have been heavily relied upon throughout the season.
Rodgers will hope to ease the pressure on some of his inexperienced players by bringing in reinforcements in January, with Daniel Sturridge from Chelsea and Thomas Ince from Blackpool both looking likely to happen.
Everton manager David Moyes has declared that Republic of Ireland midfielder Darron Gibson will be back in the first team in the coming weeks.
The midfielder has been out for three months and made his comeback in an under-21’s match up against Reading, which he managed to play 63 minutes.
Everton are short in midfield with captain Phil Neville out injured and Marouane Fellaini missing due to injury, so Gibson’s return would be a welcome boost to the depleted midfield ranks.
“Preparations have been ok. We’ve got a few injuries but everyone looks fine and we are getting ready for the game,” Moyes told EvertonTV.
“Darron Gibson is starting to make some recovery and he’s going in the right direction. That’s positive and we hope he won’t be too far away.
“Someone will have to come in because unfortunately Fellaini is suspended, but it was always going to happen sometime”.
Despite several injury concerns, Everton are in fifth place in the Premier League and welcome Norwich at the weekend who are unbeaten in their last five games keeping four clean sheets.
Gibson’s international career is still up for debate after withdrawing from the squad in September following a disappointing Euro campaign.
If Gibson is to cement a regular place in the centre of Everton’s midfield and help challenge at the top of the Premier League, then he will draw the attention of Giovanni Trapattoni once again.
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Tottenham Hotspur defender Kyle Walker was forced to shut down his Twitter account after Spurs fans berated him over yesterday’s defeat to Chelsea, as reported by the Daily Mail.
@kyle28walker was bombarded with abusive tweets from his own fans after his mediocre performance in the London derby that saw rivals Chelsea come from 2-1 down to win 4-2 in the second half.
Walker was at fault for the final Chelsea goal in injury time and it seems that despite his full commitment to the club, some sections of online Spurs fans needed to vent their anger.
“Would love to know what I’m doing so different I give 100 per cent every game and still u (have) something to say I’m 22 and learning #embarrassing,” Walker wrote before deleting his account.
“If I said what I thought to these people I would get done humans make mistakes it was 90mins and I though(t it was) a foul end off (sic)!!!!”
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In the history of the Premier League, we have seen some truly terrific players to grace our shores; which has considerably raised fans’ expectations of other players. These fine men on the list represent those who have been put under unnecessary pressure to deliver, with undue criticism occurring as a consequence. These are players with varying abilities, but ones who have either felt like scapegoats or not given enough time to succeed.
Some of these players are undoubtedly talented, but have been portrayed as villains and attracted some unwarranted criticism from some football fans. This has sometimes been caused by making a wrong career move or a few negative headlines appearing off the pitch. Other players on the list have simply been unable to impress at our country’s biggest clubs; and have now forged careers for themselves at smaller teams. As always, the list is purely subjective, likely to cause many of you to scream at your laptops in frustration. But anyway, here is my list of the top 15 players who have attracted unwarranted stick and criticism in their careers during the Premier League era.
Click on Robbie Savage to see the full list
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Danny Butterfield looks set to leave St Mary’s on loan, with a number of Championship clubs reportedly chasing the player. Sky Sports reports.
Butterfield has struggled to force his way into Nigel Adkins’ plans this season, slipping below Nathaniel Clyne in the full-back pecking order.
The former Crystal Palace defender had signed a new contract at St Mary’s in February, but Nigel Adkins may feel it is right to let the player leave on a temporary basis in search of regular first-team football.
The 32-year-old’s only appearance so far this campaign came in the Capital One Cup win over Stevenage and he has struggled to hold down a first-team place since injuries limited his opportunities last season.
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Birmingham City and Sheffield Wednesday are said to be the two frontrunners in securing a potential deal for Butterfield, with the Blues seeking cover for injured duo, Stephen Carr and Paul Caddis, while Dave Jones is are also keen to improve Wednesday’s defensive options.
I’d hate to blow smoke up the proverbial of a young, obviously talented, but relatively unproven home-grown talent, yet once again I find myself committing that cardinal sin in regards to Everton’s defensive wizz-kid John Stones.
The 19 year-old has dazzled Toffees supporters in recent weeks, amid Phil Jagielka’s sidelining through injury, with his most pinnacle performance to date coming in a Man of the Match display against Sunderland last weekend, where the right-back-come-central-defender made more clearances (9) and blocked more shots (5) than any player on the pitch.
The Wearside club may not be the most potent side we’ve seen in the Premier League this season, rather, their 29 goals for, averaging at under one goal per match, is the worst scoring return in the entire division. But regardless, it’s incredibly telling of Stones’ reading of the game that he was required to make just a single tackle throughout the ninety minutes, whilst Everton managed to record a clean sheet away from home in the 1-0 encounter.
In fact, from Stones’ nine Premier League starts in the centre-back role this season, the Goodison outfit have conceded just five times in his presence, claiming clean sheets against the Black Cats, Arsenal, Newcastle and Norwich and racking up 19 points out of a possible 21 in the process.
Resultantly, there have been calls for the young defender to receive a late ascension into Roy Hodgson’s World Cup squad, which begs the question, should the England manager be taking this Toffees hotshot to Brazil, or is this a tournament too early for Stones?
The Everton youngster is clearly a talented player, and far from being the defensive stalwart his prominent clean sheets haul might suggest, it’s Stones’ ability to link up with midfield, personifying the core, purist values of the Roberto Martinez ethos, that has produced such sudden and widespread acclaim.
Predominantly considered as a right-back at former club Barnsley, Stones comes with a unique skill set for the centre-back berth, donning pace, agility and the natural technique you’d expect of a modern full-back. Resultantly, the teen defender boasts a pass completion rate of 90% this term, on average making around 33 passes per match. Far from a sideways stat-whore whoever, the vast majority of Stones’ passes have been in a positive direction, whilst he’s also shown enormous confidence in simply picking up the ball and driving up the pitch with it, keenly and responsibly taking possession in difficult areas.
I haven’t seen a home-grown centre-back do that since Rio Ferdinand, and the buzz surrounding Stones can certainly be sourced to his rather exclusive style of defending, perhaps more in line with those from the continent.
But let’s not be rash here. This is a player whom, impressive or not, has made just 17 Premier League appearances in his entire career. This high praising of a foreign style of play is the kind of thing we said about Jack Wilshere during his first full season at Arsenal and Manchester United’s Tom Cleverley. This is a similar level presumptuous hyping once received by such illustrious Three Lions alumni as Michael Ricketts, Seth Johnson and David Nugent.
Indeed, the coming World Cup could be a tournament too soon for Stones. Despite recently declaring during a Sky Sports interview that the 19 year-old had been the Toffees’ best trainer this season – a title decided by Roberto Martinez’ method of awarding points to his players on a weekly basis, with the highest recipient in line for a prize at the end of the year – the Everton manager admitted that Stones still had a long way to go before representing his country at a major tournament.
But if there’s one lonesome World Cup strategy that’s undoubtedly served England well over the years, it’s the customary tactic of bringing one budding youngster to the major tournament ahead of schedule. A 19 year-old Rio Ferdinand went to France ’98, Joe Cole went to the 2002 World Cup at just 20 years of age, and in 2006, to much surprise and criticism, Sven Goran Eriksen included a 17 year-old Theo Walcott in his World Cup roster. Most recently, Jack Butland and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain got the nod from Roy Hodgson for Euro 2012, despite their exceptionally limited exposure to top flight and international football at the time.
It’s a trick which is yet to throw its first curve-ball. All, with the exception of Jack Butland, have emerged as key players for club and country since their premature England inclusions, and as much as one can credit prior England managers for spotting future stars, one can’t ignore the obvious benefits of experiencing the unique World Cup atmosphere at such a tender age has had on the careers of these players.
Many will argue that if Roy Hodgson is to follow suit at the coming tournament in Brazil, then the ceremonial position in the England squad should go to Southampton’s Luke Shaw, who by far and large has been the most impressive home-grown youngster over the last two seasons. But England’s heart of defence currently faces a grim future; if Gary Cahill, Phil Jagielka and Joleon Lescott were slim pickings enough, then their current most likely successors – Ryan Shawcross, Steven Caulker and Chris Smalling – send a macabre chill down one’s spine. With the exception of Phil Jones, the Three Lions’ golden age of world-class centre-halves appears to have come to a rather abrupt end.
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Could John Stones emerge as a timely saviour? Inclusion in the World Cup squad, albeit in a non-playing capacity, would certainly put him on the right path.
Hodgson has declared however that his 23-man roster will include no abrupt surprises. No maverick Adam Johnsons, no cult-hero Gareth Barrys, no Championship wonder-kids of the Danny Ings variety. Therefore, much to my personal disappointment, a late call-up for the Everton prodigy appears incredibly unlikely, especially considering his place in the Toffees backline will presumably be returned to Phil Jagielka once the 31 year-old has recovered from his sideline bout.
But fear not young Stones; with Jagielka at 31, Cahill 29 and Lescott turning 32 by the end of the summer, Euro 2016 is already loudly calling your name.
It’s the subject that simply refuses to go away within English football at the moment and for Tottenham Hotspur winger Gareth Bale, he’d do well to pick up a couple of newspapers of late. In a series of weeks that have seen the issue of diving hop straight back up to the top of football’s agenda of malaise, you would have thought that the Welshman would have the nous to avoid a complete PR disaster.
Indeed, while the actions of Liverpool’s Luis Suarez has catalyzed a whole catalogue of fierce debate over the practice of simulation, Bale has played his own part in ensuring it continues to produce column inches. And a further contentious tumble on international duty against Scotland, has shot Bale straight into the spectrum of chief suspects.
But the issue for Bale isn’t one of personal integrity. It’s one that has the ability to cause both himself and his side some serious problems later along the line this season.
The issue of diving isn’t anything new on these shores. As with so many other issues in football, there is something very topical about the way it manages to creep up onto the footballing radar. As the fickle finger of the Premier League spins round on a never ending basis, talk about top flight thespians will usually subside and make way for the two-footed tackle debate or the flailing elbow argument.
But things feel different this time. For many people, Spurs fans included, there was a sense of poetic justice in seeing Luis Suarez get planted over by Norwich’s Leon Barnett for a stonewall penalty, only for referee Mike Jones to wave his claims away. The proverb “you reap what you sow”, has been wheeled out often in the past few weeks and in fairness, it certainly rings true to a certain extent.
But as the Suarez debate rumbles on, it seems to have reopened another and the school of thought that Premier League referees are beginning to judge the Uruguayan on reputation, rather than an incident on it’s own merits, is one that should cause equal cause for concern. And it’s one that Gareth Bale in particular, should give more than a moment’s thought to.
Fans of teams who have been on the receiving end of one of his tumbles (Villa and Arsenal supporters, take a stand), may be happy to dispute this, but Bale bestows a more polished public profile than Luis Suarez. A modest, humble talent, there are no bans for racial abuse or red cards for blatant hand ball on his resume. But if he continues to fall to the ground under little to no contact, that will all count for diddly squat.
Bale has already faced several allegations of diving and despite his claims to the contrary, his justifications for going down easily, hardly endear himself to a wider audience.
Following critique over his penalty winning dive in the 5-2 defeat against Arsenal last season, Bale responded that his art is more injury prevention, than diving:
“It’s annoying. You have people flying in at you, it’s not really diving, you’re trying to get out of the way of the challenge if anything,” the Welshman said last year.
“It’s a difficult one. You can see why people say you’re diving but at the end of the day I’d rather dive than get hurt.”
While Bale’s viewpoint maintains a certain amount of gravitas, it’s impossible to skirt round the viewpoint that he has more than a tendency to go down to easily. The wider debate surrounding simulation can be extended to very specific and technical instances and whether by launching himself over a full-back’s trailing leg at regular intervals is any better, is highly disputable.
But the stonewall acts of cheating are simply unforgivable and his fall in Spurs’ 2-0 victory over Aston Villas was totally unacceptable. The sight of watching Bale go down under thin air as he pre-empted a kick from Brad Guzan that never came, was really quite hard to watch. It gets worse every time you see it and if anyone was still to doubt the Welshman’s tendency to dabble in football’s darkest of arts, they can surely be in no doubt now.
Although, it’s not just his own morality that he’s damaging by going to ground like that. If Bale waltzes into the penalty area and is hacked down against Chelsea this weekend but the referee waves him away, then Spurs fans will be left with a Luis Suarez situation all of their own. Premier League referees must stay subjective, but does human nature dictate that when they see him go down, his fall against Villa will come into their head? It shouldn’t, but it could well do.
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Even if referees are wrong to not judge each situation on their own merits, but Bale shouldn’t even be putting them in a position for that to become an issue. If he goes down in the penalty area against Roberto Di Matteo’s side on Saturday, you can bet your mortgage that his side will be screaming dive regardless of what happened. Bale’s behavior has only played into their hands.
Regardless of whether Shaun Maloney has claimed that his feeble contact with Gareth Bale constituted a penalty last week, it remains a woefully soft decision. And the problem is, with every ridiculous tumble the Welshman is taking, he is subjecting himself to forensic scrutiny in each incident.
Fans who frequent White Hart Lane love watching Gareth Bale for his barnstorming runs and his gifted ability – not for his acting skills. And when his behavior is set to put his side in jeopardy of getting a fair run, fans have the right to demand he cleans up his act. And fast.
What do you think about Gareth Bale’s antics for Spurs and Wales? Let me know what you think on Twitter: follow @samuel_antrobus and let me know if you think it’s time AVB sorted the Welshman out.
Liverpool are closing in on Reading defender Alex Pearce after he turned down a new deal to stay with the Royals.
The Royals have been trying to tie the 24-year-old down to a new deal all season, but he has refused to sign and is reported to have told Nigel Adkins over the weekend he wants to leave.
Liverpool have long been linked with a move for the central defender, who has not been a regular in the Royals starting XI this season, and a move looks to be on the verge of going through.
Reds boss Brendan Rodgers is on the look for Jamie Carragher’s replacement as the veteran stopper is set to retire at the end of the season and Pearce could be the man.
Rodgers is also being linked with a move for Royals goalkeeper Alex McCarthy and a double swoop could be on the cards following Reading’s relegation from the Premier League.
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Wayne Rooney has signed a new contract with Manchester United worth a reported £300,000 a week. The club is happy, the great freckled one is happy, the Stretford End and everyone involved at Paul Stretford’s End are happy, even the jaded, snarking curmudgeons are happy, such are many plentiful examples the situation provides for their life force enhancing belief that modern football is at the root of everything rotten and evil on this ghastly forsaken burning rock of nothingness we fool ourselves into thinking a home. Everyone is happy.
And yet somehow the sneaking suspicion that we’ve all been had lingers like the bad aftertaste of a Casillero del Diablo.
So, in another life, what else could United have spent 300k a week and 14m a year on instead of Wayne Rooney’s inevitable second hair transplant?
1. Pay two people £150k a week to play in midfield
It may have escaped those without the finely tuned nose of a true detective, but I’ll let you in on a secret – United have a problem in midfield. Despite the fact Rooney often spends huge swaths of games in a sort of self created auxiliary holding left back role, he’s not midfielder. Yet. Whilst the ridiculous valuation of footballers may threaten to become an elaborate satirical performance piece on the housing crisis (or perhaps it’s vice versa?) 300k is still a huge amount. You can still pick up a top of the range playmaker (only two previous owners) for a cool £150k. Even in the trendy deluxe diminutive Spanish model, David Silva and Juan Mata both command in the region. Perhaps get them in a collectable set? Buy two and get a novelty Marouane Fellaini thrown in for free! Ilkay Gundogan is on a paltry, almost insulting mid level banker’s salary of £25k a week. Why not buy a whole team of him? Some of them can play in defense (which, don’t tell anyone, is also a problem.) Sheeeyyyt, United could’ve caved into Paul Pogba’s salary demands thirteen times and still had change for an Ilkay Way.
2. Expand Old Trafford to compete with City.
Manchester City are now the biggest club in Manchester. Manuel Pellegrini has spoken, and in every sense but the actual words he used and what they mean, he’s right. So how will United compete with City and their imposing haul of 3 league titles once their new 60,000 capacity expansion makes the Etihad the second largest club stadium in the country, behind only, erm, Manchester United? Well, by expanding their own stadium of course. Perhaps with an exclusive corporate helipad and a state of the art pitch level retracting jumbotron. One architect has already proposed cramming ticketless fans onto the roof! To ignore such genius would be folly.
3. Do a Bayern and give back to the fans.
With it’s increasingly rampant propensity for evil, PR is now very important to football. Few top clubs can escape the perception that their working class roots are being eroded in favor of big business by an army of invisible Tony Blairs all desperate to play head tennis with Kevin Keegan. Bayern Munich can certainly try though, with their cheap tickets, safe standing and wily initiative to shame not only our football, but also our exorbitant pricing by buying out Arsenal’s away allocation as a goodwill gesture to their fans. Gone are the days of xenophobic ‘bantz!’ and giggling at rude sounding names, these days any football fan worth their salt wants to be German. With this in mind, United could claw back some respectability for our feeble Unterliga by reimbursing 26,000 of their lowest tier season ticket holders as a show of good faith. Anyone who spends a whole season singing songs about David Moyes deserves some mercy.
This would be brilliant, and is quite comfortably the least likely option on this list.
4. Hire thousands of teachers, nurses and soldiers.
Barely a contract renewal or transfer window goes by without some enlightened altruistic sole lamenting the plight of our underfunded public sector betters. “Just imagine how many teachers/nurses/soldiers you could pay with such and such’s salary” they say, curiously never implying we could up their wage substantially, but merely that we could hire more of them, at the same rate. To this end, United could hire thousands of nurses, soldiers and teachers, at the going rate, to aid the physios, guard the stadium and teach Rooney the many available alternatives in the English language to “obviously”
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5. Buy an MLS Franchise/Sponsor a Llama/Help pay off their debt.
You know, something daft like that. Lolz.
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