Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini is refusing to feel the pressure after his side were held to a goalless draw at home to Birmingham City on Saturday.
The Citizens have now failed to hit the back of the net in three consecutive Premier League games at Eastlands to further stymie their title chances.
A recent 3-0 loss to Arsenal and the midweek stalemate with cross-town rivals Manchester United now sees the big-spending outfit trail leaders Chelsea by six points, with the Londoners having a game in hand against Sunderland on Sunday.
But the Italian, who replaced star-striker Carlos Tevez for Gareth Barry late in the day, much to the dismay of the fans, insists he will not buckle under the strain.
"I am frustrated because I wanted to win this game. I don't want to draw or lose a game," he said.
"What pressure? For what? You continue to say that I am under pressure. I am not under pressure. We are in fourth position. We have some problems, we must improve. We played 13 games.
"If you think that I put four strikers on we will score four goals, this is not football. All the supporters can think like this, here or in Italy, but it is not football. I must think like a manager.
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"Altogether, we are unhappy. But I think that we played at 100 per cent, we had a lot of chances to score.
"But really we have this problem. We have some difficulty in scoring a lot of goals. I think it is important we had the chance to score. But we must improve. When we have a chance we must score."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
Juventus are set to step up their interest in Glen Johnson to stop a worrying slide. Juventus have been knocked out of the Europa League group stages and have been poor defensively in Serie A this term. There has been a crisis of confidence in the defence this season, and the Italian giants see Johnson as the man to steady the ship.
Regular right back Zdenek Grygera will miss at least the rest of the month with knee ligament damage and stand-in Marco Motta has been alarmingly poor. After Roy Hodgson’s negative comments about Glen Johnson last month, could there be a deal on the table?
Johnson would suit the Italian’s play, as they are a far more expansive team under Luigi del Neri, and are looking for an expansive left back alos. However, any deal for the 26-year-old would not be cheap and new Anfield owner John W Henry insists the club are not under pressure to sell.
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Just a rumour or something more substantial – RATE THE RUMOUR
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After enduring a tough autumn, Everton’s outlook on Premier League life has suddenly started to look far rosier. A surprise 2-1 win at the City of Manchester stadium has given David Moyes and his men key momentum heading into a series of winnable games over the Christmas period. If they are serious about European ambitions this season a run of good results here will be essential.
Birmingham thrived over this period last term, and may expect to do similar this year, with results improving over recent weeks. Their biggest problem has been converting decent performances into wins, and should the relegation battle remain so close, this profligacy may well cost them come May, as it did in 2008.
Whilst long-term absentee James McFadden remains a big miss for City, Everton’s stretched defensive resources and over-reliance on Tim Cahill to perform well may mean the Toffees are forced to share the points.
Hong Kong club South China have announced the signing of former Chelsea striker Mateja Kezman.
Kezman, 31, enjoyed stints across several of Europe’s biggest clubs, including reigning Premier League champions Chelsea, Atletico Madrid and PSV Eindhoven.
Kezman last played for Ligue 1 outfit Paris St Germain but had his contract cancelled by mutual consent.
“Having played the majority of my career in Europe I wanted a new challenge in my life,” Kezman told the club’s official website.
“The opportunity to play for South China excites me and I feel I can offer the team many things. I have maintained fitness over the winter and feel ready to play and score goals.”
“I want more success in my football career and believe South China FC can bring that, I have spoken to the manager and seen the team play and I believe this is the right club for me, I’m confident this will be a fantastic experience for all involved.”
Kezman’s signing will see him link up with former Manchester United and Newcastle midfielder Nicky Butt at Hong Kong’s most successful club.
South China’s chairman, Steven Lo, was thrilled to seal the signing of the former Serbia international.
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“To attract a striker of Mateja’s quality is fantastic for South China, as a club we hope his ability and experience will be a great asset to our team,” Lo said.
“Mateja has scored goals in many of the world’s top leagues and we hope he will do the same for South China. Everyone at the club is overjoyed by the acquisition of Mateja and the fans should be delighted at what he can offer South China.”
The current transfer window is coming to an end and with all the speculation and rumours circling the media and social network sites, it got me thinking about the most surprising transfers of all time. The kind of transfer that made you get out of your seat when the news broke, the signing that you’d never thought would happen or never expected to happen.
Some players that didn’t make the list were the obvious ones like Sol Campbell to Arsenal and Eric Cantona to Manchester United. Also some obscure signings like Thomas Graveson to Real Madrid and the unexpected signings like Patrick Kluivert to Newcastle or Jurgen Klinsmann’s 2nd stint at Tottenham….and even Spurs signing Andy Booth on loan from lower division Huddersfield.
Join me below for my Top 10 surprise transfers of all time…
10. Robbie Keane
After a few seasons bursting onto the football scene with Wolves and Coventry, Robbie Keane had impressed Inter Milan manager, Marcelo Lippi enough to sign him for a fee of £13 Million in the year 2000. Despite his potential, it was rare for an Italian club to sign British based talent around this time with a similar surprise transfer being Ronnie O’Brien, released by Middlesborough, signed by Juventus in the late 1990’s.
9. Fabrizio Ravanelli
When Ravanelli, AKA ‘White Feather’ won the European Champions League in 1996 with Juventus, I bet he didn’t think he’d be playing for Middlesbrough F.C. several months later. At the time, Juventus did not want to sell to a club they would face in Europe, Boro matched the asking price and the ridiculous wage demands by Ravanelli. Only spending one season at the club, he scored a hat-trick on his debut against Liverpool, and finished runners-up in both FA & League Cup’s but couldn’t save Boro from relegation.
8. Dennis Bergkamp
Personally, this is one transfer that made me get out of my seat when the story broke. Having seen the Dutch striker perform in World Cup ’94, I did not expect to see him signing for Arsenal – the Arsenal side at the time who had a reputation for playing ‘boring football’. Signed by manager Bruce Rioch for £7.5 million in 1995 it was a bargain and a transfer that often get’s over looked considering what the player and the club went on to achieve.
7. Trevor Francis
It was not a surprise that one of the best clubs in the country at the time, Nottingham Forest, signed one of the best young English players at the time in Trevor Francis, but in 1979 the transfer deal surprised the football world in terms of the transfer fee. The previous record transfer fee had recently been broken with a £500,000 price tag, but the legendary Brian Clough blew that out the water by making Francis the first £1 Million signing in football.
6. David Beckham
Perhaps all of David Beckham’s transfers can be seen as a surprise but I think the most surprising of all, was his move from Real Madrid to LA Galaxy in 2007. Becks’ time at Real Madrid was not as successful as he had hoped, but towards the end of time at the Bernabeu, Becks started showing some form and many fans felt he still had a lot more to give at the top level before moving to America, where players usually go at the end of the careers rather than at the peak.
Continue to the NEXT PAGE…
5. Ibrahimovic / Eto’o
Personally this transfer really surprised me when the details were released because of the money involved. There is no doubt that Zlatan Ibrahimovic is a quality forward but for Barcelona to sign him for 30 odd million Euros PLUS Samuel Eto’o left me completely dumbfounded. It’s hard to compare the players, with their difference in size and playing style – but seeing how this deal has now played out makes me think Inter got the better striker plus the bonus of the high transfer fee!
4. Maurice ‘Mo’ Johnston
Infamous for his transfer to Glasgow Rangers in 1989, Johnston had previously played for Celtic in the middle of the eighties before moving onto FC Nantes in France. In an interview the player has said that he never wanted to leave Celtic, and would only play for another club outside of Britain. After two seasons in France, Celtic revealed they would be re-signing Johnston, but the deal was premature due to the legal contract over who owned the player. Meanwhile, fierce Rivals, Glasgow Rangers came in and the old Celtic ‘poster boy’ is being unveiled at Ibrox, both sets of supporters were unhappy considering the deep heat between two clubs, it was bold move by Rangers manager Graeme Souness.
3. Robinho
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The tricky Brazilian winger looked set on leaving Real Madrid in 2008 and the most likely move was to Stamford Bridge but Chelsea were unable to meet the transfer fee. New big spenders, Manchester City were able to offer the right amount and Robinho signed for the blue side of Manchester. A surprise that City were able to out bid Chelsea, putting their name on the map as the new big spenders – also a surprise that Robinho would move to the north of England after going on record he could never play football in northern Europe, due to the cold weather conditions.
2. Diego Maradona
Maradona’s move from Barcelona to Napoli came as a shock considering the Italian club’s reputation in world football. They had never won a league title or any European trophies but Maradona was desperate to move away from the Nou Camp after falling out with the club president. Maradona even said that at the time, he had never heard of Napoli but the surprise move paid off as the Italian side went on to win two Italian league titles.
1. Luis Figo
When a player moves directly between two rival clubs, it always proves a shock but it also made Luis Figo the most expensive footballer at the time in the year 2000. The enmity between Barcelona and Real Madrid provides one of the most extreme rivalries in the football world, Figo was loved at Barcelona but since his switch to Madrid, he became their new hate figure. In 2002 the infamous Pigs Head was thrown at Luis Figo when taking a corner during a El Clasico game.
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So, it’s here again for another year. It’s going to happen and there’s nothing we can do about it and there’s no way we can get away from it. It’s like when your mother-in-law arrives just in time for kick off and proceeds to talk all the way through the first half, shut up for half time, before continuing her discussions through the second half, blissfully unaware that you’re trying to watch the match. Though, to be honest, if she wanted to distract me for 96 minutes tomorrow, she would be welcome to (bear in mind I’m single and haven’t got a mother-in-law here, so it’s going to have to be a very quick courtship and wedding at this late stage).
I hate derby day. As simple as that. I hate it. It’s a truly horrible day. In fact, I’d go as far as to say it’s the worst day of the football season. And some fool at the FA decided that it should happen twice a season. Clearly somebody is off their rocker.
It never fails to leave your stomach feeling the way it does after you’ve had a bug for three days and haven’t eaten. It never fails to make your fingernails shorter by however far you can physically get your teeth in behind them. It never fails to put your body under more stress than taking an exam that your life depended on you passing.
I’m not aware of such a test existing, but it’d definitely spice up GCSE exam halls.
One reason why it makes me (and I assume other Manchester City fans) feel like this is simple. The result is amplified: wins feel better, defeats feel worse, while draws feel like even damper squibs than they were. But the biggest reason of all, however, is actually that we’re Manchester City fans. Doing things the easy way isn’t in the club’s nature, so getting through derby day isn’t a simple achievement.
United fans have it easy. It’s win-win in their camp. They win, they get to taunt some City fans. They lose, they get to pretend that Liverpool is their big fixture and they don’t really care about City anyway. Though, of course, we all know they do thanks to the outrage felt at the Welcome to Manchester billboard, the (now cancelled) party to celebrate City’s lack of success and the (club endorsed) banner that shows the years where we have won nothing… thank you for showing such concern in little ol’ City.
That’s what makes the game so difficult to endure. It’s a horrible day, invented so neutrals can watch as people like me suffer nervous breakdowns and a whole manner of heart problems decades before we should. I love winning derbies, I just hate the actual playing of the game.
And then there are the neutrals! The pundits, ex-players, commentators, and fans of other clubs that don’t really care about the result, but take it upon themselves to tell us how much of a great game it’s going to be. The media build-up is incredible: you would think that no football match is ever going to be like it until the end of recorded time ever (which, at Old Trafford, will probably have about seven or eight added minutes).
The strange and ever-so paradoxical thing is that I’m now a part of that crazy build-up to the game. By writing this column, by doing this City podcast, or by being on the other City radio show that I am, I’m adding pre-match build up to the already unnecessary pre-match build up to a game that I hate watching every time it comes around.
And tomorrow’s game does have so much riding on it. United have just lost to Wolves and have lost their unbeaten run. City have dragged themselves out of a sticky patch of form with a comfortable victory over West Brom. But the form book traditionally goes out of the window when it comes down to who will win, especially as City tend to do well in this fixture when they’ve recently been playing poorly.
A City victory would pull United closer and drag City towards the top of the league (still having played a game more, mind you, so, should it happen, let’s not get too carried away). A United victory sends them clear at the top of the league and shunts them away from their neighbours. And a draw probably does more for Arsenal that it does for either side, though I think City would be perfectly happy with a point at Old Trafford.
It’s difficult to say how City will set up – Ferdinand is supposed to be out of the match (though we’ll only know for sure when the teamsheets are announced, after all it’s not like Mr. Ferguson doesn’t have form when it comes to something like this) and that, in theory, should leave United lighter at the back. City played well against West Brom, especially with Kolarov on the left flank, but to go unchanged would leave out one of this season’s linchpins in Nigel de Jong, who may or may not be fit. There are big selection decisions to be made.
But, with the stakes higher this season than they have been in any season for a long time, the one thing I feel pretty assured in saying is that this will be a nervy game. We could end up with two sides who are cancelling each other out because neither wants to lose. I see a game decided by a wondergoal. Or a fluke. Or a moment of hideous defending. Or nine minutes of added time. I don’t see another 4-3 thriller, especially if the game at Eastlands – which, let’s be honest, had less riding on it at the time – was as cautious as it was.
United won’t sit back and defend. And that might well help City, since we’ve been pretty good on the break this season and, with one or two blips aside, pretty strong defensively. But if that’s how Mr. Mancini decides to set up, then this could be one of the longest 90 minutes of our lives.
Not including stoppage time, obviously.
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Harry Redknapp said Tottenham will need a miracle to make the top four this season and he won’t be wrong if the North Londoners have to persist with this strike-force, which wasted gilt edged chances in what proved to be a one-sided game for the large part.
Chance after chance went begging and Holloway won’t believe his luck after Spurs had three shots cleared off the line, as well as finding his goalkeeper in inspired form. Tottenham to be fair created enough chances to win three games tonight and Harry Redknapp will be ruing this missed opportunity to move into the top three. The 3-1 victory certainly flattered the hosts, but that will prove little consolation to the travelling Tottenham faithful who made the journey tonight.
So how do Tottenham fans feel about tonight and what are the five things we learnt about Spurs tonight?
Rangers boss Walter Smith will field a strong side in their Europa League clash with Sporting Lisbon despite Sunday’s crunch match with Celtic.
Rangers trail their arch-rivals by five points on the Scottish Premier League table with two games in hand going into the trip to Celtic Park, but have the hosting of Sporting Lisbon on Thursday in the first leg of their round of 32 Europa League tie to get through first.
Smith hardly has the luxury of depth in his squad, but the former Scotland manager will not holding back for the meeting with the Portuguese heavyweights.
“It’s dead simple. Everyone keeps asking me this – you’ve got to win your games,” Smith said.
“If we put out a far weakened team or a reserve team, they lose the game and we put out a stronger team and they lose on Sunday, then you have lost two games.”
“You’ve got to try and win your games. It’s a silly circumstance for everybody to say you are involved in professional football and you don’t want to win a game. You’ve got to try and win the matches you are involved in.”
Sporting, like Rangers, have had financial issues inhibit their spending in the transfer market.
The similarities do not end there, with both clubs losing their top scorers in the January transfer window: Rangers sold Kenny Miller to Turkish side Bursaspor, while Sporting frontman Liedson was offloaded to Corinthians.
“If I look at the circumstances at the present moment, they are a little bit similar to ourselves in the sense that they look as though – from the outside – they have financial problems within their club,” Smith said.
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“They lost a couple of players in the (European) summer (and) like ourselves they lost their top goal-scorer … in the (January) transfer window.”
“So they have one or two problems getting a settled team at the present moment. If you look at all the problems we’ve had to endure over the last few years, both clubs are really in a very similar circumstance.”
Real Madrid cut Barcelona’s lead in La Liga to four points with a 2-0 win over Hercules, while Valencia were stunned by Real Zaragoza.A brace to France international Karim Benzema ensured Real kept pace with the league leaders, who will look to restore their seven-point lead when they visit Sevilla on Sunday.Benzema’s brace was the perfect warm-up for an impending visit from former club Lyon, who carry a 1-1 aggregate into the second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on Wednesday.Real, playing without injured superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, went ahead in the 24th minute when Alvaro Arbeloa pulled back his pass on the right for the waiting Benzema, who coolly disposed of the ball beyond Hercules goalkeeper Calatayud.The hosts had plenty of opportunities to extend their advantage before Benzema finally did so in the 56th minute, the Frenchman picked out by Angel Di Maria’s cross for his ninth goal of the season.Elsewhere, Valencia’s hopes of a top-three finish took a dent when they were humbled 4-0 at Real Zaragoza.Czech midfielder Jiri Jarosik put the hosts ahead in just the fifth minute, and Ander’s first goal since September put Zaragoza 2-0 up in the 40th minute.Things only got worse for Valencia after the break, beginning with a second caution to Lithuanian defender Marius Stankevicius in the 65th minute.Gabi converted from the penalty spot following that infraction, and the Spaniard added a second penalty 11 minutes later after Valencia substitute Albelda fouled in the area.Valencia are safe in third for the time being, but fourth-placed Villarreal can move within a point of them with victory over Sporting Gijon on Sunday.Finally, Atletico Madrid were held to a 2-2 draw at lowly Almeria, despite a brace to prolific Argentinean Sergio Castillo.Crusat and Henok Goitom nabbed goals for Almeria to deny Atletico, who provisionally move up to eighth with the point.
Wayne Rooney has been the focal point of the attack for the England team for some time, but the big debate is who should partner him? Several players have had a go – but it’s fair to say that no one has really made the position their own. Of course it’s not necessarily the case that there is one man for every occasion. However, let’s assume for now that we will be looking for one player to play with Rooney in the majority of the games.
I have always held the view that players should be picked on form and not reputation and I always prefer to see a striker who has a strong goal scoring record. I know this is not true of all managers, hence why we saw Emile Heskey playing at the 2010 World Cup.
The Contenders
Peter Crouch has been around the England set-up for some time and tends to always play well when selected; he has a very impressive England record scoring 22 goals in 42 caps. However, his Premier League form has been poor this season and he has only scored 2 league goals.
Andy Carroll has recently made that £35 million transfer from Newcastle to Liverpool and is still settling in at his new club and is also fighting back to full fitness following injury. Carroll has settled into life in the Premier League well and has scored 11 league goals. However, he is relatively new as an international player – but he did manage to score his first goal in the recent game against Ghana. His England record to date is 1 goal from 2 caps.
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Jermain Defoe has been another player that has been around the England set-up for some time and made a number of international appearances. His record for England is currently 15 goals from 45 appearances. In common with his Spurs teammate Peter Crouch, Defoe has also only scored 2 Premier League goals this season.
Darren Bent has consistently scored goals in the Premier League, but his appearances for the England team has been few and far between. To date his record for England reads 3 goals from 7 caps and in the Premier League this season, Bent has scored 11 goals.
The Verdict
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I am quite clear in my mind that all of the four players mentioned are natural strikers and can be clinical in front of goal. However, I mentioned at the top of this piece that players should be picked on form and not reputation; therefore I think Darren Bent and Andy Carroll should currently be ahead of the other two. If the next England game was tomorrow I would pick Darren Bent, because he has been playing Premier League football longer and has been very consistent. However, I would like to see Carroll given opportunities as well. Peter Crouch and Jermain Defoe should get themselves back in Premier League form in order to put themselves back in contention for a starting place with England.