Monday's B*ll*x

[Chinners]

Manchester City's Adam Johnson Not Ready For World Cup Spot- Roberto Mancini
The Italian has stated his winger is not yet ready for England call-up
Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has acknowledged that his winger Adam Johnson might not be ready for an England spot for this summer’s World Cup.
A native of Sunderland, Johnson shocked his home-town team by coming off the bench and cancelling out Kenwyne Jones ninth minute header with a long-range effort in stoppage time.

Johnson’s strike against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light earned the Citizens a crucial point on the way to Champions League qualification this season, but Mancini believes that his player might not be quite ready to contribute to the Three Lions.
"Adam is a good player, but is a young player, Mancini told the Press Association.
"I think that in the future, he will be a good player for the national team, but now I don't know.
"Maybe, but I don't know, I don't decide. I think the England national team has a good manager and he knows very well Adam Johnson and he will decide."
The 22-year-old winger came to Manchester City from Middlesbrough in January for £7million and has won 19 caps for the England Under 21 squad.

Reports in Italy claim Juventus would be prepared to let goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon sign for Manchester City for a fee in the region of £32m. (The Times)

Real Madrid's sporting director Jorge Valdano has said that he would like Argentinian striker Gonzalo Higuain to spend the rest of his career with the Spanish giants.
Higuain has been in excellent form this season and hit a hat-trick in last night's 4-1 victory over Real Valladolid to take his tally to 21 goals in 27 games so far this season.

Manchester City were reported to be closely monitoring the 22 year-old's faltering contract extension talks at the Bernebeu in preparation for making a summer bid to capture both the striker and Real Madrid team-mate Fernando Gago .
However, Valdano acknowledged that Higuain had been hard done by in his contract negotiations so far, telling Spanish daily AS, "He is a player of great class and we did him an injustice recently. He was accused of selfish and unfair things for a striker with such a hunger for goals. You cannot condemn a player with a perfect record for three years."
Acknowledging the interest in Higuain from clubs such as Manchester City , Valdano continued, "We are talking with him about an extension and there is much scope. He is a player of great interest not only to Madrid and we would like to not only renew his contract, but for him to finish his career in Madrid."
Higuain has recently forced himself into the Argentina side and is expected to star in this summer's World Cup.
Reports from Spain over the past few days had indicated that Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini had specifically asked Eastlands owner Sheikh Mansour for the funds to make a bid for Higuain and Gago.

TRANSFER BOLLOX
Aston Villa are keeping track of Manchester United 's Polish goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak , according to the Daily Mail.
Kuszczak himself recently hinted that he may have to exit Old Trafford, saying, "I don't know how much longer I can stay on the bench."I have waited for four years and I enjoy my time here, but maybe I need to change it."

France winger Franck Ribery remains coy over his future at Bayern Munich amid continued interest from Chelsea, Real Madrid and Barcelona. Ribery's current contract expires at the end of the season, but German side Bayern have given him until the end of March to decide his plans. IM Scouting

French striker Frederic Piquionne wants to remain in England after his loan spell at Portsmouth finishes at the end of the season. The 31-year-old looks set to leave cash-strapped Pompey but does not want to return to his parent club Lyon. IM Scouting

WAG OF THE DAY
http://www.socceram.com/soccerettes/0,2 ... 07,00.html

OTHER BOLLOX
Rafael Benitez would earn an instant £16m payment if Liverpool sacked the under-pressure manager in the summer because of a clause in the Spaniard's five-year contract. Daily Mail

But should the Anfield club accept an investment offer of £100m from private equity firm Rhone Group, the Reds could afford to hang on to their coveted stars Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres. Daily Mail

However, Benitez fears that striker Torres will seek to leave Anfield if Liverpool fail to finish fourth in the Premier League to qualify for next season's Champions League. The Guardian

Inter Milan manager Jose Mourinho is claiming 'home advantage' ahead of Tuesday's Champions League quarter-final second leg tie at former club Chelsea. Mourinho, who led the Blues to six trophies in three years, said: "Everybody knows Mourinho doesn't lose at Stamford Bridge. My record is unbeatable." The Sun

Meanwhile, Mourinho has refused to let his Inter players train at Stamford Bridge, fearing Chelsea spies may attempt to learn his tactical plans. The Italian side hold a 2-1 lead from the first leg. Daily Star

Kasper Schmeichel, the son of Manchester United legend Peter, is good enough to play in the Premier League again, according to the keeper's Notts County manager Steve Cotterill. Daily Mail

Hull manager Phil Brown has been ordered not to talk to his teenage midfielder Tom Cairney. Brown has received a letter from the 19-year-old's legal representatives after the club tried to open contract negotiations.
The Sun

Lord Mawhinney, the outgoing chairman of the Football League, believes a salary cap is inevitable among the league's member clubs.
Mawhinney insists the current football financial model is not sustainable and has campaigned for the introduction of a salary cap in an attempt to halt the game's spiralling debt.
He told the BBC's Late Kick Off programme: "The business model of professional football in this country doesn't work, it's broken and you see that reflected in the administrations and all the rest of it.
"I have some clubs in the Football League who are paying up to 85% of their income in wages.
"I don't care how great you are, you may be the best business entrepreneur the country has ever come up with, but you cannot run a sustainable business with that sort of model.
"I think I have given the issues a reasonable profile and I think even those who don't approve of me would probably concede that.
"Our Championship clubs in particular are not yet ready to commit, but it'll happen because what is going on presently is not sustainable in the medium term."
Earlier this week the Football League appointed Greg Clarke, the former chief executive of Cable and Wireless Communications, to succeed Mawhinney.

[ENIAM NAM]

That should make Johnson feel good then!!

[Chinners]

BOLLOX UPDATES
Excuses, excuses, always excuses. Monday is never the Mills's favourite day. Even when David Beckham hasn't just suffered a career-threatening, World Cup ambition-destroying achilles injury the papers are full of nasty, irrelevant rubbish such as match reports, and sadly lacking in the true and genuine lifeblood of our nation's favourite sport, namely baseless gossip and idle speculation.

And so it is that the first item on the Mill's notepad this bright and sunny Monday morn reads: "Yogi, a Hungarian Vizsla, won the Best In Show title at Crufts."

What's a Vizsla, anyway? Could the Hungarian Vizsla be in any way related to a Polish Wisla? They sound extremely similar, come from the same part of the world and can both claim to be champions, but one is a brown-furred quadruped and the other is a football team from Krakow.

The Mill feels it has a special and unique bond with Yogi. No, not in that way, vile-minded reader. He, like us, is loyal, caring and highly affectionate, but we have both been bred to possess a keen thrill for the hunt and the nose to scent out its prey however well it tries to hide.

And so it was that we managed to scent out in today's Times, of all places, news that Juventus would be willing to sell Gianluigi Buffon to Manchester City for around £32m. That's £1m for every year of the not-exactly-one-for-the-future-is-he shot-stopper's life so far.

Meanwhile Ramón Calderón, the only former Real Madrid president to sound a bit like the lyrics to Gary Glitter's 1973 chart-topper I'm The Leader of the Gang (I Am), says the Spanish giants have "an obsession to go for Wayne Rooney".

Over in Merseyside the Rhône Group, a New York-based private equity firm, is close to buying 40% of Liverpool. The money could be used a) to improve the team, Fernando Torres having called on the club to "make an effort and bring in important players and improve the quality of the squad"; b) sack Rafael Benítez, who, according to the Mail, has a clause in his contract guaranteeing that his £4m-a-year, four-years-to-run contract will be paid up, in full, within 24 hours of him getting the boot; or c) refinance a couple of loans and pay Liverpool's owners a lip-smacking bonus. Time will tell.

World Cup news now, and the BBC is spending £1m on a bespoke studio located on the roof of Somerset Hospital in Cape Town so that Gary Lineker and the rest of their World Cup panel have a nice view to look at this summer. ITV, and everyone else, is to be based in Soccer City.

Work on the studio begins this week with an operation to remove seagull nests from the site. "The move," reports the Sun, "is seen as a slap in the face for Johannesburg and the capital Pretoria." Can Johannesburg be slapped in the face? Does it have a face to slap? The Mill, for one, doesn't think so.

Let's hope its glazing is fully bulletproof, though. You can never be too sure. Because in a not-at-all bizarrely alarmist report, the Star says that "thousands of football fans have recruited armed guards to protect them at the World Cup in troubled South Africa." Apparently, even three months before the big kick-off, supporters petrified of the "poverty-stricken locals" are living in "fear for their lives".

And finally, in today's Gazzetta dello Sport José Mourinho gives a guide to his favourite places in London. These include Harrods, the Vue cinema on Fulham Broadway – "where I watched many musicals" – and a restaurant called San Lorenzo in Beauchamp Place, which serves an excellent fish soup. "When he wanted a trip outside the city," the pink paper also reports, "he would choose Ipswich."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010 ... igi-buffon

[Crossie]

Way to go Roberto, that'll endear him to you.

Your meant to push for him and big him up no end, even if you dont beleive it, just lie.

wanker

[Feed The Goat]

Way to go Roberto, that'll endear him to you.

Your meant to push for him and big him up no end, even if you dont beleive it, just lie.

wanker

do you not think that's what is wrong with many young footballers today people lying to them telling them how good they are the. They stop trying

[Chinners]

Interestingly ...

Hull manager Phil Brown has been ordered not to talk to his teenage midfielder Tom Cairney. Brown has received a letter from the 19-year-old's legal representatives after the club tried to open contract negotiations.
The Sun

becomes . . .

Hull City relieve manager Phil Brown of his duties
Brown took Hull into the top flight for the first time in 2008
Hull City manager Phil Brown has been relieved of his duties at the KC Stadium and put on gardening leave.
Assistant boss Brian Horton and Steve Parkin will take charge of the Tigers' first-team until further notice.
After Saturday's last-gasp defeat by Arsenal, Hull are second from bottom of the Premier League and three points adrift of safety, with nine games left.
Chairman Adam Pearson revealed the club's board felt it had to act now to try to keep Hull in the top flight.
In a statement, Pearson said: "Retention of Premier League status is paramount and the board believes that a change in managerial direction is the correct option at this time.
"The club will keep supporters completely up-to-date in respect of any managerial appointment but, in the meantime, Brian Horton and Steve Parkin will prepare the team for our important game at Portsmouth next Saturday."
Brown, 50, took charge at Hull in December 2006 and led the Tigers into the top flight for the first time in their history in 2008.
They made an impressive start to life in the Premier League but a poor run of results in the second half of the season - after Brown's infamous on-pitch, half-time team talk during a Boxing Day defeat by Manchester City - meant they did not secure their survival until the last day of the campaign.
I am obviously very disappointed I will not have the opportunity to secure Hull City's status in the Premier League for a third consecutive season
This season has proved just as tough and the weekend defeat by the Gunners means Hull are deep in relegation trouble after losing their last four games.
Brown told the League Managers Association: "I am obviously very disappointed with the club's decision and the fact that I will now not have the opportunity to secure Hull City's status in the Premier League for a third consecutive season.
"Although I am extremely sad to be leaving Hull City, I am very proud of my achievements during my time as manager, especially having led the team into the top flight of football for the first time in the Club's 104 year history and ahead of schedule."

MCF.NET THREAD: viewtopic.php?f=119&t=31074

Ask Andrey
Not quite up there with Rohan Ricketts just yet but promising nonetheless...
http://www.arshavin.eu/en/news.php?id=517

[Mase]

My favourite was:

7. From RinaBeer
Hi. I am 25 years old and I’m still not married. My parents are very upset about this. They say I can end up a spinster. But I don’t want to get married yet. What shall I do? (Sorry if this is off topic; just
want to know your opinion)
Arshavin: I think I can help you.
Step 1: You need to find a scruffy heavy drinker.
Step 2: Once you’ve found him, try to persuade him to “marry” you. I think that for a small amount of money, he will agree to fulfill the role of your fiancé :)
Final: Bring this guy home. Tell your parents he’ll live with you ;)
I think next time they will think better before forcing their opinion on you.