Thursday's B*l**x
Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2014 8:02 amTHE BOLLOX
Flowers of Manchester
Fernando may sacrifice World Cup dream to secure Manchester City move
The 26-year-old midfielder saw his hopes of joining City in the last transfer window dashed as the two clubs failed to agree on a price for the Brazilian-born midfielder.
City target Fernando is prepared to sacrifice his World Cup dream in order to join the Blues in the summer.
The 26-year-old midfielder saw his hopes of joining City in the last transfer window dashed as the two clubs failed to agree on a price for the Brazilian-born midfielder.
Sources in Portugal claim that Fernando has signed a pre-contract agreement with City which would see him move to the Etihad Stadium at he end of his current contract, which expires in June, although City would not confirm or deny.
But Porto have tried to pressure the player into signing a new deal by threatening to leave him out of the team, and train alone, unless he puts pen to paper on a new deal.
They wanted to make him one of the highest paid players at the club by handing him a £2.5million signing-on fee and a contract worth £41,000 a week, but Fernando is said to have made up his mind that he wants to move to Manchester in the summer.
His agent Antonio Araujo has met with Porto president Jorge Pinto da Costa in a bid to find a compromise solution, which could involve Fernando signing a short-term deal and City paying a reduced fee for him in the summer.
City priced out of deal for Porto pair
The problem for Fernando is that he is eligible to play for Portugal after becoming a naturalised citizen in December, and has been considered for a place in the national squad for the World Cup finals, even though he has played for Brazil at under-20 level.
Fernando, officially out with a knee injury at the moment, has been a key figure in Porto’s four league title wins in the last five years, and their 2011 Europa League triumph, but Porto have a history of taking a hard-line with players who do not accede to their wishes.
They have sidelined Uruguay defender Jorge Fucile, who has agitated for a move back to his homeland, for a disagreement with a coach. Manchester United Evening News
Jovetic reveals Madrid snub
Stevan Jovetic says he spurned the advances of Spanish giants Real Madrid in favour of a move to Manchester City at the start of the season.
The 24-year-old reportedly attracted interest from a number of top European clubs during a five-year spell with Fiorentina, and opted to join the 2011/12 Premier League champions ahead of Real Madrid, who were keen to lure the former Partizan Belgrade youngster to the Santiago Bernabeu.
The Montenegrin striker claims the "project" at the Etihad Stadium was more appealing than that of Los Blancos', telling the Manchester United Evening News: "There was also Real Madrid, but I chose City.
"I decided to come here because this is a major project with many players. I should have come here the year before, but I had a nice season with (Vincenzo) Montella and Fiorentina."
Jovetic has struggled with injury for the majority of the current season, but having now recovered and with four appearances under his belt since the turn of the year, the attacker is keen to show just why City were willing to shell out a reported £22 million for his services.
"These four to five months at the beginning were difficult because I was not playing," he added.
"Then I often got injured, but now it is all behind me.
"I never doubted myself, even in the most difficult moments. I knew I could play in this team and now I have to prove it."
Manchester City have been linked with a move for promising defender Jonathan Tah
Reports have suggested that Manchester City are working on a deal to bring in highly-rated 17-year-old Hamburg defender, Jonathan Tah.
His agent Akeem Adewunmi has insisted that City have not signed the defender however, and Hamburg are working on a contract extension.
So who is Jonathan Tah?
Here are five facts about the 17-year-old defender.
1) Tah made his first start for Hamburg in a game against Werder Bremen in September, and has gone on to play in 15 Bundesliga games.
2) The 17-year-old was born in Hamburg and has represented the Germany U-17 side on 13 occasions.
3) He signed a new deal with his hometown club in November that tied him down to the club till 2018, however FIFA have stated that anyone under 18 cannot sign a contract for longer than three years. They have therefore not recognised the contract.
4) Tah is of Ivorian descent and will have the option to play for Ivory Coast if he wishes, although he looks set to go on to represent the German national side at senior level.
5) Hamburg are hoping to insert a minimum release clause of £25 million into his contract on his 18th birthday in order to give themselves some protection.
Goal claim that Manchester City are planning a £6 million move for him and are trying to stop Hamburg inserting the minimum fee release clause. The whole contract situation is a rather confusing one. It is made worse by the fact the player's father is planning on taking his agent, Akeem Adewunmi to court. He believes he is not acting in the best interests of his son.
His father told Hamburger Morgensport "I should never have him signed with him. I will go to court. According to FIFA rules, the contract is invalid because it is more than three years. This is not allowed for a minor. I will make sure that Adewunmi has nothing to do with my son."
The ace in the pack for Manchester City could be that they have Sebastian Arnesen as a scout at the club and his father Frank, was the sporting director at the club until last year. This could give them some insider knowledge.
Mythbuster: Chelsea defeat won't derail Manchester City
Arsenal's loss of form following the end of their 49-game unbeaten run offers a cautionary tale to Manuel Pellegrini, whose unrelenting commitment to attack could backfire
It is a glaring indictment of modern football's see-sawing, flip-flopping narratives that, from recording a 20-game unbeaten run across all competitions, during which time only two league points were dropped, Manchester City can so quickly be on the precipice of a crisis after just one, solitary defeat to a title-challenging Chelsea team.
The noises coming out of the club after the 1-0 reverse have been defiantly positive, with Manuel Pellegrini, stony-faced and giving little away, quick to dismiss the relevance of the loss. "This defeat will not have any psychological problems for our team," he insisted, though the Chilean could be forgiven for flicking through the dictionary in search of a Spanish translation of 'bouncebackability'.
The concern will be that the loss - which already feels as though it will be looked back upon as a decisive moment in the club's season, for better or worse - comes so soon before a testing run of fixtures. They face Barcelona twice, Chelsea again in the FA Cup, travel to Wembley for the Capital One Cup final and visit Old Trafford and the Emirates Stadium in back-to-back matches.
Now is not the time for wobbles, with City's most significant setback of the season coming at the most inopportune moment, and anything but a convincing win over struggling Norwich City at Carrow Road on Saturday will have tabloid sub-editors scrambling to mock up comparison's with Manuel's Fawlty Towers namesake.
A display of dominance as long-lasting as City's, particularly at home, has not often been seen in the Premier League, but in one fell swoop their 100 per cent home record, plus a 61-match scoring run at the Etihad Stadium, have been wiped out. Now they must pick themselves up and start again, though a return to their ultra-confident, free-flowing best is perhaps easier said than done.
Arsenal's 'Invincibles' side pays testament to that. The Gunners were looking to take their (Premier League record) unbeaten run to 50 games when they played Manchester United in October 2004. They appeared unbeatable in every sense of the word, but a 2-0 loss stopped the north Londoners in their tracks.
Arsene Wenger's men won only one of their next five games, dropping points against the likes of Crystal Palace and West Brom (who had not won all season or picked up a single point on their travels at the time), and only winning one of their following four home matches. They were rattled and, despite having claimed the title with comfort the previous season, finished 12 points adrift of eventual winners Chelsea. They have not won the Premier League title since.
There's an almost haunting similarity between Wenger's panic-dismissing, post-match soliloquy after that Old Trafford defeat and the platitudes rolled out by Pellegrini on Monday night. "I don't feel this will be a turning point," said the Frenchman a decade ago. "In football your confidence goes when your performances are not good but from this performance we can take away a lot of positives and I hope the players remember that. I think this defeat will make the players stronger." Unfortunately for Arsenal, it did not.
Not dissimilarly, after going much of the season unbeaten in 2005-06, Bayern Munich's loss to Hamburg in early March made a once comfortable canter towards the title rather squeakier. Before that defeat, the Bavarians had won 78 per cent of their matches and averaged 2.5 points per game. Afterwards, their win rate dropped to 36% and they picked up a whole point per game less.
"I think this defeat will make the players stronger" - Arsene Wenger following defeat at Old Trafford
There are, naturally, examples to counter that. United's 6-1 humbling at the hands of their neighbours in 2011, which came after an undefeated start to the season, had little impact on their form, winning eight of their next nine league matches. Roma's 19-game unbeaten league run, which stretched back to May of last season, came to a crashing end at Juventus at the start of January, but they have won all three of their Serie A matches following that setback, plus three Coppa Italia games, with their Turin collapse actually injecting fresh life into their title pursuit.
Perhaps City's undoing against Chelsea can be written off as a mere blip, then; that master tactician Jose Mourinho simply has the beating of the man he replaced at Real Madrid. The two have met nine times now, with Pellegrini coming out on top just once and conceding 27 goals in the process. There has been no pizza-throwing scandal to contend with, no dissenting voices from the dressing room.
With Pellegrini committed to playing a set style - "we'll always try to play creatively," he extols - and with no opposition capable of forcing a change in his attacking philosophy, then equally there is no result that is likely to cause the Chilean to question his footballing values. That steadfast loyalty to attack ought to be seen in a positive light, it breeds continuity that cannot be rocked by one loss, but at present it could also be their undoing.
It was Pellegrini's reluctance to shift from 4-4-2 that played into Chelsea's hands, as it had done against Bayern Munich earlier in the season. Captain Vincent Kompany recently remarked that City's attacking adventure and style was a weakness as much as it was a strength, and, with Fernandinho absent and Martin Demichelis unable to replace his dynamism in midfield, it feels like a bigger vulnerability than ever before. Pellegrini will need James Milner to regain fitness quickly ahead of key matches.
On top of that, with Sergio Aguero injured (and in spite of the attacking options Pellegrini still has at his disposal), the gung-ho formation feels like an unnecessary risk when the extraordinary fire power that makes it work is missing, while Mourinho has now advertised the blueprint needed to take City down - and you can guarantee the rest of the Premier League will have been taking notes.
How City respond to Monday night's defeat in the coming weeks will unquestionably define their season. History shows that flippantly brushing off such a setback, as Wenger did, can prove costly, and perhaps Pellegrini would be wise to tinker with a cavalier system that is missing key components ahead of a series of demanding fixtures. Alternatively, it could be that unrelenting commitment to attack that saves them.
[spoiler]
[/spoiler]
Manchester United captain Nemanja Vidic, 32, is set to accept a transfer to Inter Milan after holding positive talks with the club over a switch for next season. Metro
Vidic is said to be angry at being left in limbo by Manchester United and it appears the club are ready to let him go. Sun
Atletico Madrid striker Diego Costa, 25, Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, 27, and Bayern Munich's Mario Mandzukic, 27, are three players on Arsene Wenger's wishlist as he looks to bring world-class players to Emirates Stadium. DSSC
Paris St-Germain are planning a £40m bid for Manchester United's 19-year-old star Adnan Januzaj. Daily Star
Toni Kroos, the 24-year-old Bayern Munich midfielder who was linked with Manchester United in the January transfer window, has revealed on Facebook that he has not been able to agree a new contract. Independent
Monaco and PSG have made contact with Porto about summer a move for Manchester City and Manchester United target Eliaquim Mangala. Sky's Talkshit
Former striker Alan Shearer fears there could be an exodus at Newcastle after 28-year-old midfielder Yohan Cabaye's departure to Paris St-Germain. Daily Star
Swansea defender Chico Flores, 26, has reacted to insults from West Ham fans by mocking their side after his dramatic reaction to Andy Carroll's flailing arm during Saturday's 2-0 loss to West Ham, which saw the 25-year-old England striker sent off. DSSC
Former Tottenham manager Glenn Hoddle will be interviewed for Swansea's vacant manager's job this week. Daily Mirror
Hoddle is one of six leading contenders for the Swansea job. Everton assistant Graeme Jones, former Athletic Bilbao boss Marcelo Bielsa, ex-Arsenal forward Dennis Bergkamp, Brighton manager Oscar Garcia and Hull assistant Steve Agnew are also in contention. Guardian
Roy Hodgson is giving serious consideration to reintroducing Sunderland midfielder Adam Johnson, 26, into his England squad and potentially holding a World Cup place for him in the absence of the injured Theo Walcott. Guardian
Midfielder Darren Fletcher, 30, has revealed that having to lie to his Manchester United team-mates about his career-threatening bowel condition convinced him to open up about the illness. DSSC
Sweden striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, 32, continued his duel with Cristiano Ronaldo, 29, by sending the Real Madrid star a 'dare to Zlatan' T-shirt. DSSC
Borrusia Dortmund Jurgen Klopp is the king of photobombing after hijacking snaps with two of his star players. Metro
more bollox later ...
Flowers of Manchester
Fernando may sacrifice World Cup dream to secure Manchester City move
The 26-year-old midfielder saw his hopes of joining City in the last transfer window dashed as the two clubs failed to agree on a price for the Brazilian-born midfielder.
City target Fernando is prepared to sacrifice his World Cup dream in order to join the Blues in the summer.
The 26-year-old midfielder saw his hopes of joining City in the last transfer window dashed as the two clubs failed to agree on a price for the Brazilian-born midfielder.
Sources in Portugal claim that Fernando has signed a pre-contract agreement with City which would see him move to the Etihad Stadium at he end of his current contract, which expires in June, although City would not confirm or deny.
But Porto have tried to pressure the player into signing a new deal by threatening to leave him out of the team, and train alone, unless he puts pen to paper on a new deal.
They wanted to make him one of the highest paid players at the club by handing him a £2.5million signing-on fee and a contract worth £41,000 a week, but Fernando is said to have made up his mind that he wants to move to Manchester in the summer.
His agent Antonio Araujo has met with Porto president Jorge Pinto da Costa in a bid to find a compromise solution, which could involve Fernando signing a short-term deal and City paying a reduced fee for him in the summer.
City priced out of deal for Porto pair
The problem for Fernando is that he is eligible to play for Portugal after becoming a naturalised citizen in December, and has been considered for a place in the national squad for the World Cup finals, even though he has played for Brazil at under-20 level.
Fernando, officially out with a knee injury at the moment, has been a key figure in Porto’s four league title wins in the last five years, and their 2011 Europa League triumph, but Porto have a history of taking a hard-line with players who do not accede to their wishes.
They have sidelined Uruguay defender Jorge Fucile, who has agitated for a move back to his homeland, for a disagreement with a coach. Manchester United Evening News
Jovetic reveals Madrid snub
Stevan Jovetic says he spurned the advances of Spanish giants Real Madrid in favour of a move to Manchester City at the start of the season.
The 24-year-old reportedly attracted interest from a number of top European clubs during a five-year spell with Fiorentina, and opted to join the 2011/12 Premier League champions ahead of Real Madrid, who were keen to lure the former Partizan Belgrade youngster to the Santiago Bernabeu.
The Montenegrin striker claims the "project" at the Etihad Stadium was more appealing than that of Los Blancos', telling the Manchester United Evening News: "There was also Real Madrid, but I chose City.
"I decided to come here because this is a major project with many players. I should have come here the year before, but I had a nice season with (Vincenzo) Montella and Fiorentina."
Jovetic has struggled with injury for the majority of the current season, but having now recovered and with four appearances under his belt since the turn of the year, the attacker is keen to show just why City were willing to shell out a reported £22 million for his services.
"These four to five months at the beginning were difficult because I was not playing," he added.
"Then I often got injured, but now it is all behind me.
"I never doubted myself, even in the most difficult moments. I knew I could play in this team and now I have to prove it."
Manchester City have been linked with a move for promising defender Jonathan Tah
Reports have suggested that Manchester City are working on a deal to bring in highly-rated 17-year-old Hamburg defender, Jonathan Tah.
His agent Akeem Adewunmi has insisted that City have not signed the defender however, and Hamburg are working on a contract extension.
So who is Jonathan Tah?
Here are five facts about the 17-year-old defender.
1) Tah made his first start for Hamburg in a game against Werder Bremen in September, and has gone on to play in 15 Bundesliga games.
2) The 17-year-old was born in Hamburg and has represented the Germany U-17 side on 13 occasions.
3) He signed a new deal with his hometown club in November that tied him down to the club till 2018, however FIFA have stated that anyone under 18 cannot sign a contract for longer than three years. They have therefore not recognised the contract.
4) Tah is of Ivorian descent and will have the option to play for Ivory Coast if he wishes, although he looks set to go on to represent the German national side at senior level.
5) Hamburg are hoping to insert a minimum release clause of £25 million into his contract on his 18th birthday in order to give themselves some protection.
Goal claim that Manchester City are planning a £6 million move for him and are trying to stop Hamburg inserting the minimum fee release clause. The whole contract situation is a rather confusing one. It is made worse by the fact the player's father is planning on taking his agent, Akeem Adewunmi to court. He believes he is not acting in the best interests of his son.
His father told Hamburger Morgensport "I should never have him signed with him. I will go to court. According to FIFA rules, the contract is invalid because it is more than three years. This is not allowed for a minor. I will make sure that Adewunmi has nothing to do with my son."
The ace in the pack for Manchester City could be that they have Sebastian Arnesen as a scout at the club and his father Frank, was the sporting director at the club until last year. This could give them some insider knowledge.
Mythbuster: Chelsea defeat won't derail Manchester City
Arsenal's loss of form following the end of their 49-game unbeaten run offers a cautionary tale to Manuel Pellegrini, whose unrelenting commitment to attack could backfire
It is a glaring indictment of modern football's see-sawing, flip-flopping narratives that, from recording a 20-game unbeaten run across all competitions, during which time only two league points were dropped, Manchester City can so quickly be on the precipice of a crisis after just one, solitary defeat to a title-challenging Chelsea team.
The noises coming out of the club after the 1-0 reverse have been defiantly positive, with Manuel Pellegrini, stony-faced and giving little away, quick to dismiss the relevance of the loss. "This defeat will not have any psychological problems for our team," he insisted, though the Chilean could be forgiven for flicking through the dictionary in search of a Spanish translation of 'bouncebackability'.
The concern will be that the loss - which already feels as though it will be looked back upon as a decisive moment in the club's season, for better or worse - comes so soon before a testing run of fixtures. They face Barcelona twice, Chelsea again in the FA Cup, travel to Wembley for the Capital One Cup final and visit Old Trafford and the Emirates Stadium in back-to-back matches.
Now is not the time for wobbles, with City's most significant setback of the season coming at the most inopportune moment, and anything but a convincing win over struggling Norwich City at Carrow Road on Saturday will have tabloid sub-editors scrambling to mock up comparison's with Manuel's Fawlty Towers namesake.
A display of dominance as long-lasting as City's, particularly at home, has not often been seen in the Premier League, but in one fell swoop their 100 per cent home record, plus a 61-match scoring run at the Etihad Stadium, have been wiped out. Now they must pick themselves up and start again, though a return to their ultra-confident, free-flowing best is perhaps easier said than done.
Arsenal's 'Invincibles' side pays testament to that. The Gunners were looking to take their (Premier League record) unbeaten run to 50 games when they played Manchester United in October 2004. They appeared unbeatable in every sense of the word, but a 2-0 loss stopped the north Londoners in their tracks.
Arsene Wenger's men won only one of their next five games, dropping points against the likes of Crystal Palace and West Brom (who had not won all season or picked up a single point on their travels at the time), and only winning one of their following four home matches. They were rattled and, despite having claimed the title with comfort the previous season, finished 12 points adrift of eventual winners Chelsea. They have not won the Premier League title since.
There's an almost haunting similarity between Wenger's panic-dismissing, post-match soliloquy after that Old Trafford defeat and the platitudes rolled out by Pellegrini on Monday night. "I don't feel this will be a turning point," said the Frenchman a decade ago. "In football your confidence goes when your performances are not good but from this performance we can take away a lot of positives and I hope the players remember that. I think this defeat will make the players stronger." Unfortunately for Arsenal, it did not.
Not dissimilarly, after going much of the season unbeaten in 2005-06, Bayern Munich's loss to Hamburg in early March made a once comfortable canter towards the title rather squeakier. Before that defeat, the Bavarians had won 78 per cent of their matches and averaged 2.5 points per game. Afterwards, their win rate dropped to 36% and they picked up a whole point per game less.
"I think this defeat will make the players stronger" - Arsene Wenger following defeat at Old Trafford
There are, naturally, examples to counter that. United's 6-1 humbling at the hands of their neighbours in 2011, which came after an undefeated start to the season, had little impact on their form, winning eight of their next nine league matches. Roma's 19-game unbeaten league run, which stretched back to May of last season, came to a crashing end at Juventus at the start of January, but they have won all three of their Serie A matches following that setback, plus three Coppa Italia games, with their Turin collapse actually injecting fresh life into their title pursuit.
Perhaps City's undoing against Chelsea can be written off as a mere blip, then; that master tactician Jose Mourinho simply has the beating of the man he replaced at Real Madrid. The two have met nine times now, with Pellegrini coming out on top just once and conceding 27 goals in the process. There has been no pizza-throwing scandal to contend with, no dissenting voices from the dressing room.
With Pellegrini committed to playing a set style - "we'll always try to play creatively," he extols - and with no opposition capable of forcing a change in his attacking philosophy, then equally there is no result that is likely to cause the Chilean to question his footballing values. That steadfast loyalty to attack ought to be seen in a positive light, it breeds continuity that cannot be rocked by one loss, but at present it could also be their undoing.
It was Pellegrini's reluctance to shift from 4-4-2 that played into Chelsea's hands, as it had done against Bayern Munich earlier in the season. Captain Vincent Kompany recently remarked that City's attacking adventure and style was a weakness as much as it was a strength, and, with Fernandinho absent and Martin Demichelis unable to replace his dynamism in midfield, it feels like a bigger vulnerability than ever before. Pellegrini will need James Milner to regain fitness quickly ahead of key matches.
On top of that, with Sergio Aguero injured (and in spite of the attacking options Pellegrini still has at his disposal), the gung-ho formation feels like an unnecessary risk when the extraordinary fire power that makes it work is missing, while Mourinho has now advertised the blueprint needed to take City down - and you can guarantee the rest of the Premier League will have been taking notes.
How City respond to Monday night's defeat in the coming weeks will unquestionably define their season. History shows that flippantly brushing off such a setback, as Wenger did, can prove costly, and perhaps Pellegrini would be wise to tinker with a cavalier system that is missing key components ahead of a series of demanding fixtures. Alternatively, it could be that unrelenting commitment to attack that saves them.
[spoiler]
[/spoiler]Manchester United captain Nemanja Vidic, 32, is set to accept a transfer to Inter Milan after holding positive talks with the club over a switch for next season. Metro
Vidic is said to be angry at being left in limbo by Manchester United and it appears the club are ready to let him go. Sun
Atletico Madrid striker Diego Costa, 25, Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, 27, and Bayern Munich's Mario Mandzukic, 27, are three players on Arsene Wenger's wishlist as he looks to bring world-class players to Emirates Stadium. DSSC
Paris St-Germain are planning a £40m bid for Manchester United's 19-year-old star Adnan Januzaj. Daily Star
Toni Kroos, the 24-year-old Bayern Munich midfielder who was linked with Manchester United in the January transfer window, has revealed on Facebook that he has not been able to agree a new contract. Independent
Monaco and PSG have made contact with Porto about summer a move for Manchester City and Manchester United target Eliaquim Mangala. Sky's Talkshit
Former striker Alan Shearer fears there could be an exodus at Newcastle after 28-year-old midfielder Yohan Cabaye's departure to Paris St-Germain. Daily Star
Swansea defender Chico Flores, 26, has reacted to insults from West Ham fans by mocking their side after his dramatic reaction to Andy Carroll's flailing arm during Saturday's 2-0 loss to West Ham, which saw the 25-year-old England striker sent off. DSSC
Former Tottenham manager Glenn Hoddle will be interviewed for Swansea's vacant manager's job this week. Daily Mirror
Hoddle is one of six leading contenders for the Swansea job. Everton assistant Graeme Jones, former Athletic Bilbao boss Marcelo Bielsa, ex-Arsenal forward Dennis Bergkamp, Brighton manager Oscar Garcia and Hull assistant Steve Agnew are also in contention. Guardian
Roy Hodgson is giving serious consideration to reintroducing Sunderland midfielder Adam Johnson, 26, into his England squad and potentially holding a World Cup place for him in the absence of the injured Theo Walcott. Guardian
Midfielder Darren Fletcher, 30, has revealed that having to lie to his Manchester United team-mates about his career-threatening bowel condition convinced him to open up about the illness. DSSC
Sweden striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, 32, continued his duel with Cristiano Ronaldo, 29, by sending the Real Madrid star a 'dare to Zlatan' T-shirt. DSSC
Borrusia Dortmund Jurgen Klopp is the king of photobombing after hijacking snaps with two of his star players. Metro
more bollox later ...