Friday's B*l**x

[Chinners]

THE BOLLOX

There is a mixed bag of stories this morning with an exclusively Spanish theme.
Let’s get straight to business with David Silva quoted on Sports Witness regarding a recent interview he gave.
Tom Coast picks out a few lines from a story that appeared on the Mundo Deportivo website recently concerning Real Madrid’s alleged latest shopping list. He writes: “The article also linked Manchester City's star attacking midfielder David Silva to the Spanish giants it reads:
‘The name of David Silva, a player Real Madrid have also been linked with in the past, has re-emerged, and a reported bid of €60m could be made in order to acquire the Spaniard's services. However, this bid, if ever made, is most likely scheduled for next summer.’
Coast continues: “It seems that the rumours have reached the player and in an interview on Cadena Cope's El Partido de los 12 (the same radio show that broke the Thiago to Bayern Munich story), Silva took some time to clear the air on the rumours surrounding him: ‘I prefer not to say anything on the subject. I'm very happy in Manchester and I think this is similar to what happens every year. There are always rumours and, in the end, the player has to be calm. I renewed my contract because I am happy in Manchester.’”
Meanwhile, TalkShit have an interesting focus on a rising teenage City star this morning which is worth a read.
Dom Bryant writes: “Man City had to battle hard to tempt promising Jose Angel Pozo to England in 2012, with Real Madrid president Fiorentino Perez making a last ditch bid to keep him in Spain.
“But it proved to no avail and last season – even before a damaging injury ended his year – the 17-year-old's searing pace and eye for goal was already causing backlines numerous problems.
“Pozo has recently recovered from an ankle ligament operation and is back in training, much to the probable relief of his team-mates. City's youngsters have struggled this season without the star striker and, at time of writing, are 21st in the U21 Premier League.
“Pozo will hoping to be up and firing again soon and may even feature in Manuel Pellegrini's first team squad in the cups.”
Finally, The Hard Tackle go head-to-head with Alvaro Negredo and Michu to discover who should be leading the line for Spain.
Amlan Majumdar’s conclusion is thus: “(The) overall record shows that Negredo is more of a goal threat that Michu, which is expected since he is more of a natural striker while Michu has grown into this role.
“Negredo is more direct than Michu and isn’t afraid to shot on sight, even from long range. Negredo had a total of 150 shots in the league games last season (4.2 shots per goal), while Michu had a total of 110 shots (3.1 shots per goal).”
The Beast it is, then.


Watch out Man United, the noisy neighbours are set to get even louder as City unveil plans for 61,500 stadium
Manchester City have revealed ambitious plans to expand the capacity of the Etihad Stadium to 61,500.
Both ends of the stadium, owned by Manchester council, would be lifted to accommodate an extra tier and 13,500 seats.
The scheme would make the Etihad the third-largest venue in domestic football in Britain and City plan to apply for planning permission next month.


Dramatic: An artist impression of the Etihad stadium expansion plans

City are offering their 36,000 season card holders the opportunity to buy up to four more season cards.
Members of the club's Blue scheme will also be invited to apply.
Officials will then gauge levels of interest before deciding to extend one or both ends of the stadium, which was built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games although permission will be sought for both.
A source quoted by the Manchester Evening News said: 'It has to be commercially viable.'


Ambitious: Both ends would be lifted to accommodate 13,500 more fans


Cost: The proposed seating plan for the redeveloped stadium

A glossy leaflet to be sent to fans reads: 'Opportunities like this only happen once in a blue moon.'
It added: 'As the team grows, our fanbase grows and our home has to grow.'
Season card holders will also be offered the chance to move from their existing seats.

City linked with Real Madrid star, Bayern forward's dig at City attack
Manchester City are thought to be one of the clubs interested in signing Real Madrid star Sergio Ramos. The Spanish defender is apparently at odds with the Spanish giants over a pay rise dispute and City are thought to be one of the teams with an offer ready to put to the defender.
Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero has admitted the thought of leaving the club and going back to Argentina crossed his mind over the summer.
“I love Independiente and when they were relegated I even thought about moving back there. I wanted to help the club to go up again. I definitely thought about it, but my agent told me City would have killed us,” he told the Sun.
Another Manchester City forward Stevan Jovetic says he’s looking to dent England’s chances of going to the World Cup next summer. Jovetic is expected to lead Montenegro’s attack in the match against England at Wembley tomorrow.
“I am very excited by the game - For us it is even more important this time because we have two games left in the group and if we get good results, we can qualify for the World Cup finals for the first time,” he told the City website.
Celtic and England goalkeeper Fraser Forster has backed Joe Hart to rediscover his best form. Hart made errors in City’s Champions League defeat to Bayern Munich which led to speculation that Forster would replace him for England, but Roy Hodgson has said Hart will start the matches against Montenegro and Poland.

Bayern Munich star Thomas Muller has criticised the Manchester City attack, suggesting the club’s strikers didn’t do enough in the recent Champions League meeting between the clubs.
“Manchester had two attackers who - and I exaggerate a bit - sat in their deckchairs the halfway line when we were in possession. No attacker is allowed to do that at Bayern or the Germany team,” Muller told Kicker.

Former Manchester City defender Kolo Toure says he had to leave the club to get more playing time. Toure joined Liverpool after his contract with the club expired at the end of last season and says the decision was motivated by playing time and fitness concerns.
Manchester City players and staff have donated personal cash to try and drive down the cost of away tickets for fans. City are subjected to some of the highest prices for away tickets in the Premier League.


Manchester City star Aguero considered summer return to Independiente
The 25-year-old was devastated when his former club were relegated from the top flight this year and admits that he was tempted to help them out before realising that he could not
Manchester City forward Sergio Aguero considered rejoining Independiente over the summer when his former club were relegated from the Argentine top flight.
The 25-year-old began his career with the Primera B Nacional side in his homeland before making the move to Europe with Atletico Madrid in 2006, five years before he joined City.
And the striker, who has four goals in six Premier League appearances so far this season, has now revealed that he pondered returning to Argentina prior to the start of the new campaign in a bid to restore his old team's status.
"I love Independiente and, when they were relegated, I even thought about moving back there," Aguero told The Sun.
"I wanted to help the club to go up again. I definitely thought about it but my agent told me City would have killed us if we had.
"I know my job is at City, I am just saying the thought passed my mind when Independiente went down.
"I've been very happy at City since the day I came but I'm definitely going to back Independiente in a few years as I want to finish my career there."

Newcastle In Talks On Manchester City Defender
Not a day is going by now without Newcastle being linked to at least one player in advance of the January window.
The justification being that Newcastle United are a club that will once again do business in the winter window rather than summer.
A number of media organisations are claiming that Newcastle have held informal talks with Manchester City about their defender, Micah Richards.
While he has just less than two years left on his contract and hasn’t made a start this season under their new manager, I just can’t see how deals like this will, rightly or wrongly, ever come to pass under Mike Ashley.
Richards is undoubtedly a decent player and even if you take away his ambitions and the other clubs that would be sure to be interested, the talk is of a £15m price on the defender’s head and it is hard to imagine him taking a pay cut from the mega wages he’ll be on at Manchester City.
When we are linked with a foreign player I’ve never heard of and have to constantly check the spelling of his name when I’m typing, I always feel there is at least a very small chance there could be something in it.
When it is an established Premier League player on established Premier League wages at one of the top clubs…forget it.


David Silva says he's keeping calm about reports of a Manchester City exit
A few days ago, we found an article on the Mundo Deportivo website stating that Real Madrid and Florentino Pérez were already preparing their winter transfer window player list, and amongst them were names such as Sergio Agüero, Ramires and Falcao.
This same article also linked Manchester City's star attacking midfielder David Silva to the Spanish giants: “The name of David Silva, a player Real Madrid have also been linked with in the past, has reemerged, and a reported bid of €60m could be made in order to acquire the Spaniard's services. However, this bid, if ever made, is most likely scheduled for next summer”.
It seems that the rumours have reached the player and in an interview on Cadena Cope's “El Partido de los 12” (the same radio show that broke the Thiago to Bayern Munich story), David Silva took some time to clear the air on the rumours surrounding him: “I prefer not to say anything on the subject. I'm very happy in Manchester and I think this is similar to what happens every year. There are always rumours and, in the end, the player has to be calm. I renewed my contract because I am happy over there (in Manchester).
The ex-Valencia player signed a five year contract extension last summer with the Manchester club, taking his contract to June 2017.
To us, this seems exactly like what David Silva said: the yearly “Real Madrid to sign someone big and spend even more money than they already have” rumours. Manchester City fans, I really wouldn't worry too much.
This all seems to be stemming from Özil's departure; something a lot of Real Madrid fans are struggling to understand.

[spoiler]Elena Gómez, Javi García's Girlfriend
[/spoiler]
Manchester United manager David Moyes plans to strengthen his midfield with a January move for Derby County's England Under-21 international Will Hughes, 18. Independent

Spain international striker Fernando Llorente, 28, could join Arsenal from Juventus in January. Daily Mirror

Fulham's Switzerland Under-21 midfielder Pajtim Kasami, 21, is being lined up by Italian club Juventus. Daily Express

New Galatasaray boss Roberto Mancini wants to sign Manchester United's Ecuador international Antonio Valencia, 28, for £12.5m in January. Daily Express

Galatasaray chairman Unal Aysal has encouraged Chelsea to make a bid for their Turkey forward Burak Yilmaz, 28. talkSHIT

Juventus striker Carlos Tevez has urged Manchester United captain Nemanja Vidic, 31, to quit the club and join him in Turin. Metro

Norwich City's Premier League target this season is a top-10 finish, says chairman Alan Bowkett. Norwich Evening News

Sunderland's new manager Gus Poyet has promised the Black Cats fans a team to be proud of. Daily Mirror

West Brom's injured keeper Ben Foster has praised his stand-in Boaz Myhill. Express and Star

Liverpool owner John W Henry believes the return of Kenny Dalglish as a non-executive director will help the club become the dominant force in English football once again. Liverpool Echo

Ex-Montenegro striker Andrija Delibasic, 32, says England cannot handle pressure. Daily Star

Ex-QPR full-back Jose Bosingwa, 31, says his former manager Harry Redknapp is "confused" and accused him of "thinking he is Alex Ferguson". Independent

Berti Vogts tried to convince a 16-year-old Wayne Rooney to play for Scotland, when the German was coach of the national team. Sun

Lothar Matthaus, captain of the West Germany team that won the 1990 World Cup, says it is "outrageous" that court papers with his name on were returned with the word 'deceased'. Daily Mirror

MORE BOLLOX SOON

[Peter Doherty (AGAIG)]

The media seem determined to sell at least one of our players to Franco's Fascists in January. Can't imagine why.

[Hutch's Shoulder]

I will get excited when they print 'Garcia to RM in record deal'

[Dronny]

I will get excited when they print 'Garcia to RM in record deal'

As long as his missus hangs around then I've got no qualms with that

[simon12]

The media seem determined to sell at least one of our players to Franco's Fascists in January. Can't imagine why.

RM €541m in debt with their short term debt (has to be paid back within a year) at €100m and they still keep getting linked with these players? Oh I forgot.....that's ok.

[Sideshow Bob]

not sure if this has been posted elsewhere, but it shows how poor our pressing game was against bayern munich.

http://vimeo.com/76215979

[MilnersJaw]

That muller bit about city strikers sounds half right. dzeko lazy useless cunt when we didn't have possession, forgot he was playing til the beast came on.

[Beefymcfc]

That muller bit about city strikers sounds half right. dzeko lazy useless cunt when we didn't have possession, forgot he was playing til the beast came on.

Did Aguero play that night?

[MilnersJaw]

Did Aguero play that night?

Why you asking questions you know the answer to?

[Dameerto]

Where did that snippet about players and staff donating to help with the cost of away tickets come from, Chinners old chap?

PS - I swear I'm dyslexic, every time I read the name of the chairman from Galatasaray I see it as Anal Uysal.


EDIT: I've just seen stevefromdonny's thread - forget I asked - I still think I'm dyslexic though.

[Wonderwall]

Liverpool owner John W Henry believes the return of Kenny Dalglish as a non-executive director will help the club become the dominant force in English football once again. Liverpool Echo

Deluded, why always deluded?

[City64]

looks like we are in for one of them weekends when all sorts of shit is being stirred up about us by the rag media .

[Beefymcfc]

Did Aguero play that night?

Why you asking questions you know the answer to?

I'm just wondering why you singled out a single player when the reality was that the whole system was a failure with Aguero looking as lost as the rest.

[Blue Since 76]

Deluded, why always deluded?

It's not his fault. It's never his fault.

[zuricity]

I'm just wondering why you singled out a single player when the reality was that the whole system was a failure with Aguero looking as lost as the rest.

Furthermore unless the entire team does pressing up the field, it's pretty pointless Edin or Sergio continously chasing back. They need their freshness and speed in attacking situations. Running and chasing back would tire them out for any switch onto offensive play . How often did we see Robben chasing back ? Not a regular activity for him.

[I Just Blue Myself]

I'm just wondering why you singled out a single player when the reality was that the whole system was a failure with Aguero looking as lost as the rest.

Furthermore unless the entire team does pressing up the field, it's pretty pointless Edin or Sergio continously chasing back. They need their freshness and speed in attacking situations. Running and chasing back would tire them out for any switch onto offensive play . How often did we see Robben chasing back ? Not a regular activity for him.

Nobody's talking about chasing BACK. Sticking closer to a player around the centre circle/in the opposing half (in this particular instance Lahm) to limit his time on the ball & passing angles hardly constitutes chasing BACK.

Of course, whether our forwards are to blame depends on the (lack of) instructions they received. As we don't know really have an idea, it's most reasonable to look for a scapegoat & since Dzeko seems to be the flavour of the week/month/year/decade, the comments are hardly surprising.

PS: Robben didn't have to chase BACK, because he was harassing our defenders without pause.

[zuricity]

Nobody's talking about chasing BACK. Sticking closer to a player around the centre circle/in the opposing half (in this particular instance Lahm) to limit his time on the ball & passing angles hardly constitutes chasing BACK.

Of course, whether our forwards are to blame depends on the (lack of) instructions they received. As we don't know really have an idea, it's most reasonable to look for a scapegoat & since Dzeko seems to be the flavour of the week/month/year/decade, the comments are hardly surprising.

PS: Robben didn't have to chase BACK, because he was harassing our defenders without pause.

Lahm played in midfield not defense, we played with two strikers on a back three. Keeping themselves free of the defenders is more important when we break than chasing Lahm . We had enough midfielders who weren't doing their jobs.

[Blue Since 76]

Lahm played in midfield not defense, we played with two strikers on a back three. Keeping themselves free of the defenders is more important when we break than chasing Lahm . We had enough midfielders who weren't doing their jobs.

We didn't have enough midfielders - that was the problem. Dropping Aguero into the hole to mark Lahm would have helped resolve the poor team selection without having to make a sub. Leaving the pair of them up front twiddling their thumbs was suicide.

I thought Muller was excellent in pulling our defence all over the place and making the room for Ribery and Robben. Whilst I'm not sure our forwards worked hard enough, there was hardly any point in pulling their defence out of shape considering we couldn't get the ball past the centre circle anyway.

[I Just Blue Myself]

Nobody's talking about chasing BACK. Sticking closer to a player around the centre circle/in the opposing half (in this particular instance Lahm) to limit his time on the ball & passing angles hardly constitutes chasing BACK.

Of course, whether our forwards are to blame depends on the (lack of) instructions they received. As we don't know really have an idea, it's most reasonable to look for a scapegoat & since Dzeko seems to be the flavour of the week/month/year/decade, the comments are hardly surprising.

PS: Robben didn't have to chase BACK, because he was harassing our defenders without pause.

Lahm played in midfield not defense, we played with two strikers on a back three. Keeping themselves free of the defenders is more important when we break than chasing Lahm . We had enough midfielders who weren't doing their jobs.

Yes, Lahm played in midfield, that's why one of our strikers should've stuck to him. Dzeko & Aguero could've even taken turns, so as not to tire out. He picked the ball up in his own half & could spray it around with nobody bothering him all game.

And as Blue Since 76 already pointed out, we didn't have enough midfielders, which makes our forwards doing fuck all even more criminal.

I don't know what kind of back three you are talking about tho. Bayern played a back four of Alaba - Dante - Boateng - Rafinha.

[Dameerto]

Lahm had been given a 'Pirlo with attitude' role presumably to try and ping his trademark diagonal balls left and right when needed but we couldn't get the ball into their final third for them to take it off us very often.