Take it to the Bridge? |
 |  | | |
| |||
"ROMAN ABRAMOVICH TO REFUSE TO SELL WAYNE BRIDGE TO MAN CITY"
Roman Abramovich will gain his revenge on Manchester City's highrolling sheikhs by refusing point-blank to sell Wayne Bridge to them.
The Chelsea owner is still seething over City's dramatic capture of Brazilian superstar Robinho on transfer deadline day and wants to teach them a lesson.
Red Rom was made to look a pauper with his nose pressed against the transfer window when City owner Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan's wealth lured Robinho to Eastlands for a recordbreaking £32.5million fee.
The Brazilian had been courted by Chelsea all summer and looked sure to move to Stamford Bridge from Real Madrid - until the mega-wealthy Sheikh waved his wad.
Sheikh Mansour, whose personal wealth is more than £33billion, is confident City will land the England left-back when the transfer window opens in January.
But sore loser Abramovich will do everything in his power to keep the player at Stamford Bridge.
And that has thrown City boss Mark Hughes into a transfer crisis with two of his three top targets now off-limits.
The Bridge veto follows Blackburn's refusal to sell Paraguay striker Roque Santa Cruz, leaving Hughes a clear run at only Portsmouth's Lassana Diarra.
City power-broker Garry Cook has yet to make contact with opposite number Peter Kenyon over Bridge.
But with Chelsea's hierarchy still smarting over City's smash-and-grab raid to pluck Robinho from their clutches, it will be a short conversation when it happens.
Abramovich is prepared for a power struggle to hold on to Bridge, even though he is only a fringe player in Luiz Felipe Scolari's squad. The defender signed a new £75,000-a-week contract in the summer but Ashley Cole remains Scolari's first-choice left-back.
City rate Bridge at around £7m but that won't come close to tempting Chelsea to sell.
Mail on Sunday
"Man City 3 Arsenal 0: No heart and no hope as Wenger’s kids are given the runaround"
Arsene Wenger's season is now collapsing all around him as Arsenal slumped to their third defeat in four games, being utterly outplayed by Manchester City, who took full advantage of their opponents' current fragile mental state.
The beautiful vision, of a team of young men with sublime skill playing their way to a Premier League title, has been crushed by the eager foot soldiers of Fulham, Hull, Stoke, Aston Villa and now City.
Wenger's team is a delicate creature at the best of times, without the drama that enveloped them this week. So when William Gallas squeezed the last vestiges out of what was left of their already minimal team spirit, courtesy of his criticisms of teammates Samir Nasri and Robin van Persie, is was perhaps predictable what would follow.
It has earned Gallas the sack as captain, a ban from the team and the prospect of a transfer in January. Yet, it is one thing to exile Gallas; quite another to replace him.
All over the pitch, Arsenal currently lack bite and verve and removing their most physical presence, however insidious his behaviour, has only depleted them.
At times in the second half, they looked hopelessly lost as Robinho, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Stephen Ireland swamped their midfield.
And this from a City team supposedly experiencing their own crisis of confidence, with just one win since September in the Premier League. Wenger may argue that yesterday they lacked Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Adebayor and Theo Walcott because of injuries, and new captain Cesc Fabregas through suspension.
Nevertheless, their complete capitulation was alarming. Gallas is expected to remain out of the side for Tuesday's Champions League clash with Dynamo Kiev but Wenger faces an invidious decision. They cannot afford to drop more points without him or face an early exit from the Champions League.
Yesterday's goals neatly demonstrated the dilemma. The opener, at the end of an anodyne first half, illustrated the vacuum at the heart of Arsenal's defence. In the first instance, Benjani should not have been allowed the space to play in Ireland, but neither Denilson nor Alex Song saw fit to close him down.
Johan Djourou had the chance to tackle Ireland, but was brushed aside as the midfielder homed in on goal. Gael Clichy raced across to cover but in doing so, not only mis-kicked his clearance but collided with Mikael Silvestre, thus taking both players out. Ireland was left to amble on and audaciously chip the onrushing Manuel Almunia, who looked alarmed to see his defence simply melt away in front of him.
The second came on 56 minutes when Van Persie and Wright-Phillips clashed in midfield. The City man emerged the winner, seemingly more aggressive. He glided towards goal and again neither Denilson nor Song, the two holding midfielders, were able to halt his progress.
When Wright-Phillips unselfishly fed Robinho to his left, clean through on goal, you knew how it would finish; an impudent chip past the sprawling Almunia and an ecstatic City of Manchester Stadium. City swept on, and at times Arsenal looked utterly overwhelmed. Robinho had a 'goal' disallowed for a marginal offside on 66 minutes after Almunia had fumbled.
Out-of-favour fellow Brazilian Elano, reprieved by manager Mark Hughes as a 72nd-minute substitute for Darius Vassell, almost made an instant impact. His beautiful throughball sent Robinho bearing down on goal again but although he rounded Almunia and slid the ball towards the net, Djourou cleared off the line.
But Djourou clumsily brought down Daniel Sturridge in the area on 90 minutes and the humiliation was complete. Arsenal barely protested and the City youngster stepped up to convert for a deserved third.
In fairness to Arsenal, City had little to commend them in the dour first half. Both teams looked on the verge of a nervous breakdown, with poor results and internal dissent having struck both camps. Arsenal's best chance came on 35 minutes when Nasri's free-kick was parried by Joe Hart. Nicklas Bendtner reacted fastest and produced a wonderful back-heel to set up Song from six yards but the Cameroonian shot wastefully wide.
However, there was little else to offer. No midfield sparkle, no attacking edge and certainly no defensive steel.
In the dying minutes, Van Persie, alone and isolated up front, managed to kick the ball as Hart prepared to clear downfield. Though a sublime skill, it was of course an illegal one. Van Persie finished the move off, hitting the net and then looked anguished and distressed when referee Alan Wiley predictably disallowed it. It seemed like the last desperate act from a hapless team.
Toure tipped to bolster defence |
 | | | |
| |||
"Hughes eyes out-of-favour Touré"
Manchester City have added Arsenal's out-of-favour defender Kolo Touré to their list of targets in the January transfer window. An extensive recruitment programme will kick off with City offering Blackburn Rovers around £15m for Roque Santa Cruz but Mark Hughes has also identified a weakness in defence and sees Touré as a replacement for either Richard Dunne or Micah Richards.
Dunne has made a series of costly errors this season while Richards has been unable to emulate the level of performance that saw him break into the England team last year. Hughes has also been alarmed by Tal Ben Haim's form since signing from Chelsea in the summer and the City manager believes Touré can shore up a defence that has conceded two or more goals in seven of the last eight games.
Whether Arsenal would be willing to let him go remains to be seen but it has become apparent that Arsène Wenger has lost confidence in the 27-year-old since the closing stages of last season. Wenger brought Mikaël Silvestre from Manchester United in August and, when fit, Touré has found himself relegated to the role of third-choice centre-half behind Silvestre and William Gallas.
Claudio Ranieri, the Juventus coach, says Gianluigi Buffon will not move to Manchester City for £63m: "Manchester City's offer for Buffon? Well, if we wait a bit maybe the number of millions will reach 100. No, joking apart, Gigi remains with us. He will not go anywhere."
........which leads us to another Mirror 'exclusive'......
"Manchester City line up £60m for Juventus keeper Gianluigi Buffon - Exclusive"
World Cup winner Gianluigi Buffon is ready to move to Manchester City, if they go ahead with an astonishing £60million bid.
City's super-rich owners are willing to treble the Juventus goalkeeper's wages with a £240,000-a-week contract that would make him the best-paid player in the world.
Buffon, 30, has told Juve to accept the money and buy a new team with it.
He said: "If a club is willing to pay that much for you, it would be fair to say I will tell the club and my agents to make the deal happen. Juve can go and buy a team full of champions of their own."
City's £60million bid is almost twice the British record signing they set when landing Robinho in August.
Juventus coach Claudio Ranieri said: "Manchester City's offer for Buffon? Well, if we wait a bit maybe the number of millions will reach 100. At the end of the season we could even reach 150!
"No, joking apart, Gigi remains with us."
But with £60million on offer, Ranieri's bosses may disagree.
Turning to today's game, it seems there's off-the-field turmoil at Arsenal:
The Independent
"Outspoken Gallas loses captaincy"
William Gallas was yesterday stripped of the Arsenal captaincy and ordered not to board the team bus for today's Premier League match away to Manchester City. The decision was taken by Arsène Wenger after a team meeting at lunchtime following Gallas's outburst attacking other Arsenal players including Robin van Persie.
Amazingly, Gallas returned to the attack yesterday by criticising another Arsenal team-mate, Samir Nasri, and detailing, in his autobiography which has just been published, a bust-up with the midfielder while the pair were on international duty during Euro 2008.
Wenger felt he had to act to try to halt the crisis that is in danger of engulfing Arsenal's season following the stuttering start to their League campaign – with four defeats – and serious injury to Theo Walcott and claims of divisions and arguments fuelled by Gallas. The manager had wanted to stand by the 31-year-old, as he has done in the past, particularly after the defender's petulant sit-down protest against Birmingham City last season, but, according to sources, felt he had to act because of the strength of feeling from other players over Gallas.
Last night Arsenal refused to comment on whether Gallas had travelled north but it's understood that he has been excluded despite the squad already been depleted by the absence of Kolo Touré and Bacary Sagna through injury, with Cesc Fabregas suspended. Either Johan Djourou or Alex Song is likely to deputise with Manuel Almunia captaining the side.
Wenger has told the players it is a temporary measure and he hopes to reinstate Gallas but it is believed he is considering making an alternative long-term appointment, such as Fabregas or Gaël Clichy, with Gallas likely to leave at the end of the season if not before. In his outburst in an interview earlier this week, Gallas did not name van Persie but offered clues about a player who, he claimed, had sworn at him and verbally abused others and was involved in a half-time clash in the dressing room during the 4-4 draw with Tottenham Hotspur last month.
That interview was part of the promotional work for Gallas's autobiography and the book itself contains revelations that will have upset Wenger. Gallas, once again, doesn't name the player he clashed with but says it is a midfielder and refers to him as "S". Sources said yesterday it was Nasri. Gallas said that he and "S" had argued during a training session after the defender had scolded the midfielder for not calling out when he made a pass, with the ball falling behind Gallas who then claimed he was sworn at by his team-mate and told to "worry about your own game".
"They think they know everything but they know nothing," Gallas said of France's young players, just as he had criticised Arsenal's. "I was also 20 years old once. I would never have allowed myself to speak in this tone to a footballer who was older than me. The youngsters from the Euros seem cheeky, very sure of themselves. They think they know it all, but they don't know anything.
"Faced with his contempt, I raised my voice. The young player said, 'Lower your voice, speak less loudly'. I replied, 'How are you speaking to me? Who do you think you are? You are only 20 years old. I am not your friend'." The player then replied, "I'm not your friend either" with Gallas adding: "Straight away, I see red." The argument continued when the players boarded the team bus following training when "S" took Thierry Henry's seat and refused to move. Gallas called the player "insolent" although he finally did change seats.
In his book Gallas talks about leaving Arsenal and finishing his career in France having already said he may quit the club if a trophy isn't won this season. "It's true that I'd like to return to France for one or perhaps two seasons to finish my career," Gallas said. "But if I go it won't be to just anywhere. I'd go to a big club or nowhere at all. It would be Marseille, Lyons, PSG or, let's not forget, Bordeaux."
Schmeichel set for Gunners' start |
 | | | |
| |||
'Schmeichel handed keys to City'
Mark Hughes' desire for an experienced goalkeeper to challenge Joe Hart has been reinforced by the England international's two-week enforced absence with an ankle injury, though Kasper Schmeichel has been told that Hart's position will be his for the toughest 10 days in Manchester City's season.
Hughes has been given permission by the Premier League to sign a temporary replacement on loan in Hart's absence and will follow that route, despite the former Sweden goalkeeper Magnus Hedman's apparent uncertainty about joining City. But Schmeichel, who was initially preferred to Hart by Hughes' predecessor, Sven Goran Eriksson, has the force of personality to cope with Arsenal tomorrow and the Manchester derby eight days later, with the Uefa Cup visit to Schalke sandwiched in between. "He's a good young keeper and got [his chance now] on merit," Hughes said of Schmeichel yesterday. "He's a young man with huge self confidence. That's a great strength, even though on occasions maybe that confidence in a young keeper is a negative. He's working extremely hard. He and Joe [Hart] bounce off each other and drive each other on."
The clean sheet Schmeichel kept in last season's Eastlands derby which City won 1-0, before he went out on loan to Cardiff City and Coventry City, will undoubtedly help. For his part, Hedman, 35, claimed he had turned the club down as he feared he was not in the right condition. "They want me to sit on the bench for this weekend's game, but I need at least two weeks' training," he told the Swedish website Sportbladet. "But my answer of no is not definitive. I need to think about it further."
Hedman, who played for Coventry between 1997 and 2002, spent a short period on loan at Chelsea in November 2006 but did not make a first-team appearance and is not currently at a club.
Ahead of tomorrow's clash with the Gunners, Arsene Wenger's men look to be turning up at the City of Manchester in the middle of a spot of infighting, which I'm sure the City fans will be able to play on from the stands come 3pm as The Daily Telegraph tells us...
'Arsenal captain William Gallas exposes rifts at Emirates Stadium'
William Gallas is no stranger to an emotional outburst, but even he would be forced to admit that his latest effort will take some beating.
The Arsenal captain launched a withering assessment of Arsene Wenger's side's campaign so far, questioning his young team-mates' stomach for a scrap and revealing that rows on the pitch and in the dressing room are threatening to derail Arsenal's season.
Gallas, speaking while on international duty with France, says he was called upon to cool heads at half-time in the 4-4 draw with Tottenham and in another, unnamed Premier League game when two colleagues exchanged abuse.
The former Chelsea defender – who believes his chequered diplomatic history makes him a target for any criticism directed at the club – would like his bickering colleagues to show more maturity. "There are things that can't be said and can't be tolerated. When, as captain, some players come up to you and complain about a player and then during the match you speak to the one who has been criticised and he insults us, there comes a time when we can no longer comprehend how this can happen.
"I am trying to defend myself without giving names, otherwise I take all of the blame. It's very frustrating. I'm 31 and the player in question is six years younger than me.
"Against Tottenham, there was a problem at half-time. The only thing I could say to them was that we resolve these problems after the match, not in the break."
The picture painted by Gallas is of a squad more concerned with battling each other than some of their less illustrious opponents. It is clearly an issue which cuts the Frenchman to the quick. A fine display and two Samir Nasri goals may have put Manchester United to the sword, but limp defeats to Hull, Stoke, Fulham and, most recently, Aston Villa have all but finished off Arsenal's title challenge.
And so Gallas has issued a captain's cri de coeur, imploring his talented team-mates to make sure they add steel to the silk for which Wenger's sides have become famous. Without that, he fears, their already faint title hopes will disappear altogether.
He said: "We have to understand that to be champions, you have to play big matches every weekend and fight. Maybe against Manchester, the whole team fought for victory. But when you stop fighting together, there comes a time when the midfield will sink and the defenders can also sink. That's what happened against Villa.
"We are coming up against teams who are not scared to play football against us, who are not scared to take us on at our place, and this is becoming dangerous. We are not brave enough in battle. I think we need to be soldiers. We have to be warriors."
Gallas admitted that Wenger does not seem unduly concerned by his team's form – or, if he is, manages to "hide it well" – but the French international is certain that should Arsenal continue to lack fighting spirit, their title drought will continue this season.
They have not won the league since 2004 or a competition of any kind since the following year. Failure to unlock the trophy cabinet this season would make this period the worst Arsenal have endured for 25 years.
And that is not good enough, Gallas insists, for either him or an outfit of the Gunners' stature.
He said: "I have to win something this year. I have to. Arsenal have to. It's nearly four years since we won anything and that's not good.
"Another season without winning anything would be a kind of failure. But for me, the title is not over. It's true that we are nine points behind Chelsea, but you have to be optimistic. You can't give up.
"Four defeats is a lot but it's a long season. I think it will be very tight this year and we will have to hope that Chelsea draw a few and lose a few. We will have to see if I will stay if we don't win the title. We don't know what will happen between here and then."
Gallas on dressing-room unrest:
“When, as captain, some players come up to you and talk to you about a player ... complaining about him ... and then during the match you speak to this player and the player in question insults us, there comes a time where we can no longer comprehend how this can happen. I am trying to defend myself a bit without giving names. Otherwise I’m taking it all [the blame]. It’s very frustrating. I’m 31, the player is six years younger than me.”
Gallas on Arsenal’s draw with Tottenham:
“There was a problem at half-time. The only thing that I could say at half-time was ‘Guys, we resolve these problems after the match, not at half-time.”’
Gallas on Wenger’s kids compared to Ferguson’s home grown crop:
“They can have [the same success]. The problem is that the Manchester [United] youngsters have been through something, they have won something. [Today’s big contracts] make the difference, perhaps. You can rest on your laurels, that’s for sure.”
Gallas on danger of speaking out:
“There are things that can’t be said and can’t be tolerated.”
Gallas on Arsenal’s title bid:
“We have to understand that to be champions, you have to play big matches every weekend and fight. We are coming up against teams who are not scared to play football against us, who are not scared to take us on at our place, and this is becoming dangerous for Arsenal. We are not brave enough in battle. I think we need to be soldiers. We have to be warriors. There are teams who can do it well against us, and we have to be able to face up to these attacks. That is how they will forge their character, and how they will get experience. Even though they’ve played a certain number of matches, they’re still young and still learning.”
Gallas on Arsenal’s three season without a trophy:
“I have to win something this year. I have to win something, Arsenal has to win something. It’s four or five years since Arsenal won anything — 2004 [the league title]. That’s nearly five years, and that’s not good. For me the title is not over, it’s true that we are nine points behind Chelsea, but you have to be optimistic and you can’t give up.
“[Four defeats] is a lot, but it’s a long season. I think it will be very tight this year and we will have to hope that Chelsea draw a few games and have a few defeats.”
Gallas on Arsenal’s lack of fighting spirit:
“Maybe, against Manchester [United], it was the whole team that fought for victory. But when you stop fighting together, there comes a time when the midfield will sink, the defenders, unfortunately, can also sink. That’s what happened against Villa.”
So who's in the frame?
With Gallas revealing that the player who he clashed with was 25 and most of Arsenal's squad barely 21, the finger of suspicion will inevitably point towards 25-year-old Robin van Persie or the 24-year-old Emmanuel Adebayor, if the Frenchman has got his sums a bit wrong.
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น