Gerrard Confirms
Liverpool Exit With USA His Next Destination
Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard has officially confirmed
his decision to leave the Premier League to ply his trade in the MLS in the
United States of America. Gerrard announced on Friday that he would
be leaving his boyhood club after 17 years of service to the first team, but
has revealed that he will continue playing in a different league and country.
Real Sociedad boss David Moyes and Southampton boss Ronald Koeman have both
stated their desires to welcome the former England captain to their teams, but
the 34-year-old has now put an end to all uncertainty by confirming that he has
already decided to move to America. “I’ll be going to play in USA. I’m not over
the line with any team yet. I’m close & as soon as I know, I’ll make the
announcement,” Gerrard told LFC TV. The Liverpool captain has also promised
that he will continue to give his best for The Reds until his contract ends in
June, and will try to end his illustrious career at Anfield with some
silverware. “I’ll live with the pressure and the responsibility for another six
months and try my best to add one or two more trophies,” he said. “Hopefully
it’s more of a ‘see you soon’ rather than a ‘goodbye’.”
Paris Saint-Germain
coach Laurent Blanc has handed two-game bans to Edinson Cavani and Ezequiel
Lavezzi for returning to the club four days late from their winter break. The
attackers, who have both been linked with moves away from the capital outfit,
missed a training camp in Morocco, prompting Blanc to take disciplinary action.
“Lavezzi and Cavani will train away from the group until Saturday and will
not participate in the next two games,” Blanc said. “It is
unacceptable. When one puts his personal project above the collective I can
become a bit radical.” When asked about their possible exit, Blanc
replied: “There may be movement. Purchases, loans, sales, but it’s a bit
too early to talk about.” Blanc was more direct on his desire to keep
midfielder Adrien Rabiot, a reported loan target of Tottenham Hotspur. “I
want to keep Rabiot. He re-signed, he is part of the future. But it is a very
complicated issue.”
Injury has ruled both
Medhi Abeid and Essaid Belkacem out of the African Nations Cup finals in a
double blow to Bafana Bafana’s opponents Algeria. Abeid’s possible withdraw
because of injury had been muted over the last weeks with uncapped Ahmed Kashi
of Metz placed on standby as a replacement for the Newcastle United player. But
defender Belkacem was also formally ruled out at the weekend after a medical
examination by Algeria’s team doctors as the squad began their preparations for
the tournament in Equatorial Guinea, which starts on January 17. Belkacem was
injured playing for his Turkish club Trabzonspor last month. Algeria will
compete in Group C at the Nations Cup against Ghana, Senegal and South Africa.
Their opening game is on January 19 against Bafana in Mongomo.
Midfielder Hatem Ben
Arfa’s contract with Newcastle has been ended by mutual consent, the club have
confirmed. It paves the way for the 27-year-old to move to French side
Nice. The Ligue 1 club said on Saturday that they had reached “an
agreement in principle” with the Frenchman. He signed for Newcastle from
Marseille in January 2011, and had spent this season on loan at Hull but the
proposed season-long deal was ended early. Afterwards former Newcastle manager
Alan Pardew said the Frenchman would not return to St James’ Park. Nice,
coached by Claude Puel, are currently 11th in Ligue 1.
Tony Pulis has been appointed head coach of Premier League
strugglers West Bromwich Albion.Pulis, 56, has agreed a two-and-a-half-year
deal with the Baggies. The ex-Stoke and Crystal Palace manager is the club’s
fourth head coach in a year, following Alan Irvine’s sacking. Pulis, who
managed Stoke from 2006 to 2013, steered Crystal Palace clear of relegation
trouble last term. A strong second half of the campaign saw them finish 11th,
while Pulis won the Premier League manager of the year award, but he quit two
days before the start of this season. He joins West Brom with the club just one
point above the relegation zone after former head coach Irvine was placed on
gardening leave on Tuesday having won only four of his 19 league games in
charge.
Alan Pardew has officially been
announced as the new head coach of Premier League outfit Crystal Palace. The
53-year-old replaces Neil Warnock, who was sacked last week Saturday, leaving
his role as head coach of Newcastle United. Pardew, who has coached Reading,
West Ham, Charlton and Southampton in the past, was thrilled with his
appointment, having spent four years as a midfielder for the club from
1987-1991. “I am absolutely delighted to be the new manager of Crystal
Palace,” he said. “Everyone knows my history here, what’s important now is to
move the club to the next level. I believe with the backing of Steve and the
board I can help achieve that and create some new exciting history for the
club.”
Afcon hosts
Equatorial Guinea have fired coach Andoni Goikoetxea just two weeks before the
start of the tournament. Goikoetxea, a former Spanish international, had
been in charge for the past two years, but was shown the door after the
election of a new president for the Equatorial Guinea Football Federation
(FEGUIFUT) last week. The newly-elected president Andres Jorge Mbomio announced
Goikoetxea’s sacking, but gave no reasons for the decision. A lack of positive
results by the national side in recent regional competitions, as well as two
friendly losses in warm-up games in Portugal last week against Villafranquense
and Benfica’s B team, seemed to have made up the national association’s mind in
not renewing Goikoetxea’s contract, which ended on 31 December. The fact that
he did not travel with the side to their warm-up games in Portugal did not help
his cause either. Argentinean coach Esteban Becker is set to take over the
reins for the upcoming African Cup of Nations. Becker, 50, was previously in
charge of Equatorial Guinea’s women’s team, who he led to the 2012 Nations Cup
title.
Manchester City
striker Sergio Aguero looks set to make his comeback from injury against
Arsenal on January 18, according to Citizens manager Manuel Pellegrini. Top
scorer Aguero has been sidelined with a knee problem since early December. However,
Pellegrini revealed the Argentine is nearing a return.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has confirmed Lukas Podolski
and Yaya Sanogo will leave the club on loan deals in January as the club begin
their business in the mid-season transfer window.Podolski will move
to Inter Milan after being pictured shaking hands with manager Roberto Mancini
and posting a parting message to Gunners supporters via Instagram. The Germany
international has not made a single start in the Premier league this season and
his future at Arsenal is uncertain, with just a year remaining on his contract
when he will return to the Emirates Stadium at the end of this campaign. “He
is going to Inter Milan on loan,” Wenger confirmed after Arsenal’s 2-0 FA
Cup win over Hull City on Sunday 4 January. “We got a decent agreement and
of course I have so many options up front that he was frustrated will not
getting a chance in the team, which you can understand at his age.” The
future of Sanogo is however bathed in uncertainty after Wenger confirmed the
France Under-21 international would also be loaned out but insisted he prefers
the player moves to a Premier League club rather than abroad. Bordeaux manager
Willy Sagnol said over the weekend a deal to sign Sanogo until the end of the
season was “on the right road” but Wenger would prefer to see the
player move closer to home. “Yaya is here at the moment. He is different
from [Lukas] Podolski – Podolski was frustrated,” he added. “Sanogo
needs more experience at the top level in the Premier League. He’s ready to
play but we have so many options up front that it’s difficult to play. “Personally,
I said that many times I prefer the Premier League. That’s still the
case.” Amid a host of departures, Arsenal are expected to make at least
one signing in the January window, with the club’s back four requiring surgery
with just six senior defenders available to Wenger.
Italian outfit AC
Milan enter 2015 brimming with confidence following their 4-2 friendly victory
over La Liga giants Real Madrid in Dubai last Tuesday night. Despite being
a friendly clash, the Dubai Challenge Cup featured numerous stars from Madrid’s
Galactico squad, including Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, James Rodriguez and
Karim Benzema. Yet it was the Italians who emerged victorious, thanks to a
brace from talented forward Stephan El Shaarawy sandwiched in between Jeremy
Menez’s opener and Giampaolo Pazzini’s late header, despite Ronaldo and Benzema
finding the back of the net for their more-fancied opponents.
Arsenal manager
Arsene Wenger has called for new measures to battle the issue of players diving
in order to win the referee’s favour during matches. Wenger has strongly
stated his disfavour of players diving, and has now called on the English FA to
implement new measures to stop players from getting away with it. The Gunners
boss has suggested that a panel of experts be tasked to analyse whether dives
were intentional or not, and players should then be punished immediately after
being reviewed. “We should punish diving after the game,” said Wenger. “The
problem will be to decide when it was obvious or not because sometimes it is
not obvious. There should be a panel and the most suited to this are people who
have an experience in the game. They should punish only the obvious cases, not
mixed ones. Naming those guilty alone doesn’t work. You have to suspend the
players. I don’t know how long for, it depends, but the only way that the
players will stop doing it is if they feel they can get punished,” he added. Wenger
has also called on players to play with honesty rather to play by trying to win
the referees favour in critical areas of the field, and explains that coaches
talking to their players about diving will not help. “You have to choose
between being clever and being honest and that is a bad solution. What you want
is for a player to play with honesty. Once the players start to dive or not to
dive, it makes it difficult for the referee. Even if you talk to the players
who have that in them, they will do it in the game,” he said.
Barcelona say they
will assess their legal options after the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s
(CAS) upheld their transfer ban. The Catalan giants were handed a
two-window ban a few months ago for supposed illegal transfer of a number of
youngsters. They subsequently took their appeal to CAS but have not found any
luck. The club said in a statement: “FC Barcelona wishes to state, with all due
respect for the sports authorities, that it totally disagrees with the verdict
of CAS announced on Tuesday to confirm the sanction originally imposed by FIFA
as a consequence of the alleged breach of regulations on the international
transfer of minor footballers. The club has made it clear to the FIFA
Disciplinary Commission, the FIFA Appeals Commission and the CAS itself that it
understands and supports the policy on the protection of minors and the concern
for the protection of their development and education. This is confirmed by how
the club has acted throughout its history, setting an example around the world
for the way its young footballers are schooled and educated, and the work that
is done on their development. FC Barcelona’s youth structure has enabled
hundreds of young players to achieve their dreams and receive a decent
upbringing. The errors that the club might have committed, and which have been
recognised and argued before the corresponding authorities are, in all cases,
of an administrative nature and to a large extent have been caused by the
existing conflict between the FIFA regulations and Spanish legislation, along
with the club’s conviction that it was acting correctly. Therefore, FC
Barcelona considers the sanction to be completely disproportionate as it
supposes an excessive punishment for the club, when considering its trajectory
and the circumstances of this specific case. In this regard, where the judicial
grounds for the CAS decision are announced, the club shall proceed by studying
and evaluating the different legal options available, among others the
possibility of appealing against the CAS arbitration to the Swiss Federal
Courts.”
Bafana Bafana’s Afcon
rivals Senegal are coached by a puppet, according to disgruntled striker Demba
Ba. The Besiktas star failed to make Alain Giresse’s provisional 28-man
Teranga Lions squad for the CAF showpiece, taking place in Equatorial Guinea
from January 17 to February 8. Senegal boast a host of top quality forwards
such as Mame Diouf, Diafra Sakho, Moussa Sow, Sadio Mane and Papiss Cisse, but
clearly Ba is upset at his omission. “I am not here to say if some of the players
deserve or not to be there, but when I see some of the names chosen ahead of me,
I do not agree,” Demba Ba said. “Looking at this list, it seems that we are not
dealing with the coach of a national team but rather with a puppet. It is clear
that he didn’t take some of the decisions. Following our defeat in Tunisia, he
was in the changing room, with a dazed look, not knowing how to start his
speech. I insist that we are not dealing with a coach but with a puppet.”
Forty-five thousand
fans flocked to the Vicente Calderon to welcome Fernando Torres back to
Atletico Madrid. The 30-year-old striker has rejoined his boyhood team on
an 18-month loan from AC Milan, who signed him permanently from Chelsea last
month. Torres has struggled for form ever since leaving Liverpool for Stamford
Bridge in 2011 but he is revered by Atleti supporters for his 91 goals in 244
outings for the club. “Just over seven years since we parted, today we are
here at last and for me this is a very special and exciting day,” Torres
said at his unveiling on Sunday. “I know that I have come to a team of
champions. This team is very competitive; I have enjoyed the victories from the
outside. Last season [winning the title] is an example of what this club is. I
am delighted to be back because it is always nice to come home.” He added:
“Personally I am more mature and happy. I have my family and that’s the
most important thing to me. On a sporting level I left as a boy aged 24; I
needed to leave for the club and myself to grow. It was the hardest decision of
my career but thankfully time has proven us right. We have grown, the club has
won titles and I have got the titles I sought. But I am looking forward to
being here because I have many things to win.” Torres could begin his
second stint with the La Liga champions with a match against Real Madrid in the
Copa del Rey on Wednesday.
AC Milan have
completed the loan signing of winger Alessio Cerci from Atletico Madrid. As
was widely speculated, Cerci makes the move in the wake of Fernando Torres’
return to Atletico from Milan in late December. Cerci, who represented Italy at
the 2014 World Cup, was unable to impress for Rojiblancos this season after
shining for Torino last term. The 27-year-old was the only player in Serie A to
sport double figures in both goals and assists in 2013/14, scoring 13 times and
providing 12 assists.
Real Madrid’s 22-game
winning streak in all competitions ended with a 2-1 League loss at Valencia on
Sunday. Real, who set a Spanish record with their victorious run, took the
lead through a Cristiano Ronaldo penalty 14 minutes in at the Mestalla.
However, Valencia hit back after the break via a deflected strike from Antonio
Barragan and towering header by Nicolas Otamendi. The result kept Los Blancos a
point ahead of Barcelona at the summit after 16 games apiece. Barca later lost
1-0 at Real Sociedad due to an early own goal from Jordi Alba, leaving them
ahead of Atletico Madrid – who beat Levante 3-1 on Saturday – in the standings
on goal difference.