Ferdinand Labels
Moyes’ Tactics “Embarrassing”
Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has heavily
criticised former boss David Moyes for his “negative vibe” and “embarrassing”
tactics when in charge at Old Trafford. Ferdinand, who recently left
the Red Devils for QPR, worked under the Scottish manager last season, as
United finished a dismal seventh place in the English Premier League standings.
And the defender did not hold anything back in aiming harsh criticism at his
former boss. “He tried to impose a vision but never seemed to be completely
clear what that vision should be,” Ferdinand said in an extract from his
autobiography #2Sides, which is being serialised in The Sun. “Unintentionally,
he created a negative vibe where, with Fergie [former United coach Alex
Ferguson], it had always been positive. It was always how to stop the other
side. Moyes set us up not to lose. We’d been accustomed to playing to win.” The
experienced defender questions the tactics Moyes tried to instil at the Theatre
of Dreams. “Moyes’ innovations mostly led to negativity and confusion,” he
revealed. “The biggest confusion was over how he wanted us to move the ball
forward. Often he told us to play it long. Some players felt they kicked the
ball long more than at any time in their career. “Sometimes our main tactic was
the long, high, diagonal cross. It was embarrassing. In one home game against
Fulham we had 81 crosses! I was thinking, why are we doing this? Andy Carroll
doesn’t play for us! “The whole approach was alien. Other times Moyes wanted
lots of passing. He’d say: ‘Today I want us to have 600 passes in the game.
Last week it was only 400’. Who cares? I’d rather score five goals from 10
passes.”Ferdinand faced a humbling return to Old Trafford as his new side were
convincingly beaten 4-0 by his former employees over the weekend, leaving QPR
in 16th position on the log with just three points from four matches.
Zimbabwe’s bid to
host the 2017 CAF Africa Cup of Nations finals has received a major boost
following the commitment by two ministries to support the venture in cabinet. The
minister of sport and culture, Andrew Langa and the minister of hospitality and
tourism Walter Mzembi have both pledged to give the bid the backing in cabinet
for the much needed government guarantees. “This is an opportunity we cannot
afford to miss. We will back the bid in cabinet,” says Mzembi, who is also
dreaming of Zimbabwe hosting the 2034 World Cup. The Zimbabwe Football
Association are considering replacing Libya who have withdrawn from hosting the
competition for security reasons. Initially Libya were supposed to have hosted
the 2013 tournament but then chose the 2017 contest for the same reasons. South
Africa then stepped in to host the 2013 finals which were won by Nigeria. The
Confederation of African Football has given September 30 as the last day for
prospective candidates to submit their bids, and the Zimbabwe Football
Association are hoping to get the government guarantee by the end of this week to
submit an official bid. Zimbabwe won the right to host the 2000 Africa Cup of
Nations but the tournament was taken away by Caf on the grounds that the small
southern African nation’s football stadiums were not up to standard to host
such a competition. Zimbabwe has not hosted any major international football
competition apart from the regional Cosafa Cup which they hosted and won in
2009, and the East and Central Africa Challenge way back in 1985. The only
major international event Zimbabwe has hosted was the 1995 All Africa Games
whose football section was won by Egypt. South Africa are the only southern
African nation to have successfully hosted the Africa Cup of Nations after
doing so in 1996, 2010, and 2013.
Ghana coach
Kwesi Appiah has been axed from his position, after being in charge for
two-years, for failing to guide the national team out of the group stage at the
2014 World Cup in Brazil. According to media reports the Ghana
Football Association says it “agreed to mutually part ways” with
Appiah at a meeting on Friday. Ghana picked up just one point from three
matches and failed to get out of its group for the first time at a World Cup.
Manchester United
boss Louis van Gaal has revealed that he allowed England striker Danny Welbeck
to leave as he did not quite make the grade at Old Trafford. Welbeck, who
sealed a deadline-day transfer to Arsenal, is a youth product of the Red
Devils, and scored 29 goals in 142 matches since his senior debut at United in
2008 – a record which the new Dutch coach was unimpressed by. “Danny Welbeck
was here since he was nine,” van Gaal said. “He plays three seasons at
Manchester United after [a loan spell at] Sunderland but he doesn’t have the record
of Van Persie or Rooney. That is the standard but that is why we let him go
because [of] Falcao but also the youngsters who can fit in.” Manchester United
have brought in world-renowned frontman Radamel Falcao, who has scored 155
goals in 200 games in European football, on a season-long loan, and van Gaal is
excitedly awaiting the Colombian’s official debut in England. “When you can
hire or buy a player like Falcao, I don’t have doubts because he is for me one
of the best strikers in the world and when you see his record it is
unbelievable,” the United boss beamed. “He confirmed it in his first training
session with me. Today in training he got one ball and it was in the
goal.”
Belgium goalkeeper
Thibaut Courtois has penned a new deal at English club Chelsea, keeping him at
Stamford Bridge for the next five years. The 23-year-old, who had spent the
last three seasons on loan at reigning La Liga champions Atletico Madrid,
extended his current deal with the Blues on Thursday, and was delighted with
his new contract. Courtois looks to have replaced regular shot-stopper Petr
Cech in the Chelsea goal, with the Czech glove-man remaining in London despite
interest from across Europe in the transfer window. Courtois’s extension may
result in the veteran keeper looking for a way out of the Bridge come January.
Portugal are on the lookout for a new
coach after Paulo Bento tendered his resignation. The 45-year-old has come
in for severe criticism after a 1-0 home Euro 2016 qualifier defeat to lowly
Albania, which came on the back of a woeful World Cup in Brazil. The Portuguese
Football Federation (FPF) confirmed the news, saying: “We appreciate all that
Paulo Bento did for the Seleccao, particularly in getting Portugal to Euro 2012
and World Cup 2014. “The FPF is already working on a structured solution to
address our team and that will be known soon. Thanks again to Paulo
Bento.”
Manchester United reported a record
£433.2m in annual revenue and profits of £23.8m for the year 2013/2014.
Despite United’s struggles on the pitch last season – which saw them finish
seventh in the league and fail to qualify for European football for the first
time since 1990 – the Red Devils enjoyed a financially productive year. United
vice-chairman Ed Woodward said: “We are very proud of the results achieved
in fiscal year 2014 as we once again generated record revenues. “With
Louis van Gaal at the helm as manager, and the recent signing of some of the
world’s leading players to further strengthen our squad, we are very excited
about the future and believe it’s the start of a new chapter in the club’s
history. The English giants appointed Louis van Gaal as manager in the
off-season following David Moyes’s ill-fated 10-month reign at Old Trafford.
Former Leeds United
striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink is interested in the managerial vacancy at the
Championship club following David Hockaday’s sacking last week. Hasselbaink
guided Antwerp to a seventh-placed finish in the Belgian second division last
season, while he also coached briefly at Nottingham Forest in 2011. The
42-year-old, who scored 42 goals in 87 games for Leeds between 1997 and 1999,
told TalkSPORT: “Leeds United is a wonderful big club where I had two
great years. If they want to talk to me, of course I would talk [to them].
Another ex-Whites forward Robbie Fowler has also been linked with the job at
Elland Road. Caretaker manager Neil Redfearn is expected to remain in charge
for Saturday’s trip to Birmingham.
Arsene Wenger could
throw inexperienced youngster Hector Bellerin into Arsenal’s starting line-up
after injuries and illness may have ruled out a trio of defenders. Mathieu Debuchy suffered ankle ligament
damage in Saturday’s draw with Manchester City, which could keep him sidelined
for two months. Meanwhile, Nacho Monreal did not travel with the squad due to a
back complaint, while Calum Chambers is a doubt with tonsillitis. The absentees
could force Wenger to turn to Bellerin, who has featured just once for the
Gunners as a late substitute in last season’s Capital One Cup victory over West
Brom. The 19-year-old spent the second half of last term on loan with Watford,
where he made just eight appearances in the Championship. “I don’t feel we are
stretched. The Debuchy injury put us in a position where we do not want more
and hopefully we have good news after the scan today that he can be back soon,”
said Wenger. “We have Chambers who can
play in different positions, Monreal who can play centre-back and Bellerin, who
I think now is ready to play. He is a boy with personality. He’s not fazed by
the pressure. That’s important when you’re a young boy. His transitional game
is fantastic. He’s quick and his final ball is good. He lacks a bit of
experience but he’s very dangerous.”
Borussia Dortmund boss Jurgen Klopp has
revealed that Manchester United legend Sir Alex Ferguson has admitted he failed
to get the best out of Shinji Kagawa during his spell at Old Trafford. The
Japanese international arrived in England with a big reputation, but endured a
miserable time in Manchester, making most of his United appearances from the
bench and scoring only six times in 38 games for the club. Ferguson, who signed
the 25-year-old playmaker, told Klopp he was disappointed things didn’t work
out for Kagawa in England and accepted some of the blame ‘Shame we [United]
didn’t manage this well so that it worked out for him [Kagawa]. We were
satisfied in the first year,’ he told the German manager. ‘In the second year
you usually make the next step but he didn’t manage to do it. We should have
made it work.’ Ferguson may well be right to regret not getting the best out of
Kagawa, as the midfielder enjoyed a dream return to Dortmund, capping off an
excellent all-round performance with a goal.
Mesut Ozil was so excited about meeting Hollywood star Samuel
L Jackson at the weekend that the midfielder praised the actor on social media
for being an Arsenal fan – before doing a U-turn upon realising he is actually
a Liverpool supporter. Jackson was at the Emirates Stadium on
Saturday to watch The Gunners take on Manchester City – a game that ended 2-2 –
before meeting several of the Arsenal players after the clash. And after
getting a photo with the A-list actor, Ozil quickly took to Twitter to show the
snap to his followers alongside the caption: “Samuel L Jackson: he doesn’t only
know a lot about good movies, but he also supports the best football team! 😉
#AFC”.
Unfortunately for the Germany international, he later
realised that Jackson is not an Arsenal fan but instead a supporter of the
club’s Premier League rivals – Liverpool – which resulted in Ozil having to
re-post the tweet with a different caption. It seems nothing is quite going
right for the little German…
Tottenham Hotspur
fans flocked to social media on Monday evening to express their bemusement at
Younes Kaboul being named as the club’s new captain – ahead of Hugo Lloris and
Jan Vertonghen. Spurs announced that coach Mauricio Pochettino had decided
to appoint the 28-year-old as the team’s new skipper – with goalkeeper Lloris
and striker Emmanuel Adebayor being named as vice captains. The Tottenham boss
revealed he had chosen Kaboul because he had shown him ‘all the values needed
to be a captain’ and said the Frenchman had ‘the character to lead’ the team. While
the player himself expressed his pride at being given the captaincy of the club
that he has been at since 2007, the decision to pick Kaboul over France captain
Lloris and fellow defender Vertonghen resulted in a mixed response from fans on
Twitter.
Chelsea are close to
making Eden Hazard their highest-paid player after offering the Belgium
international a new £200,000-a-week, five-year contract – double his current
weekly salary. Negotiations between Hazard’s lawyer and Blues bosses are at
an advanced stage, with the 23-year-old expected to put pen to paper on his new
big-money deal within the next few weeks, according to The Mail. The Belgian’s
new contract will be worth about £10million over the next five years, and has
been offered to the player in a bid to ward off interest from suitors Paris
Saint-Germain and Real Madrid. Hazard joined Chelsea from French side Lille for
£32million in 2012 after some impressive displays for Les Dogues in Ligue 1. The
winger has since gone on to become an important component of The Blues’ team –
and was named the club’s player of the year last season.
Barcelona star Pedro
has put Arsenal and Liverpool on red alert after reports surfaced that the
winger is ready to quit the club in the new year after growing concerned that
he’ll be left as a luxury back-up to Luis Suarez. The Spaniard, who has not
completed 90 minutes for Barca this season, is believed to be worried that he
will sink even further down the Barcelona pecking order when the Uruguayan
returns from suspension, and Fichajes.net claims that the 27-year-old would be
keen to listen to offers from both the Gunners and Brendan Rodgers’ Reds when
the transfer window re-opens in January. Arsene Wenger has tried to lure Pedro
to the Emirates before, and the attacker would certainly relish the prospect of
teaming up with former colleague Alexis Sanchez in the Gunners’ attack. Liverpool,
meanwhile, would see the Spanish winger as an ideal replacement for the
departed Suarez, and Pedro has the Champions League pedigree the Anfield club
are looking for having returned to the competition.
Former Liverpool boss
Rafael Benitez has revealed that Fernando Torres played a key role in
convincing Raheem Sterling to swap QPR for Liverpool. Liverpool started
trying to persuade Sterling to move to Anfield when he was just a 16-year-old
schoolboy, and Benitez believes that a chance meeting between the England
youngster and Torres was what sealed the deal. “We invited Raheem to Melwood
and had a meeting with him and his mother,” the now-Napoli manager said. “I
walked around the complex with them and was showing them the facilities and we
got as far as the physio’s room. Fernando was there – and I think Steven
Gerrard, too. But definitely Fernando. I explained what Raheem and his mum were
doing and I told Fernando what we thought of the young player we had brought
in. He had a quick chat with him, asking how he was getting on. He was
interested in him.” Torres was at the peak of his goal-scoring powers at the
time, and Benitez is in no doubt that speaking to such a player helped lure
Sterling to Liverpool. “Raheem was really pleased – and you could see his mum
was, too – really impressed that the club’s biggest players had made a fuss of
him,” he added. Sterling went on to sign for £400,000 and, although Torres
incensed Liverpool fans when he left for Chelsea, this parting gift he left may
turn out to be one of the biggest bargains in recent memory.
QPR defender Rio
Ferdinand has called Chelsea captain John Terry ‘the biggest idiot’ for his
role in the race row involving his brother Anton, with the former-Manchester
United man also admitting that he is no longer on speaking terms with Ashley
Cole. The bad blood between the former England colleagues stems from an
incident that took place in a Premier League clash between Chelsea and QPR in
October 2011, when Terry was accused of racially abusing Rio’s brother Anton. Ferdinand
has spoken publicly about the issue for the first time in his autobiography
#2sides, and has revealed that he cannot forgive Terry for not putting a stop
to the matter by saying sorry. “He [Terry] never apologised to me or to Anton.
And he has never hinted that he has ever had a moment of understanding over the
damage his stupidity had inflicted on everyone,” Ferdinand says. “For me, the
biggest idiot will always be John Terry. As England captain and my centre-back
partner he could have saved everyone a lot of pain by admitting immediately he
used the word in the heat of the moment, but was not racist. I think that’s
probably what happened and what the truth is. Anton and I would’ve accepted
that – instead he never gave us a chance. That was the betrayal. He tried to
run away from what he had done.” Ferdinand has also directed his anger at his
childhood friend Ashley Cole, who he feels betrayed him and Anton by giving
evidence to help clear Terry of the charge of racial abuse. Although Terry was
found guilty by the FA to the tune of a £45,000 fine, Ferdinand has said his
friendship with Cole ended the day he gave evidence in Terry’s favour. “Ashley
Cole had long been a friend of mine. We’ve known each other since we were
kids,” Ferdinand said. “But for me it
ended the day he decided to go to court in support of John Terry. Anton rang me
and my head nearly blew off. He was betraying Anton, who he’d also known for
years.” Ferdinand does concede that he was wrong to brand Cole ‘a choc-ice’ for
his decision to support Terry over the Ferdinand family, but suggested that he
couldn’t help himself. “I shouldn’t have done it, but it’s what I felt at the
time”, Ferdinand admitted.