Liverpool’s Spanish goalkeeper Pepe Reina has given the clearest indication that he will still be between the sticks at Anfield next season.
With his future under the spotlight earlier this season as a result of Liverpool’s dreadful start, suggestions were made thatthe goalkeeper was considering his options.
Reports on caughtoffside.com taken from LFC Weekly quote Reina talking about next season with the club, “We didn’t start this season, or last, the best – and next time we need to make sure that doesn’t happen”.
The former Villarreal keeper is in his sixth year with the Merseyside club and refused to clarify his future earlier this season, fuelling speculation he would consider his options in the summer.
Reina has been linked to Premier League rivals Arsenal and Manchester United in the last couple of years and the Premiership title chasers could well inquire again this summer.
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However the 28 year old gave a further clue that he would be with the Reds next term, “We need to be consistent with the aggression, commitment – everything. And if we get the balance right, we’ll be a lot closer to where we want to be.”
According to the Professional Footballers’ Association, a top England player would have earned a total of around £1,600 a year in wages, bonuses and international match fees in 1957. Nowadays that money is the equivalent of about £75,000, or the amount that many average Premier League players would earn in a week.
Manchester City’s Yaya Toure is reputed to earn more than £250,000 a week, along with Wayne Rooney and teammate, Carlos Tevez. What’s more, the Ivorian apparently receives £823,000 as a bonus if Manchester City, as it seems they will, qualify for the Champions League this season, and a further £400,000 if they win the competition, plus a £1.65m annual salary for his image rights. Toure is certainly a top-class talent, and has proved an important purchase for the current campaign, but it is worth mentioning that City signed the midfielder following a season in the shadows at Barcelona where he only started 13 games for the Catalans. He has played for the likes of Olympiakos, Monaco and Beveren previously, but is now amongst the highest paid players in not just the Premier League, but Europe.
The consensus opinion has relaxed recently, a contrast to the day when Bryan Robson became the first £1,000 a week footballer in 1981 to the backdrop of public outrage, and extortionate wages are considered an accepted part of the modern, global footballing phenomenon. Football has no wage cap, unlike the wealthiest sports in America, and clubs can pay what they like, buy who they like and sell who they like, which begs the question, how can such excess ever be justified in the name of football?
The counter argument is that the current nature of the sport implies that footballers are entertainers on a similar scale to singers or actors, and are therefore earning legitimate sums when compared with their Hollywood counterparts. In February, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, Gordon Taylor, defended the size of his union members’ wage packets at a government inquiry in to the running of football. Taylor explained: “The game is about players. It’s the players who people pay to watch. I don’t think anybody goes to see a film and complains about Brad Pitt’s wages, or a potential Oscar winners’ wages, and the same if you go to an Elton John or a Take That concert. I’ve never heard a fan yet say it’s terrible the money they get.”
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Like actors, a footballers’ value fluctuates based on form or what clubs they have or do play for, or the equivalent of what films an actor has recently starred in. The problem, however, isn’t necessarily the amount a player receives for his services, but the length of time he is contractually obliged to perform. It doesn’t make sense that a footballer can maintain such exorbitant wages when the quality of their performances alter month by month. It is common for a player to demand a pay increase following even a handful of good performances, but they are never quick to accept a wage reduction for poor form.
This point came to my attention last weekend when the Argentinian striker, Franco di Santo, scored his first Premier League goal in 18 months, a 90th minute consolation in Wigan’s 4-2 defeat by Sunderland. This is di Santo’s third full year in English football and he has now recorded a goal ratio of one every year-and-a-half, having failed to find the net for Chelsea, but did score once on loan at Blackburn – a header in a 3-2 victory against Burnley in October 2009. Ordinarily, I don’t think it’s fair to evaluate the worth of a striker based purely on goal-scoring, seeing as there are several other important aspects to the trade, but di Santo’s record represents a disgraceful return for a forward who contributes very little in other departments too. The Wigan number 7 definitely takes home a healthy sum considering his incompetence at the job he makes his living from, and in fact was denied a loan move to Feyenord before he joined the Latics last summer because the Dutch club couldn’t even afford a percentage of his wages.
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The wage structure in England, despite several incongruities, is probably a lot closer to being fair than not. The best players are entrusted with the most confidence and are subsequently offered the most money for the longest time. A journey down the Premier League table, and even further down the football league ladder, demonstrates that the lower the quality of player, the less he will be earning for a reduced amount of time, which in theory is completely logical. In practice, this may be harming the room for lesser clubs to expand and improve, but isn’t different from the principles evident in any other branch of the entertainment industry, from working on Hollyoaks to working in Hollywood.
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Lassana Diarra has had a strange career since leaving Arsenal back in 2008.
The French midfielder played weekly at Portsmouth, but then upon joining Real Madrid in an £18m move in 2009, he immediately began to sit on their bench, and has struggled to rise from it on many occasions. He happens to be the kind of player that Arsenal are lacking at the moment, in the sense that he is tidy and effective on the ball, and is effectively, the player that Arsene Wenger envisaged Denilson to be.
There would be real issues with Diarra coming back to the club though. He moaned incessantly about being on the bench for long stretches of the opening six months of the season, and eventually left in January having infuriated his team-mates and the manager to such a great extent with his attitude. His return would surely not be a popular one among the team, which is more important than his relationship with the supporters.
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The Frenchman has grown up since he left Arsenal though. He excelled immediately after he left and that was what won him a move to Real Madrid. One could easily argue that when you join a club of the stature of them, with the circus that surrounds them, it was inevitable that he would not have the success that he craved. Unfashionable enforcers are generally not embraced in Spanish football, and consequently, Diarra has had a couple of season’s bench warming rather than time on the pitch.
The 26-year-old is a Premier League style player, and he is a player the likes of whom Arsenal have been missing over the last couple of seasons. In all probability, he would have started every game after the departure of Mathieu Flamini. Speaking purely practically, Diarra would be an excellent signing for us.
However, there is reason to suggest that there is no way he would ever return to North London. Wenger has a very strict policy on the re-signing of former players, and also there is no guarantee that Diarra will leave Madrid this summer. A lot will depend on the future of Jose Mourinho in the Spanish capital – the midfielder is the kind of player who would excel under his stewardship if given a greater chance. If a new manager came in for whom flair was more important than substance, then Diarra could leave.
His performance against Barcelona in the Nou Camp last week was the best of any player on the pitch. Whether that will convince Real Madrid to keep him, or whether Diarra wants to stay at all, is another matter though. However, what is most likely is that his next destination shall probably not be Arsenal.
Would you as fans like to see Diarra back at the club this summer?
Read more of Alastair’s articles at Gunnersphere
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FootballFanCast.com WORLD Exclusive, Robbie Savage’s Face in a Baby Scan
West Ham United are expected to appoint a new manager within the next three weeks after sacking Avram Grant yesterday. The Israeli, who also oversaw Portsmouth’s relegation to the Championship in 2009/10, was dismissed within hours of the Hammers’ 3-2 defeat at Wigan Athletic, a result which ended the side’s six-season stay in the Premier League.
The following managers have all been linked with the vacant Upton Park post, but which one is the right man to replace Grant?
Steve McClaren
The former England manager is currently the bookies’ favourite to take over the reins at Upton Park. After a dismal spell with the national side, the 50-year-old managed to rebuild his reputation on the continent after leading Dutch outfit FC Twente to the Eredivisie title for the first time in their history in 2010. He soon moved on to German side Wolfsburg, but was sacked in February after just nine months at the Bundesliga club.
After rising to prominence as Sir Alex Ferguson’s number two at Manchester United, McClaren performed minor miracles with Middlesbrough and led the Teesside club to a League Cup triumph (the club’s first major honour) in 2004 and a UEFA Cup final in 2006. These successes were largely forgotten after his tenure with England, and West Ham United could provide him with the perfect opportunity to restore his domestic reputation.
Chris Hughton
Harshly sacked by Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley earlier this season, Chris Hughton was hotly-tipped to take the vacant West Bromwich Albion job after Roberto di Matteo’s dismissal, but his desire to bring his own backroom staff with him meant that he eventually lost out to Roy Hodgson.
He admirably guided Newcastle back to the Premier League at the first time of asking, leading the Magpies to the Championship title despite the departures of high-profile players such as Michael Owen, Damien Duff and Obafemi Martins. West Ham United owner David Gold has already admitted that he expects the club’s England internationals to leave this summer, and Stratford-born Hughton, a lifelong West Ham fan (he also spent two years at Upton Park as a player in the early 1990s), could be the man to rebuild a depleted squad.
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Martin O’Neill
The 59-year-old has been out of work since leaving Aston Villa in August over disagreements with club owner Randy Lerner. O’Neill enjoyed a successful spell at Villa Park, as he presided over three successive sixth-place finishes. He has won silverware with both Leicester City and Celtic, including two League Cups, three Scottish league titles and three Scottish Cups.
O’Neill was heavily linked with the club earlier this year, but is alleged to have changed his mind about replacing Grant in January after club insiders leaked reports of his impending arrival. Whilst his earlier interest in the post would suggest that he is ready for a return to club management, it is unclear whether or not he would be willing to manage in the Championship.
Neil Warnock
Despite leading QPR to the Premier League in emphatic style, speculation suggests that Neil Warnock may find himself out of a job as the club’s owners seek a more glamorous name to take them forward in the top tier. Despite his chequered past with West Ham United, he has expressed his admiration for the club and its traditions and would relish the prospect of reviving the Hammers’ ailing fortunes.
Warnock has demonstrated tangible success at lower-league level, having achieved seven promotions with six different clubs.The controversial Yorkshireman has also shown that he can work well under high-profile owners at Loftus Road, and would be more than capable of dealing with messrs Brady, Gold and Sullivan should he decide to make the switch from west to east London this summer.
Sam Allardyce
Like Martin O’Neill, Sam Allardyce has already seen himself linked with the Upton Park post this season. However, unlike O’Neill, Allardyce has failed to garner support amongst the club’s supporters. West Ham fans are fiercely proud of the club’s tradition for playing free-flowing, attacking football, and this style may be at odds with Allardyce’s more direct style of football.
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Despite this, Allardyce has shown himself to be as an effective manager at Bolton Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers. Whilst he may not ensure entertainment, he almost certainly guarantees results, and a move for Allardyce could be a wise one if the club’s owners are intent on securing a swift return to Premier League football.
Who would you like to see replace Avram Grant? Let me know below or on twitter.
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Sepp Blatter said he will bear no grudge against England following their attempts to delay the Presidential elections. The non-election sees Blatter retain his position as the head of FIFA for the next four years and although another sixteen associations followed England’s suit in abstaining from the voting; the 75 year-old declared ‘Don’t worry about the English’ in his victory speech.
In the papers this morning we have seen a mixed bag of stories that include Bent aiming to prove he is England’s No.9; Wenger targets tall players, while Berbatov insists he will not quit Manchester United.
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I will not bear a grudge against the English, insists Blatter – Guardian
Bent aims to prove he is England’s No 9 – Daily Telegraph
Hughes’ Fulham deal expires as Houllier’s exit opens the door to Villa Park hotseat – Daily Mail
Hiddink hints Chelsea return is on cards – Guardian
Messi: I’ll never play In Prem Lge – Sun
Wenger targets tall players to end Arsenal’s wait – Guardian
I will not quit United – Berbatov – Mirror
Allardyce stunned as takeover tale overshadows his first day at West Ham – Daily Mail
Liverpool lead £13m chase for Sunderland midfielder Henderson – Daily Mail
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Spurs midfielder set for £7m move to Italy – Mirror
With 123 players alone being released by Premier League clubs after last season, the competition to find a new club is fierce. But former Manchester United midfielder Owen Hargreaves has taken an interesting step to finding a new contract by releasing a series of online videos to prove his fitness. But will Hargreaves’ attempt to find a new club work and what lengths will players go to find a new club?
Hargreaves spent four injury-ravaged seasons at Manchester United, making only 39 appearances (and just 11 minutes of playing time in the last two campaigns) and the 30-year-old is now looking for a new club to try and prolong his career.
The series of 20 YouTube videos show the midfielder running, working in the gym and briefly kicking a football. Hargreaves’ efforts bare a resemblance to Michael Owen’s brochure back in 2009. After his contract at Newcastle United expired Owen sent out a 32-page document to a number of top clubs. The pages included Owen’s career history, a medical review and labeled him a ‘global football star’.
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Such a tactic, like Hargreaves’ videos, could be seen in two ways. Both came from players with stalling careers and this could be seen as a desperate last attempt to find the right club when their football on the pitch couldn’t sell themselves to prospective employees.
Or it may be an innovative way for players to promote their talents, with Hargreaves clearly aware of the worldwide appeal of the internet and sites like YouTube. With the public using these websites to show off their skills (e.g. the very popular singing videos), why shouldn’t footballers take advantage of the same tools?
Maybe soon we will see footballers leaving a message on sites like Twitter and Facebook in an effort to find a new club?
Owen’s brochure may have been a risky move but the same summer he earned a move to Manchester United. It is unclear whether the document had anything to do with Sir Alex Ferguson taking a risk on Owen but maybe the new lengths players go to attract a new football club do actually work?
There is very little chance that Hargreaves’ videos will attract the interest of a team like his previous club United but there have been reports linking Hargreaves with a move to the MLS with Toronto FC or Vancouver Whitecaps. This move could give Hargreaves the chance to resurrect his career and fitness away from the glare of English football.
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Whether Hargreaves’ self-promotion works as well as Owen’s remains to be seen but for now he may have to put up with comments and views on his videos, rather than professional contracts.
Uruguay won their first Copa America crown since 1995 on Sunday after a comprehensive 3-0 win over Paraguay in Buenos Aires.Uruguay, the 2010 World Cup semi-finalists, hit Gerardo Martino’s Paraguay with two goals in the first half at the Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti, courtesy of strikers Luis Suarez and Diego Forlan.
Atletico Madrid man Forlan completed his brace moments before the final whistle as Uruguay sealed a record 15th success in the South American continental competition.
Oscar Tabarez’s side made their intentions known right from the start, as Suarez went close with a shot from inside the six-yard box.
Controversy ensued moments later when Diego Lugano powered a header from inside the penalty area and Nestor Ortigoza appeared to stop the ball with his hand, drawing strong penalty appeals from Uruguay.
They were denied a certain spot kick by referee Salvio Spinola Fagundes Filho, but in the 11th minute, Uruguay had their opener.
Liverpool’s Suarez made his way down the right flank and unleashed a stinging shot, which deflected off Dario Veron and over the line.
Uruguay had a chance to make it 2-0 near the half-hour mark when Suarez released Forlan with an excellent through-ball, only to be denied by Justo Villar.
Minutes before half-time Uruguay did double their lead.
Egidio Arevalo stole the ball in midfield, and found an unmarked Forlan, who made no mistake this time as he powered a scintillating finish in the right corner of the net.
It could have been 3-0 in the 55th minute, when Suarez threaded a pass for Forlan near the penalty spot, but Veron made a vital interception and deflected the ball out of danger.
Paraguay enjoyed their best chance shortly before the hour mark, when Nelson Valdez powered a shot against the bar from outside the box.
The Hercules forward had another opportunity moments later when Cristian Riveros found him with a good ball from the right wing, but the Valdez failed to convert from close range.
Uruguay kept pushing for a third, with substitute Edison Cavani forcing a spectacular save from Villar with 11 remaining.
It was left for Forlan to put the finishing touches on a deserved victory, completing his brace with a cool finish in injury time, following a pass from Suarez.
Japan twice came from behind to secure a dramatic penalty shootout victory in the final of the Women’s World Cup on Sunday.Heavy favourites the USA took the lead in regular time and in extra time only for Japan to equalise on both occasions to take the final to penalties.
The Americans then missed their first three spot-kicks as Japan snatched a 3-1 victory in the shootout to secure their first major women’s football title.
After having the better of the early exchanges, it was not until the 69th minute that the USA had something to show for their dominance.
Megan Rapinoe sent a speculative long ball down the middle of the pitch, and striker Alex Morgan out-sprinted the Japanese defence and fired home a left-footed shot from the edge of the area to put the USA ahead.
But just as the Americans looked like they would hold on for their third Women’s World Cup title, Aya Miyama capitalised on a blunder in the US defence to poke home an equaliser with nine minutes left.
Goalscorer Morgan turned provider in the first period of extra time, with her cross from the left-hand touchline finding the head of striker Abby Wambach, who made no mistake from close range.
But with defeat again staring them in the face the Japanese refused to relent, and tournament leading scorer Homare Sawa netted her fifth goal of the campaign to again draw Japan level with three minutes left.
Miyami’s cross to the near post was met by a leaping Sawa, whose back-heeled flick took a slight touch off Wambach before nestling in the back of the net.
Japan’s Azusa Iwashimizu was sent off in the final minute of extra time, but the USA failed to score from the resultant free-kick sending the match into penalties.
Shannon Boxx, Tobin Heath and Carli Lloyd all missed their spot kicks to give Japan the early advantage, and despite American goalkeeper Hope Solo’s save off Yuki Nagasato, Saki Kumagai stepped up to deliver the killer blow and give Japan a historic victory.
Rumours circled for the last year or so about the destination of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s future. The Southampton youth academy talent – another shining star that they have produced, to add to the list of fantastic players in recent years – was linked with Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal over the last few months, but it is Arsenal who have finally captured the youngster. Since he burst onto the scene Oxlade-Chamberlain has been hyped by the media, but now the media frenzy is set to get even worse. Let’s hope they don’t destroy his chances of making it, given how many other young players have suffered the same fate.
Chamberlain is just 17, which is a very tender age, and he needs to be looked after well. Arsenal was the youngster’s preferred choice, and given their ability at bringing through young talent it seems a wise one. He is the same age as Theo Walcott was when he was prematurely selected for the World Cup and placed under huge degrees of pressure as the media declared him England’s next big star. Walcott has shown flashes of brilliance since, but not to the extent to which he was hyped by the media, which is why the press need to be careful not to place unreasonable expectations and pressure on a young player’s shoulders.
Chamberlain is slightly different to Walcott in some ways as he has been plying his trade in the lower divisions more regularly and for longer than Walcott did, he even managed to get into the PFA League One Team of the Year, so the hype surrounding him is not completely without foundation. Southampton themselves did a very good job of making sure his early progress was low key, not mentioning him to local media or hyping him up, but quietly integrating him into the side. Of course once you see the player, it is easy to get carried away because of the talent he possesses, but we have to remember that he is just 17, and declaring him the saviour of the nation, or its next big star is not going to be something helpful to his development. It could build up unreasonable expectations within the player’s mind, and negatively effect his progression. The worst thing would be for the player to believe his own hype, and think that he’s world class before he is. However, he does seem to have the right sort of people around him to keep him grounded, and not get too carried away.
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Oxlade-Chamberlain needs to be given time to develop, and if the hype gets too much, and he is too built up, then he is unlikely to get that. Fans will likely get frustrated and have too high expectations, if he is constantly hailed by the media, but slow to impress on the pitch. People will be quick to take him down if he gets into the Arsenal side and fails to make an immediate impression. There will simply be no patience if the tabloid journalists continue to over-hype him. For Oxlade-Chamberlain, the best move could even be a loan back to Southampton for another year, as he needs to be playing regularly to aid his development. and it could take him out of some of the sharp media spotlight for a while.
In England it seems that any remotely half-decent footballer is hyped to extraordinary extents, and when they fail to live up to these unreasonable expectations they are seen as a failure. So many youngsters who have gone before have failed to live up to their billing by the media. Players like Danny Cadamarteri, Neil Mellor, and Jody Morris, were all hugely hyped and proclaimed as the next big thing, yet all slipped into the relative obscurity of the lower leagues. Perhaps these players weren’t cut out for top flight football, but it is more likely that they struggled to cope with the pressure placed upon them by the British media.
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To overhype a young player is simply not fair, but it seems it’s now an ingrained feature of our national media. Given how many players have fallen by the way-side before, here’s hoping the press don’t destroy Chamberlain by overhyping him. It’s not fair on the player, and he needs to be given the best opportunity to maximise his talents and develop away from the harsh media spotlight. Otherwise he could be just another talent who fails to live up to his potential.
Let me know your thoughts on the press hype surrounding Oxlade-Chamberlain by commenting below. Follow me on Twitter @LaurenRutter for more debate.
An eclectic and eccentric view of football, business and management by media entrepreneur Chris Ingram.
Let’s face it they call it “Soccer” (or “Soh-cerr”) which always brings a patronising smile from football fans in Europe.
Lets’ get our bragging rights out there now: There is only one truly global sport: football. The English Premier League is received in 206 countries which is more countries than there are members in the United Nations (197). It’s enough to impress anyone, particularly Americans who, for all their talk about “World Series” don’t have a truly international sport at all.
But forget the gloating, the answer is less straight-forward than it seems.
I’m in New York regularly but it was only this Spring that I was calling on investment bankers with the subject of sport very much in mind. I was exploring avenues for funding having recently taken a controlling stake in Sports Revolution, the sports media and marketing group.
The size of the American market and the huge amount of money there has enabled specialist expertise in funding to be created that would be unprofitable anywhere else. I’d come across investment banks specialising in media years ago when I was building the international media agency, CIA. This depth of expertise also exists in Sport. I only visited four firms but discovered that, between them, they had arranged just about all the funding for the Glazer acquisition of Man United and the Hicks and Gillett purchase of Liverpool. Now you can criticise one or both of those deals for being over-leveraged or whatever but what impressed me was their huge knowledge of the Premier League, the issues and `who was doing what to whom’. Here I was 3,000 miles away on the other side of the Atlantic and these guys knew more about the Premier League than most directors of Premier League Clubs. Because I didn’t realise this, it made for some initially very confusing conversations. I was talking about “Soh-cerr” whilst they were saying “football” which I thought meant their American Football, whereas they were talking about well, football. (That’ll teach me to be so patronising). Anyhow, I rapidly learned that most of these guys were only interested in deals worth more than a billion dollars, which at this stage of the Company’s development was way out of my class.
Nevertheless, behind the big investment banks wanting to do big, high profile corporate deals sits a large number of high net worth individuals who want their bank to come up with some “fun investments” to go with the solid, reliable investments which take up most of their money. So, at the end of one of my meetings, I was amazed to hear one director ask:
“Hey, do you know of any interesting Championship sides that are available? Three or four of my clients want to have some fun and they’d like to buy a club between them”.
And by extraordinary chance, at my very next meeting, I met a much smaller investment bank where I learnt that they’d already invested in a famous Championship Club on exactly that basis (without much success to date, as it happens. But that’s another story).
The point of this story is that some Americans know a great deal about our beautiful game and the reason why, is that they’ve learnt that there is a huge amount of money in football and in New York they do money very, very well.
Chris Ingram is as passionate about football as he is about business. Owner of Woking Football Club, and a majority shareholder in the fast growing sports media business Sports Revolution, Chris is one of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs.
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Recently celebrating 50 years in the media industry and still actively involved with Woking, Chris is ideally placed to comment on the business side of football.
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READ more of Chris Ingram’s work at our Football Business Section