Manchester United striker Michael Owen has backed Wayne Rooney to bounce back from his poor showings at the World Cup.
The 24-year-old former Everton star failed to score in his four appearances in South Africa as Fabio Capello's team exited the tournament at the last-16 stage.
Rooney's displays were in sharp contrast to his form for United last term when he earned several player of the season awards.
However, Owen told the Daily Telegraph:"People talk about Wayne after the World Cup because he is Wayne, but there were other players who didn't perform at the World Cup too.
"People will inevitably focus on Wayne, though. He wasn't at the top of his game, for whatever reason – whether it was tiredness or because the rest of the team around him wasn't playing well.
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"He wasn't at his best but we all know he's a world-class player. After a few weeks off he will be back and scoring again."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger will make a goalkeeping announcement after the World Cup after admitting he is concerned by current number one Manuel Almunia's inability to handle pressure.
Wenger has been rumoured to be scouring the transfer market for a new number one throughout the summer following a series of goalkeeping blunders during the last campaign.
Spaniard Almunia and deputy Lukasz Fabianski both made high-profile mistakes last term and Wenger has been linked with moves for veteran Fulham shot-stopper Mark Schwarzer and Portugal international Eduardo.
The Frenchman is now set to make an announcement about the problem position and it seems likely that Almunia will lose the number one jersey to a new signing.
"Manuel Almunia is a talented goalkeeper," explained Wenger."In training, he is superb, the only problem is that he gets nervous on big matches, thereby making silly mistakes.
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"After the World Cup, we will be making an announcement on goalkeeping."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
New York City is – according to popular wisdom – the city that never sleeps. This isn’t true. It definitely sleeps. The problem is that on a Saturday night it gets to sleep very, very late, and really doesn’t like the prospect of getting up at 9 O Clock the following morning after a night of exuberant parting and peerless debauchery. This, unfortunately, was the position I found myself in on Sunday the 8th of August, as the 88th Community Shield clash between Chelsea and Manchester United kicked off in the home town I was stranded far away from, in an unflattering and inconvenient time-zone somewhere over a large and intimidating amount of water.
Having failed to be roused by any of my alarms, I woke up with a jolt at about 10:15, suddenly realizing I was missing something, like Macaulay Culkin’s mother seconds before it dawned on her that she’d irresponsibly left him in a large, dangerous, resource-filled house without the required adult supervision, and that it was far too late to get back to the Neverland Ranch in time now.
Having frantically flicked through all 8 billion channels on my hotel television to find none of them were the Fox Soccer channel – the only one I was aware of that was showing the game – I was left with the realization that my first experience of watching football in the land of the free was going to be curled up in bed like a dying sloth squinting desperately at a pixilated screen whilst being audioly assaulted by overenthusiastic Arabic commentary (the kind of commentary that never stops, no matter what, lest the viewer might suddenly switch off under the impression the game had unexpectedly finished.). And I was going to have to pay for this pleasure.
Unable to view enough of the game to do a satisfactory write up without blagging it massively (I generally need to have seen at least a 3rd of it to blag it coherently, or at best a brief highlights package) I decided my best bet was to wait until the second dead rubber game of the week – England vs. Hungary – and do a detailed, thorough, in depth, awe inspiring report on that instead.
Unfortunately, New York continued to live up to it’s billing as the City that took an awfully long time to get to sleep, and cometh the Wednesday, cometh the hangover, again. After stumbling to a corner café to eat yet another huge meaty thing that seemed to be made overwhelmingly from plastic cheese, an oversight on behalf of the person I was counting on to tell me the time (my $16 fake Chinese Cartier watch having melted the previous evening in a pool) I found that I had irresponsibly already missed quarter of an hour of this game too.
Now in a frantic dash, I power walked my posse of slow, pale, painfully hung-over Englishmen through the baking streets of New York’s East Village to find Nevada Smiths, a football church in the middle of a heathen land of homegrown nonsense. What would we have missed we wondered? Could it be 2-0, 3-0 already?…No, surely not. Hungary aren’t that good. Eventually arriving just as the first half ended we were reassured to find that the mighty England had valiantly managed to hold the fearsome Hungarians to a goalless stalemate in front of a jubilant crowd of 19 people. Phew. Time for a beer me thought.
Smiths was a greatly enjoyable football watching establishment, though like almost everywhere else in New York, it’s incredibly dark, like there’s some kind of city wide power conservation challenge on and the first bar to lift the level above dim looses. Filled with an eclectic mix of people all glued to one of the myriad of screens showing a variety of different games, it’s exactly the place I should – and had intended – to watch the might Shield in. On this occasion, Mexico vs. Spain understandably held pride of place on the central big screen, complete with a similar verbally diarrheic commentary team as my earlier Arabian stream. Often my attention would shift from the England game as a burst of wild high pitched enthusiasm wafted over my ears, only to find the ball was still in the center circle somewhere, and your man had just gotten incredibly excited by someone managing to dribble round someone else without one or both of them falling over dramatically.
England were relegated to two smaller screens above the bar, so at the bar we sat, next to a Scotsman and someone from somewhere in Scandinavia who was naturally the more comprehensible. This isn’t a slight on the Scotsman of course, being as it is that Scandinavians to a man speak English far better and clearer than 99% of people in the British Isles.
Before long it I felt a little pang of reassuring home comfort, as England looked rubbish and conceded – yet also didn’t – from a Phil Jagielka own goal. Rooney went off and was booed by 14 of the 19 people there, who had presumably just shown up to do exactly that, and England suddenly started to play well with Bobby Zamora up front, a sentence I never thought I’ve type, and most likely won’t again in my hopefully long and illustrious career as journalist who perpetually misses the matches he’s supposed to be covering.
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Steven Gerrard celebrated his thunderous equalizer like it was the greatest and most important goal he’d ever scored which, whilst slightly odd, was never the less a nice touch for those 19 people attending, and everyone around the globe and back home who thought our players simply didn’t care enough. Gerrard’s effort certainly couldn’t be questioned as he Ricky Villa’d his way through the Hungarian defense to prod England into the lead, sparking wild celebrations from within his own head as if he was pretending to himself that he’d just done an Iniesta. Iniesta on the other hand, wasn’t in Mexico getting commentary men over excited, but resting back in Barcelona as his team leveled late to hold Mexico, dampening the excitement of both hyperactive commentators and the 10 or so kitted up, drunken but jovial Mexicans in a friendly, football loving, and incredibly dark New York bar.
Now, onto the proper business of the first day of the season. I just need to try and not miss it. Which will be hard, as I’m supposed to be at a wedding. I’m sure we’ll work something out. I don’t have to be there for all of it do I?
Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson has leapt to the defence of goalkeeper Jose Reina after his horror own goal at the end of their Premier League opener against Arsenal on Sunday.
The former Fulham boss has refused to place the blame on the shoulders of the Spaniard, despite his error in the dying moments of the clash enabled the Londoners to return to the capital with a share of the spoils in a 1-1 draw.
Speaking to the club's official website, he said:"He took it hard because he is a very serious professional who really believes in himself and the team.
"He will be the first one not to try and apportion blame to other people, so of course he's taken it hard.
"But I thought he played well considering he didn't have an awful lot to do – and what he did have to do came very spasmodically. His concentration was good, his kicking was excellent.
"He's had a shoulder injury and came back quicker than we thought he would, so there are an enormous number of positives.
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"The one negative, unfortunately, was he let in a goal which in normal circumstances he would have kept out."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
Former Italy boss Roberto Donadoni has applied for the Aston Villa managerial post, according to his UK representative.
The 46-year-old led Italy to the last-eight at Euro 2008 but has been unable to secure a job since leaving Napoli more than ten months ago.
Charles Collymore told skysports.com:"Roberto is a great student of the English game and he is very interested in the job at Aston Villa.
"He knows Villa are a top club with an ambitious owner and he feels he could be a success there.
"Roberto has worked at the highest level and he has always dreamed of coaching in England.
"Roberto has the experience and talent to help develop the best young English talent and also the knowledge to help find the best foreign talent available."
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Kevin MacDonald has been in caretaker charge at Villa Park since Martin O'Neill surprisingly left the club last month.Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
If one thing was evident in Chelsea’s defeat to Manchester City yesterday it was just how important Frank Lampard is to the Blues. Granted Didier Drogba didn’t have one of his better games and on another day the result could have easily gone Chelsea’s way, but it is in those types of games that more often than not Lampard steps up to the plate and performs a little bit of magic to turn the game. Lampard has scored more than 20 goals in his last five seasons and without him Chelsea are down one player who can change a game and that can be the difference between winning and losing.
Lampard was ruled out of the match due to a hernia injury, which he has had an operation on, and Chelsea’s number eight looks set to miss the next two games before the international break, including the big one at home to Arsenal in a week’s time. That means that the rest of Chelsea’s midfield will have to get the job done and although they have their fair share of quality players, they are all similar in nature. John Obi Mikel will sit in front of the back four and while both Michael Essien and Ramires will get forward, you wouldn’t class either of them as an attacking midfielder.
One man who may be able to fill that role for Chelsea in the future is 17 year old Josh McEachran. The Stamford Bridge faithful are already raving about this hot prospect, who himself has admitted to The Mirror that “Chelsea say to me, ‘Look at Frank Lampard’. I need to get in the box more and score more and that will help me as a player, so I will try that more this season.” There is no doubting that McEachran will become a top player but that is still some way off just yet. For now Chelsea fans will be hoping that Lampard is back out on the pitch at Stamford Bridge rather than sitting in the stands with Christine Bleakley sooner rather than later.
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Here’s a video reporting on the fitness of Lampard prior to the defeat to Man City:
As Wolves suffer their 4th straight defeat in a row Adam and I mull over the events that followed:
This week’s show!
Wolves News: Van Damme’s homesick, Injury update, Matt Murray’s reward and a 3rd Wolves Kit?
Wigan: Over after 10 mins? Did the lads play well enough? Best Wolves player on the day? Who will slot into the centre of midfield – Mancienne, Mijias, Edwards? West Ham – an even bigger 6 pointer?
The Henry debate: Has the media over-hyed Wolves so-called ‘dirty’ play too much? and Adam v BBC Matt Slater round 1
and finally….. Henry or Hanry?
Click here to listen to the Podcast
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Let us know your views!!
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I have to admit that I never understand where the journalists get their inspiration, but our friends at The People sunk to new depths of desperation this morning in the hope of pulling off a real coup. If suggesting that City is willing to offer one English pound more than any other club would pay for Fernando Torres wasn’t bad enough, then our apparent £9m interest in Charles N’Zogbia saw them hitting rock bottom.
Of course as you would all expect that the reliable source used came from a journalist’s best friend ‘the insider’. It’s all so easy and obviously they believe that supporters are idiots and will buy into this sort of tripe, as long as they inform us an ‘insider’ or a ‘source close to the club’ has fed them the information.
“They are willing to pay one pound more than the best offer that comes in for Fernando,” a source close to Torres told the paper.”
“City wants to prepare a new project with Torres as their main star. Next season they want to make sure they are fighting for the Premier League title from the first moment again.”
Perhaps Liverpool should put out their own statement via the press claiming that Barcelona has tabled a £100m bid and see if this ‘insider’ is as good as his word.
Elsewhere in this pathetic excuse of a paper we have apparently sent three scouts to watch Wigan’s game in midweek to watch Charles N’Zogbia. The journalist didn’t claim an ‘insider’ on this occasion, but it must have been obvious that the French winger was the object of their attentions and not one of the other 21 players that were on the pitch that day. Let me work this out. ‘Liverpool need width in the team and with the knowledge that Hodgson has money to spend’ – absolute genius, god it is easy this journalism lark isn’t it? Perhaps one of the stipulations of working for The People is that you must make 2+2 equal five.
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I know I shouldn’t get riled by this and should accept it as part of the course, but these fabricated lies simply boils my blood and the problem with them is, especially in the case of Torres, is that they simply have no purpose other than to unsettle the player. Why I am not naive enough to realise that is the sole intention to seed further headlines, I ask the question as to why the press allowed to get away with it, time after time – shouldn’t the club look to challenge these damaging headlines on a daily basis, before they fester into something that could prove problematic long term?
Harry Redknapp has a habit of signing former players: Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe, Younes Kaboul and Niko Kranjcar are all in their second spells under Tottenham’s charasmatic manager. So it shouldn’t be a suprise that for the last two years Spurs have been linked with former Portsmouth player Sulley Muntari; Inter Milan’s powerful midfield workhorse. On Tuesday Muntari had a chance to shine and show Spurs fans why Redknapp, according to the press, seems so keen to re-sign him.
When I was asked to write a piece on Sulley Muntari performance I was a little worried. I’d watched the game and had barely heard his name – how do I know how well he’d played if he didn’t make any impact on the game? Then I realised I’d answered my own question.
Muntari’s only telling contribution to Tuesday’s match was falling for Modric’s dummy prior to the opening goal and leaving the field through injury after only 53 minutes. Muntari is a versatile player who can play central midfield or on the left and he is the type of player who, when on top of his game, will boss a midfield, keep possession and break up opposition attacks. But last night he was completely overrun by a dominant Spurs midfield who made the best team in Europe look decidely ordinary.
Muntari has a good pedigree, he has over 200 appearances in Serie A and was integral part of the Portsmouth team who qualified for the UEFA Cup in 2007, but last night Tottenham’s central midfield duo of Tom Huddlestone and Luka Modric who ran the show. Both were fantastic on the ball, completed passes all over the pitch and put in a shift defensively whenever it was required of them. Modric especially has shown the Spurs faithful exactly why the 16 million spent on him after Euro 2008 was a shrewd piece of business – his assist for Van der Vaart’s opener was a sublime piece of skill. With the attention from last night surrounding Spurs’ impact players: Gareth Bale, Rafael Van der Vaart and Aaron Lennon it was the efficient, but largely unglamorous, performances of the central two that kept Inter at bay.
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So will all the rumours go away now? I’m not questioning Muntari’s ability, but Spurs would end up spending a lot of money (presumably) on a player who doesn’t look any better than what is already at the club. Behind Modric and Huddlestone there is Sandro, Wilson Palacios, Jermaine Jenas and Niko Kranjcar; all talented players vying for places in the starting XI who Muntari would need to compete with. I’ve said previously that Spurs’ midfield is a match for any in the country and when we were after Joe Cole I was a little skeptical as to where he would fit in and who would fall down the pecking order as a result. The same can be said of Muntari – on present form who would lose their place in the Spurs team to accommodate the Ghanian midfielder?
Muntari has proven himself in England before and could well end up there again – you don’t secure a £16 million move to Inter Milan from Portsmouth if you’re a bad player, but judging from Tuesday night’s match his proposed move to White Hart Lane could now be a no-go.
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West Bromwich Albion defender Gabriel Tamas' representative has dismissed rumours linking his client with a January move to Chelsea.
The 27-year-old Romania international has been linked with the Blues in reports emanating from his homeland, but Tamas' British agent, Jon Kirtland, has denied such talk.
He told the Birmingham Mail:"I've spoken to Gabriel and what has been written about him is simply not true.
"People have noticed that Chelsea have injury problems, realised that Robbie Di Matteo is an ex-Chelsea player and decided to put two and two together only to get ten.
"Gabriel doesn't like speaking to the Romanian press because he's had problems before.
"They asked him for an interview and he replied that he would speak to them at the end of the season. The next thing he sees are these stories.
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"I can promise 100 per cent that there is nothing in these stories. Chelsea and West Brom have not had any contact that we're aware of and we certainly haven't.
"He is happy at West Bromwich Albion, he loves playing for Robbie Di Matteo, with whom he has a great relationship and he wants to help the club establish themselves in the Premier League."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email