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
Arsenal rose into the Premier League top four after Robin Van Persie scored the only goal at the Emirates Stadium to see off a spirited QPR side.
The Dutchman was chasing Alan Shearer’s record of 36 goals in a calendar year but had to settle for one less ending 2011 as the Gunners match winner once again. It was fitting that Van Persie was the man to score Arsenal’s final goal of the year striking the ball low past Radek Cerny on the hour mark to send Arsene Wenger’s side into the top four at the expense of London rivals Chelsea. It was a deserved victory for the home side who missed a host of chances during the 90 minutes although QPR did have their moments with Shaun Wright-Phillips and Jay Bothroyd wasting chances early on. Neil Warnock will now be nervously looking over his shoulder after his side slipped to 17th and now sit just two points above the drop zone.
He will be unhappy that his side failed to take advantage of Arsenal’s slow start to the game with Wright-Phillips and Bothroyd going close in the early stages before the home side woke from their slumber. It took the Gunners just over 15 minutes to create their first clear cut opportunity but Van Persie could only shoot straight at Cerny from a tight angle after twisting and turning into space. He then glanced a header wide of the post before poking the ball just over after escaping the clutches of Luke Young. The Dutchman was having a similar afternoon to the one he had on Boxing Day against Wolves and missed another volleying over after being found by Theo Walcott’s cross. Aaron Ramsey then had his volley cleared off the line by Joey Barton before Cerny thwarted Mikel Arteta punching away the midfielders strike.
It looked like it was going to be one of those games for Arsenal as Walcott dragged the ball wide early in the second half despite being one-on-one after being sent clear by Ramsey. However the winger’s blushes were spared as the clock approached the hour mark as Van Persie struck for his 35th goal of 2011 latching onto Andriy Arshavin’s through ball and cooly finishing first past Cerny to ease the tension around the Emirates and put the Gunners into the top four heading into 2012.
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Tonight Manchester United and Chelsea go head-to-head at Old Trafford in the second leg of the quarter finals of the Champions League. Sir Alex Ferguson’s men have the advantage thanks to a Wayne Rooney strike at Stamford Bridge and unsurprisingly Man United are odds on to progress to the semi’s and a likely tie with Schalke. However, can Carlo Ancelotti’s men give Man Utd the Blues and will a certain Spanish striker finally find his goal scoring boots?
It would be fair to say that Fernando Torres hasn’t had the best of starts at his new club and Torres is 3/10 to continue his drought and 5/6 to be substituted against Man United. bet365 spokesman Steve Freeth says “The introduction of Yossi Benayoun seemed to give Torres a lift on Saturday, but he still wasted a number of chances. These days we’re odds-on about the Spaniard firing a blank as opposed to a few seasons ago when he was scoring for fun.”
However, this could be the match where Torres makes his mark in a Chelsea shirt. Torres is 4/1 to outscore Wayne Rooney, which would be quite a feat considering the form of the two strikers right now. A more sensible bet might be for Fernando Torres not to score a Premier League goal for Chelsea this season, with odds of 5/1 available on that scenario.
Other than Torres’ form or lack of it, the major talking point to come out of the first leg was Chelsea not being given a late penalty when Ramires was fouled by Patrice Evra. Added to John Terry’s penalty miss in a certain Champions League final, Chelsea fans will feel that Manchester United and penalties aren’t a great combination.
bet365 are 6/1 about Chelsea getting a spot-kick at Old Trafford in the return leg and 33/1 about Ancelotti’s side winning on penalties. Steve Freeth says “Fergie had a penalty decision go his way on Wednesday and Chelsea fans won’t need reminding about Moscow 2008.” Given the amount of penalties awarded to away teams at Old Trafford over the years, this might be a market to steer clear of.
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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
Sunderland midfielder Sebastian Larsson has stated that the side’s problems stem from an ineptitude in attack, with the team’s strikers failing to convert chances.
A 2-1 defeat to Wigan at home at the weekend saw angry Stadium of Light fans turn on the team and manager Steve Bruce, and leaves the Wearsiders only two points above the dropzone.
The Sweden international feels that The Black Cats need to start scoring, or face a tough season.
“We’re just not good enough in the final third, let’s be honest,” the 26-year-old told the Sunderland Echo.
“No disrespect to Wigan, but we should be winning those types of games. We got off to the start we needed and the one we wanted to.
“We could have been two or three up after the opening 30 minutes, but that’s been our problem all season. We don’t take our chances.
“We don’t put the game beyond doubt and we did the same thing again. They got a penalty and in the second half, it gets nervy and edgy. When we got down the sides of them, we weren’t good enough,” he stated.
Steve Bruce faces a disgruntled fanbase after the result, with many calling for the coach’s head. Despite this, Larsson feels Bruce is the man to lead a Sunderland revival.
“I still believe he’s the right man for the job. But I’m not surprised by how the fans reacted. We lost a game at home that we should have won if we want to get to where we want to be.
“We have to take a long look at ourselves and see why things are going the way they are.
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“That’s the Achilles heel, because we haven’t conceded that many goals,” he concluded.
Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho has revealed he turned down an opportunity to coach England’s national team.The Portuguese tactician said he was interested in the job and could have signed up for the role, but he decided that a stay in club management would better suit his persona.
“I was hours away – I almost signed up for the English national side,” Mourinho told French sports daily L’Equipe, also going on to claim he could have moved to Paris Saint-Germain.
“But at the last moment I began thinking, ‘I am going to coach a national side, there will be one match a month and the rest of the time I will be in my office or supervising matches. And then to have to wait until the summer to compete in a European Championship or a World Cup?’. No, it wasn’t for me.”
“So at the last moment I pulled back, preferring to wait for the right job to come along, a good club, a challenge that could motivate me. That was Inter.”
Mourinho left his post at English Premier League club Chelsea in September 2007 – just two months before then-England manager Steve McClaren was sacked.
While the 48-year-old passed up the opportunity to lead England – a nation which he has publicly expressed a desire to return to at club level since leaving the Blues – Mourinho said the chance to move to the Serie A with Inter Milan had been a welcome one.
“When I left Chelsea, the first month was fantastic. I went to Africa, to Japan, I did tons of things I had not been able to do,” he said.
“The second month was also good, but from the third onwards it was horrible, just awful.”
Mourinho signed with Inter in June 2008 and won the Serie A, Coppa Italia and Champions League titles before switching to the La Liga powerhouse for the 2010/11 season.
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?
Whether you consider him one of England’s all time best players or just one of England’s all time best marketed players there is no denying that David Beckham has left his mark on English football. Supporting England is about moments rather than trophies; it has to be, if it wasn’t there would be even less enjoyment in it than there currently is. His goal against Greece was as close to a feeling of winning anything I’ve ever had supporting England and his work ethic for our national side was not only admirable but it exposed the attitudes of some of the less passionate players. He has always given everything for his country and has never retired his services should any national coach ever want them. However at the age of thirty-six has England simply out-grown their has-been-hero?
Anything left to offer?
England’s most capped outfield player has had an England career that has spanned fifteen years and for the vast majority of people Beckham has nothing left to offer to on the international squad. However the feeling is definitely not shared by all; with Beckham’s contract due to run out soon at LA Galaxy there is certainly no shortage of interest in his signature. In fact I can’t think of any other player who, at such an age, had so much interest from top teams. PSG and Tottenham are just two of the clubs that have been vying for his signature and I know that many will say that they just want him for the publicity but I’m not so sure.
The same thing was said when he went to Milan on loan but Beckham proved them wrong. He was well used and was extremely useful to the Italian club, he even bagged himself a few goals. Yes, that was a few years ago and he has worsened since then but Beckham has adapted his game, in the way that Ryan Giggs has, to depend less on physicality and more on technique.
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Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp said:
“I’d welcome him with open arms. He’s definitely still good enough to play in the Premier League. His game was never about pace so whether he’s quick or not isn’t an issue…he’d be an asset for any club, that’s for sure.”
Arsene Wenger has echoed similar sentiments ever since the former England captain trained with the Gunners to keep fit in 2008. Wenger has always said that regardless of his physical state his natural talent and professional attitude makes him worthwhile wherever he may be. And I agree, especially in an England dressing room that lacks harmony I think he would be a valuable asset. However I do not think he should or will be taken to the European Championships. The Olympics however is a different matter.
What next for Beckham?
Well the Olympics is the obvious option and almost certainly his last realistic chance on the international stage, even if it is the international version of the Carling Cup. Whether or not Stuart Pearce believes Beckham has enough quality and experience to make up for his dwindling years is another matter.
At club level I think it would be fitting for one of England’s most famous sons to have one last hurrah in his home country. The iconic midfielder has been a bit of a nomad for the past eight years and if a club could guarantee him playing time it would be fitting for him to test himself in our league once more.
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Whilst our international team has almost certainly outgrown him I don’t think our culture of football ever will. Beckham in his peak was the archetypal English player: hard working, good technique and suited to a 4-4-2. He has done more for the English game on the global stage than any other English player for a long time and has shown a commitment and desire that we will be lucky to see in future players.
The chase for Anderlecht youngster Romelu Lukaku is really heating up. It’s believed that Anderlecht turned down a £17.5 million bid from Spurs for the prodigious young talent over the summer. Indeed, the player is set to stay at his club until he reaches 18 and has finished with school. Where does his future lie after this? The two main clubs in contention for his signature are Real Madrid and Chelsea. At the moment you have to say Chelsea are favourites – Didier Drogba is Lukaku’s hero. Lukaku has previously been pictured in a Chelsea shirt visiting Stamford Bridge. As it seems more and more as though Lukaku’s future lies with Chelsea, we count down a further 10 teenagers playing in Europe that are likely to have the Premier League scouts out sniffing. In order to be in contention all you need is to be 21 or under and to play for a European side (outside the Premier League).
10. Christian Eriksen:
Barring Nicklas Bendtner, the Danes have had little to shout about in terms of prospects for the future. That was until young Christian Eriksen came onto the scene. He won the Danish U-17 talent of the year for his performances in the Danish Superliga. This saw him earn a move to Ajax where he has garnered comparisons to Ajax youth products Wesley Sneijder and Rafael van der Vaart. He’s an unnaturally good reader of the game for his age and is perhaps best at home in the traditional “number 10” role. He was the youngest player competing at the 2010 World Cup and is currently only 18-years-old.
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9. Stevan Jovetić:
At only 20-years-old, Jovetić is a player of great natural ability. His best attributes are his technical nous, great dribbling ability, being able to ghost pass players with an expert change of pace and expert close control. He currently plies his trade for Fiorentina where he’s earned comparisons to Queen guitarist Brian May thanks to his long flowing curly locks. In footballing terms, he’s been labelled the ‘next Baggio’ and has netted an impressive 6 goals in 11 international appearances for Montenegro. Charismatic and talented, it’s likely that he’ll move on from Fiorentina towards bigger and better things in the near future.
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8. Sotiris Ninis:
The next big thing in Greek football, Ninis is the right winger for Panathinaikos where he has his reputation. For such a young player (20-years-old) he holds a surprising number of records. He’s the youngest player to have won the HFF (The governing body of football in Greece) Young Player of the Year award. In May 2008, on his international debut, Ninis became the youngest ever player to score for Greece. He’s also the youngest player to ever have captained Panathinaikos, as he did at the age of 18 and 125 days. Despite injuries disrupting his career a year or so ago, he’s back on track and looking as exciting a prospect as ever.
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7. Moussa Sissoko:
French footballer Moussa Sissoko currently plays for Toulouse in Ligue 1. At just 21-years-old he has already garnered comparisons to tough midfielders Patrick Viera and Real Madrid’s Mahamadou Diarra. He certainly fits into that mould of player. He’s capable of playing the holding role, or adapting quickly into a more attacking position. He’s got bundles of energy and is a real box-to-box player with tenacity and a great tackle. It’s little wonder that clubs like Spurs, Man City, Juventus and more recently Liverpool have declared their interest.
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6. Marko Marin:
One of last season’s standout players in the Bundesliga, Marin is definitely a player that the top clubs all around Europe will be keeping their eye on. A string of good performances saw Marin join Germany’s World Cup 2010 squad. He made two rather lacklustre appearances in the World Cup, but this hasn’t stopped pundits tipping him for bigger things. He currently plays out on the wing for Werder Bremen where his tricky feet and great close control have brought him a number of admirers. He is very much a ‘flair’ player and has drawn comparisons to Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi – not bad for a 21 year old.
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5. Alan Dzagoev:
Despite his age – he’s 20-years-old – this young man is already regarded as a star by many in his native Russia. He’s an attacking midfielder for CSKA Moscow, for whom he has been a consistently impressive performer. In 2008, the Russian Football Union deemed Dzagoev the Best Young Player of the Year. He’s got a great attitude, he’s modest and hard-working and is extremely passionate about football. He’s also got an eye for goal – in 68 performances for CSKA Moscow he has scored 21 goals from midfield. That’s a statistic that’s sure to interest some of Europe’s biggest clubs.
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4. Douglas Costa:
Currently playing for Shakhtar Donetsk, this young Brazilian is just 20-years-old. He’s a left-footed attacking midfielder who can also player as a winger. He’s a good reader of the game, with great technical ability and vision. He’s also notable for being a free-kick specialist. He’s yet to add consistency to his game, but seems to be enjoying himself in the ‘liberal attacking environment’ that Lucescu has cultivated at Donestsk. This season Costa has slotted home 8 goals in 23 appearances – not bad for a winger.
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3. Miralem Pjanić:
A number of players on this list exemplify a great technical ability – none more so than Bosnian born Miralem Pjanić. When he joined Lyon in 2008 he was considered a future replacement for the aging Juninho. He has since found his niche as an old-style playmaker, who combines good vision and passing ability with tricky feet. He opted to pursue an international career with his birth country Bosnia and Herzegovina, for whom he has put in a number of eye-catching performances. Still just 20-years-old, Pjanić is another player to keep an eye on.
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2. Eden Hazard:
Blessed with youth and a great name, 19-year-old Hazard currently plays for Lille in Ligue 1. He’s known for his virtuoso performances out on the wing and in attacking midfield positions. He has speed, bundles of creativity and a technical ability that players many years his senior will envy. It’s a sign of this boy’s talent that he’s the only player to have picked up the UNFP Young Player of the Year award twice. When you consider that this award has previously gone to the likes of Zinedine Zidane, Robert Pirès and Thierry Henry, you begin to understand what the fuss is all about.
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1. Alexis Sánchez:
“El Nino Maravilla” – the Wonder Boy, is a Chilean winger, or attacking midfielder currently plying his trade for Udinese. He has incredible dribbling ability in combination with his explosive pace and tricky feet. He can operate on either wing and is a wonderful crosser of the ball. The only thing that might prevent him from becoming a huge Premier League star would be a need to adapt to the physicality and toughness of the EPL. He’ll also need to be a little more clinical (having scored just 8 goals in 64 appearances for Udinese) but these defects have not stopped a number of teams showing their interest in the talented young player.
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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