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Sunday, 13 March 2011

Forget the past, says Allegri

AC Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri has called on his players to forget their Champions League exit and return to Serie A renewed on Sunday.

Milan face bottom-placed Bari at the San Siro, and received a pleasant surprise on Friday when Inter Milan could only draw at Brescia.

That result means Milan can spring seven points clear of their city rivals on the league table with a positive result against Bari, who have managed just one win and two draws away from home all season.

Allegri acknowledged his players were weary after their Champions League defeat at Tottenham on Wednesday, but said he hoped to see a renewed intensity when Milan take to their home pitch on Sunday.

“We must play with great commitment, knowing we need to give our best in order to win,” Allegri said.

“We cannot think we can defeat Bari with minimum effort.”

“Of course players start to be tired at this time of the season but I think the team is fit; they proved it on Wednesday.”

“We have a positive attitude and it should be like this, it should be a good competition. (Friday’s) training for example was very intense, even if it was not much time after the Champions League game.”

“Everyone was sorry on Wednesday after being knocked out. AC Milan was not only aiming to win the Serie A title, we aimed to win Champions League and we aim to win Coppa Italia too.”

“At this point of the season in Champions League you’re in or you’re out and AC Milan did everything to remain in.”

Sun 13 March, 2011

Forget the past, says Allegri

AC Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri has called on his players to forget their Champions League exit and return to Serie A renewed on Sunday.

Milan face bottom-placed Bari at the San Siro, and received a pleasant surprise on Friday when Inter Milan could only draw at Brescia.

Allegri acknowledged his players were weary after their Champions League defeat at Tottenham on Wednesday, but said he hoped to see a renewed intensity when Milan take to their home pitch on Sunday.

“We must play with great commitment, knowing we need to give our best in order to win,” Allegri said.

“We cannot think we can defeat Bari with minimum effort.”

“Of course players start to be tired at this time of the season but I think the team is fit; they proved it on Wednesday.”

“Everyone was sorry on Wednesday after being knocked out. AC Milan was not only aiming to win the Serie A title, we aimed to win Champions League and we aim to win Coppa Italia too.”

“At this point of the season in Champions League you’re in or you’re out and AC Milan did everything to remain in.”

Sun 13 March, 2011

Sunday, 6 February 2011

Arsenal: A day to remember, a day to forget

By Shourin Roy on February 5, 2011 5:01 PM | Comments | TrackBacksShare|

For the Gunners, a tale of two halves. Or more to the point, a tale of two Arsenals. Unstoppable in the first and scoring at will to take a four to nothing lead. The game signed and sealed. Walcott after 47 seconds, Van Persie with two goals, and Johan Djourou with his maiden goal. Or so anyone sane would think. But this is Arsenal. We can go off the reservation at any time.

No club has as much talent at hand to shoot themselves in the foot so well. The second half devolved into a spineless display of utterly bereft defending as Newcastle found another lever to muscle Arsenal into submission. The price: Four goals going the other way. The result rendered more painful on a day when Wolves, the bottom dwellers stopped the unbeaten run of United with a stirring display of opportunistic scoring and priceless defending.

Much is made of Abou Diaby's departure, reacting badly to a very, very robust challenge by Joey Barton. Wind the clock back five years ago when Dan Smith's foul broke and dislocated Diaby's ankle ending his season and we might be able to see the context of that outburst. Phil Dowd was right giving him the red card but this should have never been the turning point. We made it that way. Slice and dice it any which way but there is no way a 10 man squad would concede a four goal lead. Any description to what transpired beggars belief. How many times are we going to play the blame the referee game?

This match again exposes Wenger's unwillingness to go to a plan B. To be fair who knew they would fold so miserably? Arsenal works on a tight script and when adhered to there is no better team. But there is no team that unravels faster when it has to deviate from the norm. Unsurprisingly, there are those who have successfully exploited this to their advantage. Float set pieces and see the Arsenal defense tie themselves into knots while sneaking one in. Then crowd the middle and watch Arsenal exhaust themselves passing one too many times. Its the rope a dope applied to football.

This however is completely different. Wenger's legacy of spotlighting bright talent is being seriously undermined with his defensive blind spot. One can argue that Johan Djorou going off with an injury and replaced by Sebastien Squillaci was as much of a factor. A Mikael Silvestre clone joining an error prone Koscielny, already sent off twice this season is a recipe for disaster. The duo were already involved in a comedy of errors leading to a Koscielny concussion and a goal by Diomansy Kamara. And this transfer period went without providing decent cover for Thomas Vermelen. It is already proving costly.

I have long said this but Arsenal has no on field leadership. Fabregas is an off and on inspirational presence but lacks the vocal leadership to pull up the collective socks on a consistent basis. The other point is Wenger's built this midfield on ball possession. Ever wonder when that does not work who gets to do ball retrieval? Jack Wilshere. Not Walcott, not Arshavin, not Nasri, not Fabregas, not Rosicky, not Eboue. They just don't have it in them.

Every Arsenal fan should celebrate Wolves pulling off an incredible win over Man Utd because teams like these are breathing life into the title race. We need help because we cannot trust our own team to do it.

Categories: Soccer Videos, Soccer Teams - Club, Soccer Skills, Soccer Politics, Soccer Humor, Soccer History, Soccer Hall of Fame Tags: Arsenal, English Premier League 2010-11, Newcastle No TrackBacks

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The Fernando Torres song.. was the previous entry in this blog.

Shellshocked Gunners lose a four goal lead is the next entry in this blog.

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Thursday, 27 January 2011

David Luiz: Can we not just forget him?

By: Jack | January 27th, 2011
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A work permit has been secured and Benfica have publicly admitted that negotiations are taking place. A deal for the defender David Luiz appears imminent.

Should we be pleased? I’m learning toward no.

Value buy?

Sigh. The latest in a series of transfer sagas involving Chelsea Football Club. How long has this one dragged on? A quick check around the net sees rumors linking the club with a move for the 23-year-old central defender as early as the end of June 2010. Yay.

This latest foray into el mercato has been just as successful – in terms of drawing furor from the support – as our previous two (Ramires, Neymar). Or any of our recent inquiries to be honest. We just blow when it comes to scouting and securing talent. That topic, however, is reserved for a later post.

The focus here is on Luiz. There is no doubt he is a superlative footballer, that rare breed of defender who is both sound in the tackle and proficient on the ball. He’s shown the ability to negotiate forward from the back with ease, working as a playmaker at times in the Benfica system. Quick. Agile. Durable.

Expensive. Benfica like them some hardball. Chris Matthews fucking adores SLB. They finagled the hell out of us in the summer with regard to Ramires. Now they’re doing it again, just with a different Brazilian. Mutombo-like rejections of bids in excess of £17, £20 million and £23 million. We want £25m say Benfica. Maybe a young player or two. Perhaps a Kalou.

It looks like they’re going to get it, too.

Alternative.

What we have to ask ourselves is: 1. Is Luiz worth £25m? and 2. How long is the club going to continue to be held to ransom? The later is of particularly importance to me. I cannot be the only one sick of the so-called ‘Chelsea tax.’ This dubious practice is absurd and, frankly, disgusting. However, clubs will continue to inflate prices because, at Chelsea, we enjoy caving to demands. Until the club sacks up, we are going to be subject to this nonsense. Sort it out, Gourlay. It’s the least you could do.

As for No. 1: Is Luiz worth a fee that could be in excess of £25 million? In a word, no. If concluded, Luiz’s deal would rank second all-time on the list of most expensive central defender transfers behind Rio Ferdinand (£29m). Elite company.

That fee would also be the second-most Chelsea has ever forked out for a player, of course trailing only poor Andriy. We all remember how that one played out.

Does Luiz have the potential to become the second coming of Ricardo Carvalho? I think so. Will he ever be worth that kind of cash? I can’t see it. Plus, there’s the player to consider. He’s going to be stricken with the burden of having to live up to such an extravagant fee. How many players have the guile to deal with such a weight? Not many.

Then there are the alternatives to consider, of which there are many. Cristián Zapata, Mamadou Sakho and Simon Kjær just to name a few. All are young. All are quality defenders. And all would come at a substantially cheaper price (I would think).

Furthermore, if the suits were interested in Luiz during the summer, why the hell didn’t they begin negotiations then when we were moving for Ramires? I guess that makes too much sense.

So, to summarize, it’s not that I don’t like the idea of Luiz in Chelsea blue. It’s the price and the club’s inability to recognize when to say when that vexes me. Why must we constantly pay over the odds for talent? Stop it, Ron. Stop it.

Some Related Chelsea Posts:Impressions: Brazil 2-0 United StatesDavid Villa: England’s Brave John Terry the bestTevez to Chelsea? We’re ‘avin’ a laughRamires preparing for medical at Stamford Bridge?Rumor Mill: Ramires to Chelsea imminent?

Category: Chelsea Team News, Opinion, Transfer Rumors

Tags: Benfica, Brazil, Chelsea Team News, Cristian Zapata, David Luiz, Mamadou Sakho, Opinion, Simon Kjaer, Transfer Rumors
Tweet « Loan Deals: Kakuta to Fulham, Van Aanholt to Leicester | Home | Torres again? Seriously. »wisesageknowledgethe price? ahhhhh, i must have forgot (along with romes and the board) that you were pitching in on this deal. you may have to cut out some meals on the town, maybe a couple holidays to the beach. if I am wrong about you throwing down on this deal, and we can move past that, then shut up about the price, the pride, bad business, etc. will he be quality? will he provide cover? will he be the best CB in the world and wearing chelsea blue instead of that of the mancs or some other god awful club that, when successful, just gives you the constant thought that we should clobber them? again, shut up and support quality coming to chelsea. if they spend, then i say go ape shit and spend like hell, round up anything. whatever it takes to win, to do a quintuple.JackQuintuple? We might want to focus on qualifying for the Champions League first.ShyamDefinitely we should not make this signing, this will pave way for even worse 'hold chelsea for ransom' in future.
What do you think about Mourinho to Chelsea? tastes delicious to me, but will RA's ego block the joy?arn00bTotally agree. Class or no class, this is not the real price of the player. How would you feel if you went to an expensive restaurant and they gave you a menu with different prices on it, just because it's you? Even if it's a really good restaurant, for how long are you going to take that?

Chelsea should not even play their game. And yes, is is a game when they say "there's other suitors" Well, then go there. Benfica is a selling club and they're in desperate need for cash injections. They're trying to play on CFC's desperation, and Chelsea is eating out of their hands.

Benfica have no use for Luiz as a business other than to sell him. You have to understand their mentality, they are not there to win CL, they won't anytime soon. They have no interest in keeping the player other than in generating the highest transfer fee, to buy 3 new DL's, polish them a bit and sell them to idiots like CFC and City. They don't even have full ownership of him, for hell's sake. They're desperate for cash and it's a game of seeing who's more desperate.

Enough is enough. Let him go. Everyone is saying he's the next somethingsomething. Well, maybe Chelsea should find the next David Luiz before he goes to Benfica.Jack"... maybe Chelsea should find the next David Luiz before he goes to Benfica."

Well said.Darren_VWouldn't you consider that 'cherry-picking youngsters' then?JackNot particularly, but I get what you're attempting to say. Then again, you were the one who entered a Chelsea discussion with the intent of speaking as if your club was somehow better because of the way you do business. I simply pointed out that the club you support - like Chelsea - is not immune to questionable behavior in the transfer market. That still doesn't mean we should subjected to inflated prices; many, not all, of the fees paid between 2004-06 now seem like fair money, some even bargains.Darren_V"This dubious practice is absurd and, frankly, disgusting"

I find this humorous, given how your squad has been built in the number of years.

You reap what you sow.JackComing from an Arsenal fan. Cherry-picking youngsters is clearly the work of saints.Darren_VDon't beleive I ever considered Arsenal saints. Chelsea built their squad their way, and must deal with the consequences, just as Arsenal must.
You pay for it with absurd prices for players. Arsenal pay for it in wage fees.AshDavid Luiz is pure class, people will see his lightning reactios spread to our midfield and attack, they're regular players who you quote and world class, David Luiz mark my words will be world class. These players are not run of the mill like some alternatives you quote.HenryNo offence, you're an idiot
JackCare to elaborate or is that all you've got?ph0boluseven at 17m it's still pretty damn high for me, but 25 mil is stupid money...I'd rather us buy Kjaer and spend the rest on Aguero or Sanchez. An area where we really need some reinforcements.blog comments powered by Disqus