Manchester City are set to wrap-up a deal for Swansea winger Scott Sinclair on Tuesday, Sky Sports claim.
The Premier League champions are eager to bring in a new face or two before the transfer window closes, with Jack Rodwell the only signing of note so far this summer.
After selling Adam Johnson to Sunderland last week, a place for a new wideman has arisen, with Sinclair a target over the last month.
The talented attacker is in the last year of his contract at the Liberty Stadium and has refused to extend with the Welsh side.
With Swansea facing losing their player for nothing next summer, Michael Laudrup will sell Sinclair to City for a fee believed to be in the £6.2 million range.
It is thought that only loose ends over the deal need to be tied up, which will happen on Tuesday after the Bank Holiday.
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Sir Alex Ferguson is hopeful that Manchester United can make it to the next international break without any more injuries, as their defensive crisis worsened with Nemanja Vidic undergoing knee surgery. The Independent reports.
Phil Jones and Chris Smalling are already out of action, although Smalling could return to training within a couple of weeks.
Johnny Evans and Rio Ferdinand are United’s two fit remaining centre-backs, but Scott Wooton looks set to be in tomorrow’s squad to face Tottenham after impressing Sir Alex in Wednesday’s Capital One Cup win over Newcastle.
After facing Tottenham tomorrow, the Reds travel to Romania to play CFR Cluj in the Champions League on Tuesday before travelling to Newcastle next Sunday.
“Everyone knows the situation with our defenders,” said Ferguson.
“We just hope if we can get through the next two league games it will give us a little breather and we can start to get one or two of them back.”
But there is better news upfront for United, with Wayne Rooney fully recovered from a gashed thigh and Tom Cleverley finally adding goals to his game by breaking his duck against Newcastle.
“I have always scored goals when I have gone on loan, so it was bugging me that I had not been doing it for my club or my country”, said Cleverley.
“I have got the first one out of the way now. Hopefully they will all come at once.”
The month was September. The year was 1995. And the match was a friendly between England and Colombia at Wembley. If we were playing a Question of Sport, Jamie Redknapp had just taken a shot at goal (he maintains it was a cross) and the ball appeared to be looping over the man in goal for Colombia, Rene Higuita. The question is, what happened next?
What happened next is actually immortalised into footballing history. Kids in the park have copied Higuita’s next move ever since 1995 and will be doing so for ever more. Three words…The Scorpion Kick. Apparently Higuita’s invention, as the ball travelled over his head, Higuita jumps forward and kicks the ball back over his head using his heels without ever looking at it. It’s a remarkable piece of skill that will always top any list of the greatest saves of all time and earned him the nickname ‘El Loco’ that translates as ‘the Madman.’ In case you’ve lived in a cave all your life and haven’t seen it, here it is below:
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Eccentricity was always the order of Higuita’s career, indeed he inspired the likes of fellow South American goalkeeper Jose Luis Chilavert to take free-kicks and penalties for club and country. In fact, in 68 games for Colombia, the keeper managed to bag eight goals, a better goalscoring record for his country than Emile Heskey managed for England. During a career that spanned 25 years, he managed 25 league goals in 380 appearances and although he spent the majority of his career in South America, winning the Copa Libertadores with Atletico Nacional in 1989, not mention the Colombian League in 1991 and 1994 with the same club, Higuita only played in Europe with one team, Real Valladolid, in a spell that lasted just the one season.
It’s a shame for European fans that they didn’t get to see more of Higuita during his playing career, indeed on his day he was a fine goalkeeper. However, he lived up to his nickname on plenty of occasions. Higuita was possibly the first ‘sweeper keeper’ in the game, a stopper capable of playing the ball well outside his penalty area with tremendous skill, indeed you only have to look at Colombia’s 1-1 draw with England in 1988 when Higuita managed to dribble round Gary Lineker outside his box. However, on one notable occasion, during the 1990 World Cup, Colombia were playing Cameroon and Higuita gave the ball away to Roger Milla outside his penalty area, allowing the striker to nip in and knock Colombia out of the World Cup.
Off-field controversy dogged Higuita’s career as well, indeed he was imprisoned in 1993 for his role in a kidnapping that saw him act as a go-between for a pair of notorious Colombian drug barons and get paid for the privilege, landing him a spell of seven months behind bars, meaning he missed the 1994 World Cup. How Colombia missed him, as they crashed out in the opening round thanks in large to the inexperience of Higuiata’s replacement, Oscar Cordoba. In 2004, the mad goalie found himself in hot water again after testing positive for cocaine, earning himself another ban from the game.
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He became something of a celebrity off the field as his career wound down, making appearances on the Colombian version of the TV Series ‘Survivor’, becoming politically active while also securing himself legendary status after having a Subbuteo model created in the mould of his scorpion kick. Coaching is the next step for Higuita and he joined Real Valladolid, his former European side, as goalkeeping coach in 2008 before moving onto to Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia to perform the same role. Higuita has expressed an interest in joining the Colombian national squad in a coaching capacity and that would be an interesting sight, seeing current number one Faryd Mondragon scorpion kicking clearances off his own line.
The legendary goalkeeper played one final farewell exhibition match in his hometown of Medellin aged 43 in 2010 playing against a select XI including Colombian legends Carlos Valderrama and Faustino Asprilla. Inevitably, as the ball went over his head, out came the party trick for one last time. He made not have made much impression in Europe during his playing career, but the world of football will remember him for one thing and one thing only.
Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas believes his side deserve their spot in the last-16 of the Europa League, after their 1-1 draw against Lyon.
Spurs advanced 3-2 on aggregate against the Ligue 1 giants, with Mousa Dembele netting the all-important goal with just minutes left to play.
The Londoners had fallen behind on the night to a Maxime Gonalons effort, which would have knocked them out on away goals.
However, Dembele slammed home the equaliser, and give Tottenham the victory in the tie.
After the game Villa-Boas said that he felt his team got the result they deserved across both legs:
“The second half was all about our football, and I think we deserved to go through,” He told ITV Sport.
The Portuguese coach went on to praise Dembele for his decisive effort:
“It was a great finish by Mousa. Sometimes we joke with him that he should shoot more.”
Tottenham will meet Inter Milan in the next round of the competition, with the Italians beating Cluj 5-0 on aggregate.
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AVB is happy with the draw, and believes that the clash wouldn’t look out of place in the Champions League:
“Excellent. I think it doesn’t get any better than that. Two Europa League ties, but they’ll be like Champions League ties.”
After losing 5-0 in their last game you would expect everyone at Ipswich to be a bit down in the dumps. It doesn’t look like Mick McCarthy allowed his team any time to get down about the result though and the Burnley win was pleasing for a number of reasons.
First of all, it was great to see Carlos Edwards back in midfield. In my eyes he has never been a defender and never will be, his place should always be on the right side of midfield. When Paul Jewell used him at right back he worked hard and did the best he could but the former Wigan boss was clearly not getting the best out of him in that position.
McCarthy obviously felt the same and made full use of Edwards on the right wing. The decision paid off too as the Trinidad and Tobago man set up the late winning goal for DJ Campbell.
Obviously by moving Edwards further up field McCarthy had to rearrange the Ipswich defence. Luke Chambers moved to right back, Tommy Smith was recalled at centre back, leaving Danny Higginbotham to partner him with Aaron Cresswell retaining his place at left back.
In ways this defensive line-up was a gamble but it was one that the Ipswich manager had to take. Against Palace the Tractor Boys defenders were all over the place so something needed changing and in fairness they could not really get any worse after that game.
However, the main change was of course in the team’s mentality. It is something that myself and many other fans had pin pointed as a factor that needed to be worked on if we wanted to stay up. The tell-tail sign of a team destined for relegation is one that crumbles after conceding one goal and that was happening to Ipswich all to often in previous weeks.
After Burnley equalised I think every Ipswich fan inside Portman Road must have thought it was going to be one of those typical performances where the team fall apart in the later stages of the game. What actually happened was the complete opposite as the team remained upbeat and eventually found the winner.
That was what made the victory so important for the home fans. Not only was it the teams first home win in many months but it signaled that there may be hope for Ipswich in dark times. It showed that the players can shake off the negative mentality that they had before. We may see it return every now and again but for the most part we will see the team playing with a much better attitude than before.
Finally I thought I would take some time to discuss the situation surrounding the winning goal scorer, which was on loan striker DJ Campbell. It is a scenario that a lot of teams find themselves in when they take a player out on loan. If the player does well, chances are his club will want him back and if he does badly nobody wants him. There is no doubt that Campbell is doing well and I am afraid to say he is doing too well.
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His goalscoring form will have caught the eye of his parent club who will now be relishing the opportunity to have him back very soon. QPR have only scored eight goals this season, have yet to win and sit bottom of the Premier League table with just four points from 11 games.
Given Campbell’s current form he could walk into QPR’s starting line up and I can’t imagine he would turn that down to play for Ipswich. Either he needs to stop playing so well or QPR’s other strikers need to start scoring. Fingers crossed we will keep him but it saddens me to say that we probably won’t.
As the African Cup of Nations 2013 heads towards the knockout stages, you can’t help but feel that the competition would have been a better spectacle of Senegal were involved.Although they underperformed last year, a team that features the likes of Chelsea striker Demba Ba, Newcastle’s Papiss Cisse and West Ham midfielder Mohamed Diame would have been sure to have made in impact in South Africa if they’d made it past the Ivory Coast in the final round of qualifying.The Lions of Teranga can also call upon players of the calibre of Moussa Sow, so you’d think it wouldn’t be long before their FIFA ranking of 79 improves.However, Senegal’s disappointment is to Chelsea and Newcastle’s gain, with Papiss Cisse scoring the first in the Magpies’ win against Aston Villa on Tuesday and Ba will be available to face his old team for the Blues on Saturday.While Ba, Cisse and Diame won’t be wearing the white of Senegal this month and will instead be running out in the colours of their clubs, the Senegal home shirt is pretty slick.The graphic is designed by CAN artist Samba Fall. He was inspired by the Baobab tree which is an integral part of the Senegalese culture. With its stature and size, this tree is a symbol of strength, power, pride that is also what the team should feel. Speaking about his design, Samba Fall commented: “Seeing the image of the Baobab tree on the new Senegalese football shirt is like seeing the good memories of all the people of Senegal accompanying their football team to international competitions.â€Fancy winning a replica Senegal home shirt?
For further information about the artists and their renderings visit http://creative.puma.com and for further PUMA Football information visit www.pumafootball.com.
The French international goalkeeper arrived at White Hart Lane at the end of this summer’s transfer window in what many thought it was a strange move. A lot of Tottenham fans didn’t see a whole lot wrong with what they already had in Brad Friedel.
They are now being turned round to this move as being a little masterstroke, whether AVB wanted the player in the first place or not. The reason for this is he is part of the way goalkeeping is moving in the Premier League. A transition is going away from the goalkeeper being isolated for the rest of the team and simply there to save shots. A keeper is a very much active member of the team and is seen as the start of a lot of the counter attacking football that goes on.
Hugo Lloris is a prime example of how attention to detail in a goalkeepers play is so pivotal to the functioning of a team. The difference between Friedel and Lloris when they have the ball in their hands is the American chooses to bounce the ball a few times before he finds his man, whereas the Frenchman throws the ball out with accuracy to the wings on distributes to the wings with his feet with precision. I do not mean these aimless throws like Heurelho Gomes used to often deliver that looked impressive but often did not find the target. The distribution of a modern keeper is an aspect of a game that is so underrated. Despite the stereotype of footballers, they have to be smarter and Hugo Lloris illustrates an ability to know his team’s strengths. The keepers are meant to act as a calming influence and that is delivering the ball to a player’s feet. Lloris is aware that Bale and Lennon is the fulcrum of Tottenham’s attacking play and if they are released early with the ball on the floor they can easily wreak havoc.
It is for this very reason that I favour David De Gea to win the battle of wills at Old Trafford with Lindegaard to gain the permanent starting position, and why he commanded a fee of £18 million. There is a large aspect of a keeper’s play that is focussed around the ability to stop shots and have an instinctive nature to be able to stop the trouble. This is not a new commodity; there are several goalkeepers who can shot stop well. Bogdan was a prime example of this at Bolton last season, but you didn’t see a rush for Tottenham to sign him.
The reason for this is his distribution is not on the same level as Lloris. As the Premier League becomes more intricate too it is the goalkeeper’s responsibility to notice this too. Manchester United has been a team that have flourished because of their ability to devastatingly pick teams apart within moments due to incisive passing. The distribution of the Spaniard is stunning and it is clearly irresponsible for a keeper these days to boot it long and hope his team mates can work from there. The need to be skilful with their feet is often a talent that is forgotten in the discussion of what keeper’s need. They are footballers after all.
When your team is under pressure and shots are raining down and your number one receives a goal kick it is senseless to pump a long ball to the left, unless you have a play which is functioned around this. Newcastle goalkeeper Tim Krul could take note of the distribution of other keepers in the league, as his is piling pressure upon his teammates. I have never seen Demba Ba’s face light up with glee as a long ball happens to come into his airspace and he has to desperately challenge for the ball.
He has to take what he is given, but this doesn’t exactly encourage him to not panic when he does receive the ball on the floor. Especially when a team is struggling like Newcastle are at the minute you need a keeper who can be there to pass the ball back to and he will simply deliver it to his nearest full back rather than hitting it long and hoping for the best.
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It may have been difficult for Tottenham fans to justify wanting Lloris ahead of Friedel when the 41 year old was making such great reflex saves. Now they have had a chance to see Lloris have a longer stint as number one they may be able to see why they have taken a step ahead of other clubs. The same appreciation I expect to occur when David De Gea fully comes of age. The distribution of keeper’s will be become an ever-growing influence in the Premier League.
Nani’s dispute with Manchester United looks set to continue, after failing to agree a new contract with the club. The Daily Mail reports.
It has resulted in a loss of form for the Portuguese international, as he was dropped following the disappointing 1-0 defeat to Everton and only featured in the last 30 minutes of United’s win at Southampton.
Negotiations reportedly came to a halt when United refused to meet the 25-year-old’s astonishing £130,000 a week wage demands in the new deal.
Zenit St Petersburg reportedly offered Nani a way out of Manchester, but they were also put off by the player’s unrealistic wage demands.
He has since slipped behind fellow wingers Ashley Young and Antonio Valencia in the pecking order, and there could be no way back for the troubled star.
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There are suggestions that he will see out the remainder of his current deal to enable him to leave Old Trafford for free- claims which have outraged the Red Devils and will cause this saga to rumble on.
In football from time to time you are forced into actions that in hindsight could prove highly regrettable as well as costly.
When first choice targets go astray and Premier League chairman go on holiday, transfer business can often be left till the dying moments. And in the heat of the moment, it seems that anything is possible within this league.
So to celebrate QPR dedicating the entirety of the last transfer window to the art of panic buying, we’ve accumulated 15 of our favourite scattergun deals. From deals so short sighted that players had to be paid to leave, strikers signed on a two year goal drought to switches so absurd, they make no sense at all, sit back and enjoy the ride.
Click on Gregorz Rasiak below to unveil the top 15
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Arsene Wenger is reportedly ready to trigger Demba Ba’s buy-out clause in a bid to prize him away from Newcastle in January, the Sun reports.
The Senegalese striker has a £7.5million clause in his Newcastle contract, allowing him to leave to anybody who matches that fee. It was expected that clubs would come in for him last summer but it seems Wenger is ready to take the plunge and bring the striker to the Emirates in the winter transfer window.
Ba, 27, is however said to be keen to stay at St James Park:
“Demba wants to be paid what he thinks he deserves but remains committed to the club. He loves it at Newcastle and wants it to be sorted out as soon as possible.” Said a source close to the player.
After the sale of Robin van Persie to Manchester United in the summer, the Gunners have struggled to find a regular goal scorer to take his place. New signings Lukas Podolski and in particular Oliver Giroud, despite flashes of what they can do have struggled to find any consistent form since moving to England.
Ba in comparison is currently joint top of the Premier League scoring charts with 10 goals and Wenger is reportedly ready to offer him £60,000 a week in wages plus add ons to bring him to the club.
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