| Leicester City: Sousa out, Eriksson in? A day after Milan Mandaric's vote of confidence, Paulo Sousa has gone. And look who's being touted as his successor...Thursday, Leicester: chairman Milan Mandaric urges City fans not to turn on manager Paulo Sousa. Mandaric tells the Leicester Mercury:"Things go wrong but we can't turn things upside down now, for God's sakes. We can't turn around now and say Paulo needs to go! Now is the time for us to show how strong we are together, how united we are behind our manager and give him a chance to get the results...It is a difficult time, but it is time to be united and not to listen to speculation in some parts of the media. Get behind the manager and give him support. I believe in the manager and the team and we need to give them our support. It is as simple as that. As far as I am concerned I told him on behalf of the owners and myself there is tremendous support for him overall and we all have to pitch in and do the same."Friday, Leicester: manager Sousa is sacked, after just nine league games in charge. A club statement, comfortingly, said:"The club would like to state that Paulo Sousa is a first-class individual, but that this decision has been taken in the best interests of the club and our ambitions to move up the npower Championship. The search for a new manager begins immediately and the club anticipates a quick appointment."So, the former QPR and Swansea manager Sousa, who moved from south Wales in July, is looking for a new job. And Leicester City are now looking for yet another manager. They have had some relatively successful managers – Martin O'Neill, Micky Adams and Nigel Pearson – but they are currently bottom of the Championship.Sven-Goran Eriksson is already being touted as the new manager, even though the former England manager has reportedly agreed to manage the Saudi Arabian side Al Hilal. The Mirror reports that Leicester approached Eriksson via the agent Pini Zahavi before axing Sousa (and therefore around the same time/before Mandaric was backing the now ex-manager).Mandaric, you will remember, was owner of Portsmouth before the fall, and was accused of tax evasion during his time there. He is chairman of Leicester, although who actually owns the club is somewhat unclear, as David Conn revealed in August, when Mandaric sold the club to a Thai consortium, of which he appears to be a member and he maintains the chairmanship.Since some high points as England manager, Eriksson has had less-than-memorable stints as manager of Notts County, Mexico and Ivory Coast.Zahavi's career includes controversies at Chelsea, Portsmouth and West Ham.Only in football would such a chain of events and cast of characters be allowed. Why?Leicester CitySteve Busfieldguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Roddy Forsyth: Scotland manager Craig Levein intrigued by tactical nuances Subtle shifts fascinate Scotland maanger. telegraph.co.uk |
Serbia to seek Euro 2012 replay against Italy Serbian soccer officials want a replay of the Euro 2012 qualifier against Italy. They also blame Italian organizers for failing to prevent the violence that caused the game to be called off. cbc.ca |
Aston Villa 0-0 Chelsea This was a better result than the one Chelsea achieved in this fixture last season, when they lost 2-1, and, given Manchester United's slip-up at home, they will have been happy enough to escape with a point. Had Didier Drogba been available they would probably have gone home with all three, for, while Aston Villa shaded the first half, the league leaders completely bossed the second, yet found Nicolas Anelka never quite capable of delivering a killer blow.Incredibly, Villa could have stolen a victory in stoppage time, when a mistake by the otherwise promising Josh McEachran allowed Nigel Reo-Coker to run free on Petr Cech, but no one at Villa Park was greatly surprised to see the midfielder shoot tamely."The only thing the game was missing was a goal," Gérard Houllier said. "Maybe we had better chances in the first half but we were under the cosh in the second. I must admit I was impressed by Chelsea's power and movement; we did well to live with them."When Houllier said beforehand that Emile Heskey reminded him of Drogba, he thought he might have his striker to back up his argument. The only similarity here was that neither was fit enough to take part. Drogba has a fever and Heskey hurt his back in training. That left John Carew to lead the Villa attack, with Ashley Young returned to the flank and Stephen Ireland playing in the hole, a switch that may have disappointed the England player but one that almost brought a goal inside three minutes.Ireland appeared to have done all the hard work when he smoothly accelerated on to Stewart Downing's cross from the right to shoot early past Cech, yet even as the crowd rose in celebration, the ball drifted the wrong side of the post. Carew had another good chance moments later when he had more time and space to beat Cech than he possibly wanted. He tried to place a shot but the goalkeeper got a hand to it.Chelsea came more into the game once Richard Dunne had been forced off with a gashed ankle after 13 minutes, though the half-hour mark arrived without Brad Friedel being extended, and in what looked as though it might be the visitors' first serious attempt on his goal Michael Essien's shot threatened the corner flag instead.Five minutes from the interval, Ireland was unlucky again at the opposite end of the pitch, when a terrific block from Branislav Ivanovic foiled his goal-bound shot. Ireland appealed half-heartedly for handball, though the defender had not only flung his body in the way of the shot, he had turned his back as well. By half-time, Villa had missed enough clear chances to wonder whether they might regret their profligacy later, though at least no one was pretending it would have been a different story with Heskey on the pitch.Chelsea stepped up the pace impressively from the start of the second half, with Florent Malouda in particular more involved. Villa were pinned in their own half, and Friedel had to come to the rescue when Anelka ran on to a 50-yard pass from Mikel John Obi. Even in his capacity as emergency forward, Yuri Zhirkov was having little trouble skipping past James Collins and Habib Beye, and from one of his invitations Anelka should have given Chelsea the lead on the hour, but found himself with his back to goal.Both teams hit the posts before the end, Ivanovic with a header and Young with a free-kick to which Ciaran Clark may have applied the faintest of touches, before Anelka found the crossbar when scoring looked easier.While a draw was just about fair, one side knows it can finish better. "It was a good result for us," said Carlo Ancelotti. "In the second half we deserved to win but Villa played a good game too. We lost here last season so I am happy. Five points above Manchester United is not a bad place to be at this stage of the season."THE FANS' PLAYER RATINGS AND VERDICT MARK RUTTER, Observer reader After five minutes Villa were well on top but that proved short‑lived. In the second half we were hanging on and very much on the defensive. But in terms of clearcut chances, in the end we were unlucky not to win, though shooting isn't Reo-Coker's strong point – I don't think even he thought he was going to score. We've got a noticeably different style already with the new manager so we're going to have to get used to it, as are the players. It's definitely more defensive than the gung-ho approach of the previous regime. "Careful football" would perhaps be the best description.The fan's player ratings Friedel 6; Beye 6, Collins 7, Dunne n/a (Clark 13 7), Warnock 7; Downing 6, Reo-Coker 7, Petrov 8, Young 7; Ireland 6 (Sidwell 84 n/a), Carew 7 (Delfouneso 74 6) TRIZIA FIORELLINO, ChelseaSupportersGroup.net It's two points dropped – it would've been nice to be seven points clear so it's a bit of a missed opportunity. I know we don't usually do well at Villa but there was no get-up-and-go in the team, none of the attacking in waves that I know we can do. Admittedly we were missing some key first-team players but Villa really weren't that great. They came out hard and fast initially but that only lasted about 10 minutes and it settled back into a game of chess. Both teams were determined not to lose, which made for a pretty dull game. Both teams ultimately cancelled each other out.The fan's player ratings Cech 8; Ferreira 8 (Bosingwa 75 6), Ivanovic 7, Terry 7, Cole 7; Ramires 7 (McEachran 75 8), Mikel 7, Essien 6; Kakuta 6 (Zhirkov ht 8), Anelka 7, Malouda 7To take part in the Fans' Verdict, email sport@observer.co.ukPremier LeagueAston VillaChelseaPaul Wilsonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Wayne Rooney admits he fears for his Manchester United future following omission Wayne Rooney has admitted he fears for his Manchester United future after losing place in starting line-up at Old Trafford. telegraph.co.uk |