TOP 100 SOCCER SITES
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| Lavicka's future still undecided With his side poised to go top of the A-League table, Sydney FC coach Vitezslav Lavicka says his future at the club will be known by the end of the month. foxsports.com.au |
Roberto Mancini dismisses Manchester City's link to defender Simon Kjaer • We have other transfer targets in mind, says Roberto Mancini• Manchester United reportedly interested in Denmark defenderManchester City's new manager, Roberto Mancini, says he is not interested in signing the Palermo defender Simon Kjaer.There has been speculation that City and rivals Manchester United are set to do battle for the Denmark international. But Mancini claims a bid for Kjaer, who is under contract at Palermo until 2013, is not in his plans."At the moment we are in training and I have to think about other things," he told Mediterraneonline.it. "Could the Dane interest us? At the moment we have other targets. We're not thinking about Kjaer."City have something of a defensive injury crisis with Nedum Onuoha, Joleon Lescott and Wayne Bridge all out, while Kolo Touré will be absent for a month due to his involvement in the Ivory Coast's African Nations Cup campaign.Manchester CityTransfer windowPalermoEuropean footballguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Absence makes heart grow fonder for Birmingham's Stephen Carr Birmingham's captain tellss how he rediscovered his passion for the game after a seven-month exileThere is only so long you can wait for the telephone to ring and Stephen Carr had reached the point when enough was enough. Seven months had passed since he had been released from Newcastle United and he was no nearer to finding a new club. The lack of interest in him was galling and he was increasingly fed up with people asking if and when he would return to football. So he retired.At least that was the plan. And yet, little more than 12 months later, Carr leads Birmingham City out against Manchester United at St Andrew's today, revelling in his return to the Premier League where, in the words of his manager, Alex McLeish, he has been "absolutely awesome". It has been a remarkable journey and one that Carr could never have imagined taking when he was training in a gym this time last year wondering what he would do next with his life beyond preparing to go on holiday to Tenerife."It's obviously surprising," the former Republic of Ireland international says. "I was sitting at home and just doing what every other person does after Christmas, going to the gym to keep fit. I hadn't touched a football since the summer and I'd had nothing to do with the game, so it's quite a turnaround to be going out against Manchester United in the Premier League again. But, for me, I'm just buzzing to be back playing."Some players can see the end coming but Carr had no reason to believe he might have kicked a ball for the last time when he left Newcastle in the summer of 2008. He was 31, had 300 Premier League matches behind him and, although he had suffered more than his share of injuries at St James' Park, particularly during his last season at the club, when he pulled his hamstring four times, he felt that the club had let him down rather than that his body had betrayed him.Yet the harsh reality was that his mobile phone might as well have been on silent in the months to come. "The season ends and June comes and you think that you will get some calls," Carr says. "The calls don't come and then you think 'maybe July'. And it just kept going on. It got to September and teams were back playing, managers had put together their squads, and then it really hit home. I started thinking: 'I ain't getting a club.'"It was frustrating because I thought I was still good enough to play in the Premier League, never mind outside that. But you've got to get on with it. There's nothing much you can do. And I just wanted to put it to bed."I thought I'm not going to let this keep dragging on and people keep asking me 'What's happening with you?' I thought: 'No one has offered me a contract from May to December and that's not going to change now.'"Carr points to a number of possible reasons for being overlooked, including the reputation he picked up for being injury-prone, a lack of money outside the big clubs and the notion that right-backs are not in demand like strikers. But then, as if realising he sounds like he is making excuses, he stops in mid-sentence. "I thought I would get another club. If someone had told me I wouldn't get an offer, I would have said: 'Good one, I'll get something.'"In fairness to Carr, one of his theories is not without foundation. McLeish had concerns about the defender's hamstring problems before he invited him to train with Birmingham. His mind, however, was put at rest, when Ian McGuiness, who previously worked at St James's Park with Carr and is now Birmingham's club doctor, told him the player had been rushed back too many times and never got a chance to let the original injury heal.Carr's frustration with Newcastle is salient. "It was stop-start. Every year I had an injury. They were silly injuries that took a long time to diagnose and then I was out longer than I should be. And the last year, when I pulled my hamstring four times, summed it up. Basically it was a case of people not looking after you properly. Unfortunately you're the one that looks like you're injury-prone but the rehab was shocking. That's the bottom line."Having proved his fitness to McLeish, Carr made his Birmingham debut against Crystal Palace last February. He had never played outside the Premier League before but remembers feeling nervous nonetheless. It was his first match in more than a year and he knew he would be under the microscope. "It was a massive game for me," says the Dubliner. "I felt like all eyes were going to be on me but luckily I got through it."The former Tottenham trainee has been a revelation ever since, adding experience to a callow defence and helping Birmingham to adapt seamlessly from the Championship to the Premier League, where he has started every game but one. "This is the fittest I've felt for a long time and I don't see why I can't play for a lot more years," says Carr, who has 18 months remaining on his contract and would welcome the chance to extend that deal. "I really love it here."Carr's happiness at St Andrew's is evidence of the appetite he has rediscovered for a game that used to "eat him up" when he was a youngster at Spurs before he learned to switch off in later years. He is, by his own admission, far from obsessed with football and seems genuinely taken aback at the idea he might have gone to watch a match when he, albeit briefly, retired. "Oh, Jesus, no," he says. "I don't watch much football at the best of times. Not that many games are enjoyable."What he has come to appreciate after being out of football for a period, though, is that without training and playing, life can be a little dull. The dressing-room banter was no longer there but it was pulling his boots on and doing what he has done since he joined Spurs aged 15 that he missed most. "I never thought I would say that I would want to keep playing until I was 36 or 37 but, if I could, I definitely would after having that break. I've realised how enjoyable it is."The same cannot be said for interviews like this, which Carr tries to avoid at all costs. It is a shame because he is an engaging character, yet put a television camera in front of him and he wants to run a mile. "I had to do an interview for a Sky game, when one of the lads was man-of-the-match because I'm captain, and I hated it. That's one of the bad things of being captain. I just want to train, play and go home. I don't see the point in talking to talk."Not that anyone one at Birmingham is complaining when his actions on the pitch over the past 11 months have spoken loudly enough. "I knew I could do it," says Carr. "But you still have to prove it to yourself a bit too because your pride gets hurt because no one is interested in you.Maybe I have proved a few people wrong but it's not about that. It was about me getting back playing and, to be honest, it was a kick up the arse as well."Birmingham CityPremier LeagueStuart Jamesguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Okocha call shows Nigeria are in trouble Nigeria's lack of midfield creativity at the Africa Cup of Nations has produced a desperate response in the pressHow bad are things for Nigeria right now? They're so bad that the possibility that Jay-Jay Okocha, aged 37 and having played nothing but squash since leaving Hull City, might be brought back into the squad for the World Cup is being given serious consideration by at least certain sections of the Nigerian press.Roger Milla may have been able to do something similar (aged 38) for Cameroon in 1990, but even he was playing third-division football in Réunion. Yet the desire for a central midfield creator is understandable, for that is what Nigeria desperately lack. Against Egypt yesterday, their three central midfielders were Yusuf Ayila, Dickson Etuhu and Mikel John Obi, all of whom would normally be considered holders.Etuhu sat out training today with a knee injury. "I picked it up in the first half yesterday and probably shouldn't have played on," he said. "I hope to be back tomorrow." He didn't sound optimistic, though. Peter Odemwingie should return for Saturday's game against Benin after recovering from a virus, while Obafemi Martins has left Angola to see the surgeon who operated on his right leg after he suffered a recurrence of pains in his shin."What can you do? You have to play with what you've got," Etuhu said of the midfield combination, but that places the creative burden squarely on Mikel. When he made his competitive debut for Nigeria in Egypt four years ago, coming off the bench and turning the game against Zimbabwe, he played just behind the front two and was highly effective in the role. He appeared to have great vision and poise, and it was a little surprising when Daniel Amokachi, one of Nigeria's assistant coaches, said he was even better in a deeper role.That, of course, is where he has always played for Chelsea, and the lack of practice in the more advanced role seems to have affected him. At one point yesterday, having played a sharp one-two with Chinedu Obasi, he advanced into the Egypt penalty area and dithered and dithered, eventually allowing Wael Gomaa to make a challenge. Somebody more used to being in the position would surely have been more decisive.Yet for all that, Nigeria's tactics seemed to be working in the opening half-hour. They sat deep – naturally given their three central midfielders – allowed Egypt to pass the ball in front of them, and worked on hitting long diagonals behind the Egyptian wing-backs for their wide midfielders to chase. Obasi, in particular, prospered on the right, getting behind Emad Moteab and having acceleration room to run at Mahmoud Fathallah.The problem was that, having dozed off and conceded an equaliser so soft it was hard to pinpoint any player who wasn't to blame, as their captain, Joseph Yobo, later said, they lost shape and discipline. Egypt, with Ahmed Hassan as classy as ever at 34, picked them off. The issue, as always with Nigeria, is as much mental as anything else.What a nervous patient almost certainly doesn't need is 150 million people shouting at him, but that's what Nigeria got this morning, with a series of what were described as "hard, tough meetings" with the president of the football federation and the Nigerian sports minister, delaying training by 45 minutes.The coach, Shaibu Amodu, is a man under pressure; and it can only be made worse by the knowledge that he's been here before. Eight years ago he led Nigeria to the World Cup, only to be dismissed after a disappointing Africa Cup of Nations campaign, and he has as good as been told that he must get to the semi-finals if he is to hold on to his job until the summer.The consensus, at least among the Nigerian press, is that he has to go and be replaced by a foreigner. There is a sense that Nigerian coaches aren't good enough, that they haven't the technical skills of Europeans, but perhaps even more damagingly that players based in Europe don't respect local coaches. Perhaps significantly, of the African sides who have qualified for the World Cup, only two – Nigeria and Algeria – have local coaches, and both are under pressure.But then whoever is Nigeria coach will be under pressure; that's simply the way things are. When Augustine Eguavoen led them to the semi-finals in Egypt four years ago, he was constantly berated for not playing Nwankwo Kanu from the start, even though he proved a highly effective substitute. Eventually he backed down, picked Kanu for the semi against Ivory Coast, and saw him marked out of the game by Yaya Touré.The lust for success itself seems to make it harder to achieve.Nigeria football teamAfrica Cup of NationsJonathan Wilsonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Scunthorpe look to strike FA Cup blow against Manchester City Scunthorpe's Martyn Woolford has more reason than most to help pull off shock against Man City - he's a United supporter. telegraph.co.uk |