TOP 100 SOCCER SITES
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| James wants reunion with Redknapp at Tottenham • Tottenham interested in David James with Cudicini sidelined• England keeper keen to improve position ahead of World CupDavid James has said he welcome a move next month from Portsmouth to Tottenham Hotspur, where he would be reunited with Harry Redknapp.The goalkeeper is a target for the Spurs manager, under whom he had a successful spell at Portsmouth, and believes the transfer would strengthen his hopes of going to next summer's World Cup as England's No1. Redknapp has renewed his interest in James after Carlo Cudicini suffered wrist and pelvis injuries in a motorcycle accident."You could say that I'm flattered by a team of Tottenham's stature and that it would be good for my England chances to join an upwardly mobile club," James told the Sunday Telegraph. "It doesn't surprise me that Harry has been such a success at Tottenham."The Portsmouth manager, Avram Grant, would like to hold on to the 39-year-old but the club could choose to sell high earners such as James because of financial problems. James has been disaffected by the decline at Fratton Park since Redknapp's departure for Tottenham."You have to focus on where you are, and I want to help Portsmouth to climb the table. The departure of so many players from the club last summer was a great pity, especially when those players are your proven goalscorers," said James. "When half of the team disperse, you feel a bit cheated."Peter Crouch, Niko Kranjcar, Glen Johnson and Sylvain Distin were among the players to leave.Premier LeagueTransfer windowTottenham HotspurPortsmouthBill Neenanguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Lacklustre Joe Cole needs to find his form for Chelsea and England • He must improve his confidence, says Chelsea manager• World Cup means it's important to play well for clubJoe Cole has five months to prove his worth to Chelsea. There is little doubt that the England midfielder, who is out of contract in the summer, wants to stay at Stamford Bridge and that the Premier League club is ready to offer new terms, but the issue is complicated by Cole's lacklustre form since coming back from injury. "He could do better," said the Chelsea manager, Carlo Ancelotti. "He must improve his confidence."Cole underwent knee surgery in January of last year and did not return to the first team until September, but he has started on 12 of his 18 appearances under Ancelotti. The Italian is sympathetic and recalled his own experience as a convalescent footballer. "I was out one year with injury and it's not easy to return," he said. "You need to have time to play and improve confidence."The manager seems relieved that the financial arrangements are not part of his remit. "I don't know what he earns or wants to earn," Ancelotti said before dwelling on the aspirations Cole ought to have on the field. "He has an important appointment to achieve this season. The World Cup means it's important to play well for Chelsea. At this moment he has good mental attitude and good condition."While Cole is now entitled to sign a pre-contract agreement with another club, the focus is on agreeing a new deal at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea's offer will become more lucrative if he regains his best form.A sense of stability might also help the 28-year-old secure that place at the World Cup. Ancelotti is as reassuring as circumstances permit. "The economic factor is for the club [to decide]. It's not a problem. They are talking. We are confident that Joe wants to stay. He's an important player for the squad and the fans."Cole has recently been used in the position behind a central striker that ought to show him at his best as creator, but he has still not made his presence tell.It must be a relief to Ancelotti that Nicolas Anelka is fit to return from a hamstring injury and he would have probably played against Hull City tomorrow at the KC Stadium had the match not been called offthis evening. The Frenchman is badly needed now that Didier Drogba and others have left for the Africa Cup of Nations but he is far more than an alternative to the Ivorian.Anelka's career is a puzzle. He has been at Arsenal and Real Madrid as well as Chelsea, yet there have been spells, too, at Fenerbahce and Bolton Wanderers. The transfer fees demanded for him have fluctuated but Chelsea now seem wise to have paid £15m, even if he had cost Bolton less than half that sum. The forward has much more to offer than he did in early years when he depended on being able to outrun the last defender."I think Anelka is a top striker with fantastic technical quality," Ancelotti said. "He was very important last month because he put a lot of quality in this team. For me he was a surprise. I didn't know Anelka. As a man he is very good. He has a strong personality. He doesn't show it but he has a lot of personality."He played in fantastic teams: Arsenal and Real Madrid. I think he likes to be a player. He doesn't like to be in the papers or speak. His life is very quiet and very calm. For this he was a fantastic player before he came to Chelsea."The manager is convinced that Anelka is settled. "We want to keep him and he wants to stay," he said. "He's very close to signing a new contract. He's a complete striker because he can play alone in attack or behind Drogba. He is a complete player."Since Drogba, Michael Essien, Salomon Kalou and Mikel John Obi are involved in the Africa Cup of Nations, Anelka and the other senior players who remain bear the responsibility of maintaining Chelsea at the top of the table.ChelseaCarlo AncelottiPremier LeagueKevin McCarraguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Everton discuss new stadium 'in the city' • Club hold 'positive' talks over new plans to leave Goodison• Follows collapse of controversial Kirkby plan in NovemberEverton have held "positive" talks with Liverpool City Council over plans for a new stadium within the city.The two sides met yesterday following the Government's decision last year to reject a planning application for a controversial new stadium in nearby Kirkby.The £400m development for a 50,000-seater stadium, in partnership with Tesco, collapsed in November with Liverpool City Council one of the opponents to Destination Kirkby.A joint statement read: "A positive meeting took place between Everton FC and Liverpool City Council about future stadium options within the city boundary, and more discussions have been scheduled for the near future."EvertonPremier Leagueguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Preston North End 0 Chelsea 2: match report FA Cup holders in fifth round courtesy of Nicolas Anelka and Daniel Sturridge goals despite being far from their imperious best. telegraph.co.uk |
Villa live the American dream with Lerner Unlike Malcom Glazer, Aston Villa's US owner has not loaded his club with debt and is loved by the fansWhen Manchester United had Cristiano Ronaldo, the Premier League title and a plane booked to the Champions League final last May, nobody, surely, would have predicted that qualifying for this season's Carling Cup final would be more important to the Reds than to the buffed-up Blues from across the city. If Sir Alex Ferguson's team fail tonight to overturn City's 2-1 first-leg lead, the Old Trafford crowd, growling with resentment at the £716m debt mountain imposed on the club by the Glazer family, will erupt into renewed revolt.A benign contrast to United's wretched, leveraged US takeover is already at Wembley, waiting quietly for the outcome: Aston Villa, through to their first major final for a decade. Whereas United fans have been unfurling "Love United, Hate Glazer" banners and calling for action from a reluctant government, or silent Football Association, the Villa fans who swarmed on to the pitch in celebration after their club's second-leg romp against Blackburn have elevated their US owner to a status approaching love.One of Randy Lerner's many shrewd touches, less-heralded than supporting Martin O'Neill to build a fine young team, was to match the Aston Villa Supporters Trust's fund-raising and commission a statue of William McGregor, the Villa chairman who in 1888 conceived the idea of the Football League. In the hearts and minds of many Villa fans in 2010, Lerner, in contrast to Doug Ellis who preceded him, is already worthy of comparison with a founding father of football.Lerner has demonstrated sensitivity and intelligence in stewarding Villa since he took the club over from Ellis for £62.6m in 2006, but the principal reason for his popularity lies in direct contradiction to the Glazers' conduct, which has earned them vilification. Whereas they have taken near unfathomable millions out of their club – £344m in interest, £120m in fees and other costs, £22.9m for themselves in "management fees" and personal loans – Lerner bought Villa with his own cash, and has since poured very significant money in.While the Glazers were earlier this month releasing their 322-page prospectus to raise a £500m debt on United for the third time since their 2005 takeover, Aston Villa were filing an official document at Companies House setting out the total of Lerner's investment. In the three and a half years between his takeover and 14 October last year, Lerner, via his company registered in Berea, Ohio, has invested £138.6m in Aston Villa.The twist, though, in this tale of benefaction is that the influx of cash has apparently come in loans from Lerner's US company, on which the club themselves are paying the interest. Yet, nonetheless, the money has brought all the benefits which United fans are protesting the Glazers' debts have drained from United: investment in the team, reasonable ticket prices, good relations with fans. Lerner has, too, demonstrated care for Villa's heritage, by funding the McGregor statue and refurbishing the historic Holte Hotel, and won friends by turning away sponsorship in favour of advertising Acorns Hospice across the Villa shirts."He is adored by most Villa fans," says Dave Woodhall, editor of the 20-year strong Heroes and Villains fanzine and a supporters trust board member. "The club has a very open, welcoming approach to the fans, a feeling that we're all in this together, whereas before there was massive mistrust."A long-term fans campaigner, no sucker-up to the boardroom, Woodhall describes his season ticket, £340 for a good seat in the North Stand, as "ridiculously good value"; it is almost £200 less than the cheapest at Old Trafford."As much as anyone can feel part of a modern Premier League club, I think fans do, at the Villa."Lerner has invested the money in nine steady stages since he put £25m into the club on 4 July 2007. A further £18m was paid in from Lerner's UK holding company, Reform Acquisitions, in 2007, then between October 2008 and August last year, the most recent, when £10m was invested, Lerner brought the fortune poured into Villa to that total, £138.6m.It is a curious feature of the Premier League's "sugar daddy" era that the takeovers by billionaires have happened after the grounds were rebuilt, so there has been no major money required except for escalating players' wages. At Villa, clearly, the money has gone principally to furnishing O'Neill with the funds to sign what amounts to a new squad, and to subsidise those players' substantially increased earnings."Randy Lerner has allowed Martin O'Neill great control," the former Villa manager, Graham Taylor, says. "All us managers become control freaks to some extent and Martin has that in him; he runs the football side. Lerner, of all the foreign buyers, seems to understand not to interfere; he lets his manager manage."In their most recent accounts, for the year to 31 May 2008, Villa posted a £7.3m loss, which would have been much worse had the club not recorded a £12m profit from selling players. The wage bill more than doubled in a year, to £50m, and the 2009 accounts, due to be published next month, will surely show more substantial losses, underpinned by Lerner's investment.That may be a formula which has Villa fans singing the name of their chairman in approval, but it still puts Villa the wrong side of Uefa's forthcoming insistence that clubs live within their means. Since Michel Platini, Uefa's president, first announced the "financial fair play initiative," which will come into force for clubs in European competitions from 2012-13, Uefa has emphasised that it does not only apply to clubs carrying large debts."It is to stop clubs making losses consistently, and having a backer to pay them off," a Uefa source says. "That way of funding clubs, from outside owners, inflates players' wages, and too often an owner finds he cannot fund the losses any more and the club is in crisis. Only the English Premier League clubs, and clubs in Italy, have this sugar daddy model, and it is not sustainable for football."Lerner has kept a deliberately low profile since becoming Villa's owner, allowing O'Neill and the players to do Villa's talking, and the club did not want to comment on their financial details or whether there is a plan for them to break even. It requires a close reading of Lerner's company structure to see how the investment is made, coming in loans, at least for the year to 31 May 2008, with Villa themselves paying off the interest.The money to Villa is routed from Reform Acquisitions, which borrows it from Lerner's holding company in Ohio. Interest is charged, at 2% above inter-bank lending rates, amounting to £4m in that accounting year. Next month's accounts will reveal more recent figures. The £4m came from Villa's income, which means that fans buying tickets, however reasonably priced, are paying the interest on Lerner's loans.His approach, then, is harder-nosed than the sporting indulgence most Villa fans believe it to be. Yet they are happy, while United fans are in uproar, because their American buyer has put substantial money in, and treated them with respect. Villa's is an enviable outcome compared to the money-sucking operation orchestrated on United, from the Glazers' home in Tampa Bay.Aston VillaPremier LeagueBusinessDavid Connguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |