Sir Alex Ferguson will be hoping to get revenge on their great rivals after their 6-1 drubbing at Old Trafford early in the season. United don’t go into the game with any great confidence, given their back to back defeats.
At FFC this week there’s been plenty of United blogs that include the Pogba conundrum; in defence of David De Gea, while something of a faux pas by Sir Alex Ferguson.
We also have a selection of the best United blogs from across the web.
Something of a faux pas by Sir Alex Ferguson?
The TEN Manchester United starlets that proved anything but
Transfer dealings at Manchester United?
Proving his worth at Old Trafford in a time of need
United stopper certainly doesn’t lack confidence
‘Modern Manchester United’ all set for January revamp
A £30m gamble worth taking by Sir Alex?
United could be party to one of football’s great travesties
When Paul Pogba is ready, he won’t be held back
In defence of David De Gea
A problem Ronaldo can address, but will his ego let him?
Sir Alex Ferguson given transfer greenlight
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Best of WEB
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Is It Time For Sir Alex To Ask For Some Assistance? – Red Flag Flying High
Liverpool loses dignity, respect and legitimacy – United Rant
A Starlet Well Deserving Of Praise – The Busby Way
We’re Not Skint. So Why No Midfielder? – 7Cantonas
Who Will Follow Macheda Out The Old Trafford Door? – The United Religion
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Click on Wayne Bridge’s current lady below to unveil our WAG XI of the season
Arsene Wenger has clarified that all-being-well Jack Wilshere should return to action for Arsenal in March.
The England international midfielder has not featured for The Gunners this season as yet due to an ankle injury, and suffered a setback before Christmas as his rehabilitation looked to be nearing an end.
However the French coach is looking to have his talisman back available before the end of the season, but won’t rush his recovery.
“Jack can be back within a month if all goes well,” Wenger told Sky Sports.
“The recovery of his latest problems looks very good. The latest scan was very positive.
“We go cautiously step-by-step because we tried to push him back quicker in the first instance and he had a setback. So this time we have to be cautious and not go too quick.
“He can be back before then end of the season, of course,” he stated.
Meanwhile, Arsenal take on AC Milan at the San Siro on Wednesday night, and the Emirates Stadium manager has admitted to studying Tottenham’s victory over the Italian giants from last season in preparation for the game.
“I have seen [that game], yes. Milan had a lot of the ball and Tottenham caught them on the break at the end of the game,” he told the club’s official website.
“You never decide when you break, you break when you can. It was a game which was vastly dominated, especially in the second half, by Milan.
“We will not decide at the start of the game that we will sit in our half if we have to, like Tottenham did. We will do it and then try to catch them on the break.
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“But at the start we will try to get out of our own half and try to get up there and play. Spurs won the game when they were dominated, but that is football today,” he stated.
Aston Villa midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker heads a list of 10 players who have been released by the Midlands club.The 27-year-old joins John Carew – who spent the latter part of the season on loan at Stoke – Moustapha Salifou, Robert Pires, and Isaiah Osbourne through the exit door at Villa Park.
Youngsters Harry Forrester, Arsenio Halfhuid, Durrell Berry, Ellis Deeney and Calum Flanagan have also left the club.
Reo-Coker, a former England Under-21 captain, spent four years at Villa after signing from West Ham in a deal worth a reported 8.5 million pounds in July 2007.
Despite establishing himself as a regular under Gerard Houllier last season – making 30 appearances compared to only 10 under Martin O’Neill in the previous season – he is now free to move on.
Striker Carew signed for Villa in January 2006 from French outfit Lyon after spells with Valencia and Roma, and finished as the club’s leading scorer for three consecutive seasons.
But after falling out of favour with Houllier, he moved to Britannia Stadium in January in search of a fresh start, although Stoke boss Tony Pulis is yet to confirm whether he will offer the 31-year-old Norwegian a permanent deal.
Welcome to my first ever Wolves Football FanCast Show Blogcast. As FanCast ‘guru’ David Evans has made the schoolboy error of booking a holiday during the football season he has left the job of bringing your weekly Wolves FanCast update in my hands! In this week’s show I will be bringing you the latest Wolves news, paying tribute to Wolves legend Frank Munro, reviewing the League game against Fulham and the Carling Cup tie against Northampton and, finally, previewing Saturday’s ‘Top of the Table’ clash with local rivals Aston Villa.
We start with the latest Wolves news. As the end of the transfer window draws closer it has been very quiet on the transfer front with both Matt Jarvis and Kevin Doyle once again linked with moves away from Molineux. In terms of departures from Molineux reports suggest that Stefan Maierhofer is on the verge of sealing a £1mil move back to Austria with Red Bull Salzburg. With Andy Keogh having already joined Leeds United on loan, Wolves actively looking to sell Sam Vokes and Leigh Griffiths linked with a loan move to Scotland this will leave only Kevin Doyle, Steven Fletcher and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake as Wolves’ senior strikers. Mick McCarthy has indicated that Wolves will not be looking to add to the squad before the transfer window slams shut, but if all these rumoured deals do go through I can see a back up striker arriving at Molineux. Let’s just hope that if someone does come in they will be an improvement on the Marcus Bent ‘experiment’ of last season!
On Thursday Wolves announced that Wolves legend Frank Munro passed away at the age of 63 after suffering a heart attack. Munro joined Wolves in 1968 and made 371 appearances and scored 19 times in the Old Gold and Black. During his time at Molineux Munro was part of the 1972 UEFA Cup Finalists, the 1974 League Cup Winners and the 1977 Second Division Winners. Having never seen Frank Munro play I can only reflect on what others have said about him as a player. In Peter Lansley’s excellent book ‘Running with Wolves’ Munro’s performance in the 1974 League Cup Final is described as “a ball-playing centre-half in his prime.” The fact that Frank Munro continued to attend Molineux after he retired, he was present at the Blackburn game last season, shows that we have lost a true Wolves legend.
On Sunday 21st August 2011 Wolverhampton Wanderers, albeit briefly, sat atop the Barclays Premier League. We may only be two games into the 2011/2012 season but I am confident in saying that all Wolves fans would have basked in the glory that the excellent 2-0 win over Fulham gave us! An unchanged Wolves line-up brushed aside a Fulham side who had kept 10 clean sheets in their last 13 games with first half goals from Kevin Doyle and Matt Jarvis. The thing that impressed me most about this result was the professional nature with which Wolves closed out the game in the 2nd half in order to secure the three points. Apart from a goal saving tackle from Stephen Ward after a good save from Hennessey Fulham caused the Wolves defence minimal problems. This was mainly down to the way in which Roger Johnson marshalled the defence and dealt with the threats posed by Dempsey, Andy Johnson and Dembele. The signing of Johnson looks like it has reinvigorated Christophe Berra who I thought looked a lot more assured than last season. Karl Henry, a constant target for my criticism, looked a much more effective player now he is no longer burdened by the captaincy with him regularly breaking up play to begin Wolves attacks. In the wide areas both Hunt and Jarvis worked hard to support their full backs whilst also causing plenty of problems in offensive areas, with Jarvis grabbing the 2nd goal. It was up front that the most impressive performances came in the shape of Kevin Doyle and Steven Fletcher. Fletcher deserved a goal for the way in which he held the ball up and won numerous headers against both Hangeland and Senderos, but it was Doyle who grabbed his first goal of the season after a typically hard-working performance. Here is what you thought of the game;
Twitter
Richjp21; wolves lead the premier tell me its not a dream
cdmPSU17; O’Hara was absolute class, set the tone for everyone else. Top of the league, and we sure looked the part. Up the Wolves!
JPhilipShaw; Wolves top of Premier League. Not there today due to more important engagement but must enjoy this while it lasts.
Shaunkynaston; Great performance- as a regular critizer of Henry I must say I was impressed with him today.
Shaunkynaston; The confidence they are playing with will only add goals and see them secure a mid table position this season.
Facebook
John Bradley; Silky skills, from the Wolves?! Not getting carried away at all but that was like watching Brazil at times! Happy days.
Martin Crawford; Played great today, great possession game in 2nd half. This team has great potential. Let’s hope they stay healthy.
A couple of seasons ago Mick McCarthy said “Just because we’re a Premiership club, doesn’t make us a Premiership side”. The performance on Sunday Wolves are finally beginning to demonstrate that they ‘belong’ in the Premier League.
On Tuesday night Wolves travelled to Sixfields for a potential banana skin of a Carling Cup tie against Northampton Town, a team that knocked Liverpool out of the same competition last year. Mick McCarthy rang the changes as the starting line up was completely different to the one that started the game against Fulham, including a Wolves debut for rookie left back Jamie Reckford. This was an opportunity for the ‘back-up’ players to show what they can do, and boy did they do that as Wolves cruised to a 4-0 win. A brace from Ebanks-Blake, a screamer from Milijas and a goal for Sam Vokes saw Wolves brush aside their League Two opposition. If you cast your mind back only a year to the same round of the same competition a Wolves second string, featuring players such as Milijas, Stearman, Zubar, Dave Edwards and Elokobi, struggled to an extra-time win over Southend. Contrast that with the professional performance of last night and it shows how far Wolves have come in the past year. Any one of the senior players on show last night demonstrated that Wolves now have quality strength in depth. Milijas, Kightly, Ebanks-Blake, De Vries, Hammill and others are ready should injuries, suspensions and loss of from affect any of the current starting XI. Once again it is the professional nature of the Wolves performance that impresses me the most. Here is what you thought of the game;
Lexi17wwfc_xXx; couldn’t have asked for a better start to the ssn very professional confident approach to games, our prem quality really starting to shine through now…Yes its Early days but think we have every right to b optimistic about the ssn ahead!
Jmeek_20; WHAT A STRIKE FROM NENAD #milijasisgod
Facebook
Wayne Brown; reserves look fresh and ready
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Martin Crawford; Love that it was all from the bench…this club is moving up!
Matthew Hobbs; It keeps the confidence sky high!
The final part of this weeks blogcast is to look ahead to Wolves’ first local derby of the season, the ‘Top of the table clash’ with Aston Villa. Last season Wolves went to Villa Park and secured an excellent 1-0 victory thanks to a first-half Matt Jarvis strike. Aston Villa, under former Blues manager Alex McLeish, and Wolves have both played Blackburn and Fulham this season with Villa drawing away at Fulham and beating Rovers 3-1 at home which has put them in 4th place at this early stage of the season. Villa are currently in a period of transition having sold key players over the summer in the form of Ashley Young and Stewart Downing. However, Wolves will have to be wary of the prolific Darren Bent, the exciting Marc Albrighton and the excellent Shay Given. I envisage that Wolves will be unchanged from the team that started against Fulham but, as the Northampton game has shown, we have a number of options from the bench should the game not be going our way. Travelling to Villa Park and continuing our 100% record will be a difficult ask and if I was given a point now I would take it. My prediction for this game is 1-1 with Steven Fletcher grabbing the goal for Wolves.
I hope you have enjoyed my first Wolves Football FanCast Show Blogcast, hopefully you will join us next week as Dave returns and normal service resumes with a podcast reviewing the Aston Villa game. Please also remember that there are plenty of sites to continue your Wolves debate on; MolineuxMix.co.uk, Wolves-Mad.co.uk, Wolveswebfansclub.co.uk and for everything else football related FootballFancast.co.uk.
Don’t forget that you can follow us on Twitter @WWFCFancast and on Facebook, just search for Wolves Football FanCast Show and click Like!
Stuart Pearce remarked recently that he thought that the FA’s new St George’s Park facility could help England end their forty-five year wait for a trophy. Until now England has been the only major European country to be without such a facility and Pearce says it will help with the training of British coaches and young players.
“I think St George’s Park could be the one single thing that could push us on, possibly for the next 100 years. It’s an exciting project. When I first came in to the organisation, I had problems. The analysis department was based in Liverpool, the conditioning department was based somewhere else, and as a manager you wouldn’t accept that at any club so why should we accept it at the elite end of football in this country? To have everyone under the same roof, to be able to invite young players in for coaching weekends, to be able to support our players and managers within this country to develop all under one roof, one venue, will be absolutely outstanding.”
In many ways Pearce makes a valid point; the infrastructure currently in place for the development of both players and coaches in this country is pitiful in relation to our continental cousins. And it shows in the stats; figures from 2010 showed that there were fewer than 2,800 English coaches who were in possession of Uefa’s ‘B’, ‘A’ and ‘Pro’ badges, it’s top qualifications. However Spain, Italy, France and Germany all had between 17,600 and 35,000. This makes for sorry reading indeed and not only is it an indication of why our international side consistently underperforms but also why the standard of English coaches is so poor.
It is imperative that we address this problem in the UK and the St George’s Park facility will go some way to addressing this problem. However unless our major clubs give English coaches a chance how are they ever expected to truly succeed? All of our top clubs look abroad for either their managers or directors of football. And when an Englishman is hired, such as Roy Hodgson for Liverpool, he does a poor job and is fired within six months.
The problem is that coaches and managers, just like players, can only develop so far without top-level experience. A player can have the best training from the best academy where he will learn the most is with experience at the top level. This scheme to help encourage and train new coaches will certainly have a positive effect but will we ever get to the stage where Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and the likes will be willing to give the top managers a chance? Harry Redknapp and Roy Hodgson are currently the only torch-bearers for managers at a high level and only Redknapp has any proven success in recent times.
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Twenty years ago there wasn’t a foreign manager in sight in the Premier League. Now, with the exception of the Glaswegians, there is barely a British manager in our league. As a club team, with a multi-cultural squad, the continental approach of some managers does work but in our national team we have seen under both Capello and Sven that an English manager would serve the qualities of our players much better.
Undoubtedly the continental approach of club managers can alter the style of play of our players but it is of no use if the top English managers are not used to managing our top players. Eventually our cubs will have to take the plunge and take a chance with an English manager. It worked well for Spurs but to be fair Tottenham were in danger of relegation before Redknapp. He has however proved his worth and if he does ever get the England post hopefully he can prove that English managers are good enough to perform at every level.
Ultimately though, whether our big clubs give home grown managers a chance or not all we can do is continue with projects like the FA’s current one. Before we can think about good managers we must address our lack of qualified coaches. From there hopefully we can more efficiently develop our youth prospects and in time see the arrival of a new era of English managers, how much time that will take however if they are rarely given the chance is another matter altogether.
Follow me on Twitter @H_Mackay
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Inter boss Leonardo has conceded a comeback against Schalke in the Champions League quarter-final could be beyond their reach.Despite a positive start at the San Siro after Dejan Stankovic’s long-range strike, the Italians saw their lead and hopes of retaining the title slip away from them courtesy of a three-goal second-half performance by the Bundesliga club, who go into the return leg 5-2 up.
“Tonight’s game started in the best possible fashion and it would have been difficult to predict what was to come,” the Brazilian said after the game.
“Early in the second half we missed a couple of chances and immediately Schalke scored their third.”
The Inter boss, who saw also the Nerazzurri concede ground in the Serie A title race following the loss in the Milan derby on Saturday, rued Schalke’s ruthless conversion rate on Tuesday.
He admitted his side had a mountainous task to overcome in the return leg at Gelsenkirchen next Wednesday.
“They had six or seven shots and scored five goals, so in that we can feel hard done by,” he said.
“After their third and fourth goals responding became difficult, especially with ten men, and in the end we lacked balance, as we did on Saturday against Milan.”
“It’s difficult to think about mounting a recovery in the second leg, but we’ll try to capture the best possible result.”
“Unfortunately, the crucial period of the season has come at the wrong time for us. It took a lot of effort to climb the league standings and Inter always play to win. It’s the only way we know.”
Despite the emphatic away victory, Schalke boss Ralf Rangnick refused to be taken away by the result, insisting the contest was not over – yet.
“We are not in the semi-finals just yet, but we have a pretty big chance now,” he said. “In the end, we could have scored even more.”
“It is surely the best game of my career. Had someone told us before the match that we would beat Inter by three goals, we would have had him (or her) declared crazy.”
Austrian side Sturm Graz progressed to the third round of Champions League qualifying despite a 3-2 loss to Videoton.All five goals came in an eventful first half at the Sostoi Stadion in Szekesfehervar, Hungary, but the victory for the hosts was not enough to see them through to the next round following Sturm’s 2-0 first-leg win at home.
The visitors twice came from behind on Wednesday with Akos Elek and Gyorgy Sandor putting Videoton ahead only for Andreas Holzl and Ferdinand Feldhofer to equalise for Sturm.
Zoltan Liptak’s goal in the second minute of first-half injury time restored Videoton’s lead, but Sturm’s advantage from the first leg was enough to ensure they progressed 4-3 on aggregate.
Maccabi Haifa also progressed to the next round despite losing on Wednesday, with FK Borac Banja Luka’s 3-2 victory in Bosnia Herzegovina not enough to overturn the Israeli side’s 5-1 first-leg lead.
Continuing the trend of losing teams progressing, Rosenborg were beaten 2-0 by Icelandic side Breidablik but still moved into the third round 5-2 on aggregate.
The Norwegian side all but sealed their progress into the third qualifying round with a 5-0 home win last week, and goals from Dylan McAllister and Kristinn Steindorsson in the return leg were not enough to turn things around for Breidablik.
Georgian outfit Zestafoni held on for a 3-2 aggregate win over Dacia Chisinau following their 2-0 loss in Moldova.
Zestafoni led 3-0 from last week’s first leg, but went behind early thanks to a Dmitri Popovici strike and were forced to play most of the second half with 10 men after Teimuraz Gongadze received his second yellow card in the 64th minute.
Ghenadie Orbu scored a late spot kick for the hosts to ensure a nervy finish for Zestafoni, but they held on to book their spot in the next round.
Cypriot champions APOEL smashed four goals past Albanian outfit Skenderbeu to secure their progression 6-0 on aggregate.
Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond will host a summit in Edinburgh on Tuesday to discuss last week’s Old Firm Scottish Cup replay.Wednesday’s match at Celtic Park saw Rangers trio Steven Whittaker, Madjid Bougherra and El-Hadji Diouf red carded, while there was an ugly spat between Rangers assistant manager Ally McCoist and Celtic boss Neil Lennon after the final whistle.Police and the Scottish Football Association (SFA) have been vocal critics of the clubs in the wake of the match, during which 34 people were arrested inside the stadium.Strathclyde Police requested the summit to address the problems.Police will attend, along with representatives from both clubs and the SFA, with a statement on any findings to be released later on Tuesday.”There can be no doubt that the levels of drunken violence that have blighted our communities and the number of people who have been arrested due to their sectarian behaviour is simply unacceptable,” a police statement read. “Something has to be done.”
Chelsea, Barcelona and Real Madrid all won friendlies on Wednesday, while AC Milan lost on penalties.New Blues boss Andre Villas-Boas saw his side defeat Hong Kong champions Kitchee 4-0 in their Asia Trophy clash.
Chelsea were expected to win well but were kept at bay for 37 minutes, until Frank Lampard opened the scoring from the penalty spot.
A Luzardo own-goal followed before Didier Drogba and Daniel Sturridge found the back of the net as Chelsea qualified for Saturday’s final in Hong Kong.
They will meet Aston Villa in that match, after Alex McLeish’s side snuck past Blackburn 1-0.
Paul Robinson made several saves to deny Villa, but Darren Bent’s close-range finish was enough to secure the victory.
Barcelona continued preparations for a fourth-straight La Liga title by defeating Bayern Munich to claim the Audi Cup.
Thiago Alcantara was the hero for the Catalan giants, the Spanish 20-year-old netting a brace to seal the victory.
Karim Benzema also struck a brace in Real Madrid’s 3-1 win over Hertha Berlin, although the 2010/11 La Liga runners-up were forced to come from behind in the German capital.
Patrick Ebert scored an 18th-minute opener for the newly promoted side, but a stunning free-kick from Ronaldo was followed by a pair of strikes from French forward Benzema.
After a 2-2 draw in normal time, Brazilian side Internacional snuck past AC Milan on penalties at Munich’s Allianz Arena.
Milan twice took the lead through Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Alexandre Pato, but goals from Leandro Damaio and Andres D’Alessandro sent the match to spot-kicks.
Unbelievably, Milan missed all of their opportunities from the penalty spot, with Mattia Valoti, Antonio Cassano, Massimo Oddo and Pato all failing to convert as
Internacional won 2-0 in the shootout.
Other friendly results saw Newcastle United defeat MLS outfit Columbus Crew 3-0, Juventus prevail against Mexican side America 1-0 and Malaga thump FC Utrecht 3-0.
Newcastle United have completed the signing of Senegal international Demba Ba from West Ham on a three-year deal.Ba, 26, only joined West Ham from Hoffenheim in January this year, netting seven goals in 13 appearances for the club.
West Ham’s relegation to the Championship triggered a release clause in the striker’s contract, allowing him to speak to other clubs, with Newcastle winning the race to his signature.
“Demba made a great impression with West Ham last season and is a great signing for this club,” Newcastle manager Alan Pardew said.
“He has pace, excellent technical ability, is good in the air and – it goes without saying – has the ability to consistently find the back of the net. Moreover, he has a great passion to play for Newcastle United.”
The signing of Ba comes just a day after the England Premier League club’s captain Kevin Nolan moved in the opposite direction, joining West Ham on a five-year deal.
After briefly spending time with Watford as a youth player, Ba made his first professional appearance for Rouen in France, before joining Mouscron and then Hoffenheim.
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He made his Senegal debut in 2007 and has scored three goals in 10 international appearances.