Yannick Djalo’s quick-fire double helped Sporting Lisbon overcome Academica and clamber back to third on the Liga Sagres table.While Sporting could again slip to fourth if Braga defeat Vitoria Guimaraes on Monday, they at least snapped a three-game winless streak that had threatened to derail their quest for a Europa League spot.
Sporting’s season has lurched from one unwanted headline to the next, starting with the sale of prized assets Miguel Veloso and Joao Moutinho to bring much-needed funds to the club and including a bitter presidential election and the sacking of manager Paulo Sergio in February.
The on-field displays of the 22-time Portuguese champions – now led by caretaker coach Jose Couceiro – have reflected the turmoil, but a Europa League spot would go some way to improving the mood at the Estadio Jose Alvaverde.
Spurred on by a decent crowd in Lisbon, Sporting had a sight on goal within two minutes, though Alberto Zapater’s effort from outside the area was easily handled by Academica goalkeeper Romuald Peiser.
Spanish striker Enrique Carreno thought he had opened the scoring for Academica in the 13th minute only for his goal to be ruled offside, but it was to be Sporting who broke the deadlock on 32 minutes.
It came through fringe Portugal striker Djalo, who picked his spot perfectly from outside the area to leave Peiser with no chance.
And the 24-year-old striker had his eighth goal of the season – and his second brace – just two minutes later when he broke through the defence and sent a delicate chip over the onrushing Peiser.
Former Arsenal midfielder Amaury Bischoff twice brought out first-class saves from Sporting goalkeeper Rui Patricio before the end of the half, and Academica continued to push hard for a goal after the restart.
Substitute midfielder Diogo flashed a drive from outside the box wide in the 80th minute, while Academica got even closer seven minutes later when Modou Sougou dispossessed a flat-footed Marco Torsiglieri but could only poke his shot straight at Rui Patricio.
But Sporting held on to re-claim third on the table, while Academica stay eight points from the relegation zone in 12th.
Chelsea and Manchester United’s interest in Serbian winger Milos Krasic may have to be put on hold for now, according to talkSPORT.
Juventus Director Giuseppe Marotta has vowed Krasic will be staying at the club.
“We will not let him leave Juventus in January but there has been interest from other clubs.”
He continued, “He is our player and is not going to be transfer listed or sold – he is our future and there is no reason to think otherwise.”
Krasic has been monitored closely by last season’s top two Premier League clubs. The 26-year-old moved to Juve last summer for a fee believed to be around £13 million from CSKA Moscow.
However, there were suggestions that he might want to leave “The Old Lady” after a disagreement with manager Antonio Conte.
This looks unlikely after Marotta’s comments.
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The impressive Serbian was on the scoresheet seven times in Serie A last season. He only missed five league games for Juventus last season as they finished in seventh place.
Chris Coleman is widely expected to be named as the new Wales manager on Thursday, as their Football Association have called a press conference.
The Celtic nation are looking for a new boss after the tragic suicide of Gary Speed, and Coleman has admitted that he would feel guilty should he be given the job.
“It’d be a stupid man who goes in there and takes the job, whether it’s me or anyone else, and changes everything. If it ain’t broke, you don’t fix it,” he told Sky Sports.
“But it’s a very sensitive situation. If I’m offered the job and accept, I will have mixed emotions. I don’t think you turn down Wales, and it would be the pinnacle for me.
“In another situation, I’d probably be on cloud nine. But, ideally, Gary, who was a close friend of mine for many years, would still be sitting here doing a great job for the country.
“I almost feel a little bit guilty even talking about the job because Gary is no longer with us,” he concluded.
Coleman has recently stepped down from his post as coach of Greek side Larissa.
By Gareth McKnight
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Wolverhampton Wanderers host relegation rivals Blackburn Rovers on Sunday in a gripping finale to the English Premier League season.Blackburn and Wolves, 15th and 16th on the table respectively and level on 40 points, are just two of five teams in danger of relegation on what promises to be a tense last day of the season.
Three teams are one point worse off than Blackburn and Wolves.
Wigan are second bottom, with Blackpool 18th and Birmingham 17th, all on 39 points.
But despite their slim advantage, neither side in the match at Molineux can afford to settle for just a draw for fear of being overtaken by the teams beneath them.
Blackburn, who beat Wolves 3-0 in their first meeting back in December, have taken five points from their last three matches, including a 1-1 draw at home to Manchester United and a potentially invaluable 1-0 win over Bolton.
But that victory was just their second in 14 league matches, a miserable run that has seen the team slide perilously close to relegation after 10 years in the top division.
If Blackburn drop into the Championship, it will raise further questions about the wisdom of club owners Venkys’ decision to dismiss Sam Allardyce as manager in December.
Wolves finished 15th in their first season back in the Premier League last year, a relatively comfortable eight points clear of the relegation zone.
But they have been battling at the wrong end of the table for much of the current campaign.
Only two victories in the last two outings, both 3-1 over West Brom and Sunderland respectively, have kept Mick McCarthy’s team in with a chance of beating the drop.
Wolves’ survival hopes were not helped by a knee injury to Kevin Doyle.
The centre-forward was a vital part of the team that stayed up last year, but he has missed six of the past seven matches, only returning for 20 minutes off the bench last weekend.
Defender Pascal Zubar and midfielder David Edwards are two more who have been missed in the run-in and are yet to recover fitness.
Blackburn’s biggest concern is the tight hamstring that forced captain and centre-back Christopher Samba out of Saturday’s home draw against United.
“Chris Samba first of all felt his groin but wanted to stay on and then his hamstring tightened up,” manager Steve Kean said.
“We know what that big fella is all about and if there is any chance he can play he will play, he will be dying to get out there.”
“You take the risks in games like this and, of course, if we can take a risk on him then we will.”
As a Leeds United fan I’ve been subjected to the constant moaning of Ken Bates about the “greedy agents” ruining our beloved game for too many years now. A rant about agents has become as much a part of his programme notes and weekly Yorkshire Radio interviews as his narcissistic ramblings about how football, and indeed the entire world would be a better place if only everyone would listen to his wisdom.
But it’s not just the outspoken Leeds United chairman who constantly attempts to vilify football agents. Listen to any manager or chairman from any division on the planet for long enough and sooner or later they’ll be blaming agents for everything that is wrong with the modern game of football. Complaining about their fees, whilst pocketing millions of pounds a year themselves from the “broken game” they so love to whinge about is an irony lost on them all it seems.
The truth is that modern football is run by ruthless businessmen who are in it solely for the money. There’s the odd exception to the rule of course, but very few clubs are a plaything for bored billionaires with too much spare time on their hands and a desperate need for attention. And even they are motivated by their own narcissism and vanity, as opposed to the almost religious love for our clubs supporters like you and I share.
From the players, to the coaches, to the executives, to the owners and beyond. There are very few people at any football club who are there because they love the club and want to selflessly give their time and effort to see it succeed.
But fans know all this. They know they are the only people who care more about the football club than what the football club can do for them. Every fan reading this will be able to identify at least one ex or current chairman, manager or player they consider to be a greedy, money-sucking leech. Mention Harry Kewell for example within earshot of a Leeds United supporter and you better be braced for a total onslaught.
But chairman, managers and players are just doing a job we reason. They’re no different from a plumber or an electrician really. Supporters of clubs on the brink of financial ruin will still defend a players right to draw a wage whilst the administrators are auctioning off pieces of their stadium.
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So why then, in an era where our beloved game is so rife with overpaid individuals do we have such a problem with football agents? Why are they the one evil that ourselves and our football club unanimously agree on? It’s simple really, it’s because we don’t see them as necessary.
Chairman are necessary as they’re the ones who pay everyone else. The management and coaches are necessary because they bring in the players and deal with the team.
And the team? They’re the reason we turn up to Oldham on an indescribably cold Tuesday night in the middle of winter when a combination of ice and rain is being smashed into your face by gale force winds. Why else would you stand in a three-sided stadium, protected from the elements by nothing more than a replica shirt and a scarf, screaming anthems out at the top of your voice constantly aware that your toes may drop off at any moment?
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The agents meanwhile are portrayed as the shady characters lurking in the background, waiting to suck every penny they can from our poor defenceless football clubs. They don’t pay our heroes to run around chasing an air-filled piece of leather. They don’t decide which players will be charged with leading our teams to success, and they certainly don’t contribute anything to our fortunes on the pitch.
What agents do is unforgivable. They demand wages for their clients our clubs can’t afford and then tout their players in the press to try and find them more money elsewhere. More unforgivable still is that they then take a healthy percentage of all this money for themselves!
And this is what the fans find so hard to stomach. No-one has a problem with paying their star winger twice what everyone else in the team earns so long as he commits his future to the club. No-one minds paying several million pounds to capture a new striker. No-one really minds that chairmen and executives profit heavily from our clubs regardless of how well we do on the pitch. But when a third party comes in and tries to take a slice of the action, that’s where we draw the line.
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Agents earn a very healthy living from football, there’s no denying that. But they are as essential to professional footballers as lawyers are to your football club.
A footballer’s contract is a legally binding document drawn up by the club’s lawyers to secure their services. It’s a document that in this day and age can be worth millions, sometimes tens of millions of pounds. In it, is everything from how a player is expected to conduct themselves in public, to how much they’ll earn/lose if circumstances at the club change (promotion/relegation for example).
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The club’s lawyers and advisors will draw up this contract ensuring everything is in the best interests of the club, whilst at the same time trying to keep the amount paid to said player to an absolute minimum. These people are hired by the clubs to look out for the club’s best interests – the player is simply a pawn in their little game.
Meanwhile, the agent will be there to act on behalf of our often dim-witted yet loveable footballers. This is a man with vast experience of contract negotiations who knows exactly what kind of fee the player can command elsewhere and will do everything in his power to ensure the club don’t underpay him. If that means he has to instruct his client to go elsewhere, then why shouldn’t he? The player after all is simply doing a job, and the agent’s job is to ensure he gets paid as much for doing that job as possible.
Of course, the agent isn’t doing all this out of the goodness of his own heart. He’d be a rubbish businessman if that was the case. It all comes down to money. The club, owners and chairmen are all doing their utmost to ensure they get their slice of the pie and so too are the players. We’ve all come to accept money is all that matters in football these days. Agents are simply the stockbrokers of the beautiful game.
Read more of David’s articles at www.thescratchingshed.com
Fernando Torres has admitted that he needs to improve for the Stamford Bridge fans, who he claims have always supported him despite a slow start to his time at the London club.
The Spain international joined Andre Villas Boas’ men back in January for £50 million, but has received criticism as he has only scored five goals in 30 games since signing.
Despite not playing to his potential during his time at The Blues, Torres feels he has the ability to get back to his best.
“Whenever you go somewhere new, you expect to have difficulties,” he told Mirror Football.
“But whenever I have had difficult times, I look at myself and say, ‘Yes, I can get back to my level.’
“All that I need to do, above anything else, is to work. If you work and give everything and really want to do something, that is all you can be asked.
“If you do that and things do not work out, you have nothing to be ashamed of.
“But I am in debt to the Chelsea fans. They have always supported me. And I promise them the one thing I have never done and will never do in my life is give up,” he concluded.
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Torres will most likely feature for Chelsea against former club Liverpool in a mouth-watering clash at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
Many of us like to think of ourselves as great football managers who could do a better job than a lot of those in the world of football. This is purely down to our exploits in management games like Championship Manager. Being good in the virtual world doesn’t automatically translate to the real world though, just ask some virtual stars who fell by the wayside when it came to stepping on the pitch.
Cited as a decisive factor in over 30 divorce cases, the addictive Championship Manager (later Football Manager) series successfully managed to develop a cult status amongst football fans the world over. Aside from its groundbreaking eschewal of graphics in favour of text, the series gained infamy for its ability to predict the promising futures of top players before they became famous, having foreseen the development of the likes of Fernando Torres and Wayne Rooney years before the pair gained widespread notoriety.
However, the series is equally as infamous for its ability to unearth duds. The following cult heroes are indicative of when Championship Manager has gotten it wrong, as all of these virtual sensations have found footballing success elusive…
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Click on the image below to see some of Championship Manager’s cult heroes
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Another week, another seven days of anguish for fans of the Silkmen. Two defeats taking the run to eight consecutive losses has turned up the pressure on Gary Simpson and his team, as Macc’s football league status begins to look more than a little fragile. The latest setback, going down 3-2 at Sixfields to fellow strugglersNorthampton, is especially damaging as the Cobblers narrowed the gap from the bottom to three points.
The performance on Tuesday was not terrible, there were plenty of promising moments and it’s difficult to pick out any singular poor performer. The formation was positive – finally the first choice pairing of Donnelly and Tomlinson was available and in action and both found their way onto the score sheet. Colin Daniel performed solidly as an emergency left back, provided you aren’t among those who seem to think he can do no right. Kay has played a lot better but alongside him Mendy was back on form making a host of ball-winning tackles.
When Macclesfield took the lead you really thought this could be the turning point, the Cobblers defence looked vulnerable, but a freak goal direct from a corner and the good work was undone. Futcher had a debut that will not live long in the memory – understandably as he was thrown straight into the side having only arrived on Monday as part of the makeshift back four lacked cohesion. The defence was duly punished for slack marking by a sucker punch goal on the stroke of half-time and another soft goal after the break left the Silkmen with too much to do.
Perhaps if Marshall or Tomlinson had taken chances earlier there would have been time for a dramatic season-defining equaliser, as it was, despite the positives, we were left with the bitter taste of another defeat. In a game we couldn’t really afford to lose.
The overwhelming sense of disappointment was compounded by further injury woe – Veiga forced to finish the game virtually on one leg, and Diagne feeling his hamstring go. The light at the end of the tunnel of the injury crisis appears to have been a train. And that train seems intent on running over players legs.
Inevitably, despite the colossal amount of injuries, questions have been raised about Gary Simpson’s position at the helm. He has done so much for this team bringing them through the last two years, and while there is little place for sentiment in football these days, this has surely earned him more than a little leeway. Moreover the squad seems to remain behind him – removing an unpopular presence in the dressing room often serves as a catalyst for a turnaround, you just don’t get the feeling it would play out that way. It is difficult to see anyone else getting much more out of the squad given the knocks, strains and breaks we have been cursed with, a change at the top doesn’t seem to be the obvious solution.
With all that said it would be very naive to think his position is not in jeopardy. Whatever the circumstances, the run of defeats will eventually reach breaking point. Saturday’s trip to Oxford brings low expectations, but the home tie against Plymouth next Tuesday could be the final straw. Defeat there could well leave the Silkmen languishing in the bottom two and if unrest builds among the fans, change may be inevitable.
Even without the latest casualties piling into the treatment room there is a pressing need to invest the loan market. Simmo has already spent many hours on the phone before Tuesday night, coming close to signing one player only for his manager to pull the deal at the last minute. Its obviously easier said than done to bring in suitable players, but hopefully with persistence backed with some financial leverage he can find the desperately needed quality additions. Hopefully they will arrive soon enough to protect Macclesfield’s and his own future.
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Juventus signing Mirko Vucinic said his new employers’ reputation as a Serie A powerhouse lured him to Turin.The Montenegro international joined from Italian top-flight rivals Roma for a fee of 15 million euros, and the 27-year-old striker said his mind was made up as soon as he found out about Juve’s interest.
“Roma was at the end of a cycle and now I’m here (at Juventus), in the most loved and best-known Italian team throughout the whole world,” Vucinic said.
“The name of the team is enough, as I’ve already said before. Juventus is the most famous team, the best known and the one Italians love most, so when my agent said the word, ‘Juventus’, I had no doubts about it.”
Despite finish last season in seventh spot – some 24 points from champions AC Milan – and not having won a domestic title since 2003, Vucinic said Juventus should always be considered a threat to win the Scudetto.
“Our position in the championship is the Juventus position: we are a great team and I’m not saying anything new, you already know that very well. We are a great team, made to win,” he said.
Vucinic also expressed his delight at getting to work with Juventus boss Antonio Conte at the Juventus Arena.
“I already know my team-mates, I’ve played against them many times, so let’s say they are kind of friends already,” he said.
“Antonio Conte didn’t call me until I had signed the contract. He phoned me after the signature and the impression he gave me was excellent.”
Sao Paulo moved five points clear atop the Brazil Serie A with a 3-1 home win over Gremio on Saturday.At the Estadio Cicero Pompeu de Toledo, the home fans were celebrating early as Casimiro scored a 13th minute opener for Sao Paulo.
But he soon turned from hero to villain, as he found the back of the net again, this time with an own goal early in the second half to level proceedings.
The hosts hit the lead 10 minutes later, when midfielder Marlos scored after 62 minutes and the three points were wrapped up when Jean scored late.
Gremio defender Rafael Marques was sent off in first-half stoppage time to add insult to injury as Sao Paulo made it four victories from as many attempts.
In other matches, third-placed Figueirense claimed a last-minute draw thanks to Aloisio’s 89th minute goal, which earned them a point in a 1-1 draw at Vasco Da Gama.
There was more late drama between Cruzeiro and Santos, with the latter also snaring a point away from home in a 1-1 draw.
Walter Montillo’s 55th minute spotkick looked to have given Cruziero all three points but Santos – who played more than 40 minutes with 10 men – salvaged a draw through Borges’ injury-time goal.
Avai claimed their first points of the season in a 2-2 home draw with America Mineiro.
Having lost all three matches of the season so far, Avai seemed destined for another loss until defender Cassio struck in injury time.