Mali international midfielder Mahamadou Diarra is desperate to try and make his name with Real Madrid, having been linked with a summer move away from the Santiago Bernabeu.
The 29-year-old former Lyon schemer joined Real in the summer of 2006, but has struggled to hold down a regular starting spot for most of his time in the Spanish capital.
Diarra told Marca:"I do not want to leave Real Madrid without having won the Champions League. This is my challenge and I want to stay here and do that.
"I want to work with Jose Mourinho and to show him that I am worthy of a starting place.
"For me he is a coach with the same mentality as Fabio Capello and he was good for me when he was at Real.
"Mourinho is a winner and perhaps we needed to have him on the bench this season.
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"I intend to stay at Real and this is a big test. I am focused on playing for Mourinho and bringing success back to this club."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
Cesc Fabregas' heart is set on playing for Barcelona next season, according to Spain team-mate Gerard Pique.
The Arsenal captain has been the subject of one unsuccessful bid from Barcelona this summer after reportedly telling Gunners boss Arsene Wenger that he wanted to return to his former club after seven years in north London.
Wenger has pledged to fight to keep hold of the 23-year-old midfielder, who has made over 250 first-team appearances since breaking into the first team in 2004.
However, Pique believes that Fabregas is more determined than ever to return to the Camp Nou after sending time with several Barcelona players while on World Cup duty with Spain.
"I have known that Cesc wanted to join Barcelona for many years but now it is more than about wanting to do it," the Barcelona defender told the Daily Star Sunday.
"Now it is something he feels he must do.
"The World Cup has not been a good thing for Arsenal.
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"It has meant that he has been spending every day with myself, Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Victor Valdes – and he has made his feelings very clear to us.
"He is keeping his mind focused on Spain but his heart is in Barcelona. I think already in his heart he is wearing a Barcelona shirt next season."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
Roberto Mancini has already managed to insert three new additions to his Manchester City side this summer. Jerome Boateng, David Silva and Yaya Toure have all been acquired so far, but has the scarf wearing Italian neglected the one area that really needs attention…the left-back position?
City fans will no doubt be glad to see Mancini obtaining such big stars as the Eastlands club prepare to match their ambitions this season, but surely they will need a more reputable left sided full back? City already have Wayne Bridge and Javier Garrido on their books, but none of them are intensely feared or renowned to be a big-name in the game. Mancini has perceptibly accepted that the area does need strengthening this summer and this is evident as the Italian has newly shown an interest in Serbian international Aleksandar Kolarov.
The Lazio defender has many admirers around Europe and has been heavily linked with a move away from the Serie A this summer. The City boss has identified the Serbian as the man to reinforce the back-line at the Eastland’s club for the upcoming season. However, City may face stiff competition from Real Madrid for the player’s signature, but do stand a good chance of fending off the Spanish Giants.
Kolarov featured in this summers World Cup finals in South Africa and was definitely one of Serbia’s better performers in the tournament. The 6’ 2’’ Serbian is an accomplished left-back by trade, but can also play left midfielder if required. The full-back is known for his bombing runs forward, strength and acquires a powerful shot as well. He has been with Lazio since 2007 where he has featured on a regular basis. Kolarov has managed to make 82 appearances so far for Lazio and has bagged 6 goals along the way as well.
The 24-year-old has recently refused a contract extension with Lazio, which almost certainly means that the Serbian is ready to make a move this summer. The Biancazzurri president Claudio Lotito is willing to let the player leave, but only for the right price:
“If it was down to me, I would not sell him. But if he wants to leave, he needs to bring an offer from a team that grants a fair economic solution.”
Earlier this week, reports surfaced in Italy that Real Madrid did table a £12 million bid for the services of Kolarov but were unsuccessful in their pursuit. Money certainly doesn’t seem to be an issue for City and Mancini these days, and the Light Blues are highly likely to turn their interest into a bid sooner rather than later, especially with Mancini expressing his admiration for the powerful player.
Roberto Mancini’s next signing should definitely be a left-sided defender, especially having looked at their current options in this position. Kolarov looks to be a good player, and because of his stature would make a good addition to the Manchester side as well as the Premier League. If Mancini does decide to obtain the Serbian’s services this summer, then it would surely be his smartest signing to date. However, is Kolarov the best left-back that City can attain this summer? It’s debatable that’s for sure.
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Chidge is joined by Dr Mart, Ross fresh from his trip to the US of A and Chris fresh from making his debut on Sky News last week. They discuss the 6-0 tonking of West Brom, give out their match awards and chew the fat over the latest Chelsea news.
It’s good to see Chelsea picking up where they left off last season and indeed good to see the Chelsea FanCast crew picking up where they left off last season – by drinking themselves silly all day as first day of the season excitement well and truly got to them!!
Inspite of being woefully short of both match fitness and sharpness, the Boys in Blue made very short work of Robbie Di Matteo’s West Brom and dished out a bit of a 6-0 tonking. Oh it’s good to be back!! Drogba gets a hat-trick to take him above Jimmy Greaves in the all-time Chelsea scoring table, and Malouda, Anelka and Cole all put in good performances. Unsurprisingly they figure in the FanCast’s Man of the Match and Guinness awards. But what or whom will get the Celery and Chant of the Match awards…
Turning to the latest Chelsea news, we all have a laugh at Joe Cole seeing Red and Bruce Buck taking the mick out of them; applaud Malouda for being one of the people; find out why our very own Blues Brother Chris Norman was on Sky News and Chidge and Dr Mart have a major rant about the appalling lack of food in the Gate 17 bar.
All that plus some old skool songs in “We’re out to show the World the way to sing”, Dr Mart answering questions on football coverage on TV; why he tried to assassinate Clifford Cravello using Guinness and Vindaloo; one man went to mow and the Chelsea squad. And finally, Chidge reads out the best posts from the website and facebook group in “You’re on CFFC” and some news on new items for the show and the website this season.
The Chelsea Football FanCast: It’s like we were never away!
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Arsenal winger Theo Walcott has been ruled out for up to six weeks with the ankle injury picked up while on England duty.
The 21-year-old was stretchered off during England's 3-1 Euro 2012 qualifying victory over Switzerland in Basel on Tuesday night after taking a blow to his ankle.
Walcott was injured in the build-up to Wayne Rooney's opening goal and scans have now revealed the extent of the damage.
"The tackle looked quite bad," manager Arsene Wenger told the club's official website.
"When you see how it turned his ankle I thought it would be three or four days or it would be four to six weeks. Unfortunately it will be four to six weeks.
"We had some good news about the scan because at some stage we were scared it could be worse.
"But overall it is a question of patience and rehabilitation."
Walcott had been in sparkling form during the opening weeks of the new season after scoring four goals in three appearances.
He now joins fellow ankle injury victim Robin van Persie on the sidelines after the Netherlands striker was ruled out for a similar length of time last week.
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However, Wenger has revealed some timely good news following confirmation that Samir Nasri has recovered quicker than expected from knee surgery and the France midfielder could be involved when Bolton Wanderers visit the Emirates Stadium on Saturday.
"If needed I will integrate him in the squad for Bolton but for sure he will be back for our first Champions League game against Braga," added Wenger.Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
In May UEFA’s Executive Committee approved a set of new regulations embodying their financial fair play initiative. As the brainchild of UEFA President Michel Platini, the concept is designed to bring greater financial stability to European club sides. Essentially clubs will have to break even, not spending beyond their means or face the possibility of sanctions. These rulings are operational as of 2012 but the ‘break even’ concept will be applied stringently as of the 2013/14 season on the basis of a club’s financial performance from the previous two years. The implications of this decision may be widespread given the governing body found that 50% of the clubs they surveyed across Europe were making losses. Will the introduction of a football handicap force Premier League sides to spend big in the next two transfer windows before prudence is mandatory?
The ultimate sanction available to UEFA for those who fail to comply is the threat of exclusion from the Champions League and Europa League. How this will operate in practice is a different matter considering clubs such as, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Chelsea are saddled with debt but are commercially important to the success of the competition. However speaking in Monaco at the Champions League draw, Platini said, “The clubs will comply or they will not play.” This is one aspect of bureaucracy which has found favour with Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger, who described the PL’s 25-man squad ruling as an unnecessary restriction on trade and employment. As one of Europe’s leading exponents of financial frugality, the rules will benefit Arsenal and help to level the playing field.
Wenger said, “I don’t want to go into excuses but you want a business to be run properly and I believe that to lose £150 million a year you don’t deserve a lot of credit to win a competition.” Chelsea and Manchester City are two obvious casualties of this directive with the Eastlands based club reporting an annual loss of £92.6 million for the 2008/09 financial year. The extravagant spending by both sides in recent times may seem sustainable but clubs whose owners have burdened them with high levels of debt will be penalised too. Before clubs focus on other streams of revenue including gate receipts, sponsorship and commercial activities, the next two transfer windows may be distorted. With a two year gap and a phased introduction of the rules do clubs have carte blanche to splurge in the market?
Based on the profitability of European competition, newly rich or ambitious clubs may show their hand in the transfer market. Manchester City and Tottenham have already been huge spenders but will clubs like Birmingham and Sunderland with wealthy backers see this as a golden opportunity to invest before enforced austerity? David Cameron quipped in the week that even the Cuban leader Fidel Castro had woken up to the need for deficit reduction. A more apt and surprising witticism would be that the PL has acquiesced to sensible economics. The PL Chief Executive Richard Scudamore has spearheaded new regulations on club ownership and is canvassing opinion on a possible salary cap. Despite qualifying for Europe’s top club competition, Daniel Levy has said Spurs will not gamble their future on the Champions League. Aston Villa have been on the cusp of qualification but refused to further load their bloated wage bill. Liverpool’s debt restricted their spending until the sale of Javier Mascherano to Barcelona.
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Conversely Manchester City continues to freely spend but even their football administrator Brian Marwood has inferred that following transfer windows will not be as eventful. The potential implications and seriousness of UEFA’s regulations are still massive as clubs across Europe are way off the pragmatism of Arsenal. But Platini’s message has been received and understood.
Arsenal’s home defeat to West Brom on Saturday only served to highlight the extent of Arsenal’s goalkeeping problems. First-choice goalkeeper Manuel Almunia has come in for some strong criticism following a number of high-profile mistakes and on Saturday it was no different.
Manuel Almunia started the game and was at fault for two of West Brom’s goals. He let Gonzalo Jara’s tame shot past him and was caught in no-man’s land for the Baggies’ third.
With all of Arsenal’s goalkeeping woes, it was a surprise that Arsene Wenger didn’t choose to add a goalkeeper to his squad in this summer’s transfer window. This comes as even more of a surprise when it became clear that Arsenal had posted record pre-tax profits of £56 million for last year but were unwilling to spend money on a new goalkeeper. They failed to match Fulham’s valuation for Mark Schwarzer and declined to make a move for Shay Given who has lost his spot in the Manchester City side to Joe Hart.
The decision to not bring in a new goalkeeper will mean Wenger has to look to his current squad to cure his goalkeeping woes and in Wojciech Szczesny, he has a hugely talented young goalkeeper that could solve all of his problems.
Consistency has been a key problem for Almunia and Fabianski with the pair seemingly unable to string together a sequence of good performances for the Gunners. However, while on loan at Brentford, Szczesny was a model of consistency as he earned rave reviews for his performances in the Griffin Park goal.
The young Pole was a revelation at Brentford, playing 28 times for the Bees and making a host of wonderful saves. Here’s a video of Szczesny in action:
As you can see from the video, Szczesny has lightning-quick reflexes and is an outstanding shot-stopper. His instincts are first-class and he has huge confidence in his own ability.
Szczesny has returned to Arsenal eager to prove himself worthy of starting for the Gunners but has so far cut a frustrated figure at the Emirates. Indeed, Szczesny has expressed his disappointment at being left out of the Carling Cup tie against Tottenham last week and is apparently losing patience with his manager due to a lack of first-team opportunities.
Speaking to Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, Szczesny said that Wenger “seems to forget” him and that the Frenchman is “avoiding me at every occasion”.
And Wenger may have good reason to.
The last young goalkeeper that Wenger attempted to blood was Richard Wright and he proved to be an unmitigated disaster.
Wenger has had a good track record of buying outfield players but his goalkeeping purchases leave much to be desired. During his 14 years at Arsenal, the only real goalkeeper that he has signed which has done well for the Gunners is Jens Lehmann.
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Other than that, Wenger has brought in some less than impressive keepers including Rami Shaaban, Guillaume Warmuz and Mart Poom.
With his track-record of unspectacular goalkeepers, it is no wonder that Wenger is apprehensive when it comes to starting Szczesny.
While Szczesny’s confidence could be construed as arrogance, it is a quality you would like to see in a young goalkeeper. He is hungry and eager to prove himself at the highest level and with Arsenal’s current goalkeeping predicament, he should be given a chance.
Federico Macheda's agent has played down talk linking the Manchester United teenager with a move to Juventus.
The 19-year-old striker joined United from Lazio in 2008 and has gone on to score three times in 20 appearances for Sir Alex Ferguson's side.
Macheda has been linked with a return to his homeland recently, but his representative, Giovanni Bia, was quoted on calciomercato.it as saying:"Interest from Juventus? These rumours are pleasant, but I do not think Macheda is for sale.
"This is not the time to talk about the market. Federico is only thinking about the Under 21s and Manchester United.
"He plays in a great team and he would think two thousand times before leaving, even if the club ever thought about selling him.
"Sir Alex Ferguson always speaks well about him and declares him non-transferable.
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"It is normal that clubs take an interest in him also because he is very young. But he is happy in Manchester."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
Wigan Athletic manager Roberto Martinez is confident that midfielder James McCarthy will make a full recovery from surgery on a serious ankle injury.
The 19-year-old damaged ankle ligaments during last month's 1-1 home draw with Bolton Wanderers and will be out of action for several months.
However, Martinez expects the former Hamilton Academical starlet to come back stronger after his operation and rehabilitation.
He told the Evening Post:"It was done to make sure the joint remains stable, which will allow his ankle to heal properly .
"The main thing was to make sure it didn't become a chronic problem for him in the future.
"Ankles are joints that it's easy to not look after properly as you can get through matches.
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"But he's such a young man that, whatever happens in the next two or three months, we need to ensure he comes back stronger and better for the good of the rest of his career."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
On the 23rd of August, Harry Redknapp confirmed the signing of William Gallas. ‘Former Arsenal player William Gallas’, as he was rechristened in the press, was signed as a centre-back with vital Champions League experience to boost Harry’s Euro dream, but there can be few who could have predicted the impact he would have had on the early part of Tottenham’s season.
Gallas has started Spurs’ last eight matches in all competitions, which is quite an achievement for a player who’s fitness was in question prior to his signing and declared that he was ‘burnt out’ only a month ago.
The rise to first team prominence of Gallas has been as much about necessity as choice. Signed to a one year deal, Gallas would be a short-term solution to Jonathon Woodgate’s injury woes and could provide cover when Ledley King was unfit to play. But Tottenham’s defensive injury crisis is very well documented and with Ledley King, Michael Dawson and Jonathon Woodgate all out for the upcoming games, Gallas is set to feature for the foreseeable future.
The stats would tell you that Gallas’ run in the team hasn’t been a particular success. Prior to Saturday’s victory against Blackburn, Spurs didn’t have a league win in four and got into a habit of conceding silly goals. But while prone to the odd mistake, Spurs fans need to ask themselves where they would be in the league without Gallas.
Sebastian Bassong has had more than one wobbly performance this season and has fallen out of favour with Harry Redknapp, so to have a player of Gallas’ stature, ability and experience, albeit short of full-fitness, to step in has proved to be invaluable. Despite the chopping and changing that has occurred within the Tottenham defence this season Younes Kaboul and Gallas have played together in the last six games, and the spotlight will be on them more than ever at the weekend when Spurs go to Arsenal. The partnership needs time to develop and with Dawson out until Christmas time it may well have time to improve, but as ever Spurs will be judged on how they perform at The Emirates and Kaboul and Gallas will need to be on top form if Spurs are going to get anything from the game.
Tottenham’s win against Inter Milan will rightly go down in the history books as a momentous occasion. Gareth Bale was brilliant that day, but no one should forget the performance of the back four from that Wednesday evening which was led by Gallas.
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The fitter Gallas gets the better he will become, and even though he has had some worrying moments in games he has done a crucial job for Spurs this year and so should be exempt from too much criticism. However I don’t see Gallas having much long-term value for Spurs past this season. He’s come in and done a shift, but I think that next year Spurs will get far more value by replacing Gallas and having a shake-up of their defence by bringing through youngsters such as Steven Caulker, the gifted centre-half currently on loan at Bristol City.