Tony Pulis Leaves Stoke

GOOD MORNING!

Do you wanna know why I typed that in caps lock? Because Tony Pulis has “mutually walked away from Stoke City after chairman Peter Coates sacked him for a sh*t run of results.” There’s nothing “mutual” about Pulis’ departure, he’s been sacked. Why? Because Stoke City have stagnated badly. Pulis has one way of playing football and it’s not a sustainable method.

If a new manager were to arrive at Stoke, could he get them playing passing football? Of course he could. For those who think not, look at the quick transition that Owen Coyle made at Bolton Wanderers when he first arrived to replace Gary Megson, who played an awful brand of football. Bolton were a team of cloggers and “experienced pros” but a different style of management brought the best out of them and under Coyle, they started to play good football. With a whole summer under a new manager, if that’s sorted quickly, then Stoke will be fine next season. They’ll be stronger without Pulis and I don’t see them being relegated.

Stevan Jovetic to Arsenal

Italian journalist, Tancredi Palmeri, yesterday broke the news that Arsenal had launched an official bid of £24.5 million for Fiorentina player and Montenegro international, Stevan Jovetic. There were then reports that Jovetic’s agents were in London to discuss a potential move. It’s also said that Jovetic hasn’t decided between Arsenal and Juventus yet, but an early, bold move by Arsenal has set the race for signature and caught the Serie A winners cold.

Jovetic, should he sign for Arsenal, has the qualities that dictate he could play across the entire front line. Supremely gifted, Jovetic is that extra yard of quality that Arsenal have missed this season in matches against the big teams. He possesses a Suarez-like ability to dribble through crowds of players, but his goal record has been highlighted as a weakness. Personally, I wouldn’t pay much attention to it. I looked at his stats yesterday and I think, without time to look right now, that Jovetic scored 14 goals in 31 appearances last season for Fiorentina. The guy is only 23, still in the development stages of his career and in a better team, Jovetic will prosper.

What Jovetic isn’t, is a specialist striker. As I say, he could play across the entire front line and even behind another striker. Life the specialist defensive midfielder, the specialist striker is a dying breed; you have to be so much more than a lump of meat who scores goals. What that means for Arsenal, is that with only Jovetic, Olivier Giroud and the incoming Yaya Sanogo, there is room for one more striker of a quality calibre at Arsenal. With Lukas Podolski and Theo Walcott both tried in roles as striker at various stages last season, it could mean that one or the other could be seen primarily as a striking option. If that were to happen though, then a right or left-winger would need to be signed.

What is a certainty, that even with Jovetic coming, if it is indeed true, that Arsenal will still need more forward options, whether it be on the flanks or through the middle. Arsenal are from done with their transfer activity.

Kolo Toure to Liverpool

Ben Smith of BBC Sport reports that Kolo Toure will move to Liverpool once his Manchester City contract expires in June. Once dubbed the “African Cannavaro” by Italian press, Toure only made 18 appearances for Manchester City in all competitions and was left out of their Champions League squad.

The rumours are that Brendan Rodgers wants two central defenders after the retirement of Jamie Carragher and the departure or Martin Skrtel imminent. Kyriakos Papadopoulos is Liverpool’s priority signing, but an asking price of £20 million for the Greek international could prove to be too much, even for a club which spunked £35 million on Andy Carroll. Alternatively, Liverpool could turn their attention to Swansea City captain, Ashley Williams and rumours are that Winston Reid is being measured up by two other Premier League clubs, with Arsenal being one of them.

That’s all from me today, see you tomorrow.

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Posted on May 22, 2013 by Craig in Arsenal, England, Italy, Liverpool, Premiership, Serie A Leave a comment

Inter Milan 4-1 Tottenham Hotspur / What. A. Match.

Good morning!

So today, touch wood, marks the end of me writing articles on my iPhone. Believe me, it’s been emotional; my iPhone is getting slower because of the WordPress app and typing 465 words with your thumbs feels like you’ve written 930 words.

Last night churned up a pretty epic match in the Europa League. Tottenham Hotspur, having swatted Inter Milan aside 3-0 at White Hart Lane, were tasked with seeing out the job at the San Siro.

Tottenham were near to full strength, with the only exceptions to their regular XI being Brad Friedel, Kyle Naughton, William Gallas and the decision to start with two strikers, with Gareth Bale absent from his position behind one main striker.

To cut a long story short, Inter pulled three goals back through Antonio Cassano, Rodrigo Palacio and a William Gallas own goal, via Cassano’s free-kick. With a minute remaining, Esteban Cambiasso missed a fantastic chance for Inter’s fourth and a consequential end to the match.

Instead, the Argentinian’s miss insured extra-time and with the structure of the match now a different prospect, Tottenham started to launch attacks with menace and came close from set-pieces, with Samir Handanovic saying well from a Jan Vertonghen header, before William Gallas’s free header was put wide when it was far easier to score.

It didn’t take long for Tottenham to grab an important away goal. Moussa Dembele shot from the edge of the area, Handanovic could only party and Adebayor followed up the rebound.

Ideally, that goal should have mentally beaten Inter, having already scored three, needing to score another two should have beaten them mentally, but still they pressed for goals.

In the second half of extra-time, Ricky Alvarez met a Cassano (never seen him pull the stings in a match like he did last night) cross and headed past Friedel. It was 4-4 on aggregate and Inter still needed one goal with ten minutes left to play.

Bar an Andrea Ranocchia header with went over, Inter barely threatened. They were out on their feet by this point in the match and eventually, the full-time whistle blew to send Tottenham through.

A real classic of a match and the outcomes of this result are interesting. One, Tottenham’s squad isn’t very deep. Ideally, Andre Villas Boas would have left a lot of players out last night, yet had to field players already feeling tired. Over two hours of football isn’t going to help Tottenham prepare physically for Fulham on Saturday. They will have arrived back in England in the early hours of the morning and will have today to prepare for Fulham on incredibly heavy legs, with tomorrow being match-day. It’s a big ask for any side to cope with that, let alone Tottenham’s small squad.

Another interesting factor, will be whether Tottenham can bounce back from losing two matches in a row. They’ve now conceded 7 goals in two matches and although they won the tie, they got battered in the leg and that loss of confidence could also be a factor in the race for fourth.

On the flip-side, Tottenham may take great heart away from that match, having qualified with their backs to the wall.

That’s all from me this morning.

Enjoy your weekend and I’ll see you on Monday!

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Craig in England, Europa League, Italy, Tottenham Hotspur Leave a comment

Mario Balotelli Leaves For AC Milan

This has nothing to do with Mario Balotelli. Just been a while since I last used this picture.

AC Milan have agreed a four-and-a-half-year contract for the transfer for of Mario Balotelli from Manchester City, with an initial transfer fee of £19 million and another £3 million in add-ons being accepted. Milan’s club director, Umberto Gandini, confirmed the move via his Twitter and shirts with Balotelli’s name are already being made available on the AC Milan website.

Balotelli has always been a player to polarize opinion across the world. The Italian possesses a lethal combination of supreme talent and outrageous behavior. For example, scoring the opening goal in the Manchester derby came a day after he had set fireworks off inside his house, burning it to the ground. It’s reported that Balotelli was so reluctant to leave possessions inside the house, he ran in to the burning building to retrieve a quantity of money and a suitcase. Read more

Posted on January 30, 2013 by Craig in England, Italy, Manchester City, Premiership, Serie A Leave a comment

No Contract For Bacary Sagna / Kevin Prince Boateng Racially Abused

Good morning.

For the past 6 months, if you talk about Arsenal, the following sentence has been dominated by Theo Walcott’s new contract and whether or not he’ll renew at Arsenal. Walcott is important to Arsenal, so naturally it’s a big talking point, but as Theo hogs the headlines, Bacary Sagna, who is approaching the last year of his deal at the Emirates, has barely had a mention. Why?

Because Bacary Sagna is expendable to Arsenal. Read more

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Craig in Arsenal, England, Italy, Premiership, Serie A Leave a comment

Adel Taarabt’s Agent In Talks With AC Milan

Good morning all!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas Day and like me, are stuffed full to the brim on Pavlova, Turkey, chocolate and anything else you could lay your hands on. Christmas is the only time of year that you can justify eating a quarter of a Pavlova just after your toast in the morning without feeling guilty.

Before I begin on the news, I want to let you know of a different method of article publishing which I’ll be trying over the next few weeks. Normally in a post, I’ll cover two or three subjects, fly through them all and come to a conclusion on everything in under a thousand words. Not only is that a lot of effort, but if you’re only reading the article for a certain piece of information, then the rest must be as boring as sin. Starting as of today, I’ll be publishing multiple articles relating to the subjects which particularly intrigue me and you. Notification of said article will come, as always, via the means of Twitter and Facebook, but also through an e-mail subscription service, which I really must get round to doing. Read more

Posted on December 26, 2012 by Craig in England, Europe, Italy, Premiership, Serie A Leave a comment

Lone Udinese Fan Makes Headlines / Schalke Manager and Fans Help Clear Snow

Good morning!

A lone Udinese fan, named Arrigo Brovedani, has won the hearts of football supporters and the media across Italy after he travelled 500km from his home in Spilimbergo to Genoa to watch Udinese play away to Sampdoria in Serie A. Brovedani was the only Udinese supporter to attend the match. We thought Wigan fans were bad for away support! Read more

Posted on December 13, 2012 by Craig in Bundesliga, Germany, Italy, Serie A Leave a comment

Lazio Offer Apology / Jack Wilshere’s New Contract Talks

Good morning.

Thankfully, I’m in more of a chirpy mood than I was yesterday. Having been disgusted by the behaviour of the minority of football fans in recent weeks, it was nice to see Lazio play in shirts emblazoned with “No Racism” on the front, in English, which I thought to be a great gesture. I see the English writing on an Italian shirt as being symoblic of a handshake and although it’s a few Lazio fans who needed to be told that message, it was like a handshake between Italian and English football; an apology. Tip of the hat to you, Lazio, and to Claudio Lotito, who visited Tottenham fan Ashley Mills at the San Camillo Hospital, where Mills is being treated having been stabbed in a brawl propagated by Lazio Ultras.

Having been so downcast by recent events, and another has emerged with a Sunderland fan seen making monkey gestures toward Romelu Lukaku, the West Brom striker on Saturday, it’s struck me that if you let the morons of the planet get to you, then you will spend 99% of your time unhappy. It’s easier – and more progressive – to recognise what’s happened, deal with it and emerge stronger for it. Racism and semitism isn’t something that dominates our society, it’s certainly not how it was in the 80s for example and there have been incredible improvements. There will always be the fool who can’t see sense, but if we continuously strong-arm those responsible for such behaviour, then hopefully it can be eradicated from the stadiums where we all love to spend our Saturday afternoons.

Focusing on Arsenal now, and particularly, Jack Wilshere’s proposed new contract, which Arsene Wenger admitted was in the pipeline during Tuesday morning’s pre-match press conference ahead of the Gunners playing Everton this evening. At the moment, Arsenal are working to secure deals for a number of their top English talents, with Carl Jenkinson having just signed a new 5 year deal with the club, despite only having been with Arsenal for one full season, and Kieran Gibbs, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott are all in the process of negotiating new long-term contracts with Arsenal. Along with Jack Wilshere, that makes five English players who will be featuring in the same line-up for years to come, although there are still complications with Walcott’s negotations.

At the moment, Walcott is leaving everything to his agent and although the winger wants to stay at the Emirates, his agent is playing hard to get with Arsenal and it’s beginning to prove a frustration. Arsenal have until the end of December to sort out a contract renewal for Theo and I find it incredibly important that they do. Walcott’s a great winger and has demonstrated positive movement and decision making in dangerous areas for three seasons now (including this). It’s also vital that Arsenal give out a statement by signing Walcott to a long-term contract in the sense that they will no longer give away their best players to other clubs. Arsenal are negotiating fresh sponsorship deals right now, so they don’t need player sales to boost profits, they’ll be able to do that via sponsorship soon.

Arsenal must keep Theo Walcott.

That’s me done for today on this blog! There will be plenty to talk about tomorrow with all the matches being played tonight, but as I type this up; Sunderland, QPR, Aston Villa and Reading are all embroiled in stunning 0-0 draws. I just know there will be a flurry of goals now…

See you tomorrow!

Alternatively, catch me on Twitter this evening where I’ll be running through the matches. You can follow us by clicking the button below!

Follow @J4goalpostsblog

Posted on November 28, 2012 by Craig in England, Italy, Premiership, Serie A Leave a comment

Stupidity In Football Reaches All-Time High

Good morning.

It isn’t a very pleasant morning, either. Ideally, I should be talking about the football ahead of us tonight. Instead, I have to talk about anti-semitism, idiocy and a dash of booing completes a morning of embarassment for football fans across the World. The behaviour of some football fans at the moment is embarrassing. For example, I’ve been advised not to wear club colours (Arsenal) for our trip to Bradford City, how bad is that? I’m not letting a bomb off, I’d merely wish to wear a red and white scarf to support my club. Instead, I’ve been told not to for fear of being mugged. How bad is that? For wearing red and white?

For any Bradford City fans reading this, I have spoken to a vast number of you and the conversation has been assuring that no, I can wear what I want without fear of being attacked. Sadly, the minority voice will be overheard above the sensibility of those who surround him, and that’s exactly the case of what happened at White Hart Lane on Sunday. Read more

Posted on November 27, 2012 by Craig in England, Europe, Italy, Premiership, Serie A Leave a comment

The Adam Moss Column: The State Of Italian Football

AC Milan impressed in the Champions League last season.

Over the last 10 years, Italian football has seen a rapid alteration in the position of their football. Although never being renowned for being a division that focuses on attacking prowess. The transformation of domestic Italian football over the last 10 years has been truly remarkable. 2003 was a big year in Italian football, two teams contested the Champion’s League final with Juventus taking on AC Milan at Old Trafford. It was something of a surprise considering the strength of Real Madrids Galactico’s at this point even though they had won it the previous year. Neither of the two sides was absolutely outrageous with quality but both contained players that were of immense quality. For instance, Juventus had Del Piero, Trezeguet and Edgar Davids in their team that day, while AC Milan had Seedorf, Inzaghi, and Rui Costa in their team.

These players in their day would have graced most teams in world football but they were involved in Italian football and hence the final of arguably the best competition in world football. These were heady days that Italians can only now dream of after events that have shook the national game to its core. Obviously, progressing further Italy continued to succeed domestically with AC Milan losing in THAT final. But that’s where the good times ended for them, the next year Juventus were relegated from Serie A for their part in the match fixing scandal which not only damaged Italians football reputation then but continues to do so now. The punishment for this scandal in which the Juventus manager was seen in an attempt to try and influence referee decision was so widespread that Milan had 8 points deducted and teams such as Lazio were banned from entry into the UEFA Cup. There was also a widespread punishment of teams having to play matched behind closed doors, denying the clubs revenue and exposure. But because of the long drawn out nature of the process, a spectrum of mistrust and an aura of misdemeanour swept across the football, consolidating people’s inability to not believe what has happened.

As rocky a period as this was, Milan swept away the gloom of this bad time for the football fans by sweeping to victory in the 2007 champion’s league final, avenging their defeat from 2 years ago. As much as it was a big relief for this to happen, it couldn’t wipe out all that had gone before it and how badly it had affected the division. But the relegation of Juventus in 2006 had far flung problems for them. Although they were promoted straight back to the division, they did so with virtually none of their star players. Ibrahimovic left for Inter Milan, Fabio Cannavaro left for Real Madrid and the great Lilian Thuram left for Barcelona. It took them until this season just finished to win another league title after the Milan teams began to dominate the division. Internazionale won five straight Serie A titles, with Milan winning it in 2011 to round off six straight years of Milan dominance. Although let’s be honest, they did it in style this year, sweeping through the division unbeaten with a young, consolidated team that has plenty of players in the national side.

Yes, I know I have gone off about Juventus quite a lot this article but they were the ones who really faced the punishment for what they had done and how badly it affected the Italian football. But now let’s focus on the current batch of teams and what they do to the football world now. Milan have been a pretty solid team of recent years, getting to the quarter final of the champions league through their mesmerising strike force of Robinho, Ibrahimovic and Pato, knocking out Arsenal in the last 16 this year. However, whereas AC Milan have remained strong and powerful, Inter Milan have begun to decline. Since their champion’s league win of 2010, the side has dramatically lost its quality. Diego Milito is ageing and not the force he was and Sneijder has been continually been linked with Manchester United. Thiago Motta has moved to PSG and are now struggling since their misguided management under Claudio Ranieri. It’s a sad occurrence but all relative as teams will go through period of struggle after many heady years. Just ask any Liverpool fans.

But as with their strong showing at Euro 2012, the future for the national side does look a great deal better for them and needs to be focused on with great interest to renew the faith that was once lost. The match fixing scandal has affected them greatly, but hopefully, they can put it behind them and move back into the world’s elite.

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Posted on July 6, 2012 by TheMoss in Europe, Italy, Serie A, Serie B Leave a comment

Spain 4-0 Italy / Spain Make History

Spain – European Champions 2012.

Good morning!

Myself and a thousand other writers currently sit at their desks this morning with a stream of egg yolk running shamelessly down their face. ‘Italy will win’, so I said, as did countless others. Italy play with two strikers, Spain with zero strikers, there could only be one winner!

Maybe it’s that view that makes football in England seem so archaic, in that if something isn’t done how it usually should be, then it’s automatically a bad thing. Maybe that’s why since winning a World Cup once in 1966, we’re reluctant to move away from a model that should now be confined to a dusty book. Try telling Spain that playing without a striker is the root of all evil. Spain have just beaten a very good Italy side by four goals without a striker, so how do we respond to that?

Much laughing had been directed at Spain’s formation of ’4-6-0′. Vincente Del Bosque claims that Spain play a 4-3-3 as always, it’s just the players that are different. Personally, I’d still play with a designated striker, but it seems there is nothing wrong in playing with six incredibly talented central midfielders. For Spain’s first, David Silva scored with a bullet header, then Jordi Alba, a full-back, put Spain two ahead with a strong run from left-back. Spain are good enough with the ball to not actually need a striker, even though I’m sure they’d play David Villa if he were fit, or Fernando Torres when back in full form. Read more

Posted on July 2, 2012 by Craig in Euro 2012, Italy, Spain Leave a comment

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