Bolton and Manchester United meet in the Premier League a week on Saturday and you could be there to witness the action live! We have teamed up with 188BET once again to give away tickets for the match at the Reebok Stadium. You could be there to see Sir Alex Ferguson’s young guns take on Owen Coyle’s Trotters.
United have ben superb in the Premier League so far this season and will travel to the Reebok Stadium on the back of an 8-2 mauling against Arsenal. Wayne Rooney and co will be looking to make it four consecutive wins and keep their head above rivals City. Bolton on the other hand have lost their last two after opening their season with a 4-0 win away at newly promoted QPR. Coyle can take solace though as his side have played some neat football and were unlucky to lose their last two fixtures against Man City and Liverpool.
As usual the competition will run on a first come first serve basis! The 1st and 10th sign ups to 188BET will receive a pair of tickets for the game after they’ve placed a bet. If you miss out on the tickets don’t be disappointed as there are still prizes to be won. The 15th and 20th signups will receive a pair of tickets to a first team training ground experience whilst the 25th sign up will win a signed Bolton shirt.
The competition closes at 11:59pm on Thursday 8th of September so as long as you sign up and make your bet before then you’ll have a chance of winning. So sign up, place your bets and keep your fingers crossed! You be watching Bolton v United for free in just over a week’s time!
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With Manchester United and City aiming to offload some of their players in the summer, Newcastle went sniffing for a bargain. Neighbours Sunderland might have snapped up a couple of defenders, but the Magpies brought in a Red Devil of their own in the form of Gabriel Obertan . However, would Alan Pardew have been better served to do his shopping in the blue half of Manchester? With an England international in the form of Shaun Wright-Phillips available, I would argue that he would have been.
For me, Newcastle’s game against QPR at Loftus Road on Monday showed the Toon Army what they could have had. While Obertan wasn’t particularly poor, he didn’t stamp his mark on the match in the way that SWP most certainly did. Ryan Taylor isn’t a natural left back, but Wright-Phillips ran him ragged and any Newcastle fan would have found it hard to begrudge him a goal. So why did Newcastle turn down an established Premier League player in favour of someone who can realistically only be described as a flop?
The answer comes in the form of Newcastle’s transfer policy. Obertan ticked all the boxes as far as the Newcastle hierarchy were concerned. He’s French, he’s 22 and he cost just £3 million. SWP on the other hand would have commanded much higher wages, probably cost a fair bit more in terms of a transfer fee, and at 29 has little re-sale value. However, I would argue that Newcastle have gone about their business the wrong way.
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In principal I support Newcastle’s policy of scouring Europe for the best young players and picking them up on the cheap, rather than paying a premium on English players from the Premier League. However, you do need a core of players with experience of domestic English football in your squad and with Newcastle having lost Kevin Nolan and Joey Barton in the summer, that’s a lot of theirs gone. QPR on the other hand have brought in a load of Premier League players, with more than half having a lot of top flight experience in this country under their belt and it showed on Monday when they were clearly the better team.
Newcastle were very poor going forward on Monday and will need to drastically improve against Aston Villa this weekend. Someone like SWP would have been a great attacking threat, but instead we’ve got Obertan who has plenty to prove. Newcastle might have done their shopping in the Trafford Centre in the summer, but they’d have been better off buying a little gem from the Etihad Stadium.
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Article courtesy of the Gallowgate Gob from Nothing But Newcastle
Sir Alex Ferguson called the Liverpool v Manchester United the game the biggest game in club football, ahead of the Red Devils trip to Anfield. Fergie also called on supporters to bring an end to the sick chanting that has provided a sour undertone in recent meetings.
Elsewhere in the news Mancini is in the dark over Tevez’s future; Wenger calls on England to pick Oxlade-Chamberlain, while Harry Redknapp claims this is the best Tottenham squad he has ever had.
Mancini in dark over Tevez’s future – Guardian
Capello wants FA to appeal Rooney’s ban – Guardian
Wenger: England should pick Oxlade-Chamberlain – Daily Telegraph
Ferguson fears the ‘Anfield factor’ could strike again – Independent
Under-fire Ayre defends Liverpool stance on TV rights but calls for Premier League talks – Daily Mail
Coyle: No cause for alarm – Sun
This is the best Spurs squad I’ve ever had – Redknapp – Mirror
Roman would not make a penny from sale of Stamford Bridge, insists Buck – Daily Mail
Rubbish refereeing could wreck the league warns Moyes – Mirror
Redknapp cools Beckham to Tottenham talk – Talksport
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Chelsea pay £2m for 14-year-old! – Daily Mail
Arsenal set to make new move for Lyon star in January – Talksport
Returning to Manchester United after loan spells of varying success last season were forwards Danny Welbeck and Kiko Macheda. As if it wasn’t tough enough having to compete with each other to gain a place in the United line-up, they also had to contend with the fact that Rooney, Hernandez, Berbatov and Michael Owen were ahead of them. No one would have blamed either Fergie or the players themselves for asking to go out on loan for a further season in order to clock up game time and goals. However, this was not the case and both vowed to fight for a place in the squad.
Pre-season, it has to be said, I genuinely thought that it would be Kiko Macheda that would stand up and be counted this season, and break into the first team. After a disastrous loan spell at now relegated Sampdoria, where the player stated he was too afraid to leave his house due to abuse from the fans, he had a decent pre-season for United, scoring a couple of goals during the game against New England Revolution, and looked to be putting last year behind him, expressing his happiness to be playing in the Premier League and for United.
Although Welbeck had a more successful time at Sunderland, playing 21 premier league games and scoring 6 goals in that time, I was less enamoured with the player and after pre-season was beginning to come to the conclusion that, although a premier league player, Welbeck was not at the level needed yet to break into the United first team.
Imagine my surprise then when not only did the player start the Community Shield game against City, but also started the Premier League opener against WBA, and played well in both of them, taking full advantage of the concussion sustained by Hernandez. Meanwhile, Macheda was nowhere to be seen, and Welbeck was busy making sure he did not slip out of anyone’s thoughts, scoring against Spurs and then Arsenal before sustaining a hamstring injury and missing the next couple of games.
It would have been easy for Welbeck to fade away after a decent start to the season then an injury which took away his momentum, but the player is made of much tougher stuff than that, returning from injury to score twice and rescue United in the Champions league and then against Norwich in the league. Clearly Welbeck by this point had more than justified his place in the United squad, and against Liverpool lead the line up top, setting up Hernandez for the equaliser.
Evidently Welbeck has repaid the faith shown in him by Alex Ferguson, and the whole attitude of the player is nothing short of a consummate professional, not unlike name sake Daniel Sturridge, who had a similar situation at Chelsea, returning from a loan spell at Bolton and taking every opportunity provided to prove his worth and cement his place in the squad.
During a period where everyone is talking about Rooney’s ban for England in the Euros, rather than bemoaning this, we should be looking to talents like Welbeck and Sturridge as players who can bring England forward and more than compensate up front in the summer. Fergie certainly seems to think Welbeck is ‘more than capable’ of doing this, and on Welbeck’s form so far this season, who can disagree with him?
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Manchester United and Chelsea will look to step up their interest in Juventus’ Milos Krasic in January after the winger claimed he would be interested in a move to the Premier League according to the Metro.
The Serbian international has featured just six times this season under new manager Andre Conte; after being a key player last year; and with Juventus flying at the top of Serie A he may find it hard to earn his place back in a winning side.
Having only spent one season in Italy after his £15million move from CSKA Moscow last year, Krasic has failed to impress his new manager and he feels it could be time to move on if he is not playing regular first team football.
The English giants could battle it out for Krasic’s signature along with teams from Germany and Spain as the 27-year olds agent, Dejan Joksimovic confirmed they were open to offers.
“My client has already turned down two offers and I don’t think he would accept Borussia [Dortmund], mainly because of his wage. I don’t think they can afford him,” said Joksimovic.
“His future depends on what happens at Juventus in the next months. If he starts playing regularly then he could stay in Italy otherwise he will have to go.
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“He would certainly move to a top division like the Bundesliga or the Premier League.”
Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp has stressed to his team the importance of continuing their good run of form, and knows that the battle to finish in the top four will be a close one.
A 2-0 win over Aston Villa on Monday night lifted Spurs to third in the Premier League standings, and made it eight wins out of nine games for the North London side.
Despite their excellent form, the likes of Liverpool and Arsenal are also pushing to finish in the top four, and Redknapp knows the race will go down to the wire.
“When you look at the table it just shows you how tight it is going to be at the top,” he told Mirror Football.
“There is still nothing between us, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Man United and Man City – although City have pulled away a little bit.
“It has been a fantastic run of results for us since the start of September.
“In my opinion, any side with top-four aspirations needs to try to maintain that kind of form for the majority of the season – as much as maybe two points a game over the course of the campaign,” he stated.
Spurs take on West Brom at the Hawthorns on Saturday.
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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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Compiled by Zarif Rasul
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Aston Villa have announced that they have finalised the loan signing of Robbie Keane.
The veteran Republic of Ireland striker is available due to the break in the MLS season, and will move to the Birmingham-based outfit from LA Galaxy until February 25th.
Keane could be in line to face current team-mate Landon Donovan in his debut as Alex McLeish’s men take on Everton on Saturday, and the Irish forward is looking forward to getting started.
“I’m delighted to be back in the Premier League. This is only short term, of course, but there has been a lot of speculation over the years linking my name to Villa and, finally, I’m here,” he told the club’s official website.
“I’m excited about it and I know I’ll really enjoy my time here. It’s only for two months but I will do my absolute best in these two months.
“Villa is a great club, a club with a massive tradition and standing in the game and Villa Park is one of the finest stadiums I’ve ever played in.
“If selected to play on Saturday, I will genuinely be looking forward to it and I’ll be excited to be involved again in Premier League action.
“I’ve been training with the players here for the past few days and it’s been great but I’m not naive enough to think I’ll just walk straight into the team.
“If I can help and contribute to the overall effort of the team then hopefully I will be of benefit to Aston Villa. That’s my aim,” he concluded.
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Liverpool have confirmed that they have signed a new kit deal with Warrior Sports, after Adidas decided not to renew their contract with the Merseyside club.
Adidas have revealed that the Anfield side’s lack of success in recent seasons prompted them to walk away from Kenny Dalglish’s men.
“We thought what Liverpool were asking and what they were delivering was not in the right balance,” CEO Herbert Hainer is reported to have said in The Daily Mail.
“There was a gap between their performance on the field and what the numbers should be.
“It all depends on the success and the effort and the popularity, the exposure on TV and revenue you can generate by merchandising.
“This all has to be brought in line between what you offer and what you get. We thought what Liverpool were asking was not… right, then we said we will not do it – that’s the end of the story,” he concluded.
Despite this, Liverpool managing director Ian Ayre responded to the criticism, and feel that Adidas’ have been shortsighted.
“We are disappointed Adidas seem to point to a lack of European football as a reason not to agree a new deal, and cannot see that we are on a par with the biggest football brands in the world,” he commented.
The Reds new deal with Warrior Sports is said to be worth £150million, and will last for six years.
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Everton captain Phil Neville has accepted an invitation by the FA to help coach England under-21’s, the club’s official website have revealed.
The Young Lions have a fixture against Belgium at the Riverside Stadium next week in Middlesbrough, and the seasoned professional will assist Brian Eastick and John Peacock, with usual boss Stuart Pearce taking control of the senior side on an interim basis.
The game is an important one for England, who are currently top of their group for European Championship qualification, with the Belgians in second place.
Everton revealed that Neville could be keen on a coaching role once he hangs up his boots, and this may be the first step to a successful career on the sidelines.
Meanwhile, Stuart Pearce has admitted that he is available to lead the senior side into Euro 2012, should the authorities feel he is the right man to do so.
“I am available and I have tournament experience if they (the FA) need me to step into the breach in the summer,” he told a press conference at Wembley shown on Sky Sports.
“That is obviously a decision for the employees here. They know exactly where I am, they know exactly what I want to do.
“If they need me to take the squad in the summer I will do that with pleasure.
“If they need me to coach a manager that is coming through the door, I will do that with pleasure as well.
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“Beyond that, at this moment in time, I consider myself after the summer the Team GB manager and Under 21 manager,” he concluded.