Paolo Di Canio has hit out at criticism of his political beliefs, after being named as Sunderland’s new manager.
The controversial Italian was brought in by the Black Cats to replace Martin O’Neill over the weekend, with defeat at the hands of Manchester United leaving the North East club perilously close to the relegation zone.
His appointment has led to ex-foreign secretary David Milliband’s resignation from his role on the board at the club, and criticism from some supporters.
Di Canio has previously spoken of his admiration of former Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and was pictured making a raised-arm salute to the crowd whilst playing for Lazio toward the end of his career.
But, the former Swindon Town boss believes his reputation is unfair and that his previous comments were exaggerated by the media:
“What I can say is that if someone is hurt, I am sorry. But this didn’t come from me, it came from a big story that people put out in a different way to what it was.” He said in a statement on the club’s official website.
“I never have a problem in my past. I expressed an opinion in an interview many years ago.
“Some pieces were taken for media convenience. They took my expression in a very, very negative way – but it was a long conversation and a long interview. It was not fair.
“I know it is a part of my job to do interviews because I am well-known, but sometimes it suits their purpose to put big headlines and a big story.”
Some of his comments and actions have led to allegations of negative racial beliefs.
But, Di Canio insists that this is nonsense, and that those who know him can vouch for his character:
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“Talk about racism? That is absolutely stupid, stupid and ridiculous. The people who know me can change that idea quickly.
“When I was in England my best friends were Trevor Sinclair and Chris Powell, the Charlton manager – they can tell you everything about my character.
West Bromwich Albion midfielder James Morrison is delighted to have committed himself to the club.
The 26-year-old signed a new four-year contract last week that will see him remain at The Hawthorns until June 2016. Morrison, who joined the Baggies in August 2007, is now hopeful that his team-mates Jonas Olsson and Chris Brunt will sign new contracts as well. He told the Birmingham Mail:
“This is my sixth season here now. I’m committed to the club, I feel settled here. There was no reason for wanting to leave. I’m 26, the longest-serving player and I quite like that. Hopefully other players like Chris Brunt and Jonas will follow. It feels like home. That’s down to playing every week, the team playing well, being settled. The fans have been great with me, the new manager [Steve Clarke] coming in has been a big factor in me signing.”
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West Brom are currently sixth in the Premier League table with seven points from four matches, three points behind leaders Chelsea.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the idea, a ‘European Super-League’ is a proposed alternative to the current UEFA Champions League. Instead of grouping top European teams into an elimination tournament, Europe’s finest would instead form a “super league” where top teams from each league would compete against each other on a weekly basis throughout the course of the season.
Mirroring the standard domestic league format, the team with the most points at the end of the season would win the league. The bottom three or perhaps four teams would be relegated.
While several other managers and numerous sports journalists have discussed the idea for the past several years, I’ve not yet seen anyone develop the framework for such a league. With this thought in mind, here’s my idea for how the European Super League would work.
Entirely replacing the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Super League would initially feature the top three clubs from the English Premier League (EPL), the Bundesliga and Serie A and the top two teams from La Liga and Ligue 1. One club from each of Portugal, Holland, Belgium, Ukraine and Russia would combine for five more members, and an additional two vacancies would be awarded to two clubs from smaller leagues which advanced through a qualification process.
Altogether, the league would feature 20 member teams which would play every opponent twice (home and away) for a total of 38 games. In order to avoid forcing players to the point of physical exhaustion or requiring clubs to build a full-strength second team, clubs would not compete in their domestic leagues while playing in the UEFA Super League. However, all member clubs would continue competing in their domestic cup competitions.
At the end of the season, the club with the most points would be crowned the UEFA Champion and the bottom four teams would be relegated to their domestic leagues.
At the domestic leagues level, since top clubs could no longer qualify for the Champions League, they would instead qualify for the Europa League where the four semi-finalists would replace the four relegated sides in the following season’s UEFA Super League.
In order to ensure sides relegated from the Super League would have the opportunity to earn immediate promotion the following season, they would be awarded automatic Europa League qualification.
While many of you probably consider this suggestion utterly preposterous, I encourage you to at least consider the idea.
Firstly, the plan would shrink the huge talent gap between top teams and their typical opponents. So, instead of Manchester United facing Newcastle, Stoke and Sunderland in a random three-week period of the season, they could instead face the likes of Porto, Juventus and Ajax.
Sure, we might miss out on some exciting two-leg series, but I would much rather watch the Red Devils play an entire season of meaningful contests than wait until the Champions League quarter-finals for them to feature against a world-class opponent.
Opponents argue that while strengthening the competition at the highest levels, such an exclusive league would destroy domestic competition. Conversely, I suspect the UEFA Super League would have the exact opposite effect on competition.
For example, with English Premier League sides Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal likely to spend most seasons in the Super League, teams such as Liverpool, Tottenham, Newcastle and Everton would have a legitimate chance of actually winning the league.
With a top-three finish promising a place in the Europa League and an eventual shot at cracking into the Super League, the fans of mid-table teams throughout Europe could actually get excited about their club’s future prospects.
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Furthermore, domestic cup competitions would become increasingly intense. With Super League teams not regularly facing domestic competition, they would be eager to prove their worth by winning a domestic championship.
Realising a unique opportunity to compete against the top clubs in the country, emergent league sides, perhaps vying to complete a domestic double, would be intensely motivated to shock their supposedly superior opponent.
But in Sean O’Driscoll’s first week of league games in charge of Nottingham Forest, he’s managed to retain the belief and posotivity of the fans. Emotions of football fans fluctuate at the best of times, but the thousands following Forest at the moment remain quietly optimistic.
It’s tradition for Forest to get off to a slow start. This is a new era, though. New owners, new manager, new team.
As they headed into the opening game against Bristol City at the City Ground, there was a different feel to the game, as if times were about to change, and so they did. Forest ran out 1-0 winners thanks to a goal from Adlene Guedioura on his 2nd debut for the club.
Tapping the shirt as he runs away in elation, Guedioura showed more passion in his celebration than many that represented the club last year did when they played.
Forest had got their first goal on an opening day for so many years, and coupled with that, their first win. A great start to the Al-Hasawi reign, leaving the supporters going home satisfied, and many staying behind to queue at the ticket office, buying for future games. The taste of a convincing victory, the positive atmosphere, and people were left wanting more.
What was the message from O’Driscoll and Fawaz Al-Hasawi?
“Forest will do better in future games”, says Fawaz Al-Hasawi.
“It’s a beginning”, remarks Sean O’Driscoll.
Nobody is getting carried away, and that will be the story for every game. Everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet, with the intention of striving for improvement in the next match. Anything beyond the next game is quickly dismissed in a calm but stern manner.
In the second game of the season, 2,200 Forest fans followed their team to Huddersfield, ready for a testing game from the team that had just gained promotion from League One and were bound to have momentum on their side.
Huddersfield Town were outplayed, and were taught a footballing lesson by a Forest side yet to gel. The much talked about Jordan Rhodes barely got a kick, as the away team left them chasing shadows for long periods. Simon Cox finished brilliantly to put Forest into the lead, and the game was there to be killed off.
It wasn’t, and Dan Harding’s silly mistake in the final minute meant Huddersfield had a penalty, which was put away by Rhodes.
Negativity from Forest fans perhaps, for chucking away 2 points?
Far from it. Despite the obvious initial disappointment, the Reds contingent were in a positive frame of mind. They had witnessed a Forest side who had yet to gel, dominate a Huddersfield team full of very capable Championship players. The new front line of Blackstock and Cox were showing promise, as was Simon Gillett, the free transfer who was receiving plenty of plaudits.
It was always going to be a tougher test against recently relegated Bolton. Their style of play and quality of players meant the Forest players had to be on their game.
They did not disappoint.
It finished 2-2, and it was a fair result at the Reebok. Not many teams will go to Bolton and pick up any points, but Forest did, and were well worthy. They went there and in the first half especially, proved to Bolton and the division they are to be taken seriously.
How did the respective managers of both teams react?
“Give credit to Bolton”, O’Driscoll kindly commented.
“That’s a game we should have won”, Owen Coyle sharply said.
Two totally different reactions. The unassuming Sean O’Driscoll showing respect to the opposition, whilst Owen Coyle’s reaction is one of a man under intense pressure, wanting to convince himself more than anyone his side did enough.
O’Driscoll is under no pressure, which will work in his sides favour this season. The only factor that has worked against O’Driscoll and Forest so far is that two of the games have been chosen for television coverage.
‘SOD’ is known for playing things down, but televised games get neutrals talking. Televised games get the media talking.
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Whilst outside appreciation is nice, it’s not needed.
Nottingham Forest fans are all smiling. That in itself is a very good achievement.
Nobody is sniping unnecessarily. Nobody is expecting. Everyone is just sitting back and watching, as it all takes shape.
Sky Sports, BBC, and any other media outlet: There’s one message… Everything is going just fine, and there’s nothing to see here. Turn around and televise the headline makers.
Who cares if The Football League Show only show 30 seconds of highlights, and it largely gets portrayed as the opposition dominating, when every Forest fan knows different.
The longer Forest go unnoticed this season, the better chance there is of success at the end of it.
Players who join clubs on free transfers and go on to be successful is something of a rare sight in the Premier League these days, as we now usually see the players signing for big fees being the ones who get all the limelight.
But Mohamed Diame’s outstanding game-changing substitute appearance in West Ham’s 3-1 win over Chelsea at the weekend got me thinking of the most successful free transfers we have seen in the Premier League.
The only player to feature twice is Brad Friedel, because it still amazes me how the consistent American stopper hasn’t been the subject of a huge transfer fee throughout his career.
Click on Jay-Jay ‘so good they named him twice’ Okocha to see the 15 most successful free transfers in Premier League history
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Manchester United striker Robin van Persie believes that his side’s 1-1 draw away to Real Madrid in the Champions League has given them the edge in the tie.
The Red Devils took the lead in at the Bernabeu through Danny Welbeck, but were pegged back by former hero Cristiano Ronaldo.
After netting what could be a vital away goal, van Persie feels that United have moved ahead in the race for a spot in the quarter-finals, but he also insisted that there is plenty of work left to do:
“Slightly.” He responded when asked by Sky Sports if the result has put them on top in the tie:
“But at this level I don’t think these kinds of teams really care whether they are home or away.
“We don’t really care and they don’t really care. It’s just half-time now and we’ll be ready for the second half.
“There were chances for both sides and it was a great game to watch,”
The Dutchman had a few opportunities to hand the Premier League leaders a shock win in Spain, but was unable to convert.
He admitted that he was frustrated at being incapable of giving his side a shock aggregate lead, but that the result is still a positive one:
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“We had a couple of good chances but if you had said before the game we would draw 1-1 then most of us would have taken it.”
Welbeck headed a Wayne Rooney corner past Diego Lopez to give United the lead on 20 minutes, but Ronaldo netted shortly after to level the scores.
We can all agree that the job of refereeing a football match is a difficult one; a task that will only get trickier the higher up the football ladder you climb, while coping with all of the external pressures must take a very thick skin. It is not an enviable task in the slightest, yet there have been several big Premier League games this season which have been ruined by poor officiating, with many match officials choosing to rule by the letter of the law rather than taking into account the mitigating factors which had led to the incident.
Having sympathy for the nearly impossible job that referees up and down the country have each and every weekend and slamming them for the poor decisions they make would seem to be a contradictory stance to take, but it’s one that the vast majority of us fall into. Obviously, you get plenty of former players in the studio on TV with an even looser grasp of the laws than most fans, with Jamie Redknapp in particular only believing it counts as a deliberate handball if you happen to be looking at the ball at the exact time of the infringement, which is baffling to say the least.
The benefit of hindsight is often being used as a stick to beat officials with, as if after Graeme Souness has seen a touch and go decision from eight different angles can confidently claim that the referee has ‘had a shocker there’. This retrospective school of thinking has quickly altered and distorted the way we view incidents, but the men in black out on the pitch get just one chance to view an issue and split-seconds to make a judgement call. By its very nature, simply due to the pace of the game, mistakes will be made, and often. Calls of bias or ‘unfair treatment’ are commonplace among the managing fraternity as a tool to distract attention elsewhere rather than focus on their own deficiencies.
Nevertheless, aside from the sort of close calls which it often takes several angles and umpteenth viewings to come to any sort of definitive decision, there are those which are so obvious that even in real time, from a stand a considerable distance away from the pitch, look simple to adjudge, but are given a baffling decision.
For example, Gareth Bale has already been booked three times this season for diving. Of the three incidents, two of them were perhaps fouls on the Tottenham winger, with one just a flat-out poor decision which saw the call go against him simply down to his theatrics. He has a reputation as a diver now, and rightly so after his swan lake impression for a penalty against Arsenal last season, but some officials appear to be letting that influence their judgements.
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There are several grey areas with this, because ‘simulation’ does not just take into account diving. For example, during the dull 0-0 draw at Stamford Bridge between Chelsea and Manchester City last month, Mario Balotelli was cautioned for diving by Chris Foy after he grabbed the ball 30 yards from goal and charged towards the edge of the box, before seemingly flinging himself into David Luiz’s elbow to try and earn a free kick in a dangerous position.
What exactly was Luiz supposed to do differently in that situation? Balotelli had already made his mind up to make a deliberate attempt to ‘earn’ the free kick. Nevertheless, the outcry that the Italian was then booked was hysterical to say the last. According to the Laws of the Game: “A player must be cautioned for unsporting behaviour if (he) attempts to deceive the referee by feigning injury or pretending to be fouled.” While a booking may have been harsh, the decision was correct. The context was that the situation was pre-judged, therefore can be considered cheating as such and under the bracket of simulation.
However, turn your attentions back to a different encounter at Stamford Bridge just a few weeks previously, the 3-2 game between the hosts and Manchester United, and Mark Clattenburg came to a very different conclusion. There was contact on Torres, and while the Spaniard went down easily under Jonny Evans’ challenge, the decision to similarly award him a second yellow card for simulation, completely ignoring the pace and tempo at which the match was being played, let alone the context of the scoreline, magnitude of the teams involved and what impact it would have on a huge game and he was clearly wrong. Surely it would have been better to award the free kick but not the yellow for the sake of the rest of the match as a spectacle?
Two broadly similar incidents of a player anticipating contact and using it to their advantage, both players were handed a yellow card, yet for some reason it just feels wrong. It’s contradictory to complain about the inconsistency in refereeing when tribalism and partisanship is at the very heart of the game, leading observers such as myself to complain about the very consistency we so crave.
It’s idealistic to think that games of importance will not be marred by poor decision-making in the future, with Liverpool on the receiving end of some truly terrible calls with concerns to penalties awarded for and against them this season. These things do not balance themselves out over the course of a season, that is little more than a well-worn and quite frankly tired cliche.
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The argument often put forward is that ex-professionals need to get more involved with refereeing the game, but for anyone that’s watched Soccer Saturday or Match of the Day will tell you, they rarely ever know the rules themselves (I’m looking at you here, Paul Merson). They confuse experience with knowledge. Plenty of them aren’t fit to be pundits, let alone match officials. The current system has its flaws, and idealists will always crave consistency or cry wolf when it doesn’t benefit them.
Decisions will always go against your side and sometimes the problem is the rule itself rather than the official in question (red card for every last-man offence, yellow card for removing your shirt during a goal celebration, the lack of definition over two-footed challenges). With that in mind, while following the Laws of the Game to the letter is important for the vast majority of incidents, like the two mentioned above, sometimes coming to the same conclusion is not necessarily the right result. It’s a tricky job pleasing us all, eh?
Arsenal striker Nicklas Bendtner has joined Juventus on a season long loan after being told he was surplus to requirements at the Emirates Stadium.
The Danish international spent last season on loan at Sunderland where he couldn’t convince the North East side to make the move permanent. Bendtner’s Arsenal career has never really taken off, with boastful comments in the press and underwhelming performances on the pitch causing him to be out of favour with Arsene Wenger.
The Gunners have signed two strikers already this summer and the move abroad may be the injection that the tall forwards career needs.
Juventus missed out on Dimitar Berbatov earlier today and so immediately turned their attention to Bendtner who will see out the season in Turin.
Juventus sporting director, Beppe Marotta told Sky Sport Italia: “He has talent and ability. Potentially a great player, one that has almost never been able to prove it.”
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Liverpool FC are targeting Schalke’s Lewis Holtby who admits he has designs on a move to England’s top flight.
Arsenal and Everton have also shown an interest in the 22-year-old who put in another fine performance this week in the Champions League against the Gunners.
Holtby is son to an English father and happens to be an Everton fan. Despite his allegiances to the Toffees, Liverpool are believed to be in the driving seat for acquiring Holtby’s signature.
Liverpool are desperate to secure more attacking wingers to add depth to their squad to make the Rodgers style of quick attacking football work.
Speaking to the press before Tuesday’s Champions League clash against Arsenal, the German international said: “Of course a move interests me. But now I’m at Schalke – I love the colours here, I love the team, I love the club.
“My contract runs out next season but you never know. I always said that my dream is to play in England, and it’ll happen one day, I can tell you that, because my hunger is really big for the Premier League.
“But I love the Bundesliga so much and I’m happy to be here.”
When the January transfer window opens it will be no surprise if there’s a buzz generated around the exciting winger.
There are many teams who are in need of a quality wide man and Holtby certainly fits the bill.
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It is believed however, that Schalke do not want to sell and it will take a large sum to prize him away from the German club.
Boss Mauricio Pochettino claims there is no ill-feeling between himself and the former Southampton manager Nigel Adkins.
The Argentine replaced Adkins in controversial circumstances back in January just after his predecessor had overseen a 2-2 draw with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and with Saints enjoying a decent run of form.
But since the ex-Espanyol boss took over he has led the club to notable victories over the likes of Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea.
Adkins returns to St Mary’s on Saturday, however, with his new club Reading after he took over from Brian McDermott at the Madejski Stadium when the 51-year-old was sacked last month.
“I have no problem with Nigel Adkins,” Pochettino told the Sun.
“I have full respect for him and for what he achieved at Southampton.”
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Adkins’ and his assistant manager Andy Crosby’s main issue is thought to be with Saints executive chairman Nicola Cortese, with the terms of their release still thought to be unsettled.