Former Birmingham City midfielder Fabrice Muamba is happy to have signed a new four-year contract with Bolton Wanderers.
The 22-year-old has prospered during his two seasons at the Reebok Stadium, featuring in 83 matches and breaking in to the England Under-21 side.
He said after putting pen to paper on the new long-term contract:"I'm happy, my family is happy – everybody is happy. The football club has been good to me since the moment I signed here.
"I don't have any reason to want to move anywhere else and I'm looking forward to the upcoming season.
"The manager believes in me and says that I'm part of his plans, and I want to give my best to the club for the fans."
Boss Owen Coyle added:"Everybody knows my opinion of him – he's a great young prospect and I'm delighted he's signed an extended contract.
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"He loves being at the football club, I like working with him and hopefully we can move on together."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
Wigan Athletic manager Roberto Martinez is still looking to add another two or three new players before the transfer window shuts at the end of the month.
Martinez has already brought in defenders Antolin Alcaraz and Ronnie Stam, midfielder James McArthur and striker Mauro Boselli this summer, but is keen to add further depth to his options.
The Spaniard told the Evening Post:"We are trying to bring two or maybe three players in before the end of the transfer window.
"It's a long time to go until January, when you can next do something about your squad.
"I just feel that, even though I am pleased with the quality we have here, we need to make sure we have good strength in depth and numbers.
"It is hard at this stage of the season, but we have been following a number of players, working extremely hard and hopefully something will happen.
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"If they come off, then great. If not, at least all the major targets we were after are already at the football club and that is great reward for the amount of work we have put in."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
Aston Villa have re-signed veteran goalkeeper Andy Marshall to act as cover for Brad Friedel and Brad Guzan.
The 35-year-old has penned a contract that will keep him at Villa Park until the end of the season.
The former Norwich City, Ipswich Town and Millwall shot-stopper was released by Coventry City at the end of the 2008-09 campaign before starring for Villa's reserves as they won the Barclays Premier Reserve League South title last season.
"It's been in the pipeline for the last three weeks that it potentially could happen," Marshall told Villa's official website."I was released in the summer with the possibility of coming back.
"I am absolutely delighted it has been done and I am very thankful for Kevin MacDonald for bringing me back because I have got a good relationship with Kev.
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"I worked very well with him in the reserves with the young lads last season and he sees it as an opportunity to get Elliott (Parish) out on loan and get him some games. There is still the cover having myself here in case anything happens with either of the Brads."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
Stricken Wolves midfielder Adlene Guedioura believes he will return from a broken leg before the end of the season.
The 24-year-old Algeria international was left with a fractured tibia following a Steve Sidwell challenge during Saturday's 2-1 defeat by Aston Villa.
"It depends on how my recovery goes but I hope to play again this season," he told the Express and Star.
"I think I'll be stronger mentally and I'll work hard physically.
"What's happened is sad, but I'm not down about it because I know I'll come back stronger.
"I've got time to work hard and when I come back I'll do my best to fight for Wolves again."
Guedioura, who joined Wolves on a permanent basis during the summer after spending the second half of last season on loan from Charleroi, bares no ill-feeling towards Sidwell.
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He added:"I don't think he wanted to injure me. He wanted to get the ball and it wasn't malicious.
"I don't bear him any bad feelings – he was trying to win the ball."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
Chelsea's Ashley Cole is one of the best left-backs in the world, according to England boss Fabio Capello.
Cole, 29, will equal Kenny Sansom's record for the most caps won by an England full-back when he makes his 86th international appearance in Tuesday's Euro 2012 qualifier against Montenegro at Wembley.
The former Arsenal defender made his England debut in 2001 and has impressed Capello since he took the managerial reins in December 2007.
Cole, who is not the most popular of players among England supporters, has played in three World Cups and one European Championship for the Three Lions.
Problems in his personal life have led to regular criticism from the terraces, but on a professional basis Capello has nothing but praise for the left-back.
"Ashley Cole is one of the best left-backs in the world," hailed Capello.
"The number of caps he has won is not a surprise to me. Ashley is good in so many ways. He's good when he has to defend. He's really good going forward.
"He's intelligent and good with his movement. When he has the ball, no problems. He can move.
"He's good when he has to defend but also good when he gets to the box. He understands how to play a pass.
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"Other players don't know what to do when they get in that position.
"But Ashley is always dangerous with his passes. He is an important player."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
Premier League footballers might have all the money in the world but something a fair few of them are short of is a buddy; someone to help them when they need it and come to their aid in their hour of need. That’s exactly what Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney needed last week when he had angry United fans outside his house unhappy at Rooney’s apparent desire to leave Old Trafford. Rooney eventually came to his senses and after the persuasion of Manchester United manager and so-called ‘genius’ Sir Alex Ferguson signed a new contract at the Premier League club, but the striker isn’t the only footballer who could do with a buddy.
Bad tackles have been one of the hottest topics in the Premier League this season and combative Manchester City midfielder Nigel de Jong isn’t winning any friends. After the Netherlands international karate kicked Spain’s Xabi Alonso in the 2010 World Cup final, the Dutchman has followed that up with some tasty tackles in the Premier League, with one resulting in Newcastle’s Hatem Ben Arfa breaking his leg. Experienced Fulham footballer Danny Murphy has spoken out about bad tackles, but this only resulted in him getting on the wrong side of Blackburn gaffer Sam Allardyce and a couple of other Premier League managers.
Two people who couldn’t find a buddy whichever way they turned were former Liverpool owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett. The Americans really got on the wrong side of the Anfield faithful, something that wasn’t helped by them allegedly making comments that the Liverpool fans were ‘a noise they were dealing with’. What Hicks and Gillett were in desperate need of was a buddy to come to the rescue and help the Americans with the huge problems they faced.
They should have sought out the help of the First Direct Buddy. Available 24/7 every day of the year, the First Direct Buddies are the pinnacle of customer service and are trained in everything. There is no limit to what a buddy can do, meaning that they can help in any situation. It’s easy for anyone in need to locate their nearest First Direct assistant and the buddy service is free, so it won’t make a dent in Wayne Rooney’s or any other footballer’s hefty wages.
The First Direct Buddy service gives you personal contact with people, something Andy Carroll will be grateful of right now. Given the Newcastle star’s problems off the pitch, Carroll has had to call on the help of his teammate Kevin Nolan, with the Newcastle captain going beyond the call of duty and giving the troubled striker a place to stay. Nolan has helped Carroll in his time of need and this is exactly what the First Direct Buddy service can do for you; come to the rescue time and time again.
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Click on the video below to find out more about the First Direct Buddy Service
The fallout continues regarding Wayne Rooney’s new contract at Manchester United. A topsy-turvy week for Manchester United fans saw England international Wayne Rooney agree terms for a new deal that will keep him at the club until 2015 and be worth a rumoured (and grotesque) £250,000 a week. Despite getting his man and winning a hard-fought battle, Sir Alex Ferguson is still mulling over the long-term implications for game. The culture of greed prevalent throughout football is spreading and as players become more and more powerful, so to do the agents that encourage this negative behaviour and suck money out of the game.
Ferguson was asked by Sky Sports if he believed from the start that Rooney would stay with Manchester United and he had this to say: “Not necessarily no, because although you know the player you don’t know his agent. Agents live in their pockets nowadays and for some reason they have an influence on the players which I think is a big change in the game as far as I’m concerned.”
These are people with no interest in giving back. Their very existence sucks money from the game – they are football’s leaches – they plunder, manipulate and brainwash their clients and try to secure the biggest deals possible, often to the detriment of the club who had nurtured and raised that player through good times and bad.
Rooney’s agent, Paul Stretford is the target of a lot of fan and media ire at the moment. Though, if Rooney’s deal is worth what it’s said to be worth, you doubt he’ll care too much. Stretford and Rooney’s engineered one of the greatest acts of manipulation in living memory upon a club and it’s Manchester United and in turn, Manchester United fans that suffer as a result. Stretford is the kind of man who will do anything to make himself and his clients rich – no, not just rich, preposterously and disgustingly wealthy.
Something is wrong when there’s room in the game for characters like Stretford to siphon money away from clubs into their own personal accounts. This is not to say that every agent is a scourge upon the game, but you can hardly say that as a body, agents represent a force for good. This raises the question – is there a system in which the rights and interests of players can be fought for and protected without the use of independent agents?
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To assess whether the game needs agents, we must first assess what role these agents play within the game. The most important role of an agent is to look after player’s financial interests. This frees the player up to concentrate solely on football without having to worry about negotiating new deals and the like. The agent will also help guide the player’s public relationship and develop the player as a product and geared towards making money. In return the agent receives a cut of all the players’ earnings, usually between 5-10%.
Do we really need these self-interested individuals to be part of the game? Fair enough if a player wants to develop his own brand and engineer lucrative promotional deals – but should these agents be dealing with clubs and have such power when it comes to negotiating new deals? My response is no – so what’s the alternative? The trouble is that we’re traversing relatively new ground here. With no agents, there would have to be an independent body that oversaw all transfer and contract negotiations to ensure that each side receives their fair share.
Such a body could end up being a bureaucratic nightmare. It would require an unending list of regulations to ensure that the manipulation and greed common amongst agents does not spread. How would this body calculate exactly what each player was worth? What happens when a club disagrees with the independent body’s evaluation, does the player get left by the wayside? Can this body really be expected to look after a players interest when it has no real (monetary) motivation to do so? How does this body keep afloat – does it receive a set payment from the club for each deal secured? Does it vary according to the stature of the player? Or should it be players who have to pay to utilise the services of an independent body?
These are difficult but important questions with no simple answer. Almost every club has a sob-story regarding agents who were able to use their position to earn more money than necessary for themselves and their client. The difficulty is that the alternative seems almost as far-fetched. Yet regulated systems such as these are not impossible. Given the whole Wayne Rooney palaver I think it’s time we start thinking seriously about the answers to the above questions and begin to imagine a world in players which agents are stripped of their power over the game.
What’s your take? Is it time to rid the game of agents?
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England’s performance midweek proved that the Championship isn’t too far behind the Premiership in quality
After England’s disappointing performance against France last night at Wembley, in which the French dictated the game and came out as 2-1 winners, it was evident that the majority of the players representing England were not worthy of an England cap.
Once again our national team fails to live up to expectations but it’s not the fact that we lost which let me and the millions watching down, it’s the lack of effort that was clearly shown yesterday and again the lack of enthusiasm shown by the teams ‘manager’.
Some of the football I witnessed last night was a carbon copy of the football I watch every week at Selhurst Park and I was left asking the question; if Jagielka can play at right back for England then why can’t Nathaniel Clyne?
Whilst watching the game last night, I lost count at the number of times the back four used the Championship tactic of ‘hit and hope’ in order to play the ball up to debutant Carroll, who put in a good performance when he was given little help from the midfield.
I showed great attention to the lack of confidence shown by players such as Gareth Barry and Steven Gerrard, and all they wanted to last night was to play the ball backwards, rely on the wingers to get forward and then defend for the team again.
This is the type of Football that I am used to when watching the Championship, players who haven’t got the technical ability to pick out a pass or have the confidence to take on a player so play ‘one dimensionally’ and always look to hoof the ball forward to the target man.
Considering some of these internationals play their football for the country’s best teams, it was disappointing to see such a lack of general football skills and the confidence to take on a player, and instead resulting to kicking the ball up field.
With England clearly missing the experience of John Terry, Ashley Cole and Wayne Rooney, the likes of Jagielka and Lescott failed to show why they deserved to represent their country and although not much good would have come out of yesterday’s match, surely it was a wakeup call for Championship footballers that they are not too far behind the Premiership in quality.
This is further evident with the recent call up of Cardiff City striker Jay Bothroyd, who was chosen ahead of the experienced Kevin Davis for his first England cap and the first player to represent the Championship since David Nugent made his England bow in 2007.
After Jay Bothroyd’s excellent start to the season for Cardiff, manager Capello has shown the players that ply their trade in England’s second tier that if they put effort in, there is always an opportunity to represent their country.
So is this a positive era for the Championship or negative for the Premiership?
Views will differentiate depending on people’s understanding of the Championship and the competiveness of the league.
Being a Crystal Palace fan and a weekly follower of the Championship, my opinion is that the league is hugely overlooked by many pundits and fans who like the big bucks and the big names of the Premiership instead of the determination and physical prowess of the Championship.
I have nothing against the Premiership and being a hypocrite isn’t in my agenda, as I enjoy nothing more than watching Match of The Day on a Saturday night, but surely last night’s performance was a wakeup call for England fans that we are a mile away from the finished product.
This article is neither criticising the level of the English talent in the Premiership or over rating the Championship as the step is clearly huge between the two leagues, but it’s only highlighting the fact that last night’s performance was such a letdown that it reminded me of watching Crystal palace week-in week-out.
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My point is that a minority of the players that walked out on to the Wembley pitch were clearly no record breakers, let alone England internationals who can add another dimension to the national squad.
After such a disappointing World Cup, England seemed to be on the up after the emergence of players such as Adam Johnson and Andy Carroll, but once again England was brought down to earth with a bang!
England were given another reality check last night and fans were again sent home wondering how our nation is going to move forward as a sporting community if the heavily relied on footballers cannot even set an example.
Whether it is Everton and Liverpool and proposals to cohabit as an alternative to the clubs respective plans for separate stadiums, or prospective suggestions that West Ham and Tottenham should share the Olympic Stadium after the 2012 Games; the idea of ground-sharing is always latent in English football. Despite the economic advantages of ground-sharing, and high profile cases of stadium cohabitation across the world it is still somewhat of a taboo in England, here are some of the main arguments;
LOSS OF IDENTITY
Many fans believe that through ground-sharing, their clubs will lose a sense of separate identity. Although many fans understand the economic need to move stadiums, for most, a stadium to call their own is something that is intrinsically bound to their clubs identity, and through ground-sharing that identity is diluted with a rival club that previously would have formed a huge part of their identity through intense opposition.
SMALLER CLUB’S LOSS OF REVENUE
Ground-shares can also be detrimental to the ‘smaller’ (I use this term with trepidation) clubs, as the ‘smaller’ clubs can fail to market themselves and attract a larger fan base ground-sharing, as they are constantly caught in the shadow of their larger neighbour. Whereas with their own ground, they would be able to market themselves in a far more effective way. This would also be the case as the stadium would more commonly by known as the stadium of the ‘larger’ or more senior club, rather than a stadium which is jointly occupied.
SHARED STADIUMS ARE SHORT TERM FIXES
While a shared stadium may provide a short-term economic boost for both clubs involved, a ground-share can never provide the economic security a privately owned stadium can especially for a ‘junior’ partner or ‘smaller’ club, as has been seen with the Allianz Arena in Munich, where Bayern and 1860 shared the stadium, but then Bayern bought out 1860, who are now paying rent to their local rivals for a stadium they formerly were part owners of.
WHERE’S THE FUN?!
Part of the fun of a local derby, especially an away day, is walking into the nest of the local enemy, when a ground-share is involved, there would surely not be as much fun or passion involved, as you are essentially going to make the same journey you make the rest of the year, albeit sitting in a different seat.
GRASSROOTS
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Perhaps slightly off topic, and I’m sure around the world club sides who do ground-share cope with this problem, but if the ground staff at Wembley struggle to turn around a decent football pitch, with the prospect through the winter months of two games a week being played on a pitch that is shared (if both teams that share the pitch are in Europe) how will the pitch look by the end of February? Not conducive to playing football one would think.
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US international midfielder Jermaine Jones has joined Blackburn Rovers on a six-month loan deal from Bundesliga club Schalke.Jones, 29, becomes the club’s second signing of the transfer window after the arrival of Roque Santa Cruz from Manchester City.
Manager Steve Kean, who visited India on Monday for a meeting with Rovers owners Venky’s, told the club’s official website: “He’s a fantastic signing for us.”
“Anybody who knows him as a player, he’s a natural ball winner, he’s a very good passer as well.”
“He’s got a fantastic engine, he can go box-to-box, he’s a genuine, all-round midfielder player.”
Jones, who was born in Frankfurt, made three friendly appearances for Germany before switching his allegiance to the US in 2009.
He joined Schalke in 2007, but has fallen out of favour with coach Felix Magath.
Kean talked transfers, among other things, with his bosses in Pune and hinted there may be more signings before the window closes at the end of the month.
Barcelona’s teenager striker Ruben Rochina is still on his wish-list along with Blackpool’s want-away midfielder Charlie Adam.
Blackpool remain determined to keep Adam but he is keen on a move to Ewood Park.
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“It is ongoing on the transfer front. It has been slower than we hoped, which has been frustrating, but hopefully we can get this one pushed through (Jones) and then we are on to the next,” Kean added.
“Then we can look and assess the injuries that are coming back and if they’re coming back then that’s fantastic, if not then we might add another one.”