Tag Futebol

He is the ultimate enigma, a man who has polarized opinion at Old Trafford since his arrival from Sporting Lisbon in 2007.

Nani is a man of unquestionable talent, a player who possesses that unique ability to change a game with one moment of magic, but also that not so unique ability to be a frustrating presence, a selfish influence that brings an end to every promising attack.

However, 2010/11 heralded the emergence of a different Nani. All of a sudden, the Portuguese looked more like Ronaldo and less like Quaresma, a man improved in the last third, now finally able to deliver an effective final pass. With eighteen assists in the league, Nani was without doubt one of the Premier Leauge’s most effective creative players, and he soon became Manchester United ’s default starter on the wing; the go to man in any hour of need.

And then came the injury. A horrific tackle by Jamie Carragher looked to have ruled Nani out for months, only for the Portuguese to return just days later, but something was different. Nani finished the season with a respectable ten goals, but none of those came after the match at Anfield, Nani seemed to have lost something, and fast became United’s second choice winger as Antonio Valencia returned from injury.

In a season that had promised so much, Nani eventually disappointed; unable to build upon a fantastic first half, Nani slipped back into his old frustrating ways by the season’s conclusion. Since United’s loss at Wembley ended 2010/11 in disappointing fashion, Nani has been linked to a whole host of European clubs, including Inter Milan and Real Madrid. Rumor has had it that Ferguson is willing to sacrifice Nani, that his use in a trade deal might not be out of the question.

If rumor of an exit was rife before, it certainly is now. As we all know, Ferguson secured the signing of Aston Villa winger Ashley Young earlier today, a player who in many ways is an equivalent of Nani; it would be unlikely for both of them to start. Given Nani’s dip in form towards the end of 2010/11, Valencia’s immense impact and Fergie’s consistent preference for Park in the big games, it is possible that Nani could start the 2011/12 season as third choice winger, something which you can be sure would anger the Portuguese international.

Nani must now be reflecting upon his position at Manchester United, for a player with so much talent a sub’s place is unacceptable, and Nani will know that if he declared his intent to leave there would be suitors aplenty.

It is always difficult to know what exactly is running through Sir Alex Ferguson’s head, but the signing of Young does indicate that he is not one hundred percent convinced by Nani, and if the opportunity to use him as a makeweight in a deal for an attacking midfielder arose, then I imagine he would give it due consideration.

With Lennon rumored to want out from Tottenham, Nani could be a potential target for Redknapp, and there is a certain Croatian at White Hart Lane who could do wonders for our central midfield… Perhaps more likely though is a swap with Inter Milan, I for one would relish the arrival of Sneijder, even if it meant that Nani would have to go the other way.

Wherever his potential destination, there is no doubt about it, Nani’s future at United is in more jeopardy than it was several months ago, the ball is now in his court, so it will be interesting to see how Nani responds to Young’s arrival. It would be a refreshing break from the normal petulance and sulkiness of Nani, to see him really pull his socks up and work hard to regain a place in the first team, but that could be a bridge too far for the Portuguese international; I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he handed in a transfer request first thing upon his arrival at Carrington for pre season training.

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Should United sell Luis Nani? Feel free to comment below?

Read more by David Yaffe-Bellany at Red Flag Flying High

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Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson thought his side's second-half display in the 2-2 draw at Aston Villa was poor.

After a goalless first half, United trailed by two goals before hitting back to salvage a point thanks to late strikes by Federico Macheda and Nemanja Vidic.

After the draw, Ferguson said:"We controlled the first half and had a couple of good chances.

"But in the second half I just think it was carelessness on our part. Our passing was poor. Normally we can control the match. We didn't control it. We are a club though that never says there is no way back.

"We brought people on (Macheda and Gabriel Obertan) and they changed the game in fairness to them.

"There was a great life and adventure about them. Macheda scored a great goal and, with another five minutes, we'd have won the game.

"I could have taken any of ten players off because we didn't perform well. We came back well but it was too late and we shouldn't have been in that position. I expected us to do better in terms of our play.

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"You've got to give credit to Villa for their battling qualities. They were enthusiastic and made it a very difficult day for us.

"They were playing at a high level of emotion and deserved the result. They tackled everything. A lot of the tackles were unfair but the referee allowed them to go."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email

Bolton chairman and FA board member Phil Gartside has apologised to Tottenham after being quoted as backing Harry Redknapp for the vacant England job.

The Three Lions have been without a manager after Fabio Capello walked away from the post earlier in the year, with the White Hart Lane supremo the favourite and frontrunner to lead the nation to Euro 2012.

Gartside praised Redknapp’s track record at Tottenham and called him an outstanding candidate for the role in an interview with the BBC last week.

Meanwhile, Spurs’ form has dipped whilst the speculation has been ongoing over their manager; Gartside admits he has apologised to Daniel Levy over the comments.

“I’ve been quoted out of context and had an apology from the BBC and have apologised to Daniel. I was giving my personal view of how I rate Harry,” he confirmed to Mirror Football.

As yet there has been no further news on the potential next England boss, but a decision and action is expected in coming weeks.

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By Gareth McKnight

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Marlon King has completed a move to Birmingham City after his contract with Coventry expired, incurring the wrath of former boss Andy Thorn.The 31-year-old underwent a medical with Birmingham on Thursday and formally signed with Alex McLeish’s team – who were relegated from the English Premier League last season – on Friday.

The move has angered former employers Coventry, who handed King a short-term deal in September 2010 following his release from prison.

The former Nottingham Forest and Watford striker received an 18-month sentence in October 2009 after being convicted of sexual assault.

Thorn, who succeeded Aidy Boothroyd as manager at Coventry in April this year, had hoped the player would remain with the club who offered him a route back into professional football.

According to Thorn, King verbally agreed a new three-year deal at the Ricoh Arena.

The striker claims Coventry delayed in providing him a written contract, allowing Birmingham to offer terms.

“I feel betrayed on a personal and professional level by what has happened,” Thorn told The Coventry Telegraph.

“I have no idea what sort of advice he has been given but I think he should have considered how well he has done here, the way the supporters have backed him and accepted him.”

“What Marlon is claiming simply does not stack up.”

“He spoke to me last Thursday to confirm he wanted to stay, the story came out in the media that he had agreed to stay with us, yet 24 hours later we heard rumours that he was talking to Birmingham.”

“I am staggered and dismayed at what has happened.”

King confirmed that he verbally agreed to remain with Coventry, but insists he was not provided with a written offer.

“I haven’t done anything wrong,” King said.

“Yes I did phone the manager because I was happy with the three-year deal and I was willing to sign.”

“I said let’s do it, I want to sign. I said get the contract over to me but that didn’t materialise. I called my adviser, Tony Finnigan, and asked what was going on and he said nothing had come through on the computer in writing.”

King joins winger Chris Burke as a new arrival at Birmingham – the Scottish international signed a two-year deal on Wednesday after leaving Cardiff on a free transfer.

Chris Ingram is as passionate about football as he is about business. Owner of Woking Football Club, and majority shareholder in the fast-growing football businesses Sports Revolution and Azzurri Fives, Chris is one of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs.

Recently celebrating 50 years in the media industry and still actively involved with Woking, Chris is ideally placed to comment on the business side of football.

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In his first feature for Football FanCast, Chris Ingram looks at the parallels a business has with football.

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This month, I want to turn to football. Success and failure is always very visible and you see the result of your actions very quickly indeed. It’s as difficult to be in denial if your team has no points after ten games as it is about an empty restaurant. Here are just four things you can learn from watching football:

Creativity

In business people talk glibly about the essential need to be innovative and to take risks in a world that is moving very quickly and which is ultra-competitive. But it takes a great deal of work to create the environment for that to succeed.

The heavily disciplined team that is under orders to play to a system and where the ‘flair’ player who wants to do something different is ostracised and not picked by the manager, is a perfect parallel with many companies.

Confidence

Teams can often go on a run of say, eight straight wins and then, suddenly starts losing games. The crowd gets on their backs, groaning then jeering. They cannot understand that the greedy forward who was shooting on sight before, now passes the ball to someone else all the time.

Like an employer, the fans have paid their money and feel entitled to vent their frustration, but they don’t seem to realise that they are destroying the confidence of their team. That forward will do anything rather than take responsibility for shooting at goal because he’s scared of mis-hitting it and hearing more jeers. Meanwhile, the players at the back play the ball sideways, nice and safely rather than trying the ambitious defence splitting pass – because they’re terrified of giving the ball away to the opposition.

Eventually the team can become so paralysed with fear, that they even do the simple, safe things too slowly and the other side snatches the ball away anyway.

And how do you break out of this desperate vicious circle? Again, it’s there, clear to see. The crowd move from huge frustration and negativity to welcoming the tiniest improvement. They end up applauding someone who tries an ambitious, but unsuccessful pass (“Ah, but the thought was there!”) or the forward who shoots and the ball goes well wide (“At least he had a go!”). And lo and behold, the team’s confidence comes creeping back. It can happen in 45 minutes on the pitch, whereas in business it can take at least six months; but the principle is the same.

In The Trenches

At some stage in business, the going gets really tough – maybe things are scary. Perhaps you’re losing a lot of business and whenever the phone rings it’s bad news. Or you’re running a public company and you know you have poor results for which you will be vilified in the press.

In my experience it is when there are lawsuits and there is a threat of being sued and the resulting humiliation if you lose, that things can become most divisive.

I have been involved in two such cases – many senior executives became very scared and just melted away when the going got tough. You may think you know people well, but wait until there’s a rumour that the ship might sink.

On the pitch you want the guy ‘who’s not scared to put his foot in’. He goes into every 50/50 tackle looking to win, not pulling out at the last minute. These people are worth their weight in gold! They never run away from the tough decisions.

The benefit of experience

The best example is out there on the pitch: the older, class footballer – perhaps a former ‘box-to-box’ player who used to run endlessly up and down the pitch for the full ninety minutes. What does he do when he’s apparently slowing down, but still wanting to play?

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What are the words that are used for footballers? Not the weak, generalised words used in business of ‘experience’ and the outraged cry of “they don’t value experience these days!”

The words are ‘vision’; ‘interception’ and ‘anticipation’.

The experienced player has a better, overall view of the game and not just the part that he’s playing. That’s the vision bit. So, when he receives the ball he knows in advance what he’s going to do with it: who, where and how he’s going to distribute it.

He’s not really quicker, but he’s done his thinking in advance so he can use those few seconds to greater effect. He knows where he’s going to put the ball in advance – and he also has several options up his sleeve because the game is constantly changing.

Because he can anticipate what’s happening he seems to have more time when others are rushing around frenziedly. There is the nice expression that summarises it all – ‘he lets the ball do the work’.

People talk of footballers who ‘have the knack of being in the right place at the right time’. This enables them to make the timely interception of a defence-splitting pass or a well-timed tackle at a crucial moment. The experienced player has seen the threat long before the other players have considered it.

I cannot think of a better parallel with today’s digitised, always-on business life. Perhaps those ‘ill-educated footballers’ have a thing or two to teach us when it comes to selling the benefits of experience.

Written By Chris Ingram

Without doubt the Premier League is one of the most exciting, if not the most enthralling league in world football. This season in particularly has witnessed crazy score lines (Arsenal won’t need reminding), underdogs upsetting the odds and personal scoring feats setting the ever impressive tone. But if you’re like me and you watch every football outlet each weekend, staying up late to watch those tantalisingly boring last games on Match of The Day just to see a Franco Di Santo tap in or logging into the ESPN goals application just to witness an impressive Mexican Wave at Craven Cottage, you will realise it’s not exciting all of the time.

It’s inevitable isn’t it? 38 games per club per season; there’s bound to be a few tedious and dreary games that live far shorter in the memory than most. Whether there was merely a lack of chances, whether the teams were more interested in their pre-match showers or simply because the game was one-sided, there have been a collection of games this term that have either failed to live up to their billing or have mesmerisingly been picked to be televised, despite a noticeable selection of two unfashionable outfits.

This is probably the last example of the coverage and airtime these games will get (failing a fledgling appearance on the Premiership years perhaps) during the rest of history so without further ado, let us commence with the top ten Premier League ‘borefests’ of the season so far.

Click on this borefest from Craven Cottage to unveil the top 10

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Were you at one of these games, or have I missed another shocker? Follow me @ http://twitter.com/Taylor_Will1989

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Roberto Martinez likened the feeling of staying up on the last day of the season to winning a trophy after Wigan beat Stoke City 1-0.The visitors had to survive intense pressure at the Britannia Stadium, but they slowly came into Sunday’s match, before Hugo Rodallega’s 59th-minute winner guaranteed Wigan’s Premier League survival.

Martinez heaped praise on his players after two wins from the final two matches of the campaign saw them escape from the bottom three.

“It’s like winning a trophy – that’s the way I feel,” Wigan manager Martinez said.

“I’m extremely proud of this group of players and their achievement is phenomenal.”

“We haven’t chosen the easy route and it’s a great feeling because this squad has been written off so many times in this campaign.”

“We knew we had the talent but in the last two games we had to show more than that.”

“We were 2-0 down against West Ham and we needed a reaction and people with real responsibility and bravery.”

“Again today we weren’t ourselves in the first half and we had to defend for our lives. I am probably prouder of that side of the two performances.”

Martinez also had sympathy for the relegated teams, with Blackpool and Birmingham losing on the last day to join already-demoted West Ham in the Championship next season.

“I don’t think there were any bad sides who went down,” he said.

“To get relegated on 39 points is harsh. It is the small margins that go with you and against you.”

Stoke boss Tony Pulis was less than generous to Wigan, claiming the victors enjoyed more than their fair share of good fortune, not to mention some favours from the referee.

“They rode their luck a little bit in certain areas and there were some generous decisions that also went their way – but I’ve got to be careful not to incur the wrath of the FA,” Pulis said.

“In the first 20 minutes of the second half we were poor. We started as if the game had already been won and it was all over.”

“Wigan were fighting for their lives and although we got some balls in the box we never looked like scoring in the second half.”

“It’s gone Wigan’s way – they rode their luck and good luck to them.”

Speculation over Wayne Rooney's future at Manchester United has reached fever pitch, with many of Monday morning's newspapers suggesting that he wants to leave Old Trafford as soon as possible.

Rooney is reported to no longer be on speaking terms with manager Sir Alex Ferguson, while talks over a new contract have been shelved.

Rooney's current deal runs out at the end of next season and the likes of Real Madrid, Manchester City and Chelsea are all rumoured to be monitoring the situation closely.

Ferguson has left Rooney out of the United team several times in the last few weeks, citing an ankle problem as the reason, but the England ace insists that he has been fully fit all the time.

That has led to talk that Ferguson was punishing Rooney for off-field problems which have dominated the tabloid headlines in the past few months.

On Sunday a United spokesman denied that Rooney could be on his way out, saying: "To suggest Wayne Rooney will be sold in January is nonsense."

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Rooney joined United in the summer of 2004 from Everton and has since scored 132 goals in 289 appearances in all competitions.Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email

Robin van Persie proved yesterday what a vital cog he is in this Arsenal side and without him we would simply be lost. Arsene Wenger may not like to admit it in public but if it wasn’t for the Dutchman the Gunners would be nowhere near the top four of the Premier League, given the lack of assistance that RVP has received in the goal scoring department. Reports in the papers this morning suggest that Arsenal will look to break the bank in order to secure the services of Van Persie who has less than 18months on his current deal.

There is no question that this summer is make or break for Arsene Wenger anyway, as the North Londoners appear to be further away from a title challenge than they have been in years, but there is no doubt that getting Van Persie tied down to a new deal is just as significant. We need to show ambition in the transfer market and prove to Van Persie that he can achieve the success he clearly craves.

I have compiled a list of players that I think Arsene Wenger should look to, in order to highlight the club’s ambition to Robin van Persie.

Click on Goetze to unveil the list of players

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Porto head coach Andre Villas Boas insists he will be staying at the club, despite reports of interest from English Premier League side Chelsea.The 33-year-old has enjoyed an impressive first season at Porto, winning the Liga Sagres title and leading his side to the Europa League final against fellow Portuguese outfit Braga in Dublin on May 18 – the first ever European final between two Portuguese teams.

He secured the league championship with five games to spare, and Porto only need to avoid defeat in the final game of the season on Saturday against Maritimo to go through the entire league campaign unbeaten.

They can complete a treble if they beat Braga in Dublin and Vitoria Guimaraes in the Taca de Portugal final on May 22.

Braga coach Domingos Paciencia has already announced he will be leaving the club at season end and is hotly tipped to join Sporting Lisbon.

But despite speculation linking him with a big-money move overseas, Villas Boas has declared he is keen to remain at Porto next season.

“I don’t think this news conference is aimed at discussing the future, the futures of both coaches. Domingos Paciencia chose to speak about it, very well,” Villas Boas said.

“My future, as you know, is completely linked to Porto.”

Porto born-and-bred, Villas Boas owes much of this season’s success to strikers Hulk and Radamel Falcao.

Colombian Falcao has hit 37 goals and is the Europa League’s top scorer with 17, while Brazilian Hulk leads the Primeira Liga standings with 23.

Like their coach, both have been linked with top European clubs but they insist Porto is where they want to play.

“I have two more years on the contract with the club and if I am saying goodbye, it’s only because it’s the end of the season,” Falcao said.

“On June 30, I will be training again. In my mind, I am only thinking of winning these two competitions we have ahead.”

Similarly, Hulk said he has no intentions of moving on in the off season.

“The Europa League final won’t be my last game for the club,” the Brazilian said.

“I still have three years on the contract with Porto. It will be an unprecedented final, for us it’s an important European title that could stay with us and the club for life, so we will do our best to win this title.”

Porto last won European football’s second competition in 2003 – when it was known as the UEFA Cup – under Jose Mourinho, and Villas Boas said he was looking forward to what he expects will be a tough game.

“It is going to be a one-off game, I mean finals are like that, you can approach them in various ways,” Villas Boas said.

“Being the first Portuguese final it brings something special to the game. Both teams know each other very well but anything can happen in the game.”

“I think it has nothing to do with what happened in the league, because leagues are completely different, and it’s a challenge that is very difficult for us.”