England defender Ashley Cole has accepted the FA’s charges of misconduct, and will now be subject to punishment.
The Chelsea left-back could be in hot water, after he labelled the governing body a ‘bunch of twats’ when his defence of Blues team-mate John Terry in the ongoing racism saga was questioned.
With a new code of conduct for England players set to be installed, the footballing world will watch on to see what punishment the defender receives for the abusive outburst.
The FA have already stated that Cole will be allowed to play for England in the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against San Marino on Friday night and Poland on Tuesday, with there no grounds for a ban from the national team.
Cole quickly apologised to FA chief David Bernstein in the wake of the comments, and has now accepted that he was in the wrong.
“Ashley Cole has admitted an FA charge in relation to a Twitter comment which was improper and/or brought the game into disrepute,” an official FA statement reads, which was published on the governing body’s website.
“Cole has requested a non-personal hearing, the date of which has yet to be set.”
It is believed that Roy Hodgson will rest the veteran full-back against San Marino, but will be reinstated to the Three Lions’ starting XI for the away game in Poland.
Chelsea have already fined Cole for his actions, as controversy seems to be awash at the club with John Terry and Ryan Bertrand also guilty of misdemeanours in the recent past.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Reading goalkeeper Alex McCarthy has told the Reading Post that he is happy with his team’s long ball footballing style.
Statistics provided by Opta have revealed that 17.65 per cent of the Royals’ passes have been more than 35 yards, more than any other club in the Premier League, leading some to criticise Reading of playing unattractive football.
McCarthy however is happy to play more direct as long as it provides results for the club, who are yet to win in the Premier League this season.
The shot-stopper told the Reading Post: “We like to put the ball in behind and turn teams around. Passing the ball around a lot and not getting anywhere is not our style of play.
“We like to turn teams behind and put it around the penalty area, so we’re happy to be a long-ball side.”
The young Englishman was brought into the Reading first team after poor performances from Australian keeper Adam Federici at the start of the season. Since then, the 22-year-old has managed to keep his place in the starting XI.
McCarthy is now looking forward to getting back into action when the Royals take on Liverpool at Anfield this weekend.
“It’s a massive game. These are the ones that you look forward to in your career so I really can’t wait.
“I’ve played at Anfield before in a youth game but playing in the Premier League with a full crowd will be unbelievable.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
“We’ve gone three games unbeaten so you could say that it’s a good time to play Liverpool. Hopefully we can take the positives out of the previous games and get a good result,” he added.
The BBC’s landmark The Price of Football survey across the entire nation, taking into account teams at every level from the Premier League and below, has led to some shocking revelations about the real expense that the game has on our bank accounts, so what does the future hold for the everyday fan? Are we being priced out altogether or are there other alternatives out there for us to try and make the best of?
Of course, being in a double-dip recession, having disposable income around is difficult and is simply not readily available to everyone and anyone, but even in tough economic times such as these, football fans turn out in their droves every weekend. It’s like a ritual, there’s nothing better to do on your Saturday but the startling statistic that the average cost of the cheapest adult ticket in the top four divisions of English football has risen by 11.7% – more than five times the rate of inflation, is enough to make you choke on your Bovril.
It all depends on geographical location as much as anything it seems, even if the division that your side plays in will obviously have a knock-on effect. Your average season ticket for Arsenal will set you back a cool £1,995 and they also come in as the most expensive average day out for a fan, totalling a whopping £134.30 in total, which when you compared it to Sunderland costing on average of just £48, then it becomes clear that certain clubs are more than taking their fair share.
According to the findings, seven out of the 10 most expensive match days for supporters in League Two alone are based in the South and South-West of the country, with four of those being based less than 36 miles away from London. This trickle down effect is alarming to say the least. We all know that the majority of the nation’s wealth resides in the South of the country, but does that necessarily mean that it’s acceptable for clubs to rip them off? At the very least, it’s hugely cynical, at it’s worst, borderline exploitative.
Malcolm Clarke, chairman of the FSF said of the survey: “We want football to be available to all income levels. Certainly at some clubs that is not the case. We are in the wrong ballpark for prices of tickets.
“I hear all the time of long-term supporters who have given up season tickets because they resent paying the money they are asked to pay. There is a danger that supporters feel alienated. Despite the difficult economic times we live in, prices at some clubs and at some levels of the game are still exceedingly high.
“It is quite shocking that at Arsenal, for example, the cheapest season ticket is only £15 short of £1,000. We would like to see a much greater effort to reduce ticket prices and in particular give the benefit of the massive amounts of media income that comes in at the top of the game to the match-going fan.”
So what can we really do about the rising cost of ticket prices? Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis, never a man short of a word, gave a telling remark in his response to the findings, labelling the game as part of the ‘entertainment’ industry, arguing that rising costs is not solely concerning football. This appears to be the main crux of the matter, the evolution of the game from a sport into a fully-fledged entertainment industry, perhaps the biggest around the globe. The revenues are massive and while cheaper ticket initiatives, like the one that Arsenal currently fund, are a welcome reprieve, are they really doing enough?
One way out of the mire that’s been suggested is a solution termed ‘dynamic pricing’, which essentially means the later you leave it to buy a ticket, the more you’re likely to pay – the exact same way that we buy plane tickets or book hotels and it’s generally accepted that the later you leave it to book your holiday, the more it will cost you.
Prices change daily based on demand and it will certainly improve competition for tickets, perhaps meaning more sell-outs lower down the leagues as supporters try to get themselves the best deal and Cardiff, Bristol City and Derby have already brought in the pioneering scheme, which rewards loyal fans and season ticket holders above your casual fan.
Having been a casual fan of Leyton Orient when I was at university, it does seem a bit of a flawed system in my eyes and it could only lead to the growth of more ticket agents and touts in the industry than we already see and it looks like another step towards a corporatocracy being established in football.
There’s no doubt in my mind that season ticket holders should be rewarded and dynamic pricing means they will be in the long-run but at the expense of other fans? One of the best things about football is that there is no tiered system in terms of support by and large, but this idea could see you paying significantly more than the chap next to you on match-day.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
The average cost of following your team around the country now has risen dramatically and above the level of inflation, so the result means it’s skewed in favour of the clubs rather than the fans. Without any real demand or public cry for ticket prices to come down, they simply won’t do, and instead all we are left with are these piecemeal initiatives aimed at placating the masses.
The average fan is most certainly being priced out of the game, but then again, with most clubs seeing it as ‘entertainment’ as opposed to a sport, would they really even care if they lost their core die-hard fan-base? The painful truth is that they probably wouldn’t and they’d likely still sell the tickets anyway, which just goes to show you how expendable we’ve become.
Even though the Royals manager saw fit to omit the striker for the weekend’s Premier League fixture, Danny Guthrie is set to return against the Gunners.
With rumours of a bust up between Guthrie and McDermott denied by the manager, the former Newcastle player is set to face what looks set to be effectively the Arsenal second string as Wenger looks set to continue the tradition of using the trophy to bring through the youngsters.
Reading have no new injury worries ahead of the game on Tuesday night, with McDermott playing down any trouble between himself and Guthrie ahead of the game, saying “there was no bust-up. Danny wasn’t selected to play,” with Guthrie already forced to apologise to the club and manager this season after using twitter to air his views when previously not selected for the first team.
McDermott meanwhile has expressed delight at facing Arsenal for the first time as a manger, confiding “I’m looking forward to it, really looking forward to it.
“I was lucky, really, to be brought up at a fantastic club like that.”
He also leapt to the defence of Wenger and the lack of trophies the club have won over the past few seasons stating “I’m sure they want to win trophies – of course they do – but they always qualify for the Champions League, which is a phenomenal achievement in itself.”
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
From Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester and London, Rome to Rio and Buenos Aires – most cities have football clubs where derby day is the main event in the calendar for fans, publicans, pundits and police.
But some of the greatest football rivalries make no sense geographically. Supporters of teams across the world look forward to travelling miles and miles just to earn the bragging rights for another season.
Cultural, as well as regional differences contribute to the fierceness of these clashes & performances of players in such matches decide whether they will be eternally loved or hated. A mistake or a moment of magic can create history, but can also result in brawls, fights, clashes & riots.
So, whatever the background to the biggest grudge matches, I’ve put together a list of 15 of the fiercest rivalries in world football.
Click on Boca Juniors v River Plate below to get the ball rolling
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
[divider]
Have I missed any huge clashes that you feel should have made the list? Let me know on Twitter @dudeyoungy
Tottenham Hotspur’s Togolese international Emmanuel Adebayor has threatened to cease national team duties in light of a protracted pay dispute, the Daily Mail confirms.
The 28-year-old Premier League forward says he is not the only Togolese player waiting for money owed by the Togo Football Association, who continue to refuse payment.
The dispute relates to money owed by President Ameyi to Togo’s players for a game played against Morocco earlier in the month.
“Players come to me to ask about their money. It is a shame. I asked the Moroccan Federation how much they paid our Togolese FA. They told me that they paid €35,000 to President Ameyi.”
“[I know] the president has the money because the Moroccan FA will not lie to me,” said the striker. Adebayor continued to add that he will “retire from international football,” followed by other disgruntled team-mates looking to make a statement.
After retiring from international duty in 2010 following the traumatic gunfire attack on the Togo national team bus months before, the Spurs forward resumed his international career after the Togo FA pledged to bolster team security.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
It now seems that the player could enter his second retirement due to events off the pitch.
Southampton manager Nigel Adkins has warned Arsenal off making a move for 17-year-old full-back Luke Shaw.
The Gunners have been heavily linked with the teenage defender, who has made an impressive start to life in the Premier League.
It has been rumoured that Arsene Wenger has outlined Shaw as one of his top January transfer targets, but Adkins is adamant that his young star will not be leaving the club:
“I’ve not read any of the newspapers,” he is quoted by The Mirror.
“I think Luke gets linked every week with Arsenal, doesn’t he?
“Luke is under contract, he is playing football for us in the Premier League, which is important.
“We are not looking to let him go anywhere if anyone wants to come in for any of our players, by all means speak to the chairman. He does the deals and all the best with that.”
Arsenal have a history of signing promising young players from Southampton, with bot Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain swapping the South Coast for North London in recent years.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Walcott was snapped up by the Gunners during 2006, after a handful of impressive displays in the club’s first-team.
After being suitably impressed by the striker, Wenger returned for Oxlade-Chamberlain in 2011, paying £12m for the youngster.
To say that Everton find themselves in unfamiliar territory at this stage of the season would be an understatement to say the least. The Toffees are perennial slow starters but have hit a rich vein of form in the first half of the campaign. A six match unbeaten run sees David Moyes’ men currently occupying fifth in the Premier League table and garnering genuine hope of Champions League qualification.
In stark contrast to their Boxing Day hosts Wigan find themselves struggling at the wrong end of the top-flight ladder and will hope to start their fight for survival with a win against Everton despite a seven year barren spell in the blue half of Merseyside. Roberto Martinez hasn’t seen his team record a victory since they beat Reading in November and that five game winless streak has seen them drop into the bottom three.
Team News
Marouane Fellaini serves the second game of this three match ban but Everton will have Darron Gibson available after they successfully appealed the red card he received in Saturday’s win at West Ham.
Wigan are suffering a defensive crisis with Antolin Alcaraz, Adrian Lopez and Ivan Ramis all definitely out, whilst James McCarthy is touch and go. However, they could have captain Gary Caldwell back after three games out.
What the managers said…
“It’s a shame we aren’t talking about how well Everton are playing at the moment. We decided to go 4-4-2 with the two boys up front and what we have done is won in another fashion. I have learnt you can’t just have one way of playing in the Premier League. As the season goes on, injuries and suspensions take their toll. And I think it was a good lift for us as well to win without Marouane in the team.” David Moyes on Everton’s win at West Ham (Liverpool Daily Post)
“It will be our second game against Everton and in the first one, it was the best Everton side we have faced. This Everton side tick every box. They have been able to get consistently good results in this league and that allows you to be fighting for the top four positions. At Goodison Park they are unbeaten and it is one of the hardest places to visit in the Premier League. We are well aware of all that, but we feel we can match Everton on our day.” Roberto Martinez feels Wigan can earn a favourable result (Yahoo Eurosport)
Pre-match statistic
Everton are unbeaten in their last 12 games at Goodison Park, winning eight and drawing four. Wigan haven’t tasted victory in this fixture in each of the last eight meetings
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Prediction: Everton 3-0 Wigan
Check the odds ahead of the game at Goodison Park with William Hill here
You can also Get a Free £25 Bet on the game by clicking here
With the news that Arsenal’s Theo Walcott has finally signed ended his ongoing contract saga and signed a new three-and-a-half year deal, you would have thought such news would finally dampen the endless scaremongering and gloomy analysis cast towards the Gunners’ future prospects.
With the club now adding Walcott to the British quintet of Jack Wilshere, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Aaron Ramsey, Carl Jenkinson at Kieran Gibbs whose future’s have also been tied down during the course of this term, it would appear that the club looked to have finally learned from the mistakes made in recent history.
Yet in awarding Theo Walcott terms thought to be worth around £100,000 all in over a three-and-a-half year contract, all the Gunners may have done is simply ensured that the status quo of their current Premier League position resumes for a longer period of time. Because while they can’t control the extrinsic factors that inflate the wages top clubs are handing out to players in this league, they’ve played their own part in having to shell out the six-figure sum that Walcott is now earning at the club.
And let’s be under no illusions, regardless of the impact supporters feel he may or may not wield in Arsene Wenger’s side, there’s simply no way he should be earning the money that he’s now set to receive. For all his recent good form – which as proven within recent games, still continues to be patchy – would Walcott likely get a look in within the first XI of Manchester United, Manchester City or Chelsea?
The answer has to be an emphatic no for both Manchester clubs and even if he could creep into Rafael Benitez’s line-up at the moment, Arsenal are paying Walcott the sort of pay packet worthy of a title-winning player. So if the club have genuine designs at heading back to where their supporters believe they belong and challenging for Premier League titles, then they’ve just shot themselves straight in the foot.
Because say for argument’s sake they were to now pursue the signature of Napoli’s Edinson Cavani, a player whom many would regard to be within the ranks of Europe’s elite frontmen and certainly the type of player that could make a difference in hauling them back into title-winning contention. The Uruguayan is thought to be earning within the region of £75,000-a-week at the Stadio San Paolo – ironically the same amount of money Walcott originally rejected during his first round of contract talks.
Yet by backing Walcott with the sort of money they’re now currently paying him, Arsenal have set the bar a hell of a lot higher for themselves in terms of paying the wages for the quality they need to bridge the gap back to the two Manchester clubs. Would Cavani have ‘settled’ on a hypothetical pay packet of £120,000-a-week? Who knows, but he’s only going to have to take one look at what Walcott’s earning to demand a fair chunk more than that.
But should we really be all that surprised by the contract handed out to Theo Walcott? Because in truth, Arsenal had set the wheels in motion for rewarding players with contracts far beyond their actual worth long before Walcott’s wage demands reared their ugly head.
When Arsenal parted with £6.2million for Andre Santos back in 2011, few would have necessarily foreseen how bad that move was to eventually amount to, but equally few were in any doubt of the role he was set to play in the team; a squad player, capable of playing his part in all competitions, but nothing nearing a first-team banker.
Yet why did they agree to pay a potential squad player the wages equivalent to what an established first-teamer earned at the Emirates? Paying a 28-year old left-back whose best spell in Europe amounted to a couple of modest seasons in the Turkish Super League near on £60,000-a-week all inclusive, was an accident waiting to happen.
It was a horridly short-sighted decision that gave little thought for those, including Walcott, looking to earn their next contract. But when the England-man had substantially proved his worth last season, in relation to the other contracts being handed out at the Emirates, valuing Walcott’s worth to the team at barely 25% more than Andre Santos’ was never going to be enough. The money being handed out to Marouane Chamkah and Andrei Arshavin amongst others only adds to the trend.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Yet they’re still not getting the balance right. In a desperate effort to prevent any repeats of the fiasco that Walcott recently brought to the club, Arsenal hastily tied down their aforementioned quintet of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain et al on long-term deals. But for all his injury troubles, has Aaron Ramsey really earned a £60,000-a-week deal? Likewise, for all the progression Oxlade-Chamberlain has made, he was already under a long-term deal with no desire to leave. He made big strides last term, but did they need to hand him out better terms after just 12 months? Or is it just a further adjustment to an already skewed wage bill?
For the last available published accounts, the Gunners possessed a wage bill £33million more expensive than Tottenham Hotspur’s. Yet over the last two season’s, the gap between themselves and their North London rivals has in fact shrunk, rather than increased. The continuous flow of Champions League football has been the overwhelming fuel behind that disparity. Their failure to manage it properly may well be driving force behind what brings it back down again.
Liverpool’s resounding 5-0 victory over a weakened Swansea side at the weekend at Anfield provided a small sign of hope that while a place in the top four by the end of the season looks a long shot, that with a reasonably straightforward fixture list between now and the end of the campaign, that the side still stands a chance.
With manager Michael Laudrup clearly trying to prepare his team for their big day out at Wembley next week as they head into the Capital One Cup final against League Two’s Bradford City as the overwhelming favourites, his decision to rest a number of key faces was at least understandable, even if the performance was unforgivable. Nevertheless, the manner of the hosts win saw them end a five-match winless streak and finally put to bed the statistical anomaly that has dogged their season so far – the fact that they had failed to win a game against a team ranked inside the top ten in the league all season and after Southampton’s surprise win over Manchester City the other week, they even became the last side in the top flight this term to do so.
Of course, that includes the recent 2-0 loss in front of their own fans to West Brom, which looked every inch the textbook away performance from a limited but resilient Baggies. While Brendan Rodgers’ side were far from their best, they should still have done enough to avoid yet another embarrassing defeat to a team they should be beating on home soil and it perfectly encapsulated their up and down campaign so far. In times of transition, an inconsistent nature will be rife and the side are already looking worryingly reliant on Daniel Sturridge to galvanise their fluid attack up front.
[opinion-widget op]
Next up on the agenda are Russian champions Zenit St Petersburg in the Europa League and a testing but not insurmountable 2-0 deficit to overhaul, but should they fail to be inspired on Thursday and exit at the first knockout stage of the competition, it could have a positive effect in the long run on their top four hopes, with both Tottenham and Chelsea still likely to go further into the draw.
Liverpool sit nine points off Tottenham in fourth at the moment having played a game more than Andre Villas-Boas’ side and Rodgers sounded cautious on his team’s chances of clinching an unlikely turnaround in their league fortunes after the Swansea win, telling reporters: “I am an optimist, you have to be, but we’ll not get too carried away. I’ve likened us to a marathon runner just getting ready for the finish line, ready to make our move, and then we trip ourselves up.
“That is something we have to change going forward for the remainder of the season and finish as strong as we can.”
They are the words of a man refusing to throw in the towel in public but acutely aware that his side are in last-chance saloon territory. Of the club’s final 11 games, five of them are at Anfield and all against teams with plenty left to play for in Chelsea, Everton, Tottenham, QPR and West Ham. It could work both ways but with Rafa Benitez’s side still possessing the ability to implode at any given moment and Tottenham stretched by a relatively thin squad competing on two fronts, there could be just a glimmer of an opening.
When you throw into the mix that the club’s remaining away games are against Wigan, Southampton, Reading, Aston Villa, Newcastle and Fulham and it becomes increasingly clear that the vast majority of the team’s difficult away games this season are already out of the way and that a run, the sort required now to play themselves back into contention, is certainly possible.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Under Rodgers’ guidance, the club do still look dangerously fragile at the back to the counter and any sort of physical battle, while the lack of leadership on show at times will have to be seriously addressed in the summer, but in a campaign where being the tallest dwarf might be just enough to tip them over the line, even with a sizeable point gap to overcome, they are worthy of consideration.
It’s difficult to ever truly tell when this Liverpool side has turned a corner and just when it looks as if they are starting to put a run together, they deliver a performance and result like the one against Aston Villa, or West Brom just last week, but with a kind fixture list between now and their last game at home to QPR on May the 19th, they at least stand a chance still of validating their undoubted progress in recent months.