Arsenal are reluctant to pay their new manager the same £8.5m-a-year salary handed to Arsene Wenger, according to the Daily Mail.
What’s the word?
The North London outfit are hunting for a new boss following Wenger’s decision to step down at the end of the season.
Supporters have been pleading for the Frenchman’s departure for some time due to the club’s recent failed Premier League title campaigns.
Now that their wish has been granted, attention has turned to who will take the hotseat at the Emirates.
According to the Daily Mail, the Gunners are not prepared to splash out on a huge salary, which pours significant doubt over the potential arrival of former Barcelona boss Luis Enrique, who reportedly wants £15m a year.
The publication adds that whoever comes in will have a tight transfer budget of just £50m for the summer window.
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Can Arsenal get a high-profile figure without the cash?
Firstly, hiring someone who is currently out of work is arguably Arsenal’s best option with regards to cutting costs.
However, as mentioned, Enrique is believed to be demanding a hefty wage, while Carlo Ancelotti is likely to take the same approach.
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If money is an issue, the Premier League giants may have to settle for an inexperienced coach, with the likes of Mikel Arteta and Patrick Vieira being touted in the rumour mill as potential candidates.
A transitional period is expected when Wenger departs, but it may take even longer for Arsenal to get themselves back on track with an unproven coach at the helm.
When solid defensive players like Rio Ferdinand, Patrice Evra and Nemanja Vidic parted from Manchester United, there were doubts of how the Red Devils would replace them and cope in the future.
The answer? Not well. Their issues at the back have been exposed on plenty of occasions, but the three departures have made way for new, younger, fresher players to make their name. One of which being the Northern Irish Paddy McNair. But are Manchester United fans are expecting too much, too soon?
He may have been able to break through to the first team, but that stint was brief. Throughout this season he has only made twelve appearances, but is this enough to truly judge a player on? No. We have seen a glimpse of the starlet, who has done well when called upon, but is yet to reach his peak.
United’s injury woes have contributed to the rise of Paddy McNair this season. Chris Smalling, Phi Jones and Marcos Rojo have been no strangers to picking up knocks, which is why McNair had to be brought in. As the players have returned from injury – and of course gotten injured again – McNair has dropped back down to the bench.
On his brief experience in the Premier League, McNair has earned himself a new contract under Louis Van Gaal. The contract will see him remain at Manchester United until June 2017, but there is an option for another year. Clearly Van Gaal sees not only worth in him, but considers the 20-year-old as an ideal prospect for future campaigns.
Comparing players to those that have already succeeded can prove to be a recipe for disaster. Expecting Paddy McNair to be Nemanja Vidic on his debut is ludicrous. You cannot become a world class centre back over night.
But McNair will prove his importance. It won’t be this season, with just two games left, but he will be given more opportunity next year. Youth is important at Manchester United, and this player needs to be given his time to shine.
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To suggest that Atletico Madrid’s prolific hitman Radamel Falcao might already be searching out an English phrasebook might seem a little premature, but with interest in the Colombian reaching almost feverish levels on these shores, there’s every chance that the 27-year-old could find himself plying his trade in England next term.
With a reported release clause of near on £52million and alleged wage demands in excess of £200,000, Falcao is of course a target for only a very select few in the European game.
But with Barcelona’s interest having cooled and Atletico reportedly holding no designs on selling up to local rivals Real Madrid, bar a potential move to Paris Saint-Germain, the path is seemingly paved for the former-Porto man to try his hand within the Premier League.
With the likes of Chelsea, Manchester City and even perhaps Manchester United interested in acquiring the Colombian’s services, it’s likely that Falcao will have no shortage of suitors come the summer. But far from simply analyzing what team would benefit the most from his unique set of striking gifts, what club offers the best move for the player himself?
Certainly, from a financial perspective all three of the aforementioned trio – a term used loosely, given the very tentative authenticity of United’s rumoured interest – would have few problems in financing Falcao’s extortionate wage demands.
With the notorious bargaining skills of Jorge Mendes as an agent, no club is likely to be able to bring the 27-year-old to their haunts without laying out a significant financial package. But with Roman Abramovich said to be a huge fan of the player and Manchester City’s de facto owner Sheikh Mansour presumably determined to regain his side’s Premier League crown, Falcao isn’t likely to find personal terms an issue with any of his English suitors.
Differentiating quite where Falcao would be better off from a purely sporting perspective, however, isn’t quite as easy a feat.
Chelsea have long been mooted as arguably the most likeliest destination for Falcao, should he move to England this summer. With the club in need of a consistently world-class striker and current incumbent, the faltering Fernando Torres, reportedly an attractive makeweight for Atletico manager Diego Simeone, a move to Stamford Bridge seems to make sense all ways up.
Yet for as logical as such a move may seen, there are enough variables floating around West London to ensure that the one time-River Plate striker would have plenty of food for thought before agreeing to sign on the dotted line for the Blues.
With Rafa Benitez set to step down from his interim managerial role at the end of the season, there is a strange uncertainty to the future direction in which the Stamford Bridge ship is set to sale. One would imagine that Abramovich would be keen to explain to Falcao in detail who he’s likely to be plying his trade under, yet even with May now fast approaching, we’re still no closer to discovering who is set to take the managerial reigns at the club this season.
With talk of Jose Mourinho’s return to the club now dampened and such a small shortlist of real, renowned European names there for the club to look at, would Falcao feel quite as keen as linking up with, say, a David Moyes like manager? Certainly, should the Blues fail to qualify for the Champions League, they would face an almost impossible task in attracting a player to the club who remains so desperate to play in the competition.
Although if stability is one of the most off-putting factors regarding a potential Falcao switch to Chelsea, then it seems difficult to believe how Manchester City offer a striking foundation of solidarity for the Colombian to become part of.
After a season in which City have so meekly surrendered their Premier League title, there are no guarantees that Roberto Mancini will be there to commandeer his side for another campaign and even fewer clues as to who might feasibly replace him. Either way, should Falcao find himself likely to be offered identical personal terms from both clubs, he’s probably quite likely to find himself offered a similar level of question marks from Chelsea and Manchester City as well.
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Yet if stability isn’t a guarantee at either club, then a wealth of attacking talent most certainly is. Plump for either club and Falcao can look forward to having the likes of Juan Mata and Eden Hazard or David Silva and Yaya Toure supplying him the goods to feed upon. But while Mancini would surely fire Falcao straight into the starting line up at the Etihad Stadium, it’s at Stamford Bridge where you feel a more natural home awaits the prolific marksman.
With Fernando Torres widely accepted to be the one who makes way for Falcao should he arrive at the club, although Demba Ba would have a role to play, the Atletico man would be the indisputable main man down at Chelsea. With the likes of Sergio Aguero, Carlos Tevez and Edin Dzeko plying their trade at City, regardless of how well Falcao may or may not link up with one of the feted trio, he’s not going to be afforded the autonomy that he will do at Stamford Bridge.
Even if City decide to sell another of the aforementioned trio, at Chelsea, he’s not going to have to play beside another out-and-out striker or face anything in the way of the sort of competition he would do up at the Etihad.
Either club would offer Radamel Falcao a superb base in which to push on during the prime years of his career, but for all the questions that are still to be answered at Stamford Bridge, it’s Chelsea which perhaps offer him the better pick.
According to Bild, Arsenal are at the head of the queue for Borussia Dortmund centre-back Sokratis Papastathopoulos, who is expected to leave his German club this summer.
What’s the story?
It is not yet clear who will replace Arsene Wenger as head coach of Arsenal at the end of the season, but the incoming manager will surely be in the market for at least one new centre-back in this summer’s transfer window.
Neither Laurent Koscielny nor Shkodran Mustafi covered themselves in glory against Atletico Madrid in the Europa League on Thursday night, and it is absolutely vital that the Gunners boost their defensive options ahead of the 2018-19 campaign.
According to Bild, Arsenal have identified Sokratis as the perfect summer signing, with the club’s head of recruitment Sven Mislintat in talks with the Greece international’s agent.
The London outfit are far from the only club interested in the 29-year-old, however, with Manchester United also believed to be closely monitoring proceedings as they prepare their own move.
Would Sokratis be a good signing?
To put it bluntly, Sokratis is everything that Arsenal need in a centre-back. The Greek is not a player that will particularly impress with his ball-playing skills or finesse, but he is a defender in every sense of the word.
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Sokratis will see his Dortmund contract expire at the end of next season, and according to Bild, he could be available for £17.5m in this summer’s transfer window.
The defender has featured on 79 occasions for his national team, and all being well, will break the 200-mark in terms of appearances for Dortmund before the end of the campaign.
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It is not a surprise that Man United have also been credited with an interest, and it will be up to Arsenal to convince the centre-back to snub a move to Old Trafford.
The Gunners have plenty of talent in the final third of the field, and the arrival of Sokratis this summer would go a long way to solving one of their major problems further back.
Former Queens Park Rangers coach, Glenn Hoddle has revealed that he believes the key to his former employers avoiding relegation back to the Championship is going to be their home form.
Speaking to Matthew Dunn of the Express, on behalf of the City Index Celebrity Trader Challenge, the former Tottenham Hotspur manager said:
“Now the key to their season is winning games at home – building that belief and taking those chances when they come along. They have three more games at Loftus Road and nine more points would be enough this season to stay in the top flight.
“Trouble is, the first of those games is against Chelsea. But it is all about confidence and to be fair, Chelsea have not done that well at Loftus Road in recent seasons.
“And just look at what Burnley did with a bit of confidence, getting wins against Manchester City and then a good draw against Tottenham.
“Chelsea may not be focused 100 per cent because they effectively wrapped up the championship with the results last weekend. And Mourinho is all about just getting them over the line and that is an approach that has been found out as not good enough in the Champions League.”
QPR currently sit in the bottom three of the Premier League, however, before today’s games kicked off, they were just two points behind Hull City and trailing Sunderland and Aston Villa by three points.
Four points from their last two games, from clubs in and around them, is a step in the right direction for Chris Ramsey’s side, although, if Glenn Hoddle is right that the remaining three games at Loftus Road are key to any hopes of survival then QPR will have to do something they haven’t managed since the 20th December and win a Premier League game at home – 3-2 win against West Bromwich Albion on that day.
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Hoddle left QPR shortly after Harry Redknapp did, however, Redknapp has revealed in recent days that he felt he’d lost support of certain people at the club rather than the knee surgery requirements that he first gave as his reason for stepping down.
Boss Malky Mackay says he is already working out who to splash his £25m summer transfer kitty on after leading Cardiff to promotion.
The club’s Malaysian owners promised the City boss this allowance if they achieved promotion to the Premier League this season. Now that this objective has been reached following Tuesday’s 0-0 draw with Charlton, he is busy drawing up his wish-list.
“We’re going to plan properly and that’s started already and we’ll now put that into action,” he told BBC sport.
“We’ll make sure the departments we’ve opened up at the football club and the structure we’ve implemented keeps striving forward.
“Change is constant and if you don’t go with it, you’re left behind.”
Cardiff will become the second Welsh side in the top flight next season as they join Swansea in the division and it will be the first time they are back up with the elite since 1961.
Mackay did admit his side would face a “huge challenge” of avoiding relegation next season. However, the manager has the proven ability to transform a club. Within the past two seasons, Cardiff added 20 players and the manager altered their training, scouting and sports science techniques.
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“We’ll continue that to make sure we give ourselves the best chance we can in the Premier League” he said.
When Philippe Coutinho was at Liverpool, his fellow Brazilian Roberto Firmino went under the radar.The two played in completely different positions, but Coutinho’s creativity in midfield stole most of the headlines.Since the 25-year-old left the Merseyside outfit to join Barcelona in January, Mohamed Salah has taken the role of the Reds’ ‘best player’, but Firmino has also begun receiving plenty of plaudits.The 26-year-old has established himself as the ideal number 9 in Jurgen Klopp’s team having scored 24 goals in all competitions and creating 11 assists this season.[ad_pod ]Firmino possesses attacking flair, but he also drops back to nick the ball off his opponents, which adds another dimension to his game.The Brazilian has previously been overlooked, but his ability and work-rate has certainly not gone unnoticed this season.In fact,ÂSquawka has revealed on TwitterÂa statistic that shows just how much quality Firmino has in his position.
The fact that the former Hoffenheim attacker is the only player in the Premier League to rack up 62 tackles as well as 53 chances proves that he is invaluable to Klopp’s team.
Unsurprisingly, Liverpool fans have been very impressed with this latest statistic.
Comment from discussion Roberto Firmino is the only player in the Premier League this season to win 60+ tackles and create 50+ chances..Comment from discussion Roberto Firmino is the only player in the Premier League this season to win 60+ tackles and create 50+ chances..Comment from discussion Roberto Firmino is the only player in the Premier League this season to win 60+ tackles and create 50+ chances..Comment from discussion Roberto Firmino is the only player in the Premier League this season to win 60+ tackles and create 50+ chances..Comment from discussion Roberto Firmino is the only player in the Premier League this season to win 60+ tackles and create 50+ chances..Comment from discussion Roberto Firmino is the only player in the Premier League this season to win 60+ tackles and create 50+ chances..Comment from discussion Roberto Firmino is the only player in the Premier League this season to win 60+ tackles and create 50+ chances..Comment from discussion Roberto Firmino is the only player in the Premier League this season to win 60+ tackles and create 50+ chances..Comment from discussion Roberto Firmino is the only player in the Premier League this season to win 60+ tackles and create 50+ chances..Comment from discussion Roberto Firmino is the only player in the Premier League this season to win 60+ tackles and create 50+ chances..Comment from discussion Roberto Firmino is the only player in the Premier League this season to win 60+ tackles and create 50+ chances..
Manuel Pellegrini has been getting hot under the collar over the last few weeks. Manchester City have had their confidence knocked massively due to successive losses in both the Champions League – which they are now out of – and in the League. At Old Trafford last weekend, Pellegrini was greeted with chants of “you’re getting sacked in the morning” from the United faithful.
Is there some truth in this – is Manuel Pellegrini’s job safe?
In a nutshell, no. Truly, no manager’s job is safe in football. But at the minute, Pellegrini’s job is hanging in the balance. You only need to look at City’s last manager to see what lies ahead for Pellegrini.
Roberto Mancini’s time at the Etihad brought the Sky Blues Premier League glory, but his tenure ended all too abruptly. Mancini lead his side to the Premier League title in 2012, in one of the most dramatic final days of the season ever. Sergio Aguero’s winner in added time meant City won the title on goal difference over their local rivals Manchester United. It was the first time City had won the title in the Premier League era, but this huge achievement was not enough.
Mancini was sacked exactly one year after masterminding that historic title victory. This was largely down to the fact Manchester City could not perform in Europe (which is still the case now), lost the FA Cup to Wigan, and could not retain the title. But, how many teams could attain all three? Not many. But for City, their targets weren’t met so it was time to say goodbye to Roberto.
And now for Manuel Pellegrini, it looks like it is history repeating itself. Pellegrini bagged the Premier League last year in his first season in charge. But they are out of the Champions League, just like all other English sides. They aren’t in the FA Cup, and they will not be winning the Premier League again this year. They have dropped down to fourth, and it is not even certain that they will finish there.
Coincidentally – or not so – Jurgen Klopp has announced he will be relieving himself of his managerial duties at Borussia Dortmund at the end of this season. So come the 1st of July, Klopp will be free to manage another side. Could it be Manchester City? You would certainly bet on it.
Then again, this could be Klopp’s fate in two years’ time, should he take the position.
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Phil Jagielka has revealed he is yet to fully recover from a knee injury but will not let the pain stop him playing for Everton.
The centre-half had to take a painkilling injection ahead of the win over Stoke on Saturday and may have to do so again before the Goodison Park side travel to top-four rivals Spurs on Saturday.
Everton are still involved in the battle for a place in next season’s Champions League, as they trail fourth-placed Chelsea by four points, and Jagielka is desperate to do all he can to help his side secure a place in Europe’s top competition next season.
“It’s not quite healed up yet but it will get there and I can play without any problems,” Jagielka told the Liverpool Echo.
“I’ve got to have an injection to take a bit of the pain away because there’s still a bit of scar tissue but it’s part and parcel of being a footballer.
“I’ve been desperate to get back training and playing with the lads. It’s a boring time being on your own, especially being injured.
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“I’ve been there before and so it’s been nice to get back amongst it this week, even more so to play.”
Worcestershire old boys increase threat of relegation as title-chasers take charge
ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay08-Sep-2025Nottinghamshire kept their Rothesay County Championship title challenge on track as they bowled Worcestershire out for 182 on the opening day at Visit Worcestershire New Road.Former Worcestershire seamers Dillon Pennington and Josh Tongue reduced their former team-mates to 53 for 6 before Gareth Roderick and Tom Taylor offered some resistance.Nottinghamshire closed the first day on 46 for 1 to lay a strong platform for a victory which would keep their surprise title-bid right on track – and pretty much relegate Worcestershire to Division Two.Nottinghamshire chose to bowl in anticipation of early life in the pitch. They found plenty to reduce the home side to 37 for 5 in the 15th over. Pennington struck the first two blows, unfurling a lifter to take Rehaan Edavalath’s edge through to wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne and jagging one back in to trap Kashif Ali lbw.Three wickets then fell on 37. Tongue removed Jake Libby, caught behind, and Brett D’Oliviera, off stump flattened, with the last two balls of an over. When Pennington pinned Daniel Lategan (making his debut, the 556th player to play first class cricket for Worcestershire) lbw, three wickets had fallen in five balls.Tongue was mightily close to a hat-trick at the start of the next over when Roderick survived a huge lbw shout, but the next wicket wasn’t long coming as Worcestershire stirred some self-destruction into their difficult morning. Ethan Brookes played Pennington to mid-off, saw a single that wasn’t there and was well-beaten by Haseeb Hameed’s direct hit.When Matthew Waite clipped Lyndon James to midwicket just after lunch, it was were 86 for 7 but Roderick and Taylor rebuilt sensibly against strangely defensive fields. They added 71 in 17 overs and Taylor was deeply frustrated to sky a pull at Tongue and perish minutes before rain arrived to trigger an early tea.After a gloriously atmospheric hour, with forked lightning flickering amid the fusion of dark greys and greens of grass, trees, sky and cathedral at this dazzling venue, Nottinghamshire polished off the innings. Pennington pinned Ben Allison lbw and Roderick, having dug out a fighting 102-ball half-century, was lbw, sweeping, to Liam Patterson-White.Nottinghamshire lost skipper Hameed, bowled by Taylor, to the second ball of their innings. The pitch continued to offer some movement and good carry but Ben Slater and Freddie McCann, not without some playing and missing, added an unbroken 46 in 16 overs to the close to leave the east Midlands county still scenting a big first innings lead, a victory and, later this month, their seventh County Championship title.