Posts Tagged ‘Champions League’

Owen hails team performance

Gerrard’s title frustration

Arsenal ‘have not bid for Chamakh’

• Selling Chamakh ‘out of the question,’ says Jean-Louis Triaud
• Arsenal looking to strengthen after Robin van Persie’s injury

The Bordeaux president, Jean-Louis Triaud, has rejected reports that Marouane Chamakh is set for a January move to Arsenal as cover for the injured Robin van Persie. Arsenal are expected to be active in the winter transfer market after it emerged that Van Persie faces up to five months on the sidelines after rupturing ankle ligaments during Holland’s friendly against Italy.

Chamakh was strongly linked with a move to Arsenal before the start of the season and Arsène Wenger angered the Ligue 1 champions in September by hinting he would make a renewed effort to bring the Morocco striker to England in January. Bordeaux face losing the 25-year-old for nothing in the summer when his contract expires but Triaud insists they will fend off any fresh offers.

“I have no information on this matter,” he told L’Equipe. “In any case it’s out of the question. Marouane is such a decisive player, while we also have important challenges ahead of us, in the league and in the Champions League.

“If we miss out on our objectives, then we will also lose money. In any case, we would not do anything against Laurent Blanc’s wishes.”

Chamakh finished as Bordeaux’s leading goalscorer last season as he fired them to their first Ligue 1 title in 10 years.

Moyes bemoans the ever expanding Mersey divide

• ‘It’s getting harder to keep up with the Joneses,’ says Moyes
• Everton lack finances to buy players during transfer window

The aborted move to Kirkby has thrown Everton’s finances, or lack of them, into sharp relief as the team prepare for this afternoon’s Merseyside derby, and while the talk in the city is of ground-sharing a frustrated David Moyes has admitted he feels further than ever from competing with Liverpool on the pitch.

After a week in which Everton conceded three goals in defeats at Manchester United then Hull, with the controversial Kirkby project being shelved in between, Moyes goes into today’s game at Goodison three points above the relegation zone. That is more of a surprise in its way than Liverpool going into it out of the Champions League and five points off fourth place, but whereas Rafael Benítez will doubtless be spending in the transfer window Moyes knows his cupboard is bare.

“We will be trying to get some players in January but they will probably all be loans,” Moyes said. “We won’t be buying anyone, we don’t have those finances,” he said. “I’ve always known that, it is not a result of anything that has happened this week, but it is getting harder all the time to keep up with the Joneses and I think you will see that in January.”

One result of what happened last week is that Moyes is finding optimism in short supply through a combination of injuries, financial worries and under-performing players. He not only described the first-half performance at Hull as “shocking” but publicly urged his players to show more pride in the shirt and take more responsibility on the pitch. “All my players should thank me and shake my hand for giving them the chance to play for this club,” he said. “It is a privilege and some of them need to realise that wearing an Everton shirt might be as good as it ever gets.”

This is a departure from the normal calm, can-do Moyes style. The Scot has made his reputation and took Everton back to the verge of honours with an ability to motivate players and make a small amount of money go a long way, but going backwards this season has left him wondering if he has taken the club as far as he can.

“Liverpool have a stronger squad than we do, we know that, but I think we’ve clawed our way back a bit these past six or seven years,” Moyes said. “We started to get much closer. We’ve still not won enough derby games for my liking, but then we’ve not had the chance to spend £100m or £200m on players. We don’t get that opportunity. We competed against Liverpool last season, we played them four times, drew twice and had one win each. And that’s against a side who thought they were having their best ever season and finished second in the league.

“That’s why our form this season has been so disappointing. We ran them close, never felt inadequate, and even if we did we felt we could make up for it with extra determination. That’s what I mean about competing, and that’s what we should be about. But if the gap’s too big, it doesn’t matter how much determination and spirit you’ve got because you probably won’t match them.

“The stadium thing isn’t really my department – personally I would love Everton to stay at Goodison but I’m not sure it’s workable,” Moyes said. “All I wanted to do when I came here was try and make progress, maybe a couple of steps each year. That doesn’t mean just climbing the league, although we have mostly managed to do that, but getting a new training ground built was progress, qualifying for Europe and reaching an FA Cup final was progress. A new stadium would have been progress, but obviously that’s come to an end and now we are not doing so well in the league either.

“So it’s the word progress that worries me more than anything. I want to be involved in a football club which makes progress. I’m choking a bit at the moment, I’ve got a lump at the back of my throat because I’m finding it hard to look people in the eye and say we are making progress. I’m not sure that’s the case this year.”

Moyes is not the sort of manager to discuss openly his future and after seven years at Everton leaving the club would be an enormous and somewhat unlikely wrench, though were a wealthier club to make him an offer Goodison could only be worried. “I am ambitious, I want to be in FA Cup finals like I was last year, I want to be challenging near the top of the league and I want to be going into derby games feeling we have an even chance,” he said. “I want to go to Old Trafford thinking that if we are on form we can beat them. That’s what I want to do, and last year there were periods when I could feel that way. We went into some games knowing we would be more than a match for our opponents. I feel I’ve built something here and I don’t want to lose it, but if the Everton supporters ever turned round and said I was the problem I’d have to think about it.

“I’ve got a great relationship with the chairman, and that’s probably the most important thing at a football club. He knows we need more investment, he’s been honest enough to say so on several occasions, and maybe now that the Kirkby issue has gone away we might be more attractive to potential buyers.

“But at least the chairman isn’t hoarding money or spending it on something else. He’d give us money if he could, but he’s finding it hard, and that’s where we are. You look around the Premier League and other clubs have chairmen from Abu Dhabi, or from Mars, but I have to say I can’t really see anything wrong in having a chairman from Liverpool who is trying to do his best for his team. Maybe in a few years from now people will come to see that as the right way to go about things.”

Neither Bill Kenwright nor anyone else from Everton, much less Liverpool, has actually suggested a ground-share yet, – spokesmen for the Goodison club merely mentioned it in response to questions. Moyes does not think it will happen, nor does he partuicularly want it to. “I don’t have a problem with ground-sharing, unless it is solely for financial reasons,” he explained. “I’m not sure that’s a good enough reason, and I would rather do something for the right reason.

“There could be merit in it, but it’s not the way we do things in this country and there aren’t actually many cities in many other countries where leading clubs share a ground. There’s an argument for saying the city of Liverpool could set an example and pioneer something new, but you need a marriage for that, the other partner has to be keen to embrace it as well, and my gut feeling is that Liverpool aren’t so keen. Maybe Everton need it more than they do at this moment in time, though who knows, Liverpool’s financial situation might change.”

With both teams now in the Europa League, for better or worse, both stadium moves at a standstill, both managers fielding questions about their future and just two league wins between the sides in October and November, the build-up to the Merseyside derby has been strange, to say the least. Nothing like the hype and glamour surrounding El Clásico, the game that will kick off between Barcelona and Real Madrid a few hours later, though that is not a derby in the English sense.

Today’s event at Goodison probably will be. “It’s a derby,” Moyes said. “They smell different to other games. When the players cross that white line it not about what anyone cost or how well they’ve done, it’s about who wears a blue jersey and who wears a red.”

Benítez is anxious his players do not get carried away. “I will try to send the players out with the right message,” the Liverpool manager said, “to be calm, to do our jobs properly and not to be overcome just by passion,. We have to do the right things regardless of the opponents.

“This derby will not be any more aggressive than before, it does not matter where the two teams are or what their form is, the derby is always played the same way. It is good for the city. Everyone has to defend and support their own team, but afterwards we all have great respect for our rivals.

“The game has more passion and more emotion than others in the Premier League. That never changes.

“But it is not just about winning the derby, our players want to prove they are good enough. To prove we can be in the top four. We have to start winning, then we will see a massive difference. Being in the top four is the main objective now.”

Van Persie ruled out for five months

• Dutch striker will undergo surgery in Amsterdam
• More extensive damage than previously thought

The Arsenal forward Robin van Persie will undergo ankle surgery in Amsterdam next week and is expected to be sidelined for up to five months.

The 26-year-old suffered torn ankle ligaments during Holland’s goalless draw against Italy in Pescara on 14 November and was initially expected to be out for between four and six weeks. But the Gunners’ medical staff have since reviewed the injury and its treatment and concluded he must go under the knife, and is now not expected back until April at the earliest.

The Dutchman has tried radical methods including massage using placenta in Serbia to get back into action. A club statement today read: “The Arsenal medical team conducted a thorough review of his scans, his early-injury management and the treatment he had received. Having scrutinised these in detail and assessed the response of his ankle, the club’s medical team concluded that further investigation and opinion was required.

“Advice was sought from the leading ankle specialist Mr Niek van Dijk, who confirmed that more extensive damage had been suffered than was first diagnosed. In order to repair his ankle, Robin will undergo surgery next week in Amsterdam to reconstruct the ligaments. The club’s medical team anticipate that a full recovery will take between four and five months.”

Van Persie is currently Arsenal’s leading goalscorer in the Premier League this season, with seven goals. He has also found the net once in the Champions League.