Week 8

bigwave1927 · Cult Status

Week 8

Simon · Cult Status

Double record breaking result for Valladolid secures another week at the top

Last season, Valladolid history was made when they broke the most goals scored in one of their games and largest win when they drove home an 8 - 0 victory over Celta Vigo. This week the high flying team beat both records again after drubbing Real Sociadad 9 - 0. This is what Valladolid manager Simon Jenkins had to say straight after the game.

"Yes it was a fantasic result. However the score line did not represent the performance during the game. They played a reserve team and we played a reserve team but there was still quality on the pitch and to only be one nil at half time was disappointing. I made my feelings known during the half time talk and thankfully the lads got their act together and not even the oppositions disgracefully dirty play could stop us from putting them to the sword.

"We're up against Celta Vigo in a week or so I think, so maybe that record will be broken again, who knows? However the result today could have and should have been more, with two disallowed goals and two sure-fire penalties. Still, we saw a potential goal of the season from Karim Benzema on the 90th minute and the fans were amazing as usual. Plus those nine goals and a clean sheet will do wonders for our goal difference. Liam Riste is a friend and I'll be watching his game with intent to see if he can live up to his promise of a high scoring game this week!

"Everyone is labelling us as champions already despite being several weeks from the half way stage. We're not feeling the pressure, it's good to be where we are and there are bigger clubs than us still challenging. Every week at the top is a blessing and each week shall be taken one at a time.

"The young lads Jesus and Karim Benzema have been playing their socks off; their goal rates prove that and in my eyes they are not second choice to the bigger names and more experienced heads in the team. We work as a unit and everyone is on an even field; people are played and people are rested depending on the game.

"There are rumours abound that Karim may be on his way to AC Milan and I can say that we have not been approached by Luke, nor is he for sale. We have had a number of offers over recent weeks from a number of different clubs, but none have been regarding 'The Benz'. We have a decent set up here and there is no need to sell the assets we have, more money would be nice but could not replace players we currently have. I would look to our chairman to consider investment at the half way stage now that he can see we have a real shot at winning the league; as I have proven that invested money is wisely spent and the return is there from shirt sponsors and the fact that we have the largest stadium in the world with the biggest income."

Fletch · Cult Status

Napoli Manager Believes Season is Turning

Although sitting in the play off positions after 7 games, Napoli manager Andy Fletcher has been disppointed with the teams results of late. However a recent point against Promotion favourites Reggina has re-instated the belief that the squad are moving in the right direction.

"We have a younger team and its getting younger every week, we are playing the youngsters and giving them an opportunity, if they take it then good for them. We have a 19 year old GK, an 18 year old CB and a 19 year old RB, our midfielders are 21 and 22. Where we are and what we are building is incredible. These players if they stay together will be achieveing great things over the next ten years."

"The chairman has given them a great stadium to play in and superb faciltities, Napoli is the place to be right now in Italy."

"We look forward to building on the Reggina result and cementing a play off place and trying to push the league leaders as hard as possible."

PUREADE1 · International Player

DANDO PLEASED WITH POINT

Bristol City manager Hayden Dando said today that he was very pleased with his sides performance in his first game in charge as they drew 0-0 at home to Coventry City in the championship.

Dando praised the defence for keeping a clean sheet against the sky blues although he did admit the side was not the best creatively "The way we set ouselves up today meant that we were always going to be less creative but the main objective first and foremost today was that we kept a clean sheet, we have done that and now we can look to kick on from here, Daniel Boumsong has joined us this week and he is a very talented young man, we also hopefully will bring in one or two loan signings this week which will make a difference too"

Besty · Cult Status

Best delighted with European result

Genoa manager Jamie Best talked to Sky Sports News today about last night's 3-3 draw with Real Valladolid, and the ins and outs Genoa fans can expect to see over the coming weeks.

Jamie, 3-3 last night, a big turn around from the 4-0 drubbing away to Man City in the last Euro game?

Yes the performance was top draw, we really put on a show for the fans and credit to them as they really got behind the team tonight, the players noticed it aswell and they were buzzing afterwards, even though we didnt take all three points. I think it's the best performance we have put in this season which just goes to show that things are turning round for the good.

You played a very attacking formation but it seemed to pay off, do you think you have been conservative in the past?

Well obviously i am not going to discuss tactics with the whole media but we tried something different and for once it worked, although Valladolid didnt play their strongest team they were still a good side and so i am pleased that we more than matched them, and hopefully we can take this form into this weekends game.

You face Palermo at the weekend, what will you expect from the game?

It's difficult to say really, we havent been good so far but i think we havent played to our full potential so there is really no reason why we cant give them a good game, i think thhat they have over achieved slightly and without a manager i would be disappointed not to take at least a point from the game.

We saw Tim Borowski join this week what do you think he will add to the squad?

After selling Kaka i knew we had to rebuild and i had my eye on two central midfielders but decided to approach Tim and he was keen to help turn our season around. He'll give us an extra bit of creativity in the middle and his experience will be useful to help bring through the youngsters. We have a number of other players moving to and from the club over the next two weeks especially so its an exciting time for fans.

Care to mention who?

We have a class centre half coming in from the English Premier League next week but this also sees one of our current defenders leaving, this week will see the arrival of a right midfielder and the departure of two players, a striker and a winger. Next week will also see a full back leaving who is unable to get games with us so we wish him all the best in his quest for first team football. I am also in talks with other managers about possible arrivals, maybe a loan signing also in the near future. I'm excited about the developments here but would also like to thanks the outgoing players for their hard work in their time at the club.

GarethGardner · Cult Status

Gardner Proud of Inter after hammering Genoa

Media shy manager Gareth Gardner came out of his media shadow this week with a statement of intent.

" Id like to say how proud i am of my Inter players and the way they performed in Genoa. Genoa are a money bags team with huge potential but are not showing it as of late and i think Jamie Best will be under huge pressure. I sent my team to Genoa with confidence knowing we will beat them comfortably. My team is improving game by game and the minimum i now expect from them is a European place at the end of the season. We are signing players who will make this possible. Ronaldinho has been amazing since he has signed and this week we have brought in another 1 of his previous team mates in Andreas Isaksson. He is brought in to toughen up our back line of defence as will Fabio Aurelio. An experianced campaigner who is on his way from Liverpool as we speak for talks. Nathan Delfouneso will join for a short loan spell this week as i believe we need to sharpen up a lot more in attack. We should have beaten Genoa by at least 5 on the weekend, so for this reason im also proud to confirm that we are in advanced talks with Solomon Kalou from Chelsea. I think these signings maybe the final piece in the Inter jigsaw puzzle to guarantee European football"

Strong words from a very unspoken manager are bound to push his team on and give them huge confidence going into the game with Fiorentina this weekend

Bluebird99 · Cult Status

Davies-Evans - "Toothlessness has to change!"

Southampton manager Steve Davies-Evans has called upon his team to start finally showing their potential. Southampton who are on a bad run of form need to start picking up points and quickly if they are to stay in the hunt for a playoff place. With 2 new faces with real quality joining this week, Davies-Evans band of merry saints is starting to shape nicely. Sky Sports News' Nick Collins caught up with the Welshman at Southampton's training ground earlier this morning.

SSN - Steve, A pretty wretch-id run of form recently, how disappointed are you with just 2 points from a possible 9?

SDE - Yeah we're disappointed, we spoke after the Nottm Forest game about how lack-luster we were and were hoping to put that right against Reading. Although The Majeski is never an easy place to go, I thought we didn't put in the performance I was hoping for.

SSN - So, what needs to change in your eyes?

SDE - Well against Reading we let in 3 very sloppy goals. That has to stop now! We need to work from that back and as we are struggling to score goals, we need to make sure that our defence is tight in order to give us a shot at winning games. Lorik Cana has come in this week from Reggina and he will give us great cover between midfield and defence. We also need to be sharper infront of goals and not be so toothless, with that in mind, we have brought in Nathan Tyson from Udinese who is a proven goalscorer at this level. We are hoping that he can forge a good partnership with Karamoko Cisse as soon as possible.

SSN - Your good friend Gareth Gardner has today broken his media cherry and spoken out about how well his team are doing. Having managed in Serie A for a short space of time and actually dealt with him this season, how do you rate what he's doing at Inter?

SDE - Well I think you can call Gareth an experience manager now. He knows what he's doing and that's probably why he's at a club like Inter. He's certainly bringing in the big names. Many people are wondering how he's managing it to be honest. It's abit like when Sam Allerdyce was at Bolton and to be fair, there's a good few similarities between those two other than their transfer dealings. Inter should go on to claim a Euro place now and they have the players that can challenge in the immediate future, whether they are too old to sustain it over time, we'll wait and see but Gareth is good enough in the transfer market to keep them going.

SSN - Steve, thank you and enjoy training.

SDE - Cheers Nick,

Cult Status

Genoa not Best

"People said we were too weak to play in Europe but I think our results show we have a hunger that runs deeper than the young age of some of our players. We put up a fight against Chelsea in the first game and their 9-0 rout of Real Madrid shows how good they are but a draw with Fiorentina is a bit special. Real Madrid will expect to beat us and hope they can qualify but if our performances are anything to go on we will be no walk overs. I was disappointed to concede a last minute goal to Fiorentina but Europe is not ready for us yet and a win against one of the best teams in Italy would have rocked the football world. The team is built on youth and the performances show we must have the right players for the job here.

Our results in the league have fallen to the wayside of late but this is a combination of players learning their trade and broken promises. Negotiations are taking much longer when people change their mind so fickly. I was disappointed with how Genoa have conducted themselves and they look like a small team trying to play the big men. Deals for Senderos and Toure have been reneged very late in negotiations and both deals combined were worth over £40M to us. Maybe they think all the money in the world makes them better than us. Maybe they need to look at their league and get a reality check. We are 1pt outside the top 3 and they are 1 goal outside the relegation zone. Maybe Genoa will appoint a new manager soon who can follow through on negotiations that they come to us with in the first place."

Besty · Cult Status

Best unaware of issue

Jamie, you have been criticised my Mr Walker at Arsenal, have you got any comments?

Well i am surprised at Jamie's comments, i have contacted him directly as he never made it apparent to me that he was upset with me at all, so i would have much rather dealt with it amicably between the two of us than spread it all over the media.

So what actually happened?

We approached Arsenal regarding the purchase of Senderos a number of weeks ago to enquire on the fee, we then followed up on our interest by raising some funds and on Saturday i enquired as to whether or not they would accept an offer. I had no response from Jamie or anyone at Arsenal so continued to enquire on other possible targets. When i did finally get a response on Tues i was in extensive negotiations with another manager about a different CB, who we agreed a fee on and were both happy. I am sorry that Jamie feels we pulled out but without any communication i am not sure how long i am supposed to wait before moving on to other aquisitions.

Toure has also been mentioned, where does he come into the equation?

Toure was a player that the board enquired about without my knowledge, when i was notified that an extremely large fee had been agreed for him i voiced my concern that the player was past his best and wouldnt be the best investment, especially for the fee that was being spoke about, i left it with the board and as far as i am aware they notified Arsenal that we did not wish to follow up on our interest, so i am happy with the way we conducted ourselves, i certainly couldnt have responded any quicker and once again Jamie never told me he was upset at all, i would have been quite happy to talk through the situation with him.

And what about the comment that Genoa are the small team trying to play the big men?

Well once again i wasn't aware that there was a problem between the two clubs, yes i have been given money to spend and so would any other manager who decided to take on the challenge here, if anything it works against us. Managers know we have the money to invest so when Genoa enquire about a player they immediately raise their price tags, so i wouldnt exactly say we are calling the shots there. Jamie is right in what he says though regarding the league positions, its been well documented that we have started slowly and everyone is quick enough to jump on the bandwagon and put pressure on me and the players so its up to us just keep our heads down and get on with the job. Arsenal and Jamie have done an excellent job, he has achieved a lot at the club so far regenerating them since the administration so credit to him and Simon the chairman, but why Jamie has to come insulting us is beyond me, when i am just trying to go about my job the same as any other manager.

Tezza · Cult Status

Atalanta News

Atalantas young signing Scott Sinclair, continues to look the part after scoring ten minutes into the game against Livorno. What initially looked a stroll changed after the goal with Livorno picking up the tempo with the support of a very vocal home crowd and levelling the score.

"We just did not seem to be creating the chances we should have," said Terry, "The game was for taking and we let it slip." "We were without Tonelli this week through suspension, but we were definitely under par."

Currently Atalanta is firmly in the play-off position but if results like this become a regular feature of the campagne this season then the whole situation could change.

"I do have a very good CM coming in from Fiorentina this week, on loan." said Terry, "That could help in the middle of the park, and maybe create a few more chances, but we need to be more consistent if we are to gain promotion.

"It is not an easy league to get out off and several of the teams are starting to play really good football," said Terry, "But we need to show we are up for it, and currently we dont seem to have that edge." " Anyway, I must go I have a match to prepare for." With that the manager jumped into his Fiat and drove off.

-- Edited by Tezza on Saturday 12th of June 2010 06:50:41 AM