Week 4

Kiezen · Top Flight Player

Week 4

redrob · Cult Status

Inter Milan Bring Lennon To the San Siro

Inter Milan Manager Rob O'Brien has today confirmed to the Italian Media that Aaron Lennon has signed for the club.

In a statement Rob said " were really pleased to finally get our man, we've had our eye on Aaron now for some time and he will add an attacking balance to the Right side of our midfield and give a bit of experience to the younger lads in the team ".

Also Rob confrimed the signing of Pepe Reina From Fiorentina. "I have always wanted to bring Pepe with me from Fiorentina, he will give us a much needed boost in defence and also take the Captains armband".

Sinky2707 · Cult Status

Jonny Sinclair was delighted after Parma only just promoted from Serie B had managed to record 2 wins from 3 games leaving them in 4th Position in the league

'I couldn't be more pleased a lot of our players have really improved from last season, I think the pre season trining has helped as well we look sharp. We have done wonderfully well to beat a Reggina team who had a great season in Serie A last season and to go 2-0 up then 3-2 down was crushing but we showed real mental strength to claw ourselves back into the game and a get a 4-3 victory.

Juventus of course we were expected to lose but I thought we applied ourselves really well and a 3-0 loss is not bad at all. I thought the lino had a bad game though three close calls for offside, Juventus' are both onside, Parma's is offside but at the end of the day Juventus deserved their victory but I'm glad we didn't make it easy for them.

This week was against our old rivals Chievo with Walter Hsu now in charge and again I'm delighted with the players Chievo went defensive and we didn't look like conceding all game and we got the vital goal we needed early on and we held on for a deserved 3 points.

I just can't be more delighted with the team at the minute, the club is on the crest of a wave at the minute and long may it continue, I'd be happy if we finished the season now to be honest 4th is great haha but in all seriousness we know our aim is to avoid relegation this season, anything else is a bonus'

mg1 · Cult Status

Van Der Vaart to stay at Fiorentina.

Fiorentina chairman speaks to SSN to confirm that attacking midfielder Rafael Van Der Vaart has signed a new contract to stay in Florence.

SSN: There have been reports that Van Der Vaart has had a change of heart about leaving the club and has today agreed an 2yr extension to his current deal to stay at the club, is there any truth to these rumours?

MG: Yes, I can confirm that Rafael has today signed a new contract which will see him remain at the club.

SSN: It was widely believed that a deal had been agreed with Atalanta for his signature, can you confirm that this was the case and if so why has the deal now fallen through.

MG: A deal was agreed between the two clubs. It involved Mark Davies and 8m cash. However after long consideration we as a club feel that the deal wasn't right for the club and we have decided to call off the deal.

SSN: So how did you think Atalanta will react?

I fully expect both the club and the manager to be extremely annoyed and rightly so. Ever since the deal was agreed Dale has been great. He even agreed to restructure the original deal as when I found out about the deal that had been agreed I felt that the club had made a mistake. I therefore contacted Dale to let him know that I was unhappy about the deal agreed and asked if the deal could be restructured as I felt the deal was heavily weighted in Atalanta's favour, at which point Dale agreed to increase to cash from 6m to 8m.

SSN: At which point you agreed to the deal?

MG: Yes, I was still unhappy about the deal but wasn't keen to overrule my manager so agreed to the deal. However after a couple of days reflection I realised that this would also be a mistake. I wasn't only unhappy at the fee, I was unhappy at letting Rafael go.

SSN: So Van Der Vaart is staying at Fiorentina and this is the end of the matter?

Well yes Rafael is staying, we haven't cancelled as we have received a better offer and I have made it clear to everyone at the club that want him to stay and help us compete in the league this year following the club coming out of administration.

I don't expect this to be the end of it though, I fully expect this story to run for a little bit longer in the media. I expect Atalanta and their manager to be very vocal about this and they have every right to be.

I would like to make it clear though that the decision to cancel the deal was taken at board level. I know myself and Dale have different ideas about the level of involvement that chairman should have in their respective clubs but I just felt that I would be doing my club and my manager a disservice if i was to let the deal go through.

I made a big mistake in trying to restructure the deal and not just cancelling it straight away. There has clearly been some confusion between myself and my manager with regard to the direction I would like to take the club, this is something that I take full responsibility for but this has now been rectified and the same mistakes won't happen again.

As a manager and a chairman in my current and previous positions I have always tried to honour any commitments that have been made and I have a large number of successfully completed deals with many different managers and as such I can assure you that this wasn't a decision taken lightly.

I can only apologise to Dale and Atalanta for the inconvenience caused and should he want to contact me directly I am more than happy to discuss the situation further but other than that no further public comment will be made by the club on this matter.

-- Edited by mg1 on Monday 25th of April 2011 03:09:32 PM

Luke_C · Cult Status

CCFC INTERVIEW

(Q) How confident were you feeling going into the game on Friday?
(A) It was always going to be a tough game when you look at the likes of Mexes, Vidic and Adriano staring for them but I was quietly confident we had the players who could take advantage of some of the weaknesses in the Manchester City team. A lot of people said a draw would have been a good result and while I wouldnt have totally disagree I wouldnt have took a point before the game and am delighted with the win.

(Q) Were you pleased with the performance of your team?
(A) Yes very pleased, we like to play football and attack. A little disappointed we didnt score a few more. Still plenty to work on but I was very pleased.

(Q) How do you feel the season has started for your team?
(A) We started the season against Arsenal and Chelsea so it was always going to be a tough start. I targeted a minimum of 6 points from the first four games of the season so this week is a must win game for us to be where I expected us to be.

(Q) What are your plans for expanding the club facilities?
(A) If in the future we want to compete with the likes of Chelsea and Arsenal then we must continue to improve our facilities season after season. Last year we improved the stadium vastly, again we will be adding a further 4000 seats, we will also be purchasing a youth academy and expanding the club shop by twice the size. So this season more money will be spent on the non playing side rather than the football side but we believe we have the players capable of giving this division a good go.

(Q) How much research have you done on your upcoming opponents?
(A) We know as much as we can know, they have a lot of quality especially going forward so we have no doubt we will have to be at our best.

(Q) How would you describe your management style so far in your career?
(A) I have always liked to play football, pass the ball and attack. I will admit that maybe defensively my teams havent been at the strongest but we like to try and score more than the opposition. I am pleased to say ever club I have managed have made progression in my time in charge.

(Q) Do you think that style naturally matches this club or is one of you having to adapt to the other?
(A) When I took over at Cardiff they had some good players but no real direction so changes had to be made and I have now stamped my style onto the team and I hope it will take the club forward.

(Q) As former chairman of Fulham you must be disappointed to see Fulham once again enter administration?
(A) It makes my bloody boil, I worked very hard and spent a lot of money to get the club debt free and there was no reason for the club to ever go back into debt. If I was still in charge no way would this have happened and I am certain we would be pushing for promotion now. The big chance that club had for progression was when Smalling came through the youth academy. Everyone knew he was something special and he was sold in what must be considered the worst deal ever to be allowed in football history. How the chairman or FA didnt block it I dont know but after that deal alone I was concerned for the clubs future. I dont see them coming back from this and sadly I think they may fold which is massively saddening as this could very easily of been avoided.

Wardy · Top Flight Player

(Q) How confident were you feeling going into the game on Friday?

(A) I was quite confident, if the players played how I know they can then Roma were going to find it hard to stop us. Roma are a good professional team set up to attack but all of my teams are built to score and in the end we just scored more than they could manage.

(Q) Were you pleased with the performance of your team?

(A) We threw away a lead twice and that is the only criticism I can have of the players. Scoring a goal in the first minute of the match should help them take control of the game. The stats all show we were the dominant team and the passing and crossing was magnificent this week yet again, but they still managed to score two goals. The defence will be in working hard this week on stopping those cheap goals happening. When we score early and are clearly on top, I have to get the players to kill the game. There were many more positives and the attack looks superb this season.

(Q) How do you feel the season has started for your team?

(A) I have found it hard to improve the middle of the team but the young players there are performing above what I expected of them at the start of the season. The young players have listened to what their coaches had to say and they're doing everything they can to make sure they don't lose that Genoa shirt. Jano and Pastore have done very well in the league games.

(Q) What are your plans for expanding the club facilities?

(A) I have made some plans to improve parts of the stadium. The fans have been worked into a frenzy by the owners and are desperate for a first trophy. I want to give the fans the best facilities we can provide but money is going to be kept back. The squad isn't what I want yet and when the right players come up for sale I want the money to bid I don't want a big stadium with no players to grace it.

(Q) How much research have you done on your upcoming opponents?

(A) Reggina on Friday hasn't taken a lot of my time. At Palermo we took advantage of teams not properly looking at our strengths and assuming we weren't a threat. I know not to make this mistake and we have given Reggina a once over to make sure we can highlight to the players the main threats. Reggina are a young fearless team but they play such open football my team shouldn't have anything to fear. If they score three we want to score six. In two weeks time we play Juventus in the biggest game Italy will see this half season. My team against last seasons winners eclipses even the Milan derby. I want to make sure every player gets through the Reggina match and is fighting fit for Juventus.

(Q) How would you describe your management style so far in your career?

(A) Getafe was all about fast wingers and strikers. We attacked teams at pace and to a lot of Spanish teams this was something fresh. We were too powerful for the teams above us and I enjoyed my time there. Palermo was about scoring goals again but the style had to change a little. Teams in Italy are differently built and Palermo were a step above where I was with Getafe when I left so the standard was a little higher. I made sure the Palermo players went into every game knowing they could score. If you give players an attacking mentality you can recover from going one down in a game. If you tell people to defend and keep a clean sheet the game is over as soon as that first goal creeps in.

(Q) Do you think that style naturally matches this club or is one of you having to adapt to the other?

(A) I see Genoa as the next natural step in my career. I would only have left Palermo for a team that matched this climb. Every person around me is more ambitious here and I have left behind a group of people who knew I could deliver big results at Palermo for a group of people who don't know me so well at Genoa. I want that to change, the players and staff need to believe. If the tea ladies believe in me the tea tastes better and that makes everyone feel good.

(Q) What was your reaction to the draw with West Ham?

(A) I was very disappointed. I kept the players in the dressing room for two hours after the match. We were leaving on the team bus after the stadium had emptied. A two all draw at how to West Ham is not good enough. The players knew they were building blocks to something special here and some of them blew it. Some people might come out and say a goal in the 90th minute is very unlucky but I say the game should have been dead by then. I trusted some of the young and fringe players a chance in this game and they wasted it. Some of them will be lucky to see life outside of a weight room or training pitch for the next month. Some of the players will be sent out on loan because they have proven to me that they don't have the same attitude as me to what we need to do here at Genoa to become a success.

Spartikus47 · Cult Status

Foxes stun rivals in thrilling win

Leicester City produced a much improved display this weekend to claim a potentially priceless victory over likely promotion rivals Aston Villa in a fantastic match at Villa Park. Aston Villa had won the first two fixtures of their campaign and were hoping to continue that trend but couldn't respond to a 70th minute strike from the inspirational Riccardo Maniero which saw the Foxes take the three points back across the midlands.

Speaking after the game Rollings reserved special praise for his Italian marksman, who showed signs of developing a lethal partnership with new loanee Lukas Podolski.

"He was a threat all game, and showed all the qualities of a top, top player. You could see he enjoyed playing with Lukas (Podolski) and together they will cause all sorts of problems this season. I must also mention Billy (Kee) who worked extremely hard all game and will only benefit from paying alongside such attacking talent."

Rollings' foxes recruitment drive shows no sign of abating either, as supporters continued celebrating the excellent win when news broke that Gylffi Sigurdsson finally completed his season long loan to the club. Rollings remarked;

"It is great to finally get to work with Gylffi! I tried hard to sign him when at Inter Milan and as soon as I arrived in the job here at Leicester I encouraged Steve Jenkins (Leicester City chairman) to do a deal for him. Credit to Steve, he never messes around and I had an email back the next day with news he had reached an agreement. I am convinced Gylffi will help lead this club on towards a very successful season over the coming months."

And when quizzed on further signing Rollings seemed similarly optimistic;

"It looks as though we are set to welcome another raft of quality to the club over the coming weeks. It looks likely Sergio Perez Miralles will join us this week from Valladolid and he is a top young goalkeeper. Following that I believe we have secured the services of a great young centre back to compliment our young star Harry Worley. I am still working on one more top striker and if we get him I will be over the moon."

Finally, Rollings refused to be drawn on the increasing swell of notable managers tipping his young side for success this season.

"It is nice to hear because people obviously see us moving in the right direction. However, it really doesn't mean very much at this stage. If they are still tipping us with four games to go I will listen a lot more closely because it means we will be there or thereabouts. The goal is promotion, that hasn't changed!"

belizeno · Cult Status

Catania looking to maintain winning streak

pricey · Cult Status

Week 4

Tezza · Cult Status

Siena News

A delighted Siena manager left the Cigliari ground tonight having watched a much better performance from his side.

PRESS

That was a much better performance?

TERRY

Yes that was a lot better. It was never going to be easy but we had much more of the play and well deserved the three points. To win away here, in that style, was something else. We were unlucky not to get more.

PRESS

What about Tsiaklis?

TERRY

He took his time to settle into the match but what a finish. To be fair he only came in from Real Madrid on loan last week and we havent really had that much time with him. He is clearly a very talented lad and it is what we wanted, a little more attacking pressure. We have been a little negative on our away trips in the past, but things are about to change.

PRESS

I have heard that you have another player coming in this week?

TERRY

I have been working on changing the midfield in an effort to be more of an attacking force. If all goes well Trovato Salvatore is coming in from Parma in an exchange for Jamie Ohara this weekend. Jamie played a blinder today and I am wondering if I have done the right thing. I also have another exchange deal in the hands of a manager that could leave me with another change to the playing squad. Fingers crossed.

-- Edited by Tezza on Saturday 30th of April 2011 05:23:53 PM