Week 21

Football Academy · Cult Status

Week 21

Fletch · Cult Status

Andy Fletcher was delighted to secure his sides Serie A status in their first season back in the top flight with two games to go.

"I'm over the moon, this was the target and we have picked up some points in the last few games particularly, my lads have given their all and every player has offered soemthing this season, to secure our status with an emphatic win against Inter Milan is even more pleasing and shows we are looking to push onwards next year."

"I can now give games to some of my younger lads who I have been reluctant to play and the couple of games they will get means experience for next year, its a nice feeling to be looking down and to watch the relegation battle unfold."

" I am also pleased to announce I will be staying at Napoli next season where the Chairman and myself will continue our development of the club and particularly in the infrastructure for next year, there wont be too many faces in or out and we aim to become self sustainable with a top notch academy."

"I may look at bolstering the squad with a couple of loans but predominantly we will be investing in the academy and the ground, we are confident our youth programme will deliver the players required to make a push for a higher league finish next season"

paulh_85 · Cult Status

Harrington looking forward to bumper week!

Paul, a rather surprising win last week against Valencia, and it sets your team up perfectly going into the final stages of the season. how exciting are you about the next few matches?

Well they couldnt get any bigger really could they? tonight we have a massive UEFA cup semi final, and although we might be going in as slight favorites based on the league position, Althletic Bilboa have had a fantastic season, pushed Valladolid all the way last week, and have of course already knocked us out of one cup this season! so it will be tough, but hopefully a good advert for Spanish football, it would be great for our league to have winners in both European compititions, and thats what we are trying to achieve.

Of course, after that, you have the league to focus on as you try to gain 4th spot for the 3rd season in a row!

Yes, were not thinking about the league too much untill tonight is over with. but its Sevilla next followed by Real Madrid. Level on points with sevilla but with a lesser goal difference means we need to win to get 4th. Its going to be a massive match, they have a few big players out, like Van Bommel, Wittenham and Klose, but so much quality in the rest of the team so its going to be close i think. Ive never beaten Liam in the league, so to do so now, with 4th up for grabs would be huge!

We will have to see how are players are feeling, some are quite tired and of course we have a full team out against Bilboa tonight, including Casillias making his debut. After this week is out of the way we finish against Real Madrid, another hard match and we could well be missing players for that one, while hopefully ending the season with a UEFA cup final match!

So plenty still to look forward to at this late stage. Does it make planning for next season difficult?

not really, we know roughly what we want to achieve in terms of players in and out. We have found another club for De Gea to play at next season, he will get plently of games at a higher level now and hopefully come back ready for first team football here. Also we have a player leaving us at the end of the season, and one or two outgoing loans to sort out as well, but as yet, no incoming players.

-- Edited by paulh_85 on Monday 5th of September 2011 01:21:09 PM

Football Academy · Cult Status

The second Youth Tournament has finished. Catch up with all of the action right now here.

Football Academy · Cult Status

Re: Napoli Media

Napoli fans have hailed the success of their manager this season, reacting positively to the news he won't be leaving this summer.

Re: Harrington looking forward to bumper week!

Atletico Madrid fans have rallied behind their team following their managers confident words, selling out tonights UEFA Cup semi-final game, despite it being an all Spanish affair.

drunkbishop · Top Flight Player

BISHOP ISSUES RALLYING CALL!

Sampdoria manager Chris Bishop has urged his team to show that they deserve their place in the Italian top flight as they battle to avoid relegation following their defeat to Genoa.

It has been a disappointing season after the giddy and unexpected heights of the last few seasons and after a number of big name retirements Bishop was confident ahead of the new season that his new look younger side would have enough skill and hunger to, although not repeat the previous seasons highs, not suffer the lows currently being experienced.

Speaking to BBC Wales for some reason even though he manages in Italy, Bishop said We do not have the resources of the big clubs but should not be in the position we are currently in. You have to give credit to the teams around us, especially Napoli and Parma.

Speaking on his teams slip into the bottom 3 he went on to say I fully accept responsibility for this but we have the quality in this team, and with the younger players coming on such as Billy Jones, Alexis Sanchez, Andrea Grieco and Bruno Fornaroli the future is promising. Unfortunately we have not gelled this season and struggled to find the right formation and tactics and I have to take responsibility for this.

As the shadow of relegation looms over the former Italian Giants, Bishop reaffirmed his commitment to the club and his hope that if his side were to lose their Serie A status that he would be given the opportunity to continue to bring the young players through and fight to regain their place in the top flight of the Italian game. If the worst should befall the club and we do get relegated I believe I am still the manager to take this team forward. The Supporters have been fantastic all season and even seeing Genoa emerge as closest challengers to Juventus crown hasnt deterred them from showing their support to the team

Cult Status

Jamie Walker spoke exclusively to Arsenal TV this evening about his academy teams progress in the youth cup.
"I am delighted with the success this season under Wim Jonk our head of the academy. We have invested extensively in the project and I hope in the next season we can start to see some of those players coming through. Sean McDermott and Benik Afobe have both come in this season and have played 14 games each so far. The whole idea behind how I have set about working at Arsenal is to produce our own talent. I know other teams will be looking to take advantage of our policy of selling players on so it would not surprise me if we had managers trying to buy some of our academy players and arrange deals for them before we even promote them to the first team. Oguzhan Ozyakup has been sensational from what I have seen of the youth cup and Wim Jonk feels that both Ryo Miyaichi and Wellington Silva have it in them to be really great players in coming years. It is an exciting time in the Arsenal youth setup."
Arsenal have confirmed their league position with 2 games to spare this week. They have finished 4th.
"I was pleased we held on to 4th. The chairman set a target for top 5 which was asking a lot. I would ask how many teams can sell Mesut Ozil, Daniel Fox, Cristian Zapata and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar all in one season and still hold that place. Last season players like Vagnor Love and Sergio Aguero were sold. You could make a top team for Europe from all those players. The young players who replaced them have performed above and beyond what was expected of them. Cardiff have been on our heels for some weeks now and that might sound bad for us but Cardiff were no ordinary promoted team and you only need to look at the talent they have available to them compared to the lack of experience we have to see just what an achievement 4th place is."

Luke_C · Cult Status

CCFC delight with Euro spot

Luke you must be delighted with a 5th place finish?
I am delighted and didnt expect the players to fly up the table the way we have. We have not only finished 5th but done it with time to spare and ahead of strong premiership clubs like Spurs, West Ham and Man City.

You said at the start of the season that it was also important to play football and to attack as a team?
Yes, ive always set up my teams to play good attacking football. Apart from the big three at the top of the league we have scored more goals than anyone. That in turn means our defensive record can leave a bit to be desired but that gives us something to work on.

And finishing just one point behind Arsenal is quite an achievement?
Our target was always to stay in the division and as soon as that was complete to push up the league as far as possible. To get a euro spot so a remarkable achievement. If i knew we would finish a place behind Arsenal I would have laughed as I thought they were going to give it a good push to win the league this season. At times they had a budget of around one hundred million but Jamie has been clever by investing in youth and with an understanding chairman they can become unstoppable in the not so distant future.

Although your season has finished you can still have a say in the top and bottom half of the table with you playing West Ham and Manchester United?
We will go into both games looking to in of course but we also have one eye on next season now. We dont want to go into the new season with mass injuries because of burn out. We will look at each game as it comes but we have got enough points to deserve the right to rest players in the remaining games if we feel the need to.

The title race this year has been one of the best for many a season in the premiership, how do you see it going?
Well Chelsea have been the top dogs for some time now so they are expected to be pushing but you have to congratulate Craig Radford and Mark Galeozzie on the work they are doing. Craig has always had pressure on him at United but they have given it a real good go this season and this weekends game will decided there fate and then of course another tough game against us the following week. The job Mark has done at Liverpool has been unbelievable, when he took over I wondered if he would keep them up and now they are in pole position to win the league. Im looking forward to see how it all unfolds.

You currently have 2 centre backs on loan and another retiring so is this a key area you will be looking to strengthen during the summer?
We have Diaz and Jones out on loan who are both good centre backs and Lugano who is still at the club so I am happy with that. We may look to bring in another centre back as back up but wont be looking to break the bank to bring one in. I am happy with what we have at the moment centrally. Left back will be more of a priority, although we have Ekotto coming back on loan from Fiorentina a deal for him to join a club permanently has already been agreed.

What other transfer plans do you have?
We want a left back and a striker, they are the priority and they are positions we need to add to but as always we will be looking at all positions. Most of our budget will be going into the youth academy and hopefully improving the club shop further so our success this season can become sustainable.

Tezza · Cult Status

Siena News

Terry Manifold wasn't too disappointed with the result away at Atalanta yesterday.

With one eye on the play-offs he had rested a few of his better players.

Terry .

It was a good game and we certainly had the chances. I was very pleased with the lads performance yesterday and with a full squad to pick from it should be even better.

PRESS.

Apparently Atalanta's manager was saying you wouldn't score today?

Terry.

Yes I read that somewhere. Pricey likes to shoot his mouth off. We actually scored first.

We didnt expect to win today but we do expect to win in the play-offs.

PRESS.

You apparently tried new tactics today?

Terry.

Yes we tried something new but with reservations. The tactics we used worked very well but given the more experienced players in the line up, the system should give us the edge when we meet later in the season.

PRESS.

Whats the tactics for next week?

Terry.

The same as today. Rest players and try something a little different with the general play.

-- Edited by Tezza on Saturday 10th of September 2011 03:12:06 PM

-- Edited by Tezza on Saturday 10th of September 2011 03:13:13 PM

belizeno · Cult Status

Vasquez delighted with Catania Season - but warns of tough Serie A