West Ham manager David Moyes has admitted that Wigan Athletic were too good for them when they met in the FA Cup. Wigan knocked out the Premier League side in the fourth round of the FA Cup over the weekend, further compounding the woes of the Hammers this term.
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has hailed his side’s thumping 5-0 win over Astana in the first-leg of their Champions League playoff. \
The Hoops had a tough outing against their Kazakhstan counterparts last time around as they drew 1-1 away at Astana before clinching a 2-1 victory at home in the third qualifying round. Rodgers had recently admitted that his team has made significant from the previous year, and their improvement was on show on the playing field as they bagged a convincing 5-0 victory which included a Scott Sinclair brace.
Following the game, Brendan Rodgers said: “We want to go there and win the game. We want to perform well. It was a brilliant performance and now we need to get the job done there. It’s a great demonstration of the work the players have made and progressed over the course of the last season. It was an outstanding team performance, creativity, pressing, really good structure to the team. We scored five goals and missed one or two chances. To do that at this level of competition for a Scottish team, I was really proud of the team.” Continue reading “Brendan Rodgers praises Celtic’s performance against Astana”
Andre Ayew, son of Ghanaian legend Abedi Pele Ayew can be said to have had a decent run at filling the big boots left by his dad.
Impressive outings with the Black Stars of Ghana would soon follow at the senior World Cup hosted in South Africa the following year where they were a Luis Suarez handball and a crossbar away from making history as the first African team to advance to the semifinals.Later on he clinched the BBC African Player of the Year.
However after eight years at the Stade Valedrome, Marseille decided to offload the Ghanaian as they looked for a way back to being a force to be reckoned with as far as French football went. Continue reading “AYEW DIDN’T BLEND IN AT WEST HAM”
Manchester City playmaker Yaya Toure is set to get a year extension after Coach Pep Guardiola had a change of heart, reports in England say.
Guardiola eventually handed the Ivorian a start and he showed his quality as he grabbed a brace in the 2-1 victory over Crystal Palace in November. With time, Toure failed to keep it up and the former Barcelona and Bayern manager suggested that Toure’s fitness levels were low. Continue reading “TOURE TO GET ONE YEAR EXTENSION”
Uli Stielike doesn’t want his team to mess their current situation in terms of WC qualification.
In case it doesn’t happen to be so and South Korea comes three, it will have to play one more round which will actually be a tie against the team finishing no. 3 in the other group.
Stielike hopes that his team escapes that extra round and actually secures the direct qualification with a game or two in hand because it’s never a comfortable situation when it’s down to a do-or-die clash at the end. Continue reading “Uli Stielike asks Team to Continue Performance”
Algeria international on Monday beat off competition from Yaya Toure, Sadio Mane and Perre-Emerick Aubameyang to win the 2016 BBC’s African Player of the Year.
“It means a lot, it’s something big for African players so I am very happy and I am very proud,” began the 25-year-old “It’s always good to receive awards and for Africanplayers it’s a huge honour. To all the fans, thank you very much…”
The former Le Havre player joined Leicester City for a we-can’t-believe-our-luck fee of £400,000 in 2014, together with French man N’golo Kante and England forward Jamie Vardy propelled The Foxes to an unexpected EPL title last May despite riding on the odds of 5000-1. Mahrez scored 17 goals and provided 11 assists during the fairy tale campaign. Continue reading “MAHREZ WINS BBC AFRICAN FOOTBALLER OF THE YEAR”
The manager Pep Guardiola has sidelined Manchester City playmaker Yaya Toure for a while now.
Seluk accused Guardiola of ignoring his attempts to settle the issue of Toure’s snub. Guardiola earlier said he would not play the former Ivory Coast international until he receives an apology aftn September. Seluk accused Guardiola of making it a mission to humiliate Yaya Toure who should otherwise remain a legend at Man City.
“When Yaya was left out of the Champions League squad, I called Pep. I wanted to ask him his reasons, but he didn’t call me back. I also tried to call Txiki – but he didn’t call me back either. So I don’t think the club can criticize me for doing an interview in the newspaper when they wouldn’t even talk to me,” Seluk revealed.
“Pep talks about respect. But to get respect you have to show it. Before City played at the Nou Camp, I called Pep again. I wanted to ask him if we could meet for talks while he was in Barcelona. Continue reading “YAYA TOURE’S AGENT SPEAKS AGAIN”
Recently retired Ivorian midfielder Yaya Toure criticised the plan by the apex footballing body FIFA to disband the anti-racism task force.
The player who is still playing football at club level seems not to be happy with the move by FIFA.
FIFA set up the Task Force against Racism back in 2013, but wound it up on Sunday. FIFA said the body had achieved the mission of being set-up. The general secretary Fatma Samba Diouf Samoura said: “It had a specific mandate, which it has fully fulfilled.”
Many opposed the decision. President of the Jordan Football Association and former FIFA presidential candidate, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein was one. He said: “For it to be disbanded with FIFA considering its work done is extremely worrying. The notion the current FIFA leadership believe the task force’s recommendations have been implemented is shameful.”
Toure was a consultant for the task force. Making reference to the World Cup in 2018 in Russia, Toure said there have been instances of racist abuse. On his personal website, Toure said: “When I received the letter telling me the FIFA task force was to be discontinued, I was very disappointed. The letter listed the good work that had been carried out as a result of the task force’s advice and recommendations. So my question is, after failing to deal with racism sufficiently for decades – Why stop when something is beginning to work? Are FIFA being complacent ahead of a World Cup in Russia? This makes no sense,” said Toure. Continue reading “YAYA TOURE CRITICISES FIFA”
There is no coach that wants to see his team sustaining consecutive defeats and even less when they are getting these negative results just a few weeks before their domestic league kicks off in full force and this is exactly what Mauricio Pochettino has been experiencing as the head coach of Tottenham Hotspur.
“It was a fantastic performance and a great experience for us. I am very happy with this young team. Their goalkeeper was man of the match which says a lot. We finished the game with 9 players who have come through the academy great.” Tottenham Hotspur’s Mauricio Pochettino said following his teams’ defeat against Athletic Madrid on July 29.
Despite losing against Athletic Madrid, it was actually Tottenham Hotspur that enjoyed having the upper hand of possession and controlled the match for the majority of the game.
Continue reading “Mauricio Pochettino is upbeat despite having lost successive matches”
Italian giant Inter Milan are set to sign Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure this summer.
Various reports have linked Toure to his former boss Roberto Mancini who is now at Inter and it seems the deal is now set to go through.
The 33-year old Ivory Coast international was sold to the Etihad in 2010 by the incoming coach Pep Guardiola for £24m and it is believed that the Spaniard doesn’t want the player as he takes over at the club. Guardiola is not due to be unveiled by the club for another fortnight but he is already working on the squad , especially with the huge task he is laden with. Terms are still agreed between Inter Milan and Manchester City for Yaya Toure but the player has indicated his willingness to work with the incoming coach. Continue reading “INTER MILAN SET TO LAND YAYA TOURE THIS SUMMER”