Mark Schwarzer has revealed Australia’s Asian Cup veterans laid down the law to their younger team-mates ahead of their Qatar campaign.The 38-year-old Fulham goalkeeper was a member of the Socceroos squad that struggled in their debut Asian Cup appearance in 2007.
Billed as one of the favourites to win the tournament after their successful 2006 World Cup campaign, Australia laboured through the group stages and were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Japan.
Four years later, Schwarzer says the Socceroos are determined not to suffer the same fate in Qatar.
“That was something very, very much at the front of our minds,” Schwarzer told the Asian Cup’s official website.
“We made it very clear that for this tournament – especially the players that were there in 2007 and are here now – that we did not want to go through the same sort of process we did then.”
“It was important that we got off to a good start and it was important that we played some decent football as a team.”
The Socceroos have been true to their word so far, defeating India 4-0 and fighting out a 1-1 draw with South Korea to top Group C with four points.
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A draw with Bahrain on Tuesday will be enough to see Australia through to the last eight, and Schwarzer says the next step will be to erase the pain of their quarter-finals loss four years ago.
“We are very united as a group and we are determined to perform better than we did four years ago,” he said.
Darren Bent’s shock move to Aston Villa from Sunderland for a fee that could cost in the region of £24m in total has highlighted, possibly more than ever before, the ridiculous premium put on English talent with concerns to the over inflated transfer fees that they’re able to command.
Let me get this on record before we begin, I’m a big fan of Darren Bent. I think he should have gone to the World Cup, I rate him higher than current first-choice England striker Jermain Defoe, a player who he is often compared to, in particular by those who reside on White Hart Lane’s terraces, and that for pure goal scoring, there are few better in the whole of Europe. But the fact of the matter is, there is simply no way he is worth £24m.
The initial deal that Villa are paying is constructed in a way that means that they pay £18m up front, a huge outlay and tremendous show of faith on Chairman Randy Lerner’s part to his beleaguered manager Gerard Houllier, and that the deal could eventually rise to as much as £24m depending on appearances and add-ons.
Bent currently has the third best goal scoring record in the Premier League since 2005 with 81 league goals, only fractionally behind Wayne Rooney and Didier Drogba with 82 goals. The fact that anyone can doubt his pedigree is beyond me. He may not be the best all-round striker out there, but he scores goals by the bucket load and lest we forget, that is a striker’s main priority whenever he takes to the pitch.
But the price is simply astronomical. Bent, is, at 26 years of age, approaching his peak years and should he stay at Villa for the rest of his career, the longevity may counterbalance the price, but it’s a huge price tag to live up to. The only reason for the large nature of his fee has to be down to the nationality inked in on his passport.
Everyone knows that English players’ price tags are at a premium, and that’s why foreign managers when they come to England persist with pursuing transfer targets from abroad, because you can quite often get the same player for half the price if you don’t shop around in England.
At Man City for example, David Silva cost £25m, which in today’s market, seems a hugely fair price. Obviously, this was in part due to the financial woe that befell his former club Valencia who became crippled with huge debt. They were also forced to sell off other prized asset David Villa to Barcelona this summer for £34.5m too, to try and ease their financial constraints.
Contrasting Bent’s fee with David Silva’s and it’s clear only one club is getting value for money. Indeed, Man City have also been on the receiving end of paying over the odds for English talent – with the £26m forked out for James Milner (£18m transfer fee and the £8m valued Stephen Ireland moving in the opposite direction to Villa) and the £22m they paid for Joleon Lescott’s services and it looks something akin to daylight robbery. The combined cost of Vincent Kompany and Kolo Toure was fractionally less than Lescott and the Englishman rarely gets a look in beyond this solid pairing. The fact that nobody has been arrested yet on fraud charges for the £10m transfer of Wayne Bridge to City is nothing short of criminal.
It would be unfair to contrast the Bent deal with say, the Alan Shearer move from Blackburn to Newcastle in 1996 for £15m, for they are two completely incomparable eras and there is simply a lot more money in the game now than there was back then. But Shearer, baring Ronaldo and at a push, Patrick Kluivert, was the best striker in Europe at the time of the deal. Could you honestly count Bent as being in the same category at the moment?
Continue to PAGE TWO…
To put this deal into a more digestible perspective. Fernando Torres cost Liverpool £20m in 2007. Wayne Rooney cost Man Utd £23m in 2004. Didier Drogba’s move to Chelsea in 2004 cost £24m. Bent’s deal has the opportunity to equal or eclipse them all.
Bent will undoubtedly improve Villa on the pitch. They’re a side that’s been crying out for some firepower up top for quite some time and Martin O’Neill seemed quite reluctant to address the issue, instead focussing on trying to stop his side losing games rather than going out their to win them. The way Villa have set up so far under Houllier has seen a change in tack to a more attack-minded approach and perhaps this is why Lerner has backed Houllier so vehemently.
Just five days before the beginning of the season Martin O’Neill quit Villa, with the James Milner deal seemingly the straw that finally broke the camel’s back. It was thought that O’Neill was only going to receive £16m this summer to reinvest in the squad and that this lack of faith and ambition prompted his hasty departure.
Despite his relative success at Villa Park, tensions grew between Lerner and O’Neill and the Chairman, who had already forked out a hefty sum of money on new players upon becoming Chairman, obviously felt that he was seeing enough return on the pitch for his investment, despite the stability and consistency that O’Neill’s tenure offered.
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For a Chairman to turn around a complete policy on spending so quickly is really rather shocking, especially one as stable as Lerner. Only at the end of last season and the beginning of this one was Lerner waxing lyrical about the need to balance the books at Villa Park and that the club, in order to become sustainable in the current economic climate, needed to sell to buy. The Bent signing may not be a panic buy, for he’s just what they need right now, the sudden change in approach most certainly has a panicky ring to it.
Can Villa truly justify spending 25% of their annual turnover on just one player? Particularly when he’s one that’s so reliant on the service that’s given to him. Bent is capable of feeding off scraps and taking the few opportunities that he may receive in any given match, a skill he acquired in his time at lesser lights such as Charlton, Ipswich and to a lesser extent, Sunderland, and while he can be clinical, he’s simply not the sort of player to take teams on and beat them on his own. He’s not a world beater, he’s simply a fantastic goal scorer with a proven track record in the Premier League. It’s imperative now that Villa keep hold of in form and in-demand winger Stewart Downing now, as well as Ashley Young.
Bent is exactly the sort of player that Villa need, but they have been seriously hit in the pocket by two factors – doing their business in January and that fact that the man in question happens to be English. Bent will score goals at Villa, lots of them probably and Houllier’s arm around the shoulder management style will suit a player that needs to be top dog and loved to perform to his best, but that nagging feeling that they are paying over the odds persists.
When a Premier league manager is next criticised for buying a foreign player instead of an English one, can you really blame them after looking at the Bent deal? There is simply no value in the market anymore, particularly if you happen to be born on these fair shores.
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Everton manager David Moyes wants his side make amends for one of their poorest performances of the season when they face Arsenal on Tuesday.
Moyes still has bad memories of his team’s display that saw them lose 2-1 against the Gunners at Goodison Park in the English Premier League in November.
Arsenal raced into a two-goal lead through Bacary Sagna and Cesc Fabregas, though the scoreline could have been a lot higher.
Midfielder Tim Cahill pulled a late goal back for the home side but Moyes never expected to get anything from the game.
Everton have suffered just one defeat in their last ten games but they won just three of those encounters, and Moyes is keen to see his side get back to winning ways.
“I think one of our poorest performances this season was at home to Arsenal this season,” he said.
“I didn’t think we got to the standards we had in other games. We will try to do better than we did in that game at Goodison Park.”
“Arsenal have good sides every year. There is no question of the quality they have got there. They try to compete at the top of the league which is very difficult.”
“It is always a hard game because of the quality players they have in their side but we have quality players as well.”
“We have drawn a lot of games – some we could have won. Getting a win is important and we have not got enough of them. We need to win instead of drawing them – that would be the answer.”
Moyes is banking on Louis Saha to continue his good form in the second half of the season.
The former Manchester United forward netted his third goal in just four games during the 1-1 FA Cup draw against Chelsea on Saturday.
After scoring just four goals in the whole of 2010, Moyes is praying the Frenchman can regain the form which saw him net 12 strikes in the first half of last season.
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Moyes added: “Goals change centre forwards and everything they do feels a lot better.”
“At the start of last season he scored a lot of goals in the first half of the season so let’s hope he can score a lot of these goals in the second half of this season.”
“He is playing with a lot more confidence and belief. I would like to think he can keep it going.”
Moyes has no fresh injury worries for the trip to north London but will make a decision over the inclusion of defender Tony Hibbert, who has been suffering from illness.
Manchester United striker Javier Hernandez has been named in Mexico’s squad for next week’s friendly against Bosnia-Herzegovina in Atlanta.
It will be coach Jose Manuel de la Torre’s first game in charge of the national team after he took over from World Cup coach Javier Aguirre.
De la Torre also named former Spurs midfielder Giovanni dos Santos, who recently joined La Liga’s Racing Santander on loan, and Fulham defender Carlos Salcido in the 22-man squad for Thursday’s match.
Dutch-based defenders Francisco Rodriguez (PSV Eindhoven) and Hector Moreno (AZ Alkmaar) were also selected for the match at the Georgia Dome.
The friendly is the first of three on Mexico’s US tour as De La Torre prepares for the CONCACAF Gold Cup in the US in June and the Copa America in Argentina in July.
Mexico will also face Paraguay in Oakland on March 26, and Venezuela in San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium on March 29.
Goalkeepers: Jesus Corona (Cruz Azul), Alfredo Talavera (Toluca). Defenders: Carlos Salcido (Fulham), Héctor Moreno (AZ Alkmaar), Francisco Javier Rodríguez (PSV Eindhoven), Paul Aguilar (Pachuca), Iván Estrada (Santos Laguna), Edgar Dueñas (Toluca), Jonny Magallon (CD Guadalajara), Jorge Torres Nilo (Tigres).
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Midfielders: Gerardo Torrado (Cruz Azul), Israel Castro (UNAM), Jesus Zavala (Monterrey), Antonio Naelson Sinha (Toluca), Luis Perez (Monterrey).
Forwards: Javier Hernandez (Manchester United), Giovanni dos Santos (Racing de Santander), Pablo Barrera (West Ham United), Edgar Pacheco (Atlas), Nestor Calderón (Toluca), Jose María Cárdenas (Santos Laguna), Aldo de Nigris (Monterrey).
Hannover and Mainz kept the pressure on the Bundesliga leaders on Saturday as both sides recorded hard-fought away wins.Hannover had an 89th minute header from defender Christian Schulz to thank for their 1-0 victory over St Pauli, a result that temporarily lifts them into third place on the table ahead of Bayern Munich’s clash with league leaders Borussia Dortmund later on Saturday.A 2-1 win over Hoffenheim ensures Mainz remain in fifth spot on the table.Mainz took the lead through Andreas Ivanschitz at Rhein-Neckar-Arena, but the hosts looked to have salvaged a share of the spoils when David Alaba equalised seven minutes from time.Enter Elkin Soto, and the Colombian midfielder secured all three points for Mainz just two minutes later when he found himself on the end of a Marcel Risse cross to fire home the winner.Elsewhere on Saturday, Cologne moved five points clear of the relegation zone with a surprise 1-0 win over Freiburg thanks to a Lukas Podolski goal.Relegation battlers Kaiserslautern claimed a valuable point at home with a 1-1 draw against Hamburg, while Schalke and Nuremberg also drew 1-1 when Raul cancelled out Jens Hegeler’s opener for the visitors.
Lazio coach Edy Reja is already looking forward to the Rome derby next weekend after his side triumphed 2-0 over Palermo on Sunday.Lazio consolidated their hold on third on the Serie A table with victory at the Stadio Olimpico, which came courtesy of a Giuseppe Sculli brace inside the first 18 minutes.But the Italian striker was substituted off in the 52nd minute for what Reja described as an allergic reaction to the pitch, which had been treated with green paint to cover up patches of dry grass.Reja’s men will face Roma next Sunday in a clash vital to both teams’ hopes of securing European berths.Roma have gone undefeated since manager Vincenzo Montella took over from Claudio Ranieri, and Reja is anticipating a thrilling encounter.”We struggled a little in the second half (on Sunday), even if we defended in an organised fashion,” Reja said.”I expected a little more push, but we took our foot off the accelerator.””Now there is the derby next week. Roma have quality and experience, so we’ve got to give it heart, just as we have done up until now.””We are slightly ahead of them in the standings and hope we can keep both Roma and Udinese behind us. I’ve lost a few derbies, so I hope it’s our turn this time round.””I have brought harmony back to the locker room and that was a great conquest for me.”Palermo coach Serse Cosmi experienced a first-up defeat after replacing Delio Rossi, and did not mince words in his first post-match press conference.”I had a great deal of enthusiasm and hunger to get back to work, but we were shocking in the first 20 minutes,” Cosmi said.”We were too timid, so Lazio were allowed to go in front too easily and then doubled their lead straight after.””There’s a long way to go yet, but the fact remains we basically lost to their only two shots on goal.”
Laurent Blanc was content with France’s 2-0 Euro 2012 qualifying win over Luxembourg, despite a lacklustre attacking display from Les Bleus.Goals from Phillipe Mexes and Yoann Gourcuff at Luxembourg’s Stade Josy Barthel were enough to lift Blanc’s side four points clear of Belarus at the top of Group D, but the former Bordeaux manager watched his men squander a number of good opportunities.
Real Madrid star Karim Benzema was one player who looked particularly out of touch, leaving Blanc with some selection headaches ahead of Tuesday’s friendly against Croatia in Paris.
“Offensively, it was not a very good or very powerful performance. But we must make a comprehensive analysis,” Blanc said.
“In saying that, we lacked consistency, but there was little space against Luxembourg.”
The match was the first game back for Bayern Munich winger Franck Ribery and Manchester United defender Patrice Evra after their controversial suspension in the wake of France’s disastrous 2010 World Cup campaign, and Blanc was pleased with the influence of both.
“They took a tentative start. They then gradually got into the match. They did a good job and there is a chance to see them stay with us. They actually are part of the France group,” he said.
Ribery paid tribute to the fighting spirit of Luxembourg and said he was relieved to have gotten through the match.
“It was not an easy game, but the win was the main thing,” he said.
“It was nice to play the full 90 minutes, but the main thing is to work well.”
Liverpool’s caretaker manager Kenny Dalglish has done an excellent job since taking over after Roy Hodgson’s short and poor spell in charge. The Reds are now in a great position in the Premier League to challenge for a European qualification for next season, whilst January transfer signing Luis Suarez has already made a great impression. With Andy Carroll gradually seeing more action in a Liverpool shirt, fans are starting to feel more positive since the sale of Fernando Torres back in January.
However, Reds fans know that their club still needs to sign new players if King Kenny (or whoever is in charge come the summer) is to get the club back into the top four mix where they believe the club belongs. There are a few positions in the squad that need strengthening but could Liverpool be in danger of a huge overhaul this summer that isn’t necessary?
It’s clear that players like Paul Konchesky and Alberto Aquilani are expected to be sold at the end of the season with players like Blackpool’s Charlie Adam and Newcastle United’s Jose Enrique or Everton’s Leighton Baines, often cited as replacements. But could there be even more players leaving Anfield with new faces coming in?
The new director of football at the club, Damien Comolli spoke about transfer matters yesterday saying: “The owners said from day one they want to improve things and turn things around quickly and I have said the same thing since I arrived, so I expect a busy summer.”
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It will be positive news for Liverpool fans that the club are already making plans for necessary changes in the summer, but there could be a danger of the squad being changed too much and the Reds could need another season for the new team to gel before they could think about challenging for the top four again.
Also, former manager Rafa Benitez has said that returning to Liverpool as manager in the future would be his dream job. With Kenny Dalglish still not confirmed as the permanent Liverpool manager, is there a chance that Rafa could be one of the new faces appearing on Anfield in the summer, along with new signings?
On the other hand, Rafa’s comments could just have be blown out of proportion to make for a good news story, after all he’s currently out of work as a football manager and wants to return, particularly to England and the Premier League and not just Liverpool.
The key topic in hand here is that Liverpool are moving forward with Comolli’s comments about summer signings being very positive and that owners Fenway Sports Group / NESV have the right ambitions for the club to succeed, making it a very exciting time for fans of the Merseyside club.
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If there are several new players appearing in the Red shirt next season, it will be good for the long term success of the club but I just hope fans bare in mind that it will almost be a squad of new players that still need to gel and develop team chemistry. Although if Roberto Mancini at Manchester City is able to qualify his dream team into the top four this season, there is a chance for Liverpool to do the same…but the first signing they need to make is a permanent manager.
Arsenal lack fight. Arsenal lack character. Arsenal have no back-bone. Even neutrals must be sick of reading the same propaganda on a daily basis from papers, websites and various other sources. But what grounds do Arsenal have to defend themselves? Three consecutive draws in the Premier League against teams they should be beating has seen their title challenge de-railed. They lost to Manchester United in the FA Cup. Barcelona sent them packing from the Champions League. Lowly Birmingham beat them in the final of the Carling Cup.
They are well on the way to another trophy-less season and negativity, even hostility towards Arsene Wenger and his squad is at an all time high.
The problem with Arsenal is not that they lack fight – it’s that they are carrying too many passengers. There are too many remnants from Wenger’s youth experiments dragging the squad down. I’m not going to trot out the same list of players that has already been done on countless sites – if you’re an Arsenal fan you know who has made the grade this season and who hasn’t. There will be plenty of changes to this Arsenal squad this summer.
But this isn’t another article picking faults in Arsenal’s squad. I’d rather look at the players who have provided Arsenal with drive, determination and energy this season. Players who I genuinely believe can drag Arsenal towards future glory should the squad’s supporting players be good enough.
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First up is Samir Nasri. Forget his incredible goal tally this season (14 goals thus far). It’s the passion that Nasri brings to every game that impresses me. Whilst the likes of Denilson and Diaby switch off against bottom-of-the-table opposition, Nasri performs just as he would against Barcelona. He’s an essential player and must be handed a new contract.
Jack Wilshere, 19-years-old and already a lynchpin in the centre of Arsenal’s midfield. He can tackle as well as pass and refuses to be intimidated. If everybody in Arsenal’s squad had Wilshere’s spirit, I have no doubt that Arsenal would still be out there competing for trophies.
Next up is Alex Song, who has gone from a peripheral player to damn near essential for this Arsenal side. If you need any evidence of Song’s ‘fight’ go back and watch the first leg of the Barcelona game. He was everywhere, breaking up play and keeping Arsenal in the match. He’s tireless and always gets stuck in. A very important player and arguably one of the best defensive midfielders in the world (I say arguably because I’m not entirely sure he’s a DM given the freedom afforded to him by Arsene Wenger).
Then there’s Cesc Fabregas, who is often criticised for not being enough of a leader. He received a lot of flak after the second-leg of the Barcelona game, but he was clearly playing with an injury. Otherwise he plays with pride game-in, game-out, leading by example. He’s Arsenal’s best performer and never lacks heart.
I’d also chuck Robin Van Persie and Thomas Vermaelen onto the list of players who provide Arsenal with fight – at least when they’re fit. The suggestion that Arsenal lack ‘fight’ is a myth – there are plenty of Arsenal players with both the desire and the ability to win trophies. When the deadwood has been discarded and decent squad players have been brought through, I have little doubt that we’ll see a whole different Arsenal.
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An Arsenal that has threatened to make its mark for years but has been held back. An Arsenal with a genuine shot at bringing home trophies.
Read more of Harry’s articles at This is Futbol Watch match Cundy and Minto’s preview of Blackpool v Arsenal below
AC Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri is wary of opponents Palermo ahead of their Coppa Italia semi-final first leg at the San Siro on Wednesday.Palermo are in eighth place in Serie A, and enjoyed a 3-2 win over Roma at the Stadio Olimpico on Saturday.
And Allegri is convinced his side – who top the Serie A standings by six points from second-placed Napoli – will not have an easy time against Delio Rossi’s side.
“I think that Palermo is a team made up of great players,” Allegri said.
“They are young guys, who will be doing their best since their main aim is to qualify for the final because it would automatically qualify them for the Europa League.”
“Their team have great individual quality and is one of the best teams of the Italian championship.”
“They were ranked fourth until a month and a half ago and it seemed that Palermo would have been able to battle for the league.”
“I believe that a team can’t change and become weaker when they have a lot of talent. I believe that Palermo is made of very skilful players, they have proved it in the last few matches and confirmed it in Saturday’s match when they beat Roma.”
Palermo coach Rossi said he did not think Milan would miss their injured Brazilian striker Alexandre Pato, who has been ruled out for three weeks with a hamstring strain.
With Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic available for the Cup clash despite being suspended for two more league games, Rossi said there was not much to choose between the two front men and insisted Milan had plenty of depth to cover the loss.
“I’d like for us to put in a great performance irrelevant of how they play,” Rossi said. “They are both outstanding players.”
“Of course it would be better if neither of them were playing, but in any case I hope we’ll put in a good performance.”
“If the two of them don’t play, then Robinho will be playing; if Robinho won’t be playing, then Boateng will be playing; if Boateng isn’t playing, then Pirlo will be there – it makes no difference.”
“I think they’ll be playing with their best formation and we hope we’ll be up to the situation.”
The winner of the tie will take on either Inter Milan or Roma in the final.