yaya toure

Yaya Toure has confirmed that he has joined Manchester City from La Liga champions Barcelona after being told that he was surplus to requirements at the Catalan club.

A reported fee of £24 million will change hands as City at last make the signing that they have been chasing over the last season or so.

Toure will join fellow La Liga player David Silva who was announced as a Manchester City player this week. He will also join up with his brother, the former Arsenal player Kolo Toure who is now installed as captain at Eastlands.

City manager Roberto Mancini said;

“Everyone knows Yaya is a player that we have admired for a long time, we would like to welcome him to Manchester City. He has played at the top level with Barcelona and I am sure his experience and ability will be very important for us.”

The Eastlands club have now spent around £60million already this summer, securing the services of Yaya, Silva and German defender Jerome Boateng, clearly looking to build on last seasons disappointing fifth place finish.

David Silva to join Man City

It was inevitable that La Liga crisis club would have to cash in on on their two star players sooner or later, personally I expected David Villa and David Silva to move on after the success of  Spain in the European Championship.

But somehow the club managed to hang onto them despite the debt problems reported at Valencia. Things changed at the end of this season and Villa promptly signed for Barcelona (where else), but Silva has been linked with several top clubs including City and Chelsea during recent weeks and admitted a few weeks ago that he fancied the challenge of the Premier League.

I have long been an admirer of the little midfielder and while not an Arsenal supporter always thought he would make an excellent signing for the North London club.

But it appears that he has decided to join City, leaving his agent to negotiate the deal while the player is in South Africa hoping to help Spain lift the World Cup.

A fantastic naturally gifted player who pushes forward at pace, Silva is an exceptional signing for the Manchester club and if they can keep him fit he will surely prove to be one of the club’s most significant signings.

The second part should be easier to predict as Rafa has already been linked with a move to Inter Milan as replacement for Jose Mourinho, and while I imagine that is the most likely destination I also wonder how much Benitez will rue missing out on a return to Spain with Real Madrid, now that he is a free agent.

As for his replacement, Kenny Dalglish does not appear to be in the frame at all, but favourites in the press are Martin O’Neil, Roy Hodgson and Guus Hiddink, despite the latter signing a contract to coach the Turkish national side.

Former Manchester City boss Mark Hughes has been mentioned as a candidate in the past and would, I expect relish the opportunity of joining Liverpool, if only to settle old scores with rivals City.

In his favour there would be no compensation to pay out for his services, he is honest and hard working and expects the same from his players. He has also handled business in the transfer market pretty well prior to joining City, where the wheeling and dealing was taken on by the board.

He will feel he has something to prove after the way he was treated by City and his incredible record with Blackburn Rovers on a tight budget proved that he can get the best out of his players as a team.

And right now team spirit at Liverpool appears to be at an all time low, ensuring that the time was right to dispense with Benitez and inject some new blood into the managers hot seat.

I am sure Liverpool could do a lot worse than offering the vacancy to Mark Hughes, but let us know who you would like to see take over at the club.

Looking for a new manager to take them to the next level, and backed by Roman Abramovich’s millions, Chelsea was very quick off the blocks to offer Jose Mourinho the chance to earn and spend big money. Following his arrival in 2004 he won the Premier League two seasons in a row in 2005 and 2006. This was a great achievement and nothing should be taken away from what is an exceptional man manager & football tactician with his minute attention to detail.

But its often overlooked that in the proceeding season Claudio Ranieri took Chelsea to second place, missing out on winning the Premier League title for the first time in Chelsea’s history only by an amazing unbeaten season by Arsenal; a feat never before or since achieved.

Furthermore, it was the likeable Claudio Ranieri who built the foundations of Mourinho’s winning Chelsea team as he was the manager who signed Frank Lampard, Claude Makele, Joe Cole, Petr Cech, William Gallas and Arjen Robben among others, as well as nurturing the young John Terry.

After being sacked by Chelsea in September 2007 he joined Inter Milan in 2008.  But again, the team he inherited was a successful one as Robert Mancini had led them to three consecutive Serie A League titles. Absolutely amazing to think Inter Milan sacked Robert Mancini.  That is until last week when Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan won the treble (European Champions League, Serie A League Title & domestic cup) for the first time in their history.  It was Inter Milan’s first European Cup/Champions League victory since 1965.

So now Jose Mourinho is about to move to Real Madrid to complete what seems to be his destiny: to win league titles in England, Italy and Spain.  But Mourinho will inherit a side low on morale, with no big team spirit and a trophy cupboard that has been gathering dust while their bitter rivals, Barcelona are winning silverware and fans alike for playing the beautiful game.

Jose Mourinho will inherit a side high on flair and low on defensive duties.  Players like Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka are not known for their work horse attitudes and unselfish work for the good of the team.  It will be very interesting to see how long the Real Madrid president, and indeed the Real Madrid fans will give Jose Mourinho to deliver results.

Personally, I think this is going to be the hardest challenge of Jose Mourinho’s career. If he fails to win the La Liga title at the very least next season he will probably be sacked for the second time in his career.  If he brings European success back to Real Madrid then he will rightly earn the self anointed title of “The Special One”.

Florentino Perez and Jorge Valdano should surely know that this man will not lie down and be told who, or indeed how to play. He is his own man, much to the chagrin of Roman Abramovic, whose own ego couldn’t allow Mourinho to dictate matters at the club Roman so lovingly bought with his ‘dirty money’.

Moratti in a sense was the perfect owner for Mourinho, a powerful, yet understanding owner who knew when to open his wallet to keep Jose happy, and knew not to tamper in personnel issues on the pitch; are you listening Berlusconi, concentrate on embarrassing your people and leave Milan alone.

Alas the Italian press, combined with Mourinho’s satisfaction at having done all he can do at Inter Milan, means Mourinho will go from a situation where the club, owner, players and supporters loved him; to a situation where only the supporters and some players will love him.

As far as Perez sitting back while Jose does his thing, don’t think for one second Marca won’t get on his back and wedge a rod between manager and board. This is the same paper who forced the removal of Manuel Pellegrini, even though Real Madrid achieved a record number of goals and points this season.

Only Barcelona’s near perfect performances kept them from winning La Liga. They had decided long ago that Pellegrini should go, and they didn’t want to lose face by changing their minds. Marca are so narrow minded, that even if Real had brought home the league; they would have still called for his head, and Perez is too weak not to listen to the press.

But it gets worse, players like Cristiano Ronaldo don’t do defensive football, and Mourinho had Samuel Eto’o tracking back all the way through the Champions League final; and all season for that matter. Here is a proven goal scorer who has been relegated to a defensive wide forward playing under Mourinho. Sure he did it, but can you see Ronaldo and Kaka chasing down opposition full backs in their own half?  Come to that, as football fans, do we want them to?

These are gifted attacking players who provide magic and get you goals, but not for Mourinho.

Things are about to get very tense in the Madrid, and given that I don’t see Portugal going far in the World Cup this summer, there is going to be one unhappy Real Madrid number 9 come the start of the season, and if Mourinho doesn’t manage things just right, one of them will have to go; and given Real Madrid’s record with managers, Jose Mourinho might find himself back in the English Premiership sooner, rather than later.

Two very different teams of course, and both with a chance of  making it through to the final of the competition. From a purists point of view it of course there is only one possible outcome, that Barcelona make it to the final and dazzle us all with their beautiful football skills to win the Champions League for a second consecutive year.

The Castrol Performance data champions league stats show that Barcelona pass the ball more than any other team in the competition, completing over 6,000 passes so far, and comfortably ahead of  Bayern Munich with 4,120, with Arsenal in third place.

Four of the top five passers in the Champions League this season all play for Barcelona. Xavi is head and shoulders above the rest, with 950 successful passes in nine games, that’s more than 100 successful passes per game.

Dani Alves has been creating havoc as usual with his runs up the field from full back, along the right flank. 19 of the Brazil international’s crosses have found a teammate, the most in the competition this season.

And what can you say about Messi. His goals against Arsenal moved him above the previous top scorer this season Cristiano Ronaldo and the Barcelona player has a conversion rate of one goal for every four attempts. His dazzling skills with the ball at his feet show that he is the player most likely to dribble, with 49 successful dribbles during the cup run.

So what can Inter Milan bring to the game. Well despite expecting Barca to have the lions share of possession, Milan will remain safe in the knowledge that they have only conceded one goal in the knock out stages and offer the best defence of any of the remaining teams.

The rock at the heart of Inter Milan’s central defence is Lucio. The 31-year-old Brazil international has only missed one game in the Champions League this season (the first-leg win against CSKA Moscow due to suspension), winning more tackles than any other player in the competition.

So Barcelona have to stick at their game and find a way past the aging Inter defence, while keeping a keen eye on the speed of Milan’s counter attack play.

Jose Mourinho knows that his players will have to work hard to close Barcelona down, the two teams met in the early stages of the cup drawing 0-0 in Italy and Barca winning 2-0 in Spain.

I loved this from Mourinho, ” I am not interested in the possession of the ball. If the team that has the most possession wins, then we have already lost.”

It will be an intriguing battle over the two legs, lets hope that it is also a great advertisement for the game.

By half time the Lionel Messi show was in full swing, and the best player in the world had scored another two goals to put the tie well and truly out of Arsenal’s reach, and in the process scoring his third hat-trick of 2010.

Messi’s fourth goal in the 88th minute was nothing more than icing on the cake.  By then everyone watching the game had surely agreed that this was one of the most amazing performances by any one individual footballer, possibly on par with Maradonna’s single-handed (forgive the pun) defeat of England in the 1986 World Cup Quarter-final.

And for those of you who listen to cricket legend and football pundit muppet, Darren Gough, on Talk Sport, I wonder if he will still be comparing Lionel Messi to Aaron Lennon tomorrow – a good player but not a great player, is his usually comment when asked about Lionel Messi.

I can’t imagine Messi ever leaving Barcelona while he is still in his prime because of the debt he owes Barcelona.  But how I would love to see him perform weekend in and week out in the Premier League.

After tonight’s match Arsene Wenger, Nicklas Bendtner and Manuel Alumina all  said they were simply beaten by the better team, and praised Lionel Messi’s amazing performance.  Wenger added he was the best player in the world “by a long way”.

Wenger knows his onions and tonight I am in total agreement with him.

Barcelona beat Arsenal 6-3 on aggreagate and will play Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan in the semi-finals after the Italian champions beat CSK Moscow tonight 1-0 away from home, 2-0 on aggreagate.

I don’t rate Manuel Almunia as a goalkeeper.  But tonight he alone probably stopped Barcelona sucking on their half-time oranges leading by three or four goals. With Barca having an alarming 70% of the possession in the first 45 minutes, and playing some of the most attractive ‘pass and move’ football I have seen since watching Brazil as a young boy. But for all their flare and skills, it was still 0-0 until twenty seconds after the restart.

A simple through ball left the Arsenal back four stranded and Almunia in no-man’s land, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who had not scored against English opposition in his previous 10 attempts, scored the first of his two goals.  The second was a similar through ball that caught the Arsenal defence ball-watching as Ibrahimovic thumped the ball into the roof of the net.  2-0 surely it was all over for another season, as far as Arsene Wenger’s Champions League aspirations were concerned.

At that stage I imagine anyone watching the game thought Arsenal was going to fall apart.  But it was then the young guns decided with a true musketeer cry ‘all for one, and one for all!’

With no fear left in their heads and fire in the belly, Arsenal decided to ‘have a go’ at ‘the best team in Europe’.

The introduction of Theo Walcott appeared to stun the Barcelona defence and spur Arsenal and the Emirates Stadium into life.  And even when Walcott scored to make it 2-1 I still felt it wasn’t going to be enough to save Arsenal their first defeat by a foreign team at the Emirates Stadium.  But then a great game turned into an amazing one as Puyol appeared to tangle with Cesc Fabregas in the penalty area, just as Fabregas had swung his leg back to shoot.  The resulting penalty seemed harsh, let alone the red card that means the Barcelona captain will miss the second leg along with his centre-back and former Manchester United team-mate Pique, who received a yellow card earlier in the game.

Fabregas scored the resulting penalty, and as if by magic Arsenal were now looking to win the game as they continued to attack,  wave on wave of attack spearheaded by Theo Walcott who, as the only Englishman on the pitch was being closely watched by Fabio Capello.

Thierry Henry received a very warm reception as he replaced Zlatan Ibrahimovic when Barcelona were 2-0 up, only to receive a chorus of ‘boos’ every time he touched the ball thereafter.

On the final whistle Fabregas, who had injured himself scoring from the penalty but had stayed on as Arsenal had already used all three substitutes, limped off.  But he was already going to miss the second leg in the Nou Camp by receiving a yellow card early in the game along with four other Arsenal players.

I cannot belief Barcelona didn’t win this game.  But fair play to Arsenal for their never say die attitude.  That said, it was a pleasure to watch Barcelona completely outplay a very good Arsenal team in the first half, and I feel they will do so again in the second leg.

castrol rankings

Designed to add substance to arguments across the UK over who is the best footballer in Europe, the Castrol Rankings use objective analysis and 100% accurate data to measure every pass, every tackle and every single move of over 2000 players and games every year, which means that the Castrol Ranking are based on actual performance.

Thierry Henry’s efforts in front of goal are what have made him the stand-out player of the last year. The French international scored five goals and provided three assists during Barca’s successful Champions League campaign and has contributed a further 18 goals and eight assists in La Liga during the 12-month period all of which have helped him become the world’s best performing player.

The key to Henry’s success has been the accuracy of his shooting with the forward finding the target with an impressive 70% of his shots compared to an average of 42% across the five main European leagues.

Surprisingly, the Premier League contributes only five players to the Castrol Rankings Top 20. However, further analysis shows that the English league has more players (33) in the top 100 than any of the five major leagues.

The Top 20 Players in the Castrol Rankings September 2009:

Watch Cristiano Ronaldo at the Castrol Rankings Top 20 Player Launch:

where now for juande ramos?

Former Spurs manager Juande Ramos has been sacked by CSKA Moscow after only seven games in the Russian League, following the 3-1 defeat to rivals FK Moscow on Sunday.

Ramos who has enjoyed most of his managerial career in Spain accepted the CSKA job following a six month temporary spell at Real Madrid where he replaced Bernd Schuster.

His most succesful time was with fellow La Liga team Sevilla, where he won the UEFA Cup  in his first season in charge by beating Middlesbrough in the final in 2005. Sevilla also won the UEFA Super Cup with an emphatic 3-0 win over Barcelona in the same season.

Sevilla went on to win the UEFA Cup again in the following season as well as the Copa Del Rey and finished third in La Liga.

Having been made an exceptional offer to become manager at Spurs in August 2007, Ramos siad he would remain with Sevilla until the end of that season. But the sacking of Martin Jol at White Hart Lane hastened proceedings and after resigning at Sevilla on October 26th, Ramos was named as the new Tottenham manager the next day.

In his first season at Spurs Ramos led the team to the Carling Cup final where they produced a magnificent display beating Chelsea with a Jonathan Woodgate goal in extra time.

The future looked rosy for the Spaniard, but in the following 2008/09 season the team endured a dreadful time securing only two points from eight games and on October 25th Ramos was sacked along with his coaching staff, including Gus Poyet.

Ramos replaced the hapless Bernd Schuster at Real Madrid in December 2008 and for a while it appeared the magic was returning as Ramos led Madrid through seventeen games in which they picked up 49 points out of a possible 51.

However in the ‘El Classico’ game between rivals Madrid and Barcelona at the Bernabeu, Real were thrashed 2-6  and subsequently lost the following four games, finishing nine points behind La Liga winners Barcelona.

As his contract expired with Real Madrid at the end of the 2008/09 season and took up his post in Moscow in December.