Sir Alex Ferguson is considering allowing striker Federico Macheda to go out on loan in January.
Italian sides Lazio and Roma are the teams who are both interested in securing the services of the 19 year-old until the end of the season.
Since making his name by scoring a late wonder goal against Aston Villa in 2009, Macheda has failed to live up to expectations and has struggled to keep himself in first team affairs. He now finds himself behind Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov and Javier Hernandez in the forward pecking order at Old Trafford.
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Macheda joined Manchester United from Lazio as a 16 year-old and made numerous appearances for United’s U-18 side before signing his first professional contract with the Red Devils in 2008. He is yet to earn a full cap for the Italian national side, but has played 19 games for their U-16, U-17, U-19 and U-21 sides, scoring four goals.
Dimitar Berbatov fired in his third hat-trick of the season as Manchester United cruised past Birmingham 5-0 in a one-sided encounter at Old Trafford.
The Bulgarian was at his stunning best as he made it 17 goals in 18 league starts to cement his place at the top of the English Premier League goal-scoring charts.
Veteran Ryan Giggs, who was as fresh and energetic as anyone on the pitch, and Nani got the others as United maintained their top-of-the-table form with their 11th win from 12 at home.
For Alex McLeish the future looks far more ominous. Sitting perilously close to the drop zone, Birmingham’s normally solid defence were run ragged without the dependable Scott Dann, who has been ruled out for the season.
It took just 90 seconds for United to open the scoring. Nani won a corner after Liam Ridgewell dithered and from Giggs’ dead-ball cross, John O’Shea flicked on for Berbatov to nod home from a yard out.
Ben Foster, who left Old Trafford in the summer, did well to keep out a Berbatov blast minutes later after the striker pounced on the keeper’s miscued clearance.
The second finally came just after the half hour when Roger Johnson sloppily gave away the ball in his own half and Wayne Rooney worked the ball through to Berbatov to cut inside and smash in from eight yards out.
United added the third on the stroke of half-time when Berbatov intercepted David Bentley’s cross-field pass and the ball ran to Rooney, whose low cross was fired in by an unmarked Giggs.
While Berbatov cannot stop scoring, his strike partner Rooney has scored just once from open play all season and the England man missed a sitter just after half-time – heading wide from two yards out.
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But he had a big part in United’s fourth in the 53rd minute. Rooney was the only man alert to Edwin van der Sar’s long clearance and he gave the ball to Giggs, who crossed for Berbatov to fire in off the underside of the crossbar.
Birmingham had a golden opportunity to pull a goal back in the 57th minute but Keith Fahey miscontrolled the ball two yards out in front of an empty net.
Nani, who had a largely frustrating afternoon, added a fifth in the 76th minute when he cut inside and hit an 18-yard shot beyond Foster.
Bolton boss Owen Coyle lamented some poor finishing from his side on Saturday in their 0-0 draw with Wigan in the FA Cup fourth round.
With neither side able to break the deadlock at Reebok Stadium, the teams now face a replay to decide who moves into the round of 16 and Coyle said he feels replays are still the best way to decide drawn cup ties.
“There were certainly chances at both ends,” Coyle said.
“I did feel that we had two gilt-edged chances. I would normally expect us to hit the back of the net but we didn’t take them.”
“Now we both find ourselves with a replay to content with.”
“I think you have to give Wigan credit, they defended for their lives when they had to. Now we’ve both got an extra game to contend with which we probably both didn’t want.”
“I personally love the FA Cup I think it’s the best competition in world football. Replays have always been in place and I don’t see why we should change them.”
“We all realise that the Barclays Premier League is the best league in the world and everyone wants to be fresh and energetic for that but you have to pay respect to the FA Cup and we’ll do that.”
Wigan boss Roberto Martinez said he was pleased with the spirit shown by his young side, and declared he wanted to use a positive result in the cup as a springboard to get his team out of the Premier League relegation zone.
“I’m honest with you. I think it will be very, very positive for us,” Martinez said.
“We made changes today and I feel that games like this are very good for us. We’ve got a young squad that probably need football, we need to play in certain conditions.”
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“Today we had two or three very good performances and these players are shouting that they want to have a role in this team in the last third of this competition and that’s reassuring.”
“We wanted the cup to be a help to our league campaign.”
“The manner that we performed today showed great concentration, we knew that it was going to be a tough game because we know Bolton play with great confidence.”
France and Brazil will use Wednesday’s friendly in Paris to gauge how far they have progressed since their failed 2010 World Cup campaigns.
Brazil endured a disappointing World Cup by their lofty standards, with the five-time champions eliminated in the quarter-finals by eventual runners-up the Netherlands, while France fared even worse, failing to progress beyond the group stages.
France coach Raymond Domenech lost his job as a result of the display, and his replacement, Laurent Blanc, who has three wins from his four Euro 2012 qualifiers in charge, is keen to see how far they have come.
“Brazil evokes good memories for France and the French team. We knocked them out three times in (World Cup) final phases,” Blanc said.
“But things have changed a lot, it is a different time now, we are not in 1986, 1998 or 2006. We are still under construction, they are too.”
“I think they have an advantage, or a head start on us at the moment.”
The Brazil squad is made up exclusively of players based in Europe, with coach Mano Menezes, who replaced Dunga after the 2010 World Cup, claiming the home-based players would be short of match fitness given they are in the midst of their off-season.
Manchester United midfielder Anderson, 22, said the young Brazilian squad selected by Menezes was an exciting sign for the future.
“We both have a young team, not just Brazil, like France. England, France everyone needed a new team after the World Cup. In Brazil we needed new players,” he said.
Despite the lack of Brazil-based players in the team, Blanc has no doubts his side will face a competitive outfit at the Stade de France.
“People are saying, ‘Brazil today, we don’t know them’,” he said.
“Well yes, if you aren’t interested in football, but the team which will be announced tomorrow, you will know them all.”
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“Why? Because there is one who plays for Inter, one who plays for Barcelona, one who plays for Chelsea, another who plays for AC Milan, one who plays for Liverpool, a second one for Chelsea.”
“There is one who plays for Fenerbahce, and Fenerbahce is a big team too. Pato who plays for AC Milan and so on and so on,” Blanc said.
“They haven’t proved themselves yet because they are still under construction and they are young players, but when players like that have won titles, then we will know them all. And we already know them, amateur football fans already know them.”
Juventus sporting director Giuseppe Marotta has confirmed the Italian club will aim to sign Alberto Aquilani permanently from Liverpool.The on-loan central midfielder has expressed his desire to stay at the Stadio Olimpico, and Marotta confirmed the club would look to use the clause to sign the 26-year-old to remain in Torino beyond his season-long stint.”Well, let’s say that Aquilani is doing very well and we’re very satisfied. He should not be worried, since having him on loan doesn’t mean that we’re only evaluating him, but believing in him,” Marotta said. “His skills are known since he has been in Roma and the Italy youth teams and therefore we’ll discuss with Liverpool the option of a permanent move.”In another positive sign for Bianconeri fans, Marotta confirmed the club is aiming to extend the career of veteran Alessandro Del Piero.”There is always this chance. Del Piero is a great professional player who has given much to Juventus,” he said. “We’re trying to find an economic balance. It’s only a matter of time, which is needed to find an agreement, but we’re optimistic that we can achieve a positive result.”Marotta said the injury concerns of Luca Toni (knee) and Alessandro Matri (ribs) have affected the club’s consistency on the pitch since the return to league duties after the Italian winter break.”Well, they’re both great players, which we were missing mainly because of the injuries we have had in recent months. Therefore we have found a certain identity and consistency from a tactical point of view again,” he said.
Lionel Messi’s goal glut continued as Barcelona opened up a 10-point lead in La Liga with a 1-0 win at Valencia on Wednesday.Messi, who has scored 42 times at club level across all competitions this season, tucked a 77th-minute goal past Valencia goalkeeper Vincente Guaita to leave Real Madrid trailing by 10 points on the Spanish table.Valencia, meanwhile, fall 20 points clear of the league leaders in third place after seeing their 11-game unbeaten run brought to an end.Barca’s win, their 23rd straight unbeaten result in La Liga, was Pep Guardiola’s first at the Mestalla as manager.Messi was uncharacteristically wasteful in front of goal, failing to convert three gilt-edged chances, each from within eight yards, and spraying another over the crossbar.Roberto Soldado and Pablo Hernandez both shot wide for Valencia before Messi finally found his range, tapping wide of the Guaita after Adriano ran down the left and cut inside for the Argentine marksman.Elswhere, Villarreal kept in the hunt for the top three with a 1-0 home win over strugglers Hercules.Italian striker Giuseppe Rossi did the damage for the hosts, beating the offside trap with a terrific run down the middle and side-footing past Hercules custodian Calatayud in the 22nd minute.Atletico Bilbao’s freefall continued with a fourth straight loss, this time on the road to Real Zaragoza.Llorente put the visitors ahead in the 18th minute before second-half strikes to Jiri Jarosik (51) and Ikechukwu Uche (56) saw Bilbao plummet to sixth on the table, two points clear of fifth-placed Espanyol.Atletico Madrid moved within three points of the Europa League places with a 1-1 draw at Getafe thanks to Elias’ 82nd-minute equaliser, while Levante drew 1-1 at Real Sociedad and Osasuna fought out a goal-less draw with Deportivo.
Who doesn’t love a hero? This week on Football FanCast we’re celebrating football heroes – players who are loved by supporters and in their eyes can do no wrong. These players will long live in the memory at their clubs as footballers who were adored and cheered every time they stepped onto the pitch.
Every hero has a story. There is always a reason why they’re loved by the fans, whether it be for the effort and commitment they showed on the pitch or the success that they were part of, and more often than not greatly contributed to.
So here we are letting football’s heroes step forward and take the limelight one more time and pay homage to their achievements and remember just why they have the status that they do.
Blogs:
The Top TEN Returning Football Heroes
Liverpool Hall of Fame – Ian Rush
The Premier League’s Cult Heroes XI
Chelsea Hall of Fame: Gianfranco Zola
The Essential Ingredients of a ‘Cult Hero’ in football
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Javier Mascherano’s acrimonious move to Barcelona at the beginning of the season had an air inevitability to it. The well trodden path of Premier League stars departing for La Liga’s hegemonic duo of Barcelona and Real Madrid remains an attractive proposition that few are capable of turning down. However, after departing for pastures new, Mascherano appears to have made one fatal error – he has seriously underestimated his new employer’s preference for a local lad.
Barcelona are a club that, rather arrogantly at times, revels in the quality of its youth system and they often laud the strength of their system and their relative superiority over Real Madrid‘s with nothing short of youthful glee. It is thought by many that a long-held association to the club can often triumph over even the best of players – and this appears to be a trap that the Argentine captain has fallen into.
Mascherano is to my knowledge, currently the greatest exponent of the holding midfield role in world football. When on form and fired-up, he can be devastatingly destructive. His distribution skills, while not as consistently excellent as his tackling, are an area often overlooked for praise. In short, Mascherano’s move to Barcelona, on paper at least, made a lot of sense as it was thought that he would help add a steeliness, urgency and aggression to the Barcelona midfield that has at times been lacking.
The tippy, tappy stylings of this Barcelona side are the thing of legend. This current Barcelona side will go down as one of, if not the greatest club side of all time, yet there is a school of thought that persists in suggesting that this side have a soft underbelly at their very core. A side of Barcelona’s character that is often overlooked in favour of their breathtaking brilliance is that they are sometimes left resorting to acts gamesmanship and other less savoury tactics in an attempt to gain a significant edge over their opponents – attributes that I happen to think are integral to the makings of a successful side. Mascherano typifies this and upon completion of his move it was thought that he would help add a new dimension to the Barcelona engine room.
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It remains extremely difficult to stifle this Barcelona side, but Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan side laid a blueprint last year whereby they turned Barca’s greatest strength – their passing ability – into their greatest weakness. In essence, Mourinho’s risky plan meant that Barca stifled themselves with their sideways passing and stilted movement.
The loss of Samuel Eto’o up front hit the side greater last season than they could have imagined. He often acted as the first line of defence and his phenomenal work-rate often forced opposing defenders into making rash clearances and stray passes.
Last season Barcelona took that little bit longer in winning back possession from their opponents than they would have liked. They missed Eto’o’s presence as a defensive force leading the line and because they appeared to lack a degree of urgency up front, it heaped too much pressure onto the midfield and so reinforcements were called for in the middle of the park. This at least sets the context for the Mascherano move and from a Barcelona point of view, it appeared a logical step.
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Mascherano was expected to take the place of Sergio Busquets in the Barcelona midfield – something which has yet proved to be the case. Busquets is a player that quite often divides opinion, but something tells me that he’s a player that will be revered more in years to come than he is now. People underestimate how essential Busquets is to Barcelona’s style of play and indeed Spain’s.
Busquets may not possess the technique of team mates Xavi or Iniesta, and he may not possess the tenacity or aggression of Mascherano, yet he represents a halfway house between the two and is ideally suited to the holding midfield role in the Spanish league – a league that often values intelligence of movement and speed of thought above all else, attributes that Busquets routinely displays with ease.
The former Liverpool player, much like in his final full season on Merseyside, has been forced to play at right back at times instead of his preferred central holding midfield position. Mascherano has been involved in only 18 of Barca’s 28 league fixtures to date so far this season and the player will no doubt be surprised that he is not as integral to the first-team line-up as he would have perhaps previously anticipated upon signing for the club. It would seem that all Mascherano has done is to replace Yaya Toure as Busquets’ understudy and he is looked upon as a squad player rather than an essential component of the first-team.
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While Mascherano may feel surprise at his role on the fringes, his failure to make his mark thus far will have come as no surprise to most football fans who realise that Barca value their’s and the club’s identity above all else. This identity is often best personified by the graduates of the club’s Cantera – Barcelona’s famed and highly successful youth system.
Barcelona fans love a local lad more than anything else, yet they are aided by the fact that their youth team and B-team players happen to be of a sufficiently high enough standard that they actually merit their chances in the first-team squad and the opportunities that are granted to them to establish themselves.
Barcelona have a unique system of blooding in youngsters that very few clubs on the planet are able to replicate. The club’s identity remains it’s most powerful asset. Locality triumphs ability in the minds of many Los Cules and Mascherano appears to be the latest victim of the club’s preference for local talent over foreign imports.
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Mascherano has been linked with a move at the end of the season to Italian duo Juventus and Inter as well as Chelsea. Moving to either Barcelona or Real Madrid remains the pinnacle of any footballer’s career, however very few of these moves have happy endings as Kaka will no doubt testify to.
With a little else other than a role on the periphery secured at Barcelona for the time being, with Busquets’ status as a guaranteed started under no immediate danger, the Argentine could very well by forced to depart Barcelona at the end of the season in search of guaranteed first-team opportunities elsewhere, after being confined to an unfamiliar role on the bench at times this campaign.
If by chance he does happen to move to Chelsea – not an entirely absurd notion in itself – then there may be a few Liverpool fans, just a few, that may allow themselves a wry smile at the move; this would not come from the identity of the club he is joining, but the fact that the player is being forced to return to our fair shores with his tail wrapped firmly between his legs.
One man who’s not leaving Liverpool any time soon is Conor Coady, watch the video below to see why…
The fight for English Premier League survival will be on in earnest when Blackburn welcome Birmingham to Ewood Park on Saturday.Steve Kean’s Blackburn are without a league win since their 2-0 triumph over West Brom on January 23, and they are in 14th place on the league table – just two points clear of the bottom three.
However, they did manage a 0-0 draw with Arsenal at the Emirates in their most recent start.
The situation is much the same for Birmingham boss Alex McLeish, with his side winning just two of their past 10 league matches and sitting in 15th place, also on 34 points.
Birmingham did enjoy some success last time out, beating Bolton 2-1, but like their rivals on Saturday they are skating perilously close to the drop zone.
The highlight of McLeish’s season was undoubtedly Birmingham’s 2-1 win over Arsenal at Wembley on February 27 to claim the Carling Cup, the first piece of silverware to arrive at St Andrew’s in 48 years.
The Scot is desperate to ensure his side do not become just the second team to win the League Cup and be relegated in the same season, a fate which befell Norwich in 1985.
In their only other meeting this season, two goals from Craig Gardner helped Birmingham to a 2-1 win at St Andrew’s on August 21.
Kean has selection problems of both a fitness and disciplinary nature ahead of the clash, with midfielder Steven N’Zonzi suspended for the next three games after being sent off for a rash challenge on Arsenal’s Laurent Koscielny on Saturday.
Vince Grella is out for the rest of the season, and Keith Andrews looks unlikely to shake off his troublesome groin problem in time to feature in the seven games they have left.
The injury list at St Andrew’s is slightly more extensive, with defender Martin Jiranek, midfielder Alexander Hleb and striker James McFadden all in doubt, while defender Scott Dann is nursing a hamstring injury.
Tottenham’s hopes of Champions League success now hinges on them finishing in the top four this season. It is a mammoth task that faces Harry’s men, after yet more points thrown away this afternoon, although Spurs are never known for making life easy for themselves.
At FFC this week we have seen a mixed bag of Spurs blogs that includes the right transfer for Tottenham; summer cull what Harry needs, while Tottenham have every right to feel frustrated.
We also look at the best Spurs articles around the web this week.
*
The Greatest Premier League Goals Of All Time…YOU DECIDE!
SIX things we learnt from the North London Derby?
Transfer links with Tottenham and Liverpool the real reason for the demise?
Will UEFA initiative ensure equality for all football clubs?
The right transfer deal for Tottenham Hotspur?
Is streamlining at Spurs such a bad idea?
Tottenham’s top TEN ‘Bogey-Men’
WHL or Old Trafford – who represents the best move for Diego?
Why Tottenham have every right to feel frustrated
What actually makes a BIG club then?
Harry and Fergie go head-to-head for Ajax star
*Best of Web*
Great game for the neutrals – Spurs Musings From Jimmy G2
One of the Great Derbies – Tottenham On My Mind
Do you think that’s wise, Spurs? – Martin Cloake Online
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The Stupendous Adventures of Gareth Bale – Dear Mr Levy
The Clive Allen & Aunty Wengy Caption Comepetition – Harry Hotspur