MALAWI COACH: I WILL BUILD A NEW TEAM

Flames caretaker coach, Tom Saintfiet has said some players do not deserve to be in the national team and

will be axed as he turns his focus to the 2014 World Cup qualifiers against Nigeria`s Super Eagles.

Saintfiet said he will be forced to ring some changes after being let down by the performance of some players at the Cosafa Cup in Zambia, where the flames even failed to make the grade in the third place match.

Although he could not be drawn to name the players who face the chop, Saintfiet expressed disappointment with the performance of goalkeeper Simplex Nthala and the defence. "I am very disappointed and angry as a coach at the moment. What i noticed was that my goalkeeper

I'm 95% Fit - - Onazi

Super Eagles midfielder, Ogenyi Onazi, has declared that he is close to full fitness following the injury that forced him to miss the FIFA Confederations Cup in Brazil.

The midfielder copped the injury while playing for the national team in a 2014 World Cup qualifier against Namibia in Windhoek last month but returned to action just last week and he has featured in two pre-season games for his club SS Lazio.

The Rome-based team will meet Juventus in the Italian Super Cup and the former My People FC star says he and his teammates are looking forward to a great season beginning with the game with Juve.

"I'm working to get in shape in a few days’ time; I’m at 95 percent okay for now. We are working very hard and well because the pre-season training will be useful for us in the future,” he said.

"Against Spezia, I liked the team, we played very well - particularly in the first half and we created so many chances. We must do better than last year; we have to try to win every game. Firstly, in the upcoming Super Cup and from there on focus on winning the Scudetto; why not?”

Onazi is one of the players listed by Super Eagles coach Stephen Keshi for the Mandela Challenge game against Bafana-Bafana of South Africa next month.

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LAZIO, TORINO WANT EMEGHARA

Serie B side Siena have revealed that Torino and Lazio are interested in signing Nigeria-born striker Innocent Emeghara.



The Switzerland international joined the Tuscan club on loan in January, with an option to sign outright. He scored seven goals in 17 League games. “Yes, we’ve taken up the option to keep him,” sporting director Stefano Antonelli told Calcio News 24.

Bierhoff fears for German football

The ex-Mannschaft star believes there is an unhealthy reliance on players from the nation's two top sides

Oliver Bierhoff believes the sheer number of Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund players in the Germany side could harm their chances of winning World Cup 2014.

Despite the two teams emerging as the finest in Europe after contesting last season's Champions League final, the former Mannschaft striker is refusing to get carried away with Germany's apparent progress.

Instead, the 45-year-old cited an expanding gulf in home-grown talent as a potential source of decline.

"Although Germany has Mario Gotze, Mesut Ozil, Thomas Muller and Toni Kroos, we lack classic strikers and full-backs," the 1996 European championship winner highlighted to Express.de.

"In Bayern's starting line-up in the Champions League final, there were six foreign players. We felt it at the European Under-21 championships [where Germany were eliminated in the group stages].

"We must not rest now. We need to set a course in football and take massive efforts to ensure we remain competitive."

"Without Dortmund's and Bayern's input, there is considerably less talent."

Joachim Low's men had struggled in friendlies against Ecuador and the United States without the Bundesliga's leading Germany internationals.

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Kaka hails Real Madrid Over Win of PSG.

The Brazil midfielder spoke highly about the sense of occasion that accompanied Real Madrid's game with the Ligue 1 winners in Gothenburg

Kaka has hailed Real Madrid's "fantastic" 1-0 friendly win over Paris Saint-Germain in Sweden on Saturday night.

A first-half goal from Karim Benzema was enough to separate the sides as los Blancos ran out winners courtesy of that solitary strike in their third pre-season game.

 

Kaka, who replaced goal-scorer Benzema in the 67th minute, acknowledged that this was precisely the sort of spectacle that fans would want to see, as well as adding that it was an important part of his side's preparations for the new campaign.

"The crowd had a great time and enjoyed the match," the 31-year-old Brazilian told Realmadrid.com.

"It was a good preseason match and we also got the win and I'm happy. It is a great experience to play against a good team like PSG in this city, it was fantastic."

The presence of Madrid in Gothenburg, not to mention Zlatan Ibrahimovic's arrival back in Sweden, caused a great deal of excitement and Kaka was quick to speak of the fans' experiences in the Ullevi Stadium.

"It is very important that the fans get to enjoy a good match like this. I think the crowd had a great time and enjoyed the match."

Real Madrid now travel to the USA where they will face L.A. Galaxy in the Guinness International Champions Cup Phoenix on Friday.

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Owen says it would be a surprise if Suarez leaves Liverpool for Arsenal.

Michael Owen thinks Luis Suarez would be making a surprising career move if he left Liverpool to join Arsenal.

Ex-Liverpool striker Owen told BBC's Sportsweek that joining Real Madrid or Barcelona would make "more sense".

"Arsenal are a fabulous club and have got a great heritage, but Liverpool are as big - if not bigger," he said.

 I'd be very surprised if he were to move to Arsenal. Madrid or Barcelona would make more sense."

 Truthfully, can you really see Arsenal winning the Champions League next season or going into the later stages? Unless they buy a good few players then I can't."

Bosingwa leaves Queen Park Rangers.

 

Jose Bosingwa leaves QPR by mutual consent

QPR defender Jose Bosingwa has left the club by mutual consent and is set to join Turkish top-flight side Trabzonspor. 

The 30-year-old former Chelsea full-back joined the Hoops as a free agent last summer and went on to make 23 starts, scoring one goal as they were relegated to the Championship.

Bosingwa, who cost Chelsea £16.2m in 2008, made 24 appearances for Portugal and played at the 2008 European Championship before quitting international football in 2011.

He began his club career at Boavista but came to prominence at Portuguese rivals Porto where he won three league titles and the Champions League before his move to Chelsea.

The defender won another Champions League title, a league championship and three FA Cups during his four-year spell at the Blues.

Source ; bbc Sports.

Let's talk Bayern Munich Pre-Season Matches.

Bayern's pre-season Matches :

Bayern Fanclub Wildenau 1-15 Bayern Munich 
 
TSV Regen 1-9 Bayern Munich 
 
Paulaner Dream Team 0-13 Bayern Munich 
 
Brescia 0-3 Bayern Munich
 
Sonnehof Grossapac 0-6 Bayern Munich 
 
Hansa Rostock 0-4 Bayern Munich 
 
Hamburg 0-4 Bayern Munich 
 
Borussia Monchengladbach 1-5 Bayern Munich

Bayern Munich 2-0 Barcelona  

Bayern Dey Vex o!

Pep Guardiola Loses his first Competitive Match.

German Supercup: Pep Guardiola defeated in Bayern Munich debut

Pep Guardiola lost his first competitive game in charge of Bayern Munich as Borussia Dortmund took the German Supercup with a 4-2 win. 

Bayern, who beat Dortmund at Wembley in May to win the Champions League, lost out as Marco Reus scored twice for Dortmund at the Westfalenstadion.

Arjen Robben - who scored the winner at Wembley - hit both of Bayern's goals.

 Even though we lost, I didn't get the feeling that Dortmund were better than us," Guardiola said.

 We still have 10 days to get ready for the Bundesliga restart and to correct our minor errors."
Guardiola, who won 13 trophies in four years before leaving Barcelona last year, has the ominous task of replacing Jupp Heynckes at the Allianz Arena.
Under Heynckes, Bayern became the first German team to win the Bundesliga, the European Cup and the German Cup in the same season last year.

Bayern were without key midfielders Franck Ribery and Bastian Schweinsteiger, while Mario Gotze - who left Dortmund to join Bayern over the summer - did not feature as he recovers from a hamstring injury.
Thiago Alcantara, Bayern's new signing from Barcelona, played the full 90 minutes.

Reus headed Dortmund ahead when stand-in goalkeeper Tom Starke failed to hold on to a Sven Bender header, before Robben headed in an equaliser from a Philipp Lahm cross.
 ender Daniel van Buyten headed in to his own net before Ilkay Gundogan curled home from the edge of the area.

Robben drilled in a low shot to cut the deficit before Dortmund wrapped up the win as new signing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang set up Reus for his second.

Dortmund coach Jurgen Klopp said: "It was a great game, both teams ran up and down like there was no tomorrow.

"The main thing is Bayern aren't our main rivals, we are just focusing on us."
Bayern begin their Bundesliga campaign against Borussia Monchengladbach on Friday, 9 August, while Dortmund face Augsburg a day later.

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David Moyes Says United Will Add more Players to its Squad.

Manchester United manager David Moyes is confident he will add to his squad this summer, but has yet to decide whether he will make a third bid for Barcelona midfielder Cesc Fabregas. 

United have had two bids rejected for the 26-year-old with Barcelona insistent he is not for sale.
"I couldn't tell you if there will be another bid [for Fabregas]," he said.

"I never at any time said I knew we would get him. We will take stock and consider what we are going to do next."

The Premier League champions have failed with two bids for the former Arsenal player, the latest of which is understood to be £30m, plus add-ons.


United's only summer signing has been Uruguayan right-back Guillermo Varela, but Moyes said: "I am quite confident we will add to the squad.

"But what we have here is a really good squad of players already. You mustn't forget about the quality that is already here at Manchester United."

Moyes also revealed that captain Nemanja Vidic will feature in a friendly at Crewe on Monday after recovering from a back problem that kept him out of the tour to Asia.

Wayne Rooney - who pulled out of the tour with a hamstring injury - will not be fit to feature at Gresty Road but should be fit to face Swedish side AIK Fotboll on 6 August.

Source

Chelsea Can't afford Rooney - - Morinho.

The Blues boss is adamant that there would be no need to offload players to balance the budget should he sign the Manchester United star, despite having bought already this summer

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho says that the club would not have to offload any current players in order to sign Manchester United star Wayne Rooney.

The Londoners are expected to make a renewed bid for the England striker after the Red Devils turned down their opening offer, despite the disgruntled forward being "hell bent" to leave Old Trafford, as exclusively revealed by Goal.

"The club are working hard to keep the numbers in balance but we can still invest in a player who costs £20 million, £25m, £30m and not break the balance," Mourinho told the press. "We don't need to sell to do that."

Asked if he could spend £50m on a striker, he added: "The striker I want doesn't cost £50m."
The Blues boss declared on Thursday that he was "calm" about his pursuit of the United forward, with a sizeable stable of strikers at his disposal should the move not materialise.

Red Devils legend Paul Scholes, however, argues that it would be best for Rooney to stay put.

Mourinho has already added the likes of Andre Schurrle and Marco van Ginkel to his Chelsea squad this summer, with the England international his only remaining target.

Source

Diego Forlan Urge Arsenal to Pursue Suarez.

The 34-year-old believes that the Liverpool forward can help fill the void left at the Gunners by Thierry Henry's departure and urges Arsene Wenger to keep pursuing his signature

 Forlan believes that the Gunners' inability to challenge for trophies in recent years has stemmed from a failure to replace legendary striker Thierry Henry.

"Of course, Arsenal are a very strong team but, for the last years, they have not been able to compete with Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea for the title," the 34-year-old continued.

"They have had very good players but have maybe lacked that one special player who you need to win a league as strong as the Premier League.

 "United have had Wayne Rooney and City have had Sergio Aguero and Carlos Tevez but Arsenal have struggled since Thierry Henry left."

Emenike scores Again.

The Nigerian international is back to goal-scoring ways as he notched his second league goal in three matches

Spartak Moscow and Nigeria international, Emmanuel Emenike are firing on all cylinders in the new 2013/14 season as they won their third league game on Saturday by beating neighbours, Dinamo Moscow 4-1.

Emenike, who has been used as a substitute in the previous two league matches, started the match against Dinamo with Jurado playing slightly behind him and played the full match to signify his return to full fitness.
Emenike scored the third Spartak goal in the 30th minute with Jurado grabbing two goals to lift Spartak to the top of the three-week old league with maximum nine points.

Last season, Spartak finished fourth, 13 points behind winners CSKA Moscow, but this season they will be buoyed by a fit-again Emenike, who is showing that he has not forgotten where the goal is as he tries to build on his goals return of five goals in 16 league games.

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Manchester United boss Moyes admits Hong Kong pitch concerns Ahead of Monday's Match.

Manchester United boss David Moyes says he is worried about the state of the pitch at the Hong Kong Stadium, where his side are due to play on Monday

Hong Kong has been hit by heavy rain , "I do have concerns about the surface," Moyes admitted on Friday.

Moyes attributed the 2-2 Draw with Osaka to Bad weather.

 Moyes, whose side face Hong Kong outfit Kitchee FC on Monday in the latest leg of their Asia tour, said: "We will travel to Hong Kong and hope the conditions improve and the pitch is in a better state than it has been in recently."

Man Utd's summer tour

• 13 July: v Singha XI 0-1
• 20 July: v A-League XI 5-1
• 23 July: v Yokohama 2-3
• 26 July: v Cerezo Osaka 2-2
• 29 July: v Kitchee FC

West Ham set to Move for Osaze.

West Ham Weigh Up Move For Osaze

According to Times West Ham United are looking to capitalise on the failure of Crystal Palace and Fulham in securing Peter Odemwingie’s signature.

After so many unsuccessful Transfer Efforts This  has left the door open for Sam Allardyce to add some panache alongside Andy Carroll.

West Ham have turned their attentions to the Nigerian forward , having failed to agree terms with the former Chelsea striker Kalou – who reportedly wanted assurances of a starting role within the Hammers attack for next season.

Fabregas is not for Sale - - Barcelona Vice President Bartomeu tells United.

 

Barcelona vice-president Joseph Maria Bartomeu has told Manchester United that they will not sell midfielder Cesc Fabregas at any price.

 Bartomeu said: "United's interest for Cesc Fabregas is obvious, he's a great player but it does not bother us. It does not matter what they offer us, we are not selling him." Bartomeu was speaking at new manager Gerardo Martino's first news conference following his appointment as Tito Vilanova's replacement.

 I'm not going to involve myself in the club's accounts, but considering the club has already rejected two offers, I would guess it will reject a third," Martino said.

 "In other words, Fabregas will remain here."

Mikel Rejects Galatasaray Loan offer.

Nigerian Midfieder John Obi Mikel has Rejected an offer to move Galatasaray after the Club failed to meet the 15 Million Euros Required for his Transfer .

According MTNFootball.com  Galatasaray have agreed personal terms with the Nigeria star, but they could not convince him to quit Stamford Bridge on a season-long loan deal after they could not stomp up the 15 million pounds ‘The Blues’ demanded for the player.


”Galatasaray and Mikel have agreed personal terms, but the player refused a loan move after the Turkish champions could not come up with the 15 million pounds Chelsea asked for.

They then proposed a loan deal, but Mikel shot that down as he would prefer a permanent transfer.”

The Nigeria star Presently  l has a contract with Chelsea till June 2016/17 after he recently signed a new, improved deal at the London club.

Berkistas Prepared to Pay 2.5 million Euros for Elderson Echiejile.

Turkish club Besiktas are now set to beat Norwich City to the signature of Nigeria defender Elderson Echiejile.

According to Portuguese sports daily A Bola on Friday, Besiktas are prepared to cough out 2.5 million Euros for the Nigeria left-back.


However Norwich city  have been bidding for the football star , but might have been pushed aside by Besiktas offer.

Besiktas , already have  Nigeria striker Michael Eneramo, in their formidable force  are now expected to table a formal contract for Elderson, A Bola reported.

Elderson’s recent form has sparked off interest in Turkey and England, where Fulham are also believed to be keen to have him.

He still has a year left on his contract at Braga and this week he reported back to the Portuguese club for pre-season training ahead of the new season.


Culled from Complete Sports.

We Suffered --Fabregas

Immediately after the match Fabregas tweeted we suffered but we still had the victory.

Leonardo cofesses--I wish we had Messi in our team.

S ports Director for Saint Paris EN Germain has a brief interview with canal+ said he would have loved his team to have Messi--

 Leonardo says--
     Messi? If we had him in our team, we would have won 6-0! But Barca formed Messi, so they deserve him. When he came on, he brought a lot to the team psychologically, he pushed Barca and the stadium."
  

Barcelona Knocks out PSG 3-3 aggregate.

Barcelona has scaled through, with Pedro scoring the all-important equaliser after Javier Pastore had given PSG a deserved lead at Camp Nou. A half-fit Messi hobbled on to make the difference, and the Blaugrana
advance to their sixth successive semi-final - a record in this tournament.
Barcelona's match-winner Pedro spoke to reporters at Camp Nou:

"We're very happy. I think having managed to get the equaliser in the end we deserved to go through. PSG are great rivals and perhaps it took us a while to get into our rhythm at the start.

"Messi is a very important player and he put in a great effort [after coming on]. He was the catalyst; we changed after he came on and we have to thank him for that. It doesn't matter to us who we get in the semi-finals as all of the teams in the draw will be very difficult to play against. "
Source--Goal.com

''Unbelievable'' if Chelsea lets Lampard go says Joe cole.

Former Chelsea Midfielder and westham winger Joe cole has expressed his opinion that it would be unbelievable if chelsea should let Frank Lampard go.

Lampard's contract expires this summer and Chelsea are yet to offer him a deal despite his impressive  performances this season - and is only three goals away from becoming the club's all-time leading scorer.

This what he said on''Absolute Rock 'n' Roll football with Ian wright.