Gareth Bale Transfer Saga - My Thoughts

Along with Wayne Rooney and Luis Suarez, Gareth Bale is another name that just doesn’t seem to be disappearing at the moment when it comes to transfer speculation. Tottenham Hotspur say he isn’t going anywhere and they want to agree a new contract with him, but reports in the Spanish press claim Real Madrid are about to agree a deal with him instead.

I have no doubt in my mind that Gareth Bale would excel in La Liga if he ended up making the move to Madrid, but as long as he was going to be getting enough playing time for the kind of high fee that would likely be agreed for him. If you pay big money for a player, you can’t expect them to be warming the bench almost every game. It would also put him under increased pressure to succeed whenever he would play because supporters would be questioning why such an expensive player isn’t starting in matches and when he does play, he should be expected to play well every time simply because he cost the club so much money. I don’t doubt for one second that the Madrid faithful won’t give him the support he needs to help settle in quickly and feel welcome at the club, but if it takes him too long to start producing the same kind of displays that he has done for Tottenham in recent years, that support won’t last forever.

Personally I’d prefer it if Bale stayed in the Premier League, even if it wasn’t with Spurs, but I think the club are even less likely to sell to a divisional rival for a massive fee. I wouldn’t get the chance to see him play as often if he moved to anywhere else in Europe and his jinxing runs and incredible goals, just to name a couple of traits, would be greatly missed by the Premier League viewing audience. While it is another season in the Europa League for Spurs, the signings of Paulinho and Nacer Chadli look promising and there is still plenty of time for more additions that could help the club take the extra step this season. Should Bale leave, the chances don’t improve unless even more major investment is made to fill the void that he ends up leaving.

Reports that Bale is unsettled don’t surprise me, he is causing a stir in both the English and Spanish media and while it certainly won’t be doing him any favours, it also appears to be driving Tottenham crazy too. His manager and chairman say he isn’t for sale. The club reportedly wanted him to sign a new contract that would allow him to stay at White Hart Lane for another season, but should they fail to qualify for the Champions League again, a minimum fee release clause would then become active and Bale would then become available to anybody for a fixed price. There was no confirmation on whether or not that contract was signed or not, and so it allowed speculation to continue and reach the stage that it has now where all sorts are being said about the player and his whereabouts for the new season.

Like I said, I hope Bale stays in the Premier League, but right now it isn’t looking too promising. The Spanish press work in special ways that help players become unsettled before the big clubs like Real Madrid then have a clear shot at getting their man. Spurs are holding their ground, but it is surely only a matter of time before we are due something of a big breakthrough in this now dragging saga.

Andrew.

http://www.soccercv.com/articles/latest_news/ < News and Reports by me found here.

http://www.swol.co/profile/show/1390 < News and Reports by me also found here too.

http://soccerisma.com/author/andy/ < News and Reports by me found here as well.

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Rain Plays Havoc With Football Again!

                   

Yesterday afternoon I watched the Sunderland vs Tottenham Hotspur game in the Premier League Asia Trophy, the report I did for the game is available to read on the websites listed at the bottom of the page, but while The Black Cats ran out 3-1 winners in the end, the game was overshadowed slightly by a somewhat controversial incident caused mainly by “Mother Nature”.

The game looked in serious doubt at first as heavy rainfall meant huge puddles were starting to form all around the pitch, particularly in the central area. After consideration from the authorities in charge of running the tournament, it was decided that the Sunderland-Tottenham game and the Manchester City-South China game that followed would both still take place, but with a 30 minute delayed kick-off time and two 40 minute halves being contested instead of the usual 45.

At first I was pretty happy that the game was to go ahead as I was looking forward to reporting, and I’m certain the fans in attendance were even happier as they still got the chance to see some of their favourite players in action instead of having to go home and wait until the next day for the matches to take place. However in the 30 minutes before kick-off, there didn’t appear to be any sign of water being brushed off the pitch or anything else being done to try and get the surface in a slightly safer and better playing condition which surprised me.

I then had a feeling that the standard of football was going to suffer because of the poor conditions and I was absolutely right. The pitch looked like it had just hosted a rugby match beforehand, central based players were struggling to pass the ball properly at times and it certainly made the potential for mistakes to occur during the game and even bigger possibility. Unfortunately there was an injury moment during the game, but just the one. Tottenham’s Jan Vertonghen was stretchered off early in the second-half after landing awkwardly during an aerial challenge and damaging his ankle.

Manager Andre Villas-Boas admitted after the game that he was not happy with the conditions and revealed that Vertonghen was due to to go for an MRI Scan today to discover how serious the injury is and if it puts him in doubt for the opening game of the Premier League season next month. While I’m not convinced that the conditions were completely to blame for his injury as players don’t always land in the safest way when challenging for a high ball all the time, but I completely agree about the poor standard of playing conditions.

It reminded me of last year when England travelled to Warsaw to play Poland in a World Cup Qualifier. Despite The National Stadium having a retractable roof, it was left open and on the day of the game, heavy rain fell for an extended period, and by the time night fell and the supporters were turning up to the stadium for the match, the pitch was drenched. Kick-off was delayed and the match was in jeopardy. Instead of looking at trying to close the roof and clear as much water off the pitch as possible, the roof stayed open, and not once, not twice, but three times the referee and his officials came out of the tunnel every 20 minutes or so to throw the ball on the surface and see if it would roll, it turned out to be a complete waste of time, the match was then called off and rearranged for the afternoon of the following day.

Back then the right call was made, but it meant a lot of travelling England fans missed out on seeing the team play the next day as most had flights booked to travel back home and could not rearrange. Rescheduling yesterday’s games for today could have been a much better option if it meant the playing surface would be in slightly better condition. Most fans watching these games in Hong Kong live locally, and any that have travelled from here to see their team play will most likely be there for Saturday’s games as well and will have accommodation and flights booked for after the tournament has finished.

I do have some sympathy for Richard Scudamore and everyone else at The Premier League though. Whatever decision was made was never going to please everybody. If you let the game go ahead like they did, you annoy the staff of the teams involved because you put their player’s health and safety at risk on a bad playing surface, but if you call it off, you disappoint all the fans in attendance that have travelled to the stadium to see some of the best players in the world, and you then have to send them straight home again because you’ve decided they can’t play because of the rain and a pitch not being very well maintained because of it.

Both games went ahead in the end and now Sunderland will face Manchester City in the trophy final on Saturday. Hopefully some lessons will be able to be learnt from this experience and football’s governing bodies may wish to discuss how these issues can be dealt with in a better way than before, but unfortunately because of how unreliable the sky can be, only a certain amount can be done, and football must work around the weather, because the other way round just isn’t scientifically possible.

Andrew.

http://www.soccercv.com/articles/latest_news/ < News and Reports by me found here.

http://www.swol.co/profile/show/1390 < News and Reports by me also found here too.

http://soccerisma.com/author/andy/ < News and Reports by me found here as well.

https://twitter.com/ADNU92 < My Twitter, please give me a follow for any and all updates

Benteke Signs New Villa Contract - My Thoughts

                     

I had been holding off posting for a bit as I felt it might have been too early to start trying to actively start with contributions to the page, but I’ve decided to add something just now to pass the time and air my thoughts on new developments involving Christian Benteke.

Aston Villa’s number 20 has signed a new contract with the club which should pretty much end the speculation of a move away from Villa Park for the Belgian striker. The deal runs till 2017 and certainly puts Aston Villa in a much stronger position for the new season, but I have to admit that even if he had been sold, I’m sure that they would do much better this season compared to the last one.

Villa’s reported asking price was around the £25 million mark, which despite his young age, does seem quite an extravagant price for someone who has only spent one season in the Premier League. Tottenham Hotspur were reportedly the favourites to buy him when he handed in his transfer request earlier in the month, and while I’m sure they could afford it, I couldn’t see Benteke moving for as much as £25 million, if anything I think it would have been more between the £14-21 million mark. With that sort of money coming into Villa, they could have lined up a replacement striker if they wanted to plus other players and give themselves some real strength in depth at what is an already large numbered squad. Even if the new striker wasn’t the same type of striker that Benteke is i.e. a powerhouse who is both strong and quick, it probably wouldn’t matter to Villa supporters just as long as they could score as many goals as possible.

Benteke will now get to work with another new striker that Villa signed this summer, which is Nicklas Helenius. While I’ve not had much of a chance to see the 22-year-old in action, he does come highly rated after winning the Danish Superliga Player of the Year award last season and has made a good start in Villa’s pre-season games so far. The forward had initially expressed disappointment that Benteke had asked to leave Villa, but will obviously now be delighted that he has changed his mind and will now get the chance to work closely with him.

The news about Benteke’s new contract is also likely to push Darren Bent further out the Villa exit door with Newcastle United and now reportedly Fulham interested in his striking services. Questions might also be raised about the futures of younger strikers at the club such as Jordan Bowery and Nathan Delfouneso who may find opportunities in the Villa first-team limited this season. But Villa supporters and manager Paul Lambert will undoubtedly be the happiest with Benteke’s decision to stay. In a Villa side that lacked real quality at times last season, Benteke was still able to power his way past defenders and score 19 league goals and help the team avoid relegation. Now that he is officially staying put, supporters will hope it inspires the other players to learn the lessons from last season and come back even stronger this time around.

I shall be back closer to the start of the new Premier League season to predict exactly how I think Villa and the other teams will do this time around. I Hope you enjoyed this piece and if you have any feedback or questions you’d like me to answer then please leave a comment for me. I’d like to also mention that I have now begun writing for http://www.swol.co/ so if you are a fan of my work, there is somewhere else for you to now check it out. Thanks for reading.

Andrew.

http://www.soccercv.com/articles/latest_news/ < News and Reports by me found here.

http://www.swol.co/profile/show/1390 < News and Reports by me also found here too.

https://twitter.com/ADNU92 < My Twitter, please give me a follow for any and all updates.

Introduction

Welcome readers to my blog. Here is where I shall post my opinions on the goings on in the world of football. I started this page last season, but if you were to take a look back at some of my posts, you would see that I was basically just writing about what was in the news, but telling it how you might see it on a news organisations website. While I am able to do that sort of thing on another site, here I shall just share my opinions and views on the football talking points.

A lot of you might be wondering, “What makes this guys opinions so special?” and “Why should I care what he thinks?” and you would have every right to do so, I’m nobody special, I’m just an ordinary punter who lives a normal enough life and very rarely does anything out of the ordinary, but I have been a football fan for as long as I can remember, and I’d like to think that I’ve gained enough knowledge of the game just by watching and occasionally playing to know what I am talking about and be able to make fair comments and perhaps even get people thinking along the same lines depending on the situation at hand.

The main focus of my opinions will be on the goings-on of the Premier League. The competition I consider to be the best in the world and the one that seems to always have some news about it every day of the year, including during the summer months when no league football is even on. I will occasionally post about other things such as big news involving other clubs and competitions in the world, but as a UK resident, I’ve grown up with the Premier League and will continue to watch it until my last days.

The new Premier League season is only a month away, which means it won’t be long before I start to regularly contribute to this page. I shall share my thoughts on the pre-season period very soon as well and also make predictions on how I think the season will go for each team involved. Hope you enjoyed this introductory post, keep an eye out for more soon!

Andrew.

http://www.soccercv.com/articles/latest_news/ < You can find my news articles here.

http://soccerisma.com/ < When I begin writing match reports for the new season, you can find them here.

https://twitter.com/adnu92 < My Twitter page, please click follow for any and all updates.